Hi everyone! Thanks for all of the support and I hope you're all enjoying the story.
I just need to let everyone know that next week, I might not be able to upload because one of my sisters will be in hospital and I probably won't have time to write a long chapter if I'm spending time comforting her :\
I'm sorry if this is a problem for anyone, but my family will always come first. :)
Anyway:
Foniko: Thanks for the heads up! I've corrected that! *Fixes your head* Honestly! You really really REALLY need to be more careful! Thanks for reviewing and I'm so glad you're liking the story! :D
soccernin19: I know right? Poor Artemis, I'm not going easy on her at all! I'm glad you're enjoying this. I suppose it is pretty emotionally charged, but don't worry, things will hopefully work out in the end! Thank you for reviewing ;)
starwarsfan15: PLOT TWIST. Yay! I suppose you'll be finding out a lot of what you want to in this chapter! But as for the Superman android, that's going to make a reappearance in a few chapters. I'm building up to it! Thanks for the review 3
Guest: I know! Dun dun DUUNNNN! I do love twisting my plots around something chronic! But yeah, you'll find out in this chapter so go ahead and read on! Thanks for reviewing! :D
On to the story!
Robin was astonished. He had absolutely no memory of this 'Artemis' that Wally was talking about and as he looked around the ship two things came to his attention. The first thing, he didn't actually know a lot of these people. The second thing, every time he moved it hurt a lot more that it should do. He groaned as he turned himself back around again to meet Wally's concerned gaze and glare further at the random girl in green next to him. Did she have some sort Green Arrow fixation or something? Robin wished that he could just focus, his vision was blurred and he felt so sleepy that keeping his eyes open was an issue.
"KF. What's wrong with me?" Robin asked, flinching at the sound of his own weak voice. Wally didn't even know where to start explaining that. He wanted to give Robin at least something to go on, but he just couldn't think of a single thing – and he certainly didn't want to end up saying something that would only make Robin panic further. So instead, he voted for silence and stood up to ask Aqualad where they were.
After seeing a worried expression cross Wally's face, Robin began to think all sorts of things. Maybe he had been drugged and that was why everything hurt, maybe he and Kid Flash had been abducted and were being taken to some criminal mastermind somewhere. There were so many possibilities, but one thing was certain. He had to get himself and his best friend out of here. He watched as Wally stood up and began to turn away from him and then immediately reached out and grabbed his wrist to stop him from leaving. He was surprised as overwhelmed tears sprung to his eyes and he whispered a single word just loud enough for Kid Flash to hear, "Don't."
Wally had felt a small hot hand wrap itself around his wrist and had turned back around to look down at Robin. He looked smaller than he ever had and Wally could see his face colouring red again as he whispered one word to him. A word that he hadn't expected to hear: 'don't'? Don't what? But as he was about to ask, Wally's brain was jogged away from Robin completely as M'Gann let out a yelp and the ship plummeted a few feet before flying straight again. Robin's eyes flew wide and he let go of Kid Flash immediately and instead gripped onto the arm rests of his seat so hard that his knuckles turned white.
"She's resisting me!" M'Gann shouted. The ship began to tilt towards the ground slowly and Wally felt his stomach drop as he was briefly lifted into the air before being slammed down onto the deck of the ship once more. M'Gann screamed loudly in fear when she realised that she had lost control of the ship completely and they were going to crash. They hadn't even made it clear of Siberia and she had already lost control of the ship! The Martian's eyes flicked over to where Wally was struggling to get up off of the ground. Everyone else was safely strapped into their seats apart from him.
To everyone's surprise and horror, Robin heard the yell of his friend and had unbuckled his seat to help Wally. Robin had already lost loved ones to falling out of the sky; and he knew for a fact that he would do everything he could to prevent feeling that kind of pain again. The moment he got out of his seat, Robin knew that something was definitely wrong with him, his head was hurting on a level that had to be a crime and he discovered that his uniform was covered with sweat. But nonetheless, trying to ignore the pain in his head, Robin slid on the ground, holding on to the base of his own seat to support himself, down to where Wally was struggling against gravity and he stuck out a hand. Wally grabbed the hand, although he didn't know whose it was until he felt the sheer heat of it, and used the anchor to climb back up the ground and drag himself into a seat. Robin then heaved himself back up into his chair and was strapped back in. He was breathing hard and the spinning of the ship was only making it worse.
