redflash 2008- I can neither confirm nor deny that another Narutoverse character will be showing up soon.
10868letsgo- I agree with the Tim Drake/Jason Todd assessment. I can't reveal who the Stranger is yet, but I can say that it's definitely not Madara. Too played out of a twist for my liking.
Brave2000- We agree and that's basically what this chapter is about.
Marouan Dahraoui- Thanks! I really appreciate it.
NarutoUchiha2055- Thanks! I'm glad you like it. And I can't reveal if I plan on having Naruto come in eventually or not yet.
chimera629- I'm glad to see you've taken a liking to the story. I hope you enjoy the rest when you catch up.
SpiritSearcher- The intensity is only going to increase from here.
ExiaDark- I'm glad you like the story!
AnimeA55Kicker- I love the passion in your reviews. And he joined the sidekicks because he's already friends with them.
The heroes were all staring in awe of the scene they were witnessing. Even though it has been going on for two weeks, it didn't make what they were watching any less amazing. Robin and Kid Flash were on the beach of Happy Harbor. Connor and M'gann would have been there too, but were in the Cave doing training of their own. Batman, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, and Green Arrow were all there watching too. What had everyone in awe was Itachi as he was training. They had never seen anything like it and it as yet another reminder that Itachi was indeed on another level than any of them.
These training sessions started after Itachi's second run-in with his clone, Wrath. It showed Itachi that defeating Wrath would take every ounce of willpower that he had. It also showed him that he needed to resume training to better fight off Wrath.
After Klarion was defeated and everyone returned to the Cave, Itachi and Batman held a secret meeting about how to deal with Wrath. It didn't slip past Itachi that Wrath said that he wanted to defeat him in Gotham. They both surmised that whatever Wrath had planned must be predicated on the two Uchiha members being in Gotham at the time of their fight. So it was decided that until Wrath was handled, it was best if Itachi stayed out of Gotham. So for the past two weeks he has been staying at the Cave, training for their eventual bout. They knew that Wrath wanted to fight him badly, but instead of fighting the madman on his terms, they would force him to come to Happy Harbor and fight on the heroes' terms. In their mind, there was no way Wrath could take on the combined might of the Justice League and Itachi.
It was a sound plan and one that should work if executed perfectly. Itachi preferred to fight his clone alone since he felt most responsible for all of the death that has transpired, but he knew that this was the best chance of defeating him. It still didn't sit well in his heart. That's why he's been training so hard. The focus of this training has been to enhance the power of his jutsu. That meant taking things to a whole new level.
"Fire Style! Flame Flower Jutsu!" Itachi shot out three gigantic, meteor-sized fireballs towards the sea which caused a gigantic flame geyser to erupt and color the sky orange. The jutsu is an enhanced jutsu that was created by mixing the Phoenix Flower Jutsu with the Fireball Jutsu. The pure power of it was a sight to behold.
"I sure am glad he's on our side." Wally said as he shielded his eyes from the bright light. Everyone certainly agreed with that sentiment.
"It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Itachi is the most peaceful of us all. Then... he shoots fire that blankets the skies and it is difficult not to think of him as a god of destruction. And how fortunate we all are that the thought does not occur to him. That he chooses to run away from the fight, not because he's scared he'd lose, but because he knows he'd win and decimate everything in his path." Batman said in awe of the young shinobi.
"The scariest part is that there are two of him, and with the other having all of the power of Itachi, but the beliefs of Ra's al Ghul." Robin added.
"We're gonna take him down though. Wrath can't stand up to us as long as we have Itachi on our side." Kid Flash said with determination. As a buffer to his point, Itachi launched another one of his new and enhanced jutsu.
"Fire Style! Blaze Ball Jutsu!" Itachi fired off a fireball that was twice the size of anything they'd ever seen before. Itachi creates it by combining his Fireball Jutsu and his Amaterasu. It takes great timing and chakra control since he wants to black flames to enhance the fireball instead of burning it up. It took a week to get everything in sync, but Itachi finally has it under control. The fireball was shot into the distance and created a devastating explosion the rocked the sea around them.
"It seems Itachi has blown up another uninhabited island. That makes four." Red Tornado noted.
"You're going to go bankrupt from having to keep buying these islands. You do know that, right Bats?" Dinah said as Batman leered ahead. He was already dialing Alfred to make the arrangements as the others laughed. The group decided to head back to the Cave and called out to Itachi. They didn't want him to burn out before the next mission.
Itachi deactivated his Mangekyo Sharingan and started heading back to the Cave. Itachi didn't even join his teammates on the way there, opting to walk alone.
"He's still distancing himself from the group." Black Canary said sadly.
"Wrath consumes his mind. It's all he ever thinks about. His mind is in the right place." Batman responded.
"Oh of course you'd say that. His mind may be in the right place, but even a blind man could see that his heart is split in two. It's not healthy." Green Arrow argued.
"Neither are the thousands of Gothamites that died that night." Batman said with a hint of anger.
"That wasn't Itachi's fault and you know it." Canary said with the same hint of anger.
Batman merely grunted as his gauntlets lit up. He shook his head and addressed his League teammates again, "Come with me to the Cave. There's something you must see."
"Oh what now?" Canary and Arrow both said in unison.
