Chapter 13: Battle for the Fortress

June 5th

Watchtower

Sparrow

Dark blankness slipped away as Morgan, dressed in her Sparrow get-up, arrived at the Watchtower. Stepping off the zeta platform, she didn't even for a second consider the miracle of science she'd just utilized; that her entire being had been transported hundreds of miles in the blink of an eye.

Her thoughts were occupied with their mission at hand – this was go time. She knew Zatanna and Nightwing were both waiting for her, as they'd agreed the night prior. If her hunch was correct, they would be traveling to the North Pole in search of another active portal.

As soon as she'd arrived, and the disembodied female voice of the zeta tube had announced her presence, she spotted Nightwing and Zatanna. They had been engaged in a tense-looking discussion with Superman, but at the sound of her hero-alias being announced, their discussion halted. As one, all three looked at her approaching form. She swallowed dryly and squashed down nerves at the terse face Superman was wearing. He looked at her with disapproval as he approached, the others right behind him.

"What's this I hear about my fortress getting destroyed?" His voice was laced with the same stern emotion that she saw on his face. Clearly, Superman wasn't happy about his fortress being threatened.

Sparrow's eyes flitted between his two serious ones as she considered how to respond. Her first impulse was to feel annoyed. Why was she getting flack for having a vision she couldn't control? And from Superman, of all people? Didn't people know not to shoot the messenger by now?

"I'm just repeating what visions I'm getting from this stupid-ass spell," she replied, crossing her arms. "You don't have to believe me; just don't blame me when your fortress gets reduced to dust."

He crossed his arms right back at her and straightened his posture, studying the girl before him. Morgan widened her stance and lifted her chin defiantly in response. She was aware that she barely reached his chest, but she wasn't about to let that intimidate her.

Vaguely, she registered Nightwing shooting Zatanna an exasperated look. Zatanna bit into her lower lip, keeping in a laugh.

Well, Superman had started it!

Whatever he gleaned from the stubborn cut of her jib, he relaxed his stance and took a step back to allow the other two heroes to join them, forming a little circle.

"Vey well." Superman sounded resigned, but not dismissive. "I'll take you there."

"I've done a scan of the area with the tracker Batman and I made," Nightwing said, pulling up a map for all of them to see. "There's a match. We do have portal activity in the region." He closed the screen and let his arm drop, looking at Morgan. "Your vision was right."

God, she hated the way he'd phrased that. Her vision. Maybe she just hadn't accepted the reality of her situation yet; that she was having visions that predicted the future. Morgan already had a large pair of wings and telekinetic abilities. Weren't those enough? Did she really need another thing to keep track of, to hide from the world? Another thing that kept her from ever feeling normal?

She emerged from her thoughts quickly, when she realized the direction they were heading, and nodded resolutely at Nightwing. "Time to go, then."

The four of them wasted no time, heading for the zeta platform that Morgan had just walked off of.

"M'gann lent me the Bioship," Nightwing said. "The trip's five hours long."

Great.

"I'm coming too," a new, strong voice echoed across the room, and they turned to watch Connor approach, his eyes hard. "If the Fortress's in trouble, I want to be there."

He smacked a fist into his open palm, signaling he meant business.

"They already ruined my wedding; I'm not letting them destroy anything else."

Superman placed a fond hand on Connor's shoulder. "Of course, brother."

The soft pitter-patter of feet made Sparrow look over her shoulder, spotting Robin hovering by one of the archways that led into the maze of corridors of the Watchtower. His brow was furrowed, and his fists were clenched by his sides.

"Nightwing," she softly whispered, and flicked her head in the young boy's direction. She watched as Dick's gaze followed her pointed look, and he halted for a second before he headed towards Robin.

She could tell they were carrying a low conversation, but she was unable to hear them, their voices drowned out by the strategizing of the three heroes beside her.

Eventually, she saw Nightwing nod in resigned acceptance, and he motioned for the younger boy to follow him.

"Robin's joining us," he explained once they reached the rest of the group. The others studied the boy, who, to Morgan's surprise, shuffled with uncertainty on his feet at the attention. He was still frowning.

She smiled encouragingly, feeling like she might be able to partly guess the source of his discomfort.

"Welcome to the squad," she said with enthusiasm. Robin didn't answer, but his hands unclenched, and he stood a bit taller.

Nightwing stepped onto the platform and started pressing buttons.

"Time to go."

June 5th

Somewhere over the Atlantic

Nightwing

Was Bruce going to kill him for taking Damian on this mission?

Perhaps?

Had Damian firmly reminded Dick of his, frankly, foolish promise to take him with on his next mission, and Dick knew breaking that promise would shake Damian's trust in him?

Also perhaps.

He resisted the urge to tap his feet restlessly from his seat in the bioship. He wished he could've been the one to steer, but Connor had naturally slipped into the captains' seat once they'd entered the ship.

Dick had hovered beside the seat for a moment, and Connor had looked at him with an amused smile.

"You need the time to figure out a strategy," the Kryptonian had pointed out. "Besides, I know where we're going better than you."

"Fair point." Dick had relented and slinked off into one of the front seats, motioning for Damian to sit beside him. Clark had taken the seat behind the two of them, and Zatanna had slipped into the other front seat, leaving the seat to the right of the captains' chair to Morgan.

The question now was, how did he figure out a strategy for a situation they had no idea what would look like? Potentially – although with their usual track record, he highly doubted it – this could just be a five-minute trek through the tundra and then the two of them closing the portal with no issue.

