[sO1e12 , homefront]

There's a smaller space in the training area that holds the weights, weapons, dummies, etc. Fortunately, Mara can do the one thing she's good at, which is punch things. Unfortunately, her mentor is Wonder Woman.

Mara's pitted against a bunch of hologram ninjas and ordered to fight them. Sounds simple enough.

They come at her in swarms and she does the basic attacks such as blocking with her bracelets, then punching the hologram into obliteration. She flies up and grabs a hooded bandit with her lasso. Flinging him around, she releases him and he goes catapulting into a group of ninjas like dominoes toppling.

Even though she's aware that the hologram's are superficial, she playfully sticks her tongue out after knocking one back.

Punch after punch and kick after kick, Mara's having way too much fun that she doesn't even need to use her sword.

Fun apparently isn't allowed because when Mara turns around, she gets booted in the face mid-air. She loses her composure and crumbles down to the ground in front of a trio of ninja holograms. Before they can pounce on her, the simulation is shut down and Mara's left to mope in defeat. But looking at who took her down with one kick, Mara scowls.

"You didn't warn me!" she shouts at her mother but ultimately takes a deep breath to control herself because accidentally giving Wonder Woman a blood clot with her mind would not be beneficial for anyone. Well, maybe for Mara because she'd finally get to see her mother hurt.

No, Mara scolds herself. Don't think like that.

"Are there any warnings on the battlefield?" Wonder Woman sasses, placing her hands on her hips in that infamous pose that only makes Mara want to punch her in the gut.

"No, but―"

"Then what makes you think that there are any here?" Her voice is so sharp that Mara feels like curling up in a ball and dying. Instead, she takes the older Amazon's words to heart, realizing that aside from their mother-daughter discord, Diana has much more experience.

"Sorry," Mara grumbles. "I'll try harder next time."

"You must try your hardest every time because you never know when the opportunity will be taken away." Diana's hard stare forces her daughter to look anywhere but at her. Mara catches sight of the Team all staring at her from behind the glass with unreadable expressions. It's disappointment, she thinks. I know it is.

And she understands and can't blame them. How can she be a good addition to the Team if she's going to be defective in the battlefield?

Diana watches Mara's somber expression. She inhales sharply, trying to ignore the moths rolling around in her stomach. "Follow me. Training is not yet over."

.

.

.

"Why are your defenses down?"

Diana's lasso wraps around Mara's ankle and she pulls her down. The apprentice's head harshly slaps against the hard floor but she rolls out of the way before her mother can elbow her in the face. Mara twirls up briskly on her knee to deflect a close-range surprise punch. The second Diana's fist collides with Mara's blade, a clap echoes throughout the room and they're pushed off their feet due to the forceful impact.

Mara manages to catch herself and land on her feet. Of course, Wonder Woman does, too. Mara expected nothing less of her.

The room is dead silent as they circle one another like two cowboys in the wild west.

Mara spots Diana reaching for her lasso and she plans her defense. It turns into an attack, instead, and when the lasso wraps around Mara, she twirls into it. Once Mara reaches close enough proximity, she attempts to get in a kick. Her efforts are wasted and Wonder Woman picks up on Mara's move before she has time to execute it. The mentor pounds Mara down to the ground and she lands on her back, defeated. The young goddess tries not to wince, but when her mother punches, she punches hard.

"Interesting," a voice is heard somewhere from the sideline. After blinking enough, the haziness is cleared from Mara's eyes and she observes Black Canary approaching with a scrunched up face. Not in a rude manner, more of amusement. "You have both strong and weak points, but there's always room for improvement."

Mara accepts her mother's hand as she offers to help her get back to her feet. When Mara looks at Diana's face she expects to see a smile, anything but a stoic expression. Diana stares her daughter straight in the eyes and says, "You performed adequately. Training has commenced." And with that, she Zeta-Beams out of the Cave.

