Epilogue: Back To The Present Future

Blackfire turned from the hospital bed in a start, her memories of those past few days filed away again as she heard footsteps behind her. "Hey, Blackfire."

"Beast Boy, I thought you'd gone home already."

"Nah. Now that the whole place is as messy as my room, it's like I don't have any privacy anymore," he joked, before his countenance grew much more sober. "Listen, Blackfire? I know we were not really the best of friends before, but, well…?" he said, holding out an outstretched hand.

There was only the merest of hesitations before Blackfire took Beast Boy's hand in her own, grasping it firmly.

"Thanks, Blackfire." Then he let out a short breath. "And it's all thanks to Raven, isn't it? I guess…I guess we both really care about her."

That was a loaded statement, and for a moment Blackfire contemplated telling Beast Boy the truth about how she felt, about not just how much, but how she cared for Raven.

And then she saw the desperate hope in Beast Boy's eyes, remembered the history those two shared, remembered how well they work together.

"It's not what you think," she lied, putting on as jovial a face as she could manage. The old Blackfire, the one who came to Earth twice on a mission of revenge, ironically, would have been the truthful one. That Blackfire had not realized that the universe, for its own cruelly fickle desires did not, would not, grant people like her happiness, or at least, happiness that lasted. Why make other people suffer? It wouldn't make her feel any better.

Not anymore anyway.

"Well, er… the thing is…you two seemed-"

"What's the matter Beast Boy? Did you want to watch?" Blackfire asked salaciously.

"What? No!" Beast Boy said, his face turning an interesting combination of green and red. "It's just that…" He sat down next to Blackfire, and an apologetic smile appeared on his face. "I guess I turned into a real green eyed monster, huh?" he sighed.

Blackfire leaned over and placed her hand on Beast Boy's shoulder. What was one more lie? Raising an eyebrow, Blackfire said in faked good humor, "Look, Beast Boy, I like Raven too, buuut not in the same way you do, if you know what I mean."

"Was I that obvious?" Beast Boy asked ruefully.

Blackfire laughed. "Yes Beast Boy, yes you were," she told him. After a moment, Beast Boy started laughing as well.

But as always, their gazes were drawn back to Raven's comatose form. "Blackfire?" Beast Boy asked, breaking the silence.

"Mmm?"

"I'm sorry, really sorry for the way I acted before."

"You already apologized."

"Yeah, I know, but I just wanted to make sure."

Blackfire nodded. There didn't seem to be anything else to say.

Footsteps behind them revealed themselves to belong to a handsome, bearded doctor named "Dr. Hook?" Beast Boy asked.

"That's me," Dr. Hook confirmed in his easygoing manner as he held up some charts.

"What's is it Doc? Is there anything wrong? Please don't tell me something's wrong!" Beast Boy begged. Blackfire said nothing, but the way her face had suddenly lost its color showed that she too expected the worst.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a minute there," Dr. Hook said, smiling. "First, let me remind you that this is a hospital, so keep the noise levels down, okay?" when Beast Boy nodded, Hook continued, "Second, I think I may have some good news. Now, I don't want to get your hopes up, but I think that Miss Raven here's going to be all right."

"What do you mean?"

Dr. Hook leaned against the wall. "The thing is, I can sorta understand what is happening here. I used to work at another hospital, and let me tell you, if you think your life was strange," he laughed. "That's how I can understand these."

He handed over a few charts to Blackfire and Beast Boy, as he clarified, "The first set of scans show that there were massive injuries to Raven's skull as well as her brain. Now, that was the first thing that alerted me to the fact that there was something going on here- a normal person would not be able to survive that kind of punishment. Miss Blackfire, wasn't it?"

"Yes?"

"You said before that Raven used some sort of healing magic on you, that she uses it on a fairly regular basis, right?"

"That's correct," Blackfire said cautiously, not knowing where this was going.

As an answer, Hook gave them a few more charts. "Take a look at these. I had Raven's brain scanned twice, once as soon as I could after you brought her in, another just before you came in here tonight. Less than two hours apart, and already, you can see that there has been some improvement."

"You're saying Raven's healing herself?" Beast Boy asked. Despite Dr. Hook's earlier warning, hope began to infuse him.

"That's what it looks like. My conservative estimate? At the rate's she's going, she could be out of the hospital in a week or so. But, if it is as I think, and that the healing process will accelerate as more of her regenerates, well then, she would be back with you guys as soon as tomorrow afternoon."

Dr. Hook sometimes questioned the reasons he became a doctor. He saw so much death, so much sickness (sometimes caused by his fellow doctors; one named Stegman automatically flashed in his mind), that he sometimes felt as if he should have done something else, perhaps continued with his college band. But then he remembered his wife, and he saw expressions on people's faces like what he saw on Beast Boy's and Blackfire's, and it was all worthwhile.

(scene change)

"Hey, you! Yeah, don't I get a bloody phone call?" Shift shouted at the prison guard through the intercom in her specially constructed cell. Normally, a prison, no matter how sturdily built would have definitely not been able to hold her like this, but as it turned out, inhibition collars work just as well on humans as it does on Tameranians.

The guard, well outside the range of whatever Shift would have been able to throw at him anyway, pressed a few buttons on his console, and on the keypad of the intercom in Shift's cell, a touchpad lighted up, revealing a normal telephone pad.

Dial thisss number if ever you ssshould find yourssself in difficulty, the growling hiss told her on the first day it called, and was Shift ever in trouble now.

She heard the phone ring: once, twice, three times, then someone answered. "You called thisss number," the same growling hiss stated.

"Yeah, that's right. Look, I need your help-"

"You do not dessserve it."

Shift's mouth was agape. She could not believe what she was hearing. "What the hell did you say! Look, you stupid bastard-"

"I will ssspeak, and you ssshall lisssten. You have failed me. You have allowed yourssself to fail. What makesss you think I will help you at all?"

"But…but this number…"

"Wasss never meant to be usssed. In fact, it wasss never needed. I would have known perfectly well if you had failed, and even ssso, I would have never helped you." There was the sound of something clicking, as if someone had removed something from the mouthpiece. "What can I say, treachery's in my blood," the voice said in a more normal manner.

And in a much more recognizable voice.

"Legion?" Shift whispered.

"Ta-ta." Legion said. They were the last words Shift had ever heard from him, and as the new automated equipment arrived to replace the guard, for whom it was a temporary posting anyway, the last words she heard from anyone for a long time.

(scene change)

Legion stood in the dank apartment, handphone in hand. He crushed it, with the strength that came so easily to his kind, and threw it into the waste bin. It was a cloned handphone, so it probably couldn't be traced, but why take chances?

Besides, he had other things to worry about. He was present at the Puppet King's punishment, and he knew, from centuries of service, his lord Trigon's temper, and his perfectionism.

He was not the sort of being who would suffer fools gladly. Legion grasped his brow as it creased, and beads of sweat brought on by terror trailed down.

No, he wasn't that sort of being at all.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I have given this story the once over, and I have realized that this story was severely lacking in humor. Therefore, I have decided to follow this little fable up with 'Frightanic', with the manner in which Mad Mod and Jinx escape America and that occurs at the same time this one does.

Please, bear with me on this.

Pretty please?