Bethany's POV

I didn't mean to close my eyes. Honest. But I think it was some sort of natural human instinct.

Right when I heard the BANG! For the second time tonight, my eyes instinctively closed their eyes. And for a split second, I actually saw the light through my eyelids. Was that the light at the end of the tunnel?

But the bullet never came.

I peeked one eye open and noticed a bullet hovering right in front of me, inches from my face.

My eyebrows scrunched together, confused. What was the world coming to?

I looked around me and saw M'gann floating a couple feet on my right. She had her arms outstretched towards the bullet and her eyes were fully glowing.

And then a gray blur flashed in front of me so fast that the wind from it pushed my hair back from my face. I looked back up, but the bullet wasn't floating in front of me anymore!

Mercy looked just as confused and looked around her for a second.

"Looking for this?" Kid Flash held up the bullet in between his gloved fingers and leaned against a tree casually. A lopsided grin covered his face as he looked over at my shocked expression, "Hey, Huntress! Thought you'd never see me again, did ya? Well, you can't get rid of me that fast!"

A flash of annoyance pierced through my stomach. But I ignored it and looked back up at Mercy. She wordlessly pointed her gun at Kid Flash and started shooting at him, but Wally was just a blur.

Back at the chopper, Psimon jumped out to come back for me, but he was thrown by an invisible force once he set one foot out of the chopper. M'gann flew over to his sprawled out body.

Cheshire somersaluted out of the chopper, along with Sportsmaster. He had a sinister grin on his face, like he had been waiting for a fight. He headed toward me like a tiger, but then his arm swiftly reached up and caught an arrow that was coming straight for his face. He turned his head to the where it came from and smiled smugly at Artemis, who was perched on a tree far off to my right. She smiled and waved back before a gust of smoke billowed from the arrow he had caught, making him and Cheshire cough and gasp.

A stream of water shot into the chopper and pulled Lex Luthor out. Aqualad curled the water around him and hoisted him into the air, much to Queen Bee and her dozens of soldiers dismay.

Somewhere behind me, Superboy's battle cries could be heard as he most likely was getting shot at by Mercy.

I struggled against Bane, trying to join the fight, but his grip only tightened, causing me to gasp. He hoisted me to stand up and started shoving me towards Rose's dead body.

I let out a frustrated scream and started bucking against Bane to get out of his grip.

"If no one can get rid of you, I will!" He proclaimed in his thick Mexican accent.

He put a huge hand on my mouth and another on the side of my face. He squashed down, making stars appear. I couldn't breathe and it was in a split second that I knew he was going to twist my neck.

I screamed through his hand and tried to peel it away from my mouth. I kicked him in the groin from behind me, but he was like a rock. He wouldn't budge or move.

"Go join your little friend! Goodb - ARG!" He bellowed in my ear. Immediately, his hands dropped from my head and I collapsed onto the ground gasping for breath, finally free.

I turned around to find Bane wrapped up in a cable, knocked out, with blood streaming from his mouth. Robin was standing in front of Bane, his back rigid and breathing heavily. He turned around and rushed towards me.

I started to back up frantically, but I was still on the ground. We didn't have time for this! He can't just-

Robin threw his arms around me and fell onto the gravel beside me. His cheek was pressed against mine and I could smell the slight smell of his cologne: slight spice and a twinge of musk. My heart stopped and I quit thinking.

"Bethany," he breathed into my ear. He clutched me tighter, running his hands down my back, as if trying to feel everything and make sure nothing was broken. I was completely enveloped in his strong arms and I couldn't move. I didn't want to. But he pulled back, hands on my shoulders. I saw splotches of blood on his costume that had been rubbed off of mine. I could almost see those piercing blue eyes searching mine, seeking out answers that I didn't want to reveal.

"Why are you drenched in blood? I don't see any extreme injuries on you," he moved his hands over my arms and on my head, checking for injuries. Suddenly, I was very embarrassed about my stringy hair, my grimy and dirtied face, my ripped costume, and the cuts that decorated my body everywhere. But I wasn't even thinking anymore. My eyes were glazed over and the tears were rolling again.

We were next to Rose's body.

Rose's cold and very dead body. Lifeless.

Robin followed my gaze and he took a sharp intake of breath. His back went rigid and he shifted over to her.

