Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Undisclosed Location

"Is everything ready for the experiment?"

"I don't understand why I must work with zis... crétin. I was prepared to do what needed to be done when we began, but he has almost destroyed my work three times, and I am quickly losing my patience."

"Hey, it isn’t exactly fun to work with you, gramps. I don't even get to smash anything!"

"Both of you, stop it. The... unique nature of this project requires both of you, in the same room, unfortunately. You're going to have to find a compromise."

"Fine, fine. But I still say there's not enough smashing."

"Hm. I suppose I can tolerate zis for... a little longer."

"Good. Surely, however, you have something to report besides your bickering?"

"Oui. Zere seems to be a problem with ze actual execution of ze plan. Ze people of 'Remnant' seem to have some form of shielding against our technology."

"Yeah, that 'Aura' thing you told us about is interfering with the boom tubes, even the new and improved ones."

"That is rather unfortunate. Have you found a way around this setback?"

"Well, there is one way, but I don't think you'll like it."

"I'm listening."

"We believe zat we can get someone through if their 'Aura' is weakened."

"But, the thing is, it'll have to be really low for us to bring them over. Like, almost dying kind of low."

"Possibly even dead, for a few seconds."

"Do you have the technology to bring them back to a functioning state?"

"Yes, but it is risky. We may not be able to revive zem."

"... Proceed with the experiment as planned, but do everything in your power to ensure that they are alive. That was the entire point of this, after all."

"When you are ready, begin the first extraction."

Penny had never thought about death.

She knew that it would be her job to fight for humanity, but she had never considered what would happen if she failed. The Vytal Tournament was supposed to be safe, anyway. She didn't have a reason to think about death.

Yet here she was, lying on the ground in what she knew were multiple, sparking, mechanical pieces, struggling to keep from shutting down. Digital memories flashed before her eyes (she had always thought that your life "flashing before your eyes" was a metaphor, she supposed it was really true), and she saw snippets of her memory (short as it was) as they streamed through her motherboard.

Opening her eyes to a sterile white room, two people staring at her in awe, tears pooling in their eyes. She knew her purpose- to help humanity. So why were they crying? Had she done something wrong? When she asked them, the older man, with a long white beard and strong, yet gentle, hands threw his arms around her. She was confused, but at the same time she felt a warmth spreading within her, comforting and soft. Over the next few weeks, as she learned about the species she was designed to protect, she found a name for the feeling.

Love.

When she got the news that they would be journeying to the Vytal Festival, she had been ecstatic. New people to meet, places to see, a tournament that she would get to be in? She didn't see how it could be any better! She was thrilled when Mr. Ironwood let her roam around the city with the promise to check in every so often and not interact with too many people. But was it her fault the girl with the white ponytail wasn't looking where she was going? That the girl with the red cloak called her a friend?

That she wanted one so badly, she just couldn't resist when she saw them again, or hold herself back when the young, cloaked huntress Ruby, was hurt?

She remembered very clearly her thoughts at that moment. I'm supposed to protect humanity. Who is more worthy of protection than sweet, friendly, loyal Ruby?

She remembered that Mr. Ironwood had come to pick her up. He had been so upset with her for revealing herself like that. She couldn't blame him. None of them were sure how the public would react to... Penny in general. But Penny didn't regret anything she had done that night.

Ruby, who wanted to be her friend even when her own friends were telling her not to, was worth it.

She remembered General Ironwood telling her that she couldn't talk to Ruby and her teammates again. Not blonde, energetic Yang; dark, mysterious, cat-eared Blake; or white-haired, skilled Weiss. She had been so upset. If her digital eyes had been capable of crying, she would've. But she understood why it had to be done. What if Ruby found out what she was? What if she hated her? Penny didn't think she could bear it if Ruby hated her. And maybe she wouldn't, but Penny didn't want to take that chance.

Better to stay away and leave Ruby with good memories of her than to risk the huntress finding out and hating Penny.