Mara can only blink. "Oh," is all that comes out of her mouth. She turns to Canary with a concerned expression. "Did I really do that bad?"

Black Canary shakes her head, trying not to wince at Diana's approach. "As I said, there's room for improvement," she reassures, placing a hand on Mara's shoulder and squeezing lightly. "But you have great potential. You're due to be the next Wonder Woman one day."

Upon hearing this, Mara can't stop the stupid grin from spreading on her face. She'll admit to strongly disliking her mother, but the Wonder Woman mantle is honorable and she can't wait to fill such big shoes when the time comes. "You think?" Mara asks, giddy like a child in the toy aisle.

Black Canary smiles. "Yes, I truly do."

.

.

.

Mara's come to a final conclusion that the day does, in fact, pass by slower when she has nothing to do. Batgirl is on patrol. Robin and Artemis are at school while Aqualad is directing Superboy, Green Lantern, Kid Flash, and Miss Martian on a covert mission. They left hours ago, so Mara was expecting them to come back soon. But she eventually got tired of waiting and hid away in her room.

Wonder Woman and Batman came by for a small visit. Very little love was shared between Mara and Wonder Woman, only the occasional glare or eye roll before the two left for a mission, leaving Mara alone in the Cave. The same cave that she's been in so much that she practically knows the place like the back of her hand.

Mara lamely leans against the kitchen counter waiting for her food to finish up in the microwave. She watches intently in order to prevent it from burning like the last time she attempted to use the mini oven.

Mara feels an abnormal chill dance down her spine and she shivers. Who turned up the AC? Her eyes glance around in paranoia before bouncing back to the microwave. This time, she sees a bulk figure in the reflection pass by from somewhere behind her.

Fear spirals in the teen's heart and she spins around on her heel.

Nothing's there. But she could've sworn she saw . . .

The little god shakes it off.

As Mara turns back to her food being microwaved, she sees that it somehow managed to catch itself on fire and electric currents start riveting from it in waves. Mara frowns and goes to open the microwave. She specifically set it to two minutes, how could it possibly be on fire?

Her hand is on the handle but she freezes, caught up in the electric shocks. She's not sure why, but the force that hurts the most is right in front of her, yet all she can do is stare. As the spark grows closer, her eyes widen, but she can't seem to pull away.

"What a terrific way to die." Mara recognizes the voice. It's Ares. Normally, his voice is in her head, but this time, it seems to be bouncing around the walls. The electricity spreads to Mara's hand, up to her arm and eventually reaches her face. "And down another falls to the great Ares . . ."

As it fries Mara's body, she doesn't cry out in pain nor move an inch. She feels nothing. If anything, it's rather peaceful . . .

"HELLO! EARTH TO LITTLE GOD!"

Mara gasps loudly as if she's a fish above water. Her eyes dart around and she sees that she's in the same spot by the microwave.

"Whoo! Thought I lost you for a second there!" Bennie wipes invisible sweat from her forehead. "While you were busy malfunctioning, the Wallman and I ate your popcorn and sandwich."

Mara grimaces. Was she imagining things earlier? The insecurity takes over and she wraps her arms around her in a protective manner. "It's fine," she mumbles. "I wasn't hungry anyway, just bored."

Bennie shrugs, deciding it would be in her best interest not to pry. "If you say so."

The two go check on the others to see Wally leaning down trying to fix Conner's bike. They go stand next to them. Well, more like Mara stands back and observes Wally as he does all of the work. Bennie gets somewhat impatient with Wally fidgeting between the bike and eating his sandwich, but she only lets her eye twitch and doesn't go as far as shoving Wally out of the way and repairing the bike herself.

Meanwhile, Mara returns to the earlier scene. She keeps replaying it over and over in her head. She must've imagined the whole thing. But if she was in control of her thoughts, then why would she choose to be electrocuted to death?

M'gann looks at Mara. "You're awfully quiet. Is there something on your mind?"

