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- - - September 22nd - - -

Conner looked over the nightly bay in silence, trying to decide if he should go for a quick swim before joining the others. There was no official training session scheduled for tonight, but Aqualad and Wally were trying out some new manoeuvres in the downstairs training rink.

The dark bay looked very inviting.

Megan would be disappointed if he went swimming without her.

Yet the reason why he wanted to swim was to clear his thoughts. His thoughts were not clear at all when she was near him.

He heard Mary's steps approaching.

Mary wasn't supposed to know about them yet. Nobody was. Megan hat asked him not to tell anybody, she didn't want to hurt Artemis' or Wally's feelings.

He had asked her if being deceptive wouldn't hurt them more.

She had told him that in all the Earth TV shows she had ever watched, she had never seen young people talking openly about their emotions or clarifying their relationships in socially complicated situations. Apparently, people here were much more secretive than on Mars.

He'd have to trust her on that.

Mary sat down on the ground beside him.

They gazed across the bay together.

"You two make a sweet couple", she said.

Conner shrugged non-committally.

He wasn't actually surprised. They lived together, of course she'd be the first to find out.

A sweet couple. He still hardly understood what it meant to be a couple. He had only started even considering the concept two weeks ago.

Megan had dreamt of being his girlfriend since the day they met.

"How do you feel?", Mary asked.

Where to start?

He admired Megan. He liked watching her smile. He wanted to be the reason for her smiles. He wanted to protect her. He feared that he would hurt her. He didn't know how to be a boyfriend. He was scared to disappoint her. He really enjoyed kissing her.

His mind kept leaping back to their first kiss at Belle Reve.

He had gone through hell in that prison, when their mind link ruptured. He had thought that he'd lost her. Seeing her frozen from the ice villain's attack… Something had shattered inside him.

When she came back to him, he just had to pull her close, feel her warmth, her living pulse, her breath, her soft lips on his…

"I really like her", he admitted.

Was that enough?

He was happy, when he was with her.

But was he happy enough?

"Megan is… She's barely touched the ground since we're back."

Literally floating with joy.

And she could sense his emotions.

Did she notice how confused he was? How nervous? How far less certain than herself?

Mary nodded slowly.

"She is a very emotional girl. You're more level-headed."

He frowned.

"No, that's not a bad thing! You're just usually more serious. That makes your smiles more precious. And I've seen you smile more in the past three days than in the two months before that."

Well, yeah. Megan did make him happy.

Mary placed a hand on his arm. "I just wanted to let you know that you can talk to me. I mean, I'm sure the G-gnomes didn't teach you much about relationships, right? And you aren't exactly surrounded by healthy role models here… Dating is already complicated enough for teenagers without superpowers and mission assignments and all that, even if they have sixteen years of life experience and not just a couple of weeks. It's okay to ask others for help if you need it. You two will probably figure things out together, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm here for you, too." She dropped her hand again. "And I have left a rather educational book on the top shelf in the laundry room in case you have questions about more… biological matters. Not that I'm encouraging that in any way. I just think you should be well informed, you know?"

Figure things out together.

Conner closed his eyes, focussing inwards, trying to sense the passive link between them.

'Megan?', he called for her.

'Yes?'

She seemed hesitant. He had not allowed her to fully share his mind since the end of their mission, too nervous of what he might reveal.

Hoping that he could sort his thoughts without her.

Why not ask for her help?

'Do you mind that I… that this might be complicated?'

'No!'

This time, she did not hesitate at all.

He stood up.

"Thanks, Mary. We'll be fine. I'm going to, um, fix my bike?"

His feet were already taking him back towards the cave, back towards Megan.

Mary watched him leave, smiling wistfully, remembering her own first sappy, guileless love, back in her time.

Lost in her thoughts, she did not see the foreign vessel approach from the sea, propelled onto the beach by powerful currents of water. Neither did she notice the two red figures disembark, or hear the bulky and the slender shape ascend the flank of the mountain with heavy metal steps.

She never saw the smaller figure raise her hand towards her, was unaware of the lethal heat contracting in a blazing flare around the outstretched arm.

She just sat there, directly in the two invaders' line of fire.

"Meduro!", Wally yelled, a split second before the fireball disintegrated Mary's dress.

'Two hostile androids approaching!', he relayed through the mind link.

He could feel Conner sigh mentally. 'I knew I heard something strange.'

