A/N: Wow, three chapters in two days, go me! Once again, thanks to everyone who has been reading, I'm sooo glad you enjoy Wildcat! And, as always, don't forget to fav, follow and review!
Disclaimer: Y'all already know it.
Bereft
Bialya
September 4, 06:21 EEST
I woke up in a lot of pain in a place that was unfamiliar to me. My head pounded, my back ached and a sharp stinging sensation ruptured from my right shoulder. When I looked over at my shoulder I saw that it was caked in sand and... blood... my blood. A bullet had managed to wedge its way under my armor and hit me. Luckily, it didn't hit an artery and the bleeding had pretty much stopped.
'Oh man, what happened to me? Where am I? And... how did I end up with a bullet in my shoulder?!' I tried to recall as much as I could, but was drawing a blank. I couldn't remember anything, in fact, the last thing I remember was taking down Merlyn with Oliver and Roy before he could assassinate the Star City Police Commissioner...
But that wasn't what mattered right now; what mattered was finding out where I was and how I got there. I stood up, nursing my arm, and started walking over the multitude of sand dunes that lay before me. I trudged over sand, silently begging to stumble upon an oasis amidst the never-ending desert.
The sound of rapid gunfire erupted not far behind me, making me jump. Whoever it was, they would soon cross paths with me and I had the feeling that they wouldn't be friendly when they found me. I took off at a run, trying to distance myself from the gunfire as quickly as possible, but it was becoming harder and harder to maintain my focus.
As the sun rose higher, I grew more and more dehydrated, and being in a black uniform didn't make things any better. My shoulder was throbbing violently and my headache was getting worse in the heat. I finally collapsed when I tripped over my feet going down a sand dune. Trying to get up was a struggle, so much so that I could barely lift my head. Not far ahead, I could see a few rock formations that could provide cover for me. Carefully, I dragged myself behind one of the large rocks and relished in the shade, knowing that it wouldn't last long. A rumbling sound began to approach me, causing me to instinctively duck down and hide as slowly, my vision turned to black, much like my memories.
"Wildcat. Wildcat, wake up!" Someone slapped me hard and my eyes snapped open. I was lying on the ground, staring up at a now starry night sky. I was still dazed and when my vision finally went into focus, I saw that I was surrounded by Robin, Kid Flash, and two girls I didn't recognize.
One was a blonde with gray eyes similar to mine; an archer, I could tell from the quiver on her back. The other was green-skinned, a Martian, wearing a similar outfit to Martian Manhunter.
"Great, you're awake!" Robin said with a smirk, "Now we can restore your memories."
"Whoa, hold on, Bird Boy." I croaked, my throat still dry as bone from lack of water, "What are you talking about? Who are these people? And where in God's name am I?"
"Relax, Whiskers." Kid said calmly, "It's a long story, but the gist is that we're here in Bialya on a mission for Batman. Everything will be clearer once Miss Martian restores your memory."
The green-skinned girl, Miss Martian, stepped forward, her eyes glowing green. Suddenly, I found myself in a place that looked like it had a ton of little TV screens surrounding it. Miss Martian then appeared in front of me.
"Hello, Kara. I've brought you into my mind to help you restore your memories over the past six months. All I need you to do is relax and let me enter your mind." She said quietly.
I held my breath for a moment, then exhaled heavily. "Okay. Just fix my mind."
Flashes appeared in my mind, memories of mine, memories that I thought I never had. I saw the others setting up a recon site, I saw us fighting Sportsmaster and Kobra, and I saw myself fighting alongside Miss Martian and the archer... Artemis, that was her name. And Superboy. And... Kaldur. Kaldur...
My eyes snapped open. I looked around frantically, but saw no trace of Superboy or Kaldur. "Where are the others?"
"We have a lock on Aqualad's location. He's not far from here, but as for Superboy, we're not sure where he is."
"One thing at a time. Let's get Kaldur, then we'll worry about Superboy."
"I agree with Kara. If Kaldur has been wandering the desert for 24 hours, well, that's not good for a guy with gills." Wally stepped up to stand behind me, "Besides, Superboy is indestructible, he'll be fine."
"Great! Now let's go, the sooner we get back to the Cave, the sooner I can have this bullet removed from my shoulder."
We found Kaldur in bad shape, sprawled out on his back, unconscious, delirious and mumbling phrases in Atlantean. Some of the words were incoherent, but I could make out some of the things he was muttering.
"Tula...lisomeh...agapa oseh..."
A rough translation was, 'Tula, please, I love you.' Whoever this Tula was, she was probably what was making him so distracted. He had feelings for her, and most likely, she didn't feel the same.
"I can't restore his memories in this condition." M'gann said sadly.
