Cowboy Up, Part VI

A guest post by my truckbuddy Tim from England, now resident in Spain:

Cowboy Up

Chapter 6. Endgame

Detail from Brokeback Mountain special edition by SpyrousSeraphim.  My thanks.

Summary:  The title says it all, really.  The last chapter and the mystery of Piers Nivans is finally revealed.  It's sad in places, but hopefully you'll find the end uplifting.  A new game awaits.

Claire looked on in shock as the handsome face of Piers Nivans was slowly revealed by the image scrolling down her computer screen.  A Piers Nivans who had died sixteen years ago.  She couldn't believe it, she certainly didn't understand it.

"Keep calm, Claire, it's a mistake, or his father, or uncle, or something equally logical.  It's not Piers, how could it possibly be?"  But the eyes, they were unmistakable.  And those two little moles on his left cheek.  Whoever it was was identical.  The same color hair, the same golden skin.  It was Piers.

Continued after the jump . . .

She opened the third search result.  It was a report on the autopsy carried out on the body recovered from the Crystal Springs reservoir and later identified as that of one Piers Nivans, a graduate missing from Stanford University. She scanned through the results.  'Death by drowning some four to five days before the body was discovered.  Quantities of LSD and other narcotic substances found in the bloodstream together with high alcohol levels.  Aged twenty-five, no known relatives.'  Claire did the math, he would be forty-one now.  'A promising life cut short ....'  The report was accompanied by the same color photograph.  No mistake there.

Forty one?  Whoever this Piers Nivans was, he must have left a child from some previous liaison.  It was the only sensible conclusion she could draw.  But even that seemed fat-fetched.  He would have to have been a father round about age sixteen.  Ok, that was possible.  Or perhaps they were related?  But with that age difference and looking identical?  And the report said no known relatives, which seemed to rule out that theory anyway.  So what happened to the mother, or the child?  Perhaps he never knew?  And then there was the location, not far from where her parents had died in the car crash a few days earlier.  She still shuddered at the thought.  Was it all a fantastic co-incidence?

Claire printed copies of the results, then shut the machine down.  She looked at her watch, she was running late.  She had to pick Andy up before returning to the Lazy-R.  He was going back for the autumn round-up.  Claire put the sheets into her bag and left the room hurriedly.  She'd have to sort out her new accommodation with the Faculty Dean another time.  Suddenly it no longer seemed important.

************************

Will he use his last wild card on the female, I wonder?  The one called Claire? 

He has to.  

Why?  If she already knows, or thinks she does?  

She won't believe him otherwise, she doesn't have the imagination.

I think he'll save it, for the finale.

And I think he might lose after all.

We shall see.

A side wager?

Ha, ha!  How ... human!  What are the words they use? ... You are on!

************************

Claire saw Andy waiting at the bus station and tooted impatiently, twice.  He threw his gear into the trunk and got in.  She pulled away before he even had time to buckle up.

"Good mornin', Miss Claire, you seems in a mighty hurry!"

"It's a long drive ... I want to get going, Ok?"

"Whatever you say's miss, jest mind out fer more o’them red lights like those you went through back there."

She turned to look at him as she slowed down.  "Oh Andy, I'm sorry ... I had a nasty surprise earlier."

"Well, let's git clear o the city, then we can have a nice long chat about it.  Would you like me to drive?"

"Later perhaps."  she forced a smile.  "Let's do what you said and get out of here first."

They made small talk until they were off the freeway.

"I like the new teeth Andy, good color."

"That danged Dentist!  He wanted ‘em bright white, says that how they's dun in Californi-ay.  I tells him I wants ‘em yeller, like they's was a'for.  I told him as soon as those little tombstones is in place I'm gonna be chewin baccy agin, not suckin it no more!  So we settled for somethin in between, light yeller or dirty white, I dunno's which."

"It's like you've always had them."

"I aller's did have them, a'for I didn't!  Damn!  Pardon my French, Miss Claire.  You don't knows what it's like, chewin and tastin real food agin a'fer all this time.  Like I've died and gone to heaven!"

For some reason Andy's last remark made Claire shiver.  "Let's find somewhere to pull-over now." was all she said.

They stopped in a little gas station to change places.  Andy adjusted the driver's seat for his spindly bowed legs and they pulled away, the road slowly climbing before them, the Sierras rising in the far distance.

