Helena arrived at the town center. It was in utter chaos. Sirens were heard all around and people were shouting everywhere. She helped some people out of their apartments and stood on a rooftop to better observe the movement in the streets which were filled with police patrols, firemen, ambulances, fire trucks and every single emergency service going.
She began to move between buildings looking for people who may be trapped. The mess caused by the explosion was huge. She took shelter inside a building to recover her breath and wiped the sweat off her face with the back of her hand. She felt sick, but she still had work to do.
=Huntress? she heard Oracle's voice in her mic.=
She rested her back against a wall on the roof, she covered her face with her hands and closed her eyes, she just needed a few seconds to recover.
=Huntress are you okay?= Helena heard again Barbara's voice on the mic.
"Yes, just taking a breath…." Damn, she really felt sick. She took a deep breath trying to recover but everything shifted around her.
=You have to move from there in ten minutes. Your vitals are all wrong. You are feeling sick, right?=
"Just a bit dazed, but I'll be fine." Helena took a deep breath "People here need help."
=Huntress, I can check your vital signs from here. You are not well.= The redhead said, worried =Stay right there, I'm picking you up.=
"No, I'm fine." The brunette stood up and rubbed her head. She walked toward the cornice and stood over it, looking at the scene before her.
Almost four blocks of the city were on fire. It was a terrible sight.
She checked her hands - she was shaking, damn. She needed to gain control of herself; people needed her.
Suddenly, an explosion behind her sent her flying off the rooftop. Thankfully there was a balcony two floors below, and she fell onto an open garden umbrella, breaking it.
She growled in pain. She must have lost one of her nine lives there.
=Huntress, what's wrong?= Oracle asked.
"Another explosion…I think this fire is intentional." the brunette pushed a chair back with her feet and sat slowly.
She felt so fucking sick.
=You need to come back.= the redhead insisted.
"Just give me…" Limping, Huntress stood up only to be pushed down again roughly.
Dammit! Her sickness must have affected her senses because she hadn't seen or heard anyone.
She turned and hit the man who had attacked her, sending him crashing into a wall.
"It's Mystic…" the brunette grumbled, preparing to attack.
=Mystic? He is in jail."
"Not anymore." Huntress used a piece of the broken umbrella to hit him hard on his face. He grabbed her neck and pushed her against the wall, she tried to get free of the grip and her necklace broke in the struggle. It was not easy fight with just one arm. She pushed him against the railing which broke under their weight and sent them hurtling down to the street. They both hit the roof of a car hard, and rolled to the ground.
"Fuck." Huntress cried holding her injured shoulder.
=I need backup here, Dinah.= The brunette said, placing her hand against her neck. It was then she realized she had lost her communicator and her connection with Barbara and her young partner was broken. Great, just what she needed. She was about to stand up when she saw Mystic in front of her, pointing a gun in the face.
"You really are hard to kill. If you move, I'll blow your head off." Mystic said, showing her his weapon.
"Sorry if I disappointed you." She winced as she kneeled on the floor.
"You are still alive, amazing." He began to circle the brunette. "You are as strong as your counterpart but she is dying and I'll help you to die soon."
"Who?" Helena asked with a touch of fear. She was thinking of Dinah.
"Your other you. By removing you two from your respective worlds, you were supposed to die."
The brunette frowned. He was definitely out of his mind.
"I see you don't know yet." He smirked and chuckled "Well, you don't belong to this world, I moved you to this world with a new weapon I created and which you stole from me."
The brunette listened intently, trying to understand.
"I discovered how to open a portal that let me travel between worlds, I discovered there was a parallel world with another "me" of all people, including you. So I met my counterpart in the parallel world and we planned to kill the "Huntress" from both worlds."
The brunette began to listen to the incredible story which he took long minutes to relate. At first, she thought he was joking but he began to share some details that made her understand many things.
"You are lying…" she finally said to him. What he was saying was impossible.
"Am I?" he smirked "Were things the same after you awoke that day in the old hotel when you were sure that I had attacked you in a warehouse? Can you say the same of your friends in the last few months?"
Helena suddenly understood why she didn't remembered anything about her past with Barbara. The truth was she didn't have any past with Barbara. That realization made made her heart clench.
She had been living a dream, she had enjoyed the most wonderful days of her life and he was telling her it all was a dream.
"You feel sick, right?" Mystic said waving his hand "I can see it in your face; it means your end is near, this world is rejecting you, just like I told you. And the best part is no one will know what happened to you."
The brunette rested her forehead on the cold floor, she really felt like shit, and every second was worse than the last.
"Sadly the Huntress caught my counterpart in his world." Mystic walked close to her "But I, knowing that would happen to me too, set up a plan "B" to escape, so my men were ready to rescue me on time. I created all this chaos knowing you will come here and I was right. "Now tell me, where is my weapon? You stole it from me."
"I sold it."
He kicked her hard in the ribs. She grunted. Well, he sure didn't like "No" for an answer.
"Where is my gun?"
"In your ass." Huntress made a sudden, quick movement which caught Mystic off guard. She hit his hand and his weapon flew free. She then hit him in the face.
