Epilogue

"Happy birthday Rylea!" everyone shouted as the girl came into her house, her home, the place she belonged. An astonished looking Rylea stared around at her family, her friends, the people she trusted and loved as the confetti was thrown and poppers were popped all around her. A happy, angelic smile claimed the girl's face as everything that was going on set in finally. The Sanada girl now looked like her normal, carefree, innocent self as she glanced around at all the people pilled into her house. Gone were the demonic persona, the mocking smile, and the evil glow that had once claimed her whole.

The girl now whirled around on the tall blond boy behind her, his smile saying enough for her. She pointed an accusing finger up into his face, or as close as she could get to it, a laughing smirk now on her face as she said, "You knew, didn't you? All this time you knew all about this, didn't you Hojo?"

The Date boy simply smiled down at the dark haired girl, amused by her as he winked back and replied, "I ain't telling."

Laughs and chuckles erupted from the crowd of people now. Rona, Keish, Kami and Heather emerged from the hoard of people, mostly adults or near to it, smiling broadly at their friend. The cuts had healed, the wounds they had obtained from the battle had now faded along with the emotional wounds they had all endured from fighting a friend, a sister, a loved one. Gone were the stressed, tired, determined faces, but in its leave smiling, happy faces had now returned. Back was the once happy, normal, teenagers just trying to survive school.

"Smile, Lea!" Keish called out to her as she produced a camera, holding it now up to her face as she began to focus in the picture.

Rylea's attention was then diverted from the blond young man behind her to her friends and the camera Keish was now holding up. With her finger still pointing accusingly up into the face of the Date boy she plastered her sweet, angelic smile onto her face for the camera. A flash went off and the moment was caught on film, a picture, another point in her life. The moment captured forever on a piece of paper. Another memento, another thing to look back on and reminisce about.

Ryo now stepped from the group, a warm smile on his face as he extended his arm out to his daughter. The same arm he had held out to her before, had reached out to her with, begging the girl to take and come back to him. Now he wrapped that arm around his daughter's shoulders, hugging her close to him as he smiled down at her. Gone was the hard, emotionless face he had once hid behind while fighting her or more like the person who had taken control of her. Now in its leave there was nothing but joy, love and happiness masking his face.

"Come on jouchan, I think there's a cake that awaits a certain someone to blow out the candles on it," he said down to his female twin, hugging her closer to him as he lead her into the kitchen. The girl simply wrapped an arm around her father's waist, following him into the kitchen where her birthday cake awaited her.

"Yeah," Rowen now joked as he stole a glance over at the ash-blue haired man known as Kento, a grin now consuming his face as he said, "You'd better hurry up and blow out those candles fast before your uncle Kento dive bombs the cake."

"Hardy har har," came Kento's less than amused response and stuck his middle finger up at the blue haired Rowen as he passed him on his way into the kitchen.

Rowen blinked at the gesture and chuckled slightly, glancing over his shoulder at the blond haired man coming up behind him, "Is he allowed to do that?" he asked while pointing out to Kento.

Sage shrugged light heartedly to his best friend, a smile coming to his face as he came up beside him. The bruises he had obtained from fighting demonic Rylea had now disappeared, along with any other traces of the battle. He now was back to looking like he had just stepped off the cover of GQ or some other ritzy magazine. "Don't know, but he did it," he replied while knocking the stray bangs that hung over his right eye away, only to have it fall right back into place.

"Bloody hell, Kento! Let the girl at least blow out the candles first before you start to devour my cake!" Cye's British voice rang through the house.

All were now gathered around the small table in the kitchen, Rylea standing at the head of the table, a lavishly decorated cake placed before her with fifteen candles lit brightly on the top. Cye now had his arms wrapped tightly around the bigger man, trying with all his might to keep his best friend from grabbing the cake. Ryo chuckled at his two friends, not much had changed with them. The girl standing in front of him simply smiled with amusement at her two uncles.

Chuckling, Ryo placed his hands on his daughter's shoulders and leaned his head down close to her ear as he said, "Better hurry up and make your wish and blow out the candles Lea, or you might not have a cake once your hard head uncle gets a hold of it."

The girl spoken to simply laughed at what her father had said as she nodded her head in agreement. Closing her eyes now, she began to ponder on what to wish for. What could she wish for? She had everything she could ever want ---a loving family, friends, a warm house to come home to...... Everything but the attendance of one certain person. Deciding on her wish, Rylea opened her eyes again and then bent down and with one big blow, blew out all her candles.

Clapping came from around the room as the now blown out candles began to smoke and the lights came back on. With the candles now blown out, the cake was whisked away to be cut and dispersed amongst the fifteen plus people there. Presents now filled the table, brightly wrapped, beautiful packages that had been picked out and wrapped with love and care by its givers.

