Chapter 6: Sewer trek
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Gotham
Sparrow
The air outside was not exactly fresh, but it was welcomed after the heavy, musty air they'd been breathing in the shop. Morgan kept look-out at the entrance to the small back alley they were in, nestled away behind the small shop, while Dick pulled back the manhole cover they were to climb down.
Her heart was racing. She understood that going into the sewers ensured them a much safer passage through the city, but she was loath to go down there. She hated being underground, the suppressive lack of open air made her skin crawl. She closed her eyes and imagined the humid, dank sewer, no clean air, no natural light source..
"Morgan."
She startled awake at his voice, and she realized she must've been so far gone in her anxious ponderings, she hadn't heard him call for her. Turning away from the entrance to the alley, she went to him. He was studying her carefully as she approached, his eyes drifting across the stiffness in her movements.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" he asked her cautiously, his tone far too soft and worried, and Morgan bristled at it. Why did he always think she couldn't handle things?
"I'm fine, let's go." Her voice was clipped and not conveying the calmness she claimed. With that, she scooted into the hole and grabbed onto the rusty old iron bars jammed into the brick wall – Gotham's sewer builders' idea of a crude ladder.
She hit the concrete floor and looked up to watch Dick descend. He pulled the manhole cover back into place. The sewer became utterly dark, a blackness so thick, she felt like she could taste it. Then, the two of them each turned on the flashlights they carried in their belts. They weren't powerful, but the lights disbursed the immediate darkness around them, casting long shadows down the tunnel. Immediately, she could see the sewer was too tight for her to fly in, and her heart sped up. She tried to tell herself it didn't really matter – she should be resting her injured wing as it was. Looking at the bandaged appendage, she made an attempt at subtly adjusting the gauze. He had bound it very tightly to stop the bleeding and it was starting to hurt.
Dick jumped down and wiped his gloved hands clean of red dust from the rusty ladder. He watched her tug at the bandage.
"We're safe for now," he said, motioning for the bandage. "Do you want me to readjust it?"
A denial was on the tip of her tongue, but Morgan bit it down. It made no sense to fight him on everything, not when they had to work together in order to get home. She was finally starting to feel like the awkwardness from their fight was dissipating, and surely accepting his offered help would go a long way in easing up the tension between them.
So, despite not really wanting him to touch her, she nodded.
"Please," her voice was barely more than a whisper, "it's starting to hurt."
He kicked a crate out from its propped-up position against the wall and motioned for her to sit. Crouching down behind her, he set to the task of carefully unwrapping the bandage around her wing. It was throbbing, and she knew it wasn't just from the tight bandage, but also the still fresh wound she carried.
She wondered if she could still fly with it, and if not, when she would be able to.
Looking around the dark sewer, she thought once again about not being able to fly down there, and she suppressed a shudder so he wouldn't notice. Involuntary tremors had taken over her legs and they felt weak and wobbly. She clenched her jaw tightly to keep her teeth from clattering, angry that she was so affected.
The red brick walls and crude, concrete floors gave way to a canal, cutting through the middle of the tunnel. Black, dirty water lay in it – she was sure it had once been a moving river, but now the water was dead and still. Another sign that the city was abandoned.
Dick let out a low hiss as he uncovered the wound and the sound worried her.
"Is it that bad?"
Studying the wound in silence for a moment, Dick eventually said, "It's just dirty. Not that deep, but you definitely need it cleaned, or it could get infected."
"Great," she said sarcastically. She didn't relish the thought of an infected wing.
"At least the bleeding stopped," he offered as encouragement, though she didn't feel very encouraged by it. She was having a hard time mustering up anything other than dread in this terrible place. "Should I clean it with some of our water? I have disinfectant, but it's kinda pointless if I don't remove all this debris."
"You shouldn't waste it. We don't have a lot."
"Cleaning your wing is not wasting water." His voice was unexpectedly soft, and Morgan tensed when he placed a hand on her shoulder. "We have enough to drink for now, and your wing getting infected is a much more pressing issue."
She sighed and shrugged the bag she carried off her shoulder, digging around for a bottle to hand over. Dick accepted it and started carefully pouring water onto the wound, washing away clumped blood and dirt. She bit into her lip to avoid showing her hand when he started manually removing splinters of wood, bark and dirt from the tender flesh. She knew he was being as gentle as he could, his work precise and his fingers so light she barely felt them when he wasn't pulling out splinters.
"This'll sting," he murmured, his low voice sending an unbidden shiver up her spine when it made her aware of how close he was.
All thoughts of his proximity were forgotten when he soaked a piece of bandage with disinfectant and pressed it against the wound. She jumped from the pain, and he had anticipated her reaction, because his hand shot out like lightning and held onto her shoulder, thwarting her escape. She hissed out a low breath and waited for the angry stinging to dissipate. He gently dabbed at the wound and removed the cloth.
