Me and Jubilee walked into the main room, and saw Batman watching a monitor of the team sitting or standing around the kitchen/living room.

I walked up, "What's got them so depressed?"

"There was a very unfortunate training exercise yesterday morning." Batman said, turning away from the screens to look at me. "Manhunter psychically linked the seven of them within an artificial reality. They all knew this going in. What they didn't know was that it was a trained for failure exercise. No matter what the team accomplished, it was designed to grow worse. Still, they were aware nothing was real. Including the deaths of the entire Justice League."

I paused, "Watching each one of their mentors die one by one, with no time to grieve, must have been traumatic."

Jubilee nodded, "Yeah, but now that they see you're all still alive, they should be good right? Maybe even better with the normal 'I never want it to really happen so I'll do the best I can on missions' retaliation."

Batman shook his head, "They never grieved, they knew it wasn't real. Even when Wolf died during the mission, they didn't even stop."

"So what's wrong?" I asked, "They feel guilty they didn't grieve. Nothing a pep talk won't fix."

Again, he shook his head, "No, that changed when Artemis died. Megan knew it wasn't real, but her subconscious couldn't tell the difference. She forgot the whole purpose of the exercise so her subconscious mind took control. Making it very, very real for all of them."

"Well, boom goes that theory." Jubilee said sarcastically.

"Megan did all that?" I asked, "The shy little Martian stow away?"

"Don't let her fool you, in terms of raw power, she outdistances even Martian Manhunter." Batman explained.

"I get it, Megan took control and that made everything real for them. Why not just pull the plug?" Jubilee asked.

"Manhunter tried. But Megan had a death grip on the entire reality. Artemis was supposed to wake up when she died, but she didn't. Megan convinced her mind that she had died, and so Artemis slipped into a coma," He explained calmly. "Manhunter tried to go directly into Megan's mind, but he got lost. He was sucked into that reality believing everything Megan's mind had created."

"Which defeated the purpose of sending him in." Jubilee sighed.

"What happened in the illusion?" I asked.

"The entire team died." Batman explained. "One by one, they were picked off."

"And now they have the shock of actually failing a life threatening mission, and dying as well." Jubilee said, suddenly very worried.

"What's the big deal?" I asked, "I die all the time."

"Not everyone has that piece of mind." She explained. "You don't care about life threatening situations because in nearly every scenario, you'd come out of it one way or another. They've never done that."

"But now they have." I pointed out, "So now, won't they be more comfortable with the idea of death?"

"No." Batman said forcefully. "If anything, they'll fear it even more."

I nodded, remembering the first time I died. It had taken quite a few deaths to make me comfortable with the idea of it.

"Oh." I mumbled. I sighed, looking at them again from the screen. They looked like they had been through Hell. Actually, they had.

I turned back to Batman, "So, if there's no training today, why call me in? You could have just told me about this over the phone."

"The team needs someone to talk to about what happened." Batman said. "Someone they know, and not one of us."

Jubilee brightened up, "Leaving Mio as the obvious choice."

My eyes widened, "What?"

Batman nodded, "You're to become their therapist for the day. They know you, but not enough to really care what you think about them."

"Thanks." I mumbled dryly.

"So you'll do it?" He asked.

"I'm not exactly the best person to turn to for a role model, and I'm not that great with emotions." I said, shrugging.

"On the contrary, you're very good with emotions." He said, glaring at me in a way that I could tell, he knew about my pheromone control.

I glared at him, and then snorted, "Why would I be the best choice? Black Canary would be better. She's encouraging."

"They've done better under your supervision." He said. "Especially the progress you've made with Conner."

I sighed, "All I did was train the kid to fight, it's not anything I did that made him do better with emotions."

"Conner trusts you." Batman said, glaring at me, "Robin trusts you as well. Kaldur respects you and your skills. Artemis envies your skills, you're slowly becoming a role model to her."

"Kanojo wa, rōrumoderu to shite satsugai yasei o erabimasu? Kanojo wa sono yōna sumātona on'nanokodesu." She picks the murdering feral as a role model? She's such a smart girl. I mumbled sarcastically.

