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Actually, I don't need an explanation for the return of his arm. Anyway, here is the last chapter, with an epilogue following it next. Sorry for the delay, but I have been busy with many things.
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The quiet and cool night befell the land as the frustration of the day departed into the night's air. Though there were scars, Filgaia already seem to have forgotten the trouble from which it was just delivered.
The candlelit living area of the Enduro-Maxwell home was hushed as it warded off darkness. Filling seats about the room were the entire group aside from Adven who was resting in the nearby guestroom. Virginia stood up where everyone may see her, and Jet lingered nearby. The two had just come in from outside where much debating was heard by the ears of those inside.
The brunette woman took in a breath with a sigh. "Jet and I have come to a decision: The wedding will be postponed for one week." She glanced at her groom. "Until then, you are all welcomed to stay here."
The room was silent with a nod of understanding. Emilia was first to move, lifting her body from the couch.
"I guess I will get to fixing SAND," she spoke, and disappeared out the front door.
Gallows and Pike began a game of cards at the kitchen table.
Sakura stood upright from the leaning position she was in against the couch's back. "I'll go tell Adven about it then," she said. Moving to the door nearby she opened it slowly, moving in, and then closing the door slow and quietly so not to disturb Adven. She firmly pressed it shut for no reason.
"A week?" asked Adven.
She looked to him. "Yeah." She had not expected him to be awake, and least of all to be eavesdropping on them all. She grinned at how he acted. It was not funny or anything, but she had to grin anyway, and she did not know why.
Slowly, she made her way closer to Adven, admiring his face from five feet away with her back against the wall. She did not dare come closer.
"Sakura," Adven muttered, "When…did it happen?"
The young woman blinked and looked at the ceiling. Hugging her body lightly. "It…was about three weeks ago."
Adven turned his head. "I…got drunk that night." He already seemed to realize now what he had forgotten somehow. Adven normally would never have been so stupid, but he was that night. Still, now he had to wonder if it was the same condition with her, which would mean that she did not love him at all, and it was all a mistake. He did not want to think that.
"Adven, I love you." Adven glanced at her. She never had such guts to just come right out and say things that she felt. It startled him to say the least. "I wanted it. This. I don't want you feeling guilty."
"It's not that…it's…Sakura…"
"This isn't how I wanted this all to happen either," she remarked. Sakura caught his eyes and smiled to him. "But I'm happy about what happened. You can say that you got into this by accident, but…" she laughed, "I wasn't drunk, Adven. I wanted what we did more than anything. I want to be with you, but I was too afraid of it before." The mother-to-be ran her hand along her stomach with a smile. Her eyes fought back tears of joy. "This child inside me…they've given me the strength to love you to my fullest and tell you that I do."
Adven remained silent.
He gave her a smile after a moment. "What do you think it is?"
"A girl. I'm sure of it."
"How can you say that without even taking time to think?"
"Adven…sometimes a woman has intuition."
"I see."
"No, you don't," she laughed.
A few silent moments passed over the two of them as they soaked in the other's presence. Sakura made the move from the wall and sat beside him. Her eyes never leaving his face. Her hand moved to his face, gingerly moving his bangs so she could look at his eyes better aside from the bruises that were there.
"In eight months, I'll be a mother, Adven Bok." She gave him a warm smile as she lingered in her thoughts. "You will be the father, right?"
Adven blinked. "Why do you even ask that? You know my answer."
"I'm a fragile woman, Adven. You have to assure me every step of the way."
"Sakura, can I ask a kiss from you?"
"You don't have to ask, silly."
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The cool night air left dew upon the metal of the hull that made up the SAND. The hole that ran through and into from the back was a devastating blow that hit the engine and mechanics of the machine dead-on. It would take a lot of work to fix, and as Emilia stood there she saw only that work in the future. It would take away a lot of her time.
"You will repair it?" wondered Catherine.
Emilia remained looking over the damage. "I will repair it no matter how many times I need to," she answered. "I brought the first craft back as the SAND, and I will mend the wounds it has now and make it stronger. No doubt."
"Why?"
"You could say it's because this is my legacy at this point. But it's really just that I have a duty and obligation to fix it. This ship belongs to the Maxwell Gang, and without it, we would have no place to store any of our memories, no matter how depressing or happy they be." The younger woman stared admiringly at the hull by moonlight. "SAND will be here for my child, and then their own. With each of my descending family it will be shared by one from every line of the Maxwell Gang."
Catherine smiled. "Clive would have it no other way."
