A/N: Thanks for the reviews! And I'm glad you liked the images of Sarah and Nick.

Chapter Three—A Bad Day

Four months later

"Bruce Wayne."

"Hi, Daddy."

Bruce frowned at the high-pitched tone of his daughter's voice, the tension clear even over the phone line. "Sarah? What's wrong?"

"Um, I'm in some trouble. Not big trouble, but I'm at Police HQ. The cops pulled me over for speeding. My bike's been impounded. Can I get a lift home please?"

"Your bike's been impounded?" he repeated incredulously. "Sarah! You know better than to-"

Her voice was flippant, so she obviously wasn't alone. She did know better than to get herself arrested—now that she had been, the police would have her DNA on file, fingerprints, God knew what else. She'd have to be so careful from now on. Knowing Sarah, though, she would be harder on herself than he ever would.

"Calm down, Daddy, it'll be fine. Now are you going to come down and bail me out or not?"

Bruce sighed, running a hand down his face. "Yeah. I'm on the way."

Her voice gentled into sincerity and regret. "Thank you, Daddy."

He rolled his eyes as he put the phone down. Someday—God only knew when—he'd be able to say no when she said 'Daddy' like that. Probably wouldn't happen within the next decade, but still... Sighing with mingled exasperation and affection, Bruce left his office and got into the elevator.

It took a few minutes to drive across the city—keeping to the speed limit of course—and once he arrived he was shown quickly to where his daughter was waiting, being glared at by a detective and ogled by a teenaged intern. To her credit, Sarah did have the good grace to look ashamed when he walked in. Before she went back to huffing and throwing glares at the police officers, anyway.

"Ah, Mr. Wayne," the detective said stiffly, "thank you for coming."

"What did she do?"

"Speeding, sir. And since this wasn't her first traffic offense-"

"I wasn't going that fast," Sarah interjected. "Daddy, you know I wouldn't be stupid on my bike—it's too pretty to risk it being totaled-"

Bruce turned to look at her, an eyebrow raised. "What was the speed limit?"

She looked down. "Thirty."

"And you were going how fast?"

"...eighty seven..."

Bruce's anger was all real now. "Sarah!"

She winced, spreading her hands innocently. "I'm sorry, Daddy, but I had somewhere to be! Kyra and I were going shopping and-"

"Enough, Sarah." No one else would have noticed, but the glare and the bark did their job. With an apprehensive swallow, Sarah fell silent. Her father turned to the man next to him pulling out his cheque book. "Bail?"

Once that was paid, they left in silence. Sarah didn't break it until they were out of Gotham. "Stop with the silent treatment, Daddy, I'm not a child anymore."

"No? Then don't act like one with stunts like this," he snapped.

"How is protecting our secret acting like a child?" she asked, shocked.

"Protecting us?" he repeated. "Sarah, the police have your DNA on file. If you ever drop anything at a crime scene-"

"Alright, so it was a miscalculation! On the other hand, I've been Princess Sarah again—the girl who spits in the face of all authority—how can I possibly be protecting law and order in this city if I'm doing stupid, irresponsible things like this?"

"It was stupid and irresponsible."

"Oh, so it's not when Nicky's fucking his way around the city?" she pressed, starting to look a little angry herself. "It's not when he's getting drunk almost every night at parties? What if he gets some girl pregnant, Daddy? What if he accidentally uses his powers because he's not sober enough to-"

"He doesn't get drunk, he knows better than that."

She snorted. "Does he? He has Mom's metabolism, Daddy, he can sober up before he gets home."

They'd arrived at the manor by now, and Sarah pushed open the door.

"Hera, Daddy, I go a little crazy on my bike and you freak out," she complained, hanging her jacket up and coming into the living room still arguing. Diana raised an eyebrow—it was extremely rare Bruce and Sarah disagreed even slightly, let alone actually argued. "You've done far worse, and so has Nicky! Do you know what everyone says about it? 'Like father, like son'."

While she waited for his reply, she strode over to her mother and kissed her cheek. "Hey, Mom."

Bruce followed her. "That's-"

"If you say that it's different, then I'm going to assume that this is some kind of gender double standard. I think Mom will have something to say about that." She put a hand on her hip, and then threw a knowing smirk at her father.

Bruce looked at his wife, saw the raised eyebrow and knew he was on dangerous ground. "Not what I meant," he said, half to his daughter and half to his wife.

Sarah was still smirking. "I thought so."

Bruce glared at her, and then decided to play the parent card. "You're still grounded, though."

Her face fell, and her mouth dropped. "Daddy!" she exclaimed in outrage. "I'm twenty two, you can't ground me!"

"Watch me," he said flatly.

"Unh!"

