Author's Note: Another warning, there might be some disturbing imagery in this chapter.

Titans East

Bunker felt the shockwaves of the explosion as they moved through the Tower. Hell, he felt it in his legs! That shuddering had made it all the way up here! However, he wasn't about to let this man with the bicolor mask just do what he wanted. Not anymore.

Thunder. Lightning. Mirage. This man would answer for their deaths. The leader of Titans South would make sure of it before he himself was added to that list along with Pantha. Speaking of, the mask-wearing luchadora was starting to pick herself up. If they somehow worked together…

Any thoughts of effective teamwork would come to an end when the room itself began to tilt. The man who had murdered over half of the team turned tail and broke through the window. Bunker wanted to call him a coward, but the horizon was no longer in view and only the sky. Only then did he realized what was going on.

Of course it had to be too late.

Anything that wasn't nailed down slid or fell in his direction. All the miscellaneous objects that one naturally collects practically flew past him, and a few hit him. He brought up a wall to protect himself, but then the tilt of the room became too steep and soon enough he was sliding backwards himself.

His back met the wall and then everything else fell his way. Pots and pans in the kitchenette were clattering against cabinets and walls, the TV remained connected to the ceiling but for how much longer was anyone's guess, and the couch…

Well, his wall held up against it.

The Tower fell over and when it hit the ground—

—when he came to, so much was piled on top of him. The violent slamming into the earth below had knocked him out for…a few minutes? An hour? No idea, but there was so much on top of him and it was a minor miracle he had managed to keep up his psionic wall at all. Using it for so much must have really perfected his skills with it; not even unconsciousness was going to take it down, sweet.

His will had to exert when he pushed it up, and everything that had fallen down on top of him and everything else…it took some effort. Sure enough, not even the TV was spared, broken out from its connection with the ceiling. He moved aside all he could because the last thing anyone needed to be was buried.

Unfortunately, something that had to be moved was…Mirage. Her body had slid right next to him and…it just felt so wrong moving her. It was like having to commit one more indignity against her. Then a groan alerted him that someone else was still alive here. It meant having to move aside some parts of the couch, but there she was, Pantha. Tough girl she was.

It wasn't a complete loss. Not yet. They would need some time to recover. Once they did, they were going to go after that bastard. Their fallen teammates demanded no less.

Up above, someone stepped into view. Instinctively, Bunker went still. He tried to look up as much as he could without giving away that he was still of the living. Even from here, the black and orange…it was him. Probably making sure that there were no survivors. Well, keep still Miguel, let him think he had won. Just wait, he was going to get his, whoever he was.

The bastard had other ideas. Instead of just leaving and assuming he had killed them all, or coming down here to double check, the murderer dropped something into the ruined rec room and slipped away.

At his age and thanks to a lot of TV, Bunker recognized a grenade when he saw one.

With wide eyes, he acted without thinking. He formed a dome of psionic bricks to cover both himself and Pantha.

Barely a second later, he felt the full force of the explosion.

That was no normal grenade. It was far too powerful, and he could feel that power slamming into his psionic bricks. The purple constructs were beginning to fail too as the explosion raged. Think man, think before it was too late!

Flames began to seep through the bricks, and since that was the direction the danger was coming from—his purple masked head whipped about to the wall behind/below him. Holding one hand up as if to try and hold up the wall that protected him and Pantha, with his other hand he began rapid firing tiny brick constructs in an attempt to weaken the physical wall. He just needed a little bit to work with and there was a slight depression right there. Focus on it, get a crack forming and there!

Even tinier bricks slipped into the crack and with a mental command they abruptly expanded before crumbling out of existence only to be replaced just as quickly. Perhaps at the last microsecond, the physical wall collapsed and both he and Pantha fell into the depths just as the grenade's explosion broke through.

Darkness followed after that.

Running was always a good way to relieve stress. Whenever you needed to think, a run could always clear the mind, give some clarity, and help with making complicated things less complicated.

The Tower was on lockdown. For right now, the team was not suppose to go anywhere. Friends of theirs were believed to be dead. Bart knew he needed to do something, anything, everything, and other things to try and make sense of this.

Really, there was only one thing that needed to be done. Find the person who did this and put them in prison. That's what you did in this century. So let's go and find this guy! Uh, who was this guy again?

Too complicated, so how about a run? No, can't leave the Tower. Well how about using the hallways? No, these floors weren't made for consistent running. They could take short bursts, he knew, but for long periods? Oh wait, there was the gym. There was equipment designed for what he could do, but that was little more than some special treadmill—not cosmic so don't worry.

