Bonds – Part 2
- - - September 23rd - - -
It was a perfect afternoon for a barbecue at the beach. The team celebrated their victory – or, as Robin called it, the avoidance of poultrification – with ice-cold lemonade and freshly grilled hot dogs. They had all changed into their bathing suits or swimming trunks to occasionally dip into the water, but spent most of their time just lazing around in the sun. Megan and Artemis attempted a game of volleyball, until Wolf joined in, tail wagging, and tore the ball in halves.
Captain Marvel, still wearing his costume, manned the grill. Mary kept him company.
"So, I was thinking, maybe next time we could change that 10-second-paralysis against something more exciting? Capture the flag usually has a jail, where people who are captured must wait until a team mate busts them out again, you know? We could also make the terrain a bit more interesting. The non-paralysis zone was a great idea, so maybe we could add more different areas with different effects – like an area where you're not allowed to fly, or the opposite, an area were you're not allowed to touch the ground? Like the floor is lava!"
Mary smiled at the enthusiastic Captain. "Maybe we should also let the rest of the team make some proposals on how to improve the rules further? And if they do want to repeat the exercise, we could all vote on some of the ideas?"
"That's perfect! Oh, and I really liked the water balloon fight, we should definitely do that more often."
Mary shrugged non-committally, her attention wandering towards the teens on the beach. Kaldur and Robin were just returning from a short swim. Wally seemed to try coercing Megan to join him in the water, but she waved him off, gathering up some empty plates instead. Conner had been cornered by Artemis who was still holding a scrap of the ruined volleyball. As far as Mary could guess, she was jokingly chiding Superboy for the damage 'his' Wolf had caused. It was obvious she was trying to get his attention, but Conner barely responded.
It was almost painful to watch.
As Megan approached the barbecue stand with her plates, Mary turned back towards Captain Marvel.
"You know, I think we've all deserved some dessert today, Captain. Would you mind checking if we still have ice cream in the freezer?"
"Sure thing! I'll be right back."
He flew off just as Megan arrived. The Martian handed the used dishes to Mary.
"Is there anything else I can help with?"
"Thank you, Megan, it's sweet that you ask. Are you all done with the barbecue?"
"I think everyone is full - except for Wally, of course."
Mary nodded slowly. "Talking about Wally..."
The green-skinned girl quickly averted her eyes.
Mary sighed.
Wally's constant flirtation with Megan and Artemis' obvious affection for Conner did put the young couple in an uncomfortable position. Yet it was clear that concealing their relationship would only exacerbate future drama amongst the teens.
She waited patiently until Megan looked up again, then held the young Martian's gaze firmly.
"It will only get worse", she prophesied.
"Oh, I know. But I just don't… It's barely been a week. And there's no right moment for something like this, you know?"
"True. But many could be worse. What if they find out in the beginning of a long mission? Or at some special social occasion? A school event, somewhere public, at a birthday party…"
Megan cringed. "You're right. Just – not tonight, okay?"
Mary sighed. "It's your call. Here they come…"
Wally approached the barbecue stand, Aqualad and Robin in tow, their swimming trunks still dripping salt water onto the sand.
"Hello ladies! Any food left for a hungry adventurer?"
He noted that Megan barely acknowledged his arrival. She had not been very responsive to him lately. Unfortunately, Artemis had also barely battered an eye lash at him, since she was still busy trying to win over Conner… He had to admit that his super speed probably didn't stand out much beside the Kryptonian's strength, not to mention Kaldur's water-bending magic and Robin's general awesomeness – seriously, two somersaults?
Mary gestured towards the last pieces of meat still sizzling on the grill. "What would you like?"
Well, super speed was not his only forte when it came to impressing the ladies. Fast and funny are the speedster's traits.
"Anything but chicken, eh?", he tried.
Robin punched his arm. Mary and Megan only smiled weakly, Kaldur shook his head. Wrong audience. The former Count Nefarious would surely have appreciated the joke. Where had the Captain flown off to?
"You've been spending quite some time with a certain caped hero today, Mary", Wally teased, determined to land at least one line. "Looks like you're getting along quite well, am I right?"
