Not mine. Hope you'll enjoy this new story.

ps: Sorry for every typos and any others mistakes, that's my bad.

The floor shook once more, but this time, Batman was ready, this moment could be what decided the rest of his life and so much more.

Batman jumped forcefully through the glass and through the force field preventing the ship's atmosphere to leave into space. His arm extended to threw a last punch to the commander. It hit him, hard. His hand wouldn't be able to hold anything soon.

This moment was what could change everything.

The ring slipped from the commander's finger. Batman watched it like in slow motion as it fell on the floor. The emerald ring bounced once, twice… The commander threw his sword away and rushed to catch the rolling ring.

Batman felt the gravity took hold on him as his fall began, but his mind wasn't focused on that. His eyes were only fixed on the now tiny green point that was jumping over the edge as if he was following him.

A silver gloved hand appeared and try to catch the ring before it could fall further. The commander had the ring in his hand, brushing his finger, and then he grabbed it.

Hopelessness spread through Batman's mind. What he had just fought for was lost, who he would have done everything for was lost too. He couldn't take it. When he it the floor, he felt pain, but that pain was not physical.

Bruce jerked awake, breathing hard and sweating profusely. It was just a dream, or rather a nightmare. Bruce couldn't help but felt that they were like warnings: it could have gone so wrong, like in his dreams. He had them since that day, every night, they were so realistic, as if he had seen it himself. The pain he felt was beyond what he could withstand, and he knew what that implied.

Bruce decided not to think about that more than he already had the past week. He needed to think about something else, not about what could have be. He needed to do something else, anything, right now.

Shower.

He quickly discarded his sheets and stood up from his bed. He looked at the digital clock on his desk. Only 9 o'clock. He hadn't got much sleep since he hadn't been back from patrol before 5am. He shook his head, knowing he wouldn't get anymore sleep today and until his return from patrol tomorrow morning.

Bruce headed up to his bathroom, noticing the sunrays already penetrating through the closed curtains. He took a quick and hot shower that washed away his last feelings from his previous night of nightmare.

When he came back in his bedroom, shaved and dressed in a mere towel hanging around his waist, his bed was already done and a small note was gently put over his pillow. Bruce smiled at the sight, Alfred must have at least super-hearing powers to know when he woke up. He picked up the letter and read it.

It seemed that Alfred was informed that Superman had requested a meeting later in the morning, and that the butler had already made breakfast. Bruce didn't want to make the old man waiting anymore longer and headed to the kitchen, that and the thought of that cup of coffee he needed.

Bruce reached the kitchen without wasting time. Now that he was thinking about it, he was quite hungry, his body needing even more food to be sustained because of his recovery. If not for his fall last week and his quite severe wounds, the last night patrol would have been a piece of cake. However, it felt good to be back into business, back to patrolling the streets of Gotham.

"Good morning, sir."

"Good morning to you too, Alfred." Bruce greeted him, slipping into the nearby chair as the butler slid a plate in front of him. "Thanks."

Batman rapidly finished his food, which, by the way, was as always deliciously cooked by Alfred, and walked down to the Batcave to prepare before being beamed up to the Watchtower. He needed only to make few things: check into the Gotham's news, read the reports from Oracle and slip into his uniform. He did everything within half an hour.

The now fully dressed Dark Knight of Gotham stepped onto the transporter pad and type a command on a virtual keyboard on his gauntlet. In a bright flash of light, Batman was aboard the Watchtower.

Only nodding to the people that greeted him, he made his way to one of his private labs on the satellite. He still had some minutes to review his last experiment about one specific poison he wanted to know everything about.

After reading all the data he had got from his experiment, he wasn't pleased he hadn't discovered anything worth of interest. Not giving up, he started another one, resetting the various machines with other settings only he was understanding the meaning and the use.

After that, Batman confidently walked toward the meeting room, though quite pissed about his lack of progress. Like any other Saturday, the Watchtower was full of people. However, though he hadn't noticed it when he was beamed up there, he noted everyone was quieter than usual, and that was something to say with the young Leaguers using the cafeteria as their meeting place.

Anyway, Batman couldn't complain about that, he was the first one annoyed about their nasty tendency to make even more noise than a bunch of teenagers. That being said, they were a bunch of teenagers. The Batman finally reached the room where were already waiting the six other founders speaking among each others.

Eventually, Superman noticed him and instructed everyone to take their seat and he began the session.

"Alright, now that we're all here, I think I should explain why I have requested your presence." At the nods of the others, the Man of Steel resumed his explanation. "Well, earlier this morning, J'onn and I were assigned to monitor duty and we detected something heading straight to the Earth."

