A/N: I find it funny that everyone was all "YOU KILLED SAM! HOW COULD YOU?" But nobody felt at all sad that I killed Feuer in the same scene. Is there no love for him? Or maybe you think he's still alive…

Chapter 14

Life in Death

"The imbalance is too great."

"Yes. They still need the Shaiyas."

"The line must not end here."

Sam gasped as her body jerked awake.

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"And that's when I woke up. And Feuer was…" A cry tried to force itself past her lips, and she had to stop to keep it down.

Ella simply nodded her head. She had felt it the moment it happened and had already taken her time of mourning. But seeing the young shaiya try to keep it down, she couldn't help but fight back a few tears.

Sam eventually composed herself. "There were other bodies, too. Humans. Completely torn to shreds."

"The white beast…"

She paused. "What?"

Ella started slightly. She didn't realize she had spoken aloud. "The White Beast. It's our greatest weapon. Brutal, savage… the worst kind of demon unleashed. It's one of the side effects of having so many types of blood in our veins. It was good that you took the silver band."

Sam touched the cool metal against her neck. It was too big for her arm, but fit her neck perfectly. Other shaiyas trained by humans wore collars like them, so she thought it would look fine. "I wanted to keep it as a remembrance."

"That's fine. But it also has another purpose. It controls the White Beast to only attacking those that deserve it. It prevents you from harming innocent bystanders. It will help when you when the form eventually takes you."

A smug little smile came to her face. "You knew?"

"When you develop your abilities as much as I have, you'll be surprised by how much we can't do."

"How did it happen?"

"You said that he fell on top of you, right? I would guess that some of his blood mixed with yours. You both had serious wounds that would have been bleeding. It probably crossed over." The implications of what this meant didn't fail to come to Ella. She had changed others before. But her powers being able to be transferred to another opened up a whole new world. But if she knew Mew and the Spirits well enough, this was probably just a special case. If she tried it herself, it would likely fail.

Sam stood and stretched her legs out. She hadn't realized how much time had actually passed. The sun was almost touching the horizon across the wide field before her.

"So what are you going to do now?"

She'd thought about this a lot in the day since his death. She was without him. A few days ago, her heart probably wouldn't have been able to live without him. But now she had a part of him in her. His last gift.

But that wasn't answering the question. Could she just return to her cave and live a normal life? Perhaps she would find a new mate. "They could never take his place."

Fuwei, the Lucario they had met, had told Feuer that the Shalin were the protectors of the shaiyas. Could it be that now she was to take over that role? She could think of one way she could help everyone else. "I've always had a fear of moving from place to place. Whenever some kind of challenge put itself in our way, we always ran. I won't do that.

"The humans need to see our way of life. They can't just come in and take our homes."

Ella nodded. "A good way to honor Feuer."

Another wave of emotion seemed to rise in her, forcing more tears to her eyes. "I'm going to miss him," she let out through soft whimpers.

Being the mother, Ella pulled her into a hug, sharing in her tears. "We all are." They let silence overtake them, with only an occasional breath breaking it, comforting each other with their presence. "The death he chose is sad," Ella said, breaking the silence. "But we must look beyond that and be strong."

"For Feuer." She forced the tears to stop and gently backed away from the comforting touch. "I'll go to the human village. Maybe I'll learn what to do from there."

"You've chosen a very lofty goal. But if you've got half of Feuer's spirit, I know you'll do it."

She gave a firm nod, as much to reassure herself as for her.

The two shared one more hug before she turned and began to run across the open field. A village lay at the head of the Serpent. She'd try there first.

Ella looked away to rub one last tear from her eye. When she looked back, the Eevee was gone. Instead, a tall girl of 18, shoulder length brown hair and long tan dress, was sprinting her way through the grass. In the reddish sunlight, she thought she vaguely saw the image of someone else, a boy in a bright red jacket, running with her. They would never really be apart.

She smiled. "Best of luck to you."

A/N: And you thought I would save Feuer.

That is the final ending. I really like the way this turned out. Not the fact that I killed Feuer, though.

Thanks go to Felix the Eeveetrainer and littleurmey, who provided ideas for the plot.

Thank you all for reading through the whole story. I can't wait to read your reviews.

If you still can't get enough of the Shaiya Chronicles, check out "Identity", a Shaiya Chronicles oneshot. Available now at my Profile.

Also, the next story is in the planning stage. Check out my profile section "Current Work" for updates.