The mention of the SCU at the end of the chapter is Metropolis's Special Crimes Unit from the Superman Animated Series. That's the department that Dan Turpin is in. Hope you like the chapter, please review.
Miss Martian levitated Isaiah into the cave, Toni following his limp body closely as Megan went to medbay to put him on a bed. Mallory forced herself to stay with the team, waiting for the League to come to the training room from the hangar.
Brek walked over to her, trying to ignore the distracted look in her eyes as she thought about her ex. "You ok?" he asked quietly.
Mallory nodded, hugging herself and watching the doorway.
"He'll be fine," Brek told her, and Mallory looked at him for the first time since the bioship.
"I'm sorry, Brek. I know I shouldn't be, I don't know, I-" her voice trailed off, her brain not supplying the right words.
Brek shrugged. "It's fine. I get it, you're worried about him. That's one of the reasons I love you, you don't just forget about people."
Mallory smiled and leaned against him gently. "I‒" before she could finish, the League started filing into the room, and Mallory straightened and moved towards them.
"What is it?" Batman asked when he came in and saw the looks on the team's faces.
"It's Hotspot. He's unconscious, they must have done something to him on the ship," Robin explained.
Batman sighed. "Where did you put him?" he asked.
"In medbay," Megan supplied, and the Dark Knight, Superman, and Dr. Palmer strode out the room. Most of the rest of the League started going to the zeta tube one by one, along with some of the team. Rocket left with Icon, Artemis with Green Arrow, Kaldur with Aquaman, and Wally, after giving Mallory a reassuring hug, went to Central City with Flash.
Conner heaved a sigh and went to his room, not one to wait around for news, leaving Mallory, Megan, Zatanna, Robin, Brek, and Sandy in the training room with Black Canary, J'onn, and Wonder Woman. Toni and the other boy who had been rescued were standing together, looking slightly intimidated. Megan sighed and turned to the remaining people. "Do you want to go in the living room?" she asked, ever the hostess.
They all started walking down the hall, and Mallory and Brek sat on the couch together to wait. Brek watched Mallory as she stared into space, one hand clutching the glass figure around her neck, the other in his own. Toni was standing with the other boy who'd been captured, but her eyes kept darting back to Mallory, making the wait more and more uncomfortable. At some point during the wait, Kara and Brainy zetaed in, and after being filled in on the circumstances, they made themselves comfortable on the kitchen stools to wait on the news. Finally, after what felt like hours, the three men came back to the living room.
"There's nothing physically keeping him from waking up," Dr. Palmer reported, sighing heavily. Toni took a loud, shaky breath at the back of the group.
J'onn stepped forward. "Perhaps I can be of assistance," he said.
Dr. Palmer nodded. "You can try, anyway," he said.
The Martian nodded and went to medbay. Dr. Palmer went over to Toni and the boy to make sure they were all right, and Batman and Superman joined the remaining Leaguers. A few minutes later, J'onn came back to the living room.
"Well?" Batman asked.
"I am afraid I was unsuccessful. His mind is resisting me too completely. I will need someone that his mind will not perceive as a threat to go in while I hold the door open, so to speak," he replied. He was looking at Mallory when he said this, and she was uncomfortably aware of both Brek and Toni looking at her, waiting for her answer.
"I'll do it," Toni said suddenly from the back of the group. She paled at the heroes turning to look at her, but she stiffened her spine and kept her head high as she took a few steps towards Martian Manhunter.
J'onn shook his head slowly. "I cannot allow you to go in alone. You do not know what to expect, and there is some danger in putting someone's consciousness into another's mind. Inferno has done this before, and her presence will not be perceived as an invasion. She is the logical choice," he explained, turning again to Mallory to get her answer. Mallory looked at Brek and raised her eyebrows slightly in question. He sighed and nodded, and Mallory stood up.
"I want to go in with her," Toni said.
Mallory looked at her, as did everyone else in the room.
"I am not sure this is wise," J'onn said hesitantly.
"Look, the two of us together have a better chance of getting through to him, right?" she asked.
Manhunter looked to Batman for direction. The Dark Knight heaved a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, but he nodded to the Martian. Mallory noticed Toni blanch a shade lighter at this, but to her credit she stood her ground and pretended like she hadn't seen Batman's obvious annoyance.
"Very well. Follow me," Manhunter said. Mallory followed him to medbay and he paused before he opened the door. "I should caution you that he has some injuries you may not have noticed before," he said. The girls nodded and he led them in.
Mallory froze when she saw Isaiah lying on the bed, his dark skin contrasting with the paper white sheets. Toni let out a whimpering sound when she saw the big burns and gashes on his bare chest and stomach.
Mallory took a calming breath and walked to the side of the bed where there were two chairs waiting, she assumed, for her and J'onn. The Martian pulled a third chair on the opposite side of the bed and sat down. They both looked over at Toni, waiting. The girl visibly gulped and forced herself to move to the chair next to Mallory.
"You will need to have physical contact with the one whose mind you will be entering," Manhunter said. Toni took Isaiah's hand in hers, and Mallory took off her glove and put her hand on his shoulder. She looked at his face, seeing J'onn's eyes glow white out of the corner of her eye.
