Tempest: Chapter Seventy: A Girl Named Amara

AN: I haven't had so many people collectively screaming at me since the Fallout, so I hope you guys are enjoying the pain.


Roy couldn't stop himself. He didn't want to do it, any of it. He felt like he was walking through a dream, like someone else shot his arrow through Amy, like someone else rigged those bombs in the Cave, like someone else had their hands wrapped tightly around Amy's throat.

Her eyes were seared into his memory, green and wide and stunned beyond belief as she clutched at the hands on her throat.

His partner, the one who trusted him more than anything…and he'd killed her.

The bile had risen in his throat and his cheeks were wet when he followed Vandal Savage into the zeta-tube. He only had a split second to think: what would Amy have done?

Amy -bright and fierce Amy- would've fought her hardest, she would never allow herself to be someone's pawn if she could get away from them. Mardon had worked so hard to break her and she'd stood tall, maybe a little bent, but not broken; and Amy would've never given in.

Roy could feel her small taser disks in one of his hands. They contained a higher voltage than usual, specially charged with electricity Amy had generated herself. They were strong enough to take out the zeta-tube and knock out the microchip in his head, he was sure of it, but he needed to move fast, or it would be all for nothing.

It powered up and he dropped one to the tiny rip in the floor that Superboy had caused a few weeks ago during a spar that no one had gotten around to fixing and latched the second to the back of his head. Roy's vision whited out, and the next thing Roy knew his whole body was tingling as he fell out of the Central City zeta-tube, alone, so very alone, the zeta-tube crackling and fritzing behind him.

His heart was aching with his head and all Roy could see with Amy's stilled and broken form and he had never wished for death quite so much.


Ariel Dunstan was nine when her life changed. Life in New Jersey was not so great when you were an orphan in Newark. A little black runaway could slip through the cracks of the system and no one would bother to look. Missing kids with no family meant no one cared that you were missing.

Running away at eight years old had seemed like a good idea at the time, but the truth was, Ariel was barely scraping by before she taught herself code and found herself on a place called BlackNet.

Getting an in with Oracle was apparently a big deal. Her code-breaking game was tough but it was worth it to be a part of the group she'd detailed, and Ariel desperately needed money.

So, she was surprised when the fail safe activated, which was only supposed to happen if the main hard-drive of Oracle's computer was destroyed, and that gave Ariel a very bad feeling.

What had happened to Oracle?


"The League is pulling double-time with the mass breakout from Belle Reve. By some miracle, not every criminal escaped, and that miracle was Oracle."

The six that had been out on a date had only made it halfway through before they'd been called to the Hall of Justice and Kaldur had been recalled from Atlantis and Rocket from her hometown. The only person missing was Amy, like there was an empty space in the room where she should be.

Wally thought it felt a bit ominous.

"She got the warning to us in time, but we still have a large number of powerful enemies running around to consider," Batman continued. "You will be collaborating with the League in catching these criminals, but first—"

"Oh, come on!" Conner complained. "You just want to send us off on our own, like always!"

"Partially." Batman turned solidly towards Wally and he stiffened. Something didn't feel right…where was Amy? "The Cave went offline shortly after Oracle informed me that it was compromised. Oracle herself is MIA and finding her should be your first priority."

Wally felt his heart drop out into his stomach. "What?" he said bleakly. "Amy's…the Cave?" Dick had gone white beside him and the others were similarly stunned and horrified.

There were a number of reasons that Cave could be offline, right? Maybe it was nothing, maybe she was fine, maybe she was…

He felt like the floor had fallen out under him. "What about Uncle B? Does he know?"

Why wasn't he racing over to the Cave to search for her was a better question. Barry adored Amy, there was no way that he would just leave her—!

"She asked that I not." How could he be so monotonous? Wally was burning alive, Amy's last smile imprinted in his mind. "She didn't want him to be distracted by her."

