Disclaimer: I do not own Batman Beyond or any of the referenced story lines or characters therein.

Author's Note: In reference to the reviews, thank you very much for all of your kind words. :) To answer a few questions -

Obliterator1519: Although I do not intend to bring Jason into the story, as he is not present in the animated series with which this is a crossover, I may reference him briefly if deemed necessary. I prefer to stay as canon as possible to the animated series from the nineties which I am referencing for this particular story, though I do put a few comic canon twists in, like Nightwing's fighting style with eskrima sticks, and his more comic canon costume. So no, Jason will not be included. But yes, he may be mentioned. Concerning Terry and Barbara... While this is a very interesting idea, my plan is to stick with the common Terry and Dana pairing. Romance will be kept at a minimum due to Terry's predicament. In the end, though, outcomes will fit very nicely with the traditional Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, and Batman Beyond story lines. :D

This Is Getting Old: Thank you. :) Honestly, I find the first chapter extremely boring as well... and I wrote it! I'm glad you enjoyed the second, though. I wasn't sure what reactions would be, and it's nice to get some positive feedback.

Rose Midnight Moonlight Black: Connor is supposed to seem very sane and reasonable. He is a villain more akin to Ra's al Ghul or Lex Luthor... the analytical man of extraordinary, albeit twisted, vision. He believes he can improve the world, when really, he's only causing problems for it. Hopefully he will earn your respect in coming chapters. Let me know what you continue to think of him in the coming weeks, and thank you for your review! :)

Anonymous Person Who Left Two Comments On Chapter Two... (You Should Leave A Name Next Time): Thank you very much for your kind words! :P Dick and Barbara are very fun to write simply because of their tense relationship at this point in time. Also, I do not plan to focus on romance other than the occasional Bruce Wayne girlfriend that will parade herself through, and the traditional Terry and Dana, which, as I stated for Obliterator1519, won't be focused on too much due to Terry's current predicament.

Warp Element

Missing

Future-side

Connor sighed, working furiously and quickly adjusting switches to the correct coordinates, as the police sirens grew closer. "This is bad. This is so, so bad." He muttered, his hands shaking in his rush.

Eva, still lying where he and Jack had found her before, blinked up at him with liquid eyes, pouting slightly. "I'm sorry. I though I had hooked it up correctly…"

Connor resisted the urge to snap at her, instead taking a deep, steady breath that calmed the unusually irrational temper that fought for control of his actions at the moment. "Just…" He closed his eyes, taking another deep breath before explaining the situation. "Unfortunately, something isn't right with the machine." He announced to the only other two people in the room, reopening his eyes to find them staring at him intently, hanging heavily on his every word. "I'm not laying blame anywhere, for it could be in my design as well as in Eva's handiwork, I don't know. But for now, the 'time' element of our 'time-space' warp is out of commission." He slammed an irritated fist down on the malfunctioning controls. How ironic was it, that after thousands of years of evolution from primitive cavemen, human beings still believed that they could fix things by hitting them?

Unfortunately, nothing occurred to brighten the outlook of the future. All the powerful, wiry man had succeeded in doing was putting a rather unfortunate dent in the otherwise sleek contraption. This was worse than he ever could've imagined, for it meant that a crucial part of the present was stuck in the past, jarring the timeline, and they couldn't go back in time those few minutes to prevent the mistake. He growled, resisting the urge to completely destroy the machine. At the moment, the space warp drive was still intact, and if he could teleport them elsewhere within their own dimension, then they would be safe for the time being until he could fix the deadly mishap.

If only Batman hadn't butted his pointy-eared cranium into their delicate plans, then this wouldn't have happened, and the world would be a better place. One small time change, and the rippling effects could destroy the universe – which is why only one person was gifted with the imperative knowledge of which events to tweak. Connor knew what to do. If he could travel to where he needed to, he'd calculated every possible chain reaction from the crux point that would completely free the world of unnecessary evils – and of Batman as well. Yes, perhaps a few people would cease to exist, but no one who really mattered anyway. And the world would be a better place. Instead, he was stuck in the present, rushing to perfect the teleportation module before sending them hurtling into unknown territory. Pressing one last switch, and entering the final coordinate, he also input their life signatures. Just as he'd done with Batman, each of the three had been injected with a unique nanite serum that the machine could easily pinpoint and recognize, making sure that they, and only they, were affected by its calculations and movement. Adjusting one last slide switch, he turned the lever to bring the machine humming into action, letting the strange tingling sensation take him as they teleported. They would leave the police to ponder the shattered filaments and battle worn room.

