Chapter Text
There's a giant creature floating by the watchtower.
Well, that was unexpected, thinks Flash.
"Is... Is it a space whale?"
The creature looks vicious. His stomach is glowing green, and-
"Wait a second, did it just come from Earth?"
Superman is there in seconds, as they look at the weird creature. He uses his rentgen sight and turns pale.
"There's a human child in that sack," he whispers in horror. "And they are still alive. They are still moving."
Superman goes there and drags the creature, who's probably resting to digest their meal. It doesn't move a lot, despite the baby's constant kicking.
They put it in the Watchtower’s super-protected room (by iron, magic, and all sorts of materials).
In a closer look, it's not as big as it seemed before, thinks Flash. It's not even the size of two Supermen. Maybe a Batman sitting on Supe's shoulders size?
The creature is... weird. But Supes and Bats open his giant Jaws (and he's NOT gonna think about that movie-) quickly and pull out the baby.
He takes a quick look.
The baby girl. Or is she a toddler? It's a weird age. He's not good with kids’ ages.
Luckily she doesn't look too hurt.
"It probably kept her for later. Or has a different kind of digestion," Bats says as he cradles her in his arms.
Ha.
He almost looks soft–
Oh No.
"I'm telling Nightwing," he says to no one in particular as he rushes out.
She's a black-haired blue-eyed child in distress.
He knows what's coming.
"No, I'm telling you- it's WEIRD. Yes, I asked Lantern about it- he said he never heard of it, so it’s probably not an alien. And Constantine just said something about 'realms in chaos' and said he'll come when he'll get 'a bloody second' and just hung up on me!" Wally whines to his boyfriend. "Wait a sec, Rob. I'll send you a picture"
He makes sure to get the whole scene before sending the photo- the long tail, the big green eyes, the ominously glowing sack, (the fucking JAWS- holly shit, he can't stop thinking about it-).
"See, I told you-,"
He freezes in horror. A pry in the corner.
(Something's here. Something's watching. Something's haunting-)
A pulse, searching. Looking for something. He's a deer in headlights when he see the eyes looking at him, and as the cold wind hits him, he thinks it howls:
WHERE. IS. SHE
"Fuck," He says, numbly. "It woke up. I'll call you-later-gotta-run!" And he's gone with a flash.
"Itwokeupandpissed," he tells Batman.
"Slower, Flash. What did you say?"
"It woke up," he repeats, struggling to keep non-speedster speed. "And it doesn't seem happy about- I think it still wants the little kid.”
"Because of course it does," mumbles the Lantern in the room. "See, that's why we can't have nice things.”
Batman just stands up. "Debrief me on the way there. I want to hear everything.”
(It isn't a question).
The temperature must have dropped in, like, thirty degrees in the ten minutes it took Batman (and Wally) to get back to the cage.
There's frost on the metal floor, breaking under their heels as they walk back to the cage.
There's no one in this section. There's no strange wind. But Wally still hears something. Not a clear voice, just like an ongoing Tinnitus. It's distracting, but not important enough to acknowledge anybody. He just stands behind the Bat, trying to look professional and all Justice-leaguey or something, as he tries to move his ears in the hope it would end this.
The thing is in the cage. His giant eyes staring at them, no blinking, as his cringy (skin? Skeleton?) sack moves slowly.
(... wasn't the sack bigger when it got here?)
"You are held by the Justice League of planet Earth, also known as Terra, also known as Sol463c in the intergalactic system. You are held as a suspect of kidnapping, and murder attempt of at least one human child. I am Batman, and I'm in charge of the current investigation. I was informed that you used English in an attempt to contact one of my colleagues. What can you tell us?"
The creature seems to try to move his jaw, and Wally tenses in an instinct.
WHERE.
There's the strange noise from before. The whisper-howling-wind.
"You are in a holding cell. You will not escape.”
The wind seems to scream, as those glowing eyes still stare at them.
BABY. WHERE.
