Long Past Dawn

The look in Wonderwoman's eyes is unreadable, but I already have an answer, and this time it might not be a complete lie. "I'll be ready."

Wonderwoman only gives a slight nod, I can see a glimmer of concern in her eyes, she then gets up and silently exits the room.

I sigh and lay down completely on the bed, I look out the small window and see there's still no sign of morning light. If it was any other day I would try to get more sleep but after everything that's happened, it's as if all the tiredness in my body has been blown out.

The corners of my eyes start to burn as thoughts fill my head, I've already frozen two people without meaning to, how long until I lose control and hurt someone. I don't want to think about it.

I look out the window again, how much longer till dawn? I almost laugh at myself, it sounds like I'm talking about myself, and who knows, maybe to a certain degree I am.

After a while, I lose all track of time and just lie on the bed, wondering what's going to happen.

The night seems so quiet, though I now that somewhere in the city it's as busy as if it were day. I start to hum a soft melody to myself, it's a tune from before I remember, mom would always be humming it and it just seemed to stick with me.

The melody is soft and light in some places, you could even call it airy, and in others, it's firm and heavy, as if not to let anything go.

I remember one time I asked mom, the real one, what it was about and she just stopped what she was doing, she seemed to stare straight ahead as if looking for something that only she could see. To this day I still remember the words she said to me after that, 'Dawn, sometimes it's not a matter of surviving the war; it's just a matter of choosing the right time to die.'

Not a matter of surviving the war; just of choosing the right time to die. I continue the haunting melody on and on as mom's words echo in my head. The melody seems to go beyond me and leak out into the cold night air, but still, I hum. There are no words to the melody, but it seems to flow as if words were made to fit into it.

On and on, round and round. Soon enough it stopped feeling like I was the one in control and more like I, myself, was the melody being twisted and shaped in whatever way was wanted until I could no longer recognize myself.

I suck in a raspy breath and try to focus, it seemed as if before I even knew it the melody had taken over me.

I shake my head to clear it and look around the room, morning light pours through the window. If it's already daybreak I don't want to think about how long I was humming for.

My throat feels raw. How much time did I miss? I'm a bit scared to think about it.

I get out of the bed and grab a towel and a change of clothes, hoping my bet that there's a bathroom in the room.

My prayers don't go unanswered, in twenty minutes I'm freshly showered and in a fresh shirt and jeans.

I walk out of the room and into the main part of the warehouse, at first I expect to see last night's thief but I then realize that they probably would already be gone by now.

Where do superheroes take thieves anyway? I push the thought to the back of my mind, probably to the police station.

I see Green Arrow and Black Canary sitting around the main table, donuts, and coffee sit at the table with them. I walk over and they greet me before going back to whatever conversation they were in before I came over.

I look over at the coffee and glazed donuts, the sugar seems to be radiating off them, any other day my mouth would water and my stomach would growl, demanding a sugary sacrifice, but now my stomach feels almost sick from just looking at them. I push the plate of donuts further away from me.

Black Canary and Green Arrow continue to talk and I don't pay much attention to whatever it is that has them so engrossed. Not wanting to b.u.t.t into a conversation I'm not interested in I just sit quietly staring into space.

I'm lost in a world of my own thoughts for a while until a firm hand lands on my shoulder, I look up in surprise to see Batman looking down at me. He stares at me for a few seconds and I can only guess about what he's thinking, after a moment he sighs and takes his hand off my shoulder.

He lifts his other hand and in it are the various tubes that I pulled out of my arm last night. I give a strained laugh at the sight of them, knowing I'm in for it. "Next time don't tear the IV out."

I give him a helpless look, trying to make it look like it's not my fault. His gaze only gets more murderous. I try and give another stiff laugh and a shrug but I can only just manage the shrug.

Batman sighs and turns around to leave, "I don't know what I'd do if there were two of you."

"Don't mess with the IV drip again." He says as an afterthought, stopping to grab a cup of coffee and then walk over to one of the computers and start working on something.

I almost wouldn't notice how tired he seemed if it wasn't for the growing bags under his eyes, now that I think about it, does he even sleep? I mean he has to at some point but he's always awake and active when I think about it.

I turn from my thoughts and look over at the plate of donuts, my mind says I should eat but I don't feel hungry. I look up and around the warehouse, so far only Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Batman are here.

I sigh, I have absolutely nothing to do.

I pick out one of the sugary messes they call donuts and place it in front of me, every once in awhile I'll tear a bit off. I don't eat any of it, I just tear chunks off and place them to one side.

I'm about halfway done with tearing the donut to pieces when the chair next to mine is pulled out and Stephen plops down next to me.

"Waste of a perfectly good donut." He says as a greeting, picking up one of the torn off chunks and tossing it into his mouth. "If you're not going to eat it I'll have it."

I push the rest of the donut and it's miscellaneous pieces over to him, which he starts eating happily.

He acts like a chipmunk as he pushes the donut into his cheeks, making them puff up, and I can't help but laugh.

"Wut?" He asks with his mouth still full of food and it only seems to make me laugh harder than before.

He swallows it in one gulp and I'm left to wonder how he didn't choke on it all. He turns to me with a twinkle in his eyes and I know he did it to cheer me up. "Thanks," I say, after all, that's happened it's good to have the distraction.