Epilogue

"And they found me waiting for them when they came back from my time."

Andrew looked up at Anomaly with wide eyes. He was paying close attention to every word that came from the woman's mouth, though he probably had no idea what she meant.

"That old story again?" Connor chuckled, easily slipping into her language (He'd decided to learn it when he'd come back and was able to get rid of the chip behind his ear after two years, though he kept it in a drawer in case of emergencies).

"Aw, you know he loves it." Anomaly grinned, lifting the small child into her arms. Andrew giggled as she tickled him.

Connor laughed. Andrew's giggles were contagious. He held out his arms and Anomaly handed him his son. "But how many times have you told him it? In both of our languages, I might add."

She grinned. "Abby's never going to forgive me for that, is she?"

"I think not."

"She isn't!" Abby entered the room (She'd picked up pieces of Anomaly's language from her husband).

"Aw, come on…" Connor smiled, speaking in English.

"When's he going to use it?" Abby demanded. "It's not like he's going to make a quick trip in time and land in the future. He'll never need to know your language."

Anomaly grinned and sped over to Abby's side. "You've got to be kidding me. Connor learned it!"

"Well, no one can control him." Abby said with mock exasperation.

Anomaly laughed. She knew Abby's real reason for not wanting Andrew to learn her language; Anomaly would be leaving soon, and it would be hard enough. The two had become best friends over the years, (she had even helped out at hers and Connor's wedding) and Andrew speaking her language all the time would just bring the fact that she was gone to the surface.

"You think Lester will need us today?" Connor asked, wisely changing the subject.

"Need you two, maybe." Abby snorted. "I'm staying home, remember?"

Anomaly grinned, only at Abby's and Connor's home because she'd been babysitting Andrew the night before. "Oh, he'll need us."

"Ouch." Connor winced. "That bad, eh?"

Anomaly nodded. "It's going to be huge." She replied calmly.

He sighed. "We'd better go, then." Connor kissed his wife on the cheek. Anomaly ran to the car and waited for Connor, who quickly got his things together and came with her, Conorao close behind. The Florlic jumped into the back seat.

"So, anyway." Connor started talking as soon as he came out to the car, then visibly froze as he saw Anomaly in the driver's seat. "Not happening."

Anomaly frowned. "Why not?"

"You drive like a maniac. How you ever got your license is beyond me." He sighed and waited until, pouting, she went to the passenger's side.

"It's not my fault every else drives like Kertans." She mumbled under her breath.

Connor grinned. "Well, as I was saying, we're going to need you to baby sit for Andrew again tonight. Abby's going to the doctor's again…" A worried look crossed his face.

She looked at him. "Nervous?"

"Sort of."

"Don't be. I know what's 'wrong'."

He looked at her, and she pointed out the window. "Eyes on the road." She advised. He obeyed.

He only let the silence last for a moment. "So what's wrong with her?"

"She's pregnant again, duh." She rolled her eyes and Connor's hands became like iron on the wheel. "I thought you knew that."

Shock passed over Connor's face. It made sense. And it wasn't as though Anomaly wasn't a reliable source; it wasn't the first time she'd accurately diagnosed pregnancy before a doctor did; her empathic abilities were particularly in tune with children. Only, with Andrew, she'd told Abby first, not Connor.

"Again?" The shock slowly ebbed from his face, to be replaced with a huge smile. "She's pregnant again?"

"Oh, congrats, look who's got a daughter!" Anomaly laughed.

"It's a girl?"

"No, Con. I just said daughter because I felt like it." She snorted. "Eyes on the road!"

A flurry of emotions was passing over Connor's face, and he smiled happily. Anomaly chuckled.

Then froze.

"Pull over, Con." She whispered softly.

Connor did as she asked, knowing better than to ask questions.

She got out of the car and headed towards the small, empty field.

"No." Tears streamed down her face. "No, I don't want to go yet…"

Connor came up behind her. "Anomaly? What is…?" He trailed off. "Oh."

There, in front of them, was an anomaly. Standing in front of that was a young Ferakesa. The Florlic looked at its master and whimpered.

"But…" Connor trailed off again. All of Anomaly's Florlics had stayed with Kierto in the future. She'd taken then with her when she was fourteen, but then they'd stayed behind when she came to help the ARC team.

Anomaly swallowed. "No." She whispered softly.

It was only then that Connor figured it out. "You have to go." He said gently.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. "I don't want to see my son that way." She whispered.

Despite the years that he'd had to wrap his head around the 'time travel' thing, Connor still had a hard time figuring out where Anomaly was going. "You have to meet your son." He remembered. "This is when we met the adult you. Artalia. When she, when you, fought Arklio." He looked at her. "You're going to have your family back, Anomaly!"

She glared back. "Don't you get it, Con? I'll never see you again!"

"But you'll have your son, Anomaly, and he needs you." Connor replied.

