Star City, Oregon
"I need your help" Ashley said when Dinah opened the door of the home she shared with Oliver.
"Ash?" Dinah asked in concern, moving aside so Ashley could enter. "What happened?" Dinah asked her.
"Luthor" Ashley admitted. "I only remember hearing something about a metagene but I can't remember, and I won't ask J'onn to scramble my brain unless I have too" She told her aunt as she nervously picked at her nails.
"Like it or not, you're going to have to J'onn" Dinah sighed. "If you don't know what's going on, we can't fix it" Dinah reasoned.
"I don't want to involve the League" Ashley replied, stubborn as ever.
"Honey, I'm in the League" Dinah snorted. "And so is Oliver" Dinah nodded to her husband who had entered the room and looked like a deer in headlights when Dinah said his name.
"I didn't do it, whatever you two are talking about" Oliver said, narrowing his eyes and backing out of the room dramatically.
"So that's where I get it from" Ashley snorted.
"My point is that the League is already involved" Dinah said, sighing and shaking her head. "You're almost as paranoid as your father, Ashley. I'll give you the number for my own therapist-" Dinah began to say before Ashley interrupted her.
"I'm over people trying to figure out what's wrong inside my head, thanks" Ashley shook her head. "I'll allow you to involve J'onn if you can ensure absolute discretion" Ashley gave into her maternal figures' demands. "I don't need someone else blabbing about how fucked up I am to people who don't need to know" Ashley grumbled.
"I thought you'd agree" Dinah said, embracing her tightly. "We'll figure it all out, I'll go call J'onn, you go catch up with Oliver, I know he's missed you" Dinah said with a smile.
"Can I just go sit on the patio?" Ashley asked her quietly, wanting to be alone with her thoughts.
"Yeah, go ahead" Dinah said and patted Ashley's shoulder lovingly before walking off. Ashley sighed, making her way through the mansion and out to the large sitting area on the backside of the home to watch the ocean. Ashley took a seat and put her phone down on the table, alone with her thoughts and churning gut as she thought about everything she had went through and wondered what exactly she had done while she was inside CADMUS' walls with a feeling of disappointment of her brain letting her down. Ashley laced her hands together and sat them on her stomach as she watched the moon dance on the water in the distance.
"You okay kid?" Oliver asked, stepping outside and looking down at her with a concerned frown. "Dinah said you were going through it."
"Not at all" Ashley sighed, shaking her head and snorting in disappointment.
"You wanna talk about it?" Oliver asked her, giving her an opportunity to set a boundary with her current predicament.
"Talk about what?" Ashley asked, shaking her head. "The man who I thought I was going to marry running off again? How about me losing Gar and Connor? Or my entire team fracturing and running off to various points of the US? Or the fact I was kidnapped by CADMUS and can't remember shit from my time there. woke up covered in mud and sewage with my mother standing over me and then finding out that I'm much stronger than I used to be?" Ashley asked and shook her head. "I don't even know who I am anymore, and that's the part that sucks the most" Ashley sighed and leaned her head back. "There's also the fact that my phone is overloaded with notifications from however long I was gone and I don't care to find out what all of them are right now" Ashley snorted.
"That's rough kid" Oliver said in concern, though he had an undertone of lightheartedness that Ashley appreciated.
"This is why you're my favorite Uncle" Ashley smiled and shook her head.
"Don't let Clark hear that" Oliver smirked. "He'll beat us both up."
"I beat him once, how hard can it be to do it again?" Ashley laughed.
"You're a little shit" Oliver laughed, ruffling her hair as he sat down next to her and watched the ocean peacefully. "What's going to happen after you clean up this last mess?" Oliver asked her.
"I don't know" Ashley sighed. "Maybe I'll move here, maybe I'll stay in the Bay, maybe I'll go back to Gotham and do what I'm supposed to do, maybe I'll move to Smallville and become a hermit" Ashley snorted at the last suggestion. "God, the media would have a field day with that."
"Let 'em" Oliver shrugged. "It's your life, not theirs. You don't owe anybody anything after all that you've done" He shrugged.
"Maybe that's why you and Dinah aren't ashamed I exist" Ashley laughed.
"We're proud of you because you accomplish everything you set out to do to the best of your ability" Oliver said seriously. "You see a challenge, you tackle it. You help whoever you can help because you are a good person. You care more than anyone I have ever met, Ashley. You are a strong-willed, stubborn-ass Lance who doesn't put up with jack shit, and you want nothing more than to have a family who would give you the same love and understanding you give them. Don't let the outside world take the best things in your life away from you."
"You know, you're gonna be a good father one of these days" Ashley admitted to him.
"And here I thought I already was" Oliver laughed.
"Yeah, you've been pretty great" Ashley said, genuinely smiling for the first time in months.
"Now, I think I deserve a recap" Oliver said, smirking at her.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Ashley laughed.
"Well, for one I'm learning about things that no one bothered to tell me about" Oliver raised an eyebrow. "But Roy did mention Deathstroke a few weeks ago" Oliver mentioned.
