Hearts and Minds
Garth sat in the hospital and stared at the beeping vitals monitor, morose.
He looked down at Imra, lying unconscious in the hospital bed.
She was so still- she'd been still for months now, not moving. Healing comas never took this long. What had Esper Lass done to her mind, anyway?
The anger –dark and hot and so, so implacable- rose up again as he thought of that day. He should have smashed Esper Lass when he saw her again on Takron-Galtos. But no, he'd let Phantom Girl convince him to let her go. To show mercy.
She hadn't shown Imra any mercy.
Garth forced his chair around to sit facing the side of her bed; bent over, elbows on his knees, hands clasped and head bowed.
He considered praying, and then thought of all the things that had happened in his life and decided not to.
"Please wake up, Imra," he said quietly; looking up at her. "We need you right now. I need you."
No response.
Garth's thoughts flashed back to a day a few years ago.
'Be careful what you say, though. Sometimes she can hear you.'
That's what he'd told Superman.
He looked up at Imra again.
Well, why not?
"You've missed a lot, Imra. So much has happened. We defeated all those bad guys at Takron-Galtos, the ones that trashed HQ. I wanted to get Esper Lass for you, but Tinya wouldn't let me. Haven't seen her –Esper Lass, I mean, not Tinya- since then. I hope I do. I hope I see her again when there's no one else around, just her and me, so I can get her back for what she's done to you-"
He imagined her face and sighed.
"Yeah, I guess you wouldn't like me doing that. Just get her good and hard the next time you see her, okay?"
His laugh sounded false, even to him; and died away quickly.
"Huh, yeah. Okay, that was kinda stupid of me. Lots of other stuff has happened too, though. We've got some new recruits. One of them's from the future, you believe that? Somebody cloned Superman, gave him Kryptonite immunity and some crystal shooting power thingy and a huge ego-issue. Got a thing about Brainy- guess what we found out about him?"
A group of doctors clattered by in the hallway, their shouted instructions and arguments fading as they turned into another hallway. Garth stood and closed the door; then returned to his seat.
"But that's later, I guess. And Cham says that you already knew about it. He said that you and Tinya and Shady and Jan and Nura and him already knew about his family and didn't tell any of us. We're going to have to have a talk about that when you wake up."
He paused. Getting up to close the door had derailed his train of thought slightly. What had he been talking about?
"Oh yeah, new recruits. We've got this guy called Karate Kid, nice guy, no powers. Just martial arts, but he can beat anybody fighting. Heard he went up against Jo and won. Nearly beat Supes -we brought him back, all sorts of time travel going on here. But if there hadn't been some rule about getting out of the ring he'd've won. I know it. We got this other guy, too, Nemesis Kid. Funny name, funny face, kind of a bad attitude. Mean as anything but he might apologize later."
Garth knew Imra would appreciate that. She had always pointed out good points in people. He pictured her awake, standing on the deck of the cruiser when Nemesis Kid was introduced. She'd be in the middle of everything, helping smooth out the rocky starts of the new relations being formed, enlightening people as to other's quirks and habits.
"Speaking of apologies, Cos's been really nasty lately. Put Karate Kid on probationary status when Supes first brought him back. No point, but you know how he gets when he's stressed. Gets all worried, gives everybody a hard time. Doesn't like people thinking their lives are ever easy. I think he was trying to get the guy to quit 'cause he was worried he'd get hurt. I guess I understand that."
He paused.
"Don't ever tell him I said that."
It would be just like her to drop the fact in a later conversation to prove a point. But at least if she'd heard she wouldn't tell Rokk now.
"We- we've actually been having a really hard time, Imra," he admitted. "Lu –well, you know what she's like. She- she's not herself anymore. Part of her is missing. Literally. She was in the future –Kell called, that's why we met him- and when the future self-destructed or whatever happened, White got eaten or erased or something. Everyone's trying to go easy on her, but it's hard, with all that's happening. Kell brought more problems than his ego along with him."
He thought back over the past months and felt his heart sink even lower.
