Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Rae woke up slightly shaken, he had had another nightmare. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and turned to look to his side ‘Ghosty must be awake already’ he thought to himself before he got out of bed. He got changed and walked down the thin spiral staircase and the short corridor until he reached the meeting room of the bunker where he saw his boyfriend happily playing with his dog Atlas. Rae gently cleared his throat which caught Ghosty’s attention as he had stopped petting Atlas and turned to face the scientist.
“Good morning love” Rae smiled happily, his voice soft and sleepy
“Good morning pretty boy" he smiled back, his tone matching Rae's gentleness
Rae blushed and rolled his eyes.
Ghosty chuckled slightly “you ready for the picnic?”
Rae nodded, still too flustered to form words. Ghosty chuckled again before grabbing a picnic basket from the table and motioned for Rae to follow him up the ladder to the surface which Rae did.

When they reached the top and Ghosty had climbed off the ladder, he held out his hand which Rae took. They headed towards the bench they had built together as they chatted about anything and everything that came to their minds.

After a short enjoyable walk they reached the bench and sat beside one another. Ghosty opened the basket and took a few things out. Rae smiled a little, thanked Ghosty and began to eat.
“You’re welcome” Ghosty said with a smile before also eating the food.
The couple ate their food in peace and quiet with the only sounds they heard was the birds chirp and light gusts of wind. When they finished, they took a few minutes to enjoy the near silence and uninterrupted time they had together. It was nice to not have to worry about work.

After a while it had started getting dark and they decided it was time to start heading back. Rae helped Ghosty pack up the picnic and they headed back towards the Auspicious Boon bunker, fingers interlaced as they did.

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A couple of weeks later Ghosty walked in to see Rae still completely engrossed in his research. He had seen him like this many times before but it had got a lot worse recently. The adventurer walked over to his boyfriend’s desk and placed his hand on Rae's shoulder slowly though it still made him jump slightly. Rae felt the pressure on his shoulder swiftly retract just as he heard Ghosty apologise.
“its okay, you didn’t do anything wrong, I just wasn’t expecting it” Rae replied as he turned to face Ghosty “did you want anything?” he asked, raising his eyebrow slightly.
Ghosty nodded slightly “I was wondering if you wanted a break from all of this?” he said softly as he gestured at the amount of papers and books Rae had sprawled over his desk “I was thinking we could go stargazing?” he suggested
Rae smiled “yeah, that sounds nice” he said as he tucked a piece of hair behind his ear “ill just finish this little bit and ill meet you in the main room?”
Ghosty nodded and walked out to the main meeting room of the bunker and sat down at the table.

Rae finished up writing some notes and quickly cleared up his desk before walking out to the study to meet Ghosty. Ghosty’s mouth curled slightly upwards into a small smile as he saw Rae walk into the room. Rae's boyfriend stood up, still wearing a smile and they both walked over to the ladder and climbed it to the surface. They once again interlocked their fingers and strolled towards the bench on the top of the mountain.

When they reached the bench they cuddled up next to each other with Ghosty’s head on Rae’s shoulder and his ever so slightly leaning on top of Ghosty’s.
“The stars are so pretty” Rae noted quietly with a smile
“Yeah, they are.” Ghosty smiled softly. There was a brief pause where Ghosty's smile turned into more of a smirk “Almost as pretty as you, pretty boy" he said teased
Rae slightly screamed and playfully pushed away. “No” he jokingly whined
Ghosty laughed a little “yes"
“No."
“Yes."
“No!”
“Yes!”
They jokingly bickered for a little while longer until Rae finally gave in since he knew he wouldn’t win.
“I love you" Rae smiled
“I love you too" Ghosty smiled back
Rae looked at Ghosty's eyes for a few seconds. “can I kiss you?” he asked
Ghosty wore a small smile and nodded. Rae smiled back before leaning in and connecting their lips for a couple of seconds. Once they had pulled apart they smiled at each other again before they returned to cuddling.

They stayed like that for at least half an hour where they occasionally pointing out stuff they found interesting in the sky but they mainly just enjoyed each others company.
Ghosty’s eyebrows furrowed together in confusion as he pointed at something he was looking at “what’s that?’
Rae looked at what Ghosty was pointing at and copied his confused expression “Hmmm, I’m not sure..” he looked at it as his face displayed how much more confused he was getting “but.. whatever it is it looks like its coming towards us" he said finally after studying it for a few more seconds
They both stood up and walked to the edge of the mountain to get a better a look.

Soon enough the ‘thing’ was clear enough that they could tell what, or better yet, who it was. The person came closer and closer and landed right in front of the two, causing them both to take a step back but Rae made sure to be slightly in front of Ghosty, in a protective manner.
Rae glared at the person. “Centross.” He breathed out, slight anger present in his voice.

