From the Deep

As soon as the group entered the dark world, they knew something was very, very wrong. That was to say, more wrong than usual. It was as if they were passing through a sort of force field which made the world heavy with gloom. All of the confidence and happiness they had felt just moments ago to evaporated slightly. Everyone sagged with the effort of stepping into the dark, lost place.

Sora immediately summoned his Keyblade, the cold steel which formed in his hand slightly reassuring his frayed nerves. He glanced around at the rest of his friends. Kairi was pale, but her eyes were fierce, and her face determined. She too had taken out her blade instinctively upon arrival. Jason and Dick were standing close, obviously wanting to protect each other against whatever evil force was emanating from within the depths of the black city. Dick had his escrima sticks clutched tightly in his hands while Jason's All Blades seemed to form of their own free will, due to the pure evil that hung in the air. Riku stood next to Sora, a frown plastered to his face. He was staring intently into the black depths of the buildings in front of him, as if by looking at them, he would know what they would be facing.

They stood there for a few seconds, everyone frozen as they slowly adapted to the overwhelming presence of hostile darkness all around them. It was Kairi who decided to take the first initiative step forward. It was probably due to her determination to prove herself, or her new-found stubbornness, but whatever the reason there was no way Sora was going to let her take the lead of their little procession. With a reasonable effort, he jogged forward towards the darkness to catch up to her. She gave him an exasperated look, followed by a slight eye roll, but then returned his smile as he fell into pace with her. Within moments they were all walking forward together in a group, wondering what awaited them in the city ahead.

They had not appeared in Gotham itself when they entered the world. Instead the travelers were standing in the outskirts of the city, buildings towering in front of them like giants. It was quite odd for Dick and Jason, because they both knew Gotham extremely well, but at the moment, they had no clue where they were. Their surroundings were not familiar at all. Sure they recognized Wayne Enterprises well enough, towering above all else in the outlines of the city, but it was as if small details about Gotham had been changed, making the place unfamiliar, and more importantly, uninviting. The twisted dead grass, black sky, and absence of twinkling lights in the nearby city didn't help. The only light either came from the huge moon hanging in the sky, or the faint yellow the blackness seemed to emanate.

"This isn't right." Dick whispered. "Don't things just seem...wrong?"

Jason nodded slowly. "The whole place feels different from the actual Gotham."

Soon enough, as the looming shapes of buildings grew larger with their approach, the sound of rushing water could be heard. Both Dick and Jason were filled with relief at the familiar sound. It was nice that not everything had changed. Hopefully, they would be able to better pinpoint their location in relation to the city if they could figure out which river they were at.

Sora glanced over at Riku as the sound of rushing water grew nearer. "Should we, try to go around it?" He voiced the question they were all considering.

The procession slowed to a halt as the boy merely shrugged. "We might be able to glide over it. Though I guess Jason, Dick, and Kairi won't." He stared into the blackness ahead of him, but the shadowy landscape was still hiding the water from view.

"Crossing it depends on the river." Jason said. "There are a few spots shallow enough to wade through, but most of them are deep and have fast currents. We'll have to wait and see."

"Makes sense," Kairi and Dick said in unison. The two looked at each other and grinned.

It didn't take them long to find the source of the noise. It was indeed a river, but one of which the likes they had never before laid eyes on. The water wasn't clean and clear, nor was it a polluted dirty brown. Instead, waves of blackness lapped at the banks as the angry tide swept by them. The river was at least 30 feet across, but with the swirling darkness running past them instead of water, it was impossible to guess its depth.

Riku sighed. "That would be really risky to glide across, even without taking someone with us. There's no way we can carry Jason or Dick. I doubt we could get to the other side ourselves Sora."

"And there's nothing to grapple onto near us." Jason put in, staring dully at the surrounding stretches of dead shrivelled grass. "So what, are we just supposed to swim across?"

They all stared down at the churning black liquid with sinking hearts. No one wanted to go near it., let alone dive into the stuff. But it could take hours to find a bridge or good place to cross. Dick edged forward near to the bank, and crouched down to take a closer look at the water. Sora tentatively came up beside him, and dropped to his knees, staring down into the swirling pool of black. He could just make out the reflection of his face amongst the dark waves. Kairi came to investigate too, and stood next to him, observing the water from a slightly further distance. Sora would have rather she stayed back with Riku and Jason, and tried to swallow his concern. Kairi was a Keyblade Wielder in training. She could take care of herself. She could!

