Safe Within The Darkness
Wings of an Elfin Warrior
Chapter 13
Time was irrelevant. They could have been unconscious hours or even seconds, at this point the former Boy Wonder didn't care. It was quiet again. The pressure was gone, nothing left but a dull ache and some ringing in his ears, and that felt pretty good at the moment. Pain is a great indicator that you're alive. Suddenly he felt movement on top of him.
"Batman are you ok." Dick whispered
"I am Fine, son."
"I'm not." Robin grunted. "I have three full size adults on top of me."
Batman rolled himself and Slea off. Nightwing quickly followed still laying on the ground, plagued by nausea and flashes of lights in his head.
" There really are times I wish you guys were not so protective of me."
Tim announced holding tight to his ribcage as he attempted to stand up. Looking around lost, he began to sniff at the air.
"I'll remember that the next time I go to save your as..." Dick quipped still unable to even sit up.
"Does anyone else smell Alfred's minestrone soup?" Tim interrupted, quickly gaining his footing and wandering away.
"Ok, so I may have hit you a little too hard, but I still saved you're a..."
"No, he's right that does smell like Minestrone," Batman acknowledged, moving to check their unconscious warrior turned vigilante. "Someone want to explain this costume? And why..."
"We're in the Batcave." Tim exclaimed, having followed his nose a little deeper in the darken crevasse they had woke up in.
Dick got up so quickly his head spun and he went back to ground, hard.
"Go get help." Batman ordered.
"No I'm Okay. I just got up too quick."
Batman quickly removed his cowl and rolled the boy onto his back, noticing the head injury nearly in the same spot his last head injury had been before. "OH, Leslie's not going to like this." He exclaimed.
"Well it wasn't done for decoration." Dick objected groggily.
Instinctively Bruce checked Dick's eyes for signs of a concussion.
"Dick?"
Dick didn't reply he just smiled.
"Son how many fingers do I have up."
"Three" Dick smiled as a fuzzy smirk crossed Bruce's face.
"Now?"
"Two, if you don't count the two Tim has over your head."
"You can see? When? How?" Bruce stammered, ignoring the ecstatic cheers coming from his young counterpart.
"I'm not really sure everything that just happened... happened so fast.
I remember sensing Golnac's opening of the Dark void. I dropped Tim and after the explosion when I raised my head, I saw you carrying S`lea. Everything is fuzzy, but right now it's the best I have. What about S`lea, Is she Ok?"
"I think so she got blown against the wall." Batman acknowledged. Then the whole tunnel began to crumble and the next thing I know, we where stacked up like bags of grain and then we were here."
Slea started to stir as if awoken from a deep sleep. Dick slowly turned on his side he realized this is really the first time he really looked at the woman who had saved his life the first time he wasn't sure what he was seeing. She was attractive in her own way. The beautiful long auburn hair that accented her sharp features she wore in a large braid that was draped through a cowl that almost looked like it was chain mail and her costume was silver Green and Gold. "How are you feeling Dragonwing" Dick whispered. Throwing his hands up as if to say not me. He couldn't stop giggling when he noticed Bruce's reaction to the Name. "Alfred had the costume made and Tim gave her the Moniker," he explained, finally managing to push his way up to his elbows and leaned against the wall.
"I am alive." She whispered, also trying to sit up. "But Golnac has fled again."
"We know. Do you know where?"
"I can not be certain, Sire." She admitted groggily. "He seems to have gained control and knowledge of a very powerful crystal and it him. I have never felt anything so dark in my life. Where are we?"
"In one of the remote caves under the Manor." Bruce replied, " I am not sure how we got here. Is it possible that you unconsciously opened a portal?"
"Not I, It was his lordship Nightwing." She insisted rubbing her temples to coax the throbbing in her head to go away. "He considers this a safe place."
"Uh I don't think so. " Dick asserted, not remembering much of the time when she brought him to the caves the first time. "I still think S`lea must have been homing in on something else before. If I had my druthers I would be home in a nice warm bed. Besides I don't think I have ever been to this part of the cave before."
"It would have to have been you, the Shadow Walker. You were the only two with the crystals at the time of the opening. "
"I have no crystal the shard I did have was taken from me."
"My sword has a crystal within its hilt." She told him then closing her eyes she held her hands outward with her palms up. Her magic began to bring light all around them Her eyes began to moisten then slowly as she opened them showing the slowly change with the Dar. Then her hands began to shake violently when they suddenly filled with a great light and then the light was replaced with the beautiful sword
Still leaning against the wall she collapsed against it as if sapped of all her strength, but still aware of those around her. "I dropped that in the cave when the walls began to collapse" Bruce admitted. "How did you...?
" I told you, there was no doubt I would find my sword," she explained
"Then why did you not do that earlier when you needed it." The kid objected
"They would not release it. My sword was sworn to His lordship Nightwing. Out of respect to him I couldn't take it from Shadow Walker who took it from me, to have taken it without his knowledge or agreement would have been breaking my oath."
"I never heard him give it back to you." Tim objected.
" Remember there are things that are said that are not heard by your ears."
Both Nightwing and Robin where struck by the realization at the same time. "His heart."
Batman neither confirmed nor denied it as he stood over the threesome.
"And what was your last thought before you dropped it? Your lordship."
"I uh. "
"Honest thought, sire." She insisted.
"I thought ... I was...afraid I was going to loose my sons...my family…again." He admitted collapsing next to her he took the sword in his hands and held it just as S`lea had cradled it moments before. "I wanted to hide them from the danger just as I would hide when I was a child. Deep in the caverns...here... in one of the safest places I had known."
"And it brought you here." she announced "just as you requested."
"It could not have been me... I had to put the sword down to pick you up."
"I can't believe you picked it up in the first place," Dick acknowledged. "Man would I have liked to have seen that. You really were fighting with that?"
"The sword accepted your will when you picked it up in defense of your City and Family. It would not have let you do harm to those you were not willing to kill." Slea continued, never noticing the effects of the words she just said to the man with the sword. "Wield it sire just as you did in the cave. It will not bring harm to any of us."
"NO, Batman whispered, "This is not a toy." He growled, returning it to her hand as if it had burned him. He started to rise and leave but before he could stand the light coming from the tunnel entrance was blocked by a large shadow.