"There- there's this new guy, Imperiex. He's trying to take over the whole galaxy, and the thing is, he's good. He's got some personal tech even Brainy hasn't figured out yet, and he knows more about us than we do. He's always where we're not, and it's even harder because we're trying to keep Supes out of trouble at the same time, and that's hard enough as it is. And Kell just keeps dropping little hints and I'm sure he's doing it just to infuriate everybody else and I want to punch the guy, most days."
He glanced down.
"And –it's not just Lu who's missing part of herself. I lost an arm to Imperiex. He blew it right off. Brainy and Violet had to fit me with this lightning-arm-cannon-transformer-thingy. And it's cool, yeah, but it's not the same, you know? It's part of yourself and you lost it, and you know you can't ever get it back…"
Garth looked up again and gazed at Imra's closed eyes.
"And lately, I'm not too sure about you, either, Imra," he said quietly, reaching over and taking her hand. "It's been way too long. You've always woken up before now, and we haven't got any other telepaths around to tell us what Esper Lass did to your head and- and you've always been so strong and all I can think of is that she tore it to little pieces or something, th- that she hurt you so bad that you can't put it all back together…"
He squeezed her hand and brought it to his lips. He closed his eyes against the tightening in his chest and the tears stinging his eyes.
"Please," he whispered. "Please. Just wake up."
She didn't move.
"Please. Please."
Eventually he leaned forward enough to rest his forehead against the edge of the bed. He lay there, holding her hand, and wished with all his heart that she'd wake up soon.
The lights were dimmer than they should have been when Imra first opened her eyes, rising carefully and slowly out of the depths of her mind.
How long had she been out?
Automatically, her mind spread out over the galaxy, taking in every thought, ever word, every event. Months cycled through her mind in seconds, and coherent patterns, causes and effects, started to arrange themselves neatly before her.
The thoughts of her friends, her teammates, her family –her Legion- assembled quickest. They were familiar, and as close to her now as her own parents and sister. Perhaps closer- she hadn't been separated from them for months on end, having to perpetually play catch-up when she returned home from her specialized psychic training.
For one moment, panic seized her.
Garth. She couldn't find Garth!
But the parts of her mind dedicated to the senses closer to home politely grabbed her attention.
She couldn't hear him in her mind because he was sleeping, right next to her, holding her hand.
She turned her head to look at him and carefully brought her other arm over her body. It was harder than she remembered, trying to work her body now after months of complete inactivity.
Imra reached out and touched his hair, gently.
:Garth?:
He jerked awake in an instant, reflexes and instincts that had been honed in six years of combat experience kicking in automatically.
He stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment, his conscious mind running to catch up with his unconscious.
She felt his start of recognition and smiled.
"Imra!" he cried, and threw himself over her, hugging her tightly. She eventually managed her uncooperative arms and hugged him back.
Garth pulled back a little bit and gazed into her eyes.
"Tears?" she asked quietly.
He smiled weakly, then leaned forward again and kissed her fiercely.
"I was so worried about you," he whispered against her lips.
She kissed him back, touching his mind slightly to share her unbridled happiness at seeing him again.
Eventually Garth broke the kiss and maneuvered himself onto her bed, pulling them into a half-sitting position and holding her in his arms. Imra rested her head against his chest, one hand over his heart and the other arm around his waist.
Garth buried his face in her hair.
"Tell me what Esper Lass did to you."
"It was a trick I'd only read about," she told him, snuggling closer. "You take someone's mind when they're off-balance and you twist it around itself, like tying a string all in knots. It doesn't get used a lot because it's so damaging if you do it wrong. Esper Lass wasn't very careful. She just took the opportunity she had after she blasted me –she knew she wouldn't have long- and grabbed the- the 'ends' of my mind and snarled everything up, as fast as she could."
His arms tightened around her and she felt the anger he'd been harboring for the past four months. She reached out with her mind again and tried to soothe him.
