The Cyborg Children

Epilogue: Christmas

&-&-&-&-

"JULIA, THE DOOR!" Jet shouted over Julia's music. Julia danced to the door of her house, and opened it wide.

It was December 22. Julia had made a full recovery, thanks to Zero in a large part. Now, Julia was wearing a female Santa outfit that had a sleeveless red shirt with white fur trim underneath a red jacket with white fur buttons and trim, red gloves with the same trim, a fur-trimmed red knee-length skirt, a pair of short red boots with white trim, and a Santa/jester hat that had two sides that stretched down to her waist and ended with white puff balls. Julia flung the door open to let her music pour out. Her red hair flew back in a breeze, for it now reached just past her chest. Then Celeste noticed: there was a faint red scar running down the left side of Julia's face, and Julia was putting more pressure on her left leg.

"CELESTE!" Julia screeched, hugging Celeste. Celeste was wearing a pair of jeans and her "1-Up" shirt, and an indigo jacket over it.

"You're looking better!" Celeste exclaimed.

Celeste had gotten over her shock after about a week, and was now full with energy. Issac stood outside with her on Julia's front porch, smiling like nothing had ever been wrong with any of them. Julia invited Joe, Francoise, Ivan, Zero, Celeste and Issac indoors.

It smelled wonderful inside, to say the very least. Liana came rushing out of the kitchen; her long hair tied up into a ponytail, for she was the one making the brilliant odors.

"Celeste! Zero! Grandpa!" Liana shouted, hugging them all in turn. "Oops, I'd better get back to the kitchen if you don't want burnt English toffee!"

As soon as she realized this, she scuttled back to the kitchen and turned the volume up on a stereo, then sang along with it. To Celeste's surprise, it was in English. It was a song called Accidentally in Love, and she knew it because Julia had sent it to everyone (including Zero and Ivan) in a huge IM conversation about two weeks ago.

"It was my CD to begin with!" Julia exclaimed happily, then pranced off to the living room. Celeste drew her arms in close, then exploded with all of her built-up energy from the ride over. She dashed after Julia, leaving the others in the foyer of Julia's home.

When Celeste entered the living room, she nearly jumped out of her skin. The song was now roaring over all other noise in the house, and almost thumping it as hard as Hana and Midori had done with Ojamajo Carnival. The redhead was currently the loudest one that was belting out the lyrics, Liana in a close second with Zero on her tail.

"These lines of lightning mean we're never alone, Never alone, no, no!" Eight females and one male sang. And suddenly, there was a loud scream of a Mandarin curse from the kitchen.

"The stove, no problem!" Liana called a second after. The song continued on, and as it ended, Liana switched the CD from the control in the kitchen. She turned the volume down a few pegs, to the adult's pleasure.

"Celeste! When did you get here?" Angelina asked from her position on the couch. "We've been holding out for everything because of you!"

Florence came out of the hallway and dragged Celeste into a waltz. Celeste was taken by surprise and didn't know how to react, and made everyone laugh.

"You know that yesterday was Liana's thirteenth birthday?" Florence asked, sitting down at the keyboard.

"Well then, let's surprise her!" Julia cheered, throwing her arms up and bounding off to the kitchen. A loud shriek of surprise came a few seconds later with a loud cry of "HOW'D YA FIGURE IT OUT?"

"It seems someone never changes, huh?" Rene asked, laughing merrily. "It's so great to be together again. I probably wouldn't care where we held this!"

Celeste threw her coat off and danced around to the music. "None of us are ever going to change. I mean that in a good way! You'll always have your personality as long as you live. It's so wonderful to see how this all turned out. The end of our adventure is over, but the best of times are still headed out way."

"Yeah, like having SWEETS!" Julia shouted, bumping her way through the hall and carrying trays of Liana's cooking with her. Liana was close behind, singing loudly along with the music.

As soon as Liana entered, the girls let out a resounding cheer of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIANA!" Liana grabbed Sophia into a tight squeeze and laughed.

"Which one will get sugar high first, I wonder?" Zero asked Ivan, poking him. He turned and looked her in the hazel eyes.

"Is it going to be Julia?" Ivan asked. Zero laughed at his comment. She poked him some more and he poked right back at her.

"How am I supposed to know? Maybe it'll be you and you'll finally quit being such a triangle." Zero said, making a triangular shape in the air.

"You can almost anticipate Midori and Hana jumping in right about now," Ivan replied to her, softly yanking one of her ondangoes. She replied my poking him harder.

"Triangle." She said, kissing him.

The only thing that broke the two apart was a jumping attack from behind from Julia, who was laughing merrily. She giggled and leapt away, still laughing like a maniac.

