Author's Note: Thankfully, this weekend is a lot better for homework, so I should be able to get in a legit chapter instead of a little baby thing like last week, haha. Read, review, and enjoy!
WWWWWW
Wally flopped back onto Jason's bed. The assassin/hero scowled at him, kicking (hard, jeez) at Wally's leg. Wally just bared his teeth at him, not willing to give up his comfy spot. First come, first serve as far as he was concerned. From where he had just closed the door, Wyynde sighed at their antics. Honestly, Wally felt the worst for poor Wyynde. He really had nothing to do with all of this and then ended up getting taken away from everyone he loved and stuck in a room with Wally and Jason. Real short end of the stick, there.
Jason kicked Wally again, more forcefully. Wally lifted just his head to scowl at him, "What?" The frown Jason wore so often that Wally swore it was his face's basic setting wasn't there, though. Jason looked worried, brows drawn together and lips tight. Wally sighed, voice slightly softer when he repeated, "What?"
"I thought you had spaced," Jason answered, characteristic frown returning when he realized Wally was alright.
Wally groaned and threw his head back onto the bed, "I'm fine. Honestly, I don't space that often."
"You really do," Wyynde said. Wally groaned. Great. Now he had both of them nagging him. Wyynde rolled his eyes, but kept going, "And they have been increasing in frequency. Something is seriously wrong."
"Yeah, well, there's nothing we can do about it. I don't even know why I get the space-outs. Maybe it's the same reason I don't remember anything. Maybe it's not. I wouldn't know. But there's nothing we can do about it, so we might as well just ignore it," Wally said irritably. Once Jason started to get back more of his own memories, he'd turned into the single most aggressive mother hen that probably ever walked the earth. Wyynde and Wally had both gotten used to his method of screaming people better.
Jason pursed his lips but didn't argue. As much as Wally knew that Wyynde was trying to understand, he never could. Jason was the only one who could really get how it felt to just – not know anything. Well, sure, Wally had some little glimpses. He remembered the explosion and a little bit of his time in the water before Wyynde rescued him. He'd even gotten brief flashes of the actual rescue itself. He could think of a couple names that he could have potentially been called over the course of his life. There was a foggy image of a group of people wearing colorful outfits, but he'd never been able to make the image clear. He thought maybe they could be his family? He got a family vibe from them. Maybe. He wasn't super sure. There were other things, too. Needles, running, a backpack, a symbol that the other two had called the Flash symbol. Nothing that told him who he was, though.
Ubu had overheard them discussing it and reported the lack of memories and the space-outs to Ra's. He had come to their room later that night, gazing over them like the creeper he was before declaring that the issues Wally was facing were likely from wearing the inhibitor collar. Ra's theorized that, if the inhibitor collar came off, Wally's advanced healing would kick in and he'd be all fixed up. Of course, Ra's wouldn't take the collar off because that would be too easy, apparently. Since Wally was a 'flight risk' or whatever. Rude.
Jason kicked Wally again. This time, Wally kicked back, "Will you stop kicking me? What is your problem?"
"Please do not fight," Wyynde sighed, already knowing he was fighting a losing battle.
Jason scowled, "This loser's on my bed!"
Wyynde rubbed a hand over his face, settling gently onto his own bed, "Did you try asking him to move?"
"Yeah, Jason," Wally asked, "Did you try asking me instead of just kicking me?"
Jason grit his teeth together, growling out, "Wally, would you move to your own bed?"
"Say please," Wyynde reminded tiredly.
A temple was visibly throbbing on Jason's forehead, "Please."
"Nah, but thanks for asking. I'm comfy here," Wally answered flippantly, snuggling deeper into the bed for added effect.
That was, apparently, the final straw for Jason because he body-slammed Wally, driving an elbow straight into Wally's stomach. Wally doubled in on himself, coughing and trying to not gag. Jason used the distraction to elbow Wally in the face, wrap his other arm around the back of Wally's neck, and dump Wally over the edge of the bed.
