A?N: Holy Jesus it's been so long, and we are so sorry readers. But we hope we can make it up to you with this awesome chapter. Find out what happens to Rachel after leaving the Team, and everything in this! I super hope you guys like it and leave tons of awesome reviews because we love hearing from you. Okay, on with the story, finally.

Rachel's POV

The diner was fairly empty when I walked in, despite the fact it was almost six. The fluorescent lights weren't really doing their job, and, from the amount of stains on the booth tables, neither were the waiters. A girl was texting on the farthest booth, her jacket on like she was ready to go, and a college-aged guy made idle conversation with the bartender, whose name I thought was Clyde.

To be honest, I wasn't really interested in any of the food they served here in Rodeo. It seemed...untrustworthy. I opted for a bottle of water (from Clyde, fuck yeah) and watched G. Gordon Godfrey - whatever his name was - ramble on about how he was right all along.

I shouldn't be watching this, I thought as I felt myself get madder and madder. My fist was heating up, but it hadn't spontaneously combusted yet, so I figured I was still alright, so long as I didn't touch anything.

"Are you alright?" said the man sitting down the bar. "You look mad."

"I'm mad at Godfrey," I said, gesturing to the TV. "Damn hypocrite."

"Tell me about it," he said. "I don't trust aliens. Sure they're nice and all, but..."

"I understand."

"How about that Blue Beetle, though?" said the bartender. "It's been long enough. What, five years?"

"He's a great fighter, I'll give him that, but once again, he sided with the Reach."

"Everyone makes mistakes," I say quietly. Damn it, Rachel, don't justify Reach-Jaime's actions.

The man at the bar snorts. "Siding with aliens instead of your own people is a pretty big mistake."

"Maybe he's like a secret agent or something," says the man. "Or does the Justice League even have them?"

The bartender groaned. "Don't even get me started on them. Aliens invade and they're too busy?"

"Please, I know," says the man. "Earth is screwed at this point. Right now, it's either the Reach or nothing."

I feel a pang of fear in my stomach. The fact that this random guy knows how much trouble we're in has me more frightened than any Reach fleet. He doesn't even know what the League's going through, and he's already worried.

"Kid, are you okay?" asked the bartender.

"Fine," I said, and I hop off my barstool and walk quickly out the door. It was getting late anyway, I tell myself. Besides, Blue might - Blue!

I blow past the girl and burst into the diner, making the two men jump. They've changed the TV channel. I pounced on the bar. "Change it back!"

"Jesus Christ, kid," said the bartender, but he flicks from - who is that, Dr. Phil? - to the news. G. G. Who-gives-a-shit Gordon is still rambling on.

"Same thing, see?" says the college guy.

"No, it's gonna change. To the Toy Maker and Blue Beetle outside a bank or something."

"What are you, psychic?" said the bartender skeptically.

"No," I murmur as the screen flickers to breaking news. "I just have a good memory."

Nat's POV

BLUDHAVEN

MAY 30th 06:21 EDT

The whole team stood on the platform as we went up into HQ. Bart looked over at me, but I didn't have the heart to look back. I remembered back in January, so long ago, when Rachel and I first came to the Team. Confused, ecstatic, together. We hardly argued back then, but after everything… I didn't expect her to come back anytime soon. We had to focus on getting Blue back to normal and the Crystal Key.

Nightwing went to the computer, but Bart cut him off. When he spoke, it was angry. I never heard him angry before. "Look, I know this key is important, but we need to focus on Blue-"

The news station popped up on the computer, with Cat Grant in mid-sentence. "Blue Beetle has dominated this news station after his saving the world from the War World." It cuts to Blue himself. Controlled by the Reach.

"Thank you. I am honored to be your hero." The screen sparked and popped before going black with a flash of green.

Everyone jumped except for me. Yeah, I was pissed. Yes, I made the computer wack out. And yes… I was going to get Blue back to normal. "Nightwing."

Dick turned to me. "What?"

"Is Zatanna ready to cleanse the scarab?"

"How did you-"

"I told you, I know everything that is going to happen." I was done hiding shit. I was taking action. Staring at the screen, I felt everyone's eyes on me. "Nightwing, we have to stop it and the plan is going to work."

