Tim volunteered to take Avery's breakfast, seeing as she slept through dinner, down to her, no mask necessary this time. She should be up by now anyways. The teen shifted the tray he was carrying to open the door. Avery was still sleeping when he walked in, tossing and turning with a nightmare. His eyes widened as he noticed the spot of red around Avery's thigh. She was opening up her wounds with all the movement.
Moving into action, Tim went to wake Avery up. He tried shaking her shoulders, didn't work. He tried talking to her, didn't work.
"Calm down!" Tim shouted as he restrained Avery's left leg, one hand on her knee and the other at her hip. Whether it was a conscious move or not, Tim had to respect the heft of the punch that Avery sent at his cheek, knocking him to the floor.
Avery sat up as Tim stood. She was blinking rapidly as she took in her surroundings. Her hands fumbled for her glasses as she sucked in heavy breaths. Tim saw them first and handed them to her.
"Thank you," Avery muttered. As she put them on she noticed the fresh red mark on Tim's cheek. "How did you get that?"
"You," Tim glared.
The girl gaped for a second, wringing her hands before saying, "Oh, I am sorry."
"Well at least I know it's only the sleeping-you that's ever going to land a hit on me."
Any remorse went down the drain right there. "Keep saying that, Birdy."
"I will; it's the truth."
"Have fun stoking your ego. Now, why are you even here?"
"Besides keeping you from splitting all your injuries open?" Tim crossed his arms and grabbed the tray he set on the floor earlier. "I brought you breakfast."
Avery stared at the tray of food, saliva collecting in her mouth at the veritable mountain of it. She collected herself in a few seconds. "Thank you."
Tim unfolded the legs of the tray and placed it over Avery's thighs. "I'll leave you to it. Bruce should be down soon enough. There's no school today either."
With a nod on Avery's part, Tim left the room.
.:Back to Life:.
By the time Bruce came down to visit Avery again, she was up and walking around the room. There was a small limp in her step, but it was disappearing a little more every second. Upon a second glance, Avery had removed almost all of her bandages herself, along with the stitches that had been placed in her thigh. Her hair also grew exponentially, almost meeting the middle of her back.
"Feeling better?" Bruce asked from the doorway.
"Much," Avery replied absentmindedly. "Walking feels like a relief now," she added the thought in.
"Well now that you can walk, we'll be leaving for the Cave soon." He raised the small bundle in his hands, "You can change into these."
"You got my clothes from the Cave?" Avery said upon closer examination of the articles.
"Nightwing, Dick, did," Bruce adjusted himself from using codenames.
"I will have to thank him."
"Later, there's someone waiting for you at the Cave already."
"Who?" Avery looked Bruce directly in the eye.
"Black Canary, she wants to talk to you."
"What you mean is that she wants to have another therapy session."
"Yes," Bruce dismissed and walked out of the room to go set up the zeta tubes and get into his own costume.
Avery walked out quickly after; changed into the loose clothing supplied. "Let us get this over with," Avery muttered in distaste to the zeta tubes.
Batman smirked at his protégé's attitude towards the traveling device. "Hold your breath, it helps."
Recognized: Batman 02, Avery Brave B27
"Not by much," Avery huffed out as she regained her balance. "So I have my own designation now?"
"You were going to need one eventually," Batman justified. "You know where to meet Black Canary. Meet me in the gym once you're done. We have more training to do."
"Wonderful," Avery departed with a half-hearted salute. She then wandered around the familiar hallways. Her feet led her to the therapy room Canary had used before. A quick knock and a permission to enter later, Avery was sitting in the plush green seat across from Canary's.
"Hello again," Canary greeted as she crossed her legs in an attempt to look relaxed.
"Hello," Avery completed the basic pleasantry.
"Do you want to talk about what happened yesterday afternoon, or would you like to continue where we left off last time?"
"I am going to have to end up talking about both topics anyways. Yesterday afternoon to start would be easier to address at this given time."
Canary nodded for Avery to continue.
Avery adjusted herself in her chair to be sitting cross-legged on the seat. "First off, school was wonderful. The people there, for the most part, were very kind."
"For the most part?"
"There was one girl; she believed I was interested in her ex-boyfriend. Normal teenager stuff."
Canary nodded once again.
"I made friends too," Avery continued. "The classes are easy so far, but saying that so early into the start would be jinxing it. I will not know if the classes are going to get any harder until this storm blows over. But, continuing, the day went nicely until Deathstroke showed up. I was talking with one of the friends I had made when I saw him, just a glance, but I knew it was him. I told my friend to go; he is totally unaware of any of this as far as I know.
"Deathstroke then appeared right in front of me. I was not even near his level. I threw one unsuccessful punch. He successfully broke my neck. The next thing I know, I am waking up in a dark place, chained to a chair, and being tortured. It hurt, a lot, I will admit that. Eventually I took so many blows without taking in any nutrient compensation that my healing started slowing. Deathstroke pointed it out. I was a bit too busy trying to think of a way out to notice."
Avery half-laughed as she remembered the next part, "I told him to let me put up a fight. Great plan that turned out to be. He unchained me. I broke a chair over his head, and then I stabbed him. Right here," Avery tapped the place near her shoulder where she slid the knife in.
"Do you have any remorse over stabbing him?" Canary asked.
"Not much, I knew it was not going to kill him. If anything, it just made him angrier. Which might explain why he shot me in the back a few minutes later. But, before he shot, he said he admired my ruthlessness. That is what is unnerving me the most. No one ever wants to be complimented by a killer."
"Why do you think that's messing with you?"
"Besides the part that he is a killer? Well, he had this look in his eye when he said it, as if he saw me being a killer in my own right. That is something I never want to be. I have seen enough horrible people on this planet to know I do not want to be like them."
"Understandable," Canary agreed.
"Then I was taken back to Batman's lair, cave, whatever, for medical treatment. And that just about brings us full circle." Avery twiddled her thumbs in her lap.
"Is that all you want to say on the subject?"
"No, there is one more thing actually. There is one thing that Deathstroke does not know he did due to these events."
"Which is?" Canary sat forward slightly.
Avery smiled, "He has only made me stronger, sped up my healing and strengthened my resolve."
A/N: Pretty sure this classifies as a filler. Oh well, so much for story progression. I'm setting up for actually moving along with the plot though, I swear. I like writing these weird little therapy sessions though. Don't know exactly why, just do. Okay, one more thing, this story has gotten its hundreth follower, and over a total of fifteen thousand views. THANK YOU! I think that's about all that I have to say for now. Have a nice day.
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