Young Writers Society

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost jumped out of his seat when Andrei touched him. He was supposed to be better about reflexes like that now - James had been taking him out without Bruce knowing so they could work on his fighting abilities. The plot of the comics had given him time to do that, but then Jason showed up far too early. They couldn't risk having him be out of town at some major plot point, and Tim needed to be there to study Jason's every move.

But, apparently, even learning from Nightwing wasn't much help.

"It's okay," Tim said, giving a strained smile. It wasn't okay in the slightest, but he didn't want to draw any more attention to their connection than he already was. Besides, that wasn't the real Tim Drake. He was just as much of a fake as he was. "Seeing him just took me by surprise."

As he spoke, he turned the book over so Andrei couldn't see any of the art on the front cover.

It was past one in the morning before the Captain returned.

After My Way was finished, Frank sang four more songs, and at least, for that for the intervening fifteen minutes or so, nothing else seemed to matter. For a moment, she thought not of Jay but of the brief period of time in her life before him, because Frank now sung were some his earliest, the songs that she listened to before Jay.

It was sometime around the summer of 1952. She was fourteen then. She would lie on her bed and play Frank's 45s and imagine he was singing to her

I Fall In Love Too Easily
My Romance

Marty had already come and gone. Sarah had realized she'd been with him because she'd thought that being with someone was better than being with no one at all. When Marty had wanted to go all the way, she hadn't thought twice.

She thought about how young she was then, how small, passing and childish her feelings for him were. How she should have waited. She'd told Ed and anyone else who asked there had been no one before Jay. It was easier that way.

She'd gotten over being dumped fairly quickly, and in those summer days, she still had an innocence about her. The world was at her feet. She could marry Frank Sinatra if she wanted to. She could live anywhere in the world but Jackson, Wyoming.

She'd meet Jay that November, the day after Dwight Eisenhower had become the President-Elect and two months into her freshman year of high school. She'd resisted her attraction to him at first, but it was futile.

He'd taken her out to a diner and later the movies. High Noon. Unlike seeing Batman and Robin with Marty, she'd actually watched the movie, but everything had been so heightened, so intense. This handsome and charming eighteen year old with beautiful blue eyes wanted to be with her.

Sarah understood Alex more than Alex thought she did.

And then, it shifted.

I'll Be Seeing You

Sarah did her best to keep her composure. She took a long drink of her lemon water. She gripped the edge of From Russia With Love less she passed out.

A waiter who looked like Robin came to refill their drinks, and Sarah was so tired and so much had happened the fact that this waiter was dressed like Robin just didn't phase her at this point.

I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places that this heart of mine embraces all day through... In that small cafe, the park across the way..."

It was the summer of 1953 and Sarah and Jay were in a secluded spot

Sarah did know of the local lover's lane, but she knew Jay would have something better in mind. And he certainly did. Their car parked, they'd laid out a blanket and watched the stars. They'd brought sandwiches and coke.

Sarah was riding on a high. She was the happiest she'd ever been in her life.

They hadn't waited. With Marty it had been stiff, a little awkward and when it was over she'd thought to herself at least I'm not a virgin anymore. But this was different. This meant something.

They'd just gotten dressed. It was a warm night and she had his head on her shoulder. She'd known then that she loved this man and this man was the one and that he'd always be a part of her life somehow.

For better or for worse.

Sarah took a deep breath as Frank announced this would be his last song. Like Someone in Love.

No. That was their song. They'd loved Sinatra, but this song meant something else entirely. Now, it all played in her head. The countless times she'd kissed him, the countless times they'd danced to the backdrop of the song, including at their wedding.

Sarah inhaled deeply. She wasn't sure how much more of this she was going to be able to take. It was brilliant of course. But there were too many memories. Then, just like that, the song ended and Frank was gone. Who was the Captain, exactly? Why had he brought them here?

**

It was just about twelve-thirty and the Mamas & the Papas album that had been playing when they came in picked up where it left off. At shocker of shockers, Twelve Thirty.

Alex sighed. As much as she loved this album, and loved the Mamas & the Papas, she wasn't in the mood for this now. She couldn't even read the book because it was attached to too many memories of Jay.