It wasn't the same as your feet on the ground, nothing but wide space around you, changing terrain from flat to hilly to mountains to water, and everything in between. Running was really the only thing that made sense to the speedster from the future.

The future! Of course! He had come from the future! He got to have all the spoilers of history at his fingertips! So! What kind of baddy was there that showed up around this time and that he could identify?

Hmm.

Hmmmmm.

Er hmmmmmm!

Okay, he had nothing. Damn it, why'd he only pay attention to Flash and Flash related content?! He couldn't think of a Flash rogue that was relevant around this time period and had something to do with the Teen Titans and that was frustrating! He was from the damn future and so should have known something! It might be surprising for some people to know, but he had a memory like a steel trap. Once he learned something, he never truly forgot it. On the downside, it could make it a little hard to remember because there was just so much to remember.

Over the past year or so, most of what he learned was all stuff that was up to date for this time period. Nothing of what was relevant in the twenty-fifth century. Okay, okay, he had to be careful about spoiling too much because the space-time continuum was still a thing, stupid space-time continuum.

As optimistic as he could be, Bart had to admit that this was pushing him. Unable to run as freely as he liked, stuck in too small rooms, and…

It was rare for him to find someone he didn't like. It took a lot. Like a lot lot. With Miguel, just another person to call friend and—what word did they use in this century? Oh right!—bro. Grife, they had fought side by side with one another when showing H.I.V.E. who they were messing with! They had something, this retro superhero blood brother kind of thing! Miguel, Bunker, he…he had to be…he couldn't be…Titans…they die like this. They shouldn't die like this.

He…he had never really paid attention to how long someone was a Teen Titan.

Then he could feel someone next to him, a hand against his back, and so much of the turmoil he was feeling just…went away. Huh, that was funny. Weird. Funny and not in a laugh out loud funny way. No laughter involved.

Slowly—for him—he looked to his right and just behind him was Raven who was taking her hand back. In answer, "You were being very loud right there. I figured you could use some calm."

Why…oh yeah. Raven and her powers operated on emotions so didn't that mean she could also operate on others' emotions too? He hadn't thought about that too hard. Kinda made sense in a way.

Bart gave a sigh and faced away from the empath. Here is the part he would have said something, anything really, but not this time. This time…this time he was really starting to feel the mode if you know what he's saying.

"I may be able to ease the rawness, but if you keep this up, I may not be able to fully ease you," Raven remarked. After a moment, she continued, "I can see you are hurting. You aren't taking this news well."

"This shouldn't have happened," Bart stated. Slowly, his hands clenched into fists. Then they began to vibrate. "I know it shouldn't have happened."

Raven gave a sigh. "Please don't say what would have happened if you had been there."

A whipping of the head made his brown hair blur. "How'd you know I was going to say that?"

Shrugging shoulders lifted and lowered the dark cape she wore. "I read."

Staring for a moment, Bart turned his amber-eyed gaze back out to the windows. "I would have stopped it."

"Or become another casualty. No one knows what happened here," Raven calmly refuted.

"It wouldn't have touched me, I'm too fast. I'd run circles around whatever it was just to make them dizzy, then…then…something! I'll figure it out once I figure out who did it!" the speedster argued back.

"You can't outrun everything you come across," the empath replied.

"I can try!"

"And if it is faster than you?"

"I'll just run faster!"

"Now is the time to be calm and cool headed. We're all hurting. They were Titans—"

"Are Titans!"

"...are Titans. There will be answers if we have to find them ourselves. This time, someone else will do it for us. We wait, we learn, then we act. They deserve that much from us, not us running into uncertain danger and sharing the same fate."

"Isn't that what we did when you were kidnapped?" It felt like a cheap shot there. Maybe it was a cheap shot. Still, why did Raven have to be all logical and make sense?

"And chased after me to Gotham," Raven added wryly. "I do appreciate that. Do you know what the difference was with that scenario?"

Pausing, Bart took the time—no, really—to think that one through. It didn't look it, but he was going through every single possibility imaginable at the rate that superspeed allowed him. Do you know what he came up with?

"I don't know. What?" he asked.

There must be some of that empath feeling emotions stuff going on but he could almost swear that Raven was amused. "You had an idea of what you were going up against. You knew about a secret organization that had metahumans under its control, and you knew that I was in Gotham if not where and who was holding me. There was at least someone who understood the severity of the situation which allowed you to navigate it. We don't have that here. Not a start point. Not a clue as to the reason for why it happened. Racing ahead in ignorance will not help anyone."

Now Bart was the one feeling amusement here. See, he could turn this around on her!

