83. Kara's Visitor part 9

"Your planet is a primitive thing," Braniac said. "The technological infancy of your culture is laughable. If I was equipped with emotions, I would surely be scoffing hilariously at the futile nature of your united nations attempting to make peace in a post-industrial quagmire of global proportion. Though, I will admit. I was crafted on a planet where bureaucracy blinded the populace from their inevitable doom. But Krypton did not have the spirit of cynicism pessimistically prevalent in your society. So perhaps Terrans are not so much blind as they are lazy in failing to avoid a worldwide disaster of collapsed ecosystem, economy, and technology?"

I gritted my teeth and struggled to move freely within my crevice. But any attempt I made only increased my dizziness. And the pink force field sealing me from the inner chamber of metal totally squelched any attempts to possibly escape. Myrkblade was gone as well as my shades. I squinted my black eyes as Braniac rambled on and Supergirl shuddered depressedly in the corner.

"This horrid infestation of a 'world' is something that I have unwittingly found myself trapped in since my first encounter with Kal-El, the one you call Superman. Following the catastrophe that was the destruction of my ship and the loss of all my intergalactic data, I made several attempts to resurrect my exoskeleton and remove myself from the planet. I succeeded in uploading my neural identity into the computer banks of the core of the LexCorp company. But I failed in my attempt to escape the planet in my manipulation of Wayne Corp's space technology. Every setback that I have experience has been a result of Kal-El's intervention. I eventually deduced that Superman was the root of my problems, and to eliminate failure I had to use him or elements indicative of him to truly acquire my mode of escape."

Braniac paced over to a computer console with the wires and cables following him, connected into his back. He spoke while at work on the instruments.

"Thankfully, there is one medium of technological prowess on this world inside which I was capable of hiding my core being: the Internet. It was there that I disappeared after my last failed attempt to leave orbit. I spent months circulating and perusing through more bits and matrixes of information than a million organic individuals can absorb—much less organize—in a single lifetime. And from this saturation of boundless knowledge, I put together enough broken hints to establish Kal-El's earthly identity and place of maturation. My focus came to here, Smallville, Kansas, the United States of America."

Braniac swiveled about like a golem and gestured as he spoke to me.

"Not only is this very spot the former dwelling place of Kal-El and the present abode for John and Martha Kent, but it is also remarkably close to the landing sight of Superman's Kryptonian space craft, inbound from our demolished planet. It would not be ridiculous to hypothesize that a large quantity of Kryptonite also landed within the vicinity of the landing area. When I performed a scan of the area through use of my acquisition of global devices, I discovered that my guess was accurate. There was and is plenty of Kryptonite shards to accumulate from this location."

He paced over to other instruments and performed various functions with them as I wearily looked on…and listened.

"My desire to acquire Kryptonite, in a superficial sense, must appear futile. I am aware of its impact on Superman and how much of an aid the material would be if I were to implement it against him. But in the months during which I merged my collective consciousness with the Internet, I was also conducting virtual experiments in my digital construct and I realized that Kryptonite has a secondary—but highly remarkable characteristic. When channeled with the correct amount of energy from other pieces of the unstable material, Kryptonite—as a whole—has the remarkable ability to accelerate electrons in a focused direction. If this tendency was magnified, a whole body of mass could have its molecular structure projected hurriedly across incalculable lengths of space. To put it shortly, a brand new form of teleportation."

Braniac paused. His sternum—and his head in turn—was facing at me again.

"I now have to my advantage a new process through which I can hopefully evacuate this defunct planet. There is presently enough Kryptonite in my possession to experiment with. And this facility we are in…," he gestured all around us stiffly, "…was constructed by Intergang per my request."

"Per his 'threat' is more like it…," Metallo's voice suddenly remarked.

I weakly looked over and watched the metal man stumble into the chamber with the two huge satchels of glowing rocks from the barn over his shoulders.

"He sneaked through the Internet like a good ghost in the machine and completely squabbled our computers and databanks," Metallo smirked bitterly. "Annoying little bugger, that Braniac." He glanced at me and tilted his flesh-and-metal head to the side. "Naturally my gang had to get the stuff repaired. When we're not able to keep track of our high tech weaponry and…….elite members…," he winked and continued, "…we leave ourselves open for the heat to attack us on all fronts."

"My alteration of their digital network was flawless," Braniac added. "As I was the one to have affected their computer systems, only I could repair it."

"And so to get him to do that…," Metallo spoke in, "…Intergang sent a group of their best specialists to do the buckethead's bidding. Now he gets what he wanted and then he'll fix our computers and have done with it!"

"The first order of business was to establish a base here," Braniac said. "Before construction of my underground facility and its warp chamber could be attended to, there was the issue of the Kents. But then there was something else—that is someone else—I did not count on."

Supergirl took a deep sigh and continued staring into the corner, hugging herself.

Braniac glanced over. "Kara Inze would certainly have gotten in the way of our plans. Knowing that the fragility of the Argosian psyche mimics that of Terran, I took it upon myself to capture the Kents with Supergirl knowing it. As long as she does not reveal my plans, Kal-El's foster parents will live. In the meantime, I felt my robotic doppelgangers would suffice as a distraction for happenstance strangers."

"You said you'd release them once you got all the stuff that you needed…," Supergirl fumed from the corner. "So you got the Kryptonite! Now let Ma and Pa go!"

"The equation is not the same as it was when everything began," Braniac uttered. "The Titans have entered the picture and now they join John and Martha Kent."

"How was I supposed to know they were gonna be in the area?!" Supergirl exclaimed with her arms wide.

"My good lady…," Metallo boredly muttered. "If I remember correctly, it was you who interceded on behalf of this angsty freak here…" He gestured towards me. "And then, forthwith, the two of you tried to give me and my comrades a rather nasty bump on the head!"

"Like I said before," Supergirl glared. "If Braniac wanted the Kryptonite…I was gonna get it to him! You and Intergang would have taken forever!"

