Note: I have now divided the final chapter, after adding quite a lot to Chapter 32 to better set up the epilogue. Also, there were some key scenes that I had just plain forgotten when I first posted Chapter 32. So, I suggest you go back and read Chapter 32 before returning to Chapter 33 (and frankly, this is the same epilogue I posted before except for the notes at the beginning and end).

Chapter 33

Epilogue, March 14, 1946 (Earth Calendar)

Lieutenant James P. Hayes, USN Retired, was happier than he had been in a very long time.

At last, he was returning home.

The young man watched the approaching wall of mist. It had been more than four years since he had last seen the wall of mist, and that was from the Freyan end, returning to Earth.

A lot had happened since his return to Earth. The US Navy recalled their special envoy to Atlantis, Lt. James Hayes, US Naval Academy Class of 1939, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Once back on the seas of Earth, Lt. Hayes conducted himself with distinction in several naval battles as the commander of a PT Boat, culminating in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where he lost his left forearm and boat but saved most of his crew.

James spent the rest of the war in Naval hospitals, and in those hospitals he had several distinguished visitors, including Army officers with the last names of Brooks, Mayfair, Renwick, and Roberts. The world's most distinguished doctor came to check on his care.

But it was the visit from a famous bronze bombshell that raised the most eyebrows. Those wounded men who were able to whistled and applauded when Lt. Hayes told them the story of how he had briefly dated the famous bombshell before he was accepted into the Academy, but confessed that it "hadn't worked out."

He didn't tell them about the girl with whom things did work out. The girl he met when he returned to the "City of the Dead" on the Atlantean peninsula. The young woman he ultimately married. Unfortunately, his wedding ring was lost along with the finger that wore it.

"Hey there, Lieutenant Hayes," a familiar voice cried out before a strong hand descended on his shoulder. "We're finally having some luck!"

"It's just Mr. Hayes now, Captain Denham," Lt. Hayes said. "Or, you may even call me James. Just don't call me Jimmy."

"Sure thing, James," Carl Denham said as he leaned on the railing of the Venture II. When the ship was on the seas of Earth, it was captained by Carl Denham. When it was on the seas of Freya, it was captained by the other Captain Denham. The ship was three times the size of the old Venture. She flew the flag of Hildago, but she was actually financed by a mountainous landlocked country deep in the heart of Africa.

Lt. Hayes wished he could climb up to the crow's nest like he used to. Instead, he watched from the deck of the ship as they entered into the mists. It was afternoon on Earth, but Lt. Hayes' Freyan watch told him that it was early morning, perhaps two hours after sunrise on the Atlantean Penninsula and New Zinj, where his wife and son were waiting for him. The date would be...he did a quick calculation in his head...March 4. The Freyan months were about the same length in terms of absolute time as the Earth months, but the months had fewer days since the Freyan days were half again as long as Earth days.

As they went through the mists, Lt. Hayes began to hear the familiar pounding of waves on stone.

"Sounds like we'll be coming out close to where we arrived when we first came here," Lt. Hayes said.

"Pretty much exactly where we first arrived," Captain Carl Denham agreed. Hayes smiled. Being Captain of the Venture II clearly agreed with the former movie director. He looked as hale and hearty and as larger than life than ever.

Then the fog became so thick that Lt. Hayes could barely see even Captain Denham three feet away from him.

But then, Lt. Hayes reminded himself, it wasn't Captain Carl Denham now, it was now Captain Hilda MacKenzie Denham, who was at the wheel of the Venture II. Carl was now Mister Denham, and would be until the ship returned to Earth.

The mists started to fade into the early morning light of the Freyan sun. Lt. Hayes had spent three months, including Christmas, on the deck of the Venture II as it traveled in circles, waiting for the mists to appear. Now, the lightness that he felt in his being was not due only to the lighter Freyan gravity.

Lt. Hayes watched as the ship turned away from the wave dashed rocks under the sure hands of Hilda Denham. He still breathed a sigh of relief as the rocks receded away, and they began their approach to the place formerly known as the City of the Dead, but now known once again as New Zinj.

As they rounded the corner, Lt. Hayes saw the flag of New Zinj flapping in the wind. It was green with the portrait of a white gorilla in the center. In this, it was identical to the Wakandan flag, except in the middle of that flag there was a black panther in the center.

On the shore, people were running to greet them. One was Heart Hawkins, who along with T'maru, Doc Savage, and John Renwick, designed much of the infrastructure for New Zinj. The other was achingly familiar.

"Well, Jimmy, be you ready to go to shore?" asked Captain Hilda Denham, who had joined them next to the railing. She must have given Von Kroenigswald the helm of the ship.

"Yes, ma'am!" Lt. Hayes cried enthusiastically.

Mr. Carl Denham punched Hayes lightly on his whole arm.

"How come she gets to call you Jimmy and I don't?" he asked.

"Because she's much prettier than you, Mr. Denham," Lt. Hayes replied.

As four year old Josef Denham ran up to him, Carl Denham picked up his son and grinned.

"Yeah, she is, isn't she?"

Lt. Hayes was the first one in the lifeboat. As the Denhams and their four children all climbed into the lifeboat, along with a smiling Nate Reynolds and the rather imposing Mr. Chavez, the former Jimmy Hayes tried to restrain his impatience.

Carl Denham pulled a candy bar out of his bag, and he and Lt. Hayes shared a knowing chuckle as the life boat was lowered into the water.

