Disclaimer: All characters belong to DC Comics. They are being used for entertainment purposes only. No money is being made off their use. The story belongs to me, Magik, the author.

    Laurel Gand, or better known to her teammates as Andromeda, was sleeping peacefully. She was dreaming good dreams, which was unusual for her because her dreams were usually filled with nightmares from her past. In her dreams Laurel was a hero, even more of a hero than she was at the moment in the teen superhero group of the thirtieth century or The Legionnaires, and she was beautiful with a wonderful husband and a family.

    Suddenly Laurel's dream turned awful. She was helpless and all around her her friends and family were being murdered by the Khunds. She was helpless and the last thing in the world she ever imagined being was helpless.

    The Khunds draw closer to her, their hands covered in blood. They were smiling, grinning evilly, sharp teeth biting into the bottom lips. They reached for her and their claws tore at her, they tore her apart. And Laurel began to scream.

    Laurel wakes up screaming, covered in sweat and trembling. She bits her lip. Something was wrong with that dream, she thinks to herself. I've never seen creatures like that before in my life...yet...yet I was so terrified of them.

    There is a slight knock on her door. "Go away," she yells.

    The door opens and standing there is the green skinned Brainiac Five. "For me to leave would be illogical," he says passively.

    Laurel hides her head in her hands. What is he doing here, she thinks. Standing here in my room, his blond hair a mess, his green eyes burning into me. What is he doing here? Doesn't he know I could hurt him? And yet...why do I feel so attracted to him all of a sudden.

    "Why would doing what I ask of you be `illogical'?" she questions.

    He stands there for a moment, tapping his foot, leaning against the side of the door, studying her. Sighing deeply he says, "I have to make sure you're having no ill side affects from the anti-lead serum. You aren't, are you?"

    "No, none at all. Thank you, Brainy," she says suddenly feeling very shy around him.

    Much to her wonderment he says nothing about the nickname. "Why did you scream?"

    "I was afraid," she admits after a moments consideration. For some strange reason she feels that she can trust him. She feels that there could be more between them than just friendship. There's something alluring about him, but I don't know what, she thinks.

    Instead of laughing off her response as she expected him to, Brainy looks concerned and says, "What frightened you?"

    "I'd...I'd rather not talk about it."

    "Nonsense, Andromeda, talking about what frightens us usually helps. May I sit?" he asks gesturing to a chair.

    "Yeah," she answers. "But be careful...I don't know if I broke that one or not."

    "Point taken. So...Andromeda would you like to talk about your dream." His green eyes are strong and patient.

    "Laurel," she whispers.

    "What's that?"

    "Please, call me Laurel."

    "Oh, I didn't think you allowed gene trash to call you by your first name," he quips, brushing the blond hair off his brow.

    "I'm sorry about that," she stammers breaking eye contact with him and lowering her head.

    Brainiac takes in a breath and considers the situation. Andromeda has just asked him to call her Laurel, she has apologized for her prior insults. There is something about her. Something intriguing. "No. I'm sorry for bringing it up. How can you be expected to fully integrate into the Legion when everyone keeps their misconceptions of you. I, for one, will not judge you again."

    "People judge me?" she asks, quickly raising her head. Her blue eyes fix on his green ones and a spark shoots through both of them.

    Pretending not to notice the attraction, Brainy runs a hand through his hair. "Unfortunately, yes. But I will not anymore."

    "Thank you, Brainy."

    He notices how soft her voice is, how her manner has changed. She sits, huddled on the bed, covers up to her chin, watching him with cool clue eyes. "Now, what scared you?"

    "A nightmare I've never seen the like of before. A horrible dream with creatures I've never heard of and people I've never met. Oh, it was like I was living someone else's nightmare," she explains hurriedly, tears forming in her eyes.

    Brainy stands and goes over to her. He expects her to throw him across the room or at least cringe, but she doesn't, she only watches him, tears shinning in her eyes. "Don't cry," he says, gently wiping away the tears, "it's okay. You're safe here."

    "Am I, Brainy? Am I?" she wonders aloud. He doesn't know what to do so he just sits on the side of her bed and watches her. And even though it is a small thing for him to do, it comforts Laurel greatly.

    Laurel Gand awakes in the morning and looks sleepily around her. Dozing at the foot of her bed, his blond hair strewn across his forehead, is the green-skinned Brainiac Five. With a small sigh she reaches out to brush the hair away. At the soft touch of her fingers on his brow, Brainy stirs. He lifts his head, blinking sleep out of his vivid, green eyes. As recognition passes over his mind, he smiles at her.

    "H'llo, Brainy," she says almost shyly. Trying desperately not to let him see her nervousness, she runs a hand through her blond hair.

    "Morning, Laurel. I trust you had a fitful sleep. No more nightmares?" he asks with a slight smile playing over his face.

    Laurel watches him intently, studying him and much to her dismay, flinches when he moves his hand towards her. The pain is evident on his face. It cause her heart to still slightly. Nearly brings a tear to her eye. Nearly.

    "I see. When the sun's out, when the lights are on, all you can see is the fact that I'm different then you. The fact that I'm an alien," he says, trying to sound calm but the shaking in his voice betrays him.

    "No, Brainy, it's not like that. It's just..." she starts.

    "It's just that you can't chance being seen with me. Is that it, Andromeda?" he snaps, a blazing fire shinning in his eyes.

    "No Brainy, nothing like that."

    "I have a level twelve intellect, Andromeda. You can't lie to me."

    "Why won't you call me Laurel? Why can't you believe that I'm not lying to you?" she pleads as she stands up. Brainy has been pacing for the last few minutes. He turns to her, the sharp bite of tears in his eyes.

    "Why can't you see past the alien aspects of me? I'm a Coluan, you're a Daxamite. But we're both just people, Andromeda. Just people. And all this is," he replies as he points to his green skin, "is a little bit of color." With that he turns and walks out of her room.

    "I'm sorry, Brainy. I'm sorry. It was all so fast. No one has ever been kind to me. No one. You surprised me. The color doesn't matter," Laurel whispers as she wipes gossamer tears from her blue eyes and runs a hand through her hair. "I'm sorry, Brainy."

    Once in his room, Brainy collapses upon his bed. He touches the perfectly made bed with a hand. The number of times he's slept in this bed is no where near the number of time he's awoken in his lab. However, this morning is the first time he'd waken up in someone else's bed. And if he has anything to say about it, it will be the last.

    Why did I bother? he asks himself. Why did I care? No one else cares about what happens to her, why should I?

    He rises from his seat on the bed and wanders around his room. It's so bare, he thinks. So completely empty. Totally the exact copy of how it looked when I moved in; Cold and empty. Yet, I never bothered to lift a finger to give this room an identity. Probably because I never expected to be here for any length of time. I never even considered this place could become my home.

    As Brainy walks around the plain room his mind drifts back to Laurel. Her blond hair tumbling down her shoulder like spun sunlight, and the endless blue depths of her eyes haunt him. He finds his heart aching to go back to her room and apologize to her. Plead for forgiveness.

    No! a little voice yells at him. You will not beg for forgiveness. You should have no feelings for the prejudice girl. Feelings are illogical. There is no point to it. No point.

    Besides, there's no way she could ever have any feelings for you. No way. Face it, Dox, you're a loner. You were meant to be alone, the voice explains.

    "Even if it means that I'm miserable for the rest of my life," Brainy whispers.

    Even if, the voice agrees. Even if.

    Brainy finds himself drifting in the void between sleep and awareness. Locked still in a dream but knowledgeable of the outside world. Any other day, any other dream, and he would have wakened himself. Today he sleeps.

    In the dream he is on Colu and a man calling himself Prime Minister is there, telling him about genetic tests. Informing Brainiac 5 that he is the product of a gene pool. Telling him that the people of Colu need him and want him to stay.

    Brainy is tempted but a nagging pulls at his brain. If he were to leave the Legion he would be betraying his heart because leaving the Legion would mean leaving Laurel.

    In the real world an alarm goes off and Brainiac is snapped into the world of the waking. But his heart is left empty by the love he saw in the dream. A love the likes of which he can never have.

    Laurel begins to pack what few items she has in her room. She just throws thing into a suitcase and brushes hot tears from her eyes.

    Why was I so stupid? She asks herself. Why did I believe that what was real in those dreams could be real for me? I am such an idiot!

    She brushes a lock of hair off her face with a sigh and then closes the suitcase. A couple of displaced items draw her attention to one of the shelves in her room. A thought of sheer terror causes her to leap from her spot on the bed to examine the shelf.

    "It's gone," she whispers a few seconds later. "It's gone!" Then she knocks yet another hole in the wall.

    Yes, it's gone. The little white triangle on the black chord is gone. The sing of hate and foolish superstitions is gone. The one link to her past has disappeared.

    In another part of Legion headquarters, Shrinking Violet twirls a necklace from her fingers. It is a little, white triangle on a black chord and she's trying to decide whether to tell on Andromeda or not. Finally she sighs and stands up. What has to be done, she thinks, has to be done.

    She found the blasted necklace when she took a vase of flowers into Andromeda's room. Violet felt sorry for the Daxamite because Brainy said she had nearly died. While cleaning up a couple of knocked over data chips she had found the necklace.

