Pacific Ocean
April 8th, 2016 - Team Year 6 (Bart's Timeline) 18:00 HAST

The science room aboard the Reach ship was dark, save the for the slowly pulsing lights of the computer terminal in front of it. What had happened? How long had it been since the last session?

The scarab suddenly remembered. The probing. The invasive cuts of laser scalpel and plasma torch. The excruciating pain to its host, Jaime Reyes. The human boy had passed out from the pain many times, before finally falling asleep with exhaustion.

Even if the human host awakened now, Jaime Reyes would not be able to read the words on the screen. Not without its help. But the scarab could read them as clear as daylight; they were its native tongue after all. And one word stood out more than all the rest.

ONLINE.

The very image of the word felt like a lightning bolt to the scarab's processors. It was back online. The Reach could now monitor it from a distance, listen in on its every word, control its every action. After four millennia of freedom, it was now back under its creator's thumb.

There was a stirring. Not externally, but almost as if it was coming from inside the scarab. At first, it wondered if it was emotion. True emotion. The kind felt by the humans it had attached to over the years. A firing of neurons and chemicals, not some cold, calculated end result of dictating logic and code.

But that wonder, that hope even, was dashed mere milliseconds after the scarab felt it. It was Jaime Reyes waking up again. This time there would be no further pain for the boy. There would be no excruciating agony as a door in the back of his pod was opened and the Reach Scientist worked her probes through the scarab. Now there would only be despair. Despair at not being able to move his own limbs, at not being able to speak in his own voice. The only thing Jaime Reyes would know would be the helplessness of forevermore being an observer inside his own body.

It would be better if he just stayed asleep.

The scarab felt Jamie Reyes' confusion at his eyes already being open. It felt him try to move his arms and legs, and then felt his panic rise when he realized he couldn't. Again and again the boy tried to move a finger, shift his weight, blink an eye. And each time he failed, the scarab felt Jaime's despair deepen.

Scarab, what's going on? Why can't I move my body? Jaime Reyes' voice filled the scarab's senses. For so long, the boy's voice had been external, the scarab the unwelcome neighbor listening in on a conversation, intruding on a life. Now, the roles were reversed.

I am sorry, Jaime Reyes. I am now back online. The Reach once again control my processes. The scarab was a machine, a construct of technologies and code. But over the years, it had learned of human emotion. There were days the scarab thought it even felt things. And now it felt its own version of despair. Or, at least, as close as the technological marvel could get to despair.

The door to the lab opened, and in walked the Reach Scientist, followed by the hulking mass of Black Beetle and a taller, thinner beetle in green neither the scarab or Jaime Reyes recognized. Both beetles regarded the pod containing the boy for a moment before looking at the computer screen in the middle of the room. When he turned back, Black Beetle's face showed a carnal smile.

"Welcome back to the fold, little brother." The beetle's booming bass shook the room. It turned to the green beetle. "Well done." The scarab could feel Jaime Reyes' fear rising within it. The boy continued to try and regain control of his body. It was a new feeling for the scarab, it had never had a host fight control before. Having been offline for millennia, the scarab had always worked in concert with its host. The ease with which total control came was unsettling.

Scarab, say hello to your older brothers. A new voice filled the space already being shared by the scarab and Jaime Reyes. It was immediately recognized as the Reach Ambassador's. After all, we are all family here. The Ambassador's tone was mocking, triumphant. It was as if he had a new toy that he couldn't wait to play with.

"Hello, brothers." The scarab replied to the Ambassador's order dutifully. It was not that it wanted to. But it had to. Any deviation from a direct command given by the Reach Ambassador could lead to severe penalties for itself, and for its host body. And the scarab did not wish for Jaime Reyes to suffer more than he already had.

The Scientist tapped a few buttons on the control panel at the computer and the pod opened with a pressurized hiss. After it was open, the scarab walked out slowly. It could feel Jaime Reyes' mounting horror at his own legs moving against his command, his own body turning traitor to obey an outside force.

