This chapter is kind of long, but I didn't want to split it up, so enjoy I guess. Hope you like it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one!
"Well, I've seen you in better moods." Mallory looked up at Chris, the bartender of the fight club under Metropolis. She hadn't known where else to go after leaving the black site. At least no one she was mad at knew about this place. "Penny for your thoughts?"
She shook her head, taking a sip of her drink and wishing that the man kept something stronger than soda and juice behind the counter. It was probably for the best, though. The last thing she needed was a relapse. Another good reason to come here instead of a real bar. "Have you ever had someone betray you so completely that you almost lose yourself to the lie?" Her response startled the man, and he cleared his throat, but she wasn't done. "And then you forgive them. You love them, and they had a good reason, so you agree that it won't happen again and you move on. But then they do it again, and you find yourself wondering why you forgave them the first time, and why should you forgive them this time? Sure they have a good reason, and sure you love them, but if you move on this time, you know it's only going to happen again, and again, and again, until there isn't anything left of you but the ruins of a life you thought you had."
Chris stared at her for a long time, his eyes softening with sympathy even without knowing exactly what she was talking about. Finally, he leaned on the bar, looking her right in the eye and dropping his voice so she was the only one who could hear him. "Do you know why I still let you come here?"
She shrugged. "I guess because you like Jr, and I have a lot of drinks to buy to pay back the repair on the roof."
He chuckled, the sound soul-soothing. "No, not entirely. It's because you don't see the world in black and white. You can live with the gray, even enjoy it from time to time. Maybe that's why you forgave them the first time? Because some part of you understood, maybe even agreed with them?"
Her fist tightened around her glass, her mind playing back every time through that year and a half that she'd been played by the very people who had sworn never to betray her again. "How many chances am I supposed to give them?" She hated how small her voice sounded.
He pushed off the counter, shrugging. "I don't know, that's something only you can decide. As many as you think they deserve, I guess. Or as many as they would give you."
Suddenly, different memories were playing in her mind's eye. How many times had she abandoned the team, only for them to chase after her and bring her back into the fold? How many things had they forgiven over the years? She looked down at her glass, her anger waring with her indecision. Her comm beeped in her ear, and it took her a moment to decide to answer it. "Inferno here."
"Hey, Mal, I know you're mad, believe me, I am too, but we need you back. We have a situation."
She straightened in her seat, picking up on something more than anger in Conner's voice. "What is it?"
There was a pause, then the clone took a breath. "Vandal Savage just requested access to the Watchtower."
She appeared on the Bridge in five minutes in full costume, the entire team already there waiting. "Well?" she asked.
"Waiting for us to put him through," Artemis replied. Mallory nodded, securing her mask on her face, and she stood in the line.
"You came," Dick said quietly, offering her a small smile.
She did not return it. "I came because I'm going to see this through to the end," she said coldly. "But don't mistake my presence for forgiveness or trust. You can't trust a stranger, and I don't know who you are." She refused to look at him, but she could tell by the subtle shift in the air that her words had hit their mark.
"Come on, Mal," he begged, "I'm the same person I've always been."
She scoffed. "Yeah, I don't doubt that. Trouble is, I don't think I know who that is anymore. How far back do the lies go?" He didn't answer and she nodded, her point proved. "I'll never be able to trust you again."
He narrowed his eyes and looked down, his hair hanging loosely as he studied his boots, but she kept her eyes straight ahead, swallowing hard to try to clear the lump from her throat and hating how hard it had been to get those words out. She didn't regret them, she had no doubts that it was the right thing. It didn't make it any easier to cut someone she loved out of her life. She watched Kaldur at the computer, shoving these emotions down with everything else from the last few days.
Kaldur stepped away from the zeta tube just as it began to whirr to life, and a second later, Vandal Savage stood before them, his arms clasped behind his back as he regarded the group of heroes. "I'm here to help you, not to fight," he told them calmly, reading the aggression in their stances.
"Great, you want to point us to your partner and all the kids you've taken?" Gar spat.
Savage nodded slowly, looking right at the young movie star. "That is precisely why I am here." They looked at each other in surprise, not knowing what was happening. The member of the Light didn't wait for them to process his words. "I know you have a Motherbox. I am here to offer you coordinates, so you can boomtube to our partner's holding location."
"What's the catch?" Conner asked, voicing the others' suspicion.
