"So your estranged wife still lives at your lighthouse," Jason deadpanned as Kon, Arthur, and him all stared at the Amnesty Bay lighthouse. A building familiar to both time-travelers, as Kaldur had started living here at the behest of the royal family after he took up the Aquaman mantle. He had protested, of course, but again, Atlanna's word was law to Kaldur. He had served the young queen since the death of her father, protecting her as her bodyguard for several years before Garth decided to retire as Aquaman to an ambassadorial role. Even then Kaldur had refused to succeed him until Atlanna herself made it clear it was her wish.
Arthur ignored him. But of course, he had been ignoring both of them since they had teleported down to Amnesty Bay. Neither of them took offense. They were well aware of how difficult this period of time had been for the first Aquaman. The death of his baby son, the deterioration of his marriage, and the constant wear of having to rule a kingdom that would never really accept him thanks to his hybrid heritage — all heroes suffered, but very few had as much as Arthur Curry. It was no wonder he had become so hard, cold, jaded, which was why they were refraining from revealing too much of his future. Not just because of the possibility of Kaldur coming back as well, but also because they didn't know how he would react to the information. His reconciliation with Mera, his daughter Atlanna, her marriage to Ceredian…and Kaldur. The lynchpin of it all.
When Arthur Curry had first learned of Kaldur'ahm, he had just been revived from the dead after the events of Blackest Night and was reeling from the truth of his wife Mera. Most of all, however, he had time to heal from his losses, to see past the boy's biological father — a father Kaldur never knew until he became Aqualad. If he hadn't done that, then Xebel would've successfully invaded the surface world and there would have been millions of casualties as a result.
That was not the case here. The situation might've been pressing, but they still had no idea what the threat was, if there was a threat. And the loss of Arthur Curry, Jr. was still fresh in the Arthur's mind. In his wife's mind as well. Even though Mera knew of Kaldur's existence, her reaction to the reminder of it was unlikely to be receptive. In short, this was a difficult situation that was unlikely to end well.
But what choice did they have?
There was a knock on the door. The sound of someone coming down the stairs. A slight creak — and then a slam. Then a collective sigh from the males present. "Mera!" Arthur shouted again. "Please, open the door! We need to talk, it's urgent!"
No answer.
Jason groaned. "Okay, we don't have time for this. Move aside," he ordered Aquaman, taking out a lockpick. It took seconds to jimmy the door open, and Jason had to duck to dodge a blast of water that nearly brained him. Kon blocked the rest of the water blast with a telekinetic shield, causing the water to splash harmlessly against it before sliding down.
The three peered inside to see Mera, eyes glowing blue and with a glob of water floating threateningly above her. "Get. Out," she hissed.
"Mera, no. We need to talk," Arthur insisted.
"And I said we're done talking. I…" Mera slumped her shoulders, and the ball of water splashed onto her. "I can't talk to your right now. I can't."
Arthur swallowed. "It's not about that, Mera. It's not about us."
"Then what is it about?"
"Kaldur'ahm."
Mera's head snapped up and she stared hard at Jason and Kon, who had stepped into the lighthouse behind Arthur. Arthur shifted away so they could be in Mera's view. "How do you know that name?" Mera whispered.
"It's a long story, one that we don't have time to divulge to you completely, your majesty," Kon told her apologetically. "But suffice to say, we need to know where he is. We have reason to believe he might be in danger."
"No," Mera denied, shaking her head. "He's safe. He's in Atlantis with his mother and foster father, and no one knows who he is. And it will stay that way."
"We all know that isn't true, your majesty," Jason replied, keeping his voice gentle. "The fact that we're here is proof enough. We need to find him and bring him to safety."
"Even so, I cannot…" Mera inhaled deeply once more, "I cannot bring you to him. I'm not sure I could bear to look at him right now. Nor do I think you would be able to, Arthur."
Arthur frowned. "You all have been cagey with information about Kaldur'ahm. Why is that?" He narrowed his eyes. "What are you hiding, Mera?"
Mera gulped. Jason and Kon traded another look, before Jason's gaze settled on the shaking form of the Atlantean Queen. "He needs to know the truth, your majesty. We know how it hard to be to tell him, especially now after…everything. But this is urgent. We need to find Kaldur'ahm now."
