"Your majesty? There is a lady from Brightwood here to speak to you."

The guard at the door told his queen. She nodded, cradling her daughter.

"Send her in." The doors opened, and a pretty, brunette woman with brown eyes, holding a wriggling bundle, walked through the door. Sparrow's eyes lit up in recognition.

"Rose! My dear, how nice to see you! To what do I owe the pleasure?" Rose smiled, blushing. Sparrow was transported back to her childhood, when her own sister Rose had smiled and blushed in the same way.

"I brought my little boy to meet his second cousin," she confessed. Sparrow's brow raised.

"Another rampant rogue? Dear me, Rose, wouldn't you like a girl sometime?"

The woman grinned now, her shyness gone.

"They're my boys, and I love them. How is my gorgeous cousin?" Rose enquired.

"Do you mean Logan or…" Sparrow asked, one eyebrow raised. Rose cackled.

"By Avo, aunt, you are incorrigible," she sighed. "I know you always wanted us to get married."

"Logan's a ten year old!" Sparrow protested.

"I think you know I was asking about the princess," Rose told her aunt with a smirk. "How is the princess?"

Sparrow smiled fondly at her child.

"Doing beautifully."

"She has a name, I trust?"

"Rina."

"Rina? Not surely after your dog?"

Sparrow smiled.

"Walter and William said much the same thing. No, it's after a nickname your father gave your mother once. Her full name is Rina Marine Black."

"Black?"

"Surely you must know I'm related to the Archons, my dear? Anyway, what is the name of your charming one?"

"He's Benjamin. Little Ben Finn."

Sparrow proffered her daughter.

"Swap for hugs?" She offered. Rose smiled, nodding. Blonde woman took blonde child; brunette woman took brunette child. Sparrow stroked the baby's soft hair. "He's perfect, Rosy. You couldn't have asked for a better son," she whispered. Rose in turn ran her fingers through the soft, chocolate curls that crowned Rina's head.

"She's just as beautiful. Her hair; it's like chocolate silk!"

Sparrow smiled. "A mix between myself and her father." Realising she had said too much, she clammed shut. Rose sighed.

"When are you going to tell the world the identity of her father? Surely it isn't Reaver?" Rose gently admonished. Sparrow feigned horror.

"My dear, the last time I shared his bed was a good thirty years ago! No, Reaver isn't her father."

"Haven't I earned your trust?" Rose pleaded, her eyes full of longing. "I've never wanted to know anything so much!" Sparrow laughed coldly.

"Trust? Trust is like a mirror, Rose Finn. You can break it only too easily. And I am not saying you would part with the information lightly, but all it takes is too much alcohol for tongues to get loose."

"Can I at least know his profession?"

"The man is a soldier."

"A common one?"

"That's more than enough."

"Yes, your majesty."

Rose bowed, and Sparrow cooed gently to Ben, who had begun to cry.

"Now see here, little Finn, if you don't behave and help your mother, I'll send Rina over to tell you how it's done," she admonished, whispering. Rose smiled.

"Behave for your mother, Rina Marine Black, or Ben will have something to say about it."

The two mothers looked at each other.

"Wouldn't it be funny if they ended up together one day?" Sparrow said. Rose smiled.

"Perhaps fate has that in store for them."

They switched babies.

"Till next time then, Rose Finn."

"And you, your majesty."

"Don't leave my side, Will," she made him promise.

"I won't. I just wish you could stay."

"I'm old. I'm dying. We've had our time-forty years. And it's been the best years of my life. But now it's time to move on. Look after our children, Swiftie." Swift put his arms around the queen of Albion and pulled her closer.

"I'll protect them with my life," he vowed.

Outside, Rina paced back and forth angrily.

"Why, Walter, does Captain Swift get to be the last one to see mother? They never even slept together! What's their great closeness that even I'm not allowed to go in there last?" There was a sound of the door opening. She turned blazing chocolate eyes on Swift.

"Well?"

"Your mother has passed on."

Rina's anger dissolved in a sudden rush and she collapsed, crying. Swift pulled her to her feet and held her in a fatherly embrace.

Which is right, Walter thought abruptly, considering he's her father. I still don't understand the necessity for all this hush-hush. The queen's passed on. Why can't we tell the world?

Rina sobbed into the man's jacket. "And she didn't even tell us who our fathers were!" She wailed. Swift's arms tightened around her. Rina was thankful. Both Walter and Swift were like adoptive fathers to her and Logan. Walter cleared his throat.

"I'd best be off. See to Logan. He's having a hard time coping, poor lad." Swift nodded, still holding the weeping princess. His daughter. He'd never been so close to her in his life. She was as beautiful as her mother was.

"Rina, I'm sodden, my dear," he pointed out, but instantly regretted it. All he wanted to do was hug her, and he'd pushed her away. You are a tactless fool, William, he berated himself. She pulled away, wiping her eyes.

"Yes, I'm sorry, Swift. I should go and see my brother."

She blew her nose and set off down the corridor. Swift looked at his daughter. She had the same figure as her mother, but a mixture of his and hers hair. Her eyes, however, were thoroughly his, as was the face shape. Logan took after his mother, with the slightly rounder face and bluish eyes. They were a beautiful pair of children. He couldn't have hoped for a better set. One of each flavour. A perfect mixture of the queen and her captain.

Mourningwood seemed like heaven on earth. Swift watched his daughter flirting with Ben and smiled. She was her mother all over again-proud, brave, strong and reckless. But lovely, and with the same, understanding (thought Swift-tinted) eyes. His smile broadened. Gould noticed.

"Bit young, isn't she, to go fishing for that?" He whispered. Swift snorted.

"She's like the daughter I never had," came the reply.

Couldn't have in public anyway. With Sparrow, however, I could hug that child until she fell asleep, he thought happily.

Gould nodded.

"Right. Sorry. Just that…damn, I want that."

The fatherly bone in his body wanted to snap at Gould for daring to think of his flesh and blood that way. He forced a chuckle.

"Who knows, maybe she'll get bored of Ben?"

He doubted that, but it made Gould feel better. Ben was a difficult man to get bored of. He had various anecdotes that would have you laughing, crying, or reeling with shock. According to several flustered women, his eyes were an enticing shade of blue and his hair was like molten gold. Swift's brow quirked. Ben had better not lay a finger on his daughter or there'd be reparations.

Rina was spectacular during the Hollow Man fight, and even when he couldn't tell what was going on, due to being knocked out, he knew she'd defeated a menace. At the end of it all, she had a hug for him, and the fatherly embrace was not lost by Walter or Ben, the latter of whom shot him questioning glances which Swift refused to answer.

"Serving under the queen of Albion once more," he said dreamily.

"Yes, it'll be just like old times," Walter sighed. Ben's brow raised.

"Yeah, okay, whatever. Enough reminiscing, you old dogs, let's get moving!" he urged.

"We'll meet you in Bowerstone," Walter said. Swift watched his daughter go with a tug on his heart.

"Be safe, little one," he whispered to her.

If he had known that the next time he met her would be his last, he would never have simply walked off.

"Ah, the rebel princess." My little girl, he added silently. "Page is in the back. Ben is arguing with her. Captain Finn appears to have a way with the fairer sex-a strange, troubled way," he said, and watched her face cloud over.

So, you like him, do you? Well watch out, my little one, he's broken far tougher hearts than yours. I wish we had more time together. After this revolution, I'll tell you everything.

He wandered off.

They had beaten him and tortured him, but he would not betray his daughter.

"I'm going to cut you, you traitor!"

"Yes, traitors walk amongst us." The irony. Being sentenced to death by his own flesh and blood. "Traitors would have you believe their cause is noble. Traitors can come in any form. Even people you trust. Major Swift! He was caught trying to turn loyal soldiers to the Resistance. I will crush this Resistance in the name of a peaceful Albion! Major Swift, I sentence you to death!"

The last thing Major Swift saw of Albion were his own eyes reflected in the irises of his beloved daughter, before the gunman blew his brains out.

Sparrow and Marine killed the Banshee blocking their pass to the afterlife and heaved a sigh. They were surrounded by people- five Finns, three Lances, one Barnum and one Rose. There was even a girl with butter-blond curls who introduced herself as Amelia Fairfax. Of her mother, there was no sight. The dead souls all heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thankyou, your majesty. That Banshee's been blocking the way for nigh on seventy years."

Sparrow smiled, but had eyes only for her sister.

"Rosy."

"Little Sparrow."

"You've aged well."

"Very funny."

"Rosy, I want you to meet Marine. I adopted her after slavers killed her parents. She's been my sister for most of my life."

Rose shook the hand of her newest sister. Then she turned to the other Rose. Who seemed suitably gobsmacked to meet her namesake.

"She looks exactly like me!" Both Roses said at exactly the same time. Then they laughed. Suddenly, they heard gunfire, and the sound of somebody falling on the floor with a loud 'oof!'. Sparrow recognised the figure on the ground and sprinted over to it, pulling Major Swift to his feet and hurrying him over to Rose.

"Rosy, this is the man who fathered your niece and nephew. William, meet the reason why I went to kill Lucien all those years ago."

Swift looked at Rose.

"She's as sweet as you," he finally said. Sparrow blushed, her arm firmly latched around her love. Marine coughed.

"Shall we?" She gestured into the pass, and everyone crowded in, finally gaining Elysium.

So I basically read through this and went 'what, what, WTF is this crap, I don't even, why must you troll me, fifteen-year-old self?'

So I rewrote some of it.