When the League members returned to the Cave, Batman immediately went to show them what he had seen earlier. He felt Oliver and Dinah had a right to know that something like this was going in without their knowledge.
"So what's the problem?" Oliver asked. Batman turned on the viewing screen to show what appeared to be a training video of Superboy sparring with Black Canary. It all seemed like normal, until they got to the part where Dinah was locking lips with Connor. That was a big problem.
"Dinah?!"
"Freeze playback! That never happened." Dinah said in defense of herself.
"You need to keep watching. Play!" Batman said as the video continued. It would go on to show that the Dinah in the video was actually M'gann. She used her powers to change her appearance to that of Black Canary for some reason. Oliver literally laughed out loud after seeing this.
"Don't you laugh! She…and he…Oliver this is not funny!" Dinah said angrily to her spouse.
"No, no of course not." Oliver said while trying to control himself. He also wanted to avoid getting punched by Dinah.
"Please understand, on Mars this is a common game. My people all shapeshift, but also read minds. So no one is ever misled and I am certain Conner knew he was with M'gann from the very beginning." J'onn said in defense of his niece.
"We're not on Mars. J'onn!" Dinah retorted. J'onn had to think fast to try and salvage this, "No, but my niece does not understand things are different on Earth."
"Then I'll make her understand." Dinah said as she left for M'gann's room.
Back in the Argus site, Wrath was sitting down and had just finished reading the scroll given to him by the Masked Stranger. He found it very fascinating and planned on using it to help further his cause. His mentor walked up to him and started to address him, "You've been pretty tame lately. There's only a week left before your scheduled bout with Itachi. I thought you'd be more on edge."
"Why hasn't the Crow been spotted in Gotham for over three weeks?" Wrath asked.
"He's probably just been looking for you." The Stranger guessed. Wrath wasn't buying it though, "No, he'd never abandon this city. It's his new home and we both know what lengths he'd go to in the name of protecting his home. So where is he? Why haven't there been reports of him thwarting crime in Gotham since you and I fought him? There have only been reports of him in Happy Harbor."
"What are you getting at, my child?" This has the supervillain's interest.
"I think he's not in Gotham anymore. I think that he's trying to get me out of the city. He knows that I want the fight to happen here and he's trying to force my hand. He wants a fight on his terms and I bet with the other heroes as well." Wrath surmised.
"It's only Itachi that hasn't been seen in Gotham. Batman, Robin, and even the archer girl have been spotted in this city in the past few weeks so that ploy must only apply to Itachi. We have to find a way to draw Itachi back to Gotham if our plan is to work." The Stranger said.
"And I have the perfect way to do it." Wrath said as he got up and left. The scroll he had finished was on a subsection that read, Variations and Adaptability. The Masked Stranger asked Wrath where he was going.
"I'm going to call Itachi's bluff. If he wants to play keep out, then so be it. It just means that now is the perfect opportunity to go after the one thing that both he and I have in common." Wrath said as he left the room and headed to his destination.
The Masked Stranger smiled after realizing what Wrath meant, 'This should be very interesting…and entertaining.'
Dinah went to M'gann to have a much needed heart-to-heart with her. After Dinah finished scolding M'gann and advising her not to play shapeshifting games anymore, everyone was called into the conference room by Batman. Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Crow were all being assigned a mission.
"Rumaan Harjavti is the democratically elected president of Quarc. Harjavti has been praised as a fair, wise leader. A humanitarian." Batman started. Wally cracked a joke about Bruce Wayne in response, but no one thought it was funny.
"But five days ago, Harjavti aligned himself with the dictator of the neighboring nation of Bialya; Queen Bee." Batman said as the queen's face turned up on the monitor.
"I take it you're not a fan of hers." Itachi said as he noted the change in Batman's tone. Batman confirmed that assumption, "Few are, but Harjavti suddenly backs Queen Bee's baseless claim that Qurac and Bialya were one nation in ancient times. He's announced that the countries will reunify in two days at a ceremony in Qurac." Batman stated as the speeches of the two leaders played.
"And the Quracis are okay with this?" Wally asked while expressing his doubts.
"Hardly, but they're well aware of the brutality of Queen Bee's regime. The queen has censored the press, silenced all legitimate protests, and invited the Bialyan military into Harjavti's country to enforce martial law." Batman showed the imaged of the chaos in the streets.
"I take it you believe that she's controlling him. I remember reading that she has the power to enthrall most men and some women if the situation calls for it." Itachi surmised.
"Yes, she has that ability, but not from such a long distance. And we have confirmation that she hasn't left Bialya. Something else is at work here. Find out what it is. Crow, you will be the leader." Batman ordered.
"What about Aqualad or Robin? I don't think I'm needed for a reconnaissance mission. Wrath is still out there." Itachi said in response to being forced on this mission. He needed his focus to solely be on defeating his clone.
"Wrath will still be out there when you get back from this mission. You've been training for three weeks straight, all while having little to no contact with your teammates. You're going to need to fight together in order to defeat Wrath." Dinah said in support of Batman's decision.
"Aqualad is busy helping Aquaman and Robin will be there to assist you as second-in-command. With all of the experience that you bring to the table, you are the most logical choice for the job. Remember, the plan for defeating Wrath depends on the Team's cohesiveness. This will help restore any fractured team chemistry. My decision is final." Batman declared.
