A/N: The conclusion to The Dead trilogy...
It was a consciousness that came alive with the quick firing of neurons and synapsis; her entire being rebooting like a computer as the entity that had been dead for a millennia was suddenly breathing again.
As if no time had past for her.
And yet something was different.
Tatia found her image reflected in the mirror, examining her face and realizing that though it was the same one she wore all those centuries ago, she barely recognized herself. Memories came surging forward to the surface and she nearly collapsed from the sheer force of it. Then she knew.
Tatia barely recognized herself because she saw all of them in her face. She had lived their lives and seen through their eyes; felt with the same hands and yet each one experienced different emotions and sensations. All of her lives were merging into one and she was the walking-talking encompassment of them. Taita was the beginning and the end; the first, unfulfilled and the last, bursting at the seems with experiences and feelings.
The Alpha and the Omega.
Tracing her fingers over her face, through her hair, over her heart, Tatia finally felt whole. She had been given another chance to correct her mistakes, both as Tatia and as Emiliyah. There would be justice, she vowed.