Chapter 19

"I was needed, but I myself did not need. I had followers, but not allies, and only now do I understand the difference. And it is vast."

- Steven Erikson

Fellyra

The Mountain's Training Room, Happy Harbor

February 20th, 2013 2:00 EDT

Acacius grunted as Fellyra landed a kick to the center of his chest, adding a little of her OM-54 strength to knock him back. She didn't give him time to recover before launching at him, her sword raised. Acacius could barely block her attack.

"I yield! I yield!" The man yelped. Fellyra's spectators watched in awe as the girl changed the trajectory of her sword in a moment and stabbed it into the ground next to Acacius's shoulder. The phantom teen sighed; although he was already dead, he was sure that he would have felt the pain of a sword piercing him in his soul.

"What magnificent strategy and forethought, along with technique and strength." Black Canary praised as Acacius disappeared into the shadows and Fellyra sheathed her sword, a sigh escaping her lips. Although everyone wanted to ask, it was Green Arrow who voiced it: "Who was your mentor?"

"I guess you could say I had a lot of mentors," Fellyra said nonchalantly, glancing over at Batman and Nightwing and knowing with one look that they didn't say anything. "My mother and uncle taught me about my magic or the basics of it at least, and the predecessors taught me all about the Darkness."

"And your fighting?" Black Canary asked, she didn't want to pry but the Canary believed that Fell could help with training the younger team members and in order to do that, she wanted to know who trained her. "Was it Adrian? Marx?"

Fellyra shook her head. "Adrian mostly helped me brush up on my skills, among other things, and Marx taught me more about modern-day weapons and how to disarm someone, whether they are bigger than you or not. A lot of my training was beaten into me by my father and Ra's al Ghul."

"Ra's al Ghul?" The older heroes exclaimed, and the younger ones looked at her warily.

"Seriously?" Fellyra asked, glancing over at the Bats. "Are you guys the only brains within this whole operation? I thought this whole trial by combat challenge was a dead giveaway."

"I thought the Arabic symbol on your shoulder was the giveaway that you were trained by the shadows, especially when we could see it when you were wearing an outfit that was eerily identical to the League of Shadows uniform before." Artemis pointed out. Everyone looked at her as if to ask how she knew, and the girl just shrugged. "Raised by Sportsmaster, remember? I know a Shadow's symbol when I see one. And before anyone asks, it wasn't my secret to tell."

"You could have at least told me." Wally's voice was filled with disappointment. Although he had found out about Fellyra's heritage with the Bat Family, he wished his girlfriend had trusted him with what she knew.

"You talk a lot, babe," Artemis said. "And we all didn't trust her, me mostly because I knew she was trained by the Shadows, but you would not have taken the news lightly, Wally. When you get an idea in your head, you tend to stick with it."

"Artemis is correct, Kid Flash," Aqualad said, reassuringly. "Had we known the Fellyra was trained by the Shadows, by Ra's al Ghul, we would have seen her as nothing more than a mole. Even now, this news makes me warily, but the fact that they are willing to call her out in front of the world, assures me she is not one of them."

"I'm also not from this Earth." Fellyra reminded. "My alliance would technically be with the Shadows of my Earth and not this one."

"Wouldn't they want the same thing?" Artemis asked.

Fellyra shook her head and crossed her arms. "All the heroes are dead on my world, remember? The villains want for nothing… well more than half the time, they don't."

"That's horrible." Miss Martian gasped.

Fellyra just shrugged and began typing on her holo-computer, pictures of her Earth appearing on the screen. She scrolled through them showing the different cities that were dark and almost destroyed; the only city that was relatively ok was Central City and, in those pictures, there were signs of two red blurs passing through the streets.

"Cool! There's a Kid Flash on your Earth!" Wally cheered.

"Not really." Fellyra scrolled to another photo showing a picture of the Flash that the team had seen before and a young teen, about Fellyra's age with long brown hair. The Flash of Earth X-2 wore something similar to the Golden Age Flash of this Earth, while the girl wore a suit very similar to this Earth's current Flash but instead of the cowl, she wore a red mask that covered the top half of her face. "As I've said before, Jay Garrick is our Flash, but our Jay Garrick isn't your Jay Garrick. He has a daughter named Elizabeth and she is the other speedster named Jesse Quick."

"Jesse?" Miss Martian looked very confused and Fell chuckled. "Is Jesse a human nickname for Elizabeth?"

"It isn't, M'gann," Nightwing informed her.

