Chapter Text
The sun rose from a distance, birds chirping early in the morning and a tamed breeze ruffled through Tenji’s tent. He rolls around and flutters his eyes open, trying to wake up. Once he could make a thought, he sat up and crawled over to the exit of his tent. He zips it open, looking around for his sister, but there is no sign of her. Getting out of the tent, his guard stands up as he grips his knuckle brass, heading towards Jaya’s tent.
With respect for privacy, he taps on her tent, “Hey, you up?”
It takes him a bit to hear her tent moving inside, and he watches Jaya open the zipper. The girl crawls out groggy, a black cape still wrapped around her. As she stands up, Tenji blinks rapidly, making sure it’s actually his sister’s cape. “Oh…Uh.” He quickly stops himself from asking something ridiculous.
“Ahem, do you know where Cass is?” He asks awkwardly with also a worried tone.
Jaya looks around looking for Batgirl, becoming worried as well. “No, I just woke up. She can't be far.”
Tenji nods in agreement and takes the lead, Jaya following right behind him. If it weren't for Cassandra being lost, Jaya would’ve been completely embarrassed at being caught sleeping with her cape. They start searching deeper into the woods and calling out for Batgirl. Tenji notices a black cloth in the distance on the ground and hurriedly runs towards it.
“Tenji!” Jaya chases after him and sees him pick something up.
When she catches up, he turns his head to her, holding Batgirl’s mask. “She has to be close.” He says determined.
They follow the lead and eventually find a lake close by. From afar, they see Cassandra floating inside of it, clearly unconscious. Jaya and Tenji run as fast as they can to the lake and Tenji goes jumping in, swimming towards his sister. As he drags her onto land, Jaya wraps the cape around Cassandra and starts doing CPR, trying to get the water out of her lungs.
Before she could put her lips on Cassandra’s, Batgirl chokes on the water and throws it up, getting it out of her lungs. Her eyes shoot open in panic, trying to get back up, but her friends keep her down.
“Sis, it’s okay! We’re here.” Tenji holds her cheek with one hand while the other holds her shoulder, keeping her from moving too much.
Cassandra takes in deep breaths, gasping for air and feeling a burning heat all around her body. She has the strength to push them both off of her, throwing the cape off of her. She stumbles to get herself back up to run back to the lake, but Tenji grabs her ankle from going any further. Cassandra falls onto the ground and her brother takes the chance to jump onto her, flipping her around to see her face in distress. “Cass! What's wrong?!”
Jaya rushed over to the two and placed her thumb on the middle of Cassandra’s forehead. “Snap out of it!”
Batgirl is knocked out and becomes limp. The other two stare at her, anticipating something to happen any second. This time, Cassandra wakes up differently. It's like she had no idea what happened and she had just woken up from a deep sleep. She stares up at her brother and friend, confused with furrowed brows, trying to remember anything this morning.
“You good?” Tenji asks softly, not wanting to trigger whatever just happened a couple of seconds ago.
Her voice struggles a bit to say a word, and she talks raspy, “Yeah…I’m good.” She sits up with the assistance of her friends.
“I’m sorry, I had to do something before things got worse,” Jaya says with tense eyes and guilt. This wasn't a move she used often and it’ll definitely drain a lot of energy out of Cassandra.
The girl looks at Jaya and shakes her head, “Don’t be, I’m sure it was needed…” Cold washed over her, making her shake. Tenji grabs her cape, wrapping it around her.
“Can you…Remember anything?” He takes off his own jacket to dry his sister’s hair as Jaya holds her up.
Cassandra thinks, trying her best to recall her memory. Sudden flashes go through her head, she remembers parts, all of them being mixed up from her going to the lake and her being back at the base. Her head starts to throb as the memories come back and she groans.
“I…I didn't have any control.” She takes in a short breath as another memory comes, “S-Something in me needed to cool down, too much heat, it was like…Burning me from the inside and out. My blood, it was—” She takes in a long shaky breath, “Boiling me.”
Tenji frowns as he gently gets the remaining water off her hair, “Has this happened before?”
She shakes her head, “Never.”
He keeps thinking about what his sister said, “Your blood was boiling you…Could it possibly be something that happened at the farm? When that crazy blood lady was attacking us.”
Cassandra’s head kept thumping hard, making it hard for her to think, “I don't know, maybe?” She grumbles out.
Jaya watches her concern, “It shouldn’t happen again for now. We’ll have enough time to get you back to Gotham and have you treated. But, for the next twenty-four hours, your body is going to be extremely exhausted and weak.”
Cassandra nods in understanding as she barely holds her own cape from falling. They help her get up from the ground and hold her by wrapping an arm over their shoulder. Jaya looks at her, wanting to tug her hair behind her ear to get it out of her face, but doesn't. “Are you good to go?”
“I am…”
The trio starts to walk in sync, making sure that Cassandra doesn't fall. Tenji looks at the compass in his hand, “Hang on Cassie, we’ll get you home.”
Five hours go by and luckily yesterday they made a lot of progress, making their destination not too far away. The two struggled to keep the bat up, even though she was light, her body became heavy from supporting herself on them. They didn't have time to stop, Cassandra needed urgent care right away and there wasn't any time to waste.
It didn't matter that their bodies were aching and dehydrated, they had to keep pushing for Cassandra.
By this time, Cassandra was barely conscious, her eyes closed shut. All she could do was move her legs weakly as her feet often dragged on the floor. Tenji’s and Jaya’s eyes glowed in hope and ease as they saw a small peak of a dull city ahead.
Tenji grinned wearily, “We’re almost there…”
As they walked another mile. A drone flew towards them, and before it got closer, a voice came out of it. “Cassandra! You three stay put, we’re sending a car over.” Barbara sends the Batmobile with a few buttons and it races there at high speed.
Tenji and Jaya look at the drone with zero trust and keep moving forward without saying a word.
“Wait! I know you don't know me and you want to protect her, but you have to trust me…” She panics as she sees them keep moving, and sighs heavily, “Does…Barbara ring a bell?”
It definitely did because the two looked at each other and stopped, then back at the drone. “You’re who she’s been talking to,” Jaya says.
Barbara smiles in relief, happy that Cassandra had brought her up before, “Yes. The car I'm sending is almost there. Once you get in it’ll send you to the Batcave. I'll have everything prepared to help with her recovery, as well as yours.”