She grabbed his throat with fury and pushed him against the ground. "Are you saying this world is not mine and that I have been living a fucking lie?"
He chuckled. "No, it is the truth for your counterpart who is now living your life in your world. But she will die soon, and so will you."
"This people here around me…?"
"This is a parallel world, Huntress This is not your place, your home, your family, and you will never come back."
She hit him again on his face.
He tried to punch her but she ducked and she buried her fist in his stomach. Damn, it hurt, she hit him with her injured arm. He caught her wrist and slapped her face, and twisted her arm. She growled and fell to the floor.
Fuck, fuck, that hurt.
His feet connected with her head making her see stars. He wrapped his arm around her neck to strangle her. Huntress pushed him back and fell on her knees, gasping.
He stood up and was going to attack her again when a batarang flew past and hit him right on his head.
"Stay back!" Oracle shouted from a dark corner.
"What the…?" he growled seeing the tall woman walking toward him and grabbing the batarang which flew back into her hands.
Huntress lifted her head, Oracle was there…walking. She was using the neural transponder.
The man charged at her but she took out her baton and used it to hit him. He was not a very skillful fighter and she had him on the ground with three quick maneuvers.
Dinah appeared almost immediately, cuffing him.
"Secure him to the fence." The redhead instructed her protégée, "The police will pick him up." the redhead walked toward the brunette and kneeled at her side.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes… just a bit sore."
"I'm so happy to see you." The redhead hugged her with all her strength. So strong that Helena felt surprised, and she hugged her back.
"I'm happy too…" the brunette said.
Barbara moved back and touched the brunette's cheek. "We need go back home, you have a fever."
"You are using the transponder." Huntress said "It's not good for you."
"I don't care, You are the most important thing in my life."
"Did you hear what he said?" Huntress fixed her eyes on the redhead.
"Yes." Barbara nodded. "It's true, everything he said. You don't belong to this world. If you stay here, you will die. You are sick because the environment is destroying your blood cells and your defenses are useless against it."
"This is not my world?"
"No."
"I understand so many things now. Why I couldn't remember the past between you and me…" the dark haired woman muttered brushing her hair back "So, all my memories about quitting the team… about the fight…about being on my own…"
"Those memories are true. But it's time to go home, Hel." Barbara said. Worried about the girl's deteriorating condition, she stood up and helped the brunette to stand up.
Limping the dark haired woman stood up.
"He is secure Barbara." Dinah said "I called Reese, he will be here in a few minutes."
"It's okay, we need to get Helena back home." The redhead smiled, shaking the blonde's hand. "Thanks so much."
"It's a pleasure."
"Barbara…" Huntress looked into the redhead's eyes "Everything that has happened here…was it all an illusion?"
"Not an illusion, you lived the life of another you, of the Helena of this world."
"So…when you said you loved me, you didn't mean me - you were referring to the other me? You thought I was her."
The redhead smiled. "Excuse me?"
"I fell in love with you… and now you say I must go back to a world where I won't talk to you, I mean the other you and where you are…well she is engaged to Dick…"
"That is true too, but you said you were straight." Barbara smiled, winking at Dinah.
"That was all bullshit," the brunette said "I have always loved you but I knew you would never look at me that way. You were so busy with Dick and… and I created that lie to not feel hurt. But when I saw you two together, it was too much and I left."
"So you quit the team in your world because…?" Barbara asked raising her eye brow.
"Because I love you and I can't stand seeing you with him!" Helena growled, feeling angry with herself. She knew she should have said all this the first day Dick stepped into the Clock Tower. She had been such an idiot. Now it was late.
"Why don't you say it to her?"
The brunette sighed "I haven't seen her in months, she must hate me and…I'm sure she is happy with him."
"No, she misses you," Barbara brushed the hairs of the brunette's forehead to a side with infinite tenderness "She misses you a lot and she wants you to come back."
"You don't know that."
"I do, and I want you to come back to our home, the home that you abandoned. It's been so empty since you left."
The brunette frowned.
"Please?" Barbara asked with sweetness and kissed the brunette on her lips.
The touch of her mouth was magic. Helena heard bells all around her. She got lost in the taste of those wonderful lips, in the sensation of Barbara's tongue against hers.
Barbara moved back smirking, delighted with the effect she was having on the brunette "Come on Huntress, it's time to go home, your real home."
The brunette stared at her… it couldn't be, it couldn't be the Barbara from her real world.
"You?" She asked afraid.
The redhead smiled. "It's me."
"Barbara?"
"The same one you left many months ago, saying you wanted to work on your own."
The young woman turned to look at Dinah who was standing a few meters away. The teen smiled and nodded her head. "She appeared at the Clock Tower with our Helena. She explained what happened in her world and I came here to help her look for you. She crossed between worlds to search for you. She is right, it's time you went back to your own world..."
"But…" Helena was stunned and turned to look at the redhead.
"When I knew the truth," Barbara explained "about what Mystic had done to the both of you and that you were going to die, I fixed my mind on returning each of you to your real world."
"But Barbara?.." Helena muttered. "I mean…. the Barbara of this world?"
