She watched with the rest as AMAZO flew away. Jess was struck by his words, "There's nothing I want from you anymore." that he had gained all their powers and weakness and gone against them yet after gaining all of J'onn's powers he saw he was above them all and beyond purpose on this planet.
What if J'onn felt that way too? She'd felt his anguish as he did the telepathic mental sweep and felt all the negative emotions in the Martians mind. Her weak empathy had allowed her to feel only so much, how much deeper did the feelings strike J'onn?
' Where did he go?' Diana was curious,
'Where gods belong' J'onn answered her.
Jess's mind was doing a mile a minute, her thoughts circling around J'onn and how his isolation, love for peace and family must make things worse for him. She could imagine he probably doubted whom he was truly fighting for.
Luthor mocked the android and Superman picked him up telling him just how much the businessman would be praying if AMAZO did reappear.
The league turned Luthor over to the forces for his imprisonment and returned to the javelin to head back. all the while during the ride Jess couldn't bring herself to stop worrying that J'onn might take AMAZO's path and fly off to another planet to live in relative peace and meditate as he usually did when he had free time. she was so absorbed in her thoughts about the Martian that she didn't notice the said Martian turn to look closely at her furrowed eyebrows and frown marring her usually happy face.
'Something wrong J'onn?' Superman asked, seeing the concerned gaze of the heart of the justice league. That broke Jess out of her thoughts and she quickly let a song run through her mind loud enough to stop her thoughts from being heard by the Martian in case he grew worried and decided to look in.
'No.' J'onn answered looking back into the sky as he navigated the javelin back to the space station. The rest of the league glanced around silently. Diana looked at Jess wondering what she was concerned about. Luckily for her, Batman was too preoccupied thinking up plans in all the alphabet on defeating AMAZO should he return, and wondering the why of the kryptonite not working the second time, otherwise he might have spoken out.
Docking in the space station the league members walked out heading to their respective rooms, while the one on duty head to the monitor room. Jess sighed she was on monitor duty. She headed for the cafeteria for an ice mocha, something both she and Diana loved. Caffeine in hand she headed for the monitor womb, sighing softly, turning the monitors on she sat down on the swivel chair and leaned back relaxing slowly. There was nothing on the monitors that the local authorities couldn't handle.
She found herself wondering back to the days events and her thoughts turned to J'onn before she could help herself, yes she admitted to herself, she'd grown close to the Martian in the past months and now she wondered if that closeness was making her fall for the lonely soft spoken alien.
Probably she was. She had to admit she found him appealing but she knew as well as Batman that dating within a team was slightly trouble, what with emotions wanting to protect, it led to risky thoughtless action. However her thoughts were contradicting her emotions. She sighed and sat cross legged on the chair, easing away to her mind palace in search of her meditating valley she relaxed, letting her emotions be stacked away and focused on opening and balancing her chakras to gain more power in her empathic abilities. It was hard work and consumed time but she felt the need to be able to connect to her fellow team members paid off in the long run.
As Jess was thus meditating so was a certain Martian, he wanted peace in his mind after the days trial on his beliefs and faith. The human jealousy, anger, petty selfishness, and then the concern for the child, fear for another's safety and willingness to self sacrifice in her place. J'onn found himself turning things over and over to the past and the present. He saw Superman's unwavering faith in humanity even when it wasn't always present in said humans, Batman's mistrust on everything seemed more justified. J'onn wondered how Diana perceived humanity. She was over the prejudice of men and women and worked well with respect for both genders. He thought over to Hawkgirl and GL, GL a peacekeeper of the universe, Hawkgirl a Thanagarian soldier, both so alike and different. Flash the youngest mind flowing with freedom and happiness, barely burdened by the weight on his shoulders.
Jess, there the Martian paused in his thoughts. something had bothered her very much today.
He had been preoccupied with the android to give it much thought but he had noticed the sudden distress in their
latest member. He wondered if the android copying her powers and sending back a beam of magical energy upset her feeling of security in the teams ability to handle threats. She was like Batman in some respects, her greatest strength was willpower and stubbornness, like the dark knight she trained to be physically stronger than most humans, was quiet in her ways and had a way of creeping up silently when she wanted. She connected to him easily but J'onn also noticed in her, a recent development, she was radiating more mental energy than any of the others and it was recently that she'd begun doing that. He wondered if it was a sudden development, if so was it expanding, was she even aware of it?