"The child is safe now," Batman says, and only due to his long time knowing Dick, Wally can notice the signs of both anger and satisfaction in the batglare.
"The child is safe now," says the anger-punish-righteous in front of-
(Hard. It's still- he's still molding. This body is- it's not human. It remembers. It thinks it might have been, once. It thinks- it tries to be, but there's no ecto around and it gave everything it could to the baby before it melted before it was taken away from the safety-)
BABY.
It whispers-howls-moves the air in ways that almost mimic voice.
(It thinks it had something for it, once. Before. Before it gave away everything left, everything they didn't take, for-)
The hair on the body slowly processes the signals from the outside.
"Kidnapped," they say. "Murder."
(He. He's a HE, not it. It- HE knows if he was faster if he ran before if- he knows the child is a belonging a probably a property that it's not- she isn't his to hold, but he can't take it. He can't stand there again, reaching helplessly as another baby melts through his fingers.)
"Back to parents," the dark one says, and-
NO!
BOOM
The Thing crashes into the cell's door in all the weight of a dying whale.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
The sound from before gets worse.
So it wasn't the speedforce’s fault this time, Wally thinks absently.
BOOM
But the doors hold without even shaking.
There's a feeling-
Small-warm-in-arms
And Wally's legs collapse as the hunger hits him.
His hands are shaking, his pulse is faster than usual, and his eyesight gets blurry. He barely reaches out to his emergency Glucagon kit before the nausea hits him.
But I just ate? he thinks, confused, as the glucose makes its way through his system. The injection is fast, and as soon as his nausea decreases he eats a sugar cube. It's disgusting, but that's what he's got.
"We’ll take care of her," he hears Bats say. "She's safe. You will not get anywhere near her. She's under our custody."
There's frustration and then Bats signals him and they leave.
"You go straight to medbay, Flash. Don't think I didn't notice."
"Yeah, already on it. And got some cubes and all."
"Good. Stay-"
"At least three hours, and no Speedforce in the next 24 hours, I know. I'm not a kid anymore, you know? You don't have to remind me. I'll stay with D- Nightwing tonight.”
"Hn,” the bat says as he broods away dramatically.
Aaaaand back to normal bat-signals, he thinks. Ha, that's a good one. I gotta remember that one for
Dick. It's so stupid, he'd love it.
There's -
The-
The baby!
He tries to make them know, he tries-
Sending the moment
perceptions of
warm-good-small in hands -
(The child needs to be safe. The child can't-
the child need s to be fed!
Do they have-?
Is the child hungry?
Is the child stable? No, it can't -
They can't make NO NO CAN'T LOSE THE CHILD)
sending, perceptions of
Pain-hollow-inside claws-inside-out body-yearning-materials.
Sending, perceptions of
Melting-digesting-disappear
"Take… her… not see…. custody"
NO! It is screaming. NO!
The creature – the guardian – the-
(He. He was, once. He was someone. He was–)
Something comes forward,
A memory: (So many, too many. So small, melting in hands- melting in cribs- melting in-)
A memory: (white tube and a man standing. a child, a survivor, stable and there, called imperfect. Hands, coming down to take- to destroy to-
NO!)
Anger-punish-righteous becomes hatred-despising-anger and curious-scared-excited is sick-worried for a short time before going back to normal.
And they leave.
There's no other presence inside those white halls, in this cell, so close- so much like, when–
There's something inside of him, and it's filling.
This body doesn't have a larynx; doesn't have lungs; doesn't have anything but a core and ectoplasm, and yet –
(There's a wail, trapped inside, and he can't let it go).
Wally looks at The Baby. The Baby doesn't even look back, too curious about looking around the medbay.
He's got to admit – for something that was found trapped inside of an eldritch alien(?) the baby is… Well… pretty boring.
It's a baby. It lays down. It makes noises. It eats. It probably poops.
Unfortunately, as a benched hero, he's the one stuck as a babysitter while the others still work on figuring out where the baby came from, and what the creature is-
("There's NO way you're actually calling it a space whale!"