Dick looked subtly over his shoulder and across the ship to pinpoint the other carrier of the magic spell.

Morgan was shuffling about in her seat before she rose and sat on the floor instead. Her wings stretched behind her before she folded them once more against her back. Digging around in the backpack she'd brought with her, she pulled out her computer. She appeared focused, but relaxed.

"What are you doing?" Connor asked. Zatanna and Superman looked across the hull of the ship and towards the winged girl on the floor.

"Homework," she muttered, her eyes never straying from the computer, which she was busily typing on. "We're here for five hours, right? Might as well use that time."

"I mean, why are you on the floor?"

Morgan shrugged and her wings bopped with the movement. "The chairs squish my wings."

She sighed and took off her mask, rubbing at her eyes before resuming her typing.

Dick studied the dark, sunken skin around her eyes, realizing just how tired she looked. Was she still plagued by nightmares? She looked like she hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks. It was the kind of tired Dick only ever saw on Bruce when he was working on a long case and had averaged three hours of sleep per night for a while.

Even her hair, which she always had meticulously braided when they were out on a mission, had simply been pulled into a knot at the crown of her head, and already curls were starting to come loose, framing her face.

Looking up, Dick realized Connor was watching him shrewdly as he sat openly studying his ex, and he turned back around in his seat, gazing out of the windshield once more.

Beyond, the ocean stretched endlessly, white foam outlining the top of small waves, whipped up by the harsh wind. The sky was gray and overcast, dark clouds churning with the promise of oncoming rain. He watched the clouds gather for a while, thinking about their plan of action and several contingencies, should they encounter anything unexpected.

Soon, heavy rain started pelting the windshield. Connor activated the outer shields, pushing the rain further away from the ship and allowing them better visibility.

Hopefully, the weather at the north pole would be better. They didn't need a snowstorm to hinder them further.

Speaking of snowstorms..

"Does everyone have winter gear?" he asked into the quiet cabin. "Polar-camouflage?"

Looking over at Robin, the younger boy nodded confidently. Zatanna, he knew, needed only to speak an incantation. Superman and Superboy didn't need any help keeping warm, nor did they use camouflage.

At his question, however, Morgan had looked up at him like a kid realizing they'd forgotten to bring their homework to class.

"Uhhhh," she said.

"Go look in the back," Connor suggested helpfully. "M'gann keeps the ship stocked for any eventuality. Take anything you need."

With red ears, she skulked off towards the storage in the back. Dick resisted the urge to go help her.

To distract from the urge, he turned towards Damian instead.

"Robin, make sure to change into your winter gear before we arrive."

The ship fell silent once more, save for the muffled sounds of shuffling, as Morgan looked around for anything she could use.

Nightwing looked over at Zatanna, who was studying an old tome she held in her lap.

"Are you ready for this?" he asked her gently, knowing a lot of responsibility was resting on her shoulders. This was her chance to study the rifts and how they were meant to reseal them.

Zatanna looked up from the book and gave him her most confident smile.

"I'm ready. Fate gave me a few pointers and I have this book, if there's anything I'm unsure of."

Dick nodded, but she must've sensed some of his worry. Zatanna reached a hand across and grasped onto his, giving it a squeeze.

"We'll find a way to fix this," she assured him. "With our collective knowledge, there's no magic we can't control."

Her confidence was infectious, and he offered her a relieved smile. Footsteps made the two of them look over their shoulders, watching as Morgan re-emerged from the storage room. She looked unchanged, except for an added bulkiness to her suit.

"I found a thermo suit to wear underneath my own, but nothing to use for camouflage," she shrugged. "It's fine, I can outmaneuver anyone shooting at me."

Dick's worry at the thought manifested in a frown, and he exchanged a look with Zatanna.

"Can you do anything?" he asked her. He didn't like the idea of Morgan being so exposed, when the rest of them were camouflaged. Well, except for their bulletproof team members.

Zatanna spoke an incantation and clapped her hands together before gesturing them towards Morgan.

She watched with astonishment as the color bled out of her suit, leaving white and light gray tones. Dick studied her. It was a very different look, but not unflattering. The white and gray matched her wings and didn't wash out her skin, unlike the darker suit.

"Don't worry, it'll have returned to normal by tomorrow," Zatanna breezily assured at the look Morgan was giving her.

"Thanks.."

Dick pressed a hidden button on his suit, and the colors shifted. The black siphoned out, leaving behind a pure white, and the blue symbol across his chest and arms turned a much lighter blue.

"Now that that's settled…" Zatanna rose from her seat, heavy tome in hand. "We should talk strategy." Putting the book down on a control panel, she flipped through some pages, muttering her next words to herself. "I had hoped we'd have more time for this, but we'll make do."

"Time for what?" Morgan asked as she and Dick both approached the sorceress. Dick peeked at the book, but he couldn't read the intricate runes meticulously written on old, browned parchment.

"For you to learn how to control this spell." Zatanna explained. "The first time you activated it, you traveled through to the other world. The second time, the portal collapsed. That's because you're not channeling the spell correctly."

"Oh," was Morgan's noncommittal reply.

"Besides, a collapsed portal doesn't mean a closed rift. We need to find a way to seal them up for good." Zatanna waved a dismissive hand in the air as she kept leafing through the stiff parchment. "But I'll deal with that when I encounter the portal. This is a research-mission, after all."

