Hey, everyone. In case you didn't catch the memo, this is the epilogue of Ceres 2, which means that I'm going on a break after this. It won't mean that I'll stop writing (on the contrary, I'll try to write more than ever before), but I won't be updating. At least, don't count on it.

Also, I'm editing and writing this AN on the place where there's no wifi D: Poor me, I know. But if you're wondering why this update is so late, that's why. I've sat still in this plane so long that my body's convinced it's bedtime, so I should probably finish up soon before I nod off to sleep.

So yeah, thank you so much to everyone who read this story all the way to the end. Without you guys, I don't think that I would have written more than a few chapters of my first fic. Hopefully I can be a professional author one day, and if that happens I'll never forget the part that you all played in helping me along. :)

Shimo no ko: Yeah, I do tend to kill characters off after they develop because killing them off before they develop is usually a terrible idea. When I present a character problem, it's implied that I'll solve it somehow and people will feel cheated if they die before then. Oh, don't feel like you have to worry too much. Not everyone's going to die. :) Oh yeah, my main characters are not in a great spot emotionally. It makes me feel evil. D: We're not going to see any more Jeff until Ceres 3, but I will touch upon Ninten and Ness in this chapter.

Ah, thanks. :) I was desperate to find interesting character struggles for Jeff, and I eventually settled on the whole "finding someone to care about" thing. I'm not super proud of it, but given how poorly I wrote Jeff earlier on I'd say it's an improvement. Ah, yes, the nowhere pun. It took me a while to get it in Lucas' smash 4 reveal trailer. Yeah, Voice might pop up a few times in Ceres 3, but he's not a major character by any means. Yes, little about the Shard makes sense. Uh… I don't know what counts as a big reveal, but I tried for a couple during the epilogue. Thanks so much for reviewing every chapter and I'll see you around! :)

crabbyTomato: Ah, I hope that your finger gets better soon. Although if a broken bone is involved, it will probably take a while... ouch. :( Don't worry, the heartstone doesn't last long; Claus in that scene had full command of his emotions and was dealing with normal grief. Yeah, I was going back and forth on whether I should kill off Poo, Paula, or neither of them in the last few chapters of this fic. I don't even remember why I decided on Paula. :( And yeah, your list is pretty accurate. :) There's also a lot more stuff that I have to tie together (looks at messy plans for climax and sighs). All right; see you later! :)

PSIBoy: Hey, I don't mind if you miss some chapters. I'm just glad that you're reviewing now. :) Yep, I'm clearing out the OCs for Ceres 3 so that people who want to jump into the series won't be like "Wha..." while also killing of others for good measure. :( I feel like a bad person now. Yeah, I found it interesting as Morgan's character developed how she never really killed anyone directly while protags like Ninten kill in the name of war and self-preservation. Heh, I'm taking a little bit of inspiration from the WWII arms race for this fic, so it won't be all sunshine and rainbows as far as the consequences of these weapons go. But it's not like laser guns are really atomic bombs (this universe already has those). The reason nobody else popularized that weapon is that the universe basically stagnated for 2000 years under the empire's rule. It's like how Japan continued to fight with katanas well into the 1800s and required an outside force to mobilize a modern military. That's also my excuse for not thinking of futuristic home appliances and other tech gadgets. :) And speaking of PMs... I was on a vacation and didn't have much time, but I'll try to respond soon.

PKtofuMaster: Yep, I'm sitting here past midnight finishing this epilogue off so that I can publish it. Plane rides are boring and tiring. D: But hey, at least it's better than any other form of transportation. Yeah, I'm taking a break from updating so that I can work more on just writing Ceres. Hopefully I won't burn out. :) Ah, thanks. I'll have enough free time that I'm hoping to update rather quickly, but I guess we'll see how it goes. Yeah, I got that same vibe as well after rereading my chapter. Since Paula's death was in the heat of the moment, though, there will be more opportunities for feels now and later. And yeah, both you and crabbyTomato didn't connect with Paula much. Not one of my more compelling characters haha. You fortell a scene with angst? I shall surpass your expectations. :) In all seriousness, while the idea of new technology to shock the world in mostly negative ways is overused in fantasy, I'm still trying my hand at it. And Jeff might not be the one you should worry about in regards to developing schizophrenia... But yeah, see you later! :)

Ninten and Claus sat outside the Snow Wood Boarding School, watching as the sun set. Ninten took frequent looks at Claus, whose eyes never wavered from the red ball of fire in the sky. At least he looked in control of himself, thank the Divine Rulers.

