As the last of the serum dripped through his daughter's veins, Mr. Meadows heard the screeching of tires outside. Headlights shone past the broken windows, splashing a bright white glow across his daughter's chamber while he was blinded by a sheen of red and blue.

The police.

The thought resonated in his mind with defeat. They comingled viciously, a spiral of angry and fearful thoughts bashed down by the deep set weariness that hadn't let him go in two years.

He was going to prison.

This idea suddenly didn't spark a primal instinct to run as it had before. It didn't matter what happened to him, it never had. Everything he did, everything he had done, had been for her. His daughter. 2 years of theft and stress and unrest had been for her. And now he was out of options.

How often he'd wished to trade places with her. But it was impossible.

Car doors slammed, heavy shoes pounding as people sprinted toward the warehouse.

Meadows caste a glance to Marna, face lined with regret and sorrow for his failure.

And then the door burst open, and he was met first with the barrel of a gun pointed by Gotham's Commissioner, and then Robin, cape flowing and flickering canary yellow as he darted forward.

"Let me help, please." He said, and Meadows felt all of the tension drain away.

2 years prior

"Daaaaaad, I'm leaving!" Marna shouted from her spot in the hallway. She stepped over piles of paperwork with a roll of her eyes, pressing herself closer to the small mirror nailed to the wall and tousling her caramel hair one last time. She'd added extra hairspray tonight, so her wild curls would stay in the smooth spirals she had spent hours perfecting.

She'd modeled her hair after Wonder Woman, her favorite hero, but her costume was handmade. It was a dress with long sleeves that tapered off wide at her wrists and a short skater style skirt with a lot of movement. She'd cinched a belt down the middle, a mock representation of the one's the Batclan wore, and pulled on some tall blue boots to complete the look.

But her favorite part of the entire costume was the color of her dress. Gold trim sparkled against starch vanilla, crisp and bright.

She was her own superhero tonight. Magic Marna, just like her Mom had always called her.

"Daaaaaaad!" She called once more, hearing Kim honk once again from the driveway. "I'm gonna be laaaaaaate!"

Rounding the corner, Marna had just placed her hand on the doorknob before her Dad poked his head out of his office, pens pushed behind his ears and forcing his graying hair to stick out in wild directions.

"Going?"

She laughed. "Yeah Dad, told you twice." When her friend blared her horn once more, Marna yanked the door open and stuck her finger in the air, motioning for Kim to wait a minute.

Her Dad lifted himself up with a groan, knee popping loudly. They both winced at the sound, and he ran a hand through his hair, forgetting his pens as they scattered to the floor.

"Loud one this time…" Marna paused, raising an eyebrow jokingly. "Old as ever, I see"

Her Dad shook his head, but spread his arms nonetheless. "Smarky as ever, I see. Come here."

The girl wound her arms tightly around her Dad. He rested his chin on her head briefly before sighing.

"Alright Magic Marna, you know the drill."

She stepped back, one hand propped on her hip and one arm raised in the air. "Back by eleven. No drugs, no alcohol, no fraternizing with strange boys."

Marna grinned, and the man pushed his glasses up his nose habitually.

"Where's this Halloween party again?"

"North and twelfth." She answered for the fourth time. Her Dad was a scatter brain when he brought his work home.

"Need money?" He asked.

The girl returned to the door, pulling it open once more. "Nah. Snacks are probably provided, and if not, I'll be home sooner than eleven."

Stepping onto the porch, Marna was just pulling the door shut behind her when she heard her Dad call out, already on his way back to his papers.

"Be safe!"

Her carmel head poked back around the frame, throwing a smile and a wave before the door slammed shut.

"Always."

And that was the night she died.

Clane burst into the main lobby yelling. Kenton jumped out of his skin, spilling coffee down the front of his uniform as his arm jerked in surprise.

"I need every damn squad we can scrounge up. Robin just left on a suicide mission and we have to get to warehouse forty four before Batman catches wind of this, or I promise you he'll kill us all."

Clane breathed hard, pulse pounding, before he noticed that the room was empty, save the rookie.

Kenton gulped. "It's just me, sir. Everyone went out for waffles…seeing as i-it's been so-o slow an' all."

"Well, kid. You'll have to do. Grab your gun and let's go."

