Author notes:

Hi guys, I am sorry it took so long and that some of the chapters might be a little rough. I have my final project to write and I also had a bout of Writer's block, which was cured until two days ago after which I churned out the last three chapters in a couple of marathon sittings. I think a lot of the main plot is resolved in these chapters and that is probably a good thing. The plan now is to edit the story a bit and then begin considering Bonds II which should contain the entire first season, if and when I get to writing it.

Chapter 23: Phoenix Rising

            Dinah felt uncomfortable as she sat down. The rest of Gabby's family sat happily chatting at the breakfast table. She wanted to join in and forget about the worries that pressed in on her, but she couldn't put the dream past her. She felt antsy, she knew that she had to go tell her mom about it and soon, another conversation she wasn't looking forward to.

"So did you feel the earthquake last night?" Gabby suddenly asked her mom. Dinah stopped in the midst of the bite she was about to take and felt an icy feeling settle in her stomach.

"There was an earthquake. I haven't felt a thing," her dad replied.

"Me neither," her mom answered.

Dinah decided to quickly head off the discussion before Gabby began really thinking about the strange incident this night. She didn't want to have to alienate her friend, but if she got too close to her secrets that was what she would be forced to do. "It was really early this morning and I almost slept through it as well. All Gabby's knick knacks and stuff were shaking, but that was about it," she commented hoping no one would think to check and find out it had been a phenomenon that happened only in Gabby's room.

"Yeah, Dinah is right. I woke up and everything was shaking. I think Dinah would have slept through, but she woke up from her sweet dreams just in time to see it end," Gabby said.

"How long did it last," Gabby's dad asked with a lifted eyebrow.

Gabby cast a glance her way that Dinah found a little strange then answered, "Not long."

"Gabby would you mind if I go home right after breakfast. I would like to practice a little with my cello. I've been kind of neglecting it and I have to play in front of an audience in a couple of weeks," she said suddenly feeling even more like she needed to get home.

"Sure," Gabby said.

"By the way Gabby, your uncle was over last night. He has finally gotten a new job," Gabby's mom said.

Dinah didn't know much about Gabby's family and so only halfheartedly listened glad that the conversation had moved to another subject. "Really, I thought you said he would never get a reporting job again, because he got fired for incompetence the last time," Gabby replied. Dinah slowly tuned out the conversation, while rerunning her memories of the bird of fire and the shadowy figure controlling it last night.

Not even an hour later a rather surprised Gabby dropped her off in the middle of the city. "Are you sure I should drive you all the way home?" She asked as she often did, when she dropped her off at this spot.

Dinah couldn't help rolling her eyes and grinning. "Thanks for everything Gabby, I'll be fine. It is not a long way," she hinted knowing that it drove Gabby a little nuts not knowing where she lived.

Gabby cast a glance around the gothic sprawl surrounding them. "So which building is it?" She asked herself more than her.

"None of them," Dinah suggested in a playful tone.

Gabby looked up at her from inside the car, while Dinah lifted her bags. "Dinah, it was nice, but have I said something to offend you that I can't remember, because I've never seen you so eager to leave before. You didn't even stay long enough to beat my kid brother in his video games," Gabby asked.

"No, you didn't offend me. It is something else. I feel kind of bad for not telling my mom about going to a party on one of the few days in my week that I can actually spend with her. I want to go try to see if some us time is actually a possibility," she explained half lying half hoping.

"I wish you the best of luck, but I won't be keeping any fingers pressed. Your mom doesn't appreciate you for who you want to be Dinah. That is not gonna change until you do something about it," Gabby said in a sharp tone.

"Maybe, well I gotta go these are heavy," she said and lifted her bags. "Bye," she called out.

"See ya," Gabby replied and rolled up the car window before driving off. Dinah felt a short stab of envy for the car, then turned and headed the long way over towards the Clocktower which was still two blocks away.

"I'm home," she called out as she entered the Clocktower.

"Ah, Miss Dinah, it is good to see you. I'm afraid Miss Barbara has gone to sleep quite early this morning and hasn't arisen just yet," Alfred said in greeting, while he proceeded to dust the high tech medical part of her mom's lair.

"Hi, Alfred, how has your week been?" She asked the butler, who always seemed to have time to listen to and help her.

"Quite dull I must admit. The Manor is quite capable of existing without much help from me. I am however more interested in hearing about your week and if I might I would like be allowed to hear more of that piece you were practicing the last time I visited," he explained. She couldn't help smiling. Aside from her mom from time to time and of course her current teacher Alfred was one of the few people, who really encouraged her musical abilities.

"For you I would plow my way through any piece… if you promise to make me a sandwich for lunch later on," she answered.

He just smirked and his eyes flickered towards the kitchen. Dinah unabashedly turned and glimpsed a couple of loaves of bread sticking out of a paper bag. "If I didn't train so much I would be floating under ceiling as a blimp after each time you come over to cook. Mom is good, but you're much better… And I don't just mean with the food," she looked up at him letting some of her loneliness show. She hated herself for not trusting Alfred with her secrets either, but she didn't know if he would go to her mom and ruin years of carefully preserved secrets.

