Chapter 7

Bialya

Draken groaned as he slowly opened his eyes to his surroundings. He noticed that he was in a desert for some reason with the sun in the center of the sky confirming it was the middle of the afternoon.

"What happened?" he moaned as he brought a hand to his head. It was pounding in agony and his skull throbbed. "Shouldn't I be in the castle? Did Godbrand finally manage to get me drunk?"

Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet. "No, it's impossible for me to get drunk. Then again, I've never actually drank before." Draken bent down and felt the sand. Obviously it was hot, yet soft and silky

"Okay, I know I had plans to go to Gresit, but I don't remember Gresit being a Desert Land" he said with a sign. "What exactly is going on?" He stepped forwards and slid down the dune he was standing on. He looked over the horizon and bent down. With a grunt, he flew forward in silence while observing his environment.

"Hello?" Draken stopped as he heard the call of a voice in his head

"That was unexpected" he muttered

"Hi!" Draken spun around, and behind him, was a girl around his age. She had red hair with a streak of blonde in it. Her skin was green and a splash of freckles decorated her nose. She wore a black uniform with a red 'X' over her chest and a blue cloak around her shoulders. "I'm M'gann! I-is this Earth?"

"Is she a Demon? No, she doesn't smell like one." Draken thought. "Who are you?"

"I'm a Martian! Have you heard of my Uncle J'onn? The Martian Manhunter?"

"No." Draken said. "Do all Martian's have green skin?"

M'gann blinked and folded her arms in front of her. "Um, no, some of them are white."

"I see," Draken muttered, "So, where are we exactly?"

"It looks like a desert."

"Very astute of you." Draken said dryly. "So, now that we've established we're in a desert, we should probably find some kind of civilization."

"Sounds good."

"So, do you know which way the nearest city is?" Draken asked

"No, but I don't think that's an issue."

"Why's that?"

M'gann pointed into the distance. "I think civilization is coming to us." Draken looked and saw a dust cloud in the distance. He narrowed his eyes and peered at the cloud. He saw three massive machines moving towards them, each piloted by men in green uniforms.

"What are those things?" he asked.

"I think they're tanks," said M'gann, "I saw them on a news feed once."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Only if they're driven by bad people." The engines of the tanks roared as they circled around Draken and M'gann.

"Hands up!" shouted a soldier that popped out of one them, "The Queen wants you alive!" He spoke in a foreign language but Draken seemed to understand him

"Why can I understand his language?" Draken thought

The long guns of the tanks swiveled to face Draken. "I said hands up!"

Draken just stood there with M'gann behind him. "Are you familiar with death?" Draken asked the girl

"I…no" she whispered back, "I still don't know how I got to Earth in the first place."

"Stay behind me, I'll try taking them out without killing them" he intoned quietly.

M'gann nodded. "Sounds good to me. What are you going to do?"

"Put them on Ice." M'gann quickly laced her fingers with Draken's causing the boy to raise a brow but didn't say anything.

Just as Draken was about to cast an Ice spell, there was a whistling sound as something flew through the air and landed with a craterous crash in front of Draken, veiled by a thick cloud of sand that had burst up when it landed. As the dust settled, a muscular teen boy with a ripped black shirt stood up and glared angrily at the tanks. The soldier timidly retreated into his tank as a round was shot point blank into the teen boy's chest. Draken winced at the smoke and fire that erupted around the strange teen, but it cleared to reveal that the teen boy was totally unaffected. Well, perhaps not completely unaffected, he was now much angrier.

With an animalistic roar, the teen launched himself at the tank and ripped it in half with his bare hands. Draken just watched silently as M'gann stood next to him and watched in awe as the boy turned what was left of the tank into scrap mental. The other tanks swiveled their guns to face the new threat and the boy screamed in fury as more shots were loosed on him. He jumped in front of one of them and grabbed it by the barrel of its massive gun. With a grunt, he picked up the tank and swung it into the distance. Everyone watched as the tank exploded as it landed in the desert.

The mystery boy launched himself after it, the rest of the tanks following him and pelting him with pesky mortar shells that he brushed off like bugs. "Well that just happened," sighed Draken.

"I," started M'gann, "I have no idea what just happened."

Draken then rubbed his aching head. "Okay," he muttered "Let's start at square one. I fell asleep in my room in the Castle last night and I woke up in the middle of the desert with no recollection of how I got there.

"Same here," said M'gann grimly, " I fell asleep on Mars and just woke up here out of the blue."

Draken signed. "Let's move."

"You seem awfully calm about our predicament."

"Try having the physical embodiment of Death as your teacher."

"That was a joke right?"

"No."

"Do you know where you're going?" M'gann asked as she floated behind him.

"No."

"Oh," she said quietly, "Okay then."

After a few minutes of walking, the martian was sweating profusely. Draken glanced over at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she said, wiping her brow, "Just…my physiology is used to…colder climates." Hearing this Draken took off his cape and wrapped it around M'gaan

She sighed contentedly as her skin cooled in the nice shade. "Thanks uh"

"Draken, Draken Tepes."

"I'm M'gaan."

"Alright M'gaan, let's get moving."

M'gann sighed contentedly and gazed around. "I still can't believe I'm on Earth! I've always wanted to come here. It's not exactly as I imagined, but it's still really cool. I just wish I could remember how I got here."

Draken shrugged. "When you met me, you spoke in my head right?"

M'gann's eyes widened. "Hello Megan! That's it! Hang on!" M'gann folded her legs and floated in mid air. Her face scrunched up in concentration as her eyes glossed over and began to glow. "I remember," she whispered, "The boy we saw…his name is Superboy…I made cookies for our team."

Draken stopped and stared at her. "Team?"

"Yes," she murmured, "We're one a team with Superboy…a boy called Wally…Artemis…Robin." Her eyes burst open and she practically tackled Draken with a hug. "I'm on a team!" she squealed excitedly, "I have friends!"

"That's good to hear."

For a moment, Draken stood still letting her embrace him. She realized what she was doing and pulled back with a deep blush that contrasted beautifully with her green skin. "Finally, some progress." said Draken, "Do you think you can find the other members of our team? That might be the key to restoring our memories."

M'gann nodded and focused again. "Hello?" her voice rang in Draken's head, "Um, Team? Can anybody hear me?" After a few seconds, there was still no response and M'gann grunted. "They must be out of my telepathic range."

"Then let's take to the sky. We'll be able to cover more grounds that way." Draken said causing M'gann to nod as they both started to fly.

"You getting anything?" he asked

"Nothing yet," said M'gann as she twirled around a small plateau.

"I think I just found our missing teammates." Draken said

M'gann blinked. "How? Where?"

"That way. The Boy we ran into earlier is there with a couple others and some tanks."

M'gann immediately swiveled and launched in the direction Draken had indicated. Sure enough, a smoke cloud soon appeared on the skyline. As they grew closer, Draken saw the boy from before ripping into more tanks while a red-headed boy in a black, streamlined suit ran in the opposite direction so fast that he barely had time, keeping up with him. When he did get a fix on him, Draken saw he was carrying a girl in a green uniform who wielded a bow. As he watched, the speedster tripped over a rock and fell across the sand, skidding slightly from the momentum. As he and the girl rolled to a stop, twin drones flew overhead.

In that moment Draken dashed forward. "Down." he grunted, grabbing both of the teens by their collars and forcing them to the sand as bullets rained down above them.

"Who're you?!" shouted the speedster as the drones flew past.

"A friend, I think." As the drones began to circle around, the archer drew an arrow and took aim.

"Don't worry! We're here!" M'gann shouted telepathically. The archer's shot swung wide as she stumbled in surprise.

"Did-did you just here a girl in your head?!" she gasped.

"Girls are always on my mind," quipped the speedster as he caught his breath, "But they're not usually talking."