Itachi leered at the vigilante before turning away and heading for M'gann's ship. The others stood there awkwardly before finally going to join him to begin the mission. Dinah and Batman looked on as the ship took off, hoping that this would help to restore Itachi's friendliness and trust in his friends.
"We're right above the border of Qurac and Bialya. A border that the Bialyans are in the process of ignoring." Itachi said as he saw multiple tanks being driven into Qurac territory.
"There's no opposition. It looks like Harjavti really is in bed with Bialya." Conner noted.
"I wouldn't expect opposition here. It's just an animal sanctuary." Robin said as he looked at the area via his gauntlet. M'gann peaked over and saw the name of the sanctuary there were at. She saw that it was the Logan Sanctuary from one of her favorite television shows.
"Guys, the tanks have caused a stampede and civilians are in harm's way." Wally alerted them. A woman and a small boy were at risk.
"We have to help them," M'gann suggested. Itachi kept a calm head about the situation. After looking at Robin for confirmation, they both silently decided on the same plan. Itachi put on his mask and got ready to take action, "This may be off mission…but prepare for deployment. Use stealth mode because if the Bialyans figure out that we were the ones who hit them, it becomes an international incident for the League, which is already on thin ice thanks to Wrath blowing several holes in Gotham."
They group exited the ship and began to aid the civilians. Robin, Miss Martian, and Kid Flash used their abilities to halt the incoming tanks to a stop. The soldiers tried to get out and go on, but Itachi was there to intercept them all. Miss Martian and Kid Flash used their perspective powers to remove the helmet and eyewear of all of the soldiers so that Itachi could place them all under a genjutsu that turned them all around and made them run until their feet bled. Robin helped by using smoke bombs to hide Itachi's presence from them so that it would be easier to trap them. Connor protected to woman and boy from the stampede by using a wildebeest to divert the others. The oryx that the pair were defending ran off in fright and was almost trampled by the stampede, but M'gann saved he animal just in time.
"Are you both alright?" Wally said as he and the others went to check on the pair. The boy jumped up and down in excitement from being saved by both Robin and Kid Flash. M'gann returned the oryx to the young boy. His excitement halted when the Crow made his presence known.
"We diverted the Bialyans around the sanctuary. You should be safe now." Robin said to put them at ease. Itachi wasn't as sure as his teammate though. He knew that retaliation would be coming. When Itachi saw the woman he noticed that something was vaguely familiar about her. That worried him since he was sure he'd never met her before, but his eyes don't like. Itachi never forgets a face. It finally clicked with him once M'gann reappeared.
"Hey M'gann, the coast is clear. You don't have to be in stealth mode anymore." Wally said to his teammate. M'gann slowly revealed herself and gave out a nervous hi to the pair. The boy looked at her like she was the coolest thing he had ever seen before.
"You may have made things worse. The Bialyan border crossings are a way of life out here. Usually they wreck the fences and move on. Engaging them could have made us a target." The woman said while scolding the heroes. The boy chided her for her rudeness which caused her to ease up, "I'm sorry. I should be thanking you. This is my son, Garfield. I'm-"
"Marie Logan! I can't believe I'm actually meeting you in person." M'gann said excitingly as she had just met he biggest idol.
Marie ran to the wildebeest that Connor threw down and check on his health. Conner saw the limping animal and apologized. Marie needed to take the animals to get checked on. M'gann offered the services of the males to do that. She just wanted to spend time with her hero. Itachi wanted to finish this mission as fast as possible.
"M'gann. This isn't a part of our-" M'gann turned to plead with her leader to give her just a little amount of time with her idol as Garfield pleaded with his mother. They both put their hands on their hips and said fine.
Garfield ran with joy as he was among the company of famous heroes, with the exception of Superboy and Crow. Superboy he had heard little about and Crow he had heard a lot of violent things about. Regardless, Garfield retrieved his monkey, much to Conner's chagrin, and showed them his house.
"So, pretty weird about Miss Martian and my mom, huh?" Garfield said which confused most of the boys.
"What do you mean?" Conner asked, Itachi saw that this was unavoidable and answered for Garfield, "He means that Miss Martian looks exactly like his mother. Almost as if they were twins."
"Yep, she looks exactly like Marie, expect greener. Especially back when mom was a TV star; Hello Megan." Itachi shook his head and inwardly sighed at this. He saw the cogs beginning to spin in the minds of the others and knew that M'gann's secret was in trouble.
"Wait, Hello Megan is a TV show?" Wally asked,
"I just thought it was something she said all the time." Robin concurred.
"Yeah, on the TV show. It was way before we were born though. There's only one season and you can't even find it online. My mom should have a tape somewhere around here." The boy said while he began searching. Itachi really hoped that the tape wasn't found. It was distractions like this why he didn't want to go on this mission.
Elsewhere, M'gann was busy repairing the damaged fence for Marie Logan. M'gann was giddy in trying to ask Marie what it was like to be Megan from her favorite TV show. Marie didn't exactly know how to answer that so she settled on being young and fun. M'gann began to ask Marie about one of the episodes, but Marie stopped her before she got ahead of herself.
