Author's Notes: This story is set after "Starcrossed" and turns AU. This fanfic is in continuity with my other stories "Queen of Hearts" and "Half For You, Half For Me." I suppose for complete understanding of this tale you'd have to read those stories of mine in that order. I hope you enjoy this story and please leave a review.

Disclaimer: Justice League doesn't belong to me.

No Longer There

Chapter 2

Still it is dark, the sky a dark blanket of bluish-black with thousands of stars dotting its surface, and J'onn gazes at them, trying to imitate their peacefulness. The screams inside his mind have finally died down in his head, replaced by the gentle crashing of the waves upon the beach. The Martian is tempted to slip back into his natural form without the boots so that he could savor the feel of the sand's grains between his toes, pretend that he was back on Mars...

But it is a foolish thought, one to be easily crushed, and so it is done. J'onn hadn't even been able to bring himself to take the Javelin-when it still existed-on a trip to Mars, so how could he possibly pretend?… 5 years away from Mars, the Martian could hardly believe he had survived through it. A nagging voice at the back of his head whispered he shouldn't have been so surprised, he had survived through the damn Imperium's war...

Of course, the first couple of years on Earth were rough for J'onn, not one with a good taste for imprisonment. At the time, memories of past prisons conducted by the Invaders had rushed into his head as the humans stuck needles into his skin... The humans were not as forceful as the Invaders, their methods lacking the same torturous effects, but they were still the same; they were simply weaker, but no less scarring for him. Scarring in more ways than one, the Martian gained a healthy coldness toward all humanity, making the necessary exceptions, but still…he would protect them, of course, but while doing so with distaste most of the time. And then the Invaders finally made their move...

Fortunately for him, after the second Invasion the next 3 years on Earth for J'onn were better: he had a family again. Although for his family, if they judged based on his surface emotions alone, they wouldn't have believed that for J'onn those three years were the best ones he had been through in a long time. Yes, they were punctuated by the nightmares at night and the suffocating fears of losing another family, and of course human prejudices, but for the most part the Martian had enjoyed his years on Earth: they were so much better than the wartime years after his family's death, better than the years of isolation after the Invaders' state of suspended animation...

J'onn comes to a complete stop, his musings interrupted by a familiar shadow. A winged shadow. Slowly, his heart hammering against his chest, he traces the shadow to its origin: Shayera, standing on the stretch of beach ahead of him, staring at the ocean with emotionless eyes. Impossibility and possibility raged against each other in his mind, fighting over whether or not Shayera could really be here or not. J'onn would like to believe, and takes a few steps forward before stopping, uncertainty gripping him; the Thanagarian hasn't moved an inch. The Martian decides to end the debate with his telepathy, beginning to edge closer to her mind; thanks to his final encounter with Kragger, Thanagarian minds were accessible to him.

J'onn's mind stretches forward, and to his surprise gains easy access to his target, but a chill runs down his spine as an eerie familiarity twists itself around his heart, almost crushing it; this wasn't Shayera. Yes, that much was clear that this was an imposter, but the familiarity…it couldn't be him, it just couldn't, not him-

"Why not little brother," asks the Thanagarian imposter innocently in a deepening masculine voice, clearly reading the Martian's mind. The imposter's skin stretches, turning green, his bones crackling as they grow taller and longer, emerald eyes turning into orbs of soft reddish-orange rimmed by black, crimson hair and feather wings disappearing. Nausea swells in J'onn's stomach as he continues to watch the imposter's transformation into his true form, a form that brings memories crashing onto the Martian, burying him. It can't be him, it can't be him... The imposter's dressed now, garbed in black with large, gray chains encircling his body in an odd fashion, and his transformation is complete. The imposter's appearance is just like his, the only difference being the clothes. J'onn feels as if he's looking into a mirror, and he's felt that before, but that was so long ago...

"It has been a long time, hasn't it," says the imposter, agreeing with the thought he had read from J'onn's mind, who manages to hoarsely whisper "Ma'alefa'ak" before the one who owned that name, the imposter, finally pounces oh him, fingers sharpening into claws, fangs sprouting forth.