"Really now?" Draken grunted. Suddenly, the two drones spun into each other with a fiery explosion that rocked the dunes. M'gann became visible and flew down in front of the fire, casting a warm shadow over her body

M'gann smiled sheepishly as she landed. The speedster sighed in relief and stepped forwards. "Well, J'onn, the costume looks familiar, but I'm not sure the new body really screams 'Manhunter'."

M'gann's eyes widened. "You know my Uncle J'onn?" She abruptly slapped herself on the forehead. "Hello Megan! Of course you do! You're Kid Flash! Wally!" She turned to the archer. "And you're Artemis!"

"And this guy is?" the archer, Artemis, asked, jerking her thumb at Draken.

"Draken," he said simply, "I'm with her."

"Wait, wait!" sputtered the speedster, apparently named Wally, in confusion, "Martian Manhunter's your uncle? Is that how you know my name?"

"It's okay!" insisted M'gann, "We're teammates! Friends! I made you cookies!"

Artemis looked past Draken at Wally. "You know her?"

Wally raised his hands in defense. "No! I swear beautiful! Never seen her before in my life!"

M'gann sighed in disappointment. "You both lost your memories too, huh?"

Draken looked in the distance. "We should move. It looks like things are getting messy out there." The others looked where he inticated and nodded in agreement when they saw the dozens of smoke plumes and wreaked tanks that the feral boy had left in his wake.

"I'll fill you in as we go," said M'gann, "Robin and Superboy need our help."

Wally sighed as Artemis began to follow Draken and M'gann. "Of course. Robin and Super-what now?"

As they walked along, M'gann told Wally and Artemis about the tanks and what she'd managed to remember. By the time she was finished, the red sky was turning black and a silver moon was rising.

"So what now?" asked Artemis.

Draken said. "We keep walking. Eventually we'll hit civilization and we can work things out from there." Suddenly, he stopped and Artemis bumped into him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Draken narrowed his eyes. "There's a boy dressed like a traffic light a few dunes over that way," he said quietly, "He's moving east."

M'gann gasped. "That must be Robin!"

"Let's move!" The team ran after Draken as he led them through a maze of sand dunes. The sand was fairly loose, which made it possible for Draken to see straight through the dunes with ease. "He's under attack!" he said, "An ambush! Wally! Go ahead and help him!" Wally nodded and shot forwards past Draken. "Artemis! Up on that dune! M'gann! Go invisible and get a bird's eye view! Move!" The two girls nodded and split up as Draken rounded a dune.

A large group of soldiers were attacking the oddly dressed boy who Draken guessed must be Robin. Wally had run between several of them and laid their guns in a pile while Robin demonstrated exemplary hand-to-hand combat with the soldiers. In the middle of the action was a large machine.

Draken darted forwards, hitting two soldiers from behind as they went flying with twin cries of surprise and pain. He spun and landed, backhanding a third soldier knocking him out hard. With the soldiers delt with, he turned to face the group.

Robin shook hands with Wally. "KF! Good to see a familiar face!"

"Memory loss?" said Wally sympathetically.

"Six months! Let's hog tie these creeps and compare notes." With that said, Draken tied up each of the soldiers as M'gann enlightened Robin.

"So, we're a team," he mused eventually.

"Yes, the five of us and Superboy," M'gann confirmed.

"Superboy, huh? This must be his," Robin drew out a ripped, black cloth with a red 'S' emblem on it.

"Yes!" said M'gann, "Did you see him?"

"Was it feral boy?" asked Wally with a grunt, "Some teammate. He attacked us!"

"He didn't know who we are," defended Artemis, "I don't know who we are!"

"I remember Batman ordering Radio silence," offered Robin, "Our team must work for him!"

Wally raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? How do you know our team doesn't work for my mentor?" He poked himself on the chest and his outfit suddenly morphed to a red and yellow variant. "Whoa!" he said in surprise as he pressed his chest again and his uniform turned back to black. The others quickly tried to press their emblems, but nothing happened. Artemis swatted at Wally's hand as he kept pressing his chest.

