Humanity

Disclaimer- I don't own Young Justice or its characters only own Oc's and plot changes.

Italics- telepathic communication

Ok everyone so before I start I want to explain something real quick. I totally forgot that Wally broke his arm in Revelations and didn't mention it when I did my football game chapters so for the sake of the story just pretend like Wally was hurt when he went to the game. Sorry for the confusion!

Dawn's POV

It's training day so everyone was sparring in the large training circle in the main hanger. Black Canary split us up into groups and assigned us partners.

The groups were Megan vs. Aqualad, Artemis vs. Robin, and me vs. Conner.

In the few weeks I've known him Conner's fighting skills has improved immensely and he's actually a challenge to defeat now in a one on one fight.

I flipped out of the path of Conner's fist as he aimed for my head and ducked the kick aimed for my side. I ran towards Conner and slid between his legs before popping up behind him and knocking his feet out from underneath him.

I pounced and straddled his waist pinning him to the ground to keep him from moving, but he thought quickly and shifted my momentum so he managed to flip us over. Now the roles were flipped and he was pinning me to the ground instead of the other way around.

I brought up my legs from underneath him and brought my feet to his chest before pushing with all my strength. He flew away from my and I rolled back on my feet ready for another attack. Conner skidded to a stop before rushing me again. We exchanged a few more punches and kicks before Dinah walked up to stop the training session.

"Good work everyone," she bellowed as we all stopped sparring. I stepped out of my fighting stance and gave Conner a high-five.

"In fact, its been a very productive week" Canary confessed before everyone turned to Wally who was sitting in a comfy lounge chair loudly slurping on the glass of pineapple juice Marvel had just brought him.

"Yeah for everyone except kid malingerer" Artemis jeered with a hand on her hip.

Wally looked up upon hearing her comment "hey! Arm broken in combat against the Injustice League here!" he defended while waving his casted arm like that would prove his point.

Canary chuckled before turning back to the team "I've really enjoyed being your, uh, den mother this week."

My head turned to the zeta-beams when the computer announced Zatara's arrival.

Zatara walked through the zeta-beams and waved his hand in the air causing a small holographic control panel to appear under his hand. He typed in his bypass code allowing an unknown second person access to the Cave.

"Access granted. Zatanna Zatara, A03. Authorization Zatara 11" the computer blared as the zeta-beams lights flashed once again.

When the light disappeared we could all see that a girl around Robin and I's age had teleported in. She was Robin's height and had raven black hair that went a couple of inches past her shoulders. Her eyes were pale blue and she was wearing what seemed to be a school uniform.

Her long black skirt reached down to her knees and her loose white blouse was slightly covered by her black blazer. Small black slippers covered her tall white socks that went up to mid calf.

"Zatanna this is the team. Team, my daughter, Zatanna" Zatara introduced as the girl walked up to the group.

Megan flew up to the girl and offered her a smile "Hi I'm-"

"Robin!" Robin cut in interrupting Megan. He jumped in front of her and waved at Zatanna.

Robin quickly straightened and tried to look more composed than he did a minute ago "ahem I mean I'm Robin. She's M'gann, and that's Wally, Artemis, Kaldur, Conner and Da-"

"Shade" I cut in sharply before Robin could reveal my real name as he introduced and pointed to each person so Zatanna would know who was who.

The team glanced at me oddly, surprised by my sudden harsh tone. Normally I wouldn't mind a potential team member knowing my name if I'd known them long enough, but I didn't know Zatanna and I don't know why but something about the girl just rubbed me the wrong way. The only people who are allowed to know my name are my close friends and family, and sorry to say but Zatanna doesn't fall under any of those categories.

I crossed my arms and shifted my weight onto my right leg as the conversation continued.

"Welcome to the Cave" Aqualad said politely diverting the focus back to welcoming Zatanna.

"Thanks" Zatanna said.

"So uh…are you joining the team?" Robin asked stuttering slightly.

I raised an eyebrow when I heard his stutter. Like I said when he first met Megan, Robin doesn't stutter, or at least he didn't before he joined this team.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is strictly a visit, but I am sorry we missed the training. It's something from which Zatanna could benefit." Zatara said unknowingly crushing Robin's earlier excitement.

While the two adults continued their conversation Megan opened up a team wide mental chat room.

"Do the rest of you get the impression we're still on probation with Zatara?" Megan asked.

"Not just Zatara" Conner said before pointing to Marvel "I mean, why is Marvel still hanging around?"

"Because we like having him around," Wally insisted.

"You like having him around 'cause he waits on you hand and foot" Artemis snapped while firmly placing her hands on her hips.

"And your point is" Wally asked obviously not understanding why she didn't agree that was a great thing.

I rolled my eyes "The point KF is that they're smothering us. It's like they don't trust any of us to be in the cave by ourselves anymore."

"It almost makes one nostalgic for Red Tornado's tenure as our supervisor" Aqualad added while crossing his arms.

"Yeah" Robin agreed, "at least he trusted us."

"If you ignore the fact we shouldn't have trusted him! He was a traitor!" Conner ranted angrily and lifted his hands in the air for emphasis.

"That machine nearly got all of us killed," he yelled again.

