*1 year later*

Nya's POV

The wind assaults the store, knocking over the fresh display I just set up. I let out a quiet groan to try to hide my displeasure before bending over to pick up the array of cans that just fell on the ground.

A loud, shrill whistle from behind me brings my lunch up to my throat as I try to hold back my disgust. "I could get used to that view," my antagonistic boss that purposely leaves the windows open to put me in these types of situations smirks. I can hear the lust in his voice. It sickens me to my core.

This past year, I've endured his behavior and learnt how to counter it. While I can't control his actions, I can give him no rise from it. When he sees that he can't phase me, the comments get significantly less vile.

Some might say that my job here is pointless. I have a boyfriend who is more than financially stable and who would "pay me to be his assistant", but I don't want to be reliant on anyone. Even though he's my soulmate, I can't rest my financial well being on a relationship, so I have this job in order to contribute to the household and for my own being.

I use one of the inventions that Jay and I built together in order to get the display up exponentially faster than I could have before. It helps prearrange them in rows that I can just push back onto the shelves without meticulously having to stack item by item. Mr. Blake initially disapproved of it, but once he realized that it could increase the amount of money he got going into his pockets, he allowed me to use it.

"Knock knock," at the sound of his voice, I turn around to see my boyfriend standing in the open doorway, an adorable smile on his face and a basket in the other. On the second Tuesday of every month, he comes to town to have a picnic with me on my lunch break. Even though I told him that he doesn't have to, I enjoy the gesture, and he seems to like it too.

At the sight of Jay, Mr. Blake goes rigid, backing off of me. About half a year ago, Jay went in to have a talk with Mr. Blake, and I don't know what happened in there, but now, Mr. Blake is terrified of him. It's hilarious, seeing this large, burly man scared of this boy no older than twenty that has definition but is by no means bulky. Jay looks like he wouldn't even hurt a fly, and he has a grown man cowering.

"Why hello, Mr. Blake. How have the sales been today?" my soulmate asks cheerily, watching Mr. Blake back away from me.

"Good, Nya has been a lot of help," he responds submissively, refusing to meet Jay's eyes.

"I'm glad to hear that. Mind if I steal her for a bit?" Jay lifts the basket in his hand to signal that we'd be going to a picnic. Mr. Blake shakes his head. "Thank you. We'll be two hours max."

Jay sticks out his hand that's not holding anything. Quicker than the bolt of lightning that hit me, I stop what I'm doing and find the spot at his side, taking his hand in mine. Guiding the two of us out of the store, I'm met with a clear, azure sky void of any clouds. The air feels nice on my skin, contrasting from the humidity inside of the store. It's peaceful.

"I still can't believe you've put Mr. Blake into such a submissive mindset when talking to you," I shake my head. "How did you do it?"

"As I've said many, many times, magic," he gives the same answer as always. I slightly elbow him as he laughs.

"I'm serious," I tell him.

"So am I." Once I let out an exasperated sigh, he starts telling me about his day. However, I find myself tuning it out and simply thinking about him. I've known him for a year and a half, and yet he still remains such a mystery to me. For a person who talks that much, you'd think that he'd bring up his past every once in a while.

He's my soulmate. I feel connected to him on a deeper level than I do to anyone else that I've ever met, yet there's a disconnect there, as if his past is a completely separate life that he doesn't want me to know about. I don't know if it's because he doesn't trust me or what, but he won't open up to me about it.

He's a naturally happy, open (and anxious, may I add), and talkative person to me, yet he shuts down every time his past comes up. It's all bottled up inside of him. That fact makes me sad. Sometimes when he thinks that I'm sleeping, he'll just sit in front of the fire and sob. He tucks his knees up to his chest and cries. He hurts, but he won't let me help him.

I'm torn away from my thoughts when I feel his lips press against mine. The gentle jolt of his kiss fills my body, intoxicating me even though it's only a short peck. When I look at his face, my heart swells in my chest.

"We're here. You weren't responding, so I figured that a kiss would break the spell. True love's kiss has that effect," he jokes, disconnecting our hands to lay out the wool blanket.

"Are you happy?" I ask him suddenly. The question confuses him, making his eyebrows furrow. A layer of worry enters his eyes.

"Of course I am. Why would you ask that?" he takes a seat on the blanket, patting his side for me to follow suit. I take the spot next to him.

"I hear you crying sometimes, when you just sit by yourself near the fire at night, and sometimes I overhear it when I'm coming back from work. I want to help you through what's hurting you," I place my hand on his shoulder. "Let me help you."

