The media went nuts about that: that someone could have Jack West in his wedding party was amazing, but that he was the second-best man was simply out of this world.

Aloysius Knight and Rufus returned to the business of bounty hunting.

It turned out that hunting down fugitive royals and their sympathisers was both dangerous and particularly lucrative, which meant it was right up their alley.

They visited Jack whenever they happened to be nearby.

Easton returned to the minotaur kingdom in the Underworld in India as an out-and-out hero on a par with the great Asterion.

As the personal friend of Jack West Jr, he was offered the leadership there, to be the next king.

He politely declined.

Instead, he asked Jack a single question and Jack had answered, ‘Why, of course.’

And so Easton lived out his days in a small standalone cottage on Jack’s farm, happily tending to and playing with Jack’s two dogs.

Easton actually had a companion living with him in that cottage, albeit a silent one, with a partially melted back.

Despite his wounds, Smiley, the bronze automaton who had stepped in front of a blast of liquid fire to shield Jack and his team, still functioned, and he happily helped Easton and Jack with various duties around the farm.

He was great for heavy lifting and a particularly good scarecrow.

He was also very useful as a messenger who could carry packages and messages to Jack’s new next-door neighbour and owner of the enormous adjoining station, Sky Monster.

And finally, Jack.

He and Zoe lived happily on the farm, content and in love.

Jack thought often about his adventures, about the time he saved the world and stopped the collapse of the universe.

And while, of course, he’d told his team about it, he never told the world about the power that had been bestowed on him when he’d sat on the Throne of Death during Omega.

All will obey you.

Zoe and Lily kidded him about it, especially when it came to household chores.

‘Don’t you ever tell me to take out the rubbish or do the laundry, Jack West Jr!’ Zoe joked.

Of course, he might have used the power sometimes, subtly of course, like at those international mediations, but that was only ever in the pursuit of peace.

More than anything, though, Jack loved sitting on his porch in the morning, sipping his coffee as he looked out at the view.

One day, a couple of years after Omega, he was doing just that, enjoying a mug of coffee and gazing out at the rising sun. Horus was perched on his chair back, grey-feathered with age but ever watchful.

Zoe was still inside, asleep.

Easton was in his cottage, also asleep, with Roxy the poodle sleeping on her back at the foot of his bed while Smiley stood in the corner like a statue.