Jackie was shaking in his arms.

"You – what?" she asked. "How?"

"Not all of them," Kol-Eresh said. "I knew I couldn't stumble upon the lair that we've been looking for years, that they've been building for centuries. There was only one way to track the Eternals and I did that. I followed the ones who attacked us."

His fated looked unbelievable at that moment. Kol-Eresh had never seen anything like that. The life that had almost bled out of her was slowly flaring to life again, but the hope in her eyes was such that it made all options of failure impossible.

"And you found them?" Jackie asked, so quietly he barely heard her over the storm rising outside.

"Yes," Kol-Eresh said. "The trackers did, I mean. After Forack brought me the ship, I have been running diagnostics on every little thing that moves around here. I started from the site of the attack and worked as far as they could have gone. That was why the ship is so cold and there is no food. I've channeled all the power into the core to make sure it's following absolutely everything."

The words were pouring out of his mouth now that he could finally tell her.

"I couldn't tell you, forgive me. I have been tracking the Eternals for three days now, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure so I kept it to myself. Your hope had already been dashed once before, I wasn't about to let it happen to you again."

"Gods, you can't apologize for that," Jackie said.

"I can," Kol-Eresh said seriously. "I almost lost you because of it. I told you terrible things since you didn't see anything else but me leaving you alone when I went outside to check the leads. And you were right to do so. You were alone and if something had happened when I was gone..."

He couldn't continue. Jackie hadn't been the only one who'd had problems sleeping. The harbinger had spent sleepless hours, living through the waking nightmare before his eyes – imagining coming back from a trip outside, to find Jackie...

"This time, you were sleeping so deeply I couldn't wake you without hurting you," he finished. "I set the ship to the course I thought was the most promising, betting everything on it and I found them. I came back as soon as I could and when I saw you sitting here – I don't think I've ever been happier."

Jackie's lips were trembling as she nodded.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. I didn't want to give up, I just couldn't handle it anymore –"

"Don't," Kol-Eresh said, shaking his head. "I won't hear another word from your mouth if it's to apologize for being afraid. I have been taking you for a Nayanor, but you are not."

He took a deep breath.

"You have to be brave now, my love," the harbinger said. "We have to go out. The Eternals are hidden in an underground cave system. This year, the long night has come early. I think it's comforting to know that even the Eternals can't predict it. They're pinned down by it for some reason.

"We have to reach them before they move out, which they have to if they don't want to get stuck there."

Jackie tried to nod and shake her head at the same time.

"Kol, I don't think I can move," she said in a broken voice. "The serum has gone too deep into my system. I can't walk, especially in that weather. The gust alone almost knocked me down."

The harbinger considered. It was true, he could see it. Jackie's body was oddly limp like her limbs couldn't muster enough energy to move.

"I will carry you," he said. "Where is the other coat?"

"In my room," Jackie replied. "Kol, you can't carry me and fight. It's madness."

"I'm not going to have you anywhere near the fighting," Kol-Eresh replied, retrieving the coat and returning to Jackie. "Here, make sure it's properly tied. If you lose this out there, we can't waste time looking for it."

Jackie was looking at him with deep sadness in her eyes.

"We should call for back-up," she said. "Forack, your warriors. There are three Eternals and three Abominations, if it really is the same group that attacked us. You got pinned down by them the last time. What makes you think this time will be different?"

"I have so much more to lose now," Kol-Eresh replied. "And that makes all the difference in the world to a Nayanor.

"But we can't call the others. The storm is rising. The communications are messed up and the fortress will not be able to pick up. It will be mayhem there. We thought we had more time."

He kissed her deeply and lovingly.

"This is our only chance, my love," the harbinger said. "The two of us, against it all."

Jackie smiled. It was good to see her spirit rise again.

Kol-Eresh was starting to believe that it was going to work. The moment he let the slightest doubt into his heart, it was over. The Eternals were no joke and he stood to lose everything if he lost focus.

"Those odds aren't bad," she said. "Alright. I trust you. One chance. And at least we will be together, come what may."

* * *

The going was tough.

The long night hadn't started yet, but the narrow corridor between two enormous cliffs turned the canyon into a wind corridor. Kol-Eresh heard Jackie sucking in desperate gasps when the wind became so violent it was hard to breathe.

She was on his back, holding on to the Fermanoli coat as hard as she could. Kol-Eresh trudged on through the falling rain, trying to see the tracks of the Abominations. The falling deluge was threatening to make quick work of them, so he had to be fast. They weren't going to get so lucky again.

There were a thousand fears and doubts in his mind, trying to dig their roots deep into him, but he kept them all at bay. With Jackie by his side, Kol-Eresh believed he could do the impossible.

No one had ever taken on the Eternals before, not like that. They were mystical creatures and the facts Nayanors knew about the Abominations could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

He was going in blind to the most important battle of his life, but Kol-Eresh wasn't afraid.

Jackie had decided to keep on fighting and whether she knew it or not, it meant everything to the harbinger. Her pain was visible as clear as day and the loss of hope beating her down almost as much. All of that was just on top of the fact that she was on Luminos, a planet she had been brought to by force. By him.

After all that, she had still gathered up the strength to keep on fighting.

It made her love for him real. It made her will to live, with him, real.

The Eternals had nothing to counter that.

The harbinger was beginning to think he'd missed the cave system when he saw a light ahead, so hard to see he would have missed it if he'd walked two steps to the right.

"Kol," Jackie called to him.

Her voice was very weak.

"Kol, I don't think I have much time."

The harbinger picked up his pace. He had been planning to take it slow, find out the positions of the Eternals and the Abominations, but fate had plans for him.

Their one chance was ticking and it was running out, fast.