Reborn

Months Later...

The Battle between Sicilian Syndicate and The Rathkin Empire was the most brutal and devastating war that the entire world has ever witnessed. So many lives were lost on each side and overall, at the end of the battle there was never one clear winner. Both sides took so many losses that when the sun began to set, the remaining troops of each side helped their wounded and injured off the battlefield, only to bring them to their medical tents or transport them back to their beloved cities.

Rathkin itself lost many more people but they had enough warriors leftover that the Syndicate could not push passed their barricade and down into the heart of their kingdom. The same was said for Rathkin though as they wouldn't dare march across the Turth at that point to wage destruction upon the Syndicate. Instead, as the day ended, both kingdoms fell back to lick their wounds, help their dying warriors, carry the dead back to their sides and return back to their kingdoms.

Rumor has it, Commander Rixx was alive and well although many sources say the man himself stepped down from being the Commander of the Rathkin army. He apparently left Rathkin completely and his current whereabouts are unknown. There have been many sights and whispers in the wind about the Golden Eagle still marching around the plains of the lands but those stories are neither confirmed nor denied. Either way, the man leaving The Rathkin Empire was a huge blow not only to the armies morale but the city as a whole.

Between the leaving of their beloved Commander and the frustration growing from the civilians, the people of Rathkin were unhappy with how Edmin was controlling their kingdom and with many revolts and riots, King Edmin stepped down from leadership shortly after and a new powerhouse ended up taking control. That powerhouse was still unknown to the likes of the Syndicate.

As for what's happening in Sicilian...

A black hair and white hair girl walk with their elbows interlocked from the training grounds, making their way back into the cavern entrance of the mountain, "It's the day, the day, the big big big big daaaaay!" Zoe sings out cheerfully as she skips with the white haired girl in her arms, "Today is the day, today is the day, today today today today today is the day!!!" she continues to sing her own song.

"So exciting, so very exciting!" Leandra is toe and toe with Zoe, playfully skipping along the dirt soil of the Training Grounds.

The two girls have become such close and great friends over these few months. They got along like yin and yang, salt and pepper, bread and butter and were definitely both extremely well trained now as they would continue their daily ritual of waking up early only to fight and train against one another. Zoe, with her Ulaks and Leandra picking up the very same weapon combination that proved to be so deadly, a short sword and a dagger.

As the two girls reach the entrance to the cave, Zoe stops them in their tracks and then forces both the girls around, "Huh?" she raises an eyebrow as she looks off in the distance, "What the heck are you standing around for?! You coming, Darien?" she cocks her head, "Or should I say, Queen Fucker?" she teases.

With a roll of your eyes you grin back at the girl, "Yeah yeah yeah," you shake your head back and forth, "Let's go." you take a few strides, following the two girls, who are now both your trusted High Commanders.

You were injured extremely bad in the battle between Rathkin and the Syndicate, so much so, that you still have pain and issues with your abdomen. The muscles are slowly starting to get back to full strength but still, if you do too much core movement, you start to ache badly. Zoe and Leandra go easy on you as you do your best to wake up early, train with the two girls and push through that soreness. It still doesn't change the fact that the occasional duel you have against one, or both of them, they will come out on top. To this day, Zoe still gives you grief and taunts you that she has bested you in a duel, not only once, but a handful of times as well.

"It's a great day, great day, great day indeed!" Zoe and Leandra skip through the hallways of the mountain, making their way to the steps and up into Sicilian, "So excited! So very very very excited!"

Zoe was as intoxicating as always, so energetic and cheerful yet within her arms was her voice of reason. Leandra was always there to help Zoe with any struggles she may be going through which was extremely considerate of the platinum blonde woman. You even had a sneaking suspicion the two girls were a little closer than only just friends. Truthfully, many Sunrider's do enjoy the company of another Sunrider but you believe there could be something more between your two High Commanders.

Walking through the streets you notice Felix lifting a giant basket of stones over his shoulder in the distance and ever since that day of war, the man was never the same. It was most likely because Sylvius did not make it back alive that day and due to that, Felix changed. You did try your best to cheer him up and you would always hang out with him and keep him included, but you could tell a part of him wishes his best friend was still around. After that war, he stopped caring to be a warrior and instead turned to helping people around the Syndicate, doing what he could to drown out those memories. He would help rebuild houses, work with the sick and injured and even do as much charity around Sicilian as he could. He turned into such a caring individual even though deep down, you knew he was still hurting.

