Chapter Twenty Nine

Bloody, Bruised and Beaten Up

The ringing in her ears was the first thing Morgan noticed as she woke up. Then the wind lashing at her face.

She opened her eyes and shook her disoriented head before realizing that she was in the middle of a deadly crash into the forest below.

Letting out a surprised gasp, she spread her wings out to brake her fall as best as she could. Unfortunately, she'd already gained too much momentum to stop completely and she fell roughly through the roof of leaves, breaking several branches as she tumbled her way down, landing with a thud on the ground.

The girl let out a prolonged groan where she lay, face first, on the moss-covered ground.

Disoriented and having momentarily forgotten what was going on, Morgan lay there for a few moments, waiting for the tinnitus-like ringing in her ears to stop. Her entire body ached from the explosion blast and then the rough tumble through the trees.

Eventually lifting her dizzy head, she squinted through blurry eyes to look around her.

The first thing she saw was the lack of mountain. In its stead was a gaping hole, surrounded by a wall of fire. She could smell smoke in the air as her muddled mind tried to piece together what was going on.

Suddenly, like a bucket of ice cold water, realization crashed down on her and her eyes widened as she sprang to her feet. She lost her balance and fell on her behind immediately, but she simply got up again and charged through the wood on unsteady legs.

Seeing the trees ending abruptly in front of her, she realized she'd reached the end of the wood, and now found herself standing in front of complete destruction. The mountain had been absolutely leveled and she had to allow herself a small moment to just stare in absolute shock.

The ground was covered in debris and, in front of her, surrounding by rocks and small fires, was Mal, frantically digging through the mess. She had no idea when he had arrived, but she was so relieved to see him. She wasn't alone.

"Mal!" Morgan attempted to shout, but her voice was hoarse, her throat raw from smoke and her lungs empty on air from the frantic run and the fall she'd been through.

She coughed once as she stumbled closer to the man. "Mal!" She cried again, this time louder.

He heard her and turned swiftly around. "Morgan!" He exclaimed in relief and hugged the girl to him before she had the chance to react.

"Please tell me everyone else is okay!" His dark eyes were wide with panic as he spoke and he shook her by her upper arms.

The others..

Morgan finally felt the last pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

Nightwing!

"Oh my god.." She felt tears well in her eyes. "Nightwing and Superboy.." She mumbled.

They couldn't be..?

Could they?

"I don't know." She shook her head, the first tear leaking down her face. "Oh god, Mal, I don't know."

Mal looked crestfallen and dropped his arms, slumping over.

He paused when a new sound reached his ears.

Morgan picked it up a moment later. "Is that..?"

"Sphere!" Mal cried, pointing out over the water.

The sentient ball was way out in the water, calling out to the two people on land.

As Mal pulled his jacket off and raced towards the water, jumping in immediately, Morgan took off in the air.

Because she was faster than him, she saw the two unconscious boys first.

Nightwing was there. And he wasn't moving. His limp body was slung carelessly over the front of the flying motorbike, his wet hair plastered across his forehead and framed his slack features.

A great wave suddenly washed over the machine and her mentor slipped into the water.

And Morgan completely panicked.

"Nightwing!" She screeched and plummeted head-first into the water after him.

The water was cold and uncomfortable and even though it hurt, she forced her eyes to stay open as she looked for her mentor. His dark-clad body was slowly sinking deeper into the black depths of the sea below and Morgan did her best to swim after him.

Her hand grasped onto the shoulder plate of his suit and she would've let out a cry of relief if she hadn't been underwater.

She tugged him upwards until she had a firm grip around his chest from behind, and started kicking at the water to get them both to the surface. But it was slow progress and Morgan wasn't a very good swimmer and she was running out of air and she was injured from the explosion and it felt like her wings were dragging her down and oh god please, somebody save him.

How absolutely cruel. She mused quietly as she felt herself and Nightwing, despite her best attempts, slowly sink, her mind forced into tranquility as she quickly ran out of oxygen. The things that were supposed to help me off the ground are the ones dragging me down.

