Disclaimer: After I’ve written so many stories, I think all of you would know the truth: I don’t own anything that I write about, only the plot! Is that easy enough for you to understand? Great. ‘Cause I really don’t want to be sued… :P

A/N: This is the sequel to The Dark Ones and The Immortal Protectors, in that order. I know that I told many of you that there was never going to be a sequel to those two, but I’ve found myself thinking about my OCs from this story a lot lately, and this fic popped into my mind. So here it is. Enjoy, and don’t forget to review! :)

“It’s better to burn out than fade away.” –Kurt Cobain

Prologue: Burning Out

They gave her another Talk that morning, basically listing the reasons that she should just quit and leave, to live out the last of her life in monotonousness. Their excuse was that she needed just a little time off, that she’d been working too hard. That she was still healing after nearly being tortured to death by the Injustice Gang last year. But she had refused, as she always did.

True, she was getting up there in years, and her head had a few gray hairs on it, but she would never give up. Work was all she had left now, all that managed to keep her going these days. It had been eight unending years since she had last seen him, but she knew from experience that nothing was impossible. She’s heard rumors of what he and the others were up to, and knew that he would come back to her when she needed him.

Right after the Talk, J’onn called out over the intercom that there was a new mission in New York City, and she gladly went along. A Founder was needed, as only three of the new members had been assigned to the newest call for aid from the planet below. Starsweeper, Blossom, and the new Vigilante weren’t very experienced in the field, and she doubted that they could even manage to stop the twisted plans of the Joker, even with their combined efforts.

The teleporter instantly beamed the four of them down to the eye of the storm, so to speak. They were running blind, as J’onn said that his scanners couldn’t detect the exact nature of the threat. He only knew that people were in danger, and that was enough for all them, what made them heroes.

She managed to land on her feet, ignoring the pain of her twisted ankle and the strange feeling of the new teleporter model. She still hadn’t gotten very used to it, after a whole month. She still preferred the Javelins, despite the fact that most of them had been scrapped. But being a Founder, she had the correct level of authority to take the spacecrafts out every now and then.

As she blinked the blue and yellow spots from her eyes, she found everything to be a state of chaos. People were running and screaming in all directions, and chunks of glistening ice hung from everything. A large and very hairy creature galloped among the abandoned cars, its yellow clothing only adding to its odd appearance. She of course recognized the ‘creature’ almost immediately; anyone who had access to nationwide media would. It was Beast, member of that group of mutants that had only become public little over a year ago, the X-Men.

“What the heck is goin’ on here?” Vigilante blurted out, her blue eyes becoming very wide as she stared around at the destruction. “Aren’t those them X-Men people, the ones with the X gene everybody’s been talkin’ ‘bout?”

“I think so,” she answered, hefting her weapon over one shoulder as she prepared for battle. “And it looks like they’ve gone absolutely crazy.” She tensed, muscles more than ready for the battle that seemed to be looming. She didn’t get much of that these days.

As if on cue, Starsweeper seemingly vanished as a bolt of lightning struck inches from her position, splintering the asphalt around her dramatically. The heroine landed several hundred feet away, slamming into the concrete and not getting back up again.

“Move out!” she shouted, using her Founder’s authority to order Vigilante and Blossom into battle. Before they had even moved away, towards the attackers of the city, she was reaching for her comm. link. There was no way that they could win against an attacking force to large and powerful as the X-Men. They were going to need back-up. Pressing the call button, she spoke briskly into the open line. “J’onn, come in. We're going to need help down here. For some reason, the X-Men are attacking the city.”

Silence, tainted faintly by static.

“J’onn. Code red down here.”

Still nothing.

Cursing under her breath, she released the call button and spun to face the enemy. The line was dead, obviously by some mutant with the ability to cancel out signals, or something like that. She didn’t know much about the mutants that had been cropping up around the globe lately, nor did anyone else. Who knew if this kind of power was possible or not?

She swung her weapon agilely through the air, then threw herself towards the nearest mutant. He turned to face her, eyes invisible beneath the metal visor covering them. Reaching up to touch the side of his visor, the mutant fired a stream of red energy that she barely managed to avoid. Twisting and swooping into the air, she flew towards the mutant, twirling her weapon and deflecting blasts that ended up slamming violently into the surrounding buildings.

When she was a mere arm’s length away from her antagonist, she swung her weapon once more and forced the mutant to the ground. He dropped like a stone when her sturdy weapon collided with his skull, and didn’t move again.

Moving to stand over him, she narrowed her green eyes angrily. “What’s your problem? Why are you doing this?” she demanded, planting one hand on her slender hip as she leaned threateningly over him. “And which one of you is blocking our comm. systems?”

As though answering her questions, an explosion of red energy shot unexpectedly from the supposedly downed mutant’s tinted visor. It slammed into her midsection, and pain exploded throughout her entire body. The nearness of the blast threw her backwards through the air, and she landed in a painful heap on a pile of broken and splintered concrete. She drew in a shaky breath, and grimaced tightly as she reached to prod at the broken ribs she could feel just under the skin.

Struggling to sit up, one of her wings brushed softly against the ground. She bit back a cry of pain, turning her head to look back at the wounded appendage. It was twisted awkwardly, which meant that it was most definitely broken. How were they going to win this fight, with two of them down and only two inexperienced members of the League still fighting? If they weren’t already wounded or worse, anyway. And there was no way to contact the rest of the League. It was too much to hope for a chance to survive this battle.

Pushing herself up with her least-bloody arm, she slowly got to her feet, flinching as something exploded from behind her. The heat singed her skin painfully, and her hair blew across her face, skillfully obscuring her blurred vision. She paused for a fateful second to paw it out of the way, not paying much attention to the X-Men causing devastation around her.

She barely even had a chance to get her balance again before agony exploded in her stomach, all the way through. Her weapon dropped from her limp hand, and she stared down in shock. Three silver points of metal protruded from her stomach, blood already spotting her costume. She choked in horror, unable to even struggle as the claws swiftly and expertly withdrew from her body with a grotesque sliding sound.

Shayera Hol collapsed to the ground with a dull thud, head lolling to the side as a thin trail of blood trickled from her parted lips. Gasping for air, she stared up at the bear of a man standing over her, clad in yellow and black spandex and with a set of bloody claws extending from one set of knuckles. His lips drew back in a cruel snarl, revealing pointed fangs. His eyes flickered red beneath his mask, skin shining with a black tint, then the mutant sprang away with surprising speed.

Shayera’s eyes were wet as she choked again, vision already fading into blackness. She tried to force her lips to form words, any words, but all her strength was already gone. Wally. I’m so sorry, she thought weakly, vision dimming yet again until she couldn’t even seen the berserk X-Men anymore.

Then another man popped into her mind’s eye, one with dark skin, emerald eyes, and the green and black uniform of the Lantern Corps. I love you, John, she whispered mentally, remembering the question he had asked her at least a month ago, the one she had never answered. And the answer…is…yes.

Everything went black, and the former Hawkgirl died with a small smile on her lips.

Please review, yeah? I would really love to hear what you have to say! Oh, and please don’t kill me for the way this ended! O.O