'Thanks for checking it out, Wally.' Megan's mental voice sounded just as reluctant as Conner's.

Wally dodged a second fireball. A gush of water hit him squarely in the chest.

'Seriously hostile, guys! Are you coming or not?'

In Gotham, Robin, stopped teasing Artemis about her supposed home in Star City and stared at the tiny display built into his watch.

"That's strange, Mary's petrification alert just went off."

He stepped out of the archer's way, finally letting her enter the phone booth Zeta station.

"It's probably nothing. Still, do keep an eye out for anything weird when you teleport to the cave, just in case, okay?"

At his Manor, Bruce Wayne glanced up from his dinner as the flash of a little green lamp caught his eye. Mary Baker had once more turned into stone.

He resolved to check up on the cave's security feed later, then returned his attention towards Alfred's delicious pumpkin risotto.

"Alivio."

It was Robin's voice that woke her.

He had promised he would always turn her back.

When Mary opened her eyes, it was still night time – or again? The air was full of smoke and steam. She had no idea what had happened, but it must have been bad. Robin stood in front of her, his clothes soaking wet, his cape singed severely. There was sooth on his face, but he seemed uninjured.

Mary herself was wrapped up in a blanket. Her clothes had dissolved into ashes.

"Is anybody hurt? What can I do?"

He shook his head with a lopsided smile. "We're okay. We've been unconscious for a while, but Batman woke us. Megan and Aqualad are still faint from dehydration, but except for that, nobody got hurt."

"What happened?"

"A Red Android reunion. Apparently elemental powers run in the family. Fire, water, air – we're just one short off a full quartet."

Mary winced. "Today? He didn't expect them to find him for at least another month or so. Wait, is it still the same day?"

"Same night, two in the morning. What exactly did Tornado tell you? No, wait, this is definitely something Batman should hear too." He handed her a bundle of clothes. "Here, put these on and meet us in the mission room."

The cave's central chamber was full of debris, its metal door melted, water still dripping down the walls. Yet the air would have been thick even without the smoke. In the centre of the wreckage stood Aqualad, surrounded by his infuriated team mates.

"Megan could have died", Conner growled, his fists balled, barely restraining his fury.

"I'm fine", Megan croaked unconvincingly, her pale green fingers clutching a half-empty bottle of soda like a life-line.

"None of us is fine", Artemis shot back, her body trembling with both rage and exhaustion.

Next to her, the alien sphere blinked nervously.

"Still, we would never have suspected Red Tornado", Megan replied weakly.

"Because none of us even knew there was a mole", Wally retorted bitterly. "Unlike our revered leader."

"A mole?", Mary asked. Most heads turned towards her, only Conner's stare remained fixated on Kaldur.

"Aqualad failed to share the trivial detail that there was a traitor on our team", Robin explained grimly.

"Red Tornado is not a traitor", Mary objected.

Wally shook his head sadly. "You weren't there, Mary, but he turned on us the moment the water-wielder touched him. Sucked the air out of the room and left us lying in the dust till Batman came to wake us."

Only now did she notice Batman looming silently in the shadow of a broken computer.

Mary hesitated. "How safe are we now? Are we sure they are all gone? Is there any way they could still be listening in on us?"

That thought seemed to momentarily break the team's tension. Even Superboy took his eyes off Kaldur, quickly scanning the room.

"I don't see any bugs", he grunted. "No sight or sound of any androids, either", he added, sounding almost disappointed. The sphere blinked in confirmation.

Robin typed something on the mobile computer built into his glove. "I brought the deactivated security sensors back online, more than half are still functional. All scans are negative, no foreign tech detected."

Wally disappeared in a blur of motion.

"I can't sense any other organic minds in our vicinity, in case that helps", Megan noted.

Artemis merely looked around awkwardly.

Wally returned with a slightly battered remote control. Noticing Artemis' helpless look, he handed the makeshift-device to the archer.

"I reconnected the EMP you built and added a separate trigger. With this switch, we can activate it remotely." He shot her a dazzling smile. "In case you run out of arrows again."

The sphere was blinking in an agitated manner. Wally patted her soothingly. "Just a precaution"

Mary turned towards Batman. "So we can speak freely?"

He nodded once.

"Okay. There is a 98% chance that Red Tornado has not been reprogrammed, according to his own calculations. He spent the past decades shielding himself from such an attempt. His plan was to pretend to be overtaken, in order to locate his creator, T. O. Morrow."

