Darkness fell early in Bialya. The army base belonging to the war-torn nation hunkered along the edge of its aird desert like a cornered rat. Lookout towers, drones, heavily armed sentry trucks, and miles of barbed wire made the army fortifications seem impenetrable and for most people, even highly trained military groups it was.

The teams riding in the cloaked bio-ship and Super Cycle, however, were a different matter entirely.

"Team Beta, this is Team Alpha," Aqualad announced as the bio-ship flew over the army bases defenses. "Are you in position?"

"Nearly there," Artemis said within the mental connection. "Sphere is dropping us north northeast of your location. I gotta say we couldn't have picked a better night for it. Weather radar indicates a sandstorm is starting to blow in. It'll disturb almost all normal forms of communications."

"Excellent," responded Kaldur. "We will infiltrate the base at my word. Remember, after we land we will cease telepathic communication. Now that Psymon is in Bell Reve we don't know if Queen Bee has managed to hire a new telepath. Stay quiet, stay vigilant. We are only looking for the parts. If we find them we grab them and it's straight back to the bio-ship and Sphere."

"And if it's Amazo again we get the hell out of there," Wally chimed in. "You really don't need to tell us twice."

Lagoon Boy scoffed over the telepathic link. "We're a good team and its only grown better since your initial run-ins with the android. I say we can take 'em."

"Those weren't our orders," Aqualad replied sternly.

"I know and I'm not going to disobey an order," Lagoon Boy replied testily. "And the quicker we finish up here the quicker we can get back to more important things."

No one said anything, but they all knew he was referring to M'gann.

Despite his better judgement Conner looked over his shoulder to the captain's seat.

M'gann was blushing.

Spearheads of anger and sadness jammed inside Conner's chest. He kept stone-still and gritted his teeth, forcing himself to keep his thoughts hidden from the group. He wanted nothing more than bark over the telepathic link for La'gann to shut up, but he couldn't and wouldn't. He didn't have any right to get angry at the Atlantean. M'gann had wanted her secrets more than she wanted him, and now she had her secrets and La'gann.

"Prepare for disembarkation." Aqualad's voice cut through Conner's tortured thoughts and brought the sweet clarity of the mission back into focus.

Aqualad rose to his feet and after a heartbeat so did Conner. He eagerly turned his attention towards the task at hand, wanting nothing more than to drain all his energy and focus into stopping the Light – at least then he could get M'gann off his mind for a while.

The bio-ship glided to a stop and its bottom became translucent, showing a sand-colored bunker below them.

"From this point forward we drop all telepathic communication," Aqualad reminded them again. "We will only reopen communication for emergencies. The trackers on our wrists should be able to pick up any traces of the metal that made Amazo's humanoid shell. We have one hour. Are we clear?"

"Clear," the team said in unison.

Aqualad nodded. "Then deploy."

The floor suddenly went from translucent to nonexistent. Conner tensed, his body instinctively readying for the stomach-flipping plunge but they fell like a feather as M'gann levitated them down to the bunker's roof.

They landed as silently as shadows, not even a whisper of dust disturbed.

Aqualad raised four fingers to indicate the four of them then used his other hand to point in different directions, the gesture for them to split up.

The four heroes nodded and one by one they slipped into the darkness of the Bialyan army base. The wind picked up and whispered darkly at the nape of Conner's neck. Though Artemis had said the sandstorm was fortunate, some inner instinct lurking at the edges of his mind seemed to warn it was the exact opposite.

0000

M'gann looked blankly at the dark screen of her tracker as she floated invisibly through the Bialyan aircraft hangar. She should have been watching where she was going; even in her invisibility she should have been alert. She knew better. Her mind should have been on the mission. They were in a dangerous place and couldn't risk an international incident but she couldn't get her mind off the night before.

"Question for you, my lovely Angelfish, do you want to go out after the mission tomorrow?" La'gann had asked her once the debriefing with Batman had been adjourned. "There's this really fancy restaurant in town that I can get us reservations to and I got Z's sick glamour charm so there's no chance anyone will see me looking like this and spook all the land-walkers. It'll be a blast. Promise."

That had been it. The first invitation. The first ask out on a date. She had never been asked before, even by Conner. Their dates sort of just… happened. Typically they would start walking and they'd cobble together the date as they went along. They barely had any money but it never mattered. They'd always manage to scrape up a few dollars and end up sharing whatever it was they bought. Sometimes they would just end up at locations, sitting and gazing at the sunset, or watching kids in the skate park trying their luck at a new trick. It had never been about the things or the locations, they just enjoyed being around each other.

Now there was La'gann.

"And hey, if that doesn't float your boat, Angelfish I do know this sweet little ice-cream stand by the third pier."

That little ending, despite the turmoil in her heart, had made her smile, but it didn't alleviate her roiling emotions. La'gann had stood there, proverbial hat in his hands, his charming smile wide and open and she had told him….

Something dark and vile suddenly skittered part M'gann's mind, drawing her personal thoughts to a halt.

The Martian froze where she was, hovering invisible a few feet off the ground. Her green gaze scanned the area as Robin had taught her to do, looking for anything that did not belong. What had that been, she wondered ominously, what had just come over her?

"Up here, Meg," a vaguely familiar but somehow horribly distorted voice said in her mind.

M'gann looked up, her translucent eyes widening, but by then it was already too late.

The thing came down on her in a blur of sleek red power. Though M'gann was still invisible the thing seemed to know exactly where she was. Metal boots slammed into her translucent body sending her smashing to the ground.

M'gann screamed in pain and lashed out trying to fight whatever had struck her, but she only swatted at air. She scrambled to her feet then thrust out a hand and tried to psychically blast the attacker but there was no one there psychically either. M'gann mentally swept the hangar but she could detect no psychic presence. How could that be? The thing had spoken into her mind. It obviously knew where she was.

Then, suddenly, she felt it, a small red flicker in the psychic nothingness of the hangar.

"Ah ah ah, no peeking, Megan," the enemy taunted this time aloud.

M'gann tried to reach out again, to better grasp her foe, to at least understand what she was dealing with, but something hard kicked her in the chest, sending her flying. She managed to get control of her own momentum in midair and flew back towards the invisible target. With a telekinetic command she drew pallets and boxes throughout the hangar to her, then brought them down on the location where she thought her foe to be.

Dust spewed up as metal and wood and twisted bits of plane parts all crashed into the location. M'gann smiled with grim satisfaction. Let whatever had been there try to so easily get out of that!

"Damn but you're slow on the uptake, Meg." The familiar voice was at her right ear. "You really have no idea what you're dealing with."

Nails suddenly dug into the back of M'gann's scalp, sending her shuddering out of her invisibility. She tried to squirm out of the creature's grasp but it was like trying to twist iron with bare hands.

The thing spun her around and M'gann gasped as she looked into Tiffany's eyes. At least, the thing had once been Tiffany. It had Tiffany's face and body, but her flesh had been melded with glossy red metal. The metal alloy stood out like bright red lightening tattoos on her body, It ran along her arms and chest and thighs while the rest of the metal edged the sides of her face in glossy red streaks.

She was the very last person M'gann had expected to see and certainly not like this. "Tiffany?" M'gann's whispered her name, barely able to believe what she was seeing.

The creature rolled her eyes. "I don't go by that boring old name anymore. Call me… Perfection."

"What… what happened to you?"

Tiffany tilted her head faintly as if the concern in M'gann's voice amused her. "Really? That's your question. You were always such a dork, M'gann. What happened to me is the least of your problems right now." She grabbed M'gann's head with her other hand, holding her still so that they were eye to eye. Perfection's eyes glowed blood red as she smirked at M'gann. "You should really be worried about what's going to happen to your friends."

0000

The Quonset huts of the Bialyan army base lay desolate. Outside the wind whipped and howled furiously against anything that moved. The susurration of sand biting across the surface of the corrugated metal filled the air with a sound like a loudly hissing cobra.

Everyone had been driven indoors by the sandstorm. The militants had retreated into their barracks and only a skeleton crew of soldiers were left on duty. The storm scrambled most of their radios and the hiss of the wind easily covered the sound of footsteps.

Still, Conner couldn't shake the fact that something was seriously wrong.

Occasionally as he searched, Conner looked at the tracker strapped to his wrist. If Amazo's parts were anywhere in the vicinity the tracker was supposed to zero in on their location but so far it had remained as dark as his thoughts.

Closing his eyes, the Boy of Steel tried to concentrate on the telepathic connection before realizing they were supposed to be in telepathic radio silence. Conner cursed lowly as he pulled away from the familiar connection before he could truly make contact. He could almost hear Aqualad now scolding him for forgetting but even if he had fully plunged into the connection, Kaldur wouldn't have known for it hadn't been the silent mind-link to the team. No, he had been sliding into the connection he kept with M'gann.

