showed me all the stars ∞ dominic.

"Dom," a voice sings behind him. "You can't keep avoiding this."

He turns, and is startled to see that dark curls have morphed into straight brown hair and black eyes have faded to caramel.

"Zenia?" he exclaims. "You of all people cannot be the one to tell me not to avoid this."

His guide's appearance has changed, but the mischievous smirk that dances across Paisley-now-Zenia's face is still the same. "I avoid depressing conversations, not important ones," she says, floating around in a half-circle before him. "And this is relatively important."

Dominic shakes his head and continues to walk forward, a laugh rumbling in his chest. The giant gray monument claws further into the sky as he approaches. "You're not real, Zenia."

"Oh, come on. Dom be ridiculous," she says, and the way she emphasizes his name makes him snort. "I wasn't a mutt when I was down there, and I'm still not a mutt up here. Don't make this so hard."

He stops, rotating his body to face her. "Was it easy for you to accept dying?" he asks pointedly.

"You learn," she says simply, hovering to reach a nearby branch.

Dominic keeps walking, his feet falling on nothing in particular. He's nearly made it around the monument altogether when he crashes into something, doubling over in shock. His hands find the cool touch of stone, and he realizes that he's hugging a sort of pedestal. A tiny compact mirror reflects his face, no longer wounded but still worn.

He circles to the other side of the pedestal, mesmerized by the compact's metallic exterior. A golden skull glints against the sun.

He begins to reach for it just as Zenia's voice reaches his ears again.

"Don't touch that."

"Why not- ow!" The mirror sparks as his fingers graze against the exterior, and he draws his hand to his chest, nerves tingling.

"Because it's not yours, dummy," Zenia says, crossing her arms. She tilts her head a bit, eyes focusing on something in the distance. "It's Perdita's."

Dominic continues to rub at his hand, brows crinkling. "Perdita? Why would-" The light around them shifts as it dawns on him. "Where is she?" he asks softly.

Zenia shifts on her perch, nose twitching pensively. "Not sure. She could be anywhere. Everyone has their own version of the afterlife. Who knows where her head is at?" Her cheeks brighten and she lets out a small chuckle, one that makes him wonder what she knows that he doesn't.

His eyes float from the mirror to the silver chain that occupies the space next to it.

"Is this mine?" he asks softly. Zenia nods, and he reaches into the space, watching the bracelet loop seamlessly around his arm. A silver heart beats against his wrist despite its brokenness. He instinctively knows who it's for, and he places his other hand over his wrist.

"Is he okay?"

"...he's alive. That's all I know."

Dominic's chest feels airy, and he tries to search the ground below to find his boy, but there is no one in his vision but himself and his ghosts. Pisces had lived. They didn't have to risk encountering each other in battle anymore. He wants the half-heart on his wrist to keep beating but he also wants it to be whole again.

"I can't leave, Zenia," he confesses.

"What? Bruhv, you can't be serious right now."

"I can't die now," he protests. "I have to make sure one of them makes it out."

"Dom-"

He curls up on the floor, violet fading into a soft periwinkle that spreads across the bridge of his nose. His ear presses against the edge of the world he was separated from, and the sounds echo like a seashell. Zenia's voice is muffled in his mind, but he can no longer ignore her when she comes to stand directly over him.

"Hey!" she shouts down at him. "If I shapeshift into Pisces' ass, will you actually pay attention to me?"

Dominic snaps his head up, jabbing a finger in the girl's direction. "You know, you've talked to me about his ass a grand total of two times already. You know how many times I've brought it up? Zero. Now, what does that say about you?"

Zenia is quiet for a while before deadpanning, "It says you spend too much time thinking about his ass."

He opens his mouth to argue, but remembers that she is literally a figment of his imagination, and accepts defeat. She notices and fills the silence.

"I don't want to be hard on you, Dom," she says. "But you know you have to do this."

Zenia sticks her hand out, and it reminds him of how he once led her to safety when Jade and Pisces were gone. The damage had already been done, but they were saving themselves from more hurt. She was saving him from the hurt of lingering too long.

Dominic takes her hand in his, and she grins.

"Now we're getting somewhere," she says, hauling him to his feet. "See? We can get through this, Dom. You've just got to find the things that keep you going."

"Like what?"

"Right now? The hope that Kahinta's getting her ass ka-kicked in the crypt."