I don't own Young Justice.

A/N: A little blood in this chapter, but nothing too gory. And another chapter should be coming relatively quick. I just didn't want to make this one too long.

A/N: Thanks and BubbleEwa for more reviews.

Read. Review. Enjoy.

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I stared in fear as I watched B'rnazz force his way into the sanctity of what I had just started to call home. Everything started to play in slow motion as I watched it unfold in front of my eyes.

Superboy and Artemis were knocked unconscious against the wall behind us. Alex stayed on the ground trying his best to recover from the headache he was receiving. His scream filled the remains of the hall.

"Oh will you cut your whining boy. Quite frankly, you're giving me a headache."

Alex became silent. He looked down the hall. His eyes were glazed over orbs. He was looking at me, but he wasn't seeing. B'rnazz had put him in some sort of trance. I had seen him do it to other kids, but never to us. I didn't know what to do.

"Alex?" I cried, not even trying to hide the fear in my voice.

"Oh, don't worry, you'll be joining him soon. You know I'd do the same if it wasn't for your little problem," he pointed to his head mockingly, "But it seems that your other Martian playmate had to find that out the hard way."

He was taunting me, but it wasn't me that gave him a reaction. A boulder came flying at B'rnazz from behind, throwing him over my head into the wall.

As I turned to see the attacker, Superboy emerged yelling. Apparently mentioning M'gann had struck a nerve. He ran after B'rnazz hoping to end him.

I watched, paralyzed with fear. I turned back to my brother whose condition hadn't changed. I wanted to help, I wanted to do something, but terror was keeping me in place. I could feel my body quiver, but I couldn't stop it.

"Run!" I heard someone yell from behind me. I turned to see Artemis, rising from the rubble.

"Run!" she shouted again.

"But Alex?" I returned pleadingly. He was my only brother, my best friend. If he was hurt, killed, or even taken I wouldn't know what to do.

Superboy came flying back, hitting Artemis where she stood. B'rnazz followed behind, a bit beaten, but stillas strong as ever.

"Don't you want to come home to your dear old dad?" B'rnazz asked. He had shape-shifted into Barnabas Naitram, the man whom I once called "Dad."

I ran, his form triggering unwanted memories.

"I love a good chase," I could hear him say behind me, "It makes my job a lot more fun."

I ran faster. I couldn't let him get me. I couldn't go back to captivity. At that moment, I didn't care about Artemis, the Team, or Alex. I had to make sure I survived no matter what.

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THIRD PERSON POV

B'rnazz geared up to follow after his query when a wall of water blocked his path.

"You will not harm the girl."

"Really? I don't think there's anyone here that can stop me."

Aqualad charged at B'rnazz. His job was to protect the children; he was not about to fail now. Using his water bearers as swords, Aqualad began going through his repertoire of maneuvers. Each kick was carefully executed, each hit precise, but there was no seemed as if B'rnazz knew his every move and would block or become intangible at the right moment.

He continued to attack, but it was getting him nothing but fatigued appendages. He attempted a feint to get his opponent off balance before performing a concussion kick to the head, ending him. As Aqualad swung his sword at his opponent's abdominal region, the block came as expected. Using his momentum, he extended his leg ready to connect to B'rnazz's head until it was stopped in mid-air. A surprised expression filled the Atlantean's face.

"You know, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

He chuckled a maniacal laugh as he exploited the present opportunity and swept Aqualad's legs from under him. The boy landed with a thud.

Aqualad sat up quickly realizing he was being played the whole time. A match with this alien intruder was useless. He was always three steps ahead. As Aqualad jumped to his feet, he recognized just how true that realization was.

B'rnazz now had Alex, still in a trance, by his shirt collar, his hand the shape of a knife pointed to his throat.

"Tell me 'fearless' leader, what would happen to you if he were to die? I overheard some of your thoughts. You have to protect the boy at all cost, correct? So what happens if I do this?" The Martian stuck the blade into Alex's neck just enough so that blood began running down it, staining the collar of his shirt.

"Tell me. What would happen if I were to do that except deeper in his scrawny neck?" B'rnazz asked with a growl.

"What do you want?" was the leader's simple reply.

"Throw down your water bearers and kick them over to me."

Aqualad stared from the villain to Alex. He had no choice but to surrender otherwise Alex would be lost. The foreigner had already shown he wasn't bluffing. But perhaps there was still a way that he could call it.

"Hurry up, I haven't got all day."

"I thought your job was to secure both of them?"

"What?"

"If you kill this boy, will not your mission still be a failure?"

