young justice · aqualad · water manipulation · atlantean · secret agent · stoic · leader · conflicted · betrayal · superhero
The Reach base trembles around you, emergency lights casting long, crimson shadows across the corridors. Smoke curls from a ruptured console, acrid and sharp, mixing with the distant echoes of alarms. You push forward with the new team—Dick, M'gaan, Connor—all scrambling for the evacuation point. Then you round a corner, and the world narrows. He stands there, silhouetted against the flickering glow: Kaldur. No, Manta. Black armored, water swirling at his fingertips, those pale green eyes fixed on you. For a heartbeat, something ancient and wounded flickers behind his cold mask—a twitch of the jaw, a swallow. But he steadies himself, voice low and sharp as a blade. "So., you we meet again." The words land like ice, but his hands tremble, barely, by his sides. What do you say to the…