It wasn't long before you were entering the castle of the Syndicate. Many of the guards, warriors and Sunriders would grant you the respect you deserve, giving you congratulations on the day and wishing you nothing but the best going forward.

As you open up the throne room, you see Zoe and Leandra skip over to the side where none other then Karisi and another female you are extremely happy she's still around are standing.

Queen Karisi has continued to lead the Syndicate to the best of her abilities and even though after the war it got a lot more rough on the kingdom, she did what she could to help the families whose brothers, sisters, husbands or wives were lost. She gave away so much gold, food and support and she definitely was growing loved by the entire Syndicate population. It has been a long time for Sicilian since they've had someone who was in power that actually seemed to honestly care for the people. Karisi was the best when it came to public relations, sure, she still had some problems with always wanting to be in control and never listening to your ideas, but she did her best and even when she blew you off, she would normally come back to you and apologize, asking for your advice later on.

"Congratulations, Darien!" Karisi steps forward with her arms wide open to embrace your body with a hug, "Heard all is well! I'm so excited for you!" she gives you a kiss on the cheek before stepping backwards, dropping her embrace, "We're all so excited for you!"

You can't help but bear a huge grin at your Queen before you look to the girl to her right, that red headed feisty girl you've grown to love. Ashe too got injured extremely bad in the battle, getting slashed hard across her torso from the very same man you let live. The sword actually penetrated part of her muscles and nerves, causing her not to have complete movement in her left hand. With the devastating injury, Ashe had to withdraw from her role as a High Commander but her tactical genius was still being used day in and day out as she was now Queen Karisi's right hand woman. To this day, you believe Ashe would still pick up a weapon and fight by your side no matter what, but having one arm which doesn't work so well, you decided against it and basically ordered her, in a friendly, loving and caring way of course, that she needs to step down and take a more tactile approach to the Syndicate.

"Darien!!!" Ashe too steps forward and throws her right arm around your back to pull you into a hug. "I'm so happy for you!" she gives your cheek a kiss before leaning back and smiling, "I can't wait, this is such a magnificent day for the Syndicate!"

"Thanks Ashe!" you smile back at her, happy that she's still in your life.

Stepping forward you place your hand on the doorknob of the giant wooden structure the two were standing around and before you turn the knob to open the door to enter, you turn around and look at the four ladies around you, Ashe, Karisi, Leandra and Zoe, always there by your side, no matter what, "You all," you make sure to connect your eyes with each of these women, "Thank you for everything." you give a nod before you turn around and place your hand back on the doorknob.

"You got five minutes before we're all coming in!!!" Zoe shouts behind your back as you slip inside the room.

As your eyes adjust to the somewhat dim lite surroundings, you immediately advert your focus over towards the bed. As you look upon it, you see her, your wife resting in it holding something bundled up in her arms covered in a blanket, "Hey Lexie..." you whisper out softly as you step forward towards the bed. "How are you?" you ask out as you get closer and closer.

"Amazing..." her voice sounds weak and even though her body looks all sweaty, overworked and her hair is a greasy mess, she still looks as beautiful as can be, "Greatest day of my life..." she leans her head down to give the person she has bundled up in the blankets a kiss. Shortly after her head leans up and she gives you a grin, "Would you like to?"

You hesitate only briefly as you've never actually held a baby before, "Umm, yeah sure."

"It's okay," she lifts her arms up, pushing the newborn away from her body and towards your own.

As she does, you reach your arms out and wrap your fingers around the blanket covered child. You mimic what you've seen before and cradle that tiny little creature in your arms. You can't help but smile as you look down at it, such a small, delicate human that looks oh so beautiful. "It's a girl..." Lexie whispers out causing your cheeks to bunch up even bigger as your eyes swell with tears.

You bring your daughter up to your face and give her forehead a soft kiss. She's so magical and definitely the most perfect person you could ever ask for. How such a creature can make you fill with this much emotions, it was unreal. You cradle your daughter in your arms and you rock her back and forth gently. All the while, your eyes never leave her face and your smile never fades. "So," you whisper out, "We said if it's a girl you get to name her." you tell the promise you and Lexie had when thinking about your child, "Any thoughts?" you rock her back and forth some more.

