...and sometimes they all die. They know going in that they might die, know going into any mission that they might not come back. You're supposed to close your eyes, hope for the best, and see what happens, but sometimes ill winds blow you astray.

And sometimes they don't all die.

Sometimes it's just most of them. One survivor left to remember and mourn, the rest cut down. Any death cuts deep but maybe it's better that someone lives, even just one, but you can't really say anything that takes the sting out of being the last person alive

Sometimes it's only one of them who dies.

Sometimes-

Trish, doesn't know what to expect when she reaches the top of the belfry. She rides up the elevator alone, her hands shaking, and she misses her mother.

The doors open.

"You have my apologies, Trish. I didn't know."

And Trish has a father: a mob boss, a terrible man, but kind to her, if no one else. He lies to himself and says he knows what he's doing, hopes that someday he'll actually know what he's doing.

But he tries, at least. Diavolo tries. Doppio tries. They're fucked up but sometimes they're not twisted beyond all hope.

Diavolo is on his knees before Gold Experience Requiem, utterly defeated, eyes blown wide. Giorno holds his life in his hands, can shatter it as easily as a mirror. Diavolo thought himself the emperor but now he truly knows that an emperor is still only a man.

He closes his eyes. Prepares himself for the inevitable.

"Do it, then. But leave my daughter out of this. She has nothing to do with what I've done."

His life, Giorno's hands. The gangster prince is free to do what he will with it. Diavolo has done so many things that deserve death, has carelessly destroyed so many lives.

But he pleads with him that he spare his daughter, and it's for this reason and this reason only that Giorno spares his life. And it's better than what he deserves. A devil with a daughter is still a devil, but after all the bloodshed it took to reach this point, maybe Giorno just doesn't want to orphan any girls today.

Which is not to say he goes unpunished. Diavolo will never tread except where Don Giovanna bids him to, will never speak except what Don Giovanna bids him to say, will never know life without his identity exposed. An attack dog kept on a tight leash.

And arguably Giorno becoming a mob boss isn't really the happiest ending for him. He could have a normal life free of constant danger, if not free of pain because pain comes for everyone.

But he's descended from Dio Brando, from Jonathan Joestar.

More importantly, he's Giorno Giovanna.

He chooses the danger.

So he claims the throne for his own, cleans house, excises the rot, reforms Passione.

Buccellati makes an excellent underboss. Giorno does not know the harm Passione has wrought on the people as intimately and painfully as he does. Together they pick up the pieces and together they let in the light.

And Giorno is very thankful for Abbacchio and owes so much to his zeal to investigate the truth, to expose the curls of corruption at the edges of society. Giorno leads, Buccellati inspires, Abbacchio seeks.

Polnareff advises. Consigliere. He never expected that he'd wind up in the mafia (if Passione can rightly be called the mafia anymore) but his life has a habit of taking him down strange roads, so he's stopped expecting anything. The kids are alive. He doesn't see Kakyoin when he looks at them. And Polnareff is alive. Alive and decidedly mammalian.

Trish still goes to Morioh. She still takes pictures and she still nearly softens Kishibe Rohan's skull and it's good to find friends. She has people in Japan and she has people in Italy. She meets a nice boy who apparently burned down Rohan's house once and his gravel-voiced boyfriend, an angry girl whose hair slithers like snakes, a boy with a stand that also talks back, an actual alien, and more. Rohan gets married to an Italian chef who's probably better than his sorry ass deserves and she does photography at their wedding.

Guido Mista has people. He stays in Italy and, yes, he still goes where the wind takes him but then he gets on his motorcycle and comes back. And he slings bullets until one day he realizes that he doesn't want to die doing this shit, so he puts down his gun, retires from Passione, and winds up married one day with four children. It's a lucky number now.

Narancia goes back to school. Goes to college. Buccellati gives him his old house as a wedding gift and he keeps it clean and tidy. Narancia and Pannacotta make it their own. And he wears lipstick now but it's bright and loud and orange.

And yes, Pannacotta still cries sometimes. Screams. Not often these days. He thinks he's always going to have days like that but he has so many more happy days. He doesn't hate himself anymore. Maybe he even likes himself. He works with Passione to protect abused children and finds so much meaning, so much purpose in his work. And no one forces him into being the smart one. No one forces him into being the angry one. He looks at himself and resolves to be the kind one.

And Bruno marries Leone in a sunny spot full of flowers and birdsong, kisses him a field of lavender, and they have so much more than a short span of only two years, so many decades to become old and boring together. They live amidst flowers and forest, their backyard full of myrtles and marigolds, peonies and oranges, lilies and lavender, and the bees dance in the breeze and the two make jam out of wild strawberries. Bruno tends the flowers and Leone pulls the weeds and their grandchildren eat fig cookies.

Maybe fate is fixed in stone. Or maybe it isn't. Giorno Giovanna used to believe in fate but he looks ahead of him and he sees a thousand roads his life could take. Maybe it doesn't matter if fate is real or if it isn't. He's alive. He exists. He'll see where he ends up and maybe someday he'll know if it was always inevitable.

Sometimes they all die. Sometimes it's just most of them. Sometimes it's only one.

But close your eyes.

Hope for the best.

See what happens.

Ride the wind.

Everyone lives.