NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Well everyone, this is it: the final chapter of this story. Thank you all for reading and leaving me comments *huggles* I started thinking of this story probably back in '99 after I had finished watching the Rayearth series and finished reading the manga. I wanted to do something that combined the ideas of both while also making my original story out of it as well. I guess that I also needed more closure since I felt that the anime and the manga kinda left me hanging. So, without further adieu, here is the final chapter of the Battle of Cephiro!

*******

"Wait Mokona! MOKONA!" Hikaru screamed. "Let us help you! The Legendary Magic Knights are here because we are supposed to protect Cephiro! What was the point of our adventures here if it was going to end like this! What was the point of it all?!"

Mokona did not respond and instead began to emit a white light that surrounded himself and Debonair.

"MOKONA! LISTEN TO ME!" Hikaru pleaded as she forced herself to her feet. "No more sacrifices! No more people need to die! Let us help you! Don't do this!"

"There is nothing more you Magic Knights can do," he replied calmly spreading his wings wider.

"WAIT! MOKONA!" Hikaru sobbed running towards the screen that showed Mokona.

Mokona's light continued to intensify as they all watched on. Hikaru leaned against the console and felt Lantis' tender touch on her shoulder. Suddenly the FTO could be seen flying towards Debonair who was beginning to move as Mokona's spell wore off. The tiny robot shot everything it had at Debonair. Finally, the entire spell wore off and Debonair was able to move freely.

"Pesky little machine," she laughed as she threw a black ball of energy at it and sent it crashing to the ground where it stayed motionless.

"EAGLE!" Hikaru screamed. "Umi, Fuu, we have to do something! We can't just sit here and watch this all happen!"

"I know, Hikaru," Umi whispered. "But what can we do? Debonair is too strong."

"Miss Umi is correct," Fuu responded looking sadly at Hikaru. "There is nothing that we can do."

*******

Sparks flew in every direction as Eagle tried to get the FTO in the air again. He finally got the mecha to stand on its own feet and then moved it into position beside Mokona.

"Human, you should not be here," Mokona stated flapping his wings.

"No, I have to be here," Eagle replied. "It is what I am meant to do. Debonair is going to attack again, and instead of you taking the hit and weakening your powers further, I will take the hit. Then, you will be free to attack her and end this."

Debonair reached out her hand and a small ball of black energy began to form in its palm. Eagle moved in front of Mokona and stood firmly in the air. The energy grew and grew until it could get no larger. On accident, Eagle connected to the throne room of the castle where everyone still stood. Everyone listened to the static and could just make out Eagle's communications with Mokona.

"Mokona, please tell Hikaru that I love her. Tell her to be happy and have no regrets. Tell her that it is time for her to live."

Hikaru held her hand over her mouth unable to speak. Debonair cackled as she released her black magic towards Mokona. Eagle raised the FTO's shields and transferred their capabilities to protect Mokona–leaving him completely defenseless against her attack. Eagle watched as the sphere of black energy came closer and closer. Then, everything was in slow motion. Eagle looked down at his console and saw that he had patched through to the throne room. He saw Hikaru's teary face looking straight into his soul. Knowing that she could see him, he smiled gently to her just as he had done countless other times and stroked her cheek on the screen. Her eyes widened and she fainted as the attack hit the FTO and exploded leaving no remains behind. Lantis was right behind her to catch her and cradle her in his arms. Mokona now began to glow a golden color.

"Do not wait any longer!" he commanded. "Everyone, you must leave, NOW!"

"Let's go!" Clef ordered.

For the last time, they all left the throne room and ran to the nearest portal. Once everyone had made it safely out, they all turned and looked through to see Mokona still standing before Debonair. Hikaru slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Lantis' intense face. She followed his gaze and saw Mokona shot countless golden beams of light towards Debonair. Each of the beams joined together and formed a giant pillar of light that cut straight through Debonair's chest. She glared at Mokona and then exploded, covering the entire land of Cephiro in flames. Everyone covered their eyes from the brightness of the blast. When the intensity died down, they all returned their gaze and saw Mokona slowly float towards the ground–vanishing with every beat of his wings. The land under Mokona began to crumble and fall into a black nothingness.

"MoMokona," Hikaru gasped.

"He's vanishing," Umi whispered.

