Chapter 4- Life is too short

~ Author's note: Man, did I have trouble trying to make this chapter*sob* I'm sorry it took me so long to put this up, but I needed some time to figure out how I wanted to write this out...Unfortunately, it didn't really come out the way I wanted it to...-.-'. I have been at a writer's block at this part for the longest period of time. SO GIVE ME SOME CREDIT!! However, I find it's still one of the dramatic chapters of this one..One of the first of many in this fic. It's also a pretty short if you look at all the other ones that I have written so don't fall over if it's too short. *^^* Enjoy! Although...you might need a tissue or two for this....Then again, you might not...

~Aki~



"Terry seems pretty torn-up about this...." Dawn said as she sat down on the couch to talk to Julie and Bruce when she had arrived back from Terry's house.

"He has to be...He just lost his brother and father in the same year..." Julie replied. "I mean, Dawn, you should know where he's coming from, feeling like this, right? I mean, with your family and all..."

"Yeah..." Dawn said as she lowered her head. The flashback of some happy memories appeared in her mind and she sighed. My family....Mom...Dad.....Tammy.......

"I think it has some connection with all the children that were being killed....it seems only logical..."

"That seems like a possibility.....but we need to keep Terry high in spirits.." Bruce said. "We still need him for this mission with Zio and Eagle."

"Well, first we have to get him back on his feet by getting his physical strength back...have you developed the anitidote yet?" Julie asked.

"Almost there...I just need a few ingrediants, and then it should be finished..." Bruce said. "I will have that finished as soon as possible in order to get him back out there with you two. He just needs to be out there in order to back into the swing of things."

"Right."

"Wrong!" Bruce and Julie turned to Dawn who was sitting there with a stern look on her face. "Terry doesn't need to be out there...that's not going to help a situation like this....he probably wants to be alone so he can sort things out by himself. It's not a good idea if you guys make him do this."

"Well, what do you expect us to do?" Julie asked. "We need to act faster because the pace we're going in isn't that great...."

"I know....if only there could be something we could do...." Dawn said as she pondered. "I'm going to go talk to him. I'll be back in a little bit, okay?" She took her purse and walked out of the mansion.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Mrs. McGinnis?" Dawn said as she knocked on the door. It creeked open to see Mary, looking like she had just cried her eyes out. "....Is Terry here?"

"Yeah, he's here. Come on in, Dawn." She said. "He just went back into his room to go to sleep." Sleep? It's already past one o'clock...Terry doesn't sleep THAT late. She went to Terry's door and lightly knocked on that. There was no answer. She opened the door to find that Terry was on his bed. She slowly walked over to him and sat on the side of his bed.

"Hey, Ter." She said with a timid smile. He was silent. Dawn laid down beside him and snuggled close to him. "C'mon, Ter. You know you could tell me anything..... I don't want you to feel alone....'cause you're not." Terry's eyes closed and then he took his hand to put it around Dawn's waist and held her close to him, making her caught off guard.

"You've been through this enough, right?" He asked. "How do you get the pain to stop?"

"It never does...." Dawn said.

"Then how do you get through the day with it...?"

"....I try to think of good times and that's how I know I'll always remember them instead of how ther were right before they died......Their death....was...so...sad....I don't want to think of them that way." Terry was silent. He turned his head the other way from Dawn, to not show her the sad expression he had on his face.

"I...I just don't want to lose anyone else...I thought I could protect Matt and My mom, but I guess I was too distracted to do anything for them...and this is what happens...Dawn, I'm going to protect you and everyone else. I promise....I am sick of this sort of thing happening...."

"Oh, Ter...." Dawn said as she held him tighter. Just then her eyes widened and sharply the pain rushed back to her for her same vision of the burning. Dawn held her head in agony, and Terry looked over at her to see her yelling. He held her close, to try to help matters, but he didn't know what to do. This time, for the vision, she was able to see the people. Dawn squinted her eyes but then she gasped in fear. The victim...the victim is....! The burning of the city was beginning to show the burn marks on Dawn's body when she was in the vision. Terry looked at it in surprise, wondering what the heck was going on with her. She then woke up to see Terry.

"There's gotta be a way to eliminate these visions..." He told her.

"I can't eliminate them." Dawn said.

"But, look at what it's doing to you..." Dawn looked down at her legs and arms to see that there were burns across her body. She used her magic and healed them the best she could. "I don't mind them, remember? I can heal them..."

"But what if they get as serious as killing you and then what?" Terry asked. Dawn didn't answer and she got off the bed.