Ella side glances at the demigoddess.

Mara's eyes snap to M'gann's. She wasn't expecting such a question. "Oh, uhm . . ."

"Who cares?" Conner remarks. "It's better when she finally shuts up."

Mara frowns and when Conner sees her sad expression, he oddly enough also frowns. Okay, now he's just mocking me, Mara thinks with an eye roll.

Bennie nudges Mara's upper arm with her elbow. There's a small smile on her face. "So, it seems you ain't busy, cowgirl," she says in an over-exaggerated country accent while tipping a fake hat. "Do you mind hanging out at my barn? I got something mighty fine to show you!"

Mara grins at the idea. "Sure, why not."

As the two hurry off to the Zeta, Ella jumps in front of them. Her eyes land upon Mara. "Hey, can we, uhm . . . talk?"

Right. About their argument a couple nights ago.

Mara knows that she'll eventually have to forgive Ella but for right now, she doesn't want to think about it.

"Maybe later?" Mara's already headed the opposite direction.

Sadly, Ella watches her go.

.

.

.

Bennie carried the cowgirl accent the whole way to her house which amused Mara at first, but then she had to stop herself from clawing out her own ears or even ripping off Bennie's mouth. She eventually clamped a hand around the talkative girl's mouth, causing her to get the idea and talk normally again.

"Okay, so get this," Bennie says, once again leading Mara through the jam-packed garage. Bennie pulls a box off of the shelf and nearly falls to the ground because of the shifted weight. She channels a bit of energy from her lantern ring to give her enough strength to drop the box on the table.

Mara peeks over the Lantern's shoulder as she digs through the box, throwing heavy metal objects to the side every now and then. "Ah-hah!" she finally shouts victoriously. She sets a pair of goggles in Mara's hands with a proud smile. Mara turns them in her hands, closely observing the red lens and black rim. They look almost exactly like her old ones, almost like an exact replica.

"Are we . . . going swimming?" she asks.

Bennie still smiles, even at the little god's cluelessness. "They're meant to replace your old ones!" she beams. "Do you like them?"

"There's no strap."

Bennie nearly rolls her eyes and takes the goggles from Mara. She clicks a button on the side. They make a small suction cup pulling noise and when Bennie nears them towards Mara's face, they efficiently jump onto her eyes.

Mara tilts her head to the side, jumps up and down, and even flies and shakes herself upside down, yet no matter what, the goggles won't budge. "Woah," she gasps. "That's so cool."

Bennie presses the button again and the goggles slip from Mara's face. Like a pro, Bennie catches them before they fall to the ground and grins warmly at her creation. "I mean, it's only a prototype, but I just got the idea and thought, 'hey, why not?', so, why not?" She gives them back to Mara. "Here, I made them for you as a sort of symbol of our friendship. I appreciate you."

Mara chuckles as Bennie shyly tucks her hands behind her back. "Thanks," she says, genuinely. "I appreciate it and I appreciate you."

.

.

.

The minute Mara enters the Cave, she's separated from Bennie by a flaming fireball. Mara barely manages to roll out of the way in enough time. In the corner of her eye, she sees Bennie switch to her Green Lantern suit, a mean look implementing her emerald eyes.

Smoke fills the atmosphere and fogs the outlook of the Cave. Bennie scoots back over to Mara while throwing green energy discs in hopes of hitting something. Anything.

They don't even know who the enemy is. For all Mara knows, her father could be the invader and perhaps he brought soldiers with him. Deimos has always had a strong affiliation with arson.

The Lantern suddenly stops and holds her hand to her earpiece. "Yes! Green Lantern here." She glances at the girl next to her. "Negative, I only have Wonder Girl with me."

Mara gives her an annoyed look. "Who is it?"

"Robin," she says before constructing a giant fan to blow away the smoke. "Says to meet us in the― argh!" Bennie stops mid-sentence when she's thrust harshly to the side by a tunnel of water. It takes Mara by surprise and no matter how much she tries to avoid it, she's also swallowed up by a wave.

