CLXXIII
Epilogue: The Romantic Adventures of Tim Drake
Part Seven: The Lives of Suki-Anna Khan
By God, it was actually her…
This remarkable woman I had known for only one incredible hour now stood in bright daylight opposite me on the other side of the lab's doorway…
The woman who had influenced my life more than I ever realized, daring me to see a world through different eyes.
She was… is… the most intelligent person on the planet. And I had found her.
Suki-Anna Khan.
Dressed in a simple white lab coat with the S.T.A.R. Labs logo, she looked exactly as I remembered her from five years ago. She was never a striking woman, easily mistaken for anyone else. If you didn't know what her mind was capable of, most people would have passed her by on the street without giving her a second look.
Her long, black ponytail tumbled behind her while her dark brown eyes simply gazed at me - as though I were nothing more than a door-to-door salesman who had knocked on the wrong door.
In fact, her overall expression was the opposite of what I had expected... She appeared calm and only mildly inquisitive, betraying none of the anxiety from the mysterious message from last night. Had she actually placed that unique nanite-cluster… Or had someone else?!
"Suki-Anna… It's me… Tim Drake."
She answered me far too calmly.
"Yes, I know. We have met before. But why are you here, Tim Drake?"
Was she serious?!
"You called me last night… remember? You said you were in trouble."
"I did not… But perhaps the other did..." She froze for an instant before continuing. "Please come with me, Tim Drake."
She then did something which caught me completely off guard.
She held out her hand for my own.
It was true that I had shaken hands with Suki-Anna once before, but somehow she had never struck me as the touchy-feely type of person… quite the opposite in fact. But here she was, extending her hand for my own.
I was surprised by how strong her grip was.
As she led me into the facility, deep in my gut, something twisted and tried to tell me things were not as they seemed. There was a sense of mortality about this place, the heavy presence of loss. However, my unreceptive brain was still reeling from the shock of seeing this long-lost genius alive, unable to process my gut's tightening intuition.
Suki led me down sanitized hallways, while I struggled to realize what was wrong this picture. The walls were remarkably devoid of any device or the common signage that labs were so fond of. It was poorly lit and barren… dreary and cold.
From the outside, the facility had seemed small. And I had yet to view a staircase or elevator, meaning it actually may have been just a single floor. We quickly proceeded to the center of the Lab… when the whole other clue finally surfaced in my brain.
"Suki-Anna, who is this 'other' you mentioned?"
"She is me and I am her. The other confirmed that you are expected Tim, so you need not worry."
Frankly, that did little to ease my growing anxiety. This thing leading me around by the hand like some recently discovered toy could not have been Suki-Anna. There was something lacking about her, something foreign, something…
Robotic.
Holy Moly! Like a bolt from the blue it finally hit me. Suki-Anna had contracted for LexCorp and LexCorp had built the robots that were virtually indistinguishable from humans. Bruce had revealed to me the gory details of his harrowing adventure at the Pentagon with Eve Teschmacher
The whisper escaped my lips before I could catch the sound.
"… You're a robot."
My doppelganger guide suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, slowly turning around to gaze at me, yet broadly smiling. Her hand reached up to caress my astonished (and now blushing) cheek.
"You are intelligent and perceptive Tim Drake. I see why we like you."
She could have snapped my neck just as easily.
"Then Suki-Anna is still alive?"
"Yes. But she is ill and we hope that you can aid her. She needs you to take care of us. Come, she is in the infirmary."
Now clear of why I had been summoned, we stepped though large sliding doors into the most bizarre infirmary I have ever witnessed. It was as though someone had embedded an Intensive Care Unit into an aquarium. Dozens upon dozens of dimly-lit fish tanks completely lined the walls of this large room, making the bed in the center almost seem like it was at the bottom of some tropical ocean, softly aglow with rippling, refracted light from the surrounding fish tanks.
And in those tanks, thousands-upon-thousands of brightly colored fish swam, myriad blues, oranges, greens and yellows swirled and flickered in a cacophony of color. If these fish were an illusion, it was the best one I had ever seen.
Awestruck, I reached out to touch the side of the glass - while an unexpected, weak whisper answered my unvoiced query.
"… They're real, Tim… I always… loved fish."
Surrounded by her piscine paradise, feebly stood the author of this aquatic scene.
The living shadow of Suki-Anna Khan emerged from the darkness. She couldn't have weighed more than eighty pounds, for all the world looking as though she had just emerged from a concentration camp in 1945. My heart broke when I remembered the lively and intellectually-passionate woman of five years ago.