They sat in silence as he quickly bandaged her back up, this time a lot looser. Then, both stood and got a proper view around them.
Dick shone his torch down to their left. "Fair warning; I always have my map with me when I'm down here, and since my computer doesn't work.."
"Basically, we have no clue where to go and no map to guide us." Morgan sighed, accepting her fate that she'd probably be stuck down here forever. Even in jest, the thought terrified her, and she quickly pushed it away.
"No, I know exactly where we need to go," Dick assured her before offering a sheepish shrug. "It's just a matter of getting there.. I think we should go left, for now."
And off he went, his long strides oozing confidence. Morgan scowled at him walking off and not including her in his thought process at all, but she hurried after him, nevertheless. Keeping stride with her annoying ex was better by far than being stuck down here alone.
"What do we do if we reach the cave and you're there?" she asked, voicing something she'd been thinking about for a while.
"That's not possible," he dismissed. "We traveled forward in time, so there's no other me. It's not like traveling back in time, where you could potentially meet yourself."
Morgan's thoughts instantly went to her mom. If she'd truly vanished with no trace four years ago, her mother would've been alone. The thought made her heart throb. Thinking of her mom, she started wondering what could've happened to her. Gotham was empty, and the Reach was obviously to blame. Where had they taken everyone? Was her mom even still alive? Had she died because Morgan hadn't been there to protect her?
"Do you think that's why?" She cleared her throat and tried to rephrase her question. "I mean, do you think maybe the world was invaded because we weren't there to stop it?"
He shot her a look over his shoulder and shrugged. "There're lots of heroes more powerful than the two of us; I couldn't say for sure if we would've made a difference."
He was wrong, Morgan thought. He was one of the brightest minds and one of the strongest leaders they had. The fact that he could go toe-to-toe, and always come out on top against some of their strongest fighters despite being a normal human, spoke to his ability. She knew him not being there must've made a big difference. Hadn't Bart told her that Nightwing falling into a coma during the original invasion was what made the heroes lose?
Her, however, she was sure they could easily do without. She wasn't a strategist; she wasn't one of their strongest members – she wasn't even all that experienced yet. She might be one of heroes possessing the largest amount of spite, but spite only took you so far.
Morgan played with the tail of her braid as she contemplated her thoughts. Looking ahead, she got even more annoyed that Dick still hadn't included her in his process, and just expected her to walk along while he did all the work.
"So, what are we looking for?" she asked, biting back her annoyance. She didn't want to start a fight.
He didn't even have the courtesy to look at her as he answered, "Don't worry, we're headed in the right direction."
"I'm asking you, nicely, where we're headed." She said through grit teeth, and he seemed to finally realize she was angry with him.
He looked at her cautiously. "What's up with you?"
Morgan took a deep breath and blew it out harshly through her nose. She wanted to give him some vague answer, but she realized she didn't have to. He was her ex; did she really need to be nice to stay friends? No, because they weren't friends. She could be as blunt as she wished.
"It's so annoying when you just head off and expect me to follow along like an obedient puppy without including me at all in what we're doing."
He frowned. "I don't.. expect you to follow like a puppy.." he seemed more confused than angered and she realized he hadn't understood what she was saying at all.
Morgan rolled her eyes. "If you were down here with any other member of the League, would you just march ahead without including them at all?"
Dick opened his mouth to protest but closed it again when he realized that she was right. "No," he admitted, sounding unsure of himself. A rarity. "No, I wouldn't."
"Okay," she tried to sound patient but knew it probably wasn't coming across. "So then why are you doing it to me? I'm a member of the League. Treat me like you would any of the others."
Several thoughts flit across his face, so clear they were almost like subtitles she could read. She was a member of the League, yes, but she was so much more than that. And so much less. She understood that it was difficult for him to see her as a fully fledged hero because he was the one who had trained her. He would probably never stop being critical of what she did as a hero because he was judging her from that mentor position.
He would never see her as an equal. He'd said so himself. She'd challenged him on her just being a hot mess that he thought as lucky to have met him. And he'd wholeheartedly agreed.
Her biggest fear: that he secretly knew she wasn't good enough for him. He had confirmed it. It had felt like a stab through the heart to hear him finally voice what she'd believed for so long, but desperately wished he didn't think of her. Did he consider their time together a huge waste? Why had he even stuck by her, if he didn't think she was good enough for him?
"We aren't trying to cross Gotham in the sewers; they lie on top of a much older grid of tunnels, from before the city had a sewer system," Dick started explaining. For a moment, Morgan had been so lost in her own misery that she had no idea what he was talking about, but then, realization was like a small light casting away the heavy shadows on her mind.
He was including her.
"To find the tunnels, we need to find an entrance. There are several in the sewers. They're all marked with this symbol."
He sat down and used a stray rock to scratch the symbol into the concrete floor. A round, swirling outline framed a simple trident.
