Tempest: Chapter Seventy-Eight: Crimson Bow

AN: The fact that I have to talk about this is frankly ridiculous: Demisexual is not straight and demisexuals have a right to be included in LGBTQ spaces. If you do not believe Amy equates to a literal fucking person because she's on the asexual spectrum, I suggest you stop reading this fic and all my fics.

Amy's story is an inherently queer story. She is demisexual and is currently dating a bisexual girl, but even if she was dating a boy, that wouldn't negate her queerness. She has two loving moms and a mom and dad that are very accepting of her orientation.

I was blasted about those two things so much that I literally had to step away from most of my fanfics and this will be the only Tempest update for awhile.


Sometimes Amara needed to get away from everything, from her parents, from her friends, from her girlfriend. It was a tossup, on a good day, whether she would make the trek to Sea Isle City where her safe house was, or Roy's apartment, like she always seemed to do when she was stumped.

She laid back on his couch, sighing as she stared up at the ceiling.

"I have so much appreciation for what you had to put up with me running off because this…this is next level." Amara snorted as she conversed with the open air. "Two months and nothing, c'mon, Roy, you're killing me!"

The answering silence was not helping things.

"You missed my and Zee's first date, by the way," she informed the silence conversationally. "I didn't have anyone to really threaten her with bodily harm, because I think Dad was more relieved that she was the least trouble-causing sidekick, which is just plain insulting when you think about it…who knows, maybe Jade will get to it eventually, after she actually finds you -after we actually find you."

Amara sighed loudly, rubbing at her eyes, glancing around the living area vaguely. Roy's apartment had a very rustic feel to it, which fell in line a lot with Amara's own style.

"I have a list," she continued, "beating the crap out of you is at the top of it, I hope you know, so get ready to square up."

She closed her eyes, trying not to feel so completely and unbelievably alone. Everyone else had given up on Roy, but Amara couldn't, it wasn't in her nature. Roy had always looked for her, even when there was nothing to find, even when he seemed to just be so incredibly focused on patrol, even when everyone else had given up. Was he in Vandal Savage's clutches? Was he in Lex Luthor's hands? Was he somewhere else, hiding out and waiting for the coast to be clear?

What if he's the reason your spine is hurting so much? A dark thought whispered in her mind and Amara rolled onto her side, scowling, her eyes still shut, her back twinging just a bit, but not enough to really bring the pain. It was on and off these days, which Amara glad for, but a part of her had to wonder if she was regressing back to how she'd been a year ago, legs unable to move or feel stimulation.

She let her mind wander.

"One day you're going to need to figure out what you want in life."

"This is what I want," Amara insisted and Sergei gave her a firm look. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't need help."

"No, I think you wouldn't be here if you could be found any other way," the priest countered, "you're hiding, that's all it is."

Amara ground her teeth together, wanting to refute his claim, but that wouldn't make it any less true.

Sergei leaned forward, his eyes crinkling in the corners as he took Amara's hands, giving them a squeeze. Hers were ice-cold, not yet acclimated to the cold, but his were very nearly warm.

"My dear…running from your problems won't solve them, only magnify them." He smiled gently. "You haven't hit a block yet, but that's the point when you'll feel like a compass that can't point north."

"My powers—"

"I don't mean your powers, I mean your mask…one day you're going to wonder if the mask is Amaryllis Harper or the one she wears."

Amara had opened her mouth and then had to pause, confusion settling in.

She opened her eyes and sighed once more, hating that Sergei was right; he was always right, it wasn't fair. But the truth was that ever since she'd become Oracle, she'd felt like she'd done more good behind a screen than she had punching bad guys, which really sucked, because that was a thing that used to thrill her and right now…it didn't, which made Amara feel a bit anxious, like she was trying to fool herself.

Talking to someone about it would probably help, but the list of people Amara was willing to talk to about that subject was rather thin. She sat up on the couch and something clattered to the ground.

The noise startled her, but she still reached down to grab what had been positioned precariously on the stand at the couch's side and Amara held what looked like some sort of red baton with a slight indentation of a button.

