Disclaimer: I do not own YJ, they belong to DC. I own Mia!

Mount Justice

October 16, 16:01 EDT

Everyone was called to the Mission Room to watch what was happening in space. When the Leaguers out in space were killed, the room went silent. Soon an incoming transmission from Zatara came in.

"Tornado, did you-"

"Yes, Zatara, we saw. Celestial defenses have failed. Initiate all terrestrial measures."

"Affirmative. See you in the field."

Tornado turns to the Team "I must join the League. We will protect the planet at all costs. But should we fail, the responsibility falls to you."

"We stand ready" Kaldur states.

Tornado nods and heads for the zeta tubes. Just before he went through, Mia ran after him and hugs him tightly. He turns to look at her with a "longing" look.

"Be careful out there."

"I shall try."

"That's all I ask for."

Mia lets him go through the tube and he was gone. She goes back to the group to watch the news.

'This is Iris West-Allen reporting live. The extraterrestrials have brought their relentless global attack to Central City'

The cameraman catches the death of some citizens. Suddenly someone grabs Iris and transports the cameraman to safety. Both Iris and the cameraman were on top of a building safe, for now.

'You should both be safe here. At least for now' Zatara states.

'Thank you…Flash and Zatara' both heroes left 'Denny, you okay? As you can see, the Justice League is attempting to hold the line.'

The top of a building explodes killing Flash, Zatara and civilians that were trying to escape. Iris watched her husband die in front of her eyes and wasn't paying attention when a drone ship came up behind her. It quickly kills her and the cameraman.

'Iris! Iris, get out of there. I'm sorry, we're experiencing technical difficulties from our Central City feed. We take you now to a devastated Taipei where another League contingent is having a bit more luck' Cat Grant states.

As the feed from Taipei shows, Mia moves closer to Wally and squeezes his hand in comfort. It took him a while but he squeezes back making Mia feel a bit better. "Don't worry Barry and Iris, we'll take them down" Mia silently prays as she watches the news.

'Ladies and gentlemen, we've lost Black Canary, Green Arrow and the Hawks. Other heroes reported dead or missing include Batman, Icon, Adam, and Aquaman.'

'Red Tornado to cave. I fear I am all that remains of the League.'

"RT" Robin calls out.

"That's it. They're all dead." Mia raises her hand to her cheek and her eyes went wide. "Why aren't I crying? What's going on?"

"We are Earth's heroes now" Kaldur states.

"So what are we waiting for, a theme song?" Conner remarks.

"He's getting better" "A theme song would be nice to have" Mia lightens the mood.

"A strategy. Earth's weapons are ineffective. And it has been made tragically clear a direct attack will not succeed" Kaldur concludes.

"Checking satellite imagery" Robin pulls up the holo-globe "Here's where the aliens are now."

"That's a lot of red spots" Mia comments.

"This one get lost?" Conner points out.

"That's Superman's Fortress of Solitude" Robin states.

"Superman has a Fortress of Solitude?"

"Its power source must have attracted the alien's attention. At least enough to send a scout ship to investigate."

"Must be some fortress" Conner spat out.

"Conner" M'gann calls.

"No, it's okay. I guess there's a lot about Superman I'll never know. Uh, you know, now."

"We will target this ship" Kaldur orders.

"Yeah, break it down, build more, hit those ugly aliens with their own mojo" Wally states "Ow!"

Artemis elbows him "Martian and Kryptonian in the house."

"Uh, heh. Not that all aliens are automatically ugly."

"Smooth, Wally. Real smooth" Mia adds.

All of them headed to the bioship to go to the Arctic circle where the Fortress of Solitude is located. Everyone was wearing polar stealth and Mia looked like a snow leopard which ironically is what Lola looks like too, making them practically twins. She pets Lola's head as they made their way to the fortress.

"You know I could teleport all of us there."

Kaldur shakes his head "We do not know what would happen or how much strain would be brought onto you. We will use it as a last resort."

"If you say so" and the ship became silent again.

They had arrived at the location and went to work. M'gann disables their communications.

"Communications disabled. Propulsion disabled."

Artemis went next. "And ET's are sealed inside."

