Epilogue

Life was a work in progress. There were periods of unrest in the kingdom which were not always easy to smooth over with words, but Ansem did not want to use force. "Remember, Ienzo, a riot is the language of the unheard."

Flowers began to bloom in Radiant Garden again. There was still signs of destruction everywhere-rubble, smashed out windows, destroyed buildings. But piece by piece, it was getting put together. The resistance based itself in the capital city and started what it called a "restoration committee," not just to restore the city, but the whole kingdom.

Demyx spent a lot of time at the beach with Amalia, now that they both had their forms. Ienzo wondered if it would be salt in wounds to go to Destiny Islands at some point. He would ask when he felt ready.

Something else was growing too.

When he felt the nausea, the fatigue and dizziness, and the achiness, Ienzo did not delude himself into denial as he did the last time. He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, good and hard. He held his hand in front of his stomach and reached out, tentatively. Something was there, a potential for a new life. But he did not feel the overwhelmed sense of panic he had when he was first pregnant with Amalia. He was still young, ridiculously so, but would this be so terrible?

He sought Even, who was busy puttering around the labs. There was light in his eyes again, joy, at having something productive to do. In fact, he did not seem bothered by Ienzo's interruption. "No bureaucratic nonsense today?"

"My father insisted I take the morning off."

"Your daughter?"

"Out swimming. I swear, sometimes I have difficulty getting the two of them to come home."

"...It is good, to see Demyx happy again. I was… concerned."

"Were you? You could barely stand each other in the beginning."

Even rolled his eyes and pulled off his goggles. "Adversity draws people together," he said. "I wonder often… if I have hardened my heart too much. I am trying… to let people back in."

"And how is that going?"

He considered. "It is going," he said. "But better than being stalled. Good to be… active. And to see you some semblance of safe at last."

Ienzo came a bit closer. He was working on one of the replicas, a faceless white mannequin half covered with a sheet. "Does it feel good to see your work come to fruition?"

"It is bittersweet-putting it mildly." He sighed. "If not for… that creature's breakthroughs, this would not be possible."

"It is still your creation." Ienzo paused. "Even, have you met Xion?"

He fussed with tubes of mystery fluid. "Who?"

"Xion, Xemnas's… ward. I shall have to introduce you."

His eyes snapped up. "Why?"

"Because she is one of the replicas."

"Of whom?"

"Of nobody. Herself."

Even grasped his shoulders. "And you only tell me this now, boy?"

"Please be gentle with me, Even."

He seemed to be reeling. "...Why?"

"I find myself to be in an indelicate condition. As it were."

He turned red. " Again ? Child, you know what causes that, right?"

Ienzo chuckled. "Would it be so terrible, to get the childrearing over with while my father is still able to help me rule?"

Even pressed a hand to his forehead and sputtered wordlessly. After a moment, he composed himself and held a hand over Ienzo's stomach. "...Quite. I do not know whether to laugh… or cry…"

"Go seek Xion. She's a guard on the upper floors. I know that's where your heart is."

He was already taking his coat off, grabbing a tablet computer. "Yes… right… we can discuss this later…" And he was out the door.

Ienzo returned to their rooms. To his surprise, Demyx and Amalia were back. "Done for the day already?"

Demyx gestured out the window. "It's gonna storm. Plus I figured I owe you some lunch." He leaned forward to kiss him, and Ienzo could taste the salt.

"Ra!" Amalia said.

"Right, rain." Ienzo crouched down and smoothed the wet hair from her face.

"I'm gonna get cleaned up. What do you feel like? There's this new place that's opened back up not far out of the gates-"

Ienzo followed him into the bathroom. Demyx laughed a little.

"Look, I'd be so down, but like, she's right in the other room-"

"I'm pregnant." He didn't know why the words had to leave him now, without ceremony.

Demyx just blinked. "Really?"

"Yes. Really."

"Oh…" A small smile. "Oh… Do you want to-"

"I… want them." He swallowed. "Get it over with while we're young, right? While my father is still helping me? I can't imagine going through this while being fully responsible for everything else."

Demyx hugged him. "Round two?"

"...It seems so. I mean, to be fair, we were not the least bit careful, and it has been happening quite a lot lately-"

He kissed his forehead. "They're going to be great."

As it stormed later that night… Ienzo lay awake. He'd been even more of an insomniac during pregnancy, and he hadn't much missed that. But he could not sleep. Demyx, who could basically sleep at will, had one arm draped over his stomach.

A particularly loud peal of thunder made Demyx stir, and from the other room Ienzo heard Amalia shriek and start to cry. Demyx's eyes fluttered open. "It's okay," Ienzo told him. "I've got this. Go back to sleep."

