A WARNING!

On reviewing what I wrote I've decided to give a content warning for this chapter. It's probably overkill but on the interest of being safe, I'll specifically warn you for:

short but graphic depiction of violence,

and

temporary character death

Basically this is the chapter I rates this T for. I'll give you a warning in the section itself, and summarize what happened in the next chapter for those who don't wish to read it.

Sorry for the late warning and please proceed at your own discretion!

May. It was just a school club p.2

Seymour caught up with Jenny at the end of the hallway. "So?" she asked.

"Mikron says Terra left with Gar in Vic's car," he replied.

Jen shook her head, laughing. "She actually bailed on us. And here I thought she was a perfect little sociopath."

"So we're posting Terra's file too, right?" Seymour asked.

"Yep. Now-" Jen's phone went off. She picked it up to Mikron's call. "What? …No, of course not yet! Did you idiots listen to the plan? …Just keep following them! Don't let them out of your sight!" She hung up with a scoff. Seymour had been peacefully waiting for her to end the call. "And you-"

"Will wait for your confirmation to post everything, I know."

Jen smiled. "You know you're my favorite henchman, right?"

Then she walked on clouds to her first class. She'd never had this much fun in her life.

She bid her time for the next few hours—waited out the school day, went home, and tried to contain her excitement. When eight thirty rolled around, she texted on the Hive group chat Terra didn't know existed.

Jenny (8:30pm): Showtime, losers

It was well past eight thirty. Vic opened his front door, ready to chew Gar out for bringing his car back so late, and was surprised to see Jenny standing there instead.

"Hey, Stone," she said, a grin on her face.

"Jen," Vic replied, his tone not knowing what to make of itself. "Hi. What's up?"

"I have a small problem." She dug into her pocket and took out her cell phone. "I can't get my phone to turn on again. I was in the neighborhood, and I remembered you were good with technology. Will you help me?"

"Uh, I should get going in a while," Vic said truthfully, though he wanted to say yes.

He'd never bought Dick's new certainty that Jen was Hive, along with Kitty of all people. Now she was at his front door with this flimsy excuse, it occurred to him she knew Dick was suspicious of her—she wanted to send a message, state she had nothing to do with it, and make nice with him. And he had thought before how he wanted nothing more than for them to be amicable exes.

"But… yeah, I can take a look," he ended up saying.

"Should we go to your garage? That's where all your tinkering equipment is, right?"

"You remember," he quipped, getting the key from the pad next to him and leading her to his garage.

Dick was trying to throw his room into a semblance of order before his friends arrived, when he got a phone call. A private number. He answered it. "Hello?"

"Richard Grayson?"

"Who's this?"

"Mr. Grayson, I'm calling from Gotham hospital. We regret to inform you that your uncle, Bruce Wayne, has suffered an accident."

Dick stood. "What happened? Is he alright?" he asked. His sudden panic was a bit exaggerated—he'd play along with the call until he could ascertain it was real.

"He's stable, but he's told us to call you. He said to tell you this word—Manticore. Does that mean anything to you?"

Any semblance of doubt Dick harbored went out the window. Minutes later, he was throwing his keys, wallet and phone in his backpack, walking out the door and locking up the house. On the way to the bus station, he called Kori.

"Kori. I can't do the meeting tonight."

"Is everything alright?"

"Actually? No. I got a call that Bruce is in hospital in Gotham. I'm sorry, you guys will have to speak for the Club tonight."

Kori gasped on the other end. "We will not disappoint, Dick. Go and take care of your uncle."

As soon as Raven left the Tanners' house, her stomachache returned in full force. It seemed she'd been able to distract herself with the kids for a few hours, but now she was back to the sad reality—that she may not have a Club to go to tomorrow. Her phone had been buzzing, but she decided she'd check it on the bus to Dick's house. She was too rattled to pull it out on the street at night.

She tried to calm down; when she sat on the bus stop bench, she focused on a tree across the street and breathed to ease herself into an open-eyed meditation.

But her senses spurred her. She stood before she knew what was happening. When she turned she saw him–Jen's friend, Kidd. At the end of the bus stop, blending in with the shadows. Raven put some distance between them, edging backwards.

Then someone else grabbed her from behind.

In the back of Vic's car, Gar broke away from kissing Terra to look at her. "Are you sure, though?" he asked for the third time.

Terra laughed, though it came off nervous. "Again—yes."

"But- I mean, we can just go to my house and-"

"Constantly worry that your foster parents are gonna burst in at any moment?" finished Terra.

"I just want to do something special for you," Gar told her, his face serious. "That's how it should be, right? The first time should be special," he whispered.

