Sorry for the delay. This is now perhaps the longest chapter of this story and one of the longest I've ever written.
I really hope you enjoy it.
Music recommendations: You might enjoy "Psychosis" by Poets of the fall, and "The Unforgiven I" by Metallica.
So, let's begin!
Unfair Justice
Chapter twelve
Hope's imprisonment
"About here, don't you think?"
Megan saw as Fenton nodded at his counterpart as they moved closer to a wall. It must have been about 'ten minutes' since they answered the human guide's question. It was actually an obvious answer, they weren't going to throw the only chance they had been offered to actually help real Phantom, so —even with those conditions— they had to take up the deal. Phantom had then moved to take Fenton and help him as the two guides told them to follow them; they had barely even talked since then.
"Do you think they are mad at us?" asked Artemis whispering to the martian girl.
Megan shook her head. No, she didn't think they were mad, but there might have been a divergence in their wishes. Phantom and Fenton were basically the same person cut in half, so if one of them did something the other wouldn't or didn't approve of, it was like having an internal quarrel with yourself. So maybe Fenton's proposition didn't suit Phantom that well. Perhaps the ghost half didn't want to help them out. Or perhaps it had to do with the fact that the black haired boy looked really tired at the moment and Phantom might have been really worried for his human half…
Whatever the case, she thought it better to leave them to themselves for the time being.
"Really… like, why did we have to make all the walls look so similar, dude?"
The ghost sighed shaking his head.
"If I'm to be honest, perhaps because the real us is not really that great with styling."
"Yeah… that totally stayed on your side, Mr. bed-sheet," added Fenton, letting out a small chuckle, as Phantom glared at him.
"Do you have to remind me about that every second? I gave it up after you took it, ok? So you don't need to keep reminding me about it."
"I will remind you till you give me back my hat, dude!"
"Oh, no, if you want the hat then you have to give back the cape!"
"Dude, you just said you gave up the thing, and it was a stupid and lame bed sheet! Mine was a totally sweet hat!"
"It was a really plain hat if you ask me."
"Well, I didn't ask you, did I?"
"Why must you be so irritating Fenton?"
"I don't know? Why must you be such a killjoy Phantom?"
"I am not the…"
Megan sweat dropped at the scene unfolding in front of her. Maybe she had been looking too deeply into things, those two seemed to be doing pretty well… perhaps they had simply been recovering energy from their last bickering to start a new one.
"Mmm… Megan, shouldn't we stop them? We are losing time…" asked Aqualad watching the two teens fight.
"Yeah, you're right," said the boy wonder before forming a mischievous smile. "Hey! P&F would you focus here, we're kind of in a hurry, you know?" The reaction was immediate.
"It's Phantom and Fenton, bird brain!"
Robin backed a little with his hands up in a peace sign as he offered a cheeky smile.
"I know, I know. But you are supposed to guide us and you are taking your sweet time to fight each other, so I had to call your attention somehow, don't you think?"
The two guides glared at him for a moment before sighing and letting it go.
A soft chuckle by the side made Robin turn to a smirking Artemis.
"What?" he whispered curious about her laugh.
She smiled and said: "P&F… now we just need a platypus and we are all set."
The two kids made their best to contain their snickers as they hoped the guides didn't mind them much.
Ignoring them, Phantom raised on glowing hand towards the cold icy rock as his eyes brightened significantly.
"No need to worry about time, we'll take a short cut," he said as the rock glowed the same green as his hand, before a passage appeared in front of him as if it had always been there. "There, we can move now."
Turning to the teenagers, the two guides had to smile cockily at their dumbfounded expressions.
"What? Never saw a passage appear out of nowhere?" asked the white haired teen.
"You could make a short cut?" asked the confused Megan.
"Pfff, Meg, this is our head remember?" answered Fenton.
"We can do it, but only because we still have some energy left and because we are in a hurry, so don't expect it to happen again, we are just cutting a few passages in between. It's going to be a little longer from here on, but less than the actual passage would have taken us. After all, you somehow managed to get lost in the outskirts of our mind."
The two boys began moving into the new corridor, as the other teens could only groan, realizing that they had been going in circles in the outside of Phantom's mind for hours on end.
Wally was hiding around a corner as he spied Black Canary hitting a punching bag with deadly precision… if that had been a real man, he would have been completely knocked out after her first kick. And what a grace she had in those fluid movements, man! No doubt she was so difficult to defeat! How green arrow got to be with such a refined woman was completely beyond him. But it was probably his jealousy speaking… since he didn't seem to have a moment to conquer his own especial lady… a graceful archer that filled his mind… was she ok? He hoped so, he really couldn't think about what he would do if something bad happened to Artemis…
Shaking his head he let out a small groan. There he was, supposed to be alert and in watch and he couldn't help but let his thoughts drift every few seconds back to the beautiful archer… DUDE! He had never felt this worried!
Sighing silently, he decided that he had watched his sparring teacher long enough; she was obviously not going to be changing places any time soon. Moving fast, he left the place not making a single sound.
Once he was back in the center hall, he moaned slightly as his hands ruffled his ginger hair furiously, he was just so FREAKING nervous! He wanted to punch something. Maybe he should join Canary in the training room… he could keep an eye on her and let out some steam…But then he wouldn't be able to keep watch over Red Tornado… He groaned once more at this. The android was in his personal room, so there was really not much Kid Flash could keep watch on, I mean, he couldn't exactly fly all the way up to that room, so he could only look at the door every few minutes to see if he had gone out or something…
Every few minutes!
AH! How could he be this anxious? His friends had only been gone for at least twenty minutes; it wasn't like they had been gone for days or even hours, just a few minutes… damn! He needed a cup of tea or something… snacks! Yeah, he needed snacks, good, fat-filled snacks…. Maybe chips… something to keep him distracted… yeah, that would work.
But, just as he was about to walk to the kitchen, he heard the distinctive sound that meant a zeta beam portal was being activated. By the time the light appeared on the tunnel, Wally had already run all the way towards one of the passages that would let him escape faster if needed. There, he leaned against the rock wall to see who the new arrival was. When the mechanized female voice called the number and the name of the leaguer, Wally's eyes widened as he felt his stomach drop. His feet took him quickly out of the room as his hand pressed the emergency button on his communicator.
"Manhunter! Manhunter IS here!" he whispered anxiously to the little device.
"We know, Conner just heard the name being called by the Zeta-tube." Answered Rocket, her voice wavered slightly, showing her concern.
"What do we do?" asked the speedster, too startled to actually think about a plan himself, his head wasn't really all here at the moment and it hasn't been since his best friend and the girl he cared for left on a potential suicide mission.
"First, we need to know why he is here, perhaps there's been a crisis and he's just here to ask for some backup, or maybe he just needs to speak to the other seniors. Kid Flash, try to engage on a conversation with him."
"WHAT?!" squealed the teen to the communicator.
"Wally, just ask why he's here. Remember, last time you saw him he forced Megan into 'deep sleep', fake you're annoyed or something and keep it cool. For all you know, Conner was so upset with what he did that we all left him to be with her alone… or something like that…" said Zatanna. A soft groan of annoyance told Wally that Conner wasn't exactly happy of being the scapegoat.
"Oh… Ok… I- I'll do that!" he said, finding in himself the resolution to do as asked, he couldn't allow anyone else to make this mission even harder for his friends.
"Good, try to keep him away, and when you find out, come back to the infirmary to regroup and think of a plan of action, ok?" Rocket said with as much authority as she could. Wally was surprised that she was actually pulling this whole 'leader act' so well, Kaldur would be proud.
Taking a huge gulp of air, the speedster straightened himself to go to wait and question the Manhunter or die trying… well… not really die… but you get the idea.
