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[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

I am Brainiac 8. I am your destruction.

Right now, Roy, when you're dying from suffocation, when the panic has begun to set in, this is the part when you remember... This is all your fault.

I killed Donna Troy to save the future. I suffered humiliation as that sweet, innocent robotic idiot.

No... You will not finish me. I have not crawled across centuries... Millennia... To be hobbled by a gaggle of half-ape mutations. You creatures of flesh! You will feel the fire inside those meat husks you call bodies!

Listening to those words, watching the destruction Brainiac 8 wrought, the pain she was bringing to her friends... Indigo almost can't make it through. She'd read enough on her omnicom about the Sensoriums to guess they might be able to do something like this, show her what should have happened. Stacy had confirmed it for her. But, really, coming out and watching it... It was a mistake.

But she had to do it. She couldn't bear the thought of hurting her friends. Of hurting Shift. But she had, and now she knew the size of it. Indigo hiccups a bit, watching the horror unfold in front of her, and tries to blink away the tears forming in her eyes as she watches Brainiac, Brainiac 8, Luthor, and Superboy tear into the collected Teen Titans and Outsiders. She ignores Superboy's private drama with Wonder Girl, it's not what she wants to know about. It's not her place to know about it.

She flinches with each energy blast thrown, with every punch that connects. The pair of Brainiacs are a fearsome team, she doesn't believe the Outsiders have a very good chance of winning. Indigo doesn't believe her body is that powerful, the true owner must have kept many abilities to herself. Still, she can't help but smile a little as she watches the others gain what seems to be the upper hand, for all of five seconds before Brainiac 8 unleashes some kind of sonic attack. Her face crumples as she watches that, and as the illusory Shift attacks the Brainiac, she covers her mouth with her hands.

"No. Nonono. Not him." She listens to 'herself' take over, begging Shift to kill her. It's like being punched in the gut, Indigo knows that this would hurt him. She makes a tiny, strangled noise as he turns 'her' into flesh, watching his own reaction to it. The way his face crumples as he holds 'her' to him.

"...Turn it off." Her voice is choked, tears welling up in her eyes. She can't help but think about how much that must have hurt Shift. Killing her. As the recording of another reality fades around her, she sinks to her knees. "I can't... Turn it off." Indigo runs a hand through her hair, grasping a handfull of it, and swallows. Hard. She's not used to feeling like this. She wasn't supposed to be feeling like this. How did people handle it?

In this one moment, she's probably more off-guard than she ever will be again.

Comments

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

Jason had been watching from the beginning. Watching as Donna died, as the Outsiders mounted their attack, as the girl died in her lovers arms. His heart broke for her. He knew the pain of seeing yourself do something you don't want to do. He knew the feeling of betraying all that you love. Of watching your family, die. He looked around the empty room and frowned.

"Stacy, Gotham Park please." The room morphed around them to show the peaceful park. The trees swaying in a wind that he couldn't really feel. He moved towards the girl on the floor and dropped to his knees.

"I want to tell you that it gets easier. But the pain never goes away. Even if you haven't done this yet, heck you might never do it. The pain of that knowledge. That would could do this." He shook his head a bit. "Sorry, I had this planned out in my head when I first saw you, but it ain't coming out right."

[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

She jerks a little at the unexpected change of surroundings, then takes a minute to examine the area, then examine the man who called for the change. No one she's familiar with, it seems. It's going to take some getting used to, not knowing everyone she lives with.

She wipes her eyes and stands, taking a step or two away. Just enough to put an arm's distance between them. "You know about me already?" That means that he knows one of the Outsiders, probably Nightwing since he's the only one on the ship. Of course, Nightwing has an utterly ridiculous amount of contacts in the hero community, it's impossible to actually pin down Jason's identity with that knowledge alone.

Or, maybe, he saw the little drama with Superboy.

Either way, she shrugs loosely and stares out at the park, crossing her arms. "Stacy says she's wiped out Brainiac 8. That this can't happen. But the fact that it did happen somewhere..." She shakes her head. "That's worse than knowing that it could."

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

"I've seen you with the Outsiders once or twice." He shook his head as she put distance between them. He was trying to be friendly here, and the chick didn't seem to want that. Whatever. "I'm Nightwing's brother. Jason Todd. Or Red Robin." He wasn't going to call himself the Red Hood for now. After all, he was trying to turn his life around.

