"Are you sure that was the right thing to do?"

The predawn hour was unsurprisingly quiet. Nothing really happened in that twenty minute stretch between full dark and the creeping of the sun over the edge of the world. No matter where she'd been, every place and every time seemed to hold a truce during those scant moments.

It was like nothing was sure what was about to happen. Instead, it was all holding its breath, just waiting to find out.

"No."

"Just checking."

The woman known as Domino sighed and hugged her knees a bit closer to her chest. The scenery was beautiful. In front of her the sea was rolling and crashing its majestic glory. Even from where she was sitting, at the very edge of a jagged cliff shooting 90 feet above the waves, Dom could still detect the distinct bite of salt. Occasionally, a small gust of wind would brush her cheek, ruffling her chin-length bob. But for the most part, the world stayed still.

The air had the feel of an unnatural calm. Again, there was no surprise there. It had been storming heavily for close to a week in this part of the continent. The ground beneath Dom was sodden and a tad shaky from the heavy downpour. Had today not been today, the ex-merc would never have settled in the sparse grass at all.

But it was today, and the spot had seemed appropriate. From the edge of the cliff where she sat, all the way back and a bit into the tree cover was all that remained of the Xavier estate. Three thousand years worth of tides had succeeded where countless super-villains had failed. The house, the danger room, the sub-basements, the hanger... Everything was destroyed or under so much water that it didn’t really matter.

Everything was gone now. Everything but her. Domino rubbed absently at the faded purple of her cloak where it covered her legs. Here she was sitting at what was the edge of what had been her world. Waiting for the rest of it to end.

The birds weren't awake yet. That happened later when the world decided it was ready to face yet another day; another chance at life.

A rueful smile graced the edges of Domino's mouth.

"I knew you'd come."

Ever so carefully, another body settled itself down in the wet soil. The new woman leaned back on her elbows and stretched her tennis shoe-clad feet as far out in front of her, over the cliff, as the laws of nature allowed. Probably even further. Domino didn't turn her head. She knew who it was. She'd been waiting for this person her entire life.

"Hey, I couldn't miss this."

"No, I don't suppose you could."

Domino kept her gaze steady as she watched a particularly ambitious wave slam itself into the side of the cliff. Carefully, the she stretched out her senses just in time to feel a few pebbles fall. She cradled them and tried to mentally slow their descent. She couldn't. Milky white lids closed over violet irises.

Carefully, she probed within her mind, looking for the companion who'd stuck with her for the past two decades. She could find no trace. Pain blossomed strong and fierce. Dom had no idea, until this moment that she could still feel anything that strongly.

"You could have warned me that you'd take her first."

Black tennis shoes waggled merrily in response.

"You know I couldn't do that. Besides. It was her time. She's been waiting for it a lot longer than you have."

Domino watched as the vampire smiley-face laces swung back and forth in response to the motion of the shoes. There was just something disconcerting about meeting with an end who wore smiley laces. Even if they were vampire smilies.

"I guess she has."

"It's been a long time, Dom."

A dam crumbled slowly in the back of her mind and memories of their last meeting, on an oh-so-long-ago night quietly wandered back into place. They filled the last gaps in her memory like children trying to avoid the watchful eye of a parent. Instead of feeling upset or annoyed at having missed another piece of her life for so long, Domino just felt whole. Wonderfully and completely whole. Well, almost.

Domino finally turned her head towards the other person and gently laid it on her knees, the single cluster of grey hairs falling gracefully into her eyes. The woman next to her, if that's what she truly was, hadn't changed. Dom hadn't really expected her to. Besides the tennies and vampire laces, the woman was garbed in a black t-shirt and black jeans. Her mane of inky hair was up in a bouncy ponytail. Around the woman's too-pale neck rested a silver-plated ankh. A bit of the plating had come off the edge of one of the arms.

Dom thought she looked exactly like a six year old waiting for the fireworks to begin on the forth of July.

The Forth of July. Domino hadn't celebrated that in... longer than she cared to remember. But she was remembering. Kids in shorts shrieking, hot dogs, the smell of bug spray and burning sparklers. The cool night air on her skin, so welcome following the afternoon's oppressive heat. The feeling of a strong arm around her shoulders. A chuckle she could feel all the way through a strong chest. The images bloomed in her mind leaving behind a bittersweet trail in their wake. It had been so *long*...

