The End: A GW2 Short Story

Legends Never Die...

A/N: sooo some of this was written at 12:30 am while eating mac-n-cheese and listening to Aragorn's Coronation Song(by Clamavi de Profundis, its really good go check it out) just be prepared. I recommend listening to  Legends Never Die while reading.

   Vien was tired and not nearly as young and eager to jump in and save the world as she had been even five years ago. She was battle-weary. Had been fighting and fighting and fighting for ten long, weary years. Nearly every night she woke up from nightmares screaming, imagining all the ways that things had or might have gone wrong. From the deaths of friends to her near failures, she relived it all every night. On particularly bad days Vien startled easily, had panic attacks, and flashbacks. Her hair was no longer the fiery orange red it had been and was now a dull orangy-red shot through with gray, her face was lined with age, battle, and the elements, her body a map of scars and memories, some good and others panic inducing.

Legends never die
When the world is calling you
Can you hear them screaming out your name?
Legends never die
They become a part of you
Every time you bleed for reaching greatness
Relentless you survive

   So, when the final battle against the Kryptis arrived and Vien saw Eparch stalking toward Isgarren and Mabon, who were distracted trying to keep their allies alive in the pure chaos, blood, nightmare inducing platform that was their battlefield, she acted nearly without thought.

They never lose hope when everything's cold
And the fighting's near
It's deep in their bones, they'll run into smoke
When the fire is fierce
Oh, pick yourself up, 'cause

   Vien hurtled through the chaos and skirmishes that made up the battle and called upon the latent magic she could feel through Aurene. Coating her greatsword, Eternity, in the power of the one remaining Elder Dragon, Vien flipped over some of the nightmarish Kryptis, who had clicking joints and blood and veins dripping off their every chitinous surface. That flip put her in Eparch's path.

Legends never die
When the world is calling you (the world is calling you)
Can you hear them screaming out your name?
Legends never die
They become a part of you (they become a part of you)
Every time you bleed for reaching greatness
Legends never die

  Breathing deeply, time seemed to slow as Vien hefted Eternity so that it was angled to slice into Eparch's heart and head (if you could call it a head). 

They're written down in eternity
But you'll never see the price it costs
The scars collected all of their lives

   Staring into Eparch's approaching eyes fearlessly, Vien could hear someone (maybe Zojja?) scream, "Commander! NO!!" But the Vien knew that her time in this realm was over, the only thing she regretted as she stared at Eparch resolutely and readied herself for the drawing on Aurene's power once again to coat her feet in crystal so that she could absorb some of the momentum and use it to kill Eparch.

When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts
And avenge defeat
Before it all starts, they suffer through harm
Just to touch a dream
Oh, pick yourself up, 'cause

   By this time every one of the Astral Ward and Hunters were watching out of the corners of their eyes as the famed Commander sacrificed herself for the last Seer and Mursaat.

Legends never die
When the world is calling you (when the world is calling you)
Can you hear them screaming out your name?
Legends never die
They become a part of you (they become a part of you)
Every time you bleed for reaching greatness
Legends never die

   Vien braced herself further and shifted herself into a stance that would help drive Eternity forward. Eparch roared with a sinister, fang-filled grimace (demon smile?) as he drove his demonic and bloody weapon through Vien's chest. He had thought that the momentum of his charge would kill her and the greatsword wouldn't be a problem, but Vien had braced herself every way she knew how to use his momentum to her advantage. So while Vien was shuddering and dying she had succeeded in her mission and Eternity cleaved through Eparch's chest and head, killing him almost instantly.

When the world is calling out your name
Begging you to fightPick yourself up once more
Pick yourself up, 'cause

   The Kryptis fled at their leader's death and Vien's friends formed a circle around her crumpled form. You see, Eparch had fallen backwards taking his sword with him and Vien had crumpled because the sword was no longer holding her weight.

Pick yourself up once more
Pick yourself up, 'cause

   The healers had pushed their way through the crowd, hoping beyond hope that it was a fixable wound, but as soon as they saw her they shook their heads and knelt in respect for the dying legend, as did the other warriors and mages.

Legends never die
When the world is calling you (when the world is calling you)
Can you hear them screaming out your name?
Legends never die
They become a part of you (they become a part of you)
Every time you bleed for reaching greatness
Legends never die

   Mere minutes later, Zojja's cry pierced the silent, somber air of that dreadful broken platform of bodies and blood.  Everyone closed their eyes in broken sadness not only for the Commander  who had died for the world but everyone who had been lost to this war and many others.

They're written down in eternity
But you'll never see the price it costs
The scars collected all of their lives

   The Commander was given an international funeral and statues were erected of the legendary Commander all over Tyria and even beyond. In Divinity's Reach, her statue was placed at the entrance of the main gate at Dwayna's Plaza. At the Black Citadel she was given a statue in the Charr Walk of Heros and made an honorary Charr. The Pale Tree grew an entire garden of her favorite plants and trees and made it a place of rest for all warriors. The Asura dedicated a lab to the Commander and it became known for its breakthroughs in magical studies. The Pact headquarters had a large statue of her in the foyer. Many others incorperated small statues of her into their architecture. But the Commander herself was buried under an oak tree just outside a small village in Kessex Hills because that was where her husband and daughter were buried after a massacre by Scarlet Briar's watchwork minions.

Vien Daris finally found rest in the mists, reunited with her family at last...

Legends never die...