Hello everyone this is the very last chapter of a Tale of a Warrior. I hope you've enjoyed reading this fic. Now I'm changing the routine a bit and the review responses will be at the end.

Enjoy…

This chapter is dedicated to ALL MY REVIEWERS it's been great hearing from you.

Epilogue

A Battle Lost

ELLEMAR:

Hero. That word can mean many things. To some it's someone who stands for the People. For others it's someone who does what he believes is right no matter what.

That's what they were calling Asculan now, a hero. I doubt whether he would have approved, 'Betrayal' he would call it. Where only days before the Electorate had been calling for his head they were now calling him a great hero of the war.

He would have hated that I suppose. He had never liked the darker side politics, or of people for that matter. But still, here I was only three days after his death, a captain who had never truly seen stalk to stalk with him.

It had been his F.O., a young prince named Kayless who had found Asculan's lifeless body. The poor prince had been in shock for the last two days, it seemed he must have looked up to his dead captain.

The cause of his death was very apparent, an old disease that the Andalites, even with all our technical ability, could still not cure. It came as no shock that Asculan had told almost no one of his condition.

I believed he had an odd, but sadly true, view that if he showed any sign of weakness he would be pulled down and humiliated. He, like his teacher before him, could not stand to be seen as anything less than in control.

It must have been a terrible way to die for a person like him. How can you even presume to have control over such a disease? But still, we will never know what he felt at that moment.

Because of his lack of any close friends or shorms in the last years of his life whatever he thought or felt died along with him.

I respected him, he had perhaps not been as wise as Elfangor in the end but still he met it bravely. His people should be proud. They were doing very good work of pretending to honour him but it was just that; pretending, lying.

His burial was held in the Elupera, like all the captains and war-heroes before him

It may be ironic to say but the weather seemed to reflect the sadness of the occasion. Only two moons were visible in the sky and deep gold clouds seemed to absorb the warmth of the suns before it reached the waiting crowd.

Many turned up to watch the ritual. Andalite and alien, Fleet and civilian. Most of the Council made an appearance, those few who had not yet been thrown the prison. The entire Electorate, it seemed they understood it was a very good publicity move.

There were even some of the human leaders; I could only image Asculan's rather emotional reaction to having humans at his burial.

Also there were the two Voloce leaders Hath and Lor, even I have no idea about how they found out about Asculan's death but they did. For once I was glad, he would be pleased that they came I thought.

Some of his old crew from the Protector, TailStrike and Elfangor came. I expect Asculan was better at teaching loyalty than he thought. Even his estranged friends made an appearance.

They didn't look all that happy about being here. I wondered whether it was because Asculan was dead or whether it was that they felt obliged to make an appearance.

Senator-prince Menzogne-Trattare-Progettare stood muttering an enormously long speech that would rival even the humans Great Leader, (- fought many great battles never forgetting what was best for the People. We will always be grateful for his, and many others like him, sacrifice. They died and fought for our ideals, so we could be free and -)

I glanced around at the sullen faces. Very few appeared genuinely concerned. Prince Kayless, Lirem and Jaham seemed the most personally touched by the captain's death.

The Electorate were trying their best to look as concerned as possibly while still trying to look respectable.

And as for the humans, they didn't even know Asculan at all so the only thing they could really do was stand still and look polite. I pitied them, all this for political correctness.

It was the Veloce that seemed most effected; Hath looked as if he wished to die himself. His features were a mask of pain and grief. Lor was exactly the opposite; he stood perfectly still and straight through the entire burial rite. If he moved a hair it was much.

I think to Lor he thought that moving or looking bored would have shown disrespect. He must have been bored though, Veloce do not have the attention spans of humans let alone Andalites.

It was an honour and I knew that Asculan would be pleased. He, however, would not have been pleased with the fact that Menzogne was delivering the rite. He would have felt it just a public game that Menzogne was playing.

I knew that Lirem had requested that he be aloud to hold the rite but the Electorate refused. This I felt was wrong, I had even voiced my concerns to them but to no avail. They had their publicity stunt and they were going to use it.

Asculan's body was buried in the Andalite custom that would allow his spirit to strengthen the Homeworld and run free with his ancestors. Menzogne's speech ended and he put on a skilfully poignant face for the watching crowd.

I moved silently towards Alloran who was looking grave and thoughtful. I wondered whether he felt sorry that Asculan was dead, but perhaps in my old age I had merely lost faith in the Andalite race, perhaps he did still care for his lost friend.

(Alloran,) I greeted quietly as I approached.

He looked sharply away from were Asculan's body lay, (Captain Ellemar. They organised this very quickly didn't they?)

I nodded, (How is freedom serving you?)

He gave a wry smile and said, (Well, I can't help but think that Asculan's death was just the universe balancing things out. You know? I am freed and he dies. Like a counter-weight. Or maybe it was just Asculan's bad luck.)

I thought about that. Before I spoke Feyorn's voice cut in.

(He wouldn't have like this burial,) I looked at Feyorn; it seemed very hard to know whether or not Feyorn was upset. He had become very talented at hiding his emotions. (Did you hear the senator? 'Heroic of character', 'Brilliance of mind'? Who did he think he was talking about? I happen to know that Asculan certainly did not have a lovable character and he definitely did not have a brilliant mind.)

