Tempest: Chapter Fifty-Four: Mending of Rifts
"This is…unexpected."
Pamela gave a stony stare at Batman, unimpressed with him. Amara couldn't blame her; the last time the pair had crossed it hadn't really ended well.
Today none of the three were in their respective crime-fighting (or crime-causing, depending on the day) uniforms. Amara's hand was firmly clasped in her mother's and it was hard to tell whom it was more soothing to, Amara or Pamela, and Harley was standing in such a way it was obviously protective.
"My daughter wants to speak with her adoptive father…and you think that's unexpected?" Pamela's eyebrow twitched and Amara glanced between the caped crusader and her mother. Dinah and Hal Jordan were the only other Leaguers in the room, but Amara had to wonder if it was going to stay that way for long. Hal, in particular, looked a bit sour, but that might have had something to do with him never managing to find Amara on the times she pulled her disappearing acts.
"Quite, yes," Batman said shortly.
"I'm not the one that thought lying to a thirteen year old about her parentage was the best course of action," Pamela bit out pointedly just before the Flash arrived in a blur of red, and that was when the yelling started.
"I can see why you left," Harley said dryly to Amara, her words just barely heard over the noise, giving the hand that Pamela had released a squeeze as Amara watched the proceedings in exasperation.
"This is absolutely ridiculous!" Amara muttered before reaching behind her to the small of her back where the gun that Jade had once gifted her, switched the safety off and pointed it directly above her and fired off one round that was enough to make everyone flinch and tense, looking towards the source of the noise.
"Now that I have your attention," she said coolly, "this conversation is a private family matter, one that you—" She gestured towards Green Lantern and Batman. "—aren't a part of."
"Oh, but Black Canary is?" Hal Jordan arched an eyebrow over his green domino mask.
"Dinah gets to play mediator," Amara responded, unimpressed, "since Mom and Barry are more likely to rip each other's throats out than make nice."
Pamela twisted to look back to her daughter while Barry wordlessly mouthed 'Mom?'
"If you're not involved, then get lost, those are my terms," Amara continued, and maybe she shouldn't really have been waving that gun around as carelessly as she was, but who was going to tell her that.
"Baby?" Harley said kindly and Amara turned towards her. "Maybe you want to give me the gun?"
"It's mine."
"Yes, but we don't want to kill anyone in the League, do we?"
Amara's expression soured and she handed over the gun, which was probably the wisest course of action.
"Recognize: Authorized guest: Iris West-Allen –A01," the disembodied voice spoke above them as the glow of the zeta-tube faded, leaving Iris standing there.
She must've just come from work, because she was wearing her best dark blue pantsuit, her messenger bag looped over one shoulder, but it fell to the ground when she saw the group standing there, her eyes focusing on Amara.
"Amy?" she barely breathed before she launched herself forward and Amara moved to meet her in the middle, wrapping her arms tightly around her adoptive mother. "Oh, my God, Amy, I've been so worried about you!"
Amara burrowed her face against Iris' shoulder, mumbling into the fabric. "I'm sorry."
Iris drew back to cup her cheeks, getting a good look over her. "Oh, sweetie, that's not your fault." She shot a glare towards her husband, making Barry rub at the back of his head awkwardly as he drew down his cowl to expose his blond head. "Though you have a tendency to run away from your problems, I'll admit…"
Amara pouted, but Harley laughed, directing Iris' attention towards her.
"This is Harley," Amara felt the need to point out and the blonde-haired woman held out a hand.
"I'm her mom's girlfriend," Harley added.
"Oh," Iris said, her eyebrows raising on her forehead.
"Not to say that you're not also her mom," Harley said quickly, grimacing as she stumbled over her words, "because you totally are—"
"She's not usually like this," Amara snorted as Pamela stepped forward to wrap an arm around her girlfriend's hip, jostling her backwards slightly.
"Baby, I think you're going to need to stop talking," Pamela pointed out.
"Yeah," Harley muttered, "that sounds like a good idea."
"You must be Pamela," Iris mentioned to the red-haired woman, "Amy's biological mother?"
"Yes, that would be me," Pamela said, shooting a glance towards Batman and Barry, though only Barry looked particularly regretful.
"Can I shake your hand?" Iris inquired in curiosity. "I know you can be toxic to other humans—"
"Oh, that's something I can control myself," Pamela assured her, holding out her hand and Iris took it easily. "Amy's told me a lot about you; she's a very proud daughter."
"Mom!" Amara complained, her cheeks pinking in her embarrassment.
"I'm not entirely sure I want the three of you getting along," Barry felt the need to speak up.
