Issue 8: "Always With Me, Always With You"

Suicide Notes:

Previously in Suicide Squad #7…

The world was at war with dark forces from Apokolips.

Amanda Waller found herself, along with President Lord, being held against their will by Glorious Godfrey in the White House.

The squad was ordered by Sarge Steel to retake the nations capital and rescue the President. They quickly found themselves in a vicious battle with the Female Furies of Apokolips.

In a daring attempt to put an end to Godfreys plans, Waller took on Granny Goodness. After a deadly showdown Godfrey was dead and Waller suffered from a gunshot wound to the head.

The Enchantress sacrificed herself when she stopped a nuclear warhead from destroying D.C. In the end, a broken June Moone was rid of the witch that had plagued her for years…

Several days later…

A prison? Val thought as she sat down at the desk in her new office. Amanda chose to be a little too close to her work for her tastes, but it would do for the time being. She had no intentions of making this a permanent job anyways. Sarge Steel had made an offer she couldn’t refuse… for now.

“Valentina?” Eve Eden asked as she stood in the doorway. “I heard that you were here and I wanted to stop in and say hello. My name is Eve Eden or Nightshade if you prefer.”

“Well I prefer Val, Eve. I am glad you stopped by.” she said walking over and shaking Eve’s hand, “I have already met most of the ground crew here and I wasn’t sure how to go about meeting the field team.”

“Most of them are lockup in a cell if you must know.” Eve laughed as she sat down across from Val. “Most everyone else has moved on.”

“So why are you still here if I may ask.”

“Honestly? I have no where else to go.” Eve leaned back in her chair.

“That makes two of us it would appear. So since you’re here do you want to help me update these files so I know what I am dealing with here?”

“Sure. This is the closest I’ve had to a girls night in…well ever.” Eve laughed again.

“Me too.” Val said as she turned to the computer in front of her, “Ok, first off the bat is Nemesis.”

“Tom left awhile back. I don’t even think Waller knows where he went.”

“Mark Shaw?”

“He left shortly after Tom. The last person he spoke with was Mari but I don’t think she knows where he went.”

“I am sensing a pattern here. Rick Flagg?”

“He is gone as well. Don’t know nor do I care where he went. Last I heard he was heading to California with a white-haired bimbo.”

“OK…moving on. George Harkness?”

“ Boomerang’s still around here somewhere complaining that he didn’t get a chance to take on the lil’ Shelia’s from Apokolips.” Eve attempted her best Australian accent.

“Sounds like something he would do from what Waller told me about him. Crystal Frost was part of the team that did face the Female Furies right?”

“Yeah. I believe she turned tail and ran. In all the confusion that followed she got away and hasn’t been heard from since.”

“June Moone?”

“The Enchantress was taken to a local hospital for observation and after a few a few days she checked herself out.”

“She stopped a nuclear bomb from exploding over the White House and then just walked away? I am making a note her to follow up on her. Floyd Lawton?”

“After Deadshot put a gun to the presidents head he kinda…disappeared. I am sure Steel had something to do with that.”

“I bet he did.” Val shook her head, “Seems like he failed to tell me that Waller ran off most of the team as well. Seems like all who’s left is Ben Turner and Mari Macabe.”

“Well Bronze Tiger has spent most of the last month in Washington at the private hospital Waller is in. Vixen took off for a while I think she went looking for Mark Shaw.”

“Mark Shaw? Really? I would’ve figured that her and Turner might have…”

“Well if Turner had his way, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. But I think Mari went out to Washington to bring Ben back with her, so I guess you never know?”

“Well be that as it may, it appears we have some rebuilding to do around here. Are you game?” Val said giving Eve half a smile.

“Like I said, I have nothing better to do.”

The phone rang on the desk forcing both women to jump slightly.

“Maybe that’s someone dying to join the Suicide Squad now?” Val said as she reached for the phone, “Hello.”

“Miss Vostok? The woman on the phone asked. “I am from doctor Morrison’s office I was told you could be reached at this number. The test results are in and the doctor said you should know right a way.”

“Yes. Well I thought…” Val said through the phone. She listened for another few moments before setting the phone down.

“Is everything alright? I know that we don’t know each other all that well but if…” Eve asked.

“It’s fine Eve. I appreciatate that but everything’s fine.” Val wanted to reach out to the women she just met but she knew it wouldn’t be approriate considering the postion she was in. The postion she was forced into by Sarge Steel. She was ready to dig in for whatever battle she had to face next, whether is by Steels doing or the facing the results of being Negative Woman these past few years. The negative being had left her months ago and the bandages that trapped her body were now gone. Now she was left to face the cosequences. She had cancer.

