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The next day, Mallory was downtown in Metropolis, on comms with Artemis and Conner to try to figure out what their next move was with Dick ignoring them. She had just come out of the grocery store when her phone rang, and she had to pause by a bench to shift her bags around and answer the unknown number. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Inferno's phone?"

Mallory's eyes widened and her heart leapt to her throat, alarm spiking in her chest. "Um, who is this?"

"It's Dr. Jace. I hope you don't mind the intrusion, but you didn't give me a way to get in touch with you."

"Yeah, I thought I told you that when we knew what we were doing we would get in touch with you."

The woman laughed on the other end of the phone, clearly not picking up on the anger in her voice. "Yes, well, I'm an impatient woman. I tend to take things into my own hands."

"How do you have this number?" Mallory asked.

"Oh, I heard one of your friends use your name on the ride back to the States, and since it was you who brought me to the Luthor Grand in Metropolis I assumed this was where you lived, and since I saw you use fire I assumed that you were Inferno. From there, it was just some simple research and watching news footage. Don't worry, though. Your secret is safe with me. Now, I'd like to talk about Brion. Where do you have him? Is he all right? Can I see him?"

Mallory shook her head, furious that it was so easy to find out who she was just based on a first name and a location. "Look, I can't tell you anything more than what I told you the night of. The prince is fine, he's being taken care of, and we'll reach out to you when there's something to tell. Look, nothing personal, but I'd like some kind of assurance that you'll keep my identity a secret. It's not exactly something that I like to advertise."

"Oh, don't worry, you can trust me," the doctor said.

Mallory rolled her eyes, letting out a breath. "Ok, sure. If that's it…?"

"You didn't answer my question. Can I see him?"

She rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm not the only one involved here, but at this point I'm gonna say–"

"Please, Inferno. Can you at least come meet with me? I have to know that the prince is all right, and I just don't feel reassured over the phone."

Mallory put the phone down, groaned, then put it back to her ear. "Fine, I'll be back in the city this afternoon, probably around three. Is that good for you?"

"Yes, yes, thank you. Where should I meet you?"

"I'll come by the Grand and pick you up, we can't talk in the hotel, but there's a park not far from there."

"Again, thank you."

Mallory hung up without another word, pocketing her phone and picking up her bags. "Did you hear that?" she asked, not sure if the comm had picked up both sides of the conversation.

"Yeah. Why is it so easy to figure out your secret id?" Artemis asked.

"I don't know, but I'm gonna have it out with Dick if he ever returns a call. He's supposed to be in charge of that."

"So you're gonna meet with her?" Conner asked. "I'm kind of surprised. You haven't really wanted to be involved with anything else from that mission."

Mallory rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, it's only fair. You both got someone dumped on them, I guess I can be annoyed for one afternoon, as long as I don't have to live with her."

"Well, way to be a team player, Mal," Artemis said sarcastically.

"What? I said I'd meet with her," she said, walking into her apartment building and pressing the elevator button with her elbow.

"Yeah, we heard," Conner put in. "You were so enthusiastic about it."

"How do you expect me to react when she calls me on my personal phone? She really thinks that's appropriate?"

"All right, just calm down about that until she explains herself in person."

"That's not why she wants to meet, she just wants me to bring her to Brion, which I'm not going to do."

"Yeah, I appreciate that. It's one thing to bring a kid to my house, but I don't really want some stranger to know where we live. I mean, I guess you know how that feels now."

She pushed her door closed with her hip, rolling her eyes. "Yes, I guess I do now. Thank you, Conner, for pointing that out."

He chuckled. "Yeah, no problem, I just thought you might not have put that together yet."

She dumped her bags and leaned on the counter, looking around. "Do you think if I move, I'll get to move the stove? I could do without the couch and fridge, but I really like the stove Oliver gave me. And the TV. Oh, and I guess I should change my name, too. Any suggestions?"

"How about–"

"You know what, never mind, I shouldn't have set myself up like that," the pyrokinetic interrupted quickly.

Artemis laughed. "Oh, come on. Can't I just say one?" Mallory was about to say no when another line beeped on the comm. "Hold that thought, I have someone on another line," the archer said.

"So do I," Mallory replied.

"Me, too," Conner put in.

They switched to the incoming line and found that it included all of them, and was coming from Dick. "Hey, you feel like helping me with something tonight? I have tabs on another trafficking location, if we're lucky we can hit it before the latest shipment gets moved." None of them answered. "Uh, hello?"

"Oh, do you guys hear something?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah, I think it's Nightwing, finally calling to check in on the responsibilities he dumped on everyone else," Conner replied.