"I can see you fretting about me," Claus said, his voice soft. "I'm sorry that I killed Morgan. Not that I liked her or anything, but..." Claus took a deep breath. "It was just so sad to look back on that moment. She wasn't going to hurt anyone. A child could have told you that. So why couldn't I tell?"

Ninten blinked. How was he supposed to respond to that?

"And Morgan's death pushed Dr. Andonuts over the edge," Claus said. "I killed two with one stroke. All because I was blind."

"I don't think it's completely fair to say that you killed Pan Lorune," Ninten said, "Or Dr. Andonuts. Whoever he really was. When I saw the look on his face, I knew that he had wanted to die for a long time."

"But still," Claus said. "I was heartless. But I guess that's what happens. When I used the Heartstone to boost the power of my PK Love, it drained all of the compassion out of me."

"See?" Ninten said. "It wasn't really your fault."

"I held the sword that stabbed Morgan," Claus said. "I can make excuses all I want, but in the end it was me who killed her."

But some excuses are valid, Ninten thought. And this is one of them. If he hadn't used PK Love and the heartstone, neither of us would be alive right now. He picked the lesser of two evils.

"How long has it been since Ann teleported us here?" Ninten asked. "It feels like it's been months. Maybe school started again and we missed it."

"It's been five days," Claus said, a weak smile coming to his face. "Get a grip, Ninten."

Ninten detected humor rather than bitterness in Claus' voice. That was a start, at least.

"Dr. Andonuts told me something before he died," Ninten said. "Something about heading to Scaraba to find a 'Sound Stone.' Do you know anything about that?"

"I don't even know where Scaraba is on a map. Earth is a big place."

"It's due south of Fourside," Ninten said. "Through a strait and across the Southern Sea. It's a desert nation that's more culturally different from Aphrodite than Eagleland is."

"A desert?" Claus asked. "Eh, I'm not surprised. Fourside is already smoldering hot."

"Dr. Andonuts said that the Sound Stone would be important for 'what comes next,'" Ninten said. "And I know that he's crazy, but I believe him this time."

"So you're heading to Scaraba," Claus said.

"Yes. Will you come with me?"

"I'll think about it," Claus said.

They sat for what felt like several hours, staring at the sun as it slowly dipped under the Earth. Right when Ninten was about to nod off to sleep, he sensed someone with a psionic aura walking towards him. He turned to see Ana wearing a shirt and trousers, the same outfit that she always wore as a child. When she walked forward, the snow melted around her.

"Ann," Ninten said. "I tried to contact your telecom a dozen times over the last few days. Did something happen to it?"

"No," Ana said, averting her gaze, "But I wasn't ready to face you just yet."

"Is this about your self-harm?" Ninten asked.

"Wait," Claus said, looking at Ana with wide eyes. "You got into self-harm too?"

"What do you mean 'you too?'" Ninten asked. "Don't tell me that you slit your wrists or stab yourself…"

"Haven't done it as much recently," Claus said. "Besides, if I lose too much blood then my iron levels drop and I get super sleepy."

That's what he's worried about? Ninten thought. His iron levels?

"No, it actually has nothing to do with that." Ana looked Ninten straight in the eye. "I have some bad news about Paula."

Starman Jenny teleported into a room with a blond-haired child sitting in one of the capture pods. She recognized the boy, but only by reputation. Lucas, the first human psionic savant. All starmen were weaker versions of psionic savants, really; they were output devices for Master Giygas with no will of their own.

So why did Starman Jenny sometimes swear that she felt things?

