A/N: Please read and review!
Grief hung in the air, but it should have been a time of celebration. They saved the world from an alien invasion and eventual destruction, and some of their mentors cleared their names after a devastating attack few years before. They stopped the Light, but there was grief. They lost one of their number during the desperate quest to stop the destruction from happening. Kid Flash, Wally West, just vanished. They could not even find his body. All they had was his memorial and his parents an empty coffin.
That was why he needed to take a leave of absence from the Team. It was started with Dick, Kaldur, and Wally, and he really needed to come to terms with his actions during the Reach invasion.
Dick thought that Wally's death was his fault. He was the one who pulled both Artemis and Wally out of retirement for his plan to work. The failed mental exercise from almost five years ago began to haunt him again. Like then, he led his friend to his death, and that kind of guilt would be hard to overcome. It was hard to forgive himself.
He could hear Kaldur and Barbara handing out mission assignments. He could not help but smile to himself.
"Business as usual."
That was how Dick went back to focusing on his studies back at Bludhaven. He would patrol the city like he did Gotham City during his younger years, and that would be the only appearance of Nightwing. It was not the same as working with the Team, but it was enough.
"A strange object fell from the sky past the Thames River in London at around 7:07 AM this morning," a reporter said.
There was the strange object sitting behind her with different scientists studying it. The stone was large and black, and there was a sword in it.
"You have got to be kidding me," Dick said to himself.
People in the crowd were struggling to get near the strange object. Apparently the temptation to go over to pull the sword was too strong for some people to ignore. People kept referring to it as King Arthur's sword and speculating how legitimate the rule of Britain's current royal family was. He switched off the news and left his apartment.
Dick went to the stairs, and his neighbor, a mysterious young woman, was walking up. She smiled at him in greeting, but she never said anything. That was when the Total Tremor hit. The two of them stumbled and fell down the stairs during the short period of time that the Total Tremor shook their world.
"You okay?" He asked her.
"Um. . .bloody nose?" She answered, pinching her nose and leaning forward a little bit. "You?"
"I might have hit my head," he admitted.
Dick helped her to her feet, and he could hear the chaos and damage done by what would become known as the Total Tremor. Oddly enough, his cell phone
"I'm fine, Bruce," Dick said to the worried man on the other end. The two of them had been through so much over their years of crime fighting, but old habits die hard.
"That tremor hit the whole world," the man who took care of him said when he knew that Dick was safe. "The Team and the League are busy with rescue efforts. You should check into what's happening."
They were escorted out of the building, and Dick could feel someone watching them. He discreetly turned in that direction, and found someone wearing a sweatshirt and sunglasses and having a dark scarf wrapped around his face.
The young woman checked her nose for more blood. "What's with that?" She also noticed the stranger watching the two of them.
"I don't know," he said. He protectively grabbed her arm. "We need to go."
They walked away from their building, and the stranger followed them. The stranger would walk quickly to catch up with them and pulled out a metal object.
"Hand her over," the stranger hissed, pointing the ugly looking knife at Dick. "And I can assure you that your death will be short."
The young woman picked up a broken piece of metal and held it like a sword. "Get behind me."
"I don't think -" Dick was pulled behind her.
The stranger attacked, but she was able to hold him back, even though he was bigger than she was. She was quick in her attacks, and she used his size and slowness to her advantage, tripping him up. They chose to run at that moment, and the stranger scrambled to his feet, feeling around for his knife. The same knife Dick picked up before they ran off.
"You know where you're going?" He asked her.
"My uncle lives near here," she answered. "He usually deals with stuff like this."
"How many times were you nearly kidnapped?"
"Not as many as you, Richard Greyson," she said with a smirk.
"Funny," he said. "Very funny."
An older man leaning heavily on a cane, and when he saw the stranger, he pulled himself to his full height. The stranger stopped running and slid to the ground.
"Go back to your mistress," the old man said in a strong voice compelling the stranger to disappear. "Elaine, you should have waited for me to get you."
"Sorry, Uncle, but he was watching us the whole time," the woman known as Elaine replied.
"We don't have much time," the man muttered to himself. "We need to go. Now!"
"Where?" Dick asked.
"Where else?" He answered. "London. That is where our solution lies."
The dread ruler of Apokolips known as Darkseid watched his people toil in created the weapons his great warriors needed in their conquest. He could faintly hear his new found allies arguing with each other, but he paid them no heed. The news that one in their number had given him was troubling.
The weapon had appeared which could only mean that its owner was walking the earth and of an age who would be able to use it.
"He died before having any children," one of his allies commented. "Perhaps it is for you."
"That is pure nonsense," Darkseid said, not even bothering to look at his ally. "He died before siring a son, but he did have one daughter who was hidden away after her birth. That cursed Pendragon line lives on. The appearance of that sword is the only proof we need."
The last time he made the attempt to take Earth, he almost succeeded in shrouding it in darkness, but one man changed all that.
"Find the Pendragon," he ordered. "Kill him. Bring him to our side. Make sure he will not be a threat."
"I have already spoken with someone who will do that," the only ally who Darkseid even bothered to mention by name, Vandal Savage, said. "She shares no love for her brother's line."
"I've always found Morgen Le Feye to be a great ally," Darkseid approved.
