Session 21

Session took place on the 9th of September 2023.

Notes were taken by Alyssa.

## Recap - The Rhysnapping: A Week-long Hell

It was a simple, average patrol. We had fucked off a bit with practicing leaping between buildings and we were a few members down. Supposed to be just a normal night. Then it wasn't. Rhys, Donna, Julie, and I were together. And then we weren't.

Thank god for those trackers.

We tried to fly after the van that had my brother in it and the sheer fear I felt as I realized we were not going to be able to was overwhelming. I spent just enough time to let Julie and Donna know my plan before I pulled my power in. The interior of the van was dark. Rhys was lying prone and I didn't even have the chance to check if he was alive. Or regening. He wasn't moving.

Almost as quickly as I had arrived, Kaldur was on me and attacking. It wasn't a very long fight. I really didn't stand a chance against the next in line of Atlantis and I still can feel the shock of electricity when I close my eyes. I couldn't keep Rhys safe. I couldn't retrieve Rhys.

Donna, Julie and I went to the island of Themyscira through the Oblivion. D had previously called her mother and we were convinced to wait for her there. I couldn't bear to be idle while my person was missing. I didn't know what to do with myself. I was ready to fight and tear my way to him. My text message history shows I contacted NW at that time and asked him for tips on how to fight Kaldur. I don't really remember that.

I remember the force in which Wonder Woman landed among us and I remember Diana was ready for war. The idea that the Atlanteans would have touched a hair on her son's head. I only wish I could adequately describe the fury I had seen in her eyes or how well it defined the storm in my head.

Julie begged for some type of peaceful negotiation between the nations. Diana agreed. Just this once. One chance before the Amazons went to war. What a long fucking week.

I didn't stop trying. Over and over and over and over I tried. The days it worked and I made it to his holding cell, I was swiftly dealt with and tossed aside by the Atlanteans. Sometimes, I exchanged a few words with him. A promise not to tell Rick. A greeting from his mother. Love to and from his parents.

He asked once, "Why you and not her?" At the time, it made sense why she never came with me. It was dangerous. She was the leader of the nation. She couldn't just come with and put everything on the line like that.

"Because I can and I love you."

I stopped trying when the news reached me. Rhys had gotten out. Deathstroke had come back for his son and now they were both missing. I didn't know what to do then. I was no match for the likes of Deathstroke. I had no idea where he was. I didn't know if Rhys wanted to be with his father. I was just spinning my wheels when Donna reached out to me. To the team.

We met at the Oblivion that afternoon. Donna explained to us that her sister Nubia wanted us to accompany her to peace talks between the warring nations on a secluded island. Donna was hesitant. Julie was insistent. Vee just wanted the greater good for everyone. I just wanted to find my brother and protect my team. Selfish, really.

As a team, we agreed to go and bring our trusted allies. I would later find out that Vee had gone to Tim, Jason, and Evelyn. Julie reached out to Muse and Rachel. Donna would bring in her sister Lizzie and I would deny Nightwing the chance to come. While everyone else was preparing to keep the peace in a possibly historic event that could lead to the prevention of hundreds of thousands of deaths, I asked Nightwing to find Rhys. No matter what.

Later, Donna would let me know how the talk with her mother went and why Lizzie did not join us on the boat. She would explain that Diana had gone over the history of the last war and how it had gone down. How victory was achieved and how Atlantis came to rest at the bottom of the ocean. How Diana had been ready to wage war for her son and how she had left Donna to find her own path forward.

"Everything I do is for the good of everyone."

I didn't know how to comfort her.

Suppose I still don't.

That morning was so odd. It was off in a way that was hard to place. Between Jason chatting 'Big bitch, lil bitch' to cheer me up and Vee cringing in Andromeda's arms, I didn't know what to expect. The Ancestral Islands being nothing but a sandbar was almost as strange as Mera, Queen of Atlantis, and Kaldur showing for the peace talks. As Nubia and Mera went over the peace talks, the Renegades and allies grew restless. Vee and I tried to entertain them with a game of Rock, paper, scissors. (Or rock 49x and then scissors). It was then that the gunfire started.

Black Manta had arrived, and with him an army, and Deathstroke.

Crushing blows from Wonder Girl. Shields of prismatic colors from Polychrome. Tremendous force and destruction from Rachel and Julie and the tidal wave from Queen Mera knocked Deathstroke on his ass. Mercy came into my hands after Rhys, in full Deathstroke goon outfit, went after Kaldur and I tried to intervene. There was no way I could stop those blades of water from burying themselves into Rhys. I realized too late it was Rhys.

Wonder Girl's lasso secures itself around Kaldur and her command is simple.

"Stop harming Rhys."

She left Kaldur exposed with an opponent in close range.

And that's when it happened.

Rhys drew his knife Erebus and turned around, putting me and Kaldur at his back. Without hesitation, he turned on Black Manta and plunged his amazonian dagger deep into hiss stomach. An act truly proving whose side he was on and where he stood in the conflict. I only remember the next exchange so well because I had recorded it in my notes afterward:

*Deathstroke removed his mask and looked at Rhys in confusion.*

**Deathstroke:** "I came back for you. Saved you!"

**Rhys:** "You just wanted to turn me into your soldier. You didn't come back for me. You came back for 'Respawn.'"

**Deathstroke:** "I didn't want to lose another son."

**Rhys:** "I'm still here. Where were you? You already led one son into his grave. Are you gonna keep me from one?"

**Deathstroke:** "Every chance I get."

**Rhys:** "You know what side I'm on."

**Deathstroke:** "I haven't taken contracts on you or yours. I was hoping we would be together again."

**Rhys:** "You know where I live. You have my number. You could have called me."

**Deathstroke:** "You change your number so often, son. I taught you this. And I'm not welcome in your little magical hide-out. But you'll be back. We have eternity together, son. You, me, and Rose. I should check on her."

*It was then he looked down at where Black Manta was crumpled in the sand and kicked him.*

**Deathstroke:** "Well, he's not gonna pay me now."

*Just like that, he walked away from the fight he had a hand in, and his desperate son.*

**Rhys:** "Don't get another kid killed! Don't do this to her!"

*Deathstroke merely laughed at that as he swiftly stole a submarine,*

**Deathstroke:** "She can't die. Just like you."

The rest of the battle is easier after that with the majority of our team coming together to keep Kaldur safe during the fight. Until spikes came up and out of the ground, piecing the middle of our enemies and leaving them hanging. Suspended above the ground. Thank god for Andromeda. While Diana was coming down to hold and embrace Rhys, the other woman was going to Vee. I have no idea what she said to her, but Vee dropped the enemy in favor of going into the air with her mentor.

Among the familial hugs and cheers and tears, we learned the cold truth.

All of this was just a ploy. A plan on Diana and Kaldur's part to find those who were stirring dissent among both nations. Rhys was never in actual danger. Even the meeting that Donna had decided was best to participate in was of their engineering. I remember hearing Rhys and his mother apologizing. Donna and Vee hugged Rhys. Kaldur and Rhys exchanged a warrior's handshake and talk about a party of Rick's.

I remember how heavy Mercy was in my hands as I walked away from all of them, returning to the Oblivion. My first thought was to call back Nightwing from his mission and I did not receive a reply. Adrenaline spiked through my system and I did something I hadn't done with Rhys. I threw away caution and snatched Nightwing from whatever hell he had ended up.

I succeeded.

This time.

**Furtim Out.**