-Epilogue-
Ethan was stirring a white caldron, all of the gods had gathered, and he was peering intently into the contents. When he pulled the spoon out a scene could be seen playing across its waters. Matt could be seen waking up, he found Connie, and the two of them changed the time stream.
The scene went white once they were finished.
"That's it?" A small, mousy, librarian-looking goddess asked. "That is the moment we have been waiting five centuries for?!"
Ethan nodded solemnly. "They have played their parts well. They don't have access to any of the vision pools, they won't know what happens until we return them. And actually, because of the flow of time it will feel like mere hours before they return, maybe longer if they do not worry about their companions much. What happens next we have control over. We can make sure harmony and creation win."
"Yes, but even with that outcome, we have many possibilities." A stooped old woman in black robes said. All that could be seen coming out from under her hooded robes was long gray hair and a long, thin, bony hand. "Many futures to choose from."
Ethan nodded. "I have made my decision, but I need a ruling for something this large. 2/3 majority."
Victoria sighed. "Before you tell us, and before we decide, there is still one more piece to play." She looked pointedly over at a confused and wide-eyed young girl dressed in jeans and a flowery pink v-neck shirt. She looked like she felt very much out of place, and more than a little scared. She had long straight brown hair and would have appeared to be perfectly normal and like any other child her age, which looked to be about eight, were it not for her orange and white cat ears and green cat tail.
"You have been born out of this adversity, sweetheart. You are the goddess of those below in this scene. You are the goddess of the newly transformed. They are lost, scared, frightened, disorganized, and confused, much like you are. But you have a power they do not, you have a part to play and a piece to lay that can change it all. What say you?"
"Me?" She asked, looking even more frightened now as she looked around at the assembled gods and goddesses who were now all looking at her intently.
She instantly started to cry.
The fire headed god knelt and put a comforting arm around her shoulders and glared at Victoria. "I just got her calmed down enough to bring her here, and you go and do this to her. Do you not remember what it was like, being a new goddess?"
"Yes, I do, and I sympathize more than you understand, but these are desperate times and her time to act has come, much quicker than we would all like. It happens sometimes in war. She has her part and she has the strength to deal with it or she would not have been chosen as their god." She looked intently at the child. "Before we decide, you have something to say, don't you?"
The white chamber of stone went quiet all except her sobs. After a while they abated and she finally looked up at Victoria, almost like no one else in the room existed. "There is a girl, she was in Vancouver when it..." She closed her eyes, almost as if she was in pain. "She has the ability to change everything if we let her."
"What is her name, Honey?" Ethan asked in a quiet, almost unassuming voice.
"Lee Johnson. She's about to be chosen as the next... oracle."
Ethan breathed in deeply. "The white dragon is dying."
The girl nodded. "And her best friend is about to take Connie's place as oracle."
Ethan sighed. "So it is time for that. I see. This changes things... quite drastically." He looked at Victoria. "You were right in letting her choose." He looked at the girl. "Well done. It seems the prophesy has come about at last."
The girl blinked up at him. "What prophesy?"
Ethan laughed. "Oh, I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. Come, let us watch and see how this plays out a little before we-"
"But what about Kai?"
"What about her?"
"Can I have her?"
No one said anything.
"Does anyone hold claim over her?" Ethan asked.
"She is the unclaimed one, she must be to be head-" A nameless voice exclaimed.
The girl's eyes hardened. "Then I will claim her and all the unclaimed. They are mine!" Her last three words exploded with power and force that only a goddess' voice could hold. No one said anything, they all knew. A declaration like that made it true in itself.
She blushed and looked at the floor before trying to hide back in the crowd, but the fire headed god wouldn't let her.
Victoria was smiling. "It seems our little girl is growing up, isn't she, Ethan?"
Ethan said nothing, just frowned and shook his head. "She has your tenacity, Victoria. Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve you'd like to reveal now before we conclude?"
"But we haven't decided." The girl whispered, piercing Ethan with her bright blue eyes. "Their fate, we haven't decided."
"What would you have it look like?" Ethan said with a smile on his face that could only be reserved for his little girl.
She gave him a very serious look. "Can we stop the fighting now?"
He blinked. "What?"
"Can we stop the fighting now? You realize it's just a distraction, right? There's more here than that... more at stake, too."
"She gets the sweeping generalizations from you." Victoria muttered.
She glared at her mother. "I'm serious. We have the ability, we can change it all. No one needs to remember, not even them. When they return their memories will change to fit."
"You mean to undo all our work, change harmony and creation's actions, just to-?"
"There is no just to! We need to fix this, Dad! We fight, we loose, can't you see that yet?!"
He just stared at her, unblinking.
"Kid's right, you know." An old man in overalls said. "We all here know the true problem in our midst. Kid's right. Ethan, you let off a time bomb right over a magic hotspot. Everything can be changed, even their intention and directed focus of it. You know that."
"The rules have gone out the window, Dad, they stomped on them a long time ago." She said as she walked around the cauldron and stopped a couple feet from him. "It's time to take a card out of Mom's book and do something a little dangerous, don't you think?"
He sighed and nodded. "I guess it is, at that. We have until they enter back into the stream to change things, so I guess we better make this one count."
She grinned.
"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but... do you want to visit earth for a while?"
"Can I go alone?" She asked.
He nodded.
Her grin widened. "And I can pick wherever I want?!"
"Wherever you want, and you can even provide whatever miracles you want, you just have to come back within the allotted time, alright? Remember the rules of talking with mortals."
She sighed, nodded, and rolled her eyes. "I remember, I know, don't worry, I'll follow all the rules, promise."
He nodded and hugged her. "Then you can go."
"Now?!"
"Now." He promised. "Just promise me you'll pick a good disguise."
She nodded. "Don't worry, I have the best one all planned out.
Don't worry! I'm going to be writing and posting a sequel! It will be up before you know it, promise!
Thing is, part of me would have really like to have continued writing from Matt's point of view. But most of me, well, can't do it anymore. I created Matt and Connie and the others when I was 19. I'm now 26. I'm a *completely* different person now than I was then. Now don't worry, I thought it would be completely unfair of me to just stop writing... so I'm just going to switch things up a bit and change POV instead. (No, it won't be from Kai's POV, either.) It should put a new life into this story that I've been needing for... well... a while now.
For those of you who've read and posted (or not posted, either way), you have no idea how grateful I am towards all of you for sticking with it and with me over these seven years. Crap, can't believe it's been this long. Hopefully you will like the next installment as much as the last one. Thank you for reading and enjoying. I never thought I'd end up with such loyal readers my entire life.
And really, thank you all for putting up with me. :)
Mya