Disclaimer: Yes, I know I said the last one was the last one, but if you wanna read the epilogue then this is the right place to be. So, this isn't really a chapter, it's more of a hint of a "to be continued" type of thing. Anyway, here's the part that I have to do: The only characters that are mine are Connie, her family, her friends, and her family's friends. All the other characters are from FFX, FFX-2, FFVII, and Yu Yu Hackusho. Unless you count the dog and cat's names which are from Kingdom Hearts, the animals are mine, but the names are from Kingdom Hearts. Now… let's see… how should I do this… I know!

Close Encounters of the FFX Kind: Epilogue

What happened to Max, exactly, Grandma Jill and I still don't know. We don't hear much from him. Just some letters, and e-mails, which we replied to, and I think we got like 2 phone calls a year or so. I went from being a freshman in high school to being a senior before I actually got to see him face to face again. But, he always had a reason for not coming. "I was busy," "The ship was broken," "Aeris wouldn't let me go, literally," "we were having trouble getting there," were the ones that I can remember best, probably because they were the ones he used the most. Every time Grandma Jill read one her expression was always the same, a smile with her head shaking.

"Silly boy's gonna get himself killed," she said every time. Then she would finish reading the letter. He always sent me one too, to be nice, probably.

I remember one letter particularly well. It went like this:

"Connie,

Hey! You would love it up here! You hardly ever see the ground; it's just a bunch of clouds, and at night, just a bunch of stars. It's way cool! I'm learning a lot too. These guys really are smart. There's about 4 of us students up here. All of them are smart, but not as much as me. Well… maybe… anyway… Aeris and I are having a great time. We're thinking of going to England for a few days, so don't be surprised if you get a post card. The guys all hope that you're doing good, and that you're happy where you are. I am too. Tidus and Shuyin really wanna come back to finish their games, so you may see them before you see me. Ha ha!" Those always made me laugh, the 'ha ha's' that he put into all his letters. "My sword play is getting better. I got a new sword today. Aeris gave it to me, I'd swear its strait out of Final Fantasy VII, it looks just like something Cloud would use, and it's the only one I ever use now. Okay, well, I got a class to go to; I'll have to tell you more later. See ya!"

Then, where the signature line was there was a place where it looked like he had written a "Clo" and then scratched it out and wrote in "Max."

That stuck in my memory because of his signature line. So, what time is it now? It's the winter of my senior year. Mallory is long gone to college, and I don't miss her a bit… well… maybe a little. I only have a half a year left before I go to college myself. I'm thinking of going to study with Yuna and every one else, of course, but then there's the fact of just staying where I am, and going to college on the ground, instead of on an airship. My hair has gotten darker, black even, and much, MUCH longer, I just never got it cut. It's still done up from the winter ball that I went to with my friend. I wear quite a bit of make up, and am starting to look a lot like my sister, but mostly like my mom. My mom looks really cool though, so I don't complain.

Anyway, we just received an e-mail from Max. He said that he needed to talk to me, and that he couldn't do it over the phone, or in a letter, or in an e-mail. He promised that he would be here to see me today and that Brother and the Celsius was on its way here as he wrote the e-mail. He said they'd be there soon, and to be sure to be there at this time, today, and by golly, no one could say that I wasn't. I told my friends that I was going to be busy today, and that I'd call them tomorrow.

I saw a huge red thing kinda fall in the near-by wooded area. "They're here!" I said to Grandma Jill.

"Right on time!" she said. "The cookies just got done. They'll be happy about that!" she said, and pulled the cookies out of the oven. Grandma Jill got all the cookies into a small bag, which I still don't know how she fit ALL those in there, but she did, and I don't question the Physics Laws of Grandma Jill.

It must have been five minutes later when I heard Sora, the dog, barking outside. "That must be him!" I dashed to the window and looked out and saw… Cloud. "What the?" I grabbed my coat and headed outside. "Sora!" I yelled at the dog. "Sorry. Sora attacks anything that moves." I sent the lively dog back to the dog house.

"Connie?" he asked. He seemed more amazed than asking if that's who I was.

"Yeah, I'm Connie. Nice to meet you, Cloud. I didn't know you were coming, sorry. Max didn't even tell me you were on the Celsius. Probably just forgot. So, yeah, where is Max?"

Cloud just looked at me and blinked a few times. "Uh… Connie…"

"Oh never mind, come on in," I said cutting him off. I led him inside. "Grandma Jill, this is Cloud."

"Oh," said Grandma Jill. "I was expecting Max. Which one are you from again?"

"Seven, Grandma Jill. Cloud is from seven."

"Oh, right, with the Aeris and the Yuffie girls. I remember."

"Uh, Jill…" was all Cloud got out.

"Something's wrong," I said. "There's something not quite right. I mean, yeah those graphics weren't very good, but I just think there's something wrong. You don't look like I expected you too. I don't know what it is. Lemme get the Final Fantasy seven book. I'll be right back." I dashed downstairs and had to search through all the cases. I grabbed 7 and came back up the stairs. I opened the case and started toward the character area. I found the picture of cloud and compared it to the cloud right in front of me. "See?" I said showing it to Grandma Jill so she could compare them herself.

