Vera sipped her tea as she drove. Sam knew how to make tea, alright. When she finally pulled up outside Luthor's facility, however, she was shaking worse than before. She could hear the voices expressing their concern over her com-link, but she ignored. "Just wait for me," she told them. "I'll signal you all when it's safe." She looked around in the twilight. She hadn't noticed the time. She almost jumped when the Flash appeared at her side in a second. "I said to wait."
"I know. I have your back." Vera looked up at the cocky young man gratefully. Before she knew what she was doing, she was kissing him.
"Thanks," she said.
"What... What for?" the Flash stammered.
"The last couple of years," she shrugged, and headed to the old building. Once inside, she handed a guard a slip of paper to take to Luthor. Once he was gone, she took out the other. She glanced around, straightened her chic jacket, and called the Justice League over the com-link. "This way," she murmured. As they took out guards on each door, she grew more nervous. Superman noticed.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing," she replied breathlessly.
Mistress?
Not now, 3-O.
But I believe this is an appropriate time to inform you that Luthor is heading your way.
Good. Vera took a deep, shaky breath, and whirled on Batman. While the League put up a fight, they were all down in less than a minute.
Mistress!
It had to be done.
"Vera..." Superman croaked. At the same time, Luthor stepped through the door, followed by a dozen gunmen. They each chained the members of the Justice League, Superman in the Kryptonite chains Vera had seen in her dream.
"Vera, my darling," Luthor smiled snidely. She smiled back, sweet as ever.
"Lex." She kissed his lips. He wasn't the same as the Flash, that was for sure. She caught the betrayal on the superheroes' faces before they each passed out, and hid her own disgust with herself.
It was just as in her dream, except John, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl were each there. Each hero was kept in their separate cells in a semi-circle around herself and Luthor. She looked ahead as they each came around and found themselves locked up. She avoided Batman's spiteful glare. "Please, do try and escape," Luthor smiled cruelly. "It will only cause you more pain and misery. You have my darling Vera to thank for that. Who knew she was such a genius?"
"Yeah. Wonderful." The Flash glared at her. "Three years, Vera! We were family!"
"Oh, family, was it?" Luthor didn't give Vera a chance to reply. She just turned her head away.
"Luthor, you sick-!" Superman shouted, trying to gather the strength to stand.
"Sick what?" Superman just looked up at Vera with pained eyes.
"Vera, please. Why did you do this?" She could barely hear him, with the Kryptonite chains weakening his voice.
"Who cares why she did it?" Batman raged. Luthor turned on him, and stood in front of the masked man.
"And who are you under the mask?" He reached to lift it, but Vera stopped him.
"Lex, please. Let's leave them all with some dignity."
"Of course. You could just tell me anyway."
"I did tell you, remember?"
"Oh, yes." He glanced at his watch. "I fear we have an appointment to keep, my dear."
"Of course. I'll be a minute."
"Actually, I want to know why, first," John spat. Luthor raised an eyebrow.
"You mean to say you really don't know? Haven't you ever wondered about the father of her child?" He smiled with a sadistic cruelty at their faces as he left the room.
"You... And Luthor?" Wonder Woman pulled at her chains angrily.
"It's no use, Diana. I designed those chains. And yes. Me and Luthor." She turned to leave, and caught J'onn's eyes. "I wish it could be different," she said softly. As she turned to close the door, she sent J'onn one last telepathic message. By his expression, she could tell he didn't believe her.
In the laboratory, Vera found Luthor and a scientist hunched over some equipment. She knew what was coming. "I'm not doing this," she said quietly from the door.
"Doing what, darling?" Luthor asked, distractedly.
"I know what you're planning to do."
"Do you, now?" Luthor seemed less than pleased. Vera glowered at him.
"Genius, remember." Luthor just laughed. "I don't see what's so funny."
"The fact that you think you have a choice, of course." The door guard hit her from behind, and all went black.
Vera had been screaming for an hour, after an extra hour of silence. As hurt as he was, the Flash couldn't say it was a good thing. When she finally stopped screaming, he raised his head. Luthor was striding through the door. "What did you do to her?" Superman gasped.
"Why is that your concern? She betrayed you." The criminal held a blade in his hand. He stared at it now. "It's an interesting knife. It can cut anything. Let's see how invulnerable Superman is, shall we?" He was approaching the Man of Steel's cell when a gunman interrupted.
"Excuse me, sir, but you're needed urgently."
"What is it?"
"Just urgent, sir."
"Fine." He sneered at Superman, and left the room.
