'Tom.'

Tom knew he died. He was sure of that. So the fact that he felt something warm underneath him was strange to say the least. There were also hands touching his face. They were hot and small.

'Tom, it is time you woke up.'

He opened his eyes and closed it right away. There was golden light right above him. This time he tried slowly. The sky above him was gray. The light seemed to go from the person before him.

He remembered her voice. She was the one that told him to escape once. The voice inside his head, now had a face, and what a face it was. The very sight of her made him stronger, filled him with enough energy to rise up to be on her level. She was kneeling, not taking her hands of his face.

He thought the soft warm ground they were sitting on was sand, but when he looked down it turned out to be ash, still lighting up with specks of fire.

'Where are we?' His voice was dry, as if he had not drank for ages.

'In your head.'

'Great. Am I dead?'

'Theoretically, yes.'

'Who are you?'

'It is yet to early for me to tell you, my love. For now I have to clean up the mess that our sibling did on earth.'

'Are you going to tell me anything?'

'You don't need to know. But I'll need to borrow your body for a bit, and you need to agree. Can you do that for me?'

He looked into her eyes. They had a color of liquid gold. Although he did not know her, he wanted to be closer to her, almost desperately.

'Yes.'

'Thank you. Farewell.'

She leaned in and kissed him, and he did not oppose.

Jerry felt movement. He told himself it was impossible. Then, he felt it again. The little mammal stood up from his knees. The cat walked along the ruined street with everyone too shocked to react.

It became unbearably bright for a moment and when Jerry opened his eyes, it was no longer a cat, but a boy whose appearance he knew very well.

'Tom!'

The creature that looked at him over its shoulder was not Tom. Its golden eyes looked dangerous and powerful.

'You are right, I am not Tom.'

One of the gods started running into his direction. Tom stopped it with a wave of his hand. Jerry noticed that it did not just stop the one person, it stopped everyone. Except him.

'You called me, Jerry. I came to stop the war.'

Jerry remembered. They told him about a goddess who could stop the fight. But when did he call her name?

'Hope.' He said with realization. 'Does that mean Tom is dead?'

'No. It is not so easy to kill my other half. I had to step in, because there was a risk of him waking up.'

'Waking up?'

Hope went back and kneeled on one knee before his sitting form. For a moment he saw a shadow of golden hair and different face.

'Do you want to know? This knowledge will not make your life easier. I can make you forget all you had to suffer, so decide well.'

'I have to know.'

'Fine than. Just remember you can never tell Tom about it.' With that she touched his forehead with Tom's hand and everything went dark for a moment.

He saw images. There was Tom and a woman with short golden hair. They were kissing. He did not even have time to think about the meaning of it when the scenery changed. There was a man, a powerful looking man arguing with the blond woman. He heard him shouting 'You cannot be together! He is too dangerous.'

The next change made Jerry's head spin. This time the blond woman stood before Tom with a scythe. They were talking.

'Have you came to kill me, Hope? Did the old man tell you to?' Said Tom, though to Jerry his voice seemed different.

'Yes.'

To Jerry's surprise Tom spread his arms in an inviting gesture.

'Go on then. It is just like him, to send the only person I would never be able to harm.'

The woman held up her scythe and prepared to attack. Just before the blade reached Tom, she stopped and dropped it.

'No.' She said. 'I will not be controlled by their stupid rules.'

Tom smiled and stepped closer to hold her. She relaxed in his arms.

'Hey, Hope? Let's destroy their little paradise.'

The next vision was of fire and ash. In the chaos Jerry saw the old man that Hope talked with before. He was being attacked by Tom with the scythe Hope had before. Than he saw the man turn into ash himself.

This time the vision was different. Tom was in chains. Before him there was a jury box of some kind, and Jerry spotted Nature amongst the gods sitting there. Hope was on the right, but without chains.

'Why should we not kill him? Could you explain it to us, Hope, because I still don't see how we can let the man who murdered our creator go free?'

'Even if you do kill him, there will just emerge another one with his abilities. And with such power, who knows what he will do. Are you ready to take that risk?'

'What do you propose instead?'

'I will kill him.'

There was a murmur among the judges. Tom looked in her direction and smiled.

'The only two gods that are able to kill without the chance of there being a replacement is me and the man you want to kill. Do you have other options?'

'Will you be able to kill your soulmate?'

'I turned against him in the war, did I not? Trust me, he is nothing to me anymore.'

The following scene was in a forest. Tom was still in chains, guided by two people. There was Hope again, with her scythe. Instead of attacking Tom with it, she killed the guards next to him.

'Who would have thought you'd be such a good liar, eh, Hope?' said Tom, motioning to his chained hands.

With one swift move of her wrist the chain disappeared.

'I had enough of our sibling already.'

'Let's destroy them.' Tom suggested with a gleeful smile.

She smiled at him.

'Not yet, my love. If we were to kill them the whole world would tear itself apart.'

'Who needs it anyway? Wouldn't it be beautiful? Imagine us standing at the ashes of everything.'

'It's a beautiful vision.'

'Ha! The old man said I corrupted you, but you always had it in you. That's why I love you so much.'

They were silent for a while.

'Do you love me enough to forgive me?'

He looked at her surprised but then smiled lazily.

'Do you plan to kill me? If you do I understand and I forgive you.'

'I could not kill you. You will yet get to burn the world. But right now it has too much potential. I'm sorry.'

She approached him with a kiss.

'I need you to give me all of your power.'

'It's your.'

When she kissed him again, the light became so unbearable Jerry had to close his eyes. When he opened them again Tom was laying on the ground, unconscious. He saw a small mouse ran on to smell his hair.

'Well, aren't you lonely little mouse?' Said Hope hoisting it in her hand. 'I have to leave my lover lonely too. Would you mind keeping him company and playing games with him? Just until I come back?'

She motioned Tom on the ground and his body changed into that of a grey cat.

Hope put him on the ground, said 'goodbye little fellow' and disappeared.

The visions dissipated in smoke and Jerry was once again kneeling on the ground, surrounded by unmoving figures of the gods. The visions run so quickly, he hardly understood anything from them.

'Tom is a god?' he asked Hope in a weak voice.

'Arguably the most powerful one, since he wiped out our creator. Except me right now, of course, because I have both his power and my own.'

'And you, you trapped him in a cat's body? For how long have we even lived?'

'Oh, you have hundreds of years Jerry. Every now and then your memory automatically clears itself.'

It was too much for his mind to take in at once.

'Are you going to… take Tom away from me?' was the only thing he could dress into words.

'Not right now, no. But when he gets his memory back he will return to me.'

'But he wants to destroy the world!'

'And I am sure that he will do it. In the right time.'

'When will that time come?'

'Not yet. You may take care of him a little while longer. I will give back his body as soon as I finish all my work here.'

'Are you going to kill all the gods?' he asked worried for his friends.

'Of course not, that is not my role today. But they cannot cause chaos on this earth any longer. I will close all of them in the paradise and let them solve their problems there. Their memory will be wiped of this day, and of you and Tom as it was wiped before to protect me and my love.'

Jerry looked around himself. The figures of the gods started disappearing one by one. When the last was gone Hope turned to him once again.

'Now, I will leave. Cherish him but do not forget he does not belong to you.' With that she closed her eyes and when they opened it were not longer hers.

'Tom.' Jerry held him desperately.

'What? What happened? Stop holding me so tight you're being annoying.' But when he heard quiet sobs against his arm he held strongly back.