The Finale

Early the next morning, the sun had barely risen over the tree line. Its first beams, as pesky as ever, filtered their way through a slightly open window and right onto Capricorn's closed eyes. Mumbling something profane under her breath, she rolled over before sitting up on her bed.

"What time is it…?" she yawned, reaching for her alarm clock, which had (yet again) failed to wake her. 6:37. "Damn…" she muttered sleepily, running a hand through her messy hair. She hopped off her bed and checked her laptop for any messages before strolling over to her dresser and pulling out a sleeveless shirt and a baggy pair of black pants.

After taking her shower, Capricorn quickly got dressed, ran her brush through her now unruly hair, and grabbed her rapier off her desk. She strapped the weapon to her belt, pausing only to pull on her boots, before she opened the door and headed down the hallway.

"Morning." she muttered to a nearby soldier, quickly pushing the key code into the door. After three unsuccessful attempts, the door slid open and Capricorn continued her morning walk.

"Good morning, Miss Capricorn!" Christy chirped as Capricorn finally walked into the mess hall, "Master Forcystus told me to tell you that he'd be overseeing the minor repairs on the Mana Reactor this morning, so if you need to find him, that's where he'll be." Capricorn nodded in response.

"Thanks, Christy." she said, picking out her mug from a cluster on a table and filling it with tea or some sort. She took a long gulp and turned to Chrisanthy.

"Oh, by the way, is Shiru up yet?" she asked, seating herself at a nearby table, "I'd like to ask her a question or two today." Chrisanthy shook her head, chocolate hair falling out of her loose ponytail and into her eyes.

"No, she's up, but she left a little while ago to go on a walk in the forest with Lord Raishin of the Palmacosta Ranch." she replied matter-of-factly, hurriedly shoving the tendrils of hair out of her face.

"Alright," Capricorn started, quickly downing the last of her tea, "I'll catch her later, then. Right now I've got to go see Master Forcystus." She stood, placing her mug on the dish rack. "I'll be back later, Christy… make sure you tell Shiru that I wanted to talk to her, m'kay?"

The Official Desian recorder gave an enthusiastic nod as Capricorn turned and left.

"Ooooh! I hope she gets back soon…" Christy muttered, fingering the eraser on the end of her pencil, "She's been gone for hours …"

The hallways were empty as Capricorn headed towards the Mana Reactor, the large system that kept most of the Ranch running. She hated having to walk all the way to this end of the Ranch, but she couldn't help it if the Reactor was down here.

Upon reaching the last hallway, she looked down to see one of the guards knocked out cold. Quickly crouching next to him, she pulled off his helmet and examined the cut on his forehead. Finally determining that it would heal and he'd be all right, she leaped up and took off down the hallway, directly towards the Reactor.

"Not… good…" she panted as she finally reached the now open door of the Reactor, almost out of breath. She slowed to a brisk walk, carefully stepped onto the warp ring, and punched in the key code.

Once her destination had been reached, she turned on her heel to see what lay before at the Reactor.

Two of the guards that had been stationed there, lay unconscious on the floor, weapons kicked across the room. In the center of the room stood the utterly rebellious Forcystus, aiming a mana charge at the rapidly approaching teenager.

Forcystus let out a cry of fury as the teen smacked him in the stomach with the hilt of his blade. He staggered backwards, crimson eye blazing.

"What the hell…?" Capricorn muttered, unsheathing her rapier in the dead silence that ensued. The teen turned in time to get knocked to the ground by a sharp thrust of air.

"Lloyd!" a different visitor shouted. Their long blonde hair was all over the place.

"Get out of here!" Forcystus growled across the room, taking another step backwards to finally regain his balance, "Now!" Capricorn jumped as Kratos appeared at her side.

"I trusted you," she said bluntly, glaring at him, "You brought them with you, didn't you?" Kratos merely nodded in reply.

"I'm sorry Capricorn," he said quietly, taking a step away from her, "Just listen to your heart. That's the last thing I shall tell you."

Capricorn took off down the center of the chamber, disregarding the frequent shouts of her superior to get out of there. She slid to a halt next to him before crouching down by his side.

"Capricorn, get out of here, now!" he growled fiercely, shrugging her hand off his shoulder, "I swear, if you don't leave now…" She ignored him and jumped up as Lloyd came back for another attack, aiming for her throat.