Vera stumbled through the corridors and doors. She found the room she was looking for, and stopped to breathe. She looked around, and punched in the security code. The door slid open heavily, and she stumbled through, clutching anything she could for support. She made her way to Batman's cell first. "Don't give me the Bat-glare," she said hoarsely. "Not the time." She rushed as fast as she could to Superman. She unchained his arms, and did her best to hold the big man up. "Batman, get him. Come on, Clark," she whispered. She handed the big man to Batman, and went straight to J'onn. She pulled out a house key from her pocket and jammed the circuits on his irons. "You can phase now," she said. "I told you I'd be back." J'onn just stared at her. While she freed the Flash, Batman and J'onn got the Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman.
"How much was a lie?" Vera looked at the Flash's face. His voice was shaking.
"To us?" Vera smiled a small, crooked smile at him.
"Not a lot of it."
"I assume you have a plan," Superman said raspily.
"I do. The worst of it is over."
"Why should we trust you?" Diana snapped.
"You don't have to. But I know what he's got going on." Vera leaned on the wall, still unsteady. "Illegal genetic modification. There's..." She broke off when she felt the pain in her chest. "Just look in the lab."
"And where is that?"
"Oh, right. Follow me." She took a step forward, and caught herself on the wall before she collapsed. "Ok, no, ask 3-O." Superman took a hesitant step towards her, giving Batman a look that ordered him to let go when he tried to stop him.
"What happened to you?" Vera looked down at herself, and found her stomach to be covered in her own blood.
"You really don't want to know," she quietly replied. "And you'll see for yourself soon, anyway. I don't have a lot of time right now."
"Why not?" scowled Batman. Vera gazed at him calmly. "Is Luthor about to walk through that door?"
"Well, I hope not," she replied evenly. "I can't exactly defend myself without a gun right now." Around her, she felt rather than saw the rest of the Justice League hesitate while she and Batman stared each other down. Then the Flash stepped between them.
"How do we know we can trust you?"
"You don't. Like I said, you don't have to. All you need to know is what he's doing." Vera's senses went on high alert. She could feel Luthor heading their way, only two corridors away.
"He's coming," Superman murmured.
"Head to the lab," Vera instructed. "I'll deal with him. 3-O will tell you the way, if you ask him nicely." Vera pushed herself to walk past everyone through the door. When she was only around the corner from Luthor, she allowed herself to collapse.
"Vera!" he exclaimed.
"Lex?" she murmured.
"Vera, what happened?" He sounded impatient.
"I woke up and you were gone, so I went to look for you," she replied, slurring her words. She fluttered her eyes open, and squeezed them shut again as if the light around them was too bright. "My head hurts."
Superman listened to the exchange, waiting for their chance. 3-O crawled in on the ceiling above them like a spider. "What's she got planned?" Flash asked the android.
"Planned? She's planning something?"
"You don't know?" Superman was immediately concerned. The android just shrugged. "Well, then I guess we have no choice but to go along with it. We know what to do if she's playing us." He heard Vera agree to go back to bed to rest. "I think that's our cue."
Vera flinched as Lex Luthor set her down on a bed in the lab, her ribs complaining.
"What's wrong?"
"My ribs," she winced. "I got caught in an explosion last week."
"Explosion?"
"Gas. Some moron thought it would be cool to try and kill me."
"Where was this?" Luthor gazed at her.
"At my parents' house. My brother ran away to find me and when we got back there they were gone, except for my dad." Vera frowned. That was more than she'd planned to say. "Why is the light so bright in here?" she asked, covering her hesitation.
"It isn't."
"Are you sure?"
"Sir! The Justice League have escaped!" A guard stood in the door, alarmed.
"What?! How?"
"It would seem that someone let them go." Luthor wheeled around to glare at Vera.
"What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," she replied firmly. "They're smart, I tried to tell you that."
"Oh, shut up! Put her on the probe, and find them!" As much as she wanted to, Vera couldn't put up a fight as two gunmen took hold of her and dragged her through hallways to a room where Luthor kept his mind probing and torturing equipment.
Superman glanced around, digusted, at the henchmen lying on the floor. He didn't like what he saw in the lab one bit. The far wall was lined with test tubes on tables, one of which held a small human foetus. He shook his head at the Flash and Wonder Woman when they stepped forward to look. "You don't want to." Flash and Wonder Woman glanced at each other, and stepped around him.
"He's reached a whole new low," Diana murmured, turning away.
"Where's Vera?" the Flash asked, worried. J'onn raised his head.
"Luthor has her. They are only a few corridors away." Superman flew past him. Batman watched as everyone turned to follow, except the Flash.
"Luthor will get what he deserves," he said to the younger man.