"Are you guys having a psychic conversation? 'Cause I can't decide if that's cool or really rude" Zatanna said causing the team to look at her and the adults to look at the team.

"Well that's how we communicate around here, you got a problem with that?" I asked crossing my arms.

"I just think it would be nice to be included," Zatanna muttered softly.

"Well it was a team only discussion" I grumbled before glaring at her.

For some unknown reason I just felt the need to hit her. I don't know why, but her presence just grated on my nerves even though I only just met her.

"Alright fine we were talking about Tornado" Conner admitted seeing Zatara and Canary's accusing looks. "It's been weeks since his attack and the League hasn't told us anything.

"The League is searching for Tornado as well as the other androids that invaded the cave and their creator T.O Morrow. Batman's made tracking them down our highest priority" Canary answered trying to reassure us, though it didn't work.

"But you've found none of the above" I argued sounding annoyed.

"Not yet, but Tornado is Justice League. The team is not to pursue this" Canary said firmly leaving no room for argument.

Zatara saw the tension building in the room and tried to redirect the conversation "why don't you all take Zatanna on a…uh…tour of the Cave" he said while trailing off as he searched for his daughter who seemed to have disappeared.

Everyone looked around the room for her until we found her leaning against Wolf who was resting behind the chair Wally was previously sitting in.

My glare intensified when I saw where she was. Conner, Megan, and I were the only ones Wolf allowed to rest on him, but now he's letting this random stranger lean against him. Has the entire world gone crazy!

"Ah you're giving a tour? Cool!" Marvel said as he flew in with Wally's plate of nachos.

"Actually, I was hoping you'd take Wolf outside" Conner said to Marvel as Wolf stood and walked over to Marvel when he smelled the nachos.

"He needs the exercise. We'll join you in a few" Conner said as we started heading for the kitchen.

"Sure, sure I can do that. Come on Wolf" Marvel exclaimed while flying out of the room with Wolf following close behind.

Wally just stood there and watched Marvel leave.

"What my nachos" he stuttered before I grabbed the end of his sleeve and forcibly dragged him from the room.

The team walked into the kitchen and as we walked I noticed Zatanna was in a different outfit then what she had on a minute ago. Instead of the school uniform she had on earlier she was now wearing a purple tank top with a pair of white pants.

Robin looked at her and gapped "When did you? How did you?"

"We're not really taking a tour are we?" Zatanna asked, but from her tone I could infer that she really didn't want to take a tour. That's fine; I didn't really want to give her one either.

"No" Conner answered, "We're hunting down that robot" he said before turning to Aqualad like he was waiting for confirmation.

Aqualad nodded "Yes we are."

"Oh wow out loud and everything" Zatanna said sarcastically referring to our earlier mental conversation.

"What about new girl?" Artemis asked while crossing her arms and eyeing Zatanna.

I leaned against the counter and answered bluntly "I vote for leaving her here. Less hassle and risk for us."

Zatanna looked at me like she couldn't believe I wanted to leave her behind.

Robin turned to me "I'm sure she won't tell" he said trying to make me change my mind.

"I can't tell" Zatanna interjected looking at Robin "not if you kidnap me."

"Oh she's going to fit in great," Artemis commented while cocking her hip to the side.

I scoffed and pushed past everyone until I was up front with Conner.

"Well if we're going to leave we might as well get going, but if we get in more trouble because we brought her along don't whine about it to me."

On our way to the bioship I heard Zatanna whisper to Robin "I'm getting the impression Shade doesn't like me very much."

Robin snorted and waved his hand dismissively "Oh I'm sure you're just overreacting. It just takes a while for Dawn to warm up to people that's all."

"No she's right I just don't like her" I thought as we continued down the hall.

We quickly reached the bioship and I sat in the very back next to Wally since the seating arrangements were different to accommodate our extra member.

Once everyone was buckled up Megan ordered the bay doors to open and flew out of the cave. A few minutes later the bioship's radio buzzed and the ship filled with the sound of Canary's voice.

"M'gann the bioship wasn't authorized for departure" Canary said suspiciously.

"We're kidnapping Zatanna…to show her Happy Harbor. Be back soon!" Megan said quickly correcting for her almost slip up.

"Roger that. Have fun" Canary said before cutting off communication.

"Where are we going? Batman is the world's greatest detective, and he searched for Tornado and Morrow in every logical location. If we're going to do better we need an illogical solution" Robin said turning in his chair.

"A truly dumb idea" I continued before looking at Wally.

Everyone turned to face our resident speedster and instead of taking offense to the comment he actually smiled.

"As a matter of fact…" he grinned before telling us his plan.

Megan flew the bioship to the Belle Reve penitentiary so we could talk to Warden Strange and ask him if we could speak to Ivo for a few minutes. Since Strange owed Megan and Conner for stopping the prison break last month he gave us 5 minutes with the man.

We walked into Ivo's cell and Megan started the interrogation.

"Warden Strange owed us a favor for stopping last month's prison break. He's given us 5 minutes with you."

"Spill Ivo. How do we find T.O Morrow and his Reds?" Conner ordered.

"Now why in the world would I know how to find Morrow?" Ivo asked as he casually leaned back in his chair.