Morgan clutched Nightwing's still body closer to her chest. As she felt her eyes being to drift close, a dark hand suddenly shot into her line of sight and grabbed hold of the front of her suit, pulling her upwards.

Her muddled brain registered that it was Mal, and, right before she reached the surface, she mentally thanked him for saving Nightwing's life.

Air rushed into her lungs when she broke the surface, and Morgan took in deep gulps of it, feeling like a starved man at a buffet.

"What were you thinking?!" Mal shouted angrily. He was supporting Nightwing's unconscious form in one arm and he shook Morgan with the other.

She blinked blearily at him. "I-"

She wasn't sure what she'd been thinking, to be honest. She'd been driven by the panicked and desperate need to save Nightwing's life.

And even now, she wasn't sure if he wasn't dead.

"Is he alive?" She croaked out, glad that she was soaked so Mal couldn't see that she had tears streaming down her face.

He held a hand to Nightwing's chin, feeling for a pulse. "Yeah. He's fine. He-"

Sphere let out a loud, sorrowful sound and sunk deeper into the water.

"She's sinking!" Morgan shouted. Now that she knew Nightwing was safe, she felt her common sense return somewhat. Her panic subsided, replaced with survival instincts.

"Superboy!" Mal shouted, trying to wake the unconscious boy up. "Connor! Wake up!"

Morgan splashed a small stream of water at the man and he immediately woke up. "Wha-?" He mumbled, disoriented.

"Questions later, man!" Mal quickly said. "You gotta grab Wolf, Sphere is sinking!"

"Uh, right. Right." Connor immediately sprang into action and grabbed hold of Wolf right as Sphere let out a last sorrowful sound before disappearing beneath the waves.

"Will Sphere be okay?" Mal asked Connor as he approached him and Morgan.

"Uh, yeah, I think so." He responded. "She folds up to heal."

He looked over at their unconscious leader and Morgan followed his eyes, worry still clenching at her heart when he didn't wake up.

She needed him to be okay.

He had to be okay.

"Can you make it to shore with Nightwing?" Superboy asked worriedly.

"Sure," Mal promised. "I got him."

He leveled that last statement at Morgan as if to reassure her that he wouldn't let Nightwing drown.

She still hadn't stopped crying.

The three of them slowly made it to shore, Morgan feeling the effects the explosion and her fall had had on her body more and more as they kept going.

She knew every single part of her body was going to be bruised and tender for the next few days.

But it didn't matter. She'd trade a thousand bruises for Nightwing's life.

As long as he was alive, everything was okay.

As long as he was fine, she'd be fine.

The moment Captain Atom, Green Arrow and Black Canary arrived to see the damage; the four youngsters were sent to the Hall of Justice.

They only had to take one look at the four drenched kids, Nightwing still unconscious, carried by Mal, Morgan covered in sooth and bleeding from several small cuts on her body, and Connor worrying over Wolf, standing amidst the wreckage of what had once been their base, to know that the four of them had had enough for one night. All they needed was to get somewhere safe and warm.

Captain Atom led them to the Hall while Green Arrow and Black Canary stayed behind to inspect the scene for an official report.

The four people involved would have to give their own statements tomorrow, once they were well enough.

But tonight, they were bruised and tired and miserable.

After getting over her initial fear of losing Nightwing, Morgan realized that she'd lost something else.

Her home.

An entire mountain had been obliterated in a matter of seconds, taking with it all the things Morgan had done to turn it into a home for her. The only thing left behind was the memories and a deep wound of sorrow that ached in her chest.

The Hall of Justice was a huge hunk of a building and as they entered it was, even this late at night, still being visited by tourists.

"The exhibit is closed for tonight." Captain Atom spoke up, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.

Not that he needed to get their attention. The second the five heroes had stepped through the door – four walking, one being carried to Morgan's everlasting anxiety because why wasn't he waking up – disheveled and injured, water still dripping from their clothes onto the ground, every single tourist in the room had turned to look at them.

"Please leave immediately." He'd added and all the civilians respectfully headed towards the exit, most of them shooting concerned glances at the limp Nightwing in Captain Atom's arms.

