[sub][h3][center]T H E   P R O M I S E[/center][/h3][/sub][hr]

Salamandra was left reeling and coughing from the massive object that had come out of seemingly [i]nowhere[/i] and floored her.  Her head spinning, she couldn’t move her arm so her defenses were crippled, and most of all she felt tired. 

Throughout her life, Salamandra had lost track of how many times she'd been struck, cut, maimed, or shot. But this was different. She had never felt this type of tired before, and was starting to lose consciousness when the voices of several people distantly reached his ears. She felt like she was just on the edge of dark oblivion. 

She could feel herself bleeding from numerous gashes left by broken glass. Her battered body screamed in protest as she rolled onto her side to see Lynn approaching. Salamandra’s body flared, heating up further. Normally that felt [i]good[/i] to release energy like that, but it almost felt like it drained her more. She groaned, pushing herself up by her good arm. Working through the pain, she expended more of the heat she had, desperately trying to bring herself back from the edge.

Salamandra wasn’t going to take this win in her state and she knew it. She was out of shape from prison, crippled, and any more energy and she didn’t know what would happen. She looked to her left, and the restaurant was destroyed. She looked across the floor and the boy she had taken a liking to had disappeared. She looked back up to Lynn and raised her hand, open and flat, towards her advancing adversary. “Stop!”

Sally breathed, a labored breath in and another labored breath out. “Jus’, jus’ leave me be. The man’ll come get me soon enough.” She sagged against the wall of the building, searing through the wall with her heat until she met a steel beam, which seemed to hold her for the time being. She was beaten, and she didn’t want to die.

[hr]

[sub][h3][center]Archie[/center][/h3][/sub][hr]

Deep down, the beast wasn’t actually sure why it was doing what it was doing. Just that it should be doing it. It wasn’t often that it came out, but it never had some prime directive in mind before. Usually it chose to stretch its legs or protect itself.

As an entity it was separate from Archie. A fragmented part of the man’s psyche that had manifested itself in the world, that hd repressed itself so wholly that it could not be found under normal circumstances. It was why Archie was so positive despite his mistreatment and adolescence. It was why the scars were not seen, and why he was not jaded. The beast existed as a survival mechanism made real. It existed to protect the boy from the world, to act as an outlet for rage and frustration that he did not have the tools or knowledge necessary to process.

So why did it seek to protect something new? It was only distantly aware of Archie, but knew that it existed for him. The girl that smelt of chemical and adrenaline was some external factor that it didn’t need to care about. Yet, it did. Perhaps it identified with that rage. The soul shattering, unyielding will to resist and desire to satisfy the fear and sorrow. They were both savage roars of unimaginable ferocity shaking the heavens themselves. Maybe they weren't so different, and that was why it cared. Archie knew what it was like to be unmade. He knew what it was like to have a monster inside, lurking in the shadows, waiting for a chance to escape and destroy everything you held dear. To be a thing of pure emotion, a caged animal striking out at his handlers, not understanding that they didn't want to hurt him, unable to distinguish friend from foe.

It followed the screams. All bodily fluids and blood had their own individual scents, and hers was no different. The giant followed its nose and tongue, which led it quickly to the body Death Head. Just the body. The great lizard lowered its head, taking in the metallic smell that emanated from it, and the person he was here for wasn’t far away. It could see her. It could smell her. It didn’t know how it knew that this small, blood covered woman was the one.

It just knew.

It was like the gears clicked into place. The reptile's abruptly dizzy and it world tilts dangerously, the sound of screaming and running and indiscriminate destruction blurring into a whirling ambience and it's like tunnel vision, it can't see anything but her, can't feel anything but when her hands wrapped around his own when he apologized to her, the memory anchoring it and uprooting it all at once, and suddenly everything is comets and supernovas again, breathtaking and terrible, [i]it's you, it's you, it's—[/i]

It pulled itself together, trembling and shaken in its own mind. She was covered in blood, her blood. She was scared and hurt and it had [i]failed[/i] her. It understood in that moment why it cared. It slammed the ground with two titanic fists, roaring like a pained yet determined animal. It would make this right. It would stop her before she got hurt again. Or hurt herself again.

In the end, its not sure who exactly it is making that promise to, but given everything: him, her, them— it's well worth a shot to find out.