"Now all that's left is taking out that cannon and we're good to go" Mia comments as she hides with Robin.

Kaldur springs out of the water and semi-sinks the ship. When the cannon was aimed at Kaldur, Wolf uses his teeth and swings it away. Conner holds it in place while Robin and Mia did their part.

"Identifying weapon's structural stress points and links to the ship. Here, here, and here."

Both M'gann and Mia destroyed the stress points using their powers. Conner pulls the cannon forward while Mia was just behind him when a sound like something was warming up was heard. Neither one of them knew it but Wolf and Lola did. Just before it fired, Wolf and Lola knocked Mia and Conner out of the way of the shot. Both pets died right there and the rest were in shock.

"Wolf. Lola" M'gann softly says.

"There was no indication of feedback. I'm sorry" Robin comments.

"Can't do anything for him now" Conner states.

"I'm going to miss her" "Why am I not crying?! I should be but I'm not. Oh god, don't tell me that-"

Conner finishes tearing the cannon from the drone ship. M'gann calls the ship over and begins to add the new alien tech.

"Rerouting systems to integrate weapon into ship's biomatrix. We'll need to decamouflage for a few minutes."

"May not have a few minutes" Robin states as two ships came into view.

"Miss Martian, open fire" Kaldur orders.

"Can't, weapons systems are offline to incorporate the new cannon. And that's not fully integrated yet, either."

"I got this" Mia states. She focuses her powers to teleport them away from here but nothing happened. Mia tries again and the results were the same, nothing.

"What?"

"Got you covered. Get inside. I'm almost there" Artemis states.

Artemis fires two arrows: one destroys a ship while the other damages the second ship. Just when Artemis was close to the ship, the alien ship warms up the cannon and fires.

"Artemis, behind you" M'gann exclaims.

"No!" Mia tries to teleport Artemis but she was too late.

"Artemis!" M'gann yells out as she watched Artemis die.

"Artemis!" Wally yells too.

While Kaldur took care of the ship, Mia looked down at her hands trying to figure out what went wrong. "What the hell is going on with me?! And why am I still not crying?!"

"They're dead. Every single alien. If it's the last thing I do" Wally exclaims.

As they headed inside the bioship, Robin had to lead Mia inside. He thinks that she's trying to overcome Artemis' death, oh how wrong he was. "I'm completely useless" she looks out the window.

The only sounds that can be heard are M'gann's soft cries and Wally's frustration.

Wally growls "This is all your fault Mia."

She turns around "Excuse me?"

"If you had used your powers then Artemis would still be here with us."

"I tried! But it's not working and I have no idea why. So for now, suck it up and get it together."

Wally stood up "How can you say that?! Are you really that heartless?!"

Mia slowly stood up to face him. Her face held no emotion and her normal bright brown eyes were dull and dead. Wally internally gasps at the sight of her eyes.

"I can tell you to suck it up because I speak from experience. I witnessed my entire family's death in cold blood by killers who didn't give a shit about how that'll effect me. I've lost my foster family too and Artemis who I consider as my sister. It hurts but with the amount of deaths that will happen today, you won't be able to properly mourn and become numb. Pretty soon, you'll end up like me; an emotional wreak wearing a mask of smiles and acting happy."

"There will be time to mourn later. Now we have a job to do…defend the Earth and ensure Artemis' sacrifice was not in vain" Kaldur orders.

"Back to the cave?" M'gann asks.

"The Hall of Justice. The human race must know that there are still heroes defending them. There is still hope."

The bioship made it in time to help out the military by taking out the enemy ships with Conner's help and the new cannon. The soldiers cheered as the young heroes made their way to the meet the person in charge.

"See? It is Superman. I told you he wouldn't leave us out here alone."

"I don't know. He looks kind of young. Where's the cape?"

"I'm not Superman" Conner states.

"I don't know who you are, son. And right now, I don't care. You wear the "S" and you got the job done."

"I'm not Superman."

"Tell that to the enemy. General Wade Eiling, US Air Force" he tells Kaldur.

"Aqualad, Justice League. We'll help you salvage as many as the aliens' cannons as possible then we start tacking back what is ours."