She blinked, and the next thing she knew she was in Isaiah's room in the old apartment. She smiled, slightly relieved that despite what he'd gone through with his parents, his childhood room was still his safe space.
"Where are we?" Toni asked behind her, and Mallory turned to her.
"This is his safe space. A place his mind created to house all the things that make him who he is. This is his room from before his folks split up." Toni nodded, her mouth a tight line, and she started looking around a little. Mallory moved to the desk. The same picture of him and his family sat on the top, but it was the picture next to it that made her feel warm inside and brought a smile to her face. She picked up the framed picture of her and Isaiah that she'd given him the Christmas he'd given her the glass figure.
Toni was suddenly beside her, and Mallory hurriedly put the picture back on the desk.
"What do we do now?" Toni asked, her voice strained with forced civility.
Mallory looked around the room. "We need to find him. Find out what's wrong," she said.
She and Toni went to the door and Mallory tried the knob. It opened, and they walked through a long hall with doors on either side. When they peeked through the windows, they could see memories playing behind the doors. Mallory continued past the doors to a swinging door at the end of the hall. She pushed it open, and they were suddenly standing in the open Metropolis air, the city stretching out below them.
Toni screamed and Mallory looked behind her to see her plummeting down towards the pavement. She flew down and caught the girl, adrenaline rushing through her.
"Toni, this isn't real. You have to remember that, none of this is real. Just tell yourself that there's a floor under your feet, ok?"
Toni took a few deep breaths, calming herself, and she slowly put her feet down. They rose back into the air and Mallory took a better look around.
"Wait a second," she murmured, sailing around and looking for the Daily Planet. She found the ruins of the building and a shock went through her. It looked so real, but she refused to let it get in her head. She had to stay strong. If she allowed herself to get swept up by Isaiah's hallucination, she'd be putting all three of them at risk.
She looked for some more buildings that were a prominent part of the city. Some of the others were gone, including both of the apartment houses Isaiah had lived in and the tiered building they'd had their first date on.
"What is this?" Toni asked, standing next to Mallory and looking around the city.
"I don't know," Mallory admitted, "but we need to find Isaiah and fix it."
The girls flew around, then Toni pointed to a dark spot in the sky. Mallory squinted and saw that it was a bench or something, and Isaiah was sitting on it. They flew side by side to him. When they reached him, Toni rushed to him, falling to her knees in front of him.
"Isaiah? Baby, it's me. We came to take you out of here," she said, taking his hands in hers. He kept staring straight ahead like he didn't know her. Toni put a hand on his cheek, trying to get him to see her.
"Babe, what's wrong? We can fix it, just tell me what it is."
"It's over," Isaiah said quietly.
Toni stared at him, shocked, but he was looking out over the city, staring at the ruins. "No, no, Isaiah, that's not real! Babe, listen to me, you need to snap out of this, you need to come with us."
"It's over. I lost, it's my fault," he said.
Toni looked at Mallory, fear in her eyes, tears trailing down her face. "You try," she said, looking up at her pleadingly.
Mallory nodded and walked over to Isaiah. Toni stayed kneeling in front of him, but she let go of his hand.
"It's over, it's my fault. They're gone, and it's my fault," Isaiah said, still looking out over the city.
Mallory put a hand on his shoulder. "What's over? What happened here?" she asked gently, keeping her voice calm and even.
Something changed in Isaiah's eyes as he looked out over his version of Metropolis. "The monsters came, and it's all my fault," he said.
Mallory sat next to him, her shoulder against his. "The monsters? They did this?" she asked.
He nodded and pointed to the sky above them, where there was a gash in the sky like a healing wound. There were dead H'san Natall soldiers on the streets among the crumbled buildings, but Mallory wanted to know exactly what was going on.
"These monsters, what were they?" she asked.
"They were me," he replied. Mallory and Toni both looked at him in surprise. "They were my people. Oh, God, I'm a monster, too. This is my fault, I did this."
Mallory put a hand on his arm, her heart aching. "No, Isaiah. This isn't your fault. None of this is your fault." She sighed and tried to block out the fact that Toni was standing there, listening to every word she was saying. She needed to make him remember, she needed him to connect to something. She sighed and continued. "You aren't a monster. You're a hero. You're my hero." She pulled the string over her head and placed the glass figure in his hand.
He looked at it for a long moment, turning it over and over. "Mallory?" he said quietly.
Mallory smiled a little. "Yeah, it's me."
He looked out over the city again, but this time his eyes held a deep fear mixed with the dull look. "They showed me everything," he said quietly.
"What?" Mallory asked.
"They showed me their plan, how I came to be, why I'm here. I'm just their pawn. That's all I was ever meant to be."
"Isaiah, tell me what they told you," she said.
"They kidnapped a bunch of earth women, put their seed in them, wiped their minds, and returned them. The kids, they were supposed to be sleeper agents to tell the creeps when they could invade Earth. That's why they kidnapped us, to take our memories."
"That's not your fault, Isaiah. You didn't know."
"It is. This happens because of the information they get from me. And I ruined my family for nothing. You should just go. I don't deserve to go back to my life. I don't have a reason to, either."
Toni gasped. "No, no, Babe, you have so much to live for. You have your whole life ahead of you. I need you to come back with us," she said.
Isaiah shook his head. "No, I'm a curse on anyone who knows me. Just leave, just let me die so everyone can finally move on with their lives."
Mallory narrowed her eyes and stood up. "Ok, fine, this is your fault. You let this happen to this city, you let down your family, you deserve to be alone." Toni stared at her, her expression one of surprise and anger. Isaiah seemed to be shocked out of his daze, at least enough that she finally felt like he was listening to her. "I'm not gonna waste my time trying to make you feel good about yourself when you aren't even going to listen to me. But you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and take your life back."
"It's too late. My family's ruined, and I let these monsters loose on the city. Everyone's better off without me."
Mallory crossed her arms. "Yeah, I'm sure Nikki will appreciate that when I tell her why I let her big brother die," she said. Isaiah looked at her, his expression showing that his resolve was weakening. Mallory sighed and sat back down, facing him. "Isaiah, I know you've had things hard lately, but you can't just give up. What would happen to the world if everyone did that? It wouldn't last very long. You still have a chance to fix things. This version of Metropolis, this isn't real. Our city is still out there, you can still protect it. And your family, I don't know if it can be fixed, but you can try. Now that you know what happened, you can try to help your family heal. But you can't do that from inside your head. Now come on." She stood, and Toni followed suit. Isaiah took another look around the broken city, then he stood, too, and nodded.
"Inferno, I cannot keep his mind open much longer," Manhunter's voice seemed to echo through the sky.
"We're done here," she replied, looking at Isaiah. Toni disappeared, and Isaiah took her hand, holding it tightly as he prepared himself to go back to the real world.
Mallory closed her eyes, and the next thing she knew she was back in medbay, one hand on Isaiah's shoulder.
"Isaiah!" Toni exclaimed beside her, and Mallory smiled at the boy on the bed as he slowly opened his eyes.
"Hey," he said to Toni, then he looked at Mallory.
She smiled and leaned back in the chair, crossing her arms. "Welcome back," she said.
He chuckled weakly. "I should've known I wouldn't see you unless I got in trouble," he said.
Mallory shrugged. "What did you expect? I'm not gonna let you get abducted by aliens and wait for the SCU to do something."
A moment of silence went by, then Mallory and J'onn stood up and left the room. Brek was outside watching the group with the rest of the team and League, and he went over to her when she came out.
"Well, congrats," he said, putting an arm around her. Mallory smiled tiredly. "Thanks. For a second I didn't think I'd get him back."
The League went to the mission room to get a report from J'onn. Megan had gone to her room and Sandy, Brainy, and Kara were in the living room, leaving Zatanna, Robin, Brek, and Mallory to start towards the living room. When they got there, Zatanna pulled Mallory away from the boys and dragged her into the kitchen.
"I can't believe you," the magician said, crossing her arms.
"What?" Mallory asked, rubbing her arm from her friend's death grip.
"You still love Isaiah!" Zatanna said, keeping her voice low.
"It's‒ complicated," Mallory said quietly. She looked over to the rest of the team and League and saw Kara giving Clark a tight hug and they talked quietly.
"You need to make up your mind, Mal. You need to come clean to Brek either way, but you need to choose. This isn't fair to Brek. He's giving up everything for you, the least you can do is be honest with him."
Mallory rubbed a hand over her face. "I know, I just, well, I wouldn't know what to say. I love Brek, I do, but seeing Isaiah after all this time, I guess I wasn't as over him as I thought."
Zatanna nodded. "I know, but Brek noticed it too. You have to talk to him, Mal. It wouldn't be fair not to."
Mallory looked at him. He'd gone over to the Legion members, and he shoved a hand through his white hair distractedly. She nodded. "I'll talk to him tonight, when things calm down," she decided. Zatanna nodded and they went the the living area with Robin. His watch dinged and he pulled up a small holographic screen.
"Great," he muttered. Mallory could see the headline he was looking at announcing that Two Face had just robbed the Second National Bank in Gotham. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said, and he gave Zatanna a quick peck on the cheek before going to find Batman. The magician went to the kitchen to find something to eat, and Mallory leaned against the arm of the sofa, thinking about what she would tell Brek when they talked.
"Oh, Brek, I'm glad we ran into you. We're about to leave, we wanted to say goodbye to you," Kara said when the thermokinetic walked to the Legion in the living room.
"You're leaving right now?" Brek asked, surprised and disappointed.
"Yeah, I'm sorry it had to be now, when there's so much going on, but we can't stay much longer. The superiors will be mad that we stayed as long as we did."
Brek nodded and looked over to the kitchen where Mallory and Zatanna were talking, the latter gesturing to medbay. "Would you mind just staying another half an hour or so?" he asked, raking a hand through his hair.
"Well, I guess not, but why? I already said goodbye, and Clark has the Time Trapper waiting at the site for transport," she said. Sandy was watching Brek, looking slightly confused.
"Yeah, I know, but, just, uh, just give me some time to pack."
Please review! I know you have thoughts!