Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well!
Nalini is still in the hospital but you'll be pleased to know that she's doing a whole lot better and hopefully she'll be out by next Wednesday! I'll be glad to get back to my own bed hahaha :)
Anyway, I was kind of just sitting with my sister earlier and we were both bored so I started to write my next chapter. Nalini is a total sucker for anything kind of romantic, so I threw in a little hint of that at the end of the chapter for her entertainment and yours. I hope you enjoy it, the chapters are now back to full length too because I'm not that busy with my little sis!
Sairey13: Hahaha wow! I never thought I'd be compared to Wally, I'm pretty sure that's an honour! My sister is doing so much better thank you and I'm taking care of myself as much as possible whilst I'm doing that! Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
BlueJayRobin: Hellooooo sweetie! Don't worry my dear, Robin isn't going to die! I promise! I would have warned everyone in advance because I hate it when I read a story and then my favourite character dies in it! It's the worst surprise ever. Anyway, I hope you like this next chapter and thank you so much for all of your support!
KaliAnn: I know right? It's probably quite tough for a hero to know exactly where his moral obligations may lie in a situation such as this one. Either way read on and find out what happens next! Hope you enjoy!
Foniko: THANK YOU! I'm glad you liked it. *bubble wraps you* I think you genuinely need bubble-wrapping. It had gotten to that point where I think you need protecting from yourself. Hahaha you make me laugh so much ;)
soccernin19: Thanks! I like putting characters in awkward situations, is fun! I'm literally such a drama queen. It oozes from me. Drama. I ooze drama :D
AvenJackal: Thank you, and I totally agree with you. That's why I made it Wally's place to point out that they break laws all the time. Each of them is a hero (or vigilante) and that is vigilantism, taking the law into their own hands. So Aqualad's point holds absolutely no reason behind it! Still, read on and find out how everyone's doing! Thanks for reviewing and thanks for the compliment!
ArkieR: Hmmm maybe you should be both? Ahahah! And yeah, I remember that my Mum and Dad were thinking about either naming her Nalini or Trishna, and another of my younger sisters Zahra and I had to make the choice. It was Nalini hands down. Something about Trishna just doesn't work. Thanks for playing along by the way, Nalini had a good giggle! :D
On to the story!
Kaldur understood that Robin was more important than every mission, of course. But the laws that he and his team broke when they were on missions were for the good of others, but stealing? Stealing was never for the greater good and stealing would only take away any trust that the public may have placed in them. On top of that, Wally had just suggested that he go out there, into Tomsk – an area that they know is dangerous – and steal something from someone there. This whole plan just sounded like one long death sentence. Even worse, Connor agreed. Two against one.
"Kid Flash you have to understand, what you're suggesting goes against all reason." Aqualad pleaded. He had to try to talk some sense into him otherwise he would go out there and make a mistake. Connor looked between Kid Flash and Aqualad; he had never seen the two of them look so serious at the same time. Also, Connor had never known either of them to be argumentative. It seemed that tensions had risen too high and it was up to him to settle things, to be the voice of reason.
"Look, Kaldur, Wally has a point. We can't wait another couple of days; we needed help hours ago let alone now. The others are in real danger and the three of us can't do this alone. You know it as well as I do." Connor reasoned. Kaldur took a deep breath and though it through. He decided that getting a way to contact Batman was the best way to save lives at that moment, but the location of the help was still an issue. He couldn't just readily throw his teammate out into an area that he knew was infested by bombs now. That would be completely ludicrous.
A stir from behind the boys distracted their attention, it seemed that M'Gann had rested enough and was starting to wake. Connor took one look at the fidgeting Martian and immediately dropped all hopes of resolving the matter at hand and ran to M'Gann's side. Just as he managed to kneel down next to her, M'Gann opened her bright eyes and blinked a few times before taking in her surroundings. M'Gann rubbed her aching head and then took Connor's arm to help herself into a sitting position where she looked further at everything. She found the unconscious forms of both Artemis and Robin and her eyes formed tears in horror.
"I'm – I'm so sorry!" M'Gann cried, releasing the tears that she had been trying to keep hidden unsuccessfully. Connor flinched at the blatant show of raw emotion and seemed unsure of what to do before wrapping an arm around her patiently. Wally sat down next to her and asked her why she was sorry, M'Gann locked her eyes on his and tearfully lost any grip that she may have had left on collectedness altogether and spilled her thoughts everywhere, "I crashed the ship! Robin and Artemis are hurt; I bet you're all hurt too aren't you? Don't answer that, I don't want to know. No, I do, are you hurt? Oh, what have I done? This is all my fault, I never should have taken off, she wasn't responding properly to begin with and now look what I've done!"
