It was never supposed to end like this.

No, scratch that. It wasn't supposed to end.

But it had.

They had.

Again.

It was time for her to go.

Tears welled in bright blue eyes, washing them to the gradually dimming twilight over Neptune's beach as she stared at her love, seeing his face crumble with recognition and resignation. It wasn't the first time they'd come to this point, but this time. This time it would be the last.

She'd finally made her choice, and they both knew it wasn't him.

It couldn't be him, no matter how much she told herself and him, he was never going to be the right choice for her.

Ten years had brought her to the fork in the road, the decision she thought she'd made when she left both of them behind to start a new life far away from the drama of her teenaged years. She'd become a new person, had a new outlook on life, and one phone call undid all those years of work to reveal she'd just daubed paint over the truth.

She might not be Veronica Mars Teen Detective anymore, but she still fought for truth, justice, and the Neptune way.

Piz couldn't truly understand it no matter how many times he heard her stories - the only one who knew the truth apart from those who'd lived it with her - because he hadn't been there. He hadn't seen the horrors, triumphs, and failures. His hand had held hers during the better years, the years of struggling to be someone else, not struggling to just be someone.

"I knew the minute you told me he needed your help..."

His voice trails off, thick with emotion.

Veronica nodded. She'd felt Logan's pull too, in the root of her just as she always had. She'd tried to fight it, remind herself she wasn't that girl any longer, and she wouldn't ever help the man who never treated her like a princess, or the love of his life, not like Piz always did.

No, Logan had buried her beneath the furious disdain of his chaotic emotions, confused her with the afterimage of Lilly imprinted on the backs of his eyelids. Their love was feral, angry, and heartfelt; he understood the raw dark nature she hid from herself, from the rest of the world because no one could understand that drive, someone always pays.

She'd learned too late the cost of such vengeance, and had run from the consequences. Coming back to Neptune was supposed to righting those wrongs, fixing what she left undone, but Logan had changed just enough, had healed just right, that she felt their pieces slotting back together again as seamlessly as they did when they were twelve, sixteen, twenty.

It hadn't seemed like he'd changed, being accused for murder of another lovely blonde, but she'd seen what no one else could: the girl was a stand in for what he really wanted. What he needed. And there was no way Logan would ever murder, even in absentia, Lilly or Veronica, the White and Black Queens of his heart. His rage was always directed at men, never women.

"I love him. I always have. I always will."

Piz nodded. Defeated. Alone and proud.

"I was better for you than he ever was. I am what you deserve."

"But you're not what I need," she quietly explained, finally finding the words that had eluded her for the past few years. "I love you" had tripped from her tongue to his ear so easily, a sign she was certain, of her maturity and the clarity of an adult relationship devoid of drama or heartbreak, but not something she truly meant in the marrow of her bones. At least not like she meant it when she rushed across country to defend Logan as if it were ten minutes, not ten years since they last met.

"Be happy, Veronica. Please."

She wasn't meant for happiness, not like Piz meant, and it solidified her resolve because he would never understand it. He just couldn't.

"Goodbye," she whispered.

A/N: Two things prompted this - the trailer for the VM movie and Avril Lavigne's song "Goodbye." As soon as I heard the lyric "Goodbye brown eyes/Goodbye for now/Goodbye sunshine, take care of yourself" I immediately thought of Piz for some reason. The song is wistful and melancholic, but there's a bit of hope at the end. This wasn't beta'd and I wrote it in twenty minutes before posting it. If there are any typos or grammar mistakes, oh well.