V is for Vagenda (Part 20 - Sleeper)

V is for Vagenda (Part 20 - Sleeper)

    Vagenda walked down the hallway to her room. She laid in her bed contemplating what was really important to her, but failed to summon the will to get back up that day. She poured over mission logs from the previous week trying desperately to ignore how empty and hollowed out inside she felt. The growing divide between Vagenda’s life as a hero and her real life as a mother and younger sister to Slash began to weigh heavily upon her.

    Increasing responsibilities, both to the Justice league and to the world, continued to take more and more of her personal time away from her. Her eyes poured over literally hundreds of mission logs and dozens of simulations. It was hard to believe that all of this had taken place within the context of three months. Having an eidetic memory certainly does have its negative side effects, and one would certainly see one now should they have walked in and observed as the gender poured over all of these mission logs. She remembered each in exquisite detail and held so many feelings and memories to them all. To anyone who may have seen the Vagenda pouring over the logs as she was, they might think she was in some sort of trance. A consequence of an eidetic memory is the ability to relive an event internally at any point time in the future, without any guarantee of control over when a past event is re-experienced. Reliving the past doesn’t take long, but with so many logs one can easily get lost for indiscriminate amount of time. It is so easy to envy those with the ability to forget.

SLEEPER

    Reliving can be an escape. Reliving can be a drug. Reliving can feel the void and emptiness when all you need was a hug. Vagenda missed Raine so much that the very thought of it was painful. Facing impending mortality compounds of this. She continued pouring over the logs reliving weeks and weeks of events per minute, until a knock on her door stopped or a deferred seemingly trancelike state.

    Vagenda got up and answered the door. Zatana stood before with a concerned look on her face and asked if it would be okay to come in for a few moments to talk. Vagenda straightened out her shirt said “of course! Please, come in!”

    Vagenda smiled, joyfully surprised, a Zatana waltzed straight in and made herself at home taken a seat on Vagenda’s couch. It somehow reinforced Vagenda sense of friendship with Zatana, yet in Vagenda’s mind Zatana would not look completely within her own element in this moment unless she also had a cup of coffee. With that in mind Vagenda stepped into her small kitchenette to prepare 2 cups of coffee, while asking her “to what do I owe the pleasure?”

    “I’m actually here to talk to you about your dream state,” Zatana said, getting right to the point.  “I’ve been following a lead that I need to speak with you about.”

    “My dream state?” Vagenda asked, as she prepared a Bavarian chocolate blend.  “How did you know…? How could you even know of been having trouble sleeping lately?”

    “You’ve been having trouble sleeping lately?” responded Zatana surprised.  “I honestly had no idea, and we can talk about that as well, the first I really do need to talk about another aspect of your dreams.  Something you once shared with me regarding a nightmare that you had two months ago left me feeling uneasy. We all have hopes and dreams, fears and phobias, and we often explore and develop these themes within ourselves through dreams. The first dreams that you had shared with me were ones that you felt had come true and later point in your life. Vagenda, this static the described waking up to after having that nightmare two months ago - the nightmare about your death - has this ever happened before or since?” Zatana’s tone was becoming slightly unhinged, as though there may be some sort of fear in the answer.

    Vagenda came back into the living room, handing Zatana her coffee, and hoping she would like the blend. Vagenda sat at the opposite end of the couch, holding the coffee up to her lips but not taking a drink - just savoring the smell - intentionally mimicking what she often observed Zatana doing with her coffee in the past in hopes to come to love it as much. Vagenda smiled, working hard to convince herself that this was working.

    Zatana took note began to giggle.  “What are you doing?” She asked smiling.

    “I’m teaching myself to enjoy a simple pleasure in life” answered Vagenda very matter-of-factly.

    Zatana smiled, uncertain if she should find this funny or be deeply flattered. Her natural expression seemed to suggest she felt both. The gravity of this inquiry, temporarily suspended from reality by coffee - only Vagenda, thought Zatana.

