Shadows Of My Own (Young Justice Fanfiction)

Chapter 22: Wednesday 21st February

"No, it's not okay." Thorn said. She detached herself from my arms and stood up, wiping away her tears. "I was supposed to help you, and I failed." She shook her head, probably internally cursing herself.

I stood up next to her. "You did all you could do."

"But it wasn't enough, was it?" Thorn ran shaky fingers through her tangled hair. "Now we're all tapped in here like animals."

"Um," Zatanna said, breaking the silence that had come over us, "how have you been helping us?"

I gulped, locking eyes with the expectant Zatanna. That's when Thorn spoke up and saved me.

"I told her where Zoella was being held captive." She announced. "And I promised to help Shadow get her back."

"You lied to us?" Wally questioned. I clammed up, feeling suddenly guilty about the whole affair.

"I asked her to." Thorn said, then hesitating, continued. "My original plan was to help, undiscovered, the disappear. There was a chance someone could have overheard you talking about me in the station. I couldn't take that chance."

"How do we know you're not just playing us?" Zatanna asked.

"You don't." Thorn replied simply.

"That doesn't matter." Kaldur said. Immediately everyone's attention was focused on him. "We need all the help we can get right now. And since Thorn had worked with the enemy, that gives us an advantage we rarely have had before. We need a way to escape; Robin, can you get a signal?"

"No." Robin groaned. "I had a strong link coming into the building, but this room must somehow block it." He tapped away on his arm. "I'll keep trying though."

"Thorn, can you use your vines to rip out the bars?" Kaldur asked.

"I don't think so." Thorn said. "A few months ago, Wildcard had me do that exact ask to see how strong these metal bars were. I had no idea what they were for, so I tried it. They didn't budge."

"Argh!" Connor screamed, banging his fists against the wall. I counted ten punches that he made before he finally gave up and stepped back. Not one single dent had been implanted in the metal.

Then he started punching it again.

"This is useless." Artemis said, having to speak loudly over Connor's shouting. "Thorn can't break the bars, Robin can't hack the signal, and Superboy isn't hurting that wall in least."

"If you've got a better idea, now would be a good time to share it." Zatanna said to her.

"How about we find a spoon and dig our way out." Artemis retorted.

I stared at the floor while Artemis' words rocked over in my head. 'Dig our way out'.

The floor; it used to stand as wall. When it fell down, I didn't hear a click, or any gears grinding. That means nothing is holding it place.

Gazing out through the metal bars, I could see that pretty much all of the house was made from wood; most of it now rotted. Even so, those materials would have been used to build the original walls of this room. As well as the floor...

"Thorn?" I asked.

"Yeah?" She answered.

"The house is built on stilts, lifted above ground. Could you get your vines to dig underneath the house and break open the floor in here?"

"I guess I could." She said. "But once they hit that unbreakable barrier," she gestured to the floor, "they won't be able to go any further."

"What if you make them small enough to fit through the corners?"