Cursed Beyond Time* Terry McGinnis

Two

Quin's foot caught on a root and she stumbled to her knees. The dense garden was gone, instead she was surrounded by the remains of old plants and marble fixtures. There was no soft hum of violins or fingers on piano keys, only the loud roar of a city that was significantly closer than it had been a moment before.

She hissed in pain from scraping her hands on the rough dirt. The pocket watch skipped across the ground and spun in place, gold smoke rose out of it.

"Shit" she crawled forward and picked it up, examining it for damage. Two cracks split the clock face the magic in her veins ached in her palms as if reaching out to the damaged watch, "no no... No! What does that mean? What happens now!?" She shouted up at the sky. The following silence felt personal and she swallowed thickly. "Fine then, don't answer me."

Quin needed to get a hold of herself, nothing would get fixed or solved otherwise. She wrapped her arms around herself to stave off the chill in the air, the stupid dress Zatanna had convinced her to buy offering no warmth at all.

In the distance she could see what she thought was Wayne Manor, everything for the most part remained the same; small windy paths that had once been lined with gray pebbles... now they were mostly scattered and the plants dead.

The woman pushed herself to her feet and followed a path that felt right, with what she hoped was the tree she had seen the laughing couple lingering under, now old and withered. The broken crumbled stone bench almost hidden beneath old plant matter, dirt, and vines... was that really the bench they had been sitting on?

The path was uneven, most of the maze was sitting in a sizable hole that she had to climb out of; whatever happened here, it looked like it had happened a long time ago... she was in the future?

Quin looked down at her damaged watch, the edges of the cracks shimmered with magic, it still tried to sing to her own bottled up abilities. She had always ignored the icy hot burn of power under her skin, it had been the beginning of the end for her mom and her Uncle Giovanni... Maybe even Zatanna too, someday.

Having magical talent made you a target for the Lords of Order, whether it was Nabu looking to replace Kent Nelson or love like supposedly her father had found with her mother, Analise.

Quin wouldn't let herself fall for the false promises magic provided. Not after everything it had taken from her.

The manor loomed over her the closer she got, the large home had always sent a shiver down her spine, like she could feel every dark thought trapped behind the antique walls. When she was young she assumed it was Bruce himself, he had been kind of a scary compared to her light hearted cousin. As she got older though, it became more apparent that it was the collection of tragedies that dwelled inside the home, her magic was less contained when she was young, it was hard to keep the auras from her vision then.

Now it felt worse than it ever had then, magic energy squirmed like worms under her skin.

She hesitated at the doors, most of the glass was broken or missing, the wooden frame brittle and hanging. This was a sad end to the proud Wayne Manor... This had to be the future, right?

They sent her to the future... but how far?

Quin reached a shaky hand out and pulled the door open, revealing only darkness from inside.

A cold wind blew out from within, she shivered. How could it be even colder inside?

After walking through the lifeless ballroom, with its cracked tiles and rotting wallpaper, she navigated her way toward the library.

The Batcave was her main goal, there had to be some clues there. She didn't know why she was sent to the future and with the watch broken there was no way to know when she was exactly either, let alone how long she had until it was too late to do the job she was sent here for.

Some parts of the manor still seemed intact; the library was mostly free of dust. The books were even in their same places but there were also new books lined that lined the side wall by the fire place. She found a photo of her and Zatanna from her first time attending a Wayne Gala years ago. Quin looked like she was pouting in her navy blue floor length dress while her cousin smiled proudly in her own lavender gown.

Her knuckles were white fas she clutched the picture tightly, snatching it from the mantle, the photo itself looked worn, tinted with age, the frame busted and unable to stand up on its own. It needed to be propped against a book to stay up right fully.

Someone had made a habit of looking at it.

Was it Dick? he always had a boyish crush on her, though his heart belonged to Barbara, he just didn't know it yet. Maybe Alfred then, he had a big heart that tended to worry too much. The more she looked though, it was obvious, Bruce. He had to have been the one handling it the most. Was he the only one that bothered to look for her?

"Who's there?"

She jumped, the picture slipped through her fingers and shattered against the hard wood, "shit."

The light on the desk flicked on, there was a man about her age standing there shirtless, his short dark hair was wet and dripping with what she assumed was sweat based on how he was panting and the towel thrown over his shoulder. "Who are you?" he asked, stepping around the desk, "how did you get in here without setting off the perimeter alarms?"

Quin squinted at him, if she looked hard enough he kind of looked like Bruce... She shook the thought away. The stranger's icy blue eyes never strayed from her from, she watched as he subtly shifted into a defensive pose.

"The manor has seen better days..." she mused softly, moving to put a short display case between them.

"Who are you?"

"Who are you?" She countered, her chin lifting in defiance.

The stranger smirked and shook his head, "you're bold for someone who's trespassing in a stranger's home."

Quin hummed, "it does fit at least one description for homely... does Bruce Wayne no longer live here then?"

The stranger paused, his jaw clenched, "how do you know Bruce?"