Disclaimer: The Legion of Super-Heroes and the "Wintersects" (as I call them) are property of DC Comics Inc. No profits will be made by this story, except the enjoyment of fellow Legion fans.

Author's Note: The time is 2968, just after Shadow Lass joined the Legion to battle the Fatal Five and just as the upside-down rocket was being replaced by the megaplex.

It was a beautiful sunrise, made all the more precious by the warm, naked body nuzzled in the crook of Dirk's arm, and the clean sheets entwining their bodies together. Moments like this almost make me believe in love, he thought as he squeezed her closer and smelled her dark hair. She stirred. Now let's see if she remembers any of the magic of last night.

"You're awake?" she mumbled.

"Yeah, I love this time of day; especially when I can share it with you."

With a laugh, she sat up. "Nah-uh, lover, you know the rules to the game. No talk of commitments--no regrets. If I want some other stud the next time I hit Earthside, I don't want him fried."

A stab of pain hit Dirk's stomach. Reflexively he rose, robed himself and asked her what she wanted for breakfast, playing the perfect host.

"--So, what are you going to do today? Go to the university and work on that thingit? Or see your friends?"

Dirk hid his sigh of exasperation. She couldn't understand his master's project and didn't understand about the Legion. "The 'thingit' is a particle isolater for--"

"Whoa! You've lost me already. Ummm, what about that fancy new headquarters the U.P. is building for you kids?"

"Going okay. The foundation for the underground is being finished today. The only real problem is the the Earthgov wants to call it Weisinger Plaza instead of Nolan..."

The woman heard the grief in his voice. "Your dead colleague? Hurts a lot doesn't it? We Spacers know about that pain." She looked at her watch. "I have to leave now, Dirk. But I'll call when I hit Earthside again. I promise."

He smiled wolfishly. "I'll be waiting, Terzie." Yeah, right. You'll find someone at the Spaceport just like you found me. He blew her a kiss as she walked out of his life.

After dumping the plates in the sink and setting it for clean, he put on a pair of blue running shorts and a purple tank top. He decided on Tai Chi instead of calisthenics to loosen up for a run because he needed a spiritual balance before facing anyone else.

Eighty minutes later, he arrived at what would soon be Legion Headquarters. To his surprise Dream Girl and Shadow Lass were there.

"Hello, lovely ladies. How are you this morning?"

Dream Girl returned his smile and hugged him, while the would-be Legionnaire stepped back. Dirk saw the almost black eyes avoid his and flinched. Nura caught the by-play. "So what do you think of our next member?"

"So the vote to make her a member is going through? Great. You know I appreciate beauty and talent," he said, playing the gentleman long enough to kiss the blue hand.

Tasmia withdrew it, flustered.

"They did some filling over there, didn't they?" Dirk asked.

"I think so. This place has a long way to go before I live here."

"Amen. Hey, did you play around building foundations when you were a kid?"

"This is not the playing around you usually mention in mixed company," Nura observed slyly.

"You're right; it's not. Come on."

Nura shook her silver hair. "I'm wearing white. But maybe Tasmia?"

"Nura, you always wear white!"

Shadow Lass gnawed at her lip before asking, "Do you know where Brainy's lab will be?"

"Far away from everything else I hope," was Dream Girl's fervent reply.

"I plan to use the lab too, Dreamy," Dirk reminded her.

"All the more reason..."

Dirk scowled at her and led the other girl through the foundation. "Be careful, Shady, things may be a bit unsteady around heeeerrrre!" His running shoe slipped and he fell through the foundation.

Tasmia's "Sun Boy, are you all right?" was mingled with Nura's laughter until the girls realized he wasn't swearing or climbing out.

-L-

"Well, where is he?" Dream Girl demanded as she floated through the hole after Shadow Lass.

"There was a mud slide. It dragged him down that way. It... may have drowned him."

"NO! I would have foreseen that!" She began to finger her suit strap.

"What are you doing?"

"Activating my communicator. We girls have to put it somewhere."

"I think I'll use my headband. Find out anything?"

"He's not answering. Time to call someone else." *Imra!* Dream Girl summoned, opening her mind to the telepath.

