Hello everyone! I'm finally back with a new chapter, and I hope to have the next chapter up soon. The next two episodes will be Hereafter and Starcrossed. A lot of things will take place between Bruce and Evie, so stay tuned. Also, I would like to welcome the new followers to this story! It amazes me that people keep finding this story and are reading it even when it takes forever for me to write again. As always, please leave a review or a comment for me, reading those really do make my day!

I woke up to my communicator going off in my bedroom, where I had left it. So much for a night off. I had been pulling shifts in the Watchtower on monitor duty while everyone else was out patrolling around all week, just so I could have a few nights off, but apparently it wasn't in my favor. I got up from the couch where I had fallen asleep and walked over to my nightstand and put the communicator in my ear before answering it.

"Yes?" I answered, knowing that in a few short moments I would be forced to put my uniform on and head out.

"Hey there Ice Queen," Flash said, the wind blowing past his comm, telling me he was running. "Hope you aren't too busy. Lantern called a meeting with everyone, but he wouldn't say what it was about."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Sometimes that man was more mysterious than Batman. "Of course he did. Where are we meeting?" I asked, already slipping off my sweatshirt and changing.

"Building in Metro. Need a lift? I can be there in a few minutes," Flash asked.

"No, I'm okay," I said, adjusting my tights and slipping on my boots. "I'm leaving now."

"Alright then, see you later," Flash said and he ended the call. I checked that my front door was locked and climbed onto the fire escape, making sure no one was around, and made my way to Metro.

It wasn't long before I met up with the rest of the League, as it seemed like they were waiting on me. "What took you so long?" Lantern impatiently asked me.

"Sorry, I had to get dressed and leave from Gotham," I said, shrugging and twirling my staff in between my fingers. I wasn't that worried about it, it didn't seem like it was a huge emergency.

Lantern rolled his eyes, "Try to be quicker next time." I rolled my eyes too but didn't say anything else.

"So, what's the problem?" Superman asked him.

"Us," Lantern added, fairly bluntly. "We're not working together as well as we could."

Flash ran over to his side, "C'mon, we're batting close to a thousand," he said, shrugging it off.

"A lot of that's been luck," Lantern said. "We've taken some pretty bad hits along the way."

I glanced over to Diana as she stepped forward. "What are you suggesting?" She asked, and we all looked over at Lantern.

"Practice," He said, and most of us turned into students who were told they had homework for the weekend. Most of us groaned, except for Bats and Superman.

"It's that, or more of what happened to us tonight," J'onn said, finally speaking.

"What happened to you tonight?" I asked. Lantern sent a glare my way.

"If you were here on time, then you would know." I shrugged and rolled my eyes again, but let the topic fall. If anything, Flash would tell me later. After Lantern said that, we all looked around at each other, not really having any serious issues with it.

"What do we have to lose?" Shay asked.

"Time." Bats said, his arms crossed over his chest. I knew that he was balancing a fairly large caseload. These days he didn't do anything besides vigilante work. I had offered to help him out with a few things, but he said he didn't want me to get involved with his dirty work.

"A little more teamwork wouldn't hurt any of us," Superman said, glancing at Bats, obviously talking about how the man usually liked to work alone.

"Looks like you're outvoted," Lantern said, walking to stand in front of Bats. All Bats did was cross his arms so that his cape covered his body, his usual sign that he wasn't happy, but he didn't protest anymore. "We'll start training tomorrow morning. I know this place out west, it's an abandoned saloon town that already has defensive animatronics built in it. It'll be perfect."

From there, everyone went their separate ways, except for Bats and myself. "I take it you're going to need a ride tomorrow?" He asked.

I nodded, looking out over the city. "If it won't be an issue," I mumbled, feeling a little bad that I always have to ask for rides.

Bats gave a quiet chuckle and turned to look out at the city as well. "For you? It's never an issue," He said, just as quiet as I had. We caught each other's eyes and I gave him the tiniest smile.

"Are you doing anything tonight?" I asked. He shot me a glance that was just filled with confusion, and then my words registered in my own head. It sounded like I was asking him out on a date. "Case wise!" I practically yelled, "you know, do you have any open cases that you might need help with?"

He smirked before looking back at me. "Not anything I can't handle. Just a few organized muggings and petty thefts."

I nodded and turned away, trying to hide the blush that I could feel creeping up my neck. "Well that isn't too bad," I said, dragging my boot across the ground. "So, I'll see you tomorrow morning?" I asked.

"I'll pick you up on your roof. It'll be pretty early," Bats said. "You'll want to get some rest tonight."

I nodded, agreeing with him, "Yeah, I was just about to head back and go to bed."

"Do you want a ride?" He asked, gesturing over to his jet that was parked on the other side of the roof.