"The symbol belongs to some old, wealthy family. I can't remember the name. Doesn't matter because they don't live in Gotham anymore; they moved to Yukon during the gold rush and never came back. They built the tunnel network hundreds of years ago."
"Do you know where the entrances are, then?" she asked cautiously.
Dick shook his head. "I have a few ideas. One might be by the harbor, since they owned a fishing empire."
"What about their house?" she suggested. "Or, at least where their house used to be."
Dick lit up. "That has to be it!" He jumped up and motioned for her to come along. "We're already close to that part of town, let's check it out!"
With renewed energy, they kept on walking. The pungent sewer smell had initially robbed Morgan of all appetite, but she knew her upset stomach was probably caused by lack of food. She forced herself to eat a bag of chips as they made their way through the dark sewer system, relieved when she felt it working. Encouraged, she pulled out a granola bar and started munching in it.
The dead, black water was eerie, and the complete silence it brought made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Normally, she'd be hearing rushing water, and the chirping of rats and mice in the sewer, but now, there was nothing.
A sense of foreboding was creeping up on her and a cold sweat erupted on her brow. She started looking around more frequently, shining her torch at every nook and cranny, unable to place the anxiety that was starting to overwhelm her.
The smell was getting worse too. She had thought that wasn't possible, but a distinct note of rot and decay was mingling with the already horrible sewer smell. Her brain felt like it was vibrating, some ancient, animal instinct telling her something was wrong, very wrong.
Rounding a corner, she bit down a scream as they came face to face with the source of the smell. There, floating in the disgusting water, lay a corpse.
Morgan looked away almost as soon as she saw it, but the sight was so horrible, she felt like it had been printed onto the insides of her eyelids, and she saw it clearly even with closed eyes.
Bloated, deathly pale, with dark bruises all over, black lips and fingernails, it was floating in the middle of the sewer bed. Small animals were already busy consuming it – no, not 'it', but them, for it was still a person despite their state.
They had no eyes – they had no doubt been eaten by wildlife.
The smell was overpowering. Morgan was sure she was about to throw up all the food she'd just been eating. She dropped the half-finished granola bar she'd forgotten was in her hand.
"Shit," she heard Dick say, a low hiss passing his lips.
"Oh my god," she answered, focusing all her energy on not throwing up. Her voice was strangled, and she sounded like she was about to puke. She'd never seen a dead body before, and she was sure this was one of the worst ones to start with.
He looked at her and whatever he saw in her face made him step in front of the corpse to block her view of it.
"Hey, it's okay," he spoke with a soothing voice, grabbing onto her shoulders and squeezing them tight. "Don't look at it."
Morgan felt like a huge coward, but she couldn't hide the shaking of her body. She'd already been in an anxious state from being underground, and this had amplified it greatly. Her teeth were chattering like she was freezing, and yet she was sweating. She tried to remember what she was supposed to do in a situation like this. Geotag it, so they could come and collect it for an autopsy? Try and identify the person? Try and figure out the source of death?
But all those meant having to look at it.
"I'm sorry," she gasped out, angry with herself and her reaction. This wasn't befitting of a hero. If she couldn't deal with this, how was she ever going to be good enough for larger missions? Death was a part of being a Leaguer. "I just need a minute."
Dick was rubbing soothing circles along her shoulders, and he looked at her with great worry and compassion. "How about you head on for a bit, just around the bend up ahead, and I try to log some information so the person can be identified later."
Morgan shook her head. Whether because she didn't want to be alone, or because she didn't want him to find her weak, she wasn't sure.
"I should help," she insisted, even though the thought made her quake.
Dick offered her a little, reassuring smile. "This is your first time seeing a dead person, isn't it?"
She nodded reluctantly, feeling like an inexperienced child. The foot of the corpse was visible just by his hip, and she quickly looked up into his face.
"But I need the experience. I should know how to deal with stuff like this."
"I think this one might be a little too gnarly for your first," Dick spoke softly, and though she found it soothing, she also hated it.
She stared at him, wondering how he could appear so desensitized. There wasn't even the hint of a shake in his voice – it was as steady and strong as ever.
"How aren't you affected?" she wondered, unsure if she'd meant to voice her question.
He smiled wryly at her. "I never said I wasn't. That's definitely one of the worst things I've ever seen. But I'm a bit more used to it."
Morgan continued to stand in his embrace, not sure what she should do.
"Morgan," Her name was like a breath leaving him, so soft was his voice. "Just walk ahead. Let me handle this."
She studied his face, eyes taking in every detail.
"Alright," she relented, and her heart seemed to calm with relief.
"Thank you," he said, giving her shoulders another squeeze. At the movement, she realized how close they stood, and she looked at his big, warm hands holding tightly onto her.
Dick watched the trajectory of her gaze and let go of her as if burned.
