10th July
15:31 GMT
"That… could have gone better." Hawkman said.
The single judgement broke the silence of the room.
"That little punk!" Hawkwoman bristled. "He can't just blackmail us like that and walk out without a consequence!"
"I think he just did." Gardner smiled. "Kid has a pair –"
"Are we really going to accept this?" Aquaman glowered. "Are we really going to bow our heads and carry on as if one of our students hasn't just used dark magic to murder a member of the Justice League?"
"Yes. We are." Diana said with a heavy heart.
"Really?" Aquaman frowned. "Just because he's your student –"
"My student, and a citizen of my country." Diana stood over Aquaman, her sorrow replaced with anger fitting for a goddess. "And most importantly, he was right. He acted in the best manner possible, and if that wasn't sufficient it was because we didn't provide him with the information to make a better choice. He acted in accordance with every ideal the Justice League holds, except for the ideal of teamwork."
Aquaman met her gaze evenly. "Then as his princess, I assume you will be holding him accountable for swearing himself in as an officer of another nation's state?"
"And you aren't at all letting your opinion be influenced by the revelation of your love child!?"
Aquaman shot to his feet.
So did Superman. "That's enough!"
He held his arms out to Aquaman and Wonder Woman. "Both of you, sit down. This isn't the time to be fighting."
The two monarchs continued to glare at each other. Diana's gaze softened first, and she sat down shamed. "I'm sorry Arthur. That was uncalled for."
Aquaman sat down himself, and let out a breath of air he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Likewise."
"So… how much of that is true?"
Superman's stern expression fell at Icon's worried frown. "What do you mean?"
"Somehow, when Dr. Fate and I talked, he never brought up that he might be holding someone as a slave." Icon said, with only the barest hint of accusation in his tone. "While he was unapproachable, I never suspected he might be engaging in such despicable acts. This is the first I've heard of his origins, or any cover up by the League. I've heard Paul's side of the story. I would like to hear yours."
"Yeah." Plastic man twisted in his seat. "Some of us here didn't vote Nabu on the League. We thought he was cool with you guys."
"Obviously there's been a breakdown in communications somewhere." The Atom said, not sounding wholly convinced himself. "You must have had a reason for acting like you did, right?"
"Did you truly stand by and do nothing as Nabu took control of Giovanni Zatara?" Icon asked, looking Superman in the eyes. "And if there was nothing you could do, did you then deny a fourteen year old girl a legal guardian and not warn her beforehand that you were inviting her father's kidnapper into the Justice League?"
Superman faltered, and looked to Batman for an answer.
"The League as a whole adopted her as a ward." Batman said. "I offered to take full custody of her, but she declined and opted to live in the Mountain. I have some experience raising superheroes, and decided that not pressing the issue would be the best course of action, that surrounding herself with friends her own age would be –"
"Wait a minute." The Atom stood. "The League? The whole Justice League adopted Zatanna as a ward? Nobody told me when I joined up that there was a girl that might need some help and guidance. Hell, I didn't even know she'd lost her dad!"
"I thought Batman was handling it." The Flash said. "He's in charge of the youth team."
"Him and Black Canary and Red Tornado." John Stewart added.
"Did nobody think to tell her beforehand that Nabu would be joining the League?" Captain Atom asked. "And… did you really not tell Giovanni's friends anything?"
Black Canary's fists curled. "We discussed it with Batman. Red Tornado and I. But... the League policy was to not confirm a candidate's placement until the day came."
"Funny, how you came up with that policy to avoid mind controlling plots." Guy Gardner looks around the table. "No? Not funny?"
"Putting aside the issue of Zatara's daughter for a moment." The Atom cut in hesitantly. "What about Nabu? You guys wouldn't have let him into the Justice League if he was as bad as Orange Lantern said, right?"
Nobody knew what to say to that. The first person to speak would be the first person to agree or disagree with the heart of Paul's argument. And some of them weren't at all sure what their own position was.
