Justice League III: Shattered

Chapter Thirty: Gotham

Gotham, 12/29/15, 12:06 PM

The battle was over.  The League and the Team were working hard to move every single civilian they could around the globe without any forms of transportation up yet, one boom-tube, and a few flying heroes.  Cyborg was put to work at restoring the zeta-beam system and was already drawing blueprints for a new base for the League and Team.

Miss Martian knew her place, she was to help by ordering civilians where to go and she had done it.  She was on break now, she rested on a couch in an old apartment where the Team had set up shop.  Nearby, Artemis sat on a stool peeling a stick with an arrow.  The two had rarely conversed in a long time, ever since Artemis returned and the Team found out what she had done, who she had become.

"It's been a while, M'gann."  Artemis said calling her by her martian name, "How are you?"

"Exhausted.  In mourning.  Feeling dead."  Megan replied looking away, she did not know how she could ever look at Artemis the same anymore.  After all she had done in such a short time.

"Megan...I'm-"

"What?  Sorry?"  Megan asked shifting upwards to glare at her, "You're going to tell me you're 'sorry' for everything you've done aren't you?  To say, I didn't want to kill Roy!  I was forced to!  I just wanted the best for you all!  Well shut the hell up Artemis, because no, I don't forgive you for any of it.  If it weren't for you, Dick might still be alive!  Yes, Kaldur told me everything before he was-"

Megan looked down as she felt tears forming and quickly looked back up to conceal her weakness.

"He told me it all."  She said glaring at Artemis, "You were the reason that a line was drawn between the two of them.  You were the reason for the divide, for Dick going on his road to-"

"I know!"  Artemis snapped suddenly standing up and throwing the stick and knife to the side, "I know I did it all!  I caused most of this shit we're in now!  The whole time I wished I had stayed dead when Savage killed me before!"

"I wish so too!"  Megan yelled back standing up now as well.

Artemis widened her eyes as she stepped back.  She remembered how Kaldur had forgiven her, how Wally had forgiven her, but now Megan was pushing her out, again.  She stumbled back not knowing how to respond and ran to the door slamming it on her way out.

Megan was left in the empty apartment and slumped back down on the couch tears streaming from her eyes as she reminisced on it all.  Connor was dead, Dick was dead, and Garfield was dead.  Her family was all but gone.  Everyone she cared about was dying, it was as if her life were slowly crumbling around her.

***

Gotham, 12/27/15, 3:53 PM

"What...the...fuck..." Kid said, his eyes wide open as he watched Barry struggle to stand from the sudden appearance of his enemy, "Th-th-that... that was..."

"Wally, I know this has to be scary and confusing but..." Barry looked to him now with sudden worry, he realized what was happening. 

"I k-I killed-" Wally stumbled backwards for a moment pointing to where Zoom had been standing, "I killed him." He said suddenly with a weight to his voice.

"Wally, I don't know why or how but Zoom came back from another time period, he had to have had backup plans set in place in case he was ever killed. So when he was killed by you in this time period, he probably had another alerted in the past of it meaning..."

"He's back." Kid said widening his eyes, "I still-"

"Wally please don't think about that." Barry pleaded moving next to his protégé now as he started shaking a bit, "Look, you killed Zoom. You killed him and thats something you'll have to live with, but right now, right here we can't worry about that. You need to learn from the mistake and work towards a better future to ensure it never happens again."