Don't worry guys, I'm still in this for the long run. I was trapped the past month with an art book we had due. We needed 20 or so pages of different art styles, elements, properties, and techniques. This is the first time I've actually been free in a while. This is the last chapter I had in my prompt though, so I have no idea what to do after this yet. I mean, the ending is set in stone, but it's the inside stuff I'm still trying to decide. I will finish this, though. I promise. I tried to play up the other characters in this chapter the best I could, but as you can tell, they're all pretty badly OOC. Forgive me.

Dick's POV:

"I'm going to take your funny bone and ram it through your Adam's apple in the next three seconds if you don't stop," I snarled at Bart.

His green eyes narrowed as he gave a little smirk, matching my glare with little effort.

"That's big talk for a guy who's out on his ankle bones," he shot back, showing a flash of his teeth.

My jaw locked on its own accord.

"I don't need ankle bones to reach over and beat your head in."

He gave a little cackle, leaning back in the wheelchair he had borrowed with an endless grin.

"Would you look at that?" he leaned forward again and stabbed the ends of the tweezers at my chest. "See this? Your broken heart. Do I get you to cry me a river now, or should I ask for the receipt?"

I took the tweezers and threw them, giving an annoyed groan as the wire they were attached to had them bouncing against the rim of the table between us. Maybe if I aimed right, I could get them through his chest. Give him a real broken heart.

"It's not fair!" I threw my head back in turn when I caught Artemis hiding a laugh. "H-He's cheating!"

Bart leaned forward and hit my shoulder, brow knotted.

"How am I cheating?" he demanded to know, a laugh on the exhale of every word.

I gestured to him abstractly until I managed to piece out, "Your, er, your super speed! That's not fair!"

He tossed his head back in another fit of laughter, arms going around his stomach. I shot him a glare, looking down at my knees with a little huff when Artemis just rolled her eyes.

"Dude, no, no, that's like... that's like saying you using your arms is cheating," the brunet gasped out between little bouts of laughter.

I frowned a little harder and looked back up.

"So you're saying your super speed is like an appendage? Let's see you break your speed and wear it in a cast for a few weeks then," I challenged.

He stopped laughing. "That's not what I meant."

"You don't need your super speed for every day activities- at least in the present. I don't know what you guys did in the future."

"I think it would be 'what they do'," Barbara corrected as she passed by.

"What we won't be doing," Bart tossed back. "I came back here to try and prevent the future, not argue with you over Dissection."

"Dis... we're playing Operation."

Bart's face softened and he looked down at the game board between us, reading the name off of the board with a little sigh.

"Well, would you look at that? Doesn't matter. You're still losing."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. He could go fast enough with the tweezers that the sensors wouldn't even have noticed the absence of their piece. That totally wasn't cheating. Whatever. Why didn't we just turn off the sensors when he went? Wouldn't be a change. Might as well just dump out all the pieces!

"At least I don't need super powers to win," I mumbled under my breath.

He squinted up at me from under his brows. His face scrunched up before he could counter, though. I narrowed my eyes, and then it hit me. The cracked-egg feeling.

"Megan?" I thought, just to be safe.

"Hey," I could hear her smile, "everyone hooked up?"

An overpowering chorus of confirmation hit me and left my temples ringing as if they had been hit separately with a hammer. Her sigh was nervous, but excited all the same.

"Hello! For um, for those who don't know me... I'm Megan, but you might remember me as Miss Martian. I don't think I'll be able to keep this large of a line open for very long, so please, pay attention. This is an... assurance, I suppose... that we will be putting forth an effort soon to attempt an escape. The ward below you now, BBB, doesn't seem to have their memories with them yet, but I talked to Karen previously and we're going to fix that. I caught up Martian Manhunter, and he and Batman will make their way through our older heroes and spread the word. When everyone is... on the same page... we'll put our heads together," when she paused, she seemed strained and more out of breath than a thought ever should sound.

I thought I understood. She hadn't broadcast to more than the five of us in over a year. I wasn't sure how many of us she was talking to now, but it was definitely above her norm.

"Any questions?" she got out over the silence, voice barely a breath.

