Penguins of Anarchy IV: Endgame

Epilogue

Drake, Camo, and Greeney leaned on the rail of the balcony, watching the celebration of peace far below.  Balloons floated through the air, children played in the streets, and Felly, Riker, Terasane, and Larikos celebrated with the others below.

"Was it worth it?" Camo suddenly asked.

"What?" Drake asked.

"Training Dreemo to be the soldier who would put an end to all this."

A somber look grew on Greeney's face.  "I can't say anything is worth the loss of my son."

"But we couldn't have put an end to it by ourselves," Camo stated.  "We could have tried, but without him, no one would have followed us."

Drake and Greeney regarded this silently.

"I still wish I had given him more of a choice," Drake said.  "He shouldn't have had to take up all that responsibility if he didn't want to."

"He had a choice," Camo replied.  "It's like Greeney said: Even if he hadn't taken off that mask, Dreemo still would have made the right choice.  That's just the kind of penguin he was."

"I just wish he could have lived to see this," Greeney said as he watched the small children dancing below, rejoicing at being able to live free, happy lives.

"Who says he can't see it?" Drake put in.

Greeney and Camo looked at him skeptically.  "Don't get all spiritual with me," Camo said with a grin.

Drake laughed.  "C'mon, Camo, we've been to a mountain filled with ghosts.  Couldn't you be a little more openminded?"

"I still think that was all in our heads," Camo remarked good-humoredly.

"Oh, so you're saying I never came back from the dead?" Greeney asked playfully.  "If that's the case, you've got some serious mental issues since you're having a conversation with a dead brother right now."

His brothers laughed with him.  "Seems like you've come back from the dead twice now," Camo remarked.

They stood silently for a while, watching the celebration.

"After all these years, why were we chosen to see the end of all this fighting?" Camo asked.  "Many of our closest friends have been dead for forty years, but we're still here.  Why?"

"Certainly not because we deserve it," Drake remarked.

"It's not because of anything we did," Greeney stated.  "It's because of what our friends did for us.  They gave their own lives so we could be here today.  They were truly family."

"What I'd give to have Dreemo be here now," Camo said with a sigh.  "Or Shadow.  Or Minna.  Or Relvik."

"Ice Words.  Gilly.  Peanuts.  Double-S.  Juju.  Sleet," Drake added.

"Sunjog and Rutkan," Greeney put in.

He cleared his throat and said, "No point in dwelling on the past, though.  This is a time for celebration."

Drake nodded.  "He would want us to enjoy this."

"And to make sure it stays like this, at least as long as we're alive," Camo added.

"That's right—at least," Greeney replied.  He made for the door.  "I'm going dancing.  You guys coming?"

With a mutual grin, Drake and Camo followed him down to the party below, where they joined their friends in celebrating the birth of a new, united world.

Greeney sighed.  He didn't speak about how concerned he was that the world would stay at peace—that Dreemo's sacrifice would permanently hold the world together.  But in the event that the world found itself at war again, even hundreds of years from now, Greeney was putting together a plan to make sure it paid for it.  Omniscion wasn't the only one who prepared for contingencies.