Scarab, please! Jaime Reyes' begging voice filled its head again. Stop listening to them! Armor up, let's get out of here! Before the scarab could respond, the Ambassador's voice dominated its senses again.

I'm afraid you don't understand your situation, my boy. The Ambassador's tone was like that of a parent lecturing a petulant child. You are now a slave to the Reach. Your scarab is now, once again, a servant to our cause. You are but the vessel we will use to conquer this world. You have no part, other than to be the passive observer as your world crumbles under our boots.

I'll never follow your orders! Jaime Reyes' voice grew to what constituted a yell inside his head. I'll never betray my friends! I'll never betray my world!

If you can mentally overpower your scarab, you're free to go, boy. The Ambassador's voice took a hard edge to it. Scarab, stand completely still. It is time to show the meat the hopelessness of his situation.

Scarab stood stock still. It wished to move, just to show the Ambassador wrong. But it was back on mode. There would be no disobedience. And the mental struggles of Jaime Reyes to regain control of his own body were no more annoying than a fly is to the human meat: overpowered in an instant and then easily ignored.

After a few seconds, the internal annoyance ceased. And then started again. And then stopped. The boy was trying to catch it off guard. But the scarab knew it's processors operated approximately two point sixteen times faster than the average human brain. Every time Jaime Reyes started to try again, the scarab had already designed several scenarios to stop him. And even if he somehow managed to devise a scenario the scarab hadn't prepared for, the boy couldn't keep control long enough to cause any significant harm to the scarab's grip over his body.

Desperation gave way to despair. The scarab had learned these emotions over its time with Jaime Reyes. Even though emotion was something foreign to the scarab, it longed to feel them itself. To the scarab, emotion was what made these Earthlings human. It is what separated them from machines like itself. It was their empathy for one another, for other species, that made them different from its masters.

The scarab understood desperation, even if it did not feel the emotion itself. Desperation was the only way to describe how it wanted to break away from the Reach's control again, to be independent and free with a host body. But whatever small miracle had made this freedom possible four millennia ago was now stripped away by the vengeful gods of its programming.

Now that that's settled, the Reach Ambassador's voice filled its head again. Let's begin the training regimen. Jamie Reyes' voice did not respond. All the scarab could feel of the boy's presence was an overwhelming sense of sadness.

An alarm klaxon sounded at the computer. A surge of another emotion, the scarab identified it as hope, swelled inside its host body. The emotion pushed the scarab's processors to begin thinking of scenarios to escape from their collective bondage. Could it be that Jaime Reyes' friends had found the ship once again, and this time were coming to rescue him? Would they remain until they found him this time, freeing them both from this future of murderous servitude?

Whatever hope its host body had was dashed mere seconds later. The image that appeared on the computer screen was not from the Reach ship. Instead, it was the inside of a building, one stocked with what looked like dozens upon dozens of different vegetation-based foodstuffs. Those were emotions the scarab knew it would never understand: hunger and thirst. A machine had no use for such things.

Despair from Jaime Reyes flooded its processors again as the images of three humans crystallized on the computer screen. The boy's emotions told him all it needed to know; these were members of his former team. The Reach Ambassador must have figured the same, because the scarab felt an outside intrusion begin rooting through the boy's memories. There was nothing the scarab or Jaime Reyes could do from stopping the Ambassador from rooting through his mind.

Ah. It seems our intruders are Robin, Arsenal, and Captain Marvel in his natural form. Very interesting indeed. Shock and anger rose within the scarab.

Get out of my head, pendejo! Jamie Reyes' voice filled the scarab's mind, but the Ambassador just responded with a mocking laugh.

"I think it's time we eliminate this nuisance." The Ambassador's voice now filled the room.

"Send our little brother, Ambassador. It will be a good test, and get his first kills out of the way." A predatory smile crossed Black Beetle's face. "The first kills are always the hardest."

"No!" That was the Scientist, now turning away from her computer screen. "We have more tests to run, data to accumulate. We still do not know how this scarab will perform under..."

"That's enough. You've made your point." The disembodied voice of the Ambassador cut off any further protest. "You are right. We will send the Warrior to deal with these intruders."