They had been walking for a while and many doors were passed by then. It was still something that concerned each of them, how these doors were actually the most dangerous thing around the place. Robin couldn't help but wonder, what could be inside each door… the ghost guide had called him lucky for getting the lesser bad between the bad memories… if waking up to find out someone was cutting you open and touching your insides was the best memory between the bad ones… what could possibly be the worst? Looking to his friend he saw that Artemis was looking at the heavy metal doors with the same apprehension he did, obviously she was just as messed up in the head as he was by what she saw… and now he did understand why she was so scared… he wondered if he would actually be able to survive more of that…
The eerie silence that surrounded the group was only cut every few minutes by Fenton's mumbled words… it seemed the boy wasn't able to make a coherent comment or perhaps it was that he was just blurting the first thing that came to mind out of boredom… sometimes he would mumble about how good it would be to have his hat back or about how great it would be to have a few change of clothes cause he felt disgusting… some others he would just randomly say words like 'wall', 'door', 'ice'… almost as if he was playing with himself "I spy". Perhaps the most disturbing was when he would hum little tunes that weren't recognizable to any of them, notes that were off key, and made shivers run down their spines. Robin hadn't noticed it before, but their human guide was leaving a trail of red blood on their way, small drops falling down as they moved forward. The boy couldn't help but wonder if a mental 'guide' could die from blood loss.
Phantom remained imperturbably silent, he just hugged his human half closer every time the boy hobbled too badly and sometimes he would wince at something the other would say. But every time the delirious boy stopped talking and the silence reign over them, it was like the pressure of the environment reappeared with vengeance. Perhaps it was Robin's new found paranoia about his surroundings, but he almost felt as if the silence was taking his friends farther away from him… as if he walked alone down the passage every time it happened and would find himself moving closer to Kaldur, Artemis or Megan, searching some kind of solace for his worried mind. Strangely enough, when this sensation escalated to the point it would almost cause him a small panic attack, the human guide would break the silence with his nonsensical rambles, transporting the boy wonder back to 'reality'. It kind of made him wonder if Fenton knew what silence was doing to him… and maybe to Artemis and Megan as well…
Suddenly, he was awakened from his reverie when Megan decided to start a conversation.
"So… if you don't mind me asking, why are you two suddenly older?" she asked the guides with a soft voice, but still clear enough to cut through the silence like a sharp knife.
The ghost guide turned a little his head to look at her from the corner of his eye.
"You mentioned it before… that they were as young as Robin is… right?" asked Kaldur, apparently relieved that they had stopped the silent treatment.
"Indeed," answered the guide, turning back to the front and balancing his counterpart so he was a little more stable on his working foot. "We were created from a memory that happened when the original was younger than we look at the current moment."
"So… why are you older now?" asked Artemis, getting a little closer to Robin.
There was a small grunt before a strong coughing was heard. The black haired teen hacked furiously as his left hand covered his mouth trying to regain his breath. The ghost half called his name gently asking him if he was alright, but the boy wonder could see the human teen wasn't alright at all. The sound of something wet confirmed that there was liquid blocking his air ways —regardless of how strange it was for a figment of imagination to be so realistic— and then his deductions were proven right when blood began dropping from the guide's hand. The boy looked at his dirty limb clearly dazed by the effort the little attack had demanded on him, his mouth allowing a small trail of the substance to fall down his chin.
"Dude… s-so totally disgusting… tastes like metal… I hate that flavor…"
"Fenton…" Phantom frowned deeply before he cleaned the other's mouth with his white glove, staining it red. The other teen blinked at him getting the gist and wiped the residues from his mouth on his green shirt.
"So disgusting…" he mumbled cleaning his hand as well.
It was then, as the boy wonder watched the human teen struggling to recover his balance, that he actually came to believe that the memory guide could die from blood loss… Fenton was reacting to internal damage the way a real human would… what could that mean?
Trying to cut the weird mood descending over them, Megan reminded them of the previous question… perhaps she knew that asking how the boy was would be useless, cause it was just obvious he wasn't ok, no need to waste the standard question there. For an instant the ghost seemed nervous by her repeating the question, fortunately his twin came to his rescue.
"That's cause the real me is catching to us!" declared the human boy, a weird grin on his face, as if he hadn't just coughed up blood.
Groaning at his doppelganger's antics and the obviously confused stares from the other teens, Phantom took over the conversation.
"We are not really sure, but I believe there is a huge possibility that other memory residues may have influenced our original imprint making it evolve a few years to match the original's figure… personally, I'm just grateful the blending didn't include all the wounds and deterioration he has at the moment, that would have been counterproductive."
"Ohhh, co-unter-productive, careful there! Mr. Big-words is in the house!" taunted the human half, his mischievous smile growing.
"Stop it Fenton, it's not my fault you forgot those words," answered the proud ghost.
"Well… technically is half your fault dude, like we both are halves of the original? Meaning we have half fault each… or something?" chuckled the teen.
Allowing them to continue their bickering —mainly because it was simply too amusing and they seemed to just love to do that— Robin looked at the construction of the whole memory lane, wondering how long would it be till they reached the center.
"Such an intricate place…" he said to himself, but it seemed the guides heard him, for Phantom looked at him with curiosity.
"Yes, yes it is, isn't it?" he said with a smile on his face… one of the few he actually allowed them to see. "The construction of this environment is actually a very refined and complex labyrinth," he said almost as if he was proud of being the one to say it.
Trying to take advantage on the apparently more conversational attitude of the ghost, he continued with another question.
"Why a maze?" he asked almost innocently. Phantom, though, reacted with a small frown as if he was disappointed about something, and pouting —was he actually pouting?!— said:
"Well, I prefer the term labyrinth; it is much more epic..."
The human half groaned at his twin.
"Oh, dude, not your terms again!"
Phantom straightened in a dignified manner, pulling at his other half a little by doing so.
"Well, I apologize once more for being the one to retain part of our cultivated vocabulary Fenton, I consider it's a proper way to honor our human tutor who tried his best to teach us all he could."
"Yeah, haha, the fat, old and bald man! Come on dude, we don't even remember him beyond that! Say, can you actually even recall his name?"
"Well… no…"
"See? Let the terms go dude, cause I swear to you, If I hear one single 'super' coming out of you then I'll triple the 'dude' usage in my totally awesome vocabulary."
The ghost frowned at his counterpart before sighing in defeat. "Bleeding Ghosts, Fenton, I simply can't get you to stop bothering me, can I?"
"It's my job, dude," then the human boy looked to the side at Robin. "So… a maze? Well, that explanation comes with a sweet story on the side, dude," the team kind of wondered if the boy's weird attitude was due to the blood loss, he seemed a little out of it. "You see, there was this old dude once… what was his name?… Phantom, what was his name?"
"If you mean the story you read in that old magazine, I doubt we ever really paid any close attention to that person's name," said the ghost pulling on his human half to lean better over his shoulder.
"Oh, yeah… I forgot we forgot. Oh, well. Back to this dude… well, you see, he was convinced his house was haunted by ghosts and evil spirits…"
"You know, actually I think it was an old lady, not a man," mumbled Phantom.
"Oh yeah! It was an old lady… right, so this old lady was like totally scared that the spirits would get to her and hurt her… so she goes all like 'oh, if I built a house and add new places every second never finishing it, the ghosts will get lost and won't find me' or somethin' like that."
"Curses Fenton, could you stop balancing yourself so much?"
"ha ha ha, No." said the boy with a annoyed expression. "When my working leg stops shivering, I'll stop it, and not before, got it?" the other could only sigh as he conceded him that. "Ok, so about the story…"
"You're talking about the Winchester Mansion, right? It used to be considered the most hunted place in America till about three years ago I think…"
The boy wonder's comment made the two memory guides sober up immediately. Fenton suddenly winced in pain holding his chest a little tighter as his partner helped him to lean more of his weight on him. Robin didn't know if he had said something wrong, but it did seem he had found a touchy subject…
"W-where was I? … Phantom… where was I?" asked Fenton in a squeaky voice as his eyes seemed lost and slightly glazed for a second. His counterpart pulled at his arm a little making him turn to look at the ghost's face.
"You where in 'about the story…'" he supplied, concern filling his voice.
"Oh yeah…" the human half looked back at the other teens as they watched their interactions closely. "Well… yeah I think it was like Winchester or something… the thing is, this is our own version of the Winchester mansion dude. The Phantom's lab-labyrid-labid… uh… maze! The Phantom's maze! Especially now more than ever," he gave a joking chuckle that made the ghost frown in sadness.
"It's more of a Fenton's."