He gave me a sharp look, he must know Japanese. Of course he knows Japanese, he's Batman! "Considering Logan's extensive litter, I'm not surprised someone like Artemis gravitated to you."

I glared at him, "I'm not Logan."

He ignored that. "Wally was afraid of you at first, but after the mission with the Injustice League, he now feels comfortable around you. He's slowly beginning to trust you. Megan-"

"Hates me." I finished, "I know she's afraid of me, and she hates it when I hurt Conner. She resents me, and I'm pretty sure the day I took over for Black Canary was the worst of her life."

Batman shook his head, "Not after the training exercise."

My eyes narrowed, "Where was I in this training exercise?"

He turned away from me, "You'll have to take that up with her. They've already been told about you stepping in for therapist. I know you won't disappoint them."

I groaned, cursing him in Japanese and walking out.

JUBILEE'S POINT OF VEIW:

"That was cruel. Making her do it." I accused.

"She could walk out anytime." Batman dismissed.

"But you knew she wouldn't." I shot back, glaring at him. You mess with Mio, you mess with me. That was how sisterhood worked.

"Yes. I did." He said plainly.

"Look, I've only seen her around them for one day, and I already know how much she cares about them. I know that if anything happens to these kids on a mission, she'll be going out for blood." I explained.

"She's watched them grow, mature, and overcome hurdles in the past few months. She's watched them thoroughly and witnessed exactly how they are inside." Batman said, "No matter how much she denies it, they're becoming her litter."

CONNER

Conner sat across from me in the green chairs, tense, and ready to pounce. I could tell this was dangerous territory, one false word and he would blow.

"I know it's hard." I said, trying to start out by letting him know he wasn't alone. "That feeling of losing your friends and family. The whole time convinced it was real. I know it's devastating."

He looked up at me, and I continued, maybe I wasn't that bad at this after all. "I can understand that feeling, Conner. You may be perceived as Superboy who's not supposed to have feelings of sadness or-"

He jumped up, now completely livid with me, "You don't know what I feel!"

He headed out the door. "Conner-"

"Just leave me alone!" he yelled, walking out.

I sighed, "Ok, wrong angle."

I grabbed my notebook and pen, wrote Conner's name down, and then scribbled: Angry… duh.

ARTEMIS

Artemis slouched in the green chair, "Look, me dying during the exercise might've started things going south, but I was coma girl. Missed out on all the fun. Forgetting it wasn't real. So, no trauma. No need for the shrink wrap."

I chuckled, "Ok then. You don't feel like you need help."

"Whatever. Maybe." She shot at me. She had a smart mouth, and that was okay with me, as long as she didn't take it to far.

"Look, you know you need help. Only you know the real way you feel about things, and only you can truly deal with them. One way of dealing with them: talking about them with your friends." I said, shrugging, "It's not a weakness."

"Number one, I know that. Number two, not a sign of weakness? Coming from you?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Give me a break, you never talk about your feelings."

"Not with you." I said, "Now, Logan, Jubilee, and a few other people you don't know, I have talked to them about how I feel. It wasn't easy for me to come clean about a lot of stuff, but I did. I felt better afterwards, even if they couldn't really help me, talking about it, admitting I was feeling those things, that made a whole word of difference."

"Look, if I wanted to, I could go to my friends for help."

"You feel that way?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"And you still keep secrets from them." I said, smirking.

"Y-you know?" She asked, shocked and a little scared at what I would do with this information.

"Yeah." I said, shrugging. "Not hard to figure out, you look just like him."

She glared at me, "I'm nothing like him."

I nodded, "I know that. I know that feeling a lot more than you think."

"Are you gonna tell them?" She asked quietly.

"No." I said. "It's up to you. You could start by admitting you're not really Green Arrow's niece."

"Yeah right. Can you imagine what Wally would do with that?" She said, looking away from me.

"So your top concern is Wally? Not surprising." I smirked.

She looked up at me, and I shook my head, "None of your secrets are safe from me Barbie."

"How did you find all this out?" She asked quietly, suddenly feeling very small and powerless.

