AN: Hello.
Artemis POV
"Rae, how do you know Junior?" Wally asks me. "I know Cam because his dad and mine were partners for awhile. We were friends when we were younger, but he became a massive perv-" "Did not!" Cam yelled, his normally icy blue face turning a pale shade of red. I laugh.
"Kidding, kidding!" I cry, still laughing, as I raise my hands as if in surrender. "Our dads stopped working together once my dad was employed by the Light. After awhile, his was too, but by then we didn't have much time to see each other. God, we haven't spoken in years." I say. "Not since the ice cream truck." Cam says, grinning, and we both burst out laughing.
Zatanna and Wally exchange glances. "Look, you girls need your rest. You're both getting super powers in the morning." Wally says, and pushes us out of the room. "What was that about?" I ask Zatanna. "Nothing, Raven. Now come on, Ron's right, we need to rest." Zatanna says, and then walks back to our room.
Cam pokes his head out of his and Ron's room. "Meet me here in a half hour?" He asks quietly. I nod, and smile mischievously at him. He grins back, the grin that used to mean, 'We're about to get in a shit load of trouble and I don't care', and then he closes the door and I walk back to mine and Zee's room, still smiling.
Megan POV
I wake up slowly to find myself in a white room. I look around. Jack Roberts's twin sister is sitting on the bed opposite mine. In fact, there are about four beds in the room, with four desks and four closets, and nothing else. I try to remember, and am until hit by a wave of memories. "Connor." I whisper under my breath.
"Good. You're awake. I'm Jacqueline Roberts. Welcome to our room for until forever, or at least, that's what the Headmaster said when he came to address us after we got our marks. You were kept sedated until he left, but I don't know why." Jacqueline Roberts says, a bit too cheerfully for someone who had just been captured by one of the worst cultists of our time.
"Do you know where Connor Kent is being held?" I ask her. "Held?" She asks in confusion. "Him, my brother, and Harold Smith were put into a fish boy's room down the hall." She tells me. "La'gaan!" I exclaim, and pull myself up out of the bed I had been lying in, which wasn't very comfortable anyhow. I open our door and walk down the hall, Jacqueline Roberts following close behind.
The third door down from ours is dented in several places, automatically meaning that it's Connor's. I knock on the out-of-shape door. It swings open to reveal Harold Smith who is wincing in pain as he moves his right arm away from the door handle.
"Hi Natalia." He says, attempting a weak smile. I'm about to glance behind me to see who Natalia is when I realize that he was talking to me. "Hello Harold." I say, trying to smile back. I guess smiling isn't really working for either of us right now.
"Is Connor here?" I ask him. He nods. "Sort of." He tells me, and then lets Jacqueline and I into the room. The room is just like ours, except for the lack of a fourth bed, the human-sized fish tank that La'gaan is currently asleep in, and the cage made out of electricity in the far corner. Connor sits in the cage, red marks all over his arms and legs, even his face, and chunks of his shirt burned away.
"Connor!" I cry, and rush forward, shifting myself into a mouse and scampering through two tendrils of electricity and then changing back into Megan and wrapping my arms around him. He seems uncomfortable but pats my back lightly anyways.
"Why are you in here? What happened to you?" I ask him franticly. "I tried to bust the door down, so they knocked me out and put me in here. I tried to bust out, but..." He doesn't finish his sentence, but he holds his red arms up and I understand what he means.
"How can I get you out?" I ask, the initial shock of seeing my indestructible boyfriend locked away in a cage fading into cold anger. "You can't. It's impossible, and if you try, they'll punish you. Most likely, worse than me." Connor tells me. I bite my lip, but nod, and leave the electric cage that has imprisoned the Boy of Steel.
"Hey Nat!" La'gaan's voice comes from behind me and I whip around to see that Jack and Jacqueline Roberts had left the room, Harold had begun inspecting one of the closets, and La'gaan had woken up, climbed out of his over-sized fish tank, and is now dripping water all over the floor.
"Hi La'gaan." I reply to the fish-like boy. "So, while you were out, I remembered hearing some things about your team back home." He says, walking over to me, but not so close as to get water on me. "Where was your home?" I ask him. "Atlantis." He says, grinning.
"You're from Atlantis? So is Kaldur! Which you probably knew." I exclaim, than blush. "Yeah! Oh man, he's like my idol. He's a real hero. Him and his friends, Garth and Tula, saved Poseidonis from this attack by the Mantas a few months back, so cool!" La'gaan tells me, but then seems embarrassed by how excited he is.
