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Barbara knew that something was off before she even managed to open the door to her apartment. She didn't know exactly what was wrong just yet, but there was something deep inside her that said that there was a change. She braced herself, readying for a fight and pulling the small taser that she kept on her at all times. She knew that if there was more than one person she would not be winning any fights but she wouldn't go down without one.
She braced herself and opened the door. Then wheeled in and closed it behind her. Nothing happened at first, so she took a closer look around. There was nothing in the first small room that she mainly used as staging, but there was a light on in the next room. She moved through and looked around.
And saw something she hadn't even thought to expect. Or thought was possible.
Laying on her couch, fast asleep was Jazz. Her girlfriend who had left to help with something her brother needed help with. A world ending problem. Something that Barbara had been told she would likely never return home from. Barbara hadn't wanted to believe it but after nearly ten years it was hard to deny. But there was the woman that she had thought she would never see again just on her couch as if nothing had changed.
Barbara moved even closer, not fully believing her eyes. But even with the better vantage point it was the same. Jazz was there. In the flesh. And Barbara was lost as to what to do. She had never expected to be in this situation.
Jazz's eyes flew open and she sat fully upright. Barbara recoiled in shock at the sudden movement.
Once they landed on her the wild look started to dissipate from Jazz's eyes. There was a long moment where neither of them spoke to the other. But then it became too much for Barbara.
"Jazz, is that really you?"
She lifted her hand as if to touch her but then changed her mind and set it back in her lap.
"It is," Jazz said, sounding just a bit older and a lot more tired.
Her face was barely older as well. If Barbara hadn't known better she would have thought no time at all had passed since the last time she had seen Jazz, not nearly a decade.
"You haven't aged a day," Barbara said. "Even if it has felt like forever since the last time I saw you."
That time she did rest her hand on Jazz's cheek. And felt relief when Jazz leaned into it. Her skin was warm and oh so real, finally convincing Barbara that she really was there. That it wasn't a dream or hallucination that she was seeing.
"In a way it has been," Jazz said, sounding even more tired.
Then she started to explain all about what had happened. Her brother had been sent on a quest by an ancient being called Clockwork to fix history from the damage done by a being she refused to name. Her brother asked for her help, because Jazz was the only one that could handle the magical stress to her body. For the years of her childhood had changed her forever. And she couldn't say no, not to him. So she had gone and helped him fix the timeline. Not just one, but hundreds of them. Years had passed for Jazz, more than had passed for Barbara, more than Jazz had cared to count, she said. But the magic of what she was doing kept her from aging.
All Barbara could do was listen and hold her hands. She moved to the couch so they could be closer. And held Jazz as she trembled from all of the memories that she was experiencing. The horrors that she had seen and been through.
But eventually she ran out of things to say, stories to tell, after so long that her voice was hoarse and Barbara wanted to destroy that Clockwork being for what he had put Jazz and her brother through. Even more than the being that had broken the timeline in the first place. But she didn't say that.
"Stay," is what she did say. "Stay here, for as long as you want. This is your home if you want it to be again. Stay with me."
For the first time Jazz broke down in tears. They were of relief and they clung to each other. Things wouldn't be the same as they had been before. But they would rebuild something together. Barbara knew they would eventually deep in her heart.
Just as she knew that she wouldn't rest until she got her revenge.