Hello again, lovlies. I don't really think this chapter needs a trigger warning, but, without spoiling too much, it mentions a 30 year old guy who hit on Emmy when she was 11, and Akio drugging Emmy (the ring keeps her awake) and trying to get Em to run away with him when she doesn't want to (his ass gets beat and there's no sexual assault/harassment). I thought I'd do a quasi-warning anyway because I don't want anyone to be blindsided and end up feeling bad.

As always, thanks to everyone who comments. You all make my day :)

Enjoy the chapter,

TheDarkAbyss

Location: Mount Justice

Date: Nov 7th

Time: 16:20

"Ow!" Emmy jerked away from her friend's outstretched hands, but the stinging pain pursued her retreat. "Dammit, Megan."

"I'm so sorry!" Megan shrieked with an inordinately contrite expression. "I'm still not used to makeup since I can just morph to look however I want."

"Ugh," Emmy dabbed at her watering eye, "Way to rub it in, Miss Transfiguration. Why can't I just put the makeup on myself?"

Artemis, for her part, was already in uniform, eating baby carrots, reading some medieval torture device magazine, and snorting at Emmy's pain.

"Because it's an earth tradition for girls to get ready together, Emerald," Megan scolded with her hands on her hips.

Emmy rolled her eyes, left one still sore. A mascara wand was a veritable weapon in the Martian's hands. "Can Artemis at least do it then? No offense, Megs, but my black eye just finished fading a couple days ago."

Artemis snorted again, "I wouldn't be much better. I do two swipes of mascara and lip balm at most."

The lantern sighed. Sage was at the Todd's, and she was not calling her younger sister back to the cave for a half-hour makeup application session.

"What if we put our own makeup on and call it good?" That counts as still getting ready together, right?

"Nooo, Emmy," Megan clasped her hands together under her chin like the kids did when they wanted candy for dinner. "I'll be more gentle. I promise."

"Yeah, and I'm not putting on fancy face shit just to sweat it off under my mask, Em," Artemis scowled and bit a baby carrot threateningly. Emmy grinned. Only the archer could make eating tiny vegetables look vicious. "You two are the ones who have to be dolled up tonight, and it's not our fault you're incapable of changing the organic matter on your face to look like eyeshadow."

"Alright, fine," Emmy folded her arms. "Let's just get this over with. We leave at 5, don't we?"

Artemis checked her commlink watch, "Yep. I'll take the rollers out of your hair when Meg finishes."

The briefing yesterday afternoon had been a bit of a disaster. The girls had shown up, late, with a bound and sensory deprived Akio, to alert the Dark Knight that they had a whole new issue to address. The initial plan was hacked apart by the knowledge of the kidnapped children below the mansion.

Instead of sending the entire team into the gala for a fast, coordinated extraction of evidence, they had to be split into separate missions. Emmy, Wally, Megan, and Akio were Team A: they would enter the gala as guests, get access to Sparks' backroom, and alert Team B the moment they had the evidence they needed. Artemis, Kaldur, and Connor were Team B: they would swim through the aqueducts beneath the mansion and sneak into the underground lab. They had to find out where and exactly how many children needed saving without alerting anyone to their presence until Team A had completed their objective. Once Team A was done, Team B would extract the children. Robin was going to be the intermediary; he would break into the security room on the fourth floor of the building and update the two sub-teams on where to go and how to avoid discovery.

The floorplan of the mansion had been destroyed as soon as it was built, so they were unaware of exactly what setup they would be walking into. The estate was infamous for being a hideout for any criminal who was rich enough to rent it, which left the team with less information than they would prefer.

The team, plus Akio, was going to fly to Mexico at 5, and since Emmy had a history with Sparks' people, she was the one who had to be dolled up until she looked good enough to execute her least favorite part of the plan. She had to seduce Salvatore Williams, Bobby's cousin whom, according to Akio's intel, had the only key to Bobby's file room other than Bobby himself. Akio would act like he was doing his normal security job and prevent Emmy from being recognized by those who knew her. It would be unlikely since the theme was masquerade this year, but it would be best if he led the interference since Megan and Wally would not know who to keep away from her on their own. Akio had sent the alert to Bobby that the trucks made it to Texas, and The League had arranged for empty truck beds to be transported as though they were full of children. By the time Sparks realized he was short on the number of kids he needed, they would already have him in handcuffs.

Emmy let out the smallest sigh in recorded History as Artemis removed the rollers and adjusted each curl into its most elegant position. It had been ages since someone played with her hair, and for all of Artemis' callouses and rough edges, the archer could be remarkably gentle when she wanted to be.

Megan bit her tongue in concentration as she used the cosmetic brush to swipe a final pass of cranberry red lipstick on Emmy's cupid's bow. She stepped back, crossing her green arms, brush dangling from her left hand, and tilted her head like an artist criticizing their magnum opus before declaring it complete.

The green girl's brow relaxed, and she beamed, "You look perfect."

The lantern's hair was in voluminous curls, and, despite the pain and time commitment, Megan had given her a shimmery, golden smokey eye, bronzed and gilded cheekbones, and dark berry red lips. Emmy had never seen herself in this much makeup before, and although the fake eyelashes felt foreign and heavy and the lipstick was thick and distracting, even she had to admit that she felt gorgeous. The gold by her eyes made them a brighter blue than her father's had ever been, and her mouth opened a centimeter when she realized that the self-hatred she typically felt when she saw them was markedly absent.

Artemis scrunched the last curl and grinned lasciviously, "Yeah, mafia guy will jizz his pants when he sees you. Akio too, probably."

Emmy groaned in disgust and swatted at the archer.

"I think what Artemis means to say, is that you'll have no problem winning over the mark," Megan leaned in mischievously. "Or your date."

The lantern's back straightened in her chair, and she glared at the Martian, "Wally is supposed to be disinterested in me tonight for the plan, so he won't have to pretend I've 'won him over'." Emmy's air-quotes were lethally sarcastic.

"I know," Megan's face took on an innocence so concentrated it oozed duplicity, "he'll have to pretend you haven't."

Emmy huffed and ignored the feeble flutter in her stomach. She turned to send Artemis a deadpanned look to nullify Megan's teasing, but the archer was glancing between her two teammates with a displeased face and faintly betrayed eyes. Emmy frowned in confusion but then remembered that Artemis was currently ignoring a problem she had with the lantern. Maybe it has something to do with Megs and me? Did we exclude her and not realize it? She was the one who ditched the Halloween part to go off with Zatanna and fight a serial killer with a magical sword.

Emmy assassinated that train of thought and returned to the matter at hand. She and Artemis would solve whatever issue the archer had after this mission was over like Artemis promised. To her credit, the Greek goddess had hardly shown any resentment toward Emmy since their conversation after Akio's interrogation. Emmy could use a little more of Arty's compartmentalization skills right about now. She trusted to her team with her life, but she wasn't sure she could trust them with her secrets. It was taking everything in her power not to fly away and attempt to deal with Bobby on her own.

The lantern threw on her favorite of the three dress options Black Canary had given her and turned toward the mirror. Megan squealed in the background, and Artemis offered a single, appreciative grunt.

The dress was the same cranberry red hue as her lipstick. It had a lacey and backless halter top bodice, a darker red lace section around the waist, and a long satin skirt with a deep slit on each leg that didn't stop until they were brushing the bottom of her hip bones. Her sparkly golden heels, painful as they were, gave her a few extra inches of height so the edge of the dress skimmed across the floor without risk of tripping her.

If Emmy was being honest with herself, a true rarity, she felt like an Amazonian, and she was struggling to dampen her foolish trepidation at seeing Wally's reaction to her ensemble.

Megan squealed again, and for one terrifying moment Emmy thought that the Martian had read her mind. Thankfully, her friend was just perpetually enthusiastic.

"Okay, okay, my turn," she moved between Emmy and Artemis and the lantern moved away from the mirror.

"Should I do this…?" Megan shifted into her pale human form in a floor-length, sparkling yellow gown with spaghetti straps and bright pink makeup. "Or this?" She changed into a strapless, cleavage-baring, pastel green, and pink dress with a bodice of lace that looked like feathers and a tulle skirt falling to brush the floor. The makeup shifted to soft nude colors. Emmy was momentarily flabbergasted by how good Megan looked.

"That one!" Artemis blurted out, slightly flustered. She cleared her throat and glanced at the wall, "I mean, uh, that one looks the best."

Emmy nodded emphatically, swallowing hard and trading a look with the archer. She had thought Artemis was straight, but that reaction oozed 'unexpected gay panic' and made the lantern chuckle. Supey was going to have a heart attack.

Within a minute, the three girls were heading toward the hanger to meet their team. Flash was going to drop Akio off soon, and then they would fly to Mexico. Emmy alerted her friends that she was going to make a pit stop in the kitchen for water.

