So I noticed I make little sense when I ramble about the story lolol. Also thanks a huuuugeeee bunch to everyone who reviewed! You have my eternal gratitude.

Disclaimer : Dun own nuffin.

And in winter she comes, when all men are asleep and children are snugged up in warm beds and stray dogs are curled up by trash, thousands of white bees in her wake. For she is their queen bee and certainly the most beautiful of all, her white gauze of stars and her eyes of perfect diamonds; she is made of ice, fair and beautiful, cold as death yet still very much alive. She keeps puzzles within her frost-bound pockets, for not only is she beautiful but also very intelligent, and reason is her treasure. Often at midnight she flies through the streets of the town, and she looks in at the windows, then the ice freezes on panes into wonderful shapes, like flowers and castles. When she sees men wide awake in her travels, she lulls them to sleep with her bewitched voice, for her songs can silence everything and anything...

"The north wind doth blow,

And we shall have snow,

And what will the poor robin do then,

Poor thing?

He'll sit in a barn,

And keep himself warm,

And hide his head under his wing,

Poor thing."

IV. A Hero Without a Name, part I.

"Ice."

Robin grimaced, his brows furrowed in deep thought and regret. He was supposed to be able to figure out what to use against metahumans-well, Artemis wasn't really one, but that didn't matter right now.

When it all came down to it, would they just kick their asses like they do to those goons, break their bones and shatter their skull, splatter...a friend's blood?

Another side of him spoke of entirely different things. It was the colder, the reasonable side, where the protege of Batman ruled over, not the thirteen years old boy, and he thought of possibilities, analyzed information and formed plans. What was the best thing to do should it...come down to it? Megan would probably be unable to fight much, due to emotional reasons and whatever, Superboy would break more than a few bones, that left him and Aqualad. He didn't quite think of Artemis as a real threat (though he probably wouldn't say that to her face-just in case) but the speedster would require more than...

"We gotta move." he spoke quietly.

...a few punches. Kaldur weakly nodded. "Let us go."

And on they went. Behind him came a whisper from the clone's mouth, "It's better than not doing anything.", directed at the alien in an attempt to calm her down. Superboy had potential as a ladies' man, he noted.

Kaldur walked right next to him, his eyes warily scanning the area. He seemed like a lamb separated from its herd, unable to speak, perhaps afraid to speak for he was afraid of omitting wrong words and plans when two teammates were on the line this time. Robin had some zombie experience back when he was still a full-time sidekick, when the Bat was infected by something Hugo Strange made and saw everyone else as zombies. He considered himself to be less freaked out compared to him. Only slightly.

And the Bat had almost turned everyone else into zombies while trying to cure them in his twisted vision of world. And pretty much turned Robin's own vision upside down multiple times while he was at it.

He shuddered. That was a disaster.

He wondered if he had enough bat-power to contain a zombified speedster. Would leaving Superboy behind to act as a meatshield of sorts be a good choice of action, since the clone was immune to almost everything? The image of a certain archer, her skull caved in, popped into his mind.

Megan would definitely object anyway. The clone wasn't known for his good behaviour and control.

He inhaled deeply. When, if it came down to it, they would fight and be gentle as possible. He certainly hoped they wouldn't have to. Perhaps the two were in some room whining about what the hell was going on and had forgotten all about the others because they were too absorbed in quarreling...

Was he the one to give orders in this situation though?

"Uh."

Three pairs of eyes turned on him. What was he supposed to say, who was he supposed to sound like? Was he supposed to sound like anyone in such a situation? He had never really given orders before, as his mentor wasn't the one to be ordered around, and he himself wasn't exactly the bossy type. What would his mentor say anyway, if he had been there?

If he had been there, he would've figured out everything already. Robin had accepted he was no Batman long ago-well, perhaps not long ago. (still he was the closest thing to Batman, ever.) Mr. I-Don't-Care-What-You-Think-Of-Me was the textbook definition of bossy. The guy was the boss of everything in any situation; whenever a plan was needed all eyes would turn on him. Including his own. Once in a while he would catch himself searching for his foster dad's silhouette during missions, Kaldur could never replace the confidence and that certain feeling of safety his mentor would stir within him.

