"You know the rest, we made small talk when we got back and I drove everyone back home." George finished. "That's the last time we spoke. He gave me bits of information over the summer, but I was busy with an investigation."

The room was silent. The teens were staring at George, their mouths open. Claire was misty eyed and trying to dab away the tears with a tissue.

The silence was broken by a timid knock and the door opened slowly. Willie peeked in.

"I-is everything okay?" He asked.

"Yes." George said. Claire nodded and Willie closed the door.

"Dad..." Julien whispered. Claire stood up and walked over to him to hug him.

"Skipper, are you alright?" George asked. Skipper nodded numbly. "It's a lot to take in, I know."

"I-we-all five of us...we almost weren't born..." Skipper said, shaking his head slowly.

"All this time I thought it was me..." Julien said in a hushed tone. "I thought I wasted time I could have had because I went to Tennessee...I thought I did that...he said he'd think about it a few times before he said yes...I didn't know he already planned it..."

"Mon cheri, it wouldn't have been your fault even if it wasn't planned." Claire said soothingly.

"Dad...did you tell Kent not to send me on that mission?" Skipper asked softly.

"I told her I didn't want the three school aged kids missing classes too much. I had doubts about Rico going alone, but there was no one else who could accompany him. But yes, I asked her not to send my son, honorary son, and their fifteen year old teammate out on that mission since she was determined to have an agent go out there and one close in age to Julien who knew him was the best choice at the time."

"If Rico hadn't been there, things could have been much worse." Claire said. "In the end, the blame lies solely on Dom. He's the one who had all these crazy ideals and couldn't see how insane he sounded."

"Do any of the others know about your mission?" Skipper asked. George looked at him questioningly. "My siblings. Did Chris ever know since he's the oldest?"

"He did, but only recently. All anyone, including your mom, knew is that I had a dangerous mission when I was nineteen."

"Wait, recently?"

"Yes, after your meeting. I felt I owed it to Julien to let my family know that he was the reason you five are here. I told your mother first, she was upset I kept the details from her. Chris and Victoria were told when Cameron was at school. I didn't want to stress Rocky with school, but I will tell her and your other brothers this summer."

"Is there anything I can do to help the organization?" Julien asked. "You guys are keeping the world safe and my dad has always wanted to improve the city. We can help if you want."

"I've learned that he already has investments into several sections of the organization." George said. "He did this without my knowledge. So all you'd have to do is make sure you can try to keep the public calm and continue to work on maintaining the city. But first, concentrate on finishing high school."

"Wow..." Julien breathed.

"Alright. We'll finish school first." Skipper said. Julien nodded in agreement.

"Leave all the paperwork and things to me." Claire said. "I'll make sure to have everything prepared to transfer the company into your hands. It'll be a slow transfer so you don't get overwhelmed. Graduation will already be highly stressful."

"What if I want to go to acting school?" Julien asked. "Or something else?"

"Then you can. But that will be a separate conversation."

"I think that's also where Skipper and I will take our leave." George said.

"Thank you for everything." Claire said.

"See you tomorrow, Ringtail." Skipper said.

"See ya, Captain Penguin." Julien said, a small smile forming.

Private had a ticket given to him by Kowalski. Rico attended the graduation ceremony as part of the staff. Mrs. Petrie had known how much Rico wanted to see his friends graduate and allowed him to participate. Unknown to her, he wouldn't have missed his boyfriend graduating for the world.

Mikayla and Nat gave their invite tickets to Skipper so he didn't have to buy too many more.

The graduates excitedly chattered amongst themselves until Kowalski was called up to the stage as this year's valedictorian. He looked out at the crowd, wide eyed. He felt a little nervous as everyone quieted. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

"Hey, I'm Kowalski Harrison. It's been quite a ride, hasn't it?" He said. The graduates murmured for a moment. "No matter where you came from or how long you've been at this school, you still made it here with us. Will I survive high school? That's a question every student asks themselves, but most do so figuratively. For a few, and I do hope it's not more, this can be literal. I'll spare the children in the audience from hearing my unrestrained thoughts, but we made it too. The literal and figurative, we survived."

He paused and looked at Mikayla who smiled, then at Skipper who nodded with a smile on his face.

"High school is a rollercoaster, it really is. But when you have someone to go through it with, it isn't so bad. You can make it, you can trust them, you can be you. And that's what I did, what you did." He gestured to his fellow students. "And what the rest of you will do, those out in the audience, whether you go to this school or not, you're on that coaster too. What we do next is largely up to us. We get to make our own futures. When we leave here today, we'll be going everywhere. But we'll be adults. We may be spread out, but what we have now is here. This is the end of high school and the beginning of the rest of our lives. A bit cliché, I know, but true. Here's to us, the dreamers and achievers. We survived. We rode the coaster. Onto the next one. Life's an adventure, so let's live it. I turn the floor over to my principal as she gives you Central Park High School's graduating class of 2017."

