A/N: So…I'm sorry I haven't updated in a month. It's actually a good thing because I had a massive string of ideas on how to make this story better. I basically had to alter the plot line and rewrite entire chapters. It's all good now though so no worries.
Oh, you guys are awesome, and thank you for the reviews.
Into Oblivion
Fall
Part 111
The sound of books clashing to the ground pulled him from his sleep. With a jolt, Doctor Reid sat up and gazed around the room confused, sleepy and unaware of where he was. After a moment he recognized the large room he was in and sighed. Feeling his eyes begin to droop again, he reached up and rubbed them tiredly. He had pulled all-nighters plenty of times before. It didn't make sense that he was this tired this early in the night, well, early for him.
His eyes flicked towards a man that poked his head around the corner before entering the room. He nodded towards his approaching colleague. The other doctor leaned down and picked up the books that had fallen off the table, the ones he had forgotten about.
"Thank you," he said.
"No problem. You know, Dr., you can take the night off. You've been working a lot lately, and it's starting to show. I'll cover you."
"No, I have things I need to do."
The other doctor turned and gazed around the room full of sleeping machines and empty beds.
"I can tell," he sighed. He was obviously tired as well. "It's a nice gig what we have going here, it's just a shame we hardly have any patients to do our job with. You know, I've considered going back to a hospital."
"We didn't come here to treat patients."
"I know. We are here because the League funds our research. Treating patients, if any, is just a side job to what we do," he said flatly.
Doctor Reid gave him a small smile, "Don't worry, kid. Research has its perks. Things will get better eventually."
The young doctor nodded and yawned, "Well, if you are staying, I'm going to clock out for the night. I'll see you tomorrow."
He turned on his heel and left the room. Dr. Reid turned back to the papers scattered on the table that he had fallen asleep on earlier. It really was great to work for the League, but the young doctor had a point – things could get stale around here sometimes. Triple pay, free funding, and working with such diverse people made the job worth it though.
Finding where he left off, he quickly got back into the flow of information almost robotically. He knew he shouldn't spend as much time there as he currently was. Running on fumes was dangerous when trying to come up with calculations. Call it an obsession, but the research he was doing was going to change the world. Or at least, that's what every researcher hoped for.
His steady thought stream was suddenly interrupted and he could hear a commotion going on outside down the hall. They were loud voices he didn't recognize and they seemed to be debating something. The Doctor ignored it and continued on, but after a minute the voices got a little louder.
In the middle of the night, working with sleep deprived people, tempers could get testy. Though everyone kept a professional manor around here nearly all the time, it wasn't uncommon for people to argue every once in a while.
Not wanting the distraction, he stood up and walked to the door, intending to close it. He was about to pull the latch when he stopped. The voices were turning into yells, and stressed ones too. This wasn't normal, and it sounded as though something may break out. For a moment, he deemed that it was none of his business and wanted to stay, but his curiosity and concern made him step into the hall.
He headed toward the banter, faintly wondering if he should call security; there was a hint of rage in the yelling. He didn't expect to see what he did when he turned the corner, and it stopped him flat in his tracks.
They were in one of the smaller transporter halls with a few offline teleporters lining the wall. There were three maintenance workers standing close to one, but two of them were slowly backing away in fear. Superboy threw his hands on the maintenance worker standing in front of him. Grabbing him by the collar, he threw him to the ground on the side then headed for the control panel the man was blocking him from. The doctor suddenly stopped breathing at the sight. Not because Superboy was angry, but because of what he was going to do.
It was dangerous working with technology like instantaneous travel. There were so many things people still didn't understand about how it works. They've done the best they could, but it's not exactly the safest way to travel. The teleporters had been shut down nearly a week ago because one of the League's enemies had hacked the signal. They had sent some 'troops' through, but they were stopped eventually with no major damage.
However, the threat was still there. They were trying to figure out how they got through in the first place and how to fix it. In the meantime, it was far too dangerous to risk sending people through on either side; everyone was forbidden to use them. And Superboy was turning it on.
As if the worker on the ground were reading his thoughts, he shouted at Superboy again, "Are you crazy?! You could get us all killed!" Superboy was typing in a code on the panel. The frantic maintenance worker stood up, favoring his right shoulder and shouted again, "We have no idea what they did to the system! They could hack the signal and send a bomb through for all we know!"
Superboy ignored them and slammed his fist on one of the controls.
"No!"
One of the other maintenance workers stood for a moment in shock, but then ran quickly across the room and pulled the alarm. The room darkened as red emergency lights flashed on and an ear-piercing screech filled the air. It was too late to stop it though. The doctor backed up in fear as the machine began to spin, and covered his eyes as a bright light filled the room.
Ring ring ring
Dinah opened her eyes at the sound of her phone going off. Oliver stirred next to her, mumbling something about being woken up in the middle of the night. She looked across the room at her phone on the dresser and sighed. She sat up and put her legs over the edge and debated whether or not it was worth walking across the room for.
