Mera

I could feel myself dying, my body failing, everything that I am, that I was, withering away. Too soon, too fast. Arthur had just stood there, moments ago, in front of me, a smile on his face, the moonlight gleaming off of his blonde hair. He wasn't a Black Lantern anymore, he wasn't dead, he wasn't the Dweller in the Depths - he was alive and well and mine again.

But rage had consumed me. Rage for everything I had been through, everything I had given up, everything that I had lost. And I had let that rage take control in a way that emotions should nevr take control.

Blackness overtook me, blackness tainted with red, and I tried to fight it, tried to find my way back to Arthur, back to my husband and the man whom I loved despite...everything. Is it possible? Is it possible to hate someone for what they've put you through, and yet love them in that same breath? I don't know, but that's what I felt. Purple pulsed around me, purple light, love, Arthur's love, and it fought against the rage, the red hot anger that had coursed through my veins only moments before.

Get out, I commanded, fighting the rage. Get out.

It did. Not without Arthur's help. Not without Diana's help. But it did, and I was myself again.

I was myself, and Arthur was back.

Arthur is back.

Oh brightest day...

Mera
Aquaman
241

Darren Lewis and Eddie Duran were skipping school on a particularly sunny Friday, as high school seniors - and teenagers in general - were wont to do this close to the end of the year. They were at the beach, surfing, swimming, checking out the many, many beautiful bikini-clad women that had appeared to sunbathe, swim, or surf. It was a good day, really. Eddie had even gotten the number of a particularly sexy cougar who he'd promised to look up after he turned eighteen next week. Make things nice and legal. As the noon sun blistered in the air, Eddie and Darren kicked back on their beach towels, feasting on hot dogs and lukewarm soda, watching the waves lap gently at the ocean. They were eating as fast as they could - the waves were great, and they didn't want to wait an hour before heading back into the water.

Suddenly, they noticed the waves becoming stronger, pushing out farther, and some of the water looked...solid, almost.

What they saw next made them ridiculously happy.

Emerging from the roaring waves was a curvaceous figure swathed in emerald green, a mane of vibrant copper-red hair being swept up by the salty breeze. In her right hand she clutched a glinting, preternaturally glowing trident, the gold of which matched the gold of the tiara she wore on her head. She was a sea nymph, an ocean goddess, and oh, here she was, she was looking right at them and okay this was Darren's chance to get one up on Eddie and...

They were drooling.

"Cooool." Darren whispered, scrambling up to his feet.

From where she rose from the waters, Mera smiled a beautiful smile at the boys. She could see what they were thinking all over their face. She really was going to need to find a more private place to rise from, she thought to herself, so that this didn't happen each time she came up to the surface world. She flicked her wrist in the boys' direction as she walked on the sand. A surging column of hard water rose out of the ocean behind her and splashed the two adolescents.

"No," Mera said, mostly to herself, still smiling. "That was cool."

Mera
Aquaman
373

Every Friday, I visit my late husband’s grave. Why? He neither died nor was buried on a Friday, nor did we meet or get married on a Friday. (In fact, all of those events occurred on a Wednesday. How, I’m not quite certain.) No. Friday was a special day for Arthur and I because, no matter what, he made certain that, on Fridays, he always set aside some time for the two of us to be alone – what the surface world would consider to be a date night, leaving Atlantis and courtly intrigue behind us. Indeed, there were some heavily rainy Fridays where the two of us would venture out onto the surface world and take in their sights, dates where Arthur would further teach me of the history of Earth and its myriad of cultures. It was always our day, the day that for me holds the most special of memories, and though our marriage suffered through its share of troubles (and what marriage doesn’t?) those memories will always bring a warmth to my heart, even on the coldest nights of this brave, new world that I find myself living in without Arthur by my side. But that is it; exactly why I visit his grave with such religious regularity. No matter how many changes have come in my life, no matter the troubles we had, that was always our day, and I don’t want his death to have changed that. It wouldn’t feel right.

Mera
Aquaman
246