With every word the Hunter's malicious tongue spat out, M'gann felt her heart shrink in her chest. His eyes held a cold rage she'd never seen in her own Boy Wonder before, and the left side of his face sported severe burn marks that only added to the vengeful atmosphere of their standoff.
If he was telling the truth, then all that…it was her doing.
"Dick…I-"
"You don't get to call me that, devil. Not after what you did to my world." She felt her eyes well up but did her best to hold it back.
"But that wasn't me! You have to know that! Please, Dick, you're one of my best frie-"
"Shut up!" In a fit of rage, Hunter swung his arm in an arc, spewing out a mighty gust of flames that M'gann just barely managed to telekinetically shield herself from. "It was you! You might not know it yet, but it is!"
She took a step back and tensed herself up while he slowly began to pace around the room, jaded, cold blue eyes locked with terrified, empathetic Martian orange.
"You may not have been the M'gann that killed my family, my planet, but deep down, you and she are the exact same."
"We're not!" Her voice was little more than a whimper now, but Dick wasn't even remotely phased by her pleas.
"Oh? So you're telling me that you haven't abused your telepathy? That you weren't the one who ripped into Kaldur and Psimon's minds? Or what about what you did to Conner? Mentally dominating him to ensure you got what you wanted, without a care in the world about what he felt."
M'gann closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip. That was a low bar.
"I've been trying to make up for that."
"Just like you tried to make up for trapping all of us in a nightmare when we were kids?"
"I couldn't control myself!"
"Exactly! And that proves what I've known all along!"
The Martian narrowed her eyes after having wiped them and stretched her mind out across the room as she prepared for their duel. There was no reasoning with him. He wasn't the Dick Grayson she knew and loved.
He'd been hurt too much, and it really was all her doing. And though she'd deny it, a small part of M'gann was beginning to wonder if he had a point.
"And what's that?" The Hunter donned his skull helmet once more and aimed a flamethrower at her, clenching his fists to power it up.
"That you're too dangerous to be kept alive." The nozzle breathed out a menacing wisp of amber smoke, and the barrel pulsed a faint orange and radiated immense heat. "Because you can't control yourself, and that lack of restraint is a threat to this entire planet."
He unloaded a stream of heat towards the Martian, and she just barely floated out of the way before tearing a large radiator out of the wall and hurling it at him. Hunter vaulted over the projectile with his jetpack and fired back several incendiary rockets to keep her at bay. The menacingly white missiles spiralled through the air towards her, and it took all of M'gann's effort to destroy every last one of them with her telekinesis before they could touch her.
Miss Martian used her mind to shove him backwards, only for him to resist the force with his jetpack and use both arms to fire a massive gust of flames in her direction. Her eyes widened before darting out of the way of the blast, but its searing heat began to pound away at her forehead, and she dropped out of the sky and onto her knees in exhaustion.
Hunter dropped down to his own feet and charged up his cannons to full power. "This suit was designed with the sole purpose of killing you. You can't beat me, M'gann."
Miss Martian gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. "I can try!" She surprised him with another force push once she got up to her feet, and this time the repulse managed to slam him into the back wall hard. He desperately fired out two anti-phasing bolas, but M'gann outmaneuvered them and returned two large chunks of rubble directly in his direction. Hunter destroyed one of them with his rockets, only barely managing to dodge out of the way of the second one. He dropped to the floor, disoriented from the torrent of attacks she'd sent his way, and M'gann's eyes started to glow green with rage. He just chuckled at the sight of it.
"That's right. Let the devil out. Show me who's really hiding down there."
"I have nothing to prove to you."
"You're right. You have nothing to prove, because I already know what you are. You're a killer who abuses the powers she's been given because she wants to take the easy way out." Hunter dusted off his armor and cracked his back. "And if you don't believe me, just ask one of those Kroloteans you left catatonic and never thought back to. Or better yet, ask Kaldur if he remembers what it was like when you tore his mind apart. I'm sure he'll be able to provide a very colorful explanation."
M'gann breathed in sharply and stepped back, dropping her combat stance as her heart started to beat like a drum in her chest. The green in her eyes quickly faded, making way for tears to stir in their place. Two drops rolled down her cheeks as she felt her breathing grow erratic. She knew he was just trying to get in her head, but honestly…
The more she thought about it, the more she realized that he might just be right.
She'd lost herself. Hurting friends she thought were enemies…hurting family when they found out and tried to get her to stop…abusing her incredible gifts for her benefit, without any thought for the well-being of those around her. And she'd never even gotten punished for it! Everyone just…moved on.
And here comes somebody who does remember, who's trying to punish her…and she's fighting him off. How could she think she didn't deserve it? What gave her the right to deny consequence for her crimes?
Especially when she'd proven unable to control her powers so many times before?
The Hunter was the embodiment of her failures. He represented everything she'd been trying to escape from, but his presence here...his determination to punish her proved that she couldn't just run away from her consequences.
He was right. She needed to be punished.
M'gann dropped her head in defeat, lost in an internal argument between her rationality and her guilt, and Hunter used the opportunity to blast her with fire from his cannons. She screamed in agony and dropped to her knees, but she made no move to retaliate when he kicked her down to the floor and aimed a cannon directly at her head.
"Make no mistake, M'gann. I came here to save your world, but this is personal. Killing you here would be too easy. You need to suffer first." He fired two anti-phasing bolas to tie her up and pressed his booted heel to her chest, causing her to painfully squirm. "I'll be back when you've regained some strength, because I want you to put up a fight before I set your heart on fire. And once I kill you, I'll kill your entire planet. And unlike your pathetic brother, I won't leave a single one standing. There won't ever be another Earth-Mars war again, that much I swear."
"N-no...", M'gann coughed up a frightening splurge of green blood and struggled to stand, only for her captor to kick her in the gut and force her back to the ground. "St-top...don't hurt them..."
"Keep your mouth shut, witch. Your fate is sealed, and pretty soon your planet's will be, too."
The Hunter disappeared into the shadows of the darkened facility to begin his preparations for the coming conquest, leaving a bleeding M'gann tied up on the floor to cry silently to herself, her tears spurred from a mix of agony and self-loathing.
Thank you all for the feedback and the suggestions for future "what if" scenarios. To address the one involving Zatanna and Mary, unfortunately I already have Zatanna's counterpart's origin mapped out rather definitively. But by all means feel free to keep leaving ideas if you'd like. Who knows, you might strike a nerve with one of them. And if I get enough ideas, I may even just start a 'YJ: What If' story featuring all these concepts and more. As for the YJS5 fic question, I have a concept for one drawn out and I might pursue it after this story is finished. Can't say much more on the idea for now, but I didn't want to leave your question unanswered. Once again, you all have my thanks for the time and thought to read this story, and hopefully I'll be able to make it worth your while.
