Chapter 3

YJ team, midnight:

"We're here," Batman said from his spot on the bio ship.

"Then what are we waiting for? Land the ship so we can start the search!" Kid yelled having some issues taking off his safety belt. Artemis landed the bio ship and the team began to file out.

"Guys, I can't get out! Help me!" Kid said trying desperately trying to pull himself from the seat.

"Poor guy, he's so freaked out," Artemis said to the other members of the team.

"It's a stupid seat belt Kid, you can get yourself out," Superboy growled at the red head as he left the bio ship.

"I-I can't its stuck!" Wally yelled trying to tear off the belts.

"You guys go ahead with Batman and try to calm down Superboy, we'll catch up," Robin sighed. The others nodded and slowly stepped of the ship. Robin slowly walked over to the struggling boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. Wally looked up at his partner relived someone had come to help him.

"KF," Robin began, "You need to get 'traught. Now is not the time to stress out about things that are out of our control do you understand?"

"But-" Kid Flash was about to protest but was cut off by one of robin's cold hard glares.

"No buts. You either get it together, or we leave you here. Your choice," Robin said in a "Batman" tone of voice.

"I'm going," Wally said a little more relaxed than before.

"Then take of the belt and let's go," Robin said obviously still annoyed with his friend. Wally tried once again to get the belt off and to his amazement, the straps slid back into the seat. Robin nodded and walked through the opening at the back of the ship. Kid Flash, still unable to contain himself, sprinted past his friend to go and catch up with the rest of the team. Robin shook his head, and took another deep breath. "I should really take my own advice sometimes," he thought to himself. The minute he stepped off the ship the sky opened up and it started to snow.

"Great, this will make it even harder to find her!" Zatanna yelled pointing out the obvious.

"Spread out, don't leave any corner of this forest unsearched. Artemis, Robin, you two search straight ahead. Kid flash, Zatanna, You two will go left. Superboy, Aqualad, we will go back. Meet back here in two hours," Batman ordered. The team nodded and broke off into their partner

Klarion's place 12:45:

Klarion stared at the celling while lying in bed of his dark room. He had the black covers of his bed pulled up just past his sweat pants and waist revealing his pale bare chest. Teekl was curled up on his stomach keeping his upper body warm in the cool room.

"Why am I so nervous about her being here? It's not like she has the power to kill me, and besides, I did not even tell her where my room was so she can't find me," He thought feeling nervous about having a hero wandering about the house, "I mean I could take her with my hand tied behind my back!...but Teekl can't." he froze in fear at the realization of it. He could protect himself, but if she got her hands on Teekl….

Klarion, what's wrong? You got all tense all of a sudden, Teekl asked drowsily.

"Teekl, if you wake up in the middle of the night and need to go somewhere, could you wake me up and tell me first?" Klarion asked siting up forcing Teekl to wake up fully.

Sure, but why do you want me too? I mean, it sounds a little out of the ordinary for you. You practically bite my head off if I wake you up that early normally, Teekl asked licking her paw and running it over her ear.

"Just do it, ok?" Klarion grumbled as he pulled the covers up over his bare shoulders and turned over on his side.

Fine, Teekl said tunneling under the covers and curling up next to his stomach.

"How you don't suffocate under there is beyond me," Klarion mumbled sleep overtaking him.

Because I'm special like that, Teekl said back to Klarion. She waited for a response but all she got was the sound of rain beating down on the window and Klarion's steady breathing. Teekl smiled to herself and closed her eyes.

YJ team: Robin and Artemis 1:56 am:

"It's about time we head back Artemis," Robin sighed stepping out of the bush he had been searching.

"No, we can't go back now! We haven't found her yet!" Artemis yelled back at the boy standing behind her.

"We have to. Batman said two hours, and it's been two hours. Let's get back and compare notes with the others," Robin said calmly turning back to the way they had come.

"How can you be so calm? Do you realize that there is a large chance that M'gann is lying somewhere dead? You're acting like you don't care!" Artemis spat at her teammate.

