Joining Young Justice

Chapter Fifteen: A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Visibility was horrendous. The coastal winds had blown in a storm that was angrily spitting hailstones while the clouds overhead blotted out the sun. Beneath me, waves raged, brutally attacking the shoreline, breaking over the rocky coast with impressive walls of white spray. I hovered a hundred or so feet off the ground in the TIE Avenger, debating whether or not to raise my shields. They would push away the hail and stop the incessant pounding of compact snow on metal, but it would also take a toll on my fuel supply. To save my sanity, it might have been worth it.

"It's time," Batman's gruff voice called over the earpiece I had yet to remove.

I wondered, for a brief second, whether this was our last conversation. Was this my last conversation on Earth?

"Nothing," I reported, scanning the area in front of me. It lined up with the coordinates I'd discovered in the echo, yet nothing was happening, and Ned's punctuality was one of his winning characteristics.

Then something shifted. I felt it, in the pit of my stomach first. A brutal chill began to spread through my body, numbing my insides and then my extremities, freezing me over. I was too frightened to move when I realized that the portal had been opened. Finally, something inside me snapped.

"Portal opened. Approaching target," I said in an even voice, not betraying the fact that I was utterly terrified.

"May the Force be with you," Batman said, copying the farewell I'd delivered earlier.

"Thank you," I whispered.

I didn't mean it just for repeating those words. I meant it because Batman had given me my life back on two separate occasions and, while he scared the living daylights out of me and I'd lied to him for a long time, his trust in me meant something I couldn't fully comprehend. Batman had unwittingly become an integral part of my life and I'd been too stubborn to realize it until I was leaving.

The portal was twenty or so feet below me, just high enough off the surface of the Pacific Ocean that the spray slipped through but not the waves. It was an ominous two dimensional black doorway that was almost a perfect disk shape. With surprisingly steady hands, I lowered the ship until I was level with it and, before I could change my mind, I angled the starship forward.

"Entering target," I said before the hole consumed me and my earpiece disconnected.

Traveling through the portal was not unlike traveling in a zeta tube. Instead of a white flash of light, it was a purple-blue color, but it had the same effect as the first time I took a zeta to the Cave. Memories flashed through my mind and when I opened my eyes, I instantly recognized Coruscant.

The orangey-red sky, a result of an incredible amount of pollution. The towering buildings, unique and seemingly endless. The constant noise, a combination of ships entering and leaving the atmosphere and speeders cutting through the sky. The deeply unsettling pull of the Force, strong and unbroken.

Everything around me came crashing into place. My senses felt like they'd been dialed up to eleven as every piece of stimulus, enforced by the undeniably strong presence of the Force, seemed magnetized toward me.

For a brief moment, all I could do was drink in my surroundings and force myself to calm down. I couldn't do anything without a clear head.

When I finally settled, taking several deep breaths, I scanned the nearest surroundings.

I was on a secluded landing platform on the plant surface. There was practically no lighting whatsoever, but I spotted the outlines of other TIE Avengers in an orderly line outside a rather dark yet ornate building that radiated Dark Force.