Chapter Forty

Of the Light

It had stopped raining when she got outside, still looking around for the other woman. A large, black car stopped by the sidewalk and Morgan could see Doctor Robbins peak out of the window, waving frantically at her.

Morgan took a deep, steeling breath and walked briskly towards the car, pulling open the passenger door and slipping inside. Her heart lodged itself in her throat when she snapped the door shut behind her, feeling like she'd reach a point of no return.

The car took off, disappearing around a corner a few seconds later. Morgan did what she could to attempt keeping up with where they were, so she could update Nightwing if necessary.

Turning her head to watch the woman driving, Morgan found herself strangely void of the anger she'd felt when she had talked to her dad. It confused her a bit. The two of them had been working together, after all. But there was something soft about Fathiya. She was acting like she was afraid of something, which instantly made Morgan feel bad for her.

As they drove on, Morgan remembered that she needed to update Nightwing on her whereabouts. She leaned further against the window and tried to spot some sort of street sign, as she wasn't even entirely sure where she was herself.

She'd lived in Gotham all of her life, but she'd never been much in the rich part. The place was only vaguely familiar.

Spotting a street sign, she slumped slightly in her seat and murmured its name, hoping Fathiya wouldn't notice.

The older woman looked briefly at her but otherwise didn't have any reaction.

Ten minutes later, Nightwing finally spoke. "Alright, Morgan. I'm here. Can you hear me?"

She wanted to point out that she couldn't bloody well answer his question while sitting next to Fathiya, but she kept her mouth shut.

Hopefully he'd, with that supposedly brilliant brain of his – okay, not supposedly, it was pretty brilliant – figure this out for himself.

"Clear your throat twice if you can hear me." He offered a moment later.

Morgan cleared her throat twice, once again gaining the attention of the woman driving. Not entirely sure how else to proceed, Morgan simply glared at her until she looked away.

The scare tactic seemed to be the only thing Morgan did well.

Eventually, the car slowed down. Morgan looked around and realized she knew where they were. Fathiya had left the nice part of Gotham and was currently parking her car in a dingy alleyway that Morgan and Nightwing had once fought an attempted gang bang in. Morgan felt a small smirk graze her lips when she remembered knocking several teeth from the mouth of one of the men, with a trash can lid.

"This way." Doctor Robbins stiffly said as she pulled her coat tighter around her shoulder and looked from side to side to make sure they weren't being followed.

"Why are we in the poor part of Gotham?" Morgan asked, trying to help Nightwing get a clue on their whereabouts. At least now he kind of had a vague general direction.

"To get away from.. some people." Fathiya answered, still looking around with wide, paranoid eyes. "Now, follow me."

Morgan went after the woman, but had to stop and shrug off her heels when she couldn't keep up with the brisk pace.

She held her shoes in one hand and lifted her skirt off the ground with the other, dashing after the much taller woman.

"Can't you give me more than that?" She heard Nightwing complain. She was pretty sure he'd deny to the end of his life that it was complaining, but Morgan could tell that he was, in fact, complaining.

"Not right now, you idiot." She hissed under her breath, hoping he could hear her.

"You're exhibiting quite a lot of attitude considering I'm your backup." He responded. Morgan wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

To her surprise, Fathiya stopped in front of a bar of all places. She looked briefly back at Morgan to make sure she was still following, and motioned with a hand before disappearing through the door herself.

Morgan wrinkled her nose at the place. She could smell the alcohol and pee already. She didn't want to know what the place smelled like inside. A small crowd of people were standing outside smoking like chimneys, and their smoke mixed excellently with the other stenches, making the girl slightly gag. A guy, obviously spotting the girl that was dressed for a gala, whistled at her, and she gave him a withering glare.

"Keep walking, creepo." She told him.

He raised his hands in defeat, slurring, "Whatever, man."

"She's taken me to a bar." Morgan told her mentor, using this small moment to properly talk to him without Fathiya hearing.

"A what?" Was his surprised reply. "She knows you're not even old enough to drink, right?"

Morgan rolled her eyes. "What's that got to do with anything? I'm pretty sure we're not here to drink."

