Tony woke up to Maximus's massive head flopping onto his stomach. "Oomph!" he gasped. "Buddy, you just gotta tell me you want to get up, not try to kill me geez!"

The dog breathed into Tony's face, Daddy get up for playtime? Play pull war game?

Tony scratched the big dog behind the ears. "Yeah we'll play in a bit, buddy, I just need to wake up and clean up, okay?"

Yayy! Maximus cheered, jumping off the bed and zooming around the room.

Things had been quiet in the days after clearing the dungeon. Tony and Vasna had gone off for a few hours to clear her familiar quest which granted her a beast familiar called a Kraul. The cub was a blend between a hyena, an elephant, and a saber-toothed tiger with the disposition of a quokka. She named the cub Embry.

Vasna had stayed in Tony's room the night after the dungeon. He was in an awkward position. Jorogu was still in the regeneration pod, or he was pretty sure that she was as an opaque film had covered the inside. Technically, they were engaged, but what happened between him and Vasna seemed more like a "heat-of-the-moment" situation...situations...

He had a lot to think about, and thankfully the need to train her Kraul gave Tony some space from the woman to do just that. He emerged from the shower with a towel around his waist when someone rapped on his door. "Tony? It's important, I'm coming in," the voice on the other side declared.

Esava, one of the Celestial Elf Ascendants, a Rogue if he remembered correctly, barged into the room. "Please, do come in," Tony remarked.

Esava blushed but didn't look away. "The regeneration pod that the uh, woman that you brought back with you is in?" she asked more than stated.

Tony's heartbeat quickened. "What about it?"

"Well, it's uh, it's open now and she wants to see you," Esava said.

Tony paced the room. “How did she seem? Is she okay? Does she still have a hole in her chest? Is she mad at me?” The questions spilled out of his mouth before he could think them all through.

“Whoa, slow down, cowboy,” Esava answered. She had crossed the room without Tony noticing and put her hands on his shoulders.

Definitely a Rogue, Tony thought.

“She seemed fine, a little confused, but she started asking for you right away. She just seems worried, Tony.” Esava’s silver eyes bored into his before they flicked down over his exposed skin. “You should probably just go see her and sort out whatever she might be ‘mad’ about in person.”

“You’re right,” Tony said with a nod. “Thanks for letting me know.” He went to leave and Esava grabbed him by the forearm.

“You should probably put on some clothes first,” she said.

Tony looked down at himself and then back to Esava. “You know, you’re right,” he said. “So, maybe a little privacy, unless you planned on staying to watch,” he added after a beat.

Flirting: Critical Success!

Oh, come on! That was a joke!

The Celestial Elf turned a bright purple. “Auren was quite clear that you needed to be protected, the whole highest-level Ascendant thing,” she replied.

Tony maintained the fake smile he plastered on his face and mentally kicked himself. Alright, system, joking does not equal flirting, if I get that, you should!

Fortunately, the Dog of War in the room was tall enough and curious enough about strangers to block Esava’s prying eyes as Tony dressed. “Shall we?”

The trio moved through the corridors of the flagship with little interruption. Day by day the ship came back to life, the evidence of Tolik’s betrayal and attack vanishing as the other Ascendants restored and made use of the space.

When they arrived at the primary regeneration room, Maximus and Esava hung back allowing Tony to go in ahead of them. The area around Jorogu’s pod looked like a xenomorph hive from Alien. A slick grey film riddled with pock marks clung to the walls and where the pod had been was a cavernous overhang.

A pair of blazing green eyes snapped open in his direction from the darkness. “Jorogu?” Tony called.

“Tony?” she answered. The clink of her arachnid appendages moving across the metal flooring followed as Jorogu emerged. The tattered floral yukata was replaced by an armored bodysuit of burgundy chitin. Her spider legs, limbs capable of forming into deadly blades, looked to be more weapon-like than they had been. The final quarter of each leg had a spiral of serrations jutting out from it, there were matching blades on the outer edges of the bodysuit on Jorogu’s wrists and ankles. The Queen evolution had not only healed all her wounds, but clearly enhanced her offensive and defensive capabilities.

“You look… incredible,” Tony remarked. “How do you feel?”

“A little foggy in here,” she said, pointing to her head. “I’m having a hard time remembering what happened, how I got here… I was hoping you could fill in some of the blanks for me.” She paused for a moment, Tony’s remark registering fully in her addled brain. “And thank you.” She blushed.

“What do you want to know? How can I help?”