"That does sound cool." I tell him, smiling, even though I have no interest in what happened. However, "Who are Garth and Tula?" I ask him. The name Tula sounds familiar, I wonder where I could've heard it. I notice that Harold has abandoned sifting through his closet in favor of listening to our conversation, and that Connor seems to be paying close attention as well.
"They're Kaldur'ahm's best friends. They've started fighting Atlantean crime as Tempest and Aquagirl, if I remember right. I've been here for awhile." He says the first part very excitedly, but the last part sadly. I wonder if he had family, or close friends who are looking for him, or if they've given up on the fishy boy. I hope they haven't.
Sapphire POV
I wake up on the couch in the employee break room in Abel's magic shop. I'm about to call for Sam, when I remember that there might be customers, and that I'm still under Devla's disguise. Instead I call for Dhampir. He comes running.
"Sapphire, are you okay?" Sam asks me, speaking in Romanian. "Why? What happened? All I remember is... Devla." I gasp as I remember what I did. I let Devla take control and use both of our magic combined. Against Hawk.
"Sammy?" I ask him nervously. "Yes?" He asks back. "Am I a wanted criminal?" I ask him. He responds by taking my hand, pulling me up, and leading me to the old computer in the corner of the break room. He sits me down in the creaky old wooden chair in front of it. I look at the page displayed on the dusty screen.
'Devla: Force of good, or force of evil?' Is the headline on the online Gotham Herald. I read more. 'After helping local heroes Robin and Hawk stop a bank robbery late last night,' I don't finish reading that sentence before turning around and facing Sammy.
"Last night? How long have I been out?" I yell at him, than clap a hand over my mouth. I guess a part of me is still acting as Devla would. "It's 6 a.m." He tells me, glancing at his watch. "Now finish reading so we can get back home before Aunt Mary and Uncle George wake up." He tells me. I obey.
I sit back down, hearing the comforting and calming sound of Abel's creaky old chair, and continue to read,
'After helping local heroes Robin and Hawk stop a bank robbery late last night, the heroine (or is she?) Devla, a name from gypsy folklore, attacked her former ally, Hawk, after he jokingly called her a witch. According to a bystander, the girl attacked Hawk with 'red and gold blasts of energy, which left red marks and bleeding scars on the hero's flesh'. It is also reported that Devla's energy blasts left Hawk with a golden hawk tattooed onto his left arm. More on this story as it develops.'
I stare in shock at the screen. "That's what my power does?" I whisper. "Oh, that's not all." Devla's voice whispers in my head. "Shut it." I mutter, making a movement with my hand. When I move my hand, several vases on the small coffee table in the break room move and fall, all of them shattering.
I gasp, a hand flying to my mouth. "Sammy..." He's also staring at the shards of porcelain laying on the dirty floor. We look at each other and convey silent messages to each other, before I hold out my hand and the pieces float upwards and meld themselves back together. They settle themselves back on the dusty little coffee table as if nothing had even happened.
I feel tears start to fall from my eyes. "Sammy..." I whisper. He hugs me close as the tears fall and I realize that that madness that happened with Hawk may be only the beginning, and that if Devla continues to push my personality away, that I may become this power-mad girl, and there will be nothing I can do.
Dick POV
"How could she?" I ask, pacing the Batcave and going over the contents of the newsletter again, along with Jason's report of what happened. "Who could have seen this? Who could have reported this? Why..." I stop when I read over a part I had missed before. The article said that Hawk had called her a witch.
"Jay, why would you call Devla a witch? In gypsy culture, witches are hated and horrible enemies." I say, going over to the medical treatment area of the Batcave where Alfred is changing the bandages on Jason's arms for the third time since we got home a few hours ago.
"How was I supposed to know?" He asks me, raising an eyebrow. "Well, for starters, when you first got here and told me that I was a witch boy, I kind of told you off and said specifically that witches are horrid and hated enemies in Romani culture!" I yell at him.
"You're yelling at me? Dick, your girlfriend fucking attacked me with magic power blasts and you're yelling at me because I didn't remember the first of many times you've lectured me?" He yells back. "Language, Master Jason." Alfie scolds the younger boy, still dressed in his Hawk uniform.
"She isn't my girlfriend." I mutter, but I have to admit that he has a point. Devla shouldn't have reacted in such an extreme way to a simple comment. I should probably get back to the investigation, but I feel bad about what I said to Jason, and I want to know more about why Devla did what she did.
"I think I have a hunch on where they might be going now. Want me to go yell at someone other than you?" I ask Jason. "Tell her I say fuck you." He yells back. "Language, Master Jason." Alfie repeats. I grin and leave the cave, headed for the first place the Gypsy Twins were seen. Arty's place.
AN: