Princess Chronos was so beautiful.

Virgo knew that, always. The Princess had been beautiful in every incarnation--beautiful during battle, beautiful at the Moon Court, just always unaccountably lovely. Even when she'd been crying and any other girl would have been the kind of ugly that came with tears, the Princess looked... tragic beautiful. Today she was just... gorgeous, and Virgo smiled, looking at the Princess as she walked down the aisle.

"She's always been lovely," said the man sitting to Virgo's left. "He's a lucky man."

She dropped back into her seat on the pew, met his deep blue eyes. "Isn't he?" For a moment, she turned back to the couple at the altar, to the celebrant she recognized, briefly, as the first Prince. Prince Aeon? He had died a long, long time ago. He hadn't come back, either, as far as she knew... From the back of the room there was a wet pop, like a balloon being pricked with a pin. Chronos looked over her shoulder, bright cerise eyes unconcerned. Happy. Something warm dripped on Virgo's shoulder, and she brushed it off without looking. Then--

Prince. The man next to her was the Prince. "Eon," she said, "what are you doing? She's waiting for you!"

He smiled at her, shaking his head, and there was another balloon pop, and from behind her, Jude said, "Any day when I'm not in a trash bag is a good day." She turned to look at him, placing her hand on Prince Eon's shoulder. Pop!

"Don't say that, Jude." There was a rising desperation in her voice. Pop! "What's that noise?" At that question, Jude smiled and shook his head, closing his bubblegum-pink eyes. She lifted her eyes and looked over his shoulder. Four seats--four seats full of blood and entrails. The people beside these seats sat uncaring, eyes straight ahead to the Princess and her marriage.

No. She left her seat, backing up. The stairs to the altar tripped her, and she fell. "What's wrong," asked Eon; he stood up. "It's all right, Virgo. You're fine." Pop! Jude exploded outwards, some bit of viscera splattering Eon's hair. Flecks of blood landed on the white hem of Chronos's dress. And now, faster--she barely had time to meet their eyes before they would disappear in a cloud of fine red mist: Zeke, Sebastien, Frankie. Lucas had time to wink at her before he, too, was gone. A girl she hadn't been able to save from a youma. Benson, who'd been dating her brother.

Avery.

But he was gone, too, and she looked to Eon and asked, "Why?"

The church was silent. Everyone had vanished, and with a jolt she realized that everyone in attendance had been dead. Everyone but her and Chronos. "Why do you care? You're all right. You're fine." He shrugged, still smiling. He held his hands out to his sides, and he too evaporated into blood. Virgo rose, stared out at the blood-spattered room, and turned to the Princess. The first Prince was gone; the unknown groom, too. And Chronos stood there, smiling her beautiful smile, a gaping hole in her chest where her starseed would be. The front of her dress was all over thick red blood, ivory bones peeking through the ruins of her bridal gown.

"You, too," said Chronos, blood bubbling at the corners of her lips.

She pointed, and Virgo looked down at her own chest. The spring green of her fuku was slowly turning black; blood was leaking from the pores of her skin, puddling around her feet. As she stared at the skin of her wrist, at the red seeping out, the chapel disappeared. The blood, the bodies, disappeared, and she was alone on the asteroid from her first life but for the Princess, and she, too, was fading away as Virgo sank to her knees, closing her eyes--

--she looked out the window to the gray building, and quietly pulled her pillow around against her body. "Ne me laissez pas… ne me laissent jamais."

Don't leave me--never leave me--