Casey pushed herself up on her arms as Beetlejuice grabbed his chest, taking in a deep - suddenly needed breath. His eyes were wide as he searched her concerned face - gasping for the air he hadn't breathed in a very long time.

"B?" Her voice was tiny - staring at him in wonder as his ash-tone skin gave way to a creamy tan hue the color of iced coffee. "Holy hell..." She whispered, touching his face as he blinked and his yellowed eyes turned suddenly white with the brightest color blue shed ever seen. "Beetlejuice?"

He stood from the bed on shaky legs, snapping his fingers only to have nothing happen.

"What the fuck?!" He snapped them again and again until finally his clothes appeared on his body and he turned to Casey who was sitting up in her bed with the sheets pulled over her nakedness. "I've got to go see Juno." He muttered, holding his chest as she nodded - eyes wide and kissed him quickly on the lips - whispering his name three times.

Nothing happened.

They stared at each other; bewildered.

"Damnit come on!" He growled, snapping his fingers repeatedly as he closed his eyes and concentrated on leaving Casey's bedroom. "COME ON!" Beetlejuice yelled, snapping his fingers one last time as he was zapped out of the living world in an instant.

X

He found himself in a very dark place; candles flickering in the distance. This definitely wasn't Juno's office.

"Hello?"

The flickering lights seemed to go deeper into the cave like room so he followed them, keeping his hand on his beating heart.

To his surprise there was a woman sitting alone in the opening of the cave - surrounded by candles and nothing else.

"I knew you were stubborn Juice but I never thought it would take you seven hundred years. Talk about making a girl wait."

He watched carefully as the woman stood from her throne like chair. She was taller than him with long black hair and dark brown skin and two eyes like emeralds sparkling with the candlelight.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Stubborn with a short attention span. Whatever did she see in you?" The women slid towards him in her long flowing red dress, stopping inches from his feet and reaching out to grab his chin - forcing his eyes on hers. "Seven hundred years I've waited for you to break this simple little curse. I should have known your selfishness would follow you into death. All you had to do was love someone and have them love you in return and finally you're free."

"Free?" He asked, lips puckered from her hold on his jaws. "Do you really not remember?" The woman sighed and snapped her fingers - transporting them many years into the past where a scene played before them. A human Beetlejuice was laying in a muddy, disgusting trench as thousands of soldiers advanced towards him and his men. "Is this really the right time for a snack Ben? You disgusting asshole." One of his men yelled, watching as he caught a running beetle in the mud and popped it in his mouth - crunching it between his teeth. "I haven't had a decent meal in weeks. You do what you have to to survive!" Beetlejuice called - jumping up from the trench and charging into war with his men behind him. He let them fight for a while before he closed his eyes - willing his enemies into defeat. Some of them dropped dead at their feet - others gasped and pleaded as the air was pulled from their bodies but after a few minutes they stood victorious in the battlefield. Everyone bewildered but Beetlejuice.

"Your name was Ben Juice. The highest ranking officer in King John's army. They called you Beetleman because of your disgusting eating habits. With my gift you were able to defeat thousands of armies in your time but the power went to your head and you choose to keep it instead of saving your dying wife."

His company snapped her fingers again - showing Beetlejuice standing over a frail but beautiful woman who was minutes from death. He watched as the woman in red appeared in the scene before them - leaning down and taking the woman's hand.

"She was my sister. I gave you this powerful gift so that you could concur wars and give her a good life and you did but when it was time to give it back - to use it to save her life you refused and left, unable to part with the power flowing through your veins. I stayed with my sister - unable to save her. Only an act of pure love; a power I didn't possess could save her. Once she passed I found you - back at your first love, the army trenches - eating those damn beetles."

The scene faded away, leaving them back in the dark cave.

"I cursed you then. Gave you just enough power to wish you had more and unleashed a war that not even you would survive. You were taken to the Nether to live out your afterlife and only when you truly loved someone and they loved you in return would you be restored. It looks like that time has come."

Beetlejuice looked down at the electricity passing between his fingers then to the woman. "I'm human again?" He asked - feeling the cold air surrounded him now. She nodded. "Just as you were before. I'd advise against killing the masses tho. Times have surely changed."

"So that's it? I'm human and I've got all this fucking power but nowhere to put it."

The woman shrugged a thin shoulder and returned to her chair - glaring at him.

"It's not my fault you've spent the past seven hundred years fucking off in The Nether. Only you would grow accustom to those living arrangements." She rolled her eyes at the thought. "What does this, Casey see in you?"

Beetlejuice looked up at her slowly. He asked himself that every second of every day.

"What about getting married?"

She looked at him puzzled.

"Marriage? What an out dated ritual. The Nether put that condition on your sentence to bind you with the girl for eternity. You'll never be able to go back there once you're married."

"Why would I want to go back? That place is boring as hell."

The woman tisked, raising her fingers to send him back to the world of the living. "There are other places much worse than The Netherworld, Beetlejuice. Use this new information and these gifts wisely. I'd hate to have to send you back so soon."