Author's Note:

This chapter is dedicated to Petrichorian Scarlet Wolf for all her/his wonderful comments and support since the beginning~!

Hi everyone! I'm back! So if you think that the chapters are getting shorter, your right... the word count isn't as high as they used to be. But after this chapter, I swear that they'll get a lot longer!

This is the 20th chapter! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who reviews and reads and follow and favs! Without you guys, I don't think this story would be here! Thank you for all the support!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN YOUNG JUSTICE, ONLY KATHERINE SUMMERS OR THE SUPERHERO SCARLET AND THE STORY PLOT. ANY OTHER RECOGNIZABLE CHARACTERS/PLACES BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTED OWNERS.

WHISPERER

Roy

Roy immediately turns his attention back towards the dash, he pulls up the screen that would usually make a screen appear. The moment he pulls it up, there's a lot of static and its hard for Roy to understand and see the dark hero.

He mentally notes that this is the first time since their departure where they were in communication with any of the Leaguers. "Batman, this is Red Arrow. My current location is currently a quarter of a mile from the east end of the fault line. Team status, Blue Beetle and Impulse accounted for, current location, with me. Scarlet, Nightwing, Kid Flash, and Flash are unaccounted for, I repeat, are unaccounted for. Last seen location, approximately half a mile from the west end of the fault line." Batman's cowled face behind the static screen doesn't change, "You know protocol." He says with an eerily calm voice. "Yes, I understand." Roy says, he probably won't follow protocol, but whatever. "The League is still having technical difficulties. The three of you are the only accounted for members on the scene, and therefore the only ones confirmed alive. Don't do anything you'll regret." The screen suddenly goes black and all Roy hears on the other side.

Roy is furious, what's wrong with the Batfamily and control? They always want to be top dog.

But no matter how much he hates following protocol, especially in this situation, he has to. Not only for his own sake, but for Blue and Impulse's. If – for some stupid reason – Roy decides to break protocol and jump into the fault and Batman finds out, he'll be in for the most brutal time of his life. And then Blue and Impulse's lives would be ruined because Batman would also blame them.

This is screwed up and Roy will openly admit it… to himself.

Dick

Dick just wants to finish this shit, he's tired of working with AP and dealing with unnatural natural disasters. See, that doesn't even make sense. He grinds his teeth and glares at the hologram, most of what the hologram is stating doesn't make sense. He's a computer tech genius hacker, not a AP scientists. "I'm not a scientist. I have no idea what's going down." He states, for some reason, Dick feels that he can be lose around her, as in he can say anything to Katherine. "Its not science, it's the-" He cuts her off and continues what she's been saying for the past who knows how long, "fine line between science and the imagination… Yeah, you've said that quite a bit." She raises an eyebrow at her, "Well you've been saying the same things for the entire time, but you would never admit that you were stuck! I still can't believe that you admit you didn't know what's happening!"

Dick watches her for the silence that follows afterwards, they hold eye contact but Katherine soon breaks it. She looks down and focuses on something, "Hey, do you hear that?" Dick didn't hear her, he was too busy thinking about the strange feeling he gets around her, the tips of his fingers start to tingle. He brushes it off thinking nothing of it. "Huh?" she sighs, "Did you hear that?" Dick pulled up his hologram again for what feels like thousandth time, "No, what did you hear?" Now Dick was looking especially at sound waves. "It sounded like the Batwing flying by." Scarlet looks up. "Your right. It was the Batwing, it seems to be coming by again." He continues to look through the data displayed before his eyes.

"Ok, let's move, we can't waste time, and if that was Red Arrow, he's going to be relieved of duty. Permanently." There's a hard edge to Nightwing's voice, its more than just scolding, its real anger. It scares him that he can hold that kind of resentment towards Roy, he's always seen him as an older brother. He feels the internal shiver run down his spine. Dick picks up his feet and starts to jump around the piles of debris. He hears Scarlet keeping up with him easily so he picks up speed.

Dick holds up his hologram, its searching for any sort of disturbance or sign of life. After about five minutes of silent searching and seven Batwing encounters, Nightwing's holo has found something, "There's something up ahead, it's a faint heat signature." He briefly looks back to see where Scarlet is, she's playing with her long, silky, beautiful, brunette hair… Dick has to stop himself before he continues down that path. He's gone there once, and he still feels guilty about it… Roy never found out about him and Kat's little shenanigans about a year back and apparently, Katherine doesn't remember. If she is even the Katherine they knew before, she seems to be a whole different person now.

