"The silence of the night is deafening, my love." Raphael's majestic figure strode without missing a beat to the large window of the ballroom, brushing aside a drawn curtain. "Stand by me. This is the last night you will spend here. I hope it has impacted on you." Shadow nodded, her pink curls falling upon the bare skin of her back before becoming covered by the tight low-cut dress she wore for the occasion, speacially tailored to fit her unusual curves and to complement her new figure. In reality, the sight of her in a dress was amazingly scarce and she usually had to hide herself beneath layer upon layer of make-up and complex clothing, though she was so simple that night. So simple and mature, her youth gone behind the mask of late teenagehood.

She gazed out at the star-dotted sky, unperterbed as Raphael placed his arm around her shoulder, taking hold of stray locks and running them through his fingers. Shadow found it impossible to be disgusted; she had longed for Raphael's singular, undisturbed attention for so long that even a tiny gesture meant a lot to her. "I know we mean a lot to you," Raphael said, his fingers moving up to stroke the top of her hair. "You have to let go and stop letting us control you. I know I am strong, but only if you make me so."

"This isn't helping," she replied instantly, a tear rolling down her cheek. Raphael caught it with the gentle, soft tip of his finger, brushing upwards before returning his hand to run through her hair. "Now I've seen you in real life, and you're right here in front of me. It's harder to let you go now."

"I know. It was not my plan to let it be this way, nor would it ever be," he said kindly. "Well... I do not have a lot of time left. I can feel myself fading." It was true; his lower body had begun to grow pseudo-transparent, the soles of his feet completely gone. "You have to let us go. We can survive without you. But if nothing else I say will sway you upon this matter, then..." He pulled Shadow in towards him and embraced her softly, but only for a moment. He did not have time to waste with idle embracing. "Thank you for giving me life." He slowly reached up to his pendant and unhooked it, clipping it around Shadow's neck. "Since I have become part of your internal character crew, I have felt so... happy. Truly the people of your worlds are interesting, and more three dimensional than any character I could create." He pressed his thumb against the emerald of his former pendant. "I will always be with you, in your heart."

"We've come so far together," Shadow said quietly, Raphael's body but a trick of the light as he faded into emptiness. Shadow looked up again at the starlit sky, wondering to herself if ever he'd return. Another tear rolled down her cheek, but there was nobody to catch it. "I'll never be without you. Never."