"You should know me by now, Raven. That has never stopped me from racing ahead."

The long story short was that they found Titans North.

No stars could be seen in the sky, leaving everything above black and unfeeling. Lights from street posts and miscellaneous signs advertising various businesses were all that lit up the night. Yet, that light wouldn't reach in here.

In here had been some sort of storage or warehouse facility that was long forgotten. There had been evidence that whatever had once been kept here, it had been moved and recently. A turn of the head, and you could see the towering buildings of downtown Toronto. 407 ran nearby, the traffic easily audible. The smell of water from Lake Ontario gave a slight flavoring to the air, lacking salt since the lake was freshwater.

All distractions to Hawkgirl who held her mace at the ready. John stood beside her, ring alight and ready to fire anything its wielder imagined. Without further hesitation, all it took was a good kick to the doors to force them open.

Both of them were met with the foul stench of decay.

The Thanagarian grimaced, nose wrinkling under her helmet. While her stance relaxed slightly, her guard didn't. Who knew if there was something else waiting for them in there? Something left behind. John took the lead, shining the light of his ring ahead while the winged detective followed after him.

Once he ventured far enough into the place, John came to a very abrupt stop. It didn't escape Hawkgirl that the foul odor in here had only gotten stronger. Peering around the Lantern, she found it shockingly difficult not to respond to the sight. She had seen a good many things, many awful things to haunt your nightmares.

There was always something different about children.

It looked like a massacre had happened here. The most obvious evidence of that was the dried blood. It stained a good portion of the floor and she was willing to bet some of the splatter was on the walls too. Looking carefully, you would find scorch marks here and there, though what caused them could be anyone's guess. An incendiary device or a special power; considering the people involved, it could be anyone's guess.

The body parts were the most unnerving. She herself had seen many sights similar, and all were in warzones. It was to be expected in that kind of environment. Here? Not a warzone, not in the slightest. Add in who those parts originated from…

This was perhaps the one part of the job she was grateful not to have. There was a pang of sympathy for John, though, who had the means to do the identification.

Green light fell over…now Hawkgirl looked away to try and examine this scene. Something like this, evidence would be left behind. Clues in front of her eyes both tangible and intangible were considered.

Eyes narrowed and she took a closer look at the floor. Those indents…bullets struck here. She could make out the butt ends of several bullets. There were missing bullets, but ricochet could have explained that. The floor was concrete, and the chaos of the fight would obscure footprints, that is if the perpetrator was trying to hide himself and made the effort not to leave any behind.

"Kilowatt," John announced, his ring completing the first of many identifications.

Kilowatt…was able to wield electricity. Had been assigned here. If she recalled correctly, there had been someone he had been attracted to, and that individual went out of her way to request being at a different facility. That was all she could recall at this time, and all that stood out right now.

A second name was called. Immediately, she recalled this one projected energy. What had been the color again? Individuals who could wield energy tended to color their projections.

A third name followed. Magnetism. Female. Ah yes, Magenta. You would think it would be closer to Magneta instead, but again, little information did she recall about her.

It was telling, though. Someone with control over magnetism was slain by someone using a gun. Maybe she wasn't killed by a gun, and what were the odds some of the bullets she had found were redirected by her? Theoretically, she should have been able to stop most, maybe all of them, depending on how great her control was.

This meant whoever killed her and the rest knew what they were doing. If he had gathered information on them beforehand and was able to counteract an impressive ability like that, then they were smart too. Really smart. Intelligent and lethal, not a good combination. Again, there was a lot of speculation she was going off on.

"Kilowatt," John said.

She frowned once more. "You already said his name."

"I found the rest of him."

Her eyes shut, and she was tempted to offer a prayer. After that, rage. A deep breath needed to be taken because right now acting on that anger would accomplish nothing. No, it needed to be saved for whoever was responsible for this.

A fourth name. Male. Could shrink his size? His name had begun with an M, at least she thought. No, damn it, these kids deserved to at least have their name known.

Put the pieces together. What did they know for sure?

The Tower was left in such a condition that the inhabitants expected to come back. The only thing that would bring a team like Titans North together was an alert that something was up. Here is where the team was annihilated. Left to rot, and not all in one piece. There were signs of fighting.

It was an ambush. The only explanation considering this kind of devastation. There were no reports from the local authorities of a fight happening, meaning it had been quick, Titans North probably didn't even know what hit them. It was contained here, no one had come to check or investigate it as far as she knew. So far the only conclusion she could come up with was that this had been planned out.

