~Justice Mountain~

"Ok, let's start at the beginning. What's your name?" asked Nightwing.

"My name is Jaclyn," the girl from the street replied.

"Jaclyn. Very nice name. Now, Jaclyn, can you tell us how you know Jason?" Dick's brow furrowed beneath his mask as he tried to work it out in his own mind before the girl spoke nodded her head.

"Jason's my brother." The statement was simply, honestly put, but Jackie's voice had a little tremble in it.

"W-what? Jason is an only child," Nightwing frowned again, this time somewhat worried. There could be more to the story than even he'd suspected.

"I was surprised I had a brother too. But we have the same mom. Different father. But the same story; my 'dad' ran out on Mom before I was born. After awhile, she left me too. I lived in the streets for a while after that, then one day I was attacked by some men." Her thin shoulders shuddered a little as she recalled the blind fear she'd felt that day.

"Before they could do anything to me, Red H-" she cut herself off quickly, but forced herself to continue talking before anyone got suspicious. Nightwing sighed in relief at the quick save. Batman was relieved too, but the face under the cowl remained emotionless, as usual.

"Jason came, and saved me. He took me in, and after he asked me where my parents were, we found out we were related. He took me in, and I was happy." The little girl, now sitting on the floor in the briefing room, drew her knees up to her chest and buried her face in her ragged pants, staring vacantly over them to the wall at the other side of the cave.

"I was never so happy in my life," she murmured.

"So you know where Jason is now?" Nightwing asked, a bit reluctant to spoil the moment but already having to stifle his hung her head in shame, and tears prickled at her eyelids and stuck to her lashes before running down her cheeks.

"W-well, one week ago, I was getting ready to go to the store to get some warm food for Jason. He was sick that day, and I don't know what was wrong with him... he wouldn't show me his face, and he wrapped himself in a blanket as soon as he got through the door. I think he was trying to hide something on his clothes. Then he started coughing blood, and I didn't know what to do, so I decided to run to the store as fast as I could and see if I could get anything for him there. I know he couldn't afford to call an ambulance, and I think a doctor would cost as much."

Jaclyn sniffed."It was hard to get him into bed, but I eventually did. Then when I was on my way to the store, someone put a funny-smelling cloth over my face, and I don't remember anything after that."

"When I woke up, I was in a dark room. It was really scary. People came in and started asking me about some heroes' secret identities, and when I kept telling them I didn't know t-they started h-hitting me." Her hand involuntarily wandered to a rather large bruise on one skinny arm.

Anger darkened Dick's already-worried face. If there was one thing he hated, it was when defenseless children were hurt.

"After a while, they stopped asking me. They said I was no use to them anymore, a-and that there 'boss' really could get more information out of someone else. I was left alone. Then today Jason saved me. H-he traded h-himself for me!"

The girl broke down once more."It's all my fault! T-they will do h-horrible things to him!" Her shoulders shook, and more tears slid down her dirty, bruised face.

M'gann knelt next to the crying girl, her eyes narrowing in anger as she hugged her. She had had enough.

They all had.

~Unknown Location~

Jason flinched as a wound on his shoulder tingled and stung, the pain driving deep like a thousand sparks of fire. The slight movement reopened a few more along his ribs, and he winced, swearing through clenched teeth.

He had woken up a bit ago, but had managed to feign sleep until now.

The heavy door, too big for the frame, squeaked along the floor. It seemed his luck had run out. A guard came into the cold room.

The guard neared Jason's still-motionless body. Jason grunted in pain as the guard's boot cracked a rib.

The guard only laughed and kicked him again.
"I knew you were awake," He grinned, a hideous expression that almost looked like the bared teeth of a bear in the darkness.

He repeatedly kicked Jason in the side, thinking that he was defenseless.
That was a mistake he would live to regret.

In one fluid movement, Jason jumped up and pivoted on a heel, slamming the metal of his handcuffs right onto the pressure point in the guard's neck.
After waiting a moment while the room stopped fading in front of his eyes, Jason quickly searched the man for any weapons he could use. He found none; the guard had been unarmed.

He did find a communicator in the guard's pocket. He thanked the stars for his luck.

He rapidly entered Justice Mountain's coordinates into the keypad, hoping he wouldn't regret it later when the rest of the 'staff' found him. His head already was pounding harder than before, and his eyes kept threatening to shut on him.

At the middle of the third ring, someone picked it up.

"Hello?" answered a voice Jason had never been so happy to hear before. He answered fast, in a whisper, before anybody could come into the room and find out what he was up to.

"Dick?"

oook! here tiz, like it? :D clifhanger! C; im so evil xD

oki! so the question of this chapter is!: whats your fave ice cream flavor? ancwer the question in a review :)

mine would have to be CoOkIeS AnD CrEaM :D

untill next time!

NANANANANNANANANA

JASOOON TODD! XD