Chapter 44
Rachel closed her eyes tight as she fell backwards, she hit the ground far sooner than she should have, landing on her back in sand, she felt herself sink into it, her eyes flicked open and she glanced around, cold grey sand was blown across an ash grey sky, She got unsteadily to her feet and took in her surroundings, the landscape was made up of small sand hills and rock formations, off to 1 side was a larger structure that was the only thing of substance that Rachel could see so she started to shuffled slowly through the sand toward it.
As she got closer she saw a small dark stone building that sat beside a massive stone bridge with 2 towers on either end, she continued forward and noticed that the stone building had caved in on itself, the bridge was even larger than it had appeared from a distance, the towers learing menacingly above Rachel's head, thick black coils bowed as they reached across the bridge to the towers opposite.
Rachel took a step onto the dark stone, she continued slowly across, her shoes crunching on small loose pebbles and gray sand, she had taken 20 steps when she saw that a section of the bridge had collapsed ahead, she hesitated for a second glancing back and realizing there was nowhere else to go, she continued forward till she reached the hole, it was several feet of missing bridge over a swirling pit of darkness, the bridge stretched over a large seemingly endless chasm, Rachel tested the stones at the edge before stepping solidly onto them, the hole was more than 3 yards, she considered using the black coils to cross but immediately threw out the idea because they were too high, instead she took several steps back and stretched her legs and ankles, she sucked in several nervous breaths in, before she could give herself a reason not to, she ran forward, her feet fell hard against the stone sand making it impossible for her soles to grip anything, she dove off the edge, her fingers outstretched.
She never made it within a foot of the opposite edge, the stone quickly disappeared as the darkness of the chasm filled her vision, Rachel squeezed her eyes shut tight, her face slammed into a glass door, her eyes flung open and were met with sunlight reflected off shiny clean windows, she shielded her eyes and glanced around, she was standing in front of a diner with a neon sign, around her were bright red brick buildings, several had names she recognized sprawled on the fronts in colorful lettering, she pushed into the diner but stopped in her tracks when she saw the girl behind the counter.
The girl had curly bright red hair, she was wearing a light pink short-sleeved button-down shirt with a white ascot tied loosely around her neck draping down where the top 3 buttons of her shirt were undone, she also wore a pastel pink and white mini skirt, over her left breast was a light pink name badge that read Barbara, she was laughing flirtatiously at something a boy sitting at the bar had said, Rachel recognized him as well, he was wearing white wash blue jeans with a tan and sky blue letterman jacket, he wore his black mullet slicked back, Barbara Gordon and Richard Grayson.
But everything felt different, the colors stung Rachel's eyes and the air was thick, she turned back to the door, her head felt light, and her vision blurred,
"Are you ok?" A voice sounded distant before disappearing, Rachel's eyes peeled open, she was still inside the diner facing the door, but it was older, the colors duller, and across the street Kara, Donna, and Garfield stood around the bus sticking out of the underground parking garage, with the new girl and boy standing on top of the bus, the girl was leaning down into the back window, she pulled out and said something that caused the whole group to panic, they carefully hurried to set the bus down and Kara began urgently talking to her, Rachel pulled the diner door open and rushed across the street.
"We have to find Rachel" Rachel could hear the tears in Kara's voice, Donna saw Rachel a couple of seconds before the rest of the group, Kara saw the new girl staring past her and turned "Rachel" She called tearing away from the others, she threw her arms around Rachel's neck and pulled her against her,
"Are you ok?" She asked letting Rachel go only too take her face in her hands,
"I'm fine, it's ok" Rachel assured her, the concern slowly drained from kara's eyes and was replaced with contentment.
"This is really cute, don't get me wrong but, the city is still under attack" Donna's voice broke them from their trance, they looked back to the others and noticed Donna's hands covered in blood, several of her finger nails had been ripped off when she had dug her fingers into the metal siding of the bus,
"You're hurt" Rachel said rushing over to her, she took hold of her hands and studied the wounds causing Donna to wince in pain, "We need to get you back to the tower" Donna shook her head,
"No, we've still got an army to stop" She said,
"She's right we need to get you patched up, plus we've gotta get these civilians to safety, and I'm almost out of arrows" Artemis said stepping over to them,
"That's Artemis and Kid Flash, this is Prophite" Donna introduced them, Rachel nodded toward them,
"We're at your service" Kid Flash said giving her a 2 fingered salute,
"Garfield, Artemis can you 2 get everyone back to the tower, fix Donna up and refresh your gear" Rachel said, they both nodded and began rounding the group of civilians up, "Kara, Kid Flash round up anyone else you can find and get them into the bunker under the tower"
"What about you?" Kara asked,
"I'm going to find Dick" Kara nodded slowly, her face full of worry,
"Try and keep up Krypton" Kid Flash taunted bouncing on the balls of his feet, Kara turned to him and cracked her neck,
"Let's do this."