𝙼𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎, 𝚁𝚑𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟶𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟷:𝟻𝟸 𝙴𝙳𝚃

    Scribbling down the last entry in our journal, we recorded yesterday's events in perfect detail. It had been Saturday, (Y/n) hung out with Artemis and they watched 'trashy' television shows while eating popcorn and making fun of it. We thought the shows seemed like perfectly acceptable, mindless entertainment, but they seemed to have enjoyed themselves well enough.

    We believed we were becoming behind with it, the journal and our vow to record the day's events up until there was nothing to record, but everything was up to date now that we'd written down the past mission and the days that followed suit now that we had free time. In fact, the journal was mostly filled with mundane activities now, most days were spent with no grand missions to do, and the ones that were recorded would live in it, our memory and this journal. Each and every one special.

    '...Now that you're done with that, can we do something? Like, I dunno, play a game or something. Ooo, the phone has Tetris, right? My records pretty good.' (Y/n) bragged.

    'You have schoolwork to get to.' We reminded her, closing the journal.

    'I can do it later,' (Y/n) whined and the urge to flop down on the bed welled up inside of us. 'I can finish it in like, two minutes, anyway.'

We placed the journal down on the bed, placed the mechanical pencil on top of the hardcover, and hoisted ourself up off the comfortable mattress with the fluffy cover. Picking up the journal and pencil, placing the writing material on the desk before putting the journal on the shelf.

'It's not that bad. Just because it seems too easy doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, nor delay it.'

'Yeah,' (Y/n) scoffed, 'Cause hearing that from you makes that all the more credible.' We sat down on the hard wooden chair in front of the desk, ignoring the obvious jab, and brought out (Y/n)'s binder from the bookbag.

A large intake of breath entered our lungs from our mouth, a human gesture of offense. 'You monster.' (Y/n) started out, and our brow raised as we waited for the continuation to follow.

'You're forcing me to do my homework by holding me hostage?' We picked up the pencil we left on the desk and twirled it around with our fingers, unamused.

'Yes, I am.' We concurred. 'Homework is a top priority next to missions, you should take the free periods provided to you to get them done. In case there is no time to do them later. I shall assist you by writing.'

Our shoulders slumped, and we knew the conversation would change to the topic of the words on the sheets soon. A defeated groan left our lips softly. 'Fine, let's switch. If you're gonna make me procrastinate on my procrastinating then I at least want to be the one doing it.'

We closed our eyes and exhaled. '...You let me write my journal, it's only natural I give you the same space.'

'Yeah, yeah, whatever, Failsafe. You owe me a game of monopoly or something after this.'

Our lips quirked up, and we felt our control fizzle out. 'Of course.'

______________
𝙼𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎, 𝚁𝚑𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛𝟷𝟶𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟼:𝟻𝟾 𝙴𝙳𝚃

    I hung off Connor's arm like a six-year-old playing with his dad at the playground, whining in his ear as he stood, annoyed at me. Megan and Kaldur were sparring and Artemis was wrecking the floor with Robin, the cheat, he stole my friend from me.

    But, with Wally out of commission, I had no one to train with, since Robin, my regular training buddy, was occupied by the Greek goddess archer women. The only other option was my superpowered movie buddy.

    "Please, Connor..!" I dragged out my words in order to be extra agitating. "Just one round, it'll be like, three seconds. You'll kick my ass!"

    He scowled and looked down at me, trying to shake me off his arm with a half-assed wiggle, which told me he really didn't care at all, despite all the evidence against it. "If you know I'm going to kick your ass, then why do you want to spar with me?!"

    I hummed, having thought about it before. Foes like him where I'm clearly outmatched, I should be prepared for that. It'd help both me and Failsafe who prefers matching them in combat to know how to deal with them beforehand.

I answered him, shrugging in nonchalance. "Boredom, mostly."

    He scoffed, grumbling to himself but took a step toward the lit-up combat arena, watching as Robin face-planted into the floor from Artemis' flip and Kaldur blocking Megan's kick. Black Canary stepped up as Robin got to his feet and I failed to hold in my laugh, Connor looked down at me and if I were just a bit crazier, would have said that he smiled at me. No, no, he definitely smiled at me. No one can resist (Y/n) charm.

"Good work, everyone. In fact, it's been a very productive week." Black Canary offered, smiling at us. Connor came to join the group while I hopped over to sit on the armrest of Wally's recliner. How the hell he was able to convince Captain Marvel to bring him that is beyond me.

"Yeah, for everyone except Kid Malingerer." Artemis shot him a teasing look and immediately Wally took the bait, shooting up in his seat and coming to his own defense. He was hampered, somewhat, by the pineapple juice topped off with a fun, festive umbrella.

"Hey, arm broken in combat against the Injustice League here." To emphasize his point he waved around his wrapped and cast arm.

Our blond den mother shook her head as she chuckled lightly to herself, used to their bickering by now. "I've really enjoyed being your, uh, den mother this week."

The computer blared up and spat out Zatara's designation, followed up by a guest designation given to Zatanna Zatara. I almost forgot Zatara was literally just his last name. How have villains not used that against him yet? Does this mean everyone else is just overly paranoid for no reason?

Excited at the new arrival, I found myself wandering over to the rest of the group.

"Zatanna, this is the team." He brought his hand forward as the young girl, which now that I look at her a little closer I find is more around Robin and I's age than Artemis and Megans, stepped forward. Nice, if we're around the same age then that's like, free friend points.

She looked nervous at first, hesitant, but I could also see the way her body was tense, not in a way of fear, but of elation. She was happy to be here, I think. The next thing I noticed was that she was goddamn smoking, not literally, but just that she was beautiful. She had the same black hair her father had and it rolled down her shoulders in waves, which complimented her sky-blue eyes, glistening with the new environment presented to her.

She was wearing what could have been a school uniform but also could've also been regular clothes because I didn't see any logos on it or anything. It was a simple blue skirt with a white shirt and a black cardigan. She rubbed her arm, a common nervous gesture.

"Team, my daughter, Zatanna." With that, her father had finished the initial introductions, allowing us to individually introduce ourselves and get to know her. Megan, being the friendliest of us, flew over to Zatanna and tried to introduce herself first.

