This chapter's a bit on the short and fast-paced side. Hopefully, it's still easy to follow though! Let me know what you think! Jenna's got a lot to deal with in this chapter, poor thing :(

~/~/~/~

Star City

March 23, 17:23 PDT

When Siren dropped onto a familiar rooftop, she wasn't surprised to see Banshee already there and waiting. She mimicked his position–sitting on the edge with her legs dangling off–before placing the pizza box between them.

He glanced down at the object, raising an eyebrow. "I thought we were training."

His mentor shrugged. "I figured we could make an exception for this week. You're not going to forget all you learned if we skip one session."

Banshee followed her lead in taking a slice of pizza as he removed his mask. No one was going to notice them from where they sat.

Since they were both busy easting, it had grown silent for a few minutes until Siren let out a sigh.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I feel like I should be asking you that," he said, making her tear her eyes away from the setting sun.

She didn't hold his gaze for long, pulling one leg up to tuck up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around her knee, glancing down at the brace on her wrist.

"It…depends on the day," she admitted. "This is the first time we lost a team member since you joined…are you holding up alright?"

Banshee slowly nodded. "It's weird. It feels like we should be invincible. I know that's not true, but it's hard to remember that we don't really know when it's our turn."

Siren huffed out a breath from her nose. Her eyes slid shut as she got hit with an almost sickening wave of déjà vu. Everything's reminding me of Kaldur too. Or rather, a moment with him when she once felt invincible too.

"You're not alone in that. I've felt that way too," she confessed, though she glared at the pink and orange sky.

She pursed her lips. "It's because we don't know when our time is up that we have to live life to the fullest. I don't regret becoming Siren"—she looked over at Banshee—"but sometimes you have to decide whether it's worth it."

The teenager frowned, spurring her on. "You have no obligation to stay in the game if things get too overwhelming," she promised.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and her cold, exposed fingertips eagerly absorbed his body heat. "I've told you from day one that this is all your choice. If you feel like things are getting too intense to stick around, it's okay if you want to leave. Whether that's indefinite or definite."

She wasn't really prepared for his counter-question. "Would you?"

Siren dropped her hand, looking out over the streets. If she was being honest, things were becoming immensely stressful for her. And since Artemis' death, it felt like she was constantly on the verge of breaking. But would that warrant giving up the life?

"No," she finally managed in a raspy tone when she realized she had yet to answer her protégé.

Banshee narrowed his eyes, looking like he was about to say something else, but their communicators went off simultaneously. Both heroes were quick to pull them out, reading the new robbery alert.

"Duty calls," Siren said, rising to her feet.

She grabbed the nearly empty pizza box, glancing down to the alley below before tossing it down to the dumpster that leaned against the opposite building. Her aim was on point with the cardboard box smoothly landing inside.

"Nice aim," Banshee praised.

"Yeah, well, you learn a lot when you work with archers almost daily," Siren said with a faint grin. "Shall we go?"

She took a running leap off the rooftop to land on the next, Banshee being close behind.

~/~/~/~

Mount Justice

March 23, 21:04 EDT

"Recognized: Siren, B-zero-two."

Siren quietly stepped into the Cave to find it near empty. Granted, it was late and missions were still being put on hold to allow those mourning to recover.

But the team leader decided she couldn't put off returning much longer so after she and Banshee handled the robbery, she transported to Mount Justice.

Luckily, she had friends that would be able to support her when she got there.

"Welcome back," Nightwing said when he saw her approaching from the Tubes.

Siren managed a small smile. "It's good to be back, I suppose."

She accepted his comforting hug, relishing the warmth and the silence for a moment. But she didn't want it to last long because there was something she wanted to do.

She pulled away, looking at her other friend with uncertainty. "Conner, will you go down to the grotto with me?"

Superboy's expression softened. "Yeah."

Nightwing's frown resembled something combined with sympathetic when Siren glanced over at him one last time.

"I'll be back in a little while," she promised.

Superboy followed her down to the entrance of the memorial to honor those who had fallen. There weren't many statues which Siren was always grateful for, but nonetheless, it was still hard to go down there sometimes. Especially as of late.

Which is why she stood at the entrance, taking a shaky breath. And it was Superboy's firm hand on her shoulder that gave her enough courage to walk down the steps.

Siren had to fight through nausea as she first laid eyes on her best friend's hologram. She slowly approached it, the lump in her throat tightening with each step until she came to a stop right in front of it.

