I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

We Are Family

For Thanksgiving Break Gary was going to give me a ride home. Nikki and him would be with my family for lunch, then her's for dinner. Stuart said he would love to join my family, but his was getting together at his uncle's which was across the country in Metropolis, so we wouldn't be able to spend it together. Sara went home, and Eugene was going to stay at the apartment. That left Annie.

I planned on her staying with Eugene, not really giving it much thought. A couple days before break, that all changed. I was packing my suitcase and asked for her help zipping it (her super strength proved useful since it bulging with all my clothes, books, and personal items). Once done, she looked at me and asked, "What's Thanksgiving like?"

"Well a long time ago the Indians helped the pilgrims and they had a feast to celebrate and give thanks. Which was stupid on the Indians part since more people came and gave them smallpox and took their land."

Annie ignored my sarcastic view of history. "I didn't ask what it was, I asked what it was like."

"What do you mean?" I asked collapsing on the floor, exhausted from packing the one suitcase. I still had one more to go before I was even close to being done.

She sat down beside me. "I mean, what do you do?"

Unsure of where the conversation was going, I said, "Um...all my cousins and aunts and uncles get together at my grandma's for a huge meal at noon. Some then go watch the football games, others stick around and play Rumy, and the kids go play. Then that night we have leftovers and plan our Black Friday attack with all the ads. Why?"

She shrugged. "Just curious."

Then something occurred to me. "At Halloween Sara said that you never had been trick-or-treating. Have you never experienced Thanksgiving either?"

"I know what is... but never had one myself," she said quietly, confirming my theory.

I knew what was coming next. By now she wouldn't ask, but I could see it in her hazel eyes. It may have been the exhaustion, or it may have been the thought of what her Thanksgiving feast would taste like, the image of her getting all the deals on Black Friday, or just me feeling guilty. For the next words out of my mouth were, "Want to join my family for Thanksgiving?"

My parents knew about Annie. I had to tell them what happened to Gertie at some point. Sooner or later they would notice the absence of my car. I just didn't know what their reaction would actually be when she showed up with me. My dad was all blase about it, while my mom offered Annie some cookies.

Curious, I tried to stick around to see what my mom would get out of Annie (not that she was one to hide much anyway), but my dad made me and Gary go and get supplies for my mom's pies that we'd be taking to Grandma's. With the way everybody went through them, she usually made at least five so there would actually be leftovers. When we returned, she and my mom were in the living room discussing recipes like nothing had happened. I tried asking Annie about it that night, but she just said that she and my mom talked, nothing more, nothing less.

Before I knew it, Thanksgiving had arrived, and the usual chaos ensued. Cousins running amok, being bombarded by relatives wanting to know how college was going and where my boyfriend was, getting stuffed on all the delicious food, the usual. Annie helped mom bake the pies which were more awesome than usual. My family just accepted Annie as a friend from college who didn't have much family of her own, which was true in its own way.

But none of that is important, well, important to what happened. Here's what's is. It was the afternoon, and everybody was clearing the table getting ready for Rumy. Looking around I noticed Annie was missing. After asking several of my cousins, I finally found her in the backyard, sitting on a swing on the play set. It was the old one from my and Gary's childhood days, that our dad had built by hand. Despite being a bit too big for it, it was still a hit with all my younger cousins, which is why my parent's still kept it around. It was a bit chilly that day though (even the nearby fountain had some ice on it) so nobody was out playing on it, except for Annie. If it could be called playing. She was instead just sitting still on the swing, not even moving.

"What are you doing back here?" I asked, sitting on the swing next to her.

"You're so lucky," she whispered faintly. "You have a family that loves you."

Startled by the conversation topic, I hesitantly replied, "You have one too, somewhere in the galaxy out there." Or at least I figured she did.

She shook her mass of curls and looked up at me with brown eyes. "I looked. Everything from my supposed past doesn't exist. I don't exist. I'm nothing but the creation of a thirteen year-old girl, remember?"

Whoops. "I was just angry when I said that, I didn't mean-"

"You were right," she said with tears leaking out of her eyes. "You've always been right. I'm nothing but a Sue."

I reached out a hand to comfort her, except my hand went straight her, like a ghost. Annie didn't seem to notice; she was still acting all lethargic and lifeless. Her curls were no longer bouncy, they were hanging limply at her head, starring into the ground. Then she started flickering like a candle, in and out, in and out rather quickly. I then noticed I could also see straight through her, as if she was nothing but thin it. And just like that, it dawned on me what was happening. Annie was starting to fade from existence.

Remember, Rule#4: Always Ignore a Sue? Remember why you were suppose to ignore a Sue? That if you did it long enough, they would just sorta fade away to nothing. I had heard of it, but never saw it for myself. Until now.

Until now, I had thought of Annie as an 'it', 'a Sue', not as a person. She didn't have feelings I could hurt. Sure she might cry, but it was Sue-tears and didn't actually count. I could laugh at her, use her to my advantage all I want, because she wasn't real; nothing more than my golden ticket to a new car. She was a little puppy that you constantly had to watch making sure it didn't have an accident you would have to clean up; a toddler who would touch dangerous objects such as a hot stove or electric outlet that required constant supervision. She was a Sue; she didn't matter.

She was like a jiggypuff. Pink, cute, annoying as hell to kill with their song and attractive attacks, but still relatively useless. As a kid, nothing gave me greater joy than beating them to a pulp in one shot, just like Annie.

Except now, she was different. Her hair wasn't perfect, snot was running out of her nose, her cheeks were stained with tears. She was real, and she suddenly was more human than I had ever seen. She may not have been ignored, but she was finally questioning her existence. And as a result, she was slowly fading away to nothing.

Before I would have cared about her fading away to nothing only because it meant no insurance to pay for my car. But now it was different. I cared because Annie just wasn't a Sue anymore, she was my friend. My annoying, naive, bubbly friend who would do anything I asked no matter what time of night it was. Who didn't mind when I insulted her with sarcasm, which was a really rare trait to find in a friend, trust me.

"Look at me," I said, getting off the swing and tilting her head up to look at me. This was rather hard since she was currently acting like Casper. "Annie, you may be a Sue... but..." my voiced trailed off as I noticed something. Her eyes were red and puffy, but their color was brown. Brown. "Annie," I said excitedly, "Your eyes, they haven't changed color. Every time I look at them, they're different. But they're brown, Annie. Everyday, ordinary, plain, mud brown. They're not Sue eyes."

That got her attention long enough for her to return to normal. Eager to see if what I said was true, she sprinted toward the fountain in the corner of the yard since it was evidently closer than a mirror inside the house (where it was also warmer). I soon joined her, and looked at our reflections that were semi-obscured by the ice floating on top.

"You're right, they're brown," she finally said after a while, "Brown like yours."

Looking closer at the reflection, Annie had noticed something I didn't; her eyes indeed, were now the same brown color as mine.

"Does this mean we're like sisters now?" she asked.

"I guess it does." And that didn't bother me in the least.

From there we returned to play cards with the family. Nobody said anything about Annie's new eye color, so I don't know whether or not they noticed or cared. The rest of the night was perfect. Except for when I got Gary's text.

It was a simple line, that I had to read twice for it to sink in: "Did you know the League was watching the apartment?"

**Author's Note**

Once again, thanks to my reviewers, Loki's Son, Jana Girl123, and CaribbeanTrinidadian.

So there you go, the two big plot points. Annie becoming less of a Sue was the main plot of the story, but there's been another hiding in the background. Next chapter will explain a bit more about what's going on, and things will get interesting...

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!