Author's Note: Here I am! Another chapter with no clear plan :P ALSO! Just another little warning: I got a new laptop. Now, I've had my last laptop since, like, before I started writing fan fiction, so a good five or six years ago now and it had literal smooth spots on the keys that I typed on the most. This new laptop doesn't have that (yet) and it feels weird typing on it, so I might have a few more errors than usual. Sorry! Read, review, and enjoy!
IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ! Okay, just letting you guys know that I have not watched the new YJ episodes or whatever. SO DO NOT GIVE SPOILERS! I will end friendships over spoilers, so please don't put any in PMs or reviews. Thanks!
Responses to Guest Reviews:
HI – The dinner scene was a lot of fun to write. I almost wish I wrote a little more, but I think I would have ruined the moment, haha. Thanks for the wonderful review! (By the way, your review did post, but it posted under 'Guest' instead of 'HI')
Skie cat – Haha, everyone needs a little time of relaxation before everything goes south. Cameron needs all the love he can get. Thanks for the lovely review!
WWWWWW
Wally slowed to a stop as he watched Kaldur bury his head in his hands, breathing harsh and sharp. There was a fading glow from the television in front of him, showing that he'd just received some sort of message.
Carefully, Wally walked into the room, trying to walk loud enough to be heard, but quiet enough to not fully disturb Kaldur, "Hey, what's wrong?"
"I… you knew the Teen Titans, correct?" Kaldur asked, voice faltering.
Concerned, Wally moved closer, sitting at the desk chair next to Kaldur's bed, "Yeah, I knew them. Did you find something out?"
"One of the Teen Titans left a… message for their friends and family in the event that the Collection Agency took them. They mentioned that they were not supposed to leave a message, but that they wanted their friends and family to understand why they went missing because no one, not even their girlfriend, knew that they were part of this team. I believe you knew him as Tempest?" Kaldur finished abruptly. Wally nodded hesitantly. Kaldur's eyes darkened in grief as he spoke barely above a whisper, "I knew him better as… as Garth, my best friend. His girlfriend, Tula, was the woman I loved, but he got to her first. They were perfect together."
Wally's mouth fell open at Kaldur's words. No wonder the Atlantean was so distraught. The worst part was that Kaldur had experienced a little bit of the camps – if that was where the Collection Agency even took them. Kaldur knew how awful the camps were. And if the Titans weren't brought to the camps, then who knows where they'd be brought? For all they knew, it'd be somewhere worse. Words catching in his throat, Wally did the only thing he could do. He wrapped his arms around Kaldur, dragging him into a slightly awkward hug.
Kaldur didn't seem to care because he burrowed into Wally's arms immediately. Carefully, trying to not dislodge the other teen, Wally snuck his foot out towards the door, nudging it closed. He didn't want anyone else walking in on this like he had.
For a long moment, Wally held Kaldur as the older teen broke down in his arms. Kaldur shuddered as he cried, little miniscule shakes and shivers that broke Wally's heart. Then, once the tears stopped flowing as freely, Kaldur leaned back a little bit, still slightly ensconced in Wally's arms, "How could I have missed that? Why would he not tell me?"
Wally's lips turned down slightly, "I mean, he was obviously trying to hide, so it's no surprise that you missed it. The Teen Titans have only been around for two or three years, so it's not like it's been happening for a very long time. As for why he wouldn't tell you… I'm not sure. I don't know enough about him to guess at that. Well, generally speaking, not a lot of people or heroes have favourable opinions of metahumans. He might have been afraid of how people would react to the fact that he was actually aiding and abetting an underground metahuman resistance group. That's all kinds of illegal and his king and best friends were heroes – people who stop criminals. Just like the Circus, the Teen Titans were considered international terrorists."
Some strange expression spasmed over Kaldur's face, "My best friend was an international terrorist?"
Wally shrugged uncomfortably, not really sure that this was the best method of comforting, "According to most governments, yeah. They were an inspiration for the rest of us, though. Not sure if that helps or hurts, honestly."
Something approaching a smile flirted the edges of Kaldur's face before it melted away again, leaving only open grief and betrayal, "I have made so many mistakes in regards to metahumans."
"Oh, no. No, Kaldur. You really, really haven't. You've done more for us than most anyone. Never get upset at what's happened in the past. You didn't know any better," Wally instantly argued. He wasn't going to let Kaldur turn this into an opportunity to disparage himself.
Kaldur was already shaking his head, though, "No. That is not an excuse. I should have known better. I should have taken the time to learn more about metahumans. It was… there are times, now, that I wonder how the world could have possibly been blind enough to not realize this was happening. The entire world was lied to and no one bothered to search deep enough into it to find the truth."
"You are," Wally pointed out, "You're doing it right now. That's all that matters."
"It took us nine years to look into it," Kaldur pointed out, voice bitter.
Wally shook his head, "That means nothing. Nine years ago? When this all started? When people were already brainwashed enough to believe that metas were bad enough to lock up? You were only seven years old. Not old enough to understand this kind of complicated stuff. Not old enough to have to understand. Plus, you were in Atlantis. I doubt you guys got a lot of news about this kind of stuff down there."
