It must be understood that Jeremiah has suffered minor injuries, but nothing he did not willingly sustain. This, if nothing else, must be known FIRST.
It was five days later that I started really wondering what was going on. J'onn came to talk to us about once a day. He'd ask a hundred questions, give us lunch and dinner and then leave. This was after 2 weeks of taking one or the other of us away for private conversations that would last for hours. He'd either shove me against the wall or give me a blue jaw when he thought I was lying to him or being as racist as any human, but that was it. Beyond that he, actually took care of us. It was... I don't know what it was.
“I can tell what you're thinking.” Nikita said to me.
“Why do you think he changed tactics?”
“I told him you couldn't know what was happening with the two of us unless you were present. In that if we were simply talking or if something more barbaric was going on. There was no way for you to know he wasn't doing anything TO me because I wouldn't tell you if he were. So for that, and the very practical reason of no one having to repeat themselves. He put us together when he talks to us.”
“Why do I get the impression you're making fun of me?”
“I suppose I am...a little bit.”
“You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.”
“Even so, I'm having trouble making heads or tails of him.”
“And I'm pretty sure he's doing everything he can to make sense of us. Or more specifically, of me.” {J'onn comes in, mentions Nikita's human appearance and how well she keeps her temper in check – both sincere complimentary observations – gives them large glasses of potato curry soup and leaves}
“Okay, now I'm REALLY confused.”
“This simply cannot continue.” Nikita whispers. She turned to face the wall.
“Come with me, now.” J'onn told Nikita, who stood but did not move. “I'll not ask again.” J'onn insisted, taking a step toward her.
I got in front of her. “Leave her alone!” he raised his hand as if to backhand me, but dropped his arm in the last moment. “Whatever you have planned for her, take me instead.”
“And if I'm about to take her away and execute her. Do you still volunteer?”
“No, but I know you're not going to. Nikita was right if you wanted either of us dead, we'd be dead. If you wanted us hurt, we'd be beaten black and blue. What you want, the only thing you've wanted from either of us, is answers.”
“And it's about time I get them.” He grabbed Nikita by the wrist and started dragging her away. I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from her. “Your actions are as heroic as they are unwise.” He warned me.
“You will not hurt her.”
“You care for her?” he said in a strange voice.
“This surprises you?”
“I knew you felt responsible for her. This is...Who or what is she, to you?”
“Someone who was tortured for years by a man more blind than I have the words to express. Hank Henshaw was...not the hard, stern man I saw in him. He was so convinced Nikita was an enemy and a liar. He tortured her to get her to reveal her true appearance and intentions. Basically he wanted her to show him the monster she really was underneath. But there was no monster. It was the most obvious thing in the world that she was a gentle and innocent soul. I'd rather die than let her come to harm again. Sir, I can't pretend to understand you, but I swear on my life, if you let her go you can do whatever you want with me __ in payment of that debt.” This speech, I must admit, had far from its desired effect. J'onn actually backed away from me. “I was wrong about you. I'm SO sorry.”
“None of this was needful Sajen.” Nikita interjected. “It never was, was it?”
“No, no there wasn't.” I swear he sounded like a schoolboy getting dressed down for bad behavior. But Nikita wasn't finished. “For someone who can read our minds to determine the truth of our souls, you are surprisingly Deaf!”
“Nikita, help me understand this.”
“I think he was 15 degrees off about me and I'm pretty sure I was at least 30 degrees off about him. But all...you had to do was ask. I would have permitted it.”
“You're a telepath?”
“Yes, but unlike her kind I don't pick up continuous transmissions. I can read you mind if I choose. But I do not do so without permission.”
'A comedy of errors with little funny about it.' I thought to myself.
“If this had gone on any longer 'Deimos pah, Tarek Nit-cha.' would have been the next thing out of my mouth. Or are you Phobos?”
“Do you know what they are?”
“I know that -” her voice and face took on an academic look. “- 'in the early days of Mars there were two brothers, Phobos and Deimos. Their rivalry and bloodshed was the reason for the split of the Green and White Martians.' I learned that Phobos were barbaric. Creech-ta if not Crishnaka-Sareth. I just never knew who came from whom.” I must have had a VERY confused look on my face because Nikita turned to me. “Hank was an ignorant arrogant asshole, if not an ambassador of hell. That's what the two words mean, in my language.”
Something seemed to click in J'onn's brain. “How can you be speaking the Enkaren language so flawlessly if you are not yourself Enkaren?”
“Because it's my native language as well.”
“What?”
“Atraxi, Enkarens and Xavallens all share the same language. No more than 3,000 years ago we were the same race!”
J'onn stepped toward Nikita and brushed his fingers over her temples.
“I must humbly beg your pardon.” He said sadly.
“Okay, now I'm lost.”
“I have 3 questions right now. Which you can probably read on my face.”
“And one of which is not even a question.”
“True. So instead I will simply present an argument. For almost a month now the three of us, most certainly the two of us have been remarkably civil to each-other...given the rest of our situation. You must have seen Nikita was as dedicated to my well-being as I was to her protection.” J'onn nodded his agreement. “And it is by that same token I tell you that if you hurt her again, my restraint will go so far out the window it leaves the atmosphere. I would almost certainly die trying to take you down. I have that amount of sense. But if you let her go...” I took a breath and put my arms out in front of me as if being arrested, then pulled them as far apart from each-other, stretched to either side as they could reach. “If you let her go you can do whatever you want to me___in payment of that debt.”
I must admit the speech did not have anything LIKE its intended result. Our host cast his eyes to the ground and actually backed away from me. “This surprises you.”
“Yes, what is she to you? Who is she to you?”
“Someone as precious to me as my own daughter. I don't expect you to understand; I barely understand. But I would DIE before I let her come to harm.”
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