I am a burglar: You do that.

Candlehead: Of course you are.

Minty Zaki: Okay...

Olaf: Well, you are a snowman. You'd just come back together, right?

Korrasami 88: Seriously?

Al Drin Hoshizora: Pffft...Trading Oaks from Wandering Oaks.

Gloyd Orangeboar: Of course.

The Batista: O_o

MrScourch: Yeah, when you're forced to make war strategies, you're bound not to think every detail through.

Antha1: Antha, if you think I'm killing off the entire cast of characters in a Downer Ending, then I don't know what to say.

Creamy Buttercap: Sure you would.


Darkness. That was all the emotions could see and feel.

The Headquarters had been plunged into a cold and bitter blackness that obscured any light. It was as if a shadow had been cast over Riley's mind. And all anyone could feel was fear. And a loss of hope.

The emotions began to wonder if this was what death felt like. To have all light extinguished, and any hope for your future snuffed out. They felt nothing, except the lonely call of the Grim Reaper, beckoning them forward to accept its embrace.

But Joy refused to listen to its call.

"No," She whispered. She didn't speak out of fear, or despair. She spoke out of determination.

"No," She said, firmer, and she felt herself gain control of her body. She raised a trembling arm to grab hold of the console. It hurt, it hurt so much. She almost wanted to let go, and allow herself to plunge into the abyss.

But for the sake of Riley and her parents, she couldn't.

With shaking legs, every move an effort, Joy dragged herself to her feet. She leaned on the console, breathing heavily. As her glow returned to her, she caught sight of the other emotions, all of them around her. They stared at her in disbelief, as if they couldn't believe what she was doing.

Staring into their hopeless eyes, Joy almost felt her determination falter. Her grip on the console loosened, but then she whispered, "I did not. . . come this far. . . to die now." As she whispered this, the Headquarters started to glow again.

The other emotions heard her, and she saw them slowly pull themselves off the ground, their terrified faces changing to slow determination. The Headquarters brightened even more.

The last to get up was Sadness, who lay on her knees, facing Joy. The golden emotion stared down at her, and then extended her hand. Sadness stared at it for a moment, as if unsure.

Then, she took Joy's hand.

"Come on," Joy said, and she smiled. "Let's do this."


Riley's eyes snapped open. Looking up, she saw that it was about morning. She realized, to her shock, that several hours had passed.

Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to see where she was. She was lying under a large piece of debris, her upper body uncovered. She pushed herself to sit up, and looked around. Her eyes widened as she found herself lying at the edge of the half-collapsed building, hanging over the side of the drop.

Quickly, Riley threw the chunk of debris off of her. Dragging herself to her feet, she saw that the building had undergone extension damage. One side had nearly been blown apart, and the roof had totally collapsed. In spite of this, the lower section of the building managed to remain upright.

Riley looked around, and saw that a few other buildings had similarly collapsed. Below her, the fire was still churning on the streets, but it wasn't as large or dangerous as it had been hours ago. On the streets, she could see a few injured people, but there were scarcely again ferals left.

Riley's eyes widened as she remembered that she wasn't the only one who had been in the building when it collapsed. "Mom?!" She called out, her heart racing. "Dad?! Ghoul?!"

For a few moments, she heard nothing. Then, to her shock, she saw a fist punch through the debris, and Noose pulled himself out of the rubble, gasping for air.

"Noose!" Riley called out, directing his attention to her. "Where are the others?"

Noose shrugged and shook his head. As he did, a head burst out of the rubble, and Riley was relieved to see it was Ghoul. Noose immediately ran to her aid, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her out of the rubble. It was then that Ghoul revealed that she was holding Shelley.

The blonde zombie coughed a bit as she regained consciousness. Immediately, she sprang up and shouted, "Where are the others?!"

"H-Here. . ." A voice weakly called out.

"George!" Shelley shouted, and she limped over to another section of the building, walking over the debris. She grabbed a large chunk of debris and pushed it off, revealing George and Mary, lying on Rob.

"Don't worry," George said, revealing a chipped tooth. "Rob's fat ass broke our fall."

Rob's eye fluttered open, and he whispered, "Screw you."

Shelley leaned over Mary, who was unconscious. "Hey Mary," She said, shaking the slightly younger zombie girl in her arms. "Mary, you feel like waking up now. Wakey-wakey."

When she got no response, Shelley frowned and said, "Don't you freaking ignore me."

