"NDS: Book 11: Chapter 79: Death"

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As the afternoon sun came overhead, Clive and Carole calmly sat upon the burnt hull of their sandcraft. Calmly watching the sky over them. "It would seem that we live to see another day on Filgaia." Carole commented.

"Indeed." Clive remarked. "Though, the same can not be said of our ship."

"No, but it is not needed in order to rebuild."

He nodded, cleaning the mess off his glasses only to find one lens cracked. "Only people are needed to rebuild."

Clive dropped to the dirt and caught Carole as she slid off the hull herself. "I hope that everyone else is fine."

"I wouldn't worry about that." He confided as the two looked to Gallows and Emilia who slowly walked towards them as a gust of wind blew a dust cloud by. "I'm sorry about your ship, Emilia."

"I know…Ed's legacy to me is gone." She looked at her decimated work of art. "It does not matter. I'll just build a new one. A better one, and I think I'll use this." She pulled out the Twilight Sun.

"The Twilight Sun?" Carole questioned.

"I had found it when I awoke." She commented with a shrug. "It must be fate's way of telling me something."

"Father!" Sakura shouted as she ran up and hugged Clive.

"Father?" He questioned.

She let go of him and bowed in forgiveness. "I'm sorry…it's just…that you felt like a father to me. Strangely enough, even though, we only met less than a week or so ago."

Clive nodded in understanding. "I see. Don't worry about it. Most of them think of me as the father of the group, and I am one after all, so call me it if you like."

"Thank you." She glanced around. "And where is Adven?" She noticed the metal panel she was on shook, and so she moved off of it as Adven stood upward.

He tossed the metal aside and gave a cough. "So…everyone looks all right." Sakura helps him sit down on a hunk of metal nearby as he takes a canteen nearby and drinks it's water.

"I'm glad you made it." She remarked with a smile.

"Me too." He looked around. "But…what about Jet?"

Sakura and the others noticed their missing party members. She bit her lip. "Hmm…and I don't see Virginia either."

"We should go look for them." Clive remarked and the others agreed as they split up to search the wreckage.

The sun made it's way across the sky until it fell away and left darkness and a moon to replace it. There was nothing to be seen for miles around the wreckage aside from a single fire that the Maxwell Gang, aside from Jet Enduro and Virginia Maxwell, sat around. There had been an uncomfortable silence before Adven broke it with his frustration. With all his might he threw a rock into the fire. "That idiot! How could he…?" He soon just sat back down in his spot beside Sakura.

She hung her head low. "I…just don't see how he…and she…could just—"

"Listen," Carole interrupted. "I don't know either of those two very well, but they aren't dead. I know that much."

"Those two will show their faces eventually." Clive remarked. "We should concentrate on what we will do ourselves now that we aren't wanted, and are in a time of peace." He paused, "What do we do now that we are no longer needed?"

"I will make another sandcraft. That's for certain." Emilia replied.

"And I always have my newspaper gig to fall back on." Sakura remarked.

"I'd love to see my family again." Clive answered.

"That's what we should do." Gallows simply said. "We should go our own ways. Blaze our own paths. Find a new place to rest our wings." He went stern for a moment. "But that doesn't mean we should forget one another either."

"Agreed." Adven remarked as they all stood up. "Then, we part ways." They all stand silently without ever making an attempt to move. "We…can…get started on that tomorrow morning." They all sit back down quietly.

And the fire went on until it faded into the light blue morning.

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Through all technicality, this is the end. There is an epilogue. But now I have Book 12, so, it's now not the ending. Isn't that nice? I made small changes to setup the plot for Book 12 in the last few chapters. Things about all of the characters that you might not have picked up on, aside from what I have told you about Sakura and Clive and how she will become attached to him as a father in her life. Aside from that, you'll have to learn about them.