Note: Next chapter, and I have to admit that I'm not overly happy with it.
I did a bit of re writing, but it still seems a little off. Anyway, lot's
of surprises in store for this chapter, and I hope you enjoy it at least a
little bit.
Disclaimer: Come on now, we all know that they're not mine, I just borrow them every now and then to act things out. Yep. . .that's all. Nothing suspicious goin on here, nope.
The sudden feeling of being cold and wet brought Dinah out of unconsciousness, her head was throbbing, but she slowly cracked her eyes open. Someone was just putting down a bucket, which, she figured, had been filled with the ice-cold water that was splashed on her. Her had moved to try and rub her face, but as she later realized she should've expected, her hands were cuffed into a chair. Looking around the room she really didn't see too much, it was a sterile white, but was well lit. In front of her, against the wall, was a covered cart, and to her left a clock was tacked onto the wall. She also noticed that her jacket along with the sleeves, and neck on her shirt had been removed. "Huntress?" She croaked.
"So sorry, but your friends are in another room right now, watching." The voice was very familiar, but Dinah's vision had started to sway, and she couldn't quite make out whom it was.
After a moment her vision settled, and she saw Saio standing before her. "You asshole." Dinah laughed shaking her head self-deprecatingly as she finally remembered their failed attempt, and why it was failed.
"I beg to differ, I wasn't the one trespassing and trying to blow up private property."
"So, what's your game Saio? What do you want? You have all the members of the team here and I know that you know that, so there's nothing that I could tell you." Dinah asked.
"No questioning this time." He walked over and crouched down so that he was eye level with her. "You've caused me a lot of problems, and it's annoying, you are annoying. A little buzzing fly that somehow seems to always be in the wrong place at the right time. This time is payback for every little set back you caused, and for every bomb you made sure failed, I hope you have as much fun as I will." He said amicably.
"We'll stop you, no matter what it takes. Remember what happened last time? I don't think you want to see me go crazy again." She threatened, staring him straight in the eye.
"You won't."
"What makes you so sure?" She questioned.
"Because, if you do that, your friends could be in trouble. They just might wind up suffering a little, Understand?" Dinah simply nodded her head in response. "Good. Well, time for the fun to begin don't you think, I figured you'd want to get started as soon as possible." He stood up smoothing out his suit, and walking over to a tray with a sheet covering it. "Just a few things to start us off." He said removing the sheet in one yank from the tray.
"Mr. Inyana has requested your presence." Saitoh stated.
"What for?" It was the informant from before.
"I believe that he said he wanted you to be used as a form of torture, he also said that you'd know what he was talking about."
"I do, but this is going to cost some money. If they escape they'll be after me next."
"Mr. Inyana has prepared for that already. Your money will be given only after Mr. Inyana is done with you." After a pause Saitoh added, "No negotiations."
"It'll do, let's go. I want to get this over with."
Saitoh took a quick glance at his watch it was eleven thirty a.m. "His first session should be ending shortly, you're scheduled for two o'clock, be an hour early. I trust that you know where the building is."
"Yes, one it is then." Both walked off in their separate directions.
Meanwhile, Barbara and Helena had been left alone in a barren room; the only thing about it was the two-way mirror in front of them. Like Dinah, both were strapped tightly into chairs, and for the past few minutes they had just been staring straight ahead, both worried about the still unconscious blonde. "Damn it!" Helena growled, testing the straps once again; she had tried using Huntress's strength but even that wasn't enough, clearly, these people had been prepared.
"We need to stay calm Helena." Barbara reasoned. "Save your strength, an opportunity may present itself where we'll need your abilities."
Helena sighed angrily, but did as she was told. "What happened Barbara?"
"What do you mean exactly?"
"Everything was going well, not according to plan exactly, but still good enough. All Dinah and I needed were a few more minutes, and the whole thing would've been over with. Then that son of a bitch walks in with you. How'd he get you Barbara?"
Now it was Barbara's turn to sigh, she really wished that she could rub her temples because she could feel the headache coming. "It was stupid of me Helena."
(Insert flash back here.)
"Look there they are now." A Kaze pointed out.
"Just wait for it. I want them further away then that, once they're in the sewer we'll wait one minute before putting the plan in action." The youkai, Tarokichi, ordered.
"Yes sir." Came the expected answer.
