Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Rating: Maybe a little harsh language, certainly some violence, but nothing worse than on BtVS.
Spoilers: Diverges wildly after Halloween for BtVS with possible spoilers up to the season eight comic and pretty much up to current DCU.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: YAHF. When a young man comes back from the dead, how will his friends react?
Author's Note: Familiarity with the events of Titans East is highly recommended before reading this.
"No! No, no, NO! It's not fair! You're not Conner! You're Match! You're a failed clone!"
Xander's head bolted upright, and he murmured under his breath, "Cassie?"
Buffy looked over at him, "Xander? What is it?"
"I... I have to go," he said, rising to his feet and heading for the back entrance of the library.
"Wait!" Buffy called. "What's going on?"
"Ca- the Titans are in trouble," Xander said. "I have to help them, Buffy."
"Then take me with you," she said seriously. "You can fly us both there."
Xander blinked, "What?"
"C'mon, Xander," she said. "I'm blonde, but I'm not stupid. I had a hunch you kept his powers when all those vampires kept tripping over themselves, and this just cinches it. Super-hearing, huh? Please, Xander, I have to help too."
"This isn't your fight, Buffy."
"You called me a superhero, Xander," she smiled at him. "What kind of superhero doesn't help out her sidekick when he needs it?" Her smile dropped slightly, "Besides, I have my own reasons to help out."
Xander shot her a quizzical look, then shrugged it off. It was obvious he'd lost this fight, and they were running out of time.
"Hold on. We'll make a stop on the way."
"Slade's been poisoning your mind, Cassandra," Robin said, hoping to get through to Cassandra Cain... better known as Batgirl. "He's been pumping you full of the same serum that drove Ravager insane."
"I'm not insane," Batgirl said, raising the syringe, "I'm thinking clearly. You will too, Tim."
Crash!
"Nice party, but a little kinky for my tastes. Hope you don't mind if I crash."
They turned as one and saw a short, masked blonde standing at the remains of the door leading into the room. Behind her cowl, Batgirl's eyes narrowed, and she carefully put the syringe down before charging the interloper. Meanwhile, Robin began working furiously to get himself free. Whoever the blonde was, she didn't stand a chance against Batgirl.
CRASH!
Wonder Girl turned in surprise as a humanoid meteor smashed into the room through the wall and smashed into Match.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!"
"Conner?" she whispered, not quite daring to hope.
"I told you," he said quietly, turning to look at her. "I'm not Conner."
"Look out!"
Xander turned and barely caught Match's hands, barely holding him back, "Cassie, get out of here! Help the others!"
"But... he's stronger than you!"
Xander let go and ducked under Match's clumsy blow, "You say that as if it's something new. Trust me. I got this. Now go!"
Elsewhere throughout the false Titans' Tower erected in New York in mockery of the real one in San Francisco, the other Teen Titans dealt with their own demons... in one case, literally, as Kid Crusader moved to kill Kid Devil after banishing the demonic influence on him, but a misstep on his part shifted the demon into him.
Meanwhile, Raven's offer of friendship turned Joker's Daughter against her erstwhile teammates, and not much later, she forced Risk to confront his feelings, freeing Cyborg.
In yet another room, brother and sister confronted their father as Deathstroke moved to "test" his children: Jericho and Ravager.
Batgirl frowned. The blonde was putting up a surprisingly good fight, actually able to score a few glancing blows that hurt nearly as much as a full force punch.
Metahuman, obviously. She'd dealt with metahumans before.
Except... there was something else to it as well, something she... recognized. She couldn't quite place it, but there was something about the blonde that tugged at her memory, something naggingly familiar...
Suddenly, eyes widening beneath her mask, she placed it.
And she hesitated.
WHAM!
And she got punched in the face.
Robin suppressed a wince and withdrew something from his belt. "Wait!" he called as he headed over. "Don't hurt her!"
The blonde looked up at him incredulously, "What? But she-!"
"She's on our side," he said, crouching over Batgirl's prone form, syringe in hand.
"So... what? That was just kinky foreplay, then?" the blonde scowled.
"Deathstroke pumped her full of a serum that drove her insane," he plunged the syringe into Batgirl and injected its contents. "I just gave her the counter-serum."
"Oh," the blonde said. "Well, then, I guess we'll all just play nice now. I'm Buffy."
"Robin."
"Obviously."
WHAM!
Buffy rolled with the punch, "I thought you said she was cured?!"
"I am," Batgirl said, rising to her feet. "Just getting even. Cheap shot, S-"
"Don't call me that," Buffy snarled and stalked off. "C'mon, we've got to help the others."
Robin looked between the two girls, "Did I miss something?"
"Yes," Batgirl answered, walking after Buffy.
Xander held Match over his head and brought him crashing down on his knee.
CRACK!
Panting, he let Match's form roll off and hit the floor. "Definitely... not... looking... forward to... a re-Match," he punned as he scrambled out of Match's reach. The clone's back was obviously broken, but that didn't mean he wasn't dangerous.
But for now, it seemed, Match would be down long enough for him to find the others. His legs a little wobbly, he staggered for the exit... then he heard the shriek.
It wasn't a shriek of fear. It wasn't a shriek of anger. It was a shriek of pain.
He charged down the hallway, following that sound to wherever it would lead him.
"MEGAN!"
Sungirl looked up in surprise, just before a fist landed on her jaw. She blinked and looked up in surprise. "Super... boy?" she managed, spying the unmistakeable shield on his T-shirt.
"Don't worry, Sungirl," Inertia said flippantly. "That's not Superboy. I'll take care of him."
The green-clad speedster charged the intruder... and suddenly found his feet stuck to the floor. The young man picked him up by the throat.
"You're not Superboy," Inertia insisted. "You can't be Superboy! Superboy's dead!"
