:claps: Second chapter! Wow, I'm actually quite shocked at how fast these chapters are going, along with how short they are… o.O normally, my chapters are at least 15 pages long each… and take months between updates! :laughs nervously:

Okay, since BB and TG/DD didn't get much attention during the second season, I devoted a chapter to Trippy white's return. She deserved it, but didn't get it. All we got what a 5 second glance at their reunion. :sigh: so I'll fix this, too! Bwahahahaha…

(and yes, I am aware that both Bouncing Boy AND Shrinking Violet were in the group that was watching Kell-El get sworn in. But I'm an authoress; I can twist things like that to my liking. And I say again; Bwhahahaha!)

Enjoy!

9 pages long in WORD

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Note!: I own not any form of entertainment besides my own sanity. I don't own LoSH! Thank you.

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Ch. 2—Together Again

Bouncing Boy winced as he slinked off down the hallways. It was quiet, empty—most of the Legion was off either in the Infirmary or watching the Swearing-in Ceremony of Kell-El. And, while he would've been happy to see the mark of another Legionnaire being sworn in, he had somewhere better to be.

It was Duo Damsel. She was on his mind; she always was. But now even more so.

He'd watched, in secret, as Kell-El had prepared to go home. It was clear in his mind:

(flashback)

Kell stood, holding the warp key, in the control room of the HQ. It was dark; underground, and suited for this occasion—it was private. Kell didn't want to make a huge deal about leaving, and had specifically requested that the "going away party" be kept as small as possible. It hadn't been a joke—the Legion members had actually planned to give him a full-blown GOING AWAY PARTY. Balloons and cake and everything.

But no. Here they stood, just a day after the aftermath of the battle, with everyone healing yet, and getting their bearings back in order. Kell was saying his goodbyes, and only a small group was allowed to see him off. Around him were the few from the Legion that he felt comfortable with;

There was Lightning Lad, standing in the corner, who Kell had always seen as something of a rival, and could "joke" with—Garth made several snide comments on Kell's abilities (or lack thereof,) and lately Kell had been comfortable to send some of those comments back. He was watching Kell leave, even though his robotic right arm was killing him and still needed repairs.

There was Timber Wolf, who helped him find his way—Brin thought it only appropriate that he see Kell off into his new path, and make sure that Kell didn't forget he still had a path, with or without Imperiex.

And of course there was Superman, who was the closest Kell could ever be to someone; they were connected, and always would be.

And, off to the side, was a very patient Duo Damsel, curiously watching the place where Kell pointed the warp key to. It didn't take a psychic to guess what she was thinking; it was clear she was focused on her third self, the white part of her that had been lost during their first visit to the forty-first century.

He watched as Kell-El addressed them, opening the time portal as he did so. He only half-listened, keeping more attention on Duo Damsel than anything else. As the portal opened, both of her looked into the swirling mass of energy, waiting for someone to walk down the path. They weren't sure if it was going to happen—after all, in Kell's universe, Brainiac 5 had won that battle against the Legion, and Imperiex was still rampaging. There was no way to tell if they'd set the time stream straight, or if they'd just messed it up further. Even Kell didn't know; possibly why the clone was worried about returning to the future.

But they still hoped. Hoped, watched, waited, for the third part of themselves to walk through that path to the future, open-armed, ready to reunite into one full person again. But it didn't happen.

Purple kept her hands clasped behind her back. Orange wrapped her arms around her stomach, looking innocently at the portal. No one came through. It's not like they were too let down at it—they'd expected nothing to happen. But their faces told a different story, as Superman suggested Kell-El be sworn in as an official Legion member. Superman and Lightning Lad had begun to discuss setting the ceremony up, and Timber Wolf sank off into the shadows, like he had a tendency of doing. Kell had seen, then, that Duo Damsel's two selves were still standing, patiently, at the warp gate.

Unable to give anything certain to them, he couldn't say a thing. The clone looked between the orange and purple versions of the once-triplicate-girl, and wordlessly handed them the warp key.

Orange took it slowly. She studied it, and then studied Kell-El. "We'll hold onto this for you," she said quietly. "…if you want."

Again, Kell didn't speak. He just nodded.

Orange nodded and stood out of his way. She held the device gently in her petite hands, watching his back as he left the room. And, just as he opened the door and stepped through, Bouncing Boy heard one of the two—probably Purple—add something.

"Thank you, Kell-El."

