Bereft

Disclaimer- Don't own Young Justice or its characters only own Shade

Italics- telepathic communication

Shade's POV

My eyes blinked open when I heard someone calling my name repeatedly while simultaneously shaking my shoulder. I forced my eyes to open, but my vision was fuzzy and blurry. My eyes only allowed me to see a blurry figure crouching beside me with a hand on my shoulder but I wasn't able to make out any other details.

When my eyes finally adjusted I recognized the blurry figure I'd seen earlier was Wally.

"Hey Dawn are you ok," he asked smiling even though his eyes showed he was concerned and worried, but he was trying his best to hide it.

"Hey KF and yeah I'm fine" I said as he helped me off the floor.

I looked around and saw we were in an unfamiliar empty wooden cabin. There was only one other person in the cabin other than Wally and I, but I didn't recognize her.

Passed out in the middle of the floor was girl with long blonde hair that looked to be around Wally's age. She was wearing a green crop top with an arrow symbol on the chest, green pants with kneepads, and black combat boots. Clutched in her right hand was a big green bow similar to Ollie's.

"Whose the chick" I asked pointing to the girl.

Wally shrugged and crouched down to wake her up "don't know, lets find out. Hey you, wake up" he said shaking her softly.

Wally's shaking stirred the girl out of unconsciousness. She blinked a few times before her vision cleared and she could see clearly. The first thing she saw upon awakening was Wally's smiling face only inches away from her own.

She screamed and shuffled away from him unconsciously tightening her grip on her bow. Wally put his hands up trying to make himself look less threatening. He didn't want to scare her anymore than he already had.

"Hey its ok, we're not going to hurt you. I'm one of the good guys. You know Kid Flash," he said softly pointing to himself trying to get her to calm down.

"Seen Kid Flash on the news he doesn't wear black" she retorted glaring at Wally obviously not believing him. I cut in before he could say anything that would further her distrust in us.

"Well I'm Shade and I'm in my normal uniform, although I don't think you've seen me much on the TV since I tend to stay in the shadows, but anyways she does have a point KF. I didn't say anything earlier because we were busy but now that she's brought it up what happened to your old uniform. Did you get a new suit and not tell me?" I asked accusingly looking at the new suit and placed my hands on my hips. I know Wally wouldn't have gotten a new uniform without telling me first, or at least I thought he would.

Wally looked down at his suit "I'm still unclear on that myself and no Shade I didn't get a new uniform. If I did you'd definitely be the first to know. So what about you" he said talking to the girl "Green Arrow fixation" he guessed looking at her costume.

She looked down at her clothes and screamed in shock placing a hand on her chest "who put me in this."

"Wow I'm not touching that with a 10 foot…uh… so you know how to use that bow" Wally asked changing the subject.

She looked down at the bow in her hand "yeah my dad taught me." Suddenly her whole demeanor changed, she frowned and got angrier when she mentioned her father.

"Dad" she growled, "He must have done this, another one of his stupid tests."

"What kind of test? Wally asked curious.

"He probably wants me to kill you" she said nonchalant like this was a common thing for her. Before I could say anything in response to her comment we heard the faint but familiar whistling sound of an incoming missile.

Wally grabbed both of our wrists and ran out of the door just as the missile hit and blew up the cabin. We were caught in the blast and the ripple affect of the impact knocked us down to the ground. I flicked my wrist and blew away the planks of wood and rock that were flying towards us so we wouldn't get crushed. Once the smoke cleared we looked up and saw a row of tanks racing towards us.

We scrambled to our feet and sprinted away from the tanks. I heard a man's voice behind us yelling in a foreign language before the tanks started firing again.

Two of the tanks were getting too close for comfort and as Wally and the blond ran away I took to the skies.

"You guys keep going I'll buy you some time" I yelled flying towards the tanks.

"Be careful Shade" Wally yelled back.

I flew up to the closest tank and thrust my hand forward summoning an enormous wave of wind. I sent the wind at the tank making it flip over and land on its side. Once that tank was dealt with I turned around and flew towards the other, but I wasn't really needed. The blond took care of the tank before I got there.

The tank fired at her but she rolled out-of-the-way and as she rolled back up she brought out her bow, pulled out an arrow from her quiver, and shot an explosive arrow under the tank making it fly through the air and land upside down. She did all this in one fluid motion within seconds that I had to admit I was impressed. She was almost as good as GA.

"Nice one" I complimented floating next to her as she crouched behind a rock and strung another arrow.

She smirked "you're not so bad yourself" she said letting the arrow fly.