She had just finished her drink when the Zeta Tube announced the Flashes arrivals. Emmy was faintly aware of Barry saying hello while dragging a still bound Akio toward the hanger, but her focus was singularly on Wally, who was biting his lip in mild frustration and fiddling with his right cufflink.

He was wearing a full tuxedo with a black bowtie. The tuxedo was a dark charcoal grey which somehow looked better on him than black, and he filled it out surprisingly well. She supposed that his shoulders only looked small when he was standing by the older Connor and Kaldur because damn, did he look good. There was something about seeing him outside his normal, casual wardrobe that had Emmy wishing she had more water to gulp down left in that cup.

Her ogling was interrupted when Wally looked up and released a startled groan so choked and rapturous that Emmy had to lean against the counter to assuage her sudden need to sit down. She wanted to take that noise, frame it, and hang it on her bedroom wall, and she didn't know how to cope with that information. She couldn't think straight as long as Wally was looking at her like that. Emmy tried to do a calculus problem in her head to refocus but was alarmed to find that she couldn't even multiply 2 by 3 in that moment.

"Prob-," her voice cracked, and she swallowed. "Problem with that?"

"What?" Wally asked, still a little dazed and breathless.

Emmy coughed and nodded at his wrist, "Uh, problem with your cufflink?"

"Huh?" Wally frowned but followed her gaze to his wrist where his left hand was still struggling to clip the offending item into place. "Oh. Uhm, yeah."

The lantern glided toward him, as much as she could with each step clicking against the floor, and gently grabbed his wrist from him, untangling the end of the cufflink from a corner of the fabric and easily sliding it into place.

"Thanks," Wally's voice was barely a whisper and much closer than she expected.

She looked up to say something like 'no problem' but her dismissal died in her trachea when she noticed how close his smoldering eyes were. She was his height in these shoes. It gave her a new position from which to view him, and she was startled to find that his jaw looked even sharper from this angle.

"If I'd known you were going to be here looking like this, I would have left the bowtie for you to do," Wally's lips twitched up, pleased to see how intently she was staring at him because it was taking all his willpower not to drop to the floor and nip at her exposed hipbones. Ever since Emmy joked about having a sex dream about him his imagination had been a beast he'd struggled to keep under control. That's not necessarily because of her though, right? He is a warm-blooded teenage guy, after all.

Emmy raised an eyebrow, "Why would I tie your bowtie?"

"Hello Emmy," Wally grinned at her. "It's the classic formal flirting move."

"I have no idea how to tie one of those things," Emmy scoffed in amusement.

"Why not?"

"Why would I?"

"So, you can have the upper hand in a situation like this," Wally taunted.

Emmy tugged him closer by his bowtie, "Wouldn't it be easier to get the upper hand if I took it off instead of putting it on?"

Her fingers moved with Wally's throat as he gulped. His hands travelled to her hips, thumb delicately ghosting over unprotected skin. They stared at each other for a moment, daring the other to cross the blurring line they had drawn between themselves, until Flash popped his head back into the kitchen.

"Come on, Kiddos," the hyperactive man grinned when they jumped away from each other like cats dropped in the bathtub. "You have a party to crash."

Emmy cleared her throat slightly and followed after the League member, fighting the urge to glance over her shoulder. Her lips curled upward when she heard another sharp inhale behind her as Wally saw the back of the dress.

Location: Tijuana

Date: Nov 7th

Time: 20:13

Wally kept fiddling with his grey, pearl encrusted masquerade mask, and it was distracting Emmy. The last thing she needed was another reason to keep looking at him. Emmy's mask matched her shoes, covered her forehead and cheekbones, and had dark red feathers sprouting from the top. The feathers were even more disturbing than the false eyelashes, but she could handle wearing it for a few hours. Akio, still blindfolded, would be given a sparkly black mask with a silver cross in the center, and Megan had created an elaborate mask for herself that matched her dress exactly.

Connor's eyes glued themselves to Megan the moment he saw her. Robin snickered at Emmy's feathers every time they bobbed above her forehead. Artemis whispered something to Robin that had his cheeks turning pink and Emmy once again wondered what it must be like for the Kryptonian to hear all their whispered quips. Kaldur had complimented Team A, sans Akio, on their outfits and then gone straight into leader mode.

They would reach the mansion in a few minutes. The closer they got, the more Emmy's stomach twisted itself into knots. She was heading straight into the viper's den when she had spent a year avoiding all snakes. She could have done this on her own. She should have been able to do this on her own, but, no, she had to have a dedicated team and Batman breathing down her neck. The lantern took a calming breath and tried not to displace any anger toward her teammates and friends.

The speedster tightened his mask once more, and Emmy cursed herself for looking so quickly. She should have denied Wally's indirect flirting taunt, but she'd just gone with it. Alright, East. You are way too busy tonight for this. In the moment, you wanted to flirt with him now let it the fuck go and focus.

"We should untie Akio now and let him put on his mask," Megan informed through the mindlink. "We're only five minutes out."

Kaldur nodded at Robin, and the bird disabled the mechanical blindfold and gag. They were all either in uniform or wearing their gala masks, so Akio was not a threat to anyone's identity other than Emerald's.

"Fuckin' hell," Akio coughed loudly. "Why the fuck you gag me this time?"

"Not our fault you pissed off Black Canary," Emmy smirked at him. Her left leg was crossed over her right, accidentally leaving a large expanse of skin in the open. Thankfully, the dress covered the definitive hand mark the asshole had left on her inner thigh yesterday, but he wasn't looking there anyway.

"Shit," Akio bit his lip. Emmy glared at his heated (and no longer welcome) gaze. He glanced up at her through his dark lashes and sent a filthy smile, "Damn, Emery, that almost shows your tattoo."

Wally scoffed, "The cutouts aren't on her ribs, Einstein."

Akio leaned forward more, keeping his eyes on Emmy, "I wasn't talkin' 'bout that one."

Emmy rolled her eyes exasperatedly. Her second tattoo had been a dumb throwaway that she hadn't thought through properly. She had just started dating Akio and won her first larger ticket fight, leaving the ring with 5000 dollars. Akio had dragged her with him to his favorite tattoo parlor to celebrate, and since he'd started teaching her a bit of Japanese and Korean, she chose to get a small tattoo of her favorite Korean word: Nabi. The work had eventually taken on an unintended meaning when Akio decided it would be her nickname, so she had it covered with a three inch long, black sprig of sage in February. It lived on the left side of her back, low enough that it was hidden in bathing suits, and she forgot it existed most of the time.

Most of the team was disinterested by the fact that she had another tattoo, but Wally was flitting between glaring at Akio and Emmy's thigh. Emmy uncrossed her legs to let the fabric cover more of her body. She hadn't spoken to Akio since their last argument in the park, and here he was acting like they hadn't been two seconds from a brawl to the death. Her tattoos were her business and if and when she wanted anyone on her team to know about them, she would show them on her own.

"I was talkin' bout the ass one," Akio wiggled his eyebrows.

"It's not on my ass," Emmy deadpanned with her arms crossed.

Akio scoffed in a way that indicated this was an old argument and started to put on his satin mask, "Where would you call that placement then, huh? Low, low, low back? Upper, upper, upper thigh?"

Emmy's lip twitched in spite of herself. The little sprig flirted with the spot where her left ass cheek started and her back ended. She didn't bother responding, she wasn't going to flirt with Akio.

He noticed her lack of reply and pushed forward, "If it's not on your ass, then why'd I have to eat it to help with the healing pain?"

Emmy choked on air and coughed harshly. After the tattoo, (and after she made sure the kids were asleep and safe in the abandoned building they then called home), Emmy and Akio went back to his apartment and, well, she'd had her first orgasm.

"You tryin' to get gagged again?" She had meant to sound low and threatening, but her voice was a smidgen too breathy for the desired effect. Emmy intensified her glare to compensate, but Wally's jaw muscles were working, and his knuckles were white as he gripped his armrests, and she worried it hadn't been enough.

She was absolutely not still attracted to Akio. They just had a history that wasn't entirely horrible, and it had been a long time for her and-alright, I don't have to explain myself to my own mind.

"ETA three minutes," Kaldur turned to Akio with an arctic expression. "If you have decided you do not want to acquire our aid, you may continue making inappropriate comments about my teammate, and we will gladly leave you strapped to your chair." The Atlantean showed a rare display of conceit and smiled faintly, "It will be an opportunity for you to accustom yourself to the silence of life in prison and a welcome reprieve for the remainder of us."

Akio held his hands up in surrender and mimed locking his mouth with a key and throwing it away. Emmy thanked Kaldur with a slight head nod just in time for Akio to sign, "Are you fucking the fish guy too?"

"No hands either," Wally barked.

