Author's Notes: Hi there. This is a crossover with Stargate Atlantis after Season 5 of the Teen Titans and right at the beginning of Atlantis. Though I loved the show in its entirety I thought it would be more fun to write the Teen Titans, Major Sheppard and company discovering the Pegasus Galaxy together without much assistance from the super Asgard beam ships. I've wanted to do this for a really long time but I've never really had the nerve until now. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 1
To Meet Your Maker
Several million years ago, a race called the Ancients came from a distant galaxy to escape a merciless threat. A magnificently advanced race, they brought with them great knowledge of science and philosophy. Here in the Milky Way, they thrived for many millennia before a great plague all but wiped them out. Desperate to escape oblivion, the few not stricken by it created a massive giant city ship called Atlantis in the Arctic on Earth. With a tearful goodbye to the infected, they soon left their capital behind them to start anew in a distant galaxy.
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Ancient Outpost
Present Day Antarctica
Batman yawned quietly as he worked his way through a maze of icy hallways in a secluded area of an Ancient outpost, his flashlight being his only guide in the dark. Though he was plenty tired, having been up for days, his constant endurance training allowed him to ignore the fatigue. Still, he decided he would wrap this single-minded quest for answers in a few hours to grab some shuteye.
After a few more minutes of walking, he stumbled upon a small room. In it were a number of Ancient computer terminals covered in frost. The Dark Knight shined his flashlight about the room, counting at least five in all. Lining the walls was a series of texts. Though Batman was still learning the fundamentals of the Ancient alphabet, he still knew what Stargate symbols looked like. Eight were upon the wall.
He activated his radio. "Dr. Jackson, this is Batman. I've found what looks like an address."
"A Stargate address?" The Archeologist replied.
"That's correct. I'm going to find my way back to the chair room. Meet me there."
High above the Antarctic, Superman flew towards the coordinates that Batman had given him, his cape flapping in the intense wind. All the way, he puzzled as to why his friend had called him to this desolate wasteland. He spotted a small black figure in the distance standing in the snow and took closer look with his supervision. Batman stood there, wearing a heavy winter coat and holding binoculars. Superman quickly landed near him and shook his hand.
"Clark. I'm glad you could make it." Batman said.
"I came as quickly as I could, but I can't stay for long. I have to get back to Metropolis soon."
Batman shook his head and said, "This could take a bit. There's a lot that needs to be discussed."
"Go ahead." Superman said firmly, knowing full well that if Batman felt something needed to be discussed in person it deserved his full attention.
"Do you remember the alien ships you fought against last year in orbit?" Batman asked.
Superman nodded, remembering that battle. Two dozen alien ships of unknown origin took had taken positions around Earth. The president and his joint-chiefs asked him to meet them at the White House. There, a high ranking General called Hammond briefed him about a number of secret military operations designed to fight alien threats. He wouldn't mention anything specific about them, only that their assets were being deployed to fight the threat in orbit before the public could find out. The Texan gentleman wanted Superman to work with the military and asked him to fly as an escort to a spacecraft called the Prometheus. Being as cocky as he was, Superman declined, thinking he could take on the threat himself. He barely managed to scrape the shields of one of their ships before he was blown out of the sky and incapacitated.
"Well… that wasn't the first time we encountered them." Batman stated.
Superman threw Batman a look of suspicion and puzzlement. "We?"
"Step over here, Clark. I'll explain everything." Batman said while motioning for him to come. Superman did so, and soon a series of rings shot up from beneath the snow and surrounded them. A second later, the rings retracted with a flash of light and the duo were nowhere to be seen.
A few moments later, Superman and Batman were walking through a narrow underground corridor together, occasionally brushing shoulders with a military officer or two.
"I can't believe you've held out on me this long, Batman." Superman said. "The Military using interplanetary wormholes for travel? Stargates on millions of planets?"
"I'm surprised you've never encountered one, before." Batman remarked.
Superman puzzled for second. "It's pretty much a maybe twelve foot ring with symbols marking its sides, right?"
"That's right."
"I saw something like that on Apokolips." His tone turned spiteful. "Darkseid must have used the technology to construct his boom tube generators."
Batman nodded, "Maybe, but Stargates can be used to travel much greater distances and are a lot safer. Darkseid must not have been able to fully grasp the technology."
"Right. The one thing I don't understand is why haven't the military revealed this to the world? Nobody panicked when I revealed what I was, the same thing with Starfire. Let's not forget about Apokolips' two invasions, either."