Forced to the floor in mere seconds, Wally sat there in pained disbelief for a long moment. Once he blinked the stars in his vision away, Wally looked up to Jason smirking down at him. Wyynde had moved onto ignoring them completely, reading one of the books that Ra's was nice enough to let them have during their off hours.
"Oh, it's on!" Wally growled, shouting a brief war cry before leaping onto the bed with Jason.
Jason squawked, momentarily caught off guard. Wally tried to use that to his advantage, gripping a handful of Jason's hair while he used his other hand to smother the brat with a pillow. Jason kicked out blindly, managing to aim a solid kick straight between Wally's legs. Wally whined deep in his throat, tipping to the side for a moment. Jason batted the pillow away from his face, gasping dramatically. Wally bared his teeth at him before leaping back into the fight, aiming a sharp kick for Jason's shin before getting a hand under Jason's waist. He tried valiantly to roll Jason over, but Jason hooked a leg around Wally's forearm, ripping it out from under him. With a short yelp, Wally fell downwards, face smashing against Jason's collarbone. Jason made a low, pained noise as he tried to push Wally off his chest.
Giving up after that painful blow, Wally just flopped onto Jason, "I surrender."
"Then get off my bed," Jason snarled, still trying to push Wally off. In retaliation, Wally pushed himself further into the bed.
There was a deep sigh behind them before Wyynde came out of nowhere and picked Wally up. For all that Wyynde was wearing an inhibitor collar just like Wally, it didn't seem to knock out all of his abilities. Wally would say that it only really removed Wyynde's sorcery (if that's what you wanted to call it. Wally called it science but hadn't been able to get a scientific explanation for it from Wyynde. Whatever. He'd prove that magic wasn't real someday). That being said, Wyynde had zero problem grabbing Wally and dropping him off on his own bed. Wally pouted at him, but Wyynde was pretty immune to that, too. Which was tragic, honestly. Wyynde had been much better when Wally could pout him into submission.
Wyynde rubbed a hand against his forehead, "The two of you are exhausting to deal with. Sometimes I think all humans are exhausting to deal with."
"Yeah, maybe," Jason snorted, "But so are Atlanteans. You can't tell me that Kaldur isn't the worst brat." Wyynde laughed, loud and bright.
Wally's eyes narrowed in thought. Kaldur? Wyynde and Jason had mentioned him before. Apparently, Wally knew him. And a ton of other people that both Jason and Wyynde knew. They'd been able to confirm that Wally was, in fact, Wally West, aka Momentum from Jason's memories returning. It didn't explain why he was alive when Wyynde was fairly certain he'd died, but whatever. That's how life went, apparently.
Abruptly, completely randomly, Wally said, "Fishboy."
Jason cut off whatever he was about to saying, sitting up straight. Wyynde glanced between the two of them in confusion. That was fair. Wally was confused, too. Jason leaned over to Wally's bed and punched Wally's arm, "Dude! You're remembering?"
"I'm remembering what?" Wally asked irritably. For some stupid reason, even just thinking about that stupid phrase exhausted him.
Jason grinned, nonplussed, "You're remembering yourself! That's what you always called Kaldur!"
"What?" Wyynde asked, "That is rather rude. Do not call Atlanteans Fishboy."
"Well, I'm a villain and he's a hero, right? That means I was probably doing it to be rude. Should I be rude to you two? I'll call you Fishman and Jason Dead Meat. How's that? Here I am fulfilling my duty as a villain," Wally grinned.
Wyynde rolled his eyes, "Please do not call me Fishman. And sometimes I do not really think you are a villain anymore. Wherever you were during those two years, I do not think you were a villain."
"I think you're wrong. I feel villainous most of the time," Wally smirked, before frowning thoughtfully, "I don't know. I know I wasn't a hero. I don't want to be a hero."
Jason gave him a pitying look for about a second before moving onto talking about himself (typical), "I'm kind of thinking the same thing."
"Bro, we could be villains together," Wally grinned. Wyynde closed his eyes in despair.