Even with his remaining hand and his artificial hand, Hayes joined in on the rowing. When they hit the shore, James Hayes hopped out of the boat and helped pull it ashore. Then, he ran to his lovely dark skinned wife, who was wearing a white dress and rope sandals (not made from the human hair that made up her first set of clothes). He hugged her in a tight and tearful embrace, and gave her a hard kiss before squatting down to look at the five year old boy looking seriously back at him. He could barely see his son through his tears. The last time he had seen his son, the boy was two months shy of his first birthday.

"Hello, Joshua," he said.

"Hello, Papa," Joshua said back.

"Hello, Nala," Carl Denham said to the wife of James Hayes. He held up the candy bar. "If I were to give you this, would you promise not to bite?"

Nala Hayes grinned. James Hayes loved that smile.

"Let it go, Mr. Denham," she said. "Let it go, and give me my damn candy bar."

Jack Driscoll stared at the chess boards, both his and his opponent's.

He clicked his tongue. Old Kong had him over a barrel again. Driscoll was contemplating whether to try to escape or simply concede when Kong held up a hand, signaling Driscoll that something had come up. Driscoll knew that Kong was hearing a message that no human could hear.

Then Kong signed to Driscoll.

"Carl and Hilda here. Jimmy with them."

Driscoll tipped over his king to indicate his surrender.

"Finally!" he exclaimed. "Ann! Ann!"

Ann Darrow Driscoll came out of their house and into the "Bat Cave", followed by their two children, James and Maureen. In Ann's arms was another child, but not her own. This was the great granddaughter of King Kong, the child of Kiko and his (so far) only mate, Flower Picker. Ann was drinking Flower Picker's milk so that she could be a nursemaid to the little kong.

"What on Terror are you bellowing about, Jack Driscoll?" Ann demanded.

Driscoll chuckled in spite of himself. He had long ago decided he preferred the late and unlamented Adolf Dietz's name for his new home world, but Ann still used Terror most of the time, just to gently tease her husband.

"They've come back!" Driscoll cried. "They've come back and Jimmy's with them!"

Ann turned and looked at King Kong. He wasn't nearly as massive as he used to be. He was thin and clearly old now. To Driscoll, it seemed if the King of the Kong, after the fall of New Prussia, had finally given himself permission to age.

"Do you think you're up to the trip?" Ann asked her old friend.

Kong grunted excitedly in answer.

Kiko and his mate, Flower Picker, arrived first. Kiko was now larger than any kong Denham had ever seen, even dwarfing Tumbler. After entering through the gate, Kiko climbed the Great Wall of New Zinj and started to enthusiastically sign to his oldest friend, Hilda MacKenzie Denham. Soon, the conversation extended to include both James Hayes and Carl Denham. The topic of conversation, as it always did between them, turned to sailing. Kiko, like the rest of them, was still a sailor at heart, even though he was now too big even to ride the ship he grew up on. Flower Picker rolled her eyes in good natured boredom, but also intently watched the direction from which they had come. Clinging to Flower Picker's hair was her infant daughter.

A minute later, the other members of the greeting party arrived. Jack Driscoll, carrying a machine pistol and an elephant gun, walked beside a slowly moving King Kong, who looked as frail and elderly as a silverback kong could look. Sitting straight and tall on his back, looking as beautiful as ever, was Ann Darrow Driscoll. She was still carrying her Wakandan sonic spear, and her two children were sitting beside her. Those same sonic spears were now also held by some of the citizens of New Zinj, but everyone knew that no one was better with the things than Ann Driscoll.

The conversation stopped as the grand old man of the kong and his human friends entered into the former City of the Dead. Driscoll started up a conversation with Heart Hawkins.

"Papa," Joshua Hayes asked his father. "Papa, who is the lady sitting on the old kong?"

James Hayes turned to Carl Denham with a smile.

"No one answers that question better than you do, Carl," Lt. Hayes said.

Denham cleared his throat.

"Joshua," he said. "That lady is Ann Darrow, Missus Driscoll.

"She is the one who saw beauty in the beast."

The End

Just so you know, I knew what the last line of this story was going to be before I typed the first line.

As for the final fate of the Dietz and his son, it was always my intention to follow the classic Lester Dent treatment for villains. The main villain is not killed or captured by Doc and the gang, he is done in by his own fiendish device. In the case of Adolf Dietz, the fiendish device was New Prussia itself. The henchmen either get arrested, or end up being sent to Doc Savage's "Crime College" in upstate New York. Thus, the not-so-final fate of Junior. The concept of Doc's Crime College, like his upbringing, is something that would seem rather creepy from our modern sensibilities, but in the end I decided to follow standard Dent storytelling procedure here as well. About the only standard Lester Dent plot device that I did not use was Doc Savage faking his death somewhere in the story (which he does much to the distress of his "brothers", a.k.a. the Amazing Five).

Hope you enjoyed it.

I want to express my deepest appreciation to all of my regular reviewers, especially those who also sent private reviews with constructive criticism (including blooper spotting). Nate, I clearly agreed with your about adding a chapter. Thanks!

Also, regarding Jimmy and Nala, this was also a relationship I planned to end this story with before I wrote my first sentence. However, to avoid ookiness, after doing some calculations, and with contributions from ograndebatata, I figure that Nala was about 11 (I doubt the denizens of the City of the Dead tracked birthdays) when she bit Carl's finger in King Kong in 1933. Jimmy was 17 that year. Jimmy (now James) met and married Nala in 1940, when she was 18 and he was 24. Joshua Hayes, named for Mr. Hayes, was then born when Nala was 19 and James was 25. I think that works without too much of an ooky factor. Nala and her people had time to benefit from Wakandan technology and culture, and become a very different people, by then.

Peace.