31.10.2020

And thus I rise from the dead.

TRIGGER WARNING! MENTIONS OF TORTURE AND WOUNDS! READ DANNI'S PART AT OWN RISK! TRIGGER WARNING!

TRIGGER WARNING! DANNI PART 2 POSSIBLY IN RANGE OF M RATING PLEASE READ AT OWN RISK! TRIGGER WARNING!

Chapter 7

Mount justice

"Everything set?"

"Almost ready." Robin said as he finished hooking up the equipment. Sparing a glance at Moroi he noticed she was almost done with the hacking required for the plan.

"Okay, somebody please fill me in on what's going on." Kid asked while trying to catch a glance of what Moroi was doing, still a bit apprehensive of the girl.

"First press the button." Robin said, pointing off to the side of Wally. "What butto-oh." Wally questioned as he looked around and spotted the big red button slid to him by Moroi. Pressing the button, he gave a "what now" look to his best friend. "Okay so as you said before, the people look hopeless. So in order to give them some hope we will send out a message to the survivors and let them know that they're not alone and there are still people here to fight for them."

"I get that but what I don't get is what all this is." He said, gesturing to Moroi who was working on the floor, holo-glove connected to the equipment set up by Robin. "Some of the systems went offline after some important satellites were destroyed so Moroi has been working on getting them online again." Robin explained, empathizing on the 'important satellites', hoping that the older boy would understand what he meant.

Since the aliens invaded, they destroyed the Watchtower, which holds the basics of some important soft and hardware, including the emergency broadcasting override system. He couldn't say that out loud because they were the only survivors that know about it.

Wally nodded, understanding what the newly appointed leader meant, but that didn't mean he was done asking questions. "And what was that button for?"

"To send a message to all remaining heroes with League connections, and instructions on what they should do to help given to them by Robin." Moroi answered, finally done with the hacking and programming. Pulling out the cord, she walked over to where Robin was standing.

Wally looked incredulously at the girl. "Who gave you the authority to give out commands or hack into League systems?! And where did you get the tech needed for that?! Who are you even?! For all we know you could be some filthy alien spy!" He yelled, stepping towards the girl in question.

"He has a point" M'Gann joined in, "we don't know who you are, Moroi, only Robin seems to. Although I'm not a fan of working with people I don't really know, I do believe we should trust Robin's judgement. He is our leader after all. And I think I would have noticed if she was an alien spy when I checked her mind earlier." She placed a hand on the speedster's shoulder to calm him down.

"Still doesn't explain where she got the tech from." Wally argued, crossing his arms over his chest and looking disgruntled. "At the Walmart just around the corner. " Moroi answered extremely sarcastically, "and who I am is of no concern to you if you didn't know already. I'm here to help to, you know, try and save the world from an alien invasion. I didn't nearly die multiple times trying to get here to help out your ungrateful ass and give you a bedtime story about my life. You can either suck it up and work along or leave, pizdă." She stared challengingly at the older boy, who in return didn't break eye contact.

After a few tense minutes, Wally finally backed down and looked away from the strong stare.

"If you're all done with your little stand-off there, the systems are online and ready to go." Superboy finally spoke up, getting everybody back on the task at hand.

"Nice job standing up for yourself there, though you didn't have to insult him." Robin praised while walking to the controls of their little set-up. "Come on he had it coming with all the questions and the attitude. At least now he'll shut it."

"Point taken, but he's still a validated member of the team so you can't just send him away."

"I didn't, I was bluffing but he didn't have to know that. Now come on we have a job to do."

Stepping away from Moroi, Robin left to finish the last bits of the setup and hooked up the camera. "Launching system takeover. Guys stand ready." Robin commanded as he took out Wally's phone to make sure the system was running as it should. The screen was taken over by the Justice League logo and the device made a loud beeping sound, along with the other devise of the wounded soldiers in the med bay, alerting everyone that it is indeed working. All around the Cave, any other JL bases like the Hall Of Justice and all known bunkers, appeared the same projection ready to give the message to the people. He motions for Moroi to take over the controls and keep an eye on the system as he goes to stand with the others.