He nodded, only looking at me like I was half-crazy. Hell, I probably was. And with that he went over the plan. Zee going to do a spell in Bialya, what everyone's part was in it. It had to be perfect, or all hell would break loose.

JUNE 13th 17:20 EDT

"Kinetica, you and Impulse will follow Blue until it's time to take action, then rondevu with Batgirl. Clear?"

I nodded and it took all of ten minutes to get ready. Batgirl packed up more explosives and such. Meanwhile, I finally had the chance to give myself a makeshift mask. Taking the eyeliner and black and green eyeshadow, I outlined my eyes, then used the eyeshadow to create the mask itself, like Smallvile Black Canary. I left my hair down this time. It'd had been 14 days since we were told the plan, and now it was actually happening. 15 days since Rachel left. And for some reason, until I saw her empty bed, I forgot she was gone sometimes.

"Well, let's get this over with." I walked to the Zeta tube with Babs, finding Bart looking at me in shock.

"Whoa, Nat, you look-" He motioned his arms, his voice cutting off. "Wow."

I guess that was a compliment, but I couldn't process it. My thoughts kept flicking back to Rachel, Jaime, Rachel, the Reach… everything but Bart. It seems so long ago when he first came from the future; hell, even farther back to when I was planning on writing fanfiction about him and an OC of mine based on myself. Funny, she would've had telekinesis. Go figure.

"Um, let's get to Metropolis."

Babs was confused as I typed in the coordinates, and I could almost feel Bart sink as I ignored him. Well, I didn't ignore him I - oh hell don't judge me.

"Blue Beetle is about to take down Toy Maker in Metropolis, and that way the Reach will use it as a publicity stunt."

Bart caught on quickly. "So we follow him, signal Zatanna and Rocket just before we ingange-"

"And just as he's about to take you us out, boom magic-induced force field."

He smiled. "Does it feel better to reveal the future?"

I couldn't help but smirk back. "Hell yeah it does. But it'll still only be small stuff."

Babs booted up the Zeta tube as she said, "Better than nothing. C'mon kiddies."

"Kiddies? What are we, five?"

Rachel's POV

You know those days where you just can't stand yourself?

This was one of those days.

My irrational fear of water had, unfortunately, become rational, as I checked my map to find the distance between here and Bialya that was covered by water to be far too large. I really should have waited to quit the team. Not quitting the team at all would have been nice, but that would threaten everyone I really cared about at this point. Who was in this dimension. Or knew I had pyrokinesis.

I'm just going to say it would have put the Team in danger and leave it at that.

The stretch of beach I was on was devoid of people, which was kind of a shame. As an Arizonan by birth I wasn't really familiar with beaches, but it was nice enough. Clean, I guess, and quiet. I had flown over a bay or something before I landed. Outer Banks, maybe?

I'm ashamed to say while I was waiting to rebuild some of my energy I chased seagulls. Call me childish, but it was pretty boring holding my super-official-important Grand Canyon lighter up to my wrist to recharge myself.

I lay back in the sand and flicked the lighter again, letting the light burn into my corneas. It goes out in the sea breeze, and I'm left with a blue-green splotch in my vision. That was dumb.

I heard a car door slam.

I sat up, looking around and trying to rub the spot out of my vision. I knew for certain there was no car parked here when I got here.

Now sandy footsteps.

Although I wasn't naturally the suspicious type, I did find it coincidental that the very beach a pyrokinetic runaway landed on would be the same one someone would just choose to visit. At night. I stood up and looked over the dunes, seeing the roof of what looked like an SUV.

"I don't want to scare you," I shouted. "I'm over -"

A blast of ice froze me in place, the sudden chill ripping the words from my mouth. My legs were frozen to the sand, my arms were covered in frost, and Icicle Jr. stood on the sand dune above me, cringing at me.

"The fuck were you thinking?!" I screamed. "I just said -"

"Yeah, only you didn't scare me. Welcome to real life, kid, where everyone's looking to kill you."

"Not everyone!" I shouted back. "Right now, my main problem is you guys."

"Ouch," he said, bounding towards me. "Are your arms free? Damn." Another blast of ice. "Don't tell Tuppence I messed up, alright?"

"He messed up!" I screamed over the dune.

"God damn it, you frozen fucker, I gave you one job!" shouted Tuppence, wearing the same - the same jacket as the girl in the diner. I gathered from the tracker in her right hand that she had followed me, and from the inhibitor collar in her left that I wasn't going to stay free for long. The box on her belt was vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it.

