Wings of an Elfin Warrior Normal cyndi 2 82 2001-11-10T08:24:00Z 2001-11-10T08:24:00Z 8 1885 10745 89 21 13195 9.2720

Wings of an Elfin Warrior

Chapter 14

DARKNESS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT

"MY WORD! Look at you, four," Leslie gasped.

They all turned to look as Alfred and Leslie walked up behind the group of carrying medical supplies.

  Tim had come running into the main Cave, hollering for help. She and Alfred were still awaiting word on the rescue. They had barely acknowledged seeing the boy before he was gone again. But Alfred seem to have no problem tracking the boy only to find four very ragged and battered vigilantes.

Leslie immediately went to Dick's side. Alfred, on giving Tim a brief check, surmised that the boy had at least bruised two more ribs and was going to have one heck of a shiner to explain when he returned to Brentwood Academy. S`lea was already mending and Bruce was an uncooperative patient, as usual. So everything was back to normal.

Leslie acknowledged Bruce's suspicions that Dick may have a concussion. They would have to get pictures to make sure he had not re-fractured his skull. Bruce picked up the one-time Robin against his prideful will and carried him to the med lab again. It was going to be at least another hour before they got medical reports on all of them.

Bruce found himself standing alone in the lab, but wasn't sure for how long. He felt so tired and confused. His mind was filled with flashes of what had just happened. Batman had taken a life. NO -- he had taken *several* lives.

What was it S`lea said?

"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."

It was true; he had wanted to kill the demons that had attacked his 'sons' and he still wanted to eradicate Golnac -- the demon that brought them to his world.

He decided to take a shower while waiting for word on Dick's condition. Maybe he could relax enough to think. Maybe the water could wash away his nightmare.

His mind was still filled with all the horrors that

Golnac had made him live, and the things he hoped in his heart were only a bad dream.

The spacious walk-in shower was constructed with multiple shower jets that sprayed from multiple angles. Bruce turned them all on by voice-control.

"Shower on. Jets 1 through 24," he whispered.

The water was normally kept at 110 degrees Farenheit. Bruce hoped the temperature would help cleanse him of the inner pain he was feeling as well. It wasn't working. The water pelted his bare skin from every direction but the tension only built within him as the room filled with steam so thick he couldn't see the glass shower door.

"120," Bruce growled, ordering the temperature to increase.

He lifted his face to the shower's spray hoping it would wash away the rogue drops of water coming from his eyes, but it wasn't working. He had trained his body to tolerate extreme heat and cold, and he began to wonder if perhaps he'd trained it too well. He looked down at his own body, the heat of the water and the redness of his skin accented his many scars, scars that were just reminders of his many mistakes.

"130," he screamed out. Maybe he was losing his mind.

Vision after vision began to flash in his head until all he could think of doing was scream... Slamming his fists repeatedly into the wall, he yelled as if his sanity depended on it.

"AAUGGGHHHHHHH!"

"Your lordship, you must get control."

Bruce had not even noticed S`lea enter the shower. Unlike him, she still wore the main part of her costume. Her eyes were covered by the Dar. She tried to turn off the water but knew the computer would not respond to her voice. Instead she tried redirecting the angle of the showerheads, only to have them be readjusted by the computer. The steam was stifling and the heat was barely tolerable, even with her costume's protection.

"Sire, turn off the waters please."

"I can't..." he growled, raising his soap covered hands as if there were something she should see.

"I can't get their blood off my hands. 150..."

"Request denied," the computer responded.

Bruce had forgotten the failsafe.

"There is no blood, sire. Not on your hands or any of ours. Only Golnac can accept that claim. You killed no one."

"I did, I wanted them dead," he growled.

Bruce's large hands dragged through his hair and stopped -- as if he thought that if he could squeeze hard enough, he could make everything go away. The floods of unclear, surreal memories were pelting his mind as hard as the water. "Make it stop. God, make it stop."

"I cannot sire; only you can. Accept the truth." S'lea watched his every move as if anticipating, even knowing before him, what he was about to do. "Sire, turn the waters off before you are injured. You have done no wrong."

"150," he hissed, his skin already scalded red from the heat.

"Request denied," returned the computer.

Bruce screamed as if he would not accept that answer, then swung his fist wildly, at first at the walls then at Slea.

Instinctively she ducked around him, but in doing so he slipped and his fist went through the glass door. The rest of him might have followed had she not wrapped her arms wound his bare waist and pulled him backwards. Bruce struck her twice before she was able regain her balance. S'lea slipped behind him once again, but before he could react she placed her hand over his eyes and he collapsed. She attempted to guide his wet, slippery body to the ground, but it proved too difficult. His massive size took them both to the ground, hard.

S'lea kept her hand over Bruce's eyes, trying desperately to shut down his mind as she had Nightwing's. She was unsuccessful, managing only to render him unconscious.

Bruce's mind was still working and fought her attempt to shut it down. She needed help or he would die. She knew that if the others had not been able to hear his screams, hers, too, would go unnoticed.

Bruce had cracked one of her ribs when he struck her, making it difficult for her to breathe. She managed to pull herself on top of him and struggled to inhale. This was not his fault. Something was terribly wrong. It had been a long time since she had to work so hard to shut down a mind. The man she had come to know as Bruce Wayne was feeling more aguish than anyone should bear, and his grief was so strong that his mind pushed her away even when his body couldn't. S'lea finally had to break her connection with him or risk being pulled into his nightmare.

Her body fell to the ground beside him. Her breath coming in shallow gasps. S'lea was forced to use her magic to redirect the scalding streams of water. Even through her bodysuit, the heat was scorching and the steam was stifling. The use of magic wracked her body with pain but she shakily fought it off.

