Triad: Elements of Balance

Chapter 19

Mana's Faery Tale

"Mana!"

She heard the voice, distant, screaming from afar.

Mana...?

That was her.

Irony.

Irony wrapped within false hope.

Mana was Faith.

Yet she was faithless.

She was Hope.

But she was hopeless.

She didn't believe in anything. She didn't even believe in herself.

What was she?

She knew the answer to that question. She was a girl who held out for hope. She had some friends now. She had friends to rely on. Friends who were relying on her. Real friends.

She had a girlfriend. She had someone to love her. Someone to love.

Didn't she...?

Her mind was like a cloud, mixed with fog. Fog she couldn't lift. But she tried as she heard that distant cry.

"Mana!"

It grew louder; calling out for her.

That voice. She knew that voice. But from where? Who would call to her like that? Who could possibly sound so desperate for her to listen?

"Please. Mana. Wake up!"

Wake up?

Was she asleep?

Why was she sleeping?

"Mana. Please!"

Please?

"Mana. We love you!"

Mana's eyes snapped open glowing with silver light as she took in a deep breath. She flexed her muscles and a field of black light burst out from around her with a silvery halo tearing away at the mucky yellow energy bubble she had been in, knocking it down.

She felt herself drop as she could barely keep her eyes open. Mana's eyes were mere slits and she could just about see him. He was red skinned and reminded her of the typical gangster snitch. He even had a devilish moustache. He was wearing a yellow suit and held some kind of device that fizzled and fell apart in his hands.

"Sinestro...?" Mana asked herself in barely a whisper while her sight was leaving her, blurring in and out.

"Mana!"

Mana heard a girl scream her name. It came out weakly. Panicked. Frightened. Someone was scared for her. Mana wasn't sure whether she knew how to feel about that. But it seemed like it was going to be a moot point anyway.

It was hard to think straight while looking up as Sinestro got smaller and smaller while Mana fell back. She felt tears prickling at her eyes. After everything she had been through she was going to die at the hands of a bastard Yellow Lantern sneak attacking her.

It had been Galatea that she fought. Sorceress against Kryptonian. That was shortly after?

After what...?

Spectrum...? She ripped away into Cadmas. She and Starfire managed to get Supergirl out while?

That was it. Mana challenged Galatea. They hadn't been fighting long before Sinestro turned up looking for Spectrum. The fight had led back into the city away from the others.

Did Sinestro take her hostage? Or did he just attack her for fun?

Mana only turned up because that...?

Why did she turn up? Because Oracle asked for her help?

That couldn't be all.

Did Mana really want to be a hero; like them?

No. She couldn't accept that. Why?

"Why am I here?" she whispered as she neared the ground.

"Probably to look after your friends, silly."

Mana was startled as she was scooped up into some thin arms and looked into the face of a foxy girl with red hair.

"Hi, I'm Spirit!" the girl chimed cheerfully as they landed softly next to where Supergirl lay half conscious with a glowing green rock next to her. "You look messed up girls," she said as she carefully placed Mana down next to Supergirl and picked up the green rock as she scanned the sky with a smirk.

"You don't mind if I use this on your sister, do you?" Spirit asked brightly waving her piece of rock around.

"Go... go right a-ahead," Supergirl muttered with a weak smile. "I-I think she deserves a smack down," she said as she looked to see Spectrum and Miss. Martian trying to tame the clone with little success so far.

Mana wondered where they came from. Did they follow her. She mildly remembered that Supergirl had tried to protect her when the Yellow Lantern trapped her but he had that piece of kryptonite.

"Cool," Spirit said before blasting off into the sky after the 'older' blonde Kryptonian.

"O-odd girl," Mana said weakly as she sighed in relief.

"Yeah, but now, I am so going to kick Sinestro's ass!" Supergirl ground out as she stood up looking around for him. "That-that jerk beats up my friend while leaving me defenceless with Kryptonite, and then runs away like a coward."