"So, how do we control it?" Dick asked, eager at the idea of gaining some control over the unchecked magic they were harboring. He hadn't mentioned it to anyone, but sometimes, he could almost feel the magic humming in his ears, and his skin prickled with electricity, even when there was no source. He knew it was the spell doing it to him, and he worried about this new side effect. Was the spell gaining power? Was his body fighting it and losing the battle? Some third, more pessimistic option?

"We have a few ways we can go about it.." Zatanna looked thoughtful. "But first, go on and activate it. I'll guide you through the exercises afterwards."

Dick met Morgan's eyes properly for the first time since they'd met up that day. He cleared his throat awkwardly and offered her his wrist.

Their hands found their marks and soon the well-known hum was back. Golden spools of mist surrounded them like they had in Morgan's room the night before. Dick could hear the surprised exclamations of the people around them. Superman stood and approached by a few steps, but halted to observe them from afar. His eyebrows were knit closely together, and he and Connor exchanged identical looks of worry.

"Okay, so what you need to do is try to locate where the magic is currently stored." Zatanna's voice sounded far off, but her words were still clear. Dick fought against the fuzzy prickles in his head. "Every magic-user has a fixed point from which their magic flows. I know you two aren't magic, but in theory this should still apply to you. The magic can manifest from one of three places, and they might not be the same for each of you."

Dick managed to tear his eyes away from Morgan's golden ones, looking at their teammate as she explained. Zatanna held up a finger.

"First place is somewhere physically in your body. Is there a specific place that feels more affected by the spell when it's activated?"

Morgan shook her head. "It's all over, equally."

"My head." Dick shortly explained, realizing that this must've been the reason for the effect the spell had on his mind. "My head gets fuzzy and there's a loud humming."

"Perfect! One down, one to go. Keep focusing on that area, Dick. Try to contain the feeling, without being forceful." She turned towards Morgan. "The second option is in a specific emotional state. I know it sounds abstract, but just think of it as certain emotions being the source of your powers, if you had magic. Can you recall the mood you were in when you found the spell originally? Can you recreate it?"

Morgan looked in Dick's direction, and despite her golden eyes, he could tell she was giving him a dry look.

"Annoyance was the key emotion."

Dick bit back a smirk.

Zatanna smacked Morgan upside the head. "Be serious."

"Well, that was annoying, and I'm certainly annoyed right now, but I'm still not feeling anything," Morgan shot back. "I don't think this is the right approach for me."

Zatanna sighed but held up a third finger. "Third place is in a memory. Think back to any key moments that involve the spell."

Morgan quieted down and stood for an extended moment. Her brows furrowed and her hands twitched, and Dick knew she must've been going through several memories with the spell. Then, suddenly, the golden film over her eyes flared up, casting rays of light from her face. It looked like two miniature suns. Spots of golden light danced across his vision from looking too closely at her.

"Found it."

"Good. I need both of you to focus on the place you've located."

His head was still fuzzy, but by following Zatanna's advice, Dick already felt that he had some measure of control over it. He could almost physically redirect it – he felt the fuzziness strongest on the right side of his head, before he moved it all the way across to the left side, and then back again. It felt foreign, but not uncontrollable.

"Try to tamper it down. Keep it controlled."

He moved the fuzziness into the back of his head and then towards the front. It felt like playing with a magnetic ball, moving side to side.

"Anything?" Zatanna asked, pulling Dick out of his concentrated state. He'd been so busy moving the magic around, he'd forgotten he was supposed to suppress it.

He concentrated on containing the ball, making it smaller. Anytime fuzziness erupted, he resolutely tampered it down, like stomping on fire before it could spread in dry grass.

"I've got it," he said eventually, when the fuzziness was almost nonexistent, and his mind was clear.

He watched as Morgan stood unmoving for a long while. Suddenly, the gold film covering her eyes cleared, swirling around and inwards towards her iris, until it folded in on itself and disappeared entirely.

For a moment, he thought that they had broken contact in some way, but their hands remained steadfastly on each other.

"You guys are naturals!" Zatanna exclaimed happily.

Then, several things happened at once. The mark on Dick's wrist started burning uncomfortably hot, and he felt his limbs shaking. From the hand around his wrist, he could feel Morgan trembling as well. He felt his hold of the magic slipping, and the fuzziness exploded across his mind, overwhelmingly strong. Morgan's eyes were overtaken by gold, and the spools of gold that had previously swirled lazily around them, started writhing angrily inwards into a ball of light, until it imploded. Dick felt the force of it hit him like a truck, and he was flung backwards, crashing into the wall of the bioship.

His head smacked against the tough shell of the ship, and stars erupted across his vision. His fingers crackled with electricity.

After the cacophony of sound and movement, was silence. Everyone within the cabin stood in various stages of shock, taking in what had just transpired. Dick's eyes were swimming with golden dust, remnants of the exploded spell.

Morgan let out a cough, trying to regain the air that had been knocked out of her lungs. Her low groan told him she was in pain, and Nightwing immediately got on his knees, fighting through his dizziness to reach her side. She was similarly sprawled against a wall, her left wing sticking in an odd direction.

When his vision stopped swimming, he saw Connor offering Morgan a hand up, which she took. Robin was by his side, silently looking him over. Superman stood in the middle of the room and watched the entire thing transpire with a furrowed brow. Nightwing couldn't help but feel like he was being silently judged. He wasn't used to being one of the people creating problems with his powers – hell, he wasn't used to having powers!

"Are you alright, Richard?" Damian's tone was stern, but the way his eyes took in his crouched form, let Dick know he was worried about him.