President Maxwell Lord stood at the end of the hallway. When he was certain that Vixen and Bronze Tiger were gone he walked into Amanda Waller’s room and stood at the edge of her bed. He reached down and pulled out the medical chart that was clipped to the foot of her bed. He began to flip through the pages and smiled.

“Not even a bullet to the head can take out the almighty Amanda Waller huh?” He said before placing the chart back where he found it. It seems I underestimated you Amanda. You took control of the situation with Godfrey and were willing to sacrifice my life to end the crisis, which was a gutsy call indeed. Things didn’t quiet turn out the way you expected did it? That’s ok. You rest. You will continue to receive the best medical care the Federal Government can provide for the rest of your days. But you will do it alone. The last of your supports are now gone. Turner and the rest of your precious Suicide Squad will be much to busy to concern themselves with what happens to you next.

Lord walked over to the front of the hospital bed and leaned down to whisper in Waller’s ear. “I know you can hear me in there Amanda so I am going to tell you a secret. They wanted to pull the plug on you. Did you know that? I was the one made sure that didn’t happen. Not because I care of course. I wasn’t about to let them show you the mercy you were so quick to deny me. Besides, from this hospital bed you will be helpless to stop my plans. Sleep tight Amanda.”

Lord gentle kissed Waller on the cheek before he stood up. He brushed off the front of his suit and adjusted his tie. He took one last look at the comatose Waller before he turned and walked out of the room.

June continued to meet with Simon once sometimes twice a week. It was on her seventh visit that June first mentioned the name the Enchantress. It was then that LaGrieve revealed to her that he had known for sometime of her identity. He told that he recognized her from clips on television during what was commonly known as the crisis.

She smiled awkwardly and then asked him a question “Are you scared?”

“Do I have reason to be?” he responded quickly.

“No.” June sat back in her seat and then looked up at Lagrieve, “Have you ever had a day where you question every decision you ever made?” June asked Simon Lagrieve.

She went on to tell him about her sophomore year of college…

She spent her first year of college focusing on her studies. About once a month she met with her father for lunch or sometimes dinner. Their relationship continued the same as it had been ever since her mother had died. Their conversations usually revolved around his work and her schooling. They rarely discussed anything about their personnel lives. He never asked if she followed up on the information she had on her birth parents and she never volunteered to him what she found out.

As she recalled to Lagrieve about the night she became the Enchantress she wondered what might have happened had she told her father that she had been dating a boy she went to school with. She wondered if he might have said something that might have changed what happened next.

She was asked by her boyfriend to go to a party with him at an old building the locals called Terror Castle. The party turned out to be a group an amateur witches and wizards trying to conjure up sprits. The entire group was overwhelmed with super natural forces. In an attempt to escape the chaos June slipped away to an ancient chamber hidden away within the castle. It was there she encountered the creature know as Dzamor. He told her it was her destiny that had brought her here this night. Everyone in the castle would die unless she accepted the mystical powers he was offering her. She felt she had no choice. She spoke the word Enchantress and was transformed into a being of extraordinary powers. She easily drove out the evil forces in the castle and saved everyone.

“ I felt powerful and for the first time in my life I felt like I was in control.” She went on to tell him, “I never considered myself evil or a witch. Those were bad things from horror movies. I was determined to make the world a better place. I wanted to make my mother proud.”

“Do you think she would have been proud of you no matter what?” Simon asked her.

“Maybe? I don’t know. But if she had been there maybe she would have stopped me before it was too late. You see, the same boyfriend I saved that night in the castle died in a cult a few semesters later. I was so drunk with power I never even tried to help him. That’s when I called upon Dzamor once more. I thought that if I had more power I could prevent anyone from dying unfairly again, my mother, my boyfriend, everyone. But the witch knew better.”

“The Enchantress?”

“Yes, her. She knew that if I allowed her to stay in control for longer and longer periods of time it would slowly drive me over the edge and allow her to take control permanently.
When she finally felt that she had gathered enough strength, she banished me inside of her and I was helpless to call her back. Soon she was on a course of self destruction and I was trapped inside unable to stop her.”

“What finally happened?”

“Power Girl happened. Enchantress had cast a spell that was slowly pulling the moon out of orbit causing massive tidal waves and some people to go on crime sprees. God only knows what would have happened if Power Girl and taken her down and set things right again.”

“I recall some of that happening. I heard that there was going to be a trial but then I never heard any more of it?”

“There wasn’t anyway to try me for the crimes that were committed by others while the moon was out of orbit and since no one died they didn’t know what to charge me with. Instead I was locked up in Belle Reve and was kept heavily sedated.”

Simon just shook his head at June’s last comment. “They thought you were crazy and they kept you drugged. Typical government doctors.”

