MOUNT JUSTICE FEBRUARY 29 2056 3:57 AM
"Come out slave, wherever you think you can hide, I will find you. I will always find you, and then I will bring peace to this wretched planet."
The massive Blue Beetle hovered above the long decimated remains of mount Justice. Ash filtered down, but he did not have any issue with visibility. One life form, non-powered meat, not worth his time. However he knew that he must be at the right place, the escapee was here, but where did it go?
Blue Beetle landed, noting absently as the meat hid. Good, it was scared of him, and hardly worth the trouble. What was far more interesting was the traces of Zeta and Chronotron radiation that he was picking up.
"Clever, but wherever, whenever you run you cannot escape peace."
It was a neat trick, but he had seen it now. He was the infiltrator, and copying neat tricks was his job. He could follow. With a thought he activated a portion of his Reach tech he had hardly used during the invasion began. He could touch the Bleed, the gunk between dimensions, and he could still see the path that was cut into it. It was already fuzzy but he could still follow.
And so he did.
The Bleed swirled around him, colors danced and the path faded. If he didn't get out of here soon he risked being stuck. What did it matter if he was off by a month or so anyway?
HALL OF JUSTICE APRIL 2 2016 10:57 AM
Conner could not say that the liked the depressed atmosphere that had come over the team's temporary headquarters in the Hall of Justice. It had been less than two weeks since they lost their home, and just a couple of days since they had recovered their team. And the team was still reeling from the fight. Most were staying with their families, or in Mal's case with his girlfriend. There were a few exceptions however.
Conner was obviously staying here, and M'gann was sitting in the other room, not really doing much. La'gaan and Gar were out with Nightwing. Conner would bet money that he was half trying to get more information and half trying to comfort the recovered captives.
Jaime was the only other hero left here. Nightwing had lied to the Reyes family, saying that Jaime had been selected to be in some fancy school program in Gotham. He wanted to keep an eye on the boy, they had no idea what the Reach did to him, and what his connection was. Jaime was normally quiet but both Jaime and Bart had been more closed lipped than usual about what had happened on board the ship.
Conner went and sat on the couch, where Jaime was curled up with one of Ted Kord's notebooks. Jaime had not been thrilled when Nightwing had insisted that he stay with the team for a couple of days, instead of going straight home. However the offer of those notebooks seemed to help.
"Do you want to fly by El Paso?" Conner asked, breaking the silence, "I'm sure stopping by to just see them for lunch or something would be fine."
Jaime hesitated but did not look up, "not right now."
"Really? Why not? Whats in those notes that's so engaging?" Conner pressed.
"Right now... Ted's making fun of various supervillains 'blowhard. Talks like a B-movie villain. Beware under that mask lies a stupid beard.' " Jaime read. "But that's not really it. It's just, they had a way to track me, ese. And if Bart hadn't... They would have..."
"Would have what?" What did they do to him on that ship?
"They would have attacked me at my home. I just can't... I can't put them in danger again. Not like that. So I'll wait. Go along with Nightwing's special program lie or whatever, not that I think my mom buys it at all... It doesn't mean that I like doing this. I just..."
Jaime never finished that thought, he just clutched his head and screamed. Dropping the notebook and sliding onto the floor.
"M'gann! We need your help here." As much as he disapproved of how she had been using her powers recently, Conner knew she would never attack someone like this who was not an enemy.
She ran into the room, however by the time she was there Jaime was already sitting up, and had let go of his head.
As she knelt next to him, Conner asked "what was that?"
"I don't..." he stopped thought better of what he was going to say, and continued "it was a shock, some sort of...feedback? All I know is that there is something big, Reach, and not very friendly out there."
"Where?" M'gann asked, and Conner can tell from her face that she is already prepping the Bio-Ship.
"Umm..." he waited "not sure but I can track it, I think." Jaime then looked over at Superboy, "Tag. You're it this time".
CENTRAL CITY APRIL 2 2016 11:29 AM
"Not that it isn't totally crash and all that you wanted to hang out and stuff, but what's the motive? It seems so sudden, are you on to me, in to me, trying to get sports outcomes, because I am really bad at history!"
