In the laboratory located beneath Balamb Garden a circle of light formed on the floor and began to spiral in a clockwise fashion. The ring slowly lifted from the floor, drawing with it a curtain of shimmering blood red energy. When the curtain reached a height of seven feet from the floor it spread open and vanished, revealing Guile, the Slayers, and the SeeDs.
     “And that... is how we magicians make an entrance,” Guile smirked as the SeeDs spread out to look at all of the machines and whatnot that had materialized since Washu had taken over their case. When nobody laughed at his joke he sighed. “And I thought that was funny.”
     “You need to work on your timing,” Washu said. She clapped her hands before announcing, “Ok everyone, it’s time to grow up... again.”
     Silence immediately fell over the room as the pre-teens pulled together in the center. Washu looked at the saddened faces and sighed. “What’s wrong now? Not ten minutes ago you were ready to become adults again.”
     “We all sort of want to stay like this a little longer,” Selphie said, “since being a kid is fun on and around Christmas.”
     “We don’t have time for this,” Meltdown sighed from a corner of the room, “we have a little while until this becomes permanent and irreversible.”
     “How much?” Zell asked, batting his eyes.
     “Of what?”
     “Time, of course,” Zell smiled, “How much time do we have left?”
     Washu looked at her watch, then at the younger versions of some of her friends. “An hour... hour fifteen max. Why?”
     Zell turned and looked at the others, the smile on his face widening. The others smiled before a cry of, “ULTIMATE SNOWBALL FIGHT!” echoed through Garden.

<music: ‘Forever Stay Snow’ -Shiho>

     “On the count of five you may open fire!” Washu announced from between two massive walls of snow. On one side stood the SeeDs of Balamb Garden. On the other side stood the Slayers, Alex, Spike, and Celia. “You know the rules,” Washu continued, and people on both sides nodded. “Three hits and you’re out of the game. No do-overs, no bullcrap! No magic whatsoever, protective or otherwise. Each team is allowed to summon one low level esper or guardian. Am I clear on all this?” More nodding of heads. “Good. Prepare for combat in five... four... three... two... one!”
     The pink haired scientist hit the ground and put on a flak helmet as snowballs filled the air. A long pause followed the first barrage as both teams took a moment to reload and count their losses. Amelia and Quistis both stepped from behind the walls before a secondary barrage of snowballs filled the air, this one lasting a little longer than the first wave since both teams had come up with some sort of attack plan or another.
     “Goddess of ice, in you we trust,” Squall chanted, holding aloft the summoning stone he had borrowed from Cid, “Vanquish my enemies with your gem dust. Shiva!”
     The blue haired woman appeared in a shower of snowflakes once again, and hovered above the SeeD team. Before she could summon her gem dust, though, she was peppered by snowballs from the Slayers team.
     “Is that even legal?” Quistis asked from the sidelines.
     “Nothing in the rules about it or against it,” Washu replied, “Shiva is out of the fight.”
     The goddess of ice sighed and floated to the sidelines, where she took a seat with the other people out.
     “Resume battle!” Washu shouted, a fresh hail of snowballs filling the air.
     “Let’s see them recover from this,” Boomer giggled, infusing a snowball with one of her plasma bombs. She stood up and let fly, aiming directly at the wall. As her snowball connected it exploded, knocking down a section of the wall and burying Guile underneath it.
     “Was that legal?” Amelia asked sarcastically.
     “Nope,” Washu said, “Boomer is out of the competition.”
     “What?!” Boomer growled, standing up, “How do you figure I’m out?!”
     Several snowballs smacked her in the head and back, and Washu smiled at her. “That’s how we figure you’re out.”
     Boomer grumbled something not so nice before taking a seat on the sidelines. Washu sighed and rubbed her temples as she walked to the center of the battlefield. “You have roughly ten minutes left of battle royale, after which the team with the most remaining players will be crowned victorious.”
     She walked back to the sidelines and shouted, “Commence firing!”