"Nah," Jason said, "Not like that. I don't want to be a, a villain. I just know that heroes are too – constrained for me. I mean, Ra's is teaching us how to kill here, right? He's definitely been teaching me how to kill for a while. But heroes don't kill. That feels kinda stupid, though, right? Why don't heroes kill? It would certainly save a lot of problems. Criminals aren't going to go back and commit more crimes if you kill them."
Wally side-eyed him, "I am not the correct person to be talking to about this. Villain, remember? I, for one, am happy that heroes don't kill since I've apparently fought against heroes before."
Jason grimaced, "Right, sorry."
"No problem. But, yeah, I don't know. I feel like there are ways to stop criminals without, like, killing them, you know? But you do you. As long as it doesn't involve me or mine, of course. Once I figure out who 'mine' is," Wally threw back.
Wyynde tapped his bedside table, "Maybe we should be focusing on getting out of here before we focus on what we are going to do once we get out."
"Hey, you've gotta plan for these things," Wally smiled.
Wyynde rolled his eyes again, but it was fond and soft, "Okay, that is fair. So, what are you going to do once we are allowed out?"
"Take the inhibitor collar off," Wally answered immediately. He paused before continuing, "I don't think the memories will come back all at once. I'll probably find somewhere to hole myself for a while, wait for the memories to return. After that, I'll go home. Wherever that is."
"You could just come with us," Jason offered, "We'd give you a place to hole up. One that's safe and has a steady source of food."
"As appealing as you're making jail sound, I think I'll pass," Wally offered tightly. He really didn't know anything about himself. But he knew that the thought of being constrained to a cell gave him the precursor of a panic attack, so… no thanks. He also knew that Jason and Wyynde felt that they couldn't give Wally as much information about himself as they would have liked because they were all worried about being watched. Without that information… Wally wasn't sure if he could really trust the heroes. Jason had said that they'd do right by him, but Wally couldn't trust that. Something in him balked at the idea of putting that much faith in heroes. It made him wonder even more just what kind of person he used to be.
Jason sighed, aggravated, "I'm not talking about jail, idiot. The heroes would help you. They'd get you home once your memories were back."
"That sounds illegal," Wally said, "You would knowingly let me go? With the full knowledge that I'd probably go commit more crime?"
Wyynde cut in, eyes soft with concern, "From what I had heard, Momentum is well respected by heroes. Rogues are not considered to be terribly, ah, villainous."
"No, they are not," a voice said from the doorway. The three jumped, whipping around to see Ra's standing there. Talia was standing just behind him, holding little baby Damian. Wally could definitely say that him, Jason, and Wyynde had all fallen a little bit in love with Damian. Even if he sometimes seemed like he could already kill them with a knife. Ra's continued once he was done smirking at their jumpiness, "Your training is almost complete. After that, I will be sending you to the heroes. You will not have a choice where you go. The heroes will have you whether you like it or not. I recommend that you take these next few days to work on any skills you might feel you're lacking in. You won't have a chance after that point."
"For literally two months you've been telling us that we're not good enough. Jason might be able to take down Ubu and Sensei without powers and without weapons, but I certainly can't yet. Probably because you beat us up so much that we're fighting at half-strength, but, you know, whatever. What's with the sudden change of heart?" Wally asked suspiciously. Wyynde and Jason both sent him a glare from either side. Wally ignored them.
Ra's smiled at Wally, giving him the shivers, "The wind is shifting. No longer can I hold you here until I feel you are ready. The world is ready now."
"You clearly know more than you're letting on," Jason growled, "Want to give us that info for when we go back to the heroes? That would certainly help."
"You can do it without me," Ra's answered dismissively, "I have trained you well enough for that at least." He turned slightly for a moment to gesture his daughter forward, "Now, Talia said that Damian wanted to play with you before lights out. You have an hour."
"Wow, being generous for once in his life," Wally muttered under his breath.
Apparently, Ra's al Ghul has bat ears or something because he whipped around, stalking into the room. He stopped directly in front of Wally, "When lights out happens, you will report to the main courtyard for your training instructions. Ubu and Sensei will train that insolence out of you."
