Epilogue: Orange Soda

"It's that time of year again dad"

"You don't have to remind me. It's literally every year..."

"With you who can really tell?"

"Very funny Rosetta"

Clòvis smiled at his daughter as he set the tablecloth of their comically long dining table while Rosetta arranged steaming hot dishes on it with a flourish. Clòvis enjoyed watching her do things like this. Her nimbleness and effortless grace in moving and doing all manner of things reminded him of a certain submission specialist.

Rosetta wasn't his biological child. Just looking at her would tell anyone with a brain that much. She had black her with bangs that covered most of the right side of her face, her eyes were wider and a bright green and her skin was a lot fairer than his. She also had a heart-shaped birthmark on her left cheek that was often mistaken for a tattoo. Clòvis adopted her 4 years ago when she had just turned 11 and though there were some problems at first, the two soon developed a proper father-daughter relationship.

The chiming of the doorbell snapped Clòvis out of his reminiscing. Rosetta ran to open it and their pet doberman named Fleetway barked and ran after her.

Clòvis smiled as he saw who walked through the door.

"It's just me, myself and I, solo baking till I die! Hooyeah the hype man has returned! Joan's running the bakery so she can't ma-a-ake it!♪♪" Noah sang as he strolled in with a massive chocolate cake in his hands. Clòvis chuckled. Noah hadn't changed much since the whole Brawlhalla final fiasco. His hair had grown out into a full afro and he now sported a small goatee. Other than that and a height increase, Noahstotle Valentine had remained relatively unchanged.

"You don't have to be so loud you godamn cake rat! It's 5 in the evening period are trying to rest!" Casey growled, not far behind him. Casey was hit the hardest by the deaths of Triple and Boris, which led to him cutting the rest of the gang off for a while. Ultimately he bettered himself and moved on. Like Noah he hadn't changed much physically except for his hair growing to reach his shoulders and growing a small chin strap beard. In addition he now wore Aaron's chocker on literally everything and now sported a wedding ring on his finger.

"Could the two of you grow up and stop arguing all the time? This happens every time you meet each other! " Crystal scolded them both, flashing the matching wedding ring that she shared with Casey. She had cut her hair short, only allowing two bangs to reach her chin and frame her face. "Sorry we're a bit late Clòvis!"

"We come late every year...I don't think it even counts as lateness anymore..." Eliza chuckled, holding a tray of different packages delicacies. Miraculously she wasn't wearing her wooly hat anymore, now allowing her waist-length, red hair to grow freely. Her skin was a tad darker and she wore a knee brace on her right leg from the damage received at the Brawlhalla finals. She also had a few new scars on her hands—disadvantages of working at an animal shelter—and neck.

"Yeah. Lance said I should tell y'all he might be a lot later than usual. He had to go pick up Mateo and Maria.... anyone in the mood for bagels?" Christine sashayed in with two massive bags of what were obviously unhealthy feeding choices that they were inevitably going to pig out on.

Clòvis closed the door. "Tanniss is in Australia right now doing her research so she's unable to make it...That's everyone accounted for then! Let's get this thing started shall we?" He clapped his hands together and sat on the table where everyone had taken their seats.

Two weeks after the Brawlhalla finals, the day of Boris, Freezy and Aaron's joint funeral, the surviving gang heads and a few others decided to hold a small gathering in honor of the deceased. Noah proposed making it something like a tradition and everyone loved it. 10 years had passed since the tradition first started and it was basically a mandatory part of their lives now.

Rosetta rang a small bell to get everyone's attention. "The 10th annual Brawlhalla Dinner shall now begin!"

"Wait! I managed to come on time for once!" The door swung open to reveal a tall man holding two young children in his arms, a boy and a girl. Lance smiled as he stepped into the room, Mateo and Maria had the exact expression on their faces. The twins were obviously LR and Christine's children. Mateo had his mother's white hair and skin tone with LR's fierce pink eyes while Maria had her dad's (unnatural and unexplainable) green dreadlocks, tan skin and pale green eyes.

LR himself had experienced a lot of change. The sides of his head were completely shaved and his dreadlocks had grown to his chest, with most of it falling to the side of his face. He had a Polynesian tattoo on the left side of his face and one of Boris' warrior kanji on his neck.

"Please don't break my heart and say y'all really wanted to start without me!"

************************************

"Can't believe 10 years just flew us by. Right Akila?"

"Yes. I guess time really does fly if you think deep enough about it eh Hangman?" Sleeper asked her companion as she took a bite out of her chocolate cake, her eyes widening at the taste of the pastry.

"Yeah. I guess you're right. It feels like yesterday when we thought of creating Brawlhalla" Hangman chuckled. "Judging from your reaction I'm guessing the cakes at this place really are as good as the rumors said.."

"Remind me to call Noah and Joan and commend them later...this is the best cake I've ever tasted!"

"I definitely will..." Hangman rubbed the back of his neck meekly as he looked at Akila through the corner of his eye. After the events of the finals, the two of them used most of their profit to aid charity organizations, the many people who lost loved ones in Reaper's explosions and help the less privileged. They invested some of the leftover money in affiliate marketing and were making a comfortable living out of it. The rest was used on the vacation that the three of them planned.

The two of them also kept in touch with the surviving Taitanzu gang heads, building a sturdy relationship with them all. Clòvis was an animator at an upcoming but popular studio. Noah and Joan started a bakery that quickly skyrocketed in popularity, inspiring millions of others to bake and having some branches world wide. Casey who was into architecture ended up marrying Crystal (bet ya didn't see that coming) who did interior decoration. LR and Christine both worked in a prison, since the former gangster's mere presence or name alone still had high regard all over the country. No inmate in their right mind would mess with that power couple.

During all of the adventures, the highs and the lows, Hangman found himself slowly falling for the narcoleptic girl.

Now or never I guess.

"Hey Akila?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna go out with me and like...be my girlfriend?"

Akila calmly swallowed the piece of cake in her mouth, wiped her lips and put a hand on Hangman's.

"I wondered how long I'd had to wait for you to ask"

************************************

Clòvis had just said the last of the goodbyes to Noah (who always left last after overstuffing on wine). Rosetta was packing up the dirty dishes and Fleetway was walking around, dutifully eating up scraps of food.

Just as Clòvis was about to lock the front door, the sound of a motorcycle engine was heard racing in their direction. A lone rider drifted unto the driveway in front of the house, smoke from the exhaust creating a fog like effect in the dark of night.

The rider hopped off the bike, took off their helmet and walked towards Clòvis with a toothy grin.

The figure had shaved sides, with grey hair falling forward and tied into a long ponytail streaked with black and red dye. The figure also wore a black and red hearing aid that complimented their motorcycle gear and magnetic earrings. The rider was inexplicably holding a drink that seemed to manifest from out of nowhere. Either they were holding it throughout the ride or it somehow got pulled out of the shadow dimension when Clòvis wasn't looking. The figure had the word 'BODYPARTZ' engraved into her silver plated upper row of teeth.

Rosetta popped her head out from behind the door and her lips stretched into a smile.

"Aunt Amber!"

Amber took a long swig of her drink before throwing it at Clòvis, who caught it expertly, a small smile on his face.

"Sup twerp? Want some orange soda?"

************************************

"Um guys. Do you ever wonder what happened to Reaper's body?" Freezy asked, still in the same way she was ten years ago because she's fucking dead.

"How on Earth is that even relevant to the story?" Boris sighed. Being stuck in the afterlife with these two was sometimes insufferable.

"Maybe the author just wanted us to appear in one final scene?" Aaron shrugged.

Boris put a hand on his chin.

"Maybe that's it...all good things must come to an end after all..."