Sudden dread filled the Martian, what if she was unaware and the development spiked causing her to gain some level of telepathy? she wouldn't be able to control it, she might even go insane and unleash her pain telepathically to others around her. J'onn stood up abruptly from his meditating posture.
He needed to talk to her.
'J'onn?' Jess felt his presence and wondered what had brought him here tonight, she was sure now that he hadn't heard her wild panicked thoughts in the javelin.
J'onn gazed carefully at her, she opened her eyes to meet his concerned orange ones.
'what troubles you, J'onn?' her words so unlike a young life, more like an troubled soul with the knowledge belonging to an ancient.
'I came to speak with you,' J'onn wasn't going to spill until he was certain she was unaware of her mental development. Jess suddenly sensed the worry in J'onn's mind as he watched her carefully. Jess smiled at him softly.
'what about?' she stood from her chair, about to intercom green Lantern to take over monitor duty when J'onn placed a hand in front of her.
'I can multitask' he told her quietly, she nodded and motioned the Martian to her chair, with a 'sit down' look which brook no arguing. J'onn sat, watching as she perched on the control panel closest to him.
'about you,' he answered her previous question, at her go on look J'onn carefully continued.
'your mind it has changed Jess, I know not if you are aware, but it has strengthened. I am concerned it may harm you.'
Jess took a moment to consider the Martian she was so close to, it wasn't what others called close. it was deeper, knowing he would treat her with understanding, the compassion he showed to all was combined with a mental touch they both felt ever since J'onn had linked each member to him. she in turn looked up to him and respected him immensely for everything he was.
'I am aware of it J'onn,' she gently laid her hand on his arm, 'its the meditation I've been practicing, it has balanced out my chakras and helped me gain control over my emotions and temper.' everyone knew she had a formidable temper even if she was long fused.
J'onn grew even more worried, did she know how to stop the development? how to slow it? how far developed was she?
the physical contact enabled Jess to feel his emotions better. 'J'onn..' she whispered softly knowing he'd focus on her immediately.
she took his hand and placed it to her temple, 'see for yourself'
J'onn looked into her eyes for confirmation for what he was about to do and brought his other hand up to her opposite temple and cupped her face between his hands. monitors entirely abandoned by both. Jess knew he wouldn't touch her thoughts only her ability to feel others emotions, J'onn too knew how much of trust she placed in him to allow him to do this.
J'onn always found her mind a place he longed to dwell in, they were attuned to each others minds so much that reading her mind felt natural to him, but as ever he feared to tell her that. On many levels he could feel no objection from her, almost as if she didn't mind but it was against J'onn's morals. He considered it extremely impolite to read a mind without permission.
Carefully J'onn prodded her mind, his eyes glowing orange as she stared up to them, mesmerized by the glow. J'onn targeted the closest sleeping founding member to the monitor womb, Superman.
he gently pushed Jess's mind into feeling the man of steel's emotions, the resulting strong wave of content sleep
emanating from the man to J'onn's mind wasn't something he expected.
''I can tone the reception down if you like J'onn.'' Jess whispered into J'onn's mind.
J'onn gently pulled out of her mind, his eyes dimming to their normal orange, his hands slowly dropped from her face.
'you have gained much control and strength,' J'onn told her softly. 'Jess, do not develop it further for awhile.' at her slight questioning look he gave her a small smile and answered her unasked mental question. 'it is a slow process. You have progressed too fast. It might harm you.' Jess contemplated his words, she knew he meant well and probably spoke from experience, as tempting as it was to just nod and ignore his warning she never did throw his word away.
'I won't J'onn, I'll just meditate normally.' J'onn smiled at her, he loved how she understood his intentions and actually listened to him.
'I can help,' J'onn offered her, 'this is my specialty.'
Jess smiled at him. 'I appreciate that very much J'onn' she could always turn to him, feeling happy seeing him back to his normal self, she gave him a warm hug. J'onn smiled to himself as he returned the embrace.
she was always much more physical and open with him than with any other. J'onn appreciated that. Physical contact was something the league didn't always indulge in with him, he knew it was partly his quiet nature and often deadpan tone that kept others at bay, but she and Diana were comfortable with hugging him. He supposed he enjoyed it, the simple embrace brought a comforting feeling J'onn had missed.