"I'm okay," he assured him, giving him a fond smile and putting a steadying hand on Damian's shoulder. He used the leverage to get to his feet. He shook his hands to get rid of the pinpricks, but it only seemed to strengthen the effect.

"What. The. Hell," Morgan coughed out, shooting Zatanna a look that spelled trouble. Her left wing fluttered feebly and settled carefully against her back. She winced from the pain. "Explain."

Zatanna stood where she'd been before the implosion, and Dick realized she hadn't been affected by it – only he and Morgan had been hit.

"Huh," she said.

"Huh?" Morgan copied acerbically. Connor put a calming hand on her shoulder. "I just nearly broke a wing and that's all you can say?"

At the mention of her wing, Dick finally approached her, needing to check that it was okay – they could be heading into battle after all. Morgan looked at him oddly as he pulled gingerly at her feathered appendix, but allowed her wing to unfold so he could look it over.

"Where does it hurt?" he asked. Morgan didn't answer, her stiff gaze on Zatanna.

"We're in totally uncharted territory here, Sparrow," Zatanna pointed out sternly. "I'm doing what I can, but I can't predict all outcomes. We just have to keep trying, if we want to learn how this spell works, and hopefully, how to get rid of it."

Dick pressed down on a particularly sore point on Morgan's wing, and she yelped.

"Could you wait for, like, two minutes?" she exclaimed,pushing a hand against his chest, and taking a step away from him.

Dick held up his hands in surrender.

"Fine." He turned his attention onto Zatanna. "Maybe it's best that we do that in an open field next time. And not right before a mission."

Zatanna regarded the two of them with a critical eye but relented.

"Fine." She closed her tome with a snap and mumbled tersely to herself, "don't blame me if we arrive and have no clue how to close the rift."

There was awkward silence in the cabin.

"What could make a spell react like that?" Superman asked, his first addition to the conversation. "I've never seen anything like it."

"I think at this point, the only answer I have is that every facet of that spell is intentional." Zatanna sighed and looked at the book in her arm. Her index finger gingerly scratched as one of the worn letters on the front. "I've found nothing that resembles the way it works. Sure, different aspects seem like different spells, but it's like several spells merged into one big conglomerate. Maybe that's why it's so unstable. But it can't be random then."

She threw the tome onto her seat and faced Morgan and Dick. Her eyes were sharp, intelligent, and she straightened with an air of authority and finality.

"I think it's high time we admit that none of this is random. Sparrow, someone intended for you to find that spell, and they designed it to do exactly as it does – including, apparently, a failsafe if you try to suppress or control it."

Dick watched as Morgan's hands clenched at her sides and she looked at the ground with a glare, chewing into her bottom lip.

"I know.." she sighed, offering Zatanna an apologetic look. "I-I think I've known for a while."

"But why?" Connor exclaimed, throwing his arms out as if in invitation of an answer. "Because they're setting up a trap? Or because they want to help her fix the rifts?"

"That's the important question," Dick agreed. He took a few steps past Morgan and Connor, and placed himself in the middle of the Cabin, so he could keep a visual on everyone's faces. He needed to be in control, needed to know how everyone was feeling so he knew how best to help. "Was it a trap, or help?"

He looked at Zatanna, who shrugged. Silence fell as they all contemplated this new question. If this was a trap, were they then just helping their enemy right now? Or was it a tool given to them to prevent the end of the world?

"I mean.." Morgan began with uncertainty, but cleared her throat and went on. "I mean, the spell has been giving me visions of my own death practically every night since I absorbed it so… it doesn't exactly feel helpful."

She refused to meet anyone's eyes as she said it, and an awkward grimace settled on her face. Nightwing knew she was loath to admit any kind of weakness, and that she didn't like talking about her nightmares. He could see the purple bruises under her eyes, highlighted even further by the tilt of her head, and he understood that she was stretched thinner than she was letting on.

His fingers twitched again. Would she let him check her wing now?

The helm started beeping and Connor went to it.

"We're here."

They hadn't even gotten to talking strategies yet.

Oh well, time to wing it.

The North Pole

June 5th

Sparrow

It was surprisingly less cold than Sparrow had imagined the North Pole to be. Yes, when a strong gust of wind hit, she felt gooseflesh erupt on her neck and down her spine, but she'd always imagined a relentlessly cold tundra, where fingers turned blue within minutes, and the breath froze to ice right in front of your face.

This was more like.. a fairly pleasant winter afternoon, after a heavy snowfall. Cold, yes, but not unforgivably so. She supposed even the North Pole had summers.

The sight before her was less pleasant.

Connor had deftly put the ship down behind a large glacial outcropping, shielding the ship from view of the Fortress of Solitude. The entire team, now in their winter-camouflage, piled out of the ship. Nightwing led their group, his computer scanning the area for a better reading of rift-activity. It took them a brief hike to get past the giant, snowy mound, their destination coming into view.

Like a giant, jagged piece of stark-white quarts, the Fortress jutted unnaturally out of the icy tundra. It gleamed and shone brilliantly against the darkening sky beyond. A snowstorm was brewing in the distance.

The clouds weren't the issue.

The issue was the flames, the smoke, the ships – the destruction – that kept blinking in and out of existence. Sparrow blinked and rubbed her eyes, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

It was like two radio signals kept interfering with each other. One second, the Fortress stood whole, untouched. The next, it was quickly falling into rubble, and at least a dozen Reach ships were flying around above it, bombing it into further oblivion. Then, no less than thirty seconds later, the ships, the soldiers, all of it – disappeared like a puff of air. The Fortress was whole once again. With a gasp from Superman, the soldiers returned moments later, and the Fortress was once again falling apart. On the ground were scores of Reach guarding the battlefield. There were no heroes to stop the carnage.

