West watched as the portal sliced open, revealing the Globe Gym's underground. Once familiar, now newly rebuilt and painted, the dimensions and architecture still made it recognizable. With a nod, he bid a silent farewell to Kai, and watched him go back to Baltimore.
After the Hostel HI and Calligan's brutal murder, Kai had confessed his apathy, and decision to leave. Perhaps in the rebuilding of Baltimore, where the Twilight was still a war zone filled with near-Abyssal nightmares, he could find himself again. If not, at least the moral slipslide he found himself on wouldn't do others harm.
West personally wondered if it were a good decision; sure, they could use him, but was returning to the city where The March Hare died really the answer? Did the new Guardian, Ekko, have anything to do with the decision? Either way, it didn't matter. As Sacramento's Magister, West could order him to stay. Yet, he would not. They had always been partners. Even now, no matter how they stood in the Arrow ranks, they were equals.
Certainly, in the past West had issued ultimatums, or demands, but they were the demands of a friend, in the name of the friendship, not an order from a superior. Likewise, when Kai told him he was leaving, it was a friend's farewell, and not a subordinate's rebellion.
Kai was one of West's last links to his life before Sacramento, and the last tangible reminder of Baltimore -- of what had happened there. This city had held many surprises, and some of those surprises were parts of secrets he had kept for years. He had come here with Chris, Diana, and Kai, and now only he remained.
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