MERRY CHRISTMAS! I realize the clock may have already ticked over to December 26 for most of you, but my neighbor is the date line, so there is about an hour left of Christmas where I am. For those of you waking up on the other side of the globe, I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Kisses and hugs to everyone! And now, without further ado, I present Bee Stings, Part the Second!
Please see the bottom for more notes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plaid scarf I got for Christmas as well as the small mound of books I received, which I hope to read through within the next ten days.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: BEE STINGS, PART 2
Last chapter re-cap:
Back in the dank passageways of X's mind, the Team regrouped.
"I don't know what that was all about," Zatanna began, "But I think we definitely need to stop falling into memories."
"I agree," Kaldur nodded, "It appears there is certainly more to Red-X than meets the eye, but we need to respect his privacy as much as possible."
"He was talking to Deathstroke!" Artemis exploded.
"Yeah," Kid Flash piped up, "How are we supposed to be able to trust him when he can talk to dudes like Deathstroke and get away without a scratch?"
"Wait!" Robin broke in to the argument, leaping to X's defense for reasons he wasn't comfortable examining yet, "We can't just condemn him because of one memory. Who knows how long ago that was? You know he helped us defeat Klarion, and he risked his neck to get information from Queen Bee!"
". . . You're right, Robin," M'gann's gentle voice broke the thoughtful silence that fell over the group, "I don't think that Red-X is a bad person. I mean, the only reason he went to talk to Deathstroke in the first place was because he was trying to protect someone, right? I think that counts for something."
Superboy nodded his silent support, and Wally and Artemis visibly deflated.
The Fastest Boy Alive sighed and ran a hand through his flaming red hair, "You're right, dude. Sorry. It's just," he gave a helpless gesture at the walls, "being in this place is starting to make me twitchy."
Artemis pursed her lips and crossed her arms, but nonetheless nodded her agreement. The Boy Wonder gave them both a small, grateful smile.
Then the ground beneath their feet began to shake with a much more intense tremor than before, and a cold breeze kicked up, cutting through the Team's thin civilian clothes like a knife. After several hair-raising moments, the earthquake stopped, but the chill wind persisted.
"You can argue about this later," Raven said quietly from her position at the head of the group, "But right now we need to save X."
Her luminous eyes gazed at them levelly from beneath the shadow of her hood, "Will you help him?"
Trading glances, each of the young heroes gave her a firm nod, and they were shocked to see the smallest of smiles lift the corners of Raven's lips in response. Then the empath's face smoothed and the tiny thing was gone almost too fast for the Team to register its existence in the first place.
"This way," Raven said firmly, and with that they all took off into the gloom, following the tunnel in the direction the freezing wind was blowing, determined, despite everything, to save Red-X from the darkness of his own mind, and defeat whatever was trying to tear it apart.
#? #? #? #? #? #? #? #? #?
"The tremors are getting worse!" Artemis shouted; stumbling into Zatanna as the ground bucked beneath her feet.
"It's a good sign," Raven replied grimly, "It means we're getting close."
And just as soon as the words passed her lips, the tremors ceased and the wind died down. An eerie silence settled over the group, laying heavy on their shoulders and sending chills down their spines. Now they couldn't see anything more than two feet in front of them, and the only sound they could hear was their breathing, which echoed unnaturally loud in the peculiar quiet.
"Dude," Wally hissed, "X's mind is creepy."
"Be careful," Raven warned softly, "Something's coming."
The teens immediately tensed in response to the warning, unconsciously drifting closer together and twisting so someone was keeping watch in every direction. It didn't do them much good in the encroaching darkness, but the sense of companionship was enough to help them shore up their steadily-fraying nerves.
Zatanna lifted a hand to cast the darkness away with a simple spell, but she abruptly found her wrist grabbed by the Gem of Scath. Raven's grip was gentle but firm, and at Zatanna's startled, questioning look, she said, "X's mind is too unstable. Using magic – or telepathy for that matter – will only further disturb him. He'll sense it, and things will only get harder for us."
"So you're saying that whatever is coming, it'll have to be a purely physical fight?" Robin asked grimly, catching on quickly.
"Unfortunately," Raven replied, "yes."
"Great," Kid Flash quipped, "And me in my civvies."
"You'll be fine," Raven reassured quietly, "You've been taking lessons from Black Canary, haven't you?"
"She's right," Artemis had lowered her center of gravity and raised her fists in anticipation of the coming struggle. Since she was human, she was no stranger to relying on her own strength, but at that moment she sorely missed the familiar weight of her bow at her side. "We can do this."
"Very well," Kaldur took charge. "We will have to be extremely cautious. Those who have less experience with physical combat should move into the middle of the group, so you have more time to react when the threat reveals itself."
Wordlessly, the Team shifted, Miss Martian and Zatanna taking up positions behind their Atlantian leader. The rest of the group maintained steady vigilance on all sides.
The eerie quiet was still hanging heavy and thick in the air when Raven suddenly tensed and hissed, "Here they come."
The Team had about half a second to react before four shadowy figures flew out of the darkness, and the fighting began in earnest.