"Alright Miss Claire, spill the beans, what's on yer mind?"

"Piers ... Piers Nivans."

"Oh."

"Do you believe in ghosts Andy?"

"Say what?"

"Ghosts, or reincarnation, I don't know what.  Time travel?"

Andy slammed on the brakes.  "Are you alright?  Shall I find a Doctor?"

"No, I'm fine ... well, I'm not, but I'm alright ... physically anyway.  Mentally ... well, I had a shock today, at the university."

"How 'bout you tells me then?  Sted o givin me shocks an alls!  I'm here to listen Miss Claire, ain't going nowhere's else.  Take it nice and slow, so's I can keep up.  Starting from the beginning."

Claire recounted what had happened earlier that morning.  It didn't make any more sense to her in the retelling.  But she valued Andy's opinion.  He had always been loyal to the Redfields and the Lazy-R.

"What should I do Andy?  Should I tell Chris?  Confront Piers about his background?   And the date, it's when we lost Mom and Pop, exactly."

Andy was silent for a moment, if he'd had some baccy, he would have chewed it.  He reached his decision.

"Nuthin" he pronounced, with an air of finality.

"What!  How can you say that?  It's not nothing, it's ... Oh, I don't know what it is, but it's something.  Surely?"

"Listen Miss.  You says yourself it cain't be Piers, the ages are all wrong.  And there ain't no ghosts, even I knows that.  If'n it's Piers' pappy, or whoever, it's his business, not ours.  If'n he don't wanna talk about it, you gotta respect the man's privacy.  What harm has he done?  Only good as far as I can see, you ask your brother, saved the Boss's life."

"But the time, the place!"

"One o them co-incidents, they happens all the time.  Don't fret now, yer jest upset, moving offices, worrying about the ranch, young Ben.  Nuff to turn anyone's head I reckon."

"I wish I could be so sure Andy.  Piers is, well you've got to admit, he is a mystery.  I mean, what did he say to you, that night you saw him in the showers with Chris?  You came back to supper singing a different tune to when you stormed out."

Andy scratched his jaw.  "I don't recall Miss, other than it was awful sad, and he was in earnest.  He made me ... well ... he made me believe in him.  You should too."

"I want to, Andy, but ...."

"Then that's all there is to it, no buts!  Let it ride.  Perhaps the man's got secrets, perhaps he ain't.   All you's got is fanciful notions, ain't nothin logical.   Be happy, for the Boss, for Piers, for the Lazy-R.  And fer yersel,  lessen you like feelin sad."  Andy looked at her, as if challenging Claire to contradict him.

"Alright, Andy, I'll do it your way, for now.  But the first sign of trouble, I'll speak out."

"Won't be no trouble, Miss Claire, trust me.  Now, all that jawin has made these here new teeth ready to eat somethin.  Let's find us a diner."

************************

Back at the Lazy-R Claire quickly realized that Chris and Piers had now become inseparable.  She felt guilty, they were so happy together.  If she still had any reservations, she kept them to herself.  Andy was right, it wasn't logical.  And Finn's arrival had certainly added a new dynamic to life at the Lazy-R.  Claire watched the  men ride out together early one morning, Chris had found his family at last.  She had to smile, they were whooping and hollering like schoolboys at the start of their holidays; Rinty barking excitedly alongside.  So did that make her the teacher?  She laughed to herself.  In the movies, school ma'ams got wooed by handsome cowboys, and Ben was coming round that evening ... the third time that week.  Perhaps, after the round-up?  She allowed herself to dream.

************************

The round-up began the first week in September.  The three ranches; Ben's to the north, Carl's to the south and Chris' Lazy-R in-between, pooled their resources to round-up the herds and brand the new calves.  Then they counted and selected the cattle to go to on the long drive north to the railhead and then to market.

Ben's ranch was closest to the rail depot, and his family had always used it, whilst Carl, who could have used trucks from his own ranch, preferred to maintain the customs of the old west.  He liked to think of himself as one of the last great cattlemen, in the tradition of John Chisum or William Randolph Hearst.  For Chris it was a simple question of economics.  He couldn't afford either method in reality, but Ben and Carl helped him out because that's what ranchers do.  They were all family.