It's all a big blur as Green Lantern and Wonder Girl are surrounded in water and slithered over to another location. Mara's losing breath fast and when she peeks her eyes open, Bennie's staring at her with narrowed eyes. She's no longer surrounded in a green aura and Mara realizes it's because her ring has disappeared from her finger.

They're both immobile due to the water gripping onto them with all its strength. It feels like an inescapable black hole tugging them in.

The enemy is still unknown, all that's known is that they want a taste of the young hero's blood. Mara tries to thrash her legs or flail her arms, but nothing works. Suddenly, she spots Bennie's leg slowly moving her way. Even though she doesn't have the ring, she still has strong willpower.

If she wants to fight against the waves, she will. She'll get loose and save the others.

What she chooses to do with her willpower confuses Mara. She kicks the demigoddess in the side and she goes flying out of the strong liquid.

Mara lands with a painful thud and coughs out the water from her lungs. Her eyes suddenly widen. "Wait, Bennie!" She rolls over on her side and weakly reaches her hand up to Bennie's now unconscious figure that's still being carried away by the wave. Mara's finally able to get a clear enough view of the enemy and to her surprise, it's a masculine robot that somewhat resembles Red Tornado.

The robot catches sight of Mara's withering figure on the ground. He locks onto her as his target and darts through the air in her direction. Mara readies her fist when a flame of fire is flying her way. Out of panic, she darts to the nearest air vent before any harm can be done.

Dust floods the young warrior's lungs and she coughs heavily, her shoulders rocking slightly before she takes a deep breath and slumps against the vent wall.

She's all alone in this now. It's an internal battle because she's always been guided, but now that she's alone, a solid plan won't stick in her mind. She could try to fight on her own, but without any weapons and her close-range combat against an element wielder won't be good enough. Manipulating the enemy's blood is definitely off the table since the last time Mara checked, robots don't have anything coursing through their veins except for circuits and switches.

She could try to find the training room where she (stupidly) left her weapons, but doesn't even know where to start.

She remembers Bennie mentioning earlier that Robin is still standing. Although she's not very buddy-buddy with her grandpa, she prays to Zeus that Robin is still alive. She revises a plan to find him first. She zigzags her way through tunnels and wonders if she's leading herself towards more danger. The demigod may know the Cave like the back of her hand, but the tunnel system is a whole nother level of a maze.

An idea hits Mara as she suddenly remembers her new goggles with heat sensors. She clips them to her eyes just like Bennie previously instructed but the second they clip on, they twitch and begin short-circuiting. Mara frowns. Not waterproof.

Mara guides herself around the next corner but skids dead in her tracks at who she sees. She lets out a thankful sigh of relief, catching their attention. "Oh, thank Zeus you two aren't dead," Mara says, scooting closer to Robin and Artemis.

"Thank God you're alive!" Artemis beams. "We could really use someone with superpowers right now!"

"No, we could use someone with a brain," Mara corrects, looking at the Boy Wonder. "What's the plan?"

"Working on it," he mumbles.

Mara nervously fiddles her fingers together. "Okay, okay," she breathes out, trying to reassure herself. She wishes she could remain as calm as Robin. Although she's been engaged in action since she was born, she's never had to think about it. All she knows is how to fight her way out, broken bones and bloodied fists. "I can distract them while you―"

"No!" Robin snaps.

Taken aback, Mara's lips press into a thin line. "Well we need to think of something."

"I will. No one's sacrificing themselves," Robin says, his voice significantly softer than before. He whips out his hologram computer and rapidly types away. "Just give me a sec to find the fastest route to the hangar and . . ." His eyes narrow as he zooms in on the map. "Follow me."

As they crawl through the tunnels, Mara realizes that Robin is right. A headstrong approach won't work. Bennie surrendered herself to save Mara and she won't let that act go in vain.

