"Have you located them yet Meg?" Wally asked, trying to lower the tremor in his voice as he sat in the same seat Artemis had sat in during the training mission that scared and bonded the original six... all those years ago. It was his choice, not to stand in the back but to take her seat, a perfect play right into the grieving boyfriend handbook... and yet it wasn't part of the act, not completely. He missed her, and with each day that passed he worried something had gone horribly wrong. Kaldur wasn't sending transmissions and Dick had only managed to send out a single message with latitude and longitude numbers, somewhere in the middle east that wasn't written on any map, the only words of the message were that Cassie wanted them there, she was leading to one spot because she was compelled to do so. That type of explanation scared the crap out of Wally.

The team, that being the veterans, gathered onto the bioship for what would inevitably be a headache for Wally in the end, were using their own powers to locate the mysterious destination.

M'gann had her mind trained on Dick's thoughts while Conner listened for their distinctive heartbeats, their voices as they spoke.

"They're near Wally." M'gann's voice was impassive, her face void of emotions. She'd turned into some sort of robot, pushing emotions out of her mind to avoid the pain that comes with the death of a loved one. She'd spent all evening preparing to find Cassie, Dick or both dead and she refused to cry, not with Artemis's death still so vivid, a cold gray body against the sand... sand was all she saw now.

"I don't like this." Conner had his hand pressed against the glass, listening intently but all he heard was silence. Silence in speech and expressions, little meant anything, all was numb and as they came closer and closer to where their comrades were suppose to be he grew angrier. Not the angry from his youth, youth being only a few years ago... he a freak that could not wear the scars of his short life, only feel them inside to go unnoticed. No, all that could be heard were the quickening breaths of those in the ship. The freshmen had been left in the cave, protested by each one, each stating their case from being annoyed at the idea of being left behind (Bart and Gar) to the cool logic of Tim's silver tongue. Their arguments were useless, with so much uncertainty everyone wanted to leave them behind, for measures of safety more so than anything else.

They couldn't lose anyone else today.

"Maybe I should scout ahead." It was the first time Raquel had spoken. All the time on the ship, twisting her foot against the floor had her thinking about her son and whether or not she was in the right going off to fight while he stayed with the nanny, Mia. Of course there was always the excuse of making the corrupted world a bit brighter, taking down the bad guys for the sake of her son's future... and still there was guilt for not being the soccer mom holding his hand, not being the mother who saw his first steps, heard his first word... it was the sacrifice she made for the dream that brought them all together.

Together.

Raquel sighed as she looked around the ship from the stoic M'gann, once so sweet and bubbly, to the broken Conner holding to a purpose based solely on service. Without the team, he was nothing and she knew it, they all did but they did nothing about it because pointing it out would mean they'd let it get so bad... no one wanted to be responsible for suffering.

"We might as well land then." Wally was quiet, no trace of the boy and his charm, no, barely a man, barely human. That's what he feared, the constant nightmare of running so fast, passing everything, that he'd burn up and fade with nothing but his running shoes to tell the world he was here. So often he awoke from such a nightmare and always, always she was there to wipe the sweat from his brow, kiss his cheek and whisper words to quell the screams of all those he couldn't save.

This is what the team had become, this is what five years of battling the enemy, the never ending battle had done. To act so calm now as they searched for their team members... it was the epitome of the change that had come to pass.

Wally couldn't have it.

"We'll find them, everything will be okay." He said it without believing it and so no one else could believe it, not with all the loss, not with the reality of the fight so fresh in their minds from the "death" of Artemis.

"Wally, be rea- ah." M'gann let out a small moan, rubbing her forehead. Creases in her forehead began to form, a trait she'd picked up from her time with Marie Logan. Conner knew well it signified a headache and not an ordinary one; something, an outside source was trying to tap into her mind.

"M'gann?" Conner moved towards her but she raised her hand not wanting to cause a fuss and yet her skin shifted from a shade of green to white, her hair growing shorter until it was all gone and her eyes glowed red. There was an odd feel to the ship, that of a cold wind without the breeze, it grew as she stood, her lips thinning and her mouthing opening to a growl.

"M'gann, M'gann what's going on?" Conner prepared himself to take her down, having formed his own sense of responsibility over the martian's actions. He believed she'd grown out of her conscience and all that remained what vengeance that fueled all their actions... he was ready should she attempt something drastic... and yet her eyes returned to normal, the strands of hair fell back into place. All that had changed from a minute ago to now was her expression.

