AN: Here's the Epilogue, such as it is. I feel like there's at least one more scene that should be here, but I can't think of what it is. And yes, some plot threads are left more open deliberately, due to them being the realm of sequel, rather than epilogue.

((()))

"I must say," Nephrite smiled between sips of tea, "I wasn't expecting such a bold presentation from you."

"Something struck me after listening to the words of that young warrior," Beryl replied, studying her own cup of tea contemplatively, "That even if I'm not ready to forgive myself for my part in the end of our era, I know I could not forgive myself if I stood by while this era fell to such a catastrophe as our own did. Whether that be due to infighting, or another spawn of Chaos, such as Wiseman. What did you do with that thing, anyways?"

"He's under a sealing effect," Nephrite said, grimacing a little, "Even with that odd essence-inverting spell you afflicted him with, he still appears to be immune to death via the means at our disposal. It's a shame the Ginzuisho will not be able to gain enough charge for the task any time soon."

"I'll look into another means to dispose of him," Beryl said, sighing and shaking her head, "And speaking of research, I have a request of you."

"Yes," Nephrite said, smiling graciously, "You may set up a full sanctum within my lands. I have a list of appropriate sites already compiled, though I'll not be telling you where I've placed my own facilities. I simply ask you retain the old protocols in regards to risky spell experiments."

"Of course," Beryl said, nodding with a ghost of a smile, "What sort of payment will you require?"

"Given I doubt you'll accept a Ducal title and responsibility for the surrounding lands," Nephrite replied, pausing for a moment as Beryl shook her head, "Then I'll settle for either teaching one class per year in advanced magics once I have my Mage's Academy operational, or three 'Consult and Casts' per year."

"Non-military only," Beryl stipulated, "For the same reason I will not accept a title from you."

"Politics," Nephrite said disdainfully, "Sometimes I miss being a junior officer. By the way, I believe you've met my new High Justicar."

Beryl tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at the general-cum-king, leaving the question unspoken.

"Lady Sakurada?" Nephrite called.

Natsuna Sakurada entered the small parlor, clad in a uniform clearly derived from Nephrite's own, complete with cape.

"Hello Beryl," the Japanese woman said, "Please tell him that this outfit looks ridiculous on me."

((()))

"Feeling regret?" the painfully-generic handler Kazinski had been assigned asked.

"Yeah," Kazinski said, sighing as he looked over pictures of the ruins of the compound the Strikers used to live in, "But more regret that it came to this, than for my part in it."

The handler gave no response, looking through some of the images of the leveled buildings himself.

"You know," Kazinski said, sighing, "I'd read stories where characters talked about it before, but I'd never thought that it would be through rising to the ranks of the elite, that I'd realize my people had betrayed me. Rome used to mean something. Maybe some day it will again."

"You don't want to take a hand in that?"

"They'd kill me if they knew I'd survived," Kazinski said with a sigh, "It's not like I didn't warn the rest, but who listens to the rookie?"

((()))

"This is amazing!" Usagi said, bouncing in her seat as she read over her report card, "I passed everything!"

Ami looked at the girl, a little shocked that Usagi would be so excited just about passing, in spite of how much she'd seen of the girl's academic abilities during the semester of de-facto tutoring her they'd just ended. Then she carefully tucked away her own report card.

"I got two A's this time!" Minako said happily, "My parents'll raise my allowance when they hear!"

"That's awesome!" Usagi said happily, "How did everyone else do?"

"B's and C's," Makoto said with a shrug, "Like usual. I was hoping for an A in history, but I think my Korean writing wasn't good enough for that yet."

"My father would consider anything less than a B unacceptable," Rei said, shaking her head slightly, "The academic rigor here is a little higher than I was accustomed to, but it was still manageable."

"How about you Ami?" Usagi asked brightly, turning her thousand-watt smile on the shyest member of their group.

Ami blushed and looked away.

"All A's I assume," Rei said offhandedly, before taking a sip of tea, "I'm quite confident that you got a hundred on each of your finals."

"Ninety-nine on the Korean language test," Ami said shyly.

"That's amazing Ami!" Usagi said, hopping around the table to trap the bluenette a hug, "I bet you'll be an even better doctor than your mother when you grow up!"

