Chapter 39

Suicide Slums, Metropolis…

Being told over the phone about the ransacking of the church was one thing but to stand here and see it with her own eyes was quite another. They had desecrated this sacred place and to Andrea it was sacred. This had been where she had been baptised. This is where her mother and her would come every Sunday without fail. It was at the heart of all her mother's charity work.

"Terrible isn't it."

Andrea turns her head to find a women in her 50s of Italian descent walking up behind her. "Ms Rossi."

"I think you're old enough to call me Emma now Andrea. You're hardly a child any longer," she replies.

"No. I'm hardly a child any longer," Andrea acknowledges sadly. In fact she's about as far from a child as it is possible to be considering what she has lived through and what she has done.

"Speaking of child where's yours?"

"A friend is looking after her. I didn't want to drag her halfway across the country."

"But you felt a need to come?"

"There's no point in expecting the police to solve it and I have some investigative experience. If the ones responsible aren't caught and punished what stops them coming back?"

"You sound so like your mother," Ms Rossi says, sounding proud of the woman standing in front of her.

That makes Andrea swell up a little. "It's long past time I did," she says, referencing to how she feels she let her mother down when she ran away all those years ago.

"And like her I doubt there is any point in me attempting to dissuade you from this endeavour. Just be careful," Ms Rossi requests.

Andrea is grateful her mother's old friend cares. Course she doesn't know that Andrea can bench press a truck and the only people in real danger are the ones who attacked this place.

She takes some time examining the graffiti looking for clues as to who was behind this. Once she has seen enough she exits the church.

"So where to next?" asks her grown-up daughter who had been waiting for her outside.

"To see Father Mulcahy and ask whether he saw who attacked him."

Mia nods in understanding as mother and daughter head to the hospital.

"Hello Father. How are you feeling? "Andrea inquires. His injuries don't look as bad as she imagined but there are still a few visible bruises and cuts on the older man's face. Not to mention a beauty of a black eye.

"Andrea, what brings you here?" the priest asks in surprise at seeing her.

"Ms Rossi phoned and told me what happened."

"She means well," he says but Andrea can tell he's actually a tiny bit annoyed at the woman's actions. "Please, sit," he permits her.

Andrea does so, smoothing down her clothes. "So, how are you feeling?" she repeats her question with real concern.

"Sore but I'll live so I am told."

"Who did this?"

"Don't beat around the bush, do you?"

"I'm not one for small talk."

"You always were too serious," the injured man critiques the Latino woman.

"Focussed!" she protests.

Father Mulcahy chuckles at her indignant response. "It's amazing how little we change in some respects, isn't it."

Andrea folds her arms across her chest and scowls slightly. "You're as bad as my mother," she grumbles.

"I'll take that as a complement."

"Father Mulcahy, please, I want to help. I need to help," she half-pleads with him to cooperate with her.

"And I don't want you to end up in the bed next to me," he replies, expressing his worry for her wellbeing. "Your mother would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you."

"I can't believe I'm saying this to a priest but have some faith, Father. I know what I'm doing," she argues.

The man delays for a few moments as if internally debating with himself before he finally speaks. "It was the 13th street gang."

Andrea's face darkens like thunder. "I see," she says, her voice tight with barely controlled anger. "Should I even bother asking why they did this?"

"I don't have the answer to that."

"Then I'll get one," the superpowered woman determines.

"Andrea. Before you go there's something else."

Something in the priest's tone catches her attention. "What?"

"For all the trouble the gangs cause in Suicide Slums I know many of them. I know some of the people who attacked me and while they have their faults I didn't think they were capable of this. There was something…off about them. It's hard to explain. They were so full of…hate. It was almost irrational."

Andrea's brow furrows as she tries to absorb this. "Any new substances doing the rounds?" she wonders if it's some new drug that set them off.

"Nothing I'm aware of beyond the usual but something had affected them. Something…dark. I…felt it. There is a darkness that has afflicted Metropolis lately and it is spreading. Beware of it Andrea. I don't want it to get you as well."

An intense look forms on Andrea's face as she lets that sink in.

Watchtower…

Mia sighs sadly as her eyes peruse all the different monitors keeping track of the news. The world was getting worse or that is what it seemed like. Violence, protests, riots, instability everywhere. She reaches into her memory and tries to recall if this is what happened before but she was four, going on five and she doesn't think she was that aware of the world around her.

The point of trying to remember is asking the question of how much she should intervene. After all she's not her Earth 2 counterpart. She isn't here to massively shift history. She's just here to save her mother…and learn how to be a better hero from her father.

Her thinking also leads into another question. If she has saved her mother, which she isn't sure yet she has for certain, but if she has…is it time for her to return to her own time?

One thing Mia knows for certain is that the world needs Superman but that only brings her back to her indecision over what she should do to try and find him. How much is she willing to risk changing history? And why does she feel like the longer she stays the more of an issue this is going to become?