But once he got the machine in complete working order again, he'd go back to work, and get his plan back on track. He knew which events to change. It was risky, but it was worth it, he knew, to eradicate two thirds of the world's population to secure the perfect futures of those that remained living. All right, so the term 'a few' had been relative. A few... two thirds of the world… in the long run, it wouldn't really matter, would it?

School had only started an hour ago, but that didn't mean there was no need to worry. Terry never missed school, and if he were to miss anything, he always contacted SOMEONE. But no, instead, he seemed to have completely disappeared. "Hey, Max?" Dana walked up to the dark-skinned girl tentatively, a query obvious in her dark, slanted eyes. The young woman in question looked up from her laptop with a light smile, knowing what was coming, and afraid that she didn't have an answer. Dana brushed her hair back from her face, pulling her short skirt down a little farther before letting go what was on her mind.

"Yes, Dana?" The pink haired girl finally asked, blinking her own, large brown eyes impatiently. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you knew where Terry was?" She finally asked, her voice quiet. "I mean, you hang out with him all the time…"

Max smiled sadly, but shook her head. "I'm sorry." She brushed a shaky hand through her short hair, screwing her pretty face into an expression of intense worry. Her reaction was in no way a fabrication of her true feelings. She was rather worried about Dana's boyfriend. While the olive-skinned girl didn't know about Terry's late night escapades, Max was in on the secret because of accidentally stumbling upon his identity when she'd first thought the flighty, once delinquent was a Joker who went by the name of Terminal. When she'd discovered Terminal's true identity, though, she'd also begun to understand Terry's.

Since then she'd made a frequent habit of playing Oracle and Alfred to Terry's Batman, though she had a little more physical play than the old, original Bat probably pleased. She'd gotten deeply involved with a couple of cases, much to his chagrin, but there wasn't really anything he could do to stop her, so it was tolerated to an extent. Last night, at least at the early stages of the Batman's patrolling, she'd done her normal ritual of hacking onto the Batman com-link frequencies and having a nice little chat with her friend until Bruce had so rudely hung up on her. After that, she hadn't heard a thing, and today, Terry was nowhere in sight. It irked her that something would happen to Terry after the old man had cut into her link with practiced brusqueness.

Dana's eyes pleaded with her, hoping to dig some hint of good news out of her friend. It really was strange not having Terry here without him notifying one or both of them. Usually, he'd tell Dana first, because if Max ended up going to school and divulging Terry's absent excuses all the time, the girl was taken by a slight edge of jealousy and irritation towards the dark-skinned Max, complaining bitterly for a bit as to why she knew so much more about her boyfriend than she did. "So, you have no clue?" Dana tried again. "He didn't tell anyone?"

"I don't know where he his." Max admitted truthfully, hating the fact that she was so left in the dark on this matter. Terry told her everything about his 'job', so she would've been the first to know if he'd been going undercover, but she'd heard nothing concerning his nonappearance. A sense of dread was steadily growing in the pit of her stomach. There was a saying that no news was good news, but not in Terry's case. If he hadn't contacted anyone, then something was terribly wrong, and he'd gotten himself into some severe trouble. After school, she owed a long overdue visit to the Wayne manor.

A thrill of excitement needled its way through her anxiety for a moment. It was a daunting thought, finally going to the old man's house after all this time, but if she was going to find out what happened to Terry, she was going to need a lot more than a hacked com-link line which he could easily shut off. He couldn't shut her down if she was standing in front of him, and that's what she intended to do.

Wayne Manor was positioned about a forty-five minute drive to the east of Gotham City, placed on the precarious cliffs along the coast. Further out behind the stately castle, it was easy to access the Atlantic, staring out over the salty spray, and the fissure in the ground where Bruce had first discovered the weaving, dark catacombs of the Batcave that sprawled out below the mansion and various parts of the city. Max wasn't worried about any of that, though. Staring ahead and taking a deep breath, she began to move forward toward the foreboding edifice.

She wasn't sure if this place had ever looked friendly, though it may have had the faux appearance of happiness when Alfred had still been alive, and Bruce Wayne had still been the Prince of Gotham. It made her chuckle, to think of the cynical old Bat as young and handsome, wooing the richest and most gorgeous of all of Gotham's women, including the rather elusive Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman. Max knew the old cat burglar was still alive, but where she was tended to be a mystery, though she had no doubt in her mind that Bruce knew.

