Victor tiredly opens his eye; he has blood on the human side of his face. He looks around. Its morning, a thin drizzle falling from the sky. He is at what's left of the dining room. There are multiple thugs scattered throughout the room, unconscious or dead, he doesn't care. He doesn't remember much, he was fighting Rouge and some thugs, he received the impact of a missile and then, blank, nothing. To be honest, he doesn't even know how he is still alive. He places his hands on the floor and using his strength, he gets up.

Once he gets up, he notices the opening to the underground lab is wide open. He looks at his control panel on his arm, barely any energy left, plus he doesn't have the Max 8 chip anymore.

He proceeds to descend through the stairwell, his canon raised to face whoever made it down. What he finds there takes his breath completely away. There in the stairs are about ten or so thugs, all dead, their face disfigured, some limbs missing, and the stairs covered in red.

"Gar…" The creature must have taken control.

Carefully to not step over any corpses he continues going down. There he finds Gar unconscious, his clothes torn, and not a single scratch on his body.

"Gar!" Victor quickly makes his way to him and raises his head.

Gar slowly opens his eyes and looks at Victor. "Cyborg?"

Victor lets out a small laugh. "Good to see your humor is intact. You okay, man?" Gar nods as he gets up, although struggling up a bit, Victor helps him. "What happened here?"

Gar tries to remember, his head hurting. "I… I was fighting Mods men when... I was shot!" He suddenly remembers as he looks down at his arm. It looks untouched, not a single trace of a bullet. "The next thing I know I'm the creature, but…" He looks at Victor. "I don't remember trying to transform into it, it's just happened… I must have lost control. I only remember rage… and blood, a lot of blood."

Victor places his hand over his shoulder. "It's okay, man, I understand." He pauses. "Raven? Did anyone get past you?"

Gar shakes his head. "I don't think a single men got past the creature… and Raven, I didn't see her, but I could be wrong."

Victor nods and turns to the lab. "Raven? You still in there?" Both descend the stairwell entering the lab where they find it completely empty. "Raven?" Victor calls again. No answer.

Gar notices her book on top of one of the tables. He turns to Victor. "Something happened... she wouldn't have left without her book."

Victor thinks about it, Gar may be right, but he doesn't want to believe it. Then realization hits him. "No…" Had she freed Trigon? That would explain Gars sudden transformation and her disappearance. "Get in the car, I will look for Nightwing." With that, he leaves the lab.

Gar turns once again to the book. He looks around, Victor has already left. In a quick move, he reaches for the book and takes it.

Nightwing is still outside, in front of him are the corpses of both the mayor and Mad Mod. He can't get his gaze away from his hands, both covered in blood. He had killed them, he had broken the vow he had made of not killing, his most important rule, Batman's rule. Something had snapped inside him, in that moment, his only thought was to murder them. Maybe that, or maybe he just wanted revenge, revenge for taking Kory away from him. He isn't any better than the criminals, he is another murderer. He can hear sirens approaching the mansion, probably to put him away where he deserves to.

He can hear footsteps as Victor makes his way to him, a worried look on his face.

"Come on Rich, we gotta go." He then notices the corpses in front of him. "Jesus…" He looks back at Nightwing, he had killed Mod?! …Not important right now. "Come on, Gars on the car, we gotta go before the police arrives."

Nightwings gaze stays on the corpses. "I killed them, Vic."

Victor widens his eyes, the mayor too?! "We will deal about it later, now we must go!"

Nightwing doesn't answer, he doesn't even look at him.

Victor looks up, multiple cruisers are approaching the property, they'll be here in a matter of seconds, and this certainly doesn't look great, especially with the dead mayor. "Son of a bitch…" With that he leaves Nightwing behind.

Nightwings gaze stays down on his hands. Now he hears multiple footsteps around as the cops make their way to him. They place his arms behind and handcuff him.

"You have the right to remain in silence…" One of them speaks as they force him up, but he doesn't care, he doesn't care anymore.

A huge truck arrives at the docks in Jump City. The driver gets out and looks around. The place seems empty; no one around. He checks the address, yeah, he is in the right place. Three hours driving from San Francisco with this huge box behind just for no one to show up. He would make sure they heard him when they arrived.