"STOP!" Cloud screamed which made me and Grandma Jill jump. "Will you stop for one second and let me talk." Grandma Jill and I exchanged glances and I nodded. "Thank you. Connie, Jill, I'm not Cloud."

"Then who are you?" I asked.

"Max."

My eyes grew wide. At first I didn't believe it, but the more I looked at him the more I knew it was true. "Max? Is it really you?" I asked.

"Believe it or not, but yeah. On the Celsius they don't even call me Max anymore. They've all taken to calling me Cloud." All I could do was stare at him.

Grandma Jill threw her arms around him. "It's good to have you home, in one piece," she said. "You look so different."

Max smiled, "Yeah, I know. I've seen some pictures of how I used to look before and compared them to me now, and it's almost scary, isn't it?" he asked.

"Defiantly!" said Grandma Jill.

Max let go of Grandma Jill and walked over to me. "You really thought I was Cloud, ay?"

"Are you kidding?" I said. "You don't even dress like yourself. Your clothes are exactly the same, see?" I said showing him the book with Cloud's outfit in it. It was true; he was dressed in blue jeans, brown boots, a dark blue tank top, and all the other gear that Cloud wore in the book.

"Oh, wow, I didn't realize. But, anyway, I need to talk to you."

"What about?" I asked him, curious.

"Well, at first I was just going to come talk to you both before I had to go somewhere important. I also needed to warn you about something. Mostly about school and seeing if you still wanted to come on, but I think I need to change my priorities."

I looked at him as if he were from another planet. "What? Why? What else could there be to talk about?" I asked him.

"Have you noticed," he started, "that you have changed a lot yourself?" he asked.

"Well," said Grandma Jill, "everyone changes. What are you getting at here, Max?" she asked.

"Hold on," he said dashing downstairs. He came back with the Final Fantasy 10 box. "Come with me," he said grabbing me by the arm.

"Ow! Yeah, I'm kinda attached to that," I said as he tried to pull my arm off. Grandma Jill followed us. He led me to the guest room, where I practically lived. There was a standing mirror in there. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Okay, don't look at the mirror; just look at this picture for starters, while I explain this." He handed me the book of Final Fantasy 10 and had it open to the characters page. "Okay, so recently fiends have started appearing on Earth."

"Earth?" I asked. "Real fiends?"

"That's what we've heard. There have been news reports about it. We don't know why or how they are coming, but they are. It's not good at all. Now, everyone on the airship has said that they would gladly help get rid of the fiends. I came to fill you in, and tell you to be careful as well as ask you about school and stuff. Oh, and to give you this, Jill." Max pulled out a blue sphere.

"This looks familiar, what is it?" she asked.

"It's a Comsphere. You remember those?"

"Remind me."

"It's like a videophone, kinda. We were kinda hoping that if you saw any reports about fiends anywhere you'd let us know. Would you mind?"

"Not at all."

"Okay, now, Connie. We might need your help."

"What? Me? What can I do? You know what happens to me when I see blood, and you've seen my hand-eye coordination, it's almost nonexistent. Why I don't play sports. What do you want me to do? Sing the fiends to death?"

Then, Max said four words that made all the difference. "Look in the mirror."

By then I had studied the characters page all the way from top to bottom. All the characters faces were implanted in my mind forever, and when I looked in the mirror what I saw shocked me. I wasn't prepared for it. Sure, I saw myself, but I also saw something that wasn't there four years ago, and if it was it wasn't as obvious. I looked back and forth from the book to the mirror. "Do you see it?" Max asked.

"How could I not?" I asked back. "I'm… Lulu!"

"Ironic, ay? That's even the name you used online. So, do you get it now?"

"No, I'm still trying to accept this. What is it you want me to do again?"

"Don't worry, it's nothing too difficult, and I think you would be good at it. I know you know a lot about it already, and I know you like it and I figure that maybe you'll be able to help us out as far as…" he coughed so I couldn't hear the word, "is concerned."

"The what is concerned?"

Max sighed. "The magic. We need someone who can do magic." I looked at him. "So, will you do it?"

"WHAT! YOU WANT ME TO DO MAGIC? I'VE NEVER DONE REAL MAGIC, JUST SOME SILLY STUFF THAT I FOUND IN A BOOK STORE. AND IT'S NOT EVEN REAL MAGIC!" I was breathing hard, and I'm pretty sure I screamed most of that sentence. "Besides," I said after I had calmed down a little bit, "how can I do something, if I never learned how to do it?"

"You'll just have to learn," said Max smiling.

"You're serious, aren't you?"

"It'll just be for winter vacation. I'll have you back here in time for school. You won't have to worry about it. Is it okay Jill?"

"I have no problem with it, but it's up to Connie," she said.

"Well?" he asked hopefully.

I looked at him, then the picture, then at myself, then back at him. I sighed and said, "I'd need to look the part. And I'd need to be as close to looking like her as possible."

"No problem. We can cover all that on the airship. So?"

I was quiet for a second. Then, I looked him in the eye and said, "When do we leave?"

A/N: The new story is called "On Earth as it is in Spira." That will simply continue the story that is going on here. I hope you enjoyed this story! Sincerely, J.C. Sarah.