Before Mia can delve too much into thinking of an answer she is interrupted by her mother entering…and she can't help it when her throat closes up and tears well up in her eyes.

"What?" Andrea queries at her daughter's sudden pale appearance.

Mia desperately tries to cover herself. "Nada. Nada," she tries to wave it off as she turns her head away but her voice is all choked up with emotion so her mother doesn't buy it.

Andrea walks up to her daughter and places a hand on her shoulder. "What is it, sweetheart?"

Mia closes her eyes and tries to gather herself. "You…" she coughs. "You were wearing that the night you…that she…" her voice fails her.

Andrea looks down at herself, dressed as she is for the first time in 5 years as the Angel of Vengeance. Red top, black leather pants, boots and duster. "It brought the memory back," she realises her voice full of sympathy.

Mia nods. She starts to babble a little bit. "When I first started using my powers I dressed like you. In fact I had that actual coat you're wearing."

Andrea looks at her daughter with sorrowful eyes as she imagines it. Her and Mia are very similar in height and build. She can easily see how her coat would fit. "Come here," she says as she pulls the young woman into her arms. It's only when Mia is desperately clinging to her that Andrea is reminded just how emotionally fragile her daughter remains. How she wishes Clark was here and they could do this together. Help their daughter heal. "It's ok. I'm here," she promises, trying to reassure her daughter.

"It's not ok," Mia whispers tearfully. "I lost it."

"Lost what?" the older woman wonders, confused.

"Your coat. It got destroyed in a fight."

"Oh honey. Don't blame yourself for that. In the end it's only a coat. All that matters is the memories we keep of those we love. It's how I remember my Mamá. I have very few things of hers. All the important stuff I keep up here," Andrea taps on the side of her head, "and in here," she taps on her heart.

Mia says nothing because nothing more needs to be said. They stand there, Andrea holding her daughter for as long as she needs to.

Suicide Slums…

Mother and daughter stand together on a rooftop at the corner of 13th street. Now Mia had pulled herself back together she was internally geeking out. Here she is with her mother as the Angel of Vengeance. This was as awesomely schway as hanging out with her father.

"So what are we doing?" Mia asks.

"We're going to find out who attacked Father Mulcahy and then we're going to put the fear of God into them so much they go running to the police and confess."

"Ok. That's a very different approach to Papá," Mia has to comment.

"Your father and I are very different people. He's far more forgiving than I am."

"Ok, sure, whatever you say Emperor Palpatine."

"Now, you sound like Penny," Andrea critiques, referencing their conversation from the other day.

"Schway!"

"That wasn't…on, never mind," the older woman gives up.

"Looks like people are starting to gather," Mia notices in regards to the plot down across the street from the two superpowered woman which was an abandoned, rundown building with a courtyard out front.

"I'm waiting for one in particular, assuming he's still alive," Andrea says as she becomes hyper-focussed on the scene.

"And if he's not?"

"We'll give it an hour or so and see if we can figure out who's in charge."

"Sooo…do you know these guys?"

"Yes," Andrea replies, her voice betraying a certain tension. "They caused nothing but trouble all the time I was growing up. Mamá tried to help them like she tried to help everyone but…" she trails off with a half-hearted shrug of one shoulder.

"You weren't a member were you?"

"I wasn't a model Catholic nor daughter but no, I never quite fell as far as falling in with scum like this lot. It was more my gymnastic friends and I would not always be training as we told our parents."

Mia smiles lopsidedly as she imagines that. Her mother sneaking off and being naughty. "I guess that's why you never made the Olympics team," she teases.

"Wouldn't know real talent if it fell into their laps," Andrea grumbles.

Mia chuckles lightly. "More arrivals," she comments.

"That's him," Andrea reports.

Mia's eyes narrow. "Which one?" she asks.

"The Asian guy in the lead. Ono is his name. Five years ago he was the Number 2."

"Ah. I see. Think he's still important?"

"We'll find out soon enough. Ready?"

"I was born ready!"

"As your mother I can most assuredly tell you how untrue that statement is."

"Mamá!" Mia whines at being embarrassed.

"Just be grateful I don't mention how many agonising hours of labour you put me through," Andrea tags on as she hops over the edge of the building.

"Yeah. Let's all be real grateful," Mia mutters sarcastically as she follows her mother over the edge.

Within the dilapidated building Ono was looking over maps and scattered pieces of papers with scribbled notes and drawings.

He was making plans exactly according to the voice that had started speaking to him. The voice showed him the world and his place in it and he would fulfil his destiny.

His conversation with the voice within is interrupted by the sounds of fighting and gunshots from outside.

Ono looks up just as two of his bodyguards are propelled through the already broken window. Mere moments later the door is kicked in and in strides the Angel of Vengeance as the sounds of fighting continue out in the courtyard.

