Author's Notes: Well, here we are at last. I have to admit this fic, while not bad overall, didn't turn out nearly as well as my usual work. The plot didn't go like I wanted it to, and some of the character interactions didn't quite "click" as my enthusiasm for the story petered out. I tried to make up for this somewhat by putting a double dose of effort into this last chapter, so as to go out on a high note. But feel free to let me know if I've failed at producing a good finale.

I have more self-indulgent musings on this novella and the possibility of any future GS fics from yours truly, but I'll save that for the "Death Comes Knocking" thread on The Land of Ice and Fire forum, so that you can all go ahead and enjoy the wrap-up of the story.

- Chapter 13: The Orange Open-Armed Sunset of Goodbye -

The cold sharp stone cut into his hand, releasing a trickle of warm blood over his dried-up, freezing palm, but Felix dismissed the pain and continued climbing. It was a steep ascent - practically vertical, in fact - but he would make it. He just had to keep moving, hand over hand, always finding one foothold higher than the last. His boots were suffering as much wear and tear as his hands, but he would make it.

A cold, but thankfully steady breeze blew against him. There was no danger of him being knocked off. He had enough experience to know how to find a solid place to put his hand or foot. And if he miscalculated... Well, that was a danger he was willing to accept. Certain risks were worth it.

She's not dead, he told himself, an incentive to keep pushing onward and upward. She's not dead.

"She's not dead," Agatio had told him days ago.

Felix swallowed the lump those words brought to his throat, aware that the others' eyes were on him. "How do you know?"

"Heh. I don't, I guess... It's just that I've worked with her for long enough that I think I'd feel it if she were." He looked out the window, towards the sea. "Don't it seem funny, though... She saves you, then gets pulled under herself? That picture doesn't make much sense to me."

"Perhaps..." Piers hesitated, some unease on his face. "Perhaps she didn't want to make it out alive."

"No," Felix said, more harshly than he'd intended. "I spoke to her just before what happened. She wanted to live."

"Felix." Piers' voice was gentle. "If she's alive and well, why has she disappeared?"

Agatio snorted. "That's easy. She wants to be left alone. And if you guys are smart, you'll give her what she wants."

"No problem with that," Jenna said, and shot a glance at her brother. "Is there, Felix?"

Felix grasped the next ledge and exerted all the strength in his arms to heave himself up, muttering under his breath, "If that bitch... thinks she can just... huff... walk away without a word... nnnnup..." He managed to get his torso past the precipice. "...she's got another thing coming. Dammit."

He took a look up the cliffside, groaning inside at how far he had yet to go. Could she really have come all this way? She's in nearly as good shape as I am, I guess, and more resilient against this damn cold, but still... Would she come such a difficult way?

His question was answered by the sight of a faint impression in the snow: a fading footprint. And who else would have come this way recently?

With that encouragement, he got to his feet and began the next stretch of climbing. There was no chance in seven hells that he was going to let her get away.

"I'm not going to let you get away this time," Jenna said, shoving him back into a chair. "Not after what happened! After what's been happening these past couple days, I... I feel like I don't even know you!"

"That's just it, Jenna," Felix said. "You don't know me. I'm not the same Felix you watched get swept away by a flood. In a way -" He sighed. "...you could say he really did drown back then."

"Don't get all poetic on me! I stayed by your side for months, Felix; I know you better than anyone! You going after Karst after all she's done just doesn't make sense!"

"No." Felix stood back up, pushing Jenna away. "I'm sorry, Jenna, but you don't know me better than anyone. To really know me, you had to have known me while I was in Prox. That was where I became myself for the first time. Before that, I was just some kid who had no idea what to do with his life."

"You were my brother!"

"I still am!" He gripped Jenna's shoulders in the most reassuring way that he could. "And always will be. It's just that I'm the asshole brother who ran off with the girl his family doesn't like."

"Gods, Felix! Isaac is DEAD because of Karst, and you're comparing her to -"

"Believe me, Karst would take that back if she could. And she only attacked Isaac because he killed her sister. If that makes her a maniac..." He ran a hand lightly through Jenna's hair. "...then I guess I'm a maniac too, because I'd kill anyone who did that to you."

"It's not about whether Karst was right or wrong, Felix," Sheba spoke up. Her voice was quiet and sad. "She... she's crazy. I mind-read her after you and Isaac fell into the water, and her thoughts were just a confused jumble."

"Maybe because she was upset?" he said impatiently.

"It wasn't like that! I've mind-read people who were upset before. This was different. There were pieces and impressions, but none of it was in any sensible order. Felix, I don't think she even knows why she does what she does!"

"Sheba, it's like I've told you. You just don't understand anyone." At the hurt look on her face, and the reproving glare on Jenna's, he folded his arms. "Look, I know Karst doesn't understand herself. But I understand her. That's what matters. And I thought you said you were okay with me going after her."

