Disclaimer – Firewing belongs to Kenneth Oppel. All recognizable characters are his creation and belong to him. The song from which I took the title is by Audioslave and called "The Last Remaining Light."

Author Notes – I think this may be the only Silverwing trilogy fic on this site. is happy If I slaughtered the characters, I apologize. I didn't mean to, but I'm afraid the end of Firewing did not do good for me. I needed more reaction, and this is it. This is a two part fic. Hopefully I made thing believable. I know the title is a bit too much, but I was inspired, and I love Audioslave. I'm expecting reaction here. I don't think many have read the Silverwing trilogy thus far. But I tried!

Oh, yeah, and to Jerikor, who has no idea I wrote this, you see what this book did to me?! Anyhow… hope you like it.

-KrystalBlaze

Heaven Wait For Those Who Run

-----

Seven moons and seven suns
Heaven wait for those who run
Down your winter and underneath your waves
Where you watch and you wait
And pray for the day

-The Last Remaining Light, Audioslave

-----

Is death the last sleep? No--it is the last and final awakening.
--Sir Walter Scott

-----

The first thing Griffin noticed as he broke reluctantly from his mother's embrace was the two males roosted directly behind her. He couldn't help but stare at them a moment before tearing his gaze away to feast on the sight of Tree Haven. It wasn't that the sight of full grown males alarmed or frightened him; it was the fact there were only two of them and they shouldn't even have come for a while. And the fact they staring right at him.

He looked out at the other Silverwings gathered around the elders. The fact there were so many astounded him. It was still full-fledged night outside. It seemed as if the entire colony had come reeling back in to hear the whole story of how one dead Silverwing had come back to life and how one thought dead Silverwing was apparently alive. Luna and Roma were still embracing, wings wrapped tightly around each other. Another male was huddled close to them, and Griffin figured he must be Luna's father. Smiling slightly at that, Griffin looked back at the two males whom he did not know, whose gaze had lingered upon him.

One was obviously an older male who looked even older than most. His eyes were small and jaded, as if deadened with more years than those earned to him. He hung from his roost, wings limp around him as if he were expecting something to strike him. The other was younger, possibly out of the same batch of newborns as Shade had been. His chest and wings were broad, flexed with muscles and power. Scars ran like lightning across his body, and at places his fur was matted. The smell of him was… familiar and Griffin frowned. To his very right sat Savannah, a Silverwing female and her newborn, Skye.

Chinook.The name came to Griffin suddenly. Of course! Chinook had been with Shade when the disk had dropped in the jungle, when both had been consumed by the fire. It allotted for the scars and matted fur. Griffin remembered back the first days after his birth, when the males from Stone Hold had pressed their faces to all the newborns, memorizing the smell of them. Chinook had been one of the males at that time. That was why Griffin remembered the scent.

Griffin was just about to call Chinook when he suddenly realized something: Chinook was Shade's best friend and adopted brother. Dread stole home into his heart. He would be called to speak soon now, to tell the story of what had happened in the Underworld. He had told Marina in a tortured whisper only that Shade had died in the Underworld, giving no details how or why. How could he tell her, the entire colony, that Shade Silverwing, the hero who had brought back the sun and had won peace with the owls, had died to save him?

Hot guilt boiled in his stomach, and his mouth went very dry. He swallowed. He wanted to fly away to a place where no one would see him, where he would not have to witness the pain in Marina's eyes any longer. He watched numbly as Ariel fluttered over from her perch with the elders, a look of trepidation on her face. He watched, still numbly, as Marina brought her tear streaked face to his grandmother's and whispered something in her ear.

Ariel rocked back, as if struck. She stared at Marina, as if not believing the words that had passed her lips. At the sight of this, his grandmother bearing the news of the death of her son, Griffin fought the urge to retch and never stop. This was because of him. His father was dead because of him. Ariel had lost her son, and Marina her mate, because of him and his weakness to not fight off the cannibal bat a second longer.

The old male Griffin had spotted earlier took flight at the sight of Ariel, fluttering over to where Lucretia was watching Ariel rock with a look of sorrow on her face. The old male spoke quickly, and when the chief elder nodded, he raised his voice for the colony to hear.

"Silverwings!" he bellowed. "I know you are all very anxious to know how Luna and Griffin returned to us, but right now we must let them rest. They had come through a very long journey and are very tired. I ask you all to give them time with their families until they are ready to tell their story."

Immediately, many of the Silverwings took flight, heading back out into the dark night to continue their hunt while others flew to find roosts away from the grieving group of Shade's family. Lucretia raised her voice to them. "Ariel, Marina, Roma – when you are ready, come to speak with me. Take all the time you need." At that all the elders took flight and spiraled up to the top of the Tree Haven where they usually slept.

Luna, Roma and her father flew closer. Chinook spoke to Savannah, and she nodded, taking Skye to find a place to roost. He and the old male came together, so that the eight of them formed a small circle. Marina closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then looked at Chinook and the old male. "Chinook, Cassiel… Shade is dead."

Cassiel?Griffin wanted to fall from his roost and die right then, just as his father had done, just as Cassiel's son had done. He couldn't look at his grandfather, let alone anything else. He kept his eyes focused on a spot below Luna's head. A howl of misery rose in Griffin. He tried to shut his ears to Chinook's grunt of disbelief and Cassiel's cry of pain. He chanced a look up, and saw all eyes had turned to him.

Griffin, at that moment, would have given anything to be anywhere else, to be anyone else. He'd take killing Luna again, that moment of eternity which contained his guilt; he'd take Goth's teeth ripping through his shoulder; he'd take all his trek through the Underworld; he'd take his death and keep it this time if he could just get away, make them not look at him with that hideous accusation in their eyes.

Chinook took a shuddering breath, and now looked at Marina. "I don't understand," he said, tone oddly emotionless. "Griffin, what happened? Shade… Shade's not dead, right? Because… because nothing could kill Shade. Marina? You're mistaken, right? Because you have to be, because nothing could kill Shade."

Ariel began to cry, a low whimper rising from her throat. Cassiel placed his wing around her, enfolding her completely and shielding her from view. Marina's grief seemed to be blocked – or perhaps she was blocking it herself – because all she could do was gaze forward sightlessly, eyes blank and pallid.

Luna cleared her throat, and now all eyes turned to her. Griffin sagged in his perch, grateful to have all eyes no longer on him, although Chinook gazed at him a moment longer than the others before turning his attention to Luna. She spoke softly, voice quavering. "I know happened and I'll… I can tell you… but I have to tell you the whole thing. You won't understand if you don't hear it all."

Chinook made a sound of impatience in his throat, and so Luna began her take. At times she would look at Griffin, as if expecting him to jump him, but he did not speak. He feared that if he opened his mouth he would scream the scream of misery and agony that had steadily built inside of him.

She told them about the Oasis, about meeting with Griffin and not knowing what to do, about how Frieda had sung for Griffin the map, about traveling to the cactus, the Cave of Mourners, meeting with Shade, falling and losing him, meeting Java and Yorick and Nemo and Murk, the water maze, Dante and his followers, and finally the Tree.

Here she faltered as she spoke of Goth's disguise and how Griffin had been killed. At this, Marina's face clouded with anger, and she turned to Griffin and enfolded him in her wings, snarling breath in his ear. He was surprised.

"And then Shade and the Pilgrims showed up. They tried to stop the cannibal from going to the Tree, but he beat them to it. When Griffin woke up, he was dead, of course… and Shade told him to wait, he'd be back and to do what he told him to do. Shade flew up towards the sky at least a hundred wingbeats and just… he just fell."

Marina's breath went quiet in his ear, and she pulled away from him, a moan of agony sweeping past her lips. Her tears moistened his fur. Chinook made an odd sound in his throat and suddenly went tearing out of Tree Haven into the paling sky. Cassiel looked at Ariel quickly, the tears starting to fall from his face. When she nodded mutely, he launched himself from his perch and went tearing down, following Chinook's path.

Luna continued, her voice hushed and oddly cracking as she finished the story. "His life came up from his body, and Griffin and I took it. We put Shade on Java's back and then we went into the tree. We came out over the forest and… and we got here." She reeled backed into her mother, who wrapped her wings around her daughter.

For a long moment, no one said anything. Ariel and Marina were looking at each other, eyes both dazed and teary. Griffin wanted to curl into a ball of fur and bone, and be nothing but that – fur and bone. He should be dead now. He would have been dead if not for Shade, if not for his hero father.

He watched Marina unclench from her perch and move to Ariel's side, where the two wrapped wings around each other. Luna, Roma and her father fluttered from their perch and over to the pair. He could hardly stand to hear Roma's quick apology and thanks for Shade's sacrifice. He wanted his ears to so badly burn off when Roma stopped by him, too, and thanked him for bringing Luna back and not leaving her when he could have so many times. They left then, Luna nuzzling his face before departing.

Marina called to him softly, and he fluttered over to his mother and grandmother. They hung for a lone while. Griffin busied himself with staring at the paling sky, watching as the night gave way to light. After a time, Ariel lifted herself heavily from her roost and hovered in front of mother and son.

"Marina…" Ariel paused, took a breath, and went on. "I will make arrangements with the elders… for the echo chamber…"

"No, Ariel," Marina whispered, voice hoarse. "Please, no. This is too… it's too personal for there. Shade was a hero. Let him always be a hero in there, but not in his death." She drew a wing around Griffin. "Not Shade's death in that place. He's already more everyone else's than mine… please, Ariel."

His grandmother blinked for a moment, looking flustered, but then nodded painfully. When she spoke, her words were strangely cold. "Yes, of course, Marina. He was your mate. As you wish." She flapped upward. "I shall speak with the elders. Don't bother, Marina." Ariel turned her gaze to Griffin. "And get some rest, Griffin. You… I'll be back later," she said lamely and swept upward.

It was quiet again. Griffin watched the other Silverwings returning from their night's hunt, flushed and apparently content. He wanted to lash out at them, at all of them. How could they be so content with Shade's death so here, so new and fresh. He could barely look at his mother; her eyes were so wounded, and just now he realized she was trembling. When she saw him staring, she grinned a grin that looked more like a grimace.

"I know it'll be hard, Griffin," she said softly. "I know it'll be… it will get better…" She stopped herself, and the tears misting in her eyes began to fall.

He hated himself right then. He wanted to freefall to the bottom of Tree Haven, just as his father had. He wanted to burst himself back into the Underworld and travel back to the Tree. He would find his living father and force him into the Tree. It wasn't fair! Perhaps he could travel to find that god Cama Zotz. Somehow he would make him see; make him exchange life for life. He would kill himself as Shade had and force his father to drink his life… and then he remembered Shade had passed through the Tree, and Cama Zotz could not venture into Nocturna's realm.

He wanted to cry, but held it in. He shuffled closer to his mother, nudging her and nuzzling her face. He wanted to apologize for the lost of her mate, but knew she would just get angry at him for believing the death his fault, even though he knew it was true. She would not see that and just get angry at him. He held his wings close to his body, shivering.

Marina nuzzled him. "Sleep, Griffin," she whispered. "Sleep."

He turned away from her, from the love and light in her voice, hating it and hating himself even more.

--------