The keyword is tried, because she barely got through her second word before Robin stepped in front of her and cut her off, guess he saw her friend potential too.

He cleared his throat and tried again, watching closely to see if he startled her or not. "I mean, I'm Robin," he let out an airless chuckle and continued, "She's M'gann–"

As he talked I walked up behind him and jumped up, leaning all my weight on top of him as I reached out my hand, uncaring for the surprised, flabbergasted boy underneath me trying to distribute my weight in a fit of panic.

"And I'm (Y/n)! Nice to meet you, you know Rob, you should really let people introduce themselves, I mean, that's so rude, keeping our new friend Zatanna to yourself!" I complained and made fun of him at the same time, it's what I do.

"H, hey, (Y/n), get off!"

I laughed as I slid off him and he huffed, giving him a smile before brushing him out of the way and hopping in front of Zatanna, holding out my hand for real. She looked a bit more shaken, but as her shoulders relaxed I knew my display made us seem less intimidating, we're just people, after all. No need to be that wound up.

"As I said, I'm (Y/n), I hope we can be friends, Zatanna!'

I was greeted with a beautiful and playful open mouth smile as her lips curled up. A natural display of happiness and with that curve, mischievousness. I like her already. "Yeah, I would like that."

I leaned in slightly, whispering even though I knew everyone could hear me, "You know magic, right?"

She hummed, "I do."

An evil, elongated giggle left my lips, "we're gonna have so much fun together."

"Can't wait." She giggled too, though hers didn't sound half as wicked.

Robin popped back in, "So, uh," he scratched the back of his neck as he asked, "Are you joining the Team then?"

Zatara spoke up, shutting that down before his daughter even had time to answer, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is strictly a visit." He turned back to Black Canary and the adult started a conversation of their own again.

"Speaking of not getting ahead of ourselves," Artemis piqued up, "we still have to introduce ourselves, Robin, (Y/n)," She shot us both looks; if they were supposed to be menacing or teasing, I don't know, cause they were just funny to me.

She walked over and held out her hand, "Artemis."

Zatanna shook it, "Zatanna, but you already know that..."

The rest crowded around her, but it wasn't as lively as when Artemis first joined the Team, or even Megan, maybe that's because we were holding a psychic conversation as we talked to her, though Failsafe had to patch me in late due to her increased psychic blocking whatever. Really, why do half her powers have to be such a buzzkill? No magic and no psychic shenanigans? Disappointing, to say the least.

'It is a naturalistic ability, one I cannot just, turn off. Allowing myself to connect to the Martian's mindlink leaves me vulnerable and takes time to do.' Physically, Failsafe can't pout, cause then I'd pout and it'd look weird, but by her tone of voice, I imagined she'd be pouting right now.

'Probation with Zatara?' Megan added as I started to hear– think? In the mindlink. I didn't get the first part of her question, which made it confusing to try and piece it together without the responses.

'Not just Zatara. Why's Marvel still hanging around?' Connor added in his usual annoyed tone.

'Because we like having him around.' Wally butted in, defending his trusty butler. His eyes found Artemis, even before she started talking.

'You like having him around because he waits on you hand and foot.' Artemis snapped at him.

'Speaking of which, Wally, if you're gonna have him do all that stuff for you, can't you at least say 'please' or even 'thank you'?' I added on, bothered by the way he's treating the hero. CM seems like a nice guy, willing to do all that stuff for him, the least he should show is some appreciation, I mean, come on. 'Or at least ask him to make me some food too.'

My eyes wandered over to Zatanna, who looked confused, but from her face, I could see she was trying to piece together what was happening, and I think she was almost at her conclusion too.

'It almost makes one nostalgic for Red Tornado's tenure as our supervisor.' Kaldur switched subjects before Wally could reply, moving on to the actual subject of our conversation and the thing on everyone's minds.

'Yeah. At least he trusted us.' Even inside the mindlink, Robin's voice carried a bit of an accusatory tone.

'If you ignore the fact we shouldn't have trusted him. He was a traitor. That machine nearly got M'... All of us killed!' Connor got angry and started motioning with his body, whereas previously everyone had just been making eye contact with the speaker he outed us entirely as he got worked up.

"Are you guys having a psychic conversation? Because I can't decide if that's cool or really rude." My cheeks flushed because yeah, that was really rude. But, if she thinks it's cool too, we're gonna be great friends!

Not the time to be gushing, (Y/n) (L/n). Focus.

The adults, who'd quieted their conversation to hear us, patiently waited for Connor to respond. He acquiesced with one look over his shoulder, I shifted my weight onto my right leg, not knowing what to do and getting kind of bored. I wanted to see some magic!

"All right, fine. We were talking about Tornado. It's been weeks since his attack and the league hasn't told us anything." Connor turned around and waved his hands dismissively as he talked, fed up with the adult's silence.

And it made sense, too, wasn't their lack of trust in information the reason the boys started this Team that night?

"The league is searching for Tornado..." Black Canary tried to quell our concerns, "As well as the other androids that invaded the cave and their creator, T.O. Morrow. Batman's made tracking them down our highest priority."

Robin rebutted her statement, "But you've found none of the above."

"Not yet, but Tornado is Justice League. The Team is not to pursue this." Black Canary laid out her orders clear and certain. If we were gonna act against them, which let's face it, that's totally what we're going to do today, I could already imagine all the loopholes her statement just let us exploit.

'We didn't go as The Team we went as separate sidekicks/heroes who just so happened to meet each other on the road!' or 'Oh look! Tornado's back, no we didn't do anything. What's that? Burn marks on our cape? Why're we wet? What's with all these questions?' or 'Failsafe is technically still Justice League so it totally counts that she went looking for Tornado' I almost snorted at that last one.

Zatara stepped up and tried to diffuse the situation, but he opened his mouth before he knew what to say, and it sounded like it too. He was just trying to get rid of us with a bad excuse. "Why don't you all take Zatanna on a, uh, tour of the cave?"

Captain Marvel flew back in as our collective mood soured, I think Wally even grumbled. Zatanna cooed as she pet Wolf, the drama queen was soaking up the attention too. His fluffy tail hit my leg and I found myself petting him too, 'cause he's such a good boy and deserves it!