Robin blocked a blow to his head and grunted when he determined by the strength and angle of the assault that his unknown assailant was both much taller and physically stronger than him. And, Robin squinted in concentration, this isn't warm flesh I'm blocking. The texture's too cold, too hard, and are those plates of –
His opponent abruptly disengaged, and Robin had to dive to the side to avoid a punishing hit to the ribs.
"They're wearing armor!" He had just enough time to alert the others to his discovery before he was forced into a series of complex acrobatics to avoid being tagged by metal-plated fists. He found himself back-to-back with Raven as they both whirled to avoid being crushed by a Haymaker.
There was a half-feral roar, and suddenly Superboy was grappling with the unnaturally strong enemy, keeping whoever-it-was busy while Raven and Robin regrouped.
"I can't see anything!" Zatanna yelled, struggling to predict where the enemy she, M'gann, and Kaldur where facing would strike next. A fist swept out of the darkness and buried itself in the soft tissue of her stomach. The air was punched out of her, and Zatanna collapsed to her knees, gaping like a fish out of water as she struggled desperately to draw breath. Kaldur moved to cover her as their opponent – a human of average height, as far as he could tell – tried to finish off the magician-in-training.
"I can't see either!" Artemis snarled. She was facing one of the mysterious four by herself, circling warily as her enemy weaved about in the darkness, striking with the speed of a snake. Sneering, she managed to land a blow to where their head should have been, and retreated immediately; nursing her bruised knuckles when she discovered that of course their head was protected by a metal helmet as well. Something warm dripping down her arm reminded Artemis of another threat, and she ducked just as her assailant lashed out again. The sudden movement pulled at her wound, and Artemis remembered she had found out the hard way that her enemy had claws.
"Hey, Supey!" Wally called from where he was fighting what he was sure was an armored woman, "Can you see anything?"
Connor grunted and shoved his wrestling partner away, backing up and letting Raven and Robin take over for a moment as he squinted and surveyed the area.
"All I can tell is that there're four of them!" he shouted back. "Looks like . . . a woman and three men."
"Alright," Robin said, pulling a flash bomb out from the pocket of his jacket, "Here goes nothing. Everyone shut your eyes!"
Without further ado, he tossed the little ball and threw an arm up to cover his eyes just as it exploded, illuminating the surrounding area in searing white light.
There were faint snarls in the direction of their opponents, and the Team opened their eyes just in time to see something straight out of a nightmare.
Finally revealed in the fading light of the flash bomb, the Team found themselves gaping at a group of four armored, grievously injured people. Just as Superboy had said, there were three men and a woman. One was a veritable giant of a man, covered from head to toe in dark green armor with only a slit for his eyes and one arm dangling suspiciously limp by his side. Another, shorter man wielding a broken staff of some sort looked to be in the best shape out of all of them: just his left eye was swollen shut.
The last two were the worst off; the woman with long auburn hair tied up in a ponytail looked as though her collarbone had been broken, and there was a nasty bruise on her forehead. She had two sword sheaths across her back, and as the Team watched she drew her blades and crouched down, obviously preparing for another attack.
The last man was the one Artemis was sure she had been fighting: his gloves were fashioned into claws. He looked as though he shouldn't have been alive, much less moving with cat-like grace.
His head appeared to have been blown off: his face was gone and the top part of his cranium was missing. Dried blood dripped down his armor in dark rivulets, and the Team had to struggle to keep their sudden nausea contained.
"What happened to them?" Zatanna, who had finally regained her breath, gasped in horror. The Gem of Scath's lips thinned, but she didn't reply.
"Looks like they got on the wrong side of a meat-grinder," Kid Flash tried to make light of the situation.
"It doesn't matter how they got like that," Robin said decisively, "How are we going to defeat them?"
"I have an idea," Miss Martian piped up, turning to Raven, "They're just projections, right? Figments of Red-X's memory and imagination?"
("They hit awfully hard for imaginary friends," Wally grumbled, then gave an apologetic wince when Kaldur fixed him with a stern look.)
Raven glanced at the green-skinned girl, her expression thoughtful as she answered, "Yes . . . what do you have in mind?"
"If we can lure them to the walls, won't they get absorbed into the rest of X's subconscious?"
Dark amethyst eyes gleamed under Raven's cowl as she considered the notion. Slowly, her mouth tilted into a small smile and she nodded, "That just might work."
"So the plan is to get these guys to touch the walls?" Wally clarified.
Artemis sighed in exasperation and crouched, ignoring the throb of pain from her wounded arm and the burn in her muscles, "Yes, Baywatch. Just make sure you don't touch them, too."
Wally, offended at the insinuation, grumbled something under his breath, but nonetheless prepared to finally take the fight to the Team's four opponents.
"Is everyone ready?" Kaldur asked; the darkness swallowing up their opponents once more as the light from the flash-bomb faded.
Quick affirmatives issued from the battered members of the group, and Kaldur waited for one second, two, then –
"Go!" he shouted, and the Team leaped into action.
