Disclaimer: I do not own any DC characters or locations. All rights belong to DC Comics. I do, however, retain the rights to all characters and locations of my own creation, which include: Rebecca Chavez, Holly Sanders, Apathy/Ruby, Sophie, Jeremiah Belmont, Michelle Blanchett, Isaiah Slaton, Michael Kubrick, Zaria (as well as her Celarian race), Shao Shen, Trance, Police Chief Gerald Palmer, Officer Stevens, Officer Harrow, Emilia Marconi, Francis Baldoni, Arnold Pavoni, Senator Thomas Greene, Agent Croft, as well as Silverstone City and all its interior locations of my own creation.

Rating: T+

Note: The tenth arc in my Ravager series to be remastered into prose format and edited to make it better.

My Fan-Fic Archives: http://www.comicvine.com/myvine/ravager4/ravager4s-fan-fic-archives/87-79374/

---

Chapter #62

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Becky took in a sharp breath, as Rose pressed a warm, damp cloth against the cut on her head. It wasn't too deep, but the bleeding did need to be stopped. Fortunately, her injuries weren't any worse than that, especially considering she'd been shoved by someone with high levels of super strength. Even after crashing through a table, the cut and a sore knee were the worst of it.

Leaning back slightly on the bed, Becky released a heavy breath, closing her eyes. “So, that was Wonder Girl, huh?”

Rose nodded. “Unfortunately.”

“Well, she's certainly... aggressive.”

“I prefer the term 'b*tchy', but maybe that's just me.”

A small smirk snaked its way across Becky's face. “That actually does sound better. You two don't really get along, though, do you?”

“Never have, even before I got Kid Flash killed,” Rose said, tilting her gaze downward. “I mean, she'd always been pretty cold towards me, and I was always looking for a reason to make her mad. So yeah, that was a match made in hell right from the start.”

Chuckling slightly, Becky gave her girlfriend another smile, then reached up and pushed the wet cloth away. “Hey, enough with tending to me. What about you? She clocked your jaw pretty good.”

“I wouldn't worry about it, I'm used to taking hits like that.” Rose paused a moment, pressing the cloth back to Becky's cut. “Besides, she held back. If she hadn't, I wouldn't have a jaw left. I guess even as much as she hates me, she doesn't actually want to kill me.”

“Well, I still say you should get looked at,” she insisted.

Rose lifted an eyebrow. “Is that right?”

“Come on, lie down.”

Putting up no real resistance, Rose moved forward to the bed and obeyed, pulling off her shirt and pants, then lying down on the mattress, front side down. She uttered a cool breath, eyes closing slightly as Becky got into position atop her, hands coming down to begin massaging her shoulders.

“See, doesn't that feel better?” Becky asked.

“Mmm... maybe,” she responded, with a subtle, satisfied groan.

A calm, gentle silence descended over the couple for a few moments, as Becky's hands slowly worked their way downward. It was a silence that they both enjoyed, taking peace in each other's company. In the time that they had been involved with each other, they had grown a close bond, a bond that often times, like now, needed no words. Of course, the silence could last only so long.

“This may not be the best time to discuss it, but... our next mission is the big one, right?” Becky questioned, working her hands along Rose's lower back. “We'll be trying to bring down the VRA at the source.”

Breathing in deeply, Rose opened her eyes and stared forward. “Yeah. We'll hit them hard, and we'll find Slade. We'll beat him, we'll capture him, and we will find out everything he knows, one way or another. Whatever he's planning, whoever is giving him orders, it all has to end.”

“Si... and even though he's your dad, you'll be able to...”

“To what? Fight him? Hurt him?” Rose glanced back over her shoulder slightly. “I told you everything about him, Beck, you know what kind of man he is. I disowned him a long time ago. When I face him, he's not my father; he's just another killer.”

Becky's hands stopped, a small sigh exiting her lips. Moving off her girlfriend, she lied down next to Rose and held an arm around her shoulders, head resting on the pillow. “I'm sorry for what he did to you, Rose. You deserve so much better than what he put you through.”

Rose smiled. You're sweet, you know that?”

“Well, I do try.”

Lifting up a hand, Rose took hold of Becky's, interlocking their fingers. “You're forgetting, though. I already do have better. I have you.”

Becky grinned widely. “Now who's being sweet, ah?”

“That's not all I can be, you know.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

Growing a smirk across her face, Rose leaned forward and gave Becky a deep kiss, while rolling on top of her in the process. “How about I show you?”

---

With the addition of the Teen Titans, their numbers had doubled, meaning that they were essentially twice as effective and twice as dangerous as before. Unfortunately, the VRA still had them all vastly outnumbered with the amount of heroes under control of neural stems. They weren't just going to need a lot of determination and power to succeed this time around, but a lot of luck, too.

“So, we all know the main purpose of this assault,” Power Girl said, as the team gathered in the main lounge the next morning. “To break into VRA headquarters, shut the place down, and capture Slade Wilson for interrogation. In order put an end to this, we have to figure out who he's working for.”

“I'd suggest breaking into two separate teams, in the event that we run into heavy resistance,” Red Robin stated. “We'll need a distraction team to draw a majority of the fire, and an infiltration team to get inside and go after Slade.”

Power Girl nodded. “Good idea. In that case, the distraction team will consist of myself, Wonder Girl, Superboy, Flash, Bombshell, and Static.”

Leaning forward on the couch, Bombshell gave a small grin. “And the objective for that team is to cause as much mayhem as possible, right? Now that I can do.”

“Which leaves Red Robin, Red Arrow, Ravager, Beast Boy, Raven and Rebecca for the infiltration team,” Power Girl continued.

Beast Boy glanced over at Cyborg. “What about Vic?”

“I'll be back here, working on a way to remotely shut down those stems,” he explained.

Superboy folded his arms, bringing a hand to his chin. “But you already managed to disable ours, didn't you?”

“When I could get up close and had time to interact with them directly, sure,” Cyborg said. “But that isn't going to be much help against someone attacking you. If I can figure out a way to disable them from a distance, though, then we'd have a distinct advantage against the VRA controlled heroes.”

At this information, Red Arrow frowned and shifted his weight slightly. “I guess I'll be the one to ask it: why aren't we waiting until you do figure that out to attack? Seems like it would make things a whole lot easier.”

“Because, there's no guarantee I'll be able to, at least not in the near future. The longer we sit around waiting for me to come up with a solution, the worse things get out there, and the more time the VRA will have to prepare for us.”

“I have to agree on that one...” Ravager muttered. “Giving Slade a significant amount of time to prepare against anything is not a good idea.”

“Right, we want to hit them while they're still vulnerable,” Power Girl said.

Static bowed his head slightly, breathing out a long sigh. “I just hope this works and we get the information we're looking for, because we are attacking a government building. In the middle of D.C. If this goes south, it's not going to end well for us.”

Power Girl's eyes narrowed. “If we fail, I doubt it will end well for anyone.”

A dead silence descended upon the group. They gave each other careful glances, nerves beginning to run high. No matter what happened, they couldn't fail.

Becky then stood up from her seat, planting one end of her staff firmly against the ground and giving Power Girl an affirmative nod. “Let's do this.”

---

Out in front of the VRA Headquarters building, a large garrison had been set up to protect against any incoming attacks. Most of the men were directly employed by the VRA itself, but it also included a collection of local police, as well as military troops. They were taking no chances. The only problem with this, of course, was the cost to not just gather them, but also keep them all stationed there, waiting for a threat they weren't sure was coming.

But Slade was sure. He was always sure. As he stood there behind a wall of large army jeeps, hands clasped behind his back, he carefully observed the setup. These men likely wouldn't be able to hold the line very long against the kind of power on its way, but they didn't really need to, either. They were simply present in order to slow the threat down, not take it out. He had other individuals more capable of that standing by for when they were needed.

“Are you sure they're coming?” Agent Croft asked, stepping beside him. “We have no intel to indicate an imminent attack.”

Slade casually glanced at the man, his stolid expression unchanging. “I suppose the previous attacks on our other facilities have escaped your memory?”

“Well, no...”

“They'll be here, and soon,” Slade assured. “To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't arrived already; perhaps even superheroes need a breather. The point is to be prepared, so when they get here, we can put them down.”

Agent Croft uttered a cool breath, turning his gaze back towards the garrison in front of them. Most of the men were just sitting around eating lunch, or reading a paper. They certainly don't look like a very prepared bunch. “Somehow, they're not inspiring me with a lot of confidence.”

“Just have a little faith. Pawns go first for a reason. Now, stay here and coordinate the defense. I'll be in my office.”

Once Slade disappeared back inside the building, Croft mumbled out a curse under his breath and folded his arms. “Stay here and coordinate... right. We'll be out here for hours before-”

“There they are!” one of the guards shouted.

Suddenly, the whole mass of troops began scrambling into defensive formations, taking position and readying themselves against the incoming superbeings. Power Girl was the first to arrive, swooping in and crashing down in front of the main line. Wonder Girl and Superboy flew down next to her, followed by Static and Bombshell. The Flash appeared a second later, running up behind the group and standing with his arms crossed over his chest.

Immediately, Croft ran forward with a bullhorn in hand. “Attention, superheroes! Surrender at once, or we will open fire. In light of your recent crimes against the VRA and the government as a whole, lethal force has been authorized! This is the only warning you get!”

Eyes narrowing, Power Girl took a few steps forward. The men at the front of the line instantly tensed up, raising their weapons at her. “And here's my counter. You stand aside and let us by peacefully, and none of you need to get hurt. This is your only warning.”

“Not going to happen, Power Girl,” Croft said, shaking his head. “You're not heroes anymore, you're the country's most wanted criminals. You don't stand down, and we will take you out!”

“You're welcome to try.” Not hesitating another moment, Power Girl's eyes suddenly glowed bright red, followed by a thick wave of heat vision that sliced forward across the ground in front of them. A tall cloud of dust and debris kicked up into the air, blocking the heroes from sight.

The front line open fired, some with standard assault rifles, others with the VRA's more sophisticated energy weapons that shot out powerful orbs of electricity. Of course, none of them even came close to hitting their mark before Power Girl's team was on them, bursting through the dust cloud and throwing themselves straight into the enemy force. Several men ran in a panic, while others still attempted to subdue their targets. It was rather futile, though, as their weapons had very little effect against the largely invulnerable heroes.

While the more destructive members of the team went around simply destroying vehicles and causing as much chaos as possible, Flash and Static worked on disarming everyone they could. Floating up high into the air on his levitating trashcan lid, Static sent out a field of electricity to magnetize and pull away their weapons. Flash, on the other hand, simply ran at super speeds in between all of them and physically pulled their weapons out of their hands. Within a minute, more than two thirds of the entire garrison was unarmed and helpless.

With an angry shout, Bombshell flew forward towards the back of the enemy troops and ripped straight through a military jeep, splitting it in half and causing it to explode in a rather impressive fireball. Fortunately, the surrounding men had ample time to get out of the way of any airborne metal pieces.

Turning around, she gave them a cross glare, as bullets bounced off her Dilustel skin. “Come on! That the best you got? You're all pathetic!”

Charging up her fist with quantum energy, she punched the ground squarely in front of her, causing a violent eruption of earth, stone, and concrete. This time, however, the flying debris exploded in a much wider radius, threatening to crush some of the nearby guards. Fortunately, a red and yellow blur zipped around and pulled everyone out of the way.

“Calm down, Bombshell!” Flash said. “We're not trying to hurt anyone!”

“If they didn't want to get hurt, they should have just surrendered!” she countered. As she went to direct her attacks elsewhere, however, a sonic blast exploded across her backside, launching her forward and straight through another jeep.

Flying into view, Blue Beetle raised his arm cannon for a follow up attack. “Could say the same to you, hermana!”

And suddenly an entire enemy team of supers arrived, including Black Canary, Stargirl, Argent, Hawkman, Jay Garrick, Terra, and Cyclone. For a brief moment, both teams of heroes just stood still, staring each other down. The other troops, meanwhile, took this opportunity to get the hell out of there, desperately retreating from the inevitable destruction about to take place.

Gallery

“One last chance to surrender before we take you out,” Blue Beetle said, raising his sonic cannon again.

Before anyone could answer, however, the fallen Bombshell rocketed up from the ground and crashed into Blue Beetle midair, unleashing a power explosion of energy that sent him hurtling into one of the windows of the building behind him. A moment later, he flew back outside, relatively unharmed.

“I'll take that as a no,” he said. “Attack!”

Bombshell narrowed her gaze, flying in like a rocket once again. “You wanna go, blue boy? Let's go!”

And then the two sides clashed. As Bombshell and Blue Beetle went at it in the air, Jay Garrick, the original Flash, raced across the ground straight at the current Flash and lunged at him in a supersonic tackle. The two smashed into another building across the street, partially caving in one of the walls.