"Ah. You're giving a tour? Cool." The not-Greek (or maybe he is?) hero held the steaming nachos he'd made for Wally as he voiced his thoughts.

"Actually, I was hoping you'd take Wolf outside," Connor stepped up and gave Captain Marvel a new activity to do. Without any psychic conversation or even eye contact, we'd all collectively agreed that, no, we will not be touring the cave for a third time these last couple of months, instead we're going to go actually do something, like find Tornado. "He needs the exercise. We'll join you in a few."

"Sure, sure, I can do that. Come on, Wolf." He took off down the hall, toward the back hanger, nachos in hand. Obediently, the supersized dog followed. I missed the feeling of his fluffy fur on my palm and found myself pouting at the lack of warmth.

"My nachos!" Wally complained as Artemis dragged him along, after a brief hesitation, the rest of the Team followed, going down the hallway toward the kitchen. I waved goodbye to the two adults.

There was a light smoke that emitted from Zatanna's body and my attention zeroed in on hers in concern before I saw that the only thing that happened was that her clothes changed, a nice lilac tank top and white pants, it was cute. I let out a sigh of relief. I know I probably shouldn't worry as much, especially with all the superpowered people here, but something about seeing a person smoking like that makes the alarm bells go off.

"Magic is so cool."

She turned to me and smirked, "Yes, it is."

She walked past me to the front of the group and I followed her, happy to have her on the Team, even if just for today. She knew magic and was me and Robin's age? Perfection. I'm gonna make her my friend, for sure.

Robin seemed baffled by the change in clothes, his childlike wonder completely lost when it came to magic, it seemed. Magic could do anything! Clothing was child's play. "Unh! When did you...? How did you...?"

"Magic, Rob. Magic." I stressed to him, grabbing him by the shoulders and leaning in. He stammered as he tried to remove my hands from his shoulders.

"We're not really taking a tour, are we?" Zatanna complained, placing her hands on her hips.

"I hope not."

"No," Connor turned around, his face deadlocked into its usual angry frown, "We're hunting down that robot."

Even though he sounded so sure of himself, it wasn't until he turned to Kaldur and saw a curt nod come from him that the statement held any value, "Yes. We are."

It made my heart warm and fuzzy to see that our Team was back to normal with that whole ordeal from a few weeks ago. It got a little heavier knowing what Failsafe and I were fighting about at the time, but at least now she was working on it, and that was all that mattered.

"Oh, wow. Out loud and everything." Zatanna quipped.

"What about New Girl?" Artemis asked, unconvinced we could pull this off without the adults finding out and stopping us.

"I'm sure she won't tell." Robin shrugged. A dopey smile on his face.

"I mean, we could just–" I was going to joke about kidnapping her but she beat me to the punch. My jaw almost hit the floor and I'm pretty sure I caught flies.

"I can't tell, not if you kidnap me."

"Oh, she's gonna fit in great," Artemis smirked, amused.

"I don't think I've ever meant this," I started, bringing a hand to my chest and causing everyone to turn to look at me, "But I think I might be in love."

I received a wink from our new -temporary- teammate and a lopsided smile from Robin.

"Well, we're not going to find him here, are we?" Megan swayed back and forth on her heels, changing the conversation back to the task at hand.

"Then what're we waiting for?" Wally asked, talking with his hands, "Let's go!"

_____________
𝙷𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚋𝚘𝚛, 𝚁𝚑𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟶𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟽:𝟷𝟹 𝙴𝙳𝚃

    Unfortunately, Zatanna had sat next to Artemis, so I was stuck in the middle, alone, like always. I swirled in my seat and tapped on the console, but there was nothing to do except watch everyone else or talk to Failsafe. I seriously need to start bringing something to do on these trips, like a book or something.

    I checked my phone and remembered this thing had Tetris, I could play that. Maybe I'll download a bad mobile game I could delete after this to pass the time. Yeah, I'll do that instead. Fruit Ninja looked fine, so I started playing that.

    I held my head up with my palm and started cutting fruit while Black Canary called Megan saying something about the bioships departure not being authorized.

    Megan hung up around the time I accidentally cut a bomb in half, cursing under my breath as the game came to an end. I put the phone down as Robin started talking, whining when I got a headache from looking down while in motion.

    "Where are we going? Batman is the world's greatest detective," Robin ranted, "And he's searched for Tornado and Morrow in every logical location." He looked at me and seemed to scan my person as if trying to determine whether I was still me or not.

I raised my hands in defense, "I have no idea."

I don't blame him for looking at me like that. We all said we were gonna do something stupid and dangerous, which basically qualifies this as a mission which means... Actually, why the hell wasn't Failsafe in control?

I paused, furrowing my eyebrows. "Gimme a second, I'm gonna wrestle her out."

He raised a brow in surprise and I closed my eyes to concentrate, 'Hey, moppy. I know magic isn't your favorite thing, but what's up? Got any advice for us, any place to start looking?'

'...I cannot help you.'

'Why not? I know you know the answer.'

'(Y/n), last mission on three separate occasions the pre-existing timeline was put in jeopardy, any more and it would compromise–'

'So?'

'...So..?'

'...I cannot help.'

'Can't, or won't?' I asked, but there was no response. Frustrated by her lack of teamwork, I tried to switch us out myself.

'No!'

'You said you were gonna play nice and share, so play nice and share!'

When we opened our eyes, despite them only being closed for a couple of seconds, everyone was staring at us. We looked around, meeting eyes with Aqualad and Zatanna before coming back to Robin. Abated breath caught in the room, wondering, (Y/n) or Failsafe?

We frowned. Not really wanting to lead the conversation, but it was better to help this inconsequential bit than take away anything more from today. It wasn't a very important point in the grand scheme, other than returning Tornado to where he belonged. But who knew what could occur if anything changed?

"If you want to find Morrow, you need to stop thinking like Batman, like an adult." We told them, looking at Kid Flash, "You need to stop thinking inside the box, as the saying goes."

"So you're saying we need an illogical solution," Zatanna smiled, though the way it quirked could've made it a smirk.

Robin spun around in his seat, looking at Kid Flash. "A truly dumb idea."

Kid Flash thought for a second, not even taking offense to the blatant insult as he smiled, "As a matter of fact, I do have an idea."

