And here it is, the last chapter! But don't worry. I've already got another in the works.
The door didn't lead to La'gaan's center. It led to an ornate hallway, probably somewhere in the palace. At the end of the hall was a zeta tube. And in front of it another memory was playing out. La'gaan was around his current age, and his traveling bag was slung over his shoulder. In front of him was a woman. She was tall and slender, but not too skinny. Her green skin had a healthy glow to it. One of the fins on her shoulder was scarred. The membrane had been eaten away by some unknown disease, leaving only a bit of scarred tissue in between the spines. Her clothes were nice, and must have been custom-made due to her odd body type. And even though she looked older, M'gann thought Cor'rel looked better than she did when she was young.
"Where have you been?" La'gaan asked. The question was a low, harsh growl. It grew quickly into a furious roar. "DAMN YOU! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"
His mother drew back. Her black eyes filled with tears. "My son, listen to me. You don't understand-"
"No! I do understand! Do you think I'm still a guppy? In case you haven't noticed, a lot has changed in thirteen years!" La'gaan cut her off.
The two stood in silence. La'gaan was fuming, and Cor'rel fumbled for her next words. "I- I- I thought you were dead…"
"I almost was! You left me to die!" La'gaan yelled.
"I was so sure you wouldn't make it! Most children don't, once they reach that stage of the sickness…you were bleeding from the inside out and…and I couldn't do anything for you. I thought you would just drift off to sleep…and I couldn't bear to be there when…when you stopped breathing…" Cor'rel explained, her voice shaking. She swam forward, clasping her hands around his. "I loved you. I still love you, more than words can ever express."
La'gaan pulled his hands away, frowning at her. He might as well have slapped his mother across the face. She let out a small sob. "Yes, you loved me so much that you left me to die alone!"
"Please, my son, forgive me! I beg you! I know I cannot take back all that has happened to you. But let me try." Cor'rel implored, giving her son a tearful look. "I don't want my family to fall apart again…"
He looked away. "Why come looking for me now? After all these years, why now?"
"I didn't think there was a point…that all I would find would be a grave. But then I heard the king had a new apprentice. A new apprentice named La'gaan." Cor'rel smiled slightly. "I couldn't get here fast enough…"
"What do you expect me to do, then?" La'gaan turned back towards her, his voice sharp. "Stay here because you've suddenly decided to come back into my life?"
His mother opened her mouth to answer, then turned her face away. "I…I do not know what I hoped. I only prayed that it was you. I didn't know what I would do if I actually found you…"
"Well, I'm not staying here, that's for certain! And having you in Poseidonis makes me want to leave more! Do you know how much I went through on the streets? All the stuff I had to go through just to eat?! I don't want to have anything to do with you! In my mind, I don't even have a mother. Mothers stick by you and don't leave you to die alone!" La'gaan yelled.
Each word was like a knife to Cor'rel's heart. M'gann could see it on her face. She wasn't like her son, who had learned to mask pain and sadness behind bravado. No, this was a woman who carried her heart on her sleeve for everyone to see. Cor'rel fought back a sob, but didn't say another word in her defense.
"I'm leaving. And no one is going to change my mind. Not Blubber, not Lori, and especially not you. This city…I'll be better off somewhere else. Somewhere where I'm not a tursus or a savage or a murderer," La'gaan said, looking towards the zeta tube. "I'm going somewhere where I'll be accepted."
His mother moved forward, setting a tentative hand on his arm. La'gaan didn't jerk away, but he glared at her. Cor'rel said quietly, "I know not what awaits you on the surface, my son. But I pray you find the happiness you seek, and all the love I never gave you. I hope you find friends and happy memories, and never feel a moment of pain or regret. I know you hate me. You have every right…but I will pray for you every night. I will pray you find everything you are looking for and more…and I will pray that, one day, you will find the strength in your heart to forgive me. I will pray that the tide will bring you home to me."
After a prolonged silence, La'gaan pulled away from her. "You should go."
Cor'rel turned away and swam off, sobbing quietly as she disappeared down the hall. La'gaan watched her go, then slammed his fist into the wall.
The memory and both participants faded away, leaving M'gann alone in the hallway in front of the zeta tube. She was stunned. Like La'gaan, she had assumed Cor'rel was long-gone. Most likely dead. Yet she was alive. She was alive, and she'd tried to make things right with La'gaan…but it had been too little too late, apparently. M'gann bit her lip. She understood why he'd reacted the way he had. Yet, at the same time, she wished that he had just forgiven her. After all those years alone on the street, she thought he'd be happy to have some family around. Especially since his mother was all he had left.
Shaking her head, M'gann knew there was only one place to go. The door that she had come through had disappeared. There was no going back to Atlantis now.
"I guess it's Mount Justice or bust," M'gann said, smiling a little at her own joke.
She swam ahead into the zeta tube. Familiar blinding light surrounded her. Moments later, she was standing in Mount Justice.
M'gann ran through the living room and down the hall. The cave was completely empty and silent…almost lonely, in a way. But she didn't notice any of that. She was so close to her goal, nothing else mattered. She ran down the hall to the last room on the left. The door was closed. M'gann stopped and took a breath. Anything could be waiting for her in La'gaan's mind. She had to prepare herself.
A minute later, she opened the door.
La'gaan's room was filled with water. It did not rush out when she opened the door. It just stayed there, like a block of the ocean had been transported into the cave. His room, otherwise, looked the same. It was very bare. There were a few scrolls written in Atlantean tacked up on the walls, and a few odd-looking items sat on top of his desk. None of that attracted her attention, however. What caught her eye was La'gaan himself. He was floating on his back in the water. He wasn't moving.
