Author's Note:

Hi everyone! Sorry, I feel that its been awhile since I updated. I hope that this isn't getting too boring, if it is, sorry, that'd be my fault because I'm waiting for the part after all this (adventure) so that we can get to the *cray cray smile* juicy part! LOL, sorry, I love the whole idea of ROMANCE, sorry, just love it.

Once again, iike always, if you have any questionor comments, about the story, please tyepe it in the review box or PM it to me! Thanks!

DISCLAIEMER: I DON'T OWN THEM... *CREIS*

IN THE FAULT

Dick

There were bodies, dead corpses that were scattered all along the bottom of the fault. It smelt terrible and he couldn't believe that he couldn't smell it when he was descending. He had to put a hand over his mouth and nose. Dick continued to look around, these were the bodies of the people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was terrible that they could let it happen, he promised himself that something like this will never happen again. But as a hero, Nightwing realized that sometimes, your going to have to wake up and face reality, but he didn't like what he saw when he opened his eyes.

He continued to walk around searing for someone alive. He hated to think that Katherine, Wally, and Flash were all dead; they were under his watch too. Well except for Flash, but he'd still feel guilty if he died.

'Those stupid alter dimension demons… Who the hell opened the AP portal anyways…' Dick thought to himself. He would get to the bottom of this, the person who opened the gateway for these disasters were really going to get a fist down their throats when he got his hands on them. That person caused all these deaths, he'd probably want to just finish him off.

As Nightwing continued to look around, he found yellow that just seemed to stick out. He ran with one hand covering his mouth and nose while the arm was pumping so that he could run faster. He was hoping that it was KF. When he reached him, he didn't find Wally, but instead Katherine. He pulled her off the top of the mound of corpses and off to the side where there weren't any bodies. He placed her down on the ground, he carried her bridal style.

She was unconscious, he didn't know how long she was down here. "Katherine! Katherine wake up." He shook her slightly, but she still didn't budge. "Katherine Summers, get up!" he slapped her across the face. Her eyes flew open, "The hell?" She rubbed her cheek, "Did you just bitch slap me?" she looked up at Nightwing. He watched her for a few seconds before she moved her hand down to her nose, "Oh my gosh! What the hell is that smell?!" She got up into a sitting position. "Bodies, decaying copses." Nightwing flatly stated. He watched as her face was horror struck as she looked towards the mounds of bodies.

He watched as Katherine didn't even try to hold back her puke, she just let out all her lunch right there. At least it wasn't on him, but he rubbed her back as she let it go. When it seemed like she was almost finished, he asked, "Are you done?" She cleared her throat, "Y-Yeah… that was quite disturbing… sorry." Katherine got up quickly and he followed suit.

"Have you seen KF or Flash yet?" He questioned obviously not comfortable holding a conversation with her. "No, the last thing I remember was jumping down here after running into Impulse and after that, I don't remember anything." He could tell that she's stretching her brain to try and remember what happened, but he knew that she wouldn't. Dick had pulled out his hologram and started to check the atmosphere around them, it was a chemical compound similar to Scarecrow's. It was made to target the neurons, so basically, what his hologram was trying to say was that the bodies, well practically the entire sight they are seeing is false imagery. Its not even here.

"Scarlet, take big breaths, everything that looks, smells, and sounds like is here, really isn't." Dick stated while analyzing everything else on his hologram. Scarlet was still sitting on the ground when she looked up to Dick who was now standing, "What? Say that again?" He sighed, slightly exasperated, "The bodies, the decomposing smell, yeah, its not really here. There's some sort of chemical compound in the air that is targeting our nervous system. Its making our brains go crazy. If you take deep breaths, think clearly, and open you mind, then the chemicals will exit your body. Then you won't see everything."

Dick had done a lot of meditating with Bruce while he was in training. It was essential for battle, especially for heroes without powers. If you get injured, which is always, then you must stay calm, if they start to freak out, their brain will shut down faster.

'The mind is a powerful thing.'

Dick remembers Bruce saying that as he was pouting about the whole idea of meditating when he was still Robin in training.