"Oh..." Robin murmured, sorrow laced in his voice, "Oh no... No no no..." He touched her neck with his slender fingers. He was checking for her pulse, but I knew better. She was long gone, and no amount of Martian or magic healing could bring her back.

The tears stopped flowing, my lip stopped trembling, and my hands fell limp. I just didn't feel anymore. I was numb. My senses had heightened, but it felt like my soul had been blackened. My heart had been hardened and I felt like my humanity had been stripped.

I heard the sound of the chopper's door being slid open and then slammed shut. Someone had come back out of the chopper. Only one person hadn't come back out of the chopper to fight.

Blaze.

I started breathing heavily as I stood up and turned around to meet her. Her hair was ablaze atop her head like a pure flame licking her head. In place of her eyes were small flickering flames. It looked like she had wiped off most of the blood from her body, but on her slutty outfit, there were still blood stains. And of course, she was already sashaying my way, like a female leopard, ready to pounce. Her face held a taunting smile, her white teeth gleaming.

"I'm going to finish what I started!" I screamed at her. I reached for the last staff from my belt and extended it all the way. I dashed at her, staff ready to kill, "I'm going to kill you!"

"Bethany!" Robin shouted at me, but it didn't even register in my ears.

I rushed her and she rushed me at the same time. It was like time had finally slowed down enough to the point where all my instincts came back in a rush. And even though time slowed down, it didn't feel like my body slowed, no matter how tired I was. It was like I was invigorated by Robin's touch and seeing Rose's body again. I had a new energy in me.

I saw the slight tremor in her quads and saw her lightly crouch down. I anticipated her jump and slid down underneath her. She flew above me and landed on my other side. Without looking I swung my staff out at her, trying to sweep her off her feet, but she leap up, avoiding it and somersaulting mid air. But before she could land, I was already meeting the heel of my foot with the side of her jaw. She fell out of the air, but still rolled to her feet. Her face looked a little swollen, probably from the fight we'd had earlier, but regardless, she was still smiling at me.

"So it looks like your little friends showed up again," we circled each other as she taunted me, "Did you guys make up or something from your little kiddie fight?"

"Shut up! I don't need anyone! I work alone now!" I snarled. I swung my staff at her and she easily swatted it away. I followed with a turning kick to her head but she blocked it with a fiery hand. I felt the heat from the fire through my boots, but I didn't get burned.

She swung a fistful of fire at my face and I dodged just in time, aiming my staff into her gut. She stumbled back and fell onto her knees while coughing up blood. She looked up at me, probably to taunt me some more, but her eyes widened at the sight of me bringing down the full force of my staff onto the top of her head. She tried to roll out of the way at the last second, but she wasn't fast enough. Instead, my staff hit her hard on her shoulder. She collapsed in a heap from the harsh impact, groaning and struggling to get back up. I tied her with a thick fireproof black chord from my belt and stood back to watch her sluggishly struggle to get out. She was probably still dazed from my hit. I punched her as hard as I could straight in the face and she fell onto her back, unmoving. A slice of sick happiness rang through my body, but I wasn't fully satisfied. She needed to die.

I stood over her still body and took out my backup crossbow gun. I aimed it at her head and pulled back the safety. The sharp click of the gun gave a thrill through my body. This was it, I was going to kill her. My finger trembled over the trigger.

She looked up at me, a slight smile etching itself on her stupid face. Her eyes were still fiery and her hair was still ablaze, but she couldn't attack me. Not with that chord around her. But I still couldn't see who she was. Whatever. I would kill her then take off her mask to see who she was.

"What? Can't kill?" She drawled from the ground. She still struggled to get up, but with the chord tangled around her body, she wasn't going anywhere.

"Oh, try me," I reangled the gun at her face and my finger held firm to the trigger. The next words that came out of my mouth were dripping with so much poison that I didn't even sound like myself, "Maybe you can apologize to Rose when you join her."

My heart sliced at the pain of my words, but my voice was unforgivingly harsh. I was a totally different person.

Her eyes widened as I moved a little closer. My finger didn't tremble over the trigger this time.

But before I could finally pull it, someone wrapped their hands around my hand with the gun. Their body was pressed to my back, enveloping me. The familiar smell of spice and musk filled my nose.