"So what's the name of the place?" He went on, getting their conversation back on track.

Morgan shrugged before realizing he couldn't see the movement. She opened her mouth to answer, but Fathiya reappeared in the doorway, having apparently noticed that Morgan hadn't followed her inside.

She sighed and squared her shoulders, following Fathiya.

"Morgan-"

"I can't talk right now." She immediately dismissed Nightwing, glad that the loud music was blocking out her voice so the other woman couldn't hear.

Fathiya led her to a small booth at the very back of the room, secluded and not easily noticed.

"So, why a bar?" She immediately asked as she slipped into her seat, pretty sure she'd find grease stains on her dress tomorrow.

"When hiding, do so in plain sight." The other woman answered. They were hiding now? "It's easy to get lost in a crowd, and nobody will attempt to hurt us here. It's too public."

Morgan frowned and leaned in closer. "Who'd try to hurt us?"

Fathiya retreated into herself at Morgan's question. She shook her head and watched the younger girl for a second. "I'll get us a drink. After many years of working in a business, I've learned that one does talk far better over a beverage."

Before Morgan could protest, the other woman had slipped away, leaving her alone.

"Morgan, talk to me." Or, well, sort of alone. She still had Nightwing in her ear.

"Fathiya's gone to get us drinks." Morgan spoke up. "So we can talk now."

"What ever you do, don't drink anything she gives you. She could be trying to drug you."

Somehow, Morgan doubted that the woman was plotting to drug her, but she still promised him to not drink anything.

"Now give me your location."

"We're in a bar in the poor part of Gotham." She tried to give him more to go on; there were lots of bars in Gotham's lower class. "Uh, it's got a red and green neon sign outside. It's a fairly small place. Very run-down. Smells horribly."

"That's all very well and good, but I kinda need a name."

"I don't know what its name is." She shot back.

"But you just said you saw a neon sign outside?"

"Yes, but I couldn't read it."

A pause. "..why?"

"Because some moron decided to design a neon sign with red writing on a green background." Before he could reach the conclusion himself, Morgan sighed harshly and provided the answer. "And I'm red-green colorblind."

"You're what? Why didn't you tell me before!"

"It's never really been an issue 'til now, has it?" She hissed back fiercely, not seeing how this could possibly be her fault.

"Alright, alright!" He relented. "Just, uh, ask Doctor Robbins. I need that location."

"Will do." She agreed. "She's coming back. I'll try to get the name out of her."

"I'll be waiting."

"And Nightwing?"

"Yes?"

"Try to relax. Seriously, I'm not a total rookie."

Morgan could hear him sigh, but he didn't respond.

Fathiya set a glass of coke in front of Morgan, and a beer in front of herself.

Morgan debated how to best ask the name of the place. In the end, she assumed simply asking would be the least suspicious approach.

"So.. fancy place.. What did you say it was called?"

Fathiya studied her for a moment, her dark eyes roaming around Morgan's face. "I didn't. But I don't suppose it's a secret per se. The bar's name is The Leprechaun."

"They called a bar The Leprechaun?" Morgan pronounced the name extra loudly to make sure Nightwing could hear.

"Got it." He immediately responded, and Morgan thought she could hear an engine rev to life.

Man, this double conversation thing was hard.

Fathiya nodded, still studying her. "You're gotten so big.." She mumbled.

Morgan felt like scowling. But she kept her face fairly neutral. "You said we had a lot to talk about." She injected instead of answering.

Fathiya nodded. "It's about.. Well, about the work your father and I did."

Morgan nodded and learned forward, placing her elbows on the sticky table. "So, go on."

"Originally, I hadn't planned to approach you, but now that your father already did.." She sighed. "Well, I see no reason to hide. How much did he tell you?"

"Just that the two of you used your own daughters to experiment on." Morgan shrugged. She smirked slightly, her eyes glinting dangerously. "I didn't exactly let him finish speaking. I kicked him in the face before he could tell me much."

Fathiya pressed her lips together. "He didn't tell you much, no. But unlike he, I find that telling somebody the truth can protect them more than lying."

