By: Faita

She stood in the water; she could feel the sand under her feet as she constantly moved to keep her balance. She looked in front of her; she saw a wave rolling quickly towards her, white along the top. She readied herself, and when the wave reached her she jumped into it. She laughed as the wave pushed her several feet back in the water. She regained her balance and wiped water from her face. She looked in front of her and saw no more big waves coming for a while. She looked towards the beach. She saw her dad sitting in a bench staring out into the ocean, occasionally taking a sip from the mug in his hands. She saw a man sitting in a long chair behind a woman and little boy making a castle in the sand. Her other brother was walking away from every one with his arm around a blonde girl's shoulders. Then she saw a figure that had appeared out of no where. It was a dark figure that was staring right at her, she suddenly got an awful feeling in her stomach, and the figure's dark stare made her uneasy. She couldn't make out the face, but she knew it. She fell into the water quickly as a wave hit her from behind. She stood up and coughed water out of her mouth. She looked up and saw the figure still there. She wiped water out of her eyes and walked slowly towards shore. She felt the water tug at her legs as she neared the shore. The figure was male with gray pants and jacket with black shirt and shoes. He had a cold expression on his face that formed around his blue eyes. She stood out of the water in front of him. Water dripped from her hair and one-piece dark green bathing suit. "What do you want?" she asked it as she walked past it over to a towel that lay on a white beach chair. She wrapped it around her waist and turned around. He had already turned around too and was looking at her. "Gotham needs Blaze's help Em," he said. "Terry I can't go, you can handle it, you always have and you always will," she told him walking over to the beach house's porch. He followed her. "I know I can, I wouldn't be here if I didn't. But I don't need your help, Gotham does. Because the only man that can hold it together does," he said. She stopped walking and turned around to look at him. "What do you when?" she asked him in a little girl voice that she hadn't used in a very long time and never on purpose. "Bruce, he misses Eric too, he just won't admit it," Terry told her. Emily's face turned sad at the mention of her brother's name. The family came to the beach house to get away from the memory; they always did that when a family member died. "He wouldn't," she said in a sad small voice. "He needs some one to talk to," he told her. "No he doesn't, they never do," she told him. "They?" Terry asked her confused, as soon as he did he regretted it. "Bruce, Dad, Tim, it'll be you some day," she told him. "Why won't you come back?" he asked. "Bruce must have told you. If you leave when something horrible happens, then go back, you'll never be the same. You'll be hard, cold, ruthless, rough, and unfeeling, and never change, even out of costume. I don't want to be like that, I never have. I've tried my best not to be like Bruce, I don't want to give up now," she told him seriously. He swallowed hard; she certainly could but a person in their place. "What about me? How will I be?" Terry asked her, he could put a person in their place too, just took him longer. "You'll never leave it, he won't let you," she told him and a gust of wind flew flowed over them, cold against her wet feet, shoulders, and face. "It's my decision, not his," he told her. "Then you won't let you," she said. She was frightening, now he didn't even want to try and put her in her place, mostly because it was above his. He knew she was right what she said, he didn't want to stop being Batman, not for anything, but he also wanted her to be Blaze, for everything. "Then I don't have a problem," he answered. He saw the thoughts pass in her mind quickly through her eyes. "And I don't want one," she said and turned away from him. He sighed, knowing he was well on his way to losing the discussion. "Then I won't give you one," he said as he walked off the porch and past it towards the driveway where a motorcycle was parked. She turned around in surprise and watched him get on the motorcycle, put on his helmet, and drive off down the newly paved street. She caught her breath in her throat, she hadn't expected him to leave, she didn't know him as well as she thought she did. She stormed into the house after quickly opening and closing the screen door. She ran carefully up the narrow staircase so she wouldn't slip because of her still wet feet. She ran into her room and slammed the door behind her. She looked in her mirror at the face staring back at her. She didn't know what she was looking for, the wet face was hers, she had seen it so many times before. She concentrated as she closed her eyes. She opened them again and saw her face, cover in Blaze's mask. Another of her little powers Terry didn't know about, she could form clothes on herself. She was happy she probably knew more about him then he did about her. She now stared at Blaze in the mirror, that was a face she hadn't seen that often, it was cold and hard. Now she had a problem.