JADE (young justice/robin)

24. repose

robin.

"Batman... What is this?"

The quality was blurry, but clear enough for us to make out Batman walking Eden into a building none of us recognized. The footage kept cutting in and out. Small clips of Batman and Eden getting closer and closer to their unknown destination. It kept switching between different cameras, taunting each of us with the scene from every angle. Then they finally reached a group of people. All masked, unrecognizable, and armed.

"No," Jade begged, but the video didn't stop.

Eden's cane fell to the floor as Batman handed her over to these strangers. They grabbed her by the arms as she began to scream and cry. There was no audio, but I could hear her screams ring in my ears. Then Batman walked away as Eden reached out and called for him to come back, but he was gone and the feed finally cut out.

None of us said anything. We all just stared wide-eyed and open mouthed at the black screen, until I saw Jade's head slowly crane towards Batman. I think I knew what she was going to do before she did. "Jade, don't."

A shaky breath left her lips as she lunged forward for Batman. I tried to stop her but she grabbed me by the arm, and twisted it behind my back. With her other hand she grabbed hold of the back of my head, slamming my face into the table in front of me.

I fell to the floor as she lurched again for Batman. Kaldur and Aquaman grabbed hold of her arms, but she flipped in between them, throwing them off their feet and into each other.

Shazam finally intervened, flying over the table and tackling her to the floor. He pinned her by her arms and legs begging her to relax. "Jade, you have to calm down. I can't let you go until you calm down."

She finally swallowed her blind rage and nodded slowly, ceasing her struggling. After she had taken a few deep breaths he finally released her and helped her back to her feet. That didn't stop her from marching towards Batman and punching him right across the face, though. He didn't try to stop or dodge her. Instead, he let her get enough aggression out for the moment so she could think straight.

A stream of blood dripped from his nose, but he merely asked her, "Are you done?"

She wasn't trying to attack him anymore, meaning she was for now.

"Do you know where that was?" she asked, her voice impassive as if she hadn't gone ballistic just a second ago. "In that video, do you recognize the building?"

I turned back to the computer already working on locating where the surveillance footage had come from. "There's no encryption on the footage. It was sent to us straight from a factory site in Minneola, Iowa."

"It's not encrypted because they want us to know," Jade said quietly. "They want to make a show out of it."

"All Leaguers," Batman immediately spoke into his comm, "This is a priority alpha alert. We need every Leaguer available for a missing persons search. One of our own has been taken."

Flash and Superman headed straight for the factory, able to get there quickest while Batman, Tornado, Shazam, Aquaman and the entire team took the Bioship. The rest of the League would follow transportation routes leading out of the factory to track where she possibly had been taken.

Jade was on autopilot. I could see it. There was no thoughts in her head other than saving Eden. She had placed herself in some sort of dissociative state so she wouldn't have to face her anger or worry, but it peeked through even if she didn't notice. The way her foot tapped against the ground or the way she kept rubbing her hands together to stay calm.

I put a hand on her shoulder, "We'll find her."

I'm not sure if she heard me though.  She just kept still, kept quiet, and let her foot tap.

"We're approaching the drop zone."

"Engage," Batman said, "but quietly. We don't want to alarm her captors."

A hatch opened in the floor and Batman and Jade jumped through first. The both of them were on their most careful, precise behavior, the stakes being higher than ever for all of us. They moved without sound and followed the plan to a perfect T, but there was no point. Flash and Superman arrived and called "clear" out loud because there was no one here.

We marched out into the open, walking through a familiar setting. The same pathway that was presented to us in the surveillance footage. Then, we reached the corner where the footage cut.

Flash was knelt on the ground in front of something, but Superman was stood a few feet away ready to stop Jade. He grabbed her by the shoulders. Either his way of bracing her for something bad or begging her not to move forward.

Batman went forward first, laying his eyes on whatever Flash had been looking at, but he removed his cape and placed it on the floor.

"No," Jade gasped. "No, no, no."

"I'm sorry," Superman said.

"I need to see her," she told Superman who tried to keep her away. "She's my sister!" she cried, speaking the loudest she ever had before. Instantly her voice fell through, weak from little use. "Please, I need to see her."

He reluctantly stepped out of her way, and she pushed Flash and Batman aside to rip the cape off the floor. Sure enough a body was beneath it.

Jade didn't make any noise when her eyes fell on the body. She didn't even move.

Miss Martian was the first to react, letting a squeak erupt from her throat as her hands flew over her mouth. Superboy and Raquel could only bring themselves to stare in shock. Artemis was next to cry, falling into Wally's arms as he tried to keep a strong face. Then Zatanna began to cry, letting heavy sobs fall. Kaldur even fell to his knees.

I was the only one who dared to approach Jade — who dared to look at Eden's body up close. It was a sight that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Her ashen face staring up lifelessly at the ceiling, eyes bloodshot, lips swollen blue. Her neck was covered in scratches and dark bruising, while the same scratches littered her arms and legs. She was strangled to death...

"Flash to the League, we found her." Someone had to do it. Someone had to notify the League what had happened.

Jade crumbled to the floor, her legs surely numb. I knelt on the floor with her, letting her fall limply into my arms while her eyes remained on her sister, silent tears pouring down her cheeks.

Unlike Jade, Batman couldn't look at the body. He stared at the floor, Superman's hand on his back as the rest of the Justice League finally arrived.

More gasps erupted through the room. More sullen faces as they realized a child had died under their watch.

Jade pulled away from me only for a moment to close Eden's eyes for the last time, before she pulled the cape back over the body and fell into my arms again.