I shook my head, already walking towards the edge of the roof. "No, I'll fly back. Hopefully it'll tire me out," I replied as I stepped on a disk. "I'll see you tomorrow though."

Bats nodded and didn't say anything at first. He took a few steps back from the edge of the roof. "Goodnight, Eves."

I smiled and gave a small wave, "Goodnight, Bruce." I slowly started to float away, my black curls drifting into my face. I pushed them back before turning back around and headed home towards Gotham.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The next morning Bats arrived on my rooftop just after the sun rose and he took me to Lantern's training practice. We filled the quiet cabin with small talk about our lives, books that I had read, his involvement in the company, different missions that we had gone on by ourselves. It was nice, actually having time to sit down and talk to him. We had gone a few dates together, but they had never amounted to much. It was still business as usual afterwards.

When we arrived the sun had fully risen above the rocky ridges that surrounded us. Lantern wasn't lying when he said it was an old saloon town. It had all the wooden buildings, no paved roads, only dirt, the town even had a few tumbleweeds. Just as Bats was going to land, an alarm went off on his console. He looked at it, scrolling down a page a little bit before sighing and halting the jet in mid air.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Something just came up with one of my open cases," He said, still reading the report that he had received. "I have to go."

I bit my lip, knowing that Lantern wasn't going to be happy about it, but I shook it off, knowing that this was more important. "Well then go, I'll cover for you." Bats looked at me, silently asking if I was sure. I gave a huff of laughter before waving him off, "Seriously, go. This seems more important than a few hours of training. It'll be fine."

Bats nodded, slowly opening the hatch for me so I could jump out. "Thank you."

I smiled at him. "Of course, just be careful." He nodded and as soon as I was clear he left, flying off back the way he came. I turned around and saw the rest of the League giving me questioning looks. "What?" I asked, "Something came up and he couldn't stay."

"Sure," Lantern scoffed. "The only one who didn't want to do the training in the first place isn't even here." Lantern spun on his heels and walked towards the buildings, muttering the whole way. I just shrugged and followed him. There isn't anything I could do about it.

We got started on training right away, splitting up into different pairs and seeing whose powers worked best together. It was actually pretty fun at first. But as the hot sun beat down on us, we started getting more and more tired, which turned into irritability. We had taken a break for a little bit, but then got right back into it.

Superman walked down the middle of the street by himself, looking around for any hidden dangers. Suddenly a Darkseid animatronic popped out of the ground. Superman quickly took care of it with his heat ray, but the course had already restarted. Another animatronic of Luthor popped up and Superman took care of that one as well, cutting it in half.

A few more had popped up, which were quickly taken care of until a little girl one had popped up. It looked like Superman was about to destroy that one too until J'onn appeared in front of it, telling him to stop.

Superman pulled up just in time, quickly realizing his mistake. The rest of us looked at the scene from the balcony of one of the buildings.

"Not bad," Diana said, crossing her arms and surveying the scene.

"It's not over yet," Lantern said, holding the remote control that operated the whole system. J'onn and Superman were talking, and didn't notice the two robots walking up behind them until they started shooting.

"Behind you!" Shayera said, flying over them with her mace in her hand. She destroyed the first one, and then turned around to fly over the second one. Before she could get to the second one, Superman and J'onn must have seen something that she couldn't because they both called out in warning, but it was too late. She had approached the second one but it exploded before she could hit it. She was thrown backwards, landing on the roof besides us.

She groaned on the ground as Lantern approached her and helped her up. "It was booby trapped," He explained, not sounding too sorry that he could have hurt her.

"How was I supposed to know that?" an exasperated Shayera asked him while rubbing her head.

"Either of your partners could have told you," He said, turning around to look at the approaching J'onn and Superman. "One's psychic and the other has x-ray vision."

"You're right," Shayera said. "Good lesson. Can I go now?"

"Go?" Lantern chuckled, "We're just getting started."

I had to suppress a groan at that. "Could you have picked a hotter place to do this at?" I questioned, fanning my face. "Some of us don't like the heat."

Lantern turned to me, rolling his eyes. "You may as well get used to it. You won't always be able to fight in an atmosphere you want to."

This time I rolled my eyes. This is going to be a long day. The next few exercises were airbourne ones so for the most part, I was able to sit out. I watched as Superman took a few hits from a giant that Lantern had created, before ultimately getting out of his grip and punching him so hard that the form dissipated. Superman, Lantern, Shayera, and Flash were standing in a group once it was over and a few minutes later it looked like they were back to arguing. All day long we had all been bickering with each other and it was really starting to put a damper on the exercises, especially since we were supposed to be working together.

I flew down there just to hear the tail end of the conversation. "They're making a good point," Lantern said, crossing his arms, "You have to trust your partners."