Savage leaned forward slightly, a dark look in his eye. "The 'catch', as you put it, is this. You promise to tell their abductors exactly who sent you." The senior members exchanged yet another surprised look, wondering if they could really trust this proposition. Savage arched an annoyed eyebrow. "Well? Do you want the chance to correct your mistakes, or not?"
Kaldur looked at each member of the team, gauging their answers, then stepped forward, extending his hand. "We will go."
Vandal smiled, clasping arms with the Atlantean. "Excellent."
They took half an hour to make sure they were prepared. They gathered supplies, anything and everything they might need while they were on their mission, and one by one, they gathered back on the Bridge to wait. Megan looked at their numbers, a worried look on her face. "Do you think we have enough people?" she asked.
Artemis checked her bow, sighting nothing and pulling the string back. "We'll manage," she said, her tone holding none of the familiarity it usually did.
The Martian sighed. "I know, but what exactly are we walking into? Maybe we should call the League, ask for some backup."
"We're not involving the League. This is our unfinished business, and they won't let us go after what happened to the others," Mallory pointed out, taking the prep time to compartmentalize her personal feelings towards the others so that they wouldn't be a problem on the mission.
"I know, but…"
"I'll come," Dick said, and it wasn't so much an offer as a demand.
Artemis looked at him, taking in the hair sticking to his face and the weary look in his eyes. "Aren't you still…" she started, but he narrowed his eyes, putting his escrima sticks in their holsters.
"I'm traught, whelmed, and feeling the aster. I'm coming."
Kaldur chuckled softly. "I do not think you could keep him here if you tried."
"You think?!" the former Boy Wonder shot back.
Kaldur nodded. "Which is why I will be coming, as well."
"And, since you're going…" Megan said slowly, but Kaldur shook his head.
"I am strictly backup. This is your team."
Mallory snorted, walking away from the conversation before she said something that would break her neatly built compartments. Peter came out of the armory, the last person they were waiting on, and they all gathered in the middle of the room. Conner held out the Motherbox. "Coordinates set," he announced.
Megan put a hand to her head. "Psychic link established. If Vandal's intel is correct, we'll have the element of surprise. If not, we could be walking into an ambush. Be ready for anything."
Conner held the motherbox out, and a boom tube opened beneath their feet, dropping them off in a strange warehouse-type room. Two aliens were in the room, but they were quickly taken care of.
"Ugh, what are those things?" Cassie asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Doesn't matter, you need to move before more come," Artemis replied, pulling an arrow out of her quiver and holding it ready.
Megan nodded in agreement. "Senior members are Alpha, we'll stay here and create a distraction. That should leave the rest of you free to search the rest of this place and find out exactly where the meta teens are located. If we lose the link, or if something goes wrong, get yourselves and the metas back to Earth."
Conner handed Brion the Motherbox, and the senior members held the younger team's gaze for a moment, making sure they understood what they were saying. Peter was the first one to nod, a grave look on his face. He locked eyes with Mallory for a second, then turned, leading the others out of the room.
"We need to close some of these entrances, make sure they only come from one direction," Conner said as soon as the others were out of sight. Dick nodded and went off, and the clone straightened, turning toward one of the doorways. "Here they come."
They gathered together, waiting for the fight, and in a moment, it arrived. Ten of the same aliens they had taken out when they got there flew on on some hovering devices. Mallory flew up, shooting fire at the doorway, leaving only a small space for them to come through. "Incoming!" she yelled when the first alien reached them.
"I'll take it," Conner offered, stepping to the front of the group.
It came through on a hover device, and the clone ripped it off, the transportation continuing to fly across the room. Before he managed to knock out the first, a second came through the fire, and Kaldur took it, using his water bearers to pull it off and throwing it to the floor so hard it made a dent. Artemis shot an arrow through the opening in the fire, blowing up the third alien's device before it came through, which knocked the fourth down.
"Megan, you're up," she said. The Martian waited until two of the aliens made it into the room, then rammed their devices into each other. They didn't explode, but the force knocked both of the aliens to the ground, where Conner and Kaldur each took one. Bigger explosions brought their attention around the room, where Dick had just finished taking out the other tunnels.
"Ok, what now?" he asked, swiping a hand across his forehead.
"There's one left, he's all yours," Conner told him.
Dick nodded and jumped off the crate he was on, stumbling a little on the landing. He must have felt the concerned looked of his friends, because he didn't even look at them, just fixed his eyes on the fire and narrowed his eyes. "I'm fine."
