July 29th
London
1850 GMT
Two Months after the Quake

"So, here we are." Aasha said, standing in front of the door of the row house, built on a street full of them. Behind her, Deke and Barbara stood, he in clean jeans and plain white tee shirt, she in a knee length skirt and loose lavender bell sleeve top. Aasha raised her hand, hovered it over the doorbell, and paused. When she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, one big and strong, the other smaller but just as loving, she sighed and pressed the button.

They waited there for a minute or two, Aasha doing so patiently in her simple leggings and longer tee shirt. She'd removed her darker makeup and gone with something more conservative, so it left her standing there looking more 'normal' than she had in a few weeks.

When the door opened, a respectably large, gray haired and bearded fellow of very obvious Indian descent stood there. "Hello dad." Aasha said, before getting grabbed up and pulled tight to his body. She squeaked but returned his embrace, leaving Deke and Barbara exchanging knowing looks. She'd worked herself up for nothing, so far as it seemed.

"Aasha, come in, bring your friends." This man said, his body language somewhere between patient and closed off. It looked a lot like he wasn't sure what the neighbors would think of him having people over, and the hurried way he ushered them inside wasn't exactly dispelling that. On their way up the stairs, Barbara glanced at her boy, who had a puzzled look on his face. He'd felt something but he wasn't being forthright about what it was yet.

Once inside, they were greeted by what had to be the plainest residence in all of England. From the entrance of the narrow row house, it appeared to have been staged to sell the place, with the most neutral and boring furniture. If it weren't for the smells of incense and the unmistakable aromas of Indian cuisine, the whole of the visible residence could have been easily used for sales demonstrations.

"Lal, come to me!" Aasha's father said, once he'd closed the door behind them. Aasha slipped up into his arms again, giggling and squealing happily, as his greeting had changed from a simple but heartfelt hello to one of genuine longing. "Padma, your daughter is home!" he called out, turning his head towards the upstairs, still not releasing his daughter.

[Good grief, it looks like she got pulled outta the crack of his ass.] Deke said to Barbara telepathically. Aasha and her father shared so many facial features that it was almost terrifying, their nose perhaps the most telling. [What'd her mom do, just carry her for a while?]

"No, she has her mother's eyes." Aasha's father said, turning to look at his other guests, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. When he saw his large male guest rock back on his feet, he grinned. "You weren't expecting that, were you?"

"No sir, I don't reckon I was." Deke said in a quietly shocked tone, his embarrassed reaction compounded by Barbara poking him in the ribs.

"I told you that was going to come around to bite you." Barbara said in a scolding tone, inwardly happy he'd made a polite observation when it came back to haunt him.

"Aasha has told me a good deal about you, more the gentleman than the lady. Where are my manners though? I am Jay, the woman coming down the stairs is Padma, my wife." Aasha's father said in introduction.

"Daddy, Mum, this is Deke and Barbara, my roommates." Aasha said, glancing up the stairs to see her mother coming down. She was dressed colorfully, in a bright red and saffron dress, but it was plain Aasha had inherited more than her eyes, as the woman couldn't have been more than five feet tall.

"You're in time," Padma said, wasting none of her own and moving directly towards the kitchen. "I was just about to make dinner, come to the kitchen with me and we can talk there."

And just like that, they followed the small, matronly woman with the long black braid of hair into the small kitchen. Like the rest of the place, it was so plain, but there was a certain vibrant energy contained within. "Aasha, we saw you on the news. Why didn't you call us?" Jay asked, pulling out a chair and gesturing for his guests to join him. Deke declined to sit, since that's all he'd really been doing, and leaned against a blank wall, out of the way.

"I was busy all day, getting ready for the induction ceremony, and then, finalizing my citizenship." Aasha said, pulling her passport out of her pocket and setting it in front of her father.

Immediately, his face took on a sorrowful look, though he shook it when he saw her picture. "Your photograph is beautiful. That's very hard to do. I suppose this does mean we're not going to be seeing more of you than this, is it?"

"That's not true Daddy, I'd just been so busy trying to get work, and a place to live, not to mention the other things going on." Aasha countered, feeling encouraged by the way Babs was brushing her hip with the back of her fingers. "Plus, travel isn't cheap after all."

"Maybe if you'd saved your money instead of buying those, you'd have more money to travel." Padma said, pulling food out of the refrigerator and setting it on the counter.