Amara pressed it, jerking back suddenly as it snapped out into a full-sized bow, the right size for Roy. It was a collapsible bow; Amara hadn't known that he'd had one in the first place. Her hands smoothed over the grip.

Roy had made sure that she could shoot, maybe not well, but well enough; he'd always been a bit paranoid about what Amara would be able to do if she'd exhausted herself with her atmokinesis, if she was too far away to strike an enemy with her batons. "This will save your life one day," Roy had promised.

Amara sniffed, wiping her face with her arm, ridding her face of any tears. "You asshole," she muttered under her breath.

She was going to find Roy if it killed her.


"Do you see them?"

"No, but I'm sure they'll be here soon," Nadira rolled her eyes, taking a sip of her lemonade before noticing two figures that had just entered. "See, there they are."

Sabine scrutinized them both. Amy had send them pictures of her new hairstyle, which looked pretty cool, if you asked her, but it wasn't really something an accomplished ballerina could pull off while they were still working. Zatanna, they'd seen pictures of and had briefly seen her in the apartment before she'd rushed off with the other sidekicks, and with Amy now, they looked quite the pair.

Amy's eyeliner was on point and she was wearing a floral dress over tights that Sabine was pretty sure was the same one she'd been wearing in that video that had gone viral but she couldn't deny that Amy looked good -but Sabine had also seen Amy's mom before and holy fuck-, tugging Zatanna after her with a laugh, cheeks pink. Zatanna, it seemed, was dressed a bit more simply, jeans and a nice shirt, which Sabine appreciated; Amy always made her feel underdressed.

"Amy, darling," Nadira said when they sat down, voice earnest and eyes dancing. "You could've had me."

Everyone laughed like they didn't know how hard she was crushing on Kaldur.

"Oh, Nadira, babe," Amy sweetened her voice so that it was almost dripping in saccharine, "you know you're not my type."

"Oh, we know," Adara almost cackled, "dark hair and blue eyes must be your mortal weakness or something."

Amy rolled her eyes but didn't deny it, turning her head to look to Zatanna. "I don't know why I'm friends with these lunatics. I'm very unapproachable."

"Sure you are, Amy."

"She doesn't believe me about these things," Amy lamented to the girls and Sofia stifled her giggles into her water while Sabine full-on snorted.

"Don't you make a living keeping secrets?"

Amy paused, considering it for a moment. "Okay, you know what, that's fair." She waved down a waiter to order a raspberry lemonade -of course- with Zatanna just getting a Sprite. "So, this is Zatanna, my girlfriend, she's generally the most magical person in the room, and the prettiest, so don't take it personally."

Zatanna blushed and Sofia almost died of laughter.

"You're an absolute menace," Sofia informed Amy when she could breathe again and Amy laughed before pulling out her phone when it buzzed, arching an eyebrow at the ID, answering it without a thought.

"Hey, Ollie, you know I'm on a date right now, right?" she asked dryly and Zatanna shook her head in amusement. "…no, I can get you that real quick, gimme a sec…" She pulled out a second phone and started typing.

"Does she do that a lot?" Nadira asked Zatanna.

"Amy's pretty busy," Zatanna shrugged, her lips tugging down in the corners just slightly to tell the girls she wasn't totally happy about the intrusiveness of Amy being Oracle on top of Storm Chaser. "But Ollie's Roy -her, um, brother's- dad and he's still missing so she's always trying to help him out."

Which was understandable, Sabine thought. Even if it didn't show all the time, Sabine knew that Amy was worried; she'd stare at her screensaver -which was the two of them together- for the longest time before someone would jar her out of it. It could get annoying, when Amy went between talking with them and doing things with her phone, but, like Zatanna said, Amy was pretty busy as Oracle and it wasn't like she was bored.

"Wait…"Adara said suddenly when Amy was off the phone again. "You said you brother lived in Star City…and his dad's called Ollie…is your dad Oliver Queen?!"

She might've said that a bit too loud and several heads turned towards them. Amy slapped her palm to her forehead with a loud groan, sinking into her chair, trying to hide from the attention.