"I do, but the fact is I'm the invulnerable one," Superman exclaimed, sounding extremely defensive. "Every punch I take is a punch they don't have to," he said, gesturing to Shayera and Flash.

And of course, Shayera took offense to it. "Are you saying we can't cut it?"

"That's what it sounds like to me," Flash added. Finally J'onn approached the group and pushed Flash and Superman apart.

"Now hold on," He said, "we're a team."

"We're not all equal," Superman said, one of the rare times he actually sounded angry. "You can't deny that-"

"Everybody knock it off!" Lantern yelled, effectively cutting off Superman. "We're going to keep doing it until we get it right," he said before walking off. Some of us followed while a few lingered behind. I heard muttering behind me but decided not to pay it any mind. Everyone was annoying me today, and I couldn't tell if it was the sun or just the attitudes.

I always hated having conversations like this. I'm not dumb, I know that I'm one of the weaker ones on the team. I'm not invulnerable. I can only take so many hits before I'm down for the count, and I can't lift up buildings. My powers are based on my environment so they wouldn't always work. At least Bats is a genius. I'm nowhere close to being as smart as he is. These conversations always had me worried. What if they all realized this and didn't want me on the team anymore? These thoughts usually hang around in the back of my mind, but today they seemed to be on the forefront of it.

After another hour of training, I decided to take a break in the shade of one of the buildings. It must have been a hundred degrees outside! Was Lantern insane? We all couldn't keep this up much longer. My communicator pushed me out of my thoughts as it went off in my ear. "Batman to the League." I smiled at myself as I heard his voice in my ear. "We have a situation. Clayface escaped with the help of at least Shade. There are probably more helping him. I have the coordinates for where he's heading. I'll send them to you." He finished and then hung up, not leaving much room for arguments.

I stood up and stretched, walking over to the group. Lantern was grumbling about having to stop practice, but I think the rest of us were pretty grateful. Now we got to put into practice a few of things we learned. I stood next to Diana and as we discussed how we would meet up with Bats. We assumed there would be fighting involved, but that it would be best to let Bats in first, and then the rest of us would follow.

After a few minutes of debating and grumbling we piled into Diana's jet and headed to the coordinates that Batman had sent us. On the way, he called us on our comms, telling us to meet up outside of the warehouse doors. Superman would hear the signal, and then the fight would be on. Bats was also kind enough to inform us who he would be going up against this time; Shade, Giganta, Sinestro, Killer Frost, Clayface, and Parasite. It was weird that they would all be working together, but we didn't know what for.

"Get ready," Superman said, flying above us, "Batman just ran into Clayface." I pulled out my staff, ready to get this fight over with. At least it got us out of training. "Lantern, now!" Supes yelled. Lantern ran the door down with his ring to reveal the villains standing around Bats.

We heard the last little bit of what Bats was saying, and the fight immediately started. Diana and Shayera both went to take on Giganta, while Sinestro and Lantern started fighting each other. Out of the corner of my eye Parasite went right for Superman just as Giganta knocked the girls out of the air. I was standing out of the way as Clayface started attacking Bats, and I figured I might as well help him out.

Bats and I both dodged the appendages that Clayface was throwing at us, and Bats threw an electric batarang at him, causing his image to slip. While he was trying to reshift, I started freezing some of the smaller tendrils, trying to make him stay. Clayface continued to fight, but every time I would try and redirect his hits, Bats would be right there, pretty much getting in my way.

"Bats, quit it. I can handle it," I said, losing my concentration and getting thrown to the side. I rolled onto my side to see Frost battling J'onn. Well, if Bats wasn't going to let me fight then I'd go to one instead.

I flew across the room to help J'onn out. Frost was throwing ice spears at him, so I put a blockade up and managed to stop the ice chunks in mid-air. I swept them out of the way before knocking out the ledge made of ice that she was standing on. Since our powers cancelled out it was easier to physically handle her. Before she could do anything with her powers, I lunged at her, knocking her off balance. As she went to the ground she hooked her leg around mine, causing both of us to go to the ground. She was able to roll on top of me and get a few hits in, before I rolled on top of her.

Just as I was going to punch her again, a flash of yellow caught my eye. I glanced up and saw Parasite fighting Superman, but he was able to shoot a laser and graze Bats' arm. Because of my distraction, Frost was able to push me off and encase my hands in ice, using it to fly me across the room.

I flipped in the air and was able to land on my feet, next to where Bats was gripping his arm. I didn't even have a chance to unfreeze my hands before something solid slammed into Bats and I, slamming us into a wall hard enough to leave a dent in the metal. We both landed on the ground, groaning. My head was ringing and Bats hadn't moved since he fell. The good news was, the hit broke the ice around my hands. The bad news...it might have broken everything else as well.

