Tempest Chapter: Eighty-Six: Once More

AN: I love the interest in Amy's origins, because holy fuck when we finally get there its gonna be crazyyy. KaldurxNadira will be a thing, I promise, and I love them a lot because they're super sweet. Keep an eye on Zee ;)

There's a scene in here that I totally stole from Leverage 1x01


Masquerade was across from Project Cadmus, using a pair of binoculars to ascertain if it was being guarded like it was before.

She wasn't stupid enough to believe that just because leadership had changed, that Cadmus didn't have their own agenda. There was only one thing that Cadmus cared about, and that was scientific advancements…even that doctor that saved Amy's life by helping her escape, she'd only done that once the stress tests got too extreme, and sure, she seemed like a good person doing a good thing, but Masquerade had learned to take that with a grain of salt.

Guardian, who's name Amy had never been interested in learning at the time, was the one who was supposed to be in charge of Cadmus, making sure it was on the straight and narrow, but Cadmus had those genomorphs that could mess with your mind, so Masquerade had some doubts.

She twisted a knob on her binoculars, focusing them inwards with intent. Hm…motion sensors on the windows…well, they didn't have that the last time Masquerade had snuck in, but she'd started a minor fire and then a genomorph had made an even bigger fire so motion sensors had probably been down. Luckily, Amy had brought the tools of her trade -foregoing her heels for some practical footwear for once- and she was ready.

Masquerade hefted up a crossbow, aiming to the opposite building. She was a decent shot with a bow and arrow if she focused at it, the problem was that she rarely did, which was why Roy had told her to stick to explosive arrows in the first place -at least with those she could do some collateral damage if she was inaccurate-. She winced one eye shut and fired off an arrow with a cable connected to the end of it, attaching it to the edge of the roof she was on and testing its strength before nodding approvingly and attaching her harness to it and sliding across the gap between the two buildings to plant her feet on the side wall of Project Cadmus.

Amy had never had to worry about heights before when she could catch herself if she fell, and she couldn't help but feel a ripple of unease as she hung against the wall, knowing she'd be pretty much fucked if she fell.

She shook off that fear, retrieving her binary pen from her small bag, twisting it on high until it began to smoke, and it was only then that she drew a large square into the glass of the window. The solution ate its way into the glass that it came right off once she stuck a suction grip to it, unclipping herself from the harness and twisting inside, dropping the square of glass silently onto the floor and straightening up to get a look around her.

No alarms had been tripped, but they certainly would be once someone saw that hole, so Masquerade shut the blinds over the windows.

She exhaled sharply. That was the easy part, now came the hard part; getting down into the sublevels without being seen. Masquerade had made updates to her mask so that there was a white film over where her eyes used to be seen, the white film acting like her goggles with her Storm Chaser uniform and Amy was going to need the ability to see in the dark.

After checking cautiously for anyone that could see her, she darted over where she knew the elevator was hidden, the one they'd gone down on the Fourth of July, when they'd found Conner. Somehow it was almost comical that they'd put a small plant in front of it, like that was going keep people from noticing it was an elevator.

Child's play.

Masquerade slid the plant over, using her hands to pry the elevator doors open, using her back and a leg to keep it open as she looked down the elevator shaft. So far it looked empty, so the elevator must've been down on one of the lower levels.

She hooked her grappler into place and leapt into the shaft, the doors slamming shut behind her as she slowly descended. She didn't know how long it took for her to get to the bottom, but she'd learned from Robin's mistakes and had made sure she'd had plenty of line left when her feet landed lightly on the top of the elevator, looking directly down for any heat signatures, before opening the top latch and darting inside when she saw none.

Get in, get out, no fanfare. Not that Amy had been much of a fan of fanfare to begin with, but she wasn't interested in making an explosion as big (or at all) as she had the last time she'd been there. Number one way to draw unwanted attention on what she was looking into was to be too obvious.