"She chose the name in order to honor the original Jesse Quick, Jesse Chambers."

"Oh!"

Fell changed to the next picture and brought up what looked like a news article of a 14-year-old Fellyra in civvies standing on top of a toppled over Mustang and yelling out into the panicked crowd. She was quick to change the pictures and reveal more cities and villains.

"One hero alone cannot protect the whole world. And I wasn't much of a hero back then, so I didn't help too much. And no matter what, you can only do so much when villains are willing to work together." Fellyra said.

"And now Marx, who knows exactly how we were taken down on your Earth, is working with our enemy because he's your enemy," Superman said.

"Because he's my enemy, he's said nothing about the rest of you. He wants to hurt me, so he revealed my identity, but he won't do anything until he's killed me first." Fellyra assured him.

"Killed?!" Miss Martian gasped.

"It's a TRIAL BY COMBAT!" Fellyra exclaimed. "What do you think happens?"

"So, you're going to kill Marx?" Beast Boy asked, his voice quivering with fright.

"No!" Fellyra said, exasperated. "I have a plan. Marx was my friend and because it's my fault he's like this, I have to save him."

"You owe him nothing," Nightwing told the teen. "You don't have to force yourself to save someone who doesn't want to be saved themselves."

"Then if not for Marx, I need to save Kaden."

Fellyra

Purgatory on Earth 16

February 22nd, 2013 12:00 EDT

The moment Fellyra's feet touched the shore of Earth 16's "Purgatory", she was surrounded by Shadows. Instinctively her fingers tightened around her katana, prepared for an attack. Instead, they led her further down the beach and around a rather large rock formation. Just on the other side of it, Marx stood in the center of a rock ring with his arms crossed and his katana laying at his feet. In the trees at the edge of the beach, Fellyra noticed that Cheshire and Sportsmaster stood just in the shadows of the forest with Ra's al Ghul standing between them.

"Where's Ira?" Fellyra asked, getting straight to business. Marx glanced up and smirked at the girl as she walked with the Shadows surrounding her. She stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the other assassins guiding her; after all, she wore her Nox outfit which made her a red spot, among a sea of shadows (Ha!).

"Wow!" Marx chuckled as Fellyra stopped a few feet away from her opponent. "I must say that I am pleasantly surprised that you didn't run from this fight, or rely on dirty tricks this time."

"You've threatened my friend, you've threatened my family, and you've threatened innocents to get me here. I'm not running anymore." Fellyra growled. "Now, where is Ira?"

Marx just grinned and then the Shadows that had been surrounding her, left her side and made their way into the trees slightly behind Marx. They came back not even a moment later with Kaden between them. His hands were bound in front of him and there was a cloth gag in his mouth; his grayish-blue eyes were filled with fear, not for himself but for her.

They stopped when they made it to Marx's side, and he placed a hand on Kaden's shoulder. Instead of flinching, the teen glared at his tormentor which Fellyra gave him props for.

"He's alive." Marx chuckled and pushed the boy forward and he stumbled forward. He landed on his knees halfway between the two combatants, too exhausted to keep walking. Fellyra quickly met Kaden and knelt next to him, removing his gag.

"Why did you come here, Nox?" Kaden asked, eyes wide.

"Because I won't let you die because of my mistakes," Fellyra told him simply before looking him over. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine and I would have been fine if you hadn't shown up. This is a trap."

"I know. I can read lips."

Kaden rolled his eyes and then glared at a smirking Marx over his shoulder. "What's your plan?"

"This: Umbra!" The ruby eyed shadow rose from the shadows behind Fellyra and stood behind her silently awaiting orders. At the appearance of the shadow, Marx and the other villains' eyes widened with shock and a bit of fright. Marx had never seen the being before since Fellyra never used it in her fights against him, choosing not to use that ability because she never wanted to hurt Marx. Not after the island incident. "Ad montem!"

The shadow quickly moved from behind Fellyra and began to circle Kaden. The teen's eyebrows frowned and then he realized what Fellyra was planning and made to stop her, but Umbra was too fast, and Kaden disappeared with the shadow.

"Neat trick," Marx said, anger and resentment sneaking into his voice, his façade almost dropping. "Where was that trick when Mei was killed? Where were all these powers back on the island?"

"Back then I had no control over them." Fellyra slowly stood and faced Marx. "And I didn't know I could do that particular trick until recently."