Yet somehow they met again anyway, despite Penny’s efforts to convince the young huntress that there had been some sort of mistake. When it was clear that Ruby wouldn’t take no for an answer, she finally gave in. Ruby would help her. She was too kind not to. No one needed to know about P.E.N.N.Y. The only one revealed would be Penny herself, as a human. Then, they ran into Mr. Ironwood. His soldiers saw her. They recognized her- why wouldn’t they? - and she ran, for Ruby, she wouldn’t be the reason Ruby got into trouble. Ruby followed her- she hadn’t expected that- and the guards, she was sure, weren’t far behind. Yet she ran anyway, determined to lose all of them. She was losing ground, but she suddenly felt warm, organic arms wrap around her torso. Ruby used her unique speed to zip the two of them away, but it was clear that Penny’s weight was too much for the smaller girl. They skidded to a stop, and Penny was overwhelmed with horror as Ruby bounced- once, twice, three times- into the street. She heard a long, loud honk, and instinctively threw herself out into the road, shoving Ruby aside and turning to block the truck speeding down the road.

Thoom.

Oh no, what had she done, this couldn’t be happening, this was a terrible idea, what was she thinking? and the skin on her hands was torn from stopping the truck, revealing the metal underneath- no, no, no, this was all wrong, Ruby would hate her. She found herself running once again, accidentally cornered herself; she had no choice but to tell Ruby- “You’re my friend, right? You promise you’re my friend?” The android opened her hands, revealing the metal underneath her artificial skin and Ruby’s eyes went wide- oh no, now she hates me, doesn’t she- but Ruby doesn’t run, doesn’t scream or recoil in anger or disgust or fear.

All she wants to do, all she ever wants to do, is help.

Ruby would blame herself for what was happening now, but it wasn’t her fault. She can’t see the future. She can’t stop death. Neither can Penny.
So she laid there, the entire experience having taken no more than a few seconds, her eyes frozen open, mechanical pupils dilating as she tries to see in the blackness creeping over her. Suddenly, her processors were overwhelmed by light, consciousness fading even as the brightness consumed her.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.
Beep.
Beep.

Amber stirred into vague consciousness. The sounds of shouting and pounding footsteps had roused her, and she fought past the haze of drowsiness that weighed down on her like a truck. There was a warm, hard surface under her. Metal. There was...pain, in her face and in her back. That she could feel. She grasped at that thread of the real world and embraced it, struggling back into reality from her nearly comatose state. She couldn't see, unable to muster the energy to open her eyes, but she could still hear perfectly fine. She forced herself awake in time to hear "Mister Arc, if you wish to help, you can stand guard here." The voice was familiar- it was Ozpin. Where was she? Who was the other one, the "Mister Arc" he had been talking to?

Amber heard another voice to her left, a teenage girl from the sound of it. "What do we do now?"

Ozpin spoke once more. "We do nothing. You, Miss Nikos, have a decision to make."

That sounded... ominous, to say the least. What did he mean by that?

There were three clicks on the ground, footsteps, and then a different kind of click.

A latch.

There was a tense, heavy atmosphere, and even without being able to see Amber could tell that something was going to happen.

"Are you ready?"

Silence.

"I... I need to hear you say it."

"...Yes." It was the young woman's voice again, sad and anxious this time. What was going on? The last thing she remembered was... the little girl on the road... the attackers... that thing in the glove! How long had it been? Was she still in danger? What was Ozpin doing there, and the other two?

Was she... dying?

As Amber began to panic, struggling even more now to open her eyes, the beeping sped up, and it took her a moment to realize that there were two heartbeats. What in Remnant was going on?

Amber felt a tug at the top of her head, and then a painful pull- not on her physical body, but on her very soul. She could feel her Aura being dragged upwards, and for a moment she could see her surroundings in a sort of out-of-body experience. She was in a dark, enormous room tinted green by strange torches with emerald flames. Were they underground? There was a blond teen with a sword and shield; he must've been "Mister Arc." There were two pods, and Amber felt the odd sensation of looking down on herself.

