Welcome to the second book of the Fight For what series, Thank you to everyone who was interested in the last book and kept me going with it, I promise I will be working on making my writings so much better so that it's another world you can use to momentarily get away from the real world. I am writing this right after I wrote the last chapter of Fight for What so that the events of the last book are still fresh in my little mind lol
June 16th (present day) -Dick
It feels like I have been running for hours even though I know logically it couldn't have been that long. My feet slam against the soft ground but it still sounds off and echoing making me feel like maybe Bruce or Damian are behind me but as I turn around no one is. I trip over something but don't wait long enough to see what it was just stumble to my feet to continue my run. I thought we would have known how to get out of the trance after we knew it was happening but that doesn't seem possible without magic of our own.
This place I am running through doesn't even look like Gotham's warehouse anymore. Thick tree's surround me and the cement has been replaced with dark dirt and logs of fallen trees. Even some moss and plant life on the ground. I keep running I don't even know what from at this point. Just the sound of trees crashing down behind me keeps me on foot. I stop for a moment looking behind me, I can still hear the sound of the trees but I can't see them. I must be far away from the beast at this point. The warm moist air around me is the only thing I am aware of, no more sounds except the natural sounds of whatever forest I am in. Something snaps close to me, I swiftly turn to the sound seeing what looks like a giant cat walking slowly towards me. Oh yeah...that's what I was running from. I don't choose to run this time. I grab out a bird-a-rang throwing it at the beast. It explodes near it, the cat hissing and yelping almost in pain. It looks like a normal house cat, only fifty feet tall.
As it yelps and cries out the world around me begins to fade once again, melting back into the warehouse I knew I was just in. Witch Boy scowls at me from his post the large cat no longer large just as small as a normal house cat. It runs in it's circles one of it's paws on the pained area. Witch boy looks at me with searing anger.
"No fair no fair no fair!" He yells at the top of his lungs. I feel a hand on my wrist pulling me out of the way.
"We can't stay here we are no match for him. We don't know anything about him" Damian says pulling me towards the exit. I don't want to leave the battle but I do so letting Damian lead the way out to the outside air. The warehouse windows glow with a purple and gold light some flashes of red inbetween. Whatever he is doing in there we are going to have to wait to find out.
I find myself rushing to the bat-mobil sliding into the back Bruce hands me Timothy's unconscious form which we prop up against the seat. I have a hand on his shoulder trying to assess his wounds best I could. Damian sits in the front. Bruce is already revving the engine and has started on our escape.
"What's the status?" Bruce asks his voice doesn't sound panicked at all in fact he sounds actually calm shockingly.
"I don't know other than the head trauma? I think his ribs are broken, his right wrist looks broken too. His head is bleeding a lot. Why don't I remember what happened?" I ask Bruce sighs
"I don't know but I don't remember anything either. I don't know what we were doing there, how we got there and I don't know what day it is. Something happened in there and we need to find out what. After we help Tim" Bruce says, this time I can hear what he is feeling in his voice. Something is very wrong. I don't think we were in there for as long as we think we were. We make it to the Manor quickly, Bruce and I help Tim's form out of the car while Damian races through to find Alfred. Another reason I know something is wrong. After each mission Alfred waits in here for us to get back after he's done everything around the house. If he isn't in here that means he has to have left seeing as we didn't come back.
"My god Master Bruce where have you been?" Alfred asks as he rushes over to Tim who is now laying on the medical table to the right of the room.
"We were at the warehouse, no we don't know for how long. The target was using magic some kind we think he put some kind of trance on us to keep us out of the way, I don't know why he didn't just kill us either" Bruce says, Alfred busies himself with assessing the wounds, taking Tim's mask off and examining his head. No one else says a word, mostly trying to hope to god that Tim is okay, no brain damage and that he's healthy.
"It appears Master Tim was knocked into something very hard by something very big. He will live. Though I will be having him go to Hospital for tests after I Patch his wounds now" Alfred says I nod rubbing my right shoulder. It's sore. My whole body is sore. Something isn't right here and my head feels all fuzzy. Memories and everything.
"I knew he shouldn't have taken the semester off" Bruce says rubbing his eyes. I nod itching to get this suit off. It feels like I haven't taken it off in days. I could have.
"Don't blame yourself" I mutter, even though I am doing the exact same thing. We should have told him he had to stay be a normal kid far away from all of this.
"We don't even know what happened" Damian mumbles alreay changed. Seriously how the hell does he change so fast.