"Hey Kimmy!" The girl called, pulling the door of her friend's compact car open and dropping into the passenger seat.

"Hey, M. Cool outfit."

Marna grinned, buckling her seatbelt and smoothing her hands down her skirt.

"Thanks. Same to you."

The dark haired girl, clad in a mask sprouting dusty gray feathers and a yellow beak leaned over her seat, bumping the nose piece askew as she leaned back to back out of the dark driveway.

"Thank you, ma'am. Wait until you see the wings."

Wally answered the comm to shouting. Roy was as livid as he was frantic, and it lit a fire for the team that left them all scrambling.

M'gann started running before Wally had even gotten the explanation out.

"I'll get the Bio ship!"

Superboy bounded after her, growling harshly. Kaldur looked at the sudden pallor of Wally's face and ran after, barking orders with Artemis in tow.

"Come on, slow poke! We've got to stop Robin!"

The apartment was packed past capacity. Marna and Kimmy squeezed their way through groups of bodies, twisting sideways to avoid knocking hands with spilling cups. Marna held her hands up, sucking in as she pushed past a boy blonde hair sprayed vibrant green and a mouth painted blood red, frozen in a grin. He pulled a heavy drag from a cigarette, blowing the pungent smoke right in her face.

"Sorry, Doll Face, no space in here." He waved his hand in the air, burning ashes flicking from his cigarette and narrowly missing her white sleeve.

She backed away instinctively, knocking into the back of boy with a top made of shiny sequin scales.

"No kidding." She mumbled, her voice lost in the pulsing beat of music.

"What's that?" The green haired teen asked, leaning forward until she could see the creases in his forehead where his pasty white face paint didn't stick. His breath curled into her face, sharp and smoky.

"Nothing!" She called loudly, curls bouncing over her shoulder as she looked for Kimmy. The girl had disappeared into the crowd, and when Marna creased her blue boots to stand on her toes, she could see the tips of her friends wings fasted onto her back.

Suddenly, a hand latched onto her arm.

"Lookin' for someone?" It was clown boy, close as ever.

The girl stepped back again, bumping the scaly boy once again and making him look over his shoulder in mild annoyance.

"Just my friend. I'm…gonna go." Marna tugged on her wrist suggestively, but he didn't let go. Popping the shortened cigarette in his mouth, the boy started pulling her through the crowd.

"Don't worry. I'll help ya"

The grin that tugged his lips was not painted on.

"Woah, Walls, what's going on?" Barry asked, jumping when his nephew burst into the room. Black Canery started forward, ready to ream him out, but the heroes fell silent when the speedster choked out Roy's information about Robin's impromptu mission.

It was silent.

And then, down the hall, Batman's monitors peeped with alarms as he ripped out his IV drip.

Marna watched in horror as Kimmy's wings grew more and more distant, her bobbing form surrounded by a sea of shapes and colors.

The caramel haired girl might as well have been on another planet, for how oblivious her friend was.

The grip on her wrist was firm as ever. The boy had given up the pretense of helping Marna long ago. He wasn't interested in finding Kimmy.

"I wanted to switch places with her so many times, but I'm the only one who knows how to bring people back, and significant trauma has to be experienced first to allow someone to enter. If I was impaired, I wouldn't be able to complete the process, and then we'd both be stuck in limbo forever."

Robin nodded. He looked at Commissioner Gordon, and read the apprehension on his face.

"Kid…" he started. "You don't…"

"I do." Robin affirmed. He turned to Meadows, who was attempting to hide his hope behind a stoic mask. "It'll bring Batgirl back?"

The scientist nodded. "Yes. Everyone that Marna dragged in will be released."

Steeling himself, Robin smiled.

"Alright, let's do this."

Lights danced off of the boys green hair. She could see the blonde that streaked through, the shaved sides of his head were almost neon with the coating of spray dye, and it looked like he'd ran out for the long swoop of hair pushed down the middle. It was dusted a dull emerald, and when the few lights in the dark room crawled over it, sharp shadows were cast down the nape of his neck.

He kept peering back at her, as if unsure that she was still trailing along, wrist latched under his spidery fingers.

Music pulsed hard with her beating heart. She thought about her costume, and how long she'd spent on it, and how she hadn't gotten to see what the shimmers looked like when she twirled around.

This party was not what she'd expected.

There were no snacks.

The bio ship surged across the sky. Wally jittered in his seat, pulling on his chair straps.

"Go faster."

"Kid Flash," M'gann intoned, her voice anxious. "I've maxed out the ship's speed capacity. This is it."

KF unbuckled himself abruptly.

"Then let me off."

He pushed her into a bathroom. It was dingy, the mirror covered in a dull film. There was a hole punched in the wall from the doorknob- the latch was broken so it swung with force.

Marna backed away, her shoulders hitting the rough bricks of the exposed wall behind her and she latched a hand onto a thin water pipe to keep her steady.

The boy stalked forward, tossing the burnt butt of his cigarette into the sink.

"So." His shoes scuffed the floor as he toed a curled tile. "You got an idol?"

Feeling the grit of the wall drag pulls into her dress, the girl stepped forward. She swallowed hard.

"…idol?" Her voice shook with nervous energy.

She wanted to scream. The music shook the rings clipped onto the shower rod. Who would hear her? She could barely hear herself.

"Yeaaaaaah…" He drawled, lips curling. "An idol."

"I…" she cleared her throat. "no."

Cackling, the teen pulled on his purple vest. It was decorated with faint pinstripes, dirty charcoal.

"I've got one." He gestured to his hair, his face, his clothes. "Halloween was a good excuse to dress up, but this is who I idolize. And now…"

He crept forward, she crept back. The music pulsed.

He stepped into her space, grabbing a curled lock of her hair and tugging it playfully. Her skin tingled with heat.

"I need a Harley."

Roy was flying across rooftops as fast as he could. He was working relentlessly to conjour up directions.

Which warehouse? Which one?

Below him, a single police car roared by, lights blazing.

"You've got the wrong girl." Marna turned her head away, using the pole to pull herself away and around him. "They're crazy. You don't want to emulate that."

"But I do." The teen purred, grabbing her arm and yanking her hard. "And you're gonna help me. We'll be a team."

Marna widened her eyes, hazel with golden tinge. "You're crazy."

"That's the point, Doll Face." The boy reached into his pocket and produced a pocket knife, flipping it open and pointing it at her face. "Now, whatdaya say? Be my Harley."

Things got a bit fuzzy after this, but Marna remembers them if she thinks hard enough.

Clane hit the brakes hard. There it was.

Warehouse forty four loomed under the glow of the moon, drenched with the lights of two crusiers. Clane's, and the Commishioners.

"Damn it! They're inside." He turned to Kenton, who was shaking in his seat. He slapped his chest quickly. "Focus, kid. C'mon."

They pulled their guns out, training them on steady hands in front of them.

"When I say go," Clane whispered "kick the door in and train your weapon on the first unfamiliar face you see."

Kenton nodded jerkily.

"Ready…"

The rookie forced out a hard breath. He crept forward.

"Hang on…"

Grip tightening on the gun, Kenton positioned himself in front of the warped door. Now or never.

"Go!"

Kenton kicked the door in, gun trained on Meadows just as the scientist shot a hole through Robin's abdomen.

She lurked. She lurked away from the glint of the blade so close to her eyes and pushed him hard in the chest.

He grabbed her, tossed her back, swiped out with the knife when her fist curled and swung for his head.

Barbara sucked in a breath as Marna stuck her hands out, peeling away the dirty bandages to reveal two thin lines, healed over and dotted with swirls of rainbow from the cubes.

"Yup. I'm Marna."

He sliced open first one palm, and then the other. It was quick. She screamed, closing her hands at the searing pain.

Be safe. Be safe. Be safe.

He loomed over her, pointed the knife at her chest, told her to stop.

Then the door swung open, broken as ever, and hit the clown boy hard in the back.

And he stumbled forward, knife still aimed at Marna.

You can probably guess the rest.

"What's happening?" Barbara shouted as the ground shook, hard. The sky churned violently, colors shifting rapidly around them.

"I…don't know. This has never happened before." Marna watched, horrified, as her meadow disintegrated, tall pine trees crumbling to dust and plush grass sizzled away to leave the ground bare.

The caramel hair girl grabbed onto Barbara's hand tightly, and the girl squeezed her fingers just as hard. Around them, representations were evaporating. Barbara watched as her flower fell apart, petals drifting to the ground before disappearing.

