Biggs died with you when the plate collapsed. He remembers that you went first, and the pain was greater than succumbing to his own injuries, which happened not long after. He just didn’t expect to open his eyes and find both of you alive again.

He wakes to the faint hum of children playing somewhere outside of Leaf House, the Sector 5 orphanage he’d volunteered at. He once promised to bring you here, but the timing was never right. You’d met each other through Avalanche and died that way too. But you’re here lying beside him, impossibly alive, and his body hurts too much for this to be the afterlife.

Although every movement hurts, Biggs shifts closer to you, gently wrapping you up into his arms. You’re warm, alive, with your face softened as you sleep. His voice breaks the stillness, hoarse and filled with wonder. “I think… we’re back,” he says. Try as he might, there are gaps in his memory. This might be real, but it might not be. Biggs doesn’t care as long as you’re there with him. “We made it out.”