Tempest: Chapter Seventy-Two: Reason For Betrayal

AN: So, I guess a lot of people were losing their minds over the last chapter :) I do aim to please! Unfortunately, I don't believe that Roy will be making an appearance for a few chapters, but you will see him again…before the end of part two of Tempest is still to be decided, but I'm pretty sure its coming to a close soon, and then we can get on to part three!


It was heartbreaking, really, Dick thought. He'd cleaned up the video as much as he could, but the image of Roy shooting Amy, of Roy wrapping his hands around her throat was unmistakable. There were mixed reactions all around.

Harley was the angriest of Amy's parents, the others were a bit too in shock. How many times had Barry felt relieved to know that Roy was looking after Amy when she was on her own? How many times had Iris smiled, seeing Amy fast asleep, her cheek squished against Roy's arm? How many times had Pamela called Roy instead of Amy herself when she wanted to see if she was going to make it home after patrol?

Too many times to count.

And how many times had Dick spotted them walking down the street, Amy flipping through her phone without interest as Roy drank from his thermos, their fingers interlocked? How many times had Amy made Roy laugh? How many times had they literally argued like children over what movie to watch that night?

If anyone could've been more like brother and sister, it was that pair…the news that Roy had tried to kill her was startling.

Ollie was in shock. First the possible brain tumor, now this? Dick wasn't sure the laidback archer could handle much more stress. Dinah was practically icy -this was her protégé, practically her niece, and a boy that was somewhere between a step-son and annoying kid brother- and it was the first time Dick had seen her close to losing her head.

Amy's room was overflowing with Chrysanthemums of varying shades of colors. He guessed it had gotten around to the League that Amy's actions had made it so that the damages by the Belle Reve escapees weren't quite so disastrous.

It was still a disaster, though, a bridge had been taken down in Central City, a building in Metropolis…the cities that seemed to be the least damaged were the ones without superpowered villains, like Star City, Ivy Town, and Portland. It felt like half the nation was grateful for what the League had done and the other half was calling for their heads.

G. Gordon Godfrey was back on his bullshit -Wally's words, channeling the spirit of his cousin, no doubt-, claiming that the League was behind the attack to be a variation of an angel of death -putting people at risk in order to save them- and given the serious destruction and death in Central City was atmokinetic-related, he'd decided to attack Amy for it.

Dick was starting to wonder just how stupid someone had to be to believe his nonsense. There were literally so many confirmed sightings and recordings of Weather Wizard's attack, but his followers were eating it up.

Storm Chaser was a favorite target of his, Dick knew, if it wasn't because she was part of the League and female, it was because she'd been temporarily disabled or because she was rather distinctly not straight.

Harley had disappeared to blow off steam and Pamela had gone with Barry to get some coffee -at least Amy would be happy to know her parents were getting on better- and Iris, who had only come in early that morning on a redeye flight had collapsed in the opposite chair from where Dick was sitting, her hand curling around the one that hadn't been broken.

They were kind of in hot water in regards to Amy's healing abilities. Two hours after she'd been removed from surgery the bones seemed to have knit themselves back together and no one was quite sure how it had happened.

Dr. Myra Mason was a doctor that often worked alongside Doctor Mid-Nite and the League and had treated Amy had when she'd lost the ability to use her legs had been flown in and taken over for the doctors that had treated Amy initially in the Gotham hospital. Dr. Mason Amy would trust more than some unknown doctor, that much Dick knew, when she woke up. The doctors had gotten in some kind of argument about that, but Dr. Mason had shut them down quickly.

Dick glanced over to Amy's face. The bruises and cuts and burns had gradually faded -it had been long enough for that- and she'd had some swelling in her throat from the strangulation attempt, and though her voice might be hoarse, the swelling had abated and breathing wouldn't be an issue for her.

Knowing Amy, she'd take offense at the air.

Everything was kind of a hot mess right now. The League was trying to sort out who had gotten away in the chaos (Weather Wizard was at the top of the list), the Green Lanterns were helping with the wreckage of the Cave, and mostly the sidekicks were crashing wherever they could.

Kaldur and Conner had passed out in Amy's safehouse which was probably for the best. Wally was with the Allens, but that was typical, especially with his parents being on vacation. Zatanna and M'gann were tuckered out on Artemis' spare bed and couch. Raquel had made it back to her own house.

The past day had been hard. Exhausting. The only one getting the most sleep at this rate was Amy, and they'd cut her slack for that.

Amy stirred suddenly beside him and Dick leaned forward sharply. Her eyelids fluttered slightly before they opened to reveal those familiar green eyes, hazy from drugs and memory.

"Hey, Amy," Dick murmured, careful not to raise his voice too much, raising a hand to brush her hair away from her cheek, it was warm and soft under his hand, alive.

