Mount Justice- December 3rd- 7:32 A.M-
"How did you know where she was?" asked Aqualad looking up him, he had grown quite a lot since the last time they had seen him, he was even taller than Kid Flash now.
"I was in New York when I heard an explosion coming from some office building. When I dropped by, the place was on fire and Nightshade was already on the ground," he told them. The room went silent again except for Skye's muffled crying. A couple more hours went by before Leslie Thompkins walked out of the infirmary, as soon as they saw her the team stood up.
"Relax, she'll be fine. The bullets went through, but they didn't damage any vital organs, though she did lose a lot of blood, so we gave her a transfusion. If you want to see her, she is more or less conscious now," she said and walked away from them. The team slowly made their way towards the infirmary, they arrived just in time to see Batman who had been joined by Red Tornado exiting the room. Batman's eyes met Nightwing's, but they didn't say anything, they just nodded and walked past each other. Huntress and Black Canary were inside with Nightshade when the team walked in. The room started to feel a little cramped, so Black Canary walked out followed by Huntress to give them some space.
"You're not going inside?" asked Huntress when she saw Nightwing outside the infirmary. Though she was thrown off by the new suit, she could still recognize him.
"Later," he said staring blankly at the door, he wasn't sure he wanted to see Nightshade, it had been so long. Huntress nodded and walked away from him following the other leaguers to the main room. After a while of staring at the closed door, he was startled when the others started getting out of the room, they all left except for Lance who stayed right next to the now sleeping girl, clutching her hand tightly. After seeing that, Nightwing decided it was better to just walk away, so he headed towards the main room.
Nightwing was met with relieved faces and a relaxed atmosphere; Zatanna was the first one to notice he had walked into the room and those relieved faces turned into light smiles. "Is this you coming back to the team?" asked Zatanna.
"Well, I did miss you guys," Nightwing answered. "I would love to come back if you'll let me," he told them.
"Of course, man!" said Kid Flash. "I knew you'd be back." Kid Flash got up to hug him, but then remembered his suit was covered in Nightshade's blood so he sat back down next to Artemis. During the next hour, Nightwing caught up with the team, he told them how he had been living in Bludhaven and about how he came around with the new identity. Their talk was finally interrupted by Lance walking into the room, a depressed look on his face.
"I just… I guess I just want to thank you for looking after us," he told the team. "Who knows what would have happened if you hadn't been following us."
"We're here to help, it is about time the three of you started to realize that," Aqualad answered.
"Yeah," he answered and walked back to the room he had been staying in, Skye right behind him as always.
Mount Justice- December 15th- 4:42 P.M-
Nightshade had been steadily recovering from her injuries, at least that was what Dr. Thompkings said every time someone asked. A few hours after checking with Dr. Thompkings, Nightwing ran into Robin, who seemed to be waiting for him in the training room.
"Wanna spar?" the kid asked. "I bet I can kick your ass," he told him, going after him when Nightwing ignored him.
"Not today, Robin," he answered.
"Scared you'll lose?" the kid asked. Nightwing turned around and grabbed the kid by the collar lifting him up from the ground.
"Not today kid," he repeated one more time before letting go of him. Robin was about to say something when they saw Lance and Skye walking out with their luggage. "What are you doing?" asked Nightwing putting a hand on his chest to stop him.
Lance looked down at the hand on his chest and then back at Nightwing. "We're leaving, and I'm taking Nightshade with me," he simply said and kept walking just to be stopped again, this time by Robin.
"Why don't you let her rest, and then you can take her anywhere you want," he said. Their voices had gotten the attention from the rest of the team who were now gathered in the hall.
"I don't think that's a good idea," said Nightshade leaning against the door frame. "I'm going to stay here for a while and you two will be leaving with the Justice League," she said crossing her arms over her chest. The team turned around to look at her, she was wearing black sweatpants and a large black hoodie that covered her body. Lance walked towards her with Skye right behind him and stared down at the girl.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, clearly angry at her.
"I see you still went with the bird theme, huh Bird Boy? That's good, consistency is important," Nightshade ignored Lance's question and directed her gaze towards Nightwing. Lance grabbed her side to get her attention, not realizing he was touching a still open wound. Nightshade and Dr. Thompkings had been hiding the fact that her wounds were closing really, really slowly. In fact, they weren't sure they were healing at all. Dr. Thompkings would come every morning to change her bandages and then Nightshade would burn the old, bloody ones to keep it a secret form the others.
"Jade, answer me," Lance told her.
"You two are leaving, the League will relocate you to a safer place, somewhere they can't find you," she said, holding a stern look across her face.
"What if we don't want to?" asked Skye getting angry at Nightshade.
"I'm not asking you. You two are moving out and there is absolutely nothing you can say or do that would make me change my mind!" she raised her voice, "and honestly I don't give a damn what you think. You fucking do what I tell you to do, that's all you've ever been good for!" by the end she was yelling at them. Finally, Nightshade realized where she was and backed away from them.
