Chapter 1. New world

"Zatara!" Black Canary shouted. The others quickly turned to where she was staring and were just as shocked. There, kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath, was indeed Zatara. Batman bent down next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder; a surprisingly gentle gesture from the dark knight, but his voice was still just as gruff and demanding.

"How are you here?"

Zatara gazed around with wide eyes until he met batman's look. He then shook his head to clear his thoughts before answering.

"I am… unsure. It is as if the helmet was ripped away from me… Where are we?" he said shakily, not used to being able to control his actions and words.

Batman's eyes squinted, recognizing that the Italian was hiding something. He seemed much more worried than confused as the rest of them felt. Perhaps while still in the mindset of Nabu he knew what was happening. He had a theory as to how they were there but wouldn't voice it at this moment. Batman would have pushed in any other case but right now they were in a foreign area with no idea how they got there or what dangers there could be. Best to save the explanations for when they were sure they were in a safe area.

"Not sure, but it looks like a dump." Flash quipped.

In response Dinah flicked him once again- this time harder. "We wouldn't be in this 'dump' if you didn't touch that stupid star!"

Affronted, Flash grumbles, "How do we know it was me? For all we know something happened to Fate" he gestured to Zatara. "Completely unrelated to us-"

"Enough! We may quarrel later, but now we must search for a way out of these ruins, or at least other beings to tell us where we are." Orin declared. They all turned to J'onn, who, taking a deep breath, closed his eyes. After a beat of silence J'onn spoke.

"There are beings atop that building, there." He pointed to what used to be an apartment complex a few 'houses' down. "I am unable to hear their thoughts however; something seems to be blocking me."

They looked to the structure, wondering if they were being watched at that very moment, and if so, with what purpose?

Dinah whispered in the silence. "We would see clearer if we had some light. Or would that be giving away our position?"

"We are already in clear view." Zatara raised his hand, palm up, and a small orb of light flickered into existence. Turning back to the building they noticed two forms jumping structure to structure… coming straight for them!

"Brace yourself!" Batman ordered. The beings, assumedly people, considering the form and skin coloring, came down on them. The taller of the two nearly took out Zatara with a kick with a thick boot. Fortunately, the magician pulled up a sky blue shield that took the blunt of the attack instead. They were given clear view of the attacker when he jumped of the shield and landed in a crouch. He was obviously male, and was covered in a black skin tight suit laced with Kevlar. Around his waist was a red and grey utility belt, and over his heart was an 'x' the color of blood. The same x was over the left eye of the skull mask he wore to cover his face.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" Flash hollered. The attacker tilted his head and only Batman noticed the tiny nod to no one. Then it hit him; there were two people on the roof.

The second assailant swept past them from behind, slicing the bow string of the bow Ollie was holding, with duel blades. She was clearly a female if her proportions had any bearing. She too was dressed in a skin tight black Kevlar suit, but this time with a purple 'x' over her sternum. But unlike her comrade, her face wasn't covered. She was pale with blue eyes and pixie cut blond hair with a thick layer of dirt and dust in it. On her face were three purple stripes going from her jaw line, over her nose, and down the other side.

Ollie tried to raise a response out of them in typical Green Arrow fashion; annoying the bad guys. He shouted "You can't just cut the string on my bow! That's all kinds of unfair!"

"Put out the light." The male said. His voice was monotonous and robotic but there seemed to be a hint of snarky, cocky humor.

"Why should we do that? Personally, I prefer to see the person who is attacking me." Flash said smugly.

"I assumed you'd like a warning," the male stated, standing from his crouch but still tense for a fight. "If you keep using powers you'll most certainly end up dead." The thin air seemed to get colder.

The female had enough. She huffed and turned to skull face, never lowering her swords which were raised to point in the general direction of the heroes' necks. "X, we don't have time for this. We need to leave before any Zites get wise and sense these idiots."

Black Canary gasped in horror at the sound of their voices, whispering "You can hardly be over your pre-teens."

"Yeah? What of it?!" the girl shot back. She then pulled up a holographic wrist computer, not unlike the one Robin wore. "They'll be here any second X. We should kill these psychos before we land ourselves into a blood bath."

"Who are you?" J'onn interrupted. "Why is it I am unable to read your minds?"

The pair froze and stared at the Martian until the girl asked hesitantly "X?"

"I know," the male; 'X' replied. "For god's sake put out that light!" he hissed at Zatara who obeyed. X continued on speaking to the girl, "We can't just leave them here and even if we kill them, the Zites will just reanimate them along with whatever powers they have. How much time do we have?" The air seemed to be thinner all of a sudden and tense, nervous energy could all but be seen passing between the two black clad people.

"None." For a painstakingly long second no one breathed. No one dared to make a sound even the leaguers though they had no idea how much was at stake if anything knew they were there.

A shot rang out. At the same moment the girl did a twirl that flung her into the air at a vertical spin. She extended her arm and something flew out of her hand towards what used to be an alleyway.

The heroes whipped their heads around fast enough to see a razor sharp pointed throwing star impale itself into the neck of a middle aged, brunette woman in skinny jeans. They watched in horror as the lady twitched with blood gushing out her throat and down her body.

The shocked silence shattered like broken glass. Batman lunged forward and grabbed her by her shirt, lifting her up. "What the hell is wrong with you?! You just murdered a civilian!" Her face scrunched up in pain then cleared to blank again.

X jumped to kick Batman's legs out from under him. His feet caught on the inside of Batman's elbow, making him drop the girl. Before he could summersault off though, Batman grabbed his ankle and yanked. The Dark Knight threw a punch but X bent backwards and rolled away. X swung his leg around and Batman jumped and flung his foot to hit him in the stomach. The blow landed yet, gasping in pain, X locked his arms around the leg and spun, throwing Batman at a wall that was still standing. As he was flying through the air Batman hooked his fingers around the edges of the skull face plate.

Hitting the wall knocked the breath out of Batman, and when his head cleared a second later he came to realize that X's mask was held tightly in his hand. He looked up and froze. Staring back at him with glaring blue eyes, was his son; Dick Grayson. His pride and joy: the boy whom he had raised since the tender age of 7. The darling child whom he helped through nightmares, whom he'd watched steal Alfred's cookies using his acrobatics, whom he couldn't get to stop smiling; he was suddenly so different.

He was still 5 foot nothing and lean for a 13 year old. His hair, like the girl's, was dirty, and there were even more cuts on his face than normal, including a light pink scar crisscrossing over his left eye (most likely barely managing to avoid being blinded). But most surprising was that there was no smile in sight, in fact he even had frown lines! His eyes were cold and hard. Where had the most important person in his world's light gone?

"Robin?" Black Canary whispered. He stared back at all of them, not a hint of recognition in his eyes.

"I definitely have a theory." Zatara muttered.

_line break/end of chapter_

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Love- MagentaScribe