Aqualad knew that there was no point in commanding M'Gann to regain control of the ship because it was probably impossible. There wasn't really much that they could all do apart from wait for the impact of the ground and hope that they all lived to tell the tale. When he pulled his head against the immense gravity to look up at M'Gann, she had her eyes closed and had an expression on her face that suggested that she was concentrating hard. Maybe she was still trying to help somehow? It seemed hopeless, but then again M'Gann had always been the kind of person who looked on the brighter side of things.
He then flicked his gaze over to where Artemis was staring wide-eyed straight ahead to where the ground was rushing up to meet them all. Robin had somehow managed to find the strength to save Kid Flash, and so Kid Flash was strapped into his chair where he would have a higher chance of surviving the imminent crash. Robin's chances on the other hand weren't looking so good, he was already really sick and a crash could possibly just push his body too far. But at least he was conscious. Superboy was still obviously really cold and was still warming up, but he just didn't seem to care that they were crashing. Kaldur wondered whether Connor was really fully aware of what was happening.
"I'm going to perform an emergency landing in the clearing ahead! Everyone hold on!" M'Gann shouted over the huge noise of the ship plummeting to the ground. All of those who heard her warning tightened their grip on their seats and prayed that she succeeded in landing as safely as possible. Artemis was trying her hardest not to scream, she wanted to let her fear out, but she was amongst other strong people who weren't letting their fear show nearly as much as she was.
The ship finally met the ground with an almighty crash. Everyone was thrown forwards in their seats violently; their seatbelts jerking them painfully back. M'Gann screwed up her face in pain as she pushed her whole being into making her ship stop moving before it hit something more fatal than a few trees. Her head felt as though it was being attacked by none other than herself and she knew the kind of damage that she could inflict on herself if she wasn't careful. But it was her friend's lives that were at stake, so if she had to risk permanently hurting her mind then she would. Eventually, the ship came to a complete stop. There were things scattered everywhere and there was smoke rising from the control panel where M'Gann was seated. Everything was silent for a single moment.
After a few moments, M'Gann established that the ship was on the ground once more; but then she realised that the ship's energy had run out. That meant that she wouldn't be taking off again anytime soon and worse still there would be no heating. So once the heat that they had ran out, there would be no more heating and those who needed to stay warm to live would die. Unless they found another way home soon. All of these thoughts rushed through M'Gann's head faster than she could really take in herself. She was exhausted from the exertion of keeping the ship in the air and also attempting to land it safely: it all became too much. The fatigue and pain in her head caused M'Gann to fall into a deep sleep, almost as though she had lost consciousness.
Kaldur groaned and opened his eyes. He had squeezed them both shut during the crash, hoping that M'Gann knew what she was doing. But now that he had opened them, he wished that he never had. He stared around at the destruction that was everywhere around him and then jumped out of his seat as he realised that he should check on his teammates. The Atlantean first ran directly in front of him to where Wally was sat and shook him carefully. Thankfully Wally immediately opened his eyes and jumped up out of his seat too shouting, "I'm not dead? Score!"
Wally then ran off to check on M'Gann who clearly was too tired from her ordeal that he couldn't wake her. Instead, Wally undid her seatbelt and gently lifted her away from the pilot's seat and lay her down on the floor where he could hopefully make her more comfortable after checking on the rest of the Team. In the mean time, Kaldur had gone to check on Connor who was still conscious but clearly in some sort of pain. It was likely that the pain was unrelated to the crash and rather to the process of reheating himself after being out in the cold for so long. The leader decided that Connor could stay in his seat and continue to warm himself up as best he could.
Then, over the far side of the ship was the problem. That had been the ship of the ship that had met with the ground first and by extension had been the side that was the most affected by the crash. Both Robin and Artemis were unconscious. Artemis had obviously collided with Robin's seat in front of her and knocked herself out judging by the large cut on her forehead by her hairline. It was still oozing blood and so Kaldur picked her up and placed her next to M'Gann in the middle of the ship where he began to tend to her wounds using a medical kit that had been thrown to the front of the ship from its original position at the back.