"Guys, come on, can we focus here?" Dick asked, annoyed.

"No, sounds more like him forgetting there were responsibilities to begin with and asking us to go pick up a few more," Mallory said.

"I haven't forgotten anything, I'm prioritizing," Dick said defensively.

"Prioritizing, huh? Well, how about prioritizing the guy that keeps burning holes in my yard? Megan's getting pretty annoyed, and I can't tell her anything because I still don't know what we're doing with him."

"What? I thought Mallory was working with him."

"Maybe I would if I didn't have, you know, a full time job and a brother that's codependent on Gar and Inferno and, you know, a total stranger figuring out my secret id and calling me on my personal phone for updates on your kidnapped prince."

"He's not kidnapped, he's in exile," Dick shot back.

"That's not the part you were supposed to pick up on!" Mallory yelled, only half kidding. "How is it that Jace found out who I am in two days? I thought you hid all my info so it wasn't open to hackers."

"What? No, all I did was put a firewall around your school records. I just thought you would be all right with hiding your id on your own."

"Yeah, I thought so too, until one of you decided to use my real name in Markovia, and now I have to seriously consider moving and changing my name."

"Oh, you need suggestions?" Dick asked.

"No! I need you to come give us a hand with all this!" she exclaimed.

He sighed. "Fine. I'll see if Roy wants to give me a hand with the ring."

"Dick, do not hang up," Artemis warned.

There was a pause, then he sighed. "I don't know what you want me to do here," he said. He sounded tired, and Mallory couldn't tell over the comm if he really was that exhausted or if he was going for sympathy points.

"Just come to the house today, ok? We'll finish talking and start looking for permanent arrangements for them."

"Yeah, especially Jace, cause I know Bruce is rich, but it's only a matter of time before he starts noticing the charges racking up at the Grand, and I don't want to have to claim that they're my bills."

Dick chuckled. "Don't worry about that. Money's the one thing Bruce is pretty laid back about. He never gets involved unless Alfred of Lucius brings something ridiculous to his attention, like massive amounts of chemicals or fourteen cars."

"Right, and when would that ever happen?" Conner asked.

Dick cleared his throat. "Yeah. Uh, I'll come over about four, ok? Bye!" He was off the line in seconds, leaving the other three in frustrated silence.

"Ok, well, I guess I'll see you two at four," Conner said after a moment.

"Yeah, I guess," Artemis replied. "I'll bring V'lana with me, maybe she can work with Megan on telepathy while we're figuring all this out."

"You coming Mal?" Conner asked.

She sighed. "Yeah, I guess. It's a good excuse to cut the meeting with Jace short, anyway."

"Yeah, an hour isn't that much time to talk about this. You sure you shouldn't give her a call and try to meet a little earlier?" Artemis asked, actually sounding sincere.

Mallory snorted. "No, I think I should stop for coffee and be fifteen minutes late." Her friends didn't say anything and she rolled her eyes. "I'm kidding, I'm not that bad of a person. Though, you know, it does take a while for me to fly all the way to Happy Harbor from Metropolis, so I guess I should leave about three thirty to make sure I get there on time."

"Uh, Mal, there's a zeta tube in the shed, it'll only take you two minutes to get here from anywhere in Metropolis," Conner pointed out.

"What was that? I didn't hear you. Well, I'll see you tonight. Bye!" she said, hanging up quickly. She groaned and started putting her groceries away. This was going to be a very long day.


Mallory was in front of the Luthor Grand hotel five minutes before three, a Mexican spiced mocha coffee in one hand and her earbuds in the other. Dr. Jace walked out of the hotel and looked around for a moment, and Mallory pocketed the earbuds and walked over. "Dr. Jace?"

The woman turned and smiled. "Well, thank you for seeing me, In–"

"Let's go to the park," Mallory interrupted, narrowing her eyes behind the dark glasses she'd stolen from Dick. They'd been mixed in with her stuff when she moved out, and she hadn't gotten around to returning them, and she was glad now that she hadn't. She'd kept her hair red, and on top of the dark glasses she was wearing Brek's cap low over her forehead and black leggings and tshirt, trying to keep as many of her features similar to the night in Markovia. Though, she was realizing now, if the woman knew her name, she could find pictures of her easily if she even tried a little. She shook the thought away, taking a sip of her drink.

"I'm sorry, I guess I should call you Mallory, right?"

The pyrokinetic cringed inwardly at her name coming out of the woman's mouth. "Uh, no, I'd rather you didn't," she said.

