Night Wing's POV
The man collapsed to the floor, shaking, still clutching a needle between his fingers. Clara slumped over in her chair and began jerking violently. Seeing her in such a state finally gave me the strength to dislocate my thumb with a grunt and slip out of my bonds. I quickly yanked my needles out and shot to the table in front of us to grab my weapons. I threw a birdirang at the man, and blood spilled from his chest. I would have liked to watch him suffer, but we didn't have time for that.
Rage fueled my movements. Everyone's needles were out in seconds, and sighs of relief rippled through the room. I barely noticed when Artemis grabbed my shoulders and shook me forcefully.
"What is up with you lately?"
"Nothing," I said, brushing past her. I untied Clara and lifted her out of the chair, cradling her in my arms. I ran fingers through her knotted hair and her twitching ceased.
I turned back to Artemis. "Aren't you going to help Wally?"
She sighed. "Why did you kill him?" she asked quietly, gesturing to the man on the floor. "You never used to kill. You've... you've changed."
"You saw what he did to Clara. To Wally. To the whole Team. He deserved a punishment worse than death."
"And do you know what's worse than death? Rotting in prison for the rest of your goddamn life! Of course, I wanted him dead, but... Does killing really give you gratification?" She threw her arms up in exasperation and walked to Wally, beginning to untie him. What had I done?
Clara's POV
I regained consciousness in Dick's arms and sat up, groaning from the pain. I glanced at the man, who had a birdirang sticking out of his bloody chest. I looked back at Dick, puzzling over the faraway look in his eyes. That man deserved death. Why was Dick so sorry?
There were more important things to focus on. Trying to ignore the cold hopelessness that shone in Dick's eyes, I climbed out of his arms and walked to where Jesse was still bound to the chair. It seemed that she had been forgotten.
I gently unwrapped her ropes and removed the gag from her mouth to further survey the damage. What I hadn't noticed before were the burns that covered her arms with lines, as if someone had branded her. I chewed my lip. This was going to be hard.
Dick came up beside me, and I noticed his thumb seemed to be broken. I would have to fix that later. He gently took Jesse's pulse and checked her breathing. Something was wrong. "She's lost so much blood," he said, bringing up holographic panels from his watch. "And the only one here with her blood type is... Aqualad." We all turned to stare at our leader.
"Whatever it takes," he said grimly. He paused for a moment. "Will my Atlantian blood affect her?"
"We won't know until we try. But this is the only option right now."
"Where should we go for the donation?"
"Whoa, whoa, wait. Hold up," Beast Boy said, holding his hands up. "Can we take these stupid collars off first?"
Everyone pulled at theirs slightly. The cold metal was unnerving. I picked a few pieces of the broken collar off my neck, being careful not to cut myself. "Shall we arrange a group of people to find the central controller?" Aqualad said. "The remainder of us will stay back to watch Jesse."
"I'll go," Dick and I said simultaneously. We left the room.
We creeped down the halls silently. We ran into some guards, but they were unconscious before they realized what was happening. I caught him clutching his hand and clenching his jaw. "Dick," I whispered, leaning closer to him and gently taking his hand. "I can heal you."
He ripped his hand away, shaking his head. "We don't have time. The guards will know something's up soon."
I sighed, and we continued to the room. I'd remembered it from exploring the ship earlier. There were only a few guards in there, and they didn't have time to yell before they were silenced. I grabbed the controller and clicked it off as Dick edited the security footage, as well as shutting off the cameras. We made our way back to the room the Team was in, not noticing the guard at the other end of the hallway. He shouted for backup, and our walk turned into a sprint.
We burst back into the room, where the others were checking up on each other and going over everyone's injuries. "Guards..." I said, slightly out of breath. "On our tail."
The others in the room began moving faster, grabbing their remaining weapons from the table and adjusting their suits. Aqualad picked up Jesse and her head rolled onto his chest. "Where shall we go for the donation?"
"We have to get out of here."
"Atlantis?"
"That's hundreds of kilometres away!"
"Should we call the BatJet?"
"It wouldn't be fast enough."
"We're running out of time..."
I thought about our options. "I can teleport," I blurted suddenly. "I think." I still didn't know if my powers were working properly, though.
"Alright," Aqualad said with a nod.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. They were counting on me, even though I'd never opened a portal to places other than the shadow realm. I couldn't begin to imagine what would happen if I sent everyone there... I pushed the thought to the back of my mind. I had to focus on sending us to Atlantis, not the shadow realm.
I didn't know if I succeeded when I collapsed and the world went dark.
Night Wing's POV
This time, I was waiting for Clara when she collapsed so that I could catch her in my arms before she hit the ground. I couldn't hear anything over the buzzing of the portal she'd opened. Everyone was looking at it skeptically. Was it worth the risk? Slowly, everybody decided to trust Clara and take a leap of faith into the portal. I was second-last, followed by Aqualad, who was carrying Jesse. Where had Clara taken us?
