"It's almost dawn," Kirsty said as she stepped out into the parking lot. The first streams of sunlight slipped between buildings, tinting the darkness a soft and muted shade of purple. It felt like waking from a dream, as if reality had opened its arms to welcome them back. She turned to look the others - Terri and Joey were both trying to look at their wounds, and Tiffany had her arms around both and was crying in relief. Kirsty hadn't seen such a smile on her face in a long time.

All three took one look at Kirsty before pulling her into the fold, and she gratefully accepted. By some strange mix of luck and miracle, they were alive. Kirsty pulled away and found herself laughing when Joey kissed her forehead. Terri laughed and asked if she would get one, and sputtered when Joey gave her just that. Kirsty laughed again and stepped back to look at the museum, slowly building itself back up from the inside out.

One figure did not emerge from the shadows, instead lingering in the darkness of the museum entrance. Kirsty looked at her sisters one more time, and Terri laughing between them, then the Leviathan Configuration in her hands. She knew what came next, what was left to be taken care of before they could call this a victory.

That didn't mean it hurt any less.

The Prince was standing up straight despite the wounds across his body, and he looked at Kirsty with a serenity she envied. She held the diamond out to him, offering a small and sheepish smile.

"I don't actually know how to put it back," she said, and he actually smiled back at her as he took it. She watched his hands, scratched and bloodied, as he worked; slowly he coaxed the familiar black and gold out from the pale device, and she felt a pang of sadness seeing it. She looked back up at him and swallowed.

"I believe I have a guess, Kirsty," he said as he continued to solve the box, "but please speak your mind."

"Before you told me..." she paused, shaking her head, trying to suss out him from Elliot from the him that was incomplete. Perhaps she never fully would. "You... asked me to come with you, before I knew about... what happened to you. To stay by your side." He sighed and turned a mechanism, and the box sparked in his hands. He turned one more piece and it was the Lament Configuration again, as beautiful as the first time she'd seen it.

"I did." She was surprised when he did not meet her gaze, instead tracing his fingers over the engravings of the box. "I made you a promise, Kirsty, that I had no authority or ability to keep. Even if you had returned my pin without restoring my other half to me, I would not have been powerful enough to secure such a place for you on my own. Not in the way that I intended to." Now he finally looked up at her, and for the first time she saw what could have been shame in his eyes. "I apologize for putting you in that position."

"You're forgiven," she said, and tried to smile. 'Just this once." He hummed, not quite a laugh, and placed the box in her hands again. "Even if you could have..."

"You were not ready. I knew that then, but I believed I could help you." The Prince's hands folded behind his back once more, posture soldier-stiff. "I do seem to forget that you're quite capable of handling yourself in those matters." He looked up, and Kirsty looked back at the other three with him. "This world... it has not been a home to me long before I opened the box. I can understand, however, that it is still yours."

"Thank you," she murmured, looking back at him. The box was cold in her hands. She knew what she wanted to ask, but she was afraid to know. "...What happens to you now?"

"Now," he said, that calm mask on him once more, "I return to face the judgment of Leviathan, for my actions both unbound from him and as my human self. We are generally not supposed to leave the Limbo realm without permission." He looked back at Kirsty, unreadable as she was used to. "It may be that I will be made to atone before I can return to my duties and my Gash." Guilt jabbed Kirsty's chest.

"I'm sorry," she started to say, "if you hadn't given me the pin..."

He held a hand up.

"Do not apologize for what you could not have known," he said. Instead of returning to his proper position, however, he gently took one of her hands in his own. "I knew what I was doing, and I will accept responsibility for it, and I will pay my dues to Leviathan and the Labyrinth."

"And then?" she asked, and there was that small, almost invisible smile.

"I will see you again, Miss Summerskill." His lips on her hand were cold, and his pins scraped her fingertips, but she smiled none the less. He let go and took a step back, expression shifting back to serenity. "Farewell, Kirsty."

"Farewell," she said, and held up the box. The blue lightning reached toward him with outstretched arms, and in a flash of light he was gone. Kirsty looked at the box in her hands, turning it over, before sticking it into her purse.

"Hey!" She looked up to see Terri, who had a playful smile on her face. "You going to tell us what that was about?" She smiled despite the flips her stomach was doing, and the lingering worry she would try to put behind her.

"It's a long story," she said, walking over to them. "It is pretty early... how about I tell it over breakfast?"

"My treat!" Terri grinned. "That monster bitch broke my phone, but she did not get my wallet!" Joey laughed, and Tiffany made her way over to Kirsty. The two put their arms around each other, and Kirsty felt Tiffany's head on her shoulder.

"You okay?" Tiffany asked, signing out o-k with her free hand, and Kirsty nodded.

"Yeah," she said, "I think I'll be okay." She let Tiffany go, and watched her sisters make their way to Terri's car. "I'll meet you guys there, alright? Text me!"

"You got it!" Joey called, and Kirsty smiled before sticking her hands in her coat pockets. She started walking towards her own car, leaving the museum behind as the rising sun brought the city back to life.

We're done! Thanks to everyone who's followed along with this story - it's been an absolute blast to write, and I've got no doubt I'm going to be revisiting this world soon. Please let me know what you think, and as always, be kind and stay spooky.

That's a wrap!