She looked into Lucas' mind and was surprised by what she saw. His cognitive map displayed quite a great deal of pain and bitterness, naturally. The starman brainwashing process often brought about those negative emotions that caused humans to act so erratically. But in Lucas' mind, feelings of thankfulness trumped all else. Jenny probed further and saw that the thankfulness was directed at another boy named Ness.

So strange, these humans. Right when Jenny thought that she had figured them out, they threw another curveball at her. None of the others had acted like this; why did Lucas hold onto this other boy?

Jenny halted her analysis as Giygas appeared in the room. Human rulers made their subjects come to them, Jenny knew, but such pride and condescension was not the starman way. Giygas was always where he needed to be.

"Master Gigyas," Jenny said in the orderly starman language. "I inform you that the human president Minerva Carpainter is dead. Minutes before her death while faking unconsciousness, she activated a large number of nuclear weapons using some long-range psionic powers unknown to us. The nuclear bombs wiped out most of our starman soldiers."

"IT GOES AS CALCULATED," Giygas responded.

"Why did you not try to prevent the president from destroying most of our forces?" Jenny asked.

There was no disrespect in Jenny's words. Starmen did not know the meaning of respect. Jenny was asking for information about strategy, and Giygas would respond in the same, logical way. To get annoyed or focus on implications only served to create clutter and chaos.

"THE PRESIDENT THOUGHT THAT THE BOMBS WOULD HURT US," Giygas said. "THEY DID NOT."

"But they killed most of our soldiers," Jenny said.

"LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING."

Giygas teleported himself and Jenny over to another location. Jenny didn't bother to take in the physical details of the new area; once again, such trivialities were reserved for less intelligent species only. What she did notice was a person standing in front of her with a wounded mind. Oh, her brain was perfectly intact, but she lacked a cognitive spirit that all other humans possessed. Why was that?

"THIS IS A HUMAN SPECIMEN FROZEN IN CRYOSLEEP," Giygas said. "NOW, IT IS TIME TO DEMONSTRATE WHY THE PHYSICAL DEATH OF MY SOLDIERS DOES NOT MATTER."

The next moment, Jenny was dead. Her physical body slumped and collapsed to the ground as the result of psionics from Giygas. Jenny looked at her body from the psionic realm similar to how a human would look at someone who snipped off a bit of their hair. It didn't hurt and she didn't really care, but she was at a loss for a reason why Giygas would kill her like that.

"AS YOU KNOW, MY CHILD, YOU STILL EXIST IN THE PSIONIC REALM AFTER YOUR PHYSICAL DEATH," Giygas said. "AND THIS NEW BODY SHALL BE YOURS."

Giygas thrust Jenny's spirit into the human body frozen in cryosleep. The physical body was unconscious, so she couldn't feel anything, but Jenny could somehow tell that she held the reins to this body.

"THE PRESENCE OF YOUR PSIONIC SPIRIT SHALL ALLOW THAT HOLLOW HUSK OF A BODY TO LIVE," Giygas said.

Jenny reminded herself that this person didn't have a cognitive spirit, meaning that they couldn't function on their own. But weren't all humans born with psionic essences? Had this human somehow lost their spirit?

"NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY DEATH SHALL NOT STOP US?" Giygas asked. "WE FUNCTION PAST DEATH. THIS IS ONLY ONE WAY WE RETURN TO THE PHYSICAL REALM."

"Yes, indeed," Jenny transmitted. "But who is this human and why do you want me to control them?"

"LUCAS IS MY ONLY PURE SAVANT, BUT THIS SPECIMEN COMES CLOSE. THIS IS EMPRESS MARY, THE LAST RULER OF THE HUMAN EMPIRE BEFORE IT DISBANDED."

The last empress? How could she have survived this long?

…Oh, right. Cryosleep.

"YOU ARE STARTING TO THINK MORE AND MORE LIKE A HUMAN," Giygas said. "I FIGURED THAT I WOULD GIVE YOU A MORE FITTING ROLE."

Jenny transmitted the equivalent of a nod. Perhaps her irrational interest in humans could better help her imitate one.