"That's bad-guy one-o-one," Mana muttered tiredly. "Attack from behind and run away when the tide has changed."

"Well, I'm glad you're okay," Supergirl said while dropping to her knees and pulling Mana to rest in her arms where she did. She didn't have much choice as she was too exhausted to fight the cuddling even if she wanted to.

"Holly!"

They were both startled as Red Lindsey landed with them. She didn't move Mana from Supergirl's arms where her cheek rested on the blondes chest, but she was checking her over for injury.

"I'm going to rip that bastards legs off!" the red lantern hissed out enraged as she scanned the skies for him.

However, Lindsey stopped and startled as a small hand grabbed her right ankle. She looked down to see Mana weakly holding onto her.

"Okay," she said quietly as she gently and lovingly scooped her girlfriend into her arms with Supergirl's help. "There's nothing more we can do here anyway, and Sinestro's nowhere in sight. So I'll take you home for now. We'll get to fight another day."

Meanwhile, Galatea stopped her attack on Spectrum with a start of surprise. She felt sick suddenly. She dizzily moved back from the crimson haired vixen girl as she flew up close to her holding a strange green stone in her hand.

Galatea let her crystal blue eyes glare coldly at Spirit while Spirit grinned smugly.

"Wow… what kind of perverts made you that sexy white leotard thing?" Spirit asked while checking the cloned Kryptonian out with her smile widening.

"Who do you think, you-?" Galatea rubbed her eyes as she trailed off to a stop and dropped a couple of feet with the other three lowering with her.

"I'm Spirit, Superheroin extraordinaire!" Spirit chimed smugly. "And this is my new sidekick, Kryptonite. She's cool. Well, she's cool for me, Spectrum and this green chick. For you, not so much-."

"Green chick?" Miss. Martian asked with raised eyebrows.

"Well you're green," Spirit said with a shrug. "And you're a chick… aren't you. I mean that's what people call girls on this planet isn't it?"

"Only chauvinistic men," Spectrum answered. "From the nineties. And I think calling her green is kind of racist."

"How is that racist?" Spirit said while frowning. "I think she's awesome sexy!" she said before turning to Galatea and zipping closer as the blonde tried moving back away from them, but this made Galatea look close to throwing up. "You think she's super sexy too, don't you?"

Galatea ground her teeth to keep from throwing up and swung a punch for Spirit. But she over stretched and completely missed and would have fallen from the air if Spirit hadn't caught her left ankle with her free hand and let her hang there.

"See," Spirit said smiling brightly as she turned to the other two girls. "This Galatea girl thinks you're smoking hot too. She's love sick for you; so much so she can't even fly any more. Poor girl," she said sympathetically as Galatea struggled valiantly, but ultimately fruitlessly to get out of Spirits vice grip.

"Actually I think that might be because of the Kryptonite," Miss. Martian said slowly as if Spirit might have been a little slow in the head.

Spirit smiled as she looked at the little green rock as it glowed faintly between her fingers. "Maybe… but anyway," she said turning to look down at Galatea. "So what do we do with her? I don't want to let her die. And I heard that too much exposure to this stuff could kill her. And she'll recharge back to full strength if we separate them?"

"I don't know," Miss. Martian said just as Supergirl flew up to join them while keeping as far from the Kryptonite as she could without being too far; she could still feel its effects, but only mildly. "Oh, Supergirl. Is Mana going to be okay?"

Supergirl nodded thoughtfully. "She should be. Lindsey took her home to rest. That asshole Sinestro used some ridiculous device on her."

Domino City was a welcome sight as Lindsey landed down within the wards of hers and Holly's new hum. It was huge. They had only moved in a week ago. But it was the most homely Lindsey had felt in too long. The Earth was her home now. Now and forever with her Holly.

Lindsey entered the large airy lobby while cradling Holly in her arms where Luna and Ginny quickly hurried over from where they waited to greet their mistresses.