"You've seen my dad! My dad is very well-known!" That was true enough. Flash was the perfect image of a doting dad and there'd always been rumors that Kid Flash was his actual son. There were collages of Flash, Kid Flash, and Storm Chaser together and meta-analyses about how family-like they were, but Storm Chaser was the only one confirmed to Flash's child. "Ollie's practically my uncle."

"So why don't you call Roy cousin?" Sofia scrutinized.

"Because of reasons." Amy didn't want to elaborate and Sabine could practically feel how uncomfortable she was getting about the subject. Zatanna had squeezed Amy's hand under the table.

"So," Sabine cleared her throat loudly, "how did you two even meet?"

Amy's eyes shifted to Sabine, relief clear, before moving back to Zatanna with a bit of vague amusement. "Oh, that's a funny story…Robin had been badgering me for awhile to get me to come back to the Team. I'd dropped in on him once or twice on patrol as…" Her lips twisted. "As my red persona."

Zatanna choked on her drink, so Sabine guessed that meant something else to her.

"I wasn't being real cooperative, but that's like me, he wasn't really surprised, but our…mentor?" She looked to Zatanna.

"Mentor, babysitter, sounds about right," Zatanna laughed.

"He'd…disappeared and they finally had a lead on him, so I joined up in time to find this pretty girl in my seat on the ship."

"You called me Replacement and called me pretty," Zatanna pointed out.

"You're still that in my phone!" Amy grinned widely. "At least you're not Kelpie or Gene Pool…Artemis has the best nickname, obviously, who wouldn't want to be called Goddess?"

They both laughed together.


"That was pretty…invasive at the start."

Zatanna was holding Amy's hand as she balanced on the short line of bricks next to the sidewalk. You would've thought she'd prefer being on the ground more in a dress, but clearly not.

"They're still playing catch-up," Amy responded consideringly. "But they're getting better."

Zatanna glanced over at her, walking carefully on heeled boots with a sort of preciseness that she probably used as Masquerade, robbing people blind in heels. She was probably only really holding onto Zatanna's hand because she wanted to, not because she needed to, but Zatanna didn't mind.

"And they like you, which is nice," Amy added, casting her a grin, "it would really suck if my friends didn't like my girlfriend."

Zatanna smiled, feeling a pleasant buzz at how Amy said 'girlfriend' without thought, like her calling everyone she wanted to 'babe', only this endearment was reserved for Zatanna and Zatanna alone. "Were you worried?"

"Not really," Amy wheedled, squeezing Zatanna's fingers. "Mostly I'm just wondering what I can do to set up Nadira with Kaldur because they'd be amazingly cute together."

Zatanna laughed, but she couldn't deny that Nadira Barasa was very pretty and she'd easily outshone everyone at dinner without even trying, which was very impressive and it easy to see why when her name was brought up Kaldur turned bright red.

"Maybe I'll just be out with her at some point when Kaldur needs to come find me…" Amy considered.

"That might be a bit of a reach," Zatanna laughed.

"I'll figure it out eventually," Amy proclaimed loudly, earning a few looks from passersby that she didn't acknowledge or refused to. "Ooh, maybe I'll get injured again and everyone comes to see me and sparks fly!"

Zatanna arched an eyebrow. "Are you planning on getting injured anytime soon?"

Amy grinned widely. "If I fall off this will you catch me?"

Fall was used very mildly, evidently, because Amy did a short little jump to send her towards Zatanna's arms, which rose automatically to catch her, straining slightly even as Amy wound her arms around Zatanna's neck with glee, leaving Zatanna just a touch exasperated and more than a touch amused.

"We should make your uniform out of bubble wrap," Zatanna murmured into her cheek before giving her a kiss there that made Amy's cheeks burn pink.

"Too much work," Amy sang as Zatanna released her to swing down onto her own two feet, interlocking their fingers once more, checking her phone -her Oracle one, Zatanna could tell the difference now- and finding something that made her frown.

"Everything okay?"

"Its just difficulties with setting up Tiresias, she's another of my Oracles, she's in Qurac right now."

Zatanna knew that the situation in Qurac wasn't ideal for anyone. "She's Quraci?"

