How did it always end up like this? Why did it feel like everyone knew her Shawn better than she did? She knew he loved her. She could always see it in his eyes. In the way he always deferred to her. Even when he stepped in to take action, he always did it to help her shine. Always playing the stage hand, even when they were kids. He was a better actor than many of the leads she had played opposite, but he always preferred to work behind the stage. To watch every one else shine. Even when he reworked scripts it was to help each actor understand and deliver their lines better. She can’t remember the day she stopped giving people even stage kisses for the crowd. But only because every time, she could only think of how it would make Shawn feel.

  She couldn’t help but be jealous over him. That lingering gaze. His soft smile. The way he would give her anything she would ask for, even when he didn’t have to. She began to feel so bad about it that she stopped asking at all. She couldn’t help but be content with every crumb of attention. To show him the same consideration he had shown her. And yet...

  Gina punched the purple figure and growled, “And who the hell are you?!”

  The intruder laughed softly, “I see why he likes you. That said, I am simply someone who takes my promises as seriously as he does. And for now that means keeping you two alive.” She had been told about this before. She knew who was behind this mask from Shawn’s many stories. The doctor Shawn had called Sienna Colt. A woman who had promised she would always be there to stitch him back together.

  Realizing how long she had been quiet, she laughed with nervous dismissal and spoke on reflex, “Shawn wouldn’t kill us… right?” She looked at the shadowy figure that had taken his place, her heart aching at the sight.

  The Phoenix Emperor cannot be cowed so easily. Ease your heart, Partner.

  “I think Gina is right.” Gina felt hear heart skip at the words. She looked at Anisa’s pale and anxious expression as she spoke, “Look at him. Watch as he decimates these threats with lethal blows. Outright and without hesitation. But Gina…” She reflected on Anisa’s point and felt it settle into her gut as she pushed down her tears.

  He is grieving, isn’t he? You and I know how best to wake him from that. The same way we always have.

  Gina watched Shawn’s actions for what they were. A man forced to act out what he had been doing in his head for as long as she had known him. The man under the desperate smile. The one who had done all he could to hide these shadows from her. For the first time, the full scope of his pain was on display, and all he could do was try to push it back down through raw force. “But you said he couldn’t see me…”

  He is grieving beyond reason and wisdom. Only you know that pain. Only we have faced it before and ripped happiness from its core. He needs someone to remind him. To ground him. To be seen. Let’s remind him, Partner. Let’s make him see us.

  Gina allowed her partner to catch her and as their combined will converted the grief into motivating outrage she let out a growl, “You… you said you would keep us alive. That why you are hiding up here? Not going to fight for him?”

  “I AM a doctor first and foremost.”

  She could see it now. That she wasn’t the only one who knew how stubborn Shawn was about carrying the world alone. How he would rather die trying the impossible than to see a single tear on the face of those he cared for. Based on what Shawn had taught her on how the crystals worked, this woman’s purple and gold would mean she could do cross resonance. And yet she was playing support.

  No one loves him like we do. No one else will let his heart bleed. No one else will break that armor and force him to face himself. That’s why he loves me. He doesn’t need a doctor. He doesn’t need a visitor. He needs someone who will force him to step out of the shadows and welcome the larger world.

  Pandina spat out her next words, “Then I’m going down there. Keep me patched up. I’m going to beat some sense into him until his body coughs out that stupid rock and I can get my Shawn back.” She didn’t bother looking at Anisa. She had seen the paling of her face. Anisa was having a flashback to the world Shawn had undone. She hadn’t understood how wonderful he was. He gave up so much to give them all a chance to decide how the story ends. And now she was going to give him the same.

  She landed across from the shadow of the man she loved and allowed her grief to convert to outrage. “You!” The figure tried to ignore her, but she could see it pause in its steps. As if Shawn was pulling weakly at the reigns of his own body. She saw it turn. An empty shell haunted by grief… and yet in the fires of its visor, she could feel him. The raging fire that she had fallen for time and time again. She pointed dramatically and said without hesitation or doubt, “You are wasting your time fighting shadows, Shawn! Lost in moments that no longer are! I won’t let you lose to something as weak as doubt when victory is right here!” And for the first time in all of time, she allowed herself to say it to his face. “I… won’t let the man I love torture himself when he is so close the future he has fought to protect!” She watched the figure twitch before it slowly looked at her. Not past her or around her as it had been doing. She felt the ambiguous gaze begin to process her for the first time.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  This… This is what I offer. I am the only one who won’t let him run from this. The only one that won’t let him run from himself.

