WOW, this is the end. The very last update for this story. Thank you to all readers and reviewers. You have helped me so much to finish this story. I sincerely hope that you all enjoyed the story, or at least that you weren't disappointed. If you could be so kind, please stop over at my profile for the link to the last illustration. It'll be filed under "Cry Mercy Cry".

Also, unless anyone here particularly likes Avatar: TLA and wants to read that fanfiction too, this will be the last you hear from me on this site! I enjoyed posting here, but I have other projects to work on. If you want to know what they are, or if you want me to look at your fanfiction, just send me a message. I may or may not read and review, but I'll do my best. Thanks again! :D

Epilogue

A golden blanket of sunlight bathed the streets of Cascade, warming even the iciest corners. Simon stood at the edge of town, waiting next to his gunmen for Kamina and Yoko to finish gathering provisions. The slope of the hill ahead blocked his view of the horizon, but in his mind he could see the hourglass shaped mountain, a lonely tower set against the rising sun.

Yoko strode up the hill and appeared next to him.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

Simon nodded, but said nothing. Silently he climbed into the cockpit of Lagann, tucked the earpiece into place, and closed the canopy.

A few moments later Kamina came up to his side, hauling a bag of dried food and blankets to store for their journey. He was not alone; Myla followed only a pace behind, looking careworn but simultaneously serene.

She rapped lightly on Lagann's canopy. "You were planning on saying goodbye right?"

Simon fought not to blush as the cockpit opened, instead fashioning a serious face to look at Myla with. "Sorry," he said simply.

"I wanted to thank you," she said. "To think…Paradise is finally ours. The townspeople haven't been so lighthearted since we first broke the surface."

"You'll have to take good care of the place," Simon told her, smiling. "But with all those weapons we found, you shouldn't have too much trouble keeping the beastmen away."

Placidly she bobbed her head in a nod. A long silence stretched between them, and they both watched with seemingly incredible interest as Kamina tossed the bag of supplies into the transport carriage.

Without turning her head, Myla brought up the real reason for approaching Simon. "You think he's still alive, don't you?"

He paused, but then murmured, "Of course."

"Well," she sighed, "I guess we'll find out when we go there. He can't hide forever."

Once again, words fell into silence, and no matter how hard he thought, Simon could not find anything to say. He wasn't sure how he felt about Myla's relaxed attitude, or her short words that suggested she didn't care what had happened on the mountain. But then, when he looked at his own reaction, all he felt was tired.

Departure from the mountain had been solemn. It had taken ceaseless persuasion and threats to convince Simon to turn his back on Paradise and return to the town, one man short. Even as he watched the rocks disappearing into the blinding white distance, a war of hope and sorrow tore at his heart. No one had been able to find Linus, either dead or alive. But there were a few hopeful signs.

Moments after Linus and Nhisis had plunged off the mountain, Simon had chased them all the way to ice slick boulders below. He searched a long while before he finally found the body of Nhisis, stiff and dead with a round hole struck through his skull. The sight was gruesome, and Simon hurried to drill a deep pit to toss the grizzly corpse into. He didn't want to return later to find the body ravaged by the remaining beasts, and he certainly didn't want them to have their leader's carcass for a trophy to spur revenge.

Tensley, Simon remembered turning his attention toward searching the rocks for the second body, but there was a mixed feeling of worry and relief when he spotted a track of footprints in the shallow snow. Drips of blood wove around the prints, but they soon met the cliff and vanished.

Dispite the combined efforts of Yoko and Kamina and Simon, no one was able to locate Linus on the mountain. Simon found the wreckage of the Battering Ram, but let it be until later. When he returned a few hours later, the mecha had disappeared, leaving only shards of metal behind.

Mounting a cliff midway up the mountain, Simon looked out at the snow field and saw something strange. A horde of small black spots danced across the white expanse, like an army marching to battle. A sudden realization hit him as he stared at the figures. They were not soldiers, but the very beasts who had inhabited Paradise only hours before. They were fleeing the mountain in greatly reduced numbers, running now that their leader had been killed. Vaguely Simon wondered where they would go. He could almost see them fitting in well with the beastmen, and hoped silently that he never saw the monsters again.

Kamina scrambled to the absolute summit, and found a series of well-marked tunnels leading into the rock. Out of curiosity he followed one in particular and soon entered a large, chamber-like room, stuffed with treasures. Gold and jewels that meant nothing to his uncultured eyes glittered in the gloomy darkness. Large cannons, swords and guns made piles in the corners, but the only thing to catch his attention was the collection of gunmen parts. Mostly limbs, but a handful of heads, and torsos filled half of the chamber, touch all of them were far too heavy for him to lift.

"So, this is where that slimy fuzz brain was headed," Kamina murmured. "Ha, I guess he really was a king."

The final discovery came to Yoko while she searched for Linus in the lush forest. Walking in no apparent direction she come across a cliff sweeping out of the brush, with a broad view of the mountain and the icy plain beyond. Stuck like a victorious banner into the stone was a dazzling golden pole, and tied to it was a ragged coat with only one sleeve. An odd, flaming symbol was traced into the fabric, apparently with blood, though it was difficult to tell.

"That's Linus' coat," Simon said joyfully. "He dropped it right before he rescued me from Nhisis."

