M'Gann liked Earth. But it hadn't exactly been easy to fit in.
People didn't communicate on Earth. Not properly. It had been a bit of a rude shock to learn that touching other peoples' minds, especially without their permission, was a serious social violation. (Unless they were the bad guys.) People instead traded information through words and complicated visual cues. She'd known that in advance, of course – she'd made sure she was fluent in English before ever coming to the planet, when it became clear that she couldn't just rely on mental translation – but it was still startling to see how... mentally blind... humans were. It was hard, to keep her mind isolated. It was lonely. Even through their psychic link, humans communicated in abstractions of words. It was just a tiny connection to force information through without speaking. It didn't allow real communication.
It was easier for her, she suspected, than it must have been for her uncle J'onn. On Mars, her mind was a beacon of what she was, an invitation and a means for others to hurt her. She was used to closing up, and on Earth, that was encouraged. Besides, she could still talk to her uncle properly. On occasion, she shared minds with Conner. And she had the bioship, which may not have had the intelligence of her teammates but at least allowed her to open her mind to something other than her own outfit.
So while she'd carefully avoided connecting with the mind of her future self, she was happy to reconnect with the bioship when it had come into range. And pleased when it responded with joy, although that was confusing. She could feel her other self, just a little, through the bioship; she seemed to have quite sensibly cut connection down to a minimum, probably to avoid the two M'Gann's minds touching any more than they could help. It wasn't until they were aboard that she realised what the problem was.
The bioship missed her.
It was her bioship, certainly, but the Martian controlling it couldn't be her. She hadn't temporarily distanced herself from the bioship for a few minutes, they just hadn't been connecting. Even a cursory brush with the other's mind told her that the other Martian was much more powerful, powerful enough that having a real mental glance would definitely be noticed, so there was no safe way to gain more information; she simply ejected the imposter's team and fled.
She explained this to the Team, as best she could in English to non-telepaths, as they sped away from Antarctica.
"So that was a totally different Martian?" Artemis asked. "How would they get a Martian?"
"No," M'Gann clarified, "she looked... felt... very familiar, at least what I could get from her. She was pretty similar to me. I'd say that a Cadmus clone is pretty likely. You know, if she had all my memories."
"People change," Kaldur pointed out. "And we do not know what happens in the next five years."
"Nothing can happen in the next five years that would stop me from talking to my own bioship," M'Gann insisted. "And I think it's pretty suspicious that this Nightwing didn't want me verifying his identity. I can see why poking through someone's thoughts and memories across time can be dangerous, but I wouldn't need much."
"Yes, that is a good point," Kaldur conceded. "I cannot imagine Robin showing that sort of reluctance." He glanced at Robin for verification, who reluctantly nodded.
"I don't really think it matters whether they're clones or not," Robin said. "Our protocol's basically the same. Although I'm not sure why he'd lie about it."
"If they're Cadmus clones, he may not have a choice," Conner pointed out. "Which would also help explain why he tried to keep M'Gann out of his head – she can remove Cadmus programming. But my guy was... convincing."
"They already have your DNA," Robin pointed out.
"DNA isn't memories," Superboy responded. He glanced at M'Gann. -He knew about the cake you made me on New Years'-
-They have a telepath, Conner.-
-... I guess, but...-
"Anyway," M'Gann said out loud, "when we get to Mount Justice, we can just check the date and verify that we are in the right time before continuing the investigation." She wished she had've had a look in Nightwing's mind. But by the time she'd learned he was a bad guy, there wasn't time. She had to get them out of there, especially away from the telepath, the... closed-off, shadowy telepath. M'Gann couldn't imagine being that shut up. Well, that wasn't true; she'd tried it, once, after her telepathic powers had messed up a training exercise and traumatised and nearly killed her friends. She had decided to simply not be a telepath any more. It had proven impossible. With the pain of near-total isolation and the knowledge that refusing to use her powers didn't change the danger her subconscious posed, she instead accepted training from her uncle so that she could consciously choose how to use her powers and make sure they were used only for good. She couldn't just avoid using her most powerful sense altogether. No Martian could.
"To Mount Justice, then," Kaldur agreed.
M'Gann silently cursed herself for not reacting in time as she gently lowered her temmates onto the ice. In theory, keeping control of the bioship should have been an easy task – she was stronger, better trained and more experienced than her past self. But she'd been taken by surprise, and she'd only maintained the barest link with the bioship anyway, barely stronger than a psychic link. It seemed that had been a mistake.