A small gasp had Sora snapping out of his trance and once again focusing on the water. As his gaze met the black shiny surface, he only had time to take in a terrorized breath as he laid eyes on a scaly face and two enormous glowing eyes, staring up at him.

Dick was trying to push Sora and Kairi out of the way frantically. "Killer Cr-"

His voice was cut off in a rasping choke as an enormous green hand shot out of the blackness and clamped around Nightwing's neck. The hand was followed by the head and shoulders of a huge revolting lizard looking creature wrapped in spirals of darkness. Its forked tongue flicked in and out of its gaping jaws furiously. The vigilante gasped, dropping his weapons as his hands flew up to the claws that were now digging into his skin as he tried to take a breath.

The situation seemed to hit everyone at once. "Nightwing!"

Sora was on his feet in a second, his blade swinging forward, but he stopped his attack at the last moment as Dick actually got in the way. The huge scaly monster was dragging a thrashing Nightwing down towards the water, the latter gasping and pulling at the thick fingers clamped around his neck. Kairi sprang forward too, and instead of attacking, grabbed onto one of Nightwing's arms and pulled him backwards. Sora's stunned brain couldn't help but wonder how this would be any help against the huge crocodile who had Dick in a death grip, but it seemed to slow Dick's descent a bit, and seconds later Riku appeared next to Kairi and grabbed Dick's flailing arm as well.

A gun shot rang out and the crocodile man snarled as a bullet embedded itself in his exposed shoulder, but his grip didn't loosen.

"What the hell are you doing Croc!?" Jason growled. "Sora, help me get him off of Wing!"

Blinking confusingly, Sora managed to compose his thoughts enough to nod and once again run forward. The older teen took aim with his gun and fired again. The creature howled in pain, but its grip still didn't loosen. Dick's energy was fading fast, and his face was turning a scary shade of blue. His left foot was dragged into the water and instantly his eyes snapped open, his mouth open in a silent screen. Strands of the dark liquid were crawling up his leg from the river.

"Don't make me do this Croc!" Jason yelled, pointing his gun at the monster menacingly.

But the mutant didn't seem to be listening. In fact, it seemed as if he couldn't even hear Jason at all as he sunk deeper and deeper into the depths of the black river with his prize.

Sora reached the monster holding Dick and thrust upwards with his blade as more bullets flew past his head and dug themselves into the crocodile's arm. This time, Sora's attack connected, leaving a gash across Killer Croc's chest. That and Jason's bullets should have at the very least been enough to force the creature to relinquish its grip, but it didn't. Dick was now completely still, both legs engulfed by the black water up to his knees despite Kairi and Riku's best efforts. Panicking, Sora slashed again at the creature's chest, and Jason ran up to him, this time aiming for the monster's head. His bullets were not digging too far into the creature's flesh due to its tough, scaly skin, not to mention the shield of darkness that seemed to be covering its entire body. Finally, after what seemed like hours, though it couldn't have been more than a few seconds, the crocodile man seemed to have had enough, and let Dick slide from its bloody hand. Kairi and Riku barely caught him as he slumped lifelessly to the ground. With a roar the crocodile flipped backwards into the river, a huge tail flicking up out of the waves as it descended, causing an assault of dark water to splash on Sora and Jason. As soon as the water touched their skin, it sizzled and spat like acid, and they both yelled and backed away, pulling their hands over their faces protectively.

Jason was the first to turn around and face his fallen brother. "No, no, NO!" He shouted, running up to the lifeless form. He dropped to his knees next to Kairi, placing his hands on his brother's shoulders. "'Wing!" He said shakily. "Come on man. You're okay! You gotta be okay!"

But he never got the chance to find out how okay Dick was, because the next moment, an enormous roar followed by the distinctive sound of streams of water splattering the ground erupted from behind him. Everyone excluding Dick turned to see a very angry Killer Croc, wrapped in darkness and bleeding badly from his chest and arm, standing on the shore facing them. The monster had blood-lust in its eyes, and stared at them for a long moment before the blackness surrounding him seemed to melt off his skin.

"I knew it!" Jason yelled. "That wasn't Killer Croc! He was probably being controlled!"

They watched, mesmerized, as the real Killer Croc fell limply to his knees, then the ground unconscious, a fading growl rumbling up from his throat as his darkness formed into a cloud in the air and transformed itself into a close replica of the mutant. Once formed it fell to earth, making the gravel tremble as its huge scaly feet touched the soft earth. It was all black now, with the addition of six inch claws and huge spikes lining its back. Without a moment's hesitation, the doppelganger charged forward right towards the group huddled around Dick.

