Brave New World: Black Lightning

Chapter 8

Anissa was currently nursing a drink at a bar, since honestly, she was miserable without her powers, she felt miserable and right now, drinking was the only cure she could see for that pain. She honestly felt like she had nothing. And if she was perfectly honest to herself, it wasn't just the loss of her powers that Anissa was mourning, it was also losing Grace. This was honestly the first time Anissa had allowed herself to properly process her separation from Grace, but now it was made ten times worse by knowing that now Grace had no idea she even existed. So she turned to drinking.

"You look like you've had enough." Her mother's voice said as Anissa turned to see her mother walk up to her.

"Did the bartender call you?" Anissa asked.

"He didn't have to." Lynn said.

"So Uncle Gambi then." Anissa said and Lynn sighed.

"He's worried about you Anissa. We all are." Lynn said.

"I'm fine mom. I'm fine being a regular human with absolutely nothing going for me." Anissa said.

"That's not true." Lynn said.

"Yes it is. Honestly, I wish that you and dad had left ignorant of what had happened. It'd be less painful than remembering it." Anissa said.

"Anissa, I get that you're upset about losing your powers but." Lynn said.

"This isn't just about my powers. This is about Grace." Anissa said and now Lynn realized how much pain her daughter was in and the cause of it wasn't really the loss of her powers. It was because she'd truly lost the love of her life.

"Anissa, everything will be okay." Lynn said.

"Don't mom. You have no idea what I'm going through right now, so please don't try and act like it. I am the only one in this city who got screwed when they built this damn world. The rest of the family, you all got what you wanted. You're sober, Dad and Jen still have their powers, you and Dad still have each other and it sounds like we are planning to do everything we can to bring Khalil back to Jen. But what about me. I'm left to live a boring human existence with no one to share it with, since I already know that there's no one else I could ever love like I do Grace. I lost almost everything I loved in this new world and honestly, I wish that I could go back to not even knowing what I lost. Make this pain go away." Anissa said.

"You're right, I don't know what you're going through, but we shouldn't have just assumed that you were upset about your powers. Or well, only upset about them. I just wish that you had told us sooner. We could've helped you, but Anissa, you can't keep this pain bottled up. Or to try to drown it in shot glasses." Lynn said.

"Then what should I do mom? Because everything I had was gone. Well almost everything, since I still have you guys." Anissa said.

"But not the person you love the most. I understand Anissa. And we'll help you heal and who knows, you found Grace once, maybe you'll find her again." Lynn said.

"Yeah well, honestly, I'd rather forget about it. Forget about everything from a world that doesn't exist anymore. I wish that you guys had never had that J'onn guy wake me up." Anissa said.

"Anissa, we had no choice. It wouldn't have been fair to you to leave you in the dark while everyone else knew." Lynn said.

"I would've preferred that so that I wouldn't have to deal with the pain in my heart." Anissa said.

"Come on, why don't we head home and then we'll both take the day off tomorrow and try to take your mind off everything, since trust me, booze will not solve your problems." Lynn said.

"No, but it sure makes them matter and hurt less." Anissa said as she signalled for the bartender to give her another.

"No, can you please bring her bill." Lynn said and the bartender nodded as Lynn paid Anissa's tab and guided her daughter out of the bar.

"So that's why Anissa was so desperate to get her powers back." Jefferson said after Lynn told him about Anissa.

"She's trying to find any distraction she can in order to cover up her pain about letting Grace go. I think that before, she was so busy being Blackbird and Thunder and fighting the ASA that she never really had a chance to process it, but now that she's in a world she doesn't have Grace or her powers, there's nothing to distract her from the loss of both." Lynn said.

"So now she's turning to alcohol." Jefferson said.

"I'm hoping that tomorrow I can help her find something else to think about. Preferably her job, since she can still save lives as a doctor." Lynn said.

"I hope that you can get through to her, because the last thing we need is Anissa putting herself in the line of fire until we can find out what happened to her powers since I refuse to believe that she wasn't born with it in this universe." Jefferson said and Lynn nodded.

"It's possible that the gene could've been extracted from her without any of us knowing." Lynn said.

"No, that's not it. The technology needed for that doesn't exist yet, not even with the ASA. Not to mention that I'm sure Anissa would remember any kind of surgery that could be behind that." Jefferson said.

"We'll figure it out, but right now, let me worry about Anissa. You're the one who's going to be more useful dealing with our other child." Lynn said.

"Jen. Yeah, her training is going well. She's showing a far greater level of control than she did before, though I have asked Gambi to install a sensor in her suit that will cause it to bring her back down if she flies too high, since she did admit to me that she went up to the ionosphere while she was working with Odell and while it sounds like the energy she absorbed up there was incredible, at the same time, I don't think it's safe, since her powers maybe stronger than mine are, but even she has limits and I don't think we should find out what will happen if she goes past them." Jefferson said and Lynn nodded in agreement.

"What about Khalil, any luck tracking him down?" Lynn asked.

"Nothing yet. Wherever he is, he did a damn fine job of hiding himself, not that I can blame him. However, he can't hide from Gambi forever. Plus, with the resources and funds he's now getting from the ASA, he'll have mine and Jen's suits done by the end of the week." Jefferson said.

"Good. Because as much as we want our family to be safe, we all know that it will never be truly safe while the ASA and Tobias are out there, not to mention the fact that Freeland does need Black Lightning, something that I was blind to see before, but now I do." Lynn said.

"We can't change the past that happened before J'onn woke us up. Now however, we can keep the rest of it from becoming our future again." Jefferson said and Lynn nodded as they headed up to bed, since they both knew that they'd have a lot to do the following morning.