They regrouped back at the Watchtower, leaving a skeleton crew behind to help with the evacuation and rescue efforts in Metropolis. That was the only city they'd attacked, which felt deliberate. They weren't going to take over quietly like the Reach. They were coming in hard, calling out the most powerful man on Earth before any of the other heroes. As soon as Mallory and Cameron walked into the meeting room, she spotted Zatanna standing towards the back of the group, along with Constantine, Jason Blood, Dr. Fate, Zatarra, Blue Devil, and Rachel Roth, the girl Dick had collected from Bludhaven. The magician must have skipped the first wave to gather more reinforcements. They weren't the only new but familiar faces, either. The Reach kids, Static, and Blue Beetle were standing off to the side with Jason, Arsenal, and Jess, and some of the reserve Leaguers like Jay Garrick, Arthur, and Lagaan were there, too. Orion and the Forever people had returned at some point, and as Cameron found them a path to the front of the crowd to stand with Raquel, Donna, and Garth, it was clear that they were coming into an argument half-fought.
"We must make a stand, draw Darkseid out, demand he try to attack again," Orion declared, banging a fist on the table to drive in his point.
Black Canary eyed the dent in the metal as she considered her response. "We're not ready for another attack. We need to gather more reinforcements, and focus efforts on evacuating the city."
"Torch the city!" Orion yelled. "What are a few fleeting human lives in the grand scheme of a war that has lasted millenia?!"
"Everything," Clark said firmly. "A single life is worth everything, if we can save it."
The man sneered beneath his helmet. "Such sentiment is juvenile and misguided. The only thing that matters is drawing Darkseid out so I can fight him face to face." Mallory exchanged a look with her friends. He didn't care about the invasion, or Earth. He would watch their world burn before he let it get in the way of him fighting Darkseid personally.
"You won't be facing him alone."
She shouldn't have been surprised, but her heart leapt to her throat when Raquel spoke, and she had to fight the urge to pull her friend back when she walked right up to the man.
"Don't make the mistake of thinking we'll stand by and let you do whatever you want. We appreciate your help, but this is our world, so it's our fight. You have a problem with that, you can leave right now."
He didn't respond, just stared at her for a moment, his eyes devoid of light, and then he thrust his fist into her stomach, sending her flying. Every hero in the room lunged forward, either going to help Raquel or subdue Orion. Mallory flamed up and stepped between them, glancing back once to see Megan and Dinah help Raquel to her feet. She felt Orion's eyes on her, as if it were leeching the light right off her, though her flames themselves remained bright.
"You," he growled, shrugging off the heroes holding him like they were nothing more than pests. "You have something to say, pretender?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Nothing my friend didn't already cover."
He lunged for her, and she dove away, adrenaline kicking in. Ten people stepped between them, but Orion was laser focused on her, struggling against Clark, Diana, and Donna's hold. He glared at her, and though she couldn't actually see his eyes through the shadows, she knew there was pure hatred in them.
"How can you be so content with the poison running through your veins?" he spat.
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what humans had done to him, for him to hate them so much, or maybe to tell him that she wasn't strictly human herself, but before she made up her mind which to go with, he started fighting again, and a batarang flew past her ear, lodging in the metal of the helmet. A second later, a small charge went off, blowing the helmet off his head and stunning him into stillness for a few seconds.
When he raised his face, still glaring at her, Mallory froze, her flames dying on her skin, her eyes growing wide, surprised not by the black eyes or the veins of rick spreading from the abyss, but by the bright red hair, the lean, oval face, the high cheekbones and slightly square jaw. He was older, had tougher skin and scars, but when she looked at him, it was like looking in a carnival mirror, a distorted version of her own face. She was still trying to process this, what it meant, when Orion relaxed in Clark's hold, studying her reaction to seeing him.
"You…really didn't know?"
Her muscles tensed, her eyes narrowing. "Know what, exactly?" her voice was low and breathless, her heart hammering against her ribs, her blood roaring in her ears.
"The Forever People told you of the treaty between New Genesis and Apokolips, how Darkseid and High Father exchanged infant sons."
