Atomic Skull ran into an alley, stopping to catch his breath. Shayera Hol was after him and hopefully she would miss him in the darkness. He was about to go and check if it was safe when a faint moan reached his ears. Looking around the corner of a dumpster, he saw Shayera, leaning against the wall, the mace, sliding from her grip, eyes rolling to the back of her head. He shrunk back farther as she hurled, spraying it down the alley. "I know you're there, but I'm in no condition to come and get you." She slid down the wall, the mace hitting the ground with a thump. "I'm too sick to fight right now. It's okay, let's catch a breath and keep going in a minute." Deciding that it was okay to take the risk, he came out and sat down at the far end of the alley. "Why don't you call for back-up?" he suggested. She laughed, an unkind, harsh sound. "Back-up? Are you kidding me? The invincible Shayera Hol, calling for help? They wouldn't believe it. Besides, my comm link was fried when we blew up the drill. I need to get a new one."
"The city's crawling with supers. Just fly up and get one to help you." She winced. "I haven't gone to the infirmary to get my wing fixed. It's still broken from when it took that spear." Skull noticed she was referring to her body in third person, calmly listing off the injuries and problems, as though she was looking at it from a wall's view. They sat there for awhile, both trying to catch a breath, listening as various explosions and shots rang out over the city, of supers and villains fighting. Finally with great effort, she stood back up, fighting off pain and nausea. "You know what I have to do right?" she asked. He stood warily, knees bent to run. "Yeah I do, but why?" She gripped her mace tighter, taking a step forward. "Because, I'm a good guy. You're the bad guy. That's the way it's always been." Skull took a step toward her. "I wasn't always like this. Radioactive flames I mean." Both lowered their hands, Skull staring at his now lit hands, Shayera at him. "Once, I mean so long ago I can barely remember, I was a teenage boy named Ryan. I was alright, an okay kid. But the one day I went with my dad to his lab, there was an accident. Everyone else got out, but some weird chemicals got on me. When I woke up I was like this. I could still change back to a human face, back then. Still had a relatively normal life. But then, once, I stayed this way too long. I couldn't change back. People couldn't stand the sight of me, so I became what I am." They looked at each other for a while longer. "Will you help me get back to the Watchtower?" she asked quietly. "I don't think I'll make it on my own." They walked in silence, past the Daily Planet and the mall. "Maybe it's identity crisis." She said aloud. "What do you mean?" Ryan asked.
"Maybe you got so used to seeing yourself like this, that you forgot what you looked like inside. Ryan, I mean. Maybe all you need to do is remember yourself, then you'll become you've always been." Ryan stared at his reflection in a passing window. "But I don't know. It's been years I can barely remember how I looked." She touched his arm gently as they walked along. "I bet there's some old school pictures of yours. The League could probably find them; we're tapped into every database in the world. And the computer can make the picture look like you would nowadays. If there's some way you can remember the things you used to like, and what you like now, you could become Ryan again." She bit her lip suddenly. "Are you alright? I mean besides the exhaustion and the stabbing in the wing?" She shook her head and without a second thought, he scooped her up, careful to avoid the injured wings. "What the- what are you doing?!" she yelped. "You're in no condition to wake, hang on a second." He was surprisingly strong and carried her with ease.
Flash zoomed up, cradling Killer Frost. "She passed out on Main, and it didn't seem right to leave her be." Skull nodded at Shayera, still hanging there. "She's got a broken wing, and she shouldn't have to walk, and I think she may have taken a couple shots to her legs and stomach. Flash nodded. "I don't think its right to arrest you right now, because you're not doing something of imminent danger. There's a medical ward inside. Come on."
If the staff was surprised, they took it amazingly well. Shayera and Killer Frost(Crystal), were hooked up to machines and had people working on them. Flash threatened them that anyone who tried to harm Crystal, or gave her any less attention than Shayera had received they would be fired without recall that day. Flash took Ryan up to the cafeteria to get some food, and they sat in relative silence, chewing on hamburgers for awhile. By the time they returned, Shayera was sitting up in bed. "I need a laptop, one of those funny ones that connect to the Watchtower computers." Flash brought it back and she set it down on the bed, fingers skimming across the keyboard. Ten minutes later, after asking Ryan lots of questions about his past and where he lived, pulled up an old school picture from the tenth grade. A serious faced boy, with thin, light brown hair and green eyes was staring at them. Ten minutes later, she had genetically enhanced the picture to a 40 year-old man, with hazel eyes and short cut hair. "I'm going to print this out, and maybe you could look it. Try and imagine you becoming that."
It took almost 3 years, but Ryan eventually managed to change all the way back into his human self. It took a lot of encouragement from Shayera, and countless hours with J'onn to break through 25 years worth of mind barriers and anger problems, but Skull walked in that day, and Ryan walked out that night. Over that time, Shayera and Wally fell in love. They hadn't gotten married yet, but they would(if Wally wasn't so scared she'd say no) Crystal also went through rehab, and they worked to heal her too. She had scars that ran deep into her past, scars that might never heal, but a lot of positive attitude were going a long way for her. As Ryan changed into civilian clothes, hanging his armor up on a hanger to be retired for awhile, he thought about everything that had happened over the past while. He was off to school, to get a degree in radiation poisoning. He and Crystal wanted to make a positive difference. Speaking of which, she slammed open the door, throwing his backpack at him. "Come on, we're gonna be late."
He followed out the door, grinning to himself. Becoming a good guy hadn't stopped Crystal's sassy attitude. Shayera and Crystal had worked together in the laboratory's for awhile, until they had perfected a gene that turned Crystal skin back to normal.
But that was all behind them. Now it was time for a new start, as someone he thought he'd never see again.