A/N: Like I said, you can stop reading at any time. I repeat: YOU CAN STOP READING AT ANY TIME. I won't be insulted if you do. I said it was controversial, and it will be, for several reasons, which I'll mention at the end. Just don't read through and then tell me that I made the wrong choice, because I'm saying now that treating the epilogue as canon is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL.

Okay? Okay.

That said, I almost get a feeling that I should enact a massive genocide/apocalypse more often. It makes people review. I got more than double my average

o.o.o.o.o

Jashin rubbed a tired hand over his face, exhausted. Nearby, Kami and Shinigami were similarly fatigued, drooping like withered lilacs.

"How long do you think you have?" He asked Kami, his head lolling in her direction.

The blonde goddess shrugged, a small, jerky movement. "A few years. The world of the living always had a lot of power. We've got some time, especially since the blockages were removed…"

"And the chakra cloud?" Shinigami asked, eyes closed. He was in his more normal form, one that looked remarkably like a strong jawed, salt-and-pepper haired, serious business man with grey eyes, small wrinkles, and a penchant for grey clothes.

"Still spreading." Kami answered, sounding as old as every millennia she had lived. "We've started trying to contain it a little, but it's too far gone to do more than protect a small area. The only bright spot is that the oceans are effected mildly, if at all, especially the parts that don't need sunlight to survive. Some underground animals like moles are also alright, if not thriving. Everything else, though? Dead as a doorknob. The situation is a nightmare."

Jashin groaned and leaned forward, putting his face in his hands. "So… what are we planning on doing?"

"We need to get rid of the poison chakra first." Shinigami said, despite how obvious it was. It needed to be said, after all. "So I'm assuming that it would be best to send in several demons and nature spirits to do that. I would help, but…"

"We know." Jashin sighed, leaning back again. "Then… what? We need to start up way to move souls again, and not artificially."

Kami put her face in her palm again. "We'll have to just start humanity from scratch, won't we?"

"We're doing something á la creationism, huh?" Jashin added. "I hate this…"

"Don't we all…" Kami looked up, lacing her fingers and resting her chin on them. "Okay, so we know what we have to do. We also know that, to avoid another mess like the Juubi, we need to pull some strings and make sure there's a different, less volatile place for the world's abnormal energy to go. Someplace where the supernatural influences can circle without causing dimensional damage."

"We could use an existing set-up." Shinigami suggested, looking up at them and entering the conversation again. "We all know that this world followed, for the most part, an existing storyline with some deviations due to not being the original. What if we were to take an existing set-up that we know is far more stable, and grounded the universe into its system?"

"Okay, that could… that could work." Jashin gnawed on his lip. "Something with little to no space-time manipulation, though."

"…What about that friend of yours?" Kami asked, hesitant, due to not being quite sure about whether to suggest it. "She… well, her original world."

Jashin's face twisted. "Wait, you mean Diamond? Her original world is… no."

"It could work." Shinigami pointed out.

"We're not remaking our world to be Twilight!" Jashin protested. "I mean, I see the potential, but that book is a travesty. There is no point in—"

"It's stable. You know it. There's no teleportation or time-manipulation other than prescience, and only a small amount of possibility for it." Kami pointed out, and then glanced at Shinigami. "Problem is, we need to figure out a way to introduce the supernatural element manually. We can trigger the creation of humanity quickly enough, but we'd need to get the supernatural element taken care of before they get past shamans and priests. If they manage to harness ambient supernatural energy with tech, it'll be a disaster."

"So… about 3000 BCE?" Jashin sighed and accepted that this was happening. "It's implied that the Volturi are at least three thousand years old, and the Romanians even older, so erring on the side of caution would be a good idea."

"Erring by two thousand years?" Kami snorted. "But I see what you mean. Still, though we could feasibly trigger a tie to the stability of the Twilight universe, we need another thing to trigger the sealing of the supernatural energy into that canon's entities, or we'll just have the supposed real world with too much ambient—"

"Wait." Jashin held up a hand, and was staring off into space. His gaze snapped back to his fellows, one of whom was now quite irritated that he had cut her off. "…What about Orochimaru?"

The other two stared at him, obviously confused. Shinigami spoke slowly. "That would be the snake sage that could bring back the dead before dying himself, correct? The one that had back up plans for that very event?"

"Yes." Jashin pointed at him, and then, upon seeing how they were not getting it, scooted his chair forward. "Listen, you saw some of what that protégé of his, Kabuto, could do with just a few old experiments. The man was insane, and human, but he was a genius. If we could use any non-celestial, non-demonic entity to take care of this, so that we don't get overly involved and mess up again, it would be him."