"Bullshit! they are after you, I won't leave you here!" he said. Nightshade glanced at the team and then back at him.
"I don't need that, I don't need you two. I never needed Camille either, I just needed a group of idiots angry enough to take down The Light. You proved really fucking useless to be honest," she told him.
"Jade, I know what you're trying to do and it's not going to work," said Lance. "We're not going to leave you." The room fell silent the moment Lance said that, and the only thing that was heard was Nightshade's heavy sigh.
"Why? Because you love me or something?" Guess what, I don't feel anything about the two of you. You were just good for sex, and your sister was an annoying crybaby –," Skye cut her off by slapping her across the face. Nightshade's hair fell on her face covering it completely and a heavy atmosphere filled the room. Without protesting anymore, the siblings walked away just in time to meet with Batman and Red Tornado. Nightshade didn't even look at them as they left the room.
"Jade!" Nightwing called after her when she walked away from them, but the girl just kept walking. He looked back at Lance and Skye only to find them gone, so he ran after Nightshade. "Jade!" he yelled once again when he found her in the hall on her way to the hangar. "What are you doing?" he asked grabbing her arm and forcing her to look at him.
"Leaving" she answered pulling her arm back.
"You know what I mean. Those two have chosen to stay by your side for god knows what reason. Don't push them away like that," he told her.
"I never asked for that," she said.
"No, and you probably didn't deserve it either, but they still did," he said.
"Grayson, I know you just came back, but this is none of your business," she told him and kept walking towards the hangar to get away from the team, and specially to get away from him.
Mount Justice- December 17th- 6:37 P.M-
Nightshade had quickly gotten accustomed to the cave and the rest of the team being around all the time. She had even asked Miss Martian for a short tour, and the day before she had Superboy, Aqualad and Rocket help her bring in her things which included boxes and boxes of dangerous weapons. It had only been two days since she sent the siblings away with the League and Nightshade seemed not to care about it, she was laying on the couch with a bag of chips next to her hand going through her phone.
Miss Martian and Superboy walked into the room to get something to eat and ended up stumbling upon the scene. They were about to tell her something when Black Canary walked in and pulled away the bag of chips from her hand.
"Get up," she ordered. Nightshade looked up from her phone and glared at the blonde woman who was looking down at her.
"I was wondering when you would show up," she said going back to her phone.
"Jade get up," she ordered one more time. "I spoke with Dr. Thompkings. Get. Up."
After hearing that, Nightshade got up from the couch and followed Black Canary deeper into the cave, giving the two onlookers a shrug. Just as the other two left, Zatanna came out from the hall already in her pajamas.
"Why is Black Canary dragging Nightshade into the medical bay?" she asked.
"I don't know, but I could read her mind and find out," Miss Martian answered.
"M'gann," Superboy cut in, "no mind reading unless it's absolutely necessary," he reminded her. The Martian lowered her hand from her temple and nodded in agreement. Zatanna didn't say anything, but things had been getting a little tense between Superboy and Miss Martian; she didn't know the reason, but they just weren't talking that much with each other. Zatanna rushed to the fridge before they could get to it, made herself a sandwhich and rushed away from the uncomfortable atmosphere.
"I should have known something was wrong when Dr. Death's toxin wouldn't leave your body," Zatanna heard Black Canary through the door when she was passing by the medical bay.
"Relax, it's just taking a little bit longer than usual," she heard Nightshade answering. "Can I put my shirt back on, all your staring is making me uncomfortable?" she asked.
"Jade, this is serious. What if your powers aren't permanent?"
"Then we'll find out when I die. Try to say something nice for my eulogy," she told her. Zatanna could hear her footsteps getting closer to the door so she ran away from the medical bay and towards her room. Nightshade opened the door thinking she had heard something, but when she looked there was no one outside.
"Just promise you'll be more careful," said Black Canary.
"Sure," she answered walking out of the room.
Mount Justice- December 20th- 4:00 P.M-
The team was gathered in the training room watching Black Canary and Nightwing sparing, so far, Black Canary was winning and Nightwing was having some trouble keeping up with her until he found an opening. Nightwing grabbed her arm and threw her over his head finally winning the match.
"Good job," Black Canary told him from the ground.
"Well it's not like I had been slacking off all this time," he answered offering his hand to help her up. In that moment, the team saw Nightshade rushing past the training room and right into the hangar.
"I'm going out!" she yelled while she ran.
"What the hell?" asked Artemis poking her head out right as the girl left.
"Okay, while Nightshade skips practice again, Kid Flash it's your turn. You'll go against Superboy," Black Canary told them and the two started sparing.
Tired, Nightwing walked up to Batgirl who was sitting in the back with her holographic computer out and her cowl down. He leaned down to look at what she was doing and saw her going over some files Nightshade had in her personal computer.
"Did you hack her?" Nightwing asked. Batgirl looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Of course you did. The question would be why?"
"Nightshade's been weird lately," Batgirl answered.
"No, she's always been like that,"
"You might be right, but ever since her encounter with Shellcase, she's been sneaking out and coming back late. At least that's what the cave's log is saying," she answered and showed him the log. Nightshade had exit the cave every day at four in the afternoon and didn't come back until 3 in the morning. Batgirl returned to looking at the other files in Nightshade's laptop; there were the usual useless things, TV shows and movies she had watched, but when she got deep enough, she found an alert system for Shellcase and the most recent one had gone off at the warehouse where they had fought Wotan. "She found him," Batgirl muttered under her breath forcing Nightwing to lean in and look at the screen.
"We're leaving," said Nightwing getting Rocket, Miss Martian and Aqualad to go with him and Batgirl.
By the time the team had noticed what she was doing, Nightshade had reached the warehouse. She had been fighting Shellcase for a while now and had finally cornered him.
"I thought I killed you, came back for more?" he asked Leaning back against the wall.
"You seem overly confident for someone who's about to have his throat slashed," Nightshade answered pulling out her sword and sticking it into the wall right next to his face.
"you couldn't beat me before, what makes you think that you'll be able to do it now?" he asked. Nightshade pulled out the sword from the wall.
"New found motivation, or maybe I don't like leaving things unfinished," she told him and went in to slash his throat, but the man moved, and she ended up creating a cut in his arm. Shellcase ran away from her deeper into the warehouse. "I really don't have time for this!" she yelled as she watched him running away. The girl blocked his path with a huge fire wall that forced him into the other room. After he went in, the fire extended through the room. "What happened to that smug attitude you had a few weeks ago?" Nightshade asked, watching the man running deeper into the room.
After it had been a while since Nightshade had last heard anything but the crackling fire, she killed the fire and started looking around the room trying to find Shellcase. "Come on…I know you're there, come out!" by the end of that sentence, her voice was lower, and her eyes and hair had turned a red blood color.
"Don't make me look for you," said Nightfall, crouching and placing her hands on the ground before closing her hand into a fist and yanking. Shellcase's body followed the movement her hand made and crashed against the opposite wall.
"What the hell are you?" he asked, panting.
"Didn't you say that they told you everything?" Nightfall said getting closer to him. The panicked look on his face grew with every step she took, but the girl seemed to enjoy every second of it. "Oh, did they forget to tell you about me?" she asked grabbing his face between her hands. The man shook his head while trying to get away from her, Nightfall's smile grew, and she finally let go of his face.
"If you're going to kill me, do it now!" he yelled. Nightfall raised her left hand and two shadow creatures popped out from the ground, picked him up and held him by the arms.
"No, no. I don't work like that. Unlike Nightshade, I enjoy a little bit of torture before killing my victims," she told him. "I'm sure you understand." Nightfall took out a knife and stabbed the man in the leg, then she pulled out another one and stabbed him in the arm. Every single one of his screams made her smile grow wider. Nightfall moved her hand again and the shadows started pulling form Shellcase's arms until the wound from the knife started getting larger.
"Stop! Please stop!" he pleaded, but Nightfall wasn't listening, she had gotten out her sword and was getting it ready. "What are you going to do?" he asked in between pants and screams, but she didn't answer, instead she slashed his torso just enough for him to remain alive while it hurt as much as possible. Shellcase started vomiting blood as his inside were exposed to a smirking Nightfall.
"Well this turned out to be better than I thought!" she said leaning against the wall. It was in that moment that Aqualad, Nightwing, Rocket, Batgirl and Miss Martian stormed into the warehouse. The five of them froze the moment they saw the bloody scene right in front of them. "You took longer than expected, I was forced to improvise," Nightfall told them commanding a third shadow to emerge from the ground and hold Shellcase's head between its palms.
"No!" Aqualad yelled just as Nightfall made the shadow twist his head, effectively cracking his neck.
"Oops," said Nightfall right as the body fell in front her. Rocket flew towards her and pinned her against the wall, but the girl created a portal behind her and went inside only to reappear behind Rocket and kick her into the wall. Before the other four could do anything, Nightshade regained control of their body.
"Fucking coward," Nightshade muttered before looking back towards Rocket and offering her hand to help her up.
"Nightshade?" asked Miss Martian. The girl turned around to look at them and that was when the pungent smell of blood reached her nose. She directed her gaze to the bloody body of Shellcase lying on the ground with his guts exposed and his neck completely broken.
"I think Nightfall went a bit overboard with this one," she said kicking the corpse on the side. She then stepped over the body and walked out of the room.
"Is it alright to be a little worried about that reaction?" Rocket asked and the other three shook their heads.
"I'll see if I can talk to her," said Nightwing going after her.
"I will inform Batman that Shellcase has died," said Aqualad.
"At least one of you is doing something useful," said Rocket looking back at the bloody scene one more time before following the others.