Pretty Bird

By angellwings


Chapter One: Haunted

"Louder, louder
The voices in my head
Whispers taunting
All the things you said."


This was not what she had signed on for. She thought she was headed for a romantic weekend away. But that's not what this was.

She glared at the guards that surrounded her and then turned to the man that had done this to her.

"I thought I could trust you."

"Freaks like you can't trust anyone." He spat before he turned to the Luthor standing beside of him, "I want my money. l fulfilled my end of the bargain."

Dinah was very confused. She had been fooled. She never should have told him about her ability. But it was too late now. Her eyes scanned the room for a quick escape. They were in a hotel room, and her eyes landed on the balcony. Perfect. If she could just get to that then she'd be free. She observed the guards that were pointing weapons at her. She could take them all out with one scream...just one.

She took a deep breath and prepared for the sound to rip from her throat when she felt a hand pinch the back of her neck. She suddenly felt dizzy, and everything went dark. When she woke up she was greeted with the cold metal walls of a cell. She could feel the hard metal cot beneath the thin matress she was laying on. There was something around her throat. She brought a hand to it and felt a metal collar. What was this? She saw a uniformed man in the distance and opened her mouth to yell for his attention, but nothing came out. Not a sound.

Her eyes landed on a sign in the distance. Level 3.


Dinah woke up in a sweat. She had never felt that terrified in her life. She'd been afraid when she opened her eyes she'd be back in that cell unable to communicate. She gulped and brought a hand to her neck. She released a breath when it didn't meet the cool metal of that collar. Only then did she feel it was safe to open her eyes.

She needed to clear her head...take a walk. She got up and was surprised to find her legs feeling slightly weak. She continued to walk out of her room and down to the kitchen. She grabbed a glass from one of the cabinets and filled it with water from the dispenser on the refrigerator. She was heading to Metropolis with Oliver tonight. Metropolis, where she would once again be within spitting distance of Lex Luthor.

She'd been having dreams like this since Oliver asked her to go with him last week. She didn't know why. It's not like she hadn't faced Lex Luthor before. She hadn't told anyone about anything that happened inside of Level 3. She had escaped the day it had been transferred to Metropolis, and immediately ran to Granville. She'd stayed there for a while before heading to Star City, and then she'd gone to Gotham. She spoke to Barbara only rarely during that time, and only told her enough to let her know she was safe. By that time she'd been on the run for a year and a half.

While she was in Gotham Lex had called his contact in the Gotham Police Department and they'd put out a warrant of arrest for her. She'd left Gotham almost immediately after that, and headed to back to Smallville again. She had only planned to stay there for a short while. She had planned to take her time passing through before heading to Central City, but she'd run out of money after hiding out in Smallvile for nearly six months. That's when she'd run into Clark. Literally. He, his mother, and his sidekick Chloe had helped to hide her from Lex. Lois had been involved too, but only by default. And now she was part of a super charged task force.

And on her way back to the city that only knew her as Bonnie Cardinal.

She sighed and gulped down a few sips of water.

"You okay, Dinah?"

She jumped at the sound of the voice and spilled water down the front of her shirt.

"Shit, God, Ollie, what are you doing here?" She asked him with irritation.

"I believe I own the place." He told her with a grin.

"And do you always sit around in the dark this late at night?"

"It would freak you out if I said yes wouldn't it?" He asked with an audible grin.

"Very much so." She told him with a chuckle as she set the glass down in the sink and reached for a towel to dry herself off with, "What are you really doing here?"

"Thinking…"

"About anything particular?" She asked curiously.

"You."

She froze, "Excuse me?"

"Well, you and Level 3." He explained, "I can't help wondering what happened to you while you were there."

She peered at him, "Why is this coming up again all of a sudden?"

"Lex isn't done with 33.1 like he's trying to make us believe." Oliver told her with a sigh, "And the guys say you haven't been getting much sleep lately…"

"I knew it, those tattle-tales are dead." She grumbled, "I'm fine, Oliver, don't trouble yourself."

"Look, Dinah, if you need to talk to someone about it…"

"No offense, Queen, but I won't be talking to you."

"I wasn't suggesting that you do…I was going to say that if you need to talk someone you should. Whether that's Barbara or Chloe…it doesn't really matter, just do it." He told her with concern, "You can't just pretend it never happened."

"Pretend it never happened?" She asked him with an angry glare, "I wish I could! It's damn near impossible to forget. Every scream I heard, every experiment I was a part of, and every day I was in there haunts me. The entire problem starts with the fact that I can't pretend it never happened."

"Dinah…"

"I don't want to talk about any more, Green Bean. Back off." She growled.

He sighed, "Okay, topic closed."

"Thank you." She said blankly with a tightened jaw.

"I better get going…make sure you have everything waiting to be loaded up by five o'clock." Oliver told her before heading for the door, "See you tonight, Pretty Bird."

"Yeah, okay, later." She mumbled in passing as she stared down at the sink.

There was no way she was going to be able to go back to bed now. Not at all.


Theres chapter one. Woo! The next chapter will be up after "Siren" airs. So stay tuned for that!

angellwings