The cattle drive itself took nearly a week.  At best, the herds only managed fifteen miles a day.  Up from Carl's and through the Lazy-R.  Water and grazing were the limiting factors here, rather the terrain.  And so on to the north of Ben's spread and the railhead.

On their own property, Chris, Carl and Ben acted as trail boss, riding ahead of the herd, scouting for fresh-water and pasture to bed the herd down at night.   Otherwise they acted as point riders, leading the herd in the right direction.  Andy and Piers worked flank and swing with the other hands, keeping the cattle together, and bringing back strays.  Claire and Jill rode drag, at the rear of the herd, pushing and prodding the slowpokes along the trail.  It wasn't the best view of the cattle, but it gave them plenty of time to chat, mostly about men!

Finn, with his expertise and love of horses was the Lazy-R's wrangler, driving and caring for the remuda, the string of saddle horses from which the hands took their mounts each day.  But when he could, he would slip away and join Piers on flank.  He even took his shirt off, trying to get a tan like Piers, but Piers made him put it back on soon after he began to broil.  He laughed.  "Ha, ha Finny!  Some cowboys are just born to stay pale!  And you are he."

************************

The return journey was much less stressful.  Chris had it mind to round-up some of the wild horses that roamed up along the high ridge of the Lazy-R.  And, at Piers' suggestion, he invited Ben and Carl to join him.  It was a welcome diversion after all the hard work.  And Chris, of course, had a particular black stallion in mind.  The same one that had killed his uncle back in the spring ....

There was an old corral near the ridge, Piers took Finn up there the first afternoon, to make sure it was sound, whilst the others made camp aways below.  They would drive the wild horses there the next day.  And then Chris would bust his bronco.

After completing some repairs, the two cowboys decided to spend the evening there, away from the others.  Piers sat in front of the fire, hugging the warmth, Rinty lay quietly at his feet.

"You call him Ruff, don't you?  I've heard you, when you think no one's listening."  said Finn, shyly.

"Yes, I do."

"Was he a Ruff in the other places?"

"Sometimes, and he will be again."

"I was right then?"  Finn grinned, he liked it when he was proved right.

Piers smiled.  "Yes Finn, you were right, all along." 

Piers was silent for a long while, absorbing the heat from the dancing flames, then he sighed, as if he'd finally made his mind up about some difficult decision.  He spoke, quietly.

"Do you know what the expression, 'To Cowboy Up', means Finn?"

"Not really.  My father used to tell me to cowboy up all the time.  I never understood what he meant.  So when I didn't, he would get angry, and then I'd cry, and then he'd hit me."    Finn was silent for a while as he sorted the memories and put them back in their respective boxes again.  The green eyes were sad, but he smiled as Piers laid a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"It means to get back on your horse if you fall off, it means to pick yourself up when you're face down in the dirt, to keep on trying until you succeed.  To just suck it up and get on with life, however hard the trail."

"Suck it up?"

"Yeh.  Don't let the pain and the tiredness show, don't lose control of your emotions, don't whine or whinge, just grit your teeth, tighten your cinch and get the job done, like a real man, like a cowboy."

"Like putting the bad things back in the box?  So people don't see?"

"That's it, Finn, you got it!  Sometimes a man needs a helping hand to cowboy up.  Sometimes the pain and the hurt are so strong it doesn't seem as if he can ever succeed.  Mr Chris will be like that soon.  Will you help him Finn?  Help him cowboy up when I'm not around?"

"I could call you."

"Ha, ha!  You could.  Trouble is I won't hear you, not where I'm going.  You've got to do this without my help.  And I've got to know you'll do it.  Can I rely on you?  I think you can, but you need to believe it yourself."

"So I must cowboy up to help Mr Chris cowboy up?  That sounds funny!  But I'll do it, because you're my special friend, and Mr Chris is your special friend isn't he?  So that makes him my friend too."

"That's good Finn, I knew you'd understand.  And after I've gone, you can tell Mr Chris all our secrets.  Because I want you and him to remember me, properly.  So I give you my permission, alright?  You won't see me, but I'll be watching you both and looking after you."

"In the blue, flying?"

"Yes Finn, in the blue, way, way up there.  And in here too."  Piers pointed to Finn's heart.

"And in here as well." Finn tapped his head.  "All my friends live in here."

