-The Team
After flying, in camouflage mode, over Happy Harbor to let Relaiya sight see, Me'gann turned the ship and headed for Metropolis. They all chatted airily about their fun day to come. Once they reached Metropolis, Me'gann landed the ship in an abandoned alley across from the park. She then turned her green skin to a rosy ivory tone. Everyone exited the ship and cut walked through the park to reach the main road. Relaiya was on Conner's shoulder pointing at various buildings and awing. Me'gann held Conner's free hand and explained to Reliaya what each building she pointed to was. Robin walked along side the boy of steel on the side Me'gann wasn't occupying. Wally trailed slightly behind Me'gann and Artemis and Kaldur trailed slightly behind him. They found a three story mall and went in to explore. The girls dragged Relaiya off happily to a clothing store. The boys stooped by a video game store first, before finding a men's clothing store. They went to several different stores before deciding to eat at the food court. After lunch they all headed out of the mall with their purchases. Artemis and Me'gann had scored six new outfits each. Reliaya had three to call her own. Robin bought two new outfits and so did Wally. Kaldur bought one outfit and a watch to go with it. Conner just bought a new pair of jeans and boots. They walked up and down the strip before stopping for ice cream. They found a game arcade and stopped by to try their hands at a variety of games. When then they left the arcade it was 15 minutes after 5pm.
"What should we do now?" Wally asked around bites of his candy bar.
"How about we find a carnival or something!" Artemis said excitedly.
"Great idea!" Me'gann smiled. It didn't take them long to find the carnival. They all entered the area happily. Relaiya smiled greatly. One of her first outings was a carnival that Robin had taken her too. Relaiya climbed down from Conner's shoulder and grabbed a hold of Robin's hand. He gave hers a gentle squeeze, before linking their fingers.
"So what's first?" Robin asked.
"Why don't we ride the roller coaster!" Wally said excitedly, as he pointed at the ride in question.
"Good choice." Robin smirked. They all headed toward the roller coaster and stood in line. When it was their turn, Robin claimed the back row for himself and Relaiya. Artemis and Wally sat in front of them. Me'gann and Conner chose the front row and Kaldur sat behind them. They all put their hands up, screamed, laughed as the coaster went through it's many loops, turns, and hills. When the ride was over they all got off and rushed over to the bumper cars. They all laughed as they collided into each other. They rode an abundance of rides before stopping get snacks and play the carnival games. The girls ate cotton candy as they watched the boys compete at the many games. Robin managed to win a giant stuffed puppy, which he gave to Relaiya. The small girl hugged the toy and smiled at her mate. Conner won three teddy bears, and a giant stuffed unicorn for Me'gann. Wally won two teddy bears, and Kaldur won a large stuffed panda. They both gave their earnings to Artemis, who accepted them, even though she didn't want them. Wally, Kaldur, and Artemis took a seat on a bench, while Robin, Relaiya, Conner, and Me'gann headed over to the Ferris Wheel. They all chatted as they stood in line, and then boarded their respective carts when it was their turn. Relaiya looked out of the window of the cart she and Robin shared.
"This is awesome Robin! We should've done this ride the last time you took me ton a carnival!" Relaiya said excitedly.
"Haha…you're right. I'm glad you like it!" Robin said smiling at his girlfriend. She continued to stare out the window at the lights of the city, the way the carnival lit up, the people, including their friends, below. A sudden jolt of pleasure ran through her causing her to jump out of surprise. Robin reached out instinctively to comfort her.
"What's wrong?" He asked concern. Relaiya smiled at him and shook her head.
"Oh it's nothing…master just had a sudden rush of pleasure out of nowhere." Reliaya chuckled.
"That's interesting. He and Meggs are probably making out or something." Robin said with an amusing smirk on his face. "I'm whelmed."
"Yeah definitely whelmed." Relaiya said smiling. She then sat down next to Robin and rested her head on his shoulder.
"What's making out?" Relaiya asked curiously then.
"Kissing." Robin said as he stroked her hair.