A missile raced towards us but Wally came and dragged the blond away before it hit while I just flew away. He picked her up and carried her bridal style using his super speed as I followed flying overhead. I flew close to them but trailed a little behind since I wasn't as fast as Wally was when he was running full speed even when flying.

"Sorry they've got bigger arrows" he said to the girl in his arms as he dodged the missiles that I wasn't able to whack back at the enemy with my wind. She thanked him as he ran and snuggled deeper into his chest to protect her face from the harsh winds coming towards her as a result of the speed they were going.

"Hey told you, good guy. Now not to pry but what's your name. Oh, and what's this about you killing me?" he asked.

"I'm Artemis," she said introducing herself. It didn't go unnoticed that she avoided answering the question about her father, but I decided to let it slide…for now. We ran/flew for what felt like an hour or so when Wally started to slow down. He skidded to a stop and set Artemis down on the ground so he could catch his breath. I floated down and landed beside Artemis.

"Sorry running on empty" he panted wiping the sweat from his brow "don't think I've eaten in a while." He opened the small compartment in his arm that usually contained small snacks just in case he was on mission and needed to refuel, but surprisingly the compartment was empty.

"Been out here over 24 hours or my cupboards wouldn't be bare" he said right before someone came crashing down in-between us making us fly through the air in different directions.

The impact sent me flailing in the air and I skidded against the hot sand. I looked up to see who'd attacked us, and was shocked to see a teenage boy.

He looked to be about a couple of years older than Wally. He had short black hair, bright blue eyes and muscles upon muscles bulging from his massive frame. He kind of reminded me of Clark Kent, but that's impossible since Superman doesn't have any relatives other than Kara. The boy easily swatted Wally aside with a wave of his arm bringing my attention back to the fight as he turned to Artemis.

He charged her but she back flipped away creating some distance between them so she could string an arrow and shoot it at him. The arrow latched onto his chest and exploded but it didn't seem to faze him since he kept charging forward.

With every step he took forward she took a step back and fired arrow after arrow, but he kept coming.

"Ok the arrows obviously aren't working" I growled lifting up a boulder from the ground and threw it at him. He was too focused on Artemis to dodge the boulder and it crashed into him making him tumble to the ground.

Ok well there were pros and cons to this. Good news is that he was no longer attacking Artemis. Bad news, his attention was now solely focused on me and his anger had multiplied about a hundred times over.

He lunged and tackled me to the ground knocking the wind out of me. He picked me up so I was facing him and wrapped his massive arms around my body. He lifted my feet off the ground and started squeezing the life out of me with his superior strength. If he wasn't squeezing me so hard it might've looked like he was giving me a hug, but normal hugs don't hurt this much.

I screamed out in pain already feeling the bruises forming. I gasped struggling to breath as his grip tightened closing off the pathway for air to reach my lungs.

"Let her go!" Wally yelled furiously and punched the boy in the face hard enough for him to loosen his grip.

I brought my legs up, placed my feet on his chest and pushed with all my strength breaking his hold on me right as some tanks drove up. As crazy as it sounds I've never been so happy to see tanks in my life. The tanks missiles irritated the boy enough to divert his attention from destroying us to destroying the tanks shooting at us instead. I rubbed my arms assessing the damage as I floated over to Wally and Artemis. Thankfully nothing seemed to be broken or fractured, but they'd be super sore and bruised for the next couple of days, nothing I wasn't used to.

"Whose side is he on" Artemis asked disgruntled while watching the tanks get torn apart by the angry teen.

"Want to stick around and find out" Wally asked sarcastically before picking Artemis up and running off. They didn't get very far however due to Wally's clumsiness. While running down a hill he tripped over a rock and lost his balance. They tumbled down the hill and landed unceremoniously in a heap at the base.

As they fell two remote-controlled planes flew by and circled around. One plane veered off towards me while the other continued on towards Wally and Artemis.

The plane opened fire and I had to flip and twirl in the air to avoid getting shot. As I flew I flipped so my back was facing the ground and used my telekinesis to force the plane to crash into the sand. Wally pulled Artemis down to the ground and covered her with his body so he'd take the bullet instead of her if the plane actually managed to hit them.

Thankfully the plane missed and passed over them. As the plane circled back around Artemis strung and arrow and let it fly, but she was startled by something and missed her target.

"Did you just hear a girl talking in your head?" Artemis asked looking freaked out.

"Girls are always on my mind, but they're not usually talking" Wally said trying to sound seductive.

"And just when I thought you couldn't get any lower KF" I sighed slapping a hand to my forehead. Our attention returned to the incoming plane as a Martian girl flew up behind it and used her powers to slam the plane into the ground just like I'd done with mine.