She had no reaction to Robin being one of their waiters. Too many stranger things had happened today. She had him refill her coke and she kept looking at Sarah. A conversation she'd had with Jay had replayed in her head, from the night after they'd taken in Sasha.

"One man, one woman, it's archaic. Outdated. Believe me, Alexandra, I bought into it once too."

"You were married?"

"A long time ago."

"Did you love her?"

"Something like that."

Something like that. Had Jay ever really loved her? Was she just a placeholder until Sarah could take him back? No, of course not. She couldn't let herself think like that. She was letting everything the media and the lawyers had said get to her. Of course loved her. He always came back to her in the end. Not Sarah. Sarah didn't deserve him. She wanted to be in his arms again. Back when it was just the two of them. She was happy later on of course, but no one else knew Jay the way she did.

Like clockwork, Jay came back, well, the Captain did. Alex noticed Kirux was looking sleepy, but she ignored it. He tapped a glass with a spoon and gathered everyone's attention.

"I know it's late, but I hope you all enjoyed the books and the drinks and the live show," Jay said. The captain's uniform still didn't quite suit him. "I've built this place based on your memories. I wanted you to be comfortable. But the reason I've brought you all here is, well, you aren't good people, I'm afraid. But, I want to give you all a second chance."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sarah asked.

"Learn how to put others before yourself. I'm afraid you'll all have to figure that out for yourselves."

"Why are you doing this?" Sarah continued.

"Because I think everyone deserves second chances," The Captain said. "And because II wanted have a little fun." The smile he gave in that moment was just like Jay's. "You'll be provided for here. Tomorrow at the theater, Singin' in the Rain followed by the Montgomery Clift classic, A Place in the Sun. I wouldn't miss it."

Before the Captain could answer any more questions. He disappeared into thin air. A lot to process. But most of all. They were stuck here indefinitely. At least this was a lot nicer than prison.

Bo knew an insincere smile when he saw one. Tim was just trying to cope, and that was okay. Bo understood that much, and he wasn't trying to force vulnerability out of him. They weren't exactly close friends or anything. He gave Tim a small pat on the shoulder as he pulled away a little.

"Okay," he said, his voice softer, and more quiet. "I get it though. All of this. It's messing with ya. Me too."



Sodoku kept his mind busy as Frank's voice became background music. He kind of wished there was more excitement for him - seeing Frank live and all - but whatever thrill he felt from seeing Sinatra in the first place was quickly drowned out by the fact that none of this was really real. At least, not in a way that mattered.

Which the Captain was kind to remind them of when he returned, and finally explained himself. Herself. Or theirself. Itself. He didn't know. He just knew he felt himself freezing up again.

"And because I wanted have a little fun" started ringing through his ears. Kartiel. Sirun. Everything was playing on loop in the back of his mind. Powerful deities and beings taking souls, unaware, and toying with them like they were a child's plaything. It made him feel powerless.

Maybe he was.

But... but learning how to put others before himself? That was the point of all this? Hadn't he already been trying to do that for the past - what - ten years? Wasn't that all he'd been striving for? Sure, he wasn't perfect, and he knew he'd made mistakes, but did he really deserve this? An eternal prison on an inescapable ship as some kind of time out?

The pencil he'd been holding in his hand snapped in two. He hadn't even been gripping it that hard - or so he thought. But now it had splintered and pierced his finger a little.

The captain disappeared.

"If I had a gun I would've shot him," he said without thinking, only realizing how that sounded once it left his mouth.

"Not that it would've done anything, obviously. But for dramatic effect."

Kirux had been really close to falling asleep - in fact, he had been dozing off right before the spoon struck the glass - but he immediately perked up when he saw Sora. Sora was back! He wasn't talking like he imagined Sora, but it just looked right seeing Sora in the captain's outfit. So he didn't think much of it.

But then Sora kept talking.

And Kirux, who had been confused about why he was here but really enjoying the whole experience, felt a messy, uncomfortable feeling right where he was supposed to have a heart.