Despite knowing quite intimately how Ra's felt about people fighting back or possessing the ability to be sarcastic, Wally quipped, "I don't know. I get the feeling a lot of people have tried over the years. It's just a natural part of my charm. No training can eliminate it."
Ra's eyes glittered, "We'll see, I suppose." With that, he finally left.
Jason reached over and punched Wally on the arm again, "Stop antagonizing him!"
"Jason is right, you know," Talia said softly, gently moving over to drop Damian in Wally's arms, "You would have gotten through this with significantly less scars and bruises if only you'd been less of a brat."
"Can't help it," Wally shrugged absently, raising a finger above Damian's face and letting the baby reach out for it, occasionally letting him grab the finger. He smiled softly when Damian giggled brightly after grasping the digit.
Talia was giving him an interested look when Wally next glanced away from Damian, "Did you know that you're a godfather?"
"What?" Wally said, head whipping fully up at the admission, "Are you serious? To whom? Who made me a godfather?"
"A… friend of mine defected from the League and became an antihero. She married a hero and had a child with him. That child is your goddaughter," Talia explained.
"Am I a good godfather?" Wally asked softly, not entirely sure if he wanted to hear the answer.
Talia glanced up at him, "I don't know. You disappeared before you really got a chance to be one."
Wally frowned, "That doesn't sound right. I don't know why I left. Why would I have gone away?"
"No one knows," Jason said, "And that's probably not going to change until you get your memories back." He reached over and tapped Damian lightly on the nose, smiling at the quiet gurgling Damian gave in response.
Together, the four of them cooed at and fussed over the baby, playing with him and talking softly. Talia was… interesting. Wally couldn't entirely say that he'd befriended the woman. She was too sharp for him to consider it. Wally couldn't shake the feeling that he was just fodder for some goal. He couldn't shake the feeling that emotions were a slightly amusing hobby for the woman. Maybe he was reading her wrong. Maybe he was biased from so much time spent hating her father. Maybe it was some mixture. He didn't know.
What he did know, however, was that Damian deserved a better home. Maybe he didn't deserve to be taken from his mother, but he certainly deserved to be raised anywhere other than the League of Assassins. How could Wally possibly leave him behind to be raised as a bloodthirsty assassin? That seemed… that seemed horrible. No kid deserved that life.
But what could Wally do? It sounded like Ra's was going to leave the three of them trussed up outsider the heroes' door like some sort of present. That wasn't exactly the sort of situation that made it easy to rescue a baby. Also, like, that was definitely kidnapping. Had Wally ever kidnapped someone? He would feel better if Damian wasn't the first person he kidnapped. Maybe he'd taken Damian and give him to the couple that made him a godfather. They already had a kid and Wally had apparently approved enough to agree to be a godfather. And one member of the couple had previously been a part of the League of Assassins. That meant that she'd know how to handle them if they got uppity.
Then they could try to figure out who the actual father was. If they could find the father, then they'd see what the next step was. Wyynde and Jason would help Wally escape with a baby, right? That seemed like the kind of thing they'd do. Maybe. Hopefully. Wally would have to think about this more.
Before he knew it, their hour was up. Talia stood languidly from where she'd been sprawled over the floor. She plucked her baby from Wyynde's grip before heading to the door. She looked over her shoulder at Wally, "Coming?"
Wally groaned, "Yeah, yeah. Only a couple more days of this, yeah?" Talia only smirked in response.
As Wally made his down the hallways of this island getaway, he started plotting and planning. Sure, Ra's had them all under his control at the moment. But that wouldn't be forever. After all, he was a criminal first and foremost. And every criminal knows that it's easiest to escape in transit.
LLLLLL
Len clenched his jaw. He hated how much he'd relied on Cheshire's information and connections to arrange this meeting. How far had he fallen after Wally's supposed death that he'd had to rely on an ex-assassin to meet with his own adopted son? Whatever. That didn't matter. He needed to stop being so prideful. He could get even later. For the moment, he needed to focus on getting things done.
The first step in that was convincing Cameron to come back. It was, arguably, also the hardest step.
