"Not Brainiac?" he said, tilting his head the way he often did when focusing on what the scarab was saying.
N[]T BRAINIAC. HE IS A RUDE BUT HELPFUL C[]LUAN D[]CT[]R. SAFE. Y[]U ARE SAFE. JAIME-H[]ST/FRIEND. SUIT FUNCTI[]NS = NEARLY FULLY []PERATI[]NAL. TITANS ARE HERE. KHAJI DA + TITANS WILL N[]T LET ANY[]NE HURT Y[]U.
These two were Titans and Khaji Da knew what that meant to Jaime. Even though he'd left the team, the solidarity he'd felt with them, the relief that came of hanging out with superheroes his own age - that understood everything he was dealing with - were things that Khaji Da was acutely aware of. So that was what he used to try to calm Jaime down. Jaime had left the team not because he didn't want to be around them anymore but partly because his parents had concerns about the danger and mostly because he cared too much. Eddie's death had weighed heavily on him and he'd needed some time to think.
Now that Jaime's vision was a little less bleary, the green guy looked very different from the towering, imposing villain he'd seen on TV. And the room, which in his fevered and terrified mind had initially looked like some kind of scientific torture chamber (like he'd been in once before), seemed to be just a Medbay. It definitely looked a lot more medical than scary. He'd been to his mom's work often enough to recognize some of the machines and things. There was also someone else, some strange guy that Jaime had never seen before, who seemed to using some kind of power on him. He looked about as threatening as a kitten.
Jaime looked around, his head wobbling as he did, clearly disoriented, trying to force his eyes to focus.
Cassie. Cassie was here. And Nightwing. He'd only met Nightwing a few times when the younger Titans had teamed up with the older Titans, but he'd been friendly enough. And he was a grown up who knew what he was doing and he was a Titan, too. Jaime knew how it worked: once a Titan, always a Titan, and even though he'd left the team, he knew the two people standing here had his back.
Safe. He was safe now? He was alive?
He was still sitting up and now that he wasn't trying to attack Brainiac, he went limp in Cassie's grip, leaning against her, the claws retreating, his hand gripping her sleeve with a death grip. He looked at his knee, propped up, healing, at the drains in it. He looked down at the horrible bruise on his side. It didn't really hurt. He felt a vague sensation of an ache and a hitch in his side but whatever was treating his pain was doing a good job. When he reached up his free hand to an itch at his temple he felt some kind of Star Trekky device there - possibly what was blocking his pain? He felt comfortable. Scared but physically comfortable, at least. He seemed to be wearing clean boxers and all the blood had been washed from his skin.
He reached his hand to tug a bit on the oxygen tubing, just verifying that was there, in a fuzzy, 'oh, this is here' kind of way. It made sense he'd be on oxygen. He'd drowned and he'd thought he was dying and maybe he even had died for a little while. He probably'd had to be resuscitated.
The way he was acting, dazed and shaking, gave off the sense that he was establishing that reality was real. Poking and prodding at it to be sure he was here. Then, head still wobbling, he looked up at Cassie.
"Harley Quinn. She was - she - fire girl kicked my butt and - and - I woke up. And I was on a meat hook, and Harley Quinn - she -" He couldn't seem to articulate anything. "There were people, there were - she had people with wires. Propped up. She was going to put wires in me. She was -" This was real. He was in some kind of Medbay, clinging to Cassie and she was real. This was real. Cassie and Nightwing were from home. They wouldn't let Harley Quinn put wires in him. "Parts. They were. There were parts. People. Parts. Part of - bins. Bags and - on the table."
Parts everywhere.
"I think I stepped on a lady's hand," he said distantly.
There had been a wedding ring on it. He remembered that. There had been a wedding band, like his parents', and the little kids had been Milagro' age and -
And as understanding finally caught up to him, as his addled brain started to think again, as the weight of being free - when so many of those people never made it out - finally bore down on him, there was no force on earth that would've been able to hold him together. Nothing had the right gravitation pull to stop him from crumbling.
He tried to hold it in - something he never did with his family - because he was a superhero and he was in front of other superheroes, but the force of the effort he exerted doing it only contributed to causing all the brittle bits of him to shatter and snap even faster.
His breakdown started with the shaking intensifying as he looked up at Cassie, then his eyes started welling up, and then, still clinging to her sleeve with his one hand, he buried his face in his other hand, his whole body shaking violently as he tried to hold it all in.
no subject
"But he's - he's - Brainiac -"
N[]T BRAINIAC. SAME SPECIES.
