Sorry it's late, I switched shifts at work so I have my days mixed up this week. Hope you like it, please review!
Two days later, Mallory was propping her legs up on her desk in her office, holding her phone against the backdrop of the Metropolis night sky and doing her best to ignore the lights from the neighboring skyscrapers as she watched her movie. She didn't hear so much as sense the presence behind her, and the second she felt her skin prickle at the added heat in the room, she threw her legs to the ground, spinning in her chair to address the potential threat, only to find that it was her brother standing on the other side of the desk, his arms crossed and one eyebrow raised pointedly.
"I thought you were working late," he said flatly, looking down at where the incriminating film was still playing, her phone completely unaware of the nail it was putting in her coffin.
She turned it off, the screen going black as she shrugged sheepishly. "Well, I was. I just needed a break." He glanced around her desk, and a spike of annoyance went through her because she knew he was doing it for her benefit. He'd already noticed the clean surface, the completely empty tray that her next cases usually lived, her computer shut down for the night. It made her feel like a little kid being chastised by her parents. "Why are you here, anyway?" she asked defensively, not even bothering to ask how he'd gotten in the building after hours. "You're supposed to be training."
"No," he corrected, "You're supposed to be training. You and the rest of your squad, but none of you showed up. You'll never guess what their excuses were."
She rolled her eyes. They'd gone to the training the day after the capture the flag game, but even they couldn't have guessed what the younger team members had in store for them. The simulations lasted for hours, and they were the most bizarre, challenging situations they'd ever been through. At the end of it, they all ended up crashing in a room in the Watchtower, too sore and exhausted to go home, and they all said that they wished they had a good excuse to get out of the rest of the week. If Mallory had known that everyone else was going to use the work bit, she would have sprung for something more creative, like a problem at the Fortress of Solitude. She tilted her head, wincing. It had been almost a week since she'd been up there, she probably should go check on the animals. Not that Peter would believe her now.
"Come on," he was saying, grabbing her bag and tossing it to her. "Gar's getting Megan and Conner, and V'lana and Jinx are rounding up Artemis and Cam." He grinned and added, "and Bart's getting Alex."
She groaned, but she pushed herself out of her chair, knowing that if she didn't go with him willingly, he could have backup there in two minutes to forcefully drag her to the Watchtower. "Fine. Can I at least grab a danish before we go?"
"Sure," he replied, smirking, "but I don't think you're going to want to eat before the simulation we programmed for today."
They arrived on the Bridge just as V'lana and Artemis appeared, the rest of the team waiting for them at the bottom step. Alex was the only one from their squad that seemed excited to be there, and when Mallory went to give him a hug, she leaned close to his ear and whispered, "traitor."
The insult did nothing to dim his smile, though. "You're the one that wanted me here," he pointed out. She rolled her eyes. The training hadn't been so bad on Alex because, instead of going through the personalized hellscapes the senior members had been doing, the younger members of the team were teaching him some basic self defense.
"So, what's the punishment today?" Cameron asked as they walked down the hall to the simulation room.
"We're pretty proud of this one," Peter said, turning and walking backwards so he could look at them. "It'll start with a plane, then a fiery crash into the ocean, then a four mile hike, island of ninjas, Magneto, just for the first half."
The older heroes looked at each other, shaking their heads. The boys knew too much about them, and between them knowing their fears and the creativity of a group of teens without jobs, they were getting too good at pushing the training to their limits. Gar was starting to tell them about the second half of their impending torture when they passed the meeting room, and Mallory noticed Black Canary, Captain Atom, Red Tornado, John Stewart, and Kyle Rayner standing by an empty hologram screen, strange expressions on their faces. The whole team stopped walking when she slowed at the doorway, and she poked her head in.
"Hey, everything ok?" she asked. They actually seemed startled at her presence, and she tilted her head, narrowing her eyes as she studied the heroes longer than a second. It wasn't so much startled as…scared? Dread seemed to weigh them down, and she felt the rest of the team gather around her, the group walking closer to the Leaguers.
