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"Wait . . . hold it, hold it, HOLD IT!!!" C.J. yelped, putting his hands up. "I did NO such thing. This is some whack-a** 'Evil Dead: Army of Darkness' kinda stuff goin' on here. You're back in California, safe and sound at one of my favorite Mexican Restaurants of ALL time. If not number one, DEFINITELY in the top five. More importantly, YOU'RE ALIVE!!!" he growled, looking her square in the eye.

"As for the kids, they're back in the underworld. ALSO safe. Very much alive, so what the hell is going on here?!? More importantly, YOU MARRIED ANOTHER DUDE?!?" he yelped. What the hell is going on here?!? he thought. Note to self: LET IT HAPPEN. Trust Misty more and keep temper in check! he thought.


MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE BATTLEFIELD . . . .


"I missed you too, Kiddo. WAY more than you think." Blackjack said as he hugged his little girl. That's right, HIS little girl . . . and the first thing he was gonna do when he got back to his time was keelhaul that marauding millionaire in HIS family. Maybe even a little cruise missile present like he originally thought . . . what stopped him of course, was realizing the hard truth that Misty and the kids were probably still in the building.

"I noticed! You got your mother's eyes, kiddo." he said with a smile. It was clear as tears welled up in his eyes, that deep down, in all the tequila, partying, time travel and all, that he missed his kids. After all, he was their father in his eyes.

..Merida took a seat on the ground,her eyes closing as she listened to this all occur.It was the past..somewhat..a past Cj,but..even so,seeing him like this..really made her unsettled,and saddened.Was her own still carrying pains from their parting..?

. Even lost in her thoughts Merida's face was void of expression.He was listening of his own free will..

Merida's hand went to a long dread ,peeling off a stone bead and rolling it around her hand calmly.

Amanda's eyes widened as CJ pulled out the large envelope. It wasn't hard to recognize. There were enough stickers covering the thing to remember she and her brother sitting on the floor of a hotel sticking them on the envelope and each other.

She looked at it for a moment, then smiled again. "You kept them?" she asked, looking up at him. "You... you really did miss us? You mean it?" she asked, growing excited. Then she frowned a little as she thought. "But... what about the other lady you were with? On TV running from the police? Step-Daddy said it was your new girl friend. Mommy got upset."

Misty's hard look softened a bit at CJ's reaction. She tilted her head back to the side, letting it be straight again. "In the Underworld? You're... you're that far back in time, are you? That they haven't even really been born yet." she said. Then tisked sadly. "You really do still love me then. Don't you? Well... perhaps not ME." she added. Then she crossed her arms and sighed lightly.

"Lets see... how should I explain this. I'm dead... as you can see. With the universal merging... I've seen a few of the same souls wandering around down here. From different universes... different points of time... I would guess that... I was simply tossed down here as randomly as many others were. With the children, thankfully. We are from the time, the future time, when you abandoned us. To be fair... I did that to you. But it was to protect the children, and was only supposed to be until the train got to the next town. I never imagined I'd loose contact with you completely." she began. "And yes. Richard Blackstone... a man who had cohersed me into marriage in our universe. With this universe, our marriage was null and void, and he was seemingly out of the picture. Eventually, while you were in jail, he found me. Came home and he was in the room playing with the children, actually. Gave me my options... and I chose the best one. He is.... violent when angered, and I did not want him going off around, or even ON the children. I married him, thinking that I could make sure we inherited everything he owned, then.... well. I already explained that I planned on killing him and marrying you once he was out of the picture. We'd have everything. But... that's not how it worked out."

Then she sighed and tilted her head again. "Oh, how that didn't work out... You just left. I couldn't tell you why I was marrying him when you crashed the party. You just left. I was never able to explain it, and killing Blackstone was no longer an option. You went far away and found someone new. There was no reason to try and.... hm." she said, then rubbed the open wound on her neck. "Such a violent temper when he gets angry..." she mused. "The children had heard me talking to someone over the phone long before about helping me with Blackstone. We called it the Black Widow case. When we seen you on tv, the kids got to asking about you. A lot. One even asked me about the Black Widow plan I was doing with my friend and if I was getting you back. Poor things didn't know. And I didn't know the security cameras all over the house had sound..."


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Amanda frowned a bit. "So... she wasn't your girlfriend when you were on TV?" she asked. Then she looked down at the ground and played with the little bow around the waist of her dress. "Step-Daddy said she was. Mommy thought she was too. She was really upset about that. She was already sad before, but that made her really sad. Step-Daddy got upset too..." she said as she twiddled with the ends of the bow. She was quiet for a moment, then looked back up at CJ.

"I don't think Step-Daddy liked you. He didn't like us talking very much about you. I think he got mad whenever Mommy talked about you. They were arguing really loudly and woke us up before we came here." she said. Then she brightened up a bit. "Mommy said that Step-Daddy isn't here though! She said that her, and me, and Eric are the only ones that moved down here. It's really dark and dirty. And the people here are scary. I think Eric is hiding by the castle. He doesn't like to be out here, and he doesn't like loud noises. But he'll be happy to see you again! And you can tell Mommy that Step-Daddy was lying! She's over at the castle too! She told us to find someplace safer to be for a while. Eric went to hide, but I wanted to see what all the noise was out here!" she rattled. Something she tended to do when she got excited. No one could get a word in edgewise unless they made her stop talking for a moment.

