Not A Hero Anymore (Nico Di Angelo x Young Justice)

Broken

Darkness surrounded me everywhere I looked. At least, I think I was looking. I honestly couldn't tell if I had my eyes closed or opened, it was just staring into the void of dark. This wasn't the Underworld, I knew that nothing here looked familiar. On top of that, I couldn't move a single muscle, not even a finger twitch. I just laid there, floating, going no where and seeing nothing. He wished to reach out, to grasp hold of something something, anything. But everything suddenly snapped into focus. light began filling my vision, forcing the darkness to leave and light to come back. I opened my eyes to see the blurry face of Dinah.

"Dinah," I rasped out, slowly allowing her to help me up. "What's going on? D-Didn't we die?"

"No, no you didn't, none of you did," Dinah said solemnly. 

M'gann gasped, sitting up, now awake as well. She looked around at all of us, seeing everyone groaning awake, "You're all alive!" she cried in relief.

Manhunter was being held up by Batman, groaning and looked as weak as the rest of us. A meow caught my attention and I turned to see Phantom and Onyx jump onto the platform I was sitting on. Onyx rubbed herself on my lap. I started petting her, a haunted look still edged on my face as I listened to the heroes explain what happened.

"The exercise," Manhunter groaned. "It all went wrong."

"Exercise," Robin's voice cracks as he breaths heavily.

"Try to remember," Batman told us. "What you just experienced was a training exercise."

Flashes of events before the 'alien attack' came to my mind. It was of all of us laying down on these platforms and being connected via our minds.

"Manhunter psychically linked the eight of you within an artificial reality," Batman explained. "You all knew this going into the exercise, but what you didn't know what that it was train-for-failure exercise. No matter what you all would accomplish, the scenario was designed to grow worse. But still, you were all aware nothing was read. That included all the deaths you saw."

"That is why you hardly grieved," Manhunter added. "Even when Wolf and Flint were disintegrated before your eyes."

I stared petting Flint out of comfort for both him and myself, "But it all changed when Artemis died," Manhunter continued. "Though consciously, M'gann knew nothing was real, her subconscious couldn't make the distinction. She forgot it was an exercise, which cause all of you to forget as well."

We all turned to M'gann who had an extremely guilty look stained on her face, "I-I'm so...so sorry."

"This isn't her fault!" Conner defended her. "Why didn't you stop the exercise?"

"I couldn't," Manhunter told us. "But M'gann had a death grip on the scenario, even Artemis who should have awakened upon her death was so convinced she died that she went into a coma. It was then I realized I needed to take control from M'gann's subconscious from within the reality you were all in. But when I entered, the collective emotion from you all overwhelmed me and there was too much noise to think clearly. The deaths of Aqualad, Superboy, Percy, and Nico helped, but it wasn't until Robin and Kid Flash were killed in the explosion that I was able to think clearly and shock M'gann out of the exercise before all of your comas became permanent. My apologies, I had no idea that a training exercise could be so dangerous...so damaging."

Everyone around was staring at nothing, not able to look at each other in the eye. We were allowed into the common room, were everyone chose their spot and stayed there. Everyone was silent, just glancing at each other around the room.

"Should," Aqualad started, barely able to continue his sentence. "Should we talk about what happened?"

"That's what Canary's for," Wally said.

"I know, but there's somethings that should be discussed more between us. We are a team after all."

I knew he was looking at me, but I just stayed curled up in a ball in the corner of the room, surrounded by my pets. I couldn't bring myself to look at him, knowing he wants to talk more to me about what I did.

"What's there to talk about," Superboy demanded. "How we all died."

"We not exactly," Aqualad muttered.

"You want to talk about Nico," Wally guessed. "Don't you?"

I felt all their eyes on me, but I refused to turn to them, just petting Onyx who sat in my lap, "Nico, it was concerning what you did," Robin said.

"Just leave me alone," I mumbled, curling up into an even tighter ball.

The door opened, revealing Canary who was looking at around at all of us, "Nico?" she asked softly. "Can you please come with me?"

I slowly got up, keeping Onyx close, and followed her to a room. It was the same room that I was brought to when I needed to talk to her months ago. I sat in the chair across from her, not able to look her in the eye.

"Nico, let's talk," she spoke with sympathy.

"I'd rather not," I mumbled.

"But we need to," she sighed. "Please. You had a very traumatic experience, and you need to talk about that, especially with what you said to Kaldur before you died."

I continued to remain silent, not wanting to say anything, "Nico please, you need to speak to me. I can't imagine what you've been through, but you can't hold it in you."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" I snapped. my snapping shocked Onyx and she jumped out of my arms.

"You can talk to me, I can help you through this."

"Can you?" I asked, tears pricking my eyes. "You can help me? Everyone I ever cared about is dead, everyone! Percy is the only one I have left, and I just felt the pain of losing him as real as it will ever be!" I was standing now, yelling at her. "No one can help me! Percy is the only person I have left, after Chase killed everyone! Losing Percy means I have nothing to live for, nothing! So what was I supposed to do? Help save a world that doesn't give a damn about me? I world that just takes and takes from me?"

Tears were falling down my face and everything was shaking. Dinah was looking panicked. She quickly grabbed me, bringing me into a tight hug, refusing to let go, and I just cried in her arms. Letting it all go.