Once more, the queen sighed. "Fine. Arthur, there's no easy way to say this, but I'm not Atlantean. At least, not in the purest sense."
A moment of silence, and then… "What?"
Jason and Kon remained in the background as they listened to a story that had long-known. A story about a princess from a sealed kingdom in the Bermuda Triangle, that had been taught to hate Atlanteans and sent to kill their king. Only to fall in love with the king, giving up her mission to kill him and marrying him. They could see the conflict on Arthur's face — Mera and him had been married for years, and it was only now he was beginning to learn all of this.
When it was all over, Arthur was seated on his couch, head in his hands. "Why didn't you tell me about this? About any of this?" he demanded his wife.
"Because I thought it didn't matter anymore," Mera confessed. "Xebel is sealed away, never to be released, and thus there was no one to beholden me to my old mission. No one who knew the truth, except for me. I loved you, Arthur. I…I still love you. And I wanted to stay with you, so I did."
"Mera…" Arthur glared up at his wife, though it was weak. He didn't know what to think about this. About any of it. But even so, there was still a mission at hand. "Then what of Kaldur'ahm? Who is he? Why is he so important?"
Mera looked down. "There is a treasure in Xebel. From a pirate captain who had been banished there several centuries ago and died in our dimension. We assign Xebelians to guard it, and the most recent one was a woman by the name of Sha'lain'a. She was beautiful with golden hair, and she took the duty of guarding the treasure seriously. Or, at least she did."
"A human had learned of the legend of the treasure and had managed to slip through the barriers and enter Xebel searching for it. He seduced Sha'lain'a and impregnated her, hoping to use their child to access it. Sha'lain'a, however, suspected the truth and ran off with another man she had fallen in love with to escape him, along with artifact needed to access the treasure. I…helped them, and hid them in Atlantis, where they have been raising their child in peace for the last fourteen years."
"And this child is Kaldur'ahm," Arthur concluded.
"Yes," Mera confirmed.
"There's more to this, isn't there? More that you're hiding," Arthur accused her, before whipping his head to glare at his companions. "Something that you're all hiding. What is it?"
"Aquaman—"
"ANSWER ME!"
The fierceness of his bellow sent Mera reeling and gave even Jason and Kon pause. The three of the unconsciously exchanged another look, debating who among them would tell the truth. Finally, it was Mera who spoke.
"It's about Kaldur's father, Arthur."
Arthur narrowed his eyes further. "The human after the treasure? What of him?"
"He's—"
"Wait!"
Mera was cut off by Kon, who had inexplicably turned around and was now looking in every direction. He had a hand to his ear, which twitched. "Kon…?" Jason ventured.
"We've got incoming!" Kon answered, glaring at the air.
That put everyone on alert. "What!?" The three others shouted in unison, with Arthur quickly jumping to his feet.
Kon's eyes suddenly widened. "EVERYONE! GET BEHIND ME NOW!" He shouted urgently.
Not bothering to argue, everyone did exactly that. Kon put up a telepathic shield around all of them, just in time for the entire lighthouse to be blasted wide open with some kind of red energy beam. The surrounding walls were destroyed, and the roof was sent flying away, either onto the surrounding cliffs or into the sea. Even after the attack was over, however, Kon refused to drop the barrier. The attacker hadn't revealed themselves yet.
They waited for several moments, with Mera drawing up surrounding water from both the ground and sea while Jason drew his sticks and held them at the ready. Arthur unsheathed the trident from his back and twirled it around, holding it with both his regular hand and his hook hand. Then the smoke gradually cleared, and they stiffened.
"Black Manta," Arthur muttered in a hateful tone.
The supervillain tilted his head. "Aquaman."
"What are you doing here, Manta!" Mera demanded hotly, equally angry. "You stand no chance against all four of us! Not by yourself!"
"And that's where you're wrong, Mera," Manta taunted her. "I'm not alone."
That statement was qualified by another blast of red energy. Heat vision, everyone quickly realized. It met Kon's telekinetic barrier, heating it up with the backlash of the blocked energy and forcing Kon to drop the shield, causing the four to jump away from each other so they wouldn't get hit. They glanced up in the sky to see someone floating there — a man, with dark hair and a beard, wearing some kind of full-body suit. Arthur and Mera didn't recognize him.
