True North of Earth 21

“Mon'el are you alright?” Nikita asked her friend from across the room.

“I think so. Where are we?”

“I would guess somewhere near Taos New Mexico. Beyond that, I really couldn't tell you.”

“Who would bring us here?”

“That answer is forthcoming.” A vaguely female voice said from the shadows.

“Please, at least let us face our captor, or inquisitor whichever word fits better.”

“You have a strange understanding of the situation.” The woman said emerging from the shadows. She had light brown skin, jet black hair and an incredibly slim figure. She seemed to be dressed in black and green leather. “Or you have the tongue of a diplomat.”

“I've had many encounters with foreigners over the years. English is my first language but I know how to communicate with those who use it differently. That's how the current chapter of my life began.”

“I would be most interested to hear more about it.”

“Not to introduce yourself is considered extremely rude, even among enemies.” Nikita said blandly. “At the very least it's as good a place to start as any. My name is Nikita, I'm not as human as I look. My friends name is Mon'el.” She nodded to her companion.

“What species are you?” The woman said, crouching down with a knife unsheathed.

“Threats of violence are not only unneeded they are counter-productive. Unless I have a reason to lie I will never mislead anyone. If I am asked a question I will answer as truthfully as the truth I myself believe. That is who I am that is who my people are. Well, that is how it is for those who are actual like me. 'my people' you see, are those who resemble me...not those of my own species. And such a threat or intimidation gives me a reason to hide, stunning me into silence more than anything else. Scaring me is unto itself, counter-productive I'm Zavallen. Which means among other things that if you want me to talk you should not give me a reason to fear you. But rather give me a reason to trust you.” A shadow seemed to pass over the woman's face. “Something the original Hank Henshaw never understood.”

“How do you mean?” Mon'el and the woman asked almost at once.

“The current director of the Department of Extra-normal operations is himself an alien and he is my friend. He recruited me and I willingly follow him. The man whose place he took was a xenophobic, blind arrogant idiot. Our word Kreec-ta actually applies. I was an enemy alien under his directives. And reminding me of my time under his watchful eye is more likely to shut me down then allow me the freedom to speak without reserve. Just tell me what you want to know, and what you want from us, it truly IS as simple as that.”

“Well, you've done this before.” Mon'el murmured.

“Not really, but she is reminding me of J'onn in a way that is both soothingly familiar and hauntingly confusing.” Mon'el and the stranger both looked up sharply. “She is reminding me of the first time I met J'onn Jo'nzz. I am responding accordingly.”

“How is that freaking possible for someone like...She's no more human than you are.”

“She really isn't. The strange thing is either she's completely forgotten what it means to be a Green...Or she's different from any White I've even heard of. And I've met one!”

“You have? Under what circumstances?”

“He wanted to know what made someone like me different than the rest of my kind... apparently mistaking me for an Earth-human...More than understandable by the way. He took control of my mind and made me beat up an herbivoric kid. One of those white furry farm animals we have on this planet. I could see everything I was doing, and being a low level empath I FELT every blow I gave to that creature. He returned my sense of self to me just after he had me snap its neck. You gave me some sort of truth agent didn't you? Killing my resistance, my sense of restraint so everything just pours out of my mouth?”

“J'onn Jo'nzz...He is a Green Martian? “

“What he IS, is my direct superior and one of my two closest friends!” Nikita thundered. “Ask me any questions about myself and my life that you want. But I will not put my friends in danger. And yes I know you're a White Martian and yes that is why I will not betray him to you.”

The brown-skinned woman faded. Replaced by a petite green-skinned woman with a sloped head and bright eyes. “Personally I prefer this skin.” The woman said simply.

“Phobos and Demos. I know all about it...From J'onn. Oh please! You could probably walk among my memories as I would a cobbled street or the hallway of a castle. And frankly I would say go ahead. Except that Mon'el might actually be the better for hearing some of this. We'd both be the better for full disclosure and the utter transparency. But enough of this! What DO you intend to do with us?”

“You will not resist me?”

“I would submit myself to it. My mind and body would fight you, I cannot control that. Any living organism attempts to expel a foreign body and you would register as something other than myself. Any White Martian or Infernian would be detected instantly and would set off alarms of invasion in my mind.”

“That would explain how you knew I wasn't one.” Mon'el said mindlessly.

“What does he mean by that?”

“Four years ago an Infernian attacked an esteemed senator at a rally for her 'Human First'-esqe followers. I doubled over in pain, standing in the DEO bullpen one day. Mon'el was found the same day and it was assumed he was the culprit. That I was reacting to him, even if he wasn't the assailant. I knew I was sensing either a White Martian or an Infernian. But I stood 5 feet from him and felt nothing alarming whatsoever. Kryptonians detect things in a collective sonic frequency. My people, low-level empaths that we are detect the emotional frequency of a race. Most of which, the frequencies of most races are incredibly like each-other. But there are two that stand out far more erratic, essentially on a higher frequency than the others. Most races are various shades of greens blues and purples...I rely on what I sense about the individual to sense danger or fear or even to figure out what species they actually are. It is a physical impossibility for Infernians or White Martian to be mistaken by my kind as anything but their own species. In the case of Infernians the mere presence of such a being hurts us like hell. It is a fact of our biology... that you are painted red for me.”

“You are hiding something with selfless conviction. Are you protecting J'onn?”