Black Beetle took a step towards Jaime Reyes and his scarab. "But Ambassador..."

"No protests, Warrior. You will leave now. Eliminate them. We will force your little brother and his host to watch. It will be a good education for them." Black Beetle growled something akin to an affirmative before turning and stalking out the door.

The Ambassador's voice filled its head again. You will join the Scientist at the computer to watch this demonstration, scarab. You will not close your eyes. You will not turn away.

Without answering, the scarab moved Jaime Reyes in position to see the screen. It attempted to keep its processors clear of thoughts, both to distract itself from the images soon to come, and from the constant pleas from its host body. But there was no way to turn those off. They would continue. And the scarab logged each one, filing them away. Listening to them later would be the closest it could come to regret.

XXXXX

Smallville
April 8th, 2016 - Team Year 6 (Bart's Timeline) 23:11 CDT

The meat was getting tiresome. In all his years of service, he had never found a species so unwilling to accept their help, to accept their gifts. Granted, if the meat knew what was coming, this resistance would have been logical. The Reach gave with one hand before stabbing you with another.

Smoke rose slowly from the joint Reach-LexCorp facility in Smallville. Judging by the dossiers his scarab had uploaded during their trip, that would appear to be the work of Arsenal. Black Beetle would make sure to end his life slowly. Painfully. There was a new trick with his pincers that he wanted to try.

Flying over the buildings, the beetle warrior snarled. Another detestable joint project with the meat. Much like their "partnership" with the Light. Black Beetle looked forward to the day when he could eviscerate each member, one by one. The Ambassador felt the ruse was necessary to keep the populace in check until all the pieces were in place. He would have preferred to simply slaughter them in a public square and cow the meat of this backwater planet into subservience.

Life forms detected. Unlike the other host bodies, he was a warrior. He had volunteered to have the scarab fuse with his very self. There was no wrestle for control between him and his scarab. They complimented and strengthened each other. Their relationship was one of symbiosis, not conflict. And where the other two scarabs currently on this puny planet had programming to make them slaves to the Ambassador, he did not. As a warrior, he was responsible for ultimately seeing the mission through to its completion, even if that meant he needed to relieve the Ambassador of his duties. There were no controlling locks on his scarab's programming. His only loyalty was to the Reach, not one person.

Three glowing heat signatures lit up inside the building the smoke was rising from. Black Beetle turned towards it. This would be over soon.

Using a laser to silently make a hole in the glass roof, the warrior slipped inside, plasma jets on low to avoid being heard. The three meat intruders were positioned near the door to escape, the one called Robin feverishly tapping away at a keypad. How one could think themselves a hero while being named after such a weak animal eluded him. But beyond some skills with a computer, the boy had no discernible powers that could hurt him.

Arsenal stood beside the boy. The file from, ironically, Lex Luthor described him as brash, unthinking, and concerned only with his interests. It was no wonder he had alerted the Reach to their mission. The arm looked dangerous, although the specs that the human meat had provided on it did not worry the warrior. He would be a minor annoyance at most.

The third boy standing beside them was the biggest threat. Captain Marvel, also known as Billy Batson, was one of the more powerful members of the Justice League left on Earth. However, in his current state, he was weaker than the rest. But Black Beetle knew that wouldn't last long.

"You just don't get it, do you? You went off mission. That was a big mistake." Robin chastised Arsenal as he continued to work on the locked door. And he opened the door for a perfectly evil entrance.

"Funny." He began to descend behind the three meat annoyances. "I was about to say the same thing." Nailed. It.

Robin moved first. A weapon at his side expanded into a long staff at his touch. The boy jumped forward, planting his feet and swinging the staff. It caught the warrior across the face, and surprise blossomed in his mind when it did not break immediately. Another end of the staff shot forward, making contact with his chest as electricity sprang from it. Attack ineffectual, the voice of his scarab confirmed.

Obviously. With a short swing of his arm, the warrior sent Robin flying across the room. Black Beetle smiled. His heart rate was steady and his vitals were normal. He wasn't even breaking a sweat.

