Despite the fact that she had been issued with a League com, Persie never really expected to be called in as backup for either the Young Justice or Justice League teams. Even after she and Wally had become aware of the other's...extracurricular activities and her identity had been revealed to the team -with Nightwing doing an admirable job of pretending to be surprised- and she had been welcomed with open arms if a little suspicion, she hadn't really expected that suspicion to allow them to ask her to watch their backs. She didn't begrudge them that though. She got the impression that the team had all become fiercely protective of Wally after he had, apparently been sent several days into the future as a result of running too fast and being blasted by unknown energy beams, and they had though him dead.

So when the com began beeping and a blue light began to flash she snatched it up and shoved it into her ear, abandoning the incredibly slow moving essay with relish. "Oceania here." she announced.

"Oceania!" Came Wally's familiar voice, out of breath and oddly distracted.

"You alright, Blaze?" she asked, assuming the codenames were being used for a reason and Wally wasn't using the League issue coms to catch up.

"We could use a hand." Wally admitted as the sounds of battle finally filtered through to her and she eagerly abandoned her desk and reached for her costume.

"What's happening?" she demanded as she pulled her Kevlar reinforced blue shirt over her head and kicked off her ugg boots.

"The Injustice League attacked Metropolis." Came Wally's voice. "We figure that Luthor had another problem with Supes and maybe some kinda custody battle or something." he said, words getting faster and slower alternately as he fought. "A lot of other villains showed u to join in and now there's a massive battle happening, we need backup. You right to come?"

Persie nodded as she quickly wove her hair back into a braid and shoved her plumed helmet onto her head before remembering that Wally couldn't see her. "Yep. On my way. Nightwing and Robin installed a zeta beam not too far from here, I'll be there soon."

"See ya, Princess." Was his parting remark before the link died and Persie jumped out of the window after double checking her weapons and gathered the moisture from the humidity-filled air to guide her three blocks over to where the beam had been installed in a long operational telephone box.

When the beam spat her out in the centre of Metropolis she instantly heard the sounds of battle which had been muted through Wally's com. Ducking out from the alley where the beam exited in a dumpster, Persie immediately had to dodge a brick as it went flying past her head and smashed into the wall behind her. Without further prompting, Persie leapt into the battle compromised of almost every hero she had ever heard of plus several others and what had to be every villain they had ever associated with.

Launching herself into the fray, Persie was immediately granted two opponents which she disarmed and knocked out with enough force to ensure unconsciousness for several hours. As she waded through the battle, she activated her com once more. "Blaze? Come in, Blaze." A thug tried to take advantage of her apparent distraction and ended up hogties on the ground with a mouthful

of dirt.

"Blaze here." Came the reply. "Oceania? Areyoualright?" In his haste, Wally's words began to blur together.

"I'm fine Blaze." she assured him. "I've arrived in the south side of the city on..." she looked around her as she gave one baddie a roundhouse kick, stabbed another in the arm and smashing the hilt of her sword on the helmet of one so hard, his eyeballs shook in his head before rolling back in his head and his body collapsed in a heap, smashing one of his comrades under his girth. She rattled off the names of the street signs she could see whilst still concentrating on the fight around her. It had been so long since she'd had a proper fight and not a spar or a poorly balanced fight with a mugger that her blood was fizzing in her veins, demigod senses on high alert. It was the best adrenaline rush she'd had in years.

"We're all over at the base of Lexcorp Tower." Wally relayed. "Bats told us to stop anyone else from getting in but I think we're gonna need a hand. Deathstroke's here and gunning for Nightwing."

Persie swore and leapt into the air, using all the water she could from the humid air, sweat, tears of pain or rage and melting ice to both keep her up and soak the villains in a ten metre radius. When they froze into immobile yet non-lethal blocks of ice, Persie looked around and nodded with a small smile at Captain Cold who-like his fellow Flash Rogues-had apparently decided that fighting all those heroes was a bad idea. Cold grinned back at her and gave her a salute with his gun and leapt back into the battle, his path marked only by the ice statues that sprung into being. As she soared above the fight and began to make her way over to where she could see Kaldur's own water powers, Persie gathered water from the villains below, dehydrating them enough to be taken down easier before she dumped it over a group of fire users trying to trap Aqualad.

Kaldur nodded his thanks to her as she passed by and using her height, Persie searched for Deathstroke while deflecting all shots fired at her. When she finally spotted the mercenary, he was driving Nightwing up against the wall of the Lexcorp tower his two swords doing much more damage than the hero's eskrima sticks.

Persie didn't think twice. Hitting the ground running she readjusted her grip on her swords and easily gained the one-eyed man's attention. He smirked when he saw her and her twin swords before abandoning his fight with Nightwing in favour of her. The people around them quickly gave them room and no one dared try to interfere. Persie didn't blame them. She hadn't had the chance to fight against an opponent with swords that weren't training dummies for years and to finally fight against a master at the art was both terrifying and exhilarating. They both slashed and stabbed, practically twirling around each other in a deadly dance where neither was afraid to fatally hurt the other. It only ended when Batman and Superman intervened, Superman seizing Deathstroke in a steel grip and forcing him to drop his swords while Batman broke a pellet of knockout gas in his face. The silver haired man snarled even as his struggles weakened and the expression remained on his face even after he had gone limp and had been taken away to an extremely secure prison by the man of steel.