Mallory clenched her fists, focusing on keeping her face blank, because she'd already figured it out. Suddenly, things started to come back to her in a rush, things that hadn't meant much by themselves, but piled together, they completed the image that Orion was painting for her. Wally telling her she was only twenty-five percent human, Desaad not touching her when he was torturing Conner, how powerful she felt on Apokolips, the robot warning Despero to be careful with her. Even things Luthor had said to her over the years, she realized, all pointed to this conclusion.
"I was Darkseid's infant son, traded to New Genesis, but I was hardly the only offspring he sired. He lost a child twenty-five earth years ago, when the concubine he'd selected to bear his champion escaped Apokolips with the unborn child. She was the daughter of an earth prisoner, I suppose she went back to where her mother came from. New Genesis followed this case closely, making sure this lost champion did not return to claim their birthright as Darkseid's general. Some time ago, we got word from the Forever People that they had found her, on Earth of all places, and worse, Apokolips knew where she was."
Mallory shook her head, wanting to deny it because if it was true, then this war, the attack that was coming, was on her. Now it made sense, why the Light tried to sabotage Inferno. She found herself searching the crowd, her eyes roaming until they locked onto Brek, searching his face for a confirmation. He nodded, just as Orion was finishing, "you are the lost daughter of Apokolips. Darkseid had you and lost you once. He will not leave this world until, among other things, he puts you by his side, or you die in the effort."
She shook her head, raking her hands through her hair, her mind whirling a million miles a second. She felt nauseous, over stimulated, she couldn't breath, everything was closing in on her. She spun on her heel, trying to find a way out, trying to find a way through the crowd, but her brain couldn't process what her eyes were seeing, and the panic was setting in. She rushed forward, suddenly not caring if she had to push every single person to the ground on her way. She needed out, needed to clear her head, needed her world to make sense again, just for a moment.
Strong hands caught her shoulders, and she vaguely made out Clark's steady voice, telling her that it didn't matter, that nothing had changed, really, and she wanted to scream that yes, it had. Everything had changed, too quickly. But then Clark stiffened slightly, and she latched onto the two words that came out of his mouth. "You knew." She looked up so fast she thought she would get whiplash, and she followed his gaze to Batman, standing tall, not an ounce of surprise on his face.
"Yes."
It was like another punch to the gut, stealing a little more air from her vacuumed lungs. She couldn't speak, couldn't get the words out without oxygen, but she didn't have to.
"How long?" Kaldur asked, his usual calm tone barely masking the tone of anger underneath.
"Since the first week she left her boarding school to fight crime."
"You should have told her. You should have told me." Clark paused, tilting his head. "You almost did, didn't you?"
"That was a momentary lapse of judgment. It would have been a mistake to tell you back then. For all I knew then, it might never have become relevant, and telling you would only have made you see her in a different light. And once I realized what was coming, I knew she would be the key to defeating Apokolips should they attack."
There was more being said, but Mallory couldn't handle it. She shoved past Clark, the going easier as the others moved out of her way. She didn't see anything until she was in the living area, falling onto the couch and putting her head on her hands, breathing deeply and letting the air out slowly. She heard the others come in, and then someone was rubbing slow circles on her back, murmuring something unintelligible as they did. She stayed in her hands for twelve more seconds, then finally looked up at her friends. She looked at Dick first. "Did you know?"
He shook his head firmly. "No."
She narrowed her eyes. "Can I believe that?"
He knew how badly she needed to, and he pulled off his mask, letting her search the blue depths for the truth as he said, "if I had known, I would have told you, I swear."
She nodded, thankful that she could still read him after everything. Zatanna's hand stilled, and a second later she came around and sat on the coffee table by Dick. It was a long time before anyone said anything else, the original team members sitting around, offering their silent support and waiting for the pyrokinetic to reach out.
"Do you think that's why he put me on the team?" Mallory asked finally, her voice quiet as she focused on the manageable part of the whole thing.
To her friends' credit, they didn't answer right away, giving the question careful consideration. "You made your own place on the team," Artemis answered firmly, finally skirting around the question that they all knew was probably, at least in part, yes. Batman didn't like letting things out of his control, and the team was the perfect place to put her where he could keep an eye on her and her developing powers, and give her something to be loyal to. Mallory nodded. She knew that, of course. It was jarring, though, to think that the most meaningful part of her life wasn't earned.