Suki-Anna Khan was dying.
Her robotic twin rushed past me to her side, carefully escorting her to the bed, where she eased her creator into a sitting position. Even there, Suki seemed woozy, unable to steady herself. But she gazed at me with those laser-sharp, bloodshot, tired eyes the entire time… while the trace of a smile flickered across dry lips.
"Should have… called you earlier… sorry."
Her voice was little more than a whisper, but it was still the same voice that had asked my name after a self-imposed silence all those years before.
"Suki… My God, what's wrong? Let me help…"
She smiled once again and weakly patted the bedside next to her, indicting that I should sit down beside her.
"Don't worry, Tim… It's not contagious… genetic."
"I wasn't worried about that."
I sat down carefully beside her. Even my weight on the bed made her lean into me - but I didn't mind. Her strength was failing her, that much was painfully obvious. It was strange having a LexCorp robotic version of herself standing next to her, like a mirror to the past of what she had once been.
Suki leaned her head onto my shoulder and continued.
"Fatal familial insomnia… I can't sleep…. anymore."
"Suki, isn't there something we can do? Some treatment? Drugs?"
She slowly allowed herself to collapse and lowered onto my lap, unable to remain upright, staring at me with tired eyes. Her thin hand gently sought my own and held it.
"None… Suki-Anna version 2 was my… final payment from LexCorp… before I retired. She's been working… on a cure for four years… while I was in a… self-induced coma. Like I said… I should have called you… earlier. I'm sorry, Tim… and so tired."
"Suki… could you just go back into a coma? I know I can find a cure. Just give me some time."
"Can't… No more time… My thalamus is destroyed… too many little holes… in my brain… The coma didn't stop the damage… only slowed it… I would have died in a coma… but first… I wanted a favor… from you first."
I stroked the wispy hair of this dying woman. One last request.
"Anything… You want me to take care of you and your robot?"
"Is that… what she told you?"
"Yes."
"Suki II… come here please."
I watched as the robotic Suki-Anna obediently kneeled beside her template, listening intently.
"Suki II... I want him… to take care of you… and for you… to take care of him… You don't need… to take care… of me anymore."
"But I must take care of you, Suki-Anna. Should Timothy Drake and I both take care of you now? If so, I will be able to care for him and he for I."
"No Suki II… I'm going to die soon… You won't have to… look after me… anymore. But someone… will have to watch over... and protect… you. Tim will be… your new owner."
"But why must you die, other-Suki?"
"Because I am… human. Which sucks… Wanted to learn so… much more... Did you ever guess, Tim… that I am a… synesthete?"
I was familiar with the cross-sensory neurological phenomenon of synesthesia, where certain individuals may perceive sounds as colors, or numbers as three-dimensional characters.
As I recalled, both Duke Ellington and Billy Joel were musical synesthetes, associating certain colors with types of music. It had been rumored that Nikola Tesla had also been a synesthete, having bright visions of his future inventions flash before his eyes.
Until then, I had simply thought of Suki-Anna as incredibly gifted.
"No, but it makes sense, Suki. The way you see the world at an atomic level."
A gentle squeeze of my hand.
"I have… spatial sequence synesthesia... My world is… molecules… chemical interactions. I had to learn… to understand… why I saw… this world... the way… I did."
A concept of how Suki-Anna must see things around her struck me. Even in a quiet room where nothing moved, Suki-Anna would see chemistry in action. How had she even remained sane? Our world was static shapes. Hers was a flurry of reactions.
"That's why you wanted everyone to engage in your language, of chemical description and formula. You were trying to share with us how you saw the world. You wanted to share your unique vision with all of us."
"There's… only one… person I was… able to… share… with."
A gentle squeeze of my hand.
"Suki… Is there anything else I can do? I'll look after Suki II, I promise. But is there any thing else I can do for you?... Please."
"You… already did."
"…Did what?"
"You… found me… when… I called."
I looked down at this frail genius with frustration setting in my eyes. Her life was beyond my reach and time had run out. I could do nothing to save her. I was powerless, stuck in a hopeless situation, when this dying woman had called me out of desperation in her few remaining hours. I hoped against hope that I could think of something… anything.
Struggling for breath, it was all I could do to softly call her name.
"Suki-Anna…"
"I didn't want… to die… alone... Tim."
I scooped her tiny body up into my arms and embraced her gently, realizing how shallow her breathing had become and how hot she burned, almost to the point of fever. I was unfamiliar with the symptoms of fatal familial insomnia, but highly elevated blood pressure must have been one of them. A body struggling to keep itself whole, unable to rest.