As Nightwing closed his hologram, he also closed his eyes. He dropped to the floor and crossed legs, breathing in and out with long drags. At first the smell was terrible, he thought that he'd lose his sense of smell afterwards, and for a second he thought he did because then it started to smell like concrete. Dick rested his hands on the ground beside him and ran his fingers across the rough surface. In his mind, he told himself that he needed to be grounded, he needed to open himself to his senses; smell, touch. He brought his fingers to his mouth and licked the tip of his gloved fingers, taste. Then when he couldn't smell anything, or feel the ground beneath him, he opened his eyes, sight.

Everything was normal, or as normal as it could get. There was no longer corpses of dead civilians but instead just piles of rocks, the smell of decaying flesh was no longer too. It smelt like wet asphalt.

When he was happy with his outcome, he stood back up and faced Scarlet. "Cross your legs." Dick demanded.

Katherine

"What?" she was royally confused. "I said cross your legs." He stated. "Ok…" She said hesitantly as she proceeded to cross her legs. She just watched Nightwing meditate, it was quite interesting, but yet slightly disturbing because she's never seen anyone meditate, like at all. Well, not like that anyways…"Close your eyes and try and ground yourself." He directed, pointing at the ground.

Katherine really didn't know how she was going to do this. The smell was overwhelming and the sight before way too gruesome for pure eyes like hers. She didn't think she had a weak stomach, but the way dead bodies were depicted in movies and tv shows didn't do justice…

She tries to close her eyes and think about the ground, the roots of a tree and how it connects to the earth. But then the moment she thought deeper, like under the trees, she saw a whole lot of dead bodies piled into large mountains. "Wing, this isn't going to work! The moment I start thinking about the ground, I think about how far down we are!" She slapped the floor from frustration. She watched as she saw Grayson sigh, quite exasperated and irritated. "Just… Open your mind." He said walking over towards Katherine.

She watched him walk gracefully over to her… oh man did she have a crush on him. Even with all his cuts and gashes and probably broken bones, he still seemed to move like he was floating. "Katherine," he started while sitting down directly in front of her, his legs only mere inches from touching hers, "The longer this takes, the chances of Flash and KF being alive dwindles by the minute." He stated calmly as if he was telling her how to bake a cake. "But Wing! I've never meditated before!" Now Katherine was just throwing her hands up in every direction. He grabbed both her hands in his and she felt him squeeze them tightly for just a moment. "Scarlet, just close your eyes and don't think about anything." He brought their hands down between them.

Katherine couldn't believe this, she was holding hands with Dick Grayson! She thought she was dead or something, she even had to remind herself to keep breathing.

But then she nodded her head to Gray's demands and closed her eyes not bothering to let go of his hands. She took a deep breath and smelled all the fumes that were entering her body, all the innocent peoples' corpses that were decaying. It was the wrong thing to think so she thought about nothing but breathing. She no longer smelt anything but concrete. Her breathing became normal, she didn't have to worry about smelling something terrible. Then she felt Dick move her hands by opening her palms facing down, she opened her eyes and looked at him confused, she was about to say something.

"Shhh…" he hushed her, "Don't say anything, close your eyes and think of nothing." He reminded her. She shut her eye lids and let him move her hands. It was difficult for Katherine to keep a blank mind when the guy she liked was holding her hands. It just took a lot of focus.

He opened her palms facing down and placed them on the ground, she assumed that he wanted her to feel the ground. Then it hit her, the senses. He was trying to make her feel. And she was feeling the ground, it was incredible, she felt like she could communicate with the soil or concrete or whatever was beneath her. Then she felt Dick moving her left hand to her mouth, he pressed her finger tips to her lips and she recognized what he was trying to do, she saw him doing it earlier. He wanted her to taste it. She licked the tips of her fingers, surprisingly, it didn't taste vile or rancid, it was like she was tasting herself, her own skin. Katherine had no way to describe anything that was happening, maybe it was just Richard who had this effect on her. Then he placed her hands back into her lap. She felt so at peace it was almost scaring her, well, it would if she was thinking. Then she felt him let go of her hands, she didn't care, in any other situation, she would, but her mind was blank. Then she felt cold gloved hands on her cheeks, "Ok, open your eyes." She opened them.

She saw Nightwing sitting closer to her, she realized that their knees were touching, he was holding her face. "What do you see, what do you smell?" he asked releasing her cheeks. Katherine looked around, no more were there dead bodies, no more was the smell of death. Now it all cleared, it felt like a low lying cloud was blown away by the wind. "I-I remember what happened to KF and Flash…" Katherine stuttered through her lips. Why couldn't she remember before what had happened to them?