He takes out a cigarette and a lighter and lights it on as he inspects the place. He hasn't taken many steps when suddenly he receives a bullet directly to the head killing him.

Rouge and five thugs step in. Whoever had spoken to her in her mind had called her here. She looks around noticing a figure lurking in the shadows.

"You are the one who called me?"

From the shadows, steps Raven, the same four red eyes on her face. The thugs point their guns at her, but she seems unfazed. Rouge lifts an eyebrow. "Aren't you with Nightwing?"

"Not exactly" Raven speaks with a deep voice. That's not Raven, that's Trigon.

Trigon makes a movement with his hands as suddenly the thugs start choking and clutching their throats. He makes another movement, and their necks snap as their lifeless bodies fall to the floor. Rouge just keeps an analytical gaze, not minding the dead thugs.

"What's in it for me?"

"Your name is on every most wanted list in the world, at the rate you are going, it won't take long before the Justice League makes you their number one priority. I can fix that for you, I can make them forget about you, I can make the whole world forget about you."

Rouge thinks about it, she finally nods. Trigon smirks and walks to the truck. He focuses on the doors, and they swing wide open. There inside is a huge box. The Wayne Enterprises logo on it. Trigon now focuses on the box and opens it.

Rouge smirks at what's inside.

Debra is at an office at the newspapers. She watches as, from the other side of the desk, his boss looks at the photographs she took last night. A smile on his face.

"This is great."

Nightwing punching Mad Mod. Nightwing throwing his batarang at the mayor. Nightwing killing Mad Mod. Nightwing looking straight at the camera with a menacing look.

"I love them, I love them all." He continues until reaching one of the mayor shooting Nightwing, there his expression changes, not liking that one. He looks at Debra. "Good job, Martinez. I'll give you six hundred for each one."

"Make it a grant, and if you don't like it, I can go to the next news channel, I can guarantee you won't find this anywhere else" Debra says. She had put her life at risk for this, Nightwing could have killed her. She is setting the price. "And I want the story."

The boss doesn't like it, but he gives up. "Fine." He writes a check and hands it to her. "Show it to my secretary, she will take care." Debra nods. The boss appears in deep thought as he thinks how he wants to handle this story; he has gold in his hands. He then looks at her. "How about: Mad vigilante goes on a rampage and kills mob leader and mayor of the city?" A smile on his face as he comes up with the title.

"But there's more to it than Nightwing going on a rampage, what was the mayor doing there?" She protests, it just doesn't make sense. "You weren't there, that was a warzone, I think…"

"Martinez…" the boss stops her. "We don't care what you think, we pay you to write what we want, not what you think. Now, what sounds better? That a vigilante who has a previous story of doing dodgy stuff kills the mayor? Or that our mayor, a dear hero who helped save the city, was corrupt and somehow involved with the mob?"

Debra doesn't answer.

"Cash the check and write the story" the boss orders.

Debra nods. "Yes, sir."

He smiles. "Wonderful." He then presses a button on his desk. A couple of seconds later, another employee enters the office.

"You called me, sir?"

"Yes, I want these pictures circulating immediately, you hear me? On a website, our billboards, our news channels, and prepare a special edition paper for noon. I want these pictures everywhere! Everyone must know who killed the mayor."

Automatically, they start printing the newspaper with the picture of Nightwing killing the mayor. The newspaper is then sent all throughout the city. At the same time, the news is being broadcast by every news channel and shown on the giant billboards in downtown Jump City, especially on the new skyscraper of the city, the Tower, the new highest building in the city, with four giant billboards, one on each side. "…these pictures showing Richard Grayson assassinating the mayor.", "I think I speak for everyone when I say we are tired of these so-called heroes dictating our lives and stepping over the laws.", "In moments like this it gains importance Senator Luthor's proposal for a heroes' registration law where we can determine who we want serving our country and who not. Nightwing, I would certainly not want.", "Who is paying the damage for the heroes' disasters? Last year, Grayson almost destroyed the city, who paid to rebuild the city?... Us, the taxpayers.", "But I think we are not asking the important questions; what was mayor O'Hara doing there at night by his own without his bodyguards? The other side of the story that we as journalists should want to know.", "Now that the city has lost its primary crime lord, can we expect a war in the streets for control of the city?", "Batman, please take a hold of your boy, he is out of control.", "The former vice mayor has already stepped forward to take the role of mayor and is soon to name a new police lieutenant." are some of the debates in the different news channels.

