Yes, I know it has only been, like, two or three days since I last updated but i couldn't wait so here is chapter two. Also, in the authors not last time the V's were supposed to make an arrow but the strange computer deleted all of the spaces in front of them so it looks a bit odd, it would've been so cool...oh well.
"Who were they?" April asked as soon as they had left the warehouse.
"Apparently they're the guys who rescued us." said Jay as she led them into an alley.
"What did he mean by 'you're dead'? And what do we do now?" asked Anna.
"Maybe they're working with that guy that locked us up in the first place and we're supposed to be dead. Either that or someone must really want us dead" Jay saw the look on April and Anna's faces, "Or I could be wrong." she added quickly. "I need some time to work all this out so let's just go home for now."
"Okay, that sounds like a good idea." said April, stifling a yawn.
Jay would never admit it but whatever that thief had done to them had really done a number on her, and she was so groggy it felt like she had been asleep for years. She took out her grappling gun and shot it onto the roof, April and Anna flying beside her. When she looked up to judge the distance to the next roof she saw a slight movement at the edge of her vision. She whirled around and saw a teenage boy, he looked around 18 and was wearing a black jumpsuit with a blue stylized bird on his chest and a domino mask. He looked so familiar. His eyes widened when he saw her, April, and Anna standing there. "Y-you're alive." he whispered.
"Brilliant observation, Sherlock." Jay retorted, "I've been asking this way too often lately, but who are you?"
"Don't you recognize me?" he asked.
"Never seen you." she said, though she couldn't shake the feeling that she knew him.
"It's me, Robin." he said.
Jay heard April and Anna gasp from behind her, he did look a bit like Robin, the hair, the mask, the way he stood, but, "Robin is thirteen, there's no way you're thirteen."
"I'm eighteen." he hesitated, "You've been missing for five years."
"Yeah right." said Jay.
"He could be telling the truth, Jay." Anna whispered so that he couldn't hear her, "We should at least give him a chance."
"Are you kidding? There's no way this guy's telling the truth, I mean, five years? Give me a break."
"But-"
"You guys can stay here and listen to him all you want but I'm leaving!" Then said before darting off.
Anna and April hesitated a bit before following their best friend, leaving "Robin" standing alone on the roof.
They finally caught up to her, "Sparrow, stop!" yelled April.
"What!?" she whirled around then sighed, "Sorry."
"Do you really think that we're in the future?" asked April.
"You're the science genius, you tell me."
"Maybe this is all just some elaborate scheme. Maybe it's a crazy hallucination caused by some mind-control villain or something!" added Anna.
"Maybe." said Jay, then she said to herself, "There's one way to find out."
"What did you say?" asked Anna.
"Follow me." she said as she jumped to the shadows of the next rooftop.
"Wait, where are we going?" asked April.
"I already told you guys." she answered, "We're going home."
The trio finally reached their house, or what used to be their house. Now it had cobwebs in the windows, the grass was dead, and a few shingles were missing and it looked more like a haunted house. They opened the door, which creaked on its hinges, only adding to the haunted house effect, the inside had a thick layer of dust covering everything. "Wow, what happened to this place?" Anna said, her eyes widening at the sight.
April stopped in her tracks as she saw the house, "This is one convincing illusion."
Jay went straight to the kitchen and pulled open a drawer, revealing a bunch of tarnished silverware. She pulled out the box holding the silverware and removed a false panel in the bottom, revealing a small holographic projector. She waved her hand over it, activating a holographic keypad which she used to type in a series of numbers which made a bookshelf slide back into the wall (cliché but I couldn't resist) revealing a large room stuffed with a jumble of machines. "There's no way even Mastermind could duplicate this." said April.
"I agree, but I know a way to be sure this isn't some scheme or set-up." Jay said as she walked to a far corner of the room and unlocked a tiny safe hidden behind another false panel. Inside was a small black object that she usually took with her but she had left it behind just this once because she had been in a hurry, it was covered with dust just like everything else in the house. Jay gently removed took it out and used her sleeve to wipe off the layer of dust, under it were engraved silver letters on the surface of the glossy black pocket knife, the inscription read simply, "Pocketbird". Jay felt a single tear slip down her cheek and she quickly rubbed it away with the palm of her hand. She stood up to face her friends, holding up the pocket knife she said, "It's real, everything's real." Then they felt a rush of air and looked toward the doorway to see a familiar mop of red hair and brilliant green eyes. April looked at the figure in amazement, "Wally?"
