M O U N T  J U S T I C E
October 16, 16:01 EDT

This wasn't real. This wasn't real. This wasn't real.

Silverbird kept repeating those three words over and over inside her head as she stood with the rest of the Team, plus a newly-returned and rebuilt Red Tornado, inside the cave.

Martian Manhunter, Captain Marvel, Captain Atom, both Green Lanterns...even Batman and Superman. They were all gone, disintegrated by whatever race of hostile alien decided to invade Earth.

As the camera feed from the Batplane suddenly cut out, another transmission appeared as a holo-screen, blinking for a moment before Zatara's face popped up.

"Tornado..." the magician began, sounding a bit--stunned, for lack of a better word. Frankly, Reese didn't blame him in the slightest. I mean, these aliens had just taken down seven powerhouses of the Justice League. They'd taken down Superman. "Did you--"

"Yes, Zatara," the aerokinetic android said simply. "We saw. Celestial defenses have failed. Initiate all terrestrial measures,"

"Affirmative," Zatara responded. "See you in the field," As soon as the magician's face disappeared from the holo-screen, and the screen disappeared altogether, Red Tornado turned around to face the Team.

"I must join the League," he explained firmly. "We will protect the planet at all costs. But should we fail--" Tornado added after a moment. "The responsibility falls to you,"

From the corner of her eye, Reese saw Aqualad glance over at all of them, before he turned back to Tornado.

"We stand ready," Kaldur said with conviction, and Tornado gave a small, almost solemn-looking nod before he walked over to the Zeta tubes.

Recognized Red Tornado 1-6

As soon as he was gone, Aqualad turned towards Robin, who was standing beside Reese and gestured with one hand.

"Turn on GBS," Kaldur began. "We'll be able to follow the Justice League's efforts that way,"

Dick gave a small nod before his fingers practically flew across a holo-keyboard that suddenly popped up, before a screen appeared, showcasing a news broadcast.

"This is Iris West-Allen reporting live," Wally's aunt said as she stood in the middle of the fray in Central City, gesturing over her shoulder with one arm. "The extra-terrestrials have brought their relentless global attack to Central City,"

Reese gasped, as one of the smaller alien ships suddenly blasted a building behind Iris, while two more disintegrated two separate groups of running civilians.

The ships pointed towards Iris, but there was a sudden red streak, and she was sped out of the way, as an exclamation of "Tropsnart siht namaremac to ytefas!" that could really only have been spoken by Zatara, the screen turned to gold sparkles before the cameraman was on the roof of a building away from the alien ships' current warpath, and Iris was carried up to the same roof by Flash a split-second later.

"You should both be safe here," Zatara said. "At least for now,"

"Thank you...Flash," Iris spoke, glancing towards her husband for a long moment before turning to the magician standing there as well. "And Zatara,"

Barry set a hand on Iris's shoulder for a second, before running away, Zatara following on a levitating platform a short time later.

When they were gone, Iris glanced towards her cameraman. "Danny, you okay?" The cameraman gave a thumbs up which, despite the impending apocalypse, made Reese crack a small smile.

"As you can see," Iris began after a moment to regain her bearings, gesturing to the building where Flash and Zatara were trying to evacuate another group of civilians. "The Justice League is attempting to hold the line--"

But, as soon as she said that, another alien drone ship flew above the building where the civilians, Flash, and Zatara were standing, shooting a blast of energy at them, and making the roof of the building explode.

Then, everything started to happen too fast for Reese to comprehend. Barry was dead, Zatara was dead, Iris was dead, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Dinah, her dad.

When Green Arrow and Black Canary got disintegrated, her mind went blank. 

What kind of exercise was this? What kind of exercise had Batman devised that had this, this whole...apocalypse as an effective training method? 

It was more of an effective way to traumatize them all.

The newsfeed from Taipei disappeared, revealing again Cat Grant, at the GBS news studio. The blonde anchor looked shaken, though Silverbird figured all of them looked that way at the moment, regardless of whether this whole situation was real or not.

As Cat started to speak again, Reese felt a finger gently poke her in the ribs, and the brunette turned to see Dick staring at her, his mask lenses narrowed in concern.

She didn't know what she looked like at the moment, but Silverbird knew her skin had to be about three shades paler than it usually was.

But, instead of speaking to her partner, Reese instead turned towards the holo-screen again, listening as Cat continued her report. 

When she felt Robin slip his gloved hand into hers though, Silverbird didn't pull away, giving the Boy Wonder a squeeze that signified yes, she was still here, and yes, physically, she was okay.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Cat was saying. "We've lost Black Canary, Green Arrow, and the Hawks. Other heroes reported dead or missing include Batman, Icon, Atom, and Aquaman,"

As Reese took a breath, Robin pulled up another holo-screen from the various camera drones floating around the country, this one from the camera in Smallville, where Wonder Woman and Red Tornado were battling more of the smaller alien ships.

With her lasso, Diana had tied up one of the ships, and spun it around in midair, before launching it, causing the ship to hit another, and making both explode.

But, the Amazonian princess, exemplary as all her skills were, was not invincible, and as such, missed the third alien ship hovering above her head.

"Wonder Woman!" Red Tornado shouted, trying to convey a warning. "Above you!" 

The Amazon whipped around as the ship fired at her, trying to use her mythical bracers as a shield, but though the metal armbands were able to deflect most things, not even a gift from the Greek Gods was strong enough for this.

With Diana dead, that only left Red Tornado, and as another ship, a much, much larger ship than any other they had seen so far, appeared above Smallville, the android quickly flew higher up into the air, out of the way of the mothership, as it crushed the small Kansas town beneath it.

"Red Tornado to Cave," he began. "I fear I am all that remains of the League--"

"RT!" Robin shouted, but it was too late. 

Even though Red Tornado managed to make one alien drone ship explode with his powers, his back was left unprotected, and another ship shot the android from behind, disintegrating him as well.