"What is it M'gann?" Wally asked staring ahead, half hoping M'gann was angry at him because beyond the setting sun was Artemis waiting for them and with that was the lie and also the end of the charade.

"It's him." M'gann said as the bottom of the ship opened and she lowered herself to a rapid dissent, "and her."

"Who!" They shouted but their question was answered the moment they looked up and saw Kaldur, along with the rest of the Light waiting for them.

"Why are we here?" Rose asked as she looked around the desert for shade. Her face was flustered, red cheeks and sticky white, wet hair slicked against her lips. She's stripped off the upper part of her armor, choosing to let it hang off her hips and every few seconds she'd reach for her swords to test her strength against the sand grains and cactuses. In other words, she was bored out of her skull and the only reprieve from the heat was slicing anything nearby.

"We're almost there, just hang on a little longer." Artemis had no sense of direction, no idea of where she was headed only the urge to get there and that it was near. She could feel a burning in throat as the necklace tugged her closer to the edge of some force, some place where she was called to be. There were no explanations, no understandings only the need to move and quickly. There was a tugging of her skin, her feet's desire to step against one beat of sand to the other and with each step came a lighter feel in her chest but another weight to her heart. Both light and heavy, juxtaposed and framed on her face, one of anguish and confusion but also conviction.

"You're not who you appeared to be, are you?" Rose jumped in front of Artemis, waiting for her to answer, waiting to hear what she had believed all along from the moment she laid eyes on her. Sure the frame of the face was different, the olive skin gone, the gray darkened to a brown, near black and yet Rose knew, somewhere was the girl who'd held her hand as their fathers left them in the streets to do a job, a murder.

"I don't know what you mean." Artemis looked to the horizon where the sun melted into the Earth, soon the moon would come and then, only then she'd see where she needed to be.

"You know kitty, you know. Purr, Purr the wicked cat goes but the kind kitten howls and wakes the moon." Artemis looked over her shoulder to see Rose staring straight back, only this time she looked much more like the little girl Artemis had come to know as a child. Those words, the poem... an old family fable from her mother's side, her mother sung it to her as a child in Vietnamese. She'd sung it to Rose as they walked the streets of Gotham, miles and miles home. The same line over and over, over and over and Rose never once said "kitten" only "kitty" because it sounded sweeter.

"How?" Artemis removed her mask for the first time, touching the gold gem on her neck wondering if the spell wore off or if Rose was even savvier than she originally thought. It didn't matter now, they were traitors in the eyes of the Light and that thought comforted her. She and Rose some sort of makeshift team, a duo of misfits just as it should have been from the beginning. Above all, she was happy the lie was being put to rest, at least with Rose who she'd hope to befriend somehow... somehow in the end...

"Because of the necklace." Artemis began to pull the necklace the moment Rose spoke and yet she could not. In fact, it tightened around her neck; the light from the sun disappeared and all was blue and black. The reds and orange disintegrated, all that was left were the stars and moon calling her name, growing bigger amongst the night sky.

"Goddess of the hunt and moon, the name of the messenger written in the sky by the mother of the night, and she shall come to know the savior in time, for she is the voice of the darkness." Rose's own voice became higher, like that of a child, a child Artemis met years ago. Both frightened by the realization and thrown into deeper confusion, the puzzle pieces melted and she could now could see the truth that had been hidden years before. All the mystery, the secrets came down to just one secret of a girl with only one word for a voice. She needed another, not one bounded by the silence of death, the betrayal of a loved one cut so deep it cost a life.

We were always meant to meet.

"G-greta?" Artemis coughed as she tried to ask, Rose having mumbled the word "secret" over and over with her hand reaching for Artemis's face. The sand around them swarmed into a wind that encircled their bodies and levitated them upwards higher and higher until Artemis's necklace cracked, the black of her hair turned to gold, her skin darkening to the old olive hue and the burn against the skin on her trachea soothed under the cold touch of Rose's hand, or rather Greta's... the ghost of a girl from her past...

"It's time messenger, it's time to spread the word of the savior."

"Explain to me what this book means again?" Zatanna and Jaime were flying the skies, a moment ago filled with the sun's rays and now a blanket of blackness in all corners. The two had left Kord's mansion an hour ago, having flown at full speed to the middle of nowhere carrying nothing but a book, or rather Zatanna clutched the brown book with the spine worn and the pages gray and dusted.

