I'll Be There For You
Epilogue

"I banish you," her words rung out through the far reaches of the universe.
Every world heard the whisper on the breeze, and shuddered.

*********

She cradled the baby in her arms, looking out over this world that was doomed
to be her home once again.

"I may not have Darien," she said to the blowing wind, "But I have his son...
our son now." She smiled down at the tiny baby in her arms.

"Hello my beautiful little baby, my Diamond in the Rough, my Diamondo. Rest
little one," she said when the babe began to whimper. "We have much work
ahead of us.

"Yes, we must rest and regain our strength. We must grow strong, and then
one day, when we are strong enough, we shall return to Earth and take back
that which is rightfully ours."

She looked up at the distant stars that populated the sky above. "Yes, we
shall return. We are not defeated. One day we shall return!" She laughed
out loud.

"You have not won Serenity!" she screamed into the dead air. "I will beat
you yet! By all the powers of the Negaverse, we shall return! This I swear
to you!"

*********

The boy grew up never truly understanding why he, his 'mother', and a few
others were the only people upon their world...he learned only to hate Earth
for their banishment. In time their world grew with their children and their
children's children...and they began down the road to their return to Earth...
and their inevitable destruction.

A thousand years later two boys were playing in a field.

"Diamond! Look at this! A flower!" one of the boys cried kneeling down on
the ground.

"Yes! Beautiful!" the other boy replied, leaning over.

"We never see flowers!" the younger boy said, still enthralled.

"No we don't," the older boy said, standing up. "This is the only kind of
flower left on Nemesis and there aren't many left." He turned away. "If we
hadn't been banished from Earth we'd see all kinds of flowers, all the time!"
The younger boy stood up. "One day I'll invade Earth and get us back there."

The younger boy gasped with delight. "Yes! You can do it, Diamond! I know
you can!"

The older boy stepped on and crushed the flower. The little boy cried out
with anguish.

"Do not cry, Sapphire," the older boy said. "One day we shall rule Earth
and then there will be lots of flowers."

The little blue haired boy snuffled.

"Do ya promise?" he asked, wiping his nose on his sleeve.

"Yes," the older boy said, standing straight. "One day very soon."

*************************************************************************

And that, as they say, is all she wrote.

I would like to thank everyone who has made it this far into the story, Chris,
Bettina, Kate, and Amy, to name the few who I know have trudged their way
through this entirely too long story. I am glad i have finished it, though--
even if it did not stick to the original plan for it.

I know there are going to be some who are upset that 1.)Alicia is still alive,
and 2.) Alicia has the baby. And then there are those who are in complete
shock that the baby is 'Diamond' and his children will one day rule Nemesis
and return to Earth... and blah blah blah, you all know the story.

Well, it really bugged me that 1.) I had yet to read a story that dealt with
Serena-- or any of the girls, for that matter-- having a baby... and 2.) know
one that I have read so far had a take on how the people of Nemesis got there...
and of course I had only seen the dic/dubbed SMR, so I let my imagination fly.
And THEN, last night, I read Mix SM#14... guess what? It talks about how the
people of Nemesis got there. oh well. Here's my take on the story... and I'm
sure there will be many more.

For anyone who's gotten this far-- since they're the only ones who will be
reading this anyone-- the wonderful SuperKate and I have teamed up to create
a delightful Christmas Seasonal Melody of stories for you: 'Tis the Season
Coming to a fanfiction site near you!

As always, this is Andrea & Readwolf, signing off!

~Andrea Readwolf