The Next Generation

"Uh..." Green Arrow uttered from the floor, as the resulting explosion had knocked him off his feet. When the smoke cleared, Darkseid was still standing there, perfectly fine. "Nope, no chance."

And then, before he could get a chance to make another comment on the matter, Darkseid's eye beams found him, once again turning another of Neal's allies into ash. Now, it was just down to him and Deathstroke, at least until the back up team got there. Of course, neither of them would be counting on them to get there in the nick of time to save them. The way this day was going, they weren't even close to that lucky.

"A valiant effort," Darkseid said, walking forward slowly. "Foolish, but valiant. But in the end, it makes no difference. Now, join your friends."

His eye beams then shot straight at Neal. They were zig zagging too, and moving fast. No chance to get away... but fortunately, he wouldn't have to try. A black mass suddenly appeared before him, blocking the yellow beams from reaching their target. The black mass grew rapidly, taking on a very familiar shape, that of a certain bird. It then surged forward and engulfed Darskeid, forcing him backwards as he tried to break free of its grasp. A figure then appeared in a sudden burst of the same black mass, teleporting in front of Neal.

"So much... pain," Raven uttered. "My friends... the agony... I could feel it. Like a beacon. I... have found you. At last."

Yeah, Neal figured that something like that wasn't going to kill this guy. With as much power as he had, there was no way that explosion was going to do it. Only five seconds later and Green Arrow was hit by the attack as well, leaving only Neal and Deathstroke. Neal was certain about one thing, he had never been more afraid for his own life than he did right now.

Neal took several steps backwards, but it was only another second before the eye beams shot right at Neal. He held his hands up weakly, as if that would provide any sort of defense, and closed his eye so that he couldn't see the end coming. It was only at that point that things grew a lot darker. Neal opened his eyes, wondering if he was already dead. He looked down at his hands. No.....he was still intact! He quickly turned his head to see the bird attacking Darkseid, but what his eyes stayed upon was the person standing right in front of him.

"Raven........is that really you?" Neal asked as he just stared at her for a moment. It had only been a day in a half since Neal had last seen her, but that seemed like so long ago. For Raven it had been five years, and Neal could already start imagining what she must have gone through. She must have been in so much pain.

"It is me," Raven said, in a soft, but indifferent tone. Her emotions... they were withdrawn again. Controlled. Her mind was no longer open like before, when she'd been with Neal. Now, she was shut off from feeling, at least her own feelings; she could still sense the emotions of others. She only knew that she must destroy this being in front of her, or many more would suffer.

"Foolish witch," Darkseid muttered, ripping the mass of soul-self off him. "You will die like all the others."

As Darkseid began to make his attack again, Raven simply raised her arms. her soul-self emerged from the ground again, taking hold of Darkseid and tossing him around, slamming him into the walls, and then into the ground. The black mass began to ooze inside his head, attacking his mind directly. He actually began to scream.

"For the past five years," Raven declared, floating forward. "I have been meditating in the confines of my former home, Azarath. My will caused the lost souls of those destroyed to return to me. To aid me. To strengthen me. Each day, my power grew. And now, I will destroy you."

The moment that Neal began to listen to Raven speak, he could tell that being away for five years had changed her greatly. She wasn't even speaking the same way, she wasn't open as she had been before. She had left because he died, and yet seeing him it almost seemed like it meant nothing to her. Neal felt a bit of pain when he saw Raven like this.

Neal watched as Raven went about attacking Darkseid, her soul self even going as far as to sink into his mind in order to attack him directly. Neal could hardly believe it, was she winning the battle!? He just continued to stare in surprise as his gaze remained on Darkseid. All of their efforts barely scratched him, and here Raven was making him scream in true pain.

"You gathered the souls of others in order to make yourself stronger?" Neal asked as he looked towards Raven. "Is that why you left?"

"There was... no other way," Raven muttered. She glanced back at him, her eyes shifting a little in confusion. "When you died... I... you died... you're dead. You shouldn't be here. How are you here?"

It was this momentary distraction that allowed Darkseid to reach down at his belt and press a small button. The air around Raven suddenly burst with an electrical field that dropped her to the ground, screaming so loudly, and so horrifically, that one had to wonder if that sound was even possible to come from a person. She writhed, twitched, and jerked wildly on the ground, her body in pure pain.