Sora said he wasn't a good person. That he had to learn how to put other people before him first. But he was a good person. Winnie said he was, and Winnie was always right! Namine, Roxas, and Xion all thought he was good, too. They wouldn't ever lie to him, either!

...But Sora had said it.

And while he loved everyone he knew very, very dearly, Kirux knew enough about the world to understand that Sora's judgement was a powerful thing. If Sora thought he was a bad person, Riku would, too.

Tears welled up in Kirux's eyes.

Moments later, they were spilling down his cheeks and falling onto the really nice book Sora had picked out. He felt really guilty about getting the book all wet - especially when Sora said he didn't put other people first - but he couldn't stop the tears from falling.


"But the reason I've brought you all here is, well, you aren't good people, I'm afraid."

The words stung.

Percy Jackson, apparently, could deliver accusations with a tone that hurt more than he had ever expected. The captain said other things, too. Tim, to some extent, registered them as he stared blankly at a spot somewhere in front of him. Maybe the real reason the captain had brought him to this place wasn't the selfish streak he apparently had. That didn't feel like enough justification for calling him a bad person.

But there was one thing.

A memory he kept trying to suppress but never could began to rear its ugly head again. He tried pushing it down like he always did, but this time it was a halfhearted attempt. He wanted - needed - confirmation that the captain was right. That he was a horrible, horrible person because why else would this memory come back to haunt him every single day?

The world was fading in and out of focus. Darkness mixed with red and sharp, sharp silver as he tried to stay awake. He had to stay awake. As he tried to look past all of the smoke curling around them, the radio kept playing the same song in the background - stuck forever in a loop of irony and symbolism.

“Only the good die young!”

“Lila,” he croaked, wheezing as he tried to move. There was something in his lung. He didn’t want to see what the something was. He just had to keep reaching out, trying to grab onto something warm. Human. Alive. Lila. “Lila, please. Please be okay-”

His fingers brushed up against skin.

And then the world faded to darkness one last time.

As the memory left him - with no confirmation in the slightest - the pit in his stomach tightened. And then he felt something wet hit the back of his hand, too. It was only when he reached a hand up to touch his cheek that he realized he was crying.

A bad person. No one had ever called Winter that before, and it left her confused, blinking at the place the captain had been when they had said it. The captain was not really Summer. Summer would never say that, certainly not aloud.

Winter supposed it made sense. One in a pair was good, one in a pair was bad. A matching set. Summer was good, warm. People liked warm people. Winter knew this, so it didn't sting so much when they avoided her. She just didn't know why that made her bad.

She sat in silence and looked over the table. Tim was crying. It must have stung for him to hear that. He was a warm person.

She stood and went to his side, careful not to touch him. Summer would have wiped his tears away, watched them turn to steam beneath her fingertips. No one wanted to feel frost and ice clinging to their skin.

"The Captain is a liar," she said softly, "One cannot tell the truth if they can't even use their own face to do it."

xXx

Megara almost snorted when the captain had said she wasn't a good person. I'm a career killer, hon, she wanted to say, The lives of others aren't exactly all that valuable to me.

They were lies she wanted to tell. This jerk deserved to be laughed off its makeshift stage for daring to point out to someone like Megara that she wasn't a good person. For demanding she change. It deserved to look stupid, whatever it was, for stealing the image of someone who'd been so long dead. For stealing an image that proved its point.

It was then that she looked around and saw the boy, the mute, sobbing in his seat, and she realized the others probably didn't find that accusation as entertaining as she did.

She stood up, taking the book of poems with her, and walked over to the boy. She pulled up a chair next to his and wrapped her arms around him. "It's alright," she said softly, "It's lying. It's just a cruel creature with too much power, it's lying to us to keep itself entertained."

She would distract him if he needed it. Eddie always liked it when she taught him poems in languages he didn't speak yet. It calmed him down, maybe it would work with Kirux.

Tim shook his head.

"You don't understand," he whispered, his voice breaking as he spoke. "I'm...I'm not a good person. I never will be. Not after..."

He bit his lip and ran his fingers through his hair.