"He needs water, he's gone too long without it. Can you call the Bioship?" I asked. M'gann shook her head.
"It's out of range. But Wally could run him there." She suggested to the speedster.
"He's too heavy, and I'm too low on fuel. Right now, I could barely carry her." He said, pointing at Artemis. She nudged him hard in the ribs.
"Why not just levitate him there?" I offered to M'gann.
"I can't! I have to find Superboy. Six months ago he didn't exist; he has no memories. Just animal impulse. I'm the only one who can help him."
"Yeah, but like I said earlier," Wally interjected, "He's indestructible, just ask those Bialyan tanks. It's Aqualad that needs your help. Like now!"
"No!" M'gann screamed, "Superboy's in pain!" She took off to help Superboy against our pleas.
"M'gann! Wait!" Artemis called after her.
"We still don't know what erased our memories! It could happen again!" Robin shouted. But there was no point, M'gann's not so little crush on Superboy won out.
"So now what?" Kid asked.
"We have to carry Kaldur to the Bioship. It's the only way." I replied, still nursing my injured arm. Together, we managed to craft a stretcher out of nearby materials and hoist the Atlantean on it. Wally and Artemis each took a side by Kaldur's head while I fought the pain and carried the other side of the stretcher alone. Robin tracked the Bioship as we made our way through the desert.
For a while, the only struggle was trying to maintain my composure as pain radiated through my right arm. If I didn't want to have excessive damage, I would probably have to remove the bullet once we got to the Bioship. Lucky me.
We were close to the Bioship when a squad of Bialyan Republican soldiers came up close behind us.
"Quick, over there!" Rob whispered, pointing over to an enclave behind some large rocks. We jogged over to the enclave and set Kaldur down, allowing me to rest my shoulder for a few minutes.
"Tula... dinameta ete in Atlantis symbiose..." Kaldur muttered loudly. Without thinking, I gently rested a hand on his cheek in an effort to quiet him and, to my surprise, it worked.
"We can't risk a firefight with Aqualad KOed like this." Robin whispered. Wally and I groaned quietly.
"Not just him, I'm way out of juice and Kara only has one good arm."
"And I'm almost out of arrows." Artemis pointed out, gesturing to her near empty quiver.
"So what's the plan, Rob?" I asked the empty spot where the Boy Wonder once crouched.
"I almost forgot how much I hate it when he does that." I grunted, removing the armored plate that covered my wound, setting it on the stretcher and moving to tend to Kaldur, while Artemis and Wally argued about something that had happened before they found me.
"Yeesh. Get a room, you two." Robin said, reappearing out of nowhere. We all looked over at him a bit pissed off that he ducked out on us.
"Dude, where were you?" Kid asked.
"Breaking radio silence." Several recordings of Robin's cackle erupted in the distance, drawing the Bialyan soldiers away from us. When the laughter stopped, several clouds of smoke erupted, granting us our escape.
"That's our cue! Move!" Wally, Artemis and I grabbed the stretcher and took off with Robin toward the Bioship.
Crossing the border into Qurac granted us protection from Bialyan soldiers. As soon as Robin gave us the okay, we slowed to a walk and boarded the Bioship which was only a few hundred feet from the border. In the Bioship's temporary med bay, we set Kaldur on a table and hooked him up to an IV. I took a nearby seat and began removing the rest of the armor from my chest and arms, pulling my cowl off of my face. Taking great care, I shrugged my way out of the top half of my body suit, exposing my gun shot wound and leaving my upper body in nothing but a sports bra.
It looked better with my body suit on. The wound had stopped bleeding, but it was most definitely infected. I looked up to Artemis, who was setting a wet cloth on Kaldur's forehead.
"Artemis, can you find a pair of forceps for me? They should be in one of the drawers." I asked quietly. When she saw my injury, she almost gagged, but nodded. Once she found what she was looking for, she looked back to Kaldur.
"Do you want me stay?" The archer asked me, with a tone that said, 'please say no, because your arm looks disgusting and I don't to look at it any longer than I absolutely have to'.
"No. But if you could send Robin back so he can help me bandage this up." I responded with a soft smile. As Artemis turned to leave, M'gann called out to us telepathically.
"Hey, everyone! I've got Superboy. He's back to normal and we're on our way back."
Aqualad shot up suddenly with a loud gasp, "Who are you?! And how did you get inside my head?" Artemis moved to calm him, but he didn't recognize her. I stood up and set a hand on his shoulder.
"Aqualad, it's me. It's Wildcat. Just relax, you're fine." His eyes widened in recognition, and he laid back down.
"You're injured. What happened?" He asked with concern.
"I'll tell you later, it's a long story." I dismissed him gently.
"Hello, Megan! I almost forgot! I need to restore Aqualad's memories!" M'gann said over our link.