Piers smiled.  "Look at me Finn."

The hazel eyes glowed in the firelight, swirling patterns of yellow and gold danced in the irises.   Finn sat mesmerized as the strong blue light suffused his mind.

"I'm going to show you some more things Finn, because you already know some of it, don't you?"

"Yes Piers, like your wings, they're our secret."

"You can tell Mr Chris when you think he's ready.  It will comfort him, when he is feeling sad.  You must look after him now.  You Promise?

"Yes, of course ...."  Finn watched the images as they formed and faded inside his head.  "Oh, Piers, it's beautiful ... just like I imagined.  Is that you?"

The face before him had suddenly grown old, or was it a trick of the firelight?  Finn couldn't be sure at first.  Then, "It is you, isn't it?  All that time, so many lives."

"Yes Finn, it's me, all of them.  Watch now ...!"

Look!  He's used it!  I thought he'd save it for the girl, or the man.

He's getting weak.  He doesn't have to try so hard with the clever one; he's already guessed most of it.

So much for my plan.

Ha, ha!  I win this hand, I think?

Is it time then, for the endgame?  He's touched them all, brought them together this time, just as you said he would.

Yes, everything's in place.  Not long now, not long at all.

************************

Chris, Claire, Andy, Ben and Carl joined the Piers and Finn early the next morning.  Chris thought Piers looked pale and drawn.  He hugged him close in greeting.

"Are you Ok Piers?  You look tired."

"I'm fine babe.  Just need to get the sun on me."  But the strength of Piers' embrace and its lingering nature suggested otherwise.  He clung to Chris as if he never wanted to let go.  Only Claire's gentle cough brought them back to the present.

"Um, I think we're all ready now bro."

"Oh, yes.  Er, right.  Ok, Claire, Finn, you stay here, ready to funnel the horses into the corral, keep Rinty with you too.  Ben, Carl, you go up to the left, Piers and I will take the right.  And Andy, you get behind 'em, stop 'em doubling back.  We'll give you half an hour to get in position"

"You got it, Boss."

"If nothing else, I want that stallion today, Ok?"  There was a gleam in Chris' eyes, his enthusiasm was infectious.  Only Piers felt a desire to be violently sick.

As Andy rode off, Chris checked the corral one last time and the adjacent stockade.  That's where he would bust that sonofabitch, once and for all.

"Give us a hand Piers!"  Chris called out to his partner.  "I want this gate tighter than a cattleman's wallet."

Piers had already taken his shirt off, trying to soak up the early morning sun.  Chris grinned as they worked side by side.  "I love you Piers Nivans.  And don't you ever forget it."

"I never have forgotten Christopher Redfield, and I never will."  Chris was lost for a moment, in the swirling hazel eyes and that enigmatic, angelic smile.

"Piers, what do you mean ...?"

Piers lent in and kissed Chris passionately.

"You'll see ...."

Oh, this is most pleasing.  He's almost completed this level.

Yes, if he sticks to the plan.  He's never been so close before

You and that plan!  But I think he will, I sense he wants to stay.

So this could be the last single-person game we play? 

Yes, then it's on to the final level, the team play.

Ah, the ensemble piece!  Well, let's see, shall we?

************************

Claire and Finn heard the sound of hooves around the same time they saw the cloud of dust descending from the high ridge.  It looked as if the round-up had been a success.  They opened the gate to the corral and positioned themselves either side.  Rinty laid down a ways off, ready to intervene if the herd spooked and broke loose.

The men pushed a dozen wild horses in front of them.  A mix of mares, colts and some yearlings, led by the magnificent black stallion.  Chris' brown eyes shone in triumph as he watched Claire and Finn close the corral gate.  Everyone was excited, except Piers, who seemed unmoved by the scene.  Even Finn was too busy to notice him.  He was enthralled by the sight and had already began to assess the horseflesh before him.  He spoke avidly with Chris and his guardian Carl.  Ben and Claire looked on, arm in arm.  Only Andy sidled up to Piers.

"Penny fer yer thoughts young un."

"He can't ride him Andy ... Chris ... it will kill him, just like his uncle."

"I knows, but who's gonna tell him?  He's had his heart set on that black devil for nigh on three years."

