This one is kind of long, I combine two different episodes and there wasn't a good point to really stop so this is what happened.

*****

The team watched as the Justice League went up against a large space ship, it took them all out within a few minutes. When all of the Leaguers fighting were gone Red Tornado got a call from Zatara, "Tornado, did you..."

Red Tornado spoke, "Yes Zatara, we saw, celestial defenses have failed, initiate all terrestrial measures."

"Affirmative, see you in the field."

Tornado turned to the heroes, "I must join the League, we will protect the planet at all costs, but should we fail, the responsibility falls to you."

Aqualad looked at all of them before speaking, "We stand ready."

After Red Tornado left Robin pulled up news reports from other parts of the world to see what was going on. One by one they watched as the Leaguers were killed, several different cities were being attacked and all of the heroes were eventually killed. After a while Red Tornado contacted them, "Red Tornado to cave, I fear I am all that remains of the League."

Robin responded, "RT."

When he didn't answer they knew he must have been killed too, that meant that they were the only ones left to stop the aliens. Aqualad spoke, "We are Earth's heroes now."

Superboy looked at him, "So what are we waiting for, a theme song?"

Aqualad looked at him, "A strategy, Earth's weapons are ineffective, and it has been made tragically clear a direct attack will not succeed."

Robin used his holo-glove, "Checking satellite imagery." He pulled up a holographic image of the world and it had red spots on it, "Here's where the aliens are now."

Superboy pointed to one, "This one get lost?"

Spirit spoke, "It's at Superman's fortress of solitude."

Superboy looked shocked and confused, "Superman has a fortress of solitude?"

Robin spoke, "It's power source must have attracted the aliens attention, at least enough to send a scout ship to investigate."

Superboy looked away, "Must be some fortress." Spirit mentally sighed and he realized that his head hurt a little, he didn't like this whole thing.

Aqualad spoke, "We will target this lone ship."

Kid Flash spoke, "Yeah, break it down, build more, hit those ugly aliens with their own mojo."

Artemis elbowed him in the side, "Martian and Kryptonian in the house."

Kid Flash laughed nervously, "Not that all aliens are automatically ugly." Spirit rolled his eyes and they headed to the bio-ship so they could go to Superman's fortress. Most of them dressed in warmer clothing before they left and they flew to where they needed to go.

After a while Kid Flash looked at Spirit, "Okay, why are you the only one not dressed in warmer clothes?"

Spirit looked at him, "I'm a ghost, the cold doesn't bother me." The others looked at him strangely, aside from Robin, but they landed which made it so he didn't have to answer anymore questions.

Artemis got ready and Miss Martian flew up in camouflage mode, she used her powers to break of the communications from the ship. The ship fell from the air and landed on the ground, 'Communications disabled, propulsion disabled.'

Artemis shot it with a foam arrow and covered the large red window before the ship started shooting at everything. 'And ETs are sealed inside.'

Aqualad broke up the ice before landing on the ship, the cannon was about to shoot him but Wolf attacked it and forced it to aim away from him. Superboy held the canon in place and Robin jumped onto the ship before scanning the cannon, 'Identifying weapon structural stress points and links to the ship.'

After a few seconds Robin pointed to three places on the cannon and Miss Martian used her powers to break them. Spirit flew over to help Superboy get the cannon off the ship and Spirit heard something odd, before he could react Wolf pushed Superboy out of the way. Wolf was killed by the feedback from the cannon and everyone stared in shock, Miss Martian spoke, 'Wolf.'

Robin checked the scans of the cannon, 'There was no indication of feedback, I'm sorry."

Superboy looked away for a second before he replied, 'Can't do anything for him now.' Superboy jumped back onto the ship and Spirit helped him get the cannon off of the ship, once they got it off Superboy brought it over to the bio-ship. Miss Martian spoke, 'Rerouting systems to integrate weapon into the ships bio-matrix, I'll need to de-camouflage for a few minutes.'

Spirit spoke, 'We might not have a few minutes.'

Aqualad looked at Miss Martian, "Miss Martian open fire!'

She looked at him, 'Can't, weapon systems are offline to incorporate the new cannon, and that's not fully integrated yet either.'

Spirit spoke, 'I'll handle it, get inside the bio-ship, now!' Spirit shot at the new ships with his ecto-blasts and ran toward the bio-ship, one of the ships was only partially destroyed and the cannon pointed at him as he ran.

Miss Martian spoke, 'Spirit, behind you!'

Spirit turned just in time to see the cannon fire at him, he didn't have time to react before he got hit. The last thing he heard was Miss Martian yelling his name, seconds later he bolted upright from where he was lying down. Spirit looked at Batman, "Something's wrong, I don't know what but something is very wrong."

Batman looked ever so slightly confused, "What are you talking about?"

