Remember that Catherine Cobert (? on the spelling, didn't feel like looking it up) is the League's PR agent in season 2. Hope you like the chapter, please review! :)

"What are we going to do with them?" V'lana asked, coming over to where the OGs had settled around the pilot's seat.

"The League and team performed similar raids on sites across the globe. All of the kids recovered are being brought to the Taos metahuman youth center. They'll be offered counseling, board, and training, and most importantly protection," Conner explained.

"Oh," she said. She looked over at Terra, who looked close to falling asleep on her brother's shoulder. "And…Terra? She isn't going to be dropped at this center, is she?"

The friends looked at each other. They'd spent so much time looking for her, but they hadn't considered what to do with her once they did. "No, of course not," Artemis said. She looked at Conner. "Any chance…?"

He sighed. "I guess, maybe Brion could move to the couch and she can have Gar's room."

"That doesn't seem right," Dick said. He looked at Mallory. "What about you?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Again, small apartment in a big city. All I can offer is a couch, too, and we can't risk someone recognizing her." She smiled a little and added, "and since when did a couch become unacceptable? I slept on yours for months, and you never offered me your room. You never even offered to get an air mattress."

He laughed. "That's because I was waiting for you to take the hint and move out!" He tilted his head. "Hey, what about your folks? They had two spare rooms."

She shook her head. "Not anymore, not since the boys got back. Peter moved back in his old room, and Gar's in mine since Brion's in his."

Artemis chuckled. "Great. When did we start playing musical rooms?"

Conner shrugged. "I guess just let her decide where to stay," he suggested.

Mallory looked at Brion, catching his eye, and motioned for him to come over. He and Terra made their way through the crowded ship. "Yes?" he asked.

"We're just trying to figure out what to do with Terra once we get back," she explained. She looked at Conner and Artemis and the archer took over.

"Most of these kids are going to be dropped off at a youth center affiliated with the League for counseling and training before they can go back to whatever family they might have. We want you to stay with one of us, though. Our available space is a little limited right now, though, so your options are to stay with your brother with Conner and Megan, or to come home with V'lana and me and live with us and my brother-in-law and niece. Either place, someone's going to need to sleep on a couch."

Terra looked around the group. "I think…I would like to come with you," she said, looking at Artemis. Brion looked at her with surprise, and she turned to him. "Brion, I have missed you so much, and I want to spend time with you, but I…you don't know the things they made me do, the things I had to do to survive. I need to relearn how to live, how to be free, and I can't do that if you are constantly around me. Please understand."

He looked upset for a moment, but he forced a smile and nodded. "I do understand," he said. "Whatever you need, we will see that you get it."

Mallory nodded. "Right." She looked out the window, watching the youth center come into view as they descended. She looked at Dick, but he shook his head.

"I'm going to stay out of this from here on. This was supposed to be a team mission, I only tagged along because of Terra."

Malllory tilted her head. "You're right," she said thoughtfully.

"What are you talking about?" Artemis asked.

"We kept Brion a secret from the League so they wouldn't find out about us breaking their rules, and so we wouldn't have to deal with them being mad if we broke more rules to get Terra back. But, she's back now, so shouldn't Brion and V'lana get the chance to actually join the team instead of being stuck on this…not-team?"

Artemis shrugged, looking at the teens. "What do you say? You want to join the team?"

V'lana nodded, looking at Brion. "That was always the plan, once I helped with rescuing Terra. You should as well. You have a talent, you should not let that go to waste."

He looked at Mallory and Conner. "Is it…all right? I thought it would be dangerous for people to know where I am."

Mallory shook her head. "That's really only for when you're in civies, since you're kind of in the country illegally and staying with people who need to stay under the radar. In costumes it's fine, people know you're banish…uh, away, from Markovia. Besides, the team's mostly covert, the only people who would recognize you aren't exactly what you'd call credible."

"So, what do you say, Geoforce?" Dick asked. "You gonna join the team?"

