The End (Friends welcome)

[Vorhi Alestrani]

Vorhi nodded softly. "We will wait a few more minutes. I will need to gather some goods from the Huute Haamu," he said, mumbling his ship's name calmly. He watched as Zaiden entered in. Everything went a bit greyish to his force sight. Things were muted. Softer. It was coming. He sighed. e opene a communicator. "Bova, this is Vorhi. Fetch the grey bag from the ship and meet me near the manor. We'll arrive shortly."



He looked over at Felicity and nodded. Suddeny, Vorhi was the calm, deliberative leader instead of the mellow drunken brawler. "Felicity, relax your mind. We will begin shortly. Owain, keep a sharp eye on the youngling. Zaiden, keep an eye on Keter. He will need a friend when this is said and done. Joshua, don't do too much of the wine." He smirked. "It appears I've got work to do," he said with a chuckle.



[member="Razor Shot"] [member="Felicity Mason"] [member="Keter"] [member="Owain"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Feena]

She could feel his heart beating against her. So strong. He would live for a while yet. But she would wait. She would wait forever if she had to. There really was no rush for him to join her.

"Are you afraid?" she asked weakly, "To go on without me for a little while?"

Her eyes closed, and she knew it would be for the last time. She couldn't see anything but darkness anyway, and she was just so tired... Any moment now. She'd just drift away to sleep. Would she dream? Could you dream after death? Or was it just those ugly waste lands forever? It didn't matter. One way or another, she would find him. Somewhere, somehow.

[member="Keter"]

 

[Bolt]

Zaiden offered a slight upturn of the lips, yet it appeared more a grimace than anything else. The other hadn't heard the promise he made to his twin, so couldn't know the irony of yet another stating to watch out for Keter.

"I will watch out for all of my family as Feena would before. Keter, Celeste, Felicity, even Owain and the baby. You all will have my skills when you need them, however you need them." Zaiden offered as he looked around the room at each face, "Just contact me and I will make haste!

"Even you two." Zaiden said, lastly looking to Vorhi and Joshua, "You both were close allies of hers, and as such I owe you two as well. Call me for anything, and I am there."

[member="Celeste Mason"] [member="Felicity Mason"] [member="Keter"] [member="Owain"] [member="Vorhi Alestrani"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Keter]

"Yes," he admitted quietly. It had been so long since he had admitted to being afraid. Fear had always been his companion, one often ignored, but always present. And now he acknowledged it, as he cradled his dying wife in his arms. "But it will only be a little while, so stay patient my dear," he promised her. He kept his promises to her.

[member="Feena Mason"]

 

[Feena]

Her hand on his face shook. Truth was... she was afraid too, but probably not for the reasons one might think. She wasn't afraid of death itself. No. At this stage, death would be a relief. How would they bury her? She hadn't bothered to ask. Funny how at the end, she wondered that. Would they burn her body, or bury her outside? Or would they bring her back to naboo? She supposed that she really didn't much care. A body was simply that. A body.

"Don't follow me too quickly, Keter," she warned him, "You still have so much here. I need you to look after the girls for me. Can you do that?"

[member="Keter"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Vorhi nodded softly. "We will wait a few more minutes. I will need to gather some goods from the Huute Haamu," he said, mumbling his ship's name calmly. He watched as Zaiden entered in. Everything went a bit greyish to his force sight. Things were muted. Softer. It was coming. He sighed. e opene a communicator. "Bova, this is Vorhi. Fetch the grey bag from the ship and meet me near the manor. We'll arrive shortly."



He looked over at Felicity and nodded. Suddeny, Vorhi was the calm, deliberative leader instead of the mellow drunken brawler. "Felicity, relax your mind. We will begin shortly. Owain, keep a sharp eye on the youngling. Zaiden, keep an eye on Keter. He will need a friend when this is said and done. Joshua, don't do too much of the wine." He smirked. "It appears I've got work to do," he said with a chuckle.



[member="Razor Shot"] [member="Felicity Mason"] [member="Keter"] [member="Owain"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

He could feel it... The end had come. He could feel her fading away... Death was the hardest thing he could ever deal with, and he didn't like it one bit. Even Vorhi's joke didn't cheer him up much. But he tried not to show it... Feena wouldn't appreciate it if he was bringing everyone down. So he tried. He tried, and managed a small smile as he looked over at them.

"No promises"

 

[Keter]

"Heh, they have their uncle in case of anything, and all your family too," the blond pointed out with a smile, wishing he could cry. It would be easier than feeling so hollow inside. "But I'll keep my eyes on them as long as I can. Someone has to terrify Celeste's eventual partner after all," Keter added with a slight nod.

Oh yes. Pity whoever tried to woo Celeste wouldn't get the Feena Mason treatment. After the Owain debacle it would have been glorious.

[member="Feena Mason"]

 

[Feena]

"You are their father, Keter," she reminded him gently, "They will need you."

Someone was calling her. A voice soft and distant, getting clearer by the second.
Not yet! Wait. Just a moment longer...