The crowd cheered. He heard the seniors whooping and some whistling. He saw Rico's wide grin. He joined the seniors as they started calling names forward. Mikayla was visibly nervous, she had been going by the last name Smith since Kowalski had registered her under the name. Since then, she'd been doing a lot of thinking and decided on a name she wanted to use starting from having it called during graduation.

"Isadore Brasher." Izzy let out a visible sigh of relief. He'd been playing it off cool until names had actually started.

Not too long after, it was Josie's turn. "Josephine Caldwell." Josie flashed a smile and waved to the crowd.

He kept telling himself the fear was irrational, of course he'd graduate, but his speech hadn't entirely calmed his nerves.

"Kowalski Harrison." Kowalski heard Skipper say 'told you'. There was some laughter from the graduates and Kowalski went across the stage, smiling.

"Leonard Johnson." Johnson practically ran the stage, looking extremely nervous as if they might take it back and tell him he didn't graduate.

Julien had a little bit to go, but he also felt the nerves. He looked to the crowd and saw his mother grinning at him. He frowned, thinking about how his dad should be there.

"Julien Makyhira." Julien blinked. Then he jumped when the student behind him poked him gently. Oh yeah, he's Julien Jr. He tried not to blush as he hurried across stage.

"Dennis Manfredi." Manfredi tripped and faceplanted on stage, causing a round of loud laughter. He shook himself off and pretended he meant to do that.

Marlene was tugging at the sleeves of her gown. She looked around, seeing her parents out in the crowd. She had a bit of time, so she just watched as people cheered for their student.

"Marlene Rocca." She looked back at Skipper who gave her an encouraging smile, then she walked the stage.

"Mikayla Schmidt." It basically was still Smith, but Mikayla said it sounded cooler. Kowalski had asked if she was okay with it being a bit close to her old last name, to which she had responded that she'd rather be a smith than a slime.

Skipper hadn't been far behind her. He looked out at his family, then at the two students ahead of him. One student. Then- "Skipper Sorenson."

Skipper walked across, thanked the principal, then joined the others as the remaining students were called.

"Natalie York." Nat had changed her last name around the same time as Mikayla.

Nat and Julien had gotten an offer to travel with a theatre company. Well, actually, Julien had been told and the person who told him was rudely dismissive of Nat. The leader of the theatre company dismissed the messenger and said he'd love to have both students on as they learned the ropes.

Nat accepted, using the last name York to represent where she'd come from. She'd be NY from NYC. There was a mixture of groans and laughs when she told her friends, but they said they were proud of her.

Julien had wanted to stay at his father's company for a while. He did have a passion for the dramatic arts and music, but there was something that was calling him to stay for the time being.

With Julien's help, Nat, Josie, and Mikayla got an apartment in Brooklyn. Josie was planning to go to college to become an oncologist. She said it was very personal to her and she felt she was tough enough for the field.

Mikayla wanted to work in child services. She wanted to be able to help kids in need, especially those in danger of falling through the cracks. She knew it wasn't perfect, but she wanted to be one of the good ones.

As for the boys, Rico applied for engineering school and would be starting classes in the fall. Kowalski was taking classes with the organization in experimentation and also applied for college courses in a few different fields of scientific research. Skipper was taking a gap year as he wanted to put full focus into the organization. Private wasn't too concerned as he still had a couple years left to think about it.

...

Julien's post-graduation party was held at his house. Almost every senior was there and he extended the invitation to any friends or family who wanted to come. All five of PARK B showed up, Allie having begged her parents to let her come. Mort was there, being watched by Maurice.

"Before we start with the festivities, I would like to have your attention, please!" Julien called. "I have been told that Kowalski had more he could not say before and would like to know if you'd be interested in hearing the rest."

Everyone murmured, then there were a few shouted 'yes' and 'sure', started by Skipper and Marlene.

"Alright then. Kowalski?"

"Can everyone hear-?" Kowalski was given a megaphone. Julien shrugged. "Well okay then. Hello? Can everyone hear me?"

"We can hear you!" Some shouted from the back.

"Excellent. I've found a passion in writing, more so because the amount of words in the language and the medium, plus the ability to edit without getting tongue tied give me an opportunity to express what speech may be unable to do. I wrote a lot more than was approved and I kept it with me in my pocket. It's a reminder of where I came from, where some of us come from to where we belong now. I then subsequently washed my pants without thinking and the result was a papery mess...luckily I typed it up the night before."

A round of laughter rippled through the crowd. Kowalski smiled and continued.