Everyone heads inside the Hall to see the broken statues of their mentors, their family. While the others mourn over the loss of their mentors, Mia suddenly gets a headache and clutches her head in pain. Out of nowhere, she starts hearing a voice in her head.

"Mia….it's….stop…M'g…..her…"

"What the hell?!"

"Listen….stop…not….real…Mia…"

She looks around trying to find out where the voice was coming from. The voice continues on a loop and it starts hurting her head.

"Get out of my head damn it!" she yells out grabbing everyone's attention.

No one moved and Mia was left to suffer alone. M'gann was by the statue of her uncle when she floats away from it. She lifts it to reveal Manhunter underneath it.

"Uncle J'onn!"

M'gann went to hug him but Kaldur stops her.

"M'gann, check his mind. Make sure he is whom he appears to be."

"It's him. He's real, and he's alive."

"But we saw you get disintegrated. You and Superman. And everyone" Conner states.

"Yes, I remember. But…I cannot remember how I survived. Or how I arrived here" Manhunter says.

"Maybe you were density shifting the beam passed right through you" M'gann suggests.

"Scrambling your brains along the way" Robin concludes.

"My mind is clouded."

"Oh yeah? Well I've got a voice in my head that won't shut up" Mia comments grasping her head in pain.

"I'm not hearing anything" M'gann states.

"I'm not going crazy. I know what I'm hearing and it's still there."

"I feel certain I had something important to tell you."

"Hello, Wally, come on" Wally took Robin to check out the cannon "I knew it, look. It's giving off zeta beams the same stuff that powers our zeta tubes. Um, this thing doesn't disintegrate, it-it teleports. Artemis is alive."

"Maybe, but-"

"No maybes. They're all alive."

"That must have been what you wanted to tell us" M'gann tells her uncle.

Mia winces in pain as the voice spoke again.

"Wake…..Mia….it's…Daniel…damn…."

"Danny?"

Soon more enemy ships came at them.

"We're on our way" Kaldur states.

"Negative. We can't win this. Miss Martian camo the bioship" Robin orders.

Before she could, the bioship was killed and the Martians fell to the ground in pain.

"M'gann!" Conner exclaims.

"J'onn" Mia says.

Conner and Kaldur went to their aid.

"That didn't feel like-" M'gann states as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"We're falling back" Robin says.

Just as they came in, Eiling states "We're trapped" then the doors leading to the inside of the hall opens.

"Maybe not" Kaldur says.

Everyone arrives at the library where the zeta tube is located.

"We can all zeta to the cave if you grant us computer clearance to access the tubes" Kaldur tells Manhunter.

"I can only authorize one at a time."

"Send the soldiers first."

"Belay that! You seven are assets we cannot afford to lose" Eiling states.

"Override. Martian Manhunter 07."

"Recognized. Access granted" and the tube powers up.

"Miss Martian, B06. Robin, B01. Kid Flash, B03"

The doors blew in causing destruction in its wake. Conner went to help the pinned down soldier while Kaldur threw Wally in. He looks to Mia "Go."

"NO! I'm not losing you too!"

He grabs her and places her in front of the scanner but she moves a bit out of its range. Conner brings up the injured soldier and the computer scans him.

"Private Jason Bard. USMC."

"Jace?" Mia softly asks.

Kaldur took the opportunity to put Mia next.

"Blink, B04" and he pushes her in.

"Aqua-"

Then it was Conner's turn. "Superboy, B05" and he jumps in.

The lasts ones left were Kaldur and Manhunter. Kaldur takes Manhunter over to the tube.

"They need you more than me. Go!" and Kaldur never made it.

At the cave, Mia looks over at the soldier in shock.

"Excuse me" he looks over at her "Did you know a Colonel Jack James Rogers from the 129th?"

"Of course I know Jack, we trained together back at the academy. I'm sorry to tell you this but he died a while back."

"Sorry to hear that."

"I remember him telling me that his parents brought in a foster kid and how happy he was to hear that he's got a sister and how much he can get to annoy her."

"Oh Jack."

"Then he learned that his parents were killed and his sister was alone. He tried to get home but the military didn't let him, not even to their funeral. Jack was filing for an honorable discharge so he could take care of his sister when his unit was attacked and he got shot. He left a note with specific instructions to be sent to his sister along with his dog tags, I hope she got them."

