Tempest: Chapter Forty-Six: On Mount Elbrus
Two weeks, that was how long it had been since Roy had seen his partner, two weeks since she'd run out of the Cave and out of the Justice League. Roy, of all people, could understand her anger at the League, being someone who was annoyed with the League on a daily basis –and also Ollie, but that was a different matter entirely–, and if there was anyone that deserved that anger, the League, and Barry, definitely did.
Roy's parents had died when he was very young, but at least, for a time, he had known who both of them were. It was different for Amy. Amy was always searching for the truth, but she never seemed to get very far, yet she'd always been certain that her mother loved her. Roy found it hard to believe that her mother hadn't contacted her in some way with that certainty.
He knew things were tense at the Allen household now, mostly because Barry's secret-keeping had put a strain on his and Iris' relationship as it had been the direct cause of Amy's departure, and Wally was avoiding his uncle like the plague when he wasn't patrolling with him, and when he was, his uncle was at an arm's length, at least. He blamed Barry for what happened with Amy, rightly, and Roy didn't think he'd ever seen the speedster so quiet.
Roy pulled out his wallet to look on the picture he had shoved between the folds, the one that he had left behind at Amy's safe house when he'd decided to strike out on his own; Amy holding her crossbow and grinning widely as she leaned into his side and he grinned with her.
"You're very pensive," a voice purred behind him where he sat on the bench in Central City and Roy tried not to react in startled surprise as Jade appeared behind him, stealing a kiss into the curve of his jaw while he shoved the picture back into his wallet and then back into his pocket.
Their relationship was far from a conventional one, but they both liked where it was going, albeit if on opposite sides of the good and evil spectrum.
"It's very sexy," she added with a coquettish air that made him roll his eyes.
"Because I haven't heard that before," he mentioned dryly and she smirked.
"What can I say, Harper? You're my type." She tossed him a saucy wink that had warmth curling up his throat towards his cheeks and ears.
"I need your help," he said, the words coming out a bit strangled when tangled her fingers in his hair, pulling just slightly at his scalp and sending a tingle down his spine, mostly because it was almost always followed by a mind-numbing kiss.
"Oh?" Jade arched an eyebrow.
"I need your help to find Amy," Roy said and she blinked, her eyebrows furrowed together. "No one's seen her for the past two weeks."
"She ran away?" Jade asked, grey eyes surprised.
"Ran away and quit the League in one go," Roy admitted, and that actually made the assassin laugh.
"Good for her," she said.
"She did it because she was angry," Roy pressed, "you know she loves the League, she would never leave—"
"Half of who she is involves working outside the system, Red," Jade pointed out, "no one disapproves more of BlackNet than the Justice League."
Unfortunately, she wasn't wrong. Amy had always been rather vocal about the positives of her work on BlackNet, and many in the Justice League still didn't approve, given the dark side of BlackNet was pretty dark. Barry, for one, still wasn't a fan.
Roy gritted his teeth and gathered his thoughts. "You know her best; I need you to help me find her."
Jade considered him. "I need to see her room."
That surprised him and he balked slightly. "Her room?"
Jade hummed, but didn't explain as she stood swiftly, crooking her fingers at him for him to follow her. If it was Amy, she would have dragged him by his hand, but Jade was more patient and she didn't have that need for touch that Amy had.
It took them a few short minutes of silence to reach the Allens' door, but they didn't go to the front door, despite the fact that it was clear that neither Barry nor Iris were home, instead Jade curved around to where Amy's window was.
"Oh, this makes so much more sense," Roy muttered as Jade scaled the tree without too much effort before easily sliding Amy's window open, which was something the thirteen year old had probably ensured herself. "You sneak into her room?"
Jade grinned down at him. "A girl's got to have a place to camp out for the night." And then she slipped inside, leaving Roy to follow after with a bit of a grumble, but Amy and Jade always had a bit of an odd relationship.
Roy hadn't been in his partner's room in awhile…at least since she'd needed her wheelchair, but the disorder in the room he knew wasn't her usual.
"You stay over here a lot?"
Jade arched an eyebrow. "Is this your version of small talk?" She smirked as she knelt to reach under the bed, searching for something that she evidently didn't find. "She took her rucksack with her."
Roy cast her a curious glance.
"Being ready to leave at a moment's notice is something I drilled into her when we spent time together—"
"On Starfish Island?" Roy asked, eyebrows rising high on his forehead.
"Before that," Jade disagreed, "it's how she was able to run away so quickly after Mardon tried to have her kidnapped."
"A go-bag."
"Basically," Jade shrugged, straightening up once more to make her way to the desk, pulling open the lowest drawer and pulling out a slender box that was empty, something that made Jade narrow her eyes.
