Disclaimer: I don't own Justice League Unlimited or Teen Titans. Hoorah!

Connections

Chapter Six: Face to Face

Dick raised an eyebrow beneath his thin mask before looking over at Wally. He lowered his voice. "Do you always let Shayera do the flying?"

The speedster whipped his head around to face him. "Would you wantto argue with her?"

Nightwing smiled and nodded before leaning back in his chair again. He had never been to Fawcett City before. He wondered what it was like as he looked out the window, the clouds beneath them as they flew to their destination.

"Hey, Dick?"

He turned to look at his speedster friend. "Hmm?"

"Thanks for making me talk to Shayera."

He waved a dismissive hand. "It's nothing." He looked to the front of the Javelin, and briefly wondered why Wally had elected to sit at the very back of the jet. He nodded at the dark empath that was sat next to Shayera in the front.

"Have you talked to Raven yet?"

Flash sighed. "Not yet. But I will."

Dick shot him a 'yeah right' look, prompting the Fastest Man Alive to put up his hands defensively.

"I will, I swear! It's just that now isn't exactly the best time. We've got a mission, dude."

The black haired crime fighter was about to object, but then thought better of it. Wally was right, whether Dick liked it or not. Wally shook his head and smiled.

"Anyway, that's not important right now. We didn't really get a chance to talk before, so… how've you been?"

"Pretty good, for the most part," Dick replied, shrugging. "Blockbuster's losing his grip on Bludhaven piece by piece-"

"Thanks to you," Wally cut in, winking.

Nightwing tilted his head to the side slightly. "Well, not really. The police really seem to be getting their act together, too. But Blockbuster's not done."

The scarlet speedster nodded sombrely, though Dick doubted he was taking anything he said seriously. Wally's head whipped back up to look at him.

"How about Kori? Things going okay with her?"

He smiled at the mention of the Tamaranian.

"We're doing pretty good," he said, before quickly cutting himself off. Wally thinned his eyes.

"…How good?"

Dick remained silent.

Wally's eyes widened, the lenses in his mask nearly popping off. "Holy- that good?"

Dick remained silent.

"Wow… I wasn't expecting that." Nightwing shot him a look. "Well, I was, but I wasn't, uh… that is, I, uh… never mind."

The ex Boy Wonder sighed. "Well, I'm not exactly sure yet, so just… keep it under your hat, all right?"

Flash offered a mock salute and a wink. "Aye aye." He turned back to the window briefly before his head whipped around once more to question Nightwing.

"Hey… have you heard from Donna recently?"

"Why? Hoping to meet all your ex girlfriends in one day?"

A scowl crossed the speedster's face. "Oh, ha ha. That's funny. I was just curious." Dick thought that he had left it at that. Wally quickly spoke again. "Besides, it's not like she was actually my girlfriend or anything."

"Is that because she dumped you for Roy, or something else I'm missing?" Dick replied slowly, a smirk on his face.

"Hey, you know what? Forget it; I don't have to take this," he said, crossing his arms in a mock huff before turning to the window.

The once leader of the Teen Titans smiled and looked out the window. As much as he enjoyed the solo hero job, he had missed being part of a team. He knew that the Titans would welcome him back with open arms, but he felt like he didn't belong there. The four Titans he had led as a teenager had worked too long and too hard for him to suddenly show up and take over. Then another thought occurred to him. Maybe he could make his own team? People who were outsiders, just like he was.

He shook his head, banishing the thought from his head. He turned back to Wally, determined to annoy the speedster even more.

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The two women stared forward in silence as they flew down through the clouds. Raven could see the water tower of Fawcett City as they approached the sprawling landscape. At least, she expected it to be a sprawling landscape. A deep purple eyebrow rose.

How could this be called a city?

Shayera frowned. "How could this be called a city?" she asked aloud, though more to herself than anyone else.

"Ego, I suppose," Raven offered, and Shayera nodded in agreement. The empath kept her gaze forward as she spoke. "So how much did Wally tell you?"