"But… he's dead." Kami pointed out. "Like everyone else."

"So we bring him back at 3000 BCE! Keep him immortal to take care of the werewolves and shapeshifters later on!" Jashin exclaimed. "We're already bringing so many of the dead back now, or creating new living people out of scratch, that by the time that point of history rolls in, it won't be a huge deal to bring back a few more?"

"A few?" Kami sounded incredulous. "I understand one man, but—"

"We can't bring Orochimaru back and not Kabuto." Jashin scoffed, cutting her off again. "And we need someone to keep an eye on them so that they do what they're supposed to, not just go gallivanting off and—"

"And what? We could just as easily create the vampires ourselves." Kami retorted. "It's simple, even."

"Yeah, but remember what happened last time we interfered?" Jashin asked, almost sneering. "I want to leave it in the hands of someone I trust. Not just someone I created to work for me, but someone who's proven their worth and loyalty over years."

Kami blinked. "You don't mean…"

Jashin shrugged. "I said we needed someone to make sure they weren't goofing off, right?"

Shinigami just sighed.

o.o.o.o.o.

"So…" Jashin sat on what basically amounted to a large, cubic rock. "Um… well, basically, the dimension didn't collapse. On the other hand, most land-based life larger than bacteria is now dead."

The (sometimes debatably) human souls in front of him stared back, some in disbelief, some in dismay, some in relief, and some in abject adoration.

"We made a decision on what to do, and while it has its faults, we think it'll work, but… we kinda need your cooperation. So we're bringing you all back to life, giving you immortality like Hidan's, and basically just saying 'don't f*** it up, and you can stay alive as long as you want.' That's… more or less the gist of it."

A few of them started to retort to ask for clarification, to do all sorts of things, but Jashin took a look at his watch and cursed. "I gotta run. Ama-chan can take care of the rest."

Amaterasu arrived in the room with flare, literally, coming from a large pillar of black flames. She stared dispassionately at the ones she saw before her, before turning incredulous.

Orochimaru and Kabuto, obvious.

The Akatsuki, understandable.

The minions, eh…

The hostages…?

She cradled her face in her palm, wondering just what she had done to deserve this particular assignment.

"Alright, let's get you set up." She pulled a stack of glossy black books out of hyperspace.

o.o.o.o.o

A/N: I s*** you not. I have had this planned only slightly less time than the apocalyptic ending. Now, the two reasons that I know will be controversial.

1) It's Twilight. Ergo, there's already a certain level of distaste for it. The fact that I'm taking such a successful story and making the sequel a crossover with such a vehemently disliked book is going to cause trouble. I don't care. Twilight is terribly written, yes, but it was my guilty pleasure for a while. It was what I read when I needed to turn my brain off for a few hours and just distress a bit with sparkly lulz. Ergo, don't bash Twilight in the reviews. Please. [EDIT: Seriously, people. I know most of you don't like Twilight. Every review so far has mentioned their dislike for the story. I get it. I DON'T WANT TO HEAR MORE.]

2) I brought people back to life. The reasoning here is that, while some people will be happy to see the adventures continue, many others will protest that I'm undermining my own ending like this, that I'm ruining what may have been the best cold-hearted d**kery I may ever pull off. I know this. I understand this. And that's why I gave you the option to choose to consider this part of the story.

Personally, I see GC ending both with chapter 64 as the only ending, and with the sequel going on as foretold here, with several millennia of shenanigans and messing with vampire heads. However, the sequel is the one that I consider the AU, and the 64 ending is the one that I consider "canon" for this story. You can choose which one you like, but GC, without the sequel, can stand alone. I am proud to call GC finished, because it is. The sequel is more like self-fanfiction of my own fanfic.

And it won't be coming out for a LONG time.

So cheers. It's been a fun ride. I've loved all of the support, and I hope you guys follow me into my next adventures. Check my other stories, if you want. I even have a new gender bender story floating around (albeit for SnK/AoT).

Review. Fave. Don't alert (unless you're alerting me as a whole, so that you know when new stories and/or the sequel come out). Vote. Whatever. And maybe commission this poor college student on dA so I have some stuff to spend at NYCC this weekend.

Oh, and as for that poll? It's been decided: I'm going to be writing It's a Twin Thing.

It's going to feel weird to finally check off that "Complete" button.

(And I never did get a rec on TvTropes for this story... I got a rec for Fly Free, for Only a Ghost of a Hope, and for me personally, but... never for GC.)

Ja ne, for the final time,

Phoenix

[Exit, pursued by a bear]