Tempest: Chapter Ninety-One: Needed Advice

AN: Last chapter took you all by surprise, but this one's got a definite somber tone.


"Kaldur! You're back!"

Kaldur turned in the water to see Tula and Garth swimming towards him, delighted, and he gave them both a smile that quickly melted away, concerning them both.

"Kaldur?" Garth reached out to touch his friend's shoulder. "What's happened?"

"I apologize," Kaldur bowed his head slightly, "I don't want to lay all my problems on you when I've been away so long…"

"Don't be ridiculous," Tula admonished with a soft smile, "we're always here for you, you know that."

Kaldur sighed. "You are about to gain a new classmate. She is a friend."

"The surface-dwelling magician?" Garth probed. "I heard her father is Zatara the Earth Magician."

"He is," Kaldur agreed. "He's also the current host of Doctor Fate…and when she lost her father and teacher to him, she had to teach herself magic."

"Oh," Tula said in realization, eyes widening, "oh, no."

"She found herself possessed by an Egyptian god, Apep, who attacked her girlfriend and when Superboy tried to intervene, it nearly killed him."

Horror splashed across both their faces. They'd both met Conner and M'gann briefly the previous year and had liked them.

"Will Superboy…live?" Garth asked cautiously.

"Yes, but it might take years for him to fully recover," Kaldur sighed deeply. "I'm at a loss of what to do. The Team is…in shambles."

Tula took Kaldur's hands. "I know this might not be what you want…but maybe everyone needs some time away from the Team to figure out where they go forward. It's a terrible situation, but you shouldn't force everyone to remain together if they need to get away."

Garth nodded. "She's right. You all need a break."

They both hugged Kaldur tightly.

"Perhaps you are right," Kaldur conceded, shoulders sagging slightly. It was the last thing he wanted to do, because it felt that if they split up it would erase Conner and all that he had done. It was a foolish thought, he knew, but it was still there.

"On the brighter side," Tula added, cautiously, like she was trying to life his spirits just a little. "King Orin tells us you've been spending a lot of time in Gotham…" Dark red suffused across his cheeks. "Tell me…what's her name?"

"Nadira," he admitted finally. "She's a dancer…she's friends with Storm Chaser…I like her very much."

"So happy for you!" Garth grinned. "We must meet her soon!"

Tula laughed. "We will come to the surface if we must!"

"I don't want to scare her away just yet!"

They all laughed together like Kaldur didn't have a big decision lying ahead of him.


M'gann couldn't take it. It was all her fault! She should've told Conner! If he'd known…

The guilt was bearing down on her, she just needed to get away, far away.

She thumbed a number on her phone. "It's M'gann…can I stay with you for a while?"


"You should go talk to her," Dinah told Ollie seriously.

"Me?" Ollie sputtered. "Why me? You're her mentor!"

Amy had been the house for about twelve hours and they hadn't heard a peep from her since she's entered the room that she always used when staying over in Star City. It had been the norm for her when she was just starting out to spend the night there and go back to Central City in the morning when her father came by to pick her up.

Dinah gave him a flat stare. "She likes you more, besides, I haven't been her mentor in awhile, remember? She's been taking a break from Star City heroing."

Ollie did remember; Artemis was very sour about it, but as far as he knew, she'd never brought it up to Amy, probably because she was dealing with some stuff.

"Take her some of that raspberry tea that she loves so much," Dinah suggested.

Ollie really had no idea what he was doing. He hadn't known what he was doing when he'd taken Roy in and look how well that had gone, and Amy was a spitfire, every much as Roy had been, but she was completely different. He'd seen her work herself into a shutdown before, literally keeling over in the middle of dinner because she'd refused to take breaks.

He heaved a heavy sigh and found a tea bag and started the water on hot, pouring it into a mug when it was hot enough.

Then he made his way reluctantly up the stairs to knock on her door. "Amy? Kid, I've got some of that tea you like…is it okay if I come in?"

Silence was his answer, but she wasn't shouting no, so Ollie took that as a good sign. He pushed the door open slowly to see his pseudo-niece curled up in the bed, facing away from him.

"Hey," Ollie said gently, setting the mug on the bedside table before sitting down on the bed side it. "I know…I know you probably feel pretty terrible, and you're probably going to feel that way for awhile…but Zatanna's going to be okay and eventually Conner is too."

