A/N: ?

What's there to say? Enjoy!

Chapter 13

Just as she finishes buttoning up her shirt, the door of her room opens and she turns around to see Dick, surprisingly still in his casual outfit, as she dubbed it, a simple black shirt with jeans, something t

hat he normally wore outside with a jacket over it, but never went out partying in.

"Aren't you dressed?" she asks him.

"Yeah, about that, there's been a change in plans." He says. "I'm not coming with you guys."

Her eyes widen. "You're not?"

"No." he shakes his head solemnly. "Some new info about the case has come in, and I need to pull a double shift to clear this out." He looks at her. "I have a hunch that the next attack will be sooner than we think, and it might be close to your school."

"What gave you that idea?" she mumbles, still not completely over how protective he was of her.

He sighs. "I'm only being cautious." He says. "It might be you, or some other innocent bystander. We can't have more deaths. Tim and Barbara will go with you and your friends to the festival, but remember, everyone on the Team is on call until we sort this thing out. Until then, have fun."

She sighs. "You know I will." She says.

Just as Barbara pulls up at the Festival, Alex shoots out of the car, rushing off to God knows where. While Tim and Barbara exchange confused looks, she and Jack roll their eyes.

Their bet was still on, and it was eating away at her that he wouldn't tell us whether he had gotten a date or not. For all she knew, he was running up to some girl to beg her to pretend to be his date so he wouldn't be embarrassed. But she doubted that. Despite his slow sense, he took his bets seriously, which made it fun to place such bets with him. And with the way he was acting, she could guess that it was about to get very interesting.

Barbara turned back to her. "Did he just…?"

"Don't even ask." Skylar tells the older woman.

Barbara raises an eyebrow, but then wisely decided not to even think about it. She sets the car in the parking space and gets out, seemingly with intent of enjoying herself for once.

Skylar can't blame her. The redhead did have a tough week. Finishing up her last year of college as well as balancing a job as a librarian along with Team stuff really could take a toll on anyone. She had once mockingly reassured her that she wouldn't have to face this when she was in college; if she was ever in a pinch, she could always just call Dick for help. While she had laughed then, one thing was for sure, she wasn't going to rely on Dick for longer than necessary. It wasn't fair to him, and she needed to stand on her own two feet.

"Hey, you coming?" Jack asks her. She nods and gets out of the car.

As she sees a look of awe settle upon his features, she takes a deep breath, smelling all the food, ranging from popcorn to hotdogs to cotton candy. As it was the Winter Festival, the theme was, of course, ice. All the tents and stalls were light blue and white, with snowflakes to top them off. Most of them had fake snow lining their roofs, even though it wasn't needed, as it was already snowing softly. In the center of the enormous Festival Grounds, stood one ginormous Christmas tree, completely decked out with lights and ornaments. Towering over the entire city, it sure looked majestic.

"Wow." Jack says.

"I know." She says. "This place has the same reaction in me too."

Tim places a hand on her shoulder, seeking to lead her inside when he catches sight of Cassie. Pausing for a moment, he then quickly tells her to be careful and dashes off, leaving the two teenagers alone.

"Well," Jack says, "let's go and have the night of our lives." He leads her inside, and she braces herself for what's about to come.

Honestly, she's having a blast.

When Jack promised her that he would show her how to have fun, he wasn't kidding. He made her try everything, right from the rings to the dunk tank, and he was not going to take no for an answer. And it was so nice to just loosen up and act dumb for once, just laugh because there was no reason to. And she thinks about this as she tries the shooting range. Just as she aims the rifle, Jack comes up behind her and adjusts the rifle.

"You're not gonna hit the target holding it like that." He says.

She smirks. "You'd be surprised." Then, promptly shooting the three balloons in a row, she turns to see a slightly shocked look on his face. "I'm a good shot." She tells him.

He closes his mouth. "I can see that." He grins, and she laughs as his next sentence is muffled by the large polar bear the stall keeper puts in his hands.

"Okay," she says, turning to the large pile of amassed gifts. "what do we do with this?"

He shrugs. "I'd say leave it here. Some kid'll probably take them home. He needs them more than we do anyway."

She nods in agreement as he places the bear on the pile. They then turn around and walk to the beverage stand, where they get themselves some hot chocolate as the cold was really starting to set in. It wasn't biting cold though, more like pleasant chills. Still, it was an excuse to drink hot cocoa and it wasn't going to stop her. As they walk by the stalls and games, she thinks back to the last time the two of them hung out like this.

"So, what now?" she asks, shaking the thoughts out of her head and throwing her empty foam cup in the nearest trash can.

He pauses for a moment, finishing his cup as well and following her lead by throwing it in the trash can. He purses his lips, thinking for a few seconds, when the sound of music comes their way. They turn around to see all the people gathering on the dance floor as the familiar tune of Adam Lambert's "Never Close Our Eyes" starts to play through the speakers. Jack turns back to her, and when she looks at him she sees a strange smile on his face.

"Now, we dance." He says, grabbing her arm and dragging her to the dance floor.

"Jack, Jack, Jack, wait." She says, finally getting his attention. "I can't dance."

"That's alright, none of us do." He gestures to the rest of the teenagers. "But we're still doing it."

