Epilogue

The light shone brightly in Cody's own eyes, blinding him and disorienting his vision already blurred between the lines as numbness accompanied the feeling of confusion as the detective felt the human urge to sit upright, the temptation to know what had happened came to his head as he recalled the recent events on the rooftop...Casteon, he was cockily speaking to him like some master manipulator of the scheme...Cody flinched as pain took its turn on him, forcing the man to fall back down on the bed clutching his side before Cody caught sight of a dark outline leaning over him placing what he assumed was a hand to his face.

"Cody." The voice was strange, an echo inside his head as Cody tried to eye the stranger with a bigger question mark in his head...it sounded so sincere, concerned and so secure. Lifting one eye up to its fullest, his vision started to align itself into the proper place as he soon looked carefully into the eyes of his crush, a small gasp of surprise as he gave a smile.

"Hey, beautiful..." He had no chance to say anymore as Gwen hugged him tightly, wrapping her hands around his injured body with warmth as Cody let the feeling pass through his own body to rid himself of the numbness that had plagued him for a few minutes before they separated, Cody's eyes now raised to a limited level.

"How?"

"Dr. Crane found you, he was worried he went up to the roof to see you lying there half-dead. I heard the news not long after the bombs and the conspirators disappeared..." Cody's eyes shot up at the mention of the bombs, his mind perked a little at the sudden operation just vanishing off the map...how did Casteon ever did it? But he shut off his thoughts as he saw the slightly blushing form of Gwen sitting next to him quite flustered of her own concern, the detective smiled broadly despite some pain and twitching in the action but it got the well-deserved caring smile that brightened up his day as he gave a peace sign.

"Let's not talk about that...let's just be with each other for the rest of the day, please." Cody felt elated that Gwen liked him, and even came to visit and nothing even Casteon was going to ruin this chance for a moment together. Seeing her curt nod, he smiled and brought a hand to her face feeling the curve of her cheekbone and the soft smooth skin as he decided to say the one thing on his mind, a cheeky grin covering his face.

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?" Gwen stopped shocked at his answer, she had been thinking about it during the night and even the talk with his sister had the go-ahead from her when she spoke about how she wanted to make Cody happy and also not fulfilling his desires, but his heart. She could remember Naomi just snorting before she let out a small laugh, her own hands gripped hers as she nodded in some sibling satisfaction.

"Your sister said, 'I was the perfect one for you after all'." Cody immediately cheered internally, fireworks bursting in his head as he straightened out his grin at the subtle acceptance before his face went serious again, his voice trembled a little as he spoke out for the first time in years timidly before a girl. Gwen had to keep back a small giggle to see a part of his teenage self still remaining in his attitude before she listened to his words, frowning a little with each word of it.

"Look Gwen, I don't think I'm the right man for you. Look at me, I beat myself over every little mistake I have made across the way and also I couldn't save the others from that man...it's just shaken my confidence in myself that I can't think straight? What if I can't love you right? I cannot..." His words were silenced, a muffle from his mouth which was taken by Gwen's own as she drew him into a kiss, the detective's own train of thoughts fell right apart as he gave into the feelings that propelled him into this event. He felt her love and she felt his, a feeling of fulfilment came into both their minds as they drew apart Gwen smiling deeply while she brushed a lock of hair from Cody's forehead, stroking the man who she knew was destined to be.

"Cody, you don't need to say anything...you're not perfect, and that's just what I like about you." Cody blushed furiously as he tugged at his collar, a small smirk on his face in a mischevious tone at the statement.

"Is that a flirt I detect?" Gwen just rolled her eyes before she laughed to herself.

"Only for you, Cody. Only for you." Cody laughed with her before he fell silent, a small shiver running up his own spine at the thought of the bomber laughing wildly and taunting his weakness before he was shot, left to die without the law to protect him...Cody had a slight thinking about that point, Casteon's words were not all that it seemed to be some mad guy rambling to death of chaos and bringing it to the world in a prophetic way...this man was definately out there to get them, the people who control the law and are part of the system fell under his category and by the tactics he saw close up it was obvious Casteon planned this willingly and won. For now. Even now investigators around the country are pulling together resources to try and counter Casteon, warning the other nations of this volatile high-security criminal on the loose with more and more bombings being heard of related to the bomber himself as Cody looked out of the hospital window with worry.

"This is far from over, Gwen. As long as he is out there, planning...trying to destroy the law then I'll be there to fight back. I promise." As he spoke, a flash of lightling crashed across the sky as a flock of ravens flew by the sky.

Elsewhere...

The dark alleyway was all Casteon needed, it was the darkness that gave him the advantage in this interrogation as he smelled the defiance that spewed from his victim who was writhing in pain and anger at the heavy beating he was giving him, his face was bruised and battered with black spots on both cheeks, taking a rather bad beating due to his uncooperative manner...it didn't matter much, the bomber knew who he was but was going to break the ice. Casteon gave a sudden jerk of his knee, sending it cracking into the young man's ribs as he held on to the collars of his uniform which was purple and black...more of a suit with grey gloves and boots, it disgusted the bomber's own choice of clothing before another knee dragged a cough of blood and spit onto the ground below.

"Let me repeat my question: Is your name Garfield Logan?" His victim didn't answer, a dark look on his face answered the man before a direct punch brought his head to knock hard against the wall letting a painful yell as his head felt like splitting and vibrations rang in his mind. Casteon however gave no time for recovery as he released a hand from his grip, sending it in an outstretched palm crashing the boy into the hard solid bricks as he used his force to send him falling to the ground ripping skin off the teenager's face as he crumbled down onto the floor almost unable to stand. The bomber however wasn't done as his face still held a ghastly smile, grabbing the boy by his back and threw him into the wall sending pieces of wall falling onto the boy's body before he grabbed him again, spinning him round to smash him against the wall face-first as he began to punch the boy repeatedly laughing maniacally as each punch brought the boy to sink further into the wall before he stopped, leaving space for him to breathe before he grabbed the boy's shoulders removing him from place to turn him around. The boy had more bruises with scrapped blood over the ripped off skin dangling over his cheek as his eyes could hardly even flutter open the slightest inch without pain biting at his eyelids, Casteon now knew he was breaking the boy to extreme lengths before he let go of him watching the body crumple to the floor before his head nodded slightly.

"Good. Now listen to my voice." Casteon spoke with malice as he reached into the back of his pocket, rummaging to take out a pistol as the boy known as Garfield looked up at his attacker who had the weapon in bloodstained gloves dripping drops of blood and grit before the bomber knelt down, a dark smirk running over his face as he placed the gun into the teen's hand, the boy realising what his intention was started to shake his head quickly. The bomber noticed this and had a genuine frown on his faceas he clenched the boy's fingers around the hair trigger, bringing it to his stomach as he tutted the boy on his unwillingness.

"No, no, no...this is not fun. You're being very ill-disciplined boy, so now you have to bring this on yourself for not trying to prevent this from happening...Goodnight, Garfield. And tell your Titan friends I'll be seeing them very, very soon."

The last thing Garfield heard was the gunshot.

End