She was in one of the pods, wearing nothing but a wrap around her chest and a pair of underwear, and there were hideous scars across her face. That had to be the pain she had felt. The second pod contained a young woman with vibrant red hair, presumably "Miss Nikos," and she looked like she was bracing herself for something. Amber didn't have time to see any more as the pull increased and she put her energy into figuring out what was happening. Her Aura... what was happening to it? She suddenly felt strangely calm and at peace, even as she could hear a pained yell from the girl in the other pod. Part of her knew she should have been scared, panicked, even, but she couldn't bring herself to feel anything but calm. If this was death, it wasn't so bad. The pull was strange, uncomfortable, and almost sore, but it didn't really hurt-

Thud.

Amber crashed back into her own body with a slight gasp, enveloped in a haze of pain. She could see an arrow shaft sticking through the glass in front of her, but she couldn't see the tip. There was one thing, however, that shone through her mental mist like a beacon, a flare of misleading marsh-fire that would send her to her doom. A woman with a bow, in firing position, with no arrow nocked.

There was an arrow in Amber's chest.

This was death. She could tell that now. It wasn't a tug, it was losing her grip, falling away, grasping at straws of her soul in a desperately futile attempt to stay, to keep herself alive. In the end, however, her effort was in vain. Like grasping at the edge of a cliff, Amber had no one to pull her up, and she was taken over by an inexorable force. As she slipped, losing control and falling into a mental void, a flash of light overtook her.

She felt herself disappear.

 
When Pyrrha took her first real hit, time seemed to slow down. She felt the arrow enter her heel and embed itself in her muscle. Though she knew it was futile, she drove herself to get back on her feet, to no avail. Each pained, panting breath, it seemed to her, lasted an eternity. Falling on her hands and knees, a pale hand gripped her chin and forced her head to an unnatural angle. Vibrant green eyes met flame orange, an amber color. How ironic, Pyrrha thought. Amber, like the woman she murdered. The first woman she murdered. The next, Pyrrha thought, will be me.

But if these were her last moments, she wouldn't spend them in submission, kneeling to her killer.

She shoved herself away from the new Fall Maiden into a sitting position, gritting her teeth through the pain. She stared into those cold amber eyes defiantly, determinedly.

"Do you believe in destiny?"

This elicited a response from the woman besides that smug smirk. The raven-haired beauty frowned and- were those tears in her eyes? Her reply was simple, just one word:

"Yes."

The black bow formed in her hands, and Pyrrha took a deep breath as the string pulled back.

Time slowed even more, and a thousand thoughts spun through Pyrrha's mind. One in particular stood out from the jumble.

Jaune.

That earnest, oblivious, hopeless, gorgeous boy. She had fallen hard the second she met him, but he was so smitten with Weiss that, for so long, he didn't notice the girl who cared about him. Pyrrha still remembered the thrill of happiness and surprise that had run through her when she had turned to discover that the source of the trail of laughter penetrating the room was Jaune, standing in front of her, unabashedly wearing a full out prom dress and asking her to dance. She remembered the deep, deep connection she had felt, with Jaune especially, but with all of team JNPR, her team, dancing in the middle of the floor like they had practiced for weeks.

She would miss them, but she didn't regret her decision.

The bowstring was released.

Thunk.

It was so much worse than she had imagined, so intense that nothing else existed, just the pain. She couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't breathe, couldn't even think about anything but the pain, the pain, the pain!

The light was a welcome relief, washing her essence away from all the pain, bit by bit, grain by grain, cool, sweet, relief.

Before she knew it, she was gone.

Chapter Text

Wally took a deep breath. The bioship was shrouded in a tense, familiar silence. He knew it wasn't anything to be worried about; this was how the team always was before a mission. Still, he had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He shook his head. It was probably nothing.

Wally snapped out of his thoughts as Aqualad stood up and the rest of the team followed suit. The speedster stumbled to his feet a little after the others, earning him a snicker from Robin and a smirk from Artemis.

Aqualad gave them an admonishing look and they stopped laughing.