"Felix..." Sheba clasped her hands together. She looked close to crying. "I want you to be happy. I really do. And I'm scared that you're not going to be happy with Karst. I'm scared that she's going to hurt you."

Instinctively he reached out to pull Sheba close and comfort her, but Jenna slapped his hands away. She wrapped Sheba in her own warm embrace, still glaring at her brother with reproach.

Felix swallowed. "I'm sorry, Sheba. There's no such thing as a guarantee of happiness. If there were, I... I wouldn't want it. I need danger to feel alive." He looked away. "That's part of who I am. I didn't want either of you to know that - especially not you, Jenna. But after what I did to Agatio, and the way I kissed Karst afterwards, there's no use trying to hide who I am now, is there? I'm sorry. But this is who I've been since before we met again at Mount Alef. If you don't want to think of me as your brother anymore, that's your decision, but there's no going back for me now. I know what I'm getting into. And you two can't come with me."

Sheba's jaw fell. "What? No! You can't abandon me, Felix! I'm... I'm not ready for..."

"You can stay with Jenna. I've been thinking this over, and I think it's for the best."

"But don't you understand? If you want to be with Karst, I can live with that! I won't say a bad word about her, I promise."

Realizing that she meant what she said, Felix felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted from his heart. "Thanks for saying that. It means a lot to me." He shook his head. "But I don't want you tied up in what's going on between me and Karst right now. Before I would have brought you along just because it's the right thing to do, but I've thought better of it. Sometimes you have to stop worrying about what's right and just take what you want."

"That's a horrible thing to say!" Jenna snapped.

"Maybe, but it's what I believe. ...Don't worry, Sheba; I'm not leaving forever. I'll come back for you in a few months. Once Karst and I have sorted out what we want to do."

Hopefully by then, Sheba would realize she didn't need him anymore. She had told him that he was a guiding light for her, and he had to admit that made him feel very useful, but she was experienced enough in the world at this point to start figuring things out on her own.

But if she didn't feel ready... Well, he'd never said that he was giving up doing the right thing altogether.

Jenna had raged against his decision for a while, but she let him go in the end. "I know you better than you think," she'd told him. Then she hugged him, so hard that it hurt. "And I think you're making a mistake."

"She's right, you know," Piers had said to him after. "Leaving now, when we have yet to determine what went wrong with Isaac, is very poor judgment. Besides, you would regret leaving Sheba under any circumstances."

"Would I?" He shook his head. "Those things will have to wait, Piers. Right now I need to find Karst. I'm not letting the rest of you come between me and her."

Piers studied him sadly. "I suppose I can understand why you would be so impatient. Go, then. I only hope that you will not hate yourself for this later."

As if that would have made much difference. He'd spent most of the last few years hating himself. By now he'd was used to it.

His hands were now numb against the cold rock. His fingers were raw and painlessly bleeding. His breaths were harsh, labored.

Rather than discouraging, these struggles invigorated Felix. Knowing that his heart still beat and his limbs still climbed against all this filled him with awareness of his own strength. Everything he did involving Karst was hard, and it did not escape him that he liked it that way.

It was not without some disappointment that his hand clasped what felt like a horizontal surface and, pulling himself up, he saw that he had reached the next ledge. The final one, by the looks of it. The ledge extended back twenty meters or so, and there in the cliffside was the opening of a cavern. There was a good chance that this was Karst's hiding hole.

He focused on getting over the edge, pressing both palms against the ground to hoist himself up. His legs struggled for the best footholds they could stumble upon, and he crawled up onto flat ground. He'd planned on lying there a minute to catch his breath, but glancing up, he saw Karst at the entrance to the cavern. He scrambled to his feet, brushing the snow from his clothes and hair.

"So, you made it, Felix. Shall we finish this?"

She was brandishing a scythe at him. He wondered briefly where she got it from, since her old one had been lost in the wreck of the Lemurian ship, but then he noticed it was simply a tree branch with a rusted metal blade wedged into the top. A makeshift weapon, though undoubtedly it was more deadly in Karst's hands than a proper weapon would be in the hands of an average warrior.

She made a beckoning gesture with the scythe, like a fisherman hauling in his net, a wicked smile on her face. "Come on, Felix. Draw your sword and let's see if you can avenge your friend Isaac."

Holding his hands up at chest level, he took two deliberate steps towards her. "That's not what I came here for."

"No? Then you must not have seen the way he squirmed and writhed in his futile struggle to reach air. I could have saved him, you know. It just wasn't important to me."

Felix only needed to consider that for two seconds before pronouncing, "Bullshit."

The smile did not fade from her face. "If you think you can lure me into lowering my guard, you're a fool. I'll give you five seconds to draw your sword, and then I'm attacking no matter what you do. Five!"

