Newt and The Cathar

	The first time she met the cathar was when she ran away from home after Avacyn went mad, her name had always been terrible but now the mockery changed to hate. Her mother had insisted that having such a name was a blessing, but the girl who would become Newt wasn't having any of it. She'd found herself lost in the woods and heard a near sinister voice as the trees around her began to rustle. “Ohhh, what a poor baby. Don't worry, dear sweet child.” A monsterous figure with a woman's torso attached to the body of a spider emerged from the treeline. The girl backed away but began to hear more and more scurrying all around her. “Now, don't cry in mommy's presence.” She hadn't noticed but tears were stinging her eyes, she was wishing desperately she was home as the monster reached its hand out for her face. “There there, everything will be fine my little darling, it'll be alll rig-” as the claw touched her face, she heard screaming and squealing.
	A bolt whirred over her head, hitting the monster in some carapace. “Get away from her, you bitch!” A masked man yelled from behind her, she looked to see him clad in completely in black and stained with blood from whatever was skittering. The man had a crossbow in one hand and some kind of flaming sword in the other.
	“You-” The monster reared up “YOU BURNED MY BABIES!” The monstrosity let out an unearthly screech and even more tiny monsters that looked like a horrible fusion of child and spider crawled from out of the trees and holes in the ground.
	The man was pushing through the spider monsters and wrapped an arm around her waist “We need to go.” He said and picked her up, protecting her from the monsters that were jumping at them as he started running. She could hear the screeching and the large monstrosity burst out of the trees, tailed by a horde of spiderlings. “Girl,” she heard a gruff voice, snapping her back to reality, “close your ears and eyes.”
	“I-I'm scared.” she wanted to pretend she was back home but couldn't take her eyes off the horrors.
	“DO IT!” He slashed another spider and the girl complied, she could feel a wave of magic wash over her and opened her eyes to see the spiderlings stopped with glowing red eyes.
	“Now my children,” the monster appeared, they were surrounded. The spider monster extended their finger and almost said something, but the masked man cut them off.
	“feed.” The command came from him, and it was simple, the spiderlings began converging on the larger one, ripping and tearing at her flesh. He put her down on the ground as the monster was screaming for her children to stop and began ripping them apart in order to not drown under the mounds of spiderlings. “Stay here,” he told her, and she didn't have the strength to disobey. He began humming something above the screams, a prayer it seemed; and red energy came from each of the spiderlings to his palm before shouting some arcane words, words she would later learn, and unleashed a ball of fire to hurtle towards the spider monster. The creature and all the spiderlings on her burned in a chorus of screams and popping.
	The smoke cleared and she could hear him let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the monster on the forest floor. He motioned for her to stay still and hoisted his crossbow, circling the carnage for some reason. She saw what seemed to be the last good appendage of the spider monster reach out for the prone form of one of the spiderlings before falling limp. The man put a bolt into the monster's head and came back to her. “It's going to be fine, you're safe,” he told her from behind his skull like mask, but the fear was still running through her. He took off his mask so she could see the tired and battered face beneath it. “It's okay,” he spoke in a tired voice that sounded rusty as if it had fallen into disuse , “I'm a cathar. Now, lets get you home before we find more trouble.” The cathar put on his mask and picked her up in his arms as the remaining spiderlings were flocking to their dead mother, trying to get her to move. The cathar returned her home and told her not to wander off again before leaving without another word to her or her parents. It wasn't long after that that the werewolves attacked and she ignited.

	The next time Newt saw him, that was her name now, was really the first time he saw her: time travel is strange like that. Once she'd ignited, she found a time machine and tried to go back in time to prevent her naming but overshot the time by quite a bit. Newt was hanging around in Thraben at the age of twenty one after finding her parents at the Child's Wall and learning that they'd already cursed their daughter with a horrid name. She saw a young man, happy and laughing, but she could tell it was him by the shape of his face even if he was cleaner looking and wearing brighter clothes. “Hey,” she said, sauntering over to him and sitting in the booth next to him when the friend he was talking to got up, “the name's Newt.” She stuck her hand in his face for shaking and he nervously took it.