For a moment, the seven of them inside Mount Justice were silent, processing what had just happened, before finally, Kaldur spoke up.

"We are Earth's heroes now," Aqualad said simply, and Silverbird glanced over her shoulder at him as Superboy turned to glare at their leader.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Conner snapped, looking as if he was itching for a fight. "A theme song?"

"A strategy," the Atlantean corrected sternly, walking forward a few steps so he was standing in between Dick and Reese. "Earth's weapons are ineffective, and it has been made tragically clear that a direct attack will not succeed,"

"Checking satellite imagery..." Robin began slowly, tapping away at his own holo-screen before a massive blue hologram globe appeared in the center of the cave, much like when Zatara had tried to locate the Injustice League. 

Spattered across the map were various red blobs, some clustered together so close they seemed almost solid in color, while others were by themselves.

"Here's where the aliens are now," Dick continued, and Reese's eyes widened as she realized just how much these invaders had overtaken the Earth.

"This one get lost?" Superboy spoke up as he walked forward, pointing a finger towards the top of the globe, where Silverbird was able to see a single red blotch in the North Atlantic ocean, a little way off from the southern coast of Greenland.

Her eyes narrowed as she recognized the subarctic location, and so too, it seemed, did Dick.

"That's Superman's Fortress of Solitude!" the Boy Wonder exclaimed, and from the corner of her field of vision, Reese saw Conner's eyes widen.

"Superman has a Fortress of Solitude?" the genomorph exclaimed, and Reese figured it was unlikely the Man of Steel had told his clone he had it. They weren't exactly on the best of terms at the moment. Or ever, for that matter.

"The Fortress's power source probably caught the aliens' attention," Silverbird spoke up, glancing again towards Robin as she gave a small shrug. "At least enough for them to send a scout or two, rather than their entire armada,"

"Must be some fortress," Superboy muttered under his breath as he walked away for a few steps, only stopping when M'gann gently set a hand on his arm.

"Conner..." the Martian trailed off, but it didn't look like Superboy was about to have a temper tantrum, so Reese supposed that was a plus.

"No, it's okay," Conner said, glancing off to the side. "I guess there's a lot about Superman I'll never know. Uh, you know," he added after a moment. "Now,"

"We will target this lone ship," Kaldur said firmly, before Wally spoke up, for the first time since Red Tornado had left the cave.

"Yeah," the speedster echoed, pounding his fist into his palm. "Break it down. Build more. Hit those ugly aliens with their own mojo. Ow!" Kid Flash winced as Artemis elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"Martian and Kryptonian in the house," the blonde hissed, and KF turned towards M'gann and Conner, who were staring at Wally, their expressions unreadable, and the redhead scrambled for a different statement.

"Uh, not that all aliens are automatically ugly," he stammered out, and Reese rolled her eyes as she turned away from Wally and Artemis and towards where Dick was fidgeting with his utility belt.

"You think we can do this?" she whispered and watched as Robin's hands paused what they were doing. For a few seconds, he didn't say anything, before finally, Dick sighed.

"What else are we supposed to do?" he said, his words barely more than a breath as the Boy Wonder turned to face her. "Aqualad's right, we are Earth's heroes now. Batman, Superman, the others, they're not going to be there to help us. Plus, Rhysalin, this is what we've trained for,"

"You've trained for an apocalypse where all of our mentors and parental figures get disintegrated before our very eyes?" Reese retorted, crossing her arms. "I somehow find that hard to believe,"

Robin just shrugged. "Well, okay," he began. "Not this, specifically, but you know, we knew it had to come eventually. Plus," he suddenly gave a small smile as he gently bumped his hip against hers. "As long as I've got you, pretty bird, I'll be okay,"

"Yeah," Silverbird whispered, feeling her spirits lift a little bit, though she still had a bad feeling about this whole thing. "Boy Wonder, you really think this could work?"

"I hope it works," Dick said quietly. "But, you know we can't fully prepare for these kinds of things, Reese,"

"Yeah, I know," she whispered. "But, I guess all we can do is try and hope for the best,"

"Exactly," the black-haired boy next to her responded, though Reese could see that even he looked a bit skeptical. "Hope for the best,"

➳➳➳

Polar stealth. Not a mode Reese had needed to use thus far since Batman had outfitted all of them with the new stealth tech in their suits, but, despite the situation, it was pretty cool.

Silverbird's polar stealth suit was in shades of white and light gray, while her hood was lined with faux-fur and had thermal threading built-in to keep her warm in the arctic climate.

The alien's scout ship, on the other hand, hovered stark and black, standing out against the snow and ice of the tundra.

Reese held a breath as she and Artemis ducked behind a wall of snow, arrows drawn and ready, and hoped to whatever deity was still out there that the scout ship hadn't seen them.

Luckily, it seemed like it hadn't, but they weren't out of the woods yet. The Team still had to defeat this scout ship before they'd be able to even hope to make a dent in resistance against the rest of the invaders.

M'gann was camouflaged in the air the ship, and she used her telekinesis to rip off part of the scout ship's arm.

'Communications disabled,' the Martian said over the psychic link as electricity sparked from where the arm had been ripped off before the ship fell to the snow with a dull 'thud'. 'Propulsion disabled,'

Quickly, Artemis lurched around the side of the snow wall and shot a single arrow towards the scout ship, foam erupting out of the end and covering the front of the ship with gray foam.

Of course, that made the blaster on the top of the ship start firing in the general direction of where the arrow had come from, and Silverbird's eyes widened as one blast of reddish-orange energy flew six inches away from her face.

'And E.T.s are sealed inside!' the blonde exclaimed, ducking herself as the ship continued blasting.

Aqualad, who had been in the cold arctic water below the ice, suddenly leaped to the surface, using his water-bearers as whips to try and take care of the scout ship, but the blaster turned towards him, ready to disintegrate him into oblivion.