"Huh…ok. You know of all the things you taught me, you left out quite a bit of things that I needed to know." Relaiya said smiling. Robin chuckled.
"Wasn't relevant at the time." He said and they both shared a laugh.
"We should do this more often." Relaiya then said. Robin brushed the hair out of her eyes and nodded. He lowered his lips down to her and gave her a gentle kiss. She sighed contently. Pain and worry flowed though her. Before she could wonder what was wrong the cart was blasted with a barrage of ice. The cart shook violently and Robin grabbed a hold of Relaiya instinctively. They both looked up at the frozen door of the cart. Relaiya burned a hole through it and flew Robin and herself down to safety. Conner and Me'gann landed right after they did. Kaldur, Wally, and Artemis quickly joined them.
"What the hell was that?" Conner asked as they all stared at the frozen solid Ferris Wheel. A game stand was thrown their way and Me'gann put up a barrier to block it.
"Woah!" Wally said.
"Over there." Artemis said pointing in the direction of the bumper cars. There stood Mr. Freeze. He was smiling smugly as she shot icy blast from his freeze ray.
"Freeze!" Robin yelled and pulled out and equipped his utility belt. Wally stared at the where the game stand used to be and gasped on shock.
"We've got company!" Wally exclaimed. Everyone turned their attention towards the game stand and found Bang and Solomon Grundy.
"Bang and Grundy? What's going on?" Kaldur asked.
"Dunno…seems like the bad guys decided to invade Metropolis." Robin said.
"Yeah…well…I say we hold them off until Superman shows up." Wally said.
"Easy for you to say. I don't have my arrows with me." Artemis said a little annoyed at the current situation. They just had to show up when she was weaponless.
"We don't need him…we can take them!" Superboy said and lept off to fight Bang and Grundy.
"Kid…back him up. Relaiya and Robin, handle Freeze. Artemis, Me'gann, and I will get these people out of here and join you shortly." Kaldur ordered. Robin nodded and took off. Relaiya followed him closely. Wally sped off to assist Superboy and Kaldur and Artemis began ushering people safely to the exit. Robin immediately replaced his sunglasses with his domino mask.
"Let's do this Lai!" Robin said smiling.
"Right behind you!" She said. They both ran over to Freeze and Robin fired off a series of bird-a-rangs. This caught the older male's attention.
"You have terrible timing Freeze." Robin said.
"Oh…do I?" Freeze asked amused and then fired off a blast of ice. Robin easily dodged it.
"Hostile much." Robin smirked. Freeze frowned.
"Kids today. Stupidity runs prevalent in you generation." Freeze said and shook his head. Robin dodged it and Relaiya flew out of it's way. A part of the icy blast grazing her arm and hair. She hissed at the pain from the extreme cold. She immediately began heating her body to stop the icing over process. She then launched off a fire ball at Freeze. He dodged and countered with a shot of his own. Relaiya raised a fire wall to guard against it. When she dropped it Robin burst forward and scissor kicked the Freeze. The older male stumbled back slightly. Robin flipped over him and roundhouse kicked him. Freeze fell to one knee. He then quickly recovered and starting freezing the entire area. Robin flipped to where Reliaya was floating.
"Cntrl, alt, delete, what he's doing." He said and Relaiya raised a brow in confusion.
"Do what?" She asked and Robin chuckled.
"Undo it." He said and took off like a shot toward Freeze. Relaiya began melting the frozen wonderland Freeze was trying to create. Robin dodged a blast aimed directly at him and pulled out his staff. He began to swing it at Freeze and the older male blocked all the hits he could with his ray gun. Freeze managed to knock Robin backed and turned his attention to Relaiya. He smiled as he fired off a blast of ice towards the unsuspecting girl. She had just finished unfreezing all that was frozen when the icy blast hit her in the back. She gasped in shock and in pain as the ice quickly enveloped her. Robin growled as he watched her body fall from the sky.