"I was wrong about so many things, Keter," she gasped, feeling a sudden panic overcome her. What if she didn't have enough time? She had so much to say. So many regrets to pay for. She... didn't want to go anymore! "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

She clung to him like a child, tears welling up in her eyes. She was scared again. Afraid of the beyond, afraid to leave all this behind.

"I never wanted to hurt you. I never wanted to leave you."


"Feenarah, You're crying again..."

Daddy?

"Are you sad? Or did the rain scare you again?"

I... think I lost something. Or I'm about to. Something important.

"Don't cry. You'll find it again."

The black behind her eyelids started to brighten little by little. Bright. Too bright now. She felt like she had to close her eyes. No. Not close. Open. Her eyelids opened wide. Deep sea blue eyes stared at the brilliant old library. Feenarah smiled, shook her soft black curls. She was home. She went to her fathers desk, ran her long fingers along the smooth dark wood.

This isn't where you belong, you know.

Feena looked up, her smile faded. Bright light engulfed her and the room shifted. She was standing alone in a giant temple, ornately decorated. She knew where she was. Her eyes scanned the walls, the floors. The Jedi temple. This was home!

No. Not here either.

Another light. Another shift. The sound of rushing water, the cool, crisp air. A large waterfall came into view. Flowers blossomed by the large clear pool. She bent down by the water, dipping her fingers beneath the glassy surface. Her blue eyes drifted shut for a moment, calm.

But you never came back here.

Her hand was tugged by an invisible force and she was dragged beneath the surface. White. She was floating in a void of white. Just floating.

"The flowers here are really pretty aren't they? Oh... Sorry. I didn't realize you couldn't see them."
"You really could be a bit nicer, you know..."
"Well done! I haven't seen anyone solve that puzzle so quickly!""
"Do you think you'd ever want to try healing? I think you might have a real talent for it-"
"Do you ever smile?"
"Your first lightsaber! But why is it so simple?"
"You're a knight now. I know you'll do well."
"Feena? Congratulations."

When the light faded again, she was standing by a window, overlooking a city, still and calm as a sleeping baby. She pressed her hands to the window. So high up. So far above the ground that she could not even see the bottom before it was taken by shadow. But she wasn't scared. She was delighted. Something was... very exciting about this office. She was here for a reason. Because of all her hard work.

Do you really believe for a second that you were happiest here?

The glass behind her palms broke and she tumbled forward through it. But her feet found solid ground just beyond. White. Completely white. She ran as fast as her feet could take her. No. Not there. That wasn't it. She stopped suddenly as the white cleared like fog. She was standing over a city again, but not the same one from before. She knew this city well. Her city. White towers, structures, rivers running through. Theed. She knew it had this name. She was Queen.

Not anymore.

Something pulled her away. The city grew tiny then faded completely into white. She stood in a dusty waste now. Looming over head, was the dark stone castle. Where she'd spent so many years. A sad smile crept onto her face. No. No. This was home. This was always home. She walked, but she left no footprints, her feet made no sounds. Through the giant gate, through the door. Inside, in the giant foyer, a silent calm seemed to have settled over everything. She climbed the steps, one hand clutching her white dress.

"I am a monster... Why are you helping me? You are my Queen. I've never had much hope... I am your knight. Feena, will you-? I will always be here. I pray our story never ends..."

At the top step, she froze.

Go on. This is right.


The dying woman squeezed her husbands hand again.

"Keter... Will you close the book now?"



[member="Keter"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] [member="Razor Shot"] [member="Vorhi Alestrani"] [member="Cyril Grayson"]

 

[Keter]

"The book never closes. But I will turn the last page of your chapter," her husband replied.

Her story would continue, through her daughters. As would his, in time.

[member="Feena Mason"]

 

[Feena]

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qizpBpHTzkU

"The book never closes. But I will turn the last page of your chapter,"

Her feet began to move once more. She moved past the library, peaking in.

Not here

Down the hall, past her old office

Not here

Her daughters rooms.

No. No.

Up the steps, across the walkway. Her weak heartbeat drummed all around her. Weaker by the second. Her pace increased. This walkway seemed to stretch on forever. The faster she ran, the further the door stretched. and the slower her heart beat drummed.

"I won't make it!"

"Because you don't want to. You're afraid. You're hesitating. "
"Don't give up! Don't ever give up!"
"Keep going. Never stop!"
"Even if the road seems tough, you will always be tougher."
"Because I believe in you-"
"-Because you believe in you."

Don't be scared.



"It doesn't matter how you die. The story that people will tell, is how you lived."


And just like that, it was as if she had torn through the grasp of some powerful and invisible set of hands. The doorway closed in and she reached for it before it could escape again. It creaked open just as her last heart beat faded.


So this... is my Sanctuary?

White. A white void was all she could see. She stood tall in the emptiness. Would this be her forever? This was not the afterlife she expected.

Are you surprised?

No.... I just expected something else, I suppose.

Let me tell you a secret. Your sanctuary is not a place. In the end, the places we go, and the things we do, don't matter all that much.

But if none of it mattered, then what was the point of it? Living?

The point is to live.

I don't understand...

