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Chapter 26: You Still Have All of Me

:London 2000 A.D.:

It's been so long now. Thousands of years have come and gone and I still remain. The strangeness of immortality, the strange constant that you become. I've been through so much now. I saw the rise and peak of my own people along with other empires and, as I did Troy's, I saw their ruin. My family and I watched from our mountain, seeing these mortals destroy one another in their own selfish greed.

Ha! Their own selfish greed. My family still remains to be the most selfish, greedy, and arrogant fools that they've been millenniums ago. My father and mother are still hopelessly devoted to each other and big sister, Bliss, still does her job to keep it that way as does the only boy, Matrimony, whom I call Mat. I'm still the only one who refuses to take any throne I can inherit by right. I don't need or want to be a goddess, because immortality, for a time, was enough for me.Papa never truly warmed to that idea, though events have indicated that he's accepted it.

My grandmother, however… My own disdain for my grandmother, Aphrodite, was, for centuries, immeasurable. I found outfrom my motherthat it was she who made Paris forget of what he felt for me. It was through her power that Paris forgot about the kiss he left me with when he left for Sparta; the same kiss that kept me waiting for him until he returned only to break my heart. Mother told me that shehad tried to interfere and"remind"Alexin her own way but to no avail.For centuries, I refused to talk tomy grandmotherand vice versa. (She refused my presence because, after learning from Revela about the Golden Apple awarded to whom Alex deemed most beautiful and how my own grandmother bribed him with the affection of the most beautiful woman even if she WAS married and she knew that her GRANDDAUGHTER was in love with the man, I stormed to her palace and trashed the entire place. What can I say? I was angry and Aphrodite could do nothing but watch me storm about in the short temper and raging fury that I inherited from HER!) Even now, I hesitate to greet her. An irreparable rift has grown between us and, even with immortal years, we wouldn't even attempt to have it otherwise.

Grandpa Zeus refrains from anymore random impregnations. Hades and Persephone are still married but I think Demeter grows tired of the switch offs. She'll throw another drought if Uncle Hades tries to trick Persephone with another pomegranate seed for literally the 768th time, then the mortals won't be happy, then Grandpa won't be happy, who won't make Uncle Hades happy so I think that's under control. Aunt Eris has grown even more unlikable, if that's at all possible. I do believe she created telemarketers and pop-ups. Evil, I tell you.

As for myself, I've traveled the world now. I've seen probably more than the rest of my crazy relatives since they are all currently sitting on their lazy butts in Olympus as before. I've seen the creation of so much as well as their destruction and annihilation of each other and it's come to a point that each passing empire just flies by in a blink.

I keep my immortality hidden by changing my appearance. It's been a few hundred years since I've used my birth face so I use it now in the first few years of this new millennium. A century ago, I was a blond, blue-eyed suffragette right here in London. Fifty years before, I saw the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II with red hair and green eyes but I've returned to my original features, and yet I'm different because around my neck, I hold something I didn't possess three thousand years ago...

Katri's been crying for weeks now. She was inconsolable and close to fading away entirely. She begged everyone to let her into Hades. She didn't care about any of this anymore. The rules? She laughs at them. The reasoning? She spits on it all. She was tired of being cursed to this damned eternal life but they wouldn't let her go.

"Come, Katri," Eros murmured pulling his daughter to her feet to lead her into the garden. "Come, daughter. I've something to show you."

"Show me here, Papa. I haven't the strength to walk," Katri whispered.

"You cannot live this way, Katri."

"Live?" Katri's eyes flashed, indignant. "Papa, I'm immortal by you and Mama's blood. I breathe before you now and speak and sit up but this isn't living. Papa, I'm as useful to this world as I would be if I were dead. I AM dead. My other half is gone and until I find him again, every breath I take is naught but useless air into my body. I may be breathing. I may be speaking but I'm not living, Papa. Not until Alexander is with me again."

Eros sighed and put a hand on her hair. He knew his daughter's rage well for he felt it himself when he had foolishly rejected Psyche for breaking their trust to gaze upon him. He was miserable and his heart felt like dead weight in his chest. What puzzled him though was that, in his love for Psyche, he was pricked by his own arrows to fall for his wife. Katriana never had. Eros realized that her love for Alexander transcended even his own power for it truly grew from her heart.

"You truly love him?"

"I can't even believe you would dare ask that question, Papa," she rolled her eyes.

"Would you give up your life for him?"

"In a heartbeat," she answered without hesitation. Eros sighed in defeat. He really wished she hadn't answered as she did.

"Come, my child," he said taking her hand and pulling her up. He remained quiet during his lead through the gardens and Katri followed suit. Finally he came at a stop, at a dead end of one of the paths. "Do you know where we are?"