Emilia laughed. "He'd appreciate it, no doubt."
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Gallows placed a card down with a determination of fire. His boastful laughter taking to the air. "You are so dead."
Pike grinned. "No way." He placed his own card down.
The two flipped them and stared at the cards in disbelief. "Impossible," they both muttered.
The table was full of cards that made up one long chain of War that they just could not get out of. They had drawn the same card a total five times now. Each of them almost out of cards now aside from the collective ten that they had altogether leftover.
Pike and Gallows glanced at one another, wearily drawing their next card. Placing them down Pike's eyes went to the ace of spades that Gallows laid down, and Gallows looked at the ace of hearts that Pike placed down.
The two looked back to one another. "Impossible," they both muttered. For a few moments they continued staring before breaking into laughter.
The game might not end ever with a winner.
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The SAND had to wait to be repaired. It would not be easy to fix in some place so remote as this, so Emilia gave up on doing anything right now. Her body hurt still from her fight with Gear, so she thought not to overdo anything. Instead she found herself atop the roof of the Enduro-Maxwell home looking out at the plains, SAND, and the ocean in the distance.
"We meet on roofs a lot," noted Jet as he joined the woman.
"We met back in my third life. That life seemed so far away now."
Jet remained silent. "You're going to leave your third life as well?" He grinned. "I was waiting for the time you would."
"Damn you, Jet," she chided. "You're too good for me to have as an ally. What is your power? You always have this nature that just baffles me and as much as you hate other people, you just collect them without trying." She laughed. "And yet you seem totally useless while seeming useful at the same time."
"I am what I am," Jet simply answered. "Who I am." He pauses. "Good night, Emilia. Don't think so hard."
Jet left the woman to herself on the roof as Emilia returned her gaze to the moon in the sky of a pale white. She was not aware of how much time went by, but the night sky became clearer by the time she was aware of herself again. Drifting her gaze about the ground away from the roof she spotted the form of Gallows who sat on a boulder.
He had lost and was simply was moping. He had not thought that Pike would pull the win at the last moment.
Emilia dropped to the ground in a cloud of dust, as she made her way for the man she loves. Slowing her walk as she got closer.
Gallows chuckled. "I was sort of wondering when you'd notice me."
"It was Neon and Gear and all of that which made me see some of the mistakes I made," she spoke in monotone. "They also made me afraid of something, but I thought I overcame it already, and I didn't at all. It made me afraid, and it was the worse sort of fear to have."
"What was it?"
"I was afraid to lose a chance at a fourth life. To make the life from now on the best one of the three others I had. The one I can't remember, the one I don't want to, and the one where I started to pick up the pieces. I worried about what I will become when my third life ends." She took his hand and each began to thaw the cold out of them. "I am happy with who I will be."
"Who are you going to become?"
"My fourth life, I don't want to keep to myself. I want to share it with you."
"Emilia? You…"
"Will you be the husband who stands by me when that fourth life begins?"
Gallows remained dumbstruck. He nodded enthusiastically. "I will. As soon as you are ready."
"I'll let you know."
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The home was quiet, with most going to bed or being on their own. That left Virginia to clean up the mess the living area became with all the wounded and subsequent lounging. Especially the mess of all the cards Gallows threw about the room. She had gotten all fifty-two cards and put them back in their box.
It was as Virginia was packing and folding some of the things she brought out for the wedding that Jet entered through the screen door with a trademark sound that only a screen door can make.
It was quiet as Virginia finished what she was doing, and Jet stood at the entrance to the home.
"I really am sorry. About the wedding." Jet spoke. "It was all my fault that it just did not work out today."
Virginia looked to Jet at a glance, and then laughed as she closed the box she had packed her materials into. "I forgive you, Jet. Just as I have said to you times before now all day." She faced him. "You are alive, and I am alive. A date can be reset, but a life can't." The strong leader of the group lost her face and looked to the floor downcast in eye. "I…doubted you for one instance and was afraid I would lose you. I was sure you could live, but a small part of me worried you wouldn't, and it's that part of me that hurts me the most."
It was silent for the two.
Jet smiled to her. "Just a week," he said. "We will all be recovered by then."
Virginia returned the arch of lips. "Which reminds me, shouldn't you be resting?"
"I'll do it now." The two met halfway to hold one another in an embrace. Virginia placed her face in his warm chest as Jet held his head straight. "Thank you, Virginia."
"What for?"
"I don't know, but I'm sure that it was important what you did."
"Foolish man, go to bed. Being awake is getting to you."
"Fine."