The Watchtower
October 31, 19:00 EST
Team Year 5
Artemis considered the best part of having the Watchtower as their new base of operations was the view you got when you stepped out of the Zeta Tube. A massive window was positioned directly in front of the entrance, giving a fabulous view of the planet Earth. Unfortunately, most of the view today was blocked by clouds. The entire western hemisphere was dominated by rainy weather today, and even the night lights of the world's largest cities could not be seen.
DIck appeared right behind her. To their left, several of their teammates were departing to the planet below, on orders of Aqualad.
"What's the occasion?" asked Dick. Almost the entire Team had been called in, which usually meant some crisis was endangering the entire world.
Aqualad replied, "The Black Lanterns have returned."
"What's a Black Lantern? The name rings a bell."
"They launched an invasion two years ago while you and Wally were recovered. the intergalactic criminal known as Nekron has created hundreds of power rings that resurrect the dead. He has created an army of the unliving that feed off the emotions of their loved ones."
"Where is Nekron?" asked Dick. "He seems a little bit out of our league."
"Kaldur nodded. "He is, which is why the Green Lanterns are handling him, with assistance of the Justice League, out in space. The Team has been tasked with tracking the Black Rings on earth and minimizing the damage until Nekron can be stopped."
Artemis looked at the display screen. "It looks like three of the rings landed at the Cave."
"Yes, which suggests they have a connection to the Team. As senior members, the three of us are the best choices to combat them."
"You're saying that we'll probably be fighting our loved ones who passed on, right?" Dick wasn't making a statement rather than a question.
The three silently boarded the Zeta Tubes back to Earth.
The Cave
19:03 EST
There was one Zeta Tube in the Cave that had survived The Reach bomb. The LEague had never gotten around to dismantling it after the attack. It fizzled to life as the three heroes materialized.
Recognize, B01- Nightwing, B02- Aqualad, B03-Artemis.
"Clearly it need to be informed about my new designation," sighed Artemis. Her new identity as Tigress was having trouble sticking as it was.
"This tube isn't even supposed to be online anymore. It hasn't received the latest roster update. Let's get looking The energy signals of all three signals were detected within ten yards of our current location."
The air grew cold as a strong gust of wind swept through the ruins. The air was foggy,but the three could make out a figura a yard or two away from them. The figureemerged, cloaked in an aura of shadow.
"Tula?" exclaimed Aqualad.
Tula's skin wa a pale grey, and her usual tunic was replaced with a black variant bearing the Black Lantern insignia. She was dripping wet, and grey water oozed out of her mouth. She gurgled something angry that none of them could make out.
Aqualad couldn't help but lower his defenses. It had been so long since he had gazed at Tula, and even this dark representation of ehr brought back a flood of emotion.
Tula howled and unleashed a stream of black lightning. Aqualad was too slow to get out of the way, and was struck square in the chest. Tigress and Nightwing rolled to the side and avoided the brunt of the attack. Fueled by rage, Tula attacked again and again, always screaming something unintelligible.
Dick could make out the sound of faint laughter against the din of Tula's onslaught. It reminded him of a tactic he would use as Robin, flanking the enemy from the shadows and laughing to psych them out. He tried to pass it on to Tim, but it never really caught on. He remembered that Jason was just as fond of it as he was.
"Oh God, Jason's here!"
As if on cue, another figure sprung out of the mist. Jason was shorter than Tula,but wore a similarly darkened version of his outfit. He kicked Nightwing in the stomach and followed up with an uppercut and and elbow strike. Dick tumbled to the side as ARtemis leapt into action behind Jason. Jason easily sidestepped her fist strikes and backhanded her, a black ring glowing on his hand as he struck her.
The smaller Black Lantern turned to Nightwing and said, "It's been a while, Dickiebird. I hope you missed me."
The glow from his ring produced a black energy construct of a crowbar. "I hope this brings back memories."
He slammed the crowbar into Nighting's padded stomach twice, prompting a violent coughing fit, Artemis crept up behind Jason, prepared to strike again,when a greyish blur slammed into her. The blur . moved incredibly fast, circling the entire site and coming back to hit her it stopped the form of Wally West was visible through the fog. He was wearing black outfit similar to his stealth uniform, but the Flash's logo was replaced with Nekron's.
"Happy Halloween, everybody!" said Wally with a smile. He sped through the ruins, hitting each of the three heroes before they could react. "I hope this little reunion isn't making you all uncomfortable."
"Nah," said Jason with a sick smile. "To really make them squirm, I would have had to come dressed as the Joker."
The two Black Lanterns laughed before resuming their attacks. Tula took a position behind them and shot lightning ahead of them as the two ran in for hand-to-hand attacks.
"You shouldn't take this encounter tp hard," said Wally between fast punches. "You certainly shouldn't be thinking that you could have avoided this whole fight by not, you know, letting us die."
"Yeah, don't let it get to you," piped in Jason. "Don't think about how much I looked up to you, or how much you let me down. I considered you a brother, Dick, and I looked up to Kaldur Like a father."
Jason turned to Artemis. With venom dripping from his voice,he said, "And you. In many ways we had the most in had similar backgrounds, and similar outlooks on life. You helped me fit in on the Team.I had a pretty big crush on you for a while. I expected all of you to have my back,but you let a madman bludgeon me."
Jason lept through the air and swung his crowbar construct at her. Artemis countered but was hit in the back by Wally.
"Don't worry babe. "You'll be with all of us soon enough." Hen planted a cold, passionless kiss on her cheek. "We won't have any hard feelings in the afterlife."
"No, you won't," said Artemis as she stabbed Wally's shin with one of her arrows. A black liquid oozed from the wound.
"You aren't really the people we loved, are you? You're simulations created by a maniac out in space to mess with our heads. It won't work. Because no matter what, in their last moments, they knew how much we loved them. That's why you're here, isn't it? Because Nekron knows how much we cared for them."
Wally growled and swung his fist at her, but Artemis grabbed his wrist. She looked into his dead eyes and said, "You can kill us, but you can never kill what we felt for them."
Wally's body faded into the mist and disappeared. The black ring floated for a few moments before shattering. Jason and Tula faded too, and their rings also disintegrated.
"I guess they stopped Nekron," said Dick.
"We should return to the Watchtower," said Kaldur. "The younger members may not be in the best emotional state after their fights with the Black Lanterns.
The Watchtower
October 31, 23:45 EST
It had been almost three weeks since Artemis had last visited Wally's memorial. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. On one hand, part of her felt guilty, but on the other, maybe it was a sign she was moving on.
The memorial garden was unusually crowded today. It almost certainly was a result of what people witnessed during the Black Lantern Invasion. She saw Jaime sitting in front of Ted Kord's hologram, lost in thought. He hadn't moved for over an hour. She saw Dick talking to Tim, and decided to approach. Tim's face was red around his mask like he had been crying. It didn't look like Dick had been, but his usually cheery demeanor was noticeably absent.
"Are you two doing okay?"
It never gets easy, does it?" asked Tim.
Dick answered, "No, I suppose not. I was just telling Tim about Selena Gonzalez."
"Who's she?"
"She was a CEO who was targeted by the League of Shadows. Kaldur, Wally, and I tried to rescue her. It was the first time we ever lost someone."
"I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. We can't save them all."
"But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try," said Artemis. "We really help some people. We can't give up because not everybody makes it home. It's just a fact of life."
"I guess you're right. Doesn't make it any easier."
"No, I guess not."
The End.