"Well J'onn the costume looks familiar but I'm not really sure the new bod screams Manhunter" Wally commented.

"You know my uncle J'onn? Hello Megan of course you do. You're Kid Flash, Wally. You're Shade aka Dawn and you're Artemis" Megan squealed eyes twinkling with excitement.

I glared at her "since when does J'onn have a niece and how do you know my name" I growled taking a threatening step forward. Wally grabbed my arm before I could take another step and pulled me back not wanting me to harm the girl.

"Martian Manhunter's your uncle, is that how you know our names?" he asked still holding my arm.

"Your name's really Wally" Artemis asked raising an eyebrow. Wally groaned and slapped a hand over his face.

"It's ok we're teammates, friends" Megan said trying to reassure us.

Artemis put a hand on her hip while I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms. We both looked at Wally incredulously and Artemis asked the same question that was running through my mind "you know her?"

Wally turned to Artemis and held up his hands vigorously shaking his head no "I swear, beautiful never seen her in my life" he defended.

The Martian sighed, "You guys lost your memories too. Come on I'll fill you in as we go. Robin and Superboy need our help."

"Of course Robin and Super what now?" Wally asked as we started walking.

(line)

We'd been walking/flying all day until the moon rose high in the sky. Megan said she remembered a marker in the middle of the desert that we designated as our meeting point for the mission.

Since she's the only one who remembers this so-called marker she led the way and the rest of us followed, however I was still alert and constantly checking my surroundings. We were almost at the location when we heard shouting in Bialyan.

I flew ahead with Wally who poured on the speed so we got there before Artemis and Megan. We hid behind a rock to assess the situation and were surprised to see Robin fighting a group of Bialyan soldiers. The 5 soldiers lying unconscious on the floor indicated that they'd been fighting for a while but Robin was holding his own, even if he was outnumbered. This made me smirk with pride, even if he was outnumbered Robin would still always come out victorious, that's just how good he is.

The remaining soldiers were standing side by side in a row facing Robin who was crouched and tense ready for another attack.

The leader was gradually growing more and more frustrated as more of his men got defeated. He was irritated that a kid half their size had taken down 5 of his men so quickly. He yelled at his remaining men in Bialyan and the soldiers aimed their guns at Robin.

"Well I don't know their language but I bet I could tell you what he just said to his men," I said as they lifted their guns.

"I got um" Wally replied running towards the soldiers. He ran around and grabbed the guns from their hands. As he took their guns he taunted them by yelling things like "I'll hold that, let me take that off your hands, thanks."

Wally dropped the guns off to the side so the men couldn't reach them and ran over to Robin. They stood back to back preparing to fight the soldiers that had formed a circle around them. The minute one of the men attacked the fight was on. Robin and Wally fought together taking out soldiers left and right.

I saw two soldiers sneak up behind Robin while he was preoccupied with another soldier. Robin punched the soldier he was fighting in the face knocking the man to the ground when he heard a noise from behind him. He whipped around ready for another fight, but that wasn't necessary. I saw the men creeping closer preparing to attack my friend while his back was turned and growled at them.

"Not on my watch" I snarled before taking action.

I jumped out from my hiding spot and attacked the two men before they could reach Robin. I summoned a wind blast making them stumble back a few steps and blinded them with sand. Once I created some space between them and Robin I ran forward and got to work.

I flipped over the first man's head and landed on his shoulders. I wrapped my legs around his neck and used my momentum to lean back putting all my strength into my legs and arms. The man leaned back just enough from the force for my hands to hit the ground and once my hands were on the ground I pulled my legs up bringing the man up with me. The man was hurled through the air as I released his neck before he started falling backwards so I wouldn't go down with him. I did this swiftly and quickly before either soldier could regain enough focus to attack me. When I flipped the man my hands were still on the ground so I bent my arms and pushed myself into the air. I flipped and twirled in the air so I landed feet first on the mans chest. Before he could react I brought my arm up and punched him in the face knocking him out.

Seeing his friend knocked unconscious must've given the other soldier a burst of adrenalin cause he ran and tackled me to the ground.

I head butted him making him yell out in pain and release me.

I wiggled out from under him, which gave him just enough time to stand up. I glared at him with as much intensity as the batglare causing a small amount of fear to appear in his eyes before he rushed me.

