Long Goodbye

by

Korky21-DeeCee

Summary: Evan Bourne finds himself flung from the restrictions of ordinary life straight into extraordinary circumstances in which his morals are tested and his will pushed to the absolute limit.

Disclaimer: I do not own Evan Bourne or the WWE or anything relating to them, I just own the concept for this story and some original characters from my imagination.

00-Prologue – Disappearance

Sweat rivulets swathed a path down his heaving chest as he leant against the cool locker room wall, head back, eyes closed, just taking in oxygen as the match replayed in his head. Evan Bourne smiled as he remembered the heart stopping split moment as his Shooting Star Press hit its peak in momentum; it wasn't a new feeling, but it always took his breath away.

"In the zone again, Ev'?" Returning from his realm of memories, Evan's eyelids flickered open, revealing soulful brown eyes which acknowledged John Morrison's smirk at Evan's unusual post-match ritual.

"I guess. Why?" Suspiciously, John shook his head, trying to hide the humour breaking into his expression. "What? Is there something on my face?" Evan asked, running a hand over his jaw.

"Nah, it's nothing, man." John went back to lacing up his boots, getting ready for his own match against Ted DiBiase. R-Truth, who was sitting on the bench next to Morrison, reading a magazine that had been discarded by someone earlier, closed his hand into a fist and punched John on the shoulder with a slightly disapproving glance.

"Dude, you're gonna give him a complex..." John just laughed, shrugging at Evan's confused look. "Don't worry about it, man, he's just being juvenile." Truth said, concentration returning to the magazine's riveting miniature comic strip.

"Well, okay, if you say so." With a still confused smile, Evan sat down on his own bench to rest his weary bones. The match he'd had against Jey Uso had taken up a whole lot of energy, especially as he'd had to keep an eye out for both Jimmy Uso and Tamina.

The two had attempted to provide as many distractions as they could in order to get Jey the win. In the end, their efforts had been for nothing; Evan had pulled out all the stops to make sure the only one winning was Air Bourne.

Tamina had tried to push him off the turnbuckle but he'd jumped over her hands as they'd reached for his legs, a risky move that had paid off as Jimmy had been hanging over the ropes at the time; the rope had rebounded into his face knocking him to ringside as Tamina lost her balance after completely missing and slipped off the apron to land on Jimmy's legs. There had been a few laughs from the audience at that, but then it had turned serious as Evan had finished the match with his signature move, getting the 1-2-3.

Of course, the trio hadn't taken it lying down – Jimmy and Jey had grabbed him after the bell pummelling him with a few fists and kicking his weakened body, but Evan hadn't spent years exercising and training to fall at the second hurdle. With a burst of energy, he'd kipped up, performed a spin kick to the side of Jimmy's face, swept Jey's legs out from under him and ducked a flying shoe from Tamina's general direction before escaping up the ramp, grinning as his music put the full stop to a successful match.

Tamina had grazed his shoulder with the edge of her strappy blue heel though...

"Evan! You here?" A brunette head poked through the ajar locker room door. Eve grinned at John and R-Truth before setting her pretty gaze onto the high flier with intent.

"Eve? Hey, what're you up to?" He pushed off the wall and met her half way, smiling warmly at the Diva.

"Looking for you." Hands on hips, Eve raised an eyebrow at his physical state, mentally reminding herself to show that Tamina a thing or two in their one on one match later in the evening. Nobody hurt her Evan and got away with it! He jokingly went for a hug, chuckling when she kept him at arms length and clamped her nose.

"Oh, well, you found me. What can I do for you?" Finding a happy medium she kindly patted his arm with a smile.

"How would you like to-" Suddenly Eve froze, and at first Evan thought maybe she was thinking about something mid-sentence...but then he realised she wasn't breathing, neither were R-Truth or John, they'd all frozen on the spot, unnaturally so. His brain struggled to comprehend what was happening as the atmosphere around him became static.

"What on Earth...?" Before he had time to question the surreality or whether he'd just happened to go insane, a sunset coloured orb appeared in his peripheral vision, creeping into the imagination of his subconscious mind – he could feel it, knew it was there, but he couldn't focus on it, no matter how hard he tried.

"Calm." The sentient being of light pulsed. Evan wasn't sure if it were telling him or itself to be calm; it had a bizarre nervous 'voice' that, again, he could feel it, hear it, but couldn't pinpoint its origin.

"Uh...what's going...on? Who-what are you? What happened to everyone?" He felt a buzzing sensation in his brain, it tickled though it still felt rather intrusive.

"Questions. Later. Need you now. Agree?"

"Whoa, what? I-I-I'm not...uh...what do you want?"

"Come with me. Trust me. Do not worry...Please." A beautiful and altogether terrifying light engulfed Evan, stirring something inside him that made him more inclined to agree with whatever it was the being was asking. As scared as he was, blinking into the stillness and silence around him, Evan gently nodded. He wasn't sure why. His sweat had gone cold as his heart beat slowed to a crawl beneath his tight chest.

The light captured him once more, this time however, it hurt...an excruciating burning sensation radiated throughout his body, attacking every nerve and cell, causing him to cry out feebly. His vision blurred then became dark as red tears escaped his bloodied eyes. Consciousness faded quickly and he collapsed, all thoughts about what, why and how dispersed into the darkness, then he was gone.

And that was when the Earth woke up.