A/N: This is for my two main reviewers, and readers who have have this story fav'd or on alert. I hope it makes you smile the way it did to me while I wrote it.

He sighed, but still kept hold of her; he knew they would get back to this eventually.

"Yes… and no. For what I learned, or almost learned it was, but…" Tell me… please tell me, I need to know. That voice, her voice was back and now he was certain that she had not spoken this time. He took her hand now and led her back to sit on a petrified stump next to their camp light.

She let him lead her and sit her down, but something would not let her look up. Silly girl, now you get shy and sullen, she thought. She heard Asbel chuckle.

"You're not being silly or very sullen Nausicaa."

She did not have a moment to react before she felt his hand at her chin; lift her face up to meet his. He looked slightly pained.

"Nausicaa, I don't know if I'll ever be able to explain my reasoning behind leaving. The best I can say is that I truly thought it was for the best. For selfish reason I thought my people would do better if I was no longer there to make horrible decisions and put them in danger. Then when Yupa confronted me about the other prophecy, about the possibility that I could be put in a position of power, I saw my life coming full circle again and I could only see my mistakes and I did not want to risk that again. I felt like I needed to redeem myself, I needed some great task to do, like the old heroes in stories. I mulled over what to do, by then I had convinced myself that I could not be the companion the prophecy spoke of, and that is when it came to me. Now that I think of it, it seems ridiculous; I gave my self a quest. The only way I could do both at once was to leave and search for that person for you, search for anything I thought I could help. I sent myself out on a mission to find knowledge and hopefully with that knowledge the person who would help complete your destiny.

"I hypothesized that if Yupa had discovered this piece of forgotten lore, that there could be more, perhaps another hint of who the person would be or what you were to do and I felt that if I could find this for you I would be helping, perhaps making amends for past deeds and keeping myself from the temptations of destruction again.

"So, along with Yupa, we traveled the desert. He guided me with what little he had discovered and for months we found nothing and then slowly, mostly by strange luck, pieces started to fall together and that is how we found ourselves the … guests… of Ishtel. We were so close."

"To what?" Nausicaa was gazing at him, her eyes wide and full of concern and wonder.

Asbel laughed, "I'm not completely sure. I had discovered nothing more than that Ishtel was the keeper of many secrets. I had made contact in the city with people who knew things and because of that knowledge did not exist. They were going to help me get further into another ring of the city."

"Ring?"

"Ishtel is formed of seven concentric rings, each more heavily guarded than the last. Most of Ishtels citizens never go further in than the third ring, the fourth ring if they are incredibly high up, but from any rooftop you can see the inner-most ring, it is a giant sphere rising out of the ground, made of ceramic and metal, it's called the Citadel and they treat it as a holy place. My contact in Ishtel had reported that only the regent and those within her most inner circle were allowed passed the gate into the Citadel. The contact knew this because he had been a guard at that gate, until what he called the changing of the guard; apparently ever few years new guards are brought in and the old simply disappear, but he had paid attention and knew that they were not being retired into the country side as the rumor had it, with fertile land and hefty pensions, they were to be eradicated. So he disappeared, became like a ghosts, how he discovered me I'm not even sure, but he was ready to help me get further into the city. The next day, while waiting for him Yupa and we cornered, we thought were about to be killed, but rather were given a summons and escort to the fifth ring, to the residence of the Regent I'tenya.

"I'tenya knew everything and seemed interested in our ideas and even offered small bits of information, access to records, libraries. I did not like it and soon I realized that we were being used, there was something she thought we could do that they could not and she was waiting patiently until we did. I suppose we took too long for her and soon became prisoners, I was separated from Yupa and …it's not…. Nausicaa I can't tell you what happened in those months."

She reached out for his hand. "I know… not yet."

By now his breathing was coming heavy and his eyes had become glazed, he was looking at her, but past her. In the dim light she could see the sweat on his face.

"I don't know!" He shouted with such ferocity and grabbed at her arms. Nausicaa winced at the pain as his fingers dug into the muscle on her arms. "Let me out! Please! Let me out!"

"Asbel," though a part of her was panicked she kept her voice cool and steady. "Asbel I'm here. It is Nausicaa, we are in the cavern… we are safe."