Until now.

"I don't think we need your fancy equipment to know there's something screwy going on with the timeline here," Sparrow said grimly. "It's already merging."

"We can't treat this like a normal attack," Nightwing sighed, keeping his eyes on the screen in front of them. "How do we fight an enemy that keeps blinking out of existence?"

"We don't," Zatanna said resolutely. "We sneak in, find the rift, seal it, and save the Fortress."

"Connor and I will draw the fire, as long as it's there," Superman said, his muscles taut and his eyes settled into a steely glare. Understandably, he wasn't very fond of the people currently destroying his home.

A fleet of Reach Ships surged forward, raining a cluster of bombs onto the building. They exploded in sequence, and the left side of the building sagged before crumbling with a loud rumble.

"Let's go!" Superman shouted, antsy to stop the carnage. Off he flew, with Connor leaping behind him in large jumps.

Nightwing made a futile attempt to call them back, a hand uselessly outstretched in front of him. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This is just not my day.." he groaned. Sparrow snickered and earned herself a glare from Robin, that promptly made her suck in her lips to keep back her smile.

"Let's just use their distraction to sneak in," Nightwing said with an air of resignation, running ahead towards a new outcropping for them to hide behind.

Robin snuck after him, light and nimble as a shadow, and Sparrow and Zatanna took up the rear.

They weaved in and out between blocks of ice and large chunks of crystal that had been blown from the Fortress. Whenever their enemies disappeared, they got up and ran as close as they could get before the Reach came back.

It became clear that the attack didn't simply reset every time they came back. Superman and Superboy amassed a larger and larger legion of attackers the longer they fought, proving that the Reach soldiers were following a linear timeline and not a loop.

Sparrow wasn't sure if this was comforting to her, or if it made things worse. As they sat crouched behind a crystal, waiting for the Reach army to disappear again, she kept thinking about the other timeline, and what was happening there at this exact time. The Reach was also attacking the Fortress of Solitude there, but there would be no Kryptonians to save their homebase. Superman was in an intergalactic prison somewhere many lightyears away, and Connor was…

She looked at her clenched hands, barely able to bring the thought to her mind. It was unthinkable, too painful to imagine. She looked ahead at Nightwing, who was watching the uncountable number of Reach soldiers that now stood between them and their target. His face was hard, and his countenance was tense. She wondered if he was thinking the same as her.

An echoing silence filled their ears as the accursed aliens blinked out of existence again. Nightwing bounded forward, the others close on his heel.

"Zatanna, we're close. Lay down a smoke cover for us so we can go the rest of the way!" he ordered.

She instantly obeyed, the echoing otherworldly quality of her voice ringing in Sparrow's ears as she cried, "Emoks!"

Fog shot out and settled heavily around them, and the four of them kept close to each other so as not to lose their companions in the mist.

The cacophony of battle started bleeding into their surroundings again, and it became clear the Reach was back.

With a plummeting stomach, Morgan watched as the smoke around them siphoned away, evaporating like a cool morning mist under a sudden, blazing sun.

They halted in shock, Sparrow nearly falling over Robin's smaller frame, as they found themselves under the hateful eyes of dozens upon dozens of Reach soldiers. The soldiers were shocked by their sudden appearance, but soon started communicating in their clicky language, hurriedly settling into a battle formation.

"What happened?" Sparrow cried, throwing an arm up to create a telekinetic force field as shots started raining down on them. She felt sweat, borne from stress and fear, erupt on her brow.

"The smoke must've disappeared when we shifted from one timeline to the other," Dick said, his voice still calm, but focused. "Stay whelmed, we're almost there. This way!" he called, motioned for the others to follow him as he led them behind cover and closer to the entrance of the building.

Mercifully, they had almost been at their destination. Before them, only feet away, was the gaping maw of the Fortress of Solitude, beckoning them inside. The four heroes fled towards it, their enemy piling after them like a colony of ants.

"We need to bring down the doors!" Zatanna called from the rear. "Buy us some time!"

"Affirmative!" Nightwing and Robin both dug out several charged explosives, and as they ran past, they threw them at each of the support-pillars holding the front entrance open. Sparrow watched as they blinked and beeped until a fiery charge went off, and the structure crumbled.

She skirted to a halt beside the others, watching as large chunks of crystal started falling to the ground. The sound was deafening, and snow was flung into the air, tiny flecks settling in their hair once the pillars were done tumbling over.

The four of them stood for a moment, collecting their bearings after their mad dash. Their labored breaths were the only sound they could hear, before a loud boom shook the building, and they were reminded of their task.

"Let's go." Nightwing once again had the scanner on his computer, and he pointed further inside. "This way. We're close."

"And how do you propose we'll get out, now that we locked ourselves inside?" Robin challenged, looking angrily at their leader.

"Once we close the rift, the Fortress should revert back to its original state." Nightwing said, though he sounded a little unsure. "Hopefully. Otherwise, Superman can dig us out."

Sparrow wondered if now was the time to remind them that she very much had telekinetic powers that could easily clear the doorway, but she bit her tongue.

They walked down a giant hall, and if it hadn't been for the destruction, she was sure it would've been beautiful. The thought had hardly entered her mind before the view in front of her glitched, and it was suddenly fully restored. The silence from outside told them the army was gone once more.

