Chapter Text
Within the Aetherial Sea....
It seems a relief, of a sort. To feel his aether beginning to fragment, the glittering particles that make up his form breaking apart and sliding back towards the aetherial sea. His domain, as the seat of Emet-Selch, Third of the Convocation. The Underworld, as some had once whimsically referred to it; where souls are cleansed of memory and pain and released back into the cycle to be reborn anew, and Hades spares only a moment to close his eyes and draw a slow breath.
It is over. Their too-long battle for the future of the star. A future he has only just realized will never be the past that he mourned. That he still mourns, if he is being truly honest with himself. The friends lost, the home reduced to oblivion... those pains will never diminish completely but at least he can finally lay down his burden after so many thousands of lives.
"A most wonderful concluding act to the tale of the star, don't you agree?"
The voice breaks into his thoughts in that familiar tone he could never forget; it is engraved on his soul as though branded into the very essence of his self and it calls Hades back to himself. Back to the present with a lurching sense of realization and dread as he snaps his head to the side only to see that familiar beloved figure beginning to grow hazy. Aether dispersing in the same way that his own is starting to. A sound strangles in his throat and he barely registers the flash of self loathing as one hand reached out. Groping, grasping towards that fading figure. That precious soul whose loss he barely survived once before. Who he can't bear to lose again, not after everything that has happened. Not after so long spent waiting and fighting and suffering. The will of the star cannot be so cruel as to rip his most treasured one away from him yet again.
Hythlodaeus shakes his head. A small, indulgent smile on his face as he steps closer. Closing the gap between them and placing one disintegrating palm against Hades' equally nebulous cheek. "No need for that, my dearest Hades... I have no doubt that one day we will find each other again." There is a soundless tone. Like the ringing of a bell underwater...a chiming that is felt rather than heard as Hythlodaeus leans in to press his lips to Hades' in a kiss so tender it brings tears to his eyes as the final words whisper into his soul.
"Until we find each other again, my Hades..."