"We had Braniac's coordinates!!" Metallo shouted.

"And I had friends!!" Supergirl shouted back. "And they were far more talented in manners of searching than your dumb thugs, I'll give you that!!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!" Metallo dropped the satchels and hugged his metal chest with a jolly laugh. "Seriously, Supergirl. 'Friends'?? Perhaps at one time…but surely none of them are your friends now!!"

Supergirl panted. She looked at me.

I weakly glared at the floor.

She flinched.

"You are correct in one declaration, Kara Inze," Braniac walked over to her—towering—and spoke. "You did efficiently supply me with the Kryptonite. If it were not for you and your steady manipulation of the Titans in pursuing Intergang, the material would not have so easily gotten into my possession."

"Yeah…right…whatever," Supergirl shook. "Just let Ma and Pa and the Titans go already…"

A beat.

Braniac's head leaned forward. "I am afraid I cannot allow that."

Supergirl's blue eyes went wide. "Wh-What?!"

Braniac swiveled around and headed back towards my side of the chamber. "I shall not release them. Their value is too great now."

"B-But you said you'd let them go!!" Supergirl cackled. She trailed after the alien android and shook her fists. "We had a deal!!"

"As I informed you already, the equation has changed. Though your actions have been of great assistance, they have nevertheless defied my etiquette and endangered the lives of my coerced cohorts: the members of Intergang."

"Th-Then just keep them safe till you leave this godawful planet with that Kryptonite warp thingy of yours! Allow us the chance to recover, at least!"

Again, Metallo began to cackle at the top of his lungs.

Supergirl clenched her teeth and flashed a venomous look over at him. "Will you shut the Hell up?!"

Metallo grinned and said: "Recover? Recover?! There won't be anything left to recover, you daft twit!"

Supergirl's eyes narrowed, as did mine. "What do you mean…?" uttered the Girl of Steel.

"If you'd truly been Braniac's cohort, you would have known the truth already," the metal terrorist smirked. "But with the way you've been hammering in your own shortcuts to the Kryptonite and all….heh….who were you to be told?" "Told what?!" she looked panickedly at Braniac. "What do I not know?!"

Silence.

"Tell me!!"

"The channeling of energy through the collective group of Kryptonite shards will require little input for implementation of the spatial warp," Braniac said. "But as is obviously a result of the magnification of the electron distribution, the output will be unfathomably great. While my physical construct is being projected across space, there needs to be a displacement of energy. A great displacement."

"Get to the point…," Supergirl glared, her eyes momentarily glowing red with laser heat.

Metallo's metal brow furrowed and he clenched his fists just in case…

"No sooner than one one-quintillionth of a second following the warp, a cataclysmic expulsion of electrons shall shoot forth from this facility in one-thousand-and-eighty-degree distribution. All matter in the way shall be immediately vaporized within a spherical radius of two hundred and fifty miles. Quite sufficiently, an enormous crater in the geographic landscape of this continent shall be formed. The resulting devastation of the explosion's impact on the climate is a chaotic prediction at best, but one can mostly look forward to a global shift identical to the conception of a nuclear winter."

Supergirl's lips parted and her eyes twitched in shock.

Metallo walked into focus and bowed pleasantly. "Yours truly will take his fair share of leftover Kryptonite and make a bee-line for the Eastern Hemisphere." He stood tall and evilly grinned. "I frankly don't care if you and your former friends are caught in the blast. Hell, I don't even care what happens to Intergang." He pointed at the satchels on the floor. "I need my lifeblood. My energy. As long as I have such a supply, I can face whatever holocaust this planet will have to offer me. And who knows? In the resulting devastation, I could very well become a God among insects."

"A rather ironic fate for a planetoid upon which you are situated, Kara Inze," Braniac remarked. "I do regret if it all amounts to a figurative reinvention of your fated Argos. Certainly Kal-El will be familiar with the apocalyptic situation. I certainly am."

Supergirl clenched her fists. "That's the last straw. I can't allow that…."

Braniac gestured towards me, the Titans, and the Kents. "Kara Inze, have you forgotten that you are in no position to bargain?"

"Maybe…," the girl remarked. In a sudden rush of air, she was flying towards the Kryptonite satchels on the ground. Her hands were outstretched.

Metallo was quick to the punch. He growled and rushed over with a massive shoulder plow…

WHAM!!!

Supergirl tumbled across the metal chamber and slammed back against a wall between the unconscious Starfire and Robin's crevices.

THWUMP!!!

She winced, floated in mid air, and raised her fists. "It's not too late to right things!!"

I watched wearily as Metallo stepped to the center of the room, placed his hands on his hips, and winked. "Yes…it is." SCHLUMP!!! The panel in his chest opened, revealing the hydrogen detonator in his torso. "Care to place your bets, girl? Atomically?"

"Not much else to look forward to," she growled. SWOOOOSH!!! She flew like a rocket at him. "You're bluffing, Metallo!!!!" she shouted.

He laughed as she zoomed at him. "Ha ha ha ha!! You're right! I AM!!!"

SCHLUMP!!!!

What once appeared to be a detonator turned out to be a second panel. It slid open and the room practically burned with green light. The hugest piece of Kryptonite any of us had ever seen hung in the central core of his chest where the hydrogen detonator was presumed to be. The glowing rock pulsed and shot a beam of emerald venom straight into the incoming Supergirl's chest.

FLASH!!!!!!

"Unnngh!!!" she shouted painfully and tumbled over the metal floor hard. THWUMP!!! She skidded to a stop, moaning.

Metallo leaned forward and continued to focus the beam on her body. "Seriously…as if Intergang would REALLY strap one of their biggest and most powerful weapons inside of me!! Ha ha ha!! Oh, I have no intention of ceasing to exist anytime soon, Miss! Not today….not tomorrow…and certainly not the day after tomorrow!! Now what I really have up my sleeve is the first of Braniac's kind offerings to me. As if it wasn't obvious from the beginning, it may turn out to be I who sees you die before all is said and done!"

