Chapter Thirteen: Her Greatest Fear

After four unsuccessful hours, Batman had finally returned to the batcave, hoping to dig up something from the disk that Blue-Jay had left behind, or find something he'd missed when he'd gone over the data from RJ's computer. But so far, he was having' just as much luck as they had had in finding her while patrolling.

Batman knew that the only reason the other three weren't saying anything about what had happened was because it wouldn't get them anywhere, and Nightwing hadn't exactly been a gentleman either, so he couldn't talk.

"Uh-Oh." They turned to look at Robin, he was looking at his utility belt. "What is it?" Batman asked. In answer, Robin plucked something off the yellow material and walked over to Batman, holding it out. "I think Blue-Jay knows even more than we thought." Batman took it and looked closely at the object, it was a tracer in the shape of a small bird.

Batman sat in silence for several seconds, before turning back to the computer. "We may be able to lock onto the frequency she uses for her trackers, we won't be able to locate her hideout, but if we can get the frequency, we may be able to locate any other active trackers." After a few moments of frantic typing he stood. "The abandoned Jax Toy Factory, the industrial district."

No one hesitated for a moment as they bolted for the car and the cycles.

As they sped towards their destination, Batman could only hope that they were not too late.

Blue-Jay woke with a groan, her head throbbing as she opened her eyes.

The first thing she became aware of was that she was tied up, and her belt was gone. She couldn't see, because she had been blindfolded and she had also been gagged.

Her restraints were tight and painful, but she wouldn't let them have the satisfaction of knowing that she was in pain, and kept silent.

The rocking motion of the floor below her told her that she was on the boat, probably with the cargo, seeing as she was not only tied up, but secured to the floor with straps and steel netting. She was bound so tightly and so well that she couldn't move at all, in fact, she could barely breathe. Not wanting to get anymore strap-marks than she had to, Blue-Jay lay still, listening. But all she could hear was the lapping of water against the sides of the ship and the creaking of the straps and nets holding down the other cargo.

"Batman, the signal, it's moving!" Batgirl said as she looked at the device in her hands. "Where is it going?" he asked, taking a sharp turn down a road that would lead them directly to the Jax Toy factory. "It's going out on the water, like on a ship." There was a moment of silence, before Robin said what they were all thinking "Their on the move, she couldn't stop them." Dread filled the car as they all thought the same thing: Was Blue-Jay dead?

Batman shook himself and pressed the button that would call the bat-boat to the shore near the factory. "It's not over till it's over." He growled "And we don't stop looking for Blue-Jay until we find her, dead or alive." "Preferably alive." Nightwing said through the com-link from his motorcycle just behind them.

Blue-Jay strained her ears when she caught the sound of someone coming down into the cargo-hold, the sound of voices before the door closed told her that the crew was on bored, meaning that they were at sea. She had failed to stop the shipment from going out; she had failed to protect Gotham. Or had she?

If she could get loose before they docked, and somehow find her utility belt, she could jump overboard, she could destroy the ship from the water, and perhaps survive the ordeal herself. And if that was not possible, she only hoped that Pierre was ready to perform the task that she had set him before she had left.

She heard the person leaving, and then silence. Blue-Jay shuddered as she tried to twist into a position that would allow her to get free, but all she really succeeded in doing was make her bruises worse, the straps were just to tight, and moving only made them dig deeper into her skin, threatening to cut through her costume and into her body. Her pain was increased when the butt of a gun smashed into her ribs, knocking the wind out of her. Apparently she wasn't the only person in the cargo hold after all.

Blue-Jay finally lay still again when she felt one of the straps begin to cut through her costume and after she had received several more hits to the stomach and a slap to the face. Not long after that, the door opened again and someone called down to her guard "The boss wants all hands on deck." "What about the kid?" asked a man about four feet to her left "He said to drug her and add a few more straps and then come up."

The men added three more straps, one over her ankles, another across her stomach and the third across her throat, obstructing her already limited breathing. She flinched when a syringe gun was presses up against her neck and she was injected with a sedative, causing her mind to go fuzzy.

She shivered and tried to keep herself focused, but it was getting harder. She had never told anyone, but Blue-Jay didn't need the toxin to make her experience her worst fear right now, because she was facing it. She did not fear death, nor did she fear pain or injury, what she did fear, however, was being so completely and utterly alone.

She had never had much in the way of anybody. Sure she had had Pierre, but all he had really been able to do was make sure that she was healthy. She had Tim now, her very first friend, and Barb and Dick were nice too. While out on the streets she may not have company, she still knew that she had the bat family on her side, for the most part.

When she thought of that, Blue-Jay felt her gut twist, though with what emotion she wasn't sure. Why couldn't he have just listened to her? Why couldn't he just put aside his ego so that they could all work together to save Gotham?

Little did she know, that Batman was asking himself the very same questions as he steered the bat-boat quietly up beside the ship.

Without a sound, the four masked vigilantes crept up the side of the cruise ship: the Black Queen, and, when the coast was clear, slipped on board.

Upon reaching the shore, Batman had discovered Blue-Jay's belt on the dock area and had brought it with, hoping that he would get the chance to give it back, and with renewed hope that the little blue bird might still be alive.

They split into groups of two: Batman and Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl, and went in separate directions.

Batman and Robin soon found the door that lead down to the cargo hold. There were two men guarding it, but they were easily disposed of and Batman lead the way down into the hold.

She was looking, crying, calling, for anyone, for anything as she wandered through the blackness. It was cold and there were monsters and shadows everywhere. The darkness was wrapped around her head, obscuring her vision. Taste, touch, scent, hearing, all were useless here. Nothing was as it should be, there was no one anywhere. She was falling through nothing, through emptiness. She was running alone. Alone.

Through the haze of pain and fear, Blue-Jay heard the door open again and the footsteps of two people coming down the stairs. She lay still as they moved around, checking the crates. But then- "Yep, this is the stuff, see, here's Blue-Jay's tracker, right were the tracer said it would be." "Excellent, Robin, but now that we've found the cargo, we have to find Blue-Jay, I only hope she's still alive."

It was them! Batman and Robin! But they couldn't see her. She gave a muffled cry through the gag and she heard them stop moving. "Did you hear that?" Robin asked, Batman didn't answer. Blue-Jay cried out again and this time she heard one pair of footsteps come towards her.

They had found the shipment and Blue-Jays' tracer, now they just had to find her. They were about to leave, when a muffled cry bounced off the walls of the hold, telling the two that they were not alone. "Did you hear that?" Robin asked, Batman nodded and they split up.

A second cry echoed around them and seconds later Batman heard Robin cry-out "Blue-Jay!"

Batman rushed over in time to see Robin pull the gag from the girls' mouth. She was tied up and strapped down with the same metal straps and steel netting as the cargo crates around her, one of the metal straps was even across her neck, cutting off most of her air supply.

After Batman had torn away the netting, that one went first and she gasped for air, coughing and choking as he un-fastened the other straps and cut the rope that was knotted tightly around her body.

Once this was done, she tried to stand, only to collapse. He stooped down and caught her before she hit the floor and picked her up. She lay, limp and glassy-eyed in his arms. "What's wrong with her?" Robin asked, alarmed at the normally spunky girls' lack of motion, "I think she's been drugged, she's not fully conscious." Batman replied, heading for the door back up to the main deck.

The little girl lay in his arms like a rag doll, flaccid and empty-eyed, bruises blooming around her neck and where he could see her skin through her torn costume. How could he have let this happen?

(A.N.: For those who are wondering, the drug they gave Blue-Jay was not the toxin, it was just a sedative.)

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