ooooooo0000oooooo

Is this how it happens now….

After ten eternities of waiting fretting then screaming and crying the group of three forlorn tired soldiers looked down their time of waiting finished as the world was engulfed again.

This is the time of the renewal. The three seemed to speak as one. The chosen one, his knowledge of his impending end died for everyone. The great harmony promised by the final destruction of the fourteen emeralds the rebirth of the star seed is finally here and we stand ready to take our own in a heaven that was barred from us

Yes for death was in the cycle of our destiny and out spirits go with the curse of the emeralds. But what of
his spirit one breaks off and inquires. What of him and they who carried the phima seeds will they ever be whole again?

They are whole the second replies. Because their curse would have been our curse one day for though we died in a way as the chosen one did our work had not been complete.

But its finished now. And now begins the unknown.


--------------






The end is at the beginning.

How can it be? Perhaps it is irony, that we come here to a grateful city which has seen its grievances vanish as those of my city did on the fateful day it died. It is, unlike many other cities, once again teeming as it did in the days before the terror, the trials and the downfalls.

I look up at the interior window which I had entered in so long ago, when I last came here. It is still broken. Of course, this city has had many more things to think of than a small broken window. Especially these past five months.

But now, that part is over.

I stand with Kakyuu in front of the small podium, my arms around her shoulders. The police lines are still strewn in front of it. They launched an investigation when they found the Heart of Hestia to be missing. Now, the case is closed, for the police know why it was stolen by a common thief who was once like them.

But so much has changed since that day. The world is different in every way. The universe I once thought I knew, now torn down and being rebuilt.

The power has shifted again, as it always must, to one. She sits in Crystal Tokyo, awaiting the debates which rage here. Is a queen of Earth neo-colonialist? They don't know. But the miracle which put
her in the title has changed several minds, even Fortinbras'. The fate of Serenity's rule hangs in the hands of the United Nations, and I think I have no doubt of the final verdict.

But not everything is clear to me.

Sonic and Knuckles, their powers are still within them, though lessened but he who opened them, the poor child, is gone, melded with the earth, his soul manifest forever in the new Silver Crystal which powers the new order. I doubt that we will see the
phima, they who stop that which creates unjust chaos and greed begot by power, in our lifetime again. Their purpose is as finished as the Chaos Emeralds are. But I would say that it is the nature for them to defend that sacred power and discard of power which is too volatile for mortal hands. Will Tails appear again to answer that call as well, when the phima are called again? What of Sonic's realization of that destiny? Will he ever....

Perhaps I am being superficial in that sense. Here I am, pondering the paths of others when I myself am still unsure of my path.

There are many places I can go from this moment, looking onto the light of the empty gem room. There is always beloved Mobius, where my son, Julie-Su, and their child await me. Where those lands which I have lived upon all my life need me as if I am still Guardian. But I am not.

Then there is the world that I have come to know as one that needs my help. Earth, with its many people, are in need of those who will help them arise from the eternal despair that they are upon. Even with the new power, there are places which need hands to guide them.

But there is also Kakyuu.

I never felt this way around a woman before, and now I am at a loss. I wish to make her happy, and she is happy around me. But I cannot watch her suffer at the hands of her countrymen, when she returns with a creature like me. And she must go back.

If I return with her, I know what will face her. She, and I, rejected becoause of our status as a couple, because of who I am. Our children, if we ever have any, regarded as mongrels. I can never marry her because of my own marital status, and even then I might never be known as Kakyuu's companion - I would be her 'pimp', her 'clairvoyant', a man spoken of with inferted whispers. To watch another woman I have affection for suffer again - the first time, I didn't notice. The second time was something I couldn't understand. The third time, already I have seen it and cannot bear it. I'm not sure if my body will allow me to accept it again.

But I wish to be with her. The choices seem so difficult, and for some reason I feel willing to put her through all that on her kingdom. Why?

I feel Kakyuu shifting in my arms, and I understand why. Because she's willing to put up with it. Isn't that what ife is, putting up with things you expect, and preparing for things you cannot expect?

Perhaps that is why, in the seat of powers, all I have come to know are breathing easier. Fate, when it isn't known, seems kinder. You're not rushed, I suppose. I know the feeling of urgency with fate, when I was presented with the Creed and forced to play it out, being God. For isn't knowing fate the same thing as being God?

Maybe that is why Tails is gone. Because such knowledge, when little is given, can be fine. In larger quantities, dangerous.

As for me, I am completely free again. There's nothing I need to expect anymore, because all I know has been fulfilled. I can wake up again and wonder, every morning, what I'm going to do.

I can finally live with tomorrow.


THE END