"It's a secret for a number of reasons: The first and foremost one is that the aliens the Military have been fighting have a lot more ground and numbers then Darkseid. They could wipe us off the face of the Earth and there isn't a thing New Eden could do to stop them. The other is that many of the aliens I've been talking about have a history with us."
"A history?"
Batman nodded. "We believe the aliens who built this place may have been responsible for seeding life in the galaxy."
"That… complicates things." Superman admitted.
"Truth be told, Darkseid's attacks did cause a stir. It showed our military the threat of invasion was a very real one, and it was also the trump card General West used to persuade the Pentagon to authorize the first trip through the Stargate.
Their conversation was cut short when they came upon de fecto meeting room of sorts where a number of military officers and outpost personnel had gathered, the centerpiece being a geeky looking scientist type standing in front of a white board. On it were the same symbols Batman had found earlier. Everyone in it turned to gaze upon the odd costumed pair.
"Is that-?"
"No way."
"Superman!"
"I can't believe they finally gave him clearance!"
Superman smiled humbly, slightly enjoying the hero worship. "I'm sorry, were we interrupting something?"
Batman rolled his eyes.
"N-No," The presenter stammered. "Please, have a seat."
"He can have mine." A man in a General's uniform offered before standing up. "I need a bathroom break."
"But Jack, we were just getting to the point of this whol-"
Jack held up a finger, "Duty calls, Daniel."
"Right." Daniel sighed as Jack exited the room, pushing up his glasses. "Yes, where were we? Oh-uh The Lost City-yes. We've gotten closer and closer to finding it but it turns out we've been looking in the wrong place all along."
Dr. Jackson pointed at six Stargate symbols drawn upon his white board, each numbered 1, 2, 3…
"We originally thought we would have a Stargate address. Six symbols representing a location in space where the Ancients left to. Now, thanks to Batman's discovery we have been able to determine that there are two more symbols to this."
"Two more?" A man spoke. Superman recognized him as Canadian due to the patch on his uniform's shoulder.
Daniel nodded and drew in a baseless triangle with a small dot atop it as symbol number 7.
"That's the symbol for Earth, the point of origin." An old woman with curly black hair stated.
The archeologist smiled and said, "Not exactly."
"You can't be right, then." The Canadian scoffed.
Daniel didn't bother to respond, instead he reached over and drew in a final symbol between six and seven.
"Eight symbols. It's not in this galaxy." Batman spoke.
Daniel nodded with a smile. "I see you've read a few mission reports."
"All of them."
Daniel blinked, stunned that the man had read so much in a little under a month.
"Right" He said before continuing. "Yes, as you can see, Atlantis is further away than we've ever imagined. However, we can still go there."
"The Zed PM." The Canadian announced, still slightly in awe of this whole situation. "It might just have enough power to create a stable wormhole."
General Jack O'Neil stood next to the ring platform outside the outpost wearing a heavy goose feather coat and holding a radio. A heavy wind was blowing, causing him to shiver ever so often. He wasn't necessarily one to complain about the weather, but he wouldn't ever have thought to come outside if he didn't need to be far out of Superman's amplified hearing range.
He spoke into his radio, "Look, I don't really care what Hardcastle thinks about Superman. That helicopter carrying the kryptonite needs to amscray"
"He has authorization from Richard Woolsey." A voice spoke back.
"Woolsey eh? Well that's dandy. I'll know exactly which paranoid bureaucrat to tell to shove-"
A new, older voice interrupted him before he had a chance to finish, "Jack, this is Hardcastle."
"Just the man I wanted to speak to." O'Neil said sarcastically.
He was famous for that kind of thing.
"Look, I don't really give a damn what you think either. I'll contact the president himself if it means not risking the security of that outpost."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Look, if the guy really wanted to he could have become a 'security threat' a long time ago and you know that!"
"He could be a sleeper or a very good actor." Hardcastle argued.
"Oh yeah, and now he has us right where he wants us, doesn't he? Look, Hammond was there the day Superman was called into the oval office to take on the Gou'ald. He seemed generally surprised about them and ended up in heaven while trying to save our asses.
"I'm not worried about him working for the Gou'ald."
Jack thought about what he meant for a second before shaking his head incredulity.
"Weren't any suspicions of him working with Darkseid on his own will dismissed?" He asked.
"Officially, yes." Hardcastle said. "Look, I know what you want to do here."
Jack shook his head as if to say, 'no, no you don't' and irascibly spat: "Oh, you've got it all figured out now don't-"
"You want to send him to Atlantis." Hardcastle accused "I swear to god Jack, that is a bad idea. Let's think for a moment; what if he is still working with that magnificent bastard? You could be handing him the biggest technological platter he's ever set eyes on."
Jack sighed, rolling his own eyes. "Well you know me. I live to serve."
"This isn't the time for jokes, Jack."
"Look, I don't even want to send him to Atlantis. I want him in on our operations in the Milky Way. Batman just wanted to introduce him to the top brass of the operation and they just happened to be here."
A moment of pause followed. A gust of wind rippled O'Neil's coat.
"What if I could get you someone like him to help out in Atlantis?"
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Titans Tower
Two Hours Earlier
Raven awoke from a deep slumber, jolting up in bed. She panted heavily and took a second to look at her alarm clock; 2 AM. Though she could not remember what nightmare she was having, a heavy sense of apprehension filled her. Meditation seemed like a good option, but something told her that she should get up instead. Acting on instinct, unusual for her, she swung her legs over the side of her bed, snatched her cloak, and made her way to the door of her room.
After she exited, she took a path down the darkened corridor that connected every Titan's room to another. She first the room of Batman's former apprentice, Robin. She couldn't guess if he was asleep or awake. Some nights he would stay up late obsessing over small things such as why Slade returned to speak to Beast Boy about Terra in the security room. Other nights he could be sound asleep after an all day session of training.
The Boy Wonder was the epitome of arbitrary and unpredictable activity and sometimes disposition. He did what he believed needed to be done without hesitation, never reaching for the golden apple that was self-indulgence. It was a shame that someone who worked so hard to protect the tree could never have a bite of its fruit.
Next up came Beast Boy. She knew he had to sleeping. It was like him to stay up til 3 AM playing on his ridiculous X-Box games before falling into a deep sleep. Lately though, he had been going to bed earlier and earlier so he could sleep as long as possible and the empath could easily tell why. She wished she could talk with him about some of the things that had happened, but she was not sure if he would accept help from anyone; even her. She knew she masked his pain with humor, but that was only one of his many shields.
Cyborg was probably awake. He spent all night working on various projects while locked in his room. Feeling uncharacteristically social, she decided to knock on his door so to invite him to play a game of chess or two. She waited for a moment, but no response came. He must have been down in the garage or something, she pondered. Oh well.
Cyborg was a man who seemed to love to distract himself by any means necessary. Be it by being constantly goofing around with Beast Boy or working on his T-Car; always looking for reprieve from the memories of being horribly wronged in the past.
She passed Starfire's room, a walking bundle of joy whos constant energy probably wore the alien girl out quickly. She flooded the tower with more warmth then anybody deserved to bask in. The Dark Girl could never describe her gratitude for Starfire's presence, not that she would ever be able to voice it to her anyway. It was unfortunate, because a piece of your sanity is something you never want to run away.
She soon reached the end of the corridor where the only exits were located: the stairs and elevator. Perpendicular to their entrances was a large window which gave an impressive view of her city's bay. Raven pressed the up button and took a moment to gaze outside. An eerie calm had overcome the moonlit Jump City. No cars were on the road and no boats were in the bay. To top it off, everything seemed slightly… off. A few skyscrapers were not in the right place and the bay bridge seemed slightly lower than usual. At that moment, she realized she was having a lucid dream.
How boring.
Raven groaned and tried to wake herself with a pinch. When it did not seem to work, she sighed in aggravation, not longing for a full night of dreams. All she wanted the peace of unconsciousness. Out of options, she guessed it was best to follow what her subconscious wanted her to do.
The elevator dinged and she quickly shuffled in. The door snapped shut behind her and she turned to press the button to take her to the living room. As she did so, she realized she was no longer alone. Two men in their twenties stood facing each other on both sides of her. One had slick black hair, held by gel while the other had shorter brown. They both wore rather strange uniforms, jackets of some sort with a patch on each left shoulder. The man with brown hair had one that resembled a Canadian flag, while the other had an American one. The other patch read 'Atlantis'.
Without paying her any mind, the one with the Canadian flag spoke, "What are you talking about? Spiderman 3 was definitely not underrated! Sam Raimi should be ashamed of himself!"
"Hey, I thought the fights were cool. Sandman wasn't that bad, either."
"Yeah," Snorted the Canadian. "If you like a villain with an origin story that makes no sense whatsoever! Oh, and speaking of that, why didn't his daughter's locket dissolve in the sand mixer too, huh?"
At this point, Raven was growing incredibly agitated. She was annoyed by not only the figure's conversation but by her own mind for conjuring them. She tried her best to will them both away but came to no avail.