Bruce lay face down in the water that was rapidly changing to a crimson hue. S`lea was able to pull him onto his side. Sweat, water and blood rolled quickly off his body. She was grateful that for now, his heart, mind and soul were unaware of the darkness that lay dormant inside him. She tried once more to clear his mind. S'lea held her hand over his eyes again, only to be violently pushed away by the internal suffering that was building within an already tormented soul.

S`lea felt her Dyeta take shape. It had not been her intention, but she was too weak to prevent it. She gathered Bruce's unconscious body into her arms to prevent crushing him in such close quarters as she transformed. In her dragon form she was not affected by the heat of the water. This was a good thing, since she could no longer hold back its forces. Even in her stronger, transformed state, she couldn't fight off the darkness. She reached out the only way left to her.

"Alfred, we need you."

Alfred had returned to the med lab with a tray of effortlessly balanced cups of broth and tea. He passed them around to his young charges.

"No fracture," Leslie announced. "At least none that were not there earlier."

"Great," Dick exclaimed, slinging his legs off the med bed.

"Oh no you don't," Leslie barked. "You still have a concussion. I want you to lie here for a little while.

Drink your lunch and after a bit I'll let you go up the elevator to your bedroom."

"But...but," Dick began.

"I find it best to just do as the good doctor says,Master Richard," Alfred advised. "After all...,"

Alfred suddenly turned sheet-white as a wave of nausea seemed to overtake him. The tray crashed to the floor as his knees buckled beneath him. Luckily, Tim caught him before he fell.

"Alfred, what's the matter," Tim asked.

"S`lea," the older man whispered.

"What about S'lea?"

"She says m...Master Bruce is in trouble."

For the first time, Dick realized that Bruce had not been there since he and Tim were taken to the lab for x-rays.

"He was going to get a shower," Tim announced as Dick sprinted by him.

Dick reached the locker roomand saw that it was totally engulfed in steam.

"BRUCE," he screamed as he ran to the shower. But when he got there he was unable to get in. The entryway was totally blocked by a large wall of leathery skin.

"Holy shit," he yelped as his bare feet skidded across the broken glass on the floor. Ignoring this new pain, Dick gaped at what he could make out as a large lizard-like creature stuffed into the shower.

"Slea!" Tim exclaimed.

"That's..."

"Slea..." Tim nodded.

"Her Dyeta?"

"Dear God."

Dick and Tim turned to see Leslie and Alfred standing behind them.

"Where is Master Bruce?"

Dick turned back to the creature in the shower. "Slea...," he whispered, moving his injured feet carefully around the broken glass to the large beast squeezed within the confined space of the shower. "Can you hear me?"

"Turn off the water--please," Slea said, in a much deeper voice than he remembered her having.

"Water off," he screamed over the panic that was building within him. "Slea, what did you...what happened? Where is Bruce?"

"He is safe...for now. I have him cradled within the folds of my skin. It's the noctra, Milord. It is growing inside him. He attacked me and put his hand through the door."

"Is that why you transformed?" Dick asked her.

"I don't know. I think I-- I couldn't stand the heat of the water. I believe it was what you call instinct."

"Computer, what was the temperature of the water before shutdown?"

"140 degrees Fahrenheit."

"Dear lord," Leslie exclaimed, "was he trying to burn his skin off?"

"His skin is still quite hot," Slea reported.

"TURN THE COLD WATER ON," Leslie screamed out.

Alfred repeated her request so that the computer would respond to the command. "Computer shower heads 1-12 at 96 degrees."

"Slea, can you change back?" Dick asked. "We have to bring his body temperature down."

"I am trying to..." she growled, "I am...trying."

"Calm down, S`lea," Leslie coaxed. "We know you're trying. It's just that normally our bodies cannot take that much heat without protection. And even if he were able to absorb it, he must cool down or his body will begin to boil in his own sweat. Can you get some of the cold water to him? Please try."

"I-I - I"

A scented cloud of smoke began to arise. They all recognized it as some kind of reaction to her magical change. They couldn't pass the wall of smoke, but as it cleared they found human forms unconscious on the ground. Leslie ran to Bruce while Dick moved to S`lea's side.

"S'lea's not breathing," he announced as he tilted her head back, placed his mouth over hers and breathed into her still form.

" Tim! Help…" Dick ordered between breaths.

Tim quickly checked for a pulse, hoping that her body was as human on the inside as it now appeared on the outside.

There was no sign of a heartbeat. .

Together they commenced CPR. On the fifth set of full breaths and compressions, her body arched upward and she began to choke on the moist fresh air in the room. She S`lea looked confused up at Dick's gentle face., her confusion evident in her statement.

"I saw death," she whispered. "I saw him and accepted his terms…My life to free his Lordship. How can you… Why am I still here?" 

Dick grinned. "I don't accept those terms, not like that and I know Bruce would feel the same way.

"You can not interfere with death" She objected.

Yes I can!" He returned At least in this case I can. Look I have lost a lot in my life, family and friends alike. I could have very easily given up the day my parents died but to what end? Bruce taught me that the world will go on, with or with out me. He also taught me there are some things I can't prevent or change, but this I could change or you would not be here. I like to think I make some difference somewhere weather it's in you life or mine. I decided along time ago that I would not allow death to steal from me what is mine as long as I can prevent it."

" I am not yours."

"Yes you are. You are my friend … my sister-in-arms…. And besides, your sword is promised to me, remember? I might still be in need of it," he smiled. " It would be pretty hard to keep that promise if you're dead."

S`lea just stared blankly back at him.