Hey, remember how I said the story was done?

I LIED.

"...She extended a hand to help me up. I reached out and took it." Finishing his story, the man fell silent and looked around, waiting for his audience to react.

It took some time before the two teenagers, one male and one female, sitting in front of him said something. There was a definite family resemblance; the boy had the man's eyes, and the girl's face was structured similarly to the man's. The two children looked at each other before the boy turned back to the man. "...Is that it?"

The man blinked in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"C'mon, Dad," the girl said. "That's not an ending to the story. I mean, you skipped through half of the dungeon when you fought PoH, and then you just end when Serra shows up?"

"Yeah, that's..." The boy sighed. "I feel cheated."

The man rolled his eyes. "Oh, that." He rubbed the back of his head. "Well, that's, uh... That's because, er... I don't really remember what happened back then?"

The girl sighed. "But Dad, think about it. You skip through most of the dungeon and then you're saved by Deus ex Serra? That just seems like a cop-out."

The man looked around at the room the three of them were sitting in. It was fairly comfortable, with the kids lounging on a large couch and the man sitting in a large, overly stuffed chair, facing them. A small table separated the two of them, with three glasses sitting on coasters in front of each person. A door on the west wall opened and a woman with long black hair walked in; the age of the two adults was hard to pin down. They looked youthful, but some past experience aged their eyes; that experience left world-weary eyes that have seen death in the faces of people only thirty years old. "Is the story finished? I just got done baking."

"Mom, Dad's story didn't end correctly," the boy said. "He just kinda blew through the ending. It was really anticlimactic."

The woman gave the man a long-suffering look of amusement. "Did you end it when Serra showed up, Deus?" He nodded sheepishly, and she sighed. "Every time you tell that story, that's where you end it. Honestly."

"Well, it's not my fault I wasn't paying attention!" the man said. "C'mon, Uri, Kun died and then PoH stole my kill." The two teens giggled, and the man looked at them. "And what's so funny to you?"

The girl smothered her giggles with a hand. "You two still call each other by your game names?"

"Well, that's what happens when you know someone by a nickname for three years," the man said with a shrug.

The woman smiled at her husband indulgently. "Besides, we knew each other's real name in the game, too," she said as she wrapped her arms around him from behind. He looked up at her and patted her hand. "The rest of the Horsemen, too."

When the game ended, the man and woman found themselves separated - not by much distance, but it was still quite a bit for two college students that couldn't walk for more than five minutes without a wheelchair. They managed to track each other down and their friends - the four people they spent the most time with in the game - and renew their friendships; they were in different towns and had different responsibilities, but they managed to stay in touch. When the man and woman finally got married, their friends made an effort to make the wedding. And when they had their first child - the girl - their best friends were there to help them out whenever they needed the assistance.

"But Dad," the boy said, "what was the rest of the dungeon like?"

The man extricated himself from his wife's arms and stood up, stretching. "Well, if you really want to know..." Anyone that knew him well enough would have been able to see a small gleam of mischief in his eye. "Just ask your mother!" He patted his wife on the shoulder, grabbed his glass, and walked off toward the delicious smell of freshly-baked goods.

The woman glared at his retreating figure for a few seconds, but turned back when the children started clamoring for the rest of the story. Just before the door closed behind him, the man heard her sit down in the recently vacated chair and start talking. "Alright, so... I think the best place to start would be right after we went back through your father's portal." She started telling the story from her point of view, and the man smiled.

He was definitely glad they had stopped him from killing himself; he had to live with the guilt of what he had done, but he was glad to be alive. He entered the kitchen and sniffed with a satisfied grin; the cookies were a definite plus, too.

Now it's done. Just a short epilogue, but still.

For those still wondering: It's supposed to end abruptly. Deus isn't really a good storyteller, and the story itself were written as though he was talking to his kids about it. I'm not going to suddenly make something end normally if it doesn't fit in his character. C'mon now.