He nodded slowly, thinking about it. "I wanted these powers to be the hero my people needed. Now, I am not even allowed to be in the same country as them. Still, I would like to make a difference. I will join you."

"As will I," Terra said. They all looked at her, surprised and awkward, but her face hardened as she looked around at them. "What, do you doubt my skill? I have spent years fighting for my life. I need to do this, to make up for what I've done, and to help the people who are where I was." They didn't say anything at first, and she looked at each of them, her eyes boring into them.

Finally, Dick nodded. "All right, but you do it on our terms. You're going to get therapy, you're going to get training, and you don't go out into the field until we say you're ready."

"We?" Conner asked, an amused look on his face. Mallory and Artemis raised their eyebrows slightly, crossing their arms and looking at their friend pointedly.

He chuckled, letting the business look off his face. "Ok, fine, not me, but them and Miss Martian."

"Agreed," Terra replied, her face completely serious.

Conner maneuvered Bioship down to the front of the center, nearly all of the other heroes standing around the front, helping to check in the arriving kids. The hatch opened, and Conner led their group out, telling them where to go. Mallory, Conner, and Artemis followed the last kid out, Terra, Brion, and V'lana next to them. They found Kaldur, Clark, Megan, Zatanna, Raquel, Peter, Gar, Captain Atom, and a few other Leaguers standing off to the side, discussing the mission.

Clark saw them first, smiling in relief when he saw them. "We were about to send someone out. We heard about the attack, is everyone all right?"

Artemis looked at Dick, who dropped his hand from his chest the second he felt the gaze. "Yep, we're fine," he assured them.

"V'lana, good to see you here. Love the costume," Megan said, changing the subject to the teens beside them.

Mallory looked at Artemis. "Yeah, actually, we need to talk to you about that," the redhead said, looking at the Leaguers since Megan already knew about the teens. "This is Nautica, Geoforce, and…Terra, and they are the newest members of the team."

"Ok?" Raquel said, crossing her arms.

"Welcome to the team," Peter said casually.

Artemis tilted her head. "Well, that was underwhelming."

"What, you thought we didn't know about your secret proteges?" Zatanna asked, then she chuckled and added, "that's cute. You know we don't have secrets."

Peter and Gar stepped up to Terra. "You hungry? They have snacks set up inside," the green teen offered.

She hesitated, looking at the older heroes that she knew, and Mallory smiled and nodded. "If my brother does anything to you, it's going to be stealing your food, and don't worry, if he does I'll beat him up for you. Actually, same goes for Beast Boy. I've been wanting to smack that smug movie star attitude out of him since he got back." The boys glared at her playfully, but Terra nodded and went with them.

"Why don't you two go with them? Grab me a granola bar if they have them," Dick suggested. V'lana and Brion went into the building, leaving the more seasoned members of their little squad to face the teasing alone.

"So, what, you're collecting kids now?" Barry asked, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Mallory rolled her eyes. "I didn't ask for this," she said with playful defensiveness.

"Yeah," Clark said, an amused look on his face, "tell me about it."

Conner shook his head. "Whatever."

Mallory looked away, twisting her lips to the side as she thought about Brion. Megan noticed her split attention and linked the original team members.

"They're just joking," she said, thinking that the pyrokinetic was annoyed with the teasing.

She shook her head, looking back up at her friends. "No, it's not…Brion, he called me his mentor. Like, completely seriously."

"Oh," Dick said, tilting his head. "How did you react to that?"

"I didn't," she admitted guiltily. "We were dealing with something else at the moment."

"So, you just ignored it?" Raquel asked disapprovingly.

"More like…tabled it. Temporarily?" she said. Her friends just stared at her, and she groaned. "Well, I don't know how to react to it. I'm not ready to be a mentor, to have a protege. I mean, I still think of Clark as my mentor half the time."

Zatanna smiled. "Yeah, but we're not kids anymore, we're the adults."