"Dude, you ain't convincing no one here," he said giving a soft pat to the others' shoulder. Going back to the worried teens, he continued. "The real us got so scared of what he knew, of what he could remember he like built this place to hide it all in. Doors of steel became prisons for our little 'demons'," he said making the quotation marks with his free hand for emphasis. "As my real self hid by escaping around the growing number of corridors and stuff like that… Unfortunately, somewhere along the way we got so desperate we packed every memory into the doors… so… we kinda lost all of them, except for the ones that got to escape by themselves… and then I tried running from those… but that didn't help e-e-eeither… so… so… like… mm…. dude… uh… w-w-where are we again?" The confused human teen looked to his ghost friend who simply shook his head.
"We're going to the center of our mind. Relax, we are getting closer."
"Oh, good dude… my chest is killing me, no pun intended," he said with a silly smile.
Robin watched as the concerned filled stare from the ghost traveled all the way from Fenton to his form, where it turned into a glare. The human teen soon followed the other's example and looked at the nervous boy wonder from the corner of his eye.
"Hey, bird boy," called Fenton, leaning on his double to rise part of his body and look commanding. "If you don't stop doing that, you'll be traumatized forever and your reality will become your nightmare. I told you already, that wasn't your pain to bear, it's ours."
It was only then that the boy noticed his hand had been doing that frantic circle pattern over his clothed chest. Startled, Robin pulled his hand away as if it was suddenly burning him. This was getting really scary… when had he started doing that?
"About the same time your archer friend did," growled Phantom looking at Artemis' form with his piercing eyes.
Robin noticed then she had been holding her arm and scratching her skin… this wasn't good, not at all, if their guides were right about the memories, then they'd regret it later. Why weren't they able to stop? It was completely clear in his mind that he was NOT the one in that memory being hold by restrains as the doctor-look-alike cut him open, as a matter of fact, if he tried remembering it he felt as if he was just watching a realistic horror movie from the side… but somehow… sometimes… he just felt he was in the victim's place and it was beginning to bug him seriously.
The boy wonder would have continued this line of thought till one of the guides stopped him as if there hadn't been a sudden change in their surroundings at that moment. The passage began to shake, making everyone look around them in fear, knowing things were about to get ugly.
"Hurry, let's get out of here!" exclaimed Phantom guiding them away from that place, raising his hand if a piece of debris got too close to the teens and somehow making a shield out of green light that would protect them.
The earth shook strongly, almost as if someone was shaking the floor up and down aggressively, so bad that Megan lost her footing and fell backwards with a yelp. It was then one of the doors began shaking furiously as if it could feel a prey close to reach.
"Oh… that's not good…" the teens could hear Fenton say from a little away as Phantom helped him remain upright, but the team's focused was on the martian and the danger looming closer to her. The girl had hit her head when she fell to the floor so she was slightly disoriented, ignoring her potential doom. Robin saw Kaldur's jaw tighten as his mind seemed to come to a decision, in a few seconds he had jumped in front of Megan to shield her as the door was blown open and the light filled the place. "Oh, dude, I take it back. That is worse!" they heard Fenton groan before the light disappeared leaving the hero team and the guides alone in the passage without Kaldur. Megan blinked as she noticed she wasn't taken by the memory and then gasped as she realized Aqualad had taken her place. The cave's shaking had come to a halt after the door had taken another victim… Robin wondered if it was a coincidence at all.
"Why? The only one that hadn't been tainted yet… that's one unlucky turn of events…" commented Phantom as his wide eyes watched the door closely. "Megan is more used to facing our memories… he shouldn't have done something so reckless… there is no place in here to play hero."
"Oh… oh… Oh no… D-D-DUDE!" they suddenly turned to look at Fenton who had a strange expression on his face, which seemed a mix between terror and confusion, as he looked at his left shoulder. "This is not good… not good at all!" he said as a weird and desperate smile appeared on his face. Robin wondered what was going on with him when he saw a line of blood slowly appear staining his shirt… a new wound forming. The human teen chuckled almost crazily as his jaw tighten up. "Phan…Phantom…. Phantom, dude! G-go get him out… please take him out…" the guide begged his counterpart who for a moment froze at the clear anguish in his partner's face. "Please… Phantom, Please I don't want to lose my arm… please!"
Awoken by Fenton's cries, Phantom pulled him off of him and leaned him back against the wall, and then he basically disappear while whispering a soft 'hang on'. Scared, the three team members looked at each other before looking back at their human guide, who was currently hitting the wall with his forehead as more and more blood stained his left shoulder.
"I don't wanna lose my arm, I don't wanna lose my arm, I still need my arm, I don't wanna lose my arm, I still need it, I don't wanna lose my arm, Idon'tdon'tdon'tdon't," he kept mumbling as he hit the wall once and again and again, then he grinded his teeth in a desperate attempt to silence his agonized cries but he failed miserably. Robin felt fear crawling over him… what could Kaldur be going through? No… forget that for a second… What was FENTON GOING THROUGH? he suddenly felt an urgent need to help, the teen was in so much torment, he needed help, NOW! But when he took a step forward he saw the tortured apparition throwing him warning glare that clearly say 'stay away'. He gulped loudly as he froze under such a hateful gaze for he may have never seen such resentment directed his way, ever before.
"Freaking doors… freaking intruders… freaking death! Why the heck must it take so long?!" the boy growled as he slowly slid to the floor clutching his bleeding arm with all his might, as pitiful whimpers escaped his mouth. "Why so long?!"
The boy wonder saw Megan was hesitating on the floor, she obviously wanted to run to the boy and comfort him but he had made it obvious he didn't want them close, he probably even blamed them for what he was going through right then… and suddenly he came to the realization that this was really their fault. This conjured up apparitions, both guides, they were scapegoats, they would suffer the same pain each of them went through inside the memory, but they would carry the wound afterwards. Robin remembered the fear from the memory, but Fenton carried it as a physical reminder of what had happened. Almost like the boy had said, they were lives… or more accurately, life-points. Each memory took a toll, and diminished what was left of their extra lives… so how much did Fenton have left? And exactly how did their pain affect the original Phantom? Or how was the original affecting them? The boy wonder suddenly felt so guilty… so responsible for someone else's suffering… why were they forcing these two guides to go through this? Why were they being so cruel?
"I'm sorry…" he mumbled softly, so softly no one would be able to hear him, but he still did. "I'm really sorry…" and if he had only seen to his left he would have noticed that Artemis was also whispering the same thing he was, cause it hadn't taken her long to reach the same conclusion and she had never hated herself so much.
It would take perhaps two more minutes before Phantom reappeared, and a shaken Kaldur fell out of the closed door. Phantom would then run to his human half and comfort him as best as he could as the other teens would reach for Aqualad and try to clear his head so he could let go of the memory. From then on, silence would once more fill their little parade as it was only broken by Fenton's slurred speech or Phantom's demands for Kaldur to stop clutching his arm, as he told him in an almost hateful voice that he should be glad, it wasn't his memory after all… so he had never really felt what it was like… to have your arm being cut off.
The moment he set foot in the cave he felt his confidence disappear completely. He wasn't sure how to apologize properly since part of him was stubbornly hanging into the idea that he did the right thing, but Superman was right, he needed to explain himself to his niece if he ever wanted her to forgive him. Taking a deep breath he began to walk to one of the halls.
Passing by one of the many different rooms he noticed the presence of someone in the kitchen/living room and keen for any kind of distraction he looked into it —one of his niece's favorites places in the cave— to see who was roaming around it. It came with little surprise when he saw Kid Flash going around making himself a 'snack' as he grumbled under his breath. The boy seemed nervous and perhaps even angry… and even thought it was a little farfetched of him, J'onn wondered if he was the cause for these feelings.
Now, he could easily have looked into the speedster's mind, but he knew better than to force himself into another's mind, at least when they didn't really need him to do it… Megan was a special case… he had to stop her… it was for own her good… well…
Deciding he better saw if the boy was alright —though he knew he was really stalling— he entered the room, not trying to mask the sound of his steps at all. Wally reacted immediately turning around in surprise and fixing his gaze on the martian, seconds after he frowned in annoyance and went back to concentrate on his sandwich. The Manhunter stopped for an instant when he noticed the barely contained anxiety in the boy's gaze… was Kid Flash scared of him? Was he angry at him?
"Good evening, Kid Flash," he decided for the polite greeting.
"Yeah… 'good' evening," answered the boy, but his voice revealed no emotion this time around.