"I guess I'll start from the top" Ashley smiled.
♠♠♠
"Ashley, Oliver" Dinah said, poking her head outside several hours later. "J'onn is here."
"Great" Ashley said, taking in a deep breath. "Dad doesn't know?" Ashley asked.
"I didn't tell him a single thing" Dinah promised.
"Great, let's get this done before I throw up" Ashley grumbled, standing up with Oliver rising behind her as he gazed down at her with concern before shifting his gaze to Dinah. "I'm not pregnant, don't give her that look" Ashley grumbled, stepping inside as Dinah laughed. Ashley followed Dinah through the house and into the formal sitting room and took in a deep breath and sat across from J'onn.
"Are you sure about this, young Wayne?" The Martian asked her.
"I can't remember anything J'onn. Of course I'm sure" Ashley assured.
"You never did like not knowing" He agreed. Ashley felt the awkwardly invasive feeling of J'onn entering her mind and beginning to probe around to find the root of her problem. Ashley felt an uncomfortable nudge and J'onn let out a hum of confusion and pressed the area in the back of her mind. Ashley let out a nervous, uncomfortable cough and took in a deep breath as her own screams filled her mind. Ashley put her hands together and squeezed them together in pain as J'onn continued to probe around her mind.
"Oh my god" Ashley whispered, shutting her eyes as J'onn finally unlocked the metaphorical door in her head and her agonizing memories came flooding back. Ashley silently screamed as she remembered the pain she had felt at the initial injection, the taunting of Mercy echoing through her mind while the Doctors and Lex attempted to decide her fate. She recalled her heart stopping, a blinding white light, and then nothing afterward. She remembered one of the scientists saying "She physically cannot withstand adding on Amazon genes, they're too unstable to match with metagenes. You would only be making very important people very mad when they found out it was us" to Lex as he stood over her mostly bare form. She remembered Lex demanding that they run tests to see what Ashley's genes would unlock. For once, it hurt Ashley to have memories that seemed to scream at her. Most of all, she remembered a secret she wanted to bury in her mind and take to her grave.
"It seems you have found yourself in a predicament, young Wayne" J'onn observed as he pulled back from her mind, gazing at her with masked sympathy at the woman.
"Please don't tell anyone what was in there" Ashley said, chewing on her lip nervously as she attempted the information that had become clear to her.
"Of course" J'onn promised. "It is not my secrets to share."
"Thank you J'onn" Ashley said, forcing herself to become contained within her own mind. "You've been so much help."
"Of course" J'onn said. "I must take my leave now, I still have much to do at the Watchtower."
"Of course, J'onn. Thank you for coming on such short notice" Dinah thanked him. Ashley sat forward and put her face in her hands, her gut churning in disgust as she thought about how she had killed one of the scientists in the room with her at CADMUS.
'Clark's gonna kill me if he finds out about everything' Ashley's stomach churned at the thought. "Have a good night, J'onn" Ashley said as her goodbye. Dinah walked J'onn out and Ashley stood up. "I need to clear my mind, I promise I'll be back later" Ashley told Oliver, grabbing her keys and rushing out to her car and narrowly avoiding her Aunt. She needed to figure herself out and make her decisions.
♠♠♠
Ashley didn't know how she wound up in the middle of a club at two-thirty in the morning but ignored her concerns and bee-lined for the available barstool. "I'll take a mojito" Ashley said as the bartender had come over.
"Coming right up" She nodded to Ashley and she turned to make Ashley's drink. Ashley's phone started ringing again, with Wally's name appearing on the caller ID. She declined the call and turned off her ringer, sighing in disappointment before the bartender handed her.
"Hi" The man next to her said, turning to face her.
"Hello?" Ashley asked in confusion, looking at him with a raised brow.
"I'm Thomas" The man said, putting his hand out for a handshake.
"Hi, Thomas" Ashley said awkwardly, shaking his hand. "I'm Ashley" Ashley said, remembering her etiquette. He smiled widely at her, his eyes crinkling while he grinned. Ashley let out an awkward, breathy laugh and sipped on her mojito.
"So what are you-" Thomas asked before someone tapped on Ashley's shoulder. Ashley turned back to see Wally and shook her head.
"What are you doing here?" Ashley asked.
"Roy said it was girls' night" Wally complained. "And you didn't even take us" Wally said, maneuvering her away from Thomas as she nursed the mojito.
"It is in fact not a girl's night and you're supposed to be in the buttfuck middle of nowhere" Ashley said, reminding him of the fact that he was supposed to be in his city in Missouri.
"Bitch I'm your best fucking friend, you gotta take me out girls' night" Wally complained.
"You're not a girl, bro" Ashley said in confusion as she started dancing when the DJ began to play Carly Rae Jepson. "Oh shit, I love this song" Ashley said, doing mini drunken dances as she stood in front of Wally.
"There she is" Roy said, throwing his arm around Ashley. "Dinah dearest is freaking out" He told her.
"I could've been getting laid by a hot forty-something-year-old but yet here we are" Ashley said, rolling her eyes.
