Disclaimer: Justice League Unlimited, owned by DC/Warner Brothers. Aberrant, owned by White Wolf and/or Onyx Publishing.

Author's Notes: Okay, this chapter didn't come out like I wanted it to, but it seemed to flow together and I didn't want to bog things down. The "Ace" character in this chapter is the girl from the Justice League episodes "Wild Cards" and "Epilogue". Call me sappy and pathetic, but I felt really sorry for this girl and what was done to her in that series. So...hopefully, this fic will do her some justice and...maybe she might get a better ending...or I could make things worse for her. As it is, events have already fouled up the JLU continuity in this fic. Oh...and for those DC fanatics out there, yes...a certain villain/armor construct is going to show up in this story...but don't expect it to be like the character in the comics (kind of like the way Galatea and Doomsday differed from their comic versions). Then again, I doubt many of you even know or remember Monarch.

As usual, reviews and threats are welcome, but ten page spamming will not be tolerated.

Also, the 300-400 megawatt reference...basically googled that and found out that 400 megawatt reactor is something that can power an aircraft carrier or a small city.

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist..."

-Kevin Spacey, "The Usual Suspects"

CADMUS Headquarters

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Waller resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she looked down from the observation room overlooking Research Lab 42 where various scientists and lab techs scurried about like ants on a sugar high. Located on Sub-Level 12, the "room" was about the size of a medium sized airplane hangar filled with various workstations where teams of specialists would be working on classified projects. Sometimes, there would be multiple teams working on sparate projects, but not this time.

This time, the entirety of Lab 42 was dedicated to the pair of high-tech gauntlets that were sitting in an enclosed chamber where one lab worker wearing a protective suit was using a data pad to record energy readings. Amanda could see the excitement on all their faces as they talked in hushed voices about these gauntlets being "the find of the century".

Not so much a 'find', she thought to herself. But more of an acquisition, but who cares? We have them AND the little bastard that made them.

She turned around to face the middle-aged gentleman standing in the room dressed in a white lab-coat, sporting a mustache, wearing black glasses, and holding a data pad of his own. "Okay, Hamilton, what is it that has your people so giddy?"

Doctor Emil Hamilton gave her a tiny smile. "I do apologize, Amanda, because I'm also a little 'giddy' at the latest developments,"" he said, tapping the data pad a couple times before handing it to Waller. "As you can see from theses results, the applications of this find can be limitless."

Amanda read through the data, thumbing through the notes, but it was the graphical data at the end that had her widening her eyes in surprise. "Is this for real?" she asked as she handed the datapad back to him.

"Very,"Hamilton replied, his smile getting bigger. "Those energy readings are from five minutes ago," he continued. "As you can see, power output coming from one those gauntlets averages between three hundred to four hundred megawatts, but there seems to be some sort of containment/dispersal process that is running at all times."

"That's good to know, and while this has limitless potential, it concerns me that these gauntlets are, for all intents and purposes, miniature nuclear reactors that could power a small city or Aircraft carrier and this punk was using them to simply toss Galatea around like a ragdoll."

Anger briefly flickered across Hamilton's face at the mention of what happened to Galatea, but it instantly faded before Amanda could question it. "Actually, it would take more power than that to do something like that to Galatea."

"Okay, so you're saying that something else was used?"

The scientist shook his head and the smile returned. "No, Amanda," he said. "What I'm saying is that he kicked more power through those gauntlets. The energy readings we're getting from them now...the 300/400 range is just the energy levels being kicked out while these gauntlets are 'idling'...like a car in neutral after it's been started."

Now that got Amanda's undivided attention and explained why all the R&D techs were giddy with excitement. "Emil," she said softly, "close the door." She waited until Hamilton closed the door to the observation room and used a code to lock it before she continued. "Am I to understand that these things can kick out more power?"

"Yes, but I'm unsure how much more. We're not even sure what the material to construct them is made of, but a metallurgical analysis showed similarities to something we do have."

"And what might that be?" Amanda asked, possibilities of what they could use Flynn's technology for playing through her mind.

But it was Hamilton's response that shattered all those thoughts and sent a chill down her spine. "The Dark Heart," he said. This time, there was no smile on his face. The somber look made it clear that discovery bothered him.

And Amanda couldn't blame him. The alien weapon dubbed the "Dark Heart" still gave her (and she was certain it gave others) nightmares. In less than a day, that nanotech based threat nearly destroyed the world, but the Justice League managed to stop it. That event also revealed that the Justice League had an orbital weapon of mass destruction which was the only reason Waller agreed to let General Eiling and his people take components of the Dark Heart for research.