They were parked in a nice field. It was dark, there was no one around, and the windows were slightly lowered so a fragrant, late spring breeze wafted in. It was kind of perfect—but it was still the back of a car.

Terra met Gar's seriousness with a sober face of her own, and caressed his cheek. "I have special right here. All I need is you."

She almost convinced him. How could that not convince him? But he looked into her eyes, and there was something so nervous there. Like this was a proxy, like she was replacing something else that worried her with this. He didn't want to do this on those terms. He got off her and sat, with effort. "What's really wrong?"

Terra's face fell, knowing her bluff had been called. She sat, arranging her shirt. Her hair fell over her face, shielding her from him. Gar reached over and pulled it back behind her ear.

"What's really wrong, Ter?"

Gar's phone buzzed. Terra had asked him to leave it in the front seat, so he didn't reach for it. Every time it went off, it was like a knife through Terra's guts. And it had been going off more and more. Was it happening already? What time was it?

It buzzed again before Terra could muster up words, and this time Gar finally reached for it.

She grabbed his arm. "Don't."

"Hey, maybe it's the guys. Maybe they wanna meet earlier."

He reached out again. "Gar!"

"What?"

"I have something to tell you."

He turned his full attention on her. "I'm listening."

Terra looked away, breathed, and only then looked back at him, face straight. "My foster parents are done with me. They want to send me back to the orphanage in Denver."

His eyes widened. "What? Why?"

"Because… they're authoritarian jerks, I told you that. They can't stand me mouthing off to them."

"Terra…"

She cut him off with a frantic kiss. "Let's skip town. Let's just go. Now."

Alarm replaced worry on his face. "Skip town?"

"You always said you wanted to take a road trip through the US, right?" she smiled. "Why not now?"

He started to smile, but then it fell. "W-wait… You mean now now?" he made sure. "On Vic's car?"

"We'll get it back to him. Later, when we're settled down. We'll give it back."

"We can't do that, Ter," he said slowly, because he regretted having to tell her no. "Look, I know this whole hearing thing is scary, but our friends are counting on us. Hey, I'm not saying no. I'm saying, why don't we wait a bit more?" His tone gained urgency as she turned away, shaking her head. "The year's almost over. I can get bus tickets, and then we can go. We can do this the right way. But not today, not the night of the hearing. You know Dick is freaking out on the inside, right? This Club is like his baby. A-and this car is Vic's baby. I can't do this to them." He took her chin and made her look at him. "We can get through this. I promise. …Besides, I'm pretty sure Vic has a tracker on his car and he'd be on our tails before we got on the interstate."

That didn't manage to make her laugh, like it might've before.

Terra looked at him like she still wanted to tell him something, so Gar waited patiently. Then her face twisted, and she yelped at something behind Gar's head.

Gar turned to see Mikron and Baran leering on the window. He yelped too—those two were ugly. "Fuck!" Past the initial scare, he was creeped out they were standing there staring at them. "What'd you freaks want!?"

"Hey, Terra," said Mikron, ignoring him.

"Did you assholes follow me?" she returned. She jumped again when she saw Billy's face in the window behind her.

"Sure did," said Baran. "Jen told us to. She had a feeling you'd do something stupid."

"Like think you could run away," said Billy.

Gar looked back and forth between them. "Jen?" He turned to Terra, whose face turned from anger to panic when he did.

"You haven't figured it out yet, slug-face?" taunted Mikron. "Are we gonna have to spell it out for you?"

"Figure out what?" Gar returned. "That you're Hive? We knew that for ages."

"Do you wanna tell him?" Baran asked Terra. He was clearly having the time of his life.

Gar turned to Terra, who looked like she was going to be sick.

She forced out, "Gar… I-I wanted to tell you, but…"

"Tell me what? Terra, what's going on?"

Terra covered her face with her fists. Gar watched her, waiting. A few seconds passed.

Mikron scoffed. "Aw, screw it. Hey idiot! You wanna know who's been planting evidence in your computer and sabotaging your club? You're looking at her."

Gar turned back to the boys. "You think I'd listen to you losers?"

"Gar. It's true." Terra's small voice made him turn.

His whole world changed in that moment.

"…It was you? You're the one who…?" He could only stare at her. The look in his eyes right now was something she'd feared for days. "The purchases in our computer. No one ever broke into the clubroom… It was just you."

"Your girl played from the start, ya goober," aided Billy.

"Shut up!" Gar yelled at him, with uncharacteristic fierceness. When he turned to Terra, his voice was soft but stony. "Why?"

Terra started to explain rapidly. "Jen a-and Kitty Moth have been… helping me. Kitty's dad had Blood change my grades and delete all the strikes off my record. And then… I owed them. So…"

"You sold us out… for a higher GPA?"