Morgan felt her immediate sense of urgency dissipate. They could breathe, at least for a short while. Her neck craned back, taking in the splendor of the crystal ceiling, the pure-white formations redistributing the light from outside and illuminating the hall.

"The crystals are messing with my signal." Nightwing said, halting in his spot. The others reached his side.

"Split up and look around?" Zatanna suggested.

"The Fortress isn't large. We can find it quickly. I don't like us separating now," he responded, pushing hair out of his face and leaving several wavy tufts sticking up.

"Let's go then." Morgan went off ahead of the others, feeling antsy at their lingering. She saw the hall split into three corridors – surely, their rift had to be at the end of one of them.

A deafening boom outside let them know the army was back. Crystals started crumbling, sounding like a mix of glass and stone being crushed. Pebbles started falling right above Sparrow, and she looked up to realize a large section of the ceiling was caving in. A giant crystal, weighing thousands of pounds, was loosening and about to fall on her head.

Smaller minerals were already raining in a shower around her, making any escape hazardous.

"Sparrow, get out of there!" she heard Nightwing shout, but she had other plans. She widened her stance and took a deep breath, holding her arms up above her, steely gaze on the crystal.

She could feel her telekinesis like tendrils snaking around it as it began its descent, and she knew she had it.

Dick's voice was more panicked this time. "Morgan!"

All air was knocked out of her lungs as a white and blue mass barreled into her, knocking her out of the way. Dick landed on top of her, his arms still around her torso, and whatever breath she had left was squeezed out of her. Her grip on the giant crystal slipped and it hit the icy floor with a mighty crash, shattering like glass. Shards rained over them, and Dick pulled her closer, shielding her from the onslaught. She felt a sharp and stinging pain in the hand she'd instinctively wrapped around his back, as a sliver of the large crystal found its mark.

After the deafening cacophony came silence, interrupted only by a stray few rocks and shards falling.

Dick's arms were like vices around her body, but at her slightest push, he sprang to life. Crouching in front of her, he seized her face with his gloved hands, his masked eyes searching her features frantically.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" his tone was less calm and collected than he usually carried it when on a mission. There was a tinge of something raw, the timbre of his voice shaking with fear. "I thought I lost you."

Morgan blinked at him, taken aback by the outpouring of emotion from a man usually so collected. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, unsure why it was suddenly racing. Then, she pushed his hands away and got onto her knees.

"No thanks to you," she said with annoyance. "I had it handled – if anything, you made it worse by making me lose my focus."

"Had it-?" he repeated with disbelief. "You were about to get flattened!"

She scoffed and got on her feet, Nightwing jumping up next to her like a jack-in-the-box.

"I would've stopped it."

He glared at her. "How about, next time someone saves your life, you thank them," he deadpanned.

"You didn't save my life, 'cus I wasn't in any danger!" she protested, frustrated that he wasn't understanding her. Why couldn't he have faith? She was trembling from the way he was regarding her – she could sense his gaze, even though his eyes were hidden behind the light blue mask. He was breathing heavily with poorly concealed agitation.

"Guys, we've got company," Zatanna spoke up. Morgan had all but forgotten their two companions. The sorceress pointed at the new hole in the ceiling, from which Reach soldiers were flooding in. They resembled an angry hive of wasps as they swarmed through the hole. The crystal ceiling turned dark from the amount of soldiers upon it.

"They found a new way in!" Robin bit out, holding his staff aloft to ward against their fast-approaching enemy.

All thoughts of their argument were forgotten. Now, they were fighting for survival.

"You have to find the rift," Sparrow urged, tearing her eyes away from the grueling sight above, placing a hand on Nightwing's shoulder. "We'll hold them off for as long as possible."

He squared his jaw and gave her a curt nod.

"Be careful," he cautioned, before he checked his computer once more.

She gave him a crooked smile. "Not possible."

He fought a strange smile and then he was off.

With a fortifying sigh, Sparrow squared her shoulders and flew ahead. She spread out her arms, aiming the palms of her hands on the piles of broken minerals on the ground. She felt her aim lock onto them, and raised up her hands. With satisfaction, she saw dozens of them rise to her eye level.

The aliens were almost upon them.

Sparrow gritted her teeth and flung her arms forward. Many of the shards hit their marks, downing over a dozen soldiers in a single blow.

She landed beside her teammates and Zatanna gave her a confident nod.

"Let's kick some ass," Sparrow said.

Robin tutted, but sunk into a fighting position nonetheless.

Like a tidal wave, the army hit them. Everything became a blur. Beside her, Robin was wielding his staff with deadly efficiency. He jumped nimbly around in a fashion that reminded her of the first Robin – thirteen years ago, when she'd first seen blurry videos on the news of the red, black and yellow-clad menace defeating thugs as he bounced around like he was one of the damn gummy bears.

She heard spell after spell being cast to her right as Zatanna expertly took out their attackers. Sparrow focused on pelting their attackers with the sharp crystals littering the floor. She was trying to prevent the scores of aliens still flooding in from reaching them, counting on Robin and Zatanna to handle any that were already on the ground. The more she could take out those that were still in the air, the fewer her teammates had to worry about.

It was arduous work. Sweat was forming on her forehead and her arms shook with the pressure – this grip she had on her powers was still new and, in many ways, untried. She had yet to discover her limits, but she always feared that it was right around the corner. It took a toll on her, but she kept going. There were so many of them – she couldn't afford to stop even for a second. They were seconds away from being overrun.

"C'mon, Dick," she mumbled to herself. They needed him to find the rift – now.

"We need to call for backup!" Robin shouted as he knocked out a pair of soldiers grabbing at him.

