A/N: Someone mentioned that they felt it was too soon for Nightwing and 'Rachel' to go on a date, so I just wanted to make it clear that the date had no romantic connotation to it whatsoever. Nightwing was just being his normal kind self and wanted to do something nice for the poor amnesiac forced to live in a cave.
Also, thanks so much to all those who have favorited, followed, and reviewed this story! I hope that it doesn't disappoint.
Chapter 6: Interpreter
Ra's al Ghul clasped his hands and peered out the window as the plane began its descendent. His outward appearance portrayed serenity and confidence.
"Well?" Klarion's voice demanded, coming from the screen across from Ra's al Ghul's seat. "When will the battery be in your hands again? It's been three weeks and you've yet to contact Savage with any news. She's not giving you any problems, is she?"
"I have the situation well in hand," Ra's replied, ignoring the chaos lord's insolent tone. "My assassins have not worked at their normal speed, so I am flying to Bludhaven in order to oversee the operation myself."
A dark smile crossed Klarion's face. "But shouldn't you have taken a personal interest in the situation to begin with?"
"I agree with Klarion," Brain's electronic voice added. "As Queen Bee has stated, you do not seem to be taking this situation as seriously as the rest of us."
Klarion sighed and shook his head. "Like I already told you, geezer, if you need help, just say so. If the Light finalizes its plan and we still don't have the battery thanks to your incompetence, there will be consequences," he taunted.
"You don't have the authority to say such things or to carry out such threats," Ra's retorted coldly. "The League of Shadows is not to be taken lightly and we never miss a mark. The battery will be found and returned to the Light's care."
"For the sake of the Light and our plans, I hope you are right," Brain intoned.
Ra's clutched the arm rests of his chair as the screen went dark. The battery could not be in Bludhaven. His assassins had scoured the city, checking every scrap of security footage and every traffic light camera. No, Nightwing must have moved the girl elsewhere. Either with his old team, or with the Justice League. He needed to capture Nightwing and gain the information from the source itself.
~.~
Nightwing moved back further into the shadows as he watched the plane land in the private airport. He held his night vision binoculars up and watched as first Ubu, then Ra's al Ghul himself exited from the small aircraft.
He sighed, both expecting and dreading this new development. Ra's could only be here for one reason. Rachel. Nightwing still had no idea what the League of Shadows wanted the girl for, but he had certainly noticed the increase of Shadow agents infesting his city, no doubt searching for Rachel. Whatever the League of Shadows wanted Rachel for, it was big and important. That meant that no matter what he had to make sure she didn't fall into their hands.
~.~
"All right, team," Robin said, feeling nervous about leading this mission. Despite Nightwing's assurance that Robin was a natural born leader, having the attention of some of the older and more experienced members of the Team made him feel like a child playing at being an adult. "I have the audio recording that Blue Beetle and Impulse got in Bialya. I figured we should all listen to it together and see what we can find out."
"Wait!" Impulse exclaimed as Robin hit 'play', "we forgot to tell you that—" The recording started and…played something completely unintelligible. "It's not in English," Impulse finished lamely.
"Okay, so translate it, Blue Beetle," Superboy said, looking at the blue hero.
Blue Beetle looked awkwardly around the room. "Actually, I can't. I know the scarab is supposed to be programmed with all the languages of Earth, but I can't figure out what this one is." He shook his head. "The scarab can't translate any of these words. He claims the language is a made up series of codes since he can't understand it but…" Blue Beetle shrugged helplessly. "Sorry we didn't tell you earlier, but we couldn't get ahold of you last night and things were crazy this morning with the museum robbery and the…" Blue Beetle broke off the rest of his excuse and finished with, "Sorry."
Robin resisted the urge to smack his face, feeling like an idiot for playing a useless recording in front of the Team. Worse than that, it seemed like he may have sent two team members into the heart of Queen Bee's territory for nothing.
"Okay," Robin began, exhaling a calming sigh. "If we're going to figure out this code, the first thing we need to do is—" A sound at the door caught his attention and they all turned to see Rachel standing in the doorway.
She clasped her left arm, looking uncomfortable at the attention. "Sorry for interrupting, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But I was walking by and…I think I know what the recording was saying. Would you play it again?"
Robin looked at Blue Beetle in shock. If Blue Beetle couldn't translate it, how could their amnesiac guest?
"Uh, okay," Robin finally said, slowly reaching his arm over and hitting 'play' again.
Rachel stared intently at the phone with narrowed eyes as it played the recording. "Are you sure we can trust Queen Bee?" Rachel said, then continued when the recording switched voices. "Why would she betray us? She needs the gold we'll give her as much as we need the information she'll give us in return." The recording switched back to the first voice. "They say that she can control men. She could make us willingly, even happily, give her our gold for nothing in return. Perhaps even make us kill ourselves afterwards."