"What is it?" Roy asked, moving forward to look at the box in her hands, but it didn't seem very unique.
"This was Storm's run-away box," Jade said, turning the xo over in her hands, "basically it had everything she needed in order to cut and run…she was paranoid about that after that kidnapping attempt."
"What was in here?" Roy took the box from her.
"Money, a lot of it," Jade said, ticking them off on her fingers, "the gun I gave her, and passports for her current aliases."
Of course! Roy felt like such an idiot. Of course Amy was using an alias, she was the queen of covering her tracks. It was how she kept Barry from finding the money she was paid for her gigs as Masquerade and Oracle. Roy had once asked her how much money she'd actually made total and Amy had just winked and said: "More than you're worth, babe."
Roy wasn't entirely sure what that meant, mostly because he wasn't sure how much he was worth in her mind.
"You know her aliases, don't you?" he said, fixing his eyes on her and Jade shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "Jade!"
"There is honor among thieves, you know," she said sourly, running a hand through her thick hair.
"You kill people," Roy pointed out dryly.
"Depends on the day, really," she returned, throwing him a wink. "But Storm's sentimental."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Roy didn't think he was ever going to understand Amy like Jade clearly did, and the feeling left him a bit annoyed.
Jade sauntered towards him, leaning up in order to press her lips lightly to his before they slid to rest beside his ear.
"Amaryllis Harper," she murmured.
Roy's eyes widened as she leaned back.
"Aw, you're so cute when you're surprised," Jade purred and Roy hid his face behind his hand in his aggravation.
"Where's Wally?" was the first thing out of Roy's mouth when he entered monitor womb of the Cave to find only Dick fiddling with the holographic computer.
Dick looked up in surprise, no doubt owing to Roy's sudden appearance, given he didn't make a habit of showing up there, even when Amy had been around. "Um, something with his parents," he said, "and Conner and M'gann are somewhere in Happy Harbor and Kaldur's off with Aquaman…and Artemis said she was helping her mom."
Roy scowled at the mention of his replacement. Amy liked her well enough; he'd heard a great deal from her about her new patrol partner and it made him just a little jealous. But Amy could like anyone, even if Roy suspected them of being the mole (because he for one didn't believe that it had been Red Tornado for a second).
"What're you doing here?" Dick added. "You kind of avoid this place like it's the plague."
Roy scoffed briefly. "I need to use the League's database."
That piqued Dick's interest. "You're looking for Amy?" It was a stupid question, really. This was Roy after all; Dick knew Roy and Amy well enough to know how far they'd go to find each other. They had a bond unlike anything he'd ever seen.
"Does the JL have access to airport security in foreign countries?" Roy asked and that was practically an answer.
"Depends on if they're with the UN charter," Dick murmured, more to himself than to Roy as he pulled up the holographic keyboard. "Which country?"
"Russia," Roy said without preamble. "She'd been doing some research into this Russian group of atmo-kinetics."
"Seriously?" Dick's eyebrows rose above his shades. "Okay…Russia…she probably didn't use her real name."
"Try Amaryllis Harper," Roy said and Dick ran through the flight manifests for flights in Russia for two weeks ago searching for the name, unfortunately, there were a surprising number going into Russia on that day.
But then there was a sudden noise.
"You found her?" Roy leaned over his shoulder.
"Okay, one Amaryllis Harper boarded a plane to St. Petersburg from London…" That was a smart idea. She'd probably flown on a cloud over to England before taking a flight from there to Russia. They'd been looking for her within the US, but clearly she wasn't there.
Dick rifled through the frames of video until the red small red frames appeared around a face in the crowd. "Got a match."
Relief poured out of Roy with a single exhale of breath. It was definitely her, even with her hair crimson from that earring dangling from her ear and the cat-shaped glasses perched on her nose.
"I'm going to Russia," Roy said and Dick removed his eyes from the screen, "don't tell the others."
"Wait, what?" Dick balked at that. "But—"
"You saw how pissed she was last time we saw her," Roy pointed out, "are you sure she's not going to blow up if you all ambush her?"
"You're ambushing her," Dick pointed out, just a bit petulant about the whole matter; Amy was one of his best friends, too.
"That's different." Roy's stare was steady and Dick found himself shifting uncomfortably under it. "There's only one of me and I'm the one she'll be least likely to electrocute."
Unfortunately, that was also true. Dick had never thought that Amy would actually throw a bolt of lightning at Barry, but she had.
"It's not like you haven't covered for her before," Roy added and Dick's eyes shifted.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered and Roy gave him a look that was far too knowing and made the heat rise in his face. "Fine, between us."