"Is everyone ready?"

Nods at their leader as the Atlantean took charge.

"Good. Miss Martian, link us up."

"Alright, everyone's linked."

Wally blinked for just a moment. No matter how many times he heard it, it was always a little jarring to take in M'gann's mental voice, so much harsher than her real one. He wasn't the only one having trouble adjusting, though.

"I swear, I will never get used to this." It was Rocket, the newest member of the team.

Artemis replied back, "Yeah, I wasn't too thrilled at first either. Don't worry, though, we can only hear what you consciously transmit."

"That's good. I'm terrible at controlling my thoughts."

"Focus, Team," Kaldur reminded them. “We have a mission to complete."

The team nodded again and prepared for landing. Wally tapped the lightning bolt on his chest, sending a ripple of black over his neon costume. Artemis pulled out her bow and snapped it into position. M'gann swept her hands over herself and changed her white blouse for a navy one, blue skirt for leggings, and light blue cape for a darker cloak with a hood. The outfit really flattered her.

Artemis looked better, though.

Wally crouched and prepared himself as the back of the bioship morphed open. He and Miss Martian were the scouting party, to scope out the details of what exactly they were getting themselves into. They knew that there had been a surge of boom tube activity in this area, specifically this lab, but beyond that, they weren't sure what was waiting for them.

Although, Wally thought, between the Kryptonian, the Atlantean, the Martian, the magician, and the ninja that is Robin, Boy Wonder? We're probably fine.

He zoomed up the side of the lab as M'gann floated with him, helping him clear the rim of the roof with her telekinesis before gravity took hold again. He nodded in her general direction (it was hard to tell where she was when she was camouflaged) as she turned her attention to the air vent on top of the building, bending the grate off to clear the way. He felt her float back for him, and he saluted the unnatural breeze that wafted through the air as he dropped into the air vent, preparing himself for whatever lay ahead and hoping for the best- hoping that his uneasy feeling was unfounded.

As M'gann and Wally made their way through the air vents, the Martian couldn't help but feel a twinge of unease. There was just something... off. She wasn't sure if it was the building itself, what was inside the building, or just the mission itself; but she felt like something was wrong, out of place. She sent a mental transmission to Wally.

"Do you feel... something wrong?"

"No, not really," Wally replied breezily. Through the mental link, however, M'gann could feel pricks of apprehension and uncertainty, worrying the edges of his casual attitude.

Neither superhero said anything more, but they moved forward a little more cautiously.

As they reached the grate for the air duct, M'gann stretched out with her mind and slowly bent it, making only the slightest of sounds. A guard in the room looked up at the noise, and Wally jumped from the vent, landing on him. Miss Martian followed quickly, sending out telekinetic energy and sweeping them into the wall as Wally rammed into the others at super speed. They proceeded like this in several rooms until they finally reached the doors. M'gann sent out a telepathic message to the others.

"We're here."

There were two loud thumps accompanied by groans from the guards posted at the door that led to the outside. A few electronic beeps later, the door slid open to reveal the rest of the team. Robin had out his holographic computer, having just hacked the door. He pushed his way past Wally, and looked around. "There's a number pad somewhere, I have to find it and disable it before the alarm goes off."

"Is this it?" M'gann asked, pointing.

Robin dashed past her to the keypad and plugged his wrist-top in, typing rapidly. For a few tense moments, there was silence as he typed. Suddenly a single, loud siren blared and then stopped. Robin unplugged his computer and beckoned to the rest of the team.

"We've got to hurry. I managed to stop the worst of the alarm, but they probably heard the siren. We need to get to the bottom of this before they have time to get their experiments out."

Aqualad nodded. "We're moving in wedge formation. Superboy, you're taking point, I'll take northwest, Kid Flash on northeast. Miss M., you're east; Artemis, west. Rocket, you're in the middle, guarding with shields. Zatanna and Robin, guard the back. Let's move, team!"

