The facility had been abandoned for years now, not producing anything useful throughout its limited lifetime. Except tonight, it wasn't empty.
A crew were hired to assess the building before the demolition – only six people. They'd worked there since evening to check for any possible hazards and structure damage. It was supposed to be boring and safe until the doors sealed.
Now the building was completely sealed, the lights dimming red along with the sound of emergency alarms. The PA system buzzed, and then a distinctive voice crackled through.
"Sorry, everyone, but I'm afraid you might have to delay your fancy little work here. You're getting in the way of my little game here. Sorry not sorry," Sophist declared.
As usual, the people panicked just like they always do, and Sophist spun around on his chair, planting his legs fully stretched out on the desk.
J'onn phased through the facility's wall. J'onn had a feeling he knew who was behind this. It was Sophist.
He scanned telepathically, reaching out and sensing six civilians trapped in a section of the facility. J'onn moved towards them, doors closing around him.
He could get to them with ease, but he paused his glide and floated, staring at them. Sophist always had rules to his games, and if broken, he promised only death. So J'onn waited.
The lights cut out, instantly. Every sound seemed to disappear; he couldn't even hear his own breath. Someone, he couldn't hear a single thing. No sight and no sound.
He tried to reach out telepathically, but all he received was static from all over the place. Even that sense was disrupted.
J'onn had never felt anything like this before throughout his long life. He was confused and lost. Then he heard a voice.
"You rely on your telepathy, J'onn. On hearing others' thoughts and feeling their emotions. So let's see who you are...when that part of you is taken away," he said to J'onn.
The darkness started to change. Shapes emerged from nothing, faint at first, but they quickly became clearer. More solid.
Then so did the sounds. They started as whispers, overlapping and unintelligible. Then those whispers became screams.
They were sharp and made J'onn's chest tighten. The facility disappeared and was replaced with Mars.
The ceiling turned into red skies with streaks of ash and smoke as his home's crystal structures collapsed. The ground cracked, and heat swarmed J'onn's body. It wasn't perfect; not everything aligned with his memories, but it seemed just like Mars.
The sight of his world dying and the smell of scorched sand and burning flesh overloaded J'onn. His breathing quickened. He knew it wasn't real; that was impossible. Sophist used his dying world as a way to attack him.
Knowing it was fake didn't make it any better because everything he was feeling was real. The fear. The Guilt.
"J'onn, where are you?" cried a child.
"Help us! Please!" begged an elder.
"You can save us! Why aren't you?" whelped his little sister.
The voices overlapped, repeating endlessly. Some were pleading, desperate to survive. People screaming to still be saved.
"You left us."
"You hid while we burnt."
"Coward."
J'onn clenched his hands. He tried to move, to do something, but he found himself frozen. After all this time, carrying all that guilt, deep down he felt he deserved this.
"You survived J'onn," Sophist's voice returns.
The flames around J'onn grew fiercer, with burnt bodies collapsing all around him. The flames grew closer and closer to J'onn. His little sister appeared in the flames, reaching out towards J'onn.
"Explain why you deserved to live when they didn't," Sophist continued.
J'onn stepped back. He was trying to reach out with his telepathy to talk to a fellow Martian, but no one replied. He knew no one would, but he wanted to try anyway. They felt so real.
"You could have saved them. Maybe not all of them but at least some. You had the power to do so," Sophist said.
The area around J'onn changed, multiple versions of himself appearing around the room. Everyone portrayed a scene from his life. Him fighting, another one rescuing and another simply talking with his friends.
They all disappeared, leaving only two. One hid under the rubble, and another tried to save everyone. One survived while the other died with his people.
"You chose to survive instead of sacrificing yourself. You chose yourself over them, and that's the truth you've been living with ever since, isn't it? The act you can never forgive yourself for," Sophist said.
J'onn dropped to one knee, his breathing ragged, with his thoughts spiralling.
I hid. I didn't save them. I could have done more. I should have done more. Why me? Why did I survive?
The illusion came closer, the fire suffocating him while the voices accused him. A version of him stared at him with empty eyes. The one that hid. The one that survived. The one that lived while billions died.
For a moment J'onn almost accepted it. Almost let the guilt take over him and let the illusion become the truth.
He was alone. He deserved to be alone. He...
J'onn calmed his mind. He steadied his breath and closed his eyes.
"This isn't them," he said.
The flames surged higher, and the voices grew louder. His little sister moved closer to him, her arm still reached out and tears running down her face.
"Is it what you remember?" Sophist asked.
"No," J'onn replied.
"Is it what you deserve?" Sophist asked.
"No, it's what you want me to believe," J'onn replied, stronger than last time.
J'onn didn't fight back and simply let it happen. Letting it no longer affect him. He didn't answer them and refused that his survival required justification.
"I survived, and I don't know why. I don't know why I lived when they died. I don't know if I deserved it, and I don't know if there was something I could have done differently. But that doesn't make this real. This is my guilt. My fear. My trauma. They didn't blame me. I blamed myself, and you're using that against me," J'onn said, his voice steady.
The illusion fractured, the flames becoming pixels and the voices turning to static. His little sister dissolved like smoke in front of him.
The lights snapped on, and J'onn remained kneeling, his hands still shaking.
The doors unlocked, and J'onn could hear the civilians emerging from their sealed chamber. J'onn stood slowly and walked towards the exit. The scenario was over.
J'onn looked towards the sky for the first time in what felt like ages. He lifted into the air and flew through the night.
He didn't know why Mars spared him; he was beginning to accept that he had and that he didn't need to know. He disappeared into the night, slightly healed.