He tried to punch me but I ducked and dodged the attack. He snarled and tried again. He threw punch after punch but each time I dodged, ducked, flipped, or twirled out-of-the-way. On his last punch I grabbed his forearm and used his own force against him. Using his own power to my advantage I bent my legs slightly and flipped him over my shoulder knocking the wind out of him. I waved my hand across my chest and sent him crashing into a boulder. He sank down to the ground moaning in pain. He was going to have a killer headache in the morning.

I turned around and saw that most of the men were already defeated except for three stragglers desperately trying to defeat my friends. Robin, Wally, and Megan quickly handled them and out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark blur pass by.

I turned and saw a stray soldier trying to run away and escape. I flew after the man but right before I got to him an arrow whizzed past me shooting out a rope that wrapped around his body. He fell to the ground and struggled against his bonds. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Artemis on a hill lowering her bow. I lifted the man into the air after hitting his pressure point knocking him out and carried him back to the rest of his comrades.

Robin walked up to KF and they did their bro handshake. "KF! Man its good to see a familiar face" Robin said relieved. I walked up to stand next to Robin and put a hand on my chest pretending to be hurt that he hadn't acknowledged me yet "really Rob what am I chopped liver" I said sarcastically.

Robin grinned and pulled me into a hug "I could never forget about you Shade and thanks for the save back there."

I waved my hand casting the matter aside "it was no problem you know I've always got your back" I said. He slung an arm around my shoulder as Wally interjected since I'd cut him off before he could speak to Robin earlier.

"Hey Rob, memory loss?" he asked.

"6 months" Robin confirmed, "lets hog-tie these creeps and compare notes."

We tied up the soldiers and walked off towards the side so they wouldn't over hear our conversation if they woke up. Megan told us everything she'd remembered so far.

"So we're a team" Robin said shocked.

"The five of us and Superboy" Megan clarified.

"Then this must be his" Robin said holding up a piece of cloth. It was black with the famous Superman symbol on it.

Megan flew over and took the cloth from him. She stared at it with a smile on her face. "Yes! Did you see him?" she asked wanting to find Superboy as soon as possible.

I looked at the cloth and thought back to the teenage boy who attacked us. "I think we did," I said looking at Artemis and Wally.

Wally put a hand to his chin and scoffed "Feral boy? Some teammate, he attacked us."

"He didn't know who we are, I don't know who we are," Artemis snapped at him.

"I remember Batman ordering radio silence. Our team must work for him," Robin stated excitement flowing from his voice.

"How do you know we don't work for my mentor" Wally accused pointing to himself.

I laughed softly at Wally's question "no offense KF but I don't think the Justice League would let the Flash be the leader of a team of teenage hero's. Don't get me wrong I love Uncle Flash he's awesome, but he's probably not the best person to be in charge of a handful of super powered/ super skilled teenagers".

Wally playfully glared at me and Robin bit his lip to contain his laughter.

When Wally mentioned Flash being the possible leader he jammed his thumb into his chest hitting his lightening bolt symbol. When he pressed the emblem on his chest his uniform transformed from its current black and grey to the original yellow and red we were all used to.

"Whoa this is so cool" Wally squealed pushing the bolt on his chest again making his suit change back to the black and grey version.

Everyone started tapping their chests to see if their uniforms changed as well but nothing happened so we all just looked silly. Artemis seemed to have come to the same conclusion because she threw her hands up in irritation. "We look ridiculous" she huffed glancing at KF who was changing his suit back and forth between bright and dark. She frowned and snapped at him "quit touching yourself" she yelled stopping her foot.

Her words caused me to break out in a fit of laughter. I laughed so hard I had to bend over and hold my stomach. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy as I continued to laugh.

I wiped the tears from my eyes as I got my laughter under control and caught my breath. "I'm sorry….that was just….too funny" I gasped still giggling. No one said anything as they all continued to look at me strange.

"What" I asked shrugging " oh come on you can't tell me you guys didn't find that the tiniest bit funny" I said looking at each person. Robin shook his head and grinned while Artemis just rolled her eyes "we need our memories back" she said getting back to the point.

Megan shifted from foot to foot and fiddled with her thumbs obviously nervous about something, but before I could ask her about it we were transported to another location. We were in some weird room with images of ourselves floating around like multiple homemade movies going on at once.

"I brought you into my mind to share what I've remembered so far, but I need your help. Together our broken memories can form a whole if you open your minds to mine" Megan said shyly hiding under her hood.

"You want to paw through our private thoughts?" Artemis yelled not looking very enthusiastic about the idea.

"Yeah I'm with Artemis on this one I don't know about this," I said warily.

There are some things in my brain that I didn't want anyone other than myself to know, so you could say I wasn't exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of having a telepath sifting through my head, even if she did seem like a friend.