"You'll have to be quicker than that to catch me!" she said almost gleefully, easily stepping to the side to dodge his attacks.

"She's too fast…" Lloyd panted, leaning on one of his swords for a moment, "She uses a rapier, so she has less weight to move around than me…"

"Less weight?" a man with long reddish-orange hair mocked his companion jokingly, "That cool beauty could probably run circles around you, Lloyd!"

"Lloyd! Go after Forcystus!" Kratos barked from his position, "I'll take her!"

Capricorn glanced feverishly from side to side as she slowly backed up, Kratos slowly advancing on her, sword drawn. She cast a forlorn look at Forcystus, who was struggling to get up whilst Lloyd advanced on him.

"I trusted you …" she growled, suddenly standing her ground, "And what respect I had had for you when you were teaching me how to use a sword… it's gone now, Kratos. It's gone."

Capricorn leaped past Kratos and sprinted as fast as she could. Lloyd had already reached the Half-elf, though, and had actually kicked him in the ribs. Kicked him.

"If you touch her…" he growled at Lloyd, a trickle of crimson running from the edge of his mouth as a sickening crack resounded throughout the room, "I swear I'll…"

"No!" she bellowed, sliding to a halt as he staggered to a standing position. He slipped backwards in a small pool of his own blood and fell backwards into the Reactor itself.

"Capricorn!" Kratos shouted as she leaped forward, past Lloyd and the others standing around. Her breathing was starting to become ragged and heavy, characteristic of her when she was beginning to wear down.

Capricorn, too, sprang off the edge of the Reactor after him, ignoring the shouts of the startled mix of humans and Half-elves behind her.

It seemed endless…

How could anyone survive a fall like this?

Alas, the fall was not as deep as she thought it was while she was in the air, but she was sure that Forcystus would be either dead or fading fast once she hit bottom… not something good for her to do in her state.

Finally landing with a large shock through her knees, she managed to stay standing, though barely. Her first thought was to look around for Forcystus, although he wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Damnit!" she growled, stretching her legs to relieve the tension in her knees, "He must have headed out, then…" she mumbled, searching around on the floor for a sign of which direction he could have taken.

Crimson streaks. They stained the floor along a certain path, which Capricorn began to follow. Left, right, straight, left, left, straight, right… She was beginning to feel dizzy from turning so many corners when she finally reached a hallway she recognized.

She was right near the main entrance of the Ranch, and the trail turned right towards the entrance. She picked up her walk again and quickly made her way in that direction, following the scarlet streaks on the tiled floor.

"And glory to the coming Age of Half-elves, and that of Lord Yggdrasill!"

That had been his voice, no matter how strained it had sounded. She raced around a corner just in time to watch Lloyd, the human from earlier, pull his blade out of Forcystus' chest.

"No!" she nearly screamed, leaping forward and catching the Cardinal as he collapsed backwards. She hit her knees under his weight, gritting her teeth in ire and disdain.

"I thought I said… get out of here." Forcystus coughed. Blood ran down his neck, flowing freely from the corner of his mouth and the wound on his chest. Capricorn managed to prop him against a nearby wall, his blood mingled with a salty tear that was running down her cheek.

"You have no idea," she growled, slowly rising from her position and advancing on Lloyd, "How much it hurts to have someone you love killed right before your eyes, do you?" Her voice began to rise in rage. "Can you answer that, Lloyd Irving? Have you ever had someone's life taken right from your hands?"

Capricorn paused, clenching her fist so tightlythat her knuckles were beginning to turn white.

"This… this is the second time I've ever lost someone I loved. I would think that Kratos would know better than to let this happen again to an old friend." she added, glaring at the Seraphim. "Martel… she was like an older sister to me, and yet she died right in front of my eyes, and I couldn't even do anything… Yuan couldn't do anything, Mithos couldn't do anything…"

Silence settled on the courtyard, except for the sound of hacking coughs from Forcystus every now and then.

"Capricorn." Kratos started, taking a step forward, "Martel was… it was an accident. We had no idea that she'd be killed. But, Forcystus fought back. He knew he'd die, and he was fighting for everyone in that Ranch. Would you throw all that away?"

Capricorn growled in response, unsheathing her rapier. She ignored Kratos' words for the time being, and turned to Lloyd.