"The lost book of Beowulf Jaime, this is what the spectre was talking about." They landed in the sand; immediately she could feel the dark aura, similar to the spirits of the night she'd encountered as a child, the very darkness meant to stop the light, stop their plans to destroy the world to rebuild it, to kill all those unworthy of their egotically view for the future, that without flaws... fools

"Who?" From afar Jaime could hear the clash of a battle, those of fists against fist, the cut of air from a speedster's velocity and the screams equated with M'gann's fury. He stepped back, suddenly afraid for whatever laid ahead.

"The Who doesn't matter kid, but rather what he said, 'the savior cannot die by any means but age' and yet the savior, the one to save the world was murdered. That's why Artemis is more than the messenger, she's the vessel." Zatanna could hear the sounds of battle clear as day, her ears adjusting to the lack of objects for sound waves to vibrate against. No buildings or the like to cloud the noise, no only the blast of Raquel's hands and the frozen water, that of Kaldur's might against her friends, her team. It was followed by the sword of Slade, prepared to kill anyone who got in the way of finding his daughter, and the energy beams so similar to Jaime's that shot in their direction, Black Beetle as waiting for them.

"The vessel?"

"Yes it was so damn obvious," the nostalgia faded and what remained was her determination, she knew Artemis was close, as was Greta, the savior who was not supposed to die, but live to be the savior of the word with the help of her guard, her voice, the messenger of the moon, the symbol of darkness and light, the contradiction meant to save humanity from it's greatest villains.

"I should have known the moment Artemis told me Rose had white hair, it was the drain, the presence of a ghost, magic school 101, or rather the magic my father taught me. Greta was using rose as a vessel to get to Artemis, trying to find her again once the Spectre revealed she was the messenger." Within a second, Conner's body was flung to their feet, followed by Wally's. Both men were exhausted, blood dripping from their lips and eyes, their noses a flood of red and their arms bruised. Upon standing, Wally crumbled from the soaring pain of a broken rib. His green eyes glossed, detailed with red veins spreading closely to his pupils.

"What are you doing here?" He asked in the midst of a cough. Raquel was quick to follow, reaching for her team members while simultaneously blasting himself. Unscathed, the man laughed, snapping his fingers to bring forth the witchboy, in an instant he was at Savage's side wearing a wicked grin, his hands glowing red.

"Time to play!" Klarion shouted in genuine glee.

"Is that so?" Zatanna said with a matching grin, eyeing Klarion, happy to have a long awaited rematch. For all the years she'd blamed herself, losing her father to her own choices, there was a part of her that believed it was all Klarion's doing, the lord's madness that cost her a father, a family. The team was her family now, from Artemis her sister, to M'gann her mother and all the brothers and sisters in between, old and new, alive and dead, it was time for the price to be paid for all her mistakes with retribution...

"Let's go Klarion, ylf!" The sorceress shot into the sky with Klarion insuit, flashes of red and yellow beating at one another in a dancing array of colors, the only light in the sky as the the light of the stars beamed for one second more and disappeared. All was black and yet the sky illuminated by the supernatural. Below glowed red as well, but the light here came from M'gann's own eyes as she held her fingers to her temples, muttering the names of the fallen, ending with Marie.

"Really, you really want to kill me M'gann? Or better question, can you being the hero?" Queen Bee, left with only her tongue to save her was stranded on the ground with her legs sizzling over the heat M'gann created with her mind alone. It bubbled and burned, leaving the queen to gasp, rubbing the skin and regretted it instantly as it was raw.

"Scared yet?" Jaime watched as M'gann smiled, a brilliant, evil smile so close to that of a savage, to the Savage... the turn of the folds in her face, the joy out of death, her hands bending into sharp knives and then the gasp of the queen herself, barely breathing from the clutch of an invisible hand at her throat.

"B-but you can't kill, the league would never allow it."

"I'm a big girl." M'gann mouthed as she tightened her grip.

"STOP!" Feet away Jaime's distress lessened at the sight of Cassie herself, hurdling her way to the martian, barging into her at full force and knocking her over entirely. Nestled on the ground where Cassie has just stood was Nightwing, having difficulty breathing.

