Peace to Dining on Ashes

This is the far more natural, open conclusion to the five-part Dining on Ashes saga.

I FINALLY found the beginning of this conversation!

Elana and Nikita are of similar empathic races. They are the most open-minded and human looking aliens anyone at the D.E.O. have ever met. Which is why it made sense to everyone that Elana could easily 'sync up' with Nikita and bring her back. Elana explains what is needful to bring her back and why she can't do it. 

 "It would require someone both compatible and in sync with her to pull her back from death. I'm compatible; I'm not in sync!" She looks around and takes it by a different handle. "It would require someone who has been with her for at least six years day in day out who is on the same wavelength as her. I'm on the same wave-length. But she and I are practically strangers."

In other words, despite the fact that they agree with each-other on 95% of everything, they have never actually spent any time together. And in this case, it has to be someone who is BOTH."

"Could I do it?" J'onn asks in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I...I believe so." Elana replied thoughtfully. "The two of you have always been so in-step...and you've known her longer than anyone."

Several days later Nikita is at her apartment, watching a Cinderella musical when J'onn knocks on her door. She waves him in, finishes whatever she was whispering to herself about and  invites him to sit down with her and watch the movie. The instant he sits down, she hurriedly stands up.

"Would you like something to drink?"

"What are you drinking?"

"It's a kind of seltzer, apparently mildly alcoholic." J'onn give her a 'why do you say it like that' look. "I've never known anything that is not alcoholic to calm both my nerves and my stomach like this. Here, let me pour you a glass." She pours him more of the seltzer into a glass identical to her own. "Chet na-she Hezikiah Nest-Za Ki." She says raising her glass in a toast. She brings the glass up to the side of her face before drinking. "Alah Ka-tiya Kian-em." A traditional toast in her own language which translates loosely as "To life friends and family...To God whoever that may be." 

J'onn actually blushes. "I'm sorry I, wasn't sure you recognized me."

"I know what is familiar to me J'onn." She replied with a small laugh. "Although I have to admit I'm not always sure why. Why does Jeremiah act like he's afraid of me?"

"It's a caution stemming from concern, not apprehension." J'onn said automatically. His face grew a look of regret. “You know how much we both care for you right?” Nikita nodded slowly. “I'm hoping you and I can talk about something...that we've been dancing around for a long time.”

Nikita sat herself down on her couch. "Yeah what is that about anyway? Seriously J'onn, what happened between us? I feel like apologizing to you for something. But I also feel like grabbing you by the collar and trying to shake some sense into you. Which makes no freaking sense!"

"I underestimated you and scared you off in the same stroke."

“J'onn I am asking you as formally as I know how, to be direct exact and forthright. It shouldn't be that hard for you.”

“Do you recognize the name 'Hank Henshaw'?"

A dark look cast over Nikita's eyes. "Only as a complete jerk who tried to keep Jeremiah away from his family. And when I was here initially he 'didn't like me very much'. I am being polite. He must be dead now, long dead because I try to picture him and all I see is you."
"That might be because I am wearing his face. I met you and Jeremiah for the first time when you both served under Henshaw. Your word for him was Creech-ta. And it fits.”
"...It would have to; I wouldn't use it otherwise." Nikita said offhandedly.

"I can sense that something is weighing on you." I told her gently. "I don't need to be a telepath to read you either."

“J'onn, what happened between us?”

This caught me off guard. “Why do you ask? I am not surprised that you ask, but i want to hear from your perspective, why do *you ask the question?"

“J'onn, you are my best friend in the entire universe I know this. But I keep alternating between wanting to apologize to you and wanting to grab you by the neck and shake some sense into you. Which makes no freaking sense.”

"I...that is a much longer story than either of us have the time or emotional threshold for."

"Did I do something to offend you? Did something stupid one of us said linger for so long we are actually used to the distance?"

"God no and absolutely not." I told her forcefully. "Something did happen between us. Something we both regret and with the help of time and friends have managed to...learn the better of is the only way I know how to put it. But it was my fault. It was ENTIRELY my fault. The last thing I want you to do is blame yourself. But you are the kind of person who would do that." She looked at me with a curious expression. "I've known you for 8 years now and with your help I have learned two unequivocal truths. One: You give grace upon grace to everyone. Even me, even strangers. Two: You shoulder blame and responsibility that is not yours to bear. At first I thought you were simply interested in sharing the burden for the sake of easing someone else's shoulders. Like with Jeremiah or Kal'el. But it's more than that. You force the burden on to your own shoulders, whether it's yours to bear or not. There is nothing you could ever have done to offend me Nikita. You are my family here."

"Yeah the D.E.O. has become a family on Earth for both of us. That much I can see."

"No Nikita. You are my family. I never had a family on Earth, not a sibling or a lover until I met you. Now I have, not only a family but someone to care for. I love you like a daughter. I've felt feelings of love, responsibility and protection I have not felt in over 300 hundred years. I'm sorry I never took the time to tell you."

"J'onn, EMPATH remember? Believe me, I knew."

"Is Mon-El around, has he come to see you?"

"He and I were together, alone but together for a long time, right?"

"You were best friends who became a couple. He asked my permission to ask you to marry him. I take it by the ring on your finger you said yes?"

"He is not living up to his reputation as a Daxamite. He's a perfect gentleman. Maybe that's why I love him so much...he's Horrata. Proof that there are exceptions to the rule for every species."

"And Me'gann is further proof of that."

"I do not understand."

"Do you know who she is?"

"She...is complicated. She chooses to wear the skin of a Green Martian for the same reason you choose to look human...to put us at ease. But she knows I can tell the difference so it's not like she's trying to hide...from me anyway."

"I never did understand that. You can sense the presence of a White Martian?"

"J'onn do you remember when Mon-El first showed up? I knew the attacker was Infernian, not Kryptonian. And certainly not a Daxamite." J'onn simply nodded. "My Xavallen physiology reacts extremely negatively to the presence of Infernians and White Martians. It's a fact of my own biology, not my empathic powers. Me'gann can't help her ancestry any more than I can. But my empathic powers tell me...What I sense from her as an individual calms me down. She's...from an empathic perspective, absolutely beautiful."

“Elana couldn't tell the difference then.”

“From what I understand Me'gann chose to take the form of one of Elana's closest human friends and couldn't pull it off. Because she asked for something Martin would never ask for. But that Me'gann was a White not a Green Martian...she wouldn't have been able to tell.”

“But I doubt she would have been too worried. She's an empath and would have sense the same things you did.”

“There's that. And the fact that Enkarens, although maybe not half-breeds, could kick a White Martian or a Green Martian's ass if the occasion called for it.”

“Wait what?”

“J'onn, if Elana was entirely Enkaren, she would be in a cell like the one I lived in for five years. Henshaw would have considered her a perfect example of how dangerous aliens are. And he would have been 100% justified in doing so. A ticked off Enkaren is a scary thing to witness.”