As she walked ahead, breath hitching in her throat as she passed the horrid body in the sewer, she couldn't help but think of their situation.
It wasn't just an elephant in the room, it was a pink, juggling elephant on a unicycle. Impossible to ignore.
And yet, here they were, ignoring it.
Passing around the bend some thirty feet ahead, she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, breathing a sigh of relief.
More than anything, she was embarrassed. If Dick told Kaldur how badly she'd freaked out, would he be even more hesitant in sending her on bigger missions? She felt like she was never going to become a proper hero, if she couldn't handle a bit of death. She was just a coward, who let Dick fix things for her, as usual. No wonder he was tired of her.
She felt suddenly angry with herself. Why did she always default to shaming herself at showing even an ounce of weakness? Would she fault anyone else for freaking out about seeing such a terrible sight for the first time?
She stood in silence for a minute, her insides like a whirling storm. The corpse was still roaming around in her mind's eye, like it was hovering just out of view.
It felt like an eternity, but she knew it could only have been a few minutes, when Dick joined her. He looked pale and a bit nauseous, and Morgan was somewhat comforted that it had an effect on him too.
"Let's get out of here," he motioned for her to lead the way. "We should be there soon."
Morgan wondered at the mental fortitude he must be in possession of, for him to have been studying the revolting corpse up close, and still look mostly okay. And yet, she wasn't exactly surprised. Dick had always seemed capable of overcoming anything, hadn't he?
"Dick, promise me something." She worried about Kaldur finding out about her cowardice. "Please don't tell Kaldur about how scared I was?"
He looked at her strangely but shrugged. "Okay, I won't."
And that was it. Mercifully, he didn't ask her about why.
She followed him, and they walked on in silence. Morgan kept shooting looks over her shoulder, almost as if she expected the corpse to still be visible, or perhaps a ghostly apparition of the person, like their soul had latched onto the two heroes because they'd been the ones to find them.
No such thing came to pass, and eventually she felt her heartbeat slow and her thoughts calm. The remainder of their trek was uneventful, if not uncomfortable. Morgan still wasn't wild about travelling underground, and her fear made her irritable – several times, she almost lashed out at Dick for innocuous things such as halting too quickly and almost making her collide with him.
Eventually, they came upon a section of the sewer that was still running. The smell, though still horrible, became slightly less dense, as the water rushed past them. They made their way through a section of crossing paths. Before them, the sewer expanded in height and width, revealing a big fork in the road. One side was dark and blocked off, but the other opened into a larger section.
"This is it," Dick said, gesturing with a sweeping arm towards the room the fork in the road had revealed. It was wider than the tunnels they'd been walking in so far, branching out into a broad room, the middle of which was dominated by a large sea of sewage water. On both sides, many large pipes were transporting sewage. Some came from above, spilling water into the lake, while others travelled further underground, draining the lake once again.
"This should be right on top of where we want to be. Look for the symbol or any other hints at a secret entrance."
They decided that Morgan should fly across the 'lake' and check out that side while Dick stayed where he was to investigate there.
She looked at every brick in the wall, studied any scruff on the concrete floor that could've been symbols, but she had no luck. After ten minutes, she was ready to give up, when a cursory glance along the walkway made her realize a single anomaly she'd overlooked the first time.
"Why is this pipe not transporting any water?" She mumbled to herself, walking ahead to reach the mysterious pipe. It was identical to the others, giant and made of metal, except this one was bone dry.
She started pulling at the grate in front of the pipe, dismayed when it didn't budge, screwed tightly onto the pipe as it was. Then she took a step back to properly look at the pipe and her excitement grew. The screws were fake – they had to be, because the screwheads were adorned with the image of a trident instead of the standard x, and surely no screwdriver could've screwed those on.
The sound of Dick's grapplehook going off rang out behind her and she watched as he came swinging across the lake and to her side.
"Please tell me you have anything because my side is a bust," he said, hooking his grapplehook onto his belt.
"As a matter of fact," she motioned towards the grate and the custom-made screws. "Only, I can't figure out how to open it."
"Did you try sliding instead of pulling?" he asked.
"Uhm, no."
Dick grabbed onto the thick bars of the grate, pulling to the left and then right, neither with anything happening. Then, with a grunt, he pulled upwards, and the grate flew open like a well-oiled machine.
"Yes!" Morgan said with relief.
"Oh my god, I'm so happy we don't have to walk around this stupid sewer anymore," Dick breathed a sigh of relief, and he had thrown his head back with closed eyes while he spoke, and Morgan was happy to know he'd apparently been as worried as she.
He got up into the pipe, sliding on his butt across it before he lithely jumped down the curved part and out of her view.
"This is the right place!" he called to her, his voice resounding strangely in the large pipe. Morgan cautiously crawled in after him, taking care to close the grate behind her as she went, in case anyone was following them. She started on all fours, but her wings were too large to comfortably fit, and so she was forced to army crawl across. Just as she reached the curve, she pulled herself forward, realizing with horror that her wings had gotten her stuck.
