They were standing, silent and unmoving, in the small, dark temple. The flickering lights of the everburning fire were drawing golden shadows on their faces and hands, while their black clothes seemed to be oddly melting within the surrounding shadows. He was taller than her, tall, strong and muscular, his arm tenderly passed around her narrow shoulders; standing next to him, her frail, thin silhouette was looking as if the slightest blow of wind would simply break her, and the expression of deep melancholy crossing her face from time to time would only reinforce this feeling.
It had been four months that she had last set foot into the temple in Sabulum, where she had cried for hours, and recorded the datadisk that would change her life again. She could remember it so clearly... walking in, letting her hand slide on the dusty altar, then sitting with her back to it, giving up to the sobs, before recording the message in a trembling voice. A whim, a forlorn hope, a secret wish doomed to never been granted. And yet it had been. Malcom had come back. Malcom had found her last cry of love, and recognized it for what it was. For the very first time in her existence, a fairytale had finally become a reality for Jen, and she had embraced it whole, unable to reject it, unable this time to let her reason dictate her actions. She didn't regret it. In spite of the oddity, and perhaps also the stupidity, of her actions on that day, she couldn't nor wouldn't regret it, neither leaving her message in Sabulum, nor opening her arms to Malcom when he had contacted her.
It had been two months now, two months that Justice Steele had come to her with the disk, the past catching back on her just as it had done on him. Different face, different voice, different eyes and education, so diferent, in fact, that it had been within the Clans that he had made his way,; yet in his heart, in the back of his memories, he still was the man she had known and loved. It had been a hard time... her heart begging her to open her arms and welcome him with a kiss, her mind screaming that maybe it was a trap, an enemy using this weak spot of hers to reach to her department through her feelings. Then... the weight of guilt, of what she was forcing her friends and colleagues to go through with her, the mistrust, and the everlasting certainty that if she was to let him go now, then never again would she recover from this blow. With the passing weeks however, the certainty had turned into another one - that it really was her fiancé, the one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, and that the man he had been when finding her again was slowly leaving room to his true old self again.
Justice Steele had silently walked away, for Malcom Cratty to take possession of his life and past again. And now they were standing, facing the altar, in a last homage to the fading ghost, to the man whose life had only been a mask, yet who had still be the one to watch over them while they were rediscovering the path to happiness. At first, Jen hadn't understood why Malcom had asked her to come to the temple; she had never been the metaphysical type, the one to dwell among concepts such as "soul", and this time, the fear of not being able to grasp what he wanted to tell her had been truly overwhelming. It however made sense at present, as odd as it seemed. A farewell... a ceremony of thanking, between malcom, herself, and the memory of the fallen Keeper who was calling himself Justice.
"Ha lef uhm fer yew, ya nah..." Malcom's words, as he had drawn the heavy sword to place her between her hands. The sudden weight on her palms, forcing her to grasp it with all her might to not let it fall to the ground. The realization that the blade had been Justice's, and that it was his last testimony, in a way. "..I sorta.. killed 'im... did I..." she had begun, embarrassed, still unsure about what she was supposed to do or tell. Malcom had shaken his head and smiled to her though, reassuringly, if also sadly. "Ya let uhm be humin uhgin in tha end..." Human. Aware of feelings that weren't his own, feelings he had to let go, feelings that were meaning his demise. It had been a terrible thought, this one. Somewhere, deep inside of him, "Justice" must have been aware that allowing "Malcom" to bring his true memories back to the surface would mean his death. And still he had tried, still he had let the both of them be together again, as if this one-year gap had never existed... as if it was yesterday Malcom was proposing her... as if the pain and worry had never existed.
Taking a step forward, Malcom silently placed the flower he was holding on the altar, a last tribute, a silent thanks, before coming back to her, searching for her hand, squeezing it. Jen shifted closer as well, resting her head against his shoulder, slightly frowning. Something was missing, something that was meant to be her part. Way too incomplete to her liking, and with the lingering feeling that if she was to go out of the temple without having done something too, it'd just be plainly wrong.
She voiced her concern, looking at Malcom, and the understanding and pleasure she read in his eyes was all she needed to know that she had taken the right decision. Nodding slightly, she dived her hand in the inner pocket of her coat, taking a small item out, looking at it for a few seconds before placing it near the flower. When she leant back against him, feeling his arm wrap protectively around her shoulders, she still kept on looking at it for a long moment. The small Whisper's Edge badge, the one Malcom/Justice had given to her on that evening when he had come back to meet her, the symbol of his return to Omni-Tek, but more importantly and above all, of his return to her, and of the fact that life could start again. It had been Justice's way more than Malcom's, in fact, and she felt confusely that giving it back to "him" was more meaningful than anything else she could have done.
"I... Thank ya, Justice... fer havin' let us... find ourselves again..."
Jen's voice rose in the silence, as she slid her hand into Malcom's, seeking his reassuring presence. She owed that to Justice Steele, after all, for having had the courage to dive into the buried memories, and let Malcom come back. She owed him her present happiness. She owed him more than she could likely repay, but what was there to be done for the disappeared ones, except honor their memory...
"Thank ya..."
- AO webcomics for the sake of being silly
