"Dreams so often become nightmares. Family can so easily become foes. And people are always more stupid than you give them credit for."

Watchtower

September 18, 20:02 EDT

"Momma, where are we-" the little girl was broken off by a rough pull forward.

The skies were grey and the air was humid. Perfect conditions for the rainstorm that was predicted to hit the area in an hour. Later, it would seem ironic how the worst day of her life had such bleak weather.

"Be quiet would you? I can't take another second!"

"But-" The four-year old Olivia was again cut short but by a vicious glare from the woman dragging her by the arm. The woman she had always known as her kind mother. That is, she had been kind, until recently.

Back when snow was falling Olivia had taken ill, as many a child would at that time of year. Her papa had offered to go buy some ingredients for her favorite potato soup with bacon. But he had never come back. For several hours after he left, despite feeling like her very worst, she stayed up looking out her bedroom window. Waiting for the car that would never drive down that street again.

Olivia's mother had fast lost the energy her husband always seemed to give her even though though the past three years had been filled with argument after argument. And without his unending love for their daughter (love she had never seemed to have attained) her face was losing its natural beauty from lack of care and replacing it with haggard features from fatigue and growing bitterness. Her normally thinly plucked eyebrows, something she always seemed weirdly proud of, were starting to grow back in as well, a sure sign that something was wrong.

The hazel eyes that could easily switch from a radiant olive to blazing amber laid bare her anger and budding resentment. All directed at the toddler in her rigid, uncomfortable grasp. As the unfortunate pair marched into a non-discreet warehouse building, Olivia's mother pushed her daughter forward towards three men in long white coats. To the side was a rough, muscle-strewn man.

Increasing fear made it hard for Olivia to swallow. Just who were these strange (and somewhat scary) men? Whatever the case, Olivia dug in her heels. Surely her mother would not stay for long if she showed her obvious reluctance.

And indeed she did not.

Adults exchanged some words, nearly all of which young Olivia had no understanding of and then came the exchanging of something else. Her mother grabbed hold of a black suitcase and the men in white coats grabbed hold of Olivia. They meant to take her away, she was now sure of it! High-pitched screeches of panic and terror filled the near empty room.

"Momma!" Olivia screamed. "Momma, help me! Don't leave me. I'll be the goodest, I swear. Momma!"

Fury blazed in those once happy hazel eyes that were mirrored by the identical ones of her daughters, whose were filled with desperation.

"It's all your fault," she hissed. "It should have been you. You're just like the freaks that killed your father. I knew you were different ever since I gave birth to you. I should have gotten rid of you from the beginning. It's all your fault that he's dead. If it weren't for you. . ."

Tears brimmed her reddening eyes. Grief and rage contorted her face before she turned away. Not another word was spoken. Just silence. Just brutal, heartbreaking silence.

"Momma," Olivia whispered, tears streaking her face.

"I'm not your mother," she said calmly before slamming the door behind her.

"No!" Olivia shouted. With the feeble strength a four year old can muster she lashed out at her captors. Kicking, screaming, slapping, even biting. How could her mother leave? She just didn't understand what she did wrong. She did nothing! Right?

A scientist, an older man, grunted as he attempted to restrain the hysterical child. In another minute, she felt a prick in her neck and soon she felt the vestiges of sleep calling her.

Her thrashing was becoming weaker and one last feeble, "No," left her lips as she finally submitted to the sedative. The last thing she saw was that blasted door. The one her mother walked out of forever to leave her to her fate.

A sharp gasp broke the silence in the cell. Sweat collected on Olivia's face as she finally escaped from her memories and dreams. Well, more like nightmares. It was the same every time. Always the same. Even as little as she was and how long ago it had been, she still remembered it from beginning to end on all counts. Every day it was getting harder for her to want to sleep. Aside from the heartrending memories that suffocated her, she felt she had slept more than long enough at Cadmus.

Sighing, she began pushing the thoughts of the past out of her head and began to take in her present. Her whole body sent the loud message that she was extremely sore and achy as she struggled to sit up. Exhausting her powers like that always took it out of her. She shouldn't have waited so long.

The first thing she noticed was that her stomach was growling. She needed to refuel after her body was done altering itself back to its original state. The walls around her were grey stone, with a white door placed on the far side. A long mirror covered one side down the whole length. Bet it's one of those two-way mirrors I saw in that crime show, Olivia thought blandly.

