Aquila surveyed the living room of the five bedroom house the JSDF had rented for the seven of them. It had been a week and a half since the final battle, and the world not ending. It had been a week since she and Yuri had been discharged from the hospital. It had been half a week since that annoying Harry Spade person had stopped sending her flowers and apology notes for having shot her.

    Aquila smiled and stretched. She had been waiting for this day for a very long time. The others – Cap and Yuri, Natsuki, Sayori, and Yukari, were all seated on the couches, chatting with excitement. They just needed a couple of guests to arrive.

    The two arrived together. Atria Silverspear in her JSDF uniform, and Lady Meliana in a fashionable turtleneck and long coat.

    Cap blinked as he saw Atria. “Still in uniform?”

    Atria nodded. “It turns out somebody resigned her position right after the final battle and then signed back on as a civilian contractor, leaving me in charge of the unit.” She glared at Meliana.

    Meliana grinned. “I wonder where I got that idea from.”

    “Do you have any idea of how much paperwork I have to do?” Atria complained. “How many meetings I have to attend? They never end! We’re trying to create a program to help our kind when they fall into this world, and they want to discuss every single detail! It was a dirty trick.”

    “I think the correct term is ‘payback’,” Meliana said.

    Cap blinked. “So why not just resign?”

    Atria paused, and then stared at the floor and said, so quietly Aquila almost couldn’t hear her, “They’d take away my office if I did.”

    Cap chuckled. “Seriously? The JSDF is keeping you there using your office?”

    “It’s a very nice office!” Atria declared. “It has a good view. And, I needed something to do while I waited for a ticket home.” She sighed. “Anyway, I didn’t want to miss this. And then I’ve got paperwork, and I’m meeting up with Balthazar. He’s going to take me back to my world so I can try to convince Prometheus to come join me here.”

    Yuri cocked her head. “You’re staying?”

    Atria scratched the back of her head. “Well, Prometheus is my fiancé, and I love him, and I’m going to live wherever he does. But, when those amateur stories were signal boosted, one of them was a slice of life comedy set about a year from now in which Prometheus and I open a cat café...and it was really popular. A cat café! I don’t even like cats! I prefer dogs! And Prometheus is allergic! Our dream was to get married and open a bar for veterans! So...it’s either convince him to move here, or the information stream forces us to run a cat café. And Balthazar better explain how the information stream works properly to him, because...cat café!” She turned to Meliana. “You’d better not be laughing.”

    Meliana shook her head, trying not to laugh.

    Aquila grinned. “Okay, let’s get this done. We’ve all waited long enough. Cap and Yuri, front and centre!”

    Cap and Yuri looked at each other, smiled, and stood, Yuri still a bit unsteady.

    “Cap, what I’m about to do will reset you to your original character description,” Aquila said. “That character description was pretty basic. There’s no laser eyes, no flying, no moving faster than the speed of sound, no immortality. Are you ready for this?”

    Cap nodded. Yuri squeezed his hand.

    “Did you go out into a field and torch some things with your laser eyes, get all of that out of your system?”

    Cap smiled. “I’m ready.”

    “Okay then,” Aquila said. “Yuri?”

    Yuri looked at her and beamed Aquila a blissful smile.

    “Ah,” Aquila said. “Yuri, you don’t understand. I’ve never done this to somebody who was making physical contact with another person before, at least other than me. So, just to be on the safe side, I need you to let go of him and take a step back.”

    Yuri blinked. “Oh, I see.” She stepped back.

    Aquila shook her head and smiled, stepping up to Cap. “The young can be so impatient, can’t they? Forty-sixth stage.” A wave of energy swept through Cap, restoring his original character description. Aquila patted him on the shoulder. “Welcome back to mortality, my friend.” She looked to Yuri. “He’s all yours now.”

    As Aquila sat down on the couch behind her, Cap blinked and looked at his hands. “I need something like a water bottle. Does anybody have...?”

    Atria nodded and tossed him a plastic water bottle.

    Cap squeezed it, the bottle buckling. He looked up, his eyes glistening. “It didn’t break. I squeezed it and it didn’t break!” He turned to Yuri. “Hi,” he said, “I’m Matthew Markham. Everybody calls me Matt.”

    “Will you shut up and kiss me?” Yuri said, embracing and kissing him.

    “Cap really has been a bad influence on her,” Yukari chuckled. “She’s almost American now!”

    Atria smiled. “I’ve got to go. Lots of paperwork waiting for me. And, apparently the higher ups want to know why I used my security access to cancel the second half of some zombie horror anime. You two enjoy your happiness!” With that, she headed out the door and into the street.

    Aquila looked at Kasumi. Kasumi nodded. “We have an announcement to make,” Aquila said. “Once I’m well enough to travel in the story worlds again, Kasumi and I are going to head home. The direct route, this time. We’d both like to spend some time being homebodies for a while. But, we think you should all consider staying here.”