The Thanagarian woman kept her eyes forward also. "Enough to understand why he's acting the way he is." She paused for a moment, glancing over her shoulder to look at the speedster out of the corner of her eye. "He blames himself, you know."

Raven paused, not knowing how to respond. "He does?"

Shayera nodded silently. "For everything."

"Look, it's not like he's totally blameless," her tone becoming defensive.

"No. But then again, neither are you." She took her eyes off the viewport in front of her to look at her. Her expression was one of concern. "I just think you should talk to him. He's really trying to make it up to you, in his own weird, Flash way."

The empath was smiled silently as Shayera brought the Javelin in for a landing on the outskirts of the city.

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Flash eyed the school building incredulously. "Jinx… was in here?"

Her eyes in the usual half closed position, Raven looked over at him. "Yes. I admit, it's strange, but that's where she was before whatever it was blocked me."

Shayera walked forward, drawing her mace. "Then let's stop arguing about it and go in." She raised her mace to the double doors, and almost brought it down before Dick slipped in front of her.

"Why don't you let me do this?" he asked, producing lock picks from somewhere on his person. Shrugging, Shayera gestured to the door and stepped back, resting the mace on her shoulder. Flash and Raven stood back from the proceedings.

"You keep interesting company these days," Raven said, nodding her head slightly towards Shayera. He smiled.

"Yeah. She's really great, though."

A deep purple eyebrow shot up. "Are you two…?"

Flash burst out laughing, but then quickly covered his mouth as he realised they were breaking and entering at the dead of night. He took a breath and cleared his throat quietly.

"Uh, no. We're not. I mean, I haven't really, uh… since…" the speedster rubbed the back of his neck, his face going a shade of red that would match his costume.

Before the empath could comment, Dick had opened the double doors. He cautiously walked forward, putting his lock picks back into their hiding place somewhere on his sleeve. He entered the building, disappearing into darkness for a few seconds before reappearing.

"All clear."

The three entered, and Raven closed the doors behind them telekinetically. Reaching out with her powers, she found the light switches. The room was suddenly bathed in light, and everyone winced to block out the sudden influx of brightness. They were in the gym hall. Having checked the corridors, Dick turned to Raven.

"Okay, Raven. Have a look."

She was about to comply when they were suddenly plunged into darkness once again. Sighing, the dark empath reached out with her telekinesis to the light switches, and flicked them upwards.

Nothing happened.

She flicked the switches a few more times.

They were still surrounded by the blanketing darkness.

"Raven?" Dick called out.

"The switches aren't working. I think-" she stopped as she sensed something.

There was someone else in the room with them. Someone very familiar.

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Grodd's sources had been surprisingly accurate. Slade briefly felt disappointed in himself for having not taken the super intelligent gorilla up on his offer to join his organisation. Briefly. He could never permanently allow himself to take orders from another. It just felt wrong. Like it was a crime against nature; or at least, a crime against his nature. He looked down at the four heroes gathered before him through his infra red lens.

He had never fought members of the Justice League before. He wondered how much of a challenge they would pose. He had followed them all the way to Fawcett City before easily catching up on their trail himself. He was surprised that Nightwing hadn't caught on. But then again, the mercenary doubted that the crime fighter had fought anyone quite like him in some time. He wondered what his reaction would be. A female voice interrupted his thoughts. It was the Thanagarian.

"Hang on. I'll give us some light." With a twist of her mace, energy crackled and popped around the spiky ball. Slade sighed.

Well, no time like the present.

He leapt forward and grabbed the hilt of the mace with his left hand, using his right hand to jab his fingers painfully into her wrist. She yelled in pain and let go of the mace while Slade pulled on the weapon, easily snapping the leather strap attached to the bottom of the hilt. He struck out with his right hand, sending her flying across the room and headfirst into a brick wall.