Tarokichi had been timing on his watch from the exact moment Huntress and Canary jumped down the manhole, one minute had finally passed, and with a flick of his hand he signaled the Kaze member furthest from him to begin the operation; he received a nod in response. Beside the Kaze was an odd box; he opened it by pulling the top half in opposite directions. Inside were several switches, buttons, wires and a small satellite, he pulled up the satellite to its full height, which was a few inches, and attached three wires into the bottom of it. Flipping two switches he looked to Tarokichi for permission to flip the third and final switch, a nod gave him the allowance he needed and the third switch was flipped. The satellite began to spin around, first in a circle one direction, then in a circle in the opposite direction.
"That's it then, communications shut down. Is the one on camera duty back yet?" Tarokichi asked.
"Just finished sir." The voice came from the left of where they were all crouched. "She's flying blind now so let's go." The members shouldered their gear and made their way down to the front of the warehouse.
Barbara had been keeping careful track of the girl's progress, she was in fact, very focused on it all even enjoying the banter between the two girls. "I know, I know, no more sewers." She sighed, dropping her head into her hand; that was just before the line went dead, and all she was able to hear was the crackle of snow on the other end. She looked at the security monitors, hoping to find some sort of intruder, but found that they to were out of commission. "Huntress? Canary? What the hell is going on?" She asked no one.
That was when the doors were flung open; four people charged in, each armed with guns. "You must be Mrs. Gordon. Take her out." Tarokichi ordered. Normally Barbara would refuse to go down without a fight, but this time she figured that if she fought back, there wouldn't be a next time, so for now she accepted it and let herself be knocked unconscious.
Her last thoughts were, "I hope Dinah and Helena can pull this off." Before she fell out of it completely.
(End of flashback.)
"I should have been watching the monitors, I should have seen that something wasn't right. I'm sorry." Barbara apologized, sounding so forlorn that Helena felt bad for even asking about it in the first place.
"It's okay Barbara, you couldn't have known what they were going to do." Helena tried to console Barbara. Suddenly a thought came and Helena's head snapped up. "Barbara?"
"Yeah?" Barbara could hear the confusion in the other woman's voice and knew that it didn't have much to do with the earlier incident.
"The security, when we got in, it was tighter than the screen ever showed, and they went to go get you with only five people the night we did this." Helena tried to explain hoping Barbara would simply catch on.
Not one to disappoint, Barbara did just that. "They knew, somehow they knew what we were planning, and when we were going to do it. They knew that I'd be alone which is why they only sent those few people. The real question now is, who told them?"
"And it's a good question to. Hey look, someone's going in Dinah's room." The someone was Saio, and Helena along with Barbara watched, and heard the whole conversation take place. There seemed to be speakers installed somewhere in the room so that they could hear everything going on. "I'm going to kill him Barbara, fuck the whole good guys don't kill. He's going to torture her for fun, and nobody does that to my girlfriend, nobody." Helena raged beginning to pull at the straps again.
Barbara just sat tense in her chair, her mind whirring considering all possible escape plans, but none came to her at the moment, right now Saio was the one in charge and he knew it. "Helena!" Barbara snapped at the still struggling figure.
"What?" Helena snapped back.
"You have to save your strength, this isn't going to help Dinah any. Now if you want to help her you'll stop wasting your energy, somehow we'll get the opportunity we need." Helena stopped, and both watched on in relative silence, it was hard though, seeing everything he was doing to Dinah.
There was one rule to torture Dinah had learned over the years, scream if you have to, but never tell them what they want. It was a little on the useless side right now since he wasn't asking anything, but since what he wanted was to hear her scream, she refused to give him that satisfaction. He had used a scalpel to carve his name in her forehead, it had hurt, but she had had worse before so that made it relatively easy to get through. Shallow cuts seemed to be the game at the time, but Saio also seemed to have something else in mind that pertained to them; this was proven when he took a bottle of vinegar and started pouring it on the cuts in generous amounts. The pain was intense, it felt like her body was on fire, and she had to bite her lower lip to keep the cries inside. "You look like you're enjoying yourself." Saio muttered distractedly.
"Let me out of this chair and I'll show you real fun." Dinah threatened with plenty of fight left in her, the pain had mostly receded and all that was left was dull throb.
