"-rry? Terry? Terry!" Terry McGinnis was woken up by the frantic voice of Aquagirl as she shook him awake.
Terry was awake, and as much as he wanted to launch out of his lying position, and find out the problem, he knew there were benefits in playing dead. Focusing his other senses outwards Terry knew this was very different from the first time he had met Aquagirl. For 1, not only could he not hear the sea, he couldn't taste the saltiness in the air. Sure he could smell the sea, but that very well could be coming from Aquagirl. For 2 he wasn't lying on sand, but something akin to grass. And for 3 he could hear a child laughing in the background as a strange squeak emanated from the same area. Are they not in the mindscape? Definitely a weird environment, but nothing that Terry would normally constitute as dangerous.
Aquagirl must have thought something was wrong with his heart as she leaned down and placed her ear to his chest. Taking the chance to question her Terry opened his eyes and began to whisper.
"Aquagirl, what's wrong?" Aquagirls head shot up from Terry's chest as she gasped. Terry was staring back at eyes that put the blues of the ocean to shame.
"Ohmygoshyou'reOK!" Aquagirl said in one short breath as she lunged towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug.
Terry was definitely confused. Realizing that even if there was danger around; he being asleep was no longer an act he could play off. Sitting up, Terry gently wrapped his arms around Aquagirl's back.
"What's wrong Aquagirl? I thought you were in danger with how you were yelling for me." Terry said.
"I wasn't in danger, I was just confused! And then I was trying to wake you up and you wouldn't, so I thought your heart stopped again!" Replied Aquagirl.
Terry wanted to facepalm himself, he had completely forgotten that he had made that awful joke about dying from a heart attack. Not wanting to jump into that yet, Terry focused on the other part of her reasoning "Why were you confused Aquagirl?" Terry said as he pushed her away by her shoulders.
Aquagirl gave him a look suggesting she wasn't going to forget about his heart stopping, but luckily for Terry, ignored it for the time being. "Have you not looked around yet? I thought you were supposed to be a detective? Does this look like my beach to you? Everything is dark except that over there, It looks more like a park. There's even a family on that swingset over there."
Terry's blood ran cold, he knew exactly where they were. Turning towards the laughter from the child and what he now knew was the squeaking of the swing, Terry was unsurprised to see his parents pushing an 8 year old Terry McGinnis on the swing. Terry's mood darkened quickly as he turned back to Aquagirl.
"Follow me." He said quietly. As he quickly walked off heading away from his younger self's laughter. He didn't look behind him, hoping that she would follow him without much question.
"Terry?" No reply. "Terry, what's wrong? Do you know where we are?" Terry continued to ignore Aquagirl. Terry continued to walk through the dark until he couldn't hear his younger self's laughter. It wouldn't stop. he had been walking for at least 3 minutes, and it wouldn't stop! Aguqagirl continued to talk, but Terry couldn't hear her anymore, he could only hear 3 things, the ringing in his ears, the pounding of his heart and that God forsaken laughter.
Terry didn't know what to do, he felt as if he was going to pass out, he couldn't breath. Terry fell to his knees. As tears began to fall down his face he cupped his hands over his ears, failing to stop the noise. "W-why w-won't it s-stop!" Terry cried out as he screwed his eyes shut attempting to quell his continuing tears. There was a pain in Terry's chest that kept growing and it wouldn't stop, he placed a hand on it. No, not his hand. Opening his eyes Terry followed the arm back towards its owner and his eyes met with Aquagirl's. She looked like she was in pain, as she was mouthing words to him. Wait, not mouthing she was actually saying it.
"C-can't hear y-you. R-ringing everywhere!" Terry supplied. Aquagirl placed both hands on Terry's shoulders and began to make a weird face. She looked like she was breathing deeply, she wanted him to breathe with her. Terry sat up a little straighter and tried to force the air back into his tightening lungs. It was no good, he couldn't get the air in. Terry began to shake his head towards Aquagirl, that no he couldn't breath with her. But she began to talk to him.
"Yes you can Terry, it's OK, just breathe with me." She sounded like she was underwater, it was muffled, but he understood her. Watching her again Terry took in a deep 5 second breath, held it for 5, and released for 5. Again. Again. And again. Terry could breathe again, but there were still tears in his eyes. He couldn't hear ringing or laughter anymore, but he could hear Aquagirl.
"Terry, I think you just had an anxiety attack. Are you OK?" She had a soft tone of voice as she gently tried to get him to talk. Terry pulled her in for a hug as he continued to cry. "Terry, did you know those people?" She gently prodded.
Terry felt a wave of sadness wash over him and knew he had been found out. Trying to hide things from an empath was a bitch.
