015
— no blood moon, no blood ritual —

HAZEL WALKED UP TO THE CONTROL ROOM, DOZENS OF PEOPLE RUSHING AROUND AS THEY LISTENED TO CONNER'S ORDERS. Hazel watched him move around, switching between giving orders and doing the work himself. As Conner handed the tablet off to the next employee that passed him he spotted Hazel and smiled. "Your Grace," he greeted and Hazel furrowed her eyebrows.

"That's weird," Hazel hissed. "What do you want, Conner?" Hazel asked, sitting on the edge of one of the desks. "I'm deciding if I'm mad at you or not."

"You probably should be, but we do not have the time," Conner said, walking around the desk to stand beside her. "I need your assistance."

❁

Cole walked through the halls of S.T.A.R Labs, bouncing his phone in his hand. He turned the corner just as Dick started to race up the stairs and he chased after him, calling his name. "Dick, slow down!" Dick paused and Cole jogged up the stairs, catching up to him. "Have you seen Hazel?"

"Conner wanted to talk to her," Dick answered as they started to walk again. "I'm looking for him now."

Cole nodded and slipped his phone in his pocket, following Dick up the stairs. "What did you—? Did you say anything to her?" Cole asked, trying to keep his voice steady. "Or did she say anything?"

"If you're asking if she's leaving, she isn't," Dick assured as they stepped onto the next level. "Yeah the lying wasn't great but right now we have to focus." Cole nodded softly and Dick placed a hand on his shoulder. "Okay?"

"Okay."

Cole followed closely behind Dick up to the control room, the room bustling with people racing around. "Hey, excuse me," Dick called, stopping a worker before she disappeared. "Have you seen Conner?"

"Are you kidding? Take a look," She insisted, looking over her shoulder before slipping away.

Cole looked up at Dick in confusion but they continued on further into the control room where Conner still commanded the room. "Bernard, I need orbital elements," Conner ordered, his eyes still entirely focussed on the tablet in his hands. "I gotta see what I'm working with, you feel me?"

Bernard sent a side glance at Conner but nodded all the same. "I feel you, Mr Kent."

"I think we can stop with the Mr Kent business, don't you? Just call me Conner," He insisted. He paused for a moment before continuing, "Or Mr. Luthor."

"All right, Conner," Bernard huffed.

"What the hell is going on?" Cole questioned, walking up to Bernard.

"Ask Mr Luthor," Bernard jabbed before stepping away.

Conner looked up at Cole and Dick. "I am taking away the moon," Conner said, throwing his arms open.

"I am taking away the moon," Hazel said sternly, her voice echoing from the phone in Conner's hand. Cole and Dick shared a weary look, but Conner continued.

"I accessed LexCorp's mainframe," Conner explained. "We're redirecting 58 of their satellites to reflect Hazel's sunlight back onto the moon. It'll basically erase the illusion that the moon's turning red."

"No Blood Moon, no Blood ritual," Hazel echoed.

Cole looked up at Dick who just sighed in response. "Okay, everyone, listen up," Conner called. "Once we're fully online, I'm gonna need thrusters on all satellites beyond 249.3 degrees East, all the way up. Got it?" An echo of agreement sounded through the room and Conner held the phone up. "Hazel, only meet a tenth of the energy needed, we still need those satellites."

"Duly noted," Hazel muttered.

"Hey, uh, Conner, can I talk to you for a second?" Dick asked following Conner as Cole looked over the mapping.

"Kind of busy, Richard," Conner said and Dick's steps faltered. "We're down to one hour, 46 minutes."

"Please don't call me Richard," Dick demanded.

Conner's eyebrows furrowed, "You actually prefer Dick?" Conner asked, sending a look at Dick.

"The last person to call me that was Lex Luthor," Dick reminded. "Then he sent six ninjas to kill me, Cole and Tim, so yeah, I actually prefer Dick."

"Okay," Conner mumbled. "You know he wasn't actually trying to kill you, right? He was just sending a message."

"Sure didn't feel like it," Cole chuckled. "You should move satellite 37 in line with 16."

Conner looked down at the plans before nodding at a man at the computer to move it. "If he were trying to kill you, he would have rigged the room with explosives. That's what I would have done, if I wanted to kill you."

"Look, Conner, you've been through a lot, lately," Dick said softly. "An hour ago, we thought you were dead. Why don't you take some time—"

"No time," Conner interrupted. "If we don't re-position these satellites now, we miss our chance."

Conner stepped away and Dick stepped closer to Cole. "Thoughts?" Dick mumbled and Cole looked up.

"His actual thoughts or my opinions?" Cole asked.

