You know you're excited. You know it. You want to know what's going to happen next. WELL YOU'RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT, AREN'T YOU? byrneshadow might hate me, but eh, too bad. ENJOY THESE INTENSE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS.
Chapter 11
By the time Kaldur and I return to the base, the glow of the TV screen is at full brightness, and a well-timed laugh from the group disguises our entrance. I attempt to slip in as though I never left and escape questioning, but Kaldur detains me in the hall, and I know I won't escape him.
He crosses his arms and stares at me, not condescending, simply curious. I take a defensive stance and let him look his fill before raising my eyebrows to indicate, Satisfied?
Kaldur nods and finally opens his mouth to question me. "What were you thinking, going without warning us? We could have helped you. We are your team now, as well as you being part of ours." He offers another whiteboard and marker to me, and I take them, prepared to lie with ease.
He threatened to kill you unless I came alone, I scribble impatiently. I didn't want any of you getting hurt. You've been very welcoming to me and you are my team.
He glances at the whiteboard and nods his understanding. "All right, then. But you will acknowledge you needed my help to keep you from choking." I roll my eyes and wave my hand at him, giving him the victory while keeping my vile and selfish thoughts to myself. His hand comes out and rests on my arm, forcing my attention back to his face. We make eye contact, and I tremble, wanting desperately to back away from his stormy gaze.
I straighten my shoulders and brace myself. I will not back down. This is a game of intimidation, just like with Corinthes, and I intend to win.
Long minutes tick by, lightning zapping between us and crashing in the middle, and I swear I can see the flashes of light when they collide. He shifts his hand from my arm to my wrist, so softly I don't even notice until he clutches my hand in his own, drawing me a step closer to him.
"I know your kind, Arrietty," he murmurs. "You have suffered, though I don't know how. You want to be alone and believe you are stronger that way. Just remember we can help you as well as hurt you."
I have no response. His gaze, his touch, quicken my pulse in a way I don't understand, and my mind fogs and clears over and over again. Finally, I simply nod, casting a placid expression over my face, and something resembling…disappointment…flits over his before being replaced with an expression of satisfaction. He nods. "I am glad we understand each other," he tells me, before pressing my fingers to his lips in the Atlantean fashion and returning to the room where the rest of the team still watches the film.
What just happened?
~later~
I lie on my bed, staring at the ceiling, bored out of my skull. Glancing at my clock, I shoot the flashing 2:00 am an angry glance and sit up. I won't be sleeping tonight.
Sliding back the covers, I roll myself out of bed and place my head in my hands. My throat still burns from the salt water Corinthes forced down and Kaldur forced back up. My lungs ache, still desperate for air, as though they remain flooded.
I picture Kaldur's face again, in the moment just before he left. Disappointment, mild pain, sadness, desperation- all of these were in his eyes before he wiped them away and changed his expression. Why, I have no idea. I've done nothing to deserve his attention, his emotion, except for that one conversation with him tonight.
Shaking my head, I stretch my arms and slip on a sweatshirt. He's my teammate, nothing more: the lack of sleep is messing with me. A walk might help clear my head, and the warm night is sure to lull me to sleep. Maybe I'll call Saterina or Paae and have them tell me a story.
The hatch lifts open just a tiny bit, not enough for me to reach but enough to make no sound. I call up a tiny breeze, which lifts me up to the surface and quietly closes the door behind me, leaving me alone in the shadow of the mountain.
I walk out towards the beach, the mussed sand from our earlier battle washed away by the high tide. Wandering, I let the sand sift through my toes and sigh in relief as the sense of entrapment I had in the base disappears. Exhaustion overtakes me, and I fall to my knees a few feet from the waves, soaking in the cool air. If the only reason I can't sleep down there is because of the tight quarters, I'll sleep on the mountainside or off in the meadow, but there is no way I can spend more than a few hours at a time in that hole.
Stumbling forward a few more feet, I drag myself into the safety of the deep grass, where Corinthes' waves won't swallow me up in the middle of the night. Dawn comes from over the ocean here, so I'll be awake and back inside before any team members even realize I've gone. Satisfied with my new strategy, I curl up in a ball and take one last look at the starry sky, blades of tall grass waving above me as I collapse into a relieved sleep.
Voices drift in and out of my dreams, bouncing off walls and rolling back to me before flying off again. No faces come to match them, and the sounds are unrecognizable when all of them sound against each other. Only poor little Toby stands out in my mind, crying with all his might for the sister he lost. I want to reach out to him, to hold and cradle him and tell him everything will be all right in the end. But when I grasp at the wisps of tears, I find only my own staining my face dark with sorrow.
I wake with a start, the trails of real tears drying stiff on my cheeks, and glance at the horizon, my heart racing. The sun barely begins to arise, the sky still dark gray and pale purple, but I sit up and rub my eyes anyway. Time to head back in before any of the others rise for early morning training.
Lowering myself back into the base with as little noise as possible, I wait with tensed muscles until the ramp clicks shut, and sigh with relief when no bedroom doors open. Slipping back into my own room, I lie down on the bed and close my eyes, still exhausted but unable to really sleep in this little box. Decorated as it may be, the white panels and metal grates remain, an ever-present reminder that I am not in my comfortable bedroom at home or out among the elements, but stuck in a big metal dollhouse, complete with furniture and dolls.
A long time later a buzzer sounds, and my eyes pop open, groaning soundlessly as I roll out of bed to begin the day. A sound alerts me to someone's present, and when I slide the door open, there stands Robin, hand raised in preparation to knock.
He grins and lowers his fist. "Hey! Breakfast in ten and then we have a mission. Your first mission! This is gonna be awesome!"
He offers a cheerful wave and moves off down the hall to deliver the message while I change. My battlesuit, sleek and dark, still waits patiently on its hanger in the closet, and I change before checking that my spell beads remain on my wrist and head to the kitchen to grab some grub.
Munching on a piece of toast, I finish my last bites as I walk into the training room. Batman and the Flash wait, arms by their sides, and squint as I enter. Only two other team members have arrived, and the two heroes have clearly decided that anyone who comes after this point is late.
As if on cue, the rest of the team bursts in, serious expressions on their faces and dressed in battle gear.
Batman nods at us. "Well, now that you're all here, we'll get straight to the point. A young boy is being held for ransom somewhere in London. The kidnapper has yet to announce what they want or who the reward money should be paid by."
"Your job," interrupts the Flash, "is to locate the child and his kidnapper and apprehend the criminal. The boy will be returned to his family. Under no circumstances is any sum of money to be paid by any party, so part of this mission will be restraint of relations and friends. Miss Martian and Robin will be placed in charge of this. The rest of you will retrieve the child. Understood?"
We all nod, and Batman pulls up a holographic map of London. "This is the neighborhood we believe the child is kept in. Do some sleuthing and make absolutely certain of his location before bursting into any buildings. Go."
Just like that, with no words of comfort or good luck, we're gone from their sight and racing for Megan's bioship, prepared to do our duty.
