Come on, Load!

Was the last thing Simon had heard before being awoken in an area completely new.

He stood from his chair and took a look around, "Is this-Did it work?" he asked himself.

He studied his "human" hands with an almost childish fascination, lacking the luxury of skin for so long. Simon had lost all sense of any time whilst on Pathos-II but he could only guess how long it had been.

Simon started off further into the cave he'd awoken in, seeing vines drape from the ceilings, letting in light from the outside. He looked at the beautiful purple flowers that rested on the vines before moving on, the stalactites and stalagmites looking rather treacherous. Though now that he thought about it, rocks were the least of his fears at this point. As Simon ventured only slightly further through the cave he saw day break through the rocky outcropping. Raising an arm to shield him from the sun's blazing streams of light he stepped outside.

Simon was caught off guard as he looked at the beautiful green foliage, the birds chirping somewhere distant. He looked to his right and saw the beautiful river and waterfall. Even in the events of the last few days' weeks' hell months' even, he still found beauty in the flowing of the water, and the way it crashed over the rocks that lay in the middle of the small stream. He walked towards it carefully, bending down and placing a hand into the liquid.

The water curled and broke around his fingers as it should, the cold and wet sensation of water trailing across his fingertips. He drew back his hand and shook off the small droplets of water still clinging to his hand before looking back up again.

He walked a bit more, to a wooden bridge in which a terminal had been placed. Simon gave it a glancing look and continued. He might puke if he saw another terminal anytime soon.

He walked slowly and took in the glory of it all. The rocks, the flowers, the grass, the trees, the sky, the...clouds.

Simon felt the smile on his face fade for a moment as he thought about something Catherine had said to him, about how she would watch the clouds roll by. He found himself plagued by her memory and suddenly, he had to see her. She had to be here somewhere, she'd been scanned first after all. He picked up his slow pace as he passed through a small enclosure of rocks and felt the ground beneath his feet shift from dirt to sand. He let his hand skim across the rough edge of the rock wall before rounding the corner and seeing a familiar figure, facing the ocean and clad in navy blue and yellow attire.

"Catherine?" he found himself calling out to her.

She couldn't hear his half-hearted question, his throat choking back the tears that threatened to pour from his eyes at any moment. He took a few more timid steps closer and saw the figure in a much more refined detail. He could see strands of her hair floating loosely in the small gusts of wind. The pale skin on the back of her neck, the same pale skin that had kept him sane, the same black haired girl who had put everything she had on him in no time flat, the one who trusted him, the one who cared for him, even if he dare thought it needed him…

He stopped in his tracks as the realization hit him, it actually was Catherine.

"Catherine!" he choked out, his smile genuine and his arms wide open.

Catherine twirled to face him, as soon as her eyes had even caught a glimpse of him her arms opened as well, both walking towards each other in the sand.

Simon grabbed her and wrapped her small body into his, her arms wrapping around his back almost instinctively. In that very moment, it felt as if their bodies had been made to fit each others'. Simon held Catherine their for a while, letting the reality of it all sink in. They had made it, on the ARK. Where they would survive for thousands of years in the vastness of space. The thought made him anxious, but the smell of...Catherine calmed him. He had never seen or felt Catherine anywhere but on a screen, but the smell was so-her. There was no way to truly describe it.

Catherine gently broke the embrace just enough to look Simon in the eyes, his actual eyes, for the first time. Catherine had never seen him before but this is exactly what she'd pictured him as. She smiled as they looked into each other's eyes.

Simon returned the smile before speaking, "I can't believe we made it."

Catherine listened to his soft voice resonate through her ears and into her soul as she tried to think of a response that would even remotely explain her feelings.

"I know, but all that matters is that it's alright now Simon. Everything's alright." she said before pulling her head back into his chest, his chin resting on the top of her head.

They stayed there for a very long time.