The Winds Continue: Young Justice, Zephyr Book 2

Chapter 37: Endgame Part 1

Falling asleep on my couch was never fun in my opinion. I never knew how Maia could do it for nights on end, or whenever anyone came to my apartment to seek shelter. But laying on top of Kaldur's chest with his arms limply wrapped around my waist with a blanket messily tangled between our bodies from sleep-shifting, and my head laying in the crook of his neck: I could probably get used to it.

I remembered sitting in silence with Kaldur once we had calmed down; toeing the like between sitting and cuddling as we just sat in complete silence, no words needed to be spoken as I played with our hands and he toyed with my hair. I remembered getting really sleepy and falling closer to Kaldur before finally settling with my body leaned against his.

I suppose that's how we ended up like this.

I checked the clock and was a little surprised to see it was noon. Just as I was about to ask why I had woken up so late, I was answered by the familiar ringing of my cellphone. I looked directly down to see that it was lying on the floor, thankfully undamaged. Slowly and begrudgingly, I peeled myself away from Kaldur even though every fiber of my being wanted me to stay in his arms. However I was able to grab my phone and stand up, stumbling over to my stash of extra syringes.

"Hello?" I grumble, assuming that it was someone on the team (nobody in my personal life calls me anymore).

"Hey Lina, glad to hear you're awake." Dick's voice says and I can't help but feel slightly uncomfortable by it. As I finally locate my medication, I sit down on the arm of the nearest chair to administrate it; placing the phone between my shoulder and my ear.

"Just woke up." I bite as I stab myself gently in the arm.

"I'm...assuming Kaldur is there with you?" Dick asked, sounding as uncomfortable as I felt. "He's...not picking up."

"He's here, and asleep." I say shortly, injecting my serum into my bloodtream. "Let me guess: suit up time?"

"You have an hour, if that helps?" Dick said.

"You're getting teens up at 6am? Good luck." I say before hanging up. A moment later, I take out my needle and throw it out.

Sighing and feeling the effects of my medication take ahold of me, I let my mind wander a bit. Hopefully we can take out those aliens today, and then I can finally get out of this damn job...but how will Kaldur fit into that now?

I shook my head and walked back over to the couch. Seeing Kaldur fast asleep was heart-warming, with his flopped arms and resting face. It was nice to see him so...at peace.

You're sounding cliche Lina...

Kneeling down to the Atlantean, I gently place a hand on his arm and shake it ever so slightly.

"Kaldur...we have to get up now." I mutter. I know he's a deep sleeper, but my conscience just doesn't want to wake him up.

Surprisingly however, his body does shift. As it does, a few Atlantean words spill from him lips. With the sleepy slur and whispering of his voice, I couldn't fully understand him; but I was able to pick up on some words. Mostly 'sorry' and 'traitor'.

Deciding that whatever dream he was having, probably wasn't okay for his health: I decided to be a little more assertive. I gently cupped his face in my hand and stroked his cheekbone while saying at a little louder than normal volume, "Kaldur, we need to get up."

After a moment, his body stirred and his eyes sleepily began to open, dreams still glazing his thoughts. When his eyes met mine, he smiled and his hand reached, taking a lock of my hair and playing with it like it were a work of art in his eyes.

"May angels guard you through the night, and keep you safe till morning light." He muttered and I felt my cheeks flush slightly.

"I'm no guardian angel." I said calmly, as I took his hand and gently lay it on his own torso. "But I can pretend to be a superhero, we're needed in an hour."

I heard Kaldur let out a string of curses in his mother-tongue and I smirked.

"Not even a day back and I already want to crawl into a cave and stay there for all eternity." He mutters and I can't help but laugh.

"You can use my shower if you need, I'm going to try to round up some sort of breakfast before getting dressed. Maia always leaves food here so it shouldn't be too hard." I muttered. It was weird, having to treat him like a guest. However, I simply brushed off my thoughts and made my way up to prepare for the day.

***

If there's one thing I should have learned from the many years of working with the league: it's that everything is 10x harder than you think it's going to be.

For example: when I was called to go fight the Reach and kick them off of Earth, little did any of us know that Black Beetle would have already placed a contingency plan in place...to destroy the whole goddamn world.

I frowned at the holographic screen in front of me, it's many windows showing natural disasters all across the world.

"The natural disasters have escalated. The rest of the Justice League is spread thin, saving lives across the globe." Captain Adam explained to Nightwing, Kaldur, Jaime and I.

"It's Black Beetle's MFD; the magnetic field disrupters the Reach planted in specific place across the Earth. They're causing the deterioration of the Earth's magnetic field, which in turn is causing these not-so-natural disasters." Jaime explained, before forming a projector in the center of his chest and turning to the center of the room. "I can locate all the MFD's, but each is defended by two beetle-drones that are programmed to run interference until the MFDs build up enough energy to...go chrysalis, and end the world."

"Okay...so how do we stop them from going 'chrysalis'?" I ask, praying to God that Black Beetle maybe had a self-destruct button or something.

"I don't know." Jaime said, shattering my hopes. "Because Black Beetle didn't know. There's no failsafe, this was an endgame."

We were interrupted by the computer's voice. "Incoming transmission from United Nations General Tsueng."

We all turned to see...Lex Luther on the screen, General Tsueng behind him.

"Luther? What are you-""General Tsueng was kind enough to let me borrow his frequency, as I have a possible solution to our mutual problem."

"A problem caused by you and the Light when you collaborated to bring the Reach to Earth!" Atom said from his spot on Captain Atom's shoulder.

"Perhaps...but as I believe you know, the Light always planned to betray the Reach. Lexcorp has developed anti-Reach software, a program that should be able to take care of their magnetic field disrupters."

"How convenient." I hissed glaring at Luther's image.

"Now..." Luther said, smirking just the slightest bit, but ignoring my comment. "I believe time is of the essence."

Every one of us looked to each other, silently pondering our situation.

TWO GODDAMN MONTHS

Jesus motherfucking Christ I am so sorry guys. I've been the absolute worst. School hit me like a motherfucking truck, and then a bunch of shit happened with a very sick friend of mine and I just...couldn't write for a while. But still I am so sorry

That being said, I've decided to hold off on finishing the next chapter until season 3 comes out, just so I can really know which way I want this story to go.

So I guess this is goodbye for now, unless I get around to posting any one-shots.

Stay whelmed guys, peace out.