She tried to speak, but her throat must've been too dry. She made a vague gesture in his direction and he got what she wanted immediately.

He held the water mug out to her and the straw disappeared between her lips.

Then her hand clenched tightly into his shirt, drawing him close to hear the rasping words leaving her abused throat. "Batman -need to -see- Batman."

Surprise colored Dick's face. If there was one thing Amy hated -well, maybe not hated, but preferred not to be in the same room for an extended amount of time- it was Bruce.

But he still pulled out his phone. "Okay, I'll call him."

He squeezed her hand and Amy's eyes slid shut and she fell asleep once more, her body more relaxed than before. At least that was something.


Amy had a private room, which meant not a lot of people to disturb her, but Bruce could hear her raised voice.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" she was snapping.

"Amy, sweetheart, I know it's confusing, but—"

"I'm not confused!" Amy nearly snarled. "I know exactly what happened, in fact, I might be the only person who does!"

Bruce gave a polite knock and entered into what could only be described as 'Amara-related family drama'…again. He thought he'd dealt with the last of if when Amy had returned to the Cave with Harley and Pamela in tow, ready to speak with Barry and Iris…apparently, he'd thought wrong. The only difference was that this time, it seemed to be an us vs. them situation, with the parents seeming to have joined forces and Amy on her lone island fending for herself (with a reluctant Wally at her side).

Amy twisted wildly to see him.

She'd already forgone her hospital gown, exchanged for casual clothes. Wonder Woman's symbol was worn down on her shirt and she was in the process of getting her socks on her feet, it seemed, when she'd been interrupted.

For someone who had been so seriously injured less than two days ago, Bruce had to say that she appeared to be doing remarkably well, albeit incredibly agitated and not quite so steady on her feet. Wally had a careful hand in reach just in case she needed it.

She barely acknowledged his presence with Dick fluttering behind his adoptive father like a robin in the wind. "Did you find him?"

"We're still looking, but we'll find him," Bruce assured her, "bringing him in is top priority."

"Bringing him—?" Amy was aghast. She took a step back and almost fell, if not for Wally. "No, no, no! You have to find him now! Before his brain gets too scrambled!"

Bruce's confusion was echoed across the faces of Amy's family. There was something they were all missing.

"Amy, sit down," he advised gently and if she was her usual self, she probably would've scowled and stubbornly remained standing, but even though she'd healed externally, she was still weak, so she sat down. "Tell me what happened."

Amy ran a hand through her hair, tugging aggressively before taking in a deep and calming breath, her eyes fluttering shut just briefly.

"Artemis asked me to join them, -her, Wally, Zatanna, R-Robin (she just caught herself on revealing his name, as she wasn't sure if all her parents knew it at this point), M'gann, and Conner- but I figured that would be awkward with them being all lovey-dovey…" Wally made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, but he was ignored. "Kaldur was in Atlantis and Raquel was at home so I thought it would be a good time to practice with the Cave all to myself…Dinah wanted me to practice concentrating my electrokinesis."

Amy ground her teeth together, eyes flicking to the side. "I was so focused that I didn't hear the zeta-tube powering up…the next thing I knew, there'd been an arrow shot through me—" Her hand dropped to her stomach where the arrow had penetrated. There was barely a scar, unlike when she'd been younger. Merlyn's arrows had left their mark, but her accelerated healing came from her mother's side so maybe it was more active now? Amy had no idea. "—and there was an inhibitor collar around my throat." She raised her hand to where the collar had once rested. Bruce wondered if it was a good or bad thing that she couldn't see her respective parents becoming increasingly emotional behind her.

"It was like Roy couldn't hear me…he activated the zeta-tube and that's when Vandal Savage showed up." Amy's mouth thinned into a line. "He gave Roy the bombs…he said that there was some high-tech implant in his head, courtesy of Lex Luthor. He said it was placed years ago and was very effective at mind control." She sounded bitter but her words had relaxed almost everyone in the room.

"That's why you need to get to him and get it out," Amy insisted, trying to stand again, but this time Wally held her back, even as she glowered.

"We're working on it, but he's missing and very hard to find." Bruce was sure that he hadn't mistaken that flicker of pride that had splashed across Amy's face and then quickly receded. Amy and Roy certainly had made it a habit of theirs, disappearing without a trace. "What happened next?"

"Well, he broke my arm and leg," Amy said sourly, "Savage, not Roy. He said this wasn't part of his plan…I'm pretty sure he and Roy were related, just like he and Steve Trevor are, because he said that wasn't strong enough that killing Roy and eating his organs wouldn't cut it either." Several eyes were wide and mouths were gaping. "Anyways, that was when he told me about his plan to release the criminals from Belle Reve and that he thought having Roy kill me be a good idea, I gotta say, I'm not a fan…I passed out when he tried to strangle me…they were both gone and the zeta-tube was fritzing by the time I came around." Amy shrugged. "That's pretty much it."