"You know I can't do that Dinah." Saio said as though he were correcting a small child; he patted her leg as he said this harder than necessary knowing that the cuts would cause pain, he smiled slightly as she winced under her breath. He glanced up at the clock taking in the time. "Eleven thirty, your first session is done, and we'll move on to the next in a half hour." He left, and Dinah did the only thing that she could think of to do, she slept and waited for the next half hour.
"Time to wake up." Saio ordered Dinah who was still half asleep. "Still tired? Well I'll just have to help you wake up." This time she noticed that her hands were strapped behind her back, and that there was a large basin of ice water in front of her. "I hear that cold showers are great for waking up, but we'll just have to do our own little variation. Remember, try to escape, and your friends will be in trouble." She nodded morosely in response. "Let's begin." Roughly he grabbed her by the hair and shoved her face first into the water, it was freezing cold, and Dinah found her face getting numb quickly. He pulled her back out and she sucked in big, greedy breaths of air before he threw her back in. This continued until one thirty, only small breaks were taken in between, (most of them filled with him hitting her) and Dinah was shivering horribly. "You have another half hour."
"Helena, Barbara, I need to be strong if only for them." Dinah thought to herself as she fell back asleep.
This time she woke up a few minutes before Saio came in. "Ah, I see you're awake. I have a special guest for you, and I think that they'll be very familiar to you, but there are a few things I want you to know first. He's only been working for me a few months, but he's been very useful, I pay him money, and he helps deliver you along with a jail break."
"How can you be so sure that I know this person?"
"Because he knows you, and he says that he's known you for nearly, well let's not give you any hints. I want it to be a surprise. Here he is, Mr. Joseph Gareth." Saio introduced gesturing towards the door.
The man who stepped through was indeed very familiar to Dinah; in fact she had put a lot of trust in him for a long time. "Hello Dinah. I am sorry about this; I want you to know that. But he offered something I couldn't turn down." He did look genuinely sorry.
"Tek. I-I. . .what? I-I don't understand." Tears were present in her voice. "Why?"
"Please Dinah, I know we've been together for a long time, and it hurts to do this it really does."
"WHY?" She screamed at him sounding so heart broken. "Why did you betray me? You were the only family I had for five years Tek."
"I was offered a lot of money Dinah, to fuel all of my projects, and I was offered the allowance to keep my life, and for my wife to keep hers."
"Tek, he was in jail, and I would've stopped anyone who tried anything. You know how I feel about betrayal. And what's this about a wife?" She sobbed.
"I know Dinah, but I didn't have a choice. And yes I have a wife, we've been married for seven years, and I couldn't let her be killed."
"You just decided to sacrifice my life, and my friend's lives. You're why they knew aren't you; you were playing both sides the whole time, feeding all of us information. I think that you should leave now Tek, because if I ever see you again there will be hell to pay." A quick glance at Saio told him that he was allowed to leave, which he did gratefully.
"You didn't seem to happy." Saio commented with false concern.
"Fuck you. You and your organization and your cowardly ways." She yelled at him straining at the straps. "I've killed before, and although I regretted that, I won't regret doing it to you." Her tone was dark and sinister.
"I'll leave you to cool down for a little while I think."
He turned to leave but Dinah stopped him with one word. "When?"
"Hmmm?"
"When did you get him?" She clarified.
"Oh, when we found out that you were a double agent. His com link was active in my desk wasn't it?" Dinah nodded. "You should've realized something was wrong at that point, I may not know him well, but I know that he would've shut it off after he found out what happened. We communicated through that link, and he knew that we would be able to carry out our threats so, he decided to work for us."
"I hate you."
"I know." With that he left.
When she woke up from sleep again she found Helena to her left, and Barbara to her right. "Helena, Barbara."
"Yeah we're here babe, and I want you to know that I'm sorry about Tek." Helena told Dinah.
"I am to, but we're here for you Dinah, and when we get out of this we can be a family again." Barbara assured her.
"That would be nice." Dinah admitted.
"Are you okay babe? He wasn't being gentle." Helena asked.
"I'm fine, I can take a lot more than what he can dish out." Dinah boasted.
"Oh you can huh?" Their heads snapped towards Saio. "The reason your friends are here is because we're doing some fun stuff that I wanted them to be present for."
"Leave them out of this."
"Fine, just leave Dinah alone."
"Do what you want to us." These three comments came from all of the birds.
"Such loyalty, but what I want to do is what always seemed to be the most painful torture for you Dinah. I think you almost cracked the first time I had you. Oh wait you did crack, I remember, you went crazy and stormed the whole building." He added as an after thought.
