Mad woke with a start to find Tamsus sitting with his back against the door like Rakta had days ago. Uneasily, he wondered how long Tamsus had been there and why he hadn't woken when the door had opened.

"What were you dreaming about?" Tamsus asked, his voice soft and wistful.

Mad sat up, staring at Tamsus. "What?" he asked blankly.

"You were dreaming. What were you dreaming about?" Tamsus' fingers drummed an erratic beat against the stone floor, his eyes skimming over Mad, a restless energy flowing steadily from him.

Mad shook his head, shrugging. If he had been dreaming, he didn't remember what it was. He shifted to where he was leaning against the opposite wall, a weird sense of deja vu sweeping over him. He wasn't scared though. Not this time.

He didn't know why.

"Do you remember the first time we met?" Tamsus asked suddenly, hair falling in his eyes as he tilted his head.

Mad's eyebrows pulled together at the question. He nodded. How could he forget?

He'd been literally thrown into a strange forest with nothing but the clothes on his back only to be found by this person with eyes like bright blood and a certain magnetic charm about him. Tamsus had asked Mad if he knew how to shoot before he'd even asked him his name.

"You weren't afraid of me," Tamsus said, something like wonder on his face. "You were the only one who wasn't afraid."

Tamsus stopped and was quiet for a long time, the silence broken only by the inconsistent, somehow unstable beat of Tam's fingers against the floor. Now Tamsus was looking at him in starts and stops, eyes jumping from Mad to the ceiling to Mad to the side wall. He chewed at his lip, drawing blood just like always.

Abruptly, almost sharply, he said, "That was a novelty Maddy. Something completely and utterly unique in my existence. I hardly knew what to do with you." Tamsus laughed, the sound joyless.

To Mad, the laugh sounded exquisitely painful. Like it should have shredded Tam's throat. Tamsus' eyes flicked up to Mad's, somehow more fractured than ever and he said, "I didn't know how to have someone who wasn't afraid of me."

Softly, like he was speaking to a spooky horse, Mad said, "You never had me Tam."

"You know," Tamsus started with a sort of clinical interest. "You're the only one who would actually say that to me Maddy." He laughed again, though this time it was an actual bubble of amusement. "You were the only one who ever told me no."

"And I seem to remember catching a bullet for it," Mad remarked, feeling like his brains were being scrambled.

There was something almost detached about Tamsus right now. It reminded Mad of the effects of morphine in a way. There was a sort of soft acceptance around Tamsus that just barely masked the raw, bloody mess underneath.

"Now you'll lose your head," Tamsus said wiping absently at his mouth, not wincing when he bumped his cut lip. Looking over at Mad, the movement fluid and disjointed all at once, Tamsus asked gently, "Have you ever thought that maybe it's dangerous to tell me no?"

"I think everything about you is dangerous Tam," Mad responded equally as gentle.

Tam laughed, the sound shattered again. "That's funny. I would have said the same thing about you. It's just..." Tamsus trailed off, staring into a darkened corner of the ceiling. He shook his head like he was trying to clear it and finished, "It's just that I never thought we would be so dangerous to each other Maddy."

Mad didn't know what to say. This was a new side to Tamsus and what Mad saw there was something very broken. And something extremely lonely.

Not that that really changed anything. It just added a new perspective to the Ace.

Tamsus raked his hands through his hair several times, the movement sporadic, disrupting the previous calm.

"Maybe it's for the best," he said, half to himself. Head still in his hands, Tamsus said, "You've played hell with me Maddy. I don't know if you meant to. I like to think that you didn't. Or maybe I like to think that you did. I don't really know anymore. It scares me." Tamsus made a sort of high pitched sound that was uncomfortably close to an animal cry of pain. "You scare me Maddy."

Looking up, his face haggard, Tamsus whispered, "All I should be is content to carry out my Queen's orders. I'm her Ace. That's all I am. All I'm supposed to be. It's something that's beaten into you Maddy. Something that's cut and burned and whipped into your skin. A lesson forged through pain Maddy until nothing else remains."

Repeating himself, seeming to alternate between that drugged calm and unraveling, Tamsus said, "All I should be is content to follow her orders. But I'm not. And it's your fault."

Mad stood up when he did, a snarl automatically curling his lip when Tamsus approached him. He flinched when Tamsus brushed his fingers gently against Mad's cheek. Barely speaking above a whisper, Tamsus said, "I'll be fine when you're gone. It'll go back to normal and I won't care again. Like I'm supposed to."

Tamsus shook his head hard, his loose hair flying around his face. He practically skittered back from Mad like he was afraid of getting scorched. Then, with a resigned sigh, like he didn't want to admit this, he said, "You're the worst thing that ever happened to me Madison." He stopped, staring at Mad again.

"The absolute worst. Mavros should have left you in Real World. I should have told her. I should have told her that you were pure poison. You can tell just by looking into your eyes. Only poison is green like that. Everyone knows that." Tamsus was back to that unsteady rambling and Mad took another step back, knocking lightly against the wall.

Tamsus took a step toward Mad, then back. He did this several times, his movements like some kind of insane dance. Like one part of him was telling him to go near Mad, while the other was screaming that he would surely be bitten if he did.

Mad hadn't realized until now that he was the snake to Tamsus. That Tamsus felt he was the one who needed to watch out for venomous fangs here.