"That's not–" Mallory started to point out that 'fine' wasn't reassuring, but then she remembered her anger and stopped short, looking out into the hallway. "Here he comes." She dropped the fire completely, not needing it with only one left, and backed away. When the alien came through, she jumped on board the hover device, grabbing the gun out of its hand before it could tighten its grip. Once it was disarmed, she threw it off for her team to take care of and rode the device to a standstill, tilting her head as she got a handle on how to steer it. "Hey, grab one of these," she told the others, bringing it to a stop in front of Conner. "We stay here and they might get suspicious. Let's start moving."
Conner hopped onto the device, and the other flightless heroes found their own. Once they figured out how to use them, they got moving, flying down the hall the aliens had come from, Megan and Conner taking point.
"About what we told the team," Dick said, panting heavily. The others looked at him expectantly, and he grinned. "What do you want to bet Gar and Peter will decide to take over and leave us behind for no reason?"
Megan chuckled. "Gar has wanted to lead the team since he was nine."
"Then perhaps it was a good thing you put Brion in charge of the squad," Kaldur said, smiling.
"There's more incoming," Conner announced, his tone flat. It was easy to see what the three were doing. They were slipping into old habits, trying to strike up a fun conversation to ease the tension of the mission and make the others forget that they were angry. Any other augment, and it might have worked, but as it was, it only made Mallory's hurt deepen, adding an ache to the betrayal, tainting the good memories she had. Megan and Kaldur exchanged a look when Mallory, Conner, and Artemis didn't lighten at the conversation, and after a moment they nodded and got ready.
"How many?" Dick asked, slipping back into business mode.
"Four, maybe five."
They shifted their positions, Kaldur and Mallory moving to the front and letting Artemis and Dick fall back a little, giving the more vulnerable members a buffer. When they rounded the corner, they came face to face with the new threat. Four women, clearly primed for combat. One had long black hair and a sash wrapped around one hand, one with blonde hair and a giant ax, one with a helmet with horns, and the last with green hair and a crazed look on her face.
"Well, at least it's an improvement," Dick tried to joke, but the fever had taken all of his energy, and his voice fell flat.
"Who do you want?" Artemis asked.
Mallory scanned her options. "I'll take ponytail," she decided.
"I have Helmet," Conner called.
"Ax," Megan said quickly.
Kaldur sighed heavily, looking at the crazy one with green hair, then only one left. "Very well."
Mallory spread the flames over her body, until she was just a silhouette in the orange glow of the fire, and pushed ahead. The woman with the ax clocked her and raised her weapon, but the pyrokinetic dove under the blade, and Megan deflected the swing with her telekinesis before it came anywhere near her. She had less than a second before the others realized she'd broken into their formation and started ganging up on her, and she used it to her advantage. She let out a pulse of fire, all the flames she'd collected over her body shooting out in a perfect circle around her. The women all dodged to the sides to avoid getting burned, effectively splitting them up.
The woman with the ponytail growled, her lips curling up in a snarl, and she shifted her weight on the flying disks beneath her feet. Mallory didn't even have time to take a breath, and she was on top of her, raising her sash and bringing it down on the hero's shoulder. As soon as the satiny material made contact, a jolt went through her body, and a scream tore out of her throat, spasms shooting through her muscles. Ponytail pulled pack, and Mallory backed up, panting heavily and studying the woman she was fighting.
"Good to know," she muttered. She charged, keeping one eye on the sash, the other constantly reading her opponent's body language to anticipate her countermoves. She saw the twitch of her wrist and spun in the air just in time to avoid another hit with the weapon, gaining momentum and kicking her on the side of the head. The disks didn't help slow the spiraling descent that followed, and Mallory followed her down, slamming a fist into her stomach, sending her the rest of the way to the floor. She groaned, but pushed herself back to her feet, smiling strangely as she gained her footing.
"You aren't as pathetic as I thought," she said. "Granny'll want you alive. You'll make a good Fury, once she's…corrected you."
