Chance Encounter at the Graveyard
by Sapphire
A tag to 'Revenge is a Wild Kind of Justice' and a mini-crossover with the animated series Batman: Beyond
Cosmo hated funerals on principle. It wasn't
that he had had the chance to go to many in his short life. Actually, there
had only been two. One when his mother had died - he had been only nine
back then, and he had no clear memory of the event, other than his father
standing there with a stony face, clutching his hand so much it had hurt.
The other one had been of a common friend of Ace and his who had died from
cancer last year.
This time he wasn't personally involved.
That was, he hadn't known the deceased, had actually only heard about her
after she had died. On another level however, he was very personally involved,
as he was standing in for his best friend and partner, Ace Cooper, who
couldn't come on his own. Ace was just out of the hospital and not up to
running around on his leg, which had basically been shredded to pieces
by the traps James Calen had laid out for him. Traps Ace wouldn't have
walked into if it hadn't been for Cosmo, who had been kidnapped by the
mad magician and used as bait to lure Ace in. Cosmo blamed mostly himself
for what had happened, though Ace had told him more than once that there
had been nothing he could have done to prevent it.
Yeah, right.
Cosmo sighed quietly. He would need some
time to get over that whole thing. At least Ace was back home safely, and
if he could make him stay off that injured leg, he actually might get better
one day.
That was also the reason why he was here
right now. When Ace had heard about the funeral, he had insisted that he
needed to come. Cosmo knew that Anna LeFrez had been his friend's teacher,
his mentor in all things magic, so he had understood. But there was no
way he would allow him to leave his bed so early and risk his whole recovery.
The shock from two days ago had been enough, when he had found Ace on the
floor of his bedroom, pale as a sheet , except for the wound which had
opened up again, drenching the pant legs of his pajama in a dark crimson.
He hadn't cared that Ace had insisted that he had only tried to got to
the bathroom. He had all but carried him back into his bed, before he had
called for a doctor.
So he had promised he would go in Ace's
place, also promising he would tell him everything he saw. At first the
magician hadn't been too happy about it, claiming he could come using a
wheelchair, but with the joined backup of Derek Vega and Mona Malone, they
finally got him to relent. Mona was actually back at the Magic Express,
baby-sitting Ace, while Vega had decided to join Cosmo at the graveyard.
The funeral party was fairly small. Besides
the priest, there was one woman, her face hidden by a black veil which
made it almost impossible to make out any of her features. Then there was
an elderly couple, the woman crying constantly, while the man - her husband
most likely - comforted her with an arm around her shoulder. One man with
blond hair stood silently at their side, his face empty of all emotions,
though his eyes expressed a real sorrow.
There weirdest pair was an elderly man,
accompanied by a younger man, not much older than Cosmo was. The older
man was wearing a suit that basically screamed money. He was leaning on
a cane, though Cosmo wasn't too sure if he really needed it, even though
he couldn't put reason to that feeling. The younger man on his side had
black hair and sharp, livid eyes, taking in everything around him. Now
his eyes met Cosmo's and a cold shiver ran through the magician's assistant
as he felt the hidden danger behind them. This man was dangerous. He also
wore a dark suit, however it looked very new, and very much like he wasn't
used to it.
The priest had reached the end of his speech
and now stepped back to allow the guests to walk up to the open grave.
The married couple was first and the woman simple threw in a handful of
earth, before they stepped back up again to make room for the others. Next
was the veiled woman. She paused for a few seconds at the grave, mumbling
a few words Cosmo couldn't understand from the distance. After she left,
the old man with his younger companion walked up the coffin. The old man
hesitated, then suddenly something appeared in his hands, something flowery,
but Cosmo couldn't really make out what it was. However, as he was next
in line, he heard the words the man spoke quietly.
"Good bye, Zana. You'll be missed."
Then he straightened, turned to his partner
and they walked away.
On Cosmo's side, Vega stifled a gasp.
"What's up, man?" he asked in a whisper,
curious what had unruffled the older cop.
Vega waved at him. 'Later,' he mouthed,
pointing at the open grave.
Cosmo nodded, then he stepped up to the
grave. Looking down on the coffin below, for a fraction of a second he
had the feeling he was seeing a pattern, formed by the flowers the old
guy had thrown. Either he was hallucinating, or he was flipping now for
real, or he was really seeing the shape of a bat. Suddenly the spell was
broken, when one of the flowers toppled over the edge of the coffin, disturbing
the picture.
Cosmo shook himself, then he inhaled deeply.
Suddenly, the realization hit him how very easily this could have been
Ace's coffin, Ace's funeral. It had been such a close call. And it would
have been his fault.
The touch of Vega's hand on his arm pulled
him out of his dark thoughts. Quietly he tossed the flowers he had bought
before the funeral into the open grave. Then he stepped aside to let Vega
have his turn.
Slowly he walked up to Vega's car, allowing
the lieutenant to catch up with him. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed
the old man and his younger companion enter an expensive looking car of
an older model.
"Who are they?" he asked Vega after the
detective had reached him, pointing with his chin to the pair.
"I don't know about the kid, but the older
one is Bruce Wayne, a multi-millionaire from Gotham City," he said. "He
was very well known twenty years back, but I haven't heard from him in
years. I only recognized him because he was involved in an investigation
of mine when I was a rookie. I wonder what he was doing here."
Cosmo wondered that too, but right now there
was no way to answer this.
His eyes wandered over the now emptying
graveyard, all the other participants in the funeral having left by now.
Then his gaze caught at the tombstone which would be placed at the head
of the grave as soon as it was closed. In clear golden letters the name,
the date of birth and the date of death was chiseled into the stone.
Anna 'Zatanna' LeFrez 1958 - 2029