So sorry it's been so long! I had a killer semester and then had to study for certification tests that I took last week and this week! Hope this chapter makes up for it, and I'll say right now that the next chapter is already halfway finished.

This chapter goes back and forth between Kat and Lian quite a bit, so pay close attention to the breaks or it could be a little confusing! ;)

Anyway, thanks to everyone for sticking with me! I can't wait to see what you guys think about this installment!


Her hands were shaking when she pulled out the slip of paper her brother had given her out of her purse, and she dialed the number as she ran to her car. It rang. And rang. And rang. "Come on..." Kat hissed, dialing again.

Nothing, just more ringing.

Mina slipped through for a moment, and she almost chucked her phone over the pedestrian bridge she was standing on. She dialed the number a third time, only to get the answering machine. "Hey, it's Lian, you know what to do! Except you, Garfield, seriously, stop leaving messages of you farting as different animals on my phone. You're an adult."

She did throw her phone then, and it skittered across the bridge's asphalt coming to rest a couple yards away from her and nearly hitting a woman and her child walking by. Kat groaned in frustration and dove after it, hoping she hadn't ruined the damned thing. The screen was cracked, but it seemed to be functioning still. She flicked through her contacts, but she knew she couldn't trust any of them, not even the women she'd once called her aunts. They had lied to Mina because they were afraid that one wrong word would get Kat killed. Cowards. Their fondness for the child who'd been raised by Selina Kyle had killed her respect for them now that she knew the truth. They had known her identity, and had hidden it from her. They had kept her from her daughter. And now, because she was ignorant, Lian was in terrible danger.


Lian was staring at the ceiling of her bedroom, splayed out on her back muttering, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Bart appeared in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe and smiling wryly at his wife, "I'm not sure that's how that's supposed to work."

Lian groaned at him, rolling slowly onto her side so she could glare at him, "Raven just almost killed me." She glanced at the watch on her wrist, "And I'm still supposed to meditate for another half hour."

Bart walked towards her, in her favorite way. He was amazingly fast but when he walked slowly, he looked like some sort of exotic cat going after prey, and it never failed to get Lian's blood racing. He was at the side of the bed, but an instant later, she was on her back with him on top of her, scraping his teeth along the side of her neck, "You'll be glad to know I got you off on good behavior then."

"Really?" Lian rasped, trying to keep her eyes from rolling into the back of her head so she could focus completely on his words not just his actions.

"M-hmm." He hummed positively, grinding himself once against her with a groan, and receiving a gasp from her in return. "We're going on vacation, just the two of us to a private beach. Oh, Li, think of all the trouble we can get up to."

Lian shivered pleasantly, "I can imagine." Using a small bit of her remaining strength, she flipped them both over, and braced herself over him, "What brought this on?"

"I don't like seeing you unhappy." Bart said softly, kissing her.

Lian smiled at him, "How did I get so lucky to find you?"

"We're psychically connected because you are a possessive freak of nature who can somehow use her powers unconsciously to transcend time even though you barely have conscious control." Bart drawled, grinning.

Lian settled her weight on him, the apex of her thighs warm against his stomach, "You're being mean."

Bart's grin grew impossibly wide, "I'm all yours, Li."

She kissed him firmly, without a doubt the one in charge of their coupling. She stopped just before they joined, tilting her head, "Wait, you said vacation. I need to pack!"

"Li!" Bart lunged after her as she fled their bed, but he missed her. He looked down at his left hand and sighed, "Well old friend, looks like it's just you and me for a bit."

Lian came back into the bedroom a couple of minutes later, "Really, Bart? You couldn't wait on me for five minutes?"

"Don't worry, Li, there's more where this came from. Gotta love the speedster refractory period." He told her, trying to gauge if she would join him again.

"Not a chance. Next time we have sex, it's going to be on the private beach you promised me, and there's going to be copious amounts of alcohol." She said firmly.

Bart whined, "Babe, you know I can't get drunk."

Lian chuckled, "Whoever said I was going to let you drink any of the alcohol. I was thinking more along the lines of me licking every drop off those abs of yours."

Bart stood at attention by her side after redressing himself, and scooped her up into his arms, "Where's your bag? We need to get to that beach stat."

Four hours and a private jet later, the two laid out on a towel, mostly sated and relishing in the rays of sunlight flickering against their bare skin.

Lian was pensive though, and Bart could feel it, "What's the matter, Li?"

She gave him a tiny smile, "I don't mean to screw up the mood, but I can't stop thinking about my mother."

Bart brushed some sand out of her hair, "I know you can't."

"Why would she leave? Grams said she remembered. She talked to dad, and even Uncle Damian said she spoke to him when he found her. Why won't she talk to me?" Lian bemoaned, trying not to work herself up into tears.

For once, he had an answer that he hoped would satisfy his wife, "She has two lives in her head, Li. Last she remembers, you were a baby she'd just learned died in an alternate universe, but now, you're fully mobile and cognizant, and you're expecting her to know how to handle that. Add that to the fact that she's been a killer for the better part of two decades, and I don't blame her for staying away from you. She's trying to protect you. Be patient."

