Bereft

"Tany, either you come back to Earth and sort thing out with your team, or I'm bringing your team to Oa." John was lecturing me over our ring communicators. I kind of left the team hanging for nearly a month. "Seriously kid, I've seen them when they're not on a mission. They just sit there, staring at the monitors, flipping at any flash of green. They miss you."

"Yeah. Did you get those messages I sent you?" Yes I did Jordan. And so did Kilowag.

"And it's not like they knew you can't swim. You never told them!"

"Lack of communication. Just like I told you."

"Green Lantern Tanya Stewart, report for mission briefing with Green Lantern Kilowag."

"This isn't over young lady. You need to..." I cut his sentence off, flying off to the citadel. I met Kilowag halfway there.

"Let me guess. Jordan and your old man couldn't convince you to give the kids a break." Silent stare. "Why am I not surprised?" Maybe because it's impossible to change a Green Lanterns mind.

Flying through space, your mind tends to wander. It's some good downtime.

Back when I was at the orphanage, I thought I would never find some one I could be close to. I thought I would be lonely my entire life. Grow up to be one of those creepy ladies that own too many cats. But then the day my ring came, my life started to change. At first no one came for me, probably because they couldn't find me, but then I woke up after a nap in the forest to two smiling faces. They were complete strangers, but they treated me with kindness I had never seen before.

Then, when I led them to the orphanage, I expected them to leave. Why would a superhero go through the trouble of getting caretakers to let a child go into a dangerous situation like I'm in most of the time. Then, one of the Green Lanterns adopted me, and for the first time in my life, I felt wanted.

The entire Green Lantern Corp made me feel wanted. ...Well, minus Sinestro. But no one cares what he thinks anymore. They all became family. No matter where I go on Oa, I can always find a friendly face. They all taught me things no one else on Earth can even dream of. Kilowag of course taught me all sorts of creative fighting styles, Tomar Re taught me technological stuff, and helped me program my own computer with alien programing. John and Jordan taught me reading, writing, math, and history. And I learned cultural aspects from all over the galaxy from so many others. They would answer any question I wrote out in green floating letters without hesitation, and everyone would make time for me.

But there was always that nagging feeling in the back of my mind. The feeling that I would get booted out any minute. That I was too young to be doing this and they didn't want to be constantly watching a child while they were doing their job. So I worked hard. I worked harder than anyone else, to prove myself. Whenever a message went out that there was an open mission that needed volunteers, I was the first to jump on it, and made sure I completed it to the best of my abilities.

Then, the day came. I met four fellow sidekicks, three of whom became my best friends(I'm sorry Tomar Re and Kilowag, but you can't beat Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash). We shared anger over the fact that our mentors treated us like sidekicks instead of partners. Well we were sidekicks, we just didn't want to admit it. We came up with a plan to get back at our mentors, by getting the dirt on a science lab they were looking into before they could. And that's how we met Superboy. We got off with a rough start, but it smoothed out after the whole attacking us thing. Eh, somewhat smooth. Then we made a building collapse, which was fun.

We stood up to the Justice League when they arrived on scene, standing up for ourselves against The Justice League. I was sure that Batman was going to spontaneously develop heat vision just to fry us for that. Seriously, his stare gives me the chills. A few days later, we were gathered in a cave to establish our new team with a hyper, female Martian. She's a nice kid. A little crazy, and blushes for no reason when she's around Superboy, but nice.

Thinking about the team, I had a smile in my eyes.

Kaldur is a great guy. Very polite and humble. I have to admit though, I've never seen a dark skinned human with blond hair. He had to bleach it. He's calm and collected, even when everyone around him isn't. He sticks to the plan, and has the ability to not wither and die under Batman's intense glare. Truly impressive. And I don't know why, but my cheeks are warm around him sometimes.

Robins a cool kid. Completely unpredictable and brash, but cool. He kind of ditched us several times in Cadmus and on our first mission, and he never lets us see his eyes, and he won't tell us his real name... OK so he has trust issues and doesn't tell us anything, but he's a cool kid. Just needs to work out how to put a leash on him that can never be removed.

Kid Flash likes to flirt, but something tells me he's going to find that special someone soon. Maybe he'll stop giving me corny punch lines around every corner. He runs ahead a lot. And he doesn't plan things out.

Superboy's an angry dude. Likes punching things. He doesn't plan things out either. His plan is to punch the problem really hard... every time. I'm just lucky I didn't get caught off guard during that training session. Things with him are touch and go, but it's not like everyone is perfect right. Look at me.

I believe I gave my opinion of Megan already.