After sliding a ways across the ground, The Flash sprang back up to his feet and began racing back at the older man. “Don't make me do this, Jay!”

“You brought it on yourself, kid! You're a criminal now!”

---

Back in front of the VRA building, Stargirl flew in with her cosmic staff at the ready, heading straight at Wonder Girl. While forming a defensive force field around herself, she held the staff forward and fired off a sparkling and powerful cosmic blast. Wonder Girl stood her ground, holding her arms up in front of herself and taking the hit. She managed to endure for several moments, before the blast finally sent her airborne.

“Don't think that just because you wear that W on your chest, I'm a pushover!” Stargirl declared.

After stabilizing herself in the air, Wonder Girl jetted forward at Stargirl. When the next blast of energy came in, she dodged out of the way and moved in quick, delivering a thunderous punch that smashed against the force field and launched Stargirl into a jeep down below. Unfortunately, the force field held strong, negating any damage the attack might have caused.

---

As Hawkman lunged in with a vicious swing from his mace, Static ducked out of the way, floating backwards and firing an electrical blast. Hawkman simply held the mace forward, drawing in the entirety of the blast into it like a lightning rod and dispersing it.

Eyes going wide, Static floated higher, trying to keep his distance. “Okay, that shouldn't happen.”

“You've never seen Nth metal before have you?” Hawkman asked.

“Doesn't sound familiar, no.”

Flying after the young hero, Hawkman quickened his pace and took another swing. “Then have a closer look!”

Superboy jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding a giant silver plasma construct in the shape of a wrecking ball. However, the construct suddenly changed shape, shifting into dozens of long, flexible tendrils that lashed out and chased after him. While he managed to evade them for a while, they continued splitting into more and more, until eventually a number of them wrapped around his legs and swung him through the air, crashing into the side of the building.

“Not so super now, are you?” Argent said, grinning.

Her comment was answered by a very angry Superboy flying out from the rubble and blitzing straight at her. Eyes going wide, she formed a silver construct in front of her in the shape of a shield, taking the brunt of the resulting impact. The force of the blow still sent her plummeting back to the ground, though, leaving her in a daze.

As Superboy moved in to put her down for good, a loud, shrill scream of incredible power ripped through the air and hit him full force, throwing him backwards and forcing him to cover his ears.

“Sorry, Superboy, but she isn't the only one you have to deal with!” Black Canary exclaimed.

---

The team's final member, Power Girl, weaved her way in between several massive chunks of earth, as she headed towards Terra. This girl might have been her best friend, but she couldn't let that throw her off. Terra was controlled just like all the others, who could and would kill the uncontrolled heroes if given the opportunity. She needed to end this battle quickly, or at least drag it out long enough for the infiltration team to get to Slade.

“I'm sorry I have to do this again, Atlee!” Power Girl took to the air, eyes glowing red. “I don't have a choice!”

Atlee raised a fist, causing a massive chunk of earth to rip out from beneath the street. “There's always a choice, Peej! You just made the wrong one!”

As Power Girl closed the distance, a massive wind gust suddenly rippled through the air. At first, it was just a mild breeze, in comparison to her resilience, but soon picked up into near hurricane force, sending her spinning violently back through the air.

“You didn't forget about me, did you, Kara?” Cyclone asked, floating through the air. Another one of Power Girl's friends from the JSA, Maxine Hunkel, possessed complete control over air currents, and even sound waves, as of recently. That combination could be trouble.

By the time Power Girl managed to stabilize herself again in the air, a pair of enormous boulders came in from both sides and squashed her between them. Letting out a frustrated grunt, she pushed them back apart with minimal effort, only to take another flying boulder to the face, one that sent her crashing into a nearby building.

“You should have just surrendered, Kara!” Atlee declared. “Now we have to hurt you!”

Chapter #63

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Across the street from the battle, poised on a rooftop, the infiltration team watched carefully as their friends fought desperately against the VRA controlled heroes. While the distraction team did seem to be holding their own for now, they were still outnumbered, and their opponents weren't exactly pushovers to begin with.

Becky leaned forward over the parapet, her gaze unable to break away from the scene. “Dios, they're in trouble... you think they can hold out?”

“They're gonna have to,” Ravager said. “That's their job. Our job, on the other hand, is to take advantage of this. We need to get in there and find Slade.”

“Well, I'm ready you guys are,” Red Arrow replied. “I'd say those guys are plenty distracted now.”

Red Robin nodded. “I agree. Now's the time to go.”

Looking to Raven, Beast Boy gave her a nod. “Take us away.”

“Yes... let us go.” Raising her arms, Raven projected her soul-self once again, engulfing them all.

---

Raven took them to the second floor lobby of the VRA building. As they materialized out of her dark soul-self, the receptionist behind the counter uttered a terrified shriek, and instantly ducked down below her desk out of the way. Slowly, the woman peered up over the top to see what was going on.

“Alright, we're in,” Red Robin stated, looking around. “Question now is, where's Slade?”

“Well, there can't be that many places for him to hide,” Beast Boy said. “There's only five floors.”

Looking to her left, Ravager spotted the receptionist and walked over to her. “Hey, you. What floor is Slade on?”

The frightened woman let out a small yelp, tumbling back behind her chair and springing up to her feet. “P-please, don't hurt me!”

“Lady, we're not gonna hurt you,” Ravager said, with a small sigh. “Just tell us where Slade is.”

“S-slade? Oh, you mean Director Wilson, r-right. He's on the fifth floor in his office.”

Red Arrow blinked, scratching the back of his head. “Huh, never thought just asking would have worked.”

“Well you heard her, fifth floor.” Ravager turned to the others, hands coming to her hips. “Let's get moving.”

Staring in surprise, the receptionist gave the group careful glances, as she moved back to her desk. “You're... really not going to hurt me?”

Ravager folded her arms. “You don't plan on attacking us, do you?”

“W-what? No! Of course not!”

“Then yeah, you're safe. Now come on, we're wasting time.”

“I will have us there... shortly,” Raven said, once again extending her soul-self outward.

Before she could complete the task, however, a painful eruption of electricity exploded across her backside. Her eyes went wide, mouth gaping open and a horrific scream emerging from her throat. She fell forward, collapsing to the floor and twitching in pain, her entire body numb. Jutting into her back, right between her shoulder blades, was a small bat-shaped shuriken, with a blinking blue light on it.

“Raven!” Beast Boy called, rushing to the fallen empath's side.

A second electrically charged batarang came slicing through the air towards him, but Becky intercepted it, swatting it out of the air with her staff. A second later, a dark figure swooped in from around one of the lobby pillars, landing a kick on Becky's face and sending her reeling backwards. The figure landed nimbly, throwing another couple of batarangs, but Red Robin promptly knocked them both out of the air with two of his own razor discs.

“Cassandra?” Red Robin uttered, eyebrows lifting.

The attacker was Cassandra Cain, otherwise known as Black Bat, completely under the VRA's control. “First.. you fight me.”

Pushing past the others, Ravager came forward and cracked her knuckles. “You're kidding, right? You're a bit outnumbered, Bat B*tch, but hey, I won't complain. Gives us a chance to finally settle things.”

“She didn't come alone!” Suddenly, the werewolf Michael Kubrick bolted through the lobby, lips curled back and fangs bared. He made a wild lunge at the person closest to him: Red Robin.

With a deft maneuver, Red Robin rolled out of the way, while brandishing his extendable bo staff and moving into a defensive position. Then, the rest of the enemy team showed up, including a few familiar faces. The shark-alien woman Zaria, already transformed in all her monstrous glory, dove in from the ceiling, making a swipe at Red Arrow, who narrowly managed to dive out of the way.

When Beast Boy transformed into a tiger to help, the potted plants around them in the lobby suddenly sprang to life, rapidly growing and extending outward to take hold of him in the grasp of thick vines. The green skinned Poison Ivy slowly strutted around the side of one of the pillars, the vines lifting herself upwards into the air as well.

“Don't struggle too much,” Poison Ivy stated, a pleased smirk on her face. “My babies are still growing.”

Becky, meanwhile, held a hand to her head and shook off the last blow, while looking around at the melee. Before long, a new enemy appeared to attack, a blonde haired woman in a black and purple batsuit, carrying a bo staff similar to Red Robin's.

“Looks like you're all mine!” Batgirl announced, lunging forward.

Leaping out of the way of a vicious swing, Becky spun her own staff around and hit her opponent's weapon away, then thrust the end forward. But Batgirl was quick, leaning to the side to avoid the strike and then countering with a palm thrust that caught Becky square in the jaw. While recoiling from the blow, Becky felt another hit carom off her stomach, and then a third drill into the side of her knee. Fortunately, her armored bodysuit dispersed most of the force, resulting in very little actual damage.

After taking a second to briefly shake away the partial daze she was in, Becky swiftly dodged two more attacks, then ducked low and countered with an upwards swing from her staff. The end drilled Batgirl across the bottom of the jaw and literally lifted her up several feet into the air, the resulting shock wave knocking the woman out cold instantly.

Blinking a few times in surprise, Becky glanced down at the staff and smiled a little. “I really do love this thing.”

Before she had an opportunity to revel in her victory much longer, however, an incoming bolt zipped through the air and pierced her left shoulder.

“Hijo de puta!” she exclaimed, ripping the bolt from her shoulder. She quickly turned around to see another costumed woman standing there, wielding two small hand crossbows.

“I'm sorry, did that hurt?” Huntress asked, taking aim again. “Here, have another.”

---

Ravager took a small step to the side, watching as Black Bat carefully examined every motion she made. That was how Cassandra gained such an edge in hand to hand, reading her opponent's movements to such a degree that she could determine exactly how and where a person would attack. Likewise, Ravager possessed her precog, enabling her to see attacks before they happened. Both women had highly effective methods of defending themselves in hand to hand combat, and both were highly trained and experienced.

It made them a perfect match for each other.

“You said once... you wanted to smack me around,” Black Bat stated, shifting into a fighting stance. “Now... you have the chance. If you can.”

“I wouldn't waste my time if I didn't know I could,” she responded.

Black Bat's eyes narrowed. “The last time we fought... I slit your throat.”

“This isn't like when when we fought before.” Ravager held her hands up at the ready, turning her body to the side. “I'm not some rookie looking for daddy's approval anymore.”

Ravager lunged in for an attack. She was faster than when they last fought, she was stronger than when they last fought, and she was a hell of a lot more skilled, too. But Cassandra still predicted the location of each punch, deflecting them to the side. Black Bat's countering backhand struck only air, however, as Ravager ducked out way.

After a brief hesitation, both combatants staring each other down, they charged forward again. No more testing, no more messing around. For the most part, they both had an extreme difficulty hitting the other, with most attacks either being blocked, deflected, or outright avoided. But some attacks did land, and for a short moment they exchanged several blows in rapid succession, though nothing of particular significance. A split lip here, a jab to the ribs there; the damage was marginal.

“So you are... better,” Black Bat said, wiping blood from her mouth.

“So are you.” Ravager paused a moment, holding a hand to her bruised jaw. “But not as much.”

“So sure?”

Ravager straightened herself slightly, lowering her hand. “Of course I am. You used to be leagues ahead of me, even with my abilities. But look at us now, almost even. That tells me you've either been slacking off, or somewhere along the way you just reached a point where you couldn’t improve anymore.”

“My peak,” she sated.

“Yeah, your peak. And guess what? I think my peak is higher.”

Cassandra went quiet, gaze narrowing as she brought her fists back up. “Let's find out.”

They rushed each other again, this time determined to find out who was the better. While Ravager had her swords and Black Bat had her gadgets, neither set of equipment came into play. This fight was personal to the both of them, even if Cassandra was being controlled by one of the neural stems. They went hand to hand, and only hand to hand. This wasn't just about winning, this was about pride.

As they reached each other, Ravager poised herself and waited for an attack. When the punch came, she turned herself to the side and wrapped her own arms around Black Bat's, then worked herself into a position to grab hold of the woman's midsection and under her armpit.

“Don't bother struggling,” she said.

Her grip came down like a vice, unyielding no matter how hard Cassandra tried to break free. Their skill might have been on par with each other, but there were some things that Ravager had to her advantage. Enhanced speed and strength, for example, the latter of which was the deciding factor here. Pushing forward, she forced Black Bat face first into the pillar in front of them, then pulled back and swung her to the floor. Throughout the entire assault, she never once loosened her grip.

“A little advice-” Kneeling atop Cassandra now, Ravager pinned both of the woman's arms in an awkward position behind her back, then slammed her face hard against the tile floor. “-when you're fighting someone who can see your attacks before you make them-”

Black Bat fought back, twisting her body to the side and using her legs push off from the ground and attempt to break free. But Ravager didn't let her go, instead twisting one of her arms even harder, and then lunging her knee forward straight into her jaw. “-you have to take that ability out of the equation. If there's nowhere for you to go-”

With another desperate lurch Black Bat started to wriggle free, sliding out from beneath Ravager and nearly getting away. But Ravager was quick to grab hold again, still not letting go, in spite of a hard palm thrust that whipped her head backwards.

