Till All Souls (1/3)
a Justice League story
by Merlin Missy
Copyright 2004
PG-13
Summary: Atonement is never easy, especially when it's for someone else's mistakes.
Disclaimer: Not mine. The DCAU and all its associated characters are the
property of DC Comics / Warner Brothers Inc.
Spoilers up through "Wake the Dead." Thanks go out to BillA1 and
XFFan2000 for their beta skills and for agreeing to be sounding boards
during parts of this.
And then you had to bring up reincarnation
Over a couple of beers the other night
And now I'm serving time for mistakes
Made by another in another lifetime - "Galileo," The Indigo Girls
The door was closed and Vixen was halfway down the corridor, and
already she could tell they were fighting. She paused. There were a lot of
places she didn't want to be at any given time, but standing between John
and his ex while they were shouting at each other had to just about top that
list.
"You were the one who dropped it!" he said.
"Because you knocked into me! You know I need more clearance than
you," she snapped right back.
Vixen frowned.
Everyone had known it wasn't going to be a picnic when Hawkgirl
rejoined the League. Vixen had better hearing than some of them thought,
and she'd heard the bets being placed. Despite the odds given, very few of
the predictions had yet to come to pass. There had been no second
invasion immediately upon her return. The Princess hadn't hauled off and
drop-kicked Hawkgirl out an airlock, choosing instead to maintain an icy
distance with a quiet warning to stay away. Mari's handsome new beau
had yet to pass her over for a pale, feathery old flame and Mari herself had
not had a single altercation with the woman.
John, on the other hand ...
She got why the two of them hadn't told the others they were an item, back
when they were together. Dating was enough to make someone crazy
normally. It was worse when everyone you knew — and everyone you
worked with and in fact everyone on the planet — was watching and
speculating about you.
Flash zipped by, then zipped back. "Hey, Vix."
"Hi, Flash." She liked Flash. Once he'd stopped hitting on her, he'd
turned out to be a really sweet kid.
There was an indistinct shout from the other side of the door.
"Fighting again?"
"Mmm hmm."
"Just like old times." She frowned again. "I mean, back on the old
Watchtower they argued all the time, except near the end. It was like they
were either fighting or ... " She frowned deeper. "So did you get the
message from J'onn?"
"That's why I came looking for them. Comms are on the fritz again.
Solar flares, I think." And for whatever reason, J'onn didn't want to go
poking in John's mind just now. I can't imagine why not.
Hawkgirl yelled, "I wasn't the one who got a beard hair on the panel!"
"Do you want to knock?" The kid looked like he was contemplating
sticking his arm in a lion cage. She didn't blame him.
Vixen risked it. "Anybody dead in there?"
The door slid open a moment later. "Not yet," Hawkgirl said, glaring at
John. Behind her, the fractured remains of whatever they'd been working
on covered the table and spilled over onto the floor. "You talk
some sense into him." She brushed past Vixen into the corridor, sparing a
little smile for Flash. "Hey."
"Hey."
"Lantern!" called Shining Knight, coming down the corridor, just as John
came out of the room. "Grab your fan club and get to the transporter.
We've got a situation brewing in Metropolis."
"The Injustice Gang is causing trouble," Vixen explained. "Comms are
down. We were coming to get you."
"A fight?" asked Hawkgirl eagerly. "An actual battle?"
"Fan club?" asked Flash.
"I'll make you a hat with mouse ears when we get back," John said to him.
"I need to stop off a minute. I'll meet the rest of you at the transporter."
Crowd control.
Shayera had helped save the planet on several occasions. And was
almost responsible for its destruction on one spectacular occasion,
reminded the little nagging voice in her head that she suspected was her
conscience. Still. Saved the planet. Even then, she'd been instrumental in
keeping this annoying little ball of dirt and water from being turned into a
hole in space.
But J'onn had put her onto crowd control. Well, she could pay her dues as
well as anyone. If crowd control was what they needed, crowd control was
what she could provide, and she'd smile when she did even if it made her
teeth ache.
Pity the best way she had of controlling the crowd was appearing in front
of them to send them screaming in the opposite direction. There really
wasn't enough smiling inside of her to make up for that.
Distant rumbles and the intermittent spatter of talk on the JL frequency let
her know how the battle was progressing. A few injuries, nothing serious.
The latest Injustice Gang had gained control of a supply of a newly-
formulated explosive, and was using it to redesign south Metropolis while
they hit banks and jewelry stores in the northern part of the city. The
currently reformed shreds of Intergang had seized several of the explosive
devices and were using them for their own agenda. The League had to
find the impromptu bombs, stop the various gangs, and keep the civilian
population from looting or getting killed.
They'd call her if they needed her for more than the latter duty. She was
almost certain of it.
"Hey." A shiver went through her, which she controlled as well as she
could. He was flying just above and behind her.
"Hi," she replied, not turning around. "Shouldn't you be ... " She
indicated with a nod.
"They'll be fine without me," he said. "I came to find you."