Aquagirl let out a small gasp. "Wait this is almost exactly how you felt when you brought up your name….. Was that your family?" Terry could only shake his head yes, not trusting his voice.
"B-but how?! I thought you were a clone, how can you have a family?" Aquagirl questioned while pushing Terry to arms length, so she could look into his eyes.
Terry knew as much as he didn't want to talk, he would have to. "The man I'm cloned from…" Terry was trying to decide whether to call him Bruce Wayne or not, he didn't know what the other clones knew about him.
"Batman." Aquagirl supplied helping him out of his dilemma.
"Yes, Batman. The reason he is the way he is, isn't just because of his training. When making a Batman, he has to have drive. When Batman was 8 years old his parents were murdered in front of him outside of a movie theater. And as he sat there kneeling in his parents blood he decided to make a war on crime. He decided to become Vengeance. Batman spent the next 12 years traveling the world training his body, mind, and spirit. He became the Batman."
"Terry…did they give you a family, just to kill them?" Aquagirl questioned with horror.
"What? Is that so surprising? They committed crimes against humanity just in creating us, you think they'll think twice about giving me a little trauma?" Terry said with some heat behind his words.
Aquagirl was taken aback, and Terry at least had the heart to feel bad. Terry looked into Aquagirl's eyes and he felt so much of his anger wash away with the waves. He took a deep breath. "I'm…sorry Aquagirl. I didn't mean to get angry, especially towards you. All you've done is help me and I dropped my burdens on you like a pack mule. I'm sorry."
Aquagirl reached forward and placed her hand on the side of his face drawing his attention to her. "What were they like?" Aquagirl asked sweetly, attempting to get him to think of the happier memories. Terry definitely hadn't seen that coming, but in hindsight maybe he should have. She had mentioned wanting a name and a family.
Terry began to stand up and helped Aquagirl up beside him. "Follow me." Terry said as he began to walk in the direction they had previously come from. It was quiet for a time as Terry was trying to find the best place to start.
"My parent's names were Warren and Mary McGinnis. They were both scientists and really good at what they did, but above all, they were loving. I guess they had to be to make the most impact on me. When I was 3 my dad began to work for Wayne enterprises. He made such good money that my mom stopped working and became a stay at home mom, but she never stopped loving science. Since I was too young to go to school she would stay with me all day, and had a new science experiment we could do each day. That was when I began to fall in love with forensics." Terry said with pride. Looking over at Aquagirl as she gained a disbelieving look.
"It's true! My mom was a biologist, but she had always been interested in forensics! She would sometimes have me go throughout the house and find hairs, or even fingerprints. Then she would have us look at them under a microscope. I loved spending time with her, she was always trying to brighten my day and she always succeeded."
"She sounds amazing." Aquagirl said with a smile.
Terry smiled back. "You have no clue. By the age of 6 I was going to school, I had never liked school much. My dad would always get upset when I failed a test or forgot to turn in my homework. At the time I had thought he hated me, now I understand that he just wanted the best for me. My dad wasn't normally as open as my mom, which is why she was so good for him, she was always able to get him to come out of his shell." By this point Terry and Aquagirl had reached the swingset with the happy family.
"You were a cute kid." Aquagirl said, staring at the young Terry McGinnis.
Terry laughed slightly as he stared at his happy family. "This was my happiest memory with them, dad surprised us by coming home early. He took us to the park, and since it was before most parents got off work we had the entire park to ourselves." Terry said happily before his tone gained sadness. "This was one week before they were murdered."
Lacing her fingers through Terry's own, Aquagirl said timidly. "I'm sorry to ask but…what happened?"
Terry's heart hurt, the only reason he wasn't having another anxiety attack was simply because he was expecting it. "It was after I had first woken up. I was still Beyond, and they hadn't shown me their deaths yet, hell they hadn't given me any memories yet, just information. When I woke up they asked me the standard questions and Dr. Desmond made Dubbilex enter my head. It was how I was introduced to my mindscape. While Dubbilex and I talked he told me he had to do something but he didn't want to, that he was forced to do it. And he did it, he forced 25 years of invented memories into my head."
Aquagirl had a baffled look on her face. "Wait. 25 years? It didn't stop after your parents death? Why would they keep going?"
"The trauma is only part of making a Batman,I couldn't make much of a difference without training, now could I?" Terry said matter-of-factly.
Aquagirl had a look on her face suggesting she was going to intervene with another question, so Terry held up a hand. "Don't worry that story can come next, now where was I? Oh yeah, so he forced 25 years of false memories into my head. So much of the memories were just there, that it felt like I didn't live them myself, while others were painfully all mine. Truth be told I'm lucky it was Dubbilex, it was going to happen either way and at least he was able to show me love as well as pain. Any other genomorph that did it could show me the pain, but would NEVER be able to show me the love."
Terry's look grew solemn as he continued. "I remember the day they died so clearly, that's when the memories started to feel real. It felt as if I had woken up from a dream, but really I was going into my nightmare. I was in love with this character, the Grey Ghost, and they had released a new movie with him in it, so of course I begged Mom and Dad to take me. It was the last day of spring break and I had gotten all A's in school that semester, so they took me. I loved every second of that movie, but it's what came after that was really important."
Aquagirl could tell their death was coming up, and wishing to help ease Terry's stress she leaned close into him laying her head on his shoulder, Fingers still intertwined.
"We were leaving the theater and I was running around being a stupid little kid. I remember I said how much I wanted to be the Grey Ghost when I was older, and then my dad told me something I will never forget. "Being just like the Grey Ghost can be easy Terry, it's as simple as helping people in need, never being afraid, and never ever giving up." As a kid that was the coolest thing I had ever heard, I could be a superhero? What kid doesn't want that? But being brave can have its downfalls."
At this point Terry was becoming visibly upset and Aquagirl began to feel bad for having him tell her what happened.
"You don't have to go on. I'm sorry for making you tell me." Aquagirl said giving Terry an out if he needed it.
Terry smiled slightly. "Thank you Aquagirl, but no. I think I need to talk about this. My parent's and I started heading towards an alley and as soon as we started heading towards it I felt something wrong. I was terrified and I didn't know why. I wanted so badly to ask my parents to find a back way, but I remembered what my dad said. "Never be afraid." So we kept going. And then, it happened. The man asked for their money and as they were handing it over my mom made a wrong move I guess. He shot her once, she died on impact. My dad was next, he was shot 3 times, but was still living. The man ran away, he was never caught, And I sat there with my dying father as the cops came."
A few stray tears came slowly down Terry's face as he finished his story. "I should've asked them not to go down that alley, I should've told them I was scared." Terry's tears began to pick up, and Aquagirl made her way in front of him.
"Terry don't you dare blame yourself for what happened, we both know that you had no say in what was going to happen." Aquagirl softly chastised Terry.
"Of course I know that Aquagirl. I just still feel like I had a choice sometimes." Terry replied exasperated. "Do you know how hard this is, how real it feels? They didn't just tell me this happened, they made it a fact! They made every single one of my memories! I don't have any that are my own!" Terry had started to get heated when he felt something wet on his arm.
Looking down Terry saw that it was Aquagirl, she was crying. Seeing her cry was sobering in a way, his anger was being tempered. "Aquagirl are you OK? I'm sorry if I sounded mad, I really wasn't angry at you." Terry said softly, attempting to get her attention.
She looked up as she cried through a sad smile. "I know Terry, it's just I can feel the pain radiating off of you, it's slightly overwhelming sometimes."
"Oh yeah, empath. I'm sorry Aquagirl." Terry said sincerely.
They sat in silence for a while, both letting the tears dry,before Aquagirl finally voiced her opinion. "You're wrong by the way."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you have more than just the memories you were force fed! You have all of the memories from when we've met, and you have the memories from when you've been woken up. It may not be much Terry, but you have your own life, you don't have to be what they're trying to make you!" Aquagirl said with heat behind her words.
Terry was stricken for a second when it began to happen, a low deep chuckle coming from his chest escaped his throat. Aquagirl quirked a singular eyebrow up. "And what the hell do you find so funny?" Aquagirl questioned while glaring at Terry.
Terry's laughter cut off in an instant as he looked at Aquagirl. "Nothing is funny Aquagirl, that's the problem, don't you see? You think I don't want to be Batman, you think I can just be Terry McGinnis, but you're wrong. Terry McGinnis died with his parents in that alley, and the Batman was born. I couldn't run away from that even if I wanted to."
"You're serious aren't you?" Aquagirl said with a Scoff. "Terry this isn't about being Batman, this is about you choosing your own future! I couldn't care less if you decide to be Batman, or if you already are the Goddamn Batman!" Aquagirl got up on her tiptoes so she was directly in Terry's face. "But you listen to me now "Batman", you and I both know there is no way you can be the Batman within cadmus. They may have trained you to be Batman, but they will just use and abuse you until they've tainted everything you're hoping to be."
Aquagirl's scathing comments hurt Terry more than he would care to admit, and as much as he wanted to give her the same treatment, he knew she was right. Taking a deep breath to try and release his anger Terry plopped down on the ground to sit in the grass. "You're right." Terry admitted.
Aquagirl didn't look surprised as she joined him on the grass.
"I know, but what are you going to do about it?"
Terry looked towards Aquagirl for a second as he remembered what Dubbilex had told him. She would be their freedom. "Aquagirl…have you ever wondered about freedom?" Terry questioned softly.