	“L-Lukas,” he responded, apparently not sure what to make of the strange woman, he took her hand in a delicate hand shake, though Newt tightened it before doing the actual shaking.
	“Nice name,” she said leaning on the table, are you a cathar?” She asked him with a sly look.
	“Not yet, but I hope to be.” She had to remind herself that this was in fact the past for her from time to time, but his words were enough to remind her of that now. “I'm in training right now.”
	“Like, right this moment?” She asked him, she was sure he could say something along the lines of 'a cathar's training never stops' but he didn't and she was grateful because her interest would have dried up with that line.
	“Not right now,” he responded to her honestly, “I was just going to grab a drink before going back to the barracks.”
	“How about you get your drink,” she was twirling her hair in a flirty manner, “and we go out on the town. If you don't have any training, it wouldn't hurt to see who you're protecting.” Newt had perfected the art of giving people justifications to do what she wanted over the years, all she had to do was give them a reason that made it seem like they were being responsible.
	“That would be nice,” Lukas said, tossing his drink back, “a nice walk around the town.” He smiled at her, an open smile of someone who enjoyed life much more than the old man she had met all those years ago.
	“Yeah, walk.” She scooted out to let him out and the two of them went out on the town, a date of sorts. Their walking and talking and joking eventually took them outside the walls of Thraben where Newt got the not quite cathar to participate in throwing stones at some of the helpless vampires before fleeing from the reprimands of passing guards. Their legs gave out on the banks of the river Kirch and the two of them laid on their backs laughing from exhaustion.
	“That- that was so dumb,” the young man said looking at Newt with a smile on his face, “why did I even-.”
	“It was fun,” she said simply, she crawled on her knees towards him before laying down with an arm over his chest. “That's why people do things, just... because.” she shrugged a little as the setting sun beat down on the two of them.
	He looked in her face, the laughter slowing down as he seemed to realize how close she was to him. “That can't be all of it,” he said with some humor and looked away, “I'm training to be a cathar, and that's certainly not fun.”
	“But you want to,” she put a hand on his face to turn it back towards hers, “so you did, so my conclusion stands up.”
	“That's fairly simple,” he commented, a blush coming to his cheeks as his breath became heavier, “and not a very....good explanation.” He seemed to be avoiding touch her lips with his as Newt put her head closer and closer. “Doing things, just because.”
	“Well, is there anything you want to do?” She asked him, wrapping her arms around him and Lukas kissed her passionately. She returned the kiss but he soon broke it to get some breath.
	“This is a bad idea,” he said, not objecting but stating. He certainly didn't object  when Newt pressed her body against his and her hands began to move downwards.


	“Yeah, and?” She asked deftly undoing the clasps on his pants and kissing his neck. She reached down into his pants and grasped his rapidly hardening cock while her free hand pushed his pants down around It.
	“It's getting late,” he said breathing heavily, once more a statement instead of an objection, “a-and someone might find us.”. He was pushing down her pants with one hand while using the other to hold her close and caress her neck with kisses.
	She let out a giggle as she rolled on top of the cathar in training. “Then we better hurry,” she told him as he got her pants off and penetrated her, “wouldn't want to be caught doing something... unseemly” She leaned in as she said that, and kissed him again as she gyrated her hips and he started thrusting instinctively. That first time was sloppy and not as fulfilling as she hoped, rolling in the grass by the lake with him and trading gropes and kisses, but it had promise even if she wouldn't have finished if not for the timely injection of some red mana into the cathar in training. The sun was barely peaking out over the horizon as they laid there and Newt looked to him “was this...” she saw his goofy grin as he was panting heavily “I thought so.” She pulled her pants back on and refastened her top.
	“What now?” Lukas asked in a breathy manner, impressing her since most men (in her experience) fell asleep soon after orgasm.
	She sat up, giving him a sly look. “Now, you get your cock back into your pants,” she told Lukas, giving his member a wistful stroke as if to say goodbye for now and it rising a little to meet her. He shot her a sideways glance as he wrestled the hardening member back into confinement.