"Because, and here's a truly dumb idea, you're Morrow's biggest competitor in the evil android game. Who better to keep track of what he's up to and where? Wally explained while stepping up to the table Ivo was chained to.

"Ah I see your point" Ivo nodded before leaning forward "so let me rephrase, why in the world would I tell you how to find Morrow?"

"You'll tell us so I don't beat you to a pulp" I snarled from my position of leaning against the wall to Ivo's left.

Aqualad stepped forward and looked into Ivo's eyes.

"He knows, do what you must," he ordered Megan before her eyes started glowing green.

Ivo laughed "Oh please, as if I've never faced a telepath before."

Megan's eyes stopped glowing as she realized that she couldn't figure out Morrow's location by reading his mind.

Zatanna suddenly stepped forward and slammed her hand on the table while reciting one of her spells. Ivo immediately straightened and acted possessed as he rapidly spilled information against his will.

"Morrow's in a secret underground base beneath Yellowstone National Park, 100 meters south of old faithful" Ivo blurted before slapping a hand over his mouth.

Everyone looked back and forth between Ivo and Zatanna like they couldn't believe what just happened.

Zatanna straightened and smirked victoriously.

"Wait, what just happened?" Ivo asked as Zatanna stepped away from him.

I pushed myself off the wall and walked out of the room with the rest of the team while Ivo yelled various threats at us.

We ran to the bioship and set off for Yellowstone National Park. By now it was dark and the adults would be wondering where we were.

"Block out all external communication" Kaldur ordered Megan "soon Canary and Zatara, Batman too I imagine, will know of our…visit with Professor Ivo. We haven't much time."

"Look" Robin chuckled nervously "I'm trying to be all nonchalant here?"

Zatanna raised an eyebrow "Why, be as chalant as you like."

I groaned internally as Robin smiled at her. Now she's doing the whole word-playing thing too, does it never end!

Wally looked back at me suspiciously, but remained quiet.

"I think we're all just trying to get a handle on your powers. Could you teleport us to Tornado, or Morrow to a cell, or force his bots to surrender" Artemis said listening scenario after scenario.

"Or create peace on earth for all time?" Zatanna interjected before sighing, "Zatara couldn't even do all that, and I'm nowhere near on my dad's level. I need to know a spell cold, or else have time to prep it. Plus, all magic requires energy, which usually has to come from within. I just can't make the impossible happen at will."

"What's our E.T.A to Yellowstone?" Conner cut in "I'm way past ready to stuff Tornado into a trash compactor."

"Are you so certain he betrayed us?" Aqualad asked while looking at Conner in his peripheral.

"Aren't you!" Conner yelled whirling around in his seat to face our leader.

Aqualad looked ahead "I am not convinced, and even so that makes him but the victim of his creators programming."

Aqualad turned so he was looking into Conner's eyes "Certainly, he deserves a chance to prove he's more than the weapon others designed him to be."

Aqualad's comment struck home and Conner turned around still fuming, but didn't argue further.

I looked back and forth between Conner and Aqualad thinking about their conversation.

I still had my doubts that Tornado betrayed us completely of his own free will. I've known Tornado for years and he's never struck me as the type to betray his friends willingly. I would've made my suspicions public, but I knew that wouldn't go over well with the team so I kept my thoughts to myself, at least for now.

"Arriving at Yellowstone" Megan announced as she landed the bioship in the middle of the park.

Aqualad stood from his seat and pushed the symbol on his belt changing his suit into stealth mode.

"Stealth mode" Aqualad ordered as the rest of us stood from our seats.

Wally and Artemis pushed their chest symbols changing their suits while Megan commanded her clothes to change into her black bodysuit. After changing Megan opened the back of the bioship so everyone could walk out.

While everyone was changing their uniforms Zatanna walked through the ship and stood next to the opening.

Aqualad started walking towards her and I followed quickly catching up so we were walking side by side.

"I recommend you stay behind" Aqualad said as we reached her.

Zatanna raised an eyebrow "is that an order?" she challenged.

Kaldur shook his head "no, you must do as you see fit."

Zatanna smirked and said good before lifting her hands and muttering a spell.

Blue mist wrapped around her body as she said the spell and once the mist disappeared I could see that her outfit had changed once again.

My god this girl is really into wardrobe changes!

Now instead of her purple tank top and white pants she was in her superhero uniform, which was basically a girl version of Zatara's uniform.

She now had on a white blouse with a yellow vest and black blazer over it. A pair of grey tights and short black shorts covered her legs while white gloves enveloped her hands. The gloves went up to her wrists and her feet were hidden beneath a pair of black boots with a slight heel to them.

She grinned as she placed her hands on her hips.

"You really like changing your clothes don't you," I drawled looking her up and down.

Her eyes flickered to me as she answered, "Only when necessary."

I rolled my eyes as I brushed past her and stalked out of the bioship.

"Whatever, just try not to get in our way" I advised as I walked further into the park.

I felt a rush of wind as Wally ran up beside me. He stared at me for a second before saying "someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

I turned my head and shrugged "I have no idea what you're talking about."

He scoffed "Yeah sure you don't, and I suppose you didn't just snap at Zatanna because your jealous that a certain someone's attention is being diverted away from you."