"Mistress Lindsey?" Luna asked in worry. "Is our Master okay. Is she hurt?"

"She was just in a bit of a scuff with a Yellow Lantern," she replied coldly. "Nothing she couldn't handle. Now both of you should leave. Ginevra. Bring some water to our room. And Luna, prepare dinner. She'll be hungry when she wakes up."

"Yes Master!" They both quickly bowed before turning and rushing off together.

Lindsey sighed as she looked down at her half asleep girlfriend in her arms. Holly's outfit flashed away and her hair returned to normal. She was wearing a cute blue skirt and tee shirt, bare foot.

Leaning down Lindsey kissed Holly's lips briefly before taking her girlfriend upstairs and into their huge bedroom, lying Holly down on the bed she removed Holly's skirt and tee shirt, leaving her in her blue panties and bra. She looked so cute smiling tiredly up at her.

"I know," Holly whispered in tiredness as she pulled Lindsey to lie on top of her and cuddled her tightly, giving her a loving kiss on the lips. "I was stupid going off and trying to help them like that when I'm not a hero like hat or anything-."

Holly stopped talking as Lindsey's cool lips shut her up as they entrapped hers in another kiss with her tongue sliding into her moth, and her hands squeezing at Holly's bra covered tits. Holly eagerly kissed back as her hands found Lindsey's arse and squeezed through her lantern armour before that flashed away to leave her in some tight grey-cloth short sorts and and white tee shirt without any shoes, giving Holly a much better feel of her girlfriends arse.

Lindsey ignore the door opening as Ginny slipped into the room with a tray holding a large pitcher of ice cold water and two glasses.

Ginny paused for a moment upon witnessing the scene but neither Holly nor Lindsey gave her any mind as they made out. Ginny smiled. It wasn't the first time she or Luna walked in to find their bosses making out or even going more.

Therefore, Ginny only stared in happiness. She loved Holly. But she was happy for her. Ginny was glad Holly had someone special to look after her. To love her like that. Lindsey and Holly were so cute together. And Ginny was thankful that she had Luna to look after her and love her like that. She didn't think she could cope with seeing the love between her masters if she didn't have Luna's understanding and attention.

Placing down the tray on the bedside table, Ginny poured some water into both glasses before stepping back and standing quietly as she watched and waited for her masters.

Ginny stood with her hands clasped in front of her in her new uniform. It was similar to her last one. Though this was shorter and different colours. Its primary colour was crimson. And it was shorter than the last, hanging mud-thigh. It had black knee high socks with left a nice piece of thigh on display. Her shoes were red and very comfortable for being on her feet for long hours.

Her dress had no sleeves attacked, but she had black sleeves separate around her upper biceps leading down to a point over the backs of her bare hands. The sleeves and socks had some beautifully designed patterns in a lighter shade of black like silvery black runes.

And finally Ginny's outfit had a black pinny over the front with Holly's new crest on it over her heart. It was in a dark red outlined by that silvery black of two female figures entwined in within each others arms seemingly nude, one with the wings and feathers of an angle, and the other the wings and horns of a devil. They were both within a pentagram shield that slid into three different shadows of itself in different shades symbolising the trinity of power.

Then on Ginny's head with a black headband tidily through her hair with that same crest on its centre. Ginny had had her red hair cut shorter, to her lower neck, and she used some magic to make it curve down in a decidedly cute manner with the headband only accentuating that.

Luna wore the exact same uniform and Ginny really liked it on her. Her hair was longer, straight at the top and crinkled halfway down, tied back it almost touched her bottom. And add in Luna's new frameless glasses over her beautiful blue eyes and during their free time Ginny couldn't keep from her and wondered whether she had a glasses fetish as she had to remind Luna sometimes that she was supposed to wear them all the time.

Ginny watched as Lindsey finally broke the kiss and grope session to take a breath and give Holly a withering stare that somehow bounced off that beautiful smile Holly returned.