"We need our memories back!" she complained. M'gann looked around guiltily and focused her mind. There was a flash and Draken stumbled forwards. He looked around and saw he was surrounded by darkness. His teammates stood by him, all equally confused. From the darkness, M'gann emerged, brining with her a small dome of purple crystals that flashed brief images.

"Where are we?" he asked.

M'gann stepped forwards, each step illuminating the space. "I brought you into my mind," she said nervously, "To share what I've remembered so far."

"This is your mind?" Draken said impressed "Beautiful."

"I need your help," said M'gann, trying desperately not to blush in front of the others, "Together, our broken memories can form a whole, if you allow me into your minds."

Artemis folded her arms. "You want to paw through our private thoughts?"

"No! No!" cried M'gann, "I don't want to intrude, but-"

"You need to hack our minds to rock what happened to us," interrupted Robin lazily, "Got it. Go."

Wally grinned. "My brain's all yours! Try not to be overwhelmed by its brilliance."

Robin snorted. "Or underwhelmed. Hey, why isn't anybody just whelmed?"

"Did you finally break?" Draken blankly asked

"Heh, Deja Vu." Robin muttered

Artemis still looked hesitant, but Wally saw her expression and gently took her hand to reassure her. "Just the last six months," she said with a sigh, "And only what you need." M'gann nodded and psychic hands grew from her head and grabbed each of their minds. With a flash of blinding light, Draken remembered everything.

He remembered killing his father. He remembered being sent into the future. He remembered walking into the Cave where Batman was giving a debriefing.

. . .

"The Watchtower detected an immense power surge in the Bialyan desert," said Batman, "Spectral analysis revealed elements non terrestrial in origin. Find out what happened at that site, what landed there." Draken glanced around at his team, all in costume and itching to leave. "Bialya is a rogue state," continued Batman, "Ruled by Queen Bee, it is not a member of the League's U.N. charter. All communications are subject to interception. Maintain radio silence at all times."

. . .

They landed in Qurac, on Bialya's border. "All clear," said M'gann. Superboy was lugging a heavy machine on his back as they walked out into the desert. M'gann turned invisible and flew off into the night.

A few minutes later, she returned and became visible. "The Bialyan control sight is just over those dunes," she whispered.

"Set up here," ordered Draken. Superboy dropped the machine he carried and Robin immediately turned it on and began scanning the area.

"Jackpot!" he whispered, "The whole area's lousy with Zeta Beam radiation!"

Wally peered over his shoulder. "There are extra terrestrial elements in the tent."

Draken nodded. "Ms. Martian, check it out in camouflage mode."

Superboy glanced over. "Be careful," he warned.

"And maintain telepathic contact," said Kaldur.

"I will, Aqualad."

. . .

As one, their eyes snapped open and the black world of M'gann's mind faded from around them. "Aqualad!" they exclaimed as one.

"Where is he?" urged Robin, "What happened next?"

"I don't know!" M'gann whispered fearfully, "That's all I-we remember!"

Draken then turned to Robin. "Can you find him on GPS?"

"Now that I know to look for him," said Robin, opening up his wrist computer, "He's close! But he's not moving!"

"Lead the way!" Robin ran forwards into the desert and the others followed. Kaldur was only two dunes over, lying on the ground and mumbling in Atlantean.

Robin slid next to him. "He's drying out!" he hissed as he felt Kaldur's arm.

M'gann rested his head on her lap. "I can't restore his memories in this condition! He needs immediate rehydration!"

"Call the Bioship! Which I just remembered we had!" said Artemis.

M'gann shook her head. "It's out of range! Wally, can you get him there?"

"He's too heavy," grimaced Wally, "And I'm low on fuel."

"Hold him." Draken said stretching his hand and in an instant Kaldur was encased in water. It didn't take long until he started to stir.

"Woah!" Wally muttered

"He should be waking up soon. When he does, the rest of you take him to the ship. M'gaan and I will find Superboy." Draken said cutting his spell

M'gann blinked. "Why?"

Draken faced her . "You're the only one who can restore his memories, and I'm the only one who can bring him down long enough for you to enter his mind."