"I never got anything from Jack. Who would…Batman" Mia softly growls. After they sent Private Bard on his way, the others started coming up with a plan.

"Our next mission is clear, if we believe the aliens have been teleporting their victims-"

"We do" Wally cuts in.

"Then the only reasonable detention facility is here" a photo of a large ship appears "Their mothership…atop what used to be Smallville. Ring any bells?"

"No. I'm sorry" Manhunter answers.

"Superboy, you'll create a distraction" Robin orders.

"No! He's offering you as a sacrifice. Aqualad would never do that" M'gann states.

"You're right. Aqualad would sacrifice himself. A mistake that just cost us our leader. Superboy is the most likely to be perceived as a threat motivating the aliens to deploy."

"Worst case, he's teleported inside and we set him free along with Artemis. And, uh, Aqualad and everyone" Wally explains.

"Or not and everyone's actually dead" Mia mutters.

Before they got ready for the mission, they had to send out a message of hope to the world.

"And though we know all seems lost the one thing the aliens cannot destroy is hope" M'gann starts off.

"Hope survives because the battle is not over. Not as long as even one of us is willing to fight" Conner states.

"Never lose hope because if it's lost then the aliens win. Have faith within each other and within yourselves for hope shines the brightest in each of us" Mia adds.

"It doesn't matter how many fall for new heroes will always rise to carry on bringing all of their resources, their skills, their talents to bare to defeat the enemy" Wally states.

"The people of Earth will survive this. We will rebuild and we will thrive. Never doubt and never forget the Earth will never surrender" Robin finishes.

After sending the message, they started getting ready. Mia quickly walks over to Roy and taps his shoulder.

He turns around "You need something?"

"Yeah, promise me something."

"What?"

She kisses him on the lips "Don't die" and she heads back to the others. "I can't believe I just did that." Mia looks up to see Robin looking at her worriedly.

"Are you ok Mia?"

"Honestly, I have no clue Rob. My powers aren't working, I'm hearing voices in my head and I just spontaneously kissed Roy on the mouth" *sighs* "I don't know how useful I'm going to be out in the field. It might be for the best if I stayed behind and coordinate from here."

Robin shakes his head "I can't let you do that Mia. Next to Aqualad, you're the only one here who's level headed and can take charge. I need you out there with me."

"If you say so Rob" and they headed to Smallville with the rest.

When they made it to Smallville, Robin and Mia took out their binoculars to make sure the coast was clear. M'gann came up to the duo ready to go.

"Stay close to J'onn. He's still…."

"Wonky" Mia finishes.

"First team, deploy" Robin orders.

M'gann and J'onn went and density shifted into the mothership.

"Ready. In position."

"Be careful everyone and don't do anything stupid" Mia retorts.

Just before Conner took off, Mia grabs his arm and looks at him with seriousness.

"I'm serious Con, no unnecessary risks. Got it?"

He nods and went off. Mia looks at Robin silently asking We're doing the right thing, right? Robin had no answer and that was all she needed to know. "We're not gonna make it out of this. At least I'll be with Mami and Papi."

"Careful. Don't disconnect the power source" Robin tells Conner.

"Now or never" Conner states.

Mia and Robin held onto Wally as he ran as fast as he could to get them inside the mothership. The trio safely landed inside and hid between some walls to avoid being spotted by drone ships. When the coast was clear, they made a break for it.

"Way's clear. Go" Robin orders.

While they hid behind a machinery, a worker bot appeared behind them and it was quickly taken care of by M'gann. All five continued to make their way when Mia's head started to hurt again but the voice sounded a little clearer even if it sounded coming from the distance.

"Bloody hell Mia. Wake up!"

"Ow" she mutters.

"You good?" Wally asks.

"I'll live" "Maybe."

"Good. C'mon we should be getting there soon."

Mia nods and just as she took a step, something within snapped and she knew right there that Conner died. Her only confirmation was when M'gann stopped walking and had to lean up against a wall.

"No. He's gone."

"It's alright. We'll find him with Artemis. I know it" Wally states.

"Don't lie to her Kid. He's dead, they're all dead" Mia counters.

