Arkham Asylum - April 19th- 3:32 A.M.-
Nightwing woke up startled, he had fallen asleep on the couch, the light of the screens hitting his eyes. He looked around and found Nightfall still glued to the screen, it looked like she hadn't moved at all. While the others were sleeping, she had stayed up watching over Miss Martian, Superboy, and Zatanna. Nightwing walked up to her and placed a blanket around her shoulders and prepared coffee for the two of them. While it was ready, he moved her towards the couch where the screen popped back up in front of them and he went back to the kitchen.
"Are you alright?" he asked with two cups of coffee, one on each hand.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" she asked without looking away from the screen, her eyes completely glued to it. He put the coffee down on the table in front of them and started sipping his own while looking at her screen.
"Because you haven't slept at all. Jade, I think you should take a break, go to bed," he said, now the coffee didn't seem like such a good idea, so he tried to take it away from her, but the girl grabbed his hand and took the coffee away from him. On the plus side, she finally looked at him. The bags under her eyes had gotten bigger and her skin was a sickly white color that showed just how long she had been standing in front of the computer. She kept looking at him while she took a sip of her coffee.
"I'm fine," she said, keeping her eyes on his. Nightwing stared back at her, the quiet night and the dim light of the screen made it more obvious that it was just the two of them in the room.
"You were there," said Nightwing, breaking the silence. "You were there that night and you knew and you didn't say anything," he told her. Nightfall kept staring at him while taking a sip of her coffee, he couldn't tell what the emotion behind her eyes was.
"Was I supposed to?" she asked. "How do you even bring that up in a conversation? Hey, I saw your parents falling to their deaths, feel like talking about what must be the most painful moment in your life?" she asked, sarcasm spewing out of every word.
"That's better than nothing," he answered.
"Why is it so important to you? Is it because I knew, or because Nightshade did and you thought she, out of all people, would say something?" Nightfall asked going back to the screen.
"I thought she understood," he said. He thought Nightshade understood him better than anyone else, that feeling of being left out, the pain of suddenly losing everything. Not even Babs could understand it, she hadn't lost anything important to her, but Nightshade was so wrapped in that misery that she must have understood. Yet she didn't mention it. When he looked up, he realized that Nightfall was staring at him, her face inches away from his.
"I think you need to sort some things out first, Bird Boy," she told him, her breath mixed with the coffee drew him in, but Barbara's face popped in his mind and he straightened himself up on the couch. Nightfall apparently hadn't noticed his intention since she just tilted her head to the side before going back to the screen. Nightwing sat uncomfortably in silence next to her for the rest of the night.
When he realized it, it was morning, he had been awake the whole time but to his surprise, Nightfall had finally fallen asleep on his shoulder. He was glad she had finally got some sleep, but then he remembered what he had almost done and felt the blood rush to his cheeks.
Nightfall woke up when Superboy's voice came in through the earpiece. She jumped up from the sofa and walked to the middle of the room where the screens popped back up.
"I'm in," said Superboy walking back the way he came from.
"Good. Don't let Zatanna see you. Instead, try to figure out where Tetch is located," she ordered him, watching as he walked all deeper inside Arkham, ignoring the prisoner's screams and insults. "Contact Miss Martian. Tell her to stay close to Zatanna without approaching her," Nightfall told Nightwing just as Robin and Rocket walked into the room.
"What do we do?" asked Robin looking at the two of them. Nightfall opened a new screen that showed a map of Arkham and threw Rocket an earpiece.
"Narrow down the possible location of Tetch, it should help Superboy cut some time," She told him. Rocket and Robin nodded and started going over the possibilities and communicating them to Superboy.
The day passed without a hitch, Zatanna was sticking close to Jane Doe, who kept inquiring about what she would need to do the bomb, where would she put it and how long would it take her. Nightfall kept feeding her the lines that would keep Jane Doe interested until she asked her what Nightfall had been waiting for.
"A breakout?" asked Zatanna, "What if we get caught?" she asked. At that moment Jane Doe looked at her with a bit of surprise and doubt.
"What?" she asked. After hearing that Nightfall started banging her head lightly against the wall, she couldn't believe Zatanna had just said that.