"Trying to get out of the country, too, but she's getting stone-walled," Amy sighed. "She is an amazing hacker, though. English isn't so great, French is a little better, so she's trying to get to France and trying to learn as much French as she can while negotiating her way out of the country."

"Why's she in such a hurry?" Zatanna asked curiously.

"Bialya and Qurac share a border and her village is at the edge of both and after the debacle of Bialya's attempt to unify with Qurac through mind control a few months ago, things have been pretty tense, with Bialya threatening to expand through the neighboring villages closest…unfortunately," Amy grimaced, "Tiresias was a pretty vocal protester of the unification since her whole family has been killed by Biaylians over the years…supposedly accidents, but I really doubt it…I'd want to get out of a country like that, if I was her."

Zatanna couldn't help but hum in agreement as they came to a stop in front of the zeta-tube where it was hidden as a no longer functional phone booth. "Guess this is me…are you staying in Gotham or heading back to Central City?"

"Probably Central City," Amy decided, rolling her shoulders. "I just left Gotham yesterday; I've got my two weeks in CC before I have to switch back again."

Zatanna wasn't sure how much she wanted to know about Amy's living situation because it confused her on the best of days. She hummed slightly before curving her hand over the edge of Amy's jaw, pulling her in to kiss her.

Amy softened against her, responding happily, that when Zatanna parted from her, she was a bit dazed.

"I like the dress," she whispered and Amy was still blinking owlishly when Zatanna vanished into the zeta-beam.

Raquel was laying down on a couch when Zatanna came out of the room where the makeshift zeta-tube was set up for the time being and she took note of Zatanna's flushed cheeks, looking up from the homework she was evidently cramming on. "Nice date?" she cheeked.

Zatanna rolled her eyes, still flushed. "Good night, Raquel!"

Raquel's laugh followed her all the way upstairs.


Storm Chaser stilled suddenly, hands tight around her batons, and Red Arrow, who was so used to how she moved, being her partner of several years, was quick to pick up on it.

"What is it?"

Green eyes narrowed behind the nightvision goggles over her black mask. "I thought I heard something," she said quietly.

It was impossible not to hear something, of course, they were out on patrol, and even though it was getting late, there were still people out and about.

"Something not in the usual, I'm guessing?" Red Arrow surmised.

"It's like a clicking sound…you really can't hear it?" she demanded, twisting her head around, searching for the source of the noise.

Red Arrow paused, listening hard and then he heard it, just before an explosion of smoke surrounded them.

"Storm Chaser, get down!"

He knocked her to the ground just as bullets rained down against the wall they'd been standing close to. Something snapped in his arm and Red Arrow hissed under his breath.

"You all right?" he managed to grunt out.

"Gah." Storm Chaser wheezed underneath him. "Why do you weigh so much?"

Red Arrow's eyebrow twitched. "Are you calling me fat?"

She poked him in the stomach. "No, not fat, heavy…how much of you is muscle? Holy fuck, Arrowhead."

"I'm going to kill you," he seethed in her ear.

"Promise?" she cheeked before wiggling her way out from under him as he flopped onto his side. "You injured?"

"I think I broke my arm," he muttered and Storm Chaser's fingers fluttered down one arm before moving onto the second and he hissed through his teeth. "SC."

"Touchy, touchy," Storm Chaser muttered, pushing him down as there was another flurry of shots, grabbing up his bow.

"That's a bit drastic," Red Arrow grunted as she searched for an arrow. "You're a terrible shot."

"Better that than nothing," Storm Chaser pointed out breathlessly, both wincing at the sound of gunfire raining into the wall next to him. "Personally, I think our options are a bit limited."

"You may be right," Red Arrow conceded with a hiss of pain, looking down at the blood staining his leg and his arm. Storm Chaser had crimson seeping through the side of her uniform, but she healed much faster than he did.

Storm Chaser handed over her staff as she finally pulled the explosive arrow from the ruin of his quiver.

"Shoot straight," he warned as she nocked it before jumping out into full view and firing off an arrow.

The explosion reflected orange in her eyes.


"Sir, your niece is here to see you," came his secretary's voice from the speaker on the phone and Oliver had to pull away from Dinah briefly, blinking a few times, trying to clear his thoughts, which was difficult after kissing his girlfriend.

"I think I'll run to the bathroom for a little while, babe," Dinah murmured and Oliver wasn't hazy enough to figure out that she'd drop back in after she was gone.

"You don't want to stay? She's your protégé," Oliver didn't really need to point that out.

Amy had been…quieter than usual lately, less talkative, less open, less reckless, which was equal parts relieving as it was concerning. Oliver and Dinah hadn't seen her use any atmokinesis in a solid month, which was very noticeable for someone whose whole schtick was related to controlling the weather.

"She didn't come to me, Ollie," Dinah reminded him, "she came to you…when she's ready, we'll talk."

And then she disappeared and Oliver pressed the button on his phone. "Go ahead and send her in, James."

"Yes, sir."

Oliver really had to get used to that haircut and color because the style did a doubletake when he saw the undercut and the green streaks. Today, Amy was wearing a Green Arrow shirt, which was vaguely amusing, but Amy was practically a walking League advertisement.

She grinned and practically flew to his side, throwing her arms around him.

Oliver laughed briefly, arms tightening around her, surprised by the sudden hug. He had seen her earlier in the week for patrol but she tended to stick with Artemis or Dinah depending on what kind of crimes they were dealing with. It had always been like that; Roy and Dinah had seen Amy more than Oliver. But right now she was almost clinging to him, and Amy was typically clingy and tactile-focused, but not like this. "Hey, hey, what's wrong?"

"Why does something have to be wrong for me to want a hug?" she grumbled in his shoulder.

"Um…no reason." Oliver rubbed at the back of his head as Amy stepped back, scrutinizing him with narrowed eyes.

She groaned loudly. "You're worse than Dinah!"

"What? No, I'm not!" Oliver was quick to deny.

"Why is everyone so worried about me?" Amy pressed. "I'm fine, everything is totally fine!"

That made Oliver arch an eyebrow, doubt clear on his face. "We're gonna find him, you know that, right?"

"Are we going to find a traumatized nineteen-year-old or a dead one?" Amy countered, full of fire and Oliver had to grit his teeth together. "I'm sorry," she added, her face stricken, "I don't -I—" She ended with a sigh. "I'm off kilter, sorry."

"It's all right, I know you miss him." And he knew that she was being realistic, which probably stung for the both of them. "But…was there something that you needed?"

Amy blinked for a second, like she'd completely lost her thought. "Oh! Oh, right! I found this!" She pulled something out of the messenger bag she had looped over her shoulder and at first glance all Oliver could ascertain of it was that it was a red rod but Amy's thumb pressed down and he had to duck back as the bow sprang out from where it had been condensed.

"Whoa!" He looked over it. "This is one of Roy's…where'd you find it?"

"The apartment," Amy shrugged. "Can you teach me how to use it?"

Amy knew the basics to firing arrows from bows and had markedly better skill with a crossbow than a long bow, why she'd want to learn how to use a weapon she'd never had any interest in in the past was a mystery to him…until he remembered Roy.

Of course, Amy would want to learn how to use Roy's weapon, it was no different than a parent sleeping in the room of a missing child or wearing a necklace of someone who'd long since passed. The desire to be close to someone when that was no longer an option was pretty much transcultural.

"Yeah, all right, sounds like it could be fun," Oliver found himself saying, which was enough to make Amy beam, thank him, and disappear off once more.

Well, if Oliver hadn't been worried about Amy not using her atmokinesis before, he definitely was now. There had to be more to it than wanting to keep a part of Roy close; Amy had a million things of Roy's.

He'd find out eventually, he was sure.


AN: Ironically the flashback was part of two prompts I did on tumblr for Roy and Amy and its probably going to be awhile before you actually see him again in the flesh.

Zee and Amy are being cute, as usual, while Amy's doing a million other things as Oracle and I'm setting up so many subplots before book 2 ends, which will still be awhile, because I've got most of the year planned out for book 2. The only thing planned for book 3, at this point, is the endgame romance.

As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!