"Hello Megan was a job. The person you saw on TV isn't who I am." She said much to M'gann's disappointment.
Back at the house, Garfield has finally found the tape of his mom's old TV show. Just as he was about to play it though, Conner heard an aircraft coming towards them. Itachi instructed Robin to stay back and watch over Garfield. Robin didn't like being a spectator and told Garfield to stay put as he joined guys went to investigate.
They came outside to see that there were three jets that were heading towards them. The jets opened fire at M'gann and Marie when they spotted them. Itachi quickly ran to protect them by using his Susanoo as a shield to deflect the bullets.
"Where's my son?!" Marie asked with fear and concern. Itachi looked and saw the jets flying past them before answering, "I had Robin stay inside to protect him."
"Really because Robin is outside right now with us," Itachi saw that she was right. Robin had left the boy and indeed joined the others. This did not sit well with Itachi, "Why aren't you with Garfield?"
"It's okay. I ordered him to stay inside." Itachi couldn't believe what he had just heard. Eight year old boys don't follow orders from their own parents, let alone a complete stranger. His mother seemed to voice what Itachi was thinking.
"Mom! It's okay. I got the animals out!" Garfield said all the way from the barn and away from the spot Robin told him to stay. One of the jets came towards the barn Garfield was in and shot the nearby oiler rig. The explosion sent Garfield airborne and gravely injured him.
Itachi thought fast and leapt to catch him before more damage was done to the boy. When he caught him, he saw that Garfield as in bad shape and wasn't even conscious. The others gathered around as Itachi put Garfield in his mother's arms. Robin felt so guilty and was about to take the blame, but Itachi beat him to it.
"This is on me. I got your son hurt. As the leader, I failed to protect him." Itachi said with as much remorse as he could muster. Marie glared at Itachi with rage filled eyes, "I told you there would be consequences."
"There always are." Itachi said as Marie took her son back inside. Robin was about to speak to him but was cut off by Itachi, "Robin, can you go inside and look after them? I'm ending this."
Robin nodded his head as he went to join Marie and Garfield. Itachi activated his Mangekyo Sharingan and prepared to end this madness. He weaved the hand signs for his Flame Slower Jutsu and prepared to fuse it with his Amaterasu. The newly formed jutsu was devastating, "Fire Style! Blaze Barrage!"
A giant black fireball was shot into the sky, well past the fighter jets. At first, it looked like Itachi had missed, but in reality he did exactly what he was aiming for. Once the fireball got high enough it dispersed into several smaller black fireballs that were all aimed towards the jets. The sky was colored a deathly black as the black flames rained down like a meteor shower that destroyed everything in its path. The jets were all obliterated by the shower of flames. Just before the flames reach the Logan's house, Itachi summoned his Susanoo and Yata Mirror to shield everyone from it. M'gann, Conner, and Wally all saw that this was another way that Itachi was beginning to change. He was acting just like he did after the Uchiha Massacre; violent and ruthless towards his enemies. It almost scared them in a way.
Itachi purposefully aimed the flames in one concentrated spot so he could use his Yata mirror to deflect the unnecessary parts, but still he knew that this was a jutsu to be used light for it could cause great damage if used recklessly. He deactivated his Mangekyo Sharingan and went with the others to check on Garfield's condition.
Carson was still living at Carla's house with her brother James. Their apartment was still under construction. All of the recent chaos in Gotham was starting to weigh on the girl. She wished to go back to a time where she didn't have to worry about people getting kidnapped or dying in explosions. A time where it was just her and Itachi.
She sighed outwardly at the thought of him. Itachi has been missing for over three weeks now and she hasn't heard anything that would indicate that he was okay. James saw the look in his sister's face and looked down. He knew his sister was in love with Itachi and he knew that Wrath was on a mission to kill him; a mission that James put him on. If Carson ever found out that he was responsible for Wrath, she'd never forgive him.
"Hey sis, you're doing it again. I'm sure your boyfriend is fine so can you at least try to watch the game?" James said to snap Carson out of it. Carla walked in and knew how this was going to turn out as she got ready to mimic her young friend and ward.
"First off, he is not my boyfriend. He's just a boy that's my friend, but not my boyfriend. Second, the Gotham Rogues are getting pummeled by twenty-one points so why bother. This always happens when they're on the road. And lastly, what made you think that I'm thinking about that stupid, stubborn, pig-headed, selfish jerk Itachi." Carson said while snapping at her brother. She frowned as Carla burst out laughing with James.
"You are so ridiculous, Carson. James never mentioned Itachi by name. He only said you're boyfriend. You are the one who brought up Itachi when the word boyfriend came up. So you tell us why that is?" Carla said as she just trapped Carson.
"Um…um…the game! Wow, The Rogues just might make a comeback! This is why you keep watching till it's all over." Carson said while trying to change the subject. She also bowed her head to hide from blushing.
"I honestly don't know what you see in the guy who missed our mother's funeral despite you and him being so 'close'. Him leaving is probably for the best. You can find guys that are a lot better than Itachi." James muttered with spite.
Carson was about to come to Itachi's defense when a voice interrupted her. And the voice didn't come from Carla, "I completely agree. She can find guys a lot better than Itachi."