"Artemis..." Dick whispered her name, a futile attempt to warn her despite the fact she was nowhere to be seen. All he could think was her body in a similar state to his, broken and bleeding lying helpless, and worse without anyone to hold her hand. The taste of her lips... the sleeping beauty she was all those years ago was the image on his eyelids, a fresh colored light and then blackness, fading in and out as Zatanna blasted Klarion into the Earth with yet another spell.

Above the dark angels warred, or rather the fallen angel and the demon. Klarion rising from the sand, brushing off his suit with a wink and a careless blast of dark matter aimed at Zatanna's heart.

"Artemis... goddess of the moon." Dick mouthed out the words in all the chaos, the prayer he tried to say for the girl he loved, the forbidden love he'd pushed out of his head in favor of her true soulmate, his best friend, Wally West who now wrapped his arm around Dick's waist to lift him up.

"They're looking for her." Wally said, more frightened over the possibility that the Light would succeed in taking Artemis than the pain writhering throughout his body. To their left the demi-goddess sent blow by blow to M'gann, shouting how out of control she was, not even taking the time to absorb the reality of the situation. She was beating a team member but with good reason. Cassie was the seer and as such she could see the future of M'gann clear as day, past all the impulse emotions and the buried memories, the power had come to the forefront and reminded her how dangerous M'gann was.

"Stop it!" M'gann opened her eyes and a cold gust of wind blew Cassie backwards, causing her to tumble into Kaldur himself who'd stood in between the minions of the Light and his team, the team ready to kill him had they only noticed him standing. But no, M'gann so preoccupied with old revenge and Conner attempting to stop her... each of his team had forgotten he was there, most had, with the exception of his father.

"She led us here, and now she's useless." His father said as he reached for Cassie's hair, pulling her neck back, ready to snap it should she move another inch. Of course to kill her was not his intent but rather the honor he wished to bestow upon his son, "what good is this oracle now." It was a simple statement, void of emotion as much as M'gann was over murder. It was clear to Kaldur and close behind was the panting of his old friend, M'gann...watching and waiting.

Around him, Kaldur could see Zatanna fall like a star against the sand, her head bleeding into the cole colored black hair and her red lips blue from the lack of air to her lungs. Her body convulsed from the dark magic seeping into her veins, flowing from limb to limb, somehow Klarion had gotten to her, one small spell to render Zatanna's powers useless.

All the henchmen of the Light, that of the Brain's, Queen Bee, Savage, Lex, Rash, Black Beetle, Slade and Kaldur's own father marched in straight lines to the few, the proud and still the weak. Their hearts filled with bullets with experience far too mature for their ages, even now. Kaldur could see and all of this, as if a stranger from the outside. Tula has said it was his gift and now he understood the act had gone horribly wrong. He was not the villain, he was the hero and no one took notice to it, so few denied the virtuous Kaldur could ever fall like a greek tragic hero and yet they were ready to end him, it was clear the moment M'gann laid eyes in him. Had Queen Bee not gotten in the way he'd be dead, or lobotomized with the rest of M'gann's victims.

"We have changed for the worse." Kaldur whispered as he reached for Cassie's own throat, mimicking M'gann. It was a calculated act, in hopes of being the reflection M'gann refused to see and yet she said nothing. She said nothing as Queen Bee slipped into unconsciousness or as Black Beetle moved to Jaime before being blasted by the scarab itself, the creature far more stronger than any being from the future for it was from the best. For all the scarab's talk of violence it was appalled by what it saw through Jaime's eyes and as Black Beetle fell to the ground muttering how could still win the fight, it wasn't over only to fall to the ground just as Queen Bee had, the scarab watched for what Kaldur would do next. Kaldur only had one option now, the truth.

"Father, I am a fraud... you must have known that, deep down I was not one of... you." Kaldur gestured to the others, and then turned to M'gann who promptly read his mind for the first time since his departure from the team. She gasped as the mission, the ploy... all of it was a lie.

"I...I don't care!" She shook her head, hands frantic, refusing to let the reality hit, her revenge, her desperate revenge against Kaldur entirely unjust... it meant that M'gann had crossed a line, all her hateful thoughts, all the fantasies of killing Kaldur, she had become a monster.

"That's not me." She said echoing the all too familiar words of Dick, all those years ago. He leaned into Wally, his own epiphany creeping onto his lips as he realized that despite all his efforts he and those around him had formed the shell his mentor carried, the barrier for all those who refuse to feel. It was why Wally left the team in the end, the nightmare of fading, of being forgotten because he had succrumbed to a hero's suffering... he couldn't have it and he couldn't let Artemis fall victim to it, he had to go... they both did.

