Happy Thanksgiving! It might be corny, but I have to say that I'm so thankful for all of the people who have stuck with the story this far, it's really kept me going with writing. Anyway, hope you like the chapter, please review!
Mallory's phone rang in her hand, and she answered it without taking her eyes off the screen. "Turn the news on right now," Zatanna ordered.
"Yeah, I know, I saw," Mallory replied, still staring at Blue Beetle.
"I don't know how the Reach got to him," Zatanna said.
"I do," Mallory replied, looking at Wally and her parents as she put the phone on speaker. "Green Beetle. I knew there was something I didn't like about him. Too many things just didn't add up. He was working for the Reach the whole time. Or, I guess he was being controlled by them."
"It's good to hear you being so calm about this," Zatanna commented. "I thought you would be mad enough to burn the Reach ship out of the sky."
"Aren't we all?" Mallory asked.
"Well, yeah, but most of us aren't crazy enough to try it." Her friend said it without a hint of levity in her voice, and Mallory accepted it as a fact and moved on.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything. Yet. If we can get Jaime back on our side, he'll be our key to getting the team back. All we need to do is figure out how to do it."
"Actually, we might have a way," Zatanna said.
"Already?" Wally asked.
"Well, not exactly. A few months ago Batgirl, Miss M, Wonder Girl, and Bee went on a mission to Bialiya and Batgirl found an ancient temple with hieroglyphs that look like Blue's armor. She took a virtual scan of the room and brought it to me to translate. I've been working on it on the side ever sense. I haven't gotten very far, but from what I've translated, I think it's a spell to cleanse the scarab, maybe the one that broke the Reach's control of it the first time."
"That's great! So finish translating it and let's go," Mallory said.
"It's not that simple. The translations are only a part of it, and believe me, they're hard enough. I also need to prepare for the spell, train myself for it. I might not even be able to cast it. This is going to take time."
"Z, we don't have time. We have to get the team back. We had enough to worry about when it was just Megan, and now it's everyone on top of her."
"You didn't know? Megan's here, in the Watchtower."
"What?" Mallory asked.
"Yeah, I'm ok, Mallory," Megan said.
Mallory was burning with questions, and she could tell that Wally was too, but neither of them asked anything. "Uh, ok, great. I'll meet you up there," she said, and they hung up. she looked at her parents and Wally. "I've got to go. I'll find out what I can," she said, for Wally she meant she would find out about Artemis and for her parents she meant the spell. They all nodded, understanding their part, and she hurried out the door, still in Wally's sweatshirt.
When she got to the Watchtower, the first thing she did was run to her friends and throw her arms around Megan. "I'm so glad you're ok," she said quietly.
Megan returned the hug, a little surprised. "Thanks. How's Lagaan?"
"Recovering. He'll want to see you as soon as possible. You know he wanted to go out and start looking for you as soon as he woke up? He almost beat me, Conner, and Dick, too. I guess I've been hard on him in the past. He really does care about you." Megan looked to the side guiltily, telling Mallory everything she needed to know about that situation. She turned to Zatanna. "So, what's going to happen with the spell?" she asked.
"I've asked Dr Fate to help me with it, but it's still going to take time. I think we'd do better trying to find the team on our own."
"Maybe I can detect them psychically," Megan suggested.
"Assuming they're still there. Dick said there were trace readings of boom tube activity," Mallory said.
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try. Do you want to come?" Megan asked.
Mallory winced, and Megan linked them. "Mallory, what's wrong?" she asked.
"Uh, yeah, I'm going to answer that question with a question. How's Artemis?"
Megan's eyes widened. "Does everyone know now?" she asked.
Mallory shook her head. "No, Zatanna doesn't know. Besides the original four people involved, it's just you, me, Conner, and Lagaan."
"Lagaan?"
"Megan, I wasn't kidding about him caring about you. Dick had to tell him to keep him from hurting himself trying to help you. Conner and I just happened to be in the room. But really, how are they?"