"Where is everyone else?" he asked carefully, trying to be comprehensive.
"Well, don't know for the majority of them, but I'm sure you know where 'someone' IS at the moment," the accusation in the boy's voice made the seasoned hero flinch internally.
"I was expecting that you would all be by her side at this time…" he said, trying to ease the tension.
The boy simply groaned.
"We kinda were… but Conner can only deal with his frustration so well while we are around… we thought it better to leave him alone with her… you know, so he doesn't punch someone?" the teen said casually as he spread some mayonnaise on his snack.
The martian nodded in understanding, Superboy was really in love with his niece… he surely wouldn't have taken things very well…
"I apologize for having caused you all such inconvenience," he said tiredly. The speedster only sighed, before leaving everything on the counter and looking at the Manhunter in the eyes.
"I understand your intention was to make sure Megan was safe… but invading her mind was crossing some sort of line… don't you think?" the teen said, uneasily. The martian could only nod.
"You are right on that. It was harsh of me to do so, and that's why I've came back, I need to apologize to her myself. Explain I never wanted to offend her with such clear invasion of her mental privacy. Even thought in mars it's quite normal to read each other minds, forcing someone else by mind intervention IS completely different," he confessed hoping the boy could see his sincerity and forgive him for all the problems he may have caused.
"So… you came back to see Megan?" the boy looked a little nervous at the prospect. But the senior simply nodded in return. "Well… not that I'm saying it's a bad idea… I understand you want to apologize and all… b-but perhaps you should wait a little longer. I mean, she probably won't wake up till a few more hours, and right now, if you go in there… you'll just make Superboy snap… and he's been really walking the tight rope lately…" explained the speedster as he rubbed the back of his head looking away.
J'onn thought a little about this piece of advice, and concluded that perhaps Kid Flash was right. Maybe it would be better if he avoided entering in Megan's room till Superboy had calmed down a little. Not that the martian was particularly worried about Conner attacking him, he had dealt with angry Kryptonians before, he was more worried about the boy doing something he would regret later… especially because since New Year, the relationship between the young clone and Superman seemed to have been taking on a new and positive direction —albeit in baby steps, but it was at least better than the "If I don't acknowledge you, you don't exist" kind of attitude the man of steel had before. J'onn would really hate to force the teen to do something that would ruin this hard earned progress.
"Where are Black Canary and Red Tornado?" he decided to ask, changing the subject.
The speedster blinked a few times before letting out a sigh of… relief?
"Well…. Tornado is been locked in his personal room… maybe looking at that weird alloy they found or something… Black Canary… I think she was in the training room… least Aqualad said so before we got separated." The teen then took a huge bite from his sandwich, making it clear that that was all he knew.
The martian nodded in agreement.
"Then I shall go to Red Tornado, perhaps I can assist him with that mystery. Kid Flash, would you be kind enough to alert me if Megan awakes or if Superboy seems more open to company?"
The boy keenly swallowed his food before nodding.
"You got that, the moment something changes I'll let you know," he said offering his usual grin. The Martian smiled back before turning around and slowly leaving the room. He felt a little better knowing that at least one of the teens was no longer that mad at him… but somewhere within his mind, he couldn't help but think something was off with Kid Flash…
Kaldur felt the heavy atmosphere pressing on him with vengeance… it was bad before, but now? He had to constantly remind himself to not touch his left arm… but he could still remember the bite of the cold metal knife, of the saw running through his flesh… the smell of blood and the whispers around him… he had never felt so desperate as his delusional mind kept repeating the mantra of 'please don't take my arm' and yet no one would listen cause he had no voice to say it with. And he would shake and shiver but no one would be merciful enough to stop the pain… and it was such a horrible pain… such a terrible pain…
The Atlantean warrior blinked hard a few times trying to leave the images behind him, he wouldn't allow himself to think about that, the more he did the worse things would get and… turning to the side he noticed once more his hand was grasping firmly at his shoulder, and once more he didn't notice. The warrior sighed and pulled it away from the joint that seemed to throb with the ghost of the pain… he wasn't the one hurt, he wasn't the one hurt, he wasn't the one hurt! … but the mere idea that Phantom did, that was just as disturbing to him, how could he even survived that?
"Kaldur…?" the atlantean turned to look at his youngest comrade who was sporting a worried frown as he looked at him.
"I'm fine, just still a little dazed," he said trying to ease his friend's concern, but it didn't seem to convince him completely, perhaps it was because Robin knew how difficult it was to control this growing fear, and also because he too seemed to struggle to keep his mental body from reacting to the memory he saw. To all of this… he noticed Artemis and the boy wonder both struggling but Megan seemed to be completely under control… aside from her nervous demeanor she seemed fine… why? She supposedly went through some memories before waking from her first visit… wasn't she affected by them?
It appeared the young boy noticed his attention on the Martian girl as she walked in front of them.
"Megan… didn't you get affected by a memory too?" he asked casually, trying to hide the tension he was feeling.
Megan turned to look at them for an instant, easily noticing how badly they were faring. She frowned.
"Yeah…" she said carefully. "I was… actually I fell in three of these doors before the guides finally caught up with me…" the group looked at the guides who seemed to not be paying any attention, but it might have been because they were whispering their conversation.
"But… you almost seem at ease…" said the nervous archer. The martian looked sadly to the side.
"I… I may not have gone deeply into the physical connection…," she said, and before they could ask why she turned to them and pointed to the white 'X' on her chest. It took them a while to understand her meaning but they soon did. The white mark clearly was there to represent the most important secret Megan had, her white martian origin. Being her real form completely different from a human physiology it was only logical she would be able to distance herself faster from the idea of being in Phantom's place. "B-but… because I wasn't really able to connect with the physical part of it, I was more exposed to the auditory side… you, who were overwhelmed by pain, probably didn't really heard much of what was been said in those memories… but I can assure you… it was really awful…" her eyes glazed over a little as if she was holding back her tears.
"Sooo… you didn't feel pain?" asked Artemis, perhaps a little jealous that the other girl had gotten away without it.
"No… I did… I simply was able to know faster that it wasn't really mine… took me a while… but till some point I was able to detach myself from it all. But then.. as the pain happened I heard the voices… and I was… well…" her closed as a small tear fell down her cheek.
"Megan?" asked the leader, worried for the martian. She just shook her head and cleaned her cheek.
"Sorry… can we… can we just not talk about it?" they all nodded. Artemis even apologized for asking as they slowly turned back to their guides, who kept walking ahead not minding the rest of the world.
"Those two are really peculiar, aren't they?" commented the boy wonder, keeping his voice as low as he could so as to not bother them.
"Yeah… they fight each other then they just seem to depend on the other so much… especially Phantom… he's so careful with Fenton…" said the archer, making the Atlantean nod in agreement.
"Then… is Phantom like Fenton's servant or something?" asked Robin to Megan, out of curiosity.
"I can hear you, you know?" said the slightly exasperated voice of Phantom, making the boy wonder flinch at being caught, and then look at the back of the ghost, sheepishly rubbing his cheek.
"S-sorry… I'm just naturally curious…" explained the boy wonder hoping the ghost will accept his excuse.
Phantom only send him a glare from the corner of his eye before turning back once more to the front, making the team think that he was going to ignore them once more, but they were proven wrong when the white haired teen made them a question.
"Say, mortals… what is worse: a wound to the body or a wound to the mind?" he asked as he made an effort to stabilized his other half. Since Kaldur's last experience, Fenton seemed to be getting weaker, the pace the group was advancing was slower and the comments the boy made seemed even more delusional than they used to be. The leader wondered how much had the new wound deteriorated the memory guide.
The teens looked at each other thinking carefully only to find they already knew the answer quite well.
"A wound to the mind," answered Kaldur, knowing full well that a flesh wound would eventually heal, but it was the mind that will always remember the pain, and that memory could easily bring you down.
The ghost nodded in agreement.
"Tell me Megan, did you tell them about the wall?"
Megan looked at him closely before shaking her head in negative.
"Wall, wall, wallity, wall," chanted the human boy raising his head tiredly to look at the 'wall'. "Dude… why do we even call that a 'wall? ...that's more like a freaking ceiling and even when you were outside… it was just your the stupid floor… what is so 'wall-ish' about that 'wall' anyway?" Phantom groaned at his doppelganger's tired response.