Dick shrugged softly, "Either is good."

"Cool, cause they go hand in hand," Cole mumbled, taking control to move the satellites around. "It's like the Lex part of him is trying to either take control or Conner's trying to prove himself to Lex."

Dick sighed and crossed his arms, "Is this gonna work? This whole satellite idea?"

"Should. If Conner is even remotely as smart as Lex. Which he seems to be because so far this is looking good," Cole confirmed. "Conner! I'm moving satellite 46 to line up with 27!" Conner walked back to Dick and Cole as Cole moved the satellite into place.

"I knew you'd see it my way, Dick," Conner said with a smile. "By the way, how's your, uh, non-confrontational, let's just sneak Sebastian out the back door of the temple while May Bennet's looking the other way plan going?" Conner raised his eyebrow and Cole rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Dick. I have an idea," Jinx called, running up the stairs.

Dick looked back at her and sighed. "It's going great. Thanks for asking," Dick snarked and Cole laughed.

Cole looked over the plans once more before moving his gaze to Dick. "I'm gonna stay here, help Hazel," Cole said and Dick nodded softly before moving to follow Jinx. Cole continued to relocate the satellites and check the computers when Conner walked up to him.

"I just wanted to say—"

"Conner there are very few people I dislike in the world, you are nearly my number one so shut up and let me focus," Cole hissed, continuing to work. Conner looked at Cole once more before turning away, checking in with the other techies. Another five minutes passed before Cole called out to Conner, "Everything's set."

Conner gave a nod before holding his phone closer, "Hazel you're up."

Hazel set her phone on the concrete edge of the roof in front of her. She cracked her neck to the side as golden lights started to twist around her body. She took a breath as she held the light in place. "Okay! Hazel, you want a near perfect 23 degree angle off of your starting position," Cole explained, his voice echoing through her phone. "Hold it there and I'll let you know when we're charged enough."

Hazel took a deep breath, "Heard!" She raised her hands, the lights running off of her body and into her hands. Hazel threw her arms out, her light racing from her body and through the sky. It cut through the dark sky, shining off the building and soaring through the clouds. It raced through the sky and up into space like a shooting star.

Then Cole shouted, "Okay! Hazel, hold it there!" Hazel pulled her arms apart, the light fading from her arms and the tail end of the ray raced to catch up with the light. "Create a sphere!" Hazel spun her hands in a circle, her light making a miniature sun floating just by one of the satellites. "That's it!" Cole shouted, laughing.

"Good job your Grace," Conner said and Hazel picked up her phone. "You can make your way back to the control room."

Hazel huffed, "You're welcome Mr Luther." Hazel ended the call and fell against the side of the roof, the red light spreading across her skin, burning her from the inside out. Her head dropped against the stone facade, the light getting harder to hold down. She took a sharp breath through her nose and the light exploded, breaking apart the stone and melting whatever was closest to her, including the door.

Hazel pushed herself onto her knees and cursed.

❁

"Do you remember when Gar mentioned teleportation earlier?" Jinx asked, nearly jogging as she led the others back to the lab. Dick, who walked beside her, gave a small nod and Jinx grinner. "Well, that is the idea."

"I thought it hadn't been invented?" Terran asked, catching up to Jinx's steps.

"Yeah, well, if you'd bothered to ask me, I would've told you that it has, by a group of magicians over 10,000 years ago," Jinx corrected, stopping by a computer as the others sat around. Terran pulled herself onto the table, watching Jinx.

"They should have told somebody," Gar said leaning on one of the chairs.

"Yeah, I didn't say they'd perfected it," Jinx said, turning her chin up at him. "How am I gonna explain this to you?" Jinx mumbled, turning towards the computer screen. "Does anyone know how to turn this on and make it do things?" Tim stepped up but Jinx spun around. "No, wait, fuck it. I- I'm gonna do this the old-fashioned way."

"Oh! Very quickly," Jinx said, spinning to face the others. "There is a difference between Teleporting and teleportation."

Tim cocked his head to one side, "Is there?"

"Teleportation is moving from one space to another, there's no inbetween. There is point A and point B. Nothing else. Teleporting is using magic to move through space, like using a spell and turning into a cyclone and then using that to move," Jinx explained.

Terran's eyebrows furrowed, "What?"

"It doesn't really matter, but I wanted to clear this up before someone says, hey just teleport in there and grab the fucker," Jinx rambled. "Plus we want to be stealthy." Jinx grabbed a modern white see through board and pulled it in front of everyone. "Okay. Okay. . ." Jinx mumbled. She wrote numbers one through four in each corner with a man under the first number. "So, the old magicians got the first part nailed." Jinx drew an arrow, a question mark and a tick. "There has always been a spell to get someone to disorganize."

