[Note: Old art featuring VJ's previous & current designs]

"I could have done anything else and the outcome would have made the difference in all of this..."

"No. It wouldn't have."

Thomas's voice was firm, but not cold as she'd thought it might be, given the circumstances. Vee-Jay turned back to face him, concern and confusion shadowed her eyes for a few tense seconds.

"What do you mean?"

"I would be dead if not for you," the boy's voice was sincere and honest. "What Oliver did to our team was festering for years before you came along. You at least tried to fix what was wrong with us before easing us into that mission. You at least gave me a chance to prove myself, when all the others did was leave me behind constantly. You saw our potential, our strengths and our weaknesses, and you didn't try to separate that from each of us like Oliver did..."

The boy's ears lowered a little further.

"You didn't try to be Oliver. You were you...and...and we couldn't see that. What Oliver did to Captain Jacksonn poisoned our minds and our hearts, and what you did was try to lance that wound before it damned us all to hell. It took you nearly dying to get through to us."

The Trikitsune's breathing was faltering, dissolving into sobs. Vee-Jay took a step towards him, guilt seeping into every pore of herself, but he held up a hand, stopping her in her tracks. He shook his head for a moment, his fingers curling back into a fist that shook slightly before dropping back to his side.

"I nearly lost you..." his voice was small, scared. "Like I lost my sisters and stepmom to my dad. It...it woke the guys up. Antony confessed to trying to get rid of you, regardless of what it did to his career in the eyes of the people. Terrence and Josef stepped up and admitted they had helped him do that to you. Benjii spent Goddess knows how many hours trying to stave off the anger he felt at not disobeying Council orders to go in after you. Dylan buried himself in his studies trying to find a counterbalance to the drugs in your system that would help you recover. Karleear did as you asked her to and looked after Raye and the kids knowing she might never forgive Benjii for not saving your life. Geoffrey went to Marinnai's side to help her and Casper manage everything in your absence..."

Tears traced down the curve of his muzzlefur.

"Oliver never did that. He would have never done that for us in the same situation. He never taught us that tears and inability weren't weaknesses, just strengths in a diluted form. That was all you. You are our leader, and you always have been."

Vee-Jay looked back to the marble tombstone that lay beneath her outstretched hand. The reflection she had seen just moments ago, herself, the cocky teenager hiding all the faults and the misgivings and the blame, was gone. Now all she saw was herself as the adult she became after the last four years of hospitalisation and recovery. She averted her eyes to the ground, her ears slowly pinning back, before glancing back at Thomas. The boy was dabbing at his eyes with his sleeve.

"What Kingsley did was prove it," Thomas's voice was still shaky. "He proved it to the whole city, to the Tribunal, to the Admiralty, to the Council members who doubted you'd amount to nothing. You were there when Antony abandoned me to negotiating with Volen'Tak of the Derelicts and Chanyn-Ru of the Valendowns. I watched you talk Volen into letting me go, into an alliance with Chanyn for the duration of Kingsley's impeding attack on the city. It stunned me when he let me go, but only if you upheld your word, which you did, a thousandfold times over. When you were hospitalised, the Derelicts and the Valendowns met together in Unification Square and swore fealty to one another, in the name of Peace. They are now part of the Council, they have a voice, and councilmen, where they had nothing for generations beforehand. Marinnai is now High Eldar alongside Laocard and Leonis. You gave her a voice. You gave her a purpose and a reason for existing where she had none before. You did all of that. You might not have been conscious for it all, but you started something that's become a normal life for a lot of good people!"

Her fingers left the smooth, cold tombstone, as did her gaze, her thoughts winding back to that moment with Volen'Tak, his advisor Jekab, and daughter, Ayrnn - she had appealed to the Badgertaur's honor, knowing full well it was pulling at straws at best at the time of the incident; Volen had agreed to her terms but only if she honored his and was present for the peace talks with Chanyn-Ru. Of course, her accident had put paid to her promise to be there, but it had gone through nonetheless; both 'taurs had met in Unification Square, put aside their differences and joined for the sake of peace. She had once again 'thrown a pebble into the pond', as Lady Zalinski had said of the way she took action. Man, she still missed the old rabbit doe...if only she'd had more time...

Thomas bit his lip as the silence crept between them. He did not want to continue out of fear of overstepping his rank, but in watching Vee-Jay's expression turn from anger to remorse, he took a deep breath and said it anyway:

"Saying that you should have done more is undermining everything you've already done, big sister. I know Kingsley's death still haunts you, and that he was the last person with any ideas of who you were supposed to become...but the way I see it, who you were supposed to become is standing right here in front of me, in front of the guys that are proud to call you our leader and commanding officer, in front of the flag that represents our island...still alive whilst he isn't."

~**~

Thomas confronts some of his earliest and most current memories in this piece:

• The death of his three sisters and stepmom, which is his earliest and his most painful memory. His eldest sister, Samantha, died protecting him from their trigger-happy father, who ended up killing himself after killing them. Thomas only spoke of this memory to two people in his life: Oliver McAlpine, and later Velindra-Jay Hedgehog.

• His botched encounter with the Badgertaurs of the Derelicts and his first inclination of Vee-Jay's willingness to negotiate with who were essentially considered the "terrorist cell" of Valanciana City; she protected him, observed that all Volen'Tak wanted was to clear his people's name and end the conflict between his clanship and that of the Valendowns clanship.

• The Peace Treaty between both the Derelicts (Mixed species, but mainly led and maintained by Badgertaurs) and the Valendowns (Dracogryph-taurs) at Unification Square in the heart of Valanciana City. Vee-Jay was meant to be present, but in light of her tragic accident and incarceration in the ICU, both Volen'Tak and Chanyn-Ru swore on her honor to uphold the promise of peace between their clanships. Following this ceremony, both were sworn into the Draconi'dia Council as officiating High Councillors for their people.

• His vigil over Vee-Jay in the Royal Valanciana Hospital. Thomas spent three years by her side, watching and waiting for any change. He watched her as she lay comatose for those three years before she finally pulled through shortly after her 19th birthday. She missed everything that had transpired after Kingsley's death, and Thomas made sure to fill her in on some of the things she wasn't told...

~**~

DSF: ORIGINS Literature and Character Design: Volen'Tak, Arynn'Tak and Jekab of the Derelicts, Chanyn-Ru of the Valendowns, Samantha Colloute, Leader Velindra-Jay Hedgehog (aged 15 [Panel 2] & 18 [Panel 4] respectively) & Acting-Commander Thomas Colloute belong to Victoria S. Rodda, 1991 - 2015