Kaldur ducked, trying to avoid the blow, but it never came, because Wolf leaped onto the blaster in his place, knocking it aside and thus saving the Atlantean's life.

As Conner held the blaster in place to keep it from shooting any of them, the rest of the team moved in to try and remove it from the ship as a whole.

If they were able to manage that and were able to connect the blaster to the Bioship, they'd be able to fight back against the invading aliens, and maybe give them a taste of their own medicine.

Silverbird darted out from her place behind the snow-wall with Artemis and instead jumped up onto the top of the invaders' ship beside Robin as Dick pulled up his holo-computer.

'Identifying weapon structural stress points and links to the ship,' the Boy Wonder began as a diagram of the ship's blaster appeared on the screen, and he studied it for a moment before speaking again. 'Here, here, and here,'

Steam erupted from the three places on the base of the blaster that Robin had indicated, and Superboy braced himself as he began to strain, trying to pull the blaster off so they would be able to connect it to the Bioship.

But, as Conner started to pull the blaster from its base, Reese's ears caught the sound of a high-pitched buzzing. She glanced around, and her eyes widened again as she saw a sensor appear at the bottom of the blaster pointing straight at Conner.

She opened her mouth to warn the genomorph, but Wolf moved before Reese was able to do anything. 

The massive white canine's ears pricked, and he slammed into Conner, knocking him to the side and off the invaders' ship, and let the beam hit him instead.

A flash of light and he was gone...just like that. Just like the others.

'Wolf...' M'gann trailed off as she stared at where the white wolf had been only a few seconds before, and everything inside Reese's head started to blur together.

Even Robin looked shocked, before he glanced over his shoulder at where Conner was standing, his expression unreadable.

'There was no indication of feedback,' Dick said slowly. 'I'm sorry,' Conner glanced to the side for a moment, clenching his jaw for a moment before he turned back to face the others.

' Can't do anything for him now,' the genomorph said solemnly, before taking his place again at the top of the alien ship and ripping the blaster from its base, this time without incident. 'Let's go,'

After a moment, he leaped into the air, landing on the camouflaged Bioship as it flew down next to the other alien ship. M'gann joined him and placed her hands on the side.

'Rerouting system to integrate weapon into ship's bio-matrix,' M'gann said simply as she began to merge the scout ship's blaster to the Bioship. 'I'll need to de-camouflage for a few minutes,'

'We may not have a few minutes!' Dick snapped, and Reese felt her stomach drop as more of the invading aliens' ships appeared in the sky.

As the ships began to fly towards the Team, Kaldur looked over his shoulder, jaw clenched tightly. 'Miss Martian!' the Atlantean began. 'Open fire!'

'Can't!' M'gann answered simply. 'Weapons systems are offline to incorporate the new cannon, and that's not fully integrated yet either!'

'Got you covered!' Artemis shouted suddenly as she spun around to shoot more arrows at the attacking ships, and without another thought, and ignoring Robin's hand as he tried to grab her, Silverbird leaped off the side of the downed scout ship and ran towards Artemis.

'Get inside!' the brunette shouted as she too began to shoot arrows towards the ships. 'We're right behind you!'

One of Reese's arrows hit the two alien ships in the air and managed to knock both of them out of the sky, making one explode.

But, it was the other that posed the biggest problem. Because, though it was currently downed in the snow and ice, its cannon was still fully operational, and Silverbird heard the weapon powering up as she and Artemis neared the Bioship.

'Artemis, look out!' Reese shouted, turning towards her friend, but it was too late. 

As the blonde turned to look over her shoulder, the weapon was discharged, and Artemis was engulfed by the energy beam. 

The shockwave threw Silverbird through the air, making Reese skid across the ice on her side, and however protective her stealth suit was, it wasn't enough to stop a particularly sharp icicle from scratching her ribs.

Because this was real. This whole thing, it wasn't an exercise, it was real, and as Dick scrambled to help Reese up before she too got disintegrated, the young archer heard both M'gann and Wally scream.

"Get inside," Kaldur began as Robin hooked one of Silverbird's arms over his shoulder, before Aqualad ran forward with his water-bearers drawn, slicing through the ice and stabbing it through the last ship.

Reese leaned her head against Dick's shoulder as they stood at the entrance to the Bioship, watching the scout ship explode, as shock began to set in.

"They're dead," Reese heard Wally mutter, and she shifted so she'd be able to see the speedster better. "Every single alien, if it's the last thing I do,"

➳➳➳

The Bioship was silent. Well, almost silent, save for Wally's angry shouting as he hit his console with both hands, and M'gann's quiet sobbing from where she sat, piloting the Bioship.

Reese could feel tears in the corners of her eyes as she and Dick stood in the back, with Robin bandaging her side. The scratch really wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it still looked pretty ugly.

"I should've stopped it," her voice was so quiet Dick almost didn't catch it, but his hands stilled from where he was straightening out the bandage now wrapping around the brunette's abdomen, and he sighed for a moment before speaking.

"Pretty bird," he said softly. "There was nothing you could've done,"

"But, I was right there, Dick," Reese continued, keeping her voice hushed so the others, not even Superboy, would be able to hear the two of them. "I was right there, and I couldn't--I couldn't save her,"

"Hey," the black-haired boy continued, setting aside the first-aid kit and making sure Reese was looking at him before he said anything more. "If you had done anything, you probably would've gotten hit by the cannon as well,"

"I should've at least tried," the brunette retorted, and Dick sighed as he realized that he wasn't getting through to her. 

What had the world come to? This morning, everything had been fine. He and Reese had been normal, whatever that word meant for people in their line of work, and now...now...everything had just gone wrong.

"Rhysalin," Dick began quietly, wondering if telling Reese this now was really the best time. But, considering the world was ending and any of them could die at any moment, what did he had to lose? "I need to tell you something,"

Reese tilted her head to the side, the question practically shining in her brown eyes, and Dick took a deep breath, trying to muster up the small amount of courage he still had left. What did he have to lose?