It was like breathing now, being able to tap into that connection with her and though he hadn't in over two months, it still remained there. He didn't know if it would always be there or if she had to remove it and had just forgotten but he was too afraid to ask. Truth be told, even though it hurt, he couldn't imagine not having it in his head.

In the good times, he and she often held their own private conversations even on missions. It would start with just a little "hi" and he couldn't help but smile when he heard her. He sucked at flirting but she always giggled when he tried and they'd give one another encouragement. Sometimes they didn't even need to say anything, they would simply feel each other's presence in their minds.

He loved those times the most.

"Superboy," M'gann's whispered in his ear.

Conner instinctively touched the mind-link. "M'gann," he breathed her name like a prayer. A moment later he realized his error; the voice that spoke to him had not come from his mind.

Quickly turning to his left he saw her standing there, her face curious and pensive all at once, as if she was afraid to disturb him.

Conner stared at her uncomfortably. It was the same M'gann he always saw but something seemed… strange, changed. The mind-link was still cold, and her eyes, she had changed her eyes. The irises were now a dark red. Why though, he wondered?

"What's wrong?" he asked in the same low whisper, though he needn't have bothered. The room was empty and the sandstorm raging outside did more than enough to cover the noise anyone marching by might hear.

"This!" M'gann lifted her wrist, revealing a green dot blipping on the right edge of her tracker screen.

Conner's eyes widened in surprise. He looked down at his own tracker but it was still black.

"Sandstorm," M'gann supplied. "I ran into Aqualad and his wasn't showing anything either, but Robin's was. It must be making things spotty. They teamed up and Aqualad suggested I find you just in case yours was on the fritz too."

Conner nodded gruffly. It made sense, but just the same he wondered why Aqualad and Robin had not stuck with M'gann.

She seemed to read his thoughts and said, "They've separated the parts for different experiments. They're scattered all over the place."

Conner frowned grimly. No one could see Queen Bee wasn't clever. "Let's go get our parts then."

Quietly they took off, M'gann leading the way while he took up the rear. He should have felt more at ease now that M'gann was there but the instinct of wrongness kept getting stronger inside him. There was something different about her, and her eyes, why had she changed the color of her eyes?

Was it his doing, he wondered worriedly. Had she changed because of him?

The terrifying thought galvanized him like nothing else had, and finally the words he had struggled to find for the two months since their break-up sprang free. "We should talk."

M'gann didn't look back at him. "About the break-up?"

"Yeah," Conner admitted grimly. He took a deep breath trying to settle his growling emotions. "After the mission, do you think maybe we could sit down and just discuss… us?"

"Superboy there is no us anymore," M'gann said tersely. "I'm in love with La'gann now."

The words hit him like a blow to the gut, nearly sucking the air out of his lungs. His heart squeezed in his chest. He looked away, not knowing what else to do. "Oh." Was all he could manage.

"I'm sorry Superboy but La'gann is everything you're not," M'gann continued. "He's actually a person. A fish person, but still. I could really see a life with him. I could never have one with you. I realized a long time ago you were just a freak. A test-tube, lab-grown freak. You don't deserve me, you never did. You were so stupid thinking we ever really had a chance."

Conner squeezed his eyes shut, his jaw clenched tight. It was all true, wasn't it? He had always just been kidding himself.

"Look, Superboy, I think I found something."

The mission!

Conner zoned back into the mission at hand, clutching at its formlessness like a desperate man. He could think about what had been said later. For now they had a job to do.

Slowly he opened his eyes again to see M'gann holding a plain black box. "This must be it, Superboy, have a look inside." She slowly opened the box and to his horror he found himself looking not at Amazo parts but at the tiny shred of his heart. It was no longer red and faintly beating, but gray and still and lifeless.

"Oh no, it's not Amazo it's just your worthless heart," M'gann tsked with mock sympathy. "Looks like I broke it after all."

Conner stood frozen, looking at the lifeless thing, feeling like he wanted to die. Then, suddenly, it twitched, a small flame of red coming back to the frail scrap of heart. "Oh wait no, there must still be a little life to it. Look a little closer."

Conner could not help but lean closer. He didn't even register that the heart and box had turned into a red metal fist until it struck him fully in the face.

Conner reeled from the blow, blood dripping down the corner of his mouth. He dabbed at it, rubbing the blood between his fingers, marveling at the sight of it. When had M'gann ever hit that hard?