Leinto's form now materialized into the kitchen. His staff was gone, along with his usual robes, and instead he was now dressed in casual clothes for his age group. He looked more like an elderly grandfather attending his granddaughter's birthday party then a charge that was mentoring five armor bearing young girls. A smile lit his wrinkled and weathered face as he asked, "What did you wish for, Rylea?"

"Leinto she can't tell you or else it won't come true," Keish replied for her friend as she came up beside her charge. Smiling and winking over at Rylea she added, "Don't you know that?"

"Yeah," Kami's sweet voice now entered into the conversation as she came up on the other side of the charge, a smile on her pretty face. "You don't want to ruin it for her, do you Leinto?"

Rylea chuckled as she waved her friends off. "Aw guys it's ok," she said and then a smirk claimed her face as she then looked up to her charge while saying, "You wanna know what I wished for, Leinto?" Without waiting for a nod or the shake of his head no, the girl went on to say, "I wished that you would stop calling us the Lady Ronins and call something more fresh.... Something new.... Something that sounds like it's from this time."

A pondering look fell over the small girl's face as she began to think on what the charge could in turn call them. Snapping her fingers as a name came to her she then blurted out, "I know! Why not call us the Roninettes? Sounds a lot better than Lady Ronins, if you ask me."

"Roninettes?" Leinto repeated the name with a raised eyebrow, confused by why she would pick a name like that.

"I like it," Rona now chimed in, coming up to join her other two friends by Leinto.

"Yeah, plus it's shorter than Lady Ronins. Doesn't make us sound like we're back in the feudal Japan era," Heather now put in as well, her blond haired self popping up on the other side of Kami.

Leinto nodded his head in thought as he took in what all the girls were saying about the new name. He himself had no problem with it. What did he care about the name they wanted to go by? "Alright then," he conceited with a smile on his face in the dark haired girl's direction, "I'll make your wish come true and start calling you all the Roninettes." A cheer came from the girls at his declaration and the Ronins simply gave each other sideways glances at the new name their daughters had chosen to call themselves.

"Wait!" came the voice of a woman as the front door being open and closed sounded. Footsteps sounded as a heavily breathing Saksai came around the corner and into the kitchen, adding one more person into the sea of people who claimed the house. Her beginning to wrinkle face held a beaming smile as her arms carried at least three presents in them. Handing the presents off to the nearest person to her, who happened to be Sage, she held her arms out wide and said, "Where's my little honey child?"

A smile claimed Rylea's face at the entrance of the woman and she ran to her, throwing her arms tightly around the old woman's waist as she hugged her. "Saki you came!" she said to the woman while still hugging her tightly.

Saksai smiled sweetly, that grandmotherly sweet kind of smile as she hugged the girl back. "Did you think I wouldn't?" she replied with a slight chuckle and then removed her self from Rylea's grasp. "Let me a get a look at you," Saksai said as she looked down at the smaller girl, her hand lovingly brushing the girls unruly bangs from her bright blue eyes. Cupping her face gently in-between the palms of her hands she smiled at her and said, "My, my, child, you sure have gotten older. I can see it in your eyes. You're not my little Lea-chan anymore."

Rylea rolled her eyes as she grumbled, "Please, Saki, not you too. Don't start with the 'you're not my little' anything speech. I've had to listen to that from my Dad one too many times today."

The woman chuckled as she released Rylea from her hold only to then wrap her arms around the girl as she lead her back over to the table. Sage followed after her, a smirk on his handsome face as he carried the presents that had been thrust into his chest by the woman and set them down on the table along with the others. Everyone gathered around the table again, plates with cake in hand as they watched the girl begin to open her presents.

Tadin watched from afar, like he always had. Watched everything like an outsider, wishing that he could join in but knew that that would be a mistake. He was, just that, an outsider to them all. He was the enemy, not a friend and enemies didn't come to their foes' birthday party. Why had he come then? He didn't know. For some reason, even though he knew that him helping them to defeat the Goddess hadn't changed their minds about him, Tadin felt compelled to be here today. He had to see her, wanted to see her. Seeing her smiling, happy face surrounded by friends as she opened presents and laughed and joked with everyone made him feel good deep down. It made him almost not evil, like he was a human as well.

A small smile came to the blond man's face as he watched Rylea. She had changed him. He was the one who had been set out to change her and in the end she had changed him. No longer did he feel the same way about life and people in general. No longer did he feel as though his life had no meaning or purpose, that he was just an outcast, an evil being who's one purpose in life was to help out those who wanted to spread there evil. Rylea had shown him that sometimes people could look past all that and see the real person behind the mask. She'd wanted to still be around him, possibly even be with him, even after she had learned of what he was and then Tadin had turned around and destroyed all of that with one mistake. One stupid mistake that had been started by a demon but ended by a human.

The blond haired man longed for her. Longed for her touch, to talk to her, missed her smile and sarcasm. He missed her. Tadin turned his head away from the party he was observing through a window, an outsider looking in once again. Nothing was ever going to change or make right what had happened between them and it was time that he came to terms with that and moved on. Becoming a stalker wasn't going to solve it either.