     Up in the command room of Balamb Garden Cid, Xu, Laguna, and Meltdown watched the snowball fight with a mix of amusement and concern.
     “So when will they be done with this childish behavior?” Xu asked as she leaned back, her back cracking and popping in several places.
     “By the looks of it, I’d say soon,” Laguna said, leaning against a railing while looking out the window.
     “Why do you say that?” Xu asked, turning around in time to see Ridley pop into existence. “Oh.”
     All four shielded their eyes as the wall belonging to the SeeD team was reduced to vapor by the dragon’s plasma breath.
     “It’ll be a quick and painless loss,” Cid said as the Slayers team leapt over their wall and peppered the SeeDs with snowballs.
     “The winners are the Slayers Team!” they heard Washu announce, and Meltdown stood up.
     “Looks like the kids are coming in out of the cold,” he said, heading for the door. “And Xu, you owe me five credits.”
     Xu stuck her tongue out at the back of Meltdown’s head as the mechanic left the room, and Cid and Laguna simply sighed.
     “Well, it’s almost over,” Laguna commented, “All the insanity... it’s about over.”
     “Yes, it is,” Cid replied, “but there will be more trials in the future for our SeeDs and instructors alike. We only hope none are like this.”

     Several minutes later everyone was gathered in the lab for what they were hoping would be the final time. Nervous anticipation filled the air as those who had become pre-teens waited to be returned to their rightful ages.
     “Ok, time for the final checklist,” Washu said from a nearby control board. “Is everyone here?”
     “Affirmative,” Meltdown replied, “at least, all who should be here are present and accounted for.”
     “Power supply?”
     “Hooked up and charged to max.”
     “Time?”
     “Five minutes until threshold of irreversibility.”
     Washu face faulted. “Crap. My calculations are off. We’d have to hit all of them at once instead of individually or in pairs.”
     “So now what?” Lina asked from where she and the other Slayers sat.
     Washu answered her question by climbing onto the temporal repair machine and disengaging the beam pod from the rest of the unit. She took aim at the SeeDs and smirked. “Hey Meltdown, fire it up!”
 The mechanic blinked before smashing his fist into the control panel that controlled the power flow. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing miss mad scientist because I’m trusting in your skills!”

<music: ‘Gamble Rumble’ - Initial D>
     Electricity surged through Washu’s body, giving her the mother of all really bad perms while charging the beam unit. The unit glowed an electric pink before unleashing a wide ray of light that engulfed the SeeDs on the floor in its radiance.
     “Work, damn you,” Washu hissed through gritted teeth, “Work!”
     “Power levels reaching critical!” Meltdown shouted, “Any higher and they’ll redline!”
     “Work baby,” Washu said, coaxing the machine into fixing what had happened like somebody coaxes a child into doing something they don’t want to.
     ‘If this fails we’ll be stuck like this,’ Rinoa and Alex thought in unison. Both bowed their heads, and Rinoa clasped her hands together, before both offered their magical energies to the process.
     ‘Nobody would take a thirteen year old vampire seriously,’ echoed through Spike’s mind as he bowed his head and offered his magical energies to the transformation.
     Irvine looked at Seifer and slipped his hand into his boyfriend’s. Seifer’s gaze met his, and the cowboy smiled. “Even if this doesn’t work, we’ll have that much longer together.”
     “It would be awkward,” Seifer said, looking at the floor. He returned his gaze to meet Irvine’s, tears welling up in his eyes before he added, “There’s nobody I’d rather spend that extra time with than you.”
     “Time factor is critical,” the computer beeped in a sultry female voice.
     “Power level is redlining!” Meltdown shouted, “Any higher and it’ll explode!”
     “WORK!” Washu shouted and several people thought loudly.
     A magical wind blew up around Rinoa, spreading her hair out in tangled webs. At the same time a mystical charge sparked around Spike, filling the air with his offered magic energy. Alex lifted a couple of inches off of th floor, his arms spread wide as his magic joined the collective.
     The glow in the room grew unbearable to the unshielded eye, and even with dark lensed goggles Meltdown and Washu had to squint to see anything.
     “It’s... working,” Washu said after an awkward silence, “Ahahahahahahahah! I’m a genius!”
     “What’s happening Miss Washu?” Amelia asked, adjusting her own dark glasses.
     “Look for yourself,” Washu replied as the light dimmed a little, “and behold the miracle.”
     Those within the energy field were aglow, enveloped in golden light. Slowly they began to age, some changes coming on subtle while others appeared to be drastic. After a few moments their proper ages had been restored and reestablished.
     “Is it over yet?” Lina asked, approaching the machine.
     A shockwave of raw astral power exploded from the center of the room, toppling Washu from her perch and hurling Lina and Amelia to the floor. Controls sparked and exploded as the wave passed over them. A moment later the lights went out, blanketing them in darkness.
     After a minute or two of confusion several light spells flickered into being, revealing that the SeeDs were back to normal, whatever that was.
     “Is everyone all right?” Squall asked as he rose to his feet. “Did we survive?”
     “We’re ok,” Selphie replied, hoisting Zell to his feet. “And we’re grown up again!”
     “If I ever make a wish like that again I want someone to torture me,” Alex moaned as he sat up.
     “We’ll make sure to do that sweetie,” Seifer said, kissing Alex on each cheek before hoisting him to his feet.
     “So where do we go from here?” Spike asked, adjusting his coat, “And anybody who suggests a song and dance number will find pain to be not so kinky.”
     “Where do we go... from here?” Celia and Selphie sang. Both got a dirty glare from Spike and stuck their tongues out at him. Spike simply rolled his eyes.
     “I guess we go home and celebrate the end of the holiday,” Amelia said, pulling Guile out of a wall.
     “Little help please,” Washu pleaded from a tangle of wires. “This is freaking embarrassing.”
     Alex, Seifer, and Squall all walked around to the back of the machine, where they found Washu suspended several feet above them by a tangled web of cables. “Thank goodness,” she said as all three drew their weapons. She face faulted when she saw three large blades in their hands, and her expression grew quite frightened when she saw the looks on their faces. “No... not that!” she cried as all three leapt up to cut her free. “Nooooo!”

<music: ‘Simple & Clean’ - Hikaru Utada>

     As the song plays Alex stands in front of his house and looks at the display of colored lights that encircle the porch and the bush off to the left. Seifer and Irvine each set a hand on his shoulders, and together they walk up the path leading to the porch door. The door flies open and out steps Alex’s mom, who embraces her son. Alex smiles the best he can, a tear sliding down his cheek as he mouths the words “I’m home.” Together all four walk inside, leaving the colored lights on for passing people to enjoy.
     In Balamb Garden Squall and Rinoa are curled up together on a couch, fast asleep in each other’s arms. Around the room are Zell, Selphie, and Quistis, each one asleep, sprawled out in a chair or on the floor. The door to the lounge opens and Cid and Edea peek in, both smiling when they see everyone fast asleep. They gently close the door before retiring to their quarters.
     In Atlas City Zelgadis is leaning back in a chair, reading from a small book of spells which has a leather binding and golden lettering on the cover and spine. Nearby Lina, Amelia, Gourry, and Sylphiel have since fallen asleep, all dreaming little dreams of their own. The chimera sits up and stretches, yawning wide enough to almost dislocate his jaw.
     Guile walks in and gently shuts the door behind him before pulling up a chair and pouring himself a cup of tea. He offers one to Zel, who gladly accepts, before striking up a conversation.
     Back in Balamb Meltdown pops his head into Boomer’s room, where his explosive tempered daughter was fast asleep, sprawled across her bed with the covers half off and snoring loud and unladylike. He steps in quietly, covers her up, kisses her on the forehead, and slips out before checking on Spark.
     Spark is curled up on his bed, his clothes still on, no covers over him. Across the room a TV screen displays a ‘Game Over’ screen, and Meltdown sighs before walking over to the TV to turn it off. Once the screen is off he takes Spark’s boots off, sets the game controller in his son’s hand back with the console, and drapes a blanket over him before quietly leaving.
     Back on Earth in Alex’s lab Washu, Spike, and Celia are sitting around on some of Washu’s floating cushions, shooting the breeze and drinking hot cocoa. Spike takes a long sip of cocoa and pulls the cup away, a marshmallow sticking to his nose. Celia and Washu look at him, then at each other before laughing. Spike raises an eyebrow at them before Celia peels the marshmallow off and pops it into his mouth while kissing him on the cheek.
     Upstairs in Alex’s room Alex, Seifer, and Irvine have since fallen asleep in each other’s arms, Seifer on the left, Alex in the middle, and Irvine on the right. All three are oblivious to the world around them, enjoying peaceful slumber and wonderful dreams with people they love, Christmas over for another year and all three, plus their friends, having experienced the magic of the holiday through the eyes of a child one more time.

-End

     “Hi, Seifer here, telling you to stay tuned for ‘Slayers Fantasy #7'. The crew heads up to a resort in the mountains for some much needed and heavy duty rest, skiing, and relaxation. Irvine gets a little bit drunk and almost gets shot by a very twisted police officer. Alex gets really violent and uses a gunblade... specifically mine. We all get into trouble with the police more or less, and some of us catch a nasty cold and spend the weekend in bed.
     Stay tuned to Last Resort or we’ll really cause some trouble!”

-in production now.

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