"I'll take monitor duty. You should rest." J'onn told her quietly. Jess attempted to conceal a yawn and nodded acceptance, her relaxed state left her body able to catch up on its aches and pains.
"good night, J'onn." Jess told him heading for her room, she heard his soft good night in response as she walked out.
A long soak later, Jess climbed into bed feeling very tired all of a sudden. Just as her head hit the pillow she felt a slight headache on her right temple. Groaning at her body's bad timing she rolled over and ignored the pain in favor of some sleep.
Morning found the league in the conference room, Batman wanting a belated debriefing.
"where's Jess?" Flash piped as GL and Shayera took their seat. J'onn choose that moment to walk in with Diana. Superman as ever present on time.
"I'll go see." Diana volunteered. As she disappeared down the hall, J'onn took a seat feeling slightly worried. Diana knocked as she entered Jess's room, she rarely locked her door. Jess was sound asleep, looking years younger than when awake. Half hating herself for having to wake her, she gently shook her awake. Jess murmured something unintelligible and roused slowly.
"Batman is holding a debriefing, Jess, we're all waiting for you."
Blearily Jess nodded before setting into action, she was ready in record time to follow Diana to the conference room. Feeling self conscious as all eyes turned to her, Flash joked "and good morning sleeping beauty."
Jess turned crimson as Batman glared with Superman at her. She sat down next to J'onn and Diana, trying to ignore the world. J'onn gave her a mental smile she happily returned.
Batman's debriefing always caused everyone to feel irritated, specially when a mission was successful by a mere thread chance, bats was angry, as Flash put it.
Jess decided to hide in her mind as the meeting progressed. When it was finally over she headed out to the cafeteria for some breakfast. Flash joined her as the speedster seemed to be always eating.
"so Jess, what's made you a late sleeper, your always up before me. Did you go somewhere last night? Meet someone?" Flash was perpetually curious about this and that, with the attention span of a goldfish. Jess smiled, at the fastest man alive and decided to boost his ego to avoid answering.
"nope Flash, haven't met anyone as awesome as you yet" she winked conspiratorially. Flash grinned and went to mention, how awesome he was. Jess just smiled at him. Superman joined their table, in the midst of Flash's ramblings. As always Superman was concerned about anything deviating from normal.
"Jess is everything all right?" Jess gave Supes a smile.
"everything's fine Kal, I was merely more tired than usual but thanks for the concern." Superman nodded obviously satisfied with the answer.
Suddenly Jess felt her nights headache flash through her right temple as she closed her eyes. She could feel Superman's concern, Flash's joviality, before she felt anything more she tuned her empathy down as much as possible.
"Hey you okay?" Superman asked her, snapping her out of her mind. Jess smiled an yes and excused herself as she headed for some training.
She was glad she took J'onn's advice and stopped chakra balancing for awhile. The headache was definitely linked to her empathy. The training room had Batman already working up a sweat with the punching bags. Jess wondered if they could spar.
"care to spar with me?" she asked expecting as always his look of yes instead of answer. She wondered if he thought words were irreplaceable if he used up his vocabulary.
Silly thought, she almost giggled like a young girl.
Batman walked onto a mat as she joined him. He'd been teaching her strategy and tactics in an informal way that both knew were working for them. Hours of holds and throws, landing on her rear, throwing Batman to the floor, getting thrown even more. She was starting to get toasted. Batman called a halt, considerate she thought. Heading for a shower, her thoughts drifted to J'onn. She felt that he'd become comfortable with her mind and she realized she had too. His mental touch was as familiar to her as was his physical touch. She wondered where he was, probably monitor duty again. His multi tasking ability was overused by the others.
One shower later, Jess headed out to find J'onn. She wanted his company. As predicted he was indeed in the monitor womb with a pack of chocos and a glass of milk. Jess almost laughed as the most revered member of the league licked off cream filling. J'onn watched her, amused as she smiled at him. He'd caught her light hearted feeling. Her empathy unknowingly made their mental link stronger than the link the Martian had with any of the other league members. Neither spoke, both just smiling at the other in content peace. That was the closeness they shared. Wordless yet meaningful to both.