So sorry for not updating! I just didn't have the chapter ready. This one is kind of short, so savor it! And the next chapter to come out on schedule this week Friday/Saturdays!

Bethany's POV

In addition to predicting people's attacks in a fight, I had the perceptive skill of reading people's body language and facial expressions. It was a unique trait that I seemed to have gained since I was a very young child.

I could tell that Dream-Bethany was using her perceptive skill to read Jayden right then. I glanced at Dream-Bethany and immediately saw the confusion that flickered in her big brown eyes. The thoughts going through her mind were probably wondering the same thing as I was wondering in my own mind. Who was this woman? And why was she here? I saw Dream-Bethany's eyes shift and scan Jayden up and down from behind the corner. She was trying to interpret who this Jayden woman was just from her posture and her clothing.

One thing that Dream-Bethany would learn in the future was that the most important key to interpreting people is their face. A single facial expression can reveal part of who you are and all the feelings you have at the current moment. I turned my attention to Jayden and did my own reading of her.

Jayden was wearing nude pumps and a long expensive trench coat that was covered in droplets of water. She was leaning slightly forward, which meant that she was eager to tell Jackson something. Her hair was in front of her shoulder, closer to her face, but Jayden didn't both to push the damp strands aside, which meant that whatever she had to say was important enough that she hadn't even noticed. I could see the uneven rise and fall of her chest, which meant that she was either scared or rushed, but looking at her eyes caused me to rethink. Her brows were furrowed and her eyes were wide. She was scared. Frightened, actually.

The Team, on the other hand, was trying their hardest to listen to the conversation as best they could, but they didn't realize that you could get just as much information from a person's body and facial language.

"Jackson." Jayden whispered sharply to Jackson. The first thing I noticed was that her voice wasn't lyrical anymore; She wasn't messing around. "They've gotten out! The alarms..."

A strange noise came out from her mouth. It was like garbled talking. My dad spoke back to her, but I couldn't understand what they were saying to each other because it was so muffled. I looked around at the other Team members and could see that they couldn't understand either. They were all leaning forward and had confused looks on their faces.

"What is happening?" Aqualad asked.

"Why can't we understand it?" Nightwing asked M'gann.

M'gann turned to us and said, "Bethany doesn't remember what they said. So it comes out muffled in the memory."

"What? No! I have to know what they're saying!" I tried to move forward, attempting to pull the Teammates along with me, but my legs felt like they were trying to go through solid cement, and I almost fell flat on my face, if it weren't for Nightwing's steady hand pulling me back to safety, "No! Why can't I move?!" I could see the others were struggling to move, too.

"It's because you're tied to your memories, your younger self." M'gann pointed to Dream-Bethany with her free hand. Dream-Bethany was oblivious to us and was focused so much on the interaction between Jayden and Jackson.

"What does that mean?" I demanded. I was frantic now. We had to know what they were saying! This could give us a clue to who Jayden was! Wasn't this the whole point of us coming here in the first place?

"It means that there are boundaries that you can't go past. I'm guessing you can't move too far from your memory self because we're all in her memories now." M'gann pointed at Dream-Bethany again.

A feeling of helplessness settled on my shoulders, pushing me down. All we could do was sit back and watch.

I saw Jayden glance back into the shadows were Dream-Bethany was hiding. Dream-Bethany quickly swung back around the corner, flat against the wall. Her chest was heaving up and down silently from her nerves. I saw a flash of confusion in Jayden's eyes, but it was gone in a second and she refocused to what Jackson was telling her.

Suddenly, the last part of the conversation came back to us. Jackson moved to the side to grab his coat that was hanging by the door and stuffed his sock-less feet into his running shoes. He stepped outside into the rain and called over his shoulder, "Grace, I have to leave. It's work." And with that, Jackson slammed the door in a hurry, without so much as a goodbye.

My mom turned the corner into the foyer. The whisk in her hand was raised in the air in shock and part of the batter from it dripped onto the floor, but she didn't even notice. She was just staring at the closed door in shock. I knew what she was thinking. My dad never used my mom's first name unless it was serious. He never left in the middle of practice with me and he would have never left my mom without saying goodbye. Something must have happened that night...

"What now?" I asked, but my voice sounded too far away. "M'gann?" My voice echoed in my own head. M'gann worded something to me, but I couldn't hear her. What was going on?

M'gann scrunched her eyes together in concentration and her eyes began to glow the same way Martian Manhunters had when he had put us into my memories.

The room started to fade to white and I felt Nightwing squeezing my hand. M'gann nodded at me, and that's when I knew that everything was going to be okay. They were pulling us out. It's okay, it's okay.

Everything started to dissolve to white and the only thing I could feel was Nightwing's comforting hand on one side and M'gann squeezing my hand in the other.

"Bethany." Someone called, but the sound just echoed around in my head. My head. My head hurt like crazy. It hurt so much that even my eyes began began to throb.

