Elite Eight: Erik, Paul, Noah, Hector, Tony, Shawn, Sam and Jared.
In the end everything will be all right. So if it isn't all right, then it is not yet the end.

Chapter 1

A New Chapter

Cody took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. She was sitting with her legs crossed on a pillow. Her hands resting on her knees. All she was focused on was her breathing. In, out. In, out. Concentrating was a key factor that the girl had to make sure she had. It could be the one thing that made her lose control over her powers and get not only her hurt or killed, but her teammates hurt or killed as well.

Sitting in front of her was a single, long thin candle. As she breathed in, the flame died down, but when she breathed out, the flame would grow larger. Every time she inhaled and exhaled, the flame would grown and shrink. However, she didn't watch it do it. Her pale green eyes were closed. She did know that it was taking place though.

There was a knock on her door, but it didn't disrupt her concentration. She kept breathing. In, out. In, out. She heard the door open, but she didn't look up. She didn't really care who was there. All she was thinking about was her breathing. In, out. In, out.

"P-07," a man's voice said. "The Master requested your presence."

More like demands it, Cody thought. She opened her eyes and sighed. Cody waved her hand over the candle and made the flame go out without blowing on it or touching it. Standing up, she looked at the scientist in her doorway and said, "I'm coming."

Cody followed the scientist down several corridors in the underground facility they were in. The lab and training facility was a secret to most people. The only people who knew it was there were a small group of beings, the scientist workers and the test subjects. Cody happened to be one of those test subjects. That was what the man had called her, P-07. P-07 stood for Project-Seven. There were six other people before her that were a part of the same experimental group she was in.

The Master, an older balding man with a long white beard sat on a small pillow - just like the one she had in her room - in the training dojo as she entered. The man that they all called Master was greatly hated by Cody. At first when she was younger, she looked up to him. However, he put her through so much pain and misery. She would never forget it. He also put her through painful tests that were unsafe.

That was how she became a Pyrokinetic. Pyrokinesis was the ability to control and create fire. That was how she controlled the flame as she meditated. She did love her ability, but how she got it was something she wasn't proud of. They told her that she volunteered for the testing and that she had lost her memory in the process. However, though she had been foggy on things for a couple months, she remembered exactly how everything went down.

Cody had been kidnapped and forced against her will to become one of them once more. This time, she had abilities. They all thought that she had amnesia again. But she didn't. She just plaid that card. She figured she could end up being more useful that way.

Cody bowed down on the floor in front of her "Master." She stayed like that since she had to wait for him to say, "Rise." She did so, placing her hands in her lad as she sat on her knees. She wore a blank expression as she stared at him, waiting for him to tell her why he called her there. Really, she didn't want to be around him at all.

"I believe you are ready," Master said.

"Ready for what, Master?" she asked, her tone showing no emotion.

"I believe you are ready to start missions with the others," he said. The "Others" were the other projects. Generally, Cody didn't associate with them often, only during training. Other than that, she hated to be around them. They were annoying, rude, and obnoxious. Master told her they all used to be best friends. And at one point, they kind of had been. However, she knew the truth. She particularly stayed away from Erik.

"What kind of mission, Master?" Cody asked.

"The eight of you are to retrieve a very important ancient artifact from a museum that was stolen from me a very long time ago. It's about time I get it back," Master answered.

The eight of them. Six of them were from the original Elite Eight; Erik, Paul, Noah, Shawn, Sam and Jared. There had been another to join though. His name was Rich. She didn't fully know his back story, but he was almost as bad, if not equally as bad as Erik.

"What artifact is it?" This was starting to catch her attention. However, not exactly for the reason he was thinking. Steeling? Cody thought. What is it that he wants? Something is up with this. Master never wants just anything. It has to be important. It wasn't sitting well with her, but she wasn't letting them know that was how she was feeling. And I sure as hell don't like it.

"You and the others will be debriefed as you get ready to leave. Lucas," he said, calling over a young man from the side.

Lucas was taller than Cody was. He was skinny and wasn't one of the stronger types. He was one of the scientists that conducted the experiments on Cody and the others. However, unlike the other scientists in the place, he actually cared about how the girl was. He constantly would ask her if she was okay. She had told him, several years before that she had all of her memories. He kept that secret for her. He'd have a fate worse than death if they found out what he was keeping from them.

"…Will show you to where your uniform is," Master finished.

"Thank you, Master," Cody said, bowing before getting up to follow Lucas.

Once they were out of earshot of Master, Lucas looked at the girl and said, "How are you, Cody?"

"As well as I can be in my situation, I suppose," the girl replied.

The two turned into a room with several different crates. Lucas pulled the top off one and pulled out was a typical all black ninja outfit. It consisted of the black mask that completely covered her face, long pants and sleeves, and the black belt that went around the waist. He handed it to her and then continued further into the room. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Without removing her eyes from her new uniform, Cody replied with, "Of course. I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

"Even more sure than when you became Phoenix?" he asked.