Wasting no time, he swung the mace again, catching the Flash in the chest with the weapon, and sending him sprawling across the large hall.

Yet another swing, this time to his right, and Nightwing received a blow to the chin from the spiked weapon, slamming him into the wall behind him.

Only one left.

He quickly turned to attack Raven before the mace was blasted from his grip by black energy. Another bolt hit his chest and sent him sliding across the ground. He looked up to see two white eyes glowing in the darkness.

"I don't need my eyes to see in the dark," she said, advancing on him. Slade thinned his eye, reaching into his utility belt and pulling out a small black box.

"Neither do I."

He threw the box at her, which attached itself to her stomach. Metal tentacles wrapped their way around the dark empath, sending several jolts of electricity through her before she fell to the ground. Slade seriously doubted that she was dead, but she was out of the picture for now.

He pushed himself to his feet with a grunt and surveyed the situation with his infrared lens covered eye. Before he could do much else, a red blur slammed into him, hurling him through the double doors and out into the car park of the school, and back into the side of a car. Metal warped and glass shattered as he collided with the automobile. Looking up, he saw the Flash standing before him on the other side of the car park, grasping his chest as he struggled to breathe.

Slade guessed that he had broken some of the speedster's ribs with the mace. Nonchalantly wiping the shards of glass from his shoulders, Slade stood, cricking his neck as he did so. The speedster's eyes thinned.

"Who are you?"

Chuckling, Slade raised a hand, and beckoned the Flash forward. "Does it really matter?"

He shrugged, grimacing at the pain in his chest. "Not really," he said, charging forward. He threw his fist forward at the mercenary, but only hit air as Slade jumped off to Flash's left, easily dodging the blow. Slade now had his back to a wall. The Fastest Man Alive smirked and charged forward again, his fist drawn. Slade simply stood as he charged forward, only ducking beneath the blow at the last second.

Bones cracked and muscle tore as the Flash's hand collided with the brick wall, breaking it instantly. He screamed in pain as he fell to one knee, cradling his wrist. A smirk broke out on Slade's face. He brought his knee forward, sending it with deadly force into the speedster's jaw. The Fastest Man Alive's head snapped back, and he fell onto his back, groaning in pain. He tried to roll over and get away.

Slade knelt on the speedster, resting his knee on the hero's chest. With a flick of his wrist, a small blade appeared in Slade's hand. Another flick, and the blade was pointing downwards. He brought the blade down swiftly and efficiently. Before the blade could even get close to Flash's face, however, Slade heard an incensed battle cry, and looked up in time to be on the receiving end of Shayera's mace.

The mercenary was flung back onto the hood of another parked car, denting the smooth metal upon impact. He tried to get up, but found himself pinned to the car by black energy. A quick glance to his right, and he saw two cars being surrounded in dark energy and flung into the air. He sighed as he saw the cars toppling down towards him.

Next time, just kill them.

With a deafening crash, the cars landed. Raven looked over as Nightwing pulled four throwing stars from his utility belt, two in each hand. He flung them towards the two cars, two to nip the fuel lines of the cars, and the other two to create a spark. The pile of metal and rubber exploded magnificently, sending a plume of dark smoke into the air that could no doubt be seen for some distance.

Shayera knelt over the injured Wally, and was shocked by how quickly he got up. Wally hissed through his teeth as he rubbed his hand. It seemed to be clenched in a strange position.

Dick, a stony expression on his face, kept his eyes on the fire in front of them.

"Raven. Get us out of here. Quickly."

She didn't need telling twice. The group were encompassed in dark energy and whisked away to the Javelin's location. As they disappeared, something within the flaming wreck stirred. Slade pulled himself from the wreckage, groaning as he straightened his back. He hated burns. They took the longest time to heal.

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"Wally? Are you okay?"

He nodded and clenched his teeth, still holding on to his right hand. An eyebrow rose on the Thanagarian's face.

"What's wrong with your hand?"