"THIS BODY YEARNS TO RECOVER ITS LOST PSIONIC SPIRIT, WHICH IS STORED IN THE KNIFE DYNALDAS. RECOVER THAT KNIFE, STARMAN 100101011011. DO NOT LET THE HUMANS FIND THE SOUND STONE AND FORGE THE SWORD OF KINGS."

Jenny felt the human body that she controlled wake up. The ice faded around the body, leaving her sprawled on the floor. Jenny received panicked signals that informed her of low oxygen levels and tentatively started breathing. Jenny, through this human body, opened her eyes and looked at the plain, grey floor beneath her.

It was beautiful.

"Yes, Master Giygas," Jenny said using the human's voice. She was surprised at how much it quivered. "I will play the part of a human to thwart their plans."

"GOOD," Giygas said. "THIS MOMENT MARKS MONUMNETAL CHANGE FOR OUR KIND. IT IS TIME TO SUBJUGATE THESE HUMANS ONCE AND FOR ALL. I WILL… ENJOY WATCHING THEM SQUIRM."

Of course, Giygas couldn't really enjoy anything because of his lack of emotion. Still, Jenny could understand why Giygas decided to stretch their conquest out. More time meant more data, and data was the key to the universe.

Jenny felt her other senses come to her. She felt discomfort as the palms of her hands pressed against the cool floor to support part of her weight. She instinctively recognized which way was up and which way was down without having to crunch a single byte of information. Jenny found herself smiling.

What did data matter when this was how it felt to be alive?

Ness sat on his bed in his house. He wanted to say that it felt good to be back in Onett, but he couldn't comprehend good feelings in his current state of grief. When Tracy mentioned how nice the weather was outside and that they should really have a picnic, Ness looked at her and shrugged his shoulders.

Paula, Paula… Ness thought. We were so close.

She died for nothing. They hadn't stopped Kim; they hadn't saved Dalaam. Ness felt like he betrayed a promise that he never made.

Naturally, Ana had been supportive of Ness' bouts of weeping despite the fact that she had been closer to Paula than he in the recent past. Speaking of which, shouldn't Ness be thinking more about Ana? After all, they were still courting. It might look bad if he spent all of his time thinking about another girl.

As he paced around the room, Ness noticed a piece of wrinkled paper sitting face down on his dresser. When had that gotten there? Ness walked over to pick it up, and then remembered exactly what it was.

This was the letter that Lloyd had given him before vanishing into the streets of Vulcan.

Ness' hands shook. Ness' trip to Vulcan felt like a lifetime ago, even though he knew that it had been less than a week. He didn't remember everything about the industrial planet with its grime and fumes, but he did remember key details about Lloyd. The albino child never showed fear. He always looked upon the universe with an amused smile, as if surprised that nobody else could grasp the absurdity of life. And he never cared about socializing. Whenever Ness talked to him, he always needed to take a couple minutes to convince himself that Lloyd wasn't a starman wearing a human disguise.

Ness took a deep breath. Lloyd had told him to read the letter only after he saw true destruction. Well, after what Ness had seen on Vulcan and Dalaam, he could safely say that he fit that criterion. Ness turned the letter over and started reading.

Greetings, Ness. I hope that you followed my instructions and only are reading these words once you've seen death and destruction. Otherwise, this little note may break your resolve altogether.

Where should I start? You are an anomaly, Ness, and I believe that's a good thing. Then again, most of you teenagers have egos so inflated that it makes balloons jealous. But you're not really like most teenagers, are you? The ideas of conformity and individuality are mere dots in your brain; you neither worry about copying your friends' style nor revolting against the villainous adults that built the world around you.

Through these characteristics in you, I see myself. Ah, don't take that as an insult. I've been more than a hopeless orphan at some points during my life. To be fair, it was a long time ago.

But more on me later. I know how your mind works, Ness, since it is so similar to my own. You break easily, but new life can grow inside the gaps of your mind just like plants sprouting in the cracks of asphalt. This is why I wanted you to see destruction. You wish to prevent unnecessary death, and seeing piles of corpses hopefully alerted you to the urgency of your mission. Please do not give up, even after reading what I have to say.