"We need help" Bruce says, I look over at him I am not sure the League has the time with everything going on there. Although I guess it's fine if we ask.
"The League have time for that?" I ask Bruce shakes his head rubbing the bridge of his nose as if that is going to awaken the memories that none of us can seem to remember. He shakes his head looking up at me.
"They don't. They aren't who I had in mind anyway" He replies it clicks to me though. I know who he is talking about.
"Would they even come? We don't even know where they are" I say Alfred clears his throat giving us a look. He knows. Of course Alfred knows. He throws a phone out of his pocket and to Bruce, Bruce catches it looking at him confusingly.
"Since it is the middle of the night, Calling them now will be perfect. For them it's the middle of the day." He says as he continues to clean the injury. Bruce and I exchange glances I guess if anyone was going to have a way to call them it would be Alfred.
Present day- Raven
I never liked the heat, never liked how it made it sweat or sitting in the sun made me feel like I was back in hell. However on the beach with the gentle breeze tussling my now mid back length hair it's tolerable. I have grown used to it. It took me about two months to get used to the sun itself being out all the time here, now it's sunny all the time and the hot air mixed with the salty smell of the ocean is something I look forward too everyday. Although it hasn't done anything for my complexion. I haven't tanned a bit. My grey-pale skin still stands out against the sea of tan bodies and my black bathing suit. Jason loves the sun, even though he prefers the cloudy weather of Gotham like myself he has enjoyed being at the beach everyday. Even now as he sleeps under our umbrella he seems content. I smile sliding an ice cold hand from my drink onto his neck, his eyes shoot open and rest on me, my evil smirk stifling the laughter.
"Sunshine you better be careful." He muses as he wakes up the rest of the way.
"Oh?" I muse back he smirks taking a hand and caressing the side of my face gently. "Did you have a nice nap?"
"You mean until you woke me with hands dipped in ice? Yeah" He deadpans, I chuckle leaning back on my own beach chair. The sounds of the waves crashing and small children fill the silence between us as he sits up rubbing the rest of the sleep out of his eyes.
"The tide is going to rising further towards us, should we call it a day?" I ask examining the water, the line is closer to us then when we got here a couple hours ago. In another two hours it'll be right at our feet.
"Yeah, I need some time with you to myself before we go to dinner" He says winking at me. I smile rolling my eyes slightly.
"Didn't you have that alone time this morning?" I ask he nods smiling at the memory
"I need more" He replies, I shake my head with a smile and start to throw on my flip flops.
It doesn't take us too long to pack up, however getting everything to the house is the hard part. I sink in the sand some and it makes it harder for me to carry the now closed umbrella and towels. Jason makes it look so easy. The house luckily is right on the beach, a surprise Jason had for me when he chose Aruba. Apparently he had a house here under an alias. A safe house so that when he was on the run no one would find him. It would have been the last place I would have looked for him that's for sure. The air conditioning hits me as we enter the back door making me realize how hot it was outside. Nothing I am used to being from Jump and living in Gotham. Even in the summer it doesn't get higher than 90, but here it rides on 103-110. As soon as we drop off out stuff the phone rings, the phone no one calls. Both of us freeze. Jason holds up a finger to me grabbing the phone. He answers it.
"Bruce?" He asks his brow furrowing
"Wait a minute slow down, what's going on?" He asks into the phone.
I get the sudden feeling our paradise is about to end.
"Shit...oh fuck...got it...yeah yeah...well fuck I will be there as soon as I can" Jason says he hangs up placing a hand on his forehead. He looks to me his eyes seem more worried than annoyed at the interruption which means this isn't a normal call. Something happened.
"We need to go" is all he says, I nod rushing upstairs to change into my uniform. It's a quick change Jason walks up to do the same quickly changing into his jeans a plain black t-shirt and a leather jacket. We grab the things we know we will need into bags. "I'm sorry Rae"
"Let's get there" I say grabbing his arm and going through to the darkest part of the house. We walk through the shadow and the feeling of being squeezed happens before we are standing in the middle of the Batcave. My heart sinks when I see Tim on the medical table while Alfred works on him. They all look like shit.
"Thank you for coming so fast" Bruce says to the both of us, I don't say anything just put my hood back down behind me.
"What happened?" Jason asks looking over to Tim, he looks back at me and I nod rushing over to him. I put a hand on Alfred letting him know I am taking over, he smiles at me stepping back politely. I put a hand over his head allowing the bright blue energy wash over my hand and his injuries as I listen to the briefing.
