Chapter 1; Shards
Jaime slowly stood and with Superboy's help he started limping back to sphere. He noticed something shiny on the ground as he was passing the destroyed wall to the nuclear plant. He stopped, forcing Superboy to stop too, and turned to look at it. It was a shard of crystal with streaks of gold metal down one side.
He bent down and picked it up. It was about two inches in diameter at its widest point and about six inches long, it tapered off to sharp points on both ends. He stood holding it with one arm slung over Superboy's shoulders and he just stared at it. His mind flashed back to the moment the Appellaxian golem had died. They had been connected, he had felt it and himself die.
His hand tightened around the shard, he took a steadying breath and turned to look up at Superboy with sad eyes.
"Have you ever felt what it is to die?" he asked softly. Superboy's eyes darkened as he looked down at him.
"Yes, I have known what it is to die." he murmured. He closed his eyes and shuddered slightly as he remembered the day from five years ago, of the horrible training exercise that had gone horribly wrong.
That statement made Jaime realize how little he really knew about Superboy and how much he wanted to know more about the tall brooding dark haired boy who only spoke to Nightwing and Mal outside of missions. All he knew was that he lived at the mountain and was related to Superman.
"What happened ese?" he asked with genuine curiosity.
"I'll tell you another time, now we need to get you home." Superboy said gruffly.
Sphere morphed into the super cycle and Superboy lifted him and gently placed him in the backseat. Jaime let out a slow sigh and allowed his eyes to close and he drifted off to sleep, his hand holding the crystal shard close to his chest.