"For security!" she returned, her eyes pleading. "For control of my own life! For a clean slate!"

But looking at his face then made her realize all the rationalizations she'd come up with over the last few weeks –that it was just a school club after all, that she was looking out for herself, being smart by putting her future over friends, that they would do the same to her if they had the chance- were nothing but excuses. It was that grave, it was that bad, and they wouldn't do it to her. At least, Gar wouldn't.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I wish I could take it back."

Gar had his eyes cast down. "What are you guys doing here anyway?" he asked the boys. "Came to enjoy the show?"

"Oh no, we finna kidnap you," said Billy gleefully.

Gar looked at them in surprise. But he had no real energy to get alarmed.

Terra did. "No! I told you to leave him alone!"

"And you think you still have a say, princess?" asked Mikron. "Just go! Run like you were going to!"

"I won't let you hurt him," Terra told them.

Gar reached past her and opened the door on her side, pushing Billy aside. "They're right. Go," he told her. "Go be wherever you were supposed to be right now. Go!"

Terra stared at him, but saw no inkling of him not meaning it. So she avoided his eyes and ran off.

Gar watched her run into the forest, then turned to Baran, Mikron and Billy. Truth be told, he could use a fight to let off some steam right now.

Vic was shouting through his garage door, where Jen had just locked him in with his own keys.

"Jen! This isn't funny! My dad won't come into the garage until-!"

The tiny window on top of the door cranked open, and Jen's face appeared through it. "Until six am tomorrow, I know. We did our research. But don't worry, we'll take care of you till then."

"Oh, you mean Hive? That's we?" Vic yelled through the window, futilely. As if there was a point to letting them know they knew who they were—as if they hadn't already outsmarted them. "What's the big plan here? You can't leave me here-!"

Jen's face disappeared, and a moment later a bag of food flew in through the window. It landed next to Vic and he picked it up to see the logo for the restaurant that belonged to Kidd's family's. "Huh. Maybe they can."

The window cranked shut. Vic rushed to it and opened it again, to see Jenny blithefully walking away. "Jen! Come back here!" he yelled out, alternately putting his mouth and his disbelieving eyes on the window. "Are you kidding me… JENNY!"

Jenny slowly opened Vic's front door and tiptoed to his room. She located his phone and quickly found the Project Club group chat. She quickly texted them, then left the phone on the kitchen table, along with a handwritten note.

She heard Silas call out, "Victor? Is that you?" and she slipped out of the house as quickly as she'd entered.

When Kori ended the call with Dick and went to text everyone about his departure, she found she had a text from Vic. It said that in light of Dick's leaving, there was a change of plans. Now they were meeting at Main Street 808. Kori had no idea what was in that address. So she took a cab there.

The address turned out to be a music shop. It looked to be closed, but the lights were on inside. Was this a security protocol she wasn't aware of, in case Dick went away? Had she slept through that meeting? The shop was on the way to school. Kori tried the front door and it was open.

There was no one inside, though the lights were on. "Hello?" she tried. She pulled out her phone to announce on the group chat she was here. She sat, looked through some albums, and waited. She left her bag on a table. Immediately after she did, she heard noise from the back room. Thinking she'd been in the wrong place the whole time, she went to open the door. It was dark inside. Next thing she knew, she was unceremoniously pushed inside. The door closed behind her.

Kitty locked the door and turned around.

"See? It wasn't even hard. Don't know why you cowards didn't want to do it," she said, hands on her hips.

Jade and Angel emerged from behind a shelf. "Who's scared?" Jade protested, crossing her arms. "We were just waiting for her to leave her bag like the loser said."

BANG! went the door to the backroom, a sound alike a gunshot.

"Is that… her?" Angel asked.

BANG! BANG! BANG! The banging was soon followed by unearthly screams.

"That door is strong, right?" Jade asked Angel.

"I-I don't know," said Angel, hanging onto Jade's arm. "How would I know?" Just because she worked here didn't mean she'd ever tried her luck on the door.

The two girls receded. "Can I sleep at yours tonight, Jade?" Angel asked, running after her best friend.

Kitty, who had no fear of gods or man, stayed back to dawdle with Kori's bag. It was baby pink with a green UFO pin on the front. "Tacky," she declared, but still slung it on her shoulder and strutted out of the store with it.

Dick was already on the bus when he started having doubts. When the bus left town, the knot in his stomach tightened. He'd been in a frenzy getting a ticket and getting on the very last bus to Gotham, miraculously. But now that he could slow down, it wasn't Bruce he was thinking of. There was a lot wrong about leaving his friends, about leaving Jump City right now. But going to his uncle was the objectively right choice, right?

