I know the a/n was a little much in the last chapter, so I'll keep this one short. I'm not going to put Forager in the story either because the only thing I liked about him was that he was voiced by the same guy that voices Wally and Razor, so him already being in the recording booth allowed us to get the cameos from his other characters. Just bear with me, I'm still deciding what elements to keep from season three, but once we get through Brion's story and maybe a little bit of Terra's, I'm not going to use anything else. Anyway, hope you like the chapter, please review!

They arrived at the island and Megan brought the camouflaged ship right up to the compound and opened a hatch in the floor. The small group dropped out of the ship soundlessly, looking around. Dick disabled the security, but when he stood to move, Conner tilted his head, a confused look on his face.

"I don't hear anything," he said.

"Good, let's go," Artemis replied.

He shook his head. "No, I mean, I don't hear anything. Something's not right."

They looked around the compound for movement, but everything was still. "Let's go, but stay alert," Dick decided, leading the way. They entered the compound from the tower and slipped through the halls, not making a sound. They didn't run into anything as they went, and they exchanged confused looks after a while.

"Maybe we were wrong," Conner suggested.

They entered the courtyard and immediately they could tell that there had been a fight. "Yeah, sure," Artemis said sarcastically, eying the cooled lava that had risen in mounds around the destruction, some of it still glowed faintly. It hadn't been long since Brion had been there.

The team slipped back into the compound, following Dick as he led the way using the blueprints on his computer. Mallory kept looking behind them, waiting for the army of ninjas to finally realize that they had been infiltrated and jump them, but it never came. They made it to the holding cells and Megan's eyes glowed white as she searched for the teens' psychic signatures. She nodded to a cell halfway down the narrow hallway, and Conner waited for them to get into position, ready to fight if they were walking into a trap before he ripped the door off the hinges. Brion looked up sharply from where he was sitting on the floor, holding V'lana's limp body. Sphere was chained to the wall, but she started beeping and pulling against the restraints when she saw Conner. He broke her free, looking at the others.

"She has a heartbeat, I think she'll be all right," he told them.

Artemis knelt beside her, gently chafing her wrists, and the Atlantean started coming too after a few seconds. Mallory went to Brion's side, checking him for superficial injuries briefly. She noticed a chip on the back of his neck and narrowed her eyes, studying it. He looked up at her.

"Inferno, I am–"

"Hold still," she said, and she yanked it out of his skin.

He winced, sucking in a pained breath. "Ow! Was there no better way of removing that?" he asked, rubbing the bleeding hole.

She ignored him and handed the chip to Dick. "Control chip?" she asked.

He looked at it and nodded. "Looks like the ones the League found on the space metas.". Megan removed the chip from V'lana's neck and Artemis helped her to her feet. Mallory did the same for Brion, and he tried again to talk to her.

"Inferno, you cannot–"

"Let's go," she said firmly, refusing to have that talk while they were still behind enemy lines.

The team left the room, pushing the rescued teens forward and keeping them in the center of their protective circle. Mallory kept her watch behind them, but still, no army came for them. She had just decided that the island must have been deserted after they locked Brion and V'lana up when they spilled into the courtyard and Sensei, Ubu, and an enforcer in a red mask were waiting for them. They froze, pushing the teens further behind them, and waited for a moment, sizing up the situation. When the Shadows didn't charge, Dick tilted his head a little.

"We just want to leave," he said, calm but wary.

Sensei narrowed his eyes. "Your trespass must be punished."

"Wrong answer," Conner said, and he jumped forward, landing in front of the Shadow's trainer and slamming his hands on the ground. The mini earthquake made the man start to lose his balance, forcing him to retreat. Ubu and the enforcer charged, and the rest of the team responded, rushing forward to defend themselves.

