Present Day

Seeing that look on Dick's face again brought a sharp pain to my heart that made me gasp out sharply as I stared back. The expression slipped from his face and morphed into one of concern as he moved to cup my face between his hands. The feel of his skin on mine sent chills through my body but my heart and mind were too preoccupied to fully enjoy it. Too deep in the ever growing darkness to lean up and press my lips to his, the way I'd been imagining for what seemed like a lifetime.

"What is it?" Dick asked softly, eyes focused on mine. "Is it from the electricity? What hurts?"

I wanted to answer; wanted to tell him that everything hurt but not because I'd been electrocuted less than an hour ago. I wanted to tell him that it was a different pain, a worse pain that would haunt me for as long as I managed to keep living. I wanted to try and explain it to him, but I didn't want him to feel what I did.

Clearly I wasn't the only one in the universe who thought so as we were suddenly joined by others.

"Dick, we heard—Madalyn?"

Despite Dick refusing to let go, I managed to turn my head enough to see Dawn in all of her comfortable, pale white haired beauty staring at me in surprise. Beside her, a tall ebony toned woman with sleek red hair had her curious eyes on Dick.

"Hi Dawn," I replied. "Been awhile."

"Understatement," she said with a stiff laugh, looking between me and Dick. I felt a new kind of tension in his touch before his hands fell away and to his sides. He kept his eyes on me for a few seconds longer before looking over at the pair in the doorway.

"You guys are back," he said dumbly. "That's great. Um, Dawn, you already know Madalyn so...uh, Madalyn this is Kory, one of our newest Titans."

"Nice to meet you," I said neutrally, distantly assessing the scene playing out before me. Kory seemed to be doing the same as she looked between me and Dick with the same curious expression she had when she first entered the room. Dick avoided making direct eye contact with her, which told me all I needed to know and only added further to my pain.

"Likewise," Kory said with a small smile. "Were you a Titan before or...?"

I couldn't help the bitter laugh that came out of me at that. "Not in the slightest, no. I'm an old friend of Donna and Dick's. I ran into some trouble recently, as well as met Jason, and I sort of found myself back here looking for help."

"Trouble and Jason; usually synonymous," Dawn spoke up, trying to keep the mood light. I just looked at her and sighed.

"Well, if there's one thing I've learned since finding myself here, it's that old friends of one usually become friends of all," Kory said. "So, whatever you need help with, you can count me in. I can use a change in mission theme."

"Speaking of mission," Dawn said quickly, focusing solely on Dick. "We were looking for you to debrief, so..."

"Yeah, right," he nodded, throwing a glance at me. "I'm a little busy right now but—"

"No, it's fine, do what you have to," I told him. He gave me a look that said he was going to protest, but I cut him off before he could. "It's fine, Grayson. I'll be fine."

Dick looked torn and skeptical but nodded. He looked over at Kory and Dawn. "I'll meet you guys in the training room, we can talk there." They both nodded and turned to leave before he turned back to me and added. "No more videos."

"It's not like there is any—"

"No more videos, Madds," he insisted, eyes blazing into mine. "Don't rewatch that and don't watch the other one either. We've both seen enough of that for a lifetime."

I sighed and nodded. "Fine, but I'm still going to read through some of these files."

"Wouldn't expect any less," he replied, leaning over to kiss me on the head before making his exit.

A shiver went through me in reaction, my eyes closing briefly as I turned back towards the computer monitors. Alone in the room with them, it all suddenly felt overwhelming and impossible. It was like an overload in my brain; an avalanche crashing down around me and crushing me so it was hard to breathe. My hands were curled into fists as I pressed them into the table before me, forced a deep inhale and looked at the only screen that wasn't about me.

The little marker was still bouncing around the lined map, never resting anywhere long. "I can't believe you brought me here and then dipped out," I said quietly with a shake of my head and the smallest of smiles. "You're such a little shit and I'm going to kick your ass for that." I watched the dot bounce around for another minute or so before bringing my attention back to the other monitors.