(End Flashback)

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Bouncing Boy hadn't said anything. He hadn't wanted to intrude. Even though Duo Damsel seemed to be taking the apparent loss of her third self well now, he was sure she was still hurting. After all, that glimpse down the warp gate had probably raised their hopes, even if just a little bit. And any hopes raised were dashed when nothing happened.

But they'd looked so content just to sit and deal with the loss for the moment. He really thought—oh, why had he thought—that she only needed some alone time, with herself. To view, to consider, and to deal with the certainty that she was, and most likely would forever be, "Duo Damsel."

But oh, was he wrong. Incredibly wrong. No one had seen her since that 'almost-goodbye' on Kell's part. And she hadn't been at the swearing-in ceremony, either—that's what had raised red flags in his mind.

She wouldn't be down here, still, surely?

He stood at the door to the basement as it automatically opened for him. It took quite an amount of self-prodding to get him to move into that darkened room, partially because of his limp, but mostly because of his fear. That Duo Damsel would still be there, that is.

Alone in the same room for who knows how long, with nothing to think about but a loss of a friend.

He entered. Veerrryyy slowly. He crept along, as much as an overweight, clumsy, teenage child with a limp can "creep along". Yet, the air seemed deathly still. He cautiously made his way over to the room where he'd last seen her.

And yes. She was still there.

Staring into that place where the warp gate had been, Orange sitting on the ground, and Purple leaning against the wall. They were both transfixed on that space, and Orange still held the device in her hands. Gently… treating it as if it were gold.

But it wasn't as bad as he thought it was. After a few minutes of studying them, he realized that they were talking slowly to one another. Very quietly, they were making conversation, though they did not look at one another.

"It seems odd, though, that Kell's warp key looks like a toy that Brainy would've made when he was a little kid."

"I guess they prefer function over form in the future—as long as things work right, there's no reason for them to look pretty?"

"Maybe. It's still silly, though. You imagine the future, it's always in sleek, endless technology, formless grace…" Orange ran a finger down the side of the bulky warp key. "This looks like something from the twenty first century, not the forty first century."

"Weren't you paying attention when we were there? The whole place looked like that. All computer systems, mechanisms, locks… they were all clunky, and looked like they'd been thrown together with whatever parts they could find."

"Perhaps that's the truth—they were living in a desperate time. Maybe they couldn't get their hands on the proper materials half the time, or maybe they just made do with whatever they had. No sense in making it look pretty, if its main function is to blow stuff up."

"Except the robots. Imperiex's robots looked like they were top-of-the-line."

Orange gave a small chuckle. "Can't say the same for Imperiex, though."

The smile was small, but Bouncing Boy's heart leapt up in joy at the sight of it. His joy dropped, however, when her smile fell only a second later. Orange looked wordlessly at the empty wall where the warp gate had been the day before. Her eyes looked pained.

"She's not coming back, is she?" she asked quietly.

Purple looked down, to her feet, biting her lip. Slowly, she moved her hands out from behind her, so that she could look at them. And, just as slowly as Orange had, she began to speak. "I feel… empty, almost."

"Almost," Orange agreed.

"It isn't like we didn't expect this," Purple continued, slowly clasping her hands in front of her.

Orange lay her hands flat on the ground in front of her, as though trying to steady herself. After a moment of silence, she spoke, her voice raised in distress even though it was clear she was trying to keep herself calm. "I don't understand," she said finally. "I mean—! I mean, yes, we weren't expecting her to come back, for us to be whole again, but why…!" she wiped away a stray tear that was falling down her cheek. "Why do we still feel so shaken up? We've had plenty of time to deal with her being gone!"

Purple drew back a bit, hugging her elbows close to her chest. She thought about the ways she could answer her other self, her eyes still not leaving the wall that the Warp gate had disappeared from. "It's because it's us, orange. She is us." She explained finally. "When we lost her, we lost part of ourself. It's like when you're ascending a staircase in the middle of the night, in the dark, and you think there's one more step than there is—you try to go up and you're met with nothing and for a split second you feel like you're falling before your foot meets the ground and you lose your balance. That rude awakening… setting your foot down too hard on that step that isn't there. It's a shock."

She looked cautiously to her other self, the first time Bouncing Boy had seen her look away from the wall. "We lost White. She's not there. And we reach for her, and miss the step and feel like we're falling, over and over. But sooner or later we're going to get used to it, just like we learned that there are thirteen steps to the top of our staircase, so that we'd stop missing that step."

Orange paused, swaying in her spot, as though she was envisioning what Purple was saying in her mind. "It's still hard," she said in a whisper.