Thankfully, we've been unable to figure how the damn thing works and it's currently locked up. As much as we need whatever technology we can get to take on the Justice League, I don't want a weapon like that running around, especially if it's prone to turning on its creators.

Then another thought hit her when she realized what Hamilton had said. "Emil, you said material that made up those gauntlets was similar to the Dark Heart...you don't think it came from the same world, do you?"

Hamiltion shook his head. "No, Director, I don't think so," he assured her. "While it is apparent that this David Flynn has access to nanotechnology, it's nowhere near the complexity of what the Dark Heart produced, but there are sill some faint similarities." He tapped a couple more keys on his data pad again. "Although, given the power readings, and if we can get a look at the gauntlet schematics, we might be able to use Flynn's work for the Mobile Nano-Reactive Combat Hardsuit project."

Waller let out a small laugh. "Emil, Emil, Emil," she said, shaking her head. "I thought we agreed to give up on the battle-suit program."

"Well, the concepts are quite sound. The proto-type suit was completed. All the people involved were able to take Ivo's research notes, Luthor's hardware, and even some developments we made from studying the Dark Heart and the Annihilator, and we managed to make a functioning suit."

"Yes, and it took two steps before the power source burned out. Not only that, the cost alone to manufacture multiple suits would crash our country's economy." Then the realization hit her. "You think we can use the power source to Flynn's gauntlets."

"Yes," Hamiliton said as he reached up and adjusted the glasses on his face. "But we're having a hell of a time trying break the encryption coding on the control console on one of the gauntlets."

Amanda thought about it for a moment. If Hamilton was correct, Flynn's technology could be used to power up one of CADMUS' budget disasters and possibly add a new weapon to their arsenal. The only problem was to get Flynn to cooperate, but she had the sinking feeling the young man wasn't going to go along despite her threat.

But he doesn't know that his girlfriend somehow ended up in this world. Maybe I should change things up a little, rattle his cage.

"Okay, Hamilton," she said, coming to a decision. "Go ahead and reactivate the Monarch project, you have a week to get a team back together."

"Do you think you can get Flynn to assist us?"

Amanda gave him a predatory grin. "Don't worry, Emil, I think I can find a way to make our guest come around."

Hamilton nodded and then turned to leave. He had just finished punching in an access code to open the door when another thought occurred to him. "Director," he said, half turning to look over his shoulder, "About Galatea."

"What about her?"

"I'm aware that you've been using her in this operation and you have my support, but I do have some concern.?"

"What kind of concerns?"

The expression on the man's face softened. "I would suggest that you limit her interaction with our guest."

Now that was not something Amanda was expecting. "Why? She's done well so far."

"Yes, and she is one of our more successful endeavors." It was clear that Hamilton was trying to keep his tone professional, but Amanda could see the concern in his eyes.

You're letting your emotions get a hold of you, my friend, Amanda thought. She is an asset, but you treat her like she's your daughter...this could be a problem. "So what's the problem, Emil?" she asked.

"He scares her."

Amanda laughed again when she heard that. "Excuse me? Scares her, how?"

"She may not show it, but he nearly killed her. She's been having nightmares since that incident." Anger could be heard in the man's voice.

Oh yeah, Emil, you are too close to this. We might have to do something about that.

"I'm not sure what I can do about that, Emil," she said. "Galatea has only expressed anger and hatred at our guest. Though, from what I read in the reports, that's understandable. In fact, she insisted that she be kept on this project."

"I'm aware of that, Amanda," Hamilton admitted, "but there's something more."

"Are you sure you're not letting your personal attachment to the asset cloud your thinking?" Amanda asked, figuring it was best to be direct.

Emil stiffened at the mild rebuke. "No, Director," he replied straightening his posture a little. "But I am concerned about what could happen. Galatea is trying to prove herself, especially since the incident with Supergirl. But this David Flynn seems to anger her more than Supergirl did. And, from what I understand, this Mr. Flynn has already stated that he intends to kill her when he escapes."

Waller smirked at him. "Really, Emil? Do you really think that boy is capable of taking down Galatea and break out of the high security lockdown we have him under?"

"No, but keep in mind he did build those gauntlets," he countered. "I almost hate to think what he can do if we can't control his activities here."

