Heather's on full alert as she enters the diner. It's just before dawn and the place is practically empty. Just a handful of graveyard shift workers grabbing breakfast before going home, and someone tucked away in the corner booth she'd been instructed to go to. The note taped to her window hadn't exactly been subtle, and she's reasonably sure she's walking into an ambush, but what else is she going to do? Whoever left it already knows where she lives, so if they wanted her dead she'd be dead. She grips the folding knife in her pocket and slides into the booth.
"You look like shit." Heather stares down the stranger. She's around her age, though she looks much more put together. It takes a minute or two for Heather to finally recognize who's sitting across from her.
It's 1999, and Starlight Witch Auriga tears across the sky over the city, glittering chariot blazing bright in the night as she races to stop the Void Empress before she can crush the throat of her sister-in-arms Taurus.
It's 2022, and Heather stares as Carmen sips her crappy diner coffee. She can just see the edges of the scar on Carmen's neck as her scarf shifts.
"What the hell are you doing here Carmen?" She hadn't seen Carmen in years. Not since the hearing, and all the fallout afterwards. "I thought you moved away from the city years ago."
"I did. I heard about your little adventure last month and decided to check up on you. You need to knock that shit off before someone finally takes objection to it."
"What, you're here to intimidate me? Finally decided to sell your soul to Uncle Sam?"
"I'm here to keep you alive, dipshit! You beat two cops half to death! I know you think you're fucking Batman, but I figured out it was you, and where you live, and it only took me three weeks. If I could do that, I guarantee the feds already know where you are and what you're doing."
"If they wanted to stop me, they'd stop me. Like you said, they probably know what I'm up to anyway. Besides, the assholes had it coming."
"Is this really what you've spent the last twenty-three years doing? Wasting your life playing vigilante?"
"I'm wasting my life? I'm the only one who's living! Protect the innocent, hold the tyrants accountable, try to help people! 'Fight under starlight that the dawn may come again'. Sound familiar?"
"The nineties are over, Heather. The Void Empress is gone, her portal's sealed, and it's never opening again. The fight is over; the world doesn't need the Starlight Witches anymore."
"I'm sorry, did you think all the evil in the world just vanished when we sealed the gate? That the whole world held hands and sang kumbaya and everything was perfect? There are still wars and famines. Corporate executives bleed everyone dry. Our fight didn't end in ninety-nine, it just took a different form."
"So what, you're going to force the world to bend to your whim? You can't just force change in people, even with magic."
"Your concern has been noted, now fuck off so I can go home and sleep. I have a shift in three hours."
"Look, I'm not saying you have to work inside the system to change it. I've seen what working with the feds has done to Jess, I get it. But you can't keep fighting for the rest of your life." Heather continues to glare at her in stony silence. Carmen shakes her head, drops a couple bills on the table, and stands to leave. "Whatever. I tried, that's all I can do. You wanna throw your life away and spend the rest of your days in a cell, be my guest. I need to get back home anyway; my daughter's prom is next week and I promised I'd take her dress shopping on Monday. At least try to keep your nose clean. With any luck, we won't see each other again."
It's 1999, and the Starlight Witches celebrate with donuts and stolen gin at three in the morning after defeating the Void Empress' greatest general.
It's 2022, and Heather watches Carmen walk out of her life for the last time.