    The white triangle. That was the group that has tried to kill one of the Triads. To think that Andromeda was involved with such an evil, racist group of people.

    Shrinking Violet liked to think of herself as a nice person. A person who was willing to give people a second chance, but there was no forgiveness in her heart for Andromeda. For someone involved with a group that had nearly killed her friend a second chance could not be given.

    Violet closes her eyes and lick her lips. Then with a shaking hand she walks into the conference room. All eyes turn towards her. "I think we have a traitor in our ranks," she says as she holds the necklace up, letting the white triangle dangle. "I found this in Andromeda's room."

Months later:

    Laurel Gand sits alone in a small, white chamber. The only things in the chamber are a bed, on which she is curled up into a ball upon, and a small stand on which a few holos sit. Her blue eyes stare off at nothing while she reflects over the events of the past few months.

    It is true that she played her part in allowing the Triangle War to occur. If not for her participation with the Triangle...well she isn't sure how things would have gone. They might have been better but there is an equal, maybe greater chance, that it would have been worse.

    Now she is believed dead but really turned herself into the UP for treason and offered to serve her sentence here-on Planet Hell. Not many know she is here. Just a very select few. After all, the Legion's adoring public can never know that one of the Legion was part of the Triangle. That would not earn them brownie points.

    The blue eyes focus as Laurel works a hand through her hair. I bet that no one misses me. Now that they believe I'm dead, I bet no one cares. No one. I bet Brainy doesn't even care, she thinks. A strand of light blond hair falls into her eyes giving her the opportunity to pretend that it is the hair poking into her eye that's making her cry instead of the thought that Brainy doesn't care about her.

    With a small whimper, Laurel Gand, once known as the Legionnaire Andromeda, pulls herself into an even tighter ball on the bed and let the tears roll down her face. It isn't really her fault. She was used all along. But it still hurts. And she can't leave here until she has paid for her sins, until she has received atonement.

    Brainiac Five locks the door to his laboratory behind him. He doesn't want to go to his room, he wants to be here. His work is the only thing he has now. Everything else is gone.

    As he looks over a holo, one single tear slips out of his green eye and trails down his green cheek. One single tear. A tear for Laurel and the things that could have been.

    Damn Dox! he curses himself. She's dead. She's really, truly dead.

    The monument is up now. A large, bronze statue of Andromeda that shows her larger than life. But it isn't her. It contains none of her essence. None of her rage or vulnerability or her fragile sense of self. Statues aren't people and they can't replace the people they've been built for. But to Brainy, nothing, no one can replace Laurel.

    After her death, Cos locked the door to her room saying that later, after the mourning was over, it would be cleaned out. Locks can't stop a Coluan with a twelfth level mind, though, and Brainy had broken in quickly.

    The room had been just as he remembered from that one bittersweet night only now it had been made harsh by the daytime light. There were holes in the walls and most of the chairs were torn up. Slowly, he had sat upon the bed and brushed a hand through his blond hair. He swore that he could almost feel her there. A tangible sort of presence that clung to him and felt just like her, smelled just like her.

    A holo had been left on the dresser with his name written on it. Slowly, his hands shaking, he picked it up and read it.

Dear Brainy,

It's obvious that you're upset with me. You think I was lying, but I wasn't. Really, I swear that I wasn't. I care for you so much but...but I can't stay here if you hate me. I...I need some time away from the Legion, from all of this. Goodbye Brainy. I hope I see you again and I wish, I really wish, that there was some way we could make this whole thing work but I don't think that's going to happen. Bye now.

Love you,

(No, really, I think I do.)

Laurel

    Now in his lab, he reads over the holo again and cries. The tears fill his eyes and roll down his face. He tries to keep his sobs quiet but at this point he really doesn't care anymore.

    Damn her, he thinks. Damn her for not telling me sooner. And damn me for being so cruel and unfeeling in the first place.

    He slams his fists into the console in one last defiant act and then sinks to the floor. The tears falling from his green eyes and sobs wracking his petite body.

    As the night wears on and he falls asleep from exhaustion, his own dreams give him away...

    They're taking a vacation, Jo, Tinya, Triad, Inferno (Dirk circa Pre-Zero Hour), Andromeda, and himself. After having a fight, he and Laurel are making up and it's the best thing in the world. And Brainy's so happy. He's so happy that he could die because that's the way she makes him feel. And he doesn't even care that this is only a dream because it feels so real. He doesn't even care.

    On Planet Hell, Laurel's having the same dream and she doesn't care that it's not real either because she just wants to be back in Brainy's arms. Even if it isn't real. She just doesn't care.