"It's all of us, especially you, sweetheart," Zero said, laughing at him and tracing the bones in his face.

Sophia emerged from behind Julia and jumped onto Zero's back. Zero ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, then dropped forward and sent Sophia flying.

"…No one ever changes around here, do they?" Rene asked. Her icy eyes had a beautiful twinkle to them. "HEY JULIA, SOPHIA! COME IN HERE! WE'RE TAKING A GROUP PICTURE!"

Two minutes later, Julia came in with Sophia. Ivan held Florence, Angelina, Rene, Celeste, Liana, Julia and Sophia's digital cameras. The seven girls were sitting still on the couch, or at least Julia, Celeste and Florence were. Celeste sat with her legs scrunched up, and Julia and Florence had one leg extended and the other leg bent up to their chests. Liana, Sophia, Angelina and Rene were standing behind the couch. Zero had chosen to stay out of the picture.

The seven girls smiled. Ivan began to take pictures.

Once they were done, the phone rang…

"Hello, you've reached the Link house. No one either wants to take your call or we're too busy to answer. Call back some other time, and don't forget to leave your message, name and phone number after the beep! Thanks!" Julia's recorded voice sang.

There was no caller. Julia laughed.

"If we hadn't picked up the phone, would it have never happened?" Julia asked.

Angelina thought for a moment. "Nah, I don't think we could have avoided it."

"Previews are now available, if you want to see," Ivan said from the computer. Six girls ran out, leaving Sophia behind.

Sophia looked out the window through her blue-black eyes. She laughed.

"It's always there. They'll always be with us, in our hearts. This will never end as long as we're alive, and even when we're dead. That is the true beauty of this whole adventure. Thank you for starting this, Black Ghost. Thanks for fifteen years of memory to discover on our own. Thanks for the Megas Project. Thank you so much for everyone I met because of you. Even the phone call. Thanks for Celeste, for Julia, Liana, Florence, Rene, Zero, Ivan, Angelina, The Kazumis, and everyone. The phone call was because of you, and I'll always be thankful for that one little call that I didn't even understand. Each and every person I met along the way, you'll always be in my heart."

She turned, and her blond hair swished as she stopped in the doorway.

"Thank you. Thank you for us, the cyborg children."

THE CYBORG CHILDREN

THE END

-&-&-&-&-&-

OH. MY. GOD. IT'S OVER! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S TRUE!

Thank you so much for staying with me for almost half a year's worth of work! And now, for my personal thank you's…

Thank Yous!

Sadie – Because you called me, IM ed me, e-mailed me and did everything for me. You are the world's most awesome alter ego and friend, and this would not have happened without you. You make an awesome beta and you're such a great authoress-keep it up for me:Sadie comes out and takes a trophy with the girls on it, smiles, then leaves:

Beta Boy Joe – You read it in English and Social Studies. You played speed with me. You are the best beta I've ever had. Thanks so much, and I'll keep up with all the one-shots. Joe, this would have never been what it was without you:Joe gets his trophy:

Julia – My cheerleader! You cheered me on since I asked if I could use your name and read the binder ring. You came online when you had time and read the stories. Thank you so much, Julia-chan! I can never thank you enough. :Julia walks out, blushes, gets a trophy, waves, leaves:

Rose ( username: sexy hot beast ) – Thanks to you, 005, 006, and Emma/Zero were possible. You joined because of me. You are another one of the people that kept me going, even though you said you didn't like it after chapter two. Without you smiling and saying good job like Julia, nope, I wouldn't be here. :Rose gets her trophy:

Lilanimefan1 and Kacie (aka Gothic) – The lyrics to Holding Out for a Hero! Yay! You two made chapter nine possible for me! Thanks for keepin' with me:they get trophies:

Any and all flamers, readers, and reviewers – You guys kept me on my toes, you made it seem worthwhile to be here. We would have never gotten past chapter five without you guys keeping me working. Thanks a million – it means the world to me, you have no idea. :they get trophies:

There are so many people I forgot to mention in here. I'm sorry if I forgot to write you out, but I still love ya:collects all her other trophies and hands them out: If you go to school with me, you've probably seen me carrying the printed version! A lot of people asked to read it even though they had no clue what I was talking about when I said fanfiction. Stupid people.

Thank you once again for bearing with me. It has truly been a pleasure to write this fic. I really am grateful for all of you who cheered me on all the way through. Without you, I would have never gone anywhere.

There may or may not be a chapter with all the profiles and questions next chapter, I'll see how bad I am on time.

Thank you from the very bottom of my heart. You saw me out to owari. Arigatou a billion times over!

This has been Mikage Shirizawa and Sadie Sammut. ((see profile page for full disclaimer))