"Spaceship?" Batman coldly asked in his usual dark and emotionless voice.

"We don't know," the Martian answered, "we hadn't noticed any form of energy coming from it so it's likely it's an asteroid although we cannot be sure it's not a spacecraft."

"Yes, we can't assume what it is, however what is surprising is that it just popped up on our screens. If it were a mere asteroid, we should have noticed it days ago." Superman added.

"We just have to go and see for ourselves." Shayera suggested, to what Flash agreed.

"I think it's the best way too." Wonder Woman said, looking at John to express his opinion on the matter.

"Well, if we can't be sure otherwise, then it can't be a bad idea." The Green Lantern agreed with the three others.

"How long before it reaches Earth?" Batman's voice cut through the room and make everyone's head turned toward him.

"It has a very low velocity, it should reach Earth within four days, maybe five." J'onn answered.

Batman only nodded, already thinking of what needed to be done.

"Alright, we will go see for ourselves. Tomorrow, 10am."

Everyone agreed to the Justice League unofficial leader's and part member's words, whom they knew always say what was the best thing to do. For what was about decisions like this, strategies or logical ways to do something, everyone knew Batman was the best, and so, they knew when to listen to him. And it wasn't if he would have let them do otherwise either.

"Well, that's settled then. There's also the annual Gala that we have yet to schedule, so… is there any date someone would prefer…" Without answers, he concluded no one had one. "Well, I thought we could make the first Wednesday next month. Is it fine for everyone?"

Batman and J'onn stayed quiet and Diana hummed her agreement while Hawkgirl and Lantern shrugged, saying implicitly 'whatever'.

"Fine for me." The team's speedster agreed enthusiastically.

"Alright. Then, meeting adjourned. See you later." Superman bid goodbye to everyone and quickly stalked out of the room, much to the surprise of everyone.

"He was quite in hurry." Diana pointed out, raising a quizzical eyebrow and looked at her fellow heroes for an answer.

"Not my fault!" Wally defensively exclaimed, holding his hands up.

Diana tried to hide her smile and rolled her eyes, then looked at John and Shayera.

"Not a clue." GL shrugged.

"Neither do I." The Thanagarian said.

"Well, I gotta go, I'm taking Linda to lunch." Wally cheerfully explained, "See ya, buddies." And in a red blur, the speedster disappeared from the conference room, quickly followed by Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Batman.

However, Diana blocked the way out of the Dark Knight, crossing her arms on her chest. Making sure everyone had left the corridor, she pushed him back inside the room and closed the metal door.

"I hadn't any news from you since you leave the Watchtower four days ago." Diana said to him with an accusing voice.

"I haven't been on the Watchtower since then." He lied to her. Even though it wasn't what he wanted to do, he hated lying to her, he wanted even less to speak about what she wanted.

A flash of hurt passed on her face quickly replaced by one of anger.

"Don't lie to me, Bruce." She threateningly raised her voice, "I know you have been working in that lab of yours these past three days."

Bruce narrowed his eyes. He was feeling trapped, well, he was trapped. Of course, she would know. He thought quickly how to avoid that conversation but didn't have the time to speak before she asked him another question.

"How are you?" Her face had become concerned, quite different from angered.

"I'm fine." He growled.

She looked at him worriedly. "I'm not so sure, you don't look very well."

Batman sighed, he hated the fact he wasn't able to push her away like he used to, but then again, he didn't know if he could live without her anymore, even if they weren't in a relationship. Yes, her mere presence was something he was needing, and the fact that she cared about him made him even more… defenseless against her.

"I heal fast." He finally decided to say.

Diana frowned, "But you are still not a meta."

"No, I'm not."

She sighed too, knowing he wasn't back to his fully strength and health. "Does it hurt much?"

"I can manage."

"Good." She looked around the meeting room, looking for something to add, but nothing came to her mind. "Well, be careful then." Diana eventually said, only caring for his well-being.

Batman didn't respond but the absence of his clenching jaw showed for him that he hadn't take her words the wrong way. Wonder Woman nodded in goodbye and left the room, leaving him alone.

Bruce stayed looking forward for some minutes to the point she had just left. She was right, he had been aboard the Watchtower several times these past days, but he was avoiding her, hoping that he wouldn't be confronted with feelings he didn't want to. Truthfully, Batman wasn't sure anymore of what he wanted.

As he did every time this thought popped into his mind, he pushed it aside. He had better things to do than thinking about relationships and love interests. The Batman was a loner, not a man looking for a relationship.