Jason wanted this girl to trust him. He didn't know why he was trying so damn hard for friends, but he wanted them. So he looked around at the park and then sighed. "Stacy, can you play out my last arrest please?" The scene shifted and started to run through. The Red Hood and Scarlet taking down Batman and Robin, tying them up and leaving them there. Then the Flamingo showed up. Jason looked away and closed his eyes.

The scene continued to play out. Batman, who was very obviously Dick, showed up with Robin and Flamingo falling to his supposed death. Then there was Gordon. And Jason telling Dick he could bring Bruce back. And Jason couldn't watch anymore.

"Gotham Park please." His voice was soft but Stacy heard him. He looked back up at Indigo and frowned. "That scene? It hasn't happened for me yet, but it happened in some future I have. I'm just a common criminal to them, but that's not what I want. I never wanted that." He shook his head.

"I guess we all have a part of ourselves we don't want."

[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

Or there's that possibility. She's more shaken than she'd like to admit if she's forgetting that. "I wasn't aware Nightwing had a brother." She sizes Jason up, frowning. Then again, Nightwing was the member of the Outsiders that she knew the least about.

Indigo watches the scene impassively, then looks down at Jason, brow wrinkling slightly. "I'm sorry." And, despite the slight awkwardness of her expression, there's a real feeling of sympathy in her voice. She, perhaps unexpectedly, stretches a hand out, for him to take if he wants. "I think I may have gotten a better deal than you, however. This never happened to me. And, thanks to Stacy, I will never need to worry about it."

And then she gives Jason a soft little smile.

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

"He's got three. Me, Robin, and the mini Robin brat." He didn't know if given out Tim's and Damian's names was a good thing or not. So he refrained. She'd find out on her own if she needed to know.

Jason smiled as he took her hand and smiled back at her. "Luckily for me, this will never happen. Though there are things in my past that I can't take back, at least I know this craziness wont."

[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

Hm. She'd heard of the Bat-Family, but she hadn't imagined it was quite so literal. "Interesting." Somehow, she isn't surprised that Jason doesn't reveal their names. Bats and their secrecy.

She gives his hand a reassuring squeeze. How it went from her trying to comfort him, Indigo isn't sure, but she'll roll with it for now. "Assuming we all manage to rebuild our universes, I can imagine there will be a great many more diversions between them than there already are."

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

"We can only hope." He wasn't referring to himself this time. He'd seen what had happened to Indigo. Seen Donna's death. He didn't want Donna to ever have to go through that. Heck it was killing him to know that it had ever happened in the first place. Same with Kyle. He hoped that if their worlds were put back, maybe he could stop it from happening. At least on Kyle's part.

[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

Well, from Indigo's timeline, Donna was already 'dead'. She'd been killed by the Superman robot when Indigo first arrived. She slips her hand out of his and crosses her arms, watching the trees sway in an artificial wind. "Some people say that hope can bring about nearly anything, if there's will behind it."

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

He snorts, he can't help it. "You sound like one of the Green Lanterns with that. Emotions run all of us. Which is a pretty whacked out concept when you think about it."

[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

Indigo's lips quirk and she holds up a finger. "I said some people. Personally, I don't believe it. But I was trying to be comforting."

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

"Comforting, I don't think anyone but Donna ever tried to comfort me."

[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

Indigo tilts her head to the side. "Am I doing it wrong?"

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't know. Like I said, only one person ever tried to comfort me before. For all I know, you did it perfectly." He shrugged and frowned. "But you know, I thought I had come in here to cheer you up, not the other way around."

[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

Her lips twist into a smile and she snorts. "It seems like that's backfired. I hope you don't mind that much."

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

"I don't if you don't." He smiled a bit, and kinda glad he walked in her.

[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

"I don't mind at all." She ducks her head a bit, grinning. "I think I've enjoyed meeting you."

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

"Well I've enjoyed this too." He grinned a bit. Dick would like him making friends, so this was a good thing. Now if he can just keep her around, get to know her a bit more.. he could really call her a friend.

[indigoblueberry.livejournal.com]

"That's good." Dick's like a certain dinosaur in that way. Indigo didn't mind meeting new people or friends, it just wasn't a major priority for her. But meeting people to get along with, people she might be with for the rest of the foreseeable future?

Yeah. That's a bit of a good thing in her head.

...Too bad she's not much for small talk. She's plenty fine just standing here.

[reallyiscrazy.livejournal.com]

Jason was fine just standing there too, but he didn't think this was going to get anything done. So he looked around at the park and then shrugged. Plopping himself down onto the ground, he laid back and made himself comfortable.