The Warworld
May 30, 03:36 UTC
I didn't feel good about leaving Rena by herself in the warehouse, but there wasn't much of a choice. She can't go to the hospital—not without us knowing who took her and whether or not they might still be looking for her.
That meant cleaning and changing her myself. It wasn't a pretty sight under all the bandages. There was a nasty slash across her abdomen, along with a neat line at the bottom of her stomach. The gash had to be the stab wound—the injury the leftover blade was behind—but the second one was an incision. It was precise and had stitching fixed all around it.
What would Rens need a surgery for?
The trickiest part was her fingers. Her whole left hand had to be wrapped and placed inside a splint. The right had a splint among other bandages for the two fingers that managed not to break.
I couldn't tell whether I was sick, sad, or angry. Maybe all of the above? How could I let this happen to her?
"Anything?"
"No," Miss M sighed. "I'm sorry. I can't sense any of them, but the Warworld is so big, they could easily be out of range."
"We've been flying this surface grid pattern for hours, a-and you're exhausted."
"I'm fine. I-I can do this."
"Of course, but there's no need to over-tax yourself so soon after your kidnapping. Besides, we're not giving up. We'll start over where the Team first disappeared. Look for a new lead."
"All right. If you think it best."
And that's what we did—or at least, tried to do.
"Haven't you already scanned every inch of this place?"
"Yeah, but I'm obviously capable of missing obvious clues. I totally should have spotted evidence of Blue Beetle's defection after Green Beetle fixed his scarab."
"That's my fault," M'gann grabbed me. "You asked me to scan Green's mind, and I vouched for him without delving deep. I was so afraid to use my powers after what I did to Aqualad. I allowed Green Beetle and his scarab to feed me exactly what The Reach wanted us to believe. So Blue trusted Green and was turned by him. Then somehow abducted the Team. All on me."
"Except you never would have been in that position if I had trusted you with the secret of Aqualad's deep cover mission. I put you, Iris, Aqualad, Artemis, the whole Team in unacceptable danger."
"So this is our guilt off? I say I messed up then you say you messed up worse. Dick, we both made mistakes and we both need to get over ourselves. Save the Team, then save Blue. As a certain 13 year old was once fond of saying, 'that's just what we do,'."
I lightened up as much as possible, scanning the room slowly.
"How's she doing?"
"Eight broken fingers, malnutrition, a stab wound, and it looks like a coma... so not great."
"And you still have no idea who took her or brought her back?"
"None," I shook my head. "We could wait until she wakes up—whenever that is."
"She escaped her captors with eight broken fingers," she put a hand on my shoulder again. "She'll be okay."
A screech sounded on the other side of the door.
Miss Martian and I readied ourselves, but a familiar whirring filled our ears. The door opened as Sphere rolled in.
"Sphere!"
She rolled over to us excitedly.
"Can you take us to Superboy?"
Sphere revved, before turning into the cycle.
"I think that's a yes."
We arrived outside the doors, only to come face to face with a squad of Reach troopers. Miss Martian and I took them all down as they opened, revealing the Team and the abductees we saved from the last time.
"Hey fearless leader," Arsenal walked over. "Better late than never."
"Everyone safe?"
"For now."
"The Chrystal Key?"
"Gone." Black Beetle was fighting someone behind. "And we better get gone too before one of them declares a winner."
"Right, move out."
We brought everyone to the Bio-ship, ready to go home.
"All aboard," Miss Martian said. "We're almost home free."
"I think congratulations are in order," I told the new kids. "No training, no guidance, and yet you pulled it off. When we get back, after a debrief, there might be a place for all of you with the Team."
"Wow, really?" one of them said interestedly.
"So now that we save your butts, you're cool with us not being Star Lab's guinea pigs."
"Dude, chill!"
"Before we head back, we need to talk about Blue Beetle," Arsenal told me. "He betrayed us."
"Look who's talking," Bee said from behind. "Last thing I remember is you blowing an airlock without warning! Nearly got us all killed and absolutely guaranteed our capture!"
"Hey! After eight years on ice, there's no way I was getting grabbed again. And in case you hadn't noticed my escape resulted in you being free now to stand here and complain. So how about a thank you?"
"You're right Arsenal," I regained his attention. "Thank you. And after we get back to Earth. You're. Off. The Team."