He'd tried calling Bruce and Alfred, though he knew he'd get no answer. There never was when they went on their trips; no phones were involved in whatever they did.

As the bus went onto the dark countryside, he tried a six-way call with all his friends instead. Not one of them picked up.

/START CONTENT WARNING/

Kidd watched the music shop come and go as Grant drove past it.

"Past," he whispered. Grant only frowned. "We're past," he repeated.

"I know," grunted Grant. "I could do without you staring at me."

Kidd stared ahead. "Where?"

"We stop where I say we stop."

Grant smirked at Raven through the rearview mirror. Raven glowered back at him from the back seat.

She'd never been so angry in her life. She couldn't believe it was so freaking easy to get kidnapped, and by two of her idiot classmates as well.

Her head hurt. She still couldn't believe Grant had punched her. She touched her left eye and winced. There was definitely a bruise forming there.

When she'd first woken up in the back of a strange car, she'd pretended to still be unconscious for a while. At the first red light, she had tried the door—it was locked. That was where Grant had first found her eyes on the rearview mirror and smirked that shit-eating grin at her.

"Look who finally woke up," he'd boomed. "We got them good, didn't we, Kidd? Yep, that Terra chick gave us all we needed." And he'd watched Raven's expression with anticipatory glee.

Raven had made her face stone. She was good at schooling her features, so she'd stayed quiet, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing her surprised, or in pain, or scared, even as all of that toppled inside of her. He'd seemed put out by her apathy, and that was a win.

She would deal with her feelings about Terra betraying them later. It was the boys' current conversation that was making her brain race. It seemed Grant was supposed to stop them at a certain location and he hadn't. He was going off script.

So she decided to speak up. "What's the plan here? Where are you taking me?"

"Wherever we wanna take you," Grant told her. "You thought you could spurn me, huh? But now you're at our mercy. How's that feel?"

They were leaving the town behind now. Kidd looked back at Raven in worry, which made her feel even more paranoid.

"You idiots are with Hive, aren't you?" she tried. "What will Jenny say about you going rogue?"

"Shut up! God, we should have gagged her."

She decided it would be no use trying to get anything out of him.

It felt like forever before Grant stopped. They were in the middle of the countryside, and Kidd was sweating. Grant got out of the car, so he did too.

Raven was operating on instinct. She knew full well she was in the middle of nowhere, but when her door opened, she squabbled outside, to make them think she was weaker than she was—then she broke into a dead sprint. She just had to come across a car, wave it over, and get the help she needed. Grant took off after her, of course. He ran up to her and jumped to grab her. They both fell, her ankle in his grasp. When she swung her hands at his face, he turned her around so she couldn't. Her hands hit flesh at some point. She couldn't see anything, but going from his grunt of pain, she'd done something. But she paid for it, as he struck her again in the head. She couldn't help but let out a whimper, and her vision went. Had that been his fist? It felt like an anvil. The world got wiggly. By that time, Kidd had just ran up to them.

"What?" he made out.

"What what?" grunted Grant.

"Plan!"

"The plan now is to scare her a little. Then we'll go to the music store. Don't worry."

He held Raven down, and Kidd was surprised to see her hands still shot up, not knowing here Grant was but still swinging. Her legs too moved trying to strike him, but her movements got weaker. "This is for being a bitch to me!" he boomed. "You think you can keep me out of your team? You think you're allowed to give me those dirty looks? I'll show you!"

"Leave!" said Kidd, with growing urgency.

"Us leave? Leave her here? What do you mean!? Because I'm fine with leaving her here!" Grant yelled. Then he got a hold of himself. "We're going to leave, soon, don't worry about it."

In the time he was looking at Kidd, Raven's ambling hand found his face, and her nails did some damage; Grant grunted, and he seemed lose it. He turned around and hit Raven in the head once, twice, and then Kidd lost count.

The smaller boy found himself pulling Grant back by the shoulders, but it was like trying to move a mountain; Kidd had to wonder if he was doing anything.

After what seemed like an eternity, Grant stopped of his own accord. Raven wasn't fighting anymore. Grant stood, breathing heavily.

Kidd was rooted to the spot. The sudden silence of the night was deafening.

"Let's go," said Grant, and made towards where they left the car.

Kidd found his legs again, and moved towards Raven. He needed to find a hand, a neck, something, and take her pulse, feel her breath.

Grant grabbed him and held him close to his face. "I said, let's go."

He pushed the other kid the rest of the way.

/END CONTENT WARNING/

Basically—unbeknownst to the Club, Hive was operating on a different genre. Ununbeknownst to Jenny, Grant was too.

~The Lighthouse