"Fenton, just… just look at the shiny sphere, would you?"
The boy looked at him in confusion through half lidded eyes.
"Shiny ball? What shiny ba—? Oh! THAT shiny ball… sweet dude…" said the boy as he followed the small green glowing ball that had materialized from the ghost's hand.
Surprised by the teen's childish and easily distracted reaction Artemis had to ask, "Is he always like that?"
Phantom sighed. "No… not really, he's just not all 'there' at the moment…let's take five so that I can share some energy with my human self while I explain the wall to you."
The team watched as the ghost directed his partner to the wall and —with the distraction of the bright ball— he helped the other boy to slid down into a sitting position. He then placed a glowing green hand over his counterpart's shoulder. The other teen's head lolled from side to side as his eyes slid close, but before they did, the team saw how they went from blue to shiny green. In a few seconds, Fenton seemed to fall asleep.
"You can share your energy with him?" asked the boy wonder.
"Technically is as much his energy as my own. We were created from the same memory so we are truly just one guide cut in half." He explained. "Imagine the energy of one battery divided into two different recipients, less energy for each recipient than the original battery, but if one of them stops working the other is still available… of course, it wasn't really a tactical choice, the original had little to no option but to take this particular memory to create your guides." Kaldur looked at Phantom's concentrated expression, seeing how much effort he dedicated to the protection of his other half, it was obvious how much they needed each other.
"Why?" asked Artemis, but was answered by Megan's sad voice.
"The wall…"
Phantom looked at the Martian for a second before nodding.
"That wall… we weren't really aware of it till Megan came here. The damage it caused was really huge…" he paused for a moment as he observed Fenton's relaxed expression. "Do you know what dissociation means?" he asked slowly.
"To distance or to separate two concepts," offered the boy wonder.
"Yeah, that's a good definition. That explains clearly what happened here actually…" the ghost sighed. "We are two halves of a whole… two separated halves… two dissociated halves…"the ghost's voice became softer by the end of his sentence as he appeared to be debating between saying something more or staying silent.
"Phantom dissociated himself?" asked a worried Kaldur. Phantom looked startled for an instant, before nodding solemnly.
"You see, it's a funny thing… a ghost and a human are two different sides from the spectrum of existence. We both work in really different ways but the two of us were somehow made one. Yet our particular characteristics applied to the whole." He took a deep breath before continuing, the teens giving him their undivided attention. "Ghosts are really strong physically speaking… we don't have a 'real' body so we tend to be truly resilient to physical harm, whereas mortals are really weak to wounds and pain."
"On the other hand… ghosts and emotions… well" he seemed to take a moment before deciding to change the direction of his words. "Well, the main idea is that the wall was the dissociating factor. The original left the 'Phantom' part of his psyche on the cover to deal with all the new stuff thrown at his way. Every cut, every wound, Phantom took it on a stride and lived through it with a certain degree of ease. While the 'Fenton' side, the human physically vulnerable part, was locked up within the confines of this maze. It was meant to be an effort to protect our most precious yet weaker side… but it backfired," the boy clenched his eyes in obvious anger as his shiny hand gently caressed the relaxed face of the black haired boy. "Imprisoned with all the memories that had already happened, the human half was doomed to relieve them as many times as they happened to escape. You saw the hand prints on the walls around this cave… those are signs of that human side being attacked by the memories of his torment."
Kaldur felt his eyes widen at the obvious depressed reaction of the ghost… perhaps… part of Phantom blamed himself for having allowed the human boy to face all this 'demons' alone.
"It was the only thing the original could do to not go completely insane." He blinked a few times before quickly adding: "I'm not really sure about everything that's happened to him because I was not originally created from a memory belonging to the period of time in which he was suffering through it… but being affected by the residual energy of the memories, I get a pretty clear idea of it all."
"So… there was a time when things were not like this?" asked the boy wonder.
"I surely would hope so…" answered the ghost boy.
"Then, do you know about yourself before this? Your family… your life?" asked Artemis.
The ghost chuckled softly, his face sporting a sadden smile.
"I'm afraid if you want those answers you will have to ask them," he said as he pointed to one of the closed doors. "As Fenton already explained to you, when things began to crumble down, the real me got so desperate he finished dissociating himself from every memory, anything about the real us is probably trapped behind a door as well."
"Then… why were you the memory chosen?" asked Kaldur.
"Because I-I was the memory of the first time Phantom and Fenton became separated. In a strangely physical way… I know it was due to a really bad choice on our part… but we lack any kind of context to our origins… we remember silly irrelevant details, but nothing to actually explain much about it. After all, memories are never just separated entities, they are more like a web… once the others were trapped it was only logical that anything within our original content related to them would also vanish from us…"
There was silence for a few seconds, before they noticed Fenton was slowly opening his eyes once more. The human teen blinked a few times before focusing on his other half's hands and roughly pushing Phantom away from him.
"Dude! The heck you think you're doing?!" he asked angrily.
"Fenton… I was just trying to help you so we could continue faster…"
"Yeah, but by doing so you'll make yourself slower dumbass!" said the grumpy boy. Phantom just sighed in resignation as he slowly stood back on his feet.
"We really should get going, now at least we can move better," the human boy just grunted as the ghost pulled him up again, he sported a deep frown but his eyes were brighter and he seemed less tired.
"I'm not going to thank you," he childishly declared to his other half.
"Well, I wasn't going to ask you to," said the white haired teen as if he had no interest in the idea.
"Good, cause I'm not going to!"
"Good." Answered Phantom.
"GOOD!" growled Fenton.
And so, the team began moving once more, with a little more understanding on the situation. They walked and walked, and every few seconds the slightly revitalized Fenton would ask them a random question, apparently really bored of just walking.
"So… bird boy, why is there a blue bird on your T-shirt?" he asked once, making Robing flinch back and cover his symbol with his arms.
"I-i-it's personal!" he declared.
"Oh… so is it like…embarrassing or something?" asked the boy slyly making the other teen look away.
"Human, it's not polite to ask other's about their secrets," chastised Phantom.
"Well sorry GHOST, I was just curious," grumbled the boy. "So… If you can't tell me why the blue bird… can you tell me why the weird tattoos?" he said turning to Aqualad who became uncomfortable with the question. "Uh…no? meh… soooo, say arrow girl… about your little pendants…"
"I'm not telling you anything. To all of this, why are you two even dressed like that?" said Artemis, tired of the personal questions.
Fenton looked at her in confusion cocking his head to the side.
"What ya mean? This is my normal clothing…" he said pulling at the green shirt's material. "And Phantom's always wearing the jumpsuit, not that I'm really an enthusiast of the material but…"
"What is so wrong with jumpsuits?" asked the ghost, getting a little tired with the exchange.
"Nothing! Nothing… dude, just not my preference, just that," defended Fenton.
Artemis let out sigh before asking something else.
"So… you don't have any kind of weird secret thing on you like we have?" she asked a little annoyed.
"Yeah… like, the rule of the secret only applies to us?" asked the boy wonder.
Both guides seemed to think about it deeply, then think again by looking at the wall, then scratching their respective heads. And finally, they shrugged.
"I guess… you could count the hat and the cape… but since SOMEONE took my cape—"
"a.k.a. THE bed-sheet of DOOM," said Fenton with a smile on his face.
"Whatever, since we kind of deprived each other from them then it's not really much of a secret I guess…"
Suddenly, the two figures froze in their spot.
"Um… guys?" asked Megan after a few seconds of silence.
"W-well…P-perhaps, we don't sport secrets… cause they are all littered within doors…" said Fenton, clearly shaken by something.
The team looked past them to the end of the corridor they were walking in and gasped. There was a different kind of door down the hall. It was made of steel, but the rock it was embedded to seemed to be burning hot, shining softly in red instead of the normal blue hue the other walls did. But that wasn't all, the door was covered in chains and the handle had been melted as if someone wanted to prevent anyone from ever opening it. On the middle of the steel, was a distorted version of the symbol Phantom had on his chest and it seemed to pulse slightly as if it had a heart beat. Almost mesmerized by it, the boy wonder began walking to get a closer look, only to be stopped by Fenton's trembling hand in front of him.
"We have to get out of here," declared Phantom, sweat falling down his brow.
