Epilogue: The End

An old man, with wrinkles of heavy clay, walked around, pulling a mop after him. The school was now completely clean. Part of him wondered why he didn't do anything else to make it easier, but he was too tired to do anything else.

He walked back to the closet to put his cleaning utensils away.

The school was quiet as he walked to the front entrance. The only sound that was heard was the shuffling of his feet. There would have been the thump of a cane, too, if he needed one. The school administration was shocked by how amazingly healthy he was for such an old man. His eyesight could see everything. He could hear over a while away.

But they didn't know that. They didn't know just how old he was. Or how special he was.

As he walked toward the front entrance, he turned off the lights, slowly coating the school in darkness.

He reached the front doors, grasping for his keys. With shaking hands, he unlocked the front door. He opened it, looking behind him to lock the door and turn off the lights. He let go of the door and walked forward –

But he wasn't outside.

He stood as the front entrance of a restaurant. The whole floor was big and open, with round tables scattered around, red and white checkered tabletops covering them. There was a wide stage on the far end of the room. It was almost as if he had gone back in time to one of those old time restaurants. On one side of the room, there was a bar and a kitchen. On the other, there was a coat room and the bathrooms. There was even a jukebox near the entrance.

This couldn't be right.

He turned and ran outside. He stood in the woods, looking up at a big, grand house. The driveway and trees were covered with snow.

He looked back to the door, and as he raised his hand to open it, he noticed his reflection.

No, he thought. It can't be.

The face staring back at him was not one that he'd seen for hundreds of years.

It was of twenty or so, with messy, raven black hair, and eyes that glowed gold.

His eyes had stayed gold after he had lost his friend.

He walked back into the restaurant, ready to demand what happened.

"Hello," a girl said, standing behind the welcoming stand in the restaurant. "Welcome to Rissa's Restaurant. I'm Rissa. It's nice to meet you."

"What is going on?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Rissa asked.

"Why am I…young? How am I here?" he demanded.

"Oh, Merlin, I shouldn't have to explain this to you," she said, smiling. "It's what you would've called magic, back in your day."

"How do you know who I am?" Merlin asked. He was starting to feel wary of this woman.

"There's a reason why they call me The Girl Who Knew Too Much," she said. "Let's just say that if you found this restaurant, you're in a certain category. And you needed to find it. Smile!"

Before Merlin could do anything, she picked up one of those old fashioned camera and snapped a photo. As Merlin blinked, a picture was shot out of the camera. She shook it around until the gray vanished and the picture developed. She picked up a black sharpie and wrote Merlin on it. She walked out from behind the stand and walked over to one of the walls framing the entrance. On the board labeled VISITORS, she tagged Merlin's photo on to the board. Next to it was a board labeled BANNED. On it were some pictures of some people named Metatron, Umbridge, Voldemort, and Magnussen, among some others. Merlin turned back to Rissa.

"What do you mean 'I needed to find it'?" Merlin asked.

"Ever read Harry Potter?" she asked, ignoring him. She grabbed a thumb tack and tried to find a place on the wall to put the photo.

"Yes," Merlin said. "Why?"

"You know how the Room of Requirement works?" she continued.

"Yes," he said.

"That's how this restaurant works. You only find it if you need…something. And, of course, you need to be a special type of person."

"Like magical?" Merlin asked. "How long has this been here?"

"About two months," she said. "And I guess you could go with 'magical,' but it's more like fictional."

"What?" Merlin asked.

"This is a pocket universe," Rissa said. "I don't know if you've heard of it, but after the Great War-"

"I've heard of it," Merlin said. "That was you?"

"Yep," Rissa said. "After the war, we had to return the world to normal. So to balance the world out, we squished all of the universes down into a small, pocket universe that was also adjacent to the regular one. I moved here, to the pocket universe, and I opened the restaurant, so people who had made friends from different universes during the war could meet up again."

"Really?" Merlin said.

"Yes," Rissa said. She turned and gestured to a table, where two people sat. "That is Sherlock Holmes, and that is Jim Moriarty. They're what you would call archenemies. They don't get along. But yet, they're the only people in the world with intelligence that matches each others. So every Tuesday and Thursday, they come around here at one on the dot, and play every game known to man. From chess to Operation. And they have this little banter, and something that's almost like a friendship going."