I sighed, "OK, I know pretty much your life story, only fair you can hold something over my head. I have a very rare mutation, I can control my pheromones, basically my scent, and pretty much control everyone's emotions when I'm around them. Once I've got their emotions down, their bodies follow easily."

Her eyes widened, "Really?" She whispered.

I nodded, "Don't worry, I'm not that good with it. I can only really distract people for a moment with it. But in a fight, a moment is all I really need. I couldn't make you do anything without you snapping out of it quickly. I don't have any reason to control your emotions anyway, so don't worry about it."

She nodded, clearing her throat, "Can I… can I go now?"

"Sure." I shrugged.

She turned to leave, "Uh, your not going to tell anyone about this, right?"

"Not a soul."

She left, and I turned back to my notebook: Guilty about being the true cause of the accident.

KALDUR

"I was the general. But behaved like a soldier," Kaldur sat with his shoulders slumped. "I sacrificed myself. I am not fit for command and must resign as team leader."

"Quitting isn't exactly something I respect, but if you're sure, who would replace you?" I asked. I knew where this was going. Aqualad was on a guilt trip.

Kaldur furred his brows, "Artemis is too raw and untrusting. Kid Flash, too rash and impulsive. Miss Martian remains too eager to please. Superboy carries too much anger.

I nodded, "Leaving Robin."

"But he's so young…" Kaldur said, not sure.

"In my experience, age doesn't mean anything." I debated. "I was ten years old when I first started learning to fight, and it wasn't voluntary."

He raised an eyebrow at that, but I didn't give him time to question me. "Now, you know Logan kills people, right?"

He nodded, "Your mentors methods are not my business, but I do know of his… unusual ways."

"Well, then you should have figured out by now, I have killed people, right?"

He nodded, "I will not judge you."

"Okay then. I was ten years old when I first killed a man." I said, shrugging.

His eyes widened, "So young…"

"Yeah." I said, "And it definitely wasn't the last time. But I do understand what you're saying about Robin, he is immature."

Kaldur sighed, "I cannot shift this burden to him. Not yet. It appears I must withdraw my resignation."

I nodded, "You may be doubting yourself right now, but I should know, all wounds heal in time."

"Not everyone heals as fast as you." He said sadly.

I nodded, and he left. Unsure he is still fit to be leader.

WALLY

I frowned at Wally who was sitting upside with a bowl of popcorn, "So Speedy, you want to believe that after everything you went through, including your own death from fiery explosion...you're peachy?"

"I'm, uh, fairly certain I never used the word 'peachy', but I think you got the gist," he tossed several pieces into his mouth. "And for the umpteenth time, I am not Speedy. Red Arrow used to be Speedy, and I am not walking around with a bow and arrow. That's Arty's job."

"You really have no interest in confronting your extreme reaction to Artemis' death?"

He suddenly jerked up, choking on a corn kernel. He quickly collected himself, "Uh, I'd rather talk about you, babe."

I glared at him, "Wally, you're in denial."

"I'm comfortable with that." He shrugged.

In denial. Must find way to make him and Artemis MAKE OUT ALREADY!

ROBIN

"Hurting? Try traumatized," Robin glanced at the floor. "I finally become leader and wind-up sending all my friends to their deaths. I- I know I did what I had to, but I hated it. When we started this team, I was desperate to be in-charge. Not anymore. An- and that's not even the worst of it. Mio… you can't tell Bruce."

"Robin, nothing, and I mean nothing will leave this room." I said quietly.

"I always wanted...expected t-to grow up and become him. And the hero bit, I'm still all in. But that thing inside of him? That thing that drives him to sacrifice everything for the sake of his mission. That's not me. I- I don't wanna be the Batman anymore."

"I understand." I said quietly. He looked so… young sitting there. He had never looked like a child to me before.

I sighed, standing up and walking over to him. He looked up at me, raising an eyebrow, "Mio-"

I hugged him, wrapping my arms around him and just holding him. He was hurting badly. He was my friend, my first friend I had made outside of Logan's adopted litter.