Aquagirl gained a surprised look on her face just before she answered. "I think about freedom almost all day Terry. I dream about swimming in the oceans, and walking through the trees. I would do just about anything to be free."
Terry smiled, that was what he had been hoping for. "You know me and Dubbilex were talking, last time I was awake. And he said something very interesting. Surprisingly enough, it was about you."
Aquagirl had an interested look on her face. "Oh and what might that be?"
"He mentioning that the ocean was beautiful and powerful,and most importantly, the ocean was freedom."
Aquagirl made a surprised face as she looked away from Terry. "And how do you know he was talking about me?"She said quietly.
Terry was confused for a time before he understood her fear, she was worried we were wrong about her. Terry reached over and placed a hand on her should gently turning her towards himself. "Aquagirl, I may not yet know about the last part, but I can guarantee, not only are you incredibly beautiful, you are incredibly powerful not in just physicality, but in the way you hold yourself and how you never back down from me when I challenge you. You are beautiful in more ways than one Aqua-"
Terry's words were cut off as Aquagirl's lips crased into his, and Terry could only relish in the feel of her lips and her body on his for a few seconds before she pulled away. Terry watched as she pulled away from him and began to ramble. "I'm sorry about that Terry, you were just saying all of those nice things and it just felt right, and…. I'm just sorry."
Terry wondered what to say only for a second when he found his answer, and it wasn't one he particularly preferred. "Aquagirl, please don't be sorry for something like that, never be sorry for that." Terry said as he took a deep breath preparing for what he had to say next. "Aquagirl I…I know we have a lot of chemistry. And as much as I want to keep exploring it with you, now…it might just not be the right time for it."
Terry watched as Aquagirl's face fell and her shoulders dropped. And was quick to reassure her.
"Aquagirl, please don't just listen to my words, listen to my emotions too, you'll know when it's the truth." Her eyes peeked through her eyelashes at Terry, and Lord if it hadn't been hard enough for the young man, but he continued. "I want to chase these feelings I have for you, I really do. But right now we have to focus on surviving, focus on gaining our freedom. If it was just you and me we had to worry about, then of course I would run with this! But sadly it's not, there are other clones we have to worry about, how many I don't know yet, but we have to think about them for now."
Aquagirl was sadly shaking her head yes, and Terry hated it, he wanted so badly to give her what she had wanted, hell what they both wanted, but he couldn't. Not yet at least. The 2 young adults sat together in silence for a few minutes when they heard something that hadn't been there before, water splashing. Both turned towards the noise behind them with a curious look on their face, only to be met with a beautiful pond under the moonlight. The 2 curious young adults said nothing as they made their way towards it. The water was a beautiful sea green and was as clear as the most beautiful of oceans.
Aquagirl gasped slightly as she looked at it. "It's salt water." She commented while smiling. Terry looked towards Aquagirl and smiled back at her, but she started right through him, no not through him to the side of him. Following her gaze Terry was met with a singular beautiful blue flower growing out of the ground, and right next to it a brick path surrounding the pond. 'It's all for her.' Terry realized with a thought. Terry turned towards Aquagirl who had already been smiling at Terry, with tear or two running down her face.
"It's beautiful Terry." She said as she walk closer to him. "Thank you." Aquagirl got up on her tiptoes and kissed Terry's cheek.
Terry was flabbergasted as he blushed slightly from her kiss. His beating heart drowned out the small voice in the back of his head saying they couldn't do this, not yet. But before Terry could comment either for or against the kiss, a blinding light filled the moonlit night from behind the 2. Turning quickly Terry was met with a bright white light and he knew what this was, one of them was being Woken up.
Not saying a word Terry held out his hand and Aquagirl took it, Intertwining their fingers.
"Who do you think they're waking up this time?" Aquagirl questioned.
"Who's to know? Walk with me and find out?" Terry said back.
"Of course Terry, I'll always take a walk with you."
The 2 began to walk out of the garden towards the white light when Aquagirl remembered something.
"Wait, you told me you were going to tell me about your memories of training! You procrastinated!" She complained.
Terry fixed Aquagirl with a small smile. "Just because we ran out of time doesn't mean I procrastinated."
By now the 2 could feel the light pulling them both in, they were being Woken up together.
"It looks like we're waking up together, you ready?" Terry asked.
"Yes, Beyond I'm ready." Aquagirl said with a smile.
Just as they were about to be pulled through Terry made one more comment.
"Good." Terry leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, leaving her with a sad expression. They both knew that was to be their last kiss for now. "See you soon Aquagirl."
"See you soon Terry."
The 2 replied with a smile as the light finally pulled them through.