"Is something wrong, Miss Dinah?" The old man asked his eyes losing a bit of their merriment.

Dinah quickly hid her emotions again and answered, "Sometimes it is just hard to have to tell your best friend that she can't know where you live." Alfred nodded with an expression that made Dinah wonder how much he really knew or understood.

"Now I am guessing mom would not appreciate my cello music, while she's sleeping so I'm going to work out a little until she is up. Then I promise you'll get to hear a beautiful piece. I've tightened up my interpretation," she explained and grabbed her bag heading for her room.

Dinah snuck into the training room carefully closing them behind her. She felt anxious and full of pent up energy. Usually she would never contemplate practicing any of her martial arts at home because of all the cameras, but she was almost ready to stop caring. She was so tired of lying and hiding the truth from everyone. She needed fewer secrets in her life. Things had to change and hopefully soon they would.

She cast a glance around and used her telekinesis to nudge all the cameras in the training room so they didn't show a picture of the centre of the room. Then she proceeded with a warm up before launching into a full blown all out combat work-out even if she lacked a sparring partner to make it perfect. Soon she was so caught up and focused that she didn't notice the door behind her slide open and a pair of eyes looking in before it just as soundlessly slid closed again.

As she walked back towards the training room with her hair wet from a much needed shower and her cello case in her hands she found her mom sitting at Delphi reading something on screen. For a moment Dinah debated what she should do about her dream. It was clearly beginning a case that would mean something major for her, her mom or Helena otherwise she wouldn't have dreamt anything. Maybe she would be allowed to help if they got the information from her. Maybe she could use this convince her mom that she was good for something other than filling up a room in a flat they shared. She decided to give it a try.

"Mom, I would like to tell you something," she explained. Her mom looked up at her with a mix of curiosity and worry in her eyes.

"Is it about that party you and Gabby went to last night? Did something happen?" Her mom asked. Dinah was shocked for a short moment. How had her mom known? What had she done wrong?

"How did you know?" She asked.

"Dinah, I have been a teenager too not too long ago in fact and the party wasn't exactly a secret in school. I suspected that you wanted to go. So I called Gabby's parents last night and got my suspicions confirmed… What I'd like to know is why you couldn't ask me for permission?" Her mom looked a little hurt.

"Because I thought you'd never let me go," she admitted, while she wondered how many, if any of her secrets, secrets from her mom were really that secret. Did she know about all the other things she had done over the last few years or was this just an accident.

Her mom sighed slightly and slipped off her glasses. "Dinah, I think, we, you and I have some problems. We don't talk anymore. We hardly ever see each other and I think that maybe you should cut down on your activities," she suggested.

Dinah felt her anger flare. "I don't see why I should be the one to change my life anymore, because you're always busy. Maybe it is you, who should think about changing your routine not me," she raised her voice. She suddenly noticed her mom giving her a slightly wide eyed look. Things were rattling on the table. Dinah quelled her anger for a moment hating her abilities and how they always forced her to keep her emotions at neutral.

Barbara sat there for a moment staring at her. "Maybe you're right. Did you want anything else?"

Dinah nodded knowing that the other problem would not be addressed anymore in this conversation. It seemed that her mom just couldn't figure out how to deal with it. "I had a dream last night. It showed me that there is going to be some mysterious suicides amongst businessmen soon. It is part of something bigger something connected to fire or a bird made of fire, I don't know. But I do know that something pretty horrible is going to happen to New Gotham if we don't do something about it," she explained hoping that her allusion to her joining in wouldn't go unnoticed.

Her mom gave her a stare then looked up at one of the overhead plasma monitors. It showed some kind of paper clipping. "It has already started hasn't it," she asked.

Her mom looked at the screen then back at Dinah. It seemed as if some of conflicting emotions warred within her. "Thank you for telling me this. I hadn't thought to look closer at it today, but if it is important enough for you to dream about I'd best check into it," her mom said and ended the sentence with a look as if she waited for something to happen.

"It has to be important, if I dream about it, right… important to all of us. I could help… please let me," she asked.

"Dinah," her mom sighed, "I am going to look into it. Helena is going to help as well. I don't want you to help us. It could be dangerous and I don't want you involved in crime fighting now or any time in future. You've had enough bad experiences already."

"But I have taken self-defense for two years now. My powers have never been stronger. I could really help you and Helena. I could be your extra pair of hands and legs in the field or even here. Please mom, I just want to," but her speech was cut short by her mom.

"No," she yelled. "Don't say another word. It is not happening and you already know it. Go practice your cello, be great at that. You're much better off not getting involved," she explained in a harsh tone.

"Fine," Dinah said through clenched teeth and walked towards the training room that she would be using to practice purposefully opening and closing the doors with her telekinesis instead of her hands.

Dinah was furiously working her way through one of the most intense compositions she knew attempting to play the anger out of her system, but it wasn't helping. Finally sweating profusely she put down the bow and took a breather when she noticed that someone was standing really close behind her. Carefully she tried to guess who it was and decided from the near soundless approach and the height of the shadow on the floor that it could only be. "Hi Helena," she greeted her mom's partner in crime fighting and a person she had secretly been envious off for a long time now.

