Chapter Twenty-Eight

Watchtower II

Earth Orbit

08:01 – Station Time (EST)

March 16, 2007

Flash couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. He was trained in forensics so he knew how to look at DNA. What he saw was like someone had attached unknown blocks of DNA in between known, 'human' DNA. In his mind, it had to have been spliced. If not, then the conception of this person would have had to have been something truly unique. Though if it was part demonic as Batman had alluded to, then maybe this was normal. After-all, the CCPD didn't exactly have records of demonic blood on hand.

He heard the doors slide open and he looked around to see Shayera stepping into the room.

"Hey, Shay," he greeted.

"Find anything interesting?" she asked him as she leant against the wall.

"Yeah, actually. Batman was right. I don't know what to make of it."

"It has you stumped, eh?" she teased.

"I'd like to get my hands on the actual sample and not just this digital replication."

"I'd ask Batman for that," Shayera suggested.

"I'll ask him later. So what brought you here?"

"I need to ask you something," she began.

"About what?"

"Well, you've always sorta been like a brother to me, ever since we formed the original Justice League."

"And you're like my little big sister."

"Yeah, well I know this might sound stupid, especially considering your history with relationships."

"Hey!"

"Wally, I need to know if you think John's good for me?"

"Lantern?" he said. Shayera nodded. "I don't know. You two were good together before."

"I know. I was happier with him than I ever was with Hro. But now I don't know if he's what I want in a man. Not anymore."

"You've changed and he's pretty much stayed the same," Flash said. "At times he's like an emotional brick wall. But hey, at least he's not the emotional black hole that Bats is."

"I love him, Wally," Shayera revealed.

"Then what's the problem? If you love someone then you make it work, even if it seems the world's against it."

"I don't think the world would be against it," Shayera said.

"The Hawkman/Hawkgirl shippers would."

She gave him a death-glare that almost rivalled Batman's. "Where the hell did you hear that?"

"Internet forums are terrible places," he said with a smirk.

"Internet message boards?" she asked in disbelief. "Come on Wally, you know those places are full of the worst people with the stupidest opinions."

"That's why I love reading through them. The drama, the emotion. Better than TV that's for sure."

"You'll rot your brain."

He grinned for a moment, before his expression; what little of it Shayera could see beneath his mask, turned serious. "Getting back to you, the best thing you can do is follow your heart, even if your head tells you it might be a mistake. If they mean something to you, take the chance, don't just try and make it work, but make it work." He looked past her at the wall. "Sometimes things fall into place, y'know? Things you would never have expected with people you would never have expected. But when it snaps, it really snaps. Like a jigsaw puzzle, where the pieces don't just fit, but they really fit and make a beautiful picture. It feels good. I wanna make it work."

There was silence as Flash continued to stare at the wall with a grin on his face.

"Someone I should know about?" Shayera questioned.

Flash focused back on to her confused. "What do you mean?"

"You've found someone, haven't you?"

He looked down at his feet. "Maybe."

"Come on Wally, you can tell me. Whatever we talk about stays between us, okay?"

He turned back to face the screen, which was showing a diagram representation of the DNA helix from Fate's blood sample.

"Yeah, I have," he said with a sigh. "And it's really complicated."

"Because of your double life?"

He sighed again, unsure of what exactly to tell her. He didn't like lying to her, but telling the truth could prove disastrous. "Do you believe in second chances?" he asked her, deciding to take the chance.

"Of course I do. I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't. I was nearly responsible for the end of the world remember?"

He looked back at her. "You know when we defeated Darkseid the last time?"

"Yes?" she asked cautiously.

"You remember who kissed me?"

"You mean-" Her eyes went wide in shock. "Giganta? Seriously?"

"Yeah, crazy isn't it?"

"A bit, yeah," she said, folding her arms across her chest. "It's been a while since she was last on our radar. She pretty much disappeared off the map since Luthor and Grodd's Legion of Doom fell apart. How did you find her?"

"By accident," he told her. "She wants to go straight, become a supermodel."

"A supermodel?" Shayera questioned in disbelief. "You sure she's not leading you on? That seems like a stupid goal to aim for."

"Why is it a stupid goal?" FLash questioned.

"Trapesing up a catwalk for people to ogle at you? No thanks. I prefer a mace and a bad guy's face to hit with it."

"Not everyone is you," he pointed out.

She shrugged. "Wally, I honestly don't know whether I should slap you or wish you good luck. I guess it's your choice, but I want to meet her sometime, see for myself."

"I'm not bringing her up here," he said firmly.