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The two continued to glare at one another for a few seconds before Centross broke the brief silence.
“Hello Rae, Ghosty" he said and though he wore a smirk he spoke in a neutral tone.
Rae crossed his arms in annoyance “What do you want?”
“I don’t want anything” Centross shrugged a little
“Then why are you here?” Ghosty scoffed as he also crossed his arms over his chest
“I may not want anything but Enderian does.” He said still in a neutral tone of voice
“What? What could she possibly want?” Rae questioned, clearly annoyed and confused
Centross shrugged again “just a chat with you" he said innocently
“me?” Rae asked confused.
Centross rolled his eyes as if it was a stupid question for Rae to ask “yes Rae, you"
“No.” Rae shook his head “not going to happen”
“Well, from what she’s told me I imagine you might want to reconsider" Centross said as he took out a potion and tossed it to Rae.
Rae caught the bottle and looked at the liquid in it “mind medicine?” he said in a questioning tone as he had noticed it was the same colour as another one he had had in his possession before but he wanted to be sure it was the same.
“Mhm, have fun" he said sarcastically before he turned away from the couple and began flying away into the distance.

Rae stood there unsure what to do or say.
Ghosty walked in front of Rae and slowly and gently out his hands on his shoulders. He looked into his boyfriend’s eyes and asked if he was okay.
Rae slowly nodded “Yeah.” He breathed out “Can we get this over with though?”
Ghosty furrowed his eyebrows in confusion “you want to talk to her?”
Rae nodded again “I just want to know what she has to say. I know its probably a bad idea to do this but it might be worse if I don’t talk to her and since neither of us know what she wants I might as well talk to her and see if she’ll tell me”
Ghosty looked at the ground and moved his hands from Rae’s shoulders to rest at his sides before looking back up at Rae and nodding slightly “okay"
They interlaced their fingers and made their way to the testing chamber.

It didn’t take long until they had arrived at the testing chamber. They let go of each other’s hands and Rae walked over to the door to the cell.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ghosty asked before Rae had a chance to open the door
Rae took a deep breath and nodded “I’m sure”
Ghosty trusted that Rae knew what he was doing and nodded in return “okay"
Rae pushed the door the open and walked inside the rectangular cell with a window on one wall. Ghosty came over to the door and locked it just in case something went wrong and then returned to the window.
“I’ll be right here if you need me" he smiled a little
Rae returned the small smile, exhaled a breath and took the potion and within seconds the scientist could feel a presence in his mind.

“Hello Rae.” The End godess' voice echoed within the walls of Rae's mind.
“Enderian.” Rae said
“Its so good to speak to you again. How are you?” Enderian said a bit too nicely
“Im not here to play games Enderian. What do you want?” Rae spoke as if he was trying to hide the annoyance in his voice
“You’re impatient aren’t you?” Enderian sneered, seemingly as if she thought it was a joke “Well I wondered how you felt about making another deal"
“In case you’ve forgotten, I refused your deal once and I'll refuse it again”
“I think you might want to reconsider dear scientist. After all, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to Ghosty now would we?” Enderian remarked
Rae’s eyes widened slightly with a mix of worry and anger as he also stumbled back a few steps “You leave him alone!” he shouted
“So.. I was right.” Though Rae couldn’t see it, he felt Enderian smirk “I mean, it would be a shame if something was to happen to your little boyfriend, wouldn’t it?” she spoke in a devious tone of voice
Rae took a few deep breaths to control his anger “I won’t let you hurt him.”
“Rae. I’m a god! Don’t forget that.” Rae felt Enderian straighten up “So how about you rethink your answer?”
Rae inhaled deeply and let the breath out quickly “I will never accept your deal Enderian.”
“oh. So you so I guess you wouldn’t care if he... I don’t know.. died?” Enderian shrugged seemingly innocently
Rae quickly blinked a few times and stumbled back a few more steps until his back hit a wall “What? No.. You- you wouldn’t!” Rae said as his breathing became shorter and more rapid
“Rae. Calm down, its okay. Don’t listen to her, she’s lying" Ghosty said softly and slowly through the glass window hoping it would help Rae
“Oh Rae, you have no idea of what I’m capable of.”
Rae's eyes darted around the room trying to collect his thoughts but it was no use and he sighed as if he was giving up “what do you want from me?”
Rae once again felt Enderiand smirk in his mind “you to come and stay in the end.”
Rae thought for a minute “And if I don’t?”
It felt as if Enderian came closer to Rae and whispered in his ear.
“let’s just say, it might be time for you to say goodbye”
“No...” Rae breathed out in disbelief as his eyes became wide with worry and fear and his breathing became faster once again. “Please Enderian, please” he begged
“No.” She said firmly “You have to chose.”
“No. Please, Enderian. Please reconsider, I beg you.”
Enderian seemed to ignore Rae’s pleads “I’ll leave the portal open for the next 24 hours. You have until it closes to make your decision.”
Rae’s mind suddenly became clear and empty but Rae was panicked. His breathing had become uncontrollable and he was shaking. “No! No! Please! Please come back!” Rae shouted as he slid down the wall and began to cry.