    The two of them prolonged this new lease on levity by patiently enjoying their coffee. Too many people feel the need to fill the air with meaningless words, with pointless conversation, mere chatter with no point other than to pass the time for those incapable of comfortable silence. The truth is, the next few minutes of silence turned out to be the best part of the day for both of them.

    “You don’t even really like coffee, do you?” asked Zatana, confident she was reading Vagenda accurately.

    “Nope” said Vagenda bluntly, “but I just know I can learn to – someday – if I keep trying.” Vagenda put her cup on the coffee table.  “But yes, it has happened before, and it has happened since. The nightmare was different. There were so much static in the room - I mean, the quilt was on the ceiling, the sheets hovering a foot and a half over me, and small sparks crackled all around me as I moved through the room until the energy finally dissipated. With everything else that had happened lately I thought it was important to tell someone.”

    “And I’m glad you did, Vagenda. I want you to understand that I am here for you, but I really do think that there is a correlation between your dreams probability of coming true and the amount of static surrounding you when you awake from these dreams. This isn’t to say that you are some sort of fortuneteller or seer like Layla from Themyscira.  Seers and fortune tellers seem to have a connection to the timeline in such a way as to be able to see the future, or parts of it.  Though I do think your dreams are visions of sorts, I do not believe that the outcomes they portray are set in stone. I believe they show things how they might turn out, but that these potential results are avoidable.  I also believe that, the more static you produce, the more likely it is for that future to come to pass” Zatana explained.

    “But my nightmare!” Vagenda exclaimed.  “Are you telling me that I’m destined to die that way?  My room, all that electricity…”

    “Now hold on, V! Settle down. Take a deep breath. That’s why I wanted to be the one who talked to you about this. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Keep in mind, these are probabilities, not certitudes,” said Zatana reassuringly.  “Besides, if we’ve learned anything lately it is that even a future that’s already come to pass is mutable. Future Lex has surely demonstrated that to us.” Zatana shifted in her seat closer to Vagenda and held her hand. Vagenda went to put her coffee back down onto the coffee table, her hand trembling inadvertently revealing how shaken she was.

    In the moments that they sat there in silence, all of the painstaking efforts made by Batman and Superman in order to try to find a solution that could stabilize her permanently, so that she could live longer, flashed through her mind. We all die, after all. No one lives forever. Anyone could die at any time for any reason and not see it coming, right? Perhaps knowing how it’s going to end is an advantage. People commonly take so much for granted, be it the company of loved ones, their own personal health, or their own personal mortality. Perhaps it could be a strength and advantage to persistently be staring into one’s mortality, unafraid.  Vagenda rationalized such over the next few breaths, and even Zatana could feel her pulse slowing.

    “Look, I know this is a lot to take in all at once. Why don’t you…”

    “Tell me you weren’t about to say sleep on it,” said Vagenda playfully trying to bring levity back into the atmosphere. They both smiled as Vagenda squeezed Zatana’s hand back reassuringly.

    Meanwhile, deep within an underground Cadmus lab, a security detachment had been dispatched in response to a silent alarm that had been tripped inside the facility’s primary server warehouse. With stealth and military precision, all exits were blocked as the team closed in upon their target. Once everyone had signaled that they were in position, they made their move. Within seconds the facility was secured, and the target surrounded at gunpoint from 12 angles.

    “Your 1 minute and 48 seconds late,” scolded Lex. “Now holster those arms before I feel unwelcome.”

    Following the captains lead, they all holstered their arms and stood at attention.  “Yes, sir! Sorry, sir! We will begin drills immediately to improve our response times sir!” stated the captain, speaking for all.

    “Gentlemen, you are dismissed,” said Amanda Waller, walking past them towards Future Lex Luther. She knew that this was not the Lex Luther from her timeline, and that he really was an intruder. She also had the good sense to know that no one in that detachment would have been of any assistance should Future Lex Luther prove to be hostile.  “I know who you are. So do you care to tell me what you are doing here?”