	“You don't make it easy when you touch it like that.” He said, sitting up to match her.
	“Touch it? like this?” She jammed her hand through the opening of his pants and wrapped it around his cock, feeling the still wet digit stiffen in her grasp. “You're all ready ready to go again?” She was grinning like a devil.
	He pulled her hand out of his pants by the arm and gave her a kiss. “I'm sorry, but I can't.”
	“But, you want to.” she observed, scooting so she was sitting on his lap.
	“It's night, I would rather not be attacked by a skaab or ghoul mid coitus.” Newt pouted a little at this, but he seemed to be retaining his composure even though she could see the desire in his eyes.
	“I've got a cottage nearby.” Her grin returned as he fell back into his mind looking for a reason not to. “Come on,” she said as a prompt, standing up and offering him a hand.
	“I've got muster before sunrise,” he said, standing up without her help.
	Her grin became a smile and she turned her palm upwards in a beckoning 'come hither' gesture “I'm sure we can get at least two more in before then, and wouldn't a run back to town be lovely in the early morning?” He took her hand and they ran to her cottage as they'd run before. The petting and kissing started when she was unlocking the door, then the undressing as they both got into the cottage with Lukas kicking the door closed behind him, they were both all but naked by the time the bed was reached and the young man threw Newt down onto it before getting on top of her and thrusting into her willing body. She stifled a moan as his thrusting picked up pace and his hands were finding their way around her body “Fast learner,” she breathed and began to caress his neck with her lips.
	“Newt- I-” his words were interrupted by cumming inside of her and Newt couldn't help but moan as he resumed pace after a stop, his vigor leaving her to wonder if her new lover was secretly a werewolf. She came soon after and Lukas fell out of the time displaced waif panting. After some strange form of pillow talk and finally sleep, Lukas pulled himself out of bed before sunrise.
	Newt stayed undressed and under the covers, looking up at him. “Are you sure you can't stay?”
	“I could,” he admitted while buttoning up,”but I won't, being a Cathar is something I wanted my whole life.”
	She smiled “Go, do something amazing.” She remained in the covers as he dressed and blew him a kiss as he walked out of the door into the crisp early morning for his run back to Thraben.


	They had many more nights like that, most ending with sex and some not, but he came to her door three months later without the intention of entering. “Newt,” he said dressed rather nicely and looking somber which was a reminder of his face the day she met him in the forest, “I've been given an ultimatum by my elders.”
	“Authority figures are fond of that,” she said nonchalantly, “what is it?” She didn't have to ask, she had a good idea of what it was.
	“Either I quit seeing you or I end my training,” He said as if he'd been asked to kill his own puppy. “And I want to stay with you.”
	She leaned against the doorway, she wasn't surprised by the options but the choice he was taking did prove troubling. “Now hold up, you wanted to be a cathar your whole life, you told me that.”
	“I did,” he said nodding, “and I still do, but I love you Newt. You're a little rough but I know you're a good person, it's just a feeling I have about you.”
	“I'll make this simple then,” she said, “you stay in the cathar training, or I leave never to be seen again.” She saw the shock and hurt on his face, but she didn't want to endanger her existence or have to owe anyone giving up their future for her. “I like you, a lot, and that's not easy for me to say. But, if you leave your training then you'll regret it for the rest of your life, and besides I'm sure you'll make a kickass cathar and save plenty of people.”
	“So what they say about you isn't true,” he said with some relief, the hurt fading away now that it wasn't a straight rejection of him.
	“Oh, what do they say about me?” She raised an eyebrow, interested to hear this.
	“That, you're a malicious temptress and a harlot who'd consort with demons.” He said, acting as though he was telling a parent what the other one said behind their back.
	“Malicious Temptress,” she grinned like a devil, “I like it.”
	“Would you ever worship demons?” he asked warily.
	“Lukas, you know I hate authority whether it flies on feather or leather.” She laughed and gave him a brief kiss. “Now that will have to hold you until you graduate and get out from under those geezer's sights.”