"It'll be okay Robin, I promise."

He took a deep breath, "It's Richard."

I pulled away, raising my eyebrows, "What?"

"My real name, it's Richard." He said, smiling up at me, "Friends and family call me Dick."

I smiled back down at him, "I'm glad you told me. Batman would be livid if he knew you told me."

He shrugged, "I'm not Batman. I know you, and I trust you. It's not like I told you my last name anyways."

"You know many Richard's in Gotham City with black hair, blue eyes, thirteen years old, and probably rich to afford all that fancy gear?" I asked, smirking.

His eyes widened, "Oh crap…"

"Fear not." I said, sitting back down, "I don't snoop, and I know that Richard, that guy's the real mask. Robin, that's who you really are. So I don't care about your secret identity."

He smiled, "Thanks."

Realizing that he doesn't want to be Batman, trying to be his own man.

MEGAN

"It was all my fault. Hello, Megan," Megan bopped herself on the forehead. "Who else could take a simple exercise and turn it into a nightmare that terrorizes everyone she cares about?"

I raised an eyebrow as her green skin melted away. "Megan, you turned white."

"No!" Megan jolted to her feet, examining herself. "Oh. You meant...Caucasian. Yeah, I'm fine being Megan. But I can't be trusted to use my other powers."

I sighed, shaking my head, "M'gann, you're Martian. Not using your natural abilities is like me refusing to use my claws, or any other of my abilities. Trust me, I've tried going down that road, and it'll always back fire on you. Not being yourself is never the answer. It won't make your feelings of guilt go away. Learn from what happened. Practice until you gain control, and regain your confidence."

She sat back down, finally looking up at me, "Mio, I… I just.. I feel so-"

"Guilty, depressed, you feel like a ticking time bomb, like you can't be trusted." I finished.

She nodded, "You know the feeling then."

"Oh yeah." I said. "Look M'gann, I was wondering, in this little virtual reality thing, where was I during all this?"

She sighed, "You'll be mad at me."

"No, I won't. I promise." I vowed.

"Okay. When we went up to the Fortress of Solitude, you went with us, and while we were trying to subdue the alien ship, after Artemis and Wolf got killed, you pushed me out of the way of one of the beams." She sighed, her voice quivering, "You sacrificed yourself for me, the one who got us all into that mess."

I put a hand on her knee, "M'gann, it's okay."

"No it's not!" she sobbed, finally giving in to the to tears. "It was all my fault."

"M'gann, you can't take the full blame. Really, there were three elements that lead up to this." I said softly. "First of all, they thought it would be a good idea to put you in an very realistic illusion due to telepathic connections. Professor X, he doesn't due those things because he knows how damaging they can be. If I had been there, I wouldn't have let them do it to you all."

She looked up at me, "But the training session… we needed to do it."

"No you didn't." I said firmly. "I could have taken you to Utopia X and had you train in the danger room."

"But wouldn't they have gotten mad?" She asked, "None of us are mutants."

"If they had a bone to pick they could have taken it up with me." I brushed off. "Secondly, if Artemis had been paying a little more attention, she might not have gotten killed in the first place."

She looked up at me, "So… you're saying this is her fault?"

"I'm saying." I countered, "That it's none of your fault's. No one can blame you for panicking at the thought of your team mate dying."

She nodded slowly, "My powers are still unstable." She whispered.

"Then train." I said simply.

She nodded, and left.

Guilty about powers being the cause of everyone's distress. Trying to assume all responsibility for accident.

I looked over my notes, sighing. Wally, Artemis, and maybe Kaldur would be fine for now, but until they made real progress, Robin, Megan, and maybe Conner would have to sit out of the big stuff. Just to be safe. One angry, guilty, or impulsive move from one distraught member could kill them all.

Jubilee walked into the room, "How'd it go Den Mother?"

I sighed again, shaking my head. "They're devastated. I'm devastated!"

I looked up at her, "Jubilee, I'm way out of my league! This is… so far beyond my level." I shook my head, putting my head in my hands, "It's just… this isn't me! I'm not some authority figure, or a role model. I'm a barley passable Den Mother, and that's only because I hardly have to do anything!"

I rubbed my forehead slowly, "I'm not a person people like getting close to. When civilians see me in costume, they run away. All the people who are completely comfortable being in the same room as me who don't wanna kill me, I can count on my fingers! You, Kitty, Rogue, Logan, and Lovette!"

I sat straight up again, glaring at her, "How is it that I get feared everywhere I go, but here, I get barley get respected by two people!"

She shrugged, "Maybe here, they actually see the real you, not the blood thirsty, I don't care, macho mask."

I snorted, "It's not a mask."

She looked at me firmly, "Yeah it is. I know you care about this place, and pretty much everyone in it."

I stood up, glaring at her, my icy blue eyes piercing into hers. "I don't care about this hide out, about the scared little Martian girl in a so much bigger world. I don't care about the speedster who reminds me of quicksilver so much, I really just want to dye his hair white and make him put on a blue and silver costume with a lightning bolt. I don't care about the fish out of water who feels like he's out of his zone not only because he's the only Atlantean on the team, but also the only black guy. I don't care about Daddy-Problem-Barbie who can't look at Canary or Green Arrow as a role model and instead turns to the messed up mutant killer. I don't care about the little orphaned birdie who's all sad cause Daddy's cowl isn't as great as he thought it would be. I don't care about the clone who's angry every five seconds and is constantly thinking, 'Daddy why won't you love me?' instead of just being happy his father didn't kill him or put him in a cell next to the mad scientist gone Block Buster."

She straightened her posture, fixing me with a look Logan had given me many times. "If you don't care so much, why are you here? Why not pack your bags and come to the mansion with Lovette and the rest of us? Daken can't get to Lovette where she is right now, and if you really didn't like it here, you'd come running back home with your tail between your legs cause your scared of Daken, the guy who shoved you off your high and mighty stool and put you in your place." She leaned towards me, "You might have even Batman fooled, but unlike those kids, I'm not afraid of your crazy eyes Sissy."

"You used your fangs as an excuse to go running back to Daddy." I shot back.

"You're never been happier than you are right now. This place, these kids, they make you happy. You smiled at every single one of those kids." She said, trying to get the upper hand, cause right now, it was up for grabs.

"Admit you're still afraid to live your own life without Logan there to tell you right from wrong." I said, trying to grab it as well.

"Admit that losing this place and these kids would kill you." She said.

I paused, "We done?"

She shrugged, "That's all I got."

I nodded, and walked to the door, then stopped looking back at her, "Crazy eyes?"

She shrugged, and raised one eye brow at the same time, meaning: you may not like it, but it's true, ask anyone.

"Low blow." I criticized, leaving the room, shaking my head.

On my way down the hall, I nearly ran into Conner. "Oh, sorry Super Girl."

He glared at me, and then dropped the glare, sighing. "Can I talk to you?"

I raised an eyebrow and turned back to look at the therapy room, to see Jubilee walking out of it. "Sure."

CONNER

"Here's the ugly truth… I wasn't devastated. Even with Superman, Tornado, Canary...the whole League dead...even though I didn't save Wolf...watched Artemis, Kaldur and you die... abandoned Megan... I felt…" Conner lowered his eyes, "At peace. From the moment I first opened my eyes in that Cadmus pod, there's been one thing I've wanted and feared, to know what it is to be Superman. And I knew. So I was... happy. Everyone I cared about dead or traumatized and I'm happy. How do I get past the guilt of that? How do I live with myself?" So he does like Megan, why didn't he admit it earlier?

I sighed, reaching across and putting my hand on his knee. "I don't have all the answers Conner. Admitting it, well, Logan always used to say that admitting it was the first step, and it was also the hardest." I stood up, and leaned on the edge of his chair, hugging him, "I'm proud of you Conner."

He grabbed me desperately, like Lovette does when I come back after disappearing for a week. I was shocked for a moment, but then as he started shaking, I realized what he was doing. When he hid his face into my shoulder, I felt the tears trickle down onto my shoulder.

