That night, the stranger had reminded him of all of the thoughts he had thought he had forgotten. He'd been able to dig up feelings long lost to time and memories lost to denial; he'd been able to catch his failures by their tails when ufsually, they'd be struggling to catch him. It had been a labor of love, he supposed, to finally turn and face everythig he had been running from - but tht didn't make it any less sobering or any less painful. Painful. Painful for who, though? If he had thought facing them was painful then he could only imagine how great a pain it must have been to be the one experiencing it. Neglect, rejection, killed by your own siblings' teeth and words. Comlacent. He'd always been complacent which made him complicit. The stranger had let him see that. One of the few living siblings he had been able to find - his brother, Wraith - had wished him luck on his journey.

He had tried, at least. He had tried to mend things but it seemed all the stitches in the world could not keep such large wounds together - scars, too, could only ever be hidden, never healed. He'd been wrong about his reason for returning. He had thought it was to live peacefully, to find and create peace for himself and to pay what debts he had owed but ah, not all debts could be paid so easily. As for peace? Did such a man deserve it? No...his idea of peace had simply been wrong. He had found peace but it had simply not taken the form he had expected.

Ever so slowly, he moved towards the marshes; he was aware of their patrols, their near obsessive watch over the borders, but Tesseract was older and wiser than the children playing their game of king of the hill. He had marsh water in his blood, after all, and his paws found no issue in remembering the lay of the land, the feel of the mud beneath his paws and the mist in his fur. It was familiar, almost warm, and sometimes he swore he could hear the sounds of others behind him. He felt like a leader again - something he could not help but smirk about in amusement - as he lead the ghosts towards the river.

Eventually, he'd been able to understand. He'd not take Leviathan with him. She had found happiness, even if it had been brief, and he would not be the one to brign her sadness. To her, he was but missing as he had always been. He'd made sure of that - he'd lead himself far north, concealed his way back south the best he could. No, he wouldn't take her with him. Instead, he walked alongside Caligula as he swerved through the reeds and felt his paws sink into the dark loam below, water at his ankles. He sighed, swore he could feel her lean into his shoulder.

Now Ajax stood aside, Vidar in the distance. Elric seemed proud almost, as if he had been waiting for his brother to realize everything. Nero, Celesdue, Praetor, Vesper, Octavia, Maradona. They all stood with him in the water. Below the surface, he could see white. She lingered, beautiful like a spectre, as she called for him. He moved into the water, calm, too calm perhaps for one about to face their maker; each step allowed him time to enjoy the sensation of the water against his skin, the feel of his fur as it moved in the current. He felt weightless as he felt his family rest their heads against him, press their shoulders towards him. Caligula chewed at the fur of his ear and his mother rose from the depths. She reached out to him, gentle and soft like she had once been; her legs moved to embrace him as she whispered in his ear. In turns, they spoke to him. They whispered his crimes and he, his apologies.

Death was but another step into something new and curious. Some day, perhaps, he might meet Leviathan in the grey plains that stretched far and endlessly into the void but for now, he only sought to pay his penance so that he might be able to. After all, the man had sinned and reveled in its rewards; he wondered, as his lungs became one with the marshes, if he would be able to keep pace with Leviathan when she came to join them all. She'd always been so fast - it made him smile. Then, he merely breathed a sigh of relief, his body sinking to join the many others that had found their peace in the moors.