Mallory flamed up, shooting a fireball at the enforcer as he ran towards Dick, giving him a slight edge before she had to dive out of the way of the Apokoliptian disks that Ubu shot at her. She flew towards Ra's' bodyguard, slamming into him as Sensei jumped over them, going towards Conner. She ignited her hands and shot fire at the man, trying to disable the tech he was wearing, but he just dodged her attacks and kept shooting the disks at her. She heard Conner yell Megan's name and looked behind her to see the Martian fall to the ground, Brion right next to her encased in lava. The air around her shifted and she flew up out of instinct, and the disks meant for her found Conner instead. He cried out in pain, falling to his knees, and she round-house kicked Ubu, sending him flying into a pillar, then shot fire at the disks, melting them. Conner took a breath, nodded to her, and hurried to Megan, carrying her away from Brion. Sensei saw the vulnerable moment and seized the opportunity charging towards the kids, but Artemis came for him, shooting her crossbow.

Mallory glanced between her two non-powered friends, taking a second to decide who to help. Dick was holding his own against the enforcer, metal hitting metal as each blow was blocked. Artemis, on the other hand, was getting her crossbow sliced in half by Sensei's blade. Mallory had just flamed up to help the archer when a familiar voice announced, "enough."

The fighting stopped immediately, and heroes and Shadows alike turned to see the Demon's Head himself walk into the courtyard, his hands behind his back and his face calm as he surveyed the people in front of him. His gaze landed on Dick and he tilted his head.

"Well, young man, are you proud of this debacle?" He stepped out of the shadow he was standing in and smiled a little. "I believe the detective would be quite disappointed." Dick's eyes narrowed and he grunted under his breath. Ra's looked at the others and continued, "I assume you came to recover these children? Take them and go."

Mallory took a step, ready to take the villain up on his generous offer, but Brion let a pulse of lava go through the rock that was covering him and glared at the man.

"Not without my sister, Terra Markov," he demanded. "We know the League of Shadows has her."

Sensei glared at the prince, one hand on the hilt of his sword. "Stay your tongue when addressing the Demon's Head!"

"It is fine, Sensei," Ra's said calmly. He looked at Brion. "Boy, the Shadows may indeed have your sister, but I am no longer head of the shadows. As you can see, there are no shadows here." He looked at the original members of the team and added, "in fact, I am no longer a member of the Light."

Mallory's eyes widened, and she looked at her friends, seeing the same expression of shock mirrored on their faces. Brion just glared at him. "He lies!" he growled.

Dick relaxed his tensed muscles, looking over his shoulder at their charge. "Ra's al Ghul is many things," he said, "but a liar isn't one of them."

Brion looked around at the others, and when he saw the same belief in their body language, he relaxed, letting the lava cool on his skin, disappointment on his face. Artemis walked up to Ra's and put a hand on her hip. "Would the Great One care to tell us who is running the Shadows now?" she asked, mock reverence in her tone.

"No, he would not."

"It's not my dad, is it?" she asked.

Ra's chuckled, amused at the idea. "No."

Artemis copied the laugh. "My sister?"

The amusement left Ra's' face. "Get out," he demanded.

"Right, well, thanks for the hospitality," Mallory said, putting a firm hand on Brion's shoulder and forcibly pushing him towards the Bioship. "We'll have to do this again sometime."

The team loaded onto the ship and Megan had them airborne as fast as possible, not taking any chances that the Great One would change his mind. As soon as they were on their way back to the mainland, Conner found Brion some clothes in the back, and he changed and came out in one of Conner's shirts and cargo pants. He looked around at the heroes and sighed.

"I…supposed I should tell you that I am sorry," he started.

"Yeah, you think?" Dick asked angrily. "What was the one thing I told you not to do? It's not that hard to just not go to the base of an army of ninjas. It's actually really easy. All you have to do is nothing!"

Mallory shook her head. "Do you have any idea how lucky you both are?" she asked. "If Ra's wanted you dead or trafficked, all he had to do was snap his fingers and we never would have found you."

"We were going to follow up on the lead, Brion. I told you we were. As a matter of fact, we were planning what to do when you decided to run off and make us go on this little rescue mission," Artemis said.

"We told you to do it our way because we know our enemies, and we know how to handle this without anyone having to get hurt," Dick said.