"Well, yes, I suppose I can understand that," the doctor said. She hesitated for a moment, then added, "it is just, I need something to call you. I cannot just refer to you as 'you' or 'her'."

Mallory bit her lip to keep from snapping at Jace. "Fine. Just call me T–" she stopped herself at the last second. She'd been about to say 'Tana', but for some reason it didn't feel right to use the name she'd used with Cameron either. She sighed. "Havu," she said through clenched teeth, saying the only other name that came to her mind, though just hearing it was like sandpaper scraping against her brain.

Jace seemed to be oblivious to the hatred surrounding the name, and she settled on the bench they'd stopped at and turned to face her. "Well, Havu, I appreciate you agreeing to meet with me. I have just been so worried about Prince Brion since the incident, I don't know what I'll do if I cannot see him soon."

Mallory just sat there, keeping her face blank as the woman came close to tears in front of her. When she stopped talking, she nodded. "Yeah, I guess I can understand that, but I'll be honest, I only agreed to meet because I want some real assurance that you won't use my name against me, or that you won't let it slip out to anyone else. My family's security is all I care about, so if you can't give me that assurance, I'll have to take more drastic measures to make sure it won't get out."

Jace's eyes widened a little. "Oh, no, of course I won't tell anyone. Don't worry, I'm a royal physician, or at least I was. I have plenty of practice keeping these types of secrets."

She nodded again and set her drink on the bench, turning to face the doctor. "Thank you, I appreciate that. And, as far as Brion's concerned, I've talked to my team, and we're just not comfortable with you going to one of our houses."

"That's not a problem! I'll gladly meet you somewhere, like here. You could bring him here. Please, you don't know how hard it is to be apart from him like this. I mean, after what happened and everything. I just, I feel responsible for him. I don't know if you can understand that, but it's true."

Mallory sighed, finally letting her face soften. She didn't like Dr. Jace, but she could understand the feeling of responsibility, and the difficulty of being apart. "Look, I'm really sorry, but Brion…he doesn't want to see you," she said, finally getting to the real reason she hadn't talked to the woman since Markovia.

Jace looked like she'd been slapped, and she stared down at her folded hands. "Oh. I see."

Mallory sighed. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, but she pulled it out and turned off the alarm. "I guess…look, I'm going over there when I leave here, I guess I can talk to him again and see if he's changed his mind since Markovia."

The woman grabbed her hand, and Mallory lost any sympathy she'd had for her with the physical contact. "Thank you, In–I mean, Havu. That's all I can ask of you."

Mallory nodded slowly. "Right. I guess you can get back to the hotel by yourself, then? I have a long flight ahead of me."


She was at Conner's house five minutes later, her drink still in hand, only half empty. She slipped into the living room, hoping to have a moment alone with Brion before everyone got there. Unfortunately, Megan was the one she ran into, a bright smile on her face.

"Hey, how did your meeting with Jace go?" she asked.

Mallory groaned. "We have got to start having some secrets. This is just getting boring."

Megan just smiled. "I was in the room when Conner was talking to you two. Or, I guess you three. The others should be here soon. So, what did the doctor want?"

Mallory shrugged. "Just to see Brion. I told her I'd talk to him. Speaking of which, where is he?"

"In his room, I think."

"Thanks," she replied, heading to the bedrooms. She knocked on the one that they'd given the prince, and after a hardly muffled groan, Brion said, "enter." She pushed the door open and tilted her head when she saw the teenager staring intently at his phone, not even giving her a glance.

"Well?" he asked when she didn't say anything the second she walked in.

She raised an eyebrow at his attitude, but she shook her head, deciding to let it go. Again. "I saw Jace this afternoon, she wants to see you," she said, not even trying to ease into the topic.

He glared at his screen, still not looking up at her. "I'll not have you meeting with her without informing me first," he said. "And no, I will not see her. She's the one responsible for me turning into this…monster. Now leave, I'm busy."

Mallory had to press her lips together to keep from matching his attitude in spades. "Busy?" she said instead, her tone so sweet it was sticky. "Doing what? I didn't know you were in school or anything."

He finally turned his glare on her. "Not that it's any of your business, but my brother is meeting with his council this afternoon. I may not be able to set foot in my country, but I am still able to keep up with the political scene. Unless, that is, that's one more rule you would like to tack on to all of the others?"