Now, I assume that you found a mass of people slaughtered by what appears to be a single person with a sword. Of course, I won't know for sure if this is the case since I'll likely be dead when you read this, but I think that's a fairly safe assumption. The perpetrator of these actions is none other than your friend Lucas. He's immensely powerful, to the point that I don't know if anything in the universe can stop him.

But perhaps I exaggerate. He's not quite as invincible as he appears. The real issue is that Giygas will probably snatch him up and use him as an elite troop. Yes, Giygas is real. It's funny that those cultists who try to kill me worship the harbinger of doom.

Is this too much information? Feel free to digest this letter in parts. You see that I've made the writing small and the paper folded into many parts. I have much more to say, but feel free to take it in at your own pace.

So we now have a situation where Giygas has either already captured Lucas or is planning on capturing him. It matters little which is the case; you cannot hope to stop Lucas from falling into Giygas' proverbial hands. Your friend Lucas is like a weapon; he is not nearly as destructive with nobody to guide him. Once Giygas takes control of Lucas, the war against the starmen will swing even further in the aliens' favor.

You're probably wondering what you can do about it. The first step is to save Lucas from his psionic savantism (his state of heightened combat prowess and lack of conscience), but I have no idea how you would even begin to perform such a feat. Maybe taking him to a sanctuary would help… I believe there is one near Onett called "Giant's Step."

The second step after saving your friend is to defeat Giygas himself. Giygas wants humanity either erased or under his rule (although nobody can say why), and removing Lucas from the equation won't stop that plan of his. Not by a long shot. Try not to panic; defeating the alien menace might not prove as difficult as you think.

I've spent many of my days researching how to defeat Giygas. It might have been one of the things that drove me insane, actually. But personal anecdotes aside, there is one way that you may be able to take him out.

It involves an item called the Sound Stone, which is located in a jungle to the south of Scaraba (that is what you call it now, yes?). I believe that you need to combine the Sound Stone with the three Osohe knives Dynaldas, Amourus, and Phonus. Ninten should have Dynaldas; Claus should have Amourus. I still have no idea where Phonus is. But even if you cannot find the knives, the Sound Stone should help. The reports that I found were vague and sometimes contradicted each other, but they all agreed that anyone who wishes to defeat Giygas must obtain the Sound Stone. I'm sorry that I cannot give you more information than that.

You're probably wondering why I chose to share this information with you instead of psions with extraordinary abilities. To be frank, you are the only one who might believe me. I suspect that you do not, but if you do then I would urge you to tell more adept psions about this threat.

There is yet another reason why I chose you. I believe that you, more than most people I've met, actually stand a chance of defeating Giygas. This may sound preposterous, but please hear me out. Your psionic powers are quite frankly weak, and I've noticed that your ability to stab things isn't what I would call highly proficient. But I don't think that any of that really matters. More than anyone else I've met, you care about preserving life, and your cognitive map aligns to that.

For most, power is a tool to harm and destroy. For you, it is a tool to save and protect. So I think that you can defeat Giygas simply because you can be trusted with any vast power that the Sound Stone may grant you. Again, I apologize for not knowing exactly what it does, along with sending you on this wild chase.

This leads me to the third and final reason why I chose to give this message to you. While defeating Giygas may appear impossible, you will find yourself facing another impossibility first: your friend Lucas. Psionic savants such as him are next to invincible, but I believe in your ability to break through his brainwashing. Because while you might not be smart or strong, you care way too much for your own good. People can't help but side with you, even if they don't know why. Please, use that compassion and good grace to save your friend.

But of course, you'll need your friends to help you. Not because this is some fairy tale where the power of friendship saves the hero but because you are a dependent person by nature. There's nothing wrong with that (again, it mirrors my own personality quite closely).

However, many of the people you know are not as intact as they appear. While you may be trying to rebuild your life, theirs may be on the brink of destruction. I urge you to pay attention to their needs as well as your own.

Let's start with your girlfriend Ana. You know how she's perfect and supportive? Yeah, that's just an act. The truth is that she's struggling with classic teenager problems: self-esteem and self-image issues. Of course, she's perceptive enough to realize that she's just part of a vast statistic, but that fact discourages her even further. She knows that she should feel fine, but that doesn't make her pain go away.