Iris shot him a look that made Amara frown. Wally had said that Iris and Barry weren't on the best of terms currently, but she hadn't really taken it seriously; they'd seemed too solid a couple to be broken apart by something like her.
"This is going great," Amara muttered as Pamela and Barry entered into another glare-down. "Hey! This meeting was my idea, and if you two can't be civil then…" Amara felt slightly uncomfortable yelling at her own mother and biological father, but what were you going to do? And then she was hit with an inspiration. "Then I'm going to run off to Nanda Parbat and join the League of Shadows."
"You'd do what?!"
Amara flinched at the number of voices that had turned towards her. "What?"
"How do you even know about Nanda Parbat?" Batman asked her, his impassive face betraying nothing.
"Hi, maybe we've met," Amara said shortly, her smile sickeningly sweet, "I'm also known as Oracle, the person in charge of Limbo on BlackNet, I know things…and Ra's might've asked me when I stole something for Cheshire."
Barry pinched the bridge of his nose and Iris blinked, but Harley and Pamela were unsurprised.
"Well," Dinah said, clapping her hands together, "I think this is just a family thing, so maybe we should just go and find a private room, hm?"
She jerked her head and Amara moved forward first to allow Dinah to wrap her arm around Amara's shoulders.
"Keep away from Nanda Parbat, Amy."
Amara laughed. "You know, I keep telling Cheshire that killing people aren't my forte."
Dinah rolled her eyes. She'd never understand the relationship between Cheshire and Amara.
"What d'you think they're talking about in there?" Conner asked, jerking his head in the direction of the hallway that led to the closed door behind which Amara's family plus Dinah as mediator had disappeared.
"Probably about Barry lying and about Amy running away," Wally said without looking up from his English textbook; he had a test tomorrow to be concerned with, and he was sure that Amara could handle Barry this time around.
Artemis rolled her eyes. "When're you getting that cast off?" she asked instead, turning the attention in the room towards Wally.
His arm had been encased in a cast since the plant attack and he was still a bit sour about it. Amara could heal from a broken bone in a few hours, whereas his took a few weeks to heal, though not nearly as long as a normal human. It was hugely unfair, especially since fast healing was normal with speedsters, but he didn't get the added bonus of being an experiment, so there was that.
"Don't know," he said, glowering at the cast.
"Probably because you keep breaking it," Dick snorted from where he was sitting in the armchair, his neck braced against one arm while his legs were looped over the other. They had stopped questioning his ability to sit in a chair in a manner that it wasn't usually used for.
"That's not my fault!"
"It kind of is."
Kaldur's lips curled and M'gann had to stifle her amusement.
"Her mom seems nice," M'gann couldn't help but point out.
"She's also killed a lot of people," Dick pointed out.
Artemis couldn't help but think of her own parents, villains and criminals in their own right, despite the fact that her mother had retired. "That happens sometimes," she said and several eyes turned towards her. "What?"
"I made a mistake, I'll admit—"
"A mistake? This is a bit more than just a mistake, Barry Allen!"
"I see your point," Dinah said, her eyebrows arched as she watched Barry and Pamela banter back and forth while Amara watched awkwardly from the sidelines. It was vaguely uncomfortable to watch your parents (whether biological or adoptive) fighting over you.
Amara sank down further into her chair, wishing she could drown into the floor.
This had been her idea in the first place, but now that she was here, she was seriously regretting her life choices.
"Amy." Dinah's elbow brushed against her. "Maybe you should take point on this?"
Amara grimaced. "Aren't you supposed to be the mediator?"
Dinah smirked and Amara really hated her mentor.
"You thought I'd hurt my only child?" Pamela demanded angrily, her skin tingeing a faint green under the lighting.
Iris and Harley had taken up residence on the loveseat, since it was the most out of the way, and both of them looked about as uncomfortable as Amara felt, which was saying something.
"Coming from someone who's killed a number of people, I couldn't really take that chance!" Barry snapped back.
Pamela gritted her teeth together and pointed a finger at his chest, but she wasn't much taller than Iris, so it didn't really appear to faze him. "Do you have any idea how long I've wanted a child?" she seethed, and that drew Barry up short. "Do you have any idea how it feels to be told you can't have a child because your professor used your body in human experimentation?!"
Barry reeled back slightly. Even though he'd heard of how Pamela Isley had become Poison Ivy, it was still startling to know that she'd been made into Poison Ivy in a manner very similar to how Amara had been created.
"Mom?"
Amara reached out to grasp Pamela's hand and Pamela's eyes flashed to her daughter's as she tried not to tremble with strain.
"I don't want you guys to fight over me," Amara said, emotion glinting in her eyes as she looked from Pamela to Barry.
"I want what's best for you," Pamela insisted, squeezing her daughter's hand tightly.
"So does he," Amara jerked her head back towards Barry who appeared rather surprised by the admission, given how their last meeting had gone, "and he and Iris are legally my parents."
Pamela mouthed wordlessly for a few moments before her expression settled on sulky. It was an expression that Amara would've recognized on her own face.
"And it could be argued that you caused me to be thrown off that Queen Industries and nearly killed me, seeing as you hired Merlyn to get my blood to test against yours," Amara felt the need to point out, but she did so with a bit of a wince.
Pamela was aghast at the implication, but she also knew that Amara wasn't completely wrong, which was the truly unfortunate truth.
"And you're not all that innocent either," Amara twisted to face Barry before he could even breathe a little. "I lost count how many times you lied to me about my mother."
"I was worried," Barry insisted and Amara ground her teeth together.
Iris, who had maintained her silence for as long as she could manage it, stood up. "Barry," she said, despite how much they had been fighting since Amara's departure, squeezing his hand with hers, "I think Amy understands that you're worried…but this is our daughter we're talking about. She's not asking for a speech on your mistakes, she just wants a good-to-honest apology."
Barry sighed, looking to Amara. His daughter looked so small as she stood there, so stubborn and so very much like Poison Ivy that it was almost painful.
He offered his hands to her and Amara paused for a long moment before lifting her hands to clasp his, perhaps a bit too tightly, but he wasn't one to complain.
"I am sorry, I truly am," he said, hoping to convey it with as much emotion in his voice as was clear on his face. "I never wanted to hurt you…I just thought you'd be better off not knowing that both your parents were villains. Weather Wizard put you through so much, I didn't want that to happen to you again."
Amara chewed on the inside of her cheek. Barry had never been a very good liar, but it wasn't something that Amara had really focused on at the time.
"My father is a monster," Amara said, expelling a loud breath, "but my mother isn't, not anymore…and I want to be able to have you and Iris and her and Harley. I love you all but…" She swallowed thickly. "I'm not going to choose, so don't ask me to."
Her phone buzzed and Amara tore her hands from her father's in order to pull it from her pocket and frown at the message there.
"I have to go," she said suddenly.
"Amy, this is your meeting," Dinah felt the need to point out with just a touch of exasperation.
"I've got to go," Amara insisted. "Roy needs backup and I'm the only one close-by."
Jade was still out of the country, but she rarely assisted Roy when he was actively heroing; that kind of thing would destroy her credibility as an assassin.
"There's a room of young heroes down the hall that would be happy to help him." Dinah's wry tone wasn't missed, but Amara didn't even blink as she moved past where Harley was sitting, giving her shoulder a squeeze as she did so.
"I'll be back soon," she said, grinning widely. "Don't kill each other while I'm gone."
And then she disappeared out of the door, leaving a room full of five people who cared about her very much about her.
"So," Pamela said, bringing the attention back to her, "where does this leave us?"
And that was the question of the hour.
Amara was suffering from a split lip and bruised ribs by the time she was laying awake in bed with her phone to her ear.
"I think it's going rather well, you know considering how it started."
"I'm just glad I don't have to deal with your family problems," Dick's voice echoed in her ear and Amara rolled her eyes.
"Thanks, Richard," she said dryly, "I can feel the love."
"I'm just telling it like it is!"
Amara rolled her eyes again.
"So? What're they going to do about you?" Dick probed and Amara sighed, gazing up at the ceiling.
"They're currently debating the merits of joint custody, but I think Barry and Iris are going to stop by at some point to see the house and how I'm doing over here," Amara admitted, pressing a bit of ice against her face with a wince; helping out Roy hadn't really gone according to plan, but at least they hadn't ended up with bullets in their bodies, so that was a plus.
"Do you think joint custody is a good idea?" Dick asked her.
"Do you have a problem with it?" Amara arched an eyebrow. It was impossible to tell without seeing his face, but the question had seemed kind of off to her.
"What? No, of course not!"
Green eyes narrowed. "Richard John Grayson."
"I should've never told you my full name," Dick grumbled and Amara had to stifle her amusement.
"Sure, little bird, but seriously," she added, "do you have a problem with it?"
"Poison Ivy tried to kill me once, you know," Dick grumbled.
"Really?" Amara asked dryly. "I actually wasn't aware."
Her mother had committed a lot of crimes, both she and Harley both had, –the only difference was that Harley might have restricted the amount of crimes she was involved in, whereas Pamela had all but ceased those activities– and Amara wasn't going to bother denying that. Still, Amara had taken a life before, and it wasn't as though she didn't commit crimes of her own under the guise of Masquerade.
"I guess I'm still getting used to the idea of her as your mother," Dick admitted a bit uncomfortably.