The three of them looked up to see Itachi in the room and Carson immediately ran up to hug him. Itachi slowly reciprocated it as she hugged him harder. Itachi swore that he'd never understand why Carson feels this way towards him. He wasn't the only one.
James was currently scowling at the scene before him. See his sister so close to another guy would have had him in a bad mood. The fact that the guy was someone like Itachi only amplified it. He was also annoyed at Carla for encouraging them like some bad romance movie. But soon that feeling of annoyance was replaced with something else; fear.
With Carson still deep in the hug and Carla lost in her imagination, only James noticed the direct eye contact Itachi made with him. It was then that James made a horrible discovery. The discovery being that Itachi's eyes were jet black and crimson red. It meant that his Sharingan was activated. Seeing his Sharingan revealed to James that the person hugging his sister was not Itachi; it was his clone, Wrath.
After that horrible scene at Argus, James knew that he'd never forget those eyes and now that same psychopath was right next to his sister. Wrath knew that James was at his mercy as he saw the young man start to cry in fear. James didn't know what Wrath had planned, but he knew that he had to move fast or risk losing his sister to him.
Back inside the Logan residence, Garfield is being nursed from his injuries. Garfield is currently in shock and in need of a blood transfusion now if he was to make it out of this condition safely. The big obstacle with that is the fact that Garfield was an O-negative blood type, the hardest type to match. Wally offered to run him to a hospital, but Itachi shot the idea down.
"Even at your top speed, the quickest hospital is at least thirty minutes away. Even more if we used the bioship." Itachi said with Robin concurring using his gauntlet maps.
"He's running out of time. What's Superboy's blood type?" Marie desperately asked. Robin shook his head. Connor is Kryptonian so even if he did have the same blood type, they'd never be able to access it because of his skin being indestructible.
"I might be able to help. The Crow can attest to the fact that my shapeshifting occurs on a cellular level. I think I can morph my blood to match his." M'gann offered up.
"Please try," Marie begged of the Martian. Itachi didn't like the idea of mixing alien blood with that of a human, but given the circumstance they were out of options. He gave a nod of approval as she walked up to Garfield, "I'll need to concentrate. Please, no distractions."
"Out! All of you out!" Marie ordered of the other heroes. They obliged and stepped out so that M'gann could begin to save the young boy's life. After getting a sample of his blood, M'gann morphed hers to match it for the transfusion. Once she was ready, she immediately began to give her blood.
The males were in the living room reflecting and hoping that this all turned out alright. Robin was visibly frustrated with how the mission has gone so far. He knows that he's made some costly errors.
"Because of me Garfield got hurt. I should have just listened to you, Itachi. And to make things worse, Harjavti steps down tomorrow. He's going to subject all of Qurac to all of this danger. KF, can you find a new station?" Robin vented.
"Sure, which remote is it?" Wally asked as he flicked the television on. Coincidently, the television turned on to a rerun of M'gann's favorite television show, Hello Megan. Most of them watched with shock and discomfort at how similar M'gann looked, sounded, dressed, and acted like Marie from her days on the show. Itachi had figured out the connection a while ago, but opted not to inform the others because he knew of M'gann's insecurity issues and need to feel like she belonged.
"Maybe it's a coincidence," bless Conner's ignorance. There were days Itachi wished he could be that ignorant too. They used the same catchphrases and had the same mannerisms, but the wrinkle that not even Itachi saw coming was that the boyfriend and the show and M'gann's real life boyfriend both shared the same name; Conner. There was definitely no coincidence.
"It's done. All we can do now it wait," Wally quickly moved to change the channel before M'gann could see and get embarrassed. The channel changed to a press conference of Harjavti. Conner was first to notice that Psimon was right behind Harjavti. Itachi wanted to get filled in, "Who is that?"
"His name is Psimon and he has the ability to control people's minds using his psychic abilities. We fought him in a past mission in Bialya back before you joined us. If he was working for Queen Bee then, he must be controlling Harjavti for her now." M'gann explained.
"Oh, I still remember the headache from when he brain-blasted us. Your Sharingan would have been really helpful against him, Itachi." Wally noted.
"If that is the case, then we have to get Harjavti away from him." Itachi stated. Marie came in, and thankfully bared good news, "I think it worked. Garfield has finally become stable."
"Good, because we have our mission. We leave out tonight." Itachi ordered.
Later that night, the crew flew to Dhabar for the next part of their mission. They were currently in his nightly estate and preparing to extract him away from Queen Bee's clutches. Robin was able to confirm that he was currently alone so now was the perfect moment. The Team dropped down from the vents and showed themselves to Harjavti.
"Where's my daughter? Where's Psimon?" Robin told him not to worry about it because they were here to rescue him. Before they could make a move, Itachi sensed men start to breech inside and quickly signaled for Miss Martian to turn invisible. The men came in just as she left everyone's line of sight.
Superboy wanted to go after her, but Crow stopped him. They needed to protect the president from these men or risk causing an international incident that would leave Queen Bee in power. Crow dropped smoke bombs to begin the attack. The soldiers had no training and began to quickly panic from the smoke. Superboy saw this and punched the closest soldier to him right in their chest. The soldier went flying into the wall and fell into an unconscious heap. Robin started hurdling out batarangs to disarm all of the soldiers as Kid Flash and Crow used their blinding speed to knock them all out and bind them up.