"C'mon!" someone yelled. I was able to look up and through my double vision I saw all the bad guys retreating. I groaned again and laid my head back on my arms.

"You okay, Bats?" I asked. He finally shifted next to me and grunted, which at this point I knew to take, he wasn't perfect, but he wasn't dead either. I slowly got up to my knees and looked around the warehouse. It looked like everyone had gotten their asses kicked. We all were lying in various places.

"It was seven to six, we had the advantage!" Lantern yelled.

"Here he goes again," I muttered, standing up and offering my hand to Bats, who took it and stood next to me after hauling himself off the ground.

"Where'd you go? I was counting on you," Diana said, motioning towards Shayera.

"Lantern was hurt. And I recall you saying you could take her," she countered, sending a glare towards Diana.

"Guys, this isn't the time to fight," I said, rubbing my arm.

"Funny of you to say that, it didn't seem like you were fighting much anyway," Lantern muttered. I turned to him, anger flashing through my eyes.

"I fought Clayface, and Killer Frost. All I saw you do was get beaten by Sinestro. I'm so tired of you being on my case about my fighting skills!"

"You and Frost tussled for a minute. What good was that?" Lantern yelled, throwing his hands up into the air.

"Our powers cancel out. I can't exactly fight her with my powers when she just gets rid of whatever I throw at her anyway!" I yelled, just as exasperated.

"So much for practice makes perfect," Bats snarked. I only sent him a glare, rolling my eyes. Now wasn't the time for his sarcasm.

"I thought we were practicing teamwork, not one guy tells everyone what to do," Flash said.

"Someone has to be in charge, and it couldn't very well be you," Lantern retorted.

"Will you both shut up?" Superman said, dusting himself off as he stood up. "I've had better luck fighting whole armies by myself because I didn't have to worry about anyone else but myself."

We all turned to look at him, and I lightly scoffed. "Then why don't you go back to that?" Shayera asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"You think I haven't considered it?" He said, crossing his arms. As soon as he said that, we all jumped a little in shock, even Bats.

"Guys-" I started but I was cut off by Flash.

"This whole stinking group was your idea and now you don't want to do it anymore?."

It was like there was a moment of clarity in my head and I knew that if we kept this up then we would all say things that we would regret. "Guys seriously, we need to cool off first." I said, but I was just being talked over.

"You men," Diana said, "unless you do it on your own it doesn't count."

"It isn't just the men you stuck up-" Shayera was cut off by J'onn yelling.

"Stop it, stop it right now!" We all turned to look at him and I had a heavy feeling in my stomach. "I arrived here not knowing a soul, and you took me in, and you became my new family. But what's the use of a family if it diminishes us as individuals?"

I could already see where the conversation was heading, and I had to swallow the lump in my throat before trying to speak, "J'onn…"

He didn't hear me, or if he did he ignored me and continued. "I'm saying I survived the loss of one family, and I'll survive this one too." He turned and walked out towards one end of the empty warehouse.

"J'onn, wait," I called but he kept walking. I turned to the others before speaking again, "Guys, please, we don't have to do this."

Everyone just looked at eachother, a little unsure of what to do. A moment later, Bats turned around and started walking out. "Bats!" I yelled, but he didn't even hesitate. Somehow, seeing him walk out hurt me more than J'onn did. It hurt more than me knowing that League may be over.

Bats leaving was the catalyst for the rest of them. One by one they all turned around and went their separate ways, until only Flash and I were left. At least Flash had the decency to look upset about his decision. "I'm sorry, Evie," he said before turning around and leaving.

It was dead quiet in the warehouse as I stood there by myself. "What if I can't survive another loss of a family," I whispered to myself. I sighed and replayed the fight over again in my head. Mentally, I was beating myself up going over things that I could have done differently. Shaking those thoughts out of my head, I walked out of the warehouse myself and flew into the air. I honestly wasn't too sure on what to do.

It had been a long time since I had been on my own. The League had truly become my family in the few years that we had been working together. I was hesitant to even join the League because I never wanted to lose more people that were close to me. Now my worst nightmare had come true, and I wasn't sure how to process it. My chest was heavy, like I just wanted to cry but I couldn't bring myself to. I needed to be strong. People were always going to need help, and League or no League, I was going to help them.

I debated with myself and decided that I would fly back to Gotham and do some patrolling. Maybe look into why Clayface was working with 5 other villains, and why they broke him out in the first place.

I knew that Clayface used to hang around a club in Gotham, so I headed that way, hoping to find something that would help, while also trying to stay away from Bats. After the night we had had, I didn't want to deal with it right now. I know that Bats had never been a team player, but it still hurt to see him walking away. Now that I thought about it, seeing him walk away from the group didn't hurt, that was always expected. It just hurt seeing him walk away from me.