-I can pursue,- she said.
-Not alone,- Nightwing responded.
"What happened?" Conner asked as M'Gann lowered herself to the ground.
"Not sure." Nightwing was fiddling with the computer on his wrist. "They're headed North."
"We're in Antarctica," La'gaan pointed out. "Everything is North."
"They'll go to Mount Justice," Conner said. "It's where we'd go. I mean, where we... you know what I mean."
"Then we have no time to lose. You four, take the SuperCycle and follow. I'll stay here and try to figure out this time portal."
"I'm staying with you," M'Gann said instantly.
"Negative. You need to control the bioship and protect the others from psychic attack."
"They're in less danger than you are. I'm the only one who isn't in danger from this cold. If you pass out, you need somebody who can withstand the cold to get you out of here."
Nightwing looked like he wanted to argue, but decided against it. "Fine. The rest of you get going." He hadn't looked up from his computer.
"What... what are you doing?" Robin asked.
"Trying to patch a cell signal through our communicators and get some reception down here so I can call Wally. Go! Superboy, you're in charge."
Conner, La'gaan and Tim trooped off to meet the SuperCycle. They were barely out of sight when Wally's voice came through Nightwing's communicator. "Hello?"
"It's Nightwing."
"Is she – ?!"
"Fine, so far as I know, this isn't about that. I need you help."
"No."
"It's kind of an emergency."
"When exactly did you forget what the word 'no' meant? We're not reserve members of your little Team, we're out. Or supposed to be. Call Impulse."
"I don't think getting even more time travellers involved is really going to help."
"... more time travellers?"
"Versions of most of the Team from five years ago have appeared in our time and are en route to Mount Justice from Antarctica as we speak. You're not there and I am, so we need you to get out there and intercept them before they learn way too much."
"... I swear you get into these situations on purpose. On my way."
Nightwing cut the communication and turned to Miss Martian. "Okay, let's go take some readings."
Conner gave Wolf a quick pat on the head before the three heroes climbed into the SuperCycle. "Good boy. Look after Nightwing for us." He would've wanted Wolf along, but they only had so much room and couldn't afford to weigh Sphere down.
The journey was awkward, to say the least.
"So how, exactly, are we going to take the bioship down without hurting her?" La'gaan asked after several minutes of silence.
"I'm working on that," Conner replied. "I think Sphere should be able to do it, shouldn't you, girl?" Sphere chirped in reply. "And I don't thing the bioship will try to hurt any of us, so..."
"The bioship's not really calling the shots though, is it?" Robin interjected.
"M'Gann won't want to hurt us, either," Conner snapped back.
"Why did she run like that?" La'gaan asked. "That's what I can't figure out."
"You tell me, she's your girlfriend," Conner responded.
"No, my girl is still in Antarctica. The girl we're chasing, I've met once. And she's dating you."
"No, she's dating him. The younger me." Conner sighed. "This is really confusing."
"Tell me about it."
Wally had had a lot to be unhappy about recently.
He'd taken time off college after the "death" of his girlfriend. It had been expected. His friends had been overwhelmingly supportive, but somehow, that had made it even harder. He didn't like lying to the friends they'd made since leaving the life behind, and he definitely didn't like lying to Artemis' mother. The whole thing was going to collapse in on them, he just knew it.
But even if he didn't like Dick and his stupid plan, he trusted Artemis. And he hadn't been able to talk her out of it, so there had been no choice but to wholeheartedly support her; to accept food and condolences from friends, to hold her crying mother, to look convincingly sad through consoling conversations with his own family. To carefully package all her clothing in boxes and store them away while people spoke behind his back about his refusal to give them away and move on.
And now Dick had called him and dragged him, yet again, into the Team's mess. He kept telling Dick that they were out, that he couldn't rely on their help, and they kept being called up for 'emergencies', and they kept saying yes. Just this once. Because it's an emergency.
She was going to be there.
Dick would've specified otherwise. He would've assured Wally that the bioship was Artemis-free as well as Wally-free if that was true. But he hadn't mentioned her, so she must be there. Wally didn't know if he could handle that. But he had no choice. They already had one rogue time traveller; adding themselves from the past was a recipe for disaster.
He was very happy that his own younger self wouldn't be present. He definitely wouldn't be able to handle that.
He suited up (he should just donate the suits to a museum or something), stuffed some food into his mouth, and headed for the ruins of Mount Justice.