"Bethany," Robin's voice was low in my ear, his breath stirring my hair and tickling my ear, "You don't want to do this."

I didn't even realize that tears had escaped my eyes. Why was I always crying? Oh right, because my best friend was shot in front of my very eyes and then died in my arms.

"Robin," The hardness was still in my voice, "I have to. You don't understand. She... She killed Rose. Right in front of me. Blaze has to pay."

"Killing will not bring Rose back," he whispered in my ear softly.

"But it will prevent more from dying by her hand."

"Even so. You will suffer from the fact that you killed someone. It will haunt you forever and I won't allow you to do this to yourself. Put the gun down." Even though his voice was low in my ear, the commanding tone was still clear.

There was silence between us and the only sounds that could be heard was the battle going around us between the Team and the super villains. But even that seemed far away. Below us, Blaze continued to struggle in her bonds.

"Put. The gun. Down." Robin repeated again. His voice was slightly louder but I didn't move. I couldn't. The image of Rose's pale dead body still floated in my memory. More tears fell.

"Robin... I can't. Rose was must be avenged! Blaze has to die for what she did! She has to! She can't... She can't-" but I couldn't continue. Emotions filled my throat and I couldn't speak anymore.

His hands warmed my hand that was on the gun. He guided my hand down, away from aiming at Blaze's head. He slowly took the gun out of my hands and clipped it back to my belt. He trusted me not to just take it back out and shoot Blaze? He turned me around to face him, our bodies pressed together and our face inches apart.

"Not this way. You can bring satisfaction another way, but not by killing. Justice will prevail over revenge." He let me go and headed back to a bound Blaze, who was attempting to burn through the the chord, but to no avail.

He didn't turn back to me, but instead, crouched down beside Blaze. She snarled at him. He reached into his belt and pulled out a pellet and it exploded in her face. He moved away when the smoke got bigger but returned to her side when it cleared.

Blaze looked like she was asleep and her hair and eyes were not on fire anymore. It was like her powers had receded back into her lifeless body. Anger flashed through me at what Robin did.

"What did you do to her?! I thought you said no killing!"

His head whipped back around to face me, "I didn't kill her, jeez. I just knocked her out."

"Oh."

"But with her healing abilities, it won't last long." He ducked as an arrow flew by his head from the fight going around us. "I know you want satisfaction, but you can't have revenge. We don't kill, no matter how badly we want to. When my parents were murdered, I wanted revenge. But instead, I used justice and found out who the murderer was and put him in jail. Finding out the murderer's identity and sentencing them to a life of torture in a jail cell will bring more closure than killing them. Trust me."

We turned back to Blaze and we crouched down together near her head. Her hair wasn't even red anymore, it was a familiar blonde color, although it was really curly. It was like when her powers turned off, she turned into a different person. My shaky hand reached for her mask and pulled it off.

I gasped and Robin stiffened beside me.

It was...

Kelli?

"What the fuck?!" I exclaimed. I shot back up and looked at her whole body.

The slim figure, the pale complexion, and the slutty clothing choices. Her hair was curly now, but I guess when I thought her hair looked overly straightened at school, that's probably because it was. She probably straightened her hair every morning for school. That's why I didn't recognize her. Well, and the fact that she was always on fire and I could never see her eyes or her hair.

"How did I not see that coming...?" Robin muttered under his breath shaking his head. He scratched behind his head and sighed saying, "Well, now you know."

He looked around at the fights around us. Psimon was having some kind of mental battle with M'gann, something I would never understand. Aqualad seemed to be talking to someone on his comms, a handcuffed Lex Luthor and an armless and unconscious Mercy next to him. Queen Bee was stuck under a stack of unconscious soldiers with her hands cuffed, screaming vile words that even made me cringe. Artemis and Wally stood over Sportsmaster and Cheshire, who were both handcuffed and tied together. Robin turned to see Superboy being thrown far into the forest by Bane. Guess Bane got out of Robin's ties.

As if on cue, Bane turned and looked straight at us before charging at us.

"You ready?" Robin asked, pulling out a birdarang and facing Bane alongside me.

"Yeah," I said warily, still thinking about Kelli.

What else did Kelli know?