Well, we're in the gap years now! Thank you so much to the people who have followed the story. In this chapter, I wanted to show how serious and damaging the fight could be. I know I don't really show any symptoms other than the dream, but in my mind Mallory is suffering from PTSD. I mean, she fought Superman and almost died, so I didn't want her to be over it just because the fight is over. Also, I'm having a bit of a writers block in year two, so if anyone has some ideas for some fluff chapters, I'd love to hear them. Enjoy the chapter, and please review.
year one:
Mallory was lying on the couch watching her team train through the hallway. It had been a little over a month since the incident at the watchtower, and she'd been benched until her ribs healed. She only had another week or so to go before she could start training again, but she was restless to get started. She adjusted her position and dozed off to the familiar sounds of grunts and thuds floating in from the training room.
She was soaring through fluffy white clouds in a flock of doves. Superman flew over to her, and she smiled and kept going. They flew into the city, which suddenly turned black as night. She looked around uncertainly and saw Batman standing on the top of a skyscraper and she smiled and flew towards him. Then she saw her fire reflect off the gun in his hand. He pulled the trigger, and she looked down, shocked, to discover a gaping hole in her stomach, blood gushing out. She pressed her hands to the wound, trying to contain the blood, but it came out faster. There was so much blood, it covered her hands, her suit, her face, in her hair. She looked back up at BAtman, her eyes wide with surprise, then looked to Superman for help, but something had changed. The sky was full of dark rain clouds, and the doves had turned to crows. Without warning Superman grabbed her by her throat, his fingers tightening around her neck. She stared into his eyes, shocked, but they were gone, only two black holes stared back at er. "Clark," she gasped pleadingly, but he ignored her. Then, he threw her down from the top of the building. All the way to the pavement she could see the two haunting holes where his eyes should have been.
She hit the pavement and bolted awake, a cold sweat covering her body. The action sent shooting pains across her chest and she took a deep breath. She touched her throat gingerly, quietly gasping for breath. The bruises had faded, but the memory of fighting her mentor had left a scar that couldn't be seen.
Wally walked over and handed her a bottle of water. "The dream again?" he asked gently, concern lining his face.
She nodded and took the bottle with a shaky hand. She'd been having the same nightmare for over a month, but she never got used to it.
"Maybe you should talk to someone about it, like Canary. She really helped us after the failsafe mission," Wally suggested, sitting next to her.
Mallory held her chest and sat up straighter. "Wouldn't know what to say," she said. "Besides, I don't want Superman to know that I'm still not over fighting him."
Wally stared at her. "I'm sure he'd rather you really be over it than you pretending to be for his sake."
She shrugged and didn't say anything else. Soon, the rest of the team came in, and Black Canary followed them.
"Well, I thought you might want an update on Red Arrow," the Leaguer said.
Mallory looked up. They hadn't heard anything about Roy since he walked off the League.
"He went through Cadmus with a fine toothed comb, but he didn't find anything on the original Speedy. He followed up on some tips, but nothing panned out. He came to the League the other day to ask for help. We said we would."
It stung, that Roy would go to the League instead of the team, but Mallory shook it off. Canary left and the team sat around the living area.
"Is Isaiah coming today?" Zatanna asked after a moment.
Mallory shook her head. "He has to bring his sister somewhere." She wished he would come. Lately she'd taken to sleeping during the day when he was with her because the nightmare didn't come when he was around.
"Team, report to the mission room," Batman said over the intercom.
The team went quickly. Batman was there with a holographic screen pulled up behind him with a picture of Kobra and a map of South America on it.
"We've gotten some intel that Kobra has set up his operations on a remote island off Chile. You will observe and report, do not engage."
Kalder nodded and Mallory started to follow the team to get changed, but Batman called her back. In truth, she was a little nervous to be alone with him after just having the nightmare, but she walked over and faced him.
"You're off this mission," he said firmly.
She stared up at the dark knight. "I'm fine. My ribs are all but healed, and this is an observation mission anyway. I won't have to fight."
Batman narrowed his eyes a little, and she stopped talking. "This isn't only about that, although your ribs are enough for me to keep you. This also has to do with your dreams."
Mallory's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?" she asked, trying to pretend like she didn't know.
"You've been having nightmares since the watchtower mission."
Mallory glared to the side. Wally.
"I checked the cameras. Every time you fall asleep, you wake up either screaming or shivering, and it's carrying into your waking hours. You aren't at your best. What's going on?"
Mallory stared at him. She didn't want to tell him about her dream. She didn't know if he knew he'd shot at her, but either way she didn't feel comfortable talking to him about it.
His eyes narrowed more at her silence. "You will talk to Black Canary. There's no place on the team for someone suffering from trauma."
Mallory's attention shot back to him. "It's just some nightmares! You can't kick me off the team for dreaming! Not after I've given up everything for this team."
He glared at her, and she shut up. "If you want to be on the team so badly, you need to start acting like it. Get some help. Trauma can manifest in strange ways, and I can't have you putting the team in danger because of it."
"Oh, yeah? Are you talking from personal experience?" she asked.