"You disgust me!" Black Manta said, seething, unable to fully comprehend what his son was saying. He had been tricked and that would not do, not for a man like Black Manta who demanded the utmost respect, and refused to handle dishonesty in any sort of rational way.

"If you want to save this girl," he pulled at Cassie's neck, she squirmed but her footing was locked too deep in the sand to escape, "You'll have to kill me." There was no hesitation for the water in Kaldur's hand; it formed a sword, aimed at his father, prepared to strike, to stab just as he was meant to do with Artemis. For all his values and virtues, Kaldur had come to believe that with all the world believing he was capable of murder he might as well live up to the expectation...

"ENOUGH!" The voice so powerful and so old in a sense, quiet in bravado and all too thundering in the clashes between the heroes and the armies. With Dick around him, Wally turned his attention to the boy who'd spoken, Jaime Reyes, a man who stood between Cassie and Kaldur.

"We're not killers, we're not murderers, we're heroes." Jaime reached for Cassie, pulling her up and close to his chest all with his own intimidation, Black Manta himself shocked at the tone of Jaime's voice.

It wasn't a gesture of protection, no Jaime always believed Cassie was strong, stronger than he was. He held her close for the sake of reassurance. He turned to M'gann; the message was for her. The veterans, the heroes he believed in were falling to their knees around him. Broken in most or having lost their minds, he was ready to be the conscience just as he was for the scarab.

Conner watched the boy under the foot of a henchman, crushing his chest with the added pressure of a second leg against his body. He could see M'gann's lip quiver, and somehow became relieved by the sight, that M'gann was regaining her... for lack of a better term, humanity. He saw what she saw, Jaime standing between two villains without holding up a gun or the like, Jaime was the person they used to be... the memory of what they fought for.

It had all moved so quickly, from one piece to the other... and now another war but...it was meaningless... the fight was the purpose but the war itself weighed so little in the larger picture, at least in Jaime's eyes. He could see now, with the scarab whispering into his ear...

I am destruction but I am not death, those who wield me, teach me and I evolve.

"This isn't where I'm suppose to be." On the way here, here being were the battle began, another piece to the war, Zatanna had told Jaime the the lost book of Beowulf, a story never told. In ancient times when the savior's fate was to be chosen and all those to follow in their footsteps there came a question as to how stop the savior for good is not meant to outweigh evil, they were meant to be equal and so it was the sword of Beowulf that was charmed to be the only force against the good less the good became too powerful, fall to corruption and the world be ruled by dark forces.

"You aren't going anywhere." Savage replied, smirking with his arms crossed, his boots making impressions in the sands he'd walked many times over the course of his immortal life. He looked so smug and oh so tall standing over Jaime's small figure, like a god looking down at a peasant.

"You're not taking him." Wally said, having sped by Jaime's side, Dick still over his shoulder. The old friends looked at one another, their eyes with a whisper of a laugh from the good old days of aster where there wasn't so much blood and nightmares... where they were closer to being kids.

"Stop me, I dare you." Savage said, followed by the laughter of Lex and Rash, all the members of the Light finding Wally's statement hilarious, all but Queen Bee who'd fainted from the pain of her legs, she would never walk again.

Never.

The tears rolled off of her white cheeks and down to the the thin bones of her torso and arms. M'gann, finally allowing the emotion to reach her lungs, heart and the center of her being, that where the great philosophers said the spirit lied, screamed out in the night such an inhuman scream it reached the ears of someone of another being, one once human, one tunneled deep under the ground in the lair known by the savior as Ranvir, the gravesite of all the greatest heroes, the home to the savior.

It is time.

Jaime had little time to say goodbye as his body phazed out of the air and soon it was by Artemis's side. The yellow necklace of Tigress was gone and what remained was one of circles and lines he could not make out. To her right glowed a young girl closer to his age... the assassin from the cave...

He couldn't question anything now; all he heard was the repetition of the scarab's words, to teach, to evolve... to destroy... to create. It was the creation he wished to be, Jaime Reyes, the hero who wasn't suppose to be, the hero with so little experience stepping into a dark tunnel as he followed Artemis and the girl with white hair deeper below.