A table was set in front of her and she noticed finally that she had been sleeping on chairs pushed up against each other. No wonder my body is aching worse than usual. At least they had given her a pillow, albeit a small one.

So she was in a interrogation room doubling as a cell. Pretty obvious, of course. With uncertainty about what was to come next, but resigned that something would happen soon, she waited. And waited. It was near twenty minutes later when somebody finally walked inside. Olivia glanced up gratefully, thanking for the disruption of boredom.

Who else but the Batman? She expected it (maybe even hoping for it, after all it would be her first encounter with the infamous Dark Knight). What she didn't foresee was Superman walking in behind him.

Riiight, she thought. They must still think I have powers like his. Wonder if they think I'm Kryptonian, and if I can use it to my advantage.

There were a few ways she could go around this:

One, continue acting like the headstrong new antihero like she had been. Two, blackmail the heroes to let her go. You would not believe what a little digging could bring out. Or three, place the blame on someone else. The Big Blue Boy Scout, at least, would probably fall for the last option. If she was convincing enough.

Batman strode to the opposite side of the table, placed his hands down not so gently and glared. Olivia was undoubtedly intimidated by his unrelenting gaze, but she could work with that. Now to work out those pesky little tear ducts. . .

"I'm sorry!" she burst out in tears. "I didn't want to do it, I swear! They said they would hurt my family." Despite trying, she couldn't quite keep out the bitterness on the word, 'family'.

Superman's eyes widened in disbelief. He had heard about this new criminal and nothing he had listened to prepared him for the sobbing, scared girl in front of him. As the splendidly stoic and most terrifying Protector of Gotham, Batman's expression stayed the same, emitting neither surprise nor shock pf any degree.

Olivia continued on.

"If they find out I told you they'll. . .they'll kill them. They mustn't find out!"

"It's okay," Superman spoke up. "They won't find out. And if they do, then we'll save your family. Do you know where they might be-"

"Don't bother, Superman. She's lying. Heart rate's been the same since she woke up. I've been monitoring," Batman said coldly, as if to say 'like you should have been'. He gave a brief glance to Olivia's hands, which were wrapped around her elbows.

Catching the movement she inspected her hands and saw a small, circular electrode that nearly matched the shade of her skin. With something akin to an animalistic growl she ripped it off and threw it too the side. So much for option number three.

"Fine," she ground out, wiping the false tears from her face. "I was lying. So what? You won't get me to tell you the truth."

"Who were you going to give that information to?"

"Look, Batman, please don't tell me you actually expect me to answer that. And who said I was going to give it to anyone? Maybe I was stealing it for myself. By the way, do you have any food?"

"Doubtful," he replied.

Superman looked on the girl with a sigh barely contained. Criminals just seemed to get younger and younger these days, it was sad really. They were so full of anger at the world, so ready to blame others for their problems. If they just worked hard and held their head high they could get farther than they ever dared to dream.

"Wait. . .you're doubtful you have any food or. . . " Olivia trailed off with an awkward cough as she saw batman's face. Although it hadn't really changed she felt she was pushing her luck.

"That flashdrive contained potentially dangerous information. You will tell us who wanted to get their hands on it."

Olivia daringly glared back. "One has to wonder why WayneTech has such dangerous info. If I were you I'd have a nice, long chat with Mr. Bruce Wayne about the kind of inventions his company develops. If you're so worried about it."

"He'll get right on that," Superman offered. "As soon as you answer our questions."

"I can't," she sighed. Man, she was hungry. "Or else I risk facing the wrath of my employer, which I don't want to-" Oh crap. Ohhh no. I am a dead girl walking. Olivia cleared her throat nervously. Her employer's threat from earlier rang in her ears. She didn't have the flashdrive and from what the mini-heroes alluded to, she wasn't ever going to get it back. No doubt by now the information had also been deleted from Wayne Enterprises mainframe.

Superman lifted an eyebrow. The girl had a vaguely panicked look on her face now.

"Um," Olivia started. "Okay, I'll tell you if you give me a safe place from him. Keep me with your junior heroes. He doesn't exactly have the best temper and he warned me if I didn't give him the information. . ."

She didn't need to say it. Dead. Girl. Walking.

"Absolutely not," Batman said. "We will not place the Team at risk by leaving you with them. Not only are you hazardous to their health, but you're a risk to confidential and decisive information that they have accessibility to."