I was just about to respond when the rest of the team ran up and interrupted our conversation.

"Lets get moving" Aqualad ordered as we started running/flying towards Morrow's lair.

We hadn't been running for long when Robin crouched behind a bush and pulled out his wrist computer pulling up a holographic map of the park.

"Ivo was right. Something's down there" Robin said as he deactivated his holographic computer and the team continued to run.

We'd barely taken ten steps forward when a large gust of wind hit us in the face. Everyone threw up their hands to protect their face from the sand and gravel being tossed up by the wind. We dug our feet into the ground to try and prevent ourselves from flying away. I lifted my hands and tried to ease the wind, but the harder I fought against it the harder it pushed against me. It was like I was playing a huge game of tug of war with an unknown opponent.

Everyone screamed as the intensity of the wind threw us back and we flipped through the air. Once I landed on the ground and used my powers to root myself to the earth I looked up and saw Tornado hovering above us.

Suddenly a group of tornadoes started swirling around us and lifted tons of sand and dirt into our faces. We all looked down at the ground before looking into each other's eyes.

"Why Tornado? Why are you doing this?" Megan screamed struggling to be heard above the wind.

"Message received" she asked everyone through the link and we all nodded.

"Who cares why? Nail him" Conner yelled as he ran forward.

Aqualad and I stood from our crouching positions and ran after Superboy.

"Superboy maneuver 7!" Aqualad yelled as we ran.

Conner stopped running and spun around while cupping his hands together waiting for Aqualad to place his foot in his interlaced hands. Once Aqualad's foot was in his hands Conner lifted his hands and threw Aqualad into the air. I hurled a gust of wind at Aqualad's body giving him extra momentum and speed as he hurled towards Tornado.

Aqualad got close to Tornado and was about to attack him when Tornado punched him in the face causing Aqualad to fall towards the ground.

"Move!" I yelled as I ran out-of-the-way, but unfortunately Conner didn't respond in time.

Aqualad crashed into Superboy causing them both to pummel into the ground and skid across the dirt.

Artemis pulled out her bow and strung two exploding arrows. She aimed and fired her arrows watching as they flew towards Tornado.

Now you see that would've been a great idea if we weren't fighting a guy who controls the freaking WIND!

Tornado just flicked his wrist and sent the arrows back at Artemis.

"Look out!" Robin yelled before tackling Artemis out of the way so neither of them would be caught in the explosion when the arrows hit the ground.

"That does it Red. You're not the only spin doctor around here," Wally yelled before spinning around in a circle creating a tornado of his own while Megan flew towards Red Tornado in camouflage mode.

Tornado must have sensed her presence because he lifted his hand with the speed of a cheetah and grabbed Megan by the throat before throwing her into Wally causing his tornado to dissipate. Both of them hit the ground hard and didn't get up.

I growled and flew towards Tornado. He threw three tornados at me, but I either destroyed them or flew around them. Once I'd dodged all his attacks I was finally close enough to go on the offensive and decided to hit him with a rock that I managed to levitate to my side.

He tumbled towards the ground before righting himself a few feet above the earth. Once regaining his balance he quickly flew back up and chased after me. I took off as fast as I could and tried to hit him with boulders to slow him down, but he just dodged them.

Eventually he caught up to me and I yelped as he grabbed my ankle and pulled me back. I tried to kick him, but it didn't do me any good since he's made of metal and only succeeded in causing waves of pain to shoot through my foot. He punched me in the gut and tossed me to the ground with the force of a tornado backing it up causing me to collide with the ground with a loud grunt.

I stayed on the ground while Tornado quickly took care of Zatanna and threw her to the ground. The team stayed down pretending to be defeated until we heard an unfamiliar deep voice.

"Quite a performance brother, but we both know that's all it was" a new android said as he raised himself up to Tornado's level by causing a large pillar of rock to raise him into the air.

"I have all your memories Tornado, plus a next-gen processor. I know your next move before you do" the android said before lifting the large piece of rock that Tornado had written the message 'play dead' on.

"Blowing a message into the sand" the android scoffed as he broke the message into pieces and threw them at the team.

"Alright guys play time's over" I yelled as I jumped up from the ground and flew into the air to deflect the rocks.

Aqualad transformed his water bearers into swords and jumped up while Megan flew next to him.

We broke most of the rocks into smaller chunks making it easier for the team to dodge their path, but of course Zatanna found a way to almost get hit by one. I saw the large rock hurling towards her and took action without thinking about it.

I flew towards her and tackled her out-of-the-way just before the rock could hit her.

"Zatanna!" Robin yelled telepathically as he ran towards us.

"Oh yeah yell for her, I'm totally fine Rob thanks for asking. What am I chopped liver!" I harshly muttered under my breath as I stood from the ground and brushed the dirt off my uniform.

"I'm good" Zatanna responded in his head as she stood "but Red Tornado's getting away."

"Is he abandoning us?" Artemis gasped incredulously as she watched Tornado fly away.

"I don't believe that" Megan announced as she flew towards the earth controlling android just as he punched Wally away from him.

"You stand no chance against me humans," the android snarled as he punched Wally in the face.