"Garth received news about this. Enough to decide to secretly join the Teen Titans. Did he not think that I was open-minded enough to understand the situation as well? Did he not believe that I was capable of change?" Kaldur asked, expression openly vulnerable in a way that left Wally wishing Robin or Roy were in here instead of him. They'd know how to handle this better. Wally was probably making it worse.
Lips pursed in frustration, Wally tried not to sigh, "It's not that strange of a concept, really. People do that all the time. There could have been extenuating circumstances that allowed him to see the truth of metahumans and he was afraid that without those circumstances he wouldn't have been able to convince you. He might have thought that he wouldn't have been able to keep the secret between just the two of you and any more people might have been considered a threat to his team. I mean, imagine no one knew that you were a part of the Team and everyone in the world was against the Team. Would you risk telling him? Without definite proof that no one else could hear you and that he would believe you and have the same beliefs as you, would you risk telling him? Even though he's your best friend?"
Kaldur sniffed a little, not even bothering to try to pull together any sort of composure, "No, I suppose not. There would be too many risks involved in that kind of situation. Too many unknown variables. I would have to obtain express permission from all of my teammates first. Maybe… maybe some of his teammates were uncomfortable with anyone else knowing."
"That would make sense," Wally said, desperately hoping that was the case, for Kaldur's sake, "A lot of metas are suspicious of others. And there were other people on the team that weren't metas who had families that would condemn them if it was revealed that they were working with metas."
A commotion right outside the door interrupted Kaldur's response. After a second, the door shuffled open, revealing Robin and Roy, eyes wide and genuine. Robin panted out, "We just heard about Garth."
Kaldur's expression crumpled again and Wally let go so Kaldur could be pulled into Roy and Robin's arms. Unfortunately, they were standing directly in front of the door, preventing Wally's escape.
Roy huffed out a rough breath, "So, the Teen Titans were a lot more than we were expecting."
"What do you mean?" Kaldur asked, trying to discretely wipe his eyes, holding in another wave of tears.
The whites of Robin's mask widened, hands flailing out around him, "It's insane! They had Garth, right? They also had Donna Troy. As far as Diana, her mentor, knew, she was still on Themyscira receiving more training. She'd had no idea that Donna was out there fighting with the Teen Titans for the last year and a half. STAR Labs is freaking out, too because two of their people are in on it. Dr. Stone's son is on the Teen Titans and so was one of the head scientists. She apparently made a lot of non-lethal weaponry."
Roy added in, "Evidently there was this alien chick that J'onn mentored in, well, acting human who was with the Titans, too."
Wally raised his eyebrows, listing off, "Tempest, Wonder Girl, Cyborg, Bumblebee, and Starfire. Not a single one of their families knew that they were on the Teen Titans? See, Kaldur, I bet they all just agreed that, to protect everyone else, they weren't going to tell anyone."
"Were there any metahumans on the Teen Titans?" Roy asked incredulously.
Wally snorted, "Yeah, there were three. The only other non-meta was Raven. She's half human, half… Azarathian? I don't entirely know what to classify her father as, honestly. Then there are the three metas. Hot Spot, Jericho, and Pantha."
"How were they considered an underground meta group when literally two thirds of their members were not metahumans?" Roy questioned.
Wally shrugged, "I mean, how could other people tell? You can only really tell if someone's metahuman if they're tested, right? People assumed most of them were metas. I think they thought Cyborg was a, well, Cyborg or robot or whatever. But otherwise? Why would anyone assume anything different? They fought for the rights of metahumans, so they must be meta terrorists as well." His voice had turned bitter at the end and Wally winced, trying to reign in that poison. It didn't do anyone any good to be bitter about all of it. He just needed to fix it and that was that.
Kaldur blinked at him, "People truly believed that Garth was a metahuman?"
"Yeah. Could you imagine the scandal it would have been if they'd thought anything differently? That would have been disastrous if the government thought that Atlanteans were working alongside the metahumans. Well, they think that now, but the Light is a big enough problem that they're not worrying about it. Yet," Wally answered, frowning a little bit by the end.
Roy frowned with him, "Let's hope we can swing public favour over to our side quickly, then. We really don't want the government to be getting in our way."
"Especially if the government is possibly working with the Light," Robin muttered, obviously frustrated. Wally felt kind of out of his depth sitting there between the three of them. From what he'd seen, Roy, Robin, and Kaldur were, like, the original sidekicks, the first teenaged heroes. They were the level all the others aspired to get to, and they had years of butt-kicking together to buoy their relationship and teamwork skills. Sitting there, feeling like they were including him, but also feeling the gap of those years of friendship he didn't have, was a strange, discomforting experience.
Roy frowned again, "I don't think the whole government is working with the Light. I think it's just Argus. And, apparently, only a subset of Argus."
"But how much of the government does that subset of Argus control?" Robin countered. A ding interrupted their burgeoning argument. Robin looked down at this wrist computer in surprise, "Already?" He started tapping login instructions into the device.
