concoursec | We're pulling apart and coming together again and again.

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We're pulling apart and coming together again and again.

Characters: Artemis, Kaldur, and Wally.
Location: Infirmary
Rating: PG-PG-13ish
Summary: Because of events in their world, Kaldur and Wally feel like they have been dead for a few days now. Meanwhile, Artemis has been waiting anxiously for them to wake up. It has not been a goo week for the YJers.

For the last handful of days, Wally's mind has been lost in a sea of darkness. Before that, there was fire and lots of it. His goodbye to Robin had been brief but meaningful, he was ready for what was to come. So imagine his shock when his eyes snap open and he finds himself staring up at a ceiling. He thought maybe, just maybe something beyond the darkness was waiting for him. His time with Kent Nelson instilled some faith in him, but his mind still belonged to science, so he was also expecting there to be nothing either.

He lets out a loud gasp and shoots up in his bed. His head is spinning and nothing makes sense at first. His mind is trying to comprehend that not only is he alive; but the mission was nothing more than a psychic experiment that went wrong. On top of that, his mind is also working on reminding him that this strange place isn't a strange place after all. Somehow he went to his world and back with the team, and now he's back in this foreign world.

Draws in his breath, trying to calm his nerves and give his brain more oxygen to think. He looks around and feels some relief and more grounded when he spots Artemis and Kaldur. He stumbles out of his bed, almost falling out of it so he can move closer to them.

"Artemis! Kaldur! Are you guys...are you guys okay?"

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Kaldur hears the voice, it's like listening through stone, muffled. Yet he recognizes it. Kid Flash. Wally.

Did he come back? No, he couldn't have. Shouldn't have. If he returned through the Zeta tube then he'll die and Kaldur'ahm cannot bear that thought. It was too late for him, the light, that blitz of pain--it was too late.

He pushes through the dark, deep emptiness that fogs his mind, trying to wake up. Artemis? Artemis is here? He opens his eyes, wincing at the lights overhead and trying to push himself up on arms that feel stiff and disjointed.

"...Wally?" He looks around, confused. "We are not..." He doesn't say it.

"Dead?" Artemis, it seems, has no problem saying it. "Unless Garden is secretly the afterlife, we're all alive."

Glancing over at Wally her eyes narrow as she scowls at him. "Am I okay? I wake up in here only to find that you," She pauses but then catches herself fairly quickly. "Both of you are still playing coma boy. That was three days ago! What part of that sounds like I'd be okay?"

Even as she complains, Artemis is on the move. All they need is for Wally to topple over, face plant, and spend another few days unconscious after all. So it makes sense for her to support him. She's just doing this to keep him upright, it's not like she wants the reassurance that he's really awake and alive or anything.

"Three days..." His mind is still trying to grapple with everything that happened. There are so many emotions and feelings rushing through him, but hearing them speak is helping him anchor himself in more and more.

"I really thought we were...you know." He can't say it yet. It's too hard, the images are too fresh in his head. It might have been days, but it only feels like hours since the two of them died, and minutes since his own demise.

Leans into her as she holds onto him and looks at her. He draws in his breath and looks at her hard, as if he's afraid she'll disappear or that this is a dream, if he looks away.

"You're okay." Since she's holding him, she can feel him begin to tremble.

Three days but it felt like weeks...a lifetime. And some of that was not even real, no matter how much it pushes him to look Artemis over. Prove to himself that she is all right. Alive.

A simulation. None of it was real, and yet it was more than real enough. He pushes himself to the edge of the bed but doesn't try to stand. He isn't sure that he could on his own.

"It appears our memories are more...aligned than they were before." But aligned to something he would rather they did not have to remember.

When Kaldur makes no move to get off the bed Artemis is honestly relieved. She's not sure if she could get there in time if he started to fall or if Wally's going to topple over soon as she's not there to keep him on his feet.

Honestly she can't talk. She has nightmares about alien invasions only this time she gets to watch the rest of the team die before she does.

As Wally starts to tremble she tightens her grip on him, a silent reassurance that he's okay, that she's okay, that they're all okay. Maybe they aren't okay, not really, but right now they're alive an that's enough. Still she can't quite bring herself to look at him just yet, so she keeps her eyes focused on Kaldur. Good old solid rock of a leader, always there to be depended on in times of trouble.

"That's right. Seems we're all on the same page now." And it sucks, she'd rather go back to being from different times. Anything so long as they aren't the painful new memories they all seem to be carrying inside them now.

No, they are far from okay. If they were back home, they'd all be together and the League would be there. Not that the League would be able to fix all their problems, this kind of trauma doesn't go away easily. But at least if they were back home, they could fake some kind of normalcy. They could pretend to go on their missions like everything was okay, go to school, be with their families and cling onto that normalcy as well.

Instead they are trapped in this place. Away from their family, friends, the League and home. Wally feels anger boiling up inside of him and hopefully Artemis doesn't let go of him, or else he'll really start to get himself worked up and that won't end well for him.

"We're not all on the same page now!! Do you see Robin, M'gann, or Conner?! They're back home but we're stuck in this stupid place!"

The last memory he has of Robin is saying a silent good bye to him, before the two of them get engulfed in flames. Not exactly the last memory you want to have of your best friend.