He reached his hand towards Dinah's face, and she tried to escape it, but the solid wood chair kept her in place. "No, stop it. Leave her alone you bastard." Helena protested. It was too late though, his hand came in contact and stayed for what seemed like forever, but was only more like thirty seconds.
Dinah was pulled into his mind. She saw how he had threatened Tek, how he first started the Kaze, and how he sat in his office calmly killing all those that were failed Kaze applicants. It made her want to vomit, but in this mindscape it wasn't possible, instead she just felt ill. Then she saw him standing next to her looking almost panicked as he pointed and gestured. "How can you be here? This never happened before, why aren't you screaming?"
"I don't know." She answered truthfully. "But now that I'm here, I've got work to do."
Her look was icy and appraising, even though it was his mind, she was the stronger one here and both of them knew it. They began to fight, punches and kicks being thrown, countered, and blocked, but through the fight Dinah didn't seem to get tired instead she seemed to grow stronger and faster; Saio continued to be worn down. "It's my mind now get out." He yelled in desperation.
"No." She answered simply, as she punched him unconscious; a familiar pull brought her back to the real world. Saio's now blank eyes looked back at her, and she laughed, not because Saio was a vegetable, but because things were finally all right.
"Dinah, are you okay?" Helena asked, she meant to say more, but stopped when Saio simply fell over and Dinah laughed.
"Dinah?" Barbara asked with a note of trepidation in her voice.
"Don't worry everything is just fine, finer than it's been in awhile." Apparently there were hidden security camera's hidden in the wall, because a very large amount of Kaze came through the door with about half of the youkai in tow.
Guns were trained firmly on them, and Dinah grew serious. "We're leaving." All the bird's straps suddenly gave way, as though someone had wretched them free leaving the girls free to do what they needed.
"Dinah, but you're powers they hurt you." Barbara pointed out in confusion.
"I know, I don't really get it either, but you can figure it out later. "Huntress, let's have some fun." Huntress flashed a cocky grin, and rushed several of the guards after Dinah used her powers to take away their guns and throw them through the two-way mirror, which shattered from the force. Dinah sported a grin of her own as she went into battle "No pain, but lot's of gain." She thought to herself.
There were twenty-one in total, so Huntress and Canary didn't have time to play games with them; it was now a case of taking them down as fast as possible. Huntress tried mainly for headshots knowing that they would take down an average person fairly quickly, others she simply slammed head first into walls. Canary was more than capable of holding her own using a combination of her powers and physical combat to hold them off. After a few moments of fighting, all that were left standing were the birds and the youkai. "You know that me and my girl here could take you out easily, so what I want you to do is evacuate the building. Unless of course you want you and your associates to die a horrible flaming death." Huntress told them. They reluctantly left the room only after Dinah levitated several shards of glass, and scalpels over to them in a killing position. Moments later, they heard an evacuation alarm along with a verbal warning from the youkai.
"Time to go." Huntress stated once everything had been taken care of. "Do you think you can handle getting Saio?" Huntress asked.
"Don't worry I've got it under control, just worry about Barbara right now."
"I have to worry about you Dinah, he put you through all that and I just don't see how you can be so strong."
"I'm strong because I have you two, and as much as I'd like to continue this talk I think that it should wait for later." Dinah stated as she picked up Saio with her powers.
"More will be coming so we have to get going now." Said Barbara.
Huntress picked her up and they ran down to the storage area that they had previously been captured in, Saio seemed to be floating behind them. Canary spotted their 'utility belts' lying on top of one of the crates and could barely believe their luck. "Check it out." She said holding up the remote controlled explosive.
"Hurry up and set it, I want to get out of here." Huntress ordered, and Dinah was more than happy to oblige.
From a happy vantage point outside and far away from Kaze headquarters, they watched the building as it went up in smoke and flames. Dinah dropped the remote to the ground along with Saio who was still in a vegetable state, a relieved smile on her face "Let's go back to our temporary home." Dinah suggested, Helena with Barbara still in her arms followed Dinah back to the warehouse that had been their home for over two weeks now, equally as content as her girlfriend.
Note: So yeah, like I said a little on the disappointing side. And for those who might be worrying, don't. This isn't the last chapter, I know that there's at least a few of you who are dying to know why Dinah can use her powers, and all shall be explained soon. Let me know what you think though, cause I'm a little on the insecure side about this chapter, but like, hate, so-so, just let me know kay?