"You and I both know that my instincts are stronger then a normal persons because of what I am. I felt like something was wrong when I died in the exercise and now I can feel Robin freaking out, a lot, something is wrong."

Batman stared at him in confusion for a minute before Martian Manhunter spoke, "He is right. Artemis died in the exercise but she hasn't woken up, I believe she is slipping into a coma."

Batman looked at him, "Stop the exercise."

"I am trying but Megan has taken over the scenario, I can't stop it, I'll have to stop it from within the exercise itself."

Batman nodded, "Then do it." Martian Manhunter nodded and he went into Miss Martian's mind, now all they could do was wait. Spirit paced, hung from the ceiling much to the other Leaguers surprise, harmed himself without thinking, and ended up worrying Batman. After Artemis died Aqualad was next, Superboy followed some time after and Spirit slowly got more worried as time passed.

When Robin and Kid Flash went into a coma Spirit just about lost it, he wasn't sure how he managed to seem at least relatively calm to everyone else. He didn't even realize that he had hurt himself yet again until Batman grabbed his wrist to stop him. Batman kept his voice low so only Spirit could hear him, "I know you're worried but you need to calm down."

"You know it's not that easy, my mate's in danger and I can't do anything to help, I can't just calm down."

Batman was about to talk but then they noticed something, the team was starting to wake up. Spirit's eyes widened and as soon as Robin saw him he got up and immediately hugged him, Spirit hugged him back. Robin refused to let him go and he spoke, "Are we in the afterlife?"

Spirit couldn't help but laugh a little, "Not quite."

Miss Martian got up and she looked around before she smiled, "You're all alive!"

Robin didn't react to what she said and he hugged Spirit tighter, "Never do that again."

Spirit frowned and whispered to Robin, "I'm sorry."

Batman helped Martian Manhunter stand and spoke, "What happened in there?"

Martian Manhunter held a hand to his head as he spoke, "The exercise, it all went wrong."

Robin let go of Spirit but held the halfa's hand before he spoke, "Exercise?"

Batman looked at him, "Try to remember, what you experienced was a training exercise. Manhunter psychically linked the seven 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 that nothing was real, including the deaths of the entire Justice League."

Manhunter spoke, "That is why you hardly grieved, even when Wolf was disintegrated before your eyes. But all of that changed when Spirit 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."

Batman spoke, "The only one that didn't forget was Spirit, as soon as he died his mind must have closed itself off. Miss Martian didn't affect his mind and he woke up but he knew something was wrong which was confirmed when Artemis didn't wake up."

They all looked at Miss Martian and she looked sad, "I'm so sorry."

Superboy spoke, "This isn't her fault, why didn't you stop the exercise?"

Manhunter answered, "We tried, but Megan had a death grip on the scenario. Even Artemis, who should have awakened like Spirit upon her death, was so convinced she had passed that she slipped into a coma. I realized I would have to rest 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 the mother ship exploded, and Robin and Kid Flash were silenced did my mind clear enough to remember my true purpose."

"To shock Megan out of the exercise before your coma's became permanent, my apologies, I had no idea a training exercise could be so dangerous, so damaging."

Captain Marvel went to comfort Miss Martian and Superboy got closer but he didn't know what to do. Spirit heard the three Leaguers talking but Robin saw that he was bleeding right then, he looked at the wounds on the halfa's arms. He figured out what happened and looked at Spirit, "You hurt yourself."

Spirit was glad the others weren't paying attention to them or else they might have heard Robin. Spirit whispered, "I wasn't paying attention, I got worried and, well, you already know what can happen."

Robin looked concerned, "We'll take care of the wounds soon, just be careful." Spirit nodded, when they all went home Batman asked Spirit to go to the mansion to keep an eye on Robin. Spirit agreed and once they got there Robin insisted on taking care of Spirit's injuries, Spirit wanted to argue but seeing the look on Robin's face made him agree.

After Spirit cuts were taken care of they went to Richard's room and the hero refused to let go of Danny. Danny was getting incredibly worried at this point and he looked at Richard, "What's wrong?"

Richard looked at him, "I'm sure you can guess."

"I can but I want to know what you're thinking."

Richard hesitated for a minute before he sighed, "I thought I lost you, after we forgot that the exercise wasn't real I actually thought I lost you. I've almost lost you before but this time I thought you were really gone, that you were dead. When you get injured you always pull through even if it doesn't it seems like you will but you were just gone."

"I know I should have realized that you weren't actually gone because I'm your mate and if you die then I'll die too but I wasn't thinking logically. Just thinking about the fact that you technically died before is bad enough but seeing you die was horrible. I never want to lose you again, ever, if I ever lost you I don't know what I'd do, I can't watch you die again."