As she hit the Cave well, Sarah's breath left her in a grunt of pain. Damn, but the kid was getting better. The improvement Terry had shown in the short time she'd been teaching him was nothing short of miraculous. The kid was a natural fighter, and only needed a strict, guiding hand. She shoved herself away from the wall and tried to retake the offensive. She feinted, going for an incredibly obvious roundhouse kick that Terry absorbed easily. While he took a step backward, she brought her other leg forward and up into a snap kick. It connected well with his chin, and sent him tumbling backward. He didn't use the momentum she'd provided him with, and only lost his footing, falling.

Sarah sighed impatiently, moving to stand over him, hands on her hips. "How many times, Ter-"

Terry proved that while he might not have picked up Sarah's style perfectly, he'd developed one of his own. With her guard down, his leg kicked out, getting the back of her knee and pulling her into a kneeling position. She lashed out with her right fist, hitting his jaw, hard. Terry hit back, and they continued for a moment, exchanging blows with neither gaining the upper hand. Sarah stepped up her attack gradually, gauging the point at which her skill became too much for Terry's to cope with. Her father and brother were watching from the computer as well, and once Terry was down for good they'd compare observations and decide what to train the kid in next.

Finally, after more than forty minutes of sparring, Sarah made the final blow, jabbing stiff fingers into his diaphragm and winding him. "That's enough for tonight. Go home, kid."

He nodded, and after a second, stood and went to get changed. When he came out, he looked annoyingly un-exhausted. "Same time tomorrow?"

She nodded silently, and he put a hand up to Bruce and Nick. "Night."

Nick waved briefly. "Night, kid."

As soon as he was out of the Cave, Sarah gave in, and was now completely out of breath, slumping slightly against the weapons chest. Both her father and brother watched her with identical smirks. Nick wondered how much longer she'd be wanting to handle Terry's physical training by herself. "He's learning fast, huh?" he commented.

She nodded, still panting. "Oh yeah. Really fast."

"Giving you a run for your money?" he asked.

He'd expected a scornful reply, but to his surprise Sarah nodded seriously. "Almost," she said. "He's not quite there yet, but give him a couple years at most, and his physical abilities will be top notch."

Nick's eyebrows hit his hairline. "Seriously? Even you didn't learn that fast."

She nodded, and drained a bottle of water in one go. "I know," she replied after swallowing, wiping her mouth with the sweatband on her wrist. She nodded at Bruce. "He's definitely the right guy to fill your shoes. Almost. He's still got a long, long way to go in terms of detective and forensic work." She leaned against the desk next to him, eyes narrowed in thought. "It's almost as though I'm fighting a younger version of you, a rawer form. How I imagine you'd have been at...twenty, say. It's odd."

Their father echoed her expression. "Mmm."

Nick rolled his eyes with a smile. "Great, now look what you did. He'll be on the phone to Uncle Vic before we know where we are. And we only just got him off the idea that some weird, otherworldly power had a hand in nearly all of the Founders having twins."

Sarah laughed before changing the subject. "Speaking of League kids, I should make sure Olivia knows what she's doing tomorrow."

"I'm sure she does," Nick commented. "Might only be her second official League mission, but she's a natural, and she's smart. She did brilliantly with Intergang last month."

"True. You're right, I'm sure she's fine. Plus she has my com-link frequency if not."

Olivia Sage – the second Huntress – was only seventeen, and her mother and some of the other Founders had had doubts concerning her ability and competence to join the Justice League so young. However, the Question had been able to convince Bruce that Olivia was capable, ready and willing to pick up where her mother had left off. Last month, Sarah and Nick had found themselves fighting alongside her in a tussle with Intergang, and despite her age and lack of experience, Huntress II had proven herself admirably. In fact, Sarah trusted her to perform a lot better than she did some other, longer-established members of the League. Supergirl for one… Thank Hera she didn't have to deal with Michaela tomorrow; Jonathan Kent would be the super-strong member of the team in the sting operation she had planned, and he had never created any problems for Reaper in the past. The son of Lois Lane and Clark Kent was far more serious-minded and just plain competent than his twin sister.

Sarah checked time and grimaced. "Crap, I have to meet Trey in like a half-hour…"

"Thought you weren't meeting him till eleven?" Nick asked.

"Thought you were grounded," Bruce commented sternly.

"I am grounded—this is for reputation sakes', Daddy. You know I won't get anything out of it."

Her father looked at her for a moment, and then nodded. "Alright. But I expect you on patrol by two."

"Of course, Daddy." She kissed both of their cheeks, and then headed up the manor. "Later."