Mallory's eyes widened, her skin going clammy as the ghost of the memory of the pit scratched against her skin. Blind panic clouded her vision, and she lashed out, building fireballs in her hands and throwing them at the woman. Her opponent dodged them, gaining ground, and threw her sash at the hero, the fabric traveling under the fire. Suddenly, another line wrapped around it, and it was pulled out of her hands. Both women looked to the side in surprise at the interruption, and Dick stood there, breathing harder than he should have been, but holding the weapon in his hand. Mallory nodded once, taking a breath to clear her head, and she ran at Ponytail, punching her in the shoulder and swiping her legs out from under her. As soon as she hit the ground, the redhead pinned one arm down and brought her elbow down between her shoulder blades, hoping that her pressure points were the same as humans'. She dropped, and Mallory got to her feet, looking around at the rest of her squad. Megan and Conner had each taken out theirs, and Kaldur was just finishing up with the green haired woman.
"Everyone good?" Artemis asked, looking around.
"Yeah," Conner replied. "Let's keep moving." They swapped the larger hover devices for the disks the women had been using, and they picked up their speed as they traveled to the center of the base.
"I wish the others would check in," Megan mentioned a moment later.
"They'll check in when they have something to tell us," Conner replied shortly.
The Martian shook her head, slowing down a little. "I don't like this. I can't sense them. Not the team, or the meta teens, or the aliens."
Mallory shrugged. "There's not a power dampener, Conner and I still have our powers."
"Maybe it's whatever this place is made of," Artemis suggested. "Maybe it's weakening your psychic range."
Megan didn't answer, but they could tell she wasn't convinced. "Maybe one of us should have gone with them," she said after they'd made it to the end of the hallway and turned into another.
"They're fine. They know what they're doing," Dick insisted.
"I know, I know. Just…something feels off. You feel it, don't you?"
She looked around for confirmation, but Artemis shook her head firmly, speaking her next words aloud. "We're in too deep to turn back now."
"Oh, yes, you are."
They had just crossed into a large, open room, and they froze and looked up at where the voice had come from. Granny Goodness stood on a platform above their heads in Apokoliptian armor, a scepter in one hand and a cruel smile on her face. Kaldur edged slightly in front of the others, his body language speaking to his protectiveness of his former team. "We have defeated your protectors, Goode. Surrender now."
The older woman tilted her head. "Hmm, no, I don't think so." Her voice had a sing-song element to it, and the relaxed demeanor had the team standing on edge, waiting. "You may have defeated my Furies, but you haven't bested all of my champions."
Conner tensed, focusing on the doorway just below the platform, and the others followed his gaze, their bodies getting ready for a fight. A figure emerged from the shadows, and they straightened, shocked. Mallory took one step closer, her eyes widening as she looked at the man, the symbol, and the suit. "Clark?"
Her voice was no more than a whisper, but it activated something in her former mentor. In a blink, he was across the room, his hand tightening around her throat as he flew up with her. It took her mind and body a second to connect. She felt confusion before fear, relief flooded her body before adrenaline, but once everything caught up, she understood what was happening, and she struggled against the pressure of her windpipe being crushed. Conner and Kaldur jumped up, each grabbing an arm, trying to pull the Kryptonian off of her, but they were no match for his strength. Mallory looked into his face, knowing the empty look in his eyes from her nightmares.
"Clark, please," she wheezed, heating her body despite his invulnerability. There was no recognition in his face, no emotion, just a blank stare. She gasped for breath, trying to blow fire at his face, but she couldn't get enough oxygen. Her body was starting to shut down, her vision going black even as her blood roared in her ears. Megan appeared behind Clark, pulling at his neck, and his grip finally loosened, but only to throw the others off of himself. Regardless, Mallory dropped back to the ground, crouching and catching her breath. Dick and Artemis knelt beside her, watching her back while she recovered. She coughed, putting a hand to her throat as the simple act of bringing air in and out made her insides scream.
She hadn't quite caught her breath when movement in the doorway caught their attention, and the blood drained from their faces. Superman wasn't the only one that had been saved from the explosion. Wonder Woman, Hawk Woman, Hawk Man, Icon, and Guy Gardener all walked in, the same blank looks on their faces. Six of the Justice League's powerhouses, all under the control of Granny Goodness. Conner, Megan, and Kaldur backed up to be by the others' sides, and they all stood, eying their mentors and friends, knowing they were no match to bring them down.
"What are we going to do?" Artemis asked, stringing three arrows on her bow.
"Fight. Keep them busy with us as long as we can, so that Beta can get those kids back to Earth," Megan said firmly.