"Well, wait a minute!"
"If it wasn't for Arsenal, we wouldn't have rescued anyone."
"That may be, but this isn't the first time he's pulled this kind of stunt. Intentionally endangering the lives of teammates in order to further his own agenda or guard against his own personal demons. It's unacceptable. So until you prove yourself a team player, you have no place on this team. Now let's get aboard and get out of here."
It was harsh, but after almost losing everyone—almost losing Rena—no more sacrifices. No more unnecessary risks. No more putting the people I care about in danger.
"We can discuss this further when we're not behind enemy lines."
"Sounds like there's nothing left to discuss."
"See, we don't need your help getting back to Earth, or your offer to join the Team. We have our own way of doing things."
"What do you say bro, want to ride with us?" they asked Arsenal.
"Sounds like a plan."
One of them pulled out a fatherbox. "Wait! Is that a—"
"Home please," she told it.
They disappeared in a portal in the floor.
Blüdhaven
May 30, 06:21 EDT
Everyone was more than happy to hear Rena arrived while they were gone. They had so many questions I still couldn't answer, though.
Who did it?
Why?
How'd she escape?
When the bioship landed, we took the underground entrance in. The moment the elevator leveled with the floor, everyone let out a gasp.
Rena stood there, staring.
Wonder Girl greeted her first. "You're awake!"
Rena didn't answer her, though. Something was different. Something had changed in her demeanor, ripping whatever warmth she used to muster. Her tired, bruised eyes scanned each of us menacingly, looking for something I didn't understand.
There was something hidden between her broken fingers too. A glass bottle with the bottom broken off.
M'gann spoke next, timidly. "I-Iris?"
It was like she hadn't even processed her own name. She stood frozen, until her glare fixed towards me. "You..."
Her accent had come back, thick and jarring, just as it had been when she first arrived.
Without warning, she charged forward, the bottle raised in the air. Superboy raced forward first to grab her and the bottle shattered against his skin. Using only her legs and sheer speed, she maneuvered and knocked him to the floor. The next to attempt stopping her was Wonder Girl who was brutally thrown into the wall.
One by one, she barreled through the team. Nobody could manage to lay a hand on her, despite the fact that both of hers were broken. And as she charged closer and closer towards me, I froze in my place.
What was left of the bottle darted towards my throat, but in the final second, she stopped herself. She shuddered heavily, fighting the urge to dip the glass into my skin. I could see the way she kept ignoring her instincts, shifting to move, but unable to will it so.
Tears started falling from her eyes from the internal conflict.
I didn't try to move or think of some counterattack. If there was anything I was certain about, it was that what we have between us is too strong to let her hurt me. "Rens?"
"Wh.... who is—?"
Her question was cut off as a recuperated Superboy knocked her to the ground. Surely the sight of Rens holding the bottle to my neck was a cause for alarm, but I wanted to hear what she had to say.
Superboy pinned her down, while Wonder Girl and the others quickly came to his aid.
M'gann's hand landed on my shoulder. "Are you alright?"
It took a moment for me to muster words. "You need to get inside her head."
"I-I don't do that anymore."
"For me, M'gann."
Reluctantly, she approached the group that was still pinning Rena to the floor. The moment her palm reached out, Rena stopped struggling until she fell unconscious.
"She..." Wonder Girl panted in disbelief, "She attacked us? Why would she do that?"
"It's not her." I picked her body up from the ground, carrying her into the cot where I could close the curtain around us. "Or at least, not all of her."
M'gann followed us from behind, eyes glowing with a hand raised for some time.
"Well?" I asked when she was finally done.
"It's noisy in there for sure," she sighed.
"But what's wrong with her?"
"I can't be certain. When I helped Kaldur, his mind was in ruins; it was clear what we needed to fix. But in Rena's it's like all the pieces are there, perfectly intact, but they've been..." she searched for the word, "Rearranged."
"You think someone brainwashed her?"
"Or maybe tried to."
"Okay..." I bit down hard on my lip. "How-how do we help her?"
"I'm not sure that we can." M'gann was clearly trying her best not to cry. "Two months... I can't imagine what she'd been through for that long."
And I didn't want to try.
All the relief I felt from her return had disappeared. It was replaced with the same fear that lingered over my head for two months. She may have come back, but it's all too possible that I still lost her.