Ghosty unlocked the door and ran into the cell, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend when he had reached his side. “its okay Rae. I’m here. You’re safe.” Ghosty slowly started rocking side to side and telling Rae everything was and would be okay
In time Rae stopped shaking and his breathing had become slower. He wiped his tears from his face and flashed Ghosty a very small smile to let him know he was okay.
“Are you okay? What did she say?” He asked as he let Rae move from his arms
“Yeah. She uh- she threatened Athena..” he lied, too scared to tell Ghosty the truth. “She wanted me to go to the end and if I didn’t she would kidnap Athena again"
“But you’re not going to go the end, right? I mean is she does kidnap them again we’ll find a way to get Athena back. You did it once, you’ll do it again"
“Yeah but what if we can’t find another way? And what if she does something really bad to them? I- I can’t risk it.. I have to go"
“No, Rae, you can’t. We still don’t know what she wants with you and it might be worse if you did go” Ghosty looked at the floor as well and sighed “please promise me you won’t go.” He looked at Rae
Rae looked at the floor
“Rae, promise me.” Ghosty said with pleading eyes
Rae looked back up at his boyfriend “okay.. I promise..”

Ghosty stood up and extended his hand and helped Rae up from the floor.
“Wanna go home?” he asked
Rae nodded “yeah"
They held hands once again, left the testing chamber and walked back towards the Auspicious Boon bunker.

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It had been quite a while since the couple had reached the bunker and had decided to go bed but despite the fact that Ghosty was asleep next to Rae, the scientist was wide awake. He had already decided that he was going to go to the end and he wasn’t going to let anything stop him, Ghosty was too important to him and he couldn’t risk his life. He very slowly climbed out of bed, careful not to wake Ghosty with any sound or too much change to the weight beside him on the bed. He tiptoed to get a notebook and ripped out a page from it, he grabbed a pen and wrote a note. ‘Ghosty, I’m sorry. I know I made a promise but I can’t keep it, it’s for the best. Please know that you didn’t do anything wrong and its not your fault. I just have to do this. I love you' Rae scribbled on the page. He signed it and left it next to their bed so it was easy for Ghosty to find when he woke up. Rae then went down the spiral staircase on his tiptoes and stopped at the meeting room to have a last look around the bunker and with a sad smile on his face he left up the ladder and began his journey to the end portal.

Throughout the journey Rae had thought about turning back and finding another way to speak to Enderian quite a few times before but he knew that it was a very unlikely that anything positive would come from it. He knew this was most likely the only way to protect his boyfriend and he had become content with it.

Eventually Rae reached the stronghold and since it had been quite a while since last time he had been there he had got lost a few times trying to find the portal room. He questioned why there was so many corridors that lead to nothing and empty rooms. After what felt like hours he was pretty sure he had searched the whole of the underground structure but he remembered there was a staircase leading downwards. He walked to where he believed the staircase was and luckily he was right. He ran down the stairs and smiled both with happiness and sadness as soon as the portal room was within his sight. He walked in and saw the portal and began to ascend the short staircase that lead to the gateway to the end. He was about to jump into the portal when a voice caused him to stop in his tracks.
“Rae!” the voice shouted
Rae turned to face the person “Ghosty" he frowned a little “go back home. Please"
Ghosty shook his head and took a few steps forward so he was on the first step of the short staircase while Rae looked at him with pleading eyes.
“You don’t have to do this Rae"
“But I do Ghosty.” Rae slightly shook his head and sighed “You don’t understand.”
“I do understand Rae and if Enderian takes Athena we’ll find a way to get them back again but if you go there we don’t know what might happen. We need you to help us with a lot more than the possibly of Athen-"
Rae shook his head and sighed again though this time it was clear the scientist was getting slightly irritated and frustrated “Its not about Athena!” he shouted which shocked not only Ghosty but himself as well.
Ghosty furrowed his brows and looked at Rae in confusion “what do you mean?”
“its about you.”
Ghosty held his confused expression “what do you mean? What do I have to do with Enderian threatening Athena?”
Rae looked at the ground “because she didn’t.” Rae looked at Ghosty and then back at the floor “I lied. She didn’t threaten Athena... she threatened you”
Ghosty shook his head in disbelief “what?”
Rae took a deep breath “She said if I didn’t go to the end.. shed kill you.”
“But that won’t happen Rae. I won’t let her hurt me or you" Ghosty said trying to sound confident though it was quite clear he wasn’t.
Rae looked at him “Ghosty, she’s a god. None of us stand a chance against her and this is the only way i know to keep you safe. “
“But what about you? You know it’s dangerous for you to go there. You’re literally allergic to the end.”
Rae tried to force a smile “I’ll be fine. I’ll know that you’re safe and that is all that matters to me.”
Ghosty walked up the rest of the stairs to the portal so he was only a step below Rae. He took Rae’s hands in his own and looked in his eyes. “Please Rae, don’t do this. I can’t lose you. I love you.”
Rae looked at the floor and shook his head slightly before looking back at Ghosty. “And I can’t lose you. But as I said, this is the only way I know to keep you safe. So I’m sorry...” he leaned down and gently kissed Ghosty’s cheek. He slipped his hands away from his boyfriend's and turned around and jumped into the portal.