Piers looked Andy full in the face.  "Just don't let him stop me Andy, or the others.  Do whatever you have to.  Threaten to shoot him if necessary!  You understand?"

Andy nodded and blinked back the tears that had suddenly welled up in his eyes.  "Good luck son."

************************

They roped the stallion and got him in the stockade.  He stood silently, glaring balefully at them all.  Chris was sat balanced on the top rail, his legs hooked underneath him on the rail below.  He pulled his gloves on.

"Chris, please don't.  It doesn't feel right, I'm frightened."  It was Claire, she suddenly looked ill at ease.  "Let it go, remember Uncle Bob."

"I can't sis, it's a Redfield thing, you know that."  Chris turned and smiled reassuringly at Claire.  It was the chance Piers had been waiting for.  He didn't see the young cowboy step in front of him.  Didn't see the golden fist swing back and strike like a rattler.  Temporarily stunned, Chris fell backwards onto the dirt.

"I'm sorry Chris, but you heard the lady."  Piers shook his left hand.  Then he turned, took a short run, and leapt onto the back of the stallion.  Ben and Carl quickly let go the lead ropes they'd been holding and ran for the safety of the rails. 

As the animal bucked and reared Piers grimaced in pain, he must have broken his left hand punching Chris.  He wound the reins around tight his right arm to give himself some control.  As he did he sensed another presence, the horse was clearly terrified.  "You're part of it too, aren't you fella?"  Piers tried to communicate with the horse as it twisted and turned beneath him.  He bent his head down, close to the horse's ear.

"C'mon boy. Fight it, get it out of your head, don't let it beat you!"  Piers smiled, he could feel the horse relaxing under him, it was winning the fight.  He thought he was winning too.  That this, at long, long last, was the time.  THE time.  "Nearly there boy, we're gonna make it, both of u ... ."

The others watching didn't see it.  The white light, so hard it hurt, so cruel.  But the horse saw it, and Piers too.  "Noooooo!"  Piers screamed, he was so close this time.  "Please, please ... don't ...!"

In the stunned silence that followed his fall, Piers knew he'd lost once again, already he could feel the cold beginning to seep into his bones.  Faces and voices surrounded and overwhelmed him.  He closed his eyes ....

The big horse stood nearby, impassive, calm.  In the instant before the light, before Piers' fall, it had been broken, but so had Piers.  Ben and Carl led the stallion away, whilst the others crowded around the fallen rider.

"Don't move him!"  "Give him some air."  "Piers, Piers!  Can you hear me?"

"Chris?  Is that you?  I'm s, so cold ... I, I never did like the cold!"  Piers coughed.

"Hush my love, don't talk, we're gonna' get you a Doctor."  Chris took the blanket Finn had run to fetch and placed it tenderly over Piers' body.

"Chris, I need to tell you something, just listen, please?  Sixteen years ago I was responsible for the death of your parents."  Chris looked on uncomprehending.   Piers let it sink in.

"I ran out into the road, in front of them, all those years ago.  They swerved to miss me, lost control, hit the tree.  It was me.  I was high, drunk, frightened.  I ran away, fell into the water, drowned.  I died the same night your parents did, but I never passed on."

Chris couldn't speak.

"I was sent back by beings called Transcendents, sent back to sacrifice my life over and over to save you, in all the different realities where you exist.  To atone for the damage I'd caused in your life, because you are special."

"Transcendents?"

"Yes, for them it's an intellectual game, like chess with people’s lives. You're part of the game too.  You all are."

"What!  Piers, this is madness, you've got concussion, banged your head ... where's the Doctor?  Andy, Finn!"

"No Doctors please Chris, it's too late for that.  It's all true, I promise you my love.  I'm so sorry.  I never wanted to deceive you, you must believe me.  It's my fate you see, to save you, at the cost of my own life.  Claire knows, don't you?"

Claire nodded.  "It's the truth Chris, at least the part about the Mom and Pop.  Piers was a Stanford graduate, his body was found a week after ... after the accident.  He died by drowning, but the autopsy showed he'd taken drugs, a lot of drugs."

"No, No,  this is insane, Piers, tell me it's not true?"

"It is Chris.  Andy knows, and Finn too."

"He's right Boss, I remembers now what he showed me, him and all the different yous, all the time's a'for."