That's why they'd needed so much of Jade's help. If the Rogues had even hinted that they were trying to meet up with Icicle, then Cameron would have gone so far underground that they wouldn't have seen hide nor hair of him for a month. It wouldn't be the first time. But with Jade's help, they'd managed to make it look like it was some random person who wanted to hire Icicle for something.
Now all they needed to do was actually have the meeting. Len had made the executive decision to limit the amount of people. He was, of course, going. He'd brought James and Hartley with him as well. Cameron had always been closest to the other kids. Of course, Cameron had been the absolute closest to Wally, but that was part of the problem, wasn't it?
Len's head whipped up when he heard the door open. Cameron was there, standing in the doorway and looking shocked. Good to know that they didn't rely on Jade for nothing. Cameron really didn't know that it was the Rogues he was going to be meeting with.
It was obvious that Cameron was about to leave. He practically had a foot out the door already. With a nod of his head, Len sent James off. James hopped up quickly, launching himself at Cameron and shouting loudly, "Cam! It's been so long! Come on, come on! Catch me up on everything that happened while I was in the hospital!"
The pity on the faces of the other patrons at the restaurant made Len sick, but he resisted the urge to ice them all. They'd had to meet in a public place to reduce the risk of Cameron leaving. Because if they were in public, then they could use other people's judgement to their advantage. There was no way Cameron could comfortably get out of this after that spectacle. Len was pretty sure that some of the old ladies in the restaurant would actually go out and hunt Cameron down to make sure he had this conversation with James.
When James managed to drag Cameron back to the table, Len had to resist the urge to smirk. Success. Well, step one was a success. The way Cameron was glaring at them made the rest of the steps seem a bit more daunting. Ah well, Len would figure it out. He raised his hand for a waiter, getting Cameron a glass of water, no ice. He then picked up his own menu, prompting his kids to do the same, "Order whatever you want. I'm paying."
Cameron's hands were clenched so tightly around the menu that he was crinkling it, but that was alright. The waiter came back shortly and the four of them ordered. It was awkward. Much more awkward than Len wanted it to be.
Once the waiter was gone, though, Len could focus in on what he'd come there to talk about, "We need to talk, Cameron."
"Yeah," Cameron muttered, "I got that."
Hartley offered him a smile, "You might even like some bits of the conversation." Cameron made a noncommittal noise, resentment simmering in his eyes.
Len sighed. He'd debated for a while how to do this once he finally got ahold of Cameron (he hadn't expected it to take two months but you do what you have to do). In the end, there was only one method he could use. Len looked Cameron straight in the eye and said, "Wally is alive."
Cameron choked on his drink, coughing and spluttering as James happily passed him a stack of napkins. Hartley was glaring at Len for his lack of tact. Len shrugged. Once Cameron had collected himself, Len continued, "We found out about the possibility a bit ago. We've been trying to confirm one way or another. Two months ago, we had it confirmed that Wally is alive. We've been trying to track you down since."
"You're lying," Cameron said the minute Len stopped talking. He said it firmly, definitively.
Hartley frowned, "He's not. Wally's alive. We have multiple eyewitnesses and even a video of a redheaded speedster."
"Someone would have told me. I would have found out," Cameron said. He frowned, putting a hand to his forehead, "Wait, where is he? If he's alive, why wouldn't you bring him with you? And why do you need eyewitnesses? Where is he if he's really alive?"
"That's… complicated," Len drawled. Cameron scowled at him. Len scowled right back, "Give me a chance to explain before you completely shut me down and maybe I can uncomplicate it, yeah?" He waited a second to see if Cameron would respond before he started explaining, "Six months after he disappeared, the Light found him."
Unsurprisingly, Cameron interrupted after the first sentence, "The Light has him?"
"Let him finish explaining!" Hartley scowled. Cameron wilted instinctually before he puffed back up again, blue ice starting to creep over his arms. Hartley pointedly looked at the ice before looking back up at Cameron. Cameron sighed, clearly getting himself under control.
After a moment, Len started explaining. He gave as quick of a run through as he could. It was a lot of information. He'd had to briefly pause as they were all given their meals. By the end, Len felt wrung out. He didn't like talking that much in one shot. Especially not about things like this, about one of his kids being hurt and lost and alone.