"Fine, sheesh," Akio tightened his mask one last time and sat back against his chair. "By the way, Red, thanks for letting me borrow your girlfriend yesterday. It'd clearly been a while since anyone got her ice cream."

"I'm not his girlfriend," Emmy frowned while Wally simultaneously scowled and snapped, "She's not my girlfriend."

A beat of silence.

"And she prefers sno cones, you jackass." The redhead interjected as an afterthought with an intensity that made Emmy inexplicably feel both a little embarrassed and pleased.

Emmy hoped the mask covered her blush as her team traded glances behind the backs of the glaring speedster and informant. I was right; this is going to be a disaster.

Location: Tijuana

Date: Nov 7th

Time: 20:48

A hand pressed Emmy further into the ballroom and she found herself yet again surprised by the intense heat that was Wally West. The massive room was made entirely of marble with dozens of pillars around the edges of the octagonal area. The high ceiling was covered in paintings of naked women, demons, angels, and foliage in the Renaissance, Victorian style Emmy detested.

She plucked two champagne flutes from a passing tray and handed one to Wally. This was not what she expected from the Sparks Gala. The fights were in a dingy underground Colosseum, and while most of the bettors and observers exuded wealth, a fair amount of them were covered in filth and poverty. Emmy had expected a grotesque gathering of half-naked invalids dancing and fucking to poorly chosen dubstep.

However, the actual party was packed with people in tuxes and suits and ballgowns and evening dresses. There was a live orchestra band, and hors d'oeuvres at every corner. Emmy scoffed at herself. Of course, Bobby would only invite the richest members, and high-end prostitutes, of his ring to the event.

"Wow, this tastes so much better than beer," Wally murmured in her ear.

Emmy smirked and sipped the fruity, sparkling alcohol, "But you can't keg stand a champagne bottle."

"Not with that attitude," she could feel his lips smirking into her hair. "See your target?"

The lantern flitted her eyes around the room. The dramatic masks kept her from recognizing anyone at first glance, and she had not seen Salvatore anywhere.

She shook her head subtly. A flash of long auburn hair swirled in her peripheral vision. Akio and Megan were spinning around the dancefloor expertly. Emmy frowned slightly. Since when does that moron know how to dance?

Wally's eyes narrowed slightly as he located the source of Emmy's displeasure. Was she jealous that Megan was dancing with that guy?

"Careful, Emery," Akio's voice called through the Team A mindlink. "Animal Taser is in a cheetah suit to your left."

Emmy took another sip of her champagne to disguise her snarl. Animal Taser was the first asshole to ever stab at her with a knife during a match. Sparks had just laughed and cheered along with the crowd at the dirty fighting. She had a thin white seven-inch scar down the center of her left forearm from that match.

"Have you seen Salvatore yet?" She asked back.

"Yes," Megan's voice frowned even as her physical smile widened. "He's by the bar in the snakeskin suit with no tie."

The lantern and speedster nodded at each other, dropped their glasses on a nearby table, and entered the fray on the dancefloor. Kaldur announced through the link that Team B had made it to the entry of the aqueduct and were entering. Santa Maria (Del Buen Arye), a popular tango song, came blasting from the direction of the orchestra. Emmy pulled Wally close.

"How do you feel about tango?" She murmured lowly.

He brushed her hair behind her left shoulder to hide his response, "I know enough to keep you from falling over. You?"

"I know enough to not fall over," Emmy let him guide her toward the dancers near the bar.

His right hand slipped to her lower back while she put her left hand on his shoulder. Wally tugged her toward him with a small smirk, their other hands meeting in the air to their side.

"Try not to step on my toes."

Emmy met his challenge and ran her stiletto heel down the back of his left leg, "If I stepped on you, it would be intentional."

His green eyes flashed through his satin mask; he spun her out and pulled her back toward him without warning. Emmy's breath left her in a small whoosh as her bare spine hit the fabric of his tuxedo. They swayed with the music for a moment before spinning back into their beginning stance. The song hit a slight crescendo in time for Emmy to wrap her leg around Wally's hip while he skimmed her across the floor a few feet.

Emmy was not an expert dancer, but she had seen enough movies with tango scenes to know that everything was about leaning and twirling and flexibility and tension. Wally had undersold his experience with the dance form because he was leading them with an unexpected ease. At least one of us knows what they're doing. Emmy relaxed into the movements, following Wally's direction, and adding in the occasional spin or kick of her own. The skirt of her dress was covering only what necessity and common decency demanded, but she could feel Wally's gaze on her face even when she dropped to the floor with her right leg out, glancing at Salvatore through the speedster's legs.

She glared slightly when she saw him before spinning 180 degrees and letting Wally pull her up from the floor to continue their sharp and sensual movements. The dancefloor was packed with partygoers. Emmy was slightly grateful for that because it meant only a few people had stopped to gape at their performance, but she couldn't tell if Salvatore was one of them and that only made their job harder. The song was nearing its end.

"You remember that one move you did when we sparred?" Wally's breath ghosted across her neck as he spun her through another series of movements she never expected him to know. His voice was thick with something they didn't have the time to analyze, and her treacherous mind immediately recognized what he was referencing. Emmy's cheeks burned underneath her mask when she found herself realizing that she'd probably be thinking about this dance long after the mission ended.

"Yeah?" She turned her head toward him slightly, still keeping her focus on Salvatore's gaudy snakeskin suit.

"Think you could do it in heels?" A tinge of mischief and arousal entered his tone and left her ever-so-slightly breathless. She nodded once. He smiled into her hair. "Keep your right hand in mine and go with it."

Wally twirled her three times before tugging her swiftly against his core. Emmy waited a second for the right beat before placing her left foot on Wally's bent thigh and flipping forward through the air. The fabric of her skirt pulsed like lightning as she flew over their entwined right hands, carefully aiming her landing for a spot with no people present. She had barely returned to the balls of her shoes before Wally was spinning her, one foot pressed against her knee, the other pointed on the floor, her hands above her head, guided by one arm holding her arms steady and the other skittering across her waist to keep her whirling in place. Her skirt flew in a circle around her creating the same sense of ambedo as cream swirling through coffee. Robin's voice was in her head instructing Team B which way to go at the fork they had encountered, but the lantern and speedster were too distracted to register the information.

With a jolt, Emmy's spinning halted as the speedster crushed their chests together and tugged her left leg against his waist. Wally's right hand was on the soft flesh under her knee, his other hand splayed across her back, and with startling eye contact, slowly dipped her backwards. The feathers of her mask dusted the floor while Wally guided her in a low, sweeping arch, his teeth grazing her exposed neck. She briefly locked eyes with Salvatore from her inverted position and smirked at his obvious gawking. Faster than she would have liked, the dip was over, and she was back against Wally's chest with a slightly startled gasp. Their exerted pants mingled in the inches between their lips and their eyes snapped together like two magnets of opposite poles. Wally had just moved a centimeter toward her still-parted lips when a voice and the sound of clapping jolted them back to reality.

"Alright, I think Sal's fuckin' invested enough," Akio's incensed complaint entered their brains.

Emmy didn't jump, but she was once again thankful for the fabric covering her cheeks when she realized that their last few moves had garnered a large crowd. A new song had already begun. She turned back to Wally, an unspecified quip on her lips, but she halted when she saw a deep frown marring his downward turned face. Emmy followed his stare and inhaled sharply. The split in the front of her dress had opened so much when he brought her knee around his hip that the bruise Akio's fingers had left obscenely high on her inner thigh was exposed. The lantern quickly unhooked her leg and pretended to fix Wally's bowtie.

"The brunette and redhead in the silver dresses have been staring at you since we started dancing," Emmy observed lowly, refusing to look at him.

Wally grasped her wrists with both hands and pushed her away inelegantly. The lantern instinctively met his eyes to argue but she paused when she saw the storm raging in the green pools. She was only able to recognize anger. Emmy's lips turned down in confusion.

"Trust me," The speedster's voice lacked its typical passion, "I know."

Without another word, the redhead dropped her hands and made his way toward the sultry girls who turned giddy at his abrupt arrival. The pout Emmy forced onto her face took less effort than she would ever admit. This was part of the plan to get Salvatore's attention, but Wally wasn't that good an actor so his abrupt shift in attitude left her bemused. What the hell got into him? She saw Salvatore watching her, so she huffed, and dramatically stomped toward the bar. She stopped just far enough away from him that if he wanted to talk to her, he would have to move from his chair. Emmy clenched her jaw and ordered two fingers of whiskey.

"Do you really like whiskey?" A gravelly voice with a thick Jersey accent sounded to her right, "Or are you just tryin' to impress me?"