"Cephiro is crumbling"Fuu whimpered.

"Mokonadon't disappear!" Hikaru sobbed.

"Do not worry, Legendary Magic Knights. The fate of this world was meant to happen. You girls have fought long enough on behalf of Cephiro, I am now fulfilling your wish to be with the people that you love."

"But, couldn't you have this without destroying Cephiro? There must have been another way," asked Umi.

"This is the way you all wanted it to be."

"No it wasn't! We all came to that conclusion within ourselves! That's what we all had to do with battling with our shadows!" Umi responded. "Didn't we decide that we wanted to protect Cephiro?!"

"While that may be true, you all wanted the legend to end. Clef most of all."

"It's true," Clef whispered. "I have seen too many sad faces on Magic Knights and on the pillars of Cephiro. I did not want to see it anymore."

"As did I," Mokona continued. "There was no other way to defeat Debonair. Just as Nova, Stellar, Astral, and Noon were shadows in Hikaru, Umi, Fuu, and Clef's hearts, Debonair was a shadow in mine. She grew in power whenever the people of Cephiro had fear."

"So, this was the only way to completely destroy her, to destroy the one who created her," Fuu repeated.

"Magic Knights, everyone, I hope that you will be able to forgive me. I summoned you three to Cephiro to say goodbye to you as well as for you to say good bye to Cephiro. Please be happy with the ones you love on Earth."

"Wait! There is something we have to know," Hikaru interrupted. "You said that you had created both Cephiro and Earth, but you created Cephiro after Earth–why?"

"This is true, I first created Earth–a world where everyone can change the course of the future and everyone's will can make a difference. But, there were those who chose to use their free will for evil and thus brought more destruction upon the land. I could not stand to see the suffering so I then created Cephiro–a world where the will one of person pure of heart would keep the peace. Whenever the pillar would find something else to pray for, they would have to be replaced. You three helped he see that this system cannot work and that the fate of the world has to be in the hands of all its people."

"You were the one who named us Magic Knights?" Fuu questioned.

"Yes, but now. My time has come. I will alter Earth so that only you before me will have the memories of these past events and I will mend all the damage that Debonair has caused. Goodbye Fuu, Umi, Hikaru"

With that, Mokona completely vanished. The three Magic Knights fell to their knees. Hikaru began to cry and Umi rested her hand on her shoulder.

"I know it's sad," she whispered holding back tears herself. "But, Mokona wouldn't want us to be sad. He'd want us all to be happy so that his sacrifice would not be in vain."

Hikaru nodded and slowly got to her feet while wiping the tears from her eyes. All the portals around Tokyo began to vanish and returned Tokyo to normal–leaving Cephiro only a memory. Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu's clothing returned to what that had worn when they first arrived. Ferio, Lantis, Ascot, Clef, Lafarga, Presea, and Caldina were all dressed in Earth clothing as well. Hikaru looked over her shoulder to see the sun rising behind the Tokyo Tower in the distance.

"There's were it all began," she whispered. "Is it really over? Is Cephiro really gone?"

"Never," Umi smiled. "Cephiro will never really be gone as long as we remember it."

"Miss Umi is correct again!" Fuu giggled. "So really, Cephiro will never die. Someday, someone will know our story and tell it to others. So none of this will vanish."

"It's time for all of us to start new lives here," Lantis said looking at his fellow friends from Cephiro. "Let's start living right now."

They all nodded and then went their separate ways, Caldina with Lafarga, Presea with Ascot, Umi with Clef, and Ferio with Fuu. Hikaru reached into her kendo uniform and pulled out the pendant that Lantis had given her.

"You still have that?" he smiled kneeling so that he was eye level with her.

"I have never let it leave my sight," she replied tucking it back in.

"I'm glad."

Hikaru grabbed his hand and lead him down the street to her home. Hikaru lead him inside where she found her brothers sitting in the kitchen with very nervous looks on their faces.

"Hikaru!" Kakeru exclaimed. "You've okay! We all were so worried when all the portals sealed off."

"Youyou all remember?" she gasped looking around the room.

"Of course we do!" Masaru snapped. "How could we forget seeing some little bunny thing suddenly grow wings and then blast the living daylights out of some freaky lady?! Say, isn't this that Lantis guy I've heard you talk about?"

"Um" Hikaru stammered. "How am I going to explain this?"