"No! They're still alive."

"No. My mind is clearer now. The disintegration beam is exactly that. There is no detention center, no prisoners to rescue. Our mission holds no purpose" J'onn explains.

"No, you're wrong. The zeta radiation proves she's alive. She's-"

Mai was about to slap Wally but Robin got to him first.

"Stop it, KF. I've been scanning for League and Team signals since we got inside. They're not here. Artemis is gone. But our mission still holds purpose to destroy this mothership."

"We better get going then" Mia comments.

Robin, Wally, M'gann and J'onn witnessed how quickly Mia's normal big brown eyes became small, dead and dull like she's used to witnessing so much death around her. Shortly afterwards, they headed to the mothership's power core.

"This is the power core. Blow this and the whole mothership blows" Robin states and they quickly went to work.

Robin was close to the core when he felt a gravitational pull coming from the core. He falls and tries to grab onto something but nothing was there. Wally grabs his hand and he too was pulled in by the core. Mia slides on her stomach and grabs Wally's leg while her other hand is holding the ledge. Bit by bit, her grip was slipping and soon enough, she lost her grip.

Thinking quickly on his feet, Robin fires his grappling hook saving all three of them in the process. One of the worker bots saw them and before it could do anything, the Martians took it out. M'gann uses her telepathy to lower the trio onto the power core. Robin places the explosives on the core while Mia made sure that the bombs were live.

"You knew, the both of you. You knew from the beginning why we were really here."

"It's true."

"Four minutes. Let's go."

They made it out of the room quickly and when they got to the hangar, it was closed.

"Perfect" Wally retorts.

Robots appeared behind them and fired at them. The Martians jumped to their left while the trio went to their right.

"16 seconds and counting. Manhunter, take Miss Martian and go" Robin orders.

"No, we won't leave you" M'gann states.

"That's an order. We'll follow as soon as we blow those doors."

The Martians left and there's only 10 seconds left. Out of nowhere, Mia felt her power coming back.

"Grab my hand and I'll teleport us out of here."

"I'm sorry Mia."

Robin pulls out a taser gun and shocks her. As she crumples to the ground, the boys went to protect her as best as they could. "You guys are so stupid" then she felt nothing shortly after that thought.

Mia felt like she was floating in the middle of nowhere, stuck between life and death.

"Am I dead?"

"No but you're pretty close though."

Suddenly she was centered and stood in front of a gentleman in his late 20s wearing a tailored suit with a brown trench coat over his shoulder.

"Danny?"

"The one and only" he smiles at her.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Making sure that little Martian girl didn't screw up your mind."

"Say what?"

The whole place started to crumble around them.

"I guess you're waking up now."

"Wait! Danny, don't leave."

"I'm not going anywhere darling. Just give me a call when you wake up."

Mount Justice

October 16, 16:21 EDT

Mia jolts right up gasping for air. Looking around she saw everyone was alive and safe then she felt something tight around her neck. Mia scrambled to get the inhibitor collar off but she was having some trouble. Flash was there and took it off her.

"Are you ok?"

"No, I'm not! What happened and why the hell was I wearing an inhibitor collar?!"

Flash didn't answer.

"You're all alive?" M'gann asks.

"What happened in there?" Batman asks Manhunter.

"The exercise, it all went wrong."

"Exercise?" Robin asks.

"Try to remember. What you experienced was a training exercise. Manhunter psychically liked the seven of you within an artificial reality"

"Then when Jace was telling me about Jack's dog tags, it was fake. All of it" Mia thought.

"You all knew this going in. What you didn't know was that it was a train for failure exercise. No matter what the Team accomplished the scenario was designed to grow worse. Still, you were aware nothing was real including the deaths of the entire Justice League."

"That is why you hardly grieved even when Wolf and Lola were disintegrated before your eyes. But all that changed when Artemis died. Though consciously Miss Martian knew it was not real, her subconscious mind couldn't make that distinction. She forgot it was only an exercise and her subconscious took control making all of you forget, too" Manhunter explains.

"If that happened then why did I have a damn collar around my neck?!" Mia shouts.