"Already what?" Roy asked archly.
Robin muttered back, "I set up a programme to guess at the identity of the person who killed Mr. Jupiter. That was saying that my search came back with a potential subject."
The whole group leaned forward eagerly as Robin started scrolling through the information. He froze in shock when he finally got to the name. Wally couldn't see it from his angle and didn't quite feel comfortable enough to crane around to see it, so he was glad when Kaldur said numbly, "James Houston."
"Is that the JP Houston that you guys met up with just the other day? Wasn't he reluctant to help us?" Roy asked, voice pitched higher with concern.
"That's his dad," Wally answered, eyebrows drawing together, "But his dad doesn't know about the whole Green Team thing. The guy's been galivanting off all over the world, picking up a new chick every country while JP's been left halfway running the company and trying to make sure that his sister at least gets a childhood. Why would he suddenly be a part of the Light?"
"Or," Robin posited, "Mr. Houston finds out about the Green Team through the Light. The Light recognizes the threat that the benefactors pose and decides to deal with it as quickly, effectively, and hands-off as they can. They tell Mr. Houston about the Green Team, about the Circus, about the threat on JP and LL, about something and word it so it sounds like Mr. Jupiter, actually complicit in all of these things, had more to do with them than he actually did. If Mr. Houston believed that Mr. Jupiter was the reason his kids were into this dangerous stuff and had a threat against them, is it really that much of a stretch to think that he'd be willing to kill the man?"
Wally's nose wrinkled, "I'm honestly not sure if he cares about JP and LL that much."
Robin waved a dismissive hand, "That's because you don't trust adults." Wally blinked at him as Robin just continued on, "This makes sense. Because, if we go after James Houston to get information about the Light and to arrest him for killing Mr. Jupiter, what are the odds that JP feels like he should pull out of the agreements he made with Oliver? Can you see the Green Team sticking with us if we're responsible for putting one of their parents in jail?"
Wally blanched, "I know I'm supposed to feel some sympathy for them and all that, but all I can picture is the absolute blow it would deal us if we lost that much funding. Especially right after moving Holo City. I… I don't know if the Circus would be able to continue going after the Light. Holo City is our priority. There are so many people there that are relying on us to protect them and make sure that their city can function. Without that money, we'd have to… there's so much we'd have to do. Extreme rations until we could find another money source. We wouldn't be able to save anyone else because we'd barely be able to keep the people we had. It would… that would be a devastating blow to the Circus if we lost all of that money."
The other three gave him slightly scared looks that said that they hadn't expected that. Robin asked, voice hushed with the severity of the situation, "What do we do, then? We need the information that Mr. Houston could provide, but… we can't lose the Green Team. And we can't just let Mr. Houston go, either. Not after he murdered someone."
Frustrated, Wally raked his hands through his hair, blowing out a harsh breath, "It's okay. We can deal with this. I guess… we've got to get some timing down. I'll need to talk to JP and LL while you guys are taking down James Houston. I would like to talk to them first, but we can't risk them warning him. I hope they'd be reasonable enough not to, but who knows? People do things out of character when it comes to protecting family. And JP is fiercely protective of the things he loves. We'll see if his dad falls in that category. And I'm not going to tell them after we've already taken James Houston in. That's just… cruel."
"Can you get in contact with them now? I can get some of the JL members to go arrest him or whatever," Robin suggested.
Running his hands through his hair again, Wally nodded, "Yeah, this is within the hours they said they'd be available. Go ahead and let them know. I'm going to call them now." He tuned out the sound of Robin making the report as he made his own call.
He didn't have to wait long before a bubbly, high-pitched voice sang into the device, "Green Team at your service! What can we do for you today?" Cecelia finished it off with a high-pitched giggle. It sounded like they were having some sort of meal together.
Wincing, Wally said, "Hey guys. This is Supersonic. Could I have a moment to talk to just JP and LL? Are they there?"
"We're here!" LL responded. There was the sounds of footsteps and the mealtime sounds faded into the distance. Eventually, LL spoke again, "Alright, it's just the two of us now. What's up, Supersonic?"
"It's not good news," Wally warned.
JP scoffed, "We've already heard about Loren. The old coot's death was all over the news. Besides, one of the bodyguards you assigned us told us. And why would you need just the two of us for that?" Wally wasn't offended by JP's rough handling of the topic; he knew that was one of JP's defence mechanisms.
Wincing, Wally said, "We know who the murderer is."
There was a long pause before JP said, voice low, "LL. Go back to the tea party. No," He spoke over her immediate refusal, "I'm not kidding, LL. Go back. Now. I'll fill you in later, alright?"
"What?" LL cried, "The kid friendly version? I go on adventures just like the rest of you! I'm not some little kid!"
"Go back to the party, LL!" JP shouted. There was a slight clang from the direction of the tea party and JP sighed, low, aggressive, defeated. There was another long pause before LL gave a small sigh, her heels clicking against the ground as she walked off.