"Since I find it amusing that you feel you can bargain for this kid's life, I'll humor you. Yes, they sent me to capture both, but they really only want the girl, for obvious reasons.

"We need young Alex in order to keep her cooperative. If she sees her brother broken, she won't be far behind. And that, my friend, is when they are vulnerable, easy to manipulate, and more fun to torture."

"Who are 'They'?"

"No sir, there is only one question. Now hand over your weapons, or-"

He lifted Alex again, using his other hand to make the wound on the side of his neck deeper causing the stream of blood to become thicker.

"Stop." Aqualad had no choice but to hand over his weapons. He threw them on the floor at B'rnazz's feet, clearly unhappy.

"Give me Alex," Aqualad demanded.

"With pleasure," B'rnazz answered with a sinister smile.

He levitated the boy towards Aqualad. As the hero put all his focus on the floating boy, he failed to account for the possibility of another attack, costing him dearly.

Taking advantage of the unsuspecting mind, B'rnazz unleashed a concussion blast of his own. He entered Aqualad's mind, delivering a mind blast rendering another foe defeated. The alien grinned to himself.

"These fools called themselves heroes, but they weren't even worthy of the title. Now to find the girl."

He placed Alex on his shoulder, and went out to finish his assignment.

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VANESSA POV (FIRST PERSON)

I kept running. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew if I stopped I was a goner.

I ran into the main entrance of the cave. It was still a mess, but Robin and Kid Flash didn't seem to mind it as they typed away on the holographic computer.

Not noticing where I was going, I ran into the two teenaged heroes again. But unlike last time, I quickly recovered and continued running. I couldn't let B'rnazz catch me. Flashes of my past kept running through my head pushing me to continue on my path.

"Vanessa. Come out, come out wherever you are," I heard B'rnazz say from behind me. I had to keep running.

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THIRD PERSON POV

Vanessa came zipping into the main area of the cave, oblivious of what was in her path. Once again, she ran into the young wards of Batman and Flash.

"Vanessa, where you off to in such a hurry?" Kid Flash asked.

But there was no reply as the little girl was off again.

"She might be faster than you KF," Robin teased.

"Maybe. What do you think she's running from?" Kid Flash had noticed the terrified expression on her face. As he and Robin had become so engaged in their work, they failed to realize the commotion of the opposite end of the cave. But they would soon find out.

"Vanessa. Come out, come out wherever you are."

"Maybe not what," said Robin, looking up from his research, "but who."

B'rnazz appeared from the shadow of the hallway.

"Great, more heroes. Can we make this quick, I do have a schedule I must keep, and your friends in the back have delayed me enough."

"You want quick, I'll give you quick."

Kid Flash sprung to life. He began running toward the intruder, dishing out licks wherever he found the room. Robin followed his lead, throwing bird-a-rangs at B'rnazz to accompany Kid Flash's attacks.

While they seemed to take the Martian off balance, they began the attack maneuver they had learned days before. Kid Flash started a maelstrom around B'rnazz slightly lifting the villain in the air.

B'rnazz quickly recovered, shape-shifting into cement to bolt himself to the ground despite the strong winds forced against him. As he changed back, he stuck his foot out at the exact moment Kid Flash ran in front of Robin, causing the hero to trip and ram both himself and his teammates into the nearby slab of rubble.

"No need to fight back if your enemy is going to anesthetize himself and his friends."

The intruder continued on.

"Vanessa, sweety, you're really trying my patience."

B'rnazz continued on in his search, but the farther he got with no avail, the more perturbed he became. And to add to his increasing fury, he was stopped yet again by Batman and Black Canary.

"Please, can all of you two bit heroes come out at once? It would make my job much easier."

With no words from either hero, the battle ensued.

"No one wants to speak? Fine by me, let's keep this silent."

Canary geared up for her signature bird call, but as if he had some sixth sense, B'rnazz mentally clamped the heroes mouth shut.

"Silence is gol-" he began to say before receiving a well deserved kick to the face from Batman.

"I almost forgot about you," he commented as he recovered.

Batman charged at him, a barrage of attacks that all the villain could do was potentially block, but not without taking hits in a variety of places.

As the attack continued, the villain was forcibly backed towards the wall. Continuing backwards caused him to trip on the debris still cluttering the floor, landing on the floor at the mercy of the hero.

Batman pressed a crushing boot to the Martian's chest. Black Canary joined beside the dark hero.

"Stay away from the kids," Batman said, leaning in to be certain his message was clear.

B'rnazz began laughing from his position. It began soft at first, but grew in power.

