AN

Well ladies and gentlemen this is it, the final chapter of this story. I hope you enjoy the ending and their could be a sequal or prequal in the future, there are plenty of thing I think I can work with in this story for ever.

I blink awake my eyes stinging as they struggle to adjust to the bright light I am staring into, I try to lift my hand. To move it in front of my eyes to block the light but they feel heavy, I struggle to life them and only manage to sluggishly move it between my eyes and lights. I slap my face lightly as I drop my unusually heavy arm, it doesn't seem right. My body should be this weak ad feel so heavy and this light, no light should be this bright. Then I start to hear things, voices at least I think its voices I hear. I lay hear listening to them as I try to adjust my eyes to this brighter then bright light, the voices are so muffled and quiet it's impossible to hear what they are saying. All of a sudden the light disappears and I slowly move my hand away to see what is behind it, I see a blurred room which is spinning and several people surrounding me. My head hurts with all this spinning but everything slowly starts to come to a halt, the blurry images get clear too and soon I can make out shapes. I can see people, walls and some kind of machine that is covered with changing lights. The voices suddenly stop and I can see all the heads of the people turned to look towards me, I can't tell who they are right now only that they are all looking right at me.

"Lynne!" Two of the figures suddenly lurch forward wrapping their hands around me, I can barely feel them as my whole body feels numb. I recognise the voices now, they were much clearer this time. I look down at them and they look up at me, slowly the faces of Yura and Darjeeling smiling at me with tears in their eyes.

"Your awake" Darjeeling says sounding like she is about to cry.

"You were out cold for over five hours" Yura tells me also on the verge of tears. "We were beginning to think you would never wake up"

"What happened?" I asks them my throat feeling like sandpaper and my voice sounding rough. "I can only remember our tank being hit"

"We were knocked down a hill by the force of the shot, our tank flipped over and you were thrown from the tank" Yura answers as she and Darjeeling let me go.

"You landed hard and was knocked out" Darjeeling finishes.

I take a quick look around the room to see all the members of the Koala Forest High School Sensha-do team as well as my parents, Kay and Katyusha. Everyone looks worried, some have been crying. I must have been hurt bad, I certainly feel that way. My numb and slow body could be down to some pain killer I was given, I can only feel a banging sensation in my head that feels like someone is using my skull as a drum. Then I see someone else, looking just as worried as the others and with a group of girls I don't recognise one of which is holding a group of beautiful flowers, Miho Nishizumi. Our eyes meet briefly before she steps forward, she bows her head low before speaking.

"I'm sorry for hurting you" She says sounding nervous and really sincere she looks up at me with a tear traveling down her cheek. She didn't have to apologise, people get hurt all the time in this sport. Tanks are still deadly weapons and someone is bond to get hurt, I really respect her for that as very few people will apologise for what she did. She had nothing to apologise for, I knew I could be hurt while playing this sport and accepted the risks before I set foot in my first tank.

"It's ok" I tell her, my voice still rough and my throat still dry. She seems relived slightly to hear that, I guess I would be too if I was her right now. "It was an accident and I know you aren't the type of person to have put me here on purpose, where am I by the way?"

"You in the local hospital" My dad says taking a step forward through the crowd of girls. "They rushed you here as quickly as they could, you got off very lucky" He tells me looking over a piece of paper in his hands. "Six stitches and some bruising, you were lucky to haven't been more seriously hurt. You still have a few test but should be released in an hour or two if everything goes well"

We all talk about the match and how close it was, everyone seems happy despite the loss and the worry they had for my injury is quickly disappearing. We start laughing and joking, it quickly turns into just us hanging out instead me laying in a hospital ben. I am laying in a hospital bed, it just doesn't feel like I am. My parents leave us soon after we start talking, they go to speak to the doctor treating me leaving us all alone. Miho and the crew of her tank all turn out to be very nice girls and I am really surprised by the amount of knowledge their crews loader Yukari Akiyama aka Sergeant Oddball has about tanks, she's like a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to tanks. Hana Isuzu their crew's gunner is the amazing follower arranger that made the bokay of flowers the Ooarai Girls gave me to apologise for the accident, Mako was friendly at first but know she just sleeps in the corner of the room. The last member of the crew Saori Takebe I was getting along with until Alex walk in to see me, the moment she found out I was dating Alex she changed. She starts to demand to know how I got a boyfriend, Alex grey eyes I swear sparkly as he turns and tells her who we met.

"I was handing over tanks to her" Alex says answering her for me. "Then repaired them for her, we started dating alone the way"

We came runners up, we didn't win but it felt like it. When we returned to the ship no one felt defeated, the people cheered and we held our heads up high as we boarded the ship. We may not have won but we did do the best the school has ever done before, no one is upset, no one is disappointed and no one feels bad about the end result. We did well, gave it our all and had fun. No one could ask anymore from us. So we wave and smile at the cheering crowd, we parade through the streets of the ships feeling like we just won. The next day the schools headmaster formally congratulated us, I accepted on behalf of the whole team his praise and a certificate for hard work and achievement. The cheer we got from the whole school was unbelievable, no one seems to care we didn't win. I can tell next year will be better, already students have flooded into the tank sheds wanting to join. I smile at them saying we will need to get new tanks but that didn't matter, the headmaster increased our clubs budget and a money collection by the people on the ship provided more the enough money to buy enough tanks for everyone.

Ten Years Later

"That how we did it, that's how we managed to save a club that was on the verge of being disbanded" I tell my students, they all look at me eyes wide wanting to hear more. But that is a story for another time. "It proves that hard work, team work and courage can do"

"What happened the next year?" One girl asks her hand shooting so fast into the air it's like she has a rocket attached to it, the bell rings though before I can tell another story.

"I will tell you tomorrow, for now study the tactics we discussed today there will be a test tomorrow morning" I reply getting a lot of sighs.

I watch them leave smiling at what these girls can do, I never thought of becoming a teacher let alone opening my own school. It was only by chance that I discovered my talents for teaching, a group of girls asked me for tips. It turns out those girls were in the finals that year and wanted my advice, I told them what I could think of and they ended up winning that year. I walked in to find Alex had cooked us both dinner and we discussed it over our meal, Alex is a great cook and husband. I got the idea of opening my own school then, a school for Sensha-do. It will only be part time but it ended up being very successful, schools would send over their new tank crews to me for training. I teach tactics, Yura agreed to teach the shooting and Alex taught them how to repair their tanks, we would split the other subjects but I always taught driving is well ever since Alex tried to take a BT-42 drag racing. Yura would have taught it but she is still small, her legs will never reach the ground. So between us we train any girl who comes into our school, it a good job we all enjoy. I love my life, everything worked out so well. It was all thanks to the hard work I put into saving the Koala Forest High School's Sensha-do team, I may not have bonded with Yura if I didn't I defiantly would have met the wonderful man I would marry. It just goes to show you what hard work can do, Alex comes in just as I finish packing up. Together hand in hand we leave, heading home for a nice meal. Only this time it won't be just the two of us, I can't wait to tell him the result of the test I took this morning. We have a wonderful life together, soon a beautiful baby will be brought into it.

AN

Thanks for reading and thanks for the reviews, PM's and favouirts they really helped motivate me to write this story.