"I think you put it just right." Green Arrow said with a sigh. "When you said we should put it aside for the moment. That's why we voted Nabu onto the League, so he could be where we saw him. That's also why we voted the Accomplished Perfect Physician on. His power was part of the plan Batman and Captain Marvel had to remove Nabu from Giovanni. But… the plan kept getting put aside. Nabu wasn't going anywhere, we could get to him some other day. We were busy with other things, saving lives that needed saving today. And Nabu was helping us save those lives."
"I wish I could have come up with a way to save them sooner." Captain Marvel rubbed the back of his head. "I have the wisdom of Solomon but… it's not always turned on. And the Wizard couldn't help. He's a Lord of Order too, and the Princes of Order would have taken away a lot of his power if he tried to sabotage another Lord of Order's mission. I've been trying to figure out a way to save them both, and I've come up with a few ideas… but for people like Paul who don't know a lot of magic, I guess it was easier to kill Nabu, and he was too powerful and too stubborn to give them other options."
"I think that's the attitude most of us had." The Flash nodded. "Wanting to find a solution that could make them both happy. Giovanni's a good friend of ours, and we did want to give him his life back. But Nabu deserved a life too. He was on the Justice Society. Like Jay, Alan, Ted. Like Wonder Woman and Red Tornado. They were all great heroes. And yeah, sometimes we disagree. Hal and Olly argue all the time. I guess we… well, maybe it's just me. I sort of just downplayed it as another argument. Sure, Nabu was on the wrong side of the argument, but he was stuck on a shelf for years, he was going to cool down eventually. And when he spoke for Giovanni, it sounded like stuff Giovanni would say, and I didn't see any reason not to trust a member of the Justice Society."
"We should've seen the warning signs when he decided not to take a golem." Green Arrow muttered.
"Exactly." Hawkman nodded to Flash. "The priority of the Justice League was to separate Dr. Fate, not kill Nabu. That was a distinction Paul, apparently, didn't have time for. While I admit we share the blame for not fully divulging our plan to him and Zatanna, that does not merit such overreaction. Orange Lantern has just killed a member of the Justice League, and a member of the Justice Society, and then blackmailed us into silence about it. If we were in Thanagar –"
"We are not in Thanagar." Wonder Woman glared at him.
"If we were on any sort of sensible planet he'd have his ring taken from him." Hawk Woman glared challengingly at Wonder Woman.
"Oh come on, you can't blame him." Plastic Man shifted his form to accommodate judge's wig and robes. "I'm a superhero now, but if I suddenly started trying to rule the world –" His costume changed into a military uniform, and he grew a very familiar moustache. "Wouldn't you guys try and stop me even if I was a former member of the Justice League?"
"We'd definitely try to talk you down first." John Stewart said.
"But Paul did try to talk to Nabu first." Guy piped up. "It's not his fault Nabu thought he was too chaotic to be trusted."
"Eris…" Wonder Woman frowned thoughtfully.
"Even when he was possessed by the Ophidian, all he wanted to do was be friends with everyone. He's not a bad guy."
"Would a good guy keep this a secret for eight months?" Superman asked. "What I saw here today was not the same Orange Lantern I've seen for the past year. Only Supervillains rant about how their actions were justified."
"So what do we do about this?" Captain Atom asked. "Clearly letting him join the League is off the table, but as for additional disciplinary action..."
"I'm sorry, but are you really suggesting we turn this on Paul?" Green Arrow asked.
"We did go through a lot of effort to get that giant snake out of him." Captain Marvel pointed out. "And I don't think he realizes how dangerous that was, or why we were able to act so quickly. Is it so wrong that he expects us to do the same for Zatara?"
"I'm still a little stuck on the idea that Zatanna's father got kidnapped and you decided to just let her do whatever." The Atom said.
"That wasn't Paul's fault, that was on us." Hawkman said. "What matters is his blatant opposition of the Justice League. He'd be nothing without us, but after taking him under our wing for a year and teaching him all we know he repays us with assassination?"
"Wow." Red Arrow rolled his eyes. "After a year going above and beyond the call of duty on the kiddy team, to the point where we trusted him enough to do a critique on the Justice League, he gets it into his head that maybe he can take on a supervillain without you holding his hand. What a shocker."
"No." Aquaman shook his head. "I agree he needs to be punished somehow, but we can't kick him off the League. If he ever goes rogue, he needs to be somewhere we can see him."
"Because that worked out so well for Nabu." Captain Marvel rolled his eyes.
"Now that we can see the signs, we should be able to stop him from going rogue." Black Canary added.
"We can't let him join the League after he just killed a member!" Hal Jordan roared.
"I agree." Superman said. "His goals may be admirable, but his methods are questionable. And if he can't trust us, how can we trust him?"
"Trust is not given freely." Wonder Woman sagged in her chair. "It is earned."
"Paul was trying to be diplomatic." The Martian Manhunter said. "He was terrified of burning his bridges here. He is friends with many of us, and many times tried to silence himself, only to be propelled forward by the lasso. Flash is right, friends sometimes fight with each other. His anger should not be taken as a sign that he is a burgeoning supervillain. If he has not trusted us with his anger for the past months, then we must ask what we have done that warranted his lack of faith."
"You want to know why he didn't tell us?" Hal fumed. "It's because he was still under oath to obey Wonder Woman and Batman, and he decided to just avoid telling them instead of risk admitting he was wrong!"
"He was no longer bound by his oath except by his own honor." Wonder Woman defended him.
"Then why else would he spring his trap now?" Hal snapped. "So he could say to our faces 'at least I kept my word' while doing everything else he could to circumvent –"
The Martian Manhunter stood up. "Orange Lantern did not –"
Superman slammed his hand against the table. "Just ask Paul's friend Luthor about looking good while committing –"
"So what if they're friends, Batman's married to a super –"
"Let's not start attacking character –"
"He killed a man, why are we talking about -"
"Enough."
The table fell silent. All eyes turned to Batman as he stood.
"This meeting was meant to be a briefing. It is not a court martial. It is not an inquiry or disciplinary meeting. This meeting is not even about whether Orange Lantern should be disciplined. And even if it were, Orange Lantern is not a member of the Justice League. Only Diana has the authority to punish him without resorting to arrest."
"This meeting was meant to ascertain the facts of what happened, pending an investigation. And we will investigate." He turned to Wonder Woman. "I trust you will look into Eris?" Diana nodded. "Black Canary, you will speak to Zatanna. I will investigate the other participants of the…" For a moment, Batman mulled over using 'arrest' or using 'ambush'. "…Incident. Accomplished Perfect Physician will see to the state of Zatara's health."
"We will then reconvene, and share our findings with the League. At which point we will hold a meeting to decide what direction the League as a whole will take, in regards to what we will be telling the world, what our relationship is with Orange Lantern, and… what our goals are moving forward. What our policies will be, as a League, in regards to Justice. Whether it's Nabu, Orange Lantern, Red Inferno, Red Arrow, Canis Minor, Swamp Thing, or my wife… we have always practiced a certain amount of forgiveness alongside Justice. We need to come to a decision on when and why we choose to forgive. How we do our jobs must be decided on."
"I advise you all to think long and hard about what you want to say during that meeting. I advise you to do your own investigations. Ask yourself what you think is right. Ask Paul, while he's still on planet. Ask the members of the Justice Society. Ask the youth team. Until we decide on a course of action the details must be kept secret, but ask your friends and family, in general terms. Remember your past interactions with Orange Lantern, and ask yourself what has changed. His outburst was unexpected, and many of us are off balance. Take the time to center yourselves. We will come to a decision reached by debate, not by childish argument."
"Meeting adjourned."