"Let it go to voice mail," Oliver mumbled sleepily. He reached out and lazily grabbed the back of her tank top, "Don't leave me."
"It's two in the morning."
"Which is why you should leave it."
She stood up and walked across the floor to the dresser, "People don't just call this early in the morning for no reason." Whatever it was may be important; or at least, it better be.
"Always the optimist," he said jokingly.
She answered her phone with an annoyed 'hello', wondering who could be calling at this time of night. Her dazed mind suddenly woke up when she heard Barry's voice, but it wasn't just his voice that made her open her eyes, it was the stressed tone of it.
"Dinah?"
"Yes?"
"Dinah, it's Barry. Listen, you need to get to the Justice Hall now," he said rushed.
Oliver seemed to notice her posture change and sat up looking at her with open eyes. She looked straight at him as she continued, "Why? Barry, it's-"
He cut her off, "I know it's late, but you need to get here now."
The urgency in his voice made her realize that this was no ordinary call. Sometimes leaguers would get called in late to handle a situation. It was her and Oliver's night off and people knew that. They could have called anyone else in. The fact that they know this and were still calling meant it was something more. Something was wrong.
"There's been an accident-" he stopped short in his sentence.
Oliver recognized the stress in her eyes, and threw the sheets over him and stood up.
Barry continued in a lower voice, "It's Artemis. You and Oliver need to get here."
Her mind seemed to stop short and she could feel a mixture of panic and worry building up. She quickly took control of it though. She knew how to control her emotions for the most part. The stress of being a hero demanded that she do that. However, her jaw still clenched and worry was already spreading through her.
She hung up without another word and headed straight for the closet.
Artemis wasn't her daughter, but she had come to Dinah for advice for a very long time now. They were close so much that she and Oliver considered her family now, regardless of blood or age. Barry didn't say what happened, but he didn't need to. The tone in his voice told her that whatever it was, is bad.
"What's going on?" asked Oliver as he followed her.
"It's Artemis. She's at the Justice Hall. Something happened."
"What? What happened?"
In a heavier voice she spoke, "I don't know." Dinah hesitated as she considered her answer and the gravity of it. Barry didn't say. She could only imagine what this meant.
Though he couldn't hear it, he was sure that the roof was shaking due to the bioship landing a little too hard and a little too fast. With a sudden jolt, they knew they were on the ground. The door opened and everyone in the cabin quickly stood up in silence. Beast boy was holding his right arm, injured slightly. Usually, after a mission like this he would have endless things to say about it, but he was quiet. And it wasn't his arm that was keeping his voice absent.
With the team following him, Nightwing walked onto the helipad on top of the Hall of Justice in a slight daze. His feet were moving almost mechanically towards the doors. He couldn't quite place his mood. His mind seemed to be over loaded with information, and it was as if his subconscious was doing all the thinking, leaving his thought process unusually empty. He had taught himself to revert to this state in stressful times. It kept his mind clear, for the most part.
He'd been here before, plenty of times. This feeling was not exactly foreign.
"Any news?" Robin asked quietly.
Without looking for it, pictures began to fill his mind against his will. Pictures of Artemis fighting Deathstroke then falling from the edge of the building. Pictures of him making the choice to let Deathstroke escape and running to her, only to find her lying nearly lifeless and broken on the ground. Pictures of him making a choice that was going to cost him a lot if things went south. Pictures of another close friend falling victim to this line of work.
He reached his hand up and pinched the bridge of his nose, dread filling his chest. He has seen people pull through some horrific accidents, but the state Artemis was in… He pushed back the invading fear and said in a flat voice, "None."
Did he really need to speculate? He had an idea of the news that was waiting for them through the doors.
The doors opened into a large hall. It was the night shift and so it was emptier than usual, but the people in there looked straight at him with gawking stares. He had an idea why. Without stopping he headed towards someone that would know what's going on. He turned back to the team and told them to stay there and wait. Usually, they would put up a fuss for being told what to do, but they were silent and stopped following him.
"Where is the Flash?" he asked as he approached one of the workers. Flash was the Leaguer on duty tonight. If anyone knew the situation, he would.
"He's, uh," he began, but suddenly took a step back as his eyes looked past Nightwing and widened.
The look of the man's face automatically made him tense up. Just as he turned to see what the man was looking at in fear, a massive hand violently grabbed his chest and neck. Lifting him into the air, he slammed Nightwing into the wall so hard that it left a huge dent and the entire room was filled with a massive bang.
His hands instinctively reached up to his neck to relieve the pressure. With a throbbing pain piercing through his backside, he looked down at his assailant. He scowled when he recognized him. It was Boulder, a new guy who was a good nine feet tall and much bigger than Superman. Ideas to wrestle out of his grip ran through his thoughts, but he hesitated for a moment, trying to get some air into his now crushed chest.