His grip relaxed and his eyes refocused and a look of confusion spread over his face.

"You slipped away… it was like you returned to what ever happened to you."

"I'm sorry, Nausicaa, I…" He tried to remove his hold, but she caught his hands in hers and held them close to her chest, he could almost feel her heart beat. There were tears in her eyes.

"I wish I could have…that I could …" she began.

"Could have what? Saved me? No, with any luck I will keep you far away from Ishtel."

"No… I wish I could help."

"Nausicaa," he took her face squarely in his hands and made her meet his gaze, "you have no idea how just the thought of you helped… no, saved me. It was the thought of you that kept me going, kept me sane even through…. Everything I went through there. It was the memory of you that gave me the strength, the will to escape. I cannot describe what it took for me to leave you, though I thought it was the right thing to do and it was the thought of you that made me return.

"Nausicaa, when we escaped from Ishtel I thought to continue my journey, to stay away from the Valley, to continue my journey. I stupidly thought I had outwitted I'tenya and her denizens, but I was wrong. It did not take them long to catch up to us, though I think she enjoyed the chase we gave her until it bored her and she decided to strike. I knew too much and had to be destroyed, that is…. that is what she told me as she pushed her sword into my side. She is evil, she watched as her henchmen made me into a punching bag, until I wanted to die and even then she dangled the end in front of me like a child playing with a pet. When I awoke the next day, I realized that she truly wanted to prolong my suffering; I knew I was dying, but I knew it would not come quickly. I recognized the mark she had left on me, something I had seen in Ishtel, poison. Some sort of horrid concoction made from the jungle poisons, meant to prolong your life just long enough to prolong the suffering. So, thinking I was not long for the world, that I could not do much more damage to it, I asked Yupa to return to the Valley, keeping it from him just how near the end I was.

He took back one of her hands and brought it close to his face, she feel the warmth of his breath on her finger tips. "I convinced myself that I was returning to set things right, to tell you of what I knew and ask your permission, to do my final duty." He raised her hand to his face, without the realization of what he had done and leaned his face into her palm. "But when I saw you in the clearing, so strong, fierce and beautiful," his other hand was tracing the lines of her face, down her cheek, the line of her and briefly traced the outline of her lips. "I knew I had lied to myself… I had not returned out of a sense of righteousness or duty, but rather for one last selfish reason. I returned for you."

He pulled her into him, into a kiss that was both shy and fierce, a kiss which tasted of salt tears and neither knew whose. Asbels hands moved through her hair in one moment and then gripped tightly, but gently at the back her head as if trying to keep her close, though Nausicaa had no thoughts of pulling away. Eventually the kiss stopped both slightly out of breath, hands at each others faces, eyes meeting.

"I came back to see you one more time, so that I could die happy, I was ready to die and," he chuckled, " you wouldn't let me."

Nausicaa nibbled on her lower lip absentmindedly, but kept his gaze and spoke gently, "I wasn't going to loose you again. You say you left to do right by me, but all I could think of was that you had fled from me, that I had done some horrible wrong and I wanted to redeem myself of whatever that I was. You broke my heart when you left and I wanted to fix it."

"What a selfish pair we have turned out to be. We are supposed to be saving the world."

He drew her into another kiss, which was warmly reciprocated and bundled her into his arms and so they sat, wrapped in each other as the darkness over took the cavern, trading kisses and small words as sleep overtook them. He held her as she nestled at his side, sliding into sleep, kissing the top of her head gentle, as he had weeks before and let out a long relaxed sigh, the which made her stir slightly and she reached out an arm across him. As he softly stroked her arm which rested on his chest he smiled and whispered to her. "It was the dream of a moment like this that kept me going for so long and it was because of the hope of remembering that dream that I came back. Perhaps I'm starting to make wise choices after all." Asbel closed his eyes and surrendered to sleep, but before hear Nausicaa's voice clearly.

It's because of you that I came back, too.

A/N: Perhaps a few of my readers might also be thinking what I was as I finally got to this point in the story... "FINALLY"... it made me very happy to write these last few paragraphs.

Read and Respond!! Please.

A new chapter soon, I promise, but I do write faster when I get responses!! Coming up next answers, battles, romance, a crazy lady, a mysterious city and some jokes about Asbel's hat.