This AU takes place during the afterlife from both Ocean and Ricky's POV.
"Final vote, Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg." Karnak's voice announced.
Ocean looked around, first at the machine that was holding them in this dilapidated warehouse, then at the only other human there.
They had voted for Jane to come back first. It seemed logical. The whole choir, Ocean included, had agreed that she was the most tragic out of them all. They'd accepted their deaths and awaited their fates. They'd truly died.
Except they hadn't.
They'd opened their eyes to find themselves back in the afterlife. Without Jane. Karnak seemed to have forgotten her entirely when they asked about her. The choir discussed it and, without need for any performances, had decided to send back Mischa. He deserved to meet his love. He stepped into the light somewhat sadly, and the choir braced themselves for whatever happened next.
They were back in the warehouse again. With one less of them in their ranks. Despite it going against everything she'd thought on Earth, and still kind of thought now, she'd reluctantly agreed to send back Noel. Back at the warehouse again, and back Constance went, waving goodbye to Ocean before stepping into the light like the three before her.
Ocean wished that she could've seen the slideshow of her best friend's life, but unlike Jane, the rest of the choir hadn't gotten a movie. Maybe Jane was special because she had a full life to view, birth until death. The rest of the choir presumably continued where their lives left off. Still, it would have contented her to know that her best friend was living a good life, even if Ocean herself was denied that opportunity.
So, two left.
"Final vote, Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg." Karnak repeated.
She looked over at Ricky.
"Hey," Ocean called. "Do you have any clue how this is going to go?" Ricky nodded. "Look on the bright side." He said. "Maybe I'll see Zolar after you go back. Maybe, for me, that's what happens next."
Ocean wondered how Ricky could be so sure, so certain that she would go back. What'd she done to deserve it?
"Let me rephrase that, how do you want this to end?" Ocean asked. "Well, I want to go back, but you'll never vote for me and voting for myself would be the ultimate dick move, so it's got to be you." Ricky answered bluntly. He walked briskly over to her.
Ocean thought back to Ricky's catchphrase, how it wasn't about him, but was about his acceptance of death. Thought of Karnak's introduction for him. "From the time he was six years old and his knees began to buckle, Ricky was treated to the most appalling cruelty humanity can muster, complete indifference." The fortune teller had said. Ocean wished she could go back in time, wished she could've taken the time to try to learn more about Ricky. He was so interesting, and she'd only figured that out in the afterlife.
"Ricky," Ocean began. "Why do you not want to go back? And don't give me that 'voting for myself would be the ultimate'... whatever" Ricky rolled his eyes, no matter how much she'd been through, Ocean still wouldn't swear. He doubted that she ever would. "I don't believe that, tell me the real reason."
"First off, that is not a lie, it would be a dick move to vote for myself, and of course I want to go back, but why would you care enough to vote for me? No one tried to listen to me on Earth. I had so many stories that no one bothered to learn about because I needed crutches and couldn't say stuff. I think you guys forgot texting existed." He said, half-laughing. Ocean looked down shamefully.
She instinctively wanted to just stop talking and walk straight through the portal back to Earth, but Ricky was right, that would be a horrible thing to do. And she hated that it'd taken dying for her to learn that.
"I'm sorry," She said. Ricky waited for her to keep talking, to add a 'but only one of us can go back' or something like that, but she didn't. Maybe Ocean had changed more than he thought.
"I never tried to talk to you in life, and honestly, knowing the... content of your Zolar stories, I wouldn't have kept talking to you if you'd told me those. But I wish I had. Really." Ricky looked up at her as she finished talking and saw that she was shaking. He didn't blame her. If he could just have a coin decide who went back, he would.
Ocean finished talking and realized she was shaking. She wanted to go back, to make the world a better place, to be what the world needs, but she'd had seventeen years to do that already. She'd forced people to hear her, even when they didn't need to listen.
Ricky, on the other hand, hadn't gotten that opportunity.
He deserved to go back.
He'd been infantilized and ignored for most of his life. He'd been alone, with only his imagination to keep him company. If he could move out of Uranium or have just one person listen to him, his life would already be a million times better than it was before.
"I don't mean to rush you, but time is pressing-" Karnak began.
"Shut the hell up!" Ocean shouted before checking herself. Ricky gaped at her open-mouthed. It wasn't a swear, but was definitely the closest Ocean had ever come to saying one. Maybe she really had changed.
"Just," She took a breath, "Give me- I mean us, a minute." She'd included Ricky. She'd said 'us' instead of her usual 'me'. This was definitely not the narcissistic, overachieving Ocean that Earth had the misfortune of having to house for seventeen years. Ricky was glad.
"Ricky Potts," Ocean stuttered. "He's my vote. I had my grades, my awards and my best friend. Ricky, you had your imagination, and that was all. You were never listened to. You deserved to be. And now, hopefully you'll get the chance. Motion carried."
She raised her fist in the air half-heartedly, ready to deliver her catchphrase that she didn't think she'd ever say again.
"Democracy rocks."
She stepped aside, trying not to think of what was going to happen to her after Ricky went back.
While Ocean talked, Ricky stared at her, hardly believing what she was saying. He was going back. And he knew he wouldn't resist. Voting for himself would be the ultimate dick move, but he hadn't voted. Ocean did. A new, nicer Ocean. He wished she could go back with him, having become a better person after the afterlife.
"As you wish." Karnak's booming voice stated. Ricky stepped towards the portal. "Thank you," He said quickly, walking into the white light. "Good luck on whatever happens next."
Then he was gone.
"Ocean Rosenberg," Karnak said, startling Ocean. "You've changed." She turned to face the machine, scared for he would say next. "Since voting to bring back Jane, you've learned." So he did remember.
"I can bring you back. Jane was always going to be brought back first. People couldn't find her head because it didn't exist, it disappeared when she was brought back so as to ensure it didn't cause a time paradox. She fell out of the cart and caused it to crash. She was always brought back, so she was always Jane Doe. So she went back.
Without Jane, the paradox was solved, but that solution caused yet another paradox. You and the rest of the choir. Because without Jane, you never died. The cart never crashed if she wasn't on it. So here you five were. Saved from death because the thing that killed you was stopped. I am holding you here. I need to get you back to Earth, back to life. I only ever possessed the power to bring one person back, in a normal situation. You five were an exception, as without Jane, you never really died. I needed to let you go so that my appointment with Virgil the rat would truly finish me off. So I sent most of you back, one after the other. My power cable was cut, but with some of the choir remaining, I cannot truly die. So you must go.
A countdown will start. Wait until it ends. Let the light take you. You'll be brought back here with only me and Virgil for company. Step into the light, and don't look back."
She looked at him in disbelief. A ten-second countdown flashed where the portal once was. She nodded at Karnak. She was going back, and now she really deserved it.