He sighed and began unstrapping his sword from his back. Why does it have to be this way again? I promised myself I wouldn't fight her anymore. Fighting is just the easy way out; it doesn't fix anything between us.

Clasping his scabbard, he brought it in front of him and drew his sword.

Karst charged, swinging her scythe in an overhead arc. A hopelessly direct move. Felix simultaneously blocked the strike and landed a kick just below her knee, sending her falling face first. She ducked and rolled, escaping both Felix and the impact of her fall, but losing the scythe. Without pause, Felix brought his sword down on it, splitting it in two.

Back on her feet, Karst summoned a volcanic eruption from the ground beneath him. He stepped to the side, avoiding the attack, and tackled Karst. They went down together, but Felix promptly brought the edge of his blade to her throat.

"Now stop this bullshit," he said between heavy breaths. Though Karst had obviously not given her best, the fight had excited him the same as his bout with Agatio had, and he fought back the urge to act the same as he had then. He could feel her sensual curves beneath him. "What happened to Isaac wasn't your fault."

"You'd better check your facts again," she snapped. "He went crazy because of my attack, and then -"

"Shut up. I've been thinking about what happened to Isaac, and there's only one power in Weyard to match what he was showing: the power of the Lighthouses. I think we were wrong about the Golden Sun going to Alex. It must have gone to Isaac. That's why we went crazy, and it's because of that that he went after me. It all would have happened without your help."

"Well, that's a convenient theory."

"Dammit, it's the only thing that makes sense!" He forced himself to climb off of her, picked up his scabbard, and put his sword away again. "We're not even sure Isaac is dead. I threw him off when I attacked, made him doubt his immortality. I see how you'd be tempted to call that a closed case. It's a lot easier that way, isn't it? But maybe he just swam away to nurse his pride, and started to come to his senses. Maybe he's out there somewhere, trying to decide what the right thing to do with his godhood is."

Karst stood up and folded her arms. "If you don't want revenge for your friend, then why are you hounding me?"

"Things haven't changed between us. I still want you."

He realized this sounded embarrassingly crude as soon as he said it, but failed to see the room for misinterpretation until Karst spoke again, "Suppose I'm not in the mood?"

"Not just like that, dammit." The air around them was still cold, the wind biting. He gave her a hard look. "Don't you dare go back to playing dumb now. I admit, for a while there you had me fooled, thinking all you wanted from me was my body. Even you saving my life didn't prove that wrong; you'd have done the same for anyone. But Sheba told me what you were thinking just before you dove in after me." Karst's face clenched. She hates being mind-read even more than I do. Neither of us wants other people to know who we are. "She told me you were worried about how I would feel if she died."

"That little bitch needs to learn to leave other people's thoughts alone."

He smiled faintly. "I agree. But don't call her that. Ever."

"Besides, your deduction, while understandable, is dead wrong," she said with a toss of her head. "I knew if I let that brat get herself killed, you'd come after me, seeking vengeance. That's why I wouldn't let that happen."

"Nice try. But I'm not buying it." She was in reach now, and her defenses were down. In one swift motion he had one hand around her waist and the other at the back of her head, forcing her lips to his. She made an effort to pull away, but when it came to sheer physical strength, he was her superior, and she soon gave in. Most likely it hadn't even been an earnest attempt, just an instinctive reaction, or a little test of his determination.

If it was an earnest attempt, then Karst had to be the most fickle woman alive, because the moment after she gave in, her mouth opened against his, allowing the kiss to deepen. The heat of her in the midst of the icy winds all around them was revitalizing, and he forgot himself. He knew only her, the one spot of warmth in this cold place. Her long, ragged strands of hair blowing against his face. The taste of her, sweet and raw. The fingernails of her right hand, digging so hard into his arm that he wouldn't be too surprised if she were drawing blood. Both sides of her passion burned into him: love and anger.

Realizing that, he felt the link between them solidify. It was as though he was instantly aware of her every thought, because it paralleled one of his. He loved her because she had fought to the death for Prox; she loved him because he had saved Prox. He hated her because of what she'd done to Isaac and Garet; she hated him because of what he'd done to Saturos and Menardi. He loved her because she was different from her sister; she loved him because he was different from other southerners. He hated her for betraying him after he lit Jupiter Lighthouse; she hated him for betraying her after she trapped Ivan and Isaac. It wasn't just that their feelings towards each other were so strong. It was that the feelings were the same. And as angry as they were at each other's sins, they understood and forgave.

Needing to catch their breath, Felix released her. After a few gasps for air, Karst managed a smirk. "All you've proved is that there's an animal allure between us."

"It goes deeper than that." There was no doubt in his voice now. "We understand each other. I don't think anyone else in the world can understand us. Not really."

"I don't need anyone."

