Thank you to Anna for doing the Spanish in this chapter!

◊

Just stop your crying
It's a sign of the times
Welcome to the final show
Hope you're wearing your best clothes
You can't bribe the door on your way to the sky
You look pretty good down here
But you ain't really good
∞

"What's going on?" Ellery snaps, like it's not obvious.

I hold Batman's haunting stare. Not because of bravery, but because of fear. My mother is like a bear protecting her cubs after emerging from hibernation. Vicious and impulsive even in the face of death.

What has he told her? Are we in a lot of trouble? 

She won't look at us. Dressed in her pink silk dressing gown, my mother is perched on her leather throne, one leg folded over the other with her eyes set on the ground.

"We didn't hurt anybody," I hear myself say. Whatever confidence and poise I usually have starts to slip. I sound pathetic. "If doing anything to save the life of someone you love is a crime, then we're guilty."

Anything, yet we failed. 

"But we didn't hurt anybody," I repeat, trying to reel the hysteria back in. 

That winding quakes when I think of all the late nights, the close calls and the chill of a Gotham warehouse as we stare into a leather mask. Sitting in class staring at my friends, jealous for the first time in my life. They were normal. I stole things and reported to a crime boss with gloves made of blood. I threw myself into an alleyway to avoid detainment by the very man standing in my living room. I stood, wiped the dirty water from my costume as I tried not to hyperventilate, a diamond weighing heavy on my leg. I sat in the living-room beside my mother and stepfather, watching the news reports of a robbery. They shake their heads in disappointment and I feel guilt consuming me from within.

All of it and still she lay up those stairs, dying.

"Those diamonds were just sitting there," I'm talking nervous now, my voice shaking as I slip into the cry-zone of hysteria, almost missing the tears trailing from beneath my mask. Because it's frustrating and disappointing and I just- "We stole them-" I rip my arm away from Reece when he grabs me in an attempt to comfort, I see red, "And they still amounted to nothing!" 

The cells of my skin flip like pages, becoming hardened metal at my own outburst, as if I frightened my powers into adapting to something that was hurting me. Its response was to turn to the very strongest material and brace. 

Batman stares on, seemingly unfazed that I'm screaming at him. He must understand, must see that I'm not screaming at him at all.

My mother doesn't move. Ellery doesn't say anything. Everyone understands.

Tonight confirms that Livinia is going to die. My mother and Reece agreed that after six months they would turn her life support off. It has been five and there is no way we can save her in the next four weeks.

"You're right."

Batman's words make me flinch. I do not want them. I do not want the truth. I do not want to be right.

"You were just doing what you could to save your sister. We know that. You're not in trouble," Nightwing adds. He's softer, calmer, than Batman. 

"What about the diamonds?" Ellery asks.

"Don't worry about those," he continues, "Replacements will be given to the museums, the mayor, the gallery and the laboratory."

This seems to perk my sister up.

"So if you're not here to arrest us, and if you're not here to make us pay for at least one of the diamonds, why are you here?" I frown, stepping further into the room. "Did you come all this way to rat us out to our mom?"

"Dude, they're letting us off. Don't make them take it back," Ellery whispers. I want to turn around and swipe at her. How can she be like that in a situation like this?

Finally, after having only spoken two words, Batman decides to join the tense conversation.

"You have abilities," he begins, suddenly moving towards us. The motion is startling, because he is nothing but a shroud of darkness and it's like a shadow closing in.

But I do not flinch.

"You do not know their full extent, because you have not been able to exercise them in the right way."

"Tonight," Nightwing carries on, pushing off of our living room wall and walking towards us, "We want to offer you that chance. You saw how the Team were today. I know you were watching how they are. Both of you can be a part of that."

The words are so stunningly out of the blue I shouldn't be able to process them, but the proposition is something of a dream, so I'm on it immediately, sorting through the ideas internally. 

"You're..." Ellery begins, stepping forward to be inline with me, "Offering us a place on your team? After everything?"

"After everything? You mean trying to save your sister?" It is Black Canary's turn in the pitch. "We're not considering it a crime, Ellery." She closes in on us like she isn't anticipating an attack. Honestly this night has been so draining I don't think I could defend myself against even a Black Mask thug. "Adelaide." She reaches for my shoulder and I flinch.