"Will I survive high school? The question I've asked myself repeatedly throughout my freshman year. It was literal, raw and real. I honestly thought I'd die before eighteen at the hands of my father. I took the once in a lifetime chance to bring my brother and myself out here, but it wasn't an escape. Not when you had to go back. Where we came from was not a place anyone should. It wasn't the rollercoaster ride with the rest of you, it was a lone car spinning out of control, waiting for the crash and hoping for one survivor...and it wasn't me. Even after getting out of there, I still spent the next nearly three years with his shadow over me. Afraid that at any second, someone would tell me it was a joke. I'm dreaming as I'm dying or something. I hung onto the cars that held my classmates, my friends, desperate not to spin out again. Then, we went back.

"Why go back? Some of you may wonder. It wasn't to pay a solemn visit to my dying father. At the time, I didn't understand why we went back. For my brother, it was a journey of finding hope. For me, it was a journey of forgiveness and acceptance. Forgiving the man who made our lives hell is impossible. There's no way, not even in his death, that I can forgive him. But I can forgive myself. For the longest time I cursed myself for caging us in a bubble of distrust, for not allowing my brother to trust others because I didn't. I forgave myself for allowing my childhood to die. I accepted the role that had been forced upon me and that it happened. I had to. What's next is moving on. There's nothing to be done about it now, so move on. I did get to be a regular teen for a bit longer, including tonight, so not all hope is lost. I guess I had to see where we came from. But...the road you came to get here, be it a straight, winding, or broken one is still a road that led us here. I belong here, you belong here. We belong here. So, let's party!"

He handed the megaphone over to Julien who called for the DJ to start the music.

"D-D-DJ Glitterbunz in the house!"

"Where did you find this guy?" Kowalski asked, seeing the man take a swig from his beverage.

"My dad had a contact for a company and they sent him, he said he's pretty new to this, but it was either him or some guy named Jason from Florida but they didn't like that he got in legal trouble." Julien said. "Crank it up, Horst!"

Kowalski went to find his team and was immediately hugged by his brother.

"That was a great speech!" Private said.

"Thanks!"

The team couldn't talk much because the music was loud. They decided to just let loose and party, though Skipper and Clover kept looking around often as they always did.

Much later, the boys were back home, showered, and flopped into their couch, exhausted.

"Do we have recon?" Private mumbled, half asleep with his legs on the back of the couch. Rico and Kowalski were curled up in front of him, snoozing.

"Nah." Skipper yawned, trying to keep Kowalski's elbows out of his ribs. "I told them this was going on and they said we have a break." He stretched his legs across Rico and Kowalski's laps.

They fell asleep in the weirdest looking pile. Several hours later, Private had woken up to find himself face down on the couch. Rico was cooking something that smelled really good, Kowalski was helping him and Skipper was preparing the kitchen.

Skipper noticed the youngest was awake.

"Well, boys, I'd say it's been quite a journey." He said. Private sat up. "From when Private moved to graduation. I won't copy your speech, Kowalski, but I'm proud of you guys. Of all of us. I know you still have a few years to go, Private, but I'd say this is a massive chapter in our lives that's closing."

"I'll agree to that." Private said. "It's still the end of something."

"Definitely not the end of the team." Kowalski said.

"Big story." Rico said.

"True. It's been a long story and it's time to start another. We've established that we are the Penguins, now we protect more than just our area. We protect our home." Skipper said.

"What should the next adventure be called?" Private asked. "Penguins of NYC?"

"Kaboom." Rico said seriously.

"Muscle Squad." Skipper said.

"Dynamite muscles." Private laughed.

"It's still a work in progress." Kowalski said.

"There's something and it's better than nothing." Skipper said.

"Dinner's ready." Rico announced. The boys got their plates, served themselves, and sat down to eat and chat.

A/N: April 15, 2023 is the unedited ending of WATP and at this point I hadn't written the Rhonda fight or finished years 3 and 4. May 26, I've put all but this chapter in FFNet's doc manager, ready to be reviewed yet again and then published.

July 24, 2023 is the last chapter. 10 years, 5 months, and 20 days from the first chapter, appropriately named 'The beginning' and this one has 'the end' in it.

We Are The Penguins: A decade old story that somehow survived a six year hiatus with me sparingly thinking about it from time to time is finally over. I never wanted to leave it unfinished and though some probably thought it was never going to be. I felt it at least was in a place that it could have ended there and been a standalone story with hints at a sequel, but that's not where I wanted to take it. I wanted to expand on the characters and world, I wanted a big story. Maybe I went too much for the first year in their lives, describing surroundings and other people too much, idk. All I know is that the way I wrote it is satisfactory for me. I am more okay with this ending than I am with some of my other stories.

I had intended for the story to go a bit longer with Blowhole's defeat, but the hiatus really felt like a setback, felt like my story needed to just finish. So my goal became Kowalski and Skipper's graduation as the ending. That way I can have this story finish and start a new one which will contain what happens between the end of this story and the defeat of Blowhole. I do have ideas, I just need to connect and expand on them.

Thank you for all the faves, follows, comments, and views.

-TK