"Disorganise?" Tim questioned.

"Yeah. You know, go all to bits," Jinx shrugged. "That was the easy part. The hard part was putting them back together again. And that's where things went wrong." Jinx turned back to the board, talking as she drew. "You'd always end up with some poor bloke with a— a foot sticking out of his mouth, or just a big mass of quivering jelly with one blinking eye." Jinx turned back, revealing the messed up stick figure drawing.

"Uh, this is beginning to sound not very promising," Kory said nervously.

Jinx nodded softly and turned back to the board. "Yeah. The other problem was that no one could ever predict exactly where a person would be when they re-organized," Jinx explained. "Back then they didn't know that the earth moved through space, so someone could re-appear a mile high in the sky, or right at the bottom of the ocean." Jinx drew a man under the water and Dick stood straighter.

"If only there was a computer that could predict in time and space exactly where a disorganised person would reorganise," Dick pieced together.

"And had the ability to control the reorganisation," Terran added.

"Right down to the very last atom," Jinx said slowly. "Oh, wait. We do." Jinx clicked the cap of the pen back on and grinned. "You're welcome."

Terran smiled to herself, "You're a fucking genius."

❁

Hazel and Cole stood together, cautiously watching Conner order the techies through the final steps of his plan. "Is it gonna work?" Cole asked, glancing at Hazel.

"Fucking hope so," Hazel sighed, leaning her elbows against the table. "Otherwise I just created a miniature sun for nothing."

Cole hummed, "Good work by the way."

"Thanks."

They stayed silent for another few moments until Terran came racing up the stairs calling their names. Before Cole could even greet her, Terran had grabbed them by their wrists and tugged them into the hall. Terran finally stopped and closed the door, turning to stare up at Cole and Hazel. "Hi?" Cole said, unsure of himself.

"Sorry, was that rude?" Terran asked, wringing her hands together.

"You're good," Hazel assured, "Just confusing. You alright?"

"Okay, so, remember when Rachel, Kory and I took Sebastian to a safe place then Mother Mayhem came and took him?" Terran rambled, gesturing wildly.

Cole hummed and ran a hand down his face, "I mean. . . vaguely." Terran rolled her eyes and Hazel slapped his shoulder. "Sorry, sorry. But yeah, what about it?"

"Um, okay, so a man showed up, banished Kory's teacher away with an order," Terran explained, dropping her voice lower. Hazel furrowed her eyebrows making Terran sigh. "He was Veman, part of Videl's Kingsguard. And, he came with a message from dad."

"Holy shit," Cole cursed. Hazel dropped her head into her hand and sighed. "I mean, holy shit."

"What did he say?" Hazel asked, crossing her arms.

"He— He just said that the witch was coming and we had to leave," Terran explained, stumbling over her words.

"Okay, kinda lame, but also that means Videl knows what's happening," Cole said.

"Yeah but it probably means the Council's involved," Hazel huffed, leaning against the wall. Cole furrowed his eyebrows and Hazel huffed. "The tear drop table." Cole's jaw dropped as he nodded, remembering the passage from the old books Bruce had sent to Hazel. "Wait, they can't be."

"That's what I'm thinking," Terran said quickly, "Though I don't think it's the same as your thinking."

"Terran first," Cole ordered.

"That man— if was actually a guard, would have symbols of Vema," Terran explained, motioning at herself as if she were the one wearing armour. "He had nothing, just the shiniest brand new armour."

Cole turned and pointed to Hazel, "Haze?"

"The Council is like the small council from Game Of Thrones, they act for the king. They know everything," Hazel explained. "So they don't know because a witch might be able to use her half demon son to raise his demon father, that's a pretty pressing issue. . . They don't know."

"What did Kory say to you?" Cole asked, "I know Kory would have said something."

"Talk to you first," Terran said, crossing her arms, mirroring the way Hazel stood. "So what do we do?"

"Right now? Nothing," Hazel said sternly. Terran and Cole's eyes widened as they stared at her. "If Conner's plan works, the blood moon will pass and we can focus solely on defeating the witch. Then we can figure out what to do about Videl and this knight, okay?" Terran sighed softly. "Okay?"

"Okay," Terran huffed.

Hazel mumbled a small thank you and turned to her brother, "Cole?"

"You sound like Dick," Cole mumbled. "But, yes, okay."