	He let his lips linger on hers before they pulled away. “Stay safe, Newt.” He said as his goodbye and left back into the mist that surrounded. Months passed and then a year before he graduated to be a full fledged cathar. He was a mausoleum guard, not a very important position but one that kept him in Thraben and let him visit Newt when he was off. This continued for a short while before he got an mandatory and unexpected promotion as a Parish Blade, off in some town in Kessig. They spent one last night together and Newt saw him off in the morning before deciding to clean house and make herself scarce in case someone decided to get rid of the 'malicious temptress'.



	She did make the occasional visits to Kessig, to keep up with him even if not all of the trips resulted in sex. Her last trip had her bringing a bunny with her, which meant she couldn't just planeswalk into a secluded area and actually had to hoof it. It was roughly four years since they met in the bar and this was her congratulations on making it this far. “A.. rabbit?” He asked, examining the cage, stubble had been threatening to invade his chin, but he kept it shaved to look respectable. Even with his grooming, she could still see the years layering themselves on the young man she once knew.
	“No,” she mocked offense,” a bunny, totally different.” She handed the cage off to him. “She's yours now, keep her safe.” She saw the age on his face, but his eyes still looked drastically different from what they had been when he rescued her; Lukas didn't show any sign of the trauma or weariness that carved his face, and Newt was afraid that he was in for a rough few years as the date of her initial rescue approached. Maybe the rabbit would help him through those times.
	“Newt,” he said, touching her shoulder, “are you alright?”
	“Yeah,” she rubbed one of her eyes, “just thinking I have some business I have to take care of, far away, and I want you to stay safe.” She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss over the cage.
	“I'll try,” he responded, wearing a smile saying 'staying safe isn't exactly a perk of my job'.
	“Good, because I'll be rather cross with you if you die.” She crossed her arms and turned to walk away.
	“Don't you want to stay the night at least?” He asked after her.
	She didn't turn to face him “Yes, but I can't.” She could, but she couldn't be sure if she would want to leave after that. “Lukas...I”
	“I know,” he said with a slight laugh, “I know it's hard for you to say, and I feel the same way.” She could hear him walking away back into town and she smiled a little before heading for her cart to find a nice place to planeswalk away.


	Business kept her away for longer than she would have liked to admit, theft and extortion did that. By the time she was able to get back, Avacyn had been destroyed and the monster the arose in her absence had vanished into the moon. She made haste for the village Lukas was in, but found burnt out ruins covered in viscera and tentacles. She inspected the warped remains, hoping she wouldn't find him among them and didn't but couldn't shake the bad feeling she had. Newt decided to make the journey to Thraben on foot or horse or cart or whatever she could in case he was somewhere between the holy city and the ruined village. Abominations roamed the countryscape and Newt helped to dispose of them where there were people to owe her, and she asked after her cathar. No one knew of a Lukas, but rumors of a man dressed in black carving through monsters reached her ears and she hoped desperately he hadn't gone on a suicidal charge.
	She finally reached what remained of Thraben, The Order of Saint Traft seemed have some semblance of order in place and she made her way to what she was told would be the most official record they had at the moment. “I'm looking for a cathar, he was in Kessig last I heard.”
	The woman behind the desk looked up at the rogue who was wearing a cloak, her red hair was dirty and probably matted with blood recently. “What's their name?” She asked, her tired tone matched her eyes “Now, we don't have a full list of the cathars who joined the inquisition or died during Avacyn's madness, you understand?”
	“Yes,” Newt responded, they must have dealt with a lot for that disclaimer to come about. “His name was Lukas Roubey.” The woman nodded and vanished for a few minutes into the records they had salvaged.
	The look she bore when coming back alarmed Newt, it was not the kind of look you give someone before 'I don't know'. “I'm sorry ma'am,” she sat back down, Newt desperately hoped 'he's right outside' were the next words out of the girl's mouth but she knew better, “but according to the records he died during Avacyn's disappearance.”
