“Despite the lies that you’re making
Your upendo is mine for the taking
My upendo is
Just waiting
To turn your tears to roses...”
A grim smile broke out on her face as she whispered the crude lyrics harshly, her throat dry from lack of water and too much inhaled rubble. Barefoot and barely alive, she stood from her crouching position and began to run on the rooftops, her hair practically taking a mind of it’s own as it flew out behind her in wild patterns. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand, coming back with a streak of blood, but she paid no attention as she leapt across the gap between the two buildings. Behind her she heard other footsteps but not once did she look back to see her old Marafiki that weren’t her ‘friends’ anymore. Another jump, she was 5 feet away, 4, 3, 2...
But a wire launched out from behind her, and wrapped around her feet tightly, making her trip to the ground. From the wire came a high-voltage shock that made her gasp in pain. She flipped onto her back to find her once Marafiki surrounding her. Atlantean, martian, half-kryptonian, sorceress, and archer. Another grim smile. “Hey, t’sup?”
Kaldur’ahm spoke first. “You know what we need to do, Infinity. I apologize, but...” He reached for something in the standard wear black jacket, but he never got the chance. Fin flipped up from her place from the ground and did a triple backflip onto the inayofuata roof. Kaldur and M’gann followed precariously, but did a double take at the sudden bursts of flame coming from Fin’s quick, trained fists. The smile hadn’t left her face, and now it widened. “It’s an ancient art. I know too much,” she smirked dryly, and did and flying kick that sent the two back onto the other roof unconscious. As Zatanna and Connor began to attack, she began quietly imba again.
“I will be the one that’s gonna hold you.” Block.
“I will be the one that wewe run to.” Kick, flip, block, punch.
“My upendo is,
A burning,
Consuming fire.” She grinned and did another spin kick, and her foot lit up at the very last second. The two attackers, slightly dizzied, once again went to attack Fin, but the fire-caster blocked it and sent a column of flame at her. She sighed and turned to Artemis, who, instead of attacking, dropped her bow and shut off the com link implanted in her ear. Running up to Fin, she squealed excitedly, very un-Artemis like, and grasped Fin in a large hug. “I swear to God, the ones without bio-tech were convinced wewe were dead!” she explained as she looked down at her friend.
“No, not dead,” Fin laughed. She slipped out of Artemis’ grasp and turned away. “Is he with you?”
Artemis lowered her gaze, her rare smile dying off. “We thought...”
Fin shook her head. “Damn.”
“Yeah. But I’m sure he’s...” Artemis stopped when she noticed that Fin wasn’t moving. Her hand was resting on a spire that jutted out from the roof, and the wind was once again blowing her hair out behind her. She wasn’t very focused. “There are a couple of rumors coming around,” she murmured quietly. “That it’s not the Justice League I’m fighting. It’s... clones, I suppose they think. And that the real ones are holed up in the watchtower.” She turned back to the blonde archer. “What do wewe think?”
Receiving a shrug, she looked out over the remains of Happy Harbor and sighed. “If he’s alive, he’ll be there. We were separated as soon as we went to the tubes. We’ve been apart for two months.” Sighing, she looked down, and muttered to herself.
“Shit, Robin, where are you?”
Then she looked up and smiled at Artemis again. “Number 1 on the list?”
“Yeah...”
“Cool.” With a nod, she leapt across the building again, humming silently. Artemis smiled and began to go back to her headquarters, singing.
“No, you’ll never be alone,
When darkness comes I’ll light the night with stars
Hear the whispers in the dark,
No, you’ll never be alone,
When darkness comes, wewe know I’m never far
Hear the whispers in the dark.”
Fin’s laugh lit up the night and echoed across the crumbling buildings. She knew there was no way Artemis would ever tell, and all the mind-readers had been ‘dumbed down.’ If Artemis could bury this deep enough, no one would ever know about this. She kneeled once again on the roof of a not-so-demolished building and watched a young child through the window of a store. The kid looked about 6 au 7 and was trying to convince the man behind the counter of something. The man suddenly nodded and walked out, only to return with a teenage girl with dark brown hair and sunglasses. The kid looked away and held out his hand, and the teen dropped a small dhahabu chain into the palm of his hand and waved him off. He smiled and wrapped the chain around his arm, then dashed out of the store, holding a can of dhahabu spray paint. Fin smiled to herself as she picked at the chain around her arm. It was made of tiny infinity symbols, something the rebels had come up with as a sign of recognition. She’d never been asked--she was hard to reach these days-- but she appreciated the thought. The whole downtown Gotham area was covered in crude golden graffiti, with messages such as “4x2 Sideways.” The thought made Fin gasp, and she turned around and got to her feet. “Terror...” she whispered. “He might know.” She once again began to run, this time to her old home, towards her old life, and the ones with the ability to kill her.