"I have no wish to intrude" Megan said quickly putting up her hands not wanting us to get the wrong impression. She didn't want to go through our heads and she especially didn't want us thinking she was poking through our memories just to invading our privacy, but right now it was necessary.

"We need to hack our minds to figure out what happened to us. Got it, go" Robin cut in seeming fine with the idea.

"My brains all yours. Try not to let its brilliance overwhelm you" Wally said flirtatiously.

"Or underwhelm you" Robin muttered, "hey why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?"

"Maybe because it's not a word Rob and I don't know about this mind connection thing," I said gingerly still not liking the idea.

"It'll be fine Shade. Don't you want to know what happened to us?" Robin whispered reassuring me. He stepped up from behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. I looked over my shoulder and looked into his eyes as he silently pleaded for me to agree. I sighed and turned to Megan.

"Ok fine but I'm only agreeing to this because we need to know what happened," I said as Robin squeezed my shoulders in a silent gesture of support.

Artemis was still skeptical but Wally grabbed her hand and gave her a small squeeze of encouragement. Just like me her resolve broke and she sighed in submission "last 6 months only, and only what you need" she said sternly.

Megan nodded and glowing hands attached to our heads linking us all together as we mended our broken memories.

We saw Batman telling us about the immense power surge coming from the Bialyan desert that was non-terrestrial in origin. Queen Bee rules Bialya but she isn't a part of the League's U.N charter which is why we had to have radio silence. Our memories skipped to our landing in Bialya and setting up the marker at our meeting point. Megan left in camouflage mode to gather Intel on what was going on at the Bialyan compound not too far from where we were. Superboy and Aqualad wished her luck and told her to stay safe. That was all we saw before the link was broken and we returned to the real world.

"Aqualad!" we all gasped once our memories were restored.

"Where is he? What happened next?" Robin asked not giving anyone a chance to respond.

"I don't know" Megan said frantically "that's the last thing I…we remember."

Artemis and Wally looked down at their intertwined hands and quickly pulled away from each other trying to play it off hoping no one saw it, but I did.

"We landed 24 hours ago. If Kaldur's been wandering the desert that long, well, that's not good for a guy with gills" Wally said worried for his friend.

"Now that I know to look for him" Robin said pulling up a holographic map from his glove and pin pointed Kaldur's location. "He's close, but he's not moving."

"Well then lets stop wasting time yapping and get moving already," I said flying off towards Aqualad's location

(line)

We found Kaldur lying semi unconscious behind a rock sweating and disoriented. He was muttering in Atlantian, but we couldn't get him to open his eyes. His body had shut down to conserve its energy trying to keep him alive, which is why he couldn't wake up properly.

"I can't restore his memories in this condition," Megan said sadly.

"He needs immediate rehydration, call the bioship" Robin said to her.

"It's out of my range" she said dejected "but you can get him there fast" she said glancing at Wally hopefully.

Wally shook his head "he's too heavy and I'm too low on fuel. Right now I couldn't even carry her," he said pointing to Artemis.

"Is that suppose to be a compliment Baywatch," she asked incredulously.

"Well if you think about it Artemis he did just give you a compliment. He basically said he couldn't carry Aqualad because he couldn't even carry someone as light as you, so I'd take it as a compliment" I said making Wally blush even though he tried to hide it.

Artemis cracked a small smile but didn't respond and instead brought us back to our current predicament. "Why not just levitate him back?" she asked Megan and I.

Megan stood up from her crouch "I can't I have to find Superboy. 6 months ago he didn't exist. He has no memories, just animal impulse. I'm the only one who can help him."

"Superboy's indestructible, just ask those tanks. It's Aqualad who needs your help. Like now" Wally said pointing to Kaldur trying to convince Megan.

"Wally's right Megan. I'm just as worried about Superboy as you are and want to get him back as soon as possible but Kaldur takes precedence in this situation. He's an Atlantian and he needs water, if we don't help him soon he could die Megan. Superboy can handle himself for another couple of hours or so until we get Aqualad taken care off. You and I can levitate Aqualad back to the bioship and then go searching for Superboy. I'm low on energy and I don't know if I can lift him all the way back by myself Megan, please we need you, I need you, Aqualad needs you," I pleaded with her.

The next thing I know Megan's holding her head in pain yelling "No! Superboy's in pain" before flying off.

"Megan wait" I yelled flying after her.

"We still don't know what erased our memories! It could happen again!" Robin yelled as she flew away. I tried to catch up to her but I was tired and she had adrenaline pumping through her veins so she was faster than me and I gave up on trying to stop her. I circled around and flew back to the rest of the team.