"This doesn't change anything," Conner told her, but she was already moving past her personal situation, pushing it aside to deal with later, if ever.
"It changes everything," she argued, turning to business. "Now, we have a chip."
Kaldur shook his head. "We will not use you to bargain with them," he said firmly.
"Why not? I'm what he wants, I can be the bait to draw him out."
"Because we don't negotiate with monsters," Raquel said hotly. Mallory recoiled slightly, the words hitting her like a slap to the face, and her friend winced and tried to sooth the unintentional wound. "Oh, Mal, I didn't mean…"
"It's fine," she replied, too quickly. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Um, you guys should go see what they're planning. I'll be out in a minute."
Her friends hesitated, but Kaldur and Roy ushered them out, understanding that she wanted to be alone. Zatanna paused at the door, looking back at the redhead like she wanted to say something, but in the end she just bit her lip and followed the others out, leaving Mallory alone on the couch, Brek standing next to the door.
Mallory waited for the whoosh of the door closing before saying, "Why did you come? Really?"
He didn't insult her by questioning what she meant, or pretending she was off. Instead, he walked closer to her, chewing on his words as he went. "You. You're why I came back." She nodded, waiting for more. "Before we came the first time, the invasion plated out…different. You were supposed to be killed by Darkseid defending the Earth."
"What changed?" she asked, her mind going to Parallax, to the cell waiting for her in Hell, her pulse pounding beneath her skin.
"Doomsday," he said quietly. She didn't understand, and he didn't want to explain, but finally he sighed and sank to the table in front of her, rubbing his hand on his hair anxiously. "That's what else we changed. Kara…put a stop to a Cadmus project called Doomsday. It was supposed to kill Superman a year after we were there, but it didn't." "So Kara caused this? By saving Clark?"
He hesitated. "No. She just…delayed it. Superman's death itself isn't what brought it on."
She huffed in frustration. "You're using up my last hours here. Just tell me."
He nodded, his face going blank. "Your reaction to his death is one of three factors that brings on the beginning of the Dark War. Before we changed history, Superman's death caused you to attack Doomsday and very nearly defeated him. Darkseid found out that Superman was no longer an obstacle, and that you had battled Doomsday, and he began an invasion, intending for his scouts to kidnap you and force you to switch sides. You didn't, though. You and the rest of the team took out the scouts, and you led the attack wearing Superman's symbol, and you were killed saving the world. With Doomsday gone, it delayed Superman's death, allowing for the Reach to come, and Batman to organize a group outside of the League."
"But he wasn't really dead."
"No, but you believed that he was, and it made you careless."
Her eyebrows came together as she thought about what he meant, and it hit her in a rush. "Granny's house…" she murmured.
He nodded. "That's where I was trying to go, but the vortex left me there two months too soon and I got caught. That's how I ended up on the ship."
"But I broke Gretchen's mind control, how does that start an invasion?"
"That event led to you finding out about the outsiders' betrayal of your trust, and after that, you were supposed to be captured on the ship, and finding out about your true parentage would have made you more susceptible to their brainwashing, and you would have led the invasion as Darkseid's general. In the future I went back to, you were killed by the Justice League, ending the attack and making Darkseid pull his forces back." Pain filled his eyes. "You wanted to know why I came back? It was you. I couldn't let you go down in history as Earth's enemy. Not after knowing you, lo–caring about you. I thought I could change history, but I can't. I'm sorry, but Inferno has to die, it's the only way the Dark War will end."
The silence hung between them for a moment. Brek looked a little wild, but Mallory sat calmly, her mask concealing whatever emotions were going through her as she processed everything now that she had the final pieces of the puzzle she'd been working on for the last eight years.
The intercom clicked on, calling all heroes to the Bridge, and she nodded and stood up. He watched, nervous eyes following her steps to the door. "What are you going to do?" he asked, part of him still thinking things could go the wrong way. She half turned, and he was surprised to see a genuine smile light up her face as she said, "I'm going to save the world. You coming?"