"That's an excellent point," Rei said, setting aside her tea cup, then meeting the gaze of each of the other girls in turn, "What will we all do when we've graduated?"

"I'll be joining the Gates' adventuring team," Makoto said with a grin, "Whatever it is they're doing."

"Let's not have that argument again," Minako said hastily, butting in before Rei could respond, "I'm going to get a work-study program from Natsuna, and become a detective."

"That would move you all the way to Congo," Rei said, glaring at Makoto for a moment before turning to look at the blonde, "Are you sure you're up for that?"

"I've got two years to learn the languages they speak there," Minako said with a grin, "And do you think there's anyone else I could get such a good internship from? No way!"

"I'm going to be a voice actress!" Usagi declared, "Then a real actress once people realize how awesome I am!"

"You're going to get typecast hard," Minako said with a smirk, "Bubbly ditzy blonde, every time."

"So?" Usagi said, smirking slyly at the other girl, "It'll just be super easy and fun that way! We all know Ami's going to whatever medical school her mother recommends-"

"I have to get an undergraduate degree first," Ami interjected.

"-After undergraduate school," Usagi continued, turning her gaze on Rei with a fierce grin, "Are you ready to admit you don't want us all splitting up and leaving you lonely again yet?"

Rei blushed furiously.

"I-I will be keeping the Hino shrine once its restoration is complete, of course," she said, desperately trying not to stammer, "All of you had better come and visit regularly!"

"Of course!" Usagi said, diving across the room to tackle-hug Rei, who of course protested and tried to push the younger girl off.

She didn't try quite hard enough to succeed, though.

((()))

"Alright," Beryl said, taking a calming breath as she gathered mana for her first attempt at the new spell on a human subject, "This has had no averse effects on animal testing, but it will most likely feel quite bizarre."

"I understand," the volunteer, one of the mid-teens Congolese orphans Nephrite had hand-picked for this project, said, "And you want a full description of the sensation afterwards, yes?"

"Correct," Beryl said with a nod, "Now hold still."

Unlike with the first 'dry run,' he did not nod in response, simply standing at the center of the spell diagram Beryl had prepared. Beryl closed her eyes, and breathed in the mana of the world around her, focusing her mind along two trails in a feat beyond any who lacked years of dedicated training.

One train of thought followed along hundreds of gene pairs, the results of her studies into the human genome project; the other envisioned and prepared metaphysical structures and anchors, hybridizing knowledge of magic gained from both the Silver Millenium, and what Metallia had puppeted her to use while she was possessed.

Hands and words flowing deftly in well-practiced execution, Beryl let the mana flow out from her, from her soul and mind both, moving with her breath and shaped by her soul, mind, and body, into the young man in front of her.

Energy flowed smoothly, sinking into and fusing with flesh, bone, organs and brain, then with something that lay beyond the mere physical shell, joining with the young man's spirit, and connecting it with physical and metaphysical reality in a way it had not been before.

Beryl opened her eyes to see the glow of Zeonic light fading, the young man apparently unharmed, breathing freely and easily.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Well," he said, opening his eyes and meeting hers with a smile, "It tingled, and felt very… intimate, but not in an unpleasant way… Your gaze, you look at me like a worried mother does after a child, yes?"

"...Something like that," Beryl said, blinking as she expanded her gaze into the metaphysical, studying the way mana flowed around and through him now, "If this functioned correctly, the effects should be permanent. Your spirit should now be capable of shaping mana just as any naturally born to The Gift, and your mind has been augmented to work it more ably. Here, take my hand."

She raised her right hand, and he gently took it between both of his.

"Now, I will try to push some of my mana to you," she said, "If you can feel it, try to pull it in. If you can manage this, then you can be taught to cast spells."

He nodded, and concentrated on where their hands joined. After a moment, a faint pink glow rose around her hand, then slowly flowed over to his, and began to sink in.

Beryl smiled.

((()))

"I owe you an apology," Jaeger said quietly.

Caitlyn glanced over at Jaeger, before turning back towards the pending sunrise and taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

"Experiencing your own mortality has a way of making you looking at things a different way," Jaeger continued, draining his own mug before setting it on the rooftop beside him, "And I've realized I've been dishonest with both myself and you."

Caitlyn looked back towards Jaeger, taking another sip to cover any potential need to reply.

