NABC [Book Four] Epilogue: Chapter 57: Epilogue
[Book Four] Epilogue: Chapter 57: Epilogue
[Book Four] Epilogue: Chapter 57: EpilogueChapter 57: Epilogue
He wasn't surprised when he found himself standing in front of very big and very golden gates. Nor was he when he was able to pass them without problem. He knew he was dead. For good this time. He didn’t feel sad or at least not much. He was finally at rest and that was more than good enough for him.
Not knowing where to go, he thought about Analysse. Immediately the scenery changed and he found himself in front of a tiki bar on a beach. The latin music made him raise a brow in curiosity and after a moment of thinking walked forward into the small wooden edifice. Inside, he was surprised for the first time in his afterlife. Legion was behind the counter, wearing a straw hat and a fake mustache just under his head lamp while shaking a shaker. On a stool was a familiar Salarian, sipping his drink through a straw while wearing what looked like a Hawaiian shirt.
“Legion, Mordin, good to see you again.”
“Welcome to afterlife, Rick.”
“Yes, indeed. Want a drink?”
“Yeah, sure, why not? Piñacoloda? Can you do that?”
“Of course, I’ve been making drinks for a hundred years. It’s a simple task.” the geth replied and began making the drink.
“You sound more... organic?”
“I made many organic friends and learned a lot from them.”
“I’m happy to hear that. Mordin? Testing all day, I presume?”
“Noooo. Every other day only. Day off reserved for other hobbies.”
“Such as?”
“Conversation for another time. Family waiting for you.” replied the Salarian and pointed with his head a table on the side with three people sitting at it.
Taking his drink and thanking Legion for it, Rick made his way to the table where Analysse stood up. He put down his drink and embraced her fiercely to which she answered back with the same intensity. He inhaled her scent deeply, remembering her fragrance he had forgotten as the years had passed. When he had his fill he pulled back and kissed her hotly with everything he had. Again she answered in kind. His hands instinctively reached firmly for her butt and in answer she jumped him, locking her legs around his waist. As the kiss began to be fiercer, they were interrupted by a throat being cleared.
“Jon! They haven’t seen each other in a century! Let them get reacquainted.”
“They could use a room for that.”
Recognizing his mother’s voice, Rick broke up the kiss and looked annoyed at his first wife who was amused more than anything. Sighing in surrender, he let her down. Immediately, Hannah was on him to get her own hug.
“Missed you, mom. Everyone did.”
As they separated, Hannah moved aside to let John introduce himself. Unfortunately for him, Rick’s fist was faster in the introduction department. His father ended up on his ass with a sore jaw.
“That’s for leaving Kahlee all alone. We were lucky to meet.” said Rick as he extended his hand to pick up his father. “How was it? As good as you?” he added, looking at his mother.
“I headbutted him and broke his nose.” the blonde woman replied with a proud and amused smile, her nose a bit up in the air.
“... Can’t say I don’t deserve it.” admitted Grissom, rubbing his jaw.
Everyone sat down at the table and Rick was the first to talk.
“Why are we here? I mean a tiki bar?”
“You’re the one that advised Legion to welcome everyone like that and he took a liking to the pacific isles’ culture.” answered Analysse.
“So what happened? You’re here early.” inquired Hannah.
“Well... Remember that time where I kept dying and being brought back?”
““You what?!””
“The nanobots in my body kept bringing me back to life each time I was killed. Anyway, that took a toll on my body and I simply died of old age a few decades earlier.”
“How is Kahlee?” Jon asked.
“Nothing new, still retired and living happily with Anderson.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“I refused to tell him anything and he never looked.” Hannah explained.
“I didn’t want to spy on my daughter.”
“I understand. It would have driven me mad in your place.” admitted Rick.
“Exactly!”
“Well... She... worked for me as the headmistress of my academy for sixty six years.”
“You opened a school?”
“Oh, yeah. A school for the most brilliant minds or hardworking students from all across the galaxies. She’s loved by almost all her students and is a great Aunt.”
“The two of you are getting along then?”