"Okay, what did I just say?" he muttered as Tuppence snapped the collar around my neck. It flashed orange twice, before I felt it really seal, pressing down on my throat. Damn, these things were tight.

"Wait," I said. "How is this going to work?"

Tuppence and Icicle Jr. stared at me.

"Way to go, Tuppence," said Icicle Jr.

"Oh, go drown yourself," she said. "Can't you, like, fix it or something?"

"Oh. Right," he said. He placed his hands on the block of ice and concentrated. My icy prison exploded into snow.

"There you are, my little fiery prisoner," he said, dragging me out of the snow and snapping on a pair of handcuffs. "See, babe, I'm not completely useless."

Tuppence rolled her eyes and blew past us as she stormed off to the SUV.

"Do you know what her problem is?" he asked. "Seeing as you're, like, female and all."

"I don't know, dude. I think you should just -" I bumped into him, showering him with snow "- let it go."

"Oh, go run to your little bug boyfriend, why don't you?" he muttered.

"Touche."

Nat's POV

The three of us watched overhead as Blue took out the Toy Maker. Was I annoyed to see the reason my best friend left right in front of my eyes? No. I was fucking pissed. Before I could even think about going and wringing his sorry little neck, Bart's hand touched my shoulder. That was the first time I realized that I was shaking.

Calm down, calm down. Instead of my own voice in my head though, it was my dad's. When I was eleven and first began to break down. He was the own who understood, even if it seemed that he wasn't there for me. I shook my head and everything stopped.

Bart's hand had slid down to mine, fingers intertwining. It felt nice. But then we say our que. Batgirl nodded in the direction of the exit and we quickly followed behind. We now had to wait for the Super Cycle upon one of the abandoned warehouses in Metropolis. Fun, right? Damn abandoned buildings, especially in Metropolis. Expected in Gotham, not so much here.

"So, Kinetica, what's the plan?" Bart's hand was still holding mine, a fact I realized when he gently tightened his grip.

"Follow Blue. Simple as that."

"But-"

I didn't want to tell him that Blue almost hacks his head off. "It'll be fine, Impulse. Everyone's gonna be fine." I was going to make sure of that. No one would die this time. We've kept everything little piece of canon intact, and there have been a hell of a lot of consequences. At this point, I was desperate.

Babs wasn't paying attention, or at least pretending not to, so Bart seemed to take the chance to lean in. "You haven't called me Impulse in a while."

I glanced at him, smiling. "And you haven't used the terms, crash or moded in a while as well. I take it as a sign of maturity."

"I'm mature."
Turning, I faced him full on. "Bart Allen is mature, in ways a thirteen year old kid shouldn't. Nat Hartly is way too grown up for her own good. But Impulse is well, impulsive and child-like-"

"And Kinetica is the happy mask."

I sighed in defeat. "Exactly."

"Hey," He held my face in his hands, looking a little sad. "We shouldn't be that way."

"I know, Speed Racer."

"You lovebirds comin' or what?" Batgirl was already in the Super-Cycle, which now beeped and whirled a little.

Rachel's POV

The SUV ride was short and fairly painless, unless you count the throbbing from where Tuppence cracked my head against the roof. We parked at what looked like an abandoned fishing shack near a bay or something. The mounds of sea foam by the boat dock were a sandy color and smelled vile. Tuppence pulled a boom tube out of her pocket, but I didn't get to see what she was doing with it. Icicle Jr. dragged me away.

"No, really, what's her problem?" he asked. I tried to squirm away, but he had me trapped between his arms.

"I don't know, maybe it's because you come on, like, really strong or something?"

"True," he mused, pulling one his arms away and watching Tuppence test out the boom tube with a rock. "Then how should I approach her?"

"If I answer correctly, will you get the hell away from me, you icy pervert?" I say, half kidding. Seriously, though. I hated the cold before pyrokinesis, and I'm really hating the temperature difference right now.

"God, Junior, let the girl breathe," said Tuppence, dragging me away from him, which was good. Unfortunately, she dragged me by my hair. "The Queen will execute you if you strangle her precious prisoner."

