Metal Has No Heartbeat (A Blue Beetle/Jaime Reyes [Young Justice] Fanfiction)

Twenty One: What's She Doing Here?

"Hello?"

My voice cuts through the silence of the living-room. It looks so different even though it has only been a month or two. 

I have not been back to Creeper's point since leaving. With the team and Japan and Captain Atom my time has been preoccupied. I'm sure they won't mind though. They'll understand.

My main reason for being here is to see Lenore. She's holed up in bed at the moment with Doc watching her closely now that we know she has the illness as well.

Axel is spending one more mission with the Team. After that he says he is gone, wanting nothing more than to be at his sister's side. He has formed some sort of friendship with Superboy and Mal, but in the end that life is not for him.

I wander back down through the halls. Scientists rush past me in troves, either greeting or ignoring me. The metal walls of the clinical lab building isn't as homy as before.

I miss the rocky terrain of a mountain in Rhode Island.

Up in the next corridor a familiar head of hair passes by.

"Alissa!" I shout, jogging to catch up to her.

There is absolutely no way she didn't hear me, so when she continues walking I assume that she has gone back to pretending she hates me.

"Dude," I call out, finally catching up to her. She stays a little bit ahead of me.

"What are you doing here?" She asks boredly as we reach an empty hall.

"What do you mean?" I frown, having to raise my voice over my own platforms clacking against the floor, "I came to see you guys."

She snorts, "A little late for that."

The words are so stunningly out of the blue they make me choke on my own speech, but I don't stop walking, "What's that supposed to mean?" I finally cough out.

My question is basically answered when we reach the test room. What was once considered the most communal room in the underground lab, where we all assembled everyday to get checked over by Doc, resembles something like a plague barn.

A series of beds are spread out along the wall where Lenore, Julia and Koban are resting on one each, looking far, far worse than they did when I left.

"What's she doing here?" Koban snaps when he sees me. There are heavy, dark bags beneath his eyes and his skin is paler and more alabaster than before.

"I-" I begin to say, but the door on the other side of the room opens.

Ben and Theo walk in. Theo is looking a little bit thinner and Ben is quite pale, like his brother. When they see me they look shocked at first, though much like the others their expressions shift to something more cynical.

Theon gives a vain laugh, "What's she doing here?"

"Why is everyone saying that?" I demand, feeling left out, "What, am I not welcome here anymore? Sorry I'm not sick, is that what you want?"

"It's been months!" Alissa adds, walking away from me and towards Axel, who sits solemnly beside a sleeping Lenore. "Months, when Lenore and Axel came back every week to see us. And where have you been, Mahiko? Hanging with your new friends? With the boy you claimed to hate so much before?"

The accusations are so random and unexpected all I can do is gawk at them as they glare back at me.

"Okay," I snap, holding my hands up, "Look, I'm sorry that I was enjoying my new life, but it's my life and if I want to spend that in an environment that's good for me, you can't fight me on that. Doc sent me there because it was good for me."