In his native tongue he said a prayer for those above, and for his mother and sister, and lastly for Ted Kord. It was not a prayer for safety with , but rather a plea that even higher above the man watched and if so Jaime prayed the man would look out for him in the darkness, like a guardian angel

The smell of the dead filled each of their nostrils, the rotting corpses, the stench of flesh so odious the hairs in their noses burned. It had been sometime since anyone had arrived in the temple, now the tomb of the forgotten heroes. So long had the Light's ways roamed the world, that of good intentions... a facade for lies facilitated by the villains of this world tempting humanity with a bright future.

"All a lie." Artemis said, the first time she'd spoken since Greta revealed herself and brought her deep under the Earth for the final task. Zatanna had read the words, Cassie had brought the others above... and... and the pieces still did not fit. The messenger's role unfinished, the messenger was the voice for the savior and yet no message had been sent, no finality in the situation for Artemis, it was her clue that things were not at all what they seemed, not at all.

"What are we doing here?" Artemis asked, her face riddled with concern over Rose who was somehow pushed back into the recess of her mind in favor of Greta who could now speak. Her voice still so young, frozen in time by the cruel nature of her death.

"We're here to bring the darkness, goddess of the moon-"

"Yes I get it, I'm named after a goddess, what's the point, what message am I suppose to say, what am I suppose to do, what the hell is this darkness and how is it suppose to stop the Light? What the hell are they even planning?" By now, Artemis had lost her temper. She was never one for games and all the mystery had put Artemis at her wit's end.

"The story, the lost book of beowulf, that's what the Light wanted wasn't it? Not the sword to stop the savior but to trap them, they wanted the power... right?" Jaime tried to speak over the scrab shouting in his ear. He'd be glad to listen if only the scarab were speaking english, now all he heard were the rambles of an ancient alien language growing louder by the minute.

"Power? What power why?" Artemis moved her hand to the necklace, feeling drained by the weight of it, the string that held it wrapping tighter, pressing down on her skin. She repressed the urge to cough and in turning to stop herself from making the noise, Artemis caught sight of a stone, one single stone, large and round centered in the room inscribed with a language she could not speak, not with all the languages she knew, it wasn't even human.

"They call themselves the Light Artemis because the only thing that can stop them is the darkness, for what does darkness bring but silence for who should talk without a sight to see?" Rose's lips moved to the sound of a child, extending her hand for Artemis to take. The two walked closer to rock kneeling down; against the stone, Artemis could feel her legs weigh down as if made of lead, she fell slowly onto the strange lettering with her heart beating faster and faster, dizzying, blurring, confused.

"What... what now?" Artemis's stomach churned, the acids bubbly inside her system, the blood ceasing to flow, her eyes turning inside her school and the shine of her golden hair turned to a sickly ash.

Something's not right.

"Don't be afraid Artemis. Let me tell you a story." Greta had Rose run her hands over Artemis's face, trying to keep her from passing out altogether, "There was a little girl named Greta who was not suppose to die." She pulled Artemis to her lap, wiping sweat off her cheeks as Jaime stepped closer, the scarab compelling him to do so, to reach out and help her as if he could mend her illness with one touch.

"But as you know Artemis, the world is cruel, and children die, they die often." By then, The scarab's speech has slowed, with Jaime's hand resting on Artemis's hand, her condition only worsened as the pain of her affliction pulled at her bones.

Wally, I need you.

"She was killed for a reason, not for her brother's agenda, no that was the lie... she was killed to change the future Artemis, to distract a girl from fulfilling her destiny..." Rose, not Greta, moved a strand of hair from Artemis's face, tears of her own adding to the beads of sweat and she struggled to comfort her childhood protector with the strong spirit inside her soul. She hated being controlled, more than anything she wished to be free and yet... oddly... for a murderer she was more concerned over another human being.

"She wasn't supposed to stop Harm for the power he had was not suppose to be his. Artemis... was supposed to pout like any other teenage girl and go to a Halloween party where she'd bond with a boy." The armor surrounding Jaime's body slicked back into the beetle attached to the boy's spine. For the first time since plagued by the scarab's presence the creature let go, moving to Artemis, to the necklace she wore and breaking into pieces that matched the very lines and circles embedded in the pattern.

Jaime stepped back, listening, waiting but not for long. Soon Klarion had arrived along with the henchmen of the Light, just yards away, each blowing past the ancient walls and pillars of what the scarab had mumbled to be a holy sight, the scarab's second home, his first being the place where the savior's spirit was born, the spirit of a hero all those years ago.

