Chapter Text
A few decades earlier...
"Daddy… Can you – can you tell me a bedtime story?"
"Sure, honey," he smiles and sits down at her side, making sure her blanket is tucked firmly about her. "What kind of story do you want tonight?"
"A fun one! An exciting one!"
"About a princess?"
"No!" The girl scrunches up her face. "Something cooler."
"Hmmm…" His hand rubs his moustache and chin as he thinks over his daughter's request. "Well, maybe I do have a story."
"Tell me! Tell me!"
"It's a story about a girl."
"Daddy," the girl interjects solemnly. "You said this wasn't a princess story."
"This isn't," he reassures her. "I begin my princess stories with 'Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...'"
"Oh, right." The girl settles back onto her pillow.
"Now, where was I... A story about a girl who came from a land far away. Her name was…"
-0-0-0-
A few months earlier...
"So… things are gonna change, aren't they?"
"I guess so. But… but not in the important ways that matter. The important things."
"Like?"
"How I love you and you love me?"
"So you can read minds now?" she teases.
"Maybe… not." He smiles and for the first time in his life feels like an awkward teenager all over again.
This is ridiculous.
"Maybe not everything is gonna stay the same," he finally says, remembering a friend now lost to him.
"Hm. Good thing I'm OK with letting you in on a secret."
"Secret?" he asks.
"The not-so secret." She smiles. "I love you too." Then her expression becomes a little more serious. "But, we are gonna have to make a deal."
"A deal?" He smiles widely. "That sounds OK to me. Anything will be fine."
"Hm." She says. "We'll see. We'll… we'll see. We'll have to take this one step at a time. Getting back together won't be so easy – doubly so because of…" She waves a hand. "…your abilities and your new life."
"Nothing is really going to change," he reiterates.
"Everything is going to change." She gives him a look. "It has to."
-0-0-0-
A few moments earlier...
Such long years.
Such darkness.
Such silence.
And now…
And now…
Light. Odd white lights.
Strange noises. Unrecognizable chatter.
Unfamiliar surroundings. Oddly shaped items.
Was this a new world?
Was this a new time?
Stretch out and taste the air and dip into the fires of the world's energy.
Ahhh…
So much different… yet, so much the same.
Time to begin once again.