Jessie pulled her clothes back on and wobbled. Nightwing watched with a mixture of amusement and worry. He stood next to her and allowed her to use him to brace herself so she wouldn't fall over. Her body still trembled from the force of her changing. Fingers shook so badly that she fumbled with the belts and swords. Nightwing gently took them from her. Sliding the swords onto the belt then cinching her waist with it. Jessie looked at the ground with a mixture of anger and fear. She clenched her fist to stop the shaking in her hands. Guessing her thoughts he told her,

"You can't be powerful all the time." She looked up at him eyes brimming with tears.

"I spent several years in a coma, I think I've been weak enough to last me a life time." Nightwing chuckled.

"I don't think that's how it works." Jessie growled at that making Nightwing laugh. "It's good to have you back." Jessie snorted. "Have you thought about whether or not you will join our team?" Jessie's expression changed to one that was amusement and annoyance.

"If there is one thing the future has told me in a very loud way, is that I will always be trying to save this world. That does not mean I'll always be joining you guys on missions, but you will always have my help, as long as you are still on the side of good." Nightwing raised his eyebrow at the last comment. Jessie huffed a laugh. "Like the future, people change. Whether you will or not I have no clue, so don't ask." Nightwing shut his mouth on the question he had already been about to ask. He smiled contentedly and helped Jessie all the way back up to the cave. Gently he steered her away from the party that was still going on in the main room. Instead he directed her to the room Alexandra had been using.

Jessie laid down with a sigh of relief. Her eye lids already drooping. She curled up on top of the covers much like a cat might. Her breathing became even and steady in only moments of shutting her eyes. Nightwing sighed and carefully pulled off her boots, setting them beside the bed. Then he paused, he really should remove her swords and belt, but he could very easily get in trouble for that too. He shook his head and began undoing the belt. With great care he pulled her swords out from underneath her.

"Are you trying to take advantage of me?" she mumbled sleepily. Nightwing snorted.

"If anyone is going to take advantage of someone else, it will you taking advantage of my poor innocent soul." Her laughter died away as she slipped back to sleep. Taking her cloak he laid it over her to keep her warm. Nightwing turned to go and found Alexandra standing in the doorway.

"How is she?"

"Tired."

"That's not really what I was talking about." So she had known about Jessie's or at least guessed what might happen.

"Then speak what you mean." Alexandra raised her eyebrows at him.

"How bad was the backlash from using all that power?" Nightwing narrowed his eyes at Alexandra.

"You knew this would happen." Alexandra shrugged, it wasn't indifference, it was resignation to something she could not change.

"Not for certain, but it was very likely to happen." Nightwing felt stunned.

"Wasn't there anything you could do?" Alexandra looked offended and very clearly angry at what he was getting at.

"Aside from comfort her through the pain, no." Nightwing looked down at the floor and pushed away the memory of Jessie pleading to stop.

"It exhausted her and was painful. However the power didn't go far from her." Alexandra sighed in relief.

"Well that's a good thing. Once she nearly set the whole house on fire and nearly drowned me. This means she's gaining more control over the extent. Or maybe she had better control because she didn't want to hurt you." She glanced past him at her sister. "I'll stay with her, but I think you should rest too, you're probably just as tired as she was." Nightwing nodded and walked off to another spare room. Collapsing into the bed he shut his and was asleep in seconds. That night Nightwing dreamt of a small boy who smiled up at him with eyes like Jessie's.

Early in the morning Nightwing was woken by the shriek of the alarms. Someone was escaping the holding cells, and there was only person currently in the holding area. Gabriel. Nightwing rolled to his feet and was instantly sprinting down through the tunnels not toward the holding cell but towards Jessie and Alexandra's room. He pushed open the door to find both girls strapping weapons around their waist.

"We're fine." Jessie assured him knowing all too well what Nightwing had feared. They followed him out and down to the holding cells. Red Tornado and the few members who stayed at the mountain were already there.

"Spread out and search for him." Nightwing ordered. "Megan can you touch his mind and get an idea where he is?" Red Tornado was already on a computer scanning through security feeds. Jessie transformed in a giant red and white wolf. She walked into the cell and sniffed the plain handcuffs that lay discarded by the cell door. After she had his scent she followed it off into the mountain.

"Why was he restrained with just these?" Alexandra asked holding up the cuffs with a pen she had pulled out of her pouch. Red Tornado answered,

"We haven't been able to replace our other handcuffs yet. But we saw no harm in using those in the mean time." Alexandra snorted at this.

"Gabriel has been picking locks like this since he was a child. His mother taught him how. Not to mention he can completely strip an entire engine or a computer for that matter and rebuild it better and faster than it was. And you didn't see the harm in not restraining him properly? Don't you know what people say about assuming?" Red Tornado made no response, clearly seeing Alexandra's point.

Jessie came back soaking wet and looking very disgruntled. Her wolf shook out it's fur splattering everyone. There was a chorus of "yuck" and "gross". Jessie transformed back still soaked.

"He escaped into the bay." Red Tornado watched rewound the security footage back to last night. Nightwing noticed the time that Jessie's was struggling to control her power was the same time Gabriel's head snapped up. He began working away at his boot trying to work something out of it. A thin piece of metal. It took him several hours to get the piece of metal into his hands. But once it was there he had an easy time undoing the shackles that held his power in check. Soon he was free. Then he stood at the door trying to figure out a way out. Eventually he managed to tumble the locks with his own mental strength. But once he finished and opened the door the alarm went off. Gabriel took off through the passages.

He ducked down halls and hid when people ran past him. It took him a little bit to figure out which way he wanted to go, by the time he made it to the bay Jessie had found him. The wolf growled and lunged for him. Gabriel smiled and jumped into the murky water. Jessie jumped in after him. The wolf dove under the water but came back up only a little bit later looking harassed and angry. She shook herself dry then trotted off back to them.

"He had some sort of underwater device waiting for him. Even my fastest underwater character wouldn't have been able to catch up. I will head the search for him." Nightwing was going to protest this, but Red Tornado nodded his agreement.

"You know him best, so that would be for the best."