Fellyra pulled her blade from its sheath and settled into a defensive stance; sword pointed out in front of her and her sheath held defensively at her side. "But we're not here to talk about what I can and can't do with my powers. You wanted a fight; you've got it."

Marx grinned wickedly, pulling his blade from its sheath and throwing the sheath to the side, which Fellyra took note of. Although in her training matches with Acacius, Fellyra would always make the first move, she couldn't do that with Marx. He was unpredictable and she knew nothing about how he fought with a sword, unlike with Acacius who she knew like the back of her hand.

The two combatants circled each other, waiting for the other to make a move and neither giving any indication about what their plan was. Fellyra would like to say that she didn't get distracted, even for a moment, but she did, and it was because she saw the sun reflect off something in Sportsmaster's hand. A camera. They were recording her.

Here he comes. A voice warned, and although she was angry that he was so close to the surface, at that moment she was glad because Marx wasn't pulling any of his punches. Without that warning, Fellyra wouldn't have been able to dodge Marx's blade and then roll out of the way.

Marx chuckled before launching at the girl once more and she easily deflected his attack with her sheath and then slashed out with her own sword, which Marx barely dodged. They exchanged blows a couple of times, Fellyra's arms quivering from the pressure from Marx's hits. Any time Fellyra knew that she wouldn't be able to deflect Marx's attack, she would dodge.

When she had grown tired of just parrying, Fellyra lashed out, catching his blade between her own and her sheath and then kicked him in the stomach. Fellyra would be lying if she said she didn't use any of her magic during that fight; in that very moment, she used it to give her a little extra strength in order to kick Marx to the ground. Then she held the tip of her blade at his neck.

"Yield Marx! You can't win and I won't kill you."

"And why's that?" Marx chuckled. "You've already tried once before and don't act like killing is above your morals. The ends justify the means, remember?"

Fellyra scowled and removed her blade from Marx's neck and stepped back, standing away from the downed man with her sword down by her side. The girl spoke silently, as if uncertain. "That's not who I am anymore. So, if you won't yield then this fight will go on until neither of us can fight any longer. Or until you kill me if you can."

Marx smirked as he made his way back to his feet.

Behind you. Fellyra jumped to the side as an arrow soared through the air where she just was. She turned slightly to find where it came from, but only saw darkness and trees. But she was positive it was one of the Shadows. Block!

Fell quickly turned, bringing up her blade as a guard. Because of her slow reaction and Marx's brute strength, her katana was torn from her hand and skidded across the sand. She barely had time to duck as Marx continued to attack. She tried using her sheath to block but it was broken clean in half after the fifth block.

At this point, she knew she had one choice if she was going to survive. So, she backflipped away from Marx and grabbed something from the pouch at her thigh. Launching herself at Marx once more, she ducked under his blade and struck out with her left hand, the sun glinting off something.

Marx grabbed that hand, halting its trajectory millimeters from his neck. This didn't deter Fellyra as she dropped the object in her hand and caught it with the other before plunging it into Marx's chest. A stunned silence fell upon the beach until Marx stumbled away from the teen, pulling an emptied syringe from his chest.

"W-What—"

"It's a cure," Fellyra informed him. "Vincent made it using the OM-54 serum I stole from the shipment in Gotham."

Marx looked at the girl wide-eyed as his body began to shake. He fell to his knees gasping for air and then his eyes slide close slowly. Marx's body crumbled to the ground in a heap and Fellyra ran to him, spotting Cheshire and Sportsmaster running at her from the corner of her eye.

"Ad montem!" Fellyra commanded as she laid a hand on Marx's shoulder. Then there was darkness before the Mountain's gray walls came into view once more.

"Fell!" Kaden yelled, surprise lacing his tone.

The teen grinned tiredly at her friend before noticing the red magic that had slither to take a hold of him, Batman, Black Canary, Flash, Nightwing, Kid Flash, and Wonder Woman. Fellyra got up to help them when someone spoke up.

"Move and lover boy becomes a pin cushion." Fellyra turned to glare at Talia al Ghul who held a crossbow aimed at Kaden. Klarion stood beside her and beside him stood Captain Boomerang and Deadshot, their guns pointed at Fell.

"Seriously?" Fellyra grumbled. "They couldn't send a likable al Ghul?"

Klarion began laughing and Talia glared at the girl. "Likable al Ghul? Who would that be?"

"Nyssa." The girl said without hesitation.

