Chapter 43: Rebound (Patreon)

Sorry for the late chapter. I wasn't quite sure about it, so I sat on the last few scenes way longer than I should have. I'm... provisionally happy with how it turned out, though I think reactions will be mixed.

Chapter 43: Rebound

I didn’t truly black out. I doubted that I really could anymore, but I’d been rendered immobile by my own Ankh.

So as the second part of the battle continued around me, the vast majority of my attention turned inward, repairing the damage I’d sustained in the final seconds of my duel with Klarion. Even momentary contact with my Ankh of Decay had resulted in rather… extreme damage. I would be screaming in agony now, if not for my power. 

Yet no matter how much damage I had taken, or how decrepit this mortal shell, as long as I survived I would only continue to grow stronger with each battle that passed. Next time, and there would be a next time, I wouldn’t need to rely on a trick and a desperate gamble to win.

I recovered enough to push myself upright just in time to see Red Tornado physically Eject Klarion from the mountain with a giant tornado. 

“Destiny,” he said as I staggered to my feet. I looked up to see Tornado hovering in the air a few feet away. “It is good to see that you are well. Your physical state gave me much cause for concern.”

I pulled my cloak tighter at his words, drawing myself up to full height. My health was secondary right now. “Klarion has Kent,” I said with no preamble. Red Tornado’s head jerked slightly at my words. “He’s after the Helmet.”

Tornado sank to the ground. “That is grave news,” he said. “I shall inform the League, and return with additional support.”

“Wait!” Robin called. “What do we do with the other bots? Artemis and I EMPed them right before you showed up.”

For a moment Tornado didn’t reply, then he rose up into the air once again. “I recommend immediate disassembly. There are no other options given the state of Mount Justice, and if they share any internal similarities to myself, then an Electro Magnetic Pulse will only prove temporarily effective.”

The zeta tube flared after him.

There was a crash. I spun, wobbly and unbalanced, to see Superboy lifting his foot from a ruined red chassis. He made quick work of the second one as well, from the sound of it.

I nearly collapsed onto a chunk of stone near the Zeta tubes, focusing on my injuries. Irony of ironies, the rest of the team clumped around me. After a moment, Raven—looking as tired as I felt—joined me on my rock. I saw Wally pick up a shattered red mask helmet, turning it over in his hands, before his expression turned sour. He kicked it across the cavern at super speed.

No one so much as winced at the sound of metal striking stone.

“Saw you handled Klarion pretty well,” Robin said, sliding into place at my side. We made eye contact, and I gave him a brief smile, before we both turned our gazes outward again.

“I did what I had to,” I said, hunching into my cloak. “Good job with the other two, Artemis as well.”

“Yeah.”

I glanced up as Wally came over to me. Raven shifted slightly, but he only gave me a sheepish smile. “Hey, uh…” I raised an eyebrow at his words. “Thanks,” he said. “Me and Superboy got stuck in some magic rock trap, over there. If you hadn’t come when you did, well… you know. I… I’m… Thanks for coming back, you know?”

I felt my lips pull into a small smile. “Well, I could hardly let you have all the fun.”

He chuckled. It sounded forced even given the circumstances. “Hey, uh. I’m sorry about being an ass about the whole magic thing, okay?” he said after a second. “I think the, um, evidence is comes down pretty heavily in your favor on this one.”

“You think?” I said. It was tedious to keep my smile so even. I needed to eat, to rest, and then get looking for Kent. But at the same time, I was not eager to be on my own in this mountain again. There was a wariness in the air that I could feel even without telepathy.

Kid Flash patted me on the shoulder. It took everything I had to stop from flinching. “Yeah well, don’t be mad at me for it?” 

“I could never,” I murmured, ignoring Raven’s veiled glance. No doubt she sensed the sudden spike in my emotional state. Luckily, the zeta tube activated again before she could enquire further, or Kid Flash could hit me a second time.

It was Tornado that reemerged, with Batman and a man in a green and black skintight costume. Green Lantern I realized, though apparently there were multiple heroes with the same name, like a franchise or something. Two were on the Justice League. I heard Robin breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of reinforcements.

Lantern started sweeping through the rubble, putting it to rights, as Batman approached us.

“You’ve been through an ordeal,” He said. There was approval in his voice. “For what it is worth, I am proud of each and every one of you for emerging victorious.”

I saw Wally wilt slightly. “Yeah, those of us who didn’t get ganked right away, you mean.”