Instead, she pulled Black Bat up and lurched her head forward, viciously headbutting the woman square in the face. “-then you can't get away.”

One final elbow strike to the back of the skull put Cassandra down for good.

---

“It doesn't matter what you transform into!” Poison Ivy exclaimed. “My lovelies will rip you apart!”

Currently in the form of a hummingbird, Beast Boy zipped around wildly, darting out of the way of monstrous, man eating plants. Fortunately, his speed and unpredictability in this form kept him alive for the moment. He would just transform into something much larger, but if he got too big, he might end up crashing straight through the floor, which likely wasn't reinforced enough to hold something like a mammoth or a T-Rex.

Instead, he darted out of the way of a few more lunging plant mouths and then quickly morphed into a gorilla, getting close enough to make a leaping dive at Poison Ivy. However, a massive plant stem suddenly shot up through the floor straight in front of him, causing him to very nearly run straight into it. Fortunately, he managed to change directions to avoid collision at the last moment.

However, it also left him vulnerable to the man eating plants, all of which began to converge on him at once. Going on the defensive again, he transformed back into a hummingbird, ready to keep dodging. But the need never arose, as suddenly a large ball of flame erupted at the base of one of the plants.

Instantly, Poison Ivy let out a horrified shriek of agony, eyes going wide and arms reaching out to the burning plant. “No! What have you done?! They're in pain! They're dying!”

A brief second later, Red Robin appeared behind her and delivered a hard strike with his staff to the base of her skull, knocking her out cold.

Morphing back into human form, Beast Boy glanced back at the cause of the fire. “Thanks.”

“Fire arrow,” Red Arrow said, giving a smirk. “Primitive, but effective.”

“Not really primitive when you're using kerosene as a base,” Red Robin remarked.

“Well... true.”

Ravager stumbled into view a moment later, moving around the withering and dying plant life. A short distance away, Kubrick, Zaria, Batgirl, and Huntress lay unconscious on the floor.

Holding a hand to the back of her head, she glanced around at the others for a moment, confused. “Where's Becky?”

“Uh, not sure exactly.” Red Arrow paused a moment, glancing back over his shoulder. “She helped us take down ugly and uglier over there, then I think she ran off.”

A sudden sinking feeling dropped into her gut. “Oh, Becky no... tell me you didn't go after him by yourself.” Instantly, she took off and running, sprinting towards the stairs.

“Damn it!” Red Robin declared, chasing after her. “Roy, B.B., take care of Raven! I'm going after them!”

---

The door to Slade's office burst inwards, tearing straight off its hinges with splinters and shards of glass spraying in all directions. Holding her staff at the ready, Becky stepped inside and took a defensive stance, staring at the man in front of her.

Slade stood there, fully dressed in his armored costume, except for the mask. A broadsword adorned his back, while multiple guns hung off his waist and legs. “About time, I was starting to get bored.”

“Slade! You're coming with us!”

Not answering right away, he pulled on his mask finally and straightened it, the Deathstroke persona taking over now. “Rebecca, isn't it? Shame... I was hoping for Rose.”

“Well you got me!” she countered. “And the others are on their way soon, so do the smart thing and come quietly.”

Deathstroke paused a moment, tilting his head and giving the woman a long look. “You're my daughter's... lover, correct?”

“Girlfriend,” Becky said, eyes narrowing. “Get it right.”

“Of course... and she's happy with you, isn't she?”

“The hell do you care?” she asked. “As far as I'm concerned, that's none of your business!”

“I'm her father,” Deathstroke said. “Her happiness is most certainly my business.”

Becky scoffed, lips curling into a frown. “Right, and that's why you drugged her, manipulated her, and made her kill for you? You're a regular father of the year.”

“Don't presume you know anything about it,” he said. “Even she doesn't know the whole story, not really.”

“Well, I'm sure we'd all love to hear it.” Becky finally lifted her staff, ready to attack. “You can tell it to us from behind bars.”

Taking a couple steps forward, Deathstroke clasped his hands behind his back. “Don't be stupid, girl. You're in over your head.”

“We'll see about that, won't we? For everything you've done with the VRA, everything you've done to hurt these people, and everything you've ever done to Rose, I'm taking you down.”

Deathstroke paused momentarily, reaching back behind himself and drawing his sword. Then, he took a small step forward and lifted the blade above his head, waiting. “I'll tell you right now, I don't want to fight you, Rebecca. But if you make the first move, do not expect me to hold back.”

Becky's gaze went narrow again, hands gripping her staff with both hands. As determined and eager as she was to make the first move, a part of her felt the pangs of hesitation. Something about this man was frightening.

Quickly, though, she fought those feelings away, instead running across the office at him. “Let's go!”

Chapter #64

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Deathstroke stumbled backwards, catching his balance against the desk and then pushing himself forward. When he and Becky engaged again, the exchange was brief but telling. When the butt of the staff jutted against his ribs, he felt a thunderous force erupt, a small shock wave ripping into his armor and knocking him airborne. He did, however, manage to flip himself around in midair and land back on his feet, though he staggered momentarily.

“Not bad,” he said, eye narrowing from behind his mask. “I might even go so far as to say pretty good. That suit is impressive.”

Swallowing, Becky took in a deep breath and staggered, dropping to one knee and wincing.

“The staff, too,” Deathstroke continued. “A fine piece of weaponry. But it doesn't matter how strong or fast you are, I still got you.”

A small grunt emerged from Becky's lips, as she glanced down to see a clean cut through her power suit, slicing along her ribs. “Rose told me you were dangerous... guess she was right.”

“Do the smart thing and stand down, Rebecca.” Deathstroke lowered his sword, taking a small step forward. “I don't want to hurt you again.”

“Sorry, but we have a job to do,” Becky said, clicking a switch on the center of her staff. A low pitched humming noise filled the room, as the weapon powered up to maximum capacity. “No more messing around!”

Deathstroke lifted an eyebrow in curiosity, preparing himself against the charging woman. As the staff swung in, he went to deflect the blow with his sword, but the massive shock wave that erupted sent the blade spinning through the air and knocked him off balance, hands shaking and numb.

“What the-”

Fwooom!

When the staff hit his gut this time, he almost mistook the impact for a speeding train. Instantly, he lifted into the air and flew backwards towards the window behind him. Not only did he go through the window, but he also took half the wall with him, plummeting through the air from five stories up.

Realizing exactly what she had done, Becky's eyes went wide. She quickly ran over to the hole in the wall, terrified that she had actually killed the man. “Oh mierda!”

The roof of an attaching section of the building broke Deathstroke's fall before he could plummet the entire distance, crashing against the hard surface about twenty feet down. He lied there for several moments, groaning quietly to himself, then sat up and shook off the daze.

“Okay, a very fine piece of weaponry,” he muttered.

A short moment later, another figure landed on the roof in front of him, cracking the flat surface upon impact. Becky's suit absorbed the shock of the fall, allowing her to instantly recover and prepare herself for another attack. Rising back to his feet, Deathstroke held a hand to his chest briefly, then took a fighting stance.

“I'd stay down, if I were you,” Becky said.

“Girl, you really don't know what you're up against, do you?”

“I know I just knocked you out a window. Want to make it off a roof, too?”

A small sigh brushed past Deathstroke's lips. “I didn't want to have to do this...”

He suddenly sprinted forward, the fall apparently having very little effect on his ability to continue fighting. Becky readied herself, spinning her staff and delivering a vicious swing at his legs. But she struck only air, as Deathstroke leaped over the attack and delivered and explosive elbow that caught the side of her head. She staggered slightly, trying to recover quickly from the blow... but then the follow up strikes came.

Becky barely even knew where the attacks were coming from, they were hitting her so fast. And they hurt, too. A lot. Even with the armor that her suit provided, she felt the thunderous impact. By the time the onslaught finished, her entire body throbbed, almost numb.

Am I on my back? I am... what the hell happened?

Everything appeared to be spinning as she looked up at the sky, and for a brief moment she felt nauseous. Eventually, Deathstroke appeared above in her vision, standing over her. She tried to get back up to keep fighting, but her insides suddenly twisted, causing her to roll over and vomit, coughing and sputtering.

“I told you,” Deathstroke said, gaze narrowing, “you're in over your head.”

“I'm not... done yet...” she uttered.

He merely raised a fist, ready to put her down for good. “Yes, you are.”

Before he could deliver the blow, however, another voice interrupted him. “SLADE!”

Deathstroke glanced up just in time to see a figure dive bombing him from up above like a missile, feet first. Boots squarely striking him in the chest, he tumbled head over heels backward until popping back up to his feet and hunching over slightly.

“Rose...” he said, narrowing his gaze at his daughter. “Good of you to join us.”

“Your fight is with me, Dad!” She spat that last word with pure, ire-filled venom. “Leave her out of it!”

“It's her own fault. I did warn her about getting involved.”

Becky groaned slightly, sitting up very slowly and pressing a hand to her forehead. “Oy, I had him...”

Ravager's gaze snapped back to her girlfriend. She came close, kneeling down and pressing her hands to Rebecca's shoulders. “Becky, what the hell were you thinking? You shouldn't have gone after him alone!”

“I just... wanted to do something good for you,” she replied, looking into her girlfriend's eyes. She averted her gaze a moment later, glancing away with a sigh.

“Well, you’ve done enough for now,” Ravager said, leaning forward to give Becky a gentle kiss on the forehead. “Take a breather, I'll handle him.”

A moment later, another figure swung down into view. Red Robin landed nimbly on the rooftop, then retracted his grapple line and tucked it away. “You don't have to handle him alone.”

“I don't need your help, Tim,” Ravager stated. “Or want it. This one's personal.”

“You know I'm not just gonna stand here and watch you fight him alone,” he replied.

“Yeah, what he said.” Becky groaned quietly, pushing herself back to her feet. “Think I'm starting to feel a bit better here.”

And just like that, Deathstroke faced a three on one disadvantage. He could take any one of them just fine on their own, he knew that. But all three? That could pose a problem. “Well... isn't this interesting?”

Drawing her swords, Ravager led the charge, sprinting straight at her father. “Take him down!”

---

Deep within a dark bunker somewhere, location unspecified, a man sat at a large computer console, more like a small command center than anything else. This equipment far surpassed the stuff he'd been using in the past, and with it he could do just about anything imaginable with a computer. Right now, his 'eye in the sky' paid careful attention to everything going on in Washington D.C., specifically the attack on the VRA headquarters. Even more specifically, he was watching an aerial view of the rooftop on which Deathstroke fought against three opponents. The man seemed to be putting up a decent enough fight, but he was still outmatched.

“Well, it seems you've bitten off a little more than you can chew, Slade,” Calculator muttered, leaning forward in his seat. “Can't say I'm surprised.”

As he continued watching, the phone next to his station rang. It rang three times, then stopped. After a long pause, it started ringing again. It was at this point he reached over to grab it, knowing exactly who it was.

“I was wondering when you were going to call,” he said, sinking back into his chair.

“Are you watching?” the voice asked.

“Live satellite feed is crystal clear. I can see it all.”

“And how does it look?”

Calculator paused a moment, clicking a button on the keyboard and pulling up another screen. “Not good for the VRA.”

The screen now showed a view of the front of the VRA building. Most of the combatants were down and out at the moment, but Power Girl, Superboy, and Static were still in the game, fighting against Terra, Stargirl, and Argent. Pressing a second button, he zoomed in just in time to see Static deliver a particularly devastating blast to Terra, who went down in a smoking heap.

“The main defense squad is almost out,” Calculator informed. “I give them five more minutes, tops.”

“And Slade?”

“Losing.”

“I see... “ The voice paused, breathing outwardly. “Unfortunate. You know what to do in that case.”

Calculator smirked. “Of course.”

“Slade may have failed, but as long as they don't get any information out of him, then the game continues.”

“Trust me,” Calculator said, “when I'm done here, there won't be anything left of him to get information from.”

“Good. Once you've done that, I'll take care of the rest.”

The phone clicked off a second later. Calmly hanging it up, Calculator pulled himself closer to the keyboard and cracked his knuckles. With a few short button presses, he pulled up the VRA building's security systems, particularly the little fail safe he had installed for an event like this. Glancing back up at the screen, he watched as Deathstroke continued to fight the other three. Knowing the locations of each charge, Calculator waited...

“Just a little closer, Slade. You're almost on it.”

---

“Rose, look out!” Becky exclaimed.

