Epilogue

All children start off thinking of their parents as immortal. It's practically a survival instinct. Selatica has concrete evidence that they are not, what with his last dramatic memories as Wyrm, and yet, on some level he still thinks of them that way. It's like, other than some nameless, formless evil he has sworn to placate, they are immune to death. He remembers the way his dad and uncles could stand in the middle of a disaster without a scratch on them. The way his other dad could take on an army with only a letter opener and be just fine.

When he approved the attack on Mordhaus it never seriously occurred to him that his dads could be in any real danger. The attack was just supposed to be a distraction, something to keep the rest of the tribunal busy while he used Crozier to further the Metalocalypse. No one (important) was supposed to get hurt.

He never should have let that masked assassin live. If he could find him now, he would rip his guts out through his nose.

The rest of the tribunal was celebrating; with Charles gone they all thought Dethklok would soon follow. He wanted to make them bleed. He wanted them to feel his pain. He'd somehow, however accidentally, killed his father.

He dismissed the council early, before another idiot could congratulate him on a job well done. He went back to his private chamber, secret passageways within secret passageways, just like his dad had taught him. It was a stupid risk but his room was much like his old room at Mordhaus. Things were different in this timeline. Without him, Dethklok never unveiled its line of extremely brutal kid's toys. They still made a stuffed Facebones with retractable metal spikes and he had one lying on top of the dresser.

He had a handful of framed surveillance photos, candid shots of his dads and uncles blissfully unaware they were being watched. It was stupid to miss people who don't even know you exist.

He doesn't know what happened but there is no baby Worm in this timeline. They played the concert at Hell's Gate like before but there was no baby at the end.

He can't even tell for sure if his parents are together this time around. They were never really that affectionate in public. Even after they were outed by the media, they preferred to keep their private life private. When the doors to the outside world closed and it was just the three of them, or sometimes the seven of them, they would drop the barriers and Wyrm could see clear as day that his parents loved each other. Charles dad would mess with Nathan dad's hair. Nathan dad would pull Charles dad close and whisper things that would make Charles blush.

He'd almost had Rebecca Nightrod killed for coming between his parents. He can remember Charles dad telling him how Nathan had the worst taste in women but he'd never had to see it for himself. He was all set to call in a hit on her when she'd gone ahead and offed herself.

It made his heart ache. If his parents hadn't already been together it was too late now. Charles dad was dead.

It has been almost nine months since his dad had died. The tribunal still met regularly but they were in a holding pattern. Officially they were waiting for Dethklok to destroy themselves, but unofficially Selatica was giving them time to morn. It looked like Dethklok would bankrupt themselves soon, anyway. It wasn't ideal, but at least they were still alive.

Vater Orlaag had asked him out for a few beers after the meeting but he had put him off. Charles dad always said, had always said, that any good secret cabal needs at least one religious figure to be truly shadowy. Then he'd given him a plush Godzilla and informed him it was now the space pope. But he wasn't in the mood for beer today.

He could just hear his Uncle Pickles after his favorite yard wolf had died. "Admitting sadness makes you gay, kiddo."

So he put on his stony emotionless face and said vaguely ominous things at meetings then went home to mope in private. He headed straight to his bed, wanting just to lie down and wonder where he had gone wrong in life. Should he have just accepted his parent's death and let the darkness enfold him?

Before he had gotten more than a few steps into his room he heard his door slam shut and noise behind him.

"I don't know what game you are playing at, but it is sloppy really, to use the same security measures as your target."

It was Charles, alive and well, standing behind the door of his private room. He had a new scar on his face that Wyrm didn't recognize and he wasn't wearing a suit, but it was Charles.

Wyrm couldn't help it. The first word out of his mouth was "Dad."

Charles' eyes narrowed and Selatica tried to replace his cold calculated mask of indifference. Maybe Charles would just assume he had miss heard.

"Who are you?" Charles asked.

Selatica scrambled to think of something vaguely ominous to say.

"I'm none of your concern." he tried to say it in his resonating mystery voice. It came out sounding weak. Feeble, like a line from the wrong play. He never could master the art of lying to his dad.

Charles stared at him. "Now I know you are not that bad of a liar."

It was so much like growing up. Charles having him sit in on a meeting and explaining afterwards that half the battle was lying convincingly.

Wyrm had no choice but to tell the truth, even if his dad wouldn't believe him.

"I'm your son, from a different time line." Selatica fully expected to be shot. Charles dad had never been one to put up with nonsense. He'd once had one of the klokateers shot for telling him the Easter bunny was real.

As Wyrm geared up for what were sure to be his last moments on earth, Charles relaxed his defensive stance.

"What, you believe me?" Wyrm asked when no shot came.

"Well, it would explain a lot. If I raised you, even in a different time line, it would explain why the security measures on this place are exactly the way I would have designed them. Why the tribunal is exactly the way I would have organized things. Why you've never made a serious attempt on my life."

"But I got you killed!" Wyrm said, like a guilty child coming clean after being caught dipping into Uncle Pickles' stash when he'd promised not to.

"No you didn't," Charles sounded exactly like the dad he remembered in that moment. "That masked assassin did. And Crozier was responsible for him. I'm surprised I never warned you about men like Crozier."

"You did, I just needed his influence with the military enough to take the risk. I've taken care of the problem; he won't be acting on his own anymore."

Then Wyrm did something he'd been longing to do since that concert in Indonesia. He reached out and hugged his dad. It must have looked ridiculous. He was bigger and taller than his dad and Charles stood there stiffly, unsure of what to do. Selatica had to swallow back all the words he wanted to say, they would be meaningless to this version of Charles. He let Charles go quickly and tried to straighten out his suit like he hadn't just done that.

"Anyway, I'm glad you're not dead, I bet dad will be happy to see you alive, too."

Charles, who had been examining the contents of the room while Selatica composed himself turned to stare at him.

"Dad? I thought I was your dad?" Charles looked at him like he couldn't keep his lies straight, one of the first skills Charles dad had taught him.

"I have two dads." Wyrm explained, unsure of how much he should say.

Charles sat down hard on the bed. "Holy Shit." he breathed. "Are you telling me that in your time line Nathan and I get together?" he said that like it was the most shocking part of the whole time traveling son revelation.

Wyrm nodded and smiled when he realized Charles had come up with the name Nathan all on his own. He knew his dads still loved each other, no matter what the time line threw at them.