"What do you need?" said Nightfall, "Ask her what does she need," she repeated.
"I mean, what do you need me to do?" she asked. The whole team but Nightfall stared intently at the screen to see Jane Doe's reaction. Finally, Jane smiled and patted Zatanna in the back.
"That's all I needed to hear," she said, "I'll contact you," she said and walked away just as the lunch hour was over. The team and Zatanna let out a sigh of relief as she returned to her cell accompanied by a guard. In the cabin Aqualad looked at the screen that showed the other safe house, he saw Nightfall staring back at him. After giving her answer, she hadn't even bothered to check if Jane Doe would react positively, she just knew that would work.
"Okay, listen to me. They are probably going to ask you to build a bomb strong enough to break through the walls of Arkham. The fact that they looked for you meant that they have what you need, they just don't know how to assemble it," explained Nightfall as she paced around the room.
"Yeah, the only problem is that neither do I," replied Zatanna keeping her voice low so that no one else could hear her. Rocket saw a smile form in Nightfall's face before she answered her.
"Well luckily for you, I do," she said and switched off her comm.
"Have you found Tetch's cell?" Asked Nightfall after seeing that Superboy was alone in the hall.
"Still looking for it, but there are only two sections I haven't looked into. One of them is restricted, so if Tetch is there, this is going to be harder," he told her.
"He's not there. That section is reserved for extremely dangerous inmates, Tetch is not one of them," she answered looking at the door had the 'keep out' warning in the front.
"Miss Martian, how are you doing?" asked Nightwing. Nightwing stared at Miss Martian, she had kept to herself the whole time and had only been approached twice, both times she answered with nothing but holidays forcing the person to leave.
"I'm fine, but Zatanna was approached by someone I don't know," she said, her cell was relatively close to Zatanna's so she could see part of her cell.
"Yeah, we know. That was Jane Doe, a serial killer. She wanted her help for a breakout," he told her. "It's going to happen tomorrow, we are just waiting for the things to be delivered to Z," he informed her.
While Nightwing was talking with Miss Martian, a guard came up to Zatanna's cell and dropped a box right in front of her. Zatanna leaned down to see what was inside the box only to find everything she needed to make the bomb.
"Looks like it is not just the prisoners the ones involved in this," said Aqualad staring at the screens.
"Let's get to work," Nightfall told her as Zatanna picked up the box from the ground.
Arkham, Gotham City- April 20th- 4:34 P.M.
The bomb was assembled in under an hour, but Zatanna had told Jane Doe it would take her longer, enough to have Jane Doe prepare everything for the breakout at night. This also gave enough time for Superboy to locate Tetch's cell in the aisle directly across the maximum-security ward.
"This is going well," said Artemis, she was sitting across from the screens with a drink in her hand. Nightfall had even gone through the trouble of putting a bar in the cabin, so she had been taking advantage of it.
"Don't jinx it," said Kid Flash opening the door to the fridge to get another snack.
"Prepare to head out for Arkham, we are getting Tetch and Zatanna out of there," Nightfall's voice covered the whole living room. Artemis placed the now empty glass on the table and got up to the weapons closet. She took out all the arrows and started filling up her quiver, taking in some other weapons in case she would run out of arrows, Aqualad checked his water-bearers while Kid Flash and Beast Boy warmed up. Batgirl also made her way to the weapons closet, she took out a couple of smoke pellets and bombs along with some additional knives.
While they were preparing, the riot started, surprising everyone since it was a couple of hours earlier than planned. The prisoners rebelled against the guards and each other, they escaped their cells and bands were formed.
"What happened?" Superboy asked when he was called with the other guards to stop the riot and was forced to leave Tetch's side.
"Jane Doe started earlier. Zatanna, take the bomb with you, don't let Jane Doe find you," Nightfall told them, Zatanna ran out of her cell with the bomb in her hand before Jane Doe could reach her. Unfortunately for her, she was caught in the middle of everything. The girl looked around avoiding the falling bodies and the knives that were being swung at her. Miss Martian who was right next to her lost sight of the girl after a while and being unable to use her powers, resorted to pushing everyone out of the way.