Let me put it this way. When you throw a rock into a still lake, what happens?

It makes ripples.

Correct.

So the point, then is... to make ripples?

Precisely.

I see... So my sanctuary is...

"Them."

Off in the distance, one by one, figures began to emerge. The ones closest, the ones she could see the most clearly, were those few waiting just outside her room. Her children, her friends. But more began to appear from the white fog. Her parents, her teachers, her students, people who were still alive, people who had long ago passed on. Then like a flood, she was surrounded. The sea of faces was endless, stretching on forever. She turned around, taking in the smiles.

"Feena," The sea of smiles and familiar faces parted and he walked through, holding his hand out to her, "It's time to go. But don't worry. There is no ending."



In the lonely bed room, Feena Mason took one final breath. The rain pounding on the windows outside began to subside just then. The wind died down for a moment. Her hand on her husbands face went still, then fell to her side.

She had fallen asleep forever and in her dreams, She walked through an endless crowd of people who's lives she had changed, people who had felt the ripples left by her. By the life she had lived..

Beneath her feet, the grass was as green as the fields of Naboo,

and the sky above was blue.

​

 

[Bolt]

Zaiden felt a tear trickle free of its lid. Though he knew this would happen, sensing his sisters life cease...it hurt...a lot. Immediately stepping from the Hall, he headed for the door. As he walked, the door and a majority of the wall around it, exploded outward in sheer disintegration. When he was free of the confines, he leapt far from the building....

And literally exploded outward in a show of power. As his Force Explosion reach incredible heights, he Bellowed like a wounded animal. He did not care for the planet, life or any others welfare - save those he had just left. Yet when the Force began to tell of the damage he was doing to the area, and how it was getting close to the house, he ceased.

Dropping to his knees, he did not even notice he was within a crater, as he placed his face in his hands in utter depression...

 

[Felicity Mason]

"She's gone."

Felicity's voice broke the silence after her Uncle stormed out. She could feel. No. Not just feel it. She could see it. In her head. She saw her father holding her mother. Her hand on his face. Then it just.... dropped. That was it. The second her hand hit the bed sheets, her heart had stopped.

It was a strange sensation, this numbness. Standing out here, while in there her mother said her last words and died. Did it hurt? That was what she wanted to know the most. Did she suffer? In the end, did it hurt to die? But now she supposed that much didn't matter. She was gone. He pain was over. The girl looked over at her boyfriend now holding the sleeping infant. Her face was carefully blank. No crying now. It was useless to cry. She could do that later when it was time. When they put her body in the ground. Or when they burned her. Truth be told, Felicity wasn't sure what the plans were for her mothers body. Even thought she had known full well that she was dying, she'd never been able to imagine her mother as a corpse.

"Master Alestrani, Master Dragonsflame," she said, "Would you like to pray for her with me?"

[member="Vorhi Alestrani"] [member="Razor Shot"] [member="Keter"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He could feel it... Nobody had to tell him. He had been able to sense Feena's life force fading away, more and more rapidly... And then... Just like that... It flickered out.

She was gone.

He wanted to deny it. He wanted to hope that maybe he was just making a mistake. He made mistakes, right? Nobody was perfect... His senses couldn't be right all the time... He didn't want to believe it. Didn't want to have to live with the reality that Feena was dead. But... Then as soon as the man stormed out, Felicity spoke the words... And he couldn't deny it anymore.

Feena Mason was dead.

He felt his entire body go numb. He'd tried so hard to deny it, but... That confirmed it. He couldn't deny it now. There was no lying to himself, it'd been said straight to his face... What did he do now? He felt.... Empty. And finally.... The tears began to rain from his eyes as the Jedi Master stared at the ground. He didn't bother putting his hood back up, at this point... He didn't care if anyone saw him cry anymore.

Felicity's request caused him to perk up his head and wipe the tears from his eyes, nodding a moment. "Of course, Felicity..." He spoke quietly. "Please, lead on...."

[member="Felicity Mason"] [member="Vorhi Alestrani"]

 

[Vorhi Alestrani]

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] [member="Felicity Mason"]


Vorhi coughed slightly as he saw the flame of life extinguish. It wasn't an easy thing, watching a good person die. To his eyes, it was like watching a small star, full of light and energy and hope, finally dissipate. The truth is, he had know for a while, even before she had admitted it. Nobody lived forever--and in truth, Feenarah Mason was the sort of person who would readily get herself killed if it mean helpign others. This time, though, he couldn't save her. Unlike the numerous times someone had tried to assassinate her, she woudl die as she lived--peaceful, and with a family of her own choosing.


He made a faint, weak, sniffling sort of noise, as Felicity jarred him out of his thoughts for a moment. Prayer. Not a word he heard often. Pray in what way? To the gods, as a Miralukian ought? To the Force, as a Jedi would? He considered both of those statements, and took one hand of Felicity's in his own as well as the blonde-haired Jedi. "A--as you wish," he said, his voice raspy and slightly worn. For a brief moment, Vorhi Alestrani showed his age. He smiled softly, waiting for the others to start, to say something. It was right to let the family speak first, then the comrades.