This is the second-to-last chapter! Thank you so much for reading, and enjoy my final little epilogue.

BONUS ONESHOT
THE PEACEKEEPER

Anneliese Betheny Eyre Crimsen was an old woman. She was eighty-nine years old, pushing for ninety, her children joked, though she herself didn't think she would make it. No, she knew she wouldn't make it. Her body was frail, but she was hardy, and her mind was entirely there, but she had spoken with StarClan and knew her time was near.

She was hanging on for only one more thing: the birth of her first great-grandchild. Polly had informed her of what the Originals had told her about her position as Peacekeeper. She certainly didn't feel like a Peacekeeper but it did make a certain amount of sense.

Her great-granddaughter had been born two days previously. Aradina Anneliese Crimsen, the baby girl was named, her middle name coming from her great-grandmother Annie's own first name.

The baby's grandmother, Polly, the girl who had once been called Poolgaze, had, after several years of life in the human world, married Annie's own son, Mason. Sammy had a wife now, too—not Finchwing, of course; a sweet girl named Ella—but their only child never had his own children.

Annie's second son, Kyle, never married, being completely happy and satisfied without romance. And her only daughter, Holly, had several children, though none of them had children yet (one was expecting, but that didn't quite count). So thus Aradina was her first great-grandchild.

Annie's husband Ryan had passed away two years previously. She had been sad, but she spoke with him in StarClan. She knew she would see him again.

Annie wasn't sure how she knew it, but she did no one thing: Aradina Crimsen would be the next Peacekeeper after her own death. She had to stay alive, just to see the baby girl.

Aradina's parents were on their way with the baby girl. They lived half an hour away from Annie's retirement home. The father was her grandson, Alexander, the son of Polly and Mason. The mother was a wonderfully nice girl named Natalie Keep before her marriage. Annie loved them fondly.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in," she rasped.

In walked Alexander and Natalie. The young woman carried a sleeping baby in her arms, and both wore big smiles.

Annie smiled at them in return. "Alex," she greeted her grandson, "Natalie! It's wonderful to see you. And this must be baby Aradina!"

"Grandma," Alex greeted her gladly. Natalie smiled at her. "I suppose you'd like to hold her?"

Annie reached out her frail old arms and took the baby from Natalie. What a precious child. She had dark hair and skin like Natalie, but pale, wondrous eyes like Alex. She stroked a lock of hair out of Aradina's face, but the baby, waking up, grabbed her thumb.

Annie laughed. "She's beautiful."

"We named her after you, in part," Alexander said. Annie nodded. The boy was the spitting image of his grandfather in his youth—blond and bright-eyed. Mason and Polly had chosen well when they had given him "Ryan" as a middle name.

"We're going to call her Ara for short," Natalie said. "I think the name is pretty."

"Ara," Annie said gently. Ara giggled. Annie could sense something quite wonderful about this girl. She was special. She would go far. And she would be a good Peacekeeper, in the event the Warriors world needed more peacekeeping. There was still the possibility Dashwind could come back, after all.

Annie was satisfied. She was ready to die now, and she would do so as soon as Alex, Natalie, and Ara had left. But first she wanted to say something nice as her last recorded words.

She held out her arms to give baby Ara back to her parents. As Natalie held her baby, Annie said, "I'm very tired. Thank you for coming to see me, and for bringing the baby, but I'd like to nap now."

"Goodbye, Grandma," Alex said. Natalie murmured the same thing. As they were leaving, Annie called out one last thing.

"One more thing—always remember to tell her, when she's older, that she's not alone. Even when I've gone on—"

"Don't say things like that!" Alex protested, but Annie continued,

"—I'm with her, and so will you be," she said. "I'll always be with her." I'll guide you from StarClan, she though, because your fate as a Peacekeeper will not be easy. But it will not be lonely.

"We'll tell her," Natalie promised.

Annie nodded and smiled. Then they were gone.

She felt the weight of years upon her, and she prepared for death. This would be an easy death, unlike the others she had experienced as a Clan leader in both ThunderClan and ShadowClan.

Now for her actual last words, known only to herself and the ancestors watching her.

"Now I can truly be at peace," she said, "because there is a new Peacekeeper now. I'm ready, Ryan. Come and take me to StarClan."

She sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she had left her body.

Ryan stood beside her, smiling. Behind him were the four Originals she had unwillingly grown to know so well.

"Peacekeeper," they said as one, and bowed.

She grinned.

"Let's go," Ryan said.

"Yes, let's," Annie agreed, and he led her on into the future.

THE LAST END.