The Descendant

Deri came in later, still upset. I didn't blame her. "Why didn't you do something?" she asked angrily. "Why did you let them do that to me?"

I raised my hand quickly to deflect a slap. Deri hadn't hit for years now. "You were, like, five, I was around eight. What do you propose I should have done? You know what they're like. I did the best I could, I went looking for Mom. And I was afraid to do something that would make it worse." Deri considered this and cooled off some.

"Ok," she said grudgingly. "They wouldn't have listened, they never do." We sat in brooding silence for a bit. "But I can keep a secret. I can," she insisted. "I'm not the kid I used to be. I don't want people knowing that Mom's a superhero. It's bad enough that the family is wealthy and Dad bankrolls and executive produces the Avengers." I nodded.

"So what was the outcome down there?"

"Utter chaos," she said promptly. "Dad is tearing thin strips off Mom-- I know," she said, nodding. "First time EVER. Grandpa and Aunt Amy are pissed. The good thing is that we don't have to go back to the island if we don't want to. Dad put his foot down."

"Thank the gods," I muttered, falling back on my bed.

"Yup. And Mom's getting the third degree about her parenting practices from Grandpa and Aunt Amy. And Dad's being raked over the coals for being kind of a neglectful dad. So nobody's happy."

"Did they tell you the whole truth about Mom, though?" I asked, sighing.

"I don't know," she said, a little nervously.

"Her parentage?"

"I know the story about her creation from the soil of Themyscira by the goddesses," she said. "But I guess that's a lie, too."

"Yeah, but there's actually a good reason for it." And I told her what Menalippe had told me once when I was trying to come to terms with my god-sight. Enough detail about their captivity by Heracles and his men to underscore how truly awful it had been, not the full detail I'd gotten, thanks for nothing, Menalippe. I could spare my sister those nightmares, at least. About the queen's deal with Zeus, why the lie had been thought up and used. "So Mom's a demigod, plus she has all those blessings from the goddesses."

"Zeus is grandpa?" Deri asked, her face scrunching up. "Ew. Pervert." That squeezed the first chuckle out of me all day.

"Yeah. If you want the secrets, you should have them, Deri, they affect you too. But you might not want to know them all."

"Shit. Don't tell me there's more."

"There is. But for the rest, ask Dad what's in the basement."

"The basement?"

"Yep. He'll know." I considered this. "It isn't as bad as pretty much anything Amazon-related, though."

"Huh. Maybe later," she said after chewing this over. "I'm still mad."

"Join the club."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to try to calm down, then assess the damage at school. I don't know that there's anything I can do," I said, considering. "But on the bright side, school's out in less than a month. Maybe something spectacularly bad will happen to someone else and everybody will focus on that instead."

"Good luck," Deri said cynically and I looked at her in exasperation as she got up. She left, and I waited until I was sure she'd gone to her own room across the hall before going out the window and across the roof. It was dark and I could see the twinkling stars, so I let my mind empty, resisting the urge to try to push the process along, until it was just me, the slate at my back, and the stars.

It was later than I'd expected when I started down the roof to my window, past ten. If things had gone according to my plans in the morning, I'd still be on my date with Josh, having fun, maybe being kissed. I scowled at the reminder, which is when I caught my hand on the edge of the rain gutter, a rough spot I'd never noticed before, cutting it. I got inside, grabbed a washcloth, and went down the back stairs to the basement and into the bat cave, where I listened carefully at the mouth of the cave before going in. I was in luck for once; either Gotham was quiet tonight or the bat denizens were all out. I didn't care which. I went to the little treatment room off the main operations area and used the handheld tissue accelerator on the cut. That quickly healed, and I tossed the washcloth into the laundry bin and washed my hands briskly before going back up the stairs to the kitchen. My stomach was still knotted up, but hungry too, making for a particularly fun kind of nausea. I poked around the refrigerator; there was some brown rice from dinner a couple days ago, some cut-up chicken that had been used for sandwiches the previous day, and covered bowls containing some sliced veggies. I'm not too fussy about what I eat, and scooped up a little of each of these things into a bowl, maybe a cup, total, and stuck it in the microwave. I ignored the leftovers from the party. I sprinkled soy sauce over the rice and ate it standing over the sink. The lights flicked on.

I turned, mouth full, to see Alan in the doorway. "Miss Lys," he said. "Have a seat at the table." I shook my head, hearing only more criticism.