Conner and Megan sprang forward and simultaneously yelled "We're not human."

"Apologies, I suppose the properly inclusive term is meatbags" he slowly clarified as he levitated two large rocks and slammed them into the couple.

Red Volcano lifted his hand and created a large hole in the ground under Artemis and Aqualad's feet. As they fell Red Volcano tried to close the gap and crush them inside the earth, but I lifted my hands and fought to keep the chasm open. We fought for control over the earth and the earth responded by shaking uncontrollably. It took all my strength to keep the opening open so Artemis and Aqualad would have enough time to escape.

I relinquished control when I saw Artemis swing out of the chasm using one of her grappling arrows with Aqualad secured in her arms. Immediately after I stopped fighting Volcano for control the chasm closed with a deafening thud.

I took a second to catch my breath after that struggle, but that was a second too long. Red Volcano took advantage of my distraction and threw a large rock at me. I didn't have enough time to avoid it so the boulder slammed into me before I could deflect it.

I painfully skidded across the ground getting multiple scraps and bruises from the initial impact and skidding against the earth. One I'd stopped skating on the dirt I groaned in pain as I tossed the boulder off of my body and slowly rolled over.

My head was dizzy and my body felt like it wanted to collapse, but I wouldn't let it. I forced myself to stand, but felt something wet and sticky dripping down my face. I lifted my hand to my forehead and touched the sticky substance before looking at my fingers to see they were stained red.

"Great, that's just great" I mumbled as I realized I'd hit my head hard enough to where it was bleeding

It wasn't anything fatal, but it sure hurt like hell. It wouldn't need stitches, but I'd have one killer headache in the morning and it needed to be disinfected ASAP, especially with all this dirt and sediment whirling around. The last thing I wanted was to get an infection, Batman would never let me hear the end of it.

I spun around as I felt another gust of wind behind me and was surprised to see Wally standing next to me. Unfortunately for me I still hadn't fully recovered from my hit and the spinning just made me dizzier, which caused me to stumble until Wally grabbed me with his good arm.

"Whoa Shade, you ok?" he asked as I regained my balance and placed a hand on my forehead to steady myself.

"Yeah I'm fine KF. Just a little disoriented, and my head hurts like I've been hit by a speeding train, though that boulder wasn't that far off" I mumbled as I rubbed my temples to ease the pain.

Wally noticed and looked up seeing the blood trickling down my cheek.

"Shade you're bleeding!" he screamed as he lifted his hand to my head and assessed the damage.

I swatted his hand away and took a step back "I'm fine KF, really, but right now we have more important things to deal with than me getting a bump on the head."

"That's not a small bump Shade, but have it your way. However, after this is over you're going straight to med bay" Wally stated firmly as we turned back to the fight.

We ran back to the team as Volcano said, "Tornado's memory files and my superior processing speed allow me to anticipate your every move."

After he finished speaking I heard Zatanna muttering a spell and suddenly a black cloth wrapped around Volcano's eyes blocking his vision.

Zatanna smirked in triumph "Tornado never knew my moves!"

Robin ran up and smiled "And I bet you've got some good ones."

His eyes widened when he realized what he'd said and he held his hands up "Whoa, sorry that may have come off a little too Wally."

Zatanna chuckled "I don't mind."

I growled as I created two large water whips and flew towards Volcano at incredible speed causing Robin and Zatanna to step back as the wind pushed them back as I flew in-between them

I lifted my whips and wrapped them around Volcano's waist before lifting him into the air. I lifted my hands and the whips followed arching up as I commanded them to before slamming down as I pummeled Volcano into the ground causing a large cloud of dust to explode into the air.

I quickly unwrapped one whip from Volcano's waist and broke off a large chunk of the earth's surface with my hand. I wrapped my free whip around the rock and brought it forward as I yelled and slammed it repeatedly into the hole I'd put Volcano in.

I yelled every time I slammed the boulder into the hole releasing all the anger I'd built up over the course of the day.

After about 7 slams I placed the boulder on the ground and ordered my whips to return to my sides making them smaller so they were only as long as my body.

I huffed in small pants as I regained my breath and waited for the dust to settle to make sure Volcano was destroyed. I wasn't going to make the same mistake I did back at the cave when I didn't make sure the Reds were destroyed. That mistake cost me and I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.

The team plus Zatanna stared at me wide-eyed not knowing what to say about my angry outburst. The team's seen me angry before, but they've never seen me blow up on someone like I did with Volcano. However, he's an android and I had a lot of pent-up anger so he could handle anything I dished out and trust me I had a lot to relieve of my system.

"Does she do that often?" Zatanna whispered to Robin as they watched me clench and unclench my fists. Steam started swirling around my hands as fire periodically flickered around my fists before dying out. I wasn't trying to set my hands on fire, but anger tends to involuntarily bring my firepower's to the surface.

My powers are affected by my emotions and anger is used to power up fire, so when I'm extremely angry my fire tends to come out without prompting. Bruce has taught me how to control it, but its in these rare moments when my anger totally blinds me that my training goes out the window and my body takes over.

Robin shook his head and whispered "no, not very often. She only does that when she's…well…completely and utterly pissed off," he admitted.