Jason and Kon were a different matter.
"Zod…" Kon whispered, before his expression morphed into something determined.
"Fuck," Jason swore, trying not to automatically reach for the Kryptonite he kept in a lead casing in his utility belt. It was standard family practice to have some whenever on a mission with a Kryptonian, just in case they were brainwashed. Of course, he hadn't expected to be facing Zod of all people right now.
"Who is Zod?" Aquaman asked as he tensed himself.
"A Kryptonian criminal from the Phantom Zone," Kon explained grimly, floating up into the air. "He was the top general of Krypton, and a contemporary of Superman's father, Jor-El. Unlike the High Council, he believed Jor-El's warnings about Krypton's imminent destruction and attempted a violent coup to take over the planet in hopes of stopping it. He was defeated, and sentenced to the Phantom Zone with his followers."
"He also wasn't supposed to escape the Phantom Zone for at least another year," Jason added, shifting his sticks into their sword forms and brandishing them forward. "The fact that he's here now means something broke him out early."
"A year from now—what do you mean by that?" Mera asked, water dancing around her.
"They're time travelers, Mera," Arthur quickly revealed. "That's how they knew about Kaldur'ahm."
The lens of Manta's helmet glowed ominously. "Oh, so you finally told him about Kaldur, did you Mera?"
Arthur froze. "What does he mean by that?" he demanded his wife, suddenly forgetting the situation. "How does he know about Kaldur'ahm, Mera?"
Mera cringed. "Arthur…"
"Not everything, then," Manta concluded before she could say anything more. "That's fine — you'll find out soon enough."
"Okay, enough of the chit-chat!" Jason yelled. "Why the hell are you two here?"
"Simple, human," Zod responded as he lowered himself near the ground. "For you and the clone. Our benefactor wishes to meet you two, now that the Lantern has come back."
"You know," Kon stated, gritting his teeth.
"Not until recently," Manta admitted. "It was quite the surprise to learn about." His lens began to glow brighter. "I wonder how well you two measure up to your predecessors?"
They only had a split second warning before the beams fired. Jason and Arthur jumped to the right while Kon and Mera jumped to the left. Immediately, Mera used the water of the sea to propel herself upwards to face Zod with Kon, while Jason charged Manta with Arthur.
"And here we are!" Wally spread his arms. "Central City!"
"I can see that, Wally," Donna laughed as she followed him down the street, ignoring the looks casted their way. Even in Central City, it wasn't everyday you saw a superhero walking down the street.
It wasn't long until they reached the classic West-Allen home, the place where Barry Allen and Iris West-Allen resided together before the former's death. Wally knocked on the door and waited, tapping his foot in a slow and casual manner. Eventually, the door opened and revealed Iris West-Allen in all her glory. "Wally!" she greeted her nephew with a smile.
"Aunt Iris," Wally smiled back, pulling her into a brief hug.
After letting him go, Iris turned to Donna, still smiling. "And Donna Troy! It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Donna smiled back, though hers was of a softer variety. "It has, Mrs. West-Allen."
"Oh, pish-posh! Call me Iris! We're both adults now aren't we?"
"We are," Donna agreed.
"So why are you two here?" Iris asked, crossing her arms. "This is bit of an impromptu visit."
Upon hearing that, both superheroes winced. "Can we take this inside, Aunt Iris? It's a bit of a long story."
Jason grunted as one of his blades clashed against Manta's retractable one. He swung the other one forward, aiming for the chest, but Manta retreated back. Jason was then forced to drop to the ground to dodge another blast of the optic lasers. While he did that, Aquaman charged forward to engage his foe in one-on-one combat.
Over in the sky, Kon was using almost all of his telekinesis to augment his strength and durability so he could match Zod blow-for-blow. Without his Kryptonian powers, he couldn't afford to do anything else without risking his body. Next to him, Mera was forming various sharp weapons out of water to strike at Zod, but with his Kryptonian durability she was doing little damage.
"An abomination against true Kryptonians you may be, clone, but I must admit you are quite skilled," Zod commented as he wiped some blood off his lip, watching Kon do the same. "The idea of you succeeding Kal-El in the future is no longer so far-fetched."
"Wow. I'm glad to hear that. I'm so desperate for your approval, after all," Kon responded sarcastically.
