Disclaimer: I do not own Legion of Superheroes or any of its characters or properties
Author's Note: Sorry it took me a lot longer to update this time around- I'm not completely back into the swing of things with school, and I was also straightening out a lot of plot points for this story. This pause in updating might happen a few times since my school work comes first, but I'm not about to purposely neglect this story.
In light of this story's first review (courtesy of the awesome Hadassa J, I highly recommend her stories), I noticed that this fic was indeed a little rushed at the beginning and that I may have jumped into the plot a little too quickly- in light of this, I'm going to be making some edits to the story as far as the chapters go. I'll be adding two new chapters preceding the time travel in order to help smooth out any pacing issues, so I wanted to let you guys know since those will be the next updates after this chapter.
Legion H.Q., 3035 A.C.
Bright moonlight spilled into the spacious kitchen of Legion Headquarters, lighting everything up so that the electrical lighting wasn't necessary for the girl using it. She flew back and forth gathering ingredients, using her flight ring for extra lighting when she needed to read the recipe before rolling up the sleeves of her pajamas and getting to work. Gwen knew full well that 2 in the morning was an odd time to be awake and alone in the kitchen, but cooking was one of the few things that helped center her. She felt as at home in the kitchen as her father always had, even if the thought of him made a frown tug down the corners of her mouth.
Her father, Timber Wolf.. yet another name on the long list of Legionnaires who were now missing in action after a failed mission on the planet Braal. Gwen hadn't been told the details of the mission at the time, and now she was afraid to find out. All she had known at the time was that the job was set to take seven months, and it had already been a year since the team had departed. For all she knew, both her parents and the rest of the Legion could be long gone.
The young heroine sighed and shook her head, shoving the sad thoughts from her mind forcefully as she pulled her long white hair back out of her face, pushing her thick glasses further up her nose while she reread the step she was on in the recipe. Gwen had just finished cooking and put a row of chocolate souffles into the large industrial oven when she heard the sound of walking feet and jumped. Ever since the ordeal two years ago when Apollo had been hurt, the already timid young girl had been more paranoid than ever. She lived in constant fear of being kidnapped or attacked when she was alone, so even the most subtle of noises could send her heart racing in terror.
The grey eyed girl backed up against the kitchen counter, staying as silent as possible as her ears strained to pick up any new sound. The footsteps had slowed, but they were only getting closer, causing Gwen to internally freak out more. She tried to become invisible or phase out of the room, to do anything useful, but just as they had been for two frustrating years now, Gwen's powers refused to work for her when she needed them. The young girl gave up, grabbing a frying pan from off the stove and attempting to hold it in a defensive position until her hands became intangible unexpectedly and the pan dropped out of her hands. The frying pan fell noisily to the floor, making Gwen cringe as she tried to will herself solid again when suddenly the lights flickered on, temporarily blinding her until she looked up to see a confused Kahn-El standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.
"Uum, Gwen?" he asked uncertainly. The girl looked down at her hands in embarrassment, finding that they were solid again and using the opportunity to scoop up the frying pan.
"Erm, h-hi Kane.." the half Bgztlian girl stuttered uncertainly, feeling foolish for being scared of her own teammate's footsteps. "D-Did you just come back f-from your rounds..?"
The Kryptonian boy nodded easily, striding forward to jump onto the counter and sit cross-legged on top of it as if it were the most normal thing in the world. He sat up eagerly and pushed his shades up to perch on his head, revealing dark blue eyes that locked onto the oven with a mischievous glint. "I don't know what you're doing up cooking in the middle of the night, Phase, but it smells amazing in here." the young man said with his most convincing smile, making Gwen smile a little and roll her eyes.
"Y-You could just ask for one, X," she said as she peeked at the oven to gauge her creation's progress. "I-I made chocolate souffle, i-it should be ready by now."
Kane slid to the edge of the counter and slouched to peer into the oven as well. "If they're not, I could always do the honors; this heat vision is good for more than just frying the Emerald Eye."
"I'll k-keep that in mind," Gwen responded with another eye roll, amused by her comrade's carefree state of disregard. Kane had always been like this, ever since he'd arrived in the 31st century from 41st century Kandor a few months ago. He joked and teased, giving nicknames to the Legionnaires he liked most until it was time for battle and he turned into a reckless loose cannon. That was part of the reason he'd been sent to the past in the first place, so that he could learn from the Legion and be able to fight without getting himself hurt; sometimes Gwen thought bitterly of how lucky that made him.
Kane watched curiously as Gwen pulled the souffle out of the oven, eyeing the dessert and beaming when she passed him one with an oven mitt. The hungry hero dug into the chocolate treat immediately, making satisfied noises as he enjoyed it that made the cook smile again. The boy devoured three of the desserts before he even came up for air, taking the glass of water Gwen handed him and sucking it down greedily. He finally looked up at her when he was finished, studying the younger girl curiously.
"Your nightmares must be pretty bad for you to be down here all night, huh?" he finally asked in a casual tone, making Gwen flinch at the unexpected question. She turned away to clean the dirty dishes, and that was all the answer he needed.