The drawing room had been turned into a nursery more fully now, the soft light of the mobile reflecting the rain in the room. Amalia was still crying. Ienzo leaned over the crib and hefted her into his arms. He settled in the old rocking chair. "It's just a storm, sweetheart," he said.

"Bad," she said. "Bad, bad."

"I know. It scared you." He rocked gently. "I'm here. I'll keep you safe. How about a story?"

Ienzo told her a story he'd learned from Demyx, about a rainbow fish that gradually gave up its scales to help others. He let his power cast a quiet illusion along the walls, of a deep blue sea, of that same fish swimming seemingly in midair. Somewhere in this, she fell back asleep, and rather than put her back in her crib, Ienzo remained there, thinking.

She hadn't mentioned a sibling in the Forecast. Her words had been "we live with dad and grandpa in the castle". If he gave birth on schedule, that child would be her age by the time of the Forecast.

But at the same time, toddlers were selfish. It could've just slipped her mind. Perhaps she was closer to Even or Ansem than her own sibling. Ienzo took a deep breath. Part of pregnancy was being illogically anxious.

It would be fine.

Perhaps it was for this reason, but Ienzo kept news of this child from Ansem. A few weeks passed, tremulously. He kept at work, meeting officials, sitting in committee meetings, deciding, deciding. Helping organize a parliamentary election.

After one such meeting, he was gathering his papers to return to his study when he felt a cramp, hard. He gasped aloud. "Are you alright, your highness?" Lydia asked. She was back to her post as librarian, and she'd brought him some books.

He blinked. "I'm… fine," he said woodenly. Cramping during the first few months was normal, wasn't it? Might be worth getting himself examined anyway. "It is nothing."

"...Alright. Well, pardon me for overstepping, but perhaps you might rest. It's been a long day."

He swallowed, trying to choke down the dread. "I shall. Thank you."

He made his way back not towards his rooms, but towards Even. The pain stuck him hard under the heart, and he had to duck into a bathroom before he lost composure. He wasn't sure what whisper of an instinct told him so, but he pulled down his pants and checked his underwear.

Blood. A not-insignificant amount. He stuffed one of the small folded hand towels between his legs-mentally apologizing to the launderers-and hazily kept going. He almost stumbled getting the lab door open. "Even," he said, and perhaps it was his tone, but the man immediately looked up.

"Ienzo, what-"

"Something isn't right. With the baby."

He grabbed him immediately and herded him over to one of the replicas' exam tables. "And yet you drag yourself all the way down here instead of going to the infirmary."

"I wasn't-I didn't want-"

He touched his face. "I know, love. Wait-are you-"

The blood must've seeped through the hand towel. "Fuck," Ienzo murmured. He felt the coldness of Even's magic assessing him.

He turned pale. "Ienzo, I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

"But is it-"

"There's no heartbeat, and you've lost quite a bit of blood. There's no… life."

Another cramp overtook him. "They weren't in the Forecast-I tried to convince myself it was not so-"

"I know. I know, love. We should get you to the infirmary-"

"Please, no." He felt more wetness between his legs.

"You're losing too much blood to justify receiving care from only me."

How awkward, and humiliating. Even carried him like a child. Hazily, he was changed, cleaned, given something to absorb the blood, fluids, painkillers. He let himself ride this quasi-consciousness, until a hand took his. "Zo?"

"Demyx? I-I'm sorry…" He swallowed, feeling a lump in his throat. "I lost it…" His hair obscured things from view.

"The important thing is you're okay."

"She didn't mention them, I should've known-"

Demyx drew him close and held him for a long time.

It took him a while to recover from the miscarriage. Not so much physically-he was back to "normal" within several days-but emotionally he felt scrambled, exhausted. He did not know it was possible to love something so small so much.

Ansem insisted he take time off. Demyx waited on him hand and foot, but he was shaken too. Ienzo slept too much, could barely look at Amalia. He was taking a bath, his mind positively going nowhere, eyes unfocused on the ceiling tiles, when he heard small footsteps. "Da-dee?"

Wearily, he looked over. "What is it, love?"

She was holding her favorite stuffed animal, a unicorn she'd named Pinky. She offered it to him.

"Thank you, but I don't want Pinky to get wet." He set the toy on the chair by the tub.

She leaned over the lip of the tub. "Hurt?" she said.

"I'm just tired, love."

"Hurt," she asserted.

Ienzo sighed. "Yes, I'm sad. You know it's okay to be sad sometimes, right?"

She nodded. "Help?"

He kissed her. "You already are."