He lets out a sigh, running a hand through his curly auburn hair. His face has significantly gotten paler throughout the course of our conversation. "It's nothing that you can help with. I'm happy; I really am. It's just when I get caught up in things, and then I start to worry, and it's all a big mess."

"Does it have anything to do with your past?" I ask him. He looks down at his lap, causing me to instinctively grab his hand as a sign of comfort. "I love you, Jay, more than anything. You can tell me about what happened, what caused you to leave." All I know about Jay is that an accident happened, and he and all of his friends split up and left town. Everything else is a mystery to me.

"She was like my sister. We would invent together, along with my friend who was dating her. They were soulmates, actually, but they never made me feel like a third wheel. One day, all of my friends went out on an errand, and when we came back, she was dead. She's been killed," at those words, I grip onto his hand tighter, a gesture of solidarity. "All of us left town after that. We couldn't handle everything. All of us were so heartbroken. I haven't seen any of them in years."

"Oh Jay," I feel his body start to shake with sobs as I pull him closer to me.

"I miss them; I miss them so much. It was like we were all destined to be best friends, but now we've been torn apart. I've tried to find them, I really have, but no one wants to be found. I spent so long looking for them until I finally had to give up."

"Can you tell me some about them?" I rub circles on his back, glad that he's opening up. He rests his head atop mine.

"The friend whose soulmate died, he's easily the smartest being I've ever met. He was special in all ways, and we all loved him for it. He could analyze anything and create efficient methods to get everything we needed to do. He was an amazing chef too. He was naive in some ways, innocent, but it added to his character."

"He sounds nice," I hum. He nods.

"One of my other friends was one of the most stubborn people I've ever met. He actually reminds me of you in some ways. You two have similar drives and emotions and things along that line. He was a charmer, using what he referred to as his "natural assets" to help him in life until he met the girl of his dreams. She made him better.

We also had a friend who was a bit younger than us. He was special, a natural light and a natural leader. Yes, he was a bit bratty at times, but his heart was massive. He never stopped caring for everyone. I really wish I could see how he is now."

"They both seem like amazing people."

"My best friend, Cole, oh I miss him so much. We would bicker sometimes, but at the end of the day he would always be there to catch me when I fell. He has a tough exterior, but he's the biggest softie I've ever met. When everything was happening, all I wanted to do was cry and talk to him about it. I tried, I really did, to find him, but there was no trace of him. He went off the grid," he sniffles before looking at me. "I prefer this life though. I prefer being with you. You've brought back joy into my life in a way that's stronger than I've ever felt. After everything happened, I wondered if it was even worth living anymore, but you've shown me that it definitely is. I want to be with you, forever and ever."

At the word forever, a truth dawns upon me, a harsh truth that I've subconsciously pushed to the depths of my brain. My heart falls from my chest.

My forever is going to be hundreds, if not thousands of years. Jay's will only be decades. He's going to grow old as I stay in this form, an 18 year old girl with a man in his 50's. We'll be questioned, I know it for sure.

Even with this tugging at my brain and heart, I can't get those 6 words out of my mouth. I need to tell him eventually, it's inevitable. There's no way that someone doesn't age except for being an elemental master. People have looked for fountains of youth, but there's nothing out there.

I am the master of water. The words sit on my tongue, yet they can't come out. Instead, I just rest my head on his shoulder, my heart aching.

"I'll be by your side, always."

---

*1 year later*

"Why did you bring me back here?" I ask my boyfriend as we hold hands. He told me that he wanted to go on an adventure, and although I was tired, he looked so excited. I couldn't fathom the thought of disappointing him, so I went along with him. While I expected to go somewhere in the woods, he brought me back to the place in the town that we met on that fateful night.

"Do you recognize it?" he asks, a cute little smile on his face. I soften up a bit.

"Of course, it's the place where we first met," I look around, the only thing missing being Zippy.

"'The city isn't safe at night,'" he repeats his first words to me, cupping my left shoulder with his hand. "When I woke up that morning, I had no idea how much my life would change that day. Letting you into my house, it was the best decision that I made in my entire life. From that day on, I've been happier, so much happier, and it's all thanks to you. You help keep me in check, provide me a shoulder to lean on, and simply light up my world. You even laugh at my jokes. I can't imagine a life without you.

We're soulmates. The thought of you being with anyone else, it makes me feel so sick. It makes me want to, ugh, punch something and then sulk in the corner. I want us to be together, not just together, but together until death do us part."

Slowly, he gets down on one knee, and my hands fly up to my mouth. I'm not one to cry, but I can't help it as my eyes well up with tears. He pulls out a beautifully crafted ring, a sapphire in the middle. "The past two and a half years, I want that to be our forever. I want you to be my wife. Nya, will you do me the honor of marrying me?"

