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It only took a week for Catherine to work her magic and convince the UN to have a vote to decide Inferno's fate. Even with Donna and Garth's assurances that they should have just enough votes to clear the charges, Mallory still couldn't keep from nervously pacing back and forth in the closet-sized back room they'd stuck her in.

"Calm down, it'll be fine. All you have to do is make a public statement, you've done it a dozen times," Superman said from his chair by the door.

"I've never had to make a plea for my freedom before. What happens if they were wrong, if the vote doesn't go my way? They're going to expect me to turn myself in, and you know I can't do that. What am I going to do, fight my way out? Against the ambassadors for every major country on the planet? Even if I did, I could never go out again, not with a warrant out and my presence being an international incident, and–"

"Inferno," Superman interrupted her snowballing thoughts, "you're overthinking this. Trust Troia and Tempest, they wouldn't have put you here if they weren't sure. And if things don't go our way, we'll deal with it then. Just take a breath, calm down. You don't want to go out there looking scared. Make them see that you know you aren't guilty." She took a breath, smoothing her face and releasing the tension in her muscles, and nodded slowly. Someone knocked on the door and he looked at her. "You ready?" he asked.

She shrugged. "As I'll ever be," she replied, pulling open the door.

A young woman was on the other side holding a clipboard with a timer on it. "Ms. Cobert will be introducing you in thirty seconds, you'll need to be ready to give your speech."

"Thank you," she replied distractedly.

"And…" the girl added, and Mallory tilted her head, waiting for further instructions, but instead she said, "I…I'm sorry you have to do this. You don't deserve it."

Mallory glanced at Clark, who was smiling. "That's a little premature, isn't it?" she asked. "That's what the next few minutes are going to decide."

The girl shook her head. "Everyone knows you didn't do any of those things," she assured her. "I get the feeling that you don't know how much you mean to people."

She froze, not knowing what to say. She'd spent the last month and a half hearing about how much people hated her, it was a shock to hear that there were still some out there that believed in her. Clark put a hand on her shoulder, bringing her out of her head, and she managed a small smile. "Thank you," she said, "that means more than you'll ever know."

They walked past her to the side of the stage, waiting for their cue to join Catherine on the podium, and Clark leaned down so she would be the only person to hear him. "Still worried?"

She smiled, not answering as she walked out onto the stage at Catherine's beckoning. She looked out at the sea of diplomats in front of her, some with anger or suspicion on their faces, others with sympathy and understanding. She found Donna and Garth, focusing on their supportive presence as she began her practiced speech. "As you know, you are here today to decide whether the accusations brought against me by the media are true, or false. All I can say is that nothing is true, but that's really for you to decide. But really, you are here to settle another issue that has been festering for over a year now: do the heroes of the world deserve your support, or are you trying to get rid of them one at a time by perverting what we stand for. The choice is yours."

Garth smiled, nodding slightly, and she returned it, stepping back for the secretary general to take the podium. Luthor was smiling warmly at her, but the smirk was hiding in his eyes as he passed her, and she couldn't help but get in a dig.

"Your plan won't work," she hissed, turning her back so the ambassadors wouldn't see the hatred in her eyes as she glared at him.

"Why, Inferno, I don't know what you mean," he replied innocently. His eyes turned to stone and he leaned closer to her, his lips right next to her ear as he murmured, "you're making a mistake."

She recoiled, fighting the shudder that was trying to come at the feeling of his breath on her neck. "If that's what you think, then I know I'm doing the right thing," she shot back, and she continued walking to stand beside Superman, stiffening her spine to cover the fact that her nerves were starting to come back. She'd done everything she could, now her future was completely out of her hands. It was a horrible feeling.

"Well, that was a powerful statement," Lex said up on the podium. "And now, with those words fresh in our minds, it is time to vote."

The voting process was predicted to take forty minutes, and the heroes were asked to leave the room when it started to allow the delegates to feel safe to vote their minds, whatever that was supposed to imply. They were ushered back into the closet room, and Mallory immediately resumed her pacing. Clark didn't say anything about it this time, though. He was just as jittery as she was, the nervous tightening and loosening of his fist the tell tale sign.

"You could probably get out from the skylight if I create a distraction," he said suddenly.

She stopped pacing. "What?"