Giving the signal to turn on the camera, they started their speech, hoping it will have the effect they desire. Wally was given he privilege of starting the speech, together with Robin, the most known heroes remaining. "Hello people of Earth, we are the Justice League."

As they were doing what was repaired, Moroi made sure the translation software was working as it should, checking the auto-generated subs and the audio translations. The had to make sure everybody across the world would understand them, no matter the native language. As some were speaking, the others already started to prepare for battle. During it all, J'ohnn walked in, coming to stand next to Moroi and watching the remaining heroes switch places as they spoke to the people of the Earth.

M'gann took over and was sure to stand in the frame with Connor. "And though we know all seems lost, the one thing the aliens cannot destroy is hope." He finished for her, picking up that it was hard for her to continue. "Hope survives because the battle is not over. Not as long as even one of us is willing to fight."

Wally steps into frame, taking over as his voice carried unfaltering determination. "It doesn't matter how many fall for new heroes will always rise to carry on bringing all their resources, their skills, their talents to bear, to defeat the enemy."

In another part of the cave Red Arrow, Zatanna, and Rocket look over as the Zeta Tube turns on, revealing Garth and Tula arriving in the hangar bay. Wally speaking to them via a hologram. In the mission room, off camera Superboy prepped and hands over a belt full of charges to Robin that he clips over the other on his chest.

The young leader steps up beside Kid as he starts talking. "The people of Earth will survive this. We will rebuild, and we will thrive. Never doubt and never forget. The Earth will never surrender."

With that the broadcast shuts off, leaving the JL logo before that too turns off.

The room fell silent for a moment, taking in the severity of the situation and weight that's on their shoulders. The remaining soldiers in the med bay started shouting full of determinance breaking the silence. "Al least we know it worked." KF commented with a small halfhearted laugh.

"No time to lose. Everybody get ready to leave. M'gann prep the- Uh nevermind. Everyone make sure your bike is up and running in 10. Moroi, you're with me, J'ohnn you go with M'gann. I'd have you fly but we need to preserve our energy for when we really need it." Robin sent an apologetic look to M'gann for the mention of the bio ship, the loss still fresh on her mind.

"Alright team, head out!"

Danni

At this point there was blood everywhere. Green and red covered the walls and floor. The only thing that remained untouched was Joker, who has made sure to get nothing on his favorite purple suit. He left after a few minutes, having to delegate some goons who needed to be send on a small heist as funds were running too low for his liking. Plus the young girl had passed out and what's the fun in torture if your subject isn't awake to scream. Before he left, he was sure to leave the most ragged and rusted tool lodged inside of a wound on her thigh, which just so happens to be a pair of pliers.

Teen Danni and Blur, as she decided to call the apparition, sat in silence, hot tears streaming out their eyes. It may only have been a few minutes but it felt like an eternity feeling every touch and wound left on the girl below. The worst part was that she couldn't do anything about it. At first she still had doubts that it was real, having no memory of anything like this ever happening. But then the immense pain came and no matter how much she wished for it to not be true she couldn't stop it from happening. The transparent barrier separating the two would not break. She tried getting away from it as much as she can but no amount of turning or flying higher made the torment any less.

For the first time in a while she looked over to Blur. The poor girl was slightly better off than she was, if only for the fact that the glowing red chain around the muted girl had almost fully disappeared giving her move space to move. Not like it helped much. She hadn't noticed until now but the only part that remained of the massive thing was the loop around her waist and a single link. Blur was shaking in a ball. Her gaze was fixated on the view below.

Come to think of it, she had been like that for a while but it didn't register until now that the ragged breathing and shaking combined with the rocking back and forth are all signs of her having a panic attack. Every time she would calm down a bit it didn't take long before she began rocking again and heavier than before. Each round was met with more desperation, as if the rocking would somehow stop it all. The most curious part was that that strange chain would sometimes 'flicker' for lack of better words. The thing would just…Turn more transparent as if fading from existence only to come back and return to a solid form. Along with that, the shorter the chain got the brighter her eyes would shine. The once dull green and blue were now a bright toxic green and icy blue. Danni wasn't sure if it meant anything but she wasn't up to thinking about it.

