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For a week KD did not go out. She did not answer her phone. She did poorly in school, even in her art classes. She did not answer her texts. In fact she pretty much shut down in all of her usual bubbly activity. Even her parents noticed, which she passed off as a bug, hoping they would keep her from school because she did not want to leave the house. They did not take the hint and, without symptoms to accompany her complaints, she went straight to school and back and didn’t dare power up.

Her dreams were haunted by the sound of Painite’s spear clashing against Camelot’s shield over her head. When she squeezed her eyes closed she could see the murderous look in the General’s eyes for no other reason than she was a knight. She woke thrashing in a cold sweat in the night, reliving the scene over and over in her head with the wound on her shoulder paining her. It was a struggle to go back to sleep on those nights. Often she would lay awake staring at the ceiling and wishing she could forget everything that happened to her.

She told him once that this new powered life was not worth dying for. Putting that theory into practice scared the hell out of her. She had almost died for this cause. Someone had almost killed her.

Her text was simple, after a week of silence.

“Our spot. Tonight.”

Arias was used to at least a text or two from KD, something small or random, even. That he hadn't heard nothing had made him a little nervous, but he played it off as his paranoia. She was a young woman, she was fine—probably out partying or busy with school or something.

And then he got the text.

His fingers had moved deftly across the screen; there was no hesitation. "I'll be there."

And he was.

The moment the sun dipped below the horizon, he was powered up and pacing in the same grove they'd met in. He knew he was waiting for a powered energy signature but every crunch of twigs or rustle of leaves left him jittery. Something didn't feel right; he needed to see her. He needed to make sure everything was okay.

He needed to make sure she was okay.

Caydence stumbled toward their spot with her arms wrapped around her. She didn’t dare power up, afraid of what trouble that would bring. Any signature, good or bad, made her stomach churn. There were tears in her eyes already, and she couldn’t shake the fear up her spine. Every noise scared her and made her jump and she silently cursed meeting him so far from home.

But once he came into view it was worth it. She ran toward him and threw her arms around his shoulders, pressing her face to his tunic and cried, cried hard, in a way she hadn’t been able to since her near miss.

“Arias…” she sobbed.

Her hands balled on his shirt and for a long while she didn’t speak, she just cried and listened to the steady hum of his heartbeat beneath her ear. It was reassurance that he was alive and so was she.

After a long time of crying, and an even longer silence, she pulled her red face out of his tunic

“Painite almost killed me.”

Newgrange wrapped his arms around her tightly; he had been alarmed when he saw her face but he was more so now that she was pressed against him, sobbing. It was instinctive to hold her closely, and he would have told her that he would protect her, that everything would be okay—if Painite's name hadn't made him freeze.

He knew her. Or, a shade of her.

Some strange, dream-like, future shade that damaged him in a way he hadn't recovered from.

Even now, in a timeline where he'd never come face to face with her, she haunted his dreams.

And now she had gotten to Caydence.

He didn't ask if she was okay; he could see very clearly that she wasn't. When the initial shock wore down, he just pulled her closer and made sure he kept both arms wrapped tightly against her.

When she was ready to pull away, he just reached a glove hand down to brush at her tear-stained cheeks. "It's all right, I've got you. I won't let her hurt you." Not without going through him, first. It was a bold, fierce promise; his voice softened only when, after a pause, he asked, "What happened?"

It wasn't out of morbid curiosity; it was out of desperation. He could see Caydence in front of him, but he needed to know that she had been okay. He needed to know what sort of Chaos Painite had tried to unleash on her so he could repay her tenfold.

There was no excusing anything she had done to Caydence. Not his Caydence.

It was hard for her to keep from crying. The more she thought about it the more it shook her down to her core. She didn’t remember Painite from the future, only a vague recollection that in that dream she would lose him, and that was worse than death.

“She’s crazy,” KD wrapped her arms around her slight body and hugged herself, along with him, not able to get warm enough despite the early summer night. “I didn’t say anything to her. I was just there. And then...her spear…”

For the hundredth time she heard Painite saying goodbye in that cruel voice of hers and she watched the deadly spear raised over her head. Her heart started thumping wildly, despite being away from that time in place. She closed her eyes and remembered thinking of her family, of him, of Westley: all the people she held dear. She had all but said goodbye to them when she heard the spear scrape against Camelot’s shield.