JP finally spoke back into the device, "The only reason you'd ask for the two of us to specifically talk to is if the killer is someone we knew. And your guy said that the killer was someone who Loren knew, so… there aren't a lot of people who fit that description. It…" He paused for a second, voice trailing off. Eventually, his voice gained back strength and he finished his question, "It was my father, wasn't it?"
Wally sighed, "Yeah, it was. I called you while one of the others called in a team to arrest him. We're going to be trying to get information about the Light from him before he's sent to jail."
Instantly, a barrage of multilingual curses filled the room, spilling out of the device like vitriol, a bitter, slick oil. JP stopped swearing, panting into the device, "Why would he do that to us?"
"That's something you're going to have to ask him yourself. The guess of my team? It was to protect you," Wally said.
JP laughed, low and harsh, "Yeah right. He's never done a thing in his life to protect us. If anything, it was to protect his precious company funds from being sent to help metas."
"You don't know that," Wally immediately argued.
When JP spoke again, it wasn't angry anymore. It was just tired, "Yeah, sure. Whatever makes you feel better. You know what? I don't care why he did it. Screw him. I… I'll let LL know. And… thanks. For calling us. For letting us know before the grapevine did."
Wally deliberated for a moment before admitting, "If I'm being honest, part of my motivation was to make sure that you wouldn't get mad and pull out funding."
JP snorted, "Yeah, yeah. Sure. We keep up with you and your team's actions. We talk to Oliver, too. We might be humans, but we're humans that are risking everything to protect metas. To you, that means we're worth the same amount of respect and protection as your metas. I think, sometimes, you care more than you want to."
A little flustered at the frank delivery, Wally said, "Well, uh, yeah. It's… good of you. To do this. To help us. Even though it really is dangerous for you guys. Even though it pulls you into this messed up world."
"Keeps things interesting," JP said.
Wally huffed out a laugh, "I'm sure it does. Are you sure you don't want me to tell LL? I'm okay with telling her if you don't want to. It sucks to have to give someone that kind of news."
JP's voice was quiet when he admitted, "I'm scared of telling her, scared of how she's going to react, but… this is better to hear from family. She'd be more likely to believe it. I don't think she knows much about Dad. I think she's got this fantasy built up about him and that's what she pretends he's like because he's not around enough for her to form a proper opinion. I got this, though. It's fine."
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop the Light faster. I'm sorry that your family was hurt because I couldn't take them all the way out," Wally said, a sigh slipping out afterwards.
JP paused before saying, "Honestly? This shows that Dad's capable of murder. I'm glad that he's put away because he hurts someone I know better. What if you had defeated the Light and he hadn't killed Loren? He could have gone after me or LL or Mom instead. I'm not saying it's good that Loren was killed, but… rather him than someone from my family."
Voice thick with understanding, Wally said, "Yeah, I get that."
JP sighed, deep and troubled and far too weary for someone so young, "Alright, I'm going to go out. Tell LL. Probably tell the rest of the group right afterwards. Just… make sure you get something useful from him, alright? God, I have to tell Mom, too."
"You just worry about LL. We'll take care of your mom, alright? I'll see you later, JP. Hopefully under better circumstances," Wally said.
Laughing a sad little laugh, JP said, "Yeah, right. Until the Light is dealt with and people stop hating metas, you aren't going to call for anything other than business or bad news. You'll be too busy."
"Ugh, don't remind me," Wally moaned, "My life is tragic."
JP's laugh was a lot more lighthearted that time, "You know, you've gotten a lot more open. A lot happier. You were so suspicious when you first met us, so hard. You honestly scared me a little bit. But Cece and LL were so enthralled with your plight that I knew we'd have to go along with whatever you were doing. And then your organization started growing and I saw the things you were doing and… I don't know. I've never felt like I was doing anything really important before, you know? I mean, I never wanted to do anything really important. That was for people who cared. I'm just some random teenager who pays people to give me adrenaline highs. But I felt like I was doing something good and, better yet, I was doing it in a way that I loved. It was… more than I could have asked for. You don't scare me anymore. Rather… I think I'd like to get to know you more. Outside of all of this stuff. I think you'd be a pretty cool guy. And I think you'd make all of us better people. Until Uncle Ollie told me, I didn't know that you had escaped the camps. I just… want you to know that even though the Green Team doesn't know you all that well, we all think you're awesome and we're all glad that you've been able to come into your own. Joining up with the heroes? It's made you happier than I ever imagined you could be from that first meeting."
"JP…" Wally breathed, more touched than he thought he'd be at JP's words. He really didn't know JP or the rest of the Green Team. Of all his benefactors, he'd had the most interaction with Max, but even that had been a very little amount. Were all the benefactors this invested in his progress? In him? Now that he was looking for signs, they all certainly acted like it. He'd thought that he was just a vehicle for them to anonymously help a cause they were kind of passionate about – something to just do every once in a while and forget about. It was why he was so surprised that all of the ones they'd managed to find had willingly decided to step up their involvement.
Guess that showed him. He really did have some sort of prejudice against humans, didn't he? No, that wasn't quite right. But he had certainly lost faith in them. Maybe that was the same thing. Maybe it wasn't. Either way, he was getting humans and Atlanteans and aliens to admit they were wrong in their views of metas. Maybe it was time he looked at how he was looking at the humans.
