part0093

Abraham’s nose twitched. That all-too-familiar hospital smell lingered in his nose. His eyes were closed. The sheets were stiff.

The last thing he remembered was riding out of the tunnel inside an ambulance. Mandi drove. Everyone else—Smoke, Sid, and a catatonic Luther—was in the back. A blinding flash of light was followed by an earth-shattering kaboom .

Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes. He was right. There he lay in a hospital bed with an IV hooked to him. The curtain, with light sea patterns, was drawn. He blinked several times. His throat tightened.

Aside from the steady beeping of a vital-statistics monitor, he didn’t hear anything else. He lifted his arms and saw no handcuffs, flexicuffs, or shackles of any shape or form. His limbs were free. With a grunt, he sat up and swung his legs over the side. His toes touched the cold floor. He rubbed his forehead with his fingers.

With his pulse pounding behind his ears, he slowly pushed the curtain back. He was inside a single hospital room. A wooden door with a partial glass pane window was closed. A nurse walked by, stopped, and looked in. She was short and full-figured, with a blond ponytail and wearing black Hello Kitty scrubs.

Nurse Nancy opened the door and said, “Well, look who is finally awake.” She checked the monitors, grabbed a clipboard, and jotted down some notes.

He studied her with wary eyes. She’d been close to Dr. Jack Lassiter, or so he thought.

Looking at the clipboard, she smirked.

“What?” he said.

She looked at him and replied. “What?”

“Uh… what time is it?”

“Morning time.” She hooked the clipboard on the end of the bed. “And I’m finishing up a twelve-hour shift. So I hope you don’t mind that I’m not very chatty. I’ll let your friends or family know that you are awake. You seem to be in good shape, so the doctor will swing by and sign off your release.”

“Doctor who?” he asked because he couldn’t stop thinking about Jack Lassiter.

“No, not Doctor Who, the time-travel guy. Doctor Uy will come by. He’s in a real good mood since he returned from his fishing trip. Don’t worry, he won’t release you if you ain’t right.” She looked him up and down. “You look fine to me. You’ve even slimmed down. Stay put, and I’ll see to it that they bring you something to eat.” She closed the door behind herself.

Abraham waited on pins and needles for another half hour. He lay in bed, uncertain what to think. His gaze was fixed on the door. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was on the other side of it. Did everything I remember happen, or was it all just a dream? He held his sheets with his fingers clutching in and out.

Mandi knocked on the door and quickly came inside. She had on a black polo shirt and blue jeans. Her bouncing brown hair hung down to her shoulders, and she carried a vase of flowers. “Hi!” she said cheerfully as she crept into the room and closed the door behind her.

“Mandi,” he said with a shaky voice, “tell me what is going on. Did we just blow up a Time Tunnel or not?”

She set the vase of flowers on the table, unslung her purse, and set it on the chair. She sat down beside Abraham and took him by the hand. “No, we didn’t blow up the Time Tunnel.”

His shoulders sagged. “Oh.”

“Smoke and Sid did.”

He perked up. “What? It’s all real.” He grabbed her shoulders. “Don’t mess with me, Mandi. Tell me it’s over.”

“Oh, it’s over. I saved this for you.” She pulled a newspaper out of her oversized purse. “Read.”

He read the headline out loud: “Freak earthquake causes massive mountain slide.” He skimmed the article. It didn’t mention any names or report any injuries. It was vague and only stated that the National Guard was cleaning up. He looked at Mandi and asked, “So it’s over?”

Mandi smiled brightly and nodded. “It’s over.”

He hugged her. She hugged back and kissed his face. Deep inside, he knew it was over. But he still wondered if all of it was even true. Giving her a black look, he said, “How do we even know that it happened?”

“Oh, we know.” She opened his robe and gently ran her fingers over his chest. “And you’ll have this.”

He looked down to see a brand-new scar shaped like a crown on his chest. His jaw dropped. “How?”