I finally got tired of waiting for the dust to clear and brought both hands out in front of me so they were parallel to my chest. I split them apart and the dust cleared as a large funnel of wind blew the dust cloud away.

Once the dust settled and we could see Red Volcano I noticed that he had a dent or two, but otherwise seemed fine. He stood and used something that looked like heat vision to burn the blindfold off his eyes.

My eyes widened and I yelped in shock barely ducking in time to dodge the beams before they burned right through my chest.

Red Volcano yelled in anger and the volcano behind him erupted in a massive explosion.

Large amounts of lava started running down the mountain's side as thick black ash smothered the air.

Red Volcano lifted about ten small, lava covered rocks into the air and threw them at Wally and me. I deflected the rocks thrown at me and sent them back at Volcano, but he just flicked his wrist and sent them flying back into the lava.

Wally jumped onto another near by rock and dodged the hot rocks since the earth had split into sections after the lava hit it.

"He's activating a stage 2 eruption," Wally said in our heads "it gets to stage 3, kiss the hemisphere good-bye."

"Then lets stop that from happening" I said as I turned back to Red Volcano.

"Hit him from all sides" Aqualad ordered as he and Conner jumped up and attacked Volcano, but Volcano just sent them flying by throwing rocks at them.

While in camouflage mode Megan used her telekinesis to bring Volcano down, but he sensed her presence and made a crack in the ground next to her. Lava sprouted from the crack causing her to scream and hit the ground.

"M'gann!" Conner screamed as he ran towards her, but Volcano came down in-between them before Conner could reach her and smacked him away.

Volcano walked over to Megan and lifted her off the ground by picking up the end of her cape.

I was about to fly over when I head Zatanna muttering a spell. Suddenly a whole group of Wally clones appeared and ran towards Volcano.

"I use a scaled down version when I want to sneak out of the house" Zatanna said sounding proud of herself.

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't help but see the genius in her plan. I might not like the girl, but it seems she can be useful every once in a while.

Volcano couldn't tell which Wally was the real Wally so he started throwing rocks at all of them hoping to hit the right one. When a rock hit one of the clones they disappeared into a pillar of smoke.

However while the clones distracted Volcano the real Wally was able to run over and grab Megan from his clutches.

He held her protectively close to himself as he skidded to a stop in front of the team. Conner ran over once Wally stopped skidding to see how Megan was doing.

I stood beside Aqualad when suddenly a large wave of water hit Volcano directly in the chest sending him flying into the lava.

"Nice hit!" Robin said to Aqualad thinking he was the one who hit Volcano.

"The hit was not mine" Aqualad said before Robin turned to me.

"Shade?" he asked and I shook my head telling him I didn't do it.

"Look" Aqualad yelled and everyone turned to the direction Aqualad was facing. We all gasped when we saw Red Torpedo standing on a rock with a wave of water behind him. He used the water to lift himself off the ground and support him in the air before sending two waves of water at Volcano as he popped out of the lava causing him to fly into another lava pit.

Red Inferno flew over and hurled fireball after fireball at her brother before flying down and getting into a wrestling match with him.

Metal clanged as they wrestled against each other.

"Sister! Brothers! Stop!" Volcano pleaded as Inferno pushed him harder.

Torpedo and Inferno dragged Volcano under the lava keeping him restrained under the molten liquid even though all of them started to melt. Tornado flew down and slammed his feet into Volcano's chest keeping him under.

Volcano and his two other siblings melted away while Tornado sunk lower and lower into the lava. Just before Tornado could be submerged I flew over and grabbed him under the arms pulling him out of the lava. His legs were melted off, but he was still functional.

I flew him over to the team and gently placed him on the ground. I was just about to ask if he was ok when the volcano started to rumble uncontrollably. I pressed my palm into the dirt trying to calm it down, but ended up screaming in pain before falling to the ground.

"Shade!" Robin yelled as he ran to my side.

I clutched my stomach and rolled on the ground recovering from the massive shock the earth sent through my body. My core felt like I'd been forced to drink a gallon of lava and it was all just sloshing around in my stomach waiting for me to deteriorate from the inside out.

"Shade what's wrong" Robin asked frantically as he slid to his knees and hovered over me.

His eyes were filled with worry and panic since he didn't know what was wrong and couldn't help me. If it was an injury or something medical he could help, but this was power related so it was internal. Whenever I had a problem with my powers that ended up hurting me physically Robin always said he felt helpless because there was no way he could possibly help relieve my pain.

"Too much…power…can't…stop it" I panted threw short painful breaths. My core was still the center of my pain, but now the burn had spread to my entire body. Now instead of just my core burning I felt like I'd just taken a fire bath if I didn't have my powers and fire actually hurt me.

"The earth, it has too much power to contain. It needs to release it or the pressure will stay submerged under the earth and explode beneath our feet. The Volcano's going to blow cause it has to or the energy will seep deep into the earth's core, and lets just say that would be bad…very bad" I said as Robin helped me to stand.

"Tornado listen! We're on the verge of a stage 3-supervolcano eruption. There's no turning back from that. We need to vent pressure, fast, but the ash cloud will bring on worldwide nuclear winter unless you and Shade divert it" Wally explained.