Lian stared at him with a soft pout etched onto her lips, "You're probably right, but I don't need protection from her. She's my mother. Even when she didn't remember me, she didn't really hurt me."

He quirked an eyebrow up at her, "She punctured and deflated your lung, Lian."

"So? She could have killed me." She quipped.

Bart rolled his eyes, kissing her deeply, "Only in your family is not killing a family member considered an act of affection."

Lian shrugged, even as he rolled to be on top of her, "I don't kill you, do I?"

"Nope!" He chirped, kissing her jaw.

Lian ran her hands up from his bare ass to the back of his neck, massaging gently, "You know, you're gonna sunburn in a really bad way if we stay out here too much longer."

Bart nodded against her skin, halfway down to her right breast, "So what?"

Lian pulled him back up to her face by the short hairs on the back of his neck, and kissed him, "So, it'll really suck if you're in too much pain for the next two days to properly enjoy our vacation."

"You know what sucks? That you don't sunburn. You're a redhead, but you just get this sun-kissed glow that makes me mad and want to lick you all over at the same time." He quipped, licking a line up her jugular.

"I get it from Grams." She replied breathlessly before ordering him to take them inside.

She was curled up against his side on the sofa an hour later, watching him play on the gaming console that was linked to the Titan's Tower. "Want a turn?" He asked.

Lian shook her head, "Nah, I like watching you kick ass with no risk of actual bodily harm. It's sexy."

"Is everything I do sexy?" Bart asked, grinning at her.

She rolled her eyes at him, "Not everything, but pretty close. Don't get too cocky. Garfield's about to snipe you." Bart jerked his attention back to the television and Lian stood to move over to the kitchen, beyond ready for a snack that wasn't from Bart's speedster supply, "You want something?"

"Sandwich? Let me beat Gar, and I'll come help." He told her, focused on the screen.

"Okay." She said doubtfully, knowing that he was going to be enraptured in the game for a while longer. As she suspected, he didn't look away from the screen until she sat his sandwich down in front of him.

He grimaced, watching her sit stiffly next to him, "Sorry, babe."

Lian shrugged, "No biggie. I'm still trying to recover from earlier, so helping me in the kitchen wouldn't have gotten you any anyway. You outdid yourself."

He made a noise of self-satisfaction, "Thank you!" They ate in silence for a few minutes, "So does that mean we can't christen the kitchen counter?"

His wife narrowed her eyes at him, but grinned, "Give me like a half hour."

A half hour later Lian was bent over the kitchen counter, Bart having his way with her while her fingers scrabbled to find purchase on the slick tile in front of her. "I love you." Bart said into her ear.

Lian laughed breathlessly, arching back into him, "You better." She looked over her shoulder at him, "I love you too."

When they'd both finished, Bart carried her into the bedroom and they fell asleep in one another's arms. Nightmares didn't wake Lian, but a cold wave of anger did. She reached over to touch Bart on the shoulder, and muttered, still half asleep, "Babe, what's wrong?"

"Hmm?" He hummed sleepily.

"What's got you angry?" She asked, rolling to look at his face.

He opened his eyes, and the only emotion she was getting off his skin was sleepy confusion, "Wasn't angry. I was asleep. What's wrong? Nightmare?"

Lian sat up in bed, feeling a knot in the pit of her stomach as her heart-rate spiked, and shook her head slowly, "We're not alone."


Kat was standing in front of the Daily Planet, trying desperately to suppress the flood of memories all trying to make their way to the forefront of her brain. She had other things that needed to take priority, like saving her daughter. For him to be a genius, Damian should have thought to give her his phone number too, not just Lian's, then she'd have been able to get to the League through him. Instead, she was relying on memories she half-trusted.

She took a deep breath and stalked into the building, standing in front of the receptionist desk and growling, "I need to see Clark Kent."

The idiot behind the desk smiled pleasantly at her. "Is Mr. Kent expecting you?"

"No." She grit out, trying to decide if she had a chance of getting away with just rushing the stairs. That was unlikely. She'd already drawn attention from security, the two large men were watching her every move. Clark would be upset if she murdered or maimed his employees.

The pleasant smile continued to glare up at her, "Well I'm afraid you'll have to make an appointment, Mr. Kent keeps a very well managed schedule."

Kat leaned over the desk, using her physical position to intimidate the young female, "He'll make time. Call him. Tell him Kat Harper's here. I need to see him, now."

The smile faltered, "I'm going to have to ask you to step back, and..."

"Harper?" A female voice said in shock, cutting the receptionist off.

"Mrs Kent!" The young female chirped, anxiety on her face.

Kat spun around, locked eyes with the woman, and hissed, "I need to see Clark, now."

Lois Kent stared a few seconds, "You're alive."

"Now, Lois. I'm running out of time!" Kat yelled.

That snapped Lois out of her stupor, "Okay, follow me. Sure he's heard you though."

Clark was there when they stepped off the elevator. "Kat, are you okay? I was going to come see you, but Red..."

"I don't care." She snapped, cutting him off, "I need to get to the League, now."