“That failure belongs to the League,” Batman replied. “You should never have been attacked in the first place, and we will be conducting a full analysis of the Mountain’s defenses to determine if and where any leaks in our security might have arisen.” He put a hand on Wally’s shoulder. “You did well. All of you.”

That might have been the most I’d ever heard Batman say in a single instance, but his words had an effect on us. I saw the rest of the team straighten, chins rising. I just did my best not to fall over. I was still woozy and unbalanced, hoping they would wrap up for the day soon. I needed to start recouping mass.

“Sir,” Kaldur said. I stifled a groan. “There’s something that… I believe I need to bring up.”

Batman nodded.

“I received some…intelligence from a questionable source while I was assisting Red Arrow at the Rhelesian Peace Summit. After relaying it to Red Tornado, we performed our own inquiry and decided that such information was false, but in light of recent events…” He sent an aborted glance towards the rest of the team. “I believe it is worth revisiting with the League’s resources.”

“What is the intelligence?” Batman said.

Aqualad sighed. “One of the assassins implied that they had an inside source on the Team’s movements.”

“Wait,” Wally said. “Like a spy?”

Superboy growled. “You mean that you knew we weren’t safe this entire time and you didn’t say anything?” he shouted. “We were attacked because of you! M’gann could have died!”

M’gann shifted awkwardly at his words, and I felt a surge of embarrassment piercing the sudden aura of suspicion. Were they…?

“Technically, we all could have died,” Raven said. “Destiny was in appreciably more danger than the rest of the team.”

“That only means Aqualad should have told us this!” Superboy said. “Instead he, what, lied to the rest of us?”

“Red Tornado and I performed our own investigation,” Kaldur said. “Which yielded no results.”

“Then why bring it up at all, huh?”

“Because there is a chance, no matter how small, that Red Tornado and I missed something,” Aqualad replied. “Given… the attack, well, ‘better safe than sorry’ is one of your sayings, is it not?”

“But why bring it up now?” Robin asked. “If there’s a spy then wouldn’t they probably be…” as his voice trailed off the other members of the team exchanged wary glanced.

Kaldur sighed. “This is why I did not bring it up before. As I have said, each member of the team, myself included, has been vetted extensively. The leak is not one of us.”

Superboy’s glare only deepened. “And how did you vet those two?” he asking, pointing at me and Raven. “They came out of nowhere, didn’t they?”

“Oh yes,” I said. “I’m the spy. You know, I’m only the one who saved your collective necks from the attack!”

“And Raven?”

“Raven spends most of her time in the mountain,” Kaldur said. He gave a small nod, “I am sorry for invading your privacy, but we surveilled you for an extended period.” He turned back to Superboy. “I’m am certain that no information left the mountain through her hands.”

“But Destiny is out all the time,” Wally pointed out. Internally, I slumped. Even without telepathy, I would have noticed Superboy’s aggression shifting to me. “How’d you keep track of her?”

Kaldur gave me an apologetic glance. I just shrugged. “In short, we did not,” he said. “However!” He held up a hand as Superboy started saying something. “However, Destiny has never shown any interest in our files or the inner workings of the League. Between her clear disregard for intelligence information and her extra planar origins, Red Tornado and I thought she was most likely not an infiltrator.”

“You don’t need files to give away our location,” Superboy bit out. “Besides, her backstory could be faked.”

“Uh, no,” Robin said. “If she’d shown up anywhere on this planet before the Bat computer would have picked her up, believe me.”

“Oh and—”

“Enough,” Batman said. “The League will add this ‘potential infiltrator’ to our investigation. My own impression, however, is that the ‘tip’ was nothing more than an attempt to show discord. Aqualad’s investigation, as well as my own, has done nothing but support Destiny’s legitimacy.”

“Thanks for the support,” I said. “Good to know I get an alibi from all of the interrogations you made me sit through.”

Batman nodded. “The League… apologizes for the way those sessions developed,” he said. I glanced up sharply. “We were planning on being more circumspect, but someone took matters into his own hands.” Robin twitched slightly.

“Uh, sure?”

“So we’re just supposed to believe that, then?” Superboy said. “Let the grownups handle the investigation and just sit on our asses while one of us could be a spy?” He turned to face the team. “Isn’t it weird that Destiny beat Klarion? Last time, I heard that she couldn’t even lay a finger on him, and that was with three other people!”