Disclaimer: Come on now, we all know that they're not mine, I just borrow them every now and then to act things out. Yep. . .that's all. Nothing suspicious goin on here, nope.
The sudden feeling of being cold and wet brought Dinah out of unconsciousness, her head was throbbing, but she slowly cracked her eyes open. Someone was just putting down a bucket, which, she figured, had been filled with the ice-cold water that was splashed on her. Her had moved to try and rub her face, but as she later realized she should've expected, her hands were cuffed into a chair. Looking around the room she really didn't see too much, it was a sterile white, but was well lit. In front of her, against the wall, was a covered cart, and to her left a clock was tacked onto the wall. She also noticed that her jacket along with the sleeves, and neck on her shirt had been removed. "Huntress?" She croaked.
"So sorry, but your friends are in another room right now, watching." The voice was very familiar, but Dinah's vision had started to sway, and she couldn't quite make out whom it was.
After a moment her vision settled, and she saw Saio standing before her. "You asshole." Dinah laughed shaking her head self-deprecatingly as she finally remembered their failed attempt, and why it was failed.
"I beg to differ, I wasn't the one trespassing and trying to blow up private property."
"So, what's your game Saio? What do you want? You have all the members of the team here and I know that you know that, so there's nothing that I could tell you." Dinah asked.
"No questioning this time." He walked over and crouched down so that he was eye level with her. "You've caused me a lot of problems, and it's annoying, you are annoying. A little buzzing fly that somehow seems to always be in the wrong place at the right time. This time is payback for every little set back you caused, and for every bomb you made sure failed, I hope you have as much fun as I will." He said amicably.
"We'll stop you, no matter what it takes. Remember what happened last time? I don't think you want to see me go crazy again." She threatened, staring him straight in the eye.
"You won't."
"What makes you so sure?" She questioned.
"Because, if you do that, your friends could be in trouble. They just might wind up suffering a little, Understand?" Dinah simply nodded her head in response. "Good. Well, time for the fun to begin don't you think, I figured you'd want to get started as soon as possible." He stood up smoothing out his suit, and walking over to a tray with a sheet covering it. "Just a few things to start us off." He said removing the sheet in one yank from the tray.
"Mr. Inyana has requested your presence." Saitoh stated.
"What for?" It was the informant from before.
"I believe that he said he wanted you to be used as a form of torture, he also said that you'd know what he was talking about."
"I do, but this is going to cost some money. If they escape they'll be after me next."
"Mr. Inyana has prepared for that already. Your money will be given only after Mr. Inyana is done with you." After a pause Saitoh added, "No negotiations."
"It'll do, let's go. I want to get this over with."
Saitoh took a quick glance at his watch it was eleven thirty a.m. "His first session should be ending shortly, you're scheduled for two o'clock, be an hour early. I trust that you know where the building is."
"Yes, one it is then." Both walked off in their separate directions.
Meanwhile, Barbara and Helena had been left alone in a barren room; the only thing about it was the two-way mirror in front of them. Like Dinah, both were strapped tightly into chairs, and for the past few minutes they had just been staring straight ahead, both worried about the still unconscious blonde. "Damn it!" Helena growled, testing the straps once again; she had tried using Huntress's strength but even that wasn't enough, clearly, these people had been prepared.
"We need to stay calm Helena." Barbara reasoned. "Save your strength, an opportunity may present itself where we'll need your abilities."
Helena sighed angrily, but did as she was told. "What happened Barbara?"
"What do you mean exactly?"
"Everything was going well, not according to plan exactly, but still good enough. All Dinah and I needed were a few more minutes, and the whole thing would've been over with. Then that son of a bitch walks in with you. How'd he get you Barbara?"
Now it was Barbara's turn to sigh, she really wished that she could rub her temples because she could feel the headache coming. "It was stupid of me Helena."
(Insert flash back here.)
"Look there they are now." A Kaze pointed out.
"Just wait for it. I want them further away then that, once they're in the sewer we'll wait one minute before putting the plan in action." The youkai, Tarokichi, ordered.
"Yes sir." Came the expected answer.