The phantom pain of all the wounds kept her preoccupied. There were multiple cuts, some imprints of the barbed wire bat and scratches of where he used it to drag open a array of gashes across her legs and arms. The worst was this strange pressure that she couldn't get rid of. Her wounds had started to heal, but with the pair of pliers still stuck in her thigh it couldn't heal properly. The wound burned as it was trying to fight off an infection brought by the rust as the healing skin was wrapping itself around the damned pliers, securing them slowly in their place. She could feel the itch of tissue and skin growing back but no matter how hard she scratched it just wouldn't stop. Judging from the weird detached feeling of her middle finger, it is likely broken as well. Probably happened when she tried to flip him off. He did NOT like that. Was worth it, she got a strange satisfaction of seeing the clown shocked at the deviance. There might also have been a few hairline fracturs where the bat had made contact but those were quickly healed as she couldn't feel any strange tinteling anymore.

It wasn't long before the younger woke up. Confused from the blood loss she tried to fight against the bindings holding her down. She tried to grab the pliers, causing some healing injuries to get jostled and start bleeding again, all in vain for her arms were bound too tightly to even reach the decaying piece of metal. After a few more moments of struggling, the struggles turned into tears as the poor girl didn't know what else to do. Bound to a chair. Body burning all over from accelerated healing trying hard to close all the wounds. By now she likely couldn't even feel her legs anymore from having been stuck in the same position for too long. Definitely not looking forward to getting the feeling back there.

Slowly the crying turned into the occasional sob, defeated by the damned things holding her down. She couldn't even tell what they were as she would have been able to break through rope and chains. But this stuff? Absolutely not. It didn't feel cold like metal did. But it didn't feel hairy like rope did either. It definitely wasn't plastic either as it would have snapped long ago.

Smallville

They parked the bikes an end away and continued on by foot to draw less suspicion to them. They could have fully gone by foot but it is still and ends way from the closes zeta port, as the one in Smallville was destroyed, and would have exhausted the non-meta's too much, hence the bikes.

M'gann had set up the mind link and gone over roll call, just to be sure they didn't miss another teammate.

They came up on a clearing and Robin scouted the area with binoculars, finding the entry point for team C. His focus was broken by M'gann walking up to him. "Stay close to J'ohnn, he's still a bit" Unstable went unsaid as he made the gesture. M'gann nodded and they turned to the rest as she put her hood up.

"Everybody ready?" Looking around everybody nodded. "First team deploy." He commanded as the Martians flew up. They held onto each other while going into camouflage mode. As they got close enough, J'ohnn helped M'gann density shift through the outer wall of the gigantic ship, completely unnoticed by the outer defense. Shaking off the unfamiliar feeling, M'gann updated to team leader. "Ready and in position." She quietly sent a message to only Connor, the others not having to hear the private words. "Be careful Connor. I love you."

Superboy smiled at the message and sent one back. Looking over to Robin, he received his cue and leaped into the air, not so quietly landing on the outer layer of the mothership after an in-between landing on a now shattered rock. He ran up to one of the guns and ripped it out of its once sturdy place. "Careful don't disconnect the power source." The boy wonder warned as the Kryptonian shoved his hand in the machine and inwardly took control of the firing mechanism. "All right, you glorified trespassers! You wanna see how a real alien fights?" He shouts and fires the gun to get their attention. Not soon after the battle ships started deploying in an effort to defend their ship. "Now or never."

Robin jumped on KF's back and they started running for the leap, Moroi was already in position near the cable point to start her way across. As she saw them incoming, she attached herself to the line launcher and starts to make her way across. She zips across as she sees KF prepare to make the jump. He narrowly missed landing on top of Moroi as they landed and rolled off the access kinetic energy. They didn't have time for hard feelings as another ship readied to deploy from their entry point, hiding to remain undetected.