The League didn't give them any more time to plan. Hawkwoman charged them, her mace raised and her wings spread wide. Tigress shot her arrows, all of which missed their target and put a bullseye on the archer. Shayira tackled the blonde, flying her across the room and slamming her into the wall. The others didn't have time to help her. With six Leaguers to the six original team members, they soon each found themselves in their own battle. Dick was fighting Diana, Conner Icon, Kaldur Hawkman, and Megan Guy Gardener.
With everyone else in a fight, Mallory straightened and looked at the Man of Steel, grim determination steeling her own body and nerves. She couldn't defeat him, she knew that, but she could delay him. He flew at her, and she knew better than to blink this time. She dove to the side, shooting flames out of her feet to propel herself past him. He stopped his flight before he reached the wall, turning back to face her, and she hovered in the air opposite him. Making a move against him would be deadly, he was too fast, too strong, and too unfeeling, both in the physical sense and his conscience. He came at her again, and she shot straight up, tucking her limbs in tight so he wouldn't have anything to grab. She was on her way back down, flying in a circle around the room, when Kaldur came on the link.
"We do not stand a chance like this. We must find a way to even the field. Megan, you must incapacitate them."
"Kaldur…do you know what you're asking?"
Kaldur's voice was so cold, so sure, that it sent a chill down Mallory's spine. "I know exactly what I am asking."
"NO!"
Conner and Mallory said it at the same time, but while Conner's tone was angry, Mallory's was panicky. She looked back at the man chasing her, and though she couldn't explain it to her friends without sounding selfish, she wasn't ready. She'd just gotten Clark back from the grave, and though it wasn't quite him yet, she'd been in that box in her own mind, she knew he was in there somewhere. She couldn't let Megan rip everything apart in there, she couldn't go home and explain to Lois that they'd had him back, only to leave him in a coma, his mind scrambled and scarred beyond recognition.
"No," Conner repeated. "Megan, he's asking you to sacrifice your soul. You can't do that."
"I can't not," she shot back, her voice going soft. "We can't win without some sort of edge. I'm prepared to sacrifice my soul for this mission. Are you prepared to stop me?"
Dead silence settled in the link, and then Megan suddenly abandoned her fight, camouflaging herself and flying away from the Lantern. The link went down, and three seconds later, the Leaguers started screaming, clutching at their heads. Gardener dropped, unconscious, and the Hawks went down to their knees, but the team wasn't in much better condition. Artemis slid to the floor, holding her ribs, her shoulder hanging at an odd angle, and Dick was leaning against the wall, sweat covering him from head to toe, the fever wearing him out fast.
Mallory was starting to look back, trying to see how Conner and Kaldur had fared, but when her eyes grazed over Clark, her heart skipped a beat. He was getting to his feet, a grimace stuck on his face, but he was pushing through it, only one goal in mind. He flashed forward, this time both hands pinning her to the floor, his eyes glowing red as he prepared to laser her. She could see Megan over his shoulder, her hands on her head, ready to finish the job, and she gasped for breath, a lump forming in her throat.
"Clark, it's me, Mallory. Torch." She stared into the blank eyes, and her heart began to break and she realized that he wasn't going to stop. They had to put him down, one way or another. "Please, Clark. Not you, too. I can't lose you, too. You can beat this. I know you can beat this. Please."
The red faded from his eyes, and his grip around her shoulders loosened, and she took a shaky breath, hoping that she'd gotten through to him, that he'd managed to break Granny's control. Then he suddenly went flying off of her, a green rhinoceros jumping over her legs, and she scrambled back, looking around and seeing Peter standing a foot away, a shard of Kryptonite still out. His eyes were wide and fearful, and he stared at her, breathing hard. She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled to him, wrapping her arms around him. "Where did you come from?"
"We heard the fighting, we decided to ignore your orders and come give you a hand."
"Gretchen is the target," Kaldur told them over the comms. "When she is down, her control will be broken."
"On it," Jinx replied, and immediately, half of Beta disappeared, on their way to the platform. The senior members of the team banded back together, facing the League that was still coming.
"Ready for this?" Dick asked, twirling his batons.
"Always."
It escaped her lips before she could stop it, and when she glanced at the youngest senior member, he was looking back at her, a small smile on his face. She thought about glaring at him, or ignoring him, but then it occurred to her that either of them could be killed before they got back to Earth, and she didn't want to end things on a grudge, or anger. So instead, she just nodded, letting him take that for what he wanted, and they ran into the fight side by side. It was only Superman, Wonder Woman, and Icon left, the others left unconscious by Megan's brain blast.