Tarokichi had been timing on his watch from the exact moment Huntress and Canary jumped down the manhole, one minute had finally passed, and with a flick of his hand he signaled the Kaze member furthest from him to begin the operation; he received a nod in response. Beside the Kaze was an odd box; he opened it by pulling the top half in opposite directions. Inside were several switches, buttons, wires and a small satellite, he pulled up the satellite to its full height, which was a few inches, and attached three wires into the bottom of it. Flipping two switches he looked to Tarokichi for permission to flip the third and final switch, a nod gave him the allowance he needed and the third switch was flipped. The satellite began to spin around, first in a circle one direction, then in a circle in the opposite direction.
"That's it then, communications shut down. Is the one on camera duty back yet?" Tarokichi asked.
"Just finished sir." The voice came from the left of where they were all crouched. "She's flying blind now so let's go." The members shouldered their gear and made their way down to the front of the warehouse.
Barbara had been keeping careful track of the girl's progress, she was in fact, very focused on it all even enjoying the banter between the two girls. "I know, I know, no more sewers." She sighed, dropping her head into her hand; that was just before the line went dead, and all she was able to hear was the crackle of snow on the other end. She looked at the security monitors, hoping to find some sort of intruder, but found that they to were out of commission. "Huntress? Canary? What the hell is going on?" She asked no one.
That was when the doors were flung open; four people charged in, each armed with guns. "You must be Mrs. Gordon. Take her out." Tarokichi ordered. Normally Barbara would refuse to go down without a fight, but this time she figured that if she fought back, there wouldn't be a next time, so for now she accepted it and let herself be knocked unconscious.
Her last thoughts were, "I hope Dinah and Helena can pull this off." Before she fell out of it completely.
(End of flashback.)
"I should have been watching the monitors, I should have seen that something wasn't right. I'm sorry." Barbara apologized, sounding so forlorn that Helena felt bad for even asking about it in the first place.
"It's okay Barbara, you couldn't have known what they were going to do." Helena tried to console Barbara. Suddenly a thought came and Helena's head snapped up. "Barbara?"
"Yeah?" Barbara could hear the confusion in the other woman's voice and knew that it didn't have much to do with the earlier incident.
"The security, when we got in, it was tighter than the screen ever showed, and they went to go get you with only five people the night we did this." Helena tried to explain hoping Barbara would simply catch on.
Not one to disappoint, Barbara did just that. "They knew, somehow they knew what we were planning, and when we were going to do it. They knew that I'd be alone which is why they only sent those few people. The real question now is, who told them?"
"And it's a good question to. Hey look, someone's going in Dinah's room." The someone was Saio, and Helena along with Barbara watched, and heard the whole conversation take place. There seemed to be speakers installed somewhere in the room so that they could hear everything going on. "I'm going to kill him Barbara, fuck the whole good guys don't kill. He's going to torture her for fun, and nobody does that to my girlfriend, nobody." Helena raged beginning to pull at the straps again.
Barbara just sat tense in her chair, her mind whirring considering all possible escape plans, but none came to her at the moment, right now Saio was the one in charge and he knew it. "Helena!" Barbara snapped at the still struggling figure.
"What?" Helena snapped back.
"You have to save your strength, this isn't going to help Dinah any. Now if you want to help her you'll stop wasting your energy, somehow we'll get the opportunity we need." Helena stopped, and both watched on in relative silence, it was hard though, seeing everything he was doing to Dinah.
There was one rule to torture Dinah had learned over the years, scream if you have to, but never tell them what they want. It was a little on the useless side right now since he wasn't asking anything, but since what he wanted was to hear her scream, she refused to give him that satisfaction. He had used a scalpel to carve his name in her forehead, it had hurt, but she had had worse before so that made it relatively easy to get through. Shallow cuts seemed to be the game at the time, but Saio also seemed to have something else in mind that pertained to them; this was proven when he took a bottle of vinegar and started pouring it on the cuts in generous amounts. The pain was intense, it felt like her body was on fire, and she had to bite her lower lip to keep the cries inside. "You look like you're enjoying yourself." Saio muttered distractedly.
"Let me out of this chair and I'll show you real fun." Dinah threatened with plenty of fight left in her, the pain had mostly receded and all that was left was dull throb.
"You know I can't do that Dinah." Saio said as though he were correcting a small child; he patted her leg as he said this harder than necessary knowing that the cuts would cause pain, he smiled slightly as she winced under her breath. He glanced up at the clock taking in the time. "Eleven thirty, your first session is done, and we'll move on to the next in a half hour." He left, and Dinah did the only thing that she could think of to do, she slept and waited for the next half hour.