"Pretty bird," he began slowly. "I lo--"

"There will be time to mourn later," Aqualad's voice said sternly from the front of the Bioship, presumably in response to Wally's explosive reaction. 

Robin sighed heavily, halfway relieved that his leader had interrupted his confession before he could finish, and he went to walk back to the front of Bioship, but Silverbird's hand stopped him before he could.

"Wait," she said quietly. "What'd you need to say?" As he looked at her, Dick was suddenly reminded why he had fallen in love with her in the first place. She was just so...Reese.

"I'll tell you later," he whispered and tried to give the girl in front of him a reassuring smile when she gave him a disbelieving look. "Promise,"

Reese seemed to accept that answer (considering Dick wasn't lying), and the two of them made their way to join the others just as Aqualad stood up from his chair.

"Now, we have a job to do," Kaldur was saying as they walked in. "Defend the Earth. And make sure Artemis's sacrifice was not in vain,"

"Back to the cave?" M'gann asked, her voice still choked up with grief, but Aqualad just shook his head.

"The Hall of Justice," he corrected calmly. "The human race must know that there are still heroes defending them. There is still hope,"

But, Dick could only wonder as he strapped himself into his chair, how long exactly would that hope last?

➳➳➳

The United States military was already fending off another attack at the Hall by the time the Bioship flew into D.C.'s airspace.

The Bioship was still camouflaged to not alert any of the invading ships to their presence, and as such, that allowed M'gann to fly it silently until it was directly behind four of the ships.

And then, using the new cannon the Team had gotten in the arctic, the one they had gotten with way too high of a price, the Bioship opened fire, disintegrating one of the ships and allowing Conner to jump out of the Bioship onto another one, punching the scout ship until it fell to the ground, as the Bioship's cannon took care of the last two.

Then, M'gann de-camouflaged, and the rest of the Team, sans Superboy, who was already on the ground, exited the Bioship, to cheer from the soldiers gathered at the capital.

"I'm not Superman," Conner corrected grouchily in response to a few soldiers' comments as Robin, Silverbird, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, and Aqualad began to walk forward, only for the genomorph to be confronted by an older man in fatigues, who obviously had to be the younger soldiers' superior.

"I don't know who you are, son," the man began. "And right now, I don't care. You wear the 'S', and you got the job done,"

"I'm not Superman," Conner muttered, glancing to the side, and Reese set a small hand on her friend's shoulder as the man gave him a barely-there smile.

"Tell that to the enemy," he said simply, before saluting to Aqualad. "General Wade Eiling, U.S. Air Force,"

"Aqualad," Kaldur responded in kind. "Justice League. We'll help you salvage as many of the aliens' cannons as possible. Then," Aqualad's eyes narrowed. "We start taking back what is ours,"

Before anyone could respond to that, the far side of the city suddenly erupted into explosions and blasts of fire, as a new squad of enemy alien ships appeared on the horizon.

"Get in position!" Eiling shouted to his soldiers as the ships grew closer, but Silverbird wasn't sure what weaponry the United States government had that would be effective against the invaders.

She let out a Canary Cry at two of the approaching ships and made both explode before suddenly, the back of her head buzzed as someone had just given her a static shock, and the brunette spun around, to see everything start to move in slow motion around her.

The only thing that continued moving at a regular speed was an alien ship across the street, it's cannon pointed straight at Robin.

The Boy Wonder didn't see it, his back was turned as he flung birdarangs towards another ship, and Reese's breath lodged in her throat as she realized that if she didn't act now, Robin would be the aliens' next victim, the next Team member to be disintegrated after Artemis.

She couldn't save Artemis, but she could save Dick, and that was exactly what Reese planned to do. So she ran, leaping over a piece of fallen concrete as the ship's cannon began to power up.

"Robin!" she shouted as she got closer, causing Dick to glance over his shoulder at her, mask lenses wide. "Move!"

Reese slammed her hands against Robin's chest just as the cannon discharged, shoving Dick backward, out of the way of the cannon with as much strength as she could muster...and let the energy beam hit her instead.

Robin's back slammed against the ground, and it was as if Dick suddenly had tunnel vision. Everything else around him, all the other alien ships, his friends and the soldiers battling them...it was like they all just disappeared.

All he saw, all he experienced, was seeing Silverbird sprinting towards him, her eyes wide with terror as she jumped at him, pushing him back, out of the way of the alien ship that he hadn't seen, and taking his place in front of it.

Ten seconds and it was over. Ten seconds, for the energy beam to engulf Reese in its garish light, and then she was gone.

Reese was gone. She had sacrificed herself...for him.

Dick didn't realize he was shouting until Wally appeared in front of him, eyes wide and face white as a sheet, the speedster realizing what had happened in the span of half a second.

"Help her!" Robin cried to Kid Flash, grabbing the front of Wally's costume as his friend skidded to a stop on the broken concrete, the redhead staring at the spot where Silverbird had been a few moments before. "You have to help her,"

That was also when Dick felt the arrowhead around his neck turn ice-cold. Scrambling to grab it, alien ships still shooting around him and Wally, Dick reached beneath the collar of his costume, wrapped his hand around the chain, and pulled out the necklace, only for his heart to drop to his feet.

It wasn't gold. The arrowhead, one of the two identical magical objects that Kent Nelson had given to Reese, wasn't gold. 

Instead, the small object had turned to a chalky-colored gray and was seeming to suck all the light out of the immediate vicinity.

It wasn't gold anymore, because now...it was lead. 

Vaguely, Dick was reminded of the last time he had almost had a nervous breakdown when Reese had put on the Helmet of Fate while the Team had gone up against the Injustice League.

After Nabu had let Reese go, she had said that Kent told her not to let the arrowheads turn to lead, because that meant that one of them was...dead.

