A/N: Alright, this story's coming to an end in the next chapter.
But really hope you enjoyed this.
Chapter 25
He arrives in time to see the entire building crumbling down to bits.
Tim, Cassie, Barbara, Zatanna and Alex stop behind him, all staring in shock at what just happened. But it only takes him a couple of seconds before he realizes exactly what just occurred, and rushes over to the wreckage. As he nears it, he notices Skylar's communicator lying on the ground, which he decides to ignore, despite his thoughts running astray as to what could have happened to her.
When he comes up close to the ruin, he notices another figure shifting through the rubble, struggling to lift the huge pieces of cement and steel. His eyes widen when he realizes just who it was. Yes, the color scheme was off, considering the fact that his hair was white and his skin was a pale off-white color. But he'd know that messy head of hair anywhere, whether brown or white. He would also know those ice blue eyes, now filled with despair and desperation, face scrunched up in an effort to lift a pretty big beam. He stops for a moment to survey the situation, and realizes one thing: he doesn't feel pain anymore.
He turns around to look at the rest of his Team, who have similar expressions of disbelief and confusion at their own awakenings. Alex, in particular, seemed pretty confused as well as crestfallen as he seemed to remember what all happened in the past couple of weeks. Dick began to formulate a theory based on this.
Either Skylar had succeeded, or something really bad must have happened to her.
He tries not to think about the latter, and puts all his faith and wishes into believing that she was okay. He runs over to Jack, who turns around to look at him.
"She was in there." He tells the older man.
Dick's eyes widen and he furiously starts to dig through the rubble, managing to lift the support beams more easily than Jack could. The boy in question, slowly slinked away to the side, knowing the Dick was well and ready to kill him, what with his heart full of dread and fear for his sister's safety. So, being the smart one, he decides to let Dick discover it by himself.
By what he can decipher, Skylar had figured out that Pitch was connected to the building, that he was using the building as an anchor and her as a power supply to bring his daughter back to life. In the most delicate stage of the operation, she had brought the building down, and hence severed its connection with Pitch. That had dissolved the entire ritual, as well as taking a huge chunk out of Pitch's power. This had forced Pitch, now tired and weak and low on power, to try and slink away from the fallen building, but only to be ambushed by the Four Guardians, who confronted him. And similar to the year before, Pitch's Nightmares turned on him, and dragged him into the shadows, into exile for hopefully a while.
Jack couldn't understand what could make her do such a thing, or maybe that was just his selfish mind talking. But right now, he really didn't want her to die.
Dick was practically going on instinct, pushing back the rubble and removing the support beams from exactly the right place. With every piece of cement he moved, his worry only increased, and his heart was filled with dread, imagining the worst. For all he knew, his sister was most probably dead. He would once again return to being the last living member of the Graysons. He would lose her once again, and this time because of his inability to get there in time. He would lose his last blood family member once again, only this time, she wouldn't be coming back.
Please be alright, he desperately thought.
He repeated this over and over in his head as he shifted through the rubble, his worry growing with each passing second with no sign of her. He was getting more and more desperate as the minutes ticked by, with no sign of her body. He began to really fear the worst now, and his imagination took control, imagining gruesome and terrifying things happening to her.
He was the worst brother in the world right now.
He then shifts a large piece of rock away, and sees a hand.
Eyes widening behind his mask, he begins clearing the rubble all around the hand and its general vicinity. He soon clears enough of the rubble to see Skylar's body, broken and bloodied due to the building collapsing on top of her. She seemed almost motionless, and Dick was gripped with fear, before his training took over and he began to look for signs of life. To his great relief, he found that she was still breathing, albeit very slowly, almost nonexistent. Feeling his heart go numb, he reaches out and swipes some of the dirt away from her cheek before stroking it with the back of his fingers.
He lets out the breath he didn't know he was holding as relief floods every single part of his body when she softly hums in response to his touch. She forces open her eyes, very slowly and looks up at him. "Dick?"
"Don't worry." He says, wiping away more of the dirt from her face. "I'm here now."
He wraps his arms around her body and lifts her upper body close to his body, while holding on tightly to her bloodied hand.
"I…I…I can't feel anything." She whispers in a pained voice.
"I know." He whispers back to her, holding her close.
"I…feel numb." She says, and her eyes close as she falls limp in his arms.
Trying to control his raging emotions, Dick pulls her close, lifting her up slightly, turning her head toward his chest.
He hugs her body tightly, in no hurry to let go.
She opens her eyes, with much, much effort, might she add, to be faced with the sight of a white ceiling.
She knew that ceiling anywhere. She had seen it many times in her extremely short lifespan.
She was in the Cave's infirmary.
That is also when she becomes aware of the extreme ache in her head. No, in fact, in her entire body. She tries to move, but it only results in more and more pain, as she grunts herself into lifting her arm and head slightly. She then suddenly feels a hand on her chest, slowly pushing her back into a sleeping position.
She turns her head to see Dick sitting beside her bed, having enticed her into a sleeping position. He smiles at her. "Hey."
"Hey." She says back.
"How do you feel?" he asks her.
"In pain." She replies. "Seriously, did I get hit by a truck or something?"
"Not really." He answers. "You do remember everything that happened to you, don't you?"
She's hit with the flashbacks of rushing into an old crumbling building, fighting Pitch and Klarion, having Pitch suck her life out before Jack arrived to give her a helping hand. She remembers everything, ranging from Pitch's intentions, his powers over the night, her last conversation with Jack, and her last desperate action to protect the ones she loved from getting hurt even more by her. She clearly remembered the building crashing down on her, and then blacking out for a while. Her last memory was feeling her dear brother's touch before everything went black. She turns to Dick, the smile gone from her face.
"I remember everything." She says.
He gives a small chuckle. "That talk can wait." He says. "Right now, we'll just celebrate the fact that you're alive and that I can touch you again."
He squeezes her hand. "Ugh!" she groans as a wave of nausea hits her and she forces it down. "How long has it been?" she asks.
"You were out for two days, if that's what you're asking." He says.
"Where's Jack?" she mumbles, half in a trance.
"He's fine." He tells her. "You have a way of picking the most interesting friends." She jumps and stares at him as he smirks at her. "You know?"
"You being out for two days gave us some time to talk." He says. "It's just like you to go off and steal the heart of a 300 year old immortal winter spirit."
"I've never done that before." She mumbles.
"You've done it now, haven't you?" he chuckles. "But that seriously explains a lot."
"Explains what?" she asks.
"Don't bother yourself with that." He tells her. "Just know that you're a lucky gal. He really cares about you, you know."
She smiles, leaning back against her pillow. "I think I do now."
He pats her calf. "Don't think I'm just going to let you grow up so fast." He says. "You're still my little sister, and if he thinks he can just get you to himself, he's wrong. He'll have to get through me first if he wants you."
She chuckles. Sharing a laugh with her, he then stands up. "I'd love to stay longer, but Batman wants a mission briefing immediately, and I'm pretty sure he'd like to know how you are right now. Plus we'll have to track Klarion down as quickly as we can; I've already sent a squad to dig up as much info as we can. And also, your friends are probably waiting to have a word or two with you."
He turns and heads out of the room, nodding to somebody and says a few words which she doesn't catch. In the few moments of peace she gets, she maneuvers herself into an erect position, leaning against her pillows. She then feels a wind, and chuckles as a blur stabilizes outside her door. A head of messy red hair then peeks in, and she suppresses the urge to laugh.
"Hey, Alex." She smiles. "Are you gonna stand out there all day?"
He steps into the room, slowly and awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. She theorizes that it was probably the way he had treated her the past week or something, what with completely forgetting any sign of her existence. He walks in and sits on the chair beside her bed, paving the way for a five minute awkward silence. He doesn't make any move to talk or communicate, which she deems as unnatural for him, but who could blame him? She lay back against her pillow, giving him a look that said "take your time". If she wanted to see him talk, this would be the only way.
"Hey, um, I just wanted to say…" he begins, "What I meant to say was…um…Here's the thing…um…"
"No need to say anything." She tells him. "I know what it's all about."
"You do?" he asks. "Well then. That just makes me feel better. I guess this is my cue to say that I'm sorry."
"Why?" she asks. "You have nothing to be sorry for."
"I do." He replies. "I forgot my best friend in the whole world completely. And then I had to go and treat you like crap. I ignored you, and shut you out, and made no effort to reignite our friendship." He looks down. "Sorry just doesn't cut it. Especially when I found out what that had done to you."
"It did nothing." She says. "Who told you, anyway?"
"Jack." He simply answers. She opens her mouth to speak, but he cuts her off with his hand. "And before you say anything, he was the first person I apologized to, but he told me that he didn't need my apologies; you did. These two days were pretty stressful, you know that? But that gave the two of us plenty of time to sort out our situations." He looks up at her. "Jack's secret is safe with us, and he told me that the only reason he had been turned into a human was to protect the Team and to find out Pitch's plan. He was pretty crushed about not being able to protect you at first, but then I told him that that's just what you do."
She chuckles slightly. "Where is he, anyway?"
"Where? I'm not sure." He says. "We had a chat yesterday at school, but after that I never saw him. He didn't come to class today, and I didn't see him at school. I went over to his house and there was no one there."
She heaves a big sigh. "Then I guess this is it, huh?" she asks. "He really left?"
Alex shrugs. "Sure looks like it, but I'm not too sure."
"Any reason?" she asks.
"Yeah, something he told me yesterday." He says. "He told me that even though he was forced to come here, now he didn't want to leave." He smiles at his best friend. "Have some faith in him. Don't you believe in Jack Frost?"
A/N: Well, that's that.
What are your views on this? Do you want Jack to come back? Do you want him to leave? I'd love to hear your views on this.
(Even though I'm already writing the next part)
Please leave a review.