Tornado and I both nodded in understanding and I slowly started walking over to Tornado when Robin grabbed my arm.

"Wait no! Shade can't go, did you not just see her collapse a minute ago? I mean look at her KF, she's exhausted and could collapse again at any moment. If she does this she won't have any energy left, that's practically suicide! Why can't Tornado do it on his own" Robin argued still keeping a firm grip on my arm.

Wally looked conflicted, but he, like everyone else, knew what had to be done "Rob she has to, There's too much for Tornado to do by himself and she's the only on the team with the capabilities to do so. I don't like the idea just as much as you don't, but she has to go unless you want to condemn the earth to a human less existence."

"You're sending her to her death! You're giving her as a sacrifice" Robin yelled as he lunged for KF.

I swiftly brought up my arm and came to Wally's rescue. I wrapped my arm around Robin's waist as he struggled to get to Wally, but I kept him restrained.

"Robin stop!" I yelled and he stopped struggling. His anger was still there, but he wasn't lunging towards his best friend anymore.

"You know it'll take both of us to do this job Rob, there's too much for Tornado to do on his own and unless someone magically develops wind powers in the next few seconds I'm the only one here who can do it. I'll be fine Rob don't worry, but we don't have time to discuss this," I said firmly while turning to Wally before Robin could disagree again.

"What's the game plan KF?" I asked as I walked over to Tornado.

"Triangulate around the pressure locus" Wally ordered as he stared at the gurgling Volcano.

Robin got his act together and steeled his emotions before doing his job. He pulled out his wrist computer and started typing in instructions and code to do what Wally asked him to do.

"Right, there, there, and there" he said as he pulled up a holographic map of the volcano and showed Artemis where the three red dots were.

Artemis looked at the map before stringing three exploding rocket arrows. The arrows flew towards the volcano in a triangle and the rockets attached to the arrows gave them extra momentum so they could reach their targets and explode.

KF nodded at me and I knew it was time to go.

"Lets do this," I said before lifting off the ground to fly towards the sky at incredible speed. Tornado created a Tornado around himself and lifted off the ground flying parallel to me.

As we flew up next to the tower of ash high and fast I whirled the wind around me to keep the ash out of my lungs. The team quickly left our line of vision as we flew so high that we were basically at the tip of the earth's atmosphere.

We stopped high above the Volcano and both of us went into super mode. Tornado started us off by creating a large Tornado that almost covered the entire mountain while I lifted my hands as my eyes started glowing blue. My elemental powers went super mode as I made the tornado bigger so it enveloped the entire mountain. Both of us made the wind pick up forcing it to go faster and faster until it reached down to the ground and up into space with record-breaking speeds.

Once the Tornado hit the ground the black ash from the Volcano was sucked up into the wind and whipped through the funnel until it passed us and escaped out of earth's atmosphere.

It must've only taken a minute or two for all the ash to get sucked up, but the strain my body was undergoing to perform this act made it feel like hours. My entire body ached and my head felt like someone was stabbing a hit poker into my skull multiple times before bashing it with a steel bat.

Once the last bit of ash had left the atmosphere we came out of super mode and allowed the massive tornado to dissipate. I hovered in the air as my eyes returned to normal and my arms fell back to my sides. Involuntarily I slowly started to sink lower and lower as my vision flickered in and out.

Tornado must have seen my exhausted state cause he flew over just as my vision went black and I plummeted towards the earth.

"Shade! Shade can you hear me. Come on Shade you have to wake up!" I heard a familiar set of voices screaming at me as my vision came back into focus. It took me a while to force my eyes to flutter open, but when I built up the strength to keep them open I looked up to see the team, Zatanna, and Tornado looking down at me with concerned, but now relieved faces.

"Oh thank god," Wally yelled as he fell back and sat on the dirt like he'd just been relieved of a great weight.

"Don't scare us like that again Shade" Megan ordered as she smothered me in a hug.

"Ok Megan agreed, but you have to let me breath," I said as she released me.

"What happened?" I asked as I tried to sit up, but Robin wrapped his hand around my shoulder and gently pushed me back down. It just now occurred to me that my head was laying in his lap while the team kneeled, sat, or squatted in a circle around him.

"You need to conserve your energy, we don't want you to strain yourself" Robin whispered before Aqualad spoke up

"You and Tornado were successful in diverting the ash and stopping the eruption, but you used up too much energy in order to do so and as a result you were knocked unconscious. We saw you falling towards the ground before Tornado was able to grab you and bring you back to us safely. However when you got here your breathing was labored and your head injury had worsened. Blood was dripping down your face and we all thought the worst for a while, but thankfully your body just shut down so it could recuperate before allowing you to awaken" Aqualad explained as he moved from his crouching form to sitting on the ground next to my head.

"You nearly gave us all a heart attack!" Robin screamed while looking down at me.

"Oops" I said smiling innocently.

"Oops...oops, that's all you've got to say. You almost died and all you have to say is oops," Conner grumbled while silently digging his hands into the dirt to relieve some of the tension that had built up in his body.

From the way he spoke it sounded like he was angry, but I know he was just concerned and worried.