He went numb. Dick went numb, and he was half-aware of his legs trembling for a moment, before full-on giving out, the only thing keeping the Boy Wonder from completely falling over being Wally, who snatched up his friend before Robin could hit the ground.

"No..." he whispered, thoughts running through his mind at light-speed. That wasn't possible. Reese couldn't be dead. She couldn't be. "No, no, no, no, no,"

Wally, though he knew an inkling of what had happened, had never, ever seen Dick lose it this bad. 

He admitted to not believing in magic, but he knew what those arrowheads meant to Dick and Reese, magic or no, and he knew that the arrowhead turning gray instead of gold meant something was very, very, wrong.

"Aqualad!" KF shouted over his shoulder, noticing that the other alien ships seemed to be retreating, at least for the time being. "We have a problem!"

Kaldur quickly ran over from where he had been talking with General Eiling, but when he reached Wally and Dick and realized that Reese wasn't with them, his face dropped.

"Silverbird?" he asked anyway, but all Wally could do was shake his head. Aqualad gave a small solemn nod before his eyes landed on the Boy Wonder. 

Robin's gaze, though no one could see his eyes behind his mask, had turned vacant, and Kaldur had a thought that the only thing keeping the thirteen-year-old from falling was Kid Flash's grip.

Kaldur'ahm wasn't an idiot, he knew how much the two youngest members of the Team cared for each other, and regardless of what Robin thought, Aqualad had never had any sort of romantic feelings towards Silverbird. 

He valued--had valued the twelve-year-old's friendship, and Reese had been an appreciated member of the Team, regardless of whether or not she thought she was good enough.

How they'd manage without her, how Robin would manage without her, Kaldur honestly didn't know.

"Get him inside the Hall," the Atlantean said finally. "We're safe for the time being, and we need to think of a plan,"

Nodding once, Wally turned towards the front steps and began to climb them, still securely holding Dick while also making sure that Robin didn't fall, and Kaldur went to go find Conner and M'gann, and presumably tell them the news.

First Artemis, and now Reese? 

Wally had already been planning on getting rid of every last alien for what had happened up in the arctic, but now he realized that he probably needed to get in line.

Because after Dick was done with them, KF wasn't sure there'd be any aliens left.

The two teens were halfway up the stairs when Robin started muttering under his breath again, and Kid Flash had to strain to hear what the Boy Wonder was saying.

"I never got to tell her," Dick was whispering, over and over again, and Wally's heart dropped. 

Sure, he had teased both Dick and Reese about their relationship, or rather lack thereof, before, but he'd never known that Dick was serious about it. And now, with Reese gone...

"I'm sorry, Rob," the redhead said finally, but it was as if Dick's brain wasn't really processing what was going on. 

Wally knew that that was a common reaction to something traumatic, and he didn't mean to sound callous, but if the Team members that were left had any hope of defeating the aliens and avenging their fallen archers, then they needed their resident Bat.

The two of them had only been in the foyer of the Hall of Justice for a few seconds when Superboy, Miss Martian, and Aqualad joined them and judging from the looks on Conner and M'gann's faces, Kaldur had already told them what had happened.

"She's really gone?" M'gann whispered, and this was when Robin finally jerked from his stupor, at least enough for him to glance over his shoulder at the Martian and scowl.

"You think I'd be like this if she wasn't?" he snapped, and M'gann recoiled at his harsh tone. Even Wally was surprised, but then he looked around and realized that the statues of the Founders, of Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and the others, were absolutely destroyed, the heads of the massive bronze statues on the floor as if someone had thrown them around haphazardly.

The Justice League, all of them, were really gone. Dick couldn't process it, he didn't want to process it, because if the  League was gone, that meant Artemis was gone, that Reese was gone, and he didn't want to deal with the implications of that. 

He couldn't deal with the implications of that, because what was the point? His mentor, the man who had raised Dick, more or less, after his parents were killed, was gone, the girl he loved was gone, and the world was ending as he knew it.

What was the point?

Robin opened his mouth, to say what, he wasn't entirely sure, but before he could, pain exploded from every corner of his brain, eerily similar to the headache he had gotten in Gorilla City, only this time it was fifty times worse.

Dick clamped both hands down on the sides of his head as he collapsed, falling to his knees behind the Batman statue's head, willing the pain to just stop.

It felt as if someone were hammering a hot spike into the back of his head, and Dick needed it to stop. 

Outside the pounding of his head, as the psychic pain reached what had to be its apex, Robin could hear Kid Flash and Aqualad calling to him. But the pain just wouldn't stop.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the pain did stop, and Dick's arms fell to his sides, the Boy Wonder taking in heaving, shuddering breaths, trying to regain some semblance of control over himself as he braced himself against the bronze Batman head.

Dick could feel sweat running down the side of his face, and he wondered vaguely if he looked as bad as he felt. Judging from the looks on Wally and Kaldur's faces, it wasn't pretty.

"Dude," Kid Flash began, eyes wide. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Robin said quietly because he didn't, not really. Silverbird was gone, and his arrowhead had turned to lead, so why would it still be protecting his mind?

Suddenly, from across the entrance hall where she had been kneeling against her uncle's fallen statue, M'gann hovered into the air, and she flew back, before telekinetically lifting the massive statue head out of the way and throwing it to the side, revealing the real Martian Manhunter underneath.

"Uncle J'onn!" Miss Martian exclaimed, sounding absolutely ecstatic, and went to embrace her uncle, but Aqualad lurched in front of her, blocking M'gann with an arm before she was able to reach him.

'M'gann,' the Atlantean warned her sternly. 'Check his mind. Make sure he is whom he appears to be,' 

The last thing they needed right now was someone impersonating one of their mentors, but fortunately, it didn't seem as if that were the case.

'It's him!' M'gann exclaimed, her voice growing more exuberant with every sentence. 'He's real! And he's alive!'

