This additional "Half Past Death" chapter was suggested by KingDedede2000 on AO3.

August 31, 2146

Los Angeles, California, Earth

The Boonchuy-Waybright-Wu twins had done a lot in their long life. They went on worldwide adventures, they hosted parties, they owned their grandparents' restaurant, Sprig innovated and reinvented tennis playing, Polly invented lots of cool gadgets— and that's only a small fraction of their accomplishments.

Medical advances in the 21st and 22nd centuries had led to more and more people becoming centenarians, and Sprig and Polly were no exceptions. They remained active as their ages entered triple digits, but over the past few years they've experienced a slow decline in health. And now, at the age of 110, both twins were on their deathbeds in a hospital in the middle of the night.

If anything, it was a fitting way to go. Sprig and Polly Boonchuy-Waybright-Wu came into the world together, and they would go out together.

They longed for a peaceful, eternal retirement after such long lives. They longed for their elderly aches and pains to go away. But above all, they longed to see their moms again.

Sure, even after their deaths, the Calamity Moms had periodically visited their children over the years in their Guardian forms. However, they didn't stay for longer than a day or two. But now, things will be different. Anne, Sasha, and Marcy had promised to show the twins all the dimensions they watch over, and soon that promise would become a reality.

"When I was really young, I was hoping for an action movie death," said Polly.

Sprig chuckled. "An action movie death?"

"Yeah…" said Polly. "Like snowboarding into a volcano or maybe even blowing up some evil villain's lair while I'm still in it."

"Could that have happened?" asked Sprig.

Polly would've given her brother a deadpan stare if she wasn't so tired. "Our moms stopped a mechanical moon from destroying an entire planet. Compared to that, my ideas are normal."

"True…" said Sprig. "Things never turn out as interesting as you hope, do they?"

"Nope."

Suddenly an automated voice rang out simultaneously from both monitors:"VITAL SIGNS DROPPING".

"So this is it… huh, bro?" said Polly weakly.

"Yeah…" muttered Sprig.

"Any good last words?"

Sprig smiled. "Anything will be better than Mom's."

Polly smiled too. "Yeah… those were good."

The twins closed their eyes and just laid there for a few more minutes, allowing their lives to peacefully slip away together…

Afterlife Realm

Sprig and Polly awoke in the mysterious forest, laying on the ground in the same manner they were laying on their hospital beds. All in all, the afterlife seemed underwhelming.

"I gotta be honest," said Polly. "This is a letdown."

"Yeah," said Sprig. He looked down at himself and glanced at his sister. "Hey, we're not old anymore."

Polly looked down at herself and hummed. "Cool."

"Ugh, you two act like you'll die again if you show any reaction."

Sprig and Polly looked up to see Mr. Littlepot standing in front of them.

"An Amphibian from Amphibia!" shouted Sprig. He got up, ran over, and repeatedly poked the red frog. "I never thought I'd see one of you in real life!"

"This is not real life," said Littlepot. "This is real death."

Sprig paused. "Oh. Yeah…"

"And now that you are in my realm, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't poke me so aggressively," said Littlepot in an indignant tone, "unless you really do want to die again."

The twins gulped and quickly shook their heads. Polly stood up and joined her brother, and the three of them just stood there waiting for something to break the tension. Luckily, a voice they'd recognize anywhere did just that.

"Don't mind him. He's not as scary as he seems."

The twins gasped. There they were, right where there was no one a moment before: the Guardians of the Multiverse.

"Hugs?" said Marcy as the three of them opened their arms wide.

The twins ran into their mothers' arms as fast as they could. "Mæ̀, Mama, Mom, you're here! We're here! This is so amazing!" exclaimed Sprig.

"Are you gonna take us to other dimensions for cool adventures today?" asked Polly.

"Easy there," said Anne. The two of you should get settled here before we go somewhere else."

"Yeah! Everyone from Amphibia wants to meet you!" said Marcy.

"Especially Hop Pop," said Sasha. "Maybe even a little too much."

"Can you really blame him?" said Anne. "He's been watching you for decades."

The twins had looks of confusion. "Uh… what?" said Sprig.

"Oh yeah, there's these cool TVs in the homes here that let you see what's going on in the land of the living," said Sasha.

"Speaking of homes, let's get you out of this forest," said Marcy. "And once you've adjusted to being here for a bit, we'll start taking you to other dimensions. You'll see Amphibia, and Arborea, and our home base, and that giant restaurant if we can get another reservation, and the dimension where Sash lost a fight to a pigeon—"

"Hey," said Sasha, embarrassment visible on her face. "The kids don't need to know about that."

"No no, please tell us!" demanded Polly. "I wanna know all the details!"