"You, Lloyd Irving!" she roared, pointing the tip of her blade at him, "I swear I shall avenge-" She was interrupted by Forcystus' winded voice from behind her.

"Get out of here!" he snapped, startling her, "I don't want to see you killed as well, take Christy and Shiru and get out of here!" Capricorn shook her head.

"I'm not letting what you've done die with you." she replied slowly, turning to face him. "Protecting that entire village of Half-elves? Working tirelessly to try to bring about the Age of Half-elves?" she paused, deciding it was best to stop for a moment.

"Just get out of here. Listen to him." Kratos said quietly, gripping Lloyd's shoulder tightly to keep him from going after her. Capricorn looked from Kratos to Lloyd.

"I see the resemblance." she muttered, stepping backwards. She knelt down next to the wounded hero and tore a long strip of cloth from her shoulder clock, carefully wrapping it around the laceration in his chest.

"You're just going to let them leave?" Lloyd yelled, throwing his hands into the air, "After all they've done to Iselia and the villages around here?" Kratos shook his head.

"Some things are better off not questioned, Lloyd." he said quietly, absently looking at the ground. He eyed the small communicator sitting nearby. 'Oh, Martel, please let that device not be on right now…' he thought, knowing that Yuan was on the other end. It would hurt him too much to know that the one he considered his little sister would willingly give up her life with a split second decision…

Capricorn managed to get his arm around her shoulder after quickly punching in the key code on his arm cannon.

"This should make you a little lighter," she muttered, finally able to lift him up. She made her way backwards into the entranceway, and managed to close the door behind her.

"Capricorn!" Shiru yelped, running towards her friend. She looked from Forcystus to Capricorn quickly. "What-"

"It doesn't matter right now," she said, cutting her off, "Just find Christy and tell her to spread the word of a Discontinue." Receiving an odd look from Shiru, Capricorn quickly explained.

"A Discontinue is when Christy spreads the word for everybody to disband and leave the Ranch for a year or so. If they haven't been able to find a place where they can fit in by then, then they can just come back and we'd all stay here, keeping a low profile so we don't attract attention to ourselves."

Shiru nodded and turned on her heel, making for Christy's quarters. Capricorn, on the other hand, pulled Forcystus down a side hallway that led straight to the dragon stables. She leaned him against the wall for a moment as she opened a stall and grabbed the halter of her favorite beast.

It was a hybrid, a perfectly combined mixed species. Most people would look at it and say it was a Velocidragon, but it was anything but that. That particular species of dragon was predominant on its blood, though, giving it the basic form and the color of one, but this dragon had four legs. Although, it was lacking wings.

This dragon had been Capricorn's companion for some time, and she wasn't just going to leave it here.

"Come on, boy…" she growled, quickly throwing the blanket and saddle onto the creature's back. It tossed its head in slight exasperation, but she swiftly put the bit into its mouth. A creature like this needed something that she'd be able to control it with.

Capricorn managed to get Forcystus into the saddle, with help from the dragon, and soon had hopped up in front of him. Lightly nudging the dragon in the sides, it took off at a fast "gallop" out the door and into the forest.

She nearly felt sick once as the heavy scent of plasma reached her nose, the same crimson liquid soaking through the back of her shirt as Forcystus sat there, slowly losing conciousness.

"Don't die on me..." she growled quietly.

Darkness would soon fall….

About One Year Later…

"Shiru!" Christ cried from the top of the gate, perched up there with her journal and pencil in hand, "Open the gate! Open the gate!"

Shiru reluctantly handed a small child to Raishin, who had been standing behind her, and quickly punched in the key code for the gates. They creaked open, having not been used in so long.

"Who is it, anyway, Christy?" Shiru called up, shading her eyes from the bright summer sun. Christy smiled broadly from her position.

"Shiru…!" She turned upon hearing her name, and her jaw fell slightly agape as she was caught off guard by a strong hug.

"Capricorn!" she chirped, happy to see her friend once more, "Did he-" Before Shiru could finish questioning about Forcystus, she was answered by a light tap to the shoulder.

"Hello, there." he said cheerily, his head tilted to the side. Shiru was about to say something when she was interrupted by a squeal from a small child sitting in Forcystus' arms.

"Oh, yes," Capricorn started, a toothy grin spreading across her face, "This is Rose."

Fin

A/N- NO! It's NOT over! Keep watching this for the Epilouge when I get it out!