	“No,” Newt shook her head, eyes wide, “that's impossible.” He had rescued her after that, how could he be dead. A dreadful cold feeling settling over her as something she assumed was true was suddenly proven false.
	“His village was attacked by skaabs and ghouls,” the red head told Newt in a way the she might have expected to be comforting, “the other defenders said he went off to fight a demon and no one saw him since.”
	She slammed her hands down on the terrible desk rattling it. “They didn't find his body?” The receptionist had to push Newt's hands off of the table. “So he could still be alive, right?” This was what she was clinging on to.
	“He wasn't there when the undead fled, it's assumed that his body was taken with the rest of the victims.” Newt clenched her stinging eyes and made an effort not to shed any tears but was clearly breaking. “Ma'am, I'm sorry for your loss, but maybe if you asked one of the geists they would know...”
	“He's not dead!” Newt yelled and stormed out, not sure if she was telling the girl or herself...maybe both. She was in her head drowing in her anger and despair when her foot caught on some rubble and she kicked it in retaliation, hurting herself in the process. “Avacyn take you!” She yelled at the innocent rubble “She's already taken everything fucking else!” It was then she noticed other people in the square looking on at the outburst. “It's fucking true,” she remarked and pushed her way past people until a hand grabbed her shoulder. Half of her was ready to punch it's owner and the other half was hoping it was Lukas.
	“Ma'am,” the voice belonged to an older man and she looked him in his wrinkled and beaten face, “we all lost loved ones in the madness.”
	“And?” She asked darkly, wondering why he was talking to her when she didn't care.
	“You need some help with your grief, you'll be able to find it.” He told her in a kindly tone and Newt jerked her shoulder away without saying another word, they all lost someone but it wasn't because they apparently changed the future in the pursuit of getting laid.

	A week later she was on Tin street examining the coins she acquired to buy whatever she wanted to 'help with her grief'. “I wonder what kind of drugs Del sells.” She was musing when she heard someone call her name and her hand went for a dagger since the only people who called her name were the authorities and people who had a grudge.
	“Newt?” The voice wasn't condemnation, but surprise and she looked up to see it's owner. “NEWT!” His face lit up and her eyes went wide, she hadn't had time to say anything before the cathar, her cathar, scooped her into his arms and held her against him. “Thank Avacyn,” he said stroking her hair, sounding like he had just let out a breath he'd been holding for a long time, “I thought you died when the Leeraug howlpack moved in.”
	“Lukas....” she was once more wide eyed and wrapped her arms around him, to make sure he wasn't just a product of her addled mind. Tears were threatening to come out as she buried herself in his shoulder. “They said you died.” She hadn't wanted to admit it, fearing this was some terrible dream where he would say that he was and she'd wake up alone in the bed, again.
	She felt his hand rest on top of her head. “Newt,” a voice thick with strife like she heard all those years ago, “it's been a long two years.”
	Joy, grief, anger, and confusion were at war in her head with the emotions directed in any number of ways. Despite those, she looked up to him, taking in the face she had waited so long to see. “Do you want a drink?”
	He smiled, something that didn't seem to happen often going by the lines on his face, “I'd like more than one.” Newt jabbed him in the side for his comment. “Do you have a house here, or are we going to find a lake-” She put a finger on his lips.
	“You're being really sassy for 'a long two years'.” She told him simply and took his hands in hers.
	Lukas pulled her in again and gave her a long kiss before pulling away to look her in the eyes. “I don't know what to say,” he said with a half shrug, “you bring out the best in me, Newt.” Her face reddened when he said that, since people didn't often associate her with the good aspects of themselves. They ended up going back to her place on Ravnica, once again secured through stolen goods, and catching up with each other about what had happened to them and how unusual it was that they were both planeswalkers. Over the drinks and conversation, petting happened and the conversation turned to flirting while petting turned to disrobing. Eventually drinks were forgotten about as was the talking part and they ended up in bed the next morning, body against body for the first time in a good while.
