Author's Note: Here it is, guys. The epilogue. The end of the series once and for all. (I know it's been two years, sorry about that) It's hard to make the end official, but here it is. I hope you enjoy it. :)

When you get to the end, go ahead and tell me what you thought. ^_^ And maybe tell me what your favorite part of the series was? That would mean a lot.

Enjoy!

Chase dangled his feet in the pure blue water of the ocean, his hands gripping the splintered wood of the pretty much pointless dock, used entirely for people and not at all for boats. The sun beat down on his tanned skin and cast the shadow of his slightly chubby frame onto his legs. He watched the gossamer clouds float lazily across the sky. This is essentially what consisted of a normal day for him, usually, but this was no ordinary day.

His Aunt Claire was coming home.

She'd been gone with the rest of the army for months, doing goddess knows what. Army-type stuff he supposed. If he was honest with himself, he didn't really care. He just missed her.

He felt - rather than heard - footsteps coming up behind him, and instinctively knew it was Dani. Who else would join a random kid on a sad little dock in front of his parents' house?

"Hey," she said as she plopped down beside him. Like him, she was dressed to swim, with her body-hugging black swimsuit that made him very confused.

"Hey."

Dani swung her legs, purposefully grazing the water with her toes. It splashed out in an arc, peppering Chase's legs with the spray, "You excited for Lightning to come home?"

"Beyond," Chase said as one of New Bodhum's breezes picked up, "I hate it when she has to leave," he cocked his head, looking at her. "Are your parents here?"

"Vanille is, yeah," she ran her fingers through her rather short brown hair, momentarily relieving her neck from its presence, "Hope went to go pick Lightning up, remember?"

"Right," Chase internally chastised himself. Of course that's where Hope was. He always brought Lightning home.

Come to think of it... "Why does he do that?"

"Huh?"

"Hope. Why does he always bring her home? Why not my mom or dad?"

Dani pursed her lips thoughtfully, in such a way that it almost looked as though she were puckering them, "You know, I don't know. Guess you'd have to ask one of them."

"Yeah, I guess."

While Chase perused the reasons why his pretend-uncle would be his aunt's escort rather than his parents, he physically felt but didn't mentally notice Dani rising beside him. He heard her footsteps but didn't register them. Even if he had, it was too late.

Dani bounded down the pathetic dock and leaped into the water, causing a splash that rendered Chase sopping wet - comparatively to before. He sputtered and spat, shaking his head like a wet dog.

"Dani!" he cried indignantly.

She rose from the not-so-much-depths and swept her hair from her face, and the water from her eyes. "Sorry!" she laughed.

"No you're not."

"No, you're right, I'm not," she sunk herself, then launched back up and hung from the dock by her arms, "But I am amused."

Chase wiped ocean from his eyes, which was a briefly impossible task due to the water dripping from his hair, "Do you have to do that every time?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Dani was a curious case. He knew her past was pretty messed up, and that she didn't have real parents either. Well, biological. From what Chase understood, she basically adopted Hope as her new father, and everything else snowballed in afterwards. But he didn't know why or how. No one would tell him.

You wouldn't know she had such a muddied past just by looking at her. Bright green eyes, dazzling smile, perfect tan. She turned heads everywhere she went. She always seemed so happy.

But she was a human version of Pandora's Box.

It would happen more when he was little, so he didn't remember a whole lot, but sometimes when Dani got really upset, she would run away. She would hop a train and stop at this town, the same one every time. There, she'd rob them blind, and leave everything she took in a jail cell. But she always came back on her own. Hope would be so angry... His mom said she'd never seen Hope so livid, never heard him yell so loud. His dad would say, "Didn't think the kid had it in him."

But they always made up. Sometimes they hugged, sometimes they cried, sometimes they'd just apologize. Vanille always got upset when they fought, but she never said anything. She understood.

Chase wished he did.

Dani cocked her head, still hanging on the edge of the dock, "Hey, something on your mind?"

Chase shrugged, "I was just thinking."

"About what? Something complicated?"

"...Kinda."

Dani skillfully lifted herself back onto the dock and next to him; the old wood was thoroughly soaked, "You wanna talk about it?"

Well, yeah, he thought, but that's not the problem.

"Not really."

"Okay," Dani wiped her hair behind her ears, a much easier task now that it was wet. She gave him a little smile, "C'mon, swim with me. It'll help take your mind off of what's bothering you."

He wasn't so sure about that, seeing as half of it was about her, but he nodded anyway, "Sure."

Her smile widened, and she shoved him into the ocean. He laughed, she laughed, they splashed each other like little kids, they dunked each other, and in general acted completely immature. But it was normal, and it was natural, and it was right. And for a little while, Chase actually forgot about his troubles.

They only stopped when they heard her aunt Fang calling for them from the house. Then they scrambled out of the water and raced across the sand, tripping each other at one point, rendering themselves both wet and covered in the stuff. Fang smirked as they came up to the house.

"You kids never run out of energy, do you?" she teased.

"Nope!" Dani chirped, "Did you need something?"