"You know, if it's not a good vote, you could probably get out from the skylight."

She nodded, remembering thinking the same thing right before she went out on stage. "How long has it been?" she asked.

He checked the clock on the wall, the one she hadn't even bothered to notice. "Forty-three minutes."

"What's taking them so long?" she complained, rubbing her arm.

"It's a big decision, they're just trying to make sure they make the right decision."

She nodded. It was a big decision. The result of this vote would set a precedent for future cases built against other heroes without any proof. Suddenly, there were footsteps running towards their little room, and they both stiffened, exchanging a grim look.

"Skylight," Clark reminded her.

She nodded once and turned to the door, getting ready to run. When it burst open, though, Garth was the one that spilled through, with Donna and Catherine right behind him. The Atlantean had her off the ground and spinning around in a circle before her mind could catch up with the situation. When he put her back down, she kept her hands on his shoulders, staring at the three newcomers.

"I… I won?" she asked slowly.

"Yes! By a landslide. Apparently they took what you said about supporting heroes to heart," Donna said.

"Inferno can go on as many missions and patrols as she wants, all charges are dropped," Garth told her.

She laughed, her nerves flying away with the sound. She looked at Clark, her relief mirrored on his face. "I can't believe it!" she said.

"Neither can I," Catherine said, though she was smiling. "Congratulations, Inferno. You are free as a bird. Just do me a favor and avoid another situation like this one. I do not think I can take another round of this."

She nodded, wrapping her arms around the woman. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Donna interrupted the moment, tilting her head and saying, "what will your first legal mission in forty-two days be?"

She smiled. "Actually, I have that covered…"

She flew through the streets of Metropolis, swerving around the buildings and shooting straight up, all with her brother on her back.

"How does it feel?" he asked, leaning over further than she thought he would have if he hadn't known if he fell she would catch him.

"Great," she replied, because she couldn't think of the word that described the exact blend of freedom, relief, and support that was stirring in her chest.

"Crash. So...are we going to look for some actual crime, or are we just going to fly around the whole time?"

"I haven't decided," she said, shooting over the top of the globe.

"Oh, come on, you promised me some action, and I only have an hour before I have to head over to Taos."

"That's still happening?" Mallory asked. "Tara didn't seem like she was getting ready when I stopped by Roy's this morning."

"Yeah, well, that's because she's not coming," he said.

There was something strange in his tone, and she glanced over her shoulder to look at him. "What?"

"I don't know, there's just something about her I don't like."

"Peter…" Mallory started, planning to lecture him about giving her a chance, and how much she'd been through, but he cut her off before she could begin.

"It's not that," he said. He sighed. "It's not really anything to do with her. It's Gar."

The pyrokinetic looked back ahead, starting to understand her brother's aversion to the newest member of the team. Gar had taken a liking to her, but she wasn't reciprocating the attention. "She's allowed to not want to be in a relationship, you know," she said.

"I wish it was that easy," he scoffed. "She won't just let him down easy, she keeps leading him on, she'll give him attention one day and the next it's like she's a block of ice. I don't get it. And, I mean, it's not even her. Gar's been different since she joined the team."

"Like how?" Mallory asked. She hadn't noticed anything different about the green boy, and she'd been spending more time than usual around all of the team with her suspension.

"Well, like today. The whole point of delaying the festival was so Perdita could come in and have some fun without all the media attention, and Gar knew that, but it was like he forgot all about that when Tara said she didn't want to go. He tried everything, including having Perdita come later so it would just be the team there."

"That doesn't sound like him. You guys and Perdita, you're the squad."

He shook his head. "Please never say that again."

She chuckled. "Fine. But why wouldn't Tara be comfortable with Perdita? They've known each other their whole lives, their countries are practically right next to each other."

He shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. "Makes it worse, though, that he's so stupid that he doesn't even see that she's jealous of Tara."

"Jealous? Why?" Mallory asked. Her brother raised an eyebrow, and she realized what he meant and sucked in a breath. "Oooohh, Perdita likes Gar. Wow, how did I not know that already?"

"'Cause you're just as stupid as he is."

"Hey, I will dump you right here," she warned, turning so her back, and her brother, were facing the ground miles below.

He didn't even flinch. "Go ahead, I need to go anyway. I'm meeting someone before I go to Taos."