"That's…odd," Merlin said.

"See them over there," she asked, pointing at the other direction where several people where sitting. "That's Harry Potter's family. He comes here every day from eleven am to two pm."

"But…I thought they were dead," Merlin said.

"I said that this realm connects to every fictional universe. That includes living…and dead."

Merlin's heart began to race. "What?" he asked.

"You've been searching for someone, all these years," she said. "As Luna Lovegood's mother used to say, "The things that we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect." She was looking behind him.

Turning, his heart thumping so hard it almost burst out of his chest, Merlin looked behind him, at the bar. Sitting on one of the stools, drinking some beer, was Arthur Pendragon.

"I've been helping him adapt," Rissa said, coming up next to him. "I seem to be doing a pretty good job. I've even got him to accept same – sex couples."

"Why would you do that?" Merlin asked.

"Let's be honest," she said. "We all know what you really think of him." She winked. "Go get him, tiger," she bumped him forward. "You've been waiting long enough."

"Over a thousand years," Merlin murmured as he walked forward.

...

"Are you still setting up all of your 'ships' together?" Loki asked, coming up behind me and embracing me, giving me a little kiss on the cheek.

"Yep," I said, leaning into him. "It worked with us, didn't it?"

He laughed. "So you could say."

I watched Arthur's eyes widen, as he got up from his stool so quickly he almost fell off. I loved watching old friends unite. It made me so happy, especially since I caused it.

Loki and I had opened the restaurant as a way for us all to meet up again. This was why I had specifically built our house here. We served just about every type of food across the galaxy.

Every single Shadow Sacrificer would come every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. Friday was our chatter night, Saturday was our movie night, and Sunday was our karaoke night. This was a peaceful place, a neutral one where no fighting was allowed. We had rooms for people to stay the night, if they wanted. We only had several types of rules: one, you can't bring someone back to life by taking them with you. As smart as an idea it is, the universe won't allow it, so they need to go back from where they originated. Two, if there's someone from your universe here that you don't get along with, you can't fight here. Take it off grounds. So far, however, those are the only rules that we have. We're sort of making this up as we go along.

Another cool thing is the Doctors. Every single regeneration of the Doctor are here, which means that I get to see Eleven a lot.

There's also a room that leads to Asgard, so Loki and I can fulfill our duties as King and Queen. Though most Asgardians come here a lot, too.

Tony and Dean have become very close friends. It kind of worries me, because now I think they're drinking buddies. Thor and the Doctor get along a lot. Not only because they've both lived so long, but because (something I've seen recurring in Thor lately) they both give people second chances (like with Loki).

My foster family has all become very involved with everyone. Jacob practiced drawing everyone. Everyone would take turns reading to Emma. She was old enough to read by herself, but she just liked spending time with them. Natasha, especially. Emma seemed to bring something out of her.

Toby loved to spend time with Tony. They would talk about all of Tony's amazing weapons, and vehicles.

Jamie, of course, was now attached to Sherlock at the hip. Not that surprising, what with her love for dead things. She would follow him around and keep asking him odd questions, as he showed her pictures from her cases. It was almost like he was training her to be his apprentice.

I didn't tell them about Isabelle. I let them keep a beautiful memory of her, the one where she took care of them and died in a horrible accident. They didn't need to know the rest.

I knew how bad it was to lie to them. Especially because I've seen what happens when say, Dean, lied to Sam. It's going to bite me in the butt. But for now, at least, I'm still going to let them keep that bright memory of her.

A wise man once said, "You have two lives. The second one begins when you realize you only have one." My second life began when Loki brought me back to life. When I became an Asgardian. Because I had a second chance to make my life with the people I love.

That's not something many people get.

When you're a kid, they tell you it's all…grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a kid…and that's it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. So much darker, and so much madder.

And so much better.

This song is ending. But the story never ends.

Everything has to end sometime. Otherwise nothing would ever get started.

THE END?

...

Please read my Author's Note, it's very important.