A/N: Alright! All of the Starry Heavens are done except for this little finale which will act as a wrap-up of sorts. A small part will take place in Welgaia while the better part will take place in Iselia. Not a very exciting chapter and it might not be very long, but I feel that a wrap-up is necessary. After this chapter, we'll get into the pre-final battle(?... sorry! I couldn't resist!) "hangin' out in town" chapters. Y'know, the fun stuff.

Anyway, without further ado, on with the show!

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Chapter 18: Starry Heavens: Finale

SLAM!

A loud noise sounded throughout seemingly all of Welgaia. Literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of angels emerged from their homes or places of work to find out what had caused such a loud noise.

"What was that noise?"

"Are we under attack?"

"Could it be the demons?"

"What's going on?"

Calvo glided through the quickly crowding streets of Welgaia. "Excuse me. Pardon me. I have to get through!" He had heard the noise himself but was not quite sure what it was. He was currently making his way toward the room which housed the Eternal Door, hoping against hope that that was the cause of the noise. Many angels followed close behind him, thinking that maybe he had an idea of what was going on.

Moments later, Calvo and several hundred angels gathered in front of the entrance that lead to the room housing the Eternal Door. Nobody moved as they waited for Calvo to act or speak. He did neither.

"Lord Kratos, have you succeeded?" he wondered to himself.

Suddenly, the doors in front of him were thrown open, barely missing him and a few other nearby angels in the process. A bright, all-encompassing light flashed from within the room and flooded all of Welgaia.

"Ah! It's so bright!"

"What is this?"

"What's happening?"

Calvo did the best he could to shield his eyes from the bright, yet, strangely soothing light. "Could it be? Have they really done it?"

What happened next verified what he hoped was true. A very heavy-sounding pair of metallic boots could be heard walking towards him. Calvo brought his arm away from his eyes to see who it was. Emerging from the light, almost as if it were a vertically standing pool of water, was Kratos in his extremely heavy looking armor and truly angelic wings. In fact, Calvo would've never known it was Kratos had he not removed his helmet and smiled to his friend.

"L-Lord Kratos!" said Calvo, half-asking, half-exclaiming. "Is it really you?"

The powerful Seraphim nodded, which brought about several hundred gasps of surprise from the gathering of angels. "Indeed it is, Calvo. We have succeeded in obtaining the power of the Angel Arms."

"We?" asked Calvo. "But where's-"

"Lloyd and Sheena? One at a time, Calvo," said Kratos with a smile. He turned back to the lighted room and said, "Come Lloyd. It is your turn."

"Comin' dad," said Lloyd from within the light.

Just as his father before, Lloyd emerged from the water-like light. Wrapped in his white mantle and with the trails of his ice-blue headband flowing in front of him, he looked like an even more elegant swordsman than Kratos. The Angel Arm on his right hand shone faintly as he held it high enough for everyone to see. Several hushed whispers swept through the crowd.

"And that's not all," proclaimed Lloyd. "We have yet to see the fairest of the Seraphim." He turned back to the lighted room and said, "C'mon Sheena!"

From the light came the very beautiful Sheena, the soles of her bare feet covered by a very thin veil of light that kept her feet from actually touching the ground. Her hair was draped down in front of her shoulders and she brushed through it with her left hand once as she walked to Lloyd and Kratos. All of the angels that had gathered around the door could only stare in awe as the beautiful Seraphim walked past them. With so many eyes glued on her, she could not help but blush.

"Wow… look at her!"

"She looks so lovely!"

"She's even more beautiful than Lady Martel!"

Calvo kept looking back and forth between the three Seraphim. He could literally feel the power that they exuded even as they stood by idly. Even though there were only three of them, Calvo began to believe that maybe, just maybe, they stood a chance against Nebilim.

"Lord Kratos, you-… you're really going to fight Nebilim, aren't you?" he asked.

Kratos nodded. "Yes, but we shall rest for at least a few days before we actually move to engage him. Also, in case we fail…" He paused and looked down. "…we should really take some time to be with the ones we love, just in case we never see them again. How long do you believe Yuan will last in the hibernation chamber?"

Calvo looked up as he pondered this. "I'd say… two weeks, maybe?"

Kratos nodded again. "Good." He turned to his two companions. "Lloyd, Sheena, we should take this opportunity to get some rest and spend quite possibly our last few days together. Is that alright?"

They both nodded. "Of course. I want to be with my friends for a bit before we leave, anyway," said Lloyd.

Kratos nodded once more. "Then it's decided. Lloyd, prepare our Rheiards. We're heading home." He turned to Calvo. "Calvo, take care of Welgaia until Yuan can reawaken. We will do our best to stop Nebilim."