The pink-haired girl shivered as she walked up to the gates protecting the mansion from the outside world. The sheer appearance of gloom and doom hovering about the place made her want to run in the opposite direction, but she stood her ground, knowing that something was wrong with Terry, and the old man WOULD let her help, whether he wanted to or not. She glanced warily over to the buzzer to her left, but decided against it, guessing that if asked, the man would never let her in. So instead, she scaled the gate. It was much easier said than done, and she slipped back down quite a few times before landing neatly on her feet on the other side. Max wasn't the most stealthy person in the world, and she knew that if he hadn't already seen her, then it wouldn't be hard to spot her along the open pathway anyway, so sacrificing any tact or covertness, she walked somewhat hesitantly up the winding dirt pathway to the large front doors. This, by far, had to be the most formidable part of the trek, the heavy oak wood looming over her, the intricately carved gargoyle headed knockers making her shudder slightly as she reached forward to announce her presence. She hesitated. Maybe she should just try the handle…

But she never got the chance. Apparently, Bruce had seen her coming. The door opened a crack, and Max jumped slightly as the old man peered at her acidly from behind the thickly adorned doors. "What do you want?" He growled, as welcoming as ever to find her on his doorstep. She heard the snarl of a dog somewhere beyond him.

Staring surprised at the man for a moment, she finally swallowed, and became her defiant self again. "I want to know where Terry is." She demanded. "He wasn't at school today, he didn't tell anyone where he was, and…" The old man backed away from the door, opening it in a gesture akin to welcome. He looked away; apparently vexed by the situation he seemed to have become a part of. He knew as well as anyone that Terry was gone, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out to where. The communications had simply been claimed by static, and the vid-link had cut out as if the main source had never existed in the first place. "Please, come in." He didn't bother to smile as he usually did when faking cordiality. "Mrs. McGinnis is inside as well. If you'd like, you may join her in the living room."

Incredulous, the young girl stepped into the mansion, eyeing the dog warily. It sniffed, growling at her a moment longer before deciding that she didn't pose a threat. At that, he sneezed, and trotted back to Bruce's side. The elderly man stroked the black Great Dane absentmindedly, heading back in the direction of Mary McGinnis. Silently, Max followed. Well, so much for her plans to sneak in over the gates. She might as well have pressed on the buzzer. With Mrs. McGinnis here, that really meant Terry was in trouble, and Bruce had some explaining to do.

Mrs. McGinnis sat on a lavish couch in the sprawling downstairs living room, staring blankly at nothing in particular, a cup of rapidly cooling tea cradled in her white-knuckled hands. Mr. Wayne took a seat across from the two women and Matt, for whom Max only spared a momentary glance. The young boy sat on the opposite side of his mother from her, and looked particularly sullen, swinging his legs back and forth moodily. "I was just explaining the situation to Mrs. McGinnis." Wayne spoke quietly. "I sent Terry out to run an errand last night, and he never came back."

Max eyed the man suspiciously, knowing there was more to the story, and wondering why he didn't just tell the mother about the Batman angle to this so-called 'errand'. If Terry was missing, then she deserved to know. She'd been put through too much grief already, barely ever seeing her son, and now, to have him completely disappear… She was most likely having flashbacks of her husband's death, wondering if her oldest son was even still alive.

"He's okay, though, right?" Matt finally piped in, his reedy little voice hopeful. His mother laid a quieting hand on his head, but the hyperactive child squirmed, his eyes focusing on Mr. Wayne. "Right?" He repeated, but silence met him.

"Matt…" His mother's sweet voice came next, and she looked down at him through tender eyes. "We just don't know."

Matt's gaze fell brooding to the floor. Despite the fact that he acted as if he hated his older brother most of the time, he didn't know if he could survive life without him. Terry had always been there for him, especially when he'd really started to miss Dad. That, and who was he supposed to fight with now, when his older brother was gone?

"I'm very sorry, Mrs. McGinnis." Bruce's calm, low voice was very sympathetic. "If there's anything I can do…"

"No." Mary cut him off, standing and refusing to meet his gaze. "I think you've done enough. I'll call the police, and hope that they can find something."

Bruce's gaze fell to the floor as well, and he rested his chin on his folded hands as the woman took her youngest son, moving towards the door.

"Maybe we can call Batman, too!" Matt blurted hopefully as they walked away. "Batman could find him!"

Bruce closed his eyes in mental agony, a sharp pang of guilt stabbing at his heart. No, Batman was the reason Terry was in this mess, and Bruce didn't even know what had happened. He wouldn't, either, until he visited the scene of the occurrence. When he heard the front door of the mansion close, he reopened his eyes, staring at Max, who stared back blankly. "So what really happened?" She inquired quietly, leaning forward.

