Chapter 24: Wednesday 21st February

My vision had recovered almost entirely five minutes ago, and through the alien glass windows I could see we had left the border of Gotham City long behind and exchanged it for a forest covered sanctuary that covered the earth for miles.

The Batcave had to be strategically located; secluded and outside of Gotham it would have an advantage with concealment, detection of enemies and multiple ways to deal with them. It would have to be different from the Arrowcave; which was hidden in plain sight, but easily matched as an effective hideout.

I looked over at Robin. I hadn't said anything to him since I asked where we were going - which was more than ten minutes ago. Though he had offered comforting words and held my hand as we flew.

I wanted to say something; thank him for being there or just make any small talk of some kind. But I didn't know what to say. Even if I did, I wasn't sure that I would be able to get the words out. So instead, I shuffled closer to him; so close that our arms brushed against each other. I tilted my neck and my head itself rested soundly on Robin"s caped shoulder.

Robin seemed somewhat surprised by the gesture, but lifted his hand anyway. He softly careered my cheek as he gently laid his head on mine.

Now I understood why people liked to be in relationships. This feeling - the sensation that Robin caused me to experience just by sitting here and holding me, it was... nice.

It was nice and warm and made me feel fuzzy all over. It was a feeling that I never wanted to stop; a flame that I hoped would never be extinguished.

The bioship soared over a what could be classed as a very small mountain. As we passed to the other side, M'gann turned the bioship and descended. It was only as we got a little closer, that I was able to see the tumbling waterfall that ran down the pointed rocks.

I was about to call out a warning as we went zooming through the falls. But my worry was not needed, as we came through the stream and found a dark passage behind it.

The rectangular lights shone dimly at either side of the curved tunnel as we raced straight ahead through the gloom. Though in no less than thirty seconds, the tunnel erupted into a massive operating base, filled with large screen computers, glass cases and unoccupied podiums for what I assumed to be parking spaces for the extravagant vehicles that Batman piloted.

The bioship came to a halt on one of the podiums. Robin withdrew his body away from mine, earning a small groan and mighty frown from me. He smirked and proceeded to swiftly pick me up and carry me like his bride down the ramp of the ship.

I didn't know how to react when Robin's action sparked a thought about him actually marrying me one day. Could my imagination perhaps become a reality?

I was knocked out of my thought as we stepped of the raised podium and walked over to a medical bed sitting upon another platform not to a computer screen. Robin placed down carefully on top of the neatly tucked in white sheets. The three other girls followed us over and stood near the railing I hadn't noticed before while Robin started to tap away on the computer screen.

I was about to fire my share of questions when a British accent wafted down from the stairs that led somewhere up above.

"Master Di- " A white haired man in a tailored suit stopped mid sentence in the stairway. "Robin, is this Miss Shadow."

"It is." Robin confirmed, tearing his eyes from the blue screen and coming to stand by my bedside. "Shadow, this is Alfred. And Alfred, of course you know this is Shadow."

By now Alfred had completed the descent of the stairs and trotted over to the platform that everyone was situated on. He moved fast for a man of what I assumed to be his age.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Shadow, Robin has told me so much about you." He said, giving me a warm smile.

Robin chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his neck. "Alfred..." he said, and was that a blush I saw on his cheeks? "Can we focus on the matter at hand?"

"Ah yes, I'd almost forgotten." Alfred said. "I believe you have a total of two bullet wounds?" He inquired, obviously sure he was right.

"The shot to the stomach - the bullet went straight through." Rachel stepped in, making me once again aware of the impending questions that had my mind inundated. "I was able to heal most of the wound there. But the bullet in her right arm is still there. I only wrapped a bandage around it because I wasn't sure I should do anything to that particular injury."

"Okay then, that's given me enough to work with." Alfred declared, beginning to unwrap the bandage on my arm.

And before anyone else had time to speak, I got my word in. "I have some questions." I declared. "First off, I want to know what Rachel is doing here, and who that other girl is."

"You knew from when we first met that I've had magic." Rachel explained. "I was raised in another dimension, named Azarath. My father is a demon - that's where I got my powers from - and the day came where I escaped to this realm. And then the day came when I had to face my father, and I defeated him, with help of course. Ever since then, I've been going under the hero alias of Raven.

I nodded for her to continue.

"This here," she gestured to the girl in black and orange, "is Rose."

"Rose?" I exclaimed.

"Yeah." She answered. "You know that world famous assassin; Deathstroke? I'm his daughter." She declared. "I go by Ravager."

"Oh." Was all I could say to that. "But why are you here then?"

"You called Rachel." Rose said. "You didn't say anything, but we could hear guns firing, so Rachel called me and we came."

"But I called M'gann." I said.

"No," Robin said, "you tried, but you pressed the next contact down, which happened to be Rachel."

I winced as Alfred started wipe away the blood that surrounded the wound on my arm. Then I realised what I should have been asking about all along.

"What's happened to Zoella?"

Robin gave me an uneasy look. "After we left, there were a few small explosions inside the house. We don't know what happened exactly, but can't confirm-" Robin stopped as a ring sounded on the screen behind him. He turned and started to tap away at a millions of buttons before him.

"Batman's just finished up at Arkham." He turned to me. "Joker's back in his cell. And Batman's arrived at the orphanage. He's sending me live footage now."

Robin tapped a few more buttons, and a video appeared up on the screen. I held my breath as I took in the devastation before me. Smoke bellowed out in great heaps of gas from mounds of substance I couldn't identify. The team members stood around what was left of the burnt house, looking expectant fro something; anything.

I held my breath as I watched and for the next minute nothing happened. Then tears started drifting down my face in relief when two new people entered the scene.

I didn't see them at first, amongst the mist and haze that blanketed the property, but they came. Thorn emerged from the rubble, face smeared with ash and blackened with dirt. She looked exhausted, worn, and tired to the point of hell. But in here arms, she held my best friend.

She held Zoella.

And even though I could see that Zoella was on the brink of unconsciousness, she was still alive. She had defied the odds and lived through hours of hell that were brought down hard upon her.

Then Batman followed Thorn, with Wild paced shackled in cuffs in front of him.

I started sobbing in the relief that suddenly dawned upon me. It was okay. Everything was going to all be okay. I was so caught up in the emotion that I hardly realised Robin coming over and placing a comforting arm on my left shoulder and a sweet kiss on my tear stained cheeks.

"Miss Shadow." Said Alfred. "I know this is a happy time, and I'm sorry to ruin it for you, but I need you to stop sobbing and stay still. I'm about to remove the bullet from your arm."

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An update in two days!!???? I feel awesome right now, invincible even.

And the truth finally came out about Raven and Ravager!!! Yay!! And Zoella's ALIVE!!!!!! DOUBLE, NO, TRIPLE YAY!!!!! And I added Alfred in there as well. I picture him as quite a comical character so I decided to make him kind of ruin the emotional moment at the end lol.

So it's really late and I'm really tired. This will be the second last chapter, and then there will be an epilogue. So I'm sorry this story is going to be so short, but I'm starting another one hopefully very soon after I've finished this and hopefully it will be awesomer than this one. Oh, and in the next story, I'm not going to be adding memes, but fanart. Obviously none of it will be mine, and I will take no credit, so if you want me to put something up just send it to me!!

Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you tune in for the next to parts I will be posting!!!!

Goodnight