A/N: Enh...I've actually been working on this a long while, but I posted it today, because it's the day the Mayans said the world will end. It was originally inspired by Hurricane by 30 Seconds to Mars and Hero by Skillet.
No Invasion.
Oh man. I don't like this. But I'm posting it anyway. Sigh. Sorry it's weird and all that. I did post an alternate ending that happier, so yay?
It started with a lone alien. Xklyz, he called himself, and he pledged to blow up the world. Martian Manhunter, who was translating for the benefit of the League, said he was a Meiritan, of the planet Meira, a race devoted to the demolition of the universe. They were true servants of Chaos. No one gave him any thought after that: his species had never succeeded in their attempts to destroy anything, and he was only one alien. The League reasoned that, even if his species posed a small threat, they couldn't destroy the Earth; too many aliens were protecting it: Green Lanterns, Martians, and Kryptonians, to name a few.
Then the warships came. Thousands of them, crowding the skies. The League's shields kept them from coming closer.
"They're persistent, I'll give them that," Aqualad said, watching as the Meritians repeatedly rammed their ships into the shield, only to be repelled. Like a dance of fate, they hammered at the pale yellow dome.
They found a weak spot about a month after their arrival. It was inevitable, really: no fortress was secure. There was a small section, only about a hands-width, where the barrier caved inward. It was the seam, the place where all the edges converged. They rammed their ships into that small opening, and it began to cave, to crack wider, and they were in.
The destruction was immediate. The ships flew all over the globe, wreaking panic in their wake. The League activated all of its reserves, but even that wasn't enough. The sheer numbers of the aliens were too much for the League or any of their associates to get to the danger in time. It was always too late. Green Lanterns were even called in, but still they were too late. Tragedy rocked the earth. The people lost faith in their heroes, giving up on them.
But the Young Justice team had an idea. It was an idea so unimaginable, so terrifying, they didn't want to even discuss it, but they had to. As a last-ditch effort against the invading aliens, they were going to round up every last person on the earth for a war. Civilians, villains, and heroes alike would take up arms and fight together for the earth. But how to spread the message?
The whole team knew, but Robin was the only one with the guts to say it: to enlist the civilians, they had to prove they were one of them, that heroes walked among them and interacted with them, that everyone could be a hero. They would have to reveal their secret identities. If they were going to live with their planet intact, they had to. The villains would be harder to recruit, but a temporary truce had to be negotiated somehow. They would face that problem when they came to it.
The team called a press conference. They asked every news station, every world leader, everyone who could convey their message to the world to attend. It was held a week later.
"People of Earth," Aqualad called. "I know a threat is upon us. Some are calling it the apocalypse."
"But it doesn't have to be that way," Robin said, picking up after Aqualad. We can stand together, to fight for our world. If we all work together, we can do it."
"Why should we fight with you, oh, high and mighty superheroes? Surely you aren't asking us to be your equals?" a man from the crowd called out. Murmurs of agreement flew through the assembled patrons like a wave.
"Because we aren't above you," Kid Flash said firmly, stepping forward. "We are just like you, just with a special gift that allows us to protect those without."
"Yeah?" a woman shouted. "Yet you hide behind masks!"
"I know," Artemis said calmly. "But not any more."
There was a collective gasp at the statement.
Robin was first. He felt it was only fair, as no one on the team besides Kid Flash knew his identity. He took a deep breath, and tentatively put his hands on his mask. With sudden determination, he ripped it off like an old band-aid, and looked straight into the crowd.
Shouts of "That's Dick Grayson!" and "Him? How's that even possible?!" greeted his pronouncement. The public was in awe.
Kid Flash was next. He stepped forward and simply pulled his cowl over his head. He wasn't famous like Rob, so no one really knew he was, but he was proving he was as human as they were, and was that a camera for the Central City news?
Artemis stepped up as well. Wally gripped her hand tightly, as much a gesture of support as well as further proof of humanity. She pulled back her cowl and looked out onto the crowd.
Megan shifted into her human form.
"I have no way of verifying my identity," she said, "so you'll just have to trust me."
Connor and Aqualad didn't really have secret identities, so they just stood with their teammates. Stunned silence followed the unmasking, and then there was raucous applause.
"So," Conner grunted, "Will you join us?"
There were many sounds of agreement.
The League was appalled. Replays of the incident were played on all the news stations. There was much speculation on who the Leaguers were, and if they were going to unmask themselves as well.
It was the Flash who made the decision. He argued that the team, who were just kids, had mostly swayed the human populace to fight in a war of certain death. He said that, with the people's help, they stood a fighting chance. And the only way to completely win over their trust was to follow the team's example. The next day, the entire League unmasked themselves in a long but important ceremony. And the people agreed to fight, for the planet and the people on it, meta, alien, or not.
The villains came on their own. The Light sent a video proclaiming their temporary truce, and villains all over the world turned themselves in. Each villain was privately spoken to, and each pledged to fight with the heroes for the earth, but just this once.