No way Mister Broad shoulders managed to get through without a problem, and I get stuck! She thought to herself, her embarrassment mingled with slight panic over getting stuck. This was like her worst nightmare come to life. Not only was she stuck underground with no guarantee she'd be getting out again, but her ex was there to witness it. She tried pushing herself forward, but her feet struggled to find purchase and her arms had nothing to hold onto.
"Uh, Dick?" she called, almost wishing he wouldn't hear her, so he'd never find out about her humiliation. However, the panic at being stuck there won out, and she amplified her voice.
"Yeah?" he must've heard the cautious note in her voice because his answer came out haltingly.
"I'm stuck."
"You're… stuck?"
"I'm stuck, dammit!" she was red in the face, either from her sheer mortification, or from being squished as she was. "My wings.." she told him, to elaborate on her predicament.
His face appeared below her, and she sent him a pleading look so he wouldn't make fun of her. He looked between her red face and her large wings, stuck as they were, and seemed to decide it wasn't funny.
"Okay, let me help you," he said neutrally, reaching up to grab hold of her hands. She held onto them firmly and Dick gave a strong pull.
"Ouf!" Morgan said breathlessly "Stop it! You're just squishing me against the bottom of the pipe!"
"Sorry," he climbed up and placed the soles of his feet against the outcrop she was stuck in, pressing his back against the curved part of the pipe so he was directly across from her. "Wrong angle. Let's try this again."
He grabbed onto her arms once again and started pulling with all his might. Morgan's arms throbbed painfully at the pulling, and they were making slow progress.
"Empty your lungs!" he said between gritted teeth.
She blew out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, relaxing her muscles as best she could, and finally, finally, she felt herself slide loose. A second longer and she was sure she would've started panicking for real.
When there had been no movement before, there was suddenly a lot. Morgan slid out like she was shot out of a cannon, colliding headfirst into Dick's stomach, who left out a gasp as all air left him. The added weight and jostling made him loose his footing and the two of them tumbled down the rest of the pipe like two drunk teenagers on a slide at the local playground. They spilled unceremoniously out of the pipe and onto the floor in a heap of limbs and feathers.
"So undignified," Morgan groaned as she pushed Dick's thigh out of her face and sat up. Dick let out a particularly pathetic groan and she propped herself up on her elbows to look at him. "What's with you?"
"You hit me in the balls!" he gasped, rolling onto his side and cupping said area.
Morgan looked at his prone form for a second, pressing her lips together to keep from laughing. She managed it for a few seconds but then her fight was lost and the first few giggles escaped her.
Dick looked positively murderous when he rolled back around at the sound of her laughing, and it only spurred her on. Eventually, when the pain seemed to be subsiding, he lay flat on his back with a smile pulling on his lips before he joined in her laughter.
For a moment, it was like they weren't stuck many feet underground in a centuries old tunnel, in the wrong time, during an alien invasion. The clouds pulled back, allowing a small sliver of light to pass through.
Then Morgan recalled where she was, when she was, and with who, and the laughter quickly died on her lips. Dick pulled himself together as well and seemed to remember he was still in pain, because he winced and grimaced as he got up. The two of them took a proper look around the tunnel they were in now. The brickwork was surprisingly fancy, with wall panels and floor skirtings. Ornate, iron torch-holders decorated the walls. Some of them still carried old torches, though these were rotten and falling apart. The floor was covered by a layer of dust and dirt, but the air was surprisingly dry and didn't smell as foul as it had upstairs. She was sure once they walked on and left the pipe behind, the smell of sewage would disappear entirely.
Terror gripped at her heart for a moment at the sight. She was so far underground, with nothing but their flashlights to light the way. What would happen if they ran out of battery and lost their light? She felt faint just at the thought of it.
She hadn't realized that Dick was studying her all the while she was having her panicked thoughts, but a quick glance his way alerted her to his knowing look. She knew she must've gone pale, but she assumed it wasn't visible in the low light.
"You okay?" he asked cautiously.
Morgan squared her shoulders and shot him what she hoped was a breezy look. "I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"
He studied her with a funny look, one that made her feel like he could see right through her, and she crossed her arms over herself, feeling inexplicably naked.
He opened his mouth, seemed to think better of it and closed it again. Then he offered her a rueful smile.
"You're acting like I don't already know you're super claustrophobic underground," he said, his tone laced with something sounding like fondness.
Her mouth opened into a small 'o' and she realized her lie had been caught. Because of course he would know that she was scared underground.
"You're right," she sighed, "Of course you'd know." She offered him a bittersweet smile which was mostly just a quirk at one corner of her mouth. "After all, you probably know me better than anyone."