"Thank you for the reminder," Raquel said, putting a hand on her hip.

"You've been training him, helping him control his powers. Helping him with his problems. You may not want to be a mentor, but you sure have been acting like one," the magician continued, ignoring the mom's complaint.

Mallory sighed, then glared at Dick. "This is all your fault," she complained.

He laughed. "What is?"

"Now I feel old and weighed down with responsibility, just because you had to ask me to go on one freelance mission. And because none of you wanted to take him on."

"Uh, you're the only one who knows how his powers work, and Artemis and I couldn't have survived training with him," he pointed out.

She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "Excuses," she muttered, smiling at them.

"And what of V'lana?" Kaldur asked, changing the subject.

"I think you mean Nautica," Artemis said with a smile. "She's ready. They both are."

Their conversation was interrupted by the younger heroes coming back out of the center, each with a snack in hand.

"Hey 'Wing, heads up," Peter called, and he threw a granola bar at the former Bat's head. Dick caught it with one hand and nodded a thanks. "So, you air out who knew and who didn't?" Vigilante asked, looking around.

"Yep," Conner replied, rolling his eyes. "Turns out we're not that good at keeping secrets. Everyone knew."

"I didn't," Barry said.

"Yeah, well, you don't count," Artemis said, rolling her eyes.

Before they could say anything else, the team and League's comms went off, and Red Tornado came onto the comm. "All team and League members not in the field, report to the Watchtower."


"What is it?" Clark asked once the group got to the Bridge of the Watchtower. Brion, V'lana, and Terra stopped cold to look around, but as soon as Mallory saw the serious look on Catherine's face, she ignored everything else, a pit forming in her stomach.

"Perhaps it would be better if you saw for yourselves," the woman said, nodding to Tornado. The android started a screen that was showing recorded footage of Luthor at the UN. "This started earlier tonight," Catherine explained, setting some context before the video started playing.

The feed started, and it showed Lex putting the League down for how they handled the Goode goggles incident, claiming that if they had just worked within the system, they could have caught the top of the rings instead of just shutting down a few centers.

Clark wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Well, of course he would try to spin it like this," he said, "but I don't see what the big deal is."

"Keep watching," Catherine said, pressing her lips together angrily.

The heroes looked back at the screen, which changed to G. Gordon Godfry and his opinion on the situation. He carried on the trend of bashing the League, frustrating but still not something to warrant a special meeting and their PR agent to be this worried. Clark was about to say as much, but one glare from Catherine and he closed his mouth and looked back at the screen. The story started to turn to individual cases showing heroes doing things illegally. Batman was brought up several times, and both Green and Red Arrows, speculations about some other Leaguers like Dr. Fate and Zatanna, and then it came, the other shoe dropped. Mallory knew it was coming when she saw the footage of the night of the Markovian coronation, when she had to use her powers to save Perdita and stop the fight between Brion and Barron DeLamb. The footage played, showing every second of her involvement, right up to the point when she flew off with the prince, conveniently without audio to give any of it context. The way the video was edited together, it made it seem like she was responsible for the whole thing, and that she took Brion so that he wouldn't have to face justice from his country.

She felt her colleagues', her friends', eyes on her, but she was zoned into the screen as Godfry moved on from the Markovia to her past mistakes and slipups, from the episode after she left the Quitters all the way back to the beginning when Luthor accused her of killing his security officers. The accusations kept rolling out, and by the time the news segment was over, the man was nearly screaming them out, standing and leaning on his desk as he asked the public how long they intended to continue to support the League harboring someone who was a thief, a kidnapped, a trespasser, a murderer, the list kept going, but Mallory stopped listening, shutting them out as the word 'murderer' snagged in her brain. At some point, the screen went out, and the room was left in deafening silence as the reality sunk in.

"This is…This cannot be happening!" Brion burst out, looking around the group. No one said anything, because they all knew the answer to that. Of course it could. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened to one of them, they had just found more on Inferno sooner than any of the others.