This time, at least Mary laughed at his suggestion, while the others only rolled their eyes. "Oh, Wally, no, it's not like that at all. He only reminds me of my little brother…"
Megan chuckled at that. "Your little brother? And here I'd thought that would be Robin's role…"
Wally and Mary froze. He could sense Aqualad and Robin tensing up behind him.
The Martian blushed, clearly flustered by their stares. "I mean, you did live with him and Batman for a while, didn't you, Mary?"
Nobody joked about Robin's family.
Barry had warned Wally about this years ago. Best not to even talk about any family matters around Batman or his protégé. When Robin had revealed his past to him, Wally had finally understood why.
Apparently, nobody had warned Miss Martian.
Wally very slowly turned towards his best friend. Robin's face was completely still, unreadable, his eyes fixed on Mary. Waiting for her reply.
Did she think of him as a little brother?
Wally wasn't sure what would be worse – if she said yes, or if she said no.
He knew that Robin had once had a family, back in the circus, including a cousin who was like an older sibling to him. He had lost them all tragically, and they could never be replaced.
Mary shook her head softly. "No, I don't think that 'younger brother' fits the bill, Megan. I did live with Robin when I first woke up here, yes." She met the boy's eyes. "But he is the one who's explained everything to me, took care of me, helped me figure out that petrification curse, promised to always turn me back… No, if anything, he's the awesome older brother that I never had."
Robin swallowed hard, his eyes still hidden by his tainted glasses
Mary shrugged, as if her words had not been meaningful at all. "Anyway, who wants some ice cream?"
Right on cue, Captain Marvel descended from the sky, carrying two ice cream containers.
Robin and Kaldur stepped out of the way to make space for him, and the spell was broken.
The Captain handed one of the containers to Wally with a wide smile. "Care for another box of holding?"
He grinned back easily, falling back into his role. "I'm sure I'll find a spoon somewhere..."
The sunset was magnificent. After packing up the barbecue, the team had assembled once more on the western flank of the hill with the Captain and Mary, watching the sky above the forest burst into pink and orange hues.
Megan ended up sitting on the edge of the clearing between her boyfriend and a chattering Wally. She leaned back against a maple tree, her left hand laying close to Conner's – not holding it, but touching his skin ever so softly. He moved his fingers gently in response.
To her right, the oblivious speedster prattled on. "And, you know, if we took the bioship now and went westwards at the right speed, we could be watching the sunset for hours on end…"
Artemis nudged him from his other side. "Cut it, chatterbox. Let us enjoy the view, will you?"
For a moment, they all sat in silence, watching the burning globe descend towards the horizon.
"What a beautiful red sun", Megan sighed.
"This sight is unique to the surface world", Aqualad added in a reverent tone. "Few of my fellow Atlanteans have ever enjoyed it."
"Conner, have you ever seen a sunset this stunning?", Artemis asked.
He didn't reply.
Megan turned towards her boyfriend.
"Conner?"
His face had grown slack, strangely impassive.
She gently touched his mind. The blankness nearly overwhelmed her.
"Conner!", she cried out.
Her alarmed team mates jumped to attention.
"What happened?", Kaldur demanded to know.
"He just – shut down. Like he fell asleep – but there are no dreams, no surface thoughts at all!"
Mary was already kneeling at Conner's side. "His pulse is steady. He's breathing normally. Does someone have a light? Thank you, Robin." She shone the offered flash light into Conner's eyes, watching his pupils dilate. "Reactions are normal."
Captain Marvel reached out towards Conner. "Should I fly him to a doctor? Whom should I call for help?"
Kaldur turned towards Mary. "You are a medical professional. Is he in immediate danger?"
Mary shrugged. "I can't find any physical cause for his condition. He seems perfectly fine, I don't know how a doctor could treat this."
"Then let's concentrate on finding the reason for his predicament first", Kaldur decided.
Megan let out the breath she had been holding. Focus, Megan! Kaldur was right, they had to find out what had happened. Don't just stand around, find a way to help him!
Robin was already searching the surrounding area. "No traces of an attack, no poison darts or anything like that", he reported.