Stuttering out a jagged breath, Wally finally said his farewells to JP, heart breaking at the news he had to go deliver to his sister. Yikes.
When he turned back to face the other three, they were giving him intense looks. He just managed to get out an, "Uh, guys?" before they started talking.
Kaldur started it, "You are not the only one who has grown through this alliance. I feel that all of us have grown and become more of our true selves through this experience. As much as I wish that the Light had never came to be, I am glad that it was able to bring us together. Wally… I might not understand as much about the woes of metahumans as I should after months of working and living with them, but I aim to do better. I know now how much you all have given up for this fight and I know how much you still need the world to get up and realize what is happening. I will fight for you on this."
"And we've got more weapons for that, now," Robin inserted. Kaldur raised an eyebrow at him and Robin grimaced, "Bad wording, sorry. But my point still stands. The aliens are going to be mad that the Collection Agency took an alien. STAR Labs is going to be mad that two of their members were taken. The Atlanteans are going to be mad that one of their soldiers was taken. The Amazons are going to be mad that one of theirs was taken, too. Anyone even tangentially related to the hero world is going to be furious that the Collection Agency took all of them like that. They're going to call for a better look at the whole organization. We can get a lot of stuff revealed this way. We're a step closer to fixing this whole thing."
Wally slumped a little back against the chair he was still sitting in, "Somedays, I feel like all we do is get 'one step closer' to fixing it, but that getting one step closer doesn't do a thing. Is there any fixing this? What happens when we fix it? Metas are released from camps, are free from all the stuff that other countries do to them. So what? We get discriminated against on the streets. We'll get discriminated against when we try to get jobs, when we try to get into college – if we can even get to college anyways. I'm fifteen years old and my education is equivalent to that of a third grader. I'd have to take some sort of special education thing to get me to the level I should be. Otherwise I'm that weird fifteen year old in elementary school. There are tons of people in similar boats to me. I have no workable skills either. Nothing to get me a job. There are people out their whose parents disowned them when they went into camps.
"The adults have just as many problems. Some won't be able to get their kids back because courts have already given them away to the closest family member. Bank accounts are frozen indefinitely so we can't use the money if we run, but in order to keep taxes down, money from those frozen accounts have been used to supplement anything the camp doesn't build or grow itself. There are people out there who don't have a half, a third, a fifth of the money they started with because the government has seized it or whatever. And the Collection Agency or whoever's in charge never bothered to take any sort of inventory. The clothes I came in with? Gone. Probably donated or incinerated. Some people came in with wallets that had driver's licenses, social security cards, other important things. Some people came in with purses that had passports, keys to their house, etc. All of that is gone. They don't keep that anywhere.
"The camps aren't prison. Nothing's taken care of. We don't have any contact. Some family don't even know that their family members are in the camps. They think they're missing or dead or something. Stuff is going to be sold. Houses are going to be sold. People will come back and their apartments will be rented out to someone new. People are going to come back and their partners are going to be with new people. Some people won't have anyone to come back to because their family still hates metas. There's no life for us to come back to after all of this is over." Wally finished, immediately embarrassed that he'd just blurted all of this out to people. The only ones he'd really confided these fears to were Cameron, Jinx, Dinah, and Kelvin.
The other three were staring at him with gobsmacked expressions. Robin reacted first, speaking earnestly, "We can work on that! If we start to slowly introduce those ideas to the public, then people can start planning relief efforts. I know we're still moving kind of slowly with introducing the horrors of the camps to people and all that, but we don't even need to introduce the actions of the camp into these arguments. We just need to mention that the camps are designed to help 'cure' the metas or whatever. That implies that metas are supposed to come back out at some point. With public favour swinging towards the metas, they're going to want to know what reintegration for 'cured' metas is going to be like. This will still make them mad enough to start planning for change."
Roy smiled at Robin's obvious enthusiasm, "Have you been bottling all of this up this whole time?"
Wally gave them a hesitant smile, "Kind of. I've talked to some of the others about it, but it wasn't like we could really do anything at the time. All talking about it did was stress us out, you know?"
"Are you really so worried about being free? That sounded wrong. I really understand where your worry is coming from. But, is it really that concerning? What are you most worried about? Personally, for once. Don't worry about everyone else, worry about yourself," Roy responded back, gently teasing.
Sighing, Wally said, "What am I most worried about? Maybe the fact that I'll be going from leader of an underground meta group back to… a kid. I mean, I've been more than independent for over a year and a half now. And there certainly weren't any adult guardians in the camps. It didn't matter if you were an adult or a kid in there. You were just treated like a metahuman. It'll be weird… bad, honestly, going back to being a kid. I'm not used to relying on adults and I don't want to rely on adults. Well, if I still get to be free. Resistance group or not, right reasons or not, I've still be an international terrorist for a while. I've done some sketch things. There's a good chance my next stop after all of this is jail."
"We would not allow you to go to jail," Kaldur stated fiercely.