I don't think there was a person without one. The sudden barrage of solid sound shot down into my stomach and I found myself able to suddenly dry-swallow a small handful of the pills in my pocket. I'd have to see about getting more after this. What really surprised me was Megan's response. The link actually shut down for a moment. When it resurfaced, she apologized thoroughly.

"You'll... have to ask Dick. A few too many of us on the line. We'll... try again after lunch."

The line flickered out for good, but it was hard to tell over the sudden flurry of kids to come at me. I looked around at them, holding my temple as they all overlapped their questions. As they bickered among themselves over who had the best question, I caught Artemis' eyes and felt my heart slither down into my feet.

Even with her eyes averted, I recognized the look in the sliver that I could see. At first glance, I thought it was just hurt. It looked like the expression someone has after stubbing their toe, after the initial shock wears off; the face made right after the cuss word tumbles out. I wasn't a man for glancing though. From what I remembered at least, that wasn't what Batman had taught me, or my many obsessive years of reading Sherlock Holmes. A regular person looks; a detective analyzes. This was something else entirely. This was betrayal.

"Artemis?" I nodded her over, drawing my arms around my stomach without actually touching it.

She looked up at me and gave a little nod, weaving her way through the crowd and taking a seat on the right arm to my chair, facing away from me. I shooed the others away with the promise of answering their questions later. Take the time to think about what you want to ask, I insisted and they all walked off muttering under their breath. Besides, Bart seemed to know more than I did. What good was appointing me as secondhand answerer?

"What's up?" I nudged her back gently, still waiting for the pills to kick in.

She didn't look my way still, but I didn't mind. Something was leaving her with a bad taste in her mouth. I knew the feeling all too well. Sometimes it's best to try and make sure the taste isn't just you before asking about it. She seemed to decide it wasn't just her.

"Megan," she started on a sigh, and I watched her hands interlace anxiously on her lap. "Why... No, I... Christ, it's stupid, but why didn't she mention me? I helped her extract what we did from Harley! I've been... I've been right here, and she just... she just mentions you."

I swallowed hard.

"I mean, no, don't get me wrong," her fingers untangled for her to press them anxiously against her leg before retangling on impulse. "You've been through more shit than any of us have. It's got you sidelined. I just..."

I reached forward and gently grabbed her forearm, giving a brief squeeze.

"I get it," I gave a little smile and pulled back my arm. "You know about as much as I do. I don't know why she... I mean, you heard how she sounded at the end. Probably feeling a little taxed."

When she didn't seem affected, I added, "Hey, man, if you want to answer the same two questions twenty times, the job's yours."

She forced a smile and I felt the slightest bit better. With my detective senses tingling, I sat back in the quiet and rubbed my unmarred hip lazily, waiting for what was bogging her tongue down to spring from the water's surface. It didn't take very long.

"Do we have a plan then?"

I laid my head to the back of the chair and rested my cheek against it, letting my forehead touch to the nearest handle with a quiet sigh.

"Nothing set in stone," I shook my head.

The Operation game still lay on the table out in front of me, the patient laying with his body still in holes, waiting for the rest of his insides to be torn out. This must be what Psimon sees every time he gets in our heads; plenty of opportunistic holes full of memories that he has to sneak by our sensors. Then what? We aren't some game boards. You can't just drop the pieces in and expect them to be in the same condition they were in when they started out. One will be on its side, and trust me, that one's going to be the first one to fall out when you jostle the board. Some will get wedged and despite their best efforts, others you just won't be able to pry back to the surface. It's a no-win situation for one side.

When I realized I was relating life to a game meant for six and up, I had to sit there and assess myself for a moment. In that moment, I decided to stop that and turn back to my friend.

"Then what are the diagrams saying?" I tuned in to hear, managing to crack a smile.

"Clever."

"I know."

Her smile grew genuine for a moment and I echoed it in a heartbeat.

"Well, if I can read my own chicken scratch... I mean, ideally, we unplug whatever is hooked up to Zatanna and her dad and put them over our shoulders as we book it through the now-downed shields," I rubbed my neck.

"But?" she caught my tone, looking back at me.

I couldn't help but smile again. "But... it's never that easy for us, is it? Something's going to go wrong. The shield will strengthen, or we'll end up killing them. We've been out of practice for a while now... I'd say we've lost our touch... You don't want to get me started on this list. It's been growing for a long time now."

