Nothing had ever happened for Daisy the way she expected it. 

Not the expensive, Santa Monica date with the absurdly hot Parker Travis a few years back. Not taking the homecoming crown in those few minutes she'd spent in high school. Not the friends she'd callously disregarded despite their relentless grasp on her, or on whatever she had left of a heart. 

She was used to things not working out. She was every bit the cynic, expecting, receiving the worst in an endless cycle of self-fulfilling prophecies. 

This was different. All around her, on both sides of the gate, a great many creatures were rising and falling. She felt them within her, flaring and dying like stars going super nova, for better or worse. Atticus and Siya vanished. Jay-Jay's ghost lady dragged God Wolf to the other side. And Max...[i]fucking[/i] Max...he gave whatever was left of his life for whatever was left of hers. 

None of it worked out like she'd expected. And Daisy had never liked to be wrong. She'd have followed them all happily into the mist, taking Fenris and Max and Kata with her, fuck it all, even the Wight, if thats what he wanted. 

But he didn't, of course. He wanted, [i]needed[/i] to live, and Daisy was the only one who could do that. She didn't know how she knew it about him. But she did. 

And Veti. Veti would want to know her stupid boyfriend had saved her stupid life. 

It was over in a matter of seconds, the three of them gone in a flurry of fog that left Daisy trembling and wide-eyed, and then it was just her and Semyon and a silence in Death Daisy had never seen before. She knew without looking the marks of decay wrapped around her arms and torso were gone. Kata and Max had done that, too. 

Daisy felt...not tired, but drained. She knew she would be returning to fewer than she had left, with fewer than she'd left with. She knew, too, the others wouldn't demand an explanation. She knew Jay-Jay would need help, and Veti, too. 

She knew the Wight had something important for her.

She stared at the Gate for a long time, and for the first time in a while was not afraid of it. 

Without looking at the Wight, she opened to portal and pulled them both back through. 

As they crossed over, she spoke: 

"All this," she said simply, and with no form to speak of, she had to trust him to [i]know[/i] what she meant. She wasn't sure she did, not fully. "None of it is like you think. I thought you might like to know that."