A/N: I did not plan to do this. At all. Nope. I guess anything is possible with Wonderbeetle Week...
Disclaimer: I sadly do not own the rights to YJ.
"Cassandra."
The call of her name tugged at her subconscious, pulling her from a dreamless sleep.
"Cassandra."
The voice was persistent, almost urgent. Her eyes fluttered open.
"Jaime?" she mumbled dubiously as he appeared to be fast asleep.
"Cassandra." It was spoken from his lips, but his voice inflections were all wrong, like someone foreign was behind them. His eyelids opened slightly, but it was clear that he wasn't truly awake.
Cassie's eyes widened. "Scarab?" she whispered incredulously, doubting her sanity for a moment and wondering if hallucinating was the first sign of dying.
"I am the scarab attached to Jaime's spine," it confirmed. "But I do not have much time. This host's body is rapidly depleting its energy sources and will soon be permanently catatonic or worse if action is not taken."
With much effort, the blonde pushed herself up to a sitting position. "What can we do? I can barely move, and Jaime's even worse off than I am. Not to mention I can't get these—" she pulled slightly at the cables attached to her wrists and ankles for emphasis—"off of me. And even if I did somehow break free, how are we supposed to find our way out?"
The scarab heard the desperation lining her voice, but now was the time for action, and he needed her to be strong. So he tried to think of what Jaime might say in this situation to encourage the girl next to him.
"I should be able to disable your bonds, and your adrenaline will start to take over once we move. You will need to save your strength to fly us out of here. I have reserved enough energy to blast our way out of this cell then create a homing signal that will indicate our position to the rest of our allies."
"How will I find a way out of here?" Wonder Girl inquired, slowly daring to hope that this plan might actually have a chance to succeed.
"This scarab's sensors indicate the cell should open directly to the outside. It is only a matter of flying as far as possible and avoiding any ground weaponry that may attempt to shoot us down."
"Well, if that's all," she grumbled. "So, how are you going to bust these open?" She gestured to the cuffs around her wrist.
"Put the metal next to my form on Jaime's back. They should be touching. Do it as covertly as possible; we are still being observed, and if they disable me again, our plan will fail."
"Of course," she replied, unable to keep the sarcasm from her words as she made to wrap her arms around Jaime, appearing to the cameras as though she was simply hugging her companion close. "Wouldn't want to make it too easy now."
The metal around her wrists began to vibrate the minute they touched the blue scarab. Another minute and she felt the lines running down to her ankles began to oscillate as well. The click as all four bindings opened seemed to echo in the tiny cell.
"You have approximately three minutes and fourteen seconds before they notice something is wrong," the scarab informed her. "I suggest you assist me in waking Jaime as he has failed to respond to any of my stimuli."
"I'm on it," she replied, leaning over Jaime's prone form once more. "Jaime," she whispered. "Jaime you have to wake up."
There was a balmy breeze sifting through the hairs sticking out above his forehead, bringing with it the smell of salted water and pungent tropical flowers. His eyelashes fluttered open slightly, looking up and taking in the large fronds emerging from the two palm trees holding up the hammock he was swaying in. Seagulls called to him from a distance, their noisy cry drowned out by waves crashing against the beach, bringing empty seashells and smoothing down pebbles.
The sun was setting over the water, making the island light up with millions of shades of red, yellow, orange, and violet. It was a fire that burned brilliantly before Jaime's brown eyes. He turned away briefly only to feel something stir atop him. There, laying contentedly in the swinging structure, breathing softly above his chest, was Cassie.
Normally, Jaime's first reaction would be to either freeze up or panic and accidentally cause both of them to fall out of the hammock. But there was something serene, unreal about the entire scenario. So instead, he ran his fingers through her shimmering hair as they rocked back and forth, suspended somewhere between utopia and secret daydreams.
Cassie began to awaken, and Jaime watched with languid peacefulness as she opened her bright blue eyes. "Jaime?" she murmured, glancing around and pushing herself up to meet his calm gaze. "Jaime, you have to wake up," she told him, her voice clearer, more urgent.
"What're you talking about, Cass? We are awake," he replied confusedly. Something tweaked his subconscious.
"Jaime! Wake up!" She shouted, sitting up and gripping his biceps with both her hands.
A sharp pain shot through his body, causing him to sit up and nearly bump noses with Cassie. "OW! Hey, bonita, calm down. That hurt."
But Cassie appeared not to have heard him. "Jaime, you gotta wake up! Please, wake up!" Her voice was becoming increasingly hysterical, as was the pain permeating his body.
"ARGH! Cassie! I'm awake! I don't know what more you want from me!" he yelled, trying to reach for her shoulders. But his arms were like lead, throbbing with an ache that only grew with each passing moment.
"Jaime!" she screamed. In a moment of reckless abandon, she cupped her hands around his face, bringing their mouths together in a cataclysmic crash that sent a jolt straight through his spinal column to his heart.
His eyes burst open, all the agonizing, burning pain from the torture over the last several days rushed back to his body like a tsunami. Jaime felt it all acutely, but it was still nothing compared to the intense electricity shooting through his soul at having realized Cassie's lips were still on his, a physical manifestation that had somehow carried over from his dream.
It was the spark that gave him the strength, after she pulled away, to bring his hand up and trace her jaw. "Cass…I—"
"No time," Wonder Girl grabbed his hand, and with a mighty heave pulled his arm over his shoulder, hauling him up. "We have about a two minute window to bust out of this joint. Think you can blast the wall?"
For her, he could blast the moon.
Yes, there will be one more chapter to go.