Lunging forward, Becky pushed the downed Ravager out of the way of Deathstroke's attack. Instead, the kick caromed off Becky's arm. With a hard glare, she grabbed onto the man's shin and yanked him forward, throwing herself at him. The two went down hard, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

Deathstroke flipped himself up on top of her, delivering a couple of hard strikes to face and midsection, but suddenly the claw of Red Robin's grapnel gun clamped around his left wrist and pulled his arm back, throwing him off balance. Then, Ravager was on him, leaping onto his back and wrapping her arm around his neck, choking and restraining him.

“It's over, Slade!” she shouted, squeezing her arm tighter around his throat. “You're coming with-”

BOOM!

Destruction and chaos abruptly engulfed their entire world, as the rooftop around them exploded, several various detonations going off and causing showers of debris to rocket into the air. In particular, one of the charges detonated right beneath where Becky, Deathstroke, and Ravager were positioned. Within moments, they were falling through empty space, as the roof collapsed around them. The entire building went with them.

Ravager landed with a thud, the back of her head smacking against a thick chunk of concrete. A dark rain of dust, rubble, and broken furniture crashed down over her a second later, everything going black. For the longest time, she couldn't even figure out which ways was up and which was down. A heavy pain ripped across her left arm, too, probably broken. It took every ounce of effort she had in order to move beneath the chunks of ruined building, but eventually she managed to dig her way out, even with only a single good arm.

Tearing the cracked helmet and dented faceplate off her head, she threw it to the ground and tumbled down a pile of rubble, grunting in pain when she landed on her bad arm. A brief, hacking cough grated her throat, as she expelled the concrete dust from her lungs. For good measure, she spit several times on the ground next to her, just to get the taste out.

What... the hell... just happened?

Gritting her teeth, she sat upright and looked around, seeing nothing but piles of debris around her. “Rebecca? Tim? Are you there?”

No answer. Wincing slightly, she forced her way up to her feet and staggered momentarily. When she finally stabilized herself, she sucked in a deep breath and began walking, a very noticeable limp in her stride.

A brief moment later, a weak, pained voice spoke out to her. “Rose...”

Rose's heart skipped a beat, gaze snapping in the direction of Becky's voice. Suddenly, all the pain, all the exhaustion was gone, as she rushed over to the woman's side. Through all of the rubble pinning her to the ground, Becky was barely even noticeable, only her head and one arm poking through the piles of concrete, steel, and brick. Half in panic, Rose threw herself at the debris pile, digging furiously with her one good arm.

“I can't... feel anything,” Becky uttered, her voice coming out in a hoarse whisper.

“Just hold on, I'm getting you out,” Rose said, tearing away a large chunk of steel. “You'll be fine.”

She'll be fine, she repeated in her thoughts. She has to be fine!

When she finally managed to loosen things enough, Rose took hold of Becky and pulled the woman free. Even free, though, Becky continued lying there, motionless. Not a single muscle moved for the longest time, until finally a few of her fingers absently twitched.

“I think... I think I was right on top of it,” she wheezed.

And so she was. One of explosive charges had gone off right beneath the spot where Becky had been lying on the roof. Most of her current condition was a result of that, with the tons of debris merely adding insult to injury.

“It's alright, you're okay,” Rose said, sucking in a deep breath. She swallowed a nervous lump in her throat, holding a hand to Becky's cheek. “Just keep looking at me, Beck. Stay with me.”

Becky's eyes weakly flickered upward, her breath stuttering and followed by a hacking cough that sprayed out a thick mist of blood. “How... how bad is it?”

Hesitating slightly, Rose reached down and removed the front plate of Becky's shredded suit, revealing massive bruising beneath. Internal bleeding, broken ribs, probably a collapsed lung somewhere in there. She knew what it meant... God help her, she knew what it meant.

“It... it's not that bad. Really,” she insisted. “We'll just... we'll get you to a doctor and you'll be fine. You'll be... you'll be fine.”

Becky breathed in deeply, only to abruptly enter another fit of coughing a second later. This time, not just a spray of blood came out, but a thick glob that dribbled down her lips. Rose clenched her jaw tightly, then tenderly wiped the crimson from Becky's mouth.

“Hey...” Becky said, eyes flickering slightly as she looked up into Rose's eyes. “I... I did good, ah?”

It took everything Rose had to keep from breaking down into a helpless pile of tears right there, hearing the weakness in Becky's voice. Her lips quivered, as she gazed down into Becky eyes... her fading eyes. She wanted to scream, wanted to cry, wanted to curse... Instead, she forced herself to smile, though the wetness brimming in her own eyes quickly betrayed any sense of confidence she had attempted to instill.

“Yeah... yeah you did good,” Rose said, sniffling slightly. She closed her eyes briefly, lifting a hand to rub them dry. “You did great.”

“Hey... don't be sad,” Becky said, curling her lips into the faintest of smiles. “I don't... I don't like it when you're sad.”

“But what am I... what am I supposed to do?” Rose tightened her jaw, squinting her eyes a few moments longer. Finally, she swallowed back a numb lump and opened her eyes again, staring down at the unmoving Becky in her arms. “I can't... I don't know what to do.”

Becky's arm suddenly began to move, though very slowly and very weakly. It took several moments, but finally her hand pressed gently against Rose's cheek. “Just... be happy. Okay? For me...” Her smile grew a little larger, as her eyelids lowered. “Dios... you really are beautiful.”

And then her, arm went limp, dropping into Rose's lap.

“Becky?” Rose uttered, gently shaking the woman. Her heart flew into a panic, eyes going wide. “Becky?!”

But there was no answer. Becky's breathing had ceased, her body motionless. For a few moments, Rose just sat there, staring in disbelief. A part of her brain didn't want to believe it, didn't want to acknowledge what just happened.

“No... no no no no no no no...” she said, stomach churning with desperation.

As she continued staring, however, it eventually clicked in her head. A short moment later, her heart exploded, a sudden wave of hysteria and sorrow flooding through her. Dropping her forehead down to Becky's, she closed her eyes and tried to hold the tears back, but it was useless; they streamed down her face in rivers, dripping off her chin onto Becky's cold, ashen face.

The cry that erupted from her throat barely sounded human, a sickening combination of sorrow, shock, horror, and pure, heartbreaking agony. “NOOOOO!!!”

In those fleeting, anguished moments, Rose's entire world had been ripped away.

Chapter #65

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Slade heard it before he saw it: the sound of his daughter's distraught voice screeching through the air, an unbearable shriek of pain and sorrow. At first, he wondered what could have caused her to scream like that, but as he tumbled down over a pile of rubble, he witnessed the sight. Rose knelt next to the limp, motionless body of Rebecca Chavez, her girlfriend, her love. Slade couldn't remember a time when his daughter ever looked so utterly broken, even after as much as he had put her through.

And it sickened him.

It sickened him to know that he had a part in causing this. Things were never supposed to have gone this far. Rose was never supposed to have been hurt, not like this. His legs buckled as he walked towards the scene, body weakened from the explosion, armor and mask shredded. He tried to look at his daughter, couldn't bring himself to, gaze instead shifting away in shame.

Had he really gone and destroyed her life all over again? The only reason he had become involved in all of this was to do something good for Rose for once; she might not have seen it at first, but when the dust settled she would have. Instead, he had accomplished the complete opposite.

“Rose...” He paused, unsure of what to say. All he could do was bow his head and continue looking away.

In response, Rose's head slowly lifted away from her dead girlfriend's, all that grief and sorrow suddenly shifting into pure, unbridled rage. “You...”

Suddenly, she was on him. Before he even noticed her rise from the ground, she sprang up and lunged forward with a brutal punch. Her knuckles caromed strongly off his jaw, whipping his head to the side and pushing him back a step. He could taste blood in his mouth, felt a tooth loose.

“She's dead because you!” Rose shrieked.

A hard knee to the chest now. Slade staggered, holding a hand to the point of impact and grunting. Rose wasn't holding back, putting everything she had into her attacks. He didn't know whether his body was just too sore to react in time, or if he mentally wouldn't allow himself to defend against her. Either way, she got in free shots.

“All you do is take!” Rose screamed, vision blurred with tears. “That's all you've ever done!”

A kick to the head and Slade fell back to one knee. He wasn't there for very long, as a backhand sent him to the ground. Then, she was on top of him, taking repeated swings with her one good arm and clubbing him across the face.

“First it was my mother!” Rose's knuckles crashed against Slade's jaw, splitting open flesh and spilling blood. “Then my life! Then my sanity! And now Becky!”

Slade squinted his eyes, a steady flow of crimson draining from an open gash on his forehead. Another explosion of pain and colors erupted in his vision, as his daughter's fist battered his face yet again.

“For once since you came into my life, I had something good! But you had to destroy it! Why?! Why do you always do this to me?!”

By the time Rose's fist stopped, Slade's arms had gone limp, the world spinning around him in a daze. It took a long moment before things finally started to focus again, and that was when he saw his daughter sitting over him with one of the guns from his holsters pointed straight at his face.

“Rose...” he uttered, coughing out a pained breath.

“Don't you dare say anything!” she riposted. “I don't want to hear anymore of your delusional excuses! You're a b**stard, do you hear me?! That's all you'll ever be!”

Her thumb reached up and pulled the hammer back on the revolver. Cocked and fully loaded, the only thing standing between Slade and a swift death now was Rose's trigger finger.

“Now you pay for everything you've ever done! To me, to others, everyone!” A second went by, then another. Rose's hand began to tremble, her finger quivering against the trigger. She glared down at her father with an odd mixture of hate and grief, sticky remnants of tears streaked down her cheeks. “I'm going to kill you! I have to kill you! That's the only way... the only way you'll stop... stop hurting people...”

Slade could only stare up at his daughter, a look of complete and utter shame in his eye. Breathing outwardly, he closed that eye, head bowing and hope diminishing. If this was how it was to end for him, then he was ready.

“I'm going to do it!” Rose insisted again, hand shaking harder. She swallowed back a numb lump in her throat and blinked away the renewed tears in her eyes. “I'm going to... I have to...”

Finally, Rose lowered the gun and dropped it off to the side. Bowing her head, she squinted her eyes shut and held her hands tightly to her head, doing her best to stifle back her sobs; she failed miserably.

“Why... why can't I do it?” she questioned, shaking her head in disbelief.

As her sobs grow heavier, Slade forced himself to sit up, fighting the pounding headache and pain wracking his body. For a brief moment, he just stared at his daughter, then gently reached forward and pulled her into a comforting embrace.

“I'm... so sorry, Rose,” he said, softly. “I never meant for any of this to happen.”

---

Ten minutes ago...

Power Girl delivered a thunderous punch to the last remaining VRA controlled hero, Argent. The silver skinned woman flew backwards violently, crashing to the ground and bouncing up into a nearby jeep. She went motionless a moment later, consciousness leaving her. For a brief moment, everything was quiet. No more fighting, no more explosions, no more destruction. The battle was over... for now.

“That was... annoying,” Superboy muttered, taking a look around. Only he and Power Girl were left standing.

Uttering a long, exhausted breath, Power Girl dropped down to sit against an upturned piece of pavement. “You're telling me... I just hope that was a big enough distraction.”

“I hope so, too,” came the voice of Red Arrow, from behind.

Turning around, Power Girl noticed both Red Arrow and Beast Boy, in the form of an elephant, standing there. With them were the unconscious bodies of Black Bat, Batgirl, Huntress, Poison Ivy, Kubrick, and Zaria, all draped across Beast Boy's massive backside.

“What are you two doing here?” she asked. “Where are the others?”

“Did you catch Slade?” Superboy added.

“Not exactly...” Red Arrow replied, as he pulled the unconscious bodies off of the big green elephant.

Beast Boy quickly morphed back into human form. “We sort of... ran into some complications.”

“They took down Raven first,” Red Arrow explained. “She's fine, though; teleported back to base to recover, after getting us out of the building. But the others ran on ahead without us.”

“Then we need to get over there and back them up,” Power Girl said, turning back towards the VRA building. “They might need our-”

BOOM!

The entirety of the VRA building suddenly went up in flames, as the steel structure blew apart. Windows burst outward and walls crumbled, as the VRA headquarters collapsed into nothing but a massive pile of rubble, which very likely contained the rest of their teammates.

“NO!” Power Girl exclaimed, flying forward in a hurry. The others followed close behind her. “Guys, everyone get in there! Find the others!”

Before she reached the destruction, however, a sudden blue and red blur flew in from out of nowhere, smashing straight into her and driving her through a nearby jeep, causing it to erupt in a hot fireball.

“Uh... what was that?” Beast Boy said, turning his gaze in confusion.

A second later, Power Girl reappeared, this time sent flying back the way she came and crashing into a telephone pole, completely taking it out. Staggering back up to her feet, she held a hand to her head and looked up just in time to see the blur racing back at her again. This time, though, she was ready, greeting it with a vicious punch that launched the figure backwards into the wall of a nearby building.