Wally smiled at him, "You don't really have much of a choice. I've committed crimes. So, my options are jail or going back to my parents. If my parents want me. I'm a meta and if they were all cool with metas, they wouldn't have called the Collection Agency."
Robin and Roy blanched, and Wally paled with them. He'd been being so open with people recently that he'd forgotten that there were things that he didn't really want to tell people. That was one of them. They didn't need to know about his personal drama.
Robin whispered, "Your parents sent you to the camps?"
"No, my parents were following the law and were trying to help me. As far as they knew at that time, being a metahuman was something uncontrollable, dangerous, and needing to be cured. They were just trying to cure me," Wally defended, hackles immediately rising at the horror in their faces. Why did people always react like this? He continued, "Like I told Barry just the other day, there are tons of people in that same situation. That's what happened to Lorraine. Her father called the Collection Agency. It's not a bad thing. For all they knew, they were trying to help. If you found out a loved one was a metahuman before you met me, you would've had very little problem committing them to the camps."
"Don't you see?" Robin said, "That's what makes it so horrible."
Deflating, Wally sighed, "Yeah, I get where you're coming from. I guess I've just gotten used to the idea. I think, in the camps, there are three main stages for people whose families called the Agency. You start by just desperately missing your family. Then you start to blame them. And then… then you just don't really care anymore. It's not worth blaming them. They were doing their best. Being mad wasn't going to get you out of the camps and being mad wasn't going to make you feel better if you did get out of the camps. At a certain point, you stop caring about petty arguments and disagreements as long as you get to someday see that person again. And maybe I'll be mad again when I see them, but, for now? I'm just afraid they won't be okay with metas. I'm afraid we won't click back together. Like my aunt and uncle. It's getting better, but I'm so awkward around them. I last saw them nine years ago. I was a little kid. I don't know how to act around them. It'll be the same with my parents. They missed a huge portion of my life so far. A couple more months and I'll have been away from my parents longer than I'll have been with them."
"That's… really sad, man," Roy said.
Wally snorted, "Yeah, I guess so. Just feels like life." Robin was still watching him with tragic eyes.
Kaldur gave him a small smile, "Well, you are always welcome here, my friend. If your parents do not accept you for who you are or if you are uncomfortable with them, then we are willing to welcome you into our home. You know that Conner, M'gann, and Zatanna all live in our headquarters. I am sure that Conner would appreciate another male staying with them."
Wally laughed again, leaning his head back, "Well, he'd probably get two. Pretty sure no matter what happens, wherever I go, Cameron will go. I mean, his dad's still in jail anyways, so he doesn't really have a legal guardian."
"He's in jail?" Roy asked curiously.
Wally nodded, "Yeah, Belle Reeve, I think? That's how Cam was caught. The first wave of people put in the camps were either criminals who were caught or the children of criminals who were caught. He was the latter."
"I'm sorry, did you just say that Cameron's dad is in Belle Reeve?" Robin asked incredulously.
Raising an eyebrow, Wally responded, "Yeah? Joar Mahkent? The supervillain called Icicle or whatever?"
Roy choked a little bit, "Cameron's dad is Icicle?"
At the same time, Robin cackled, "He took the same name as his father!"
Amused by their responses, Wally explained, "His father is the reason that Cam's a metahuman in the first place. That ice stuff that Mahkent uses for his crimes or whatever? Long term exposure in a developing child led to his genes changing to become, well, Icicle. Made him go almost albino and stuff, too. I think Mahkent is serving some child endangerment sentence because of that. And I think he wanted to take the name and make it better. That's why he uses that same name as his father."
"He really got his powers just by being exposed to whatever weird stuff his dad came up with?" Roy scoffed.
Wally smirked, "What can you do? Some of us get our powers in weird ways."
"How'd you end up with yours?" Robin asked, giving him a look reminiscent of an excited child wanting to know what happened next in their favourite story.
Faltering a little bit as the topic shifted somehow back to him, Wally haltingly explained, "Uh, well, there was a kid at school who ended up being a meta. His powers manifested in the middle of the schoolyard. Some older kids were picking on him – Josh, his name was – and he freaked out and accidently struck one with lightning. He seemed to be able to control the weather which was pretty legit. But I ended up going back to a teacher's room. The science teacher's room, I think. We got to talking about metahumans a little bit. Which was weird, now that I think about it. That was still when they were trying to keep a lot of the metahuman stuff under wraps and away from children. I guess I should just be glad that he thought I could handle it. Then one of Josh's lightning bolts flew through the window, struck me, and threw me into the chemical cabinet, dousing me in the chemicals as I was electrocuted. Not the most thrilling way to get your powers. Strangely enough, though, the same way Barry got his. He was in his lab at the police station when the same thing happened."
"What are the odds of that?" Kaldur asked, leaning forward on his bed, all traces of tears faded by that point in the conversation. That was something good at least. Thank goodness the other two showed up when they did.
Wally smiled, "Not very high, honestly."
"So, did you go to the camps with this Josh kid?" Robin asked.