"No, I just yelled at you for fun," Fang answered sarcastically, "Your dad and Lightning are on their way, Serah wants you to clean up and look nice, alright?"

Chase just nodded obediently, while Dani rolled her eyes dramatically, nonetheless with a smile, "Fine. If we have to."

"There's a good girl. Go on."

Dani stepped inside to put her regular clothes back on - after dusting off at least *most* of the sand clinging to her legs - but Chase lingered for a minute, "...Hey, Fang?"

"What is it, kiddo?"

"Well...why does Hope always bring Aunt Lightning home? Why doesn't Mom or Dad do it?"

Fang gave him a small smile, and ruffled his hair, "You'll have to ask them, kid. It's something they worked out together."

'That's what Dani said...'

He nodded, "Okay."

Still smiling, she nodded into the house, "Go ahead and get dressed."

So he did.

When he came back downstairs, everyone was relaxed except for his mother. Dani was sprawled out on the couch, Fang was leaned casually against the wall. Vanille was chatting away in the corner with Sazh, and his dad was laughing.

"Serah, calm down. Lightning has come home at least a thousand times, this time won't be any different."

"I know, but..."

Snow chuckled, "You worry too much."

"I hate to admit it, but he's right," Fang said, "Just calm down. Kid'll bring her home, just like he has for the past ten years."

Serah didn't seem all that comforted, even when the rest of the room nodded along with Fang. Chase had remained teetering on the bottom step, but now he entered the room, "Mom?"

She turned, "Yes?"

Chase scuffed his shoe on the floor. He wanted to ask why Hope always brought Lightning home, but he didn't think it was a good time, "Never mind."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's nothing." This response gained him a look from Dani, but it didn't change his answer.

"So," Dani began, "when are they due back, anyway?"

"Any time now," his dad answered.

Another question was followed by another answer, but Chase wasn't paying attention. They'd be back soon, he could see his aunt again. He'd never admit it, but he idolized his mother's sister. He wanted to be just like her: strong and smart, but kind at the same time. Respected. He was a pretty nice guy, but otherwise, well...

"Chase? Are you sure you're okay?"

He came back to reality. His mom was focused back on him, that familiar I'm-not-worried-really look on her face, "You seem pretty out of it."

He shook his head, "I'm fine, Mom. I'm just excited to see Aunt Lightning again."

She gave him a smile, "Yeah, me too."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Sazh called from the window, "Look who's home!"

Indeed, a few seconds later, the front door opened to Hope, Lightning trailing behind. Vanille embraced her husband, but the rest erupted into cheers, practically mobbing the returning soldier.

Lightning chuckled, "Come on, guys, let me breathe."

"You can breathe later, Sunshine," Fang smiled, "we missed you."

"Oh, come on, Fang..."

"Well," Serah said, "you've been gone for a long time."

"Only six months."

"Only six months," Snow threw his hands up in an I-give-up gesture, "Sis, you amaze me."

Lightning play-punched him in the shoulder, "You know I hate it when you call me that."

"Yeah, well, that doesn't make it less true."

Conversation continued in that manner for a while; jokes, and laughter, and general merriment. Chase hung back, not wanting to interrupt anyone. Not that he didn't look for an opportunity to reunite with his aunt, but it was hard with five or six other people doing the same thing. He tried not to mind. After all, it wasn't like he'd never see her again.

If Dani knew what he was thinking, she'd tell him to grow a pair and stop being so nice.

His mom wanted to take Lightning out for lunch, but she wanted to stay in, "I haven't been home for months," she declared, "let me enjoy being here." So instead, Serah spent nearly an hour making the "perfect" lunch, which turned out to be pretty good.

In the meantime, Chase finally got the chance to talk to his aunt, giving her one of his bear hugs - as his dad liked to call them, "I missed you, Light."

She hated it when he called her "aunt".

Lightning smiled and ruffled his hair, "I missed you, too, kiddo. How've you been?"

"I've been pretty good. School's out, so I'm not doing much..."

"Yeah? What about that story you wanted to write?"

Chase shrugged and scuffed the ground with his shoes, "Well, I don't really know what it is, you know? I can't exactly write if I don't know what I'm writing about..."

"I understand," Lightning smiled, "I've never been particularly...artistic, but a friend of mine used to use me for her muse. She was a painter. Whenever she didn't know...how did she say it... 'what was in her brush,' she'd call me."

Chase smiled a little, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. You might not know what your story is, but it's in you. Right here," she playfully poked him in the chest, above his heart, "You'll figure it out."

Chase smiled a little more, "Thanks."

Lightning lifted his chin with her finger, "Chin up, kid. You're only fourteen, you've got time to figure things out."

"Lunch is ready!"

That night, they had a bonfire on the beach. It was the best kind, with real logs to sit on instead of chairs, flames as tall as Chase, and roastable sweets. The cool night air intertwined with the heat from the fire to create a comfortable pocket of cozy atmosphere around them. They talked, they laughed, they ate, they were a family.