Imra accepted the information and responded. *I'm surprised the foundation's that weak. Ayla and I are heading there now.*

*One of you better head to the Science Police. We're going to need equipment.*

*Agreed. Ayla?* Light Lass understood and followed the suggestion. *I'm trying to contact him now.*

Dirk shuddered and opened his eyes to Imra's mindcall. He could see nothing and his dazed mind could not identify the sensation that made his teeth chatter. *I'm awake, Saturn Girl. Where am I?*

*That's what I'm trying to find out. Idiot*, she chided, *what did you think you were doing?* Dirk flushed and abruptly, Imra's tone changed. *Are you hurt?*

*Let me find out...* He concentrated and light filled the small cavern. *I'm not blind; I can see and create light. My head aches and my vision's fuzzy. A nice assortment of cuts, bruises and strains. I-OWW* there was a moment of blinding pain. After it subsided, he reported with clinched teeth, *My ankle is broken, and I-I'm cold(?), Saturn Girl.*

*Shock. Don't try to use your powers to compensate, Dirk. I am worried about your head. I'm having trouble maintaining the link. I might be able to find you if I'm not suffering from your disorientation... do you have a comm link?*

*I'll see. No, it's out, and so is my flight ring signal. Strange.*

*Agreed. Dirk, stay alive long enough for us to find you. Please?*

*Anything for you, Imra.*

*Spare me, Legionnaire.* The link faded, leaving Dirk very frightened and equally alone. *As long as I can generate light, I'm all right. Nothing will be able to sneak up on me. If only I wasn't so damn cold. I need something warm, or somebody warm.* He began to imagine the perfect lover, with violet hair and eyes and mocha skin. She began to take on more and more features until he could see her as clearly as he could see the mud walls that could shift and entomb them. She came closer, as if to kiss him... he heard the insistent chirps and screams of crickets...

"NO!" he shouted as he realized there was no woman in front of him, but a two meter tall insect reaching towards him with wide mandibles. Sun Boy backed away and brightened his intensity, hoping to drive the nightmare away.

*That's it, I'm hallucinating.* he told himself. The visions faded, but the droning continued, becoming louder and louder until it blocked all reason, all fear and eventually all consciousness.

-L-

"Damn! I've lost him!" Imra rarely swore and the fact she did so now worried the newly-arrived Light Lass.

"What do you mean by 'lost', Imra?" She asked.

"He was thinking about the cold... and a woman..."

"That's our Dirk," Nura laughed.

"...And bugs. Then something broke our link.... it seemed almost intentional. I can't tell if he's alive. Nura--"

"I can't believe I wouldn't foresee a friend's death! He's got to be alive!"

"Let me go down there," Shadow Lass suggested. "I've had lots of practice spelunking, I can see in the dark and I'm a field medic."

"You're also not a Legionnaire, Shadow Lass. We can't risk you!" Imra objected.

"She will be a Legionnaire soon," Nura explained.

"She's not one yet; she needs to be alive to become one."

"Are you saying you don't trust my skills?" Shadow Lass demanded.

Tempers were rising too quickly and Ayla decided enough was enough. Both Imra and Nura suffered from extreme egos and the new girl seemed to also suffer from the same disorder. She put her hand on the telepath's shoulder and hoped Imra would receive the calming thought. Apparently, Saturn Girl did, for she took a deep breath and steadied herself before releasing it. "Shadow Lass, if Cosmic Boy, Brainiac Five, Superboy and Karate Kid vouch for your talents, then I trust you. What I do not trust is the stability of the foundation and would prefer not to trust fate. Nura, can you foresee anything?"

Dream Girl smiled at the mostly male paramedics and turned back to her comrades. "Contrary to appearances, I have been trying. Something big is going to happen, but I can't tell what if I'm awake. I need to Trance." She turned to the paramedics and strutted to the gurney and allowed one to help her onto the floating bed. She thanked him in a tone laden with appreciation for gallantry as she lay down and fluffed out her hair onto the pillow. Then she began her deep breathing exercises and slipped into a Trance. For five long minutes, she was quiet while she was surrounded by admiring eyes. Then she whispered a word.

"Explosion."

-L-

For Dirk, an unknown amount of time passed. The chittering returned, underscored by a low human moan. Dirk recognized it as his own, and struggled towards awareness and the green light he saw. Despite its unnatural color, the light was natural, phosphorescent. Walls of stone replaced the unsteady womb of mud. Pillars of resins stretched from floor to a ceiling covered in a fine white material, clumping in places. As slowly as possible, the Legionnaire shifted his head to study the place. How did he get here? Where--and what--was "here"? Fear combined with reason, and he observed the area with a scientist's curiosity.