And then they weren't outside anymore. They were in a tent, draping ceiling decorated in candy stripes of red and white. Bleachers rose to replace the trees, the floor splitting as they trembled and gained height.

Barbara had just enough time to glimpse the tightrope curling its way across the shadows cast by the folds in the ceiling before everything went white.

...

Barbara woke up the same time that Marna did, although the two were miles apart. One shot forward, screaming with the realization of what had happened and clawing at the tubes that ran down her throat while the other met the world again through a hole in the warehouse ceiling.

She turned her head, finding first her father, whose teary eyes met hers and made her flinch at the raw emotion they hold.

And then to the boy, raven haired and limp in his arms, blood pulsing through his bright costume.

"I'm going to bring him back." Her father choked, seeing her horror. "I'm going to figure it out."

Marna sat up, disoriented and dillusioned, before she realized that something was resting in her palm.

A cube.

Robin's cube.

Her replacement.

Wally tore down the streets, but he was too late. He'd never been late in his life.

Roy raced across buildings as fast as his legs could carry him. He showed up second, drenched in sweat and ready to kill.

The team got their third, just in time to see Roy lurk Meadows from Kenton's grasp and punch him across the face.

Batman didn't make it far on a broken leg, but it's the effort that counts.

Robin was already comatose, sucked into his own world.

Meadows swore to every single person he encountered that he would get Robin out, but in the end, it was Barbara and Marna who figured it out and yanked him free, two months later. Batman assured everyone that Robin would never be let out of his sight ever again, and team agreed with fervor. Roy and Wally hugged Robin like they'd never hugged him before, while Robin laughed and told Wally that in his world, the speedster resembled cotton candy.

Camdus was investigated, of course, but nothing ever came of it. Meadows gave up his studies to spend time with his daughter, who became an honorary "hero in training" after she helped bring Robin back.

Kenton remained as nervous as ever, but when he got back from his mission with Clane, his colleagues promised to treat him to waffles.

Blondie spent time in prison, but Meadows and Marna visited him for lunch often, like old times.

Robin promised to spend more time with Batgirl, and this time, he meant it with certainty.

In chain reactions, one catalyst is all it takes.

Jason, the Joker wannabe, went to a party because he'd practiced his face paint and he wanted to show it off. He didn't know the host, didn't know most of the teens there, but he didn't need to. He simply walked in, lighting his cigarette at the doorway.

Marna went to the same party, at the opposite end of town, because Kimmy's cousin was friends with the girl throwing the party and she didn't want to go alone.

They collided.

Mr. Meadows, a brilliant man, happened to be working on experimental trials for a remedy to tramatic energy when his daughter died. Doctors were able to bring her back once, and that was enough to enduce a coma and give him a chance to save her.

Blondie, friend turned lackie, stole for Meadows because he was treated as an equal and that was new to him. So he stole, and he stole some more, and he eventually shot Batgirl.

Barbara was shot on a run with Robin that happened because Batman was busy, but mostly because Robin was always busy with his new team and she missed him.

Blondie shot Barbara because fate brought them together, by accident no less. One run in was all it took.

Marna saved Barbara because she understood exactly how this was.

Robin, with help from Roy and Wally, escapes Mount Justice and evades Batman by mere moments.

Green Arrow and The Flash picked warehouse forty three to search, instead of warehouse forty four.

Batman, sustaining injuries, is sedated and unavailable.

Walking by Blondie in the police station sealed Robin's fate.

If Blondie hadn't had the ten seconds it took to tell Robin where to go, if Roy and Wally had kept Robin from leaving, if Batman hadn't been injured, If Jason had run out of cigarettes and stopped to by more.

Nothing would have happened.

But when things do happen, the chain can usually be traced back to one catalyst.

That's all it takes for a situation to spiral. Its left to one why it happened the way it did, or to who. The main question for every character, however, was a little different.

It probably was a little on the lines of "you or me?"

End.

Two years ago, this story was an idle thought that crossed my mind one day, and I scribbled a few ideas down without thinking anything would come from it. Here we are, twelve chapters in, and this story has evolved into something I never expected. Thank you all so very much for all of your patience and support.

I'm so glad I got to finish it for you guys. I hope it was everything you hoped it would be, because it was for me.

Thank you again, for everything.

Until next time,

Arrow.