She looked at the handle to the chair and pulled her lips to the side.

"On the other hand... we could get this our first shot and save the world. I mean, we've got the supers. Give them a refresher course on their powers and we should be able to catch any opposition by surprise," she argued.

I rolled my head so I could look up at the ceiling. "Never saw you as an optimist."

"I'm not. You just looked like you needed the assurance."

I shook my head with a breath of a laugh.

"You're one to talk."

She sported a smirk that helped my heart back behind my ribs. "Being bound to a wheelchair doesn't make my chances of hitting you any less likelier."

My laugh caught air and it stung to stretch my chest, but I needed this. All this stress and drama... a laugh was needed every once in a while. That, and all the painkillers I could get my hands on. Maybe a few minutes alone with whoever decided I would look better well-done.

"They're looking restless."

I looked from her to where she was looking, giving a sigh at the gazes we had glued our direction.

"Aren't you?" I tossed back to her, the second heartbeat existing within my burn fading out to tell me that the pills were helping. "Right. Ah. Let's go over to them. You mind...?"

Her brow furrowed before she seemed to remember that the chair wasn't just a prop and nodded, sliding off and pushing me towards the area boxed in with couches. I apologized for it, but she wouldn't accept them.

"You don't apologize for battle scars," she chided and I stopped.

When she turned me to face the others, she knocked my arm back to my lap so she could sit down again, regarding them with a little smile. The others were quiet and they looked among themselves, all seeming torn as to who would go first, and I felt the urge to apologize again. A bit of mumbling and murmuring had Mal leaning forward onto his knees, raising his fingers as though to ask permission. Artemis nodded his way.

"M'Gann mentioned BBB ward. Who's down there?"

I pursed my lips when Artemis looked down at me, fighting a second before the cast list that had been mentioned to me resurfaced.

"Ah, I don't know the entirety... but right now, Superboy, Aqualad, Arsenal, Red Hood, Captain Marvel, Aquagirl, and Tempest are on the list of the living," I went to copy his pose and found myself hissing in pain.

Guess the painkillers only worked on my head. Who needed comfort?

"Aquagirl? Didn't she... you know...?" Mal interrupted Gar before the younger could speak.

I swallowed hard.

"I uh... Well, I remember her grave, but I remember putting up Jason's too, and he's back in action. Maybe they revived her, too?" I offered.

"Jason?" a few of them muttered, looking to the person beside them for an answer.

"The Robin before me," Tim cut in, giving me a weak smile and I returned it.

That seemed to ease a few brows. Gar spoke up quickly as their muttering died down.

"What supers do we know of that are on the staff?" he paused for a breath, scratching idly at a red sideburn, "besides Batman and Martian Manhunter?"

I couldn't get over how weird it was seeing him... not... green.

"The Flash," I said quickly, perking Bart up in the slightest.

"I saw Black Canary on my first day. Hawkman is in the kitchen," Artemis added, after a bit of thought, "and Red Arrow took us to the cafeteria every day."

"Superman's an attendee," I remembered, "and I think I saw Red Tornado, but he's in a new body, I think. We've... ah... we know where Zatara is, too, if that counts. I don't think he's ready to help us, though."

Jaime raised a hand and I nodded at him.

"Green Arrow usually monitors us," he hooked a small grin when Artemis' face lit up.

"I saw Wonder Woman in the girl's bathroom once," Cassie added, fingers giving an anxious curl, "but I... I don't think she remembered me."

Barbara leaned over the couch arm and put a hand to her arm in a weak attempt at comforting her. The blonde leaned into the touch with an appreciative smile.

"Atom was up by the medicine station when I went to go get Barbara a new wheelchair," Karen said, hesitation on the edge of her voice as though she wasn't entirely sure.

Raquel nodded at her from the arm she occupied of the opposite couch.

"I saw him, too," she brushed her hair up from her forehead. "He brought by the medicine cups on my first day."

When no one had anything else to add, it was easy to assume that all of the others were downstairs, if they were still alive. BBB Ward wouldn't need many guards, and I'm pretty sure with B Ward being taken down to two members, they could spare Superman or Red Arrow.

"Alright, I have a question," Artemis looked over the kids, and then up to the camera pointed towards us. "In our ward, if you mentioned anything that they suspected had something to do with our real lives, we'd have five or six guards coming at us. We're openly stating names and plans here. Why aren't we being taken to Solitary?"