Mandi shrugged. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m just glad to have you back.”

“Where are Smoke and Sid?”

“They are cleaning up things at Facility 117. Apparently, they have a lot of experience with this sort of thing. They told me to tell you hello and they hope to see you at the wedding.”

“Our wedding,” she said playfully. “You didn’t think I’d go through all of that without marrying you?”

“Huh-huh,” he was stunned, but he didn’t mind her saying it. He felt peace. “Uh, what about Luther? Is he… gone?”

“No, he’s alive and well back at the brewery—just, well, different.” She patted him on a thigh. “Oh, wait, you don’t want to forget this before we get out of here.” Mandi moved to the clothing cabinet, opened the door, and reached up top. She tossed Jake’s backpack onto the bed. “Just like you, it’s been to Titanuus and back.”

His eyes watered, not with tears of sadness but tears of joy. The guilt he’d felt for losing his family was gone. He realized it wasn’t his fault, once and for all. He kissed the backpack. “I miss you guys.”

Mandi wiped a tear away with a tissue. “You know they miss you too.”

“Hmm… it feels heavier.” He unzipped the backpack. The first thing he pulled out was the Rubik’s cube. All the sides were solved. Immediately, he thought of the Crown of Stones and King Hector. He hoped King Hector made it. The second thing he pulled out was a leather pouch bigger than his fist. It had a lot of heft to it.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know.” He opened it to find the leather pouch was filled to the brim with gold and silver shards. He poured the coins into his hand. “Holy sheetrock.”

Torched by Simon the Fenix, the armies of Tiotan fled shortly after the Time Tunnel collapsed. On foot, Ruger Slade and the Henchmen started the journey back home. King Hector was alive and well, except he wasn’t King Hector at all. He had the essence of someone else. And he was talking to Ruger and the queen.

“So I’m the King of Kingsland?” King Hector asked. He wore the Crown of Stones on his head, but the stones were missing. All of them had been buried in hundreds of tons of rubble behind him. “I’ve never been a king before.”

Queen Clarann had her arm hooked in Hector’s. “You’ll make a fine king, Luther Vancross. I can see it in your eyes. Hector would approve.”

With a cheerful tone, Hector said, “I can’t wait to see my castle. Do I have a queen? A harem?”

“I’m your queen,” Clarann said as she looked at Ruger. “But we need to talk about that. We have a delicate situation. You see…” She explained everything about her and Ruger’s past.

Luther was very understanding. “We’ll work it out.” He stretched out a hand to Ruger. “So you’re Ruger Slade. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Dominga and Tark returned from the front lines of the King’s Army.

Dominga reported to Ruger, saying, “There’s no sign of Leodor. One of the King’s Guardians said that he jumped through a swirl in the sky.”

Ruger nodded. “We’ll find the snake on our next mission. Home first, before the House of Steel crumbles.”

Shades strolled alongside Ruger, the thumb of his remaining hand hitched inside his belt, and said, “It’s good to have you back once and for all, Captain.”

“Hear, hear,” Horace, Bearclaw, and Vern agreed.

“But we still have a problem,” Shades added.

“What’s that?” Ruger asked.

“Sticks is gone. And I didn’t even see her leave,” Shades said with a grim voice.

With one hand on his sword handle and the other hand on Shades’s shoulder, Ruger said with a smile in his voice, “She isn’t the only one that is gone. The presence within Black Bane is gone too. But I have a strong feeling that everything is going to be all right.”

Abraham sat at the counter at Woody’s Grill, eating a basketful of cheese fries loaded down with jalapeños. A tall chocolate milkshake he was sucking on was half empty. Mandi’s stepfather, Herb, sat beside him, watching the TV. The old man was covered in age spots, his hair had thinned down to almost nothing, and he wore a Members Only jacket.

“Man, the Pirates really suck this year,” Herb said. “I bet they wish that they had Jenkins the Jet back.” He punched Abraham in the shoulder. “Man, could you throw a fastball.”