"Cheeky little fool," Zod insulted back, before they clashed again.
Back at the battle between Aquaman and Manta, Jason watched desperately for an opening as the two arch-enemies continued to duel. The two men had elected to completely ignore him in favor of each other, and while Jason couldn't see the expression on Manta's face, he had a feeling it was no different from the snarl of hatred on Arthur's. He morphed one sword back into a stick and sheathed it, then drew out some batarangs with the other. Come on, come on, give me something here!
Ask and ye shall answer. Aquaman lost his footing thanks to a well-timed strike from Black Manta. Before Manta could stab down and finish him off, he was struck by three batarangs burying themselves into his suit. Aquaman took advantage of the opening and stabbed forward with his trident, shattering the helmet and instantly powering it off. Manta was forced to discard it, giving Arthur opportunity to blindside him and pin him down to the ground with his superior strength.
Arthur snarled in hatred as he glared down at his son's murderer. Manta ceased his struggling and smirked up at him, silently begging the other man to do it, to finally finish the job. They were locked together in that one moment, and no one else in the world existed.
"Aquaman."
The superhero turned his head to see Knight staring at him. Though he couldn't see the younger man's expression, he could feel the warning he was trying to express. Arthur glared at him, before scoffing, getting to his feet and lifting Manta up with him, holding him secure.
"Bind him, Knight," Aquaman ordered.
Gotham Knight nodded, before taking out a bola and tossing it. Arthur stepped away as the lines subdued his enemy, landing him back on the ground, completely bound. Before he could make a comment on his new state, Knight walked up to him and knocked him out with a kick to the head. "Now for the other one," he said, glancing at Arthur.
Back in the sky, Zod had Kon in a tight choke hold, one that Kon was trying to buck out of desperately. He continued elbowing Zod in the chest, causing the other man to grunt in pain, but even still, he held firm. At least until he felt sharp water pierce his back, distracting him and loosening the hold long enough for Kon to flip him over and slam him to the ground. Hard.
Zod moved to get up only to freeze as a green glow suddenly invaded the periphery of his sight. He began to seize, trying to shield himself, but the radiation was too strong, and soon he fell unconscious. On top of him, Kon winced, and let out a breath of relief after Jason finally closed the lead casing of the Kryptonite and stored it back into his belt. "Not as bad as it could have been," the hybrid commented, rubbing his arm as he got off of Zod's prone body.
"Probably because the Kryptonian-half of your DNA is still sealed," Jason noted.
"So what do we do with him?" Arthur asked as Mera landed to the ground next to him. "I doubt even you have restraints that could contain him."
"We'll call in Superman, he'll fly over to the Fortress and—"
Whatever Jason was about to say was cut off when a blast of green energy hit all four of them at the same time. They were sent reeling away from Zod, each landing into a heap on the ground. "What the—" Kon started, only to stop as the green energy encased Jason and him.
"Sorry," Hal Jordan said grimly, "but I need you two to come with me."
As the boys fruitlessly struggled to get out of the barrier, Arthur sat up and glared up at the sky. "HAL! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
Hal glanced down at his old teammate. "What I need to."
There was another flash of green light, blinding Arthur and Mera. When it was gone, so were Hal, the boys, Black Manta, and Zod.
"So you think that Wallace's future self is going to travel back in time and merge his soul with my eleven year old nephew's," Iris summed up after Wally and Donna finished their explanation. The two winced.
"There's no guarantee it will happen, Iris, but considering that we now have four time travelers and it seems to be following that pattern, it's better to be safe than sorry," Donna elaborated with an apologetic tone.
Iris nodded, pursing her lips. "Well, it's a little bit more than what we're used to dealing with, but again, better safe than sorry. I'll let you two take him."
The former Titans let out a breath of relief. "Great," Wally said, "now where is he?"
"He's up in his room, actually. We got him a new car set and he's been building it all day." Donna adopted a fond smile upon hearing that; their Wallace, always the engineer.
Iris guided the two heroes up the stairs and to a room that had a bunch of car stickers on it. She knocked on the door once, twice, and then it was opened, revealing an African American boy wearing a yellow shirt, a jacket, and some pajama pants. He looked up at them curiously, before bursting into a smile. "Wally!" he chirped, before launching himself at the Flash.