"What is that supposed to be?" Kamina wondered loudly, pointing to the smeared image on the back of the coat.

Yoko turned Simon around and gestured to the flaming skull on his back. "I think it's supposed to be like this, but it's been smudged."

Together they examined the image again, and this time clearly saw the crude shape of a flaming skull between the blurry lines.

Seeing this Kamina smiled proudly and walked away with his arms crossed, his stride distinctly regal.

By sunset, everyone seemed to have reached the same conclusion. If Linus was alive, he was trying very hard not to be found.

Simon wasn't truly sure how to explain all of this to Myla. Even though the flag had obviously been placed by Linus, and he had likely been the one to recover the Battering Ram, there was still no guarantee that he was still alive, days later. Minutes later he was still speechless, and Kamina and Yoko were both ready to leave.

Sighing, Simon said goodbye to Myla, wishing her and all the people of Cascade luck as they prepared to journey to Paradise. Words were all he could offer them, but as he guided his gunmen over the hill he promised to return one day, if only to be sure that the mountain was all it promised to be.

No one spoke as the journey started again, and even Kamina was notably subdued. They had barely walked a few miles before something appeared ahead of them. Two figures walked directly in their path, though they were still too far away to make out.

Yoko stuck her head out of the transport carriage and raised a pair of binoculars to her eyes. Focusing on the strangers ahead, she shouted out in surprise.

"Hey! That's Leeron!" she said.

Kamina and Simon both squinted at the horizon, and as they drew closer to the figures, Leeron's familiar face became easy to make out.

"I thought he was going to meet us ahead," Simon said. "He said he couldn't stand the cold."

"There's someone else with him," Yoko added, lowering the binoculars. "I don't recognize him though."

Simon fixed his gaze on the stranger walking with Leeron, studying his rather odd appearance. His hair was dark and shaggy, whishing in front of his eyes. On his shoulders was a simple grey cloak, but he wore no shirt underneath it. Soon the two were standing at Gurren's feet, waiting for everyone to step out and meet them.

"Leeron, what are you doing here?" Yoko asked cheerfully as she walked around Gurren's massive legs. "I thought you said you would meet us a few miles ahead, where there isn't…how did you put it?"

"Where there isn't wretched, nasty snow and wind," offered Simon.

Leeron giggled. "Aw, you know me so well. But you're right, I had sort of a change of heart." He grabbed the strange man's arm, though Leeron's head only came up to his shoulder. "I met this charmer in the next colony over, just a few miles from here. He said he was headed to Cascade, and it would be so rude of me to let him go alone, you know."

Simon thought he knew much more than what Leeron would say out loud, but kept his mouth shut. The stranger didn't react at all to Leeron's words, but stared at Simon with intensely perceptive eyes. Yoko and Leeron talked on, but Simon wasn't listening. Slowly the strange man switched his gaze to the bright red gunmen, and tilted his head back to look at them.

"Nice mechas," he said softly. Kamina turned to him.

"Yeah you bet they are! See this is Gurren and that's—"

Once again, Simon could not hear their conversation as he stared open-mouthed at the stranger's neck. When the man leaned his head back a vicious scar showed on his skin that was not visible when his chin was down. The pale line tore from his neck diagonally across his chest, surrounded by a dozen other smaller marks. Simon suspected that even more wounds decorated the man's arms and legs, but were hidden by his coat and wooly trousers.

"Right, Simon?"

Simon blinked dumbly and looked up. Both Kamina and the stranger were staring at him expectantly.

"What's the matter with you?" Kamina asked. "Didn't we conquer Paradise, or what?"

"Oh yeah. . . um, w-we killed Nhisis and chased all the beasts away…."

The man frowned momentarily. "Did you?" once again his shining eyes seemed to scrutinize every inch of Simon's face. But then a smile wide enough to rival Kamina's grin broke over his face. "Did you really. About time, I'd say."

From there the entire story of the battles in Cascade and the capturing of Paradise unfolded, told in part by Kamina, Yoko and Simon. Throughout the tale the stranger stood quietly and listened, his expression hardly changing. He would smile lightly when anyone made a joke or when Kamina and Yoko argued over the details. To Simon's surprise, when the retelling ended, Leeron was the only one to ask any questions. The other man simply watched, shifting anxiously side to side as if he were suddenly in a hurry to go somewhere.

At last the man looked up again, pushing a thin-fingered hand through his deep blue hair. "I'm very sorry, but I do need to reach Cascade. You've certainly told me a fantastic story."

"It wasn't just a story," grumbled Kamina.

"No," said the man. "My mistake. Please, if you ever return to the mountain, be sure to look for me. I'll be glad to hear of the adventures you are sure to have in the future."

With a polite nod he took a few steps away, as if that were all that needed to be said. Kamina made a disapproving noise, and soon everyone was hurrying to be out of the cold. Simon shut the canopy on Lagann, but paused to look back at the stranger's path. The man was now a good ways away, striding confidently over the snow. Just as he was about to follow his friends, a realization hit Simon that the man was not walking in the direction of Cascade. In fact, he was in route to Paradise.

Just as he was about to call to the man and tell him his mistake, Kamina's voice broke into his earpiece, demanding that Simon catch up. He hurried to Gurren's side, but turned around right away to look for the stranger.

But he was already just a spot in the distance, too far for any words to reach.