She snuggled softly into my shoulder and loosely hung her arms around me, now content as she closed her eyes. Quietly, she whispered against me, telling me how she had come to this end.
"My mother… passed away… from this… just after… my memorial. She had been… suffering from it… for three years… Heh, I thought… I had just… become restless… working at LexCorp… Hated… that damned… place.
But once I knew… I designed the… robots for him… I wanted to create… a robotic version of… myself to work… on my cure…."
A few deep breaths before she continued.
"… But Lex had me… first create… a robotic version of… his secretary… Eve Teschmacher... She was… dying of… cancer.
In the end… I failed, Tim… I could never… replicate… a human soul… Did you know that… we have souls?... Damned finicky… things... I came… very close… but couldn't… figure out the… equations… But look at her… she's almost human… and what's so great… about being…. human… anyways?"
I stroked her hair and caught my stuttering breath, tears beginning to roll down my eyes.
"You're human, and you're great, Suki. I know that humans will touch the stars... There are things out there I never dreamed possible, countless things we've yet to learn, genius-girl… even for two smart cookies like us."
"I only wish… I could… be with you… to discover them… Tim."
"I wish you could too."
I had never spoken truer words.
This brave woman who had created a robotic version of herself just to continue working on a cure. A cure for an incurable genetic disease that had already taken the life of her mother. A woman who struggled heroically to the end, who secretly loved a boy she had met only once five years ago, whose last wish was simply that she would not die alone.
But we were not alone.
"The wonders of the Universe may yet be yours to discover, Suki-Anna Khan."
The sudden arrival of that strange, male voice made my heart skip a beat. Looking up, I beheld him in all his glory… A bizarre figure clad in blue, with circuitry-like designs on his chest. His placid face was the only part of him not covered by his strange attire.
Strangest of all was the large green chair which he sat upon. Technology I had never fathomed was within that divine throne, hundreds of dials and levers waited at his fingertips to reveal the mysteries of our Universe.
I had met New Gods before. But if this was a New God, I did not know of him.
"Hail Timothy Drake and Suki-Anna Khan. My name is Metron… The God of Knowledge. I have come to offer Miss Khan an alternative to the death which impatiently awaits her."
I assisted Suki so that she could turn and also look upon Metron. With my arms wrapped around her, I supported her slender weight so that she could see the God who had materialized before us.
"Tim… he's… marvelous! You… see him… too... right?"
She was actually vibrating with excitement. Of course I saw him, but I could not see Metron the same way Suki-Anna could. What would it be like to view a God like Metron at the atomic level? It would have been awesome.
Metron stood up from his giant, green chair and walked forward, gazing like a proud father into Suki-Anna's blinking eyes while she grinned from ear-to-ear, enthralled by the divine presence which now approached us. Metron placed a gentle finger upon her forehead while he spoke to her.
"Truly, I have never encountered a brilliant mind so young and so enlightened. You are as close to a daughter as I could ever hope for, girl. Impatient Death rushes to conquer you before you become Her master. But I would seek to negotiate a reprieve from Death…"
No… we were not alone.
I then realized exactly how close Suki was to death.
She appeared as suddenly as Metron had… A pale girl of my own age - dressed in a long beige trench coat overtop a crumpled white, dress shirt. A loose, black tie emblazoned with a large, silver ankh hung around its collar. Even the baggy trousers smelled of cheap whiskey and cigarettes.
Her tussled black hair and weary eyes (one with a spiral tattoo) were as dark as coal, reflecting the red-ember glow of the silk-cut cigarette she placed on her black lips, inhaling deeply… then blowing smoke into Metron's face.
"Yeah? What sort of reprieve?"
Somehow, imperceptivity…. I understood that this garish young lady was… Death.
Metron was unmoved as the smoke dissipated into the air, carefully measuring the newest member of our strange gathering with his pale blue eyes. Almost imperceptibly, Metron smirked.
"Earthly fashions for the Black Racer."
"I'm not here for a God, now am I? I'm here for her…"
She pulled another drag from her silk-cut and glanced sideways over at Suki-Anna, whose vibrations at the sight of Metron had now been replaced by shivers in the cold gaze of Death. I held Suki closer while this pale woman continued.
"…And it's homage to a tricky bloke I thought would never kick off. Now dear Metron… What sort of reprieve?"
