Grif takes him away but Rich isn't really with him. Yes, he's there physically, but mentally he's not on Azhol IV. His hands have clasped onto Grif's arm like its the only thing tethering him to reality, because...it is. It's the only thing that feels like it's from outside the world he's found himself back in.

His breathing comes out ragged, hard, panicked. His expression isn't blank, it's expressing what he felt then: a sort of distant, disconnected horror and fear. His eyes are glassy as he stares at nothing and his lips move just slightly, as if he's saying something, but no words come out.

No words could come out then, either, because you needed a throat for that. If asked, he wouldn't even remember what it was he was trying to say as he died back then. It wasn't really words, it was an errant last thought, probably pleading to a God that didn't exist, or calling for his mother, or the endless litany of "Why? Why? Why?" that was the background radiation of his entire existence in the Cancerverse.

He's stuck like that for a little while, shaking, clinging, lips repeating never-said words. It plays a few times in a row, the video. He watches his body fall away once, twice, three times -- a loop.