"Wow you're really determined to piss me off today!" Robin said as he charged Freeze. The man blocked the blow and smiled at Robin.
"I think today was a successful venture. Things didn't go as planned, but capturing the fire girl more than makes up for that." Freeze said as he pushed Robin back. Freeze was then hit in the back by an electric water whip. He cried out from the pain. Aqualad then began an assault to which Freeze was forced to be put on the defensive. Robin jumped high in the air and swung his staff down hard. He managed to crack Freeze's helmet. Freeze fell backward and Robin launched a bird-a-rang that exploded into titanium rope, wrapping securely around Freeze. Robin looked back at Relaiya and saw that the ice was slowly beginning to melt. He ran over to her and pulled out his heat ray. He melted the ice down and she shivered violently.
"You ok?" He asked and she nodded. She wrapped her arms around herself and sneezed.
"Let's not do that again." She said frowning. Robin smiled and helped the girl up. He then returned to Freeze where Aqualad stood. The teen had obviously been asking the man about what his plan had been. Freeze just stared hatefully, mouth unmoving.
"I got this…go help the others." Robin said and Aqualad nodded. He then took off going to assist the others. "So…you wanna tell why you're attacking Metropolis?" Robin asked. Freeze just smiled at him.
"Oh boy wonder…civilian attire does not suite you. I'd prefer the uniform." Freeze said and Robin chuckled.
"Yeah…me too. Now back to you attacking Metropolis." Robin said and Freeze smiled.
"My lips are frozen shut on the matter." The male said and then eyed Relaiya. "So close to obtaining the weapon too." Freeze sighed. Robin frowned then. He picked up Freeze's head and slammed it hard into the ground. The helmet shattered.
"I really don't like it when people refer to other people as objects. Now talk!" Robin said. Freeze chuckled.
"You really are the bat's tutelage." Freeze said. Robin punched him as hard as he could. He then dropped the older man and sighed in frustration.
"Well that didn't go so well." He said and looked at Relaiya. She frowned and kicked Freeze. Robin smiled at that. "I'm gonna go help the others. You might want to sit this one out." He said and Relaiya shook her head.
"I'm ok." She said and Robin patted her on the head.
"Go with Artemis ok. Help her with keeping the people from panicking." Robin said and she sighed, but nodded in agreement. She turned and took of toward the entrance of the carnival where Artemis was. Robin ran and joined up with Wally, Me'gann, Kaldur, and Conner. Wally was running a tornado around Bang. Conner and Kaldur we're dealing with Grundy, while Me'gann helped out from above. Robin threw a bird-a-rang at the tornado Wally was creating. Wally easily dodged the object and it burst open to reveal the same rope that tied up Freeze. It wrapped itself around Bang's ankles and he fell hard to the ground.
"That's two down." Robin said.
"One to go!" Wally said excitedly and dashed over to Grundy, Robin following behind him. They all manged to subdue him. Artemis and Relaiya ran over then. They all looked down at the fallen zombie.
"So Gotham villains wanted a change of scenery." Wally said.
"This is very strange." Kaldur said.
"It just got stranger." Artemis said as she pointed in horror toward the roller coaster.
"Darkseid." Kaldur whispered. Darkseid had indeed appeared. He walked menacingly toward the group. An evil smile on his face.
"I'll make this easy for you children. Hand over the Embrassian and I'll let you live." He said in a venomous voice.
"Well…it looks like you're just going to have to kill us." Conner said as he ripped his tattered shirt from his body. He then readied himself to fight. Artemis gave him a quick sideways glance and then picked up a pipe to arm herself, needing a weapon in place of her unequipped arrows. The rest of the team followed suite and got into their battle stances. Darkseid laughed. Deep and menacing.
"All right children. Let's play." He said.
"Unfortunately for you, play time is over." Darkseid was then struck extremely hard and sent flying across the area. "Unfortunate for you that is" Superman said as he floated over to where Darkseid had landed. Darkseid got up and before he could land a blow on Superman he was struck by the massive green energy fist of Green Lantern. The team looked around and found that they were surrounded by the members of the Justice League. Batman made his way towards the team flanked by Flash and Wonder Woman.