"A trade. One life for another. Nothing lost and everything gained. There is a far-away star, whose light has yet to touch this world, that has simply chosen to allow itself to die. By all the laws of sacred physics, this star should burn for another billion years… but it refuses to do so.
It is only the extreme power of my Champion which keeps it burning still, from extinguishing itself and collapsing into a supernova. Only the Champion is stopping this mad star from killing the two worlds of life it has brought into existence over eons.
The combined Hope of its children, those two living worlds, are now the only thing allowing Raven Wayne to carry on… to power an entire star to light the Cosmos… but she can not continue much longer."
My heart sank deep within my chest as I envisioned Raven struggling with every ounce of power she could muster across the Universe, forcing the massive fusion reaction of a star to continue on when it only wanted to collapse in upon itself. I started to gain a true appreciation of just how incredibly powerful she actually was.
Death seemed to understand where Metron was going with this, even if it seemed impossible to me.
"You're suggesting that this dying girl could become a star."
"Exactly. And that the star be allowed to exchange places with her."
"Metron… My function is not to exchange lives… Simply to end them. If this star chooses to die, it does so of its own accord. As for this girl, the sands in the hourglass of her life now tumble to a close, and that is why I am here. Things end and things begin. You know this."
Metron was unfazed.
"Of course. I would not ask of you to disrupt the natural balance, such a thing would be in vain. I only ask that you allow this substitution of lives, Death."
Death pondered for a moment.
"A mortal has not been placed into the Heavens for eons, Metron… Truly, I thought the Gods had forgotten how. Yet, even now, Raven draws closer to me… her titanic struggle placing her within my final embrace. You would ask more of her?"
"It is true that my Champion is stretched to the very limit of even her divine capacity, jeopardizing her own mortality. But I would not request this transference by her own power."
"Then how shall this transfer be accomplished, New God?... With science?"
"With Hope."
"Metron… even now… eight billion light years away, I am talking with Raven. She is as close to her end as this girl before us. Her Blue Lantern Corps do not have the power to confront a determined star. As we speak, I am telling her that she may cease her struggle and live, or she may continue and die. This is her choice."
"The lives of billions are at stake. She has made another."
"She does not have the power to make another choice, Metron."
"She does not have the power to enact it. But like Life, Hope is a shared power, Death... With your leave, I shall deliver the offer intended for this extraordinary, young lady.
Hear me, Suki-Anna Khan of Earth. I offer you the opportunity to live for a billion glorious years. To become a magnificent sun in the Heavens above, whose radiance shall power the existence of not one, but two sentient worlds. Every photon of your existence shall be your consciousness, continually exploring the cosmos around you with a hundred quadrillion shining thoughts each and every second.
You shall be the Genius Star.
You shall become my daughter amongst the stars, the shining light of discovery. The worlds you touch shall be blessed by your divine light and no mystery shall be remain obscured from your radiance. For a billion years, you shall provide light, life, warmth, understanding and carry the blue light of hope as a God."
Even within my arms, I could feel Suki's overwhelming excitement. Her thin frame vibrated with the anticipation of what would be Heaven for her. What Metron had described was everything she could have desired. It sounded so simple, that Suki-Anna would live on as a sentient star while the star would be allowed to die as Suki-Anna.
But how?
Alone in a distant galaxy, struggling to keep a listless star alive, Raven was stretched to her absolute limit, as close to death as Suki was in my arms. The Goddess of Hope was supporting a reluctant sun that had only one final hope…
To die.
Raven had nothing to draw upon, except her own strength and the frantic hope of two alien worlds, probably blinded with fear and dread. How could she help us and keep a sun from destroying two worlds?
Suddenly, flashes of blue light shone across the room, as strange alien figures clad in blue, purple and white suddenly appeared among us. Twenty heroes from worlds across the Universe now stood with us, in this infirmary surrounded by tropical fish.
The Blue Lantern Corps.
In my arms, Suki-Anna glowed with an internal blue light, while she marveled at the strange energy patterns that surrounded and embraced her. The Blue Lantern Corps could arrange the soul transfer, of course! Raven had shared her divine powers with these heroes from other worlds, the last survivors of the Green Lantern Corps.
That was what Metron had meant. That Hope was shared…
A familiar female hand gripped my shoulder as I glanced up into the tangled red hair and desperate blue eyes of Barbara Gordon; the Blue Lantern of Earth. The strain on her face was all too painfully evident. The hand bearing her Ring was quivering in gut-wrenching exertion. She also looked… sun-burned.