Artemis' opponent was the first to engage, and the blonde girl quickly retreated under the force of the should-be-dead-but-wasn't man's blows. Keenly aware of her footwork, the archer slowly maneuvered her assailant closer and closer to the cloying shadows and flashes of light that flickered nearby.
Ignoring the sounds of renewed battle behind her, Artemis snarled in challenge and triumph as her opponent finally, finally followed her unspoken commands and backed up close enough to the wall that it was just a little further, would only take a little push –
Feeling a sharp smile cut across her face, the blonde grunted as she crowded close to the armored man and slugged him with all her strength. She watched with a sense of grim satisfaction as he lost his footing and overbalanced, tipping backwards into the wall of memory –
Then steel talons wrapped around her wrist and she was jerked forward. Her heart leapt into her throat and the ugly chill of dread dropped into her stomach like a stone as she realized she had underestimated her enemy: his excellent reflexes had kicked in as soon as he felt himself losing balance, sending his arms forward to scrabble desperately for the nearest surface in order to halt his fall, and the closest thing – the only thing nearby – happened to be her.
Artemis had an instant to feel a surge of paralyzing fear before she was tipping forward with no way to stop, watching in slow motion as her opponent disappeared as soon as he hit the memory wall – the shadows lurking there tearing him to shreds – and knowing she was going to be next.
Mom, she thought distantly (even as a certain red-headed speedster's face flashed absurdly in her mind's eye), I'm sorry –
Then something slammed into her from the side and she was bowled over with the impact. Her eyes squeezed shut instinctively as she waited for her body to collide painfully with the ground, but the impact never came because in between the span of one instant and the next, strong arms scooped her up and held her securely to a firm chest.
The next few moments were a mere blur of motion until her rescuer abruptly skidded to a stop and straightened up, panting. Somehow, Artemis didn't need to see the flash of crimson hair to realize who had saved her, but an almost crippling wave of relief swept through her regardless, and for a moment she could not bring herself to do anything except press her ear against his chest and listen to the pounding of his heart.
He's trembling, she noticed absently – and something about that caused her to open her mouth.
"Wally," she began, her voice hoarse, but he cut her off by tightening his arms around her and pulling her even closer against him.
"Don't," he growled: his voice harsh and tinged with something angry and desperate. Keeping his eyes closed, he lowered his head to bury his face in the curve of her neck, so his voice was right next to her ear, "Don't do that, Artemis. I almost wasn't fast enough–" he cut himself off to heave a quick, shuddering breath, "Don't try to do everything by yourself."
Artemis, for some reason she couldn't understand, felt a flicker of something almost fond rise up in her chest, and whispered, almost against her will, "Okay."
Then, forcing more strength into her words, "You can put me down now."
Wally's arms tightened around her and for a moment Artemis almost thought he wouldn't let her go, but then he took a deep breath and gently set her on her feet.
She forced herself to look him in the eye as she straightened up and regained her balance. Artemis opened her mouth to gruffly thank him, because she owed him that much, when something flashed in the darkness over Wally's shoulder and her gray eyes widened.
"DUCK!" she shouted, and Kid Flash immediately hit the deck, barely managing to dodge a sword swipe that would have separated his head from his shoulders.
And just like that they were back in the thick of the fighting as the lone woman lunged at them with her twin swords, and Artemis was forced to forget about that strange (she refused to call it almost tender) moment when Wally saved her and nearly refused to let her go.
The archer had just enough time to call to the others, "The plan works! Push them to the wall!" before she was inundated with dodging the auburn-haired woman's blows and trying not to trip over her own two feet in the process.
Superboy gave an almost animalistic roar as he charged past, forcing the largest of their opponents toward the walls with brute force. Raven and Robin weaved around him, keeping the giant man from being able to focus long enough to be able to push the half-Kryptonian back.
Artemis and Kid Flash shared a quick glance before the Fastest Boy Alive nodded and zipped toward the sword-wielding woman, getting under her guard long enough to give her a hard shove in the direction of the wall. The blonde girl followed up his attack with a vicious roundhouse kick to the sternum before the woman could regain her footing.
Robin, catching on to their plan, helped Superboy goad the giant a little more to the left. Wally and Artemis went through the same rotation of alternating-attacks twice more. On the second pass, the blonde archer managed to kick away one of the woman's swords, which distracted her long enough for Wally to dash forward and give her one more push, making her overbalance and stumble into the giant's path.
Superboy gave one last roar as he pushed for all he was worth, catching the hulking, armored opponent under his armpits and forcing him back. The giant and the woman collided and lost their balance: for a suspended moment in time, they teetered back and forth precariously, before the giant's weight got the better of them and sent them both toppling into the memory wall.
With one last infuriated shriek on behalf of the sword-wielding woman, the two armored assailants vanished into the shadows.
And just like that, the Team was down to one opponent. Invigorated by their victory over three-quarters of the enemy, the teens rushed to help finish off the last obstacle – the man with the swollen eye.
The three who had been left to fend him off were barely managing to hold their own against him – inexperienced as they were with hand-to-hand combat, M'gann and Zatanna were struggling just to dodge the graceful yet brutal jabs of his staff. Kaldur was forced to cover them more often than not, so the three had not had enough time to launch an attack.