	As they laid beside each other in the morning light, Newt examined his body with her fingers, running them across the myriad of scars and what looked like some scientific markings in the form of tattoos on his back that hadn't been there before. Luckily his cock hadn't been injured in the intervening years, also his face wasn't too bad off besides the thick stuble.
	“I'm thinking about retiring,” Lukas said as they both stared at the dull brown ceiling in the morning, “just find a nice plane, and try to be normal.”
	Newt laughed a little at the thought “Going to have a farm and all that mess?”
	“I don't see why not, I've done my time in the hells the multiverse has to offer,” he looked towards her, “maybe just a little while if I get bored of it, but get back to the basics at least.”
	“And what about the disasters that seem to wrack planes at least twice a year?” She was getting dressed now, had business to take care of.
	“Have you seen the number of planeswalkers milling about, one of them will take care of it,” he said jokingly and started getting dressed, “and if the multiverse insists on me getting involved, I'm sure the disaster will find me.”
	“You think it works that way?” Newt asked, skimming her hands over her body as she used magic to clean up instead of having to spend money on utilities. “Multiverse never seemed particularly intelligent to me.” How could it if a dull and uncreative woman such as her mother possibly had a spark.
	“Well we found each other on Ravnica, out of all the planes, at the right moment.” He told her putting on his black overcoat and stopping himself before he reached for his mask. “And in the bar when we met.” Newt stifled a laugh at that last one and he looked up to her. “Yes?”
	“Oh nothing,” Newt didn't want to tell him that she traveled back through time and talking with him wasn't exactly a matter of chance, “but how about I get a forwarding address for your vacation house in case the Multiverse needs to ask me,” She suggested and saw him coming up behind her in the mirror.
	“You could come if you want,” He said wrapping his arms around her waist, “cottage, some animals, no elders calling you a malicious temptress.”
	“I put that on my business cards, I hope you know that.” She said, eliciting a laugh from Lukas. “And I have plenty of work to keep me busy anyways.” She ran her fingers through his hair as he lightly kissed her neck.
	“What kind of work do you do anyway?” He asked in a curious tone, reminding Newt that she never actually told him about her jobs. He had asked her before, but she gave different excuses involving 'far away' since telling people about the multiverse had been a bad idea in her experiences.
	“This and that,” she broke away from the kisses and petting that were getting ready to happen, “mostly breaking into places and taking things.” She actually had a specific job to do, otherwise she would have been ready to go again and just stay in the bed all day with Lukas.
	“Taking things?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
	“Sometimes gold, sometimes information,” She was checking all of her weaponry and running through a mental checklist of spells, “sometimes lives if the pay is good and the person has it coming.”
	“Are you judging who 'has it coming'?” Newt gulped at the question, feeling like her footing could get real tricky if she answered this incorrectly. She didn't see judgment on his face quite yet, but kept his old profession in mind.
	“People want each other dead from time to time, sometimes they come to me for that.” She looked to him, trying to gauge his reaction. “Then I find out if it'll cause more trouble than it's worth, and make sure I'm not taking out anyone at their kid's birthday party.”
	“You don't have a problem with it?” There was a look in his eyes, a danger of sorts.
	Newt took his hands in hers and looked in his eyes “No, because I wait and I make sure nothing else will get them off my client's back before killing them.” Unless of course she was the one who had the problem with the target, then killing usually was the quickest way.
	Lukas closed his eyes and shook his head as if putting the cathar side of him away. “Newt,” he started, stroking her fingers with his thumbs, “I know you've been on your own for a long time, but don't go too far down that road. I've seen what happens, and it's never been good.”

	She couldn't promise that, but she didn't have to let him know that. “I won't,” she said looking into his eyes, Newt loosed one of her hands from the holding and put it on his face, “but on that note, I have some work to do and you probably have a vacation spot to find.” She gave him a quick kiss before breaking away and grabbing his mask and holding it out to him.
	“I don't think I'll be needing that,” He told her in a half joking and half nervous fashion, it was clear that it was more of a 'I don't want that' expression than anything else.
	“Just in case,” she told him, “if you need to fight, I want you to be armored, have to protect that face of yours.” He relented and put the mask into his coat. She locked the door to the outside, since neither one of them really needed it to planeswalk.