I shook the thoughts from my head again before landing in an alley next to the club. I looked around the corner, seeing the usual line of people trying to get in, but nothing too suspicious. I heard a bottle get knocked down and clatter across the sidewalk. I spun around, not seeing anything at first, but noticing a shadow moving.

"Help!" a woman yelled down the end of the alley. "Please, help me!" I sprinted around the corner and saw two figures, apparently fighting each other. I ran to the end, about to interfere when an alley light turned on and I saw that the figures were actually Giganta and Killer Frost. My eyes widened and I knew I had just run headfirst into a trap.

I immediately threw two ice spears at them, Giganta having to dodge out of the way, but Frost caught it and threw it back. I dodged out of the way, but couldn't move too much due to the narrow alley.

"You heroes are so gullible," Frost smirked before throwing more shards at me. I caught some and let the others shatter against the brick wall. While I was fighting Frost, I didn't notice Giganta get behind me. She grew until she was half the size of the building and grabbed my by the back of the neck. She then threw me up against the wall as hard as she could. I hit the wall, and dropped to the ground, landing on a dumpster.

"Can we kill her yet?" Frost asked, her voice a little too close to my liking.

"You know we can't. Grodd has plans for her." Giganta replied. Grodd? I thought he was braindead. Why would he be leading a band of villains around? "We have to go. They already have Batman. We have to go get the others."

They have Bats? How did he let that happen? I tried sitting up, but my head was still spinning and I slipped on the lid, falling to the ground. I groaned, but knew I couldn't get up. We had really gotten our asses kicked today, and that was the last thought I had before my head throbbed again and my vision went black.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I groggily opened my eyes and was unsure where I was. It looked like the Batcave, but I didn't think Frost or Giganta would bring me there. Looking up, I noticed that my arms were tied up above my head and strapped to cross bars in the holding tube I was in. Clayface walked past me, but didn't spare me a glance. Behind him was the rest of the villains we had just fought hours ago.

Clayface walked past me down a line of containment tubes that looked similar to mine. Next to me was Flash, and he was tied down like how I was. I assumed that the rest of the League had been captured. Great, now we were really in trouble. I looked to my right and saw that J'onn was frozen, but strangely enough I couldn't do anything about the ice. I tried, but it just wouldn't move, and I couldn't feel it. It must have been something with the chamber I was in.

All the talking outside was muffled, but I could hear Clayface say something about his old movies, and Grodd was standing at a computer, not paying attention to what Clayface was saying.

While they were conversing, I tried getting loose from the cuffs so that I could escape, or help the rest of the team escape. The cuffs were on fairly tight, but I could move my hand a little bit. I wriggled it around, trying to find a screw that I could loosen, but the entire cuff was smooth, and there was nothing I could get a hold of. Then I tried the next best thing, freezing the cuffs, but my powers aren't working. I groaned in frustration, which caught the attention of Shade.

He walked over to me, and bent down so he was eye level with me. "Sorry toots, there's no way you're escaping. Grodd made those cuffs especially for you. They block your powers, so you can't freeze anything." He tapped on the glass and I just glared at him. "Don't worry, you'll be out soon, when we kill all of you," He laughed and turned around and walked back to the group.

If these cuffs canceled out my powers, then I was really stuck. There was no way that I could get out by myself. And from what I could see, J'onn and Flash weren't really in better positions either. Hopefully one of the others would be able to do something.

I watched as the group of villains spoke some more before Grodd turned and said something. At first I thought he was talking to us, but he was looking past us, at something behind us. All of a sudden rocks were falling from the ceiling and there was green light flashing.

I must have been wrong, Lantern must not have been captured. The villains scattered as Sinestro and Frost tried sealing the hole that Lantern had left. A flash of green went flying through the air and around a turn towards the mouth of the cave we were in, and the 2 villains followed it. I even thought it was Lantern at first, until the real Lantern came around the corner and ran to the podium that held the controls for our pods.

He had just started typing when Shade started creeping up behind him. Lantern must have sensed him, because he hit him with a blast right as Sinestro flew back and attacked him. None of us noticed Clayface at first, but once Lantern was distracted, Clayface hit him into a wall, knocking him unconscious.

My heart sank and I knew our chances of being rescued really were slim to none now. I relaxed myself as Sinestro and Clayface argued over who should have captured Lantern.

"He's ours," Grodd said, walking up to them. "They all are now. Get him in a pod. It's time we start on our final plan." Sinestro hoisted Lantern in the air, and then out of my eyesight. I huffed and hoped that in this final plan there would be a chance for us to escape.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed before Grodd gave the order to load us up. We were all loaded onto a jet and a few minutes later the jet had taken off, taking us to who knows where. This time, I was kept next to Bats. I could feel him watching me, his eyes practically burning a hole in the side of my head, but I didn't want to look at him. Looking at him made it all seem so real, because all I could see was him walking away.