    Lex smiled, “You changed some of the protocols and added some silent alarms that I wasn’t aware of.”

    “So glad you approve. A lot has changed since you gave a substantial percentage of the world superpowers.” Amanda replied.   “You still haven’t answered my question.”

    “Relax, Amanda. I still own this facility and I’ll do what I please.” Lex responded annoyed at the challenge.

    “Is that so? Last time I checked you’re from an alternate timeline after having traveled back from the future and my cheques are still paid by the Lex Luther from this timeline,” Amanda snapped.

    Before she could blink, Lex lunged at Amanda and she found herself held by the throat up into the air with the strength and simple ease she knew that the Lex from this timeline was not capable of.  “You’d do well to remember who your superiors are. Make no mistake that I am Lex Luther and you are infinitely replaceable. You will find out exactly how replaceable you truly are should you ever get insubordinate with me ever again,” Lex said calmly as he slowly placed Amanda back down onto the ground.  Amanda gasped for air as he let go of her throat.  “I need a full report on what enhancements have been made, and I have another task for you. I need you to activate this sleeper, “Lex commanded, staring a hole through her eyes and handing Amanda a file folder.

    “Right away Mr. Luther.” Amanda said excuse herself from the room.

    Lex turned his attention back from the temporary interruption to the screen replaying the footage he was able to recover. As Lex poured over files from his Cadmus sites he discovered that there was a period of time that had been missing in the security logs at the Arizona Cadmus site. The Lex Luther of this timeline was not successful in his attempts to recover the lost data, but Future Lex had an advantage in technology allowing him to succeed where the other Lex had failed. With great fascination, he watched Klarion and Gentlemen Ghost liberate Vagenda from the facility.

    The next day Vagenda made a rare appearance in the cafeteria to share breakfast with other heroes from the watchtower. Mystical lore exclaimed she came in, and waved her over to their table.

    “Is that really what you’re having for breakfast?” asked Laura lightning, staring quizzically at a bowl of fruit loops with chocolate milk.

    “What’s wrong with this?” asked Vagenda innocently.

    Mystical just smiled at the two of them and added “don’t mind Laura, V.  She obviously isn’t ready for your toasted strawberry jam, bacon, and ketchup sandwiches!”

    Vagenda mystical just started laughing as Laura exclaimed “That is disgusting!  Please tell me you are joking.”

    “Still thinking about Zatana?” Mystical asked.

    Normally this would be where Vagenda would exclaim something along the lines of “how did you know that?” while feeling completely shocked. However, with the gravity of what had been on her mind of late, Vagenda just rolled with it in this particular morning. Of course Mystical knew about Zatana. She’s Mystical.  She always knows, after all. 

    “Yes” smiled Vagenda, accepting her friend’s inexplicable foreknowledge.

    “Okay you two, what am I the last to know about this time?” inquired Laura enthusiastically.

    Vagenda was used to sharing all of her personal details with Mystical, but Laura was new to the table - and as such Vagenda was hesitant to share personal information with her.  Mystical read Vagenda’s body language and helped to steer the conversation into other directions. As the conversation was directed masterfully through some of the details and goings-on in both Mystical and Laura’s own personal lives, Vagenda began to feel more secure talking about her own personal life in front of Laura as well.

    Finally, Vagenda opened up to both of them about what had happened the night before in her apartment with her conversation with Zatana. The three of them sat around the table discussing the implications that this new power may have for Vagenda, though only Mystical was aware of the nightmare that Vagenda had had a few months ago. Tastefully, she did not bring it up - and silently, she worried about how Vagenda must feel about that particular dream.

    Mystical took Vagenda's hand into her own, and told Vagenda that she would always be there for her, no matter what may happen.

    Laura also took the cue, and compared the three of them to a sisterhood, like a legion of healers that also should be feared by others who would dare cross them.  Like a terrible trio!  Laura took a look at Mystical and Vagenda, and then examining Vagenda’s clothing she suddenly exclaimed “We are the Pink Patrol!"