"Tornado was build by T. O. Morrow?", Wally cried out.

Noting the blank stares of most of his team mates, the speedster took a deep breath. "That guy puts the mad in mad scientist. Not in the fun way. We're talking about genocide-level nefarious, planning to extinguish all life on Earth and all that. All his creatures are evil."

"They are not", Mary claimed. "Red Tornado had two older siblings, human look-alikes. One was an ally of the Justice Society, the second even a member for three years, until she died protecting one of the others in the forties. They weren't evil, and neither was Red Tornado."

"At least that's what he told you", Robin remarked.

Wally's eyes narrowed. "Wait, are you talking about Firebrand?"

"Who?"

"The woman who saved Jay Garrick, the first Flash. Her real name was Danette Reilly. She was a member of the Justice Society who took a bullet for him in 1945."

"The timing is right, but I don't know the name of Red Tornado's sister", Mary replied.

Wally shook his head sombrely. "Jay still visits her grave every year."

"It might be empty now", Robin noted. "She was a fire-wielder, right?"

For a moment, everyone stayed silent, as the realization sunk in.

"So, that other sibling was a water-bender?", Artemis asked.

"I don't know", Mary responded. "Red Tornado said his brother left the superhero life to work as a surgeon, but has been kidnapped a few weeks ago."

"Well, he did tell us that there was a water-bender associated with the Society in the forties, who was incompatible with wearing the Helmet of Fate", Wally reminded them.

"Red Tornado feared that his brother had been reprogrammed by T. O. Morrow", Mary continued. "I don't think he expected his sister to be brought back as well."

Robin gestured at the destruction around them. "Are you really saying he planned this?"

"No! He never thought they would confront him here, or that they would find him so soon. That's actually the reason why he took over an outside shift for the Justice League today, to start getting back into action once or twice a week. He wanted to give T. O. Morrow more opportunities to ambush him during remote missions instead of risking to draw him here to the cave."

Artemis frowned. "They did come here, though. If Red Tornado didn't foresee that, how can we be sure he was prepared enough to resist whatever they did to turn him to their side?"

"Well, we all woke up", Megan whispered. "If he had truly turned evil, couldn't he have left us without air for just a few minutes longer?"

The team shared an uneasy look.

"What do we do now?", Wally asked. "How do we find him?"

"You don't", Batman responded. "Red Tornado is a member of the Justice League, and finding him is a League responsibility. You have a different mission to attend to in the morning, so I would advise you to get some sleep."

Mary shifted uncomfortably. "I'm sorry, Batman, sir, but couldn't you all look for him together?"

The Dark Knight's regarded her sternly.

"Forgive me, sir, but Red Tornado did tell me how to find him. If he had wanted the League to follow him alone, wouldn't he have told one of you instead?"

Batman's eyes narrowed. "You know where he is?"

"I don't. But he can tell us. He has left a receiver behind. Once he has found T. O. Morrow, he will assess his exact GPS position through internal sensors and send an encrypted location signal to the device that he left here for us. He said it would probably take a few days until he is at the right place, though, given that Morrow would certainly want to make sure that he is not being followed."

Robin shot her a curious look. "The last time you were told that someone had a GPS device implanted into their body, it turned out to be a rather elaborated ruse..."

"True, but I am quite sure that the situation is different this time. I really do trust Red Tornado."

"Where is this device?" Superboy demanded to know.

Mary pointed up towards the hatch to Tornado's workshop. "I haven't seen it yet, but it's supposed to be in an unlabelled green box in the left bottom drawer of his filing cabinet."

Megan levitated herself into the android's apartment. A few seconds later, she reappeared with a green parcel in her hands.

Robin lifted a black cube out of the box. One surface seemed to be a flat screen display, the others were smooth polished metal. The device was inactive.

Wally, Robin, Batman and the Sphere immediately began scanning and probing the receiver. When it became clear that their assessment would take some time, Megan and Artemis sat down in the room's single dry corner with a second bottle of lemonade. Conner finally abandoned his hostile position opposite Kaldur, following Megan to stand guard at her side.

Only Aqualad remained standing in the room's centre. Mary approached him carefully. He stood upright, his shoulders squared, as if expecting another onslaught any second.

She handed him one of the water bottles she had picked up when changing her dress.

"How do you feel?"

Kaldur raised the bottle to his lips and finished it in a few desperate gulps.

"Much better now", he replied hoarsely.