"If she'd done it right I would have worked my way out of it much sooner. But her work was sloppy and careless and she didn't really have enough power to force my mind in on itself so she caused– problems. Problems that had to be put right before I could wake up. That's what took so long."
"What sort of problems?"
Imra looked up at him and smiled.
"I'm okay, Garth. I'm fine now. Really. You don't need to worry."
He held her even tighter.
"You were out so long."
"I know, Garth. I can hear the memory you have of earlier."
He deflated a bit.
"So you couldn't hear me."
"No," she answered, reaching up and touching the side of his face. "But I know you did now. Thank you for coming and staying with me."
Now he smiled.
"How could I do anything else?"
Imra rearranged herself a bit and returned to her former position.
"Tell me about this," she said, touching his metal prosthesis.
"Didn't you already hear that part?"
"But I don't know all of the story. Tell me. Please."
Garth took a deep breath.
"Imperiex got his hands on a tachyon cannon- you know, one of those monster things that nobody could ever get a power source big enough for. Well, Imperiex hunted around and found this galactic lightning storm, just floating out around in the middle of nowhere. It had enough power to work the cannon. So he hired my brother to work on the thing."
Imra found the usual trace of bitterness as he mentioned his older sibling, but there was something else in there, too, now.
"So of course we show up, and Mekt says he'll take me on himself. I don't know what he was planning to do- kill me, or what- he'd thrown in with Imperiex, he could've done anything. So we get face to face in battle and start blasting each other and the lightning storm… reacts. We both stop and Imperiex comes over and blasts me with this mini-cannon thing he's got on his chest. So m-my arm is gone-"
Hard-edged, bleeding, fear-ridden memories of immense pain swamped her mind. It was wordless, thoughtless, just primal emotion. All-encompassing pain, coupled with the feeling of life slipping quickly away.
I'm going to die.
Brief images, fleeting and haunting.
Parents. A home, a farm. Happy siblings. Beautiful shared mornings and afternoons.
Friends. Allies, teamwork. Another family; a second chance forged in shared adventure and crisis.
One already gone, another flowing away to quickly to grasp.
Darkness.
"-and it hurt, so much, and I blacked out completely. I wake up and Brainy and Violet have fitted me with this arm."
"Hasn't anything happy happened since I've been out?" Imra asked wistfully.
"Funny you should say that," Garth said. She could hear the humor in his voice. "The day I lost my arm? Definitely one of the five best days of my life. Right up there with the day we saved RJ and the day we founded the Legion."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
The dark memories softened out. A warm glow permeated his mind.
"I'd been having these nightmares, see, with the storm. About Ayla- my twin sister."
This time the stab of pain was Imra's own. She knew that story, and all the hurt it entailed.
"Yes," she said quietly.
Garth must have heard something in her voice, because he took her hand and bent his head down to look her in the eye.
"Well, you remember I said the lightning storm reacted? It made a shape- Ayla's face. I thought maybe I was hallucinating or something, but Mekt reacted too. And after I woke up Imperiex started trying to drain the storm for power, and there was this huge feedback. Brainy and Violet filtered it out and messed with it a bit, and guess what?"
"What?"
"The storm was singing in Ayla's voice."
Imra's eyes widened.
"What?"
Garth smiled widely.
"That storm was Ayla! She never died! Brainy got all technical and started talking about the 'essential framework of a physically-anchored conscious' or something, but we convinced Mekt we weren't crazy and he helped damage the tachyon cannon so it released the energy it'd taken in already and we got Mekt on the ship and we got the storm channeled through and we worked together and-"
For one moment, he was too happy to speak.
"I have my sister back, Imra. And my brother. He reformed- he turned himself in after we brought Ayla back."
She smiled and hugged him tightly, happy for him.
"That's wonderful, Garth."
"Yeah."
He was silent for a moment, reveling in his newfound happiness. Then he looked down at her again.
"My life's complete now."
"I'm sure, Garth. Losing your sister was hard."
"It's not just that. You forgot- I lost you, too. But you're back now. It doesn't matter if we lose fights or fail missions. I've got you again."