We stayed quiet as he continued, placing (Y/n)'s phone back in our pocket.

"M'gann, set a course for Belle Reve!" Kid Flash exclaimed and The Team worked on just that. It was a few moments of silence after that Zatanna cut through, almost hesitant to ask but too curious not to.

"So you're a Niktonian?" Zatanna questioned, the conversation becoming directed toward us again.

We hummed, "So that's what they're calling us now?"

It was definitely a strange name. We wondered who, or what, could have come up with that. It did sound familiar, however.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude." Despite her casual tone she straightened out, "I just can't believe you're really well, real."

"...I don't mind."

The rest of the Teams attention turned to our conversation as the course was set, we straightened our back out as their gazes focused on us. It occurred to us only now that they might be curious about us. (Y/n) said we hadn't really talked about ourselves and last month when she revealed how our memory worked that only became more... prominent.

We didn't want to talk about ourselves.

"So you're actually a real, physical part of the Scales?" Her voice contained a checked amount of astonishment as she stared at us, looking for indications of change from the outside between the regular human body we inhabited and us. There was none to be found. Because we were the same.

We nodded, our gaze fell away from her and everyone else, finding interest in the floor. "As real and as physical as the air you breathe."

We turned our gaze back to her, "how did you know what I was, if I may ask?"

She blinked, "oh, my father told me about you." We nodded again, that would make the most sense. "And from Mr. Nelson too."

Our gaze shot up and we met her eye again at the appearance of Nelson's name. It only made sense that she would know him as he was an old hero and a prominent mage, but the lack of talk about him from anyone recently made it quite a shock. "...I see..."

She hesitated for a moment before speaking again, our reaction must've made her second-guess herself. "If it's alright with you, can I ask you a few things later?"

Conscious of the curious eyes on us, we nodded. "Of course."

_______________
𝙱𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚎, 𝙻𝚘𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚊
𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟶𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟾:𝟹𝟻 𝙴𝙳𝚃

    As we walked through the prison, passing villains in the halls decked in orange colors and angry faces I found myself strangely interested in them, my attention kept switching between them fast as we made our way to the interrogation room the Warden had given us in exchange for a favor.

    What surprised me too was the fact Failsafe seemed to be just as engaged as I was, bubbling up and paying deep attention to them as we passed by the entrance to the cafeteria, not many were in it and those that were were cleaning up, the room was heavily guarded too.

    'Whatcha thinkin' about?' I asked my best friend.

    '...We live around heroes and interact with civilians. But don't you think that's a little unbalanced? We've never taken the time to look at the other side of things.'

    I hummed, eyes finding their way to a blond woman with pale skin laughing as she swept the floor in weird patterns that only made sense to her. Her companion had to keep a respectable distance due to the stares they were getting, but the redhead with the green tint to her skin smiled along with the blond. They looked happy despite their circumstances.

    I suppose even in prison people find a way to live and have normal lives.

    I'd paused just long enough for the blond to notice me, and even though she was a supervillain worthy of being placed here, meaning that the Team or the League had definitely placed her here, she waved at me with a genuine smile.

I waved back, feeling a human connection with her that I don't think I've felt for a long time. The passing connection you could only get by passing someone by on the street, having made an awkward contact, and having the decency to wave instead of ignore them. It's mundane stuff like that I missed, being stuck in the cave or at school every day.

Quietly, Wally came back to pull me along as the guard lead us up the stairs and to the interrogation room. I chuckled awkwardly and rubbed my cheek with my index finger. Oops, might've forgotten about why we were here in the first place.

Professor Ivo, the competitor to Morrow and now that I recall, inventor of the Amazo android that, ahem, Failsafe destroyed all by herself, was an older strawberry-blond with a fair share of gray hairs, having a whole stripe of them down the side. I'd say he was about in his 50s or even early 60s at first glance. He had a grayish-blue eye color which means he was most likely European and had remarkably good skin for someone who's been in prison all this time. Still, I don't know if he was truly European, his skin looked just one shade too tan for that. It went pretty well with the orange jumpsuit and inhibitor collar.

Overall, he just looked like an older man you'd see at the park, feeding ducks or playing chess. Not some mad scientist inventor person with the skills and knowledge to craft something that could combat the Justice League. I could definitely tell he was the type to wear sweater vests and bowties though.

Megan slammed her hands on the table and leaned forward, trying to intimate the man. He wasn't having it, but that didn't mean she didn't try.

"Warden Strange owed us a favor for stopping last month's prison break. He's given us five minutes with you." She was talking like we were on t.v. or something. I held back a snort and crossed my arms, leaning on my right leg. I think we girls have been watching too much crime media together.

"Spill, Ivo. How do we find T.O. Morrow and his Reds?" Superboy– er, Connor, tried his attempt at playing bad cop. He was much better at it, actually getting a response.

"Now, why in the world would I know how to find Morrow?" The inventor asked coyly. Wally stepped up, answering his question.

"Because, and here's a truly dumb idea– you're Morrow's biggest competitor in the evil android game. Who better to keep track of what he's up to and where?"

Deciding to drop the act, Morrow clasped his hands together and closed his eyes, leaning forward and opening them to respond with defiance. "Ah, I see your point. So let me rephrase, why in the world would I tell you how to find Morrow?"

"He knows." Kaldur stepped up, motioning to Megan, "do what you must."

"Oh, please. As if I've never faced a telepath before." He smiled confidently, leaning back and crossing his arms.

Zatanna huffed and moved from the back of our group to the front, standing next to Morrow and leaned forward, speaking in tongues. "Trulb tuo S'worrom eurt noitacol!"

Ivo's eyes glazed over and he straightened out, immediately blurting out the exact information we wanted to know. "Morrows in a secret underground base beneath Yellowstone National Park. One hundred meters south of Old Faithful."

We all stared in shock for a moment, registering what our resident mage had just done. Everyone got a good look at the scene, even Robin who went on his tiptoes to see over Kaldurs shoulder.

He blinked, covering his mouth with his hands, and looked around in a daze, "Wait! Wh, What just happened?"

I gawked at the girl in the lilac tunic, arms uncrossing and a smile overtaking my open mouth.

"Magic." I exclaimed happily, one second away from jumping in excitement, "Magic, that's what!"