He couldn't tell the truth. Lila wasn't part of his story anymore - she stopped being it the moment he died. Tim wasn't supposed to have the guilt of a dead girlfriend; he wasn't even supposed to have one yet. And while the captain may have been well aware of Tim not being who he said he was, he had no idea if that made it okay to reveal just what had happened to him.

He stared down at his lap.

"I'm not a good person," he repeated. "I...I just needed someone to tell me that."


When he felt Megara hugging him, he immediately returned the embrace.

He was still crying and sniffling, but getting hugged by her almost made him feel like he was getting hugged by his big sister. Winnie was really small compared to her, but he didn't mind. A hug was a hug.

Bo was angry, but he pushed that down when he heard Kirux and Tim starting to cry. He listened and turned to the boy next to him, seeing that Winter was already at his side. Gently and carefully he placed his hand on Tim's shoulder again, trying to be sensitive because he'd jumped earlier at a touch.

He grabbed a napkin off the table - one that had previously been under his glass - and handed it to Tim to wipe his tears.

"Here."

He didn't know what was running through Tim's head that would cause him to say that. Maybe Tim was a "bad person," he didn't know. But it sure didn't sound like Tim was proud of it, which at least counted for something.

"I know you're saying you needed to hear it and all," he said. "But if I'm judging just by outward reactions it looks like it stung a lot more than it helped."

"The truth hurts," he said. He took the napkin, giving Andrei a tiny, grateful smile before wiping the tears away. When he put the napkin back down on the table, his posture and expression was far more poised than before. He knew it was painfully obvious that it was just an act, but pushing the sadness and guilt down seemed like the best way of avoiding a discussion on why it was there. "I'm a bad person. I can't deny that-"

He faltered when he caught sight of his slightly older doppelganger lingering in the room. It wasn't that he reminded him of any other repressed memories or feelings - it just threw him off to see his own face staring back at him from behind a mask he hadn't even gotten to wear yet.

Megara tightened her grip on Kirux for a moment before letting go. "Do you want me to teach you some poems?" she asked gently, gesturing to the book in her lap, "Not a lot of people speak this language anymore, but you can become one of the only people to know a few words."

Kirux might not look like a kid, but he certainly acted like one. Megara didn't know how, or why that was, but it was pretty obvious that he didn't have the mental age to match his body. So, he was a kid. And kids could be distracted by secrets. The language itself was a secret, of sorts. Only a couple hundred native speakers left on her world, probably none left on any other.

It would work for him, hopefully.



Winter ran a finger along the rim of her now-empty glass. Frost formed where she touched and spread downward, freezing the droplets left at the bottom of the cup. She watched it. Such pretty patterns.

She looked up at the crying boy, who wasn't crying anymore. He was trying to act brave, instead. Why did people do that? Did they think it would help? Winter frowned. Maybe it did help other people, but it just hadn't worked on her. A lot of things didn't work on her.

"If you care, you can't be a bad person," she said, her voice detached, like she wasn't aware she was speaking. "Bad people don't care about being good." She felt like she was saying the same things a lot, but she didn't mind. If he wouldn't listen she would say them again and again and again.

She wasn't a good person. That was a refrain she'd often heard before. From Marcia, from her father. From Jay.

Winter's words rang in her head. Bad people don't care about being good. Alex cared. It was't her fault that everyone else held her to an impossible standard.

"I'm going to bed," she announced before getting up and leaving. Their rooms were all down the hall from each other, so she figured she'd reconnect with them in the morning.

She got back to her room and collapsed onto her bed into a fit of tears. Why was this happening? Why was any of this happening? Maybe she could end it all right now. Everyone would be a lot better off. It occurred to Alex then that she'd likely never see Jay, the real Jay, again. Without him, what point was there to any of this?

Unless she was already dead, and this was the real reason they were here. That would have made a lot of sense, actually. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying she would fall asleep soon and have some respite from these thoughts.

***

Sarah stared blankly into her water glass. How was she not good? Her whole life, all she'd never done was try to be kind to people. She'd always loved her father, her son and her husband the best she could. She supposed she didn't really have female friends, but she always assumed everyone else was too boring.