"It's a movie, Rodney." The American said with a sigh.
Raven immediately recognized he was the more laid back of the two. She felt reminded of someone by him.
"One I payed 16 bucks to see! I deserve better!"
"Yeah, ticket prices are getting up there." The American admitted before smiling slightly, "Remember when it was 5 bucks for a matinee? Good times."
Robin. He reminded her of a calmer Robin. He was down to Earth, quick to quell an argument, in control of his emotions, self-assured, and logical. He was a born leader. Perhaps he was a representation of the Boy Wonder in some way.
"Jeez, the last five dollar movie I saw for that low was Ghost Busters 2, now THAT is an underrated movie!"
"I thought Bill Murray was pretty funny in it."
Rodney grinned, "Bill Murray is a god of comedy. Of course he'd be funny in it."
As soon as his sentence finished, the elevator dinged. It had reached the Titan's living room.
"Right, well, I need to see Dr. Weir and Colonel Sumner." The black haired man said. "Good luck."
"Who needs luck?" Rodney scoffed.
The elevator door opened, revealing a scene that caused Raven's eyes to bulge. The living room was fully lit and thriving with activity. Nearly a hundred different people crowded it; all dressed the same way as the two men who rode in the elevator with her. Raven soon noted that they were a multinational group, as she had counted twenty different flag patches. Each of them carried a heavily packed backpack while some stood next to or were wheeling large travelling cases. She saw a few more men enter from an alternate elevator, carrying more black supply boxes.
The centerpiece of the room was a large circular grey ring that stood parallel to the living room's windows. It was over twelve feet in diameter with sides nearly a half a foot in width. Nine chevrons lined it, emitting a yellow glow. An inner track complimented the outer band, about ¾ of a foot in width. On that, she counted a number of strange symbols in perfect order separated by bulging grey lines.
"I really need to lay off the late night chocolate." Raven thought.
The two men exited the elevator, still not paying her any heed, and went their separate ways. A man near the circle shouted an order, and soon the inner track of it began to spin for a second or so before a symbol aligned with the chevron on the top of it. It then locked into place with a crunch. The process repeated seven more times before every chevron but the ninth was locked. After that, a mechanical groan sounded before a brilliant blue ball blue flood of what looked like water kawooshed from the center of the ring and surged forward for about half-second before immediately retracting to form a thin sheet of shimmering water that filled the ring.
Following its 'activation', the people in the room began to move towards it in a slow progression, each person carrying as many supplies as possible. The first to enter were the six soldier types nearest to the gate, pointing a series of weapons forward. The men stepped into the water, rippling it, before disappearing behind it. A moment of pause followed that soon came to the end when an announcement came from the Titan's intercom that it was safe for the rest to precede.
One by one and sometimes two by two, people trudged through it. Soon, the room was emptying. Raven was simply transfixed upon it. Some strange urge was making her want to follow them through. For the first time since the dream began, the dark girl was frightened: she could not explain this will by any means. As the last men entered, she more than desired to wake up.
Soon, the room was devoid all but one hooded figure: one wearing an Azarathian cloak. The figure slowly made its way to the shimmering water before turning towards Raven to gesture for her to come.
"Mother?" Raven asked. "What is this about?"
The figure merely smiled and continued beckoning, "Do not be afraid, child."
"What?" Raven asked, desperate to find some answers.
Unfortunately, she found she was no longer in her dream. Her eyes flew open revealing her sunlit room. She silently cursed the sun for awakening her before quickly getting up and dashing out her room.
A moment later, Robin heard a soft knock on his door. He opened it to reveal a slightly unnerved looking Raven.
"Oh, hey Raven." He said before rubbing his eyes. "I just got up. Want to grab breakfast?"
Raven paused for a moment, gazing at the boy wonder. "Yeah… do you think we could we talk in private first?"
Robin blinked behind the mask.
In the Titan's living room, a smiling Starfire sat on the sofa while her favorite morning show, 'cooking with lard.' It soon came to a commercial break, giving her an opportunity to get up and grab a drink. A moment later, a news broadcast came on.
"This just in," Announced a reporter. "Central City's hero, the Flash, has volunteered to hand his services to the military for an undisclosed period of time."
This got Starfire's attention. She turned back towards the television with a, "Huh?"
The view shifted to a press conference where a large number of interviewers were shoving microphones into the speedster's face.
"Yeah, they want me in on some big top secret mission." He said with a grin, "I just hope that whatever they're up against is ready for the fastest man alive!"