With one hand lamely scrolling through her phone and the other stirring melted frozen yogurt, Mara tells Dick about her adventure on Themyscira yesterday, leaving out a couple of details for obvious reasons. Dick doesn't seem to notice, not like usual. He's slumped back in his seat with a thoughtful look.

Mara doesn't have to bother to ask. She already knows why.

Ever since she told him about Kace, he's been up in arms about the whole thing. He's basically been rambling about the teen for the past week. Mara's surprised that the boy wonder even let her get a word in―

"How long did you say Ella's known him?"

"Dick!" Mara groans, covering her face with her hands. "Not this again."

"There's something off about him!" Dick says, throwing his hands outward.

"You've never even met him."

"I haven't." Dick smirks. He leans closer. "But Robin has."

Mara's mouth drops open. At first the jealousy was cute, but now it's just plain annoying, especially over someone she barely acknowledges even when they do hang out.

"Oh my actual―"

"Get this! He has a piece of paper in his wallet with your phone number on it!"

"Woah, no way!" Mara mockinly smacks her hands on her cheeks. Dick is very obviously unamused at her sarcasm. "He has my phone number and I have his, that's how you text someone, genius. You're the one who gave me the phone, remember?"

"But―"

"You're reaching."

Defeated, Dick plops back down in his seat. "I guess it was your handwriting."

An alert on Mara's phone chimes at the wrong moment. Speaking of the devil, Kace starts spamming Mara's text messages. The demigoddess chuckles quietly and rolls her eyes at another one of the boy's attempts at flirting.

"Who is it?" Dick asks, trying to act like he doesn't care but his eyes dart every-which-way.

"You won't like the answer."

Dick's eyes turn into a glare that could rival the Bat. "Lemme guess; Kace?"

"I warned you."

"No, it's fine," Dick mutters. "That's . . . cool."

"Wow, so stupid," Mara chuckles, her thumbs working overtime against the phone screen as she responds.

"What'd he say?"

"Oh nothing, just random nonsense."

"Doesn't seem like 'nothing' to me . . ."

Mara's no longer tuned into the conversation. She laughs at her phone before randomly remembering that Dick had said something. "Huh?"

Dick frowns so heavily that it droops down to the floor. "I better get going or I'm gonna be late to school."

Mara doesn't register his words until he stands up, swiftly sliding out of the booth. "Wait, Dick―"

The boy wonder doesn't look at Mara as he dumps his frozen yogurt in the trash and walks out, pulling his hoodie over his face.

Mara watches him through the foggy glass. He crosses the street and disappears around the corner, never once looking back. She debates chasing after him but doesn't know if she'd be able to catch up in enough time. Unless she flies through the streets at full speed, but she doubts Batman would be too happy about her doing that in his streets.

"Heya, sugar plum!" Out of the blue, Kace steals Dick's seat, grabbing the cherry from Mara's froyo and loudly snacking on it. He juts his thumb backwards. "Who was that?"

Mara frowns. "My friend, Dick."

Kace raises an eyebrow, freely lounging back with his shoes on the table like he owns the place. "Grayson?"

Immediately, Mara can sense a tone of judgement in Kace's question. She crosses her arms. "Yeah, why?"

"Ha, nothing," Kace snorts, "just didn't know a beautiful girl like you would associate yourself with a loser like him."

"He's not a loser."

"Pffft! I mean, come on," Kace snorts, "he's Bruce Wayne's ward. Y'know the billionaire who basically owns half of this city?"

"So? Bruce Wayne contributes millions."

"Okay, sure, but that just means Grayson gets everything handed to him."

Mara stirs her froyo, avoiding eye contact so she doesn't kick Kace's teeth in. Ella would definitely not be too happy about that.

Dick risks his life every day to save ungrateful idiots like Kace. Mara wants nothing more to shove that in his face, but she knows that it's not her secret to tell. So she sits back with an angry expression, glaring holes in Kace. He doesn't seem to notice as he grabs the raven-haired girl's froyo and starts to munch on it, only making her more annoyed.

"He's not like us," Kace continues. "Not like you and me."

"You don't even know anything about me," Mara sneers, more than ready to dial up Ella to come and collect her boytoy.

Kace winks. "No, but I'd like to."

Still unimpressed, Mara crosses her arms. "Well first of all, you're not gonna get on my good side by insulting my friends," she snaps, making the boy's face pinken. "And secondly, this playboy ego is really getting on my nerves."

"Not enough to make you leave."

"Don't test me."

Finally, the flirtatious brunet extends his hands in surrender. "Sorry, sorry, I guess I came off a little too strong."

Mara rolls her eyes. "You always do."

"Yeeeeah, but that's what the ladies love about me."

"Highly debatable."

"Okay, okay," Kace chuckles, finally relaxing back. His voice tones down a little, sounding a little more natural. "From here on out, I will be my true and pure self. No more flirting . . . unless―"

"Kace!"

"Sorry, only joking!"

.

.

.