Cassandra looked at Bart Allen aka Impulse aka Bart Impulse Allen, as she followed him to the edge of town "just wondering why you are not hanging at the Hall of Justice."
"Why would I be? It's totally boring there, with all the reading and thinking, and questions. Besides things are way more fun out here, but if you are so concerned, why aren't you there?"
She though, it was amazing how Bart could talk so fast over so many different topics and still hit the nail on the head. Finally she admitted "It's kinda hard to face Blue right now."
"Why would you say that, it was that 'black beetle' dude, he was totally not crash and totally not..."
"I know", she managed to cut him off, "That's not it at all, it's just we should have found everyone before... I should have made that point clear to Nightwing... We almost left him, several times. How do I face him after that?"
"But you didn't, everyone got out, and we totally crashed their mode. And the best part is that Blue Beetle..."
Bart stopped, all of the color drained from his face. Cassie turned around to look where he was looking. How did something that big and in full armor sneak up on them?
The thing was huge, and the armor looked like Blue's. A whole lot like Blue's, but it was way to huge and bulky to be him, and besides Blue would never point a plasma cannon at his team.
"Found you slave"
She heard it speak, heard the cannon whine, and felt herself moving way to fast, having been grabbed by Impulse. "Whats the plan?" She called.
"Run"
"That's not a very good plan"
"The meat's right slave."
And with that the would seemed to spin out from under them. She and Impulse bounced apart, neither one landing well.
"At last we will have peace" Beetle said, plasma cannon aimed at Impulse, he never got the chance to fire though, as a golden lasso had looped around his arm and disrupted his aim.
"I don't think so uh... Big Beetle thing?"
That didn't stop him long as he swung his arm and sent her flying. This time however, Wonder Girl landed well and was already converted that momentum to a second charge. Impulse was still down, and he looked out of it, that vertigo blast must have hit him harder than she thought.
Fortunately the next time that she was sent flying, Impulse was back on his feet muttering "I am so sorry and I won't let it happen again."
Good, two on one massively over powered bug... that's like twice as good at it was a couple of seconds ago. Still not great but Wonder Girl would take what she could get.
It was not much though, since Impulse's main mode of attack was to ram into his opponents and he just bounced off this Beetle. Not that she was doing much better, but at least no one had died yet...
Oh that was a BIG gun.
"Time to get the meat back on-mode"
Wonder Girl crossed her arms in front of her face and braced for an impact that never occurred.
Blue Beetle had slammed his battering ram into this unknown Beetle. Hitting him in the back of the knee and throwing the shot high into the air.
Mr. Big Beetle went down on one knee, and Blue bounced off. He landed in a decidedly graceless way, and was sprawled on the ground. "That went way better in my head" he mumbled to himself.
Next thing she knew Superboy had landed in front of her and charged while Miss Martian floated down.
Blue had gotten back on his feet and started talking. "Can you get a read on who's in there?"
She looked towards Miss Martian, but before anyone could answer Blue kept talking. "Really? … Was that sarcasm? When did you..."
Blue was cut off by Superboy slamming into him, thrown by the Big Bug.
"Blue focus" Conner admonished, "battle your inner demon later."
"That is why you will fail meat, what you call demons, are really strength, order, peace."
Superboy launched himself back at the Bug, and she was about to follow when she heard Blue behind her muttering about peace and induction and deduction.
"What?" She turned on him.
"Start with the evidence, not the theory," Blue said, "it's one of the things that Ted's notes stressed. And I've followed the evidence. I think I figured out a plan but it will be... messy..."
"What is it Blue?" Impulse seemed better now, revealed almost that Blue was there. It made sense Blue was their best weapon against Reach Tech.
"I think I might be able to..." Blue stopped and seemed to search for the right word "hack? The scarab brain interface."
Wonder Girl's "what do you need us to do?", sounded at the same time as Impulse's "You sure you want to do this?"
"I'm sure," Blue replied looking Impulse straight in the eye "I have to try. I just need you two to distract him, while I get this ready."
That was all they needed before rushing off to help Superboy. The Big Blue Bug was bearing down on Conner, and had the two deadly looking arm blades out.