"I'm almost done," I said, swallowing fast and shoving the last of it into my mouth before moving to the dishwasher.

"I can do that for you," he said, trying to take the bowl and fork from me. Jesus, what was it here? I can put away a damned bowl. I won the brief wrestling match and closed the dishwasher door, still chewing. Alan looked disapproving. I ducked around him and got a glass, hastily filling it with ice water before scooting up the stairs.

The next day I ignored my communicator and as many of the life forms around the mansion as possible. Leo, the youngest of the cats, hung out with me for awhile, and it was nice to have company that only demanded petting. I skipped breakfast and lunch, but, driven by hunger, had to show up at dinner. Luck was with me, though, and Deri and I were the only ones at dinner. Our parents, Grandpa, and Aunt Amy were down the road at Grandma Alex and Grandpa Damian's. Deri was too pissed still to want to spend time with our parents. We spent dinner talking about Girl Scouts--she was still a Junior but looking forward to bridging over to Cadettes at the end of the year--and our upcoming recital. Week after next, we would need to pick up our costumes. It was nice to feel like somebody was on my side.

"You've gotten a lot better," Deri complimented me, and I smiled a little. She poked her fork at the little bit of mashed potato still on her plate. "I don't think I'm going to be allowed to go en pointe."

"It's because your feet and ankles aren't strong enough," I said. "If you'd like, I can show you the exercises I did."

"That would be great," she said eagerly, just as Iris and Miles came in.

"Great timing," Miles complimented his sister.

"Would you care for some dessert, Miss Iris, Master Miles?" Alan asked, gliding in from the kitchen. They agreed to this and sat down.

"Quite the little confab going on down the road," Iris said, snagging a chair as Alan took my plate. I wasn't quite done, but whatever.

"It's been quite a weekend," Miles noted. "Did Deri really have her memory altered?" He sounded appalled, and I nodded.

"I had a lot of fun while I was there that one time with Mom and my sister," Iris said, "and I always wanted to go back, but I didn't know that they were so ruthless."

I shrugged. "They're extremely protective of their islands. You can't blame them, given their history, but it's a little scary how far they'll go to keep the outside world from finding out about them."

"As you say, they have their reasons," Alan said, coming in with four plates. Of my birthday cake. I stared at the generous slice in front of me, my sweet tooth going into witness protection.

Deri looked offended, which is odd, because she gets along with Alan better than I do. "Would you be so supportive if it had happened to Van?" she asked incredulously.

"I am merely pointing out that their intent was not to harm you but to ensure the protection of a great number of women," he said crisply. "Now, eat up." I pushed my plate away.

"No thank you." Miles sighed.

"I'm with Lys. Nobody wants to remember yesterday afternoon."

"Waste not, want not," Alan said.

"I'm done," Deri said, pushing back from the table. Alan frowned before his face smoothed back out into its usual pleasant expression. Miles and Iris came with us as we retreated to the conservatory. It was nice and peaceful there.

"We wanted to tell you that Mom and Dad are helping to straighten out your folks," Miles said. "It sound like Aunt Diana is clinging to some outmoded beliefs in childraising and Uncle Daniel just doesn't feel like he knows what to do with two daughters and defers to Aunt Diana."

Iris rolled her eyes. "Aunt Diana's upbringing was decidedly non-standard, and when she got exposed to the wider world, it was in WWI; she apparently hung out through WWII, then returned to the islands for awhile before going back. Her impressions of childraising apparently come from that era, plus the privation that the long winter forced on everybody has made her very conscious of not wasting anything, and in her opinion, showcasing the desirability of a simple life."

"She missed the 1950's, which is when the rise of the teenager as we know it happened," Miles said. "Until the Return, really, she apparently kept to herself, didn't have a lot of friends, just variations on the Justice League and her work. So she really understands nothing about kids, especially rich kids. She's got quite a portfolio, but it's easy to save over centuries, and she indulged herself very little, from what I understand. So that huge gap in understanding coupled with a hands-off approach from your dad is what created.... this."

"Lys has tried really hard to live up to Mom's expectations," Deri put in. "Hasn't done her any favors." She snorted. "She thought Mom was actually listening. But Mom is always convinced that she knows what's best." There was a little silence.

"Tomorrow's going to be rough," Miles said. "I wish we were at the same school so I could maybe help."