"Nah, I went to the hospital first. I was in a mini coma. I woke up around the same time they got the test results showing that I'd become a meta. That's when they put me on the bus. I think Cameron and I were the only kids on that bus. And Josh must have ended up in one of the other barracks because he wasn't in mine and I don't really remember seeing him around. I didn't really look for him all that hard, though. I guess I never thought to," Wally shrugged.
"Huh," Roy said, expression endlessly fascinated.
Wally was about to say more, but a voice from his comms interrupted him, "Hey, you want to come down to Gar's room? Him and Harold are having a freak out and me and Hal don't entirely know what to do."
He responded back, "Be there in a sec, Cam." He turned to the others, "Sorry, I've got to deal with this."
"Don't worry about it. Go ahead and go!" Robin said.
Kaldur gave him a worried look, "Do you need me to do anything?"
Wally smiled at him, "Nah, man. Just hang out with these two. I'll hold the fort today. You deserve a little bit of a break." Kaldur gave him a wan smile in return.
Finally being given an exit path (and being surprised at the fact that, for a while there, he hadn't even wanted one), Wally raced out of the room, bolting through the hallways towards the Circus's quarters. He stopped at Gar's room, skidding a little bit and being forced to backtrack a couple feet in order to actually make it into the room.
His heart plummeted at the sight he walked in to. Harold was full-on sobbing, arms wrapped around his head and knees tucked to his chest, electricity arcing up and down his body, preventing the hovering Hal from comforting his cousin. Garfield had changed himself into the form of a tiny, green spider and had tucked himself into a shaking little ball in the corner of the ceiling.
Cameron stared at him, eyes wide and skin frosting over just slightly in distress, "I don't know what's going on."
"Do we know what triggered this?" Wally asked. He walked over to grab the desk chair, rolling it over towards where Garfield was curled up.
"Not for certain?" Cameron hedged.
Sending him a look even as he motioned for Cameron to hold the chair steady, Wally probed, "What do you think triggered this?"
Biting his lip, Cameron shrugged, "I mean, we ran into those Collection Agents. That, uh, wasn't the greatest."
"You what?" Wally barely avoided screeching as he carefully climbed onto the chair and quickly scooped Garfield up. He paused his conversation with Cameron for a moment to gently speak to Garfield, "Hey, buddy, can you shift into something a little bigger? I've still got you, but I don't want to accidentally squish you, alright?" There was a pause before the spider in his hands shifted into a small green kitten. The kitten crawled up his chest, kneading briefly at his shoulder before settling there. Wally was forced to quickly settle a hand under the kitten's butt as it started to slide down his shoulder. Garfield mewed piteously before crawling back down Wally's chest, forcing him to cradle the kitten as he made his own little bed out of Wally's arms. It was only seconds before Garfield fell asleep there.
Turning back to Cameron, he repeated sharply, "You what?"
"No one told you?" Cameron blinked curiously.
Glaring, Wally retorted, "They were probably expecting you to tell me!" Cameron winced. Sighing, Wally turned his attention back to Harold. He settled his arm over Harold's shoulder, ignoring the first initial bursts of electricity. If you just ignored it for a minute or so, Harold's body automatically lowers the charge of it. It certainly hurt for that minute, but it was worth it to make Harold feel better. Besides, Wally had had worse before.
As soon as the push of electricity against his skin lessened, Wally swept Harold into a bigger hug, pulling him as tightly against his skin as he could without interrupting Garfield's sleeping form.
He continued to cradle Harold against him until the younger teen stopped crying, falling into his own fitful sleep. Carefully, Wally extracted himself from Harold's hold, picking him up in one arm and transferring him to his cousin, "Usually when he wakes up from this kind of crying, he's got a headache and he's pretty thirsty, so you should probably be prepared for that. Make sure he knows that he's safe and that you are not going to let the Collection Agency ever touch him again. He's going to be worried, so I recommend sparring with him. Do some light exercises, practice some moves. Do something productive that makes him feel like he's doing something to prepare should the Collection Agency every try to get him again. Also, get him out of Gar's room and back to his own or yours or whatever. Anything to make him more comfortable."
He swept out of the room after that, Cameron trailing after him. When he made it to Kelvin's room, he knocked quietly. Kelvin opened the door slowly, obviously having already gone to bed. He squinted at them, hair ruffled from sleep, "What's up?"
"Gar's having a bad night. He's asleep now and he should be for a while. Can you keep an eye on him? Call me if he's really distressed when he wakes up. I'll be there if you need me," Wally said, lightly thrusting the sleeping kitten into Kelvin's arms.
The man easily collected Garfield's kitten form, cradling him as Garfield let out another pitiful meow before settling back into sleep. He looked back at Wally, "Anyone else I need to worry about?"
"Hal's got Harold, so we'll see how that one goes. I've got Cam, so you shouldn't have to worry about anyone else," Wally answered, ignoring Cameron squawking indignantly behind him. Kelvin gave him a wan, sleepy smile before gently closing his door, bringing Garfield fully into his room.