"WE'RE COMING FOR YOU SCARAB!" Klarion called, only to be silenced by a fellow magical being, Zatanna.

"Not so fast master sass, ERIF!" With one word, Klarion and his minions were on fire, blinded by light, an irony not lost on Zatanna at all but her plan all along. Conner and M'gann swooped down in unison, together acting as a blockade from the entrance of the stone. Conner's strength pushed back further threats, punch by punch, knuckled blue and purple, eyes colored red from the broken blood vessels, he forced the Light's men back. For M'gann's part, she had released a wave of energy using her mind to knock the minions off their feet alone, not to scramble their thoughts but to stall long another for Kaldur to strike the flank by breaking a hole from the sand above.

"Now Kaldur!" Dick shouted as he kicked the roof of the tomb open. With Kaldur's water added to the sand, it turned to mud, drowning others underneath long enough for Wally to slip into the entrance, Raquel watching closely to guard his back as he ran to Artemis, terrified of what he saw.

"Artemis!" Beneath the mud was Slade, pushing the mud back with his own sword, calling his daughter's name, his property he was ready to take back for his own.

"Wally..."

"The story isn't finished Artemis... the boy... you... it was all suppose to happen then to bring the darkness that would save the world but with my death came the delay and so the present we know today is not the future that was suppose to be." Noises close by revealed just how little time they had to fix whatever it was that had to be fixed... that is to say what was broken, no one knew, how to stop the Light, momentarily paralyzed with the exception of Slade who was pushing his way passed the weakened Martian and clone..

"I'm suppose to speak now... right?" Cassie had been in the doorway, watching as Wally cradled Artemis in his hands, his eyes closed and his mouth moving. His fingers touched the lines of Artemis's hand, counting them, tracing them and with one motion, lifted them to his lips for a kiss.

There was were no words spoken, now the marching beat of Light's people coming closer to them, blasting past the team so tired, so bruised they could barely hang on, all fighting without answers but doing so for the sake of their friend who laid limp in Wally's arms. This, here with the knives pushed into their flesh, the cracked bones, the beatings from those not worn from the fight that defined them, their purpose and reminded them of what it was to be a hero.

"In the darkness they make their own light," Cassie said with her hands on her knees, trembling, "just as the moon does for the sky, but the moon is not alone for what would the moon be..." Cassie paused to breathe, Greta's spirit having passed from Rose's body and now hovered over them all to listen closely as Cassie finished it for them, the ending to the story.

"What would the moon be without the stars." She said falling to the ground, as did Jaime, Rose and all those around them for the oracle had spoken the missing piece to the tale. All time frozen, all time still Wally looked into Artemis's eyes kissing her forehead and nose just as he had done every night they shared a bed in hopes of making her smile.

"Arty-"

"Shut up kid, I have something to say." With all time still, the Light could not move but time was limited even when it ceased to go on, Artemis's heartbeat fading as the stone dissolved under her skin. She felt her heart being fused with the necklace, the scarab and an ache throughout her body, making her cave into herself. Still she reached for Wally's face, determined that in death and amidst all her confusion she'd state her one belief, something of a prayer to the boy she adored.

"I love you."

The messenger has spoken.

Against the stone the two halves of the savior were united and with the three words, sincerest in death, the stone illuminated to a dark shade and then the room began to fade into darkness.

"Artemis...ARTEMIS!" Wally shouted as he felt his skin being ripped from his own body. Jumbled thoughts of why and how were fleeting and despite the immense pain, the blindness in the dark all Wally could think about was Artemis, the woman he loved. In the excruciating pain the final pieces came into view.

Wally was the savior and Artemis was his messenger solely for a cliched reason that had become very real, they couldn't live without the other... because they were two parts of the whole.

Messenger and savior...

"Artemis... Artemis." He called as the blood filled his lungs, pouring over his mouth and down his torso. The green in his eyes became a sickly yellow and the scorching of his inside needled it's way in and out of the holes in his bones, a hole forming inside of him.

"Artemis!" He coughed, wanting to know she was still alive, still breathing and that he hadn't failed her... for all the times she'd been there for him he wished that in his dying thought to know she'd be safe, it would be his only solace in the gruesome death sure to follow.

"I'm here Wally." Small hands, callused from years of pulling a bow's string gripped his own, a hole in her own body and soon a hole above them, its force lifting them up into the sky.