She rammed him from the side, throwing off his aim, and Impulse powered underneath him. Superboy focused on grappling the Bug. She threw one end of her lasso towards Impulse, and he started winding it through the Bug's legs.
Superboy got behind him and pushed while she pulled with all of her might.
The Bug landed on his knees and made a swing for Impulse. However Impulse was already long gone and Blue had rushed in, taking a deep cut across the stomach. Get a distraction so that you can throw yourself on a sword, that might have been the worst plan she had ever seen.
The other Beetle tried to pull his blade back, but it seemed Blue's armor has interfaced with it, binding the two together. Ok, the initial strike made way more sense now.
"I wish there was a less painful way to do that" Blue mumbled to himself, as he placed his hands on either side of the other Bugs head and they both collapsed.
"What just happened?" She asked aloud.
"I'm not sure" Superboy replied, "but it sure looks like one of M'gann's metal battles."
Wonder Girl wheeled around to Miss Martian who was still watching the fight as if through a haze "Can you help him?"
"What?" Miss Martian shook her head.
"I don't know if that's a good idea" Impulse cut in "It's a scarab fight and as far as I know those things are inorganic, I mean have you ever heard it over a mental link?"
"No, but..." M'gann seemed to get a little more focused "I still might be able to lend Jaime some strength"
"Then what are you waiting for?"
MENTAL LANDSCAPE APRIL 2 2016 11:44 AM
M'gann knew she had to find Jaime, but the mental landscape she was in was definitely not his. It was too old too broken. It must belong to that other Beetle. A week ago she would have blasted it, before the battle even started. But not now, now she was afraid to even touch the shattered memories on the wall.
She did note with a small amount of irony as she looked around that blasting this mind would not have done much good anyway. It was broken, shattered already. Memories of war death and peace all intermingled. Broken memories played like looping moves on shards of glass, this must be what … his... mind...
No. Focus, help Jaime.
Just thinking his name to herself she heard his voice echo "Therapy, we are going to get him lots of therapy."
M'gann hurried to the voice, she had to find him before she could even hope to help him.
She then heard another voice, it sounded old and worn "You are dead, they let you die!"
"Listen" Jaime said in a voice that sounded forced but also quiet, "you have to fight it, you can fight it, you have free will, and I know you are strong enough"
"Stop haunting me kid, just leave me in peace."
The broken memories all seemed to coalesce into one screen, surrounding and enveloping everything.
She looked up out of the pod, the glass tinted everything red but she could still see one of the Reach Scientists looking at her through it.
The Scientist looked at her and motioned to three ray guns also mounted outside of the case. At the same time she heard an incomprehensible alien language and "Lets get you out of your little host, and we can fix you right up."
She watched as the Scientist moved to a control panel and entered a code. Then she felt it.
The pain was intense, focused on her spine but spreading through every nerve.
/maintain focus [Jaime Reyes] you must fight
Right, she heard herself say, or maybe she just thought it.
Focus, ok.
Focus on the red light.
The fire moved through the house bathing the shattered walls in red light
/maintain focus, here, now
The lines on the glass, the lines
The doll was eerie in the light, the lines marking its joints seemed to be deeper and sinister. The yellow goggles half melted.
/focus, do not think, focus, do not think, focus, do not think
It was not the fire turning the doll red
All her senses changed in that instant. There was no pain but there was. There was no sensation but she was falling, and even when the metallic clang signaled that she hit the ground she was still falling.
She was upside down and all she could see was a foot, the hem of some jeans and limp fingertips.
Time passed or stood still. Noting changed until the door exploded.
She was still upside down. She saw a different women, green skin, short red hair. She looked so familiar. Green hands held a tan wrist, and then started forcing down on a chest.
"Please Breath, Please Breath" was said in time with the compressions.
/proximity alert, proximity alert
But no one hears her and the green girl disappeared.
"There now" She heard "lets fix you right up"
M'gann felt herself reeling from the memory, that one was real sharp and powerful, and... but she can not allow herself to hesitate, she cannot afford to now. She struggled to think of something, anything other that what she just saw. And she found her distraction by watching the shattered memories as she ran.