Talia's fingers tightened around her crossbow, her knuckles turning white and Fellyra was sure she was going to get an arrow to the eye until Marx started grunting. He stood slowly, clutching his head and Fellyra was growing tense by the moment. She had no idea if the cure would work, after all, there are only two people who have the OM-54 serum coursing through their veins and Fell didn't test it on herself. Was it the Rage that wanted to make her suffer or Marx himself?

Hope blossomed in her chest when she saw that his eyes were no longer bright blue that was an indicator of the OM-54 serum. But that hope was shattered with Captain Boomerang's next words.

"Now what was the point of curing him? You can't actually believe that the man wasn't a villain before this 'Rage' as you call it."

"I trust in the man he was," Fellyra said.

"Didn't he kill your brother?"

"Emphasis on 'was'."

Captain Boomerang chuckled and looked at the man as he rubbed his temples and tried to catch his bearings. "Come on, man. Don't tell me that only this Rage is the root of all your hate. Even if it was, you should probably join the winning side."

Marx blinked slowly and looked over at Fellyra, then a smirk pulled at his lips. "If you think you'll beat her at that distance, you have another thing coming. Her magic gives her quite the advantage at a distance. My suggestion is to put a gun to her head."

He pointed at Fellyra and her eyes narrowed. Deadshot grins at Captain Boomerang before walking up to the teen and placing the barrel of his gun right in the center of her head. The steel was cold against her skin and Kaden had shouted something behind her but Fell didn't take her eyes off Marx. She watched as he walked up to Captain Boomerang and noticed as his fingers rolled into a fist.

"Too bad your still so small, kiddo. Maybe you could have gained the upper hand if you could have disarmed someone twice your size." Marx laughed.

Fellyra's eyes widened just a fraction when his words triggered a far off memory of a better time.

"I'm an excellent Marksman." A young Fellyra bragged as she ran after Marx who was leading her into the woods with Mia, Mei, and Joseph. "It was a priority that I was taught to kill someone close up or from a distance."

"But what about defending yourself or disarming someone? Did they teach you that?" Marx asked.

"No. I was taught to kill; there was no need to defend myself or disarm anyone." Fellyra informed him, eyebrow raised. "Plus, I'm small. There's no way I can disarm someone bigger than me. So, I was taught that if it ever came to that situation, I would run."

Marx grinned. "That's not true. With the right technique and training, you can disarm anyone, kiddo."

"Welcome to the winning side." Captain Boomerang chuckled as he laid a hand on Marx's shoulder.

"You know," Marx drawled. "Once you've assumed you've won, is when you actually begin to lose."

Everything after that seemed to happen almost too fast. Marx had grabbed Captain Boomerang's arm and punched him in the face, ripping the gun from his hand as he fell and turning it on Klarion. When Marx did this, Fellyra took advantage of the distraction and grabbed Deadshot's extended arm, twisting his wrist and then pulling him so that she could use his trajectory to trip him and throw him to the ground. Although before he hit the ground, Fellyra made sure to not only grab the second gun that was in his waistband but to also punch him in the kidney. So, when he hit the ground, he clutched his side and groaned. Fellyra then aimed one gun at Talia and then the other at Deadshot so he didn't get up.

Captain Boomerang groaned from his spot on the ground. "Dude! Did you just get taken down by a tiny teenage girl?"

"Ugh! I'm man enough to admit that not only did I get taken down by a little schoolgirl, but that she took both my guns and kidney punched me." Deadshot chuckled breathlessly. Fellyra just rolled her eyes and released the safety on both the guns.

Then Talia started to laugh, a condescending one that had Fell's blood boiling. "Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt that Marx would shoot us if he knew we wouldn't get the upper hand at that moment. But you? Someone who thinks of themselves as a hero? You won't shoot us no matter what."

Talia raised her weapon once more, so sure of herself that she didn't fear for her life as long as Fellyra held the gun. But then a loud bang echoed around the mountain, a bullet embedding itself in the wall right behind Talia. The bullet had come so close to Talia, that it clipped her ear and blood blossomed at the wound.

Fellyra moved the gun back so that it was aimed at the center of Talia's forehead. The room had grown silent and even Marx looked at the teen shocked. "I promise you that the next one won't miss if you stay here and continue to threaten my friends. I'm no hero and I have no problem ending you right here right now if it means my friends are safe."

Klarion began to giggle loudly, excited by the turn of events and the golden glint that had settled in Fellyra's eyes. A red vortex appeared behind him and Talia. "Well, this escalated quickly, which means it's time for us to retreat. See ya later armadillo."