"You idiot! You could have gotten us all killed!" he screamed in a booming voice that turned every head in the room. "Those teleporters were shut off for a reason!"
Nightwing clenched his jaw in frustration. He didn't have time for this.
Suddenly, a darker voice from behind him spoke, "Boulder, drop him."
Both of them turned to see the dark knight standing behind Boulder and though he was smaller than him, the look on his masked face was much more menacing. Boulder turned back and stared at Nightwing while tightening his grip, "This guy is guilty of putting every life in here in danger!"
"I said, drop him," Batman said in a firmer tone.
For a moment, Boulder just scowled at Nightwing before releasing his bone crushing grip. Nightiwing landed on his feet and absentmindedly rubbed his neck as he watched Boulder walk away. Hyped up on adrenaline, part of him wanted to pick a fight with the guy. However, he pushed those thoughts aside, leaving him flustered and frustrated. Batman turned and started walking towards a hall not even asking him if he was okay. How typical.
Ignoring the stares of everyone in the room, he caught up with him and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I was working a case nearby."
Nightwing didn't say anything as they continued to walk down the hall. Batman continued in response to his silence, "I was working a case nearby when I got a call that one of the teleporters had been activated."
Nightwing sighed in frustration. Was he really about to lecture him for this? Batman had to know the reasons why he did it. There was nothing he could say that that would stop it, so he just silently fumed as Batman continued, "There was only one line that could be used for transport. One line that could only be used once. The reason I gave you the codes to that line was so that in case of an emergency here, you could evacuate people, not bring people in."
Nightwing stopped in his tracks. He knew exactly what he was doing when he called Superboy and gave him the codes to open the line, "What was I supposed to do? Let Artemis die in my arms when I knew I could do something?"
Batman stayed silent. After a moment, Nightwing shook his head in disbelief, "You're unbelievable sometimes. I'm not you. I can't do something like that and live with myself. I made a choice, and I am not going to regret it."
He was slightly surprised that he threw that jab at him, he rarely picked a fight with him. For some reason he went from zero to sixty, but he wasn't about to feel guilty for saving one of his friends. Batman stayed silent, and he was not about to let himself be intimidated by it. He stared right back at him.
The tension in the air was interrupted as Flash walked up to the two. "Batman. What are you-"
"It doesn't matter," he cut in.
"Where's Artemis?" Nightwing asked, suddenly unsure if he wanted the answer.
He hesitated. "She's in the hospital wing."
"Is she okay?"
Is she okay? What a ridiculous question…
"I don't know. The doctors are with her, but I'm telling you- I've never seen someone in that kind of shape here."
He nodded, that's all he could do.
"I need to speak to you," Flash said to Batman. They started walking down the hall, but Nightwing stayed put.
He couldn't help but feel the full pressure of the situation pressing down on him. He wanted to do something to help, but he knew at this point he was useless. He could only wait. He turned to head towards the hospital wing, but as he did his gaze ran across the TV on the wall. He recognized what they were showing. It was the shipyard they were at earlier, much of it now crawling with police and firefighters putting out flames. He listened as the anchor spoke.
"-sources say that a vigilante was gravely injured at the sight. There has been no comment from the Justice League yet as to the identity of the fallen hero."
The sound of opening doors filling the silent hall woke Dinah from her doze. Her eyes were heavy as watched a doctor approaching. Oliver woke up too and both of them stood, ready to receive the news they had been waiting for.
"Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance?" he asked.
There were very few people that knew of their identities, only a handful really, but the doctors here knew them. They had to if they were to treat heroes coming in with horrific injuries.
"Yes?" said Oliver. "You've been with her for four hours. How is she?"
He shook his head. "By some miracle, we've stabilized her, but she's not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot."
"What does that mean?" asked Dinah.
"She does not have any next of kin, and she signed a waver saying that you two are the ones to consult if she couldn't make decisions for herself. I will explain in details later, but the fall took a heavy toll on her back. We have a theoretical way to save her, but we need your consent."
"Theoretical? That's it?!" Oliver said with anger in his voice. Dinah put a hand on his arm, and the touch seemed to calm him slightly. She didn't blame him though.
"We've never had a situation this bad before, and she is beyond the point of being saved through conventional means."
He explained the process they wanted to try further and at first Dinah was very hesitant. There was no guarantee it would work, but the more the doctor continued to tell them of her situation, the more she realized that they didn't really have a choice.
The doctor was silent for a moment. "She's going to die if we don't try something, and this is the only thing we can do at this point. I'm sorry."
He held out the consent form with a pen and waited. For a moment, all she could hear was the ticking of a clock on the wall. She looked over at Oliver and could tell he had come to the same conclusion as her. They didn't have to consider the consequences of each decision, there was only one they could choose. Feeling a heavy weight bear down on her chest, she swallowed. Oliver put an arm around her shoulder for comfort and support. With stiff hands, she reached out and signed the paper.
A/N: How far would you go to save someone you cared about?