"Of course I care, but you can't let your emotions get the better of you at time like these. We have a better chance of finding her if we all get back together and discuss our findings," Robin said seemingly unmoved by Artemis's insults, but in reality, they had cut him like a knife. How could she think he didn't care? He may look calm, but he was having an internal panic attack.

"Fine," Artemis said walking past Robin fixing her wet snow filled ponytail. Robin followed slightly shivering from the cold.

Kid Flash and Zatanna 1:56 am,

"Did you find anything yet?" Kid asked running back over to the young magician.

"Not since the last time you asked me. Which was about five minutes ago," Zatanna replied annoyed. The two went back to their searching until Kid's wrist watch beeped signaling that their two hours were up.

"No, I could not have been two hours already!" Kid Flash yelled running around the area desperately searching for any clues at all, only stopping when he tripped on a root.

"We have to go back KF, I'm sorry," Zatanna called to the now lying down Kid flash. Kid nodded and attempted to stand up only to yelp in pain and fall back down.

"What's wrong?" Zatanna asked rushing to his side.

"I think I twisted my ankle," Kid replied grabbing at his right ankle.

"Here, I will levitate us back," The girl cast a spell and soon the two were floating off in the direction of the teams meeting place.

Batman, Superboy, Aqualad, 1:56 am:

Kaldur'Ahm pushed his way under another bare branch, scanning the snowy ground around him. He was about to give up for the night when something shiny caught his eye. He used his powers and lifted the small round snow covered object into his hand. He looked it over and his heart sank.

"I have found something," he said turning back to the other two.

"What is it?" Conner asked hopefully.

"It is M'gann's communicator," he said handing the device over to Batman.

"This is what Robin must have picked up on," Batman said rolling the small round machine over in his hand, "She's not here."

"No…NO!" Conner screamed turning to the nearest tree and punching it.

"Come on, we have to tell the team," Batman said turning toward their meeting place.

All the team

"We have bad news," Kaldur'Ahm said stepping into view of the rest of the team.

"What do you mean bad news?" Artemis asked putting her hands on her hips.

"We found this," Superboy said throwing the communicator at their feet.

"So, the ear piece fell out during the fight?" Robin asked having to bite his lip to keep a straight face.

"That's what it looks like. I'm sorry team, but it appears that M'gann is not here," Batman said his face holding the same look as Robins. The group of teens were quiet as they tried to take in the information that was just thrown at them. They could have stood there as statues for the rest of eternity, but a powerful gust of wind forced them all into the bio ship. Zatanna levitated Wally into his seat and sighed heavily.

"What happened to him?" Artemis asked whipping the snow from her hair.

"He twisted his ankle," Zatanna said siting in her seat quietly.

"You alright, KF?" Robin asked taking his place next to the Dark Knight. Robin's only response was a loud laugh coming from the speedster.

"Kid Flash?" Kaldur asked. All of the attention in the room was now on Wally. Under normal circumstances he would have loved the attention, but now it just made him angrier.

"Alright? How could you possibly think I'm alright?" Wally shot back at Boy Wonder, "if you haven't noticed, as far as we know M'gann is dead! We left her alone for five minutes, and she ends up dead! Actually, I shouldn't say that. You were assigned as her partner, Rob, so what I should say is YOU left her alone!" Robin just stared at the boy in shock, at least that's what it looked like to the rest of the team. Batman saw straight through his son's disguise. The boy wonder was cracking.

"It's not his fault," Batman said looking Kid straight in the eye.

"But he should have been there for her! He-"

"Enough!" Batman growled. Wally instantly regretted his decision to point the blame at Robin while Bruce was in the room.

"I'm sorry," Wally said quickly looking away from the infuriated adult.

"Good, but you need to understand that it is no one's fault. This risk comes with the job. This is a lesson you obviously needed to learn. When you all joined the team you were agreeing to this. She knew the risk," Batman said giving his son a side glance. Robin was now staring out the window his chin in his hand, and it was obvious to Batman that the words had hurt.