"While none of the reasoning I gave you for why I've avoided a relationship with you has been false," Jaeger continued, "It has been incomplete. With some more perspective, I've realized a significant part of why I have denied you is fear. Fear of opening myself up, and then being rejected. Fear, ultimately, that no-one will ever Love me as I am, rather than as they want me to be. That fear has, over the years, made my responses to your advances more adversarial than they needed to be, and I'm sorry for that."

Caitlyn took another sip of her hot chocolate, then decided to drain the rest of it in one long draught, before setting her mug aside and looking Jaeger in the eye before she responded.

"A perfectly valid fear," Caitlyn said with a faint smile, reaching over to lay a hand on Jaeger's shoulder, "Because that was a huge part of what I was actually doing. I was trying to find god in my relationship with you, and that wasn't fair to you. It took losing you to realize that yes, I was defining myself relative to you in unhealthy ways. It looks like you were right about God having a way of asking for what is most important, even, or maybe especially if it's the last thing we want to give up. I'm sorry for that."

Jaeger smiled, and for the first time in many months, leaned over and initiated a hug with her.

"Thank you for being patient with me," He said.

"And thank you for being patient with me," Caitlyn replied with a faint smile, "I'm going to take some time to sort my head and heart out a bit, but don't be surprised if I ask you to go out with me again in a few months."

"I won't be," Jaeger said, "Maybe I'll actually say yes for a change."

((()))

"Hello, Usa."

Usagi (the younger) looked up from her lunch, and frowned slightly as she saw the girl who had addressed her.

"You look familiar," she said slowly, "But I don't remember why."

"You probably know a much older version of me," the girl said, smiling broadly, "I'm Nehellenia."

"Aunt Nelly!" Usagi said, eyes widening, "How did you get here? I thought you were out-system when..."

"When whatever happened in the future caused you to come back?" Nehellenia asked when the girl trailed off.

Usagi nodded.

"I probably was," Nehellenia said with a shrug, "I'm from this time period, so I only know who you are by sensing your aura. Do you know what I am?"

"You're my mother's past-mother's mirror something," Usagi half-said, half-asked.

"I was her reflection in the Fade," Nehellenia said with a nod, "Few individuals are potent enough to cast a strong reflection, and even then, I'd never have come to be what I am, if not for two things. The first, was an entity you know as Chaos implanting a form of Star Seed within me, giving me substance, and attempting to turn me into a living reflection of your sort-of grandmother, opposed to her in every way.

"The second," Nehellenia said with a faint smile, "Is the combination of your arrival poking a whole in the barrier between material reality and the Fade, and your mother's wish with ten thousand years of charge in the Ginzuisho backing it reshaping my nature into something much more human. For that, the two of you have my thanks."

"...You're welcome?" Usagi said.

'Nelly's' smile broadened, and she leaned over to hug the slightly-older girl.

"Rather than something wholly detached," Nehellenia continued, "I exist now as a being between worlds. If you ever find yourself in need of help, and none of your other friends or allies can respond, break this-"

She handed Usagi a hair clip.

"-And I'll come as quickly as I can to help you. It will only break if you deliberately try to break it, so don't worry about breaking it by accident."

"...Thank you?" Usagi said, studying the hair clip hesitantly, resolving to have Lynette, Ami, and Rei look it over before she started wearing it.

"You're welcome," Nehellenia said, "You'll see me from time to time, even if you don't use it, but I have other things that need my attention, and Dimi is too lonely to just let live alone. Before I go, could you tell Jaeger something for me?"

Usagi nodded.

"Tell him that some other form of creature has been disturbing the dimensional barriers around here," Nehellenia said, "I'll be investigating, but it's something he probably wishes to be aware of."

And then the young girl's form slowly faded out of sight.

((()))

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AN: So. I have a up now. I have one completed story I'll start posting here on soon (An Alpha Centauri/Mass Effect crossover, comedy and crack. The original few chapters are in The Blender, it'll be getting its own separate posting now.), and I have a RWBY story in the works that I should have the first arc for completed, and start posting by the end of the month. Apologies again for lapsing on the posting schedule for this; as you can see, I decided to just post the rest in one big lump since I apparently wasn't up to being disciplined with it.