"You wouldn't be this beautiful and wonderful person if you didn't help your friends," Lindsey said before kissing her girlfriends forehead. "I love that you do these things, but next time be more careful. But when I get my hands on that bastard I'm going to rip him apart," she said while her brown eyes lit up crimson in her anger while the ring on her left hand glowed slightly.

"Only if I don't get him first," Holly said with a grin. "But where the heck has Misty gotten too? We should make sure she's okay with that bastard around."

"Always looking out for others," Lindsey said with a shake of her head. "No matter how much vengeance you deserve against the world… the universe-."

"Long term is more fun," Holly said sheepishly. "And doesn't get needless innocent people killed."

"Misty's in her room hiding and playing video games," Ginny quickly interrupted, which got their attention as they looked to her, she blushed brightly. "Umm… and she's been 'drinking', but Luna used a potion to lower the alcohol content like you asked my Lady's," she quickly added with a bow. "She said she didn't want to risk going out as her ring picked up her ex-boss was on Earth."

"I know, I told her to stay," Lindsey said briskly; still not having quite forgiven Ginny for breaking Holly's heart. "No point in getting her hurt over something I was able to deal with alone. Though, now I owe that annoying Spirit a debt for rescuing my, Holly," she finished coldly as she sat up on her girlfriends lap and reached over for a glass of water.

Moving slightly lower on Holly's lap, Lindsey helped her sit up and drain the glass dry before placing it back on the tray and allowing Holly to flop back down onto the soft and comfortable bed.

"Thanks," Holly said gratefully as she blushed when her tummy rumbled while Lindsey continued straddling her lap. "But I'm famished, can Luna start dinner already please. She is surprisingly handy in the kitchen."

"Yes, Mistress," Ginny quickly said with a low submissive bow. "Mistress Lindsey has already thought ahead and ordered Luna to do so. It shouldn't be too long now. Would you like for me to prepare the table in the dinning room or will you both want dinner in bed?"

"Here will be fine for today, Ginny," Holly said turning that marvellous smile of hers to her cute servant girl. "Thank you very much, but I feel kind of weird sitting at that huge dining table in that huge room with just me, Lindsey and Misty eating at it. I feel lost in there like that. Maybe we should just use that for if we have guests over. Maybe we could invite Spirit and the Birds of Prey over in the future for a dinner party?"

"Of course Mistress," Ginny agreed while smiling and nodding quickly. "But will you be okay for your meeting with Miss Gordon at Wayne Tech tomorrow. You've both put it off because of other things getting in the way already. Will you need me to call and reschedule?"

Holly shook her head. "No. I'll be find. I'm just tired and hungry," she said before turning to Lindsey. "What was that device Sinestro used on me? It was like I lost all my energy and strength."

"That was probably an energy conduit," Misty interrupted as she had barged in when Holly asked the question. She was only wearing a pair of blue jeans and white blouse and looking annoyed as she brushed back her long yellow hair. "Its really rare. Nobody has been able to reverse engineer it, and it only works on one person at a time. But have you two been messing with my booze again because I'm not drunk."

"Well the energy thing Sinestro used on me broke when I got free," Holly said while ignoring Misty's question while the Yellow Lantern flopped down to sit on the edge of their bed. "Hopefully that bastard doesn't have any more of those. I was so kicking Galatea's arse before he showed up."

"Well that's his style," Misty said with a sigh, "but about my-."

"You're safe. And none of your friends were hurt too bad," Lindsey said while interrupting Misty. "That's all that matters right now."

"No its not. What about my-?" Misty began with a sigh.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Holly said while they ignored Misty. "I'm already feeling my strength returning. It was thanks to Spirit that Supergirl and I weren't too badly hurt. And with the Kryptonite they should have caught that bitch, Galatea."