"I broke it in the fight," Flash replied, still hissing through his teeth. "It healed all wrong." He offered a small smile, though it was extremely pained. "One of the perks of an accelerated metabolism, I guess."

"But-"

"Hey, Raven!" Wally shouted out, completely ignoring Shayera for the moment. "Could I get a hand here?" He looked over at Shayera, winking. "Don't worry 'bout it."

Shayera looked over as Raven arrived. Quickly surmising the situation, Raven raised a purple eyebrow. "Broken hand?"

Flash nodded, and Raven responded with a slow nod of her own.

"All right. Whenever you're ready."

Wally stood and walked over to a nearby wall. He took several deep breaths and drew back his fist.

Shayera cocked an eyebrow. "What are you-?"

Wally slammed his hand into the brick wall, breaking it instantly. He yelled in pain, and Shayera shot over to him.

"What do you think you're-!"

Without a word, Raven surrounded his broken hand with a cast made from black energy. Wally smiled and looked over at Shayera.

"It helps the bones to knit together in the right position," he said, letting out a sigh of relief as the pain began to subside. After about a minute, Wally gave Raven a thumbs up, and the black energy disappeared. Appearing satisfied, Flash clenched his now perfectly healed hand, punching the air with it as thought to test it. He winced as he stretched. "My ribs are still messed up…" he said, though more to himself than anyone else.

Shayera was horrified. "How many times have you had to that?"

"Uh… ever since I was Kid Flash, I think."

"So you were doing this while you were in the League?"

He nodded, and laughed slightly. "Yeah, and I tell you, it was hard without Raven. I had to do it about five times after every fight until J'onn and GL caught me. J'onn made a machine that set it for me."

"Every fight?"

"Well, not every fight, but yeah, sometimes I would punch or kick something that was too hard."

"Wally, I-" Shayera stopped mid-sentence to rub her forehead. "I had no idea."

The scarlet speedster shrugged, an easy smile on his face. "Eh, no big deal."

"No big deal? Wally, you were breaking your hand after every fight, and I had no idea! I feel so…"

"Gosh darned ignorant?" he said, adopting his best Vigilante voice.

"Don't you dare make light of this, Wally West. I'm your friend. You do anything else like this without telling me, and there will be hell to pay. You understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied sheepishly, his hands behind his back. The Thanagarian's face softened, and she shook her head.

"At least you're okay."

Flash shook his head. "Yeah, well, I almost wasn't. That guy was tough."

"You don't know who he is?"

Wally shook his head. Raven's voice interrupted their conversation.

"His name is Slade Wilson. He's also known as the mercenary Deathstroke."

"How do you know him?" the speedster asked, and Raven's expression darkened.

"He was an enemy of the Titans. He was one of the worst."

"How come I never heard about him?"

"It was before your time."

Shayera put a hand on her hip. "So why's he here?"

Raven was about to respond when Dick interrupted her.

"To throw us off. We were getting close. And whoever sent him knows about our past with him."

Flash cocked an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

Nightwing was silent for the longest time before he responded, walking towards the Javelin.

"Because that can't be Slade. I killed him."

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Shayera tried to overhear the conversation going on between the three Titans in the back but came up short. She decided to simply concentrate on the flight back to the Metro Tower. Wally would tell her eventually. If not, she was sure that Batman would know about it. Ironically enough, most of the time she found Batman easier to crack than the Flash. As she pondered this seemingly impossible paradox, Wally, Dick and Raven discussed what had happened those many years ago.

Nightwing, his arms crossed, let out a long breath through his nose. "…we followed him into the factory, and I got separated from the rest of you."

Raven nodded. "I remember. Slade's robots were everywhere. Cyborg was the first one to reach you." Her eyes reflected the mystery surrounding the situation. "He wouldn't tell us what he saw. And neither would you."