She righted herself, looking at him. "Who?" He was quiet for a moment, and she squinted a little, studying his face. "It's not…you're not bringing that girl Jinx to the festival, are you?" He looked away guiltily and she shook her head, landing on the nearest roof and dumping him off her back. "Really, Vig?"

"What? I heard you brought Icicle Jr to the farm. If you can have a bad guy for a friend, why can't I?"

She rolled her eyes. "Jr's not a bad guy, not anymore, anyway. He's done. And don't try to justify your actions by bringing up my bad decisions."

"She doesn't want to be on that side," he said.

Mallory sighed. She didn't know that she believed that, but her brother clearly did, and she really wasn't in a position to be judging. She nodded. "All right. Have you offered to help her?"

He nodded. "It's…complicated."

She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and pulled it out to check. "Well, you should probably get going," she told him, showing him the time.

He nodded. "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"No," she assured him, then she smirked and added, "for two reasons. One, you're not scared of anyone on the League anymore, anyway, and two, Bart's going to find out about her today if he doesn't already know, and he'll have told everyone for me by tonight."

"Thanks a lot," he muttered, masking the sincerity with a sarcastic tone.

"My pleasure," she replied, copying the mix. He pulled out his grappling hook, and she watched as he jumped off the roof, making sure he caught himself before flying over to her apartment. Now that she could be patrolling, she wanted to find a good mission to go on, and she knew just where to start looking.

She poured over her old notes for hours, picking up on her investigation of the off-world metas with a fresh eye and new motivation. The zeta tube signatures, the locations, the estimated list of kids that may have been in those shipments based on the disappearances, the partners already known to be working with the mysterious partner, the additional evidence gathered by the Green Lanterns and Razor. It just felt…off. When she'd first figured it out, she thought the puzzle was complete, that the investigation was over and all they had to do was find out who the partner was and shut them down. Now, though, with a fresh perspective, it didn't seem quite so simple. The reason they'd never found out who the partner was was because they still hadn't found out everything going on on their own planet. There had to be communications being sent, in order for them to know where and when to send the shipments. If they weren't coming in person via boomtubes, then…how were they being sent? Even if Vandal Savage was meeting with the partner in person with the War World, he had to be getting the messages back to the Earth-based members of the Light somehow.

She twisted her lips together in concentration, but after a few minutes she grabbed her phone and called Roy. He picked up after two rings, putting her on facetime.

"Hey."

"Hey, you got a few minutes to be a soundboard?" she asked, flipping screens as she continued to pour over all of the evidence and theories she'd complied.

"Sure, what about?"

"Roy, did you get the noodles for dinner?" Artemis called from the kitchen.

"Yeah, in the cabinet."

"I don't see them, can you come here?"

"In a minute, Mallory's on the phone."

A second later the archer leaned over the back of the sofa. "Hey, Mal. You want to come over? I'm about to start cooking, I can make enough for you."

"No, I'll stick to the leftover takeout in the fridge. But hang on, I could use your thoughts, too."

"On what?"

"I've been going over all the notes on the kids' disappearances after the Reach left, but I think we missed something. We tracked all of the boom tube signatures, and we confirmed the ones that were sending out kids, and we know which ones we were involved in, and that only leaves a handful of rogue signatures, mostly in the Metropolis area for some reason."

"Ok, so what's the problem? We already knew all that," Roy pointed out.

"The problem is, if they aren't communicating with boomtubes, how else could they get the messages through from space to Earth?"

"Well…the Lanterns send communications with their rings, and the League sends zeta beam holograms. Maybe something like that," Artemis suggested.

"Except that all zeta beams are monitored by the League after the Kroleteans, so any rogue signals would have been flagged and investigated already."

"So it has to be something else," Roy filled in.

"How can I scan for other communications?" Mallory asked.

"You could ask Kyle or John how the Lantern rings work, maybe run through the League computer to see what other signals are capable of traveling through space," the dad suggested.

There was some movement in the background and Tara came into the frame a moment later. "Why do you want to find this out?" she asked.

Mallory shrugged. "Well, if I can find a way to trace the communications, I can find out who's on both ends, which means we could finally pin the kidnappings on the Light, and we could follow the signals back to their partner. Wait, who do we know that communicates with the partner?"