It was very strange- though they were ready to drive through the enemies they faced, none appeared. The silence wore on all of them, and they grew more and more tense the deeper they went. Even Aqualad was somewhat uneasy. He did his best to obscure it with his calm demeanor and body language, but there was only so much you could hide when there was a telepathic link involved.

As they reached the bottom level of the underground compound, Superboy's keen hearing picked up on a noise. He didn't need to elaborate with words- a single thought was enough to convey the information. They ran down the hallway and charged the door, ramming it open. Searching the room, one thing in particular stood out. In the center of the room, there was a pod. It was horrifyingly familiar to the original three members of the team, with some disconcerting differences. Robin, Aqualad, and Wally nearly gasped at the resemblance to the pod they had found Superboy in. It was different, however, in that it was open, with the person inside tilted slightly back. The girl in the pod was hooked up to what appeared to be medical equipment, beeping monitors and hanging IV’s surrounding her.

Rocket was the first to break the silence, speaking out loud. “…What?”

Robin frowned in confusion and darted to the computer panel at the front of the room, a stark contrast to the sterile medical equipment. “I’ll see what I can find.”

As he hacked, Superboy stepped forward. “The noise I heard wasn’t her. It was…” He turned his head, trying to pick up on the sound in the background. He walked to the paneled wall and, grunting, tore off a panel. Behind it was a metal console with a red button and a timer on it, counting down with a high pitched beeping noise- the control unit of a bomb. The eyes of the entire team widened simultaneously, and before anyone could panic, Aqualad took charge.

“Kid, how many people can you get to the bioship and out of range in…” He checked the timer “…19 seconds?”

“One, maybe two, but that’s iffy.”

“Then take Miss M, get to the bioship, and be ready to pick us up- the civilian will need medical help, from the looks of things.”

Kid Flash nodded and sped away, carrying M’gann with him.

“Everyone, gather around the pod. Rocket, make as large of a shield as you can. The civilian takes priority, then the members of the team that are more physically vulnerable.”

The team nodded and crowded together. A look of concentration came over Rocket’s face as she made her shield, engulfing the team and the strange girl. They hunkered together, trying to fit themselves into as small of a space as possible.

The world around them exploded.

Rocket’s eyes squeezed shut and her face scrunched as she focused on keeping the shield together. The kinetic energy from the blast had strengthened the shield, but the debris was settling on top of them, and it was clearly getting harder to keep up the protection. Aqualad had known this was a possibility, but there was no way around it- they had been running out of time, and from the looks of the mystery girl- pale as the deep sea fish in an abyss, her ashen skin a harsh contrast to her vivid red hair- she couldn’t survive for long without medical equipment, and she certainly couldn’t have managed a bumpy run with Wally. They would have to trust M’gann that she could find them and get them out, and trust Rocket to keep up the shield.

Sure enough, after a few tense minutes, the debris above their bubble lifted away to reveal Miss Martian, eyes glowing green, lifting the remains of the building telekinetically. First, M’gann unhooked the red haired girl from the equipment and floated her into the bioship; then, the rest of the team followed in their own ways. Rocket blasted out with Artemis, Robin used a grapple gun, Superboy simply leapt out, and Aqualad jumped onto the platform Zatanna created with a spell to lift them out. Once on the ship, M’gann gently placed the girl on a reclining platform that sprang from the floor. The ship would monitor and support her vitals until they could get help. M’gann turned and walked to the console of the ship, where Wally sat, temporarily in control of the living ship.

“I can take control, now, Wally.”

“That’s probably a good idea.” He walked towards the window and sat, a chair forming under him. “So, Rob, did you figure out what the deal with Miss Headband over here is?”

Now that they were away from the danger, the heads of the team turned to the mysterious girl and noted several things. The first, and most prominent, was her ashen skin that had gained just a touch of color. The second was her hair; an abnormally vivid red, almost scarlet. It was long, and was spread haphazardly around her head.

The third was that she did, in fact, have a headband.

In reality, it was more of a diadem; a bronze band wrapped around her head, with green teardrop pendants hanging from either side. It was extremely dissonant from the slack, blue, hospital gown she was wearing.