"We better get going. Bruce would expect us to be back at the manor shortly." Dawn said as she opened the door. He went to his closet and picked up his jacket to follow her out the door.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"The antidote should be finished by tonight." Bruce said.

"It sure has been taking you a long time." Julie replied. "I mean, it shouldn't be that hard to make an antidote for something like that."

"The ingredients are hard to get. What do you want me to do about that??" Bruce asked.

"To finish it! For God's sake!" Julie said as she snapped at him.

"You're an extremely violent person for a girl!"

"Yeah, well you're awfully slow for an old geezer like yourself!"

"Take that back!"

"MAKE ME!!!" Julie shouted at him. Just before there was going to be a World War IV, Dawn and Terry walked in the door. They stopped and looked over at them.

"Are you feeling any better?" Bruce asked.

"A little." Terry said, and Dawn was silent.

"Good." Bruce said. "Now, to get down to some business....."

"Have you noticed that the sky isn't as bright as it usually is?" Dawn asked out of no where. "It used to look so beautiful....Now because of this....It's like I'll never see another blue sky again."

"Dawn?" Bruce asked. "Are you okay? What are you talking about?"

"Oh!" Dawn said as she snapped out of what looked like a trance. "Um, nothing. It was nothing at all. I'm sorry." She said as she walked away from them and ran up the stairs.

"Dawn, just be sure to be dressed and ready to go." Bruce called to her as she ran up. She nodded her head in understandment, not looking at any of them as she left.

"That was sure weird. Did anyone notice how Dawn seemed to be acting a little strangely?" Julie asked.

"Very..." Bruce replied.

"Dawn has been acting weird ever since she had that vision..." Terry explained. "She won't tell me what she saw and she has been really quiet for most of the time on our way here."

"Hmmm.." Bruce pondered.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Dawn had her suit on and she was staring out the window as she saw a storm coming in. She pulled her glove on and sighed. This can't be...I can't believe this is going to happen....Well, if it happens, it happens. I just have to accept it. That's how fate is. You can't really change how it's going to be because you know something worse might even come up if you think you have solved that problem. It's not worth it anymore....why are we fighting anyways? Why am I fighting? War never stops between one another and all we're doing is preventing it for a day...what good is that? What good are we if we can't even stop the fighting anyways. All my life, I have only known about one thing: To fight. In order to stay alive after my family's passing, it made it difficult for me as young as I was, to survive. Before I came to Bruce, I was getting into a lot of street fights, fighting for money and to be the best that there was. All I ever wanted in this world was to be happy with someone I loved and not have to have a care in the world...I guess that fate never wanted to smile upon me....We do so much for this city, and yet, there's no form of gratitude. Not in gifts, but I meant in luck. Luck...and Time. Two things that I will never get. If anyone is listening to my thoughts up there that guards my friends and Terry.......Please.....please take care of them. Don't let them out of your sight.

"It's getting pretty bad out there..." A voice remarked. Dawn turned around to find Terry standing at the doorway.

"Terry...." Dawn said.

"How are you holding out?"

"Umm...I'm fine, thank you!" Dawn smiled.

"You know...I'm really worried about you, Dawn. You've been acting really weird today and I just wanted to know what's been up with you."

"Terry, I'm fine. Really, I am." Dawn said as she got up to walk over to her dresser. He walked over to her and placed his hands against her shoulders.

"Please, Dawn...tell me what's going on. I don't want you to be alone with these problems and try to solve them on you own. You know you can't do this by yourself and you know you could always come to me. I don't want you to feel this way. I feel like I should be apart of this, so if it's your problem, it's mine as well."

"Oh, Ter...." Dawn said as she closed her eyes. "You can't help me with this...no one can....I'm sorry if you feel offended by it, but this has to be something I have to face alone." She turned around and hugged him tightly. Terry hugged back, feeling that there was something really bad coming.

"Dawn, if you don't want to tell me.....that's fine." He said softly to her. He could then see tears falling down her cheeks. Terry wiped them away with his hand and then lifted her chin to kiss her softly on the lips. Dawn kissed him back for the longest period of time, never wanting to let go. Once they had departed from each other, they stared into each other's eyes.

"Once Bruce finishes the anitdote...I will join you guys as soon as possible, okay?" Terry explained.

"Terry, you shouldn't go out with us....Not even Julie should be going..." Dawn said.

"Why not? Is something bad going to happen?" Terry asked. Just then, Julie walked into the room and knocked on the door lightly.