Sal grinned at her like she was prey, eyes raking over her dress in a way that made her feel disgusted and the polar opposite of how Wally left her in the kitchen only a few hours prior. His purple suit was tight around his legs and a few inches too short at his ankles. She noticed with vague repulsion that the only thing he was wearing underneath his suit jacket was a thick gold chain tangled in his prominent chest hair. The stench of his overwhelming cologne invaded her senses and the memory of their first interaction invaded her mind: when he grabbed her eleven-year-old ass with his 30-year-old hands, and she promptly broke his nose.

She noticed the minuscule bump in the center of his nose skewing to the right. Her jaw ticked and Emmy's finger itched to punch him again. Sal had gone out of his way to make her uncomfortable for almost five years and had only refrained from going further because she was making Bobby money. Her left hand was twitching into a fist when Akio spoke in her mind.

"Relax Nabi. You can punch him when you have what you need," Akio's voice pricked her sense of reason. Emmy forced herself to relax.

She turned toward Sal and made her voice a little breathier, "Why can't it be both?"

He grinned predatorily, "That was some dance."

Emmy sighed deeply and drank from the cup the bartender placed in front of her, "At least someone thinks so."

She turned toward Wally and watched the two girls drape themselves over him, pushing champagne flutes to his lips. The speedster actually had the gall to wink at her. Emmy's eyes narrowed and her jaw twitched toward the right. The hell is going on with him? Sal followed her gaze.

"Ah, the dance partner? What's wrong with him if he's ova there and you're ova here?"

"Why have one girl when you can have two?" Emmy scoffed and sipped her whiskey again. It burned more than the vodka had.

"He's a fuckin' fool," Sal leaned closer to her, slightly cornering her with his arms.

"And you aren't?" Emmy quirked a brow, but it was hidden behind her mask.

"Hell nah, Sexy," he brushed hair behind her shoulder. It took all her self-control not to flinch. "I'm Sal."

Emmy checked him out with fake interest, "Emily." She smiled coyly and let him sloppily kiss her hand.

"Emily," he licked his lips, his eyes still on her thighs. "Want me to have your date taken care of?"

Emmy smirked sloppily, "Escort or hit team taken care of?"

"Whichever one you'd like, Baby," he got even closer, his pointer finger dragging along the bottom of her mask. "But I like to know who I'm dealin' with when I make a deal."

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," Emmy winked. Sal grinned and pulled his mask up for a few seconds. The lantern pretended to blush and slowly moved her own mask above her forehead with a bashful grin.

Sal's jaw dropped open. His eyes narrowed with rage, and he hissed, "Emmy? What the fuck?"

Emmy blinked quickly, working her limited acting skills for all they were worth, "Emmy? I said my name was Emily."

She looked between his conflicted eyes, letting her mouth open with false realization and excitement, "Wait. Do you know me? Is my name really Emmy? When I woke up I-I thought it was Emily, but that," she laughed with false wonder, "that sounds close so maybe I was confused?"

"What the fuck are you talking about? When you woke up?" Sal frowned at her, but tugged her mask back down over her face, glancing around his shoulder to make sure no one else had clocked Emmy's presence. He clearly hadn't decided to turn her in quite yet, which was promising.

"I woke up February 16th in a veterinarian's office in Maryland. I had no memory and no idea what happened. The vet said I paid him to remove a tumor from my brain?" Emmy grabbed Sal's hand and brought it to the prosthetic scar Artemis had put on the top of her skull. His finger gruffly rubbed her skin; a contemplative look overtook his skeptical one. "The vet didn't know who I was, and he kicked me out since I guess it was illegal, what he did for me? I'm still not sure where I even got money for it, but I've just been…getting by since then." She grabbed both his hands and pulled him closer. "Do you know who I am?"

"You know what?" Sal snapped. "Your redhead might believe this sob story, you lying, little shit, but I don't buy it for a second."

He stomped away and Emmy's heart stuttered with panic. Sal was a douche and an idiot. She had expected him to be eating out of her hands in a few minutes. It had never occurred to her that he would actually be suspicious and walk away before she could convince him of her lie.

"Need a hand?" Wally asked through the link.

"I've got it," Akio clipped back.

A familiar hand curled around her bicep, and she was spun into a dip, warm lips curling over her mouth. Her eyes bugged, and her hands grasped at Akio's shoulders to keep from falling. He swallowed Emmy's startled yelp. His tongue already in her mouth, the bastard had always used too much tongue, even when she told him to tone it down, and he bit her bottom lip hard enough to make it swell slightly.

Akio pulled away with a cocky grin, setting her back on her feet, "Sorry 'bout that. I just wanted one more for the road." He pushed a wad of bills with mysterious origin into her hands. "Here's the money," he smirked again and slapped her ass, nipping her bottom lip roughly again before chuckling, "For last night."

Emmy squinted her eyes at him. He clearly thought his little plan would get Sal on board, and she didn't have another option right now, so she went with it. "You sure took your fuckin' time," she chastised coarsely, walking around the corner of the bar to slowly count the bills.

Her absence gave Akio the opportunity to execute his plan with Sal in semi-privacy. She could hear fragments of the conversation, but kept her eyes focused on the bills.

"What the actual fuck, man?" Sal whispered in shock.

"She doesn't remember anything dude! I got my last fuck, and it didn't even cost much." Akio snorted and chugged the rest of Sal's drink.

"Are you forreal?" Sal squinted.

Akio suddenly looked nervous, "Look...I know it was wrong to do her and not tell Bobby. And-and I'm gunna tell him I swear! It's just…she was such a feisty asshole, and now she'll do whatever the fuck you want for a Benjamin." Emmy could feel the smugness radiating off Akio in waves. "It was too good an opportunity to pass up you know? She always said no to anal when we were datin', but last night she couldn't say anythin' but yes."

Emmy gritted her teeth, slid the cash into her bra, and ordered another drink as an excuse to stay in her new position until the conversation ended.

"Really?" Sal sounded incredibly intrigued and glanced at Emmy again.

"It was everything I'd ever dreamed to break that bitch."

The bartender returned with her drink. Emmy sent Sal a filthy smile and started to walk over again.

"You missed your chance to come clean, Akio," Sal hissed. "Fuck off. I'll deal with her from here."

Akio shrugged, slapping Emmy's ass one last time as she passed. His grin bordered on unhinged. She was going to break that kid's nose by the end of the night.

"Sorry," Emmy bit her lip, "Just another…satisfied customer."

"I thought you hated him," Sal squinted suspiciously.

"Who?" Emmy cocks her head in confusion. "Wait. Do I know him? He-he didn't say anything."

Sal glanced at Akio and changed his tune, "No. No, you didn't. At least, I don't think you did, but I wouldn't know, I wasn't one of those fiancées who kept tabs on everyone you talked to."

"Fiancée?" Emmy dropped her jaw. Are you fucking kidding me? Typical Salvatore.

Her whispered question hung in the air for a nerve-wracking five seconds before Sal grinned widely and put both his hands on her ass, "Baby, Emmy, I never thought I'd find you again."

Emmy blinked away her rage and grinned, "You really know me? Who are you?"

Sal grabbed her ass harder, "Baby, I'm your fiancé."

Emmy let her jaw drop again. Leave it to this asshole to use any tactic to try to get laid. "Really? Why didn't you look for me?"

"No, Baby," Sal kept pawing at her. "I looked everywhere for you. Shit, I never thought I'd actually find you. I'd almost given up."

"We're engaged? I…did you know about the tumor?" Emmy leaned into him.

"Yeah," Sal pouted. "We were in the middle of tryin' to get the money for your surgery when you disappeared. I guess you didn't want me involved in your plan to get the cash."

"What did I…do?" Emmy bit her lip.

"You robbed my cousin," Sal twirled a curl around his finger.

Emmy gasped in horror.

"No, don't worry," Sal brushed her thigh. "I'll keep you safe. We'll split and he'll never find you. We have a year of catchin' up to do first though."

"How did we meet?" Emmy blinked innocently.

Artemis' voice cut through the link and interrupted Sal's feeble reply, "Guys. We have a problem. It's a dungeon down here, and we need a physical key to open this next gate. Supey can't get it for some reason."

"It's reinforced with kryptonite," Robin's voice frowned. "Hold on…the key is with Salvatore. Inner left pocket."

Emmy asked Sal another random question, mentally responding to her team, "If someone gives me a distraction, I can swipe the key, and Meg can fly it down to you three."

"It'll have to be some distraction," Akio cackled through the bond, "Emery is the shittiest pickpocket I've ever seen."

"Oh, you want a distraction?" Wally bit out. "No problem."

A second later, there was a dash of red moving through the crowded room and a freckled fist connecting with Akio's jawline. The circle of people around the violence shrieked in elation. Emmy's mouth fell open slightly before she clamped it shut and pretended to be scared.

"Oh! I hate violence," she cried and tucked herself into Salvatore's jacket.

He laughed in disbelief and tucked her closer, "Don't worry. I'll protect you."

"He's looking at the fight," Meg relayed. "Not you."