"Mum!" Aasha all but shrieked, mortified that she'd been called out so plainly, and in front of her father. "You agreed with me that it was a good decision!"

"Yes, to find a husband, which you've yet to do." Padma said with a frown. It was clear that this opinion wasn't one shared by both of her parents, as Jay put his hand on his daughter's and spoke up quickly, his tone calm and easy, something it was plain he was doing because of their guests.

"Are you worried your daughter's beauty will fade so soon? Look in the mirror. You're still turning plenty of heads when you go anywhere. If she chooses to marry, she has all the time in the world." Jay said, softening the blow a bit. "Welcome to the Nagra household. If not this, it's cricket. We must fight about something or else we might cease to exist."

Padma sighed and turned her back to the kitchen, going about the business of preparing dinner. "Fine. Aasha, can you help me at least please?"

"Actually, ma'am, I'm fair in the kitchen, I've been cooped up on a plane all day, and I take direction pretty well." Deke offered, seeing a chance to run interference on Aasha's mom, maybe figure out a way to improve the mood a little.

Padma gave a dismissive shrug. "Fine, the chicken needs taken apart." She said, stepping to the side, and starting on preparing vegetables. Deke stepped up aside her and set about the task of breaking the bird down for whatever the woman was preparing.

"So, about earlier though?" Barbara asked, glancing around. "I feel like I should ask about how you heard him. That's new."

It was Padma who answered that one as she sliced up some carrots. "Aasha said she'd told you about her, and him we recognized from the television, so you know about her conception?"

Barbara nodded. "Yes ma'am, more or less."

"There was a time when Jay and I were much more interesting people, but that came at the price of the people we associated with in New Delhi. Even though we fled in nineteen ninety five, some of the tricks we picked up, we never lost, which was for the best. I'm glad to see she's not wasting herself with what she was given." Padma explained, a mournful look in her eyes.

"Forgive me, but I don't think she's wasting anything." Barbara said in a careful tone. She wanted to snap, hearing that kind of negativity and expectation projected onto her girlfriend. She had no way to know, but she imagined that's exactly what her mother would have behaved like had she been in Aasha's shoes. "She's the youngest assistant curator at one of the most prestigious art galleries in Gotham, and one of the most lovely human beings I've ever had the opportunity to meet."

"That's not actually entirely true love." Aasha said, turning to look at Barbara. "I'm not a human being, not in the strictest sense, am I Mum?"

Padma shook her head. "The goal was to conceive a magically superior being. If she came out the way they wanted, more of the cult would have tried the same techniques we used. We left when we learned she was meant to be bred and nothing else."

"Homo Magi." Deke said, finishing up with the chicken. "There's a five page chapter in one of my xenobiology books. TL;DR is good luck with that one pal, we're not even sure this is real."

Aasha nodded. "According to Zatanna, I'm, for all intents and purposes, Homo Magi. You got the part you wanted at least."


Aasha stood outside in the small back yard, her bare feet touching the grass and being tickled by the evening dew. She knelt down beside her mother's small herb garden and let her fingertips brush the leaves of the plants. Each small touch perked them, bringing them full and out as she encouraged them to grow in the light of the full moon.

"I only wanted you to live a normal life." Aasha heard her mother say, and turned to look at her as she exited the back door. She sat down on the tiny stoop, a weary expression on her face. "Sometimes I forget what you and I consider normal aren't the same thing sometimes."

"Mum, I…" Aasha began, but her mother cut her off, this time far more gently than before.

"No, Lal. You're going to apologize. Please don't. Your roommate is quite fiercely protective of you. I don't believe another woman has stared daggers into me quite as deeply as she did, and if you'd had the opportunity to meet your grandmother, you would understand why I'm so impressed." Padma said, the memory of Barbara's silent displeasure quite firmly in her mind.

"I'm loved, Mum. I can't ask for more than that in this life." Aasha explained as she strolled onto the steps to join her mother, surprised it wasn't Deke she was worried about having to speak in defense of.

"No, you can't. Your father and I, we love you too though. We fled India, gave away everything we owned, to give you the opportunities you've been given. Again, I forget that you and I are different women. Though, I feel compelled to remind you that the boy is becoming a doctor. If your friend changes her mind about things…"

"Mum, please no." Aasha giggled, deciding to keep her relationship status firmly questionable where her parents were concerned. "I'm a superhero now. You and dad gave me the opportunity to save lives, and help people. If that's not a firm piss off to the people you ran from, then I don't know what is."