"Yes."

"More so than breaking that guy out of prison?"

"Hector? Yes."

"Even more than when you decided to stay on this side instead of going back over to your friends."

That got her. Cody stopped following Lucas and glanced up at the male. He pushed up his glassed that hid his crystal blue eyes and cleared his throat. "I have to be positive that you're positive. You're not the only one risking your life doing this. I am too."

"I know," Cody said, glancing down at the clothes in her hands. "I've got to do this, Lucas. It's almost been five years since I've been gone. I can't just show up out of the blue and expect everything to be okay. These five years have to have a purpose."

"Even if it makes you the enemy?" Lucas asked.

"It's better none of them know who I am," Cody said. "I'm not opening up old wounds."

"They're going to try and throw you in jail or kill you, you know that, right?" he sounded concerned for the woman.

"Of course I do," she said. "I was on that side before. I know exactly what they feel. I know how they think. What they'll most likely plan."

"Are you sure you'll be able to do this? You can't hold back on them. You could really hurt someone," he pressed.

"Lucas, there's no changing my mind. I'm going through with this and that's final," Cody answered.

"As long as you're sure," he said. He turned back around and continued walking. Cody was following close behind. Neither of them spoke until Lucas stopped by one last crate. He opened the electronic lock by showing the bar code to the scanner. It opened and he quickly pulled out a black bag. The container was shut even quicker than it was opened. "I'll erase the logs of your stuff later."

"Is this what I think it is?" Cody asked, looking at the bag in her hands, resting on top of the clothing that had been handed to her earlier.

"Yeah," he answered.

Cody turned and placed the bag and clothes on the crate next to her. Opening the black bag, Cody saw several things. A wallet, a small jewelry box, a couple folders, text books, two cell phones and a set of keys. There was also her tanto and Phoenix uniform. The last thing she saw was one of her steel feather's that had once changed her hair color from brown to red. However, only one out of two were there.

Pulling out the feather, she held it in her hand and felt a pang of sadness. She remembered so many missions that she had gone on with those. She remembered how they had saved her life at her house before it blew up. But there were two. Where was the second?

"There was only one that we found. The other must have gotten lost or left at the scene," Lucas said.

The scene. The scene in which Cody has been kidnapped. She hadn't stepped into that office since that night. Really she hadn't gone many places at all. Cody had been able to go out for a small walk. She had been able to go out to get food; to go to the coffee shop or bar down the road. In doing so, she had been able to watch the news. She had been keeping tabs on her old hero friends and things like her company.

Wendy had become the real CEO. Though when Cody went to the bank, there was still money going into them – the only reason she knew that was because Lucas and her hacked into the bank to see. Just like when Cody had been CEO. She didn't know why that was. Maybe someone was trying to get her to use them to track her; to see if she was alive or not. Or maybe Ms. Wright didn't think Cody was really dead.

Cody didn't know.

Putting the clothes in the bag, Cody turned to look up at Lucas. "Thanks, Lucas. This means a lot to me."

"I figured you'd like it back. I know we don't have your sword, but-"

"This is more than I could ask for," Cody interrupted. "Thank you."

Lucas cleared his throat uncomfortably and in an embarrassed fashion. "You should go get changed. You're supposed to go meet up with Erik soon."

"Will do," Cody said. She stuck her hand out to shake Lucas's. In doing so, he slipped something into her hand. With that, the woman turned to leave. The woman quickly made her way to her room.

Placing the bag on her bed, Cody pulled out her black uniform and changed into it. However, on the strap on the leg that kept things like ninja stars and kunai knives, she strapped on her tanto behind it. That way she still had it with her. In that pouch, Cody also slipped in the feather. Just in case she needed it, she'd have it. Everything was in place, except for her mask.

Cody looked into the mirror as she put her hair up. Her hair has gotten even longer in the past year. She had let it go, losing track of the time. She had been focusing on her training even more than before. It was shocking to even her at the capability of what she could do. Nobody had seen her secret training sessions, so not even the rest of the group knew.

Her hair wasn't the only thing to change either. The woman's pale green eyes seemed to have grown darker than they were before. It wasn't in the color, it was in the light of them. They didn't seem so easy going anymore. When she had been a teenager – now being twenty-one, going on twenty-two in a month – Cody had seen more good around her. Now that she had been stuck around the assassins, Master and the cruel scientists, Cody couldn't always do that. It had been a long time since she smiled either.

Her pale skin seemed to be even paler. She had grown even taller too. Though she wasn't tall as a teenager, she had grown more since she was seventeen. It was only about two or three inches though. Nothing too overwhelming. It wasn't just simply whelming though.