"Then why were you so upset about how I stopped being friends with you, back in Prox?"

She looked away. "If it will stop this, I'll tell you the truth: Yes, I feel something for you. But love just isn't worth the trouble, Felix. Let it go."

His shoulders shook with amusement. "Never. You might as well stop running now, Karst, because I'm not giving up on you. Even if I eventually decide you aren't worth the trouble, I'd keep after you just because I don't believe in quitting. And as the saying goes, you can't escape what you desire."

"You smug bastard." She snorted. "And what do you think the two of us will do now? Chained to each other like that."

"It's no different from being chained to Prox. You don't regret staying in Prox, do you?"

"I'm not in Prox now."

"But you wish you were." She said nothing. "So do I. We can go back there, and…"

"…and live happily ever after?" she mocked. He wanted to wipe that sneer right off her face – preferably by kissing her again.

"No, just live together," he retorted. "Happiness isn't always part of it."

"It couldn't be, not when either of us is involved." She reached out to stroke the line of his jaw with a finger. "Just so long as we understand each other, Felix."

What was this – a matter of pride, for both of them? Or was this about freedom? Each of them refusing to promise that they would always make the other happy? But not even wedding vows held such a promise. Why are we so afraid of each other?

Whatever the case, he didn't want to be outdone by her. "You sultry bitch." He snatched the hand teasing his jawline and pressed his lips to it. Laughing, she pulled away, only to be quickly backed up to the side of the cliff, where he pinned her.

As he turned his head to nip at her neck, she murmured, "Maybe I am in the mood now."

That made him hesitate a moment; he hadn't really realized what he was doing. But with no fresh guilt on his head this time, he couldn't find a reason to stop. Something told him that there was a reason, but the curves of her shoulders and the way she tilted her head made it impossible to remember what it was.

They found their way into the cave Karst had emerged from. It was smaller than he would have thought, but suitable. He attempted to pull off the woolen coat she was wearing, but she pushed his fumbling hands away and began removing it herself. Feeling foolish for a moment, he peeled off his vest and the shirt underneath in one go.

When he could see again, Karst was looking over his torso appreciatively. Though she had removed her coat, she still had one of her shirts that stopped above her midriff. This annoyed him even more than the sight of her naval aroused him, and he reached out to rip it off. She evaded him and began removing her long pants and boots instead. Appeased by that for the moment, he ran a hand over one of her smooth thighs.

Her other knee shot out, slamming into his stomach hard enough to stop a charging boar. He fell onto his hand and knees, using his other hand to clutch his stomach while his lungs struggled for air and his head struggled to make sense of what had just happened. He had expected her to be rough, but a blow like that was an impediment to what they were doing, to say the least.

Pulling her pants back on, Karst smirked and remarked, "Notice that I used the word 'maybe' in that last sentence."

With him still wheezing, she grabbed both her wool coat and his vest and walked back outside, to the edge of the cliff.

Felix managed, "What are you –"

She tossed his vest over the edge.

In an instant he was on his feet and beside her. "Are you fucking crazy! It's freezing out here! What –"

She cut him off with a laugh. "Felix, Felix… They landed on the next ledge. If you can't even climb a couple hundred meters without a shirt, then you're hardly tough enough to be worth my attention, are you?"

"You know damn well I couldn't have made it up here if I couldn't do that! What the fuck are you doing?" He didn't know which pissed him off more: her tossing his clothes over the edge, or the cancellation of their lovemaking.

"Of course I know you can do it," she answered, pulling her coat back on. "The point is for you to actually do it. See you at the bottom!"

With that, she began climbing down the cliff. For a moment, he had considered grabbing her coat and tossing it down after his clothes, but quickly realized this would be a weak gesture. As a Proxian, that wouldn't be nearly as much a challenge for her as it would be for him. Instead, he just stared after her for a minute and then, with a laugh, followed her down, restraining the impulse to shiver as the cold wind bit without remorse at his bare flesh.

"Maybe", my ass. She wanted it as badly as I did, maybe more; I could see it in her eyes. But she still turned me down, just as I did to her before. She had to show she could do the same as me. Or maybe it was because despite her best efforts to flee him, he had caught her – and to make up for that, she had to prove that she still had power over him. Either way, pride is what it came down to.

Well, fine. If she wants that little victory, she's welcome to it. A couple hundred meters? Hell, I could do the whole cliff like this if she were waiting on the opposite side. To be with the woman who was ready to die happy so long as Prox was saved… This is nothing.

He felt his way down, step by careful step. But if that bitch thinks she's wearing the pants in this relationship, she's got another thing coming.

He made it down to the next ledge, grabbed his clothes, pulled them on, and quickly rubbed his arms to restore some heat to his body. Then he scrambled down, climbing as fast as he could now, determined to beat Karst to the bottom.

END