Hey guys, it's time for another chapter! We're getting super close to the end of the first game! I'm happy that I got to complete this story after taking the time to write it! Please review or comment on the chapter and let me know what you think! Finally, thanks for reading, and here is the chapter!
Ch. 25: Light in the Darkness
(Luna's POV)
There she was. The person who had been tormenting us for all the time I've known Cal.
Trilla.
She stood next to the same chair that turned her into the person she is today. Her hair was out of place in certain spots, and the circles under her eyes were darker than usual. She probably hadn't been sleeping all that much. She was too busy hunting us down! Regardless, she looked terrible. Once her yellow eyes set themselves on us, they never looked away. She had us in her sight. A small and sinister laugh escaped her lips as she stared.
"No matter how hard I try, you two still manage to exceed my expectations—infiltrating the Inquisitor Fortress like it's nothing? I'm impressed, but it doesn't matter. You won't be here much longer," she said, her voice becoming low in tone. I took a step forward.
"Trilla, I know I got to you back on Bogano. I made you feel something you haven't felt in a long time! You can't just act like it didn't happen. You got mad because you know it's true, and then you pushed me away. If you always push someone away who's trying to help you, you'll never get out of this nightmare you're living in!" I yelled at her. She simply rolled her eyes at me.
"I don't need your help. Your Jedi ability may have seen who I was before the Empire took me in, but that person is gone! I'm not going to suddenly become a good person. I'm not suddenly going to be someone that I haven't been groomed to be. Because of that, here we are. This is it whether you like it or not!"
She ignited her lightsaber and a red hue filled the room. I looked at Cal and sighed.
"You tried, and that's all you can do," he said with disappointment.
"We don't want to fight you, Trilla!" he said to her as a last attempt to get through to her. She gritted her teeth angrily.
"I don't care!"
She lunged forward at us, and we dived out of the way. If there was ever a time to give our all, this was it. Trilla was filled with rage as she switched from Cal to me constantly. She swung her lightsaber so quickly at one of us that the other didn't have time to help. She threw her lightsaber at me, and I slashed mine upward, causing the weapon to fly up into the air. Cal Force pushed the saber over the edge of the platform, and Trilla audibly cussed. She sprinted to the edge, and Force pulled the lightsaber back to her before it hit the lava down below.
"Bet you won't try throwing that at us again!" Cal teased her, trying to rile her up. One of the first lessons you learn in Jedi training is that you need to try your best to stay calm while in combat. If you don't, you could risk acting impulsively and ultimately paying the price for it. In the darkly lit room, I could see her face twist up in mild embarrassment.
"Oh, I won't!"
She yelled as she jumped high in the air, and then slammed down hard on the ground. The impact created a shock wave that sent Cal and I on our backs. I grunted and rolled out of the way when she tried hitting me while I was down. I jumped back up and gripped my lightsaber with both hands as I attacked her. I swung my saber left and right, but she kept blocking every blow. Cal did an overhead swing, and she ran to the other side of the room. This was getting us nowhere. We've faced each other countless times, and I would say it was a close match with the two of us against her.
She dug into her pocket and threw out what looked like a flash grenade. I looked at Cal and then shielded my eyes quickly. I could feel that Trilla was running toward me, but I was able to look away at the right time. I uncovered my eyes and blocked her attack right before it hit my throat. I kicked her leg, causing her to falter, and then slashed the armor of her arm. Sparks flew from the saber touching the armor, and they died out once they hit the ground. Cal managed to hit her in the back, and she yelled, spinning around and attacking him.
"Trilla! Stop this!" he yelled, blocking everything she threw at him. She felt faster than usual. She was determined to end us.
"I will not!" she retorted, not stopping her flurry.
Bringing my hand back, I launched it in her direction and sent her flying away from Cal with the Force.
"Thanks, Luna," he said through heavy breaths. I nodded and watched her get up from the floor. She was drenched in sweat, and some strands of hair were plastered to the side of her face. Her breathing was ragged, and her eyes shaking. Why does she do all this to herself? Why does she go along with the Empire that turned her into this?
There was silence for a few seconds as we all tried to catch our breaths. Cal and I didn't try to reason with her anymore. It was no use. Trilla finally screamed and ran at us with her double-bladed red lightsaber. With one end of her blade, she attacked Cal, and the other blade attacked me.
