FudoTwin17: Hello, friends. Although I love doing the little author's note at the top, I really just can't do it right now. :( Feel like crap. Anyways, I was going to update sooner as I promised, but my ability to touch my stories was lost, because I was temporarily unable to upload new chapters since FanFiction blocked me for, like, way too long. And after that my internet went down. It wasn't nice. Anyway, I probably deserved it with my last chapter, but I hope it did some good. Anyways, I also want to say to critics, thank you for reviewing and giving advice, but please remember to be careful. I want to cry when I look at certain critiques. Thank you for even reading this if you did. I don't own Young Justice.
Chapter 28
Rux sighed as she walked along the halls. She had found a room with a trapeze set that she wanted to use a few days before, but she had never gotten the chance to use it. And with the new heroes and the commotion coming from, well, everyone in the castle, she found herself being able to slip away without anyone ever knowing the difference.
Except for the heroes. She was sure, though, that they didn't have a second thought about her disappearance from the fact that her wedding was being planned.
She sighed, a knot forming in her stomach. She needed to breathe. She needed to move.
She had to get out of that stupid dress.
Although it was loose (well, looser than normal), she didn't like it a bit. Besides, it was still too provocative for her. Sure, it wasn't really bad, but in the situation, she hated it more than anything. It was like getting kidnapped and only wearing sexy stuff! Oh, wait. That was exactly how it was.
Rux sighed, her mind going to that morning when she woke up to find that Kaldur was sleeping right next to her. Her heartbeat picked up. He had been sound asleep. Her head had rested on his shoulder while one of his hands held her waist, and the other was buried in her hair. She hadn't moved, just laid there.
And Kaldur never woke up.
Now that Rux thought about it, he probably hadn't had much sleep since she had been kidnapped. He probably had even less when the League was defeated. That must have been horrible. And seeing her the way she was-
Rux forced herself to stop thinking. Her mind had gone back to when she had dragged him in that room only to find herself crying her eyes out. Stop thinking. Stop doing. Stop letting it hurt.
Just walk.
So that's what she forced herself to do. The clicking of her heels were constant and continuous, bringing her to the place that she needed to be so desperately.
Her mind, though, still went back to Kaldur. She had left the Atlantean in her room and just let him rest. He needed it. Besides, why wake him? When she woke, she almost didn't want to face him. Having him stay in there because she needed him and waking up with him right there, holding her as if she were going to disappear . . . . It was hard.
But he was smiling.
She wouldn't admit it, but it felt good to be in his arms.
Rux sighed, eyes wandering to the door she was looking for as she pushed it open. As soon as she was in and it was closed, she locked it and pushed a nearby grouping of mats against it for extra weight. She took a moment to catch her breath and looked up at the large amount of equipment.
It was beautiful. And new. And ready to be used.
And it was calling to her.
Rux stepped forward, almost tripping over the heels on her boots. She scowled, knowing how "easy" it would be to fly in her clothes. She threw away her boots and looked uncomfortably at the black dress. After undoing the corset and throwing the dress away, she sighed with relief and the ability to breathe. It felt nice.
Although that left her in only her lace underwear and a tight undershirt. Oh, well. She wasn't expecting anyone to see her anyways. She was alone and no one was coming in.
Especially not Josh.
She stepped toward the bars of the trapeze. She wanted to fly.
. . .
Zatanna frowned. She knew she should be with her dad at that moment, but, after they had their reunion, Zatanna just wanted to breathe. She needed to stretch and as well as that, Batman-Bruce Wayne, had gone to talk to her dad. She didn't think that staying was the best idea.
Zatanna sighed, fingering the neckline of the outfit. It really was a neckline. It was halfway up her neck! She sighed.
The world was being taken over by evil monsters that had already defeated the Justice League once and she was worried about her fashion statement. Way to be a concerned citizen, Zatanna. She thought to herself. A heavy sigh passed through her lips.
It was then that she heard the sound of feet on the cool, tiled floor. Her eyes widened. Her immediate reaction was to try to slip in the closest door and hide from the oncoming threat, but she found that the door was locked. Zatanna frowned.
Her eyes went to the people who were walking past the hallway whose footsteps echoed, causing the panic that she had first felt that had somehow incited her inquiry to the locked door. She frowned indignantly. They had really scared her, startled her. But it didn't matter anymore.