Wally had so many questions and so little time, but he couldn't even consider any of them, not when there was his cousin to consider. Artemis shot him a look of concern before they all made for the Bioship, but he was grateful that she said nothing. He didn't even know what he would do if….No! He couldn't think about that.

His hands twisted tightly in his lap as the Bioship took off, flying as quickly as possible in the direction of Happy Harbor.

M'gann's gasp was loud and horrified as she took in the sight of Mount Justice. It hadn't been completely destroyed, which had been what Wally was imagining, but its destruction was obvious. There were gaping holes in the mountainside and trails of smoke sweeping upwards, flames clear as day.

Wally's heart was in his throat.

"I-I'll try to track her," Zatanna said, stumbling over her words, her face pale as the Bioship set down at a safe distance.

Hardly anyone was talking, it was almost too much to do so. Wally felt like he was drowning as Zatanna cast the spell, the backwards words echoing in the silence before she began leading them towards the Cave slowly.

Conner ripped the back door open without asked and none of them commented when smoke billowed out, only coughing a few times before diving in.

Oh, no, Zatanna's voice murmured through their psychic link.

What? Several voices overlaid one another.

The tracking spell is kinda advanced for me, it keeps shorting out, Zatanna tried to explain while keeping her cool. Don't worry, I've got this. This way.

The Cave was their place, their home and the damages were extensive. They were stepping around debris, chunks of the wall that had fallen out to the walls and ceiling.

The Monitor Womb was the worst off, like the blast had been concentrated there. Fires were still burning and the ceiling had suffered a lot of damage and the surrounding area was blackened by soot.

Rocket spotted her first in the carnage. "Over here!" she yelled, darting towards a pile of debris, under which could be spotted a hand with nails painted a silvery color that Amy had shown off to Wally last week with delight ("Just imagine, Wally, silver dress, silver nails, silver eyeliner…I'd look amazing!" "You'd look ridiculous, you mean." "Don't be jealous!").

Wally didn't care if anyone heard his thoughts or felt his emotions through the psychic link as Conner and Kaldur -the most physically strong in the group- grabbed up pieces of rubble, tossing them aside to reveal the girl underneath.

Artemis choked and Dick couldn't even manage to get any words out and Wally, Wally fell to his knees at her side.

There was something distinctly wrong with one leg and arm, and there was a smear of blood at her midsection accompanying serious burns and mottling bruises….and the bruises around her neck were the shape of hands beneath an inhibitor collar.

Wally's hand shook as he reached a hand out to smooth over her cheek, but she didn't even stir. His fingers slid down to her neck, pressing against her pulse.

He almost sobbed. "God, she's got a pulse!"

The group gave a collective sigh of relief.

"All right, Robin, see if you can download any footage from right before the explosion, Miss Martian you're going to need to levitate Storm Chaser into the Bioship—" Kaldur was taking charge, which was a relief, because Wally wanted to fall apart.

"And take her where, exactly?" Zatanna's eyes sparked. "There's no zeta-tube to get us anywhere and we have no idea how seriously injured she is!"

"She's got a safehouse in Gotham," Artemis blurted, breaking her long silence, her voice quaking in her throat. "She won't like you guys knowing about it, but it'll give us time and space to figure out how…" How bad off she is went unsaid.

"Done," Robin spoke up as he rejoined the group and Kaldur put out the last of the fires with his waterbearers. "Let's get out of here."

Conner, Zatanna, and M'gann all cast a forlorn glance back at the Cave, structurally intact in some places and destroyed in others, it was their home, after all.

And now it wasn't safe.


It was supposed to be great fun, ringing in the New Year. Everyone had pitched in, they were going to have a late dinner and ring in the new year with sparkling cider, though Amy had winked and offered to bring some alcohol along and Sabine wasn't quite sure she wanted to know where on earth Amy had gotten alcohol.

They were going to watch movies and be ridiculous like they weren't a bunch of famous ballerinas or a kleptomaniac (Sabine was so sure Amy was that! They'd be minding their own business and then suddenly she had their wallets, keys, and their hopes for the future). Everyone was looking forward to it, even though Amy wasn't much for hanging out. She always seemed to be very busy, darting off at a moment's notice.

But no one but Amy and Sofia were supposed to know the combination on the door, and Amy always made sure to text before she was coming over, so the gathered girls all froze when they heard the tell-tale sign of the number being punched in and then the door swung open to admit a cluster of kids, none of which noticed them.

Nadira was full-on gaping at the sight of Artemis, Superboy, Rocket, Aqualad, Gotham's own Boy Wonder, Kid Flash, two girls who respectively looked like Zatara and Martian Manhunter.

Every sidekick that was recognized by the Justice League was in Amy's industrial loft.

And in the arms of Kid Flash was a frail-looking girl with grey hair that was identical to-

"Amy?" Sabine gasped and all the sidekicks twisted around violently. Artemis actually drew her bow.

Then she swore. "Ah, shit!" hissed out from the blonde's mouth. "I forgot Amy said she was letting one of her ballerina friends crash here."

"Amy knows ballerinas?" Rocket cocked her head in confusion, sounding strangely befuddled as Kid Flash laid down the girl who was undeniably Amy. Amy who apparently had grey hair, just like Storm Chaser.

"Amy's Storm Chaser," Adara realized belatedly and Sofia shook her head, trying to wrap her brain around the idea. "Wow, everything about her became so much clearer."

"Artemis, would you-?"

"Yeah, yeah, I've got damage control," she grumbled as Robin knelt close to her head to work at getting some kind of collar off her throat.

"If you tell anyone about this, I will make your lives miserable," Artemis informed them helpfully.

"Not like that!" the Martian Manhunter look-alike cried in dismay, coming close to the girls. "Look, we'd really appreciate it if you didn't go blurting Amy's superhero identity to anyone."

"Its not like she hasn't had enough trouble with that identity," Artemis rolled her eyes behind the mask.

"We wouldn't do that!" Nadira's voice was thick and offended. "She's our friend!"

There was an explosion in the distance and Robin looked up sharply, gritted his teeth, and then returned to his work. From what they'd seen on Robin on TV, he cared a lot about Gotham; he probably hated to see damages done to it.

"What was that?" Sabine yelped.

"Probably some criminals out on the loose," Artemis grunted. "Don't worry, we'll get to them."

There was a sudden call from the couch "Got it!". And the collar around Amy's throat snapped off and they tossed it aside.

The girl who could've only been a magician had murmured a spell over her and then wince. "She's got a broken leg and arm for sure, some broken ribs, it looks like she was shot through the abdomen…lots of bruising that was from falling debris, I think, and, um-" She shot a glance towards Kid Flash whose lips had thinned into a harsh line. "Someone tried to strangle her."

Adara drew a hand up to her mouth. "What happened?" her voice rose shrilly, but no one answered her.

"Miss Martian," Aqualad said to the one that looked so much like Martian Manhunter, "can you look through her mind to find out who did this?"

"Y-

"No."

Kid Flash had spoken flatly and the single word with inlaid with ice and he stood to glare at Aqualad. "She would never agree to that."

"She can't because she's unconscious," Rocket pointed out, "and we're trying to find out why."

"We don't need the why. Batman told us to find out Oracle's status and we did." The green eyes were hard behind the mask. "You don't get to rifle through my cousin's head without her explicit consent."

The tension in the air was thick, broken only at the sound of Amy's rattling breaths.

Artemis squeezed Kid Flash's shoulder and Superboy stood from where he'd been crouching silently close to Amy's ankles.

"Let's all take a step back," the magician girl advised gently. "Kid Flash is right, Aqualad, we don't need to know that right now…what matters is that Amy's alive and we need to go help the League, right?"

Aqualad appeared chastised and remorseful. Sabine could sympathize with wanting to know the truth but not realizing when you'd crossed a line.