Hazel nodded softly, "Let's go back out. I'm sure everyone's already here, I mean if I knew that someone was trying to take away the moon. I would wanna see it too." Terran nodded and they stepped out into the control, and Hazel was right; the others had come up and crowded around the main table, talking between themselves.

"This is insane," Dick said in a low voice, watching the screen closely.

"Compared to what?" Hazel questioned and Gar glanced up at her as she stopped next to him. "You may have seen the light show— I made a minute sun."

Gar shrugged softly. "Two hours ago I was inside a stomach trying to kill a ghost snake," Gar added.

"And two hours before that, we were fighting zombies," Kory reminded.

"And I kissed Cole," Tim admitted, leaning closer. Hazel grinned and shook her head as she watched Cole's cheeks go red, but he still smiled. Rachel raised her eyebrows in surprise as Terran gave Cole a nod and Gar reached around Hazel to lean over and give Tim a fist bump.

"Big night for everyone," Dick mumbled, but he couldn't help but smile.

"Yo," Tim called suddenly, pointing at the screen displayed on the main table. They all leaned closer watching a new set of coding run across the database, a mess of numbers and commands that Hazel didn't understand but from the corner of her eye she could see Cole nodding. The video of the blood red moon slowly turned a soft blue that then shifted to its natural pristine white.

"All satellites orientation complete," The computer relayed in a loud voice and the room erupted in cheers and applause.

Hazel let out a heavy sigh of relief as Tim shouted in joy. The relief, mixed with shock raced through the group as Conner absorbed the applause. Kory grinned at Dick and chuckled softly, "Well, he pulled it off."

Conner walked by them, high-fiving Hazel as he walked past. "Good job," Hazel said,

He nodded, "You too."

Cole pushed himself off the table and walked over to the computer nearby, and Tim followed after him. Cole started to type in commands, making sure everything was working correctly when Tim tapped his arm softly. "Hey," Cole said with a smile.

Tim smiled, "Hi." Tim looked away, his cheeks burning. He didn't know why he felt so embarrassed, or shy, but just standing next to Cole felt like he was experiencing his first crush. "Hey, um, I said hi, uh—" Cole laughed softly at Tim and turned away from the computer,his eyes focussing on Tim. "You missed it because you were busy taking away the moon, but Jinx has a plan to get Sebastian back."

"Really? That's pretty cool," Cole said with a smile. "Definitely saves us from a fight with Mother Mayhem."

"Definitely," Tim agreed. "But Jinx does need your help."

Cole nodded softly, "I still need to check a few things but I shouldn't take too long."

"Cool, cool," Tim nodded. "Cool."

"Cool," Cole repeated.

Gar had stepped away from the large table, leaning all his weight on a nearby desk, his eyes unfocussed. He shuddered, his shoulders tensing. Hazel noticed him flinching and walked to his side, placing her hand on his arm. "Gar, you okay?" she called for him but his gaze stayed focussed on the table. "Hey. . ." Gar looked up at Hazel with wide eyes.

Kory noticed it too and walked to Gar, placing a hand on his back. "You okay? You don't look so good."

Gar turned to her and smiled softly, "Yeah I don't feel so good," he said in a shallow voice, his eyes still bouncing around.

"Why don't you go lie down? Go get some rest," Kory offered.

"It's okay. I'm just gonna get some fresh air," Gar compromised. "No, I'm okay. I'll—"

"Hey, do you want some company?" Kory asked and Gar's jitters paused. He threw his arms around Kory, pulling her into a tight hug. Kory's hands traced down his back before he stepped away.

"It's okay. It's been happening to me all day," Gar said with a shrug. He smiled at Hazel as he stepped around her, grabbing his jacket as he walked away. Hazel looked up at Kory before chasing after him, rushing down the stairs.

Gar was pulling his jacket on but he paused as he heard her footsteps. "Seriously Haze, I'm fine," Gar insisted.

"No you're not, I don't need to be a demi-god to know that," Hazel said softly. He pushed open the door to the parking lot and Hazel sighed, still walking after him. Gar paused and turned back to her. "Talk to me, please."

Gar sighed softly, "I don't— I don't know how to explain it."

Hazel took a step closer and placed a hand on his check. He instinctively leaned into her touch as her eyes lit up, searching his feelings, trying to find what was making him shake and shudder. The power started to surge through him but he grabbed her hand and pulled it away, "Don't do that, just—" Gar cut himself, his eyes focussed on the ground.

Hazel wrapped her arms around him and pulled him against her, his head dropping against her shoulder. "We can just go for a drive," Hazel offered, keeping her voice low. Gar nodded softly and stepped back, letting Hazel take his hand and lead him down the road. 

— rapture —