With the information gathered and the five-minute timer clocked down, we headed to Yellowstone National Park to get our den mother, and hero, Red Tornado, back.

___________________

"Lock out all external communication. Soon Canary and Zatara. Batman too, I imagine... will know of our visit with Professor Ivo. We haven't much time." Kaldur commanded Megan as she flew the bioship over Old Faithful, heading south as Morrow told us.

Robin turned to Zatanna, finally tired of holding in his questions for her. It reminded me of earlier. No one had asked about Failsafe since and I could feel the relief in my bones despite the fact I wanted those answers too. "Look, heh, I'm trying to be all nonchalant here."

"Why? Be as chalant as you like." Robin smiled at her answer, and I got the distinct feeling that wasn't the smile of someone trying to make a friend.

"We're all just trying to get a handle on your powers." Artemis rotated with her seat to talk to Zatanna, who looked amused at the question.

"Yeah, Robin and Artemis are right, as much as I love magic, I gotta know if me and Failsafe are getting replaced here." I cut in, bringing a hand up to my chest and leaning back in mock defense.

"No one is getting replaced," Kaldur answered, his tone indicating how obvious he'd thought that would be.

I chuckled lowly, hunching down and turning my smile crooked, tapping my finger pads against each other like villains do in the movies. "Not yet."

"Calm down there, Victor." Robin jabbed, a breath of amusement passing by his lips. Still, he was pretty focused on our newer member as Artemis asked her another set of questions.

"Could you teleport us to Tornado? Or Morrow to a cell? Or force his bots to surrender?"

Snarky and rhetorical, Zatanna asked some questions of her own before she answered the question in full. Unlike some people.

"Or create peace on Earth for all time? Zatara couldn't even do all that and I'm nowhere near on my dad's level. I need to know a spell cold or else have time to prep it." She furrowed her eyebrows and placed a hand on her chest, "plus all magic requires energy, which usually has to come from within. I can't make the impossible happen at will."

In an attempt to lighten her mood, I asked a question of my own. "...So you can't turn Wally into a walrus..?"

Robin snickered as Wally let out an outburst of objection. Artemis smirked, turning to me and pointing to him with her thumb.

"Looks to me like that already happened a long time ago."

I hummed, giving him a good long lookover and nodding wisely. "Yes, yes, I suppose you're right. Magic really is something, you know?"

Artemis nodded in agreement.

"I'm right here!"

"Silence, walrus!" I pointed at him, enunciating my words to make them sound extra goofy. It seemed to do its job to lighten the mood of the people in the conversation, Megan, even Kaldur gave a small smile and shook his head at my ludicrousness.

I don't know what he's being so dismissive about. I can be a lot worse.

Our resident grumpy super pounded his fist into his hand, having finally run out of patience. He practically growled as he said what he was feeling, "What's our E.T.A. To Yellowstone? I'm way past ready to stuff Tornado into a trash compactor."

My arm fell down to my side and I frowned. For one thing, I wished Connor would just enjoy the moment, be happy and crack a smile. If he kept going like this he'd have a permanent frowny face forever and that just wasn't right. But growth takes time, I suppose. And then there was the matter of Tornado.

It was true that he and his freaking sibling-android people almost killed us, burned me, and would have left me with lasting damage had it not been for Failsafe, and then almost separated the team as a result, I couldn't hate Tornado. The situation could've been worse, should've been. And I don't think it was his fault. It was too sudden, too unexpected.

"Are you so certain he betrayed us?" Kaldur asked. He was as skeptical as I was.

"Aren't you?" Connor shot back.

Kaldur looked away from the black-haired male, eyes a distance away from the present. "I am not convinced."

"And even so," Kaldur made eye contact with Connor again, having determined the point he wished to make, "that makes him but the victim of his creator's programming. Certainly, he deserves a chance to prove he's more than the weapon others designed him to be."

I winced, Kaldur's words cut deep for me and that sentence had nothing to do with my life. Connor's muscles relaxed, he inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. That must've cut deep enough to get through to him, at least.

I smiled. Good for him.

_____________________
𝚈𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝙽𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚕 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚔, 𝚆𝚢𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚐
𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟶𝚝𝚑, 𝟸𝟶:𝟸𝟸 𝙼𝙳𝚃

    "Stealth mode," Aqualad commanded, tapping the icon on his belt to turn his normally red wetsuit into a dark gray.

    Following his directions, our white and black outfit became a mix of black and dark gray. Everyone else on the Team not dressed for stealth followed suit. Even Zatanna, as she uttered backward words that turned her lilac tank top and white pants into a practical magician's piece.

    'I love her.'

    'You love magic.'

    'Same difference.'

    'Touché.'

The Team exited the bioship, finding cover by some nearby rocks as Robin used his holopad to scan the area. He tapped a couple of more things and the schematics of the whole park popped onto the screen, "Ivo was right. Something's down there."

Aqualad charged ahead as soon as he received the update and the rest of the Team followed with us and Miss Martian flying beside them. We were stopped fairly quickly by a strong current.

Tornado. It had to be. Just a moment ago there was barely a breeze and he was the only one who could create such a strong air-based attack. It blew back the Team one by one but we managed to hold air by creating a shield and pushing back against the worst of it.

Tornado stayed steady in the air above us with his arms crossed, and somehow without a face or the ability to make facial expressions, he looked condescending. Perhaps it was the way his chin was slanted up.

Two red tornadoes were produced from the android and sent toward the ground, growing in size and terrorizing the ground, pulling up dirt and rock and mineral. More came to follow shortly after. From here we could see it, it wasn't an attack, but a message.

Play Dead.

Telepathically, we linked up to Miss Martian and the others as she yelled at him.

'Message received?' Neither us nor the Team could give any indication so, or else give away what Tornado was so clearly trying to hide. We just needed to trust in the hero.

"Who cares why? Nail him!" Superboy exclaimed, charging forward and making his rage clear. We weren't certain, but it didn't seem like he was fully acting.

Aqualad followed, ordering quickly, "Superboy, maneuver seven!"

Not a moment later Superboy interlocked his fingers and threw Aqualad into the air as he jumped and pushed off Superboy's hands. They failed miserably, but that was the point. As Aqualad failed to land his punch, Tornado headbutted him and managed to make it look like he'd taken out both Aqualad and Superboy.