Cameron was looking down at the table, nervously playing with his food, "I can't believe he's alive."
"Well, he is," Len said. Hartley glared at him again.
Cameron took a shuddering breath, abandoning his fork to put both of his hands over his face, "I left the Rogues because I thought – because he was dead."
"What were you going to say first?" Hartley pushed gently, "Why did you leave the Rogues?" It was something that a lot of them had wondered. When Cameron did it, he'd simply said because Wally was dead, and he felt like the rest of them had dissolved into a mess (which was truer than Len wanted to exist). That hadn't really explained why he was leaving his family and it certainly didn't explain why he would go and join Onslaught afterwards, but they hadn't been able to get ahold of him long enough to really ask.
There was a long pause. Len thought he wasn't going to answer. Then Cameron sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face one more time, "I left the Rogues because I was certain that it was your easy-going attitude towards – towards crime and heroes and all that that had gotten Wally killed. I mean, why else would he have been out there saving the world if it wasn't for that? We're supervillains! We don't save the world! We're the ones ending it! And don't even try bringing up Luthor. We all know he just did that as a publicity stunt. But because you all are so close to the Flash family and Dick and all those archers and the Team, because you allowed Wally to get so close to all of them, Wally died doing something he should never have been doing."
"Would you have preferred that he didn't?" Len asked mildly, "Would you have preferred that he let the world be destroyed by that MFD?"
"N-no, of course not," Cameron scowled, "That's stupid. Of course I wouldn't have preferred that. There are plenty of other speedsters, though. The original Flash could have done it. Or Max Mercury. Or Jesse Quick. Johnny Quick. Liberty Bell. Those are all superhero speedsters. Why was it a supervillain who saved the world? I just didn't want to keep getting mixed up with heroes. I didn't want to see all of you getting mixed up with heroes. They're dangerous to us. We're cannon fodder for them. They're just using us. I wasn't going to sit around and let that happen. And if you guys were, then… I couldn't help you and you couldn't help me." Len opened his mouth to say something, but Cameron beat him to it, adding softly, "And… it hurt me, to be in the Rogues. I wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for Wally. He saved my life so many times. And I couldn't save his."
"So, why join the Light again after everything you've been through with them?" James asked, leaning softly into Cameron's side.
Cameron shook his head, "It was less about joining the Light and more about joining up with people I knew. With people who knew what I hated about the Light and who wouldn't treat me like the others used to. With Onslaught, most of us are around the same age. We understand what it's like being metahuman kids in crime circles. It's not easy. But it was better with Onslaught. We're almost independent from the Light. Our only contact with the Light is through Queen Bee. Otherwise? It's like the Light doesn't even exist and we're just – doing stuff."
"And you're fine with watching other kids like you being bought and sold? I heard you worked security at metahuman trafficking depots. You're okay with doing stuff like that?" Len asked, trying to be non-judgmental and gentle at the same time and probably failing.
Cameron's fists clenched and he looked seconds away from crying, "I know what I did was awful. I know that. But… it didn't seem to matter. I mean, I felt bad for those kids. Obviously. I just – just. We didn't start off doing stuff like that. We did little things. Jobs that I was used to working with you. We weren't doing anything really bad. It was fine. And then I guess Queen Bee just built us further and further up until stuff like that didn't really matter all that much. I don't know. I just wanted to be somewhere else. Somewhere where I fit in. And I fit in with Onslaught. And – and sometimes when I see the metas at those depots, all I can think is that Wally would have saved them and then I tried to figure out if he would have saved them because he's been tainted by heroes or if he would have saved them because that's just the kind of person he is and I couldn't figure it out, so I just went with the most convenient option because that was easier, okay?" Cameron had hidden his face into his shoulder at that point. Len was thankful they'd thought ahead and rented a small room off the back of the restaurant. This would have been awkward otherwise.
Not that it wasn't awkward now, of course.