. . . which interrupted that little tender-ish moment by sending C.J. flying back. "WHOOOOOAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!" he yelped and crashed into the rubble over by Merida. He got up and shot her a funny look.

"The hell kinda carbine is THAT?!?! And more importantly, where can I buy one? That looks pretty cool!" C.J. said, sort of having an ADD moment to get out of that tender little "reunion" between him and Zombie Misty.

"I kinda don't know what to do there, trust her or shoot 'er in the face! 'Cause THAT's not Misty."

"Ooooh no, it IS. Trust me . . . she got REAL mean. Although wait . . . Black Widow?!"

"Yeah, knucklehead. You shoulda stuck around, ya dope!!"

Uhh, you with the brown words, who are you?

"The C.J. who actually noticed something screwbally and decided to hang around a little while. Hint hint: It involved hiring Arell to whack the little b***h! We get the cash and fled to that hideout in Cabo a week later."

Wait, there's THREE of you?!?

"I guess I left the wormhole open in here." *glares at the newbie.* "Get the hell outta here. ANOTHER RP for you!!"

Err . . . gotta get away from the nuts for a minute. (I swear, that a*****e seems to multiply when my back's turned!!!)

ANYWAY, Blackjack nodded as he listened to her. "Well don't you worry. When we get back there, I want you and Eric to start packin', okay? I think it's best y'all come live with Rida and me for a while." he drawled as he shouldered the weapon. "Trust me . . . that dude was bad news." he growled. Bad news? No s**t if he whacked the kids, too! That d**k! he thought.

Merida flashed Misty a grin in response.The spectral figure bounced back and hovered at her side...taking on the appearance of a young woman wearing all black, smoking a cigarette. The features were masked by what appeared to be the upper socket area of a skull.It curtsied in a somewhat mocking way before vanishing.

The little girl looked up at CJ and beamed. "A ship? We're going out on the ocean? I love the ocean! Can we go to the beach? A nice sunny one like Step Daddy took us to? Can we collect sea shells?" she began, becoming excited and rambling on again.

As they walked, she led him away from the main entrance where the other two had gone. She was told not to be around there, and she wasn't going to go against what Mommy had told her. The side entrance would be okay though. Eric was probably over there anyway.

In fact, it looked like there was someone waiting by the rocks near the side door. Someone little looking at something behind the rocks.

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Misty scowled at the woman and straightened herself back up. Right... he was a little, distractable, wasn't he? That was the whole reason she was told to come down here and keep him busy. If not kill him. She still wasn't sure if she wanted to actually hurt him or not. Not this CJ. Not the one who still held at least some feelings for her.

Although... if he were dead, then he would become a Lantern as well, wouldn't he? He would be here. With them. They'd be the family they should have been years ago. Before HE mucked it all up.

"Well then... I take it your friend here is through with letting us talk. Fine. You wouldn't like to hear the rest of it anyway. And I'd hate to break your heart again." she said. Then the black ring on her hand began to glow with a dark, menacing light. "Though we were ordered to rip it out."

"Finally." Doomsday spat.

"YOU take care of the girl." Misty snarled, glaring over at him. "This will remain between me and him. You so much as touch him and I'll tear you appart myself."

"Aw, that's a shame." came a voice from the doorway. "I've already touched your little lover boy in the face quite a few times. With my fist. And my sword." Abolisher chuckled, leaning against the frame of the broken wall. Blocking the way.

Amanda stopped when CJ did and looked up at him. She listened, then nodded her head and let go of his hand. She didn't normally argue when "grown-up stuff" was involved. She liked being a good girl, and was happy with going off and doing her own thing if she was asked to.

She stood there for a long moment and watched as CJ left for the castle, then turned and took off in the direction Eric was standing. As she got closer to the large rock along the far wall of the castle, she called out to him.

"Eric! Eric! Daddy's here! He said he has to go talk to Mommy and we're going to be leaving!" she called.

The little boy, equally obviously as dead as his sister, also looked as thought he didn't have a a scratch on him, or any indication to how he got here. "Daddy's going to talk to Mommy?" he asked. Still standing by the rock.

"Yeah, he went to the castle to see her. We need to pack up and-" she said as she rounded the rock to stand next to him. Then stopped when she noticed just what her brother had been looking at.

"But... Mommy's here." Eric said with a confused tone.

The woman... who looked VERY much like the same woman that was inside the castle at that very moment... chuckled lightly. "Is that so..." she said. Her voice was the same as their mothers, but there was something... haunting about it. Something frightening and calming at the same time. So soothing. So... so very soothing. "Sweetie, is that what he's told you? My poor little girl... Daddy's far more interested in fighting than talking to me. He always has been...."

Amanda looked up at her. She wanted to argue that Daddy really did say he wanted to talk to her. Wanted to say they needed to go get him then. But... she felt too relaxed to do so. She just wanted to stay there. Next to Mommy. "He said we need to pack to leave..."

"Oh, darling. We're not going anywhere."

"We're not?"

"No girl... Daddy is staying here. With us. From now on..." the woman said with a smile. Even the smile was frightening to see. It wasn't Mommy's smile, and it wasn't a nice one. But... her voice was just so calming. Everything about her was... calming.

Amanda smiled. "We're all staying here?"

"Of course dear...." she said, then looked far along the wall towards the door. So far off. And the shadow floating along the wall was so hard to see unless you knew it was there. "You just stay here with me and wait for Daddy to come back. I'll make sure he doesn't take too long..."