The young leader pokes out his head and makes a run for it. "Way's clear, go!" The 3 teens run to the next pillar where they hide from a patrol bot. KF lifts his goggles to get a better look as the patrol bot flies away. Behind them another descends and readies to send a beam. Moroi was the only one to notice and pushed the boys out of the way. "Look out!"

M'gann and J'ohnn arrived and destroyed the bot just too late as Moroi was hit with the beam. "NO!" Robin screamed devastated. He only just got her back, damn it all! It saw so soul crushing it momentarily distracted Connor outside and he was quickly overpowered by the battleship and shot as well.

M'gann felt a stab go through her heart, making her lose her camouflage as she let go of J'ohnn who caught her. "No" She said shocked, "he's gone." She dropped to the floor, unable to keep her heartbreak contained. Her love, part of her, was gone.

KF and Robin ran back to her and held not her as comfort. "Don't worry, we'll find him with Artemis. I know it." He sounded so sure of himself that it would be a welcomed bliss to believe the lie.

"No." Manhunter interjects. "My mind is clearer now. The disintegration beam is exactly that. There is no detention facility, no prisoners to rescue. Our mission holds no purpose."

Wally stands up angrily and grabs Manhunter by the front of his cape. "No! You're wrong. The Zeta Radiation proves she's alive. She's-!"

His sentence gets cut off by his best friend grabbing him himself. "Stop it, KF. I've been scanning for League and Team signals since we got inside. I would have been able to pick up Moroi's location at least but it's gone. They're not here. Artemis is gone." Wally opens his mouth to try and say something, but he grits his teeth and looks away, holding in tears that threaten to spill. "But our mission still holds purpose. To destroy this mothership." Robin continued on as M'gann stood up and began to follow. She paused at Wally, placing a hand on his shoulder before moving forward with the help of her uncle.

Wally growled and ran to catch up with the others. They ran inside a big open room with a massive glowing yellow orb and 2 bots, hiding behind a piece of the ship. Robin brought up a map on his hologlove. "This is the power core. Blow this and the whole mothership blows."

They all run to the nearest platform. Robin was the first to land but immediately started losing his balance as he was being pulled towards the core. KF grabbed onto him but only managed to get dragged down as well. The strength of the pull soon becomes too strong and the young heroes get dragged off of the platform, falling towards the core. Robin shot a grappling hook back to the platform as M'gann and J'ohnn flew towards them in an attempt to catch them. One of the bots noticed the intruders and walks over to where the cable is attached, taking aim at the defenseless heroes dangling on the cable. Not wanting to lose any more friends, M'gann sped up and kicked the bot with all the power she had, J'ohnn landing a hard blow himself. With the bot destroyed, M'gann lowered the boys safely on top of the core.

Robin detached the bombs belts he had around his torso and prepped them for detonation. KF realized why Robin pushed to finish the mission and didn't react as heavily to everybody being dead. "You knew. You knew from the beginning why we were really here."

Robin looked up, stoic as ever trying to hide the emotional wreck he really is. "Four minutes. Let's go."

As they made their way to the exit, the doors closed in front of them. "Perfect." Robin grunts, looking behind him as more bots started to corner them in. They quickly jump out of they way as the bots opened fire on them.

"Sixteen seconds and counting. Manhunter, take Miss Martian and go."

"No. We won't leave you." M'gann objects. Didn't she lose enough teammate yet?!

"That's an order. We'll follow as soon as we blow those doors." He assured, hoping Manhunter would just take her and go. By luck he actually does and density shifts them outside of the ship.

A knowing look was shared between the remaining 2. They both new they wouldn't make it, but be damned if they didn't go down fighting.

The ship explodes and M'gann cries as she feels her last remaining friends disconnect from the mind link. Her uncle and her were the last known surviving heroes. "Don't… Don't tell me the mission was a success. The price was too high." She sobs, then closes her eyes for a moment, wanting a moment to grieve her fallen teammates. She opens them just as a shadow blocks the light. A second ship descends a little ways in front of where the previous one just stood. Robin was wrong. The mission was useless.

M'gann stumbles forward. "No, no, no. We have to get out of here now." She pleads as she grabs onto her uncle, ready to make a run for it.