"Mallory," Canary said, but nothing followed the name, and Megan tilted her head.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Canary looked back at her fellow members, clearly not wanting to be the one to speak. Nate sighed and took a step towards them. "It's…it's the Javelin."
Mallory's eyes went behind them to the empty screen and she groaned. "Ugh, they're coming back and they didn't find anything, right? Who called this time? Can we call them back?"
"No," Canary said, "it's not that."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and it was then that Mallory noticed just how hard her old trainer was working to keep her voice steady, and just how stricken Kyle's face was. A knot started to form in her stomach, and she took the tiniest step to the side, just enough to feel Conner's shoulder brush hers. No one spoke for another moment, and Artemis crossed her arms. "Dinah, what happened?"
Red Tornado was the one who finally answered. "The away members of the League missed their last call in, and the computer could no longer find their signal. John Stewart agreed to have a Green Lantern go to their last recorded coordinates to check on them, and we just received word from that Lantern. She found traces of an explosion, and the wreckage from the ship."
"Ok," Jamie said, "so are they on their way back, or is it going to take longer without the Javelin?"
Nate cleared his throat uncomfortably, but Dinah put a hand on his arm, stopping him, and walked up to the team, standing in front of Mallory and Conner. "They were on the Javelin when it…they weren't…there weren't any survivors." She blinked away tears, looking around to make sure the team understood. No one had reacted, so she took a breath and tried again. "There were traces of Kryptonite in the wreckage. They aren't coming back."
Mallory felt the energy shift around her. Megan's hands went over her mouth, Artemis's nails dug into her skin, Conner's hands tightened into fists at his sides, but Mallory just stood there, staring straight ahead, focusing on a spot over Dinah's shoulder. The woman looked around, almost reaching out to the redhead, but she thought better of it at the last minute and pulled back. No one spoke for a long time, letting the news sink in. Finally, Virgil broke the silence. "What happens now?"
The question felt heavier than gravity, like it was sucking the oxygen right out of the room. Six of the League's heavy hitters, gone in the blink of an eye. No one knew what would happen in their absence, but just when it was starting to feel hopeless, Nate started talking. He said something about calling a meeting to let the Justice League and the heroes who had walked off the League know what had happened, suggested taking a vote to see of they should announce the casualties to the public or not, considering that they had been managing to convince people that they had never left for the four weeks. He said something about holding a memorial, but Mallory barely heard any of it. She heard his words, heard Cassie crying quietly behind her, but her mind stayed blank, her eyes focusing on the spot on the wall.
Conner put a hand on her shoulder, said that they should go tell Lois and Clark's parents. It made sense, Megan and Artemis said they were going to be with Raquel, vaguely she understood that Kyle was going to tell Donna, but she was devoting her entire attention to Conner's back as he led the way back to the zeta tubes. She convinced herself that every step demanded all of her concentration, leaving no room for wandering thoughts. She made it all the way to Lois's apartment like this, seeing nothing but the back of Conner's neck right up until he knocked on the door. It opened a moment later, the reporter looking slightly annoyed at the interruption, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, sweatpants and an old t shirt hanging off her frame, and a pen stuck behind her ear.
"What do you need? I'm on a deadline."
"We need to talk," Conner said quietly.
Lois rolled her eyes, but she turned around, leaving the door open for them. Mallory closed it, then took it upon herself to study the room. There were three small Chinese takeout containers on the coffee table next to a laptop and a notebook, one still had an eggroll in it, a pair of chopsticks sticking out. A blanket and pillow were on the sofa, some clothes thrown in a pile next to it. Lois didn't even wait for them to tell her why they came, she sat back on the floor in front of her laptop, flipped through the notebook, and started typing, her fingers flying over the keyboard and her lips moving with the words as they made it to the page. Conner glanced at Mallory, but her eyes avoided him on their trip around the room. They waited until she finished the article and finally looked up, stretching her neck as she acknowledged them.