I felt nice when I was with my team at the ice cream shop that day, enjoying the fact that everything turned out alright and our mentors didn't kill us and dance on our graves for destroying a building. But that nagging feeling was still there. Then the incident with Sinestro happened, and I got this feeling that something was going to happen to my team. I was fine at first, but the feeling started growing and growing and as it did, I pushed my team away, refusing to get attached if it was just going to hurt me in the end. I acted irrationally at two different points, when they went into my room to find out why I stopped speaking, and when they threw me into the deep water, when they were just trying to have fun.

So maybe Kilowag is right. Maybe I do have a fear after all, and it's just been locked up so tight I don't know how to identify what it really feels like. Maybe my fear is abandonment.

...I hate thinking about stuff like this.

"Hey, kid, we're here." Looking up, I see a huge fire fight going on between two sister planets. Apparently tension has been growing between them and it finally evolved into war. They wanted us to settle the dispute. I think they said it was about trade ships or something like that.

The fight is over fairly quickly, Kilowag taking out one planets weapons while I took out the others. We got many angry shouts, but they can be angry with us all they want. There have been many upset with us for doing our jobs. With the fighting halted, we got both stories. One planet thinks the other has been destroying their trade ships and the other thinks the same thing about the other planet. How stupid can you get.

It's obviously space pirates.

Well I was completely and totally wrong about the space pirates thing. The big guy and I were flying along, looking for pirates to beat up, when out of no where a yellow orb smashes into Kilowag, leaving him down for the count. It blasted me, leaving me winded. Unfortunately there was a supplies convoy nearby. I had to watch helplessly as the orb destroyed every ship, and took off before I could do anything. There were no survivors. This is bad. Very bad. That thing took down Kilowag before he could do anything and left me helpless to stop it.

We're going to need the entire Corp to stop that thing. If we can find it.

The briefing with the blue yodas didn't go well. Apparently they don't like the thought of a yellow threat that can knock down two of their heaviest hitters roaming the galaxy. And with all the supply ships being destroyed, fear is growing. Bad news for a police force that uses the opposite of fear. Seriously, bad news.

"Hey kid." Turning around, I see Kilowag coming up to me. "How ya doing." Thumbs up. "I have to say, that thing hits hard. And the fact that it came out of nowhere after the only yellow ring was stolen? Can't be a coincidence." Point. "I would hate to think that someone on a planet died because the force that protects them is one person short." I see where he's gong with this.

Fine. I miss ice cream anyway.

"And maybe you can start talking to people again."

"Red Tornado, this is Green Lantern Tanya. Is the team at the cave?" I can't believe I actually let Kilowag guilt trip me into talking. I didn't even know he knows how to play the guilt trip.

"Negative Green Lantern. They are in Bialya on a mission. They have been ordered to maintain radio silence, so you cannot contact them for their coordinates. And Green Lantern, it is good to hear your voice again."

I smile at that. Red is a nice android. He could pass himself off as a human if he disguised himself.

And I'm heading to the desert. Great.

Hold up... isn't that bad for Kaldur.

I increase my speed slightly.

The sun is setting when I FINALLY find someone. Looking for people in a desert is not fun. I find Kaldur laying in the sand, dehydrated. Oh crud. This is bad. Why didn't I think about bringing water for him. Ok so I'm really far away from water and I have no idea where the bio ship is. Maybe I can call out for Megan with my mind. How does that work?

Making a shield to keep anymore heat from getting to my gilled friend, I mentally try to contact Megan.

It takes quite awhile.

'Who is this?'

YYYEEEEESSSSS!

'Megan! Thank you! It's me Green Lantern.'

'Green Lantern? You're on Earth?!'

'Yeah, but, not the point. I found Aqualad. He's dehydrated, we're not close to water, and I have no idea where the bio ship is.'

'Robin, Kid Flash, Artemis, and I are on our way, just sit tight.'

Before I know it, the others are with me and Megan is saying something about not being able to restore his memories.

What?

Then, before I know it again, Megan seems to think the indestructible Kryptonian is more important than the dying Atlantean and takes off.

Well then. Glad to know her priorities are strait.

Quickly, I make a green flying... thing, around my remaining friends, and let them direct me to the bio ship. As we go, Aqualad begins muttering in his native tongue, which my ring translates to, 'Tula, I love you, please don't go.'

I don't know but something in my chest panged at that.

We reach the bio ship, and Robin makes quick work of setting Kal up with an IV.

"You ok?" I look up at Artemis as she walks up to me. "You looked kind of sad when Aqualad was talking in that gibberish."

"My ring translates any dialect I hear so I understand it."

"Ah. What did he say?"

"He said, 'Tula, I love you, please don't go.' When he said that there was this weird pang in my chest and the feeling won't go away."

"Ah. You'll figure it out eventually. Don't let it get to you."

Real helpful Artemis.

Soon enough, both of our alien friends are on their way to the ship, and Kaldur freaks out because there's a voice in his head. He really has lost his memories.

Oh well. Megan will get them back. And maybe he'll say something that will make this weird feeling go away.