Sword of The Lanterns

Chapter Fifteen- Silver

"Jaina...Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"Shut up, Wally!" She shouted in her mind, it took everything she had not to scream out loud and possibly let the terrorists know that they were coming.

"She doesn't know where she's going." She could feel the satisfaction radiating off of Superboy, a pinprick in the doubt flooding the force from everyone else.

"I can do this, I can do this," She whispered.

"Anakin, if you're there, I could really use your help-"

"Who's Anakin?" Rocket asked loudly. Jaina had forgotten that they could hear what was going on in her mind. She was on her own now.

Jaina pulled out the doll again, tracing it's short braids and rubbing the cheap calico fabric used for her dress in between her fingers.

The aura connecting the doll to its owner lit up again, but less brightly this time. Jaina was getting tired.

"This way," She led the team through a forest that started on the outskirts of Lowethe. There were millions of trees tightly packed together, but all of the leaves had fallen off in the drought that currently claimed the country. The bioship flew invisibly over the treetops, following the glowing green speck that was Jaina, floating in the forest below.

If she was wrong about the empathetic connection between the doll and its owner, Batman was going to kick her off the team, Hal and John would be ashamed, and maybe Ganthet and the other Guardians of the Universe would take away her ring. That was not something Jaina was willing to let happen. The team, the League, and the ring were the only things she remembered and she was not going to loose any more memories.

"Wait a minute!" Robin exclaimed, "I'm picking up some readings!"

With a bit of adjusting on the mindlink, Jaina could hear what the team did.

"Brakiss to H'rath'na...Brakiss to H'rath'na...pickup will commence in one hour."

"Who's Brakiss?" Kid demanded.

"Don't know, but H'rath'na is Tamba's Chief Commander. Brakiss must be coming to pick up the kids!"

"Let's go!" With this added threat, the connection glowed brighter in the dark. Jaina could see the rest of the path clearly.

In the middle of her flight, the trees stopped suddenly, and Jaina peered into the almost perfectly circular clearing.

The warehouse was large, rectangular, and sloppily-built. Windows lined the roof, and there weren't even any doors  to block the light from inside. H'rath'na must have been counting on the density of the forest to shield his operation. Though she couldn't blame him, Africa was hot.

"Miss Martian, camouflage mode. See what they are hiding in there." Aqualad commanded.

Jaina spotted the bioship, blurring against the darkening sky. A tinier blur broke off and flew over to the warehouse, phasing through the roof.

"They have the kids." M'gann reported almost immediately. "All one hundred of them."

For a brief moment, Jaina could see what M'gann did: four rows, twenty-five strong, of barbed-wire cages, holding children ranging in size from Jaina's knee to taller than Aqualad.

"I'm going in! H'rath'na's gonna pay for this," She growled.

"Girl Lantern, don't-"

Girl Lantern ignored her teammates warnings. Her ring glowed brightly, ripping a wondow from it's frame. Only at the last second did she remember the team's "covert" responsibility, and set the glass down quietly on a pile of dead leaves.