Hello again...no, this is not the epilogue. Just the second part of the last chapter. Enjoy!

It should have been easy. The bang baby was no different than any of another dozen similar unfortunates they had faced in the years since Virgil had become Static. He was big, ugly, and, as Richie quickly pointed out, stupid.

This bang baby had proven to have a nasty surprise in addition to being big, ugly, and stupid. Virgil ducked yet another bolt of sickly green energy, hearing it impact with shattering force in the metal wall of the building a few hundred yards behind him. He had thrown bolt after bolt of his own at the guy…but very little seemed to get through the thick skin.

Just like before.

Richie was having better luck with some of his most powerful grenades. Virgil's heart climbed a little higher in his throat every time he saw Richie dance in a little closer to the bang baby to let fly with his gadgets. As before, Richie had the bang baby throwing bolts out blindly, with absolutely no strategy to it.

"Geez, they grow them big and stupid these days! What d'ya think?"

The bang baby, failing to his Richie with its energy bolts, began hurling anything that came to hand. Bricks, bits of metal, lumber; the air was soon filled with debris.

Just like before.

"I think you can take him down with a nova blast, Static! I'm gonna go in with Big Bertha…I've been dying to see how she works out. I'll set him up; you knock him down. On the count of three, okay, bro?"

"/No, damn it! Not okay!/" But there was nothing he could do. He had to accept what was going to happen next. He moved in, as he had before, picking up speed as he nimbly dodged the flying rubble in the air. Time seemed to slow as he saw Richie move in closer, raising his latest gadget, laughingly dubbed "Big Bertha", high over his head. This was it.

To hell with it.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't stand by and let Richie be hurt. He propelled himself forward with new speed. Whatever the consequences, he had to try to save his love.

"Virgil!" Suddenly, he wasn't moving. He hung in midair, suspended not by his own power, but something more. The air around him was dead silent, and he stared around him in silent awe. He was the only thing moving…everything else was frozen. There were bits of debris hanging in the air around him, birds stopped in mid-flight. Not even a breath of wind stirred around him. He turned to the front again and found himself face to face with Faith. "Virgil, I can't let you do this. You know the rules."

He didn't answer.

He couldn't.

Faith stared at him in concern for a few brief seconds, before she realized that he was not looking at her at all. Frowning, she spun in the air to follow his line of sight. She sucked in an unneeded breath at what she saw.

"No…" Virgil began, and she had never once, even at his most forlorn, heard such despair in his voice. She spun around again.

"Virgil—"

"No. Please, no…tell me it's not true Faith," he pleaded. "Tell me I'm wrong!"

Behind and below them, Gear and the bang baby were frozen in battle. Gear, however, was on the ground. He was lying on the cold ground, face down. His helmet was half-askew, dented inwards, and there was already a pool of blood forming under his head. The shattered pieces of a cinderblock lay all around his head, and it didn't take a genius to realize they were looking at the cause of the injury that had sent Richie into an unending sleep, a slow, wasting death. His final grenade had been launched, but not at the bang baby.

The grenade had been hurtling towards Static's position. More precisely, at the similarly frozen bolt of the bang baby's energy aiming right for him. The bang baby had thrown it at such an angle that Static, focused as he was on dodging the other debris in the air, would not have seen it until it was too late.

Faith closed her eyes.

Virgil felt as though he was falling headlong into a bottomless pit. He remembered now, the force that had thrown him to the ground. He had never been able to figure out why he had fallen the first time around. Now he knew. Gear had thrown the only ready defense he had against the bang baby away from the battle, to save Static. The bolt would likely have killed him had it hit. It was the concussive force of Richie's gadget that had thrown him off his disc. Virgil thought he might throw up. He threw his mask up to face the angel in front of him without its obscuring anything.

"For me? All this, because of me?" he whimpered. When had he started crying? The tears were coming fast and furious now, though, great, heaving sobs that shook his whole body.

"Virgil, it was his choice—"

"No, damn you! He..he s-sacrificed himself to s-save me. It-it should have b-been me! It should have been me!"

"Virgil-"

"Why'd you let him?! W-Why should h-he die for me? It was s-supposed to be me!"

"It was Fated. He had a choice, Virgil…he could have saved you or he could have protected himself. He chose to save you. He didn't even think about it…he loved you that much," Faith said solemnly. There were tears of her own standing in her eyes.

Virgil shook his head violently. "Get out of my way," he growled. "Let me go."

