A/N: It's here at last! The last chapter! :D Oh my Bat-Mite! I hope all of you really enjoyed this fic and thank you for joining me on this bumpy road to finishing it up!

Disclaimer: Nope.

Chapter Twelve...The Root I Lack

"I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the Ages of this world alone."-Arwen, Lord of the Rings

For six months, I waited at the Crystal Arch, never able to enter the High Heavens by command of the imperious, and aptly named, Imperius but unwilling to leave my beloved's side even as he waited for rebirth. It was on the eve of the six month mark that Ithereal came to my side. He said nothing at first, simply watched me as I leaned my forehead against the Arch, eyes closed as if I were listening intently.

"I can feel him there. Inside. He presses up against the inside sometimes, brushing against the otherside. It feels like...feathers brushing against my awareness. Like coming home for just a moment." Then it was gone again just as quickly as it came. I fought the urge to cry at the thoughts spinning through my mind. The time for tears was long past now. "Do you think he can feel me too, Ithereal? Do you think he will even remember me?"

He made a small hum of fond amusement and I felt his hand come to rest on my shoulder. My eyes, once an ethereal emerald but now an even more heavenly shine, found his figure at last. My fingertips brushed one last caress against the crystal structure.

"Of that, I am certain, Harry."

My heart lifted just slightly at his proclamation. Ithereal had access to the Scroll of Fate, Talus'ar. If he said it would be so then I had no doubts as to the validity of his claim. Malthael would not be a stranger to me when at last he was reborn. It eased much of the fears that had festered within my heart these many months.

"Malthael told me once about how the Arch came to be. How the Angels were born and about the creator god, Anu, and his battle with Tathamet, the great leviathan. Such beauty born from such death."

Malthael, in the midst of his madness, had been right on one account. In death, there could be peace. After all, without the death of Anu, the eldest of his children would have never been born. Malthael would have never risen into existence.

Ithereal merely inclined his head in acknowledgment of his brother's admittedly vast knowledge and teachings. It did not surprise him that my love had taught me much of it.

"Speaking of my brother and tales from times past, would you like to assist me with something, Harry? It might give you something to focus your thoughts on while you wait."

Wait for Malthael. Wait to be freed from this limbo that had become my world. Wait for my life to begin again.

My gaze cast around at the six ever-present, ever-watchful Luminarei standing around the edge of the platform warily. Originally, their sole purpose had once been to guard the Crystal Arch and to protect it from harm. Now, however, their general had ordered them to guard the Black Soulstone in order to "prevent another catastrophe". No matter where I went or what I did, they would always be there to watch over me now. I wasn't at all appreciative of the discrete threat or the endless silence. Imperius didn't trust me with the stone, that much was clear. He had been more than a little angry when he learned that not only could the stone not be destroyed without killing me as well but it could not be kept under lock and key in a prison of his making either. Not that what I experienced now was much different. I had been forbidden from wandering into the rest of the High Heavens but neither could I return to Sanctuary and leave Malthael behind. I had made a promise.

"I am not permitted-"

"Nonsense." Ithereal interjected with a cold sort of amusement in his aura that I got the distinct impression was reserved not for me but for his disagreeable sibling, "I have had words with Imperius."

The look on my face at the mere mention of the Aspect of Valor must have shown my clear dislike for the Angel that was now considered my brother. The idea of our new relation left a sour taste in my mouth. Ithereal's hand on my shoulder squeezed and his voice dropped low and sad.

"I know it is hard to see but Imperius is hurting too, Harry. Malthael and he were very close before Wisdom left the Heavens. He never knew why and then when he reappears, Malthael was so...changed. One day they shared a closeness that Imperious has never had with another and the next, they stood as enemies. I know it is difficult. His attitude certainly doesn't endear himself to anyone but try to understand from his perspective."

Well...damn. I guess I could sort of feel for him to some extent. At least until he opened his mouth again. Sighing, I shrugged noncommittally.

"Very well. What is it that you need my help with?"

"How much did Malthael tell you about the tomes in the Library of Fate?"

"Well...I know they aren't actually books but crystals instead? They all tie together to Talus'ar. That's pretty much it."

"Yes, well, during his siege, it seems Diablo did some damage to the Library…"

~O~

It would be two years and seven months before the song would begin to sing for the birth of my Angel. Nine hundred and fourty-five days before I laid eyes on Malthael once again. I knew the instant the song began that it would be for him.

My legs have never carried me anywhere faster.

I had been resettling the last of the crystals in the library, the remnants of the past fading at last from the Heavens, when I heard the Angels begin to sing. It was beautiful. Less of an actual sound and more of a reverberation within the soul itself. It was lovely but that was all it was to me. Beautiful. Ethereal. But nothing more.

Until today.