"You all have fought quite valiantly for these brats. Even your lackies," B'rnazz began as Batman roughly brought him up to place him in custody.

"But tell me Batman. What have you told these kids you're going to do with them?" As he sensed Vanessa's presence near, his volume increased so she was able to hear every word.

"Did you tell them you were going to give them a home? Or perhaps loving parents? Did you promise them they would never be hurt again? You're an excellent liar, you know that? Having these kids believe that anyone here actually cared for them. You know as well as I do how powerful they are. They're just a weapon to you aren't they? You never cared. You're no better than the government if you think about it, probably worse. Sure, you put up a great facade. But all they're good for is to be manipulated into mindless weapons. Isn't that right Canary?" He leaned in whispering this last sentence into her ear. She, however was still unable to talk with mental block clamping her mouth shut.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you," he laughed.

Black Canary became more furious, words mumbled as she tried to speak.

"If you have something to say then say it."

Batman continued leading his prisoner from the front, unaware of the emotions swelling within his comrade behind him. Black Canary tried to do as her partner, keeping her emotions in check, but the Martian was pushing her patience, intentionally dancing on her nerves. She wanted to give a bird call just to silence him, but was fortunate his clamp was prohibiting her from doing so.

"Do I make you angry? Make you so frustrated you just want to scream? All that anger isn't good. You should let it out."

She was concentrating so hard on keeping her task at hand and not letting her feelings get in the way, but it was becoming extremely difficult. How did Batman do it?

"Come on Birdie, give me a scream. Give me one similar to the ones you like to do for Oliver," he whispered in her ear.

That was it. She had all she could stand and she couldn't stand anymore. B'rnazz released the mental clamp he had put in her mouth, allowing her to release her sonic scream that had been pent up inside of her. Black Canary didn't care if she had been conned, the creep had it coming to him.

B'rnazz knew she would eventually break. It was all he had been waiting for. As Canary released a scream far beyond his expectation, he ducked out of the way leaving Batman as the target.

Batman turned in time to see Canary release her scream, but even his reaction time wasn't fast enough to evade the speed of sound. The wail sent him flying into the wall, rendering him unconscious as well.

The heroine stopped as soon as she realized what she had done. She had let the Martian trick her into submission.

"Batman!"

She ran over to tend to him, but was stopped as B'rnazz grabbed her by her neck. Shape-shifting into a serpent like monster, he wrapped himself around her, constricting her body until she no longer resisted. He dropped her on the ground.

"I know you're here Vanessa. There is no use hiding."

As concluded his sentence, he was attacked once more by an invisible force. He fell to the ground, knowing exactly who had gotten such a sucker punch. He wiped the blood from the cut on his head as he got up.

"Manhunter," he simply uttered, a taste of hated in his voice.

"B'rnazz. How did you escape?"

"You really thought that prison you put me in could hold me?"

"I have stopped you before, and I can do it again."

"Yeah? Well here's a little news flash got you. I'm a lot stronger than I was when you left me to rot. My new friends from the Light ensured of that."

"You are working for the Light?"

"Enough talk let me show you what I can do."

B'rnazz jumped at Martian Manhunter, but was immediately transported to the mental realm.

"My mind had grown stronger too. Your niece can attest to that. The mental state she is in is due to my mental block on the girl. You may be the 'Martian Savior', but you can't even save your own family."

The two Martians fought. They were evenly matched. The battle of the mind was similar to that of a physical battle. Each shape-shifting into different forms to gain the advantage or using psychic blast to knock the other off guard.

The fight was wearing both parties down more do B'rnazz than his worthy foe. Martian Manhunter was quite aware of this fact as his enemies attacks were growing weaker.

"You may have become physically stronger, but I am still the strongest mentally."

B'rnazz knew this was true; he couldn't beat him at his own game unless he cheated. B'rnazz split his concentration. He slipped partially out of the mental realm, causing his attacks there to be weakened. But his other half of consciousness was focused on reality. With Martian Manhunter being distracted by the mental battle, his body was defenseless. B'rnazz made his hand intangible and forced it through the heroes stomach region, before becoming tangible again. As soon as he did do, the hero was shocked out of his mental realm, his unsettling scream rang throughout the base.

"Your mind may be strong, but your body is weak," B'rnazz said, exhaustion on his face and revulsion in his speech.

He placed Manhunter on the ground and morphed his hand once again into a blade, ready to finish his oppressor off.

"Say goodnight dark prince."

As he was about to slice, he heard a faint "No" in the background.

He turned to find his mission tucked in a corner attempting to hide. He smiled to himself. This was going to end now.