She was no longer a girl. She was a woman. Her figure had grown even curvier and her features had changed more into that of a woman. Her skin looked even smoother, her lips pink and red. Her lashes even longer. She was beautiful, though she would protest heavily to that.

Sighing, the woman turned and headed out of the room. She turned down several hallways until she arrived at the loading docks. There were the seven other people on their team. Erik, Paul, Noah, Shawn, Sam, Jared and Rich. None of those people were people she'd want to associate herself with. She didn't have much choice in the matter though.

As the woman approached, Paul turned to her and said, "Get in the van. We'll fill you in as we go."

Cody nodded her head and climbed into the van behind Rich. In the front were Paul, who was driving and Shawn in the passenger's seat. Phoenix was stuck in the middle seat in the middle row. On her left was Rich and on the right was Erik. In the very back were Sam, Jared and Noah. It was another minute before they started off onto the road.

"Where are we going?" Cody asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Rich muttered.

Yes, I would. That's why I asked, Cody thought, rolling her eyes. "Paul, where are we going?"

"Gotham Museum of Antiquities," Paul answered.

Gotham. That's where Dick and Bruce are, Cody thought. If anybody's going to discover that we've broken into a museum to steal something, it's bound to be Batman and Rob- Uh, Nightwing. Cody didn't know why he changed personas. She was gone for that. Maybe even Robin and Batgirl.

"What are we stealing?" she asked.

"Some knife thing," Jared said.

"It's an Egyptian Dagger," Paul corrected.

Cody asked, "What's so important about this dagger?"
"The shiv's made out of gold," Sam said excitedly.

Cody rolled her eyes and looked back to the front to Paul. "Paul, what's the real reason."
Paul had always been the calculating on. He had to know everything about the mission that he and the others were getting into. Plus, he had to know more than anybody else around him. He liked to be a know-it-all.

He chuckled and said, "Legend say that the dagger is able to open portals to another time."

"Pff," Erik sounded. "Like that's true."

"You never know," Cody said.

Placing his hand on her thigh, rather close to her privates, Erik said, "Don't tell me you believe in that?"

Smacking his hand away, making sure to cause pain, Cody replied with, "I'm open to anything. I mean, take Doctor Fate, Zatarra," thought she knew that at the moment, they were still the same person, "Zatanna, Wotan, Wizard, Blackbriar, Felix Faust and Klarion, the Lord of Chaos. They all use magic."

"You actually believe that this dagger can control portals?" Jared asked.

"I never said that," Cody said. "I'm just saying that if it can, I wouldn't be shocked. Nothing really shocks me anymore."

"Freak," Rich muttered.

Maybe I am, but that's better than being just like you. "Anyways, what's the game plan?"

"We're all infiltrating," Paul said. "However, Sam's going to be the one to extract the object. Cody, Erik and Rich will be right behind him as backup. Noah and Shawn will knock out the security guards. I'll be keeping watch outside with Jared."

"Sounds productive," Cody said. There was no way she'd say, 'Sounds good.' She wasn't happy about stealing, but she was going to do it. "And what if company shows up?"

"You, Erik and Rich are supposed to take care of any unwanted guests," Paul answered.

"Understood," Cody replied.

"And for missions, you're code name is Ember," Jared said.

Ember, really? Cody wasn't impressed. That's the best that they couple come up with? "Understood. Do you guys have codenames?"

"We do, but we don't use them," Sam said.

"Why not?" It was times like those that Cody was supposed to play dumb and not know the answer. She already knew that the Team and the Justice League knew their identities. She had been the one to inform them of who they were. But she was "supposed" to have amnesia. She didn't "remember" any of that.

"Don't worry about it," Shawn said from the back.

Shawn was a strange boy indeed. He was very quiet. And for the most part, he was actually a very nice guy. He kept to his-self most of the time and sat back and observed everything. He knew how people worked and usually he could tell, by just looking at someone, if they were lying or hiding something. Cody couldn't tell if he knew that she was lying or not, but if he did, he didn't say anything to anybody. She didn't know why that was.

But his quiet, watchful nature also made him a very dangerous assassin. It was as if he had a switch on him. When it was off, he was calm, nice and kind. But when it was switched on, he was very dangerous. He was dark and deadly. It was shocking how different those two parts of him were. It almost scared Cody more than the others.

Sam was quick with what he did. He could get the job done like that. And he didn't seem fazed by it at all. He just did it and maintained that childish personality. Jared got very angry, almost as angry as Erik. He would snap faster too. But he wasn't as strong. Noah was the same as Jared. Paul wasn't much of the killer. He was more the watcher. If he did have to take someone out, it would most likely be by poison or surprise.

Erik was terrifying because he had no boundaries. He got angry and would do anything to get what he wanted. And Rich, though Cody didn't know much about him, was very much like Erik. However, in a way, he seemed more sadistic. There had been rumors and stories going around of things he used to do to his little sister. They were bad thing. Horrible things that a brother should never do to his sister.