None of the boys really knew what to do with so much being said at the speed of sound seemingly. It wasn't at all M'Gann's fault and everyone knew it, but she was still blaming herself. Aqualad supposed it was a normal response to lay the blame on oneself when something has gone wrong. But that didn't make it right, so he took her hand hesitantly and said, "This wasn't your fault M'Gann. You tried hard to land us safely and we, all of us, are alive. If not for you, we might have died."
This only seemed to make M'Gann cry harder and Wally – who obviously was already angry with him – glared at him and turned to M'Gann to try himself. Connor didn't even want to try, he would have no idea where to start anyhow and he didn't want to hear that heart-wrenching sound of M'Gann's crying get any worse. Wally raised his voice and spoke directly to M'Gann, "I know that you feel bad. You need to trust me when I say that it wasn't your fault at all. I'm so sorry that this happened, but we need to move forward and think about helping Artemis and Robin."
"Y – You're right. I'm not any use here crying, I should be helping to fix this!" M'Gann snivelled. The Martian wiped her tears away and then looked between Aqualad and Kid Flash as though just now realising that something was wrong between the two of them. Connor took his arm away from M'Gann's shoulder, seeing that his support wasn't needed anymore. M'Gann got to her feet slowly, her eyes still fixed on the two boys that seemed to be avoiding each other's gazes at all costs. M'Gann frowned in confusion before she came to her conclusion, "Have you been fighting? What's been going on?"
Connor and Aqualad looked at each other nervously before Connor nodded firmly and started to explain what had been happening, "Whilst you were out, we decided that the best way to go from now on would be to contact Batman somehow – especially since Robin's not faring well. But we have no telecommunications and no way of getting back to the US, so Wally suggested stealing someone else's phone. Aqualad's against it, but I think it's the best way right now."
"I'm only against it because it goes against everything Aquaman and everyone else ever taught me! Crime is never okay." Aqualad chipped in with Superboy. M'Gann looked over at him and nodded, taking everything into consideration. She was feeling a little more than 'whelmed' with all of the information that she was being made to process in such a short amount of time. M'Gann bit her lip whilst she was thinking it all through, Aqualad's point seemed a little, well, pointless. Didn't they break Earth's laws each time they went on a mission?
"I think that Wally is right. We're getting nowhere on our own and we need help quickly." M'Gann said, wincing when she felt the tension in the room getting to her. Aqualad sighed, knowing that he had been beaten. Three against one were definitely odds in Wally's favour and so he agreed to let it happen. Wally felt relief at M'Gann's words – maybe they would get help faster after all. The speedster knew that the moment Batman learned of Robin's condition he would run straight to Siberia to help them. Then all of this: the worry, the danger, the stress – it would all be over.
"Fine," Aqualad started. M'Gann and Connor hadn't expected Aqualad to give in so easily, but Wally knew that the Atlantean was aware that he had been outvoted and therefore had to lean to his side. A smile started to break on Wally's lips before the Team's leader continued, "But you can't go alone, and M'Gann needs to stay here to open the ship when we get back and rest up and Connor is still recovering from the last time he was out there. So that just leaves you and I. Just promise me that you'll wear the coat." Aqualad said stubbornly whilst pointing behind him to where Connor was still a walking pile of material.
"Deal!" Wally said without even thinking about it. The heavy-duty coats that Batman had provided were perfect for the weather outside and he knew it. Aqualad didn't really need one but would wear one anyway knowing him. Wally was looking anxious to leave and was vibrating on the spot at the thought of this nightmare finally being over. But it was dark out, and Aqualad knew that the two of them would need their rest if they were going to make this a success.
"We'll leave in the morning, about eight?" Kaldur said, raising his voice in a question at the end of his sentence. Wally nodded tightly and then broke out into a wide grin. Finally, Robin could get some help: finally. For then, everyone knew that it would be best to sleep and so they all huddled together by Robin and Artemis. They were each thinking of their own worries, but they each had something in common: everyone was thinking of Artemis and Robin who both remained unconscious nearby them.
That is, until someone stirred in the middle of the pile and Kaldur, Connor and M'Gann's eyes immediately flicked open at the sound of a pained groan. Everyone with the exception of Wally (who was already fast asleep) sat up and looked to the middle hopefully: it seemed that Artemis was waking up slowly. She seemed to be in a considerable amount of pain which prompted M'Gann to go to her side and prop her up in her arms so that she didn't have to struggle up. Artemis finally opened her eyes and stared around at her concerned teammates.