"She's gone I couldn't catch up in time" I said disappointed.

"Its ok she would've left even if you did catch her. We can carry Aqualad back to the bioship ourselves. I have a tracker on the bioship so we know where to go" Robin said trying to cheer me up.

"Dawn can you lift him" Wally asked hopefully.

I looked down at Aqualad and a newfound determination burned within me "yeah I can carry him. I won't be able to fly while doing it though, I don't have enough energy for that."

"Ok that's fine and we should probably make a stretcher just incase you can't carry him all the way, that way we can at least keep moving if you get too tired" Robin said pulling out a piece of cloth from his belt. We built a small stretcher with the cloth and string from Robin's belt and sticks we found on the ground.

When we finished the stretcher I turned to the team "alright everyone before we go I want to do something. The air was too hot and dry for me to do this earlier, but since its night-time it's a bit cooler so it might work now."

I stood off to the side and closed my eyes taking in a calming deep breath through my mouth. I centered myself and felt the elements energy flowing around me. Keeping my eyes closed I moved my hands around starting a move I'd learned a while ago. I focused on the energy of the wind and felt it condense around me. I opened my eyes and had my palms facing the sky as a small string of water floated around me in a circle. The string was about as wide as a pen but was long enough to create a circle around my body. It was a small amount of water but it was enough for us all to get a piece.

"Usually I'd be able to create a lot more than this but the air here is very dry and trying to pull together a massive amount of what little moisture is already in the air would take up too much energy" I said as they walked forward.

I moved my left hand making the water separate into 5 parts, one for each of us, and used my right hand to move the water towards my teammates. As the water floated to them they held their mouths open and I let the water slip down their throats.

"Thanks Dawn I really needed that" Wally said licking his lips getting as much of the water as he could. Robin and Artemis thanked me as well as they felt the coolness of the water flowing down their dry throats. I quickly drank my water before walking over to Aqualad with his portion still floating in my hand.

I bent down and held my hands above his chest. Aqualad got a slightly bigger piece then the rest of us since he needed it the most. I let some of the water flow down his throat so he could get a drink while I flattened out the rest and let it sink into his skin giving it back some of its moisture.

Aqualad sighed in satisfaction even though he was still out of it. "Ok guys let's get moving" I ordered lifting Aqualad in the air.

Wally carried the stretcher on his back as we followed Robin's directions to the bioship. We were making good progress, but when we were about half way we heard trucks in the distance

"Quick over there" Robin whispered pointing to a big rock. We rushed over to the boulder and hid behind it as the trucks drew nearer. It was at that exact moment that Kaldur started to make noise. He started mumbling in Atlantian and almost gave away our position to the passing soldiers.

"Shhh Kaldur quiet" I hushed him placing a hand over his mouth to muffle the noise. Robin peaked around the rock and saw a group of soldiers walking past holding guns in their hands. He leaned back down and twisted around to face us "we can't risk a firefight with Aqualad KO'd like this" he whispered.

"It's not just him, I'm way out of juice" Wally said exhausted.

"And I'm almost out of arrows" Artemis added showing us her almost empty quiver.

As they talked they didn't notice Robin disappear into the shadows. I knew he left but didn't go with him since I needed to stay with Aqualad in case we needed to move quickly.

Wally turned around to ask Robin a question but noticed he'd disappeared. "Ugh I forgot how much I hate it when he does the ninja thing. Hey, you never said why your dad would want to ktttk me" he said facing Artemis as he slid his hand over his neck like an imaginary knife doing the universal sign for killing someone.

Artemis tensed and started rambling "I got confused by some old movie I saw the other night about a ninja girl whose ninja dad ordered her to kill her ninja boyfriend 'cause he was from a rival ninja clan." She averted her eyes and looked down at her bow.

"She's hiding something," I thought to myself "and it has something to do with her father."

"So, I'm your ninja boyfriend huh?" Wally said slyly.

Artemis crossed her arms "hey amnesia remember. Completely forgot how truly annoying you are" she snapped defending herself.

"Oh like you're the goddess of congeniality" he shot back. Both of them were too wrapped up in their fight to notice Robin's return.

"Yeesh get a room" Robin said making them whip around in surprise since they didn't notice him before.

"Yeah you two sound like an old married couple" I mumbled loud enough for them to hear.

"We do not," they complained at the same time. They glared at each other before turning away and folded their arms refusing to look at each other. Robin and I just grinned at each other knowingly.

"Dude where were you?" Wally asked Robin changing the subject.

Robin grinned "breaking radio silence."