At that, Bart seemed to cackle and he threw an arm around Jaime, eyes giving a twinkle. The Hispanic nudged him off with a shy grin.

"Oh Gran Uno here," he began with a bravado, getting a little glare from the other, "has an all access pass fixed into his spine. The scarab's invisible to both us and the cameras, meaning hacking 'em was easier than anything you bat-brats do."

I wasn't sure who was going to hit him first, Jaime or Tim.

It turned out that neither did. Jaime just reminded him that his Spanish was terrible and Tim glared, murmuring about showing him 'bat brats'. I couldn't help but smirk. I could definitely beat the scarab in a hacking competition.

"Alright, my turn," Babs raised her head, her hands idly tracing the arms of her chair.

We looked her way.

"If the higher-ups were so lock-and-key about you guys, why would they split you up to the other wards?"

Artemis' head gave a tilt and my brow set.

"I mean... that's like dropping gobstoppers into different water glasses because you didn't want them bleeding into the water in their first glass. If they thought you guys were figuring things out, why would they keep your memories intact when they sent you off?"

Right then and there, I could've upped and kissed her. Intelligence couldn't get much more attractive.

"Maybe they didn't think we could convince you guys. I mean, look where we're at," Artemis shrugged.

A little notch wedged itself between the redhead's brow and her smile grew thin. "Yeah, but they saw it was possible. That alone should be enough..."

Her voice trailed and I squinted her way. I knew that tone. Batgirl was deducting.

"Unless...?" I baited.

Her smile gained weight, "Unless they wanted us to remember."

I stared.

"I mean, they don't know the extent of our memories. They might think we'll just charge out or something. Or... maybe they have something bigger planned."

My thumb skimmed the outside of my fist sourly.

"If they wanted us to remember, why would I be missing a large portion of the flesh from my stomach?" I bit out. "Why would Wally have needle marks on his arm?"

I wouldn't be able to forgive that, once we got out of here. The Joker, Harley, whoever... they left him mute for longer than I'd known. He had stared through me. I had heard him whimper. I'd held him while he broke down. Those are things best friends shouldn't have to experience. If I could get my hands on them, I'd leave a little more than some needle marks.

I stopped seething, so to say, when Artemis reached back and gave my shoulder a squeeze. I abruptly apologized, shaking my head.

"I... Sorry, Babs... I just..." I looked up at her and she nodded in understanding.

"I get it," she promised. "I don't know why. It was just an idea."

I looked from her to Tim and he gave me a weak smile, seeming torn between us.

"What happened to Wally?" Bart cut in.

I guess I forgot that they all hadn't been in our ward. I fought to find a way to phrase it, to make sense of it, but a little head cock from Tim had me stopping immediately. I was surprised I remembered how to speak Bat. My head craned to the side and I froze as I recognized Clark coming our way. The dread set itself in as I worried about the cameras having cut back in. I couldn't make another Solitary. Artemis seemed to think the same thing, switching sides of the chair to protect me from him.

"Call off your guard," he teased with a little grin as he came back, his hands loose on his hips. "I'm here on Bruce's behalf. You missed your appointment this morning."

The grin spread quick over my lips before I managed to extinguish it.

"Yeah? Sorry, all this buzz... must've slipped my mind," I utilized my free arm rest and couldn't hold back a laugh, "Christ, thought I was done seeing your ugly mug."

The ebony gave a laugh of his own, shaking his head.

"C'mon, kid," that's when he noticed the wheelchair. "Woah, man. What... you uh, you need some help there?"

At the mention, I looked to Tim and saw the utter prayer in his expression. That's when I remembered that he probably hadn't seen Bruce since he was trapped in here.

"Can Tim push me? He's the only one who hasn't used me like a shopping cart or a race car."

Clark grinned at the thought and nodded. "Sure. I don't see the harm."

I nodded Tim over and Artemis got up, giving me a little thumbs-up before she took his place on the couch, reclining comfortably. As my non-official brother took the handles, I caught Barbara's gaze. I knew she wanted to come, too, but it would be too suspicious. She would understand.

"Guess we'll need to take the elevator then. Right, ah, this way."

-F.J. III