“Oh, yes.”
“What about your family?” Analysse inquired.
“Our family. You made me do this, remember?”
“Fine! Semantics! Our family.” she corrected herself and rolled her eyes to the sky.
“After the war against the Ketts... You know about that or do I need...”
““We know.””
“The dead speak. That’s the only way we can get news here without looking down. Although since our family has been very private we don’t hear much about what’s happening in the living world.” his mother explained.
“I see... So... Arianna, that’s my eldest, she finally took the head of the science department of our company.”
“Wait, I thought you opened a school.” interrupted his father, confused.
“With all the money I made with my tech before and during the war. I created a tech company, then created my school then snatched the best students making even more money and went from tech to pretty much everything.” Rick explained and continued his tale as his father nodded in understanding. “Arianna took my place when her kids were old enough to go to school. She didn’t want to at first but Sandra, that’s my third kid, convinced her. Apparently, making her own hours, reading projects and pretty much doing whatever she wanted was appealing. She’s almost a perfect copy of mom and Jane, the exception being the eyes. She had mine or ours, I suppose. She’s even smarter than I am and a true daddy’s girl! She married Sara Ryder...”
“Ryder? Any relation to...” his father asked.
“Yeah, Alec’s girl.”
“Isn’t she your age?”
“There was a private initiative to go to Andromeda in 2185, before mine. Sara had been in stasis for decades before we woke her up. Arianna was already older than her by a couple years.”
“I see.”
“Gave birth to two children. A girl named Hannah and a boy named Alec.”
“And she’s just like me!” Hannah said proudly. “From the looks to the personality!”
“Unfortunately.” Rick mumbled but was heard by his mother and got kicked under the table for it. “Arianna took after me the most in personality, though she’s kinder and doesn’t have that vindictive trait I have nor the cunning. She has a thirst for discovery but is not that wild. Though sometimes she can be impulsive.”
“If she didn’t look like a Shepard I’d have thought that she was Alec’s and Sara was yours.”
“How so?” inquired Analysse at Hannah’s comment.
“Arianna is almost always calm and collected except when she’s very interested in something.”
“Like her father. I don’t see...”
“I changed a bit after going back. I stopped holding myself back and went very wild. Sara is like that too. The few times we hung out together was... chaotic to say the least.”
“I want to hear more about that later.”
“Sure. Anyway, my next child is Adam, that’s my first son and the second eldest, graduated from the Academy early with high marks. Got recommended by Anderson for the underwing program. That’s... a program that puts promising graduates with high potential in leadership under the tutelage of a confirmed officer to learn the trade and not just be thrown to the wolves.” he quickly explained as he saw that his father was going to ask. “It’s a new thing that I proposed to Anderson and Hackett when I created the military division of the academy.”
“It’s really successful.” commented Hannah.
“Yeah. Anyway, a year later he got a medal for bravery and was invited to join N school. He was eighteen! Finished it under a year, best of his class and made top ten percentile in N7 history. Well, at the time. I don’t know about it now.”
Hearing his grandson’s achievement, Jon whistled, clearly impressed.
“Became humanity’s eighth spectre in his late twenties and climbed up the ranks. Right now he’s waiting for his mother to kick the bucket to replace her as Fleet Admiral.”
“She’s still enlisted?!” Analysse interrupted in astonishment.
“One hundred and thirty and still going strong. She said she would retire from service only when she’s dead.”
“I’m sorry, who...” Jon began to ask.
“Ashley Williams, my second wife.”
“Williams... As in...”
“She’s his granddaughter.”
“Good. Honestly, Archibald didn’t deserve the shit he got for Shanxi and blocking the rising in ranks of his whole family...”
