AN: Buttercups reaction to the letter that Wesley's ship was attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts.

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I Shall Never Love Again

The letter in her hand trembles.

Ice in her veins, winter turns the world to death.

"Farm boy," she half-whispers, half-chokes, the handwriting scratching into the paper, the ink pooling in the creases. Her eyes are wet and the letters dance and then blur

the waves balancing and bouncing the ship on the ocean as she

waved goodbye

until she crumples the paper up and throws it to the ground only to sink to her knees to smooth it out and reread it for the fifteenth time. "No survivors," she whispers, afraid to speak any louder, as if to confirm it

no body beneath the headstone, letters carved into stone that

cannot be erased

and the feeling that she cannot identify is swallowing her whole, the pressure behind her eyes

eyes that will never see him again

is becoming unbearable, her throat

which will never speak to him again

longs to scream out the injustice, the deception of it all, her hands

which will never touch his face, linger on his shoulders

turn to fists and she is consumed by the passion of her grief until all that she is is the heart in her chest that is shattered

leaves scattered as they fall from the branches of the

sleeping tree

and when she puts down the letter her eyes are achingly dry

the desert stretches forever beneath the burning sun

and she stands on shaky legs, feeling physically ill, feeling lost, adrift

the ship is looted and then destroyed and planks float on the

salty water as the ship burns

but most of all she feels empty as is hollow

snow covers the world in numbing white and she is born anew

as the Ice Queen

and her voice is soft as the rustle of the leaves above

"I shall never love again."