"Is Wally okay?" Artemis demanded when she saw his sleeping form in front of her. M'Gann giggled and informed her to the fact that he was only sleeping, but the rest of them had woken up. The Martian's expression darkened a tad when she pointed out that Robin was still unconscious though. Artemis' heart sank at the news that Robin was still in a bad way, but her sadness was outplayed by her anger when she thought about the sheer nerve of Wally for sleeping when everyone else had woken up for her sake. Was he really that lazy so as to let everyone else do all of the work?
With that thought firmly in her head, Artemis brought herself forward onto her hands and knees and crawled over to where Wally was sleeping. She couldn't help herself but stare at Wally's peaceful face for a while before she noticed that the others were gawping at her in confusion and then held up her fist and smashed it down on his stomach. Wally instantly flung himself into the air and scrambled to his feet, getting ready to fight some intruders or whatever the hell was happening. But he froze when he saw that Artemis was awake.
"Artemis?" Wally questioned breathlessly. Artemis felt a jolt in her chest at the sound of Wally calling her name for some reason. He would usually retaliate immediately, but firstly Artemis had only just woken up from a head injury and secondly, he just – he couldn't seem to bring himself to be angry at her like he would usually. Something was different, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Artemis had tried to hold her annoyed countenance, but there was something about his expression and the way that he wasn't saying something annoying already that changed her reaction. He looked absolutely exhausted and it seemed like he was... Relieved? She shook her head; she had to take her mind off of him.
"What... happened... exactly?" Artemis said slowly and cautiously. Aqualad and M'Gann looked at each other knowingly at the sudden change in subject. The change was sourced from a genuine curiosity though; she really had no memory of what was going on. The last scene that graced Artemis' memory was that of taking off in the Bio-ship to get to a better healthcare system for Robin. But after that there was nothing, just waking up in the dimly lit Bio-ship with everyone settling for sleep next to her. Artemis had been hoping that by asking the question, Aqualad or M'Gann would answer her question, but she was surprised to see Wally stepping up to answer her.
"Well, we never made it out of Siberia. We crash landed, and you, Robin and M'Gann were unconscious for some time before any of you woke up. You and Robin, you both hit your heads pretty hard and were the worst off out of all of us," Wally was talking in a soft and caring voice – and it didn't belong on him! Artemis must have looked frightened because Wally managed to soften his expression even further, but she wasn't scared because of what had happened she was scared and confused about why he was being so abnormally nice to her. Wally continued taking a step towards the archer, "Tomorrow morning, Kaldur and I are going to go and find help for everyone. Are – Are you sure you're okay, Artemis?"
There it was again, that same jolt. It pulled at Artemis' chest again when she heard Wally forming her name in his voice. It wasn't possible, not him, surely – no! How was Robin doing anyway? The archer knew that she was trying to distract herself but it didn't matter, she needed to get away from those eyes. Artemis walked as calmly as possible over to where Robin was and sat herself down by his side, laying a palm on his forehead only to find that he was no better at all. She sighed and then replied, "Yes. Yes I'm fine. We should all get some rest I guess."
"Good idea. Come Wally, we have an early morning and we'll need our strength." Kaldur said with a smirk on his lips. It seemed that everyone knew what was going on with those two before even Wally and Artemis knew themselves. But still, that kind of confusion could definitely wait until they were all safely back in the USA with a healthy Robin and probably a very very angry Batman. Wally lay back down on the ground where he had been moments ago and got himself comfortable for the night ahead. Only this time, he couldn't get to sleep so easily, his thoughts were something else. Aqualad settled next to him and the two of them were quiet from then on.
Artemis was clearly feeling a little flustered, but she felt no need to acknowledge it. She would deal with this the way that she dealt with her other feelings. She'd simply forget about it and focus on something else. Something more important. Anything. Okay, so she could think of anything else. That didn't mean anything, right? Artemis decided that it would be better to just follow everyone else's lead and go straight to sleep, she hardly even noticed M'Gann watching her with a soft smile playing on her lips from where she was curled up next to Robin and Connor.
It would all be fine tomorrow, Wally would be out with Aqualad searching for help and then she would be fine out of his presence. The only thing that Artemis could find to think about was how the Bio-ship had definitely been warmer earlier that day. Why was the ship cold now? Had Wally left out that small detail of the ship breaking down completely? That would mean that the ship will eventually be as cold as outside, Artemis mused to herself, that can't be good.
Thanks everyone for reading and don't forget to leave a review if you have the time! ;)
Varishi!