It took some time, but with Lantis' help, Hikaru was able to tell her brothers everything that had happened to her in Cephiro. When they had finished, Hikaru lead Lantis to the garden and to the cherry tree where she had seen him before being summoned to Cephiro. Lantis took Hikaru's hands in his and pressed them to his chest. He looked down into her eyes and smiled.

"Hikaru, what do you do in this world when you have confessed your love for someone?" he asked.

"Will you marry meperhaps," Hikaru blushed. "It's a promise to always be with the one you love."

"And you're supposed to get down on one knee and put a ring on her finger!" Kakeru yelled from the kendo room through the window.

"KAKERU!" Satoru snapped whacking him over the head with a wooden practice sword. "Can't you leave her a moment of privacy?"

"Then what are you doing here?" Masaru laughed poking his older brother in the side.

Hikaru giggled as she watched her three brothers fight with one another. She stopped when she felt Lantis shift his body weight so that he was now kneeling and still holding onto her hands. She slowly turned her head to look at Lantis.

"I may not do this properly, and I don't have a ring to give you," he smiled. "But, I know that I love you. Shidou Hikaru, will you marry me?"

"You have no I idea how long I have been waiting to hear you say that," she cried falling into his arms. "Yes, of course I will. I love you."

The two got to their feet and kissed under the cherry tree as she sun continued to rise. After a moment the two looked up into the sky. Hikaru thought that she saw Mokona peek his head out from behind some clouds and blinked several times before deciding that she must have been imaging things. Still, she could have sworn that she heard a very faint, "Pu pu pu pu," off in the distance.

*******

Many years past and the people of Cephiro became adapted to the much quicker pace of life in Tokyo. Lantis adapted the last name Sukunami and married Hikaru shortly after the final battle. They moved out of the Kendo shrine where they had been living and moved into a shrine of their own about 20 minutes from Hikaru's original home. Hikaru gave birth to a baby girl who, from the very start, Lantis could tell would be the spitting image of her mother. Ferio became Oosugi Ferio and proposed to Fuu after they had settled into an apartment complex down the street from Hikaru's home. She two gave birth to a baby girl who had her father's golden eyes and her golden hair. Umi and Clef (now known as Kajiwara Clef) traveled the world before announcing that they were to be married. Ascot was upset that he could not be with Umi, but found that he was happy just knowing that she had found happiness. Just like her two best friends, Umi bore a baby girl.

The years continued to fly by and soon Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu's daughters were the same age they were when they were first summoned to Cephiro. The three decided that they should go to Tokyo Tower, the place where everything began, and told their daughters of their adventures in Cephiro and how they met their fathers. So, one spring day the three couples took their girls to the Tokyo Tower where they met with everyone who had been on their adventures and told them the tale–each sharing their own view of what really happened. As was to be expected, their children did not believe them. Who would believe such a wild tale as the one their parents were telling them, unless they had seen if with their own eyes? Smiling at one another, everyone parted ways and returned to their homes.

Hikaru tucked her daughter into bed that night and sat watching her sleep peacefully for several moments in the doorway. Lantis came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"You've done a great job raising her," he whispered in her ear and giving her a soft kiss on the cheek.

"I just wish that she could have seen Cephiro," Hikaru replied sadly. "I am sure that she would have loved it just as much as I did,"

"Perhaps she will one day," he smiled. "There is always that chance that she will see Cephiro, if she wishes strongly enough,"

"One's will controls all, do you think that is why I was summoned to Cephiro, because I wanted an adventure so bad?"

"Maybe, but let's think about that some other time, we should be getting to bed."

Hikaru turned off the hallway light and followed Lantis into their bedroom. Resting her head on his strong chest, Hikaru and closed her eyes and remembered Cephiro in all its glory and of the adventures Umi, Fuu, and herself had shared in that world.

"All the people and friends we have lost, or the dreams that have faded. Never forget them," she whispered.

"Nothing that happens is ever forgotten," Lantis whispered back. "Even if you can't remember it."

He softly kissed her forehead and the two drifted off to sleep. Outside their window a small bunny like creature peered through the window. The jewel on his forehead was red and twinkled in the moonlight. The creature bounced off and stopped under the cherry tree in the yard. It turned its head and gave a soft "Pu," before vanishing into the dark of the night.