Episode: 6.10

--- Tempest ---

---(Present Day)---

As the black mist began to clear she caught sight of a figure, one wearing a black hooded jacket with a sword in hand, and a very familiar insignia of a knight with their sword raised in front of them, and a dark beast behind them, on the back of their jacket.

(It can’t be…)

She stumbled at the sight of the familiar figure, one of her hands reaching out to him on its own.

The figure turned around, revealing a pale face under a dark hood, wearing a white wolf like half-mask over the top half of his face, and two star-like pupils cutting through the darkness of his eyes.

“Ariel?” She asked almost breathlessly, praying that this wasn’t some delayed hallucination from the Jawless’s water.

And as her partner gave her that same mischievous grin he had almost every time she saw him, something in her broke as tears poured from her eyes.

“Been a while Temp-y.”

She didn’t even hesitate to rush at her best friend.

And Ariel didn’t hesitate to catch her mid-glomp, before spinning on his heel to bleed off the momentum of her overpowered (and-possibly-lethal-to-a-normal-person) hug, before setting her on the ground at arm’s length.

He tilted his head with a cocky grin that she never failed to be annoyed with, (or miss.) “Missed me, huh?”

“Yes.” She admitted without a lick of shame, nor without missing the slight grimace he quickly beat into submission.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Yeah… sorry, about… that…” Her knight trailed awkwardly, unable to meet her eyes.

Part of her wanted to rant and rave about how easy it would’ve been to call, email, or even send her a letter. The other was fully aware of the fact that it’d taken her four months of waiting to realize Sanctuary was monitoring all of her Mask-to-public accounts and would probably hunt him down at the first sign of him trying to contact her.

“Don’t worry about it.” She waved his apology off. “We have plenty of time to talk now that you’re back.”

Even with her empath powers getting wonky when focused on Ariel, she was able to immediately notice the way he grimaced at that, and she even more immediately slipped a Tracker-dream on him, one she happily spent a fairly large chunk of her resources to give it an extremely long-range tracking upgrade. (Just in case.)

“Yeah, I-” Ariel cut himself off his head tilting to the side as his gaze went blank, a sign he was focusing on something she couldn’t hear. “Damn it, Sanctuary ‘s almost here…”

She tensed, her eyes darting around at the carnage and the destruction the Creeps had caused during their encounter, as she realized they weren’t in the best place to try and catch up.

“I have to go. I-” Ariel tried to take a step away, but she held onto his arm with a grip that could shatter reality.

“Don’t go.” She had absolutely zero issue with how weak her voice sounded, because remembering what that first year was like…

(The hell of constantly worrying if someone was going to announce the collection of her partner’s Kill Warrant…)

(The hell of losing her best friend when she was all alone…)

(The hell of regret that made up so many of those early days…)

She had no problem confessing how much all of that hurt her, if it meant she didn’t have to go through it again.

Ariel opened his mouth to say something, before closing it as his features softened. “I won’t…”

“You promise?”

“Knight’s honor.” He nodded, raising his free hand.

She was going to say something, but the faint sound of Sanctuary sirens finally reached her.

Ariel glanced in the direction of the sirens, his soft pupils immediately sharpening into pinpricks, before growing as he turned back to her and gently pulled his hand from hers. “Look I really have to go now, but… meet me at the usual place… at the usual time.” He added taking half a step away, but not willing to leave without her permission.

She wanted him to stay, regardless of Sanctuary. Hell, she’d burn them all before she let them hurt him again…

“Alright, the usual place, the usual time.” She nodded, hoping she wouldn’t regret it.