Finally, the last Leaguer in the room left too. The Batman headed straight for the transporter where he beamed himself down to the Batcave.

oOo

"Hawkgirl, Superman and I are going."

"What?!" Wally exclaimed, "Weren't we all going?" The crimson speedster asked incredulously.

"No."

"But-"

"Don't try, Flash, you won't win. Mister dark and brooding is too stubborn to change is mind on anything." Diana said, sending a teasing smile to the Dark Knight, who threw her back his infamous Bat-glare.

"You are no fun, Bats." The Flash pouted resignedly.

"We'll call for backup if we need extra help." Superman assured Wally.

"Okay, okay, just go, I'm staying on the Watchtower anyway."

"Let us go." The voice of the Batman ended every talks and Shayera and Clark entered the Javelin, quickly following the Dark Knight. Diana waved her hand to her fellow Leaguers and John, J'onn, Flash and she left the Javelin' bay.

Aboard the Javelin, Batman expertly set the aircraft's controls and headed the Javelin toward their target's last position.

"We should have a visual within seconds." Batman informed the two others.

"I don't see anything, not even with my supervision." The Man of Steel frowned.

"It should be right in front of us."

The three Leaguers felt that something wasn't right.

"The instruments detect it right ahead, it must be cloaked."

"I don't like that." Hawkgirl said, reaching instinctively to her mace with her hand.

"Neither do I." Superman tensed as the Javelin slowed down to approach where it should be.

Suddenly, as if they just entered into the cloak field, a massive dark spaceship appeared out of thin air.

"Definitely not an asteroid." The Dark Knight rasped, "Watchtower, send the other founders to our position."

"Right away, Batman." Mr Terrific answered.

"Engage protocol 8, everyone in standby."

"Alright, what's happening?"

"We don't know, yet. Batman out."

Superman and Shayera turned to the Caped Crusader expecting his input on what they should do now.

As if reading their mind, he spoke, not even looking at them. "We wait until the others are here."

"Alright." Shayera sighed and backed away from the cockpit to the back seats.

However Clark stayed. Something was bothering him about this spacecraft. Other than the fact it was quite gigantic and pretty scary, firstly, he could see it was damaged, very damaged, he was even wondering if there was still some atmosphere inside, and secondly, it reminded him of something. This spaceship was definitely reminding him of something.

"It seems strangely… familiar."

"Because it is." Batman stated.

Superman snapped his head to face his friend, raising his eyebrows into a a quizzical look. "And when have we met… that?"

Bruce didn't answer Clark's question but turned on his heels to look at Shayera as she came back in the cockpit.

"The others will be here within minutes."

"Good." Batman said as his gaze shifted to the control panels once again.

"We should go in. The ship his greatly damaged, its passengers are maybe in need of help."

"Fine. Wonder Woman," He called, putting his comm-link on, "follow our Javelin."

"Understood."

Batman flew the Javelin around the massive spacecraft, judging its size and gauging the threats it could possibly cause to their smaller Javelins if it were to become a hostile foe. From what information he could gather, it once was well armed, but the damages were obviously concentrated on the offensive areas of the ship.

Batman couldn't help but felt impressed by what it had gone through, and therefore he was slightly sorry for the crew, if anyone were still alive, but just slightly since he couldn't not notice the discreet patterns carved on the exterior of the ship. He was remembering all too well when such ships went to Earth, not two weeks ago.

But these patterns weren't entirely similar. It was definitely the same style but not the exact same patterns. Batman couldn't see them very well from the Javelin, but these ones seemed thinner than what they encountered back to Earth. Did that make a huge difference? Maybe…

Batman flew the Javelin until he reached what seemed to a dock. The Javelin entered smoothly the wide hole and was surrounded by darkness. The only light coming through the entrance was the lights from the other Javelin waiting the go to follow. Space is a dark place, even more without the soothing sunlight.

Since the dock were completely exposed to the space vacuum, Superman flew out the Javelin and with Batman's instructions, he succeeded to close the hangar's doors and pressurized the room. They wondered how there could still be energy in the system but it seemed that the ship as a lot of resources left over.

They could say that because Batman was able to hack through the hangar terminal. It give them a lot of information though not as many as the Dark Knight had wanted. All the corridors, all the decks were pressurized and with an atmosphere normal human can breath. There was also the fact that there wasn't any living signature.

But that was enough to agree to explore the ship in team of three or two. John, Shayera and Wally formed the first team. They agreed to search the first deck. Then J'onn and Superman went for the second, leaving the third one to Diana and Batman.

"Let's go." She said assuredly.