	“Love you, Newt.” He told her and gave her one last kiss before the air around him began to shimmer.
	“I know it, and you're pretty neat too.” She said trying to be cool as he vanished in a shimmer of heat. A few seconds passed and she pulled herself into the blind eternities, watching as the infinity of the multiverse opened itself up to her.
	He had found a nice plane where he decided to work as a farm hand for a woman whose father had died recently, he assured Newt it was strictly platonic but she knew how fun it was to slut it up from time to time and didn't hold any bonings that might have happened against him. Lukas would visit her and they'd go on vacations or to markets together, even going to the nice plane of Cabralin that seemed to be beneath the notice of whatever malevolent force directed the multiverse to work on a house.

	At some point half way into the second year of Lukas' unofficial retirement, Newt was sitting on the floor of their home on Cabralin with ledgers spread across the floor and rain as background noise. She jumped a little when three loud knocks interrupted her thought process and the rogue got up to investigate.  She opened the door up onto a bloody cathar with a torn coat soaked through by rain and wearing his mask, she just managed to catch the man as he fell inwards. “Sigarda's tits,” she said trying to steady him and got him to the couch. “What the hell happened to you, Lukas?” She plopped him down on the couch before going to get medical supplies.
	“I'm like sand,” he said listlessly, looking up at the ceiling with dull eyes as Newt ripped off his clothes to treat the wounds.
	“This isn't how I like getting you naked, you know.” She said trying to lighten the mood, he seemed to be delirious from blood loss and unfocused.
	“I hurt everything I care about, Newt.” She slapped him to keep him awake as she continued with the bandages that she didn't have much experience with. “Daisy, Alaixo, Vidienne,” she slapped him again, even if he was listing off names she never heard of at least he was talking. “Just like sand.”
	“You haven't hurt me,” she told him, apparently she was not that good at medicine but had an idea. “Do you not care about me?”
	“Y-” he was about to say something but took a moment to consider it. “You're different,” he put a hand on her face and she placed it back at his side.
	“Of course I am, now go to sleep.” She pulled on some blue mana to send Lukas into a deep enough sleep to not wake him up if this next part was painful for her. “Ok, I can drain people, draining myself seems like it would be the same principal.” Just enough to stabilize him she told herself and put her hands on his chest.
	 She was woken up when he stirred in the morning “Newt,” His voice rang in her head above the chirping of the birds and whatever the kithkin nearby might be doing, “you don't know healing magic.” She opened her eyes finally to seem him check his chest where the wound was.
	“Death and life are pretty much the same thing,” she was a little groggy, somewhere around a 12 on a scale of 1-20 of how she felt. He took her arm, rubbing some black marks that had made their way down her forearm. “Yeah, that's a thing.” She shrugged.
	“We both need healing,” he said, wincing as he tried to get up.
	“Most likely,” she kept him down with one arm, not a hard task, “but first tell me what that sand thing was about.” His face fell back from the relatively neutral expression to a frown.
	“I thought that I could just... leave all of the danger and hazards back in the past, but they followed me there.” He closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed them. “I tried but then Serena came and we argued, then that strange girl ambushed me in the woods... I wasn't able to kill her and she escaped back into the multiverse.”
	She remained committed to not caring if Lukas chose to slut around with other planeswalkers, but never figured the angel of thickness was his type.
	“Mr. Rickett was right, no matter what I'll end up hurting people I care about because of my past.” He told her with a somber expression. “Just like sand against anything nice. So I left without saying anything to Madeline, so she doesn't think I'm coming back and she won't get hurt.”
	“Now that's bullshit!” Newt smacked him harder than she needed to, but it felt good. “Listen to me, you aren't some kind of natural disaster of tragedy or sand that hurts things or whatever else shit that old man put in your head.” Being a natural font of suffering and disaster was saved for mono-white walkers “You save people, Lukas, you always have without asking for any kind of reward. And no: you aren't normal, because a normal cathar couldn't have saved me, you're not just A cathar, you're THE Cathar, MY cathar.” She was breathing heavily now with tears stinging at the edges of her eyes “And I won't hear you say otherwise, because I know it's not true!”