I nod frantically, the tears starting to spill out of my eyes. His smile, the smile I'm madly in love with, grows bigger than I've ever seen it. He stands up, slipping the gemstone on my finger, as the two of us sob happy tears.

I pull him into my embrace, his skin tingling mine. This man, he's my everything.

"Jay Walker, it's always going to be you. Until the day I die, I'll be in love with you. It's scary to know that my heart already belongs to someone else for the rest of my life, but it also makes me happy. There's no one else in the realm that can ever make me feel how you make me feel. I love you."

---

*6 months later*

Today is the day, the day that I tell Jay that I'm the elemental master of water. I've been debating the matter. Our wedding is in two weeks, and it's not fair for him to marry me without knowing what he's getting himself into.

"He isn't going to leave you because of it, because of your association to the master of fire," I tell myself. If anyone is going to accept me, it's Jay. He'll accept all of me. It's still scary though. My deepest, darkest secret is about to be out in the open. I'm terrified.

As I near our front door, I hear something out of the ordinary. Slowing my steps, I inch forward to try to hear more.

"I'm glad to see you. I really am. I spent years looking for any of us, which was a very daunting and rather frightening task, may I add," Jay speaks aloud, taking a pause to drink something, a large slurping sound accompanying it. "But I have a life here. I have a fiance that I'm marrying in two weeks. She's my world. I can't just drop everything on a whim and help you. I'm usually impulsive but... but I'm not willing to risk what I've built here."

"I could not locate any of the others. It took me this long to even find you. Due to my calculations, it is probable that it will be decades until I find another one of our brothers to help me," a calculated, well spoken voice responds. My eyebrows furrow, not recognizing the voice.

"I want to help you, you all are like family to me, but I'm not missing my own wedding, nuh uh," I picture Jay crossing his arms.

"I am miserable without her. The world, it does not need me at the moment. It hates me. I just want to..." he abruptly stops. "There is someone here. I can sense it."

I immediately freeze. I assumed that I was being quiet, but clearly not quietly enough.

"I doubt it. No one ever comes here. Gotta keep the whole town at a distance for safety of course. It's sad, really, considering I lived here for so long with no one to talk to. It was so boring."

Against Jay's words, the owner of the voice audibly gets up. Instead of getting caught in the act, I walk forward and open the door as if I was just walking home.

In our living room, standing up across from my fiance, a tall, thin man stands. His hair is pure white, his eyes a sharp icy blue. Additionally, his skin is pale. Everything about him is light, almost to the degree where it is unnatural. It's as if he's the personification of snow. He tilts his head at me, trying to decide what to do next.

"Nya! You're home! How was work?" Jay jumps out of his chair, instantly rushing to give me a hug. He nuzzles his head in my neck as he grips onto me, leaning over.

"Good. Mr. Blake was only a little creepy today," I run a hand through his hair. "Who is this?"

Jay stands up straight, wrapping an arm around my waist. "This is one of my friends, Zane. He's the one that's crazy smart and is great at cooking. Zane, this my fiance, Nya. She's also crazy smart. She helps me troubleshoot my inventions."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Nya," he sticks his hand out for me to shake. I take it, instantly getting chills at the contact. His hand is freezing. I guess he recently came inside since it's cold out there and warm in here.

"Wow, one of Jay's friends is actually here. I never thought I would meet any of you," I admit, trying to take all of this new man in. While his demeanor is a kind one, I still feel threatened by him. He's a part of Jay's old life, and a part of me is afraid that it'll create a resurgence of the desire for that old life within Jay, that he'll want to leave what we've built on a whim. "Did you come for the wedding? I didn't know that Jay was able to find you to give you an invitation,"

Zane goes to talk, but Jay interrupts him immediately. "He came here for my help with a task out of town. He needs me to show him something in the Sea of Sands, but I told him I couldn't risk missing the wedding."

"Taking our past adventures into account, it should only take 8 days for you to get to the Sea of Sands and back. That provides a 6 day grace period," Zane turns to my soulmate. I see the pain in his eyes, shining past the vibrancy of the blue.

"I can come too. That way if one of us is late to the wedding, we both are," I suggest, and instead of seeing the grin of pure joy from my fiance, his expression is one of dread.

"No, no, no, no way," he tells me, no hesitation.

"I can handle myself."

"It's far too dangerous. There are lots of horrible people out there, and who knows what they'd do to you. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you," he runs one of his hands through my hair, looking deep into my eyes.