"But we saw you get disintegrated!" Conner cut in, not inclined to believe that the alien in front of all of them was really Martian Manhunter. "You and Superman...and everyone,"

"Yes," J'onn said slowly as M'gann helped him to stand. "I remember. But, I cannot remember how I survived. Or how I arrived here,"

"Maybe you were density shifting?" M'gann proposed. "And the beam passed right through you, causing you to lose your memory?"

"My mind is clouded," J'onn admitted slowly. "I feel certain I had something important to tell you..."

'Hello, Wally!' KF suddenly exclaimed over the psychic link, before he was dragging Robin back outside. 'Come on!'

When the two were outside, Wally dragged Dick over to the Bioship and had him pull up a holo-screen diagram of the cannon's schematics.

'I knew it!' the speedster cried as he studied the cannon with his goggles. 'It's giving off zeta beams, the same stuff that powers our zeta tubes! This thing doesn't disintegrate...it teleports! You know what this means?'

'No,' Dick answered simply, not seeing where Wally was going with this particular train of thought. 

Kid Flash rolled his eyes, looking a bit exasperated as he grabbed Robin's shoulders and shook him for a moment, practically willing his friend to see what he meant.

'They're alive!' Wally exclaimed. 'Artemis and Reese! They weren't disintegrated, Rob, they were teleported somewhere else! They're both alive!'

Dick just blinked at him, his facial expression not changing from the unreadable look it had been since Reese had disappeared.

'Maybe...' he said finally, but Dick was sure, in his gut, that Reese was dead. If she wasn't coming back, then it was unlikely that Artemis would either. 'But--'

'No maybes,' Wally interrupted him. 'They're all alive!'

Robin didn't want to tell the speedster that he didn't agree with him, that it was likely, probable even, that this disintegration cannon was exactly that. A disintegration cannon.

Though that didn't explain how Martian Manhunter had gotten to the Hall after the entire Team had seen him get disintegrated when the aliens had first invaded.

But, there wasn't a lot of time for Dick to think about it, because before he could tell Wally his thoughts, a new wave of invader ships appeared in front of the Hall of Justice, prompting the two to duck behind a nearby army vehicle.

'We're on our way!' Aqualad called over the psychic link, but Robin shut him down before he could finish.

'Negative,' Dick said firmly. 'We can't win this. Miss Martian, camo the Bioship--' Before he could finish, a blast from one of the other ships' cannon hit the Bioship head-on, and it disappeared in a flash of light.

Even from his spot outside, Robin was able to hear the two separate cries of pain from M'gann and J'onn, and that began to further prove the theory that had begun to swim around inside his head.

If the Bioship really had been teleported instead of disintegrated, and thus likely stayed unharmed, why had it hurt both M'gann and J'onn? It didn't make any sense.

'We're falling back!' Robin shouted over the psychic link again, and he and Kid Flash, along with General Eiling and the surviving soldiers, entered the Hall again, though Eiling stopped before he got very far.

"We're trapped," the general said matter-of-factly, but the sliding doors slid open when Aqualad stood in front of them, and the Atlantean glanced over his shoulder.

"Maybe not," Kaldur began before he began to lead them all into the library where he, Wally, Reese, and Dick had first left to investigate Project: Cadmus, only three months ago. "We can all zeta to the cave," Aqualad continued, before glancing towards Martian Manhunter. "If you can grant us computer clearance to access the tubes,"

"I can only authorize one at a time," J'onn explained wearily, and Aqualad pointed towards the zeta tube.

"Send the soldiers first," Kaldur said, but Eiling just snapped at him over his shoulder.

"Belay that!" the general shouted. "You six are assets we cannot afford to lose!" 

Though he looked reluctant, Kaldur accepted Eiling's answer and gestured for J'onn to stand in front of the zeta tube's sensor.

"Override," Manhunter began as the camera sensor scanned him. "Martian Manhunter 0-7,"

Recognized, the computer said, the doors leading to the tube sliding open. Access Granted.

And then, one by one, the remaining members of the Team headed through the tube. Miss Martian, then Robin.

Recognized Miss Martian B-0-6, Robin B-0-1

As Dick stepped out of the zeta tube into Mount Justice, he realized that they were all taking too long, gaining too much attention, and it was an observation that was made dreadfully clear a few seconds later when Wally stumbled out of the zeta tube.

Recognized Kid Flash B-0-4

"More ships," the speedster muttered as M'gann helped him stand. "Too many to count,"

"The others?" Miss M asked quietly, her eyes wide as she feared the worst, but all Wally could do was shrug.

Dick knew who she was really worried about though. M'gann was worried about Conner, about whether or not her boyfriend would make it through.

He scowled, turning away from the two and walking further into the cave as the zeta tube announced the arrival of Superboy and one of the soldiers who had been at the Hall.

It wasn't fair. M'gann and Conner got to be happy, they got to be together, while Reese was...Dick didn't want to think about it. He'd thought about it enough, and now he just wanted this whole apocalypse to be over and done with.

J'onn was the last one through the tube, which could only mean one thing. Aqualad, their leader, their friend, had been the next victim of the invading aliens.

He was gone.

➳➳➳

Later, after they had bandaged up Private Barnes and J'onn was trying to recover from his mental ordeal in the center of the cave, Robin gathered the last three members of his Team close by.

Considering Kaldur was gone, and it was unlikely that M'gann, Conner, or Wally would be an effective leader, that left Dick to pick up the pieces.

That was just great. And fairly ironic, since the grieving Boy Wonder was hardly able to pick up the pieces of his broken heart at the moment either.

"Our next mission is clear," he began as Kid Flash, Superboy, and Miss Martian gathered around. He was trying to be strong, but Robin didn't think he was fooling anybody, and really, Dick couldn't find it in himself to care. "If we believe the aliens have been teleporting their victims--"

"We do," Wally cut him off before he could finish, and Dick had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. 

Wally though everyone had been teleported. Dick didn't. In fact, he highly doubted it, but they had to do something. And if humoring his redheaded friend was it, then so be it.