"What are you doing? Get out of there, the bomb won't—," said Nightfall, but before she could finish her sentence Two-Face bumped into Zatanna and the communicator came off her ear. Zatanna leaned down to look for it, but someone had already stepped on it, unfortunately for her, that someone was Penguin who heard the cracking sound. He looked down to see the broken communicator.
"She had a microphone!" he yelled and the inmates stopped focusing on each other and turned to face Zatanna. Penguin snatched the bomb away from her and took a good look at it, "This doesn't even work!" he kept saying.
"Aaaand shit hit the fan," said Nightfall grabbing her things.
"Did you get that?" asked Superboy as he made his way into the riot.
"Yeah, try to get to Zatanna. Actually no, don't try. Do it," she told him. "Aqualad!"
"We're on our way," he answered while the three of them were already on their bikes cruising rapidly through the trees.
"Okay, we're leaving too. They were trying to escape through the forest, which makes things easier for us," she said, allowing the three of them to exit the safe house first. "I hope you didn't leave anything inside," she said getting on her bike and when the group was a mile away, she pressed a button on her belt that caused the safe houses to explode. Nightwing, Robin, and Rocket looked back, it was a loud noise, but the fire was barely visible.
Miss Martian spotted Jane Doe looking for Zatanna, and using her powers, she knocked her out. She raised her face to see that Superboy had found his way to the crowd along with some other guards. They stared at each other for a second before starting to knock out the guards that were around them. Once they were done, Miss Martian took Jane Doe's form and they hid the unconscious bodies in the closet. Nightfall, who had been watching the whole thing through a screen that popped up from her watch, gave them a smirk.
"I'm not going to lie, I'm impressed," she told them as they moved away to look for Zatanna.
The first team had gotten into Arkham, Nightfall had told them to help hold the prisoners off from going into the ward Tetch was being held in, so they split into two groups. Batgirl and Beast Boy ran into the main hall where they spotted Zatanna being dragged away by Two-Face and the Penguin, the two of them made their way through the crowd, knocking out and immobilizing any inmate that would get in their way. Beast Boy turned into a bear and swept at the prisoners while Batgirl released a few smoke pellets.
Meanwhile, Aqualad, Artemis and Kid Flash were on the other side of the prison, they were trying to knock out all the inmates that had moved towards the back of Arkham. While they were there, Nightwing, Robin, Rocket, and Nightfall had come in from a different side and hearing the commotion, they started making their way towards the others.
"what the fuck are you idiots doing?" asked Nightfall rushing into the room where the fight was going on. "I said to hold them off, not let them run away! oh." She said the moment she saw The Penguin and Two-Face.
"Well, what do we have here? I guess it must be true that you are working with the heroes now, what happened? Grew a conscious?" he said gathering the inmates he used as bodyguards around him. "Get them!" he ordered and the guards ran after them; Nightwing and Rocket stayed behind while Nightfall grabbed Robin and they went back into the hall. The girl spotted the secured wing for Tetch, so she handed Robin the card key.
"Get in there, call Miss Martian and keep an eye on Tetch," she said pushing him in. The girl kept running until she found the entrance to another wing, she opened the door and waited for the inmates to follow her inside before closing it.
"Welcome to the party ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry to say that it's going to be short," she said, her hair had taken a brownish shade and the red in her eyes had shifted into a deep black color. Her hands lit on fire and she surrounded the group in deep blue flames forcing them to stick together as the fire circle closed up around them. The thick walls kept their screams from being heard by anyone outside of the wing. It took some time but the screams were finally replaced by silence and ashes on the ground.
Nightshade got ready to walk out of there only to be stopped by laughter, Tetch stood behind the glass with a wide smile plastered on his face. He stared at her for a few seconds, his eyes piercing right through her. Nightshade thought for a moment, if Tetch was here, then where had she sent Robin?
"Ah! The smell of burnt flesh. It's always been one of my favorites," he said letting out another laugh. Nightfall didn't even turn around, she just walked towards the door without wanting to look back. "I'm honestly impressed with the little stunt you're pulling," he said, "How do you think they will react?" he continued talking.
"I don't care," she said turning her back on him.
"Oh come on, don't be like that. I'm sure you have a few guesses," he said.
"Fuck off Tetch," she said finally turning around and getting closer to the cell. It wasn't until later that she noticed she had lit her fist on fire.
"You know, I've heard about you, both of you. Nightfall is called the unhinged demon while you just lean on that and pretend it has nothing to do with you, but you're just as horrible, aren't you?" he said right before a knife flew into his cell through one of the breathing holes in the glass. Tetch moved, avoiding it by an inch. "See what I mean?" Nightshade moved away from Tetch, her hair color slowly changing back to bright red and her eyes regaining their red shade.
"Fuck," said Nightfall.
"Did I push the wrong button?" asked Tetch, a grin plastered on his face. Nightfall glared at him, the man was clearly enjoying the whole thing. She turned around and left the room to find where she had left Robin.
Meanwhile, Nightwing and Rocket had finished clearing up the hall and had started running to where Zatanna was. They found her cornered against the main entrance with Two-Face holding a piece of broken glass to her neck while two guards held her. One of them was even covering her mouth to keep her from talking.
"Let her go!" Artemis shouted from the side of the room, an arrow pointed at Two-Face. Nightwing looked around the room, Aqualad was on the other side, Beast Boy had taken the shade of a bear and Batgirl was nowhere to be seen.
"I think you're a little outnumbered to be making those type of demands," He told them just as a fight broke out. Beast Boy took out a large number of prisoners with a single swing, but then some of the bolder ones threw themselves on top of him keeping him away from the others. Artemis tried to shoot an arrow at Two-Face, but he threw someone else in front of him and moved closer to Zatanna. Aqualad was busy trying to make his way through to him, but the number of prisoners was overwhelming him.
Rocket flew up and started targeting inmates from the roof until a freeze ray brought her down. She and Nightwing turned around to see Mr. Freeze pointing his freeze gun at them. He must have gotten into the storage room and pulled out his suit and weapons, thought Nightwing as he moved away from another blast. Mr. Freeze kept him busy and unable to move towards Zatanna until he heard Two-Face screaming in pain at the front of the commotion.
Batgirl and Superboy had taken down the guards, and Superboy was now immobilizing Two-Face, twisting his arm behind his back. Once free, Zatanna cast a spell that brought the whole room down to the ground and kept them there with restraints that grew from the ground and tied themselves around them.
While this was going on, Nightfall had rushed into the room she had shoved Robin in. She looked around for him only to find him in looking at the single prison cell the room had. "Robin, we're leaving," she told him once she saw who was inside. Robin looked back at Nightfall and then at the cell again before leaving with her. As the door closed, she managed to hear a loud uncontrolled laugh.
"Well now this should make for a good punchline," the man in the cell said, watching the two of them leave the room, his face pressed up against the darkened glass door.
Once out the door, the two of them ran into Miss Martian. She rushed towards them until a pungent smell hit her nose. She stopped flying and kept her distance from both of them until she managed to speak.
"It smells weird," She told them, the smell was strong and was starting to make her feel dizzy.
"Burnt flesh," Nightfall answered, forcing an already uncomfortable Robin to move away from her. Miss Martian's eyes widened.
"What happened?" Miss Martian asked, glancing at the door across the hall where the smell seemed to be coming from.
"Tetch is in there. I called the League, they'll be here in a few minutes to transfer him into a new facility," she told them. Miss Martian moved over to the door and just as she was about to try and open it, Nightfall spoke. "I wouldn't go in there if I were you, the smell sticks for weeks," she said walking past Miss Martian, as she did the scent of burnt flesh wafted past and that was when she realized that the smell was coming from Nightfall. Neither Miss Martian nor Robin said anything as the girl left the room. They didn't have to, after all, the mission was already over.
Nightfall made her way to the main entrance where she bumped into the team. They, along with security personnel and the GCPD where putting the criminals back in their cells. She gave them a slight nod and started walking away when Rocket stopped her.
"Happy Birthday Jade," Rocket said softly enough for Nightfall to hear.
"Right…" she answered and left through a portal.
