A time To Die - Dont Be A Hero Book 2

Epilogue

(A/N: I have rewritten the chapter before this, which was going to be the last one until I added this one, so please go back and re-read it before you continue. If you read it prior to 12-5-13 that is. If it hasn't changed when you go back to read it, try deleting the book and downloading it again. Sometimes it takes doing that in order to get it to update itself.)

Epilogue

Despite the pain in her heart and the tears she held back, Macy met with the Sidney Chief of Police to begin the emotionally taxing job of contacting the loved ones of the innocent people who had been missing for months, years, and even decades. Many of them had already been mourned, their family having long since given up hope that they would ever be found alive.

The rest of the team went back to the farm house to pack up and prepare to return to the U.S. Lillian asked Anthony when they thought they might be home.

"If all goes well and Miss Grey isn't needed longer, we are planning to leave here tomorrow morning. We all should be home by late tomorrow night, some of us earlier," he said. "Your brother won't be with us, as I'm sure you already know."

"Yes. I do. I'm lucky to still have a brother," she replied.

"I'm curious, Dr. Wolfe. They appeared confident that they would succeed in turning him into a mindless killing machine that they could control. What do you suppose went wrong in there?"

She let out a small laugh. "They were intelligent men, but they were messing with my technology and my brother. They underestimated me. That's all. I had access to him the entire time they did. I couldn't stop him from being united with Father Time, but I was able to allow them to believe they succeeded in gaining control over him. In reality, I locked them out. To simplify it, I created a backup of his memories. When they erased them, I restored them. The entire procedure was similar to when someone formats a computer, in Jackson's case it was one that was partitioned. What I did was create a backup image of his 'hard drive' and when they formatted it, I loaded it all back up. Not partitioned this time, of course, bringing all of his memories together, those of Father Time and those of Jackson, all on the same drive."

"Hmm." Anthony was listening with one arm crossed over his chest propping up his other arm with which he was reaching up to stroke his chin, thoughtfully. "Just so you know, you lost me somewhere in the first couple of sentences, but I'll take your word."

Lillian laughed. "You have got to be the most technologically challenged bunch I've ever hung out with in my life, but I wouldn't trade any of you for the world! If nothing else, you all certainly make me feel needed."

"To be perfectly honest, I have no idea how we got by without you for as long as we did. See you tomorrow, my little genius."

...........

Serena accepted the invitation from Jerome to join up with the team and move to the states, but she told him that she had some things to take care of first. She found Jack and filled him in on everything that had taken place. She was unaware of the situation with his sister. When he opened up to her about it, she went with him to the underground dwelling of her former master in order to locate the artificial body he had been promised for Victoria.

They found the beautiful doll-like avatar still resting where he'd last seen her. Neither of them had any idea how she would have been transferred to the new body, but Serena promised him that she would help him to find out. During their search for the dormant artificial body, they came upon the strange and mysterious machine that was kept hidden in a room just off the big study.

"What do you think it is?" Jack asked, his eyes wide as he walked around the weird contraption.

"I do not know. We will seek answers. For the time being, however, I think we should keep this between us. We do not know the function of this machinery. I have a strong feeling that it can be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands."

Serena decided to stay on in the home of the Black Hole until she was able to piece together everything he had been working on and how it might still be affecting others. She told Jerome her plans.

"There is much we may be able to help you with. I would like to stay with you," he said, after she told him of the mysteries still uncovered in the underground rooms and tunnels. "There is much that you and I need to catch up on as well."

She didn't resist and it was decided. Tya smiled through streaming tears when he informed her of his decision. She nodded and told him to do what his heart led him to do. She had Tyrone, now, after all, and would be spending much of her free time catching up with him.

The magnificent winged creatures were a gift, in her opinion, from another world. Another dimension. One filled with angels and demons and gods and goddesses. They were travelers who had either lost their way, or been sent by someone, and Tya believed that they had a purpose far more important than her love for the Falcon.

Neither of them spoke of any of it with anyone and nobody pressured them for information.

.........

Everyone felt the emptiness without Jackson there. No one brought him up and they all held hope in their hearts that he would accomplish his task and return to them. He had embraced his dark side and his objective was far different than the objective of the team, but at the same time, what he had to do worked toward the same goal. He was a killer, but every one of them looked inside themselves and found that they accepted him that way. There was no judgment. No debate as to whether he was right or wrong. No question. His abilities and the experimentation made him who he was. They each decided individually, that he was their friend and a man they all knew and trusted. They would stand beside him and fight with him to change the future of humanity along with the rest of the superhuman population. They would all join hands across the globe, forming an alliance that could steer mankind away from his own destruction.

With the help of Father Time there was hope for bringing balance back to Mother Earth.

 (Please don't forget to vote! Comments?)