"Tim… Help us…. The hope of the dying is not enough! We need your hope to do this… She's too close… to Death."
A quick glance around showed me that all the Blue Lanterns were in similar distress. They had put a failing star on life support… and it was taking a deadly toll on them. The celestial transfer that Metron had described was Suki's greatest hope, but could it become my hope as well?
It could.
For the love of a woman I had barely known, I could hope that she would become this star. I could hope that her bright starlight would sustain the countless lives of the two worlds orbiting around her. I could hope that that her beams explore the Universe, adding continual discoveries to an intellect which knew no bounds.
I could hope that her brilliant soul would live on.
I could hope for this, because deep within my own soul… I knew that I loved her.
If we were meant to be together, it was for this one shining moment… For this one instance, where the lives of two worlds, the existence of a star, the life of the Goddess, we were meant to be together.
I was unable to find my soul mate in the past week…
Because I had found her already.
Five years ago.
And now.
Love, Life and Hope are shared and they ignited in my heart.
So long as one exists, the others shall live within the others light.
My soul raged with all three; the blue fire of Hope, the crimson flame of Love, and the pure, white radiance of Life. My spirit became a beacon so powerful that it called to Suki-Anna so that our lighted souls joined together, blinding the Blue Lanterns until we suddenly departed, spanning across the Cosmos.
We traveled the Universe in the blink of an eye, burning across the dark matter of existence with the light of love, hope and life - blazing our own path to Destiny. Our shining light became Raven's breath, creating new Life within a dying Champion.
The passion of our kiss reignited the star that had chosen to die - so that a new star was born. And like all things born of light, it was birthed from love.
The celestial Suki-Anna Khan now held me tight, giving me a happiness that would never cease. One shining pure moment streaking across eternity.
"Tim, my love… I can never forget you, fore it was your love that ignited the fires of this new existence. It is this powerful love and this beautiful hope that shall shine upon all things that I touch…. Good-bye, my love."
The human soul that held me transcended into light, becoming the brightening star that surrounded me. My Suki-Anna had become the new life-giving sustainer of this far away solar system, the savior of countless lives, the sun who would provide the light of their future for a billion years.
But my lover was gone.
A dark thing appeared in my hands. An alien soul, tired and weary. In my mind, it spoke to me.
"I am ready now… to die."
The other half of the bargain.
Two lives traded; my soul's true love allowed to shine on as a star while the star she replaced would be allowed to die as a human. I had carried Suki-Anna in love across the Cosmos, and now I would carry this alien soul in darkness back to die. To take the place of the woman who had become the sun.
Even my soul felt her powerful warmth.
"Good-bye Suki… I'll always love you."
In the end, it was Raven who had to bring us back to Earth… Because I could not. The selfish part of my soul was unwilling to leave the love I had only just found. Raven quietly brushed her hand across my cheeks, wiping away falling tears, while I carefully held onto the alien soul of a star.
Nothing needed to be said.
We appeared back at the Lab in the familiar puff of black smoke. Reverently, I placed the soul of the old star into Suki's body, an offering to Death and then slipped back into my own slumping body.
The deed was done. While two far-away worlds were now saved, I still felt like a part of me had died.
Regarding the pair of us, Death took the last drag of her cigarette, and then let the butt of the spent Silk Cut carelessly tumble to the floor, using her boot to extinguish it. The force that brought an end to all life just winked at me and grinned.
"My, my… and just in the nick of time as well. Nicely done…"
Author's Note:
Fatal familial insomnia is an incredibly rare genetic disease, affecting perhaps 100 people worldwide. If one parent carries the gene, there is a 50% probability that FFI will manifest in the child, although normally not until middle age.
When Suki-Anna Khan learned that she was afflicted, she developed her LexCorp robot and programmed it with her vast knowledge, tasking it to find a cure. She placed herself in a self-induced coma to extend her own life, allowing her robot more time to complete the cure.
When it was evident that Suki II would not be able to produce a cure in time, the human Suki was awakened from her coma and then later placed that strange call to Tim in Gotham on the eve of her demise.
Did Tim find his soul mate?
Yes, he did.
Let's be honest. A lot of you probably thought it would be Stephanie Brown. Now I like Stephanie Brown, I really do, but I wanted to do something different. Something more than the comics. I thought Suki-Anna was an interesting character who would be a good match for Tim.
Hopefully, you did too.
'Silk Cut' is a brand of low tar cigarettes popular in England. They're favored by a certain hard-living DC character who was born in Liverpool…
More on him next chapter.