First it was Bart running
A flickering TV set showing a house burning on the news
Slave
A voice saying "There was no other choice. Don't you think I wish there was"
Bart collared and on his knees
Waiting outside the Hall of Justice
Meat
Multicolored space dilated with a path fading away
A pain and pressure right between his shoulder blades
The passages remind her of the teams first time in Bialya. She can not only see the shattered pieces, but the more she moves the more she notices pieces that should fit together. Like a giant moving jigsaw puzzle. And a puzzle can be reassembled.
She snapped out of her thoughts upon seeing Jaime sitting on the floor head in his hands. Running over to him she placed one hand on his shoulder and the other on the side of his face.
"Listen to me it's not real, I swear"
"But it could have been," He started, still only looking at his hands, "they could have got..."
"They didn't "
Any future input was cut off by that same old voice shouting "Hey you! You're the lady who tried to help him, why are you here? You're never here."
She turned around and saw him, an old man, worn raw and bloody, and built like a shoulder. He had cropped blond hair and unnaturally blue eyes. His was on his knees with his arms chained above his head. And on one of those arms she sees a large tattoo, 'PEACEMAKER'.
"What exactly is going on here?" He demanded.
"I think," she started "I think I know, just give me a second to put it back together, ok?"
And she focused on knitting the pieces, Bart running, him seeking, the radiation, the rainbow space. Each shard could be placed together, her power seeping out to bind them.
"Please, that's enough."
She stopped, and looked back at him. He was standing now, two guns in holsters attached to his belt. Then his eyes opened wide.
She felt Jaime tackle her and then drag her behind Peacemaker with him. He looked at something that she cannot see "I though we would have more time..."
Peacemaker got several shots off before he was lifted into the air. She and Jaime rushed forward. She might not be able to see it, but she was sure she was a better fighter than Jaime was without his armor on. However before they could reach Peacemaker, he landed back on the floor.
Jaime laughed, "I think we have a little more free will on our side then we thought."
She could almost see it now it looked like a ghostly image of Jaime's armor however the face was completely blank. No blue marking no eyes, just black. It walked up besides Jaime and fired at the still invisible thing. That thing, she assumed had to be this Peacemaker's armor.
Jaime's armor then turned to look at her. It placed a hand on her back and she 'heard'
/query: Can you fix/mend [me] like you fixed [Peacemaker]
"Fix? How are you broken?"
/incorrect assumption: not this [me] but
The armor pointed and following the finger she saw the enemy armor for the first time.
M'gann reached out with her power, and felt this other armor. It was completely and distinctly alien, even to her. But she had found and erased CADMUS programing before. If only she could just get a starting point...
She felt Jaime beside her. "You are looking at the weapons files right now logical stuff, that's what the scarab calls on whenever it is unsure as to what to do." She could feel him shrug "Some people laugh, some bake, and some try and figure out how to exterminate."
There, that was a starting point, an emotion, a reason. And with that point everything else began to fall into place. And she did not like what she saw.
"There won't be much left, after the Reach programing is removed."
/proceed
"Are you sure?"
/affirmative
"M'gann," Jaime started "almost everything the scarab was got overwritten. They made it nothing more then a weapon, please give it his free will back, just..."
"I understand."
CENTRAL CITY APRIL 2 2016 12:20 PM
Cassandra sat, bored, it felt like hours since the battle had moved into the heads of Jaime, M'gann, and that other guy. She was worried for her friends and all but there was absolutely noting that she could do now. Any attack, any movement of those three could have unforeseen consequences.
Worry was radiating off Conner in waves and Bart seemed to be pulling a Jaime and arguing with himself. Unlike Jaime however, he was speaking way to fast for her to make out what he was saying.
"So" she started, hoping to brake through the awkwardness "who exactly do you think that is?"
Bart fell silent right away, but it was Conner that spoke up "A weapon."
"Yeah, but so not..." She started only to be cut off by Bart.
"Yeah a weapon, that's right, looks like something that the Reach made, but we have so totally crashed his mode, and he can't go back now, he's here, we won, err, we're winning, I hope we are winning and he will never..."