His arm was dangling of the side of his body, rocking back and forth with each step his carrier took, and Morgan, not realizing herself, picked it up and gingerly placed it across his chest. Mal sent her a weird look but she kept her eyes firmly planted on her feet in front of her with embarrassment.

Why did I do that? She asked herself with wide, confused eyes. It wasn't like that stupid arm was harming anybody!

They stepped through the rooms that served as tourist attractions and as the automatic steel doors slipped shut behind them, Morgan found herself in a large, blessedly private and quiet room. There was a table in the middle, the walls covered in computers and bookshelves.

Directly at the other end of the room, there was a new door, identical to the one to their left.

"Do you need medical attention, Superboy?" Captain Atom asked.

Connor shook his head. "I'm already healed up."

"Mal?"

"I wasn't near the explosion. I came afterwards. No damage done."

Captain Atom looked at the boy in his arms and then at the girl standing beside him, looking beaten up and in pain.

"You two are going to the infirmary." He told her. "You two," He trained his eyes onto Connor and Mal. "Stay if you want. Otherwise you're free to go home."

Which home?

"Will he be alright?" Connor indicated for Nightwing. Apparently, neither boy was keen on leaving until they knew their leader was going to be okay.

Captain Atom weighted the teen in his arms for a moment. "He'll be fine."

He didn't wait for them to reach a further decision as he continued his long strides across the room. He swerved left and Morgan followed after him, practically jogging to keep up. She shot a last look over her shoulder and met the eyes of first Connor and then Mal.

Their looks were as sad as hers.

In the infirmary, he placed Nightwing on a sickbed and hooked him up to a machine that monitored his heartbeat and brain activity.

He asked Morgan to take a seat on her own sickbed and she slowly sat herself down on the one directly next to Nightwing's, watching in anxiety as Captain Atom reached a verdict on his situation.

"He should wake up any moment now." the Captain assured her, looking at a small x-ray screen next to Nightwing's bed. "No broken bones, thankfully."

He picked up her mentor's head and felt along his scalp. "There is a large bump here, probably caused by some of the flying debris. I think he might have a minor concussion, but that's the only thing wrong with him."

Morgan swallowed dryly and fought against those stupid, stupid tears that kept welling up for no reason at all and nodded robotically, thankful beyond measure that her mentor was okay.

Apparently done with Nightwing already, he stepped up to her and asked her to lie down. "You're another story entirely, however." He suddenly spoke up after she'd lain down on the cot and let him x-ray her body.

"Three cracked rips and a sprained wrist."

Well, that explained the pain she got in her chest when she breathed. And the pounding in her wrist.

She'd ignored both of them, too worried about her mentor to consider her own injuries, but now that she knew he was safe, the pain abruptly demanded her attention and she winched at it.

He set to binding her left hand, explaining that she needed to let it rest for a few weeks to make sure it healed properly.

He'd only just finished wrapping it up when there was a pained groan from the other bed. Nightwing was slowly sitting up, clutching his forehead to ward of his – undoubtedly – fierce headache.

"Nightwing!" Morgan shouted for the – okay she'd lost count of how many times she'd yelled his named tonight – and jumped off the bed she was sitting on.

"Oh shit." The movement jostled her rapidly smarting ribs and she hissed out before losing her balance, leaving Captain Atom to catch her around her right upper arm.

As soon as she was pulled upright again, she dashed forward again, ignoring the pain and launched herself at her mentor, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

He was probably still disoriented or something because he immediately returned her hug, a hand coming up to hold her head, digging into wild curls.

"Oh my god, I thought you were going to die!" She worried after pulling back, big, wet, grey eyes staring at his unharmed face.

"I'm fine." He reassured her. "What happened? Where are the others?"

Captain Atom placed a hand on Morgan's shoulder, gently pulling her a few steps away from her mentor.

After checking Nightwing to make sure the concussion wasn't a big deal – he passed the test easily, knowing his name and birth date and all that stuff – the Captain explained what he knew.

"I'm not sure about the details on your part, but after we arrived at the site, you were brought to the Hall of Justice, where you are right now. I suspect Connor and Mal already left. They were both unharmed."