"You're correct, of course. Aasha, Lal, I have to ask though, with all of that, are you fulfilled? Does your life bring you joy?" Padma asked, running her fingers through her daughter's hair lovingly. The last time she'd had the opportunity, Aasha had been wearing a Mohawk.

"Yes Mum. I'm using my education doing something I dearly love. In fact, I had three pieces showing in a gallery the day of the quake. My roommates love me, like you saw plain as day, and I love them too, dearly so. I have so many friends from so many different places, and I've had more opportunity than you can imagine." Aasha said dreamily. "I've been to the island of the Amazons, in fact."

"I would love to hear more about that. Themyscira was still legend when your father and I were digging through ancient texts for fun." Padma replied almost as dreamily, remembering the magic of her youth. "As was Atlantis. Have you seen it as well?"

"No, although once the environmental differences can be worked out, I've been invited to see it by one of my teammates. I'm excited for it." Aasha said, relaxing into her mother's touch. "If I'm allowed to photograph, I'll send you what I can."

"Atlantean legend was your father's dream, not mine, but I think we might enjoy some of the old magic of discovery. All the same, forgive my outbursts earlier. I wasn't in a good frame of mind. You'd gone so far from us, I wasn't sure if I'd still know, or recognize my daughter in the woman you've become. My concern blinded me." Padma said apologetically.

"Well I come by that honestly, I suppose. Barbara was kind enough to help me get my head on right before we came over. I'd been so worried about what coming home was going to be like that I had myself worked into such a horrid bundle of nerves." Aasha replied bashfully. "I fully expected you and dad would have already arranged something with the parents of a lawyer or accountant or something, or wouldn't even accept me anymore."

"Aasha, your father and I will always accept you, where did it get that rubbish idea in your head that we wouldn't?" Padma asked, sounding a bit hurt that Aasha would even consider such a thing.

"I don't know Mum. I reckon because we're so different, you and I. You always seemed so disappointed in me when I was younger." Aasha answered honestly, wishing she had a glass or two of wine with this conversation.

"I was disappointed that you seemed like you didn't care about your heritage, but I was never disappointed in you. Given the way your roommates ate, I imagine you might be regretting not learning how to cook though." Padma chided.

"There's that." Aasha said with a nod. "I tell them frequently that they eat more Indian food than I had."

"I'll email you some easy recipes, maybe there's the place we can try to start over again."

"I'd like that Mum, I'd like that very much." Aasha replied, turning to look at her mother in the soft English moonlight. "Are the wards still holding in the house? I can strengthen them again if you'd like."

"And take away our Sunday evening routine? No Aasha, they're holding just fine, and keeping them that way keeps us in practice. You can keep working my herb garden over if you're feeling helpful." Padma replied softly. "Tomorrow, we'll get up early and have a day."

"I'd love that too Mum." Aasha said, padding back to the herb garden to delicately brush the leaves and encourage them to grow, the faint trickle of magical power it took feeling like tickling a single hair instead of the herculean effort it once was, and also reminding her she needed to properly commune with The Green where the rooftop garden of the Hacienda was concerned.

"Can you answer something for me? Daddy would never give me an honest answer." Aasha asked after a beat, deciding she already had the courage to ask it.

"Yes Aasha, I will answer you honestly." Padma replied, glancing over to her beloved daughter, standing barefoot in the garden just like she would have done in her same position.

"I know I was planned, but did you and Daddy want me? Was I just an experiment?" Aasha asked, her tone so calm and serene in the moonlight. "My roommate was an experiment, and there are times I think I know how he feels."

"Aasha, this will sound poor of us, but let me finish before you judge your father and I." Padma began, knowing there was absolutely no good way to explain this without sounding awful. "We didn't want a family when the cult asked us to try. We were young, and married, and foolish, which were three things the elders needed. When I felt you kick for the first time, that's when I knew I wanted you, and you know how you father dotes on you. That is want no matter how you look at it." Padma explained.

"I can accept that." Aasha said, the plants beneath her fingers still trying to reach to the moonlight. "I needed to know. I don't mind how I started Mum, I just needed to know so I know how to continue. Can't finish the book if some of the pages are blank and all that."

"Your book is long unfinished. Fill the pages with love and courage, Lal." Padma replied, coming into the garden with her daughter, and extending a hand over a small patch of basil, letting the serenity of the evening guide her as she joined her daughter in growing. Both the plants, and themselves.