"I commend you, witch," Darkseid growled, getting up from the ground. "Few have forced me to use the Agony Matrix on them. Direct stimulation of your body's pain receptors... every single one. Imagine the worst pain you've ever felt and multiply it by a thousand, the continuing forever. Oh, wait... you don't have to imagine it, do you? But don't worry, you won't have to experience it for long. I have something else special planned for you.

He then walked over to her and reached down. His hand gripped her chest, causing a sudden burst of blackness. He gripped down hard and then actually began to pull the bird-shaped soul-self from her body. He lifted it up high, glaring at the squawking mass. Taking out a strange looking collar, he clamped it around the soul-self's neck, then yanked the entire thing out of her body and held it up. Despite all her screams from the agony matrix, the ones she uttered when Darkseid literally ripped her soul from her body were a thousand times worse.

Neal just stared back at Raven as she seemed to finally come to the conclusion that Neal was standing right in front of her. "No I'm not dead. I died but I'm not dead........I know that it doesn't make any sort of sense but-" but Neal stopped dead as Darkseid seemed to step in and do something to Raven.

Neal could only watch in horror at what happened next. Raven was literally feeling pain in every part of her body and no matter how much she screamed it would only get worse. Neal wanted to do something, and yet he knew that anything he would do wouldn't hurt Darkseid at all. In terms of pure strength he was a perfect human, but that would be nothing in Darkseid's eyes, and all of his other abilities didn't seem to affect him at all. What could Neal possibly do?

He couldn't just stand there though! "RAVEN!" Neal shouted as he saw her soul literally getting ripped out of her body. The screams, those were Raven's screams. Neal had to save her! He had to try! "Let her go you bastard!" Neal shouted before launching a large blast of his soul-self right into Darkseid's stomach. He wasn't sure if it would have any effect, but he couldn't just abandon Raven.

She had come to save Neal, but now it seemed like he was the reason that she had just died. No.....she was worse than dead. Neal had to do something, there was no way he could live with himself after this. Out of everyone, he never thought he'd have to watch as Raven died before his very eyes.

Darkseid merely swatted away Neal's soul-self. "Your attacks are much weaker than the witch's. You cannot harm me." He then began walking forward, reaching out and grabbing Neal by the throat, lifting him up. "Only one thing awaits you now, boy. Only death." His eys then began to glow again, and in a mere moment, Neal was engulfed.

Everything went black.

---

When Neal awoke, he would find himself on the floor, having fallen over backwards in his chair and staring up at the ceiling. It might take him a few moments, but the magic shop would look familiar. Standing over him and staring down at him with her dead eyes was Madame Xanadu. She slowly reached down and helped him back up.

"Welcome back," she said. "Tell me, what did you see?"

Neal could have tried to run, but he knew that it was pointless. Darkseid would just shoot him like he had done to everyone else. Neal was going to die, and no one else was going to show up, no one else was going to die to save Neal today. He stood there as Darkseid grabbed onto his throat, and a moment later everything went black.

---

Neal's eyes shot open, at first looking around and wondering if he might be in heaven. Of course, his eyes recognized the area immediately as Xanadu's magic shop. It was the shop that he had walked in when this all started, and Madame Xanadu herself was looking down at him.

"Do not touch me!" Neal shouted as he pushed himself away from her and forced himself to his feet. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?" he shouted right at her. "That was you! You showed me that! What on earth were you thinking!" he shouted right at her. It was all a lie? An illusion?

"The world five years from now, so many dead, most of the Justice League destroyed, Darkseid, heroes and villains working together................why on earth did you put me through that," Neal asked as he looked right over at Xanadu. "I saw everyone I loved and care about die while I couldn't do anything to save them"

Xanadu simply sat back down at the table and folded her hands. "I do not control what one sees when I show them their future," she explained. "Nor do I know what they will see. It is for their eyes only. What you experienced was a psychic connection between your mind and the cosmos, giving you a very realistic experience of what the future holds for you. I am sorry to hear that your future is... bleak."