Suddenly the air was filled with Robin's signature cackle from the recordings he'd placed on the ground. The soldiers moved towards the source of the laughter and once they got close enough the smoke bombs Robin left went off. The soldiers were disoriented and confused. The smoke blinded them and the recordings made it almost impossible for them to hear anything, making it the perfect opportunity for us to escape.

"That's our cue, move!" Robin yelled as we ran away from the guards and smoke.

We stopped running once we were far enough away from the guards and started walking again. As we walked Aqualad sunk lower and lower to the ground as I lost energy. I strained to keep him floating but I was exhausted. I hadn't eaten, slept, or had a decent amount of water to drink in over 24 hours and walking all day in the blistering hot sun in the middle of a desert while fighting didn't help either. However I didn't want to complain since everyone else seemed to be just as tired as I was and I refused to be the weak link of the group.

"How much farther is the bioship Rob," I panted before tripping on a rock I hadn't noticed. Thanks to Robin's quick reflexes he was able to turn around and catch me before I fell flat on my face. Luckily I retained my hold on Aqualad so he didn't fall to the floor.

"Maybe you should take a break," Robin suggested helping me regain my footing.

"Yeah Dawn we can take it from here we're almost to the bioship anyways. Its only about another mile out" Wally said placing a hand on my shoulder. Artemis nodded in agreement as Wally took the stretcher off his back.

"No I got it, I'm fine I can finish" I said walking forward. I only took about two steps forward before Robin and Wally grabbed my shoulders.

"That's not up for debate," Robin said firmly.

I shook my head in defiance "no really guys I'm fine. If you can do it without rest so can I, you don't need to baby me" I huffed shrugging their hands off my shoulders.

"But we weren't the ones who made water out of thin air, carried Aqualad's weight for miles on our own, and used up most of our energy helping the rest of our teammates escape tanks, missiles, and planes Dawn, that was you. I know you don't want to look like the weak link of the group and you aren't. You've done enough for today. You've taken care of us, now let us take care of you" Wally said softly.

"Agreed" Artemis pitched in stepping up next to me. I looked at all their faces and saw that they weren't going to change their minds.

"Ok, ok fine" I said forfeiting.

I glided Aqualad to the stretcher and released my hold on him. Without the strain of having to lift Aqualad in the air I felt much better, but I was still tired though I shook it off so they wouldn't notice, but it seemed I didn't play it off as well as I wanted. Robin and Wally noticed how tired I was and before I could protest Wally picked me up from the ground and set me down on Robin's back. Robin brought his hands up to my thighs to hold me so I wouldn't fall off his back as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Guys I can still walk" I said as we started walking again trying to slip from Robin's back but he held on with a firm grip not letting me go.

"We know you can Dawn, but you've done most of the heavy lifting today so you deserve to rest for a while" Robin said twisting his head to look at me.

I nodded and leaned my head on his shoulder. Robin shifted me on his back to make us both more comfortable and he carried me the rest of the way while Wally and Artemis dragged Aqualad on the stretcher.

Everyone let out a relieved sigh when we finally reached the bioship. On the way I fell asleep on Robin's back and he gently shook me awake once we were inside. I slid off his back and helped Artemis place Aqualad on the hospital bed. I walked around the bioship setting up the systems to help get him rehydrated since I was the only one who knew how to work it. Robin walked up behind me and handed us all a cold bottle of water from the cooler we'd brought for the mission.

As Aqualad rehydrated we waited for Megan to find Superboy and return to the bioship. I sat next to the bed and leaned against it falling asleep next to Aqualad's arm until I heard Megan's voice in my head waking me up.

"I've got Superboy he's back to normal and we're on our way," she informed us.

Megan's voice in his head must've triggered Kaldur to awaken because he gasped and sat up in bed making me fall in a heap on the floor.

"Ow" I muttered rubbing my side as I picked myself up off the ground.

"Who are you and how did you get inside my head" Aqualad asked worried and a little scared since he woke up in a strange room with someone he didn't know looming over him.

Artemis pushed him back down on the bed so he wouldn't hurt or strain himself since he was still weak, but he resisted against her since he didn't remember her. I walked over and gently pushed Artemis out-of-the-way so Aqualad could see me.

"Aqualad you have to relax, we don't want you to strain yourself ok. You're safe and among friends" I said soothingly gently pushing him on the bed as he calmed down.

"Hello Megan Aqualad's memories I knew I forgot something" Megan said in realization.

"Aw man me too. I didn't get a souvenir from the mission" Wally grumbled.

"Don't worry, got the souvenir thing covered" Megan assured him before cutting off the connection.

