And There Was Another✔️

Epilogue

Seth Kast opened his eyes.

For several seconds, he was struck by an incredibly powerful and incredibly bizarre sensation: the sensation that he could not remember where he was, nor why he was waking up, but that this particular scenario had played out several times in the recent past.

Something was beeping softly nearby, it was a steady and oddly comforting sound.

He tried to speak, but his throat was too dry.

Seth blinked several times and surveyed his surroundings. He felt like he was in danger...or had been in danger very recently. But had that danger passed? All he could see was a ceiling. He felt very weak, his thoughts slow, but one bubbled to the surface, and it had a frighteningly powerful certainty and conviction behind it.

He was dead.

Was this death? He sure hoped not. He'd kind of been hoping that death was just nothing. That he would just go to sleep and there'd be nothing.

Part of him hoped he wasn't dead, if only because he still had some things he wanted to do.

Seth had the notion that there was something tremendously important he should be attending to, but he didn't know what.

That only made him more anxious.

Seth willed himself to move, willed his muscles to work. It did work, to a certain degree. He managed to raise his head and survey the room he was in. It was an infirmary...no, a patient room at a Republic military facility of some kind.

So, not dead then? Hopefully.

The place looked pretty lived in. His bed was the only one there, but he saw a few chairs arranged in a circle around a small table nearby, and from that alone he could tell several people had been spending regular time in his room. And from the way two chairs were arranged up against the wall, facing each other about three feet apart, he could easily envision someone falling asleep there more than once.

How long had he been here?

Where was here?

He vaguely remembered...Lotus Prime. Yes. The rainy island. The neutron purge. The terentatek. The Dark Jedi...

It was coming back to him now.

And...

Nova. Yes, now he had it. Nova. He had told Maya to sacrifice him for her.

The last thing he remembered, and it was so thin and distant that he thought it might even be a dream, (but prayed that it wasn't), was that Nova was okay.

He heard a door slide quietly open and looked towards it. Nova was stepping in, looking over her shoulder as she reached behind her to quietly slide the glass door shut again, and as she finished and turned back around, she locked eyes with him, and for several seconds, just stared at him.

"Seth?" she whispered.

"Hey, beautiful," he replied weakly.

She laughed disbelievingly and then rushed across the room to him, where she knelt and kissed him hard on the mouth, hugging him. He weakly hugged her and kissed her back, then, as something occurred to him, he gently pushed her away.

"What? What's wrong?" she asked.

"My breath has gotta be the worst in the galaxy right now," he replied.

She laughed and shook her head. "I don't care! Seth, you're awake! I can't believe it!"

"How long was I down?...where are we?" he asked, then coughed weakly.