She had to close her eyes briefly to try and hold back the building tears before she glanced up again. It was only Superboy's presence that she felt was keeping her from immediately walking back up the stairs and out of the Cave entirely.

No words were said. None had to be as the two old friends paid respects to their teammate.

If I could change what happened that night, Mis, I would. I never thought that it would be you. And I especially never thought he would be the one to do it. I guess I didn't know him as much as I thought I did.

Four years together and it all changed in an instant. Siren frowned as she recalled the moment when everything started going wrong.

~8~8~8~

Aquagirl was dead. She had sacrificed herself in order to stop Tiamat, a creature revived by Klarion for the Light's game. And her death, especially so soon after Jason's, had shaken the entire team.

Siren, on her own, had called Batman as soon as they reconvened at the Cave, shakily informing the Dark Knight of what had taken place in Bialya…and the life that was lost.

"Team, I know you are all grieving now, but remember you saved billions of lives today. Doctor Sandsmark is safe, and rescue efforts are underway across the globe," Batman had told them. "With Tiamat dormant once again, the world is no longer threatened. We received the statue fragments from Maruk's Temple, and we will destroy them."

"Yeah? Tell that to Tula. Tell that to Garth," Artemis said somewhat bitterly, clutching Kid Flash's hand resting on her shoulder.

"Every member knows the risks, Artemis," Batman reminded. "It is not the first loss we have suffered, nor will it be the last."

Siren forced the lump in her throat down, reaching out to rest a firm hand on Tempest's upper back. He had spoken very little since they left Bialya, his thoughts seemingly—and understandably—elsewhere.

"Batman's right," Nightwing agreed. "The mistake would be to let Aquagirl's sacrifice be in vain."

He looked over to Siren, optimistically seeking the leader's confidence, but she wasn't sure she could give it to him. "We can make her death mean something by continuing the fight. And taking that fight to the Light's doorstep."

He looked away, searching for another member of the team who Siren knew wasn't there. "What do you say, Aqualad? …Kaldur?"

Nightwing turned back to Siren for an answer, but she just shrugged helplessly as words were stuck in her throat. She hadn't seen Aqualad since they left Bialya and it worried her.

He had been highly off his game after his conversation with Aquaman, but Siren didn't have time to check on him and see what the matter was before they had to rush off on their mission. Then his best friend died.

"Perhaps it's time you all got some rest," Batman finally suggested, not saying much else as he signed off.

One by one, the team began to trickle out of the room. Artemis took Siren's place in comforting Tempest as everyone left. Everyone except two team members.

Siren was lost in thought, concerned about her boyfriend, and hadn't noticed that Nightwing had stayed behind as well until he stepped into her line of sight. But he wasn't looking toward her, instead, he was eyeing the screen that had been left open.

Siren turned her head, a little red light in the corner catching her eye. She knew it was indicating that a recorded message had been left behind and, as she made eye contact with Nightwing, the distraught feeling inside her grew.

The former Boy Wonder was the one to press the button and Siren's chest tightened when she saw Aqualad's face on the screen.

"My love. Years ago, I put my trust in you to help lead this team. My faith in you has never wavered and now, I am handing it over to you completely."

Siren's brow furrowed as she listened to his words, confusion swirling in her head. Why?

"I have questions that I must answer on my own. I do not know where this journey will take me; only that I must take it," Aqualad continued, unknowingly answering her silent question. "I know you are more than capable of leading the team on your own, but if you wish to have someone lead beside you, put your trust in Nightwing."

Siren spared her friend a glance, noting the small frown on his face. Something in her agreed with Aqualad, but she wasn't sure if the motives were selfish or not.

"I told him long ago that he was born to lead this team, and that I would only accept the burden as leader until he was ready to lift it from my shoulders. I trust him to help you now," Aqualad added. "We will see each other again, Jenna, I swear it. Until then."

The recording ended, leaving a still image of the love of her life. And it was that moment when she could feel her heart begin to crack.

~8~8~8~

Siren bit her lip, lost in thought about that day. I barely gave Dick a chance to say no. But he was ready and willing.

All of a sudden, Superboy tensed up a split second before he shoved Siren away.

She was bewildered. "Wh-"

Her unspoken question was instantly answered when a stream of ice shot where Superboy had stood, hitting the wall behind them. She spun around, barely having time to react before being backhanded across the grotto's small creek.

The middle of her back came in contact with Aquagirl's hologram base, causing her to yelp in pain. She landed on her feet though, rising to full height to prepare to let out a screech at their attackers.

But as the first sound left her mouth, something clamped around her neck, and then her power just…stopped. Inhibitor collars?!

