The Only One (young justice/nightwing)

1. hold on

I pushed, giving everything I could until there was nothing more to give. I could finally stop fighting, and the constant ringing in my head ceased. 

Pain, noise, power; I felt none of it. I felt absolutely nothing, but relief. 

The breath caught in my throat felt lighter now. The air became thin, warm even. It made my skin tingle all the way from my fingers to my feet on a ground that suddenly seemed plush. It was a weightlessness that struck me as familiar, yet I had never experienced anything like it before. 

All I knew was that it felt amazing. It felt safe, and quiet, and completely ethereal. 

An echoing voice called out to me in this paradise of endless light. "Stop."

How could I? How could I not soak in this feeling for eternity?

"Irena," the voice became louder, clearer, "Stop."

I knew the voice before I saw her face. "Corvi?"

"You are disembodying yourself." It looked and spoke like her, but more radiant; somehow more alive. "Pushing your powers into a sentient plane you are not meant to cross."

How could pure ecstasy be a mistake? "There is no noise here," I said in wonderment. 

"The aether does not make noise on this plane."

Each word flowed out of me with complete contentment, "This is the aether?"

"When Arcanes die they are absorbed back into 'The Source.' But you are not an Arcane. What are you?"

"I..." The answer did not seem to truly matter to me anymore. "I do not know."

"Do not let go, Irena." My sister grabbed my hands; the sensation alone felt like sheer delight. "You can hold on a little longer."

"Hold on?" This should be what I held on to. This safe haven that has enveloped me in its warm, endless arms; soaked me in its beautiful light. This is where I need to be for forever. "I will stay here with you."

"My baby sister," she smiled, squeezing my hands once more before letting go. "I cannot let you do that."

Her palm jutted at the center of my chest, knocking me back until the ache formed in my chest and the air turned a bitter cold. 

I landed harshly in the dense snow, all the air being forced up and out of my lungs. If what I had seen—or at least thought I had seen—was paradise, then it only made the misery I felt more obvious. My bones ached, my breath was shallow, and the exertion had left hairline cracks of crimson in my skin.

The weight of mortality was crushing me, but the chrysalis was gone, that is was mattered. 

Only, everyone else seemed to be gone too. 

I weakly pressed into the comm I had pulled from the javelin, "Where did everyone go?"

"You have entered a private radio line. Please leave this frequency at once." 

"Kaldur?"

"Who is this? How did you discover this line?"

"Kaldur, it is me."

He seemed to hesitate. "...Irena?"

I let my head fall back into the snow, too tired to hold it up any longer. The snowfall was beginning to coat me like a blanket. "Speaking."

His tone grew urgent. "Where are you right now?"

"The same place, at the North Pole. Where are you?"