"Good job team! We'll take it from here." Flash said smiling as he rested a hand on his nephew's shoulder.
"Flash is right. You did good work here. Go back to the Cave and rest up. The League will handle it form here." Batman said. He then nodded to Kaldur and Robin.
"Freeze is over there." Robin said nodding in the direction where Freeze was tied up.
"I'll fetch him." Wonder Woman said an walked off. The team then made their way back to the bioship as the League waged war with Darkseid.
"Think they'll be alright?" Me'gann asked.
"They've handled him before. I'm sure they will be fine." Kaldur said. They all hopped aboard the bioship and headed home. The flight to Mount Justice was a quiet one. Once they had reached home they all filed in to the great area. Conner plopped down on the couch and Robin joined him.
"What the hell was that about?" Conner asked.
"Dunno." Robin responded. "I couldn't get Freeze to say anything." Robin sighed and Conner grunted. They both began to star at the blank television.
"The whole ordeal was just weird." Me'gann said and Artemis nodded in agreement.
"We were having soooo much fun! They just had to show their ugly faces and start terrorizing people." Wally whined.
"Tch…totally ticked me off too. I was complete feeling the aster of the day!" Robin said irritated.
"We all were. Those villains attacking seemed like a coordinated effort. Why attack a carnival though?" Artemis mused.
"Well from tall dark and ugly and Freeze said…they were after Relaiya. AGAIN!" Robin said growing more agitated.
"Freeze seemed surprised to see me though." Relaiya said.
"So what? They just randomly attacked Metropolis? Then changed plans when they saw Lai?" Wally asked.
"Then there's the matter of Darkseid. The guy doesn't attack for petty reasons." Kaldur said.
"Yeah he's on a whole destroy or take over the world M.O." Robin said thoughtfully.
"There is something really strange going on." Artemis said.
"Yeah and all the events seem to point to…well…you Relaiya." Me'gann said looking at the girl in question.
"Don't blame her! It's not her fault!" Conner and Robin blurted in unison.
"I'm not…it's just that…" Me'gann said putting her hands up defensively.
"She's right." Relaiya said and hung her head in shame.
"Relaiya…when you were being held captive, do you ever remember hearing them say anything?" Kaldur asked. Relaiya shook her head.
"No…just repeatedly being called weapon and having the blue stuff injected inside of me." Relaiya said sadly. Conner looked at her and got up to hug her comfortingly. He could feel her huge amount of guilt.
"It's not your fault. You didn't do this." He said soothingly. She nodded and he let her go.
"Relaiya…try to remember anything if you can. For now let's all prepare for training. Canary expects us in forty minutes." Kaldur said and walked off heading towards his room. They all did the same.

Forty minutes later, they had mandatory training and afterwards ate dinner. Artemis and Wally cleaned up, Me'gann and Conner tended to his pets, Kaldur went through the reports of the day, Robin returned to Gotham for the night, and Relaiya lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. She quietly closed her door with her telekinesis and sighed. Why was this happening to her? What had she done so wrong in life to warrant this punishment? She sat up and got in her meditative state. She had to try to remember something, anything about her imprisonment. She tried hard to think, to go back to that time in her mind, but she couldn't. She came up empty every single time she tried.
"This is hopeless!" She said full of frustration. She fell back on her bead and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was no longer on her bed, but in a garden of flame orchids. She stood and looked around and realized that she was in garden at the council temple on Embriss. She blinked before realization hit her. She was having another one of her visions. She calmed her mind and mentally reached out for the baby phoenix. He appeared in front of her instantly, chirping happily. He then landed on her shoulder and she patted him on the head smiling.
