This is the last chapter before season 2! The end of this chapter actually connects to the first episode of season 2, so I hope you like it, and please review!
The tension in the cave built with every day that passed, to the point that even the League started to notice that something was off. Superman, Canary, even Batman asked one person or another what was going on, and when they found out, they just said that things would work themselves out. For a while, it seemed like it might. A week and a half passed, and things settled into an uneasy kind of new normal, and then at the end of the second week, the lid blew off. Megan and Lagaan walked into training together, holding hands and kissing. Dick called the old team as soon as training was over to give them the update.
"I can't believe she would do that," Artemis said.
"What did Conner do?" Wally asked.
"He stormed out as soon as he saw them. Honestly, I wanted to join him," Dick replied.
"It hasn't even been two weeks, and they were together for five years. How can she just move on that quick?" Raquel asked in disbelief.
Mallory shook her head, even though they couldn't see her. "She's probably just trying to make him jealous, and Lagaan's the only one that was desparate enough to fall for it," she said.
"I hope she knows what she's doing," Zatanna said. "Conner already doesn't like Lagaan, and he's been so angry lately."
"Don't worry about him, he's not going to act on anything," Dick assured them. "I just wanted to let you guys know what's going on, and let Mallory and Z know that things are gonna be pretty tense when they get back."
"Yeah, thanks for the warning," Mallory said. "I think I'm going to spend a few days at my parents' house."
"Don't you dare! I'm not living with them by myself with all of this drama going on," Zatanna said.
Mallory sighed. "Fine. But you're going to have to talk to Megan and see why she's doing this, cause I already told Conner that I'm not getting involved," Mallory said.
"Yeah, and let us know what she says," Raquel said.
"Well, you know, I think it would be better coming from Artemis. She likes you better than any of us," Zatanna said sweetly.
Artemis scoffed. "Sorry, Z, but I'm not getting involved either. Just ask her outright and let me know what she says."
The magician sighed. "Fine, I'll talk to her tonight, but only if one of you will be there with me."
Mallory sighed. "Fine, I'll do it. It should just be us and Gar for dinner anyway, that'll be a good time."
"Ok, well, good luck," Wally said.
"Thanks. We're gonna need it," Mallory replied.
That evening, Mallory went back to the cave five minutes after they usually ate, hoping to avoid any downtime with anyone, but when she got there Zatanna was in the kitchen cooking with Gar at the counter.
"Hey, uh, how's it going?" Mallory asked, going to stand at the counter.
"They're not here," Zatanna told her. Mallory stifled a sigh of relief. "Coward," the magician added as she turned back to the stove.
"What?" Mallory asked with mock offense. Zatanna and Gar shook their heads at her and she shrugged. "Ok, fine, I'm a coward. You want me to finish dinner?"
Zatanna smiled and tossed her the pot holder. Mallory chuckled and switched places with the magician, putting the pot holder back on the counter and touching the pot to test the heat. She picked it up and forced heat into it, cooking the soup faster, and moved on to the mushroom chicken that was baking in the oven.
"There's stuff for a salad in the fridge too," Zatanna told her.
Mallory nodded and turned to Gar. "You want to get that put together?"
He got off the stool and went to find the ingredients. Mal walked in from the training room while Gar was cutting up the vegetables.
"Hey, so I guess you heard about today," he said, sitting down next to Zatanna.
The girls nodded. "Yeah, Nightwing told us," Mallory said.
"Well, it wasn't pretty. I couldn't believe Megan would do that to him, even if they did break up."
"What's for dinner?" Everyone started at Conner's voice.
"Oh, uh, hey," Mallory said, stumbling over her words, knowing that he'd heard every word of their conversation, "uh, veggie soup, mushroom chicken, and whatever salad Gar's making."
The clone nodded and sat at the counter with the others. A moment passed in awkward silence, then Mallory cleared her throat and said, "Uh, I thought you were going to Metropolis tonight."
He shrugged. "I didn't feel like seeing Superman," he said.
Mallory winced, understanding. He didn't want Clark to try to give him advice, or be blatantly avoiding the topic. Of course, it didn't feel much different with the rest of them, either. She opened the oven and pulled out the half-done chicken, wanting to speed up the preparation. She finished cooking it in her hands and put the pan on a cooling rack. "Well, I guess everything's ready," she said.
They were moving everything to the coffee table when the zeta tube started up, announcing, "recognized, Miss Martian, b05, Lagoon Boy, b18."
They all froze and turned to watch the team members materialize as one. Megan walked into the room hand in hand with Lagaan, who made sure to make eye contact with everyone, especially Conner.
"Well, looks like we're just in time, huh, Angelfish," he said.
Conner's hands clenched into fists, and Mallory handed him the hot pan to give him something to do.
"Uh, I'll go get more plates," Zatanna offered, going back to the kitchen. Mal and Gar put the soup and salad on the table and Conner followed suit with stiff movements before sitting down as far away from the new couple as he could. Zatanna came back and handed out the dishes, and she and Mallory sat on the floor opposite of them, with Gar beside them and Mal sitting with Conner. From the moment that they started dishing out their food, the meal was stiflingly awkward and tense. No one talked, except for Lagaan, who just wanted to rub it into everyone's face that he'd finally managed to date Megan.
"Yeah, we went to the beach today, and I showed her around under the sea and then she flew me up to top of an oil rig to watch the sunset. Best date either of us have been on in years." He looked straight at Conner and added unapologetically, "oh, no offense, chum."
Mallory's hand tightened to a fist around her fork and she glared daggers at her plate. Megan didn't say anything, and she didn't look at anyone. Lagaan opened his mouth to continue, and Conner pushed himself to his feet and stalked to the zeta tube. When it powered down, Lagaan started up again.
"Well, I guess he just can't take the fact that–"
Mallory's hands slammed down on the table, rattling the dishes and making everyone jump and stare at her in surprise. She glared at the Atlantean and the Martian openly now. "Enough!" she snapped, focusing her anger on Lagaan for the moment. "Breakups happen, people move on, whatever, but you are not going to make it uncomfortable for us in our own home, especially not Conner. If I see you doing anything like this again, we're going to have a problem. Do you understand?"
Lagaan looked at her with wide eyes. "Wha–"
Mallory narrowed her eyes, red mixing with the black like flames on coals. Zatanna looked at the Atlantean. "Maybe you should go," she said, her voice colder than it normally was. Megan looked between her friends, then nodded to Lagaan, who stood and went to the zeta tube. As soon as he was gone, she whipped back around, glaring at Mallory.
"You have no right to talk to him like that, and you have no reason to be so mad at him," she said firmly.
"You're right," Mallory said, her tone just as livid as it had been when she was talking to the Atlantean. "I can't be mad at him. He's been clear about his intentions to date one of us since the first day he came here. I can be mad at you, though."
Megan's eyes widened. "What are you talking about? My breakup doesn't have anything to do with any of you," she said.
"You know what, I thought that too, and I told Conner that I would stay out of it, but it hasn't even been two weeks, Megan! Why are you trying to hurt him? And don't think for a second that your breakup isn't affecting everyone else. The team doesn't know what to do around you, and the League is just waiting for everything to blow over."
"I'm with Lagaan because I love him. I have for a while, but I was still with Conner so I couldn't do anything about it."
"That's bull and you know it," Mal said from his seat on the sofa.
The Martian looked around the circle and saw the same disbelieving expression on all of their faces, even her brother's. "Why do you care so much?" she asked.
"Because we love you, and we love Conner, and we care about the team, and none of this is ok," Zatanna put in. "How can you think it's fair to bring Lagaan to dinner when you know Conner's going to be here, and you know Lagaan's going to be gloating. What happened between you that you want to do that to him?"
Megan went still and she wouldn't answer, and Mallory and Zatanna took a breath at the same time, calming down.
"Sorry," Mallory murmured.
Megan sighed. "Look, I know you're all upset about this, but you need to be a little more open minded, and you shouldn't treat Lagaan any different now than you did before."
They were quiet, then Zatanna chuckled and murmured, "well, Mallory's never been overly fond of him."
Mallory glanced up at Megan and found the Martian smiling, so she did too. "I'll talk to him, make sure he doesn't get cocky anymore," Megan said.
"I think Mallory has that covered," Gar said with a grin.
Megan shook her head. "Ok, are we good now?" They nodded, and she sighed. "Good. I don't want to lose you over something like this."
The next day, Mallory, Zatanna, and Raquel met Dick, Peter, and Gar after the team's training to tell them what had happened. When the story was over, Zatanna said, "So, it doesn't look like they're going to get back together any time soon."
Peter looked up at his sister with an impressed look. "Did you really threaten him?" he asked.
"Seriously? So not the point," she hissed, but then she added, "but, yeah."
"Nice," he replied with a grin, holding up a hand for a high five. Mallory shook her head, but she obliged him.
Gar looked at Peter. "I think we need to handle this ourselves," he said quietly.
The others looked at the boys with concern. "You two need to stay out of it, ok?" Raquel said. "You don't want to make things worse."
They didn't answer right away, and Dick said, "She's right."
Gar sighed. "Fine, we heard you. Is training over?"
Dick eyed them suspiciously for a long moment. "Yeah…"
"Great. We'll see you later. We're going to, uh,"
"the beach," Peter finished for his friend.
"Ok, well, have fun," Zatanna said hesitantly. The four older heroes watched the boys hurry off to Gar's room.
"Why do I feel like they didn't hear a word of what we said?" Dick asked.
Mallory sighed. "When have they ever listened to warnings?" she asked, thinking back to all of the pranks they'd weathered since the day the boys met.
"They wouldn't do anything, though, would they? Not when it's something this serious," Raquel said hopefully.
"You want to bet?" Zatanna asked dryly.
"No, not really," she replied. They exchanged a worried look, wondering what the boys had planned, and if they would get a chance to stop it.
Two days later, the boys met outside the living room and nodded to each other before Peter went in the room and Gar ran towards Megan's room. Conner was sitting on the sofa with Wolf a few feet away and Sphere rolling around looking for attention.
"Hey Conner, can you help me with something?" Peter asked, leaning on the back of the couch.
"What?" the clone asked, not looking at the younger boy.
Peter shrugged. "It's kind of hard to describe, can you just come look at it?"
Conner sighed heavily, but he pushed himself to his feet. "Ok, where?" he asked.
"In the simulation room."
"You want help with training?" Conner asked.
"Uh, sort of, just, come on." Peter led the clone straight to the simulation room. "Oh, I need to go get something from Mallory's room. I'll be right back," he said when they got to the door.
Conner shrugged. "Ok," he said, and he went in.
Gar came around the corner and the boys pressed the button on the wall, closing the doors and locking them from the outside.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Megan asked from inside.
"Open the doors," Conner demanded.
The boys shook their heads. "Sorry, but you're staying in there until you talk things out and make up," Gar said.
"This is ridiculous, I'm coming out," Megan said.
Gar smiled. "Nice try, sis, but we preprogrammed the simulation to block you from being able to density shift, and the walls are too strong for Conner to punch out of, so it looks like you're both stuck there until–" Conner's fist broke through the door a foot away from where Gar was leaning on it. The boys gulped and backed away a little as the clone finished breaking it down. "Oops," Peter muttered. The former couple stood in front of the boys, arms crossed, glaring, and furious.
"What was that?" Megan asked.
"We just thought…" Gar started, but Conner interrupted, "You thought what? That you could just lock us in a room and everything would just suddenly be ok?"
Mallory, Zatanna, Lagaan, Mal, and Karen came jogging over from different areas of the cave when they heard the yelling, and when Mallory saw Conner standing over her brother, she stepped between them.
"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice raised slightly.
"They need to stop trying to get involved," Conner yelled.
"Well, I'm sorry they care about you, and I'm sorry they want you to be happy, but you're not going to stand there and yell at them like this! They're just kids!"
"Yeah, overreacting much?" Lagaan snorted. Mallory and Conner both turned their glares onto him, not even realizing that the entire team had gathered by now. Conner took a step towards the Atlantean. "You-"
"Conner!" Zatanna said, fear creeping into her voice as she edged in front of Lagaan. Conner opened his mouth to say something else, but Nightwing came out of nowhere, stepping in front of the clone and pushing him back gently.
"That's enough, all of you," he said, and everyone looked at him. "This obviously needs to be worked out, but right now there's a mission. Clayface has broken out of Arkham, and I need you to go take care of it. Batgirl and Wonder Girl are on another mission in New York, but the rest of you suit up, I want you in Gotham in ten."
Conner gave Lagaan one last glare, his anger at the younger boys forgotten for the moment, before following the newer members of the team down the hall.
"Lagaan, Peter, wait," Dick said as the rest of the team filed off to get ready for the mission. They looked at him expectantly. "Not you two. It shouldn't take everyone." They nodded and went to the training room.
Mallory waited for the last of the team to get out of sight before saying, "Clayface isn't really a team threat."
"I know, but it was the only thing I could think of to deescalate the situation." He took a breath and rubbed a hand over his face wearily. "This has gotten out of hand," he muttered. They nodded. "Besides," he added, his voice heavy, "I have to see if they can still work together."
Mallory wasn't sure if he was talking about the team in general or specifically Megan and Conner. She decided that it was probably both. It was then that Mallory remembered what day it was, and she snorted and said dryly, "Happy New Years."
Recognition showed on the others' faces, and Zatanna sighed and said, "Well, hopefully it'll be better than last year."