NOTICE TO ALL READERS:

"Tempest" is a sequel to my other story, "Inferno". If you have not read it, I suggest looking through the story pages here, or accessing it through my author page. You will not know the characters or past events and references unless you've read the story before this. Thank you!

"THE SOARING GRIFFIN", IN ORBIT AROUND EREBUS, 2 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS AGO

The large Tone exited the drop ship, and lumbered through the hangar. She seemed absentminded, as seen by the fact that several riflemen and Pilots had to quickly sidestep to avoid being trod upon under her large and heavy feet.

"KT!"

She stopped for a moment, but did not turn around. Gates quickly made her way next to the Titan, and looked up into the blue eye of her chassis.

"I know what just happened was awful, I… I can hardly believe it myself, but we have to pull through this." She gripped the edge of KT's leg, and shook it slightly as though to jostle some reassurance into her through force. "If we let ourselves fall apart, then we also destroy any hope we have of rescuing him. Be strong for him, please."

Slowly, KT's eye rotated to hold Gates in its field of view. She could sense the Titan analyzing her words of encouragement. Looking away, KT remained silent as she walked away towards the Titan barracks.

Gates just sighed, and sat down on the hangar floor. The rest of the 6-4 came over to her, noticing the odd exchange between the two.

"What was that about?" muttered Bear.

Gates shook her head sadly. Truthfully, she felt hopeless like the Titan; Four was a great friend to her as well. Maybe a little less than KT felt, considering the bond between the two of them. Never before had she seen such a bond between a Pilot and a Titan. She couldn't imagine what KT must be feeling, to have lost her other half twice now.

"Four stayed behind, made sure that the rest of us all got out safely."

For once, Davis had no smart quip to share. Droz simply looked at her. "He… he was the one who shut down the guns?"

She nodded. "That's not all. He's going to lay the groundwork for our victory. He's trying to plan ahead, for us to win this fight when the time comes for it. If there was a person more dedicated to bringing peace to the frontier, you'd be hard pressed to find 'em."

Gates looked out at where KT had disappeared off to. Unlike the Titan, she had to set an example and remain strong for the rest of the team. "I'm worried for her. How much damage a long-term separation from her pilot could do to her, how much trauma the AI mind can withstand before becoming corrupt. I can't see her linking with a new pilot either." She swallowed hard. "At this point, I doubt that there's any way she could form another emotional bond as strong as she's made with Four."

She looked back out the shields of the hangar, toward the dead planet of Erebus beyond.

"I hope each of them is strong enough to survive their ordeals alone."

TYPHON, PRESENT DAY

"…Commander Briggs, this is Gates of the 6-4. Are we late to the party?"

She heard an audible sigh of relief from the commander on the other end of the line. "You're just in time, Gates. How much juice do you have left in the Malta?"

Gates checked the control console of the ship they'd commandeered. "We've got plenty to spare. Don't worry, Coop, we've got your back!" She spoke on the open channel, trying to urge the newly-dubbed Pilot Cooper forward. He was the only one of them who could complete the mission at this point, their only hope of stopping the Ark in time.

Bear, standing next to her, quickly began to input some commands, then looked at the cliff-side where Cooper and BT were attempting to charge through. "Targeting systems online… we are weapons-hot!"

A Scorch standing in their way was quickly highlighted. "Firing! Danger close!" called Bear. The massive cannons of the Malta activated, sending a volley of destructive projectiles tearing through the scores of enemies on the cliff, and lessening the oppressive pressure on the pair.

"Firing!" Bear yelled again, and sent another salvo of missiles raining down on the enemy Titans. Mechanical limbs flew everywhere as their owners were blown to bits in order to clear the way for Cooper and BT.

Droz looked at a different monitor, one that was giving an odd reading. "Captain, you might want to look at this."

Hearing the urgent tone in his voice, Gates quickly moved to see what he was referring to. What she saw on the monitor made her freeze.

WARNING: INFERNO FLARE.

She looked at the readings, and saw that the energy signal that they'd used to find Typhon in the first place was indeed flaring up again. And she knew what that meant.

He's alive.

She pointed at Droz, standing by and waiting for her word. "Get a lock on that signal, find out where it is. They've got to have a record of where they're keeping him."

He nodded, and immediately went to work while she hailed Briggs on the radio again, this time on a closed channel. "Briggs, we may have found him."

"Him?"

She nodded, though Briggs couldn't see her. "Four! the Inferno, the one who led us here to Typhon in the first place!"

