Praetor
Ch. 4
Author: Miss Lizz
Rating: R for many themes and as many dreams
Disclaimer: Be there a true reason for writing this? As yet I own nothing at all.
Notes: This is the true grit of the story and partly why I sort of glossed over the action scenes in the first three chapters. Sooth, those were plot elements but only marginal and I didn't really consider them that great a part of the whole.
I'm sorry for those who hoped for an action-packed story. The real essence of this story is mainly an impossible romance (yes, I know. I'm a girl, I have to add romance to everything ^^). I beg you for understanding, not condemnation.
The KrakenBelow the thunders of the upper deep;
Far, far beneath the abysmal sea.
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battering upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
Far above the troubled planet, on its lone moon, he stood in his darkened room staring down at a yellowing, crinkling envelope. Should he bother giving it to her? Would she even care? Probably not but it was the only way he could say good-bye and that was all he wanted to do. It was all he should be allowed… whether anyone cared or not.
She was still sleeping in her chambers when he quietly let himself in, lightly touching her mind in a sort of farewell gesture. He wasn't ready to leave yet, though. There was still the letter he had wanted to give her for years and today he could do so without fear of destroying a friendship when it would end anyway. Watching her sleep was almost calming to the maelstrom his mind and feelings were currently wallowing in and after several minutes of time he admitted to himself were wasted and should have been used he was nearly ready to leave for good.
He listened to her slow, steady heartbeat and even breathing and felt a great swell of poignant sadness deep in his chest. Hoping she wouldn't awaken, he gently brushed a stray wisp of hair from her face; no longer able to resist the temptation, he also brushed his lips lightly over her cheek. He'd wanted to kiss her for years. This was the closest he could ever hope for or ever dare to try.
This thing should never have been. It was wrong, unheard of, how dare he ever had felt anything remotely like this. There was no hope and yet he still had the audacity to dream.
"Goodbye, Diana… I love you," it was spoken in a deep, soft whisper and he left.
J'onn? Diana struggled up through the veils of sleep and opened her eyes. There was no one here but she could have sworn she felt his presence and… his lips? She touched her cheek in puzzlement, why would he kiss her? Dream, perhaps? There was no way she could have dreamed something like that, he'd been so sad, like he was never going to see her again. By the gods, that could not have been a dream.
It was then she saw the envelope with her name written on the front in J'onn's neat scrawl and knew of a certain it was no dream. Oh no… this sort of note could only mean one thing, he wasn't coming back.
She grabbed the letter and bolted for the teleporters, hoping she could catch him before he left. She was not going to let him do whatever he was planning on, the world needed him, the League needed him, and so did she. With everything that was happening, he had never been needed more, so where did he think he was going? He wasn't the type to run away from anything. It wasn't that. What in Hera's name was he doing? Why has he not told anyone? If he had left her a letter, he was not planning on surviving whatever might befall him.
Diana ran into the teleporter room just in time to watch his body shimmer into nonexistence. Finding out where he had gone to, she followed him, determined to get an explanation for his actions. The Amazon saw her friend disappear through the roof of a shop and immediately followed him. Why had he come to London?
It was a small, cramped, and dark place that reeked of ancient magick and mildew, it was also empty in the front room. She could barely hear voices from the back, one deep and melodious. It was J'onn. Finally.
When she burst into the even smaller room, all she saw was an old woman but no sign of the Martian. The woman, a wizened old creature, looked at her and mumbled something about truth and gestured toward a shimmering, heretofore unnoticed mirror hung in the dusty corner.
"Be on wi' ye then, girl. Through the mirror! Hurry! Look after the boy err he'll never know."
Diana had almost no idea what that meant but tentatively plunged through the mirror regardless, determined to find J'onn and quite willing to travel to another realm to do it. She emerged into a sun-dappled forest and came face to face with a very irritated Martian Manhunter. He glared down at her and suddenly she felt very small and totally unprepared for what she had not planned out enough to do. How was she to bring him back?
Nothing but concern laced his voice, "You should not have come. Please, go back and help the others, they need you," he paused and looked at her outfit like he had never seen it before. "You've… changed."
"Wh—?" She looked down at herself and realized he was right; her usual outfit was replaced with Viking war goddess' suit of armour. It was the only way she could think to describe it. She hadn't even noticed… but J'onn had changed too. Where hers was plates of metal, his outfit was a sleeveless tunic of chain mail that actually hung to mid-thigh, belted with a broad black leather belt, and he was wearing simple cross-gartered breeches. "So have you."
He folded his arms and continued to gaze down at her. "It's… fitting but you should never have followed me."
"What if you had needed help?"
He didn't answer he at first, when he did it frightened her, "We all have to die sometime." His voice lowered, "Go home, Diana, please. The others need you."
"We need you too. I'm not going back without you." She suddenly became angry, "J'onn, why the hell didn't you tell anyone where you were going?"
"I was told to go alone," he didn't let her ask the next question that formed in her mind, doubtless he already knew it, "by Death and Dream of the Endless. The one behind all the destruction is here and I've been charged with stopping it. I didn't want to see any of the others, or you, die; the world needs you all. There are people who need you."
"What about you?"
He stared at her, through her, with his sad, soul-searching eyes for a heartrending amount of time. His expression was largely unreadable, "What about me?" J'onn launched himself into the air.
What about me, those words chilled her to the bone; he truly did not think he would survive this and he cared not!
She took off after him, racing over the treetops to catch up, barely paying attention to her surroundings. If the situation were different, she might have stopped and stared in complete wonder at the landscape around her of lavender sky, turquoise forest, and medieval castles. As it was, all her attention was focused on J'onn and getting him to stop for even a moment since it was unlikely she could catch him.
"J'ONN!" How can that idiot think no one needs him? "J'ONN, STOP!!"
Go back, Diana. You can't help me, no one can. No one should. And I know no one needs me.
Wanna bet?He sighed and stopped to face her. She flew right up into his face and barely kept her voice from reaching a scream.
"How can you think that, you stubborn fool!? Believe it or not, there are people who need you! And we need you living!" She pounded a fist on his chest once before he caught her wrist.
"Diana, stop." His voice never rose from its deep quietness, "I have to do this. This creature has already killed countless millions; I won't let him kill anymore. If given the same chance, you would do the same as I but I must go alone. There's nothing you can do that will stop me, so just go back and help the others with the survivors. Go home," he urged, "I have no choice but to do this alone—"
She slapped him with her free hand, "No you don't! I'm coming with you whether you like it or not so stop fighting me!" She felt like hitting him again when she paused for whatever he might say to that.
He let go of her wrist however, "Trying to fight you would be like trying to extinguish the sun." He said it very quietly and she suddenly felt ashamed for slapping him. "Just don't interfere."
So he wasn't pushing her leaving, it was apparently the only concession he was going to make but she was hardly considering it a victory. "I'll interfere if I feel the need to stop you from committing suicide," I need you too much to see you dead.
J'onn was merely shaking his head, slowly drawing away from her, "No. You won't."
That stubborn idiot! She growled, forgetting her earlier shame and wondered strongly if she could get away with hitting him again.
End Ch 4
Please, if you review this disaster of a story, do so politely with a modicum of regard for my feelings (by the gods that was selfish…). After this, I'm honestly not sure if anyone will want other chapters. If you do, the next several chapters will be more intense and in-depth of several of the things that have gone before.
I'm sorry.
Miss Lizz