The New Teen Titans (Damian Centric)

Chapter 20: Making Amends

The disturbing silence in the room, interrupted only by the sound of the beeping monitors, came to an end once Emiko and Kory woke up, which was relieving. Dick had just finished suturing the deep laceration on Bart's leg when the girls regained consciousness, while Jaime paced back and forth, still blaming himself for losing Djinn. Dick and Jon tried to comfort him, but it didn't work very well. At least the girls were feeling better now. There were still no signs of Damian and Djinn anywhere, and Dick didn't even want to begin to think about what could have happened to Kory. He had to hope that everyone was going to be okay.

Emiko was the first to ask questions, still confused by what happened, and Dick let Jaime take over and explain everything. His mind kept wandering back to Kory, who was awfully quiet. She was relieved to see that most of the team was okay, of course, but there was something worrisome about her demeanor, Kory seemed too... Distant. What was even more concerning was when she left the medical bay and retreated to her bedroom, seeking privacy. Dick was about to run after her to see what was going on but his thoughts were interrupted by a certain speedster who had also woken up;

"Nngh... Where... What timeline is this..?"

The whole room suddenly lightened up; Bart had that effect on people.

"BART!" Both Jaime and Jon jumped at Bart and hugged him from opposite sides, almost crushing the poor kid.

"Oof! Woah... Hey, guys..!" Bart looked around the room, still trying to understand where in the world he was.

Emiko was lying on a bed next to him and she had a kind smile on her face. She looked at the speedster and said warmly, "Welcome to the land of the living, Impulse!"

Dick stood between both beds, happy to see his teammates smiling for once. He walked closer to Bart's bed and asked, "How are you feeling, Bart? Your heart rate went a bit slow for a moment. Gave us quite a scare with your vitals there."

"Did it really?!" Bart turned around to check on the monitor, but his heart rate was normal now, beating faster than a regular person's heart rate at rest.

Bart was going to make a comment but he jumped as he looked down, startled by his own injury, "Aaah! What happened to my leg??" The speedster brought his leg closer to himself so he could inspect the stitches a little better. "Yikes, no wonder my leg hurts so much! This thing is gnarly!" Bart scrunched his face, disturbed by the wound. He then looked at Dick in confusion, "What happened?"

"Your electroshock bracelet," Jaime cut in. He was standing by Bart's bed, wearing his civil clothes rather than the Beatle suit. "It activated a surprise bomb. The whole thing was a trap, the entire warehouse blew up on us..."

"Are you serious?" Bart exclaimed, alarmed, "Dang... I should've waited, then. I could've easily gotten everyone out of there in time..."

"Don't beat yourself up, Bart." Dick assured, "No one is to blame." His blue eyes laid on Jaime's, "Including you, Jaime."

Jaime remained silent but he shook his head in disapproval as he stared down at the ground.

Emiko sat up straighter on her bed and looked to the side as she squeezed her sheets tightly. She seemed afflicted by something that Dick couldn't tell what it was, but it was clear that something was bothering her.

"What's wrong, Emi?" Dick asked, trying to sound as warm as possible.

The archer avoided Dick's gaze for a moment, but she looked right into his eyes before she confessed, "This is all my fault, actually."

Dick couldn't let her keep thinking that way. No one in the team was responsible for what happened, only Heretic was to blame. "No, it's not, Emiko. "

"No, I'm serious!" Emiko's voice got louder. "It is my fault! I snuck out, then fell right into an obvious trap, and put everyone's lives at risk because of it!"