And while I'm sure that you've realized how Claus can get a little unhinged sometimes, how about your friend Ninten? I don't suppose he would have told you that he's the heir to the empire (if it still existed, that is), and that he's related to Morgan and the royal family? Did he mention that his grandfather Coran suffocated him in a bag and dragged him over to Onett to get his powers awakened by the meteorite? And even he doesn't know this, but he'll develop schizophrenia in a couple of years. It happens to every mystic… including me. I guess you could say that it's my gift to him.

And then there's Jeff. Sooner or later, he'll find out the truth about his identity. I'm sorry to leave it at that, but I honestly don't trust your ability to keep the truth secret. I know that Ninten will come to terms with his fate, but I think that Jeff needs some time on his own to discover his past.

You probably don't believe me right now, but it's easy to check what I probably shouldn't about your friends. Ask Ana if she practices self-harm. Ask Diana Carpaitner about her true form (I promise you, it's not what you think it is) and look at their reactions. Their faces shall tell you what these words never can.

My point in telling you your friends' guarded secrets isn't to gossip but rather to illustrate how you're not the only one struggling. Everyone has their demons; you're lucky that yours are in the past. I would urge you to bring your friends together to fight starmen and look for the Sound Stone. Because Giygas will attack soon.

And of course it is possible that the Sound Stone is just some sort of fluke and that Giygas is invincible. This is real life, after all, not some myth or fairy tale. But ask yourself if you would rather watch the universe go down in despair or watch the universe go down while fighting to your last breath to save it.

Now, you're probably wondering just who I am. I shall answer that burning curiosity of yours, Ness, but I must ask of you to not judge the contents of this letter based on my identity.

You see, Lloyd was never really me. Lloyd was a regular Vulcanese orphan who died over a year ago. I live on through his body... Although, considering that I will probably be dead by the time that you read this, I shall say that I lived through his body. Dr. Andonuts created a machine that can bring people back to life, and Minerva Carpainter made a couple of tweaks after discovering it.

She figured out that it's possible to shove someone else's psionic essence into a corpse, and that the resulting person who comes back to life carries the identity of the psionic essence rather than the physical body. Basically, long-dead psionic spirits can hijack bodies that are not their own.

I am one of those psionic spirits.

I hijacked Lloyd's dead body.

My real name is George Lorune. I dissolved an entire empire on my own and got myself executed shortly after.

I was the last emperor.

Ness didn't know how long he had been staring at Lloyd's letter. He set the parchment down and proceeded to pace back and forth.

Contrary to what Lloyd likely expected, his message didn't discourage Ness.

It gave him a new source of hope.

"Lucas," Ness said out loud. "I can still save you. I can still save everyone."

Ness sat down on his bed, frowning and furrowing his eyebrows. He trusted Lloyd, oddly enough. Something about his no-nonsense demeanor just made him appear so… genuine.

Did I just go insane? Ness thought. I'm just a student at a psionics school. There's no way that I can save the universe.

But was he really just a student? Any connection Ness felt to school had long been severed. Students learned information and studied theories on psionics. They didn't fight in active war zones or participate in political struggles in foreign countries.

No, Ness wasn't the same person who spent all night studying for tests and took the next few days to fret about his performance. He had chosen to become a part of something bigger.

"Paula," Ness said. "Mr. and Mrs. Aniah. I know that you died for nothing, but…" Ness took a deep breath. "I have a chance to make this right. I have a chance to help a friend and stop Giygas. Maybe then everyone else can live without fear of your fate."

Ness squeezed his eyes shut, but tears streamed out of his eyes nonetheless.

"You're gone," Ness said. "And I can't ever hope to bring you back. But at least I know what I'm working towards."

Thunder sounded in the distance. Ness looked out at the grey sky as raindrops trickled down the window panes.

"I want to create a universe where people like you can laugh and smile," Ness said. "I want to create a universe of peace."

Such a silly idea had never before given him so much comfort.