X-Men: Civil War

Chapter 19: Trauma to the Mind

Maxine Lehnsherr

Damp.

The still air around me is damp with humidity, and it clings to my skin in a desperate, needy way. My wings push against my back. They're useless now that they are wet, just extra baggage. Around my arms, rough concrete presses into my flesh, and my eyes refuse to open.

There's a weight on my chest, it pushes me farther into the porous rock. Footsteps slap the puddled ground, coming closer to where I lay. Something jolts the already heavy thing that weighs me down. Soon, it gets harder to breathe. Struggling to go against the mysterious object on top, my diaphragm lifts to make room for my burning lungs.

Shallow and slow, my intake of air is starting to lag, I am already tiring. Two sets of footsteps now enter my ears, they stop right beside my laboring body.

"Add another, she should be waking soon." A smooth voice echoes around the room. Another thing is put on top of me, I can no longer breathe.

Panic grabs a hold of me and my eyes fly open in response, revealing a pile of flat stones to be the source of blockage. I glance with wild eyes to where the words had come from and see the face of a forgotten past. Lex Luthor.

His face a mirror of triumph and vengeance. My claws desperately scrape at the stones and in an attempt to pry them off. He chuckles.

"Now you only feel a fraction of the mental pain I endured when you led the Young Justice right towards our Ware house." My mouth moves, but no air comes in and now words come out. I just gape, until white hands lift the top stone off again. White hands that come to an even whiter smile, one lined by red. No.

He wasn't supposed to ever find me again. My body shakes and I try to move away, but even though I can breathe, the stones still pin me to the ground.

"Awwwe, is the little birdie afraid?" His sickening voice like nails on a chalk board.

"Don't think I forgot about you, eh, Silver Shadow?" No, he knows who I am. This is really bad.

"And now that the Bat brats won't be coming to save you... no one will." He pulls out a knife and slides the dull edge down my cheek.

"It's a shame Luthor won't let me carve you up any more than his other pawn has." The words ignite a fire inside my body, they had planted the man who looked like Dick to throw me off, and I had played right into their little game. I send a wad of spit onto his paper face.

He smiles and wipes the saliva off with the back of his hand.

"You're just like that second Robin, good news for us, you'll brake just as easily." He pulls out a slender piece of metal that curves at the end. A crowbar. Oh Jason... The first blow cracks against my right wing, causing my to scream in agony.

"Joker." The voice is sharp, and full of warning. Luthor hadn't planned for that to happen.

"Whaat, I'm just warming her up..." He's quickly cut off as Luthor makes another motion for him and some other henchmen to take the stones off me. When they do, I try to push myself off the ground, but a foot lands on my shoulder, bringing me back to the floor. They drag me up by my arms and Luthor walks over.

"I'm sure you're wandering how I brought you back, well the mother box is a very helpful tool." He brings a remote from out of his pocket and I recognize the symbols of a boom tube etched into a pattern in the metal.

"And will help you reunite with your long lost Nightwing, just make sure you get there in time..." Before I can react, a portal opens up beneath my bare feet and my dress flies up as I fall into the downpour of Bludhaven.

He said something about Dick.