J'ohnn looks at the destruction. "No. We have to end this now." He says with such force it's nearly a snarl as he slams his hand through M'gann chest. She cries silently, the light fading out as she stares up at the sky in her uncle's arms.

Trigger warning applies here

Danni

The musing was short lived as that forsaken door opened again followed by a shriek of delight from the clown prince himself. Oh how she wished she could beat that smile off his face and sent him to Arkham in a body cast.

"Oh great you're awake! How is my favorite play toy?" He gleefully bounced over to where the young girl was sitting frozen in place. "I just went out to stretch a bit and send some idiots on an errand but the Bat had to mess with my plans and now I lost half my men to Blackgate! I did think of letting you go since our playtime earlier was just so much fun, but the stupid Bat ruined my mood so be a good girl and cheer me up will ya." He leaned over and grinned as he came eye to eye with her. When she didn't react his grin dropped and signed. "Well if you're not gonna do anything I will just have to make you sing for me!" He yelled as he pinched the pliers shut before ripping them out of her thigh.

The pain was horrendous. She screamed so loud it almost looked like you could see the soundwaves. Tears streamed out of their eyes as all 3 felt the intense pain of the pliers and some bits of attached tissue get yanked out. Blood was gushing out of the wound and combined with the heavy trashing she did, she got the suit dirty.

He did not like that. No sir.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH YOU GOT MY SUIT DIRTY! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD THIS WILL BE TO CLEAN!" He backhanded her across the cheek and pulled out a box. He slowly pulled out a set of chatter teeth and wound them up as he stalked closer to her. The closer he got the more noticeable the teeth had a green glow to them but not bright enough to stay visible under the lamp. "You get to test out my new toy. Had a pal make it for me. Let me know how you like it, okay dolly?" He smirked as he got close enough. The young girl was trying her hardest to get away, to escape the undoubtingly awful pain that the thing was going to inflict. He opened the teeth and let the top row sink into the gaping wound in her thigh as the bottom grabbed onto the other side. As he let go the teeth started chapping open and shut.

It burned. Not like a fire would. No. it burned like her flesh was melting away with every bite the cursed thing took. It felt like thousands of little spikes were sinking into her and making her skin almost evaporate from the immense burning. She tried hard to get it off but the bottom row was already creating a new wound on the bottom of her thigh making them sink in even more and impossible to shake. Green and red were flying out of the wound as the teeth would splatter it everywhere.

"Fun aren't they? The old ones were a bit boring but these got an upgrade. My buddy got these tiny green glowy spikes on each tooth but you can't see them because they're teeny tiny little things. Some cool new element that is only supposed to hurt ghosts. Something like uranium but it wont hurt humans. Seems to be working better than expected." He laughed in a crazed manner as he looked at the damage being done.

Up above Danni tried her best to get it off but for her, there was nothing here, nothing to get off. She was stuck with the burning pain all over. She quickly glanced at Blur who was also fruitlessly slapping at her leg. She had to do a doubletake as she noticed that the red chain was flickering harder and harder as the pain got worse.

Then it was like time slowed down, no matter how cliché it sounds, it felt like forever.

The chain snapped out of existence with an audible crack. There was a wave of energy coming off of Blur. Her hair flowing like the unseen wind was raging through it. Blur dove down to the younger one and merged with her. The younger's eyes snapped open burning toxic green in rage as the residual energy engulfed her whole body. She burned the cursed teeth with ectobeams shooting out of her eyes strained her neck to look over to Joker who had previously wandered to the side to see his beloved new toy in full action. He stared in shock as she stood up effortlessly, floating in place as to not have pressure on her badly injured leg. She raised her arm, reading it to shoot him with another beam when he sprinted to the other side and pulled a lever. From the ceiling dropped a telescopic boxing glove. He slammed the two handles together and the glove extended with the intent of hitting the raging girl. She merely phased through it as Joker reeled it in again and took aim again.

"Oops forgot to switch the setting ehe." He switched the glove from 'bat' to 'ghost' as he dodged a blast. The glove gained a slightly green glow and was shot towards the younger again before she could aim again. This time it hit her straight in the face as she had not anticipated the move. She stumbled back and grabbed her nose, which was likely broken now.