They simply set in motion her confusion and curiosity. In the situation, Zatanna would normally walk away, but she just didn't want to. The other side of the door was quiet. It wasn't like there was a make-out session going on behind it! So, eyes wandering from side to side, Zatanna cast a spell.
"Ekat em edisni eht moor." She whispered and, in a burst of magic, she was there.
Instantly, the sound of gentle metal working itself over made her blink. She barely stepped forward, walking toward the sound when she grunted, almost tripping. She picked up a balled up black dress that Zatanna's boot had been caught on and frowned. Her eyes went up to the sound of some type of equipment and she looked at a trapeze as a strange girl swung on it.
Zatanna caught her breath. The first thing that she really noticed was that the girl flying through the air was almost naked! She only wore a pair of lacy, purple underwear and a black undershirt. Her hand tightened on the dress in her hand, realizing that it was the girl's.
The next thing that Zatanna noticed was what the girl was doing. She was amazing. The mystery girl would fly through the air, flipping and twisting in impossible ways. It was completely and insanely amazing.
But then the most horrible, startling realization set in. There wasn't a net. She was far above the ground, flipping and working on trust that she wouldn't fall without a bit of safety. Was she crazy?
Zatanna stumbled forward, about to warn her, but paused. What if she warned the mystery girl and she fell from Zatanna distracting her? She frowned, deciding just to watch and cast a spell to catch the girl if she fell. She wasn't going to be the one to interrupt the girl's mystic dance. It was too amazing.
. . .
Rux felt her body flex, feeling more amazing and happy than she had the entire stay at the castle (minus most times with Kaldur'ahm). It felt nice just to move. It was like flying. The rush that went through her system was completely exhilarating as the wind from flying whipped around her hair. She let out an unrestrained cackle. It felt absolutely amazing.
Faintly, she heard something. Clicking. A small grunt. The sound of making adjustments.
Someone was in the room.
Rux felt a small amount of anxiety hit her. She prayed it wasn't Bruce, or Kaldur, or worse-Josh. None of them had seen her like that. If she had any power over anything, two of them would never, ever see her in that state. She decided to leave the last one's sight at a status of unknown.
Chest tight, Rux finished what she was doing and climbed down, suddenly feeling the chill in the warm room. No clothes. She wasn't dressed. Who on earth was in there?
Looking down, she saw a black haired girl sitting down, bright eyes on her. Rux didn't miss the fact that the girl was decked out in the new superhero suit. She must have been one of the new ones. The girl stood as she made her way down, making Rux extremely uncomfortable. If it had been Artemis or Megan, this would have been no problem, but this wasn't one of them. This was some random girl that Rux had never met!
"Uh, sorry for walking in on you." Zatanna stumbled over her words, blue eyes apologetic. "I wasn't trying to be a-a creeper or anything, but I was worried you would fall. Um." Her eyes found themselves moving down to the black dress in hand. "Uh, this is yours."
Rux took it almost speechlessly. "Um, thanks. You are?"
Zatanna blinked. "Oh, I'm Zatanna, Zatanna Zatara."
"Oh, so you're a magician." Rux realized, beginning to shake out her dress to put it back on. It wasn't easy as she would have liked to put it on due to the corset, but she did her best.
"Yeah. I'm not up to my father's level, but I'm getting better." She murmured before frowning and moving behind Rux. "Here. Let me help."
Rux held her breath as Zatanna worked and listened to the magician girl. "So, you know who I am, but you haven't exactly specified on who you are." After one more tug of the corset, Rux turned to look at the girl.
"I'm Ruxandera Grayson, Robin, the boy wonder." She stated, holding out her hand.
Zatanna blinked. "For real?"
"Yeah." Rux replied, moving to let her hand brush through her hair instead as she saw that Zatanna wasn't going to shake hands. She just smiled at the wide eyes that were staring her down.
"Well, you're obviously a girl, so what's up with the whole "boy wonder" thing?" Zatanna asked, curiosity clear in her eyes.
"Batman is . . . overprotective." Rux stated simply. "I started when I was nine. He was slightly afraid of what would happen if it were a known fact that I'm a girl at that age. We have many rapists and child molesters, but only four percent of them aren't straight. As well as that, most of them are male."
"Oh." Zatanna stated, voice small. It was silent for a moment, in which Ruxandera went to put her boots back on, when another question entered the magician's mind. She was too overly curious for her own good. "Why are you wearing that while the rest of the superhero population is wearing this?" The magician gestured to her clothing.
