Chapter One

Watchtower

December 20, 1132

"After I had stepped through my time portal, I landed in the future." Aster explained, air-quoting the word landed.

"When you say landed..." Karen trailed off, not wanting to say what she thought it meant.

"Well...let's just say, I should work on my portal placement." Aster chuckled nervously.

Year 2054

The portal Aster opened was in the sky, making the dark clouds crack and light up with sparks, like thunder and lightening. Falling through, Aster fell the long way, shooting the ask covered ground in hopes of softening it. Landing hard, it proved her attempts were useless. Pain shot through Aster's entire body as she hit the ground, blurring her vision. As people started to move close, they moved away a little as Aster moved and tried to sit up, but she couldn't without significant pain. Going limp on the ground, Aster saw someone approach her, but was too weak to even fight them off. She just let her vision go black as she passed out. Later on, Aster groaned awake as the pain seemed to be nothing but a pure numbing feeling. Without sitting up, Aster turned her head to see a fire burning brightly and warmly.

"Oh, thank goodness! You're awake." A male voice said.

Aster looked to the other side of her and found a man sitting there. He was tall, and had red hair and blue eyes.

Aster started to sit up as she started to ask, "Who-Ugh!" Aster was cut short as a sharp pain went through her back. Looking at her bandaged wing, Aster remembered when she was. "Who are you?" Aster asked as she turned back to the man.

"My name is Don Allen." That last name hit Aster. "My son and wife found you and brought you here to get help."

Aster looked all the way around the place she was in, a cave. They were sitting in a cave. And she was covered with torn and old blankets.

"Where is your family now?" Aster asked.

"I sent them out until I knew you were okay and safe enough to be around my son."

"I assure you, Mr. Allen, I'm not here to hurt anyone. I'm actually here to protect someone. Someone very close to me."

"Really? What's your name?"

"I-Uh-I…" Aster remembered she couldn't tell them her name because that would mess up everything with Bart. "My name? I...must've hit my head."

"You don't remember? Well, you did fall pretty hard." Don got up to move across the cave. "Why not…" He poured some water, from a crack in the wall, into a tin cup. "...Angel? On account of your wings."

Aster just nodded as Don walked back over and handed the cup to her.

"Thank you."

Then there was a small-ish voice, "Da-Daddy?"

Looking toward the entrance of the cave, there was a boy. Aster thought he looked very familiar, but couldn't figure it out.

"Come here, son." Don called.

The boy, much bigger than he looked from behind the wall, ran over to Don when a woman walked in as well.

"Don?"

"It's okay, Melodi. This is Angel, she's very nice."

Aster smiled at the boy to try to ease him, it didn't seem to work as he grabbed a pipe. He swung it at Aster and hit her, making her go flying across the floor. She sat up and put her arms up as the pipe came at her again, but it didn't make contact. Looking up, Aster saw that Don had pulled his son off her.

"Son, stop it! You stop it right now!"

"Only Reach would smile right now! She has to be one of them! She's here to kill us!"

"No! No, I'm not!" Aster argued as she stood up. "I am here to protect someone very close to me! I only know his name! I am not here to harm anyone! I can promise you that!"

The boy stopped struggling as he listened to her talk, and landed on his knees, dropping the pipe.

"Who are you here to protect?" He said very harshly, like the little kid he wasn't.

"I am here to protect Bartholomew Henry Allen...the third."

The boy looked up, pulling his hat off. "I'm Bartholomew Henry Allen...the third."

Aster realized who she was with officially, Bart and his parents.

Present Day

Watchtower

December 20, 1302

"After realizing that it was Bart's parents I was with, I realized how much I revealed in such a short time."

Batman stood up, clearing his throat.

"I believe you have told us quite a lot, Iridiven. And that this would be a very good point to stop at for now."

"Of course, Batman." Iridiven replied. "When should we start again?"

"I believe after the holidays would be good. This meeting is dismissed."

Everyone stood up and walked out of the room, except for Aster. She stayed, sitting down on at the table. Aster was still trying to figure out what exactly was happening, she felt like she was gone for a long time, but in this time, she was only gone a few hours.

"Aster?" A voice asked from behind.

Turning around, Aster replied, "Oh, hey Batgirl."

"I'm off duty. Call me Barbara."

"Right, sorry."

"Listen, I don't know you very well. I never have since you started on the team, but I feel like you're not telling the whole story." Aster blushed as she popped up at the acquisition. "I guess I was right."

"I don't think anyone would want to know what I really did while I was gone."

"Why don't you come over to my place tonight? My dad's working late so he won't

be around to bother us."

"Uh...I don't know if-"

"Aster, whatever you did, I'm sure it was probably for the best. Now, come on, let's go get you some clothes from your house and get going." Barbara said, standing up. Before Barbara could open the door to the room, something wrapped tightly around her waist. Looking behind her, Aster was clinging to her and crying. Barbara turned around and hugged Aster back. "Hush, Aster...It's okay."

Aster shook her head against Barbara.

Me: So chapter one of the third story...It's totally extremely late, I KNOW! I'm sorry! I've been having trouble balancing everything lately. But I'm working on the second chapter and hopefully I can make it longer than this chapter.