Brion crossed his arms, getting defensive. "I left because you weren't doing anything, and you were trying to keep me out of the loop. I am ready for this, whether you think I am or not. I would have beaten those… goons, if they had not surprised me and gotten to V'lana first."

Mallory laughed, and Brion glared at her. "Do you have something to say?" he asked, starting to steam.

"You think you could have beaten, you know what, no, let's back up, you think you could have held your own against any one of those people back there? You honestly think that?"

"Yes," he replied through clenched teeth.

"Fine," she said, "let's test that theory."

"Mallory, calm down, you don't want to set him off," Megan said.

She shook her head. "No, you know what, this is it. No more games." She stood, earning concerned looks from her friends as she crossed the ship and stood in front of Megan. "Mind if I take the controls for a while?" she asked.

"Um, no, I guess not," the Martian replied hesitantly. They switched places, and Mallory took the ship slightly off course, setting a new destination.

"Uh, Mal, what are you doing?" Dick asked.

She narrowed her eyes, focusing on the path in front of them. "I'm done letting him live in his fantasy world," she said. "It's way past time he got a reality check."


She brought the Bioship down on the beach of a small island about a hundred miles off the East Coast and opened the hatch. She stood as soon as the ship landed and looked at Brion. "Get out," she ordered, her tone leaving no room for argument. The prince hesitated, not wanting to just do what she said, but he decided not to try her and stomped off the ship, kicking up sand as he went. She followed him out, and the others followed her until she stopped in front of her pupil and stared him down. "Prove it," she said.

"Prove what?" he asked, his attitude still persisting even after everything he'd been through that night.

Mallory narrowed her eyes. "You said that you could hold your own against any of the bad guys if there weren't any surprises. Prove it. Fight me."

He scoffed, but when she didn't change her stance he took a step back, crossing his arms. "I am not going to fight you," he said.

"Yes, you are," she responded. "You're the one who said you were ready. Well, Prince, you're going to have to prove that to me."

"Don't call me that," he snapped.

Mallory suppressed a smile of satisfaction as he visibly got angrier at the title, and she pushed a little further. "Why? You think abandoning the title will change the fact that your own brother exiled you for the choices you made? It doesn't. You're going to have to take some responsibility for that sooner or later, Prince."

"I said don't call me that!" he yelled, punching a hand to the ground.

A spray of lava came up and she went into combat mode, no longer holding back for the sake of his learning or his volatility. Her eyes darted around as she scanned the situation, sizing up her opponent to find his weaknesses and vulnerabilities. She found a weak spot, made a plan, and moved, all in a split second. She dove under the stream of lava he sprayed at her, laced her fingers with the heat covering his arm, and pulled. When he had nothing but cooled rock, she grabbed his arm and put him down before he could refuel, pinning him under her. He tried to get up, even tried to heat his body so much that she would have to move, but she didn't even flinch.

"Let me up!" he demanded.

She stayed put for another moment, trying to let the lesson sink in, until Dick said, "all right, let him up." She stood, allowing him to roll to a sitting position.

"That proves nothing," he spat, embarrassed that it had only taken her two seconds to put him in his place. "You have powers like mine, they are not effective if you are immune to them."

Artemis started to tell him that that was the point, but Mallory held up a finger slightly, telling her friend to stay out of it, and she closed her fists, putting out the fire in them and getting into a fighting stance. "All right, Prince. I'll fight you without my powers."

He narrowed his eyes. "This is a trick of some sort."

She shook her head. "No powers, and no tricks. You think you could have held your own against one of those ninjas because they didn't have powers, prove it."

"Fine," he growled, and he ran at her, his arms covered in lava.

She dodged the fist coming slowly towards her face and threw a punch at his unprotected stomach with enough force to make him double over. As soon as he did, she swiped his legs out from under him and he fell to the ground on his back. She grabbed a nearby stick and brought it down to his head, stopping when the tip was an inch from his forehead. He stared up at her with wide eyes for a stunned moment, breathing hard. She let him up and sat in the sand next to him, setting the stick aside.

