JADE (young justice/robin)

7. bereft

Bialya
September 4, 5:57 EEST

robin.
Definitely wasn't feeling the aster when I woke up. My head was pounding for one, and on the other hand I don't remember deciding to take a vacation in the desert.

I peered over a corner, my eyes widening as I spotted an oncoming car.

"Those are Bialyan Republican Army uniforms," I realized. "But what are Bialyans doing in uh, Bialya? Ok. Better question: what am I doing in Bialya? In September? What happened to March? Better radio Batman."

Maintain radio silence at all times.

"Or not..."

I leapt down and found a torn piece of cloth. A black scrap with a red Superman logo on it. A confusing, not very helpful clue, but I guess I'd keep it for now.

I turned my GPS back on, trying to make sense out of all of this. There were a bunch of scattered markers, a few of them seemed to be moving around, others stationary. The one that concerned me was the one closing in on my location. In fact, their dot was overlapping my own.

"What the—"

A foot kicking me across the face answered my unfinished question. The cloth fell from my hands, as I stumbled back trying to maintain my footing. I looked up to see Jade standing tall, now holding the scrap of cloth.

"I thought you were retired." That was an honest statement. We haven't seen her for months and now all of a sudden she has some part in me being stranded in Bialya?

She threw the cloth to the floor, scowling at me. Okay, not retired. More like pissed off. She charged at me first, fighting more aggressively than she ever had before. She did a roundhouse kick that nearly concussed me had I not dodged in time.

"Wait, wait," I tried to stop her as I continued dodging, "Unless you have a private jet I didn't know about, I'm guessing you didn't put me here."

She prodded me in the chest, accusing me.

"Jade, wait," I panted, "I didn't do this."

She paused her fighting to instead narrow her eyes at me, trying to see if I was really telling the truth.

"I don't really understand it either, but somebody's erased our memory of the last six months," I explained quickly before she could attack me again.

She scoffed, not buying my story.

"It's not March, it's September. Look," I said, showing her the date on the computer.

Her eyes widened in realization, before she started shaking her head. She grabbed my wrist forcefully, moving the map until it landed on, "Gotham?"

She nodded sharply, grabbing me by the shirt. She pointed to herself then the map again. She needed to get back to Gotham.

"I don't know how," I argued. "I remember Batman ordering radio silence, so maybe he sent me here to get you—"

She let go of me suddenly and began to think. She was hiding it pretty well, but I could see the slight signs of panic in her expression. The way her eyes raced and brow furrowed behind her goggles, the way she slightly bit her lip. Eventually she started pacing.

"Jade, calm down," I said quietly.

She waved her arms largely, her way of asking "what next?"

"I have these GPS markers," I said pulling up the map. "You were one of them. We find the rest, maybe we'll get some answers."

She took a deep breath, before gesturing for me to lead the way.

I collected the fabric again, before hopping down into the sand with Jade following behind.