Batman led the way to the third deck walking through the maze that was this alien spaceship as he had always known it. Of course, he had just watched the blueprint of the entire structure. He knew exactly where to go and where he needed to go. He was walking toward the command room. There he would have an entire control of the ship and could discover what remained to be discovered.

His steps were assured and quiet. It was a wonder for the mere human he was. The air was filled with tension, the atmosphere letting obvious the wick feeling that gripped the guts of anyone who would walk into these halls. Something wasn't right.

"Bruce…" Diana whispered, calling for his attention. She pointed to a door to their left.

Batman had sensed it too. He stopped, his body stiffen in anticipation of a hypothetical fight incoming. However, it never came. When they finally decided to look at the room where they thought something was hiding, they find nothing. There was nothing more than what could be expected of a storage room.

"I don't like it…" He mumbled.

Wonder Woman nodded in agreement. She had the feeling they were being watched, and her feelings rarely failed her. Moreover, Batman was uneasy too.

"We should continue."

They both left the storage unit and resumed their walk toward the computer room. It wasn't as far they could have thought at first, though the ship was very, very large, the command room was fairly near the main dock.

"Bruce, I need to know something."

Diana's questions startled him. He hadn't thought she would start a talk while they were still wary of their surroundings. If he was surprised, he didn't show it, nor did he answer.

"I need to know if you would throw your life for me."

Batman stopped dead. He had wondered it too several times during the past week and he had always come to the same conclusion: yes. But right now, she was asking him that question. Even if he did acknowledge what he knew he would do if something came to happen to her, he wasn't sure if he was ready to reveal it to her.

However, he didn't have to choose because he heard his own voice answering against his will. "I would do anything for you." Damn it, he shouldn't have said it.

"That's what I thought." She replied thoughtfully.

They resumed their walk. However, Diana spoke again some minutes after. "I don't want you to, Bruce, you're too precious for me."

Bruce didn't stop this time but he was as affected by her words as he had been when she told him so in the medical room on the Watchtower. "I wouldn't want to do otherwise."

She remained silent for some moments. "I would prefer you alive than dead."

To this, Batman didn't answer. He had already made promises to her and he was always true to his words. Moreover, this wasn't the place nor the time to have this kind of discussion. So, they kept walking down the way Batman was leading them.

They finally reached the control room, without sensing anyone's other presence. They found the doors locked. Diana tried to force it open but it failed as well as Batman tentative to hack the system. It should be easier than the control panel in the space hangar but no, Batman couldn't find the breach into the perfect lines of code.

"Maybe we should ask Superman to melt the door." Diana offered. This was the simplest solution. Superman's heat vision will undoubtedly open the doors within seconds.

"Superman, we need you at our position." Bruce spoke through his earpiece.

He eventually heard the voice of Clark coming from the comm-link after some moments. "Alright, we are coming back to the Javelins, come to meet us there."

"We are coming." He confirmed. Then turning to Diana he beckoned the way back.

They quickly made their way back to the Javelins' hangar. Clark and J'onn were already waiting there. However they seemed to be greatly bothered.

"Hmm, guys, I think we got a problem."

The way Superman spoke was very unlikely his. We could say he was not only bothered by something but also a little embarrassed.

"The Javelins have been stolen."

Bruce and Diana stopped briskly on their track to join the two other powered heroes.

"Stolen?" Batman hissed, angered filling his voice. How could someone steal a Javelin? And two? He had created them, they had the best security system you could find on Earth. How could someone steal them?

"What Superman is saying is that the Javelins are gone."

Indeed, Wonder Woman and Batman could now see through the open door and could only attest of the disappearing of their two Javelins. Bruce had to breath long and hard to calm himself.

"How…"

"We don't know, when we returned back here, they were already gone." The Man of Steel replied, coming back to his usual self. He had expected a worse reaction from his friend: the Javelins' were his pride, after the Watchtower, the Batwing, the Batcave, the Batmobile… it was definitely something he was proud of nonetheless.

Batman strode past them and into the hangar. He wanted to find out what really happened, though what happened was obvious.

After pacing the hangar once more time without noticing any clue that were obviously nonexistent, he came back to his logical mind and realized his friends were looking at him amused even though the seriousness of the situation. Yes, he wasn't acting like his usual self.

Taking a long breath, Batman finally took control of the situation once more. They were trapped on that ship, a possible threat to the whole world flying back to Earth with their Javelins, and they had no way to call back the Watchtower because their communications were blocked and were quite surprisingly only working between two people inside the ship.

"Where are the others?" Batman eventually asked, suddenly worrying that they had encountered the mysterious thieves.

"We know as much as you do, Batman." J'onn replied then his eyes flashed orange, "But I can't sense their mind."