Sora was the closest to the water, as he was still standing in the same spot from earlier, digesting all the events of the last five minutes. When he saw that the angry creature was hurtling towards him, he acted purely on instinct. Clenching his teeth, he ran forward, jumping into a dive, which had him sliding inches away from the monster's huge feet. With one swift movement, his blade had slashed deep into the dark Killer Croc's right calf. The monster stumbled, and fell feet from where the rest of the group were now just drawing their weapons.

The Heartless thrashed, enraged as it pushed itself up onto its feet. Jason took a swipe at its head with his All Blade, but the sword got caught in the creature's mouth. Wrenching his head sideways, dark Killer Croc threw both Jason and the sword off balance, then turned to face Riku and Kairi who were now standing defensively in front of an unconscious Dick.

"Watch out!" Sora yelled as Killer Croc pounced. The two Keyblade Wielders were ready though. In one fluid motion, they stepped forward simultaneously and swung upwards in a double strike, smacking dark Killer Croc with so much force that he flew backwards. It was then that Sora's and Jason's eyes both caught something. Where the Keyblades had hit, the darkness seemed to have been forced away from that area, leaving it less protected. "Riku, Kairi, did you-!?"

"Yeah," Riku shouted, while avoiding a vicious swipe from the monster's tail. "You guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

In an unspoken agreement, the four warriors charged forward, surrounding the Heartless with a plethora of blows. The monster fought valiantly, thrashing its tail and snapping its razor teeth whenever it had the chance, but it was clearly overwhelmed in the flurry of flashing metal.

From somewhere in the chaos, Jason's voice could just be heard calling, "Its chest! Aim for its chest"

Sora took that as his time to move, and pushed off the ground, his Keyblade aimed directly at dark Killer Croc's armoured chest. He felt a claw tear through the flesh in his arm, but the surrealism of the moment dulled the pain. He hit his mark hard, along with Kairi's and Riku's strikes. As expected, the thick darkness which had been acting like armour, receded around the Heartless' chest. Jason took his moment and leapt forward, driving his blade deep into the monster with a twirl of his wrist, finally able to penetrate it due to the lack of protective dark scales.

The monster gave an agonized inhuman howl, before Jason stepped backwards pulling his sword free, darkness trailing from its tip. They watching as the dark mass fell to the ground. The four of them were panting heavily, and stepped back abruptly as the huge scaly body started to dissolve into the air, blending into its bleak surroundings. No shimmering heart lifted into the sky however.

Jason sighed. "Lucky that thing decided to ditch Croc's body and fight us head on! Roy would have killed me if I had had to waste him." He shrugged at the other three's questioning looks. "Forget it."

With a jolt Jason remember his brother and turned around to face Dick. He ran the few steps towards him, and dropped to his knees, the All Blades clattering to the ground. Sora walked over and dropped down too, just then realizing how much he was trembling. He was followed by Kairi and Riku, both of whom looked shaken. Dick was breathing, but shallowly, and there was an angry purple bruise around his neck. His boots and uniform were covering any damage done to his legs, but from what Sora had felt from merely being splashed, he guessed it wasn't pretty. It was strange how the dark water didn't affect clothing, only human flesh.

Jason was now bending over Dick, checking his pulse and opening his glazed eyes to peer into them. Dick just lay there, unmoving. With a gasp Kairi summoned her Keyblade once more. Sora automatically turned around to see which enemy was there to attack them this time, maybe Killer Croc as Jason called him, had gotten back up. But the girl simply cast a high level cure spell. Both Sora and Riku face palmed. Why hadn't they thought of that?

It seemed to take forever as lights danced around Nightwing's still body. Sora summoned his own Keyblade and was about to cast another healing spell, but Riku pushed his blade down again. "We're probably going to need to preserve our magic Sora." He said grimly. "Why do you think none of us are healing any of these minor wounds?"

Remembering his arm, Sora looked down to see a fairly deep cut running across it. The bleeding had already stopped however, so Riku was right. There was no need to waste magic. Living with minor injuries now could save their lives later. Sora glanced over at Kairi and saw a few scratches on her face. His stomach gave an uneasy lurch. Maybe just a little magic?

Suddenly, Dick twitched, then bolted straight up!