"Just a bit longer!" Sparrow encouraged, landing beside him and using her telekinesis to push back a score of Reach surrounding him. "Superman and Superboy outside is the only thing keeping this whole place from collapsing!"

Her heart jumped into her throat when a Reach soldier grabbed onto her from behind squeezing her wings tight. Robin launched himself at her attacker, knocking the vile creature off her and into the ground.

"Thanks," she gasped, punching another soldier within range. The serious boy gave her a curt nod and jumped off, using his staff to vault feet first into the chest of another attacker.

Finally, the communicator in her ear sprung to life, and Nightwing's voice came through.

"Guys, I got it."

Sparrow pressed a hand to her ear urgently.

"Where?" She could barely hear him above the chaos of battle. His voice was calm, a strange juxtaposition to the pandemonium around them.

"Go down the corridor to the left, as far as you can go. Keep heading south."

"Let's go!" she cried, reaching out a hand to Robin. She noticed a second of hesitation before he accepted her grip, and she resisted the urge to grin. Did the sourly kid remind her just a little bit of herself? Perhaps.

Once she had a firm grip on his hand, she flew off. Robin scrambled to grab onto her other arm too, to steady himself. He kicked at any soldier that jumped at them, and Sparrow flew higher, out of reach.

She saw Zatanna float by them, landing nimbly by the entrance to the corridor. Sparrow dived for it too, taking care not to throw Robin too harshly onto the ground. He let go of her hands and landed in a roll before smoothly getting up and into a sprint.

Zatanna sent out a forceful blast that crumbled the entrance behind them, and the three heroes were off. Morgan kept to the air – she knew she wouldn't be able to keep up with the others on foot. The weight of her wings and the length of her legs were in direct war with her desire to be a fast sprinter. In the air, however, she was able to easily keep pace.

"That should buy us a few minutes."

Their sprint down the icy corridor went on for no more than two minutes before they turned a corner and almost collided with Nightwing, who had been running out to meet them.

"Let's go!" he said by way of greeting, turning on his heel and barreling back the way he'd come from.

Silence outside. Had the soldiers disappeared again?

"The other timeline is starting to take over. The breaks are getting shorter and shorter." Sparrow heard Zatanna tell their leader, catching him up to their side. "We have a few minutes to close up this rift before we're overrun. There's hundreds of them in the main hall by now."

They reached a new cavern, the pathway opening up into a larger room, though it was still much smaller than the main hall. What was the purpose of all these large rooms? The quiet moment allowed Morgan to briefly ponder the functionality of the Fortress. She knew it was a place that stored a wealth of knowledge from Superman's homeplanet – but was it also a home? Did he have a bedroom? Kitchen? Bathroom?

"Sparrow?" Her head whipped in Nightwing's direction at his questioning voice. She saw him stand, illuminated from behind by a large, white and gray mist. There, at the center of a podium at the back of the room, was the rift. It was pulsing with life as always, and Morgan could hear faint voices coming from it. Her eyes found Dick's. He was holding out a hand to her and her mouth went a little dry. If they activated the spell here, would they be transported again? Or would it just collapse?

At least, this time, they knew how to get back again if it happened – right?

The others were all looking at her and it made her feel self-conscious as she approached him. Robin stood next to Nightwing, and Zatanna was waiting for her to the left of the two Bats.

The whole thing looked almost ceremonial. Unwittingly, an image of a wedding picture flashed in her mind as she walked up the two steps of the podium and closed her fingers around his wrist.

Their masked eyes met, and Morgan wished to pretend she could feel the same trepidation in his hidden gaze.

"Here goes nothing," Nightwing sighed, before grabbing onto her arm.

As predicted, the mist sprung to life. It was writhing around all of them, and Zatanna and Robin, who had never experienced this before, reacted with surprise. Morgan kept her eyes on Dick's face, and she could tell he was doing the same. They both knew what was going on.

It was happening again. With the feeling of the ground giving way beneath them, and their sudden stumbling and fuzzy minds, it was clear that they were traveling once again.

?

Fortress of Solitude

Sparrow

The floating nothingness lasted only for a split second. Sparrow hardly registered it before it was over. Her eyes blinked open, and everyone was standing where they'd been before, unchanged and unfrazzled.

"Did we..? Travel?" she asked, letting go of Nightwing's wrist and taking a step back. She realized they must have – the surrounding room was in ruins. The Fortress was completely destroyed.

"We must have." Zatanna said, crouching down to prod at the wisps of smoke that was still snaking around their legs. "I sensed a great surge of power and then something shifting."

"It was nothing like last time," Nightwing said. "A lot less powerful."

"Well, the timelines had practically already merged here, right? Maybe the jump was a lot smaller." Zatanna looked seriously at them, her brows drawn together. "All the more reason to seal this rift now."

"And how do we do it? Without getting stuck on this side?" Sparrow asked, not exactly relishing the thought.

"With these." Zatanna pulled out what Morgan could only describe as a coin – but an antique one, like a doubloon from a pirate movie. She held it out for Morgan to grab. "Sparrow, take it."

She hesitated, doubtful of the coin's usefulness. ".. Did you grab that off the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyworld?"

Zatanna looked at her, unimpressed. "I don't have time to explain, but just trust me. Grab it."

Morgan accepted the coin, studying it and flipping it over. Roughly the size of her palm, it was heavy and exuded energy that she could feel but not pinpoint. Instead of a skull and crossbones, like she'd expected, the coin was adorned with unknown symbols and writing. The middle was a large swirl, and it seemed to be shifting the longer she looked at it. The symbols began floating freely around the coin and her hand started vibrating. Once she blinked, the coin was static once more, and the surge of energy had settled down.