"So…what happens from here?" Clark asked quietly, looking at the PR agent.

"We fight this!" V'lana said firmly, looking around for support. Her resolve faltered at the grim looks of the other heroes, and she looked at Dick desperately. "You have to fight this."

"I intend to try," Catherine said, "but I have never had to fight anything this big."

"I don't get it," Mallory said quietly, finally getting over the initial shock. "I'm not in the League. I quit, remember? That was the whole point of me quitting, what do we have to defend?"

"You don't understand," Catherine said. "When you rejoined the team, your affiliation with the League restarted. And…the League never disowned you." Mallory started to jump on the stupidity of that decision, but the woman shook her head, not in the mood for a blame game. "At the time there was no reason to, we didn't know you were going to go off and become some kind of antihero for a few months." Mallory winced, the comment feeling like a slap in the face, and Catherine took a breath, regaining her composure. "I promise, I will do everything I can to make this right, but in the meantime, you need to do me, the League, and yourself a favor and stay out of the public eye."

Mallory nodded. "I can do that," she said. "Probably time I stuck to Metropolis for a while, anyway. I haven't patrolled in–"

"No," Catherine interrupted firmly. "You don't understand. Inferno is done, unless or until this blows over. Do I make myself clear?"

Mallory tilted her head, her heart starting to hammer against her ribcage. "I can't just…"

"Yes, you can, and you will, if you want any chance to fix this for yourself and the others," Catherine said. "Anything you do will be twisted into a way to build upon this idea that you should be in prison. If Inferno is seen so much as buying a cup of coffee, so help me, Mallory, I will put you there myself."

Mallory took a shaky breath, holding the woman's eyes for a moment as she started to come to grips with what she needed to do. When Catherine called one of them by their real name, they knew it was bad. She nodded slowly. "Fine. If you need me, I guess you'll know where to find me." She turned towards the tubes, but Brion caught up to her, stewing in his own anger at her situation.

"Inferno, I will fix this. I will issue a statement, tell my brother to exonerate you."

She shook her head firmly. "No, Brion, stay out of it," she told him. "Catherine has gotten us out of worse holes than this. And, I guess I did a lot of the digging myself. Don't put yourself into the crosshairs for me, ok? I'll be fine." She mustered a smile for him and added, "It'll be nice to finally get a vacation, catch up on my work, not have to come up with excuses for missing work or coming back injured."

He shook his head, still furious. "This is not right!" he fumed. "You should not be punished for helping me! I will not allow it!"

"Hey, you may be a prince, but you're still my protege, so you still have to listen to me," Mallory told him.

He froze, looking at her hesitantly. "Protege?"

She shrugged, a genuine smile spreading over her face. "Well, duh, what did you think, I was putting all this time into you for nothing?" The smile that came to his face almost made up for all of the accusations she was facing from the media, and when she looked over at her friends and Clark, she resisted the eyeroll that first came to mind at their proud looks and instead just nodded and focused on the Leaguers, saying, "You better not try to steal him while I'm gone."

"Gone? Please, just because Inferno can't go out in the field does not mean that you cannot come up here for training," Kaldur told her.

She groaned. "Ugh, of course, you would still make me train," she said, but he knew she was thankful for the line he'd thrown her, a way to stay in the loop and on her game when she couldn't go out into the field. "Well," she said, "I guess I should go. I did promise my boss I'd finish the month's budgets before the end of the day, and apparently I don't have much else to do for the next few weeks."

Ok, I want a hundred reviews before the end of this fic, which is, as a rough estimate, maybe forty chapters. We're getting close to the end, and I'm starting to run out of steam. Honestly, it's just getting through the rest of this year that I'm not very excited about. I wanted to include some things about season three for what comes after, but I'm not having very much fun with it, and I don't like the recent chapters very much. But reviews help, so keep them coming! Thanks for the interest in the story, y'all are the best!