Riley, meanwhile, was rushing around, pulling the debris off of trapped Freaks and Others alike. She saw a pale hand sticking out of the rubble, and she rushed over, pulling the debris off and saying, "Don't worry. I'll have you out of this in a-"

However, she froze when she uncovered enough debris to see who it was. "Oh, no. . ." She whispered.

Sawbones' hand shot out and grabbed Riley by the throat. The old zombie burst out of the rubble and lifted Riley into the air. His side was bleeding, and he was obviously in pain, but he ignored it.

Surprisingly, instead of looking terrified, Riley's expressions softened. "It's over, Sawbones," She whispered, resting a hand on the arm he was using to hold her. "It's over now. The world is changing, and you have to accept that."

For a moment, Sawbones' expressions softened. He turned around to stare at the damaged buildings around him, and sighed. However, then he shook his head and turned back to Riley. He whispered, "I like this world."

However, as he raised his claws over Riley's head, a sudden force smashed into him, sending Sawbones flying off the rubble he was standing on and causing him to tumble down a hill of debris. He landed on the bottom of the debris, near the edge of the building.

Riley's eyes widened, and she looked up to see Bill and Jill, both of them breaking heavily. "Don't you. . . touch our daughter. . . ever again," Bill whispered down at Sawbones as he lay on the debris.

Bill and Jill turned back to Riley and they scooped her into the air. "Are you hurt?" Jill whispered, running her hand through Riley's hair.

"I'm fine," Riley reassured her parents. Turning around, she saw Blackjacket, the Boss and Pale Girl, limping over the rubble.

"Can we go home, now?" Blackjacket asked, a pleading look on his face as he held his injured arm. "Fighting zombies is way more fun in video-games." Riley gave a weak smile in return.

They had almost forgotten about Sawbones. As the old zombie lay near by the edge of the building, she caught sight of the Boss' gun, lying in the rubble. Quickly, he crawled towards the gun, pulled it out of the rubble, and rose off the ground, the firearm in his grasp.

As Riley wrapped her arms around her parents, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the gun in Sawbones' hand. Her eyes widened when she saw him raise the gun and aim it at her parents.

"Look out!" She shouted, shoving her parents to the ground just as Sawbones released a hail of bullets in their direction. Immediately, all the Others and Freaks in the demolished building turned and fled from the line of fire. Riley and her parents scrambled over the rubble and debris as Sawbones fired at them wildly.

Eventually, they managed to dive behind a massive wall that had managed to stay upright. They pressed themselves against the wall, the bullets bouncing off their cover.

Riley's head darted around to look for something to use. Her eyes landed on Blackjacket's guitar, sticking out of the rubble. Quickly, she tore out from behind the wall and stumbled over the rubble to get to it.

"Riley!" Bill called out to her. Sawbones saw her leave her hiding spot and turned the gun on her, but Riley dodged under the bullets. She stumbled onto the ground, covering her head.

Riley lifted her head up, and saw Ghoul grab a chunk of debris. Quickly, she hurled the chunk of debris at Sawbones, but it barely missed. The older zombie briefly stumbled, then turned the gun on Ghoul and the rest of the group standing near her. They all ducked as the bullets went flying in their direction.

Riley took the opportunity to grab the guitar and pry it from the ground. She rested the end of the guitar against a small piece of debris, the size of a hockey puck.

Think of it like hockey, She thought to herself. Focusing her eyes, she swung the guitar, striking the piece of debris. It flew through the air soundlessly, and Riley saw it connect with Sawbones' gun. The older zombie spun around as the gun was torn from his grasp and went soaring off the side of the building.

As Sawbones saw his weapon fall towards the street, he heard a shout. Turning around, his dead eyes widened to see Riley, in the air as she soared towards him.

"Riley!" Bill and Jill both shouted.

Riley collided with Sawbones, and the force sent them both flying off the edge of the building. Riley turned around suddenly, and her hand latched onto the edge of the destroyed wall. She hung on for dear life.

She shouted out as she felt Sawbones grab onto her foot, the extra weight dragging her down. She groaned, struggling to keep her hold on the leverage. She looked down at Sawbones, and could see genuine fear in his eyes, for the first time ever.

His grasp slipped on her foot. "Yellow. . . jacket," He wheezed, scrambling to keep hold on something to keep from falling.

Riley stared down at him, pity in her eyes. However, she then turned to look at her friends on the rubble, all of them staring at her, panic in their eyes. She saw Ghoul and Noose in the group.

Her true friends.

Riley turned back to stare at Sawbones, her face grave.

"My name is Riley."