Mandi’s mother, Martha, came through the double doors leading into the kitchen. The older version of Mandi always had a warm smile on her face. She wore a maroon homemade apron that read in white letters, “Peace. Love. Joy.” She wiped her hands off on a dish towel and asked, “Can I get you another milkshake, Abraham?”

“No ma’am. Mandi’s probably gonna kill me for having this one,” he said.

“You mean two,” Herb said with a chuckle.

“Shhh…” Abraham said with a grin.

Herb spun around in his chair, eyed the front doors of the store, checked his watch, and said, “They’re late. Aren’t they late? I hate waiting. I haven’t seen Luther in decades, and here I am waiting.” He stuck his bottom lip out. “He probably won’t come. Probably got abducted by aliens or something.” He spun around on his stool and eyed the TV.

Abraham finished his fries and wiped off his fingers. Being back home was good, but a part of him felt as if he’d slip back into Titanuus at any moment. Now, however, he was content. He was more than happy to move on with Mandi.

“Oh, there they are.” Martha took off her apron, revealing a black Woody’s Grill T-shirt underneath. “My, I should have gotten fixed up. I look horrible.”

“You never look horrible,” Herb said.

“Oh, what do you know? You can’t see a thing.” Martha hurried to the door and opened it. Mandi was the first one through.

Luther Vancross came in next. His white hair was almost shaved down to the skin, and he sported a white moustache. In his flannel shirt and jeans, he looked strong and healthy. Even with the age spots, he didn’t look a day over seventy. The woman accompanying Luther made Abraham jump off his stool.

Sticks still wore her brown hair tied back, showing her pretty, creaseless tomboy face. She’d donned a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt that was tied off over her belly button.

Abraham gave her a fragile hug. “Uh, I don’t know what to say. Are you the only one?”

“Sort of,” she said.

He looked at Mandi. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wasn’t sure how I felt about your girlfriend from the other side. But we talked,” Mandi said.

Sticks slapped him on the shoulder and said, “I like you, but…” she looked him up and down, “I like you better with Ruger’s body. I guess I’m shallow.”

Wringing her hands, Martha whispered to her daughter, “Who is Ruger, and where is the other side?”

“I’ll explain later.” Mandi hooked her mom by the arm and said, “Let’s give them a moment.”

“So why did you come?” Abraham asked Sticks. He noticed a knife strapped to the side of her leg, the Dagger of Death.

Sticks moseyed over to the stool beside him and sat down. She took in everything from the diner to the general store. “I thought it was time for a change.”

“I see.” He turned his attention to Luther. “And how are you doing?”

“The longer I stay, the better,” Luther said.

Herb got right in Luther’s face. His bulging eyes were squinting. “You look like Luther, but you don’t sound like Luther. Who are you?”

“I assure you that I am Luther, Herb, but the years have changed me.” Luther motioned to the diner booths. “Abraham, can we sit down?” He rubbed Herb’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back, and we’ll catch up where we left off.”

Abraham joined Luther and Sticks in the booth. He sat across from both of them with one knee bouncing up and down.

Luther scanned the diner as if he’d never been anywhere else before. He carried himself with a different air, much stronger than before. He asked, “Don’t you know who I am, Abraham?”

“No.” Luther’s eyes fell on Martha. “It’s good to see that this world is ripe with ample women.”

Abraham’s knee hit the table, making the salt and pepper shakers jump. “Black Bane!”

“Yes,” Luther said with a glimmer in his eyes. “But that isn’t my real name.”

Abraham leaned forward. He noticed a Mona Lisa smile on Sticks’s face. “So what is your name?”

Luther spread out his fingers. Tiny tendrils of blue lightning danced from fingertip to fingertip. “I am Boon.”

Abraham had never heard the name before. He leaned back in the booth and asked, “So where are you from, Boon?”