Emmy quickly swiped the key, clumsier than she would have liked, and dropped it into Megan's invisible hand.

"What the fuck, man?" Akio yelled at Wally, promoting the diversion.

"You didn't think I'd notice you hitting on my date?" Wally frowned and dodged Akio's jab, hitting Akio's jaw again in the exact same spot.

"Oh no! They're talking about me. The redhead paid for the night," Emmy bit her lip in shame and unease, leaning further into the miasma of stale cologne.

Sal grinned at her panic, "Why don't we go somewhere more private then? Get you away from all this?"

Emmy nodded quickly with false gratitude on her face, "Is there like, a back room somewhere for the two of us, or something?"

"She's not your date if you have to pay for it, you fucker," Akio spat back before taking another blow to the eye.

"Just keep your hands off her!"

"She fuckin' loves havin' my hands all over her, Dumbass."

"You are without a doubt the most disrespectful piece of shit I have ever met in my life. She regrets every second she ever spent with you." Wally flinched as Akio's jab landed on his sternum. "You couldn't please her if you lived on the sun and owned a solar powered vibrator!"

Robin's laugh cackled through the mental link. Emmy shot a glare toward the fighting duo, Sal's hand guiding her down a hallway. "We're leaving now guys. You can cut it out," she called through the link.

"Oh yeah?" Akio rubbed his jaw. "You're just pissed that she fucked me and not you."

"Don't touch her again," Wally's low warning sent Emmy's stomach lurching.

"We got the key," Kaldur interrupted through the link.

Emmy rounded the corner with Sal's hand far too low on her back and lost sight of Wally and Akio. She pressed the fight to the back of her mind and focused on dealing with Salvatore. They passed a few rooms full of naked, moaning people separated from the hallway by thin curtains. Emmy frowned. She needed him to take her to Bobby's backroom, not just some room in the back.

Salvatore pushed open a thin cyan curtain with a flourish and a demented grin. There was already another couple groaning and doing a move Emmy believed was called 'The Ape'. Emmy averted her eyes with an uncomfortable cough and let her discomfort show on her face.

"I-" She leaned closer to Sal, "I was really hoping for somewhere private. Just the two of us."

"What, you're a whore without an exhibitionist kink?" Sal frowned.

Emmy pouted and blinked as though tears were in her eyes, "I would never make my fiancé pay. You're special." She plastered herself to his side, "You deserve the private treatment."

Her hands dipped low enough on his body that she briefly wondered if she could still use the ring if she burned her hands off. Sal bit his lip for a minute, mentally debating something, before roughly tugging her further down the hallway. They made seven turns and went up two flights of stairs. Emmy was feeling increasingly uncomfortable, but her ring was hidden in her left shoe, and she could feel Megan's camouflaged presence following them. She was safe. The lantern listened to Robin instructing Wally to make a quick dash down to the aqueducts because Team B was having a problem with an old control panel. Sal finally stopped in front of a small, gold door and removed a key from the chain on his chest.

He pulled Emmy into the room with a salacious chuckle, "This is basically the most private room in this mansion, Baby Girl. No one will hear or see us."

Emmy giggled loudly as he tugged her to the couch and surveyed the room. It was a small area, covered in a velvet, paisley wallpaper with a bookshelf on three of the four walls. She didn't see any filing cabinets or ledgers. Bobby should still be counting his money in a different hidden region of the mansion, so hopefully she and Megan could find what they needed quickly. The rest of their team had found the kids in pods just like they had in Cadmus, and they'd knocked out all the scientists and guards they had encountered.

"You're clear to go as soon as Miss M and GL find what we need," Robin informed Team B.

Sal bit Emmy's neck a little too roughly and she snarled, pulled back, and punched him in the face. He stumbled back in a rage, but Megan knocked him unconscious before he could do so much as scream. The Martian turned visible again and sent an apologetic look to the lantern.

"I wanted to intervene earlier, but I thought I should wait until we had access."

Emmy rubbed the teeth marks on her neck with a frown, "You did the right thing, but if one more guy fucking bites me tonight, I'm killing them immediately and turning myself into the League."

"I'll help you hide the body," Megan beamed, referencing the movie they'd watched with other night.

Emmy snorted and started scouring the room for ledgers. Bobby didn't trust technology, so he kept all his records of misdoings on paper. It would've been so much easier if he were less of a paranoid bastard because Robin could have just hacked any information they needed, and Emmy wouldn't have a faded imprint of Sal's teeth on her skin.

The Martian and lantern pawed at every book they could reach, occasionally tugging vases and paintings from their set positions as well. Kaldur asked for an update and the two girls frowned at each other. They had to hurry. Emmy was beginning to worry that they were going to turn up empty-handed when Megan inhaled sharply.

"There's a safe here," Megan bit her lip and squinted at the safe she had found behind the bookshelf. It was a good hiding spot. The bookshelf itself was bolted to the ground, and it looked like two of the shelves would have to be physically unscrewed and removed to even access it. The sliver of exposed safe revealed that it was one that required a physical key, a fingerprint, and a combination code. It was a design virtually impossible to bypass. Unless, of course, you had a teammate who was a Martian.

Emmy sighed in relief as Megan made her arm go intangible and slid past the books into the safe, returning with a thick, black leather tome. The girls beamed at each other and crowded around the volume. It detailed everything from the last twelve years. The initial fighting, the drug running, the human trafficking, and most recently, the descent into Kobra Venom.

"Do it," Emmy called into the link. "Save the kids. Now."

Kaldur gave the order and Team B launched their rescue.

"Okay," Emmy frowned at Sal's unconscious body before turning to Megan. "You need to get that book back to the ship ASAP. I'll take care of Sal and then go join the Team in the basement."

Megan nodded, going into camouflage mode, and disappearing through the window. Emmy kicked Sal once to make sure he was unconscious. She pulled out the syringe Kaldur had given her before the mission. It was an ancient Atlantean cocktail that could wipe the last day of someone's memory. She injected it into Sal's neck. The last thing she needed was another one of Bobby's lackeys knowing that she was alive. In a twisted, broken way she mostly trusted Akio, but Sal would turn her in as soon as he woke up. This serum took away that risk. Emmy put the cap back on the needle, sliding it into the heel of her right shoe. She grinned. Everything was taken care of; time to power up her ring and join the others.

A loud explosion sounded from below and shook Emmy to the floor, tweaking her ankles painfully.

"These damned heels."

Kaldur's voice sounded in her ear, "The pods are rigged. Alarms have been set off and are triggering explosions."

Emmy realized that the disjointed sounds she was hearing from below were people screaming. Another bomb went off and three of the books falling off the shelves hit her arms. The lantern frowned as Sal started groaning and waking up. Kaldur was barking orders for Wally and Robin to get the civilians out of the mansion while Megan brought the ship to the basement to free the children.

"Lantern report to the basement."

"On my way," Emmy stood up. Sal was blinking, eyes still unseeing. She would power up her ring in an abandoned side room instead of this one.

Emmy yanked open the door and choked on the thick yellow powder entering her lungs. Her vision blurred. She stumbled backwards. Emmy couldn't get any air with her gasps. Her throat burned and she was vaguely aware of falling down. It was a Sparks Knockout Bomb. Akio helped name them and she had spent the better part of a month commenting on how stupid a title it was.

"I heard you was gunna be here."

Her eyes were watering. She couldn't stop coughing. Emmy growled at the vicious face gyrating in her vision. "Bobby," she cursed, voice scratchy.

"Where's my fuckin' money, Bitch?"

"Gone," she spit out before the darkness took her.

Emmy woke up with a jolt. She was cold. Her feet were wet. She was strapped to a chair. She couldn't move. The room was composed completely of grey cement. There was a drain four feet in front of her, an amorphous brown stain surrounding it, clearly remnants of blood. Emmy coughed roughly, hacking up a wad of bright yellow mucus. The stupid Spark bombs were horrible for your lungs. Her throat was on fire.

Emmy groaned quietly and shivered. She frowned when she realized she was only in her underwear. Her shoes had been removed too. Where the hell are you girl? Her ring sounded its presence from a different room. Emmy took a ragged breath of respite. She was about to call it to her when footsteps sounded behind her back. Bobby slowly walked to face Emmy, carefully avoiding the water around her feet that wasn't tall enough to slide into the drain but still covered her toes.

"I gotta say," Bobby chuckled and took a drag of his cigarette, "I'm impressed. Ten months I had a bounty on you. And ain't no one could find you. No one."

He crossed his arms and glared at her. His blond hair was gelled and combed back. His clear grey eyes full of hatred and amusement as he viewed the girl in front of him. He was in black slacks and had a light blue dress shirt on with the sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms. Bobby was a short man, only clocking in at around 5'3, but he overcompensated with grueling workouts and steroids until his muscles bulged dangerously beneath his clothing. He could have been an attractive man if he didn't reek of crime and misogyny.