"Shh, it's okay Conner." I said, slowly putting a hand on his head, and stroking his head carefully. People did that with dogs right? Does it work with people too? Do humans consider it insulting or belittling? Oh wait, he's Kryptonian, does that just make it worse?

However, it seemed to work, because eventually he calmed down. He took a deep breath, and the tears began to fade slowly, until he pulled away, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

I shook my head "Don't worry about it."

"I always worry." He mumbled. "About all of them. Wally, Artemis, Robin, Kaldur, and Megan. They all just seem so… vulnerable."

"Because they don't have super strength." I said, "I used to think the same about everyone else around me. Rogue, Jubilee, Kitty, all of them. I thought because they couldn't fall three hundred fee, get run over by a bus and walk it off that they were vulnerable."

"What did you do?" He asked.

"I told Rogue how I felt, and why I felt like that," I paused, remembering the first time I had actually opened up to someone about a feeling, even if it was really just a thought I had yet to voice. "And then she kicked my ass without using her powers at all." I finished, giving one short nod at the end.

He looked up at me, raising an eyebrow, "And that… helped?"

I laughed a little, "Yeah. It actually did. After I got past the sheer humiliation of having her beat me with a lunch tray and shove me headfirst into the nearest lunch room trash can-"

He chuckled, and I glared at him, "Something funny?"

His smile ran right off his face, screaming something about crazy eyes. "No."

I dropped the glare, smiling again, "Well, after it went away and I washed the meatloaf out of my hair, I realized, Rogue wasn't the only one who could do that."

"They all did that to you?" He asked, puzzled.

"No." I snapped, "I realized that in this crazy messed up thing that we call our lives… a set of shiny claws and a healing factor mean nothing. And neither does your super strength. Like I said before, training and powers are nothing. Will is everything."

"So… you're saying that I shouldn't worry?" He asked, confused.

"I'm saying, that it's okay to worry, but you need to trust them to be able to fight for themselves." I said, smiling. "it's something Logan's had to go through with all of his girls."

"How many daughters does he have!" Conner asked, exasperated.

"Uh…" I froze, "I'm not sure even I can count all of them."

He sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Okay look, point is, you need to learn when your friends need you to help them, and when they need you to let them figure it out for themselves." I said.

He paused for moment, "Which one is this?"

I smiled at him again, "The one where I give you another hug then do something completely weird for you."

"What?"

I gave him a one armed hug, and then reached into my pocket, pulling out the black carving of the dragon. "Here."

He took it carefully, examining it, "It looks… hand carved."

"Yeah." I said, smiling. "It is."

"Who made it? Logan?" He asked.

"No." I laughed, "My grandfather on my mothers side. He gave it to my mother when she was a little girl. She gave it to me when I was about eight."

He smiled, turning it over in his hand. It was small, slightly bigger than his thumb. It had been made of regular wood, but it had been held over a candle flame for hours, just close enough for the smoke to stain it pure black.

"My mother used to say that it was our family's guardian." I said, smiling also. "Said that when we were scared, when we were against the wall with no way out, that we had to look to the dragon, and he would show us the way."

He raised an eyebrow, "Is that true?"

"No, just a legend. Most things in our culture are from legends our ancestors told each other around a campfire."

"She sounds nice." He said, "Your mom I mean."

"She was." I said shortly.

"Was?" He asked, looking up at me. "What happened to her."

I frowned sadly, looking at the ground. "She died awhile ago."

"I… I'm sorry." He said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off, standing up and taking a deep breath. "No problem. I got over it a long time ago." Lie. It's not really a big deal, people die every day right?" Lie "So, I shrugged it off a long time ago." Another lie. "Sure I miss her, but I'll see her again one day." Again a lie. Someone like your mother is going to Heaven. You're going straight to Hell when you die. "I used to cry about it, but it doesn't really bother me anymore." Stop lying already! You have nightmares about her death nearly every night! Sometimes you have to run to the shower and turn the water on full blast so Lovette doesn't hear you crying!

He nodded, "Okay."

I walked to the door, "See you tomorrow Conner."