Aeon gasped as she opened her eyes and reached for her blade on her hip, but it wasn't there. She tried to sit up, but someone had a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back down gently.
"I don't know what the hell that was, but it was amazing." Liam grinned.
Aeon couldn't find anything to say. Liam was sitting in front of her, smiling. He had a few scrapes across his face, but he was alive. She threw her arms around him. "Liam!" she cried.
He hugged her back with the same intensity. "Hello, Aeon." He couldn't stop smiling.
"You're alive," Aeon could feel herself crying, but she didn't care. She had her husband in her arms again.
"Apparently so." He had so much to tell her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. His guilt was too much to bear.
"I thought you were dead all these years." She kissed his cheek and his eyelids. "I'm so happy to see you." She ran her fingers over his face, making sure this wasn't some terrible nightmare.
"I know." He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her fingers. He realized the last time her saw her, she was dying, bloodied, and in unbearable pain. The Lord Marshall had indeed fulfilled his part of the bargain. Happily, Aeon kissed him vigorously, not wanting to let go. Sadly, Liam had to pull away. He couldn't face her being what he was and feeling guilty because of his betrayal.
Aeon took the time to observe his appearance. He had changed over these five years. "Liam, where have you been all these years? Why didn't you contact me?" she looked around her surroundings. "And where are we?" All she could remember was a comet coming to the planet Argon and the people were panicking. "What's going on? I can't remember anything."
"That would be my fault. I used the last of my abilities to stop your rampage."
"Rampage? What are you talking about?"
"You killed a lot of people. You used powers I didn't even know you had."
Aeon racked her brain for those memories, but she couldn't find them.
Liam noticed her confusion and sighed. He would have to explain everything to her. "You're aboard a Necromonger ship; actually you're inside Necropolis, the city that holds all the Necromongers and the throne of the Lord Marshalls."
Aeon's eyes widened. "What! We have to get out of here," she got up from the bed, but Liam took her arm.
"We can't. I can't." Liam looked away from her.
"And why the hell not?"
He couldn't bring himself to tell her, so he pulled down his collar to reveal the mark of the Necromongers, ashamedly.
"No." she shook her head. "I'm dreaming, I must be dreaming." She hit the sides of her head as if she were trying to make herself wake up. "This isn't true."
Liam took her hands away from her head and forced himself to look into her teary eyes. "Aeon, you're not dreaming. It's true, I have converted."
"Why!" she cried. "How could you betray me this way?" she tore her hands away from him.
He didn't have an answer, except the truth. But he didn't think she would believe him if he told her.
"Look what they've done to you," she ran her fingers over the scars. "What happened to you?"
"You won't believe me."
"Then explain it to me! I thought you to be dead for five years! I was alone for five years! I was left to heal this," she pulled up her shirt to reveal the scar on her lower abdomen. Liam looked away in shame and went to stand by the window. That scar brought back too many bad memories. Aeon, regaining her calm, went over and buried her head into his chest. "Liam, give me any explanation as to why you died instead of me? I don't care what it is."
"I did it to save you from death and this fate." He finally spoke. "But my sacrifice was for nothing. Death is mercy compared to this. They won't kill you. The Lord Marshall has ordered your conversion already."
"I told you my answer to that earlier." She smirked.
"I know. But there's no chance he'll allow you to be killed." He wanted to say more, but she silenced his words with another kiss on his lips. But this time, it was more of longing. He deepened the kiss and cupped her cheek with his hand. Aeon's hands slid up his body and rested on top of the Furian mark on his chest. She pulled away for air and opened her eyes to look at him. "I definitely missed those." She grinned.
"I agree." He replied with his eyes still closed. She sighed inwardly and kissed his cheek lovingly. She wrapped her arms around his torso, her face lying sideways on his chest. She wanted more than anything to be with him again, even if it meant converting. But only of her own accord, she was tired of people telling her what she could or could not do. She was Furian and a fire Elemental, she chose her own fate. "If this is the only way I can be with you, so be it." She whispered. Using her newly found psychic abilities; she put him in a state of sleep. He dropped soundlessly to the floor. She crouched down to place a strand of his faded hair behind his ear. "I won't lose you to them. If I have to convert to keep you with me, then I'll die a thousand deaths." She said before lovingly kissing his forehead.