A few tears spilled down her cheeks as Faith complied, moving aside. Virgil found himself able to move forward again, and he wasted no time, directing his disc downwards, through the still-frozen debris. He leaped off the disc as soon as he was close enough to ground, uncaring of where it fell, and ran the final few feet to fall on his knees by Richie's side. Faith appeared on the opposite side, but remained silent. She made a small gesture, and whatever power was holding everything still released Richie.

Gently, ever so gently, Virgil turned his friend over, pulling him up to cradle Richie's head in his lap. "Why did you do that, bro?" he sobbed. He pulled the ruined remains of Richie's helmet off his head, knowing he couldn't hurt Richie any further than he already had been hurt.

Backpack, miraculously unhurt, disengaged from Richie's back and crawled out from under his body, as if it wanted to make its owner as comfortable as possible. A soft, whirring sound erupted from the little machine, and Virgil realized that it was probably hacking into the 911 mainframe of the city, summoning help.

Too late.

Your son't skull was fractured in three places.

Desperately, he took the bottom hem of his shirt in his hands and ripped it, quickly using the resulting strip to try and staunch the flow of blood from the huge gash on Richie's head. "Not for me, Richie…you shouldn't have done this for me." He leaned over, touching his forehead to Richie's as he had last night, a lifetime ago. He moved to brush a soft kiss across Richie's lips, tasting the coppery tang of blood in his mouth.

W-When will he wake up?

We don't know, Mr. Foley. He might never wake up.

You can't change Fate, Virgil.

Finally, he looked up at Faith. The angel actually recoiled at his expression, one hand going to her chest, as she had done the first time she had seen him. "It should have been me," Virgil said grimly. "I should have died tonight. Instead, Richie's been dying for ten years." He looked back down at his love, and gently stroked the fringe of blond bangs that had drifted across Richie's forehead. "Take me instead."

"What?!"

Virgil looked up at her again, his dark eyes bleak. "You heard me. Let me take his place. You said it was Fated…fine! Let it be me." He reached up and roughly dashed the tears from his eyes. "You want a life, take mine!"

"Virgil!"

"Do you understand what you are offering, young man?"

Both he and Faith whipped towards the new voice. Virgil crouched further over Richie as he caught sight of the imposing man standing over all three of them. The man looked to be in his mid-fifties, with long, iron-grey hair and striking blue eyes. He was dressed in an impeccable grey linen suit; and was watching them with a stern, foreboding expression.

"Gideon!" Faith gasped. Virgil darted a glance over at her, before resettling his attention on the man.

"You know him?" he asked tersely.

"He's…he's kind of my boss. A mentor, if you will. Gideon, what are you—"

Gideon raised one hand, and Faith instantly fell silent, watching him with wide, confused eyes. "I say again, do you understand what you are offering?"

Virgil looked to Faith for guidance, but she shrugged helplessly. He turned back to Gideon, and nodded solemnly. "Yes, sir. I do."

Gideon crossed his arms in front of him, and raised one eyebrow gravely. "Done."

"Gideon!"

"Quiet, Faith," Gideon said harshly, still staring at Virgil. "If you truly wish to take on young Richard's Fate, then I will allow it."

"Just like that?" Virgil asked in disbelief. "I can save him?" Hope, bright and beautiful, flared in his heart.

Faith, too, was staring at her "mentor" in disbelief. Virgil was faintly alarmed, however, to see the edge of something else in her eyes. It was not happy disbelief…it was more of a look of 'how could you?' He knew in his heart that Faith had always been on his side…why would she be upset?

"Yes, Virgil. You can save him," Gideon said quietly. Virgil did not miss the emphasis. The hope began to wither.

"What's the catch?" he asked suspiciously.

"Faith?" Gideon said, his gaze never wavering from Virgil's.

"Gideon, please this is—"

"Faith!" She broke off, staring at Gideon as if he had just struck her. Then she closed her eyes and lowered her head.

"They…they'll allow you to take Richie's place, Virgil. It…it will be you who suffers these injuries. You who spends the next ten years in a coma…you who dies finally on Christmas Eve in the future."

"I understand, Faith." He could do it…for Richie, he could do it.

"No, Virgil, you don't! It will be as though the past ten years never happened…as though nothing you've done over those years ever happened. As though nothing Static has done over those years ever happened."