"Kaldur's healed now from the damage I did, and Artemis is ok, just really tired of being undercover. Kaldur is, too, but he's been rising in the ranks. He's met the Light, Mallory. He just needs a little more time, and we can take them down for good."
"We just need to make sure that the price isn't too high," Mallory said. "I've been dying to tell Z and the others, it's not fair to keep it from them, and I'm not exactly on speaking terms with Dick. I want to go help you look, but I really can't be around him right now. I don't know if I can forgive him for this."
"Mallory, we're a family. A family that has problems, sure, but we do not abandon each other." She cut the link and continued, "Now, our brothers are on that thing somewhere, and we need to go find them."
Zatanna nodded. "You guys go, I'll find Dr Fate and we'll get started on the translations."
Mallory and Megan gave her concerned looks. "You sure, Z?" Megan asked.
She nodded. "Absolutely. There's too much at stake to bring old wounds into the mix."
The girls split up, Mallory and Megan going to the warehouse to get the bioship and Nightwing and get back out to the Warworld.
They were there for hours, Dick piloting, Megan scanning for the team psychically, Mallory scanning for the trackers in Batgirl, Robin, and Vigilante's belts, but they got nothing. They hadn't said a word since they started out, and now Megan hit the table in front of her with exhausted frustration.
"Nothing! I'm getting nothing!" she cried. "The Warworld is so big, they could easily be out of range of the surface."
Dick rubbed the back of his neck. "We've been doing this for hours, and you're exhausted."
"I'm fine, I can do this," she snapped defensively.
"Of course, but there's no need to over-tax yourself so soon after your kidnapping. Besides, we're not giving up. We'll start over where the team first disappeared, look for a new lead."
"All right," the Martian replied dejectedly.
Mallory looked at the little Vigilante icon on her screen as Dick flew them to the docking bay, feeling like she'd failed her little brother in the worst way possible.
They got out, and Mallory and Megan watched as Dick shone his computer light over the floor, the walls, everything in the room, looking for something new. They exchanged a glance, but Mallory looked away. She still wasn't ready to make up with him. Megan sighed and looked back at the younger hero.
"Haven't you already gone over every inch of this place?" she asked.
"Yes, but I am obviously capable of missing obvious clues."
"Then why didn't you bring Jett with you? Get a fresh pair of Bat eyes on it?" Mallory asked.
"She offered to, I told her to stay as far away from the Reach and the Warworld as possible. She needs to stick to the streets," he replied.
"Why?" Megan asked.
"Because it's bad enough that I might have lost a second brother and my girlfriend. I can't lose my sister, too," he said, and Mallory looked at him, remembering who he was without the mask on. She sighed. She was still furious and hurt about what he'd done, but they were all in the same boat, he was still her friend, and they needed each other right now. She put a hand on his shoulder.
"Dick, this isn't your fault. I'm sorry I tried to make you think it was, I was just so–scared. I was so scared of losing more people, I pushed away someone that I can't live without. I never even thought about there being more than one way to lose someone."
He shook his head. "This is my fault. I should have detected that something was off with Blue after Green did the fix. And you knew there was something off about Green, and we still trusted him too much."
"That's on me," Megan said, coming over. "I vouched for him without delving deep. I was so scared of using my powers after what I did to Aqualad, I allowed Green Beetle and his scarab to feed me exactly what the Reach wanted us to believe. So Blue trusted Green and was turned, then somehow abducted the team. All on me."
"Except you never would have been in that position if I had trusted you, all of you, with the secret. I put you, Aqualad, Artemis, the whole team, in unacceptable danger."
"So, what, this is your guilt-off? Megan says she messed up, you say you messed up worse? You both made mistakes, and you both need to get over yourselves. You're not the only ones who ever messed up. We've all done things we wish we could take back, believe me, I have more than my share. Instead of wasting energy blaming yourselves for where we are, put it into the mission. We save the team, then save Blue." She smiled and looked at Dick. "As a certain 13 year old was once fond of saying, 'that's just what we do.'"
Dick smiled, recognizing the olive branch, and Megan smiled too.