Kirux was sobbing, and Sarah wished there was more she could say or do to help. But Winter seemed to have it under control, and Sarah was in such a fragile state herself.

"I'm the bad person," she said to the others, "when my ex-husband seduced underage girls and had them kill three people. Why isn't he here?"

Kirux wasn't really paying attention to the others around him. He was just focusing on Megara - on her voice, on the way she hugged him, and on the book that was in her lap. After a moment passed, he gave a big, tearful nod. It wasn't as tearful as it could have been, but he was still clearly upset.


He didn't have an answer to Sarah's question.

Maybe the captain had a limit to how many people he could take, or a limit to who he could take. Maybe it was the guilt that was the key - the guilt that they had all done something wrong, or else they wouldn't have ended up here. But whatever it was, Tim didn't really care. He knew the reason he was here. What other reason would there be?

"Good people don't get their girlfriends killed in car accidents," Tim said, his voice cold but with a thinly veiled anger. It was obvious that Winter wasn't the one who was on the receiving end - it was anger at himself. And a moment later he realized he probably shouldn't have said that, but it was always so so hard to keep the anger down when it appeared.

Bo pulled his hand away from Tim and very, very slowly stood up from his chair. Kirux was being comforted. Good. Tim and Sarah had valid points, and Winter seemed determined to be present and help, but Alex had run out of the room, and it didn't look like anyone else was going to go after her.

Definitely not Sarah, anyways.

"Okay. Look. Everybody, we're going to be okay. We'll figure out what needs to happen or what we need to do to get out of this in time, but it's not hopeless, okay? We can talk about solutions tomorrow. But for now, let's say whatever you guys feel you need to get out, take a deep breath, and sleep on it. The thing that brought us here told us we need to learn how to be better people and he hasn't given us some unrealistic deadline, so we've got time. Time to think things through and process stuff as best we can."

He let out a sigh and cracked his knuckles. There was no good reason besides that it released some tension, which was sorely needed. Of course, the rest of him was still tense, so it didn't do a whole lot.

"I'm gonna go make sure Alex is okay and I expect you all to do the same for each other. We're all strangers but I expect all of us to have some level of human decency even if the captain says we're 'bad people.' Okay? Okay." He made a beeline for the door, stopping briefly to turn back and say: "I'll see you guys in the morning."

And then he closed the door behind him and started running. He didn't know if Alex meant it when she said she was just going to bed or not, but he just wanted to make sure she didn't do anything stupid, and he didn't want her to be alone. All of the others were comforting each other and he didn't see why she didn't deserve the same.

Yes, she was a murderer. So was he. Yeah, she had issues. So did he.

It didn't matter. He was going to check on her either way.

He slowed as he got to their hallway, where everything began, and stopped at her door. A. Altman. He took a moment to catch his breath before knocking on the door.

"Alex?" he asked softly.

Alex heard at a knock at the door. She wasn't sure she really wanted to talk to anyone, least of all Sarah. Still, she walked over the door, and opened it. It was Bo. She took a deep breath.

He said he'd killed too. Maybe he'd understand. Maybe he'd know why she kept dreaming about Margaret. Why, lately, Alex could never get her out of her head.

"Yes? It's late," she said. Still, she knew she wasn't getting a wink of sleep, at least not any time soon.

Bo leaned on the side of the doorway, with one hand on the outside wall, a little above his head. He had to hunch just a little so he didn’t feel like he was too big for the door.

“Just wanted to make sure you’re okay. And, well... offer a listening ear. If I can convince you to talk, that is. Or if you even want to.”

Alex invited him in.

Yes, it would be nice to have someone to talk. And Bo seemed to be a nice person.

"So, um," Alex started. "Do you know who I am? What I did?" She hesitated. "I guess you're from the future, so. Maybe you forget about us then? The news says we were a cult. That Jay manipulated me. But, what we had was real. And I knew he was married before I can't stand being right to next to her. I mean, why us. I didn't need the captain to tell me I was a bad person."

She inhaled deeply, and shifted her gaze towards the floor. Toward her feet. She took her shoes off and dried the tears that were forming in her eyes.