The elevator dinged as the doors opened and Masquerade slid out, feeling more tense than she had in a long time. She had to duck behind some crates to avoid being seen by the patrolling guards before finding a terminal for her to access.

She slid her chip into the monitor and began breaking through the encryptions to get into the mainframe. It took longer than it had the last time she'd been there, but Amy was starting to think that that had been on purpose, to keep her from looking deeper; it had taken her literal months to realize how redacted the data was, which was probably the whole point.

Project Amara was a subfolder, Amy actually realized, a daughter concept to a larger project called Project Belladonna, a project that stretched back decades before she'd even been born.

But that was all she could get through before it became too encrypted. Masquerade grumbled to herself, she didn't have the time to decode everything Cadmus had. Her best option was to take the hard drive back to the Cave or even one of her safe houses where she could hack it, systematically.

Masquerade pried the metal apart so she could rip out the hard drive and it was only then that she heard the click of a gun behind her. "That's proprietary information. I'm afraid I can't let you leave with it."

She turned around slowly, still gripping it in her hand to see Guardian standing there, imposingly, with Dr. Spence at his side. The last time she'd seen Guardian he'd been so confused about what was happening in Cadmus, but he didn't seem confused now, but he also didn't seem totally with it…all those genomorphs could brainwash you if you weren't too careful; Amy had to leave Cadmus soon or she was going to be next.

Amy had blocked out a good deal of her experiences with Cadmus but somehow she couldn't bring herself to be surprised by Dr. Spence's disposition. She'd always struck Amara as the type to be for the advancements of science, regardless of consequences, even if she'd put on a kind face for Amy.

"Have to catch me first," she grinned, her modulated voice echoing as she darted out the room to the sound of shouts and gunfire. She ran in a zig-zag towards the elevator, making it just in time for the doors to shut behind her, but not in time to feel a sharp jolt of pain penetrate her stomach.

Amy looked down to see the crimson blooming across her already red outfit. "Shit," she muttered to herself.

That'd just made things complicated.

She activated her communicator to the one person who could aid her as she was now. "Hi," she said, coughing thickly, "so I might need a pick up." The blood was beginning to drip onto the floor and if Amy had been more preoccupied with leaving her DNA everywhere, she would've realized that they could prove who she was with that, but as it was, she was focusing on other things.

Like making it out of the elevator when the doors opened.

Arms swept her up and Wally's voice was in her ear with a somber murmur of "I've got you," before taking off.


Conner would've loved to been sleeping, but there was something going on downstairs in the med-lab.

"Shit, shit, shit, keep breathing for me," Wally was hissing frantically.

"I'll let you know when I stop," Amy grated.

There was blood on the floor, that was the first thing that Conner noticed, then he saw her lying down on the examination table, wearing that outfit she wore as the thief ("If you're a hero then why do you rob people?" Conner had asked in total confusion, grey morality escaping him. "Because some people are bad and deserve to lose," had been Amy's rather serious answer, which Artemis had said reminded her of her sister, not an all together good thing.), blood smeared across her midsection and dripping onto the floor. And Wally…Wally was wearing a bodysuit that Conner had never seen before with no identifiers to indicate him as associated with the Flash, in fact, Conner wouldn't have even known that it was Wally if the green eyes weren't visible.

"What happened?" he demanded, watching Amy wince as Wally dug around under her skin with pliers.

"Nothing too major," Amy assured through gritted teeth, "I just got shot."

"Nothing too major?" Conner repeated dubiously, looking at all the blood before realization dawned, "wait, shouldn't you be healing by now?"

"Question of the hour," Amy hissed, wincing one eye shut before holding out something that looked like part of a computer -Conner didn't fully understand those things yet. "Take this."

"What is it?" Conner took it gingerly, noting her wet blood.

"Don't worry about that," Amy waved it off, "I just need you to hide it somewhere where no one but you will find it."

Conner lifted his eyes to meet hers, and even in pain, the leaf-green eyes were clear. He took it from her. "I'll be right back," he promised.