Purple nodded, tucking a hair behind her ear. She looked back to that empty wall where her other self was supposed to be. "I know," she whispered back. "but it will be okay."

Orange nodded too. She sighed, running a finger along the floor in front of her, still looking at the wall. "Of course. I know too. Everything will be fine eventually. Besides…"

"We still have Bouncing Boy." They both said together.

This made Bouncing Boy, still standing at the entrance, jump back a bit in surprise. The girls, who'd startled themselves by speaking at the same time, quickly glanced at each other and held their gazes. After a second of silence, and realizing they looked away from the wall, both let out a simultaneous chuckle.

Seeing them smile made Bouncing Boy smile, too. So she had been listening when he'd told her that he'd always be there. In the back of his mind, the boy felt it was nice that his presence was making her happy.

But, he also knew that he couldn't spy on them any longer. He'd have to make his presence known, somehow. He could do one of two things; he could a.) walk in and let them know he'd listened to the whole conversation or b.) he could pretend that he hadn't heard a thing.

Not wanting to break the moment between Duo Damsel's selves, he decided on the latter. Slowly, he backed up to the basement's entrance, and then called out. "Duo Damsel!" he called, starting forward again. "Hey, are either of you down here? The ceremony's starting!" well, no, the ceremony was probably ending, for all the time he'd taken away from it. But still.

He approached the place where he'd seen them talking, about to go into the room, when Purple popped her head out of the door. "Ceremony?" she repeated.

"So you are down here. Where's Orange? No one's seen you in about a day. Don't tell me you've been down here this whole time!"

Orange came to the door as well, looking at BB's worried face as he talked. "Sorry. We must've lost track of time." She sighed. "Now, what ceremony?"

Didn't she know? "Kell-El's swearing-in ceremony, of course," he answered, giving her a curious look.

Purple's eyes went wide, and Orange whacked her head. "Oh, duh! I totally forgot about—wait, that ceremony was supposed to happen tomorrow!" she paused, realizing she didn't know the date. "How long have we been down here?" she turned to ask her counterpart.

"Well, if you've been down here since Kell tried to leave, I'd say about a day," he said quietly.

Orange's mouth dropped open. "A… a full day?" she repeated, disbelieving. She looked over Bouncing Boy's face, seeing worry there, and she hung her head. "I'm sorry…" she said quietly.

Bouncing Boy's eyebrows shot up. "Sorry? For what?"

"For… for making you worry," Purple explained, looking equally sheepish. She hid her hands behind her back, a severe blush forming across her cheeks. "We shouldn't have been down here all this time, and you came looking for us, and… you look really worried. We knew there wasn't a big chance that she would come back, but even though nothing was going to happen, it's just… we were just hoping that…" she trailed off, her eyes floating to the side.

Bouncing Boy paused, then stepped up next to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I know you miss her. It's all right—she was a part of you. I don't blame you for feeling incomplete, or for wanting White to return again. I just… I just want you to realize that even though it seems like it, you're not alone." He looked at Purple, then at Orange. "I'll always be here for you."

Purple and Orange traded glances, then they simultaneously blushed. Then, without warning, they both leapt up and gave Bouncing Boy a hug, nearly toppling the boy over.

"We know," Orange whispered in his ear. Orange pulled out of the hug.

Purple leaned in to say something into his ear, too. "…And thank you."

"You're, uh, welcome." Bouncing Boy stuttered. He blushed, a pause running between the three of them. They enjoyed the comfortable silence. Then, after a minute or two, they stood apart. "ah, um… should we go back up and watch Kell's swearing-in ceremony?" he asked. "I mean, it's probably over by now, but if we…"

He trailed off, and the two girls looked at him oddly. "Bouncing Boy?" they asked.

"Uh…" the boy seemed caught, lost for words. He pointed behind the girls at something. "What… is that?" he managed at last.

"What is what?" Purple spun on her heels to look, as did Orange. She was about to say something sarcastic, but was stopped at the sight of a small purplish light that was swirling around on the far wall, and beginning to grow in size. They watched, dumbfounded, as it grew to the size of a small Christmas tree.

"It looks like a portal," Purple whispered, staring in awe.

The three of them looked into the swirling mass of light that had just popped up out of nowhere, all looking surprised. The orb of light beamed, shining brighter as it became more of a regular shape.

"It-it wasn't me," Orange denied quickly, looking down to where the warp key lay. No one had touched it; it still sat on the floor.

Purple looked at Orange, then at Bouncing Boy. "You don't think…?" she began, her voice trailing off.