"I, I've always known Mr Chris."  said Finn shyly.  "Piers is special.  You don't see what I see."

"I hoped they might let me stay this time, but it seems not.  Rules of the game."  Piers tried to smile, but when he coughed again there was blood on his lips.

"Piers, I can't lose you, not now.  I don't care what you did, in the past, whenever.  It was an accident.  It's now that counts.  I love you, I need you."

"You must, it has to be.  But I'm leaving you a better man Chris.  You're complete now, not a half-filled shell.  You have a long life ahead of you.  You'll find fulfillment.  And you'll find love again.  That's part of the game too ...."  Piers fell silent.

"Game?  What game?  Piers, what do you mean?  Piers wait, don't go ...!"

The hazel eyes flickered.  "The game?  Making you whole again, paying for my crime.  In this reality you're a cowboy.  You've been all sorts Chris, a policeman, a teacher, a pilot ... so many Chris' in so many realities.  All playing their part so that one day a Christopher Redfield will help save the world, a soldier.  But for that to happen, all those other Chris' have to survive.  Wherever and whenever.  My job, my fate, is to make sure they do, through my own sacrifice.  That's the real game.  That's why I couldn't let you ride the black stallion.  It had to be me, it always had to be me.  Just as one day, in another place and time you'll get your childhood wish.  You'll be that soldier.  I can see that much, that's your endgame."

"A soldier?  How did you know?  I never said."

Piers smiled.  "Didn't I always tell you I know what I know?  Yes, you'll get to go to the military academy.  Not here, but in another reality.  Just as one day I won't die saving you, but will live on, with you.  That's my endgame.  I hoped it might be this time, but I guess not. 

"But we'll meet again, you promise?  Will I remember you?"

"Yes, we will, though you may not remember me.  Just in dreams and distant fuzzy memories perhaps, I don't know.  They call them transcendent memories."

"They?  Who do you mean?  These beings?"

He's said too much?

No, but he's said enough.

Time then?

I think so, bring him back.

"Yes, the game players, Finn will explain."  Piers shivered violently.  "I'm so cold now.  It's time for me to go Chris, they're taking me back.  See you soon, someplace else ... I love you ..."

"NO! Piers ...!"

"... always have, always will ... Goodbye Chris.s..s...s....  The faintest smile, then light faded in the hazel eyes and was gone.

"PIERS!"

Chris bent his head and kissed him.  A single tear fell on Piers' cold cheek as he did, sparkling in the light from blue heaven above the high ridge.  Then the light slowly spread over the still form until it covered it.  Blue, intense, just like the sky above them.  Chris and the others had to shield their eyes it was so strong.  When they looked again Piers Nivans' body had gone.

For a while no one moved, unsure as to what they had just witnessed.  No one spoke, for what was there to say?  Then Finn knelt down next to Chris, taking the big man's hands and clasping them in his own.  He recited the only prayer he'd ever learned.  The one his mother used to say every night she put tucked him in bed, before she too, had become an angel.  So he knew that somehow it was appropriate.

Angels bless and angels keep
Angels guard me while I sleep
Bless my heart and bless my home
Bless my spirit as I roam
Guide and guard me through the night
And wake me with the morning's light.

"Amen."  They all said it together.  Up on the high ridge Rinty let out a single mournful howl.  Then silence, except for the sound of the wind until, at last, Chris spoke again.

"He was like an angel, Finn."

"He was an angel, Mr Chris, couldn't you see his wings?"  He put a hand on Chris' shoulder.  "I'll look after you now.  That's what he asked me to do.  I know it's important, so I will.  Please don't cry."  Finn looked upwards.  "He's gone flying, in the blue.  But he said I could tell you our secrets."

"Secrets?  What secrets, Finn?  I don't understand you."

"First of all, you must cowboy up, Mr Chris.  I'm going to help you because Piers told me to, and when you're better I will tell you about him because he said I could, so you wouldn't be sad.  You're my special friend now and I've got to look after you.  Piers will be watching us when he's flying."  It was a lot to say in one go.  Finn drew a deep breath when he'd finished.

"Thank you, Finn."  Chris patted his hand.   It was in Finn's childlike innocence and his obvious faith in Piers' afterlife that Chris suddenly found unexpected strength and peace of mind.   "I don't know why, Finn, but I'm not truly sad.  I have this strange sense I will see him again."