The chittering had patterns to it. Pauses and repetitions that made him think of language more than music. He glanced down at an ankle that should have been throbbing and discovered it was covered in the same white material as the ceiling, immobilizing it. His cuts were covered with the sticky stuff that connected itself to clean skin. He had been treated... by something that was probably not human. As he noticed that nothing seemed to be observing him, his investigations became bolder, and he peered into the next room, which held a series of machines. They were almost unrecognizable as machines--no being with human hands or vision could have built them... except for maybe the damaged solar collector a countless number of very large insects crowded around, chirping hysterically.

Oh, whatever happened to the wounded hero waking up in a beautiful woman's arms? Dirk asked his patron saint, who never answered in the first place, so Dirk had stopped praying to it years ago. Since the divine had no answer, maybe the insects did. He sincerely doubt they'd patch someone up if they were planning that being for a future meal. On the other hand, he wasn't sure he was ready to make their acquaintance. He turned to go back to his corner and quietly wait and he bumped into another grasshopper that was taller than he. "I take it, you'd like me to meet the others?" Dirk asked. The insect shoved him. "Okay. You're the host."

As he entered the chamber, the inhabitants fell silent. The quiet was unnerving after the constant chatter and Dirk wished they would speak again.

"Why does your kind insist in tormenting us?" a locust demanded in English.

"I don't understand. What have we done?" Sun Boy answered in the same language, despite his astonishment at a question in a language he could speak.

"You take our land, destroy our machines, kill us and our young, and make a mockery of the world we salvaged from your wars."

"Could we speak Interlac? Your dialect is strange to me."

"Then you will have to concentrate. No more! No more will we let humans destroy Wintersects! You will be hostage for that."

"The hell I will!" Dirk blurted. The grasshopper slashed at him with a leg, and Dirk blocked the move, feeling his forearm go numb.

"See? See? They react to everything with violence; our Revered Ancestor was right in converting us from them!"

"You insects were once human?"

"A millennia ago. Fearing the violence, knowing war would come, our Ancestor converted us so we would live when humanity died."

"But we didn't die."

"No! You destroyed everything we worked on. Now when we seek to leave this tormented and raped world you humans have enslaved, you destroy our batteries for our machines!"

Dirk Morgna leaned back with a sense of victory. "So that was a solar collector."

"Yes. And you will be trade for a new one."

The Legionnaire sighed. Wintersects seemed to have several bad habits that they saw in humans. He wondered briefly if the psychic potential Imra swore he used to snag his bedmates could work here. He did not have Jan's knack of convincing people that there were alternatives to violence or Brainy and Imra's cold logic. With or without any talents, he would have to convince them that he was the best answer to their problems as a free agent. "You don't need a solar collector. You need storage facilities and a Sergivich feed. I can power your equipment."

"Then you will do it!"

"No! I'll let you kill me and wait for all the humans to avenge me if you force me. Your answer is to give me freedom. In exchange, I'll power your spacecraft."

The Wintersects began to laugh. Their laughter nearly deafened the human who felt that he was losing the gamble for his greatest possession--his life.

"Young human, there is no spacecraft. There is a machine to change our dimensional location. We will travel to another vibration--not another place."

A gigantic beetle spoke. "I am familiar with the feed you mention. We have something like that. You will use it to free us and then you will free yourself."

Dirk was not sure he liked the phrasing of the deal. However he disliked waiting helplessly for a rescue even more. "Agreed."

With help from the beetle, Dirk altered some equipment. Now he was fairly sure that he could do what he said. He hobbled up to the machine and filled it with his own power. When the machine thrummed with the power, he turned the gateway onto the Wintersects and watched them disappear.

The cavern began shaking and breaking apart. "Shit!" Dirk shouted, and flared to nova in a hope that he could vaporize the stones falling around him. There was too much to destroy in too little time. Molten stone, still solid enough to hurt, struck him, and he lost consciousness for the third time that day.

-L-

"You know," Nura purred as he became aware of her peeling a cocoon patch away from his head. "You're lucky you've got a hard head."

"If you keep using that tone, Dreamy, I'm going to have two of them for you to work with."

Light Lass gagged. "Dirk, you're going to be lucky if Star Boy doesn't castrate you some day."

"Have you seen what he did to my D & D character? By the way, I think I've got you and your soon-to-be sister to thank for my semi-intact hide."

"Actually, Dream Girl was as instrumental in saving you as Ayla and I were, Sun Boy. She foresaw your stunt and warned Ayla at the same time I found you." Imra looked at the three females who helped save him, chanced a slight smile and remarked (much to everyone's surprise), "you're just lucky you're loved."