It doesn't take long before everyone in the city has heard about it.

Nightwing has his gaze down as he is transported on the backseat of a police cruiser. His bloody hands cuffed. A full caravan of police cruisers behind escorting them to the police station, in a few minutes they would be there.

He looks up noticing a picture of him killing the mayor on a giant screen in a news building with the title Vigilante kills mayor! Not a single expression comes to his face, that's right, now the world would know him for who he was, a murderer.

And to top it all, he had been played by the mayor. All this time he had been feeding him information about his plan and curse of actions, giving him the advantage. He hadn't been able to see through his lies. But the people don't know that, for them, he is a hero, a hero that had killed their mayor.

But what about the attack at the opera? Probably an internal fight for control between them, a fight in which he had stepped in. He had also helped the mayor and therefore Mod by taking out Billy. He had been their pawn, doing what they wanted. He should have been smarter, more patient, and not just rushed in to every case.

Once they reach the police station, ten cops escort him to the detention center. All the cops at the police station stop what they are doing and just watch him in silence, disapproval in their eyes. Many of them trusted in him, they had fought by his side, and now, they feel betrayed. Nightwing doesn't dare make eye contact, he just keeps his gaze down. He is thrust into a cell with another six more inmates who look at him with hungry looks, all of them eager to teach a lesson to the vigilante. He doesn't even blink. They probably left him here so they could beat the crap out of him.

Four figures arrive at the docks where the truck is. The place seems empty, no one around as there's nothing inside the truck, the box already taken. Only the corpse of the driver left dead a few feet from the truck, and the five thugs.

"They already left the area" Donna says looking around. Arsenal kneels next to the driver, inspecting it through his shades. Aqualad, for his part, kneels on the floor and inspects the other bodies, trying to get something.

"This was a massacre" Kid Flash points out. He then sprints to the back of the truck. "Package isn't either."

Donna thinks. She turns to him. "Do a roundup of the place, Wally, make sure, there's nothing to be missed." He nods as he sprints away. She turns to Arsenal. "Roy, talk to me, what do you see?"

Arsenal continues looking at the body. "Driver has a bullet on the head, a precise shot, our killer is a professional." He then turns to the thugs. "Regarding these fellas, their necks snapped, but no sign of struggle in the rest of the body."

"I suppose all of them at the same time" Donna says.

Aqualad looks at her. "So, two killers, one of them a precise shooter, the other with telekinesis abilities." Donna nods, not really liking it. This could be even dangerous than they first thought.

Kid Flash comes back. "Nothing to report. Place is emptier that Roy's dating history."

"Dude!"

Donna ignores that last part as she thinks. "Okay, now we wait, keep your eyes open for whatever happens in this city. At the first police emergency, we are there, is it cleared?" They all nod.

"The package under no circumstance can be freed."

"Donna..." Kid Flash calls. Donna turns to him. He shows her his phone where the news about Nightwings capture is, a picture of him killing the mayor. Arsenal and Aqualud also look at it.

"No..." Donna widens her eyes, thats their friend. She then stops and thinks, they must keep a cool head.

"We should take him out, he is obviously being framed" Arsenal says crossing his arms.

"Plus, he could help us with our assignment" Aqualad adds.

Donna shakes her head. "We do not have time. If he has everyone talking about him, that could be an advantage, letting us work on the low for now."

"But Donna..." Kid Flash argues. "He is our friend... He needs us."

"The mission comes first." She doesn't like it, but its what must be done. "Remember Batman's orders. Plus Dick is a grown man, he can take care of himself."

Nightwing is sitting at the bench inside the cell, his wrists cuffed together in front. They'll probably keep him here for a few hours before they take him to whatever prison they like. His gaze down as he thinks back to Kory, god, he missed her so much. This last days without her, seeming like an eternity. Back when he thought Mod was going to kill him, deep down he was hoping he would pull the trigger. That way, maybe he could reunite with her. How had things gone all wrong these last few days? One day you are happy with the woman of your life, the next you are in a cell with five angry inmates who can't wait to kill you. He sighs, they better do it quick.