Wally laughed as he caught the boy, taking a step back so he wouldn't topple over. "Hey there, scamp!"
"You didn't say you were going to visit today!" Wallace exclaimed happily, burying his head into his cousin's chest.
The speedster's grin faded. "Yeah, but…something came up. Something big."
Wallace's exuberance dimmed, along with his smile. "Is that why you're here?"
"Yeah, Wallace," Wally admitted reluctantly. "I'd like to introduce you to someone." He shifted the boy so he was facing Donna. "This is a good friend of mine, Donna Troy."
The middle schooler's eye bulged out. "You're Troia of the Titans! Wonder Woman's sister!"
Donna laughed as she crouched down so she was eye level with the boy. "Yes I am. It's good to meet you, Wallace. Your cousin Wally and Aunt Iris have told me much about you."
"Really?" Wallace sounded amazed.
"Yes," Donna confirmed, though her smile began to fade. "You see, Wallace, we have reason to believe you might be in danger. Wally and I are here to take you and your aunt to a safe place until that danger passes. Is that okay with you?"
Wallace tilted his head, but then nodded. "Okay. If you and Wally say so."
Donna grinned. "Great! Now, what do you need from your room—"
"Well, isn't this a nice family reunion?"
Almost immediately, the Amazon stood up and pushed Wallace behind her. The three adults whirled around to see the last thing any of them wanted to see: a Reverse-Flash. Hunter Zolomon? Donna immediately thought, remembering who had donned the costume during Wally's tenure as the Flash. But no — according to Jason, Hunter Zolomon had yet to be crippled by Gorilla Grodd in this timeline. So that left—
"Thawne," Wally snarled.
"You're supposed to be dead!" Iris shouted, shuddering. Little wonder why — Thawne had tried to kill her more than once, after all.
Thawne shrugged, holding up his hands in a 'what can you do' kind of way. "What can I say? Death never really stuck well with me, you know?"
"Why are you here, Thawne?" Wally demanded. It didn't matter how the bastard got here. What mattered was why he was here, and getting the bastard away from here.
The speedster smirked, and pointed directly at Donna. "For your friend, of course. Your cousin, too."
Almost immediately, Iris latched onto Wallace, glaring at her would-be murderer. "Stay away from him! He's not going anywhere with you!"
"I beg to differ," the man countered, red electricity flickering from his eyes.
"Donna," Wally said, eyes still on Thawne.
"I know," Donna told him, before turning to Iris and Wallace. "Grab onto me. We're getting out of here."
"But what about Wally?" Wallace asked, scared for his cousin. He had heard of Eobard Thawne before, knew him to be his Uncle Barry's enemy. None of the other members of the Flash family liked to talk about him, but Wallace knew enough to be scared for his cousin.
"Your cousin has the best chance out of all of us at beating him, Wallace," Donna responded with a gentle tone. "But if we stay here, we'll only be targets and distractions for Thawne to take advantage of. We need to go."
Slowly, Wallace nodded. Donna smashed a hole into the ceiling before grabbing Iris and him around the waists and flying them up into the sky. As soon as she did, she could spot yellow and red lightning beginning to race around Central City. "Sorry for that," Donna apologized to Iris as they flew towards the direction of Keystone City. "I needed to get us out of there quick and there was no other way."
"It's fine, Donna. Nothing Wally and the others can't fix in a jiffy."
They continued to fly through the sky, heading for the direction of Wally's house with Linda. Before they could reach it, however, they found themselves stopped again, this time by a barrier of green energy. Donna paled as Hal Jordan appeared into view, looking unnaturally grim. "Hal!" Iris shrieked, in surprise.
"Iris," Hal nodded. "It's been a long time."
"What are you doing, Hal?"
Hal frowned harder. "Forgive me, Iris, but I need Donna and your nephew to come with me. Please, don't resist — I don't want to hurt any of you."
"Hal—"
She was cut off before she could finish. Hal encased all three of them in a green sphere. Donna set down Iris and Wallace and tried to break it with her strength, but it was no use. Using his other hand, Hal separated Iris from Donna and Wallace and set her down on the ground, ignoring her shrieking and pounding as she was separated from her nephew, who might as well be her son. A scared Wallace pressed his hands against the green barrier, calling out for his aunt, while Donna continued to try and futilely break the dome. "Hal, no!" Donna yelled at her captor.