"We also don't know if she is gone. It is true that we did not find M'gann, but in a way, I am glad that we did not," Kaldur said leaning back in his seat.

"What do you mean?" Artemis asked turning toward him.

"We did not find her, but at least we did not find her body. There is still a chance she is alive," Kaldur explained.

"We can only hope," Robin mumbled without tearing his gaze from the window. The team was quiet the rest of the flight home. Had Batman not been there, there would have been a much longer (louder) conversation. The presence of the Dark Knight seemed to shut the team up, but who really wants to talk around him?

After about an hour and a half of complete silence, Artemis set the ship down in the mountain. They all calmly stepped (or limped) out of the ship.

"You stay here; I am going to discuss what we are going to do next with the rest league. We will tell you our conclusion as soon as we can," Batman said walking away from the teens. As soon as the hero left, the room exploded.

"How could you say that to Robin, Wally? It's not his fault that she's gone!" Artemis spat at Kid.

"Hey! I thought we were past that subject, but if you want to talk about it then let's talk! It is absolutely his fault! He was her partner! He was supposed to keep her safe!" Wally yelled pointing at Robin, but never losing eye contact with Artemis.

"Hey, will everyone calm down," Robin said stepping in-between the two.

"No, we will not calm down! You have been telling me all night that I couldn't freak out because we were on a mission, but we aren't now! And I have got a few things to say to this punk, so stay out of this!" Artemis yelled at the boy pushing him out of the way.

"Oh, you have something to say to me? Then say it," Wally dared getting in Artemis's face.

"Guys, you really need to-" Robin once again began, but was cut off by Kid Flash.

"Be quiet, Robin!" he yelled.

"Don't yell at him! We all felt the telepathic connection go down suddenly during the fight! Maybe if one of you idiots had helped me look for her we wouldn't be in this situation!" Conner yelled stepping into the fight.

"Guys, you really should calm down," Zatanna said pushing past Robin who hadn't moved.

"Shut up Zatanna," Wally spat at the girl.

"That is it Wally! I'm sick of you and your… well, everything! You're always the first to screw up and always the first to point fingers!" Artemis yelled at the redhead inches from her face.

"The first to screw up? If you hadn't noticed you not perfect yourself!" Wally yelled back at her his face becoming red.

"You're both pretty bad if you ask me," Conner grumbled. Kid and Artemis both glared at him.

"Should we stop this?" Zatanna asked Kaldur who was being unusually quiet.

"No, let them work it out," He said giving Zatanna a serious look. She shrugged and turned back to the fighting teens.

"Look, all I'm saying is that Robin should have been there for her! He made a mistake and she suffered for it!" Wally said trying to catch his breath from all the yelling. Robin flinched and anger began to boil up inside him.

"He was knocked out cold when we found him!" Artemis yelled back.

"Well maybe he should have been more careful!" Conner yelled back finally taking a side.

"WOULD EVERYBODY JUST SHUT UP?!" Robin screamed causing everyone in the room to jump. There was a long pause where no one made a sound. All eyes were on Robin who was shaking with rage. The team had never seen him lose control like this before, and it was just as scary as when Batman became enraged.

"What's done is done," Robin said darkly, "If she is alive then we will find her, and if they killed her I promise you that I will not rest until justice is brought to each and every one of them. And for the record we're all to blame," With that he turned and walked out of the room.

"She's really gone isn't she?" Conner asked.

"There's still a chance she's alive," Kaldur said final speaking up.

"Yeah, but have you ever seen Robin act like that before?" Conner said, speaking everyone's worst fears. Robin obviously thought she was gone; the optimist of the group was convinced of the worst. That was the last straw. Wally couldn't take it anymore. He let out a sob and collapsed into a heap on the floor crying. The team, minus Robin, was instantly at his side, they had never really been mad at each other. They'd just needed to vent, and now that it was over they were back to the loving team they always were.