She and Orange turned wordlessly back to the portal. They hovered, unwilling to move, to see whether or not what was happening was real. They locked their eyes on the mass of light, searching it for any clue to explain its presence.

And, slowly, they saw it. The small figure of a person walking towards them, stepping lightly on the path that didn't seem to be there. Out of the bright portal before them, a small shadow slowly advanced, becoming bigger as it approached.

In the room, Purple and Orange leaned forward, clasping their hands in front of them in hope. Once again their eyes were locked on the wall where the portal should have been—where the portal was—and they could barely dare to imagine what… or who… was coming.

And then, she was there.

Standing before them.

White.

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She hadn't changed an ion of herself, since the last time anyone had seen her. Her hair was exactly the same length as it had been all those months ago. Her skin still held the same tan that the three of them had shared before going to the future—summer had just ended when they'd been visited by Kell, so they'd had a tan, but Orange and Purple had since lost theirs a bit.

And of course, the biggest difference was that White still had her original costume. Their original costume. No black penetrated the cloth, split her body down the middle, no strand in her hair to represent the loss of someone, the void the other two had felt. She was just as they remembered them being, right down to the last strand of hair and atom on her skin. It was White. And she was alive.

The lost-triplicate of Duo Damsel stepped forward out of the portal, her eyes scanning the world set before her. As she stepped out of the light, her eyes caught sight of her other two forms and she stopped, jumping a little in surprise… or perhaps in realization.

She was home.

The emotion was just too much to hold in at that moment. Orange and Purple raced towards her, faces beaming, just as she stepped down from the portal's edge. White came forward too, her arms open to accept their embraces.

They met in a huge hug, burying their faces in each other's shoulders. They grasped on another, afraid to let go, as if unable to believe that they were together again. From a distance, Bouncing Boy saw a small tear of happiness slide down White's cheek. They looked content.

Bouncing Boy looked on, watching their reunion. He vaguely wondered if he should leave, give them some privacy… this seemed like a very personal thing to them. He couldn't bring himself to leave, though; he was, like the others, shocked that White was finally back. He looked on, content to be a bystander and watch the reunion.

Of course, the girls didn't feel that way. After a loving embrace, they stood apart from each other, studying one another with their eyes. White's gaze came over to Bouncing Boy, and a smile slid onto her face. "So there you are," she said, as though she hadn't just walked through a plasma portal from the future. It was like she almost never left. She motioned for him to come closer. "Well? Come here, won't you?"

Awkwardly he stepped forward, into the group. White looked between all of them. "So how long have I been gone?"

They exchanged glances. "Almost a year," Orange answered finally.

White paused, thinking. "K3NT helped me back." She said finally. "I came to, and he…she…they? They said I had to get going. That I had someone to meet."

As though this was a signal, the two Duo Damsels raised their hands, as did White. They met at the center, three touching each other's hands. They gazed at each other for a moment, content to be together.

Bouncing Boy blinked, looking at each of them in turn. "So, uh, are you going to go back to your old costume, Du—Triplicate Girl?" he corrected himself, almost smiling as he did so.

White looked at her counterparts' clothing in thought. Her eyes ran down the black stripe on their hair, and in their clothing. Finally she spoke. "I don't… think that we should." She said. She turned to Bouncing Boy.

Orange spoke. "The black in our costume… it stands for the void that we felt when White was gone." She explained.

"But… white is back," Bouncing Boy pointed out.

"We know," Purple said quietly. "But I think…"

"…that it's important to remember the void we felt." Orange completed her sentence.

They looked at each other, then, there was a small flash of light, and they joined together through their connected hands. When Bouncing boy blinked the light out of his eyes, he found a sole girl standing before him; Triplicate girl, complete as she could be. Her suit was slightly different; White had filled in the black areas of the costume, but not completely—there was still a rim of black around each of the colors, separating them and yet joining them together.

The new Triplicate Girl stood before him, smiling. "If I remember that void, then the time spent together will always be more precious," she said quietly, inspecting her hands. She felt her surroundings, relishing the feeling of being one person again.

Then, she stepped forward, and gave Bouncing Boy a small kiss on the cheek. Bouncing Boy blushed vividly, surprised. "Besides, why would I have to fill the void," she asked…

"…When I have you?"

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-A/N:

Tada! Duo Damsel becomes Triplicate Girl! (again!) I felt that they needed something. I just hope that this was enough of "something" to suffice. Anyways! Now that that's taken care of, I guess the thing to move on to is the Brainy/Vi confrontation. (since, you know, that's all you people have been waiting for, really…)

See you next time! (please review!)