"But…" she starts to say but he cuts her off.

"Skylar, remember what we agreed on? For one night, we don't think, we just do. So, stop thinking and get with the crowd." He tells her, dragging her into the midst of the crowd, where the music was really loud. In fact, she could literally hear her teeth chattering with the booming music.

She immediately gets the message that she's terrible at dancing. As she looks around at the other people, she horribly tries to imitate what they're doing. Jack rolls his eyes, and she glares at him. How dare he have the nerve to laugh?

Then, he grabs her arms, pulls her closer to him, and gestures to her to just go with the flow. Closing her eyes, she feels the beat of the song, and starts dancing to it. Opening her eyes, she sees Jack smiling at her, encouraging her. As the last chorus boomed through the speakers, the energy became contagious, and she found herself swept in with the excitement. She locked eyes with him, and then it could have been just the two of them, which she would have preferred.

As the song ended and the crowd erupted into cheers and encores, she found herself extremely close to Jack, with his arm around her waist. "You did great." He whispers.

"Thanks." She pants. She looks up at him and for some reason; he seemed to be getting closer.

Before she could react, she saw something out of the corner of her eye and straightened up, pushing herself away from him and shattering the moment.

"Wha…What's wrong?" he asks.

"I thought I saw something." She says, moving in the direction that leads into the woods.

He raced up to her and grabbed her arm. "I don't think you should be going there." He says, a touch of fear in his voice.

She slowly moves his hand away. "I'll be fine." She tells him. "I'm just going to see what it is and then I'll be back."

Saying so, she moves into the woods, away from the bright lights of the festival.

"Like that's all that happens." Jack grumbles, going after her.

The closer she gets to whatever it is, the more scared she feels.

And it unnerves her. It's not just normal fear too, it's the same fear she felt in her dream.

Wait, her dream? She did just have that dream only a couple of days ago, and now she was feeling this same fear. Could there be a connection?

Now, the most logical thing to do was to call for backup. She could feel her comm in her pocket. All she had to do was whip it out and call for help. Tim and Barbara were somewhere back at the Festival, with Cassie too. All she had to do was turn back…

But she couldn't, as she found out. Something about this kept calling out to her, like a far away echo that was hard to understand. She couldn't call anyone just yet. No, she had to find out what it was, and what it meant.

Besides, she was only observing. She wasn't stupid enough to engage in battle, especially if her suspicions were correct. So, ignoring the sensible part of her brain that was yelling at her to just leave it and go back and enjoy the rest of the night, she pushes on ahead.

She comes out into a circular clearing lit up by the light of the moon. All her instincts tell her to stay in the shadows, like Dick taught her. Most times, the shadows can be your only cover against a threat, he had told her. Use them to your advantage.

But this time, she was going to defy her brother's rules.

She stepped out into the clearing, and all time seemed to stop. All she had time to think was, it's really happening.

Just like in her dream, the shadows in front of her seemed to rise up, no; they actually rose up, and formed the shape of a man. The shadows solidified, and she saw a face coming into being, as if being made out of clay. The man opened his eyes, and she took a step back, for those eyes just made up the complete picture. He was the man from her dreams.

He smiled. Not a warm one, but a long, sly smile. "Well, doesn't this make things easier?"

When he moved, he didn't actually seem to lift his legs or anything; he just moved within the shadows. He circled her, his glowing yellow eyes studying her. She kept her fists clenched at her sides, ready to attack if necessary. She also felt the comm grow heavier in her pocket, but she wasn't sure she would have enough time to signal anybody.

"Yes, I definitely made the right choice." He says, in a voice as dark as the night.

"What do you mean?" she softly asks, remembering one trick her brother taught her that was not a Batman trick, but a Nightwing trick: keep them talking until you signal for help. Her finger inched towards her pocket, waiting for the opportunity for him to look away so she could remove it.

"Your fears." He says, as if talking to himself more than he was to her. "They're much more interesting to work with. Yes, I know I made the right choice when I picked you."

Her hand stops, and she practically freezes. "What are you talking about?"

He ignores her question, instead coming closer and closer to her. "And now, I can CLAIM YOU!"

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

The sudden shout snaps her out of whatever trance she was in, and she hastily scrambles back just as a burst of cold energy erupted in front of her, forming ice. The man was also thrown back, and he looked in distaste at the person standing with his back to her, holding what looked like a wooden staff with a curved tip, like a shepherd's staff. As she lies in the snow and catches her breath, her eyes widen as she starts seeing what's going on around her.

The man glares at the boy. "Not this time, Frost." He growls. "But another time, definitely."

The boy angled his staff, and her breath catches in her throat as the staff spews out a burst of ice towards the form on the man. Before it can hit him, he melts back into the shadows, and is simply gone.

As she gasps for breath, the boy throws his staff away, running to her side. "Skylar, are you okay?"

She looks up at him, and nearly coughs out in surprise.

"Jack?"

A/N: Finally! I've been planning this chapter practically ever since I started this story. But I can tell you now, the story's only just heating up.

Thanks for all of the views, guys. The very fact that my story is even being read means a lot to me.

But honestly, I'd like some creative feedback. How can I improve my story?

Please read and review.