Chase watched them all, studying their faces. He noticed how his parents seemed to revolve around each other, how Fang never stopped smirking. He realized how deep Sazh's laugh lines were, and wondered how well the years had treated the grandfatherly man. He noticed how all of Hope's years seemed to melt off of his shoulders when he was around his wife, and how his aunt kept a protective eye on his mother at all times. And Dani...

Dani...was Dani.

When he watched her, nothing that confused him seemed to matter anymore. All that mattered was her smile, her lively, fantastic eyes, her perfectly small nose, her ears, her hair...her.

He shook his head.

'Stop it.'

Fang had moved to sit by him when he wasn't looking - probably when he was studying Dani - and just when he snapped himself out of his own head, she elbowed him, "Hey, kid. Didn't you want to ask Lightning something?"

His aunt was looking at him expectantly, prepared to answer whatever it was.

Chase blushed, glad it was too dark for anyone else to notice, "It's not a big deal, really. I just...I was wondering why uncle Hope always brings you home, instead of Mom and Dad."

There was a sudden silence. Great, everyone had heard. Chase felt like maybe that question was taboo, maybe he should have left it alone...

Lightning turned to Hope, eyebrow raised, "Well?"

Hope glanced around at the whole group, "What, I'm supposed to tell him?"

"It is your fault. And it was your idea."

His fault?

He gave in, "Alright." The entire world stopped at that moment, slowed to where the fire seemed to follow the stars the way sunflowers follow the sun.

"It was a long long time ago," Hope started, staring into the flames, "Long before you, and even Dani, were born. I...was in a bad place, and I ran away. Lightning and your dad tried to find me for years, but they couldn't. Until about ten years ago. But it didn't take long before..." he took Vanille's hand without turning away from the fire, squeezed it, "something really bad happened. And I ran away again," he looked up at Chase then, "After that, I made a promise. To Lightning, to myself, to everyone, that I'd never run off again. No matter what. To prove it, I bring Lightning home whenever she leaves."

Chase absorbed the story like bread in an oven, his head rising with more questions. What happened? Why did he run away? Where did he and Dani fit into all this? He bit his lip, not wanting to press anything.

His dad saw his hesitation, and sighed, "You'd better tell him the whole story, Hope. He's old enough now. As old as you were, anyway."

Hope looked a bit apprehensive, "You think? I mean, I think we can both agree I was too young to be doing any of that."

Doing any of what?

Vanille touched her husband's arm gently, "Snow's right. We should tell him. And Dani, too."

Even Dani doesn't know?

Dani screwed her face into a confused expression, "But you already told me about everything, didn't you?"

"Mostly," Hope admitted, "But I didn't give you any details, I basically gave you the textbook version, which," he turned to Serah, "they actually have, don't they?"

Serah nodded, "It's horribly inaccurate, but it's there. I tell my students how it really happened when we get to that section."

Chase's head was swimming. Something his family went through was in a textbook? And he didn't know about it? He had never seen any of their names in school, except when his mom's name came up for some teacher thing. Maybe they asked for their names to be excluded? Surely they couldn't have been forgotten, they weren't that old.

"Go on and tell the kid before his head explodes," Sazh urged, "It's better that he learn now then on accident in a few years."

His dad waved him over, "Come here, Chase."

Chase stood woodenly, so confused that he practically tripped over to his dad, forgetting how to make his feet work. He sat down beside him and immediately felt a familiar, strong arm wrap around him.

Everything was drowned in silence once more, even the fire didn't crack the lack of sound. The stars above lit the scene each independently, washing everything out in white. Each breath took a millennium, and the stars died out until the world looked right again. Chase felt dwarfed by his father, by his mother, even by Dani. He knew he was about to get more answers than he had or would ever ask for.

"You should start," Hope relinquished to Vanille, "The story started with you, after all."

"Tsk, forgetting me as usual," Fang drawled, "I'll start.

"Well, kid, let's start with the big bombshell. We're not as old as you think we are. Hell, we're about twenty times that," Fang paused, "Vanille and I are over eleven hundred years old, and everyone else, except you and Dani, are about six hundred. Give or take."

Everyone was looking at him as though he was about to burst into flames or have a heart attack, and maybe he should. But he simply sat there in silence, waiting for shock to sucker-punch him.

"Anyway," Fang continued gently, "Vanille and I lived in Oerba during the War of Transgression. School still talks about that, right?"

Chase nodded, or at least he thought he did. He wasn't sure.

She told him about the war, about how she and Vanille became l'Cie, tasked with destroying Cocoon. About how they failed, and became encased in crystal for what seemed like an eternity.

"And then we woke up on Cocoon," she finished.

Chase was still waiting for all of this to hit him. Right now, it just sounded like a story, a legend told over generations about ancient warriors who traveled through time. Actually, it probably was. Someone, somewhere was still telling this story, he was sure of it.

"What happened then?" Dani asked, completely engrossed in the story, her green eyes shining brightly, though that might have been a reflection from the fire.

"The thirteen days after we awoke, were the beginning of the end," Vanille told her.

"At least, that's what we thought."

The End