From within the scarab spoke to her,

Artemis, goddess of the moon can only bring light with the stars that accompany her in the sky.

From the gaping holes within, light beamed in a translucent glow up into the hole above and with it came the bodies of the light, still frozen in form but aware of all that was happening. Each without the basic emotion of love, each without the understanding of darkness, not one knew the beauty of it.

The darkness comes from tragedy and in that tragedy is the chance for redemption.

"That's what humanity is." Wally said as he too could hear the scarab's words.

"Humanity is redemption." Artemis finished for him and with that the bodies of the Light, Black Beetle and Slade included were raised into the darkness, disappearing from sight and with that, the sun rose and time began again.

"It's over."

"Hey beautiful, wake up." Artemis opened her eyes to see Wally standing over her with a familiar scent of pancakes and detergent. The sheets covering her were of their bed, the ceiling stained with coffee, and by her side was Kent, listening closely to make sure she was breathing.

"Oh hell no, I'm not Alice." Artemis pushed the covers off running to the mirror searching for bruises she sustained in battle, her head no longer hurt from the fall in the cave nor did her throat burn. The tigress costume was gone, replaced instead by Wally's sweater and a pair of socks, one of her favorite forms of pajamas. It was as if nothing had happened.

"It did." Wally answered, putting his hands on her waist, moving one hand to her stomach and pressing down on it. It was tender, a strange tender spot as if she'd been healing from a giant gunshot wound.

"What happened." She asked turning to face him, her face far too serious for the bedroom, the place not only of their intimacy but also where they shared their childish pranks and challenges, their secrets.

"All I can say is when I woke up, the bad guys were gone... Rose was...gone and you wouldn't wake up, not at first." Artemis narrowed her eyes.

Rose... gone?

"We have to find her, Greta too... and Jaime... and Cassie how are they even doing with all this, how is anyone doing with all this!" She let go of him to pace across the room, her arms dug into the ends of her elbow as she shook her head in disbelief.

"We have to fix this Wally, we have to help them, find the others... I..." Wally sat down on the bed, hands against his knees in silence as he waited for Artemis to calm down. Of course she wanted answers, everything they did was for answers. Above everything else they could be sure the idea of them being a savior... together... to stop the light... and still unanswered questions as to what exactly it was to take the Light, where'd they gone... if the scarab was even still inside her...

"I'm sorry Artemis, Dick looked for Rose everywhere but she's gone, we can't find the Light either and Greta, I mean I hate to admit this being the science guy that I am but she's a ghost, we can't exactly track her." Wally shrugged, uncharacteristic of the new Wally, that is the one she'd come to know in the last few years, shaped by all their loss, the somber young man.

"You know I have to at least find Rose."

"I know, but first, can we just lay here, can we just... rest?" Wally leaned into the bed, rolling over to his side and patting the empty side with Artemis already walking towards him. She laid down, pushing her head into his shoulder and placing her hand to his chest. They curved into one another, Wally sighing and Artemis in tears.

"I have to tell my mom I'm alive Wally." She pushed her eyes against his body, rubbing them into his shirt hoping the pressure would relieve the throbbing.

"I know."

"I have to... I have to find her Wally."

I can't abandon her again.

"I know."

"Is that all you can say?" She wasn't annoyed with him, she knew why he gave her the same two worded answer over and over again. He knew what she felt, of course being her other half... literally. Even so that was far more than she needed to know, the idea of someone being part of a whole was a bit too romantic for her taste and yet that's not what bothered her, there was something else about the whole situation that she couldn't let go.

"Rest beautiful, we're only human."

"I know but don't you ever think... at least with what we do that-"

"We're more than human? Yeah, yeah I do but listen Artemis," Wally kissed her cheeks and nose, running his finger over her lips to make her smile, "I love you, for now, let's just be that cheesy couple who says that's enough because... well it's-"

"More than enough, yeah, I love you Wally."

"I love you too, now go to sleep beautiful, it's time to rest."

And with that, the moon laid to rest with the stars.

Well... that's the end of this arc :)

I do plan on writing another arc tied with this story for Rose but that's for another time... sorry for any grammar mistakes, I wrote this as fast as I could last night :C

Anyway, I tried really hard to portray the pain and suffering that comes with a hero and how much death and loss effects them. I don't believe death is something you move on from, it's something that changes you and shapes the person you're going to be so I tried to write that in the story, that and how all life experiences never leave you.