"Dawn, let's get going." She said. Dawn looked at her and nodded her head. She gave him one last kiss on his lips again.

"Bye." She said and left with Julie

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"SO....." Celes began. "Where are we going?"

"Where disturbance was coming from..which was in the center of Gotham...." Bruce said through the communicator of her motorcycle.

"And that would be...where...?"

"Look up." Bruce said. Celes looked up from her communicator, and noticed that lightningh bolts were flying all over the place.

"Oh....makes sense...." She said. "Hey, Dawn, you're allowed to make a comment you know...." But there was no answer. "Dawn?"

"What?" Dawn answered as she flew the batmobile at an unusual fast pace.

"You've been silent this whole way....Did....something happen?"

"No..nothing happened."

"Was it something between you and Terry?"

"No...There's nothing going on between us. I just really don't feel like talking right now."

"Are you sure you don't want to talk?" Celes asked, feeling concerned.

"Yes." Dawn said, trying to feel confident with her answer. "Thanks for trying to help, Julie...But this is something you can't help me on."

"Now there's something definitely wrong. Dawn, what's going on?"

"Just stop asking questions, okay? It's for your own good and it just makes things better off than they already are!" Dawn snapped. Celes then fell silent. Dawn had then just realized what she had done and sighed. ".....I'm sorry, Julie...I...I didn't mean to do that...I'm just in a little bit in a bad mood...."

".....It's okay, Dawn. Don't worry about it. Let's just drop it okay?" Celes asked. Batgirl nodded her head and replied an "ok" to the question. I just wish I could tell you, but I can't.....You're a good friend, Julie. But I can't. When they had finally arrived to the destination, Batgirl got out of the batmobile and Celes jumped off her motorcycle. They flew up to the top of the building, to find that Eagle and Zio were both there, waiting for them.

"Well, well....we meet again, eh?" Eagle began. "It's good to see you ladies for the second and very last time..."

"Can it, Eagle! Today is different! We're gonna take you all down once and for all!" Celes snapped back.

"Oh, you think so? Just with me here before, you couldn't take me down, and now that my brother is here, you don't stand a chance." Eagle said. Batgirl then used her magic to create a beam of light and blast it right at them. The brothers had moved away from the attack and then combined their attacks together to blast Celes and Batgirl out of the way. In mid-air, Celes exploded by using her "ICE STORM!" She froze the two down to the ground so they couldn't move and Batgirl followed up by firing a fire tornado at them. Zio broke the ice and used his his barrier to block the powerful attack. Hmm...She's stronger than I had ever imagined, He thought. However...that's not going to stop me.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"How much longer, Bruce?" Terry asked as he kept pacing back and forth.

"It might take some time....." Bruce replied, pouring liquids together.

"But we don't have that kind of time, Bruce. Dawn and Julie are out there again and they're confronting both Zio and Eagle." Terry explained. "I have to get out there as soon as possible."

"I know...." Bruce said. "I'll work as fast as I can....I'm getting kind of worried about them....They haven't responed back ever since I last talked to them about anything."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Aaaah!!!!!!" Batgirl shouted as she was hit by a huge ball of flames. She went back into the wall and slid down against it. I don't know how much I can't take of this, she thought. I thought one was bad, but this is way worse. She got back up, hesitating to stand. "Lightning bolt---come forth!!" She said weakly as she performed her attack, making it as strong as she could. Zio got in front of Eagle and used his barrier to block off the attack. Most of it was blocked until the end, where it broke through and hit him against the shoulder. He got down on one knee and held his arm, which was now bleeding. Batgirl, now standing with a small smirk on her face, and panting, she looked at him with a stare. Celes came up and used her freezing ray to help her out, but Zio quickly dodged.

"I have had it with you pests...." Zio said as he got up. "You've had your fun, but now I must conclude this game......I have engagements to keep, and I can't be late.." Batgirl lowered her head in anger and attacked him in a vicious manner, only to have his hand wrap around her neck. She struggled to get out of his grip, but it was useless. Celes came up from behind and tried to attack, but it seemed that he had a shield against him, which made it impossible to be able to touch him. Zio walked to the edge of the building where everyone in Gotham at the bottom could see her.

"Gotham....!" Zio shouted so everyone could hear. People looked up to see them. "Is this your savior?? Well, to let you in on the information, your SAVIOR has been defeated! I will take over Gotham and the rest of the world! Your savior is as good as dead!" He removed her mask forcefully and dropped it into the city below.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"It's done." Bruce said as he held up the anitdote. He handed it to Terry, and he drank it up. "Better make a real quick test. Pick something up." Terry then picked up the table, without really trying.