There was no longer heroes, villains, or civilians. There were only people of earth and invading aliens. There were three groups of people: Techs, Incapes, and Warriors. Women and children, as long as they were physically able, were sent to fight along with husbands, sons and brothers. Techs were technological genii, who developed weapons to incapacitate the aliens, and with only a few days to invent and build them, too. Incapes were people who were unable to fight for whatever reason. They mass-produced the Techs' inventions and distributed them to the Warriors. The founding members of the Justice League were appointed as leaders, but they were only there to guide and direct in battle. There were no internal conflicts; everyone was too focused on saving the earth. It could have been described as World Peace if it wasn't for the impending war.
The team was sent to invade an alien ship and gather information on their plans with two kids from Central City High, Chris and David, who used to bully Wally, a young woman named Arielle, or Ari, as she preferred, and a ten-year-old girl named Natasha. Wally immediately took to Natasha and took her under his wing. They trained together and became quite close almost immediately.
They approached the alien ship cautiously. It was docked outside what had once been Dublin, Ireland, and the aliens were currently going through the city in small pods, looking for survivors and brutally murdering them.
"Guys, they'll probably have left aliens on the ship, so be prepared to fight," Robin told the loosely assembled group. Kaldur had gone into depression after the obliteration of Atlantis, and Robin had taken over the role of leader. Kaldur lurked in the background.
Wally clenched his fists. This reminded him of a certain failsafe mission, and that was not a good thing.
They weren't wearing masks anymore. The costumes helped their abilities, but the masks were redundant now. They had no more secret identities; their true faces were open to the world and they would die to save it along with the civilians as equals.
"Let's go," Conner said.
They went in cautiously, but they were sighted anyway. The team dashed forward, the others covering them with weapon blasts. When they came upon a large group of aliens, Wally told the rest of the team to go ahead; he and the humans would stay behind and cover them. The team was soon gone, and the aliens converged on the small group. They were driven back out the doors. As the five tried to push back into the throng of aliens, one alien got off a lucky shot, hitting Natasha. The other four carted her away to hide; the aliens were surging to the inside of the ship to attack the team. Wally held Natasha in his arms, trying and failing not to cry. Chris and David each put a hand on his back, as if comforting him. Ari was tensely gripping her gun, but managed to pat Natasha's shoulder comfortingly. Natasha was dying. The little ten-year-old, if the aliens hadn't invaded, would have done great things with her life, but instead she was forced to watch, surrounded by people she barely knew, as her lifeblood streamed down her chest. She choked back a sob.
"I-I'm sorry, guys," Wally whispered. "I'm supposed to be a hero. I failed."
"No," David stated with certainty. "This is a war for the world; innocents will die. No matter how painful or sad the deaths are, they happen. No one can stop what is already in motion."
Wally's eyes darkened. "The aliens will pay. We've been simply trying to drive them off before now. Now we avenge Natasha. The aliens will die." He gripped Natasha's lifeless body tighter for emphasis.
"But heroes don't kill," Chris whispered.
Wally's mouth was a hard, firm line of determination. "Then I'm not a hero, not any more. I will give all in my power to stop the aliens. And if I must kill, then so be it."
Ari narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. As a military veteran, she knew, more than anyone, that war changed people. She could remember a time, many years ago, when she wanted to be a missionary. Then she saw war for the first time and truly saw what it was like. She saw things she'd never be able to unsee. She saw people die in many horrible ways. She wanted their killers to pay. She knew what Wally wanted. It was a horrible thing to want on other people, but in these aliens, who were taking over their world for fun, she found it acceptable. She wondered if that made her a bad person.
A shout of triumph and a large explosion jolted the group of five–no, four–from their vigil around Natasha's body. Robin ran up to them with the rest of the team in tow, waving a chip in the air. His smile faded as his gaze fell upon Natasha's body. M'Gann choked back a sob when she saw it, and Superboy gripped her shoulder. Artemis ran and embraced Wally. Aqualad turned away; it seemed he was giving up.
"She didn't have to die," Wally hissed, his voice breaking from recent crying. "If the League had taken that first alien seriously, then..." He trailed off.
The team and their companions sat silently, eyes closed, grieving for the young girl who had given so much for the world, as an alien ship blew up in the background.
Wally, Chris, David, and Ari were sent to join Earth's front lines, which was attacking the aliens' base in what was once Metropolis. There was no more team, no more League. All lines previously drawn between those of earth were erased. There was only those with humanity and those without. Because the aliens had no humanity. None.
The small group of four were warmly greeted at the battlefield by relieved medics. At the makeshift camp, the four were surprised by the army that made up the front lines: boys and girls aged 7 to 50-something clutched loaded guns and talked battle strategy. They were handed their own guns and instructed to teach the 5- and 6-year-olds how to shoot.
The world was truly desperate if 5-year-olds were on the front lines.
The aliens attacked at around noon. The assembled forces simply grabbed their guns and fired back, gradually pushing the aliens back. But not without a price: humans, young and old, died. Lots of them. And Wally became mad. He saw red. He tore and slashes at the aliens with his bare hands, too fast for the eye to follow, massacring them as they had massacred the humans.
