Author's Note: I know I haven't updated this one in a while. I got stuck. Some of the inspiration for this comes from an old episode of Justice League Unlimited. There will be some Romanian pretending to be Romani here, translations to follow. I own nothing.

6. The First Riddle

Talia, Diane and Talia's last goon had reached a wall covered in raised glyphs, letters all jumbled up with no pattern or reason to their arrangement. There was something written on the left adjacent wall.

"Găsiți un nume, cel care e adevărat și trecerea la mormânt va fi dezvăluit la tine." Diane read it aloud and frowned slightly.

"Hmmmm." Talia raised an eyebrow at her.

"What does the riddle say little one?" Diane rolled her eyes.

"You need to stop calling me little one. Seriously it's creepy. The riddle says 'Find the name, the one that's true and the passage to the tomb will be revealed to you.' Got any ideas?" Talia thought for a moment. Then she nodded and spoke.

"This tomb belongs to an ancient Romani sorceress, a gypsy much like your ancestors. She was one of the most powerful magic users of her time. There is a story that when she died her power was stored inside an artifact and hidden deep in her tomb." Diane cut across Talia.

"And someone hired the shadows to get this artifact. But why hire you lot. You guys are assassins not treasure hunters." Talia nodded slightly.

"This is more of repaying a favor owed to a friend of my fathers." Diane rolled her eyes.

"Ah. So does the Legend say what the gypsies name was?" Talia smiled.

"The legend calls her Lady Fate." Diane nodded and held up her hands, which were still tied together.

"I can't do this with my hands tied. I don't trust you and you don't trust me, that's fair. But you want my help and I want to get back home in one piece. So it looks like for the moment we are going to have to work together. Agreed?" Talia nodded and pulled a knife from a sheath at her side. She cut through the ropes that bound Diane's hands but kept a firm grip on her wrists.

"You are a smart child, do not waste that by doing something stupid that would force me to kill you." With that she released her grip on Diane who rubbed her wrists and turned back to the wall.

"Alright so the legends call her Lady Fate. And there's no other name?" Talia shook her head.

"No there is no other recorded name, I have done extensive research. There was no other name for her. She is still often depicted on Romani tarot cards as the Fate card." Diane nodded and stepped up to the wall.

"So let's see. Lady in Romani is doamnă." She quickly found the proper letters and typed out the first word on the wall. A creaking sounded but nothing seemed to move.

"And fate in Romani is soartă." She tapped the second word out on the raised glyphs and the creaking sound increased and the wall cracked open revealing a darker tunnel ahead. Diane held out her hand for a flashlight but Talia shook her head.

"No he goes first." Talia's faceless goon stepped in front of them and began to walk down the hallway. Diane stepped after him and Talia brought up the rear. Diane glanced back as the wall began to slide shut and spotted a flash of yellow and red racing into the room followed by a glimpse of green skin and red hair. They had come for her. She turned back to face forward and smiled slightly.

Wally swore loudly as the wall closed. He had no idea how to get through this one. He almost slammed a fist into the wall when Red Arrow grabbed his elbow. He motioned to the riddle and the two of them began to try to decipher it. M'ggan rubbed her temple.

"M'ggan, what's wrong?" Artemis was on edge, she liked Diane, knew her personally from school, and she knew how ruthless the shadow could be. She really hoped that Diane was ok. She would never be able to look Barbara in the face again if Diane got hurt now, while they were on a mission to rescue her. Barbara had been depressed ever since Diane's accident which had rather strangely almost exactly coincided with Robin slipping into a coma. But it had to be a coincidence, they were too different, even with Artemis's suspicions that the boy wonder wasn't really a boy. M'ggan shook her head.

"Someone's broadcasting their thoughts." She seemed to concentrate harder as the team turned to her.

"I think it might be Diane Grayson. It's a girl but it's almost familiar." Wally twitched but Roy kept his head.

"What is she thinking?" M'ggan spoke carefully eyes still closed as she focused.

"Doamnă soartă. She keeps spelling it out in her mind, but she's trying to broadcast it. What does that mean?" Wally's eyes widened.

"It means she's awake! She must have spotted us as the wall closed. She's trying to help us. It's got to be the answer to the riddle! M'ggan spell it out for me!" The Martian obliged slowly spelling out the two words. As Wally pushed the corresponding glyphs the wall began to open again. Wally grinned and was about to race off but Roy caught his elbow again.

"You race off like that you're gonna get her killed. We stick together, Wolf's got her scent. We should be able to follow him to find her. This place is a tomb, it says so in the riddle. This place is bound to be crawling with traps." Kaldur nodded.

"Radio silence, we do not want the shadows knowing we are here. Miss Martian link us up." M'ggan nodded and linked them all together mentally. For a moment she thought she felt Robin's mind but she shook it off. The last time they had been linked up like this was the simulation, she was just missing their youngest team member. She couldn't think about that now, not with this innocent girl's life on the line. They headed off down the hall.

Translations

These are all Romanian pretending to be Romani, and all thanks to Google Translate.

Găsiți un nume, cel care e adevărat și trecerea la mormânt va fi dezvăluit la tine.

Find the name, the one that's true and the passage to the tomb will be revealed to you.

Doamnă soartă Lady Fate