A/N: As promised here is the next update. I know its been 2 weeks instead of the 1 week I had originally planned for writing and posting, but I was having a hard time getting inspiration. However the next chapter should be up within the next 2 days, so that'll put things back on track C:
Thank you for the review I got last chapter, and the follows and favs. I would really enjoy more, so please do review. No writer posts their work on here just because, they want to hear if people liked it C:
Please, if you don't know who Doctor Destiny is, please, please, please research him. He's a vital character in this fanfic and a great villain, very undermined if you asked me.
To clarify, this fic is after season 2 of Young Justice. Spoiler alert! Wally is "Dead," Artemis is now Tigress when working as a hero, Nightwing has left the team and they are now functioning out of the Watch tower because Mount Justice is gone. So you will see reference to all of those things in this chapter. unfortunately I also do not ship Superboy X miss martian anymore. They had their run, and even though it was left open at the end of season two, I do not think they should get back together.
Also to help clarify any confusion. Last chapter we were inside Conner's mind, experiencing what he was seeing and feeling. This chapter, we're in reality. We are not in anyone's mind. This is what's happening in the real Justice League world, not in the dreamscape.
With that, please enjoy! Also again please review, fav and follow, I really would like to hear more from the readers. Thanks everyone!
-I do not own Young Justice or its characters. I only own the plot line.-
That night was unforgettable. The hush that had fallen throughout the rooms in the watch tower was deafening while it lasted. The silence was uncomfortable as it crawled deeper under the skin of reality, suffocating any sounds as if to make a preemptive strike before the real disaster was to swallow the peace whole.
No alerts had been heard in over an hour. No fires, no natural disasters, not even a cat stuck in a tree needed the helping hand of the justice league. It was disconcerting to say the least.
Martian Man Hunter took a whispering vigil in front of countless monitors, observing menial things and almost begging for something to happen. Nothing large scale, but something…anything. The sheer lack of chaos in the world right now tipped the tall green man off that something was indeed, very wrong.
There was always a balance of good and evil in the world. However, tonight the scale felt as if it had been tipped too far to one side causing J'onn to fear that sooner or later, the other side would snap back seeking an unrelenting vengeance. His skin shuddered with a deep nagging feeling of disaster. It was almost as if his instincts were warning him that the uphill climb, was about to turn into a downhill slide.
Suddenly, as if on cue a loud, gut wrenching, agonized scream flitted through the deep metal hallways that surrounded J'onn. A tidal wave of agony and terror washed over his senses, causing him to let out a shout of similar conduct. He'd never felt an energy surge quite this strong before, at least not since his last mental battle with a formidable foe.
Once he regained a small shred of composure, he shifted his density through the floor and traveled through the compound to locate the source of the pained shriek. Inside, he already knew who it was. It was an unmistakable voice that continued to scream; it was Superboy.
Quickly arriving outside the young hero's room, J'onn paused as if he was about to knock and see if it was alright to enter into Conner's personal space. However as he soon recognized the faces of Kaldur, M'gann and Artemis, he knew it would be better to just enter.
"What's going on?" Kaldur asked quickly, arriving first next to the treasured League member before the others did.
"I am not sure." He replied steadily, casting a steady look to his niece to confirm what he had felt earlier, "M'gann, did you too feel the wave of negative mental energy from Superboy?"
"Yes, it woke me up!" She confirmed, turning to the door as J'onn overrode the privacy code and commanded that the room let the four of them enter.
The large metal slab pulled back with an effortless hiss, allowing a gleam of light to pierce the velvety darkness that blanketed the average sized room. There was a hushed pause for a moment as the light continued to invade the privacy of the darkness, and reveal the ugly truth that hid inside.
On the far right side of the room was a tall bed, and on that bed was the writhing form of their close friend and team member. His back was arched and his mouth was agape in a silent wail, but no more sound was leaving the boys throat.
It didn't take supervision to see that Conner's dark gray pajama top was sopping wet with his sweat. His eyes were wide open, staring at everything, and nothing. They were hazy and unfocused, but moving sporadically, as if he was seeing imaginary demons crawling towards him on the walls.
A chorus of gasps filled the empty space that silence had left open. M'gann and Kaldur rushed in without hesitation and swarmed the side of Superboy's bed. The covers were tossed in all different directions and crumpled as if Superboy had been clenching them before expelling them off of his body.
The man's chest heaved rapidly as undesired tears slid out of the corners of his eyes, mixing with his sweat to soak the pillow his head was on.
"Conner! Conner wake up!" M'gann shouted, reaching out to touch him.
Unfortunately, J'onn recognized too many similar signs too late. He had seen his team mates in a state like this before and had been the only one to successfully reach them at the time. But he knew that if M'gann touched him, it would leave a trail of devastation in her mind.