"Let me worry about that, Emil," Amanda said. She then paused as she noticed someone standing in the hallway outside the door, waiting for Hamilton to exit. "Ah, Rick, come on in. Emil was just leaving."

Colonel Rick Flagg nodded at Hamilton as the man walkled by. "Director," he said as he walked into the room, "our intel has confirmed that those two men Batman had placed in Arkham are from that other Earth."

"I was afraid of that," Waller sighed. "It was kind of a big giveaway when one of them was ranting about our world not being real. Though I have to admit the satellite feed we got of them taking on Batman was interesting."

"I have already dispatched a team to Arkham and we're ready to extract or terminate them, ma'am."

Amanda considered the options and, for a moment, she almost chose the extraction but realized those two could cause problems. No, better to just kill off the loose ends. "Terminate them," she ordered. "Just try not to implicate us."

Flagg nodded and smiled at her. "Understood, ma'am. It's really too bad about Arkham, though."

"Why's that Rick?" Amanda asked.

"Because it's state of the art security and a newly rebuilt facility," Flagg replied, shaking his head. "Too bad the new facility's personnel weren't ready for a full-scale riot."

"Keep the casualties to a minimum, Rick."

"Yes, ma'am."

David stood in the middle of his new cell and studied it, mentally going though all the details.

Okay, let's see...fairly spacious compared to a jail cell. Fourteen feet by fourteen feet, one hundred ninety-six square feet total...the walls are about ten feet high and I'm closed in except for the vents. The cell material is some sort of reinforced plexiglass. The toilet and small shower stall in that corner along with the sink. My bed over there. And a single chair. And of course, I can be watched at all times because everything here is see through. Probably means someone enjoys watching me take a shit and shower...damn government pervs...it seems every universe has them.

He smirked as he looked out of his cell and at the dimly lit room surrounding the cell. It wasn't much different than the previous room that contained his previous cell except that it was much bigger, perhaps five times larger than his cell. He could see a couple computer terminals nearby and make out a few catwalks along the walls and above his cell. A quick mental link to the security network (which only took him four hours to completely break into) informed him that there were six guards in the room watching him.

Well, this is indeed interesting. My forty-eight hours isn't up yet, but Waller has moved me to a better cell. I suppose she thinks I'm going to "play ball".

For a moment, he briefly considered just "breaking down" and pretending to go along, but he figured that Waller wouldn't buy it and probably try something.

No, he decided, better to tell her to go fuck herself and then we'll see what trick she has up her sleeve to coerce me into "assisting" her little regime. But she's not the problem, that other damn AI is.

He had to admit that he was surprised when Lex Luthor walked into the room the previous day, but it was the artificial intelligence hiding in the subconscious recesses of Luthor's mind that got David's attention. He could sense Brainiac the moment Luthor walked right through the door. David actually found it amusing,in a twisted way, that he was meeting two allegedly fictional characters and one was completely clueless that he was the puppet of the other.

And Brainiac...he was shocked, not that I could blame him. I'm essentially an AI in a human shell and he wasn't expecting it. And Luthor...so full and arrogant of himself, he doesn't even realize I wasn't even talking to him.

He couldn't help laughing at that, noting that it caused a couple of guards to momentarily stop and look at him before resuming their duties which consisted mostly of them just walking around the room or on the catwalks and look intimidating.

"You find this amusing," a voice said softly, catching David off guard. He suddenly turned around in the direction of the voice, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the speaker, a young girl, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old with short black hair and a haunted expression on her face, wearing a black jumpsuit.

Shit, where the hell did she come from? She wasn't there a couple seconds ago and she didn't come in through any of the entrances.

"But I did come in through one of the entrances," the girl said, the barest hint of a smile appearing on her face before disappearing. "I just didn't want you to see me."

"And you...are some sort of telepath," David said, rapidly putting everything together.

"Something like that." The girl looked around for a couple seconds before refocusing her attention on him. "And despite the situation you are in, you find it amusing."

"Yeah," David admitted, "I do...but I'm also scared shitless."

"You should be," the girl said, tilting her head to one side, "especially since I'm talking to you."

"And why is that?" David asked, slightly mimicking the girl's head movement.

The girl gave him a puzzled look. "You don't know who I am?" she asked.

David shook his head, trying to recall what little he knew of the DC world. He had never cared much for comics and had only seen two of the Batman movies. Then again, he didn't have a normal childhood like real humans did. "Um, sorry," he said. "And if you're a telepath, I assume that would be scary to most people. But I've dealt with telepaths before and you don't look scary at the moment."