"Are you ok?" she asked, her tone gentler now that she'd made her point. He nodded, not meeting her eye, and she sighed, feeling a little bad that she had bruised his pride so badly. "Look, you think that your station or your powers make you immune to failure, but you're wrong. There's always going to be someone better than you, someone stronger, faster, more powerful. That's just part of life, and the sooner you figure that out and learn how to adapt, the better off you'll be." He didn't answer, and she put a hand on his shoulder, making him meet her eyes. "Brion, we're going to find your sister, but you have to let us do it our way. We know this world better than you do, we've been doing this most of our lives. We have experience finding people who have disappeared. The thing is, we need to know that you trust us, and we need to be able to trust you. If we can't, then we will leave you out of the loop. You may not believe it when we tell you this, but we are a family, and trust is everything in a family. Once that trust is gone, it is very hard, sometimes impossible, to get it back. We want to include you in our family, but you need to prove that you want this."

He nodded. "I am…sorry. This was my fault, I should not have rushed into anything. I know I can be a bit of a...hothead."

She smiled a little. "Hey, I can sympathize with that. But I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. I'm not the one you almost got killed."

He looked over to where V'lana was standing with the others, too far away to hear their quiet conversation. He nodded and got to his feet, then turned and offered her a hand up. She smiled and accepted the help, and they walked back over to the group.

"Well, what are you all standing around for?" Mallory asked, walking past them to go back to the Bioshop. "Come on, I'm starving. I'll make nachos when we get back."

The others followed the heat-based heroes, surprised at the change. "So, are we good?" Dick asked.

She settled into her seat and looked at him. "Yeah, it's over. Come on, I'm starving. Being a good mentor is a lot of work."

The OGs exchanged an amused glance. "A mentor, huh?" Conner asked.

"Don't tell me you're starting to collect kids already," Dick teased.

She groaned, the good feeling gone. "Oh, great, we're turning into the League already," she muttered. The others chuckled, and they settled in for the long flight back.


The next day, Mallory went to Megan and Conner's house before work, a pack on her shoulder. She slipped inside and glanced around for anyone who might be awake that early. She found Brion in the living room, his phone in his hand, and she walked over. "Morning," she said.

He jumped and spun around, his breaths coming hard for a moment. "Inferno, what are you doing here at this hour?" he asked.

She chuckled and stepped over the back of the couch, sliding down to sit with him. "Well, I wanted to talk to you before I go to work. What are you doing up, though? I thought I was going to have to leave a note." He shrugged, shoving his phone in his pocket guiltily. She sighed and pulled the pack into her lap. "That's part of the reason I'm here," she said. "I know you said you were going to try to do better with controlling your emotions, but I just think that you constantly checking up on your brother and Markovia is just going to keep you stressed out and angry. Maybe you should take a break from that, just be here, a hundred percent."

He narrowed his eyes a little. "I have every right to keep current on my country and my family," he said defensively.

She sighed. "Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to say that," she said. She unzipped the mesh pack and Moe poked his head out sleepily, then crawled out, sniffing the prince curiously.

Brion eyed the little fox with confusion. "What is this?" he asked.

She rubbed her pet's ear fondly. "Well, I think you need a companion, something you can't hurt that will help you chill out a little, and since Wolf doesn't seem to be up for the task…" she glanced at the white wolf, lying flat on the wood floor, completely out, "I want you to take care of Moe for me."

He looked at her, surprised. "Are...you sure you want that?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Yeah, it'll be better for him anyway, living here instead of being cooped up in my apartment all day. Plus, he's completely fireproof, even likes the stuff, so you won't be able to hurt him if you lose control. Besides, I'm here every day to train you anyway, so I'll still get plenty of time with him. In the meantime, he can be your emotional support fox."

Brion smiled a little, petting the kit. "Thank you, Inferno."

She nodded, getting to her feet. "Anytime, Prince. I'll see you this afternoon for training." She made it to the door, then turned and added, "and, Brion?" He looked at her, and she smiled. "I think we can move on to some more interesting stuff today." He grinned, and she slipped out of the house, heading for the zeta tube in the shed to get to work on time.

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