-Have you thought of a way around this memory-erasing thing yet?- M'Gann asked Nightwing as she stood in the corridor with Wolf, keeping watch.
-Are we still going over this?- Nightwing was slowly crossing the room where the time travellers had been found, staring at his wrist-mounted computer. He didn't look up.
-We're going to keep going over this, because I'm not digging through anybody's mind.-
-It's for their own good, M'Gann. Our own good, I mean.-
M'Gann felt her fingers curling into Wolf's fur. Why did Nightwing always have to be so sure that everyone would just do what he said? Well... because they always did, she supposed, because he was the leader and that was his job. But why did he always have to be so sure he was right? After Artemis and... Kaldur... -If you're so sure I'm going to erase their memories, why is it so important that they don't learn anything about this era? I mean, they can only have run off because they jumped to some wrong conclusion because they didn't have enough information, right?-
-Keeping information from them is just a precaution.-
-Well if you insist on erasing their memories then it;s an unnec...- Unless... -You don't want him to know who you've become. You don't want to see him realise – -
"I didn't see you in too much of a hurry to share anything with her," Nightwing snapped back. "You didn't stay here just to keep an eye on me. You're avoiding her. This isn't all my – "
"It is all your fault!" M'Gann was aware, in a detached sort of way, that she was screaming through tears. "You said! You said it was okay to use my powers on the bad guys! All I did was believe you! You said he'd gone bad, you said he'd killed Artemis! But apparently trusting my leader makes me a gullible fool and now – " Nightwing's arms were around her; she sobbed into his shoulder.
"I know. I know. This isn't your fault. I shouldn't have implied that it was."
But it was, really, no matter how much she wanted to blame Nightwing. It's not as if she hadn't been warned. Conner had been warning her from the start. And she'd ignored him. She'd tried to mess with his mind on an impulse, a minor coercion that would've been easily forgiven on Mars, and while she'd agreed that that specific instance still wasn't okay on Earth, she'd kept ignoring his other warnings. She'd thought she was doing the right thing, but didn't bad guys all think that?
M'Gann knew that she couldn't erase their past selves' memories. She couldn't use her powers on anyone. She couldn't be trusted to.
"Uh, guys?" Robin called from the hold of the bioship, "I... don't think this is our bioship."
"What makes you say that?" Aqualad asked.
"The cargo. Did one of you stock it with about a hundred and fifty rebreathers and a large box of crab cakes?"
"Who needs that many rebreathers?" Artemis asked. "Although I did lose mine in Antarctica, can you throw us one?"
Robin complied. "My guess would be some kind of passive aggressive gesture? The point is that unless one of us put this stuff in here, it belongs to the people we left in Antarctica, meaning..."
"Hello, Megan! Of course we're in the future!" The bioship had missed her. If it was her bioship, from her time, they'd barely been separated an hour, and there was no reason for it to miss her.
"It does not matter," Aqualad said, ignoring the uncertain looks Robin was shooting at him. "They were clearly keeping something from us. We forge ahead."
Something yellow streaked across the waves below, too fast for the eye to track, and began circling beneath them. Artemis leaned close to the window. "Don't tell me that's – "
A giant funnel of water began to rise around the bioship. They rose and ploughed through the side; it followed.
"Miss Martian, can you evade?" Aqualad asked.
"Yeah, but nor forever. He's faster than we are."
"Then try to get us toward land."
"Let me off," Artemis said, "I'll distract him."
"You want us to drop you into the ocean?" Aqualad responded. "If anybody is going into the water – "
"He'll ignore you. Do you really think he'd let me drown?"
"I do not like it," Aqualad said hesitantly, "but if that is what you want..."
Miss Martian opened a hole before he finished talking, and Artemis dropped. Sure enough, the funnel of water dropped and they used their few seconds of delay to speed towards Mount Justice.
"It's wrong," Superboy said, leaning forward and squinting. "Something about the skyline." When they got close enough for everyone else to start making out Happy Harbour, he gasped.
"What?" Robin asked. "What is it?"
"You'll see."
When they got closer, they did.
The cockpit was silent. Mount Justice, their headquarters... for half of them, their home... didn't exist. It was in ruins. The power needed to create that explosion...
All of them suddenly realised that moving on to the Justice League wasn't the only explanation for why the team they'd left in Antarctica didn't have a Kaldur, Artemis or Wally.
"We're stopping this from ever happening," Robin said.
Kaldur nodded once. "Agreed. This will not be our future."