Supergirl squirmed and twitched in pain under the green beam's pressure. Her eyes opened up, looking at me. Tearing.

I panted. Too sick to feel anything. I looked up.

Braniac was facing me, as if Supergirl's torture was of no surprise to him. "Before I transport myself off this planet, I shall make use of our present company," he said. "It is fitting that the last information from Terra Firma that I gather are from the minds of these 'Teen Titans'. It will make a fitting archive of this planet's jaded glory for when I reestablish my interstellar library once more."

Metallo finally ceased his Kryptonite beam's punishment on Supergirl. He shut the panel in his chest. "Really now…," he turned and looked casually at Braniac. "Aren't we the scholarly type?"

"Proceed with fitting the warp gate with the Kryptonite…," Braniac extended a hand that glowed. The pink force field of my crevice died. Almost immediately, cords from the ceiling and Braniac's back all converged on my numb, helpless body at once. "I must busy myself with this accumulation of data…"

"Wh-What…..," Supergirl wheezed and sputtered from the floor, "…are you doing to h-him…."

I gritted my teeth, shook, and jerked in pointless struggle as the snake-like cables wrapped around various limbs of mine and hoisted me out into the center of the chamber.

"I am exploring a new frontier…," Braniac stood and looked up as I was slowly, coldly lifted towards the ceiling. Tiny cords lowered what looked like a black visor down and over his lifeless, ivory eyes. "This vigilante's mindscape must certainly be expansive and full of intriguing information…"

"No….l-leave him alone…" Supergirl stuttered.

"Oh, sod off," Metallo smiled down and kicked Supergirl in the side. WHUMP!!!

"Nnnghh!!"

The metal man leaned over and smiled. "I think he's due for a checkup anyways! Eh heh heh heh….Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!"

Metallo's cold laughter filled my ear as Braniac's tentacles spun me over and lifted me up towards the ceiling. I struggled. I gasped. My black eyes widened. A network of sparking wires, needles, and plasma conduits leered hungrily down at me from a coffin shaped indentation in the ceiling. Like the mouth of a rusted, metal venus fly trap. A mangled, ravenous cocoon. Electronically drooling down on my morsel of a body with dripping sparks and blue bolts.

My heartbeat raced. I shook and struggled, only to be strangled by the cords. I gasped for breath. I shivered. The chills. The chills….

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!" Metallo bellowed. "Turn your head and cough, freak!! Ha ha ha ha!!!"

"N-No!! Leave him be!! P-Please!! Jordan!! Jordan!!!!!"

"Open up to me, Mr. Noir. Your mind. Your wealth of information. I wish to acquire it…."

"HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"

"NOOO!!! JORDAN!!!! LET HIM GO!!! P-PLEASE!!! DON'T DO THIS TO HIM!!!"

I whimpered through mute lips. I was encircled with darkness. The needles and cords pressed into my face and shoulders and chest and thighs and groin and legs and feet. Sparks flew. Pinpricks of fire. Orphaned screams in the night sky. The tentacles wrapped around my limbs and squeezed. I let out a silent gasp. Rubber tubing filled my mouth. Pumping gas. My black eyes bulged. I hyperventilated into foam. Needle metal spider legs scurried over my face and came to razor edged resting points on the corners of my obsidian optics. The edges of my cornea started to bleed ice. And then twin nozzles lit up and blinding lasers shot into my eyes and the chills and the chills and the…

My body convulsed into the cocoon of needles. My hair flew into my skull till it was two inches short. My body shrunk by two feet. Brown pupils surrounded by white exploded into existence. I was in a green field. My heart was throbbing. Two sword-swinging apprentices were beside me. And Master with his ancient face. The cedars and the Pacific winds.

I convulsed. I shivered…the chills….

And everything jerked. And everything danced like epileptic mannequins. All my memories. All my life. Everything I knew but tried not to know. It was being played back in front of me. Everything blazed past and yet moved one inch per hour. And I had no eyelids to hide it all. And I had no breath to lose and fall asleep with. I was a prisoner to my past. Flung back West like a stone across a sea of molasses. And the entire time, with each intimate reenacting and each personal sigh or cry or fear, there was something else inside of me. Someone else inside of me. A pair of strange, ivory eyes watching every inch and every detail and every curve of my naked vulnerability from amniotic fluid to a helpless black-eyed boy in the embrace of cold alien wiring.

Everything that was me…that was 'Noir'…that was Jordan…was being invaded. In every mental sense of the term…in every metaphysical and perceivable angle…I was being raped. My soul was being torn apart from the inside out like an exploding ice pick inside a fragile, glass figurine. And where the shards scattered and sang the sharp edges sunk into the satin carpet of the universe and dragged me down to where all I knew or felt or perceived was some cold alien voice bleeping in ones and zeroes how remarkably 'informative' my trashcan of a life was, with the background white noise of Supergirl's sobbing and Metallo's laughter making some freakish opera for God to laugh at.

There's no denying it, it was the second great mutilation of my being.

Red tears came out of my eyes. In the darkest corners of my vision, a little boy hugged himself and screamed. I cried out for Ana but she wasn't there.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere in the middle of the Plains there stretched an endless dirt road. The T-Car cruised down it. Cyborg had his hands to the wheel. Starfire was smiling out at the passing farmland. Beast Boy was saying something, and Robin laughed. Raven had her nose in a book. The wind kicked at their torsos. Alive and vulnerable.

A stonefaced mute sat in the back of them. There were thunderclouds over his eyes. He eyed the other five in the car, and soon the seats stretched away like a morphing, liquid metal limousine. A hot flash came out of the West. He swallowed hard and fell out of the car.

At the end of the tumble, he saw three pairs of feet in front of him. He looked up, bleeding all over.

Slade, Jinx, and Dagger stared down at him. Organic trees lined up in a row.

He stood up, hyperventilating, and reached a hand towards them.

His fingers grasped the knob and swung the door open. He stepped into the Denny's bathroom, wandered down two spaces, and opened a stall. A boy was hunched over a toilet, vomiting and sputtering like mad. He wiped his chin with a sleeve and looked up. He had short black hair and frightened brown eyes. In the boy's reflection stood a figure in black and brown metal mesh. Thick black eye goggles. There was a glint of light as a razor-edge playing card lifted in weathered fingers. A swish of air, a spinning joker's head, and the card sliced its way into the gasping boy's neck.

Blood mixed with the vomit and congealed into a puddle on the tiled floor. The goggled stranger peered down and past his reflection he fell into a horizontal dive across fields of swaying grass. The sun rose and fell and rose and fell as a line of cedar trees came closer and yawned forth a small sprawl of Oriental buildings.

A blink.

Their shingled rooftops caught aflame. Two figures stood against the flickering tongues. One with white eyes. The other with red eyes. They drifted away under a curtain of thick black smoke that swam on forever and ever and ever and ever.

And when the clouds parted, someone stood between the bodies of five dead Titans and something inside him wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. But he had no voice and he was unfathomably alone.

With chills……with chills…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was being dragged across a metal floor. My metal left hand scraped against the seamless, alien polish.

Metallo's voice: "I'd say you made a good show of it all, considering."

He trudged my lifeless body towards a pair of huge metal doors. Through the letterbox window of hard plastic polymer, Supergirl sat in the corner hugging her knees. A red lamp of synthetic Kryptonian Sunlight loomed overhead. She was as weak as any petite mortal on the planet just then. She looked up as Metallo approached with my barely-squirming body.

"Stay in here with your girlfriend for a space or too…," he smirked and punched a numberpad with metal fingers. "…Braniac's busying himself with the Kryptonite for the warp. Soon, he'll go through your friends like he went through you. Undoubtedly, they'll all end up here with you two brats. Forgive me if I don't take part in the communion."

SWOOOOOSH!!

The automatic doors swung open.

Supergirl stumbled to her feet.

"Uh uh uh…," he shook his finger at the red-lit girl and smiled. "I'm not in the mood to crush your pretty skull in. Not yet, at least. Ha!"

SLUMP!!!!

He tossed me into the opposite corner like a ragdoll.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

The doors closed behind me.

Metallo punched the numberpad on the outside. "Don't be making any little heroes while I'm gone," his muffled voice mused through the plastic. "I know you don't have much of a future left with the warp energy going all kablooie and such rot. But alas…I never cared much for Generation Y. Actually, I just never cared much for you two. That's good enough, isn't it? Ha ha ha! Ta-ta!" He walked off. Down the corridor. Gone.

Silence.

Supergirl panted. She rushed over towards the plastic and looked out.

Silence.

"Good riddance…," she mumbled.

A beat.

She looked down at me.

I was trembling. My back to her.

"Jordan….are you okay?!" she breathed. She got down on her knees and shuffled towards me. "Stay still. Don't try to move much. Tell me, does anything feel permanently damaged??" A beat. "Jordan??" She placed her hand on my shoulder. "Jordan, are you o—"

SWOOOOSH-WHAM!!!!

My fist flew across her face. I was spinning around, my face in a furious, black-eyed snarl.

CLAMP!!!

My fingers went about her throat.

WHUMP!!!!

I stood and pressed her up hard against the red prison's wall.

She wheezed and dangled from my grasp. Powerless to fight with her missing reflexes of steel.

I was hyperventilating. Hissing through teeth. A hotheaded animal with black hair tossed about and my muscles tensed to the point of snapping apart. My clenched teeth leered close to her body as I applied more maniacal pressure. If I could, I would have bitten and torn my way through her face and shredded her brain stem apart with my bicuspids.

She trembled and snorted for a whisper of breath. A thin stream of blood trailed out of her nose. She wheezed: "J-Jordan…you are hurting me…."

My lungs heaved. I fumed. I didn't give a shit.

I clamped my fingers tighter to her throat.

She hissed. Her blue eyes rolled back. She murmured: "P-Please….Jordan….we are….are st-still on the same team….d-don't do something you w-will regret…."

Sweat ran down my furrowed brow. I started to hyperventilate harder. I could have killed her. I could have killed her…

Something whimpered from inside of me. I released my fingers.

Supergirl slumped to her rear on the floor. She huddled against the wall, bent over, and coughed…hacked…struggled for breath. She sputtered and wheezed and her eyes teared. She looked up at me.

"Jordan…," she whimpered. "I-I had no idea…..I had no idea Braniac was going to do that. I had no idea he had the intention to steal your thoughts and the thoughts of your friends. Please….t-try to understand…"

I stood there. Numb. My frown was slowly melting into something cold and pathetic. My whole body shook with each shivering breath I took. My shoulders shagged and my arms dangled…quivering.

"Jordan….," Supergirl stood up slowly. She grasped a series of fresh red welts on her neck and her lips quivered as she said: "Listen to me. Please. J-Just listen. Didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you that after what happened to my family…there would be nothing….absolutely nothing I'd let stand in my way of preserving the ones I love?? When Braniac came in with Intergang and captured Ma and Pa…it was like my nightmare happening all over again. I-I wasn't going to let him end the lives of the same parents I've been growing close to! I wouldn't let that happen to those I care about and just stand by helpless! So I g-gave in! I played the game of denial with Clark. I hid the fact that Metallo and his men were building Braniac's facility. When Braniac fashioned those robot replacements for Ma and Pa…I let him. Because at any moment…and at any time…I knew he could take their lives away, Jordan! But I had my plans for retribution! I figured that…th-that if I played along with him, I'd figure something out! I'd find something or find someone to help me beat Braniac and Metallo at their game! And when I saw you, Jordan…wh-when I saw you and knew the Titans were nearby….I-I felt like salvation was at hand! But as quick and as helpful as you all were in rounding up the Kryptonite to make Braniac happy…it still pissed him and Intergang off that I got you all involved. So rather than risk a confrontation that could end with the extermination of Ma and Pa, I figured I'd help….h-help get you all captured. But only because I have a plan, Jordan! I have a plan to get us out! We can still do this! Please…you must believe me! You must work with me! I-I'm not so bad as I may seem! Jordan?? Jordan, are you listening to me?!?!"

I was panting. Shaking. Hyperventilating more and more. My eyes couldn't choose between frowning and twitching. I couldn't bear to look at her.

Supergirl frowned. "Look! I'm sorry! Okay!! I'm sorry!! It was Braniac who did all that crap to you!! I-I had nothing to do with it!! It tore my heart to see him do that to you!! I wanted to back out! I wanted to…to….what does it all matter, Jordan?! Think of me for once!! Imagine being in my place!! You'd stop at nothing to protect the ones you love!! Would you?! Especially after losing so much!! An entire planet of people, Jordan!! An entire freakin' planet!! You and I are both lonely souls, Jordan, remember?! Try and put yourself in my place!! It can't be so awfully damn hard!! Think of it for once!!"

I clutched my hands over my ears. I shook my head. I thought of the Titans….I thought of the Titans….

Chills ran through my body. Chills…

"Jordan…," Supergirl's voice was choked. She swallowed a lump in her throat, crept across the red interior, and placed her hands on my shoulder. She looked deep into my black eyes. "Jordan….everything I've said….everything I've told you…" Her blue eyes watered genuinely. "I meant every single word of it. When I met you…I-I wasn't sure how well we'd get along. But all I knew was that we had something in common! And at least—I thought—that part of you…that lonely and hurt part of you would have the capacity to understand….to understand wh-what I have done. Please, Jordan. I care for you so much. I never stopped….please believe me…..J-Jordan??"

I was staring at her. My head slightly leaning to the side. My lips parted and quivering. Slowly, something in my cranium shook. My black optics pulsed and thick streams of tears trickled down my face. And I just looked at her…and looked at her…and looked at her…

She slowly shrunk back as if wounded with a venomous spike. Her eyes watered more and she hugged a trembling wrist to her bosom. "Jordan……I…..I……."

I kept looking. And the tears kept streaming. And with every fiber of my being, I knew that there was no greater way to deeply wound her than with this….this……..this…..

She sniffled and clutched her hands over her face. As it turned out, she wasn't half as brave as I was. She didn't have the guts to show her tears. "How I wish you could just say something….," she shook and her voice quivered. "How I wish you could just say something…..Curse me. Yell at me. Scream and holler. Tell me how much you hate me. Anything. Just speak…. speak…. dear Kela….. I'm so sorry….. I'm so sorry…."

She wilted to the floor on the far end of the interior. Falling apart. Helpless. This time her muffled voice was sobbing. "Mommy… Daddy… Brother… I'm so sorry…. I'm so…. so sorry….."

Standing there…staring at her crying figure…her face hidden…her blonde hair disheveled………the red hot anger once again arose in me. I felt the blood trickling down from invisible wounds deep inside of me, and I was stabbed with the thought that—in a matter of hours—the rest of the Titans would have those very same wounds of psychological violation as I did while the Girl of Steel sat in some god damn tanning booth crying like a baby.

And I shook. And my fingers curled into iron fists. And I gritted my teeth.

I let out a silent scream, spun around, and slammed my fist into the plastic letterbox window.

SMACK!!!!!

I grunted and rammed my shoulder into it repeatedly.

WHAM!!! THWUMP!!!!

I kicked it with a huge exhale of fury.

WHACK!!!!

I practically pummeled my meaty body into the side like a brainless battering ram. Unleashing my frustration. Clawing at an infinite horizon like a blind animal with black cataracts.

CRASH!!!! SLAM!!!! BAM!!!!

"Jordan!!" Supergirl hugged herself and shouted in desperation. "Stop it!!"

WHAM!!! THWACK!!!

"Stop it, Jordan!! You're hurting yourself!!!!"

I let out another long, soundless scream and slammed my body so hard into the double doors I felt like my ribs would crack. I hyperventilated. I sweated all over. With each successive thought about Robin—WHAM!!—Beast Boy—THWACK!!—Cyborg—BAM!!!—Starfire—THUD!!!—Raven—CRACK!!!—I thrust harder and harder against the metal and plastic. Heaving. Snarling. Numb with rage. Smoke pouring out of my eyes and murking through blurred limbs of pure, heated Destruction and wrath.

"Jordan!! JORDAN!!" Supergirl jumped up and grabbed my arm. "It's pointless!! Will you please stop—"

I gnashed my teeth and flung my limbs hard into her. She stumbled back into a wall. THWUMP!! The breath left her. She looked at me—panting—with a wet face.

I stared back. Fuming. I slowly stepped back into the corner. I gritted my teeth. I closed my black eyes. I flexed my metal and flesh limbs to my side and took a deep, focused breath. I meditated. I found my center. I inhaled, paused, and exhaled. Smoke started to trail down from my elbows, danced at the ends of my fingers, and trailed back up to the base of my shoulders. Murk trailed out from under my naked eyelids. Black fog lingered at the ends of my dark strands of hair. My bloodstream warbled with criss-crossing waves of Construction and Destruction. I imagined Myrkblade in my grasp. I imagined an open field of green. I imagined cutting the air with ease. I imagined walking on water. Dancing off of snowflakes. Climbing up oxygen molecules.

A curtain of smoke and murk enveloped my body like a robe. I flexed my limbs and the dark energy pulsed.