Robin frowned at Kid Flash for a moment before using his glove to pull up a holo-screen in front of them. "Then, the only reasonable detention facility is here. The Mothership. Atop what used to be Smallville. Ring any bells?"

His last question, directed towards J'onn, might have been said with a little more irritation than necessary, but no one commented on it.

"No," the Martian said, still sounding weary as he stood up and shook his head. "I'm sorry,"

"Superboy," Next, Dick turned to Conner. "You'll create a distraction--"

"No!" M'gann exclaimed, jerking forward, her eyes flicking between Robin and the genomorph. "He's offering you as a sacrifice! Aqualad would never do that!

"You're right," Robin said firmly. "Aqualad would sacrifice himself. A mistake, that just cost us our leader. Superboy is the most likely to be perceived as a threat, motivating the aliens to deploy!" he continued after a moment because they needed this plan to work if they had any semblance of maybe taking back Earth. 

"Worst case," Wally added, eyebrows scrunching. "He's teleported inside, and we set him free along with Artemis...and Reese, and Aqualad, and everyone,"

Conner turned towards his girlfriend, presumably telling her something over a psychic link. Whatever it was had to have convinced M'gann somewhat, but she still looked a bit reluctant.

➳➳➳

Then...then came the moment Robin had been dreading since the Hall--since Reese had been killed--since this whole thing had started.

As it turns out, Red Arrow hadn't been disintegrated with Green Arrow and Black Canary, but having to tell Roy that his baby sister was dead had rocked Dick to his core, and from where he stood now, on a cliff across from the aliens' mothership, he wished all of it would just stop.

"Stay close to J'onn," Robin said out loud as Miss Martian stepped up next to him. "He's still..." Dick didn't finish, but he had a feeling M'gann had caught his meaning because she gave a small nod before Robin glanced over his shoulder. "First team, deploy!"

The Martians flew up into the air, and M'gann took her uncle's hand before they both camouflaged themselves.

Luckily, the two managed to get inside the mothership without incident, because a minute later M'gann's voice sounded over a psychic link.

'Ready and in position,' she said simply, and with that, Robin glanced towards Superboy, the two exchanging a nod before Conner leaped into the air, landing hard on the exterior of the mothership and successfully attracting the aliens' attention.

'Careful!' Dick exclaimed, watching through his binoculars as the genomorph ripped one of the exterior cannons from the base. 'Don't disconnect the power source,'

And, even from his spot still, on the cliff, Robin could hear Superboy's shout as he began to shoot at the alien ships flying towards him.

"Alright, you glorified trespassers!" Conner yelled. "You wanna see how a real alien fights?" 'Now or never!' he added over a psychic link, and with a running start, Kid Flash leaped over the gap between the edge of the cliff and the nearest entrance to the mothership, Robin securely on his back.

Luckily, they made the jump, both of them landing in a roll once they hit the floor of the landing bay. Dick and Wally ducked behind a nearby alcove mere moments before two more alien scout ships flew out towards Conner.

Robin peeked around the corner and, seeing nothing amiss, rounded it. 'Way's clear!' he shouted mentally to Wally. 'Go!'

Quickly, the two sprinted across the landing bay, past several more quiet scout ships before finally pausing again behind some sort of power station as another, squid-shaped ship floated past them.

The two teens watched the ship as it hovered away, but a buzzing sound from behind made them both turn, in time to see a crate fly into another squid-ship, before a still-camouflaged M'gann and J'onn appeared in front of Dick and Wally.

Waving them forward with one hand, Robin lead the other three deeper into the mothership, but they had only traveled down the corridor for a few minutes before Miss Martian suddenly de-camouflaged, falling to her knees.

'No,' she whispered mentally. 'He's gone,' 

'It's alright,' Wally knelt next to her. 'We'll find him with Artemis. I know it,'

'No,' J'onn interrupted, tilting his head downward. '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,'

Dick had known, he'd known that this "rescue mission" had to be in vain, that's why he'd brought the bandolier, but knowing that it meant that Reese was dead, that she and the others weren't coming back, it all came crashing down on him all over again, and he had to brace himself against the wall to keep from collapsing.

Wally, on the other hand, wasn't convinced. 

'No, you're wrong!' he exclaimed, grabbing onto the front of Martian Manhunter's cloak. 'The zeta radiation proves she's alive! She's--'

'Stop it, KF,' Robin cut in wearily from his spot against the wall. He figured now was as good a time as any to tell Kid Flash the truth. 'I've been scanning for League and Team signals since we got inside--they're not here. Artemis is gone. What we need to do now,' Dick added as Wally's face lost all of its color. 'Is destroy this mothership,'

With that, Robin left the corridor the four of them were currently standing in, and following the vague schematics he possessed of the inside of the mothership before finally coming to a room wherein the center stood a massive sphere.

'This is the power core,' he added after consulting his holo-glove. 'Blow this and the whole mothership blows,'

With that, they leaped over the barricade, and Dick jumped off the ledge, landing on another one of the platforms between here and the power core, but as he turned around to see where the others were, he felt a pull at his back, and inwardly kicked himself.

Of course, the power core would have its own magnetic field, because why wouldn't it? As if things hadn't already gone bad enough. 

The bombs strapped across his chest certainly didn't help matters, since the magnetic components inside them started reacting to the field, and thus began to drag Robin backward, closer to the core.

Kid Flash was dragged along with him, and the two tumbled through the air, but before they could hit the power core, Dick shot his grappling line, and it stuck fast against one of the outer platforms, jerking the two of them to a stop.

On the platform above them, another squid-ship appeared, but before it could shoot Robin and KF, Miss M and J'onn hit it instead, landing lightly on the platform, while M'gann used her telekinesis to lower Dick and Wally down to the surface of the power core.