Edited 2011-11-13 01:11 (UTC)

He can understand Wally's sentiment. This is not something they can handle easily. Being here, in this strange place, only makes it worse. But he doesn't want Wally to push himself too far so soon. Artemis can only compensate for so much of his weight. Kaldur should do something, say something, to calm him. He should know what to do.

He doesn't. Kaldur has already failed them all more than once. How can he do anything better now? He isn't fit to lead.

But for now, that is still his duty.

"Would you rather them here with us? Cut off just as we are? This is not...easy, but little is with the path we have chosen. We know they are living. Safe."

His tone isn't stern, but steady. He wants them to believe in his words just as much as he wants to believe them himself.

"We are here, but...we are not alone."

She honestly hasn't even thought about it that way. No really. Sure the others aren't here, but that just means they're back home. She's never thought of that as a bad thing.

Thankfully Artemis happens to be more than strong enough to compensate for Wally's weight... so far. There's even the chance that she could manage all of it, at least for a limited amount of time. All that training has to show somehow after all, right?

"For now. They're back home and we're all here...For now." Her face is set, stern. She can be rash, and Kaldur's right about her trust issues, but Artemis still has plenty of common sense.

"We don't know when one of them will show up here, or when one of us will just disappear one day leaving the others behind. That's just how life is here. Accept it and move on."

She talks big, but Wally can probably realize that it's just that. Talk. Her grip's tightened on him again not for his sake this time, but for hers. She's not trembling, but it's pretty obvious from her stiffness and body language that no, she's not okay at all.

Hearing them both say that stalls his next burst of anger. They're right, it's better that they are not here with them. But the two of them weren't there for Conner's death or the sacrifice Robin and him made. He opens his mouth again, but stops when he looks at Kaldur.

It's obvious that everything that's happened has taken its toll on their leader. He'd do more damage than good by telling them that everyone but M'gann died trying to stop the alien invasion, so they all have that additional trauma. He shuts his mouth and for now, just nods his head in agreement.

He feels Artemis stiffen and he looks back at her. If they were back home, it would be so much easier to deny all of the frantic and painful feelings he had when she "died". Barry would be there to take him home, his parents would comfort him, and he could have some time alone to his thoughts. But here he is with the two of them, and he can tell how badly shaken Artemis is. Rather than denial, his impulsiveness kicks in.

"It's not that easy and you know it. I almost lost you once, Artemis, I can't go through that again!" In any shape or form.

She wants to deny it, wants to deny well pretty much everything, but there comes a time when a girl has to suck it up and accept reality. Not to mention trying to live life by her dad's tenants is just silly. Sportsmaster is a jerk and a bad guy, not the sort of person she should be taking life advice from father or not. Listening to her dad has kept her friends and family at arms length, listening to her dad has left her completely and utterly miserable. No more. Life's too short to live in denial for long, especially in their field.

"Yeah, whatever... maybe." Which there's no maybe about it. Like she can honestly accept that he could vanish any day an that there's nothing she could do about it? As if. She sighs, glancing down at the floor as her shoulders slump. "No, you're right. It's not that easy. When I woke up and you were both so still I thought maybe I was going to lose you, both of you, and I couldn't, wouldn't accept that." ~~Because unlike in the show Artemis isn't about to forget about Kaldur just because she happens to like Wally.~~

He can see that they are not handling this as well as they would like to appear. Neither is he. But they are stronger than they imagine themselves to be. The fact they are willing to admit to these fears, shows this. They can and will get through this...somehow.

"We do not know what the future holds for us here, who may come or go, but we are here together, right now. We should band together now more than ever." He does not know if this is the right thing to say, but it is all he can think of.

"There will always be a risk, but there is still...hope." The pause is subtle, only a moment, and he hopes they do not notice. The last time he said that everything went wrong. Everyone died. They had all failed their mission, but he had failed them. But it won't happen again.

Wally draws in his breath and begins to calm himself, at least a little. Kaldur's right; more than anything, they need to stick together and be there for each other. He studies Artemis, and there's so much he wants to say, but he knows now isn't the time. He would probably sputter out the first words that come to his mind and make a mess of things. He lets go of her shoulders and takes a couple of steps backwards, sitting down on the ledge of the bed.

"Hope..." If he hadn't met Kent Nelson, his answer to that probably would have been a different one. But after that experience and all of the other things the team have been through, he's learned the importance of holding onto hope and having faith. "As long as we have that, we'll always have something."

When Wally let's go and finally sits back down, she moves slightly so that she's in a better position to keep an eye on both of her Teammates. There are things she kind of wants to talk to Wally about, but there will be other occasions. Sure they're probably running on borrowed time as it is, but they have to have priorities. Talking about feelings of all things is definitely not one of them.

"Hope..." She says the word slowly, as if she's tasting the concept almost. While she's not quite as skeptical as Wally on such things, she does tend to be a cynic by nature. There's a truth to Kaldur's words though so she finds herself nodding. "Hope's whatever we make of it. Way too many people say they have hope and just sit there doing nothing, but that's not what it's about. Hope's kind of like a fuel to keep you moving or something."

It's a little embarrassing waxing eloquent about stuff like this and her eyes narrow slightly. Just one wise crack from a certain red head and she's going to find out if she can knock him off that bed with just one punch.

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We're pulling apart and coming together again and again.

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