"Don't worry, she is taking care of her Helena." Dinah said "And feeling happy that 'Barbara' discovered how make Mystic's weapon work and opened the door between the worlds to come here and rescue both of you."
Helena smiled and turned to look at the redhead "So you really love me?"
"With all my heart"
"And Captain Asshat?"
"Being an 'Assahat' as always. I told him…" Barbara caressed the brunette's face with her hands "That my heart belongs to you."
The brunette turned to see the blonde with a big grin on her face.
"I'm glad that I didn't hit your head with a stick." The blonde said "I really thought you were crazy with that straight thing."
"Thanks for everything." the dark haired woman said, hugging the blonde. "Can you tell Barbara thanks?"
"Sure, but she already knows. Now hurry, you need to go back."
The redhead took the brunette's hand. "Bye Dinah."
"Goodbye and good luck."
Barbara was relieved when she noticed Helena's fever was decreasing. She used a wet cloth to clean the brunette's forehead to help cool her down. She was sat on her side of the bed, grateful to have her back, her Helena, her eternal love. She was going to be fine. She thanked the heavens for the brunette's amazing healing abilities which had kept her alive and that even now was helping her to recover.
Her mind traveled back to just a few hours ago.
She had frozen when she heard that Mystic had escaped; Dinah arrived at the clock tower at the same moment he began to tell the incredible story about the exchange of the women between the worlds. In that moment, the redhead and her young protégée finally understood the reason behind Helena's strange behavior..
A few hours ago…..
Barbara and Dinah were stunned by Mystic's story. It was a shock to find out that this Helena was not their Helena, and that the young crime fighter's life in both worlds was in danger.
Helena's insistence on being straight, the anger directed at Barbara from the first day – all because she had a different past to her Helena. She was not lying, she was not confused.
"So this is not our Helena?" Dinah mumbled.
"No…" Barbara felt a great anguish inside her heart, and so many questions buzzed in her head. Where was her Helena then? Was she still alive? How will she get her back? She couldn't let her emotions control her. She needed to focus in order to help the Helena in trouble now, whose life was in danger.
"Go and help her." The redhead said to the teenager. "Hurry, her necklace must be damaged, I can't contact her."
"I can't believe all this." Dinah said, standing up. The story they had just heard was too incredible and totally impossible, but not as incredible as what happened next.
"It's true." A voice behind them said.
Both women turned their heads. Barbara gasped and Dinah almost fainted. In front of them was another Barbara, standing up and holding a visibly sick Helena. She had the brunette's arm around her neck to help her to stand. The neural transponder was clearly visible on the woman's waist.
"Barbara?" Dinah mumbled, looking at her and then at the other redhead, "Who is she?"
"My counterpart…" her mentor whispered, fixing her eyes on the redhead. This was crazy; she had seen many amazing sights in her life but this took the cake. The fact that another 'her' existed was so far-fetched and yet here they were, face to face. Her eyes fixed on the half conscious Helena. "What happened to her?"
"She is very sick, my world was killing her." Barbara's counterpart said, looking at the brunette she was holding "She is your Helena, my Helena is here. Everything that Mystic said is true, he exchanged the Huntresses of our worlds. I just found out what happened a few days ago; she is very sick, her blood cells are very low, and she's been unconscious for two days. I managed to get Mystic's weapon to work and to bring her back to this world to save her life."
"Oh God." Barbara said.
Dinah hurried to help the unexpected visitor. She was not sure if she was the Helena of this world or not, but it didn't matter, she was really sick.
The redhead's counterpart cupped Helena's face with her hand. "Hel?"
The brunette had a hard time trying to open her eyes. "Uhh-?"
"You will be fine, you are home now. Thanks for everything." She leaned in and kissed her sweaty forehead before gently handing the dark haired woman to Dinah. "Take care of her."
"She is burning up, Barbara." The blonde said.
"Take her to the lab." The older woman in the wheelchair said. She looked at her counterpart. It was incredible. "We need to help your Helena too. She is sick and is fighting Mystic."
"How did he escape?"
"It seems he knew the Mystic of your world had been caught by Huntress, so he created a plan to escape knowing he would be caught here too." The redhead in the wheelchair explained, showing her counterpart the screen on one of Delphi's monitors. "Huntress has lost her comm. I can't contact her but I have her exact location ."
"Coordinates?"
"34°4'29 North, 118°22'56 West."
"I'll go after her." Barbara's counterpart took Mystic's weapon from her belt, pressed some buttons and a hole suddenly appeared in midair. "This is better than a cab," she grinned.
"Wait!" the redhead in the wheelchair stopped her. "Go with backup. Dinah! Hurry. Go with her. Huntress needs us. I'll take care of Helena here."
"All right." The blonde nodded, running toward Barbara's counterpart.
"Barbara…" the redhead wheeled toward the lab, but stopped to look at her counterpart before she disappeared through the portal "Open your heart. Helena loves you, she really loves you with all her heart. She was hurt. She left you because of that but she didn't understand her own emotions and what it meant."
"She loves me?" the standing redhead frowned.
"She does."
"I was blind once, not anymore," Barbara smiled at her "Your Helena opened my eyes. Tell her I'm very grateful to her. It was nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too."
TBC