She was quiet for a moment, and then leaned forward. "That should give you the motivation to change it, then. What you saw is only what can be, not what will be; the most likely outcome of future events in your life. However, what you do with that knowledge, and whether or not you work to change it, is up to you."

Neal just stared at Xanadu. Did she really have no idea what she was showing Neal when she had done that. That was not what she had advertised! "That wasn't showing me the future! You placed me there! I was alive and everyone was freaked out because I was supposed to be dead already!" he shouted at her. She might not have realized what she had shown Neal, but she showed him the closest thing to Armageddon that he could imagine.

As Xanadu continued to speak, Neal could only stare at her as she spoke about how it would be up to him to change the outcome of the future. How was he supposed to do that! Darkseid had killed almost everyone! And even when they had a weapon to use against him he had destroyed them.........but now Neal knew what that weapon was.

"I have to go," Neal said before turning and bolting out towards the exit of the magic shop. The moment that he left the shop Neal would be running faster than he ever had in his entire life. HE needed to talk to the Titans! Tell them about what he had seen! He had to get back to the tower! Neal kept running, and didn't stop until he had slammed open the doors to the tower, not even caring about how everyone would be looking at him.

Just by looking at his face, it was clear that Neal wasn't doing so hot. Plus, he didn't even have the groceries that he went out for in the first place.

When Neal arrived back at the tower, the others were gathered in the lounge area engrossed in the middle of a conversation. Raven sat cross legged, alone on one couch with a book lifted up to her face, reading intently, while Nightwing and Cyborg were on another couch, with Cyborg flipping channels on the television. On the third couch, Starfire was lying back in Sarah's arms, relaxing in the corner of said couch.

"So Dick," Sarah said, giving him an amused look. "Kory here tells me that you two used to date, way back in the day."

Nightwing lifted an eyebrow. "Uh... yeah. Long time ago."

"Whatever happened to that?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, well, you know... on again, off again kind of thing..." Nightwing said, shifting in his seat uncomfortably. "I think after the sixth break up we just realized we weren't quite... right for each other."

Starfire smiled. "But we still remain good friends."

Sarah chuckled. "Of course. Funny though, the way she came on to me, I wouldn't have thought her as the kind to go after guys."

"I do not care about one's gender," Starfire said, matter-of-factly. "I am attracted to the person's other qualities first."

Cyborg, still looking at the television, smirked a little. "You know you have a cool team when you have a bisexual alien on it."

Raven peered slowly over the top of her book. "I believe the term is pansexual. She is attracted to the personality first, gender doesn't matter."

"Thank you, Raven, for clarifying," Starfire said, with a nod.

Sarah glanced over at Raven. "And what about you? I hear you used to date Beast Boy."

Raven flinched. "That was a very long time ago... and it lasted very briefly. He has a good heart and all, but he was very..."

"Immature?" Sarah finished.

"Yes... that," Raven replied, returning to her book.

It was about that time that Sarah looked up and noticed Neal by the door. Strange that no one had noticed him standing there that whole time. "Hey, you're back quick," she said. "You were only gone like twenty minutes. Where're the groceries?"

Neal pretty much glazed over the conversation that was being said, there was far too much going on in his mind for him to really think about the old relationships that were being spoken about. From far away Neal didn't look that different, but as he approached everyone would start to see that something was off. There was a wild and crazy look in his eyes, and he was sweating bullets as if he had sprinted the entire way back.

It would most likely be that Raven would notice that something was wrong first. Neal's emotions were all wrong. He was part happy, sad, depressed, joyful, and afraid. The positive emotions came from seeing his friends and teammates alive, the bad part came from what he was about to tell them.

"No, not twenty minutes. Two days," Neal corrected Sarah despite the fact that she had no idea what he was talking about. For the next several minutes Neal was probably going to sound like a crazy man. "I need you guys to hear me out, because if you don't we will all be dead within six years," he said as he looked at everyone with a serious expressions.

---

"And that's the last thing that happened. After watching every single one of you die Darkseid picked me up and killed my himself. Next thing I knew I woke up back in the magic shop, where the lady told me that I had to use my knowledge to change the future," Neal said as he looked to the group. He had taken a seat and faced everyone, it was now going to be up to them about whether or not they believed him though. It wasn't like Neal had any serious evidence.

Sarah gave him a confused look. "Two days? Uh... kay..." she said, wondering if he was feeling alright. Of course, it got even mroe confusing as he started saying they'd all be dead within si years. Say what?

If Neal had accomplished anything through those statements, he had at least received their full attention. And then as he started to explain everything, the situation just got even weirder. Alien invasion? Darkseid? End of the earth? What the hell had happened to him out there? By the time he finished, the others were staring at him with stunned gazes and slack jaws. All except for Raven, who was looking at him with calm understanding.

"Dude, that... is some story," Cyborg said, scratching his head. "You sure you didn't just, like... I don't know, eat some bad fish or something?"

"No, he tells the truth," Raven said, holding her hands together in her lap. "I can sense it. He did experience what he says... Madame Xanadu is a well known and powerful mystic in the magical world. Though the laws of the universe prevent her from directly intervening in anyone's problem's, she can offer guidance, and has been known to find loopholes... If she sensed that something terrible was imminent to this world, she may have sought a way to warn us, all of us. By luring Neal in and showing him the future... she may well have saved us all."

Nightwing stood up. "In that case, we have somewhere we need to be. Now." Walking over to the computer screen, he pressed a big red button. A few moments later, Martian Manhunter's face appeared on the screen.

"Watchtower here," J'onn responded. "I must remind that this line is for emergencies only. Please state your emergency."

"We need to speak to the Justice League, now," Nightwing stated. "We have a major problem."

"Nightwing," J'onn said, narrowing his eyes. "I sense great distress in your tone... I will transport immediately."

Within seconds, everyone within Titans Tower suddenly vanished into thin air, only to reappear moments later aboard the massive orbiting satellite that was the Justice League headquarters, the Watchtower.

---

Ten minutes afterwards, the Titans were in the main conference room, with all members of the Justice League sitting around a big round table, waiting to hear what they had to say; Power Girl, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Hawkgirl, and Zatanna.

"Go ahead," Donna said, folding her hands together. "Speak freely."

"It was not bad fish, it happened right before my eyes. I know illusions and this wasn't one, it was real. I was really there and fighting in the final days of our lives," Neal said as he shot Cyborg a glare. Neal didn't want to be rude, but this was too serious to joke about. He knew that it was going to happen, and he needed them to take this seriously.

It was Raven who verified what had taken place, apparently she was familiar with this Xanadu lady. Neal still wanted to go back and give her a huge talking to, but if she had just saved the world he supposed that he couldn't blame her for what she did. It might have just saved everyone after all. Neal knew what would defeat the enemy after all, and with that knowledge it might be possible to just stop this war before it even began.

Nightwing took the next necessary step though, contacting the Justice League so that they could be informed of the imminent danger. Neal was a bit nervous to present to all of them, but considering the state of their emergency he quickly pushed aside those feelings. He needed to tell them everything.

----

Several minutes later and they were up on the Watchtower, the famous post for the Justice League to monitor all the problems on Earth. Neal only dreamed of coming here, but he needed to focus on what he had to tell the members of the Justice League, and so he told them the entire story.

"The invasion is going to be soon, this Watchtower will be the first thing destroyed along with everyone on it. Darkseid won't pull any punches. Most of our forces die within the first few months, the rest ended up hiding and trying to fight in whatever way they could........in the end it wasn't enough though," Neal said as he looked up at the members of the League.

"You need to make as many Thorium bombs as you can. If you can hit him fast he won't expect it, it'll stop all their technology from working. If we cut off the power to his army, we only have to worry about Darkseid"

The Justice League listened carefully to Neal's explanation. Though they were certainly skeptical, and there was a lack of proof, his declarations were too dire to simply ignore. If he was telling the truth, then they needed to act fast. It was Zatanna who spoke up first in regards to Neal's claims.

"I know Xanadu," she said, folding her fingers together and resting her chin upon them. "This does sound like something she would have done, and if that is the future that was presented, then we must do something to prevent it from happening, and quickly."

"What concerns me most," Wonder Woman said, "is the technology described. Apokolips has always had advanced technology, but nothing to the extent where we could not overcome it before. Where could Darkseid have acquired it?"