“Months had gone by before I was approached by Amanda Waller to join a group she was forming. She asked if I could control my other half. I told her that after the Power Girl incident it seemed that the Enchantress had lost a substantial amount of her power and I was certain that I could control her again for the time being. Waller promised me that if I participated in a few missions my sentence would be considered served.”

June went on to tell the doctor that she chose to stay with the group after they promised to help her find a way to control her Enchantress persona in exchange she hoped to make up for some of the wrongs she has committed.

On the following visits she spoke to him about her time with the squad, about Mitch Shelly and the battle that ended with Captain Atom over the skies of Washington D.C.

“So your telling me that Mitch Shelly, the Resurrection Man as you have referred to him as, came back to the past to deliver a message to you before this mission, so you knew all along that something was going to happen to him?”

“Well I didn’t know that it would happen soon after but yeah I knew.”

“How did that make you feel knowing that he was going to die?”

“Well he did die a lot so it was hard to be to concerned. But knowing that he would come back eventually made it somewhat easier I guess. Sure it was a little awkward being with him in the present when his future self had just paid me a visit but things escalated so quickly after that there wasn’t time to reflect on it too much.”

“But you were afraid after he was gone that you wouldn’t be able prevent what he came back to warn you about?”

“The Enchantress was getting more powerful every time she was let lose and I was afraid that when the time came I wouldn’t be able to do it. I was afraid that I would let everyone down again including Mitch. But then the crisis came so quickly and I knew it was time.”

“What happened after that?”

“The crisis was over. The Enchantress was gone. And I finally discovered who I truly was and my life started over…”

“…So I checked myself out of the hospital and went home with my family.”

“So you never knew that you had sisters until then?”

“I hadn’t a clue.” June said to Doctor Lagrieve as she threw her hands up in the air, “It was like a whirlwind. I had long given up on finding out the truth about my birth parents and then I wake up in a hospital room to discover that I was a triplet of all things. It seems that my birth mother had died after giving birth to us girls and my birth father was so heart broken that he left us as wardens of the state. A young couple adopted my sister’s Julianna and Jasmine right away just a few days after we were born. Since I was so sick they thought it best to separate us and let them go to a good home. I honestly believe that they thought I wasn’t going to make it past the first couple of weeks.”

“So wait a second.” Simon interrupted her, “Your sisters names are Jasmine and Julianna?”

“Yes! It seems that our birth mother knew she was going to have triplet girls and she had named us all before we were born. She had heard it was unlucky to name a child before it was born but she didn’t believe in such things.”

********************************

Month’s had passed before June came to see Doctor Lagrieve again. He noticed right away that some of the gleam in her eyes was gone and she looked stressed.

Everything had been going well. She was sharing an apartment with her sisters and she even had enrolled in a few classes at the local community college. Her previous life with the Enchantress and the Suicide Squad was a distant memory until…

“It was a week ago that it started. It was faint at first so I just thought I was imagining it. But the more I tried to ignore it the louder it became.”

“The voices?” LaGrieves asked.

“Not voices, just one voice. Hers. The Enchantress.”

“But you said that she was gone?”

“I asked her the same thing. She said that she was called back.”

June recalled to Doctor Lagrieve how a strange encounter a few days back left her with a tough decision to make…

June raced home to discover both of her sisters were gone from the apartment. There was a note on the table that said that if she got home in time to come on down to Club-Eight-ball for a pre-midterms bash. June raced out the door and headed down the street.

Even though June and here sisters were only separated by mere minutes in age, it seemed to June that her life thus far had aged her over her sisters. Both Jasmine and Julianna were juniors in college at Georgetown University and had worked hard to get where they have gotten. June was very proud of both of them but she also knew that neither of them had a clue about some of the things that went on in the world both around, and beneath them. Her only hope now was to reach them before it was too late.

June reached the parking lot of Club-8-Ball just shortly before midnight. She was winded by the half-mile trek but she didn’t dare stop now. She reached the doors and found they were locked. She pounded on the door and screamed. She could her music blaring inside. She went around the side of the building to another door. She thought it odd that no one was around outside. The thought of what that meant made her panic as she reached the side door. It was locked as well.

“Jazz! Jules!” She screamed and pounded on the door. She took a deep breath and stepped back from the door. She concentrated as she cast a disengage spell that forced the door open and went inside. She found herself in a dark and narrow hallway. She ran her hand along the wall and headed toward the sound of the blaring music.

‘...Your youth is gone and you’re just deprecating!
America! America! America!
You failed the mil-len-nium!
Mil-len-nium!
Mil-len-nium!
America! America!
America…You failed the millennium!’

June finally found a door and entered the main room of the club. She waved her hand in the direction of the sound system and the music stopped.

