I told her I'm not going to run away

But let me go

My soul is awry

Without asking why

I said 'te amo'

Wish somebody'd tell me what she said

Doesn't it mean I love you

Think it means I love you.

Rihanna – Te Amo

Ending – Redemption

Scarlet simply continued to stare back at the Pirate King with no threat of emotion flickering across her face. She felt her heart beat irregularly against her tightening chest with guilt.

'So, he finally figured it out…'

Sudden aggression burst forth from deep within Reaver and he spat at the noblewoman to leave them without breaking eye contract with Scarlet's cherry orbs.

Tension crackled in the air with the intensity of a coming storm but still neither spoke nor looked away. Torn somewhere between disgusted and heartbroken, Reaver felt his ready hands flex towards the Dragonstomper .48 that had been resting in its usual holster on his thigh. He cocked the gun and pointed it at Scarlet's unmoving head.

Reaver had expected to see a reaction of any sort pass through Scarlet, but still she remained a statue. Many questions begging for answers swarmed with such passion in his mind that he swore he could see them dance before his vision.

Finally, a singular word formed on his lips that was simplistic yet wielded great meaning.

"Why?"

Now it was clear to him, her lack of curiosity in the region they had fled to, her declaration that she had actually already visited the forgotten and perturbing hamlet and her appearance. Dressed in the colours of the clouds in the sky, this woman had clouded his judgements before raining down upon him, throwing back in his face everything that he had done for her.

Why had he done so much for her? He was sure he had cared for her, but the notion of love seemed too farfetched in his discombobulated state.

Why was he angry with her? Hadn't he himself continued in such a way to purge his guilt with an extravagant lifestyle? How could he now blame her for feeling and subsequently acting in such a fashion that he had tried to wear as a mask?

Reaver lowered his gun and looked for the second time since the fleeing from Bowerstone like a defeated man. He was far too confused to process anything through his wearisome and handsome head.

"I'm sorry."

The shock apology from Scarlet opened a flood of emotion that neither realised that they had been holding back.

She had always acted so indifferent towards him, when he had tried to seduce her he had failed and it was then she who had seduced him. It was her that needed rescuing and it was he who had obliged and it was even he who had served her when she had sat upon her tyrannical throne, filling the royal coffers and standing attention to her every need.

Yet it began to dawn on Reaver that she had actually saved him. They were the same.

Slumping his shoulders, the conquered man submitted to his evil mistress. Scarlet snaked his arms around his being, pulling him closer to her heavenly form in her surreal and exquisite dress. When her face was out of Reaver's view, Scarlet let forth enough tears to drown the fires of Skorm's hell that she had been holding back since she was a lonely child that was only comforted by listening to the great adventures as retold from a handsome and noble pirate in the castle's gardens, although he could probably barely remember.

He was hers as she was his and it had always inevitably been that way.

As the two immortals and last Heroes of Albion intertwined their destinies with the continuing single embrace, Reaver could be heard saying that he loved her as she secretly savoured the broken and eternal life force within the Pirate King before uttering the words back to him.

Doomed in an uncommon romance, Scarlet and Reaver fought back each other's pasts as they accepted their own fates as misunderstood monsters who would spend eternity fleeing their punishment from the Gods together.