"What is that?" asked Megan, feeling the same ominous presence as they all did. The shadows around this door seemed to feast upon the fear they were projecting as their tendrils stretched slowly towards the group.
"A memory… a really bad memory…" whispered Fenton.
"A-about what exactly?" asked Artemis as she separated herself from the wall when a tendril tried to latch upon her.
"You don't want to know," said the two guides at the same time, strangely enough, both their eyes shining with en emerald glow. The two raised their free hands, both shining brightly in blue and green light to the wall by their right. A new passage was forced open. "Come on, hurry unless you want to be swallowed," the way the shadows were expanding as if hunting them down made them seem like a virus, and none of the heroes wanted to find out to what sickness. Soon, they were all running down the passage, passing in front of the guides. When he passed in front of the twin apparitions, Aqualad sworn he heard them whisper, "Try all you want, you won't get out."
When KF began knocking at the door, Rocket had to get out of the other infirmary room to remind him he was just knocking at the empty room that was covered by the illusion. The boy sheepishly apologized about that and followed his friend into the real infirmary room. The sight of all the people still sleeping was a little disheartening to say the least.
"So?" asked Zatanna once the door was closed.
"He's here to see Megan. Wanted to apologize to her when she wakes up for being so harsh and 'forcing' her to sleep." He explained with all and quotation marks.
Conner groaned from his place on the floor. "Let me guess, you told him I was really mad at him?"
Wally looked at the kryptonian with confusion. "Wait… weren't you listening on our conversation?"
"We had him concentrate on Canary and Tornado in case either decided to see who had arrived." Explained Rocket.
"Oh! I see! Good idea," he said with a huge smile, before turning to Conner with an apologetic smile. "Sorry Supey… I was left with no choice on that matter," his only answer was another groan from the kryptonian on the floor.
"Then… is Manhunter coming?" asked the magician girl in worry.
Wally, thought, held himself with pride as he said: "No, I got to convince him that it wouldn't help Conner's condition," insert exasperated groan from the young clone sitting on the floor. "And he seemed to agree. So he went to visit Tornado, and will expect me to inform him if anything changes."
Rocket nodded at his explanation. "Excellent, that will give us some time. Now we just need to think of how to protect this room. We are only ten minutes away from the next round on Phantom, so let's make our game plan." The group moved closer to the girl to listen to their positions. "Ok… so, let's divide into two groups. First group, Kid Flash and Me, we shall be in front of the fake door to the infirmary and will act as if we were to be protecting it. That will surely distract the senior making them think we are actually defending the real door. Zatanna, you will have to keep that illusion as strong as you can." The spell caster nodded in agreement. "Conner and you will be inside the real room. If we fail and they notice the difference then Conner will come out to help us held them out for a little longer. Zatanna, try to see if you can delay them with your spells. Remember, we don't want to hurt them nor to get hurt ourselves, we just need to buy the others some time, got it?" everyone nodded understanding their missions. "Then let's get ready."
The structure of the alloy was vexingly complex. He had tried dividing the components but the impermeable cover seemed to refuse to let go of the metal. He was almost sure that the metallic compounds were steel and copper, but the greenish cover was where the mystery truly laid. Had he not been built to analyze each situation from the logical aspects that surrounded it, he would have said that the green component was somehow taking the metal as a host to exist, like a ghost would in old fairy tales. But if he didn't come soon up with an answer, he might have to admit that as a possibility.
Red Tornado was calculating the resistance to electrical conductivity the material had when his sensors detected an intruder in his room. The main computer had already informed him that Martian Manhunter was in the cave, so he wasn't really surprised when his comrade came to see him.
"Good evening, Red Tornado," greeted the alien always with his polite and gentle attitude.
"Good evening," answered the android with his mechanical one. "I must confess I'm surprised you came back so soon. Tell me, is there something I can assist you with, friend?"
The Martian smiled at Tornado's kindness, which sometimes would be even greater than his organic counterparts.
"Not really. I just wished to be present when Megan woke up, to try and explain my harsh treatment," the green hero walked towards the holograms Tornado was working with and began inspecting the data. Still, the android was able to notice the veil of concern and guilt the other had. Living creatures could only do so much to hide those facts.
"I am sure Megan would not hold that against you. She will understand your reasons," he said offering what he hoped were words of comfort.
The Manhunter turned to his friend and nodded. "Thank you Tornado, I do hope she will."
The android just nodded back at him before turning to the data he was looking through.
"Interesting, a metallic alloy of highly conductive components in the ideal thermal spectrum, yet it refuses to allow the pass of energy. Completely impermeable… what strange substance is this?" wondered the Martian as he moved some of the data around to see the structure that Tornado had come up with.
"It is truly a mystery. But in the last few hours, I have come to think that perhaps it shares some of kind of connection with the green substance that was found in the blood of Phantom when he arrived. Perhaps a counter component. I took a sample and place it a common piece of metal, the result was this," he brought up some data to show his alien comrade.
"It went through…?" commented the Manhunter looking at strange phenomena of the drop being absorbed by the metal as if it was only a net and not a solid compound.
"Not only that, but the metal piece conducted a fair charge of energy. Yet when placed on the strange alloy, the drop will remain in the cover the same way oil will on water." Showing the photo of that one he added: "They repel each other."
"A higher measure of containment, then?" the android nodded.
The two looked around all the data for a while till the computer informed them that Canary was trying to communicate with Tornado. The robotic hero pressed the income button and asked Canary what he could help her with.
"Tornado, didn't you said J'onn made Megan fall asleep?"
The android turned to his friend seeing he was looking at the communicator in confusion.
"Yes, indeed he did."
There was a tired sigh on the other end.
"Well, I think he was tricked." She said making the martian's eyes widen.
"Canary, why would you say that?" he asked, the concern in his voice was clear.
"J'onn? You were back? I'm sorry I didn't know that…" she answered softly, before seemingly taking a decision. "I was worried that the team would get upset by the disposition of the league to not risk their safety to help Phantom till we understood the situation better… so I decided to stop my practice in the training room to go look at them for a little while. But when I got to Megan's room, I found it empty."
Her declaration made the martian run to the computer and type on the keyboard franticly, causing the security feed-back to come up on screen. He looked for Megan's room, and found it, but she appeared to be in her bed with Conner by her side.
"Are you still in the room?" asked Tornado getting closer to the keyboard.
"Yes." She answered.
The android typed a few things before the camera fizzled out for a second before a new footage appeared of Canary standing in the middle of an empty room. The robot then proceeded to pull the image of the infirmary room where Phantom was resting alone and typed a few things more; showing the team being present and some of them looked to be asleep.
"Oh no…" mumbled the martian in fear, he obviously recognized what was happening.
"Canary, go to the infirmary, we'll meet you there." Said Tornado, pushing his alien friend into action as they both left when they heard their female comrade say she was on her way.
"Without farther a do, we give you, the center of our mind," said Phantom as he pointed the team into a large cavern like room. It was covered in ice and snow and was —incredibly— blood and door free. The snow was so pure and clean looking, as if it was freshly fallen. And for an instant they felt as if they had found the eye of the storm. But in the middle of it all, the damaged figure of the real Phantom told another story.
The boy in the center was hanging from chains that hold his arms extended to his sides and his legs immobile, the same way he used to be held when he was trapped in the containment unit, but there was no mask or bindings on his limbs, just chains. The teen's hair was a mixture between black and white locks, fighting for dominance. His body was just as scarred as it was on the outside and he seemed frail and feeble, but there was some kind of utter peace in his posture and expression that seemed to convey he was actually alright, just resting, sleeping, no need to worry. But that wasn't truth and they knew it.
Taking a step forward, Megan whispered his name: "Phantom?" but the boy didn't react at all.
"Hey… what are you all waiting for? Have we mentioned we won't last for long? Like… get on with it, don't ya think?" demanded Fenton, reminding them that they had yet to try something to wake him up.
The teens looked at each other, before nodding.
"So… any ideas?" asked Artemis, not really sure if she wanted to wake such a peaceful looking person from whatever dream they were having into this nightmare.
"Well… maybe we can cut off those chains?" asked the boy wonder.
"That could work… but with what?" asked the archer.
An exasperated grunt was heard followed by the sound of a finger snap.