"I don't want to talk about it right now. I've got a crowd to watch."
"What are you watching them do?" She hated that, hated when he got that
gentle, teasing tone, hated how it warmed her stomach.
"Run away from me, mostly." She looked over her shoulder. He watched
her face, but she couldn't read his, and it took her a second to figure out
why. "You didn't have to shave it off on my account." The warm feeling
returned to her stomach, though.
"Hm?"
There was a cry. Shayera spotted a little girl, maybe three years old,
weeping on the sidewalk with no parent in sight. She swooped down,
landing lightly. "Hey, where's your mom and dad?" The child sniffed but
said nothing. Her jacket was too thin for the cold weather tonight. It was
going to start snowing soon.
John landed a few feet away as Shayera kneeled down. "C'mon. We'll
help you find them." She took the little girl's hand and looked up at John.
"Can you ... ?"
He stared at her, so long she almost snapped at him. Then he floated up
and scanned the fleeing crowd. "There. About a block north of here."
"We'll walk. Keep an eye on the crowd." The child went with her
placidly, still sniffling. Some of the passers-by saw her wings and shied
away. Most just ran, oblivious to the two of them. Overhead, John floated
and directed people. She was unsurprised to note there was less fear of
him than of her. Figures.
A man and a woman ran against the tide of the crowd toward them, and
the child squealed, letting go of Shayera's hand and dashing to them.
"Yours?" John asked, setting down beside her.
The mother held her daughter close against her, eyes squarely on Shayera
and not friendly. The father stroked the girl's hair. "You okay, Jenna?"
"Uh huh."
"Thank you," said the father, but he was speaking to John. Their child
safely returned, the family blended with the rush of people and was gone.
"I'm being punished, aren't I?" she asked. "Put the one person on crowd
control that nobody trusts. Bright move, guys."
He shrugged. "Come on. This way." He took off, and bewildered, she
followed him away from the largest press of people towards the side
streets.
"Did you see something?" She scanned the alleyways. "I don't think
there's anyone here. I should get back." Can't screw this up too. I'll
never hear the end of it.
"Down here." He landed in an alley. Something prickled in the back of
her mind, like a sliver of music from a song she couldn't quite remember.
"What's in here?" she whispered, glancing into the darkness, wondering
what he'd seen.
"You have her?" Superman came out of the shadows. He glared at her,
and, nervously, she fingered the handle of her mace. She'd seen him look
at her that way only once before, in the Batcave.
John's hand was on her shoulder. She didn't want to lean into his touch,
lean into him. She was her own person, and she took her strength from
herself, and he ...
He was squeezing her shoulder too hard. "Ow! What are you doing?"
"Shut up," said Superman, and then louder, "Now!"
Yellowish-green sparks grew from the center of one of the alley walls, and
she knew. Her hand shot to her comm. "Hawkgirl — " John wrenched
her arms away and behind her back. Not John, her brain told her as
her mace fell from her grasp. Not our John. She lashed out with a
foot, but he dodged her easily.
"Enough," said the other Superman, and punched her in the jaw. Had she
more than a split-second before she lost consciousness, she might have
mused that it would be a nice change to travel between her home
dimension and that of the Justice Lords without getting knocked
out. Instead, she barely had time for the thought Not again to
register, and everything went black.
It is the longest walk she has ever taken, here along the hallways of
Wayne Manor. Her friends are behind the door, and they have made their
judgment, and she knows there is no room in their code for clemency.
She opens the door without hesitation, and they are standing. Even a small
child can count to five and know it's an odd number. No worries of a tie.
Her heart is in her mouth. She hopes it won't stop the words she needs to
say.
"Hawkgirl," says Superman.
She interrupts: "Before you start, I have something to say. I came to this
planet as a patriot. I had a mission, and I carried it out."
"We understand," J'onn says, while John comes to her, wraps her fingers
in his, stands against her. There's a ghost of a smile on his face. She
hopes he can still smile when she tells them she is resigning.
And then Batman walks behind her and closes the door.
"We understand," Diana repeats. "You were in a bad situation and you
made the best of it. You came to us when you found out how bad."
Superman says, "But you also have to understand that we can't trust you."
"You know our secrets," says Batman. He stands beside her, opposite
John, and she feels her stomach drop to the floor as she reads the tiny
measure of pity on J'onn's face, the revulsion on Diana's.
"Hold her arms," says Superman, and his eyes are red.
She was cold, and she shivered in her sleep. Her dream had been warm,
but as she drifted back to consciousness, she lost whatever it had been.
Shayera opened her eyes. She lay on a metal shelf about two feet above a
metal floor. The cold had seeped into her bones and she shivered more
violently as she rolled to a sitting position and examined her environment.
Her jaw ached and her head hurt and then she remembered why.
Metal walls, metal ceiling, metal floor, and opposite the shelf, a wall of
bars that looked out onto cave walls and shadows. A door, too, but even
without trying it she knew it would be locked. She was in a cage.