"Are they…" Tigress paused, not knowing how to ask, but Megan shook her head.
"They'll have a headache when they wake up, but they're still themselves."
Mallory took a breath of relief, and threw a punch at Diana with the exhale. That, she could live with. They were still outmatched, but they didn't have to fight for long. With ten members of Beta squad all focused on taking out Granny Goodness, and the six members of Alpha keeping the League fighting below, they soon accomplished their goal, and as soon as Granny was down, the League's expressions changed, the emptiness in their eyes replaced with confusion as they looked around.
Clark stared at Mallory and Dick, who had been fighting him, and backed up a step, rubbing the side of his head where Megan's brain blast was probably still hurting. "Inferno? Nightwing?" He looked around. "Where are we?"
Mallory laughed, choking back a sob. "Don't worry about it, we'll explain everything when we get back to Earth." She leaned against him, squeezing him in a hug. "I missed you."
The team and League consolidated in the middle of the room, and Megan finally addressed Beta. "What happened to your mission?" she asked. "Did you find the meta teens?"
"Oh, yes, about that," Brion said, and Cameron started walking backwards through one of the doorways. "You're going to want to see this."
Beta squad led them to the prison, and everyone froze in the doorway, completely overwhelmed by what they saw. The room was at the very core of the base, and it spanned from the bottom of the base to the top, with cells built into the walls from floor to ceiling. It was housing thousands of kidnapped meta teens, four and five of them to a cage. They couldn't even begin to fathom how they were going to help all of them back to their families, but they focused on the first step, which was getting them out of the cages and back to their own planet.
It took an hour to get them all on the same level, and then they had to explain to them all, with Megan translating many different languages, what was going to happen from that point on. They would boom tube back to Earth and find shelter for all of the kids, but they would have to process each of them, which meant getting their names, getting them checked out by doctors and an initial counselor, finding their families and setting them up with long term therapists, and finding a way to train them in their abilities so they wouldn't be flooding the world with untrained metas.
Finally, Conner had the boom tube open to Taos, and they began to get the kids through. They were down to a few hundred, the pace going smoothly, and Mallory and the others backed up, allowing the younger members of the team to take charge.
"So, this was a good night," Dick said, glancing around at Conner, Mallory, and Artemis, trying to gauge their reactions.
Artemis looked around, taking in all of the empty cages. "Yeah," she finally agreed, "and the start of a lot of work."
"Well, we can manage that. And we finally did it. We finally found the Light's partner, and we hit them where it hurts. That's worth it, right?"
They knew what he was doing, trying to convince them of the necessity of Batman Inc. Mallory sighed heavily, exchanging a look with Conner. "What do you expect for us?" the clone finally asked. "You can't expect everything to just go back to normal after keeping us in the dark for so long." He wasn't angry now, and neither was Mallory. They were tired, and hurt, but they didn't have the energy to fight this again. Besides, being close to death was good for clearing the mind, and Mallory knew that she didn't want to fight with them anymore.
"I forgive you for everything," she told them, her gaze lingering on Dick's face. "But forgiveness doesn't mean trust, or friendship. This is the last time that I will be betrayed by you, because you no longer have either of those things. When we get back to Earth, I want space. Beyond being teammates, we are nothing, do you understand?"
Megan's eyes widened, and she blinked a few times to clear away the tears, but none of them disagreed. They had made their bed, and they knew they would have to lie in it. There was a bit of a commotion behind them with the line, and they turned to see what was going on. Jinx was arguing with one of the Apokoliptian prisoners, but he was insistent. Mallory tilted her head, her eyes narrowed as she looked around the people in the way, the voice sounding so familiar. The man broke through the rest of the prisoners, and her body went numb, her jaw actually dropping with a shaky exhale when she recognized the white hair, the ice blue eye. The face was fuller, the wiry frame a bit more muscular, but when he locked eyes with her, her body reacted the same as it always had, drawing her in with that small smile.
"Hey, Mallory," Brek said softly, "Long time."
She stared at him, still not fully convinced he was really there. "How…why?" she stammered, her voice coming out as a croak with the fist print still prominent on her throat. Suddenly, as if he'd only just remembered why he was there, his face changed, turning grim as he looked around at the other heroes. "The invasion is coming."