When the smoke cleared, only the heroes were left standing. While this was going on, Miss Martian was in a fight with Psimon in an auditorium. He quickly overwhelmed her with his psychic abilities and began to taunt her for being in the same position as the last time they crossed paths.
"Am I the only one to learn anything from our previous encounter? You didn't think that maybe if you could sense me that I could sense you too? Or that this time I might be ready to use your greatest fear against you? Psimon says show me who, or what, you really are." Psimon commanded as he used his powers against Miss Martian. As much as M'gann fought, she could do nothing but reveal her monstrous White Martian form.
The Harjavti father and daughter thanked the heroes for reuniting them once it was all done. Crow nodded at them before sprinting off to where Miss Martian went with the others following close behind. When they got to the auditorium, they were ambushed by a psychic blast. Even Itachi began to clutch his head in pain.
'I need to stop his blast. But how? My Susanoo only protects against physical attacks. I need a diversion.' Itachi thought as he was close to being subdued like his teammates. Conner, Robin, and Wally fell from the pain but Itachi still stood on one knee. He saw Psimon clap as a white monster revealed itself.
"Psimon says smartly done. Brain-blasting your own team. I had no idea you'd go to such lengths to hide your true self from your good friends. Well, actually I did. It's being recorded for later entertainment. Oh, and you missed one." Psimon revealed.
M'gann turned to see a still conscious Itachi slowly getting back to his feet. Itachi heard the conversation thanks to Psimon mentally connecting him and was shocked that this was M'gann's true form. She lashed out and tried to hit him with another blast, but Itachi used his speed to avoid the hit. Getting angry, M'gann tried to shoot Psimon with a brain-blast. He redirected it and put her in another illusion.
'I...have to…help…M'gann.' Itachi thought as he made eye contact with M'gann to go to the same illusion she was in. Itachi found himself back on M'gann's home planet of Mars with her being back in her usual form.
"M'gann, are you alright?" Itachi said as he rushed to her aid. M'gann saw her friend and recoiled away from him, "Don't look at me! I'm a monster!"
Itachi slowed to a walk. When he got to her, he knelt down to look her in the eyes. She was clearly suffering from this, "You know that's not true. I know what a monster looks like and it doesn't look like this."
"Itachi, I…you saw what I really-," She was cut off by Psimon smirking at them, "Oh come on. We all know that's not who you really are. Must you even lie to yourself in your own mind? So, you are the infamous Crow. I've heard a lot about you. Apparently you can control people's minds too. Did you know that your friend was really a monster?"
"There's only one monster here, Psimon. And it's not her. She can look like whatever she wants because with the best eyes in the world constantly peering into her very soul, I have yet to see an ugly part of her." Itachi countered. M'gann looked up through tears as her friend's word touched her heart.
"You saw what she looks like. She even attacked her own so-called friends the moment she thought she was about to be discovered. What else does that? What is she if not an ugly monster?" Psimon asked as M'gann's head dropped in shame again.
"She's human…and she's my friend. Nothing you can say will change that." Itachi answered as he set his sights on Psimon. The psychic leered at Itachi for his answer, "Then you can die with that pathologically lying monster!"
The world started to shift into all of M'gann's worst fears. One by one all of her mentors and friends started showing up into this illusion and all of them started to denounce and reject her because of her true form. Itachi saw the effect it was having on her and fought to come up with a solution.
'This illusion is just a cheap trick that's showing M'gann all of her fears and all I can do is watch…that's it! I'm in this world too, so that means my fears will be shown too.' Itachi thought as he sprang his plan to action.
Psimon was about to close in on M'gann when he was hit with a powerful mystic blast of energy, "Teg yawa morf Nnag'm!"
Now protecting M'gann were all of her teammates. Psimon didn't know why they showed up all of sudden but figured pretty quickly that it had something to do with the Crow. "What did you do to my world?! Why are they helping a monster like her?!"
"This isn't your world anymore. You used your powers to prey on my friend's fears, but I'm psychically connected to her so that means my fears get shown too. You lose Psimon." Itachi answered.
Psimon tried brain-blasting M'gann but she was shielded by Conner, "I'll always protect you. What you look like means nothing to me."
"You deserve to be happy just as much as anyone. You get to choose that for yourself." Wally added with a smile.
"We would never abandon you. You're a part of our family now." Artemis said too.
"Things wouldn't be the same here without you. We need you here." Robin commented.
"Don't ever think that you're too broken to be fixed. You have us to help you when you need it." Zatanna said while helping M'gann up.
"We owe you our lives. You are one of the strongest people I know. So get up and fight with us once more." Kaldur urged as he made way for M'gann to step forward. The last person to speak brought her to tears
"When I look at you, I see someone who has struggled since the beginning to feel accepted. To feel like you're not wrong for being born the way you are. Look all around you. Does this look wrong to you? You don't have to hide who you are or how you feel anymore with us. Let us protect you this time. Let us be you're new family. We love you." A second M'gann said to the original.
"How touching…you can all perish!" Psimon said angrily. Itachi stopped the psychic by fighting fire with fire. Itachi decided to take control of this world and end this madness, "Tsukuyomi! Infinite Darkness Jutsu!"
