When she’s come to, it’s to the sight of fiery paws and ghastly cries. She blinks, eyes bleary as the world seems to tilt like it’s on an axis, and pushes herself up onto her hands and knees. Jefferson bumps his head into her shoulder, distressed whimpers falling from his lips. Head still foggy, she lifts a hand to run through his fur before she turns a stare over the ruins of the Citadel. Her heart practically plummets, lavender tears slipping from her eyes as she watches the panicked crowd of people struggle for shelter.

“I guess it shouldn’t come as any surprise”, a voice calls out, and Mara and Jefferson let out matching growls as Damian descends from above on a dark cloud. “I mean, there’s only so much you can expect of a necromancer. Really, the city should’ve known better letting someone like you take up residence here.”

A purple glow clings to Mara’s fingers as she clenches them into fists and scoffs, “So this was your plan? Flood the city with undead activity on my arrival so you can spin it later as my doing?”

“Yes, it was. I know, I know. I’m a genius.” When Mara just continues to glower at him, he pouts. “Oh, come on, now, don’t look at me like that. What was I supposed to do? We’re partners, Tombs, and we’re good at it. I’m just trying to help you remember.”

Mara pulls her scythe out of her cloak and jerks her head at Jefferson, signaling him to fall back and approach from the rear whilst she advances towards Damian. “My memory’s just fine, asshole. My problem is you.” A pained breath escapes her. “I don’t wanna come back. I’m happy here.”

“For how long?”, Damian asks and sends a smile her way that’s far too sharp, too mean-spirited. “I mean, the people love you now. But you and I both know it’s just as easy to hate someone as it is to love them.”

She grits her teeth before she snaps, “Just what the hell do you expect me to do?”

“I expect you to come to your senses.” He extends a hand, and his eyes and smile soften. “I want you back Mara.”

A scoff escapes her, her purple lavender whipping wildly in the wind of the turbulent storm that’s settled upon the city. “I worked too hard to get here, D, I’m not giving it all up so I can go back to washing ghosts out of your tighty whities.”

“It won’t be like the way it was before. W-We can start over, and things will be different. Just leave with me. Right now”, he promises. Jefferson lunges at him, but with a flick of the wrist, Damian sends him hurtling over the edge of the Citadel. Mara rushes after him, heart in her throat when she spots a dark cloud in the shape of a fist wrapped around him. Damian lowers beside her and scoffs. “I’ve seen the footage, you know. I know how they feel about you here.”

Tears brim in her eyes before she snaps, “T-That’s just the press. People have already started coming around to me. It’s different here”.

“...Oh, that’s adorable.” Damian tilts his head to the side, and behind the smoky curtain that’s fallen over the Citadel, he almost looks nice. “Your place is where it’s always been. And that’s by my side.”

A protest rises to her lips, only to fall silent at the sight of vines creeping across Damian’s feet. They grab him by the ankles and hurl his body into the air. Beau emerges over the railing not long on top of Jefferson’s back, summoning a wall of cacti and being shoved backwards for his efforts. He cuts a glowing green pair of eyes Mara’s way and shouts, “Tombs! I need an assist!”

“...It’s my fault.” She leans against her scythe, not trusting herself to support her own weight. “He knew I’d come here.”

Beau scrambles off of Jefferson’s back, affording him a moment’s pat on the head before he turns back to Mara. “Listen, I don’t know what that asshole’s been telling you but-”

“He knew”, Mara interjects with an insistent shake of the head. “He made all the ghosts flock here, and he won’t send them back until I go back with him.”

Beau’s silent for a long moment before he says, “Tombs”. Mara winces, and he bites his lower lip before drawing closer until at last they’re standing toe to toe. “Mara.” He lifts a hand to cup her cheek, and she leans into it. “You’re not going back. Okay, you told me you didn't want to go back.”

“I did.” The wind begins to whip more fiercely, and she grimaces, seeking comfort from the warm touch of Beau’s hand. “And I meant it.”

Beau wavers before he asks his next question. “Do you mean it now?”

“I do”, she says, the words practically punched out of her. “I do.”

Beau lets out a breath, then he whispers, “Then you stay. And you fight. Cupid’s helping with the evacuations, and I can only do so much with my powerset. I need you focused if we have any hope of stopping him.”