Suddenly she remembered seeing La'gaan as a sick little boy, floating in the middle of the street. All alone, with no one to care for him or notice if he died.
She shuddered and swam forward. "La'gaan! La'gaan, you have to wake up."
There was no response.
She thought back to her venture into Robin's mind. They had found him in a similar state. Half-dead and unresponsive. But they had managed to wake him…no. No, they hadn't. Batman had. Batman was the one who had managed to get Robin to open his eyes. His voice had called Robin back, because he was one of the most important people in his life. M'gann, however, was not nearly as important to La'gaan as Batman was to Robin. They'd spoken before, but they could hardly be called best friends.
If only I had Blubber here. Or Lori. Or even his mother, M'gann thought. But, perhaps, she could still use them. In fact, there were plenty of things she could use to her advantage now. She just hoped they actually worked.
"La'gaan, you have to wake up!" M'gann urged him. "What about Blubber and Lori? How are we supposed to tell them that you're gone?"
Nothing.
She tried again, changing tactics. "What about your mother? I know you don't really hate her! What will she do if something happens to you?"
Still nothing.
M'gann was getting frustrated. How was it that a person like La'gaan – who had overcome starvation, illness, prejudice, and street violence – could be beaten by something so comparatively small? She grabbed his shoulders. "La'gaan, listen to me! I know you barely know me and don't care about me, but you've got to listen! You did not come this far to give up now! You've beaten everything life has thrown at you so far, you can beat this!"
A miracle happened. His eyelids flickered.
"Come on La'gaan!" M'gann encouraged him. "Do what you do best! FIGHT!"
La'gaan opened his eyes.
xxxx
Without warning, La'gaan's eyes shot open. He sat up quickly, gasping like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water on to him. Someone set their hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back down against the bed. He wasn't sure where he was. The last thing he remembered was the simulation. Then…nothing. Had he finally gotten 'killed'? Was he out?
"What happened? Am I out?" La'gaan asked. The person standing over him was Nightwing himself. He had a relieved look on his face that La'gaan couldn't understand. "What's going on? How'd I do? Why am I in my room?"
"How do you feel?" Nightwing asked, ignoring his questions.
La'gaan gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean? I feel fine. I mean, why wouldn't I?"
Someone else sat up. They'd been lying on a cot next to his bed, for whatever reason. With a start, he realized it was the Martian girl M'gann. What was she doing in his room?
"…I've missed something." La'gaan said, staring at his teammates. "Haven't I?"
Nightwing nodded. "An accident caused M'gann to lose focus, and it sent you into a coma. She had to go in to wake you up. You've been under for a few weeks now."
"A few weeks?! Neptune's Beard!" La'gaan looked over at M'gann. "You went inside my head and brought me out of it?"
M'gann nodded once, a bit uncomfortable. "I'm sorry, but it was the only way. We didn't want to wait around and wonder if you were going to wake up."
"Why are you apologizing? You saved my skin!" La'gaan grinned at her. "I am in your debt."
She smiled at him, but still felt troubled. Obviously he didn't know that putting someone's mind back together involved sifting through all of their most personal information. What would he say when she told him what she had seen? There was no telling.
They both went through a full medical examination; just to be sure they were alright. After about two hours of this, they were both cleared to go back to training. La'gaan was more than happy to. He dove right back into his training, rejoining the others as if nothing had happened. He seemed to forget about the incident almost as soon as it was over. M'gann decided to just forget about what she had seen. La'gaan seemed perfectly content to go on like nothing had gone wrong, so why shouldn't she?
But about a week later, La'gaan pulled her aside as she was heading to bed.
"I need to talk to you about something," he said. "I need to know what you saw inside my head."
"I…I didn't think you cared. I mean, you haven't said anything-" M'gann began.
"I couldn't exactly ask you when we woke up. I mean, Nightwing was right there," La'gaan interrupted. "And I haven't been able to get you alone since."
This was the conversation she'd been dreading. "Come with me."
She led him back into her room. La'gaan hovered by the close door, obviously uncomfortable. But M'gann didn't want them to be overheard. She sat down on the edge of her bed and sighed. "It'd be easier to answer what I didn't see. I saw the Bones…Nanauve…Poseidonis."
It was the exactly what La'gaan had been afraid of, apparently. He let out a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest. "Did you see Galeo?"
An involuntary shudder went through her. She could still see Galeo's dark, soulless eyes. "Yes. I…I saw what happened to him."
"You can't tell Nightwing." La'gaan said, moving forward. "Or anyone else on the League."
"How many people know?" M'gann asked.
"Counting you? Four," La'gaan answered. He looked away. "Not even my king knows."
"Tell me what happened. How did you even end up there?" M'gann asked. "Why did he want to kill you?"
La'gaan sighed heavily. "It's a long story…basically I was on Galeo's list to begin with. I got caught stealing. I was about to get speared. I wanted to hurt him. So I did."
"And only four people know?" M'gann asked. Who else had he told? Queen Mera was obviously one of them. Did he tell Blubber? Lori? The thought of Lori suddenly sent another pang of jealousy through her. She did her best to smother it.
"Only four know for sure. There were people that saw. And they talked. So rumors followed me while I was at the Conservatory," La'gaan said. He smiled grimly. "I wasn't very popular there, so they jumped on it."
M'gann stood. "Your secret is safe with me."
"Thanks, M'gann," La'gaan said. He smiled at her. "For, you know. Everything. You're…you're pretty amazing."
She felt herself blushing. "Thanks, La'gaan."
"Maybe I can get inside your head one of these days. See what makes you tick," La'gaan joked. "Only fair, right?"
M'gann couldn't stop herself from smiling. "Right."