"Aw, man! Me too. I forgot to get a souvenir from the mission!" Wally cried.
"Don't worry. We've got the souvenir thing covered." M'gann replied happily.
"I'll tell you what, Wally. If Robin comes back here and helps me, I'll give you the bullet that's been lodged in my shoulder for the past 24 hours as a souvenir." I growled in pain. Robin was by my side in an instant, helping me clean the wound.
M'gann and Superboy returned soon after our psychic conversation with a giant spherical device that Superboy insisted on keeping. I knew better than to argue with a Kryptonian so I nodded and let the thing on board. M'gann then restored Kaldur's memories and left with Artemis to fly us back to the Cave.
"Do you want to remove it now or wait until we get back to the Cave?" Robin asked me as we finished clearing the blood and sand from my shoulder. Kaldur, now rehydrated and no longer confused, stood up carefully and removed his IV before walking over to me.
"I had been planning on removing it now. Seeing as its infected, the sooner its gone the better." I answered, trying to avoid Kaldur's concerned stare. I handed the Boy Wonder the forceps.
"Are you sure you don't want any painkillers?" He hesitated, obviously not wanting to pull the bullet out. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Just do it, okay? Don't worry, I'll be fine." Robin took a deep breath before starting. Of all the things that I have ever done, I had never been shot before, so I didn't know what to expect.
The pain was excruciating. Every nerve in my arm was on fire and it felt as though the bullet was drilling its way through my bones. I screamed out of surprise at the intensity of the pain and began to writhe out of instinct.
"Kaldur! Hold me down, don't let me move!" I growled through gritted teeth.
"What?" He asked taken aback. I focused my gaze on him.
"You heard me! Hold me down! If I'm not completely still, Robin won't be able to remove that bullet. Now, do it!" I seethed. Placing both hands on my collarbone, away from the bullet hole, Kaldur kept my back pressed against the chair as Robin slowly pulled the bullet from my shoulder. Once it was out, I extended my hand toward Robin, who dropped the small ballistic in my palm.
I breathed a sigh of relief as Kaldur finally released me.
"Thanks, Robin. I'll clean this off and hand it over to Wally. I don't think that Sphere thing really counts as a souvenir to him."
The Boy Wonder nodded and left, leaving just me and Kaldur. We sat in awkward silence for a while, until I stood up, setting the bullet on the nearby table and searching the cabinets for gauze. I found a roll quickly and looked to Kaldur, silently asking for help.
He gave me a small smile and stepped toward me, taking the bandages from my hand and beginning to wrap my arm and shoulder.
"Perhaps now would be a good time to explain how you received your injury." He said quietly. I turned my head to face him, not realizing how close we actually were. I wasn't able to hide the light blush that appeared on my cheeks so I looked away and began to recall what had happened.
"I was keeping an eye on M'gann as we had discussed before Psimon stole our memories. I took every precaution to make sure I wouldn't be seen. But somehow, a pair of Bialyan soldiers found out that I was watching them. They opened fire on me and one of the stray bullets struck my shoulder just as our memories were wiped. I just don't understand how they saw me..." I trailed off, my voice cracking. I had never been shot before because I had never made a mistake when observing. So what went wrong? What did I do wrong?
My heart pounded in my chest as I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to remember what I had done to tip off the soldiers, but my mind was drawing a blank. Kaldur stopped bandaging my arm to look at me.
"Kara..." He cupped my cheek with his free hand and lifted my gaze to his, "It wasn't your fault. They saw you, but it does not matter anymore. What matters is that you are okay."
I smiled at him softly, our gazes still focused on each other. I was about to say something, but Kaldur spoke up first.
"I wish to speak to you in a more private setting. Perhaps later?"
I was a bit surprised at the sudden request but I recomposed myself and nodded once, "Of course."
He smiled back at me and finished wrapping my arm before helping me back into my body suit and returning to the others. I yawned heavily and grabbed my bullet off the table, rinsed it and cleaned it off, and went to join my friends as well.
Mount Justice
September 5, 02:45 EDT
When we got back to the Cave, we were greeted by Batman, Flash, Aquaman, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter and Black Canary. All of them, with the exception of Tornado, had looks of concern on their faces, even Batman. As soon as I was in Canary's line of vision, she tackled me in a hug.
"Thank God, you're alright." She said in my ear.
"Ow, ow, okay, OW!" I said with increasing volume, capturing everyone's attention. I looked around and huffed before pulling the right shoulder of my body suit away, revealing my wound to the League.
Batman approached me and narrowed his eyes, "Black Canary, bring Wildcat to the Watchtower for treatment immediately. Aqualad and Robin will join you to report what happened. The rest of you, go to bed and get some rest."