A/N: So, umm, I accidentally introduced Zatanna in the Injustice League chapter even though this was supposed to be her debut. Oops!

Bleeding Multiverse

Chapter Ten: Vulcan's Forge and Training Gone Wrong

Mount Justice Oct 10

I was completely enjoying the week, even with Wally using his broken arm as an excuse to get out of training, though I was surprised about one thing. Zatanna had been introduced to the team for my trial partly to ensure there wasn't a tie and partly because her father was thinking of letting her join Young Justice. However, we had yet to see heel nor hat from her. Finally though, today, Giovanni arrived with Zatanna for a proper test run with the team to see how she fit in with our current dynamic. Speaking of whom, she was not dressed in her usual comic book getup. No top hat, no heels, and certainly no fishnet tights, though that didn't stop Dick from flirting with her. That … was a little weird for me, as I'd only known her to have relationships with either John Constantine … and Batman himself. Anyone else get the impression we're still on probation with Zatara? M'gann asked, interrupting my train of thought.

Not just Zatara, Kon agreed. I mean, why is Marvel still hanging around?

Because he likes us, I answered. Trust me, if his little secret ever comes out, you'll understand why he likes hanging with us over the League.

What kind of secret? Wally and Artemis demanded in unison.

Let's just say it's the kind of thing you have to see to believe, I answered with a smirk, making sure to hide it behind a mental shield. The truth would utterly blow their minds if/when it came out! As for Zatara, I'm betting he's the over-protective type of dad. Honestly though, I'd prefer Canary as a permanent den mother, at least she teaches us something.

"Are you guys having a psychic conversation? Because I can't decide if that's cool, or really rude," Zatanna butted in.

"Busted," I said with a smile. "Sorry, we were trying to have a conversation without the adults listening in. With M'gann's telepathy providing secure comms on missions, we've gotten used to it." That did remind me of something and I turned to Dinah. "However, we would like to know if you've made any progress on the Reds investigation. It's been two weeks since the attack and we've had nothing but silence from you."

"He's one of our highest priorities, and we've been trying to track down not only the androids but T O Morrow as well. There's been no luck as of yet, but Tornado is Justice League. You are not to pursue this." We shared a look. As if we'd actually listen to that order. Morrow's creations had attacked us directly twice. Tornado may be Justice League, but Morrow had made it clear that we were his targets and chosen enemies, not them. Giovanni was quick to suggest that we take her on a tour of the cave, to which we agreed easily.

Once we got to the kitchen, and out of the hearing range of any adult outside of a Kryptonian, Zatanna straight out asked "We're not actually going on a tour, are we?"

"Nope! We're going to go on a little field trip to find Red Tornado," I said with a smile.

"Wait, can we trust new girl?" Artemis asked. But the second that Zatanna suggested that we 'kidnap' her, she changed her mind. "Oh, she's going to fit in great."

We left a few minutes later, with me telling Canary that we were showing her some of the bioships' capabilities. Robin immediately stated that considering Batman had spent two weeks trying to find Morrow and found nothing, so we needed an illogical, dumb idea. For some reason, everyone turned to me and Wally. "Well, there's always one idea-" I started.

"Go to Ivo, his biggest rival," Wally continued. "Who better to keep track of what he's up to and where?" we finished together. And that was without a single hint of telepathy!

A few hours, a stop at Belle Reve and a magic spell later and we were over Morrow's secret base in Yellowstone. Naturally, the others were curious about Zatanna's powers. Zatanna was quick to talk down her magic, but I wasn't going to let her demean herself. "Trust me, Zatanna, you are far more powerful than even you know. There are people out there who think you could challenge the most powerful witch from my own universe, if not actually defeat her."

"And how powerful is she?"

"At one point, she took the population of mutants down from millions to a grand total of 198 with only three words. You have more potential than I think even you realize."

Upon arriving, I immediately activated Terry's suit and his camouflage mode, and just as we arrived where we had detected Morrow's base, Red Tornado attacked us. I turned visible just long enough to get hit by a twister and send a holographic double to the ground before taking to the skies again. However, Tornado's plan was a complete failure, and the final Red started the battle again, while insulting us as 'meatbags.' "Great, one of those," I grumbled. One Ultron type was bad enough!

"One of those?" Zatanna asked.

"Robots who think they're better than organic life. They tend to be the genocidal kind of villain," I explained. Red Volcano proved me right by causing the supervolcano to start erupting, something that would easily devastate life on the planet. I could think of only one way to stop him, and I charged right at him.

Naturally, he caught me. "Stupid meatbag. Did you honestly think that would work?"

"Honestly, no," I answered, as I placed my hands on his head and my feet at his waist.

"You can't escape me that way, meatbag."

"Who said anything about escaping? Friday, fire everything!" My AI then fired off all five of my repulsors, including the unibeam into the robot. Friday quickly warned me that I'd run out of power soon, but I yelled at her "I said everything!" When I ran out of power, Red Volcano was in four pieces: only his limbs had survived the heat.

Unfortunately, Volcano had been at the top of a pillar when I attacked him, which meant that since I couldn't fly any longer, I immediately started falling. Fortunately, Kon caught me, and the Reds stopped Yellowstone from erupting. "Well, that's probably bought us a few centuries before a proper eruption," I stated. "Thanks for the catch, Kon."

"Any time," he replied with a smile. When we returned, after dropping Tornado off with his dying 'father,' Zatara announced that Zatanna was grounded for life, meaning that she probably wouldn't be joining us any time soon.

Mount Justice-October 16-16:01

We watched as the space contingent of the League (supposedly) confronted the unknown aliens, and fell without a single strike against them. When Red Tornado turned to us suggesting that they might fail (as we knew they would,) Kaldur responded as we had agreed to. "We stand ready." Not twenty minutes after that, the rest of the League was 'annihilated,' leaving us to face the threat alone. We quickly formulated a plan to attack a lone scout ship near Superman's Fortress and headed out, after yelling at Wally for his tactless verbal assault on the aliens. Kon actually took it pretty well, offering to take most of us on a tour afterwards.

When we arrived at the location of the scout ship, we quickly disabled the ship and detached the weapon, 'losing' only Wolf in the process. Then things started going south, as two more ships came after us. Artemis and I managed to bring them both down, but one of them still managed to fire and 'kill' Artemis. Problem was, M'gann and Wally forgot it was a training simulation and reacted as though it were real. Wally was so mad that he swore to kill all of the aliens! (And he claims not to love her, the silly twip.) But even we couldn't blame him, we were all upset at losing Artemis. (But she was safe, wasn't she?) After that, we flew to Washington to make a stand there. Strangely enough, I realized that I was starting to suffer from a bad headache, but I pushed through, though I would definitely be taking some aspirin when we finished. Assuming I came out of this alive. (But this was just training … wasn't it?)

We quickly ran into General Eiling and saved him and his men, only to find J'onn J'onnzz buried under rubble in the Hall of Justice. Weird, but I thought the plan was that we do this without League assistance. Wait, League assistance? Isn't the League dead? My mind was starting to waver for some reason. What was going on? Anyways, Wally came up with a crazy idea that the weapons were actually teleporters, but neither Robin nor I were convinced. During the retreat from the Hall of Justice to the Cave, first the Bioship, then Kaldur fell.

Our next job was to take down the mothership that had landed on top of Smallville. I looked at Robin, who'd taken over leadership, and I knew from the way he looked that there was only one way this mission could end. Kon played distraction while the rest of us got inside. I destroyed as many ships as I could, but it wasn't enough, and Kon … Kon died as well. I could feel it the moment it happened, as we'd formed a telepathic bond that survived even the loss of my powers, and it went silent. For just a moment, in the grief that was almost as strong as losing Uncle Johnny, I felt my old power surge, but it died as quickly as Kon did. Wally tried to convince us he was alive, but Dick shut it down by mentioning that he'd been searching for signals since we got inside and found nothing.

The moment we arrived at the central core, I forced everyone to stay back. "That's a fusion reactor, essentially a miniature sun. If we get too close, we'll be pulled in." Rob pulled out his explosives, only for me to pick them up. "Look Rob, we knew this was a suicide mission, at least let it be only me who dies here. Besides, someone needs to battle Luthor's help with rebuilding the world after this. And who better than the heir to the Wayne fortune, Dick Grayson?" Dick and Wally stared at me in shock, but were quick to agree. "KF, get him out of here, now!" Wally looked like he was going to protest, but he did eventually leave. With that, I did something I never thought I would need to do. "Activate self-destruct sequence. Authorization: Apokalypse-Final-Darkseid-Crisis-E00-Bludhaven, confirm." Authorization code accepted, awaiting final code to begin silent sixty-second countdown. "Code: Odym-Hope-Polaris-Ganthet, activate." Code accepted, self-destruct in sixty seconds. As my suit powered up for the self-destruct, I started calling out the two oaths that would help Earth survive the assault.

"In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night

No Evil Shall Escape My Sight

Let Those who Worship Evil's Might,

Beware My Power: Green Lantern's Light!"

Willpower fully charged. Self-destruct in thirty seconds.

"In Fearful Day, In Raging Night

With Strong Hearts Full, Ours Souls Ignite

When All Seems Lost in the War of Light

Look to the Stars, For Hope Burns Bright!"

Hope fully charged. Self-destruct in three . . . Two . . . One.

As Tony's suit exploded, a large beam of will flew up into the sky, destroying all the alien ships over the earth. At the same time, a beam of pure hope raced to the Sun, reducing its' age by several million years. However, the blast also took out the entire ship and all those inside, including Dick and Wally, who had had to stop using his speed after vibrating the duo through a door. Only M'gann and J'onn were left alive to watch as another alien ship descended on Smallville, just outside the blast radius. As such, J'onn managed to break through M'gann's grief and revive her by driving his hand into her chest.

Mount Justice-October 16-16:21

M'gann woke up, surprised to see everyone alive, and Batman asked J'onn "What happened in there?"

"I'll tell you what happened in there Bats. Because you didn't warn us about it being a Kobayashi Maru-type scenario, M'gann accidentally made us believe it was real. Slag it, even I believed it was real after Kon 'died,' and I could stand up to nearly every telepath I've ever met. The only other one I've met that has that much power on this Earth is Psimon," Tony growled out.

"What are you talking about, Torch?" Robin asked.

"He is correct. It was only an exercise, that is why you hardly grieved, even when Wolf was disintegrated before your very eyes. But all that changed when Artemis died. 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, eventually." M'gann attempted to apologize, but Kon didn't let her, asking why they didn't stop the exercise.

J'onn picked up the explanation again. "We tried, but M'gann had a death grip on the scenario. Artemis, who should have awakened upon her 'death' was so convinced she had passed, she slipped into a coma. Remember, even Torch's strong mind had begun to believe that it was real. I realized that I would have to wrest 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, but only when Torch killed himself, Robin and Kid Flash did my mind clear enough to remember my true purpose: to shock M'gann out of the exercise before your comas became permanent."