Kaldur had just managed to protect Zatanna from a particularly vicious swipe when Kid Flash appeared out of nowhere and kicked the man away – right into Superboy's path. Growling, the half-Kryptonian wasted no time and punched the well-built man in the face, causing his helmet to crack. Robin took advantage of the subsequent instinctual floundering to grab hold of the glowing staff and wrench it from the man's grasp.
Kaldur took his cue and lashed out as hard as he could: both of his bare feet collided with the metal plates of chest armor and sent the last assailant reeling back until he crashed into the wall of memories and shadows.
However, instead of vanishing like the rest of his teammates, the man merely grunted and slid to the ground, looking stunned.
For a brief moment, the Team felt dread wash over them, but then the armored man's form flickered and shifted, leaving a pale man with half his skull transparent in his place.
"Psimon," Miss Martian gasped in recognition. Sneering at them, the pale creature leaped to his feet and whirled around, intent on disappearing into the lingering shadows and using the darkness to escape.
Sensing his plan, the Team raced forward, but suddenly Raven was there in a whirl of navy blue cloak, cutting off the telepath's escape.
With her hood up, they couldn't see her eyes, but the Gem of Scath's lips were set in a grim line as she asked, "Are you the one doing this to X?"
Psimon gave her a poisonous smile, his silence serving as his answer.
"I see," Raven said softly, and the Team, who had been hurrying to her side, abruptly stopped, sensing something in the icy air of X's mind that made chills run down their spines. There was a cloying whisper of something ancient and terrifying settling like mist around them, and the Team instinctively started to edge away from it.
The pale telepath also appeared to sense the ominous air, because his sickeningly smug smile slid off his face and he began to back away from Raven. The Gem of Scath stayed where she was, but the shadows around her swirled, gathering and roiling at her feet until she seemed to be almost looming in the darkness.
"How dare you?" Raven growled, and the Team jerked in shock, because though Raven's lips were moving, her voice had changed. Her once soft monotone had twisted and deepened, low and furious: her words echoed strangely as though three people were speaking at once.
Feeling an inexplicable surge of terror wash over them, the Team could only watch in mute surprise and misgiving as the Gem of Scath finally raised her head, revealing more of her face in the process. Her once blank expression had twisted into a snarl of rage, and four narrowed red eyes glowered from the depths of her hood.
The very air around them began to boil and froth, a pervasive sense of wrong squeezing their lungs and making it almost impossible for them to draw breath. Wheezing, the Team fell to their knees one by one, unable to do anything but watch as the empath transformed into something else right in front of them.
Raven (or what had been Raven) ignored them, focused solely on the terrified telepath doing his best to scramble away from her. The length of her cowl hid her face again (but those red eyes burned in the darkness), and a furious snarl was the only warning they had before shadows lashed out from Raven's cloak and slashed Psimon to ribbons.
The Team gasped in shock on reflex, only to find they couldn't draw breath anymore. They hunched over, eyes wide with panic, hearts pounding in unsteady rhythms, and black spots began to flicker across their vision –
Then, as abruptly as it had appeared, the sense of deep and ancient wrong that had frozen their primal senses vanished, and the air returned to normal.
Gasping, the young heroes either collapsed entirely or fell to their hands and knees, focusing on sucking in as much air as possible and fighting back the cloying dizzy-darkness that had been closing in on them.
Kaldur, who was struggling the most (Is that what drowning felt like to a human? he wondered absently, his thoughts still rather scattered due to lack of air), was startled when someone pressed their hand to his chest and he was suddenly flooded with a wave of calmrelaxjustbreathe that allowed him to regain his focus. Keeping his eyes closed, he quickly went through several breathing exercises, waiting patiently for his heartbeat to even out.
When he finally had his body back under control, he opened his eyes to see Raven (back to normal, as far as he could tell – face blank, though slightly more ashen than usual, and two dark, amethyst eyes gazing down at him, troubled) pressing her hand, aglow with white energy, to his chest.
She has some kind of healing magic, he realized. That thought immediately dredged up the all-too-recent memory of her tearing Psimon to shreds, face hidden but all four eyes clear and blood red. He opened his mouth, about to cautiously ask what that had been about – but she spoke before he could.
"I'm sorry," Raven murmured softly. "That was an accident. I promise it will not happen again."
That said, she stood up and went to Zatanna's side. Raven reached out to steady the young magician, but the dark-haired girl flinched away and curled in on herself.
Kaldur watched as the empath froze for a moment, her expression hidden yet again by the shadow of her hood, before determinedly placing a gentle hand on Zatanna's back and allowing white magic to ease the burden and stress on the young woman's heart and lungs. Once the magician's shoulders had reluctantly relaxed, Raven whispered something to her before she withdrew and moved on to the next member of Young Justice.
Silver eyes observed quietly as she went to each teenager and helped calm them down. Superboy and Artemis were the most loath (besides Zatanna) to allow her near them, but eventually Raven managed to win them over with soft words and glowing hands.
