[Kerli – Walking on Air]
Phantom Girl trudged down the hallway, tears threatening to spill from her grey eyes, but she stopped midway when she felt a presence behind her.
She looked back, wondering if Timber Wolf had followed her. She was disappointed to find an empty hallway. A part of her wished he had followed her…
Phantom Girl sighed and turned back around, and nearly jumped a foot into the air.
Ace stood before her, still as a statue, wide eyes looking just as livid and angry as she remembered from the video at the meeting. Phantom Girl had to admit that, although a young girl, the Ace of Clubs looked intimidating; her demeanor was that of the calm before a storm – it seemed like her wrath would consume everything around her, yet she possessed an eerie tranquility.
Phantom Girl huffed and crossed her arms in front of her, more so to conceal her shakiness than anything. No one had ever snuck up on her before.
"Tinya," Ace greeted curtly.
"Ace," Phantom Girl returned the greeting just as gruffly. "What do you want?"
"Timber Wolf was supposed to play with me today, but you're ruining it," Ace said.
Phantom Girl looked at her incredulously. "What are you talking about?"
While Phantom Girl spoke, Ace was trying very hard to read her mind and search her memories. She forced herself to look harder, to visualize the mysterious barrier blocking her access to the Legionnaire's psyche. Ace propelled a mind wave, and faintly saw the pink shield it bounced off of. She propelled a stronger one, and saw the shield crack.
"…and who plays with stuffed toys anyway," Ace heard Phantom Girl say.
"You do," Ace said, and before Phantom Girl could say anything else, she felt herself falling into darkness. When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a boxing ring with red boxing gloves. She looked up and saw a giant rabbit preparing to fight her.
"Ugh, not again!" Phantom Girl groaned.
Ace stood over Phantom Girl's body, which was sprawled out on the floor. Ace got what she needed: Timber Wolf's real name. But she also stumbled upon memories that she wish she hadn't seen. A timeline of images flashed across Ace's mind, of Timber Wolf and Phantom Girl working together, laughing together, fighting for each other, and eventually falling in love with each other.
Ace stepped over Tinya's unconscious body and walked away.
…..
Timber Wolf rested on a reclining hover-chair in one of the Legion parlors, staring up at the ceiling. He figured it may be about time to go check up on Phantom Girl. He was still learning about how women operated, but he thought it was best to give her a little space first to cool off before they talked.
So he was a little surprised when a smiling Phantom Girl skipped into the lounge and sat next to him, making the hover-chair bounce slightly before steadying again.
"Brin," she grinned, and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Timber Wolf raised an eyebrow. "Tinya, you're smiling?"
"Mhmm!" Phantom Girl nodded and rested her head on his shoulder.
"So, you're not still upset about earlier?" Timber Wolf asked cautiously. But to his surprise, Phantom Girl just shook her head no and hooked her arm around his.
"Let's go out and play," she said.
Timber Wolf narrowed his eyes. Phantom Girl was not one to simply "let things go". Why was she acting so strangely?
But Timber Wolf had his own trump card, one that never failed him: his keen sense of smell. Even the most masterful shape-changers, the Durlans, couldn't get past his nose. Frightening realization dawned on him that he was being tricked. He stood up and looked at the imposter.
"Ace? Why are you impersonating Phantom Girl?"
Ace shrugged, feeling surprisingly sheepish and digging her shoe into the carpet. "You like her… I thought if I looked more like Tinya you'd play with me more."
With her cover blown, the Royal Flush Gang member saw no other reason to keep her disguise. She allowed Timber Wolf's mind to see her normal form.
"What's going on between me and her is our own business; you have no right to interfere like this. Your actions were based on deceit, and to me that's unforgiveable. You know, I vouched for you, when the other Legionnaires didn't want to give you a chance… maybe I should've listened to them." With those last words, Timber Wolf turned away from Ace.
Seeing his rejection gave Ace an odd mix of emotions she'd never felt before.
All her life, Ace had never felt an iota of guilt for altering someone's perception. She never considered it a violation of their personal thoughts or desires. If anything, Ace justified her mental intrusions by the fact that no one had ever helped her when she was locked away in the governmental facility. But for some reason, it was different with Timber Wolf… with Brin Londo. It was a strange sensation, this thing called regret… like something was gnawing at her chest and wouldn't stop until she made things right, but she had no idea how to do that. Ace didn't want Timber Wolf to be angry with her, but he was.
So the only other emotion she knew how to feel, that she knew how to act on, was anger.
Ace stood up and walked out of the lounge area, black eyes wide with her signature silent fury. She had had enough of the Legion of Superheroes. Like the Justice League, they were no fun.
As Timber Wolf watched Ace leave, an important question surfaced in his mind.