For the next couple of minutes, all you could hear was the sound of lightsabers clashing against each other. The extreme heat from the blade was so close that I almost felt lightheaded. My arms were getting tired, and my head was pounding from my eyes tracking all of Trilla's movements. She was so strong, but I could tell she was getting tired too. Cal was the strongest physically out of the three of us, and he was still fighting at maximum speed. I'm glad he's on my side! Suddenly, I heard Cal scream at Trilla next to me, and it was the loudest I'd ever heard him.
"I SAID STOP!" he screamed as he linearly titled his lightsaber and stabbed Trilla in her shoulder. She cried out in pain, flinched backward, and dropped her lightsaber, along with the green, cube-shaped holocron from her armor. I Force pulled the cube to my hands as quickly as I possibly could, and held it close to my chest. I felt a gentle hand on the small of my back, and I looked to see Cal nodding at me. Looking back at Trilla, she was holding the shoulder that Cal had just stabbed. I'm willing to bet that that really hurt because she was holding back tears.
"It's over…" he muttered to her. Behind us, we heard the sound of footsteps and were relieved to see that it was just Cere. If she had been here, the fight really would have been lopsided.
"You two okay?"
"Yeah," we replied, showing her the holocron before turning back to Trilla. Upon seeing her, Cere's eyes widened. It was the first time she had seen her former apprentice without her helmet since they had been tortured in the interrogation chair that sat just a few feet away from us.
"I need to speak with her," Cere said, asking us to give them a moment. Cal and I agreed and took a step back behind her. Cal wrapped his arm around my waist, and I stepped closer to him, enjoying the safety I felt being so close to him. We watched Cere stand before Trilla with a frown on her face.
"It's over, Trilla."
"Nothing is ever truly over," she spat back. Cere spoke calmly to her.
"This fight is over. Your fight is over. I know the darkness that's inside, and you can either feed it or fight it."
Trilla shook her head.
"It's too late, Cere. I can't take back everything I've done…"
Cere crouched in front of her.
"No. No, it's not. Everything you've done is my fault. All the choices I made took your choices away. I failed you, Trilla. I'm so sorry…"
Trilla lowered her head, unable to look her old master in the eyes as she spoke. She stood up slowly after not saying anything for a while. Cere extended her hand out for Trilla to take, but she kept her hand on her injured shoulder.
"All these years, I've carried so much hate for you…I've wished death on you…I hoped that you were suffering,wherever you were…" she said, trailing off. Behind her, another sound of footsteps echoed throughout the room. Above, smoke flew out of an opening, and the sound of heavy breathing could be heard. Trilla gasped and froze in place once she realized what the sound was. Behind and above her, a large man walked out of the smoke. He wore a solid black set of armor and a control box on his chest. Cere backed up to where we were and ignited her lightsaber.
"Get back! Get back!" she warned us. I didn't know who this was, but Cere was genuinely scared. The man dropped down from where he was while Trilla was still standing in the same place. She looked at us, and I could almost see the yellow leave her eyes for a moment. The man walked towards Trilla until he was right behind her.
"Cere, who is this?" I asked.
"It's him!" Cere said back to me. I tried to think of what she was talking about until it hit me. I had never seen a picture of him, but I heard stories. I heard of the horrible massacres he inflicted on dozens of planets in the name of the Empire. It was the person who was immediately below the Emperor himself. With his extreme height, deep breathing, and dark robotic armor, I knew who had just arrived.
Darth Vader.
I looked at Cal, and he came to the same realization. He and I ignited our lightsabers as Cere kept her body in front of us. The Sith Lord stood behind Trilla and let her suffer in her fear. He then lifted his hand, and I could see the lightsaber in his grip.
"You have failed me, Inquisitor," was all he said before the red blade showed itself. Trilla's eyes went wide, and she finally looked us in the eyes.
"Avenge us."
Those were her final words as Darth Vader brought his blade across the back of her head, and she fell to the ground. I felt my body's panic level increase tenfold. Trilla was dead and lying lifelessly on the floor.
"Cal, Luna! Run!" Cere yelled at us before she sprinted at the man who had just killed Trilla. He moved his hands a couple of inches and Cere went flying behind him into the deep abyss.