Perhaps because it was through this particular lens of sadness, but suddenly it seemed strange that he, governed so by emotions, be the one responsible for the welfare of this country. He, whose sole "mandate to rule" was his power. Why was it that, despite humanity's long and colorful history in this country, there had never been strides made towards democracy, or anything other than absolute power?

There had been abdications, in the past. Ienzo found himself reading about them voraciously. There had been some good reasons for such actions-fundamental disagreements about faith and the way the country should be governed, a lack of acceptance of sexuality or gender, the heir apparent believing they were not competent enough-and some not so. Considering the convoluted transfer of power, from firstborn to firstborn only , it was amazing the monarchy had not collapsed under its weight or lost its power somewhere in the past. Should the firstborn, say, die in a tragic accident, or from an aneurysm prior to having an heir, that power was simply lost for a generation. And should that first child be sufficiently… along , enough in utero, and something were to happen to them, that counted.

Ienzo needed to talk to Ansem. "Father?"

He took off his glasses. "What is it?"

"Can I talk to you?"

He offered a smile. "Of course. How are you feeling, dear heart?"

He sighed and sat down. "This has all been very… overwhelming."

"I'm sure. Loss of a child… even one that is not yet living… is very heavy stuff indeed."

"I've been thinking a lot about… mortality. Human weakness. Limitations of the body." He found himself looking at his knees. "The fragility of my… power. How does it make me qualified to rule? The child I lost… could very well have been Amalia, some months along the line. Suddenly that power is gone." He touched his abdomen. "Father, this whole monarchy… is starting to feel very…"

"Pointless?" He rubbed his brows. "I agree entirely. But the last thing people need right now is a radical change in government. We're only just settling. Imagine what might happen if we suddenly propose some other form of rule?"

"...I know."

"Once this is all over… I'm wondering if we should…"

"...Abdicate?" He cocked his head slightly.

Ienzo took a breath. "Am I a traitor for even thinking it?"

"Oh, Ienzo. No. Not at all. Class division is part of how we got into this mess in the first place. That you seek to abolish it shows your love for your people. Perhaps it might be worth it to consider the schema as to how this will be put in place."

Ienzo let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Truthfully?"

"Truly."

"...Thank you."

Time passed.

Amalia was growing so quickly . She started to speak more clearly, in longer sentences. She started to show more magic. Once, Ienzo walked into her room and saw books hanging in the air all around them. "Look," she said. "They's flying."

Demyx expressed his own desire to do work of some kind. "People need art," he told Ienzo. "They're going to need a way to deal with all that pain." Together, they jumpstarted a national art program. To finally be active, to finally be helping people in a meaningful way… Ienzo felt… fulfilled.

This was all going to take work, probably constantly. But that there might be a day where they could have a simple, happy life with their family gave him pleasure.

Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised, but one spring day Amalia asked if they could go on a picnic. The day was sunny, the flowers were in bloom. He was sitting on a blanket on a patch of grass in the plaza. He worked the teardrop-shaped pendant absently with one hand. He knew that at some point they'd have to formally get married as long as he was in the public eye. But for now... this was enough.

"Daddy, look!" She opened her hands, revealing a small magic flower. "I made it!"

"Oh, sweetie, it's beautiful." The deja vu struck him with insistence.

She smiled widely, and reached to be picked up, so he did. "Can we go to the garden?"

"Of course." Demyx was supposed to meet them there after his lesson in the city. He took the picnic blanket and set off.

"Do you think this is real?"

"What do you mean, love?"

"This. Right now."

"What makes you say that?"

"I dunno… a 'motion I had."

"A feeling?" Ienzo offered. Then, "I had a dream when I was pregnant with you."

"When I was in your tummy?"

"That's right. And you sent me a memory, of this moment, right now."

"What I say?"

"You told me about our friends. The ones who met you when you were a baby."

She laughed. "Isa and mister Xemnas."

"Yes. You told me everything I needed to know. It's because of you this is all like this, you know?"

"I know," she said, unimpressed. "Where's daddy?"

"He's on his way."

They passed through the castle gates to the gardens, which were lush and full again. Aerith was tending to the flowers; she waved. "Hi flower lady," Amalia called loudly.

"Hey yourself," she said back.

Ienzo set down the blanket on a patch of clean glass.

"There's my favorite girl." Demyx set down the sitar. He scooped her up and gave her a kiss. "Did she give you much trouble?"

"Not today. Not yet. Did you get the i-c-e c-r-e-a-m?"

"Ice cream!" Amalia shouted.

"Zo, she's too smart for that." Demyx laughed. "Sold out, I'm afraid."

Ienzo sighed. He'd been looking forward to it all day.