"While you were under the exercise, your powers were acting up. Your body almost teleported had it not been for Captain Marvel quickly putting the collar on you" Batman explains.

"I-I'm…I'm so sorry" M'gann apologizes.

"This isn't her fault. Why didn't you stop the exercise?" Conner defends her.

"We tried. But M'gann had a death grip on the scenario. Even Artemis, who should have awakened upon her death was so convinced she had passed she slipped into a coma. I realized I would have to rest control from Miss Martian's subconscious from within. But upon entering the reality, I was overwhelmed by your collective emotion.

There was too much noise to think clearly…to remember why I was there. The deaths of Aqualad and Superboy helped. But only when the mothership exploded and Robin, Blink and Kid Flash were silenced did my mind clear enough to remember my true purpose. To shock M'gann out of the exercise before your comas became permanent. My apologies. I had no idea a training exercise could be so dangerous…so damaging."

Batman and Tornado helped Manhunter and Marvel held M'gann while Flash rests his hand on Mia's shoulder.

"Mia."

"I'm fine."

She brushes his hand away and started to walk out of the room. Flash stood in front of her in seconds and his eyes went wide at the sight of her eyes. Her eyes soulless, dark and so deep that one would think her eyes were the entrance to Tartarus. Mia doesn't say a word and teleports out of the cave.

Battery Park

October 16, 17:05 EDT

Ted was in the office filing some papers and hears the familiar soft thump. Without looking up he spoke smiling.

"Hey kid. All good?"

"Ted."

He stopped filing and froze for a bit. "Something's wrong." He finally looks up and saw that same dead look on her face she had three years ago. "Damn it Batman. What the hell did you do to her?" Ted gets up from his desk and gently cups Mia's face to get a better look at her.

"Damn it" he mutters.

Mia hadn't moved a muscle the entire time and still didn't move when Ted hugs her.

"I need to call Danny" her voice sounded muffled.

"Don't worry about it right now Kid. Just head up to the room and I'll take you home in a bit."

"Ok."

Mia left the office and heads for the spare bedroom Ted has at the gym. As soon as the office door closed, the phone starts ringing. He angrily picks it up and growls.

"What?"

'Is Mia there?'

"Don't know anyone by that name."

A new voice spoke 'Ted, it's Dinah. Is Mia there with you?'

"Yes but she's not going anywhere until you explain to me why she's cold and distant."

'The Team underwent a training exercise and things took a turn for the worse. All of them are required to attend therapy sessions.'

"No, no way."

'But Ted-'

"Dinah I know Mia better than any one there, she's not going to open up to you. Not now, not with the way she is. She's staying with me for a few days, I'm the only one who can help her at the moment."

'Ted, I don't think-'

"Please Dinah."

After a few minutes of silence, Canary spoke 'Ok. Bring her back in a week.'

"Don't worry Dinah, I'll take good care of her."

'I know you will Ted. We'll see you in a week.'

Ted hangs up and packs everything in for the night then locks the office. Doing one more look around, Ted turns off the gym's lights and heads to the spare bedroom to take Mia back home.

He gently knocks on the door "Hey Kid, let's get going. I'm making my famous Sloppy Joe. Amelia?"

The door opens to reveal Mia looking murderous while expertly examining the knife the League of Shadows gave her years ago.

"It's been a while since I've felt someone's life die by my hands. I should get back to doing that. What do you think Ted?" Mia innocently asks but her eyes showed a cold blooded killer.

Before Ted could answer, Mia's eyes rolled to the back of her head and drops the knife. Ted quickly catches her then heard a man's voice in his head.

"Bloody hell, she's worse than I thought."

"Daniel, it's good to hear your voice again."

"Likewise Teddy."

"I believe you already know the situation."

"That damn Martian girl nearly ruined all of our hard work to keep that killer at bay. If the barrier had completely broken down, her teammates would go into a coma and never wake up again because she would have killed them."

"Is the barrier holding?"

"Not for long. I can feel her slipping through the cracks. You better get her here now before it's too late."

"We'll be there shortly. See you in a bit Daniel."

"Just hurry ya Yankee."

Ted carries Mia bridal style and runs a 20 mile trek to Daniel's house. "Hang in there Kid, we're almost at Danny's."