"He'd better," the Flash murmured, and then ran to catch up with the others.
Vera screamed one more time as the machine zapped her. She was about to give up the fight when she heard a familiar and comforting voice.
"That's enough," Superman bellowed. Luthor smirked.
"And what are you going to do for her? Even you can't save her, Superman. How unfortunate that you can't save someone you know so well. Or, thought you did."
"Hey," Vera snapped hoarsely, "that's my Superman you're beating on. Get your own." Luthor shot her a dirty look.
"Let her go, Luthor. You've done enough to her."
"Oh, no, see, my experiment isn't quite complete."
"Oh, well," Superman replied darkly, and turned to beam his heat vision on Vera's bonds. Once she was free, she stood up, only to collapse, unconscious. Superman stared at her limp form, then charged at Luthor, smashing him into a wall. "What have you done to her?" he growled. The bald villain only laughed.
"You didn't know! She's dying, Superman. She has an hour, maximum, before her body completely shuts down. You see, I knew she was connected to you in some way."
"That doesn't tell me what you did to her." Superman tightened his grip on Luthor's throat.
"Are you going to kill me? All this time, and all it takes is one stupid girl, who betrayed you, by the way, on her deathbed. She's suffering from radiation. The usual, as well as the Kryptonite injected into her system."
"You sick, twisted-!" Superman started, but Batman pulled him away, and glared at Luthor.
"What about Vera's family?"
"They're fine," Luthor smirked. "Well, as fine as they can be."
"Where are they?" the Flash asked testily.
"Well, where would be the fun in telling you?" Batman swung a hard right hook on Luthor's jaw, and cuffed him.
"You're going to tell us where they are," he scowled.
"I don't think so."
"I think you are." Vera's croaky voice sounded from the floor. Her nose was bleeding, and her eyes were red and dark like she'd been crying without sleep for days. She gingerly stood up and paced towards Luthor. Batman took only half a step back, in case she tried to kill someone. "Where are they, Lex?" In a second she was flung into the wall, and she felt her ribs cracking again. Luthor broke the hand cuffs, and swung a punch at Batman. Wonder Woman threw her lasso over the bald man, but he snapped that, too. Vera watched, stunned, as members of the Justice League were thrown and punched down, repeatedly. Painfully, she pulled herself up off the floor. The room spun. While her vision went infrared, she saw Luthor pull out a gun and point it at her. She blacked out as she felt the pain of a bullet tearing through her chest.
The Flash sat nervously in the hospital corridor. He had taken Luthor down himself when he shot Vera. It didn't take much of a punch, but then he hadn't been thinking clearly at the time, either. Right now, the rest of the League were looking for Vera's family and dealing with federal agents. They'd made him stay at the hospital for Vera until they could get there.
"Will she be ok?" Vera's brother Sam stood behind him, holding Batman's hand tightly.
"We don't know yet," Batman replied when the Flash couldn't. He was about to say more when the doctor walked out of the operating theatre.
"Are you Vera's family?" he asked, before looking up from his clipboard. "Oh... Friends?"
"She's my sister," Sam said, a bit shakily. "But they're family, too." The middle aged man smiled, and knelt down in front of the young boy.
"Well, your sister is going to be just fine. She's got some broken ribs and fresh stitches..." He trailed off, glancing at Batman as if to ask how much the boy knew. Batman nodded. It was then that the other superheroes bundled in, anxious expressions on their faces.
"What about the bullet?" Sam asked.
"The bullet has been removed. It was very close to her heart. It's amazing she's still alive, even with the Flash's speed. She's quite a fighter. She'll be just fine, but no strenuous activity for quite a while. She'll be out of surgery in a minute, so you can all see her soon."
"Thank Hera!" Diana exhaled.
"Thank you, doctor," Superman smiled. The doctor returned the smile and walked away.
"Was there good news in there somewhere?" Flash asked.
"She's fine!" Sam leapt to hug the Flash. The theatre doors opened, and a nurse pushed Vera's bed through. "Vera!"
"She's not awake yet, sweetie," the young nurse smiled. "Soon, though, I promise."
When Vera did wake, the first thing she saw was the faces of the Justice League. She gave a small smile, and felt thin arms wrap around her. "Hey, Sammy," she sighed.
"Don't scare me like that again," Sam sniffed.
"It's ok, Sam," she whispered.
"You can't do anything for a while," Superman informed her. She glanced up.
"Can I at least go to work?"
"You can tend bar, but work at the animal shelter will have to be cut down for you. I checked," John crossed his arms. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"When?" Vera blinked the haze from her eyes.
"The whole time," Hawkgirl replied.