Both him and Talia stepped back into the vortex and they were gone in the blink of an eye. And although the two had disappeared, Fell and Marx kept their weapons trained on where the two villains once stood until the magic released the heroes behind them. Once they were free, Fellyra relaxed and began to unload the guns she had and tossed them aside.

"Okay." Deadshot groaned. "They're gone and I held up my end of the deal, so let me up."

"Deal?!" Captain Boomerang exclaimed.

Fellyra ignored him and held out her hand to Deadshot and helped him to his feet. "Thanks for the warning beforehand. Who knows would have happened if I hadn't had a warning."

"We were lucky that Marx was on your side. If the cure hadn't worked, I don't think we could have taken them."

"What is going on!?" Kid Flash exclaimed as Flash and Batman moved to put handcuffs on Captain Boomerang. Marx held up his hands in surrender and slowly placed his gun on the ground before kicking it away. To be cautious, Batman handcuffed Marx who didn't struggle like Captain Boomerang.

"I asked Waller if I could borrow one of her toys," Fellyra said simply. "So, we made a deal. Deadshot gets 10 years off his prison sentence if he successfully helps me infiltrate the Light and find out what they were planning with Marx."

"I would have taken that deal!" Captain Boomerang. "Hell! 10 years! That's the rest of my prison sentence, I would have made that deal."

"You were trying to break out and make deals with the Light already." Fellyra deadpanned. "You would have told them everything. You're lucky that Waller didn't blow your head the minute you forced your way out with Deadshot."

"Deadshot said he hacked our bombs!"

"I'm not a hacker," Deadshot told him.

"Oh, man! The bombs are still intact?"

Fellyra nodded before using her magic to call forth another set of handcuffs and locking Deadshot up. The man didn't struggle, mostly because he knew he would have to go back for a few weeks before he would be let free for time served.

"What's the plan now?" Wonder Woman asked and Batman narrowed his eyes at Fellyra. Although it seemed like Fell was acting, he couldn't forget how Fell not only shot a gun, but she aimed it back at Talia's head without an ounce of hesitation. The fact that Fellyra admits that she's not a hero and was willing to make a deal that provided the freedom to someone like Deadshot made Batman weary of her. Not only that, but there's the broadcast of Fell and Marx fighting… The ends justify the means, remember?

Fellyra made her way over to Marx with Deadshot and Deadshot dropped down next to Captain Boomerang. "First, I'm going to bring Marx back to our Earth, and then after, I'll bring Ira back to Earth X."

Kaden eyed Fellyra's right bicep, suspecting that the mark had probably spread quite a bit. Fellyra met his eyes and then glanced at her bicep before adding, "I might have to wait a few days before I take you home, Ira. I've already used a lot of magic and I'm not sure I can make two trips."

"That's fine. I don't mind staying here for a bit." Kaden relaxed and smiled at her softly. "I'll call the others and let them know I'm okay."

"Tell them I'm sorry," Marx said suddenly and all eyes turned to him. "I don't know what was wrong with me and I wouldn't have done everything I did if not for that stupid drug.."

"It was the Rage," Fellyra told him. "It's almost like another being is telling you to do everything bad you've ever thought of. If I had warned you about it, it may not have been able to take you over."

Marx frowned. "I'm sorry for what I did to you, kid. I blamed you for Mei's death and you were barely eleven years old and then I tortured you, even killed you."

"An eye for an eye."

"And I'm the reason Holden died. I killed your brother, yet you've gone out of your way to save me."

Fellyra's face twisted into a frown. "If I can't be blamed for Mei's death, then I cannot blame you for Holden's. He made his choice to go after you knowing that Ra's had agreed to resurrect me. All you did was trap him and left him. The police were the ones that blew the warehouse; you couldn't have known."

"I left him there with the intention that he'd never be found."

"And I've forgiven you," Fellyra said finally. The room fell into stunned silence. Fellyra rubbed at the mark on her arm and her eyes saddened. "I don't have enough time left in the world to hold a grudge against someone who wasn't in control of their actions."

Kaden's soft smile fell from his face and Marx looked at Fellyra confused. Before he could ask what Fellyra meant, the rest of the people in the Mountain rushed in, looking ready for a fight.

"You're late!" Kid Flash scolded.

Fellyra just chuckled before laying a hand on Marx's shoulder. She didn't get to hear their argument because she had cast her spell to bring Marx and her to Earth X-2. One of her problems was taken care of, two more to go.