"I don't expect you to. Just that once everything's calmed down, I'd like to talk to her. People don't change overnight. It took me five years to learn to love humanity. I just want you to be careful, to know that you're not making a mistake."

"I will and I'm not making a mistake."

"Wally, I really hope you're right about her, I really do. I don't want to have to sort out your mess if it goes badly."

"You won't because it won't. She loves me."

"How do you know?"

"Because she tolerates me?" he said, half joking, half serious.

Shayera laughed at that.

"Well it's been fun," he told her, "but I want to be back down there before she gets up."

"Gets up?" Shayera questioned. Then realisation struck her. "Don't tell me she's staying with you?"

He pulled a face. "Um, yeah."

"Does she know Wally and Flash are the same guy?"

"Umm, yeah," he said awkwardly.

"Wally," she said in exasperation, slapping her hand over her face in a full-on face-palm

"It was an accident," he tried to explain.

"Have you two. Y'know?"

"No no," he said quickly. "We're not at that part yet."

"Not at that part? You revealed your identity to her, Wally. That should be more precious to you."

"I told you it was an accident. Besides, I want to take it slow, not burn through this relationship like all the others."

"You going slow? Are you really Flash or are you an imposter?"

"Funny. But seriously, I want to make this work."

"Then I wish you luck," she told him sincerely. "But I don't want you to get hurt, Wally. Be very careful. Especially with her."

"I will. I'll see you later."

"Yeah, later," she said after him as he stepped out of the room.

He wasn't sure why he had told Shayera. He guessed he needed to tell someone and she was the only one he felt could understand.

He just hoped it hadn't been a mistake.

New Brighton

Central City

United States

08:52 – Central Standard Time

March 16, 2007

Wally West was back in his apartment and was glad to find that Giganta was still fast asleep, sprawled out across the bed. He left her alone and made himself something to eat while he logged onto his laptop and began to peruse funny videos while eating his oversized bowl of cereal.

It was an hour and Wally was on his second bowl of cereal before the bedroom door opened and Giganta strode out, still wearing her dress, which was now heavily creased.

"How much did I drink last night?" she questioned, clutching her head.

"A lot," Wally said.

She squinted at him with a pained expression. "How can you not be hungover? You drunk more than I did."

"Fast metabolism. I get drunk faster, but I also recover a lot faster. To get absolutely wasted I'd probably have to drink enough to put me in the hospital."

"Lucky for some," she complained.

"You sending those pics to agencies today?"

"Gotta find some good ones first," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "We took a lot."

He stood up. "I'll help, but first I'll get you some fruit juice. The vitamins in it will be good for you."

"Thanks," she said, trying to smile. "I'd also like something to eat."

"Sure," he said.

He quickly prepared her the fruit juice and the cereal as she sat down at the table. He then brought his giant bowl over and sat opposite.

She looked at the amount of cereal he had. "Is that a whole box?"

"Half," he said, as he shovelled more into his mouth. "Though I ate the other half earlier, so yeah. I've had a full box of cereal.

"I'm amazed you're not overweight."

"Fast metabolism, remember?"

"Wow, you're what a lot of girls dream of. Eat anything you want and not gain weight. I feel a little jealous."

"I know, I'm awesome," he grinned.

She slapped him on the back of his head. "Modest, much," she said.

He rubbed where she had hit him, the grin still on his face. "Um, ouch?"

"You're such a jokester, Wally," she said, mirroring his smile. "It's what I love about you."

"And I love you too," Wally said.

There was silence. She stared uncomfortably at her bowl.

"Everything okay?" he asked her, starting to feel nervous.

She smiled, looking over at him. "Y'know, I think it might be. Ever since I've gotten here you've not demanded anything of me, not tried to force me into anything. Sure, your idea of a date is odd, but you seem to care. I appreciate it."

"That's because I do care."

Giganta reached over and cupped his face in her hands. She then leant forwards and kissed him passionately. At first, for a split moment, he was surprised but soon found himself enjoying it.

Before he knew it, he was returning the kiss, his arms wrapping tightly around her back. Neither of them wanted it to stop, but finally, Giganta pulled away, with the biggest smile on her face.

"That was nice," she said.

Wally nodded as an almost euphoric sensation washed over him. She was absolutely stunningly beautiful and she was with him. It almost felt surreal to him.

"Takes my mind off my head," she commented, rubbing her brow. "Why hasn't someone invented a hangover cure, yet?"

"Just drink less. It works wonders the next morning."

"Funny."

Slowly, he stood up. "Hey, how about we find some agencies and start sending off some spec letters with a selection of those pics we took the other day."