"Maybe you should pop over for dinner some time," Amara grinned, "and see Poison Ivy in her element."
"You're just trying to scare me, aren't you?" Dick asked her shrewdly.
"Just a little bit," Amara laughed. "Maybe you should get some sleep, Richard, you've got school tomorrow."
"Maybe I should be homeschooled too," Dick grumbled, more to himself than to Amara, but she still smiled.
"You don't mean that," she said with certainty, "school is the most normal thing you do."
"You say that like it's a good thing."
"Go to sleep, Richard," Amara laughed once more before hanging up on him before he could offer a reply.
She dropped her phone onto the bed beside her with a yawn as she reached over to switch off the lamp that was resting lit on her bedside table.
Joint custody was probably the best case scenario given Amara's rather unique situation, and Amara liked the idea, mostly because it didn't force her to choose between the Isleys and the Allens.
Amara closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep.
The bell at the door dinged as it opened and Grace didn't even turn around in order to say: "We're not open yet."
"The place cleans up nice," was the response and Grace blinked, turning around to see the same red-haired girl who had given her and the other artists Grace was now friends and co-owners with the studio in the first place.
"Hi," the girl said with a grin, "I see the renovations are going well."
"Coming from the person footing the bill," Grace arched an eyebrow.
"No," she corrected, "I just work for the person that does."
The girl looked around, inspecting the art studio with interest. The floor was halfway into being replaced with wood panels and the walls were going to be painted a lighter color later that day.
"Your name's…Amy, right?"
Green eyes flicked back towards Grace. "Yes, that would be me," Amy said, her lips curling in amusement.
"How did you even get into the BlackNet when you're so young?" Grace asked curiously.
"That would be telling," Amy said, her eyes glittering, "but I only operate in Oracle's Limbo, and there's good reason for that."
Grace considered her with interest. "You're a very strange girl," she decided.
"Really? I had no idea," Amy said dryly, tilting her head to look towards the ceiling. "How does the upstairs look?"
The upstairs, after all, was the part of Gratia Art that was to be the shelter for people in need of a place to hide out for awhile before starting their life anew.
"It needs some work," Grace admitted, "we just put down the carpet yesterday. We haven't ordered the furniture yet…I'm guessing Oracle would want it as homey as possible."
"That is the general idea, yes."
Amy straightened her jacket, brushing a few strands of hair out of her eyes. "I see you've got things well in hand."
"Just a bit," Grace acquiesced before dropping her eyes to where Amy had been standing only to find that the girl had vanished.
It was vaguely startling and Grace stepped forward to stand where she had previously been.
"Amy?"
Silence was the only thing that greeted her.
"Yeah, I'm starting to get why she works for Oracle," Grace muttered more to herself, going back to waiting for her co-owners to arrive so they could make some plans for the future.
Training with Jade had taught Amara many things and very high up on that list was to appear as nonthreatening as possible, which was a great way for others to let their guard down, thus giving one the opportunity to strike. Usually with Jade, those people ended up dead, but Amara was only willing to knock people out.
"I could make you into a lethal weapon," Jade had laughed.
"You already have," Amara had pointed out.
Personally, Amara was going to blame Jade for her current situation, like she did the last time she'd ended up in the same room as the very man sitting before her.
Her phone gave a pleasant buzz against her thigh and one of his guards shifted ominously as Amara pulled out the phone, glancing at the caller ID.
"Excuse me," she said, smiling stiffly at her company before raising her phone to her ear. "Hey, babe, how's your day?"
"Do you answer all of our calls like that?" Dick's amused voice inquired on the other end.
"Not KF's," Amara smirked. She'd tried that once and Wally had just about died of embarrassment and exasperation that Amara had decided to quite while she was ahead. "So, what's up?"
"I know you're still working out your family situation, but BC wanted to know if you wanted to do this kind of simulation with us—"
"What kind of simulation?" Amara asked flummoxed, completely ignoring her situation and how much trouble she could possibly be in for putting it off. "And why didn't she call me?"
"She said you were out of service range."
"Oh, yeah," Amara grimaced remembering the jamming frequency that she'd had to employ earlier that day. "Well, I was doing things."
"Doing things?" Dick asked archly. "What kind of things?"
"Generally the illegal kind," Amara snarked. "And I'm kind of tied up at the moment, so I'll take a rain check on whatever that simulation is. Let me know how it goes."
Dick might've noticed something was off by how quickly she'd hung up on him, but she couldn't really help that.
"Sorry about that," she said shortly, not sorry in the slightest, "now where were we?"
"I believe," Ra's al Ghul said, leaning forward slightly on his knees in order to tent his fingers together, "you were debating the merits of working with me, Miss Isley."