"Time to wake up." Saio ordered Dinah who was still half asleep. "Still tired? Well I'll just have to help you wake up." This time she noticed that her hands were strapped behind her back, and that there was a large basin of ice water in front of her. "I hear that cold showers are great for waking up, but we'll just have to do our own little variation. Remember, try to escape, and your friends will be in trouble." She nodded morosely in response. "Let's begin." Roughly he grabbed her by the hair and shoved her face first into the water, it was freezing cold, and Dinah found her face getting numb quickly. He pulled her back out and she sucked in big, greedy breaths of air before he threw her back in. This continued until one thirty, only small breaks were taken in between, (most of them filled with him hitting her) and Dinah was shivering horribly. "You have another half hour."
"Helena, Barbara, I need to be strong if only for them." Dinah thought to herself as she fell back asleep.
This time she woke up a few minutes before Saio came in. "Ah, I see you're awake. I have a special guest for you, and I think that they'll be very familiar to you, but there are a few things I want you to know first. He's only been working for me a few months, but he's been very useful, I pay him money, and he helps deliver you along with a jail break."
"How can you be so sure that I know this person?"
"Because he knows you, and he says that he's known you for nearly, well let's not give you any hints. I want it to be a surprise. Here he is, Mr. Joseph Gareth." Saio introduced gesturing towards the door.
The man who stepped through was indeed very familiar to Dinah; in fact she had put a lot of trust in him for a long time. "Hello Dinah. I am sorry about this; I want you to know that. But he offered something I couldn't turn down." He did look genuinely sorry.
"Tek. I-I. . .what? I-I don't understand." Tears were present in her voice. "Why?"
"Please Dinah, I know we've been together for a long time, and it hurts to do this it really does."
"WHY?" She screamed at him sounding so heart broken. "Why did you betray me? You were the only family I had for five years Tek."
"I was offered a lot of money Dinah, to fuel all of my projects, and I was offered the allowance to keep my life, and for my wife to keep hers."
"Tek, he was in jail, and I would've stopped anyone who tried anything. You know how I feel about betrayal. And what's this about a wife?" She sobbed.
"I know Dinah, but I didn't have a choice. And yes I have a wife, we've been married for seven years, and I couldn't let her be killed."
"You just decided to sacrifice my life, and my friend's lives. You're why they knew aren't you; you were playing both sides the whole time, feeding all of us information. I think that you should leave now Tek, because if I ever see you again there will be hell to pay." A quick glance at Saio told him that he was allowed to leave, which he did gratefully.
"You didn't seem to happy." Saio commented with false concern.
"Fuck you. You and your organization and your cowardly ways." She yelled at him straining at the straps. "I've killed before, and although I regretted that, I won't regret doing it to you." Her tone was dark and sinister.
"I'll leave you to cool down for a little while I think."
He turned to leave but Dinah stopped him with one word. "When?"
"Hmmm?"
"When did you get him?" She clarified.
"Oh, when we found out that you were a double agent. His com link was active in my desk wasn't it?" Dinah nodded. "You should've realized something was wrong at that point, I may not know him well, but I know that he would've shut it off after he found out what happened. We communicated through that link, and he knew that we would be able to carry out our threats so, he decided to work for us."
"I hate you."
"I know." With that he left.
When she woke up from sleep again she found Helena to her left, and Barbara to her right. "Helena, Barbara."
"Yeah we're here babe, and I want you to know that I'm sorry about Tek." Helena told Dinah.
"I am to, but we're here for you Dinah, and when we get out of this we can be a family again." Barbara assured her.
"That would be nice." Dinah admitted.
"Are you okay babe? He wasn't being gentle." Helena asked.
"I'm fine, I can take a lot more than what he can dish out." Dinah boasted.
"Oh you can huh?" Their heads snapped towards Saio. "The reason your friends are here is because we're doing some fun stuff that I wanted them to be present for."
"Leave them out of this."
"Fine, just leave Dinah alone."
"Do what you want to us." These three comments came from all of the birds.
"Such loyalty, but what I want to do is what always seemed to be the most painful torture for you Dinah. I think you almost cracked the first time I had you. Oh wait you did crack, I remember, you went crazy and stormed the whole building." He added as an after thought.