Marcy smiled and immediately began expositing as the family made their way through the forest. "Alright, so there's a dimension called Columbidae filled with somewhat intelligent pigeons and Sash went there one day just to check it out, 'cause why not? And this one pigeon can see her even though she's invisible and it challenged her to a fight, and Sasha absolutely tanked!"

The twins chuckled. "Wow, really?" said Sprig.

Sasha groaned. "Yes, that actually happened." She was never going to hear the end of this, was she?

After a few minutes of walking, they all exited the forest and reached the mixed group of homes in the center.

"Whoa, that's a lot of houses," muttered Sprig.

"It sure is," said Anne, "and yet it's always easy to find your way around. See? Here we are, the Plantar farm!"

"It feels like a jumbo version of your aquarium exhibit, Mæ̀," said Polly."

"I guess it is," said Anne with a smile. She turned toward her blonde wife. "Sash, can you go get our surprise guests?"

"On it." Sasha then teleported away.

Anne then opened the farm's front door and everyone left followed her in. "Sprig! Polly! Hop Pop! Other Sprig and Polly are here!" she called out.

The twins barely had time to look around the living room before a purple frog with orange hair rushed down the stairs.

"Woo!" Polly Plantar leapt up onto Polly the human's shoulders. "I've seen all the stuff you've invented, and you're a good remix of yours truly, the original Polly. And you!" She jumped over to Sprig's shoulders. "You're definitely the better Sprig— way cooler than my big brother!"

"Rude," said Sprig Plantar, entering the room. He walked over and grabbed Polly the human's hand. "Just for that, I'm saying this Polly is way better than you!"

Polly Plantar gasped with mock offense. "Oh my frog, what a betrayal! After all I've done for you!"

Sprig Plantar chuckled. "That's right, I'm cutthroat! After all, that's how things are…"

Suddenly both twins leaped into the air again. "… on Suspicion Island!" they both exclaimed as they landed, laughing hysterically.

"Sorry, sorry," said Sprig. "But we've been planning that for years!"

"That was amazing!" shouted Marcy, high-fiving each frog. She then turned to the twins. "See kids, you are just like your aunt and uncle."

"Yeah, definitely," said Sprig the human. He and his sister had dreamed of meeting their namesakes several times but never expected the moment to go quite like this.

"I still miss that show," said Hop Pop, who entered the living room unnoticed when Sprig and Polly did their thing. "But enough about that." He grabbed the twins' hands. "We're here to celebrate the two of you." He then furrowed his brow. "Was 'celebrate' the right word? We shouldn't really be celebrating someone's death unless they were really bad…"

"It's okay, Hop Pop." Polly the human leaned down and gave the oldest frog a hug. "Sprig and I should be celebrating the chance to meet someone as awesome as you!"

"Yeah!" Sprig the human wrapped Hop Pop in a hug as well.

"Aw, shucks," said Hop Pop, shedding some happy tears. "Look at me getting all emotional."

Just then, Sasha turned herself intangible and stuck her head through the door. "Are you ready for the surprise guests?"

Sprig and Polly looked at each other and nodded.

"Alright," said Sasha. "I've got two people here and I don't know if you two want to meet them, but they really want to meet you."

She went back outside, made herself tangible again, and opened the door, allowing the guests to enter. They were two young adult humans: a brown-haired man and a blonde woman, Reggie and Michelle Davis.

The twins had never met these people before, but they recognized them from photos. They both stood frozen for nearly a minute. Eventually it was Polly who spoke first. "You… you're… our biological parents…"

Sprig was similarly stunned. "This is… wow… I don't know how to react."

"How about a hug?" said Michelle nervously.

While the twins had done a little research on their birth parents, and had even met biological relatives a few times, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy were always their parents, not these two. But Reggie and Michelle had been here for over a century, and never even had the chance to hold their children. The least the twins could do was grant their request.

The Calamity Moms smiled as they watched the Davises hug Sprig and Polly. When they first met the Guardians, the deceased couple had made it clear they were extraordinarily grateful that the twins had such amazing moms. Reggie and Michelle knew they would never truly be the twins' parents, but they still wanted to get to know them.

"You know what's weird?" said Sasha. "The two of them kind of look like a bizarro version of my folks."

Marcy nodded. "Kinda, yeah."

"Are your parents still here or did they just get tired of dealing with each other and leave?" asked Anne.

Sasha shrugged. "I don't know. It's not like I care enough to regularly check on them."

"Hey, everyone join the hug!" Polly the human called out.

Anne, Sasha, Marcy, and the Plantars did just so, making it a 10-way group hug that lasted for a while.

There were still plenty of deceased relatives and friends the twins wanted to see, but for now they'd stay right here. It felt quite nice.

Translation: Mæ̀ (mom)