One of These is Not Like the Other (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"Maybe we just need to give it time," suggested Avenger, standing with his head downcast over Stesha's body. "Coming back from the dead takes longer for some people than others." He bent down over the earth, lightly touching the green shoot with his finger. "She could probably use some water, Dark Star."

[Cyroa]

Dark Star nodded. "Of course, water. I should know better." He gestured, ripping a hole in space. On the other side was a small lake and stream without a soul in sight. "If someone could just reach through and scoop some over, that would be appreciated. I don't exactly know how much to water plants. Never was good at that and...she always did that with her own plants." He didn't move, floating right in front of the garden bed. In fact, he didn't look like he had any intention of moving for quite some time. He looked over to the energy swordsman. "As soon as its water, I'll send you wherever you like if you need to be."

[Gizmo]

Jack of all Blades waved Dark Star's offer away. "You just stay with your lady friend, Twinkle Twinkle," he told the energy being. "I can get myself home if someone, uh, points the way outta this dungeon." Having obtained directions, the swashbuckler paused on the stairs and turned back around with a charming smirk. "If you guys ever need a help again... just call first next time, huh?" With a sloppy salute for Ace and an exaggeratedly flourished bow for Phantom, Jack was off.

[alderwitch]

Taylor simply glanced at the water and mystical power channeled some out to sprinkle over the fertile ground at her look. "I hope that's enough. I've never been good with plants. Stesha was always having to take my plants and rescue them." She stifled a little sob and turned her face away. "I'll be upstairs if you need me."

She didn't spare much of a nod of thanks for the vanishing swashbuckler, too caught up in her own emotions. Taylor would feel guilty for that later, but for now she simply fled the scene upstairs as she was rapidly reaching the end of her exhausted composure and wanted to cry herself sick in the privacy of her own home.

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack lingered for a few moments in the darkened cellar, the scene of so much action that it was better his human friends not know about, but soon joined his wife upstairs for the long wait and the mutual grieving. Maybe Stesha didn't like him much, but the fault there had been on his side. So many dead humans, so many dead friends, and all of it with the slim hope of recovery, that she wouldn't just grow into a lovely new tree down there. Taylor was upset, and he did everything he could to comfort her, offering a familiar embrace and reassuring words.

[Electra]

Hours passed, completely unnoticeable in the unchanging light and quiet of the basement room. Every so often, as things began going dim, Ace would refresh the sunlight back to the intensity of a bright afternoon. The only sound was the occasional drip of the mushroom irrigation system the only movement the little plant, gradually stretching towards the ceiling and extending new leaves. By evening, it was a foot tall and as thick as a finger in the main stem, and by midnight, it had doubled in height again and had the diameter of a woman's wrist. There was still no telling what was going on under the soil, or what the end result would be, but the plant, an indeterminate species with broad leaves and small creeeping tendrils, was apparently very healthy and growing fast.

[Cyroa]

Dark Star watched Taylor and Jack head upstairs, the mystical heroine obviously upset. He couldn't blame her, though he felt bad that there was nothing he could do to help. Likewise, the energy attuned wise-cracker also departed. The 'plant' still continued to grow slowly. Still through it all, Dark Star didn't move an inch. He had the patience of the stars themselves. He could 'see' far around the entire building, far beyond the city really. But none of it mattered. All that mattered was here before him; hopefully returning to him. He'd wait for hours, days, weeks. It didn't matter.

[Electra]

Upstairs in the apartment, Taylor shed tears and cleaned up the ruin that had been made of the library, while Jack helped and tried to comfort her. Downstairs the night passed quietly, with Ace eventually falling asleep in a chair and Dark Star keeping his vigil, ever faceless and inscrutable. By the time dawn bled red trails through the sky, the plant in the basement had bumped into the ceiling with its top leaves and begun spreading outwards. It also began to form a blossom, or perhaps a small pod, right in the center of the plant. No others, just a single one.

By noon, the plant, its main stem now as thick as a tree trunk, had stopped growing new leaves and was concentrating all its energies on the center pod, which began growing at a prodigious rate. It inflated like a very slow balloon, developing the color and softness at the top that suggested it would open into a flower when the time was right. Dark Star's occasional checks suggested that, despite all reason, the root ball beneath the plant was growing smaller as the plant grew, rather than larger, but it still seemed plenty healthy despite the artificial sunlight. By the time the sun outside was going down, the center bud had swelled to the diameter of a truck tire, and the shield leaves at the top were beginning to part.