"I thought you was dead, honestly," he blew smoke in her direction. "How else could a little shrimp bitch like you hide from me for so long? Imagine my surprise when I got word that you were comin' to my little shindig."

"I'm sure-" Emmy's raw voice cracked painfully. "I'm sure you felt like the prettiest boy at school." She coughed again, "Who told you I was coming?"

Her gut twisted as she wondered if her father had been the one to mention her. Did Lawrence know about her?

"A little birdie," Bobby shrugged. "Thought I'd stop countin' my money just to come see you. You should be flattered."

"Oh, I am," Emmy wheezed and shoved down another coughing fit. "I'd have thought you'd be more concerned with the alarms and bombs going off and all the missing children. I wonder what your buyer's going to do to you when he finds out that you can't deliver what you promised. How you feel about being skinned alive?"

Bobby roared and pressed a button on a small remote. A sharp, agonizing pain shot through Emmy's body and she screamed in surprise. It was over in a few seconds and Emmy gasped for breath. There was a sizzling sound coming from somewhere and the water at her feet was hot.

"Did you just fucking electrocute me?" Emmy scoffed in disbelief. "Who the fuck do you think you are? A Bond villain?"

"Nah," Bobby grinned. "You're no James Bond. You barely put the cute in electrocute." The lantern frowned and a small part of her brain wondered if she had managed to pick up an affinity for puns from Bobby of all people.

"Lantern," Kaldur called through the link, "Where are you? We have lost sight of Akio Park, but we are almost finished loading the children into the Bioship."

"I'm not sure, but I'm fine. Sparks got me, but my ring is close, and I'm about to get out of here." Emmy called back calmly.

"Gotta say though," Bobby leaned forward with an evil leer. "You look just like your daddy."

Ice ran up Emmy's spine and her call to her ring broke. "What?" She barely managed to get the word out in her shock.

"Emmy?" Wally's voice hit her, full of concern. "What just happened?"

She realized a moment too late that her horror had made it through to the group, "Nothing. Focus on the kids. I'm fine."

Bobby cackled, "Damn. All this time I thought you were some badass little kid, but you're just another bitch with Daddy Issues."

"I'll track you through the link, don't worry, Emmy," Megan called calmly.

Emmy jolted again, "No!" Her mental call was sharp. "I've got this."

"Emmy…" Wally chastised, "You're tied up in some room with Sparks, and you're terrified about something, so stop being so-"

Emmy severed the mental link. She couldn't let her team find her with Bobby talking about her father.

"What the hell are you talking about you bastard?" She hissed at Bobby.

He laughed again, "Where's my money?"

"It's gone," her jaw twitched. "It was only money from one fight. Get over it."

Bobby sighed in disappointment, "I know it's gone. And now I have to kill you for it. You understand," he waved the remote at her casually, "It's a…it's an image thing. Can't have people thinkin' it's okay to steal from me."

He smirked, "And it's not like Daddy dearest will find out."

"Exactly who the hell do you think my 'daddy' is?" Emmy snarled. "My parents are both dead."

"Oh, see, now that's interesting," Bobby grinned. "Because I have a business associate who would beg to differ."

Emmy bared her teeth. She could call her ring right now, knock Bobby out, and inject him with enough of Kaldur's serum that he could barely remember her name. It would be easy, effortless, so why was she dragging this out?

Because I have to know.

"What business associate?"

"Damn," Bobby grinned. "I have never seen you this focused. And I was there when you got that knife stuck in your lung and had to hold out for another three rounds to get your money."

"Answer the fucking question," Emmy growled.

Bobby's eyes took the dangerous glint again and she screamed as the electricity hit her once more. She greedily gasped for air when he finally turned the device off.

"Let's get one thing straight, Emerald," he shook the remote at her. "You do not take that tone with me. Not when I'm this close to killing you anyway."

"Just answer the question, Bobby," Emmy spit out, exhausted. "Come on. If you're going to kill me the least you can do is tell me. We had some good times before all this."

"Oh, you mean before you stabbed me in the back and stole from me?" Bobby snarled. He glared at her face so intently that Emmy thought he really was about to kill her with no pretext and called her ring to stand alert. He relaxed all at once and spoke softly, "It was the eyes."

Emmy's mouth fell open a fraction, and she exhaled precipitously.

Bobby grinned at her aghast expression, "Yeah. You look just like 'im. That Sports asshole guy. I wasn't 100 percent sure of it, before, actually. But damn is your reaction damning."

"So, he-" Emmy's voice cracked. "He doesn't know?"

"I haven't mentioned anything to him," Bobby shrugged, frowning at the wall behind Emmy. "He isn't exactly the kinda business associate you give free information to."

He paused and perused Emmy, "Now selling info to him…that's something I wouldn't mind doing. You mentioned being skinned alive…is that one of Daddy's signature moves?"

The girl glowered at him from her position. Yes.

"I'll take that look as a 'yes'," Bobby took a few more puffs from his cigarette before tossing it into the puddle at her feet and lighting a new one. "How much you think he'd pay me to find out that the kid he lost in a house fire is still alive? You think he'd excuse the Venom shortage and give me a bonus on top?"

The lantern scowled, "He'll kill you either way. And the Sports asshole is not my dad."

"Eh, semantics," Bobby puffed more smoke at her. "How'd you find out about my product moving anyway? Where you been since February?"

Emmy rolled her eyes. Bobby didn't have any solid evidence. He just thought she had Lawrence's eyes, like I don't already deal with that enough as is, and he hadn't told her father anything. The kids were safe. She was safe.

"It doesn't really matter anymore, Bobby. You're surrounded, and you're not getting out of this one. Your operation is destroyed, and you're never going to see the outside of a jail cell." She smirked at him smugly.

"Ah, that's where you're wrong, Little Nightmare," Bobby pressed a different button on the remote and a side door opened. "I always have an escape route. And you're coming with me. I can make too much money letting your daddy kill you for offing your mama to justify getting rid of you myself."

Emmy went as white as a sheet, "What…what did you say?"

How could he know that? How could he know anything about-?

Bobby shocked her again. Emmy blacked out for a few seconds before blinking awake.

"You owe me money from the match and the money you lost me by betraying me in the first place," Bobby spit at her. He unhooked the chain around her from the wall and tugged. "Now get up and hop after me, bitch."

Emmy breathed heavily. She felt a little dizzy from the electricity.

Okay. Too much. Need ring.

A gunshot echoed through the small room. Emmy's mouth fell open as Bobby's body hit the ground. She whipped her head toward the secret door Bobby had revealed in time to see Akio standing there, face bruised from his fight with Wally, an innocent swirl of smoke exiting the barrel of the gun. The final piece of the puzzle slotted into place.

"You absolute bastard," Emmy cursed at him. "You told him about my mother! That was an accident, and you know it! You-you turned me into him just so you could be the fucking one to save me?!"

"Stop pretendin' to be mad, Emmy," Akio walked closer to her "We're alone now. Your team isn't in the way anymore. It's just us."

Emmy snarled and called her ring to her. She could hear the bending and snapping of walls as it made its way to wherever this room was located.

"It's always been us, and it will always be us," Akio petted her hair. She looked into his eyes for the first time and blanched. He looked completely deranged, any trace of the guy she had once known was gone and something broken was in his place. "I felt the way you kissed me back. I know you still want me."

"I did not kiss you back, you lunatic," Emmy snapped. Her ring would be here soon. She could feel it getting closer. "Are you high right now?" She scowled. "How did you even shoot up in the middle of an exploding mansion?"

He grinned at her dangerously, "Yeah, Emmy." Akio pulled his own syringe out of a pocket, shoving it into Emmy's arm and injecting before she could move. "I did some research. Just for you." He smiled at her livid expression. His low voice became a whisper, "Lanterns don't do well with drugs."

Emmy stopped trying to shrug the needle out of her arm and gaped at him. She had thought he was just in a crazed moment and trying to get her high, but he was trying to keep her from being able to use her ring. The final crack of the cement sounded, and her ring jumped to her finger. Emmy powered up immediately, breaking the chains around her body and punching Akio in the eye. He howled as she stumbled away from him.

She was dizzy. Her ring could counteract whatever the hell just put in her system, but it wouldn't be instantaneous.

"You are a sick, sick person, Akio," Emmy grabbed the back of the chair for support, the room spinning uncomfortably. "They'll give you therapy in prison."

"I ain't goin' to prison, Emery," he pouted. "It'll be us. Forever. Just us. I'm taking you somewhere safe."

Emmy blinked away the darkness invading her peripheral vision, "Like hell you are."