"Wait," Cassie cut him off "Do you think he followed you here, like, from the future?"
"What no, that would be crazy, totally crazy, the future is crash, we have time tourists and everything, there is no way that the Reach are still around then."
"But what about," She forged on "what he said earlier, you can tell us what is going on really."
"Unless he can't" Conner stated.
"What do you mean can't... oh 'spoilers' " she whispered using air quotes.
"And distraction," Bart started "it seems the fight is over they're waking up."
She heard the clinking as Jaime's armor retracted, and watched as M'gann opened her eyes. Conner got to M'gann first demanding "what did you do?" While Jaime held both hands up at Bart smiling and going "it's me".
She heard the same clinking sound, "Uh guys, not to rain on these reunions, but Big Bag and Ugly is waking up."
Bart looked very shocked as the armor partially retreated to show an older blond man struggling to sit up. Not that she could blame him. The guy had way to many years on him but that was Peacemaker, one of the heroes that had supported Jaime joining the team, saying that he was a good kid.
The man looked at Bart then Jaime then Bart again. "You did good boy, better than I ever could..." He then gave a wry grin "Just don't let it go to your head."
He then looked back at Jaime "It's good to see you kid, but this ain't over not by a long shot. That thing is still in me and still has an open channel..."
"We can," Jaime started, "we will work something out."
Looking back Cassie was not expecting what happened next, but before anyone could move he slammed his still armored arm blade between his own shoulder blades popping out the scarab.
"Sorry kid, its better this way"
As Peacemaker collapsed, she held Jaime, "I'm sorry"
BIO-SHIP APRIL 2 2016 12:50 PM
When M'gann spoke it was barely above a whisper, but that did not stop Conner from hearing her. "You were right, but I think... I know... it can still be fixed."
Conner gave her a skeptical look "Everything?"
"No, just more recent things, I promise I'll tell you later, when I can, ok?"
"I see," Conner then sighs, "are you happy at least?"
"What?"
"With... you know..." Conner fumbled, not really wanting to bring up La'gaan, but it had to be done.
"Oh, yes."
"Ok, so do you... um... do you want to pretend that Nightwing was the human donor for me?"
"Why?" That seemed to come out of left field to M'gann.
"You know, so I've have his nifty superpower, to remain friends with my exes."
"Yeah I'd like that, a lot. One condition though..."
Conner turned to look at her, "what?"
"You have to stop giving La'gaan a hard time."
"I can do that."
HALL OF JUSTICE APRIL 2 2016 1:13 PM
Jaime, Bart and Cassandra were waiting for Nightwing to return, so that they could give him a debriefing. It was something that none of them were really looking forward too. Cassie was nervous, sitting at a table bouncing her leg up and down. Jaime sat on the couch reading the same line of Ted's notebook over and over, while Bart just stared off into space.
Jaime reached out and grabbed his arm "you ok, hermano?"
"I should be asking you that...I'm sorry," Bart said not moving.
"About what?"
"I should have believed you... that you would never..."
Jaime just smiled "Of course I would never, I've got you."
At this point Cassandra flung her arms around the two of them. "Really guys, stop having moments without me, you are making me feel all third wheel-ly."
PACIFIC OCEAN APRIL 2 2016
The Reach Scientist worked at her lab, trying to fix the deviation caused by some very determined meat just a few days prior, when her computer pinged. She took a look, and smiled.
"The Ambassador, is going to see this, we have obtained some interesting data"
A.N. It has been forever since I have written something for this site. However something about the future Blue Beetle's mouth really reminded me of Peacemaker from Blue Beetles Pre-Boot comics. Besides in those comics he does get infected with a Scarab, and 'turn into the monster' he was afraid Jaime would become. This is a written out fic that uses my theory right now that if not for Bart, Jaime would have died on the Reach ship and someone else would take over. Remember in the mentor speech, all the civilians who saw Jaime just assumed that he was the old Beetle in a different suit.
Also I am calling this complete for now, but leaving it open ended... One small battle does not win the war after all. In addition so far this timeline's Peacemaker is still fine, just out doing his own thing.