It wasn't really helpful to tell her that, Ollie knew, but reminding her probably helped.

"If Conner—" Her voice cracked over his name, "if he hadn't come by the house, he would've been fine!" And then she dissolved into tears.

"Hey, come here," Ollie hummed, practically pulling her up and into his arms and she clung to him tightly, her shoulders shaking violently. There was still a bandage around her throat. Batman had said it looked like a snake bite from a human mouth, which was probably how she'd gotten the neurotoxin in her in the first place. "None of this is your fault, okay? Conner came to see you because you're friends and when he saw you in trouble, he didn't hesitate, because that's what heroes do. And, let's face it, Conner would've been really pissed if you got hurt and he wasn't there to help out."

Amy snorted wetly into his shoulder. "I miss Roy," she whispered brokenly and it tugged at Ollie's heartstrings.

"I know, kid," he murmured, "me too…but we're gonna find him, someday we're gonna find him and we're gonna bring him home…I'm guessing Cheshire hasn't said anything about new leads?"

Amy soured as she pulled back, wiping her face with her hands. "I haven't talked to Jade since she almost drowned me and faked Masquerade's death."

Ollie remembered that day. They'd heard about it on the news and called Amy immediately, apparently right when she'd gotten home and Barry had to give them the lowdown as well as the ensuing rule in effect that Amy was only allowed to use her laptops in front of other people, a rule that had been mostly lifted by now.

"I'll find the next lead myself," Amy said with certainty. "I don't need her help."

Ollie thought that wasn't necessarily true. He wasn't sure that he'd ever really liked Cheshire, but he'd seen how she was with Roy in the hospital, staying with him the entire time, and helping him get back to his apartment afterwards…they'd been good for each other, even he could see that. And he wanted to believe that Cheshire had been trying to help in her own backwards way.

"Do all my parents know I'm here, now?" Amy asked, changing the subject, taking the mug of tea when Ollie offered it to her, sipping it with relief.

"Barry doesn't, he's still off-world," Ollie admitted, "but Iris and Pamela are aware…I think Pamela was more leery but Iris appeased her, probably telling her you've spent a lot of time over here."

Amy snorted into her drink and Ollie sat back against the headrest. "Anything you want to talk to me about…about Roy or Zatanna or Conner?"

For a long moment she didn't say anything, just sipping her tea. "I was gonna break up with her yesterday," Amy admitted quietly, "does it still count in this messy situation?"

"Do you still want it to count?" Ollie asked instead.

Amy sighed lowly, curling her hands around the mug tightly before relaxing them. "I love her, I do, but…after a few months I just felt on edge all the time, and she kept calling Mardon my dad—"

"Ooh," Ollie winced.

"—and she didn't like it when other people held hands with me even though I'd told her about my tactile fixation…and she was always annoyed about me spending time with Robin alone, which is totally ridiculous, when you think about it, because I'm not dating him! I just—" Amy huffed in frustration. "Zatara said that a lot of what Apep needed a basis, something to build off of…I loved her, but she didn't trust me."

"That's a good reason to break up," Ollie assured her. "And I can't imagine it's a good feeling to have…but there are some things that you shouldn't have to put up with. You loved her, she loved you, but not all relationships are healthy and I think you know that."

Sadly, she did.

Her phone buzzed in the bag by the bed and Ollie knelt down to grab it, only briefly surprised that it was coming from a second phone.

Amy took it from him quickly. "This is Pythia…a book? You're sure…no, send me the scans, something is better than nothing, thanks Pasiphae." She hung up and looked to Ollie. "I might have something on Vandal Savage, you interested?"

Hot anger burned through him at the mention of the man responsible for Roy's disappearance. "Very interested."


This was the most morose Team meeting that they'd ever had and Amara had never felt quite so empty as she did sitting between Wally and Dick, pale and tired. They all looked like that.

Wolf was still in the Watchtower, whining and keeping an eye on a comatose Conner.

"I believe," Kaldur said gently, "given recent events, it would serve us all well if we temporarily disbanded the Team."

Everyone lifted their heads, eyes meeting, all except Amara, who kept her head bowed.

"No one is to blame…but I believe time away will help us all. Raquel, Wally, Robin, Amy, Artemis, and I will go back to being the protégés to our mentors and M'gann—"

"I'm going to Qurac and staying with the Logans," she said suddenly, standing.

