Getting past Earth's defenses was laughable. Though perhaps it was just the new cloaking device she had installed on her ship not too long ago. The merchant had told her it was the latest and best on the market. With the price she had paid for it she hoped this was how it would perform. Once out of her ship and finally on solid ground, she could feel that the atmosphere was hot and humid. This slightly surprised the woman as it was night and the moon was high in the sky with not a cloud in sight. She would have assumed this type of weather would only occur during the day. Though the weather didn't bother the Thanagarian in the slightest; in fact it was very reminiscent of her homeworld.

Tarra Karn sneered as she looked over the terrain. She could hardly believe this fabled Justice League could have defeated the entire Thanagarian armada. Especially since it was only seven of them, if she included the traitor. Regardless she did not want to alert the Justice League of her presence. They would serve to do nothing but annoy her and delay her in her job.

Tarra momentarily looked back at her ship before turning on the universal translator attached to her belt. She then took off into the air. She needed to find a human or two and forcibly get out of them just where she had landed on Earth. She had only been given a short rundown of Earth and its inhabitants. That included the damned Justice League who had thwarted her people's plans of sacrificing the Earth for their Hyperspace Bypass.

Tarra had not lived on Thanagar in decades and honestly could have cared less of the planet's fate. It had taken a considerable amount of time for her to learn of what had happened to her people and even longer to find out she had been requested for a job. It did amuse Tarra that she was being hired by her former superiors to assassinate a former Lieutenant. Though money was money and she didn't care who her target was.

Tarra's eyes narrowed slightly as her sneer returned to her face. She was going to enjoy this thoroughly. It wasn't everyday she could kill a high ranking military officer. It was one thing when she would pick off a rookie soldier here and there back in the day. This was something entirely different. She would make sure that Shayera Hol would suffer one of the slowest and most painful deaths she had ever administered.

Jessica Cruz yelped as she barely managed to duck under the punch just thrown at her head. The Green Lantern quickly responded by throwing a punch of her own that was easily caught by her Thanagarian sparring partner. Shayera smirked before letting go of Jessica's fist and roughly shoving her away.

Jessica stumbled before falling onto her back. Shayera let out a soft sigh and shook her head before holding her hand out to Jessica. The Green Lantern took the offered hand before lightly smirking. Shayera in turn raised an eyebrow before she realized too late what Jessica was doing. The Thanagarian let out a yelp as Jessica pulled Shayera forward and flipped her onto her back.

Shayera laid stunned for a moment before looking up at Jessica with a smirk, "You are one sneaky ass Green Lantern."

Jessica once again smirked, "I'm learning from the best."

John let out a sigh as he sat off on the side and watched as the rookie Green Lantern and his wife sparred. He had been watching them for little over two hours now. This training session had been going on for well over four hours at this point. Though that was largely due to the Thanagarian forcing Jessica to continue; something Shayera had claimed was to build Jessica's endurance. Though, to John's surprise, Jessica had hardly complained and was pushing through her obvious exertion. John had a suspicion that this was also to work on Shayera's own endurance as well. He even had to admit that Shayera was fighting rather sloppy and was taking some hits that she should have been easily able to avoid.

John then heard a light giggle and looked down at his three year old daughter. Emma giggled again as she watched the fight in amusement and kicked her legs back and forth as she sat next to her father on the bench. He then heard a yawn as his one and a half year old son adjusted himself from sitting on John's lap to cuddling against him.

"Maybe you should wrap this up Shay," John called out to her. "Don't you think this has been long enough already?"

"And then what?" Shayera rhetorically asked as she stopped mid punch and then placed her hands on her hips. "We're just getting started."

"More like I've been forced on diaper duty all day," John muttered with an eyeroll. It was a known fact that Shayera absolutely loathed changing diapers. She would use any excuse under the sun as to saddle John with it. Thankfully Emma was mostly potty trained. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for Rex as he was still too young.

Shayera glared at him, "What was that Lantern?"

"Nothing," he sputtered out before sighing again. "Just Rex thinks it's nap time and Emma is a little too engrossed in all of that fighting."

Shayera smirked as she walked over to them and picked Emma up off of the bench with a hug, "Well that's not surprising. Emma took a nap earlier and Rex refused to. I'm more surprised he lasted this long. So, how about this? I'll take Emma with me and you take Rex home. I'm sure Jessica would love to take a break and get something to eat. That way you won't have to worry about Emma waking up Rex at all from his nap and it'll keep her occupied. Plus she didn't eat lunch earlier when we did so I'm sure she has to be hungry by now. Killing two stones with one bird."

John lightly chuckled, "It's killing two birds with one stone Shay."

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant."

"You coming back here after?" John asked her.

Shayera paused before shaking her head, "Probably not, Jessica went through enough torture today. I'll try to keep Emma as long as possible in the cafeteria with us before coming home. Hopefully by then Rex will be done his nap."

"Alright," John stood before kissing her cheek. "I'll see you later Shay."

"Why does Jessie has a ring like Daddy?" Emma asked as she sat on Shayera's lap.

Shayera lightly chuckled, "You mean have a ring sweetheart. Daddy isn't the only Green Lantern. You remember meeting Kyle and Guy don't you?"

Emma paused before tilting her head back to look up at her mother, "Cartoon guy and asswipe?"

Shayera choked on her drink as Jessica as well bit back her laughter. "I mean," Jessica started as a small chuckled escaped her lips. "She's not wrong."