"What? Why?" He asked in confusion.

Kat could hardly control the mix of panic and rage building in her body, "Because Vandal Savage just sent a team after my daughter, and she's not answering her cellphone."


Bart bolted out of bed, vanished, and was back in a split second, "Get dressed. They just landed on the dock. We still have time to get out."

Lian dressed as quickly as she could, but Bart rushed her along after he dressed himself, and grabbed her hand. She ended up clinging to his back while he ran around the property, trying and failing to find a way off the island that had seemed like such a good idea at the time. At one point, they had to fight their way out of a tight spot, and one of the black clad men had aimed past Lian to shoot Bart in the thigh. He screamed and stumbled against a tree. Lian dispatched the man who had shot him quickly, and somehow managed to get them both back to the house, hiding in a hall closet just barely big enough for her to move around in.

Lian fumbled at the wound on Bart's leg, focusing on making sure he was okay rather than the fact that they were cornered sitting ducks. She'd taken a gun from one of the men, but it only had three rounds left, hardly enough to defend them from the no less than half dozen remaining men crawling over the tiny island. "Through and through. Seems like it missed your femoral. You'll live." The bone was shattered though, she could feel it.

"Doesn't matter, Li. They're after us. We need to move." Bart said breathlessly, feeling his body fight to pull muscle and bone back together.

"They're not after you, baby." Lian whispered, holding her hand over the wound on his leg as she looked around for something to bind it with. "They shot you, not me, even though I was the clearer shot. You saw the tranq guns, right? They want me, alive, for some reason."

He grabbed her when she tied her jacket around his thigh and started to stand, "Li, no."

Lian kissed him, "Yes. They're going to kill you if you try to get in the way, I can feel it. Stay here where you're safe. I slowed the bleeding, you'll be fine."

He struggled to get up, muttering about how he could probably still run. Lian pushed him back down, "No. Your bone is going to take at least a half hour to heal enough for that. I'm not going to let you get yourself killed." He kept hissing at her even as she pulled him into the closet, arranging him on a pile of clothes so his leg was as high as possible. Lian stroked his face, knowing he wasn't going to just stay where she put him, "I'm so sorry. I love you." Then she leaned down and kissed him, focusing on how it had felt when she'd attacked her mother. Bart gasped softly before his eyes rolled back in his head and his body went slack. She took a couple of seconds to make sure he was still breathing before she closed the closet. Something about leaving him there gave her a sense of deja vu, but it felt wrong, like something she shouldn't have felt at all.

She'd done a good job of keeping his blood off the ground, but she squeezed blood from her shirt onto her fingers to flick in a trail as she went along, just in case. Lian stumbled upon her attackers easily enough, and managed to take a couple of them down with her, but one lucky shot with a tranquilizer dart was all it took. Her last thoughts were focused on Bart, on how much she loved him and how she would never ever forgive herself if they went looking for him and killed him anyway.


Clark was pale when he came back into the room they'd left her in, "God, Kat. She's gone. We were too late." He swallowed hard, "They shot Bart, but it looks like she managed to tuck him away in a closet before they took her."

"So she's alive." Kat said tightly, her mind running through scenarios.

He nodded slightly, "We think so. All the blood was Bart's. He'll be okay though."

"I don't care about him." She answered honestly, "All I care about is my daughter. Send me back to Earth."

"Kat, we're getting a team together to..."

"Send me back to Earth." She repeated, cutting him off and getting damn tired of people not listening to her. "You can waste time and get your little 'team' together, but it's time for me to go to work. I should never have come here in the first place."

To their credit, it only took ten minutes for them to be dispersed around the Light's office building where the martians had both agreed Lian was being held. They'd fought her, but in the end, Kat had won. She had to go in alone. Red caught her hand before she went within range of the building's security system, "Be careful, we're right behind you."

Kat narrowed her eyes at him, "This is not a situation that calls for careful. Careful won't get her out of there in one piece. Smart will." She flicked one of her weapons out of it's sheath on her thigh, "Stay out of my way."

She kept the blade hidden as she went into the building, feeling the difference from her earlier arrival acutely. This time it wasn't just about her own life relying on her acting skills, it was Lian's too. That crazy little rambling girl suddenly meant so much to her, and it was hard to swallow. What was harder to swallow, however, was letting Mina take over enough to disable the security guards without anything looking amiss. Typing on the computer for a handful of seconds, she started a protocol to shut down the League specified defense system one quadrant at a time. She could get in faster than they could though, and swiftly began her hunt for Savage and her daughter.


"And another one bites the dust
Oh why can I not conquer love?
And I might have thought that we were one
Wanted to fight this war without weapons

And I wanted it, I wanted it bad
But there were so many red flags
Now another one bites the dust
Yeah, let's be clear, I'll trust no one

You did not break me
I'm still fighting for peace

Well, I've got thick skin and an elastic heart,
But your blade - it might be too sharp
I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard,
Yeah, I may snap and I move fast
But you won't see me fall apart
'Cause I've got an elastic heart."

Elastic Heart
By: Sia