Wally was studying for a college exam when the phone rang, "Hello?" he said as he picked up the phone.
"Wally it's Dick."
"Hey Dick, what's up?" he asked, hearing the tension in his friend's voice.
"It's them. They're back." said Dick.
"You don't mean..." he said, already knowing the answer.
"I do, they're at their old house. But Wally..." the rest of the sentence was left hanging because Wally had already sped out of the room.
Now he was standing in the doorway to a room he had no idea even existed until now, looking at a girl who had disappeared five years ago, presumed dead, and still looked the exact same age.
"Wally?" she said in amazement, unsure if this familiar-looking college age boy was really her boyfriend.
"April?" he asked. When she nodded he ran over and hugged her, picking her up since he was quite a bit taller than her now, "Itsyouitsyouitsreallyyou!" he said at super speed with tears in his eyes.
When he set her down she looked up at him, he was a good five inches taller than her now. "Wally." she said, still shocked, "You look so different."
His smile lessened, "Yeah, I'm twenty-one now."
"Then we really have been gone five years." she said, feeling crushed.
Now Wally's smile disappeared altogether, "Yeah."
"So we've been missing for five years, and no one ever found us." she said, trying not to cry, "Five years...gone."
"No! April, we tried to find you, we really did! But, well...we thought you were dead, I mean, there weren't any traces...nothing to suggest that..." he just couldn't find an excuse. He felt terrible, all this time and they had never been able to find them. He'd never been able to find her. He'd given up on the only person he had ever loved, "I'm sorry April. I'm so so sorry."
She hugged him again and then said quietly, "So what happens now?"
"We'll figure something out April. I promise."
After their encounter with Wally and the visit to their old house the girls finally believed that this was no illusion, it was real. They had zeta'd back to the cave with Wally to find Nightwing waiting for them, luckily all the other members of the team had either gone home or were taking care of a low threat level mission. Now they were standing in an empty room with Wally and Nightwing. "So you really are Robin then?" asked Jay.
"I go by Nightwing now but yeah."
She didn't know what to say and blurted without thinking, "I didn't forget about our date!" then she blushed deeply, "Why did I just say that?" she thought.
Nightwing just smiled, "I know." which just made her blush even harder.
Anna elbowed Jay and she finally regained her composure, "So, what exactly happened these past five years?"
Nightwing opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the computer stating the arrival of Beast Boy, Impulse, Blue Beetle, Miss Martian, and Superboy.
"I have to take care of this. Wally, you and the girls stay here, I'll be right back." said Nightwing before leaving the room.
"Beast Boy, Impulse, and Blue Beetle?" said April confused.
"You guys missed a lot these past five years." said Wally.
Jay was standing in the shadows near the entrance to the briefing room listening in on the conversation between Nightwing and Miss Martian, Superboy, and three others she didn't recognize. It had been too easy to sneak past Wally while April and Anna distracted him. Nightwing looked like he was trying to come up with some way to get rid of them. "Good work team. Well, that's it for today."
"Cool! I'm gonna go put up my souvenir!" said the green boy.
"Wait." thought Jay, "I've seen him before. He was one of the people at the warehouse, and so was that blue guy!"
She was thinking about them so hard that she forgot she was hiding. Her focus power, or whatever it was since she hadn't really decided what to call it yet, flickered off and Impulse spotted her. "Hey, who's that?" he ran over to her, snapping her out of her thoughts and startling her. "Who are you?" he asked, "Have I seen you before? You seem familiar, I knew I should've paid better attention in history!" he said in rapid fire. Jay, still startled, tried to hit him but he dodged and sped behind her, "Whoops, too slow!" he shoved her and she stumbled and fell into the room.
"Sparrow!? What are you doing in-"
Nightwing was cut off as Wally came speeding in, "Hey Nightwing I can't find-" then he saw Sparrow, "Oh, and I'm too late."
"Sparrow stood up and dusted herself off, then M'Gann saw her, "Sparrow!?"
Jay, momentarily forgetting she had been gone for five years, said casually, "Hey M'Gann, nice hair cut."
"It really is you!" she gasped, "It's really you!" she ran over and hugged her, which made Jay extremely uncomfortable.
"Oh yeah," she muttered, "forgot about the whole five year thing."
Then April and Anna walked into the room too. Nightwing gave Wally a bat-glare, "Um...sorry?" he whimpered.
"April! Anna! You're okay too!" yelled M'Gann before running over and hugging them both.
Jay breathed a sigh of relief as she was released from M'Gann's death grip. She saw Superboy standing there, looking very surprised too, "Um...you're not going to hug me too are you?" she said nervously.
He simply shook his head, he looked like he was in shock, which he probably was. "I told you to stay in the room!" said Nightwing, glaring at Jay.
"And I decided not to listen." said Jay simply, not effected by the bat-glare at all, "Besides, Wally was supposed to be watching us."
"Hey!" protested Wally, "You cheated, you tricked me!"
"You're such a kid." said April.
"This coming from the fifteen year old." he said back.
April just stuck her tongue out at him. "Anyway." interrupted Jay, "We deserve to know what's going on."
Nightwing sighed, "Okay. I'll explain everything tomorrow when the rest of the team's here."
"Fine." said Jay as she turned to storm off, but she stopped when she realized something, sadly Nightwing realized the same thing.
"And where, exactly, are you going?" he smirked. Jay blushed again but she wasn't about to admit that she had no idea. "There are some extra rooms at the end of the hall." he said, still smirking.
"Thanks." Jay muttered before walking in the direction of the rooms with April and Anna following.
As soon as they were gone Beast Boy looked at Blue Beetle, "What just happened?"
"I have no idea."
Jay couldn't sleep, the events of the day were running through her head along with about a billion questions. She replayed the events of last night, or rather five years ago, in her head. She couldn't get what the thief had said out of her mind, "The future needs you more than the past." This future seemed just fine, there were more heroes now than there had ever been before. She glanced at her watch, it was just after one. She sighed, "Maybe a walk, however cliché it sounds, will clear my head and I can finally get some sleep.
She walked through the cave which had once seemed so familiar and safe but now it felt just as cold and unfriendly as any villain's lair. She felt so out of place here, in this time. It was only five years later but it felt like a century. She went outside in the cool night air, the mountainside was illuminated by the full moon, Jay walked over and sat down in the soft grass. After a few minutes, she saw a figure come out of the mountain, it was Nightwing. She tried to duck lower into the grass but it was too late, he had already spotted her and was walking up to sit beside her. "Why are you out here?" he asked.
"I could ask you the same thing." she replied.
"I had just got back from Gotham and was heading to my room when I saw you come out here." he answered, "Your turn."
"Couldn't sleep." she said, it was only half true.
He could see that she wasn't telling the whole story, "Whatever's wrong you can tell me. You've been through a lot today and whatever it is I want to help." he tried to reassure her.
Her hair fell in front of her eyes, she made no move to brush it away as she stared at the ground. "It's just, everything's different now, the team, our house, the cave," she paused and looked up at him with tears in her eyes, "you."
It was all he could do not to break down himself, but instead he just pulled her close and whispered, "It's okay. Everything's going to be alright."
Jay had twin tear tracks running down her face, "I'm scared." she whispered.
Nightwing looked her in the eyes, "Don't be. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."
They sat close, staring at the starry sky and after a few minutes Jay was fast asleep. Nightwing gently carried her into her room and set her on her bed, pulling a blanket over her. He smiled even though, deep down, he knew that things between them could never be the same again. "Good night Jay." he whispered.
Poor Sparrow, but if you think this is sad just think about how Anna's gonna react when she finds out Aqualad's evil. Mwahahaha, i am so cruel to my characters. Please review as I do actually have a heart and I love to hear what you guys think!