How did Ace find out their names?
…..
"Phantom Girl?!" Saturn Girl ran to her teammate, who was lying in the middle of the Legion hallway. She immediately pulled her out of Ace's hallucinations and Phantom Girl woke up but was weak.
Cosmic Boy, Superman X, and a few other Legionnaires ran to the scene.
"It was Ace," Imra informed them.
"Dammit!" Cosmic Boy cursed. "I knew she couldn't be trusted. I'm sending out an alert to all Legion members. The Ace of Clubs has returned to criminal status and is to now be considered hostile."
"I'll handle this," Imra went off to find Ace. It was her mind shield that Ace penetrated after all. Could they have underestimated the 21st century telepath?
Saturn Girl eventually found Ace in the room with the time warp machine.
"Ace!" Saturn Girl called out, but then almost immediately she was on her knees, clutching her head, struggling to gain control over her mind. Ace's eyes were ablaze as she slowly walked toward Saturn Girl, whose eyes were a ferocious pink in an attempt to overpower Ace's insurmountable mind-bending abilities. However, Ace sent a mind wave her way and cracked through Saturn Girl's own shield, causing the Legionnaire to faint.
Ace smiled wickedly and went through the time machine.
After a few moments, Timber Wolf, Phantom Girl, Lightning Lad, Brainiac-5, and all the main Legion members came rushing in as Saturn Girl woke up.
"She's more powerful than I thought, I'm sorry," Imra apologized as Garth helped her up.
"It's not your fault Saturn Girl," said Brainy. "I was just reading her brain scans in my lab and discovered two very alarming facts. Her powers have suddenly increased exponentially, which was why she's been able to break through your mental shields."
"And the second thing?" Timber Wolf asked the android.
"Although we healed her aneurysm, two more developed in its place. We don't have much time before it kills her and everything around her. We have to get her back to our time or else this whole mission will have been in vain."
"But I couldn't stop her from going through the portal," Imra said. "She could be anywhere in time since I'm sure she didn't know how to set the time warp."
Kell-El went to the time machine and inspected it, as he had more knowledge of these things being from the 41st century.
"She went back to May 2nd of the same year we found her in. Whenever the time machine is turned on, its default setting is a few weeks after the last day you programmed into it."
"Saturn Girl, what information did she take from you?" demanded Cosmic Boy.
"She just got that she'd develop her own Royal Flush Gang."
If Brainiac-5 didn't have a robotic exterior, he would have gone pale. The grim revelation sank heavily into his heart that the Ace of Clubs hadn't mysteriously "disappeared" for weeks before reforming her gang, as history documented. She had actually been in the future with the Legion of Superheroes, where she learned about what she would do, and returned to her era to fulfill her destiny.
"Looks like it was impossible to change her fate," Timber Wolf said.
The Legion decided to follow Ace and find some way to put an end to all of this.
…..
The Legionnaires landed in a 21st century that was very different from what they had first seen. The city streets now looked like a twisted fantasy world, and the buildings were heavily encroached in thick vines with deadly thorns. Ace could now fully create her own reality.
Her new Royal Flush Gang was creating havoc in the city. The Legionnaires fought side by side with the Justice League to defeat the new threats, and then Amanda Waller flew in in her private helicopter carrying a suitcase. She informed them all of Ace's imminent death and the lethal mind blast that would ensue, which the Legion already knew about.
"There's no point in trying to hide that we are superheroes from the 31st century," Brainy said to the Justice League and Mrs. Waller. "We are involved with Ace's recent actions, and will do our part in putting a stop to this."
Amanda Waller looked from one Legionnaire to another, taking in their novel, almost alien-like appearances. "My word, superheroes from the future?" Waller's eyes landed on Timber Wolf and Kell-El and smiled at them. "So, even in the 31st century, superheroes are still so handsome."
"Ugh, I'm actually from the 41st century," Kell corrected her, not that he really cared about the large woman flirting with him; he just wanted to point that out.
Waller looked from Superman X, to the Legionnaire Superman, and finally to the Justice League Superman.
"A Superman throughout the ages…" Amanda Waller whispered in astonishment. She looked at the Batman, and an idea started brewing in her mind, but there were more important matters to address at the moment.
She revealed the box-shaped device that was intended to kill the Ace of Clubs.
"I'll do it," Timber Wolf volunteered. "I'm the only one Ace trusts."
Everyone watched as the feral Legionnaire walked toward Ace's wall of thorns, which opened up for him.
Phantom Girl watched as the wall of thorns closed behind him, and she ran toward it, worrying that she may never see him again. But when she touched the wall of thorns, she realized that even she couldn't phase through it. Ace's fantasy world was impenetrable, and only Timber Wolf was allowed entry.