"And what do I look like to you?"

David could feel a faint tingling at the back of his mind and random images flashed through his mind...memories of him in a holding tank, screaming to be let out, to be allowed to live. Then, just as quickly as they came, the memories faded. "I'm assuming that's you running through my brain," he said. "Did Waller send you?"

"Waller doesn't know I'm here," the girl said. She then gestured at the guards with one arm and David noticed they were all standing oddly still. "And they don't know I'm here either."

"Okay, I'm impressed," David said.

"And I ask you again, what do I look like to you?"

"Honestly, a scared girl...that's been turned into a weapon."

For a moment, the tingling in David's brain returned, but dissipated almost immediately as the girl gave him a sad smile. "And yet you don't know me," she said softly.

"No, but I know what it's like."

The girl smiled at him again. "You would know, wouldn't you?"

David returned the smile. "A little bit," he replied. "If you haven't been told, or gleaned it for yourself, my name is David Pine Flynn."

"I know."

"Oh, you do? Then you have me at a disadvantage." Then David grinned at her. "So tell me, she-who-is-meant-to-be-scary, do you have a name?"

The girl stared at him for a few seconds, then she did let out a soft giggle. "They call me Ace."

"Ace?" David repeated before shaking his head. "Um...no offense, but you don't look like an 'Ace'."

"It's the only name I've been called since I can remember, though I did remember reading my file once...I think my name was Alice or Allison."

"Damn," David muttered, "and I thought my childhood was messed up."

"I don't think either of us really had one, David."

"Got a point there. So...Ali, why are you here, exactly? I mean, you sneak in here, you're doing some sort of mental whammy on the guards, and you don't Waller to know. Why?"

"To meet you," the girl now identified as Ace answered. "Waller is going to try to break you, she'll probably use me to do it...and I will...but-"

"But you don't want to," David finished for her.

Ace shook her head. "But I won't have a choice, they can make me do things. Before, they had a control band, but now...now they have that nanotech implant at the base of my skull."

"Ah yes, Waller's control mechanism." David nodded in understanding. "She had that put in me too, but I already told her to kill me. But for some reason, I don't think that's going to happen. I'm too valuable."

"True," Ace said, "but I read her mind. She thinks she has a way to control you."

"Really," David said, arching an eyebrow, "torturing me won't work."

"No, but she thinks a girl with pink hair would change your mind, especially if they capture her."

David felt like someone had punched him in the gut. "Excuse me," he said. "What are you talking about?"

"A girl named 'Zoe'," Ace said. "CADMUS is interested in her since she first appeared in Metropolis a few days ago."

Oh god, David thought, how is this possible? Wait...there as an attack at the Brewhouse before SST was attacked, Kyle said something about a portal...shit...it must have dropped Zoe somewhere in this world.

"Told you it was Metropolis," Ace said.

"Okay, kiddo," David said, "could you please stop reading my mind."

"Then stop thinking so loud," Ace fired back.

David couldn't help chuckling a little. "Okay...you got a point." His smile faded a little and he looked at her for a couple seconds. "Ace," he finally said. "why are you really here?"

"To ask you if you really think you can do what you intend to do."

"And what do you think I'm going to do, Ace?"

"Destroy CADMUS."

"I'm considering options, why do you ask?"

"Do you intend to destroy people like me?"

"Um...why? You're not on my list...hell, until now, I didn't even know about you." He reached out with his mind to the network again and accessed Ace's file. Then his eyes widened as his mind processed the data. "Holy shit," he whispered, shuddering slightly in horror at what he just learned about the girl he was talking to. Then he looked down at the floor for a moment before looking back at her. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't know."

"And does that change what you think of me now?' Ace asked.

David stared at her in disbelief. He had just learned who she was, what she had done, what she was theoretically capable of, and she was scared that he saw her the way others saw her. "No," he said, shaking his head again as he knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder. "You're not a monster...you're just a kid who got a raw deal."

For several seconds, Ace stood there, staring at him, her expression unreadable. "Do you have a plan?" she asked.

"Kind of, but you're not going to like it," David told her. "Hell, I don't like it."

"What is it?" Ace asked, now curious.

David gave her a grim look of determination. "I need you to be strong, kiddo, and I need you to do exactly what I tell you, even if you're not going to like it."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Very soon," David said, "in the next few hours actually...I'm going to cause an incident. And..."

He paused for a moment, causing Ace to gaze at him in concern. "And what?"

"And you're going to have to break me."