The tear hit Domino's cheek before she could even feel it form.

"So long..."

The other woman smiled and scratched her nose.

"Not *so* long," she said. "And I *told* you my brother was a bastard."

The calm façade Domino had been trying to project cracked. A light chuckle pushed itself past her lips and out across the sea.

"Okay, fine. Remind me never to argue with an anthropomorphic personification ever again."

Said anthropomorphic personification grinned broadly and nodded once. "Will do."

Domino raised her head to look out at the sea again. It was considerably lighter than it had been a few minutes before. She could even make out the shores of a distant island. The same island the boy and the child would be traveling to some time today. She'd seen the boats as she'd slipped by the camp guards. Dom sincerely hoped the boy was smart enough to wear a waterproof coat.

Large transports had always made her seasick.

*Always.*

"Did you talk to your brother before you came here?"

"Yeah."

"Was what I did wrong?"

The black-clad woman shrugged her shoulders and waggled her feet. A slightly pensive look crossed her face and she tilted her head to the side. "That isn't my place to say, Domino. It's not really his either. We don't get into right and wrong. We just are."

"But he knew what I was going to do."

An ebony brow, so similar to her own it was uncanny, raised. "What do you think?"

"I think that was a redundant question." Domino took in a deep breath of sea air. The salty bite was both bracing and comforting. "I guess I just did what I thought was right. I wanted a- I want *her* to have a chance. And I needed to give him something to focus on besides the duty. That's what got him last time."

"No, Domino. What got him *last* time was a case of OCD gone terribly wrong."

For the second time that evening, Domino chuckled. It felt good.

"So," Dom released her hold on her knees and stretched her feet out, mirroring the other woman. "How much time do we have?"

"Some."

"Can we watch the sunrise?"

A rueful smile played across lips done up in heavy black lipstick. "I'm sorry, no."

"Oh." Domino sighed and wagged her own feet over the cliff, experimentally. The sensible conclave-issue boots had no laces. They, like the rest of her outfit had little to do with outward appearance and *way* too much to do with practicality. The ex-mercenary's only concession to style was the ankle-length dark-purple cloak in which she was wrapped. But even that was more an accidental find than a result of active seeking on her part.

"You realize the heavy symbolism loaded in denying my request, right?"

The being, known only as Death, smiled. "Most stuff in life is based around symbols. They *mean* things. Sure, what they are and what they represent may be entirely different things, but in the end they do what they're expected to do. Maybe just not in the way they were thought to."

Idly, she reached up and started to rub her ankh. Her thumb passed directly over the patch of worn silver-plating. "Take that silver bird you're wearing."

Domino's free hand drew automatically to the Phoenix pendant around her neck. She hadn't taken it of in so long, she'd almost forgotten she was wearing it. They years had not been overly kind to her, or her keepsake. The metal was worn completely smooth, and one edge of a wing was almost melded completely together. It had been given to her by the grieving parents of a man nearly three thousand years dead and was her most prized possession.

"That little thing is nothing more than a scrap of iron and magnesium oxides. But, to the people across the hill over there, that little bird is a symbol of hope and peace. To them, it represents protection and joy." Death's smile drew more subdued. "But to you... Just like it was to him, that bird is the symbol of a journey to be completed. A goal to be accomplished."

"A journey that's *been* completed." Domino's eyes were bright and accumulating mist quickly. She'd been waiting and working for this day for so long. Every ounce of strength she possessed had been poured into accomplishing the tasks put before her. Now... The goal was in sight but she felt almost reluctant to lay down the burden. It had been hers for too long.

"Oh, Domino..." Death took a deep breath and leaned her head back. The sky above was still dim but the rain that had ended the night before had taken with it its clouds. There was only one little gray bit of cotton left in the wide horizon. "Haven't you learned anything? Ending one journey is just the same as beginning a new one."

Domino's silence said more than she ever could.

"But that's not what's important is it?" Death reached down and pulled up a handful of sand and grass. "You want to know about symbols? Everything is a symbol in one way or another. It's all just something to believe in. This land? It's nothing more than a symbol. This was a place that was important to you in life..."

