Disclaimer:……
What? I thought that was enough..
Ishan: WE LET THIS IDIOT HAVE CONTROL OVER OUR PARENTS?!?!?!?
*War of the Heart*
"Where's GL?" Flash asked, nearly screaming to be heard over the chaos even though the person he was talking to had just landed right beside him.
"His ring went out. He's stranded back there," she answered evenly as she kneeled beside one of the men she's just laid down.
"And you just left him?" Flash's eyes went wide. Surely even she couldn't be that cold hearted.
"I had no choice. These men needed medical attention."
"Don't you even care what happens to him?!?" he questioned, gesturing wildly.
"Of course I do, but –" she was fighting not to let her voice break.
"I'm going back," Wally interrupted and sped off.
"Flash!" she stood up to stop him, but he was already gone.
*********************
Wally sped back into sight just as Superman landed with a truck of supplies and some of the men who weren't hurt started to unload it, and she felt her heart skip a few beats…
He'd come back alone.
His face was enough to tell that; the half of his face that was visible was wind blown, and held deep worry lines, and even under the crimson mask, she could tell his eyebrows were furrowed together and that his eyes were reduced to cold, hard slits.
"I couldn't find G.L. anywhere," he reported the obvious. "I still can't believe you left him behind."
She'd had the most sorrowful look on her face you could ever imagine, but she composed herself when Wally nearly spit those same acid words she'd been replaying in her mind since she left him running behind her without any means of defense as she flew away…
"Come with me," she said tersely as she angrily grabbed his hand and led him away to another part of the camp.
"Do you see that?" she gestured to the injured men lying on the cots under the tent as she gripped rather firmly onto his elbow before letting him go and turning herself to the wounded.
"Yeah, so?" He wasn't interested in the men. She found herself thinking comically that Wally was the last man who needed to be anywhere the military with that sort of attitude.
"The casualties would have been much worse if we'd stopped to help John," she informed him, forcing herself to say words that she just couldn't believe. "We had to make a choice."
**********************
"And you just left him…."
Even as she watched Clark fly through the wing of the plane the fuehrer was on, and even as she herself used her mace to dig into the underside of the plane, those words echoed like a lost voice through a vast wasteland in her head.
"Don't you care…"
Of course she cared! A lot more than they would ever know, even J'onn. She hadn't told Wally just how much it broke her heart that even he had said that, whether or not he actual meant it.
"I still can't believe you left him behind…"
She couldn't believe she'd left him behind either. She couldn't believe that she had cried stinging hot tears that fell and got lost in the hair of the men she had been carrying back away from the destruction…the same destruction she'd just left John in that path of without any way to help himself.
"The casualties would have been much worse if we'd stop to help John. We had to make a choice…"
Yes, they'd made a choice.
But not the one Wally thought they had.
John…. had chosen to make sure she got to safety instead of lingering to help him.
She had chosen that moment to listen and put herself first. She could have helped him, she could have …
That was what she told herself as she took out one of the cannons as it aimed for her.
"Some choice…"
Wally had said that. Right after she had told him that she and John had made a choice.
He didn't know how true his words were.
Her body was working on its own accord on auto-pilot, because even as she unnecessarily swooped down to the falling Superman, her mind wasn't on making sure he was ok as he started floating barely a few feet from where he had fallen, but on what she couldn't bring herself to let go.
"Lantern!" she called to the running figure.
"I'll be fine! Take off!" he panted as she swooped down close to him.
"Go!" he barked again, and this time, there was a desperate urgency in his voice.
"Behind you!" She barely managed to respond to Superman's warning in time.
"This isn't going to be easy," she mused as she pushed her back on the side of the tail wing where she was standing.
"When is it ever?" Diana suddenly crashed through the wing \ she found herself leaning on, but she was already back to thinking about it again.
"Some choice…"
She hadn't had a choice.
Her eyes must have betrayed her, because John had thrust the unconscious man into her arms.
She was already carrying two men who were out cold. Two very heavy men who were out cold.
To carry the two of them was slightly difficult.
The third one John had thrust into her arms was really pushing her
limits.
To add John, too, and carry him also, no matter how much she wanted to….
That was too much.
She hadn't believed him when he said he would be fine.
She wanted to believe him, though. Almost as much as she wanted to take him with her instead of leaving him there.
But she hadn't done the former.
And she couldn't do the later.
"Let's go get 'em," Clark said, completely out of character as the four of them regrouped and hovered just behind the planes before charging back in.
Just give me a few seconds with them, and you can be sure they'll be begging you to kill them. she thought bitterly. She was going to kill them.
At first, she had wanted to die.
Die for leaving John behind.
But she knew better now.
It was their fault.
All …their …fault
.
And they were going to pay for it.
With their lives.
She was going to make sure of that.
J'onn had just removed an engine and had flung it off; it drove blindly for about two seconds and blew up.
She flew up beside him and Wonder Woman along with Clark. "They're getting away!" she yelled with uppermost rage as the planes continued on.
"Maybe not," Clark replied calmly.
She looked after the four remaining planes to find what he was talking about. Before the planes cleared the clouds, they were rained upon with fire from a fleet of ships in the sea, one of which carried the Scarlet Speedster.
"What did I tell you? Right on schedule," Wally said needlessly to the captain as he lowered the binocular from his eyes. Another plane crashed, catching fire and falling past and behind the boast before landing hard in the water as the plane containing Savage took evasive action. Suddenly, seemingly for no reason, the plane began doing an out of control tailspin.
As it hurtled past, J'onn's eyes suddenly glowed. He mouthed two syllables that she couldn't hear before he fell.
"J'onn!"
An explosion from behind the Martian had caused him to fall, and that had been enough to snap her back to reality as she dove after him.
Reaching down and pulling him up, she watched as he raised his head and seemed to regain his ability to hover almost instantly.
"Green Lantern," he repeated.
"I'm sorry, we didn't have time to ell you before. We lost –" She began trying to explain, trying not to allow tears to fall as she fought to acknowledge what the reality of the situation was.
"No," J'onn interrupted her. "He's here, onboard that plane."
She nearly dropped him. "What?!?" Leaving the obviously fine J'onn, she turned toward the plummeting plane and flew at a breakneck speed to reach it.
There. Savage had just knocked him into some controls. If only she had enough time….
"Hah!" she yelled as she smashed through the glass.
"Hawkgirl?" John asked, completely shocked.
**********************************
Down below on a US Naval ship, Wally raised the binoculars back to his eyes, so he saw what no one else did.
"Come on! Let's go!" he lip-read as Shayera smashed through the glass and John grasped her hand just as the plane was almost in the water. The plane crashed hard into it, and water rushed into the smashed front windows, completely flooding the interior.
But Wally wasn't watching the ship.
Once they were flying clear of the wreckage, Wally saw John look up through his binoculars as a small grin began forming on his face.
"What took you?" John asked.
Shayera smiled. A full out smile. "I had to fix my hair," she replied almost giggling.
Another full out smile that perfectly matched Shayera's took residence on John's face.
"They're turning back! We did it!" Wally grinned down below to the cheering shipmates.
Wally was full out smiling now too, but it wasn't because the reaming two German planes were retreating as he had just announced. It was because of what he alone saw take place high above them.
As the flying pair retreated, while they were smiling, Shayera tightened her grip on John's hand, and simultaneously, John did the same.
And neither of them were letting go for the world.