There are some days that the universe just hates you. Today was one of those days—at least for Reaper. It had started off fine; patrol had gone well the night before, she'd slept well, even had cold pizza for breakfast since Mom hadn't been awake to tell her it wasn't nutritionally balanced. Then things went downhill. Like the fact that her 'boyfriend'—the quarterback of the Gotham Knights—had been cheating on her. It didn't hurt her heart much; he'd been a cover for her. Still, it was a pretty serious blow for her pride. She was Sarah Wayne! She was the most sought-after girl in the city, she had everything going for her-

She clenched her fists. Bastard. Still, she thought with a sudden smirk, at least she'd made sure he wouldn't forget her in a hurry. Though Daddy probably won't be happy... She'd almost given herself away, though she couldn't help but be a bit proud about the perfect punch she'd delivered to the bridge of his nose. She'd broken it, and put him out of action for the Superbowl. Knights fans might be pissed that they'd lost him, but at least Sarah gained some satisfaction in the last moments of their relationship.

That had made her feel better for the majority of the afternoon, but now...it was a terrible day again. She was stuck with Supergirl on this mission, because Superboy had gotten himself entangled with some kind of Kryptonite-related emergency. Which was fine—well it wasn't, but he'd recover—so now she was stuck with Michaela. She just knew that this perfectly-planned sting operation was going to go down the pan any minute.

Then, to top it all off, the front page of the National Enquirer had just hit her in the face. She pulled it off, looking with a scowl at the headline. Gotham's Princess Royally Screwed Over. She tore it in half and let the pieces flutter down from the roof she was crouching on. Her gaze found the movement in the sky, of the winged figure coming toward her.

Skyhunter touched down on the room next to her, a kind expression on her masked face. "Hey," she said gently. "I'm sorry."

Sarah waved her hand with a dismissive snort. "Oh, don't be. Guy was a wanker."

Kyra, knowing her best friend, only sat on the edge of the roof next to her, and waited for her to continue. It wasn't long before she did. "I just… Sometimes I want it to be less complicated, you know?" Sarah exclaimed. "Like, say, Daddy wasn't...who Daddy is. And I didn't have this whole dual identities thing to contend with. Then add the whole Aphrodite thing into the mix and it just gets a million times worse. I wish I could find a nice guy, tell him my name, and we'd go from there." She sighed. "And it's never going to be that simple, is it?"

Kyra shook her head slowly. "Don't think so," she said quietly.

Sarah sighed again, then perked up slightly, cocking her eyebrow at the half-Thanagarian beside her. "How do you do it?"

"Don't date outside the League," Skyhunter replied simply.

Reaper smirked. "Oh right. Well, we can't all chase Green Arrow..."

"Hey!" Kyra protested. "Low blow."

More cheerful now, Sarah carried on teasing. "So did you or did you not call him 'sex on legs' last week?"

Kyra glowered at her. "That's not relevant to anything, Reaper."

"No?"

"No, and there are plenty of guys in the League who know who you are."

"Really?" Sarah asked, voice heavy with sarcasm. "Like who, apart from Warhawk and Superboy?"

"Well... what's wrong with Warhawk or Superboy?" Kyra pointed out.

Reaper snorted. "Please, Sky, he's a great guy, but the only way I'd date Superboy is to piss his sister off. Although..." Her gaze turned sly and looked over to the darkened rooftop where Michaela was supposed to be. If she'd followed the plan, then Supergirl II could probably hear every word they were saying. Sarah couldn't really care less.

"Reaper!"

"What? You can't deny the idea has merit," she smirked.

"Okay, well what about Warhawk?" Kyra asked.

Immediately, Sarah's stomach started twisting. "What about him?" she asked neutrally.

She hadn't told Kyra—or even Nicky—the kinds of things she was starting to feel for Rex Stewart, and she saw no reason that had to change anytime soon. Real relationships in their line of work weren't something she could afford. It might have worked for her parents, Auntie Shayera and Uncle John, Uncle Ollie and Aunt Dinah, but they were already established heroes when they entered into their respective marriages. Sarah needed to prove she was committed to the League and to Gotham before she seriously considered her social life.

Kyra thankfully hadn't noticed the fact that heat was slowly crawling up Sarah's neck. "Why not date him?"

"Other than to piss you off?" Sarah asked, praying for a distraction.

"Don't you like him?" Kyra pressed.

Knowing she wouldn't stop until she got an answer, Sarah took a deep breath, preparing to give an ambiguous response. "I–" Suddenly her attention snapped to something that was happening a small distance away. It looked like the bad guys had finally decided to show. "Movement in north quadrant!" she hissed into her comlink.

They were here to corner and capture Alan Kingsleigh. Ostensibly, he was the head of an import/export firm, but in reality the head of a black-market corporation, a corporation that had recently been selling a nice range of Justice League-only technology. The plan was to capture Kingsleigh, make him talk—Reaper was looking forward to that part—and then neutralise his international trade with the information he provided. Stealth here was key; Kingsleigh kept a transporter on his person at all times. Reaper now carried an EMP emitter that should disable it, but it had to be used at the right time. Too early, and it would cancel out the weapons of her allies—too late, and Kingsleigh would transport away to any location on the globe, and they would be at square one again. Everything depended on timing, and on the others waiting for Reaper to give the signal.