"We've met before," Ono remarks as the woman in black and red approaches him purposefully.

"A long time ago," the Angel of Vengeance confirms.

Ono suddenly snaps his fingers and jabs a finger in her direction. "You killed Snake."

"And you beat up a priest."

"Is that why you're here? To get revenge on me?"

"You're going to go to the police and confess what you did."

"Or what?"

"There's a reason I named myself the Angel of Vengeance," she threatens.

Ono half-smirks with one corner of his mouth twisting upward. "No. Not an Angel. Just a pathetic little girl, crying for her dead mommy."

Andrea stops dead where she is. How did he…

"It leaves a trail of darkness in you doesn't it. Revenge. Grief. Hate. Anger. And most of all; Doubt. You doubt in your heart whether you are a good person. It's like an open wound and an open wound can be entered."

Suddenly Ono's eyes turn black and emerging from his mouth comes a dark, black fog with red lightning within.

The Darkness has come for Andrea and while she knows she should run she can't. She's frozen. Stuck to the spot. As if it has some hold over her.

It moves toward her when suddenly something smashes through the roof and appears in front of Andrea.

"You didn't learn your lesson the first time, dreg," Supergirl says as she slams her wrists together in front of her and like the time she saved her father, they transform into metal bracers, emitting a surge of golden, static mystical energy that burns away at the Darkness.

"This is not over. We shall be one!" it declares before fleeing, screeching in defiance as it goes.

"Yeah. You better run," Mia states bravely before she snaps her wrists apart, sending the energy out in a wave.

"What was that?" Andrea asks, her voice shaking.

"That was the Darkness. I guess that explains the attack on the church now. It's trying to destroy anything that give people faith and hope. Leaving them in despair and vulnerable to be taken over."

"It's like it knew me. Deep down. It knew what I was feeling in my soul."

"I've heard that before," Mia reflects back to when she and her father confronted it. She moves over to the fallen Ono and places her fingers to his neck. "He's still alive. I guess the Darkness leaving is just a shock to the system," she comments.

"I wasn't completely honest earlier," the woman in the trench coat is suddenly saying.

"In what way?"

"On how I knew this gang. They were the ones who attacked your grandmother and me the night she was killed. Snake was their leader," Andrea feels a sudden need to confess, unsure why though.

Mia looks at her mother intently before making a decision as she gets her phone out and makes an anonymous tip off to the police.

"I'm not sure that'll work," the older woman says to her daughter. "Like I said the police don't care for this place."

"Maybe. Maybe not but what else are we going to do?"

Andrea looks around and has to say her daughter is right. This night feels like a complete bust now.

"Lets get out of here," Mia decides, seeing no point in staying. They've done what they can which thanks to the Darkness is probably nowhere near enough but with its involvement justice may not be something they get today.

Mother and daughter leave to find everyone in the gang out cold on the ground.

"What happened here?"

"The magic inherent in my bracelets hurts the Darkness."

"Which means…?"

"They're all possessed. My bet is if I had x-ray vision I would find the Omega symbol burned into all their skulls."

"I had no idea it had spread this far."

Mia sighs. "Yeah. We really need to find Papá asap."

Elsewhere…

Granny Goodness was watching through a window into a medical room where one of her girls, with striking red hair, was strapped down.

"Granny."

Instantly she drops to one knee as her Lord takes his vaguely humanoid form. "My Lord," she acknowledges his presence with the proper respect.

"I see the testing has begun."

"Yes, My Lord. Kay here volunteered to see if her body can be enhanced through exposure to the meteor rocks."

"Proceed with all efficiency then. I have need for the Furies and soon."

"For what task?"

"The girl. Twice now she has driven me back, burned me. I will not tolerate this affront any longer. I will become one with her and have all her secrets."

"Of course, my Lord. I promise you my girls will be able to capture her."

"I shall be holding you to that promise, Granny," the New God says with all the malice and threat you might imagine.

Coast City…

Andrea returns home feeling a bit of a failure.

Ok, that's a lie. She feels like a complete failure.

In the end she made this trip across half the country and back for naught. She didn't bring any sort of justice to anyone and only had it brought to her starkly the scale of the threat this 'Darkness' presents. And the less she tries to think on how it made her feel when it confronted her the better.

Andrea sighs as she nears Penny's apartment to pick up her daughter. The grown-up version was back on the hunt for Clark. She knocks on the door.

Penny opens it with an illuminating smile on her face. "I have a surprise for you," she says.

Andrea gets a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "What?" Penny moves aside to reveal, sitting on her couch, holding Mia is, "Clark?!"

Clark puts on his best goofy grin and waves. "Hi."

All Andrea can do is stand there with a stupid, incredulous look on her face.

Author's Note: So, yeah, thanks to the Darkness no justice today. Or even Vengeance. Mia having to save her other parent and Darkseid having just about enough of her. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews.