--- Christmas Day ---

December 5th, 2025(1)

Selina wakes up slowly and rubs her eyes. She looks around and finds that she is in her new bedroom.

The last thing she remembers is them all watching that Santa movie with those talking animals. There was this one deer with a red noise that glows.

She saw how he was banished from his home but returns as a hero. When watching that, she felt like that might be her one day. Her people might hate her now but maybe one day she might become a hero for them.

She looks around her room, still mostly empty.

Feeling a little scared being alone in a new place, she gets out of bed and notice she is in her blue strap nightgown.

She looks to the right and sees that bear her new father gave her. She grabs it and walks out of her room.

Unlike in Alnus, where their military moving around day and night. This place seems much quieter. A silence she is not used to.

She heads downstairs, remembering that Sharpe said his room down below. Once she gets down there, she sees Sharpe sleeping on the couch.

She walks over and giggles at the sight. This is not the first time she has seen him sleeping on a couch. He is snoring like he always does. She had to get used to sleeping with that loud noise he makes.

She smiles as she gets an evil idea. She holds onto her bear tightly with one arm and with her other hand, she pinches his nose closed.

She sees his mouth open as she pinch's his noises. He just starts to snore louder.

She giggles at that. "Morning father!"

"Hmm… what? What time is it?" Sharpe mumbles.

"I don't know." She replies.

She looks away to see what time it is. As she turns, she catches something different under the tree.

She closes her eyes and opens it, making sure she was not seeing anything. She sees six more presents under the tree.

With the sight, she jumps and lands on Sharpe.

"Ouch… what the. Selina?" Sharpe says, reacting to her landing on him.

She gets up and sits on her knees. She looks down at him and grabs his shirt. "What are those? Did we miss some yesterday?"

He shakes his head and looks at her. He then looks to the tree and then looks back at her. "No, we did everything last night."

That is what she thought. That means the only other reason must be that story about Santa Noriko said.

"I thought Santa was not real?" She says, fully awake now.

"Well… he is a legend. No one ever has seen him before. Only his clues. Why?" Sharpe says as he yawns.

"There are more presents down there. Did you put them there?" She says as she lowers her head, getting right into him. Staring right into his eyes, demanding the truth.

He blinks as he sees her that close. "No, I didn't. I already got you all the stuff. Why would I do it again?" He finishes with another yawn.

She sits upon him and thinks. She then looks back to the presents.

She then jumps off him and gets on her knees, looking at the presents. "This one says for Tuka, by Santa."

Her eyes widen at the sight. The writing is not his sloppy writing. "It is true! It is not a legend!"

Sharpe sits up, holding his chest. "You're getting heavy."

He then looks at what she is looking at.

She turns around and holds out a gift. "See! It says Santa right here. It must be true! There is one for Tuka, Rory. Lelei. Me. Noriko and ever TENCHI!"

"Wow. I guess it is true. I wonder how he knew you all were here." She says with much excitement.

"Can I open mine!?" She asks.

She cannot believe something like this can happen in this world. On her world magic is very normal but a man flying around giving gifts still sounds unrealistic. However, Lelei has said she thinks Magic was once part of this world but was abandoned. She wonders maybe there are still magic users out there in this world but keep to themselves like Santa.

Sharpe smiles at the sight. "No. Go wake up everyone else. We do this together."

With no hesitation, she gets up and rushes to the stairs.

"Selina! Do not wake the baby up. Be nice." Sharpe says in his commanding tone.

"I promise!" She says and then rushes up the stairs.

She rushes up the stairs and heads to Lelei's room first. She opens the door and rushes to her bed.

Lelei has a leg out of the bed and the sheets halfway on the floor.

She walks up and starts shaking her. "Lelei. Santa came!"

"Selina… it is early…. Mm." Lelei says, not wanting to wake up.

She has found that Lelei hates mornings but this time that does not matter.

"Get up or I am pushing you off the bed. We have more presents!" She says

"Ok, ok," Lelei says as she sits up. She rubs her eyes as her hair is all mess up.

She smiles. "If you fall back asleep. I'm going to jump on your bed. I am going to go get Rory."

She then leaves Lelei's room and storms into Rory's room. Besides just shaking her away, she couldn't stop herself from jumping on Rory's bed to wake her up.

She lands on the bed and Rory bursts awake. Rory grabs her and both roll off the bed.

Rory ends up on top of her and looks down very angry.

"Selina, what are you doing? I was having a great dream." Rory says as she glances away with a big smile. "It was on a beach. And there were handcuffs too."

She looks up confused about what Rory is talking about. But that doesn't matter to her right now. "Santa came."

Rory looks directly at her, shocked by that. "What do you mean."

"More presents downstairs! Santa came last night." She says with a smile.

She sees Rory think about something and then sees her glance up like she knows something.

"Hmm, interesting. Ok!" Rory says.

"Get off. I need to get Tuka and Noriko." She says as she pushes Rory off of her.

She bursts up and rushes out the door and into Tuka room.

She runs over and tosses off the sheets. "Wake up Tuka!"

When she pulls the bed sheets off, she sees Tuka laying in her bed naked. Tuka once explained that most of her people like to sleep naked, being part of their natural form and to help cleanse the body.

"What…," Tuka says as she sits up yawning.

"Get up and get dress." She says. "And get dress. Father won't like it if you wake downstairs naked again."

"Why are you Humans so share about your bodies," Tuka says as she stands up and stretches. "So, what is going on?"

She looks up at Tuka as she stretches. She has to admit, she is impressed by her female adult body. Tuka was the first female elf she has ever meant and has found that elves are very beautiful.