“You give her too much credit”, Damian calls out as he reappears, hovering on a dark cloud. Ghostly hands latched onto Mara. They seize hold of her wrists, her ankles, and she strains, panicking as she tugs against them. Damian lets out a laugh. “Everything that she is, everything that she has is because of me. Her skills, her spellbook, hell, even her jackal. All of that. Was me.”

With a frustrated grunt, Mara continues to strain against her restraints. But the sight of peculiar vines inching towards her causes her to cease in her struggles. She stares, mesmerized as a dome of thorny flowers topped with a spot of red advance towards her, knocking away the ghostly hands before warping to form a dome of roses around her. She can only stare in wonder when Beau, with his beautiful green eyes, strides closer to the edge of the Citadel and calls out, “Then I guess that explains why she’s only gotten better since she’s been away from you”.

And she wavers. Because Decay hasn’t given her everything. Sure, she might not’ve had Jefferson without him, but it was she that trained him. And sure, she might’ve gotten her spellbook from him, but she’s been working without one ever since she torched it in her last conversation with him. And sure, she may’ve initially  become popular in association as his partner, but it was she that made Tombstone mean something other than death and destruction.

And she may’ve felt aimless and unwanted when she first left Calamity City, but as she sits here, embraced by roses, she can only grin, her glowing a powerful lavender. “Beau! You made roses!”

“What?” Confused, Beau just continues to glare at Decay before he turns his stare upon Mara, his eyes widening at the sight of the rose dome he’s created. Taking advantage of the distraction, Decay lets out a cackle before unleashing a torrent of dark clouds upon him. Beau summons a wall of bramble to shield himself, then turns on his heel and rushes towards Mara and Jefferson. The roses part before closing behind them once more. “...Hi.”

Mara bites back a smile and says, “Hi”.  Apprehension takes a hold of Mara as she runs an uncertain hand over the handle of her scythe before she nods. “I think I know a spell that could help us. Can you make another dome like this?”

“...I can”, he says after a moment and parts the dome with a wave of his hand. “Just give me the word.”

Mara watches him fondly before she shakes her head at herself and climbs atop Jefferson’s back, prompting him to let out a whine. “I know, pal. Just trust me. I know what I’m doing. Kinda.” She turns her scythe upright, heart pounding loudly in her ears as she locks eyes with Decay. She spins her hands in a circle, eyes glowing lavender. “Bright as day, dark as night-”

“You aren’t serious”, Decay chuckles. He clenches his hands into fists, and several portals surround her, skeletons spewing forth like a torrent of water.

Mara hops off Jefferson’s back, grimacing when the canine snatches a skeleton out of the air. With a swipe of her scythe, she sends another crumbling into a pile of bones before she continues, “A world beyond, a world between. I call for a portal to the world unseen”.

“Necromancers can’t be exorcised.” Decay leaps toward her, launching several cackling ghost heads at her just Mara just narrowly manages to dodge before one knocks her flat on her ass. She rolls onto her stomach, gasping breath when Decay walks up to her. “Any self-respecting necromancer knows that.”

A ghostly hand seizes hold of her throat and lifts her up high. “B-Bright as day, dark as night. A world beyond, a world between. I call for a portal to the world unseen.”

“Think of what will happen if you banish me”, Decay scoffs, and she could swear there’s a slight tremor in his voice. “Think of the precedent you’d be setting. How long would it be before they turn your sights on you? We’re two peas in a pod, you know.”

Mara glares at him, veins glowing purple in tandem with her eyes when she hisses, “We’re not. I’m nothing like you”.

“You’re nothing without me.” His eyes take on a frantic look. “You need me.”

It takes everything in her to jerk her head away, exhausted as she hauls herself back to her feet. She inhales, hair whipping gently in the wind as she formulates a plan. “We couldn’t go back to Calamity. Not after what you’ve done here.”

“...No, we couldn’t”, Decay muses. He takes a hesitant step forward, a small smile climbing to his lips. “I was thinking we could camp out in the Dead Realm until the heat dies down.”

She forces herself to smile, allowing him to take her hands into her own. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a beanstalk emerging from the smoky cover of clouds and lets out a relieved sigh, then quickly turns her stare back upon Decay. He frowns and turns to follow her line of sight, only to then falter when she drops her scythe, a light laugh escaping her as she tosses her arms over his shoulders and asks, “S-So what would we do there? It’s pretty dead between worlds, you know.”

“Whatever we want, M…I did miss you, you know.”