Finn smiled.  "We all will, Mr Chris, we all will."

Epilogue:

Peter Carney took Piers' advice, and his card with the name and number on it, which he presented to one Lt. Gary Hall, a US Navy SEAL at the NAB Coronado in San Diego.  He graduated top of the class after six months' training and found being a SEAL was, for him, much more fun than being a cowboy.

Claire Redfield married Ben Airhart, and they raised a big family, with a sister for every brother.  Ben never did tell Claire that it was Piers who'd bought the flowers and chocolates for him to give her.  And if Claire suspected, she never said.  But she made sure he bought plenty more himself in the years that followed.

Captain Jill Valentine decided she was better off married to the US Army.  The last time she visited Chris and Claire, she was a full Colonel, with her sights on Washington DC, and at least one silver star.

Andy Walker didn't take to goats, and his sister didn't take to him.  He went back to the ranch and made enormous tips reading poems and singing songs with the guests around the camp fire at night.  Telling them bedtime ghost stories about the spirits of the cowboys who roamed the high ridge at night.  That ... and playing poker!  This was one of Andy's favorite poems, and Chris and Finn's too, because it reminded them all of Piers.

Drift Along Lonely Cowboy

by Curley Fletcher

In the far away Heavens in the distant blue skies
High above in the bright gleaming sun
Is a heaven of rest, for the Great Master's guest
When the Round-up on Earth is all done

Through ever green meadows the rider will stray
In the flush of an Eternal dawn
With the Boss by your side through the Heavens you'll ride
Drift along, lonely cowboy, drift on

Drift along, lonely cowboy, drift on to your new range
There's a Chuckwagon camped there on high
Old time friends you will find, who once left you behind
And we'll all meet you there bye and bye

The Boss of the Round-up will lend you a hand
He'll be waiting for you in the dawn
In the campfire's glow are old faces you'll know
Drift along, lonely cowboy, drift on

Carl Alfonso backed Chris' venture into horse breeding.  They founded a successful stud line with the black stallion, although no one else ever rode it.  Carl gave the money he made to the son he'd now officially adopted, Finn Macauley-Alfonso.

The Lazy-R ranch was renamed.  It became the Winged-R ranch, with angel's wings of course!

When he wasn't playing frisbee with Chris, Rinty roamed the high ridge looking for his friend with the golden skin and the hazel eyes.  And sometimes, though he couldn't be sure, Rinty thought his howls were answered.

And Chris Redfield and Finn Macauley?  Well, they both learned to cowboy up.  And so they became the very best of cowboys ... and the very best of friends.  And they shared so many secrets it sometimes seemed as if Piers was right there with them.  Which, in a way, he was.

As for Piers Nivans himself, in a place where his past and his present mingled with his future, he remained the subject of much discussion ...

Has he atoned sufficiently, do you think?

Yes, that last game was rather elegantly played.  Yes, I think he has.

Splendid!  I agree.  So they may remain together after the end of this next game?

Yes.  Now he must make his own choices.  To live, or to sacrifice himself once more.

Unless ...?

Of course!  My thoughts exactly, ha ha!

We could call the first one Alpha Team, observe how it goes.  What do you think?

Alpha Team, yes, very fitting.  Your turn, I believe?

Good!  Mmm, let me see now ... I know!  I'll start with a letter ....

In a barrack block in Fort Bragg, a young lieutenant in the Army's Special Forces, the famous Green Berets, sat on his bunk with an envelope in his hand.  The golden-skinned sniper with the whirling hazel eyes opened the letter slowly, his hands trembling.

"You are invited to attend selection for Alpha Team ...."

... Signed:  Christopher Redfield, Captain, B.S.A.A

So it began again.  Another life to save, but Piers Nivans had a strange feeling this time, one he'd never experienced all the previous occasions.  Could this be the final one?  Could this really be his endgame?  He smiled as he folded the letter and put it back in the envelope.

"I'm coming Chris."

A single tear rolled down golden skin, catching the sunlight as it fell.  It came to rest on the high cheek-bone and sparkled with all the colours of the rainbow.  He looked out of the barrack window, up to the blue heaven and smiled again.

"Thank you."

The white light filled his mind.

Good game, Piers.