Riverdale: The Lost Soul

We're gonna be okay

The morning after the arrest, Ivy sat in the bunker staring at the wall.
The bunker was empty.
Ivy noticed all the cracks, all the scratches, all the holes in the wall, as if now, after clearing out the bunker, it finally showed how broken it really was.
She got up and placed one hand on the wall, closing her eyes as she did so.
She thought about all the people who she had known, whether they were dead or alive, wether they were enemies or friends.
Liz, Florian, Sebastian, Rebel, Aurelia, Sweet pea, Thomas, Jay, Alice, Ben, Mika, CJ, her mother, her father, Wes, Lynn, Sam, Isa, Archie, Toni, Veronica, Fangs, her brother, Dagwood, Juniper, even Theo crossed her mind.
They all contributed to her last 3 years of High School, good and bad.
They had all helped her, just by excising.
Ivy opened her eyes and left the bunker, thinking she would never return.

At the edge of the forest, her friends were waiting for her. Alice was there as well and she had told everyone what she remembered.
"I don't remember much. The boy picked me up and brought me to the cellar. He must've had a doctor there, otherwise I wouldn't have survived."
Theo was back at his asylum, forbidden to have any contact with anybody.
"Is that all?"
"That's all I can remember." Alice sounded shy and sad.
Sebastian picked up his sister and smiled.
"At least you're safe and alive."
he kissed her forehead.

The gang went to Pops one last time before they would all leave for college again.
"Well, guys, here's to another year of misery survived." Florian lifted his glass.
"Here, here." The group muttered.
"I bet they must've missed you in London." Liz said to Ivy.
"I hope so, otherwise I'll just join you at UCLA."
"Except you're not, you're going back to London to finish your studies there."
Liz smiled.
Florian and Sebastian shared a milkshake and Florian kissed his boyfriend, smearing whipped cream all over his face.
"Guys, this is the last time we'll be in this booth all together, for what's probably gonna be years." Rebel noted.
"No, promise me, we'll never ever lose sight of each other." Ivy sounded very serious when she said this.
Everyone looked at her in awe.
"We'll never stop being friends, agreed?"
Florian got up and lifted his glass.
"We'll not be like our parents and forget everything we've seen together." Ivy continued.
"Heck, if I forget, you're free to slap me."
The gang laughed.

At the Jones residence, Betty and Jughead held a small party to celebrate, CJ was unharmed and coincidentally 5 months old.
Ivy smiled at her nephew rolling over on the floor, he giggled when Florian handed him his teddy bear and Sebastian made a funny face.
Aurelia and FP sat on the couch, talking to Liz about something Ivy didn't hear.
She noticed Rebel standing in the corner of the room.
"Hey, you okay?" she asked her.
Rebel took a deep breath.
"I'll be fine." she smiled softly at Ivy and looked back at the boys playing with CJ.
"Ben's watching over him." Ivy said, truly serious.
"He will always be with us, because of that little guy." Ivy pointed at CJ.
Rebel smiled once again, but a tear ran down her face.
The two stayed quiet for a while.
"Who'd have thought, my brother with your sister." Rebel then joked.
"He will one day be Serpent King." Ivy said.
"He will be leader of the Ghoulies as well."
"They unknowingly created a peace treaty between Serpents and Ghoulies." she continued.
"I guess, after all, they were good people." Ivy said.
Rebel turned to Ivy and said: "They were."
Betty called for the two of them, saying they were going to take a picture with the entire family.
Jughead asked them all to be seated on the couch, Florian handed CJ to FP.
"Well, come on, partners as well!" Jughead shouted happily.
Liz and Aurelia sat down next to their partners on the couch as well, but before they snapped the picture, Ivy got up and took Rebel's hand.
"They said 'the entire family'."
Rebel sighed and shook her head.
"It's not my place.."
"It is, your brother was my sister's partner, that makes you CJ's aunt, which makes you family."
Rebel eventually sat down, she was handed CJ to hold for the picture.
Florian and Sebastian took several pictures of the family and handed the phone back to Jughead.
"We're gonna be okay now."