"Cere, no!" we yelled. I couldn't tell if she had just fallen or if she was gone for good. The fear of her being gone was admittedly overshadowed by the dark presence before us. Cal, who was next to me, was speechless as to what was happening. It was so fast! We didn't have time to come up with a plan for getting out of this. I could practically hear both mine and Cal's heartbeats through the silence in the room.
"You would be wise to surrender," Darth Vader said in the most chilling, robotic voice I'd ever heard. Cal gave me a look that said "Stay close to me".
"Yeah…Probably…" Cal mumbled to the man. He didn't surrender, though. He stood his ground, and if he did that, that meant I was going to too. Darth Vader just stood there waiting for us to make a move. Cal didn't wait too long. He ran and jumped at Darth Vader, and he, of course, blocked Cal's lightsaber. He didn't even have both hands on the hilt of his own when he did it. Waving his hand, Cal's body slid to the right, and he fell to his side. Darth Vader turned to me, and my blood ran cold. He was so intimidating! It didn't help that he had to be at least 6'6 while I was a measly 5'6-5'7 on my best day. Maybe I could slide under him and get him from the back.
Okay, that's what I'm going to do!
I ran at him, acting like I was going to attack him from the front before I got into a sliding position. Before I could slide under his legs, I felt the wind leave my lungs as if I had gotten punched in the stomach. I flew backward into the previous room with the turbo-lift bridge and gasped for air. Coughing, I realized he had Force pushed me just now. He was so powerful! I didn't even see him move his hand! It was like the slightest flick of the wrist that sent me flying! I slowly stood back up and entered the room again.
"L-Luna…Go…"
I watched in horror as Darth Vader was choking Cal using the Force. He was barely able to get those words out as air was leaving his body.
"Cal!" I screamed before he tightened his fist, and a large piece of machinery broke from the ceiling behind Darth Vader and began to drop on him. With his free hand, the Sith Lord stopped the piece of debris and threw Cal over to me. I opened my arms to catch him, but he was heavier than I was, and we were sent back into the last room again. We rolled on the ground until I landed on Cal's chest.
"C-Cal, are you okay!?" I asked, lifting myself off of him.
"Y-Yeah! Are you!?"
I nodded my head quickly and helped him stand up.
"We need to go. Now!" He yelled as he grabbed my hand and started running. Behind us, Darth Vader was raising the metal tiles on the floor and flinging them at us. I had to deflect one of them so they didn't hit BD-1 on Cal's back. How he's managed to stay calm through all this, I don't know.
In front of us, a group of stormtroopers came out from the elevator next to the door and began shooting at us. I thought it couldn't get any worse.
"Damn it!" Cal said in frustration as we deflected the blaster bolts back at them. Luckily, they were basic troopers, and they were all taken out in a matter of seconds. The force of Darth Vader's power was so great that the floor was shiftingback and forth like an earthquake under our feet. We struggled to get across the room, but we finally did once we caught our footing. We stepped into the elevator and turned to see him right at the door.
"How did he catch up so fast!?" I asked in a panic.
"I got it!" Cal replied as he put in the coordinates to the elevator and closed the doors. Darth Vader stabbed his lightsaber through the slit of the door, but he was too late. No, not late. He was toying with us. He knew he was untouchable, and I think he enjoyed watching us run from him.
"That was way too close!" I told Cal with my hand on my forehead, "And what about Cere!?"
He sighed and hugged me.
"It's okay, Luna…It's okay…I'm sure Cere is fine."
I hugged him back and laid my head on his shoulder.
"I'm so tired…" I whispered to him. To be honest I almost felt like crying. The amount of stress that we had just endured in such a short time was overwhelming. The adrenaline that had been running through my veins was settling down, and my energy was fading. A tear slipped out of the corner of my eye, and Cal wiped it away with his thumb.
"We're going to get out of this, Luna. If, for some reason, I don't, you will. I promise you," he said. I shook my head and felt like crying even more.
"No, Cal, I'm not leaving here without you. It's either we both make it out of here alive or we both die. No in-between."
He stared at me, and I could see that he knew I wasn't budging on this. He was quiet for a second before smiling and kissing me.
"Then I guess we both better make it out of here."
He was so infectious with his smile, and I couldn't help but match it.
"I guess so."
"And if Cere is okay, she's coming too," he said. I nodded and hoped she was fine. If I knew Cere, she was already finding her way back to us right now. The elevator stopped after a few more floors passed us, and the doors opened. The familiar underwater windows were back, and you could see fish swimming around them.