Robin however was far worse. He was the one who was in a bad way in the first place, but now his head had also collided with the desk in front of his seat and he now had a head injury to add to the illness that he had been fighting. Wally looked at his best friend and immediately slapped at his face to try and help him to regain consciousness again. He had only just woken up before the crash and the speedster had been so relieved then! But now it was back to where they had started, with Robin unconscious and in trouble and him awake and hopeless. Except this time, M'Gann, Artemis and Connor were also hurt or in danger somehow.
"This is a disaster." Wally said bluntly. He and Aqualad were the only two people who were still fully conscious and healthy so it seemed a fair deduction. Kaldur still looked witheringly in his direction as though he was silently trying to tell him to shut up and do something useful instead of just standing there and moaning about the situation. Wally took the message and gave up on trying to help Robin wake up; instead he picked him up and put him next to M'Gann and Artemis.
"Here," Aqualad said emotionlessly, holding a thermometer out to Wally who took the small object in his hand in a bewildered manner, "I just saw this on the floor; it must have been hidden around here somewhere. We should take Robin's temperature regularly and monitor the changes. That head wound will probably affect his condition: and not in a good way." Wally nodded seriously with a heart-broken expression on his face as he put the thermometer in Robin's mouth underneath his tongue.
The thermometer read 104.6 degrees Fahrenheit and Wally nearly punched something from the pure shock of the high temperature. If that got much higher, then Robin's brain would turn to mush pretty quick! Wally stared down at Robin's face and apologised quietly to his friend. He knew that Robin's getting ill wasn't his fault, but he had to accept some responsibility for him being in such a bad shape. If he knew what to do to help him, then maybe Robin would have been a little more conscious at that moment.
Kaldur had returned to Connor's side and lifted him out of his seat carefully, allowing the larger teenager to lean on him as required. The two of them walked to where the rest of the Team were in the middle of the ship. The moment Connor's eyes met the three unconscious bodies in the middle of the ship his eyes flicked to one person in particular. He swept his eyes over the body and then turned to look intensely into Kaldur's eyes, "M'Gann, is she?"
"She is tired, my friend. We must allow her time to recover from her ordeal." Kaldur reassured Connor gently. He nodded and sat down next to Wally who was still staring down at Robin with such a worried expression that Connor half-hoped that this was all a nightmare and he would wake up soon with the normal, overly-happy Kid Flash next to him. But this was real, it was happening and somehow the Team had managed to get more people hurt in the process of getting help for one person.
Connor couldn't help but think that if it were anyone else but Robin who had gotten sick in the first place then everyone would be fine by now because Robin would have known what to do. Robin always knew what to do. It was only at times like these that everyone realised exactly how reliant on Robin the Team actually was. Why were they so reliant on him? A kid? Then another thought came over the Kryptonian's mind. Hadn't Robin almost been drowned not so long ago by the Reds? What was he doing coming on this mission anyway? Maybe Batman recognised that they needed Robin more than they thought and he had sent Robin on the mission despite his being ill. That would make this situation his fault for not pointing out Robin's illness and making him stay behind as he could have so long ago. That was that settled in his head then. Simply put, if anyone died on this mission then it would be his fault. He knew that it would be: who else was to blame but him?
Aqualad had been watching Connor closely for a while and saw that he seemed to be battling his own thoughts. The leader wondering what could be going on up there that was so absorbing. Knowing him, Connor was probably blaming himself for everything that had happened to everyone, but really it was no one's fault. A lot of the decisions had been made together as a team and Connor had done nothing but everything he physically could to help since Robin first passed out.
The answer seemed simple in Kaldur's mind. They needed to get in contact with Batman somehow to let him know that the mission had gone completely wrong. They couldn't wait it out for three more days because his teammates might not make it that long.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a review if you have the time, I love having feedback!
Thanks so much for everyone's support and please do keep it all coming! Once again, I'm not sure whether I'll be able to update next week because one of my sisters will be in hospital then. Unless you don't mind having a shorter chapter next week – if you don't mind having a shorter chapter then please let me know in a review or a PM and I'll update a 1000 word chapter next week instead of a 2500. Thanks! :D
Love, Varishi x