Out of nowhere, their weapons appeared in their respective hands. Aqualad had his whips, Artemis had her bow and Robin had his explosive discs.
"H-How…?"
"Dude, you are just an image of your own person, like, seriously? You didn't know you could do that?"
"How were we supposed to know if you didn't tell us?" growled the archer, tired of the human guide's antics.
But the boy simply acted as if he had been looking to the other side before turning to her looking confused.
"Uh? Sorry, did you like say somethin'?" he said, making her clench her teeth in frustration.
"Just, get it over with, would you?" asked Phantom, not wanting to see the two discuss over this.
Artemis was going to retort when she felt a hand being placed on her should, turning she saw Kaldur shaking his head, telling her to let it go.
"Come on; let's try to break those chains."
The teenagers tried all the attacks they could, Megan using her telekinesis to try and pull at the base of the chains on the walls, Kaldur, Robin and Artemis trying to weaken and cut them in the middle, but the irons didn't even move, they didn't rattle or shake; they just remain there as if nothing had happened.
"Wow… trying to break the chains, isn't that original?" question Fenton.
"I'll say I give them 5 out of 10 for trying," answered Phantom.
The team made an effort to ignore their taunting as they regroup.
"Megan, perhaps you can contact with his inner self?" asked Kaldur.
"I could try," she answered. Then taking a deep breath she closed her eyes, as her hands went to her temples. When she opened her eyes they were glowing with her psychic connection.
"Man, a connection within a connection, now that is hardcore!" whispered Fenton, loud enough for the others to hear him. "Totally like a twofold dream, dude," he chuckled; Phantom, though, told him to keep quiet since Megan wanted to do something that required concentration. "Oh! Right… you got that, bro."
Megan tried hard, and her deep frown was proving of that. When it didn't seem to work she flew closer to the entrapped form of the hybrid.
"Oh, Meg! You don't want to touch him," warned the human guide.
But she ignored him and proceeded to place both hands on Phantom's temples as she leaned her forehead to his. Her eyes shined even brighter, but the boy didn't move at all. Not even a twitch on his brow. And suddenly, a strong wind forced the Martian away from him, throwing her aggressively against the farthest wall. Her friends run to see if she was ok, including two worried guides.
"Megan, you alright?" asked Phantom.
"Y-yeah…" she whimpered as she rubbed the back of her head.
"You ready to give up?" asked Fenton in a hopeful voice.
"No," she said, they had yet to try all they could.
Seeing that none of them really was going to back down, the guides shrugged and moved to lean against the wall, giving them space to do things their way.
The four heroes tried everything they could, from attacking to screaming loudly, even tickling the unconscious boy, but nothing they did, nothing at all made Phantom's form to react, nothing. And after almost wasting an hour doing this, the four friends finally had to admit they didn't have any more ideas… how could they wake up someone that didn't even listened to them?
Rocket wasn't really sure what they were going to do. She wasn't exactly the great strategist, nor a great 'leader', she was normally happy to help out following someone else, but Zatanna, Wally and Conner were too upset to think clearly and Kaldur'ahm had confided in her, and she wasn't about to let them all down. Could they actually pose any challenge to three leaguers? Well, she wanted to believe they could, they weren't children anymore, and they weren't weak. The real question was not if they would be able to stall them, but for how long. Eventually, there won't be much of a choice but to give up if they didn't want anyone to get hurt for real, so how long could they distract them before that scenario came to be?
A hand tapped her on the shoulder making her look to the speedster by her side. He gave her his classic easy going grin.
"Don't worry; you are doing it very well. We'll manage, besides they are surely almost done," he said, trying to offer her his support. She smiled and nodded, there was no time for doubts, they simply had to try for a little longer, the others were probably on their way back.
The sound of speeding feet made the two teens look at the passage that connected the center of the cave with the medical wing. The three seniors appeared running before stopping once they noticed the younger heroes standing there. Wally and Rocket were confused at first since they thought they still had a few minutes before the next round.
"Kid Flash, Rocket, move aside," ordered the Manhunter. Rocket had to smirk. So, the gig was up, huh? Maybe one of them went to Megan's room after all. Well, that didn't really matter much, since they were already in their positions.
The three heroes took a step back when the two grinning teenagers took their respective battling stances; they weren't going to let them through without a fight.
"Have it your way then," commented a now serious Martian as the other two seasoned heroes stood by him, ready for anything.
Rocket felt a drop of sweat fall down her brow. "I wonder if they fell for the illusion," she thought before Black Canary and the Martian jumped into action by trying to reach the door behind them, to which she reacted by placing a force field around it. "Hook, line and sinker! That's one point for the team, zero for the league."
Megan hadn't felt this hopeless in a long while…
As she and the others followed almost obediently the lead of Phantom and Fenton towards the outskirts of their mind, she felt like a total failure. Not only because they hadn't really been able to wake the real Phantom up, but because she had the feeling there was something she was letting pass her by, something important that she hadn't noticed before… but what could that be?
The guides had different reactions to their admittance of defeat. Fenton had basically given them the all so hated "I told you so", before offering them a really tender smile —she had never seen someone smile like that— that till some point was caring and understanding, like he didn't really blame them for giving up, like he knew they would… that, perhaps, made failing worse…
But… Phantom… he had seemed weirdly silent… his face imperturbable… almost like he was trying to hide something… almost like… Her head suddenly snapped up to look at the two guides' backs. Phantom… he had seemed almost disappointed… almost saddened…
But why? He was the first one that didn't want them to try… right?
No… that wasn't really right… something was off…
Phantom and Fenton knew so much about so many things, yet knew nothing about some other stuff… but they weren't supposed to know things like what that weird door was… and Fenton shouldn't have known about what was going to happen to Kaldur's arm…
She rubbed her forehead a little, feeling a small migraine developing. This mind was so full of twists, so full of traps and tricks… but that wasn't true either… Phantom's mind didn't take well to lies… he considered them cheating… cheating was wrong… unless you did it to protect others…
But… but… by hiding his feelings Phantom was simply lying to himself, that wasn't really…
Her eyes widened in realization.
Dissociation.
It was the perfect reason to lie to yourself within this mind, to lie for someone's protection was also valid when you considered yourself as someone else. So… if Fenton needed Phantom to do something Phantom wouldn't do… but he did it in order to protect Fenton…
But... still, something was missing…
Then she remembered one piece of information that she had considered trivial before. The wall. In his delirious state, Fenton even mentioned Phantom had once been outside… over the wall… but that shouldn't be possible, they weren't supposed to exist in that point of time…Fenton even said he considered the wall a 'ceiling' and said Phantom saw the wall as his 'floor'. The Wall had technically divided Phantom in Phantom and Fenton, but before this had happened there was one memory —a harmless one— about a more physical state of dissociation between Phantom and Fenton. That meant there were two sets of potential guides. And she had believed that her guides had been the ones of the younger memory that had slowly became blended with the second memory guides as Phantom had described… blended with the residues…
But that wasn't possible. Memories weren't being freed, they were being entrapped. So… what if the guides she had were actually the damaged and distorted memory of the dissociation that was being covered in the makeup of a more innocent memory? Maybe mixed with the harmless one by the connections between related memories? Phantom hadn't wanted to talk about their new appearance… but was looking older truly something new?
She remembered now…The hand that had saved her from falling was not a small teen's hand… the voice was not the still squeaky-changing-voice of a growing boy… the real Phantom had fused two memories from the beginning… and that changed things a lot… a lot more than she had wanted to believe…
And with her epiphany, she came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the cave.
"No."
Everyone turned to see the stone faced Martian as she refused to give another step.
"No? No, what Meg?" asked Fenton, looking at her weirdly.
"I'm not leaving. Not till we wake you up."
The team watched carefully as Fenton went from confused to annoyed.
"What do you mean you won't leave? Meg, we had a deal," he said as he passed a shivering hand through his raven hair.
"Still, I won't leave, because you haven't kept your part of the deal." She accused, narrowing her eyes at him.
"WHAT?! You went to the center, tried to wake me up and failed, my part is done. Yours is meant to happen now!" he declared, openly angry at the girl.
"This mind doesn't take lies very well Fenton, not even yours."
The boy blinked at her declaration wondering what she was talking about.
"I haven't lied. You got to try all you wanted didn't you?"