Persie panted harshly and when Wally's hands landed on her arms and it was only thanks to Wally's speed that he was saved from having his hands sliced off. She let her arms drop but managed to sheath her swords by the time Wally appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and letting her lean back into him. "Well done, Oceania." Batman growled, patting her on the shoulder. "Get yourself to one of the Lanterns. They're transporting people to the tubes directly to Medical in the Watchtower."

"Medical?" She questioned, looking down at herself and blinking at the dents in the her armour and the slashes in her clothes where her armour didn't cover it and blood was dripping down her hand. "Oh. Yeah, might be an idea." she looked up at Batman. "You don't happen to have any nectar or ambrosia do you?"

He gave her an almost invisible smile, a bare twitch of the lips. "I believe there is some I can part with."

"You know." Persie said as she sagged against her boyfriend. "You're not as bad as everyone seems to think."

"Only sometimes." Batman allowed and Wally let out a slightly hysterical chuckle behind them. "You fought well." Batman told her with another slightly awkward pat on the shoulder. "I do not believe that anyone else has lasted that long in a fight against Deathstroke and hardly anyone managed to land as many hits as you did."

"But what were you thinking?" Wally cried. "Why the fuck did you go up against that by yourself? Huh? You could have been killed! No one has taken on Deathstroke alone and won!"

"And what, I'm not good enough to take on someone you can't?" Persie snarled, ripping herself from Wally's embrace and stumbling as the wounds on her legs throbbed, the adrenaline in her veins gone and now the pain was a constant and strong ache. "Am I to be some gods-damned damsel in distress for you to swoop in and rescue?"

"N-no." Wally stuttered, shock coating his features from behind his auburn-lensed goggles. "No, it's not that..." he trailed off, rubbing at a wound on his arm but before he could continue, Persie's leg collapsed and she swore even as Batman seized her elbow to support her.

"Fuck that." she snapped, moaning softly as her wounds were agitated. "I live my own life, what gives you the right to tell me what to do?" she gasped in pain as Batman began to lead her away towards the green glow of the few lanterns who were preparing to transport the next group of the injured to the watchtower medbay.

"She may just need time to cool." Batman said to Wally who was standing dejectedly beside them, staring at the practically the unconscious woman. "Come see her once she's been healed." Wally watched them walk away, the further they went, the more Persie seemed to need Batman's support until he was essentially carrying her. With every step they took, all Wally could think of was how much he wished he was in Batman's position, leading what could possibly be the love of his life to the medical attention she needed after one of the most amazing battles he had ever seen.

oOo

When Persie woke her armour had been removed and she was just left in her black pants and her blue shirt. Thanks to her armour her clothes hadn't actually been all that damaged in the fight but as she gently tensed all her muscles to see how much damage she had sustained in the overall battle and then the fight with Deathstroke-which had to be one of the more difficult fights she had ever had-she found herself wincing slightly when she moved the parts of her body which hadn't been covered and a dull ache in her muscles.

"Perse?" Persie's eyes snapped open and she looked to the side to see Wally sitting at her bedside and looking remarkably like a kicked puppy. He was still in his Blaze uniform even though it was singed in places and had a few holes, hair falling dejectedly over his forehead and his eyes large and pitiful. "Can we talk please, baby?"

Persie felt a bit...distant from the conversation as if she were slightly apart from her body and suddenly realised that only now was it lessening. "What drugs am I on?" she said instead and Wally blinked once before he smiled at her.

"Good stuff?"

Persie nodded and her head flopped slightly. "I don't really need it all do I?"

"A little. You weren't all that bad but one shot to your stomach almost started internal bleeding. Midnite thinks that the impact of Deathstroke's sword on your armour caused a big enough impact to put enough pressure on the impact site to almost cause the internal injury."

Persie lifted up the sheets covering her stomach and Wally helped her gently peel her shirt up off her stomach to reveal the livid black bruise that was beginning to go slightly green. "Gross." she murmured. "That one's gonna hurt for a while."

Wally nodded fiddling with the edge of a bandage on her wrist. "I'd say so." he agreed. "Can-can we talk now?"

"Are you gonna break up with me?" Persie blurted, twisting the sheets in her hands. Wally blinked. "W-w-what? Why would I break up with you?"

Persie shrugged. "I dunno." she muttered. "You were really angry and I was pissed off and I almost cut off your arms."

Wally snorted and looked away but Persie could see the hints of a smile on his face. "I was scared, Perse." he admitted softly. "You were fighting Deathstroke and I couldn't help you. I thought he was going to kill you."

"Did you doubt me?" she asked playfully a small smirk on her face.

Wally blanched and his face went white. "N-n-no?" he replied making it sound like a question and eying the tap at the other end of the room.

Persie reached out and took his hand, running her thumb over his knuckles. "Will we be ok, Walls?"

He smiled back at her and she heard the heart monitor pick up the pace slightly in time with the thudding in her chest. "Yeah. I think we will be, Persephone." he pressed a sweet kiss to her forehead and tactfully ignored the jump in the heart monitor and the blush in her cheeks.