She sighed deeply. "I know. I just wish I could have told the others goodbye."

He wrapped her arms around her. "I'll do it for you, I promise."

She nodded quickly. "It's probably… better this way, you know?" She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself.

He smiled. "I know."

She sighed again. "I'll miss you, Con."

"I'll miss you too, Anomaly."

"Maybe we'll see each other again?" She asked hopefully.

He chuckled. "Maybe we will."

She nodded and, not daring to say another word, walked soundlessly to the fourteen-year-old Anomaly's Ferakesa. He wagged his tail happily as she entered the anomaly, following close behind.

There was one last battle to be fought, and then she'd be together with Kierto and Arklio. They would be a family.


Kierto, Anomaly, and their son, Arklio, were just sitting there when the anomaly opened up.

Kierto and Anomaly jumped. Arklio just looked at it with wide eyes and said something that sounded suspiciously like 'pretty light'.

Kierto looked at Anomaly with an expression of horror on his face. "You're leaving?" He whispered.

She looked down. "We knew this would come, Kierto."

"This soon?" Kierto's voice cracked. "Anomaly, surely you could stay a little longer…?"

She shook her head. "No. This anomaly leads straight to the ARC. I have to be there when the team comes back to it, remember? And then I fight Arklio, and then we're together again…"

"That still confuses me." He remarked, then sighed deeply. "Please don't go."

"I have to." She looked at her husband, her eyes full of grief and pain. "But I'll be back before you know it. Once Arklio grows up, you'll see a little mini-me pop up. You'll watch me grow up until I'm six, then get banished, and see me live in the desert until I'm fourteen…" She sighed deeply, though she'd been trying to remain cheerful.

"I'll never be able to say all those things to you." Kierto said softly. "To talk to you like… like I hate you. Like you're a monster. Like I'm a monster." He shivered.

She gently wrapped her arms around him. "I'll be back." She promised firmly.

He took a long look at her, then brought his lips to hers.

"Pretty light." Arklio repeated. The two broke off with a smile.

Anomaly lifted her son into her arms. "It's hard to imagine you giving me that much grief." She said with a chuckled, kissing Arklio's tiny forehead. He squealed with laughter, making his parents smile.

"I love you, Arklio." Anomaly whispered in her son's ear.

"Love you!" Arklio giggled.

Anomaly kissed her husband one last time.

"I love you, Anomaly." He whispered.

"I love you too." She set Arklio down.

She turned to the Anomaly and walked through it without another word.


As Connor, Abby, Jenny, Lester and Cutter came through the anomaly after Artalia had fought Arklio, they found Anomaly waiting for them.

She grinned. "Been sleeping on the job, I see. You have an anomaly alert."

Behind the smile, Anomaly was thinking of her little son, back at home. But she would see him again, in a few years time.


After Anomaly and the ARC team had both gone to their proper times, 'Artalia' turned to face her family, smiling brightly.

"I missed you so much." She breathed.

Their family was together again. And they always would be.


Anomaly did visit us, from time to time. She was so much happier than she used to be. She laughed more, she smiled more, she talked almost non-stop about her son, who we had once known only as a cruel, vicious man, who experimented on empaths and banished Anomaly from her home. We hadn't thought that he knew it was his mother, and was punishing her for leaving him.

She once told us what his full name was. Arklio Nortoanomaly. Roughly translated: Loyal One, Son of Anomaly. It was then that I really understood why she'd never said his name. Oh, she'd never thought that he was her son, not for a long time. Not until one time, when Lester made her angry. She'd screamed his last name in rage, then realized what had happened.

Naturally, she was horrified. It was also the day that Sam died. According to her, she never would have found him if she hadn't run out there, screaming 'No! He can't be, he can't be!' He would have never found her, either.

I think she's finally forgiven herself, though. I can say with certainty that Anomaly has changed completely, absolutely. Her hatred and terror and rage slowly morphed.

The difference between the Anomaly I can now call my 'friend' and the terrified young girl we found trapped on this side of the anomaly is phenomenal. She has become a completely different person, and the change was for the better.

It was only after Anomaly left, however, that I began to really think about who she was and, more importantly, what her name was.

Anomaly. It's a curious word. You can ask many different people what they think it means, and you will get many different answers. You may be told that an anomaly is a portal between two different times. You may be told that an anomaly is something that doesn't belong.

However, if you asked Anomaly herself, you would get the best answer. As she once pointed out, an anomaly is: A deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form.

The word is the perfect definition of who Anomaly herself was. In her world, she was far from the 'common rule' or 'type.' She didn't conform to what was considered 'normal.' She was an Anomaly.

In our world, well, it was the same story. She was hardly the 'common rule, type, arrangement or form'. She wasn't even the same species!

I believe she will always be an 'anomaly,' no matter where she is. She is hardly typical, and certainly doesn't 'belong' in any type of group, save one.