"I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you," I counter with the exact same statement. "If it's too dangerous for me, it's too dangerous for you." I cross my arms, firm in my view.

"Jay and I are both trained in various forms of martial arts, such as sikaran, judo, taekwondo, and tang soo do among others. There is a very low chance that Jay would come back with even a scratch upon his skin," Zane states. My eyes widen hearing that, and I turn to Jay who looks taken off guard.

"You are?"

"Yeah, guess it just never came up," he nervously laughs, scratching the back of his neck before looking at Zane. "Plus, I never even agreed to go with you."

"I need you, Jay. You are one of the only people I trust to take me there and complete the task. This is a necessity," he begs. The desperation in his eyes is visible.

"I don't think this is a good idea. This...it isn't the solution to your problems. It's just a bandage. We need to learn to keep going," Jay tries to tell him. Zane looks between Jay and I.

"I have tried for so long to keep going, but I cannot anymore," his eyes start to water. "Imagine if you were in my position, if you lost the one dearest to you and became shunned by the entire world. Would you not wish for the same thing?"

Zane's words cause Jay to hold onto me tighter. "Is this really what you want?" Jay asks him. While I'm confused, I can tell not to pry.

"Yes, yes it is."

"I'll help you."

---

"I don't want you to go," I hold onto Jay in our room, his packed bag sitting on our bed.

"I don't want to, either. I want to stay here with you, but I need to help Zane. He's way worse than I thought he was, and this will help him not suffer," he rubs circles on my back with his hands.

"What...what are you guys going to do?" his words concern me. I look back up at Jay.

"It's not important. What is important, however, is that you take care of everything while I'm gone. Zippy is going to be extra lonely since I'm taking Wisp, so make sure you provide extra love."

"I will," I decide not to question him. I cup the side of his face with my hand.

"If by some chance I don't come back, I need you to make me a promise."

"Jay," I scold him for even bringing up the idea of his demise.

"Promise me that you'll move on and live a happy life. Start a family, have kids, be happy. Don't waste your life mourning me. That's all I could ever wish for," tears form in both of our eyes simultaneously.

"Don't say that," I pound on his chest as my eyes water.

"Promise me," his voice quivers. I rest my forehead against his.

"I promise," once the words escape my lips, he slams his own against mine with a ferocity that I've never seen before. I return it instantly, gripping onto him with my hands. They explore everywhere, his sculpted abs, his firm chest, his strong biceps, before my left hand stays on his right shoulder, touching his tattoo.

That night, he made love to me incomparable to anything I have ever felt or ever would feel. I felt loved and cared for, special, in a way no one else could ever make me feel. I wanted him and only him for the rest of my life. Nothing else could ever compare, and I knew that. We had a love that I knew I could never match with anyone else.

Yet, I let him walk out of that door the next morning, promises that he would come back coming out of his mouth as he turned around the corner out of my vision, out of my life.

Ten days later, I got a letter saying that both he and Zane had been killed on the road, caught in the crossfires of battle. I fell to the ground, sobbing as my entire being broke. My heart was stolen from me, ripped apart and stomped on. I let the love of my life go, the man I swore that I would never let get hurt, the man I wanted to be with until he got old.

I could have prevented it. Had I gone and was honest with him, I could have protected him with my powers. I could have saved my soulmate from a premature death if I had just spoken up. It's my fault that he's dead, my fault that I'll never see him again.

The day that letter came, I knew the best time of my life had passed. The love I felt was never coming back. The pure joy I felt was never coming back. Everything else would be a cheap replica, never even coming close to the original.

Jay Walker was my person, and I let him get away. The person who would have to pay the price, the feeling of emptiness, is me. It'll always be me.

A/N: This was the last chapter set in the past! Let the present begin!

The rest of the story takes place in a time that is semi-modern. I'd place it around the mid to late 1800's, but without guns. I didn't want you all to be confused.

Sooo, thoughts on the chapter? It was a long one.

For all of you guys patiently waiting for Unscripted to come back, my ipad with the plans for it is at my mom's house, so I can't start writing it again until Monday, and then I'll transfer the plans onto my drive, so I can have them all the time. It is coming back soon though. It'll continue with the sporadic updates that I usually do, and this one will remain consistent.

For all of you not reading for Jaya, I'd like to reassure you that the other ships will be prevalent in the book too. I just had to focus in on Nya at the beginning for reasons that will be revealed soon.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! It's probably my favorite that I've written so far.

Don't forget to comment, vote, and share! The comments help motivate me to write faster, and as soon as I have all of the chapters done, I'll be posting more frequently!