Danny gave Richard a worried look before kissing him on the cheek, "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

Richard smiled a little and Danny smiled back, a few minutes later they both fell asleep. About a week later the team was in the mountain and no one said a word, Miss Martian slowly stirred batter for something and everyone else was silent. Robin sat next to Spirit on the couch, he was still a little reluctant to leave Spirit's side but he was getting better.

Since the team still wasn't doing well after what happened Black Canary was playing therapist that week. Spirit was fine, for the most part, but the others weren't doing so well, he was hoping she'd be able to help them. When it was Robin's turn to go he reluctantly left Spirit's side and went with Black Canary.

When they both sat down Black Canary spoke, "I'm sure you must be hurting."

Robin looked at her, "Hurting, try traumatized, I finally become leader and wind up sending all of my friends to their deaths. I know I did what I had to but I hated it, when we started this team part of me wanted to be in charge. When we fought Mr. Twister Spirit had to lead us because no one else would take charge."

"Spirit knows how to be a leader, he might not seem like it but he knows how to lead, how to do what needs to be done. But seeing how much he didn't want to be leader made me think maybe I don't want to be leader, not yet. This whole thing just proved to me that I don't want to lead, and that's not even the worst of it."

He looked away before glancing at Black Canary, "You can't tell Batman."

Black Canary looked at him, "Nothing leaves this room."

"I always wanted, expected, to grow up and become him, and the hero bit, I'm still all in. But that thing, inside of him, that thing that drives him to sacrifice everything for the sake of his mission. That's not me, I don't want to be the Batman anymore."

Robin was silent for a few seconds and Black Canary spoke, "And what about Spirit, when you thought he died you seemed distressed."

Robin looked at his hands, "That doesn't even begin to describe it, I felt like part of me died with him. I've known Spirit almost as long as I've been Robin, he's been the one person I could always count on for anything. He became a ghost before I met him, I promised him that I'd protect him, that he wouldn't have to go through that again."

"When he died I failed him, he might have known that he wasn't really dying but I thought he was. I thought I lost him, I couldn't protect him, he was protecting the team and he was killed because of it. Spirit cares, it's hard to get him to trust you but he cares, he always has, and that's part of why he's willing to go through so much to keep people safe."

"I care about him, a lot, and when he needed me I couldn't protect him, that's the worst part about all of this."

Black Canary looked at him sadly, some time later he was allowed to leave the room and Miss Martian was called in. Robin sat next to Spirit again and after a while Miss Martian walked out of the room and Black Canary called Spirit in. To say that Spirit was confused was a serious understatement, "Um, what?"

Black Canary looked at him, "You heard me, let's go."

Spirit mentally sighed before he got up, he had a feeling that he wasn't going to like this. When they got into the room they both sat down and Spirit looked at Black Canary, "Why am I here?"

Black Canary looked at him, "You might not have been as affected by the exercise but you've still been through a lot."

Spirit leaned back in his seat, "What makes you say that?"

"Half the time you show up at the mountain with cuts and bruises, and you always have to skip training. You get hurt on missions not because you're inexperienced or weak but because you're protecting the others. After the mission in Bialya you couldn't come to the mountain because you were injured, when the Reds attacked the mountain you could barely stand but you still helped the team."

"So?"

Black Canary sighed, "What I'm saying is that you can't always deal with this on your own."

Spirit looked mildly irritated, "I'll admit that shit does happen, a lot, but that doesn't bother me."

Black Canary didn't look convinced, "Then what does?"

Spirit stared at her for a second, "You sure you want to know?"

Black Canary nodded, "I'm here to listen."

Spirit mentally sighed, this was going to be interesting, "I've died before, I've been hurt and by now I'm used to it. What bothers me is that I came back, I'm a ghost, a thing, a horrible manifestation of ectoplasm and post human consciousness. I'm an abomination, a freak of nature that never should have existed in the first place."

Black Canary's eyes widened, "Why do you think that?"

"Do you have any idea how many times I've heard someone say that about a ghost? When was the last time you saw a movie about a nice ghost that wasn't a stupid cartoon that's not even remotely realistic? People are fine with super powered humans and aliens but the souls of the dead are too much for them to handle?"

"Hell, there are people that hunt us, and it's not just ghosts; vampires, werewolves, even magic users used to get set on fire or drowned. I've seen other ghosts die because hunters decided to kill them for no damn reason, people hate us. The worst part about it is that most ghosts don't even hate humans, me included, we try but we can't, even if they hate us."

Black Canary looked at him sadly, she hadn't seen anyone, let alone a thirteen year old, look so tired and broken. "I'm sorry."

"Why, it's not like it's your fault." Black Canary looked even more sad and concerned then before, she had no idea what to say. After a minute or two Spirit just got up and walked out of the room, he pretended to look fine when he saw the team but Robin knew something was wrong.

Robin made a mental note to ask what was bothering him later, something told him Spirit didn't want the team to know.