“I so do not need this right now!” Power Girl said, fixing the cape of her costume. A short moment later, the attacker calmly walked back out of the hole in the building, brushing off her own costume and staring at Power Girl.

“Maybe you should have thought about that before you attacked the VRA,” Supergirl stated, eyes narrowing. “Now I have to take you down.”

“You're like the third person to say that to me today,” Power Girl said, breathing out an annoyed sigh. “And everyone else who did is unconscious!”

Supergirl glared harder, flying up into the air. “Sorry, Kara, but you won't have the same luck here. It's about time I show you what you really are... a cheap imitation of me!”

The two Kryptonians collided again, throwing a double punch that connected at the same time, either woman battering their knuckles against the other's jaw. The resulting shock wave shattered the glass of every building and every car in a five block radius, as both Power Girl and Supergirl rocketed backwards away from each other and crashed violently through several consecutive buildings each. Even the other heroes had been blown to the ground as a result of the sheer concussive blast.

“Whoa...” Beast Boy muttered, slowly returning to his feet.

“I'm gonna take a wild guess and say they're not holding back,” Red Arrow said, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck.”

Superboy stood up straight, glancing back towards the destroyed VRA building. “I'd say you're right. But I'm not worried about that very much.”

“Uh, why?” Beast Boy asked.

“Because, I'm more worried about them.”

Looking to where Superboy pointed, both Beast Boy's and Red Arrow's eyes went wide, jaws suddenly dropping opening. Standing in front of them were the other members of the Justice League: Donna Troy, Batman, Jesse Quick, Green Arrow, and Jade.

Gallery

“Oh come on!” Beast Boy groaned. “How is this fair?”

Quickly drawing a his bow, Red Arrow took aim. Just as fast, Green Arrow did the same. “It's not meant to be...”

---

Though Rose wanted nothing more than to pull away and smash her father across the face again, something prevented her from doing so. Maybe it was the grief restraining her actions, or maybe she just needed the comfort, the feel of caring arms wrapped around her, a voice telling her everything would be alright. Or, perhaps, it was because that for the first time, Slade was actually acting like the father he always should have been, but never was.

She hated that. She absolutely hated it. In spite of everything he had done to her, every despicable way he had acted, he actually cared. He actually loved her, in his own twisted, delusional way. That was why she couldn't pull the trigger... and that was why she allowed him to comfort her, why she didn't break his arm and smash his face in.

That was why she didn't kill him.

“I still hate you,” she uttered, resting her chin gently against his shoulder. She sniffled back a few tears, wet eyes squinting shut tightly. “I always will.”

“I know...” Slade replied, tightening his arms around her shoulders. “As well you should.”

“Why... why did you do it?”

Slade paused a moment, breathing in deeply before responding. “I didn't. I never wanted to actually hurt her. To hurt you. Whoever set those charges... it wasn't me.”

“No, I know that.” Swallowing a hard knot, she leaned back, meeting her gaze with his. “I mean, why did you do all of this? The VRA, controlling heroes, kidnapping, falsely imprisoning people, killing... everything.”

“I can't tell you. I'm sorry, I wish I could. Maybe in the future... but not right now. Just know that I never meant for things to go this far. I never meant...” His gaze slowly turned to the fallen Becky, her body lying limply against the hard ground. “...for any of this.”

A long silence passed between them. Rose lowered her head, tearful eyes closing again. She wanted to be angry again, wanted to kick, wanted to scream... but the grief wouldn't go away. “I loved her, you know? I... I really loved her.”

“I know,” he said, holding a tender hand to the side of her face. “And that's why I'm going to help you.”

“What are you talking about?” Rose asked, narrowing her eyes. “How can you possibly help me after everything you've done?”

“Because I know who's behind all of this, who put this entire plan into motion.”

Rose was quiet a moment, eyes widening. “Who's behind it... you mean the person who started the VRA. The person who...” She glanced briefly over at Becky, heart seizing with agony. When she could bear to look no more, she turned away again, throat going numb and eyes cross. “The person responsible for Becky's death. The person I'm going to kill.”

“I can take you to him,” Slade said.

“You'll do more than that.” Rose lifted her gaze, jaw clenching. “You'll help me take his goddamn head.”

Standing up to his feet, Slade reached down, offering a hand for his daughter to take. “I'd like nothing more.”

She stared at his hand momentarily, as if pondering whether or not she should actually take it. Eventually, though, she grabbed hold and pulled herself back up to her feet as well. “What's his name?”

Slade hesitated briefly, taking in a deep breath. “His name...”

---

“I'd stop struggling, if I were you,” Jade said. “Even if you break free, we're only going to beat you again.”

Battered and bloodied, Superboy lied limply in the green construct wrapping around him. Normally, he could break out no problem, but after taking a serious beating at the hands of Donna, Jesse, and Jade herself, he didn't have a whole lot left in the tank. Red Arrow and Beast Boy were already down, sprawled out on the ground nearby and unconscious.

Suddenly, an incoming white and red figure crashed into the ground nearby. When the dust cleared, Power Girl slowly staggered back to her feet, leaving Supergirl behind in the small crater created upon impact. Her body was battered and bruised, costume shredded. A short moment later, Supergirl also returned to her feet, in a very similar condition. She stood still for a second before falling against a newspaper dispenser next to her, grabbing onto it tightly to keep from hitting the ground again.

“A cheap... imitation, huh?” Power Girl said, leaning against a nearby jeep.

“You're just... lucky,” Supergirl replied, grip slipping from the newspaper box. She fell to one knee, breathing deeply.

Unfortunately for Power Girl, as evenly matched as she was with Supergirl, the rest of the Justice League already began to make a move to take her down. All she could do now was fall down to the ground and utter a desperate breath. “Well... we tried.”

As the League began to make their attack, however, a high pitched sonic frequency split the air. Though only beings with super hearing, like Power Girl, could actually detect it, that didn't stop it from affecting the neural stems lodged into the brains of the Justice League members. Instantly, they dropped to their knees in pain, screaming and grabbing their skulls. Within a short few seconds, though, the pain disappeared completely, as did any hold the stems had over them.

Power blinked, eyebrows lifting in confusion. “What the...?”

“You look like you could use a hand.”

Turning her head, Power Girl noticed Cyborg standing nearby, holding up a sound emitter attached to one of his mechanical arms. Standing next to him was Raven.

“Cutting that a little close, don't you think?” she asked.

“Hey, I just finished this thing literally thirty seconds ago,” he said. “I wasn't even sure it was going to work.”

“You weren't sure if... ugh.” Falling back against the ground, Power Girl uttered a long breath and just stared up at the sky. She could really use a nap right now.

The Justice League, meanwhile, was finally starting to come around, as they staggered back up to their feet.

“What... what happened?” Batman muttered, holding a hand to his forehead.

“I disabled the devices controlling you, that's what happened,” Cyborg explained.

“Vic?” Donna squinted her eyes shut a moment, trying to fight through an astoundingly painful headache. “You...you fixed us.”

“Oh god, it's still in there.” Reaching up behind her left ear, Jesse Quick tentatively fingered the round end of the stem sticking out of her flesh. “I can feel it in my brain... oh I'm gonna puke.”

“Everyone regroup,” Cyborg said. “We still have a job to do. We still need to find Slade.”

---

When the group of heroes finally arrived at the rear of the destroyed building, Rose and Slade were both long gone. Red Robin was there, however, sitting weakly against a large pile of crumbled bricks. When they saw what he was looking at, though, shock and panic set in.

“Oh my god... Rebecca,” Batman uttered, rushing over to the body. He knelt down and removed his gloves so he could check for a pulse.

Seeing this, Red Robin let out a sigh and bowed his head. “Don't bother... I already checked. She's gone.”

Clenching his jaw, Batman lowered his gaze and shut his eyes tightly. “Damn it.”

A heavy silence descended upon the group. Though not everyone knew who this woman was that died, it was enough that she had been fighting for a good cause, fighting on their side. They felt the loss, as though she'd been a comrade that they'd known forever. For the ones who did know her, however, the scene held a bit more impact.

Power Girl slowly came forward, fighting through the limp in her stride. “I... I gave her the suit. I'm the one that pushed her to go with us...”

The silence lingered a while longer, until Batman finally returned to his feet, taking in a deep breath as he stared down at the motionless Rebecca. “Come on, we... we need to find Slade. And Rose. They can't have made it very far.”

Chapter #66

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

The level of security at the White House was, as expected, pretty heavy, with swarms of Secret Service Agents doing everything they could to protect the President from attack. Unfortunately, they hadn't exactly been trained to deal with something like this. Currently, the front lawn was littered with fallen bodies of fallen agents, unmoving and unconscious.

The two attackers moved through their ranks like demons, never standing in the same place for more than a second, it seemed. The Secret Service, in turn, could not get a clean shot on them, and even though both of the assailants looked to be in pretty dire condition – the woman even with one arm hanging dead at her side – there was no stopping them.

The remaining squad pulled back inside the White House, trying to bar the doors. It was futile. The larger man barreled into the entrance, almost ripping the doors off the hinges.

“Please, at least try not to kill them!” Rose said, running through the entrance after her father. “They're not the ones we're after!”

“Not quite my style-” Leaping forward into the entrance hall, Slade ducked below an incoming shot and kicked out the legs of the nearest agent, then finished the man off with a punch to the side of the head. As another couple agents attempted to subdue him, Slade spun out of the way, lunged forward, and took them both out with hard, crippling shots. “-but even I can make an effort.”

Rose joined the fray now, easily evading any shots fired her way and ripping through the lines of Secret Service with her blade. Even with only one good arm and a single sword, she found no challenge in taking down these goons. They might be bleeding and they might not be walking or using their hands again for a while, but they would live.

Right now, she was saving all her rage for the mastermind behind all these events, the man who nearly crippled the superhero community, and the man who caused Rebecca's death. When they found him, then she could start the killing.

“The West Wing,” Slade said, driving an elbow into a nearby agent's face. “That's where he'll be.”

After pummeling another nearby Secret Service Agent, Slade sprinted down the West Wing of the White House, with Rose in hot pursuit. Several more teams of the Secret Service met them along the way, but they fell just as quickly as the others. No one was going to stop them. With an angry shout, Rose ran at the door to the Oval Office and kicked it inward, ripping it straight off its hinges.

“Show yourself!” she exclaimed, hurrying inside with her blade at the ready.

The leather chair behind the Resolute Desk was facing away from them, blocking from view the man sitting in it. A short moment later, however, the chair began to turn, until it finally revealed the person they were after.

“Rose, it's been a while,” the President stated, hands folded calmly in front of him. “And Slade... how very disappointing to see you here.”

“Cut the bullsh*t facade!” Rose said, pointing her sword at him. “You're not the president!”

“Oh, aren't I?” When Rose didn't back down, a vicious sneer snaked its way across his face. “Very well, if this form doesn't suit you...”

And then, his face began to quiver. The skin on his body morphed, rippling as though made of a thick liquid, and reshaped itself into its true appearance, a much more familiar sight to Rose. Grip tightening around the handle of her sword, she narrowed her eyes coldly, the fury within her body igniting to new levels. She almost hadn't believed it when her father told her, but now that she saw him with her own eyes... there was no mistaking that face.

It belonged to Jeremiah Belmont.

“There, is that better?” Jerry asked.

“You were dead...” Rose muttered. “They found your body.

“No, they found a body,” he corrected. “It just happened to look like me.”

“And it was you... everything. It was all you.”

Jerry's knowing smirk grew larger, eyes glinting behind his glasses. “Yes... so it was. Sorry to hear about Rebecca, by the way. She wasn't the intended target, you know. Very unfortunate.”

Body quivering with rage, Rose took a step forward, eyes burning a hole straight through the man's face. “Don't you ever say her name!”

“Hmm, have I hit a sore spot?”

“What the hell were you trying to accomplish with all of this?” Rose took another step forward, fingers white knuckled around her sword handle. “What the f**k was the purpose?!”

Still smirking, Jerry slowly walked out from behind the desk, hands clasped behind his back. “If you must ask the question, then you aren't as smart as I presumed. Why else would a government want complete control over its nation's superheroes? Certainly not for safety or public interest.”

Slade figured it out first. “You wanted an army. An entire country of supers under your control.”

“Correct.” Jerry paced slowly in front of the desk, pushing his glasses up higher on his nose with a single finger. “You see, metahuman warfare is the next stage in the evolution of war. What's the purpose of having things like nuclear weapons when there exist multiple individuals who can swat them away like flies? When it comes to a country's military power, I think you'll agree that you superheroes make for a far more efficient defense.”

“What, and you just took it upon yourself to turn us all into your private soldiers, huh?” Rose questioned.

“But of course. You don't think it would have happened any other way, do you? There are certain... civil liberties and freedoms that get in the way.”