"M'gann…" Artemis murmured.

"Are you sure?" Dick asked.

"Qurac isn't exactly the safest place to be right now," Raquel pointed out.

"I know," M'gann smiled sadly, "but I can't be here, not right now…I need to get away and clear my head."

"For how long?" Kaldur asked, concerned.

"For as long as it takes," she said. "And don't worry, I'll only be a phone call away…and if you need me, all you need to do is call."

Kaldur watched them all hum in agreement, the air still somber. Then M'gann went upstairs to pack and everyone else filed through into the garage to zeta-beam home.

"Expecting more of a fight?" came a rough voice from Kaldur's side and his attention shifted to Amara who spared him a faint smile.

"Maybe," he conceded.

"We're all dealing with a lot right now," Amara sighed. "I think a break is a good idea."

Kaldur said nothing to that for a long moment. "We did good work, didn't we?"

"Of course we did, and it's not permanent," Amara took his hand, directing his attention back to her, "like you said, it's a leave of absence…no one's supposed to bounce back from something…something like this." There was clear misery on her face. "Conner was worried, you know, about the whole not aging thing."

"What d'you mean?" Kaldur asked in confusion.

"I mean he hasn't aged a day since we met him and he was worried about us growing older and leaving him behind." Her shoulders sagged. "Gotta hate how he ended up being right."

Kaldur embraced her suddenly. She was so small and so young and he hadn't seen her smile in a long time, not like how she had the first time they'd met, bright as she'd wheeled herself forward, delighted. Amara got along with everyone, she could partner with anyone, but Kaldur and Amara were amplifiers; he was always the best with her at his side.

"Will you be all right?" he asked gently once they'd separated, noticing there was a bandage at her throat, what injury it shielded, he couldn't be sure. Batman has neglected to elaborate and Amara probably didn't want to talk about it.

"I'm pissed," Amara decided hollowly, "and I'm gonna be pissed for a long-ass time." But it was hard to figure out who to blame. It was kind of a dick move to blame Zatanna when she was also a victim, or Conner for coming over to give her that hard drive and then nearly getting himself killed trying to be the hero, or herself for not being strong enough to stop any of it. "Makes you wish things were as simple as they used to be, right?"

Kaldur smiled faintly. "Were things ever that simple? Or did we just think they were?"

Amara hummed, conceding the point. "Getting older sucks."

Hearing that from someone who was a few months shy of fourteen was a bit concerning, but Kaldur couldn't refute her claim.

She rubbed at her eyes. "How're things going with Nadira?"

He cast a glance her way, but she didn't pick up on it, too focused as she was on the flask she was pulling out of her pocket that she had finally managed to steal back from Pamela and Harley's locked cabinet for alcohol. "They're going well…your friend is very sweet."

Amara snorted into a gulp of alcohol that had her coughing and sputtering as it burned its way down her throat. She bent forward, wheezing, and Kaldur smacked her back a few times. "Just wait until she gets fired up," she gasped out. "Then you're screwed."

Kaldur spared her a smile. "Look after yourself, Amy…and keep in touch."

She saluted, still coughing as she screwed the cap back on her flask and tucked it back into her pocket.

"You'll tell me one day?" he asked before she could head for the zeta-tube.

"Tell you what?" she turned back with a frown.

"Why you won't use your atmokinesis?"

Amara's mouth twisted slightly and she heaved a sigh before flipping up her hood. "One day, Kaldur, promise." She gave him one last hug and a kiss to his cheek. "Stay safe in those troubled waters."

"I will," he said, watching her leave.

"Recognize: Oracle: B00," was the last thing he heard before she disappeared. His shoulders sagged. Even though it wasn't permanent, it sure felt like it. In his experience, time didn't heal wounds, it just covered them with scar tissue.


Sabine had come by the house to see if Amy wanted to grab some lunch with the girls, only to be surprised to see some construction people removing her destroyed window and replacing it while her step-mother looked on.

"Miss Harley?"

Harley spun on the shot to see Sabine standing there, surprise clear on her face. "Oh, Sabine, right? I'm sorry, Amy isn't here."

Sabine frowned. "Isn't this one of her two weeks in Gotham, though?"

Harley smiled thinly. "She's staying with her uncle in Star City for a little while."

