[OPEN]

[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

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

Brainiac 5 had overheard what Stacy said on Obs Deck, and after Indigo ran out, he had left as well, taking a moment to quietly question the ship's AI. It made sense that Coluans had eventually reverted to inorganic forms, especially given their fervent desire to remain the superior intellects of the universe. Their treatment of robotic life hadn't been out of true hatred, but fear--fear of being replaced. Becoming that which they feared seemed the next logical step, and would leave their intellectual superiority unchallenged. It had been what had happened generations early in B5's universe. And of course, the idea that they had conquered most of the rest of the universe had also not been surprising. Brainiac 5 is not overly fond of his own species, and doesn't regard them to be particularly noble as a species in the slightest.

At first, he had concerns about Indigo's nature, about the possibility of the Brainiac 8 personality still lying underneath the one that was currently dominant, but after silently watching the simulation she's so engrossed in, he lets that concern drop to the background for now.

"I feel the need to apologize to you," says a calm voice behind her, and if she turns, she'll see a green-skinned...well. Brainiac. He's got the forehead circles and all, even if his facial implants are of a different design and far less sinister looking.

[top-teen-38.livejournal.com]

Slobo had walked into the sensoriums to see if another karaoke night was happening again. Instead, he came upon a crying blue girl, and visions of destruction. He stayed silent, watching and listening, until she requested the end of the vision.

"Nice work, but my 'pop' woulda killed them all subtly. With a virus or something bastichish like it." Slobo sat down next to her. "Yanno, that chick that looked like you ain't you, right?"

[wheresmysuit.livejournal.com]

Nate had come to the door halfway through the playback. For a moment he just stared. He could see the blue girl in the center of the floor, and her twin playing over the simulation. It was evident was was going on. He felt a short pang of recognition. It had only been maybe a week since he'd been in that exact same situation after all. Standing in the doorway, his gaze softened slightly as he watched her sink to the floor. A week ago, he would have turned and walked out. Let the girl deal with her own problems. But not now. He was Iron Lad. A hero. And he didn't walk away, despite the mistakes he'd made.

Walking over to her, he made sure she could hear him coming, and stayed in her line of sight the whole time. He didn't want to startle her after all. When he was within a few feet of her, he sank to his knees in front of her as well, hands in his lap as he stared down at them.

"It's not easy, huh?" His voice was quiet, understanding. Without a trace of any animosity. "Seeing yourself do things like that."

[static-shock68.livejournal.com]

Static was quiet as he came into the sensoriums. He'd been looking for a nice spot to just.. relax,maybe relive some of the things he was missing. Sure, leading the Outsiders was pretty awesome, and everything with Rose was fantastic, but there were still a number of things he was missing from home, and the sensoriums were about as close to that as he was going to get. He didn't expect them to be in use.

Much less by a dead Outsider.

Who wasn't handling too well.

"If it makes you feel any better, they all pulled out of it just fine."

It was all he could think of to say about it; the pivotal moment that killed the Outsiders.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

Dani had come into the Sensorium to see someone crying. She had no idea what or why, but she didn't think it was good to just leave her there. So, even though she didn't know her, she walked over.

"Hey, are you okay?"

[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."