Katri looked around and saw a relative of roses twisting by the ground, their vines mangled with thorns and yet beautifully spotted with miniature red roses. The grass grew everlasting green below the vines and greatly emphasized the perfect beauty of the flowers. "Keleuthos Akantha," she answered.

"Have you ever looked around here to admire ALL the plants?" Katri shook her head. There were no bare spots of grass or benches to recline upon so she had only been in the Path of Thorns in fleeting moments.

"ALL the plants? But there're only these here," she answered, motioning to the small red roses. Eros shook his head and pointed farther down the path and near the walls. Katri knelt down and saw another group of roses intertwined with the more prominent vines, almost hidden. While the majority of the roses were the brightest red, these were deeper; red so dark, it was near black.

"Rhodothanatos," Eros said. "Rose of Death." Katri looked up at him still confused. "A mortal pricks his finger on its thorns and he dies instantly."

"Surely, it does us no harm."

"Not instantly, no."

"What?"

"It grants what you search for," Eros answered. "It grants an immortal a real life. Limited and ending at one point. In short, it grants death. Whether instantly, or the mere ability to die at all depends on the one pricked." Katri looked at the rose, tears falling from her eyes.

"It is too late for that now, Father," she murmured. "If I die now, I wouldn't be able to be with Alexander... He is slated for his return to life sooner than I will be and there are too many souls in Hades to meet him there..."

"Then wait for him here. Find Alexander and once you do, drink this," Eros suggested, giving her necklace holding a small vial of nectar from the Rhodothanatos. "It has the same effect as its thorns."

"You'll lose me, Papa," Katri protested. "How can you give me this?"

"Find him. Be happy. Like you said, you are only breathing. I want you to live, not just breathe, and if only Alexander can give you that, then as the One who represents Love itself and as your doting father, I would do anything to return to you Alexander." Katri just smiled at her father and embraced him, not knowing any words to thank him enough.

And so I sit here, in this club, solitary in a sea of couples and groups of friends. My ears become atune to the music and as the dance beats race higher and higher, it suddenly slows down and the piano introduction to a familiar song becomes the prominent melody.

My Immortal...

I've become quite partial to that song. But then again, I'm biased to my own biography, regardless of the fact that it WAS unknowingly written by someone(s) who probably have no idea the truth behind their words. It tells me so well: an immortal bound to another so tightly I can hardly breathe. Everlasting suffering that I cannot break free from, my love for Alexander has made me exhausted and always subject to tears.

Usually, hearing Evanescence's song brings me a bit of hope because maybe Papa is sending me a message that the Fates have finally allowed Alexander's return to me. Unfortunately, for this night, my penchant for it isn't alive. I don't want to hear my story because it is one of those nights that I miss Alexander terribly.

"Paris," I murmur under my breath. I look around aimlessly, knowing what I'm searching for and knowing I wouldn't find it. "Alexander." A solitary tear escapes and I wipe it away hastily. "How do you still have all of me?"

I stand up and grab my bag and I smile at the face that catches my eye in the glass. I don't mean to be vain, but I always liked my real face. It was like my hiding was done and I was finally exposed to the world with nothing to hide though it couldn't be farther from the truth. It was nice to see something familiar though.

Speaking of familiarity...

A hand touches my hand and my world freezes. I look up, deathly afraid of who owned that hand though it was impossible for me to mistake it for someone else's.

The numerous times I've held it in mine including when his last breath left his body.

And then I saw them. Those beautiful brown eyes that promised me the very thing he couldn't give me but what I would give up to keep looking into them.

Eternity...

"Alexander!" I gasp.

"'Actually, it's Orlando," he greets me, taking my hand to shake but keeps hold of for other reasons, laughing lightly. My free hand grips the sparkling necklace hanging from my neck and I smile in pure joy and happiness. "Would you give me the honor of having this dance?"

"Of course," I answer before he leads me onto the dance floor.

The End

Did you like it? I'm hoping you did because I based the entire story on this ending. One of my fangirl ideas that blossomed to one of my crazy stories. I really do hope you liked it. It took a VERY long time and for that I apologize but you guys are the greatest. All reviewers, all those who marked My Immortal on alert or as a Favorite Story, I love you all. And all those lurkers. It would be nice if you ended with one review? Please.

And I MIGHT put up this outline that I've had that was useful many times and damn worthless during others.

(Example: The interlude thingie didn't exist before… and I was ACTUALLY gonna let katri heal him and they can live happily ever after… and the last chapter would have been about them living with the goats.) And there were some angsty scenes that I deleted. hahaha Deleted scenes... Always fun right?

P.S Thanks to Sandra for always telling me that she loved the ending. She's a diehard romantic like me so she loved the whole destined to be together trip. :-)