Supergirl gasped and shielded herself with a forearm. "Jordan?! What are you---"

The curtain grew thicker. My body started to dematerialize into a column of pure smoke. The fog and murk danced in place. I held it tightly. I refused to let it spread or explode. I gritted my teeth. My black eyes tensed under the lids. My knuckles cracked before disappearing into the air. I was only half there, and I was only half gone.

Supergirl's eyes widened. "Jordan!! Jordan!!!!" she cried out.

I tilted my head back and let out a silent howl and shook and quaked as the column of dancing smoke particles crept its way up and my lungs disappeared from the inside out with my enormously channeled superpower. At the last second, my black eyes opened and melted away into pure smoke and what was left of my solid backside tensed against the metal wall and--

SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!

I shot my essence directly towards the metal doors, found the crack, squeezed through, navigated the almost seamless convergence of molecules, found the hairline fracture that was the doors' joints, made it two thirds of the way through, and lost my charge. My body solidified with a BANG!!!

CLANK!!!!!!!!!

The outer hull of the doors exploded and my flesh and metal body shot out and tumbled free onto the synthetic floor outside the prison holding. I curled up into a fetus position—winced once….twice—and stretched back out with a huge, enormous gasp for air. Oxygen and carbon dioxide rushed into my vacant lungs in a torrent. I shook with the inhalation, shuddered, exhaled, coughed, sputtered, and inhaled again. Slowly, the extremities of my body stopped trailing smoke and I was back to one hundred percent human form again after the most insane teleportation of my damn life.

A trembling Supergirl was standing up towards the plastic window from the inside of the prison cell. The red, Kryptonian light illuminated her figure as she worriedly watched me. She gasped and jumped back as I eventually stood up, shook myself out of it, and glanced her way with glaring, black eyes.

I frowned at her through the window.

She looked back….fearful and helpless.

My brow furrowed. The same invisible wounds bled again at every sight of her immaculate face and angelic visage. I had thought for a split moment the night before that Kara was giving me a solution to my venomous phobia of the West. But as it turned out, she was only the confirmation of my fears. Thanks to her, I got to relive my Hell. And I got to have the very memories I'd kill to protect ripped from me like they were nothing but leaves on a weed. She was my every definition of pain, paranoia, and loathing.

Her lips quivered. She mouthed—muffled through the window: "J-Jordan…"

I took a deep, fuming breath…and swiveled around.

"Please…d-don't leave me! I can help you!" I walked away.

"I can help you!!!!! I can help everyone!!! Like I meant to do!!!"

I didn't turn back. She could 'super-rot' for all I cared.

I walked away.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I snuck through the metal halls on blurred feet. I took a deep breath once I reached an intersection and cloaked myself into stealth mode with a falling curtain of murk. I looked down each available path. Echoes of mysterious sounds came from one end, and I figure that was where Braniac and his warp device could be found. But that wasn't what I was looking for.

So I crept invisibly down one of the quieter halls.

Like magic, I came upon the horrifically familiar chamber. I took a deep breath and looked among the pink-glows of the crevices' force fields for any sign of the two, metallic villains. Neither Braniac nor Metallo were anywhere to be seen. I took a deep breath and approached the wide computer screen where the map of Smallville was. Lying across the length of the console—besides a huge keyboard-like device—I spotted my shades and Myrkblade, along with Robin's utility belt and some of Cyborg's tools. I recovered Myrkblade and slung the sword in its scabbard over my shoulder. I put on my shades and relaxed a bit as the world lost its blinding brightness and became visibly comfortable again. I materialized out of stealth mode, unsheathed Myrkblade, and approached each imprisoning crevice while channeling a ready supply of smoke energy into my blade.

Ironically…one of the occupants of the crevices was stirring. Raven.

"!!!!" I rushed over and waved a hand in front of the thin beam of the pink force field.

"Nnnghhh…," Raven's blue eyes fluttered open. She squinted and figured out who I was. And when she did: "Something tells me we're not in Kansas anymore….."

I had this sudden, wickedly crazy urge to hug her.

With a gesture, I motioned for Raven to scrunch back into her holding cell.

She nodded weakly and did so to the best of her ability.

I took a deep breath, twirled Myrkblade, and stabbed it into the energy conduit of her crevice's forcefield.

CRUNCH!!!!

The pink field shorted out. Raven stumbled out. I gave her a gentle hand and she stepped to my side, dizzily regaining her balance and focus.

"I knew it…," she muttered. She stretched the hood of her robe over her dark blue head. "I knew Supergirl was hiding something! But does anyone ever listen to me these days?? Not in the least!!"

I tried not to roll my eyes. I gestured with curiosity.

"Right as you and the Titans were pulling out to sneak up on the train…," Raven explained, "…I confronted Supergirl. When I showed her I was a little too informative, she knocked me unconscious and I ended up here. I bet she invented some bogus story as to why the 'moody Raven' wasn't joining along with the mission!"

I bit my lip. Raven had a bitter knack for…..having a bitter knack for things. I shuddered.

"No time to fret over fallen heroes," the dark girl shook her head. She faced the other crevices where our teammates and the Kents were held captive. "Let's get everyone out of here!"

I nodded. I twirled Myrkblade and faced our friends' imprisonment.

Raven concentrated with a set of meditative fingers posing in a graceful wrist in front of her. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos…."

Black shards of a serrated fashion flew outward from her center and shattered three sets of energy conduits at once. SWIIIIIISH!!!

I twirled about and stabbed three sets on my side. SLASH!! SLIIINK!!! CHUNK!!!!

All six remaining force fields faded in pink clouds. We proceeded to shake our comrades to consciousness. Slowly, the Titans and the Kents stirred awake…wincing. The Kents were the slowest to recover.

"Ugh…," Starfire clutched her head and groaned. "I feel like I have been through the digestive track of a Bengalorian Concussion Worm!"

"Yeah…same here," Beast Boy muttered.

Robin stumbled to his feet and tried a little too hard to regain his charm as his world came to focus. "Where's Intergang?! And just where is this place?!"