"Between us," Roy agreed, turning to leave, "I've got to go buy some new clothes."
"Why?" Dick called after him, befuddled.
"That Russian group Amy was looking into? Its located on Mount Elbrus, I don't have anything for mountain climbing!"
Dick watched him disappear into the Zeta-tube before turning back to look on the face frozen on the screen on last time before deleting the search with a sigh.
Roy was a bundle of nerves and that was saying something, because he was usually calm and collected. But the flight over he was nothing but jittery, and nothing helped, not even the calming mental exercises that Dinah had once taught him to deal with his issues with anger.
Amy had packed only the necessities, as evident by her single rucksack in the camera video that he'd seen, which was a smart idea, but she also knew relatively where she was going. Roy, on the other hand, was much less informed. He'd taken a picture of the map that Amy had left in her room of the region in particular. She'd probably made a photocopy or done it from memory, though the latter was less likely.
According to the map, it was a rather difficult trek, or, at least, it was for someone who didn't have any skill in atmo-kinesis, which unfortunately meant Roy. He pulled his hat down over his ears and the gloves tight over his hands before he departed the man he'd hired to drop him off at the base of the mountain.
The car drove away and Roy looked up at the mountain, which appeared rather ominous, if you asked him, especially with the thunderstorm stirring above it, high up in the sky.
If this was where a group of atmo-kinetics resided, then Roy couldn't really be surprised by the storm's presence.
Roy's made sure the straps of his pack weren't likely to be yanked loose before starting the long climb.
The path seemed endless, stretching farther with each step he took, but that could've just been him…unless those Priests of Perun had actually gotten a sorcerer to enchant the path to discourage people from making the climb, but Roy wasn't entirely sure of that either.
He had to dig his feet into the snowy and ice-capped path when it curved too close around a ledge. Heights had never really been Roy's most favorite thing, particularly when he was around Amy, because nothing was more disconcerting than flying around on a cloud.
Roy stumbled, only just managing to grasp the side of the mountain. His heart raced in his chest and he had to force himself not to look down, because that really was a terrible idea.
"Why couldn't you have picked a smaller mountain, Amy?" Roy bemoaned to himself under his breath, the words tangled up in his scarf.
He almost exalted the heavens when he caught sight of steps leading into a compound of sorts that appeared to be grafted into the side of the mountain, or the mountain had grown around it. The compound itself made him think of the Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow with the pointed domes that disappeared into the side of the mountain, almost impossible to see.
It was a very clever way to hide in plain sight.
"My, we are popular these days," came a wry voice from just beyond when Roy clamored up the last of the steps and he stood on exhausted feet to look on the speaker.
He was a man wearing robes the color of storm clouds with wrinkles dusting his face, and from him chin was a short beard of pure white, betraying his age.
"You are the second person to stumble onto our doorstep," the man continued in Russian and Roy tried to regain his breathing a bit.
"I'm looking for my sister, Amaryllis," he said, the lie falling from his lips effortlessly, and the man's gaze sharpened before he tilted his head back to look skyward, but the storm roiling above them was refusing to abate.
"You'll want to step out of the cold air," the man spoke decisively, gesturing for Roy to follow him into the compound, and Roy followed after him, eager to get out of the cold, and he couldn't help but be surprised by the temperature difference.
"I'm Sergei, the head priest," the man offered helpfully as Roy hung his bulky coat on one of the coat hangers and set out his gloves and hat to dry, and Roy extended his hand to grasp the man's. "You're Roy, I presume?"
Roy blinked in surprise. "She's mentioned me?"
"She's very careful when she speaks of her family," Sergei conceded, "she speaks fondly of you, though."
Roy rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly. He was probably the only safe topic for her, given her current family situation. "How is she?" he finally asked when they passed by two priestesses wearing the same grey robes, and with odd pendants hanging from their throats. They both cast him a curious glance as he walked past with Sergei.
"When Amaryllis arrived, she was lost and angry, which is a very dangerous combination."
Roy remembered the unbridled fury in his partner's face when she'd returned to the Cave; it wasn't something that was easily forgotten.
"She had a lot of trouble managing her temper the first few days," Sergei continued, "we suffered some rather terrible snowstorms during that time."
"Yeah…she almost flooded a town when she was having a nightmare a couple years ago," Roy remembered Wally telling him that while Amy had glowered viciously from a corner. "So, I'm guessing she's gotten a bit better?" He was barely holding back from asking so many questions about her.
"I believe so, yes," Sergei's head bobbed. "Of course, she's had to completely rethink her way of using her abilities, and it's made it difficult for her to train with our other priests and priestesses."