"The Light?" Artemis answered, like she thought it was a trick question.

"Right, so where would be a better place to start looking than with them? Luthor did tick me off at the UN, I could start with him. Maybe I can recruit the Quitters to give me a hand?" she suggested, looking at her friends on her screen.

Roy shook his head. "Still semi-retired, remember? Nothing out of the country, that's the rule."

"Ok, so I can give you Luthor and I'll take Queen Bee," she said, faking annoyance.

"Great, you know you really make me miss all those missions we did as Quitters, with you bullying me. You didn't even care where we were, a hostage situation, intergang HQ, it didn't matter, you—" he trailed off when he saw the thoughtful look come over her face. "What?"

She took her time, going back in her mind to when she, Roy, and Dick had infiltrated the Manheim mansion in Metropolis years earlier looking for something connected with intergang, she didn't even remember what it was. What she did remember, as clearly as if she was still standing there, was the boom tube that opened right before they left, with the hand and green sleeve sticking out. "Ugly," she muttered.

"What is?" Artemis asked, but Mallory saw the recognition on Roy's face.

"Ugly Manheim? You really think he's mixed up in all this?"

She shrugged, typing furiously to test her theory. "There! Almost every rogue boom tube signal in the Metropolis area is around Intergang territory. Look," she blew up the Manheim mansion, pointing out almost a dozen signals, she'd nearly overlooked most of them because they were all overlapping each other, coming from almost exactly the same spot.

"It could be unrelated…" Artemis said, but she didn't sound like she believed it.

"It's worth checking out," Mallory replied. "Ugh, I can't believe I didn't see this before! Intergang is connected to the Light, they're the middleman between the Light and the partner, keeping the public members clean from the trafficking and satisfying the contracts."

"You do not know that for certain," Tara said from the background.

"Maybe not," Roy put in, "but it's worth paying Ugly a visit. I'll back you up."

"Me, too," Artemis said. "When do you want to go?"

"You are wasting your time," Tara said forcefully, drawing the full attention of all three heroes on the call. Her eyes widened at there confused stares, and for a second she seemed to try to fold into herself, but then she continued, looking more determined. "I was the merchandise for two years, I never heard anything about this Intergang being the bigger organization. It was Bedlam, and the others, which is what you should be focusing on. There are hundreds of kids still in those rings, fighting to the death in some places, and you sit here chasing the breadcrumbs that will lead to nothing!"

"Tara," Artemis started, trying to get the girl to calm down, but she shook her head.

"I cannot believe that my brother has such faith in you. You just sit here and follow these, these–"

"Leads," Mallory finished for her, calmly forcing herself into the girl's rants. "Tara, I hoped you trusted us more than that. Just because you didn't hear anything about a bigger player doesn't mean that there isn't one. Going after the smaller rings, while it would help the kids in the immediate situation, would just be putting a band-aide on the bigger problem. The only way we shut all of it down is if we find this partner and take them down so we can stop them from boom tubing kids off world. If Intergang has any kind of connection to that, it's worth looking into."

The girl stood there for a moment, Mallory's words sinking in slowly, then she just scoffed and stormed out of the room, leaving the friends looking at each other, perplexed. Roy got things back on track, though.

"So, when do you want to go? Tonight?"

"Not tonight," Artemis said quickly before Mallory could answer. "Sorry, but I have to finish grading those papers tonight, or I won't get grades in on time. Tomorrow?"

Roy nodded. "Tomorrow works for me."

"Me, too," Mallory agreed. "Let's just make it tomorrow night, we have work, and then I need to swing by the Watchtower and get the zeta tube records off the computer, just to make sure we're covering all the bases."

They finished making their plans, including asking Conner and Dick to join them, and the call was cut short with V'lana and Lian coming in from the front door, both saying that they were hungry. "All right, I have to get dinner started," Artemis said.

Mallory nodded, said a quick hello and goodbye to the newcomers, and they hung up, leaving the pyrokinetic anticipating the mission the next night.

When Peter called a few minutes later, he filled her in on the kidnapping plot they'd foiled at the festival, and how Jinx had helped them get Perdita back. "She fits right in," he told her.

"That's great. Maybe she'll think about joining up."

He kept talking, telling her the rest of the details, but for the rest of the night, she couldn't get her mind off the coming mission.