Everything in the world went dark. Psimon trembled in fear from how cold it got too. Psimon was then attacked by everyone on the Team under the veil of the Infinite Darkness Jutsu. The only light that was from the impact of each blow landing. He started coughing up blood as he felt himself being lifted by his neck. The darkness subsided, but the true threat remained as it was revealed that M'gann was the one holding him up. She was in her White Martian form for emphasis on her point.
"Now…now…my pretty. I know you…don't want…to do something…you'll regret."
"I'm fine just the way I am! You don't know me at all! As long as I have my friends with me I know that nothing can ever make me feel out of place again!" M'gann declared as she psychically blasted Psimon and ended the illusion she was held under.
Itachi fell from exhaustion when they returned to the real world. M'gann went to help him but he waved her off saying that he was fine. M'gann gave him the look Artemis does when she was about to start her don't brush me off speech. As M'gann started tending to Itachi she let her gratitude show.
"Thank you for being there and saying what you said. It was sweet." M'gann admitted.
"It was the truth. Everything our friends said to you was true. Psimon tried to twist you and lie about us rejecting you. Knowing what you really look like changed nothing for me. You're still beautiful." Itachi said as he slowly rose to his feet.
M'gann hugged him for that. She knew because of Itachi that everything would turn out alright for her. She just had one question as she let go. She looked at him and shyly asked, "You said that since we were connected that your fears would get seen too. How come nothing ever came?"
Itachi gave her a reluctant look before answering, "…my fears did come."
"I don't follow. The only thing that showed up was our friends. That's not much of a fear to…wait a second. Are you afraid of us?" M'gann asked having released what Itachi meant.
"It's not you I'm afraid of…it's my own happiness. Back in that illusion, I said that there was only one monster here and it didn't look like you. Well, Psimon isn't the monster either; it's me." Itachi revealed.
"B-but you're not-," Itachi cut her off, "Yes, I am. You saw what I did in my past. You saw what Wrath did to Gotham. A good tree can only produce good fruit and a bad tree only produces bad fruit. An evil monster like Wrath came from me, so that must mean that I'm evil like him deep down inside." Itachi said stoically.
"No, you're wrong. You should listen to our friends. You can choose to be happy. With us. You're not Wrath and you never will be." M'gann said with more determination that Itachi had ever heard in her voice before.
Not wanting to argue about this, Itachi went over to their teammates to wake them up. He hoped that M'gann would drop this subject and, for now at least, he got his wish as she went over to check on Conner. Itachi knew he had to do damage control since everyone wound up fine. He had Miss Martian shapeshift into Queen Bee to make it seem like she was behind the whole plot from the beginning even though they had no proof. It was wrong, but Itachi knew that lying was the best option and apologized to the Team for it.
"Dude, you just helped save a country. That's a pretty big win for your first turn as leader. Well, in this world at least." Wally complimented.
"Yeah, thanks…" Itachi said as he walked away. Wally began to wonder if he had said something wrong again, but M'gann assured him that Itachi just had a lot on his mind was all. She only hoped that he would heed his own advice to her and be happy.
The Team returned to the Logan residence to check up on them. Garfield is fine and will make a full recovery. They watched on the news as Bruce Wayne and President Harjavti shook on agreeing to help rebuild Qurac. Wally made the smart comment on Bruce knowing just when to be there which got him a hard nudge from Robin. Itachi suggested that Wally go get his souvenir so that they could leave finally. Wally opted for a Hello Megan tape and an explanation from M'gann on it. She looked at Itachi as he nodded for his approval.
"Growing up on Mars was not a happy time for me, but I started watching the broadcasts my uncle sent from Earth to teach us about our sister planet, and when I saw Hello Megan something just clicked. Maybe it was the similarities in our names? Maybe it was because all of Megan's problems would get solved in twenty-two minutes? All I knew for sure is that Hello Megan helped me smile through a lonely childhood so when I came to Earth and had to adopt a human form, I chose you…well Megan." M'gann admitted.
"Which begs the question; what do you really look like?" Robin asked. M'gann stood up and showed her true form, or her version of it. Itachi saw this and felt sad on the inside, 'You tell me to accept my happiness, but you can't even accept what you really look like…'
Conner walked to her to tell her that she doesn't need to put on a mask for him, which she responded by saying that the mask was for her. She looked at Itachi and felt the sadness inside of him for having just lied to her friends, but she just couldn't bring herself to revealing her truth.
'I'm not as strong as you are Itachi, but that doesn't mean that I'm wrong about you. Please, choose us.' She thought to Itachi mentally. He walked out of the house, clearly giving her his response without saying, or thinking, a single word. As Itachi stepped out he swore that he could feel another presence inside, but let it go since it was probably Garfield. The boy's cellular makeup was changing so Itachi knew that it would take some getting used to.
"Please don't be mad," She said as the others noticed Itachi walk away. Marie told her that she was in her debt for saving her son. Garfield even considered his blood sibling. She smiled and went to check on him, but a got a surprise when Queen Bee was in the room.
"If anything happens to me, or you tell the others, the boy will kill himself. Now, be a good little girl and tell me all about your friend, the Crow."