"And this is for you," Zatanna said, giving Nightwing a coin that Morgan assumed was identical. "You're going to reactivate the spell, and the moment we travel, Sparrow is going to drop her coin."

A deafening boom shook the entire structure, and Sparrow wobbled on her feet before losing her balance. Zatanna was thrown off the podium and Nightwing was holding onto Robin as the floor beneath them cracked, opening into a giant chasm as the very ground seemed to fall apart. Morgan gasped and reached out a hand, but she was too far away to make any difference, as she watched them fall into the hole.

She scrambled into a crouch looking with trepidation at the ceiling as it started to cave in once again.

With a start, she realized they had seconds to do what they'd come to do. If the room was buried, they would never be able to reach the rift, and it wouldn't be sealed – and they would all be crushed to death.

She also knew they would never be able to do that, with the time they had left.

And she realized what she had to do.

Sparrow rose with determination and settled into a wide stance. The ceiling loomed closer, thousands of crystals crumbling and heading for them. Her eyes darted across all of them, determining the width of the forcefield she needed to create. She took a calming breath and settled the panic in her mind. Her heart was racing, but she tuned it out. She had to do this, jittering heart or not.

She could feel the physical resistance as she pushed her hands upwards, creating a forcefield above their heads. Her limbs felt heavy with the strength of the telekinetic shied she was putting up.

She had only a few seconds to strengthen her mental fortitude before the cave-in would collide. Could she do this? She'd never tried to stop anything of this magnitude before. Nightwing hadn't trusted her when she had been trying to stop that giant crystal, and this was that manyfold. She felt her breath shake with trepidation as she anticipated the forcefield breaking and all four of them getting squashed like bugs.

The thousands of pounds of rubble hit the forcefield, and the weight of it was so strong on her mind and body that a blood-curdling scream was instantly ripped from her throat. Every muscle in her body was taut, and she trembled with exertion as she kept the mental grip, refusing to let the mountain above her drop. Her willpower was the only thing standing between them and death.

It was pitch dark. And then, quiet. The only sound she could hear was her own ragged breathing, and the whimpers she couldn't stop from moving past her lips. This was the most pain she'd ever been in. She felt as if she bore the entire Fortress on her back. Where was Nightwing and Robin? Had they fallen to their deaths?

Please, please no.

"thgil," someone spoke close to her, and Zatanna's white face was illuminated with a small glowing orb that floated between them. They were surrounded by crystal, snow and rock.

Zatanna looked at her with wide eyes, and Morgan looked back at her with open desperation.

"I don't know," she gasped and bit back a scream, closing her eyes and throwing her head back. "I d-don't – know – how long.. I can hold it. You have to – move."

There was shuffling to her other side, but she didn't dare move more than an inch. She had to resist the urge to squirm from the pain, terrified that she'd lose her focus. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dick nimbly hoist himself out of the hole they'd fallen down, reaching down a hand to pull Robin up beside him.

He looked at the two women and Morgan saw him jump at the sight of her.

"Morgan," he gasped, before he ran to her side. His hands made as if he wanted to grab her, but he kept them in check, hovering between them with uncertainty.

Morgan felt sweat erupt on her brow and she grit her teeth as it gathered into larger droplets, oozing thick and warm down her temples.

"Zatanna!" she shouted, willing the sorceress to do something.

"Right," Zatanna sprang to life, picking up the coin Morgan had dropped. "Do you still have your coin?" she asked Dick.

"Here," he said, holding it up without looking away from Morgan's pained face. He looked panicked. Morgan let out another whimper but fortified her mental hold. She was not letting them die. Not now.

"I'm so sorry I doubted you before," he said, his voice strange from the labored way he was breathing. He started wiping at the sweat on her face with both hands.

"Dick," she bit out through grit teeth, "shut up and activate the spell, you idiot."

He stiffened for a second as if realizing himself, and then he immediately grabbed her arm, holding his other hand up for her to hold on to.

She was afraid of moving, but she knew she'd have to grab onto his wrist if they were ever to get out of there.

With a grunt, she grabbed it, and the mist activated in an instant. The pain was excruciating and she knew they had seconds before her strength gave out.

Luckily, seconds were all they needed. As she felt her body start to sag, she also felt the ground give way beneath her, and her mind and body were swept up into nothingness.

Reality blinked back into existence around them, and the room was once again restored. Sunlight leaked in from outside. It was quiet and peaceful.

Morgan let go. She dropped her arms, her entire body overcome with tremors. Was that blood she saw, dripping onto the white floors?

"We're back," Robin said.

"You did it," Nightwing told her.

"Great." Morgan coughed wetly. "I'm going to faint now. Please don't let me fall."

Her body sagged and she felt herself falling forward before strong arms scooped her up.

Unlucky number 13 for Morgan there. Chapter 13 had to be something dramatic!

The best thing about inventing some magical Macguffin is that I get to decide whatever it does lol. I promise the spell has like. A point and an explanation, but for now it's a bit of a mysterious force that they don't quite understand!

I think my favorite part of this chapter was Morgan staring down Superman. It felt very much like something she would do lol.

Also I realized since Morgan is a Gotham native, she'd speak with a New Jersey accent. I'm passing this unfortunate knowledge on to you guys and now that's something we all have to live with.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! Please don't forget to let me know what you thought, your comments make my day!