Alloran scuffed his hoof into the ground in annoyance, (Is there anyone here who actually knows what Asculan would have wanted? I mean he didn't really like to have deep personal talks with people now did he?)

I agreed silently. Looking through the assembled mass of people I saw Kayless. His stalk eyes and tail drooped and his face was the perfect example of utter misery. He was standing over Asculan's grave, he seemed as still as a sentinel.

I made my farewells to Alloran and Feyorn and walked over to the silent Kayless. He turned a stalk eye to watch me as I approached but other than that made no move to show he knew I was there.

(It's a hard thing to lose a fellow officer, Prince. I've gone through it myself. If there's anything I -)

(Yes, sir,) Kayless said bluntly cutting me off.

(What's on your mind, Prince?) I asked. Kayless had been very quiet since his captain's death. For some inexplicable reason he blamed himself for a death that could not have been stopped. Not even with by me.

(I know I didn't really know Captain Asculan but – but I still looked up to him. He was everything I wanted to be. He was never afraid, he always knew exactly what to do,) Kayless suddenly opened up. (I must sound like a pathetic child.)

I came to stand beside him. We both stood silently watching over the setting suns. The Elupera spread out below us, seemingly stretching forever.

(Asculan made mistakes,) I said eventually. (Lots of them in fact.)

(His son?) Kayless asked.

It shook me that Kayless knew about Asculan's son. From what I understood he didn't make it very public what happened. (Yes, that was a very big mistake. He must have trusted you a lot to tell you about him.)

Kayless looked surprised then his face turned serous, (I will do I best to honour his trust.)

Honour. Why is it that life can be built and destroyed using that single word? (Just don't make Asculan's second mistake, don't forget there's more to life than honour.)

I turned and left Kayless to think about my words. On a large outcropping of rocks I saw a figure standing. Watching. Secretly I had known he would come. How could he not?

With a knowing smile I trotted through the assembled people, Andalite and alien. As I drew near I saw that he had taken Andalite form just as I had done. It was very dangerous considering he should be dead.

(Crayak. You came to see your pupil off? I didn't know you cared,) I called up to him.

(Ellimist,) he replied scathingly. (They dishonour his memory with this pathetic farce.)

I raised my stalks in a surprised yet mocking expression, (I didn't realise that you could worry so much about someone who wasn't a complete mass-murderer.)

He looked coldly at me, (I put a lot of work into Asculan. He became a sort of – pet.)

His eyes however told me that he seemed to think of him more of a son than a pet. But, I decided not to argue the point, (He had to die.)

At first Crayak didn't reply. He looked down on the stone that was the only sign that Asculan was even there. The wind shifted and his deep blue, almost purple, fur shifted. (You have won this game then.)

It shocked me to hear so much emotion coming from my old enemy. Never in the millions of eons we had played our games had he ever come so close to sounding compassionate and tender.

(Yes,) I said simply.

(He did well? My – my – Asculan, he did well?)

I looked up at my nemesis, sometimes I guess that even evil can care for something, (Yes, Asculan did well. He deserves to be honoured.)

(Honoured? Good. Yes, he does deserve it. He made me proud.)

Thanks for reading! Now please, please, please REVIEW!

Shirinal86: Thanks a million for your lovely review! I'll be waiting with bated breath for your fic! Post it soon please!

Quillian: I'd like to thanks you for all your lovely reviews. I hope I've managed to portray Asculan's POV correctly.

As you've likely guessed no, this fic does not go beyond the uncharted waters of the cliff-hanger.

I'd also like to say that I did receive your e-mail, mine seems to be going a bit buggy lately and I don't know if you received my response. Just in case the answer to both your proposals is Yes, I hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks!

Tiko: I agree it's horrible seeing him go because of Soola's but well, I thought it'd fit. Thank you.

GenesisDragon: It was the end of Asculan's point of view. This is the VERY end, LOL. Like I said to Tiko the ending to me was appropriate, not happy, but appropriate.

Elwing: Ok, for all you're very detailed reviews you've given me so far let's see what I can say…

I think that I could have written a bit more competition into Seerow and Asculan but another way to think about it is that they are both so very different that there is no need to fight.

I agree with your opinion that yes, Asculan is mean and arrogant. As Marco might say, "He's an Andalite."
Asculan is less intelligent when he's around Aylary at first isn't he? Ah well, that's a guy for you ; )

Also I sort of created a loophole in the whole pledge of faith thing. Because Aylary didn't say it that leaves her free as a bird to run off with Seerow when she thinks Asculan is 'dead.'

Even I don't know what Asculan would have thought if he'd had a girl instead of Deodatus. I'll leave that up to you to decide.

Captain Eoptis, as you now know, had an ulterior motive in everything he did. Most even a simple little thing he did had very good reason for being done. I'd love to hear what you think is Seerow's real reason for marring Aylary. Maybe that's where your ideas of rivalry come up.

I'd like to take time here to thank you for all your reviews. It seems like it took quite a bit of effort to re-read the chapters and come up with all your ideas and theories. I hope you 'enjoyed' the end if the fic and look forwards to hearing your review!


Ok, now's the time when I thank ALL OF MY REVIEWERS for their lovely and somewhat ego boosting reviews! THANK YOU!

Even though this is the end, please REVIEW!