HECC! HECC! HECC! What even is this ending? I'm overloaded with information and not sure what to think of first! :P
First things first, now that I've finally read through the ending of the story (sorry it took me so long), here we go:
SWAN SOUGHT SWAN LOST SWAN FREED? (with a cheeky END added in the, well, end).
Next, gosh darnit! What's up with Aiden and his interdeminsenional kids! Aiden please! Don't go having kids all over the place. They're not even actually yours! :P (So, we getting Kate and Aiden getting together in the end to have Grace and Rowana as sisters, I wonder. Though not sure how quickly the Aidens and Kates got together and had kids, because if it was too fast compared to Flumberfluff Aiden, they might have missed their chance for that. Well, at least genetically speaking). Speaking of Grace, that dream-memory sequence had me very confused as to what exactly Sandy was showing them (oh and nice Figdroids =O reference). Was it after Kate had a miscarriage, Sandy was somehow showing them how their daughter would have looked like if born and grown? Or was it something entirely different? Oh and RIP Lost. Kinda sad, but also not that impactful, because we know she's still there in the Pocket Dimension.
Anyway, moving on to more fanfare and confusion: Kath! Is that who I think it is? Who I think being Alter-Kate from the previous installments of the Stromling Saga? I guess I don't think I remember the whole double-Kate thing being resolved after Alter-Kate was reintroduced in the Sequel Trilogy, so it makes sense you would bring her back, if my memory doesn't deceive me on that matter. Or... wait. I don't think that's the case, due to the 7-year timeline she mentions, but she could also be Future Dimension's Alter-Kate. We do know that the Future Dimension is similar enough to Flumberfluff in regards to the Stromling Saga story (in fact it might just be the original Stromling Saga story), so Kate would have been infected in it, too. And we know from Red that Future Kate and Future Cyclone was lost in another dimension as well, meaning Future Alter-Kate might have done so as well. So, Future Aiden might have picked Future Kate and Cyclone up, but what happened to Future Alter-Kate I wonder... What are the chances there's still another Kate going around somewhere in the Unverse...?
But more importantly, Kath mentions some odd stuff. 7 years ago (that's Stromling Trilogy/Saga time), Pre-Kath was infected. That lines up with Kate found as a Stromling in Servant of Darkness. However, Kath says: " Seven years ago I was taken by the Maelstrom, but not the Maelstrom you know. They were sentient, and looked like Nexus Force, just evil". That sounds like Maelstrom Dimension Maelstrom. Does that contradict anything? Well, perhaps not. Kate was found in the Flumberfluff dimension (in this case), but it's never been explicitly stated that it was that dimension's Maelstrom that infected her. And I'm taking Kath's " and the next thing I knew I was in her body" to mean that Kath was the clone, which lines up with her being "Alter-Kate". However, there are a few issues. If the MD Maelstrom took her, how did the Stromling Kate end up back in her own dimension (or why was she not brought to the MD in the first place, if she was never taken there)? And if Stromling Kate had experienced all that, why did she never mention anything? "I wished really hard to get away â and it worked. I came here" also seems to suggest that Kath immediately escaped from the Maelstrom to that Earth Dimension, but the Stromling Trilogy would suggest otherwise. So, what I'm getting at is you probably have an answer to those issues (or you should get one, if you don't) if it's really that Alter-Kate and I'm wondering if you can confirm that and possibly explain in more detail (unless you plan to do so in story format anyway). Also, Maelstrom powers... It seems weird that the one who would get them is the uninfected clone, but on second thought am I misremembering or did Alter-Kate mention something about getting Maelstrom powers in the Sequel Trilogy as well. There was something she'd done, right...? (plus, let's discuss "Maelstrom Sparks" sometimes, because as of the Ten Heroes of Malidor I have also introduced the idea of Maelstrom Sparks and Maelstrom Minifigures and since that might even be connected to Nexus Minfigures, there's all the more reason to make sure we're on the same page).
But anyway, Kath's there. Red's there. Aiden's there. Transdimensional Brocktree, who somehow gets even cooler, is also there. Maelstrom wants to be there. Interesting stuff. Interesting indeed. Gotta have to wonder how things will play out. And Rowana's a fugitive, too...
On other notes, was that Mikhaila?
Heh! Agentsky called him Sir Talmid. I wonder what we could do with Agentsky after this.
Kate lost her memories, noooooo! D: But is that a suggestion that Aiden has stored her memories inside his head and can share them back? Interesting, but also SHE'S LOST HER MEMORIES, so she doesn't even know them, gotta have to wait and see what's gonna happen to bring her back... (though if she's lost her memories enough to not know who the NF folks are means that memory-wise she's reverted back to the time before she joined the NF, meaning she'd want to join the Nexus Force and -if her family doesn't stop her- end up returning because she's essentially repeating her previous path?)
Meanwhile, althought the Nexus-Forcers pulled away this time, does that mean they're not gonna go back to try and stop the Rogues in Jirdia anymore? I mean, we do know that the Unverse Drive gets developed in the end, but independently of that success, wouldn't the folks in the team and/or the Nexus Force, if they officially informed them of everything that happened be concerned about the presence of Rogues in Jirdia, especially knowing what kind of research they're involved in there.
Oh and we might have to discuss Unverse again. Gotta have to see what we're going to do about our different views on it.
All in all, I liked the conclusion to this story. Closes some things, while also leaving a lot of plot threads open to pursue in following stories, let alone the cliffhanger ending. The third installment of the Series of Four comes after this, right? I wonder what name it'll have. Will it also be 3-based?