Her eyes soften, her shoulders falling ever so slightly before a prickly rose vine wraps around Decay’s ankle. The beanstalk propels Beau higher above him, his teeth gritted as he instructs several vines to grab hold of Decay’s arms and legs. “Ready when you are, Tombs.”

“...What?”, Decay lets out, eyes widened with surprise. Held in place, he can only stare at Mara for a long moment before his smile returns. “I’ll be damned. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

She ignores the shudder that passes up her spine in favor of focusing on where Beau has come to stand beside her. Beau takes her hand in his own, entangling his fingers with hers as he nods at her before turning back to Decay. His eyes glow greener than the Amazon Forests when he shouts, “Bright as day, dark as night. A world beyond, a world between. I call for a portal to the world unseen”.

“Bright as day, dark as night”, Mara repeats, the words growing stronger. “A world beyond, a world between. I call for a portal to the world unseen.”

A portal spins into existence behind Decay, Beau’s rose vines pulling him towards it. Mara holds out her scythe, and, after a pointed look at Beau, he reaches out to grab hold of it, his hand coming to rest over hers. A smile passes between them before they turn back to Decay. “Bright as day, dark as night. A world beyond, a world between. I call for a portal to the world unseen!”

The portal warps, opening like a mouth as it swallows him whole. And all the while, Decay just watches Mara, that same confident smile upon his mouth when he’s finally dragged to the Dead Realm.

When it’s all over, Mara can only pant, her chest heaving as they stand amongst the resulting rain of ash and smoke. Someone lets out a victorious shout, and she startles before she glances upwards and finds Val flying above them. Covered in soot and scratches, she nonetheless grins before giving her friends matching thumbs-up. “Let me be the first to say that was awesome!” She then turns to Beau and gives him a wink. “And some nice team-building if you don’t mind my saying.”

“I suppose it was kind of awesome”, Beau muses after a moment. He then sobers up, his stare returning to the ruins of the Citadel. “Did you manage to get everyone out?”

Val nods and says, “No casualties, believe it or not. I should get going, though”. She gives Mara an apologetic stare. “You know, the rumors have already started.”

“At this point, I’m not really surprised”, Mara responds with a smile, affording her friend a moment’s hug.

Val looks between them both when they part, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she gives a light flap of her wings. “Well, I should get going then.”

“You’re off the clock, Val.” Mara bites her lower lip, cheeks burning fiercely.

A knowing smirk crosses Val’s lips before she teases, “A Cupid’s never off the clock, dove”. All the same, she gives them both a mock salute, and then she’s gone, disappearing back beneath the clouds. 

“I wouldn’t worry about what’s happening down there”, Bramble says after a moment. “If anyone’s good at damage control, it’s Hart. She’ll have this all cleared up before you know it.”

Mara just nods to herself. “I know.” She then falters, heart skipping a beat in her chest when she spots the petal of a rose leaf drifting on the wind. She reaches a hand out and cradles it in the palm of her hand, a small smile crossing her lips.

“That isn’t my best work.” When Mara lifts her stare, she finds his cheeks gone a deep shade of green. With some effort, he holds a hand, and a rose blossoms in his palm. She bites back a smile as she accepts it, twirling it gently between her fingers. “The roses I used to make were infinitely better than this.”

An eyebrow raised in disbelief, Mara can only scoff before she asks, “Are you kidding me? You just made a bigass rose dome to protect me. If it gets better than that-” The feeling of his lips against her own steals the words from her. A breath escapes her as she melts against him, eyes glowing purple before they flutter shut. He presses his forehead to hers, pressed close against her as if afraid she’ll leave. When at last they part for air, Mara lets out a breathless laugh before she smiles up at him. “You taste like strawberries.”

“You’ll be the death of me”, Beau says. He then rolls his eyes at himself. “That wasn’t a pun.”

Mara just snorts. “If you say so.” She brings her head to rest against his chest, comforted by the warmth of his arms wrapping around her. “You know, even with Val’s damage control, this next part isn’t gonna be too pretty.”

“I know.” He doesn’t waver in his hold. If anything, he holds her closer. “We’ll handle it together.”

Mara allows her eyes to drift shut. She’s exhausted down to her very bones and would like nothing more than to portal back home and sleep for a week straight. But no amount of rest could compare to what she feels in Beau’s arms. The worries of tomorrow can wait. The super community will no doubt have questions concerning her relationship with Decay, and she’s almost certain they haven’t seen the last of her former partner.

But for now? Now’s about as good a time to stop and smell the roses as any.