Artemis tried to launch an arrow, but with the wind currents, it was yet again another failed attack. The blowback from the arrow took out both her and Robin. Supposedly.

We tried to launch an attack as well, choosing to use something that would be mildly affected by the wind. Fire came to mind, but with the way we winced unconsciously, we didn't think it was the best idea.

Which made it a great idea.

The fire was sent back at us and we shielded ourselves with our arms and made it seem like the blast pushed us out of the air. We hovered above the ground and tried to catch our breath. Bad idea. Very bad idea. We were shaking.

A well-placed tornado knocked us out of the air, we stumbled to catch ourself on the ground. Our fingers dug into the ground until they were caked in dirt and our fingernails almost came off, but we stopped.

'How do we make defeat believable when both us and Tornado know we could easily take him?'

'You don't have to. 'Cause, whoever Tornado's trying to fool doesn't know that.' (y/n) jabbed.

'It's not that simple.'

'Then let me handle it.'

Confusion overtook us, but we switched out. Watching in amazement as (Y/n) made it seem like we were overwhelmed and disappeared, leaving a confused and groggy human host behind. And in a good approximation of what had happened the day Tornado disappeared, she flopped over from 'lack of oxygen.'

Though our eyes were closed, we could still hear the battle ragging as the others had to have their go at trying and failing.

"That does it, Red. You're not the only spin doctor around here!" Kid Flash exclaimed, and though we couldn't see what he was doing, we knew he must be trying to create his own wind funnel.

From the sound of the grunting and yelling, Miss Martian and Kid Flash must've gone down together. Which left the last and newest member, Zatanna.

"Etaerc a... a... dleihs dnuora ym...!" She stuttered and stumbled around her words too long, doing a great job at pretending her first battle was getting to her as Tornado took her out. The wind stopped shortly after.

In the distance, we couldn't approximate where with our eyes closed, but it was a clear sound. The earth beneath our feet was moving. A new robotic voice on the field. Red Volcano.

"Quite a performance, brother. But we both know that's all it was. I have all your memories, Tornado, plus a next-gen processor. I know your next move before you do." The ground continued to break apart and move and we sensed enough danger to throw open our eyes. Like expected, we were found out. Just as we remember.

The ground where Tornado blew his message using tornadoes was brought up behind the fiery red android and he scoffed, "Blowing a message into the sand."

'Robots can scoff?' (Y/n) asked absentmindedly.

'He did say he had a next-gen processor.' We responded.

Inside our head, (Y/n) hummed. 'Do you think if we scrap him we could make our own C-3PO? Or, even better, R2-D2?'

'Perhaps.' We have no clue what those are, and it must've been very clear because then (Y/n) declared we were watching Star Wars our next movie night.

We've seen too many star wars before, we think we're good on that.

The others around us opened their eyes and sat up as the android broke apart the rocks and sent them flying at us. Aqualad and Superboy jumped into action and destroyed the most immediate threats. We took the time to launch into the air.

As we avoided the rocks still in the air Miss Martian used her telekinesis to evade the oncoming boulder. Robin and Zatanna dodged out of the way.

'Zatanna?' Robin checked on his comrades' health as the dust obscured the two. We blew it away as best we could as the boys continued their fight. Above us, Tornado was leaving the battle, presumably to find his other android siblings, based on our memories.

'I'm good. But Red Tornado's getting away.' Zatanna responded, looking up and noticing the same.

'Is he abandoning us?' Artemis asked, running toward the enemy to get a better shot from her bow. Kid Flash ran up the pillar of rock and got knocked down by the bulky android.

'Let him go, he'll be back.' We reassured, shooting a blast of acid at him as soon as Kid Flash was out of the way. If we could damage his metal enough, at least until the Red's return, that would be enough.

The Team trusted in our words and the robot gloated once more, "You stand no chance against me, humans."

Superboy and Miss Martian both charged in to hit the android and we felt we should join in, teleporting behind the android and dealing a swift punch into its head, denting it quite significantly.

"We're not human!" The Kryptonian, Martian, and us exclaimed.

"Apologies. I suppose the properly inclusive term is..." Miss Martian and Superboy were taken down as rocks in the shape of hands burst from out of the ground and clapped them both together, crumbling as they fell out of the sky.

As for us, Red Volcano grabbed our face and slammed us into the ledge of his rock pillar, delivering a good stomp to our chest before letting us fall.

With almost amusement, he finished his sentence, "meat bags."

We coughed, trying to steady ourselves on the ground and make sure we weren't damaged. We were healing and we blocked out the pain, but from the dried blood on our lip, we'd say we took about as much damage as we dealt. If not more.

'My back hurts...'

'He did hit the spine.'

'We're going to feel this in the morning, aren't we?'

'Tomorrow's Monday.'

'Is that your way of telling me I'm going to feel this in the morning? Cold, Failsafe, cold.' Despite (Y/n)'s words, a giggle burst from our mouth.

The ground tore apart and almost swallowed Artemis and Aqualad whole, but the blonde archer was able to save herself and the Atlantean. Robin launched an attack with a batarang, but the explosion did little to damage the android who grabbed it and held it away from its head.

"Tornado's memory files and my superior processing speed allow me to anticipate your every move." The android gloated, almost bored.

"Emoks emoceb a dlofdnilb!" Zatanna's voice rang out across the battlefield as a blindfold came over Red Volcano's eyes.

"Tornado never knew my moves." Zatanna pointed out smugly, putting a hand on her hip and leaning on her leg.

"And I bet you've got some good ones," Robin responded, dopey.

'Ew.' (Y/n) gawked at them. 'I'm starting to think Robin is thinking of Zatanna as more than a friend.'

"Whoa, sorry. That may have come off a little too Wally."

"Heh, I don't mind." She chuckled at the blatant attempt at courting.

'Keep it in your pants, Rob!' (Y/n) chimed in happily to the telepathy link. Physically, we could see the flinching of our teammates and the disgust rolled off in waves. Robin's embarrassment was prominent as well.

He tried to offer a reply, but kept stumbling over his words and fumbling with them, eventually giving up. He shot us a heated glare, however. He and (Y/n) were going to talk about this later.