[Sam Smith – Stay With Me]
Timber Wolf slowly walked through the gates of Ace's make-believe world. He couldn't believe the damage she had done, but in a way, he understood her anger and frustration at the world, even though he didn't agree with it. He eventually found the fifteen-year-old telepath on a swing set.
"Brin," she greeted, but the way she said it left Timber Wolf not knowing if she was pleased to see him or not. So he returned her greeting just as offhandedly.
"Ace."
"Did you like playing with my new Royal Flush Gang?" Ace asked as she started swinging.
Timber Wolf casually looked off to the side. "Can't say I enjoyed 'em."
"Yeah, they're no fun. I gave them their powers and they still won't play with me."
Ace then told Timber Wolf about her time as a prisoner in the government's clandestine research facility, where they forced her to do various mind exercises to experiment on her powers.
"They would say, 'Ace can you move this with your mind?'" she spat out as if the memory itself were vile. Timber Wolf saw a tree uproot from the ground and fly up into the air. He looked back at Ace, who continued, "Yeah, I can move it."
Anger seeped through her eyes as she recalled her days locked up as a lab experiment. Timber Wolf, however, saw something familiar beyond her anger and resentment of a childhood stripped of its innocence.
"They said it was all for justice, but they were creating a weapon," Ace whispered, staring off into space. "Well, they got their weapon."
Every word Ace said was like a stab at Timber Wolf's heart. He didn't know which was worse; spending your whole life as an experiment, or being experimented on by someone you trusted your whole life. Although his experience was shorter, it was more traumatizing, but Ace's continual exposure to labs and facilities rather than parks and schools, all to prepare her as a weapon of war, left the girl cold, bitter, and vengeful. She was deprived of normal childhood social and psychological development, the part where you're supposed to learn to be friendly with other kids, that sharing was above selfishness, and that there are differences between right and wrong. There was nothing in Ace's upbringing that balanced out the natural desire for self-gratification and egotism, and that left a complete and total disregard for human life.
His life could have just as easily gone down that path.
"I know how you feel," Timber Wolf finally said.
Ace looked up from the ground and smiled softly. "You do, don't you… I was finally able to read your mind… that's how I knew you weren't going to use Mrs. Waller's device."
Timber Wolf had tossed that thing to the wayside the moment the gate of thorns closed behind him.
Ace looked away as her smile faded. "I'm dying very soon, aren't I?"
"I'm sorry," was all he could utter. Ace shrugged like she didn't care, but after a moment, tears welled in her eyes.
"Will you stay with me? I'm scared."
Timber Wolf slowly closed his eyes as his heart sank in sorrow at those words. He really wished they could have saved her. It was so painful to see her like this. Her face was nearly the spitting image of Phantom Girl's when she cried.
Timber Wolf sat down on the swing beside her. He was never really good at "comforting" people, but as he took Ace's hand in his, he decided that he'd try.
They sat for a moment in silence when Ace turned to him.
"Kiss me," she said softly.
Timber Wolf sighed. "You know I won't do that."
Timber Wolf didn't believe in the notion of granting dying wishes. Were people really any more special in their last moments than they were all the other moments of their life? How he saw it, death was but one of the many stages they had to pass through.
Ace smiled at his thoughts. Timber Wolf was right; he wasn't obligated to do anything for her. She was disappointed she couldn't experience his tenderness, but she respected his sentiments, if anything all the more because of it. Ace didn't deserve his company, and yet here he was, sitting with her to help her through the dying process.
He had done more for her in her death than anyone had in her life. And for that, she was thankful.
"You love her, don't you?"
"…Yeah."
"Then be happy with her. She loves you too."
Timber Wolf looked at Ace, who gave him a soft, yet sad smile.
In the end, Ace agreed to vanquish her fantasy world and return the city to normal. There was also one more thing Timber Wolf had asked her before she passed.
The Legionnaires and the Justice League were waiting for them when Timber Wolf walked out with Ace in his arms. Timber Wolf gently placed Ace on the stretcher to be carried away in Waller's helicopter.
Timber Wolf felt a soft hand wrap around his own.
"She'll be buried in her hometown," Phantom Girl informed him before giving him a hug.
Tinya was initially surprised when Timber Wolf held her shoulders and kissed her, but she soon leaned in to his tender touch. Timber Wolf looked deep into her eyes, and told her the very words that she had been waiting to hear, the words he knew he should have told her a long time ago.
But there was no point in regretting. Life was fleeting, but he didn't have to keep himself from enjoying every moment of it with the person he loved from here on out.
Ace taught him that.
'Thank you, Tina Weizmann,' Timber Wolf thought as they traveled back to their time.