"I think we lost him. Come on," Cal said, taking my hand again, and leading us out of the elevator. We were now on one of the top underwater levels the fortress had before you hit the surface. There was a pathway that led to a place where you could dive back into the water, so we ran to the next door in the hallway. On our way, I could hear Greez's and Merrin's voices trying to talk to us through our comms.
"Greez! We're coming! Luna and I are heading toward the surface, and we have the holocron. But Cere…"
Cal paused when we got to the door. Cal tried to finish what he was going to say, but the door suddenly opened in front of us. Darth Vader revealed himself on the other side, and we turned our lightsabers on just in time before he could kill us.
"What happened to Cere?"
Darth Vader pushed us across the hallway, and I felt myself hit the glass of one of the windows. I yelped as I felt the hard surface turn into shards and dig into my back and shoulders. Hitting the ground, I looked up at the window, and there was blood on it, but it hadn't broken completely. Cal landed near the middle of the hall, and I could hear him yelling at Vader. My vision was all over the place, but it looked like Cal's lightsaber was floating in place.
"Hand over the holocron," Darth Vader said with his hand towards Cal. He must have been keeping him from getting his lightsaber back after dropping it.
"We'll never give it to you!"
"We shall see," the man replied. Cal's lightsaber started to rotate 180 degrees, and I knew what was about to happen.
"Cal, no!" I screamed as I strained to get up. It was like a thousand needles were shooting into me at once, but I was able to get to my feet. I focused all my energy on stopping Cal's lightsaber from moving, and I could feel the intense hold Darth Vader had on it. It was a game of tug and war, but the opponent was a million men. I clenched my teeth and did my best to resist him, but it was no use. Darth Vader forced the lightsaber to point at Cal, turn on, and then he plunged it into Cal's side before dropping to the ground.
"Ahhh!"
Cal yelled out, and BD-1 jumped in front of him. The tiny droid didn't know what to do as he watched his partner lay there in pain.
"Cal!"
I forgot about the physical agony I was in and ran to him on the other side of the hall. I laid down behind him and wrapped my arms around his chest.
"L-Luna…" he said through gritted teeth. I held him close to me, and he put his other hand on mine. Darth Vader took a step forward but stopped when he sensed something. Behind him, I could see a red lightsaber flying at the back of his head, and he turned to deflect it. The lightsaber flew back into the hands of its owner as she caught it and attacked him once again.
"Cere!" I exclaimed, feeling immense relief. They started clashing lightsabers with one another, giving me time to focus on Cal.
"BD-1, healing stim!"
The droid shot one out, and I injected it close to where Cal's wound was.
"Ow!" Cal hissed out.
"I'm sorry!" I told him sympathetically, hugging him again. He groaned for a few seconds as the medicinal effects of the healing stim coursed through his body. The healing stim wasn't going to heal him completely from a lightsaber wound, but it was going to get him in better shape than he was before. Through the hole in his clothing, I could see the wound began to close, but not as much as I would have liked. If we survived this, he would have a lot of healing to do.
"Thanks, guys," Cal said, sounding better already. He sat up in my arms, and I hugged him even tighter. He was the most important person to me, and there was no way I was letting go of him. I looked up to see Cere being hit and flying over to us. She didn't miss a beat, though. She was off the ground as soon as she hit it.
"Such hatred. You would have made an excellent inquisitor," Darth Vader said in a conniving manner. Cere stared at him angrily before bringing her hands together. I instantly felt something dark coming from her. It was blinding as if I was staring at the sun. Cal could feel it, too.
Darth Vader couched down on the ground from whatever Cere was doing.
"Cere, no!"
He stood up from the ground, but she wouldn't stop.
"Yes," Vader said, "strong with the Darth Side. I can feel it inside her."
"She's stronger than that!" I told him.
"Cere, stop! You still have a choice! You've gotten to this point in our journey for this!" Cal tried to tell her. I could see Cere's face soften as she was beginning to change her mind. The dark presence that was coming from her disappeared as Darth Vader made his way over to us. He swung his lightsaber at Cere, but she put her hands out, and a white forcefield appeared over us like a protective shield. This was a level of the Force I had never seen before. It was the antithesis of what had taken over her just a moment ago. Darth Vader was pushed back, and he frustratingly stabbed his lightsaber into the forcefield. The blade slowly penetrated the shield and was eventually going to stab Cere.