He sucked in a startled breath at such an open admission from her, the words obviously stinging in his chest just as it had hers. Dick cleared his throat and decided to end the conversation before it got dangerous, because he looked around them and pointed to his right.
"This is the way we have to go," he told her, leading the way down the tunnel. "I know these tunnels much more intimately than the sewers. We sometimes used them to travel covertly across Gotham when I was still Robin."
"Because they connect to the Batcave?"
He nodded, seemingly very willing to distract himself with this new topic. "Exactly. Far as we know, nobody else knows about the tunnels, or at least their connection to the cave."
Morgan gave a noncommittal hum and on they walked in silence. She kept busy studying the older brickworks, the intricacy of the torch holders, the detailed woodwork that they sometimes came across. She played a game of trying to date the tunnels based on the knowledge she'd gained from her history lectures from high school. Tracing the features with the light from her torch, she made a mental note to look it up when they got home, to sate her curiosity.
After a while, she started to notice Dick shooting her sidelong glances. It was subtle at first, but as she kept watching him out of the corner of her eye, it became increasingly obvious that he had something on his mind.
"Spit it out, whatever it is you wanna say," she eventually ordered when she grew tired of his weird looks.
"Why don't you want Kaldur to know you were scared of that corpse?" he instantly asked, like the question had been on the tip of his tongue for hours and he'd only been waiting for her to permit it.
By the mention of the dead body, images flashed uncomfortably across her inner eye, and she shook her head to ward them off. She looked at her feet, pointing the flashlight at them as she considered how to answer.
Did she want him to know about her doubts about belonging in the League? About how she felt like she wasn't measuring up, that she was way out of her league surrounded by people like Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman? Surely not, not when he had initially made such a stink about it when she'd first joined. They'd argued about it for weeks. If she admitted her doubts, it was like admitting defeat, admitting he had been right back then.
"I just don't want him to think I'm not fit for certain missions. I don't want him to have any reservations about sending me out in the field."
She shot a quick look his way and couldn't help but notice the weird look on his face. She couldn't tell if he looked.. relieved? Annoyed? Confused?
"Aha," he answered vaguely, his tone still undecipherable.
Morgan frowned and went back to ignoring him in favor of studying the tunnels. He made no more attempts to strike up conversation during their long walk, which, she decided, was probably for the best. They were on shaky ground, but for now at least they were managing to stay civil.
After their initiate hissing match, that is.
She had to admit his words still stung. The implication that she wasn't good enough for him because she was a mess, that she had been nothing until he showed up. Perhaps, Morgan hated it even more because it wasn't necessarily a lie. Her entire life as a hero, she owed him. Heck, her ability to walk freely on the street without trying to hide a huge part of herself, she owed him.
Where would she be now if Dick hadn't found her that fateful day? She didn't even want to think about it, visualizing it was too depressing to attempt.
She cast the thought aside and circled back to her initial point – she was glad that they could still work together, that they had each other's backs when push came to shove. She knew that their years of working closely together meant they had fostered a teamwork, but she'd been worried that hurt feelings would get in the way and working together would be impossible in the future. It comforted her that they had gotten this far by working together.
Eventually, Morgan's legs were starting to ache from their long trek, and she'd run out of water and food some time ago. She wanted to ask how much farther they had left, but she kept her mouth shut, aware that Dick looked completely unbothered, his back still straight and his steps long and energetic. Then again, she supposed with her shorter legs, she had taken a lot more steps than he, so maybe it wasn't so weird that she was growing tired. She knew the bats had been trained to be able to look beyond physical limitations, that sometimes Batman would be awake for days on end to work on a case, and she was sure that had rubbed off on all the Robins.
She frowned, wondering if Dick had only made them camp out last night because he was worried that she would get too tired.
Her resolve to keep quiet grew even more at the thought. Even as she was starting to lag behind, eventually finding it impossible to keep up with his long strides. It annoyed her, especially when she saw him look over his shoulder to make sure she was still there. A few times, he halted and pretended to be looking at something in the tunnel, so she could catch up.
Maybe he should just adjust his speed instead of forcing me to keep up, she thought grumpily. Over two years we've known each other, and he still hasn't learned it.
She continued her annoyed thought-stream, nothing in the tunnels interesting enough to distract her, and her brain too tired to come up with something else to think about. Within twenty minutes, she'd grown pretty pissed at him, for no other reason than his speed. She knew it was pointless and stupid, that it was just because she was tired and cranky from getting almost no sleep and from running around all day. And yet, pissed she was.
She was so annoyed with him that when he suggested a short rest a while later, her immediate reaction was to protest it, despite it being what she'd wanted.
"Why?" she huffed, "I can keep going if you can."
He shot her a weird look, like he could tell she was suddenly in one of her moods – as he'd called it back when they were together, a phrasing that always drove her crazy – and said, "Well, I would like to sit down for a bit. We aren't that far from the cave, and I want to be ready for anything."
