CHAPTER 5 of 7
John stared out the thick Plexiglass window to the pinpoints of light beyond. Over the years, he'd spent hours looking at the stars with Shayera. It didn't matter if they were simply standing on the Watch Tower's observation deck, sitting atop a high rise in Gotham or entwined in his bed, they would look at the night sky and talk about the worlds beyond.
He told her of the alien worlds he protected in the Green Lantern Corps -- the battles being of particular interest to her. She would describe Thanagar and talk of her desire to return.
Fleetingly, he wondered how much of her description was a complete fabrication.
He pushed thoughts of her duplicity away, instead concentrating on the fact that the closer they grew together, the less wistful she sounded when talking of Thanagar. Her wish to go back morphed from wanting to leave Earth permanently to simply wanting him to join her on a trip there.
His mouth quirked into a rueful smile. He could just picture them packing a couple over-night bags and heading to the slums of Thanagar for a weekend of head-busting. After their Christmas bar brawl, John was quite certain Shayera would love a vacation like that.
Unfortunately, she wouldn't be going back to Thanagar.
Ever.
"I hate waiting," Flash grumbled, zipping from one side of the room to the other.
Until he spoke, John had almost been able to ignore the constant movement. Almost.
"You think she'll pull through?" the hyper young man asked. He was like some sort of bright red Jack Russell Terrier. Always in need of attention, endlessly bouncing.
It would be very easy to silence an unaware Flash with a quick zap from his ring, and Green Lantern balled his fists tighter to resist the impulse.
Flash came to a sudden stop beside Lantern. "What's taking them so long?"
John's eyes narrowed. Hell if he knew.
J'onn J'onzz, the League's resident medic, enlisted Wonder Woman's help with Shayera when the group arrived at the Watch Tower three hours earlier. The Martian planned to use a mix of alien and Earth procedures to, with luck, repair Shayera's injuries and save her life.
In the meantime, John and Flash were relegated to waiting in the lounge.
Flash flopped in a nearby chair and sighed. "Man, she took that thing out without even using that mace of hers. I wonder how she managed it."
John's fists relaxed. Flash raised an interesting question. How had Shayera managed to defeat the robot? He and Wonder Woman arrived in time to see an explosion and the resulting fire. But how the fire started and how the robot ended up in the middle of it, he wasn't certain. With any luck, Batman would find the clues he needed to put the puzzle together and find out who sent the robot on its rampage to begin with.
The important thing was, Shayera brought the enemy down effectively. The city was safe and no one had died in the process.
Not yet, anyway.
John's fists clinched again.
In the reflection of the window, he saw J'onn and Diana enter the room. A gripping fear squeezed his heart and immobilized him fully. He couldn't turn around to see their expressions. He wasn't completely sure he could handle the news anyway.
Flash, however, leapt to his feet in an instant. "Well?"
"She will survive," J'onn announced.
John's shoulders visibly sagged as the weight of the world lifted from him.
XXXXX
When Shayera once again became aware and an all-encompassing pain racked her body, she couldn't be sure if she was alive or dead.It was entirely possible she was the victim of Hades' Underworld...or some other equally distasteful version of Hell...where she would be agonizingly and endlessly punished for her numerous sins in life. She did, after all, have memory of hot flames licking her feathers.
Her eyes cracked open to confirm her surroundings. But instead of fire and brimstone, she saw what looked to be the medical facilities of the Watch Tower. It didn't make sense, though, as she knew the Watch Tower was destroyed.
A pang of guilt gripped her heart. Yes, add that to the list of sins, she mentally ordered Hades. She had to admire the Ruler of the Underworld for his ability to create such an accurate and personalized torture.
Finding she could once again take a deep breath, she did so and sighed. She'd been hoping that death was a vast nothingness. But, if eternal damnation was her fate, then so be it.
Through her agony, Shayera tried to sit up to bravely get on with her infinite torment. After all, there was no point in laying about when there was justice to be served.
When she became entangled in wires and tubes she realized that perhaps she was wrong. New evidence indicated that she wasn't in the Underworld after all.
Memories started to trickle back. She remembered a robot...an explosion...begging John...darkness...
It was then she fully realized what transpired. Her eyebrows sunk into a frown. They had no right to do this. She never asked them to save her. In fact, she was quite certain she specifically told them to let her die.
Irritated, she shoved herself to a sitting position, ignoring the excruciating pain the action caused. She yanked away the oxygen tube, ripped off heart monitoring sensors and pulled an IV needle from her wrist.
It was ridiculous. What did they think they were doing? She swung her feet off the bed and stood up. Her head swooned. Always have to be heroes, she concluded, forcing the nausea and dizziness away as she stumbled away from the bed.
An overdose of pills, a well-placed scalpel slice, an injection of something lethal...there were plenty of options open to her if she could only make it to the storage cabinets. Minutes later she'd crossed the few feet between the bed and cabinets and paused to lean her head against a cupboard door. Her right arm snaked tightly around her sore ribs in an attempt to ease the pain of breathing.
When she recovered enough to continue, she grasped a handle and pulled. The cabinet didn't open. She gave another yank, but still it didn't give way.
Angered, she shuffled to the next door. It, too, was locked. As was the next and the next. She tried all the drawers but found them locked as well.