Wally said nothing when she came to tend to him, a testament to how shaken up he must have been, but after Raven spoke to him he nodded and managed to sit up. She moved on to Robin next.
The Boy Wonder – having recovered a while ago – watched her as she used her powers to make sure he was alright. Kaldur was just close enough to overhear when the Dark Knight's protégé said, "You didn't tell us you could do that."
Raven continued her examination of him, her voice steady as she replied, "It is not something that happens often enough to be of consequence. My last lapse of control was more than five years ago."
"Then why did you slip up now?" The blunt question was enough to give Raven pause, and she raised her head to look Robin in the eye. They remained that way for a while, measuring each other, before Raven sighed and closed her eyes.
"There are many possible causes," she admitted at last, brow furrowed slightly.
But the Boy Wonder was tenacious, "You're an empath, right? Your power is controlled by your emotions. So doesn't it stand to reason whatever caused that to happen had something to do with how you were feeling at the time?"
"Perhaps," the half-demoness said shortly, before making her way over to M'gann. The Martian girl looked at her for a moment before readily allowing Raven to give her a quick check-up.
"Are you alright?" M'gann asked quietly. "When you fought Psimon, you felt . . ." the young alien trailed off with a shudder.
Raven's eyes softened, "I will be fine," the white glow on her hands faded away, "and so will you."
Cloak drawn tight around her body, Raven turned to address the rest of the Team, who had slowly gotten to their feet.
"I apologize for what happened," she declared. "I know you have questions, and I promise I will answer them. But first, we need to save X. We've almost reached him. I can feel it," Raven's eyes narrowed, "But time is running out. Are you still willing to follow me?"
The young heroes traded glances.
"We have a mission to complete," Kaldur reminded them. "We need to rescue Red-X."
"The sooner we get out of here, the better," Zatanna agreed.
"Alright," Wally tried to smile, though he was still rather pale, "Lead the way, Raven."
Exchanging one last glance with each other, they followed the half-demoness into the dark.
#? #? #? #? #? #? #? #? #?
When they emerged from the darkness at last, it was because they clawed their way to the surface. The blackness abruptly gave way to dirt and crumbling rock, pressing down on them from all angles until they struggled to breathe.
Desperate for air, they scrabbled until their hands brushed against a slab of rotten wood overhead. With Herculean effort, Kaldur and Superboy managed to send the wood flying, and sweet air flooded their senses.
Gasping in relief, the members of Young Justice heaved themselves out of the hole, their clothes dirt-stained and their faces grimy.
Scrambling to the side to allow Zatanna and Raven to emerge from the ground, Artemis pressed her back against cold stone and tipped her head up to stare at a dark sky covered in a layer of all-too-familiar smog. Brow furrowed in confusion, Artemis cast her narrowed eyes around and spotted the skyline of Gotham glittering in the distance.
What are we doing here? Artemis wondered, and her searching gaze alighted on headstones and one or two angel statues in the vicinity. And why the hell are we in a graveyard?
She was startled out of her reconnaissance by a flash of lighting striking the ground nearby, shattering a headstone so close Artemis nearly yelped in surprise. As though in reply, thunder rumbled in the distance and the sky opened as heavy droplets of rain began to fall.
In seconds, the graveyard dirt turned to mud, and Artemis' clothes were soaked through. Grumbling, Artemis got to her feet and marched over to where the rest of the Team was looking equally miserable.
"What now?" she asked, not even bothering to hide her impatience.
Raven seemed unperturbed by her tone: "Now," she said, "We go through there."
The navy-cloaked woman pointed to something on the far side of the graveyard, and the Team turned to see an enormous lake full of bubbling radioactive green liquid stretching toward the horizon. The waves lapped at the shore, stealing the graveyard earth and eroding coffins until their contents were scattered on the waves, skulls bumping against bits of debris.
Steam rose from the lake, and a putrid stench like rotting flesh was released each time a bubble burst.
Miss Martian shuddered, and Superboy reached out to her.
"M'gann," he said. "What's wrong?"
"This place," she whispered; arms wrapped tight around herself, nails digging into the skin of her forearms, almost overcome by the psychically projected waves of bitterness, despair, and anger that surrounded the graveyard, "it's screaming at me. There's so much mental anguish."
She turned to Raven, amber eyes wide with something like hysteria, "Surely you can feel it?"
"Yes," Raven whispered, lips bloodless. Her amethyst eyes turned toward the water, her voice a low whisper of warning, "We need to be prepared for anything."
Alarmed, Robin stepped forward determinedly.
"You said X is under that lake, right?" he asked Raven, and the empath nodded.
"Okay," the Boy Wonder said. "Let's go get him."
With that, Robin took off running toward the lake. The rest of Young Justice called after him, but then Raven followed and they were forced to chase after the pair.
The Boy Wonder was still some distance ahead of them when he dove into the fathomless glowing green waters, and he hadn't resurfaced by the time they reached the shore.
"Rob!" Kid Flash yelled, and dove after him, Raven and Artemis right behind him. M'gann took one last bracing breath before she joined the rest of Young Justice and followed her friends into the lake.