That she explained slowly, quietly, to her companion.

“I just kept thinking I didn’t want to leave you. I’m so scared, Arias. I can’t get out of bed. I don’t sleep. I don’t recognize anything anymore.”

And now that that had happened she wasn’t sure what to do now. Even with him there she still couldn’t bring herself to power up.

"She's not here now," Newgrange said quickly, pulling her close again. "She's just a nightmare. The more you think about her, the worse she'll get. She's a monster, nothing more. She'll feed on your fear and use it to hurt you. It'll be okay, things will go back to normal. It might take a little time, but it's not going to be like this forever. You're a strong girl, I know you can overcome this. You can overcome anything."

He truly believed she could, but…

"—KD, your heart is pounding, do you need to sit down?" he asked; he wasn't going to let her go, but he wanted her to be as comfortable as possible.

"If you need, I can power down, we can go back to my place. If you need a safe place to stay—now or ever—my place is yours. Anything you need, just say the word."

She didn't deserve this. She didn't want to do anything but keep the ones she cared about safe, and the Negaverse—Painite—had no right to do this. KD had so much life in her; to see her like this…

It hurt.

It hurt worse than anything Painite could ever do to him, now or in the future.

He wouldn't rest until KD could.

At his suggestion KD forced herself to sit down on a nearby boulder, shivering in a breeze that wasn’t blowing. Her eyes kept darting wildly around her, starting at every noise as promised. She knew nothing was going to harm her, not with him there in the clearing with her, but she just couldn’t help herself.

“She’s a nightmare.” she repeated, as if repeating would make her believe it.

She wanted to believe it, more than anything. This was senseless, a war to die in that she hadn’t asked for. She needed his help. When he made his offer she was quick to jump on it. The idea of not being alone in the night, of having someone to talk to that would understand, sounded better than being at home. Her parents were awfully liberal in their way of parenting in a lot of respects. They trusted her. But somehow she imagined that knowing she went out on a regular basis to fight evil and had nearly died doing it was probably not going to go over well.

“Could we?”

She looked up at him. Spending a few nights with him made KD feel the first flutter of hope she’d felt in a week.

She was a nightmare, and Newgrange wished she was nothing more than that. He wished she wasn't a very real threat, and he wished she never existed.

Of all his wishes, though, he just wished she wasn't hurting anyone.

He flashed a quick smile and powered down almost immediately; he wouldn’t go near his place powered if he could help it. He absolutely did not want to be followed; more than them finding him, he didn't want them to find KD—or find their way to Carlee.

Arias wrapped his arm around her and just held her close. "Absolutely, KD. My house is yours. I don't care what happens, if you ever need a place to crash or need some company, you come over. I'll get you a copy of my key in case there's ever an emergency. I want you to have a safe place you can go to, no matter what. No questions asked. —Well," he faltered and looked at her. "I can't promise no questions. I'm nosey and worry about you, KD, so I'll probably ask you a million questions so I can do whatever I can to make sure you're okay. But if you need space, you can have it. All of it. And my bed. So, come on, let's get on home. I'll make you some hot chocolate and we can talk—or watch Disney movies on the couch until we fall asleep, or both. I can take time off of work, or you can come help me in the Bakery if you just want company."

There was still that worry in his voice, and he was still holding her closely; he was an open book when it came to his overprotective emotions about her, but she was family to him and he wasn't going to sit by and let her suffer alone.

KD seemed to relax as soon as he powered down, that beacon no longer visible to the rest of the powered world. They were more or less invisible now, unless a Nega happened upon them as civilians and she really, really hoped that wouldn’t happen. She wrapped her arms around him again, plain, reliable Arias and took comfort in the fact that he was there, and that he cared for her.

The next few days spent in Disney movies and at the bakery with him seemed like heaven. She could forge her own note to school if she needed to. Some things were more important.

“I love you, Arias,” she said sincerely, knowing beyond a doubt that it was true. He was family to her, just as important as that. “Thank you.”

She followed him from their spot toward his house and stayed close to him, drawing strength from his presence. If she had to be in this war it was nice to know she was never alone and she probably wouldn’t be out patrolling by herself for a very long time.