"Ok, I guess I can proof it later. What do you need?"
Conner's jaw clenched, and he swallowed hard. "We just came from the Watchtower," he started, and Lois jumped ahead, rolling her eyes.
"You heard from the Javelin," she guessed. "Ok, how long are they delayed? A week? Two? Great, now I have to come up with a story to save Clark from Perry firing him the second he comes back."
"It's not delayed," the clone said, his voice growing quiet.
Lois tilted her head. "What, then?"
"There was an explosion. The Javalin's gone."
Her eyes narrowed slightly, trying to understand. "How are they going to get home, then?"
"They're not." Even Mallory was surprised at the words that came out of her mouth, but with the attention shifting to her, she had to finish the explanation. "There were traces of Kryptonite in the wreckage. We don't know all the details, but they're not coming back." She didn't recognize her voice, it was too flat, too disconnected, but it must have been hers, because Lois was still looking at her, her eyes narrow, her lips tightening in a white line. The woman was shaking her head, denial written on her face.
"No, I don't believe you. We're talking about Superman, an explosion wouldn't kill him."
"Lois," Conner said, and she shook her head again.
"No! No, just…no."
She was starting to cry, and Conner stepped forward, pulling her into a hug. They went to the floor, kneeling together, Lois burying her face in his shoulder, beating her fist on his chest. Mallory just stood there, her eyes fixed on the back of Conner's head. She heard Lois screaming, sobbing, demanding to be brought to the Watchtower, but it was like there was a divide between her and them.
Conner turned around, looking at her, and a shock went through her, shattering that divide as she saw him for the first time in years as exactly what he was: Superman's clone. It was funny how easy it had been for her to block the similarities until now.
"Mallory?"
He was asking so much with just her name, but she didn't answer any of it. Instead, she turned on her heel and walked out the apartment, all of her concentration returning to her steps as she made her way back down the street, all the way to the zeta tube, where she punched in the code that Clark had taught her all those years ago.
Six hours later, Icicle Jr entered the Fortress of Solitude, stunned into stillness when his vision cleared from the zeta tube as he took in the statues carved in the ice, the high ceiling with huge crystal shards forming a geometric design all the way to the floor, the door just beside the zeta tube that could lead out into a frozen wasteland, or an icey paradise, depending on what you chose to see it as. Only three people on the planet had access to this place without permission, and it had taken Conner a long time to figure out how to allow Cameron to go through without him. He and Lois were on their way to Smallville to tell Clark's parents, and though the former villain gladly would have gone to support the older couple in their hour of need, he had another mission to complete.
An echo drew his attention to a hallway to his left, reminding him why he was there, and he started walking, his awe of the place taking a backseat to his reason for being there. The hallway opened up on either side, thick glass separating him from sunny pastures, thick forests, frozen mountains, oceans. It was like a zoo, but none of the animals within the carefully built ecosystems were familiar to him. Some were beautiful, like the large bird with long red plumes, others were grotesque, like the strange dog-like creature with three jaws opening to the same mouth and no eyes. He kept walking until he found the source of the noise coming from within an open cage. When he looked inside, he saw Mallory, a sack of grain beside her, furiously raking up leaves and sticks from the grass. There were animals milling around behind a divider, one a bird with feathers on its feet, but he barely gave them a second glance as he stepped into the cage and walked over to the hero.
"You're hard to find," he mentioned, announcing his presence well before he got to her.
She shrugged, not seeming particularly startled. "I had to come look after the animals. It's been too long," she explained, not stopping her work.
Cameron tilted his head, following her eyes to the ground where she'd nearly raked a hole in it. He put a hand on the handle, stopping her. "You sure that's the only reason you came?" he asked.
She didn't look at him, just dropped the rake and grabbed the grain, hauling it to the side of the room and dumping it in a dispenser. "I can't believe he's gone," she said, anger bleeding into her tone. "How could he leave me with so much to do? Like it wasn't enough to ask me to take care of this place for a few weeks. No, he had to force it on me for the rest of my life, and beyond. I mean, who really knows how long a Zorbium lives? And he knows it's all on me. Sure Conner might come here a few times, but Clark knows he's not going to let himself be inconvenienced by a dodo. Besides, he's got his hands full with Lois. She listens to him more than me." She shook her head, climbing out of the cage, and Cameron followed her, barely managing to get out before she was closing the glass window and pressing a button to lift the divider. She was off before it finished lifting, moving on to a new room with a huge holographic screen and three green dots connected by lines projected on it. "And Metropolis," she continued her rant, practically yelling now. "He said he knew we could handle things, said he would even think about retiring, and then he pulls this? Lois is gonna kill him, and then I'm gonna get started."
Cameron froze, watching her move around the room, straightening things, dusting the frost off the guns lining the walls, and it hit him. She hadn't accepted his death, not really. She was still talking about him like he was alive. That was exactly what Conner had warned him about, he'd known something was off when they went to Lois's, but he couldn't deal with both of them at the same time.
"T, are you…ok?"
"Oh, sure, I'm great. My mentor just shoved a world on my shoulders, but whatever, not like I wasn't already doing most of it anyway, right?"
"Tana, you're spiraling. Maybe…do you want to talk about it? Or do something?" He was looking around for an open space large enough to spar in, but she'd gone still in front of the screen, and when he looked at her, he didn't like the crazed look in her eyes.
"Yeah," she said, nodding, "you're right." She started striding back down the hallway, purpose in her steps, and a bad feeling started to crawl through Cameron's gut. He jogged after her, catching up in front of one of the ecosystems.
"Tana, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to kill Luthor," she said, not breaking her stride.
Alarm shot through his chest and he sprinted after her, grabbing her wrist when he caught up to her and pulling her to a stop. "Mallory, stop and think. Maybe don't kill the Secretary General of the United Nations in broad daylight as a very recognizable superhero." She jerked her arm, trying to get out of his grip, but he held firm. "Come on, Mal. Superman wouldn't want that."
She glared at him, her eyes going red, and he tightened his grip in anticipation of her using her strength or fire. "Well, we don't know what he would want do we? He's not here to tell us!" Just when he was sure she was going to tear his arm off to get him to let go, she went limp in his grasp, and when he looked at her face, her eyes had gone wide, all the fire drained from them, and finally, for the first time since he arrived, she was looking right at him. "He's not coming back, is he?"
Her words were so quiet, they would have been lost in a breeze, and the pain in her voice chipped at his heart. It took all his strength to hold her tear-filled gaze and shake his head. He could see the exact moment it seeped in. They weren't coming back. Six members of the Justice League, people that she'd known, trained with, fought beside for years, were gone. Superman, her mentor and friend, was gone, and he wasn't coming back.
She fell to her knees, covering her eyes with her hand as she finally let her grief in, and he knelt in front of her, pulling her into a tight hug. "I know, T, I know," he murmured over and over, because he didn't know what else to say. Her sobs wracked his soul. Though they were no longer together, he hated to see her in pain, and he didn't know how to help her. He had to be content to hold her, keep her from doing anything rash, and keep her from falling back into the dark place he'd first found her in.
The memorial was held two days after the confirmation of the Leaguers' deaths. Everyone gathered in the Watchtower, the current members of the League and team, the walkouts, family members, friends, even the Outlaws made it for the sendoff. The deaths had been announced to the public earlier that day, and each city had held a service for their fallen heroes. The world was in mourning, but the heroes had come together for a more private goodbye to their fallen. All of them in full costume, they gathered in the memorial room, around six platforms, waiting for the images to be turned on. Mallory gravitated to the team, where all of them, past and present, were together again. She went to Raquel first, then Donna, giving them each a wordless hug.