"It's going to be a dumpster fire, I'm sorry to say," Iris said regretfully.

And so it proved to be.

Everywhere I went, people laughed outright and pointed. My lab partner didn't speak to me, actually moving to the opposite side of the bench. Even my friends were a little distant, as if the wretched party was going to contaminate them too, like the plague. Mom was called away for several days for a Justice League thing, and Dad was awkward when I saw him at dinners. He did apologize for the party and for not being a more active parent. The next day, even in Girl Scouts the word had spread, and I finished my work on the climate studies badge in silence and isolation. A couple days later, at least I had Miles to talk to at dance, and we talked about a ballet performance Natasha was taking us to after our recital; Firebird. We were both really looking forward to it.

But it was Friday where the wheels really fell off. I sat down with my friends at lunch, and they all turned away, excluding me right there at our table. Even Eleanor, who I'd been best friends with since kindergarten. My cheeks burned with the humiliation I felt at the cut, and I could hear laughter from the tables around us.

Grandpa came over for dinner that night; Aunt Amy had had to go back after the dinner on Sunday. "So how are things going, honey?" he asked as I poked at my dinner.

"Today at lunch, even my friends ignored me," I said quietly. "My lab partner won't say anything to me beyond what's absolutely necessary in dissection. People have been laughing at me or ignoring me. Even in Scouts, but at least at ballet Miles talks to me."

"That's ridiculous," Dad said. "You had no control over that party."

"The kids think that if my parents gave me such a lame party, then it's a sign that you guys think I'm lame too," I said flatly. "Not worth spending money on me or indulging me. The gloves are off. The kids smell blood in the water, and my name puts a target on my back. People love it when somebody from an important family is vulnerable. A lot of people are bullies at heart."

"Dad, seriously, just shut up," Deri snapped when he opened his mouth. "You guys have done enough damage."

"I didn't really notice it being that bad when I was in high school," Dad said anyway.

"You were thinking about other things at the time," Grandpa observed. Yeah, he'd been Robin to Grandpa's Batman.

"Your parents are only human, Miss Lys, Miss Deri," Alan said, checking in on the progress of dinner. Deri and I laughed in unison. Mom was decidedly not only human.

"That reminds me, Alan," I said in a respectful tone of voice. "I don't really feel comfortable with people just coming and going in my room. I'm going to take over keeping it tidy, changing my sheets and all. After all, in a few years, I'm going to be in college, and I want to be sure I can do things for myself. You won't be there to clean up after me." I was really irked at his constant partisanship of my parents, and congratulated myself on my quick thinking. Alan recognized the shot across the bow and his frame drew rigid.

"That's actually a good idea," Grandpa said thoughtfully. "Lys has an excellent point. She will need to be more self-reliant when she's on her own. And if she wants the privacy of her room, that should be respected too, she's a young lady." Alan was still offended, but he nodded.

"As you wish, Miss Lys," he said, and after checking on a few dishes, went back to the kitchen. I kept my smile off my face, the first one all week, and gave my sister a Look.

"So Dad, what's in the basement?" she asked promptly, and I sat back and listened as Dad tried to explain the bat cave. I skipped dinner and went upstairs.

The weekend was quiet. I had no texts or communications from anybody. At school, before classes, Eleanor approached me at my locker. Any hope I'd had for repairing our friendship died as she explained that the kids who were shunning me--pretty much everybody--had also started in on my friends, and it was hard for her.

"Oh, hard for you?" I said in a steely tone, keeping my voice down from the others looking on in the hall. "I'm just so sorry that our friendship is inconveniencing you. Jane, I get, we've only been friends for a couple years, the others a few years longer. But you? I really thought we'd be friends forever."

"Lys, come on," she said. "When things die down--"

"You will still have shown me what you are." I opened my locker and shoved a package at her that I'd brought with me that morning. It didn't have a bow yet, but now I wasn't going to waste one on her. "And that I'm not worth standing up for. Happy birthday. I'd have returned it, but I didn't buy it it. You're such a big fan of the Avengers, I had Uncle Tony help me get autographs from each of them on their photographs, personalized for you, and it wasn't easy since most of them don't like to sign autographs, even with Uncle Tony's urging. So have a great party, and also, fuck you." I slammed my locker door and went to class.

Oddly enough, letting Eleanor have it was strangely freeing. It felt easier to ignore the shunning from the other students, and I liked the feeling.