She was being rather cavalier about the whole situation, but Bruce wasn't privy to the many -and he was certain it was many- ways she coped with trauma.

"So, can I be discharged now?" she asked, five different shades of intensity.

"No," Iris insisted and Amy twisted to look at her mother, scowling severely. "Dr. Mason says you're sticking around for another day so she can make sure you don't have any neurological problems."

Amy stood up that time and her knees buckled immediately and she would've crashed into the ground if not for her father moving at superspeed faster than Wally to catch her.

"I'm fine!" Amy tried to insist, cradled in his arms, but her voice grew faint and she pressed a hand to her head, lightheaded. "I'm…fine."

"What you're going to do is take it easy," Pamela insisted as Barry set her back down on the bed, Harley bobbing her head at her left side, all of them serious and in agreement. "Twenty-four hours of taking it easy."

"That won't last," Wally snorted and Amy swiped her phone from him as proof of that. "What'd I say? Hey! Gimme that!"

She was already rifling through the phone like it was no one's business. "I might not be able to go hunting for Roy, but someone else can," she muttered, thumbing out a message and sending it off without a second thought.

"You need to take a break from working," Wally insisted.

"You were almost crushed a day ago!" Dick added from behind Bruce.

"No rest for the wicked, which, obviously, I am…how's the Team doing?"

Dick settled cross-legged on the foot of Amy's bed while Wally flopped down beside her, mostly a deterrent to keep her from getting up again, because she certainly looked antsy enough to try it; Amy had no love of hospitals and the last time she'd been in one she'd been told that she probably wouldn't be able to walk for a while, if at all.

But the information she had left Bruce with was invaluable.

"I think my hard drive was destroyed in the explosion, though." Amy appeared quite upset about it. "So, I guess Oracle is going to be down for a while as well."

No one commented when an hour later Amy found herself with a brand-new Wayne Tech laptop to replace the one that had been destroyed, even with Amy's eyes flicking towards Dick who turned cherry red and gave off the impression that he'd rather be anywhere than there.

The color only darkened when Amy gave him a brilliant smile that thankfully only Wally was around to see, or else Dick would've died of complete embarrassment.


There was a gathering of sidekicks in Amara's room by the time she practically forced her parents to go out and get dinner. Amy's new laptop was warm on her lap and her fingers roved over the keys. She was mostly on BlackNet right now; they were still working out the kinks with Oracle's own site, the TempleofDelphi.

"What're you guys gonna do about where you live?" Amara's brow furrowed towards the ones that had been living in the Cave before its destruction.

"Right now, we've just been crashing wherever," Zatanna shrugged. "But I heard something about the Cave being compromised so going back there is a no-no."

"I think Kaldur enjoyed passing out on the couch at your safe house, though." M'gann's eyes were glittering. "He thinks Nadira is stunning."

A beet red flush spread from Kaldur's cheeks down to his gills. "M'gann!"

They all laughed but Amara had to give a conceding nod. "Well, you're not wrong." Nadira was very pretty and she didn't think there was a color or outfit that didn't suit her…though one time Amara did see her wearing a white dress with eyeliner to match and she looked good. Like if you'd had a near death experience and saw her, you would've thought you were still dead. Not Amara's type, but she'd give it to Kaldur, at least he had good taste.

"Have you talked with them yet? Your ballerina friends?" Artemis asked, leaning forward in Wally's lap (there was a limited number of chairs, or, at least that was the excuse she used when questioned about it; Wally didn't seem to mind, keeping a casual arm around her waist so she didn't teeter off) to furrow her brow at Amara.

"Not…really." Amara scratched her cheek awkwardly. "I mean, they came to visit me yesterday to make sure I was doing all right, but no one's really addressed the elephant in the room…I'm probably going to have a talk with them about, you know, everything, when I get out of the hospital." She cupped her chin thoughtfully.

Dick and Zatanna were sitting separate from each other, which wasn't too weird, but they generally a bit closer in proximity, kind of like Wally and Artemis…Amara decided not to read too much into it; she had better things to do with her time.

"But I might have a place for you guys that would be a good place for you to crash together, like the Cave…uh, it might be a bit…big." Amara turned pink at the memory of the place in question.

She wasn't shy about admitting she had a lot of money and that practically all of that money came from doing things that were less legal in nature. Working at Sandra's flower shop was about as legal as she got. Safehouses were one thing and Amara had several of those, but she also had a lot of random other houses across the world, just because Amara had felt like buying them at the time, all under assumed aliases (no one could say she wasn't still paranoid).