"Good point," Lindsey said as she rose her red ring as it gently glowed. "Red Lantern Lindsey to Oracle?" she called out.

There was a bleep and a woman's voice answered. "This is Oracle," she said. "Is Mana okay?" she asked quickly.

Lindsey needlessly nodded. "Yes, she's here with me now. A nights rest and something to eat and she'll be fine."

"Thank goodness," Oracle replied in relief. "Supergirl and Spectrum were worried. I was about to call."

"I'm fine," Holly said while looking pleased she finally had proper friends. "Is Kara okay after all that Kryptonite exposure?"

"I'm fine now, Holly," Supergirl answered for herself. "How are you feeling. Oracle says you're probably going to cancel on her again...-"

"Kara!" Oracle hissed quickly.

"Wait. What?" Holly asked as her eyes widened. "Oracle is Barbara Gordon?" she asked as her eyes widened further. "Whoa. That explains a lot… and… you were -."

"Please don't finish that sentence," Oracle quickly interrupted.

Holly grinned though it was lost on Oracle as it was audio only. "But that means he is-."

"Definitely do not complete that sentence," Oracle quickly said while sounding worried.

"What are you two talking about?" Misty asked while looking confused. "We're all friends here, right?"

"Nothing," Holly answer while Oracle asked in concern, "is that Misty?"

"Umm… well she kind of lives with us now," Holly agreed.

"I thought it was more like sponges," Lindsey added. "It isn't like she's that useful."

"I gave you my interstellar space ship," Misty wined. "The least you can do is take care of me."

"And you'll always have a home here," Holly said reassuringly. "And we will take care of you as long as you don't use your powers for douchy things any more."

"And I swore I wouldn't," Misty said with a tired sigh. "But I don't even know how long my lantern batteries are going to last. I only have mine and the two we stole off my last two partners, so I can't exactly help you all the time. I'll run out of power eventually. I don't get how Lindsey still has power. How many lanterns do you have?"

"One," she replied with a shrug. "I'm almost out of power to be honest," she said while shocking them.

"Maybe Spectrum could help?" Supergirl suggested.

"I can?" Spectrum's voice came over the ring.

"Sure. You can create endless lantern energy," Supergirl said. "So perhaps you could recharge their lantern batteries; if they swear not to use their powers for evil or anything."

"Umm… well I suppose it wont hurt to try," Spectrum suggested reasonably. "If you both want we can try tomorrow."

"Thank you, Spectrum," Lindsey answered. "I doubt Atrocitus would let me near the Central Battery if he's heard about what I've been doing on Earth. And Misty would likely die a terrible death trying to get near hers."

"You're welcome," Spectrum replied.

"But what did you do with Galatea?" Holly asked in curiosity.

"We've locked her up," Oracle said. "She's in a cell with a Kryptonite shield. Its strong enough to take away her powers, but weak enough to keep her from dying."

"Maybe she could be made to see she could be better," Holly suggested. "She's as much a victim as Supergirl."

"I know," said Oracle, "but I don't know whether we can talk her around."

"But we have to try," Supergirl surprisingly said before Lindsey hung up on them as she didn't believe in saying 'bye' first.

Meanwhile, outside of the front gate of Holly's Manor House, Alice Cullen was dressed all in black armoured leather with hood up and mask over her mouth and nose. Her golden eyes looked out over the barrier ward around the huge mansion that might as well have appeared over night.

Alice couldn't see the wards exactly, but kind of feel the slight tingle of magical energies. She and other vampires of her kind tended to keep away from sorcery because sorcerers tended not to like them at all. She wasn't too sure what they would think of non-human eaters but they were notorious for being assholes and not caring to be reasonable.

Though, Alice didn't think the mortals seemed to notice it, or at least how fast it was built, but her mind worked better than that. Alice was almost certain that even magicians were kept blind and manipulated against seeing what Mana had built at ridiculous speeds right under their noses.