Quietly, Robin removes a duct vent. The three quietly hop down into the library. Robin eyes all of the shelves. "There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases."

Artemis catapults over the stairs. "Seriously? Cliché much?"

"Ooh, ooh! Wally showed me a movie like that!" Mara excitedly beams. "Television is strange but definitely interesting."

Robin smirks at her. "You think that's cool? You should see the Batcave."

Mara's nose upturns. "Been there, done that. Smells too much like cologne. Who knew that Bats likes vanilla and citrus?"

"Only when he's trying to impress Catwoman," Robin cackles.

Intrigued, Mara raises an eyebrow.

Creak. A door opens somewhere behind in the dark hallway. Artemis darts behind a bookcase. Mara readies her fists but Robin grabs her aside. He holds a finger to his lips in a 'shush' motion, still keeping a tight grip on her arm in case she decides to go all kingdom come on the enemy.

"Artemis, Wonder Girl, Robin," emerges a robotic tone.

The archer's eyes light up. "Red Tornado!" She darts around the corner before anyone can stop her.

Mara remembers all too late the machine she viewed earlier. Luckily, Robin runs forward and pulls Artemis out of harm's way. The demigoddess bounces off her heel and kicks the Fire Android in the chest. He skids back on his feet but keeps balance.

Robin frantically scans for the correct book while Artemis hops atop a bookcase and fires an explosive arrow. Miss Water Android appears from nowhere and punches the shelf. Like dominoes, they topple forward one after the other. Boom, boom, boom!

Mara holds up the shelf closest to them so her teammates don't get squished to death. Still, the three suffer the fate of a thousand cuts as books loosely topple towards them.

Wonder Girl notices a trail of fire heading towards Robin. Quickly, she shoves the bookshelves in the other direction and rushes forward, deflecting the flames with her arms in a firm 'X' crossover. Her bracelets shield from most of the damage, but a small blaze grazes against her cheek.

She's being pulled away before she has time to process what's happening. The trio run for their lives like hot coals are beneath their feet.

Water floods the hallway and they get swept away. Mara swirls around like she's a toilet being flushed. An arm grabs her and keeps her steady. Robin pulls out a small rebreather. After taking a quick puff, he places it over Mara's mouth. It's a good thing that he's always prepared because Mara doesn't want to go out by drowning. Maybe that's why he's called Boy Wonder.

It's sudden as Mara's foot gets grabbed and she's yanked back. She looks back. The Fire Bot, and Android Ursula isn't far behind. An explosive arrow hits the droid's metallic face and he somersaults back, giving the young heroes the opportunity of escape.

Their heads bob above the water as they desperately gasp for breath. Mara searches for any sign of danger. Instead, she comes face to face with some of her other teammates―Superboy, Kid Flash, and Green Lantern. They're trapped in twisted pieces of metal. Quickly scanning them, Mara concludes that they're fine so she flies upwards, ignoring Robin's protests to come back.

Miss Martian and Aqualad are entrapped in a sweltering hot cage of fire, weakening both of their physiologies. Batgirl joins them, so badly gone that she withers on the floor, sweat pouring from her forehead and skin red from heat.

"No," Mara gasps, refraining from lurching forward. "Ella, wake up!" she demands. The brunette doesn't respond, only continues murmuring incoherent gibberish. Aqualad is the only one with his eyes still open. Mara looks to him for guidance. "What do I do?"

Weakly, the Atlantean's lips part. His eyes slowly open and close. "Ru . . . Run."

"Huh?" Mara whips around. The clear liquid fills her sight. Her face pales. "Oh."

"Not again!" Mara groans before her body is fully submerged. This time, there's no one to kick her out of the pool and she can't fight against the current because she's being tossed left and right. This seems to go on forever before Mara accidentally inhales a breath and loses consciousness as the water floods her lungs.