"Yes, we tried, but you interfered, you did by not offering us all the information you had."
The team turned to the boy wondering if that was true.
"I told you I don't know much—"
"LIES," she said angrily taking everyone by surprise. "You said you didn't understand things that well, but then you would talk about things like you knew what was going on. There are things you understand that you shouldn't cause if your theory about not remembering things related to other memories were true you would only remember your appearance and nothing more, YOU WERE LYING!"
The boy gritted his teeth in fury.
"AH! Why must you make things more difficult Meg? All I want is for you to let me die in peace, why is that so difficult to understand!?" he demanded, pulling his counterpart as he leaned forward.
"This mind doesn't take lies well Fenton, not even yours." She reminded him as she raised a finger to point at him, and then moved it towards Phantom's figure. "And that's why, every time you say you want to die, Phantom cringes in fear."
The ghost boy's eyes widened at her declaration as his partner looked at him with a frown.
"Phantom?" he asked… but the ghost teen just bit his lower lip and gazed away from him.
"Phantom is part of yourself, a part of yourself that desperately wants to keep you alive, the human mortal half. He might have been fighting to keep you alive for a good while, since he is the one that was left to deal with things in the cover, hoping you were safe within the wall. But you weren't… you were actually hurting worse… it backfired," the others seemed to be catching on her meaning as she continued to speak. "Seeing you suffer for so long has made him weak and finally, he allowed you to choose death, but still, he doesn't really want to let you go, therefore every time you talk about dying so nonchalantly he flinches in fear," she lowered her hand as Phantom send her a pleading gaze, one that clearly begged her to stop. "You two are part of one whole and both represent the current state of the real Phantom. You got mixed with a much more innocent memory to help you cope with the things you each carried so you would be useful to us. But the fact that Phantom is so devoted to keeping you safe, even to the point of lying about your knowledge, this is prove that you are not the younger memory but the older one of the separation of you both. A Fenton that is tired of the memories, a Phantom that wished to protect him with all he has. And overall, this reaction between you two just means that you really don't wish to die, you simply gave up hope that you'll ever have a chance to survive."
The human half turned to her, hate and rage covered his face.
"STOP IT! JUST FREAKING STOP IT! I don't want you here, why can't you just leave, every second you take, the longer you stay, it's dangerous! I don't want you to die with me!" he yelled panting harshly as blood trickled down his mouth.
"We don't have to, and you don't have to protect us. Please, if you just tell us what we could do to help you…"
"NO, JUST NO! Do you even understand what would take of you to do that? You will have to go through a lot of pain to succeed, you don't want to go through that, now do you?!" he demanded angrily.
The teens recoiled a little at the warning, but Megan held her stance.
"What is wrong with you?" he asked in a strong but slightly shivering voice. "Seriously Megan, did you like all those putrid words they whispered to your ears?" he asked, not stopping even when her eyes widened. "Or you, did you enjoy the feeling of being cut open as somebody messed around with your insides. Did it felt good to be touched in a way you never, not even in your worst nightmare, thought you could be touched?" Robin grasped harshly at his chest as he remembered those hands being inside. "And you archer, where you glad when you felt every single freaking vein and artery burn from the inside out?" the girl shivered slightly as he turned to Aqualad. "Or perhaps you enjoyed as they turned you into sushi, eh fish-dude?" the boy was gasping loudly when he finished, but still he managed to push away from his other half, barely able to hold himself up, yet he threw his hands up in despair. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
Silence fell upon them, and for a few minutes the only sound was Fenton's harsh panting. All eyes on him, looking as he tried to keep a grip on his obviously aching wounds.
"I get it," Said Robin suddenly, his eyes closing from behind his lenses. Artemis came to stand by him.
"You are in pain… you went through way more torture than any human being should ever be placed in," she felt her eyes burn with restrained tears, seeing this damaged boy scream his pain and anger was almost too much for her. "We've been going through this the wrong way…" she mumbled.
Robin nodded as he took a step forward, making Fenton take a step back, almost in fear.
"You were in so much pain, but you fought hard to live. You even went as far as placing that wall and dissociating yourself only to survive… but when the pain didn't stop, you just got tired…" he lowered his head a little, looking at his chest's symbol. "It hurt so much you wished to die," and he closed his eyes again. "And I understand that. Had I gone through that for only a few more minutes, I would probably wish for death too… but…" he looked up and gave another step, making the boy back against the wall. "But it doesn't have to end this way! You don't have to let all the effort be thrown away, you don't have to die in agony embracing nothingness as if it was the only relief this world will offer you, not anymore, cause we are here now!"
Kaldur moved closer, careful not to make the boy feel threatened.
"Friend, we understand we were dealing with this wrong. We thought we had to convince the real Phantom to wake up… but now it's clear we have to make YOU understand this for us to be able to take the real you back." Fenton tried to glare at him but he was clearly more scared than anything as he tried to disappear against the wall, surprisingly enough, Phantom didn't move to help him even once. "If you could only give us a chance, we will face this, all of this," he resisted the urge to hold his 'throbbing' arm as he thought all that he was accepting to go through, but found he regret nothing he was saying. "We promise you, we will help you cure the wounds, no more will the people that hurt be able to cause you harm; we'll be the ones to protect you when you need it the most. And we'll work to make the pain go away, for as long as you may need it." Everyone nodded in agreement. Fenton could only slid down the wall, trembling hands trying to push him farther against it, their closeness making him weaker, forcing the 'lazy' boy to show just how damaged and broken he really was.
Megan saw Phantom simply watch in sadness as they faced his human half with all their determination.
A few minutes later, the now sad and lost human boy dared ask one question.
"Will you go to hell and back?" he asked, in a feeble voice.
"I'll go anywhere if by doing so I could get a chance to know the real you," answered the Martian with a tender smile.
"We all want the chance to know you," said Artemis.
"We want to be your friends. The ones here and the ones waiting for us outside," said the boy wonder with his cheeky grin.
The boy sighed deeply finally recovering a little of his composure, but then asked them in confusion: "Why?"
They looked at him carefully as he expanded.
"W-why won't you just stop and let things happen like they should?"
The teens look at each other.
"Cause you've waited too long for someone to do it. And I can't just let you go," came Megan's answer.
"We won't let anyone that needs our help alone," said Artemis.
"That's just how we are," said Robin.
"To protect and save the ones in need. It's our duty," added Kaldur with a serious expression.
Fenton's eyes widened in shock for an instant.
"Du…" he mumbled before a grin formed on his bleeding lips. Suddenly a strong laugh filled the place making the teens look at the boy as if he had finally snapped, everyone but Phantom, who looked at his counterpart with a saddened but knowing smile.
"DUTY! DUDE! You said duty!" the bleeding boy gasped as he laughed loudly, the pain in his body making him flinch with every breath and yet he could not contain himself. It took a good five minutes to actually calm himself down, all the while the young heroes watched completely lost of what to do. "Oh dude… you had to be heroes, didn't you?" the tired boy looked with half lidded eyes to his other self. "It's been like, a while since I heard something… so funny…" the boy then looked at his other half in a nostalgic way. "And last time I heard something like that… it came out of you didn't it?" the ghost boy moved to kneel by his human half. The raven haired teen gave one true smile to his partner. "Hey… Phantom… when did we change so much?"
The other placed his gloved hand gently over the stressed teen's shoulder.
"I'm not really sure," he answered truthfully. His doppelganger nodded tiredly as he turned to the expecting group.
The boy looked each of their faces, like he was trying to gouge their resolutions, all the while clutching his chest tightly trying to contain the growing pain he felt inside. Phantom helped him to remain stable and not fall to one side. Finally, Fenton chuckled a little before looking up to them.
"Ok, dude… I got it…" he smiled as leaned heavily against the frozen wall. "You really wanna help us out… who am I to stop ya?"
"Fenton?" the ghost looked confused at his companion. The hero team seemed surprised by his words as well.
"I'll give you a little help, just this once," then he chuckled slightly spitting a little of blood. "But only because I'm a sucker at giving people their 'second chances'."
That was all, a really long chapter, reeeeeeaaaaaaally loooooong one.
Well, I know it may be a little confusing, but mind works tend to be.
I hope you enjoyed this and the next chapter should be up around march 10.
So see you by then!
