A Future Sooner than Tomorrow

Future's Broken Pieces

The Justice League wake up early in the morning, feeling no more refreshed than they did yesterday. Just getting out of bed seems like a momumental task.

They are all safe. They are all secure. They shouldn't feel this way.

Even Flash, still at the Hall of Justice is fine. Yet there's a weight that they carry between their shoulders, an oppressive bowing of their spines. Guilt.

It hadn't sunk in yesterday, that Kon was missing. Yet today, the full force of it bends their backs into hunches and tenses their arms at their sides in shame.

Diana was sleepless throughout the night. How everything had managed to go so wrong is a mystery to her.

They had gone in. They had had a plan.

It should have been fine, it should have gone perfectly! Yet everything had fallen to pieces. Where, when did it all fall apart?

Somehow, Luthor had managed to outpace them at every conceivable turn, leaving them all flailing.

How did Luthor even know that they would be there-

Diana grabs her dresser. The bottom of her stomach feels as though it's given way to a pit. She feels ill.

It was her. Her fault.

One moment, barely more than half a minute, where she had let her guard down.

She had left part of Martian Manhunter's cape during the recon mission. The simple wiping of her hands and disposing of that scrap were what give them away.

Were what let Luthor know they would be coming for him next.

And now Kon is gone.

Nobody knows that it was her slip-up, her mistake that has led to this. She could easily not mention it. Promise to learn from it and take it to her grave like a lethal secret.

Half-slumped against the dresser, the thought calms her and unsettles her simultaneously.

It would be easy to get away with.

But she would feel guilty for doing so.

Diana tries to count through her breathing and then pushes herself up straight.

The Justice League is a team.

Siblings in the fight for justice.

Lying to them, even by omission, would only hurt them all.

Diana leaves her room, fingers only lingering on the door for a second longer than usual, and knows that she's doing the right thing.

The Justice League gathers in the kitchen, having breakfast before heading to the Hall of Justice.

Most people are already sitting down with breakfast when Diana enters.

Diana takes an empty glass from a cupboard and a spoon from the drawers. She taps the rim of the glass with the spoon.

All eyes look to her.

"I have something I need to say," her hands feel too sweaty against the smooth body of the glass. She puts it down on the counter. "I know why the plan didn't work. I know how Luthor knew we were coming."

"You do?" Lantern leans forward, eager to hear more. Diana has no doubt that he spent the night much like her: the dark rings under his eyes are a testament to that fact.

"Go on," Shayera twirls her spoon between her fingers, eyes entirely focused on Diana.

Everyone else is in a similar state of anticipation. Leaning forward, staring like the audience of a magic show. They expect Diana to say something clever, something that's equally nobody's fault yet easily fixed, and she hates that she can't.