Title: Seraphina

Chapter: 5/7

Rating: T

Author: MrGrayson24

-x-

When Wally awoke, he felt like he was floating. There was nothing beneath him, or below. But when he tried to breath, his lungs were filled with water.

Then, two hands grabbed him and he was dragged to shore. He couldn't say at what point he came to, but his rescuer pressed their lips to his and he felt a burst of air, followed by a puddle of salt water he coughed up. And when he opened his eyes, Jason's face was inches from his own.

"Ew! Gross!" Wally pushed him away.

Jason sat back on the ground. "That's a weird way to say thank you."

Wally rolled his eyes. "I'd rather of drowned." He wiped his lips with the back of his hand and looked up and down the river bank. "What happened? Where is everyone?"

"I saw Conner jump off the edge and Kaldur followed but I didn't see where they went." Jason sighed. "And Psimon took Artemis and Dick."

"Great, and now I'm stuck here with you."

Jason stood. "Looks like it."

"Well..." Wally pushed himself up. "I better go save them. You can come if you want, just don't get in my way."

-x-

"I'm not going in there."

"Of course you are." Psimon motioned for a guard to push Dick into the entrance of the mine.

They had climbed for what seemed like hours. Artemis was still passed out and Megan was unresponsive, which left Dick to mark their route. But, just when he'd lost track of their turns, they came to the a huge hole in the side of the mountain.

"Is that ice?" Dick rubbed his hand along the wall. It was cool, but not cold.

"You think we would need the Martian if Seraphina was stuck in ice?" One of the guards laughed. "There must've been one hell of an explosion when she landed. It's pure diamond, kid."

The further they went into the cave, the more obvious Randall Savage efforts became. There was mining equipment around every corner, most of it broken, but they had managed to carve out a passageway for two people to walk side by side.

After another mile into the tunnels, when the only light from hanging lanterns, Psimon motioned for them to stop.

"Here should be good. We need to wait for Savage until we blow this thing open."

-x-

"No! We're over here!" Wally pointed to the map. "Cause if that's the stream… And that's the mountain… wait a minute…"

Jason rolled his eyes. "We're here." He moved Wally's finger. "We just passed the fork in the stream and then went North. If we keep the same direction, we'll come to the entrance of the mountain. Which I'm guessing is on the opposite side of where we came in, or we would've seen it."

"Or we would've seen it." Wally scowled as he folded up the map, tucked it into his pocket and started down the path.

"Are you going to be like this the whole time?"

"Yep. If you don't like it, maybe you shouldn't go around kissing other people's boyfriends."

"Hey! Dick kissed me." Jason snapped.

Wally's face dropped. "What?"

"Look, it doesn't matter." Jason pushed passed him. "All I want is to get off this island in one piece."

-x-

Psimon's men kept Artemis in the stretcher and left Dick seated on the floor next to Megan. Once they were out of earshot, he tried to wake her.

"Megan, I need you to snap out of it, okay?" He shook her. "Please! I need help!" He shook her harder, but she didn't respond. With an exasperated sigh, he dropped back against the diamond wall of the cave.

"I really messed this one up." He stared at the ground. "Who knows what they've done to you, the others are probably dead, and Seraphina is going to get out and kill us all, anyway." Dick chuckled and rubbed his eyes. "I've heard her voice, since we got to the island. She kept talking about Jason. Stay with Jason. Jason needs you. And I didn't say anything cause… cause I wanted to do it."

There was a long silence.

"I kissed him." Dick finally stated. "We were in the forest and… despite everything with Wally, and being team captain, I did it. Afterward, I kept trying to convince myself that she was there, too. That Seraphina put the idea in my head. But it wasn't her. It was me." He grabbed Megan's hand. "I really wish you were here right now. I could use a friend."

It was faint, but Megan squeezed his hand.

"Thank you." Dick's voice broke as he rested his head on hershoulder. She didn't move. "I'll find a way to fix all this. I promise."

-x-

Jason examined the small cave in the side of the mountain. "This should do for the night." He climbed in with Wally behind him.

"Fine." Wally plopped down on the opposite side of the cave and crossed his arms over his chest. "I just want you to know that I hate being stuck in here with you."

"I know."

Wally scoffed and turned his head. "Also... just because you guys kissed doesn't mean you're together now."

"I know that, too." Jason looked at his feet. "I wasn't trying to steal him from you, or anything. It kinda of just happened. And I'm really sorry it did. All I wanted was for you guys to like me but…" he chuckled "...I'm not doing such a great job. This might go down as the worst first mission in history."

Wally paused. "Yeah… probably."

Jason laughed and as hard as Wally tried, he couldn't help but laugh, too.

-x-

When Dick opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Randal Savage's smiling face. "Good morning. It's time."

Dick, Artemis and Megan were dragged further into the mountain. Dick tried several times to get Artemis's attention but she was as unresponsive as Megan. The air grew cold and stale as Savage's smile grew broader. "You're sure your power, combined with the martian, will be enough?" Savage said to Psimon.

"More than sure." Psimon replied as they made a final turn into a huge atrium.

The room they had entered was enormous. The walls glittered as they moved to it's rear, where a faint shape of a woman could be made out through the crystal.

"Alright." Savage grabbed Megan from next to Dick and pushed her toward Psimon. "Get to it."

Dick made one more attempt to run but Savage caught him. "Not so fast, Boy Wonder. You are going to want to see this."

Megan's face was blank but Psimon came up behind her with a wicked smile and put his hands to her temples. Then her eyes opened, and they glowed an angry red.

"What're you doing to her?!" Dick yelled.

Psimon leaned his head back and took a deep breath.

Megan let out a high pitched scream. And the diamond wall cracked.

-x-