Work Text:
Beatrice shoves Battler away from her as soon as he collapses into the motorboat, dripping with water and chest heaving. She coughs up water, vomiting it onto the boat's deck. Hot tears cloud her vision as she lies there, trembling and pathetic and soaked to the bone.
"Why? Why couldn't you let me die?" Her voice cracks. She clings to her anger at him, despair threatening to engulf her if she doesn't. "It was a perfect moment, I could have died happy! I can't live in the world of truth! Not with this body, not with the guilt of my sins!"
Beatrice can't see through her tears, so Battler embracing her is a surprise. She tries to shove him away again, but he's too strong and continues to hold her. Her fists beat against his chest in the small amount of space between them.
"You promised to kill me, didn't you? You stupid, selfish man, always breaking your promises!"
Battler only pulls her closer, close enough for Beatrice to realize that he's crying, too.
"I can't lose you again! How can I live in a world without you? You're my golden witch, I'm not going to let you go."
"I told you," Beatrice says between sobs, her voice muffled with her face pressed against Battler's chest. "I'm an atrocious witch. I can't--"
"Don't try and tell me more of that bullshit about not being able to atone! There's nothing to atone for. You are already forgiven! It's not a choice you get to make, you hear me?"
Already forgiven, Battler says. As though he hadn't been telling her to live in order to atone for her sins moments ago. It feels like they're back at that table, sitting across from each other, Battler throwing as many blue stakes at her that he could find, no matter how contradictory to each other they might be.
"So live! If you can't live for me, live for Lion like Lion lived for you. He was a miracle, and now you're a miracle, too. Live as the hope for all the other 'you's!"
"That might work on Lion, but not me," Beatrice grumbles. She says that, but his words still pierce her heart even as she argues with him. "My sins are too heavy for me to bear."
"I told you I would bear that cross with you, didn't I? Don't make me carry it all alone." Battler's words are like the blue stakes he used to wield against her, even in the human world. An excellent play; Beatrice admires it even as the pain bites her heart.
The chill of the sea and the wind suddenly feels exhausting. She's so tired. Beatrice slumps against Battler, no longer resisting against him. Her shoulders shake as she cries into his chest, no longer trying to hold her tears back. She thinks he might be crying too, but she's trembling too much to be able to tell.
"Battler, how am I supposed to live with this body? This isn't the Golden Land. This is just an illusion. I can't really be Beatrice here."
"We'll find something! We'll find a way!" Battler forcefully insists. "Money isn't a problem. I've heard about surgeries in Thailand that can do that sort of thing, give you your proper body!"
That's the first Beatrice has ever heard of anything like that. It sounds too good to be true. Could magic like that really exist in the world? Maybe... maybe she could live in the world of truth. Not as an illusion, but as a human.
"So bear with me a little longer, okay?" Battler continues. "We've escaped Rokkenjima. You can escape your other prison, too. I'll say it with red! "You can live in this world!"
Beatrice can't help but laugh between her tears.
"That wasn't red, you idiot. You can't use the red truth in the human world like that." She knows Battler has to be looking at her with that stupid grin on his face, even though she can't see it. She buries her face further into his chest, holding him tighter.
"It's the golden truth, then! I promised to write the rest of the tales of our time together, didn't I? So please, let me prove it to you!
"You can be happy in this world!"
Battler really is a sorcerer. They're in the human world, after all, and his spoken words shouldn't have been any color at all. But somehow, his words feel golden, like they're shining the same way the ingot tied to her foot shines. Battler had just used the golden truth, guaranteeing his promise as long as she believed in him, despite not being in the world of illusions. What kind of witch would she be if she refused to acknowledge his magic just because they were in the human world right now?
Beatrice wipes her eyes with her hand, still leaning her forehead against Battler. Rokkenjima was supposed to be her prison. Her tomb. Her eternal game board. Now, it's just a big piece of rock in the sea.
That thought was... freeing. Battler had kidnapped her and escaped with her from the island. He had freed her from the cage Kinzo had built for her grandmother all those decades ago.
"I've never been Beatrice away from Rokkenjima before," she finally says in a quiet voice. Battler's reply is immediate.
"I'll love all of you. Beatrice, Shannon, Kanon, and the 'you' that all three of you came from."
"Oh?" Beatrice smiles. "You would cheat on me with Shannon and Kanon? And declare so so proudly? How bold of you, Ushiromiya Battler."
Battler sputters, and Beatrice laughs. Battler chuckles too, when he realizes that she's just teasing him.
Shannon and Kanon, though... she had decided, hadn't she, to be only one, with that lovers' duel? Two would die and one would remain. Back then, Shannon had won the duel, but by reaching the Golden Land, all three of them could exist and fulfill their loves. What would the results be if they dueled again, right now? George and Jessica are dead. There's only Battler, now, so Beatrice wins by default. Beatrice, the 'ideal self' she had made long before Jessica had told Kanon about "Jessie" being the person she wished she could be all the time.
Kanon quietly appears next to her, as though he had always been standing there. Shannon, too. Battler can't see them, but they aren't here to talk to him.
"You don't need us anymore," Kanon says in a voice only Beatrice can hear. "You've won a human soul. Don't waste it."
"I'm rooting for you two!" Shannon cheerfully adds. "Kanon is, too, but it's hard for him to say so directly."
"Shut up, nee-san," Kanon grumbles.
"We'll look after the Golden Land until you come back," Shannon continues, as though Kanon hadn't said anything. "It's okay. We're all cheering for your and Battler-sama's happiness."
Tears well up in Beatrice's eyes again, once again blurring her vision. When she blinks and can see clearly again, Kanon and Shannon have disappeared.
"Shannon and Kanon are dead," Beatrice finally says, breaking the silence that had settled over her and Battler. "They died with their lovers. I'm sure they're happy in the Golden Land."
"They are," Battler affirms. "It's too bad we can't watch them, huh? Jessica and Kanon are at the perfect stage to tease, it's such a shame that we're missing it. By the time we make it back to the Golden Land, they'll be as lovey-dovey as George and Shannon, and it'll be a lot harder to get them to blush."
"I'm sure you'll still find a way, you incorrigible pervert." Beatrice
"You like that part of me," Battler says with a laugh. Beatrice smiles.
"Perhaps."