“So you went and got yourself some of those stems, took the president's place, and decided to take over.” Rose shook her head, eyes narrowing coldly. “Sounds to me like you just wanted power, no better than any other two-bit villain out there.”

Jerry breathed out an amused sigh. “Think what you will, Rose, but in the end I brought the superhero community to its knees. I gained control.”

“Well congratu-f*cking-lations,” she chided. “Just one problem: you failed. You got that? It's over.”

Breathing in deeply, Jerry brought his hands around the front of himself, holding his palms together and raising his fingers up to his chin. “Not yet, Rose. How many others did you two tell about me before you came charging in here to take me down yourselves? I'm guessing no one, isn't that right? Yes... you ran off to take my head as soon as your precious Rebecca died, didn't you?”

That was the last straw in Rose's unstable mind. Letting out a rabid shout of fury, she raised her blade and charged him. “I told you to never say her name!”

Jerry merely watched her as she ran in, making no sudden or desperate moves. Instead, a fraction of a second before she cut him clean in half, he stepped casually to the side, evading the strike. Rose blinked in confusion, taking a step back before Jerry's fist, which had abruptly grown to massive proportions, clubbed her across the chest. With a surprised groan, she flew back through the air and crashed against the wall.

“You see, all I have to do is kill the two of you,” Jerry explained, “and then all the proof leading back to me disappears.”

“What... the hell?” Rose uttered, stumbling clumsily back to her feet.

“Oh, this?” Taking a few steps forward, both his arms suddenly morphed into the shape of two long, razor sharp blades. “The result of that little crime spree I put you on last year. It's amazing what the combination of a little mutated clay and nano-technology can accomplish.”

Slade drew one of his automatic pistols and stepped between his daughter and Jerry. Without hesitating, he open fired, pumping out an entire clip. The bullets didn't even faze the man. He simply stood there and took the shots, his flesh rippling like putty with each impact. A short moment later, his body pushed the bullets back out, and with a rapid series of metallic clinking they clattered to the floor. To finish the sequence, the bullet holes left behind in Jerry's body closed back up again, perfectly healed.

Narrowing his eye slightly, Slade took a step backward. “So bullets aren't going to work.”

“I'm willing to bet taking his head off will shut him up!” Steadying herself on her feet, Rose grabbed her blade again and held it at the ready. “Take my other sword; I only have one arm right now.”

Slade complied, moving back and drawing Rose's second blade from the scabbard strapped to her backside. “Ready when you are.”

Of course, Rose had been ready since she kicked the door down. She needed no invitation to begin her charge again, this time fully prepared for whatever Jerry could dish out. “Take him down!”

The three combatants engaged in a swift series of blows. As enhanced as Rose and her father were, Jerry managed to keep up with every attack they threw at him, using his elongated arm-blades to deflect and parry, as well as counter with precise strikes of his own. Rose's reflexes and precognition were really put to the test, especially given how badly beat up she already was. Even Slade, not nearly at one hundred percent, pushed himself to his limits.

Jerry exploited these facts to his advantage, constantly keeping the two on the defensive. Though they had begun as the attackers, now they were the ones being assaulted. After deflecting a particularly brutal blow, Rose stumbled off balance only to be suddenly grabbed by Jerry's extending arm, which wrapped around her neck and waist like some kind of demonic tendril. While simultaneously combating Slade with his other arm, he swung her violently through the air and smashed her through the Resolute Desk, breaking it to pieces.

“Rose!” Slade exclaimed.

Ducking beneath another attack, Slade threw himself forward and flipped over to the other side of his opponent. With a single motion, he cleaved the man's arm off, causing the whip-like limb to lose its grip on Rose and release her.

“Are you alright?” Slade asked, hurrying to his daughter's side.

Meanwhile, Jerry casually walked over to his severed limb, now having reverted back to its normal shape and size, and reached down to pick it up. It took only a brief moment for him to reattach it to his shoulder, flesh rippling like liquid yet again before healing.

“You're picking now to get sentimental?” Rose said. She pushed Slade away and scrambled back to her feet. “Just take his damn head off!”

Sprinting at their enemy once again, she made several vicious slashes, all aimed for Jerry's throat. He easily deflected the attacks away, however, then morphed one of his arms into a large spiked mace, one that hit with the force of a speeding truck. Even though Rose managed to put her sword up in front of the incoming attack, the impact shattered the blade into multiple pieces, then sent her shooting through the air yet again. She landed with a thud against one of the walls and made no immediate move to get back up.

“You don't understand, Rose,” Jerry said, walking calmly forward. “I can become anything I want. I am a weapon. This isn't like the last time we met. This time, you can't beat me.”

“But I can,” Slade retorted, lunging at the man.

This time, Slade's attacks were much more ferocious and purposeful. He fought through his pain and injuries, pushing his body beyond its limits and forcing Jerry on a heavy defensive. Although Jerry had acquired impressive meta powers, his lack of fighting experience soon made itself apparent. Slade gained an edge, seized the advantage, and never let up.

Jerry made a desperate counter move, expelling several razor sharp spikes from his body in attempts to impale Slade when he got too close. But Slade, too, was fast, twisting his body and weaving between the spikes as he drove his blade forward with lethal accuracy. The point skewered through the center of Jerry's chest, driving straight out the other side.

A triumphant grin spread its way across Slade's face. “Got you.”

For a brief moment, Jerry's eyes went wide, as if in pain and surprise. However, his expression soon relaxed again, returning to an eery calm. “You should have listened to your daughter, Slade.”

Suddenly, Slade's own eyes flew open wide, a hot pain flaring through his stomach. Slowly, he glanced downward to see another spike extending from Jerry's body. This one, he did not avoid, as it instead pierced straight through his armor and his body, spilling out warm, sticky streams of crimson.

“You should have taken my head.” Jerry abruptly withdrew the spike, causing Slade to crumple to the floor.

“DAD!” Rose shrieked.

She found it strange that she would react this way to the sight of her father being so viciously impaled, seemingly on the edge of death. As much she hated him, as much as she always wished he would die... he was still her father, and seeing him lying motionless on the floor in a growing pool of blood sent her heart into a panic. Struggling through her pain, she staggered back to her feet and swallowed a hard lump in her throat.

This isn't happening... this whole day isn't... it can't be real. It can't be.

But it was real, she knew it is. This wasn't a dream that she would suddenly wake up from, and there was more riding on her success here than just her own life.

“A pity... I had such high hopes for him.” Jerry held his hands behind his back, staring down at the fallen Slade. “In the end, he proves to be just another disappointment.”

“That's it...” Curling her hand into a tight fist, Rose slowly lifted her gaze, hard eyes glaring with focused anger. “You've screwed with my life for the last time.”

She began her march towards him, not running or hurrying in any way, simply walking purposefully in his direction. Jerry smirked, morphing his arms into multi-bladed monstrosities. Gradually, Rose picked up her pace, his poorly concealed attempts at compensating not deterring her in the slightest.

“Because of you, I lost the the most important person in my life. Now, you pay for it.” She was sprinting now, coming straight at him. He took a wild swing with both his arms, but she ducked beneath them, sliding across the floor. She grabbed Slade's fallen sword on the way by and went straight between Jerry's legs behind him. “I told you before that you weren't worth killing. Well, guess what?!”

As she sprang back to her feet, a precognitive flash ripped through her head. She spun quickly in response, evading the incoming spike that shot out towards her. In the same motion, she whirled her arm around, whipping the blade with lethal precision. The razor edge cleaved cleanly through Jerry's neck, dislodging his head from his shoulders and sending it bouncing across the floor.

“I lied.”

The headless body stood there for a moment, unmoving. Before long, however, it crumpled into a motionless heap. Moving her gaze, she caught sight of Jerry's severed head propped against the wall, lifeless eyes staring wide and unblinking.

“That was for Becky, you miserable son of a b*tch.”

Taking in a deep breath, she threw her sword away and then collapsed to the floor, sitting with arms resting against her raised knees. Bowing her head, she squinted her eyes shut and finally let everything out. First, she let loose an incoherent scream that echoed loudly inside the oval room, pouring all her anger, grief, and distress into it. Once her voice cut out, the tears followed. Rose had never been one to cry very often, hardly ever in fact, but there was no stopping it right now. She had been hurt far too deep this time.

A hand on her shoulder called her away from her sorrow. Blinking a couple of times, she turned her head and looked up to see Slade standing there, pressing his other hand against the hole in his gut.

“You did good, Rose,” he said.

“You... you're not dead.”

“I've always healed fast, same as you. I'll be fine.”

Eyes shifting away, she bowed her head again and stared at the ground. “Figures you'd be the one to survive.”

Slade pulled his hand back, a heavy sigh emerging from his throat. “I am sorry, Rose... you may not believe me, but I do want to see you happy. Rebecca never should have died.”

“No, she shouldn't have. But there's nothing I can do about it now, is there?”

A long pause descended over them. Slade just stood there, staring at his heartbroken daughter. There was that feeling again, the sickening sensation deep in his stomach. Why was he so terrible when it came to family?

“Just... go,” she said, looking away. “I know you don't want to stick around when the cops show up.”

“You're right... I should go,” he stated, moving past her. “I still have work to do, anyway.”

As he headed for the exit, Rose stopped him momentarily, looking to him. “And Dad... this time, stay out of my life for good. Every time you come back into it, you break something. I'm just... I'm tired of being broken.”

His gaze lowered, while the shame simmering in his gut grew to new levels. For a long moment, he just stood there, motionless. It wasn't until he heard the faintest sounds of approaching sirens that he finally tore himself away and kept going. “Goodbye, Rose.”

Chapter #67

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

The team of D.C. police officers hurried into the main entrance of the White House. For a brief moment, they stopped to look around at the bodies of the Secret Service strewn about, some bleeding and others not moving at all.

The officer in charge, Officer Harrow, moved forward with his mouth slightly agape. “What the- damn it, don't just stand around people, check on them!”

Immediately, the other officers approached the fallen agents and inspected them, looking for signs of life. As badly as the Secret Service had been beaten, none of them were dead. Sure, some were unconscious or had their ligaments severed, but there were no fatal injuries.

“Looks like they're all still alive, sir,” one of the other officers said. “Nothing too bad, either.”

“Well what the hell happened in here?” Harrow wondered, holding a hand to his head.

A small cough answered his question. Turning to his left he noticed a still conscious Secret Service Agent slumped against the wall and bleeding from the wrists.

“It was the VRA Director, Slade Wilson,” the agent explained. “He and some b*tch stormed the place. We tried to hold them off, but they got through. They went after the President... Oval Office.”

“Sh*t, everyone move!” Harrow declared, running down the hall. “I want men in that office five minutes ago!”

The swarm of police officers continued towards the West Wing, guns already drawn and at the ready. Harrow was the first to snake his way around the corner of the open doorway, pointing his weapon forward and preparing for anything. The first thing he saw was the Resolute Desk in pieces, broken apart by some phenomenal force. His gaze next found the headless body of the President lying in the middle of the floor. A sickening knot twisted its way into his stomach at the side.

“My god...” he uttered, swallowing back a numb lump.

His thoughts were interrupted when another one of the officers moved into the office, gun pointed forward. “Hands on your head, now!”

Harrow shifted his gaze, now seeing the white haired woman sitting against a wall, one of her arms hanging limply at the side, outfit torn up, and body scuffed and bleeding. She stared directly back at them, her expression unchanging from a distant, almost forlorn look of calm. Slowly, she moved one of her hands up and placed it on the back of her head.

“I'd raise the other one, too, but... yeah. It's not doing so well,” she stated.

Walking cautiously across the floor, Harrow held an arm in front of the other advancing officer. “Careful with her, keep your distance for now. We don't know what she can do.”

“Oh, would you relax?” Rose rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “I'm too exhausted to fight back. If you're going to arrest me, just do it already.”

It was at that moment that another officer inspecting the severed head on the other side of the room furrowed his brow in confusion, then looked back at Harrow. “Uh, sir? This isn't the President.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Of course it's the-” His voice cut out suddenly, as his eyes fell on the head leaning up against the far wall. That face was... not the President at all. It was someone else he didn't recognize. “What in the name of...?”

“His name was Jeremiah Belmont, in case you're wondering,” Rose explained. “A sort of... shape shifter, I guess. As far as I know, he took the place of the real President ages ago, then started to control congress and other forms of the government.”

“Then the real President...”

Rose shrugged. “Probably been dead a while. Jerry here was the one behind the creation of EPRA law and the VRA. Every superhero that went to register was implanted with a neural device that gave him complete control over their actions.”

Harrow held a hand to his head again, eyes unblinking. “This is insane.”

“Yeah, welcome to my world.”

Releasing a small breath, Harrow tore his gaze away from the severed head and looked back at Rose. “And you just killed him?”

