Prologue  ⚔️
Always An Angel, Never a God

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METROPOLIS, June 22nd

Ever since her birth, Nirvana had been nothing short of a spectacle──one that her parents were never necessarily fond of with the unwanted expectations of society seemingly weighing on her shoulders. Despite this, her parents were essentially spectacles; her father reigning Gotham's cowl while her mother donned the golden tiara that reminded her of her royal status.

And as expected, she too became a spectacle. In her youth, Nirvana followed the footsteps of those around her, almost like she'd succumb to peer pressure as she disappointed her mother by becoming the next avian-named hero after her adopted brother. Sparrow was her name. She never was a leader, more so a follower as she joined a team, with her brother's insistence while her mother disagreed, where she aimed to gain closeness with her mother but never received the closeness she desired. Then, it began to cause a rift between her and her father, but she felt like it was worth it. It was worth all the troubles and doubts within her family.

She knows this, hanging up her copy of the team's first group photo before Roy joined the Justice League five years ago. After hanging it up, she looks over to her right, spotting a filled box of memorabilia as she slowly personalizes her new apartment in Metropolis.

Given the option between living in Washington or Gotham City, she picks the safer option: Metropolis. Although Dick had offered to open up a space in his apartment in Blüdhaven for her, she declined.

"Are you sure that's it?" Dick huffed, bending down as he put down a box filled with her stuff. "I think so? I managed to fit everything into our cars, but we could zeta-tube back to see if we missed anything?" Nirvana murmured, looking back at him before approaching him to open the box and view its contents. "I'm still wondering why you moved the boxes into the cave only for us to move you out the next day." A voice grumbled from outside, a dark-haired boy walked into the empty apartment as he carried a box.

And to her surprise, Conner was the one helping them out——Dick always set her up for failure——since he was the only one without a designated mission for the week, especially since Dick made that happen too, but he helped in making the moving process smoother. "Yeah, ever heard of U-Haul trucks?" Dick jokingly asked while Conner questioned about what a U-Haul was. This wasn't their first moving gig, she remembered the photos Dick sent of Wally and Artemis moving into their university dorms with the help of the Team. However, moving into an off-campus place together did not work in their favour after breaking it off during midterm season in their freshman year. Despite this, Conner didn't seem to mind helping an old friend, telling her hours before that he wanted a change of scenery.

For a while, the three of them worked in silence, except for the times when Nirvana asked for suggestions on where to place certain items around her place. Slowly, her place wasn't only furnished but decorated too, until Conner heard a stomach grumble.

"Nirvana." He called out, the auburn-haired looking at him with a sheepish smile as she had a hand over her stomach. "You wouldn't mind buying food for us, right?"

As expected, Dick looked at Conner with a pleading smile before digging through his pockets for cash to hand him. "Fine," he grumbled, taking the money and shoving it into his jeans pockets, leaving the apartment with the keys in his hand.

Now, Nirvana and Dick haven't been alone in the same room since her mother's punishment a few years ago. Since her return, she's been more cautious of her brother's influence, both as a hero and a younger brother.

She sits across Dick, both sitting on the wooden floor as she sighed, looking at him before letting out a small sigh. "It's been ages," she tells him as he nods, "I kinda miss having you as my partner-in-crime, not Bruce." He says, murmuring the end before the two burst into laughter. "I miss the hero life too, I just..." she paused, sighing, "I don't think I can return and continue fighting crime, not after my mom's punishment." She mumbled, he understood what she meant. The two couldn't risk facing Diana Prince's wrath again, even at the expense of getting Bruce angry over childish conversations that they've continuously fought in private and in the Watchtower meeting room.

"Well..."

"Well?"

"I think there's a way you could return to being a hero and feeling whelmed with your life choices," he jokingly tells her while she shakes her head, "You're asking me to rejoin the Team, I know it—it's that weird, determined expression you always put and get us in danger." She pointed out, sticking a finger in his face as defensively he leaned back. "Careful, Wonder Woman Jr. you might fling me across the apartment," he teased while she rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, I wanted to ask if you'd want to join the Team—" he started, seeing her open her mouth and stopping her in her tracks, "As a mentor. Like what Black Canary was to us."

Nirvana raises a brow in confusion, "Isn't that your job?"

"Yeah, but I'd like to offer it to my sister after returning from your perilous journey of training with the toughest warrior there is!" He dramatically enunciated as she got up with a frustrated sigh. "You've always been a better fighter than me, Dick. Don't toss that aside and hand it over to me instead," she mumbled with a sigh, her arms crossed over her chest as it covered the Wayne Enterprises branding on it. Her blue-eyed brother didn't seem fond of her response, wanting her to rejoin the Team no matter the circumstance.

Dick looks at the floor, "I mean, we've got Tim on the Team now and it would be nice to train his current and future teammates to be on the same level for hand-to-hand combat." He murmured, explaining his reasoning. "And with Wonder Woman's approval, we might get another Wonder Girl on the Team," he off-handedly mentions, the room falling into silence as she turns around, her back facing Dick. He wasn't sure if he struck a nerve, or if he wasn't supposed to mention it in the first place, after all, Nirvana was never happy whenever her mother revealed her favoured sidekick to the Team as it sent the half-Amazon to the gyms and let her leave with a broken punching bag with sand pouring out.

It's safe to say Nirvana has intense jealousy issues when it comes to her mother. So, hearing of another Wonder Girl set her off the edge.

"I'll think about it," Nirvana murmurs, her voice loud for Dick to understand that she wasn't mumbling. Just before he could answer, the two of them could hear the keys jangle through the lock, the door creaking open at the sight of Conner with two boxes of pizza. He places the change on the countertop beside the boxes of pizza as she unstacks them, opening one pizza box and the other.

"I, uh, heard the entire conversation, but, are you rejoining the Team?" Conner wondered aloud, grabbing himself a slice of pizza as her mouth went dry, Dick joining the two at the countertop as he got himself a slice of pizza. "I'm trying to convince her," Dick spoke in between munching, "You know, it was Wonder Woman that recommended you to be the Team's trainer, with Canary's suggestion," Conner tells her, eating the crust as Nirvana stared at him as if he lied in front of her face.

"I'm not lying."

She eyes him wearily, unsure to believe him as she takes a bite out of her pizza. "My mother would never—"

"But she did." Conner cuts her off, "They spoke of you during a mission debriefing at the Watchtower, Dick was looking for someone else to take up the responsibility and they recommended you." He tells her as she bit the inside of her cheek, pondering the idea that her mother was behind it.

"I'll think about it."

"Does your father know you're back?" The Half-Krypton asked, pulling another slice of pizza as Nirvana swallowed the chunks of pizza she chewed. "Yeah, I asked if he could make a suit for me if I ever went back to being a hero at least—not that I planned to yet." She answered with a shrug, knowing what Dick would say, she knew he'd try to persuade her. "Perfect timing then, you'd make a great teacher."

"Dick." She called out as he shrugged. "C'mon, I miss fighting by your side," he tells her, while she finishes her slice of pizza. Nirvana makes her way to the kitchen sink, turning the faucet on and washing her hands.

"Just make sure Sparrow's been updated to Hestia, will you?" She requested, turning back to them with a smile on her face as she pulled out some tissue and wiped her hands dry.

Her brother smiled at her while Conner was chewing on another slice of pizza, "Welcome back to the Team, Hestia."