"All right! I'm back!" He said as he dropped the table and put on his suit to run out into Gotham as quick as he could. Dawn, Julie...Please be all right.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Well, then, Dawn..." Zio grinned. "You served your purpose in this world...and now you're just not needed."

"No matter what happens to me....Terry will stop you." Dawn struggled to say.

"Terry will be my next target once your out of the way. He's as good as dead at this point." Zio chuckled. That's when He started to flare up his magic and began to suck the life out of Dawn. She screamed in agony, not able to get away from his grip. She struggled with all her might, but everytime she tried, it just made the pain worse.

"DAWN!!!!" Celes shouted, but then Eagle held her down so she wouldn't move. She tried, but it was useless. Meanwhile, Terrywas flying at top speed, trying his best to get there. I'm almost there...He thought. Once Zio thought it was enough, he let go. Dawn's eyes became darkened and cold, and she left from his hand to drop thirteen stories... Terry noticed that there was a figure falling from the building and once he used his suit to magnify the image, his eyes widened in fright and used his rocket boosters on his feet to chase after her. She dropped into his arms, lifeless.

"Dawn! Dawn!!" Terry said as he shook her over and over again. There was no answer. No....Please God...No.....Not Dawn too....! He landed on the ground, and took off his cowl. Terry held her tightly as tears formed in his eyes. Meanwhile, Celes was still being held by Eagle, but she was able to break free of his grip and blew him away with her ice attack so she could get away. She jumped off the building and used some more ice to break her fall by aiming downward at the ground. Once she had made it, she ran over to Terry, who had his face in Dawn's chest.

"Terry..? Is..Is Dawn....?" Celes asked.

"She's gone..." He sniffed as he wiped away his tears.

"Hey, look! It's Batman! And he's unmasked! So is Batgirl!" One person said as they walked by, but then decided to walk over to them. Celes used her ice to block them off and then turned to Terry once more. "We have to get out of here..." Terry looked at her and nodded. With Dawn in his arms, he flew out of sight while Celes went to go get her motorcycle to drive back to Wayne Manor.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Terry laid Dawn on her bed, and he kneeled down beside it, taking her hand, and holding it close to him. He brushed his lips lightly against it while tears fell upon them.

"You used to be so full of life, and now....you're so cold and still.....This is all my fault....I...I wish there was something I could have done.....I just wish it were me that's dead right now instead of you. It should've been me who took that shot. I know I won't forgive myself for this and you shouldn't either....I was no good to you as a friend and I'm no better being your boyfriend....I wasn't help to you either, and look what happens....(sniff)(wipes tears)I wasn't that great of being your prince in shining armor either. If only I had been there, you would be alive now.....Now you won't be able to laugh, or cry...or even get angry...And I'll never get to hold you into my arms. I just wanna let you know that, you've been the best thing in my life ever since I've known you....(sniff)I'm sorry that I never really cherished those moments and took them for granted in a sense...I've never stopped loving you, Dawn.....Not one day in my life.....and I never will....okay? And I'll never forget all the great things you've shown me.... You....mean so much to me......(sniff) I want to hear your voice again, Dawn....please.....just once.....damnit....! Why....?(sniff)"

"Terry..." Bruce said as he walked into the room. "I'm sorry..."

"Why are you sorry? You have nothing to be sorry for..." Terry said, trying to act like he never cried.

"I do...I always knew that something like this would happen....That's why I never wanted you or anyone else to get invovled in this business...I never told you how much it puts on the brain...How it would affect you if someone had passed on."

"Bruce...It's not you fault at all.."

"And it's not yours either. You shouldn't blame yourself that you couldn't control. No one else does...so neither should you."

"I made a promise to her, Bruce !" Terry said as stood. "I promised that I would protect her at all times, no matter what kind of mess we're in! It IS my fault because I wasn't there to protect her!"

"Promises like that are not easy to keep. I'm sure that Dawn would understand that." Bruce said with firmness. Terry was silent, but then his anger had gotten bigger and he punched a wall. He leaned against the wall, with tears coming down.

"Why....why does everyone around me pass away??" Terry asked. Bruce put his hand on Terry's shoulder for comfort as he just continued to cry again. The love of his life was gone, and it was the last straw for Terry. He decided that he should make the decision that he should of made a long time ago......To give up being Batman!