She shuffled closer to Morgan, scanning the room quickly before turning her eyes back onto the girl. "The story is much more complicated than two scientists simply trying to create something new. We weren't acting on our own orders."

Morgan raised both eyebrows in surprise, already finding herself hanging onto every word the woman spoke.

"He never told you who we worked for, did he?" Fathiya asked with a vague tone of sympathy.

Morgan shook her head, feeling dread pool into her stomach.

Fathiya leaned even further over the table, lowering her voice to a whisper. "We were working for the Light."

Morgan felt her mouth drop open on its own accord.

The Light?

The people currently cooperating with an alien invasion?

The Team's current worst enemy?

They were responsible for her wings?

She jerked back instinctively and turned a fiery glare onto the other woman. Fathiya sighed tiredly and leaned back in her seat, taking a long sip from her beer. It occurred to Morgan that this woman might be an actual enemy, and she eyed her with suspicion.

Fathiya set the drink back down onto the table and studied Morgan again for several long seconds. She appeared to be waiting for the teenager to speak up.

"Why?" Was all she could think so ask.

Fathiya played with the golden bracelet around her left wrist as she contemplated her answer. "Back then, a lot of new heroes were starting to appear all around the world. The Light was afraid their plans for the future would be ruined because the resisting force would be too big. So they decided to try and create some super humans of their own. Henrik and I were new in the field back then. Young and eager. Both ready to change the world."

She cocked her head to the side as she looked at Morgan. "Your father.. Well, he was a very driven man. He knew he was brilliant and meant to do great things. So when he was given the chance to work on a project like this, he didn't look back."

Morgan frowned at Fathiya. She didn't like talking about her father, and she found it strange to sit across this relatively unknown woman, who apparently knew him much better than Morgan did.

"Eager to please, I agreed with everything he did. I didn't question. And if I did, I kept quiet about it."

"Why?" Morgan spoke up after having stayed silent for several seconds. "Why would you let him do something like that to his own daughter? To your daughter?"

"Because.." Fathiya looked away, her eyes growing distant. "Because I loved him."

Morgan was pretty sure her chest was going to explode at this point. There were too many secrets being unraveled. Too many horrible secrets.

"I was afraid of losing him, so I went along for as long as I could." Fathiya went on, looking regretful and hurt. "But I couldn't keep going. So I got out. I got Rachel and I out. He kept going. And then, after ten years of nothing happening, the Light declared the experiments a failure and sent your father back to Denmark, where he was set to working on other projects for them. Until his experimenting was discovered and he was thrown in jail."

Morgan's head was absolutely reeling as she listening to Fathiya's words.

"So.. So what happened then?" She asked, hating how small her voice was. "Why did he come back?"

Fathiya ran a hand over her short, curly hair. "Prison changed him, it seems. He contacted me. Said he was sorry. He claimed he wanted to see you again."

Something else occurred to Morgan. She sat up straighter in her seat. "How did he even know about my wings?"

Fathiya looked confused for a moment. "Your wings?"

Morgan remembered that she couldn't actually see her wings. She hoped she hadn't just screwed up by saying more than she should've said.

"Yeah.. They're hidden right now. By a charm."

Morgan could hear her mentor protest in her ear at Morgan telling the Doctor these things, but she ignored him.

Fathiya was obviously shocked. "I'd thought.."

Morgan, acting on an impulse, reached for the other woman's hand and guided it to her back, where her currently invisible wings were folded.

Fathiya's eyes widened when she touched a feather, her hand briefly closing around the tip of Morgan's right wing.

"So it worked on you as well.."

"As well?" Morgan raised both eyebrows.

Fathiya shook her head to clear it. "Rachel.. She – when she was nine."

"She started growing wings too, right?" Morgan realized. "When she was nine?"

Fathiya nodded. "We.. we had them removed. My husband.. He's a surgeon. We didn't want the Light to discover them."

Morgan's eyes widened again. She hadn't even thought that was possible. But now that she thought about it, why shouldn't it have been possible? It couldn't have been much different than amputating any other limb on the body.

"You had them removed?"

Fathiya nodded. "All there's left are two small scars."