"It's certainly not Heaven…," Cyborg muttered as he stood up straight outside his crevice. "Not the Heaven I know."

I walked over to Cyborg, handed him his tools, and started hand-signing.

Gradually, the android Titan's eyes widened. He gasped. "No way…."

"What is it??" Robin remarked, walking over to the console and retrieving his utility belt. "What's Noir telling you??"

Cyborg blinked. He swiveled over to look at Robin and muttered. "It's Braniac! Braniac's behind all of this!"

Robin gasped. "No way…."

"Oh my god!" Beast Boy cackled, clasping his hands together. "Braniac!!" A beat. "…….um…..who's Braniac??"

"Only one of the worst bad dudes on Superman's villains roster!" Cyborg exclaimed. "He's been bad news for Metropolis in the past. And—if I'm not mistaken—bad news for the universe in general!"

"I've fought him before," Robin punched a fist into his palm and gritted his teeth. "He's a hardcore villain. There's nothing that he'd let stand between him and……" His voice lingered.

"Between him and what, Robin?" Starfire inquired.

The Boy Wonder looked my way.

I gulped and hand-signed to Cyborg.

"Braniac's got an intergalactic warp device!" the titanium teammate interpreted. "The side effects of it could blow away a good chunk of the planet earth!"

"Dude….that's not so cool…," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"I hate to say this, Titans…," Robin remarked. "But this is perhaps bigger than anything we've ever dealt with before. We gotta regroup and get focused on this in order to defeat this guy!"

I heard whimpering voices.

I looked over.

Raven was in the process of helping a frightened and confused Martha Kent out of her holding crevice. The petite sorceress was gentle and graceful in the way she assisted the old foster mother to Clark Kent. At the same time, a very real John Kent was marching out of his crevice on wobbly legs and making a desperate bee-line for Martha. When the two met, Raven stepped aside and the couple embraced desperately. I could even hear them….Martha's sobs and John's strong voice of reassurance.

"I-I thought that brute was going to h-hold us forever!"

"Shhh…it's okay, Martha. We have help now."

"Oh….where's Kara?! Where's Clark?! None of this makes sense!"

"Shhh…it's okay. We're gonna get out of here safe. I'm sure the kids are thinking of something."

"I don't want them to get hurt, John! I-I don't want any more of this pain…"

"Don't worry…just stay calm…just stay calm…."

Something cold and painful arose in the center of my being. But it was a different sort of pain then what I had been dealing with off and on over the last few hours of torture. Something in my black eyes twitched—or perhaps something reflected wrong in my dark shades—but suddenly I could have sworn I saw a flickering image of Renee and Daniel pasted over the bodies of Martha and John Kent. They rocked in each other's arms. Clinging to each other. Sobbing in the embrace of life…

And these black eyes suddenly lost their fury like leaves in early winter.

"Noir??"

I took a deep…shuddering breath….

"Noir???"

I looked over.

Robin was addressing me. "Why haven't you answered me?"

I blinked. I leaned my head to the side.

"Where is Supergirl?"

Everyone looked at me.

A pause…a painful, damn pause.

My black eyes darted momentarily towards the shivering old couple. I looked at the Titans.

I shrugged.

"Perfect timing for her to be missing!" Beast Boy cackled.

"Man, what do we do?!" Cyborg uttered.

"We must remain calm…," Raven said. She was glancing at me suspiciously, but decided to say nothing of it. In fact, she was 'saying nothing' of a lot of matters right about then….. "I suggest we get the Kents out of here first and foremost."

"Agreed," Starfire nodded and sympathetically looked in their direction with gentle green eyes. "This is most certainly not their element."

"Okay…," Robin nodded. He looked at me. "You know the way out, Noir?"

I gulped. I nodded.

"Show us, then. We'll re-equip ourselves outside of this place and come in to confront Braniac."

"What about Metallo?"

"Him too, if need be."

"Hooo boyo…..how I hate climaxes…."

"Come on, B.B. Less talking and more moving."

Starfire and Raven—the girls—walked over and gently guided the confused Kents along the path with gentle words of assurance as I led the way for the whole group. I marched us up the corridor through which Supergirl and I had originally entered. The metal doors to the outside world were still wide open. Outside, the clouds were still dark and the wind still chilling. But the lightning and thunder were gone.

I was numb again by the time we reached the exit. I paused in my step. I swiveled around and briskly motioned for the others to proceed ahead of me.

"Nice job, Noir," Cyborg nodded and patted my shoulder as he walked up and exited first. He was followed by Beast Boy. Then Starfire and Raven with the Kents. Finally, Robin emerged through the door last. "Get them somewhere safe," he pointed at the girls. He looked at the guys. "Anyone know where the T-Car is?"

"Dude! Take a look around!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "It's the Kents' farm, man!"

"Whoah! What gives?!"

"I have no clue," Robin said. He looked down at the hallway where I was still standing. "Noir??" A beat. His eye mask widened.

I was flinging my fist into a console in the wall.

In the peripheral of my vision, I saw Raven gasp and dash towards the door.

She knew…..

"Noir!!! No!! Don't—"

SWIIIIIISH-CLANK!!!!!

The big, alien doors closed. I took a deep breath and pressed a red button on the console.

WHURRRRR-THULUNK!!!!

A locking mechanism went into place.

I heard muffled shouts and banging from the outside. The Titans were desperately trying to claw, blast, and force their way in. But it was no use. The technology was influenced by Braniac himself. The doors would not budge…not even under the Titans' pressure.

I had successfully sealed myself inside away from their assistance.

And after I had done so—as if on puppet strings—I felt myself shake all over. I started hyperventilating again. I collapsed to the floor and hugged my knees to my chest as the chills took over.

The chills….

I shivered. My metal arm twitched. It was coldest where the flesh met the metal. Where my real body met a fake prosthetic. It overcame me.