Unfortunately, Conner wasn't like Amy, who would probably hide her stuff by burying if she could -she struck him as the type-, so he hid it high in his closet in his room before darting back down to the med lab.

By the time he'd made it back, Wally had stitched her stomach wound shut, had an IV pole set up, and was busily taping an IV into her vein while reaching to pull a bag of blood from a small cooler.

"You have blood saved?" Conner asked dubiously, getting a look at Amy. She'd passed out now, her cheeks pale, breathing ragged.

"Well, yeah," Wally said, not lifting his eyes until the blood flowed through the tubing and back into Amy. "The humans do, or, really, the semi-humans -I'm not sure Amy and I count as humans, genetically speaking. So, its just us, Raquel, Zatanna, Robin, and Artemis. We're the squishiest." He spared Conner a grin, making him snort; Conner didn't have the heart to remind him that he was half-human, via Lex Luthor.

Conner looked back to Amy. "What happened?"

Wally sighed. "She called me from Cadmus, needed a pick up. By the time I got there, she'd already been shot."

"Cadmus?" A startled ripple shot down Conner's spine. Cadmus was the only thing that he and Amy shared and it wasn't a good thing to share; luckily for Conner, he hadn't existed long enough for them to do any invasive experiments on him like they had on her…though she'd never completely said what it was that had been done to her. It annoyed Zatanna, he knew, not knowing, not being able to help, but Conner understood; some pains ran too deep.

(Or maybe it had more to do with that Amy told Robin far more than her own girlfriend)

"Why'd she go back to Cadmus?"

"Dunno." Wally shrugged helplessly. "I guess there's a lot that she's still got questions about…but the only thing that she'd go out and get information on would be Roy-related or having to do with the attack on New Year's, and I'm not really sure how Cadmus fits in…"

Conner flicked his eyes back to the bag of blood. "What happens if she isn't healing by the time that finishes?"

"There's three more," Wally informed him sullenly, "if she doesn't bounce back by the fourth, I call her parents, all of her parents."

Conner didn't want to have to be the one to make that call, though he wasn't sure who was worse: the Flash, reporter Iris West-Allen, Poison Ivy, or Harley Quinn.


Amy had left a note saying 'Ran off to the Cave, see you tonight!' on the whiteboard in the kitchen, so Barry and Iris were none the wiser. Wally had headed off to school with Conner promising to keep an eye on Amy, but her breathing had evened out by the time the second bag of blood had finished that her healing factor must've kicked in. Conner got the feeling that she was going to sleep most of the day away.

So, it was pretty awkward when Amy's phone went off 'Dark Magician Girl' glowing over a picture of Zatanna and Conner muttered a low "Crap!", scrambling to grab it. "Uh, hey, Zee," he put on a show of nonchalance like Amy hadn't been passed out for six hours straight by now.

"Conner?" Zatanna's surprise was easy to hear through the phone. "Why do you have Amy's phone?"

Conner hit his forehead with the meat of his palm several times. Really, he should've just let it ring, but then she'd probably have more questions. "She's, uh, sleeping," he said, glancing over to where she was tucked into his bed because it wasn't like he knew where her actual room was in the Cave (Robin was of the opinion that it was hidden behind a bookcase or something like that, so no one could find her).

"Sleeping?" Zatanna repeated dubiously. "It's the middle of the day."

"Yeah?" Conner couldn't understand the confusion. Amy was sometimes awake at weird hours doing Oracle-related things or even working on schoolwork. "She got here earlier and was feeling pretty nauseous so she's laying down."

It wasn't technically a lie, though Amy did run her life on technicalities. And Amy had puked her guts up earlier, for the second time. Thankfully, the first time had apparently been pretty bloody, but the second time it looked like she'd just emptied the contents of her stomach, so Conner chose to take that as a good sign.

"Oh, um, okay," Zatanna said on the other end, "tell her I'll call her later then."