The commander sounded conflicted. "Gates…"

Gates was a bit unsettled by the tone in her voice. "What? What is it?"

Droz looked up. "I've got a hit, he's close! He's near the weapon, opposite of the way Cooper went!"

Briggs heard, and sighed over the comms. "I'm sorry. I know that we owe him, but… I can't justify risking more lives today for one man. For all we know, the reason he's survived this long is because he's working with them now."

Gates was shocked at the cynicism. "You want us... to leave him?"

"We don't have many options here, and our backs are against the wall to take out the Ark anyway. So yes... I hate to say that's an order."

She looked out to see the back of BT disappear into the complex as he and Cooper went to carry out the mission. She couldn't tell them to help and risk the primary mission, and Gates had a point. She wouldn't want to risk others' lives either.

But if they didn't do anything, then he might be left behind again. Might even be killed this time.

"Damn it all," she exclaimed, throwing proper judgement aside. She cut the connection with Briggs, and began issuing orders. "Bear, get us close to that cliff! I'm going to go get him."

She wasn't going to abandon him again.

Bear hesitated for only a moment before nodding. He knew what this meant to her and began nudging the Malta forward, closing the gap of several hundred meters until they were relatively close. Gates stepped out through the broken window that BT had smashed earlier, and began to race towards the nose of the ship.

"Get a Widow ready! If I'm not back in ten minutes, then get out of here!" She picked up speed as she ran, making her legs work with the strength that only a Pilot's legs would gain after the grueling training they all went through.

Finally reaching the end of ground to stand on, she leapt off towards the cliff face. She definitely had enough force to propel herself far enough, and would more than land in the safe zone of ground below. Using her jump kit right before she hit the ground to slow her massive momentum, she landed neatly and looked up to one of several frigates in orbit above, the ones waiting around Typhon for the rest of the Militia forces to evac.

She held a hand up to her helmet, changing frequencies. "This is Captain Gates, requesting a Titanfall at this position," she said, using her wrist interface to select a small are a few meters in front of her.

It was time to finish this.

…

KT felt herself activate in her titanfall pod, confused as to why. She wasn't supposed to be activated for battle, they had other Titans for that. It was standard regulation to refrain from having an unattended Titan engaged on the battlefield, so why-

"KT, this is Gates. I'm going to need you down here."

She paused. The Captain was an old friend, but surely would be more than capable without her. Still, she was willing to help. "Understood. I am ready to provide assistance."

She could hear Gates sigh on the comms as her pod was jettisoned down below. Was it something she said?

No matter. She would find out in a few seconds.

As the pod broke through the thick layers of atmosphere, it began a stripping procedure. Parts of the shell began to tear away, now that aerodynamics were becoming less important. Now she was simply a Titan descending through the atmosphere, preparing to land on the ground below. She spotted the marked point below her as the ground rushed up to meet her. With a massive crunch of the concrete beneath her feet, she absorbed the impact and looked up at the helmet of Gates.

"KT-0298, operational and ready."

Gates waved her forward. "Come on, it's this way." She began to run into the facility, with the Titan coming from behind.

"You're not going to believe this," explained Gates, "but it's really happening. We're gonna do it."

"To what are you referring?" questioned the Titan."

"We found him. We found Tobias. And we're rescuing him."

Gates could see something in that blue eye of hers, something she hadn't seen in a long time. Something threatened to break through KT's curt and uncaring demeanor. Threatened to crush the unemotional facade she'd placed around herself for the few years.

But it was held at bay.

"Retrieving Pilot Four would indeed be a welcome objective," agreed KT.

Gates shook her head sadly. The Titan herself didn't even realize how much she used to miss Four, not since she'd chosen to limit her emotional processors. Back then, Gates had approved of her choice; it had been obvious that the Titan was hurting too much to function without her other half.

But now, she acted similarly to a mindless Titan that had just come off the shelves, one without a strong bond with its Pilot. KT couldn't feel how close she and Four had once been.

"Captain," came Droz's voice, "take a left. You'll have to head down a big hall, but you'll find a holding area or something at the back."

"Copy that," she replied, "Gates out."

Together, she and KT ran past the bodies of IMC grunts that Cooper and BT had killed upon coming through here. Taking the left as Droz had advised, they were met with a steep inclination. Indeed, there seemed to be stations for guards and other personnel every so often; a good sign that they were protecting something that needed lots of security.

As they passed through the facility, she couldn't help but see several rooms with garage-like doors. Some of them had instruments of torture; knives, needles, chemicals that were likely meant to attack the nervous system. She shuddered, hesitant to imagine the horrors that they must have performed on Four for experimentation on the Inferno.