Surprisingly, Kace isn't as annoying as he appears. It came as a shocker when Mara could actually let her guard down, not having to prepare for his irritation every second. She'd planned on going back to the Cave, but Kace followed her down the street and she didn't oblige to the company, especially since all of her teammates are at school.

They'd wandered a few places around town, but the highlight was going to the mall and riding one of those little cars that's definitely for kids. After attempting to run someone over for the tenth time, they were kicked out.

It's finally night when the two aimlessly wander through the back alleys. It was Kace's suggestion to avoid the streets. Mara guesses it's because he hopes they get mugged and he'll get to see if she really has powers or not.

"But how did you get here so fast―to Gotham―if you can't fly?" Kace asks, skipping backwards while doing crazy hand gestures.

"Ever heard of buses?" Mara asks, walking past him with a smug grin.

His shoulders slump. "But . . . why would you come all the way here? Don't you live in D.C.? And you were here again during Halloween!"

"Some of my friends live here."

"But . . . you . . . your eyes are still red!"

"Just genetics."

As Kace is in shambles, Mara refrains from laughter. At this point, she's only denying it to mess with him.

A chill runs down Mara's spine and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She notices something that Kace doesn't―a silhouette watching them from up above. It rebounds to the next building over and disappears.

"And noooooow you're not even listening."

"Hm?" Mara's head darts back to a very frustrated Kace. His under eyes adorn bags and his usually slicked back hair is frizzy, as if this conversation has aged him twenty years. It's starting to make Mara feel bad, especially since she doesn't know why he's taking it so seriously.

"Mara?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you looking at?" Kace jumps in her way with a confused look. He gasps. "Ooh, ooh! Do you have x-ray vision and there's a robbery happening over there?"

Mara playfull rolls her eyes. "No, a catnapping."

"Are you serio―"

Just for Kace's amusement (and partially because Mara doesn't want him to lose his sanity), her feet leave the ground. Kace's head slowly tilts upwards, jaw slack. "Woah . . ." The boy circles around her, even swiping his hand in the air to make sure she's not being held up by strings. "What else can you do?!"

Mara chuckles. "Goodnight, Kace."

Kace looks her up and down, sparkles dancing around his iris. He does a small bow. "Goodnight, m'lady."

Mara rockets off, making sure that she's fast enough for Kace to be left lost as to which direction she went.

When Mara's boots touch the rooftop, she hears a swift gust of wind behind her. She doesn't bother turning around. He'll already be gone by then.

She starts to feel bad, but then she remembers that the blowout this morning was both of their faults.

"I know you're there." Another chill. "You can hide from everyone else, but not me."

Mara whips around and comes face-to-face with Dick. Except he's Robin. He must've just gotten done with patrol. Mara can't imagine how awkward it must've been for the Boy Wonder to see Mara hanging out with Kace, who seems to be his new archnemesis for no reason. Hopefully, he watched long enough to see that Kace is a good guy who has flaws like everyone else.

"Sorry to ruin your night," Dick says, but there's no remorse in his tone. It's flatter than a prairie. "But there's something you have to see."

"Oh, uhm, sure." Dick's serious stature worries her. As she watches him tap buttons on his holocom, she expects to see video footage of a bomb destroying a city or the Joker holding Batman hostage.

But no.

It's a background check on Kace.

A disgruntled Mara strides backwards with an angry look. "I cannot believe this."

"I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but―"

"How could you stoop that low? A background check? Seriously? How can you be that untrusting of me?"

The Boy Wonder's face pales. "No, it's him I don't trust." He beckons to the screen. "I mean, look! I knew the same last name wasn't a coincidence!"

"So what? Why did you need to know so bad?" Mara scoffs. "That's such an invasion of privacy!"

"Mara! You're not listening!" The way he shouts the demigoddess's name makes her face curl up. She feels way more loyalty towards Dick than Kace, and she never thought she'd be arguing to defend the brunet, but it's about the principle of the thing. "His dad is Deathstroke!"

"Did you forget who my dad is?"

Dick pauses. Slowly, Mara watches as the whites of his mask widen. With the way he's reacting, it's as if he really is learning this news for the first time. Like he's learning the demigoddess's roots all over again. It makes the girl's cheeks heat up in shame as she nibbles on her bottom lip, tasting blood.

Luckily, a phone chime breaks up the huge disconnect. As soon as Mara picks up the phone, a loud voice is already lecturing her on the other end. "You cannot disappear like that! You―"

Diana suddenly quiets and there's a quick 'twhop' sound like she got swallowed whole by a giant. The thought is a bit humorous, but Mara's confusion weighs more. "Uhm, mother? Hello?"

Nothing.

"Are you there?"

Simultaneously, babies cry, others yell, and car horns continuously beep. Mara winces, staring down at the streets in confusion. There's a huge car build-up in the middle of a four way intersection. Everyone frantically runs around screaming, crying, and even puking.

Oddly enough, no adults are present.

The sight makes Mara wish she'd have stayed in bed this morning. She should've mourned her Amazon identity in peace, but instead she has to deal with whatever this is.