“Take a cursory look over the last 7 years of my life and you'll find your answer. Believe me you'll have to. I have nothing to hide. But my friends are mine to protect.”

Nikita sat silently, staring at nothing. Small waves of energy pulsed over her skull but she said nothing against it. In fact she continued to talk as if nothing was wrong...until she clutched her head in pain.

“Why are you doing this?” Mon'el asked of their captor almost an hour later. “Literally, what makes you think she knows anything worth knowing?”

“She agreed to this, she submitted herself to the bond. If nothing else she is proving I can trust her and that she truly has nothing to hide...not a pointless act I might add.”

“You keep this up she'll crash completely. She won't remember what you were looking for...she won't remember me.” Mon'el was clearly saddened by the truth of what he'd said.

“You know her kind?”

“I know her.” Mon'el corrected absentmindedly. “She's my closest friend and my-sponsor I guess is the word. I don't know a damn thing about her race. But she is the dearest most innocent person I know. Please, stop this. I will tell you. It was my secret she was hiding anyway, not hers. What she was hiding was the simple fact that I'm an alien as well. My name is Mon'el; I'm the former prince of Daxam.”

“And that was worth going through torture? That's hardly a secret worth keeping.”

“Except it wasn't her secret to tell! She told you: She's an open book for herself, but she defends her friends to her last breath. To her it's my choice what I tell you about myself. And she didn't want to betray my trust. Please she's simply being loyal to a friend. And trusting a stranger in the wilderness as much as a stranger in a holding cell. That's how we first met. A Kryptonian known on Earth as Superman hated my guts and thought the worst of me when he first met me. Our planets did not get along and that was the only reason we didn't trust each-other. Nikita --who was a stranger and an agent of whatever organization arrested me -- showed me more compassion and kindness in 20 minutes than I had known from anyone in my entire life. She honestly fears betraying me. But she fears so out of love; not duty or obligation."

“You are the other 'closest friend' she mentioned?”

“We're joined.” Mon'el replied. “We're intended if not bonded. I don't know how I should say this. I'm not as good at English as she is. We are pledged to each-other but have yet to be married. She is my mate and I am hers. Please I will do anything, just let her go!” The field faded. The pulsing light diminished until only a vague ethereal glow was left.

“I am sorry.” The woman said to Mon'el. “I...I misunderstood.”

“You thought we were soldiers?”

“I thought the DEO had sent you here...to find me.”

“History repeating itself again...in a very different way.”

Three hours later

"Mon'el, she didn't torture me."

"She was crawling around inside your head, inside your memories!"

"No, she was walking among them as I would walk down a cobbled street or a hallway at the DEO. But that's just because her people are psychics. If I could look into the mind of another I would see the neuronal pathways of thier mind like literal pathways: streets or corridors or something. Green and White Martians both share that ability and they have the strong minds required to compartmentalize and sort what they see. But she stayed inside my mind for 3 solid hours and I couldn't take it. I'm an empath, not a telepath."

"You've had other people inside your head?" The woman asked me. I could tell Mon'el was thinking it too.

"Well, sort of. J'onn told me that you're people send thoughts and link minds, share emotions, dreams...memories. So occasionally he'd look into my mind to make sure he understood what I was trying to say. Or so he could SEE the memory rather than rely on the description of it. Especially when it was a memory so important to us both. Our first meeting around the campfire and the 11 weeks leading to it was such a time. But that only took a few minutes and he had specific rooms he was looking for. My body simply wasn't strong enough to handle another person's mind inside of it for such a prolonged length of time...opening THAT many doors. So many memories reawakening. But I'm a receiver not a transmitter. I can't send my own thoughts. Which means that unlike for most humans who experience this a door once opened can not be stepped through in either direction. I've actually shut down the part of my mind that would want to try."
"Then why did you..." Me'gann seemed at a loss for words.
"If I'd said 'look in any rooms but these' what would you have done? If I'd put any kind of a limit on where or how long to look...the point was to be open-minded and to show you that I didn't have secrets. Secrets profit strangers nothing. Lies even less so. But please, I ask you once more, and hopefully for the last time: What do you intend to do with us?"
"I saw enough to know you're not with Henshaw. I knew you were DEO agents and under the command of their director. I assumed you were here on a DEO mission...looking for me. Why ARE you out in the middle of nowhere?”
 "We were heading for a place in the SangreDeCristo mountains...a cabin." Mon'el responded. "We were taking a vacation." Some color crept into his cheeks as if he was being called out in front of an auditorium. "And I would have proposed by the fire. J'onn gave me his blessing."

"I imagine he was pleased when you asked his permission." Nikita said with a smile. "J'onn is the closest thing to a father I have here." She explained to her host. I'm 78 years old and he takes care of me." A look of realization passed over the Zavallen's face. "Hank Henshaw has been dead for nine years Ma'am. J'onn J'onzz assumed his identity after...Well after a mission very much like the one you thought we were on."

"Henshaw hunted him. J'onn defeated him." 

"Yeah. I was on that mission. I still shake my head at myself for assuming the Martian we were pursuing was...Phobos not Deimos."

"Then Mon'el is correct. This situation is incredibly similar. And my name is Me'gann M'orzz."

In front of Me'gann, Mon'el takes Nikita's hand and asks

'Will you take me as your husband?'

Nikita says I do. She then asks Mon'el 'will you take me as your wife?'

Mon'el says I do. It's a hand-fasting and a proposal of marriage all in one.