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Doppio reached for the phone, desperately hoping for it to ring one last time. As the blood flowed out of Bucciarati's body, soaking through the white suit and as the rain diluted the crimson puddle, his hopes started to fade. He felt himself dissociating from the physical form, his spirit leaving the mortal realm behind. Doppio tried to hold on, wanting to believe that Diavolo would call him as he always did, although he could feel him inching closer to Giorno's team. He hated the fact that he couldn't help at all, but what good can a stranger's soul do when it's trapped in an empty shell? What more could he do, rather than watch and pray that his sacrifice would lead to the other's triumph?
Doppio closed his eyes, shutting out everything else, focusing on the rain's pattern and secretly longing to hear the phone ring one last time. And then it was over.
When he regained consciousness, he was no longer in the Colosseum. He could no longer feel, or even hear the rain, or anything else for that matter. A strange warmth enveloped him, a pair of green eyes glazing through his mind. Doppio was quite sure that he was dead and yet the thought did not phase him in the slightest. It was something he expected to happen sooner or later, especially after the fight with Risotto. If it wasn't for Diavolo, he would've been gone many years ago. Diavolo. The only person who ever protected him, who ever loved him. Growing up, the people who were supposed to look out for him turned out to be his sworn enemies, until his boss entered his life. He wasn't always with him, but he knew that if need be, Diavolo would call him, and among all the vendettas that occurred during his teenage years, he would be the one to make sure his precious Doppio would be safe.
'Love' was a weak word that he rarely used to describe the relationship the two shared. The amount of care and affection that they both put into it was too great to summarize in such a simple four-letter word. In a world where the only things Doppio was familiar with were pain and abandonment, the sudden change was the best thing that had ever happened to him. To have someone he could trust, someone who believed in him when no one else would, someone who would put his safety before anything else, someone who would look at him as though he were their entire world, someone who would check up on him and praise him for a job done well. He found all of those things and so many more in Diavolo, which led to Doppio falling in love with him.
The afterlife was a boring void. There was no light, no darkness, just an endless pit of nothingness, in which Doppio was drowning little by little. He spent his time by reminiscing certain memories he had shared with Diavolo, thinking about what he would say when he would eventually join him. In his mind, he was certain that the boss had outsmarted Giorno with ease and that he kept his position, earning even more power by eliminating some (quite admirable) enemies. Doppio was happy that his lover got to his end goal by earning the absolute power of the Requiem. Now all he had to do was wait, no matter how long.
But what Doppio didn't know was that his picture perfect fantasy was way too different from reality, that Diavolo would never come back, and that the loneliness would end up consuming him for eternity.