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 Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2025 10:00 am
His hands hadn't stopped shaking since he woke up in that small pile of rubble. Much in the same way the nightmares hadn't stopped dogging him. Flashing faces in contorted expressions of anguish, their screams muted against a backdrop of deep darkness. They never repeated. Not a single one.
He'd been having the same nightmare for weeks.
His focus had become shaky at best, and sleep was all but lost to him by now. When it started, all it took was a few days of unsteadiness at work to force him to finally go home for longer than one night in a whole week for once. To Seren. Those first few nights, things had relented and he was able to ease into some semblance of a restful slumber. A few hours each night only, but it was better than next to nothing.
The nightmares came back with a vengeance, though. Between his dreams and his waking hours, images he couldn't unsee. Memories he couldn't forget. Faces, forever burned into his mind's eye.
The shakiness showed in his penmanship, but that was the least of his concerns. He stared hard at the relatively neat scrawl, brows furrowing near permanent lines in the space between them. The message was brief, just the address of their old apartment complex, the word "rooftop" and a time–10PM. It carried little warmth as far as notes between lovers went, though he struggled with even that. Whether he was deserving of her considering the past several years, what he must have put her through, he had no idea. His feelings had never changed, but there was little doubt that he had, and for the worse.
Maybe this would be the nail in the coffin for them. What ended them.
Maybe if she saw, she'd connect enough dots, and...
Nate heaved a sigh and set the note down on the coffee table, beneath a small bouquet of roses, cutting the thoughts short as he forced himself up off of the couch and out the door.
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Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2025 10:01 am
Seren had been initially delighted to see Nate coming home and even staying home for several days... Excited, happy, and a little self-hating because part of her wondered if she was just deluding herself that he loved her anymore. What if she was just a convenience these days? Someone to take care of his Remy (And that boy had been so ecstatic too), to make delicious food for him when he was there, and for... Um. Release... But nothing more to him? But he had been there, and he had held her at night, though she had noticed his sleep was nowhere near what it should be, and she had shoved her worried and fears under the rug, giving him love and attention, trying to remind him she adored him, and would never stop loving him.
She noticed the nightmares, though, and the hand shaking. She wanted to ask what had happened, but after the past couple years, and his evasiveness, rare presence... She was afraid to push, afraid he'd get mad and leave. That it might be the thing that made him decide she was not worth the time anymore.
She hated how much she had reverted to fear, in this relationship. But she loved him like no one else... And she was positive he was not cheating, and he had never ever hit her or caused her harm, so... She had held on, hoping something would change, that he would come back to her, to the way they had been before. And this situation had shown her that he still seemed to care, so that was wonderful news! And so she had done her best to be at home when she could, to maximize their time together. She wished this had happened during a break, so she could do more work from home, but it was the school year, and she was needed on-site... She was so close to her Doctoral thesis, and between that and her teaching job, she had to spend a lot of time on campus.
She came home tonight, excited at the thought of seeing him, and walked in, laughing and giving Remy pets... Then stopped, looking around. He was not there. Maybe he went to the store? She was about to call, when she saw the roses. A small smile graced her face and she grabbed a vase, filled it with water, and then picked them up to put them in the water... She'd trim the ends later. As she did, she saw the note, so she set the vase down in the middle of the table, and read what he had left.
Her eyes looked confused. She knew WHERE he was asking her to meet... And she kind of thought meeting where they had first met was sweet, but why the ROOF? They had never gone up there... And also, why so late? He usually worried if she was out that late. It was very strange... But still. She bit her lip, thinking, then sighed and changed into warmer clothes. It would be chilly there, that late. She took a nap, fed Remy... And then left with enough time to get there, and find her way up to the roof.
She emerged up onto it, softly calling out "Nate? Babe?", as she looked around.
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Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2025 10:01 am
Nate spent the better part of the time waiting going through his life up to that point. How he'd joined the Negaverse, and his life both as an agent as well as a civilian away from it. The earlier years had been spent circling around his responsibilities as an agent, focusing on his life with Seren and in the world outside of the Negaverse. Those had certainly been better times, but until a certain point he'd never regretted joining up.
Then again, it wasn't like he'd been given much of a choice, either. But he made the best of it, and it'd worked.
Until it didn't.
He couldn't remember when he changed. Or how, really. He'd always drawn a line in his work as an agent, and then at some point he just...crossed it. Somehow. The details got hazy, no matter how hard he tried to focus on it. He'd met with his General in the Rift somewhere, and then...
The man heaved a sigh and went over it all again, and again, and again until he heard the door to the rooftop creak open.
He was sitting on the far end of the rooftop, in line of sight of the doorway but facing away from it. He didn't want her to know that he knew she would see him. He moved to stand, clearing his throat to make doubly sure that she would turn to face him if she wasn't already.
And then he closed his eyes and willed his power to him.
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Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2025 10:02 am
Seren turned to face him when she heard him clear his throat, and opened her mouth to greet him... But he was not even looking at her, as far as she could tell, and.
Oh. Oh ********. Oh ******** no. He was changing. And he was. He was THAT Agent, the one she'd fought repeatedly, helped but had such anger towards. She froze, watching him, beginning to tremble as a soft "OH... Oh... No. Nate... Why? Not you... Not you..." Escaped her, then she ran back inside, the door slamming behind her as she moved. She kept running, down the stairs, heading for the car again.
Once she got there, she drove home as fast as she could. She ran inside, grabbed a bag and filled it with clothes and other supplies, grabbed Remy and fled, heading for a pet friendly hotel nearby... She was not even considering Dai's, because Nate knew where he was and she needed. Needed to hide. This was everything she ever feared, and she had no idea how to handle it.
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Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2025 10:03 am
General Carminite felt his chest wrench at the sound of the door slamming however many seconds later.
She'd seen.
Good.
He considered things for a long moment. What was going through her mind, what her next steps were. Glancing down, he watched their car head off down the street to he could only guess where. Home, most probably. He didn't really want to go home just yet. He wasn't sure he was ready for what he would find.
Or what he wouldn't.
He frowned at that, and then disappeared.
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