He sat down demonstrably against the wall, leaning back and closing his eyes for a bit. Morgan stared at him, brewing in her annoyance, and feeling stuck where she stood. She knew she wanted a rest, but she felt like sitting down was admitting defeat, even though she also knew the problem she was having was entirely made up.
With a sigh, she willed herself to make sense and stop acting like a toddler. She went and sat against the wall as well, already feeling a bit better from being off her feet.
They sat in silence for ten minutes, in which Morgan felt her aching feet pound with relief. She was surprised at how much they hurt already, but she supposed she hadn't tried these days-long treks before. Except, of course, when she'd been stuck in War World, a time Morgan preferred not to think about too often.
Eventually, she felt herself calm down, and her mood was slowly restored. Once her annoyance had slipped away, she turned her thoughts to what was coming up. They were close to the cave. Finally, they would be getting some answers – hopefully. She worried at her bottom lip, thinking about what would happen if they arrived and the cave was somehow gone or destroyed. Or if it had also been taken over by Reach.
"Dick," she mumbled eventually when her worries had overridden her annoyance. "What do you think we're going to find, when we reach the cave?"
He was quit for a while, and Morgan shot him a sidelong glance to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep. His eyes were open, but they were far away as he considered her question.
"Hopefully we'll find a fully functional cave," he sighed, though he sounded doubtful.
"We haven't seen any sign of other heroes since we arrived," Morgan stated.
"Let's hope Batman is still there," he said, fiddling with the escrima sticks he'd taken off his back to allow for a more comfortable lean. "But yeah, Superman is definitely off-world."
Morgan leaned her head back, her curls scrunching up around her as she looked at the dark ceiling. "Or worse."
Dick shrugged. They were both feeling the weight of worry simmering in their stomachs.
"Do you really think we're in the future?" Morgan asked next. She had taken off her mask and was turning it around in her hands, her flashlight lying by her side. It cast long, bleak shadows down the tunnel.
"Maybe. We'll know for sure when we reach the cave," Dick seemed apprehensive about not having any answers. "Speaking of which, lets go."
He got up, dusting off his suit and clipping his escrima sticks back into their holsters on his back. Morgan couldn't help but study his new suit as they started walking again. He must've gotten it at some point during the months after their breakup, where she'd been avoiding him. Gone was the winged design on his chest, replaced by two blue arches that traveled from the tips of his middle- and ring fingers, and up his arms. They hugged his shoulders and collarbone before ending in a downward pointing arch at the center of his chest, with the head of a bird sticking up, nestled against his collarbone. The arches were mirrored on his back.
The design was similar to his old, but simpler and more streamlined, and yet bolder. Thick blue streaks also hugged his calves and Morgan admitted it was a nice design. The blue streaks made his shoulders look broader and his waist slim, creating a captivating v-shape. It highlighted his athletic and strong body. She was sure she would have liked it a lot, under different circumstances. Now, she couldn't help but wonder if him getting rid of the wings was somehow a dig at her.
She had thought about it several times since she'd seen the upgrade, and each time she pushed the thought away, telling herself that was stupid. Maybe he just wanted a fresh design. Besides, it wasn't like the original motif had had anything to do with her – it had probably been inspired by his hero alias; Nightwing.
"Why did you change your suit?" she asked out of the blue, surprising even herself that she'd asked.
Dick halted for a second, but resumed his walk, taking an extra-large step to catch up to her. He shrugged casually, the blue streaks stretching with the motion. "The old suit was getting pretty used. And too small. I've had it since I was eighteen. I needed an upgrade."
Morgan looked down at her own suit, with the gray wings displayed across the chest of her dark blue suit. Small stitches crisscrossed along several areas of the suit where it had been damaged. One knee had a patch added to it, and the zipper on the left wrist had been broken for over a year. She'd only ever had the one suit though, and her fondness for it kept her from looking into any upgrades. As she'd grown older and her body was no longer that of a teenager's, it had gotten a bit too tight in some areas, but not to the point of hindering her, yet.
"I get it," she admitted. "Even though they're durable, our suits do get pretty worn."
"Don't you ever think about changing yours?" he asked, and not for the first time. The broken zipper on the sleeve of her suit had driven him up the wall – he hated when things, equipment, weren't running perfectly. He'd tried to get her to upgrade hers many times, and perhaps that insistence had fostered her stubbornness even more.
She shook her head. "It still works,"
"Well, some of it," he mumbled, and Morgan could help but let out a giggled snort. It echoed down the dark tunnel, and somehow the sound of it made the place seem lighter.
"You need to let my broken zipper go!" she was fighting her smile and quickly losing the battle.
"I'm just saying," he immediately launched into another speech on the importance of working equipment, exaggerating his lecturing voice, "that your hindered ability to get out of the suit quickly, because your sleeve is too tight, is a safety hazard! What if it catches on fire and you can't get it off?"