Morgan felt her throat dry up, but she resisted the urge to reach for the coke in front of her. She'd promised not to drink from it.

"Morgan." Fathiya look seriously at the girl. "I don't know how your father knew about your wings. Maybe the Light is still keeping an eye on you, in which case I have to warn you. Stay out of their way. They're more dangerous – more resourceful – than you could possibly imagine."

Oh, I know, trust me, Morgan thought. She remembered the Cave blowing up. The death – or faked death – of Artemis. M'gann's abduction.

She was well aware of what the Light was capable off.

The doctor took a long, calming sip from her beer, shakily putting it onto the table again. "I got out, but only by promising on my own life and the life of my family that I'd never tell anyone about what went on in those laboratories. And I've kept that promise until tonight."

Morgan nodded slowly, realizing and appreciating the risk the woman was taking for her sake. "I promise I won't let the Light hurt you."

She would do her best, at least. She was already fighting the Light, what harm would it do to fight them on this too?

Fathiya nodded, as if she actually found Morgan's words reassuring. Then she stood up.

"We've been talking for too long, it's not safe."

Morgan stood up too and grabbed her high heels, slipping them on again.

"Thank you.. for telling me these things." Morgan told the doctor earnestly.

Fathiya nodded kindly at her, a small smile on her lips for the first time since they'd entered the bar.

Then, before Morgan had time to react, the older woman stepped closer and pulled her mouth to Morgan's right ear. "If you ever want to.. We can have them removed. Permanently."

She froze at the treacherous words whispered in her ear, her mind coming to a complete stand-still.

Fathiya took a large step back and gauged her face. All Morgan could do was nod at her, eyes big and unblinking.

Then Fathiya slipped through the crowd and out of the bar, disappearing into the Gotham night.

Morgan stood for several seconds in the noisy bar. Trying to understand everything she'd found out that night. She attempted to analyze each secret and figure out what her emotional response was supposed to be. But all she could focus on was Fathiya's last words.

Removed. Permanently.

Eventually, she pulled herself together for long enough to stumble through the throng of people and out onto the street.

Once outside, she took several long strides away from the bar and into a small nook between two houses, shielding herself in the dark. She took several deep breaths, forcing them to be calm. She started shivering when she remembered that it was night and she was wearing only a thin, sleeveless dress.

"When are you here?" She asked Nightwing, who had been silent for some time.

"Give me a minute." He responded quickly, sounding slightly worried at her strange tone of voice.

As she sat in the darkness and waited, she calmed down enough to realize something entirely different.

She was a product of the Light.

Sparrow was a product of the Light.

She'd been meant as a weapon for the organization she was currently fighting against.

She scowled and smirked at the same time as she realized that the Light had basically shot themselves in the foot on that one. They'd unknowingly created their own opponent.

The thought manifested itself right as Nightwing landed nimbly in front of the small cranny she had nestled herself in. His eyes were small, narrowed slits as he watched the bar in front of him, probably waiting for Morgan to show herself.

She used the moment as an opportunity to briefly study her mentor. He was in his Nightwing get-up again, looking familiar and safe and just what she needed.

She kind of wanted to have him hug her close so she could steal his warmth and breathe in his scent and feel utterly safe. And she kinda wanted to kiss him.

Morgan shook her head and firmly told herself that she didn't need to be in his embrace to feel safe. She could handle herself just fine.

But a hug would be really good right about now.

She wished M'gann was still here. She gave the best hugs.

Morgan stepped out of the shadows she'd been hiding in, her heels clicking against the pavement.

Nightwing instantly stiffened and turned around, ready to fight of any threats. He relaxed when he saw it was only her, his eyes instantly focusing on her face. "What happened?"

She shook her head. This place was too public. He should've known that. "Let's just get out of here. I'll explain everything later."

There must've been something in the way she said it – perhaps it was the exhausted tone of voice – because he didn't protest at all, merely nodded.

"Up on that roof." He pointed, spreading an arm out, waiting for her to approach.

Knowing that her secret identity was still a thing she needed to protect, meaning she couldn't take of her necklace, and also that she couldn't fly, Morgan gulped down nerves that had suddenly erupted, and stepped into his embrace, wrapping her arms firmly around his neck.