"You've been out for roughly half an hour, forty minutes." Morgan supplied. "Sphere had brought you and Connor and Wolf into the water and Mal saved you from drowning."

She didn't mention how she'd jumped in after him first and almost gotten herself drowned in the process. He didn't need to know that she'd panicked like that.

Captain Atom suddenly seemed to remember that Morgan was still there, still injured, and still standing up despite this.

"You need to sit down, Morgan." He reprimanded.

Morgan did as he asked and sat down on her own sickbed, allowing Captain Atom to inspect the various cuts she had around her body.

Nightwing was already sitting up on his own cot, legs hanging off the side, and he frowned, only now noticing the condition his team mate was in. "Are you okay?" He asked. To be honest, he'd been too relieved that she'd somehow managed to get away to actually notice her injuries.

"I'm.." She hissed when Captain Atom prodded at one of her cracked rips. "Hallo, det der det gør ondt!"1

Upon her strange words, the silver man aimed a confused look at Nightwing, who just shrugged. "She does that."

"Morgan, I'm going to need you take the upper part of the suit off so I can properly inspect your ribs." He explained. "Do you need anything to cover up with?"

"I'm wearing a sports bra underneath, it's fine." She responded before slowly pulling the thing off.

Nightwing swallowed dryly when she was suddenly sitting with nothing but a black sports bra to cover her upper body, right in front of him. However, the, uh, view, was greatly ruined by the fact that she had large, dark bruises covering most of her abdomen and sides.

"Jesus, Morgan, what did you do?" He asked sympathetically.

She winched when Captain Atom prodded at another rip. "I was in the air when the explosion happened. Was probably a bit too close because the shockwave momentarily knocked me out." She explained, digging her nails into her palms to keep from crying out at the other man's inspection on her poor rips. "When I regained consciousness, it was too late and I crash landed in the wood. I kind of fell through a bunch of trees and I think that might've messed my rips up a bi – Jesus Christ!"

She let out a yelp as Captain Atom apparently finished up. "Thankfully, they're only bruised. They'll heal over time." He revealed. "But you need to let them rest. Which means," He trained a stern look at Morgan and then Nightwing. "No training for at least three weeks."

Nightwing nodded solemnly. He'd need to work through his own concussion before he could do anything either way. That wouldn't take three weeks, however.

Morgan groaned as she pulled her suit back on. "Three weeks?"

"Three weeks." Captain Atom repeated.

He quickly looked her small wounds over. "None of them are very deep. They'll heal naturally." He concluded.

He stood up straight and looked at the two teenagers. "I'll leave you to rest. Morgan, do you have someplace to go now that the Cave is gone?"

Morgan's eyes widened. "No." She realized. "I mean, I have my mother's place, but she can't see me like this! She'll never be able to stop worrying for my safety." She fretted and pulled at her hair, clearly not knowing what to do.

"She'll stay at my place." Nightwing suddenly spoke up.

Morgan blinked. "I will?"

"Yes."

"Oh." She paused. "Okay then. Thanks."

The Captain looked at the two of them carefully for a moment. "It's decided then. You can leave when you fell you're well enough."

The tall man walked out of the room, the doors sliding shut with a hiss behind him.

Nightwing slowly slid off the sickbed, winching as every muscle in his body seemed to ache.

"Where are you going?" Morgan asked as she gradually pulled herself further onto the sickbed and settled against the large, white pillow behind her, grimacing as she moved her body around.

"I'm getting painkillers." He revealed. "Want any?"

"Yes please."

Nightwing paused as he spotted the thing around her neck, not understanding how he hadn't seen it before.

She still had a collar on.

"Want me to remove that?" He asked, motioning for the thing.

Morgan looked down as if only just noticing it herself too. "Oh. Sure." She said as he pulled out a small screwdriver and set to dismantling the thing.

"Why didn't you remove this earlier?" He questioned. They were both sitting on her bed, Morgan with her side to him, neck bent to the side as she held her hair away from his work, allowing him better access.

"I had the remote but I lost it in the explosion and then I kind of forgot the collar was there."