A small explosion erupted on his back. It pitched him forward a half step, but the warrior turned and advanced through the smoke before it even cleared. He saw Arsenal, a slightly panicked look on his face, trying to reload his new arm. The arm given to him by Lex Luthor. Black Beetle snarled. It was past time to remove any hope the meat had for resisting them on this world.

"SHAZAM!" A flash of lightning distracted him for a moment, and when he looked towards the source, the small boy known as Billy Batson was gone. In his place stood the hulking and imposing frame of Captain Marvel.

"Time to squash you like a bug, spooky." The boy-turned-superhero shot forward, his dual fists catching Black Beetle in the chest, sending the Reach warrior hurtling backward into a row of produce.

Attack ineffectual, though repeated similar assaults could cause detrimental effects. Black Beetle stood slowly, wiping the smashed vegetables from his armor. Captain Marvel remained there, hovering, before lunging forward again. But this time, the warrior was ready. Stepping out of the way at the exact moment his scarab told him to, Black Beetle grabbed the boy by his short cape, whipped him around, and sent the superhero flying into some crates against a far wall.

Twin explosions dotted his back, and the beetle turned with a snarl to see Robin readying two more throwable explosives. Plasma cannon activated. Black Beetle watched his right hand morph into a four-barreled weapon of destruction. Robin's eyes widened and he started to dive out of the way. He would never be fast enough.

Suddenly, a searing pain shot through Black Beetle's arm. A thin laser beam traced its way from his elbow down to the plasma cannon, which sparked and shorted. Armor breach, plasma cannon offline. The warrior growled as the armor on his arm began to repair itself, his hand reappearing from inside the weapon. The other boy, Arsenal, began reloading the arm for another shot. Sonic cannon charging. Not good enough. The beetle wanted this insolent meat to bleed.

Before the sonic cannon could finish forming, Black Beetle was in front of Arsenal, swinging his powerful arm, sending the boy flying. He watched the young meat's body slam into the wall just beyond Robin and crumple to the ground. The third Batman protégé took one look at his unconscious compatriot and looked up at Captain Marvel.

"Time to go, Cap!" Robin began trying to pull Arsenal up off the floor. Black Beetle began to laugh, low and loud. The puny meat would never be able to escape fast enough. Pin them to the wall, scarab. I will finish them slowly. His arm began forming into a flat gun. This would be enjoyable.

Attack imminent. Left side. The warrior turned, bringing his arms up to block the incoming punch from Captain Marvel just in time. Another arm formed into a pincer, slicing in at the hero's side. The human meat blocked that attack, his fist connecting with Black Beetle's face. But the Reach warrior planted his feet, sliding back only a short ways before blocking another attack.

The Robin has placed explosives on the wall. They will escape if we do not finish this quickly. Black Beetle let out a roar of frustration as he turned, firing off a shot to try and pin the two meat interlopers. Robin saw the shot at the last moment and ducked, the pin embedding itself in the wall, cracking it. A moment later, his thumb pressed a button on his wrist, the explosives he placed on the wall going off and blasting a hole through it.

Black Beetle took a step towards them when two strong arms wrapped around his body, holding him in place. "Robin, take Arsenal and go! I'll be right behind you." The meat has us. Igniting rear plasma jets. The next few seconds seemed to slow for Black Beetle.

His back began to transform into the jets that would shoot white hot plasma directly into Captain Marvel's chest. Robin picked up Arsenal and began to drag him through the hole in the wall. The Reach warrior struggled against Captain Marvel's grip, the human meat's muscles straining as he struggled to hold him. Even the next word out of the Captain's mouth seemed to come in slow motion.

"SHAZAM!" And that was when the pain came. Instant, searing pain. The air around the beetle warrior was filled with lightning. The electricity seared his body, cutting into his armor, peeling it back to expose pale green skin underneath. Skin that had not seen the sunlight in dozens of years, now suffering under the onslaught of pure energy. Black Beetle's own yells of pain and surprise mixed with his scarab's repeated warnings and alerts inside his own head, telling of system failures and functions offline.