Wally dragged Cameron back to Cam's room, stalking ahead of him easily. He waited until the door was closed behind them to fully attack. Wally yanked Cameron into a hug, holding him as tightly as possible. For a second, Cameron froze against him (literally – frost coating over the floor and Wally's clothes) before he melted into the touch, bringing his own arms up to wrap around Wally's midsection.
Cameron closed his eyes and settled into the hug, letting out one small hitching breath. Wally swallowed against the tears threatening to fall, "I can't believe I almost lost you."
Cameron jerked in his hold, "You didn't almost lose us, Walls. We can take care of ourselves. We're not scared little kids. We've got training and backup now. There was no way that Collection Agency could get us."
"The Agency got the Titans and they're more well-trained than us. They have more members than we do. They lived in a veritable fortress," Wally argued, heart racing at the idea that members of his team had fought the Collection Agency and he hadn't been there to protect them.
Cameron sighed against him, "You can't protect us from everything, Wally. I know you're our leader and our saviour, but you can't protect us from everything. And that's not such a bad thing, you know. Things like this? We need to face those fears. On our own. I needed to know that I could be faced with a Collection Agent and be able to hold my ground, be able to protect my family. And I did. We made it. We took them down easily. I know Gar and Harold are freaked and, yeah, so am I, but truthfully? It was worth it."
"Doesn't mean I can't be scared," Wally grumbled, heartrate slowing back down at Cameron's words. Maybe he couldn't protect them from everything. It couldn't stop him from trying, though.
He sighed as the thought reminded him of the conversation he'd been having with the three heroes earlier. Where would they all go when (if) this was all over? Would they separate? Kelvin had his parents and his little sister to go home to. Lorraine had her father. Harold would be able to stay with Hal, maybe find his parents (recently, Harold and Hal had, together, come up with the idea that maybe Harold's parents were metas too and they'd been taken by the Collection Agency; the horrible record-keeping at the camps made it impossible to test that theory). Garfield said that Mentos (who was leading the Doom Patrol at the moment) would, legally, have to take him in, but he never sounded particularly thrilled by the idea. It seemed like Dinah would settle in somewhere in Star City to be closer to Oliver. The two lovebirds had only gotten closer in the weeks following the battle at the Watchtower.
But the rest of them? Wally, Cameron, and Jinx. Where would they go? Jinx had no one out there and Cameron's only person was in jail. Would Wally's family be willing to take the other two in? Would the other two live at the headquarters?
The thought of not living with the rest of the Circus broke Wally's heart. The month he'd spent as a prisoner of the Team had been agonising to him. He'd been constantly wondering where his team was, how they were doing. Were they eating enough?
Some days, Wally wished they could just move to Holo City at the end of all of this. Would that be so bad? They'd certainly be happy there. Well, Kelvin still had his family, but he'd lived on his own anyways. Maybe Wally could convince the Justice League to install a zeta tube in Holo City, one that the metahumans could use to get home. Or he'd just keep the job where teleporters could earn favours by bringing people to certain places. If Harold's parents were metas, then they could move to Holo City, too. Hal could come visit sometimes. It wasn't like he'd spend all of his time with them anyways. They could all stay together.
But even as he thought it, Wally knew how impractical it was. It wasn't right to need to cling to the others this much. He knew it was a bad thing, that the separation anxiety that itched under his skin every time he was away from his team was a sign of deeper issues. He knew that. He just didn't know how to fix it. Probably some form a therapy, he admitted to himself wryly. They all probably needed some sort of therapy.
It just… Wally had spent so many years of his lift watching the people around him die that the thought of anyone else he cared about leaving was… an insurmountable fear. He couldn't handle anyone else dying. He just couldn't. It would break him. More than the camps did, more than living this life did, more than that memory coma did, more than the Light did. Losing someone else would break him.
In the end, when Cameron finally broke down, heart breaking whimper by heart breaking whimper, all Wally could do was hold him close.
VVVVVV
Vandal growled at the notes in front of him. How could this be possible? What had he missed? Where was the Circus getting this much support from? He'd assumed that the other group – the Alliance – would have some connections, but not this many. This was ridiculous!
Disgusted, Vandal tossed the notes back onto the table. Public favour was swinging in the wrong direction too quickly, too efficiently for him to block it. It was too soon for this to be happening, far too soon. There were still arrangements that needed to be made. His communication with the Reach had only just started. He hadn't gotten nearly far enough in the negotiations to initiate the next stage of his plan. Besides, Luthor was still in jail and wouldn't be able to completely orchestrate the machinations necessary to fully utilize the Reach.
He'd have to change his plans. He'd have to completely alter them. Rubbing his forehead briefly in consternation, Vandal tried to calm down. This was what they were planning. The heroes were trying to make him angry enough to make a mistake. He was too old for that, however. Too powerful, too smart.
Their little trick wasn't going to work. He had more allies, more power, and more intelligence on his side. His plan would work. He would make sure of it.
Author's Note: By the way! Remember Josh? I mentioned him in, like, the prologue and this chapter. Whoever can correctly guess his father first gets the next chapter dedicated to them! Thanks, as always, for reading!