"Where's Batman?" Lagaan asked, looking around the crowded room. "He should be here."
Dick and Barbara exchanged a heavy look. "He's not coming," the redhead told them.
Mallory kept her mouth shut, but inside. The news hit her hard. Bruce was Clark's best friend, and the only one left of the original trinity. He should be there, no matter what had happened between him and the others. Everyone else who had walked off with him had come.
Martian Manhunter stepped up to the podium, and everyone fell silent, moving closer to the platforms. "We all come here today with sorrow and loss, however, we also share a precious gift. We have all of us been privileged to live a life that has been touched by these six heroes. Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawk Woman, Icon, Hawk Man, and Green Lantern were among the greatest warriors our planet had to offer, but they were more to us than that. They were friends, loved ones, mentors. They had many gifts among them, gifts which they shared with the world freely, but the greatest gift they could give was their courage and bravery in laying down their lives in service of their world. Let us all strive to accept their gift, and make it worth more than a simple sacrifice. Let us use this to drive ourselves to be the kind of people, the kind of heroes, that they were."
He stepped down, and one by one, the holograms were turned on. Alex slipped his arm around Mallory's waste, and Zatanna Reached out and grabbed her hand, and the group stood there, together, no one standing alone, and they paid their respects to the greatest heroes of their time, gone from their midst too soon.
After the funeral, people began to leave the memorial room in groups. Mallory was one of the first to leave, unable to stay in the room that was growing too crowded with her friends. Her family. Her parents left with a group of other family members, stopping to tell her goodbye and how sorry they were. She just nodded, not telling them that she hated when people said that. Alex had slipped away when Clark's parents found them, giving her space to talk to them. She appreciated the thought, even if they didn't say a word to each other. A knowing look and a hug was all they needed, and then they left, too, along with Green Arrow and Arrowette. Some of the other walkouts followed right behind them, until soon the Watchtower started to feel more normal, and Mallory drifted from the Bridge to the lounge, where there were refreshments and extra seating laid out. She found Alex there, standing with Zatanna and Zatara. She went to them, the sight of her friend's father taking some of the pain away for the moment. Waller had made the exchange the day before, the helmet going to Doctor Destiny for the first sentence.
"How are you holding up?" the magician asked when the redhead joined the group.
Mallory shrugged, shaking her head. "I just keep thinking it's a mistake, you know? It can't possibly be real. But then I look around, and…"
Zatanna nodded, and Alex put an arm around her shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked. She shrugged, and he led her a few steps away. "I don't know how to help you. I've never had a relationship like the one you had with Superman, and I haven't lost anyone like this. I don't know what you need, or how to help you through this."
She shook her head, forcing a smile for his sake. "I know. But it's ok."
He shook his head. "No, it's not. Look, I want you to do what's best for you."
He looked up, and she followed his gaze to where Dick was walking over to them. She hadn't had a chance to talk to him since it happened, and when he wrapped his arms around her, it felt like old times, and she leaned against him, fighting the tears from coming again. "I know," he said, resting his chin on the top of her head, and she gritted her teeth, a pang hitting her chest because it was true. "Alex asked if you could stay with me for a few days."
"And?" she asked, her voice sounding small.
He shook his head, his chin shifting her hair a bit. "You know better than to even ask. The couch is yours."
She finally returned his hug, looking at her boyfriend. "Thanks," she said, and she meant it for both of them. Alex was right, she needed to be with people who knew what she was going through, and she loved him all the more for understanding that when she wouldn't admit it to him.
"Do they know what happened?" Dick asked when he finally let her go.
"Not exactly," she replied. "Only that it wasn't an accident."
"The partner?"
"Who else?" she narrowed her eyes, looking out the window into space. "Clearly, we underestimate them. But we won't do that again. The next time we find them, they won't be getting away so easily."