The collar finally shut down and opened with a small 'pop' and Nightwing slipped off from around her neck. "There you go."

"Thanks." She sat up straight again.

"Now I'm getting painkillers."

He found the small pills and swallowed two before handing Morgan the same doze.

Nightwing slipped out of the room as soon as the painkillers started working.

He had a flash drive he needed to take a close look at.

March 24th

The painkillers had greatly dulled the aching in her entire body and after a couple of hours, Morgan grew bored of staring up at the white ceiling. Nightwing had left after half an hour, saying that he, as the leader of the Team, had to relay what had happened and file the report.

She slowly slipped out of the bed, halfway expecting Captain Atom to appear out of nowhere and yell at her for getting up already.

Well, she was a grown woman who got to make her own decisions and if she wanted to get up already, tough.

She walked slowly down the hall, trying to ignore the spiral her thoughts had been in since Nightwing had left the room.

Now that she'd distanced herself slightly from the situation, Morgan had to acknowledge just how extreme her reaction had been to her leader getting injured. And the fact that she'd wanted to not only hug him when he woke up, but also straight-out kiss him right on the mouth was a fact Morgan couldn't ignore either. As much as she tried to ignore it.

She was unwilling to admit it, but Morgan realized that, somewhere along the way in the past few months, she'd somehow started to develop feelings for her mentor.

I'm so screwed. She mentally told herself several times as she kept her slow stroll down the dark hallway, wishing she had a little more light to go on.

How could she have allowed this to happen? She'd guarded her feelings near constantly since she joined the Team. For the first month, she had refused to get attached to anyone on the Team. Then, after befriending them, she'd instead made sure that she didn't start developing feelings for anyone on the Team. She knew how complicated it would make things.

But then, right under her nose, she'd apparently still managed to do so.

And it just had to have been Nightwing of all people.

Of all the people on the Team, she'd chosen to develop feelings for the one that was unreachable.

Morgan paused when, around the corner, she heard a new door slid open and allow someone entrance to the large room they'd arrived in first.

"What. Happened?" The new voice asked and Morgan recognized Wally West, though he wasn't usually sporting such an angry tone.

"It was necessary." Nightwing responded.

A foreboding feeling pooled into Morgan's stomach. What were they talking about?

"It better have been." The ginger growled. "Spill!"

"Aqualad needed to help us find a way to rescue Lagoon Boy.." Nightwing started. "He'd already injected a microscopic tag into La'gaan's bloodstream. And he used the raid on the cave to pass essential intel."

What?

"A flash drive with, among other things, a tracking-software that can locate the tech."

"Like that's all he did." Wally angrily responded, his furious tone not matching Nightwing's annoyingly calm one.

"Wally, he had to make it look good." Morgan heard a chair's legs scrape against the steel floor and knew Nightwing had gotten up too. "He put inhibitor collars on us but he knew I'd get us out of them!"

"He took three more hostages! Members of your team!"

"And we'll rescue them when we rescue Lagoon Boy!"

Her eyes widened and Morgan pressed herself against the steel wall in the dark hall, feeling her heart pound in her chest at a rapid pace.

All this time..

Nightwing had been playing them all this time. Lying and deceiving.

"Dick, he blew up the Cave! You guys almost died!" Wally roared.

"No!" Nightwing protested. "It's all on the Flash drive. He knew I'd have to pursue to make it look legit and what's exactly what happened. He gave us time to get out. We just.." He paused, letting out a small sigh. "We got caught in the debris field in the explosion."

I risked my life in that explosion! Morgan mentally raged, feeling anger boil in her stomach.

"Do you even hear yourself? What if even one of you had been left behind, huh?" Wally immediately shot back. Morgan was happy to know that he at least could see how bad the situation had been, unlike Nightwing. "Why take that risk? Why go to such extremes?"

"The drive explains that too.." Nightwing responded tiredly. Morgan was getting tired of hearing about that flash drive. Why, just because Aqualad, who was apparently now a traitor after all, had put a few excuses on a flash drive, did Nightwing suddenly forgive everything? "He needed to cement his position with the Light, and the Light's partner."