He whirled around so fast she nearly jumped back, and her heart was in her throat. "Whether it is or is not is no concern of yours. Are we clear?" he said in his deadly monotone.
She tried not to gulp and nodded. He turned and stalked out of the room, leaving her thinking about him shooting her in her dream.
When the team straggled in at two in the morning from their mission, Mallory was waiting for them.
"Well?" she asked, turning the TV off and getting up. Wolf looked up when she started to walk away from him, then lazily dropped back to the floor.
"It's Kobra, all right. Problem is, we couldn't find anything suspicious about the place. No signs of Kobra venom, illegal arms, street drugs, hostages, nothing," Conner told her.
"Well, that's suspicious," Mallory muttered.
"Hate to run off right after a mission, but I've got to get on home," Rocket said.
"Yeah, me too," Artemis echoed. They zetaed off, and Conner, Zatanna, and Megan went to their rooms to go to sleep. Mallory pulled her legs up on the couch and curled them under her. She didn't want to think about sleeping.
"So, what's your next move?" she asked.
Robin sat in one of the chairs and pushed some hair out of his face. "Don't know. I planted bugs, so I guess if anything's going on there we'll hear about it soon." He looked up suddenly. "Wait, 'your'?"
Mallory nodded. "Batman put me off active duty. I'm benched until further notice."
The boys' eyes widened in surprise and Kalder and Wally sat down. "Why? You are all but healed from your encounter in the Watchtower," Kalder said.
She glared at Wally. "I know. But someone opened his big mouth to Batman, and now he thinks I'm suffering from PTSD or something."
Wally shook his head. "I didn't say anything," he said.
"Then why was Batman checking the security footage of when I'm sleeping?" she asked.
"I told him," Robin said quietly.
Mallory turned her glare to the Boy Wonder. "Why? And how did you even know?" she asked.
His face grew serious. "I've had the nightmares long enough to recognize when someone is going through something," he said.
Mallory stared at her friend. "But, you never act like it. You're always so- content," she said.
Robin shrugged. "I learned how to deal with it early on. I could tell that something wasn't right with you, so I mentioned it to Batman. I didn't think he'd bench you, though."
She sighed and let her face go slack. She couldn't blame him for worrying about her.
"If I may ask, what is it that is causing you to display these symptoms?" Kalder asked.
"It started after the Watchtower. I keep having dreams of fighting Batman and Superman, then Superman kills me."
Kalder stared at her. "I am sorry. If you had told us, perhaps we could have helped you move past this."
Mallory shrugged. "Yeah, well, don't worry about it. Thanks to Rob, I'm in Bat mandated therapy, and I'm off missions until Canary clears me."
"I'm sorry, Mal. I'd talk to him, but it wouldn't do any good."
Mallory sighed. "It's fine. I'll just have to convince Black Canary that Batman's being paranoid and I'm fine."
"Yeah, well, good luck with that," Wally muttered. Mallory glared at him, her eyes red, and he stood up. "Well, I guess that's my cue to go," he said, and sped to the zeta tube.
Kalder stood a moment later. "It is late. We should all get some rest," the leader said, and he went to his room at the cave.
Mallory winced and turned her gaze away from the rooms. Robin leaned forward, his face full of understanding.
"You want to patrol?" he asked.
Mallory looked at him. "But Batman said-"
"He said you were off missions. I wouldn't call patrolling your own city a mission. Besides, he doesn't have any authority in Metropolis."
Mallory chuckled. "Batman has authority wherever he is."
Robin shrugged. "True enough, but he can't tell you not to go out in your own city. How about it?"
She grinned. "Let me go get my suit." She met him by the zeta tubes a moment later, and they went to Metropolis.
Robin swung along as she flew through the business district. They didn't find any trouble, though, and soon stopped on a building to give Robin's arms a break. Mallory sat on the ledge and looked absently over the city.
"How do you do it?" she asked quietly.
"I focus on training, I convince myself that what I'm doing does make a difference, and I lock all the bad memories away in the back of my head and make myself not think about them," he replied.
She shut her eyes tight. "Every time I close my eyes, I see Clark's eyes when he had me by the throat. Everytime I go to sleep, I see Batman shoot me and Superman finish me off. I don't want to keep seeing it. How did you get rid of the dreams?"
He sighed heavily behind her. "I didn't."
She looked at him.
"Every time I go to sleep, I see the Joker taking out a building full of people, or Bane breaking someone in two, or Killer Croc eating someone. You don't get rid of that stuff. You just have to learn to live with it and move on. That's one of the reasons I don't sleep very often."
"Oh, Robin. You've been dealing with it all this time?"
He studied the ground, suddenly looking very young and vulnerable. "I've been doing this since I was nine, but I'm still not used to it."
Mallory pulled her friend in a hug. "That's a good thing, Rob. You don't want to end up like Batman, do you? Where you're just so callused you don't care anymore?"
She let him go and he stared at her, a ghost of a grin on his face. "You don't like him too much, do you?"
Mallory chuckled. "What gave me away?"
When the sun started to rise, Robin zetaed to Gotham, and Mallory went to the cave.