Calvo nodded. "Of course Lord Kratos. May the light be with you, brave heroes." He then kneeled and all of the other angels followed suit. "I wish we could help you Lord Kratos.

Kratos shook his head and waved his right hand in front of him. "Don't worry about it. It can't be helped."

"Kratos?" said Sheena from the seat of her Rheiard. "We're ready to go."

He nodded and mounted his own. "Farewell Welgaia. Wish us luck." With that, all three Rheiards disappeared.

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"How do you think they're doing, sis?" asked Genis.

Raine shook her head. "I wish I knew. I have no idea how long the Angel Arm forging process takes. It could take days or weeks for all we know."

Colette could not stop pacing around the room. As she passed his chair, Zelos put his good hand on her shoulder, startling her as she stopped. "Colette, you have to relax. You're going to worry yourself sick if you keep this up."

She sighed and sat down in the chair next to him. "I know, I know. But… I can't stop worrying about them. What if something bad happened to them? I wish they would've let us come too. I wish I wasn't so weak…"

Zelos leaned over and wrapped his good arm around her. "Don't say that. You're plenty strong enough. Kratos… just doesn't wanna take a chance eon us getting hurt. He seems like the kind of guy that knows what he's doing, so I'm sure he has his reasons."

From across the table, Regal nodded. "Indeed. All of us would like to go, but we may prove to be more of a nuisance and liability than actual help. For both our and their sake, it would be best if we just put all of our faith in them."

Presea nodded as well. "Yes. We… have to believe in them. Besides, what would happen to the village if something came up while we were gone? Perhaps Kratos took this into consideration as well. If nothing else, the legend says that only those with the Angel Arms can penetrate Nebilim's barrier. Like Regal said, we would be useless if we went anyway."

Colette shook her head. "Still, I-"

Several gasps were head outside of Colette's house. Everyone within turned to the door.

"What's going on?" asked Genis.

Zelos, with Colette's help, stood up and brought his golden wings into existence. "Dunno, but we better find out." With that, he glided over to the door, opened it, and made his way outside. Everyone else shortly followed suit.

Once outside, everyone stopped dead in their tracks. All of the townsfolk had gathered around what initially appeared to be three Angels of Welgaia, judging by the feathered wings on their backs. Upon further investigation though, the three Seraphim turned out to be none other than Lloyd, Sheena, and Kratos.

"Everyone!" said Raine, startled. "Wh-what happened to you? Didn't you get the Angel Arms?"

Lloyd smiled and walked forward, lightly flapping his wings as he did so. "Sure did. What do these look like?"

Everyone's jaws dropped. They had expected the Angel Arms to be more or less like the Devil Arms; "just" a weapon. They didn't expect a full make-over. Their initial shock wore off as they began to swarm around the Seraphim. They circled around them, much like dogs, and examined them as closely as possible.

Just as in Welgaia, what really caught everyone's attention was Sheena. Not only did she look absolutely stunning in her humble-looking robe, but no one had ever before seen Sheena with her hair undone. They actually liked this look much better than her old style.

"Sheena! You're so beautiful!" cried Colette happily.

Sheena blushed fiercely. "Th-thank you," said Sheena quietly.

It was then that Colette noticed that Sheena had nothing on her feet. This puzzled her. "Umm, Sheena? Where are your boots that you always wear? Isn't walking without them rough on your feet?"

Sheena smiled and lifted her right foot and turned it slightly, revealing a thin veil of blue light on the bottom of it. "Not at all. This strange light protects them. It's more comfortable than any pair of shoes or boots that I've ever worn."

Colette smiled. "Wow, that's neat!"

Presea had finished circling Kratos when she took a step back and said, "You all… seem so powerful. I don't know how I know, but… I can feel it. It's so strange. I know who you are, but you seem so different."

Genis nodded. "You've got that feeling too, huh?"

"Same here," said Zelos. "As an Angel I'm sensitive to these kinds of things." He smirked. "I can already tell that, even if all six of us non-Angel Arm bearers combined our powers together, we still would lose against even just one of these three."

Everyone besides the Seraphim took a step back. "Are you serious?" asked Genis.

Zelos nodded. "If it really did take nine angels with Angel Arms to defeat Nebilim, then it's easy to see just how far out of our league this battle is."

Lloyd frowned and displayed a look of regret. "Zelos…"

The former Chosen shook his head. "I'm sorry we can't be of any help Lloyd. If we could-"

"You would," said Lloyd with a smile. "Thanks Zelos." He looked around at the rest of his friends. "And thank you to everyone else. We'll be sure to clobber Nebilim for all of you!" With that, Lloyd drew 'Hope' and 'Faith' from their sheaths and swung them around. This caused everyone to laugh and clap.