"I should get you a proper rehydration solution..."

"I'll live."

Up close, he looked more than exhausted, and not only from the confrontation with the fire wielder. His team's accusations had clearly taken a toll.

"In the English military, a leader would never have told his unit about suspected traitors. It would have undermined the troupe's morale."

He nodded. "It is the same in the Atlantean corps. But that is not the only reason I kept silent. The source of the intel was not reliable."

"Who was it?" Conner had raised his voice, clearly audible across the room. "Who told you about the mole?"

The rest of the team's attention returned to Kaldur.

"The claim was made by Sportsmaster", he replied calmly.

A coughing fit erupted in the corner of the room. Artemis had choked on her soda.

"Sportsmaster?", she wheezed. "That's not a reliable source at all!"

"You know him?", Wally asked. "I thought he was only active in Gotham?"

"Why do you know that?", Artemis shot back.

"Because I looked him up in the League data base after we encountered him on Santa Prisca."

Wally gestured at the drink she had spilled onto the floor. "That looks a bit more personal."

Artemis coughed again.

Megan patted her back half-heartedly.

The others kept watching.

Robin sighed, then went over to the two girls and sat down on the floor beside them. "It's okay, Artemis. You can tell them."

Her voice broke. "You know?"

"Well, yeah. I was waiting for you at the Gotham Zeta station earlier, remember? I knew you'd be taking that route."

Wally furrowed his brow. "You're from Gotham?"

The blond girl burrowed her face in her hands.

Robin shrugged awkwardly. "It's okay, Artemis. Nobody's going to hate you."

She only shuddered.

Wally walked over and sat down on the floor as well. "What's wrong, Artemis?"

"Everything", she whispered, finally meeting his eyes. "Sportsmaster is my father."

Wally froze, his mouth gaping open. "Wait, then he is… Is Sportsmaster Green Arrow's brother?"

"What? No! I'm not Green Arrow's niece, Baywatch. He just said that so you wouldn't ask questions."

Wally scratched his head. "Yeah, okay, I suppose that makes more sense. Although they do both have blond hair… You're sure they aren't related?"

Artemis replied with a strange strangled noise, halfway between a sob and a chuckle.

Megan pulled her friend into a hug. "It's all right, Artemis. We can't choose our family."

Conner watched the scene with a bewildered look. "So, what does this have to do with Sportsmaster warning Aqualad about a mole?"

Megan looked up at him, her arms still wrapped around the archer. "He might have known of Morrow's plans to take over Red Tornado. Maybe he warned us to protect his daughter?"

"He is not that kind of dad", Artemis replied, her voice muffled.

Robin stood up to face Kaldur. "If the intel really came from Sportsmaster, I suppose we owe you an apology."

Wally also turned towards the Atlantean, but didn't leave Artemis' side. "Yeah… Sorry, Kal, for lashing out like that."

"You still should have told us", Conner grumbled.

"No", Artemis protested, freeing herself from the Martian's embrace. "Never trust Sportsmaster, or any of his cohorts. If he warned you of a mole, that means he wanted you to suspect me. Playing mind games. Just to make my life a little more difficult, since I don't really belong on the bright side…"

"Of course you do", Megan shushed her.

Artemis shook her head. "You don't get it, Megan. He trained me to be an assassin. My mom is Huntress, a convicted criminal. My sister works for the League of Shadows." Her voice broke again. "I don't belong with this team."

"Of course you belong with us", Wally repeated. "You saved all our lives today, remember?"

Artemis stared into the open faces of her team mates, tears welling up in her large, dark eyes. Unable to reply, she hid her face against Megan's shoulder.

Conner met Mary's eyes, still looking utterly confused. "What's wrong with her?"

Mary had to smile at his innocent expression. "I suppose she expected you to mistrust her because of her heritage", she explained.

Conner shook his head at the archer. "You do remember I was vat-grown by Cadmus, right? Potentially from parts of Lex Luthor's DNA? And that we still don't know who build sphere here? And that Robin hasn't even shown us his eyes or told us his name? Nobody cares what you look like or where you come from, Artemis."

Mary handed the blond archer a pack of paper handkerchiefs. "It's been a long day for all of you", she said soothingly. "Maybe it's time you got some rest? Batman did mention another mission assignment in the morning…"

"I'm sending you to India", Batman confirmed, reminding them all of his presence. The black cube was still in his hands. "If the League doesn't find Red Tornado before you return, and if he really does send a location signal to this receiver, you might be allowed to take part in a joint extraction mission."