"Ok, let's go get our boys," she said.
"And the others," Dick added.
"Sure," Mallory said.
They were interrupted by a horrible screeching sound, and they all got ready for a fight, watching the door. There was a bang, and then a familiar beeping. Dick scanned the door, and they all smiled and relaxed, letting Sphere in the room.
"Hey, girl," Megan said, patting her fondly. Dick and Mallory gave her a hug, too, but she turned her face to Megan.
"Knew you were the second favorite," Dick commented with a chuckle.
Mallory huffed. "And here I thought it would be me," she said playfully.
Megan's eyes widened and she backed up. "Sphere, can you take us to Superboy?" she asked.
Sphere beeped frantically and opened into the Supercycle. They all laughed.
"I think that's a yes," Dick said.
They got in, and she started moving. She brought them to a closed door with a squad of Reach soldiers trying to get in. They could hear fighting coming from the other side.
"Is he behind that door?" Megan asked. Sphere beeped again, and Dick smiled. "Well, I think we can handle this," he said, and they jumped into view and started taking out the Reach soldiers. It only took them a few minutes to get them all down, and Dick was about to go get the door open when it slid open on its own. Well, sort of. Arsenal and the Reach abductees were in front of the group, and the team, every last one of the missing people, were standing behind them, supporting each other.
Mallory ran to Peter and dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around him. The next second, she pulled Gar in, rubbing both boys' hair affectionately. She was pushed away gently, and her brother snapped on his belt, reminding her that right now, he was Vigilante, not Peter. She stood up and went to help Conner, relieving Ed of the burden.
When they got to the bioship, Dick smiled at the Reach abductees. "I think congratulations are in order. No training, no guidance and yet you pulled it off. When we get back to Earth, there might be a place for each of you on the team."
"Wow, really?" Virgil asked. Ty was less impressed.
"So, now that we saved your butts, you're cool with us not being STAR Labs' guinea pigs," he said flatly.
"Dude, chill," Virgil said.
Arsenal stepped in front of the group, facing Nightwing. "Before we head back, we need to talk about Blue Beetle. He betrayed us."
"Look who's talking!" Karen said from the entry.
Mallory, Dick, and Megan looked at her.
"Last thing I remember is you blowing an airlock without warning. Nearly got us all killed and absolutely guaranteed our capture."
Mallory and Dick narrowed their eyes, but the Leaguer took a step back, letting the team's leader handle the situation by himself.
"Hey, after eight years on ice, there's no way I was getting grabbed again!" Arsenal yelled, walking over to her. "And in case you hadn't noticed, my escape resulted in you being free now to stand here and complain. So how about a thank you?"
Nightwing walked over, standing behind the newest team membner. "You're right, Arsenal. Thank you. And when we get back, you're off the team."
Arsenal narrowed his eyes.
"Wait a minute," Ty said, and Virgil said, "if it wasn't for Arsenal we wouldn't have rescued anyone."
"That may be," Dick said, his voice firm, "but this isn't the first time he's pulled this kind of stunt. Intentionally endangering the lives of teammates in order to further his own agenda or guard against his personal demons. It's unacceptable. So until you prove yourself a team player, you have no place on this team. Now let's get aboard and get out of here. We can discuss this further when we're not behind enemy lines."
The abductees and Arsenal didn't move. "Sounds like there's nothing left to discuss," Ed said, and Virgil added, "see, we don't need your help getting back to Earth, or your offer to join the team. We have our own way of doing things."
"What do you say, bro? Want to ride with us?" Ty asked.
Arsenal smiled and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
Asami pulled out a box and held it out in her palm. "Home, please," she said.
Mallory's heart dropped when she heard the beep, and she lunged forward. "Wait, is that a–" she was cut off by the boom tube, and the teens dropped into it.
"What was it? A motherbox?" Dick asked.
Mallory looked at the floor where they disappeared, her face grim as she relived the memories associated with that box.
"No, it was a Fatherbox. It was from Apokalyps."