Disclaimer: I don't own anything! If I owned Batman Beyond, do you think I'd still be writing fanfiction? Heck no, I'd be out there writing the comic books and getting paid for it! Batman Beyond is the property of DC Comics and WB animation. Batman is the creation of Bob Kane, and the characters from Batman Beyond like Terry McGinnis and Dana Tan were created by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. I just like to play with them. I write for my enjoyment and the enjoyment of others; I've not nor will I receive any payment for this fic, so please don't sue.

Author's Notes: This is just a drabble really, but it was a scene that I had in my head for a while. I know that in Rats, Dana wore a white dress, but that always seemed wrong to me. I know that Dana may not follow this custom, but traditionally the color white is the color of mourning for the Chinese people. So, in my little universe, Dana wore a silver dress in Rats, and she doesn't wear white on a regular basis.

Second, this takes place sometime during Rebirth.

Reality

Terry will bury his father today. He knows he should pay attention; give his father one last good-by, but Terry feels too numb to even remember how to say his name. Every day since he that night just doesn't seem real to him. He's on auto-pilot, and everything from moving back with his mother and brother, to taking some time off of school just feels like a game he's playing instead of actually living.

Even following his mother through a throng of people at church doesn't register as reality. It's a sea of black that reminds him of pictures of deep space; not a funeral, until he sees Dana.

She stands out like a light among all of the darkness, which may see cliché, but it's true, especially since she's wearing a long white dress with a white headband in her hair. He always told her she'd look beautiful in white, but she always swore he'd never catch her wearing a plain white outfit. Now he wishes he never laid eyes on her figure.

Because suddenly, he's not numb anymore; he knows why he's here in this church. His father is dead.

Because his girlfriend is wearing white, a color she abhors and only wears during certain times; when she comes to pay her respect to the dead.

A part of him wants to hate her for doing this, bringing him back to this reality. If she wore black, he'd never have to really acknowledge what was going on; but she didn't; and he can't deny what his heart has known for the past week. She even seems aware of what she has done because she keeps murmuring apologies to him as he reaches for her, and when they hold each other as they sit at the front of the church.

The service is oddly cathartic for him; and by the time they go outside to his father's final resting place, Terry knows he'll survive today, and the next day. He doesn't know how or why he knows this, but looking to his side, seeing Dana in her plain white dress; Terry thinks he understands why she wears white on days like these. It may be her people's color of mourning, but it's still a color of purity.

In other words, black absorbs light and in some ways, reality; but white reflects them back.


Jadeling's notes: Yeah, I don't know where this came from, but Phoenix, my muse, wouldn't give me my other plots unless I posted this.