He pocketed the device. "Until then, you have work to do. Be ready for a briefing at dawn."

Wally groaned. "That's in three hours!"

Robin punched him playfully. "It's a long flight to India, KF. You can sleep on the plane."

Three hours. Robin took deep breaths, calming his pulse. With three hours of sleep, he would be able to take the first shift piloting the bioship in the morning.

He closed his eyes. What would his nightmares be about tonight?

Fire-wielding androids, almost being drowned…

He had seen worse in Gotham, but he had never been attacked at a homefront since joining Batman.

Not since the day he had lost his family.

He continued the meditation exercise Alfred had taught him, breathing in and out slowly.

It still took him a while to fall asleep.

Kaldur drank another large cup of Mary's rehydrating electrolyte solution before falling into bed.

Should he have told the team about Sportsmaster's warning? Had their insults been justified?

Leadership was a terrible burden. He sensed that the conflict had not yet been fully resolved.

But he was too exhausted to ponder it further tonight.

If leading a team of six was such a struggle, how ever did his King manage to rule the whole fractured nation of Atlantis?

Conner stared at the ceiling.

He had almost lost Megan, again.

First ice, now fire.

Seeing her trapped in that blazing hot cage with Kaldur, unable to reach her… Every time he had tried to break free from his confinement, the androids had simply increased the intensity of the flames. He'd been able to hear the agonized moans escaping her parched throat, the ragged breaths, her fluttering pulse...

He had never felt so helpless.

What good was invulnerability if you couldn't protect others?

He remembered the G-gnomes teaching him that Kryptonite was a Kryptonian's only weakness.

They hadn't known anything at all.

Megan tossed and turned in her bed.

A cage of fire. She really had to learn density-shifting. She could have escaped through the floor, if she had only been stronger…

Would she ever be as brave as Artemis?

Would she ever be able to reveal her own secrets to the team?

To Conner?

Nobody cares what you look like or where you come from, he had said.

But how could she risk loosing him again, now that they had finally found each other?

Artemis fell into bed, still wearing her costume and mask.

Today, her worst nightmares had both come true.

Not that she had ever dreamt specifically of being chased through air vents by a fire-wielding android. But being alone, powerless, watching the people she cared for suffer, unable to help… That dream had been a recurring companion ever since her sister Jade left her behind.

Being forced to give up her secrets had been a newer nightmare, yet she had feared this moment since the day she joined the team.

She kicked off her shoes.

Her two worst nightmares had both come true today, yet somehow she was still alive.

Somehow their plan had worked, somehow that makeshift EMP device had defeated the intruders, somehow Robin and she had not only survived but also saved their super-powered team mates.

Somehow the others had not thrown her off the team, despite her criminal relatives.

They had simply accepted her.

With shaky fingers, she took off her mask.

When she closed her eyes, she saw Wally's freckled face in front of her. His lopsided smile, the tousled red hair.

Of course you belong with us, he had said.

She pulled her blanket around herself with the left hand, her right clutching his EMP remote tightly to her chest.

It was just three hours, but Artemis slept more soundly this night than she had slept in months.

Wally lay awake, remembering the Bialyan desert.

My father probably wants me to kill you, she had said, when they stumbled through the dunes.

That made a lot more sense now.

She hadn't harmed him, though. Instead, she had stayed with him and helped him survive in the desert until Megan had finally restored their memories.

She had also helped him in that very first fight after Santa Prisca, before she had even been part of the team. Today, she had snatched her old missile back from his souvenir shelf, saving his life for the second time with the same single arrow. Now, that was some first-class archery.

Wally had always admired Robin, Speedy and Artemis for their skills. He knew they had earned them the hard way. His own speed powers were awesome, but sometimes he wondered if he truly deserved them. He'd simply been lucky to have a superhero for an uncle. All he had to do to become a speedster was to follow Barry's secret notes and set a bunch of chemicals on fire.

After the incident, Barry had started to train him, just like Robin and Speedy had been trained by their own respective mentors.

Artemis had become a hero all on her own, defying her family.

That girl was seriously bad-ass.

Back in the desert, what had she said about a ninja boyfriend?

Author's note:

Artemis' secret is out! I simply couldn't resist. Secrecy-based drama just doesn't work for me... What do you think?

Reviews are welcome like a freckled smile.