Coda

[onemorebounty]

*It was over. Phaaze was destroyed, her dark twin was dead (okay, she'd said that before), and if the little med-scanner in her new ship could be believed, the contamination in her body was gone. Certainly, she didn't feel any of the malaise that had accompanied her infestation, nor did she hear the discordant music that had followed her since somewhere on the pirate world. Even the veins of corruption that had marred her face and taunted her from her reflection were gone, as though they had never been.*

*That wasn't to say she was unscarred. She had given the Olympus a flyby and a quick message to let them know she was alive, before fleeing to SkyTown with her thoughts. It was there, in the faintly caustic winds, that she started to let the events of the past week roll over her, started the slow drip of emotion she would allow herself.*

*Even as she sought to relax, though, her gaze fell on SkyTown (named, she wondered, with her people's amusement at understatement, or the Federation's lack of creativity? Or had the natives named the place? Had any natives survived?). Teetering on the brink of decrepitude, the place tugged at her: she needed to see it made whole. She owed it to the people there, for all she couldn't do.*

*It's in this state that any messages--or visitors--will find her. Sitting on the edge of a platform in SkyTown, looking out at the horizon and in at the mess.*