“I let him live once before,” Rose said, coldly. “Then all of this happened. Wasn't making the same mistake twice.”

Harrow stared at her a moment longer, then slowly returned his gaze to the severed head. “Jesus...”

---

Rose grunted in slight discomfort, as Harrow forced her limp arm behind her back to be cuffed with her other arm. Several bones were broken and crushed, she knew, along with some torn or sprained tendons. She probably wouldn't be moving it again for a while.

As Officer Harrow led her towards the nearest squad car, one hand on her shoulder, the other on the back of her head, she lifted an eyebrow and gave the vehicle a long look. “You know, it's been a while since I've been in one of these. I almost miss it.”

Harrow paused a moment, lifting a confused eyebrow at her. “I'm honestly not sure how to take that comment.”

“Take it whatever way you like.”

Before he could push her into the vehicle, though, a surprising sight pulled their attention away. Coming through the front gates of the White House grounds, some flying and others walking, was just about every hero that had been involved in the D.C. battle against the VRA, all of them freed from control by Cyborg's specially modified sonic device.

Batman was the first of the heroes to approach the pair. “Officer, what's going on here?”

Clearing his throat, Harrow fought through the initial shock of seeing so many superheroes gathered right in front of him and answered, “Clean up, that's what's going on. Your friend here made a mess of things inside.”

Eyes slowly narrowing, Batman's gaze came to rest on Rose. “What did you do?”

“Saved everyone's asses,” she said, staring straight back at him.

“She stopped the guy behind this whole VRA sh*tstorm, from what I understand,” Harrow explained. “Some kind of... shape shifting guy or something posing as the President. I don't know, I'm not used to dealing with this stuff.”

This information caused Batman to pause, arms folding across his chest. “How did you know who it was?”

“I didn't,” Rose said. “But Slade did. We took him down together.”

“And where is Slade now?”

“Hell if I know. Gone, and good riddance.”

Batman's arms lowered again, his expression suddenly growing cross. “You let him go? After everything he's done?”

“I wasn't exactly in a position to stop him, in case you haven't noticed,” she retorted.

As Batman went to make a counter point, Officer Harrow interrupted. “It's alright, Batman. We got the real culprit, that's good enough for now.”

“Hold on, if you're defending her, then why are you arresting her?” Batman asked.

“Because she still killed the guy,” he replied, with a small shrug. “Like it or not, murder is a crime no matter who commits it for no matter what reason. If a jury decides to find her not guilty, then so be it, but I still have to take her in.”

Another long pause passed between them. Batman uttered a heavy breath, bringing a hand up to rub his eyes tiredly. “Alright... understood.”

“Don't worry, really,” Rose said, quietly. “I could use the isolation... it'll give me time to think.”

Eyes softening, Batman raised a hand and placed it on her shoulder. “I... we found Becky. I'm so sorry, Rose.”

“If it's all the same to you, Dick, I'd rather not talk about it right now,” she muttered, looking away.

“Right... of course. I'll see you later.”

On that note, Harrow gently led Rose into the back of the squad car, then closed the door and headed around to the driver's side. A short moment later, he drove off towards the local station, leaving the other police officers behind to help clean up the mess and secure the area.

Once Rose was gone, Power Girl walked up next to Batman and held her arms around herself. “Do you think she'll be okay?”

“I really can't say,” he replied. “She's always been strong before, but this... I'm afraid it might be one heartbreak too many.”

Nearby, Red Arrow let out a tired, pained breath, while holding a hand to the back of his head. “So, I guess this whole VRA thing is finished, then, huh?”

“Looks like it, soon as Raven helps identify which members of congress and the like are still under stem control,” Cyborg replied. “Then I can help return them to normal.”

“That's good, I suppose. Doesn't help the fact that the government still has a list of all our identities now, though.”

At this comment, a small smile formed across Cyborg's face. “Oh, I wouldn't worry much about that. I already nabbed the hard copies back at the VRA building. As for the digital copies... well, I have a couple friends working on it right now.”

---

Holding a hand to his chin, Calculator stared back at the screen of his computer console, which showed a progress bar of the data he was downloading. Currently, the bar read sixty-seven percent. While throwing all his chips in with that Jeremiah guy seemed to have been a bad investment, he wasn't out of ideas yet. Even with the VRA sunk, he still had access to all their data, which would soon be copied to his hard drive. After that, he could sell the identities of any superhero he wanted to the highest bidders.

“Come on... just a little bit more,” he said.

The progress bar hit ninety percent, then ninety-five, and then... it froze. Narrowing his eyes, he leaned forward and glared at the screen. When still nothing happened, his fingers flew over the keyboard.

“What the hell is- why isn't it responding? What's going on?!”

And then, the screen shut off, becoming completely dark. A second later, it flickered back on, this time showing a glowing green face on it, an overly familiar avatar belonging to the last person he wanted to see right now.

“Hey there, Calculator. Remember us?” asked the synthesized voice of Oracle.

A second avatar appeared on the screen, this one red: Proxy. “You didn't think you were getting away this time, did you?”

“NO!” Slamming his fists down on the table, Calculator stared madly at the two faces in front of him. “You can't be here!”

“And yet we are,” Proxy said.

“We were busy wiping the VRA's database, when lo and behold we detected an outgoing signal transferring the data,” Oracle explained. “Imagine our surprise when it led right back to you.”

“But that's not all we found.” A certain delight found its way to Proxy's tone. “We also traced the signal used to set off the explosives back at the VRA building, the explosives that killed one Rebecca Chavez.”

“The police should be there right about...”

The door behind Calculator suddenly crashed inward. Spinning around, he came face to face with a team of no less than five police officers, all pointing guns at him. For a moment, he blinked stupidly at them, until finally he raised his hands.

“-now,” Oracle said. “Hope you enjoy your ten to twenty.”

---

Back at the wreckage of the VRA building, only two people remained behind. Wonder Girl sat on a large chunk of concrete, leaning forward with her arms resting on her knees and gaze locked on the body of Rebecca Chavez just three feet in front of her. The sight knotted up her stomach, and yet she could not look away.

Leaning on his bo staff for support nearby, Red Robin slowly glanced at her. “You've been staring at her for ten minutes now.”

“I... can't help it,” she replied. “She shouldn't have died.”

“Probably not. But she did.”

“Were she and Rose just... I mean, did they...” Wonder Girl paused a moment, trying to force out her words through a sad lump in her throat. “Did Rose really love her?”

“As far as I know,” Red Robin said. “Everything I heard was secondhand from Dick, but... yeah, it was serious.”

Releasing a tired sigh, Wonder Girl brought her head down into her hands. “You know, I honestly thought I'd be happy if Rose ever had to feel this kind of pain... now I realize it just makes me sick. No one should have to lose the one they love... not even her.”

Red Robin said nothing, instead turning his gaze back to Becky,. He could hear the ambulances approaching now.

“She actually seemed excited to meet us, you know?” Wonder Girl said, swallowing. “Hell, she even knew who I was. And what did I do? Punched her girlfriend and shoved her through a table.”

“There's nothing you can do about it now,” he replied, with a small shrug.

Wonder Girl's eye slowly closed, trying to hold back the growing wetness of tears. “If you see Rose again... tell her I'm sorry, alright? For everything.”

Slowly, Red Robin turned to look at her again. “That's something you should do yourself.”

“Right, because that would go over well,,” she said, scoffing out an amused laugh. Almost instantly, however, she resumed her sorrowful expression “I'm the last person she wants to see right now.”

“Can you really blame her?”

“Yeah, well... whatever. I need to... I need to think, clear my head. I'll see you later.” With that, she flew up into the air and disappeared.

---

Rose lay on the bench quietly, head resting against her arm. Iron bars stood tall in front of her, plain stone walls on her other sides. It had been about six hours now since they took down the VRA. Six hours since she killed Jeremiah Belmont. Six hours since...

“Becky...” Forcing her eyes shut, Rose lifted her hand to her face and pressed her fingers to them. She sucked in a deep breath, slowly letting it out and trying to remain calm.

It was hard, of course. Becky was the only person she had ever loved that way, the only person she'd ever opened up to completely. And it hadn't just been a crazy fling, or anything like that. It had been love, she knew it deep in her heart. She could have seen herself spending the rest of her life with Becky, and nothing would have made her happier. But now...

The sound of the door at the end of the hallway opening caused Rose to raise her head and open her eyes again. She blinked a couple of times curiously, then sat up on the bench as an officer approached the door to the cell. The cop already had his keys at the ready, slipping one of them into the lock and then sliding the door open.

“Alright, let's go,” the officer said.

Rose narrowed her eyes. “What's going on?”

“Someone posted your bail.”

“Who-” That's when she noticed the other man walking into view next to the officer. He gave her a small wave, smiling slightly. “Well, that was thoughtful.”

“Couldn’t just leave you in here,” Dick said, shrugging slightly.

“You should have,” she muttered. “I honestly don't think I would have minded that much.”

Giving her a sympathetic look, Dick walked forward and handed her a folder with several papers inside it. “Here.”

Confused, she took the folder from him and started flipping through them. “What's this?”

“Your court dates.”

“Oh... joy.'

“Don't worry about it too much,” he said. “Considering the situation, the judge might just throw out the case altogether. I've seen stranger things happen.”

“Yeah, whatever. Let's just go. I should probably get this arm looked at.”

Dick nodded, motioning for her to follow him down the hall. “Before we do, though, I brought someone with me to see you.”

“Who?” she asked, giving him a narrow glance. “Because right now, there aren't a whole lot of people I'd want to see.”

“Trust me, this is one of the exceptions.”

When they make it through the doorway leading into the main part of the station, a small blonde girl suddenly ran towards her. “Rose!”

Eyes going wide in surprise, Rose knelt down to give the girl a warm, one-armed hug, holding on tightly. In seconds, they were both forcing back tears. “Holly... oh I missed you.”

Sniffling, the girl held her arms tighter around Rose. She could barely get through her words, stumbling through sobs. “I'm... I'm sorry about... about Becky...”

Taking in a deep breath through her nose, Rose brought her chin forward and rested it on Holly's shoulder, eyes closing and heavy heart sinking a little further in her chest. “I know, Holly... I know.”

---

Michael Kubrick rubbed the back of his head tenderly, as he pushed through the entrance of the city morgue. Zaria was with him, both having managed to escape the scene at the VRA building before the cops showed up. After things went south, it only made sense to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. But while they should be five hundred miles from here by now, instead they had been contacted. By who... well, they didn't know.

The call had been from an unknown number, claiming that they still had work to do. He didn't want to trust it, of course, but Zaria insisted that if this was supposed to be some kind of set up, they could always just eat whoever the guy was. That idea actually intrigued him enough to go along with this stupid meeting.

When they entered the cold chamber, a bald man in a white lab coat and glasses was already waiting for them. For a brief moment, he simply stared at them, until waving for them to come in.

“So who the hell are you, huh?” Kubrick asked.

“The name is Professor Hugo Strange,” the man explained. “I don't believe we've met, have we?”

“No, we haven't.” Kubrick narrowed his eyes, already losing his patience. “So why the hell did you call us?”

“Yes... and how did you get our number for that matter?” Zaria added.

“Oh, I'm not the one who called you, no. I was merely sent ahead to greet you both.”

Kubrick sighed, rubbing his fingers against his eyes. “Uh huh... so then where is the guy who called us?”

“He'll be here shortly,” Strange replied. “In the meantime, we're to make preparations.”

Squinting her eyes at him, Zaria cocked her head to the side slightly, then brushed back her hair. “Preparations for what?”

“You'll see.”

Moving away from them, Strange made his way over to the wall of storage drawers. He counted them off, then stopped in front of a specific one and pulled the chilled compartment open, revealing a naked, bruised corpse within.

Recognizing who it was, Kubrick crossed his arms and let out a scoff. “Hmph, Chavez. She always was biting off more than she could chew.”

“Explain to me why exactly we're in a morgue looking at a dead body,” Zaria said. “I still haven't quite grasped the purpose.”

Without answering her question, Strange looked over to Kubrick and motioned for him to assist. “Help me move her to one of the tables.”

“There had better be a good reason for this...” Kubrick muttered.

Walking forward, Kubrick aided Strange in lifting the corpse off the sliding drawer and then carried her over to one of the flat metal tables nearby, setting her down. Then, Strange headed over to a locker on the other side of the room and opened it, causing another limp, ghostly body to crumple out to the floor. This one belonged to the mortician on duty, a young blonde woman.

“Now, help me get her on the other table.”

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Kubrick walked over to offer his assistance again. “Looks like she died pretty recently.”

“Well, I would imagine so,” Strange replied. “I injected her with a lethal dose of sodium penathol a mere hour ago.”

After dropping the dead mortician on the second table, Kubrick walked back to Zaria's side and folded his arms. “Now, are you going to explain what we're doing? Who called us here?”