Robin sighed and projected a blue hologram into the air from his wrist-top. “There’s not much. I downloaded a file, but it’s triple-encrypted. I can’t get in. Beyond that, there’s only a project name and a medical report. It seems like she’s part of a program of some sort- it’s called Project: Remnant. I don’t know what that means, but it surely can’t be good. I don’t think we should take her to a hospital. I think the cave would be better- we do have a medical bay there, after all.”

“And what about the medical report?” Aqualad asked.

Robin opened another file. “Let’s see…” Underneath his mask, his eyes widened as he read the report. “W-what?”

Zatanna’s brows furrowed. “What is it?”

“These injuries… I don’t understand. How is she even alive?”

Wally raised an eyebrow. “Dude, just tell us. They couldn’t have been that bad if she’s still here.”

“Well… she was shot in the heel, right in the Achilles tendon, which must’ve been painful, but that’s not the life-threatening part.” Robin took a deep breath and shuddered a little before continuing. “She was shot in the chest with an arrow. It went all the way through her torso and nearly hit her spine. It’s nothing short of a miracle for her to have survived, let alone not be paralyzed permanently.”

The team had various looks of shock on their faces as they turned their heads to face the girl lying on the soft surface of the bioship.

As if in response to their gazes, the girl stirred slightly and started to panic, thrashing against the x-shaped restraints that kept her from falling or sliding. Kaldur stood, bracing himself against the movement of the ship, and strode over to where the girl lay. He carefully pressed the girl against the bed to keep her from thrashing, gentle yet firm. He spoke to her in a calm, steady tone. “You are with friends. We are trying to help you, but you are badly injured. You must stop panicking, or you will hurt yourself more. Please, calm down.”

It seemed unlikely that she could hear him in her state, but whether it was his voice or just his soothing tone, she slowly calmed down and stopped fighting against him. When he let her go and tried to step away, however, she reached out and began to grasp wildly for his hand. She croaked out a sentence- “Ren… don’t go…”

Kaldur wasn’t sure who Ren was, but he took the girl’s hand from where it was flailing in the air, squeezing it slightly so she would calm down. “I am here. You have no reason to worry.”

The girl stopped flailing, but still muttered deliriously. “Am I dead, Ren? Are you dead, too? I would’ve thought Nora would be here first… she always was reckless…” Her voice trailed off as she sank into exhaustion.

“You are not dead. You are going to be fine.”

Despite the stupor the girl had fallen into, she still held on to Kaldur’s hand with a surprisingly strong grip. When he turned his head to look at the others, they were staring at him with questioning gazes. He shook his head. “I do not know. Ren must be a friend. She needs to hear a friend.”

As they landed in the cave, Kaldur gently pried his hand from hers. Before she could protest him leaving, he carefully slid one arm under her shoulders, just below her neck, and the other beneath her knees, lifting her gently and carrying her off of the ship. Her head slumped against his chest, her body eerily limp. He hurried into the main cavern, where Black Canary and Batman were waiting for the team. They turned from their quiet conversation as Aqualad entered, followed by the rest of the team. Wally and Artemis were at the back of the group, bickering furiously, but quietly. Artemis huffed and threw her arms in the air, presumably giving up in exasperation.

At the sight of the unfamiliar girl in Kaldur’s arms, Black Canary raised an eyebrow and Batman’s eyes narrowed.

“Who is she?” The Caped Crusader’s deep voice was somehow quiet and loud at the same time.

Aqualad shook his head. “We are not sure. We found her unconscious and badly injured in the lab, but I do not believe that it was the lab that gave her these injuries.” He turned to Black Canary. “She is in need of medical assistance. The bioship was able to support her, but from the report Robin found, she was near-fatally wounded.”

Black Canary nodded and took the girl from Aqualad, easing her from his arms. “I’ll see what I can do. I am going to need more information about this, but I can get it later. For now, I’ll take her to the med bay.” She glanced at Robin. “If you could send that report you found to the med bay.” Robin nodded and pulled out his wrist-top, and Black Canary carried the girl into the medical bay.