Finally, they came to an end. A large door that slid into the ceiling was locked in place, barring their entry. Red lights adorned the sides of the door, an indication that something had gone wrong. Hopefully, it was just noticing the lack of living personnel in the area, and not a lack of life within its walls.

"I can't get this door open KT, I need-"

She hadn't finished her sentence before the Titan had moved forward and placed one of her hands against the door to steady herself. Forming a fist with the other hand, she began to repeatedly slam it into the door.

WHAM.

The door dented where she'd hit it, and dust began to fall from the sides of the cell as the supports cracked.

WHAM.

The door was only able to withstand one more hit from the Titan before it made a loud crunching noise and fell forward, its link to the ceiling having been severed. Light shone in from the outside, illuminating the nearly pitch-black room and the single occupant inside.

Four.

He looked up, and noticed the Titan staring him in the face, as well as Gates next to her. She saw the smallest of sparks ignite in his eyes.

"Tobias," she breathed. He seemed to have a look of joy on his face for a brief moment, but it quickly darkened and he faced away from them.

KT crouched down, and leaned in to examine him. Gates ran to his side, and looked at his restraints. Both hands were pulled away from each other, locked in metal clamps that were hooked up with elastic cable to the edges of the ceiling. She tried to disable them, all while looking over his body.

He was naked save for a single bloodied garment around his waist and lower region. It allowed her to see the damage for herself; angry red scars crossed his body, gashes and still-healing wounds were layered over one another everywhere she could see. There was an especially nasty mark across his stomach. She was shocked to see that the hand she was trying to break out of the cuff, his left hand, was missing his ring and pinky fingers above the first knuckle; it appeared that they had been cut off.

"It appears that Pilot Four has been severely injured," stated KT matter-of-factly.

Gates glared at her and hissed, "Can't you show a bit more concern than that?! Dammit, you don't even realize do you?" Angered with this unfamiliar emotionless personality of KT's, she looked back to Tobias.

"Four, can you hear me? Tobias!" she spoke urgently, trying to get his attention. "We need to get out of here, there's not much time!"

He muttered something under his breath, something neither she nor KT could hear. "What?"

He looked up at them, his eyes narrowed and no longer with that spark of hope. "It's a trick, isn't it? This is just the latest trick you're all using on me, trying to get me to talk. I don't know what the hell kind of Titan that is," he spat, nodding his head toward the mech, "but there's no way that's Kay. No way…"

Gates groaned, realizing he didn't recognize KT's new chassis class. "We don't have time for this- KT, break the cuffs!"

Obliging, the Titan reached forward and snapped the metallic restraints into pieces. Tobias fell to the ground, and wasted no time in trying to fight who he thought was his captors. Fortunately, his strength had deteriorated over years of malnourishment and imprisonment, and Gates was easily able to catch his slow fist.

"Put him in, KT. There's no way he'll be able to keep up with us."

Though he still resisted and squirmed, the Titan picked him up and placed him in her hull. He fell silent, probably thinking that he was going remain silent if they tried to interrogate him.

"Captain!" Bear's voice came through the comms, worried and loud.

"I'm here!" she called, waving to let KT know to follow her. The Titan obeyed, her footsteps echoing through the halls. Together, they ran as Bear tried to talk.

"Cooper and BT are going to blow up the Ark! You need to get out; once that much energy's released, the whole planet could crack apart!"

"Copy that, get that dropship over here and get the Malta clear of the atmosphere!" she yelled back.

Exiting the facility and making their way back to the cliff, Gates spied the growing shape of a Widow approaching them. Within seconds, it pulled up next to the cliff. Only a small jump was needed to ensure that both she and KT were once again in relative safety.

"Punch it!" she shouted at the pilot. He didn't respond, but she felt the g-force as the Widow sped up and away into the air.

Gates looked at KT, and then to her hull where Tobias resided inside. She sighed.

"Even if you don't believe it, Four… you're safe now. You're going home."

She shook her head. "I just hope that both you and KT can recover enough to mend the broken bond between the two of you."

A/N: And, we have arrived at the sequel to Inferno; Tempest.

As we can see, our main characters are a bit worse for wear at the start here; Tobias is stricken with PTSD and refuses to believe that he's really being rescued, while KT has let go of her former emotions in order to escape the pain of being without her Pilot; she literally cannot feel emotion like she used to until she stops suppressing those processors. How long will it take for them both to heal and regain that unshakable friendship between the two of them?

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Until the next time,

- Matteoarts