Before she could recover, Joker shot her with a dart. The glow around her started to dim and she grew weaker and dizzier.

"How DARE you attack ME! I am your MASTER I OWN YOU" He yelled as he pulled out his red ring from his pocket and put it back on, pointing it at the shocked child in front of him. "You will not have your own mind, you are MINE NOW OBAY!"

The younger grabbed her head in pain that ricochet to the others above, screaming while trying to shake off an invisible force. Every now and then her eyes cracked open, revealing red and green swirling trying to take dominance.

The older Danni almost screamed in fear as red chains shot out of nowhere from behind her and dove to the younger down below. They reached into the younger's head and rattled with great force, fighting something within the trashing girl. As the chains started to pull back they brought with Blur, who looked ragged and beat up. She was still fighting, reaching back to the younger. More chains shot out as she kept fighting them trying to free herself.

The more Joker yelled at her to listen the more prominent the red became before taking over completely.

The more chains, the weaker she got until they dragged her up and away from the younger.

As her eyes turned a blood red, her trashing stilled and she stood motionless.

Blur was nothing like before. Her colors were about as dull as they can be without turning to grey. Eyes seemed to almost be closed, she couldn't tell anymore. The chains had pulled her to the far corner of the room, about as far away from the younger below as they could. She slumped as far as the glowing metal would allow as she looked hopeless, staring at the younger down below who floated out of the room and into her room to rest as per instruction that went unheard to the elder.

Danni didn't know what to do. She tried to reach out to Blur, only to be ignored and reminded of the intense pain in her leg. None of her injuries seemed to exist outside of the thigh wound and the newfound splitting headache she felt. She opted to just sit and look at Blur. The events of earlier repeating itself over and over. Why did she not know this happened? Why did it even happen? Worst of all, if she didn't remember this, does that mean this could possibly not be the only time something similar happened?

Stuck in thought, she didn't notice the scene shattering around her. It wasn't a fading like the other times. It was like it all reality broke around her.

Trigger warning over

Mount Justice

M'gann shot awake, gasping as she did. She let out another gasp as she looked around and saw Conner, her love, alive and well while petting Wolf. The rest of the team let out groans as they too woke up with a slight headache. "You're all alive!" She exclaims, checking over everybody.

Robin set up, covered in cold sweat. Why were they all back at the cave? They were out on a mission and died all of them, sans M'gann died.

"What happened in there?" Batman's gruff voice cut through the rising tension in Robin's mind. J'ohnn held his head as he explained how the exercise went wrong.

"What do you mean exercise?" Robin demanded confusedly. What kind of sick exercise would make them all die and bring in his sister which nobody but him knew about.

"Try to remember" Batman insisted, "What you experienced was a training exercise. Manhunter psychically linked the six of you within an artificial reality. You all knew this going in. What you didn't know was that it was a train-for-failure exercise. No matter what the Team accomplished, the scenario was designed to grow worse. Still, you were aware nothing was real, including the deaths of the entire Justice League."

"That is why you hardly grieved." Manhunter continued, "Even when Wolf was disintegrated before your eyes."

Connor kept petting Wolf trying to process the information, the memories flooding back. Petting the animal kept him grounded in the present.

"But all that changed when Artemis died."

Wally looks to Artemis as she looks down at her hands in her lap, immediately shifting blame on herself knowing she was the cause of it going wrong.

"Though consciously Miss Martian knew it was not real her subconscious mind could not make that distinction. She forgot it was only an exercise. And her subconscious took control, making all of you forget too." The whole Team turns to a distraught M'gann. She can't believe it was her fault. She caused pain to everybody.

"Uh, I'm… I'm so sorry." She tried looking between both her teammates and her mentors. She was at an utter loss for words.

"This isn't her fault! Why didn't you stop the exercise?" Conner demands, knowing M'gann is blaming herself for it all.