"But it's creepy, and weird, and dangerous, and in SPACE–"
"You tried to help Bart with homework again, didn't you?"
"How did you -?"
"Tim complained about that book last week. I had to listen to Jay ranting about it for half the patrol on Tuesday.")
So, anyway. Medbay. Stupid glucose levels. Boring.
Timer counting down to four hours. Boring.
Empty crib. Boring.
Vitals monitor. Bori-
Wait a minute.
WHERE'S THE BABY?
She is nowhere in the medbay. He's freaking out when he gets a text. He doesn't even read it before calling to say his last goodbye.
"Your dad's gonna kill me.” There's silence on the other side.
"What did you do? Changed the tags again?" His wonderful pain in the ass laughs.
"Ilostthebaby," he whispers in horror.
"Come again? I can almost swear you said you lost the baby.”
"I did," his breath comes short.
"How do you lose a baby on a spaceship?"
"I don't know!" He whines helplessly. "Help me Rob, what do I do? Does the Watchtower even have an amber alert or something??"
"Chill. I'm fifteen clicks from the Zeta. I'll be there in twenty, ok? Try to look again. Maybe she crawled or walked away. Kids can get into really weird places. Did you check inside the drawers? Nearby rooms?"
And with every word of this melodic voice, he slowly feels himself calming down.
"That's my Rob," he can't help but tease. "The bright eyes man-with-a-plan. Where would I be without you?"
"You know it's ironic you call ME that, right? The only plain-human?" His BF says in a dry tone. "And probably storming around the Watchtower, completely ignoring the fact that you're on bed rest, Nuggets."
"Yeah, yeah. See you? "
"Yeah. Love you babe "
"Ohhh love you too Birdie! See you-"
"Wally don't you dare-"
"-in a flash!"
It is aching. It's purpose –
It was supposed –
To protect.
There's no protecting in the room.
It can't fail–
Not again.
The green sack is lying limp on the floor. Slowly filling with green, glowing liquid.
If anyone looked closely at the cell, and compared it to the creature's size at capture, they might have noticed a difference.
(But nobody is watching.)
"I looked at every drawer, over and under every cabinet in this room, and part of the nearby rooms." Wally's pacing in the room, hand gestures everywhere.
"And-?" Nightwing just raises an eyebrow.
"Nothing," he raises his hands. "Nada. Zilch." He repeats for the emphasis.
"Did you check the cameras?" The bird-themed vigilante offers.
His bf just turns around in silence.
"I'll… take it as a no, then.” He pulls out a tablet from somewhere in his costume, and somehow enters the cameras' feed in seconds.
They sit on the medbay's bed as Nightwing rolls back to when Flash entered the room, and the last time he can remember seeing the baby.
"There!" He points. "Go back a couple of minutes."
Nightwing follows. "Oh, I see it too! Did she just… disappear?"
"Babies can't usually do that… right?"
"No, Walls," he sighs. "Babies can't just disappear into thin air."
"So, what do you think? A meta kid, or-?"
"Or what?"
"I don't know, man." Wally just shrugs. "Cut me some slack, okay? I'm still on bed rest, you know."
"Yes," worried blue eyes focus on him. "How did that happen? You're usually really good with that."
"I don't know. We were just by the cage, and B talked to the thing, and the next thing I know I feel like I'm gonna faint. Didn't even get a beep or something from the app."
"Hmn." Dick Bats out. "Did you notice anything strange? Except for that, I mean."
"Well, the hall had ice in it." He starts hesitantly. "And… It made me feel weird. Like, it didn't speak, but also it did? I don't know how to explain it."
Dick suddenly stands up. "So you say it can transfer thoughts, or emotions?"
And.
Oh no.
Wally can see where he's going now.
"You think it somehow dragged her back?"
Nightwing doesn't bother to answer as they run to the containment area.
Possession. Desperate. Mine.
The body is cuddled around the sack.
(It moves).
