Midas' Destiny (Original Version)

Who Tells Your Story?

"Pour the wine and raise a cup. Drink up, brothers, you know how, and spill a drop for the lost ones, wherever they are now. Some birds sing when the sun shines bright, our praise is not for them, but the ones who sing in the dead of night. We raise our cups to them.
Wherever they are wandering alone below the earth, let all our singing follow them and bring them comfort. Some flowers bloom where the green grass grows, our praise is not for them, but the ones who bloom in the bitter snow.
We raise our cups to them.
We raise our cups and drink them up.
We raise 'em high and drink 'em dry to our friends and all of us.
Goodnight, brothers, goodnight."
- We Raise Our Cups, Hadestown

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A/N: I highly recommend y'all to listen to the song I linked and imagine that Marie used to sing this to Matt for more pain :D this chapter is lowkey bad and I'm sorry lol

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A few days later

Marie awoke in wet clothes, the blanket was gone and the pillow at the other end of her bed. She'd had nightmares ever since she'd found her way back to life. Flashbacks of the times she wasn't there, and yet aware of her surroundings in some way, but usually she'd been in a room on fire, which constantly almost ate her up and showed her darkest fears.
She tried to not think about those nightmares, at least not today when she had to bury her late brother, who had spent so much time on saving her from her golden prison.
Everything he had done, everything Maya had told her about, it'd been all for Marie to save her, so how could she not blame herself for his death? They all did, actually. Even the girl, Skye.
All of them met up daily to grieve and celebrate the lives of the lost ones, even Brutus. Her dad.
As a child, Marie always feared to lose her family and now she was all alone.
Tearing up, she left her bed, made it, and got ready for the funeral. Maya'd given her something proper to wear, though she believed that her brother wouldn't want them to wear all black or grieve, at least that's what he'd said after their mother's funeral.
When Marie was finally dressed, someone knocked at her door.
She turned around and walked over to open it, when Maya and Arachne already stormed in. Both of them had been crying, but they tried their best to hide it.
"Are you ready?", Arachne asked her but Marie shook her head.
"Ready to bury my brother? Of course, never been more ready than right now."
Arachne smiled gently and pulled her in a hug. "I know you will never be ready to say goodbye. None of us will ever be, but we have to let him go so that he can find his well deserved peace."
Marie sat down on her bed the tears she'd been keeping in since she'd woken up, finally flowing and thus ruining her make-up too. Both, Maya and Arachne sat down next to her and wrapped their arms around her for comfort.
She sniffed and wiped a tear away. "He... he deserved so much better than this."
"He died a hero", Arachne whispered. "He gave his life to save us and this island and now it's time for us to cheer that it's all over, though it may not be easy."
"But he doesn't get to see this end... he never gets to know if his death actually worked and that we are save, he..." Maya choked on her tears before she could finish.
"Wherever he is, he just has to have faith."
The women sat together in silence for what felt like an eternity, comforting each other and thinking about what they'd lost.

Two hours later Marie was standing at the beach close to where the house she grew up in used to be. Matt and her had dreamed of buying that house back and live in it, but that never happened now it was gone, had been withering away over the years like a rose. Everyone was there. People, Marie had never seen before, but they all were here to celebrate the lost lives.
Marie held the urn with his ashes tightly, scared to drop it before they could send him off properly. Arachne had suggested to cremate him, just in case so that Oro couldn't come back and they'd all agreed. Maya stood next to her, a hand on her shoulder and Skye held her other one. Arachne stood behind them, and so did Meowscles. They'd given Marie the honor to scatter his ashes, but she wasn't ready yet. As Arachne said, she might never be. None of them.
Carefully and hestitant, she opened the lid.
"I can't imagine what you had to go through the past few years, but you went through it because you had a good heart.I love you, little brother", Marie quietly whispered, and then she tilted it, her sight blurry from the tears. "Forever. I hope you can find your peace wherever you are... and tell mum I said hi."
Arachne squeezed her shoulder. "He'll be your guiding light from now on."
Just as the wind took him to the sea, it turned right around and some of the ashes hit them.
"Typical...", Arachne said, "even dead he doesn't want to leave."
"Shit, I got Midas in my eyes!", Drift yelled from behind and Marie couldn't help but crack a smile. She scraped the ashes off her jacket and held them tightly in her fist. Safely.