"I just killed someone for you!" Akio roared. His fist knocked the air out of Emmy's lungs before she registered his hand moving. Dammit, get the toxin out faster! Her ring complained about being rushed but Emmy wasn't listening. "You're an ungrateful bitch, Emery." Akio punched her again, but she blocked and kicked the side of his knee hard enough that he fell to a lunge. She tripped into the water, but turned on her hands and knees, trying to move forward. She felt like she was going to vomit while her head floated away like a lost balloon. The hell did he give me?

"You'll go where I fuckin' tell you," Akio kicked her in the side of the head and Emmy stuttered to the ground. Super healing suit or not, that fucking hurt. "No more fighting me. No more arguing. No more kids. It'll just be the two of us together forever." Akio yanked on her feet and started pulling her.

Emmy groaned, "Would you stop saying that?" She kicked at him until he was forced to drop her legs. She hit his throat with her foot and crawled out of the water as he gasped for breath. "It's not happening, Akio!"

"Why?" Akio yelled, voice strangled. "Why because I'm not him? That stupid little red fucker?"

"You know, what?" Emmy scowled and hated how it took two tries to stand up in her dizzy state. "Yeah. Sure! Because of fucking him. He's never drugged me and tried to kidnap me! You set the bar so damn low that he's a regular Casanova."

Emmy stumbled toward Bobby's bleeding corpse and grabbed the item she had been gradually making her way toward. She hit the bottom button; Akio shrieked as the electricity coursed through his body. Emmy waited until he fell to the ground in the middle of the puddle to turn it off. She was breathing heavily; her head felt like it was still growing. Are you even doing anything right now? Her ring sassed back a general feeling of, "You're still conscious, aren't you?"

Akio staggered to his feet, "You're mine. You belong to me!"

"No, I really fucking don't," Emmy scowled, trying to will her body to move as he got closer. Long after this moment ended, she would realize that it was the slowest fight of her life. Two drugged people were not the most effective combatants.

Akio was spouting more nonsense, his eyes rimmed in a thick red, completely unseeing. Whatever he was on had clipped the final strand of his sanity. Emmy blinked away more darkness, crawling away from him as much as she could.

"I'll just have to mark you," Akio muttered more that she couldn't hear. "Mark you as mine and everyone will know that you-"

Four gunshots rang out rapid fire. Emmy flinched at the loud noise echoing in her ear. She turned to her right with a stunned confusion.

Bobby was on his stomach, arm outstretched, gun in hand, "I always knew that kid was a fuckin' creep." He wheezed, blood coating his teeth red and dripping from his lips. He fell unconscious and Emmy vomited on her other side. She felt her head clear. The ring was helping. She rinsed her mouth out with the water in the puddle and pinched the bridge of her nose as hard as she could. Did Bobby just…help me?

A strangled choking noise sounded to her left and Emmy walked toward Akio on shaking legs. He had two wounds in his torso. She couldn't see if the other two shots had landed in him. Akio groaned, blood oozing out of his right shoulder and a few inches under his right rib cage. Emmy stuck a gloved hand into each of the wounds. Akio yelped in anguish, his eyes had lost their glazed quality, and he looked more like himself.

"Looks like getting shot's a fast way to sober up." She deadpanned.

"Shut the fuck up, Emerald," Akio moaned.

"Whatever, Ted Bundy, Junior," Emmy glared at him. "I'm going to cauterize these, and the bleeding should stop."

Each second cleared more of her vision, and she needed to get to Bobby next.

Akio whined as she added more pressure in each injury, "You'll never truly be happy, you know."

"You don't know shit, Park." Emmy scoffed, considering the best way to go about closing the wounds.

"No one could ever love you," Akio snarled. "You're a killer and a liar and a cheat and you're worthless. You'll never get a white picket fence and a happily ever after. I'm the only one who could ever love you for the worthless, broken, piece of shit that you are, and you pushed me away."

Emmy glared at him and pressed harder into each bullet hole, "If that's your idea of love, I don't want it."

"Your parents were right not to love you, and hell, if they didn't love you then what makes you think anyone else could?" He was glaring at her face, but Emmy removed her fingers without looking. It would probably be easiest to make a thin cylinder structure and focus her energy on heating it up until it burnt his exposed blood vessels.

"You deserve every fuckin' thing your parents did to you," Akio choked out. Emmy clenched her jaw and exhaled slowly. "I heard you in those nightmares. I know what you did to your mother. You killed her. You faked your death. You lit the house on fire, and you killed her. No one will ever love you because of that. You're a monster just like your father."

Emmy flinched away like she'd been hit. "I didn't know she was in the house," she muttered more to herself than Akio. "She wasn't supposed to be in the house."

"You're not a hero, and you never will be. You're just a mistake. A pathetic, useless mistake who can't even handle standing up to a guy in his fifties when you have a magic ring because as long as he's alive there's someone who wants to kill you, and at your core you know that you deserve to die at his hands," Emmy let each of Akio's words stab her because she felt she deserved it.

"Why do you think Sage and Hunter left you?" Akio grinned, coughing up a clot of blood. "Yeah, I figured that out. Even those two little kids can tell that having you in their lives will bring them nothing but misery."

Tears swam in Emmy's eyes, and she shoved two cylindrical structures into Akio, burning them as hot as she dared, "This is going to hurt." She snarled, "It doesn't have to, but I'm going to let it."

Akio screeched under her administrations, gasping for oxygen as she moved to do the same thing to the wound in Bobby's chest. He barely groaned when she burned him, and he made no noise when she dragged his body next to Akio's. It was probably time to move them out of the room and find her team.

Akio grabbed Emmy's forearm as she settled Bobby next to him, "You're going to kill the kids. You're going to be the reason they die, and when you're alone in the cemetery standing over their graves, just know that you deserve it. You deserve being completely alone."

Superboy chose that moment to crash into the room, knocking through the same wall her ring had crashed through. Effortlessly expanding the two-inch hole into a gaping cavern. The rest of the team ran in close behind him. Emmy quickly wiped the tears off her cheeks with the backs of her hands, but they'd already seen them. Robin and Kaldur wordlessly moved to get Bobby and Akio up from their positions. Megan flew to give Emmy a once-over to make sure she was fine. Artemis and Connor patted her on the back before helping move the two prisoners. Wally gave her one hard look and then left the room.

The team spent hours cleaning up their mess of a mission. The mansion was almost completely destroyed, but they had managed to get every single child out of the pods successfully, and only two of Bobby's guests had died before the team herded everyone else out of the falling building. Bobby and Akio were both sent to hospitals in America, and a few League members arrived to take the spotlight as they arrested the necessary partygoers. It was 1 in the morning by the time they debriefed Batman at the mountain, in their torn and dirty clothes, and they were all exhausted.

Emmy nodded absentmindedly at the slight praise he offered them. They saved all the children, obtained Bobby's ledger, and dealt with an unexpected series of bombs with only two casualties. Akio had survived his wound and surgeries, but Bobby had not. A part of Emmy was annoyed that Sparks would be unable to serve time for what he did, but she was too fatigued to care and more than a little relieved that the bounty on her family was officially nullified.

"You decimated the Sparks empire tonight," Batman nodded once, gruffly approving, "Get some sleep."

Emmy trudged toward her room. Her once gorgeous dress was now ripped in a myriad of places, covered in dust and ash, and still slightly wet from where she'd been sprayed by a busted waterpipe while putting it on because she didn't want to be in only her underwear under her uniform. She felt horrible. She kept replaying Akio's words over and over in her head. He was wrong about a lot of things, but he was right about a lot of things too. She was responsible for her mother's death. Her kids had only become happier since they started seeing her less. And maybe she did deserve what her father did to her. Maybe he could tell when she was a baby that she would end up like him and wanted to see how fast he could make it happen. All she wanted now was to sit in the shower, punch nine holes in the wall, and sleep until she forgot who she was.

She passed Wally, tiredly placing his pearl mask on one of his souvenir shelves, and her left heel chose that moment to break. It survived an entire mission but couldn't handle the last three minutes to her room. Emmy cursed lowly and removed the heels, sighing with relief at once again having her feet level with the ground. She rolled each ankle to dissipate some of the pain. Unfortunately, her wardrobe malfunction brought her face-to-face with a pissed speedster.

"Does that feel better?" Wally raised an eyebrow. He crossed his arm and leaned against the doorway, casual stance contradicting the angry glint in his eye. The bowtie and suit jacket had vanished during his eighth trip to remove people from the collapsing mansion. He was left in shoes, slacks, and a white button down with the sleeves haphazardly rolled up to his elbows. There were soot marks all over his shirt and the exposed skin, but Emmy was battling too many negative emotions to waste energy ogling the teen.

"Yes?" She replied slowly, with a raised eyebrow of her own. His tone revealed nothing, but she felt like he was walking her into a trap.

"Funny," his cold, blank expression barely hid the inferno underneath, "I thought you liked pain."

"Excuse you?"

