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Time comes at a cost.
It happens slowly at first. Death overseas the whole cosmos, is everywhere all at once. Splinters of the whole disperse out in the galaxy, collecting bodies, restoring order, ensuring life can start anew. It's a complex spell, these fragments of death each their own entity and yet each so very interwoven. No one could deny the Green witches power. She, of course, reserves her true conscience for earthly visits and her home in the beyond. The puppeteer controlling all her entities on autopilot, filtering their minds, her fragmented mind, with ease. But there's a disruption now with the natural order, she's breaking a rule and breaking herself in the process.
It doesn't even take an hour for her conscience to start fracturing. Streams of thought, awareness of happenings from across the galaxy escape her filter. The spell relies on order. The spell is failing.
It's manageable for now, temporary bursts, momentary distractions. Still, she knows the fractures will eventually become cracks, and those cracks will eventually become big enough to bring the whole thing tumbling down. Existence could not afford for that to happen.
She swallows her pride 2 years later, the stream of thoughts is now constant and enough to give her a headache. Infinity and Eternity, both somewhat idealistically opposed to herself, and yet all of them understood their roles in maintaining the natural order. She's never begged them of anything before, feels pathetic doing so. They can't stop what needs to be done of course, no one can stop death once it’s been foretold, not even death herself. But death knows that infinity and eternity favour restoration, knows they have the power to resurrect. She doesn't quite fall to her knees but she's certain she's never resorted herself to such lows. They all but laugh in her face, because of course they do. They won't disrupt the natural order for a boy who is of no importance, of no consequence, to them at least. They had warned her against her dalliances with Agatha from the very beginning, there is no sympathy to be found with them.
They don't understand of course, they are cosmic entities, but she is Death and the Green witch, both cosmic and not. Eternity is a long time to spend alone.
She doesn't go to Oblivion; he would take the boy away.
------------//------------
In the fourth year her mind certainly is not whole. The spell is taking all her focus to uphold, her brain pulses with pain and her body is wasting under the effort. Things are starting to slip through the cracks, bodies are lying dormant for much longer than they should be. The balance is off kilter and yet still upright.
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In the sixth year infinity and eternity come to find her themselves, oblivion hot on their trail. She's held out much longer than they thought she would. The pain has become unbearable, she's confined to the fetal position most days, hands clutching her head, trying to hold the spell together. The bodies are piling up, the balance almost tipped over, and with-it existence itself.
She begs again but they are insistent, she will do what needs to be done. Oblivion threatens and she almost takes him up on the offer. Would oblivion be so bad when faced with the alternative of what she must do. And yet she can't let go, not yet at least.
They grant her a month with her mind back intact. Her subconscious goes back to working the spell and she returns to earth with a clear conscience.
She observes them for a while, unseen, they look like any other boy and his mother. They seem happy and she's glad for that. She even laughs at Agatha's ridiculous antics, certain they were meant as a distraction for her. The witch wasn't to know that Death had been somewhat preoccupied for the last 6 years. She collects the bodies in the trail of the boy and his mother dutifully, memories flooding back of a time before the boy existed. Simpler times, and yet after observing her loves smile in the face of him she cannot resent his existence.
She waits for 2 weeks, she waits until Agatha is asleep. The dream she projects into the boy’s mind isn't a bad one per se but is enough to wake him out of his slumber. She waits for him down by the riverbed, a green flame alerting him of her presence.
"Who are you?" he blurts with no manners as six years olds are wont to do. He comes to sit beside her, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
She smiles at him, any boy coming from Agatha was unlikely to have manners regardless of age.
"I'm a friend of your mothers" she replies simply, voice soft so as not to wake Agatha nearby.
"My mother doesn't have friends" he matches her whisper "she takes from all of those who offer friendship"
It's a gentle way to put it. Taking, not killing. Perhaps the only way the boy can allow his six-year-old mind to digest all that his mother is.
"She deems it necessary" is all that death can answer, and that is gentle too.
The boy is pensive then, looking out over the river. He places a gentle had on top of hers.
"Are you here to take me?" He asks, barely a question.
She turns to face him then, sees the clarity in his eyes.
"Eventually, yes" she concedes, never one to lie and especially not to a child seeking answers.
"Will it hurt?" And death grants herself a small chuckle at that, if she had a nickel.
"I can make it painless" she smiles, happy she can grant the child this small mercy. "Go back to sleep now child, we wouldn't want your mother to wake"
He grants himself one last look over the river before standing slowly and making his way back to Agatha. When he reaches halfway he turns to face her
"My name is Nicholas" he says, he wants death to know his name.
When he crawls back next to Agatha the witches arm wraps around him instinctually. Death plants a dream of dandelion fields in his head and disappears.
------------//------------
She meets him every night after that. Greets him by his full name and is rewarded with a smile. Eventually, one night, he asks her to call him Nicky and she's rewarded with an even bigger grin when she does so the next night.
He doesn't ask about his time and when it may be up, he isn't inquisitive in that way. Mostly they speak about Agatha, and she can tell he's trying to deduce why his mother would have such a close friendship with Death. She leaves out details, leaves out that friendship was somewhat underplaying it. He's content with anything she gives him, takes to kissing her cheek before he scurries off back to sleep each night.
She imagines another life where she could raise him with Agatha and her resolve almost cracks. She thinks of all the other children and their mothers who would cease to exist should her resolve break and it’s enough to push her forward.
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"My time is almost up, isn’t it?" He asks on their 13th night together and Death isn't sure how he's quite so perceptive.
"It is" she answers, still not one to lie.
He cries for the first time since they met then, but not for himself. "I think I've been on borrowed time for a long time, I think my mother has done all of these things because of me" he sobs and Death scoops him up into her arms.
"Silly boy" she soothes "your mother was an entity all to her own well before you came along, don't do her the disservice of thinking you caused her wickedness"
It seems to placate him somewhat, sobs dulling. "She's not wicked" he gets out through deep shaky breathes.
"Oh she is dear Nicky" the Green Witch smiles "but I very much like that about her, and I think you do too". She jabs a playful finger into his chest and Nicky giggles then, all the concession she needs.
"What's your name?" He asks suddenly as if just realising he is still yet to get it.
"My friends call me Rio, Rio Vidal" she sticks out a hand and Nicky shakes it firmly, turns his head to Agatha
"She said she couldn't protect me from you Rio" he muses "but I don't think I need protecting"
Rio looks at him quizzically
"Like I told you" he answers her look as if it's obvious "I think I've been on borrowed time for a long time, I've never been as strong as the other boys" he says referring to his sickly body that has always been teetering on the edge of life and death.
"I know you granted me that time" he continues with a sure nod "I don’t think I need protecting from someone who could give me that"
He places a soft kiss on her cheek and rushes off of her lap and back to Agatha's side. Rio stays longer that night, tears flowing down off of her face, small dandelions sprouting as they hit the earth below.
------------//------------
She doesn’t wait for him by the river this time, they have a path to walk together.
Nicky's soul wakes almost immediately once she casts the dream into his mind, his body having passed peacefully in the night. He scurries up to join her. She turns him back once, makes sure he says his goodbyes to Agatha and watches on with sorrow as the boy presses 2 kisses to his mother's cheek.
He takes her hand as he reaches her, familiar now with the figure of Death. They set off a few paces down the path before he stops them.
"Will you look after her for me?" He asks, the most scared she has ever heard him. "She'll need looking after" he implores, resolute now.
"She won't want me looking after her, child" Death responds. Of that she is certain, their relationship doomed to failure the second she had received her orders for Nicky. She had granted Agatha time, but their relationship had expired that day.
"Rio" Nicky says, sternly now "you will look after her". It's an order, not a request.
The boy had the audacity of his mother, the only other who had been brave enough to order her around. The only other who Death would listen to.
"I will look out for her" Rio concedes for whilst the relationship may have expired the love certainly hadn't.
Nicky, satisfied, turns back to continue down the path. "Now I'm ready".
They reach a point where the path fades into nothingness. Nicky doesn't stop, Rio walks with him.
------------//------------
The beyond can be transformed into whatever its inhabitant wants it to be. They're back in the woods but this time the sun is seeping through the cracks in the tree branches. There's a small clearing and a cabin ahead, a home. Rio looks down at Nicky and sees the smile on his face.
"You'll be safe here" she says but he already knows.
"Will you come and visit?" He asks and Rio's steps falter. She has never been asked that before.
"When I can" she answers, certain she will make the time.
"How long before she gets here?" Nicky is sure that Agatha will come once her time is up.
"Time doesn't exist here like normal dear child, she'll be here before you know it"
With that Rio kneels to press a parting kiss to his cheek, "you'll be ok" she whispers before leaving him to the beyond.
------------//------------
She returns to the river bank, the boy now lying lifeless in Agatha's still sleeping arms.
Plucking a dandelion she makes her way quietly over to the pair. This is the last peace Agatha will know, of that Rio is certain. Once she wakes her boy will be gone forever and the pain will force her to embrace all the ugliest parts of herself. Once she wakes, she will hate Rio forever and Death herself will let the ugliness overtake her too.
She pulls Nicky's blanket back, revealing his hair and blows the dandelion over him softly, the small florets floating down over him. With death comes life. Order was now restored.
------------//------------
She checks in on Nicky now and again. It's strange, upholding a relationship with the dead, but she's made a rule for herself. She owes it to Agatha to keep an eye on him.
She keeps an eye on Agatha too, as she told Nicky she would. Even makes herself known sometimes. They fight and they fuck and it's so so ugly. The hatred pours out from Agatha and eventually Rio starts to hate her back. Why can she not understand? Love dulls with time but never departs.
Agatha does eventually depart, from Deaths consciousness at least. Her quest for the Darkhold proving successful, allowing Agatha to cloak herself from Rio's gaze. It's the first time Rio has felt a loss for herself, the first time she's never been able to access someone on either plane of existence. The anger burns but the grief picks her to pieces.
She becomes heightened, mean in a way she wasn't before, embraces the madness as she never had. Before Agatha she had faced her entire existence alone, now she was alone again but with memories of companionship solitude felt empty in a way it hadn’t before. Bitterness starts to rot inside of her.
------------//------------
One day the shift in the order was larger than normal, Death forces her consciousness away from earth and the beyond to Mount Wundagore.
The Scarlett Witch is waiting for her, she doesn't put up a fight. Death escorts her to the beyond, not certain that it will contain her forever. Chaos magic of that amplitude is unpredictable. Rio doesn't care. As she and Wanda had approached the beyond Agatha Harkness had come streaming back into her consciousness, a bright red flashing beacon. Death was headed to Westview, vengeance on her mind but love still in her black heart.