𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 * young justice [O.H.]

WE WERE TOO CLOSE TO THE STARS.

𝕽EFLECTIONS,         J. REYES
▅▅▅▅▅ 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐆 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄.
maybe it's a blessing in disguise,
i see my reflection in your eyes.

Beware of La Dama. The story ran through her mind. She is not one who should be taken lightly. Her connections with the Underworld should strike fear, the power and influence she wields over El Paso is almighty. Yet, she wasn't real. La Dama was an urban legend, a made-up story meant to scare the citizens of El Paso — the very same tale her father recited to her every night.

        Their whimpers plagued her mind. Their final pleas for mercy pained her. Any remaining sense of humanity left within her had burned away. She became numb to the pool of blood surrounding their corpses. Tears began to dwindle in her eyes as La Dama's eyes bore into hers. There was no guilt, no grief, no shame. She cast the lifeless corpses aside like toys that no longer served her purpose.

        She cautiously stepped back, careful to avoid the corpses, each time La Dama advanced forward. They were trapped in this ongoing game until her back hit the hardwood door, leaving her with no where else to go.

       La Dama took her final step as the three shadows swiftly dropped inside through the broken windows of the room. What had happened next was all but a blue to her. One of the shadows whisked her away, his suit marked by a faint outline of blue. He departed after assuring her she was safe, dismissing her waterfall of sobs and pleas.

Police sirens echoed in her mind. The red and blue lights danced around in her irises, reflecting off the walls of her home. Her shaky hands clutched onto the thin blanket that covered her shoulders. The voices around her drowned the sound of the police sirens. Paramedics rushed past her, but she paid no attention to them. Her sight never dared to leave the crushed blades of sod.

A while of going back and forth felt like an entirety to her, until the team of paramedics brought out the final gurney out of the haunted mansion. They rushed by her, ignoring the streams of tears cascading down from her crimson-stained eyes. She recognized the corpse all too well, from the dark outline of the jeans to the shiny reflection of the boots. Her father was dead, all at the grave cost of La Dama's — her mother's — actions.

        She hadn't known the burden of freedom until she joined the Team, the Justice League's Covert Ops team. They were a group formed of young heroes, sidekicks and non-sidekicks alike, given the tasks and missions proven nearly impossible for their mentors and various other members of the Justice League to take on. Following in the steps of the Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, she was the Batman's newest & next partner to join the Team. To a few, she was Styx — a girl who shared the same passionate enthusiasm for justice as her mentor. To most, she was the same as the other mentee's of the Batman: distant, vigilant, secretive.