Tales From the Cave-Cindermeg

Coming Home

Nine Years Later

M'gann walked through the halls of Mount Justice. Over the years, she had blossomed into a beautiful young woman. Her red hair fell around her shoulders in soft waves, her lips moved in perfect curves, her green skin was smooth and clear, and she kept herself in good shape. She looked for someone, anyone, to talk to, to be with. But the Cave was empty with the exception of her.

It had been six months since the Team had disbanded. It had all started when Superboy disappeared without a trace. One day, he was there, brooding in the corner while the others laughed and played. The next, he was gone. The Team and the League searched for him for weeks, but they never found him. Somehow, without Conner there, the Team members drifted apart from one another. Three days after they stopped searching, they went their separate ways.

M'gann was the only one who had stayed at the Cave. She didn't want to leave. She loved this place. It was here that she had made her happiest memories since the death of her mother. After Marie's funeral, the chateau lost some of it's glimmer. Without her mother's guidance, M'gann had felt lost until her uncle J'onn had offered to let her live with him. She didn't want to leave her father, but being surrounded by reminders of Marie was too hard for her. A week later, she was unpacking her things at her uncle's apartment.

M'gann sighed. She missed her friends. She missed Wally and Artemis bickering. She missed Robin's laugh and how he'd disappear like a ninja at the worst times. Most of all, she missed Conner. Over the time they'd spent together, she'd fallen in love with him. They had shared a few sweet moments before he'd vanished, and now M'gann regretted not telling him how she felt when she had the chance.

She walked into the TV room and saw an envelope on the table. Her father usually wrote to her once or twice every other week, but he was late by a few days. Smiling a little, M'gann opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. She was surprised to see that the words were typed. Ma'alfea'ak always hand-wrote his messages to her. She read the fine print, and her heart sank.
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"Ma'alfea'ak was a good man.", the priest said. A crowd of people, dressed in black, gathered around the coffin on that sad, cloudy day. "He was kind. He was honest. He loved his friends, and his family." He looked at M'gann, who was standing over her father's grave, in a long black velvet dress, her hair in a long red braid down her back, tied with a black velvet ribbon. Tears were running down her bright green cheeks. "We can only hope he is happy now, reunited with his beloved Marie in holy heaven."

M'gann burst into loud sobs as her father's coffin was lowered into the ground.  She couldn't believe it.  She was an orphan.  Granted she had Uncle J'onn, but it wasn't the same.  After her mother had died, Ma'alfea'ak had been the only one she could fully and truly trust.  And now he was gone.
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M'gann walked through the front door.  It had been a year since she had been inside this house.  Everything looked exactly the way it did as the day she left home.  Suddenly, she heard noise upstairs.  She hurried up and noticed there were voices coming from her bedroom.  She ran in and gasped.

Her room was completely different. The walls were painted royal blue over it's regular pearl white coat. Her pink panel bed with lavender butterfly comforters and white flower pillows had been replaced with a red canopy bed, with matching comforters lined with gold fabric and adorned with red and gold satin pillows. The floor had been stripped of it's baby blue carpeting, and all of her keepsakes and knick-knacks were gone, rows of makeup and beauty products in their place.

Gathered in the room were three people. Two of them were obviously twins. They both had the same dull brown eyes, the same frizzy brown hair, the same pointed noses, blunt chins and thin lips. They wore matching gowns of black, with short sleeves and knee-length skirts, in contrast to the long sleeves and skirt that went down to the middle of M'gann's shins.  One had her hair in a ponytail, sticking out of the right side of her head, and the other had her's up in pigtails.

The third person was a woman of roughly thirty years. She was a stunning beauty. Her long hair was the color of a raven's feather, piled up in a loose bun. Her lips were red and full, and her skin was tanned to just the right shade, without a wrinkle or a gray spot to be seen.  She wore a long black mourning gown, swishing around her on the ground, and a wide-brimmed black hat with a black veil falling over her face.  She looked at M'gann and smiled, and the girl shuddered.  This woman's smile was nothing like her mother's warm grin.  It was cold and fake.

"Why, hello,", she said, in a tone so cold, even polar bears would have shivered.  "You must be M'gann.  Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Regina.  I'm your stepmother."