With that, her other leg shot out and connected with Sawbones' face, causing his head to snap back. Instantly, his hold on her feet loosened, and he plummeted down towards the street. His howls of rage tore through the air as his figure got smaller and smaller.

Riley turned away just before she saw him land. However, she heard the impact.

Struggling, Riley continued to try and pull herself up from the building. However, she felt the leverage she was holding onto begin to crack. He eyes widened, and a scream escaped her throat as the chunk of the wall she was holding onto broke.

Just before she fell, however, a hand grabbed her wrist. "I got you," Ghoul said, holding onto Riley as the young girl hung over the street. Immediately, Noose, followed by Riley's parents and the rest of the group rushed forward, and they grabbed onto Riley and pulled her up from the side of the building.

The moment she was on the rubble, Riley embraced everyone around you. "Thank heavens," She whispered, pressing her face against her mother's bosom.

"Thank heavens you're safe," Jill whispered, and she kissed Riley's forehead.

It was then that Riley felt a drop of rain drop onto her hair. Looking up, she saw the clouds cover the sky, and rain began to fall onto the buildings, the streets, and onto them.

And on the streets, the massive fire that had started was extinguished in minutes.


A half hour later, all of the ferals had been contained or killed. The Others and the Freaks had won.

The hundreds of thousands of people that had gathered in the area all took refuge in the buildings that hadn't been damaged by the fire. The main group had returned to the main hideout.

The Boss saw Joe being rolled out on a stretcher, and rushed towards him. "Joe!" He cried out in horror, his half-dead eyes filled with horror. "What did those ferals do to you?"

Joe's bleeding had stopped, but his skin had turned pale and blue veins were beginning to show. "I can't feel my. . . anything," He whispered, his voice deepening into a growl.

The Boss sniffed. "Don't worry," He said, putting a hand on Joe's head. "We're going to help you. Trust me; being a zombie isn't all that bad if you can get your memories back early."

Riley, meanwhile, located Margaret in the crowd. "Meg!" She shouted, rushing up and hugging her zombie friend, who awkwardly returned the hug.

"So, uh, we won," Margaret said with a shrug. "That's good."

"You have no idea," Riley said, pressing her head against Margaret's. She released her friend, who ran off to join her mother. Riley then turned to her parents, who were kissing each other.

"Ew," She said, and walked up to them. "So, mum," She said. "Dad?"

Bill and Jill turned to stare at her. Riley saw an unfamiliar look in their eyes. "Hey, Riley?" Bill said. "Uh, me and Jill are so happy that we've made it out with out lives that we were going to celebrate a bit." The two inched towards a room.

Riley was about to follow them, but Bill stopped her and said, "Alone." He and Jill covered their mouths to hide their grin, and they promptly vanished into the room, leaving Riley out in the hallways, confused.

"I wonder what they're up to?" Blackjacket said, walking up to Riley and scratching his head in confusion.

"Eh, it's probably not important," Riley said with a shrug. She then turned to see Pale Girl sitting against the wall, a confused look on her face. She was hugging her knees and looking more vulnerable than Riley had ever seen her.

Turning to Blackjacket, Riley said, "Can you excuse me." She then rushed over to Pale Girl and took a seat next to her.

"So, what's up?" Riley asked. She had never seen Pale Girl with this expression before.

"Arabella," Pale Girl whispered.

"What?" Riley asked.

"My name was Arabella," Pale Girl said, turning to Riley. "I remember. My parents died in a fire two years ago, and I survived. I was alone for so long, and somehow, somewhere, I forgot who I was."

Riley's eyes widened a bit. "Oh," She whispered.

"What do I do, Riley?" Pale Girl, or Arabella as she had recently discovered, asked, burying her face into her claws. "My parents are gone. I'm alone." Riley was surprised to hear Arabella sobbing slightly.

"Hey, it's alright," Riley said, resting a hand on Arabella's back. "You're not alone."

Arabella turned to look at her. "What do you mean?" She asked. "All I've done is hurt people, but I was so scared. . . and angry. I wanted to get revenge on the people I thought hurt me."

"I think you were so obsessed with hurting the Boss that you nearly forgot who you are. But that's not important anymore. What's important is rebuilding this city."

Arabella stared at her, silent.

"Then maybe you can find a family that loves you," Riley whispered to her. Arabella took a breath breath, and sighed, her eyes filled with sadness. She took one last look at Riley, and then rested her head on Riley's shoulder, her eyes closed.

Riley let out a weak smile.


Alright, this story is almost done. I'd just like to say that this has been a great story, and a thank you to everyone who stuck with me to the end.

Read and review.