"Yeah, you know," he gestured at her. "What with the innumerable bruises you're sporting from two different guys."

Emmy scoffed in disbelief, "Hey, if Salvatore would have been interested in biting your neck instead of mine, I would have gladly let you take my place."

Wally shifted against the doorway, "I was more referring to the handprint on your thigh. I'm just a little confused…when exactly did you have time to mess around with Park? Was it during the fifteen minutes you ran away from Megan and Artemis because, if so, that is impressive. Great commitment, really. Inspired."

Emmy chuckled humorlessly, "I did not fuck Park in the Park, or at all, if that's what you're insinuating."

"And yet you were more than happy to let him run his mouth in the Bioship and kiss you at the gala instead of accepting my help," Wally ticked his points off on his fingers.

"I never said no to your help, Einstein," Emmy crossed her arms. "Akio just showed up and grabbed me. It worked and it's over, so I don't see what the problem is."

Wally laughed harshly, "You don't see what the problem is? How'd you get the bruise, Emery?"

She snarled at him, "Do not call me that. And how the hell do you think I got it, Wallace? The maniac grabbed me and bruised me. I did not and would never sleep with the criminal in my custody, but you know what? If I did, it wouldn't be any of your business." She put her hands on her hips, "And I can tell that's not what you're actually mad about so why don't you just get to the point."

"Am I mad the asshole bruised you? Hell yeah, I am. Am I mad you didn't feel the need to tell anyone about it? Yeah, that too," Wally's fingers gripped his forearms even tighter. "But sure, you want to know what's really pissing me off? You. Cut. Me. Out."

Emmy blinked in surprise, arms falling to her sides.

"You…" Wally frowned at himself, revealing more than he had intended to, "You cut us out, Emmy. The whole team. You were tied up in a room somewhere, no back-up, and you severed the fucking link. Why the hell did you do that?"

"I-" Emmy took a step back like that could get her farther from the expectation of the truth. "I had it handled. I didn't need back-up."

Wally grunted at her. "You were afraid, Emmy. I know you're not used to feeling like that with your Power Ring and your endless willpower, but it's a normal, human emotion." Wally's hands waved in the air for a moment. "We all felt it coming from you. Something terrified you and then instead of letting me-or anyone of us, come help you, you disappeared! Do you have any idea how scary that was for us?"

Guilt tugged on Emmy's stomach for the hundredth time that night and she sneered at the speedster. "I don't need babysitters. I was fine. I had Akio and Bobby in custody by the time you guys showed up. I didn't need to be rescued."

"You could have told us that!" Wally hit the doorway with the side of his right hand. "You could have just told us that, Emmy. But instead, you forced us out of your head, and we all had to leave our own assignments to come find you because you're our teammate, and we weren't just going to let you be alone with Sparks!"

"I didn't ask any of you to do that," Emmy glared.

"You don't have to ask your team for help, Emmy." Wally ran a hand down his face. "For fucks sake, how do you not still get that we are as much a family as we are a team. No man left behind, ever heard of it?"

"I don't need some ragtag group of teens helping me out of pity or misplaced loyalty or whatever the hell you guys think," Emmy snapped. "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, and I already have a family."

"Yeah, how's that working out for you?" Wally clipped back at her, not even remotely enjoying the way Emmy bristled. "You have one family running away from you and yet you're running away from another one. Does that seem like a good idea to you? If you could cool your anger for five seconds you would be able to see that none of us pity you and the loyalty isn't fucking misplaced."

Emmy couldn't breathe for a moment. She couldn't remember ever being this mad at Wally. She had spent years of her life with Akio just for him to betray her in practically every way possible. His words from earlier tonight had torn open wounds that she had never been able to fully heal, and now Wally was making solid points she was too enraged to consider.

"I'm the angry one?" Emmy scowled. "Which one of us started a fist fight for no reason tonight, huh, Lover Boy?"

Wally frowned, "Oh you mean when you asked for a distraction, and I delivered? Is that what you're trying to spin into an irrational choice?"

Emmy scoffed, "You kept fighting after I was out of the room. It was just some pissing competition! 'Keep your hands off of her'? 'Don't touch her again'? I mean, really, what the hell is the matter with you Wally?"

"Me? You said you needed a distraction, and I gave you one," Wally replied with a frown. "It's not my fault if you didn't like the one I provided."

"I have no problem with anyone punching Akio in the face, let's make that clear," Emmy put her right pointer finger in the air between them. "But I do have a problem with you telling him to back off. I am perfectly capable of getting him to leave me alone on my own. I don't need some knight is shining spandex to run in and save me."

"Are you serious right now?" Wally scoffed. "Are you doing your move? You pull people close to distract them, and then send them packing when you suddenly decide to be independent? Hate to break it to you, Emerald, but you don't let your friends get manhandled by cocky assholes without doing anything about it."

It just pissed Emmy off more that he was right, "I wasn't sending you packing. But really? Your brilliant idea of a distraction is hurting someone who's actively working with us?"

"Ha!" Wally let out a sharp bark of laughter before gritting his teeth and sardonically replying, "Do you not realize that the only reason we were able to find you was through the tracker Rob put on that bastard? We had no idea where you were, Akio was in the wind, and we had to bet your life that he really was a worthless lowlife just to find you. I should have broken his jaw when I had the chance."

Emmy's eyebrows raised on their own accord. In the chaos of the mission's aftermath, she had not stopped to ask the team how they got to her. Wally misinterpreted her surprise.

"Oh, sorry I didn't realize you were still trying to protect him after he hurt you, drugged you, and tried to kidnap you." He scowled.

"I'm not! But you have done nothing but act like a jealous boyfriend since the moment he showed up, and you have no reason to act like either of those things!" Emmy instantly regretted that comment after seeing the pain flash across Wally's eyes, but it left his visage as soon as it appeared.

"That's rich coming from you," the speedster huffed indignantly.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Emmy threw her hands back on her hips.

"When did I smash a cake in his face, exactly?" Wally tilted his head again. "You trying to tell me you did that for my benefit? You implying that I couldn't handle Stacy myself?"

Emmy's left eye twitched. "Fine! I don't like Stacy. You don't like Akio. Who cares? That has nothing to do with the fact that you didn't trust me to handle a situation that I said I had handled!"

"We were on a mission! We needed you to talk to us and all you did was shove us away." Wally had never felt more exasperated in his almost sixteen years. "You could have died! What, because of an ego thing? Because you wanted to be the one who brought in Bobby all by yourself?"

The speedster frowned and took a step toward Emmy, "You didn't bring him in, Emmy. You brought in his corpse, and it just as easily could have been yours because you wrote me off, and I don't know why you won't just admit that!"

"I had everything handled on my own, Wallace," Emmy clenched her jaw again. "It's not my fault that you have separation anxiety!"

"Emerald," Wally scowled at her, fists clenching by his side. "The villains are the ones who don't trust their teammates, remember?"

"What would you know about criminals?" Emmy snipped back. "You've only ever seen them from behind your uncle's back."

"Unbelievable," Wally ran a hand through his disheveled hair. "We go on that mission for you, and you essentially tell us to fuck off. All we have ever done is try to help you. The way you're acting right now makes me think that if you didn't get that ring, you would still just be another criminal!"

Emmy's mouth fell open. She couldn't hide her flinch.

Wally just stepped even closer to her, "I saw you crying over Park when we oh-so-callously came to make sure you were alive. He survived surgery, so enjoy your lifetime of biannual conjugal visits with Kidnapping Prison Boy."

Emmy's nostrils flared for a minute; her teeth ground together. It occurred to her that they had stepped increasingly closer with each riposte. The anger and hurt in her gut were such a far cry from how adored she felt when they stood together in the kitchen a few hours ago that she almost laughed.

She glowered at him instead, "Don't worry, Wallace. I won't kiss you as a distraction even though I'm such a lawless lowlife."

"Good," Wally snapped, "I don't want you to."

"You know what, Wally?" Emmy threw her hands up. "You like space so much, why don't you fucking give me some?"

They stormed away from each other, their mutual rage doing its best to cover the ever-expanding chasm between them.

Ooo...drama. You just have to trust your team some, Emmy. Gosh.

In other news, this is the longest chapter I've done so far, and I didn't mean for it to be.

-TheDarkAbyss

xarcadiax-I'm glad you liked it! Sage is coming around slowly, and this time Emmy was the one being immature instead of Wally.

KirikaAndo-Akio could definitely have a redemption story, but sometimes I think it's good to show people who are just blatantly abusive. Not everyone changes and there's nothing wrong with cutting toxic people out of our lives.

CherryGuy- You know it :P

Cozy Owl- Thank you, and you're so right ;) About running and Akio.

NotZerno- I'm so happy to hear that you've joined the reader-base. Yeah I made the League a little OOC for my own convenience lol