A/N: HELP! I NEED A FAVOR! for those of you who have read the first chapter of Night of a New Dawning, one of my other fics, I need your help! I've already started working on my sequel to this story, and won't have any time to work on 'NoaND', so if anyone has an idea for that fic, type up the next chapter and e-mail it to me. PLEASE! HELP ME OUT HERE!

prin69: so happy you love the new characters! I SOO now how cats think you're crazy! I'll b on the phone, and one of four will stare at me like I'm talking to myself!

L.C. Brotherton: I'm glad you like the teasers I put at the end, I thought it would be a good idea. yeah, well, Mike is a big Star Wars fan (like me! so is Nick!) so since I wouldn't let his character be Boba Fett, he just took out one of the 'b's. :P Glad you liked the end!

Iara: thanks tons! so happy you like Nemay!

Vee017: more of the brother? wow, I feel special:) most people don't like original characters, but you want MORE? YAY! :dances around room: oh, no, I don' think I'm putting Jade and Achilles together at this point. I'm not really sure. why is it Nietzschean males can have 20 wives, but the chicks can't have 20 husbands?

Jamieson Z: lol! yeah, Jade is so much fun to play with:P

Dancer of Dreams: glad you liked it!

isabel: achilles is there, don't worry! you'll run back into him in chap39 or chap40 I believe! glad you liked him!

POLL: Which O/C is you're favorite in 'Echoes'? (not counting any Rhade's, meaning no Veghn or Jade)

Chapter 37

Jade went to the refrigerated storage bins that served as coffins for Cynthia, Giani, Corrin, and Tuna. She had lived with these pilots, ate with them, suffered with them and fought with them. Now over half of them were dead. Herself, Nuria, and Achilles were the only ones who had made it through relatively unscathed. Winter had lapsed into a coma, and Boa had said that he would do what he could for her, but he had very limited medical experience. Jade wasn't entirely sure about Xena. She understood that the other Nietzschean had done what she had done for a good reason, but after all Jade had suffered through, her forgiveness was in short supply. She heard footsteps approaching from behind her. "What happened?" she asked. "How did we escape?"

Telemachus sat down beside her. "After we pulled you and the others out of your..." he paused, "...cell, Xena overpowered Shauna and used her as a hostage, therefore taking over the Dragans' ship. When we got back to Nemay and Boa's ship, Xena activated a remote she had hotwired into the Slipstream drives of all the enemy fleet. All of the Drago-Katsov are now floating helplessly in the 'Stream," he finished, his tone indicating he thought they deserved it.

Jade turned and looked at him. "Why am I alive, and they are dead?" she asked hollowly. "They were my family, my Pride."

Telemachus gathered his little sister into his arms. He knew that logic explained why all the pilots who were Nietzschean had survived relatively unscathed, but logic wouldn't ease the survivor's guilt.

Jade was crying into his shoulder. For some time the brother and sister sat together on the cold metal decking of the ship. "Shhh," Telemachus whispered, stroking her hair. "It'll be alright."

Jade pulled away, wiping at her eyes. "Am I still a Rhade?" she asked as fresh tears formed in her eyes but did not fall. "Do I still have a Pride to belong to?"

"Of course you're a Rhade," Telemachus replied softly. "And when this war with the Collectors is finally over, we will have a home to go back to." He grasped her shoulders firmly. "You are Jade Rhade, out of Majoram by Rhade." Now it was his turn for tears in his eyes. "Why didn't you come back to us?"

"I... couldn't," Jade sobbed. "After all the things I had done to stay alive, I could never return to the girl I had been, Atlanta Rhade."

Telemachus hugged her as she began to cry again, murmuring soft words, trying to comfort his baby sister. "Don't worry," he whispered. "Everything will be alright. You'll always have me."

"Promise?"

Telemachus smiled. "I promise."

A/N: completely pointless chapter, definitely NOT one of my best. I got lazy here, so they'll be short chapters until Chap41-42 which are my finale chapters. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there is an end in sight! I've already started the 'Echoes'sequel, and really, chap42 IS the final chapter! I've decided to move the tragedy until the sequel and just leave 'echoes' off with a big shocker. That's all I'll tell you:P

Preview chap38: Super-short chappie w/ Gaheris, Trance and Veghn.