Song Choice: Life is a Beautiful Thing (attached Youtube video on the side)
"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." – Dr. Seuss
Epilogue
Katerina Ilyinsky loved the sun. It was warm against her cheeks. She loved the clouds and the blue, blue sky as well. She liked it here better. At home, it was always cold and she was forced to wear that awful red sarafan together with an equally awful kokoshnik. They're both itchy and ugly and heavy and she hated them fiercely. Also, the sky was a constant gray, and Katerina found it to be a sad color. She didn't want to be sad. No one deserved to be sad.
Her Da said that they will stay here for two weeks. She was happy to be here. No school. No boring piano lessons. No noisy cat with the ugly eye.
A vacation, he said. She loved vacations! If she asked her Da, maybe he would let her stay here for good. Maybe her Ma won't mind. She bet they would love it here too.
"Ma, ma!"
"Yes, darling?"
"Ma!" she frowned. "I'm your princess, remember?"
Her Ma rolled her eyes. "Okay. Let me repeat . . . what do you need, princess?"
Katerina grinned. "Can I play?"
Her Ma looked around the pretty garden, and with a smile, she leaned close to little Katerina.
"As long as you're careful."
She giggled as she held out her palms and squished her Ma's face.
"Boo!"
Her Ma laughed before giving her a wet kiss on the cheek. Katerina beamed at her Ma and ran off.
Colorful flowers! She clapped her hands together in glee after she touched the reds and yellows and blues and greens. She turned around as she felt that one of her Da's friends, the pretty lady with a pretty hair, was watching her with sad eyes.
Why was she sad? she wondered. Maybe she's hungry? Maybe she too wants to play?
Behind Da's pretty friend were two boys, the eldest only one finger taller than her. The taller one had dark brown hair like the pretty lady, while the other had sparkly gold hair like the man holding the pretty lady's hand. They were both hiding shyly behind their mama. Maybe they wouldn't be shy if Katerina asked them to be her friends.
"Wanna play?" she asked as she hopped her way to them. Her Da then picked her up and put her on his broad, broad shoulders.
"Da!"
"Yes, princess?" She loved her Da more, because he never forgot to call her princess, unlike her Ma. But today, that love wasn't enough to keep her playing with him.
"Put me down!" she squealed in laughter. "I wanna play with them!"
"With who?"
"Them!" she pointed imperiously at the two startled boys.
"Oh . . . them. Go ahead sweetie," her Da smiled before gently putting her down. "Can I ask who they are?"
She frowned. "I haven't asked their names yet!"
All of his friends laughed at her Da as his face turned funny and weird. Katerina ignored her Da and his boring adult friends. She smiled at the brown-haired boy. "Hello. Why are you hiding?"
Without waiting for them to speak, she grabbed their hands and pulled them to the nice spot near the reds and yellows and blues and greens. "Let's make flower rings!"
The two boys stood silently, holding each others' hands, and only stared at her.
"What? Let's play!" she patted the empty space beside her. "Is that pretty lady your Ma?"
The brown-haired boy glanced over his shoulder, and he nodded.
"Let's make a crown and a necklace for her!"
"How about our Poppa?" asked the smaller, blonde. He had a nice voice. Soft and gentle, like the morning wind outside Katerina's bedroom windows.
"We can make him a crown too."
The two boys decidedly ran away and came back a minute later with their hands full of pretty flowers. They took too many that they managed to create three crowns and two necklaces. When they were done, the sun had become very orange and Katerina could hear her Ma calling her to come inside the house.
Katerina wore the necklace made with all white flowers.
"Pretty!" she laughed merrily.
"Will Momma and Poppa like them?" the blonde boy asked with an excited smile.
"Oh, yes they will!" she grinned.
"Princess!" her Ma called out again. "It's getting cold out there. Come here, darling and I'll make you a cup of hot milk."
Katerina gingerly picked up the three crowns and necklace. "Here."
The brown-haired boy shook his head.
She thrust the flower jewelry again to them. "Take it."
"We can't," the blonde boy mumbled under his breath.
She frowned. Why?
"Uhm, I still don't know your names."
The boys merely looked at each other and the blonde smiled. "I'm Jeremy, and this is my older brother, Dylan." They held each other's hands again.
The brown-haired boy finally spoke. "Atom will be home from school. Give the extra crown to him."
She tilted her head. "Atom?"
"Please tell them that we love them. Okay, princess?"
"Okay," she beamed. "Let's play again some time?"
But Dylan and Jeremy were gone, leaving her alone in the dark, cold garden. Quickly, she waved at them and blew them kisses before she skipped towards the pretty, pretty house.
Her Ma helped her clean up for supper, and when she went down with the flowers in her hands, she saw Dylan and Jeremy hiding behind their Momma's chair. They were listening carefully as an old boy with weird eyes told everyone on the table a story about a girl he met in the Academy.
Katerina hopped to her tall chair as she listened too. Her Ma and Da told her that when she's older, they might send her to a special school somewhere far, where people like her Da used to stay. They told her that they would watch her, and if she receives a gift, they would send her. She hoped that Santa would give her that gift so that she could go to the Academy. Maybe it was a plane ticket or a boat. She didn't know because whenever she asked, her Ma and Da would not tell her. Older brother Viktor went there last winter, and she wanted to go because she missed him terribly.
"Excuse me. Are you Atom?" Katerina asked politely after the old boy finished telling them that he learned to fly a bird robot.
"Yes?" he asked, and her brows furrowed. He looked nothing like Dylan or Jeremy.
"Are you their eldest brother?"
The old boy stiffened as he locked his eyes on her. Weird, weird yellow eyes. . . but the pretty lady had pretty green eyes, and the man beside her had blue summer eyes.
"Mom," Atom said, after staring at little Katerina for a tad bit too long. "Can you please turn off your Gift for a while?"
"Why?"
"I think . . . I'll explain later. Please?"
"Okay."
Katerina saw Dylan nod, and she knew that it was time. With a smile, she eagerly climbed down her tall chair and gave the flower jewelries to Atom, the pretty lady and the man with summer eyes.
"They made it for you."
The pretty lady's smile faded. "They?"
Katerina watched Dylan and Jeremy as they silently slipped out of the room. No one but her seemed to notice. Dylan even sent her a small wave and mouthed his thanks.
They were finally saying goodbye.
"They said they love you."
And then, after a heartbeat, Atom cried.
* * *
It had been eight years since their future together started.
After the tsunami, the Gifted survivors were counted to be fewer than a hundred, and from the original number of close to a thousand, only three hundred of the NonGifted agents lived. About half of the Light were wiped out.
The Light and Creed called a truce, and peace finally emerged after decades of ruin and suffering. The once enemies learned to forgive each other for the sake of the generations to come. Together, they united to build a stronger fortress. The two organizations merged to become the single most powerful entity on the planet, the Academy.
Instead of solely relying on the trade of assassination, the Creeds and the Underwoods brought to life projects that would allow other Gifted to cultivate their powers on innovative ways. Children were reared to learn control over their powers, as well as discipline, and upon adulthood, they would be given a chance to choose. To join the Military or the Front.
Abcidee Faye Creed was the Academy's first chairman . . . chairwoman. She worked and refined and polished the policies and the culture both inside and out for five years. Her legacy was to be remembered for decades and centuries to come, and the lasting change she brought would forever change the life of all Gifted.
She would be written in history as the woman who discovered the Paradox of Gifts. The basic laws that governed their powers. That in every Gift, there were two sides of them, like sides of a coin, light and dark, yin and yang.
Faye Creed and Gneiss Underwood officially became a couple after months and months of late movie nights, Ferris wheel rides, opera watching, wind surfing and a lot of cuddling and making out. They had a not-so-simple wedding in the wonderful island of Nido in Palawan, Philippines, under the suggestion of their close family friend, the world class surgeon Rafaello Ruiz. They had a honeymoon cruise using a yacht especially designed by another close friend, the multi-credited engineering specialist and inventor Arashi Katsuragi. The then thirteen year old Cameron "Atom" Underwood was the ring bearer.
Meric, Kreuz, Vladimir, Denna, Richard . . . family and friends that had touched Faye's and Gneiss' lives were present, happy to celebrate a union of two people who had found true love.
However, unlike in most stories, theirs didn't have a fairy tale ending.
Seven months after the wedding, Faye miscarried their first child. After two years of trying, she gave birth to a still born. She had to undergo an operation to remove the tumor growing inside of her.
As Faye refused to use a surrogate mother, they would never have children of their own.
Vladimir soon succumbed to old age, and was buried together with his wife and daughters at the main island of the former HQ.
A year later, it was found out that Kreuz had developed a serious heart condition. He died a peaceful death nine weeks after.
But some good things had happened too.
Ivan and his family were recognized and publicly acknowledged as the last of the ancient royal bloodline of Ilyinskys. Atom was adopted by Faye and Gneiss and had proven himself a good, albeit a little naughty, son. Arashi earned several science and engineering degrees for himself and settled to work for the FBI during his free time.
Aside from being a restaurant owner, Faye turned out to be the perfect housewife, although she might or might not be spending a bit too much on her wardrobe and the kitchen.
As for Gneiss, he found out that he had another hobby other than kissing and adoring his wife : he liked singing. . . and dancing with her under the rain.
This was a verse from the song he serenaded her with the day they celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary.
"'Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I'll give my all to you
You're my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I'm winning
'Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all of you, oh"
Letting her go was both the best and worst mistake I made in my life. But I never regretted the things I did. If not, I would have never realized that it was her who makes me complete.
Together, we're complete
This is our happily ever after.
THE END
First and foremost, THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR SUPPORTING THIS SERIES <3
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I am just a simple girl with a simple life, and everything changed the moment readers started loving my stories. I am astonished with the amount of love that this story is receiving. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
I hope you are not disappointed with this Epilogue. It took me several tries to write this. It may not be the best ending out there, but this is the ending that I think my characters deserved.
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