Disclaimer: I do not own Legion of Super-Heroes.
This is the end of the Hearse. This girl, Aria Campbell, she has a complex history, pertaining to the Five Years Later stories, but she ties in with Timber Wolf. And, for all we know, she's managed to avoid Zero Hour, and she's still in the 21st Century of New Earth. Unless Superboy-Prime's tantrums managed to wipe out her as well.
Cautionary Tales: The Hearse - Epilogue
Aria Campbell would never be able to explain what happened that day. Or the day before. This was not the first time she had rode the Tornado on the boardwalk. She was here for two weeks with her father, Francis, her twin brother Cody, and her best friend Laurie. And she avoided death. She didn't know if there was a name for these kinds of things. These brushes with death. Right now, she didn't care. That day, yesterday, she had fallen asleep on the beach, when she awoke, Laurie was gone. She searched frantically for her best friend, but she couldn't find her. She walked all the way down to the deserted part of the beach, beyond the sand dunes, and, like an oil stain smearing the concrete landscape, she saw a black shape moving towards her in the summer haze. A sleek, black hearse. And a sinister figure beckoning to her, to enter. When she awoke, she found Laurie standing over her, wondering why she wandered off when she just went to use the bathroom.
Now, Aria did not go to the boardwalk that night. They went to the matinee three blocks down from the hotel. Aria had shaken the dream off. She recognized the man. He was the operator for the roller coaster. Nothing strange about that. But she just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad would happen. And Cody picked up on that. Today, he said he wasn't feeling good. That he wouldn't be going to the boardwalk again this night. Twins are often sensitive to the feelings of their siblings, and Aria felt Cody's pain as Cody felt Aria's spectre of death hovering above her. But that didn't stop Laurie from dragging her down to the front of the Tornado, sitting behind her. Aria felt anxious and scared, waiting for the ride to end so she could see there was nothing to be scared of.
But that was before she saw him.
The man, the man that was in the passenger seat of the hearse. The man with the beard and ponytail, with eyes like a wolf. Their expressions mirrored one another, as Aria recalled as he mouthed the words "run" in her dream. And run she did. With Laurie behind her. Just in time to see the coaster crash behind them as they left the boardwalk.
Aria Campbell would never be able to explain what happened that day. To Laurie, to Cody, to her dad, to anyone. All she knows is, that she ran away from the man who was driving the hearse. Because of the man with the eyes of a wolf, warning her. He saved her life. Just as she did his.
And neither knew the other's name. Sometimes, fate works like that for no apparent reason. That's why it's called fate. You'll never know what happens next.
The End.