Maya POV
A dull feeling in her chest accompanied her ever since his death. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw his body lying on the floor, while Drift put the golden fleece on Hades to save that God from being trapped.
Sometimes she saw his dorky smile, that stayed even after Oro had started manipulating him. She tried to distract herself with good memories, tried to stay strong for Skye, who was having a hard time.
Drift wasn't doing much better. He barely cared about Midas and more about Lynx and Sunbird. Latter was alive when the fleece healed her, but she was dying in his arms, and there'd been no chance to save Lynx.
All of them were grieving. They were even grieving for Brutus and Rue, and the other four sacrifices without being able to identify them.
Now, they were going to a restaurant, because Arachne had this wild idea that they should celebrate death, so that Matt and the others would receive good treatment in the Underworld.
"Tonight", Arachne started and everyone listened when they were seated at a huge table, "we celebrate life and death. We celebrate a boy, who was destined for something big. A boy, who sacrificed his life to save us all. We celebrate the life of two young and innocent women, and we celebrate the lives of so many more who have recently passed. Let us not grieve. Let us share our good memories and have them go in peace. To Midas, Lynx, Sunbird..." Maya didn't listen anymore. Her mind drifted off again and she snapped out of it when Arachne was already finished. When she realized, that everyone was staring again, she sat straight. They wanted her to say something, at least that's what she thought.
"Most of you might know Matthew only as Midas", she began and took a deep breath. "But Marie and I knew him as Matthew, or sometimes even as door mat." Marie started laughing, which gave her some strength to make this speech. "I grew up in a fairly poor household and my only friend was this much older rich girl named Marie. We used to prank Matt as much as we could, until I had to move away when I was twelve. Years later, I came back and met the two again and... well, sooner or later I crushed on Matthew. I always said that I would never wanted to fall in love, because falling means getting injured. I wanted to rise with that special someone and back then I thought, Matt would be it. None of you know him as I do. None of you know the little scar on lips or the one on his stomach from when he was attacked by a dog once. You don't know how grumpy he was when he didn't have time to shower and you have no clue how bad his cooking skills were." Again, she took a deep breath. "The past seven years were the hardest ones for me, because I missed his dorky way of stumbling out of bed every morning and not being able to say a word until he had a good amount of caffeine flowing through his blood. I missed his smile and his way of looking at everything. He... he just made you see how the world could be, no matter how bad it was. He filled everyone with so much joy and, God, the energy this man had... " She had to smile thinking of that. "You never got to meet this side of him, but I want you to remember him like I did. Remember that everything he did was for love and that even when he was in danger, he chose our well-being over his own. That's the Matthew I loved, and that's how I want to remember him. That's why I want to tell his story. So... let's raise our cups to him and to all the others." Maya smiled and did as she said, and so did the others.
They were drinking and talking and putting smiles on each other's faces, until at some point, Skye pulled on Maya's shirt to get her attention.
"Maya... I know this isn't the right moment, but I don't know if I will ever find the right time to ask you this. I... I've been thinking for a long time, and since you practically raised me after I lost my memories..." she hestitated to continue, but Maya thought she knew where this was going and she definitely had the answer. "... I wanted to wait for a perfect moment, but nothing's ever perfect, so why not ask you now? Besides, according to that weird prophecy, apparently someone will find their mother." She pulled a tattered piece of paper out of her jacket and handed it over. "So... do you want to officially adopt me? I swear that I'll be a good kid!"
Maya nodded and pulled the girl in a hug. "I would love to adopt you, Skye." She smiled and held her tightly and for the first time in the past few days, her tears were out of pure happiness.