Having only a tiny fraction of her normal strength, she couldn't force the locks or smash the metal doors. She let out a frustrated cry as she used her remaining energy to jerk unsuccessfully at a drawer handle.
Defeated and exhausted, she plopped down on a stool and stared out the large window, watching the Earth turn below. Unlike the last time she looked out this very window -- or at least the window's doppelganger -- this time her eyes were on the planet instead of a distant star. Also unlike last time, she couldn't feel John's arms wrapped around her, but instead very tight bandages.
Her eyes traveled down to the medical gown she wore. Her fingers trailed over her chest and sides, feeling the elastic bandages beneath the fabric. Her anger flared again.
She looked out the window once more and realized she had one final option. Rising slowly to her feet, Shayera made her way to the door.
XXXXX
"Sabotage by Mega-Co," Batman said in a low tone over the monitor. "The robot was built by Lex Corp. From my understanding, it was quite revolutionary. Speed, accuracy, strength. Workers would be able to construct a building in half the time by using it. Yesterday was the first use. One of Mega-Co's executives hired someone to reprogram it, sending it on its rampage.""Do you know who these people are yet?" Green Lantern asked, his intentions obvious.
"Yes," the Dark Knight responded, but didn't offer up names.
"Interesting," J'onn said. "Mega-Co was willing to kill dozens of people to stop Lex Corp from advancing technology?"
"Pretty pathetic," Flash commented.
"Indeed," J'onn muttered.
"I'll take care of this," Batman said. Before he terminated the connection, he looked back into the camera. "I hope she recovers quickly."
The screen went black before anyone could respond.
"Ooo...Bats all warm and fuzzy," Flash grinned.
"If you would excuse me," the Martian said suddenly, "I need to check on the patient." He phased out and sank through the floor.
XXXXX
Her breathing labored, Shayera leaned heavily against the bulkhead, finally at her destination. The trip from the medical bay took the last ounces of strength she had. Her knees were so wobbly she could barely stand.It didn't matter that she had no reserves left because her one-way trip was nearly over. She needed only to input a pass code and step through the air lock.
With a shaky finger, she poked a series of numbers on the keypad. The tiny screen on the pad notified her of an invalid entry and advised her to re- enter the pass code. Groaning, she pressed the sequence of numbers again. For a second time, the screen rejected her code and asked her to re-enter. After a third failed attempt, Shayera whimpered and weakly smacked the keypad with her fist. On a normal day, the pad would have been a crushed pile of circuits. Today, however, it didn't even suffer so much as a loose key.
Shayera closed her eyes and dropped her head against the wall, too weak to remain standing but too stubborn to slide to the floor.
"We don't have the same access codes," J'onn informed her when he rematerialized after sinking through the ceiling next to her.
Not bothering to look at him, Shayera spoke to her bare feet. "Let me out."
"Your body is not equipped to handle the vacuum of space without proper attire," he said.
"That would be the point," she needlessly countered.
"I am disappointed," J'onn said. "I worked very hard to repair your injuries, yet you do not appear to appreciate my effort."
Shayera shook her head, finally raising it from the wall to look at the Martian. "Why did you even bother? Any of you?" she asked, acknowledging the sudden arrival of Flash.
"We don't leave colleagues behind," Flash said.
Her green eyes blazed as her anger sparked. "I'm not your colleague. I'm a traitor, remember?" she spat. "Dangerous, untrustworthy and dishonorable."
Flash's jaw dropped slightly. "No, you're not. I saw you today..."
"We do not need to discuss this now," J'onn intervened. He reached out and physically turned Shayera back toward the medical bay.
She raged at his audacity. Had she not been totally devoid of strength, she would have punched him straight through the bulkhead.
As it was, he seemed to take full advantage of the situation and steered her in the direction he wanted her to go. "You need to recover."
"There are other ways," she informed him, low and lethal.
"I will restrain you, then," he said calmly as he led her up the hall.
"I won't eat."
"You can be force-fed," he informed her.
From behind her, Shayera heard Flash ask, "Are you serious?"
"Deadly serious," she replied.
XXXXX
Diana just handed John a steaming cup of coffee when a sonic boom echoed through the monitor center.Flash skidded to a halt in front of Green Lantern and without preamble, announced what he'd seen. "Hawkgirl just tried to kill herself."
John's expression hardened even as his heart stopped. "What?" He studied Flash' eyes, denying what he saw there. "You're joking."
"Would I joke about something like that?" the young man asked.
"For your sake, I hope not," Wonder Woman cautioned him.
"I was there," Flash stated emphatically.
John shook his head, refusing to believe. "No, she..."
"She tried to go out the air lock." Flash crossed his arms over his chest and scowled.
Had John not already been sitting, he would have collapsed to the ground. Barely snatched from the jaws of death and she was already trying to throw herself back into the maw.
"What the fuck is wrong here?" Flash said for him, clearly enraged.
"Sometimes," Wonder Woman began, "death is the only option."
Flash huffed. "Fine thing coming from an immortal."
"There is honor in dying in battle," she told him.
"Tossing herself out an airlock isn't battle!" Flash countered.
"No, it isn't," John said numbly, looking at his teammates. "But we took that opportunity from her by brining her here, didn't we?"
Flash's mouth hung open but no protest came out. Diana lowered her eyes and nodded.
To Be Continued...