"Do you think it's them?" She asked after flipping her hair back. "High possibility its Kid. The heat signature is small and weak, which isn't good, but the key is that the Speed Force's aura is present in this body. But the aura isn't as strong as the Flash's normal amount, I'm assuming this is Kid Flash." Dick continues, "Well, I'm going to find out." He looks up from the hologram and sees Katherine running off. At first, he doesn't think anything about it, until something spikes on the holodata. "Wait!" He shouts out after her slowly catching up.

When Nightwing climbs over the rubble mound and sees Scarlet running towards an unconscious Wally, he starts tries not to panic, "Scarlet!" Nothings as it seems, not right now anyways. She runs up to the unconscious speedster and when she reaches him, the shadows start to get longer. "Scarlet!" Nightwing yells again, it seems as if she can't hear his calls. He picks up his feet and slides down the mound and runs towards them when the ground starts to crack. He looks down at the ground and moves to the other side of the crumbling line, he rushes over to KF and Katherine and without hesitating, picks up the yellow runner. Nightwing throws him over his shoulder and sprints back to the widening crack, he analyzes the distance and calculates that he can make it over. Without a second glance, he leaps over tumbling to the safe side dragging Wally along with him.

Dick looks back up and sees Katherine at the edge, he's not sure she's going to make it so he scurries to the edge to grab her if she starts to descend before reaching the rim. She pushes off the edge of the unsafe platform, but the shadows grab her ankle. She's pulled back and hits her head on the edge, "No!"

Nigtwing watches in horror as the shadows slowly drag her. All he can do is stand and stare, "Whisperer, you fucking bastard! Where's Flash and don't you dare take Scarlet, she has nothing to do with this!" He yells up to the sky. Nightwing glances at Katherine, she's mortified.

A chilling to the bone laughter echoes around the deep canyon, "Do you really think I'd just grab her? I always have a purpose for whatever I do." The laughter rips through the still air again. Something, in the distance, catches Dick's attention, he hears it, it's the Batwing again.

'I thought I told them to back off and stay away.'

Nightwing can't worry about Roy now, he has a much bigger situation on his hands. "There's no reason for this." He gestures around him. The shrill voice has a hint of smirk to its tone, "You naïve young child…" The shadows that restrain Scarlet start to form a person, a middle aged man. "You don't know do you?" Dick can never get over the bad guy cliché that he hears. When do bad guys in movies never say that?

Nightwing just narrows his eyes in response, his hands are near his utility holsters ready for anything. "Your dear Scarlet over here, or Katherine Summers, if you prefer…" The shadows pulls her up into a standing position with her hands restrained behind her back. He lifts her head up towards his face with a finger under her chin, "You, my dear, are the cause of everything that is happening." His twisted face smirks. "Thanks to you of course, who made this all possible." Nightwing had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes, the cliché is getting worse by the second.

"You see, your little girlfriend over here, is an AP traveler like me. She has come from Earth 111, a parallel universe to this one, as you already know. In fact she had an alternate self." This is all new news to Dick, its taking him by surprise. So this isn't the girl he fooled around with less than a year ago, this isn't the same girl that Roy had fallen blindly in love with. If she's not the same girl, then who is this person?

A shiver runs up Dick's spine when the horrific laughter brings him from his thoughts, "Awww… look at that, the young detective is finally piecing things together…" He pouts mockingly towards Nightwing. His fists ball and his temper flares, who the hell does he think he is? Whisperer pinches Kat's cheeks together and faces her towards him. "Mr. Wing, your father is screwing you over, he knows about everything! Even Superman does, they're all screwing you over!" He grins and continues to have this intimidating fire in his eyes.

Nightwing watches as Whisperer raises his right hand, he has his palm facing up and then he clenches his fist so tightly, his knuckles are beyond white. Scarlet screams at the top of her lungs, the shadows are squeezing her. Dick can feel his eyes fly open, he bites back his tongue and grits his teeth. He can't show weakness or panic.