He for the life of him could never emulate his mentor's...Bat-like speeches. Bruce was a man of few words, more glares and even more creepy voice. Robin himself was all ponies and rainbows when he talked and it just did not have the same effect.

"We need to be...prepared." Man, he sounded like Kaldur in the end.

"You're not saying that!" The clone roared in his baritone voice. "You want me to punch my friends?"

"No, Supey." He answered slowly. "I want you to be prepared."

"I can hear them coming from miles away-"

"Wally," he cut off his sentence roughly. "is faster than your hearing."

There was venom in his voice. He didn't know when it had oozed into his words, or why, but there was. He briefly wondered why before brushing the thought aside. He was doing whatever was best for his remaining teammates, wasn't he? They weren't supposed to see it, be grateful for it, that was irrelevant and unimportant.

Stop speaking like those two are dead, Rob.

He silently agreed with the voice in his head. "We're almost there." He pointed at somewhere farther ahead in the dark.

There was a small room, one that lacked any doors, illuminated by the flashlight. It was bare except for a maintenance hole, no windows, no light, no nothing. Mr. Crazy-Prepared probably had more plans for the place back when it was still inhabited by the Leaguers.

"I," Kaldur licked his lips solemnly, turning his eyes on the clone. "agree with Robin."

The clone groaned in response, but a quick tug at his tee from the Martian silenced him.

"Kay." Robin decided to pretend the clone didn't obviously think of punching him to the moon right there. "Supey, can you open that?"

"What?" The clone asked.

"That." He pointed at the ground.

The clone raised his eyebrows. "That can be opened?"

Uh. "Yeah, we...go in there."

The clone probably had many more questions, but complied anyway.

His fingers loudly dug deep into the metal. With a short groan he crudely tore the obstacle off the ground and threw it away.

He didn't really have to do that, but Robin wasn't the one to bother the already angry clone about it.

The alien warily eyed the now open hole. "That is a sewer?"

Robin was just about to answer when something hard was delivered to his stomach. He doubled over in pain, gasping heavily to regain his breath, when another blow came right onto his face-again. And again. And again. He clenched his teeth in anger, his cheek throbbing heavily in protest.

He was able to catch the next punch, empty green eyes met his sunglasses for briefest seconds, the flashlight broke free of his grasp and fell onto the floor with a loud crash, this time finally breaking. They were devoured in the dark - great, just great!- but as the night was his day, he was used to blindness. With a quick low kick, one that lacked any form of hesitance, he removed the speedster off the ground, who met solid floor with a thud.

Sorry, pal. I promise I'll buy you a dinner for this.

"GO!" He screamed, but his scream was silenced by another, one that got higher and higher until he felt his ears bleed, his body crumbling down onto the floor without him noticing.

Black Canary. -crap crap crap crap!-

Just when the scream had stopped (unbeknownst to him) and he had managed to regain some of his mind, he simply hoped his message was received and made a move for the hole, his ears ringing terribly, his eyes teary and his brain doing somersaults each time he took a breath.

His hand had just grasped the corner of the hole when something secured his left ankle. Had Black Canary stopped, or was she still screaming? He wasn't quite sure, her Canary Cry had taken away the sense he relied on the most in the dark.

That didn't stop him. He didn't really know who it was, probably Wally or Artemis if she arrived without him noticing, as the hand was a little...weak to be the canary's. He should know since the woman would often wipe the floor with him, almost as if she enjoyed the act for reasons unknown. He delivered a heavy kick, the heaviest he could manage, to the offender's arm, and when it was finally dislocated, he got up on his hands and plunged himself forward into the hole. Another sound wave drummed his brain, loudly claiming that there would be no other chance, his fingers clenched on two round objects in his belt as he flew downwards. He threw them one after another. One rolled up into the room with a clack he was unable to hear, another spawned unholy amounts of ice, covering the hole, which was in an instant shattered into thousands of little pieces that rained down upon him. His back soon met the wet ground, he did a quick yet successful somersault to avoid any harm, and had soon gotten up to his hands then his feet.