This was sort of the hug she'd wanted, Morgan noted as her mentor's arm settled around her waist. Not quite, but she'd take what she could get.

He launched his grapple gun at the roof of the building, the two of them soon leaving the ground and shooting through the air. Nightwing held onto the edge of the roof with one hand and gave Morgan a boost with his other to send her over the top. Not that she necessarily needed it; she'd been climbing rooftops for months now. But it was more difficult to do in a dress and high heels, so she didn't comment on his help.

Once they were on top of the roof, Morgan sat down against the railing, not caring that she was probably getting her dress dirty and wet. She leaned her head back and stared into the sky before closing her eyes and taking a deep, cleansing breath.

She could hear Nightwing sitting down next to her, so close that his arm brushed against her shoulder whenever she took a breath in.

"So what did she say?" He eventually asked after a minute of silence.

Morgan bent her legs against herself, leaning her arms on her knees. "A lot of stuff." She began, not entirely sure what she should tell him first.

What she should tell him at all.

"For example, Rachel had wings as well, but they had them removed once they got too big."

"Removed? Just like that?"

Morgan nodded, feeling her hair coming loose from its fragile bun as she did so.

"Also, apparently, Fathiya was in love with my dad."

"I.. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say to that." Nightwing honestly replied.

A small smile pulled at the corner of her lips as Morgan wondered how he was managing to make her feel better, probably without even trying. "You can start with 'ew'."

"Ew."

She smiled fully then, but it quickly slipped off her face when she realized everything she still had to tell him.

"And.. It wasn't their idea to do the human-bird experiments. It was the company they worked for." Morgan swallowed a small lump in her throat, hating that there even was a lump. "My dad only went to Denmark because the experiment was a failure and the company decided to 'punish' him, I think, by sending him there to keep working. He contacted Fathiya first. He claimed that he'd changed and he wanted to see me."

"Do you think he's telling the truth?" Her mentor asked after a moment of thought.

Morgan shrugged, feeling the rough banister scrape against her skin at the movement. "Honestly? I don't know. Don't you remember when we talked to him? He was treating me like an experiment, not as the daughter he hadn't seen in ten years."

Nightwing nodded next to her. A curl came loose from her hairdo and slipped in front of her face and Morgan tugged it behind her ear as silence enveloped them again.

She un-bent her legs and watched them as they lay parallel with her mentor's, only much shorter. It was a funny comparison, his long, darkly clad legs with the sturdy boots, and her pale legs in the blue dress and high heels.

There were two things Morgan still hadn't mentioned. Two things she wasn't sure she wanted to tell him.

He was her mentor and she trusted him above anyone else on their team, and he had proved worthy of that trust time and time again, but..

But admitting to him that she'd been created by the Light was too big of a humiliation. Too shameful. She could only imagine how the rest of the Team would look at her if, when, they found out. She'd been meant as a weapon against them. They'd been meant to be enemies.

If everything had gone according to the Light's plans, Nightwing would've been her enemy.

How was she supposed to admit that to him?

And she hesitated in telling him about Fathiya's offer too. Somehow, Morgan felt it was an offer that had been for her ears only.

"Morgan.." Her mentor shifted in his seat so he was crouching in front of her, his mask-covered eyes intense and narrowed in thought. "What aren't you telling me?"

Damn him and his superhuman ability to read her.

Morgan bit her lower lip – most certainly smudging her lipstick – and shook her head twice as if telling him to not push the issue.

"I.. I can't.." She started to say, but then stopped herself.

Why was she suddenly so scared? So weak? So teary? This wasn't like her! Morgan was never afraid of a confrontation. She never worried about what people thought of her – okay so that was a lie, she occasionally thought about what other people thought of her.

She steeled her nerves and frowned slightly, finding courage in the very well-known facial expression.

Before she could lose her regained courage, Morgan blurted out. "They were working for the Light. My dad and Fathiya."

Nightwing pressed his lips together in a tight line, nodding once.