James attached himself to Cameron's side, cuddling into him and making soothing shushing noises. Hartley looked like he wanted to walk around the table and do that same thing. Len waited for a moment, letting his kid cry for as long as he wanted to. It looked like it was a long overdue cry, honestly.
Eventually, Cameron looked up again, face splotchy, eyes red and puffy. He sniffed before saying, "Now what?"
"That's up to you, kid. I want you to come home. The Rogues want you to come home. But you're an adult now. Do you want to come home?" Len asked. He didn't know what he'd do if Cameron said no. What could he do? It was like he'd just said. Cameron would always be his kid, the same way all of them were his kids but the fact of the matter was that they were all grown up at this point. He couldn't send them to their rooms anymore.
Cameron swallowed, "Onslaught isn't made up of horrible people."
"They're killers," Len said, voice flat.
"So am I at this point," Cameron said frankly, "So is Wally now, apparently. You can't tell me that most of the rest of you aren't killers. I know most of you are. I wasn't part of the Rogues when I killed people. That's what matters. Neither were they."
Hartley choked on his food, "I'm sorry, what? Are you suggesting that Onslaught become Rogues?"
Cameron's shoulders rose up, defensive, "What if I am? And I obviously don't mean main Rogues. I just mean, like, side Rouges. Honorary members or whatever."
"Do you really think they'd be able to follow the rules? Do you think they'd be satisfied pulling jobs in Central and working on my orders? I've heard the rumors, Cam. I know that there's a rising segregation in the criminal underground. I know that some people are starting to say that meta villains are superior. I've heard your Onslaught buddies are the same. Do you think they're going to take orders from a regular human?" Len asked. Vaguely, he thought back to the beginning of his criminal career. This was never something that he thought he'd need to be worried about. Honestly, what had his life become? It got weirder every year.
Cameron sighed, "I just… I don't want to abandon them."
"Let's do a mental exercise," Hartley announced randomly, "How would they react if you told them that you were leaving Onslaught to go back to the Rogues?"
Cameron frowned, "They'd be mad. Really mad. They'd try to make me stay. They'd probably guilt trip me into staying, honestly."
"Did you ever think that maybe Queen Bee saw a twenty year old who just lost his best friend, his brother and who had just given up his family because he was afraid of losing them, too, and saw an opportunity? Did you ever think that maybe that sense of home and belonging was fabricated to pull you back to the Light?" Len asked carefully. He didn't want to set him off and lose this chance entirely. But… it was something he'd been thinking since Cameron first disappeared off into the Light's clutches.
Closing his eyes and resting his face back into his hands again, Cameron sighed, low and tired, "I just want to be safe. I want people to stop using me."
James piped up again, clearly hurt, "We're not using you!"
Cameron frowned, "No, but you're letting the heroes use you. Use us when I was still a part of you. Wasn't that part of the reason why Wally joined the Light the first time? The heroes were using you to deal with the whole split adult and child world thing, so he bailed?"
Hartley's jaw clenched as he clearly remembered the experience. Len vaguely remembered that Hartley had blamed himself for Wally running off even though it clearly wasn't his fault. Hartley sighed, trying to keep himself calm, "They weren't using us. We were working with them. That's how things go. There have been just as many times where not working with heroes has caused as many problems as you seem to think working with heroes has caused."
"And there's something you're not getting," Len added, "The Rogues aren't used by anyone. We're a family, a unit. We make the decisions about what the Rogues do. We decide if we're going to make sure that the world isn't falling to pieces around us. We decide whether or not we're going to work with heroes. Got that? You're a Rogue until I say you aren't, and I haven't said that about you yet. You are always welcome home and you are always a part of us. If coming back means that we have a family discussion and really talk about this, then I don't see the problem with that. Of course, you should know that we're working with the heroes right now to try to get Wally back. Once we get Wally back, though, we'll all sit and talk through all of this. Together."
Cameron swallowed, eyes still bright and red, "How… how do I come home? They won't let me leave without a fight. Whether – whether they're really just manipulating me or not, they'll get mad. So, how do I do this? How do I leave?"