Red Volcano ripped off the blindfold and shot out lasers from his eyes, system activating the machines T.O. Morrow had placed around the volcano and setting off the chain reaction needed to awaken the molten rock.

Lava poured down from the volcano as the battlefield began to heat up and burn. Our mouth went dry and our eyes differed from the fight multiple times to keep track of the hot rock.

This was ridiculous. It wouldn't hurt us. We would protect ourselves.

Still, the searing atmosphere had us smoothing down our leg in midair, trying to quell the tingling, almost painful, sensation of our nerves. In our distraction, we just barely dodged a boulder headed for us.

Kid Flash unsuccessfully tried to deal some damage, skidding across the field. Dangerously close to the lava for someone without protection.

'He's activating a stage two eruption. It gets to stage three, kiss the hemisphere goodbye.'

'Hit him from all sides.' Aqualad ordered, jumping up to hit Red Volcano with his water bearers. He was sent back, as well as Superboy. Miss Martian managed to hold him long enough for us to get it together and deal a crushing blow to the android's chest, but when a spurt of hot air came from deep beneath the ground, it shocked Miss Martian and we were punted away from the android. Thankfully sent away from the lava.

"M'gann!" Superboy raced towards his comrade only for the android to jump down and swat him away, picking up the defenseless martian by her cape.

"Ekoms dna srorrim... Etaerc Dik Hsalf snoisulli!" Zatanna cast a spell that turned the smoke into several different versions of Kid Flash. She smiled as it worked, the Kid Flashes charging toward our opponent.

"I, uh, use scaled-down version when I wanna sneak out of the house!" As she admitted that, Red Volcano targeted the Flash clones with rocks to destroy them, giving the real one just enough cover to save Miss Martian. As soon as they were out of harm's way, a torrent of water crashed into the fourth red android and shoved him into the lava.

"Nice hit!" Robin exclaimed, looking back at Aqualad.

"The hit was not mine. Look!" Aqualad pointed up to the remaining three Reds. Tornado, Torpedo, and Inferno. Each flying down using their respective power. Red Volcano got back up, but the overwhelming force Torpedo applied knocked Volcano back down. Inferno flew above, using fire to pelt the youngest android and keep him contained, eventually the two who'd attacked us originally forced Volcano into the lava with some struggle.

"Sister! Brothers! Stop!"

Lastly, Tornado flew down, sacrificing his legs to submerge the threat. Ironically ending Red Volcano in his namesake.

"Father would be so disappointed." The three Reds died. But we managed to save Red Tornado by lifting him out of the lava before he, too, disappeared back into the earth.

'Well, I guess our chances of having an R2-D2 or C-3PO just died.'

We set him down gently on the ground. The android just barely managed to brace himself on his elbows.

"Listen," Wally started, turning to the group now that we'd all congregated around Red Tornado. We tried to place a hand on the androi's shoulder, but it was still too hot to share contact.

"We're on the verge of a stage three supervolcano eruption. There's no turning back from that. We need to vent pressure. Fast, but the ash cloud will bring on worldwide nuclear winter unless you divert it!" He looked toward us and Red.

We could only meet Kid Flash's eye for a moment. We knew what he was asking.

And we can't deliver.

'...What?' (Y/n) asked, less of a question and more threateningly.

'We can't. We've done too much already.'

'You haven't done jack-shit!'

'The state of this dimension, the timeline, is at risk!'

'You being comfortable with your memory, that you don't even have anymore, is at risk. Failsafe, fucking, it's now or never. Do you want to create that future or not?! Because if you and Red don't do this there will be no special hero, no future, no nothing!'

We clenched our fists and closed our eyes, teeth-gritting against teeth. (Y/n)'s words were true. (Y/n)'s words are the ones we should listen to.

But we can't.

'No...' (Y/n) corrected me, 'you won't.'

"Triangulate around the pressure locus." Kid Flash commanded, voice raising so everyone could hear it over the rising eruption boiling to the surface.

"Right." Robin used his holopad, volcano schematics popped up and big red dots were pinpointed on the map with a quick scan. He pointed to them as he told Artemis where to shoot, "there, there, and there."

Artemis hit them all with one arrow, as it split apart and became three tiny missiles. Smoke billowed from the cracks in the volcano. The lava bubbled around us.

The smoke cloud was much bigger than the volcano, covering the whole park's sky as far as we could see. Tornado flew up, creating a funnel even though half his system must be trashed. His legs completely gone. Still, the hero persisted and the smoke was guided past the hemisphere and toward the stars.

"Why aren't you helping him?" Superboy asked, not taking his eyes off the scene. We couldn't take our eyes off it either, but we knew the question was directed at us.

"Because I trust Tornado."

'Liar.'

It wasn't a lie. We trusted Tornado more than we trusted most in the League. But it wasn't the whole truth we told, and that's what (Y/n) meant.

The volcano, stripped of all its heat, calmed down and the lava stilled, becoming dormant again.

With no legs, Tornado couldn't properly land on the ground. They didn't just allow him to walk, they were essentially his landing gear. So as he was coming back down from the skies we had to jump into the air and slowly lower him down as the rest of the Team celebrated the victory and prevention of world destruction.

We smiled as we carefully placed our comrade back down on the ground. We had our den mother back, and the future was safe.

Even as upset as (Y/n) was about our refusal to lend a hand that frankly wasn't needed, felt the happiness of the day wash over us. We did it. Safe again.

______________

    Inside T.O. Morrow's lab, the Team let the two knowledgeable in robotics, Robin and Kid Flash, tinker with Red Tornado until the android could once again talk. The bulking mass of metal that made up our den mother was laid on the table with his arms at his side and what was left of his legs straight.

"There. That should do it." Robin said as we heard the face plate lock back into place. We looked around the lab as they talked, taking a look around the place. It was massive and had many tools and any kind of material imaginable on earth.

"Yes. I can speak again." Red Tornado's robotic voice echoed through the room. It was truly a comfort after so long.

"You were willing to sacrifice yourself to save the planet." Aqualad walked over to Red as we looked over at the other side of the laboratory and jumped. Goosebumps went up our skin and we barely held in a squeak.