Superboy and Megan arrived at the bioship 10 minutes later with a weird-looking metal sphere. It beeped at us and rolled around as if it was trying to say hi.

"This is Sphere we rescued him from the Bialyans" Megan said patting Sphere.

Sphere whirred in satisfaction and rolled over to me. I laughed and patted it on what I assumed was its head since it was the top of the Sphere.

"Well hello Sphere" I said in greeting. Sphere set off a serious of small beeps before rolling off to the side of the bioship to rest.

Megan restored Aqualad's memories and set the bioship on an alien version of autopilot back to the mountain. We radioed Batman and told him the mission was a success even though we encountered some difficulties. We told him everything and he said we'd talk more once we got back to base.

I sat on the floor next to my seat since I didn't feel like sitting in my seat. I was comfortable on the floor and there was more room to lie down and relax down here then there was in the chair. I heard footsteps walking towards me and the rustling of clothes as someone sat down beside me. I turned to see Superboy sitting next to me.

"What's up SB?" I asked smiling. Superboy looked at me and opened his mouth to speak but then quickly shut it and looked down at the floor in shame. It was then that I knew something was wrong "hey SB what's wrong, what happened" I asked softer this time.

"I hurt you," he whispered still staring at the floor.

"What?" I asked confused.

He lifted his head and looked me in the eye "earlier today when we were fighting I hurt you. Not only did I fight you, I almost killed you. You're my friend Dawn, my family, and the thought of me intentionally hurting you is killing me inside. What kind of brother am I if I can't even protect you from myself" he said staring at the bruises that were forming on my arms from when he squeezed me.

I looked down at the bruises. They hadn't formed until now and with everything that was going on I'd totally forgotten about the pain until now. I looked back at Superboy who was refusing to look at from me since he was filled with guilt.

"Now you listen to me Superboy," I said forcing him to look at me. "What you did back there, you had no control over. You didn't know who I was and I didn't know who you were so you can't blame yourself for hurting me. You didn't know if I was a threat or not and it wasn't like you didn't get hurt as well SB. I fought against you just as hard as you fought against me. Don't dwell on the past SB, it'll only drag you down, trust me that's something I learned the hard way. These bruises will fade in a couple of days and to tell you the truth I'd total forgotten about them until you came over here, so they aren't even that bad. I don't hold anything against you Superboy so you shouldn't either. Stop stressing about it and lets forget it ever happened. You're a great brother and don't you ever doubt that," I said wanting him to stop feeling guilty.

He had absolutely nothing to feel guilty about and I wanted him to know and believe that.

Superboy smiled at me "thanks Dawn you truly are the best" he said pulling me into a short hug.

"I know I am" I whispered before pulling away. He stood and walked over to his seat falling asleep just like Aqualad, Artemis, Megan and Wally had already done. Robin and I were the only ones still awake.

Speaking of Robin just as Superboy fell asleep he walked up and sat down beside me.

"What was that about and where did those bruises come from" he asked gently tracing his hand along my arm. I winced at the contact and he pulled his arm away.

"Just talking to SB and the bruises are nothing serious Rob they'll go away in a couple of days," I said waving off the matter.

"Well how did you get them?" he asked glancing in Superboy's direction suspiciously.

I wasn't about to throw Superboy under the bus and bring back his guilt so I said, "does it really matter Rob. We were on a mission and I got a little banged up, that's nothing new, plus I've had worse" I said playfully punching him in the shoulder.

Robin glared at Superboy one last time before turning back to me "Let's cut the crap shall we. We both know I know who did it and the only reason I'm not ripping his head off right now is because of the circumstances of why he hurt you. I'll let it slide this time and blame it on temporary memory loss, but it better not happen again or he'll mysteriously wake up with a chunk of Kryptonite by his pillow" Robin said completely serious.

I wrapped an arm around his shoulder "That won't be necessary Rob. It was an accident, accidents happen, it won't happen again" I reassured him.

He sighed and the tension he'd built up slowly eased away "Yeah I know but that doesn't stop me from worrying" he said truthfully.

"I know it doesn't, it's kind of in your job description as my best friend to worry occasionally. It shows you care" I said before yawning.

"You should get some sleep, it's been a long day," he said leaning against the wall of the bioship.

"Yeah ok" I muttered leaning into his side. He pulled me closer and I laid my head in-between his chest and shoulder getting comfortable as he wrapped an arm around me protectively.

"Night Dawn" he whispered as my eyes began to droop.

"Night Rob" I managed to say before submitting to exhaustion and falling into a deep blissful sleep in my best friends arms.