"It was an accident," the ex-Boy Wonder said, looking out the window. "We were fighting on the walkway… he threw some explosives at me, and the whole thing toppled. I managed to fire off a grappling hook in time, but he…" He rested his head back on the cushion, closing his eyes beneath his thin mask. "I could've tried to save him. I should've tried to save him."

Wally put a hand on his shoulder. "But hey, he's alive, right? So that means-"

"It's not him."

Raven spoke up next. "I reached out with my abilities, Dick. It's him. I'll never forget what he felt like… up here," she said, tapping the side of her head.

"Then he's somehow emitting false brain waves."

Wally sighed. "Dick-"

"IT'S NOT HIM!"

Shayera looked around to see what was going on. Dick lowered his voice.

"You don't get it, do you? I saw him fall into that vat. I watched as he melted away. Flesh, bone, everything. I watched as he screamed in pain, until there was nothing left of him but a bad memory. He's dead. So drop it."

The flight back to the Metro Tower was silent.

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John Stewart looked at his coffee cautiously. He hated scalding hot coffee. There should be a setting on the machine to give warm coffee. That was fine. Why would anyone want their mouth burned away? He groaned and rubbed the back of his sore neck. Just as he was about to take a sip, his communicator beeped in his ear.

"Green Lantern," he said, putting his fingers to the earpiece.

Mr Terrific's voice came through the speaker. "Do you remember that theft that you and Supergirl tended to in Coast City?"

The Green Lantern of Sector 2814 nodded. "There was a hole ripped in the wall. We couldn't find anything further, so we called it a day. Why?"

"You might want to come up here."

John shrugged and sipped at his coffee. He grimaced as it burnt his tongue. Grumbling some alien curse from a far away planet, he dumped the coffee in the trash and headed to the main control center of the Watchtower. Once there, he walked over to Mr Terrific.

"What's the problem?"

After a cursory glance over his shoulder, Mr Terrific slid on his chair around the control panel. Reaching the terminal he wanted, he began punching in details.

"We just got a call from a secret research test base. Usually they wouldn't come to us with this kind of problem, but they decided to make an exception in this case. Seeing as it was something the League's dealt with before." A picture of a high security military installation appeared on the screen. "Look familiar?"

John leant forward and thinned his emerald eyes, then shook his head. "Should I?"

"It's the same base that the nuclear fusion device was stolen from all those months ago. I seem to remember that the League managed to reverse the effect it had on the sun. But this time, the plans have been stolen. The equipment needed to create the device was stolen from the Wayne Tech facility in Coast."

The Green Lantern's eyes widened. The nuclear fusion device… it was something he had almost forgotten about. The strange spirits that had possessed the League wanted to fire it into the sun and snuff it out, encapsulating the entire planet in darkness. John didn't know the specifics, but Wally had told him something about lizard men… or was it lizard people…?

John shook his head from his musings. He looked over at Mr Terrific. "So someone wants to knock out the sun. Do we have any leads?"

The red eyed administrator sighed. "You're not going to like it, but…" he punched up another image, producing a picture of a wall with a rather large hole in it. "Same kind of hole, am I right?"

John nodded silently.

"The cameras picked up something else, though," he said, his hand working over the keyboard with expert precision. The image on the monitor changed yet again, this time yielding the image of someone ripping the hole in said wall. Someone the League knew very well.

John leant forward, confusion knotting his brow. "What in…?" He looked over at Mr Terrific. "What does he want with plans for a nuclear fusion device?"

Mr Terrific shrugged. John pushed himself away from the monitors. "I'm heading over there to check the place over. If anything else comes up, call me."

"Will do."

John turned and walked out the hallway. The Green Lantern of Sector 2814 was not easily confused. He absolutely detested the feeling. It made him feel out of control, helpless. And this situation was doing much of the same thing. Because as much as he disliked the guy, John knew he wasn't capable of what the footage showed.

The Earth's Mightiest Mortal, otherwise known as Captain Marvel, would not break into a high security military facility.

Would he?

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(A/N: The plot thickens…

Anyway, reviews good, so gimme.)