Finally, finally, he realized why Faith had looked so upset. Instantly, his mind started supplying him with replays of the battles he had fought, the accomplishments he had made over that decade. How many people had he saved? How many disasters had he averted, or helped to avert?

The angels saw the comprehension dawning in his eyes, and Faith turned away, wrapping her arms around her middle. Gideon nodded grimly.

"How many people?" he asked.

"Virgil, you have touched literally thousands of lives. It is impossible to calculate how many of those lives would be altered, if you choose to do this," Gideon said, his words even and clipped.

"But you'd still let me?"

"It is your choice. If you are truly willing to sacrifice yourself so that Richard may live, yes, it will be allowed."

Virgil looked down at Richie, already growing pale and cold in his arms. He looked at the bloodstained rag he was pressing to Richie's scalp, at the blood staining his hands. He knew he would give anything for this person, endure any pain if it meant keeping Richie safe.

Anything that was his to give.

"That's no choice, at all," Virgil murmured. Faith turned around again, and the tear tracks on her face made Virgil's heart hurt. She truly cared for him, cared for his pain.

"My life isn't mine to give, is it? It belongs to the people I've helped…the people I chose to serve. I can't risk them…Richie wouldn't want me to."

For the first time, Gideon's forbidding expression softened. "So you will not take his place?"

"I would. I would in a heartbeat…but I can't. You know I can't." It was the hardest thing he had ever said. Yet, he knew it was right. It was what Richie would have wanted.

Gideon bowed slightly at the waist, and Faith shook her head miserably. Ignoring them both, Virgil lurched to his feet, leaned down, and hefted Richie's limp body into his arms. He staggered away from the building, knowing its battle-weakened structurewould begin its collapse as soon as Faith let time go back to normal, sealing the bang baby's fate. He took Richie to a safe distance, and collapsed to his knees again, still holding the body of his best friend and lover close.

"Take me back, Faith," he whispered, knowing the angel would hear him. "It's time to finish this."

Faith, indeed, heard his wish. She moved towards the two boys, new tears welling in her eyes. As she passed her mentor, she glared up at him, anger and disappointment turning her eyes glittering obsidian. "That was cruel, Gideon. That was just cruel. You knew he would never accept," she spat.

Gideon bowed again, not responding to her words.

Feeling as though she had never known her mentor at all, Faith continued towards Virgil and Richie. She still had to take Virgil back to his own time.

Just in time to watch Richie die.

The trip really was worse when you were expecting it.

Virgil landed on the hard floor, dizzy and sick from whatever Faith had done to bring him back to his time. He lay there for a moment, gasping for breath and trying to quell the nausea in his gut. Perhaps, though, those had nothing to do with the trip. He took silent stock of himself, and knew that he had indeed returned to his adult body. Without looking, he knew that Faith was nowhere to be seen.

He shakily climbed to his knees, resting his forehead on the cool tile floor, delaying what he had to do for as long as possible. Finally, though, he forced himself to climb to his feet, and focus his gaze on the bed.

It was the cruelest of cruelties to look at Richie now, when the memory of how he had once been was so newly fresh in Virgil's mind. New sobs rose to his throat as he took in that ravaged body, that only moments ago he had held in his arms. He looked up to the clock on the wall, and a cold chill swept through him at the sight of the face.

Five minutes to midnight.

He sank back down to his knees, and reached up to grip Richie's hand. Five minutes to say goodbye. It wasn't enough time. There was not time enough in the world for him to say all the things he wanted to say.

"I'm sorry; Rich…I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. I would have done anything to save you, Richie. Anything. But…but I know you wouldn't have wanted me to take the road Gideon offered me. I swear I'd have given anything to keep you safe."

Three minutes.

"Those two days were the best of my life," Virgil whispered. "You were everything I ever wanted, Richie, everything. You'll always be everything to me. I've missed you, Rich…I've missed you so much. Nothing's ever been right since you were hurt. I've tried to move on, but I can't. You're a part of me, too. You always were."

Two minutes.

"I love you, Richie. I've always loved you. I always will." He leaned down and kissed dry, chapped lips a final time, moved up to kiss the pale forehead.

One minute.

"You wait for me, okay? Please, wait for me."

An alarm sounded from one of the machines by Richie's bedside. From down the hall by the nurse's station, Virgil heard a cry of alarm, followed by the pounding of feet.

"Goodbye, Richie."

The heart monitor beeped once, twice, and rose in that final, monotonous tone, signaling that the heartbeat had stopped.

Richie was gone.