As soon as her head went below the surface, Miss Martian lost what air she had in her lungs to a shriek of pain; the water burned, and M'gann desperately tried to backtrack and escape the agony. She had almost broken the surface once again when she felt something latch onto her, a presence that twined around her limbs like tentacles and dragged her down into the radioactive green depths of the lake.
Helpless, Miss Martian could do nothing but allow herself to be yanked along, sinking deeper and deeper. Pressure made her head ache, and her lungs seized from lack of air; black spots filled her vision, and her thrashing limbs slowly ceased their struggle.
M'gann was moments away from losing consciousness when the presence released her from its clutches. Air rushed into her lungs, and solid ground abruptly appeared beneath her feet. Gasping, the green-skinned girl stumbled and almost collapsed, only to be steadied by a pair of large, familiar hands.
"Connor," M'gann whispered, and finally opened her eyes to see her boyfriend holding a finger to his lips. The Martian girl looked at him in confusion, and Superboy tilted his head toward where the rest of Young Justice was standing, shell-shocked eyes fixed on –
Miss Martian swung around, disturbed by the horrified expressions on her teammates' faces. The first thing she saw was a fully-costumed Red-X standing at the edge of the shadows, and a wave of intense relief washed over her.
"X—!" She called out joyfully, but her words froze in her throat when an odd thud drew her eyes to the left, and she finally realized why everyone was frozen in horror.
In the center of the cavernous room before her, illuminated by the green glow of the lake waters that roiled above them in a parody of a ceiling, a green-haired man in a purple suit was laughing hysterically as he swung a crowbar into the unprotected flesh of a lithe figure dressed in a red costume.
As soon as Miss Martian registered the terrible scene, her vision tunneled and the underwater cavern transformed. Rusted metal walls rose up, wooden crates loomed in the darkness, and bitter cold pervaded the air.
A warehouse, M'gann realized, but her thoughts were muddled, her gaze ensnared by the horrific scene. Regardless of how hard she struggled to move, to speak, to blink – Miss Martian couldn't look away.
"Wow," the green-haired man crowed, sneering down at his crumpled victim. "That looked like it really hurt."
Blood-red lips stretched across white teeth in a parody of a smile as the crowbar was raised again, and brought down with brutal, crushing force—
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
With each blow (thudthudthud), the huddled figure in red struggled to suck in enough air, their breathing ragged and rasping at the edges—
A particularly vicious swipe caught them in the ribs and they were throw on their back, left to stare helplessly up at the ceiling. Chest heaving, they were otherwise motionless; their hands bound behind them, their bare feet tinged with blue in the early stages of frostbite.
"Oh, now wait," The green-haired man straightened up and paced around his victim, patent-leather black shoes gleaming in the dim glow of the industrial lamps hanging overhead, "That looked like it hurt a lot more. So . . . let's try and clear this up, okay, pumpkin?"
M'gann whimpered as the green-haired monster raised the crowbar once more, her hand pressed to her mouth with so much force she tasted copper. Her mind raced to comprehend the nightmare she was seeing, but she couldn't believe it because—
It was the Joker. Gotham's Clown Prince of Crime stood before them in the flesh, and he was gleefully beating a young man dressed in an all-too-familiar red costume to death. M'gann couldn't see the young man's face; his features were blurred and cast in shadows every time his head lolled to the side, but he had dark hair and familiar broad shoulders and a yellow 'R' on his chest and oh stars she was going to be sick—
"What hurts more? A?" the Joker inquired, then brought the crowbar down with all his weight behind it. There was a sickening crack as the cruel metal made contact with the young man's ribcage, the sound of meat being bludgeoned with a baseball bat, "Or B?"
The crowbar swung in a deadly arc once more, and M'gann's amber eyes zeroed in on the Joker's shadow cast on the far wall in a desperate attempt to avoid watching as the senseless violence continued.
"Forehand?" the Joker trilled, his wretched face twisted in an expression of sick glee. "Or backhand?"
The Joker's victim grunted as he was struck again and again and again, the force of the assault rolling him across the concrete floor, blood smearing in rivulets behind him.
"No," the cry of distress was more animal than human, a low keen dragged from the depths of a soul, and M'gann recognized Raven's voice, saw the empath try to reach out to Red-X – but her motions were sluggish, like she was swimming through molasses and concrete.
"X," Raven begged, distraught. M'gann had rarely heard Raven speak in anything but husky monotone, so to hear her sound genuinely fearful made M'gann's heart start beating rabbit-fast. "X, please, you have to wake up."
Red-X didn't so much as twitch, the pale eyes of his skull-mask staring listlessly as the Joker cackled, his maniacal howls echoing off the rusted metal walls.
Miss Martian's attention refocused just in time to see the young man collapse on his stomach, his shoulders slumped under his tattered cape, the black fabric reminiscent of a pair of broken wings.
To M'gann's astonishment, the boy found the strength to twist around until his blood-spattered mouth was free from the concrete below.
The young man wheezed something, but his voice was so raspy the words were unintelligible. The Joker's keen eyes saw his attempt, however, and the madman immediately ceased laughing and crouched down beside the boy.