“Well, I don’t really remember anything that happened after.” She paused, resting her left hand on her chest where the spike had run her through. “All that I know is from after I woke up in that pod, our borders have been pushed back by our enemies in the time that I was… recovering, there is infighting among the clusters, and my mother has passed her mantle on to me.”

Tony’s gut reaction was to ask, “And who are those enemies?” but he held the question back. “Well, after you went down, I got up. It turns out that one of my enemies saw the duel with Sujuko as an opportunity to take me out, so he bestowed ‘blessings’ on him. When I saw that you weren’t breathing I kind of lost it. Your mother held Sujuko and brought me back. We fought and I killed him.”

Jorogu moved closer to Tony, retracting her spider legs to be on two feet. “So, how did we get here?”

“Semiramis told me that I had to save you and that she knew how. I… I followed her instructions which were to bring you back here and put you in the pod. The blade you gave me broke during the fight with Sujuko and after I finished the ritual it turned into this.” Tony held up his right arm and his eyebrows shot to his hairline as he did. Covenant’s color had changed to match Jorogu’s chitin and a series of sharp blades protruded from the outside edge.

“The ritual? What ritual?” she asked, running her hands over the bracer and Tony’s arm.

Tony hesitated, unsure if it would be better to go with the whole truth or to give more information over time. “I… I had to cut out your mother’s heart and put it into your wound. That was the only way to save you and make sure that your people would go on.”

Tears welled at the corners of Jorogu’s eyes as they blazed with green flame. “That explains a lot.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Like what?”

“How I can hear the cries of my people, how I know exactly what hour it is on Arach, and how I know that Serketzi and her cyclone are the ones pressing the border.”

“Serketzi? Who is that?”

“She is the recently crowned Queen of the Pandinus Swarm, we have… history.” Jorogu took Tony’s right arm in both of her hands, embossed above her left wrist was a matching sigil to the one she left on his right arm. Tony stared at it for a moment and flinched when a screen appeared in his vision.

Covenant

Rarity: Unique (2 of 2) Durability: N/A Armor Slot: Wrist

Type: Organic Attack Rating Bonus: +5 Defense Rating: +5

The symbol of a continued Promise

Special Effect: Connects the bearers of Covenant empathetically after a sacred bonding of flesh.

Allows for reciprocal flow of: Emotional State, General Direction, Surface Thoughts

Tony couldn’t help but wonder if “a sacred bonding of flesh” would be recognized retroactively by the system. Jorogu wrapped Tony’s arm around her like a shawl and leaned against him, resting her head against his chest.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For what?” Tony asked.

Jorogu looked up at him with a playful scowl on her face, “For saving me, you brute!” She jabbed playfully into his gut and let her hand rest on his stomach. “You’ve undergone quite the transformation while I was sleeping, haven’t you?” Jorogu traced the defined lines of Tony’s abdominal muscles through his shirt. “What else happened?”

Tony gulped, he knew that this was going to come up eventually, but he had hoped to have the time to really know what he wanted to do about his unexplored engagement with Jorogu and the bond that he’d formed with Vasna. He decided to stick to the basics for now, and explain more later, when his head was on straight. “When I came back from Arach it was discovered that a dungeon had formed on the flagship and was threatening control of the area, myself, Maximus, and another were tasked with finding and clearing the dungeon. Between defeating Sujuko and clearing the dungeon, my Essence ignited and I, well I guess you could say I evolved as a result.”

Jorogu’s head swiveled back and forth across the room’s floor. “Where is the little not-snack?” she asked, some of the levity returning to her voice.

Tony let out a sharp whistle and Maximus padded around the corner. Jorogu tensed at first, prepared to defend herself, but the oscillating wag of the dog’s tail and the gleam in Maximus’s eyes swiftly reminded her of the pint-sized pup she had met.

“He has also grown!” she exclaimed, bounding over to meet the large dog and shower him with affection. Tony smiled, glad that the two of them got along.

After the brief reunion, Jorogu closed her still-smoldering eyes and focused. An eloquent, flowing kimono materialized from viridian flames that wrapped around her, not as snug as the kimono she had worn before their duel, but still complementary to her curves with plenty of room for function. She approached Tony, her eyes locked with his and her body language was open.

“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you,” she cooed. Jorogu closed the gap between them and pushed herself up into Tony’s arms using her spider legs and planted her lips, and the whole front of her body, against his. Covenant spread a warm flame throughout his whole body; the feeling was like sitting down in front of a fireplace after a two-mile walk in the snow and downing a cup of hot cider.

Still half-suspended in air, Jorogu pulled her mouth away from Tony’s just enough to rest her forehead on his and licked her lips, savoring the embrace.

“Tell me, beloved, who is it that I taste on your lips?”