"That's just it!" Domino dashed a hand under her eyes, forestalling the fall of tears. "This whole thing *wasn't* important to me! It was important to him. This land," she grabbed a clump of mud and grass and tossed it over the side of the cliff. "This *quest*, this flonqing necklace! Everything was important to *him*!. Not me." The last bit came out as a half-strangled sob.

"Nonsense." Death ignored the rant and focused on her upturned fist. The squishy sand was flowing out of it in bits and glops. "It is important to you. If it hadn't been, you wouldn't have continued with it."

"How could I not? It was the only thing he left for me. His bloody war." She raised her mud-caked hand, running her other index finger over the smears. "It just feels like I've pushed everything aside to win something for someone who will never even be able to appreciate it."

The glance Death shot her was loaded. "Are you sure?"

"No. But you aren't going to tell me anyway."

"You should never assume anything, Domino. That only gets you into trouble."

"Oh?" Domino raised an eyebrow at her companion. "And what 'trouble' could I possibly get into at this point?"

"You'd be surprised." Death's tone was serious. "He would have appreciated what you've done, Domino. How could he not? You made a future possible. One that isn't wonderful, or horrible, but filled to the brim with HOPE. You didn't just do it for *him*. You did it for every living thing that flourished because of your actions. It may not have been intentional on your part, but you did it anyway. And..." The black-clad woman's face brightened with an ironic smile. "And, you gave all those people over the hill someone to believe in."

Domino smacked her forhead with the heel of her hand and groaned. "I can't believe they did that."

"Well, being the spectre of the Bright Lady isn't all that bad is it?"

"It's darn embarrasing, is what it is."

"Well you *were* something of a protector to those in battle."

Domino groaned again and tucked her head onto her knees, avoiding Death's questing glance. All that had been seriously weird. Who'd ever think that *she*, an ex-mercenary from the twentieth century, was the physical representation of a cult goddess. Maybe this was how Jesus would have felt had he somehow time-ripped to the 1990's. It was a darn good thing no one ever got a very good look at her during the Conclave Times.

"It just seems like Nate and I kept missing each other. You and I talked about this before, I guess. I just don't know how things ended up like this."

"They did because they did. There's no point to looking back now."

"Isn't there?"

"Nope. That'll just depress you." Death's smile was quiet. With the grace of a dancer, she folded her legs underneath her and rested pale elbows on black-clad knees. Dom couldn't help but notice not even a streak of dirt marred her clothing. "Besides, this isn't about Nate. It's about you."

Dom shrugged and looked down at the surf crashing into the cliff below. "I don't know about that. It seems like most of my life has revolved around him or his crusade in one way or another. At first, it was incidental but now..." She raised an eyebrow wryly. "I wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for him."

"I don't know about that. Life can pull some interesting tricks on a body."

"How would you know?"

"Once a century, I get a day where I can go off and do whatever I please. I'm alive." Death's voice was almost wistful. "You could say it's part of my contract."

"Just a day?"

"Isn't that enough?"

"I don't know. Life is a confusing concept to jam into a day."

"But is it any less confusing after thousands of days?"

Domino smiled. "You got me there."

"That I do."

Eyes clear, Dom looked out over the water and sighed. The sun was coming up fast. The slightly pinkish haze above the water was deepening. It would be up within minutes. This was it. The end. Sort of.

Smiling ever so slightly, Domino turned to Death and opened her mouth. "I guess it's time to go, then." For the last time, Domino took a deep breath and looked around her. Behind her, high in the trees, she could just barely detect a faint chirp.

It was time to go. This was no longer her fight. No, this world's future belonged to the little baby and young man she'd left behind in the camp beyond the trees.

Her future? Well, that was yet to be seen.

Death merely smiled and stood up. And then she held out her hand.

"Yes, Domino. It's time."

Domino looked up into those dark eyes, her own resolute and calm.

And then she took the hand that was offered.

It ended with a quiet moment and then absence. No sharp breeze. Not even a pop. Years of pain, struggle and toil melted away in silence. There was no sound or movement, just a lack of being so profound the world around it nearly stopped in remembrance. Something great... something powerful had just left... But nothing was quite sure what *It* had been. All that was there was land, sky, and just the hint of a horizon.

It was going to be a beautiful day.

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End.

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