"A little louder, lambchop," the Joker taunted, sliding a purple-gloved hand through the young man's matted hair in a parodied gesture of affection.
"I think you may have a collapsed lung," the Joker noted in mock sympathy, "that always impedes the oratory."
The young man snarled; he heaved himself up and spat blood on the Joker's face.
The unwilling witnesses' hearts simultaneously stopped beating as the Joker's face contorted into a mask of rage. Scowling, the green-haired monster tightened his hold on the young man's hair and smashed his face into the concrete floor.
"Now that was rude," the Joker scolded, his eyes narrowed. Straightening up, the Clown Prince of Crime pulled out a silk handkerchief and wiped the blood from his face. "The first Boy Blunder had some manners."
"What," the word was punched out of Robin, who stood quivering next to Raven. The rest of the Team reeled in shock, eyes wide with disbelief, because the Joker couldn't possibly be implying—
The young man rolled over and his blurred features cleared for a moment, just enough that the Team could see him flash the Joker a bloodstained smile. The cockiness the boy displayed, the nonchalance in the face of torture, of death; the sheer audacity he had in mocking his tormentor was achingly familiar. Young Justice had seen this particular brand of devil-may-care attitude before, when a certain someone had fought the Flash and Green Arrow to a stalemate, when they had butted heads with Batman, when they had threatened Deathstroke.
"I suppose I'm going to have to teach you a lesson so you can better follow in his footsteps," the Joker mused, and pretended to give the matter some thought before grinning: "Nah. I'm just gonna keep beating you with this crowbar."
He drove his heel into the young man's shoulder blade and reared back, the crowbar held high.
"X!" Raven's voice was louder this time, and for an instant the terrible scene froze. Then the reprieve was over and the Joker brought the crowbar down on the young man's unprotected back. Mad laughter filled the warehouse and echoed in the Team's ears, drowning out Raven and leaving them trapped with their own horrified thoughts.
The beating continued. The cackling grew louder. The Team's nerves frayed. Tears stung their eyes. Raven kept calling to X. X stood still as a statue.
Overhead, the radioactive green light flared brighter, the waters of the lake roiling and frothing.
The beating continued.
#? #? #? #? #? #? #? #? #?
An eternity later, the Joker lowered the crowbar and reached for his silk handkerchief. He wiped the sweat from his ghost-white face and rolled his shoulders, easing the kinks out of his muscles.
He hummed to himself as he straightened his suit and dragged a hand through his emerald-green hair to press it back against his skull. With a glance at his watch, the Joker sighed and tossed the crowbar away. It clanged against the wall and came to a stop beside a pile of wooden crates.
The sound of the impact echoed with a peculiar grating harshness, reverberating through the winter air and refusing to fade away until the Joker had collected his thick wool overcoat and sauntered over to the door.
The Joker straightened his tie and turned the knob with a flourish, pushing the door open and allowing a brisk breeze to slip inside. Standing on the threshold, the Joker shrugged on his coat and called over his shoulder, "Okay, kiddo, I gotta go. It's been fun though, right?"
Complete silence was his reply, but the Joker didn't seem to mind.
"Well," he mused, "maybe a smidge more fun for me than you. I'm just guessing since you're being awfully quiet. Anyway," the Joker waved an admonishing finger at the broken figure lying just inside the shaft of light coming from the doorway, "be a good boy! Finish your homework and be in bed by nine. And hey," the Joker's voice deepened as he pulled the fur-lined hood of his coat over his head, "please tell the Big Man I said 'hello.'"
Another cackle and the door creaked closed. The warehouse was completely, ominously silent, a foreboding stillness pressing down and preventing the Team from truly caring that the ordeal was finally over. Their ears still rang with a madman's laughter; they still flinched at the dull echo of thuds as a crowbar was driven into unprotected flesh.
Most members of Young Justice had slumped over while the Joker cheerfully tortured the young man in the red costume. The cool of the concrete beneath their knees helped center them, but each of them had retreated into themselves when it became clear there was nothing they could do to stop the memory. For better or for worse, they had been forced to ride it out, and the Team's eyes were glazed, their desolated gazes fixed on the too-familiar red-and-black-cloaked boy they hadn't been able to save.
He lay in the center of the warehouse, sprawled on his side with his lank black hair covering his face like a curtain of shadow. The Team was unable to see whether his chest still rose and fell; for several agonizing moments they feared he was dead.
Then the teen groaned, and Young Justice perked up, impossible hope swelling their hearts as before their very eyes, the boy – whoever he was – started to move. He was agonizingly stiff and sluggish, but he remained steady. Demonstrating impressive flexibility and strength, he somersaulted and twisted until his hands were cuffed in front of him rather than behind.
Chest heaving, the young man staggered to his feet, and unseen on the sidelines, Young Justice rose with him, bolstered by his unwillingness to admit defeat.
"Come on," Robin rasped, breaking the spell that had kept them trapped and speechless and useless, and the rest of the Team took up the call, cheering as the young man stumbled forward.
It was a valiant effort, but the boy's legs failed him, and the Team's hearts plummeted as he collapsed to the floor.