When that song began to sing, it resonated through my entire being. It intoned that joyful sound just for me, calling me forth from the depths of the still Library of Fate. The slapping of my bare feet against the warm marble of the Heavens echoed against the stone and Angels were quick to move out of my way as the tugging on my heart pulled me towards the Crystal Arch as fast as my body could carry me. It was time! At long last! The mutterings of a few Angels here and there did not faze me as some seemed to flinch out of my way. Not all of the residents of the High Heavens had accepted me among their kin.

Tyrael didn't have much trouble because he had started out life as an Angel. Me? I wasn't even from this realm. I was a mortal Angelic Aspect. Not only that but many of them distrusted me for the soulstone embedded in my chest. They expected the darkness within the stone to corrupt and overtake me. My eyes glinted with steely determination at the idea. No, Diablo would not be inhabiting this body. I was the Master of Death, the Aspect of Death, and to try to overtake my body would mean only his own demise. My body was meant for only one...And at last that one was returning to me.

The age old nervousness returned to me full force. Would Malthael be changed when he returned? Would he be different? Ithereal had assured me that he would remember me but would Malthael even still want me? I had a direct hand in his death after all. Would he understand? Would he forgive me? The Aspect of Fate was waiting at the arch alongside the rest of the Archangel Squad, as I jokingly called them. Imperius's aura spiked with disdain at my approach but nodded and cooled at the sight of my ever present Luminarei shadow. He had compromised on allowing me to roam the Heavens as long as two of the shining guards accompanied me at all times. It was a small price to pay for my freedom.

Auriel swooped over to my side, her hand falling to my shoulder with an affectionate squeeze.

"It's time?" My fevered whisper came out almost desperate sounding but I couldn't even care.

Her nod sent a thrill of joy coursing through my heart and I could feel Hope's smile in her presence.

"It's time, little brother."

The arch began to luminesce like a great silver sun, brighter and brighter as it had when it gifted me the Ar,mortis. Tyrael's hand found the small of my back and gave me a gentle push forward towards the glowing arch where my love would emerge any moment. Would he look the same? Would he be the same Angel that I had long called my own?

A tall form hovered out of the light, it's wings only distinguishable against the shine because of the light purple hue in the writhing appendages. Simple, dark grey, rather than the black he had worn before, robes trimmed in white cloaked the body, inbued here and there with his silver armor. Pauldrons, a chest plate, arm and shin guards. They all gleamed in the glare of the now fading arch-light.

His feet touched down on the ground with a light 'clink' of his armored boots. Gravity, it seemed though, was a little too much for the newborn Angel. He began to buckle under the weight of his own body and it was only my running forward to catch his taller figure. For someone who was covered in armor, he was surprisingly light.

'Like new fallen snow…,' was the first thought that came to mind.

Feeling him there, in my arms once again...It was painful. Fear was thick in my throat. What if he rejected me? What if Imperius found a way to separate us?

What if these two years of loneliness and despair were for nothing? If that was all I could expect for the rest of my extremely long life?

My heart was a thunderous roar in my ears.

He lifted his head up to look into my face, my eyes, and his breath came out in a shaking sigh.

"Master…"

His voice wasn't as scratchy, as harsh, as it was before his death. That one word dissuaded my fears more than anything else he could have said to me. In it was all of the hope, love and regret that a single word could hold. The short laugh that forced out of my hammering chest carried with it more relief and tears than I could have ever enunciated for myself.

It was Ithereal who approached us first, just as Malthael's hand rose to trace the contours of my face as if he would memorize it all over again.

"Not your Master any longer, Malthael. The Aspect of Justice has no master."

The sound of my head whipping around to face the Angel was audible and rather unsuccessfully I tried not to gape. Justice?

"Malthael is the Aspect of Justice?!" Now wasn't that the realm's greatest irony?

"I am...Justice." The former Angel of Death whispered in a pensive voice, tasting the truth of the words in his mouth. His attention zeroed back in on me once more, "And you are Death."

"It is true, brother. After all, the Aspects must be filled. There can be no empty role for long. The balance of the universe will see it filled one way or another." Auriel explained, touching her restored brother's back lightly in greeting.

"Welcome home, brother." Tyrael's smile was bright and free of the lines of worry and stress that had carved it in the days of the Evils.

Malthael's wings and arms both encircled me at once, dragging me against his body until we could have been one if not for the physical barriers separating us.

"No, not yet." He shook his head at Tyrael's words before his hand stroked my cheek tenderly, "Let us go home, Harry."

With a flex of power and a swear from the wrathful Imperius, we disappeared, leaving the Heavens behind. Finally, it no longer felt like my life was on hold. I was at last leaving limbo behind. No longer was I lost or frozen with no end in sight.

Pandemonium and our life together awaited.

FIN.