WWLAOS: Those both play out a bit further in, but I don't want to say too much.

Oneredneckgoddess: Compliment? I'm going to take it as one. Thank you.

"I will go, and do my best to recover Zatanna. If you will not help me, I will go alone." J'nol announced the next morning at breakfast.

"Don't be silly, of course I'm going." I spoke up. It wasn't like I had a choice. "You'd all get lost without my guidance." I grinned trying to look puffed up, and important.

"Shhh Aisha. We're perfectly capable of getting lost, even with your help." Ace chuckled. "Songbird?"

"I can't stop you, so I might as well go along." She answered. In one of her rare moments, Annia spoke.

"It would appear that I must follow that you do not destroy yourselves, foolishly rushing in, where you cannot get out." She snapped her mouth shut, and returned to eating.

"You're all going to die you know." Rebecca snapped, pushing away from the table. "Just like they did, and then you'll leave Inza alone. I won't go, I won't do that to her."

"I know what you're afraid of, but we aren't going to die." Ace replied, reaching to put a hand on her shoulder. She jerked away as she stood.

"You don't know that, and didn't you hear him last night? He said one of us wouldn't make it to the past." Rebecca snapped.

"Oh, right." Ace replied.

"Fine, stay home, we'll go without you, and you can be the one that doesn't make it." I shrugged, doing my best to end the argument. It didn't work as well as I'd hoped.

"But we can't leave her behind. I don't know if we can do it without her." Ace replied.

"I agree. If she does not go, you are all placed in danger." Inza spoke up from the head of the table. Rebecca, I understand your concerns, but you must think of your parents. What would they do?" She asked. Rebecca looked at the floor.

"I don't know. But I doubt they'd foolishly rush in, without knowing what they were up against." She answered after a moment.

"She is at least right in part." Alfred answered with a slight smile.

"Your father maybe. I know my parents would probably not have stopped to eat breakfast." I answered with a slight smile. "Mom at least. Dad was a marine, so he might have waited to eat first."

"No, he would have charged in regardless of the danger." Inza replied. "As would your mother." She nodded at Ace and Rebecca. "And your father." She offered to Songbird.

"And our father?" Ace asked.

"And my mother?" Songbird inquired.

"Would have both waited for a few moments, pretending to plan, and then charged in head long, usually to help the other parent." Inza smiled.

"Do you really think I'll be useful on the way?" Rebecca nodded.

We all nodded. "Of course you will." I answered. "Besides, Ace is useless without you." Ace almost replied to that, but cut it off seeing the laugh on his sisters face.

"Alright, I'll go." She answered after a moment.

"Excellent. Eat breakfast." Inza smiled slightly, not betraying an ill feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had always had the same feeling whenever Kent went into battle as Doctor Fate, and she'd never revealed it to him either. Only two people had ever figured it out. J'onn, and Adam. The former was not a surprise, he was too astute not to notice something about her. The latter was unexpected. He'd arrived to speak with her, because he and Fate did not get along, and had done so just after the other had left. It seemed he'd been able to sense the difference in her. Each had given advice. J'onn that Fate was competent, and sure of himself, so much that he could not fail. Adam had simply said that Fate wouldn't let himself lose, so she had nothing to worry about. Neither of them had been particularly comforting alone, but together, they made her feel better. Now she had no such assurances.

It was over an hour later, when they were ready to go. Ace was carrying a briefcase. Rebecca was carrying a dark blue backpack, that she slung over her shoulders. J'nol had packed light, and was carrying nothing except the clothes on his back. Alfred was in his full suit, and had his mother's lasso hung from his belt. Annia appeared carrying a small silver object that she hid as she slowed. Songbird was the only other one carrying a weapon, the bow polished to a shine. I could see arrows over her shoulder, and knew she was ready for a fight. It was the only time we'd ever seen her carry a weapon. Normally she was very sensitive about it. Inza smiled from the doorway of the tower, refusing to step outside it's powerful protections. The reason she had never left the tower in the time we had grown and lived, was because the protections of the tower kept Akati from finding and killing them. The protections also hid Inza's own powers from Akati. Should she leave the tower, he would feel it, and destroy it. Even the deeply rooted protections of the tower could not stop the weapons he had placed in orbit. They would fail under the onslaught.

I waved to her as she smiled at us. Spreading my wings in the open air, I had a peculiar feeling, that I would never return here. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, and I swept into the air to leave it behind. J'nol rose skywards, with Ace and Rebecca following, each carrying Alfred and Songbird. Annia followed us through the ruins of Salem along the ground. I had never seen her move as fast as she did then, dodging rubble and ruins. Though the sentinel robots had removed the bodies, and reprocessed them long ago, the stench of death, and corruption still hung over the city. On the far side of town, where we found the mono rail track Akati had ordered built. Sitting on the rail was a silent silver bullet shaped vehicle, operated by an automated robot. The station was used by the workers who tended the nearby fields. It was as we landed, and Annia slowed and stopped beside us, that we heard the firing alarm. We had not heard it since the last of the resistance was destroyed in the city, but we knew exactly where this one was aimed. The purple/blue energy beam struck down from above, obliterating Fate's tower in a single, decisive stroke that signalled the end of the remains of the Justice League. Ace stopped Rebecca from trying to rush back, as Alfred did Annia. There was nothing but our own deaths to be gained from returning to the site that would soon be covered in sentinels and Death knights. I smashed the control robot with my mace to relieve my own anger at the destruction of my home, and the death of my surrogate mother. I knew that it wasn't enough to relieve the full pain that would soon hit me, but I new there was nothing else to do. It staved off the pain for the moment, and as I ushered the others rapidly onto the bullet car, I shed a tear for my mother's.

Riding along the monorail track, the hum of the mag lev propulsion the only noise aside from Rebecca's sobs, I vowed at that moment, that I would do everything I could to make Akati pay for killing my parents. Even if it brought my death. Adam had said that one of us would not see the past. In that moment, I decided that it would be me. But Akati would die with me. Even if the other's failed in the past, Akati would die in the future. Perhaps those that survived would find some solace in that. I knew I wouldn't. Ever.