Was I overthinking this? Maybe he just wanted to walk away from the League, but it felt like he was also walking away from me, and whatever this relationship was that we had. We hadn't put any labels on it, and we hadn't necessarily been romantically involved, but it was definitely something more than just a friendship. Did he want to end that? Who knows? Neither one of us like to talk about those things, especially since we both know we may not make it home from a mission one day. Why start something just to have it end so suddenly? We both have had too much of that in our lives. And I didn't know if I could handle it again.

While thinking about all of this, I didn't even notice that we had stopped flying. At some point we had landed, and all the villains were on a raised platform, talking to a crowd based on the echoes we were hearing through the opening of the ship.

All of a sudden a hatch above our tubes opened and the platform that we were on was raised up. I squinted in the change of lighting and looked around. It looked like we were in the Gotham football stadium. I wondered why Grodd would choose such an odd place to do whatever it was he was planning on doing, which I would assume our untimely demise. What really concerned me was the amount of people who were there who could get hurt. Civilian casualties are never fun, and we had never dealt with a potential number this high.

"There they are," Grodd said into his microphone, gesturing to us. "Your heroes, who violate every law of nature by coddling the weak and powerless. We say it's time for a new order. But it can't arise until the old one departs." Grod turned towards Clayface, who was standing below us. "Ready for your closeup Mr. Hagen?"

We all watched as Clayface went for a level on the control panel, but at the last second, he ripped his hand through the box, destroying the machine and causing the force beam around us to dissipate, and our cuffs became undone.

As soon as the cuffs were off of me, I could feel my powers coming back. I dropped to the floor and landed on my feet, looking around at the rest of the League as they were released too. There was visible confusion on the villians face, and I had to admit, on mine as well.

I looked back at Clayface and saw him slowly transform into J'onn. I smiled, realizing what J'onn had done. "The Martian tricked us," Grodd said, turning towards Frost. "You froze the wrong one!"

We all jumped down from the platform and came to stand beside J'onn. Frost used her powers to make the frozen Clayface fall and shatter. As he thawed, the pieces of him congregated together to reform him, and he leapt over to the villians side.

"Grodd has been messing with our minds," Lantern said, flying to hover above us.

"Great, how do we fight it?" Flash asked.

"We get over it, that's how."

"This isn't exactly the show I had in mind," Grodd said, "but in a way, it's going to be even better. Don't forget your training," he said to the rest of them. Giganta grew again, and got ready to attack. It was a tense few seconds until the fight was on.

Shayera led the aerial attack while the rest of us ran towards the villains, and they did the same. I immediately went for shade, ducking out of the way of a ray of darkness, and flipping over his shoulders, pushing him to the ground. While he was still clutching his cane, I froze his hand to the ground, so that he was unable to move it. "Can't do much without that, can you?" I asked.

I turned around and headed the other way, looking to see who would need help. I saw that J'onn and Grodd were fighting, both of them trying to use their mental powers on one another. Just as Grodd had gotten J'onn onto the ground, Frost came up behind him on her own trail of ice and froze J'onn.

"This time I got the right one," She smirked. I immediately made my own disc and flew up to where she was perched on her own ice. I snuck up behind her until I was an arms length from her.

"Hey!" I yelled. She turned around and before she could get her hands up I punched her, directly in the face. She stumbled off the ice and landed on the ground. "That's for earlier," I said, shaking my hand out. I melted her ice down and jumped off, landing nimbly next to the frozen J'onn. I thawed him out and helped him into a kneeling position on the ground. "Brain freeze?" I chuckled.

"Please, no jokes," He said, looking around. "Just get them." I smiled and went back off, looking for an opening. We were evenly matched in this fight, and we needed to do something if we were going to end this soon.

With a ground shattering thud, Diana sent Giganta crashing to the ground and I made myself over to where Batman was fighting Shade. He had somehow gotten his hand free, but his cane was still frozen to the ground. Bats had just landed on the ground and Shade was running at him, about to throw a punch when Superman landed in front of him. Shade's fist hit his chest with a sickening crunch, and he immediately cradled his hand to his chest.

"I knew this wouldn't work!" He yelled, running away. As he was running, I made a patch of ice for him to slip on just as Bats threw a grappling hook around his feet. Shade fell to the ground, and finally admitted defeat.

"I could've-" Bats started to say before being cut off by Superman.

"What?" Superman said, giving him a glare. Bats quickly locked eyes with me and I gave him a pleading look.

After a moment Bats let out a small sigh and turned back to Superman. "Thanks."