"I don't know," said M'gann as she stood, "Six months ago, he didn't exist. He has no real memories for me to restore, I don't know if I can."

"We have to try," said Draky grimly, "Come on." He flew back towards the machine with M'gann floating behind me.

He pulled back and held M'gann at arm's length. "I…I think I can feel him," she said, "This way." She flew forwards and Draken followed. A few dunes later, they came across a large tent surrounded by soldiers. "He's in pain," she whispered. Immediately, there was a wretched cry of pain from within the tent and a burst of light that cast a shadow over the desert.

"No time for sneaking around then," Draken grunted, "I'll make a distraction. Get in there and free him." He started walking into the middle of the camp causing multiple soldiers to aim at him

"Suzaku." he muttered, as a Geoglyph appeared on the ground summoning the ancient brid who created a small hurricane of fire. Several soldiers were flung back as reinforcements ran out from the tent.

"Refrain from killing them. I have business to attend to." The soldiers opened fire at the strange beast before them, but their bullets shattered against it's skin. Suzaku growled and lunged at the soldiers as Draken walked into a tent.

Before he could reach the tent, a cyclone suddenly ripped apart said tent leaving frightened scientists grasping onto random equipment with M'gaan and Psimon staring at each other intently in the center. Draken walked through the wind making his way to M'gaan's side, who was floating slightly in the air. As he made physical contact with her, he was suddenly transported into a floating amalgam of buildings where he was held in the center of a green bubble with Psimon shooting a massive beam of crimson mental energy at her barely defending shield. Everything around them began to fade as her memories began to erase themselves quickly; M'gaan furrowed her brow and shouted, "Not again!" her psionic waves exploded outwards returning everything back to the way it was. She continued to fire back with emerald mental energy bolts slamming into the psychic villain.

"Draken?" She was only able rejoice for a moment as she reeled back from another psychic attack from her opponent, "He's too strong, I can't beat him!"

"Yes you can." Draken said calmly as floated up to meet her eyes, "I believe in you!"

"But, he has so much more skill and experience and-" Draken interrupted by grabbing her hand in his own and tightening his grip.

"You are so much stronger than you think you are; you're one of the strongest and kindest person I know. I believe you can do anything and that includes kicking this guys ass." Draken added with a smirk

"Touching," Psimon scoffed as he crossed his arms, "and by all means, kick my psychic ass," he sent a thicker wave of mental fire at her, being deflected by a Dark shield. She was dumbfounded but, she didn't lose her momentum. Draken then turned his eyes back to the enemy. "The only reason you were able to erase our memory is because we were caught of guard. You will not get another chance at that again." he let loose a blast of Dark energy at the man who went wide eyed as he was knocked away and began trying to re-balance himself.

M'gaan nodded to him and he nodded back with a knowing gaze, "Together." She said as they lifted their clasped hands and fired a dark-and-green massive wave of mental and mystical energy at the psychic-mad-man. Psimon, who had finally gained his balance, was knocked aback into the mental-space once again, this time he put up a shield which held for only a second against the enormous mental blast.

His shield begun cracking and withering away, "How? You shouldn't be capable of this!"

"You have no idea what I'm capable of!" M'gaan shouted before her eyes turned white and her forehead unleashed a beam of energy which pierced Psimon's clear-skull and connected with brain destroying his mental self in a massive explosion; He screamed in agony on the outside as his psyche was shattered to pieces.

"Artemis, Robin and Wally entered the collapsed-tent with arrows flying across the room incapacitating scientists and destroyed equipment; one arrow landed on the console that trapped the sphere like alien device releasing it from its bounds. It beeped happily at Artemis whilst Robin shoved an bat-a-rang through the computer console unlatching Superboy's restraints and allowing him to fall to the ground with a breath of air.

He snarled backing away from them all just as Draken and M'gaan stepped through the tent supporting each other as best they could, "Trust me," M'gaan smiled, "as she placed her fingers on his forehead and every single memory for the last four months rushed into his head one after the other as he suddenly remembered everything about the mission, "So, did we win?" Superboy asked causing Draken to smile.