An old friend (Semi-Chapter)

{I should've just added this to the previous chapter but I don't want to edit it and I didn't think I would write more today. It's really short.}

Blackfire, Zatanna, and the crowd were all caught off guard by this. Once Blackfire gathered her thoughts, she had a theory on why he would do such a thing.

*Are you trying to help me save face?* She telepathically sent him.

*I mean no disrespect,* He replied, *Just that you're their queen and they shouldn't be seeing you get beaten by a foreigner.*

*You should've done it before you brutally treated my clone like that then.*

*True. But you said yourself that it's not a perfect copy and I bet your people know that as well.*

"Fine," Blackfire sighed aloud, "I accept your surrender."

She then faced the confused crowd and spoke to them.

Ben didn't hear what she said as Zatanna barreled into him and hugged him.

"You scared me for a second when you were on the ground and when that giant almost crushed you,���� she said and buried her head into his chest when he wrapped his arms around her.

"Haha, I'm completely fine," He replied, rubbing her back as he was enjoying the hug.

"Do you two need a room?" Blackfire said to them after she addressed the crowd.

Zatanna's face turned red but she didn't separate from Ben.

"Can we continue our tour now?" She said to change the subject, which Blackfire chuckled to.

"Of course," the queen responded as she flew up.

The crowd cheered and Ben wondered what she said but didn't bother asking as he didn't really care much. Zatanna finally left the hug and white magic surrounded her as she raised off of the ground. Ben followed the two women out of the arena and they flew close together.

"That was a really good fight, Ben," Blackfire said, "but why did you treat my clone like that?"

Zatanna turned her head to Ben as she also wondered why he would do that.

"As the clone is pure energy and didn't seem to feel pain, I thought that if I hit it hard enough, it would destabilize and that would cause it to disperse," He explained his reasoning.

The girls nodded as it made sense.

"Well, it doesn't feel pain and it would disperse but not from the energy itself being destabilized," Blackfire spoke, "It takes a lot of my energy to make a duplicate and the further it is from me, it will drain me faster. You hitting it like that also made me have to spend more to keep it solid but I was lucky enough to reabsorb most of it at the end."

"That makes a lot of sense," Zatanna said.

"So," Ben started, "where to now?"

Before Blackfire could respond, Ben suddenly stopped midair into a hover as he felt a ripple through space.

"Ben? What's wrong?" Zatanna asked.

A rift appeared on the ground under them and an elderly man wearing a lab coat and carrying a cane appeared.

"Hello there Benjamin," the man looked up and greeted Ben.

Ben and the confused girls went to the ground, the girls being wary of the newcomer. When they touched the ground, Ben suddenly hugged the man briefly before placing his hands on the newcomers shoulders.

"Paradox," He said, "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in a while."