At least that's progress on trying to fix our relationships. I smiled and dusted my hands off. "Is that everyone?" I asked.

Before they could answer me, Clayface jumped up behind us, growing taller than all of us and making weapons out of the 6 tendrils that shot out of his body. I immediately started freezing the bottom portion, trying to keep him in place. It worked, but even though his bottom was frozen, it didn't mean that he couldn't move his arms. He threw down a mace and a blade right where Bats and Superman were, but they both leapt out of the way in time.

A blur of red blew by me and started stuffing canisters into Clayface. Flash came to a stop beside me for a second just as Shayera came down and lit the fuses of the canisters with her mace. Flash scooped me up in his arms and ran me across the field. He set me down just as Clayface was blown into the sky in a shower of fireworks, probably ones used for the end of the game.

"That's a wrap,"He said, watching the fireworks.

"Not quite," Shayera said, noticing movement on the opposite side of the field. I turned and saw Grodd running down the length of the field. He stopped as Superman flew in front of him. We all ran over to catch up, and were able to hear part of their conversation from across the field.

"There's still a chance for us you know," Grodd said.

"What are you talking about?" Superman asked, not looking the least bit happy.

"We're the superior ones, you and I," Grodd said, standing on his hind legs. "We should be running the world."

Superman just glared at him. "I don't think so."

"Pity," Grod said, lunging towards Superman. He grabbed a hold of his head, his eyes glowing yellow, using his mental powers on him. "You had your chance. Now you can feel the pain."

I sprinted across the field, trying to get to Superman before any more damage could be done. I slowed down as Superman reached up and flicked Grodd on the nose, which sent him flying back, across the field and through the field goal posts. I stopped running and caught my breath, walking over to Superman. "And it's good," I said, reaching my hand out for him to grab. Supes just gave me a small smile before accepting my hand and I helped him up.

Flash ran over to us, holding up his hand for a high five. "Whoo! Back in business," He said, but stopped after seeing the look on Superman's face, "aren't we?"

The rest of the League had finally walked over to us. "A lot of things were said," Diana said, crossing her arms. I looked down at my boots, knowing she was right. There was a chance that the League may not survive this.

"Yeah, but that was all mind control, we didn't mean it." Flash said.

"We meant every word," J'onn said. That was enough to take the wind out of Flash's sails really quickly.

"So what do we do?" Shay asked. We all had the decency to look guilty of what we had done and said, even Bats. I honestly didn't know how to answer her. What could we do when we all knew we didn't see each other as equals.

"All we can do is say we're sorry, and move on," Lantern said. I slowly nodded, knowing that this was definitely going to be something we would have to move past. The crowd was still cheering us on, and it was almost deafening, but it certainly didn't feel deserved. Sure, we had defeated the bad guys, but we had also hurt each other in the process.

Shayera slowly started walking out of the arena and the rest of us followed suit. As I got to the parking lot, Lantern walked over to me, looking sheepish. "Hey, I'm sorry for always criticizing your fighting style. If you ever need tips, I'd be happy to help. Not that I'm saying you really need it, because you are a strong fighter," He said, backtracking and looking extremely nervous.

I smiled and shook my head. "Don't worry about it G.L, thanks. I'll take you up on that." He smiled and nodded, and the air between us had been cleared a little bit. He turned and walked away, leaving me on my own. Superman and Flash were talking, and so were Diana and Shayera, I'm assuming they were also clearing the air.

I turned around to go home and ran straight into a chest. I bounced back but two hands grabbed my arms before I could fall. "Careful," a gruff voice said. Bats had a miniscule smile on his face as he held onto my arms. "I think we need to talk."

I only nodded as he led me over to his jet. I assumed that he didn't want to talk about whatever it was in front of the others. He lifted me up and sat me in the seat, then jumped in himself and took off. The cabin was filled with an awkward silence as I wasn't sure what to say, and it seemed like Bruce didn't want to say it quite yet.

I looked down at the streets of Gotham, at all the people wandering around, blissfully unaware of all the dangers that we were constantly fighting. A very small part of me wished that I could be a part of that. Sometimes I wondered what my life would have been like if I didn't have powers, if I could have a normal job with a normal family. Those thoughts quickly dissipated as I thought of the League, of the family that I have now, of the man sitting next to me. Sure, we weren't perfect, but perfect is just a setting on the dryer anyway. Who needs that?

I jolted as the jet landed and the hatch opened. Bats jumped out and stood next to me, waiting for me to get down. I undid the harness and slid down the side of the jet, and he caught me, holding me steady. I murmured a quiet thanks and he turned around, and I followed him to the edge of the roof. It took me a moment for me to realize that it was the edge of my building, and he was climbing down the fire escape. I grinned and followed behind him, climbing through my living room window as stealthily as he did. Once I landed I shut my curtains so that no one could look inside. I flipped on the lamp, sending the room into a soft yellow glow, and turned around.