“And now the Williams are the most well regarded and decorated family only second to the Shepard. Anyway, Adam is well... used to be a very talkative child but grew out of it. He’s... very protective of his siblings, especially Arianna and Sandra since they’re roughly the same age. He’s best friends with Sandra actually. She always got into trouble and he was always there to pull her out of it. Almost a hundred years later and it’s still their routine. He married Sandra’s best girlfriend and had four daughters. He’s more or less... well.. The one holding the family together now since I’ve left active life. JJ that’s my second son with Ash and fourth child. His name is James Jeff but JJ is shorter. He’s the best mechanic on Ryder, that’s the first colony world we colonized in Andromeda. He has two sons, to his brothers' eternal jealousy.” he declared with an amused smirk.
“How so?”
“Apparently Ash’s maternal side of the family only gives birth to girls. She has three sisters who all gave birth to girls. Ash only gave birth to boys because I’m that awesome and out of our four sons. Only JJ had boys, all the others had girls.”
“That did wonders for his self esteem.” commented Hannah.
“What do you mean?” inquired Analysse.
“JJ... Adam casted a large shadow with his achievements and JJ never was much of a fighter. Too soft for that, so he always felt less since he wasn’t perpetuating the military tradition of the Williams family. Even more so when his younger brothers all did well military wise. He got over it with time but he always felt like an ugly little duck.”
“I can see why having two sons helped him. He succeeded in something his brothers didn’t and wished they had.” Said Jon in understanding.
“Timothy Kaidan and Andrew Jace, respectively TK and AJ are twins and my fifth and sixth kids...”
“You have a lot of children.” his father commented.
“I had a lot of wives. I’m only halfway done.”
“Goodness.”
“Blame mom, she wanted ten grandchildren.”
“Guilty as charged.” replied the woman with an unrepenting grin.
“TK and AJ didn’t enlist but opened a security firm. They’re not the best but one of them and are known for their reliability, honesty and good prices. These two are inseparable and do everything together. They married twin sisters and got three sets of twin daughters.”
“Now I know you’re kidding me.” Analysse said.
“Oh, no. It’s true.” confirmed Hannah.
“Poor them.” commented Jon.
“Oh, you have no idea! They felt so overwhelmed by all the women in their family that they packed their bags and ran away for a short vacation. They got chased by their wives, all the adult Williams women. Their grandmother, their mother, their aunts, and their cousins.”
“I’ll never forget that. They dragged them back in chains. Their wives were more than pissed.”
“Yeah. Thankfully they smoothed things over by talking because they weren’t far from a divorce. When their wives learned that they just wanted time for themselves for once instead of always doing what the girls wanted, things went much better. Every year now, they either have their own vacation week or the whole family does something they want to do.”
“They’re fortunate to have understanding wives. Mine wasn’t.” Jon said with a grunt.
“Kahlee did say that her mother was a bit shallow.”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
“Anyway, to be fair, it was thoughtless of their wives and daughters to never care about what they wanted to do and took the situation for granted. That they did what they did wasn’t surprising. In my opinion, they deserved better than one week or one vacation for them a year. Heck, they’re brought most of the income home, they should have been the ones making the decisions.
“That sounds a bit sexist. Coming from you it’s... weird.” Analysse commented.
“He’s right though.” Hannad supported. “Their wives are no gold diggers and no tyrants, but the boys let them be in charge of everything and they got too used to it. They became too complacent.”
“They loved them more than enough to self-reflect but what resulted from it is not enough in my opinion. Should my sons decide to part ways, their wifes would get decent money but would never live in the luxury they are used to and be cut off from the rest of the family. I’m pretty sure Sandra would bury them though.”
“That she would. Nobody messed with her siblings. I’m sure my granddaughters in law knew.”
“They’re not that bad. We got worse in the family. Remember JJ’s husband?”
“No, they’re not. But it definitely played a bit. And yes, I remember that asshole. Glad my grandson got out of this relationship.”
“Probably. My granddaughters however did way better than their mothers. TK and AJ are really good dads and the girls felt guilty from the way they treated them unconsciously though to be fair they were a bit too spoiled. Not rotten, just a bit too much... Ever since the incident they made sure that at least one of them spent an evening or a weekend with their dad. It’s been going on for nearly forty years even with their own children and they never missed it once.”
“I thought JJ ...” began Analysse.