Precious prisoner? I was quiet as Tuppence and Junior walked me through the boom tube, but my mind was racing. Had someone triggered the com-piece by accident? HaHad the Queen run Out of patience? Either way, this capture was hopelessly ironic, a slap to the face after I had gone through all the Team stuff to keep Nat safe -

Oh, shit, Nat!

I jerked up with sudden realization, and Tuppence batted the back of my head. More like swatted, actually. "You've come easy so far," she said. "Let's keep up a good record."

I wasn't really interested in my record at this point. Deep in thought, I hadn't been paying attention to my surroundings. Now I wish I had.

The caves we had been winding through had opened up into a beautiful - and intimidating - mix of time. Despite the fact we were at least 300 feet underground, the air was fresh and warm. Sandstone columns thousands of years old lifted wires to the ceiling, and several computers seemed to grow out of walls engulfed in hieroglyphics. On the far edge of it all was a gold and sandstone throne, emblazoned with that weird triangle thing on Queen Bee's crown.

And the current bane of my existence lounged on the throne, looking down on me with something I think was displeasure.

"Ah, Rachel Pate," said Queen Bee, rising. "You've caused me a lot of trouble, what with keeping you alive."

"Oh. Thanks."

"But, due to…opposition, plus the fact that you're being difficult, you will be housed here until you can make up your mind, one way or the other."

From the way she said it, I knew there was only one way I was getting out of here alive.

Nat's POV

"So the only way this'll work is if we pretend we're unconscious?" asked Bart.

"Yes," said Babs and I together.

"And we won't die?"

"...Most likely," said Babs. "Kinetica, you have a better idea as to how this goes down?"

"Batgirl fires the cannon to Blue's ankle, and Bart runs across the wire, tackles Blue and takes out his booster pack. Blue'll fall, you'll hit a building, and Batgirl will toss one of those sleep-gas things."

"That's it?" said Babs.

"I'll hit a building?" said Bart.

"I'll try to catch you. And after that Blue wakes up and tries to kill us."

"Oh."

"Here he comes," I said, ducking down behind a trash can. Bart got down with me as Babs jumped up to the rooftop with all the grace of a Batkid.

"Bart, be careful. Canon might change you know."

He smirked goofily. "Believe me, I'll be all crash."

"You sure about that?"

He kissed my forehead, and with him just being about two inches taller than me, he still had to stand up on his tip-toes. "Course I am."

"Good."

Bart shot away from me, and I took it as my cue to rise up onto the roof and trail Blue closely. His booster pack shattered and failed, and he went down hard. I managed to grab Bart's hand in midair and drag him over towards the "downed" Blue Beetle.

"Thanks," he muttered, staring at Blue Beetle.

"Sweet dreams, Blue," said Babs, launching the small gas pellet at Blue. We were safely out of range of the purple smoke (how cool is purple smoke? Pretty fucking cool), and Bart looked at me, concerned. "He's not gonna, like, really kill us, right?"

"I- Batgirl!" A blue staple shot out of the smoke, throwing her against the adjacent brick wall. "He won't, but the Reach will make him try. Now move!" Without a second thought I tackled him, dodging the staples. Damn those things were so annoying.

I shot a blast of energy at Blue, keeping him busy long enough to say to Bart, "Take a staple, you'll hit a tree, feel woozy, but you'll be fine."

"And what are you gonna do?"

"Pretend to surrender just for the plan to take action."

"Go." In a second Bart was against the tree, body limp. Holy shit I hated to see him like that.

"Yo, Bugboy!" Blue turned incredibly slow towards me, like a villain in a cartoon. Oh, god, bad choice of words. "I give up, okay? Just… just don't hurt them."

Zatanna's voice came through my com-link. "Kinetica we are in position. Ready when you are."

I clicked the button to respond, knowing I was going to have to choose my words carefully. "Look, Blue now, you have to listen to me. I understand you aren't you, taken over by whatever mystic power the Reach has. But c'mon, you can fight it now."

He lunged, his arm becoming a sword, but he didn't get the chance to come close to me. A bubble encased him, and I could hear Zatanna using her magic to keep him there.

And phase 2, here we go.

A/N: Well, what did you guys think? And for a question, what do you think will happen to Rachel, Nat, and Leney by the end of season two? Tell us in that lovely little review box and we will DEFINITELY see you next week. We're making sure of it this time.