Disclaimer: I do not own the existing characters that we know and love of Young Justice, although I do take ownership over the new characters i.e. The majority of the Team's children

A/N: Don't forget to review!

Chapter 06 – Rosemary Grayson

The lockdown was being initiated and I had no clue what or how this was happening. Was it a hacker, or was it the Light come back to take over the world again. The main leaders had disappeared since the Reach events all those year ago.

I rushed to shut the blinds over a window that looked onto the corridor as the alarm continued. As far as I was aware, it was just me, Willow and an unconscious Finn in the whole of the headquarters. Without a working phone, I couldn't even talk to Max or Ryan to get some advice.

"No, it's okay. I'm not going to panic. I can do this. I can, yeah…" I paused for a moment. "What would Dad have done?"

In my mind, I was imagining my dad as a young Robin standing beside me, executing various scenarios that were beyond my capabilities. But I to have confidence in myself.

I had to.

Going off of my instincts, I opened the cabinet that I had seen A.J going into to see what medicines and painkillers were present and in additional stock. I grabbed two bottles and took them with me in case I got into some tricky situations. One was a sandy, pink coloured powder, if I understood Miss Martian correctly, this was a sleeping powder that was very powerful if you got your amounts wrong. When she first told me this, I kept getting the impression that she was speaking from experience somehow. The other, was a runny yellow syrup, I didn't recognise it so thought it might be useful.

Squeezing Finn's hand one last time, I went to open the door but the handle was stiff and would not budge. As I gripped and pulled down harder, I could feel the metal bending so instantly let go.

I gasped as I saw the door handle was now a squashed bar.

I guess lockdown means all the hospital wing doors lock for the safety of the patients.

Looking around the room, it felt eerie with the intruder siren still blasting out. There was an air vent over bed that was my only way out of the room. Kicking off the floor, I hovered over Finn and grabbed hold of the vent's cover. It took a lot more strength than I thought to take it off the wall.

I stared down the tunnel and didn't feel pleased at how dark it was, but decided my star bolts and beams would help... Angel might not be happy but times called for a desperate measure.

I squeezed into the vent and keeping long and thin, I floated along in an effort to preserve some energy.

"Mari, Mari are you there?"

The voice made me jump and slam my head into the roof of the vent. Groaning I mumbled a response, realising I must have left my ear piece in.

"Mari it's Willow... what are we going to do?" Her voice was shaking, she was scared and I knew then that I had to be brave and strong for the both of us.

"It's going to be okay, Willow," I said calmly, trying to keep a clear mind. "We will work this out – just imagine that it is some kind of training session set by Ryan. Wait, we should be careful about saying our names in case the intruders here. But don't call me Nightstar because I'm not wearing that outfit and-"

"Mari. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you are beginning to ramble," she said softly, almost uncertain with what she was saying.

I assumed she was worried about offending me. Willow was quite a quiet and reserved girl whereas I was boisterous, loud and confident. Deep down, I just hoped that our ying and yang personalities would really help in this situation. My brain went into overdrive as I tried to formulate some kind of a game plan.

"Willow, where are you now?" I wriggled and floated around the ventilation system. "I have an idea which only works if you can get somewhere which has access to the mainframe."

"I'm in the locker room… I could get to the armoury computers, would that work?"

"Yeah. That's perfect, then you'd be hidden and out of the way in case someone is clearing through headquarters for people." I was beginning to lose the light along the ventilation system so moved to stretch my arms out in front of me with my palms out flat to stop me hitting any steel walls.

"I'm going to try get to the armoury now. Here goes nothing. What's the next part of the plan, Mari?" Willow's voice was soft but wobbly, she couldn't sound any less uncertain about how the plan was going to work. "Oh my god… Mari, I think they saw me."

Willow was panicking and I felt helpless. It was at the point where I had to just keep going and hope that I would find what I was looking for. All whilst trying to calm her.

"You're fine, Wills. Be stealthy and draw their suspicion away. Remember your training, Wills. I trust you- you got this." I stopped floating along the vent and dropped to a kneel as I listened to anything I could hear on the other end of my ear piece.

Her breathing was harsh and unsteady, it was hard to hear her struggling because she was normally so strong and courageous. I made the decision that when all of this was over, I was going to confront Willow about what was bothering her or what she was scared about. My instincts told me it had something to do with Ryan, but my heart told it couldn't have been. I had known Ryan for as long as I could remember and he was always so dedicated, hardworking and easy going that I couldn't imagine him intimidating anyone.

"Wills?" I whispered in a low voice in the dark.

"Mari, I don't know how I managed it, but I made it…" She paused, gasping suddenly. "What's the plan?"

"Okay. Bear with me whilst I talk through my plan," I said, grunting as I wriggled to reposition myself to glide effortlessly through the vents. "If I remember the blueprints and every time Max droned on about the vents and the main ventilation unit, that unit is basically a large cylindrical room with a large fan belt distributing clean and fresh air into the headquarters. If I can get to that fan, I'll need you to deactivate it, giving me enough time to get in and spread some knockout powder I swiped from Finn's room and-"

"Which will knock out everyone, including us?"

"Yeah, but I'm kind of hoping by then that my dad and the others will have made it here."

I crawled along the vent, feeling it get narrow and like there was no way I'd be able to fly anymore. It was so tight that I felt the need to speed up a little bit. There was a growing breeze that must have been coming from the fan belt. At least I was moving in the right direction.

"Okay Mari, I've made it to the control room. I'll start deactivating the fan belt now." Willow seemed panicked even though she wasn't at the heart of the action, or sneaking about the vents like I was, but she was still new to the whole superhero thing.

"Yeah, yeah… I'll let you know," I mumbled, feeling the burn of my knees rubbing against the cold metal vent. "Excellent!"

Right in front of me, there was a grate over the end of this chute and the whirling sound was so loud in my ears that I could barely hear Willow. My hair was being whipped back and forth at the force of the spinning fan.

"Now, Willow..." I repeated until she eventually must have realised and switched off main fan belt. "Nice one, Willow."

"Oh- er, thanks," she responded nervously. "But eventually a backup generator will kick in and start up the fan again so-"

"So I've basically not got a lot of time left…" I scrambled to the end of the pipeline, wrapping my fingers around the bars and channelling my strength to pull the bars apart. "There!" I exclaimed when the bars bent out of shape, giving me enough room to squeeze through.

My plan was relatively simple in my head, but I was completely winging the whole thing. I didn't even know if it were possible for the power to be cut from just the fan. Fortunately it could be! There was a moment where I froze, waiting for inspiration on how to execute my extravagant plan. I pulled out the jar of powder from my dress pocket and avoided finding the answer to my curious question as to what it smelt like. I was sure that Miss Martian had shouted at Max years ago for not opening anything in the infirmary or stocks in case it was either dangerous or toxic.

"Here goes nothing," I mumbled quietly, flying over to the first propeller and making my way over to the next one, around and around until each part of the fan had been littered with the powder.

"Mari…" whispered Willow with an overwhelming sense of fear.

"What? What is it, Willow?" I clenched my jaw shut.

"The backup generator kicked in and I can't stop it-" She didn't even need to finish before I realised that the fan was about to start spinning at a rate faster than I could imagine.

Before the fan started to move, I tore through the air towards the gap I had squeezed in through. My heart was in my throat when the fan belt started to turn and build up momentum. Panic forced me to rip my dress in the rush to get through the gap. I heard the fibres shredding as I pushed through. There was no knowing what might happen to me if I got caught in the gust. I crawled my way along the shaft, but then the wind started to drag me back. My fingers scraped against the cold metal for something to hold onto, but gained no traction.

"Mari? Mari!" Willow's voice echoed from my earpiece, unaware of what was happening to me.

With one deep breath, I knew I had made a simple error. I could taste the musky, repulsive smell of the powder. It felt like I was done for. My last ounce of strength was used to punch my fists swiftly through the metal floor of the ventilation tunnel in the hope that it might hold me in place if I passed out.

I did pass out.

My instincts were right.

-o-

When I did finally come around, I had no idea how long I had been out for and I felt the anxiety rising in me. Finn immediately leapt up from the chair beside the bed to comfort me, calmly trying to explain what had happened.

"Mari, Mari, lean back, it's alright… I'll- I'll go and get Miss Martian- she'll be able to help." Finn turned to leave, but I squeaked making him stop. "Mari?"

"You didn't finish telling me what happened. How I ended up here?" I smiled weakly, feeling my skin tighten as I did. "I'm fine, really." My arms bent to push myself up but the pain was overwhelming. "No, no I'm not!"