This one in particular was rather…large and secluded, which wasn't a rarity in what she possessed, but the only reason she had it was because the former owner used it as a payment to Amara for one of the many services she provided as Oracle. She'd made sure it appeared to have been bought several times since then before it landed in Elisa Jäger's possession.

She pulled up the images of the place in question and twisted the laptop around for them all to see.

"Damn, girl," Raquel managed to force out, "what kind of money did you have to pay for that?"

"Oh, this was free," Amara assured her, ignoring the dubious looks. M'gann, Kaldur, Zatanna, and Conner were intrigued though, but they would be, they were the ones without homes right now. "I like space about as much as Mom and Harley -which is to say a lot, 'cause like, have you seen our house- but this is a bit big for me…but I figured if you guys were all using it then that would be something…I've got the key back in my room if you want to check it out after I get out of the hospital tomorrow."

"Shouldn't you be taking it easy?" Zatanna asked carefully.

Amara waved a careless hand. "I'm totally fine! Look at me!"

The dubious looks increased tenfold.

"You're the worst friends," she decided, making them all laugh.

She'd heard her parents all talking together. Mardon was still on the loose and he'd tracked her to her house before and that made them overly cautious. Barry and Iris had been talking about moving for the past few weeks, though, so it wasn't as out of the blue, but that had more to do with them wanting more children eventually and their house was a bit small for that.

It'd work out eventually…hopefully.


"Go to sleep, Richard."

"I'm staying awake, I'm not tired."

Amara snorted. The room was darkened to accommodate that it was nighttime. The brightest light was coming from Amara's laptop as she typed away heatedly. She had a messenger system up with someone named Cassandra (Dick supposed that was her online name, since Amy's was Pythia in the conversation) and was going between it and making alterations in the Temple's coding.

"Can I ask you something…personal?" he finally asked.

Amara paused to turn towards him. They were both small enough that they fit easily in the bed and the green of her eyes was almost hidden beneath the glare of the laptop. "Is this about Zatanna?"

Something in Dick's stomach twitched. "Kinda…not really."

Amara frowned. That wasn't helping.

"How did you know you were demisexual?"

The question surprised her and Amara balked, staring at him like she had been expecting him to ask her a lot of things, but that didn't even make the top of the list. Then she sat the laptop on the chair beside her and gave him her full attention.

Dick's heart twisted into knots.

"Look," she said, "there isn't a handbook for this, everyone is different, everyone feels things differently. My…flavor of demisexuality isn't the same as someone else's."

"I know," Dick said seriously, "I just…I want to hear it from you."

Amara shrugged. "Sexuality isn't a really big deal in my house -either of my houses- when I told Mom and Dad my first kiss had been a girl, they didn't have any problems with it -Dad was more startled that it was an assassin, but that's beside the point—" Dick stifled a snort. "And then Mom's bi and Harley's pan, so they give no shits…I felt kinda…different, not bad different, I just didn't react the way people should've, you know?"

That was clearly rhetorical.

"People fawning over girls and boys alike…I flirt, but I couldn't really feel the kind of attraction that people talk about. I look at someone and I think their face is symmetrical or how impractical those shoes would be in a fight but how good they can make legs look, you know? I can find people cute, you know I can…but relationships take work and effort and I've been ripped open too many times to be anything but careful about who I could potentially fall in love with…does that help?"

"A bit," Dick said.

"Are you and Zatanna breaking up? Is that why you're asking?"

"I think we're having an amicable split." Dick frowned thoughtfully. "I don't think either of us are too broken up about it." They'd only been dating about two months. "Questioning our sexualities is part of the issue. Its not a bad thing…its just something we'd both like to have figured out before dating."

Amara nodded in understanding. "And you think you might be demisexual?"

"I-maybe? I don't know." Dick shrugged helplessly. "I'd have to do more research to figure it out."

"I told Roy first that I thought I might've been demi," Amara said conversationally. "He took it in stride until I decided to come out to my parents."

Dick glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You're still worried about him, aren't you?"

"I'll stay worried about him until I see him again," Amara sniffed in a faux-arrogant manner.

"We'll find him," Dick tried to assure her.

"Yeah, I know," Amara heaved a heavy sigh, her eyes downcast and a thousand miles away. "I'm just worried how he'll be when we find him."

Thinking he'd killed his partner? That could've destroyed him, but Roy was tough and he'd figure it out eventually…Dick just hoped that he didn't do something drastic before then.


AN: Questioning Dick and Zatanna are my jam :) You'll see Roy eventually, just maybe not for a few chapters.

Amy has too much money but I have ideas about the Cave 2.0

As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!