Robin lay upon the table in the library eyes shut in pain. Suddenly, his eyelids batted slowly as he awakened. Blurred vision came to the young hero as he squinted in the darkness. Robin's shoulder ached as if it had been yanked harshly. He grunted and bared the pain as he heard faint talking from somewhere. Rubbing his eyes, Robin leapt off the table and as he landed, his foot began to throb. He looked down with fuzzy sight to notice something was caught in his boot. Crouching down to take a closer look, he rubbed his eyes once more and saw a large piece of glass was sticking barely out of his boot. Upon closer investigation, Robin noticed the glass had obviously been shoved in forcefully. He carefully broke off the small piece of glass sticking out and slowly took off his boot. It pained the Boy Wonder to do so. Finally getting it off Robin saw the shard of glass was jostled quite deeply into the side of his foot leaving blood trickling out of the wound. Rob grasped the shard gently and pulled in out quickly. He winced when he did this and observed the large bloody shard. The shard had obviously come from some piece of medical equipment. He looked around the library in wonderment as he bandaged the wound using materials from his utility belt. How did I get here? Did I crawl here in all the pain? How'd I get on the table? What happened? Before the train of questions could continue a loud yell stopped it in its tracks.
"You CAN NOT be serious!" An enraged Kon-El could be heard echoing down the empty hallways. Robin suspected that he had been out for a while and that they had moved him here. He swiftly returned the boot to his foot. Rob knew it was foolish to do so, but it was better if his foot had some sort of protection anyway. He passed Impulse lying on a table close by. Pausing for a moment he noticed a large black eye forming on his face. Upon closer observation, he realized that WonderGirl had administered the blow. Bart was curled up and crumpled upon the table as if he fell off a 10-story building. Pity filled the Boy Wonder at the moment. Robin couldn't help but be curious on why they hadn't taken Impulse and himself to the MedLab. The whole ordeal just kept getting stranger and stranger.
"What the * is with you?" (* Insert swear) Superboy yelled at the D.E.O agent upon the screen. "You're * crazy, Lutwidge!" (* Insert another curse word).
"I don't believe you should be speaking to me like that Superboy. After all, I am the only person who can save Robin." Lutwidge glared at the irate Superboy.
"Let me get this straight," Arrowette scowled at the screen, "If we give you Secret, you'll give us the cure?"
"That's right. But I also want subject 6AHSDD too." Lutwidge crossed his arms smugly. The others looked a little blankly at each other.
"Does he mean Marina?" WonderGirl whispered.
"Duh." SB pointed a finger to his head but then suddenly stopped, "Sorry Cass."
"That's ok, I wasn't thinking." WonderGirl said. Just confirm that you were a moron…
"Do we have a deal?" Lutwidge questioned from behind them.
"You are sick! Sick, sick, sick! How can you expect us to make such a choice! It doesn't matter what we choose! Someone's going to die!" Arrowette pointed an accusing finger at the figure upon the screen.
"Listen you little punks!" Lutwidge growled grinding his teeth a little, "You took subject 2TDNII and subject 6AHSDD. Now, we can make a simple trade, or you'll be without a leader and I'll be without a job. I can wait. You can't. You have one hour to make your decision. I'll be waiting." With that, the man disappeared from the monitor leaving them in silence.
"This sucks." Cassie said simply glaring at the screen. The others could only stand there pondering what to do next.
Secret hovered silently above everyone, she knew they'd never give her back to them. They were her friends after all. But, it was going to be a lot harder to trick the D.E.O this time. They'd be expecting a double cross so they'd be extra careful. The D.E.O knows now that they cannot trust Young Justice and they'll check the container if they give one to them this time. She didn't know what she'd do. In this case, she was the bargaining chip in this game. If Secret didn't go, this could mean everybody's life! She could sacrifice herself and get the cure for them, but would Marina do it too? Suzie wondered if she would be able to give up her life for them. Would she be brave enough?
"Are…are we going to die?" Marina meekly asked. She had tried to be as quiet as possible. She knew she had been a burden upon them since she got there. If only she could do something for them to repay their kindness. Maybe, just maybe…if she immolated herself, it'd be enough. But, they had spent all that hard work trying to save her and she had spent all those hours trying to be free! How could she throw it all away? There had to be another way out.
"Nobody's going to die." A voice came from the other side of the room. The five of them turned around to see Robin walking into the room, hiding a limp.
"Robin!" They cried all at once.
"About time you woke up!" WonderGirl glared angrily at him.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, WonderGirl." Robin looked back to the rest of the members, "Now, I'm going to need to know everything that has happened since I was out. Tell me everything you can about NW5 and who's infected besides WonderGirl and Kon." No one asked how he had known that. They all knew. The World's Greatest Detective had trained him.
"Ok, this is what happened…" WonderGirl started.
Dr. Charles marched down the hallways of the D.E.O and bumped straight into Lutwidge. Dr. Charles stumbled back and looked at whom he had run into. Lutwidge stood there, a smug glimpse in his eyes as he looked back at Dr. Charles. "Lutwidge," An Annoyed Dr. Charles growled at the man standing before him, "You can't use such harsh methods on our subjects! Subject 7AHSDD could've died with the method you used on him!" He yelled irately at his partner.
"Doctor, please. I'm handling the situation as according to plan." Lutwidge began but was stopped short by an angry shout by the doctor.
"I don't know what plan your following, Lutwidge! But it's not mine! I did not order you to electrify that child to the edge of death!" Dr. Charles an annoyed glare filled his aged brown eyes. Lutwidge just smiled down at the doctor and shook his head slightly.
"Dr. Charles, you must understand that subject 7AHSDD has caused us more problems then almost any of the other subjects. He even has endangered the life of one scientist and even one person outside the D.E.O." Dr Charles looked shocked and leaned in forward to hear the rest. Lutwidge continued, "As you are quite aware doctor, we can't have subjects like these that cause so much trouble. I'm afraid we are going to have to send him to the WABE. After all," He cracked another sinister smile, "I'm only preparing him for the worst." With that, the two D.E.O agents walked down the hall for further discussion on the matter. If they had been a little more careful, if they had seen where they were exactly standing, they probably wouldn't have said a word at all.