Throughout the day, Taylor had been making visits to check on the progress of whatever was happening in their mushroom garden. At sunset, Jack made the trip down with her and they both lingered, watching with the others as the plant perfected its life's work. As even the light from Ace's mystic liquid began to fade, the blossom slowly began to open, displaying lush pink petals and releasing a thick aroma of magnolia into the air. As it opened to its full width, the flower revealed its center, and its occupant. Stesha was curled up on her side in the middle of the flower, nude but for the hair that wrapped around her, and pale and perfect as a marble statue. When the light hit her skin, she yawned, color and life seeming to flood back into her all at once. She opened her eyes, staring into the side of the giant pink flower, and mumbled "Huh?"

[Cyroa]

Dark Star was a patient fellow, by nature as well as by inclination. But this was one time when he hated waiting. It was awful, excrutiating. Yet he didn't twitch at all. He didn't like it, but he was willing to wait for the results were worth it. As far as he was concerned, it was the most important thing to wait for. Ever.

Finally, after what might have been an eternity of waiting, the flower opened and she was there. Alive and whole. (The fact that she was naked didn't even sink in right away.) He had never resumed human form so fast or with such ease. In a blink, Derek was rushing forward to scoop Stesha up in his arms and bury his face in her hair. He just held her tight, too overcome with feelings to trust his voice. The smell of her hair, the sound of her voice, the feel of her skin...wait, what? Skin? Oh...she was naked...oh boy...

[alderwitch]

Taylor thought she'd cried herself completely empty but a few tears trickled down her face as Derrick scooped Stesha up in his embrace. It didn't escape her notice that they were both nude, but all Taylor did was smile through her sniffles and shoot Ace a look of warning. Reaching up to her throat, she pulled out the heavy cloak of her costume out of the amulet and sent it over with a wave of her hand to drift around the two of them. The folds should be more than sufficient to cover any nudity.

Shakily, she leaned back against Jack. Taylor was aces in a crisis but afterwards, not so much. She stroked his cool hand gently and whispered, thinking just how transient and dangerous this life was, "I love you so much.."

When the couple looked ready to look up, Taylor moistened her lips and managed a trembling, "Welcome back."

[Avenger Assembled]

This is much nicer than the last person who came back to my life in my basement. Ooh, better not think that, Taylor'll get pissed if I say out loud. "I love you too, honey," he murmured to her, squeezing her hand as he gave her a warm, emotional smile in return. "I knew today was going to be a good day." Thinking about those earlier resurrections got Jack thinking about food. "It's good to see you, Stesha. There's bottled water in the blue fridge under the table if you need to drink something," he offered. "You've probably used up a lot of water."

[angrydurf]

Ace smiled wide as the pod split to spill forth its precious, if nude, product. He shot Taylor his best 'who me?' look before he spoke. "Well I will say as the voice of experience that that is definitely one of the better things to come back too." he says with a smart nod to stesha and Derrick. "And as a bonus you came back as you not ... otherwise." He added finally voicing his concern.

[Electra]

Stesha's heart gave a quick hard thud as she saw the matte-black shape of Dark Star upon awakening, but the instant of fear melted as he turned back into Derrick, obviously the real Derrick. The relief of that was enough to occupy her attention for a moment, till she realized she had no idea where she was. "What happened?" she asked, looking around at the strange room, and everybody standing around. "I got... knocked out, or something," she remembered. It had been pretty bad, actually, really painful. She looked down at herself, and only then realized another salient point. "Oh my god, I'm naked," she said, blushing all over.

The loan of Taylor's cloak covered the worst of that embarrassment, and let Stesha focus a little more. "We ran into someone who looks just like you," she told Derrick, "but evil. He was trying to kill us. He threw me... I don't remember." She shook her head. "Did you catch him?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"We lured him here, and beat him," said Jack, risking a conversation with Stesha under the circumstances. "He fled the area after we hurt him enough. With any luck, he won't be coming back anytime soon." Thinking a moment, he turned to Taylor and said, "I think they may appreciate some privacy. Back at Stesha's apartment, if possible."

[Cyroa]

Derrick couldn't speak, couldn't answer right away. He didn't really have a voice at the moment. He just grinned happily as he held her tight. But while most of that was due to the joy of having her back, there was a bit of guilt there too. Not just his usual guilt about letting bad things happen (even when he really could have done nothing about it) but because he had felt the...vileness of the emotions from the Other. The sadism, the pleasure, the amusement. All of it over killing Stesha. It was not something he wanted to remember despite its prominence.

He nodded to Taylor in thanks. Being nakked among a crowd, even a small one made up of friends, was just too much for Derrick to handle. Finding his voice he finally spoke up, not that he released his hold on Stesha for a moment. "He was me. Just from somewhere else. Wherever he was from managed to lock him up in something like a prison design for him. Lke the one that held me a few months back, to power that black hole cannon? This was just a prison though originally."