"I'd like that," she agreed. "As long as you do most of the work. I'm a little out of it this morning."

Wally went and retrieved his laptop and put it on the table.

"Can we do this later," she said, rubbing her temples. "I need to go lie down."

"Okay, I'll have a list of agencies ready for you when you're feeling better."

She moved over to him and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks," she said as she made her way over to the couch and laid down on it.

Wally smiled as he got to work.

Museum of Antiquities

Gateway City

United States

06:22 – Pacific Standard Time

March 16, 2007

Nightwing sat on the edge of the building opposite the museum. He had scouted out fifty-two different entry points that didn't include doors. What it did include was the various windows, the skylight and the ventilation system. Inside he could see the three security guards doing their rounds. Their strict planned patrols were ruined by the odd conversation or them slacking off.

The Amazon's voice came over his earpiece. "Wonder Woman here. Not seeing anything on the south side, how about the north?"

"Apart from lazy security guards, nothing," he responded.

The only thing that had changed while he had been here was the amount of traffic. As it got closer to rush hour, it had been steadily increasing.

Speaking of traffic, he noticed a car pull up into a parking space in the nearby parking lot. Not that he hadn't seen any before, but he was keeping an eye on everything. Two women climbed out of the vehicle, both blonde. At least that was his first thought. It became clear that one of them was a teenager and she was complaining rather loudly.

The two of them walked up the steps out front of the museum and up to the main doors. One of the security guards opened the door and let them in. He read the man's lips, which said. 'Good morning Helena.'

"Nightwing here, got two females, one adult one perhaps in her mid-to-late teens entering the museum. They were let in by security."

"The guard didn't greet them by name did he?"

"Yes, I read his lips and he greeted the adult with the name Helena."

"The name of the curator. The other one must be her daughter. But why bring her here? It's a school day is it not?"

"Single parent perhaps and doesn't want to leave the kid home in case she doesn't go to school?" he guessed. "I noticed a high school two blocks to the east, so it might be easier to walk from here."

"Possibly,"Wonder Woman agreed. "Okay, at seven I want you swapping with Starfire. You need to be at those doors as a civilian the moment it opens."

"It opens at Ten, so if I left for the hotel at eight, I'd have plenty of time to change and return to the museum."

"You would, but it's already getting too light and I don't want people to see either her or you moving about."

That made sense. "Okay, at seven I'll head back."

"Good."

He waited there and watched as more staff slowly entered the building over the next hour and thirty minutes. Then, at seven sharp, he disappeared off the roof and headed back to the hotel.

Project Ultima Facility (Formerly Project Cadmus)

Outside Bethesda – Maryland

United States

10:34 – Eastern Standard Time

March 16, 2007

J'onn J'onzz' cell door slid open and two guards stepped in and gestured for him to stand up from where he was sat in front of the television where he had been watching the morning news. While the cell was more like a one-room apartment, he was still a prisoner, unable to leave.

What was interesting was that even with the inhibitor collar on, J'onn was in his regular semi-human form, not his full Martian form. This had happened before in instances where he should have turned back into his full Martian form and he hadn't. He had either remained in his semi-human form or if he was in another form he had transformed back into it.

This had made him think over the years. Was it that he had spent so long in this particular form that it had become his default? Was it possible that even if he was in his true Martian form and was knocked unconscious, would he now revert to the blue-cloaked semi-human form? J'onn put the intriguing and rather depressing thought aside and focused back on the present.

"Where are we going?" the Martian asked as he stood up.

That's when King Faraday stepped in, the US liaison to the Justice League. The white-haired, ageing but still rather fit man held out a hand. J'onn who didn't like physical contact decided to take it and the two shook hands. This allowed J'onn to get a brief look into the surface thoughts of the man, despite the collar, which was stress and hope.

"Good to see you J'onn," Faraday said. "I've been working my ass off these last few days trying to sort this out. I might be able to get your comrades freed before the nineteenth."

"What happens on the nineteenth?" J'onn asked stoically.

"The league founders speak to the UN. Don't worry, you should also be there."

"What is there to be discussed at this meeting?" J'onn inquired.

"The future of the Justice League," Faraday explained. "Listen, you should have contacted me or someone of authority as soon as those alien ships entered orbit. That's the main issue here. You didn't communicate, you never communicate with us and they don't like it."

"We are independent," J'onn pointed out. "There were more pressing issues at hand. If we had contacted you, your military may have made the situation more volatile."