Perhaps her family is part of that anomaly, part of that abnormality that she is. After all, she gets along with them. (Forgetting the natural family arguments in which Arklio held a knife to her throat, but that's not the point).

But, no matter where or when she is, Anomaly will always be exactly that. By name and nature, she is an anomaly.

Cutter set down his pen with a deep sigh. Jenny looked in from the other room. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, nothing. Just… putting on the finishing touches." He grinned.

"Oh. The Anomaly thing, eh?" She questioned.

He nodded. "I think we owe it to…" he gestured to her swollen stomach.

She grinned, fiddling with the golden ring on her finger. "Don't forget Andrew and Artalia."

He smiled. "Of course. Artalia will want to know where her name came from."

Jenny smiled back. "And Andrew will want to know where he got all those words Anomaly taught him from." She thought for a minute. "You know, that's one thing I forgot. When we first met Anomaly, she didn't know a word of English. And I know she learnt some from… Claudia… but she can't have learnt the whole dictionary. She had to read the words to understand them, remember?"

"Ah, yes. I asked her that once."

"You did?"

He nodded. "She told me something like: 'you have to remember, our species was once human. You're languages never really died out; somewhere in the back of our minds, our subconscious, parts of it lingered. It may vary from person to person on how those parts are activated, like how I had to read it, but it's still there. And if you have a chip implanted in your brain, helping to activate those parts of the brain, it doesn't exactly hurt.'"

Jenny raised an eyebrow. "And you remembered all that, in her exact words, did you?"

Cutter grinned and lifted up a paper from his desk, where the words were written in a notepad.

Jenny chuckled. "Thought so."

There was silence for a long time.

"You almost done?" Jenny finally asked, her voice soft.

Cutter nodded. "Almost."

She nodded back, slowly. "All right. I'll… leave you to it, then."

She walked out of the room.

Cutter turned back to the stack of paper, picked up his pen, and looked at his last words. After a moment, he began to write again.

But, whether she is an anomaly or not, she changed a lot in the years she spent at the ARC. She taught us many things. She taught me that Jenny was a brilliant person, and that I really loved her, not just the things about Claudia that I saw in her. And I know that she taught Jenny that she didn't need to live in Claudia's shadow all the time, because she wasn't Claudia and never had been.

I think she also opened Abby and Connor's eyes. I'll never really know what happened during that sunrise in her time, but it seemed to change things. Of course, Connor is still the movie-loving video-game-crazed person we all knew, but I think he know now that there's more to life than that.

Steven took it badly when Anomaly left. I don't know what it was about those two that made them friends, and even asked Steven once. He said something along the lines of: "The battle was always ready for us" and I knew I would never truly understand. But he has never let go of the knife she gave him in that desert, and I'm certain that he will take it to his grave.

Lester, on the other hand, continues to act as though Anomaly was just a 'valuable addition to the team, with many helpful characteristics and abilities'. This didn't stop him from organizing a search when she dismantled his chair, though, which she did the day after we came back from her time, after the fight with Arklio. Anomaly thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world, and easily escaped capture from every solider in the place, until a very tired and exasperated Lester called off the search three days later due to an anomaly alert. At that point, Anomaly just walked in casually as though she'd never been missing. Lester was furious, naturally.

But even Lester has been affected by this strange girl who wouldn't say her name or her son's for six years. He finally learned to stop protesting when she tried to hug him, at least. Though he'll never admit it, Lester and Anomaly have become friends over the years, and I have no doubt that, if necessary, either of them would trust their lives in the other's hands.

So, yes, she was an 'anomaly.'

But she was also a friend. And she was one of the best things that ever happened to the ARC.

Cutter took a deep breath and sighed heavily, setting down his pen once more. He smiled softly and went to see his wife, waiting for him in the other room.

As he left, something strange happened. A brilliant, distorted, shimmering light flared in the room. A woman came out, with brilliant metallic blue eyes and a beautiful pattern surrounding one of them.

Anomaly looked around, searching for Cutter. Instead, she found the stack of papers on his desk.

She looked at it curiously. When she was finished, tears were prickling her eyes, and a huge smile found its way across her face. She looked around for Cutter, and found him sitting next to Jenny on the couch. They were watching a movie, sitting in silence.

She smiled softly and walked back to the other room. She'd talk to them later. Let them enjoy themselves.

She walked back to the anomaly she'd come through, taking one last look at the paper.

And she was one of the best things that ever happened to the ARC.

She smiled. "Thank you." She breathed.

She stepped back through the anomaly, closing it behind her.

She smiled at her waiting family.

"Back so soon?" Arklio inquired.

She shrugged. "They were busy."

He smiled.

Anomaly looked first at Arklio, then at Kierto. A strange kind of peace and happiness surged through her.

At last, the anomaly of two worlds had found a home.

A/N: Ok, now it's finished. :) Hope you all enjoyed it! Please review!