"I guess they're pretty hard to stand without Apollo around, huh?" X pressed as he bit into his fourth miniature souffle, and the chocolate sauce dribbling down his chin as well as his unfaltering smile contrasted the seriousness in his eyes.
Again Gwen didn't answer, but this time she turned her head to look at him uncertainly over her shoulder. The boy took it as incentive to keep talking, anything to get her to open up; he'd arrived in this time period long after the accident that had caused her to withdraw, but Kane knew that Apollo couldn't be the only person she let in forever.
"Look, Gwen, everyone already knows how much he cares about you. He goes out of his way to make sure he can be there to comfort you when those night terrors scare you. Why do you think he takes naps in the middle of the day, or why I always take his nightly patrol shifts-?" he started, but Gwen turned around and cut him off.
"I never wanted to be a burden, Kane!" she snapped, and the boy held his hands up in surrender. She paused, her angry expression faltering as her shoulders sagged. "I-I'm sorry.."
"Hey, calm down. Nobody thinks you're a burden, Phase, least of all me or Sparky." Kane said adamantly as he slid forward to sit on the counter's edge with his legs hanging over the side. "He doesn't do all that out of pity. He does it because he wants to see you happy again."
Gwen seemed to digest this for a moment before turning back to her dishes regretfully. "Apollo has bigger things to worry about than my happiness now."
Kane opened his mouth to object when there was a scuffling sound from the hallway outside, and the two teens turned to see a young boy with raven black hair poking his head into the room. The boy looked around and walked in, gently pulling his timid white haired duplicate after him by the wrist.
"I told you I smelled something good," Black said to his white counterpart with a small smile. White glanced between Gwen and Kane nervously before his eyes landed on the souffle and they widened a bit before he nodded with more enthusiasm than he'd shown in a week. Gwen smiled despite herself at the sight, turning back to the cabinets and pulling out various pieces of equipment.
"Y-You boys can have as much as you like, b-but only after I've made a proper meal for you, o-okay?" she said, her tone confident despite the slight stutter. Soon the kitchen was alive with smell and sound as the sizzling of meat and vegetables frying mixed with the lull of idle chatter and Gwen swept around the room, doing what she did best. She was serving plates of an Earth cuisine called stir fry to each of the boys within a half hour, remembering that they loved Earth's culture as much as their father and sure enough, excited smiles lit up both of the Liams' faces as they dug in. The four teens talked casually after that, a calm falling over the kitchen despite the occasional falter as one teenager or another found themselves backpedaling to avoid certain sensitive topics.
"So," Kane said to Gwen later as they washed the last of the dishes, his voice low so that the Liams couldn't hear him, "what were you saying about being a burden?"
The younger girl frowned, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear as she looked up at him with a silent question in her eyes. Kane set down the plate he'd been holding to cross his arms and smile at her triumphantly as he made his point. "You know that was the first real meal either of those two have eaten since they lost Blue? Not being able to control your powers or having nightmares a lot doesn't make you a burden, Gwen; you're the glue that keeps this team together, and nobody's about to forget that. So how about giving yourself a little more credit?"
Gwen blinked in surprise, hesitating when Kane give her a gentle tap on the arm before she slowly let herself smile a little. She watched as the taller boy walked back to sit across from the Liams, a big grin on his tan face as they merged back into one being and he ruffled the younger one's hair. The phantom girl was about to join them when she heard her communicator beeping and stopped what she was doing abruptly- a little too abruptly it seemed, since her whole left arm became intangible for several minutes and dropped the bowl she'd been holding noisily, eliciting an aggravated noise from the girl as she answered her ring as soon as that arm was solid again.
"Gwen, wake up X and get down to the control room." Her sister's voice ordered as soon as Gwen had answered, throwing Legion communications protocol out the window as usual. Winema always got snippy when she was stressed, so her tone of voice made Gwen concerned more than anything else. She motioned for the boys to follow her, trying to keep calm as she flew off towards the control room and answered her sister in a level tone of voice.
"X and Liam are a-already with me, Winny, I'm on my way. Pl-please tell me we're not u-under attack again.." The girl said as she turned a corner sharply and glanced back at her teammates. Kane's shades were masking his eyes again, and Liam's mouth was in a thin, hard line as he flew beside Gwen with his hands in fists.
"Honestly? I wish." Winema answered vaguely, plunging on before Gwen could ask what she meant, "We got a intergalactic transmission over the com systems, it barely made it here as it is and Computo's sifting out the interference as we speak.."
The older girl could practically feel her sister's hesitation on the other end, so before she could hesitate any more, Gwen asked the question she knew was on everyone's minds.
"W-Winny.. wh-where's the transmission from? Who s-sent it?"
There was a long pause on Winema's end of the line save a few assorted beeping sounds that must have been coming from Computo before finally the other girl let out a heavy sigh and replied.
"The transmission was sent with fairly shoddy equipment, I mean there's not even a time stamp on it.. So I guess we'll find out who exactly sent it when we hear it. Gwen, I.. I don't want you getting your hopes up, but I recognize this coding... This message was sent from Braal."