The Undoing Of Heroes | ✓

twenty six

(a/n: no, the gif has nothing to do with the chapter (unfortunately, lmao) but i love justice league unlimited/justice league (the entire series) and wonder woman is awesome as always so there ya go.)

twenty six

ETHAN helped me clean up the rest of my wounds. He worked in silence, only listening to me answer the questions he sometimes phrased. It helped me get my mind off the fact that the rubber alcohol stung like hell, and distracted me from thinking about current events. I was afraid of turning on the TV, worried about what sight would greet me. I hadn't even thought about Mom's reaction yet. 

I'm sorry, Mom. 

"Thank you." I said, as Ethan was packing up the supplies. 

"You owe me another one." 

Ethan carefully returned each material to it's rightful position, almost doing it too slowly, stalling for time. He got up from the floor, dusted off his pants and headed out the bathroom. I trailed after him, looking worriedly at my partners-in-crime. Aria was seated beside Jordan, who was still lying on the couch, but looked a whole lot less pale. 

I turned my steps their way, stopping by an armchair to sit down myself. I glanced at Aria, who had fastened her eyes on me.

"You doing alright?" I asked, and she nodded, her eyes slowly gliding to Jordan's face once again. 

"He doing alright? Not a lot of paindealing at the moment." I quipped, elbowing Aria in the side. She glared at me. 

Not appropriate, she said, though not out loud. Instead the sentence echoed through my brain. 

"I've told you to not do that. It's invasive." Aria snorted at my response.

"Besides,-" Aria added, brushing a lock of hair away from Jordan's face, "- he doesn't go by Paindealer anymore. We switched up our aliases."

"You did?" I asked, doubt braided into my voice, "To what?"

"Well, now he's Atlas. After the Titan condemned to carry the world-"

"World on his shoulders, yeah, I know." I finished, smiling at the nickname, "Fitting."

"Like a glove." Aria mumbled, cupping Jordan's cheek, letting her thumb slide over it back and forth.

"And you?" I asked, leaning my elbow on the armrest built into the chair, "What do you go by?"

"Well, Mindcracker sounded a bit ... meh, to me. I'm Occulta." 

"Because?" I probed, eyes flickering to Jordan's closed lids who were moving rapidly, immersed in a deep sleep. Aria placed her fingers on his forehead, focusing but still speaking with me.

"Well, my power is rather occult. Mystic, you could say. Besides, it sounds cool."

"Atlas, Occulta and Nightspark?" I summed up, still smiling, "Sounds pretty cool."

"They renamed you, too, you know." Aria added, eyes sticking to me again. Jordan was visibly calmer, face not pinched into a tense grimace anymore.

"To what?"

"Little bitch who couldn't face her problems, that's what." Aria snapped, hands shaking as she removed them from Jordan's forehead, "We had a shit storm to clean up after you. Blaze's entire gang came after us - and we were only two. Thank God Parasite's disappeared, though."

"Disappeared? I though he was dead."

Aria didn't flinch, didn't even stutter as she spoke: "They never found a body."