He wasn't particularly interest in visiting the thoughts and memories of the Other at the moment. They were screaming for attention, prominent in his mind, but he wanted nothing to do with such dark thought; he had his light back in the form of a green haired beauty. He shoved the darkness away as best he was able to continue. "He had access to my memories. So he went after Phantom, after setting up a few threats around the globe for heroes to deal with and keep them out of his way. He doesn't want to go back apparently."

[angrydurf]

Ace lounged casually, one hip resting on one of the unoccupied tables, as he listened to Dark Stars explanation. His gaze flicked to Taylor, "Well it makes sens he would wish to neutralize Phantom. She did prove to be a significant threat once the battle was joined." he mused.

He paused knowing it was asking much of Dark Star at this juncture, "And the other? He is gone then?" hoping that whatever connection the two shared would be able to answer that question.

[alderwitch]

"It's been about a day, since then," Taylor provided to Stesha as she saw the men all talking around the issue. She reached up to twist the necklace at her throat, her fingers sliding over the chain links nervously, "You pushed me out of the way and took the full on blast. You... died, Stesha. You've been dead for about a day now."

Taylor was too distressed by being the bearer of this news to even shoot Ace a dirty look for sounding surprised by her threat potential. Her thumb slid over the Eye's blinking jewel and she cleared her throat as she was quick to add, "No one knows but us."

[Electra]

Stesha's eyes widened, her grip tightening on Derrick's arms. "I died?" she repeated, her voice no more than a whisper. "That can't be right. I mean... I know I got hurt, I remember that. But I'm right here. I feel fine now. There must have been a mistake, you made a mistake or something and I just needed some time to get better." She looked up to Derrick for confirmation.

[Cyroa]

He pulled back from her a little, still holding on as if to make sure she wasn't going anyway; just enough to see her face. He nodded with an uncomfortable jerk of his head. "She's right. I, He, hit you directly. A solid wound, right to your chest. I saw it. And it was a fatal wound, no question." He shuddered as he remembered seeing and watching as he/He hit Stesha with a powerful blast. The hole in her chest. The pain and shock on her face. It was quite likely going to haunt him for a long time. "You came back. I'm not entirely sure what happened after that. But apparently they buried you in the garden and you grew back I guess?" He looked over at Ace. The immortal hero had a lot more experience with this sort of thing that he did. "I've been keeping vigil the whole time since they saved me. It was like watching a plant grow at super speeds. Sort of."

[angrydurf]

Ace shrugged at Dark Stars look, "There are many explanations possible." He replied. Pausing consideringly he looked to Taylor then back to Stesha, "The Fluer de Joie is a plant with a long history of supposed mystic powers." He explained, "The botanical community has of course naysayed most as being superstition due to its unusual blooming characteristics and its rarity." His tone made it clear he did not see eye to eye with such men of science.

"I'm sure with some digging Taylor could find out if there is any truth to rumors of it granting immortality." He concluded, "As well you absorbed the essence of my Mankana which is well known to have healing powers." he added nonchalantly. Looking to the others he merely shrugged, "In the end however I think when standing in the presence of Vampires, dimensional sorceresses, and energy beings there is little point in debating. Simply enough death is less permanent for some than for others."

[Electra]

Stesha lost some of the color she'd just gotten back, revealing a noticeably green undertone to her skin that hadn't been there before. She turned her head to look from Derrick to Taylor, then to the plant that was already beginning to wilt behind her. It was far too much to take in right then. "But everybody's okay?" she asked, glancing around, "and the bad guy is gone?" When she got nods of confirmation for that, she sighed and looked back up at Derrick. "Can we go home now? I just... I need to put some clothes on." And a lot of other things, but that would do for a start.

[Cyroa]

Derrick just nodded slowly, still looking at her, not wanting to look away just yet or any more than he had to. "I think so, yes. Everyone's alright. And...he's gone for now." He turned a little towards the mystic heroine. "Taylor, could you bring us home please?" He could have transformed and done it himself easily enough. But that would have meant having to release Stesha. And that was something he was just not willing to do. He'd just gotten her back. Letting go, even for a moment, seemed to much like that loss at the moment.

[Electra]

"I can do it," Stesha told him, stretching out an arm to touch the giant plant that was already starting to wilt. Despite the overwhelming confusion of emotions, she managed a smile for the onlookers, even Jack. "Thank you, everyone. I'll talk to you soon." Wrapping her fingers around one broad green leaf, she wished them both home in the blink of an eye.