The Team stared at Rachel in awe, though the teen seemed oblivious to the attention. Based on what little information they had of the situation, Rachel's translation made sense.
"Only fools fear women. We will meet Queen Bee's associate here tomorrow night and he will inform us of where the trade is to take place. Stop jumping at every wives' tell you hear. You are not worthy to belong to the Order of Lagash."
The recording cut off and silence reigned. Finally, Superboy asked, "So, what language was that then? And what's the Order of Lagash?"
"I'm sorry, I…don't actually remember," Rachel said sheepishly with a shrug. "I know what they're saying, but I don't know what language it is."
"Can you write some words down?" Robin asked, the turned to Impulse. "Would you get her a paper and pen?"
"No problem," Impulse answered. "Back in a sec!" Rachel's hair blew backwards as Impulse ran past her and the next second she held a pen and paper in her hands. She stared down at them in surprise before walking over to the table where Robin had laid the phone to play the recording. She drew a few symbols that looked like hieroglyphics to Robin, than shrugged again. "That's the writing from the language I was speaking. At least, I think it is."
Robin held his phone over the paper and took a picture of the writing, running it through a search engine. He smiled when a match came up. "It's ancient Sumerian, from a civilization that used to be near Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq." Next Robin typed in Order of Lagash. No hits came up for an order but… "Sumer, the civilization that spoke Sumerian, had a first and second Dynasty of Lagash, Lagash being one of the main cities of Sumer. The first dynasty conquered neighboring regions and ruled through a policy of terror and violence. The second dynasty claimed the right to rule through his supposed divinity and promoted artistic development among his people."
"So is this Order of Lagash more like the first dynasty or the second?" Superboy asked.
"Maybe neither," Rachel said. Again, all eyes went to her and she hunched her shoulders in discomfort. "Robin said that Lagash was a city. The Order of Lagash might have ties to that ancient city, or to some historical aspect or event of the city, rather than the Lagash Dynasties."
"Good point," Robin praised. "We don't know anything about them and we shouldn't make assumptions until we can learn more."
"Question, why can Rachel speak ancient Sumerian?" Beast Boy asked, half raising his hand.
"I'm afraid no one in this room can answer that question," Robin pointed out dryly, then turned to Rachel. "But that doesn't change the fact that you are the only person we know who can speak this language. We need to stop the exchange of money and information between the Order of Lagash and Queen Bee, and it sounds like that exchange is happening tonight. I'm sorry to ask this, but would you be willing to come with us to act as translator, Rachel?"
Rachel's eyes widened and her mouth opened and closed in surprise, but no sound came out.
"We would put you in as little danger as we could possibly manage," Robin assured her. "I'll have someone assigned to protect you the whole time and we'll keep you away from the fighting. All I need is you in close proximity so you can translate for us."
Rachel put one hand to her forehead, shaking her head and holding the other hand out in a 'stop' gesture. "Before we decide anything, could someone please explain to me who Queen Bee is and why she needs to be stopped?"
The present members of the Team glanced at each other, wondering who should be the one to do the explaining. Robin stepped forward, deciding that he should do it since he was the one requesting Rachel's help. "Queen Bee is the dictator of a country called Bialya. She's a meta human with the power to influence others, mostly men. She uses that ability to expand her power and her country's territory. She probably plans to use the gold to finance an invasion of Qurac, a country she's had her eye on for years. Queen Bee is also a member of the Light, who you might've heard us mention before. The Light wants to shape the Earth into their vision of what it and humanity should look like, and their methods aren't very nice."
"She also killed my mom," Beast Boy added quietly. Rachel's head whipped around to face the green hero, shock and compassion in her eyes. "She didn't have any real reason to do it. My mom ran an animal reserve in a country bordering Bialya. When the Team came to stop Queen Bee from taking over our country, they stayed with my mom and me. Afterwards, Queen Bee killed my mom for helping them."
Beast Boy's hand curled into fists and he stared at the floor before lifting his eyes to look at Rachel. "She plays with other people's lives like she owns them, and she kills anyone who gets in her way. Please help us stop her, Rachel. I promise I'll protect you." He turned to look at Robin. "You said that you'd give her a body guard for the mission. Could it be me?"
Robin glanced between Beast Boy and Rachel before nodding. "If Rachel is willing to come, then yes, it can be you."
Rachel closed her eyes and blew out a breath, when she opened her eyes, she looked calm and determined. "Yes. I'll come with you to Bialya and act as translator."
~.~
"You look great!" Beast Boy encouraged Rachel as M'Gann's bio-ship flew over Biayla.
Rachel looked down at herself skeptically. "I suppose." With such little notice of bringing Rachel on the mission, Impulse suggested dressing Rachel all in black with a black mask to hide her identity. Not that any of them knew her identity, but it would be terrible if somehow Queen Bee got a picture of Rachel and it got back to the League of Shadows. Then Ra's al Ghul would find out that the Team was hiding her.
Beast Boy had promised himself and Rachel that he would protect her. He didn't plan to let anyone endanger his new friend. They already had a strong bond forming. They both knew what it felt like to lose everything. Plus, Beast Boy had given Rachel her new name. "And we can call you Black for a codename while we're on this mission," he suggested.
"Black?" Rachel repeated, raising her eyebrows.
"Yeah, because you're dressed all in black," Beast Boy explained lamely, resisting the urge to smack his own forehead. Black? Seriously? He could totally come up with a better nickname than that for Rachel. His eyes traveled up to her forehead, just visible above the mask. "Or maybe Jewel, or Gem."
"Obsidian Jewel!" Impulse exclaimed, spinning around in his chair. "It sounds mysterious, doncha think?"
"It sounds long," Rachel replied. "And my jewel is red, anyway." She self-consciously touched the jewel, her eyes straining upward for a moment like she was trying to see it for herself.
"The Crimson Jewel?" Impulse suggested with a shrug.
"The Scarlet Gem!" Beast Boy jumped in.
Rachel smiled and rolled her eyes at their antics. Beast Boy grinned, happy they made Rachel feel more relaxed.
"We probably should call you something other than Rachel while on the mission," Robin admitted. "I know that Rachel isn't your real name, but we don't want to do anything on this mission that might lead someone to eventually connect you to the girl the League of Shadows is searching for. Do you like any of those codenames? Or maybe you want to come up with something else?"
"I guess Scarlet Gem works as well as any," Rachel gave in with a shrug.
"Yes!" Beast Boy pumped his arm into the air, elated at being the one to provide Rachel with a name once again. "Beast Boy knows where it's at!"
"We're here," M'Gann announced, and a solemn silence fell over the group as the ship landed.
"Okay," Robin began, "Impulse and Beast Boy will go with Rachel—I mean Scarlet Gem—to where the members of the Order of Lagash are supposed to rendezvous with Queen Bee's man." Robin focused on Rachel. "Miss Martian will create a psychic link between us all so you can tell us what the men are saying as they say it. The rest of us will stay on the bio-ship. As soon as we have the location for where the exchange is taking place, Impulse will run back and join us. After we stop the trade from taking place, we'll come back for Beast Boy and Scarlet Gem. Understood?"
Everyone nodded and Beast Boy undid his seatbelt, standing up and offering Rachel a reassuring smile. Rachel returned his smile with a calm look and a nod. As soon as they left the ship, Beast Boy transformed into a parakeet and landed on Rachel's shoulder, then Impulse picked them both up and raced to the location of the supposed meeting, hiding the three of them behind a boulder.
Luckily, Beast Boy was ideal for espionage missions since he could make himself small and unnoticeable. Impulse was chosen for his ability to quickly hide or flee with himself and Rachel if they happened to be spotted.
Minutes after they arrived, the men from the Order of Lagash appeared. When they began speaking, Rachel spoke inside M'Gann's mind meld.
"The first man is still tentative about working with Queen Bee. He's telling his partner that they can still back out and that there's no guarantee that Queen Bee actually has the information they need." Rachel paused, but Beast Boy could guess the second man's response from the yelling he heard. "The second man is adamant about obtaining the information for their cause. He told the first man that if he says one more word against this deal, he'll see him locked up as a traitor."
Rachel stopped translating and they all waited until Queen Bee's man appeared. "They're meeting near the border of Qurac in a town called Nena," Rachel informed the Team. "Queen Bee's associate said something about a river and a cave."
"Got it," Robin replied back. "Impulse, get back to the ship. Beast Boy and Scarlet Gem, you two stay there. We'll come back for you later."
Impulse gave Beast Boy and Rachel a silent salute before disappearing from view and Beast Boy soon heard the footsteps of the three men walking away. He stayed in bird form ten more minutes before transforming back to his normal form. "We should probably still stay quiet," he whispered to Rachel. "Just in case." Rachel nodded and they both settled down to sit cross-legged in the dirt.
Beast Boy managed to stay serious and alert for at least fifteen minutes before growing bored. He drew a game of X's and O's in the dirt, but Rachel only looked at him in confusion. He started to demonstrate for her how the game was played, but when he looked up to make sure she was watching, he saw her looking behind him with wide eyes. Beast Boy tried to whirl around, preparing to shift into a tiger, but then everything went black.