She bit her lip hard, spreading her lips in a thin smile, raising her eyebrows a little. "It's not my house," she said, then turned on her heel. Before she closed the door, she added, "we're about to meet to talk about what to do with you guys. That is your business, just thought you'd want to be there." She shut the door before he could respond, barely managing not to slam it. She stormed back to the living room, where Artemis, V'lana, Dick, and Conner were all gathered. The former Boy Wonder jumped to his feet, backing up a few steps.

"Woah, you're not that mad at me just because I got a little busy, are you?" he asked.

"No, it's–" she glanced at V'lana and shook her head, not wanting to talk about their other charge in front of her. She forced herself to smooth her face and took a deep breath. "Never mind, it's not important. So, now that we finally have you here, you have anything you want to say to kick us off?"

He shrugged. "Not really."

"You want to go upstairs?" Conner asked. "Megan's about to come work with V'lana, we don't want to get in their way."

The others nodded and followed the clone up to the study, and Mallory waited for him to close the door before yelling, "how do you live with that royal pain in the–"

"What did he do?" Artemis asked, fighting an amused smile.

"He's just so aggravating, and arrogant. He had the nerve to tell me that I couldn't meet with Jace without his consent."

"Ok…" the archer said. "But you didn't want to meet with her anyway."

"No, yeah, I know," she replied, "but that was when it was just me saying that. Now I have half a mind to force him to go have a sit down, just to teach him a lesson."

"Right, that's what we need right now," Conner said sarcastically, "to antagonize the hothead until he makes a volcano erupt in the middle of Metropolis."

"Whatever, just let me complain," she said.

"Hey, trust me, I know he's annoying. I'm the one living with him. But let's focus right now, ok? We don't know how much longer Dick's going to grace us with his presence."

"Ok, that's a little dramatic, don't you think?" Dick asked.

Artemis shrugged. "A little, maybe, but he has a point. Where have you been?"

"I told you, there's another trafficking ring I've been looking into."

"No, if it were just that you wouldn't have ghosted us," Mallory pointed out.

Their friend sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Can we please just move on? I thought you wanted to talk about the kids and what we're going to do with them long term."

"And Jace," Mallory put in.

He nodded. "Well, at least she's easy. As long as she doesn't cause any problems, she can keep living in the hotel on Bruce, he'll never find out about it probably, and as soon as we make sure that it's safe for her in Markovia, she can go back to her old life. Ok, who's next?"

"V'lana," Artemis said. "Dick, I love her, she's a very sweet girl, but Roy's not exactly thrilled that I brought her home without checking with him, and the only place we have for her to sleep is the couch."

"Yeah, I know. I'd say she could live in the Watchtower since she's Kaldur's… I don't know."

"Protege?" Artemis offered.

"Sidekick," Mallory said flatly.

Dick shrugged. "Yeah, that, but there's no one living up there right now, and it's not really fair to make her be all alone. Especially since Kaldur wanted her to get a feel for the surface world."

"Not to mention the fact that she can't be on the team without that training you promised to give her," Conner pointed out.

"Yeah, and I'm not thrilled about her being around the team anyway, with everything she knows about what's going on here," Dick said.

"Ok, but again, she is sleeping on my couch," Artemis said. "There has got to be a better place for her to soak up the surface world than the middle of my living room."

Dick shrugged. "Sorry, but unless you have a better suggestion, there's not."

The archer groaned. "Really? All of the League's assets and there's not one person who can take her?"

Conner sighed. "I mean, I guess we could make room, if you really needed us to. Gar's already moved most of his stuff out, and Peter's not going to need the room if he's living with him. We could…"

"No, it's fine," Artemis said with a sigh. It's not fair for you to get both of them. Besides, Brions's a loose cannon now, who knows what he'll do if he has to share the house with another person."

"All right, and that brings us to Brion," Dick said. "Look, Mal, I know you don't want to take on that kind of responsibility, but we're really out of options. You're the only one I trust to do it, and he's clearly not as in control as you want us to think you think he is. You don't have to get fancy with it, can you please just give him some pointers, maybe set an hour a day aside or something. It's just until the situation changes."

She was about to say no, that he could give the pointers himself, but she made the mistake of meeting his eyes, and she could tell now that she was face to face that the fatigue she'd heard in his voice was real. He had dark circles under his eyes, he looked like he was dead on his feet, and he just seemed to be sagging in his skin. She sighed, crossing her arms and leaning on the desk. "Fine," she muttered. She looked up sharply. "But if I have to put up with Prince Arrogance, then I don't want to have to deal with Jace anymore."

"Done," he promised. "I'll patch her number through to my comm, so if she tries to call you again you can just send it to me."

"Great," Mallory said.

Dick nodded. "Ok, so is that everything?"

The door swung open as soon as the words were out of his mouth, and Brion glared at each of them in turn. "So, have you decided what else to do with my life behind your closed doors?"

"Woah, buddy, calm down," Dick said, standing up.

"Do not call me that," he snapped.

"No, don't take it personal, he calls everyone he has to talk down 'buddy'," Mallory said, not bothering to get up. Her friends' eyes widened, and Brion glared at her.

"Well, you don't have to bother 'talking down' to me. I'm going to find my own arrangements, thank you." He spun on his heel, and her friends turned glares on her.

"What? You asked me to teach him control. He's not going to learn control if everyone's tiptoeing around him," she pointed out.

"Yeah, that's true," Artemis said. "But, then, he also won't learn control if he decides to run away." Mallory shrugged.

"Well, come on, let's go stop him," Dick said, pinching the bridge of his nose before leading the way down the stairs. He was already outside, and V'lana had gone after him to see what was wrong.

"I cannot stay here another day!" Brion was yelling at her.

"Please, it can't be that bad. They are just trying to help."

"They are just trying to help themselves, not me!" he snapped.

She crossed her arms. "What are you planning on doing? You are not a citizen, you are not an adult, and you do not have any money or family. From what I understand, as far as surface dwelling goes, you have nothing."

"Yes, thank you for pointing that out," he growled. He noticed the older heroes and glared at them. "Well, what do you want? You aren't going to stop me, I am leaving."

"Wait, Brion, I'm sorry I said anything," Mallory said, walking over. "I've just been in a bad mood. I know you don't think we have your best interest in mind, but you can't just leave when you aren't in control of your powers."

"Oh, yes, because staying here is helping me more than staying anywhere else," he said.

"I'm going to start training you, a few hours a day. I should have been doing it all along, and I'm sorry it took me so long, but I promise I can help you with it."

"Forgive me if I have some doubts," he replied.

"Ok, well, V'lana had a point, where are you going to go?" Conner asked. "You don't have anyone in this country."

"I will figure something out. Anything is better than staying here, being belittled at every turn."

"Brion, no one's belittling you," Artemis said in a belittling tone.

Dick shot her a glare. "Look, maybe we just took it for granted that you would understand, but we're a family. When we took you in, you became a part of that family. We may not always treat each other with respect, but we do always have each others' backs. We're going to help you with your powers, and your brother. You just have to–"

"What? Trust you? Have patience? I am tired of people telling me that! And I do not need your little 'family', I have one of my own, and I need to get back to it!"

"Ok, you don't want a family, what about direction?" Conner asked. "You're a loose cannon. You need someone to give you a reality check, and someone who can help you manage that anger. You're not going to find that out there."

"I'll take my chances," he said, starting to walk down the driveway. The heroes looked at each other, racking their brains to find a reason to get Brion to stay.

"We'll help you find your sister!" Dick blurted out.

"What?" Artemis hissed.

He looked at them and shrugged slightly, then turned back to the prince, who had stopped in his tracks. "Fine," he said calmly. "I'll stay. For Tara."

Dick breathed a subtle sigh of relief. Mallory glanced at her friend worriedly, but she walked over to Brion.

"Good. And everything we said still stands. Whether you think so or not, we are going to look out for you. We'll just have to do a better job of making you feel like you're one of us. And I'll see you tomorrow afternoon for our first session."

He nodded, and Conner put a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go back in." V'lana followed them inside, leaving Mallory, Artemis and Dick outside. Artemis looked at their friend.

"We'll help him find his sister?" she repeated.

He shrugged, a helpless look on his face. "I don't know, it was the only thing I could think of," he said.

"Is it even possible?" Mallory asked. "She's a royal that went missing two years ago without a ransom note. You know that doesn't sound good."

He nodded. "Yeah, but we found Roy after eight years. There's always a chance. I'll do what I can."

They nodded. "Great. For the guy who was avoiding the responsibilities, you're sure taking on a big one now," Artemis muttered.

He sighed. "Yeah. On an unrelated note, tell Roy that I hate him and he should keep his opinions to himself." The girls tilted their heads, looking at each other, then back at him in confusion. He shook his head. "Nothing. Don't worry about it. I'll send you the specs for tonight." He crossed the yard, going to the zeta tube and Artemis looked at Mallory.

"So, he's going to be up for the next two weeks going down the rabbit hole until someone holds an intervention, right?" she asked.

"Yep," Mallory replied, pulling out her phone. "I'll give the group a heads up. It's Raquel's turn to host, right?"

"Yep," Artemis replied as they turned and headed back to the house.