"Don't worry Mari. Let me tell you what happened. Metallica sent his friends in to take something from the headquarters. We're still trying to check is they took anything… Umm, you and Willow cut out the fan and then you were too slow getting out-"

"I was not slow!" I protested quietly, unsure if I was laughing because of the pain or the hilarity of the situation.

"Well you decided it was a good idea to punch a hole through the ventilation wall, so it took us while to find you. Did you know that there are miles of tunnels to search through?" He smiled and flashed his gleaming white teeth at me.

I hid my hands in my face to hide my embarrassment at the situation. "I didn't know what to do!"

"Where was Ryan?"

My mind flashed with the moment that Ryan had left. He seemed annoyed at my performance in the simulation, but when he passed Willow in the corridor, she looked petrified. I had never seen Willow that way before – she had always been shy, but not scared. She was brave so seeing her this way worried me.

"Ryan left before the lockdown. Finn, I- oh…" My voice trailed off and I stopped mid-sentence. Part of me knew I couldn't just cast aspersions and accuse Ryan of things I knew nothing about.

"What?" Finn asked, reaching out hesitantly to touch my hand.

I thought about Ryan some more. Ever since I was a little girl, he had always been very secretive. There was a time where he made Max take the blame for something appalling, but it was Ryan's facial expression that always stuck with me. He had a smile on his face that made him look scary and somewhat sadistic.

"I've been worrying about things lately. Some small details aren't adding up, but I don't want to accuse people of things."

The door swung open and in walked Miss Martian. Her hair had been pulled back into a long ponytail with a side fringe being tucked back behind her ear. Her outfit was completely navy, complete with a red cape and boots. There was a moment where she frowned at Mari before approaching the bed.

"Mari- I heard you played a big part in protecting the headquarters. I'm impressed, but I'm not sure how I feel about you helping yourselves to infirmary stock."

At first I thought that she was being serious, but I noticed a miniscule flash across her face that told me she was joking, which was a relief! Looking down at my lap, I avoided eye contact with Miss Martian as she checked my vitals on the machines I was connected to. I noticed the white bandages that had been wrapped tightly around my wrists. There was a small spec of a dark red smear on my inner wrists that made me worry about the state of my wrists after punching through a steel pipe.

"Hopefully you'll be safe and out of harm's way for a while now. Green Canary's decided that you need to come off of active duty." Miss Martian didn't hesitate about being delicate about the situation.

I went to open my mouth but suddenly felt a power building and like my mouth had been clamped shut by an invisible force. My nostrils flared as I glowered at Miss Martian.

This was a newfound talent of Miss Martian's telekinesis. It had become very useful in silencing the young heroes when they wanted to protest, or keeping any minions quiet if they wouldn't talk.

"Well it looks like you're all good to go," Miss Martian said, smiling softly. "Nightwing is waiting in the hanger to take you home."

When the door closed, I felt the invisible seal around my mouth disappear. I leapt up off the bed and ripped out the cannula out of my hand, not caring about the fact I nearly tore my skin doing so.

"Mari… if you're going to do something brash, I wouldn't…" Finn warned me, clearly not hiding his nerves as well as he thought he was. "You'll be back on the team in no time anyway."

"Yeah, but I'm not going to take it lying down. I want to hear it from Ryan and my dad," I snapped aggressively, flinging the door open and storming down the corridor. "Dad!" I shouted, breaking out into a run to find him. "Dad!"

I nearly ran straight into him. There was a moment of silence as our eyes looked. My breathing was the only thing that filled the air. "You-"

He put up open palm out in front of me and I stopped mid-sentence. "I understand that you are upset about the decision for you to stand down. Having spoken to Ryan, he seemed insistent that you weren't ready for more missions based on your performances. I want you to know that the decision was made because you didn't follow protocol. You still have a lot to learn, Nightstar." He turned to leave. "You can start by not calling me Dad when we aren't at home."

"Dad…" I mumbled, feeling my mood and posture drop entirely.

I felt like my heart had been ripped out – being a hero on missions was what my parents had done and everything I wanted to do. Knowing that this responsibility was about to be taken away for a while was gut wrenching.

As I turned to follow Dad, I noticed Ryan standing at the end of the corridor in his hero outfit, watching us with a dark look on his face that sent a shiver down my spine. Me and Willow had one more thing in common – our mutual fear of Jester.

Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = Another chapter out of the way – what do you think of the story so far? If you have any suggestions or comments, let me know