It had also been kept quiet. Nothing spectacular like in Cancun. It was a discrepancy that irked her. For at least two teams of Titans, they were already too late. There were still two others, and they would get confirmation from both. West was being checked out by Flash and East had Wonder Woman checking in.

"We're missing one," John suddenly announced. He was moving his arm more, the light shining from his ring acting more like a spotlight now. "We might have a survivor."

That caught her attention, and Hawkgirl nearly flew over to the dark-skinned man. "Any idea on who it is?"

"According to the ring? A Titan calling himself Ridge. We find him, we find out what happened here," the Lantern stated grimly. "Contact the Watchtower and get someone down here to clean this up. They don't deserve to be left here to rot. They deserve better than this."

"After we process," Hawkgirl cut in. "We still have a whole scene and we need to do this the right way. No cleaning until we find everything that can be found. I'll do that. I have more experience. You try to find Ridge. Your ring gives you more options."

"I would feel better if we had this place secure first. That can still be arranged," John pointed out.

Good idea. "I'll handle that. If you find anything, let me know as soon as possible. With what we found out back at the Tower, we can estimate how long this has been here. I doubt the monster who did this stuck around, especially with what happened in Cancun."

A scowl marred the man's face. "I don't like this. Not one bit."

Raising a hand, she cupped a check and turned his gaze to meet hers. "Neither do I, but we can't let our emotions get the better of us. Not now. Once we take this murderer down, then we can grieve. Until then, we have to play catch up and quickly."

Those last words would turn out to be not urgent enough.

Steel City had seen better days.

Once it had been in the center of the industrial heartland. Manufacturing was its beating heart. You could still find factories there hard at work. Most of the labor was automated. There had been a push for newer industries, biotech leading the charge back and various chemical plants turning back on some of their lights.

This was the city that had garnered the opportunity to be the home base for Titans East. It was far enough away from some of the larger metropolises in the Eastern Seaboard but not too isolated that help wasn't nearby.

The Titan Tower here reflected its environment, darker blues and steel gray lightening the building by an iota. It too faced towards the water, in this case the northernmost parts of the Delaware Bay. Earlier in the day there had been overcast, and the cloud cover had remained even after dusk.

The building seemed darker than Wonder Woman had anticipated. It felt off to the Amazonian princess.

At her side was J'onn. At her request, she had asked for the Martian to join her. With Flash heading to Jump City, Superman remaining in Cancun, and Hawkgirl and Green Lantern were to go to Toronto, having someone with her just in case felt necessary.

The two Leaguers entered through the main entrance, not intending to cause too much chaos. This was to remain under the guise of a check as well as to inform and caution the team here about the developing situation. She did not want to cause any alarm, not now. She was aware that some of the members of Titans South were known to those in Titans East, and that emotions could cause some rash decisions.

The interior of the Tower was lit up, even on the ground floor. Everything looked just as it was intended. There was a part of the Amazon that disliked some of the deception; this lobby was designed for those outside of the T.I.T.A.N. Initiative and to placate their concerns. The true purpose was hidden away in the upper floors and under as well, out of sight. Kept a secret. Omitted.

She did understand the reasoning, as much as she disliked it. She herself had started her training into becoming a warrior when she was much younger than those who claimed the name Titan. The values of Man's World, of this current world, would disapprove of training these young women and men to fight and risk their lives in combat. She struggled to understand why there was so much opposition to this solution to the rising numbers of metahumans that only increased with each year.

Those corrupted by evil were already taking advantage of the uncertainty that this world already expressed to the problem. H.I.V.E. had engaged in the same thing that the Justice League was, the one difference being that H.I.V.E. did not give a choice in the matter. Who was to say that only H.I.V.E. was guilty of this? There could be other shadowy organizations; some of them could be following in H.I.V.E.'s footsteps.

There was only one option, Wonder Woman felt. To give these youths the tools to explore this world and to be willing to make the right choices, the ones that led to helping others and not dominating them. To bring out their best and bring about the world they all could live in.

"Hmm," J'onn uttered, his head tilted back.

"What is it?" Wonder Woman asked, turning to face her Martian comrade.

"It's quiet," was the reply from the green extraterrestrial. "I am not detecting…anything."

There was the possibility that Titans East were out on a mission or retrieving a meal out. Absence did not necessarily imply malevolence.

"Let us head for their briefing room," she suggested, receiving affirmation for J'onn shortly after.

Both of them boarded the elevator and rode it up. She could feel gravity pulling down on her while the carriage they rode rose up higher and higher in resistance to that grounding force. All the while, she could not stop the feeling of dread welling within her. What was she sensing? Why did it put her on alert?