"They were worried about the sudden influx of heroes, so they decided to create weapons of their own. I was supposed to be one of those weapons." She went on, her voice embarrassingly more high-pitched than usual. She waited in trepidation to hear his reaction.

As if sensing her anxious thoughts, Nightwing placed a large, glove-clad hand on her bare shoulder, looking at her seriously but not unkindly. "None of that is your fault, Morgan. Your wings might be of the Light, but your actions aren't. You've got a free will. In the end, it's not their origin, but their use that defines the worth of them. And you."

Morgan wondered when her mentor had become so supportive, smart, and cheesy.

"Did you read that off of a fortune cookie?" She smirked slightly, feeling considerably better about herself and her situation.

He rolled his eyes behind his mask.

The steady rhythm of Nightwing's sturdy, black boots hitting the wooden docks was the only sound for a long time. Morgan's steps were nearly soundless next to him as she padded on barefooted.

Her high heels were hanging from two of her fingers, swinging back and forth as they walked. The fancy hairdo she'd had all night was finally giving up, half of her curls falling around her face and down her back. Her thin tights had started running in several places due to walking down the docks and several Gotham rooftops without shoes.

He was also pretty sure the only reason her dress still looked relatively clean was because it was such a dark color. She was wearing his blue suit jacket over it. He'd offered it to her once the night had turned too chilly to walk around in bare arms. The rest of his suit was in the bag he'd slung over his shoulder.

It looked funny on her. The suit jacket was much too big, dwarfing her smaller frame. Cute.

"So, the high heels and the horribly truths and that MacDonald woman and the confirming of the dating rumor and the terribly drinks – " She paused and grimaced. "Well, all those things aside, tonight was actually pretty fun."

He smirked slightly at her contradicting words.

He supposed it had been nice enough. He'd certainly been to much worse get-togethers.

To be honest, he couldn't actually remember a lot of details from the party. He'd spent most of the night worrying over Morgan doing something incredibly stupid, and the rest of it he'd been wondering when on earth he'd developed a preference to blonde, wide-hipped women.

"The party wasn't as bad as you'd made it sound. I was half afraid I was going to be sacrificed to some God of Wealth the moment we stepped inside."

He let out a tiny laugh. "As long as the stocks are as good as they are right now, I don't think they'll be using such drastic measures."

Morgan snorted. "Remind me to stay away when the stock market sucks then."

"You're right, though. Tonight wasn't that bad. And the mission part was certainly a success."

"Yeah, we learned a lot, didn't we?"

Nightwing nodded. "I hope what Fathiya told you isn't going to have too much of an influence in the future."

Morgan worried at her lower lip before shrugging with one shoulder. "I'll try to not let it be."

He supposed that was the only thing she could do. "Good."

The two of them stopped as they reached the Warehouse, pausing in front of the entrance.

"So." Morgan uttered, shifting in her spot.

Nightwing nodded. "So."

Good grief, they were acting like an awkward teenage couple after a first date.

"Goodnight."

Morgan nodded. "Goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. Sleep well."

"You too."

Nightwing nodded once again and paused before quickly turning on his heel and walking back the way he'd come.

He didn't even know why he'd decided to walk her to the Warehouse. It wasn't like she didn't know the way.

"Wait!" She suddenly called after him.

Nightwing turned around again and looked expectantly at her. She was jogging up to him and for a crazy moment, he was afraid that she'd actually kiss him or something equally weird.

Instead, she stopped a few feet away and shrugged his jacket off of her shoulders, handing it back. "You forgot this."

He quickly accepted the article of clothing and stuffed it into his bag. "Thanks."

Morgan nodded once and briefly studied him with those grey eyes of hers before she pressed her lips together and walked away.

He quickly turned around again and marched hurriedly back down the docks, telling himself that he wasn't disappointed that she hadn't actually kissed him.

Stupid teenage hormones.

This chapter is a bit late, which I'm really sorry for. The thing is, since the storm a week or two ago, my internet has been absolute shit. it's on maybe an hour or two a day. If at all. So I've been impatiently waiting for it to work so I could update.

So, Morgan found some stuff out. Why'd you think she didn't tell Dick about that offer?

Fun fact: Rachel's wings were white