Blindly throwing her elbow behind her, she came into contact with some kind of armor, judging by the clang and sharp pain shooting up her arm. She opted to use the steel toe of her boot, spinning around a full 180 to aim for the stranger's head.

Except when they caught her ankle, shoving it away from their face, she realized that they weren't a stranger at all. In fact, they were the farthest from it.

Gritting her teeth so tightly she was almost afraid she'd chip a tooth, Siren threw a punch at Kaldur's face, forgetting about her injury.

The sparring practices from their years together, as both team leaders and a couple, proved to be useful though as he easily grabbed her arm and spun her around. He reached his arm across her chest, clamping down tightly on her raised forearm–being mindful of her brace–to keep her flush against his chest.

Siren wasn't going to let herself be captured so easily so she wriggled against Kaldur's tight hold as best she could. Dammit, did he get stronger under Manta's forces?

"Please do not struggle, Jenna. I do not want to have to use the collar's other function on you," he gently warned.

Tears stung Siren's eyes at hearing him speak to her in such a gentle way, even though she knew it was just a manipulation tactic. "So you can kill Artemis in cold blood but you're too much of a cowardto electrocute me?" she snapped. "Is that why you killed her? Because you didn't have the guts to do it to me?"

"There is more than meets the eye."

Siren craned her neck back to glare at Kaldur. "Then please enlighten me."

But Superboy crying out in pain made her snap her head back around. The Kryptonian was collapsing to the ground after being heavily electrocuted into unconsciousness by his own captors.

"Superboy!" Siren cried out.

"Don't know about you, Junior, but I'm harboring some old resentments against this boy," Tommy Terror said with a sneer.

"Oh, yeah," Icicle Junior happily agreed, summoning ice in his hands. "Let's finish him."

"Belay that," Kaldur called out, making the two villains look at him. "When the time is right, you will have your revenge. For now, I need Superboy alive."

Siren scoffed. "That's a first."

Junior scowled at her. "Are you going to be able to handle her? Or should we take care of it if you're still soft on your ex-girlfriend?"

"Bite me, Junior," Siren called out.

He growled, stepping toward her with balled fists.

"Enough."

Kaldur promptly released Siren from his grasp but kicked her knee out from under her before she could break away. She absentmindedly cursed the fact that he learned combat from Black Canary before he changed sides.

Siren wasn't prepared for the immediate blow to her head that made her slump to the ground. And she certainly wasn't prepared to be upside down when she regained consciousness.

She ignored the headache as she began to beat her fists on the back of her carrier.

"Funny that you think that's gonna do anything," came Tommy Terror's voice behind her.

Silently groaning, she glanced around to see them in the hall that led to the Zeta-Tubes. Superboy was on Tommy's other shoulder, but he was still unconscious. How hard did they zap him?

She let out a gasp as she watched Superboy be pulled off Tommy's shoulder and flung away. Crap. She braced herself as she faced the same fate, slamming into the Cave floor.

Siren shielded her injured wrist, rolling to a stop at Blue Beetle's feet. "Si?" he said in surprise.

The adult hero whipped her head around to find Junior on the ledge behind them. When he lifted his arms, she turned back to Blue. "Move!"

As Blue flew up into the air, Siren rolled, barely missing the ice that crawled across the Cave floor. She came to a stop beside Nightwing who was still crushed under a similarly unconscious Superboy.

She groaned. "Wing, wake up!" she cried out, roughly shaking her friend's shoulder as she tried pulling Superboy off of him.

He began to stir, shoving at Superboy and, with Siren's help, managing to free himself from the Kryptonian's dead weight. He rose to his feet, but Siren was too busy checking on Superboy and wasn't prepared for someone to appear out of nowhere, kicking Nightwing in the face.

"Shit!" Siren yelped, watching as the woman dressed in tiger colors swept her co-leader off his feet.

The woman straddled his body immediately, managing to attach a collar to his neck before Siren rose to her feet. "Get off of him!" the blonde snapped, shoving her heel into the woman's chest, kicking her a few feet away.

Nightwing sat up, grinning. "Sorry, no superpowers for your collar to turn off," he pointed out as he stood.

Siren zeroed in on an object in the woman's hand, eyes widening. She darted forward just as the button was pressed, electrocuting Nightwing.

She lunged forward, yanking the remote out of the woman's hand, using the back of her fist to strike their enemy across the face. The woman grunted, sweeping her leg out to hook her knee around Siren's thigh and drag her to the ground.