She had already heard about the extermination of those assholes in Italy. Alice saw that coming as soon as Bella must have told the Justice League about them, either just in passing or knowing that they would be exterminated like vermin. But Alice didn't care about that. They deserved everything they got for being arrogant asshats who hunted humans when they didn't need too. Alice wondered whether that made them week minded.

Probably.

She didn't know where Bella was. She was surprisingly hard to find. She could freaking fly so Bella couldn't follow her scent. And Bella didn't build a huge magical mansion for Alice to find. But one of Bella's new Superhero friends had. So hopefully they wouldn't attack her when she knocked on the door – well rung the gate intercom because she couldn't get through the wards.

It was kind of amusing as she had never once needed to be invited in like a stereotypical vampire before. And she doubted that any other vampire would see through the illusions. But Alice was different. She was the only vampire on the planet ever to have been know to have clairvoyance, and that was highly useful.

Alice had hoped that Bella or one of the other Birds of Prey would have heard of her Superheroing, and come to investigate so she could find her friend and beg for her forgiveness. And maybe. Hopefully, get her friend back in her life and never have to leave her ever again.

But Alice would settle if she had to for some kind of closure, but she hoped, wished, prayed, and begged the universe for more than that as she didn't think she could live without Bella in her life, even just a little. She could cope with just hanging out occasionally.

However, Alice wasn't very good at being recognised for her Superheroing deeds. It didn't help that her sneaky dark heroin thing had the Batgirl and Spirit to deal with. How could she compete with two ninja – one of which had ridiculous amounts of super powers.

She wondered whether she needed a new gimmick? But since she was at the gates of Wonderland, Alice felt it was fitting that she rang the bell and hoped that she had better luck than the Alice from the stories.

Reaching out a trembling hand Alice pressed the intercom button, and lowered her hood and mask after looking around to make sure no one was around to see her. Even though she knew they wouldn't be, couldn't be, and if there was anyone around, she would hear, smell, and see them coming through the future.

The bell bleeped twice before Alice just watched the screen of the intercom as it had a blinking little yellow light above it. Alice had never felt as nervous as she was in all her afterlife since she couldn't remember being human, even though she knew her human life had been terrible – what with being in a nut house and all that because of something that she figured was connected to her clairvoyance.

And back then Asylums weren't very friendly because the 'doctors' who ran them were idiots who though things like shock therapy was healthy (when the opposite was true. People shocked were more than likely to get worse, insane because of the pain). And the orderlies were not nice people. And these were mostly harmless people; not criminal psychos like from Arkham.

It was only a couple of minutes later that the screen blinked on. A cute blonde girl in a red and black main uniform, and glasses answered the bell with a wide smile on her pink lips.

"Hello," Luna said cheerily. "I'm sorry but if you'll take note of the signs, we don't take unsolicited calls… although, I suppose we could make an exception for a cute Girl Scout like you."

"I'm not a Girl Scout," Alice said looking down at her outfit in confusion before back at the screen, as she realised the girl might have been playfully making fun of her for being short. "And I'm not an annoying Cold Caller either. My name is Alice Cullen and I'm looking for Bella Swan. I know Mana knows where to find her."

"I see," Luna said while looking baffled. "One moment please," she said before the screen changed to a strange pentagram logo with two entwined figures in red on a black background with 'please wait' written across the top in white with some cheesy elevator music.

Alice was surprised as she waited several minutes 'on hold'. She was considering pressing the button again as she wondered whether the maid forgot about her. That was when the screen blinked to show the NFC logo that she would see in the top banner of her phone.

Surprised and confused Alice pulled out her phone and unlocked it. Alice bit her lower lip nervously as she tapped her phone to the screen. The screen and her phone blinked with a twirling bleep sound, and while the intercom screen went blank her phone pinged up a new contact.

Bella Swan

Alice almost collapsed with shock and heartache. She finally had something. It didn't have an address, but it had her phone number and that was as much as she could hope for.