A/N: Well, this is it. The final instalment of this story.

I want to say thank you to all you readers and reviewers out there, for all the support, the kind, wonderful words, and for wanting to read the story at all. I find that words fail me to express my gratitude, so I'll just say: thank you. All of you. You're the best.

Special thanks go to Lunissa, over on deviantArt, for providing such magnificent illustrations to 'Crucible', all spontaneously and of her own free will. I honestly don't know how she does it, every single week, but I am deeply grateful all the same. *raises glass* Here's to her.

On this note, since it's tradition by now, please take a moment to have a look at this:

lunissa. deviantart gallery/ #/ d4pd7aq

Also, for the final time, soundtrack updated on profile page.

Once again, thank you all.

Update: fanart for the epilogue.

lunissa. deviantart gallery/ #/ d4vmmdq
lunissa. deviantart gallery/ #/ 36524629#/ d4vmflf
lunissa. deviantart gallery/ #/ 36524629#/ d4vme6q
lunissa. deviantart gallery/ #/ 36524629#/ d4vmeyq
lunissa. deviantart gallery/ #/ 36524629#/ d4vmftq
lunissa. deviantart gallery/ #/ 36524629#/ d4vmg1x
lunissa. deviantart gallery/ #/ 36524629#/ d4vmj2)

Thank you all again.

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Epilogue

Sanctified

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20th August, 3001

A boy was sitting slouched on a bench in St James's Park.

He looked to be sixteen years old, or thereabouts, dressed in a pair of faded jeans and an old T-shirt. He was staring, through wisps of curly blond hair falling over his forehead, at the two men standing over by the duckpond, some distance away, holding each other so tight that it was a wonder they were still able to breathe. The boy fairly sniggered at the thought. Not that anyone would have noticed.

After some time, a little girl, certainly no more than five years old, her brown hair in two ponytails, and a picture of a sheep on her blue dress, came dancing and skipping down the path that led by the bench, the sunlight shining through her, and clambered up to sit next to the boy. Neither of them fully acknowledged the other's presence, not yet. They simply sat there, hand in hand, the eyes of each fixed unwaveringly on the same point. Had anyone been able to see them, their heart would have swelled at the looks of quiet, near-spiritual happiness on such young faces.

Finally, the two looked at each other, blue eyes meeting hazel ones, and both smiled.

"It's been five days," said the boy.

"Yes," the girl replied merrily, swinging her legs, "it has."

"How long will it go on?"

"How long will we go on, big brother?" She giggled, and continued, "Don't tell me you've forgotten what I told you when I first came to see you, a few days before the end of our lives. I explained it all to you then. Come now, surely you remember!" She gave him a playful shove. He didn't even budge.

"Oh, I remember, little sister," he answered, and poked her belly, making her double up from the tickles. "We've set them free. They're like us now, aren't they?"

She nodded, eyes shining, still giggling, hands on her stomach. "They are, they are! Free and unbound and beyond good and evil..." She smacked his hand when he tried to poke her again.

"Something above that, eh?" he said.

"Yes, brother, yes!" she cried, and crept on his lap, bounced up and down a little. "They no longer belong to Heaven or to Hell. They're ours now, under our protection, and none shall ever touch them again, from Above or from Below!"

All of a sudden, she fell silent, sat perfectly still on her brother's knee.

"...little sister?"

"They can finally be happy now," she said softly, her little voice saturated with tears. "They've both suffered so much, so long, and now it's... it's over. It's finally, truly over. They can be happy now," she repeated, "from here... to eternity." She bent her head, sat there weeping silently, tears dripping onto her lap. "Oh, my little big brother... I am happy beyond words."

The boy bit his lip, forced back his own tears. "There, there, big little sister. I told you we'd fix it, dint I?"

She wiped her eyes, smiled up at him. "That's true," she said. "That's true."

He smiled back down at her. "That's the little girl I know. Now come on," and he got up with her in his arms, "it's time for us to go, and be born again. The world's waiting for us."

"Mmmm... We'll meet again, won't we?" she asked, laid her little head on his shoulder.

The boy laughed, hoisted her a little higher. "Course we will. We've been together for a thousand years now. D'you think I'd let you go, just like that, after all that time?"

She hugged him, her arms round his neck. "No. No, I don't. As you say, let's go. It is indeed time."

The boy nodded, and headed for the exit, still carrying the girl. They looked back once more at the couple by the pond, who were talking together quietly now, gently, slowly touching, kissing each other every now and then.

With one last wave at the tall skeleton standing in the shadows, watching them go, the boy and the girl were gone. The skeleton, too, waved, then laid a hand upon his heart, his head bowed. He would go and bring back the Three now, and then his dear task would be complete. The Two did not require his help, not this time: they would find their own way back.

Hours later, the two men, arms still around each other, walked out of the park, and headed home for the night.

The beginning