  She shouted again, with more conviction than before, “I love you, Shawn! And If I have to kick your ass to remind you of that-” He closed the distance faster than she was expecting, but he had trained her for this. Falling backwards with intent and digging her two chitinous heels into his gut with an inhumanly strong kick. He had told her that he would travel quite a distance from that. His exact guess was thirty feet. Instead she was able to launch him forty feet, but it felt wrong. When he impacted with the nearby building it wasn’t like a man being hit. This was a puppet. An automaton. She advanced to close the distance and saw him aiming a powerful haymaker. Something that if it made contact would end her. If he pulled it, it at least would have knocked her out clean, but she knew his solution for that too. Stupid as it was and as much as it would hurt, she met his strike with one of her own at full power. Her chitin on her knuckles cracked from the force of the strike and as she watched the puppet recoil from the impact, she watched it turn with the impact to go into a left legged half moon kick which she responded to with a picture perfect roundhouse kick that intercepted it, her armor plating cracking as she did so.

  This is why… This is the line he always runs. The redline between life and death. How much damage is too much damage? How long before he has to lower the force just to prevent a lethal strike at the moment my body gives out? And yet, here I am, fighting an empty shell divided from the soul that refines his art. That tempers his strikes. How long before it fails to compensate in time? How long before this zombie of the man I love fails to pivot in just the right moment to spare my life?

  It doesn’t matter even if he did. I can’t. I won’t let him torture himself. I’ll crack his skull myself if I have to. I won’t let him give up on himself or the world he gave up everything to save. If he can break his limits for us, I sure as hell won’t stop! I can’t! I won’t!

  Pandina fought hard against this shadow of Shawn. Every strike made her bones rattle and her plates crack from the force. Each one would have put her down if it had connected. Each one was designed to force her to back off. Each blow was grief weaponized into an unstoppable force. And with each interception, she could feel both the armor on her body and the armor of her soul begin to crack. She could see the fire behind the visor burn brighter and brighter, but she wasn’t sure it was true progress. As the tearlike lines around his eyes increased in number, she couldn’t tell if she was breaking him out of his grief or simply fueling it.

  It was only when she saw Zora drop down and deflect one of the blows with a grapple that she felt her concentration break. She had been so lost in the broken dance between her and the man she loved that her next step came as a surprise. Her bones screamed at her louder than her muscles, which had all gone numb some time ago. She saw the various bits of natural armor plating that had fallen away and exposed raw nerves that she hadn’t felt due to the adrenaline. As she felt her world beginning to fade to white, Sienna came to her side.

  As the doctor’s hand shone gold, she noticed a green gem that was being stored discreetly in the palm of her glove. Pandina asked curiously, “So, you saved the replica of Shawn? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you would want a cheap copy of him for yourself.”

  Sienna laughed within her helmet, “That’s… complicated. But the real reason is that he would never have forgiven himself for killing a true brother. Not to mention I needed Cyrus’ help resolving another problem.” As the golden energy from Sienna formed a thread that quickly repaired the damage to Pandina’s body, the crystal shone with an emerald light before the damage that had once ravaged Pandina’s body was reversed.

  Gina stood and watched as Zora confronted the shadow of the man she loved and she asked softly, “Did he hear me?”

  Sienna laughed gently, “In my experience, he listens better while he pretends he can’t hear us.” Gina found some relief in this, only for the woman’s next words to strike her core with an unexpected concept, “I actually need your help. Shawn is in trouble and we can save him. I just need you and your partner to hear me out.”

  Gina hesitated. She didn’t like that this woman would try to bond with her Shawn like this. That she would act like she understood him as well as she did. This woman wasn’t even hiding that she was trying to have Shawn for herself. And yet…

  Shawn trusts her. If he had wanted her, he wouldn’t have helped us. No one knows how you feel better than me, Partner. But she isn’t an enemy or a rival. She might be the one friend we truly have.

  “Only because Shawn trusts you with his life. But if I don’t like what you have to say, I’m going to break your teeth in.”

  Good. I’m proud of you, Partner.