Never, he knew instantly. She didn't.

Conner looked up again, fury in his eyes as he faced the creature that looked like M'gann. "What have you done with M'gann!?" he roared, rushing back towards the imposter.

The M'gann-thing easily side-stepped him, sending him crumpling with a punch to the back of the head. The Boy of Steel rose again, fists bunched. He leapt and came crashing down like a hammer on an anvil but she caught his boot, holding him in the air easily.

A smirk quirked upon the M'gann-thing's mouth. "Come on, freak, you didn't stand a change in high school and you don't stand one now on any playing field."

She shoved him back, sending him flying as if he weighed nothing.

Conner went spinning through the air. He hit the far wall and slid down like a broken doll. He felt like he was wrapped in iron, could barely move. This wasn't possible. He couldn't be so powerless. He didn't feel like Kryptonite was nearby so how was she doing it, then?

Conner touched his ear, turning on his communicator. "Team, M'gann has been compromised!"

There was no response.

He reached out mentally, hoping to get in contact with anyone. "Team! Anybody!"

The M'gann-thing laughed aloud and slowly walked towards him. "You're trying to psychically alert your pathetic team over the Martian's mind-link? Idiot, the mind is my domain now and so is this mind-link," she gloated in his head.

Her hands began to grow and morph into glinting axes. M'gann certainly had never done that before either.

"M'gann, break off the mind-link!" Conner screamed over the psychic link. When the M'gann-thing didn't stop he switched the private link, reaching out to M'gann from the depths of his heart. "M'GANN PLEASE! FIGHT IT!"

The M'gann-thing froze. A tinge of confusion struck her smug face, the confidence crumbling a little. "Oh… oh where were you hiding this little link, Meg?" the M'gann-thing asked to no one that Conner could see. "Give it over, Meg. Show it to me!"

Conner could feel the private link grow stronger as he focused on it. Whatever the M'gann-thing had done to infect his mind, it didn't control his private link to M'gan and that meant M'gann was somewhere trying to fight.

Conner focused on his bond with M'gann and jumped to meet the foe. This time the enemy wasn't so fast. His fist found the M'gann-thing's chest but it slipped right through as she phased and he went sailing straight through her.

"Enough distractions," snarled the M'gann-thing. "I'll get back into your brain once I'm really finished with her!"

Conner shouted in rage and ran back towards the M'gann-thing but she was gone. He blinked once and found himself simply running through the empty Quonset hut. He turned in all directions, tense, ready for the enemy but they were nowhere to be found.

Aqualad's voice suddenly crackled to life in Conner's ear. "Aqualad to team, can you hear me? Can you respond!"

Due to the sandstorm's interference, Conner could barely hear him, but he could just make out the bulk of the words and guess the rest. "Here, Aqualad," growled Conner.

"Here," said Wally.

"Same," quivered Artemis.

"Yeah…" Panted Robin, as if he had been in the fight of his life. "Yeah we're all here. I've got Z and La'gaan with me too,"

"M'gann's in danger," Conner blurted.

"We know," Aqualad replied with a shaken firmness that worried Conner greatly. "Whatever has M'gann used her telepathic link to us to hack into my mind."

"You're not the only one, Aqualad," Wally said with a tone of deep seriousness that worried Conner all the more.

"It must have been all of us, then," the Boy of Steel concluded. "We need to find her!"

"We need to regroup," Aqualad corrected.

"I'm with Conner. Something has my Angelfish, we need get to her," La'gaan impressed.

"Not until we know what we're dealing with," snapped Kaldur. "If we don't know what we're up against we will only put M'gann into further danger."

"It's gotta be the android." Robin's voice crackled over the staticky comm. "Amazo had all the powers of the League, Martian Manhunter could probably do something like we just experienced."

"Agreed," Kaldur replied. "Team, convene at the left hangar of the base. I will contact Red Tornado and we will formulate a plan to save M'gann."

"No!" snarled Conner. "We help her now!"

There was no more room for stealth. Conner's gaze narrowed as his eyes found the far-left wall. He felt just the ghost of her presence still lingering in his head, almost as if calling out to him from that direction. With a roar he took off like a man possessed. He braced his shoulder as he slammed through the metal wall.

International incident be damned, M'gann needed them.

"Call for back-up as we go, Aqualad," Robin said and Conner could hear the determined smile in the Boy Wonder's voice. "Let's go save our friend."