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Rae searched the new surroundings and looked around hoping to see the Goddess there already but she wasn’t “im here”he announced as he kept looking around.
It took a few seconds but soon enough after the goddess of the realm appeared in front of him. “Hello Rae" She said before looking pass him “oh, and Ghosty.”

Rae looked behind himself and slightly gasped “Ghosty, what are you doing here? Go back. Please go home" Rae basically begged.
Ghosty shook his head as he walked closer to his boyfriend. “I can’t let you do this Rae"
Enderian and Rae faced each other. The End goddess wore a malicious smile whereas the scientist had a concerned and pleading look on his face. Ghosty took a few small steps so he was in front of Rae.
“Enderian. I would like to make a deal with you.” He inhaled deeply “Kill me in exchange for Rae's freedom of this realm forever.”
Rae ran in front of Ghosty, and turned to face him. His face was a mix of emotions. “What are you doing? Do you know the dangers of making a deal with a God?”
Ghosty nodded in silence.
Rae’s face once again became one of pleading “Please go home”
Ghosty looked at the ground and shook his head “no.” He took a breath before he gently pushed past his boyfriend and looked at the figure in front of him. “What do you say Enderian?”
Enderian's mouth curled up into a smile “Deal.”
Rae’s eyes went wide and he pulled Ghosty back behind him, thinking somehow that would protect him. “Please, Enderian. Don’t do this. I’m here now. I’ll stay here. You can do whatever you want with me. Just let him go.” Rae rushed to the words out “thats all I ask"
“A deal is a deal Rae.” The goddess said blankly “But, because he was the one to propose the deal I guess I’ll be nice. You can say goodbye.”

Ghosty came back in front of Rae.
“its okay Rae.” he said with a sad smile
“But its not. You’ll be dead." Rae tried to plead
“You’ll have your other friends with you. I promise you it’ll be okay.” Ghosty once again took Rae's hands on his own and gave them a light squeeze. “I love you”
Rae’s eyes teared up and looked at the floor “I love you too.” he looked back up at Ghosty “can I kiss you?”
Ghosty nodded. Rae leaned in and for the last time kissed his boyfriend. When they had parted their lips Ghosty slipped his hands off Rae’s and walked closer to Enderian.
“Not that you really have a choice but, are you sure you want to do this?” Enderian said
Ghosty nodded and with the snap of her fingers a group of enderman went over to Ghosty and killed him. Ghosty was silent until his last breath though even if he did say anything it would have had been impossible to hear over the screams of the endermen.

When the adventurer’s body had gone limp and fell to the floor the enderman left, Rae immediately ran to Ghosty’s body and cradled it in his arms as tears fell.
“No!” he cried and looked up at the godess “ill never forgive you for this!”
“I don’t want your forgiveness. Now go home” Enderian commanded
Rae shook his head “no. Not without him.”
Enderian rolled her eyes “What do you want me to do? Bring him back to life? That’s not possible.”
“Then find a way!” Rae screamed
“There is no way Rae!” The godess shouted back at him
“Then kill me!”
Enderian seemed surprised and raised an eyebrow at the scientist “You want to join him in death?”
Rae looked at the ground and thought for a few moments before looking back up at the godess in front of him, confident in his answer. “Yes.”
“Fine.”
Enderian snapped her fingers again and within seconds Rae was surrounded by enderman.

The pain from their hits became less and less as Rae's body became numb and weak. The little light there was got less and less until all he could see was black. The sounds of the screams got quieter and quieter until he was deaf. This was the end and Rae was okay with it.