Diana pushed her comm-link. "Shayera, John, Wally, where are you?" Her question was only answered by static. "Is everything alright?... Shayera?"

The more they waited a response, the more they were all becoming anxious about their friends. Eventually, they agreed to go up and look for their three teammates. They weren't any remaining doubt, something had happened to them.

Batman strode toward the superior deck, leading the way without even looking back to the others to know if they were following. His teammates were probably in danger, that was something he couldn't accept. This was quite ironic if you think about carefully, they were superheroes, they put their lives in jeopardy every time they go out to do the good.

But this was different, they needed him, them. Even if he couldn't help worrying about Diana's safety, he wasn't bothered by the other taking the same risks than her or himself. However, he was always present if anyone needed help, really needed help.

Still stalking through the spacious hall of the alien spaceship, Batman pulled out a micro-computer from his utility belt and started typing furiously on it. He wanted to know if he could locate the missing members of their expedition with the position of their communicators. Maybe even if they didn't answer, their communicators were still working.

Diana saw his jaw clenching at his displeasure. She didn't know why he was so in hurry to find the others but she thought it could be about one of his ex-protégés. She was just understanding how much Jason's death actually changed Bruce's behavior. But she was confident Wally's, John's and Shayera's ability to take care of themselves.

They walked for almost half an hour before Batman put the group to a stop, proof of the wideness of that spaceship. Superman could see Bruce's focused eyes searching from behind his lenses something on the ground. Finally his gaze stopped and the Man of Steel followed it three little devices lying on the ground in the corner of the corridor.

"This is not good." Said J'onn, moving to come pick up the three earpieces.

The four of them stayed there, none of them daring to speak what they all were thinking about. Truthfully, they hoped that they would find them quickly but this was very unlikely. There was to many places to look for and there was also the possibility that they were taken prisoners aboard the stolen Javelins. Then again, they hoped that nothing… dramatic happened to them.

Suddenly, they felt the floor shake slightly. Then, they heard the humming of powerful engine starting. It lasted thirty seconds during which they stayed put, all their senses on alert, then it stopped as suddenly as it began.

There was a deafening silence. Diana tentatively took a look around her, expecting yet invisible enemies to appear suddenly. But they never came. Instead, a high whistling made them all jump in surprised as it rang out through the their entire being. The floor shake once again, but far more violently, almost sending them on the ground.

It stopped again, for good this time. Batman quickly checked his computer but found nothing explaining what happened. However, he was quite sure, it couldn't be of any good for them. Behind him, the three others were looking at each other as if they were expecting one another to have some explanation they knew they hadn't.

They didn't wait there to find out what happened, instead the Dark Knight led them through the corridors to what he thought was the nearer control room. Then again, he wasn't sure if he was heading them to where he wanted, something was making him wary of this place, and his instincts rarely failed him.

With this last happening, it could only confirm someone was aboard with them, someone or something was flying this spaceship. But, it wasn't making any sense, why would someone stole the Javelin if there was still another person piloting the spacecraft. Out of his logical mind, two solutions made its ways from his subconscious: first, they, if they they were, wanted to trap them inside, without any mean to escape or contact any support.

Second, the Javelin might have been stolen because it was a mean to escape. Therefore, someone had run away from someone, or something again, that could be dangerous. Of course, they were also the possibility of stealing the Javelin to check before the main ship went ahead.

But that couldn't explain why the spaceship was so badly damaged and not why they hadn't seen any living signs yet. If it wasn't for the Javelins' disappearing and what happened seconds ago, they would have thought it was empty and it would be in the solar system by pure hazard.

But he didn't think so anymore.

Batman's train of thoughts was stopped by the always calm voice of the Martian Manhunter. "I think you should see that."

Bruce turned to see Diana, Clark and J'onn staring out to the space infinity through a wide glass panel. The path Batman lead them was indeed passing to corridors directly in contact with the ship's hull. Truthfully, it was surprising that that part of the spacecraft was unscathed and that they had been able to take these halls to reach so far.

However, he didn't think of any of that. His mind was already trying to process the new information he just received.

When they entered into this spaceship, they were near Saturn. Right now, they couldn't see it, neither could they saw any light coming from the sun. It was an endless night filled with countless stars.

As beautiful as the sight was, it was unforgivingly informing them of the fact they weren't in known territory anymore.

I hope I'll be able to update quickly but I need to do the same with my other story. However I think I will be posting chapter two in two weeks, maybe. Anyway, I need your feedback to know what should be improved, and I know there are things I really need to improve.

Well, that's long enough, next chapter in 2 weeks, hopefully :)