Epilogue

Author's note: Hi, readers! This is it, everyone, the true finale of Next in Line! I replied to most of your reviews via PM for the sake of making the author's note shorter, so I'll just reply to my guest reviewers here.

XXCandyLoverXX, I understand and appreciate the criticism, but I actually based Tyler's sudden outburst on a bully at my elementary school, who would often get angry at people without warning and seemingly for no reason.

JOHNHAMMOND1993, I do take requests, but I have a few other stories I'm working on right now, so once I'm done with those, I'll consider your idea that you suggested in a review of my parody.

Guest, that's exactly who I based Daniel's appearance on! I haven't played Brain Age 2 in a while, so maybe I should start playing it again.

Guest 2, the epilogue is finally here!

Guest 3, Mike was originally going to be Daniel's father, but in the final version of this story, they are completely unrelated. Now, on with the epilogue!

(Note: credit goes to Gs33022 and MysteriousMaker1185 for helping me edit the epilogue.)

So what became of everyone since the tour, you might ask? Well, let me tell you.

Antonio Ricci continued to pursue his passion of skydiving long after the tour, and he eventually became a professional wingsuit jumper, as well as a stunt pilot. He achieved worldwide fame, but he never let it get to his head. He learned his lesson to not be so reckless and heedless, and he never once got into a skydiving accident since his incident during the tour. He stayed in touch with Yuna, and he even made a few trips to Japan to visit her personally, much to her pleasure.

During Yuna Sayuki's next visit to the factory, she was offered a microscopic amount of Vita-Wonk to restore her original age, but she chose to decline it since she was fine with staying a month younger than she originally was. True to her childhood dream, she became a model when she reached adulthood, appearing on the covers of magazines all over Japan. She learned to be less insecure of herself, and became very healthy and happy as a result. Just like her childhood self, she gave away lots of her money to the poor, as well as to hospitals, scientific research, and retirement centers to help the sick and the elderly.

Mindy Bell decided to end her Everlasting Gobstopper record on her twelfth birthday, feeling like a decade was enough for her. She learned to be more humble and less overcompetetive, and she decided to donate some of her trophies to charity. She used her extreme flexibility to the fullest throughout her adolescence and adulthood, becoming a professional gymnast and a contortionist. She even won a few medals in the Olympic Games for her gymnastic abilities. Despite those accomplishments, she still considered her Golden Ticket to be her best prize, due to how much it changed her life. And yes, she still loved to have Everlasting Gobstoppers every once in a while as a treat.

Daniel Sparkman decided to be less dull and arrogant once he arrived back home from the tour, and he used his intelligence for more constructive purposes. True to the Oompa-Loompas' word, the aftereffects of his demise completely vanished in exactly three weeks after the tour. After graduating from college, he worked in cybersecurity and ethical hacking before starting his own video game company, which he named Sparkman Studios. He still took part in video game tournaments and programming competitions, but he decided not to make it a major part of his life as it was before. Like Antonio, Daniel occasionally flew to Arizona to meet Mindy personally. In return, Mindy contributed ideas to Daniel for future video games, much to the pleasure of the both of them.

Tyler Smith became a lot friendlier and more mature over the next few years. He asked Charlie and Mr. Wonka to forgive him for his actions, which they did without any hesitation. In Tyler's spare time, he submitted ideas for new prank candies to Charlie, who made sure to give him credit once they were sold. Tyler's father turned over a new leaf as well. He became less strict towards his son, giving him the guidance and love that any child deserved. This motivated Tyler to succeed in his academics during his adolescence, and he won scholarships to some of Canada's most prestigious universities. He opted to study at the University of Calgary so that he could stay in touch with his family. When Tyler graduated from university, he started a business which sold prank items, but they focused on humor rather than pain. It proved to be incredibly popular with children, as well as teens and adults who were young at heart.

Chris Davidson and Jenna Adams helped Charlie and Mr. Wonka run the factory together for the next several years. Their new candies, which received rave reviews from customers and the media, boosted the company's sales exponentially. Charlie decided to step down from his position as CEO soon after, and he and Willy continued to mentor Chris and Jenna after they became the co-CEOs of the business. Chris and Jenna continued to get along well, and they remained in a committed relationship.

As for Chris, he spent a good portion of his time outside of the factory, interacting with the community and helping those in need. He took suggestions from other people, including the other Golden Ticket winners. Jenna chose to split her time between running the factory and keeping her position as Wormhole Citadel's bassist. The band received a lot more recognition after the tour, and Jenna's passion for music, as well as her newfound fame, helped it grow even more. They released a few albums over the years, and toured the world on multiple occasions.

In the end, Chris and Jenna won ownership to the chocolate factory, and Charlie and Mr. Wonka won two splendid children to pass the factory's legacy onto, but everyone who participated in the tour won something of their own: valuable life lessons, advice for the future, as well as opportunities to pursue their passions and dreams and expand them into something much greater. For everybody, who were all truly next in line to the factory, one thing was absolutely certain: life had never been sweeter.

Author's note: And this story is FINALLY over! I hope you all enjoyed it for what it was. Of course, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed it from the bottom of my heart, since you all provided such valuable input and constructive criticism. I even have to thank the guests who wrote some of the joke reviews, because Sonny April's fantastic oneshot, "Willy Wonka Eats a Kit Kat", wouldn't have existed otherwise! (If you haven't read that one yet, please do so now, because it's hilarious.)

As for what's next, I'll continue working on "Chuck and the Cocoa Bean Processing Facility", which is a parody of the 2005 movie that I started a while ago. I'll be updating that one much more frequently from now on. Once that's done, I'll resume working on "A Salty Reunion" as well as my Jumanji fic, "A Wooden Box of Chaos". I'm also thinking of publishing some unused Ticket winners and demises that I was originally going to include in this story, in a side project called "Next in Line: Secrets from the Vault".

I want to thank Sonny April and dragonserpent18 for writing "A Second Chance", which is what inspired me to write this story. On the other hand, I also must give a shout out to those who published their own "second generation" stories. In no particular order, my favorites are "A Box of Chocolates" by MysteriousMaker1185, "Charlie's Chocolatey Adventure" by Gs33022, "New Faces" by dragonserpent18, and "Second time round" by TheIndividualist. Once again, thank you so much for reading, and I'll be back very soon! :)

(Note: from this point on, all reviews will be responded to via Private Messaging. As for my guest reviewers, I can assure you that I took my time to read them.)