"The suit is fireproof!" she was all out laughing now. "Please, name a single, realistic scenario where me getting my hand stuck in the sleeve is more than just a mild inconvenience."
"Okay, so say you decide to move into a dorm room for your last year of college, and you now have roommates-"
"Not going to happen."
"Okay, so say you're on patrol and you realize you're about to be late for an appointment, and if you don't get home and change in thirty seconds, you'll miss the bus-"
"I would just fly!"
They kept arguing and bickering back and forth about the zipper for the next fifteen minutes. Morgan couldn't explain what had brought on the sudden change, but it felt fun and light and just like old times. Maybe it was the familiarity of a silly, old argument, that had helped them ease into that casualness they had been lacking since they had arrived. It was a great relief to her, and she could tell Dick was enjoying it as well, as he smiled more in those fifteen minutes than she'd seen him smile in the past five months.
"I'm just saying, the zipper isn't actually an issue, you're just incredibly anal about hero-equipment-"
Dick suddenly put a hand over her mouth, using his torch to trace the bend in the tunnel ahead.
"Shush," he said, and Morgan halted, pulling his hand away from her mouth, "We're here."
Trepidation settled in her stomach and the two of them shared a look and a fortifying sigh.
"This is it, then."
"Yeah," he said, "Time for some answers."
?
Batcave
Nightwing
The Batcave certainly sounded the same, Dick noted as they finally made their way through the rest of the tunnel and into the large cavern. The rushing water below mingled with the fluttering of batwings above. Ahead, the blue light of computer screens cast a cold light across the cave. He was relieved at the sight of the computers however, as it meant the Batcave was here. He'd almost feared the cavern would be empty.
With practiced ease, he climbed the steps leading up to the main platform, passing the Batmobile and the Batwing on his way. Both looked intact, if not a bit beat up. he ran his hand along the smooth wings of the small, one-person plane, sighing with more relief.
He had never imagined that the Batcave would ever feel welcoming and homey to him, but he was so happy to finally be somewhere safe and familiar. He'd felt uncertainty gnaw at him since their arrival the night before, and now he was finally going to get some answers.
Behind him, he heard Morgan's shuffling feet. She had never been in the Batcave before, and so the place must've inspired a sense of awe in her.
"And I keep all of my equipment in the back of my closet," she mumbled, looking across the huge cavern, filled to the brim with anything Batman and Robin could ever need. "What's this for?" she asked as she picked up a radio disruptor from a nearby table.
"Focus." He plucked the gadget from her hands and put it down. "And don't touch anything. We're here to get my computer back up and running, and hopefully find out what's going on."
Reaching the main computer, Dick plugged his wrist-computer into it, watching as they connected and started calibrating. He was vaguely aware of Morgan exploring the cave behind him. She was heading off into the direction of the little sleeping area Bruce had installed years ago. It was nestled into a naturally formed nook to the side of the main platform. Bruce used it when he was working on a case and didn't want to go upstairs for a proper rest, but still needed a quick powernap to keep his focus.
The computers finally connected, but Dick got a new errorscreen.
"Tech non-compatible?" he wondered. That wasn't possible! Pulling up the analytics, he found the reason. "Tech outdated?"
Were they really in the future?
"Computer, date."
"Current date: May 15th, 2022."
"No way." he ran both hands through his hair and fell back into the seat behind him. They'd already guessed most of it, but hearing it confirmed still shook him. They were four years into the future.
And apparently, the future was looking pretty bleak.
"Uh, Dick?" Morgan called out for him cautiously, her voice low but still echoing across the cave, "You should come and take a look at this."
What news could she possibly have that was bigger than what he'd just discovered? He unplugged his wrist computer and went in search of her, noting that her tone of voice had been strange, strangled.
"What did you find?" he asked, taking two sets of stairs at a time to reach the platform she was on. A glowing blue light illuminated the room. There, in the middle of the small sleeping nook stood Morgan, looking at the source of the blue light.
Dick recognized the style of the League's memorial statues immediately, of course. He'd been tortured by one of Jason for years in the cave.
Except this one wasn't Jason. He stared at the statue, feeling his insides freeze up.
It was staring back at him with an impish look in her bright eyes, a small smile quirking on her lips. Blonde curls had been let loose and free flowing, spilling around her large, gray wings. She wore no mask but was still dressed in her Sparrow-suit.
The memorial statue was of Morgan.
Oh SNAP the memorial statue was of Morgan!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I think there was some interesting character work, what with the two of them at this constant ebb and flow. But they're getting along better than they did a chapter ago so there's that! More of Morgan's insecurities are starting to reveal themselves. Also, I love how, despite everything, Dick is still so tender with her when she needs it. Its a shame she's bad at receiving it!
I loved reading some of your theories from the last chapter! I'm interested to know what you think is going on, now that you've got a bit more information to go with! Can anyone guess what's actually going on?