	He looked at her puzzled, fixated on a single sentence. “Newt, when did I save you?” It wasn't accusatory but their entire relationship hadn't been fraught with peril, and he probably wouldn't buy an excuse of it being metaphorical.
	She took a breath and put her head on his chest. “It wasn't too long ago, for you anyway.” It had been a lifetime for her, because time travel. “It was a dark night in the woods of Innistrad, early into Avacyn's madness, and a little girl got herself lost after running away from home. She was cornered by a monster, and thought she was going to die when you came in.”
	“That was you- but, how?” He was stroking her hair now, the confusion evident in his voice.
	“Well, my spark ignited and I hated the name my mom gave me, so when I found a time machine on a weird plane, I tried to go back to stop it.” She felt rather silly saying it like that. “But I  overshot it by a good twelve years and the time machine broke so I went back the old fashioned way. I failed by the way, and went to the bar where I met you to kill some time.”
	He looked at her with some kind of look like he was wondering if she was crazy, but finally said. “You know, this makes all of the sex a bit stranger.”
	She barked out a laugh at the dissolving tension, maybe it was her telling herself it was going to be fine. “Thank you, Lukas,” she gave him a long kiss that he eventually returned. He put his hands on her head but she broke away. “Lets get healed before we do any...rough housing.” She told him, grinning like a devil.

	The old man had come back from the graveyard that night, visiting his wife's grave with a matching one for him all ready to be used. Old Mr. Rickett, also known as Ross “The Rider” Rickett, was abnormally cautious on his way home for the plain old man he was pretending to be. Locking the door behind him, he went upstairs to get some things ready taking his time before going to fix his own dinner. She was hiding out of sight as he approached the stairs, having come in through a window she was able to open, and was counting the slow and plodding steps. She took a deep breath and reached out from behind the wall, grabbing the old man and throwing him down the stairs behind her with a crash. “Ross,” she said, drawing a dagger and walking down the stairs at a swagger as he moaned at the bottom.
	“What do you want?” He asked about as loud as he could, which wasn't very given how he was holding his side.
	“I'm glad you asked.” she put her foot on his chest and pressed him against the wall, causing the old man more pain. “You see, I'm in love with this man who is a better person than I am and he goes out of his way to save people.” She started grinding her foot into his chest. “He decided he wanted to retire after going through multiple hells to get back home and go through a particularly special hell once he did get back.”
	“I-I'm not apologizin'-” the old man spat at her, but Newt didn't pay that any mind.
	“And he's rather happy, until one night he comes to my door in the rain, bleeding from a fight and talking about how terrible he is.” She reached down and pulled up the old man by his shirt. “And then I come here, trying to find out who was talking shit, and you know what I found out?”
	The old man didn't say anything and Newt began hauling him back up the stairs, causing him to struggle despite the pain. They reached the top and Newt looked into his eyes again “You know what I found once I got here?”
	“The whole town's better because he's gone.” The old man said and Newt threw him down the stairs again. She walked back down and knelt over his prone form.
	“That's right, I found a bitter old man who was a bandit and got his wife killed because he crossed the wrong people.” She looked at her dagger and then at him “For some reason, this man thought he had any right to tell my cathar that he was some kind of killer who could never be happy.” She pressed the knife to Rickett's throat.
	“Kill me if you want, I'll just be going to Betty,” he laughed as if she couldn't do anything to him.
	“You see, now I'll have to get creative,” she said with a huff and then changed her mind, “oh wait, no I won't.” She slid her dagger across his throat which cut an artery. Newt stood up while watching as the old man tried to stop the bleeding with his hands. “Oh, and I'm going to burn your wife's body and take all the gold you have stashed in your grave. Enjoy slipping into oblivion, bitch.” With that she grabbed one of the gas lamps that was on and threw it on the ground to start a fire and exited the house through the window she came in.