I closed out the videos, their outlines still staining the inside of my eyelids, and scanned through the other files available. Most of it was report files filled with scientific notes that I couldn't bring my brain to comprehend no matter how much I focused.

One document in particular that was easy to follow was the work order directly from Lex Luthor himself. According to him, the metahuman and alien vigilantes of the world were now surfacing too frequently. While the human population still outnumbered them, their power alone was cause for alarm, should they suddenly decide to change allegiance. In preparation for that day, several classified projects would begin experimentations to develop weapons, etc. that would stand as protection for the human race.

Reading it, my brain couldn't help but scream out 'bullshit.' It didn't seem real that anyone would believe such a ridiculous and power grab explanation as that. Then I thought about what I saw in that video and the truth of it all struck me.

It wasn't necessarily that these people believed in his excuse for the work; it was the fact that he was offering an opportunity for them to do something they already wanted to do. They already didn't care about the morals, they just needed the means and opportunity.

My anger for CADMUS grew the more I thought about it until I physically felt the poison pheromones trying to escape my body. It was as if they were trying to push up and out of my pores, escape through my breath; just release in any way they could. It took everything in me to hold it back, not wanting to accidentally poison anyone else who may wander into the room unexpectedly. And then, as if realizing how badly I needed the distraction, my eyes suddenly zoomed in on the file I wanted most.

SUBJECT INFORMATION.

I brought the cursor over the folder, hovering there nervously. If it was what I thought, this file could hold all the answers to my past. All I had to do was open it. and yet, for some reason, I couldn't. It was all I ever wanted, right there in front of me, and I couldn't make myself open it.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and trying to work up the nerve. In the silent darkness of my mind, I heard a single memory echo out to me and slamming me with emotion.

Donna's voice, talking about something entirely different and yet very fitting for that moment. "I was taught that fear isn't something meant to stop you; it's meant to fuel you. Fear is acknowledgment that you are alive and have something to fight for, even if you don't know just what it is. Being fearless is a weakness. Strength is owning that fear and showing that it's made up of you, not the other way around. So what are you going to be today?"

I opened my eyes, feeling almost as if she were standing there beside me as I clicked the file open.

PROJECT NAME: PROJECT DAHLIA

SUBJECT NAME: Emersyn Yuma

DOB: August 25, 1990

PLACE OF ORIGIN: New York City

RELATIONS: Edward Yuma (FATHER-- deceased), Kendra Stark (MOTHER-- deceased), Roman Yuma (BROTHER-- alive)

SUBJECT STATUS: Family Volunteer

PROPOSED DNA SAMPLINGS: Poison Ivy, Black Canary, Unidentified Alien DNA

EXPECTED RESULTS: Plant Life Manipulation, Sonic Cry

ACTUAL RESULTS: Plant Life Manipulation (first manifested), Sonic Cry (final manifestation*)

*NOTE: SUBJECT TERMINATED PRIOR TO FURTHER RESULT/ ANALYSIS. FINAL INJECTION RESULTED IN A MASS INCREASE OF POWER AND VIOLENCE. MASS FATALITIES RESULTING IN A PAUSE FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION.

I stared at the words, letting them bounce around in my mind before they slowly settled in. There was so little there, and yet it felt like so much weighing me down inside, drowning me.

My name was Emersyn; weird to consider, but it seemed to make sense as to why Hurricane kept calling me Emmy. Both of my parents were dead but I had a brother who was alive out there somewhere, maybe even with CADMUS if the available hyperlink on his name meant anything. I was some sort of volunteer to the project, though I couldn't understand what 'Family Volunteer' meant. Did that mean we all volunteered for the experiments? Did one of us volunteer for all of us? Or did they all just "volunteer" me?

As disturbing as that last possibility was to me, it was nothing like the fact that I was injected with not only alien DNA but unidentified alien DNA. Which meant they had no idea what this alien was capable of, or where they were from. I wasn't just the splicing of metahuman genes, but actually partially alien.

I don't know what freaked me out more; the new level of unknown it added to my life, or what it would mean for any possible future I could have.