"Killer Croc!" He yelped with more than a little panic in his voice.

Jason didn't even bother answering but launched forward in a rare moment of self-initiating affection and hugged his brother tightly. This shocked Dick enough to render him speechless, and the next few minutes were spent filling him in on what had happened while drinking some normal water from their packs and munching on fruit. Dick's strength seemed to slowly return over time, and within five minutes, he seemed to be back to full health. The party gathered their belongings and stood up, trudging over to the river once again, crossing by the unconscious Killer Croc on their way. Jason looked over and was relieved to see the steady rise and fall of his huge chest. As far as villains went, Croc wasn't that bad.

They came to a stop, this time a few feet from the river's edge, and once again stared into its glossy depths, contemplating what to do next.

Kairi pulled her head away first. "So, do you think there's a bridge nearby?"

Dick swung his head wildly around. "Depends. Where are we…? Ah!" Behind them was a vast sprawling complex, long roads surrounding it. "I didn't recognize it at first, but that's the airport."

"Then the closest bridge is the Trigate." Jason waved to a monolith a little ways off, swathed in dark fog. It extended partially over the water before abruptly ending. The gap between the two halves of the bridge was still too wide for gliding. "After that, there's the Kane Bridge over that way," he pointed the direction, "and the Brown Bridge on the other side of the Trigate," pointing in a completely different direction.

Sora noted the directions and jumped. If he could get high enough… Settling into a stationary glide, he looked over where the Kane Bridge was. Frowning, he swung his head over to the Brown Bridge. He was still frowning when he landed next to Kairi. "The Kane Bridge is broken too. And the Brown is covered in some sort of… plant? I think it was a plant."

Jason cursed. "Ivy. Damn. If it was just me and 'Wing, we could take her."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Sora bristled. After all they'd been through, they thought they couldn't handle themselves in a fight?

Nightwing held up his hands in a placating gesture. "It's not like that Sora. Ivy uses poisons. Mostly mind controlling, but some are fatal. Hood and I have built up an immunity over the years, but I don't want to risk exposing you to that."

There was silence for a minute. "Well now what?" Riku finally asked. "None of the bridges are usable and we can't exactly swim across the water." The quintet shuddered at the thought.

The air was suddenly filled with voices, all speaking over each other with a different theory. Sora wanted to try gliding across the bridge with a really long rope, ignoring that they didn't have a rope long enough to stretch the gap. Riku thought they could freeze the water and walk across it. Kairi pointed out that they needed to conserve their magic and the spell would probably wear off before they could cast the next one. Dick tried calling the Batwing or the Batboat and when that didn't work, suggested borrowing a plane from the airport. Which, based on a quick glance, had no planes.

Jason was strangely quiet throughout. He simply stood, arms crossed, helmeted head cocked slightly. Sora stopped talking halfway through a mad plan to Firaga the Brown Bridge and hope the plants burned away before they could get poisoned ("We need to save our magic Sora," Kairi reminded him helpfully) to watch him. After another minute of silence, Jason nodded and pulled off his helmet. "Don't panic," he stated, just loud enough to be heard by everyone.

Before anyone could ask what they weren't supposed to panic about, Jason's eyes started glowing yellow through the lenses of his mask. Small black lines appeared around his mask, hairline and neck. Pulling two fingers to his mouth, he let off an ear shattering whistle which could probably be heard halfway across Gotham.

He didn't clap his hands to his ears even close to soon enough. "Hood, what…?" A great screeching sound filled the air before Sora could finish his question. A vaguely familiar screech. Looking up, he caught sight of three of the bat-like Myotises racing towards them.

AN: Loxie: Whoa. Wonder what that's about. Weird.

In case you didn't read it, Killer Croc has a bit of significance in Red Hood and the Outlaws. When Roy was being an alcoholic a few years before the story, it was Croc who picked him up and sent him to AA. So Roy is extremely grateful to Croc and wouldn't be very happy if Jason put a bullet in him.

Oh, look at that. It's Arrow!

Arrow: Hey guys! Long time no talk. I just wanted to say that we actually finished writing this story! Like, the whole thing is done and waiting to be posted! Isn't that exciting? You won't be left off at an annoyingly suspenseful part! Yay!

Loxie: Good. It was a bit touch and go for a minute there. I was worried that I'd have to take a week off of posting. *dramatic gasping*

But we didn't and now you get to keep reading and hopefully enjoying! Loxie OUT!