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eldabeTitle: Don't Tell Me Not to Fly
Fandom(s): DC Comics
Character(s): Lian Harper.
Rating: PG-13 for some creepiness.
Summary: Lian Harper came back to life in a world where heroes and villains never seem to stay dead. Now old enough to hold her own as a hero, Lian searches out the undisputed master of non-powered heroes in an age of superpowers. But Lian might not be the only one that has come back to life...
Acknowledgments:draconic_voices was the most fantastic beta ever, putting up with my absolute writer insanity. All remaining mistakes are completely mine. And thanks to iceshade, who shoved me back on track when I plateaued.
Complement:bliumchik put together an amazing mix to go along with this fic. It can be found here.
Flight Masterpost
Chapter Two
Interlude: Cerdian's Story
Moving on land was slow and painful and miserable. Everything only worked in two ways, and he couldn’t go up, and he couldn’t go down. And he felt the ground pulling his blood from his face and for the first time he was thirsty, thirsty, thirsty, all the time: endless, painful, thirst.
But he was a representative of his world, even if no one knew it just then, so he tried to stand straight and not lean on things, using them to hold himself up from the ground. The bottom. The down.
Father said it was fine to feel that way. It was normal and he could be normal and no one would care at all. But he was going to meet friends of Father’s and he’d never met them before. He’d only been back in the home-waters of Atlantis for a few tides, and most people didn’t even know he was alive. Father had come to get him and time moved differently everywhere, so while he thought he’d been away for nearly ten years, here, they thought it had been almost twelve. Or more. Cerdian wasn’t exactly sure how years worked here. Maybe the moon moved in a different pattern? Or maybe not. Tides seemed the same.
You will stay here, Father said, and Cerdian nodded. His name is Roy, and he has a daughter. She actually died, Father explained. Died and went on, unlike Cerdian who’d just disappeared from here but never actually left his body. His body just left the home-waters and went to a different dimension, where he had learned to use his powers properly. Learned to manipulate water, because that was all there was to play with and change. There had been no reason to come above the waters growing up, but now he was here, in a vehicle with wheels. Wheels only help on the ground, they were totally useless in the water. Turbines could be used sometimes. But not wheels.
Her name is Lian. Cerdian nodded. He didn’t remember being very, very young, with Lian and everyone else. But he had been, he knew. Very young, and with Lian, and above ground. That is why Father was not so very worried, because Cerdian had lungs for above ground. Lungs that would work for more than an hour. Hopefully, Cerdian would be able to breathe nothing but air, just for a few days. But he could sleep in water, he was promised. And he expected to do so. Because the air was dry, and uncomfortable, and totally wrong for sleeping.
She was nice, Lian. Played games and spoke a lot. He showed her how he could make water freeze or steam and she said that was cool, and could he make people hot or cold? People were mostly made out of water. Cerdian said he didn’t know. She helped with the sounds for above the ground, which were so very different than the sounds for below. No echoes or clicks (no clicks in English, Lian said. Some other languages. Perhaps Cerderian, the language close to his name) He learned politics some days. Politics were important now, with his name-country (a land country!) possibly leaving the Atlantean Kingdom. Which was very bad, Father had said.
Roy, Uncle Roy, was kind. And fun. But very sad. And he didn’t really understand everything, but Lian tried. Atlanteans were her project for her fifth grade report, so she helped him find food and they mixed the saline in the bathtub every night together. She was fun. And funny. She remembered being in the tower years ago, she remembered him as a little baby. But now their ages were closer, because she had really died and missed time, and Cerdian had left and sped time up. But they weren’t the same age, they decided. After some math, Lian still won. But not by a lot, so Cerdian got to go to school with her. His accent was better, and he was making friends, and no one knew that he spent his nights underwater, and he went with Lian to the pool every day so he didn’t have to feel the pull, pull, pull, all the time. He didn’t like chlorine, but it was worth it. And it was worth it to be with Lian, who loved to swim even if she couldn’t stay under very long. She taught him how to dive and he taught her how to speak some Atlantean, the little words that used air bubbles. She laughed and laughed, and then Cerdian had to go away.
When he came back he was older, and she was older, and he lived at the embassy, and she moved to Star City, and Central City, and Brooklyn. But they were friends. They still went swimming.
“Friend,” she would say underwater, with bubbles and hands, their eyes red from chlorine.
“I think I love you,” Cerdian would say back, and she would laugh because the bubbles sounded very similar to her water-filled ears, and she didn’t have any other way to understand communication under water.