He lay still for a moment, his breathing harsh and blood-wet as it echoed throughout the warehouse. Then he stretched out his cuffed hands and pressed his weight onto his elbows, dragging himself forward. Although his progress was painfully slow, he managed to haul himself over to the door.
"Yes!" Wally whooped in awed elation as the Joker's victim reached the halfway point to freedom. "You can do it, come on!"
Equally giddy from her place at Superboy's side, Miss Martian was smiling so wide her cheeks ached. It's going to be alright, she thought, could feel it in her heart. He's going to make it—
A chill swept over her like clouds blotting out the sun on a warm summer day. The hair rose on the back of her neck, and just as goosebumps erupted on her skin, scalding heat blasted over her. It was all in her head, but the heat was so intense it was cold, and all Miss Martian could think was fire, stars please no—
Unbidden, a sob escaped her, scraped raw against her throat. The sound of anguish echoed unnaturally loud, and the entire Team turned to stare at her.
"Fire," M'gann moaned in agony, eyes blurred with tears. "Something terrible is going to happen. We have to stop him! We need to get X to wake up now, before it's too late!"
The visceral fear in her voice was like a serrated knife on the Team's already-frayed nerves: they wasted no time in changing their cheers to pleas, turning to Red-X and trying their damnedest to get his attention.
But their words washed over X like water over stone – he didn't move a muscle.
Across the warehouse, the boy in the memory reached the rusted metal door. He clawed at the handle, rattled it, but to no avail.
The door didn't budge.
The Clown Prince of Crime had locked it. One final joke.
Across the warehouse, the boy in the memory slumped to the floor, defeated, and for a moment the Team felt something like relief, because so what if he was locked in? He was still breathing, what was the worst that could happ—?
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
The Team registered the electronic ticking sounds at the same instant. As one, Young Justice and the boy in the memory turned to stare at a shadowed corner. A suspiciously lumpy pile of crates was partially hidden from view by tarps and various bits of debris, but crimson candles and fuses peeked out from beneath the rubble, crowned by a timer illuminated with blood-red numbers.
0:08 . . . beep
0:07 . . . beep
0:06 . . . beep
As the seconds ticked down, the sounds grew impossibly louder and Young Justice struggled to comprehend what was happening (a bomb? in a confined space? on top of numerous internal injuries? in below-freezing temperatures? the boy's chances of survival were nigh non-existent). Stuck dumb, the teens turned to stare at their youngest member, beseeching him with eyes peeled so wide the whites showed because surely the Joker wouldn't—
0:05 . . . beep
The grim set of Robin's mouth was their answer, and as the realization dawned on them the strongest, most icy wave of panic they had ever felt in their lives swept over them, freezing their limbs with glacial lead before fading into numb resignation.
"NO!" Kid Flash refused to admit defeat. He and Superboy charged the door, using every ability in their arsenal to try and force the damn thing open before it was too late.
0:04 . . . beep
The rest of the Team redoubled their efforts and screamed at X, begging him to wake up, please God, just wake up before—
0:03 . . . beep
The boy in the memory tilted his head back against the cold door, heedless of Wally and Connor's attempts to force it open, and closed his eyes for the last time.
0:02 . . . beep
From her position next to the Boy Wonder, the Gem of Scath's eyes flared white and she lunged forward.
Grabbing Red-X by the shoulders with enough strength to bruise, Raven looked up at the masked man and said firmly, urgently:
"Jason."
Red-X flinched, and his eyes dropped from their fixated position on the boy in the memory to look at her.
0:01 . . . beep
"Sunshine," he rasped.
The memory froze. The false ceiling of the cavern above them shattered and frothing, radioactive green water cascaded in. The boy in the memory vanished along with the bomb and the warehouse and the crowbar; a mirage of the mind.
The instant before the graveyard-water rushed over him, a dull roar filling his ears, the Boy Wonder caught a glimpse of Raven and Red-X standing illuminated in the center of the cavern, Raven's eyes still awash with white and her fingertips pressing gently on X's temples.
Please feel free to drop me a line and tell me what you thought. And just FYI, there will be a Part 3 (which will finally feature Jealous!Jason), so I hope that explains why the ending may feel a little rushed.
Once again, I hope everyone had/is having a very merry Christmas, and that you all have a very happy New Year! :)
Finally, thank you so much for all of your support. I know it's been a terribly long time since I last updated, and I really appreciate those of you who have stuck it out. If you feel inclined to leave a comment (which would just about send me over the moon with joy), please be civil. It is very disheartening to open a review only to be cussed at for not updating. I understand your frustration with fics that stagnate, but taking it out on me will not solve anything. That being said, constructive criticism is more than welcome! :D
A Quick Question: What was the last movie you saw, and what was your favorite scene from said movie? Going back through my dusty memory banks, I believe the last movie I saw was Dr. Strange. As for my favorite scene, I'm partial to anything featuring Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal!). However, I have to say the part where the Cloak of Levitation wiped away Stephen's tears was adorably hilarious.
See y'all next time!
Wishing you all warm days filled with books and hot chocolate,
Home By Another Way