An Enemy Inside Myself (The TRUE Finale to the SMG4 AU Series)

Epilogue

These past two years have been a handful, on me, on Axol, on everyone. But I at least know one thing. The past is beyond our control, and no matter how many things we'd list to change it, it'll never be reachable. There are so many things that we want to do differently, but we never can. About 2 months have passed since Eveline attacked, and things have definitely gotten much better. It's almost as if nothing ever happened at all. In my end, it felt like my innocence finally returned. The only difference is that I've gotten a bit more independent than when I first turned human, I've matured. Makes me think that everything was worth it after all. We're all still going on our wacky adventures to this day, and it's always fun, to be there with all my friends. As far as the kids go, I've been teaching Sarah to fight. She said she wanted to be as cool as I am, so I decided to teach her about archery. We carved a target onto one of the trees near the castle and thats where we practice. She's definitely gotten the hang of it. She hasn't quite gotten a bullseye yet, but someday she will. And Brandy has learned how to crawl, so she's just been all over the place. Like, when it'd be lunch time for her, she'd be crawling down the hallway and we'd have to catch her like catching a runaway badger. It's like a little game we like to play with her. And Axol, we had to get him a new eyepatch because the old one was starting to get dirty and ragged. When we were looking in the store and trying some on, he definitely had people staring at him for having a missing eye. Some kids even asked their moms and dads about it. Axol just simply laughed it off.
"Sounds like I'm getting popularity again for something other than my mangas."
"Aint like people in the Mushroom Kingdom have ever seen a man with a missing eye, especially an axolotl with one."
"Fair enough."
We eventually came to the decision to get him a black eyepatch with a cartoon skull on there. He says it makes him look cooler, and I agree. That night, I took a moment to myself outside by the big apple tree, staring at the setting sun. I reach into my jean jacket's pocket and pull out my phone, loading up the gallery. I watched through every video I've taken, and looked at every photo I've taken. I began to smile more as the dates of each video and photo go back in time. Moments from Mario taking me to college prom like a proud father, to Niles accidentally setting the stove on fire trying to cook something. As much as I want to go back in time, to relive those moments again..

This truly proves that time goes on.