"M'gann no!" He cried, lunging forward in an attempt to stop his niece before it was too late. But he failed.
Before M'gann could properly react, her hand already brushed Superboy's skin. Instantaneously she let out a blood curdling scream that caused her whole body to stiffen and convulse. Artemis was quick to respond and gripped the Martian girls arm, yanking it back into her to get her away from Superboy.
In M'gann's mind pictures flooded into her memories, suffocating her mental capacity and allowing her to feel the pain and anguish that each new scene was presenting. Snippets of dead team mates and decimated cities stood out the most, along with a shot of Superboy and…someone else. Someone she had never seen before.
The haunting images wrapped themselves around her mind and caused her to fall to her knees in Artemis' arms, screaming in pain and holding her head. Her nails dug into her scalp as her whole physique started morphing into different things, proving that for the time being, she was unstable and could not mentally keep up a specific image of herself.
"Wh-what's happening to her J'onn?" Artemis' panicked ridden voice blurted out.
"To both of them?" Kaldur asked more seriously, kneeling down to set a hand on M'gann's shoulder as she continued to morph and change into different, unidentifiable things.
"I fear that this may be the work of Doctor Destiny," J'onn said steadily, mentally reaching out to his niece to try and help her work through the images she was witnessing. "Kaldur, you and Artemis get Superboy to the medical bay, quickly! I will help M'gann."
"Touch him after what just happened to M'gann? You're crazy!" Artemis spluttered, staring at the larger man in shock. The familiar material of her football jersey T shirt sagged as she deflated upon seeing J'onn's morbidly serious expression.
"How do you know that we will not suffer the same fate as M'gann?" Kaldur asked slowly, setting a hand on Artemis' wrist before she even attempted to move. He did not want to take the risk of Artemis touching Superboy and getting effected as Miss Martian had.
"Miss Martian is a telepathic being. What she is seeing is the result of tapping in to Conner's mind. Unfortunately, she did so in the invasive way of touching him, causing his mind to lash out at hers. She and I cannot touch him when his mental state is incapacitated like this. It will only cause us to experience the same situation Conner is going through as we speak." The short lived explanation would have to do as J'onn knelt down and scooped M'gann up in his arms, carrying her off into another room, where he could safely reach out to her without being intercepted by the same waves she was.
Kaldur and Artemis made shocked eye contact, both thinking the same thing. "Oookay, well I guess I should kiss sleep goodbye for tonight." Artemis grumbled quietly, as if trying to shed some light on the darkening situation with a little humor.
"I fear that no one will be resting peacefully until this is resolved." Kaldur agreed as Conner continued to writhe. It seemed that he was breathing even faster now, and looked even more frightened that he had when they first entered the room. It was clear to both parties that he was getting worse with every passing moment.
Nodding silently to each other, the two cautiously set a hand on the super clone and upon seeing that it was safe, wrapped their hands under each of his extremities. Despite their combine strength, Conner was still a large, heavy guy and with their height differences, the two found that carrying their team member was more of a challenge than it had originally seemed.
Regardless of the physical struggles they dealt with, they met up with J'onn in the medical bay and warily set their friend down on one of the bulky cots. "Is M'gann alright?" Artemis asked, glancing over into another cot to see her green friend lying soundlessly under the blankets. She no longer looked like she was in any form of pain, but the unconscious state that she was in was no better. J'onn was powerful, but compared to Miss Martian, he was weak. Her telepathic skills would be undeniably useful in the next few hours to come.
"She will be fine, though I fear that Superboy will not be if we do not act quickly. Doctor Destiny enters the dreams of others to kill them, nothing else." Martian said in a slightly nervous tone. He glanced around the room at all the IV kits and heart monitors that were stationed at the head of each cot.
Knowing full well that he could not touch Conner, he would have to employ the younger members of the team to do the physical labor. "Artemis, I need you to cut Superboy out of his shirt."
"What?!" Artemis nearly shouted. "Why!?" Cutting off the boy's shirt wasn't really the issue; it was more why she had to do it that confused her. What could J'onn possibly be thinking he was going to do to the young super clone that required the boy's shirt to be destroyed and ripped off his body?
"To attach an EKG to him. Can you not hear his heart beat? That loud of a heart beat can be a precursor to his heart shutting down. We need to be able to assess how well his heart is working as soon as possible."
"But!"
"Artemis, please do as J'onn says," Kaldur said stiffly, turning to the countless monitors and machines that surrounded him and wondering for a brief moment, which one was the EKG monitor. J'onn saw his confused look and telepathically moved the machine over to the young male. In return Kaldur gave him a grateful look and started untangling the vast amount of wires.