"Cal, we need to do something!" I yelled. Cal looked around frantically until he saw the window I hit leading to the ocean outside. There was a noticeable crack on it, along with the red stain of my blood.
"On me!" he said as he used the Force to cave the window in, causing water to rush in. He grabbed both Cere and me and jumped out into the ocean. Cere fainted from the amount of energy she had just exerted and fell limp in Cal's arms. He took his breather and put it in her mouth while I put mine on my own. Behind and below us, Darth Vader kept the water from flooding more of the fortress using the Force. Hopefully, we wouldn't see him again. Turning my head up, I noticed we were much farther from the surface than I thought. I did my best to help Cal swim up with Cere, but he was running out of oxygen. I could see him getting slower and close his eyes.
I was not about to let him die after all we had just gone through! I got in the middle of them and put my breather on Cal's mouth so that he could finally breathe. He wasn't able to regain his strength, but I could tell he was getting air. Swimming up, the weight of both Cal and Cere was keeping me from getting to the surface fast enough. I was mentally thinking of every curse word I knew until I saw a green flash of light above us. Through the flash of green, Merrin came swimming down to us. My eyes widened as she got on the other side of Cal and helped me swim up towards the surface. I could feel myself about to drown, but we managed to make it in time. I gasped once we got to the top and let air feel my lungs. Cal was blacked out, but he was breathing like normal. Cere was, as well.
"Thank you so much, Merrin. You saved us," I told her through struggling breaths. She gave me a small smile and nodded.
"It was the least I could do. I could sense something was wrong."
"Well, you came just in time!"
She nodded and looked up at the sky.
"I am going to use magick to get us back on the ship. It is going to be hard transporting all of us, but I will try."
Closing her eyes, she concentrated on Cal, Cere, and I. In the glimpse of an eye, I was seeing the same old hologram table in the living room of the Mantis. I blinked and saw Merrin taking a deep breath.
"Got it," she said.
"About damn time!" I could hear Greez saying from the cockpit. I could feel the ship turning around and then going into lightspeed. The rays of blue brought a sense of safety, and I felt like I could finally breathe.
We did it…
"What in the world happened down there!?" Greez asked me as he entered the room.
"I'll tell you later. We need to get them settled first," I said, meaning Cal and Cere. I took the breather out of Cere's mouth and laid her on the couch to rest. As for Cal, Merrin and I put some healing ointment on his wound and wrapped his stomach and chest. We then laid him on his bed in our room so he could rest, too. I took the breather out of his mouth, and he began snoring quietly. I grinned and kissed his forehead.
"Is he okay?" Merrin asked.
"I think so. I'm going to stay with him if that's okay."
She nodded in understanding and left us alone. I sat on a chair next to the edge of the bed and let BD-1 sit in my lap.
"I'm sorry you had to go through all that, BD."
"Beep, boop."
BD-1 nestled his head against my arms as we watched Cal sleep. I took the holocron from his gear bag and stared at it in my hands. All of that for this cube. A list of potential Jedi in the palm of my hand. The memory of the Zeffo's warning flashed through my brain, and I frowned. I didn't want to remember that. The Zeffo may have died out, but they were always accurate with their information. If that vision is true, we would only be dooming every child on that list. But if we did that, what was this all for? How would we rebuild the Jedi Order without it?
"Luna?"
I shot my head up to see Cal looking at me.
"Cal!"
I put the holocron down and hugged him. He grunted a bit, but he hugged me back.
"Sorry, I'm still sore," he told me. I smiled and kissed him lovingly. "I feel better now," he joked, making me laugh.
"We did it, Cal. We got the holocron back and made it back without losing anyone. It was a close one, though," I said, picking up the holocron cube again.
"Yeah, it was…I'm glad everyone's alive. Is your back okay?" He asked.
"I'll be alright. Nothing sleep and a healing stim can't fix."
He chuckled.
"Good. I saw you staring at the holocron just now. Were you thinking about what we should do with it?"
I nodded.
"I'm still conflicted, to be honest. The things the Zeffo showed us were so scary. I don't even want to think of that happening to us and the children on the list…"
He paused for a second before speaking.
"I've been thinking…I think we should destroy it…"
I looked at him, and he was serious.
