Work Text:
He finds himself outside of his body, watching himself crumple out of his wheelchair. He’s dying, he realizes. It’s surreal, watching the light go out of his own eyes as his blood pools on the pavement. Chariot’s footsteps echo throughout the colosseum. At least his stand would live on without him, protecting the arrow in his place. It was lonely, being disconnected from his stand.
But he was accustomed to being lonely.
He closed his eyes and embraced wherever death would take him.
His body settled on what felt like soft ground.
His whole body, including his legs.
His legs, which felt like someone was pulling on the leg of his pants quite aggressively. The pulling was accompanied by what sounded like the growling of a small animal.
A dog.
Could it actually be…
He opened his eyes, a golden light filling his vision. He sat up slowly, not daring to hope as he looked down at his leg.
“...Iggy?”
The small dog launched himself towards his face, barking happily. He laughed in disbelief, cradling the dog in his arms. Tears of joy ran down his face, which Iggy happily licked off of his cheeks.
“Iggy, what are you doing over there?” A familiar voice called out in arabic.
The dog lept out of Polnareff’s embrace and ran over to the man who had called him.
Polnareff got to his feet, looking at the man who stood in front of him. His heart, broken beyond repair years ago, began to knit back together.
Avdol turned to look at him, looking just the same as he did on the day he’d died.
“Jean.” He whispered.
“Muhammad.”
Before he’d even realized it, he was running toward him, he was going to kiss him and tell him everything he hadn’t been able to say in Egypt and-
The ground fell out from under him.
“No!”
It was too late. Something was pulling his soul back to Earth.
He wasn’t going to die.
He was going to live.
And Avdol, Iggy, Sherry, Kakyoin, and everyone else would stay dead.
His surroundings were fading. He didn’t have much time left.
“Wait for me.”
“I will.”
With that, everything went dark, and Polnareff was alive.