Wally, M'gann, Conner, Robin, and Itachi soon returned to the Cave to brief Batman on their mission. He was very satisfied with the results of the mission. He was glad Itachi made it work despite things not going as planned and saw the fire in Robin's eyes to one day lead again. The only drawback was that Itachi still wasn't as cordial as he was before Wrath. Itachi went out for training as soon as the brief was over, not wasting any time.
Artemis, Aqualad, and Zatanna greeted the other members upon their return. Artemis had great news on some tickets she scored to the Gotham Rogues football game next week. They'd all be seated right behind the halftime act too. She planned on inviting her teammates since next week the League would be having their annual meeting to determine new members. Red Arrow and Crow will be the main candidates being discussed. She was hoping to have Itachi come with them so they'd all be together, but he didn't even acknowledge them before leaving.
"He's getting worse. I'm scared that if we don't stop Wrath soon, we'll lose Itachi forever." M'gann said sadly. Even though she knew she wasn't his favorite person at the moment for lying, she still wanted to see her friend be happy.
"He was acting colder. It was like seeing him back with that Akatsuki group back in his world all over again." Robin noted.
"He is stressed. Itachi feels the weight of the world on his shoulders and desperately is trying to rise to the challenge." Aqualad added.
"We'll beat Wrath. Itachi is the best and with us around there's no way we can be beaten. When they fight again, Wrath will be alone but Itachi will always have us at his side. Both as teammates and as friends." Wally declared.
"Yeah, you're right. We'll make him pay for what he did to all of those people. And then we'll get our friend back." Conner stated.
"But first, we come together and watch the Gotham Rogues beat the Vegas Stars. Everyone's gonna be there as a show of solidarity against Wrath and his evil ways. Even popstar Matt Braun will be there to perform. The whole world will be watching it. We already have the permission of the adults." Artemis excitedly said.
"This is going to be great! I've never been to a football game before. Having my first time be with all of my friends is more than I could have ever hoped for." M'gann said now out of her funk finally.
"You're gonna love it, trust me babe." Wally said as Conner rolled his eyes. M'gann smiled at her boyfriend to put him at ease. It worked like usual as the group continued to talk about how exited they were. Itachi was behind the wall listening on their conversation. Itachi knows he's being a bad friend by ignoring them, but he knew it had to be done. Itachi was genuinely happy that his friends had such great plans. He just wanted this Wrath nightmare to be over.
'I just need to defeat him. Wrath has kept his word about not killing people so I have to keep mine about fighting him. He'll come here and I'll finally end this cycle of hatred in the Uchiha and come back home to Gotham…and to Carson. I'm ready to stop being Crow and return to being Itachi again. And after I defeat Wrath and his accomplice, I'll finally have peace.' Itachi thought as he began to train.
Wrath was alone in the living room of Carla's house with James. The girls had left to get food since they were hungry. It was a blessing for James to hear since it got his sister away from Wrath. Carson and he were inseparable which stung him in more ways than one. Wrath was sad to have Carson leave since he truly enjoyed her presence. It was one of the few times he truly felt normal. James drew his gun at Wrath and was ready to shoot the clone dead.
"What the hell are you doing here?" James asked. Wrath was watching a commercial about the upcoming football game between the Gotham Rogues and Vegas Stars as he answered, "Spending time with Carson. I truly wanted to be around her."
"Why?! I swear if you harm her in any way I'll-" James was interrupted.
"You'll do nothing because I could never harm her. She's precious to me…probably because she's precious to him too. He loves her, just like I do." Wrath stated much to James's disgust.
"You don't love my sister you sick bastard. You don't know what love is! Leave and never come back!" James demanded.
"I know what love is. I know because I've felt what hate is. They're anchors that hold you in place until the chain snaps. Then, you either fly up or drop down. I need Carson so that I can end this and snap Itachi's only chain that's holding him here." Wrath said.
"You want to use my sister against Crow? Why would I let that happen? You'd break her heart if you killed him." James angrily said.
"Because if you don't, then she'll find out who is really responsible for every one of the people that I've killed. You don't want to break your sister's heart now, do you?" Wrath countered.
James started trembling. He didn't know if it was from anger or fear, but it didn't matter because he soon found himself lowering his gun much to Wrath's expectations. Wrath walked up to him so that they were face to face.
"When I'm done, the whole world will be better place. You'll be the hero that you always wanted to be; her hero." Wrath promised.
"Just don't hurt my sister. She's all that I got left." James pleaded. Wrath nodded to the agreement as James put his gun away. He felt awful letting Wrath use his sister to kill the man she loved, but it was Itachi or Carson so he knew that he didn't have any other option. Carson and Carla came back shortly after so that the group could eat. Wrath went back to pretending to be Itachi as he and Carson sat together while watching her favorite show. James looked on in shame while fighting back tears. He hoped that Carson would one day forgive him for his horrible betrayal.
This chapter is finally done! Wow, it took the whole month for me to write it because of work. Sorry about that. I promise the next one will come out a lot quicker. We got to see a colder, unbound Itachi this chapter. I hope you enjoyed these happy scenes because the next few chapters will get intense. I can't wait to write them. Thanks for all of the reviews, favorites, follows, and PMs. I appreciate all of it. Be sure to keep it up! Until next time guys and gals!