"We had a run in with this guy named Witch boy, we don't know how long we were there or even what happened there. Dick injured his cat and then we were in the warehouse again instead of the forest where I thought I had been" Bruce explains.
"You were away for three days Master Bruce" Alfred says, his lips part and his dart back and fourth as he tries to make sense of everything. Tim begins to stir, I can feel it draining my energy slowly but I keep that to myself. The head injury is the one I am most worried about, everything else just seems so small compared to it. Though when it is healed to more than just a small concussion I move down to his ribs. Someone really did a number on him.
"We think it was a trance" Dick says, I shake my head.
"It wasn't a trance. You were brought into a magical hallucination You were probably all standing in one spot, but mentally you were in a world where anything that happens to you there happens in real life. So you get injured there your body shows up with the injury which is probably what got Tim." I explain, Tim opens his eyes at the sound of his name, he jumps up alerted at the change of scenery. He looks around, his chest heaving.
"It's okay" I whisper putting my hands on his head he calms almost instantly his blue eyes staring into mine.
"When did I get here? What happened?" he asks
"Magic. Dark Magic." I explain turning my attention back to Dick and Bruce.
"You shouldn't have faced Witch Boy by yourself. He is dangerous. Almost as powerful as me only he thrives off of Chaos." I say
"Yeah but I injured his cat thing is that where he get's his power?" Dick asks, I waver my hand in the air gesturing to 'so-so'
"Teekle is like his familiar however yeah he draws a lot of his power from it. You injuring Teekle could have helped set you free because it weakened him but trying to go up against him again would be suicide. He doesn't let people who find that out live very long" I answer
"We kind of figured we were in over our heads, hence why we called you" Bruce says, I nod looking back over to Tim who is rubbing his head and then looking back at his hand. Looking for the injury he probably remembers getting.
"When did you two get here? Where were you guys?" Tim asks I press my lips together and look to Jason.
"Out of the country. We got here a half hour ago after we heard you took quite a spill" Jason says Tim looks embarrassed all of a sudden.
"Look you guys are lucky all he did was send you to his magic world. He could have fed more off on sending you to your worst fears and taking the chaos and fear. He thrives off that shit. You only can combat it when you know it's happening and even then it's hard" I say they all nod collectively. Letting them know as much as I do about this new threat could help them in the future if they do have another run in with him.
"What would he be doing in Gotham?" Bruce asks scratching the back of his head, I shrug. I really don't have a clue.
"I wouldn't know, it has to be a reason though." I say
Present day- Third Person
The table seems to be smaller now, most won't stand up against the Bat family and the League. It seems to be what allows them to survive in most situations. However the League of Assassins has no such fears of a couple of human in spandex. Tailia sits with her legs crossed leaning back in her chair normally she wouldn't feel threatened at a buisness meeting but she has done her research she knows all about this magic user. The dark room is dimly lit by a couple candles placed in the middle of the table. Five people in total sit around it with five now empty seats from the others who decided they didn't want to go toe to toe with some of the most feared heroes.
"Do you think it worked?" She asks him, he sneers
"How would I know! I did my part and my Teekle almost died doing it!" He screeches, she rolls her eyes.
"That will be for nothing if Jason Todd isn't brought back to Gotham. I doubt he would want anything to happen to his precious family of Bats" Tailia says leaning towards the table.
"Do we even know if he is with who you say he is with?" Reverse Flash asks she nods
"I was watching him carefully before he vanished. He was with the dark ex Titan. I don't know where they went and I couldn't track them down." Tailia replies, she knew recruiting the help of Reverse Flash and Witch boy and the others could have it's problems. Both are wild cards with their own reasons for helping her. With Boy just wants a chance to destroy the Gem. Reverse Flash wants to get to the Flash Family, what better way to do that then to go for Kid Flash's best friend? Cheshire was the only one she couldn't get a read on, the one she can't figure out why she agreed to be here and to help.
"How do you know he would come back for them?" Cheshire asks Tailia, she looks to her smirking
"What Big brother wouldn't?" She muses
"When is it my turn? When do I get to kill the Gem? I want to! I want to!" Witch boy complains, Tailia puts a hand up silencing him, she has to admit to herself she wasn't sure if that would work.
"As soon as we need to separate her and Jason. However, with what I have planned I don't think that will be too hard" she replies
"And what is that?" Black Manta asks
"Young couple? What else can we do? Break them up" Tailia says simply