Ok, so I know i posted the ending but I couldn't resist writing this. Please enjoy the final 'proper' ending xxx
Epilogue - 20 years later
Maybe we're just crazy people who made the whole thing up when we were bored. I can't say we wouldn't have. Of course, the magic sword hidden in my sock drawer and the mark on my hand are pretty solid proof that it happened.
Either way, that was one of the best and worst years of my life. Even now we still remember it. Things have been pretty uneventful ever since by comparison though. We finished school and got jobs, and of course the 6 of us are still best friends. We've been through too much together not to be.
The prophecy was fulfilled but nobody really expected it to happen quite like it did. Also Hallie and Jestein were right about there still being traces of the magic left even though we gave up our powers to stop chaos. What's left still baffles people occasionally, which is always fun.
Hope was always quite quiet. Sometimes she almost seemed to fade away onto the background. I've looked around and missed her in a pretty empty room quite a few times and her disappearing act always annoyed people, what with her being quite well known. Hope became a bestselling author in kids' fiction. She wrote everything; spy books, realistic depressed stories, even an epic fantasy saga. However the one thing she refused to write was our story. She told us we were welcome to it, but she didn't want the truth out there. I guess she has a point. Besides I don't want to piss her off because if she gets really mad you can hear a rumble of thunder in the distance. The good news is she is no longer capable of frying annoying people (well good for us at least...)
It was always impossible to keep secrets from Annie. She always seemed to know exactly what we were planning; probably as a left-over from her mind-reading days (although to be honest most of us, especially Hope, were glad it was over as there was less chance of her finding out our embarrassing secrets). It did however prove a big problem around her birthday, especially the year we planned a surprise party. Annie became an award winning scientist (she definitely had the brains) specialising in plants and natural disasters. She was always good with plants (as opposed to me who kills everything I try to grow...), and her connection to earth magic gave her an advantage and so she was able to predict earthquakes and other natural disasters.
Ed was always completely unpredictable and maybe a little insane. She did a variety of jobs, all over the world including being a fisherperson and a brief stage career. Half the time we don't know what she's doing, but whatever it is she makes a lot of money. Maybe she's a spy, or maybe not. She also acquired a large collection of pets, including Sybil the hamster (who was a boy), a fish called Larry and a turtle called Fluffy (because he isn't!). Her fondness for small and cute animals is best explained by all that time she spent as a turtle and a squirrel and whatever else. Whatever's left of her animal powers allows her to have fascinating conversations with Fluffy or so she swears. I don't know how far to believe that one, but I wouldn't say anything because as with Hope you can still hear a rumble of thunder if she gets angry.
Abby kept more of the enhanced speed and stamina than any of the rest of us, but then she's always been the sporty one. Especially now that she's a famous athlete, with several Olympic gold medals. Abby has also always loved to travel, even if she can't skip dimensions in matter of seconds anymore. She especially loved flying even if she has to do it in a plane now. Fortunately travelling is a big part of what she does as she gets to go and compete all over the world. It was her idea that we all went on a big holiday together in the summer before we split up to go to uni. That summer is one of my favourite memories.
Grace kept a touch of her sight. Not much, just the occasional hunch. And an ability to predict the weather. She wasn't a TV weather girl, no she was way too shy, but she is the sciencey person who actually predicts the weather. She's almost always right. She also has a secret inner pyromaniac side. She has a knack for barbequing food to perfection, and we have spent many a night in someone's back garden burning stuff and setting fire to, I mean toasting marshmallows. Not quite the same as throwing fireballs, but fun all the same.
And me? Well, I became a doctor much to everyone's amusement due my failure in brownies. I guess I kept a touch of my healing abilities, and to be honest, I enjoy helping people who need my help. I also live on the coast, near the sea (I'm drawn to the water somehow...) and although I can't breathe underwater anymore, I can still hold my breath for longer than most people (meaning I always won those competitions; staring contests not so much...) I also try and will a white Christmas to happen every year, but I have never been able to repeat that trick. I can't stop the rain anymore either, but the weather never seems to mess up my hair for some 'unexplainable' reason, which is great, because I can still laugh at all the poor saps who look like drowned rats. Ah the simple pleasures of life!
It makes me sad sometimes to think of all the things we've seen and done, the things we know are real and to know that nobody else can know about them. Some days I want to shout it out and spread the truth but nobody would believe us for a start and we'd probably end up being escorted to the bouncy room.
But that doesn't mean we forgot. We have remembered everything from 20 years ago. Even though we sacrificed pretty much all of our powers to seal chaos out, our work as guardians continues.
Every few years they have these school reunion things. It's kind of rubbish but we go anyway. Nobody else knows that the only reason we go is to check our final act of magic is holding. Occasionally we see a frite demon that can cross realms, so we sort them out. Fighting them isn't the same as it was though; it never will be again. Of course, we can still hold the fort until the next generation of guardians show up. That could happen any day now or be another 20 years. Hallie and Jestein have been told to get them in touch when they appear. Hopefully they'll have a much easier time of it than we did.
We beat the forces of chaos 20 years ago and Chaos shouldn't rise again anytime soon but if it does well be ready. Maybe we can't fight as well as we could, but our swords are ready to save the world again.
Just in case.