"Did something happen?" That window looked like someone had broken through it.

"Its not my place to say," was all Harley would say on the matter. So, Sabine hopped back in the cab and headed back to the Transcultural Ballet in time to see Nadira walk out hand in hand with Kaldur. Sabine almost called over to them, but Nadira's face was soft and she hugged Kaldur tightly before giving him a swift kiss and waving him off.

"Okay, this time I know something happened," Sabine said, crossing her arms, making Nadira jump and look around, relaxing at the sight of Sabine.

"Conner's in a coma," Nadira sighed, "Kaldur's really upset about it…he was attacked trying to help Amy and the rest of the Team only found out afterwards."

Sabine's mouth went dry. "Wait, Conner, like—?" She made an S with a finger to indicate Superboy and Nadira nodded. "That explains why Amy's not home…who attacked them?"

Nadira twisted her fingers together. "Amy's girlfriend was possessed…apparently it was a really bad situation."

"Ooh." Sabine winced. "That's gotta suck."

"Yeah," Nadira sighed. "It could be years before Conner fully recovers."

No wonder Amy was so unreachable.

She sent her one text, not expecting an answer: Heard about wat hapnd to Conner. Im here if you wanna tlk?

Predictably, she received no reply.


Artemis had thought it was weird that GA had called her for a Star City heroes only meeting, especially only a few days after shit had gone down and Conner was in his pod while Zatanna was in Atlantis, not knowing how long either of them would be there. No one had even heard a peep from Amy, not even during that Team meeting, which wasn't unusual, when she got into her research, but Artemis thought it was more likely she was holed up in her room avoiding the world.

There was only so much avoiding the world Amy could do, though, so Artemis didn't find herself too surprised that she was out of the room, looking functional, tired with red eyes, and her hair a grey mess. But at least she was out of the room, right? She looked only slightly more put together than she had at the meeting. But Artemis got the feeling that whatever this meeting was about, it was a distraction from thinking about Conner's situation.

"Okay, so several months back when we went after Cheshire, she and I ended up together in a cave, she stabbed my leg, you know all that," Amy waved her hand carelessly. "But she also gave me some intel."

"Of course she did," Dinah sighed and Artemis' eyebrow twitched. "What was it?"

"She told me if I wanted to find out more about Savage, I should go to someone who knew him who was willing to spill the beans on him." Her gaze shifted to Artemis and she could see where Amy was going with that.

"His daughter," Artemis realized and Ollie's eyebrows rose high.

"Vandal Savage has a daughter?"

"An estranged one," Amy agreed, "Scandal was more than happy to hand over anything pertaining to her father, for a price, one that Pasiphae paid in my place."

"I get the feeling I don't want to know what it is," Dinah sighed and Amy grinned widely. It was too forced for Artemis to take it seriously, though.

"Anyways," she continued, "it looks like someone at one point wrote a book on Savage, his entire history…some of it still needs to be translated…it's a bit damaged; Pasiphae's working on it, but I've got the more important bits. Warning, its heavy on prose." She gagged slightly. "Here it is:—

This is the story of man. Of all mankind. Of one man. The history of human evolution, traced with the light of truth through time immemorial, leads back to a time of darkness. And to him. Man has known him by many names. But the truths in these pages will define him as the savior called Vandal Savage—"

"Wow," Artemis muttered. "You weren't kidding."

Amy nodded with great reluctance. "The fire from the sky had touched the ground not far away. It seemed to call to him, and he was compelled to follow that call. But an old nemesis found him first. The cave bear was twice his size, with claws and teeth evolved to shred flesh and bone. And the bear set upon Vandal to eat him alive.

In the game of life and death, fear makes one weak. But when fueled by purpose beyond survival, man can become powerful. Vandal's quest for the Sky Fire gave him the power to defeat the bear. And standing victorious over the dead creature that once haunted his dreams, Vandal felt like a god! Baptized by the blood of his adversary, the spearhead of human evolution had been forged.

Death was nothing new to Vandal Savage. So, he could sense when something was different about it. The corpses lining the path to the Sky Fire warned him away. But his quest urged him forward. To the source of the Sky Fire, a rock from out of the darkness, yet alive with light. Heart racing, he reached out to touch this gift from the stars, and was halted by intense pain. Looking down told him that he'd been struck by a spear. And as blood and spirit drained away, the last thing Vandal saw before surrendering, was the shadowy but unmistakable form of man."

