Light of the Midnight: You Are My Constellation (A Nightwing Fanfiction)

Twenty Four: Goodbye Best Home

Orion, in bat form, lifts up wolf like he’s a meal and takes him to shore. Superboy pulls an unconscious Hana into the water gently.

“Will Sphere be okay?” Mall asks.

“Uh- yeah, I think so. She folds up to heal. Can you make it to shore with Nightwing?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

Conner begins pulling himself and Hana through the water, which prompts her to awaken.

“What the- Oh my God! Oh my God! No! No! Get it away! No!” She screams, panicking from the water around her. Conner was aware her fear could be stamped out when under pressure.

Yet he also knew that her magic was drained, her boyfriend was unconscious and she’d only just woken up. Nothing would be worse than waking up right in the middle of your fear.

“Hana! Calm down!” He yells as she clings on to him.

Suddenly a shadow appears over them. Orion reaches down and lifts both Superboy and Hana to shore. When he drops them she calms down enough for Conner to hug her soothingly.

Orion flies back out to lift Mal and Nightwing, who together with so much muscle are extremely heavy. He plops them on land.

Hana stares up at the best home she’d ever had. Gone. Blasted into smithereens. All of the motorbikes had been destroyed, the lounge she had so many memories on, the kitchen, the plants and mini-sun from the sanctuary.

Nightwing wakes up not long after. Most of the League, along with the team show up. 

Hana makes it her priority to check on Raven. She climbs into the Denominator and checks her vitals. Although she remained asleep, she is fine.

“Hey,” Dick walked in and wrapped his arms around her.

“Was it worth it?” She whispers.

“We’ll find out.”

~

I dropped everything I had salvaged in the Hall of Justice. When we were alone, Dick and I went through the USB Kaldur had passed.

Everything seemed relatively understandable, until a certain file came up.

It ended with me in tears. Earth; it had been Artemis to receive the Earth punishment from Midnight. A video had been taken of Tigress being attacked by rocks popping out of the ground. 

Nightwing rubbed my back soothingly. When Wally arrived, I felt even worse and left, not wanting to face him since my stupid entity caused his girlfriend to get hurt.

When I am back at the apartment, I stare out the window at the smoking pile of rubble. Thoughts and images of what Daphne and the other were going through haunted me.

I even try sleeping; but all that gets me is another nightmare. 

So instead I just sit at the bench with Sunshine, Wipeout and Orion laying in front of me. I try to keep my eyes on them or my coffee, but I keep glancing out the window until a tear is sliding down my cheek.

The front door opens and Dick walks in. I place my coffee on the bench before running over to him and hugging him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get everything out,” I say quietly.

“No, Hana,” he says, pulling me to the sofa. “You did an amazing job. Without you, Raven, the animals and everyone’s things might have never been saved.”

I smiled at him sadly. “What are we going to do? How are we going to rescue the others?” I ask.

“We’ll figure that out soon. But for now, both of us need sleep.”

So we go to bed. It’s 4am and we both know we’ll be at the Watch Tower in a few hours. 

“Oh yeah. About Alice,” I whisper in the dark.

“What about her?” He asks tiredly.

“She’s become a hero.”

“What do you mean? She has powers?”

“Extreme flexibility and density shifting.”

“What’s she going by?”

“Alley Cat. It suits her; she has a costume with cat ears and everything.”

“Do you think…she should join the team?”

“Not yet,” I yawn tiredly, moving closer to him.

One last thing comes to mind.

“Dick?”

“Mm.”

“Can we move out of here?” The question surprises him. “It’s just, every time we look out the window, we’ll see what used to be the cave.”

“Well, I guess so. Where were you thinking? Star City? Gotham?”

“Gotham’s got Bats and all that, but yeah, I was thinking Blüdhaven. You can be back home."

“Blüdhaven,” he repeats.

“Yeah, what do you think?”

Right before the two of us drift off, I hear him say ‘sure’.

~

Daphne woke up panicking. Immediately she felt claustrophobic from the small pod she was in. 

When she looks through the red glass, to her right is Swiftchick and Beast Boy, to her left, Impulse. They are in a lab with a bunch of empty pods.

An alien stood only meters from her, watching. “What have you done with Blue?” Viper asks the alien bravely. It only glares back at her.

Suddenly, it presses a number of buttons, before electricity crackled through the conductors by Daphne’s head. The girl knows what is happening before it happens.

She and the others, who were awakened by the pain, begin screaming at the stress of being continuously electrocuted. 

In a different but close room, Hazel Smith watches the boy Black Beetle had just brought in from her pod. He looks like her, and even has a scarab on his back like she does.

Well, she didn’t have a scarab, but there was something latched to her back.