In My Darkest Hours

Chapter 2:

Hope, if I had it, it would be gone. My vision blurs as tears well up in my eyes. Where are they? Are they even alive? The last time I checked, Sly and Kayla were fine, Katz was still in Justiceville, but the others? They were missing. I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. The tears now fell freely from my eyes, I had no idea if my friends were safe, if my boyfriend would survive, or if I would ever be able to apologize. A small beep sounded from the beacon in my my hand. Wiping away tears that continued to fall, I peered at the small screen. The names flashed on screen again.

Kala Sketch- Red

Castor Shaman-Red

Jose Remix-Red

Katz Omega-Green

Steven DeWolf-Red

Alex Burnz-Red

Sly Stark-Red

Wait... Katz is active? Why? Another beep sounded and a camera shaped icon popped up. I quickly reached for the laptop beside me as well as my headset. I plugged the watch into my laptop and put on the headset. I clicked accept.

The laptop took a second to load before a familiar face popped up on the screen. "Jess? Is that you?" A small smile spread across my face at the sound of the voice that played through the headphones.

"Yes, it's me Katz."

"What's wrong, you sound so upset, why is your camera off?" Katz asked in a worried tone. Hesitant, I moved the cursor over the button to turn the camera on. After a second my tear-stained features filled the lower corner of my screen. It took my old friend a second to process what he was seeing. They never saw me cry, ever. I was the 'strong' one, the one who never got upset, the peacekeeper, the judge. "Jess, is there something going on?" 

I shook my head before slowly nodding it. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." I murmured hanging my head in shame. I couldn't bring myself to mention how I failed to protect the people who mean the most to me, again.

"Okay," He said slowly, considering what to do, "How about we talk about something else?" I nod, a small smile spread across his face.

That night we spent hours talking, laughing about the 'Good Old Days' discussing what had happened since we last saw each other and about how our lives our now that we are no longer heroes. No, we will always be heroes even if we no longer wear costumes. 

We ended the call close to one in the morning after Katz agreed to come and visit.

A/N Well... We had some difficulty writing this one, it went through many many many forms, it started as Aphmau being depressed before looking up someone's number, but... We felt that she wouldn't have the strength to reach out right now, so instead Katz will occasionaly turn on his beacon to see if anyone else is active, and no one has been for five years, so when he sees Aph has turned on her's he immediately calls her. We decided to have Katz be the one because he was an original member, he was close to Aph but didn't leave with her, and he was fairly close to everyone else. Written by Kitty