"You do?" I asked softly. I wasn't mad at him for saying it. I just wasn't expecting that from him.
"Yeah. I don't want any of the children on that list to go through what we have. I want to rebuild the Jedi Order but not at the risk of their lives and potentially ours. If we destroy it, the Empire won't be able to find them, and we can always rebuild the Order in other ways. I liked what Saw Gerrera had going on back on Kashyyyk. That resistance movement was so impressive, and I think if we did it right we could do the same with the Jedi Order. It'll just be a lot slower than if we had the list…But maybe it will give every child on that list the opportunity to live the lives they want to live and discover who they are on their own," he explained to me. I smiled at him and pet BD-1's head.
"I agree with all of that, Cal. Honestly, I'm with you with whatever decision you make. And I know the others will be too."
He slowly grinned and leaned in to kiss me.
"Thank you, Luna…I love you."
My heart fluttered hearing him say that as I told him the same thing back.
"Of course. I love you too, Cal."
I helped him out of bed, and we went into the living room. Cere was awake and back to normal, while Greez and Merrin were glad to see that Cal was okay.
"I knew you would pull through, kid!" Greez yelled as he ran over to Cal. He hugged him with all four arms, and Cal chuckled through the pain.
"And Merrin was the one who helped us to the surface and back on the ship," I told him. He looked at her in surprise and nodded.
"Thank you, Merrin."
"It was nothing. I could not just let you three drown, could I?"
We smiled and looked at Cere, who was sitting on the couch.
"Hey," we exchanged with each other. It was short, but it meant so much more as we sat down next to her. We all knew we got extremely lucky surviving all that crap! I set the holocron on the table, and everyone stared at it.
"Well…What do we do now?" Greez asked with a shrug.
"This is the end of my charter. Your contract has been fulfilled, Greez, so…thank you," Cere told him. He thought about it before grinning.
"I thought I'd stick around if that's alright with you! Plus, the kids kind of look up to me," he said with a glance towards us. Cal and I looked at each other before laughing. He was so full himself, but also, it was pretty accurate! He was like my drunk uncle or something! Merrin sat next to me on the end of the couch and pointed at the holocron.
"What about that?"
"We use it to rebuild the Jedi Order," Cere answered. I glanced at Cal, and he did the same to me. Picking it up, he activated the mechanism in the cube, and it opened up into a hologram of data and galaxies.
"The next generation of Jedi…" Merrin muttered.
"The Empire will be after them…just like they're after us," Greez added. Cere nodded.
"The lives of every child on this list will be forever changed."
They kind of just sealed the decision Cal and I had made. Cal shook his head.
"Not by us. Their lives should be trusted to the Force."
He looked around the room as he grabbed his lightsaber, and no one was stopping him. I wonder if they had been thinking the same thing. It was a decision we didn't want to make, but in our hearts, we felt it was the right one. Igniting his lightsaber, Cal swung it upwards and sliced the holocron in half. The remains of the cube hit the table, and the hologram disappeared, destroying the list of Force-sensitives forever.
There was a silence that came over the room until Cal smiled and looked at everyone.
"So where to now?"
I grinned and put my hand in his. I wasn't sure where our next destination was, but I did know I didn't want to be anywhere else. These guys were my family now, and I was never this happy back on Hosnian Prime. If I hadn't gone with Cal, I would either still be working at the diner or captured by the Empire. Because I went with him though, I gained a best friend and a group of people I loved. I hadn't known Merrin for a long time, but I could tell we would be sisters as time went on. Cere and Greez already felt like mentors to me to better myself through the thick and thin.
And Cal? It's like I told him before. Wherever he went, I would be right there with him. He and BD-1, of course! I loved both of them, and I honestly want to spend the rest of my life with them. Who knows, I might be able to learn more about my Force abilities too!
Wherever life leads us, I trust in the Force to guide our way.
And that is the end of the chapter and the story of the main game! I will write an epilogue that will dive into the book and the next game, but Jedi Fallen Order is done! I started the story back in 2020 and finally finished it four years and nearly 160k words later! Like I said, I might continue to add chapters after the epilogue, but I will mark the story as complete after the next chapter! Thank you so much to everyone who read the story and left your comments. I loved reading all of them! Feel free to tell me what you thought of the story as a whole, or you can wait until the epilogue! Finally, thanks for reading, and I'll see you guys next time!