Roy's brow furrowed. Amy's use of her atmo-kinesis was generally tied to her emotions, it was the reason why her lightning strikes were more powerful when she was angry.
"Learning control as been a rather crucial part of her training," Sergei conceded dryly and Roy had to stifle a snort.
"Yeah, that sounds like her," he said as he looked around the compound. It wasn't very big even on the inside and there were only a small number of people within. Roy wondered if all of them were atmo-kinetic when he saw a matronly woman drop a thick tome only to wave her hand, causing a shift in the air, bringing the book back up into her arms. "But how is she?" He made sure to stress the words just enough and a smile twisted the priest's lips.
"Come, let me show you," Sergei said, and Roy followed after him as the older man led him out into an icy courtyard to point upwards at the sky where the storm was still roiling overhead, like two forces constantly colliding.
"Tell me what you see," the priest invited and Roy stared.
"What, you mean she's up in there?" he asked dubiously, as thunder clapped and lightning flashed.
Dinah had always been about furthering their potential, and Roy had lost count how many times she and Amy had gone off on their own for one on one training. But making her own storm had been difficult enough that Amy could usually only manage miniature ones; she'd been absolutely ecstatic when she'd managed it during her mission with the Team in Bialya that she'd practically dislocated Roy's arm with her enthusiastic tugging.
The storm above wasn't massive, but it was still larger than Amy's usual.
Roy squinted, trying to focus on the clouds and see if he could pick out his partner from amidst the clouds, but for Amy storm clouds were practically camouflage.
"She's sparring against one of our older members, Katya," Sergei mentioned beside him. "She's actually doing fairly well, given her abilities."
But the way he was talking, it sounded like Katya, whoever she was, was far superior in skill-set to Amy and Amy was struggling to keep afloat (or aloft, if he was being a bit more literal).
Roy's eyes followed an arch of lightning that flowed over one of the clouds, and for a brief moment he could have sworn that he heard a familiar laugh before it was lost in the echoing thunder.
He couldn't help the smile that curved his lips. Back in the states, Amy was on her own. The only person who had atmo-kinetic abilities was Weather Wizard and his stemmed from his Wand whereas hers were internal, so Amy didn't really have a mentor to learn from in controlling her skills. Wally had Barry, Roy had Ollie, Dick had Bruce, but Amy had been alone, learning by instinct and from the many mistakes she'd made over the years.
"Did she run away from home?" Sergei asked suddenly and Roy had to tear his eyes from the storm clouds to look on the man blankly.
"What?" He'd completely missed the question.
"Your sister," Sergei repeated, "did she run away from home?"
The smile of Roy's lips stiffened before falling completely. "Something like that," he said, glancing towards Sergei only to find him smiling softly in understanding, "a couple of us tried to find her, but she's good at covering her tracks."
He supposed running around with Jade was probably the thing that helped her the most. Amy had known how to fight and survive but Jade had taught her how to hide and vanish into the darkness.
"Jack of all trades is what you're going for, isn't it?" Roy asked her one day. "Still, you'd make a shit assassin."
Amy had rolled her eyes for good measure. "Do you even know that whole saying, Arrowhead? Its: Jack of all trades, master of none, but better than a master of one. Personally, I'd leave the assassinating to your girlfriend in exchange for being able to walk really quietly."
Roy had looked at her blankly. "Why do you need to walk really quietly."
"To sneak up on Robin, obviously."
"They'll be finished soon," Sergei mentioned. "I'm sure she'll be very pleased to see you."
But Roy, who had come so far in his search for her, faltered, because he still remembered the rage that had overtaken Amy when she'd returned to the Cave.
Unfortunately, he didn't have the opportunity to second guess himself because the storm clouds above abated and two figures manipulated the air to float down to the icy courtyard.
The first was tall and willowy with long dark streaked with grey with wrinkles around her eyes. She landed lightly on her feet, but her much shorter companion crumpled when her feet hit the ground.
Amy brushed grey hair out of her eyes, swallowing lungfuls of air and looking very much like she'd just run a marathon. She had her hand pressed against her chest, under which her heart was no doubt racing.
She was jabbering away in Russian to the woman, Katya, albeit a bit breathlessly, and Roy couldn't help but notice how she'd gotten better at speaking the language, stumbling less over her words. But the thing that caught him the most was the smile, which had been far from present on her face.
Amy didn't even notice him until Katya had helpfully pulled her to her feet and then her eyes grew wide.
"Roy?" his name fell from her lips in surprise and she took a few cautious steps forward until she could envelop him in her arms, and for a moment it felt as though she'd never left.
