Zephyr: A Young Justice OC fanfiction

Chapter 37: Awakening

Back to Lina's POV

When I woke up, it was strange. I mean, it physically felt just like I was waking up from a nap but mentally...It's hard to explain.

I was dead, I was totally dead, and now I'm waking up.

Was I wrong? Does the afterlife really exsist? If it does, why does it look like the cave?

I sat up and felt my body, making sure I was a tangible human being and not a ghost. When I was able to feel my skin, I only grew more confused. Groaning suddenly met my ears and I looked to see the team in civvies laying on metal boxes like me, and we were in a circle. When my eyes met Artemis, I wanted to run and hug her but for some reason my body wouldn't move.

Instead, pain began to crawl up to my head and dull nausea filled my stomache. I placed a hand on my stomache, trying to ease the uneasiness.

"You're all alive!" Megan exclaimed excitedly.

I wanted to ask why but my nervous stomache didn't seem to like that idea.

"What happened in there?" Batman's gruff voice asked, directing our attention to where he, Captain Marvel, Red and Martian Manhunter stood.

"The excersize...It all went wrong." J'onn answered weakly.

"Excersize?" Robin asked.

"Try to remember!" Batman pleaded. "What you experienced was a training excersize. Manhunter physically linked the seven of you within an artificial reality; you knew this going in. What you didn't know is that it was a train-for-failure excersize. No matter what the team accomplished, the scenario was designed to grow worse. Still you were aware nothing was real; including the deaths of the Justice League."

They made us believe that the people we care about, and ourselves, had died?

"That is why you hardly grieved, even when Wolf was disintegrated before your eyes." Manhunter explained. "But all that changed when Artemis died. Though consciously, Miss Martian knew it was not real, her subconscious mind took over and could not make the distinction. She forgot it was all an excersize, making all of you forget as well."

"I-I'm so sorry..." Megan said, begining to break down in sobs. Finally, my body began to respond correctly and I flew over and enveloped Megan in a hug, letting her head fall onto my chest.

"It's not her fault!" Conner argued. "Why didn't you stop the excersize?!"

"We tried." J'onn explained. "But M'gann had a...Death grip on the situation. Even Artemis, who should have awaken upon her death, was so convinced she had passed that she slipped into a coma. I realized I would have to wrestle control from Ms. Martian's subconscious from within; but upon entering the reality I was overwhelmed by your collective emotion. There was too much...Noise to think clearly and remember why I was there. Zephyr's death helped slightly, as did Aqualad's and Superboy's," I looked over to Kaldur, whose eyes were already trained on me. We continued to look at each other, Megan's head still nuzzeled in my chest and both of us listening to J'onn's explanation. "But only when the mothership had exploded, and Kid Flash and Robin were silenced, did.my mind clear enough for me to remember my true purpose."

We all stood, shocked at the revelation. All of us reminded silent, save for Megan's sobs as we became lost in our own thoughts.

"My apologies." J'onn continued. "I had no idea a training excersize could be so dangerous...so damaging."
***

I got home an hour later, after locking myself in my room at the cave and just crying for a good hour, trying to let it all out.

I walked through the door at eleven and was surprised to see my dad and brothers were still awake.

"Hey kid," Dad said, turning his head to smile. "How was your day?"

I paused, looking at them before biting my lip and looking at the ground.

"I'm going to go to bed." I muttered, before walking into my bedroom and shutting the door.

Short, I know. Originally I was planning on writing in the therapy session, etc. in this chapter to, but I decided not to. Sorry.