"And this isn't a very suitable spot for a sniper shot" Artemis added, her fingers nervously tracing the seam of her swim suit. "That being said, it's not really defensible either, and we're not exactly armed…"
Robin wordlessly pulled a set of batarangs out of the toolbelt he kept fastened around his swimming trunks, handing one to the archer. Following a silent command from Aqualad, the team assembled in a circle around Superboy and Mary, who was still kneeling at his side.
Megan morphed her own swim suit back into her uniform. Feeling the familiar fabric against her skin helped her focus.
"I don't sense any sapient minds in our proximity", she reported, her voice surprisingly calm. "Should I establish communications? If this was a telepathic attack, there is a risk it could propagate through the mind link like Psimon's assault in Bialya..."
"Leave it for now", Kaldur decided.
Captain Marvel rose into the air. "I will check the perimeter for any hostile forces. Are any of you wearing their League communicators? Good. Kaldur, Robin, I'll contact you if I detect anything."
With a rush of wind, the white-caped adult disappeared into the sunset. To Megan, the spectacular sky had lost all appeal.
Wally shuffled his feet impatiently, kicking up dried leaves from the forest floor. "Do any poisonous plants grow in this area?", he asked. "Like the mystic maple in our game? Something that could have paralysed him if he touched it accidentally?"
"None that I know of", Artemis replied. "And I have been taught a lot about poisons."
"Maybe he touched a jellyfish in the water?" Kaldur checked Conner's legs and upper body carefully. "No, I do not see any traces of nettle rash."
"Well, he can't have been poisoned through our food", Wally added. "We all ate the same things, and I would have gotten the symptoms first."
"Kryptonians are generally immune to most toxins anyway", Robin clarified. "However, we know he's partly human, so we can't be sure if he inherited that immunity."
"Could he be under a magic spell?", Artemis suggested. "Magic does affect Kryptonians, doesn't it?"
"Uhm, alivio?", Wally tried.
They all turned towards Conner.
Nothing happened.
"His pulse is still stable", Mary informed them.
Megan quickly turned away when she felt tears welling up in her eyes.
Don't despair, Megan. You can figure this out. Just stay focussed on protecting him until you find a way to wake him up. He's going to be fine.
He has to be fine.
For a few seconds, they all stood guard in silence.
"A magic trance would explain his condition, but I'm not quite convinced by that theory", Aqualad admitted. "True magic users are rare on the surface, and very few people even know of Superboy's existence. This is certainly not the Witch Boy's style."
Megan tensed as she remembered the malicious Chaos Mage who had murdered Kent Nelson.
No, he would never have contended himself with a mere trance… She shivered.
A gust of wind heralded Captain Marvel's return. "No trace of any intruders", he reported. "Any news?"
Aqualad shook his head. "We still don't know what happened or who could be responsible."
The Captain nodded slowly. "Maybe we are asking the wrong questions. Let's see... Who would have a motif to target Superboy specifically?"
Phrased like this, the answer was obvious. "Cadmus", replied Robin, Wally and Aqualad in one voice.
"Hello, Megan!", she exclaimed. "He told us about that! Conner mentioned a few weeks ago that Cadmus can control all of their, well, their clones with certain commands. That must have been what happened."
"What kind of command?", Kaldur shot back.
"He did not specify, but I think he meant a certain spoken word."
If those scheming imbeciles thought they could just take her Conner back with them again...
"Given Superboy's hearing, the source of the command could have been miles away", Robin remarked.
"Could it have been just any English word?" Mary wondered. "Is it possible that we have triggered this ourselves?"
Megan blinked in surprise. That possibility had not even occurred to her.
"When was the last time Conner moved?" Captain Marvel wanted to know.
Megan remembered how he had briefly touched her hand. "Wally was talking about the bio ship. Flying west to watch the sunset", she replied.
Wally nodded. "And Artemis said 'Cut it, chatterbox'. Do you think that's the trigger word? Chatterbox?"
"I remarked that the sight is unique to the surface world.", Kaldur added. "How did I phrase it? Few Atlanteans have ever enjoyed this sight?"
"No, Megan said something before that", Wally reminded them. "About the beautiful red sun."
Robin's head snapped around towards her. "Were those your exact words? Red sun?"
She nodded. "I think so."
"That must be it. Kryptonian powers depend on the type of star that provides them with sun light. Red suns drain their strength. Someone who knew this must have found it a suitable key phrase."
Megan paled. She had caused this?
"Maybe there is a second command to wake him back up." Robin crouched down in front of Conner. "Yellow sun?"
No reply.
He shrugged. "I suppose that would have been too easy."
Wally picked up the thread, rattling down potential trigger phrases. "Sol. Helios. G star. G-type main-sequence star. G2V. Red sun again. Class M. Red dwarf. Red giant. White rabbit. Black hole. Blackest night. Solar system. Solar eclipse. Umbra. Penumbra. Full moon. New moon. Mellon. Lunar eclipse. Solstice. Equinox. Dusk. Dawn. Luminosity. Lightning. Flashpoint."
Conner did not respond.
"If this is caused by some type of mind control, shouldn't we call Martian Manhunter?" Mary proposed.
Megan winced. Having her uncle inspect her boyfriend's mind would be potentially awkward…
But Mary was right. J'onn was a lot more experienced in telepathic therapy than herself. Who knew how deeply Cadmus had engraved that shut-down command into Conner's mind?
And at least he was one of the two people who knew about their relationship already. Her uncle had been on the bioship with her and Conner when they returned from Belle Reve, there was no way he could have failed to notice their overflowing emotions...
She felt Aqualad's eyes on her.
With a sigh, she nodded.
"Yes, please contact my uncle. He'll be able to help."
The red glow of J'onn's eyes slowly dimmed as he disentangled his mind from Superboy's.
"Will he be fine?" His niece barely held her anxiety at bay. She was hovering beside the cave's living room couch onto which the sleeping boy had been placed.
"He will be fine", he confirmed.
A wave of relief washed over him, not only from M'gan. The rest of the team, Mary and Captain Marvel had also been deeply worried about Superboy's condition.
"So, is there a key phrase to wake him up?", Wally asked.
"No. The trance is timed to last for exactly half an hour, after which he would recover naturally."
Robin frowned, glancing at his watch. "Why hasn't he woken up yet? It's already 7:16 pm, the sun set at 6:40 pm tonight."
Clearly the boy was as observant as his mentor. J'onn would have preferred not to disclose this particular detail.
"His mind was just beginning to stir when I arrived here", he admitted. "I have taken the liberty to shift his consciousness into a more natural dream state, in order to assess the cause of his predicament."
He could feel his niece's resentment. "I don't think he'll like that", she noted.
"You are most probably right, M'gan. However, he had firmly rejected all my earlier offers to investigate his mind, hence I felt obligated to seize this opportunity, now that my earlier concerns were proven justified."
"What exactly happened to Conner?", Aqualad asked.
"The trance itself is caused by a biochemical process, most likely the release of a specific hormone by the pituitary gland. An instinct, so to say, although this one has not developed naturally through evolutionary selection, but was clearly bio-engineered. The trigger of this process, however, is psychological, and is indeed controlled by the two words you had already identified."
"Can you remove it?", Mary asked.
"That's not an…"
He hesitated.
Why would it not be an option? He had said it himself, the trigger was psychological, a mental command, and a rather crudely fashioned one at that.
And he had wanted to remove it. He remembered that this had been his intention when he had first entered Superboy's mind. He had suspected a psychological trigger, and planned to deactivate it.
"Fascinating", he murmured.
Conner's friends regarded him with doubtful expressions.
"For Superboy, it is literally unthinkable that this command could ever be removed", J'onn explained. "I could have deactivated the trigger already, but apparently I lost my resolve to do so once I was exposed to his conviction. A truly intriguing dilemma. M'gan, I will need you to share your mind with me, so that you can remind me of my purpose should the need arise."
Without awaiting her reply, he dove back into the Kryptonian's mind.
'You mean they taught him that the trigger was untouchable?', M'gan asked.
As requested, she opened her mind to him widely. She was family, after all.
His human colleagues in the League still loathed the rare occasion when he had to use his telepathy for more than the most limited form of communications. Sometimes, life could be lonely on Earth.
'We will find that out shortly. You mentioned that he told you about potential commands from Cadmus? Could you guide me to that memory?'
She shared with him her own recollection of their talk.
'Superboy, do you think there might be such commands programmed into your mind as well?', Mary had asked.
'How would I know?'
'We could ask my Uncle J'onn to check for any mental triggers the next time that he visits. He could probably remove them, if there are any.'
'Not an option.'
There it was. M'gan's memory resonated with a knowledge buried deep in Conner's mind, an undisputable fact, one of the first truths about the world that the genomorphs had taught him.
J'onn investigated the exceptional shard of Superboy's subconscious. He tended to visualize people's memories in planes of glass or mirrors. This one was a jagged piece of crystal, shining like polished steel.
'What does it mean?', M'gan asked. He noted her mental presence beside him, she was scrutinizing the strange shard as well.
J'onn gently tapped against the gleaming structure, expecting an image or written words to appear on its surface. Instead, it rang out like a tuning fork. Among the sound, a choir of voices intoned a simple message.
Cadmus controls us.
The words were enlaced with the an irrevocable certainty. Nothing could ever change that law.
'Isn't it intriguing?', J'onn mused.
'I remember this', Megan told him. 'After the mnemic fracture he suffered in Bialya, this piece was like a beacon, one of the few memories untouched by Psimon's blast. I did not know what it meant, back then. I tried to use it to reorder the fragments of his mind, but none would bind to it.'
M'gan was right, the single shard was strangely unconnected to the rest of Conner's mind.
'You did well in treating him after that telepathic attack', J'onn praised his niece, regarding the surrounding fabric of Conner's memories. 'There are barely any traces left of the incident.'
'Well, it was a very young mind', she replied bashfully. 'Conner's consciousness is growing more complex every day. He is even thinking in more complicated sentence structures now than he did two months ago. It is quite fascinating to witness…'
"Martian Manhunter?" Aqualad's voice interrupted their thoughts. "Would you mind telling us your current objective?"
J'onn had to concentrate on using his own mouth to reply to the Atlantean's question, instead of simply sending him a thought or accidentally speaking with Superboy's voice instead.
"We are currently investigating the structural integrity of Conner's subconsciousness."
"Well, are you actually doing anything with it?", Robin chimed in.
J'onn frowned. "I do not tend to meddle with people's subconsciousness", he replied indignantly.
"In that case, may we ask you to get out of Conner's head for a moment?"
J'onn refocussed his eyes on the physical plain, fully returning to his own self. "Why are you interrupting our…"
Oh. Of course.
"Forgive me, we seem to have been caught up in the same trap once more."
Aqualad nodded. "We noticed that Megan's eyes had started to glow as well."
His niece shrugged apologetically, a small blush creeping up her cheeks. "I might have been too exposed to Conner's mind in the past to serve as a reliable outside anchor", she offered.
More likely, she was too drawn to Conner's mind to resist following J'onn in through an open link...
"What exactly did you find?", Mary asked.
"There is an idea implanted into Superboy's mind, stating that Cadmus controls him. He is not actually aware of this, yet he subconsciously accepts it to be true. This inevitable 'fact' prevents us from even remembering that we wanted to remove his trance's trigger."
"Why was the thought so isolated?", Megan wondered. "Wouldn't it be even more effective if it was truly integrated with the rest of Conner's mind?"
J'onn hesitated. "There is a certain power in being untouchable. Conner's self would have rebelled against the concept, if he had ever consciously considered it."
That was not all, though.
It also meant that Cadmus was preparing to grow sleeper agents. Clones who did not consciously know they were being controlled at all.
J'onn would need to talk to Batman about this as soon as he returned to the Watchtower.
But first, he had to break that piercing shard.
He took a deep breath. "To overcome that conviction, I will require someone else's assistance", he announced. "Would anyone else be willing to fully share their mind with me?"
The team's reaction was exactly as expected. Artemis cringed, Kid Flash took a few hasty steps back, Robin dropped his eyes and Captain Marvel actually tried to hide his massive figure behind Aqualad, who was the only one with enough self control not to flinch away from the unwelcome task.
And then there was Mary, standing calmly at the sleeping Conner's side.
"Sure", she said. "What do you need me to do?"
J'onn placed one hand on her arm, the other on Superboy's shoulder.
Within the blink of his eyes, mental projections of all three of them appeared in the comfortable little library with which Mary had furnished the entrance to her mind. Instead of his couch, Conner now appeared to be lying in a hospital bed – Mary's mind had clearly identified him as a patient in her care.
'Just remember that Cadmus must not control him', he instructed her.
Mary nodded. 'Of course not. They have no right.'
Spurred by her certainty, J'onn dove into Superboy's mind once more.
There it was, the cursed crystal shard.
Cadmus controls us, it proclaimed.
J'onn prided himself in his ability to perform delicate mental operations. Yet this was no time for subtleties.
He balled the mental image of his right hand into a fist, then morphed it into something heavier and harder.
'They have no right', he echoed Mary's thought.
The isolated shard shattered under his hammer-like blow.
"After that, it was easy enough to deactivate the trance's psychological trigger. I highly doubt that any G-gnome or other telepath will ever be able to reactivate it."
Megan hardly listened to the rest of her uncle's explanations. She barely registered that he and Captain Marvel left the room soon after, mumbling something about an urgent meeting with Batman.
All her attention was focussed on Conner, who was finally waking up.
Drowsily, he opened his eyes, blinking several times.
"What happened?"
She flew into his arms.
'I thought I'd lost you. Your mind was so terrifyingly blank. There was a Cadmus command programmed into your subconscious that triggered a trance, and you were out for more than half an hour. But Uncle J'onn removed it, and I'm just so glad that you're okay.'
Her penned up emotions were spilling out towards him, as she laid her heart bare to him once more.
He just pulled her closer in response, brushing a soft kiss against her neck.
'I'm okay.' His mental voice soothed her. 'I'm not gonna leave you. I'm okay.'
For a blissful second, she simply enjoyed her boyfriend's embrace.
Then she remembered.
Very slowly, Megan turned around to where their four team mates stared at them.
Behind them, Mary was shaking her head with a sad little smile. So much about choosing the right moment.
"How long has that been going on?", Wally asked flatly. His face was kept carefully blank.
Artemis, in turn, looked like someone had shot an arrow straight into her heart.
Aqualad's eyes were full of disapproval.
"Looks like that Belle Reve mission went even better than planned?", Robin smirked.
Megan nodded weakly. "I'm so sorry. We did mean to tell you properly…"
"Well, yeah, you should have!", Artemis exploded. "Why would you keep this from us? I thought we were friends?"
Megan cringed as if she had been slapped in the face.
"Don't yell at her", Conner snapped back.
"No, it's okay, they've got every right to be upset", Megan admitted.
Robin chuckled. "Well, actually, this isn't entirely unexpected. So, congratulations, I guess?"
He turned towards Wally. "Hey, KF, want to ditch those love birds and meet up for a proper boy's night with junk food and video games tonight?"
Wally shrugged in reply, attempting a faltering smile.
Aqualad scoffed.
"Why are you upset?", Conner asked the Atlantean.
Megan turned her attention towards their team leader. Surely he hadn't been interested in her romantically, too? Or in Conner?
Kaldur met her eyes with a furious gaze, gesturing towards Wally. "You led him on."
The speedster winced. "Dude, it's okay..."
"No, it's not. You have courted her for over two months. At any point could she have simply told you off. Instead she has laughed and smiled and gracefully received your affections. Why would a woman play with a man like that, when her heart already belongs to another? What egocentric siren would string along two suitors solely for her amusement, just to delay and thereby exacerbate the inevitable moment of rejection?"
Megan stared at the Atlantean with wide eyes.
A deep growl escaped from Conner's throat beside her.
Mary quickly stepped between the two boys. "Calm down, Conner. He's not talking about Megan any more."
"He's not?", Megan stuttered.
Wally laid a hand on Kaldur's arm. "Seriously, man, I'm fine."
Aqualad shook his head as if to clear it, then sat down heavily on one of the couches. "Sorry, Megan. Mary is right. That wasn't really about you."
Artemis sank onto the free seat beside him. "So, who was she?"
The Atlantean's face contorted into a painful expression.
"Who was what?", Conner demanded to know.
"The girl who led him on", Wally explained. He and Robin also settled down, their full attention focussed on Kaldur.
Megan was torn between feeling compassion for her leader's obvious discomfort and relief about the welcome distraction.
Kaldur took a deep breath, clearly accepting the inevitably of his revelation. "She was my best friend in Poseidonis", he began.
He kept his eyes downcast, not meeting any of their stares. "Her name is Tula. She's an exceptional magician, always best at our classes, and a fearless warrior. I've been… I've had a crush on her, for almost two years. I've tried to ask her out a dozen times."
Megan could sense the deep aggravation his calm words were trying to hide. "She never said 'no', always 'not now'", he continued. "She said she wanted to focus on her studies at the Conservatory, that she wasn't really looking for a relationship right now, that she would love to come to the surface with me one day, that she was looking forward to her graduation… I've missed her terribly all summer."
Megan felt a pang of guilt. She had not even noticed their leader's dark moods, had been far too focussed on her own feelings for Conner. Silently, she vowed to pay more attention to her team mates' emotional state from now on. Another item for her Monday list.
"As you know, I returned to Poseidonis last month. When I finally met up with her, I found out that she had started dating my other best friend, Garth, a few days after I joined this team."
Wally whistled. "That's low."
"Two years", Artemis repeated gravely.
A pair of silver eyes found Megan's. "Please forgive me if female coyness is a bit of a sore subject for me right now."
"Hah!", Mary exclaimed. "As if women were the only ones capable of leading someone on."
Megan looked up towards her British friend, surprised at the young woman's bitter tone.
Noting her confused look, Mary sighed, pushing a stray lock of hair out of her face. "Kaldur, you know I agree with you. Tula's behaviour was wrong and hurtful and she should have simply said 'no'. But it's not only women who string people along, and there are also some that would have said 'yes' to take advantage of you, just to drop you even more painfully later."
For a moment, the team remained silent, unsure how to react. Robin wordlessly placed a hand on Mary's arm.
"That took a dark turn", Artemis noted.
"Yeah, um, shouldn't we... celebrate that we finally freed Conner from Cadmus for real?", Wally proposed. "I mean, that's still kind of important, right?"
Aqualad nodded quickly. "Yes, of course! And we are truly grateful for that."
Mary voiced her agreement, an apologetic smile on her lips. "I'm glad you're back, Conner."
When Artemis spoke, she met Megan's eyes instead of Conner's. "Congratulations?"
Megan swallowed hard, an unexpected hope flaring up inside her. Very gently, she sent the equivalent of a telepathic knock to the archer.
Artemis nodded, allowing her to establish a link.
'Can you forgive me?', Megan pleaded, sending a stream of emotions along with her words.
She really, really didn't want to loose her friend over this.
Artemis' eyes widened. 'Wow, calm down, honey. I'll consider forgiving you. But you do need to tell me all the details about that Belle Reve mission this time, okay?'
Megan nodded, a surge of relief flooding through her. She made sure to share some of it with Artemis before breaking the mind link off again.
Meanwhile, the boys had gathered around Conner, patting his shoulders and generally expressing how glad they were that he had woken up fine.
"What do you want to do next, now that you've finally shaken off the last of Cadmus' shackles?", Wally asked.
Conner seemed to consider the question carefully. When he did not reply for a while, Megan turned around towards him. He had closed his eyes briefly, his expression strangely distant.
When he opened them again, his eyes shone with a firm determination.
"I want to return there", he announced. "I need to talk to the other genomorphs."
J'onn and Captain Marvel found Batman at the Watchtower's mechanics bay. He was working on an electrical device with the Flash and both Hawks, their faces unusually grim. The room was filled with dismay and apprehension.
Batman only briefly met his eyes.
"More bad news?"
J'onn nodded.
Author's note:
Big steps forward! We're finally closing in on the genomorph plotline, but 'humanity' is not yet resolved either...
Also, Megan and Conner and Kaldur all owning up to their feelings at last! I'm proud of them - did I mention that I'm not a fan of secrecy-based drama?
The next chapter will also be relationship-focussed, since there is one more story still untold...
Please review: How do you like my interpretation of Cadmus control?
(By the way, I used the term "mnemic fracture" for Conner's memory loss in reference to Alicorn's exceptional rational!Twilight fanfiction Luminosity - or, more specifically, its sequel Radiance - in which the terms "mnemic overload" and "mnemic replacement" were coined. Definitely a recommendation for your reading list!)