'Holy fuck, that's creepy.' (Y/n) deadpanned as we stared at the robotic corpse of T.O. Morrow. We knew it was coming, but knowing about it and seeing it were two different things. He was absolutely crushed, mechanical insides everywhere while his face maintained a human look. One of his eyeballs popped out.

'That's... an uncanny valley effect if I've ever seen it.'

We hummed in agreement, bending down and picking up the missing eyeball. It was round and solid, not unlike a real eyeball save for the wires and lack of squishiness. Its irises were green.

The conversation continued, but we tuned out. Having the eyeball in our hands reminded us of something, and we focused on it. It'd been a long time since she came to mind, after all. And we'd only come such a long way because of her.

As we played with the mechanical eyeball of T.O. Morrow, Zatanna took the chance to saunter over to us.

"What're you thinking about so intensely?" She bumped shoulders with us, as if we didn't meet just today. We sighed, but told her anyway.

"This incident with T.O. Morrow and Tornado had us thinking about our own creator, is all." Blue eyes gazed at us, willing us to go on.

"You're thinking of your parents?"

"Parent, technically. But our species isn't so attached that I would consider her my mother." We shook our head and twirled the ball with the green iris between our fingers. "Just the person who created me."

Zatanna nodded, though we got the indication she didn't really understand. "Did something happen between you two? You seem troubled."

We shook our head, "I've never met her."

The confession shouldn't have sounded as weird as it did, but a weight settled on our chest that wouldn't disappear. Zatanna offered a sad smile.

"That must suck, I lost my mother when I was young, but at least I have fond memories to share with her." Her eyes glossed over for a split second, something of the woman must've come to the forefront of her mind.

Regardless of having all the answers she could ever give us; to have the luxury of interaction with our creator would be beneficial now. Some clarity in this mission passed onto us would be appreciated. It seems like everything we've done to forward it so far has been wrong.

We answered truthfully, "I do have memories with her."

"But you've never met her...?"

"That's correct."

"How do you have memories with someone you've never met?" Zatanna tilted her head, hands intertwining behind her back.

"Let me rephrase, I have her memories. So, all her memories are with me."

"Ah," She nodded, "I see."

She paused, mulling over the new information. "So then, what's the thing troubling you?"

We looked down, thumb pressing into the pupil. "You called me Niktonian. A part of the scales that make up chaos and order."

"Yeah, aren't you?"

"Of course." We looked at her, clenching the eyeball in our hand and letting a long breath of air escape our lips.

(Y/n) asked the next question differently than intended but to the same effect. "Hey, you two, I'm a little lost," our eyebrows furrowed without input and our lips curled, "what's a Niktonian?"

Zatanna's expression lifted but she answered as if this were completely ordinary. In fact, her eyes seemed to sparkle as she rattled off the information. "In the mage community, a Nikton was supposedly a sort of force, a building block of life... I don't really have a good point of comparison. It's not like an atom or gravity. But it's supposed to be this invisible force that balances right and wrong."

"Ah," came from our lips in understanding, "so like fate, or no, an explanation for the fine-tuned universe assertion?"

Zatanna's smile grew half an inch, "not exactly, but you get the point."

"Hm."

(Y/n) still wasn't done, and we crossed our arms as the conversation continued, "you called that a Nikton, but my question was about Niktonians."

"Right, getting to that," Zatanna answered, unable to snap her fingers due to the gloves on her hands. "These were unproven entities until recently. No one could actually find evidence that Niktons existed, that is, until one Kent Nelson, or Doctor Fate. He proved the existence of Niktons was not, in fact, building blocks, but an entire species. So in honor of this, we named the species Niktonian's after the original Nikton assumption."

"Huh, a lot more scientific than I was expecting from the magic community."

"Magic is a science and an art. Of course, we have our own logic to follow."

"True."

Zatanna chuckled, looking over to where the group was still preoccupied with Red Tornado. "To be honest, I never thought I'd get to meet one in my lifetime. Well, no one really thinks they're going to meet a recently proven universal entity before fifteen, but... Still. Kent Nelson was a legend for finally proving you existed, and now you're just, here. In a human body no less. It's incredible."

"Truth be told, we're not all that great." We cupped our palms as we stared down at the eye. It was a tiny, inconsequential piece of a larger whole. Yet its importance spread throughout the body it inhabited. Even unnaturally, it was still incredible what one tiny piece of the puzzle could do.

"We're not some universal entity, merely a misguided species trying their best." A dark chuckle came from our lips. "In that way, I suppose we're similar to other species, humans included."

In a way, the Lords of Order were more put together than we were. And yet the two sides allowed us to stand judge. Be judge, jury, and executioner.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Well, if everything were going correctly, I wouldn't exist, would I?"

A wave of silence overtook us and the conversation over on the other side of the room seemed to come to a lull too, with Superboy finishing it with a statement of his own. Echoing Red Volcano's earlier words.

"See? Practically a meat bag already."

"Which reminds me..." Red Tornado talked aloud and we all shared the silent message that it was time to load into the bioship and go home.

We used telekinesis to help Red Tornado outside, still without his legs as the others piled into the bioship once it settled down in a safe space between the molten rocks.

'Oh my god, you know what I just thought of? I hope our phone's okay! You put it in my pocket and then we got pummeled!'

"Are you not headed into the bioship as well?" Red's robotic voice asked us. We looked up to him, having kept him at the height we were most familiar with him being.

"I was going to ask if it's okay for me to join you flying home."

"I am not heading back to the cave immediately. There's somewhere else I'd like to be." As he talked we used the molten rock around us to construct Red Tornado new legs, turning the burnt ground into solid steel.

"I still want to go with you."

"You have changed since I have left the Cave." A wind current appeared below Tornado and boosted him up, he didn't deny us coming with him so we launched into the air with him. Taking his lack of response as an invitation.

We hummed, playing with the eyeball shoved into our pocket. "I don't see it, but I suppose. But your not without your share of changes either, Tornado."

"Really? I don't notice any difference."

"Then we'll have to see with time, it seems."

Though it was us who said it, we knew we were bound by the ticking clock. Every moment that passes was just another wasted in pursuit of a future we'd never get to see. All we could do was rely on the universe to guide us correctly.

And hope the scales judged fairly.