"Oh. Um... J'onn?" The Martian just shook his head. "Hey, I did tell you I had something in mind."
"You were bluffing."
"Yeah, kind of," Vera shrugged and grinned sheepishly. The Flash just shook his head. Sam, sensing there were words to be said, cleared his throat.
"I'm kind of hungry."
"Let's go to the cafeteria," Hawkgirl smiled, and offered her hand.
"I'll go with you," John piped up. As they left, the other five turned back to Vera.
"You could have gotten yourself killed." Superman sounded more than a little cross.
"The bullet barely missed any of your vitals. It's a good thing Luthor is a bad shot," Batman agreed.
"Please, take this more seriously, Vera," Wonder Woman said softly. Vera sighed.
"I'm sure you already know what's happening to me. What Luthor has done to me? On top of all of that, there's the medication I have to take. I worked it out, and none of it is going to mix very well. Luthor thinks this radiation is normal, but it's something totally different. He accidentally mixed something and it exploded while I was in the lab alone. Convenient." Vera pushed some hair away from her face, trembling. "Don't ask me what it was. But it's killing me anyway. And it masks the Kryptonite poisoning, that's why you didn't pick it up before, J'onn."
"You should have said something sooner," Superman said, sitting in the chair next to the bed.
"I wanted to."
"What stopped you?" Superman's blue eyes stared at her intently.
"When I have the answer, I'll let you know." Vera shifted, and immediately regretted it. The pain in her ribs shot through the rest of her.
"Stay still," Batman instructed firmly.
"You've broken your ribs twice in, what, a couple of weeks?" The Flash stared at her, his arms crossed. Vera winced.
"How is that even possible? Even for me?"
"For you? It's very easily possible. You realise what this means for you, don't you?" Batman gazed at her. Vera nodded. "A safe career."
"I do have a safe career," the girl argued. "Two, in fact."
"Yeah. Bar tending in a club and dealing with animals are totally safe," Flash said sarcastically.
"Safer than your career," Vera smiled sweetly.
"Yeah, I don't actually have an argument for that."
"There's a thought. What am I going to tell the bosses?"
"That's covered. You were involved in a car accident near Gotham." Vera glanced quizzically up at Batman. "3-O took care of it."
"Right. So, when I get back to work next week – what?" Vera looked genuinely confused as Superman chuckled.
"You're not going anywhere until next week, and that's just to go home."
"What?" Now, she looked mortified. "You're kidding. He's kidding, right? Diana? J'onn?" They shook their heads. "Oh, you're just being cruel," she gasped.
"We just care," Superman teased, and kissed her forehead, standing up to leave. Vera glared at him. "Nice try, but it's not as good as Batman."
"It's only a bullet wound and broken ribs! Right?" Superman paused, and glanced back over his shoulder, heart heavy again.
"It's amazing you're even alive, after those shocks to the brain you took." Vera gazed at him.
"What shocks?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
"And that's why you're staying here for a week," the Flash said, giving her hand a squeeze. He took in her slightly startled expression, the tears forming in her eyes, and offered a small smile. "You'll be ok." That was more for his benefit than hers. He quickly kissed her cheek, and followed Superman as he disappeared through the door of the private room. Diana and J'onn followed suit, after giving Vera their support and well wishes. Batman remained, still gazing evenly at the young woman on the bed.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, sitting on the bedside chair.
"Suddenly... Very sick." Batman reached for the bucket at his feet, but Vera shook her head. "Bruce... I'm so sorry." The man remained silent. "I should have said something to you, at least. You're smarter than I am when it comes to the plans." Brice pulled off his cowl. His expression was very sombre.
"I don't care about that. What I do care about is you. You almost got yourself killed, multiple times. You might not be so lucky next time. You're right, I can't always save you. I didn't this time." Vera frowned. "The Flash was the one to take Luthor down after you were shot. Then he picked you up and brought you here."
"Flash... Oh." Bruce saw the hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth before it disappeared. "I'm scared. Bruce, I don't remember what happened after I let you guys go."
"I should get a doctor..."
"No! Please. Not right now."
"Vera, you're going into shock." Vera blinked, and seemed to finally notice she was shaking.
Half an hour later, Vera was stabilised and Bruce Wayne sat next to her. "Where are the others?" she asked drowsily.
"They've gone home."
"Oh. What about you?"
"If you want me to go, I will." Vera shook her head.
"No, please stay. I'm scared. Hospitals scare me, this whole thing..." Bruce nodded, and offered his hand. Vera smiled a tearful, grateful smile, and took it. He smiled back, and looked on as Vera fell asleep.