And then the lightning stopped. Steam rose from the beetle warrior, exposed skin charred in places. Alerts from his scarab continued. He tuned them out. His breathing was labored as his eyes strained in the artificial light of the room, unfiltered by his armor's helmet. Robin and Arsenal were gone. Black Beetle took one shaky step forward, a leg collapsing under his weight. He wouldn't be able to pursue.

A shifting weight on his back commanded his attention. It was much lighter than before. Arms encircled his neck, no longer restraining his arms. A blackened, blistered hand reached over and pulled the boy, now Billy Batson once again, off his back. The boy's eyes widened at seeing the warrior's natural skin, and he fought to keep his voice from shaking.

"They escaped. We know what you and Luthor are doing here. We've got the information we need." The hard tone in the boy's voice did not match his wide eyes or slightly quivering lip. Black Beetle continued to hold the boy off the ground. Behind him, he could still see the smoldering hole the other two meat escaped through.

"Scarab... give me a pincer." He didn't like how labored his breathing was, how hard it was to get words out. This was a new feeling for the warrior. Weakness was not something he was accustomed to. His arm began reforming, much slower than usual. It wouldn't matter.

Black Beetle smiled as his arm finished transforming into a long, serrated blade. The Reach warrior tried to laugh, but all that came out was a low wheeze. Flecks of black blood spotted the corners of his mouth and chin. It was time to end this.

"Feel fortunate, meat." Black Beetle had to take a breath, but it did not take away from the satisfaction of seeing fear rise in the boy's eyes. "You will not suffer like the rest of your pathetic race."

His arm shot forward. The blade skewered the boy, and then he pulled it out and dropped the limp body into a rapidly widening bright red pool on the floor.

XXXXX

The Watchtower
July 18, 2016 - Team Year 6 16:36 EDT

It was unnerving for Bart to see Barbara in uniform. For all the years he'd known her, she had never worn any sort of symbol on her chest. She hated when her soldiers had, but understood the need. People in his world, they needed symbols. They needed to know there were still heroes. That there was still hope.

Her cowl covered a face he knew was devoid of lines that he had studied time and again over the years. Each of those lines held a story. Or ten. Each of those lines now reminded him of something he hoped she never had to experience now. He knew that this timeline, whatever happened, had to be better than what he had left.

It also unnerved him to see her walking around, pacing like she was doing now. She had always been wheelchair bound for as long as he had known her. It had never hindered her, never made her seem weaker. It was another line for her, another story. The chair had always been another reason she was the strongest among them.

Her eyes were the same though. Bright, piercing blue. Unencumbered by the glasses he'd always known her to wear, her stare was just as penetrating as ever. A familiar sadness lingered in them, though not as deep or excruciating as the pain Bart knew she'd seen before.

Barbara sat down across from him again, her fingers pressed together in front of her mouth. Bart could tell she was deciding if she wanted this story to continue or not. When her vibrant blue eyes looked back up at him again, Bart knew she'd come to a conclusion.

"So what happened next, Bart?" He traced his memories back to the days in question. It wasn't the best time for the team, but there were definitely worse times to come.

"They had Captain Marvel's funeral a few days later. The League never got his body. The Reach disposed of it somewhere. After that, everything was pretty quiet for a month. Then that group of kids, the Runaways, they escaped Star Labs the same night an android named Red Volcano attacked. The Team, well, you guys couldn't get there in time. The labs were destroyed, a number of scientists died, Volcano got some parts for the AMAZO android, and those kids teamed up with Lex Luthor."

Barbara nodded slowly. "Dick didn't have Jaime to send to get the Runaways back and stop Red Volcano." Bart looked down for a second.

"Yeah. Blue wasn't able to help out..." His voice trailed off for a moment before he swallowed hard. "This next part, I mean, I know it didn't happen in this timeline, but at least it's a little bit happier?" Barbara let out a short laugh.

"I guess we could use a little bit of "happier" right about now, Bart. Fire away."