"Bethany." The sound echoed again, but louder this time. "Bethany, wake up."

Shut up! I wanted to scream. Let me sleep, let me stay here in this white bliss. Just let me be...

"Bethany!" Someone shouted in my ear and I sat up and punched out into the air, but my fist made contact with flesh.

"OW!" M'gann rubbed her forehead, the part that I had accidentally just punched, but luckily, not that hard. "Geez!"

"Ohmigosh! I'm so sorry, M'gann!" I touched her forehead like I could somehow magically take away all the pain.

She let out a nervous laugh and said, "It's okay, you were just startled." she sighed and then hugged me. "You were the last one to wake up, so I was just... I don't know, I thought I had made a mistake again this time and I was so worried about you and what happened to you and-"

"M'gann." I rubbed her back soothingly, "It's okay."

I moved away from him and faced away from all the other people who were talking to each other about the memory. My memory.

"You good?" A deep voice asked next to me. I turned my head and met Dick face to face. I could see the shadow of his searching eyes behind his mask. I don't know what came over me, but I suddenly pressed a long kiss to his lips. When I pulled back, his face had a beautiful blush spread over his pale skin and he helped me out of bed like a gentleman. "I'll take that as a yes."

But I wasn't. I would never be fine until I found Jackson.

We supported each other as we slowly walked our way over to Batman who was watching the scene unfold with criticizing eyes. Beside me, Nightwing still hadn't let go of my hand. Next to me, M'gann looked like her mind had taken its toll, so I linked my arm through hers and smiled as comfortingly as I could when she looked over at me. She smiled weakly back and then paid attention to Batman. I looked over at Superboy and noticed that he looked especially concerned for M'gann, but whatever was going on between them was preventing him from approaching her to comfort her.

"Debrief me." He demanded. I noticed that all of the other Teammates were blinking against the harsh light of the main training room and all looked pretty out of it.

M'gann and I retold what had happened in the memory while the others occasionally chimed in with forgotten details.

"But we couldn't hear what they were saying! Ugh! Wasn't the whole point of going into my dream so that we could find out what Jayden was up to?" I said irritatedly. "So the whole thing was just a waste of time."

"Not necessarily." Batman turned towards his computer and started to pull up some screens. "You shouldn't get angry over this because there is always information hidden."

I sounded really angry, but on the inside I just felt hurt. I missed my dad so much. How I'd wondered if I'd ever see his smiling face again, or hear his amused voice, or let myself be content...

"From seeing Jayden, we found out that Jayden knew your father. That is definitely a link to your father and his missing case." Batman continued, but his voice started to feel further away. "Are you able to think of any other memory that might aid us to..."

I zoned him out because I was drowning in my own self pity. I thought about all those times that Ash and Cain had taken away my happiness that I had had with my father. My mom had also played a role in my misery because she was always on Ash and Cain's side, never mine. When Jackson had just died and my mom remarried and started to treat me differently, I let it slide and put up with it for a few months because I thought it was just her dealing with Jackson's death. But when her attitude never lifted up, it had me thinking that she never even loved Jackson in the first place. But it didn't make sense because she had been so loving back then! None of it made any sense, and I'd always wondered about that but I'd never really investigated it. All I could think of was all the things that Grace had done wrong to me. One time, Ash and Cain had been playing with knives and I'd gotten caught up in the middle of it and-

"Bethany! What are you doing?!" M'gann yelled in my ear.

Huh? I snapped out of it and looked up at her, but she was only mouthing words now, I couldn't hear her even though it looked like she was room was starting to fade and the only thing that felt solid was Nightwing's hand in my right and M'gann's elbow linked through mine. I could barely hear Batman yelling at us, but he sounded like he was a mile away. Reality was fading away.

"Batman! What's going on?" I yelled. I had an iron grip on both M'gann and Nightwing's hand as my mind started to swirl into an even brighter light. Soon, I wasn't able to see anymore and the light was so blinding I had to squint. Dick started to squeeze my hand a little and so I squeezed back to tell him I was there.

But then his hand went limp and my heart started to pound incredibly fast. What happened to Dick? Was he hurt? Was he dying? "Dick! Can you hear me?! What's going on?!" I shouted into the air. "Someone!" and my voice just continued into nothingness.

My eyes started to feel droopy and I wanted to fall asleep, too. Did someone inject me with something? But I hadn't felt it! What happened to Dick? Why did M'gann's hand feel so cold now? Why did I feel so tired? Where did everyone go? Why was I all alone again?!

Don't close your eyes, Bethany! Don't close them! Don't! I don't want to! I don't... I can't... stay... awake...

Please don't hurt me. I know I keep leaving on cliffhangers, it's just I don't know where to end. I know this was a short chapter, but the next one you'll find out what happened to them!

XOXO,

traught-monster