Batman turned towards them.

“Obviously we need to talk.”

Chapter Text

Robin would be lying if he said Batman didn’t scare him sometimes. Sure, he knew the man rather better than most, but there were still times when he could feel the tide of darkness that Bruce Wayne never had, barely held back by the mask. Thankfully, there was only the slightest hint of that now, sitting in the debrief room for some much-needed explanations.
Unfortunately, the team didn’t exactly have the amount of information necessary for explanations.
The files Robin had hacked didn’t shed a lot of light on the girl they had rescued, and seeing as she was unconscious, they weren’t going to get a lot of answers that way. Currently, the heavily protected file Robin had downloaded was being decrypted, but it was uncertain how long that would take. All they knew right now was what they had noticed in the (empty) levels of the building.
Robin frowned. Empty… There was something there that he was missing.
Zatanna caught his gaze and looked at him with concern, a look that he could tell even without telepathy meant are you okay? He nodded vaguely, furrowing his brow in concentration. What was he missing?
Robin shook his head, forcing himself to focus. Maybe he could put the pieces together if he actually listened to the conversation.
“Now that I think about it, there weren’t nearly as many mental presences as there should have been,” M’gann was saying. “I was only focusing on the guards near the entrance, but thinking about it… there wasn’t much mental activity in the lower levels. Hardly any, actually.”
Robin winced. “That’s probably my fault. Didn’t hack the alarm fast enough.”
“There wasn’t any noise ahead of us besides the bomb, though,” Superboy interjected.
Artemis narrowed her eyes. “Wait, wait, wait. That facility was enormous. Plus, most of it was underground. You can’t tell me they managed to evacuate it all within seconds of that alarm.”
Rocket sat up from where she was leaning her elbows on the arm of her chair. “Did they somehow know ahead of time?”
Zatanna crossed her arms. “You’re saying it was a trap of some sort.”
Wally gave a nervous laugh. “Uh, would now be a good time to mention the weird shield-thing I found?”
Eyes turned to him as he presented said shield. It was bronze with dark, swirled etchings, and it looked like it was Greek in style, rounded edges with dips in the center of the sides. The rim tapered almost to a point, and looked like it was meant to cut something, although it seemed too dull to do much damage.
Robin noticed that the corner of Batman’s mouth had stretched down slightly in annoyance, and hastily covered a laugh at the reaction Wally had evoked with an awkward coughing fit.
Everyone’s attention was yanked to Robin- M’gann genuinely concerned, Connor looking unamused, Wally and Batman glaring and Artemis and Zatanna just rolling their eyes. Kaldur raised a single eyebrow,
“Fine. I’m fine.” Robin cleared his throat one last time for good measure.
Batman returned the conversation to its course. “Where did you get that?”
Wally shifted in his seat. “Well, it was in the lab, obviously. There was this blue case with the shield in it, and I hadn’t gotten a souvenir yet, so…”
Rocket raised her eyebrows incredulously. “You don’t even know what it does. Maybe, I don’t know, there was a reason it was sealed in a case?”
“Told you so,” Artemis said under her breath.
Wally and Artemis engaged in a fierce staring contest for a moment. Robin snickered.
At some point, Black Canary had returned, and she cleared her throat, causing Wally to scratch his head guiltily and Artemis to cross her arms and look away from Wally (Robin snickered harder). “I would think that you would have enough of a memoir of this particular trip with the injured girl you rescued.”
M’gann spoke up. “Is she going to be okay?”
Black Canary ran a hand through her hair. “She’s stable for the moment. She’s one heck of a fighter, or she wouldn’t’ve survived.”
“She might be a fighter anyway. As in, trained in combat,” Aqualad noted.
“That shield looks like it’s the same material as her headband,” Zatanna added. “What are the chances of that?”
“We need to be careful until we know more, but we won’t deny her our help. Get some rest. Just be ready in case a… situation does arise. Good work, team. We should have more information on this soon.” With that, Batman made it clear that they were dismissed.