Kid Flash was losing his mind. And he wasn't the only one. Once the people had held back, only trying to scare the aliens off. But now they were slowly breaking, murdering the aliens as horribly as they were being murdered. They were gaining ground, but losing their sanity and, it seemed, their humanity. If this continued, the humans and aliens would just be two species, both hoping to completely wipe out the other in the most brutal way possible. And Wally was past his breaking point. His sanity was gone, and his humanity seemed to be on the way out. With each alien dead, he felt Natasha's death one small bit avenged, but there were so many aliens...and he felt a terrible joy at the thought of destroying them. Carefree, jokester Wally, the one who flirted with all the girls and annoyed the heck out of the boys was long gone. In his place was a savage boy, hell-bent on destroying every alien he laid his hands on to avenge Natasha.
The world, while seemingly winning the war, was losing its humanity. The thing that held them above the aliens, the thing they sought to protect, was fading. Peaceful men and women were killing aliens every day. Every person on Earth felt a savage joy at the pain they caused the aliens, after a time.
Except one. A small girl named Alisha did not enjoy the savages the people were turning into. She hid from the war, running from town to town, safe place to safe place, avoiding being spotted by aliens and humans alike. She did not want to kill. Yes, she wanted to end the war, but she didn't want humanity to deteriorate because of it.
She happened to be hiding in the ruins of Metropolis when the front lines for the people engaged in battle. She saw Wally, zipping from alien to alien, and each one he left fell lifelessly to the ground. He was the farthest from human now than anyone else, it seemed, but she had to get through to him. She had a plan, but she needed his help.
"Wally!" she called. He sped over to her hiding place. She looked into his livid, unfocused eyes and tears of pity sprung to her eyes. He was only trying to do the right thing, but the aliens had stolen everything he cared for. Hadn't she heard on the radio that Artemis and his parents had been killed?
"I have a plan," she whispered.
"What is it?" he asked. The desperation was clear in his voice.
"We kill the leader." It was a simple plan, really. It was a wonder no one had ever tried it before; it was used so often on shows, after all.
So Wally ran, with Alisha on his back, through the battlefield and gunfire, through bodies flailing in the last throes of death. They reached the aliens' mothership without much incident, and joined the throng of people pushing their way in. After a brutal battle, they were inside, and it was a simple matter to use the information Robin had gathered to find the way to the leader's quarters.
The leader was there, and he was expecting them. He was the largest alien either of them had seen, with red eyes and pure, unrestrained malice seemingly eminating from his body.
"It's him," Wally whispered, his eyes narrowing. Indeed it was; the alien who turned the world into a battleground, women and children into martyrs, and men into killers. His evil knew no bounds.
"Let me kill him," Alisha whispered. Wally hesitated, but let her off his back. She gripped a simple dagger, coated with a poison lethal to the aliens. He was large, clawed, and had thousands of goons surrounding him. The goons turned out to be less of a threat than they seemed as Wally dashed forward and attacked them. He cleared her a path and Alisha ran forward, holding her dagger in front of her. All her rage at the alien race was put into the blow. It was her tribute to the many people who had died. Only one life she had to take to avenge millions. Before the leader could do anything but look surprised, the dagger was plunged into his heart, or where it would have been if he'd had one.
And he fell.
His death caused every alien to fall down, dead. It appeared they were operating as a hive mind, with him as the leader. With his death, the others followed suit.
The rebuilding began in ernest, then faded as people grew bored and thought that, with the invasion over, they didn't have to work their backs off any more. World Peace lasted a few months, but underlying dissent soon made itself known, and the temporary alliance the world had had was broken. The world's population had decreased by a whole fourth, and countless families were grieving lost loved ones.
The heroes went back to saving people, but didn't bother with masks. It didn't make a difference; they no longer had secret identities. The young heroes returned to school. They tried to keep it as normal as possible, but that was difficult, seeing as they had no secret identities any more and it was the aftermath of the invasion.
The villains managed to keep from committing crime until the rebuilding was done, a Herculean feat for them. Some even helped with the rebuilding.
The races of aliens once plagued by the Meiritans had sent diplomats to help comfort and build, and they frequently praised Alisha's heroism. Alisha was offered a place on the team, but she rejected it, saying she was a peaceful girl and she never wanted to do anything violent again.
Wally calmed down and returned to his joking, but there was always an undercurrent of sadness. He had taken Natasha under his wing, and her death had shocked him to the core. Robin did all he could to comfort his friend, but what Wally truly needed was the comfort of Artemis and his parents, and they were gone. He had no one but his uncle Barry, and the Flash had gone into a deep depression when a stray bomb had killed Iris.
No one was ever the same. Conflict was few and far between. It seemed people were afraid of igniting a war as large as the one they had just fought. People were generally nicer to each other, and the families who had lost ones they loved banded together.
Earth had survived intact, and the people were ready to move on. They praised their savior, Alisha, and Wally, once they found out about his aid. But even his 'savior' status couldn't lift the speedster's spirits. Because, deep inside, Wally had given up. He had no one left to hold on to, and he desperately needed someone. He'd lost too much to come out of it, and had retreated deep inside himself.
And he never came back out.