"But I did get these from someone at the lesson." He handed Ienzo a bag with a pastry box inside. "Egg tarts. Several people told me they are to die for." He sat down with their daughter.

Ienzo took them out and handed one to Amalia. "...Do you know," he began. "Today's the day."

Demyx frowned. "What day?"

"It all came full circle. The Forecast. On the way over here."

"Oh… wow. Really?"

He smiled. "And the future is again aqueous."

"Like that's a bad thing? Look, if we knew every minute, we'd always be trying to plan things. We wouldn't get to decide." He brushed a crumb from their daughter's mouth. "Because of her… and you… we do now. I'm okay with that."

"I… am too." He swallowed.

"It'll be us against the world." His eyes were so soft.

"I know that." He chuckled. "It's terrifying, to have the choice. I think I'd like to finish university first."

"School, school," Amalia said eagerly. "Me and daddy go to school." She was going to go to nursery school in the fall.

"Daddy's going to school for big kids," Demyx said to her. "You're going with kids your age. Little."

"Not little." She huffed, then brightened. "School and make lots of friends!"

"She's like you all right," Ienzo said.

"Dunno. She's too smart for her own good-like you."

"I don't know what I want to be when I grow up," Ienzo admitted.

"I wanna be a cat doctor. Or a rockstar. Or maybe…" Amalia stuck out her tongue in thought. "Wanna be an explorer ."

"You already are, silly." Demyx tickled her, and she squealed.

"I do still want to help people. Maybe psychology, or…" He trailed off. "To be determined."

"Well, you've got time." Demyx picked up one of the egg tarts and all but crammed it into Ienzo's mouth.

He scowled, but then, "These are good."

"Right?"

The sun was setting. Ienzo watched it from his alcove in the library. This was his favorite spot, its light, its smell of varnished wood and old books. But he wasn't reading.

"...It is lovely, isn't it?"

Ienzo looked up and saw Even, for once without his lab coat, his long hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Where were you?"

"I was… with your father. I'm afraid he made me take a walk in the garden."

Ienzo felt his lips twitch into a smile. "Well, was it a nice walk?"

He wondered if he was imagining the blush. "It is good to get fresh air," he said evasively. He leaned against the desk next to Ienzo. "So I hear you're to… abdicate."

"In several years, once things settle, but… yes. And Demyx will abdicate on Amalia's behalf. No more royalty. Whatever we have left will simply be ceremonial, if that."

Even chuckled gently. "All the time I spent defending the monarchy, and you're giving it up. You are making me gray, child." But he said this pleasantly. "Yes… change is not so bad. The world needed it. We needed it. We could not… run forever."

"Do you feel good, to no longer be running?"

"I do," he admitted. "I felt such a coward for so many years. To get my hands dirty is a relief."

"I have to thank you, for all you've done for me. I took you for granted."

Even reached over and brushed the hair out of his face. "Well raising you certainly wasn't easy."

He laughed a little.

"In all seriousness, Ienzo, I didn't do it entirely out of duty. I loved you-and I still love you-as if you were my own. Bonds don't change, the… lines between hearts."

"Heartlines?" He raised his eyebrow. "My father must be rubbing off on you. You were never so philosophical."

"I am trying to open my heart." He put a hand to his chest. "And it is painful, but I feel I am… growing. Never thought I would have to at my age."

"And what of things with Xion?"

"She is a lovely girl. She'll do well once she starts school. We're trying to spend time together. In a way… she is my child." A sigh. "Though this research… what right have I to create new life?"

"You saved many who would be the seeker of darkness's victims."

"...A cold comfort." He tapped his fingertips together. "Come, then. That husband of yours is attempting to cook."

Ienzo felt a shimmer at "husband", but was it not true? Ceremony or no ceremony. "He's a good cook, Even, you just have an unenlightened palette." He stood and together they began to walk.

"...I'll just chalk it up to cultural differences. I suppose… all of this could've been much worse, yes?"

"It could've." He paused. "Will we… once I leave this place, Even, will we still be part of one another's lives?"

He seemed perturbed. "Of course, Ienzo. Always." He squeezed his hand. "Don't fear change the way I did."

"I won't." He swallowed, feeling an unexpected rush of emotion. "I promise, I won't."

I want to say a sincere THANK YOU to all those who have read, left kudos, and commented on this monster of a fic. I really enjoyed writing it, and I hoped you enjoyed reading it!

I've been considering writing something of an extended epilogue for this story, with Ienzo and co slowly adjusting to a normal, royal life. If you think that would interest you, please let me know!

Thanks again for taking the time to visit this story. I love you!

~Alice