Bereft
- - - September 5th - - -
Robin watched Batman anxiously while his mentor examined the 5-foot tall sphere.
"You want to keep it", Batman stated.
"With your permission", Aqualad confirmed politely.
Luckily, Superboy kept silent. He had been very insistent of bringing this strange piece of technology straight back into their HQ, with or without the League's permission.
Of course Robin had scanned the sphere for trackers before they left Bialya.
With mixed results.
"It saved both our lives", Megan explained. "It might not have an organic mind, but it does respond to us. I think it likes us…" She trailed off.
Wally petted the metal sphere enthusiastically. "Isn't it cool?"
"Is it?", Batman growled.
He fixed Robin with one of his trademark stares. "Intel", he demanded.
"None", Robin had to admit. "We have absolutely no idea what it is. None of its components match any kind of tech I have encountered before. I haven't even found a match in the Green Lantern archives. I used all scanners we had on board, so we have lots of data – but only a couple of wild guesses as to what it all means."
When he had x-rayed the sphere on the bioship, it had trembled slightly, giving the unsettling impression that their new companion was … ticklish.
"And you still brought it here." This time his cold stare was directed at Aqualad.
"We did not wish it to fall into enemy hands again", the Atlantean responded calmly. "Here, we can observe it more securely, assess its abilities, and find out more about its technical components."
"At the risk of disclosing the location of your headquarter?"
"Yes", Kaldur confirmed.
They had discussed the same question aboard the bioship. Kaldur had listened patently to Megan's and Superboy's pleas to take the sphere on board, as well as to Robin's safety concerns. Artemis and Wally had mainly stayed neutral, clearly too distracted by the aftermath of the collective memory loss in the desert to care much about a blinking metal ball.
After some careful consideration, Kaldur had argued that Mount Justice was not actually a secret base, since it had already overrun by supervillains many years ago, while the Justice League was still in residence. While was greatly preferable if nobody knew about the team's existence and the reactivation of their HQ for now, this was not a secret that had to be protected at all costs. The mountain fort was easily defensible, and security had been upgraded significantly compared to the times of the previous assault. If Megan and Superboy, the base's permanent inhabitants, were willing to risk compromising their home's obscurity, then he would agree to take the sphere home.
Robin had grudgingly accepted Kaldur's decision, yet he suspected that beside all those rational arguments, the Atlantean had not had much of a choice – it was obvious that Superboy would not have taken no for an answer. Aqualad might be their elected leader, but his team's compliance to his orders was still shaky at best.
Robin glanced at his scanning device's displays again. "It is still not emitting signals on any frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum, except for flashing those little blinking lights", he announced. "If it wants to broadcast our location, at least it hasn't done so yet. Of course, it might still be gathering data."
"Like what?", Wally asked.
Batman glared at the speedster. "Scanning our hard drives, assessing our weapons and technology, recording our speech patterns, searching for DNA samples…"
Robin felt a shiver run down his spine.
"Sphere wouldn't do that", Superboy claimed.
"How do you know?", Batman shot back.
"We have started interrogating it", Aqualad replied, still sounding admirably calm.
During the flight back, they had asked the sphere a number of yes-or-no questions concerning its origin and intentions. As instructed, it had answered by spinning either clockwise or whiddershins, claiming that it meant them no harm, that it did not come from Earth or Mars or Krypton, and that its planet of origin lay in the opposite quadrant of their galaxy.
"We would like to verify our results", Kaldur continued. "Would Wonder Woman be willing to assist us in this?"
Batman nodded, his frown softening for the first time since they had stepped off the bioship. He was obviously pleased that the team had come up with this solution themselves.
Using the Lasso of Truth had been Megan's idea. Robin shot his Martian team mate an appreciative smile. She had even called Red Tornado on their way home, who had confirmed that in contrast to Martian telepathy, Wonder Woman's lasso also worked on non-organic life forms.
"She is already on her way", Batman informed them.
Mary had to wait until Wonder Woman had finished the alien Sphere's interrogation before she could finally convince Aqualad to limp into the medbay with her.
It was funny how the Amazonian princess' costume bore far more resemblance with a swimsuit than the Atlantean's clothes…
"Here, sit down on the bed please, Kaldur. Let me look at your feet."
He clenched his teeth while she examined his badly blistered soles. The Atlantean might be used to walking across thorns and corals bare footed, but marching for hours across the hot sands of the Bialyan desert had clearly taken a toll.
She hesitated to touch the soft skin between his toes with her gloved fingers. "Would you mind…"
"The webbing wasn't affected", he quickly reassured her. "It doesn't come into contact with the ground when I walk."
Noting her dubious expression, he sighed reluctantly and spread his callused toes, carefully revealing the thin brown gauze between them.
"You're right, the webbing got away lightly", Mary confirmed after a brief inspection. "You've got a superficial second degree burn on the rest of your soles though."
Kaldur nodded. "It could have been worse."
"It could have been better! We definitely have to add a light pair of shoes to your equipment. You can't just expect the ground to be nice and cool whenever you go on a mission..."
He placed a warm hand on hers, waiting for her to meet his silvery eyes.
"It really could have been worse, Mary", he said, smiling softly. "Thank you for packing those extra water bottles for me. I don't know if I would have survived that mission without them. I was stranded in the middle of a desert for over twenty-four hours without any recollection of my team or my mission, and only the occasional noise in the distance to guide me… I'm really grateful that at least I had enough water with me to keep walking."
She dismissed his thanks with a shrug and a smile. "I'm just doing my job."
Which wasn't entirely true. She had been paying special attention to the young Atlantean's mission gear for several weeks now. He had seemed rather distracted since Kent Nelson's funeral, but she sensed that it was not only the death of the magician that had disturbed him. Earlier this week, he had returned from his home leave at Poseidonis with a strange determination in his silver eyes, his jaw set in a grim line. He had been completely closed-off to her since then. She had heard that there had been trouble at the Atlantean capital – something about a group of rouges trying to steal a giant starfish creature – yet it felt like more than that. She wondered what had truly happened to him under the surface.
Mary returned her attention to her patient's feet. "My usual approach would be to clean the affected area carefully, apply an ointment and then bandage your feet to keep the open blisters clean. Does that work for you?"
"It will heal faster if I first bath them in salt water for a while, first", he replied.
She nodded, already reaching for a plastic basin. "There is a labelled canister with 3.5% sodium chloride solution on that shelf next to you, could you hand me that?"
Obediently, he reached for the container. "That's what Atlantean hospitals would use as to clean wounds with. Did you mix it for me?"
She simply shrugged. "I like to be prepared. Just to check, your blood salinity is 0.9%, isn't it?"
He nodded. "Same as humans and Martians. Atlanteans have very efficient osmoregulation."
Good. That meant the only team member to whom she couldn't give a drip infusion in an emergency was Superboy - not only because she didn't have any needles that could penetrate his skin, but also because she didn't even know what Kryptonian blood was made off.
She'd have to ask Batman about that. Maybe he would know how to extract a sample?
Mary rinsed the desert dust from Kaldur's feet with the seawater solution, then cleaned the basin and filled it with fresh salt water again.
"Here, let your feet soak in this for a while. How is the rest of you doing? It's hard for me to tell with your skin colour, but you might have burnt your shoulders as well…"
"Shoulders, face and chest, actually", he admitted, pulling off his red shirt gingerly.
Mary couldn't suppress a smirk, as she eyed his muscular torso appreciatively. "So, you're shy about the skin between your toes, but you have no problem undressing in front of me?"
His eyes widened in shock. "I didn't… I mean…"
Her laughter interrupted his stammering. "Sorry, Kaldur, don't let me tease you. I promise I'm not – how do you say nowadays – hitting on you?"
He blinked a few times, then regained his composure. "You are spending way too much time with Wally and Robin", he chided her wryly.
"Oh, please. Megan and Artemis are at least as bad."
"You should hear them on the mind link! It's either flirting or fighting, or both at once…"
She handed him a jar of calendula cream, beckoning him to turn away from her. "I really wonder how you always keep so calm."
He turned his back to her as requested, still keeping his tormented feet in the soothing salt water bath. "Someone has to."
Very gently, she spread the calendula extract onto his sun-burnt skin.
"How are you holding up with all that?"
He tensed up at the question, then sighed deeply. "Not too well, I fear."
Calmly, she kept applying the cream onto his shoulders, feeling his muscles slowly relaxed under her gently trailing fingers.
"All my mockery is just hypocrisy, of course", he admitted in a low voice.
"Last week", she offered, "something happened at Poseidonis?"
For a long while, he remained silent. She was almost certain that he would refuse to answer her.
Then his shoulders slumped forward.
"Her name is Tula…", he began.
When his Master Bruce and the young Master Richard stepped through the secret portal into their mansion, Alfred was already waiting for them. His face was set in a stern expression.
Bruce met his eyes only briefly. "It was a covert mission", he sighed.
"You still sent them to Bialya."
"To an almost uninhabited border region."
"They should not have crossed those borders at all!"
"Why?", Richard chimed in.
The boy should really know better.
"Bialya has not signed the United Nations Justice League Charter", Alfred explained. "The League has no jurisdiction there. Your presence there could have caused a diplomatic incident of disastrous dimensions."
"The team is not an official body of the Justice League", Bruce stated.
"Would you have denied your affiliation?", Alfred shot back. "You did not send them there with tourist visas! They could have been captured and imprisoned and interrogated as foreign spies, they could have been executed as terrorists under Bialyan military law..."
Over twenty four hours of radio silence had been plenty of time to envision the most fatal scenarios.
He felt a pair of small arms wrap themselves around his torso.
"I'm sorry we worried you", Richard apologized. "We would have called in if we had not lost our memories temporarily."
Alfred heaved a sigh, then returned the hug. Bruce stepped closer as well, tousling his adopted son's hair tenderly. When the two adults' eyes met, Alfred could see that Bruce had been just as worried as himself about the team's well-being.
"Well then", he conceded. "Master Richard, I will teach you and Mary some basics of international law tomorrow. You better make sure to share some of that knowledge with your team mates as well."
"I'll do my best", the boy promised.
Superboy sat at the bay, watching the clouds.
He was finally alone.
He had not even taken Sphere with him. He would give her a tour later.
For now, he needed to be alone to think.
He and Megan had mind-melted.
Psimon's telepathic attack at the Bialyan desert had left him completely without memories. Without even the artificial knowledge implanted by the G-gnomes. Nothing, just instinct, just anger. He had attacked his team mates. He had been captured by his enemies. He had been hurt.
And then Megan had come to save him.
She had helped him recover the shattered fragments of his mind.
But there was nothing left to bind them to. For his other team mates, she had been able to reconstruct continuity by rejoining the shattered fragments with existing, older memories.
He had none of those.
So she had used hers.
As they mind-melted, she had used her own recollection of their past months together, to sort his memories, to help the fragmented pieces of his mind fall back into their places.
And she had shared a lot of her own mind with him in the progress.
Superboy stared at the grey clouds drifting slowly above him.
She liked him.
A lot.
She had been desperate to save him.
She was strong, so much stronger than the rest of the team suspected.
There was a lot of fear in her, too. Secrets she tried to hide from them. From him.
Because she feared his rejection.
Because she liked him so much.
She had been desperately lonely on Mars.
She had been a White Martian in a Green Martian family.
She had dreamed to come to Earth all her life – and she had made that dream come true.
She was working so hard to be a hero.
She wanted to impress him.
She wanted him to be her boyfriend.
Of course Superboy had heard all the flirtatious comments and jokes that Artemis and Megan had directed at him, or Wally at them, in the past two months. But they had never meant much to him. The G-gnomes had taught him almost nothing about romance.
Megan's mind was full of it.
She dreamed about having a boyfriend.
Holding hands. Dancing. Gazing into each other's eyes.
Someone carrying her books after high school.
Getting ice cream, going to a movie together, going on a date.
Kissing.
Admiring his body.
Wanting him.
All these thoughts were new to Superboy.
He had not known that Megan thought about him that way.
And she tried to control it, she tried to compose herself, tried to prepare for his rejection.
Did he want to reject her?
Did he want to be her boyfriend?
And did Artemis feel the same way about him?
For a moment, he pictured the two girls next to each other.
Artemis, a human team mate who was pretty good at shooting arrows. He didn't really know her very well.
Megan, a fellow alien who had escaped her planet to pursue her dream, who fought every single day to be a better person, who was willing to confront an overpowering telepathic supervillain just to save him, even when he had just brutally attacked his friends, attacked her, even after she had just seen him for the mindless weapon he was made to be…
A girl who knew what it meant to be at odds with your own body and abilities, to be estranged from those whose acceptance you craved, who was able to overcome her own shortcomings and failures and still strove to be kind and good and to become a hero...
Well, yeah, he liked her.
Did he want to be her boyfriend?
He stared at the clouds drifting across the bay.
What did it even mean to be a boyfriend?
What if he did it wrong?
What if he hurt her?
He'd never want to hurt her.
He liked to see her happy, to see her smile.
She did have a very pretty smile.
Did he want Megan to be his girlfriend?
Superboy stared into the clouds for a very long time.
Author's note:
I really like how this chapter turned out. So many steps forward... Let me know what you think!
Reviews are valued like desert springs.