Tadin stepped from the window now and pulled a silver pendant from his black trench coat pocket. Her pendant, Rylea's mother's pendant, the same pendant she never took off ---he held in his hand, the last thing he had of her. Closing his hand around the necklace briefly he bent by the door and laid it down on the doormat before standing once again. Glancing one last time at the door that separated him from the girl he cared deeply for, Tadin then forced himself to turn and walk away from the house.

A door opened behind him and Tadin froze, hoping to whatever God was in heaven that it wasn't Ryo Sanada who had opened it. Then the sound of, "Leaving again?" floated to his ears and he immediately knew who the person was without turning around. A smile came to his face at her voice but he kept his back to her as he replied, "Yeah, I have to."

"No you don't," came the stern reply from Rylea.

Tadin whirled around now, confusion written over his face as he looked back up the porch steps to the smiling girl who stood there. Her bright blue eyes twinkled at him, lit up by her angelic smile and Tadin felt his heart leap for her. "What?" he asked back, unable to say anything else.

Rylea chuckled softly as she walked down the steps of the porch, stopping at the bottom of them and looked up into the face of Tadin. There was no anger, no hatred, no disgust on her pretty face just happiness at seeing him. Happiness? Tadin was even more confused now. He thought for sure that if she ever saw him again that she'd be thrown into a rage and begin beating the life out of him ---Rylea's actions confused him now more than anything else had.

"I guess my birthday wish came true," she said to him sweetly, her smile melting him right there on the spot.

"How's that?"

Rylea's vivid blue eyes now turned to look up at his face and stared into Tadin's blue ones while simply saying, "I got to see you." Then she chuckled slightly while looking away and adding, "You kinda disappeared on all of us that night before I could even say anything to you."

Now thrown for a complete loop, the young man didn't know what to say. His mouth moved uselessly as no words would come out. What could he say? All his previous thoughts and accusations had been thrown out the window with just a five minute conversation with the girl he thought would hate him for the rest of his life. His blue eyes now searched her face for anything that would show him that she was playing him, but he found none. Now his heart ached more than ever to hold her close to him.

The dark haired girl's smile grew more as she read his thoughts, using her newest gift with pleasure. Chuckling at what she'd heard she asked, "Why would I hate you for the rest of your life?"

It took Tadin a minute or two to figure out what she had done and when he had a wry smile tugged at his lips. Shaking his head now, his eyes dropped to look at the ground as he replied, "I don't know. Just figured you would after all I did to you and your family."

Rylea took his hand in hers, bringing his eyes back up to look upon her face questioningly. She smiled at him and said, "I forgive you, Tadin." Those four little words, how simple they were, meant the whole world to the young man. They were the one thing he had hoped he'd hear from her but thought that he never would. Relief now swept over him, calming any fears he had had at one point in time and set him free along with it.

"Thank you, Rylea," he replied, a smile now lighting his face as his hand came up and gently cupped the side of her face. His thumb stroking her cheek lovingly.

The dark haired girl closed her eyes against the feel of his warm hand touching her face and her own hand came up from her side, laying softly against his own now. Smiling once again she opened her eyes and looked up into the face of the man she should hate but couldn't bring herself to while saying, "Call me, Lea."

Tadin smiled more now as he continued to just gently stroke her cheek with his thumb, content with just being this close to her. His eyes held hers, not wanting to look away from her, look away from those beautiful blue eyes that had pulled him in once before and now were doing it again.

"Hey, Lea!"

"Come on, girl!"

"We got cake and more pics to take!"

Voices shouting out to them from inside the house and then laughter following them brought the two back to reality as they looked away and chuckled softly. Rylea now looked back up to the blond haired boy, a small smile tugging at her lips as she said, "I gotta go. Party and all."

Tadin nodded, he understood but still didn't want to let her go. Running his hand through her soft but shaggy hair now before letting it drop back motionless at his side he asked, "Will I see you again?"

A wry smile slipped its way across Rylea's face as she stepped up closer to Tadin, taking the blond completely off guard as she tipped her head back and pulled his head down to meet hers, kissing him softly before replying, "I think you will." Winking at him, the girl then turned and walked back up the porch steps, stopping at the door to pick up the necklace he had left there earlier before walking back inside and shutting the door behind her form.

Tadin blinked a few times before a grin settled its way across his features and he turned himself, heading away from the house with its party and family, back down the long dirt driveway that lead to it. His black trench coat billowed out behind him in the wind as he walked, a smile now lighting the hybrid's face as he faded into the shadows being cast down by the trees swaying in the breeze.

A/N: It all comes to a close. Don't worry though, there will be another story to follow this one. Hopefully it will be as good or even better. It is already started so be looking for chapters to that up here pretty soon. I haven't decided on when I want to start doing that. Anyway, thanks go out to Rogue, LG and MorganRay. Thanks so much you guys for keeping with this story and helping me out along the way with everything you said about it. You guys rock!