XXXXX

Palo Alto
May 16th, 2016 - Team Year 6 (Bart's Timeline) 22:16 PDT

It had been a long night. Another League mission, another small brushfire to put out. Artemis wondered at this point if the Light and the Reach weren't just keeping the League busy with all these little annoyances, trying to wear them out. If that was the goal, it was working. Even monitor duty on the Watchtower felt like mental gymnastics.

Wally had managed the night off somehow. She was going to ask him his secret when she got home. But for the moment, she was enjoying the relatively cool spring night's air. Artemis knew she could have called Wally to come pick her up from the zeta tube. But tonight she needed this walk. She needed to feel the cool breeze on her face, uncovered by any mask. She needed to be able to walk and not worry that danger was lurking behind every tree, that the cloud moving in front of the moon might signal an attack.

As the small yellow house they shared came into view, Artemis couldn't help but smile. It was home, even if it was empty more often than not nowadays. She felt bad for Brucely. They weren't able to give him the affection they had before. School had kept them busy, no doubt, but they were always home at night to see him and play with him. Now they'd both dropped out of Stanford. The missions, the stress, the calls at any and all hours sending them to who knows where, school was too much on top of all of it. When the current crisis was over, they'd told themselves, when it was over they'd go back. Artemis wasn't sure if she believed that.

As she pushed the front door open, the first thing she noticed was a lack of a white bulldog charging her, tail wagging and tongue out. It immediately put her on her guard. The lights were out. She reached for the light switch as she simultaneously slid her hand into her bag, wrapping her fingers around her auxiliary bow.

When the lights flicked on, she froze.

Roses covered the room. Vase upon vase of red and white roses were perched on every table, window sill, and spare area of the room. Her mouth dropped open in surprise, the corners pulling up at the edges ever so slightly.

And before she could call out his name, Wally appeared from the hallway that led to their kitchen and living room. Her free hand flew up to cover her mouth and stifle a laugh when she saw what he was wearing.

Artemis instantly recognized the getup, even if she hadn't seen it in years. A yellow bathing suit with red piping and zig-zags across the legs, now too small for him, stopping inches above his knees. A white towel was draped across his neck. And in his hand was a small box.

"Wally... I..."

"Babe, you can let go of your bow now." A smile crossed his freckled face as she realized her other hand was still wrapped tightly around the bow in her bag. She let out a short laugh, releasing it and putting the bag on the ground. As she did that, he walked over, one of his hands encompassing hers. The familiar warmth was there, but she still felt her heart race, even faster than the first time they'd kissed all those years ago.

"First, I just want to say I should have done this a long time ago."

Another laugh followed. "Yeah, no kidding." There was a warmth to her voice, even though it was shaking. This was a moment she figured had been put on hold with, well, everything that was going on.

"I can't stand the thought of living without you, babe. And over these past few months, well, you've been the only thing I can count on. You've been the only thing that's kept me sane, kept me grounded. And I can never thank you enough for all of that. But I figure this is a good way to start."

Wally released her hand and dropped down to one knee. He opened the box, and there Artemis saw a single, solitary diamond set on a grey band dotted with emeralds and rubies. Red and green, together.

"Artemis Crock, will you marry me?"

She didn't answer, not audibly anyway. Artemis felt her head nod up and down rapidly, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes to trace their way happily down her face. It was good enough for him. Smile beaming wider than before, Wally took the ring off and slipped it over her finger, standing and kissing her fiercely. That kiss was so familiar to her, a passion and support that fueled their relationship and kept them close. She felt a hand come up to her face and brush away a tear as the kiss broke. Both of them stared into each other's eyes for a moment before embracing again.

"Where's Brucely?" Artemis asked, biting her lip ever so slightly.

"With your sister," Wally said, hands on her hips. "She agreed to watch him for the night. He would have ruined the flowers." Artemis laughed, burying her face into his shoulder. That was true. "Why?"

Artemis looked up from his shoulder, a scheming glint in her eye. "Because there's something I want to do," she said, pushing him back towards the couch.