Seeing my distress, she draws back.

"Batman and Nightwing have explained what this...team is," Reece says, coming to stand on my other side. I feel overcrowded with all these huge presences in the room; a model, a lawyer and three superheroes.

"Do you ask everyone's parents?" I wonder aloud, backing up to feel a little bit less crowded.

"We do," Black Canary says.

When I was watching this team fight Black Mask's men, I was in awe. It was not what I expected; everyone seemed to care for everyone. It was like watching my father and Halo fight together back in Colombia. 

It was...familial. 

"Mama?" I call out, sounding younger and more afraid than intended. Batman and Nightwing move aside to clear the line between our mother and us.

One manicured hand is digging into the arm of the leather chair, whilst the other is folded beneath her nose as she stares on at the carpet, as if she does not know what to say.

But oh, she does.

"Escuchadme bien," She begins thickly, and I know it's all going downhill from there. She's telling us to listen. "Esto fue lo que arrancó vuestro padre, mi marido, de nuestras vidas. Nos echó de Colombia, dejándonos solas, sin dinero, sin casa, ¡hasta sin familia!" 

Her tone is low, threatening. It instantly makes my blood run cold and my muscles coil. This could get dangerous. 

Talking about papa means reverting to Spanish. She has it in her head that Reece won't want to hear it, which we know is not true. He understands he is our step-father and the second husband. Because Mama is so desperate to hold onto this life, and therefore onto Reece, she prefers not to bring papa up at all.

I don't know what Nightwing, Batman and Black Canary understand, but she had been yelling about our move from Colombia to here. Our father disappeared and we had no money, no house and no family. Gotham with my aunt and cousins was the only option.

Those dark and enraged eyes finally flicker to us. Ellery and I both tense up as she continues to speak in the same brash tone.

"Dediqué mi energía y esfuerzo en traeros a este país para escapar la violencia. ¡¿Y Me recompensais yendo enbusqueda de eso!?"

If she could rip the leather from the frame she would. This time her peril is about the energy she put into getting us here. The money, the documents, the emotional weight of it, all to escape the violence.

And the question hurts the most. You repay me by looking for the same trouble?

This is going downhill faster that I thought it would.

{Why are we always stuck and running from the bullets?}

My fingers are cold, shaking. The image of my mother's ferocious face looming over me as her hand raises, comes down and raises again forces me to back up into Ellery. 

"We did not go looking for him mama," my sister tries desperately to reel the situation back in, "Felix came to us. He-"

"Do you think your lives are a game?" She snaps, shouting in accent-heavy English as she springs to her feet.

"No-" I try, but she cuts in and I dare not speak over her.

"I saw little girls butchered in the streets by men, like this Black Mask. Then I find out that my daughters were conspiring with him, planning to put his vile magic into their own sister's body!" She sounds and looks far more hysterical than I was before.

Her face reads distress, but our mother is anything but a weak woman who would cry in the corner about such things. Instead she clenches her fists in front of her face, breathes deeply, and lets loose in a tone that only sounds calm.

"Nunca he sido más decepcionado en vosotras, ¡A vuestras cuartos! No quiero oir ni un suspiro, y si necesitáis algo, que os jodais!"

The demand for Ellery and I to go to our rooms, the revelation that she is disappointed, the vile swearing, is so stunning that I can barely even breathe.

How can she be so calm when she is tearing us apart?

In some sick way I'm reminded of myself, that day at Shoney's. I took the popularity of Perrie, Rylie and McKenzie apart without batting an eyelid, but for them it was the end of the world.

She snaps her fingers and points to the staircase with wild eyes. The fear of her rage keeps me glued to that spot, and when I still don't have the courage to move she takes a threatening step forward. A hand- Ellery's- grabs my upper arm and tugs me backwards.

Wait. Wait, I want to know more about this team!

I choke on my words as my sister tugs me out of view and up the stairs. Halfway I regain the ability to speak. I rip away from Ellery's hand and plaster myself against the wall beneath framed pictures.

"What are you doing?" Ellery scolds softly, trying to beckon me up the steps.

I shake my head despite my fear of even moving, the volatile image of my mother's wild eyes implemented in my brain.