But it wasn't the reason why I started crying again.

My lips quivered and tears streamed down from under my shades. I shuddered a breath and stared at the door. I was tempted to open it. I was tempted to take the easy way out and join my friends for once and for all. But I knew very well—as Kara did—that it wasn't because of a huge ass metal door that I refused to join my friends. That I chose to be alone. That I chose to be a ghost always running from the damn West and how it always…always haunted me.

This vacation was a distraction. And distractions never truly tear people away from the reality at hand. And my reality was that I had been torn apart.

The metal prosthetic that Cyborg made me was another distraction. It was a distraction from the greatest sacrifice I had made in ages. I had hacked off my own bloody arm to save the Titans from Slade's domination. There was no way in Hell I could recover from all of that and grant myself a new arm and pretend like that never happened. And—subconsciously—my own body (a thing I had never possessed entire control over for the past five years or so) was trying to remind me of what I had done to myself and what I had done it for. As much as I could use a metal extension of my limb, the chills constantly attacked me. The chills constantly reminded me of what I was and what I was less of.

And for once, I didn't fight it when thoughts of Wyldecarde drifted into my butchered mind. I was the Wyldecarde. I had hurt my friends. I had beat them up to save them from an even greater evil. And no matter what I did to distract myself from it, I betrayed them—purposefully—for their own good. I had wounded them in all the exact places where they had been ruthlessly wounded before. By Slade. By Terra. By the long, grueling lifestyle of crimefighting itself. A life where the true reward was not vacation but something invisible and transient.

I had hurt the Titans. But that's not what made me cry. What made me cry was the sudden reawakening to the fact that I had hurt the Titans….and they had forgiven me.

They had forgiven me and accepted me back into their flock. I never earned anything. This world is full of people sacrificing themselves and never getting their credit due. The only reason anybody ever gets a happy ending is because the stone they keep kicking starts to burst into tears occasionally. And the Titans crumbled for me. They caved in. They took every punch Wyldecarde had lunged and every slicing playing card Wyldecarde had thrown and they had transformed it all into a loving pair of arms that once hugged my armless, sobbing self in a cold infirmary inside the Tower.

It was not a matter of my not accepting their friendship. It was never—ever—a factor of my not accepting their friendship. I was wrong. Kara was wrong. I already had their friendship. I was just too absorbed in my own pain and angst to give the Titans credit for it. I was too self-centered and self-agonizing to smile and love them back.

I rocked back and forth, sniffling and hugging my legs weakly to myself and trying to blot out the sounds of them from beyond the impenetrable doors to finally grasp something…

I realized that after all of my angry slamming against walls…after all of my fuming…after all of my temper tantrums and proverbial kicking of the stone…all that would ever be left of me would be nothing but a well of hurt. A nub of pain. Guilt. Agony. Suffering.

Anger was something as temporary as a hot breath that left the lungs converted into something that would either dilute itself in the atmosphere or mingle with the photosynthesis of life all around. But like weighted karma…pain was permanent. And there was nothing I could do—and there was nothing anyone could ever do—to reverse pain and hurt and suffering.

I could never be angry with Kara forever. For once again I was seeing the sorrowful vision of a sobbing little girl on her home planet, huddling with her lingering loved ones as her world crashed down all around her. And I saw a loneliness far, far greater than I could ever imagine. And I saw through the lens of some omniscient camera back-in-time a frustrated, black-eyed freak shoving Supergirl up against the wall of a red-colored cell and I hated it. I bled from it. I bled more from it than I did inwardly from Braniac's mental invasion.

There was a reason why I was sobbing…and there was a reason why I closed the door that separated me from the assistance of the Titans who deserved more than to be caught up in all of this mess.

And it was for the same reason that I slowly stood up, composed myself, turned around, and marched firmly down the hallway to find Supergirl and confront Braniac once and for all.

Because…there are some people on this planet who are too friggin' nice to do anything but care for others and leave themselves in the dust.

For once I realized that things like 'pride' and 'nobility' were nothing but mere words. I was a hero. I had a sword. I had ass to tear. But more importantly, I had things—and persons—to protect.

Everything else—myself included—was negligible.

And for the first time in over a month…the guilt inside of me vanished. I breathed easier than I had ever done so in a long…long time, deep down in those cramped, alien hallways…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside Supergirl's cell, the translucent fixture for the red Kryptonian bulb overhead had been removed and was resting like a plastic tray in the corner. The thin, wire supports that once held the sheathe to the ceiling had been taken out. Presently they rested between the Girl of Steel's fingers as she used dexterous digits in picking the lock to the double-doors from the inside out.

She sweated with concentration. Biting her lip. Straining.

For the last twenty minutes—since her companion's departure—she had been hard at work at the task. Using special techniques that her close friend Batgirl had once taught her--

CL-CL-CLICK!!

Supergirl gasped.

CHTING!!!

HISSSSSS!!!

The doors parted with a crack.

"Yes!" she hoarsely uttered. She dropped the wire and pried her fingers in through the crack formed in the double doors. She strained with whatever effort her superpower-less might could summon. Soon, the doors were forced apart. She stumbled out, limped far away from the red glare of the suppressing light, and took a couple deep breaths.

Slowly…as two minutes rolled by…..three minutes….four….she felt her Argosian strength returning to her.

She flexed her muscles. She clenched her knuckles.

She looked aside at a metal wall. With a growl she punched it.

SMASH!!

A small dent was formed. Not the usual gaping hole that she was used to making—but still, a good enough recovery.

She shook her aching fist and fingered it. She smirked.

"Time to take care of business…," she muttered to herself. She floated up in the air and drifted down the nearest hallway. A waking thought struck her at one moment, and she sighed depressingly. "Later…," she muttered. "We'll work it all out later."

She fought for determination and flew down the criss-crossing hallways of alien metal. She followed the direction of a disturbing vibration. The sound of a ghastly apparatus coming to life….