Is that was this was all about? Morgan raged internally. Learning the identity of the Light's partner?

She kept her mouth shut and pressed herself further against the wall, glad for the wall that separated her and the two arguing males. If they knew she was here, they'd stop talking and Morgan would never know what was going on.

"Wasn't that why he 'murdered' Artemis?" Wally angrily pointed out.

Did that mean..?

"I guess it didn't convince everyone." Nightwing tiredly admitted.

"You guess?!" Wally exploded.

"The Cave is - was just a place! Worth sacrificing if it helps stop the invasion!" Nightwing shouted, finally fed up with Wally's anger.

Morgan felt betrayed by his words. Sure, to him it had just been some place where he trained and delegated missions.

But so her and several of the others, it had been a home.

"Look, I'm sorry you lost all your souvenirs-"

"Are you serious?!" Wally raged and Morgan could hear him push Nightwing away. "I don't care about that junk! I'm worried about Artemis! Terrified for her! You put her right into his hands!"

Artemis was alive?

The news should've made Morgan whoop with joy, but all it really did was add fuel to her rage.

Nightwing had let them all think she had died!

Morgan had mourned for her!

She had to physically restrain herself from going in there and straight out punch her mentor in the face.

"Wally, we're talking about Kaldur here!" Nightwing defended.

"I know. Kaldur, our friend." Wally calmly responded, though his tone was still dark and venomous. "Who, in the space of a few months, lost the love of his life and found out Black Manta was his father."

Aqualad wasn't evil. Morgan attempted to wrap her head around this. Aqualad was working for the Team behind enemy lines. Aqualad was a double agent.

"Isn't it possible that Aqualad might actually be a traitor? A triple agent?" Wally wondered. "He's supposed to be playing them. But are you absolutely sure he isn't playing you?"

Nightwing didn't respond for a long while.

Morgan held her breath, wanting him, needing him to tell Kid Flash that of course Kaldur was working for them. Morgan needed that reassurance.

But he didn't.

Instead he sighed and said, "We need to trust him, Wally. That's all we can do."

She heard Wally sigh before darkly adding. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Then she heard the doors slid shut again and Wally leave via Zeta tube.

The chair scraped against the floor again and Morgan momentarily panicked when she heard Nightwing approach the dark hall she was in.

Somehow managing to not make a sound, she bound for the infirmary again, blood pumping furiously in her ears, her eyes seeing red in her anger.

How could she, even for a short disillusioned moment, think that she had feelings for her mentor?

He was a cold-hearted, calculating robot.

She couldn't even be sure she knew him. Not really.

Because if he'd been lying so convincingly about this one thing, how could she be sure he hadn't been acting in everything else either. How could she know that he hadn't played up to her exactly right to make her trust him? To gain her loyalty?

She hated him.

Morgan hated Nightwing.

She growled to herself as she had to stop herself from wrecking the infirmary in her anger. He couldn't know that she'd found out.

Not yet. She had to put a lid on her anger, at least until they were somewhere more private where she could demand answers.

She quickly jumped onto her bed and sat as she'd been sitting before.

Like hell she was going to stay at his apartment now.

But she didn't have much of a choice, did she?

Morgan groaned slightly to herself as she realized that she had two options: Stay at Nightwing's apartment or arrive at four AM at her mother's place, bloody, bruised and beaten up. And then her mother would spend the rest of her life worrying over her daughter being in danger.

Morgan couldn't do that to her. She'd rather force herself to stay at his place even though she'd have to fight the urge to punch him for the duration of that time.

She'd rather sleep a night on the streets than let her mom see her like this.

Going to her place was not an option. And neither was sleeping on the streets.

Morgan sighed as she resigned herself to her fate. She'd just have to deal until living arrangements were made for her and the others.

1. "Hey, that hurts!"

Not much to add. Quite an emotional rollercoaster Morgan's been on, huh? And we're finally inching towards more romantic stuff. Yay. Excited to read when she chews him out next chapter? We all know Morgan isn't exactly know for her subtlety, so it's gonna get explosive.

Fun fact: If I don't hurry and post this NOW, I'm gonna be late for work.