"One of you is going to call 911," Artemis told the girls in the apartment after a few moments of deliberating with the others by looks alone and it seemed almost like they'd had a conversation inside their heads, but Sabine couldn't be completely sure. "You're going to tell them you don't know what happened, but that your friend is seriously injured and she needs to get to the hospital." Behind her Sabine could see the magician muttering something, and a wave of her hand later Amy's hair was black as night. "We'll be back as soon as we're done helping the League."

They nodded as one and Sabine watched Kid Flash bend down and press a kiss to Amy's undamaged brow. He'd called her his cousin, and Sabine remembered the picture of the grinning red-head on Amy's phone, the one with green eyes (not to be confused with the one with blue eyes that she called her brother).

"You," he said, pointing a finger at Nadira, the tallest and the oldest, "keep an eye on her." No one commented on how choked up his voice had become.

Nadira simply nodded as they all fled to save their respective cities from imploding on themselves, before pulling out her phone and dialing.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"


Amara was floating. Nothing really seemed to matter. It was like all her troubles, all her worries were gone. There was nothing but blissful content.

She could fade away and she wouldn't care.

Was she fading?

Amara didn't even know.


Batman wasn't expecting this. As far as he'd known, Poison Ivy had hung up her cape -so to speak- and had gotten completely out of villainy. Amy had been rather steadfast in informing them all of that. Her loyalty to her mother was undeniable, but Amy put a lot of effort into finding out the truth, it was why she was so effective as Oracle in the first place, and she wouldn't have said it if she didn't believe it.

She was stubborn like that.

Batman wasn't sure if that was a trait she'd inherited from Poison Ivy or if it was a habit she picked up from the Flash. Both were viable options at this point.

The Team had reported in, as expected, with news of Amy's status and the status of the Cave. He had surmised that an explosion of some kind had occurred to bring something as fortified as the Cave out of commission, and Robin's report confirmed that, but Amy's current condition was more startling.

With the injuries Robin had listed off once they'd rounded up the Riddler and headed off to hunt down Fright, they couldn't have been just from the explosion. Batman had heard it in her voice on the phone; she'd been in pain even before the explosion.

When he and Robin rounded the corner they both had to blink behind their respective cowl and mask because there was Poison Ivy standing there, bold as brass, red hair flowing freely around a green face with sly eyes that she shared with her daughter, Fright trussed up in vines at her feet.

"A bit late, boys," Batman could practically feel the allure in her voice. She'd never had to try very hard at being seductive, but this time he was sure the sensation was unintentional.

Robin's grip tightened on his escrima sticks. Batman couldn't tell if it was because she had once tried to kill him or because he knew the current condition of her daughter and didn't want to be the one to tell her.

"Pamela-"

"Yeah, I know, your little League had it all sorted," Poison Ivy gave a careless wave of her hand. "I figured I'd give you hand, my daughter's a fan of us all getting along." Her eyes lightened when she said 'daughter' and never in a million years would Batman have thought that motherhood became Poison Ivy, but it suited her just as much as the green color of her skin.

"Pamela," he said this time with emphasis and Poison Ivy paused in the chaos, as if suddenly taking note of the tone he was using.

"What?" Poison Ivy asked cautiously, like she was treading the waters of a pool that she couldn't see how deep it went, like she could feel the tension hanging over all of them.

"Pamela…there was an accident," Batman said carefully, choosing his words cautiously. He'd seen what Poison Ivy looked like when she lost her temper, when she became distraught; Amy didn't even come close, and even her temper had disastrous effects. "The Cave…there was an explosion while your daughter was still inside."

The breath appeared to have been knocked out of Poison Ivy entirely. Her eyes widened, green and stunned and so very much like her daughter's, and she took in a shuddering breath.

"What?" Poison Ivy asked weakly and with so much disbelief and Batman could see her brain working behind her eyes. It was quite feasible for Amy to have been in the Cave, after all, if she wasn't there, she was usually at one of her two homes (if she wasn't off committing crimes as Masquerade in the dead of night), but recognizing that fact and letting the truth of it actually hit her -that the Cave had been bombed, that her daughter was seriously injured-, that was something else entirely.