He reached his hand towards Dinah's face, and she tried to escape it, but the solid wood chair kept her in place. "No, stop it. Leave her alone you bastard." Helena protested. It was too late though, his hand came in contact and stayed for what seemed like forever, but was only more like thirty seconds.
Dinah was pulled into his mind. She saw how he had threatened Tek, how he first started the Kaze, and how he sat in his office calmly killing all those that were failed Kaze applicants. It made her want to vomit, but in this mindscape it wasn't possible, instead she just felt ill. Then she saw him standing next to her looking almost panicked as he pointed and gestured. "How can you be here? This never happened before, why aren't you screaming?"
"I don't know." She answered truthfully. "But now that I'm here, I've got work to do."
Her look was icy and appraising, even though it was his mind, she was the stronger one here and both of them knew it. They began to fight, punches and kicks being thrown, countered, and blocked, but through the fight Dinah didn't seem to get tired instead she seemed to grow stronger and faster; Saio continued to be worn down. "It's my mind now get out." He yelled in desperation.
"No." She answered simply, as she punched him unconscious; a familiar pull brought her back to the real world. Saio's now blank eyes looked back at her, and she laughed, not because Saio was a vegetable, but because things were finally all right.
"Dinah, are you okay?" Helena asked, she meant to say more, but stopped when Saio simply fell over and Dinah laughed.
"Dinah?" Barbara asked with a note of trepidation in her voice.
"Don't worry everything is just fine, finer than it's been in awhile." Apparently there were hidden security camera's hidden in the wall, because a very large amount of Kaze came through the door with about half of the youkai in tow.
Guns were trained firmly on them, and Dinah grew serious. "We're leaving." All the bird's straps suddenly gave way, as though someone had wretched them free leaving the girls free to do what they needed.
"Dinah, but you're powers they hurt you." Barbara pointed out in confusion.
"I know, I don't really get it either, but you can figure it out later. "Huntress, let's have some fun." Huntress flashed a cocky grin, and rushed several of the guards after Dinah used her powers to take away their guns and throw them through the two-way mirror, which shattered from the force. Dinah sported a grin of her own as she went into battle "No pain, but lot's of gain." She thought to herself.
There were twenty-one in total, so Huntress and Canary didn't have time to play games with them; it was now a case of taking them down as fast as possible. Huntress tried mainly for headshots knowing that they would take down an average person fairly quickly, others she simply slammed head first into walls. Canary was more than capable of holding her own using a combination of her powers and physical combat to hold them off. After a few moments of fighting, all that were left standing were the birds and the youkai. "You know that me and my girl here could take you out easily, so what I want you to do is evacuate the building. Unless of course you want you and your associates to die a horrible flaming death." Huntress told them. They reluctantly left the room only after Dinah levitated several shards of glass, and scalpels over to them in a killing position. Moments later, they heard an evacuation alarm along with a verbal warning from the youkai.
"Time to go." Huntress stated once everything had been taken care of. "Do you think you can handle getting Saio?" Huntress asked.
"Don't worry I've got it under control, just worry about Barbara right now."
"I have to worry about you Dinah, he put you through all that and I just don't see how you can be so strong."
"I'm strong because I have you two, and as much as I'd like to continue this talk I think that it should wait for later." Dinah stated as she picked up Saio with her powers.
"More will be coming so we have to get going now." Said Barbara.
Huntress picked her up and they ran down to the storage area that they had previously been captured in, Saio seemed to be floating behind them. Canary spotted their 'utility belts' lying on top of one of the crates and could barely believe their luck. "Check it out." She said holding up the remote controlled explosive.
"Hurry up and set it, I want to get out of here." Huntress ordered, and Dinah was more than happy to oblige.
From a happy vantage point outside and far away from Kaze headquarters, they watched the building as it went up in smoke and flames. Dinah dropped the remote to the ground along with Saio who was still in a vegetable state, a relieved smile on her face "Let's go back to our temporary home." Dinah suggested, Helena with Barbara still in her arms followed Dinah back to the warehouse that had been their home for over two weeks now, equally as content as her girlfriend.
Note: So yeah, like I said a little on the disappointing side. And for those who might be worrying, don't. This isn't the last chapter, I know that there's at least a few of you who are dying to know why Dinah can use her powers, and all shall be explained soon. Let me know what you think though, cause I'm a little on the insecure side about this chapter, but like, hate, so-so, just let me know kay?