The former Green Lantern glanced at her, still grim. "I'm sorry," he apologized, before all three of them disappeared.
Iris screamed as she watched her nephew disappeared, wracked with sobs. A second later, she felt the tell-tale wind of a speedster's arrival, and felt a familiar pair of hands softly wrap around her. "Aunt Iris, it's okay, it's okay," Wally whispered, trying to comfort her.
"No, it's not," Iris denied. Her sobs had subsided, though there were still tears trailing down her cheeks, and her eyes were red. "Where's Thawne?"
"Gone. He bolted before we could really get into it," Wally explained, frowning. "Where are Wallace and Donna?"
"Hal took them," Iris answered glumly.
Wally's eyes widened before he cursed, slamming a hand into his forehead as his eyes screwed close. "Dammit."
"What happened!" Bruce demanded, slamming his hands onto the table. "Where is my son!"
"Taken by Hal," Arthur glanced at Kyle, who looked pensive, "Parallax, I mean. During our talk with Mera, the four of us were attacked by Black Manta and a Kryptonian Superboy called 'General Zod'."
Clark whipped his head up. "Zod? Are you sure?"
"Yes. According to Knight and Superboy, he's a criminal from the Phantom Zone. Are they correct?"
Superman nodded. "He was imprisoned there for trying to take over Krypton in a violent coup. I don't know how he got out, though."
"Neither did they. According to them he wasn't supposed to escape for at least another year." Clark grimaced upon hearing that.
"We're getting off-topic," Bruce gruffly cut them off. "What happened?" It was not a request.
"Like I said, we were attacked. They destroyed my lighthouse, and we engaged them. I managed to subdue Manta with Knight's help, and together with Mera and Superboy, we helped take down Zod. We were discussing how we were going to restrain them when Parallax attacked. He took Knight and Superboy and vanished with them, along with Manta and Zod. Who knows where he took them."
"Did he say why he was taking them?" Diana asked, wringing her hands together nervously.
"No. Only that he was doing what he 'needed' to."
No one was lost at how ominous those words sounded.
"And Kaldur?" Kyle suddenly asked, drawing everyone's attention. "What about him?"
Arthur frowned. "Mera contacted his mother Sha'lain'a right after the battle. He was taken too."
Kyle tightened his hands into fists upon hearing that. "Dammit."
Suddenly, there was a whoosh! as the Flash sped into the chamber, standing next to his chair and panting deeply. "Sorry I'm late. Something's happened."
Green Lantern stood up. "Where's Donna?"
Wally flinched.
"Don't tell me Wallace and her were taken too, Wally," Kyle said, sounding desperate.
"I'm sorry. Thawne — and before you I ask, I don't know how, time travel was probably involved — showed up at our house just as we were going to take Wallace with us. I sent Donna away with Iris and him while I fought Thawne, but then Parallax showed up—"
"—and he took Donna and Wallace with him," Kyle finished. "Just like he took Knight and Superboy."
"Them too?" Wally asked, gripping his chair tighter.
"Yes, along with Kaldur. And I think I know why we can't find M'gann now."
J'onn frowned. "She must have been the first one taken," the Martian agreed, the thought angering him. He had been looking forward to meeting another Martian, the girl that Kyle had told him he would one day call 'niece'.
Alan Scott crossed his arms. "They'll be coming after you next, Kyle. You realize that right?"
"I know," Kyle admitted, rubbing one of his temples. "And I'm scared of who they're going to send. If they're bringing in Zod and Thawne into this, then they might bring in Sinestro as well. Or maybe even someone worse."
"Well, whoever it is, we'll be ready for them," Bruce stated firmly. "Lantern, until we can locate the others and stop whoever took them, you're staying here at the Watchtower. I've already engaged the security protocols, so we should be safe for now."
"How are we going to locate them, though?" Plastic Man asked, stretching his neck upward and around.
"Easy," Kyle responded. "If there anywhere on Earth, then we can just find Knight through the tracker he implanted in his suit. It's standard Bat-Family practice."
There was a beat of silence as everyone stared at him, Batman in particular.
"Don't look at me like that, I've been working with Bats for years. Of course I know about that."
Clark glanced at his best friend. "Is this true, Batman?"
"Yes," Batman grunted. "Let me head to the monitor hub, I should be able to access the signal from there—"
And for the third time today, someone was cut off. The Watchtower began to shake, and everyone immediately tried to stand up, holding onto the table to steady themselves. Batman was grateful he had the foresight to weld the base of the circular table onto the floor, ensuring it wouldn't be sent flying, and thus, neither would them.
Anyone that could fly immediately did so and tried to exit the room for the monitor womb to figure out what was going on. However, before they could, the shaking stopped. Everyone tried to steady themselves for a moment, before quickly heading to the monitor womb anyway.
Naturally, Wally was the first one there and was already trying to access the outside feeds to see what was going on. He paled once the feed came into view, as did the rest of the JLA when they arrived as well. "Despero," Kyle cursed.
J'onn's red eyes glowed as his gaze settled on the image of his long-time enemy. This was not good at all. And if the recent happenings still held true, then they could only be here for one thing. The rest of the JLA and Alan Scott had realized the same, judging by the way they all began looking at Green Lantern.
"I am not going with him," Kyle hissed. "I'd rather burn." Beneath his visor, his eyes flashed red.
"You won't," Superman agreed. "We need to—"
And then, he was cut off too. By someone tearing off a hole into the side of the monitor womb. Quickly, Kyle and Alan wrapped the members of the JLA around in a protective domes, preventing them from being sucked into the recesses of space and suffocating. Together, they flew out of the hole with the JLA, and face off against Despero.
The Kanalorian had a sick smile on his face as he leveled a gun at them. Kyle was about to shout at Alan, tell him to take the JLA with him back to Earth while Kyle held Despero off, only for there to be another flash of green light. Parallax, Kyle thought, tensing.
"Kyle, do not resist," Parallax intoned. "Please, just come with us and no one else has to be harmed. You know that you can't take us both on — not without having to protect them." He gestured to the JLA.
"Maybe not, but I can certainly hold you off long enough to allow us to escape to a more suitable battlefield," Kyle replied, already merging his dome with Alan's. A look at his mentor told him that the first Green Lantern knew exactly what Kyle was planning. Immediately, it was only Alan protecting all of the JLA, leaving Kyle free to confront their two enemies.
The young Lantern lifted up his ring, ready to form a construct, when Parallax suddenly held out his hand. Immediately, a dome formed, and a young woman appeared inside it, surprised and distressed. She was a fairly attractive woman, with blond hair and green eyes.
"Kyle!" she screamed.
Kyle froze, and paled.
"Alex," he whispered.
It had been years — so many years. But she was there, alive and breathing and not dead and stuffed into a fridge by the psychotic, sadistic, murderous piece of shit called Major Force. Kyle's heart started beating erratically; even years after he had moved on, he had never been able to completely let go of the woman before him. Every lover he had ever had always had to measure up to Alexandra DeWitt, even Soranik. To his shame, it held true even now.
"I was told you lost her the first time," Parallax's voice echoed in Kyle's ears, piercing through the trance he had undergone upon seeing his living Lenore. "If you do not come with me now, you will lose her again. Are you willing to risk that?"
"No," Kyle said breathlessly, "NO! Don't hurt her!"
"Then a trade. Your life for hers."
Kyle stared longingly at Alex, his eyes flashing violet under his visor, before he shook his head to clear it and glare at the mockery of his predecessor. "Only if I have your word that once you have me, both the JLA and her will be allowed to go free and won't be harmed by you or the asshole with the gun."
Hal tilted his head. "Very well then. You have my word."
The exchange was quick. Neither of them were willing to risk the other reneging on the deal. As soon as Alex was safely encased in Alan's bubble with the JLA, Kyle was encased in his own by Parallax. He only had a moment to lock eyes with Alex one last time, before he was gone.
Okay, because I wanted to use Young Justice Kaldur, I had to mix up his background a bit so it would make sense. I mostly blended his YJ and New 52/Rebirth origins together, with some elements of his original origin from Post-Crisis. I hope it made sense to you.
I also made some edits in the previous chapter to straighten out things with Wallace, such as his current physical age.
Next chapter: it all comes to a boil.