"That's true, but there are those that don't think an independent 'world police' as they called it, should be able to operate in their nations without some sort of oversight."

"So the nations of the world wish to control us?"

"No-well kinda," Faraday said looking pained. "They want representatives in your Metro Tower."

"They want watchdogs," J'onn surmised.

"Yes, they want watchdogs. Most likely I'll be the United States watchdog, so at the very least you'll know one of us." Faraday looked off to the side. "Okay listen, they want to talk to you in private, I tried to get in on it but they refused. So good luck." He leaned in closer to the Martian. "Flag used to be the commander of Task Force X, so be careful."

Faraday stepped aside as Colonel Rick Flag, Jr stepped up to the cell door, a deep scowl etched on his face.

"J'onn J'onzz, you're coming with me," the military man commanded distastefully. He then looked to Faraday. "You are excused."

The Martian nodded his head and followed him out into the corridor, where the colonel and his four guards led him to what appeared to be an interrogation room of some sort, leaving Faraday stood outside the cell.

"Sit down," Flag commanded once they were inside the room.

J'onn did as instructed and sat, while Flagg sat opposite him. He pulled out a cardboard folder full of papers and rested it on the surface.

"Tell me about the Imperium?" Flag began, webbing his fingers together as he rested his arms on the table atop the folder.

J'onn decided to tell him what he knew as there was no real reason not to. "They were conquerors led and controlled by a being of the same name. They arrived in this star system and began their assault on Mars one thousand Earth years ago and were stopped five-hundred years ago when they were forcibly put into hibernation. They were reawakened by astronauts from Earth seven years ago. They then spent two years planning the invasion and total annihilation of Earth."

"But a millennium ago isn't where it starts, is it?"

"I do not understand what you mean?" J'onn said both confused and intrigued. "Our first encounter with the Imperium was when they invaded us."

"But it's not, is it," Flag said as though he had somehow backed J'onn into revealing something. J'onn, on the other hand, had no clue as to what the man was talking about.

"I don't know of any encounters prior to the invasion."

Flag looked off to the side. "Bring the device in."

Two soldiers strode in, both carrying a large object. They hefted it up onto the table, then turned and left.

Flagg stood up. "You know what this is?"

J'onn looked at it. The device was mostly coal black but had bright lights on the upper curved part. The technology was definitely familiar to him.

"It is an Imperium device," J'onn said.

"You know what kind of device?"

"No."

"It's a memory core. There are files on it that pre-date the construction of this particular device, probably transferred from an older one. We recently managed to finally break the encryption and also decode how the operating system works. We have knowledge of their past. Everything from when they were taken from their homeworld by the parasitic creature, the Imperium leader."

"Interesting," J'onn said, genuinely intrigued. "Where is their homeworld?"

"The Fourth planet in this solar system," Flag said.

"You mean Mars? No, they came from beyond the solar system."

"One-thousand years ago, that's true. Not Six-thousand years ago when they were taken from Mars by the Imperium leader."

"They are Martians?" J'onn asked, disbelieving. "No, they are nothing like us, not in form or anything."

"What can you tell me about White Martians?"

J'onn glanced at the device then focused back on Flag. "A folktale told to Martian children about a warlike offshoot of our race. The story goes that millennia before the great peace, there was nothing but war. But we were able to drive them back, to defeat their forces until one day they vanished from the face of Mars."

"And they did," Flag said. "They saw the Imperium as their saviour and their means to an end. They accepted into themselves not only its strengths but its weaknesses as well."

"These are just stories and legends," J'onn urged. "Our historians were never able to find definitive proof that they existed."

"But they did and the Imperium changed them, promised that once the time came they would have their revenge."

J'onn couldn't quite get his head around what he had just been told. The White Martians had always been folklore, nothing more. But his time with the Justice League had revealed to him that sometimes folklore was more than just an ancient story. His time as a hero had told him that sometimes the legends were true.

"I want to analyse the data myself," J'onn asked, despite knowing the chances of them allowing it were slim.

To his surprise Flag accepted. "You'll have all the access you need."

J'onn bowed his head slightly. "Thank you."

"This concludes today, but there is something else we need to discuss tomorrow."

J'onn bowed his head again in acknowledgement.

Then Flag said something he really hadn't expected. "On the eighteenth, you will be released on the condition you return to the Watchtower."

"Thank you," the Martian said.

"Don't thank me, it wasn't my decision, believe me. I want to keep freaks like you locked up for good." he turned to the guards. "Now take him back to his cell."

J'onn stood up and followed the guards out of the room, his head still reeling from the information he had just been given.

Updated December 2017