"We tried." Manhunter says strongly. "But M'gann had a death grip on the scenario. Even Artemis, who should have awakened upon her death was so convinced she had passed, she slipped into a coma. I realized I would have to wrestle control from Miss Martian's subconscious from within. But upon entering the reality I was overwhelmed by your collective emotion. There was too much noise to think clearly to remember why I was there. The deaths of Aqualad and Superboy helped. Though the girl whom I do not know had a strong impact by Robin's intense emotional response to her death it did help clear a bit. But only when the mothership exploded, and Robin and Kid Flash were silenced did my mind clear enough to remember my true purpose. To shock M'gann out of the exercise before your comas became permanent."

The team listened in silence. Those who could, remembering everything as he was talking about it. Those who died before, taking in what their teammates had to go through. M'gann turned away from her teammates, crying as silence as she could make herself be as Captain Marvel and Connor tried to console her.

Manhunter turned towards the Dark Knight. "My apologies. I had no idea a training exercise could be so dangerous… so damaging." He turns to leave and nearly collapses, leaving Tornado and Batman to support him.

"As bad as all that?"

"Perhaps worse." Manhunter admit.

Red Tornado made the observation that something else was amiss. "Yet this is not what troubles you."

Batman assists Manhunter to stand again. "Make no mistake. My niece is untrained and cannot be held responsible for this… for our debacle."

"No one blames her." Batman stated. "But clearly we underestimated her abilities."

"You under state it." He pressed, "In terms of raw power, she has the strongest telepathic mind I have ever encountered. Stronger by far than mine." With that Tornado assists Manhunter to sit down to regain his strength.

Batman surveils the team. Some are in their own worlds. Connor is trying to find a way to console M'gann as she cries into Captain Marvel's chest. As his eyes fall on Robin he immediately notices something was wrong. The boy was in deep thought but looked more frustrated than confused or sadden like his teammates.

After giving the team some time, Batman released them to go as they please.

Wally and Artemis went home to their families, no doubt on their way to get their support.

Connor convinced M'gann to go to her room so she could be more alone and away from the others. Every time she'd see one of their saddened faces she would blame herself even more. Marvel almost followed but understood wanting to be alone.

Kaldur, after requesting permission as a reassurance, left for Atlantis hoping the waters and his friends would help him cope.

That leaves Robin, who wordlessly joined Batman as they headed back to the Batcave. Once they got to their private, bat filled base, Batman looked over his ward again. The boy didn't look any better than he did before.

"Something on your mind?" He ask as he removed his cow, unsure how to convey his observation without sounding accusatory.

Robin took off his domino mask and glared at the ground. "Something just doesn't make sense." He started, gripping the mask. Bruce knew to not interrupt and let the boy take his time before continuing. "If this was an exercise, and M'gann took control, then how could she be in there!" He threw his mask out of sheer frustration. Tears started to fill his eyes as he went over the events of her showing up and leading up to her death. She wasn't supposed to be there. Nobody knew who she was except him and he isn't a telepath. So how, HOW, could she have been included. Was it some sick game J'ohnn added? No he would never do that, neither would M'gann, not on purpose at least.

Bruce watched as his ward started to crumble before him. He put a grounding hand on the boy's shoulder and made a move to look him in the eye. "Who was in there?" He asked softly, this wasn't the time for Batman.

Dick shut his eyes tightly and turned his head away, the memories repeating over and over. But it was all an exercise. It wasn't real. Just training gone wrong. If he said it out loud that means it was real and he oh so desperately didn't want it to be real. He didn't want to confess it was his negligence of the surroundings that caused her death. It couldn't be real.

Bruce tried to meet the boy's eyes as he slightly increased his grip on the boy's shoulder. By now he was getting worried. If something was that bad that Dick would want to hide it from him, he thought he might need to shove his upcoming sessions with Dinah to the soonest possible.

The more he tried to not say it the more he wanted to scream. The final push was the grip on his shoulder grounding him back in the here and now. "Danni" he said in a low whisper, tears leaking out of his eyes as he turned from his mentor. "Damn it Bruce! Danni was in there! HOW DID SHE END UP IN THERE!" The boy burst out, staring the older man in his eyes, demanding an answer he know the man didn't have.

Bruce was taken aback. There should have been no way that she ended up in the mission. She wasn't in the plan at all. Was she the unknown girl J'ohnn spoke of?

"How could SHE be in the training unless this was some sick joke you guys planned!" He almost sounded desperate. Desperate to have an answer. To know why it happened even if it was done by the people he trusted most.

Bruce got down on a knee to be closer to Dick's height. "I don't know Dick. We had no control over it, but she wasn't in the original plan that I can assure you. I promise I will talk to Manhunter tomorrow and see if he knows how it happened."

Dick looked down, defeated. Nobody had an answer. But it looked so real. It sounded and acted like her. It felt like her. And she had been taken from him yet again by his own stupid mistake. "It felt so real. She felt real. It's like she was really there with us. She even said where she was all this time. But for it to all be fake and no one even knows why or how." He trailed off as he hugged himself as tears started to fall harder and his breathing sped up.

Bruce immediately grabbed the other shoulder as well, trying to keep the boy grounded enough to avoid the oncoming panic attack. "Dick look at me, what happened was training. None of it was real you have to remember it wasn't real."

"It was real to me Bruce. She even knew to switch languages in case anybody spoke one of them! That isn't something anybody except us knows to do! She even knew about us checking warehouses!" The only thing the yelling was doing is keeping him grounded. Though it was only a temporary fix as he would get closer to hyperventilation every time he stopped talking.

"What about the warehouses?" He pressed on, trying, hoping, that keeping him talking will eventually get him to calm down.

Dick looked down not wanting his mentor to see the defeat in his eyes remembering what she said. "She said they kept moving warehouses every 2 weeks, either unsuspicious ones or the ones we checked. Her current one was one on the outskirts of Arkham City. Apparently she knew where to go after I activated Gotham's defenses to protect the city. Even those weren't enough to save her."

The elder frowned. It seemed oddly specific that anybody would know any of this information. Though extremely unlikely, he couldn't rule out that M'gann accidentally connected with her. He made a mental note to be sure to ask J'ohnn later on. But right now he had a ward to calm down.

Dick didn't even need to be prompted to keep talking, once he started it had to all come out. "It's my fault she's gone. I didn't make her stay back from the suicide mission. I should have made her stay but I was so caught up with having her by my side again I didn't realize what I had done until it was too late. She sacrificed herself because I was too dumb to keep an eye on my surroundings instead of only on the one bot we knew was there. If I had known, if I had done what I had to do then she wouldn't have pushed me aside! I led her straight to her own death and it's all my fault! It's all my fault!" The boy ended in a string of sobs, completely losing grip and falling into a panic attack.

Bruce acted quickly, knowing that there was nothing he could do right now to break through to the boy. Pulling out a syringe, he sedated the sobbing mess in front of him and let his partner calm down and fall limply in his arms.

"Oh my." Alfred stood on the bottom of the stairs, having heard everything after being alerted of his masters' return. Bruce picked up the resting boy and walked over to Alfred who took him carefully. Taking his young master in his arms he looked questionably at his older master. "Can you please put him in his bed?" Bruce asked as he stalked over to the massive computer and started bringing up maps of Arkham City.

Alfred already knew what he was planning to do. "Very well sir. Do try to get some rest yourself. It has been stressful for the both of you and you have a meeting with Mister Fox at 10 o' clock." With that said, he retreated up the stairs leaving the broody Bat to likely not get much sleep until he drinks some tea heavily laced with sedatives.

REVIEWS:

GotNoName123: Thanks, hopefully this one is too your liking as well

Zela Night: sorry it took so long, hopefully this is satisfying enough for that 3 year wait

Shadow Arbitor: Oh lord if you thought that was bad I hope that this wasn't too gruesome

That was it for now. Hope you guys liked it and my apologies for the hiatus and the trigger warnings.

After 5 years I'm almost hitting 16k views. I am so grateful for every single one of them.

To each one of my viewers, thank you for being here with me.

Peace out my dudes.

PikaWings ;)