The answer arrived when the elevator reached its destination and the doors opened.

"Hera!" Wonder Woman swore, eyes widening.

Immediately in front of her was a trail of blood, one that led its way right to the doors of the elevator where a body rested. One arm was outstretched as if to press the button that would summon the elevator and thus salvation.

Salvation that was denied.

Not waiting for the doors to close, Wonder Woman levitated into the air and then flew over the body. She understood the importance of not touching anything, not until those with the expertise to gather the necessary evidence could do their analysis. J'onn exited as well, but he walked and took careful steps while lowering himself, looking over what he saw.

J'onn did not say much about his activities outside of the League. She respected this much as she did another detective in Gotham. The Martian possessed an analytical mind of his own, and now she was full glad to have brought him with her.

"I will scout ahead," she informed her teammate.

"Be safe," was the reply.

The Amazon's journey into the bowels of the Tower began here, following the trail of blood from where it came. The situation became so much worse as the trail led her down a hallway, one that was damaged. The walls, the ceiling, even the floor looked as if a battle had occurred. Immediately, she recognized the distinctive markings that could only have been left behind by a sword.

Was there someone here who knew this art? Who wielded the sword? Did the blade belong to friend or to foe?

Further down she ventured, finding more signs that a battle had taken place and not just a fight or a flight for survival. Scorch marks stained the walls here and the smell of smoke remained to pollute the air.

If memory served, there was someone in Titans East who wielded flame. By all appearances, whoever this Titan fought had not been burned too badly or at all. Still, no other bodies to be found. There was still hope here.

Almost desperately, Wonder Woman searched for any signs of life, but the further she went, the worse the evidence of violence became. Rooms were destroyed, sometimes left in a mess and others where some kind of explosion occurred. There were damaged doors, some light fixtures were displaced and hung from the ceiling, a few of those fixtures flickered, and there were…holes.

Some holes were large, some large enough that a body could have fit through. Others were small, approximately the size of a fist for some of them. Many holes were too small, but recognizable as being made by bullets. If she looked carefully, she could see the fired ammunition held within these holes.

A gun or several had been used. No Titan in any team used a gun. This much she was certain of. Who brought this terrible weapon of Man to this sanctuary? Had it been one? Two? Several?

Why was she only learning about this now? There should have been an alert to the Watchtower at the very least!

Rage at this offense began to replace the horror and dread, but it needed to be contained. Her journey continued until she found another body. She searched for any signs of life of the male who wore a hood and a cape, the symbol of a trumpet on his chest. There was an instrument that laid partially on the floor and the rest clutched in a hand.

No vital signs. No heartbeat. The blood on his body was dried. The smell of copper had dulled by now.

The Amazon withdrew her hands and did not disturb the body further. The search continued from here, but it only became worse the further she went. Eventually, her path drew her to the briefing room, one that doubled for recreation and living. It was a mainstay of every Tower, the only discrepancy being the possessions of those who resided in each Tower and their personal tastes.

In this room was the worst. J'onn had reached this scene of horror before her. Decay, rot, all signs of decomposition. These children, they had been left here for days.

The device that was positioned in the middle of the U-shaped couch was present and not hidden in the floor like it normally was. J'onn had accessed it and was searching through the database. As he did this, Wonder Woman looked over the fallen and gave a prayer to each and everyone of them.

Each loss of life was an affront.

"The Tower's security was compromised," J'onn reported, breaking her from her thoughts. "The perpetrator gained access and disabled it. I found an alert that drew the East team from the Tower. They were ambushed here when they returned."

Ambushed? No. Slaughtered.

"How?" she demanded, unable to hold back the anger she was feeling.

Green fingers rapidly typed at a keyboard. "According to the logs, all personnel were in and out of the Tower for their regular duties and recreation. All log-ins match each member of Titans East with one exception."

Orange eyes looked up from the machine and made contact with hers. "The one access that does not match Titans East is an identification from a member of Titans North. A Titan called Molecule."

Wonder Woman looked over the bodies. She had not taken the time to really get to know all of those who were part of the T.I.T.A.N. Initiative; those she did know had left an impression. Who was Molecule and what did he look like? Was he one of the dead? What were his powers?

And if he wasn't here, was he the one responsible? Or…or perhaps someone had obtained his identification.

Refocusing, "Hawkgirl and Green Lantern are looking in on Titans North."

J'onn gave a nod. "Then we have best contact them and inform them of our preliminary findings. Find out what they have learned."

They could clear up the manner of Molecule's involvement. Hopefully there weren't grim tidings awaiting in the North.