Chapter Three
Fandom(s): DC Comics
Character(s): Lian Harper.
Rating: PG-13 for some creepiness.
Summary: Lian Harper came back to life in a world where heroes and villains never seem to stay dead. Now old enough to hold her own as a hero, Lian searches out the undisputed master of non-powered heroes in an age of superpowers. But Lian might not be the only one that has come back to life...
Acknowledgments:
draconic_voices was the most fantastic beta ever, putting up with my absolute writer insanity. All remaining mistakes are completely mine. And thanks to iceshade, who shoved me back on track when I plateaued.Complement:
bliumchik put together an amazing mix to go along with this fic. It can be found here. Flight Masterpost
Chapter Two
Interlude: Cerdian's Story
Moving on land was slow and painful and miserable. Everything only worked in two ways, and he couldn’t go up, and he couldn’t go down. And he felt the ground pulling his blood from his face and for the first time he was thirsty, thirsty, thirsty, all the time: endless, painful, thirst.
But he was a representative of his world, even if no one knew it just then, so he tried to stand straight and not lean on things, using them to hold himself up from the ground. The bottom. The down.
Father said it was fine to feel that way. It was normal and he could be normal and no one would care at all. But he was going to meet friends of Father’s and he’d never met them before. He’d only been back in the home-waters of Atlantis for a few tides, and most people didn’t even know he was alive. Father had come to get him and time moved differently everywhere, so while he thought he’d been away for nearly ten years, here, they thought it had been almost twelve. Or more. Cerdian wasn’t exactly sure how years worked here. Maybe the moon moved in a different pattern? Or maybe not. Tides seemed the same.
You will stay here, Father said, and Cerdian nodded. His name is Roy, and he has a daughter. She actually died, Father explained. Died and went on, unlike Cerdian who’d just disappeared from here but never actually left his body. His body just left the home-waters and went to a different dimension, where he had learned to use his powers properly. Learned to manipulate water, because that was all there was to play with and change. There had been no reason to come above the waters growing up, but now he was here, in a vehicle with wheels. Wheels only help on the ground, they were totally useless in the water. Turbines could be used sometimes. But not wheels.
Her name is Lian. Cerdian nodded. He didn’t remember being very, very young, with Lian and everyone else. But he had been, he knew. Very young, and with Lian, and above ground. That is why Father was not so very worried, because Cerdian had lungs for above ground. Lungs that would work for more than an hour. Hopefully, Cerdian would be able to breathe nothing but air, just for a few days. But he could sleep in water, he was promised. And he expected to do so. Because the air was dry, and uncomfortable, and totally wrong for sleeping.
She was nice, Lian. Played games and spoke a lot. He showed her how he could make water freeze or steam and she said that was cool, and could he make people hot or cold? People were mostly made out of water. Cerdian said he didn’t know. She helped with the sounds for above the ground, which were so very different than the sounds for below. No echoes or clicks (no clicks in English, Lian said. Some other languages. Perhaps Cerderian, the language close to his name) He learned politics some days. Politics were important now, with his name-country (a land country!) possibly leaving the Atlantean Kingdom. Which was very bad, Father had said.
Roy, Uncle Roy, was kind. And fun. But very sad. And he didn’t really understand everything, but Lian tried. Atlanteans were her project for her fifth grade report, so she helped him find food and they mixed the saline in the bathtub every night together. She was fun. And funny. She remembered being in the tower years ago, she remembered him as a little baby. But now their ages were closer, because she had really died and missed time, and Cerdian had left and sped time up. But they weren’t the same age, they decided. After some math, Lian still won. But not by a lot, so Cerdian got to go to school with her. His accent was better, and he was making friends, and no one knew that he spent his nights underwater, and he went with Lian to the pool every day so he didn’t have to feel the pull, pull, pull, all the time. He didn’t like chlorine, but it was worth it. And it was worth it to be with Lian, who loved to swim even if she couldn’t stay under very long. She taught him how to dive and he taught her how to speak some Atlantean, the little words that used air bubbles. She laughed and laughed, and then Cerdian had to go away.
When he came back he was older, and she was older, and he lived at the embassy, and she moved to Star City, and Central City, and Brooklyn. But they were friends. They still went swimming.
“Friend,” she would say underwater, with bubbles and hands, their eyes red from chlorine.
“I think I love you,” Cerdian would say back, and she would laugh because the bubbles sounded very similar to her water-filled ears, and she didn’t have any other way to understand communication under water.
Chapter Three