Kratos began to make his way towards Colette's house. "But first, we shall stay in town and rest up. Perhaps we can have a few more days of peace and happiness before we take on this terrible fiend." He stopped for a moment and turned back to Lloyd and Sheena. "The Angel arms may prove to be stressful after a while. If you are to rest, I would suggest that you, hmm… 'deactivate' your Angel Arms, for lack of a better word." With that, he displayed the Angel Arm on his right hand to everybody. A moment later, a small flash of light burst forth from his Angel Arm and, when the light dimmed, Kratos was back to his old self, with both his normal purple outfit and blue, spectral wings. He made the wings fade and opened the door to Colette's house.

"Wait!' said Lloyd. "How do we, uh… turn off our Angel Arms?"

Kratos shrugged and walked inside. "Listen to the ancients. They'll tell you how."

Lloyd and Sheena looked at each other and shrugged. They closed their eyes as they held up their right hands. In a fashion similar to before, they returned to their old selves, original outfits, spectral wings, and even Sheena's original hairdo.

Sheena looked at Lloyd. "Lloyd, how did we do that?"

He shrugged. "Beats me, but it worked. Maybe you just have to want to turn it off."

Sheena nodded. "Good enough for me. By the way, I just noticed that I'm really hungry."

Lloyd grabbed his stomach as it made an absolutely awful sound. "Whoa, I guess I am too. Hey, would you mind making some of that Pineapple Curry of yours? That sounds really good right now."

She smiled sweetly at him. "Sure thing Lloyd. C'mon in everyone and I'll cook us up some dinner!"

Everyone followed Sheena inside except for Lloyd who was stopped by Raine.

"Eh? What is it Professor?" asked Lloyd. "Will this take long? I'm really hungry."

There was an eerie friendliness to Raine's smile. "Lloyd, when Kratos said 'listen to the ancients', what did he mean?"

Lloyd brought a hand to his chin and thought for a moment. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah! When we were creating our Angel Arms, I remember hearing something about the strength and knowledge of the ancients being infused into us."

"Infused into you?" asked Raine. She pondered this for a moment before she suddenly grabbed Lloyd by the shoulders and shook him. "Are you telling me that all of the knowledge of five-thousand years is inside your head now!"

He nodded and smiled. "Yup!"

A dreamy look came to Raine's eyes. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much information she could reap from Lloyd's mind. "Um, Lloyd? Would you mind sharing some of this fabulous information with your favorite teacher?"

Lloyd scratched his head. "Ah, I'd like to but…"

Raine shook him again. "But? But!"

He grinned. "I don't understand any of it. Therefore, I can't really explain it. Sorry professor!"

Raine felt as if a million people were laughing at her. What an ironic turn of events this was. Here was Lloyd, a student best described as 'not terribly bright' and then there was Raine, a school teacher who had studied many different things all throughout the course of her life thus far. She had put almost two decades of dedication into her studies and had always sought to find out the secrets of the ancients, such as how Magitechnology was created and other such things. Now, in a very unfair turn of events, in a manner of less than a day, Lloyd had become infinitely more intelligent than she was. At least, he would once he understood all of this knowledge. What made things even worse was that she knew that Lloyd would not make use of this information. It was enough to make her want to cry in frustration. Life could be so cruel sometimes.

Lloyd patted the frozen-faced Raine on the back and began to walk inside. "C'mon Professor! Let's go get some grub!"

Raine blinked and lowered her head. She sighed. "This… this just isn't fair! What did I ever do wrong?" Grumbling to herself, the frustrated Raine finally made her way inside to join her friends.

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Poor Raine. Anyway, I'm going to take what I think are the best ideas and arrange them in a proper order. Once I do, in the A/N of the first pre-battle chapter, I'll announce the order in which I'm going to do things. It isn't too late to suggest ideas! If you have a good one, please let me know! This is your last chance! For what it's worth, when I do one of these chapters, I'll give a shout-out to anyone whose ideas I use. In this chapter's case, thanks to Lloyd Irving Aurion for the "Make Raine Look Stupid" idea. Hope it met your expectations! Keep those reviews comin' in, y'all!

Oh, and to everyone who's waiting for my RegalXRaine side-story? I've decided to change the name to "Crossing the Bridge". I thought it sounded cooler. :shrugs: Anyway, I'll have it out within the next two days (I think! Don't shoot me if I don't!) So remember, look for "Crossing the Bridge", coming soon to a ToS story page near you:points: