Justice League X RWBY: The Scars We Never Let Heal, Chapter 3
"Mwhaa!" "Kreek!" "HEL..P M..E!" One of the infected people cried out sending chills down Jessica's spine.
"AHHG!" Jessica yelled as she hovered over the movie theater parking lot and summoned dozens of chains, then willing them to start wrapping around the infected people, buying the uninfected civilians enough time to get inside.
"WE NEED TO GO!" Jessica yelled down to Jaune.
"Well, pick me up then," Jaune replied.
The chains then bound tight around the people, causing them to fall over onto the pavement as the chains enveloped them like a cocoon.
She then constructed a flying DeLorean car around her with her in the driver's seat.
"GET IN!" Jessica yelled as she flew it down next to Jaune and opened the door.
"Wow, cool!" Jaune exclaimed while jumping inside.
"Ring, call Hal," Jessica spoke into her ring as they flew over the city.
"Contact transmission failure, target barer's will is not connected." The ring replied.
"What, how is that possible!" Jessica said.
"What are we going to do?" Jaune asked, concerned as he saw tons of fires breaking out over the city.
"We have to get back to the Justice League and see what's going on, the situation shouldn't have gotten this bad so fast," Jessica replied as they flew through the skyline.
"Hello!" Jessica yelled as she shoved the front entrance double door open at the Hall of Justice.
"JESSICA YOU'RE OKAY!?" Vixen yelled as she ran up to her and gave her a hug.
"What's going on?" Jessica asked.
"The situation is devolving at an exponential rate," Batman said as he stepped around a corner to answer her question.
"Any luck on finding the dust?" Jessica asked as she followed Batman, hovering alongside him to the command center.
"No, and worse, I've been losing contact with Justice League members and other allies," Batman replied.
"What if we go back and get some more dust, with your powers Jessica it shouldn't take us that long," Jaune interjected, a little out of breath from running to keep up with them.
"Could you do that? I can't begin to explain how desperate our situation is," Batman replied.
"I suppose I could," Jessica said.
"No, you can't!" Flash said as he walked into the room clearly nursing some kind of injury to his stomach area.
"Barry! What happened," Jessica asked deeply concerned.
"You can't go to Remnant, the time dilation would delay you too much, we have to solve this now" Flash explained.
"Barry what happened to you," Jessica asked.
"Your boss's doing, I'll be okay," Flash replied.
"My boss? Superman?" Jessica replied.
"No, your other boss, Hal," Vixen said as she stepped into the room.
"Hal!? But why?" Jessica asked, shocked at her answer.
"She doesn't know…" Batman said as he looked over to Vixen.
"Computer, pull up data entry 37 for today," Vixen then said as she gave Batman a head nod, agreeing that they should let Jessica see something.
"Video log retrieved, subject Identified, Green Lantern, Hal Jordan of Earth." The computer replied as it started playing footage from a traffic light cam.
The footage showed what looked like Hal in a Red Lantern uniform with his eyes glowing orange like the Grimm-infected people they saw. He was tearing up a city block as he yeeted cars at buildings like they were all his toys.
"I…Hal," Jessica stuttered, not knowing what to do.
"How is this possible?" Jessica asked.
"It seems the Grimm's ability to change into our weaknesses has carried over to this pathogen, making most of the strengths we have that would make us immune to it don't work… More than that, the pathogen seems to be targeting us." Batman explained.
"Where is everyone else?" Jaune asked.
"...I'll show you," Batman replied, leading them down a hallway to their infirmary.
"This… how…" Jessica stuttered as she saw everyone else lying in capsules heavily sedated, except for Cyborg who was working on a computer in the corner of the room.
"Cyborg! Are you okay!?" Jessica asked as she flew over to check on him.
"I'm fine, but they aren't, I'm having to control the sedative doses manually to counteract the infection, the pathogen is highly variable in its behavior," Cyborg replied.
"Jaune, you're here?" Wonder Woman said, her voice just barely audible as she stirred on a stretcher in the same room.
"Diana, are you okay?" Jaune asked as he stepped closer.
"Superman… we need to save him, be…before he does something that none of us can take back…" Daina replied.
"She was attacked by Superman?!" Jessica asked Batman.
"Yes, like Hal Jordan, it appears that the Man of Steel is infected as well," Batman replied.
Jessica's face grew pale as the gravity of the situation dawned on her, even if they found a cure, if they didn't stop the world's greatest heroes from behaving like villains soon, then everything that the Justice League stood for could be lost.
"Take deep breaths Diana, I'm going to help you heal," Jaune said as he put his hands over her.
"You can do that?" Diana muttered.
"I can, you're going to be okay," Jaune replied as Diana felt her battered insides start to repair themselves.
"Phew, I'm sorry that's all I got in me, I don't understand why it feels hard to heal you," Jaune said.
"It's because my body is tougher than most, so if it gets hurt it takes more to heal… it's okay thank you." Diana replied, feeling better but still unable to stand from her back hurting.
"Jaune here, take these while you are here, I'm in no position to fight," Diana said as she pointed to her sword and shield that were leaning against her bed.
Jaune picked them up and felt the weight to get used to them, "Thank you, I'll help fix the
damage my world caused to yours," Jaune said seriously.
"I'm sure there is some armor you could use in our armory," Cyborg interjected.
"We need Hal in custody, last contact with him he said he had located Red Lantern members, that's the best lead at the moment Batman said.
"Jessica I need you to… Jessica?... Where did she go?!" Batman asked as no one noticed her
leave while they were watching Diana getting healed.
"Flash, see if she's left the building," Batman asked.
"On it," Flash replied as he zipped away in the blink of an eye.
Jessica was grabbing something out of her locker when she heard the crack of Flash entering the room.
"Jessica, what are you doing?" Flash asked as Jessica was behind her locker door.
"I'm, I was just grabbing my earpiece," Jessica replied after a brief pause, not closing the door immediately when he asked.
"You guys copy?" Jessica asked, tapping her earpiece to turn it on.
"Good, glad you turned your communications on," Batman asked over the coms as Flash turned around and walked away, suspicious that Jessica was doing something more than just getting her earpiece, but he decided not to pry and leave it alone.
"What's the plan Bats?" Jessica asked.
"Me, You, Shazam, and Jaune need to go to Central Square and get Hal Jordan, I believe he knows the location of the Red Lanterns that stole the dust, and that's our best lead."
"Copy, meet up in the hangar?" Jessica asked.
"Yes," Batman replied.
"On my way," Jessica said as she flew out of the room and down the hallway towards the hanger.
"Woah! Cool," Jaune gushed as he gazed at the Batplane that was in the hanger. "Who knew everything with a bat design could look so cool," Jaune added.
"I honestly don't think there's anything that he owns that isn't bat-shaped, my name's Billy by the way I like the sword, what's your name?" A tail muscular man with a lightning bolt on his uniform and a red cape said talking to Jaune.
"SHAZAM, You're at work! Act like it, we don't use our civilian names here," Batman said,
scolding him.
"Um yes sir," Shazam replied.
"Jaune Arc, I'm borrowing the sword from Wonder Woman, Nice to meet you," Jaune said.
Shazam gave an extremely perplexed look over to Batman in reaction to his reply. Not only could he use his normal name but he also just happens to be on good enough terms with Wonder Woman to borrow her sword.
"He's not from around here," Batman said as they boarded the Batplane.
"So you from across the pond? I'm not familiar with all the superheroes over there?" Shazam asked.
"Umm I don't really know where across the pond is," Jaune replied.
"You know, England, Europe?" Shazam asked.
"Yeah, no clue where those are either," Jaune replied.
"He's from a different universe, the same universe Grimm came from," Jessica interjected.
"Uu oh, that's a thing now, okay," Shazam replied.
"Get your game faces on, we are approaching the drop sight," Batman said as the back of the plane opened.
"Phew okay here we go," Shazam nervously said as everyone but Batman looked over the edge preparing to jump.
"Can't you fly?" Jessica asked, not completely remembering what Shazam could do.
"Yes yes, Phew… Come on Billy you are a superhero," Shazam said to himself right before
jumping out the door, screaming as he fell like a rock.
Immediately Jessica formed a shield around Jaune, carrying him as started flying down to catch up to Shazam.
"Whoa whoa there we go, YEAH!" Shazam yelled with excitement as he stopped falling and started flying, doing a celebratory loop around a building before touching down right next to Jessica and Jaune on the ground.
"Did you see that! I just, ah never mind…" Shazam said with fading excitement as Jessica gave him a stink-eye look like she was thinking he was crazy or something.
"There he is," Jessica said as she saw Hal in the distance creating a red dust devil that was tearing up the street.
"Um… He doesn't look okay. Are you sure we don't need backup?" Shazam asked.
"We just need to weaken him at first, then we should be able to overwhelm him together," Jaune said.
"Couldn't have said it better myself, You guys soften him and I'll close in for the capture," Batman said over the coms.
"I'll go in first, maybe some of him is still conscious," Jessica replied.
Jessica then took off flying and landing next to Hal who promptly stopped his whirlwind as soon as he saw her.
"Hal, it's me, Jessica, I need you to help me out and fight this… SMACK," Jessica said until she was interrupted by Hal creating a Red hard light construct in the shape of a giant fist and sending Jessica flying with one punch.
"Shazam, get in there!" Batman said over the comms as Jaune was rushing ahead of him.
As Jaune charged at Hal, a thick aura shield formed around himself and his sword and shield as he took a swing at the corrupted Green Lantern that was now a Red Lantern.
THUNK, Hal grabbed his sword as he swung it then created a giant hand that flicked Jaune away like a fly.
"I'm gonna warn you, Sir," Shazam said as he landed right behind Hal. "I think I can punch really hard," Shazam then said as he sent Hal plowing into the ground with a haymaker.
"Woah daamn I'm strong," Shazam said as he looked at his own hands.
Then a bunch of Red hard light chains Hal created, wrapped around Shazam and pulled him toward the corrupted Lantern.
"Oh Pooei!" Shazam exclaimed as Hal grabbed him and then smashed him into a car.
Hal then looked up and noticed Batman circling him with his plane's guns pointing at him, Hal then constructed an anti-air missile launcher that was targeting Batman.
"We've been target locked Sir," Batman's computer said as Hal sent three missiles after him,
"Shit…" Batman said as he banked hard and fired his flares and chaff, the missiles promptly exploding behind him from the countermeasures.
Hal then created three more missile launchers, each with dozens of rockets as he knew Batman could dodge them all.
Right before Hal could fire again a massive Green hard light dumbbell landed on top of him, crushing the missiles and Hal.
"We need to get that red ring off of him, it only is making his condition worse!" Jessica yelled.
Jessica then made the dumbbell turn to gel as Shazam floated into it and approached the seamless unconscious Hal, trying to remove his ring.
Shazam grabbed the ring and pulled with all his might but it would not budge at all. Hal's red eyes popped open as he grabbed Shazam and then yeeted him away from him as he let out a red energy explosion that vaporized the gel around him.
"AARH!" Jessica yelled as she swung down at him with a hammer which Hal countered with a shield.
The two clashed fervently, smashing each other's constructs as soon as they were created.
"The infection is keeping his mind in a state of rage and growing that rage making him stronger by the second, and we can't get the ring off of him until the rage stops," Batman explained over the comms.
"AAARG, IT WON'T COME OFF," Jessica yelled as she tried to pull the red ring off while She and Shazam had Hal in a pin for a moment.
"Jaune, see if your healing him will break him from his rage and break the bond to the red ring," Batman said.
"I need you guys to get him on the ground for me to do that," Jaune replied as all three of them were tangled together in the sky above him.
"AHH RAAAGE!" Hal yelled as he grabbed Shazam and wiped him around like a ragdoll, hitting Jessica knocking her back then delivering a powerful dropkick on Shazam, sending him cratering into the earth.
"Target locked," - "Fire!" Batman said as he loosed a few missiles at Hal, impacting him with a fiery blaze.
Jessica then constructed a bunch of chains and sent them to Hal to bind him. Hal then grabs the chains and swings Jessica around with them.
"SHIT!" Batman said as he frantically tried to pull up, noticing that Hal had flung Jessica on a
collision course with his plane.
Jessica quickly put a barrier around herself as she impacted with one of the wings of the plane, sending it into a nosedive.
"NOO!" Jessica exclaimed as she flew down and caught Batman's plane at the last second before it hit the ground.
"I'm fine, Go help the others," Batman said as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
Hal turned his attention to Shazam who was just trying to get up. Hal created a missile barrage launcher and began pulverizing Shazam with it as he tried to catch any kind of break.
Jessica mustered all the will she could, firing a blinding green laser at Hal. Putting up a red hard light shield, Hal was unphased by the attack as he continued to pummel Shazam.
"Take this!" Jaune yelled as he threw a piece of broken concrete, actually hitting Hal in the cheek as he was distracted, drawing some blood on his face.
Hal's infected face turned, his attention shifting to Jaune as he stopped his assaulting of Shazam.
"Oh no," Jaune said as he tried to hold up his shield as Hal flew at him.
"GRAAH!" Jessica yelled as she hit Hal with a hard light bus just right before he was going to hit Jaune.
"We need to retreat!" Jaune said seeing Jessica pant heavily from exhaustion and Shazam knocked out cold.
"NO I CAN DO THIS!" Jessica replied.
"The Kid is right, we should regroup," Batman replied as he got out of his wrecked plane.
"NO, JAUNE GET READY TO HEAL HIM!" Jessica replied, yelling defiantly as she started wrapping hard light chains around Hal.
Jaune stepped forward, approaching Hal hopeful that she would actually subdue the senior Lanter.
"RAGE!" Hal yelled again causing the chains to shatter, pieces of them struck Jaune, sending him flying backward.
"No!" Jessica said frantically as Hal then punched her so hard she went flying into a nearby apartment building.
Four rolling gadgets from Batman then landed right beneath Hal immediately exploding as load blinding flash bangs.
Batman took the opportunity of him being stunned, rushing into the haze. He wrapped his grapple hook around Hal's foot and swung him into the ground.
As Hal was recovering Jaune ran up and shield bashed him, knocking him back in a daze.
Batman continued the assault as he charged at him then stopped, lifting his leg to kick him in the face.
Hal countered by trying to grab Batman's foot, but Batman buffed him, pulling his foot back only to kick him after his hand failed to grab him.
"This is gonna sting," Batman said as he pulled out what looked like a taser rifle to shoot Hal.
"RAAAGE!" Hal screamed again as reg energy blasted out of him.
Batman pulled the trigger but the weapon failed to fire as it started to melt from the heat,
"AAAHG Fall back!" Batman said as he tumbled back from the force and heat of the blast, Jaune holding up his shield as he tried to push forward.
Jaune struggled to hold his ground as the energy poured out of Hal, Jaune was unable to retreat
because if he dropped his shield the blast would certainly burn him.
"Jaune GET OUT OF THERE!" Batman yelled as Jaune's shield started to change color from the heat.
ZIPOW! A blast of yellow lightning struck Hal, sending him plowing into a building and stopping his outpouring of energy.
Batman and Jaune then turned to see where the lightning bolt came from.
"Jaune, be ready to heal him. I'LL FINISH THIS QUICKLY," Jessica said sternly as she flew towards them wearing the Yellow Lantern ring and uniform.
"GRraah" Hal said stumbling out of the building he crashed into, he then created a large hard light missile and fired it at Jaune.
Jessica raced in front of Jaune and constructed a battle ax made of yellow hard light, clopping the missile in two.
Hal with anger then charged Jessica creating an ax of his own, CLANG! A massive shockwave rang out from the impact of the weapons clashing but this time Jessica's construct didn't break, instead Hal's ax began to crack as Jessica's remained solid, empowered by the mass amount of fear the city was feeling.
Jessica then pushed forward, shattering Hal's weapon and striking him, making sure to turn her ax sideways to not hit him with the blade.
She then summons a horde of fearful creations, demon snakes, dragons, and other monsters, all amalgamated into a cloud of terror that overwhelms Hal, grabbing him and shoving him into the ground.
"JAUNE NOW!" Jessica yelled as she snapped him out of shock while he was watching their fight.
Jaune then ran up and started healing Hal, his anger and rage seaming the fade as he did.
After about a minute Jessica willed one of her fear creations to grab the rings off of Hal's hand, breaking the connection completely.
Jessica then took a deep breath, letting all her fear constructs fade away as Hal passed out unconscious.
"UUhg, wait what I miss? Shazam asked as he got up off the ground.
Jaune looked concerned at Jessica as he noticed a subtle tremble in her hand and a stoic look on her face as she looked lost in her thoughts.
"Sinestro's ring… You kept it," Batman said, shocked to see her in the Yellow Lantern uniform.
Jessica didn't reply, her mind distracted as she saw the fear Batman had in him, uncertain if he could trust her. She saw the fear in Shazam, afraid people would find out that he was just a kid and would be laughed at and rejected. Then she saw the fear in Jaune, fear that lay much deeper inside him, fear that he would never be too late to save a friend again.
Jessica felt her heartache as she saw a memory from Jaune's mind but she couldn't let herself feel it for long at risk of her losing focus and her control over the ring. She then let visions of the fear that was in the whole city flow through her like a river, her heart wanting to burst with empathy as she knew so well what the power of fear over a person's life was like.
"Well, good work I guess, let's get him back to HQ, see if we can get him awake, and see what happened to him," Batman said as he gestured to Shazam to get up and come help him carry Hal.
"There's no time," Jessica said somberly as her mind was elsewhere, gazing at the fear of the whole city.
"What do you mean?" Jaune asked, concerned for her with the look of terror she stoically wore on her face.
"I have Located the Red Lantern's, they are in the harbor district, the one is… the Red Lantern's leader's banished son. He wants to win the Earth to prove himself… I have to end this…" Jessica explained.
"Jessica, Don't go in alone, let's regroup and form a plan," Batman said fervently.
"When I wear the green ring I fear what I can't do, it's limiting, but comforting. But when I wear this ring I fear what I can do… I'm sorry, but I must do this alone," Jessica replied softly as she looked into Jaune's eyes hoping he would understand.
"Jessica WAIT!" Batman said as Jessica flew off, quickly leaving their sight as she headed for the harbors.
"Alfred, you there?" Batman asked over the comms.
"Let me guess, you want a full heat signature scan on the harbor district and a ride to pick you guys up," Alfred replied.
"Yes, you've been listening in?" Batman said.
"I always am good Sir, sending the UAV Dropship to your coordinates," Alfred replied.
"Set him down up there," Batman said to Shazam who was carrying Hal.
"I, I can walk," Hal grumbled while in pain as Shazam set him down on a hospital bed in their infirmary.
"I'm surprised you can after how much we had to kick your ass," Batman Replied as Hal sat up and examined himself.
"Are you guys okay? Please I'm so sorry, one moment I was fighting these two guys then everything went red!" Hal explained rapidly as he panicked a bit.
"Easy easy, we're okay, though you gave us a hell of a fight and cost me a plane," Batman replied.
"Jaune, can you tell the others we are back, we need to be ready to assist Lantern Cruz as soon as possible," Batman explained as Hal had his face buried into his palm out of embarrassment.
"Wait, Jessica is still out there?!" Hal replied, deeply worried.
"Yes, she's hunting down the dust, she said she had the Red Lantern's location before she left," Batman explained.
"What! You let her go on her own!?" Hal asked.
"She didn't exactly wait for my permission to go," Batman replied.
"About time you guys got back! What took you, everything is falling to pieces out there!" Diana said as she stumped into the room, interrupting their conversation.
"Diana, calm down, we were as fast as we could be," Batman replied, wanting to keep Hal from fretting over the situation.
"Calm down!? Have you seen what's happening!?" Diana yelled as she pulled out a tablet with a map of infected cities and news videos of the pandemonium.
"I'm well aware of the situation Diana and I am doing everything I can to fix this," Batman replied with a little irritation in his tone.
"Oh, are you now?!... Where's the dust Lantern?!" Diana snapped, asking Hal.
"I don't know, I never found it before the rage took over," Hal replied, frustrated at the answers he had to provide.
"Listen Wonder Woman, Lantern has the location of the assailants that stole the dust and is in pursuit, and Cyborg is preparing the delivery systems so that we can mix the dust with a variant of the antidote we used to stop my poison and deliver it to the world as soon as we can," Batman explained.
"Lantern?! Who, Jessica! You left all this up to her, no offense. I know she tries her best, but she is not the most reliable team member," Wonder Woman replied.
"Who exactly is in a better position at this moment, you? Me? Barry?" Batman replied, getting irritated at what he thought was a meaningless conversation.
"We should all be out there," Wonder Woman said sternly.
"And I will as soon as possible, I need a new vehicle," Batman explained.
"It's just, what kind of heroes are we if we can't even save our friends," Wonder Woman replied, her voice turning sad.
"Superman will be okay, he's been through worse before," Batman replied.
"It's not his body I worry about… it's his conscience I worry about, how much is he going to
regret when he snaps out of this pathogen's control. Are we even still going to be heroes when this is over." Wonder Woman explained.
"Well, me and Jaune are going back out there, you're welcome to come with us," Batman said.
"I shall," Diana replied.
"Oof, I think I'm gonna barf…" Jaune complained as he sat in the back seat of the Batmobile while it raced through the streets toward downtown.
"Don't, I don't want to have to clear that crap up," Batman replied as he weaved their way through several abandoned vehicles.
"With All due respect Master, we both know it would not be you having to clean up Master Arc's
vomit but me," Alfred said over the Batmobile's speakers.
"Correct as usual Alfred," Batman replied.
"Any Idea where we are going!?" Wonder asked as she plugged her sword into the roof of the Batman so she could hold on while he swerved.
"Uhg… sigh… I'm locked onto the transponder in Lantern's earpiece, it's coming from Ivory
Tower in downtown metropolis." Batman replied as he rolled his eyes in response to the damage she caused to his vehicle.
"Hope she's not biting off more than she can chew," Wonder Woman replied.
"Will be there in a few minutes," Batman replied as he raced up a ramp and onto a freeway.
"One question, why is Jaune coming with us if you want me to have my weapons back?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Good question, do we have a plan?" Jaune asked.
"I need Jaune to be there to talk to Jessica if she is… losing control at all," Batman explained.
"Losing control?... Is there any sign she was feeling ill and was getting infected?" Wonder Woman asked.
"No, her vitals look stable last time I took a reading when we were on the dropship," Batman explained.
"Then why would…" Wonder said.
"Ready up, we're here!" Batman said cutting off Wonder Woman as he stopped the Batmobile and opened the hatch.
"So, where is she at?" Diana asked.
"Up," Batman replied, then everyone looking up saw bits of marble and glass being blasted out
of the top floors of the building along with yellow blasts of lighting.
"Why is it that color?" Wonder Woman asked.
"No time to linger, let's go!" Batman replied as he alerted them to a horde of rage-filled civilians that were running at them from across the street.
They ran in, bursting through the door as they ran for the elevators, both Batman and Wonder Woman having to shove a few straggling infected aside that were in their way.
"Here this way!" Jaune yelled as he ran and hit the button that opened the elevator.
"MWAAAH!" A bunch of infected people screamed at them as the elevator door opened and revealed them inside.
"The stairs! This way!" Batman shouted as he led them into the staircase.
"Keep running," Diana said as they climbed the stairs as fast as they could, leaving behind the infected people rather quickly.
BOOM BOOM, They heard as the building shook like a missile hit it causing them to grab onto a handrail for stability.
"We have to hurry!" Diana said.
"How many floors do we need to go?" Jaune asked.
"About forty more," Batman replied.
"Look how quickly the Green Lantern's conviction goes away when her life depends on it, yes fear has made you strong, but imagine how much stronger you could be with RAGE!" The hulking Red Lantern said as he created a mass of chains that looked like super long chainsaw bars hurdling at Jessica.
"My conviction is the same meathead!" Jessica yelled as she blasted his constructs with lightning causing them to shatter.
"GRRAAGE!" The human Red Lantern screamed as he smashed a hard light boulder into Jessica's back sending her into the floor.
"Now get her!" The man said as the alien Red Lantern tried to skewer Jessica with a hard light sword.
Jessica rolled on the ground dodging the attack, then rolled again as he slashed down, plowing his sword into the ground.
"AAH!" The human screamed as he dove in for the kill as well.
Jessica quickly got to her feet and blasted the human with a laser beam of yellow energy, then immediately followed by kicking the other Red Lantern in the face with a metal boot construct.
"Grr shit," Jessica muttered as some red hard light chains wrapped around her and the alien Lantern quickly got up and swung for her head.
Jessica dodged the attack barely as she struggled to move.
The beast tried to swing again but was stopped as he noticed a giant hard light anaconda had wrapped around his torso and arms and was pulling him back.
Jessica's eyes burned bright yellow as she controlled the snake telepathically, causing the chains to start to fail as she broke free.
The other Red Lantern then changed her but was stopped as soon as her gaze met him as dozens of frightening snake-like constructs wrapped around him and held him down to the floor.
" Sigh" Jessica took a deep breath as she tried not to let the fear wear on her.
"Where is what you stole from me!" Jessica said, her voice booming like it was twenty of her that said it all at once.
"Why would I tell you that, without it you heroes fall and this world is left for the taking," the beast replied.
"I don't…" Jessica started to say something only to be distracted by the stairwell bursting open and a horde of infected citizens rushing out of it, coming at her.
"AAH!" Jessica yelled as she created a half bubble to keep them all back, straining herself as she tried to keep all the people back and keep the Red Lanterns under control at the same time.
"Did you really think you could stop us, you, all alone, with the power of fear ironically hahaha you of all people!" The Red Lantern mocked her.
The reality of the situation started to hit Jessica as she felt her own power start to turn on her, a voice whispering in her head over and over again, "What are you afraid of? What are you afraid of?" All while the fear of what could happen if she failed started to flash in her mind.
She could feel the Stronger of the two Red Lanterns starting to break free as her constructs cracked. Her mindfully focuses on keeping the alien Red Lantern in chains, binding him solidly, but as a consequence, the human Red Lantern bursts free and the infected mod breaks the barrier and charges her.
The human Red Lantern then lifts his ring to blast her but is stopped as a taser bolt bursts through the other stairwell door and hits him in the neck immediately sending him to the floor unconscious.
Batman, Diana, and Jaune all rush into the room to Jessica's surprise. Diana freezes for a second, confused as to why Jessica was wearing yellow, "WONDER WOMAN, STOP THOSE INFECTED CIVILIANS!" Batman yelled as the crowd rushed at Jessica.
Diana then leaped in front of Jessica and pushed all the people back with a powerful sweep of her shield, "Don't hurt them, they still are alive in there!" Jessica said to Diana.
A sigh of relief filled Diana's heart as the words of empathy reminded her that Jessica was still herself, as she pushed back the crowds with her shield.
"Yeeeh!" Jaune squealed as a few people got around Wonder Woman and ran at him and Batman.
Batman responded with a roundhouse kick that sent one of the infected flying back to the door where they came from.
Jaune put his arm up to block a punch from another infected, but as he did a yellow hard light shield appeared on his arm to add him in the block.
Jessica turned and gave him a head nod as she continued to strain while holding the Red Lantern down.
Jaune got up and pushed the infected person back into the mob, and then Jessica reconstructed a barrier around the mob and began pushing them all back into the stairwell.
"What's the plan Lantern?" Batman said.
"I need a moment to get the location of the dust, HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!" Jessica declared.
"If you think I'm gonna tell you what you want because of a little pain you gonna be greatly disappointed!" The Red Lantern yelled.
"GRRAAAH!" Jessica let out a scream of pain as fear surged through her, yellow hard light vines ripped through the building cutting through the floor beneath them as she started to lift the top of the building with them, the rest of the infected civilians falling onto the floor below as her constructs pushed them off the stairwell.
"Master, I'm picking up a strange reading. It may be a glitch: did you acquire air transport somehow?" Alfred asked over Batman's coms.
"It's no glitch Alfred we're flying, tell me where we are heading?" Batman asked as the top floor of the building ripped away and started to fly into the sky held up by Jessica's forcefield that she constructed around it.
As they flew through the sky, Jessica's attention turned to the Red Lantern she still had in chains, her eyes blazing brighter with the yellow light of fear.
"I'm not telling nothing! Without the cure your world burns and your oath to protect will be useless!" The Red Lantern screamed as she manifested hundreds of snake-like wisps of light to encircle him.
"You're mistaken, I don't need you to tell me where it is!" Jessica said, her voice sounding like a choir of her own voice.
The Red Lantern's eyes widened with fear as he could feel her diving into his mind to snuff out his secrets. "No, NO I WON'T LET YOU!" he screamed out.
"Master, it looks like you are falling rapidly," Alfred said in Batman's ears.
"I can feel it," Batman replied as he felt the gravity was less than it should be.
"Looks like you are falling towards Stryker's island which is uninhabited," Alfred explained.
"This thing is barely staying together!" Diana yelled as the stability of the chuck of the building they were in was failing.
"We need to prepare to jump!" Batman said as he saw they were about three thousand feet from the ground and falling.
Jessica's head tilted back as she appeared to go into a trance as she floated in the room, her eyes glowing brighter yellow.
Jaune noticed a drop of blood drip down from her nose as the Red Lantern appeared to go into a trance with her.
"JESSICA!" Jaune yelled as he tried to snap her out of it, the gravity of the room felt like it was zero now as they began to free fall.
"WE GOTTA JUMP NOW! GO!" Batman yelled at him and Diana jumped out the side of the building.
"Jessica, please! Come back to me! I… I can't lose you too…" Jaune pleaded.
"HHAUH" Jessica took a deep breath as her eyes returned to normal and she snapped out of her trance.
The building began to break apart as Jaune, Her, and the now unconscious Red Lantern floated aimlessly in the room.
Jessica looked at Jaune with a grateful look, thankful for hearing his voice while she was deep in the Red Lantern's mind.
Then with a quick glance, she noticed the ground racing toward them only about a second away from impact.
Instantly she focused her mind and created hard light shields around all three of them just before the chuck of the building smashed into the ground.
"GRAAH" Jessica shrieked in pain as it took all of her might to maintain focus enough to protect all three of them.
Jaune got up and started jogging over to Jessica to see if she was hurt but as he got close, a bunch of snake-like wisps of yellow light started pouring out of her ring turning on her as if she was an enemy.
Jaune paused, not sure what was happening. "Get it off..no no no…Get it off" Jessica muttered as she started breathing fast and clawed at her own hand.
Finally, Jaune noticed what she was talking about and ran to help her.
Batman then shoved him aside as he was running to her also and got to her first.
He pulled out a taser and zapped her hand, the jolt shocked her as he then pulled the yellow ring off of her finger easily as her focus was on the pain of the shock and not the fear around her.
" SIGH, Thank you!" Jessica said, her tone one of extreme gratitude as her yellow lantern uniform faded away and she took a deep breath of relief.
"Shall I hold onto this?" Batman asked as he held the yellow ring.
"Yes please," Jessica replied.
"Sorry to get straight to business, but did you find the dust?" Diana asked
Jessica then pulled out her Green Lantern ring and put it on, manifesting her uniform and raising her hand to focus and create a portal.
"There…" Jessica replied as the portal opened and there the two suitcases of dust were, stashed in an empty carnival tent.
She then put a force field around the bags and pulled them through the portal, she then created another portal, Cyborg was sitting at the computer in the infirmary at the Hall of Justice with a shocked look.
"Here!" Jessica said as she handed him the suitcases and then closed the portal.
"So that's it then?" Diana asked, a bit disbelieving that everything was over.
"That's it, we won," Batman confirmed.
"I gotta say, Jessica, you really did good here, you weren't there but I didn't exactly have the most confidence in you and I'd like to apologize for that," Diana said kindly.
As Diana apologized, Jaune walked up to Jessica and started healing her as he saw her nose was still bleeding.
Jessica felt like she was gonna melt in happiness both from the warm feeling Diana's words gave her and Juane's touch, mainly just the warmth of his hand as she barely noticed the healing.
"Thanks," Jessica replied with a smile.
"Cyborg should get that dust mixed with the antidote and start the mass detox campaign on the populace and the infected Justice League members right away," Batman explained.
"No sign of Superman still?" Diana asked.
"No, his transponder went offline," Batman replied.
"What if he flew up into the sky or went somewhere with no people so he didn't harm anyone? Jaune asked.
"That's actually a good idea, Because if he was causing a rampage anywhere it would be on the news," Batman replied.
"Do you feel okay?" Jaune asked, his voice quiet enough that only Jessica could hear him.
"Sooo why didn't we just go through the portal?" Jaune asked, raising his voice a little so everyone could hear him.
"Eh, I'll Make a jet to take us back," Jessica replied.
"We got a prisoner we got to manage also," Batman said pointing at the unconscious Red Lantern.
"Yeah I suppose I can make something big enough for all of us," Jessica replied.
"I'll carry him in," Batman said.
"Okay," Jessica replied as she raised her ring and started constructing a large Osprey dropship.
As it was halfway constructed a red laser cut across the horizon destroying it and causing everyone to duck to the ground.
"JEZZ what was that!" Jaune said, trying to recover as it startled him.
"Superman…" Diana said, her voice sounding worried.
"Alfred, Superman is here, can you send backup," Batman said into his coms.
"Of course, He must have come to Stryker's island before he lost control of the pathogen, to stay away from people," Diana explained.
"That's the same reason I landed us here," Jessica Replied
"We can't lose sight of him till the antidote is ready," Batman said.
"Aaahhg… so you saying we gotta arrest him too now?" Jessica said very peeved about it.
"Maybe we can talk to him," Jaune said hopefully.
"Good luck with that," Diana replied as she readied her shield, seeing the sonic boom as Superman was flying at them.
PAPOW! Superman smashed into Wonder Woman, the shockwave sending the others flying aside.
"GRAAAH!" Superman yelled as a laser blast burned at them.
"Crap!" Jessica yelled as she created a mirror to reflect the laser beam away after it bounced off of Diana's shield.
Jessica then curved her mirror until the beam went straight back and hit Superman knocking him down.
"Alfred, do we have any Kryptonite measures available?" Batman asked over his coms.
"I'm working on something Sir," Alfred replied.
Superman's attention turned towards Jessica as he knocked Diana away with a backhand slap.
"Crap crap crap!" Jessica stammered as she frantically created a hard light brick wall which Superman smashed through.
She then created a wall made out of steel which he smashed through just as easily.
Jessica then started frantically creating vehicle after vehicle, each getting larger as she threw them at Superman to slow him down, finally ending with a giant icebreaker ship made of hard light, smashing into Superman.
"Nice one," Wonder Woman complimented as she got up and they approached the ship, not sure if it was keeping Superman trapped or not.
"No way I just beat Superman?" Jessica said.
"What are you talking about, You totally could beat him, Jessica," Jaune said with enthusiasm.
Superman then bursts out of the ship and hovered above it as he looked down at them.
"Yeah no…" Jessica said, very annoyed at the situation as Superman rushed at them again.
Jessica created a thick shield to protect herself as a punch from Superman slammed her to the ground and still hurt a lot.
Diana then raised her arms and tried to smash her gauntlets together next to Superman's face but a quick jab to her gut from him sent her flying back into the ground.
Superman then looked at Batman and rushed to strike him only to have Jaune step in front of Batman and smack Superman with a piece of rebar only to have it bend around Superman's face and do nothing to him.
"Oh…Um…You see mister Superman, we can talk about this…" Jaune stammered right before Superman backhanded slapped him, sending him flying into the sky.
Superman then dashed at Batman who pulled a smoke grenade to dodge him.
Jessica flew up into the sky and caught Jaune with a force field bubble.
"Oh thanks, I knew you would catch me," Jaune said with a chuckle.
"We can't stop him," Jessica said as she flew over them with Jaune, not wanting to descend just yet to keep Jaune safe.
"Maybe If I can grab onto him I can heal him," Jaune said.
"NOO Are you crazy! You just almost died and you want to grab onto him," Jessica replied.
"But Batman needs our help," Jaune said, getting Jessica to see Batman rolling and dodging all of Superman's punches.
Batman then shot his grapple away, using it to drag himself across the ground as Superman swung over and over again missing him.
Diana then kicked Superman in the face, stopping his chase of Batman but causing no damage.
Wonder Woman then headbutted Superman, sending a powerful shockwave out as they collided but Superman remained unphased.
He then responded with a headbutt of his own that sent Diana plowing into the ground making a small crater from the force of the hit.
Superman then flew at Batman again but right before he could reach him a bunch of green hard light chains wrapped around and stopped his movement as Jessica pulled with all her might, creating a few giant rockets on her back as a jetpack to help her pull Superman back.
Jaune stepped forward hesitantly as he thought about trying to jump on the restrained Superman to heal him.
Jessica seeing this immediately sent out a force blast that pushed Jaune way back, making sure he was out of danger.
"Alfred, what is that?" Batman asked as he noticed a missile racing toward their location.
"That's the countermeasures," Alfred replied.
The missile struck Superman, startling Jessica enough to cause the chains to crack and break,
Superman busted out of them and collapsed on the floor as he breathed in a blueish mist the missile released.
"Wha…What was that!?" Jessica asked.
" Sigh… The Antidote," Batman replied.
" Cough cough cough*Superman coughed as he groaned in pain while lying on the ground.
"Superman, are you okay?" Diana asked.
"What happened to me, I, I don't remember…" Superman replied as he slowly tried to get up, his head really hurting.
Several hours later Jessica was in the locker room sitting down on a bench just enjoying the quiet as everywhere else was very hectic in the Hall of Justice.
"You doing okay?" Vixen asked as she peeked her head in the room.
" Sigh, Yeah I'm good, how's the immunization going?" Jessica asked.
"Last of the Justice League members are clear, the public is about 75% percent clear," Vixen replied.
"Uuhg, we need to make sure the Grimm's influence is completely gone or else it could just come back," Jessica said as she stood up and walked towards the door to leave the locker room.
"Jessica…" Vixen said as she put her hand up blocking Jessica from walking past her.
"There's plenty of other people here, you've done enough, We got this," Vixen replied kindly.
"Phew… Okay, I guess…" Jessica said.
Jessica talked to her for a few minutes about her day with Jaune as they walked to the command center.
"Jessica glad you could join us," Superman said as she walked into the command center in her civilian clothes.
Everyone noticed her immediately as many of them gave head nods to her as if to say a good job.
Jessica stopped for a second almost forgetting where she was going as she grabbed her own arm nervously, not used to the admiration.
"The remaining Grimm infections are fading fast thanks to the hard work of the reserve Justice League," Batman said.
"But, it's still not all gone, and I let the Red Lantern prisoners escape while we were fighting Superman… They could have got samples of the Grimm to use on us later." Jessica replied, still pretty worried.
"You can't win every battle in a war, sometimes you just have to be content with saving the people you can today," Jaune said.
" Sigh, I suppose that's right," Jessica replied.
"Hey, you carried more than your weight today Jessica. I say we take this win and enjoy it while we can, tomorrow ain't arriving any sooner by worrying about it." Flash said.
"I could use a nap myself honestly," Jaune said.
"Well, we should probably get you back to Remnant then, sure your team is missing you," Flash said.
"How long did you tell them you were going to be?" Jessica asked.
"I think I told them I would be… an hour… several days? I'm not sure, it's strangely different to remember what I told them for some reason…" Jaune replied.
"It's from the time force decay," Flash said.
"The what?" Jessica asked.
"Basically it means whenever you move from one universe or timeline to another, the time force activity fades your memories from all universes or timelines that you are not in, and memories of everything that is not from your universe also," Flash explained.
"But, that means…" Jessica replied as she started biting one of her nails.
"It means that eventually the world will forget about the Grimm…" Flash explained as Jessica looked over to Jaune, her eyes looking sad.
"Well, at least most people will forget," Flash finished explaining.
"Wait, why only most?" Jessica asked as her interest peaked.
"The memory loss effect is weak, so if you actively try to not forget something or have a traumatic or highly impactful memory from the influence of another universe, then yeah you probably won't forget that ever," Flash explained.
"I'd say this was pretty memorable," Jaune said with a lighthearted attitude as he patted Jessica on the back, letting her know not to worry.
"Yeah… I would definitely agree…" Jessica replied with a smile.
"Jessica, I got something for you!" Cyborg interjected as he walked into the room.
"Here," Cyborg said as he handed Jessica her phone.
"What?" Jessica asked, wondering why he was handing her own phone back to her.
"I cloned your device's sim to an entangled sim pair that I put in Jaune's phone," Cyborg explained.
"That way you can always easily call for help from us friends from Remnant," Jaune said with giddy excitement.
"Oh, damn, That's great," Jessica replied.
"The computer in my lab has the coordinates ready for Shade in Vacuo whenever you are ready Jessica," Cyborg explained.
"Thanks," Jessica replied softly.
"Sooo… I guess this is goodbye then," Jessica said as they stood alone in Cyborg's lab.
"I wouldn't say that friends never say goodbye ," Jaune said emphatically.
"Well, then I won't say goodbye then…" Jessica said, sounding a little sad.
"Jessica please don't cry, you'll be okay, you're an incredibly strong and brave person," Jaune said as rubbed her cheek.
"Jaune I… I saw what… what happened to you," Jessica replied softly as she looked up into his eyes.
"I'm not sure what you mean," Jaune said, his voice turning a bit nervous.
"What you had to do…" Jessica said cautiously.
"I…" Jaune stuttered as tears started to stream down his face.
"Shh shh shh it's okay," Jessica said as she pulled him in for a hug.
"What, what else could I have done, I don't know what else I could have done," Jaune said as
he started falling apart crying into her shoulder.
"Shh it's okay…" Jessica replied, not knowing what to say exactly.
"I…I did what she asked, but is that really something a friend would ever do," Jaune said, still crying.
"It's what she wanted…" Jessica replied.
"It's what she wanted because she knew we could save her…" Jaune said, sounding almost angry.
"It's not always fair… it's hardly ever fair to be honest…" Jessica replied.
"But we have to keep pushing forward and try our best," Jessica replied, resolve growing in her as she grabbed Jaune's cheeks and placed his forehead against hers.
"You have to let the pain flow through you so you can heal. Life isn't fair, it never was… but maybe if we can get stronger from its bruises, we can try to make it fair for others." Jessica explained.
After a good fifteen minutes, Juane finally lifted his head and wiped the tears from his face.
He had a thankful look on his face but also a serious one as he nodded to her that it was time for him to go.
Jessica bowed her head slightly as she regretted him having to leave.
"Um…Jaune," Jessica stuttered nervously as she fiddled with her hair.
"Yes," Jaune replied.
"Can you promise me one thing?" Jessica asked as she lifted her ring to get ready to make the portal to Remnant.
"Anything…" Jaune replied somberly.
"Please don't forget me," Jessica asked.
"I could never forget you Jess," Jaune replied as he raised his hand and brushed the tip of her hair.
"Good luck fighting your villains I suppose," Jessica said as she opened a portal into the dorm room halls of Shade in Vacuo.
"Same to you," Jaune said, his voice still sounding raw from crying so much.
"Take care Jess, I hope we meet again someday," Jaune said as he walked towards the portal waving goodbye to her.
"Goodbye," Jessica said as he walked into the portal and it closed behind him.
"Uhg…" Jessica fell onto her knees as she closed the portal behind him.
She felt like her heart sank with a lead weight placed inside of it as she tried not to cry at the fact that she knew she might never see him again.
"It's not fair…" Jessica said to herself as she loathed the fact that her heart was hurting so much.
DING. Her phone dinged as a text message came in which she quickly responded to check and see what the message was.
From a new number, there was a text with an image attached. The image was a selfie Jaune had taken with his phone of the two of them while they sat on the rooftop enjoying coffee.
" Friends never say goodbye." The message said.