"Murdered by his own kind, there's some irony in that," Ollie conceded and Dinah hummed in agreement.

"It's hard to read what happened next but it seems the meteorite healed him, made him stronger, strong enough to defeat the people that attacked…then there's just one line: whether through random mutation, evolution, or something else entirely, a new species of human emerged, the first meta-human."

"You've got to be kidding," Artemis leaned forward, dubious. "Savage was the first meta-human?"

"That's what the author seemed to think, anyways." Amy grimaced at the thought. "Which means essentially that all meta-humans are related to him, which makes me throw up a little in my mouth."

"But Steve Trevor and Roy didn't have any meta-powers," Dinah pointed out.

"They could've been from a direct line of his descendants, though," Ollie pointed out. "Without meta-powers, but having a stronger blood-connection."

Artemis thought Amy seemed unsettled by that, but she continued reading. "There's something here that I think is a quotation from Savage…mostly. 'It is better to capture an army than to destroy it'. He had learned that more can be gained controlling men in peace than in the chaos of war. For war is death, and death is waste, and life should not be wasted while it may yet be controlled to serve a greater purpose."

"That's…really messed up," Artemis said slowly, "I mean, its Savage, but seriously."

Amy shrugged carelessly. "There's some mention of Savage being Ghengis Khan, which makes a lot of sense since most people are related to him…and only one more story is legible...

"Vandal, then known as the demigod hero, Marduk, led his children into battle against the star creature. Its origin unknown, its intent to enslave all of Babylonia. Marduk's Babylonia. Amidst the carnage, Marduk's son Nabu fell to the scourge—"

"Nabu?" Dinah shared a look with Ollie. "Like Doctor Fate's Nabu?"

Oh, Zatanna would've hated that.

"I guess?" Amy didn't sound totally certain. "I mean it's not an all that common name, is it?"

"Amidst the carnage, Marduk's son Nabu fell to the scourge, but Marduk did not stop to mourn him. Instead, he led his daughter Ishtar forward, raging against the star creatures in a battle for all mankind that shook the walls of Babylon. The alliance between father and daughter defeated the star creatures. And in defending Babylonia, in leading its people through the city's darkest hour, Marduk and Ishtar together would become known by all as the Light."

"The Light?" Ollie frowned. "Haven't I heard that somewhere before?"

"A few villains have mentioned that name before," Dinah cupped her chin thoughtfully.

"I'm more interested in the star creatures that it takes about," Amy admitted, "because I think it's Starro, an alien species that possessed innate psychic abilities, exactly the same kind of tech that was in the implants we stole off Cheshire. Dr. Palmer's still looking into what exactly those things do, but if its brainwashing or affecting the brain somehow then that would explain what happened to Roy!"

Her eyes were over bright and Dinah didn't want her to get her hopes up.

"That's one explanation, Amy," she said carefully, fully aware of the look Ollie was giving her.

"Roy isn't a traitor," Amy told her furiously. "You think he wanted to drop the Cave on me?"

"I'm just saying we don't fully know what happened to him when he went missing on that LexCorps mission," Dinah said slowly, like she was afraid of angering her…which was pretty redundant at that point. "I don't think he was in control of his actions…but having a microchip control you is something out of Star Wars."

Artemis sank deeper into her seat on the couch. Dinah was big on needing proof, and Amy was too, to an extent, and about certain things, but Roy was someone she could manage off of faith alone, and it seemed like that was the point Dinah was trying to make…but she was also trying to get a rise out of Amy.

She could tell that Dinah was doing it on purpose, trying to get a reaction out of the girl that preferred to bottle everything inside.

Amy's eyes blazed. "Conner is in a pod in suspended animation, that's about as close to science fiction as you get," she snapped icily, snapping her laptop shut and storming out of the room.

"Amy! Hey, Amy!" Ollie called after her.

"Leave me alone!" Amy roared down the bannister, the door to her room slamming shut behind her.

Dinah pressed a hand to her face and Ollie heaved a heavy sigh. Artemis just hoped Barry got back from his off-world mission soon.


AN: The quotes are from YJs3 and Amy's definitely going to end up with more questions than answers

As always: PLEASE REVIEW!