Skyhunter and Reaper both watched, fully-alert, as a motorcade of six cars—one a police car belonging to a corrupt officer of the GCPD; she made a mental note to drop a tip to Aunt Babs about it—pulled up outside a warehouse. Sarah spoke into her com-link.

"Do not engage until I give my signal."

The car doors opened, and about twenty men got out; her mask's nightvision easily picked out Kingsleigh as the best-dressed one there.

"Reaper, I have a clear path," Supergirl's voice came over the channel.

Grinding her teeth, Reaper snapped out a reply. "Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage."

"He's almost inside the building!"

"Which is where we want him, idiot!"

The building had been booby-trapped with nerve gas; once released, the gas would induce temporary paralysis that would enable them to arrest Kingsleigh and his guards with relative ease. The trigger was a pressure-point on the chair in his office.

The men went inside, with four remaining as guards. Sarah's infrared followed Kingsleigh through the building. "Prepare to engage. Target will trip the switch in ten, nine, eight, seve-"

A blue and red blur shot out from the rooftop opposite, diving down the building. Sarah spat out the most vicious Themysciran curse her Aunt Philipus was not supposed to have taught her. "Everyone converge on target. Go now!"

The guards saw Supergirl coming, and opened fire on Uzis. It did nothing to stop her, of course, and she smashed into them, beating them up with the maximum possible amount of noise. Knowing she didn't have time to be annoyed—yet—Reaper flew at full-speed toward the windows of Kingsleigh's office, where the lights had just come on. She saw him look up at the sound of gunfire, and then fumble about in his jacket for the transporter. No, no, no, no, no!

She smashed through the window still moving at full speed, reaching out to grab Kingsleigh-

And encountered only empty air as he vanished with a burst of blue-white light.

A few seconds later, Kyra's voice came over her com-link. "All the guards are down. Did you get Kingsleigh?"

"Negative," Reaper growled. "He transported out. Where is she?" There was no need to elaborate on jus which 'she' Reaper was talking about.

"Entrance of the building still."

She cut off the link, and stormed down to the front door of the warehouse, blowing through them with a scythe-shaped exploding batarang, just so that no one could mistake how utterly and completely pissed off she was. Michaela Kent, however, refused to look phased as Sarah let rip.

"How do you not fall down more? I mean, your ability to walk has always surprised me, but now I'm stunned that you know how to talk, since you've obviously never learned how to listen!"

"It was a stupid plan!"

"Oh really? Is that why Kingsleigh is now not in custody? Oh, no, wait, that's your fault, since you weren't listening!"

"I can listen just fine!" Michaela snapped.

"Yeah?" Sarah asked, nodding. "Then it's just that you're too much of an imbecile to grasp even the simplest of instructions?"

"You're overreacting, Reaper!" Supergirl yelled. "We'll get another chance!"

"Not for weeks, we won't! Now Kingsleigh knows the League is out to get him and will be on his guard! And because of your irresponsibility, days worth of planning and thousands in League resources went down the drain! This is entirely your fault, Supergirl! Get the hell out of my city!"

Her tirade done, Sarah shot upward. No one was stupid enough to follow her, not even Nicky, though she would have waited a little longer before chewing him out. No doubt he was back with the others, trying to teach Michaela that one had to fly up to reach the Watchtower.

Half an hour later, after preventing a couple armed robberies and a mugging, Sarah was much calmer. Beating up scumbags was wonderfully cathartic. Perched on top of St. Thomas More Cathedral, she sighed, shaking her head. Supergirl really needed to learn. Yes, their parents were the Founders, but they wouldn't always be there to clean up their kids' messes. Well, Mom would, but out of the others not even Uncle Clark was immortal like she was. Kryptonians just lived longer than normal humans, yet another perk given to them by a yellow sun. Nonetheless, eventually the second generation would have to stand alone—Supergirl wasn't even trying to prepare for that.

Her com-link beeped, and Kyra's amused voice came through. "Chilled out yet?"

"Marginally."

"Up for helping me with a little revenge?"

"On who?" Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow under her mask.

"Zippy and Turbo," Skyhunter growled, her voice dipping into anger.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "You can't still be mad at them."

"The hell I can't! I haven't been able to look Green Arrow in the eye since they… Urgh, I still can't even say it"

Sarah chuckled. "Alright. I'll be your master-strategist."

"Was hoping you'd say that. Meet me at the Metrotower?"

"I'll see you in the commissary in ten."

A/N: Review please!