Fucking hell. Had it worked?

His hands searched through the pockets of his belt until he secured yet another object-another flashlight. The Bat carried about a dozen of them, but his protege wasn't that crazy yet, for he only carried two.

Something touched his shoulder, something he wasn't able to hear and he quickly grabbed it by the—a rather small wrist. He opened the flashlight to see a green face looking at him, features etched with worry and fear, chocolate brown eyes teary.

He didn't really notice, but he had uttered a sigh of relief.

She spoke, said something that resembled "Are you okay?" but he wasn't quite sure. "I can't hear you." He pointed at his ears. Had he spoken too loud?

The girl nodded -surprisingly understanding about the matter- and pointed at something, someone behind her. Superboy sat on the ground, his hands covering his ears and his face filled with hurt.

"Sleep gas. Might be effective on us." He glanced upwards, the fact that nothing was moving spread a sense of relief over him, like butter on bread. Black Canary could wipe the floor with anyone, Bruce had once said, maybe even me. Robin hadn't believed him, really, and now the blonde was pretty much zombified, but he would be lying if he said he could take care of her. "We move."

The girl opened her mouth to speak, then closed it and nodded quickly, her shaky steps moving towards the clone.

"Where's Kaldur?" He glanced around wherever the light reached, but his eyes were unable to locate the Atlantean. Megan turned to look at him, her eyes wide. He understood.

"It's just sleep gas." He spoke as the clone glanced up on him. "He'll be fine. They all will be. There's no need to go back up there, I mean we'll probably fall asleep if we do, but it's really nothing bad." Unless one of them woke up early-he didn't want to share that with her.

The girl had said something he was unable to hear, but he assumed -hoped- it was a word of agreement.

And with that, they helped the clone up, and the trio went on.

"We there yet?" The clone had gotten considerably grouchy over the hours they had been walking, and the alien had gotten considerably quiet. While the safety of sleep gas had finally gotten through his thick skull, it looked like confined, smelly and wet spaces didn't do wonders for his mood.

Robin showed tolerance. He spent most of his time with the god of grouchiness anyway.

"Nope."

"Why do you speak so loud?"

He sighed. "I can't heal as fast as you can, Supey."

...Especially now that there was no Kaldur to balance the team members out.

Still he refrained from joking. Perhaps confined, smelly and wet spaces didn't do wonders for him either, or perhaps it had something to do with the fact that two of their team members had gone insane and they left one very sane member with them.

"Where are we going?"

He fought the urge to rub his nasal bone. "I don't know where we're going." He replied wearily. "The whole city's gone nuts. It's not something within the mountain, something's intercepting my signal and I can't reach anywhere."

"Can't you fix it?"

"I don't think I can, Supey." Could he? If he could manage to find what and where, maybe they could...Still aboveseemed extremely dangerous for his taste.

"What do we do then?"

He noticed his voice had become too robotic."I don't know, Supey."

The clone exhaled loudly. "You're the team leader. You should know."

That caught him off guard. "What?"

"You're the team leader. You should-"

"Okay, I get it, that wasn't what I-" He waved his free hand around almost apolitically. The clone raised his eyebrows in confusion. "You asked that. You said what."

And then finally the urge to rub his nasal bone caught him off guard. "Yeah, uh. We can't walk all the way to the Hall of Justice."

The clone crossed his arms in response. Behind him stood Megan, her eyes still scanning the darkness they left behind, almost as if expecting something to jump out any moment. Robin had handed her the flashlight duty since he had to keep an eye on where they were-though since GPS didn't work his job had become considerably harder. No signal, nothing worked right anymore.

"They might catch up." He was glad the clone didn't ask any details on they. "We can't contact the League either. So we do whatever we can."

And for the first time that way, the clone smiled. "What do I do?"

"Power plant." He spoke and there was a smirk forming upon his lips, without him even noticing. "A device capable of something this big needs to be huge, heavy, gluttonous and considerably near. Even if it has batteries it's been like five hours, you need an infinite supply of batteries to run something like that. If we can turn the power off..."

He flashed the little shiny device he had in his hand, which showed a small map of Happy Harbor. "We're here. I think so, at least." He pointed at a little area with his index finger, then moved it across the device's screen, to the west sides of the town. "And we gotta go here. Should take about half an hour or so."

The clone nodded sharply. The alien, on the other hand, hadn't even reacted.

"You okay, Megan?" Robin questioned softly.

The girl turned her brown eyes on him. She was biting her lips quite hard, he thought if she kept at it her lips would bleed.

And slowly, even unwillingly, she nodded.

"Kay." With that he turned behind and started walking away. Perhaps quicker than he wanted to, for he wanted to avoid her painful expression. He just wasn't good with stuff like that. Like his mentor.

After that, the silence consumed them. He had regained some of his hearing, though he suspected the damage was more serious than he thought. His ears welcomed the silence. The only thing that could be heard was their slippery footsteps echoing in the dark.

"I hear something." Well, maybe not. He glanced at the clone over his shoulder. "There." The clone pointed at nothing.

He furrowed his brows. Could it be Wally, had he caught up with them? A sight of man in yellow clothing, a middle-aged man with a whitening beard, stepping into the light from one of those little gaps that housed valves and all sorts of circuits, proved his thoughts wrong. A maintenance hole was open up above him, but did nothing to light his features for it was already dark. Yet his body had tensed instantly at the almost not suspicious sight, but the man didn't move, instead simply stared at them, nothing present in his eyes.

"Hello?" He spoke warily.

The man didn't react.

"Robin." It was the Martian. "I...I can't feel anything from him."

"Okaaay..." He took a step back ever so slowly. Perhaps it would be best if he just went and knocked the guy out?

"Water!" He didn't have quite have time to however. "I hear water!"

"Go up!" He commanded as he dashed for the ladder. As soon as he got a hold of it he was hearing it too-and that just wasn't good.

He looked down as he climbed upwards, Megan floated right above the clone, who had just gotten a hold of the man, still in his dead-like daze, as he made a move for the ladder as well. "Superboy!" He cried. "Come on, dude!"

But it was too late. Within a mere second he could see the water, and in the next one it had devoured his friend and the man he was trying to save.

"NO!" The alien screeched, the torrent washing her away from the safety, or at least what they had hoped was safety. He plunged forward, barely managing to get a hold of her hand as his other hand held the ladder in a death grip-it fucking hurt but he wasn't about to care.

"MEGAN!" Could she hear him, no, could she understand his words anymore? "MEGAN, I CAN'T HOLD MUCH LONGER!" The water had gotten up to his knee, thousands of unseen hands trying to pull him downwards his death -oh fuck fuck fuck- he wasn't, they weren't supposed to die there!

She uttered a word, a single word, but it was lost.

Her eyes finally glowed with power. Something took a hold of his body, which almost relaxed in response. And they quickly floated above, away from the water, Megan's eyes teary, his own not beneath the safety of his sunglasses anymore, to somewhere away from death.

He probably couldn't have been more wrong.

It wasn't raining, not anymore. The ground glittered in seven colours of the rainbow. The street lights illuminated their surroundings-perhaps he was correct about his guess?- and brought danger into light.

They were surrounded, completely surrounded. There were men, women, children, elderly, makeshift weapons and bare fists raised in a deadly stance. Some wore suits and some wore punk-style clothing-they were just normal citizens, their hollow gaze locked on the two heroes they were protected by.

His bright blue eyes caught her chocolate brown eyes for mere seconds, before he cried out loud.

"RUN!"

Yeah, I finally managed to write a shorter chapter. FF doesn't let me upload anything, am I the only one with this problem? (had to export-edit a chap for this)

There is a new character coming next chapter. I think. Derp.

I'm not writing those little paragraphs in italics to invoke literary pleasure in you. No, really, you'll notice they are somewhat related to their respective chapters. So I suppose that means there's a wicked hobgoblin and a Snow Queen somewhere lol?

Reviews, they make me write faster!