"Okay." Conner ended the call and hoped he hadn't messed anything up between them.


(She's lying. She doesn't trust you anymore, that's why Conner answered the phone)


Amara came round slowly, blinking tiredly in the half-light and looking slowly around the room. It wasn't hers; she could tell. Amara liked stargazing, but she was more of a casual stargazer…she didn't know any of the stars or which ones were actually planets on occasion that could only be seen on specific days…that was Conner's first love, really.

Wally had once made the mistake of showing him the stars on a cloudless night back at the first Cave and he'd stayed up all night looking at them all, taking it all in.

So, Conner's room was the one blanketed with star charts.

She groaned out loud. "How long was I out?"

"About twelve hours," Conner said conversationally from where he was sitting on top of the covers beside her, a book in his hands. "Wally asked me to keep an eye on you so—"

"Wait, it's a weekday," Amara realized, squinting at Conner, "shouldn't you be in school?"

Conner shrugged. "You're more important."

"Aw, Gene Pool, that's super sweet." Amara wasn't even being condescending or sarcastic, she was honestly surprised. That wasn't the sort of thing she'd come to expect from him. Conner was a nice guy, but his love and affection had always had a bit of an aggressive tint to it (she remembered all too well his anger at wanting to protect M'gann when they all split up during the mission after the Reds attacked the Cave…and it had still felt a little forced, like that was how he thought he was supposed to act).

Conner muttered something under his breath, but Amara didn't really notice, pulling up her shirt -which was actually Conner's she realized and was very big on her- to get a look at the stitches Wally had done early that morning. She gingerly pulled the bandage away to see angry, puckered skin. Wally had Jade's problem; too much space between stitches. But Wally rarely needed to stitch himself up -not that his healing factor was faster than Amara's, just that he didn't put himself in as dangerous situations.

"Can I ask you something?" Conner asked and Amara sighed, pasting the bandage back down.

"If it's about what I was looking for in Cadmus, I'm not sure yet," she said flatly.

"No, it's not that."

"Oh." Amara blinked in surprise.

"When you and Zatanna are together…how does it feel?" Conner twisted his fingers, sounding awkward.

"How does it feel?" Amara repeated dubiously. "What d'you mean?" Conner wasn't a homophobe, that was one thing he hadn't been exposed to in Cadmus and Amara and Zatanna were pretty out, so to speak. Dick was demisexual, like Amara, though he was less obvious about it. So, it wasn't like Conner wasn't around queer people. "Being in a same-sex relationship?"

"Being in love."

That one threw her off and she stared at Conner. He and M'gann had been dating for months now and they'd seemed pretty intimate -hugging, kissing, that sort of thing- but now Amara was starting to wonder.

"How does it feel being with M'gann?" she asked instead wondering how she'd become the Team's sexuality guru -first Dick, now Conner, who was next?- and watching him carefully. "Do you feel like yourself?"

Conner stared ahead, thinking hard for the longest time. "No," he finally decided. "I feel like…I'm playing a part." Like a character in that show she loved.

Amara winced. "Sorry," she said. "Do you feel that way because M'gann's a girl? Would you feel different if she were a boy?"

Conner was thrown off. "Huh?"

"Like…think about the guys you know…Kaldur, Wally, Dick…would you feel the same way about them as you do M'gann if you were dating them?"

Conner frowned. "But Wally and Kaldur are both dating people."

Amara held in a sigh. "Just bear with me, Conner."

Wally…Wally was cute with those green eyes, freckles, and careless grin. He'd had a small crush on him since he'd promised Conner the moon, and sometimes thinking about him caused his heart to skip a beat.

His heart with M'gann was always so steady.

Amara was arching an amused eyebrow. "Wally, huh?"

Conner's cheeks pinked. "Shut up."

She cleared her throat loudly. "You might be gay -homosexual-, being attracted to your own gender. Zee's bisexual, I think the official definition is attraction to more than one gender. And then Robin and I are asexual—"

"I thought you were demisexual?" Conner got lost again.

Amara snorted. "Demi is under the asexual umbrella. Asexual means you don't have any sexual attraction, like, take you for example."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you're my type, dark hair, blue eyes," Amara pointed out, "but I'm never going to want to get it on with you -not that I want that thirteen, blegh-, even if we're good friends, which is kinda something I need as a demisexual to have any sexual attraction to anyone." Amara shrugged. "Zee can get me flustered but random blue-eyed, dark-haired people aren't going to get a reaction from me."

Conner almost asked her about Robin. They were very close and he was her type and seemed to understand her better than Zatanna sometimes. But that wasn't any of Conner's business.

He watched her sigh. "But Zee also calls Mardon my father and hasn't figured out how uncomfortable it makes me."

That surprised him. He remembered the fallout when she'd been asked to see him in prison and how shell-shocked she'd been afterwards. Red Arrow had even come to the Cave to snarl that none of them were to say anything about Mardon to Amy, least of all that he was her father. It was one of the sweetest things he'd ever seen RA do, even for Amy, but it was always for Amy; she was the only one he'd willingly show his soft side (or so Wally claimed).

"I can talk to her," he offered helpfully.

Amara gave a humorless laugh. "Robin's already offered, but no thanks, I don't want to make a fuss, its not that big of a deal."

Conner thought she was lying through her teeth and that it was a very big deal to her, or she wouldn't've brought it up, or she wouldn't've gotten that look in her eye when people talked about Weather Wizard, like she wanted to shrink away into nothing.

Amara didn't have RA to protect her anymore, but Conner thought he wouldn't mind if he took over in his absence.

Amara rubbed her eyes, yawning widely. "I should get home before they worry."

"Keeping the bullet wound on the down low?" Conner surmised.

"You know it, babe," she winked and then winced.

"Want we to call your dad to pick you up?" Conner offered. Not at the Cave, they'd all decided the only people that should know about the Cave going there often and living there -strictly sidekicks only- after what happened to the last one, but Conner could take her out of the zeta-tube if he had to. "Say you've been sick all day? You have been running a fever."

"Sounds good," Amara slurred, dropping back into sleep, making Conner smile fondly, taking her phone and thumbing through her contacts, arching an eyebrow at 'Could've Been The Streak' followed by several lightning bolts. She was such a dork.

He answered on the first ring. "Hey, Amy, what's up?"

"Mr. Allen? This is Conner, Amy's been pretty sick all day…she was puking earlier and now she's down to a fever…did you want me to bring her out the Central City entrance?"

"Ah, hell," Barry's midwestern twang was clear, "yeah, I'll head over now, thanks Conner."

And sure enough, ten minutes later, when he exited the camouflaged zeta-tube, Amara nestled in his arms, Barry was there to take her from him.

"She's been sleeping most of the day," Conner told him quietly, watching how Amara curved herself easily and comfortably into her father's arms.

Barry gave him a smile. "Thanks for looking after her."

Conner rubbed the back of his head. "No problem."

"Daddy?" Amara slurred out, not even opening her eyes, burrowing her head into his shoulder.

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"You're the best daddy in the world, you know that?" she mumbled into his shirt and Conner watched the expressions warring across the Flash's face.

"You think so?" he finally managed weakly.

"Yup," Amara yawned and drifted off completely and Barry bent down to press a kiss to the top of her head and Conner couldn't help but he jealous of the relationship he had with his daughter; they made it look so easy, so natural.

And all he could think about was the message on his phone from Clark Kent that read 'can we talk?' but Conner wasn't ready for that yet.

"Have a good night, Conner."

Conner pulled himself out of his thoughts and he gave Barry a smile. "You too, Mr. Allen."

And he watched him speed off, daughter in tow, wondering how long Amara was going to be able to hide that bullet wound.


AN: As always, please review!