Robin unstrapped the bandolier from around his chest, and set it on the power core, noticing the way Kid Flash's eyes suddenly widened, realization filling them.

'You knew,' Wally said slowly as Dick began to set the timer for the bombs. 'You knew from the beginning why we were really here,'

'You may not believe in magic,' Dick said in response, multitasking as he worked the timer. 'But I do, and I knew from the moment Reese--I just knew, okay?'

'You really loved her, didn't you?' the redhead asked next, and Robin avoided his gaze, not answering, though he figured Wally took his silence as an answer enough.

'Four minutes,' Dick said finally, the timer finally finished. 'Let's go,'

They exited the power core without incident, but when they reached the landing bay where Robin and Kid Flash had first entered, the doors had already shut.

'Perfect,' Wally muttered, before spinning around as several squid-ships appeared behind them, with one shooting a blast that separated the Martians from Dick and Wally.

Robin and Kid Flash landed behind an alcove, and Dick checked his watch.

'Sixteen seconds and counting,' he said and realizing that there was no way all of them would get off this ship alive, turned across the corridor to where M'gann and J'onn had ducked into another alcove. 'Manhunter, take Miss M and go,'

'No!' M'gann refused instantly. 'We won't leave you!'

'That's an order,' Robin snapped back. 'We'll follow as soon as we blow those doors,' When the two Martians had disappeared through the floor once more, Dick glanced at his watch.

Ten seconds.

Exchanging a glance and singular nod with Wally, Robin made sure his wing-dings were ready before he and Kid Flash darted around the corner of the alcove to face the aliens.

There was a resounding 'boom' as the power core exploded, a flash of blistering heat, then nothing. Just empty blackness.

M O U N T  J U S T I C E
October 16, 16:21 EDT

Her eyes flew open and Reese sat up with a resounding gasp, spots flashing before her eyes with enough force that her head started to hurt.

It wasn't real. None of it had been real. 

Glancing around, the brunette found that, on the table next to her, Dick lay on his stomach, head hanging over the edge as he pushed himself to his knees.

The last thing she remembered...the last thing Reese remembered was pushing Robin out of the way of a cannon blast at the Hall of Justice. What had happened?

As if realizing that he too, was suddenly awake, Reese was able to see when Dick's blue eyes, behind his sunglasses, suddenly widened to the point that they reminded the twelve-year-old of teacup saucers, and the black-haired boy grabbed at the chain around his neck, hand clenching around the golden arrowhead.

When he looked at it, his entire body seemed to relax, and his head jerked upward, eyes flicking around until they landed on Reese, and she knew that he was thinking the same thing she was.

What was going on? How...what was going on?

"You're all alive!" Reese turned towards the far side of the circle, to see M'gann staring at all of them with a broad grin on her face.

Batman, who was currently supporting Martian Manhunter, helping J'onn stand, glanced down at his colleague.

"What happened in there?" the Dark Knight asked, and J'onn laid a hand on his forehead before answering.

"The exercise..." Manhunter began slowly. "It all went wrong,"

"Exercise?" Dick echoed, looking towards his mentor as Zira hopped up onto the table beside him, the baby gorilla's eyes flicking between the Boy Wonder and Reese with a sadness that Silverbird had no intention of ever seeing on her face again.

"Try to remember," Batman continued. "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," Bruce added. "Was that it was a trained-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 grieve," J'onn explained. "Even when Wolf was disintegrated before your 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, and she forgot it was only an exercise. Her subconscious took control and made all of you forget as well,"

Reese and the others looked towards M'gann, who was wringing her hands together and looking completely regretful, but Reese couldn't find it in herself to blame her Martian friend.

"I--" M'gann began, looking around at her teammates. "I'm so sorry,"

"This isn't her fault!" Conner snapped as he stopped rubbing Wolf's ears and looked towards J'onn and Batman. "Why didn't you stop the exercise?"

"We tried," Manhunter answered. "But, M'gann had a...death-grip on the scenario. Even Artemis, who should've awakened upon her death, was so convinced she had passed, she slipped into a coma. I had hoped that, as the scenario continued, you would've realized on your own that there was no way this scenario could possibly exist, but when Silverbird sacrificed herself to save Robin at the Hall of Justice, things became a lot worse,"

This time, everyone's eyes turned to stare at Reese, and the brunette brought her knees up to her chin and avoided looking at anyone, even Dick, as J'onn continued his explanation.

"You need to understand," Manhunter began. "That we still do not know all of the abilities of the magic jewelry Robin and Silverbird received from the late Kent Nelson. When Reese died, the arrowheads activated their own failsafe, erecting a wall around Robin's mind that I could not pass through on the outside. So, realizing that I needed to wrest control from both of your subconsciouses from within, I forced myself into Robin's mind. 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 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,"

Reese closed her eyes, willing the memories from what had happened to stop, but the images kept flashing in her mind over and over again.

"My apologies," J'onn continued. "I had no idea a training exercise could be so dangerous. So damaging,"

As Captain Marvel gave M'gann a hug across the room, Reese found herself staring at the ground. This was like when her parents and sister had died, but so, so much worse.

Fabric rustled next to her before Dick was sitting beside her, his face the palest that Reese had ever seen it. She had died, and Robin had witnessed it.

Without saying a word, Reese leaned over and wrapped her arms around Dick's waist, leaning her head on his shoulder as she felt the Boy Wonder tense, before his arms wrapped around her as well, and he buried his face in the crook of her neck.

It was a few seconds later that Reese felt droplets of wetness spattering her shoulder.

It was a few seconds later that Reese realized Dick was crying.

-----

When you look at timestamps and realize this entire episode took place over the course of half an hour in-universe...Anyway, this was honestly my favorite chapter to write so far, I loved it!!!

Sorry, it took so long to update, but I was swamped with schoolwork. Hopefully, I'll be able to write more since I finally have a rhythm, school-wise.

Next up: Disordered (getting some Reese and Conner brotp action)

~Matia~