Tamsus seemed to wrench back some control and, his movements too fast, was suddenly standing right in front of Mad. His gaze shifted back and forth rapidly, like he was trying to catch a lie in Mad's eyes. The cold of Tam's fingers burned when they touched the half healed cut on Mad's face. Finger tracing along the tender line, Tamsus sighed, "This is as far as my defiance could go Maddy. It hurts too much to disobey. I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

Mad couldn't decide if Tamsus meant do more damage, or do more to free him from the Queen. Maybe to Tamsus, they were one in the same. But it didn't matter. Mad turned his head away, leaving Tamsus' hand hovering in midair. Tired of this, he asked, "What are you doing here Tam?"

Tamsus slowly lowered his hand, hurt flashing over his face. He sighed and said, "Mavros sent me to retrieve you."

Mad collapsed back against the stone wall, a giddy mix of fear and relief making him feel light-headed. Laughing a little, he said, "About damn time."

Tamsus opened the cell door and gestured for Mad to exit first. Walking down the hall, Mad whistled some marching cadence that randomly came to mind, concentrating on the tune instead of his rapidly beating heart.

"Why are you so ready to die Mad?" Tamsus asked when the song was finished. They were above ground now and Tamsus put Mad's hand on his shoulder, guiding him while he battled a light induced blindness.

Mad wasn't sure he really liked how... friendly Tamsus was. How easily he took on helping Mad right now. Maybe it was just because it didn't matter to Tamsus any more either.

Mad shrugged, his vision starting to clear. "Aren't you the same?"

Tamsus frowned, hands in his pockets. "It's different for me."

"How so?" Mad asked, his still bare feet silent on the marble. He looked over to Tamsus to find he was back to that wavering calm.

He appeared almost thoughtful, then shrugged. "When I die, there will be a new Ace. So, in a way, I'll still be alive. You're a Real Worlder Maddy. When you die, there is no replacement like there if for me. There's no way for you to come back. You're just... gone."

Mad didn't know what to say yet again. It was disconcerting to think about that. To think that there would always be an Ace of Hearts, no matter what happened to Tamsus.

They continued on in silence then until Tamsus led him outside.

Mad inhaled deeply, the breeze fresh and sweet. He didn't even mind the roses.

The sun was bright and cheery, warm against his skin and the sky was a clear, deep blue making all other colors seem rare and vivid.

He smiled, the expression wan. Maybe he'd just been in the dark for too long.

Tamsus led him to a pair of guards, then turned to face him. He studied Mad's face, like he was committing it to memory and, his voice soft again, said, "Goodbye Maddy."

"Bye Tam," Mad said, then watched as Tamsus joined the Queen on her balcony, taking his customary position just to the right of her throne. Mad noticed that Tamsus was looking at the forest, not at him.

Mad looked around then, trying to find Rakta, but couldn't see the other Ace anywhere.

The guards took Mad to the execution block and he glanced briefly at the hooded executioner, eyes lingering on the wicked glint of the ax's blade.

Mad looked up to find the Queen in a magnificent deep scarlet dress. Mad thought it should be distressing that the dress was the same color as lifeblood. That dark, true blood that comes last. The blood just before death.

"Any last words Madison?" she called down, her smile brilliant and victorious. Mad had the sudden chilling thought that Mavros held the same delusion of death as Tamsus did but just as quickly shook it off.

Even if she did, Mad seriously doubted he would care once the ax dropped.

Mad laughed, the sound full and carefree. He couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed like that. It was her mistake giving him the last word. He hoped that she would hear his final words in her head for the rest of her life.

Like Mad heard Gene.

Or Rakta heard his Princess.

His smile was bold, jubilant. With another of those joyful laughs he made sure his voice rang through the garden, so that everyone present would hear and said, "Long live the King."

Mavros' face paled in sudden fury and Mad's knees slammed painfully into the ground when one of the guard's kicked into the back of his leg, forcing him down.

Mad looked down, studying the swirls of old blood that had permanently stained the white stone. His heart beat was a steady tattoo against his rib cage.

He felt every breath of air that stirred his dark hair, black as any Spade, and he was aware of every ray of sunlight that brushed his skin.

Every lungful of air was sweet and Mad looked past the gathered crowd to the Dark Forest, mesmerized by the waves and swirls of different greens as the leaves moved.

'Not a bad day to die.' Gene's voice said, speaking for the first time in a long time. With that scoffing laugh of his, Gene said, 'You actually did all right cowboy.'

Mad smiled a little. He suspected it was because he himself was so close to parting the veil that he could hear his dead friend again. Whispering, he said, "Not bad at all."

Mad rested his cheek against the warm stone. He wasn't going to fight and give Mavros the spectacle she wanted. He wouldn't give her that sense of pleasure, thinking she had made him afraid.

She hadn't.

This was his death and no one else's. Mavros would not dictate how he ended his life.

The murmurs of the crowd blended together with the wind and birdsong, creating a lulling melody that seemed to speak of Gryphons and the sea.

Mad's breath slowed, his heartbeat a steady thud in his chest as he saw the shadow of the executioner raising his ax.

Mad inhaled deeply one last time, allowing his thoughts at last to go to Eileen and Gene. Dinah. Cheshire. He thought of Killian, then finally, Alice.

Mad smiled softly thinking of Rakta's promise.

Dying for a reason didn't make it seem quite so bad.

He heard the whistle of the blade.

Then everything was lost in chaos.