Artemis had just finished cutting off her teammate's shirt when Kaldur stuck the electrode stickers onto his friend's chest. Then, working under J'onn's watchful eye, the two put the ten lead wires onto specific portions of Superboy's chest. The brown headed wire went right in the middle of his chest, then "smoke over fire" or dark gray over red on the left side. Finally they attached the white wire over the green wire on his right side, hearing J'onn recite the memory aid "snow on top of trees."
Once the task was done, Kaldur turned on the machine and took a step back to join Artemis by J'onn's side. The Martian was carefully studying the super clone's erratic movements and trying to drown out his occasional screams with his own thoughts on a solution.
He believed this to be Doctor Destiny's work, but the last he had seen of the nightmarish man; he had been in a catatonic state and was unable to ever harm anyone again. It did not make sense that he was back and able to cripple more team members' minds.
This brought up another disturbing thought. The last time Doctor Destiny had struck, he had nearly crippled the entire Justice League. Only Batman and J'onn stood a chance against the dream manipulator. J'onn had only been able to save the other members by mentally intruding into their nightmare realms and helping them to realize it wasn't real so that they could be saved. His skin crawled as he remembered the fact that he was almost too late to save Hawkgirl last time, and that Doctor Destiny's former fiancée had died from the mental trauma he afflicted onto her.
Why had Doctor Destiny only gone after Superboy? The fleeting idea was that maybe the dream manipulator was not nearly as strong as he had been the last time he planned this attack and was only able to victimize one person at a time. However that theory made no sense either. If it truly was Doctor Destiny, it made no sense that he went after Superboy. His hatred stemmed within the Justice League and the idea of the psychopath even knowing the young super clone was nearly impossible.
Whatever was going on here, it needed to come to an end and quickly. One glance at Superboy's EKG readings had J'onn mentally preparing himself to enter the young males mind. If he waited too much longer, Superboy would succumb to the fear and his heart would give out. He would die.
"His heart beat is so loud…" Artemis said grimly, bringing J'onn out of his thoughts and back into reality. By now, more League Members had gathered around the outer windows of the medical bay. They were all quietly whispering to each other and wondering what exactly was going on.
"As much help as you two have been, I will have to request both of you to leave now." J'onn said calmly without looking at either of the shocked heroes. "I need complete peace to be able to safely enter Superboy's mind and retrieve him. I fear if I do not act soon, Superboy will parish."
A look of astonishment crept across the wide eyed faces of Kaldur and Artemis. They knew that their teammate was in bad condition, but to hear that he could die was a whole new punch to the gut. The worst part is the feeling of helplessness that invaded both of their minds as they silently backed out of the room and into the frenzy of Leaguers trying to get their questions answered. It seemed that Conner's screams were waking everyone on the watch tower up.
"Artemis," Green arrow called out firmly, waving the two over to him, Black Canary and Superman. As if on autopilot, the two walked over to the three Justice League members and gave them looks of helplessness, "What's going on?"
"I only heard bits and pieces of the story. Sounded like J'onn thinks this is the work of Doctor Destiny, is that true?" Superman interjected. It was obvious that the Kryptonian was worried for his younger clone as the two had grown close in the past five years that Superman had started accepting Conner.
"Yes," Kaldur confirmed, "he asked us to leave the room so that he could safely enter Conner's mind."
"He…also said that Superboy could die. Is that true?" Artemis asked quietly. In her heart, she already knew the answer, but she didn't want to believe it. The thought of losing another original team member, another best friend was crushing to her. After Wally was ripped away from her, and Nightwing left, Artemis had no more room for loss left in her heart.
The small group saw the brief moment of grief flash across her complexion, and their hearts immediately sank. Green arrow set his hand on her shoulder as Black Canary stepped forward and embraced the young blonde in a hug. "The last time Doctor Destiny attacked, he nearly killed Hawkgirl," Superman somberly reported, turning to look back into the medical bay, "which means that it could very well kill Conner too."
"But J'onn won't let that happen correct? He said himself that he was able to pull the last members victimized by this villain out of harm's way," Kaldur said sharply. He too did not have any more tolerance for lost team members. Losing Wally was bad enough and having Nightwing leave the team left him and Superboy as the last founding members still on the team. He did not wish to cut that two down to one.
"Let's hope so," Canary said quietly, giving Kaldur a hopeful look. She had worked closely with these kids over the past few years and knew how they were feeling before they would even admit it to themselves. After Wally's death she had tried to console both the flash and the younger team members, but nothing really seemed to help them. They continued to function normally, but she could see the way everyone had mentally aged after losing him. It hardened their blissful young adult psyche and brought in the brutal reality of the job. No one was truly invincible.