A look of such extreme anger found itself on Rux's face that Zatanna almost apologized for asking before Rux's bitter voice replied. "The guy that kidnapped you wants to marry me. He's a stalker."
Zatanna blinked. She was not expecting that answer. Besides, how old was she? Twelve? Thirteen? Too young to get married. "That's overly creepy."
"Big time." Rux agreed, heading over to move the giant mats against the door.
Seeing what Rux was about to do, Zatanna smiled. "You don't have to do that." After Rux's curious look, Zatanna lifted one of her hands toward the mats. "Evom eht stam." Just like that, the mats floated over to the wall where they would be of no consequence.
Rux blinked before she smiled. "Okay, that's pretty cool."
Zatanna smiled back. "So we understand each other."
That was the start of a new friendship. A great friendship.
. . .
Bruce growled as he continued walking through the large ballroom in the castle and found a window to stare out of. At that moment, the place was in chaos. Not just chaos, but chaos. It was insane. The room was being filled with tables and spectacular decorations. When he asked a girl, one of the kidnap victims, why everything was being put up so early, he got an answer that he was not happy about hearing.
The wedding has been planned for tomorrow.
The wedding was the next day, meaning that he was running out of time. Bruce had been searching for something-anything that could help him stop the wedding and the world domination, but he had found little to nothing. He found that the servants were not entirely loyal to Josh unless they were the type of creature he was, and that some of those creatures didn't like him either way. He also found that Joshua and his father seemed too . . . self-centered and self-righteous to see that any other person wanted anything other than what they wanted.
However, there was also the fact of the . . . change. Bruce had no clue how to stop it, but, from Rux and Josh's recent fight the night before, he at least knew that he had nine days.
The wedding was the next day.
His little girl was getting married. He leaned over, bracing himself on the windowsill. Unlike most people who said that or felt that way, his little girl was actually still little. Thirteen. Only thirteen. He growled to himself.
Faintly, he heard the steps of another person. Yes, there were lots of people in the room, but none of them dare tried to approach him. Besides, he knew who it was easily. A hand mounted itself on his shoulder. "Clark." He greeted simply.
He didn't look at the other man to know that he wasn't taken back by his already knowing who was there. He stepped over so that Bruce could see him from the corner of his eye. Kent didn't say anything, just stood there.
"There's a village out there." Bruce stated, gesturing to the window. Looking out, Clark could see he was right. It went beyond where his eyes could see, and he was Superman. "It's growing quickly. There are more of them than we thought."
"Bruce." Began Clark, but he was interrupted.
"Tomorrow is the wedding."
That caught Clark off guard. That wasn't very long, not very long at all. If Bruce was acting like this, then Clark could only imagine how Rux felt. But Clark was sure that Rux had someone to tell her it was okay. Bruce had him and the League. The League wasn't concerned over how Bruce was handling this. He was the Batman. But he was also human. And that little girl getting married was his little girl.
"I'm sure that somehow everything-" Once again, he was interrupted.
Bruce shook his head. "No, it won't. There is almost no weakness in the cult, and any possible weakness is made up for by-"
"Bruce." Interrupted Clark. It was almost scary interrupting Bruce since he had a feeling that the Batman part of him wanted to shove kryptonite down his throat every time he did it. "It'll turn out okay somehow. Everything does."
Bruce scoffed. "Coming from the man who won't accept the boy."
Clark paled. "Bruce, this isn't about the clone-"
Bruce interrupted heatedly. "It's not "the clone" or "the Superboy" or anything else you may call him, Clark. He has a name."
Clark blinked. How did this turn into a match over the kid?
It was then that he realized how. Bruce was close to loosing his kid without a way to stop it while Clark had a kid that he wouldn't even talk to. Clark pursed his lips. His kid. It didn't feel right. He wasn't supposed to have a kid.
He didn't have a kid.
But there was a kid.
Clark sighed. "Fine. I give up. I'll talk to him." If only to help Bruce.
. . .
FudoTwin17: Ugh! I really wanted to give you one more scene, but it would be so much better in the next chapter! Grr. Okay, I'll update. Oh, and here's a sight to sign a petition for FanFiction. Just get rid of the spaces:
www. change petitions /fanfiction -net -stop -the -destruction -of -fanfiction -net #
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