"How bad do you want to know who hired me?" Olivia retorted. Hardly did she like the idea of hanging around with heroes, but at least they probably wouldn't try to kill her like her employer would. He would do it for no other reason than to tie up loose ends.

Besides, she wanted to meet Robin again. Not that she would admit that to anybody.

"Not bad enough," the Bat answered.

"Alright then," Olivia said smugly. "You let me stay in their protection and I won't let the world find our your secret identity. Superman's either."

"You're bluffing!" Superman exclaimed. Who did this kid think she was? Coming out of nowhere and then claiming to know the true identity of two well-known heroes like themselves. She couldn't be more than fifteen at the most!

"Listen to my heartbeat and tell me I'm lying this time. . . Clark."

Unbelievable. Superman felt like face-palming. If the world found out- No. If Lois found out. He shuddered to think.

"How is Bruce Wayne doing, Batman?" she continued. "I hope fixing that window won't cost too much for him. Hope he's not too busy, I would hate for him to stay away from his family for too long."

If it was possible, Superman would have bet Batman glared even harder at the girl. The Boy in Blue counted up to 200 before the silence was broken.

"So. When do I meet the sidekicks?"

Mt. Justice

September 19, 9:30 EDT

"Team, report to the mission room."

With eager footsteps, the six teens all made their way to where not only Batman, but Superman as well stood standing.

"What's goin' on?" Wally asked excitedly. "Is it another mission."

Superman scratched the back of his head. "Of. . .a sort. I guess. You need to watch-" an 'ahem' came from behind him and he grimaced. "You have a new, ah, member joining."

"Um. . .cool?" said Robin. "Who is it then?"

"Well," Superman said slowly. "This is. . .er-"

"My name's Olivia. Still haven't figured out an alter-ego or whatever." A laugh broke out when she saw all their faces. Just priceless. If only she had the habit of carrying a camera with her. Perhaps she'd be sure to start it up.

"I'm sorry. I do not understand," Aqualad said after a moment, being the first to recover. "Is she not a criminal? Truly you do not expect us-"

"It's been cleared with the League," Batman interrupted sharply. Robin didn't need the years of training and working with the guy to tell that he was beyond angry. He could tell just by faint undercurrents in his voice and the almost unnoticeable change in posture. Didn't mean that he was going to back down from this, though.

"You can't expect us to actually let her on the team, Batman," Robin declared. "She's a criminal."

"Hey, I only stole once," Olivia bit back.

"That we know of," Artemis murmured. Although, she didn't exactly have much room to talk, not that the team knew why.

"She won't be joining you on any missions until she's proven trustworthy enough and even then only on missions that aren't particularly dangerous," Superman spoke up quickly, he hoped to steer clear of arguments (at least until he left). "Think of it as her being on probation."

Olivia wasn't too thrilled with the outcome of her capture, it was sure better than being left in a cell or being sent back out into the world to get killed while she was sleeping. Maybe while she was here she could find out what the heroes knew about Cadmus. The other villains rarely talked about it, and when they did they knew very little, or pretended to know little.

Her hacking skills weren't the best, in fact, they were nonexistent. Surely though she could pick up a few somethings from the heroes here. It was worth a shot.

"Where will she be staying?" Miss Martian asked. "At the Cave?"

"No," Olivia said, just as Batman answered, "yes." They glared at each other and repeated themselves, again at the same time."

"You will be supervised 24/7," Batman said. "That means no leaving the Cave unless you have an escort and no access to the zeta-beam transporters without a team member's authorization. Do I make myself clear?"

Olivia humphed unhappily, but agreed nonetheless. What a pain in the ass.

"Good, that's settled," Superman said with relief. "Now if you'll excuse us, there's a villain in downtown Metropolis I need to take care of."

Both older heroes left without another word, leaving Olivia with a slightly angry, very confused company of junior hero teens.

"So, where's the kitchen?" Olivia asked brightly.

A/N: Hey, guys! Update! Whoo-hoo. Hope you guys didn't wait too long but unfortunately I'm still not allowed internet access. And only because of bad grades. The parentals give me so much grief. ugh.

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! I'm not sure when the next one will be but I hope it will be soon. Love you all!

Review please :) Let me know if something can be improved. Criticism helps me become a better writer and helps the story become more enjoyable for you guys.

Til next time, Lovelies

~Piggy out