She takes a deep breath and looks up. "Santa has arrived. Santa brought presents! Go downstairs so we can open them."

Seeing that Tuka is putting on a sweater, she rushes out the door and heads to Noriko's room. Before she gets there, Noriko opens the door and closes it behind her.

"Your awake!" She says, all happy.

"Of course. You are running around like a crazy cay woman." Noriko says. "Please don't wake up Tenchi, he only fell asleep a few hours ago."

"Sorry. It is just Santa arrived last night." She says with a smile.

Noriko tilts her head and scratches her head. "Really?"

"Yes! Come one! There more presents with his name on it!" She says and grabs her hand.

She then starts to pull her down the stairs. She sees everyone else awake down there.

Lelei is analyzing the new presents and Rory knocking on her gift, trying to see if it is a trick.

"My lord Selina. You have loud feet." Sarah says as she comes out of the hallway. "What is going on?"

"Santa arrived! See!" She says as she rushes over.

"Wait. There is nothing for you two?" Lelei points out, pointing to Sarah and Sharpe.

Sarah walks by and sits down on the couch. "Because we're adults. The jolly big man has a cutoff date."

"But I am over a hundred years old." Rory brings up, rubbing her chin, thinking.

"Yeah. I am a hundred and sixty-five years old. Were both older than you two." Tuka adds.

Sharpe leans back on the couch and points to Rory. "Your short and your body is still at the age of thirteen. And Tuka, your still like a kid in elf years correct? Santa probably factored that in."

"I AM NOT SHORT!" Rory yells, pointing at him.

"Hmm. Santa seems very intelligent. I like to speak to him. I have questions about his magic." Lelei says.

"Well, Lelei. We have a saying on Earth. A magician never reveals his secrets. Now all of awake now, open up." Sarah says as she stands up. "And I'm getting a coffee."

"Can I have one?" Noriko asks.

"Of course."

She looks down and grabs her present from Santa. She looks over to Lelei and sees her opens hers. It is a tablet called Amazon Fire.

"Lelei. That is a tool that stores millions of books. So, you don't have to carry the extra weight all the time. You can also take notes on that so when you are out and about, you can record what you think is interesting." Sharpe says.

She then looks over to Tuka. She opens up this large gift. Inside it is this cool looking bow. It is green and brown and looks powerful.

She then looks over to Rory as she shreds her wrapping. She then holds up this Gothic Lolita Rhinestone Gauze Outfit. It has two black bows on it, the main color is red, and it is sleeveless. "Wow. This looks expensive and cute."

She then looks over to Noriko as she sits down on the floor.

Noriko opens her gift first and pulls out this same gift as Lelei, an Amazon Fire tablet. She turns around and looks to Sharpe and Sarah.

She notices Sharpe shake his head lightly, but Noriko nods her head in return.

"Selina said that you enjoy reading a lot. But you don't have your collection anymore. Maybe that could replace that." Sharpe says.

"Let's see what Tenchi got," Sarah says, leaning forward.

Noriko then opens Tenchi gift and pulls out this Transformer Bumblebee onesies.

"Adorable and go figure," Sarah says.

She found it strange how they interacted. It seems like they knew some secret. She begins to wonder if they know more about this Santa story then they have said.

"Selina, open yours!" Rory says.

She looks to Rory and then looks down at her gift. She then opens her present and lifts up this tablet. "Shinny."

"Wow, that is a Surface," Sarah says.

"You will be able to do a lot with its Selina," Sharpe adds.

She looks up at everyone. "Merry Christmas everyone!"

"Now for breakfast!" Rory yells. "I'm making French toast!"

"No! You are going to burn down the building." Lelei says.

"No, I am not!" Rory counters.

Everyone else in the room begins to laugh.

--- 3 hours later ---

Sharpe is standing outside on the balcony, looking out towards the Military district where the Gate is at.

He holds up a cigar and lights a match. He then lights it and puts the cigar in his mouth.

He then hears someone open the sliding door. He turns around and sees Sarah walk outside. As she comes outside, she closes the door.

"That was fun. I am surprised it worked." Sarah says as she walks up to him, holding her arms showing she is cold.

"I figured it would. Magic is normal for them so just a little twist here and there. And with a little work, and Santa works." He responds, chuckling.

"Still. You pulled it off well." She says back.

"Well, good ideas on those gifts. Going to have to say, Hell Week seems easier after this." He says, referencing his training for Delta.

Sarah just chuckles and looks out. "You still can see some of the damage."

He looks to where she is looking at. The city is mostly rebuilt however there are still areas where there still signs of battle. Some streets still stained from battle. Some buildings are still destroyed or still being rebuilt.

"You going to come back in?" She asks.

"In a bit. Just thinking about things." He responds.

She takes a deep breath and turns around, leaning against the railing. "Krysist?"

"Yup."

"Jackson. Let me say something that has been on my mind. He was a lot like you. Their world of a man of honor fighting for what he believed in. A patriot, respected, followed a code of arms. Who has seen battle in ways most never will." Sarah explains.

She then looks at him. "But there is one major difference between you two. He fought alone while you don't. You have friends around you who are willing to follow. He had to carry everything himself. Don't forget that."

He takes a puff from his cigar and looks at her. "I know. Thank you."

She nods and smiles. "It's cold, I'm going inside."

"I will be in a bit. Just relaxing for a moment." He responds, looking at her as she walks inside.

She stops at the door and looks at him. "Jackson. Merry Christmas."

He stands there and smiles. He holds up his cigar. "Merry Christmas Sarah."