Artificial smoke filled the room forcing her to cast another spell to clear the air.

“Most impressive Juniper! But you’re still a party crasher!”

June looked over to the center of the room and saw a figure hovering in the air over a painted pentalpha on the floor. In the center of the pentalpha lay both Jasmine and Julianna in an unconcius state.

“Dzamor! So help me God if you have hurt them I will kill you!” She screamed as began to walk toward the center of the room.

“Perish the thought my dear. I would never dream of hurting such lovely creatures.” The small blood-red demon spoke. “It does appear that we have come full circle has it not?”

“I know what your planning and I won’t allow it.” June spoke as she stopped just outside of the pentagram.

“Don’t be so sure of yourself. It’s nice to see that you’ve finally embraced the true magik that runs through your blood but do you really think you have the power to stop me…or her?” The demon spat as he pointed to the far corner of the room. June looked over and saw the Enchantress floating a few inches off the floor.

“Hello baby June.” Enchantress gleamed.

“You see.” Dzamor continued, “Your not the only one in the family with the gift of magik. Your mother had it and in her death she passed it on to her children. Why do you think you were chosen to begin with? And now it’s time to move on down the family line.”

June glared at Dzamor and then looked over at the Enchantress. It was the first time she saw her outside of herself. She was able to look Enchantress in the eye and see her for what she really was. Suddenly she wasn’t scared and she knew what she had to do.

“Let them go Dzamor NOW!” June yelled as she took a step inside of the pentagram. “Do it now or you will regret the day you met me.”

Dzamor laughed and it sounded like hot coals sparking in a fire. He began to chock when he looked down to see June take hold of his throat.

“AHHH…you can’t…you shouldn’t…” he sputtered.

June looked up at him and smiled. “Ah but I am aren’t I?”

June looked over at the Enchantress and nodded. The Enchantress then floated over toward the Pentagram and began to cast a spell out loud.

“Stop!” Dzamor yelled.

“Do you see what happened little demon? You have no real power here anymore. You never had. And while you were basking in your own insignicance, Enchantress and I had a little chat inside my head. She decided that she doesn’t want to be your pet anymore and since you saw to it to gather us all together in one room we decided it was time to deal with you once and for all.”

June then joined hands and merged with Enchantress as they chanted an extinguish spell. They repeated the spell three times until Dzamor was gone.

Enchantress looked down to see June’s sisters as they began to stir on the floor. She whispered her name and was gone.

June walked out of Simon LaGrieves office. She shielded her eyes as the bright sun glared in the sky above. The warmth felt comforting to her. She opened her arms and embraced it. She felt that for once in her life, the future looked bright indeed. She didn’t flinch as a man came up behind her and put his arms around her. She turned around and squeezed him tight and kissed him on the lips.

“What was that for?” He said as she continued to kiss his cheek and neck.

“I am happy and in love! Is there something wrong with showing it?” She said while gently holding the mans face with both hands.

“Not at all.” He responded kissing her on the forehead, “Did you have a good visit with your friend?”

“Yes. It was hard to say goodbye though.” She said pulling away and looking him in the eye, “Why do you look so serious all of a sudden?”

“While you in there I got another call from Sarge Steel. He wants to know if I made a decision yet about returning to the Suicide Squad. I told him I was with you. He said he knew and to bring you along.”

“Mitch I am not sure that I….”

“I told him no June.. We have our own things to take care of first.”

“Do you ever plan on telling me what happened to you after you….”

“Blew up over Washington D.C.?”

She laughed slightly at his bluntness “Yes. Other then appearing to me in an astral form all creepy and sexy like”

“Soon. When the time is right. I promise to tell you everything.”

Simon Lagrieve looked on through the window as June embraced Mitch Shelly one more time before taking his hand as they began to walk down the street. The phone began to ring and he turned away from the window to answer it.

“Hello?”

“So I see they just left.” The man on the other end of the phone said, “Did she tell you where they were going or what their plans were?”

“I find it highly disturbing on a personnel and professional level that you are spying on me again Mr. Steel.”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist now doctor. You were the one who agreed to throw out all doctor patient confidentialities from the moment you agreed to all of this.”

“That was before I got to know June.” He said stepping back over to the window. “I only agreed to report anything I discovered that would be harmful to the U.S. government.”

“Well you tell me everything that the witch told you and I will decide what is harmful.” Steel snapped back. “I know you have grown to adore Miss Moone over the past year but she is still one of the most dangerous people walking the planet.”

“Only to herself.” Lagrieve muttered under his breathe.

“What was that?” Steel demanded.

“Nothing.” Lagrieve responded straining to look out the window as June and Mitch disappeared around the corner, “Nothing at all.”


THE END.