One giant inmate steps up to him and crouches to his head height. Nightwing doesn't look at him

"You are in hell, little man…" he forcefully grabs him by the hair. "…and I'm the devil."

Nightwing looks at him, not really liking being grabbed by the hair. "You are not the devil." He then forcefully headbutts him on the nose breaking it. "You are my punching bag." The inmate falls to ground, his nose bleeding.

The rest of the inmates then charge at him. Nightwing raises his cuffs blocking the fist of the first one, kicks his knee out, and then boots his face. Another one grabs him from behind, Nightwing struggling against his grip. The other two take advantage and punch him in the stomach. The hero grunts in pain. He then pushes back, the inmate hitting the wall and letting go of him. Nightwing then using the wall as support kicks both inmates at the time sending them to the floor. Then he elbows the one on the wall in the face. He gets up and moves to the two on the floor and kicks them in the stomach multiple times.

Then the giant inmate gets up and throws himself at Nightwing sending both to the floor as he punches him. The hero then throws a punch of his own using the cuffs, the metal increasing the force of the blow. The other two inmates joining the fight. Nightwing catches one of the punches, twists his wrist and sends him against the other one. He gets up and kicks the giant inmate in the stomach.

In that moment, the cell door swings open, and he is grabbed from behind between two guards as they start taking him out from the cell.

"Take him out!"

"Why?" Nightwing protests as he struggles against them.

"For protection."

"I don't need protection!"

"Protection for them."

Nightwing turns to the inmates, who are all on the floor grunting in pain.

They take him to another room, where they rip his mask off and take the profile pictures of him holding his name card. Richard John Grayson. Once facing forward, once facing right and once facing left. Then they remove his gloves and take his fingerprints.

Then they carry him to outside to a police truck. The mass of people outside boo him and throw stuff at him as they curse at him. "Fuck you, Grayson!", "You suck!", "We don't want vigilantes on our city!", "Hope you rot in hell!" All of them hating him, and he doesn't blame them. He had killed their mayor. They get him to the truck where they push him in. Probably to move him to prison.

The metallic door of a storage unit opens revealing Victor and Gar on the other side. Gar, in a new set of clothes, is leaning against Victor for support, while holding the book with the other hand. They get inside.

Victor sighs. He wasn't expecting to ever come back to this place. Inside there is a side table with a few lockers and a screen. "Back when things went south with Deathstroke, we used this place as our base of operations."

Gar nods understanding.

Victor thinks as he looks around. "We regroup here for a bit, try to find Raven and well go from there, hopefully get Nightwing out of prison and then we go after Rouge." He says clearly struggling to come up with a course of action. It was usually Nightwing the one who organized the team and came up with the plans. He sighs again and moves to one of the lockers to inspect it. Hopefully he could find the necessary parts to make another chip, even if it was a less powerful version. Victor then sets on the table and removes the bandage over his broken robotic eye as he inspects it.

Gar looks down at the books in his hands. He places it over the table and starts reading, or at least trying to.

They are interrupted as a loud crash sound comes from outside, followed by numerous car alarms buzzing off. They quickly get out of the storage unit, both prepared to engage in combat with whomever that was.

There they are met with bright green beam illuminating them. Both watch in awe, their eyes completely wide.

"How…?"

After a few minutes, the police truck gets into the highway, two more cruisers escorting it from behind. Inside, the back door has a high, narrow horizontal slot for light and ventilation; cut to just inside it, through which erratic beams flicker in from the passing streetlights to frame the face of Richard lost in the deepest self-loathing he has ever known. He looks out as a massive cloud is taking over the skyline, some reddish lightning coming out of it. He narrows his eyes. Trigon…

Suddenly the vehicle jerks violently. Richard looks up, he tries to look outside, but he only sees the cruiser, a panic face on the cops inside as they veer to the side. Then the truck veers recklessly sending Richard to the floor, his cuffed wrist prevents him from cushioning the falls as he lands on his face and grunts in pain.