"Hey there cutie." She said and the small bird chirped happily. "Could you help me find the grumpy, but helpful dragon?" She asked sweetly. The phoenix chirped excitedly and flew in front of her face, before taking off toward the northern tower. Relaiya followed, taking the time to notice, that, once again, she was in a dress. This one was a crimson red ball gown, with black lace trim, and a black bow tied about her waist. She shook her head and made her way to the northern tower. When she reached it, the baby phoenix flew up to the highest window, hovered for a bit, and then ultimately going inside. She then flew up herself, following the small bird. When she entered the room the baby bird perched itself on top of her head. A man with fair skin, dressed in all black traditional upper class garments, long flowing black hair, and red eyes that shone like rubies, sat on a lounge chair. He looked up at her then and Relaiya's breath caught. The man was absolutely gorgeous. He stood then and made his way over towards her. He held his hand out to her and smiled warmly. She stared at it skeptically. The bird on top of her head seemed to cheer for her to accept the man's hand. She took it slowly and the bird hummed in delight. The man led her to a large red door with beautiful crystal designs etched into it. He opened the door and inside sat a gold and white dinning room. In the center of the room sat a long glass table had gold trim and upon it sat a beautiful lace runner. A tall white vase holding beautiful pink, white, and red flowers, worked as the center piece. There was a chair at each head, and nine chairs sat on each side in the middle. The chairs, themselves, were white and had intricate golden designs weaving through the back rest. The man pulled out one of the chairs that sat at the head of the table and offered it to her. She sat looking around the gorgeous room in awe.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" The man asked sweetly. He smiled at her then and she looked down in embarrassment, playing with the lace on her dress. She then smoothed out the ruffles in the dress before looking back up into the ruby depths of the man.
"I was looking for someone. I didn't mean to disturb you." She said and then turned her gaze back down to her dress. The man knelt down in front of her and took her small hands in his.
"Who might you be looking for my Lady?" The man asked in his sultry voice. Relaiya looked up and found herself once again entranced by his eyes. She blushed a deep shade of red, confused as to why this man made her so jittery.
"A…a dragon. A black dragon." She said shyly. He smiled at her.
"It's not the dragon you need…but answers." He said and stood to his full height, releasing his hold on her hands. He then thrust his hand out behind him and a hologram screen appeared. The screen began to play Relaiya's life. She looked at the screen in awe as she saw herself as a child.
"How are you doing that?" She asked in shock.
"Does it really matter…so long as you get your answers." The man said smirking. Relaiya shook her head. "Then…which part is it that you wish to see?" He asked then.
"My first imprisonment on Earth." She said seriously. Maybe now she could find out all that she needed to. The screen flashed brightly and then revealed a small girl, no older than five. She was sitting on a cement floor in a dark room with a boy around the same age as she, holding onto her hand. They were both in chains and their clothes tattered and dirty. She was crying silently and the boy trying to comfort her.
"What…what is this?" Relaiya asked.
"What you wished to see. Your first imprisonment on Earth." The man said.
"Impossible! I haven't been to Earth before now!" She said incredulously.
"Is that so?" The man asked. "Then…the small girl…is she not you?"
"I…yes. The girl is me, but this never happened." She said breathlessly as she watched the young girl be snatched up by men in lab coats. The little girl screamed out to her friend, who was being pinned down on the floor and injected with a strange glowing green liquid. The boy fainted and the young Relaiya cried.
"Do you remember you childhood my Lady?" The man asked genuinely interested.
"Of course I do!" She said defensively.
"How far back?" He asked. "Do you remember anything before you began your warrior training?" The man asked curiously. Relaiya opened her mouth and then shut it immediately. She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember anything before her initial warrior studies. She gasped as she wondered why. Why couldn't she remember?
"There's a barrier placed around your memories. It's why you can't access it them. If you would like…I could show you everything." The man said seriously.
"How did you…you can read my thought?" Relaiya asked, eyes widening in shock. The man nodded.
"Do you wish to know the truth as to why you are so special?" The man asked and Relaiya nodded. The man smiled then. He held his hand out to her and she took it. He then led her back into the previous room and laid her down on the lounge chair.
"Close your eyes…" The man said then. "Trust me."