    The others blinked and stared at her in shock.

    “This is a hub world, and one we all just helped save,” Aquila explained. “There’s no information stream to force this world into some god of creation’s vision. And, you’ve all been issued everything you need to build a life here. You can have futures here in a way that you can’t in the story worlds.” She looked at Natsuki. “Like going to law school and raising a family.”

    Natsuki looked at her friends and grinned. They all grinned back. “Well, we appreciate that, but I think you’re not getting rid of us that easily,” Natsuki said. “Do you really believe that we’d turn down the opportunity to see two gods making a world together?”

    “I want a volcano,” Yukari declared.

    Sayori stared her.

    “What?” Yukari asked. “I’ll take care of it.”

    “Besides,” Natsuki said, “we know that if we ever decided we did want to settle here, you’d bring us back. And, as far as families go...” She looked around at Aquila and Kasumi, at Cap and Yuri, and at Sayori and Yukari. “...I think this one is pretty amazing.”

    Aquila smiled. “Well, if that’s your decision, I guess we’re all going back together. Good. I think our world would be lonely with just the two of us.”

    “I’ve got a question I’ve been dying to ask,” Cap said. “You have all these ‘Stages of Creation’, but what’s the first one? What’s the first power you ever got?”

    Aquila blinked. “Um, I don’t think–”

    Kasumi grinned at her. “Oh yes, do show them. They deserve to know!”

    Aquila sighed and held out both of her hands, palms upwards. “First stage,” she intoned. A little water fountain sprouted out of each of her palms. She closed them, dismissing the fountains. “You need to understand, Kasumi was a fan of this show about this guy who dies after nearly getting hit by a truck and goes to another world with this useless water goddess...”

    Cap began to laugh. “It’s a party trick!”

    Aquila nodded. “Yes, it’s a party trick. And you’re never going to see it again.” She sighed. “Look, you two enjoy being able to properly be with each other at last, okay. Just remember that some of us like to sleep at night, so try not to get up to anything too noisy.”

    Yuri blushed, Cap chuckled, and the others stared at her.

    Aquila blinked. “What?”

    “Have you heard yourselves at night?” Sayori demanded. “You’re loud enough that we’ve all gone though several pairs of earplugs, and they never work!”

    “And one of you keeps making this weird sound,” Yukari added, “and none of us can figure out which one of you it is! We’ve been trying for months!”

    Yuri frowned. “I hate to say it, but in the barracks we had to talk everybody else out of presenting you with a petition.”

    Aquila glanced at Kasumi and said, “But we were only there for two nights!”

    “We know,” Sayori said. “We know.”

    Aquila blinked. “Fine then...everybody be quiet at night...”

    Yukari grinned and got up, heading for the kitchen. “My turn to cook dinner. You’ll love what I’ve got planned – it’s got things in it!”

    Sayori blinked and rose to follow her. “Wait, what do you mean, ‘things’? Do these things have names?”

    “Probably!” Yukari declared.

    “Our little family,” Kasumi said, smiling. “Did you ever think we’d have one?”

    Aquila shook her head. “I guess we got very lucky.”

    “Can I have a word?” Meliana asked.

    Aquila nodded. “Sure.” She rose and headed into a room that some former owner had once used as a study, the desk and bookshelves still there, albeit empty. Meliana followed. “So, what can I do for you?” Aquila asked.

    “Well,” Meliana began, “you can tell me just how many billions of people Aquila Agawa has to save before she starts forgiving herself for the things she did when she was lost and not in her right mind.”

    Aquila shook her head and chuckled. “What, are you going to become the other hundred and forty-six people I killed in my war and tell me it’s all okay?”

    “They’re not the ones who have to forgive you.”

    Aquila paused and looked at her. “I...to be honest, I don’t know how.”

    “Yes you do,” Meliana said. “You’ve always known. I think you’ve just been afraid to try.”

    Aquila stared at her.

    “You start by letting yourself be sad,” Meliana stated. “I think it’s part of a process called ‘mourning’.” She looked to the door. “Anyway, I have things of my own to do. Atria may have all the paperwork now, but that still leaves me with plenty of work of my own as the civilian leader of the project. I’ll check in on you, if you’ll allow me to.”

    Aquila blinked. “I guess I’m okay with that.”

    Meliana gave her a short bow and left. Aquila stood for a moment, lost in thought, and then headed out to where Cap and Yuri were cuddling on a couch and Yukari was teasing Sayori about the ingredients to dinner. Kasumi looked at her in interest.

    “Kasumi, I think I’m going to have to spend some time being sad,” Aquila said. “I don’t know how long it will last.”

    Kasumi nodded and took hold of her hand, her eyes tearing up. “I’ve hoped for so long that you would finally be able to do this. And I will be there to help you every step of the way.”

    Aquila took a deep breath and gave her a fragile smile. “Good.”