Then there is a huge explosion outside hurling the vehicle onto the ground and landing on its side. Richard again hitting the walls of the truck. One barrel roll after another carries the armor-plated vehicle along until it slews into a building at the end of the block. Richard groans as he tries to get up using only his legs. He looks up, the back door has been completely open. He walks out.

The moment he steps out of the truck, he is met by a blinding green light coming from above. He raises his cuffed wrists trying to see through. Once he is able to look up, his gaze sets on the last person he was expecting to see. There floating in the air with a bright green light radiating from behind, is Kory, dressed in the same black clothes in which they had buried her, her red hair flowing with the wind, her gaze looking down at him, and with a thin smile on her face, probably the brightest light he had ever seen her produce.

Richard can only watch in marvel at what he has in front. He had died in the crash, right? And now finds himself in heaven. His legs start moving forward as if they had a mind of their own. "H… Ho… How…?" He just mumbles.

Kory giggles as she descends right in front of him. Without speaking, she leans forward placing her hands over his cuffs and melting them as they fall to the ground.

"Greetings" she salutes.

Richard opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. "How…?" He mumbles again. "I saw you died... he shot you…"

Kory looks down, trying to think. She moves her hair out of the way, not a single scratch where the bullet impacted her. She then smiles and meets his gaze making eye contact. Green meeting blue. "I do not know."

Richard reaches with his hand forward placing it against her cheeks as he caresses her, trying to prove this is real and not a dream. "I thought I lost you…"

Kory just smiles. She then takes hold of his hand interlocking them together.

He leans forward placing his forehead against her. His eyes become wary as a few tears threaten to come out. "I… I missed you so much... I love you."

"I love you as well, Richard." He smiles. "Richard", that way only she could pronounce his name, he had missed it. He had missed her so much. Without speaking he leans his mouth forward placing his lips against her in a tender kiss. A kiss full of passion, desire and on top of all, love. She quickly answers the kiss, kissing him back. He places his hands on her waist, clinging to her like life itself, as if he let go of her, he would lose her again. The whole world around fading, nothing more mattering, just the other. They don't know how, but somehow, they had found their way back to the other. Questions would come back later. Their previous fight forgotten.

Without breaking the kiss, they enter their apartment moving into the bedroom. Richard picks her up, Kory placing her arms around his neck, and he lays her on the bed. Their mouths still together in a hungry chest. Her hands on his chest as if asking for permission. He chuckles and nods. She then proceeds to rip open his suit revealing his naked chest. Meanwhile he reaches to her shirt and also rips it open. Richard then shifts his position placing himself on top. He is about to continue kissing her when he stops as he suddenly starts sobbing, tears falling from his eyes.

Kory looks at him, growing worried with this sudden change of moods. She reaches up and places her hand on his cheeks cleaning his tears away. "My love, what is the matter?"

"I…" he cries. "…I thought I lost you…I'm sorry Kory, sorry for everything, for not listening to you, for dragging you back to this shithole of a city, I… I'm sorry."

"Shh, my love, it's alright" she reassures him dragging him down with her and embracing him tight. "Whatever you are sorry, is in the past, is it not? I love you." He nods through the tears and chokes a smile, clearly missing her voice and accent. She reaches up and gives him a short kiss, before she breaks it leaning back. "Now love me, Richard."

It doesn't take any more out of her to Richard to place his lips on hers and just kisses her.

A massive thunderstorm is approaching Jump City's penitentiary on the outskirts of the city. Down at the ground, two figures step forward, looking at it with mischievous smiles: Madame Rouge and Trigon. All hell would fall on the city.

Then, Trigon raises his hands and starts floating several feet on the air as he approaches the penitentiary. The guards inside can only watch in awe at what they have in front, a scared look on their faces… they would need reinforcements.

"People of Jump City, its time to raise against the system, the system that oppressed you, just like they did with me" Trigon speaks. The inmates in each of the cells hearing his voice in their heads. Red eyes start appearing in their faces. "Take control of all, burn it all. Raise!"

At that all of the inmates yell inside their cell, eager to get out. The guards inside trade glances, now really starting to fear. Trigon then makes a movement with his hands and all of the cell doors swing open.