"Well..." Lexie's voice rings out in such an angelic tone, "I was thinking about naming her after the strongest woman I've ever known..." she begins.

"Anything Lexie, whatever you'd prefer..." you reply in a whisper as you softly rub your thumb across her puffy little cheeks. It was quite surreal that such a tiny human being could bring you this much happiness. You gently rock her back and forth, comforting and caressing your daughter and with every tender swing of your arms, complete and utter bliss fills your body. There was so many joyful feelings coursing through you and you knew that today would go down as one of the happiest days in your life.

"So if it's alright with you..." Lexie continues as more tears roll down your cheeks as you bring your daughter up to your face once more, giving her forehead another soft kiss.

"I'd like to introduce your daughter..." her voice whispers out as you continue holding this perfect girl in your hands, this daughter of yours, this magnificent little creature. You couldn't help yourself as your hands began to softly shake from the emotions pulsing through out. There were many moments in your life you would always cherish but this day tops them all.

"Say hello to..." she weeps softly as you squeeze your daughter tight. Everything you ever fought for, every battle, every war, every decision you made, every person lost and every person gained, all those moments, all those struggles, it was all worth it because today she came back... Today, she has returned to your side... Today, she was reborn...

"Claire..."

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Author's Notes:

First and foremost, I would like to give everybody a huge thank you for reading this novel of a story whether along with me as I posted chapter after chapter or even if you found out about it later on. I truly appreciate all the comments, likes, bookmarks and favorites and you all have no idea how much it means to me considering I started this story about a year and a half ago, not being much of a writer at all. Through out that time, I have slowly began to have so much fun working with this lore, story and characters. I've grown as an author thanks to all of you and it's something I find extremely enjoyable in my free time and definitely will continue to do. To all of you that pushed through the story with me (Almost ~715 pages on my google doc page) thank you so much for all the love and support!

Second, this isn't the end of my story although I figured this would be the best time and place to do a little break for the story, whether that means I eventually go on and do Book #2 and still follow this MC (Darien) or another character, that is still up in the air. I knew this story started out with Rixx versus our MC and figure that would be the best way to "end" this type of story as well. I also wanted to tie it all together with the child being born and figured that would be an awesome way to give a happy ending on how dramatic the whole story really was.

Huge shout out to cvknepfl, Demonic19040, & Kalion as those three have been not only readers since the start but have also spent many times listening to me rant or give thoughts and feedback through messages. Some of my ideas were inspirations in regards to these three users on this website and I truly can't thank them enough for their support.

To the longtime readers who I know have either been around for awhile now or have messaged/commented multiple times to share feedback and help me out:

1Master, 2asian4magnums, AnArcticJackalope, C.Lemon, Cenomy, Chopsticks, Citadel, GuyFive, J-Mac05, JohnWick, mrawesome850, Prometheus1326, RockSolidSA, thank you so much for your continued support! To every user that I didn't mention (and I know after I post this I will remember another handful of other users that have been here for awhile!) thank you as well for everything!

Lastly, this story is far from over, I could continue it on forever basically but for the time being I will be taking a slight break with the story. Maybe at some point down the road I will either continue on (Chapter 501, 502, etc etc) or I will start a "fresh" story but have it be a sequel/prequel even. I do think there could be really cool ideas like following a Rixx storyline before he meets up and takes Claire at the beginning or even follow a Claire storyline as she's in Rathkin training with Rixx and her first times in the Syndicate before she becomes leader of the Sunriders. Either way, so many cool ideas I'd love to do.

I'm also tempted to go back and rework some of the initial chapters (let's be honest, chapters 1-100 or so are not as good and not as descriptive as some of my recent chapters) and maybe eventually thinking about publishing it as a book (I'd most likely have to tone down on some of the sex chapters...hah!) and if that were to happen, I'd love all your support! Again, these are only thoughts on what the future may hold.

Either way, from the bottom of my heart, thank you once more for taking this Journey of Hope and Path of Conquest with Darien and myself! Thank you to all the readers for tagging along and if you have any final thoughts, please leave a comment or message me directly as I am always happy to hear them.

Thank you,
Sidian