"Not Brainiac?" he said, tilting his head the way he often did when focusing on what the scarab was saying.
N[]T BRAINIAC. HE IS A RUDE BUT HELPFUL C[]LUAN D[]CT[]R. SAFE. Y[]U ARE SAFE. JAIME-H[]ST/FRIEND. SUIT FUNCTI[]NS = NEARLY FULLY []PERATI[]NAL. TITANS ARE HERE. KHAJI DA + TITANS WILL N[]T LET ANY[]NE HURT Y[]U.
These two were Titans and Khaji Da knew what that meant to Jaime. Even though he'd left the team, the solidarity he'd felt with them, the relief that came of hanging out with superheroes his own age - that understood everything he was dealing with - were things that Khaji Da was acutely aware of. So that was what he used to try to calm Jaime down. Jaime had left the team not because he didn't want to be around them anymore but partly because his parents had concerns about the danger and mostly because he cared too much. Eddie's death had weighed heavily on him and he'd needed some time to think.
Now that Jaime's vision was a little less bleary, the green guy looked very different from the towering, imposing villain he'd seen on TV. And the room, which in his fevered and terrified mind had initially looked like some kind of scientific torture chamber (like he'd been in once before), seemed to be just a Medbay. It definitely looked a lot more medical than scary. He'd been to his mom's work often enough to recognize some of the machines and things. There was also someone else, some strange guy that Jaime had never seen before, who seemed to using some kind of power on him. He looked about as threatening as a kitten.
Jaime looked around, his head wobbling as he did, clearly disoriented, trying to force his eyes to focus.
Cassie. Cassie was here. And Nightwing. He'd only met Nightwing a few times when the younger Titans had teamed up with the older Titans, but he'd been friendly enough. And he was a grown up who knew what he was doing and he was a Titan, too. Jaime knew how it worked: once a Titan, always a Titan, and even though he'd left the team, he knew the two people standing here had his back.
Safe. He was safe now? He was alive?
He was still sitting up and now that he wasn't trying to attack Brainiac, he went limp in Cassie's grip, leaning against her, the claws retreating, his hand gripping her sleeve with a death grip. He looked at his knee, propped up, healing, at the drains in it. He looked down at the horrible bruise on his side. It didn't really hurt. He felt a vague sensation of an ache and a hitch in his side but whatever was treating his pain was doing a good job. When he reached up his free hand to an itch at his temple he felt some kind of Star Trekky device there - possibly what was blocking his pain? He felt comfortable. Scared but physically comfortable, at least. He seemed to be wearing clean boxers and all the blood had been washed from his skin.
He reached his hand to tug a bit on the oxygen tubing, just verifying that was there, in a fuzzy, 'oh, this is here' kind of way. It made sense he'd be on oxygen. He'd drowned and he'd thought he was dying and maybe he even had died for a little while. He probably'd had to be resuscitated.
The way he was acting, dazed and shaking, gave off the sense that he was establishing that reality was real. Poking and prodding at it to be sure he was here. Then, head still wobbling, he looked up at Cassie.
"Harley Quinn. She was - she - fire girl kicked my butt and - and - I woke up. And I was on a meat hook, and Harley Quinn - she -" He couldn't seem to articulate anything. "There were people, there were - she had people with wires. Propped up. She was going to put wires in me. She was -" This was real. He was in some kind of Medbay, clinging to Cassie and she was real. This was real. Cassie and Nightwing were from home. They wouldn't let Harley Quinn put wires in him. "Parts. They were. There were parts. People. Parts. Part of - bins. Bags and - on the table."
Parts everywhere.
"I think I stepped on a lady's hand," he said distantly.
There had been a wedding ring on it. He remembered that. There had been a wedding band, like his parents', and the little kids had been Milagro' age and -
And as understanding finally caught up to him, as his addled brain started to think again, as the weight of being free - when so many of those people never made it out - finally bore down on him, there was no force on earth that would've been able to hold him together. Nothing had the right gravitation pull to stop him from crumbling.
He tried to hold it in - something he never did with his family - because he was a superhero and he was in front of other superheroes, but the force of the effort he exerted doing it only contributed to causing all the brittle bits of him to shatter and snap even faster.
His breakdown started with the shaking intensifying as he looked up at Cassie, then his eyes started welling up, and then, still clinging to her sleeve with his one hand, he buried his face in his other hand, his whole body shaking violently as he tried to hold it all in.