Finally letting out a smile, Len reached over the table and put a hand on Cameron's shoulder, "With us. You leave with us. You know we'll keep you safe. The rest? We'll figure out later." He paused before asking, one more time, "So, you ready to come home, Cameron?"
And Cameron looked up at him, determined, "Yes."
BBBBBB
Bart buzzed anxiously in his seat. This was – this was huge. He had a huge responsibility in this whole thing. That wasn't even including how big this whole thing was. But Bart was motivated. He didn't want people getting suckered like he was being suckered.
There was a low-level rage simmering in his bones. He just – he couldn't believe it. What on earth had Dick and the others been thinking? Bart could not believe that Batman had had that stupid little secret ring. He'd had all of the heroes dancing on the end of his string for so long. Had it been amusing for him? Had it made him feel better to be able to control heroes because he couldn't control his own villains?
Bart took a shuddering breath, calming down a little bit. That was unfair. All of that was unfair. Because, honestly, Bart understood the purpose of keeping secrets. He did, really. He could even get it in this specific case. Bruce hadn't been entirely wrong. And he'd certainly managed to boost the Outsiders. Sure, there was no way to prove that the Outsiders wouldn't have gotten those rating without Bruce's machinations. But that didn't matter. In the end, none of it mattered. The secrets were out. It was over. Bart needed to calm down and focus on the present. They confessed eventually. The Outsiders could move on, now, on their own two feet.
And, this time, they could help another group do the same thing.
Bart glanced over the table at Infinity, Inc. They were sitting prim and proper, backs straight and smiles gently curving their lips. The three of them looked more put together than any one on the Outsiders, which was saying something when two of their members were actual royalty. Bart resisted the urge to sigh. Honestly. He felt like he had some kind of excuse because, hey, he was only two years out of the apocalypse future of the world that he prevented. Everyone else? No way.
Luckily, this was supposed to be the quick part of the day. A little meet and greet in front of the crowd (that, thankfully, Garfield was mostly handling with some of his signature charm if not the innate grace that the Infinity, Inc. people seemed to possess) and then the two groups would go into a room and have a nice, long lunch and chat together. That was when Bart and Jaime were supposed to shine. Ugh.
Bart snapped his head up at the sound of applause. Were – were they done? That was quick. He noticed, towards the back of the room, Luthor quietly speaking to the producer. Ah, makes sense. Luthor wanted to minimize the chance for the Outsiders to look good on screen. Of course, this was also minimizing the chance for his team to look good, but he probably figured it was worth the risk. Good. That meant that Luthor thought they were a threat.
The teams stood as one, giving a short wave and smile session for the cameras before filing into the lunchroom. They had been promised by Luthor on live television that there would be no recording equipment in the room, that the two teams would be completely alone. It clearly made Infinity, Inc. nervous. Bart, for his part, thought there was no way that Luthor left the room unbugged. Thankfully, they had Jaime and Vic to sweep the room and make sure that it was clean. Or, well, to forcibly make it clean if they had to.
The two groups sat on a circular table. Garfield made sure that he was in the middle of 'their side' with Jaime and Bart at the edges for when they started to make their point. Infinity, Inc. had Trajectory sitting next to Bart and Nuklon sitting next Jaime, which left Starlight in the middle.
They ordered quickly and made awkward small talk while they waited for the food to arrive. It was clear that Infinity, Inc. felt off-put by the entire meeting. It was unexpected and unplanned. Luthor had no hand in it. The only reason he'd even agreed to the meeting is because Garfield had issued the proposal over national television where Luthor couldn't say no.
Once the food arrived, though. It was down to business.
Garfield put on his best business face and began.
Author's Note: So, being real here, I have legit no clue who the people in YJ's Infinity, Inc. is. They named Trajectory and she wouldn't have been super hard to figure out either way, but that places this group in the second phase of Infinity, Inc. and… I can't find people who look like the other two? Like, what second phase Infinity, Inc. dude is bald? Which chick has white hair? I'm so confused. So, I made my best guess/picked ones that I liked or whatever. This is just in case you actually know who those two are supposed to be and get offended that I'm using totally the wrong people, haha. Thanks for reading!