Wally was woken in the middle of the night by a miniature klaxon blare from his phone. Startled and disoriented, he fumbled for the accept button, trying to get the alarm to shut up already.
“Dick, if this is a prank, I’m gonna kill you-“
“Not a prank,” grunted Dick’s voice from the end of the line. Something crashed in the background, and Wally could vaguely hear Zatanna begin a spell, then cut off with a grunt.“You need to get to the mountain as soon as possible. Make sure you have an actual shirt and pants on.”
“Dick, what-“
“Just get over here! I don’t have time to talk!”
The line went dead.
Groaning in exasperation, Wally leapt out of bed, threw a shirt and sneakers on (without socks- that was going to leave blisters), and dashed down the hallway, pausing only to scribble a note telling Aunt Iris where he was going. He knew there was a Zeta booth right near his house, and so he hurried there, swearing under his breath the whole way. Man, it was cold.
“Mount Justice, hurry up!” He hissed jumping up and down as the machine scanned him.
“Recognized: Kid Flash, B-zero-three-“
“Get on with it!”

When Wally beamed into the mountain, the first thing he saw was his souvenir from the latest mission flying straight at his face. He hadn’t thought the minimally honed edge would do much damage when he’d seen the thing, but when it was spinning at his face at what had to be sixty miles an hour…
He ducked, using superspeed to his advantage, and most definitely did not squawk.
The shield slammed into the back of the Zeta tube opening with a metallic clang, bounced off, and spun to the center of the room, where Wally was met by a sight that made him gape. In the center of the room stood the girl they had rescued from the lab, engaging both Aqualad and Zatanna in hand-to-hand combat simultaneously, probably to keep Zatanna from casting spells. The two superheroes were mostly fighting defensively, not wanting to hurt her, but the redhead was fighting with almost deadly ferocity.
The shield returned to her hand with a thrum that echoed through Wally’s bones, and she swung the shield around at Aqualad’s legs. Aqualad danced out of the way and the girl turned the momentum from her swing into a low spin with one leg out, knocking Zatanna’s legs out from under her. Aqualad rushed in, going for the girl’s arm to immobilize it, and Wally took that as his cue to rush in and grab Zatanna, carrying her to the marginal shelter of the hallway where Robin was taking cover.
“Took you long enough,” Robin muttered. He wore his customary shades, but was still in his pajamas like Wally, and the green outfit he wore clashed hilariously with his bright yellow utility belt. It was odd that he wasn’t throwing any Batarangs.
“Where’s Artemis?”
“Hasn’t gotten here yet. Probably for the best- Ponytail’s got some sort of ferrokinesis. Almost knocked out Miss M. with a gas disc; she’s out of the fight for now.”
“Where’s Superboy?” He was usually pretty hard to miss.
“Last I saw, taking M’gann to the kitchen so she wouldn’t get hurt. But he should be-”
He was interrupted by an angry yell. Superboy came barreling down the hallway they were using as cover, and Robin got to his feet.
“ Aaaand there he is,” Zatanna noted.
Robin grimaced and, to Wally’s shock, unbuckled his utility belt, dumping it in a pile on the concrete floor. Wally had never known Dick to take off his utility belt in a situation like this. “Ferrokinesis,” Robin reminded Wally, noticing the look. “Thankfully, I don’t wear any jewelry or anything. Got a watch on? Bracelet? Piercings?”
Wally shook his head. “Not a jewelry kind of guy. Kinda painful when you’re running faster than a car.”
“Good. Zatanna, do you have Rocket’s number?”
“On it,” she said, pulling out her phone from her sweatshirt pocket.
“Perfect. The sooner she gets here, the sooner we can calm this situation down. In the meantime, we’ll run distraction, stop her if we can. Ready, Wally?”
Wally nodded. “Roger that. Let’s go.”
He had to admit, this was not the way he had expected this morning to go.