"Hi, kid, so you and Babs are having a little discussion again, huh. She sent me in here to get a few more details on that wacky dream of yours. I guess she didn't want to make you any angrier, even if I am not sure after seeing you play that it is even possible," Helena said and slowly walked over to stand in the sunlight coming through the pale clouds and the bullet proof windows.

"Yeah, I wanted to help. I mean I am sixteen now. I am as old as you were when mom started training you. Why can't I help you guys? It is even my dream, my clues you're basing your work on," she tried to explain.

Helena looked out the window again. "Your mom wanted you to give me a play by play on your dream," she said instead of answering her plea. Dinah felt a bit angry at that as well, but didn't comment it further. Instead she tried best she could to explain her dream of the newsroom and the fire even if she kept the origin point to herself. She was beginning to feel the stirrings of an idea. She ended up explaining about the shadowy figure controlling it all, but avoided telling Helena about seeing her birth mother or what had happened after that.

"And that is everything," Helena pressed.

Dinah made sure to think about something that was true, while lying, "Except some stuff earlier on about a really hot boy I saw at a party then yeah that was everything."

"Okay," Helena said and headed towards the door.

"Helena about me helping," she asked again. She really didn't want to continue lying to her mom or her friend, but she would if they decided to exclude her.

"Dinah, it is not going to happen. I can't spend time protecting you out there. It is way too dangerous, kiddo. It is not some romantic dream, where you're the good guy and every bad guy is a pushover. We're talking about real criminals with guns and things. There is no way I'd let you get into that," Helena said with sadness in her eyes before heading out.

Dinah waited until the door was closed before she kicked her chair away in frustration. She stood for a while forcing herself to remain calm before she walked over and got her chair back. She sat back down and decided it was time to fulfill her promise to Alfred. So she opened the door to the training room with her telekinesis and began playing the piece she was supposed to have mastered a while ago, but hadn't on the count of her martial arts training.

Helena left like such a rat as she walked back towards the main room, where Barbara sat listening to the tape of her conversation with Dinah. Barbara had insisted they need a record of Dinah's description instead of having to go talk to her about it constant. She felt it was a bit stupid, but then she felt that most of Barbara's fights with Dinah were a bit stupid lately. Dinah wanted in on their lives and Barbara kept pushing her away. It was tearing them apart.

Now she was the first to admit that she usually didn't spend too much time contemplating the reasons for other people's behavior, but she found herself wondering as she settled in to stand behind Barbara. "Aren't we taking all of this a little bit too serious? I mean it was just a dream," she said. Barbara turned her wheelchair around and stared at her with incomprehension. That irritated her more than a little. She knew she wasn't as smart as Barbara, but that look just felt rude.

"She hasn't been wrong about a threat yet. No, I am not taking this too seriously. My daughter predicts that the city is in grave danger and that it is tied to a couple of business men then it probably is. And there has already been one suicide already. Delphi is gathering all information on him right now, but I need you to take a scanner over and check his body. The police are saying it is suicide, but I want to be sure," Barbara handed her the little gadget.

"Barbara, why don't we just let Dinah help with this one? I mean, if she just helped you around here and we quietly let her learn by herself that this job is really not for nice people like her. If you keep turning her down, she might do something stupid," she suggested.

"No, the only way is to completely keep her out of it. You don't understand Helena. There are just too many things in Dinah's history. She wouldn't stop. She is the daughter of both her mothers… No, the only way to keep her out of it is to completely keep her away from it all," Barbara said.

"That is impossible as long as she stays here," she replied, turned and walked towards the elevator doors, hoping that Barbara would realize she was right, but only silence followed her on the way out.

"That is very beautiful Miss Dinah," Alfred commented after clapping. She had just finished the last tones. Slowly she put down her cello and turned around to greet her friend, who was standing next to her with a plate on which a sandwich rested.

"You've always appreciated my music the most, Alfred," she said and took the plate from him, "Thank you for that."

"In fact Miss Dinah I've always made my best effort to appreciate everyone as the person they are," he said.

"It may not be my place to comment, but I think Miss Dinah that two stubborn persons as your mother and Miss Kyle might not believe in words as much as in actions. Now you shouldn't take unnecessary risks, but I think you should at least consider some kind of intelligent action to get their attention," he said and pressed a key into her palm before leaving.

Dinah looked down at her hand with the key then at the place where the butler had stood just moments ago. He had given her some keys to some kind of car. She carefully put the cello away before walking over to the elevator with barely a glance in the direction of her mom sitting glued in front of Delphi sifting through what ever flowed across its screens at the moment.

In the parking garage a surprise awaited her in the form of a large black car almost a limousine that responded with a couple of beeps as she pressed the radio stud on the keys. She avoided going closer hoping her mom wouldn't examine the feeds of her too closely anymore today. Instead she headed back upstairs her mind full of thoughts on what she would do next and how she could get more information without her mom noticing.