By the time they were done discussing the matters for the mission, they had arrived in Gotham City. They had parted quite a ways away from the museum, which Cody completely understood. They didn't want to be too close to the museum in case they were close to getting cause, but not too far so it took forever to make a getaway.

The group made their way to the museum over the roof tops of the buildings surrounding the museum. The first people to infiltrate were Noah and Shawn. Once they knocked out the guards, they informed the rest of the team by signaling through the large glass dome on the top of the building. They were all looking down it to see if they were ready.

Once the signal was given, Cody, Erik, Rich and Sam. Each landed on the ground below with a soft thud. When they had been in the van, they had gone over maps and layouts of the museum so they knew exactly where they had to go. Following behind everybody else, Cody made sure nobody was following them. She was their backup seeing as the two boys were with Sam. Cody would be the first one to alert them of something wrong.

And seeing as Noah and Shawn exited after doing their part of taking out the guards, Cody and the other three really were just down there all alone.

It was times like those that made Cody's gut instincts come in handy. That had originally been when tipped her off to other's being there, though at the time, she couldn't figure out where they were. The only thing out of the ordinary, besides them robbing the joint, was little fly that was zooming about.

"Guys," Cody muttered softly. Without taking her eyes away from scanning the area she continued saying, "We've got company."

Erik and Rich chuckled, causing the girl to look over at them with a raised eyebrow. They were looking through an ancient gem case and picking through it. "We're here for the dagger and that's it. Quit screwing around."

"Come on, Ember," Rich said. "You're a girl. You're supposed to like shiny stones." He paused and then added, "Wait, you are a girl, right?"

Erik seemed to get a kick out of that. "She's just a really weird one," he said. "She likes stones, but she'd rather go out and buy it with honest money."

"Something's wrong with her," Rich said.

"Seriously messed up, Girly," Erik muttered.

"Imbeciles," Cody muttered. "You're fooling around when the task at hand is at risk."

"She's really still going on with that?" Rich asked his partner.

"Ember, we're the only people here? Who's going to mess up our mission? That fly?" Erik joked, taking out his sword so he could try to cut the fly in half.

As the fly buzzed straight in the direction of Erik, he raised the sword back to hit it, but in a blink of an eye the fly shifted into a gorilla. The large green gorilla with what looked to be a red and white collar around its neck landed over Erik, taking his sword and throwing it off into the distance.

"Yes, the fly will jeopardize the mission," Cody muttered with a small smirk on her face.

In that instant, Cody's stomach dropped. She spun around just in time to see a young boy around the age of fourteen dropping down from above. The new Robin had his electric bo. He had it pulled back, as if he were swinging a bat. As he followed through, Cody had just enough time to create one of her favorite weapons. She created a whip made out of fire and fire alone. She got it wrapped around his ankle and then threw him across the room.

He wasn't expecting that.

In the distance Cody could hear someone yelling, "Chum!" She looked over to see that Rich was no longer fighting the Gorilla with Erik, but now what looked to be a sea creature. Cody stared for a moment. She had never seen anything like it, uh, him before. The team certainly has got some new and interesting recruits.

"I got it!" Sam yelled, raising his hand up over his head with the dagger in it, in triumph.

"And now they know that too!" Cody growled. Do these guys ever think before they act?

Robin was making his way over to Sam, who immediately after doing what he did realized his mistake. He turned around and bolted for the large dome. Rich tackled Robin to the group, allowing Sam to make his escape. Erik had taken up Rich's place fighting the "Chum." The beastly shifter had been laying on the floor, seeming quite out of it.

Cody walked over to it and knelt down. "You're just a child," she muttered, placing her hand under his chin to turn his head towards her. The woman almost gasped when she saw the kids green face in realization. She leaned in closer to get a better look. "Garfield?" His face, despite being green and rather monkey-ish, was one that she would never forget.

Now, Cody hadn't been talking to anybody. She was just thinking out loud. But when she said the boy's name, he looked up at her. He glared, but was also confused as to why she wasn't hurting him. That how he didn't know how he knew who he was. She sounded so familiar. And her eyes seemed just as familiar as she sounded, but he couldn't figure out who she was either.

"Ember!" Rich yelled, getting her attention. She glanced over her shoulder to see him and Erik walking over to the dome to head out. "Time to make our leave."

Cody sighed and looked back at the young boy before her. He had to be about thirteen now. He had been – what? – eight the last time she saw him. He looked so much older, yet still so young. How did he become like that? Why was he fighting crime? Why was he even in America?

"I'm sorry," she muttered before pinching a nerve, knocking him out. Before she stood up to leave, she made sure the boy wasn't hurt too bad and clenched his hand in her. "I really hope this works, Garfield. For you and me both."

With that, Cody turned and left the museum, hearing sirens off in the distance.