"You're right," he said quietly. "I'm not Superboy. Superboy wouldn't do this." With that, he calmly reached down with one hand and grabbed Inertia's knee... and squeezed.
"ARRRGGGHHH!" Inertia howled. "What did... what did you...?"
"I just crushed your knee. Oh, it'll heal, but it won't heal correctly. Before you can properly walk again, let alone run, it'll have to be broken and rebroken again and again until it's properly set. Same thing that happened to Bart a while back, really, except without the shotgun. And your boss was the one responsible then. Gotta appreciate the irony. Bart learned a lot from that. Maybe you'll learn something too." He threw the speedster aside and turned his attention back to Sungirl...
FWOOSH!
...only to get a faceful of solar energy. He stumbled back from her fiery onslaught, and she advanced, grinning. Eventually, she eased off the onslaught and was surprised to see him still intact on the other side, rather than a charred corpse.
He tilted his head to the side, "Sungirl, huh?"
"That's right," she said warily.
"Pardon the pun, but... you're not very bright, are you?" he asked conversationally. "I mean," he tapped his chest, "it's a well-known fact that this S might as well stand for 'solar-powered,' and you hit me with solar radiation? Thanks, by the way. You just gave my Kryptonian powers one hell of a jump-start." He inhaled sharply...
Whoosh!
...and froze her solid.
Panting, he turned to where Miss Martian -- Megan -- was chained up. For a fraction of a second, he considered just zapping her restraints with heat vision... then decided that now really wasn't the time to start experimenting. He walked up, used his TTK to rip the chains apart, and caught Megan's slumping form in his arms.
"Hey, there, Martian girl," he said tenderly. "How you feeling?"
"I've been better," she replied.
"I'm sure you have," he said. "Now, it's time we finish this."
"How?" she looked at him curiously.
"Go straight to the source."
"Deathstroke the Terminator."
He looked up at the sound of his name. It sounded like Match -- or Superboy, take your pick -- but Match had degenerated to the point where calling him by his full name would have been a challenge for him.
No, it wasn't Match. It was Superboy. A new Superboy, apparently.
"We've taken care of the rest of your playmates, Slade," Superboy said. "It's over."
"Who are you?" Deathstroke asked mildly as he noted Robin, Batgirl, and some unknown blonde step out behind him and the Martian.
"Superboy," came the calm reply. "You've been messing with the Teen Titans for years. Well, new players, new rules. Here on out, you leave the Titans in peace... or you'll leave in pieces."
"You haven't got the nerve."
"Why don't you ask Match, Sungirl, and Inertia how much nerve I've got?" Superboy asked, stepping aside and revealing what was behind him. Match was lying on the ground, feebling dragging himself toward Superboy, his legs obviously paralyzed. Inertia was also on the ground, clutching his knee. Sungirl stood in a frozen block of ice. "You don't hurt my friends, Deathstroke," he said bluntly. "Or you'll wish I'd killed you. And that definitely includes Rose."
"I'm impressed," Deathstroke admitted.
"Enough to go quietly?" Superboy asked.
"No," Deathstroke shook his head. "But enough to walk away."
He threw a grenade.
Xander reacted on reflex, heat vision lashing out at the grenade, detonating it in mid-air... and unleashing its specially-designed payload into the air. He coughed and sputtered and hit the ground, curling up into a fetal position.
"What... the hell...? Kryptonite...?"
Deathstroke eased into his hideaway and reviewed what he'd done. The new Superboy had been an unexpected wrinkle. That grenade he had used at the end was a bit of a waste. It had cost fourteen million dollars and eight lives and was designed to stop the Justice League of America, not the Teen Titans... and certainly not a single Teen of Steel.
But... it was worth it. I know for a fact now the Titans will take good care of my children. Though they'll never know it, I've given them a final gift of love, the one thing I could never provide them with myself... a real family.
"Xander."
"What is it, Tim?" Xander looked over at him. They were still recovering from the fight, and there was a definite tension in the air, particularly around the two Sunnydalers.
"I ran some tests," Robin replied. "I think you'll find the results interesting." He pulled disk out of his utility belt and handed it to him.
Xander accepted the disk and slipped it in his pocket, "Highlights?"
"You aren't upset?" Robin asked, surprised.
"I'm a threat to the integrity of the team," Xander replied. "I'd be disappointed if you hadn't looked into my background. I just wish you'd at least been polite enough to ask before running a genetic profile, but I guess some things never change."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"He didn't want to know, Robin. You broke his trust, and you don't even seem to understand how much that hurt him."
Robin glowered, "What are you insinuating?"
Xander slowly turned to look at him and said, "I'm not insinuating anything, Robin. I'm not upset. Really, I'm not. I'm glad you take the team's security this seriously. I just would've preferred you ask first, that's all. No big."
"I was talking about Conner."
"He asked you something when you first told him the test results, Robin. Looking back on it now, ask yourself that question again: Did knowing about it change anything for the better?" He shook his head, "Look, Robin, I'll give this Teen Titans weekend thing anoth- a try, but I'm reserving the right to cancel if we get an apocalypse back home, all right?"
Xander turned and jogged over to Buffy, "So, ready to go home?"
"Do we have to?" she pouted.
"Uh, well, I suppose not," Xander said, bewildered, "but I figure it beats shacking up in this freaky Tower."
She thumped him on the arm, "That's not what I meant, Xander. I mean, we're in New York. I was hoping we could stick around for a while, take in the sights for a few hours. Pleeease?"
Author's Postscript:
Been preparing for this for a while now. Had to do some cuts here and there to keep the size manageable and to keep from just ripping off the comic.
Where is Spike, you ask? After all, last we saw Deathstroke, he was chasing after Spike with a sword.
Well...