"Despite that little scare at the end, you did good work today Shade" Aqualad complimented before Tornado started writing something in the sand. Since his voice box was turned off he couldn't speak, but by writing messages in the dirt he told us that he knew where T.O. Morrow's secret underground lair was and showed us the way.

Once we got there Conner and Aqualad lifted him on the table so Robin could turn his voice box back on.

While Robin worked on Tornado I leaned against the wall and watched the procedure from afar. I was left alone to my own thoughts for a while until Zatanna walked up. I turned towards her for a split second before returning my eyes to Tornado's operation.

"Hey Shade" Zatanna said as she walked up and leaned against the wall next to me.

I nodded, but didn't look at her.

"I just wanted to thank you for saving me from that boulder earlier. I never really got the chance to thank you and I didn't want you to think I was ungrateful for your help" Zatanna said sounding genuinely thankful.

I sighed and turned to her.

"I appreciate the thanks, but it's truly not needed. I don't need a thank you to save someone's life, it's what I do," I answered.

She smiled and turned her body fully to face me "I think we got off on the wrong foot. Hi I'm Zatanna, daughter of Zatara, nice to me you" she said reintroducing herself while offering her hand.

I thought about it for a second before returning her smile and shaking her hand "Shade, sidekick to Batman" I answered still not wanting to tell her my real name.

It's not that I didn't like her now or anything it's just that I don't know her well enough to trust her with my real name. I feel like once we get to know each other a little better I'd gladly tell her my name, but as of now, no.

She seemed to understand and smiled anyway before looking back at Robin.

"So…you and Robin huh?"

I lifted an eyebrow "come again?"

Now it was her turn to lift an eyebrow and laugh, "oh come on Shade. I saw the glares, cold shoulder, and snarky remarks you gave me today. I'm not stupid I can see the signs of when you're flirting with someone's man."

"Robin and I aren't together," I answered immediately.

She scoffed "right, but you want to be" she smirked as she poked my arm playfully.

"I have no idea what you're talking about" I denied as we faced each other.

Zatanna lifted her hands in surrender "alright alright whatever you say, just know I got the hint and I'm stepping off. He's all yours," she said slyly before walking off just as Robin spoke up.

"There, that should do it" he said as he fixed the last wire in Tornado's system.

"Yes" Tornado said as his faceplate slide back into place "I can speak again."

"You were willing to sacrifice yourself to save the planet," Aqualad acknowledged as he stepped forward.

"The planet would have survived, it was humanity that was saved. Though not by me, my sister and brother were the true hero's this day" Tornado admitted sounding sad by his siblings sacrifices.

"My point is this, you were never the mole, never a traitor" Aqualad said.

"No, I left to protect you from further attack and to find my creator, Morrow" Tornado explained.

"Cool" Wally squealed as he picked up an expensive looking piece of tech.

"Souvenir!"

Robin walked over and lifted a robotic leg that he found in a discarded box.

"Reddy, we can rebuild you, better than you were before" he said cheerfully.

"I do not believe I should be repaired" Tornado murmured while staring at the wall.

"Tornado don't say that" I said as I walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Conner, who's been standing off to the side with his arms folded, walked over to Tornado's bedside and asked the question that's been on his mind for hours.

"Why'd you volunteer to become our den mother in the first place?"

"I was the pragmatic choice" Tornado responded. "I do not require sleep, I have no secret identity or second life to live."

"But you do have advanced A.I programming designed to learn, adapt, evolve" Wally stated.

"Hello Megan" Megan said lightly tapping her forehead with her hand "you wanted to become more human."

"And you couldn't do that with the League" I added smiling.

"Yeah they're stiffs," Artemis agreed.

"You're sure not going to learn emotion from Batman" Robin said before chuckling to himself "trust me."

"Then the Cave was not a proving ground only for us, but for you as well" Aqualad inferred.

Tornado turned his head to face the team "I do not know if these statements are accurate, but perhaps they are true. And if I understand the term correctly, I believe I have come to…care about you all."

"See" Conner said while crossing his arms "practically a meatbag already."

"Which reminds me" Tornado said before explaining that he was going to take care of the real T.O. Morrow since he was sick. He said it was the human thing to do.

We waved him goodbye as we walked towards the bioship and boarded.

We took off from Yellow Stone Park and headed towards the Cave.

Robin leaned forward in his chair and wrapped his hand around the back of Zatanna's seat.

"So good kidnapping?" he asked while smiling brightly.

"Actually, yeah best ever" Zatanna admitted before turning to me and winking.

I grinned " first of many I hope."

Zatanna turned back around in her seat and stared at the floor "If my dad doesn't ground me for life" she said.

"Don't worry girl, we got your back," I said giving her a knuckle punch.

"Plus you won't be the only one. Once Batman finds out about this Robin and I will be neck-deep in trouble," I swallowed nervously as the Cave came into view.

"Out of the oven and into the fire" I muttered as we landed the bioship and opened the hatch to see a very angry Batman, Zatara, and Black Canary.

Done! Now I love Zatanna so I couldn't have Dawn hate her for the entire story just because she and Robin had a thing so I had to find a way for them to be ok with each other. I didn't want either Dawn or Zatanna to be extremely nasty to one another just because of Robin so now that won't happen. Please R&R!