The heroine and the villainess rolled around, winding up with Siren on the bottom, her wrists gripped tightly by the woman in orange. The team's leader pulled her leg out from under her opponent's straddling position, bringing her knee up into the woman's stomach.

She grunted, hunching over which gave Siren a chance to use her immobile wrists to pull her in even closer and headbutt her in the chin. The woman recoiled in pain, allowing Siren to fully throw her off.

The blonde finally sat up on her knees, but a sudden jolt of electricity went through her body. Crying out and instinctively reaching up to her throat, she turned her head to the one person who she knew would have the remote to her collar.

He told her didn't want to use it, but it turned out he would anyway.

Siren slumped to the ground, eyes slowly closing as the woman in orange moved back into her line of sight. You…you bastard…

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Star City

March 24, 01:10 PDT

Jenna's hand shook as she opened the door to her apartment. The first thing she noted about Sam when she laid eyes on him was the fact that he was in his pj's. The second thing was the terrified look on his face.

"It's late, Sam," she said wearily. "You could have just waited to come over in the morning."

His eyes were wide. "Are you kidding?! I get a text from you saying that 'Mount Justice is gone' and you expect me to go to sleep after that?"

Jenna closed her eyes, stepping back to let her protégé in. "I'm sorry. I should have thought that through."

Sam crossed his arms as he watched her shut and lock her door. "What. Happened."

Jenna frowned. "Kaldur happened. He, along with Icicle Junior, the Terror Twins, and some new villainess, showed up at the Cave," she said slowly. "Nightwing said that they got in because Blue showed up with Impulse and a tracker that they had used to find him. But the tracker was actually a way to shut down Cave security before Kaldur and his squad arrived."

She moved to the couch, curling up against the arm. Sam followed suit, sitting criss-cross beside her. He watched her fiddle with her brace before speaking again. "But what do you mean that Mount Justice is gone?"

"I mean," Jenna said, taking a breath. "It blew up. Kaldur blew it up."

She was well past feeling devastated. She was furious. He destroyed the Cave without a second thought. All of our memories there are gone. I don't know why I thought he would still care.

"And now he has Beast Boy, Impulse, and Blue Beetle," she slowly added.

Sam stood up. "What? Then why are we sitting here? We have to go find them!"

Jenna sighed, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Sam, there's nothing we can do right now," she said, reaching out to grasp his arm and make him sit back down. "We don't even know where to look. Nightwing is trying to figure that part out, but even then, we don't know how long it would take if he ever figures it out at all."

"So our teammates are in the hands of Kaldur and there's nothing we can do?" Sam spat, eyes narrowed dangerously.

Jenna squeezed his arm. "I know you're worried about your friends. When we locate them, and I have faith that we will, we'll come up with a plan. But until then, we have to be patient."

Sam ducked his head, avoiding Jenna's gaze. "When I get my hands on him…"

Jenna rolled her eyes. "Get in line," she said dryly as she rose to her feet. "Do you want to stay here tonight? You're welcome to use the couch again."

Sam stood too, shaking his head. "My aunt would kill me if she found that I snuck out. I better get home before she notices. And don't even get me started on my uncle," he said, rolling his eyes.

Jenna watched with a fond expression as he turned away. Seems like ages ago he was just a little kid. Her brow furrowed when he suddenly paused his movement.

Sam turned his head, the frown on his face deep as he stared at her for a moment. Then he stepped closer, hugging Jenna tightly.

She was quick to squeeze the boy even if she was slightly surprised. Sam hadn't really hugged her often. "It'll be okay, kiddo. We'll get them back, I promise."

"R- Right." He stepped away, rubbing the back of his neck. "See you tomorrow?"

Jenna nodded as she gripped the door, ready to close it. "See you tomorrow."

She closed the door and locked it once more, before turning around and sliding down it to sit on the floor since her head had begun to swim again. She blinked a couple of times, staring up at the ceiling as the angry tears began to fall.

Was Sam right? Is it time for me to take a break? To leave?

~/~/~/~

Yikes. Things aren't looking too great for Jen. And she's got even more coming.

So, I should still be able to post the next chapter next week. I'm about to move a couple of states away while I attend grad school (I'm getting my master's degree!) so I'm about to be very busy. I'm not behind on chapters, but I also haven't finished the current one I'm on for 'War' so we'll just have to see how things go with my classes and new job before I know whether I need to take a small break or not. As of right now, my plans are to finish uploading this fic by mid-October and start the third fic in January of next year, but it's always subject to change.

See you next week!