I don't know what I want to hear, but I know I have to stay.

The sound of her footsteps walking away from the stairwell and towards the heroes is what makes me slap my hand over Ellery's mouth.

"Si te crees tan chulo, vestido de negro, con ese capucha de rata, estás muy equivocado. ¡Por tu culpa, mis hijas están jugando con la seguridad de esta familia!"

Who else can say their mom attacked Batman? She mocks him, If you think you're so cool, all dressed in black, with that rat mask, you're very mistaken. Because of you, my daughters are playing with the safety of this family!

I start to move down the stairs again, because something in me screams that I have to defend him. He wasn't doing anything wrong. We were the ones in the wrong.

Ellery grabs me so hard it should hurt, yanking me back up the top half of the steps.

Mama has already moved onto Black Canary, so she does not hear, but Reece does. He strides backwards until he can see us. Instead of telling us to go to bed or alerting my mother, he folds his arms and stays rooted to the spot between the bottom step and the front door.

Silent permission. 

"Seguro que solo triunfas de vigilante siendo una perra," I dare not even translate properly in my own head. Our mother accusing someone of being sexually promiscuous would normally have Ellery in stitches, but she too is frozen in place as we listen to her now take apart Black Canary's legitimacy and costume. "Ya te veo, seduciendo a tus enemigos, y en cambio te dejan capturarlos. Además, ¿quién puede luchar en este vestido de puta?"

"We have to do something," I whisper up to Ellery. She looks at me with the same stern eyes my mother had and shakes her head.

Because then my mother turns on the person who in all honesty, deserves the least amount of disrespect. Ellery shuts her eyes, head tipping back as she takes a telepathic swim around the room.

"They all understand to some extent- Nightwing's laughing on the inside, but he's still serious," she whispers. Reece gives us a look to be quiet.

"¿Y tú que miras?" My mother questions what he is looking at, catching onto a smirk he doesn't even have. "Vestido en tu maillot de chica y ese corte de pelo de mujer, me pregunto como puedes andar por la calle sin que todos se mean de las risas. Diría que así es cómo vences a tus enemigos." Dressed in that ballet leotard sporting your ladies haircut, it's a wonder you can walk down the street without everyone laughing. She comes for his life and suggests he beats his enemies while they laugh at him, "Aprovechando de que se rien para "salvar el día" con tus habilidades de mierda."

Everything quiets down. There is not more to be said. They have been rejected and owned in the process.

Batman was never one to speak as we have heard, but the others being speechless is a surprise.

Reece seems to catch on to the atmosphere. Knowing the extent of his wife's fury, he goes in anyway.

"Sof," he begins softly, "Let's just let it go, okay? The girls are in their rooms, the offer's rejected, that's all, okay?" He moves out of our line of sight. Ellery begins tugging me again.

We should move. If Reece is leading her back to bed, they're coming up here.

The last thing I see is the sweeping of Batman's cape as he follows Nightwing and Black Canary out the door.

He stops at the threshold however, looking over his shoulder.

I'm sure he glances up the stairs. Though Ellery and I are at the top now, he must see us, must sense the desperation that we- that I want to know more.

Before I can make any sort of signal and before Ellery can speak, our mother does, with a low and emotional threat.

"Si crees que te dejare poner mi familia en peligro, estas muy equivocado." If you think I'll let you put my family in danger, you're very mistaken. Every bone in my body wants to rip back down those stairs, stand in front of Batman and tell my mother- "Así que si vuelves a poner un pie en este hogar, ¡te juro por mi kit de maquillaje que te acordarás de mí!" If you set a foot into this household again, I assure you in the name of my makeup kit that you'll remember me!

"Adelaide, move!" I need to tell my mother- "They're gonna' come up here!" Ellery exclaims in a whisper, almost dragging me backwards as I see the tails of his cape disappear.

Like a ragdoll I am yanked further and further backwards until I'm in my room. Ellery give quick instructions to hide my uniform and get into bed like a good girl.

But all I can think is, I need to tell my mother that I want to be part of that team. 

∞
Just stop your crying
Have the time of your life
Breaking through the atmosphere
And things are pretty good from here
Remember everything will be alright
We can meet again somewhere
Somewhere far away from here