Verisimilitude

The Invasion

[Thanks to @oracle01 for the cover.]

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The first thing he was aware of was the pain. Everything burned - every muscle, nerve, every bit and piece of him felt like it was on fire. He felt like he would simply die from the pain any second.

So, in other words, he was not feeling the aster.

There was a ringing sound in his ears that was driving him crazy, but he could barely hear something beyond that. A...beeping sound?

He cracked his eyes to be met with similar darkness, but after a few moments they adjusted so that he could clearly make out the ceiling with a light on it. He was lying on his back, but he was in a medical bed position slightly upward. He craned his neck upward a bit only to hiss in pain as the simple movement made his head pound. The hiss - of course, with his luck - made his ribs ache as well.

No moving then. He thought to himself. He mentally began to recount everything he could remember. The memories began to flash in front of his eyes.

The League being wiped out.

The Team and other various heroes taking the burden of protecting Earth.

The Team dying one by one.

Artemis.

Kaldur.

Conner.

The explosion on the mothership.

Wally! M'gann!

Where were his two missing teammates? Had Wally escaped alive as well? Did M'gann manage to escape the explosion with her uncle?

Did they win, but at a terrible cost?

He heard a small sound outside his room and he snapped out of his thoughts. The figure must've waited at the door for a second or two, as if deciding whether or not to step inside, before he heard the door open slowly and quietly. He heard the footsteps - a young man's, but the sound of them - enter the room and shut the door as softly as he opened it. He hesitatingly came into the injured hero's line of sight.

Roy. He inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He opened his mouth to say something, but it was so dry nothing came out. He managed to make a sort of strangled groan which alerted his fellow hero that he was awake.

"Dick." Roy said surprised, coming to stand by his bedside. "You're awake. Don't try to talk or move yet - we barely managed to pull you out of the wreckage. You've been out for a week. No one knew if you'd make it."

He sent him a questioning look and Roy opened his mouth again to explain, "Once we heard of you guys's suicide mission, me and a few other heroes went to Smallville a bit after the explosion. We must have lost you half a dozen times before we could stabilize you, and even then it was still a bit touch-and-go." His look didn't waver and Roy decided to address the subject that he had been dancing around. "Wally and M'gann...they didn't make it."

His face hardened, and he switched his stare to the ceiling. Roy simply gave the boy a sympathetic look before quietly leaving the room.

Only after he had left did tears start leaking out of the Boy Wonder's eyes.

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Several months later he was cleared to leave the premises (the medical bay he had been held in had been the Cave, apparently. He had been so drugged and out of it he hadn't recognized the room). He had to be confined to a wheelchair however, since his leg was broken and his arms were too injured for crutches.