A video camera hummed and moved to point at her. A shadow moved.
"You're awake," said Batman without surprise. No, not Batman. The
other Batman, wearing his altered costume. Superman and John
had worn what she considered their "normal" uniforms, no doubt to blend
in better.
She walked to the bars. He stood several feet away, watching her, might
have been standing like that for hours for all she could tell.
"Are you going to kill me?" It wasn't what she'd intended to be her first
question, but really, it was the only one that mattered.
"Not now." So maybe a yes, and maybe an implied threat on her good
behavior.
She rubbed her temples. Back in the day, she would've loved to have a
verbal sparring match with Batman, just to keep her sharp. Right now, her
head hurt and she was tired and she was very far from home. She tried not
to think about being in a little cage. "Why did you bring me here?" Her
heart started to race. "You're going to replace me in my universe, aren't
you? I thought you were the one who knew better." Maybe the others
were already captured and in other cages, just like the last time, while their
counterparts slid into their roles as easily as before.
"We're not replacing you," said J'onn, coming into view. He thrust a
handful of papers into the cage. After a moment's hesitation, she took
them.
"What's this?"
"Read it," said Superman, from where she could not see.
"I can't. It's in gibberish."
"I told you a transcription wouldn't work," said Batman, and he turned and
walked out of her sight.
"It was worth a try," J'onn said quietly.
"Tell me what's going on," she said.
"You don't get to demand things, traitor," said Superman.
And then it clicked. She should've known sooner. Of course the Shayera
in the Justice Lords universe would have been on the same mission, and
would have betrayed their trust just as she herself had done.
Diana came up to the bars. "We've been intercepting transmissions from
the Thanagarians. We need you to translate them for us."
J'onn added, "We need to know if they're planning on coming back."
"Did you blow up the hyperspace bypass generator?" The others shared a
look, and she knew there had been casualties.
"Yes," said Diana.
"Then they're not coming back."
"We need to be sure," said Batman. He carried a device in his hand. She
immediately thought it was a bomb and then her brain kicked into gear and
told her it was a cd player. Batman brought it close to the bars and pressed
Play.
The voice on the recording was distant and staticky: "Second division,
return to position six. Repeat, second division, return to position six."
"They're talking about fleet movements." The voice continued to drone
orders.
"Where are they going?" Superman demanded.
"It doesn't matter. They're lying. It's not an encrypted message." She
saw the confusion and sighed. "It's standard practice."
John broke in from out of sight, startling her, "Actual orders are sent
encoded, fake orders are sent to confuse the enemy."
"Yes." And I should be there with them now.
"So we don't need her," said Superman, turning away.
"I have other transmissions," Batman replied. "They may be encrypted."
"They may be Gordanian," she said, knowing it wasn't the best idea.
"You'll find out for us," said Batman.
Diana asked her, "Do you need anything?"
"What?"
"You just woke up. Do you need food or to use the restroom?" There was
concern on her face and in her voice and Shayera was very confused.
"Um. The latter would be good." Diana took the key from Batman and
unlocked the door. Shayera breathed in deeply. "Thanks."
"I'll escort you," Diana said. "You really don't want to think about
leaving."
"I guess not." She stepped out, and got a better look at her surroundings.
They were in the Batcave, which didn't surprise her. The cage faced a
back wall, away from Batman's computer. Probably to keep her from
seeing what he was doing, she guessed.
The men stayed back as Diana placed a firm hand on her shoulder. She
read plenty of anger on their faces, and then she had to know. "Why
didn't you ask your Hawkgirl to translate for you?"
"She's not available," said Diana, but Shayera caught John's wince.
"Come on."
Diana was polite enough to stand outside the door. Aside from being
devoid of so much as a scrap of human touches, it was a very normal
bathroom with a commode and a shower and a sink. In a cave. Just right
for cleaning up after a night of vigilantism.
Sometimes she wondered what her life on Earth would have been like had
she spent her time among more normal humans.
After she washed her hands she splashed some water on her face and then
rinsed her teeth as best she could. She rarely bruised and this didn't look
like it would be an exception. Superman had apparently held his punch
enough not to do any permanent damage.
Diana still waited on the other side of the door as she came out. "Better?"
"Yes. Thanks." Diana nodded. "You seem ... " How to put this? "Less
angry than the others."
Diana shrugged. "I'm not angry at her. She did what she did, she owned
up, she was punished."
"About that ... "
Diana stopped. "They told you. How we used to control the criminals on
our world." She nodded. "For our Hawkgirl. I ... It would have been
better if we'd made it a clean kill. I was outvoted."
Shayera's stomach clenched into a knot. She'd seen tapes of the news
broadcasts of the Justice Lords' fight with the Doomsday creature, and
Flash had told her about the other Arkham. Her doppelganger was out
there somewhere without her mind, just like Grundy had been.
Diana continued, "I promise I won't let Superman do that to you." She
smiled and said, "When the time comes, I'll snap your neck myself."