"The Team got her out and her friends called an ambulance. She's still alive."

Batman often came off as the rather unfeeling leader of the Justice League, but a heart did pump under his skin. He did like Amy, regardless of what she thought of him, and he thought she had given so very much to the Justice League and had done so much good, even if she'd become so jaded.

Still, her heart was in the right place and she had a strong will, and if there was one person who didn't deserve to be injured terrible enough to be sent to the hospital again, it was certainly her.

"She's -what?" Poison Ivy had gone so pale that the green had almost completely faded from her cheeks. She looked almost like she did when she was out in public, but for the very wrong reasons.

Her knees fell out from under her, sending her crashing down into the snow.

Batman didn't even want to think about the look on Flash's face when he found out.


Barry could tell Wally was in a terrible mood when he finally showed up in Central City, but he attributed it to dealing with so many criminals one after the other; the kid had to be running practically on fumes at this point.

"Take a breather, Kid," Barry suggested when they'd finally wrangled Captain Cold.

From what he'd heard from the Leaguer comlink in his ear, the chaos had been pretty much nationwide, focused in the varying cities of heroes. Superman and Batman had the heaviest hitters, so they'd been staying on their toes, and apparently some of the criminals had disappeared underground while the others wreaked havoc.

Mardon was out and Barry couldn't bring himself to be surprised. What was more surprising was that he was in possession of his Weather Wand, which had been locked away in the Cave after the incident with the snow and ice-controlling criminals several weeks earlier. He'd only stuck around long enough to cause a terrible storm and destabilize a bridge. Barry had been expecting more from him, but he supposed Mardon's survival instinct was too strong at this point.

Barry hadn't even had the chance to run over since he and Wally had been dealing with some rogues.

Wally was shaking.

"Kid?" Barry frowned behind his cowl. "You get enough to eat? I think you burned through too much-"

And then Wally latched onto his side as his knees just quit underneath him, and that was when Barry realized something was seriously wrong, though he surmised what really should've bothered him was how quiet Wally was.

Wally was hyperactive at best when they were out patrolling, often his mouth going faster than his feet, but he had gone through a period of hardly speaking to his mentor at all, back when Amy had run away to Russia.

But now Wally looked like he was being ripped apart at the seams. The last time he'd come even close to looking like that had been when Amy had been in the hospital.

Barry helped him sit on a curb, feeling him practically vibrating out of his skin as he knelt in front of him, a careful hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Kid, tell me what's going on."

Wally took in a shuddering gasp, his head bowed downwards. The distant sound of firemen getting the nearby fire under control barely registered to either of them.

"Amy," Wally's tongue fumbled and choked over his cousin's name, "she -she told Batman not to -she didn't want to distract you- and-"

"With what?" Barry could feel a horrible weight settling into his stomach.

"The Cave -it -there was an explosion -bombs," Wally managed to force out, the words stilted, stuttering past his lips. "Amy -Amy was still inside." His eyes were shining, tears stubbornly clinging to them.

"What?" For a moment the words didn't even hit Barry. It was like trying to listen underwater, with his blood roaring in his ears, with his heart in the soles of his feet. "She's-"

"She's alive," Wally said throatily, a hand clawing at his chest where his heart was, trying to even out his breathing. He wasn't being very successful. "Her friends called an ambulance in Gotham…she was -she was pretty messed up."

'Messed up' could mean a lot of things, but Barry's mind conjured the image of Amy, nearly twelve years old, on a gurney, her uniform stained with blood. The memory of that day was painful enough.

Barry couldn't lose her again, not his little girl. So, he grabbed Wally and ran for Gotham.


AN: Dramatic, huh? The real irony is that the prison breakout has been mostly in the background but you'll see ramifications later on. Mostly its just people responding to Amy's condition, which is fun to write. Poor Barry and Pam; just wait until Iris and Harley find out…yikes.

As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!