He had already taken off his cowl so instead of the white lenses of Batman I was looking into the exceptionally dark blue eyes of Bruce Wayne. "Hi," He said, giving me a soft smile.

"Hi," I replied, returning the gesture. It was silent for another minute as we both stood there. "You said we needed to talk?"

Bruce cleared his throat before speaking, "Oh, yeah. I thought we needed to talk about what happened earlier in the warehouse." I nodded and waited for him to continue. "I walked away from you."

"You walked away from all of us," I countered, sitting in my chair and pulling my boots off one by one.

"I know. And I shouldn't have. But what's more important is that I specifically walked away from you." I blinked, and just stared at him. I should have known that the world's greatest detective would figure out exactly how I felt without me

even opening my mouth. "I know the League means a lot to you, and I understand how hard it must have been for you to see everyone walk away."

I sighed, and stood up, walking over to stand in front of him as he continued. "I shouldn't have walked away from you, and I'm so sorry."

"Bruce," I whispered, as tears started to well up in my eyes, "I don't want to lose anyone. And I thought that I was going to lose my whole family again and I don't know if I can handle that.." I hadn't realized a tear had fallen until Bruce had stepped forward and wiped it away with his thumb.

"I know," Bruce said, and he kept stroking my cheek. "I don't either, but sometimes it's easier for me to step away before we all get hurt. But you aren't like that. It's easier for me to let go, but you hold on tight and you'll fight for it. That's what makes you so special."

I let out a small chuckle, knowing that he was right. I would do anything to fight for my friends, for my family. "I think you're good at holding on too. You didn't have to come back and help."

"Would I get brownie points if I said that I only came back for you?" he smirked.

I pulled back to look into his eyes again and arched an eyebrow. "No, you wouldn't." He let out a huff of laughter and we both fell into a comfortable silence, still in each others' small embrace. I couldn't look into his eyes anymore so I settled for looking at the bat insignia that ran across his chest. "I don't want to lose you," I whispered, so quiet I wasn't even sure if he heard me.

He gently moved his hand from my cheek to underneath my chin and lifted my head until I was staring back into his eyes, which were brewing with a thousand different emotions. "You won't lose me. I'm not going to walk away again. And you can count on me doing anything to come back to you."

I searched his eyes, not seeing anything but the truth and smiled. "Promise?" I asked, holding up my pinky finger. Surprise flitted across his face, which then settled into amusement.

"Promise," he said as his much larger finger wrapped around my colder one.

"Ok," I whispered. A soft smile drifted onto my face, as well as Bruce's. I dropped my pinky, and he ducked his head down, planting his lips on my forehead in a lingering kiss. The action surprised me, because he had never been this forward with his emotions. My eyes fluttered closed and flashes of a life with him flew past my eyes; us having breakfast together after a night of patrolling, me straightening his tie for him before he walked into an important board meeting, him helping me make dinner, quiet dances in candlelight. It was a life that I had never thought I would have, and now that it seemed so close to me I never wanted to let go.

He had moved to resting his forehead against mine, and we stood there, the only sound being the beating of our hearts. I could feel my blush creeping into my cheeks,and I started to get warm but I never made a move to leave. This moment was what we had been working towards for the handful of years we had known each other.

And then the moment was gone when his communicator went off. Bruce groaned against my forehead and I chuckled. He straightened up and pressed his hand to his ear. "Go ahead, Alfred," he said. I briefly wondered who Alfred was, but figured that if he hadn't told me yet then it was something that he would tell me later. His eyes became unfocused as he listened to what Alfred had to say. "Alright, I'll be right there," and he hung up. He let out a deep breath and looked back at me. "I have to go."

I smiled and nodded, totally understanding that he was a busy man and he had other things to do besides stand in my dimly lit living room. "I know. Do you need any help with anything?" I asked, willing to pull my boots on and go with him.

He quickly shook his head, "No, it's a personal matter. I'll tell you about it later." I nodded and watched him put his cowl back on. "Get some rest, I'm sure you could use it."

I nodded, suppressing a yawn that was fighting its way out of my mouth. "Okay, make sure you get some sleep too. Lord knows you definitely need it." He smiled and nodded, before pulling the curtains back and stepping one foot out of the window. "Goodnight."

He looked back at me, that small smile on his face again, "Goodnight." He hesitated for a second before stepping out of the window, and he was off into the night. I stood there, looking at the now vacant window and letting the butterflies erupt in my stomach and trying to fight the squeal that wanted to be released. I walked over to the window and shut it, before getting into the shower to wash the day off of me. After that I flopped onto my bed, and drifted off to sleep, dreaming about a future that I could only wish to have.