“I did.” Turning suddenly, they noticed a man standing in the doorway, a man dressed in a dark suit, long coat, fedora hat, and black rimmed glasses. Walking forward, he flipped his hat off and rested it on the table next to Rebecca's corpse. “I have to admit, I'm surprised you two actually showed up. But I'm glad you did.”

“Who the hell are you?” Kubrick asked.

“I'm who you've been working for this entire time,” the man explained. “What's the problem? Don't recognize your boss?”

“Hun, I've never seen you before in my life,” Zaria said, shaking her head slowly.

“Ah, of course, you don't know me in this form. Where are my manners?” In an instant, his face reformed itself, morphing into a spitting image of the President of the United States. Both Zaria and Kubrick's eyes began to widen in surprise and confusion, as the man's face then returned to normal. “Is that better?”

Kubrick paused a moment, taking a careful step forward. “Who the hell are you?”

“The name is Jeremiah Belmont. And my friends... we have work to do.”

Chapter #68

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

It was raining. Of course it was raining, why not? It was the only thing that could have made this day more miserable, after all, so might as well throw it in. Rose stood amongst the others gathered next to the grave, her left arm in a sling and eyes locked on the casket in front of her. The church service had been hard enough to get through, but now the committal... it felt like someone was reaching into her chest and unceremoniously crushing her heart.

The grip on her hand suddenly tightened. Looking down, she saw Holly standing there with red, puffy eyes. No tears, though; she'd long since run out of them, now only dry, sticky remains left behind on her cheeks. Taking in another breath, Rose lifted her gaze back to the casket, as it began to lower into the grave.

The priest raised his hands and lifted his head, speaking to all those gathered. “And so, we therefore commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life. May Rebecca Anne Chavez forever rest in peace.”

As the officiants began to fill the grave, the mourners slowly took their leave, one by one. Rose, however, lingered for a while, watching the process. With each shovelful of dirt that fell into the grave, Becky's passing felt just a little more final, and Rose's heart a little heavier. Holly stayed, too, leaning close and holding an arm around her.

Something out of the corner of her eye pulled Rose's attention, however. When she saw who stood there, a sick knot tightened in her gut. Rebecca's parents, Jorge and Emma Chavez, walked by, shooting a hateful glare in her direction. She said nothing, instead averting her eyes and staring at the ground, even as they spoke.

“Stay away from our family from now on, do you hear me?” Jorge said, holding his arms tenderly around his wife.

“If she hadn't met you... our baby would still be alive,” Emma insisted, wiping tears from her eyes.

Two quick statements that cut like daggers. When they finally left, Rose sucked in a deep breath and looked up at the sky, rainwater stinging her eyes.

“They really don't like you, do they?” a calm voice asked.

Rose turned her head briefly to see Circe walking up beside her, holding an umbrella above them. “Not that surprising, is it? I'm the one who told them their daughter was dead, I'm the one that put her in that position... that and they didn't know about Becky's lifestyle before.”

“Until you spoke at the service.”

“She always did say her parents would never approve.” Rose breathed out a sigh, bowing her head. “It's no wonder they hate me... too many reasons.”

A quiet pause descended over them. By now, the grave had been fully filled, the funeral over. Abruptly, the complete finality of it all began to sink it.

Sniffling a little, Holly looked up at Rose with empty eyes. “Can I... go wait in the car?”

Nodding, Rose gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Yeah, of course.”

“You can go to my car, if you like,” Circe said. “Lyta's there.”

“Alright...” Breathing out a heavy sigh, the young girl marched away from the grave to the line of cars nearby.

Another pause went by, before Circe finally broke the silence again, lifting her umbrella higher. “You know, I... haven't really ever been the sentimental type.”

Rose lifted an eyebrow, slowly glancing at her. “You don't say.”

“And I know I've been a bit rough around the edges since we met, and I never really gave you or Rebecca the thanks you deserved,” she continued. “Just the lingering mentality of being an all powerful sorceress, I suppose.”

Snorting out a small scoff, Rose blinked down at the grave again and stuffed her hand in her pocket. “Yeah, I guess that could have something to do with it.”

“As I've spent time you, though, as a mortal and as a mother caring for her daughter... I'm starting to see the world in a different light. It's... hard to describe, really, but...” Gently, Circe raised a hand, resting it comfortingly against Rose's shoulder. “I want to thank you for it.”

Rose shrugged. “That's what friends do.”

“I realize that now. You have been a friend to me, a good friend, and I wish to offer my condolences to you. Rebecca, too, was a good friend.”

“A great friend.”

“Yes,” Circe said, smiling ever so slightly. “A great one.”

The two remained standing there a few moments longer, until Circe finally took her leave. Rose remained, though, still unable to pull herself away. For several minutes longer, she stood in silence, just watching, waiting. Half of her hoped that maybe she would suddenly wake from this nightmare, that she'd open her eyes, roll over in bed, and have Becky there to tell her it was all just a bad dream. The other half told her that it was wishful thinking. This was reality, and she had to accept it.

Another voice called out to her, this one belonging to a familiar man. “Rose.”

Lifting her gaze, she turned around suddenly to see not only Dick Grayson standing there, but also Tim Drake, Roy Harper, Karen Starr, Cassandra Cain, Wally West, and Cyborg.

“What... what are you all doing here?” she asked, face twisting with confusion.

“Just wanted to offer our support,” Tim said.

Wally nodded. “Yeah, you helped us all in a big way, you know. Heck, you helped save my family. The least we can do is express our sympathies.”

Moving forward, Roy held a hand to her shoulder and gave a strong nod. “She seemed like a wonderful person.”

Rose swallowed back a knot in her throat, nodding slowly. “She was.” Her gaze then moved to Cassandra, giving the woman a slightly bemused look. “Even you showed up?”

“We are... rivals, yes? But I don't hate you,” Cassandra replied, extending her hand. “You are... a friend.”

For a brief moment, Rose just stared at her, until finally grabbing hold and shaking hands. “Friends, then.”

“But sometime... rematch.”

A very small smile began to form on Rose's face. “Any time you want.”

A quieter voice drew her attention this time. Karen approached, rubbing one of her arms nervously and bowing her head. “Rose, I... I'm sorry. For giving Becky that suit, for sending her out with us, I... it's my fault.”

“Maybe... but blaming you won't bring her back,” Rose said, sighing quietly. “I know what you meant by it, and I know you weren't trying to get her hurt.”

“Still... I am sorry,” Karen said. “I didn't know her for very long, but I could tell what a great person she was, and how much you cared for each other.”

Exhaling, Rose nodded absently. “Yeah, I know.”

A short pause passed, until Cyborg took a couple steps forward and folded his arms. “You're not alone in this, you know.”

“He's right,” Dick stated. “You still have friends, friends who care about you. If you ever need anything, if you ever want to talk, we're here.”

“Thank you... all of you. I, uh... I just need to get going now, I...” Sucking in a large breath, she lifted a hand to her eyes and quickly wiped them dry. Swallowing, she gave an affirmative nod and then moved past them. “I have to get Holly home, and... need to reopen my studio... I'll see you all later. Thank you.”

She didn't look back as she left, instead keeping her head pointed forward and gaze lowered to the wet ground. She didn't even so much as try to move around the puddles, walking straight through them on the way back to the car. Before she got there, however, one more voice reached her ears, this one not nearly as welcomed as the others.

“Rose!”

Freezing in place, she slowly turned her head to see Cassandra Sandsmark standing there behind a tree and holding an umbrella.

Moving from the tree, Cassie hurried towards her. “I... I'm glad I caught you, I didn't know if-”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Rose snapped.

Hesitating briefly, Cassie stiffened, blinking absently. The amount of burning ire pouring out of Rose was enough to put even Wonder Girl on edge. “I was just... I wanted to pay my respects.”

“What on earth for?”

“Because... because I'm sorry about Rebecca. I... know you really loved her.”

Rose's gaze grew cross, jaw clenching. “What the hell do you care? You didn't even know her. All you did was put her through a damn table!”

“I'm sorry-”

“No, don't you dare apologize to me!” Rose exclaimed. “After everything you've said to me, after every horrible interaction we've ever had, and how you left things between us last time, don't you even think about suddenly 'seeing the light' and trying to make up for it.”

“Rose, I-”

“I'm not finished yet. You want to know something? It's a damn shame you didn't know Becky, because she was a great person. She was kind, and funny, and caring, and always willing to put others ahead of herself. She wasn't selfish, she wasn't cruel, and she never held a grudge. She even gave her life for something she believed in, fighting for you and everyone else. She's a better person than you will ever be. You want to apologize to someone? Apologize to her. Now do me a favor and stay the hell away from me.”

And with that, Rose turned and stormed off, not giving so much as a quick glance back. Cassie stood there for the longest time, lowering her umbrella and blinking in stunned silence as the rain began to soak her.

---

Rose leaned against the counter with her good arm, staring at the microwave as the timer ticked down. She was in a sort of surreal daze at the moment, vision going blurry while she waited. It wasn't until the microwave beeped that she finally came to her senses and reached forward to open it. If she had been thinking straight, she probably would have realized not to grab the open end of the popcorn bag, instantly scalding her palm on the hot air seeping out.

“God-damn!”

She made no move to go run her hand under cold water, though, simply squeezing it into a fist for several moments and trying to push the pain away. Eventually, she reached for the bag again, and this time pulled it out more carefully. After opening it with her hand and teeth, she dumped the contents out into a bowl, then lightly salted the kernels. When she was done, she carried the bowl into the living room, where Holly sat quietly on the couch, waiting.

“Here, I, uh... I made some popcorn for the movie,” she said. “I know you don't like it buttered so I just... added some salt. Want some?”

An answer didn't come at first, as Rose moved around the couch and sat next to the girl. Eventually, though, Holly leaned to the side and rested her head against Rose's shoulder. “I'm not really hungry...”

Breathing outwardly, Rose's expression sank slightly in sad understanding. Placing the bowl of popcorn in front of her on the coffee table, she then held her arm around Holly and rubbed the girl's shoulder. “Yeah... me neither.”

“I'm really gonna miss her.”

“So am I, Holly... so am I.”

Swallowing back a lump in her throat, Rose shut her eyes and took in another deep breath. The movie that they had been planning to watch suddenly disappeared from their thoughts, and instead the two remained like that, comforting each other over the loss of Rebecca. Through all of this, at least Rose could be happy knowing that Holly was safe.

That's right... I still have Holly, and she needs me to be strong... we need each other more than ever now.

“Hey, Holly?”

Blinking back a few tears, the girl raised her gaze and sniffled. “Yeah?”

“I, uh... I was thinking about something,” Rose said, shifting her gaze slightly. “I mean... I don't know if you'd even want to, but... I mean, when you were taken away, I... well, I don't want that to happen again. I... I don't want to lose you, too. So, I thought that maybe I could get some, uh... some adoption forms, and fill those out. You know... I mean, if you wanted.”

Holly sat upright with wide eyes, blinking several times. “You mean, you... you want to adopt me?'

“Well... yeah. I mean, sure I'm your legal guardian, and sure I look after you, but... I want to make it official.”

Sniffling again, Holly forced a smile to show through her grief, then lunged forward and threw her arms around Rose in a warm hug. “That would be... great. Really great. I... thank you, Rose. Thank you.”

Pressing her head gently against Holly's, Rose's arm wrapped around the girl's shoulder. “You're welcome, Holly. I love you, girl... always will.”

“I love you, too, Rose. Er... wait, does this mean I should call you mom?”

And for the first time in a long time, Rose uttered a small laugh. Leaning back a bit, she gently kissed the girl's forehead and smiled. “Only if you want to. Now come on... let's get you to bed.”

Once Holly was in bed, Rose returned to the kitchen. She stared at the bowl of popcorn for a minute, then dumped it in the trash. A moment later, she reached up to the top shelves and pulled out the alcohol. She didn't have to be up in the morning for anything, so she might as well drown herself in a drunken stupor before crashing in bed.

And yet, as she poured a shot, she abruptly lost the will to drink it. She took a long look at the glass, then dumped its contents into the sink, and when that was done she moved on to the entire bottle, pouring it all down the drain. Releasing a long sigh, she leaned forward against the counter and held her head in her hand. Eventually, she returned to the living room and collapsed on the couch, staring up at the ceiling.

“Becky... if you're watching, I just... I love you. I'll always love you, no matter where you are.” Lowering her gaze again, she stared off aimlessly in front of her, eyes drooping in sorrow. “And... and I'm sorry. We were supposed to watch each other's backs and I let you down. I should have seen it coming...”

She swallowed now, a hard knot twisting its way into her throat. Holding a hand up to the side of her head, she closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. “I'm gonna miss you, Beck... I'm really gonna miss you.”