Shayera cleared her throat and deeply exhaled, biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from smirking. "Emma what did we say about cursing?"

"But Mommy," Emma looked down at her lap for a moment in confusion before looking back up at Shayera. "You call Guy an asswipe."

"Called not call," Shayera corrected her. "Mommy's a grownup and can say grownup words. You're too young to be saying that. That and Daddy would get very, very angry at Mommy if he heard you say that...again."

"Fine," Emma pouted. "But how Jessie get the ring?"

Shayera swallowed as she looked over to Jessica. She had told Shayera the ordeal of how she and her friends were on a camping trip and had happened to stumble across a wanted serial killer disposing of a fresh corpse. From there she and her friends had tried to outrun the killer but had practically been hunted down one-by-one as if from a horror movie. When Jessica was the only one left, instead of continuing to run, she had finally stood her ground knowing one way or another she was going to get killed. Next thing she knew, a Green Lantern ring had presented itself to her instead. Shayera had a feeling there was more to the story than Jessica was telling her but given how traumatized by the event she was, Shayera never pried any further.

Jessica in turn looked away and scratched the back of her head. She didn't immediately reply and the half-Thanagarian tilted her head slightly. "Jessie, how you get your ring?"

"Oh um," Jessica looked at the little girl and forced a light smile. "It's a long and boring story. Trust me it's not exciting or anything like how I'm sure your Daddy got his. Besides there's a whole bunch of other Green Lanterns, not just us four."

"Is there twenty?" Emma asked curiously.

Jessica chuckled, "A lot more than just twenty."

Shayera snorted back a laugh, "She thinks twenty is a big number because that's all she can count up to. Elmo and Big Bird apparently can't go over twenty."

"I thought it was The Count who did all of the counting?" Jessica humorously asked.

Shayera rolled her eyes as she moved Emma from off her lap and onto the seat next to her, "Whichever one of them it is. They're all annoying."

Emma giggled, "Oscar's funny."

"Emma why don't you finish eating?" Shayera suggested. "I don't want you complaining later that you're hungry. You got chicken nuggets just like you wanted."

Emma reached over and picked up a nugget from the tray in front of her. She inspected the chicken nugget in her hand before pouting, "I wanted dino nuggies."

Shayera lightly rolled her eyes and sighed, "We don't have dino ones up here. Those are at home. They taste the same as the ones back home so just eat them."

Emma threw the nugget back onto the tray and crossed her arms over her chest, "Want dino nuggies. Wanna go home."

"Emma," Shayera began in a warning tone. "We're not going home yet. Just eat the chicken nuggets."

"No!" Emma whined as she kicked the back of her sneakers against the chair. "Don't wanna!"

Shayera slightly narrowed her eyes as a light, frustrated growl threatened to break through. She knew Emma was on the verge of a full-blown tantrum and she didn't necessarily want to deal with that. Especially not in the Watchtower cafeteria. "Emma, listen to me, either you eat the nuggets or you won't get to watch any Sesame Street later."

"But," Emma pouted again before she reached over the tray and reluctantly picked up the discarded chicken nugget. "Wanna watch Bert and Ernie."

Jessica chuckled, earning her an unamused look from the Thanagarian sitting across from her. "Sorry," she stated before chuckling again. "Just I find it amusing to watch a superhero argue with a toddler about eating their lunch. No one would believe that a superhero's life is pretty much the same as everyone else's when you aren't fighting crime."

Shayera shrugged, "You humans put superheroes on a pedestal. It's hard to view people as normal when you do that. Regular people can't even imagine us living normal lives outside of all of this."

"Yeah like how the rough and tough Thanagarian is apparently a big softy deep down," Jessica teased. "Especially when you have your kids with you."

"Smartass," Shayera muttered with an eyeroll. "I'm not a softy."

"I don't know Shayera," Jessica leaned back in her seat and smirked as she gestured towards Emma, who was gnawing on her chicken nuggets. "From what I've seen these past few weeks I'd have to say so."

"Whatever," Shayera rolled her eyes again as she took one of the chicken nuggets off of the tray.

Jessica tilted her head slightly, "I thought the whole point was that you wanted her to eat them."

Shayera shrugged as she dipped the nugget in ketchup, "This is a toddler we're talking about. She's not going to eat all of them. Half the time my lunch is their leftover food. They always want something they'll never finish. That's why I try to talk them into eating something I want."

"So you wanted chicken nuggets?"

"Not necessarily," Shayera admitted with a light smirk as she popped the nugget in her mouth. "I just didn't feel like arguing with her over food for an hour."

"So picking your battles?" Jessica asked.

Shayera shrugged as she reached over for another nugget, "Partially, I get to strategize to a degree."

Emma began to squirm in her seat before repeatedly poking Shayera's arm, "Mommy, potty time."

Shayera let out an exasperated sigh as she dropped the nugget back onto the tray, "Of course it's potty time when I get to eat. Alright fine, let's go." Shayera picked Emma up before turning her attention back to Jessica. "I'll see you tomorrow, same time, at the gym. Don't be late."

Jessica curtly nodded with a smirk, "Got it Captain."

"Lieutenant," Shayera shot back from over her shoulder.

A/N: So yeah this plot bunny has been in my brain for awhile. Cause why not have two active stories at the same time? Anyways I was on my way home at the airport and had two hours before my flight so my brain decided that we needed to do this.

Please reference Moments Captured in Time chapter 87 Instructor in regards to Shayera training Jessica. This story is set very shortly after that chapter.