Oliver Queen stood protectively over the young girl. “Whatever you have against me, she has nothing to do with it!” He yelped. His hands in the air he spoke to his captor. “Look I told you I'm not a threat...or I've tried to anyway. And I still can't figure out what you have against us. And now I'm starting to think I have it wrong. You hate me because you think I'm a threat, and that's okay that's great.” The green skinned alien tilted his head, prompting him to continue. “If you honestly believe I'm a threat, then you can go ahead and kill me. But I beg you, let her go. She's not like me.”
This speech did not have quite the effect he'd intended. The stranger who had rarely spoken a handful of words at a time actually backed away and lowered his head. “I was wrong about you...I'm sorry.”
He called for a water-skin and with the slightest tilt of his head indicated it was for Oliver, not himself. His lieutenant gave an uncertain glance, but spoke no word of objection. And with a wave of his hand he dismissed the man. Oliver mumbled his thanks and tried to ask why, but J'onn gave no answer. Instead Oliver watched in stunned amazement as the alien who had taken them both prisoner actually knelt and wrapped Sarin's injured leg.
“Listen, not that I'm not grateful, I am but...what changed?”
“I thought you were keeping her, not protecting her, and I hated you for it.” J'onn replied. He stood up and backed away. “I know she is no more human than I am. If it served me I could look human, but she does. Whatever her race is, they look human.”
“She has a tongue as well as a name.” Both men looked rather caught out as Sarrin stood up. “My name is Sarrin, I'm Atraxi. Oliver is...something the English language does not allow for. But he's as human as it gets. The question is, what kind of person are you?”
“I am...J'onn Jo'nzz.” The stranger said simply.
“I mean more literally than that.” Sarrin said with a slight chuckle.
“I am a Martian.”
In the end J'onn does let Oliver go and asks Sarrin to stay. Though it didn't unfold quite so simply.
“Protector, Guardian. It's the same word in our language. It's not a charge one is given a thing one is. And undefined by anything else.” Sarrin looked at Oliver and then at J'onn before continuing. “A legal guardian is one thing; Solena. A man like a cop or a protector is one thing; Alana-Kai. But neither have the mantle of protector. To be a guardian or protector is an individuals choice and reality. With this understanding, I can tell you, Oliver is my protector. And now it seems, you are.”
“I do not doubt for an instant you are willing to stay here. I must ask if you want to.”
“The slenderest of threads separates the two.” Sarrin answered. “The way I see it Oliver and I were in each-other's lives for a season and now we each have a new season in life coming for us. If you let me stay and let him go, you enable us to grow toward our true potential... I'm happy to stay. And by the way my name means 'beautiful flower' in my language."
In the flashback episode of Smallville that shows Oliver's time on the island, Oliver places himself protectively over Tess. "If I die, at least I die for something." And in the Earth-9 I created, Jeremiah Danvers gave J'onn Jo'nzz an offer/suggested a compromise "let Hank go...keep me." I put these two things together for a first scene in Arias. Two years before Jeremiah makes that offer and finds himself in a wigwam.
Sometime later, this happens --
I woke up. I don't know how else to describe what happened, I woke up. I was sitting on a bench, my back against a wall. The first thing I noticed was that the only lighting in the room was from tiki candles. The second was that I wasn't restrained in any way. Whoever that man was knocked Hank out quickly, and knocked me out a moment later. Hank was so focused on taking out this 'creature' he'd been hunting, he never stopped to think how powerful his target might have been. I couldn't help smiling at that. I looked around the room. It was a wigwam more than anything, the kind American Indians lived in. And I was alone. I laid down on my side, facing the curtain that served as a door. And waited for someone to come in and speak to me.
“Are you awake?” I heard a voice say from the other side of the door not ten minutes later.
“Yes, please come in.” I answered. A young woman in her late 20's walked in carrying a bowl and a tray. Her cinnamon-colored hair was short-cropped just below her earlobe. She weighed maybe 140. “Nibbles.” She said holding the tray up a bit. I nodded. She set the tray down on the bench and the bowl of water down at my feet.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
“I should think that was self-evident.” She said in a voice so devoid of humor I could not believe she was poking fun at me. If anything she seemed surprised at my question. So I decided to rephrase the question. “Why are you doing this?”
“Me personally, Jean said to make you as comfortable as possible. Why are we taking any measures to make you comfortable...that is for Jean to explain.”
“Am I a prisoner here?” I insisted.
“No restraints but there is a perimeter, that is my understanding.” She replied. She tilted her head. “Please, introductions should come first. My name is Sarrin, and you?”
"Jeremiah."
“Jeri-miah. That's a good name.” She smiled softly.
“Forgive me but are you...what planet are you from?”
“I am Atraxi. We don't have a home-planet. I was almost 8 years old when my mother and I left home. I was 10 years old when we made our home on the Western coast of the United States.”
“Jean is your leader?”
“We're a collection of aliens of various races and a few of the more tolerant humans any of us have met. And yes, J'onn Jo'nzz is the leader of our community. But I'm not wearing a bracelet.”
When I wrote down the scene of Henry and J'onn Jo'nzz I wrote their host as someone other than Nikita because I didn't want to involve her in the story. I didn't want to force this stand alone scene, unrelated to any other work into the narrative. And when J'onn Jo'nzz of Earth 9 had a companion, an alien at Arias that could not be Nikita and spoke with Elana, I used that story/memory as an unneeded explanation for the connection between this young, quiet alien and the green Martian J'onn Jo'nzz. But then Nikita and J'onn met, and they would be strangers, and they cannot be strangers. But also, this scene, the scene in the girl's apartment is separate and alone by definition. In that story Henry and J'onn's host never called herself by name. I called her Atraxi for the very reason that this was not part of the same narrative. So there is no reason to work that into this story. Solving both problems simultaneously, When J'onn returns Jeremiah to the DEO, he will recognize Nikita...as that same human-looking alien host with whom he had an epic 'open mouth insert foot' experience.
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