“He remarried. His first husband was a chief in a restaurant and sometimes JJ helped. He didn’t want children and at the time JJ didn’t either until he changed his mind and they began to fight. The fact that Chuck was more interested in his restaurant than his marriage pushed JJ to divorce him.”
“I always thought that Chuck cheated on him.” said Hannah.
“He didn’t, didn’t have the time for that.”
“You had him checked.” the redhead stated.
“Of course I did. So did Sandra. Anyway a year later a short little thing of a woman about ten years younger, came to JJ’s shop for some repairs on her skycar. He invited her to dinner, she accepted and they went back to his flat. She never left and six months later they married. They’re still happy as can be and I never heard or saw them fight.”
“Six months?“ said Jon in surprise and a bit doubtful.
“We thought she was after his money or family name at first but she was clean. She signed the prenup without even looking at it.”
“Guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.” Analysse quipped with a knowing smile.
“Yep. It’s the only thing he got from me though. Anyway JJ got a wonderful wife that everybody loves, and gave me two grandsons.”
“A drastic but welcome change from Chuck. He was arrogant, condescending and boastful. Not even that good at his job.”
“Come on mom, he made good pasta dishes.”
“And that was it.”
“... Yeah, true.”
“I’m still surprised you or Sandra or both did nothing to him.”
“Who said we didn’t?” replied Rick with a knowing smirk.
“““What did you do?”””
“Sandra and I covertly bought all the food distributors he was buying from and year after year the prices rose which in turn made him rise his. Ten years later, since his food wasn’t that good for the amount he was selling it he had to close his restaurant.”
“Revenge is a dish best served cold... you and that girl. Really.” Hannah said, shaking her head with an amused smile.
“A bit harsh don’t you think?” his father asked.
“Not really. He had ten years to improve his cooking and counterbalance his expenses.“ pointed out Analysse. “You would have left him alone, if he had.” she stated more than asking her husband.
“I would have. To be honest I forgot about him until Sandra reminded me.”
“I swear that girl has no mercy.” commented Hannah.
“She got that from you.”
“You’re not better!”
“I do know when to be merciful.”
“Only because you forget!”
“Guilty as charged. Anyway, enough about that. Next is my little princess or my sweet potato. Leeha, that’s my third daughter, finally met a nice quarian after...”
“A...” Before Jon could finish his question Hannah hit him in the rib with her elbow and he quieted down.
“She finally got over her huge father complex and had two children, a boy and a girl. She... Wait a second, I’ll grab another drink, does anyone want anything?”
“A scotch for your father and a single malt for me.”
“A beer for me, darling.”
“On it.”
As he left the table for the bar, Hannah quickly explained the situation with Leeha.
[Author’s note: Nobody cares about the war or the Ketts. And as you said, it was dragging.]
Why talk about it then? Why not stop the story at the end of the third book? Wasn’t it the whole point of the fourth?
[Author’s note: Because his life didn’t stop at the third book. I have to say I’m impressed he had such a life after the Reaper War. Sadly, after his declaration of ownership as I like to call it, nothing really exciting happened to him during the rest of his life and I couldn’t stop the story at that particular point.]
That’s a bit...
[Author’s note: Shh! He’s coming back. You know what to do.]
Yes, you’re not there and don’t exist meanwhile I’m this powerful deity that sends him to different worlds to earn good Karma. I’ve been doing this for a while already, no need to remind me. Which world should I send him to?
[Author’s note: I don’t know, give him a choice.]
A white portal opened in front of the narrator. Out of it came Rick Wald. The gods’ pawn. As the narrator took the form of a golden mist and the sound of a female voice, they spoke.
“Good to see you back. How was it?”
“Not the best world I’ve been in, but far from the worst. Upper tier I’d say. Did I earn a lot of good Karma?” answered Rick.
“You did. You didn’t break your record but it was the third highest amount you earn.”
“I guess that’s good.”
“It is. Are you ready for your next world?”
“Which one is it this time?” asked Rick, clearly fed up. Something that the narrator ignored if they even noticed.
“This time you have a choice.”
The End