“I don’t know what your definition of ‘winning’ is, Superboy,” I said, standing. “But did you maybe miss the part where he kicked my butt?”

“But he didn’t kill you?”

“Whoa, whoa!” Wally jumped in. “Let’s not start wishing that are teammates died on us, okay?”

“Where else would you hide an infiltrator, if not on the front lines?” Superboy said, voice graveling. “The Robots could have hacked the computers, and then Destiny and Klarion do their song and dance.”

“You’ve been watching too many cop dramas,” I said. 

“So you’re not denying it.”

“What?” I asked. “Of course I’m denying it, your theory makes no sense at all.” 

Batman stepped between us. “I said that was enough.”

“What if I don’t think it’s enough?” Superboy shot back.

The left side of Batman’s cloak twitched in a gesture that could only be deliberate. I blinked. How did he even know? What, was I supposed to just…

“That is a problem for the League.”

“The League, the League! It’s always the League!” Superboy shouted. “You aren’t the ones who got attacked!”

Batman remained silent as Superboy started to rant. He didn’t repeat his earlier gesture. At least this he was leaving up to me. But at the same time, I could see that Superboy’s words were having an effect. It didn’t look like anyone believed him, or even disbelieved me, but there was a rift growing here. Wally looked confused, Robin angry, and M’gann practically heartbroken. If I didn’t put a stop to this now, we might not recover.

I couldn’t do that to my friends. Not when I had such an easy solution.”

“Just shut up already,” I said. “I can prove I’m not an infiltrator, if you’re going be such a shit about it!”

The team looked at me in surprise. I ignored them. Taking two steps forward, I threw off my cloak. It hit the floor with a thud that echoed wide in the sudden silence.

“Holy shit,” Wally whispered.

I grasped my left arm, or rather, what was left of it. My arm came to an end right above where my elbow used to be, all vaporized by the Ankh Klarion had slammed into my side. My internal damage wasn’t nearly as bad, or else I’d have fallen in half, but I was clearly crippled. Even now I could feel phantom pains shooting up my ‘fingers’. It was something my power couldn’t stop, not unless I wanted to mess directly with my brain.

“Yes, of course I am the spy,” I said. “That’s why Klarion crippled me in our fight. It’s evil corporate policy, you know, to dismember assets, and leave the more or less useless.”

“Are you…” M’gann started.

“Maybe I can grow it back,” I said in a whisper. It was easy to make it sound broken, and hopeless. All I had to do was stop pretending for a few seconds. “My strength comes with enhanced regeneration… but it will take weeks, if not months.” Already I was dreading the process. I’d have to rebuild muscle tendon and bone wholesale, with no structure to guide me save for my own DNA. “And until then.” I shrugged, my amputated arm flapped weakly, “this.”

For a moment everyone was silent. Then Superboy opened his mouth again. “You—”

M’gann slapped him. 

“No,” she said, glaring. “That—that’s enough! She, Destiny lost her arm and you can’t let it go just because I got hurt? I—you—ugh!” She rose into the air, flying over to my side. “If this is who you are then… we—we’re done.”

Then she looped her arm around my good one, and then pulled me out of the room.

“M’gann wait!” 

She ignored him, instead saying, “Come on, Taylor. Let’s get some food into you.” She shot a glare over her shoulder. “Hopefully the rest of the team will come to their senses after a good night’s sleep, alone.” 

I blinked, falling in step beside her as we rounded the bend. “You’re taking this…”

“Did you know dismemberment is used as a punishment on Mars,” she said quietly. “It’s one of the worst injuries, maybe even the only one.”

I just shook my head in confusion. All I could feel from her was sadness.

“We’re shapeshifters, so any damage is almost trivial to heal. But we can’t create mass out of nothing, so if enough gets chopped off…” M’gann shrugged. “Well, we can always make a new arm, but people who suffer that type of wound are always… diminished.”

“Wow,” I said. “I’m, that sounds terrible. I’m sorry.”

M’gann gave a forced laugh. “Look at me! You’re the one who—who got hurt and here you are comforting me!” She shook her head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You save our lives today, Taylor.”

I smiled slightly. “It’s what we do isn’t it?” I said. “But what’s this I hear about you and Superboy?”

She flushed dark green. “Oh no, I really said that all out loud, didn’t I?”

“Yep.”

“Do you think that Wally…”

“Nope.”

M’gann slumped. We ended up leaning on each other all the way to the kitchen.