"Uh uh" Roy said in outrage. "No miss ma'am, Drunk Ashley may be your name and mojito's may be your game but we do not fuck old people in this household" Roy reminded her. "Not unless their hot actors who can afford child support" Roy practically sang.
"I don't wanna fuck hot actors all the time" Ashley complained. "It gets boring after a while."
"You're so weird" Roy and Wally said at the same time.
"If it were up to me, I'd be married to Jennifer Anniston by now" Wally mentioned.
"You watched friends once, Wally" Ashley said, rolling her eyes.
"Doesn't mean I don't appreciate a beautiful woman" Wally grinned devilishly, looking around. "But seriously, I thought you were Dick" Wally said and Ashley sighed and quickly downed the rest of the drink, setting it down and dragging the two men outside.
"Okay, so I don't have to repeat myself" Ashley said, putting her hands on her hips as she looked at them. "Dick and I are no longer a thing, he fucked up and I said bye. I'm sad and I don't know what's going on. Would you like to me to become a statue in my own home and not see the outside world for a year again?" Ashley asked them.
"No" Roy said quickly.
"Okay, so stop" Ashley told him. "I get it, you spent most of your life being my big brother. And I got pregnant with your baby, but that doesn't mean you're going to dictate what I do. I'm a whole ass adult who makes her own damn decisions, even if they're stupid and I end up regretting that decision tomorrow. I have to do that for myself. You two and Dick cannot make those for me, just like Dinah can't force me to go to bed or Oliver can't force me to eat the fucking broccoli, got it?" She asked them assertively.
"Got it" They both sighed.
"Thank you" Ashley sighed disappointedly. "Now take me home, my night's ruined" Ashley grumbled.
"Frisco's a long way away" Roy observed.
"I meant Oli's house" Ashley facepalmed.
"I can do that" Roy laughed like he was impressed with himself. "We can play Cards Against Humanity in your bedroom like we're teenagers" Roy said excitedly as Wally agreed with him.
"This place fucking sucks" Ashley shook her head, shrugging the boys off her and walking down the street to the closest bar with the boys yelling behind her. "it's like being a mom with kids I didn't ask for" Ashley grumbled, entering another club after showing the bouncer her ID. "Time to get slammed" Ashley muttered to herself with a wide smile. "I'll take two double shots of fireball."
♠♠♠
The next morning Ashley was confused as she looked around The Vault and sighed. "Oliver's gonna kill me" She whined to herself before dialing his number.
"Where are you Ashley Renee?" Oliver asked on the first ring.
"I-um. I'm at the Vault" Ashley told him.
"Ashley, you were supposed to come home. I thought Dinah was gonna throw up with as worried as she been" Oliver confessed.
"I got drunk, I'm sorry" Ashley sighed.
"Good, get home. Bruce is here" Oliver sighed.
"Oh well fuck me" Ashley groaned, hanging up the phone as she grumbled. Ashley made her way back to Oliver's house through the zeta tube with a yawn and stumbled into the dining room, seeing Dinah and Bruce talking at the table. Ashley resisted the urge to whine as she saw the two of them speaking amicably as Ashley barely kept herself from falling into a chair.
"Are you okay?" Dinah asked her in concern.
"Not at all" Ashley confirmed, nodding her head while she plastered a fake smile on her face.
"At least you're honest" Dinah sighed.
"I'm glad to see halfway decent" Bruce observed, unimpressed with his hungover daughter.
"Oh shut up" Ashley sighed. "Your entire reputation is being a man-whore" Ashley rolled her eyes.
"Ashley" Dinah exclaimed, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
"Am I wrong?" Ashley asked her. "I don't fuck every dickless thing that breathes and then accuse my daughter of doing the same shit I'm guilty of" Ashley sighed.
"Okay then" Bruce sighed. "You need to get back to San Fransisco" Bruce told her.
"I don't need to do shit except get the kids back" Ashley sighed.
"Which will not be accomplished here" Bruce told her. "Sober up and get back, Dawn and Donna will meet you there" Bruce told her.
"Or I could do what I want and not listen to those damn traitors" Ashley grumbled.
"You're twenty-seven Ashley" Bruce said sternly. "Act like it and go take care of your responsibilities" Bruce said through clenched teeth.
"Don't clench too tight, you'll wind up with a leaky asshole before you're forty-five" Ashley said with a light laugh, standing up from the table and walking away before another fight could start with her father.
"The nerve of that motherfucker."
A/N So the next, and final chapter, will probably come a little bit late. I got bad writer's block going on right now and I also want the last chapter to be a good setup for the next book and I will do my best to make it as long as possible. With that being said, I hope you all have a great week and the next chapter should be up between Wednesday and Saturday if things go as planned. As soon as I can get like five or six chapters ready for the next book it will be announced, so stay tuned for that (New installments come easier to me so it shouldn't take very long). Also, gotta love Ashley being a bitch to Bruce. I wanna make them eventually amicable to each other next book. IDK though.