Bruce closed his eyes again, sighing. "He was fighting, at the Powers' mansion. Despite the fact that he hates that man for killing his father, a break in is a break in, and I made him go." He paused for a moment, staring straight ahead before continuing. "There were three people there, a man by the name of Connor, another called Jack, and a woman – Eva. At least the two men were metahumans. I was never actually able to catch sight of the woman. Terry was doing all right until he took out the one called Jack, and then, he started making mistakes. Connor knocked him senseless, injected him with something…and then…" The video feed of the lights exploding overhead replayed relentlessly in his mind as the brilliant whiteness consumed everything. Ace had been barking his head off, and when everything finally settled out again, and Bruce had reopened his eyes, Terry had been gone. The com-link no longer responded, and the video feed had been nothing more than white noise.

Max looked skeptical and horrified all at once. "You mean to tell me that this machine just… vaporized him?"

"I don't know." Bruce admitted. "I haven't exactly gone to examine the scene yet. The police were still there this morning."

"And what about tonight?" Max stood suddenly, adamant. "I'm going with you."

Bruce stared at her levelly, knowing that he may – unfortunately – need her help. He almost smirked in remembrance of the first time Terry had gone missing, when he had tricked her into becoming the decoy for their little underground escapade. He doubted she would let that happen to her again, but still, the memory brought him some sense of pride and amusement. "Fine." He murmured. "I know I wouldn't be able to dissuade you anyway."

Max smiled, resting her hands on her hips. "Duh."

The crime scene wasn't anything like Bruce had seen it the night before from the video off of Terry's headset. It was clean. Bruce huddled inside his long, brown jacket, scowling and pulling the collar up further around his neck and jaw as he swept a flashlight over what was left. This was rather irking. He leaned heavily upon his cane, noting several abnormalities that the police had been unable to straighten up, though. Like the light bulbs overhead – they were still shattered; the filaments frayed and blackened, just like the crusty, jagged glass that clung to them. The ceiling and parts of the walls, as well, were devoid of plaster, in some places bare to the inner woodworking of the house. Bruce shuffled forward a slight bit more, scanning again, as if something would jump out at him better now than it had before. A strange feeling of energy hung in the air, making his hair stand on end.

Max, standing near him, shivered, rubbing her arms as if she were cold, watching Ace as the dedicated hound snuffled his way around the room. "Something creepy went down here." She whispered. Bruce's eyes simply narrowed. This was much too similar to another scenario he'd experienced many years ago when he'd still been a part-time member of the Justice League, back before Hawkgirl had gone renegade. There were no remains, no bones, no ashes… no trace of a body being burnt, no lingering smell of charred flesh. Just like before, when Toyman had 'disintegrated' Superman, there was no trace of his ward to speak of. No human remains. He'd do a DNA sweep, just to be sure, but he was practically certain this was a similar scenario. It was an absolute law of physics: matter cannot be created or destroyed, but simply transferred back and forth between entities.

"Terry's still alive." He commented simply. "I'm absolutely sure of it."

Max stared at him through wide, dark eyes. "Seriously? Where is he?"

"That's one question. But if he was still within the parameters of our reality, he'd have found his way back by now, or contacted one of us." Bruce mumbled darkly. "Another more relevant query may be 'when' is he."

Max's eyes continued to widen, her mouth unhinging. "We're dealing with TIME TRAVEL?" She squeaked.

Ace looked up, slightly startled at the pitch change in her voice, before snorting and padding back around the room.

"I'm not positive, and it's impossible to know for sure, unless we find the culprit responsible for this entire mess." Bruce rocked forward onto his cane, gripping it white-knuckled. He had no memory of ever meeting Terry in the past, so perhaps the boy had been rocketed into the future. Time travel truly was a cornucopia of disturbing concepts, and it could go either way. It was like a stream, just like so many people before had commented. Time was a river, and if that river became polluted in any way whatsoever, the entire ecosystem was affected. Misplacing Terry even a few years could have horrendous ramifications that could barely be dreamed of. They'd have to right this wrong before anything truly disastrous occurred. And that meant finding Connor.

The elderly man switched off his flashlight, rubbing the bridge of his nose in irritation. After Chronos, he'd really hoped he wouldn't have to deal with anything time related again, and yet here he was, chasing Terry. Well, if the boy was smart, and he could be when he tried, then he'd stay out of trouble, and wait for them to bring him back.

"He'll be okay, right?" Max asked through the inky blackness that surrounded them, her voice as thick as the night, possessed with worry.

"He's… Batman." Bruce answered reluctantly, hating to admit the fact that he wasn't the one wearing the costume any more. "He'll be fine."