"Batman had reported that Doctor Destiny had been working from a separate location the last time he attacked the League. Maybe if we can find him, we can stop him before he ends up killing Superboy," Superman offered up. Oliver and Dyna nodded firmly to him in a silent agreement to help no matter the cost. It was clear that Kaldur and Artemis wanted in too, but Superman couldn't afford to have them tag along. They were too personally affected by Superboy's dilemma, making them far more susceptible to John Dee's mental attacks.
"As much as I know you two want to help, I'll have to ask you to stay here. J'onn may need assistance and Superboy will need you regardless of if he wakes up or not." A look of anger flashed over Artemis' face as Kaldur's expression hardened in the same manner.
"With all due respect Superman, Conner is our best friend. I believe it is only right that we help you to take down the man that is torturing him." Kaldur said as calmly as he possibly could. He was very skilled at keeping a level head, but for whatever reason, this topic was striking a small nerve. It could have been the fact that he felt he and Artemis still weren't respected and treated as equals to the league, but he knew it was more so that Superman was just trying to get them out of the way.
"And I understand that son, but this is not negotiable. Oliver, Dyna and I will get to the bottom of this. I promise."
"Your promise doesn't mean much," Artemis growled, "You don't even know if you'll find him! In fact, you don't even know where to start looking!"
"Do not make me make this an order," Superman said with a hardened expression, glaring the girl down with equal aggression. "You two will stay here and watch over Conner." Oliver looked like he wanted to interject and maybe compromise with the kids, but he shut his mouth as soon as it opened. He knew just as well as Superman that involving the kids in this mission was not a good idea. He personally had not ever been affected by Doctor Destiny before, nor had he ever fought him, but knowing enough about the mad scientist made him realize that this mission was too much for the kids.
"Are you just gonna stand there and agree with him!?" Artemis snapped, throwing her arms out as she glared Green Arrow down with the ferocity of a tiger. "Kaldur and I can handle this! We should be allowed to tag along!"
"It's not that you can't handle it-," Canary started. However Arrow held up a hand in a silent plea to silence her.
"No Dyna, Clark is right. I'm sorry Artemis, but you and Kaldur are too close to this mission to be of use to us."
"You're joking right!?" Artemis said louder, her voice rising with every denied request she received from her older peers. Her face snapped over to her closest team mate; he hadn't said another word since he was put in his place by the man of steel, "back me up here Kaldur! They're being ridiculous!"
"As much as I wish to agree with you Artemis, we have our orders."
His response shocked Artemis into silence for a bit until her wide eyes turned into an angry glare. Without a word she shoved past Arrow and Canary and stormed back down the hall toward her room. If the League wasn't going to trust her, and Kaldur wasn't going to back her, then she had no reason to be in the main hall. She was of no use to Superboy or J'onn right now either, so nothing was keeping her there.
A few minutes passed, but eventually there was a soft knock at her door, "Artemis, it is me. May I come in?" Kaldur's voice drifted through the heavy steel door easily, but Artemis pretended not to hear it. "Please?"
Grinding her teeth Artemis granted him access, but refused to look at him as he stepped into the room and sat down next to her. "I know that you are angry with me, but I believe we can do our own work to solve this mystery up here in the watch tower."
"We're not nabbing bad guys by just sitting up here," she hissed back, glaring at him and reaching over to grab a pony tail so she could put her hair up. After this whole ordeal, sleep was the last thing on her mind, so she figured she may as well start getting into her every day attire.
"No, but we can be of use here. Doctor Destiny-"
"There's that sickos name again, who even is this doctor density guy?" She griped, interrupting him without a hint of regret.
"Doctor Destiny, not density," Kaldur said with a slightly humorous tone. Leave it to Artemis to not care enough about a bad guys, bad guy name to remember it.
"Whatever."
"As I was saying, Doctor Destiny is obviously a formidable foe. I do not know much about him either, but I believe we both know someone who may." She looked over at him for a moment, trying to think of who she knew that would know anything about this villain. It sounded to her like he had one good jab at the Justice League and was never able to do much harm ever again. Not much of a Super Villain that's for sure.
However as she studied Kaldur's expression, her own lit up with realization and she smiled deviously at her close friend, "Nightwing!" Kaldur simply grinned back confirming her thought as his face hardened a bit. Superman could block them out all he wanted, but he couldn't stop them from doing what they did best. Getting the job done.
A/N: To be continued...
Well hopefully you're enjoying the story still and where it's going. I hope I kept all characters featured here in character as obviously that is important. And personally it was nice to try and challenge myself to write about multiple characters and how I believe they would react to this situation. I will really only being including the original members of the young justice team in this fic. The other characters are super awesome don't get me wrong, but it's far too many characters for me to properly write about.
Please remember to review, follow and favorite. Feedback is always appreciated.
I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter!