Eternal

Year 566

You lie on your bed struggling to remain conscious, but this is it. You aren’t winning this battle and with as much as you hurt, it’ll be a relief.

Your bed is surrounded by those loyal to you like Sightmaster Crowley and Colonel Renly. You’re sure David would be here too if he hadn’t died a year ago.

Those that love you like Jennifer are also here, but then after your victory over the Xi, everyone loves you.

Even at this late stage, it still doesn’t seem real sometimes. All your life you were mostly feared, hated, respected or admired, but loved only by a few. Now at the end of your life, you’ve got an entire nation that loves you. You’re not just their ruler, you’re a hero, a hero that saved them from certain extinction against several enemies not just the Xi.

You turned a stagnant republic into a powerful nation. You expanded its territories. You fended off enemies from the sea, from under the earth and even in the sky. And you did this by taking the lead and never letting go of it. You just suddenly arrived like you were placed in this time for that exact reason. Nobody in the minds of most people could do the things that you did.

Maybe they’re right. Your life was one long struggle from beginning to end, but in general you persevered against all odds.

You can hear the soft cries of Jennifer, you’d like to open your eyes just so she could look at them one last time, but you’re slipping away fast. You will have no more last words.

In your final moments a wave of peace washes over you and for a brief second your body ceases to feel pain. You also see a clear image of Alison in your mind looking just as she did when you first met her. She seems so real right now; that you almost think you can touch her…

Everything goes black.

Your body is kept entombed in a lavish mausoleum in Apex. Naturally lots of statues of your are located there, but statues of you are pretty much all over the Empire and thanks to Jennifer’s book which reinforces your cult of personality even after your death, you’re revered to the point of near godhood.

As for the Empire itself. Marcus does not take the throne as Jennifer considers him still too young and needs more to learn. It is decided that he will take the throne at a more appropriate age; in the meantime Sightmaster Crowley takes over and more or less does a fine job, though his reign is short due to Marcus officially taking over in a few more years. To his credit, Crowley continues to be a loyal Eye and does not plot any sort of coup of any kind.

Marcus with the guidance of his mother and others proves to be a competent leader, but he’s not you and in the centuries that the Empire continues to exist nobody ever is.

Leader, rulers, tyrants and visionaries all come and go, but there is only ever one true hero. And that fact lasts even after the Empire finally does collapse and becomes something new as all things eventually do.

Long after others have been forgotten, long after the land has changed politically and geographically, you are still remembered and read about, if only for your heroic deeds rather than your ruthless ones. Stories get embellished, changed, and added on to even today. Making it seem like you were even nobler than you really were.

History has remembered you in a positive light. A positive light that even you would not agree with, but as they say history is dominated by the victorious.

One thing is certain; you were and always shall be ETERNAL.