"It doesn't matter," Batman stated. "Another conquered planet, Apokolips' own further advancement, whatever. Either way, we have a way to counter it. I'll work on mass producing Thorium bombs as soon as we leave here."

"And I will begin improving the Watchtower's defenses," J'onn said. "To both the main station and the surrounding annexes. I can get Mr. Terrific to help with the process. We'll need to advance our Javelins to be space combat ready."

Sarah then took a step forward to make a suggestion. "And I can call ahead and have the Lantern Corps. ready ahead of time. With the entire corps. helping, that should provide us with a significant defense."

"Send out an immediate alert to all heroes in the League reserves," Power Girl said, standing up. The League reserves pretty much included every superhero in America, even some from other countries. "Have them begin preparing for when the time comes. We have a lot of planning to do."

Neal just stared forward, as the silence that followed made it seem like no one was going to believe him. That concerned Neal, especially since Neal's loyalty still wasn't clear in everyone's mind. As much as Neal and the Titans had put the League of Assassins business behind them, there was no guarantee that everyone else had.

It was only when Zatanna spoke up that the momentum seemed to change, she knew Xanadu like Raven did and agreed that it was something that they should take seriously. It wasn't the kind of thing that she would do as a joke or for fun. Thankfully Batman, J'onn and ever Wonder Woman and Sarah showed their support and began to speak about their plans to defend against Darkseid and make sure that they would be ready for the imminent attack.

"It'd be best to hit Darkseid before he even gets close to Earth. I saw the damage that he was capable of, if he gets close enough to attack he'll destroy every major city before we can stop him. It would leave a lot of casualties," Neal reminded them all. Apparently Neal had lost his own life to those bombs once, he wanted to make sure that Darkseid didn't get a chance to use them, not this time.

The next couple of months was spent doing exactly what Power Girl had said they had to do: planning. They did everything they could to prepare for an incoming invasion by Darkseid and his Apokoliptian forces. They upgraded the Watchtower's shielding, its defense weapons, and the same for the Javelins, their own space ships/jets. Sarah had alerted the Lantern Corps., which was now ready and waiting on standby to come immediately when the time was right. Batman had completed nearly a thousand Thorium bombs, as apparently Lex Luthor wasn't the only one with large element resources.

They went over strategies, battle plans, anything to give them an edge when the fight came to their doorstep. Thanks to Neal, they knew what ship Darkseid would be in, what to look for. They'd hit that one first, and they'd hit it hard. If they could take down Darkseid right away, the war would be over quickly. Of course, only the hardest hitting of heroes would invade Darkseid's ship, Power Girl, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Flash, and the like. His omega beams could disintegrate most people they came into contact with, so it was imperative, to keep the chance of casualties to a minimum, to send only those heroes who could resist them or most assuredly evade them, to go into battle against him.

J'onn had also been mental sweeping the space surrounding their solar system, stretching outwards through the galaxy, trying to get a certain fix on the enemy's location and their estimated time of arrival. Eventually, he found them. It gave them a definitive time frame to work with, forcing them to hurry and get things completed in time. When the day finally came, they were ready.

Martian Manhunter stood at the main Watchtower controls, just as the first wave of ships came into view, flying past Mars on their way to Earth. "They're here!" he shouted, pressing a series of buttons on the control panels. "Everyone, to your battle stations Prepare for combat!"

The next several months were extremely well done, they had taken all of the information that Neal had provided and used it in order to increase both their offense and their defense. The more that the days went by, the more certain that Neal was that they were going to win this war. Neal knew the future, and Darkseid did not. It was a huge advantage to have, he wouldn't be expecting a defense on this level.

Neal spent the time mainly doing two things, helping to coordinate a defense by giving them as many details about Darkseid as possible, and also learning about what he would be doing once the attack began. Thankfully, Batman had come up with a nice suggestion for what Neal would do when the attack began. He was instructed on how to use the guns on the Watchtower, very powerful weapons. With them he'd be able to attack Darkseid's ships the moment that he showed up. Neal had to admit, it was quite nice to wield such a powerful weapon. Within a few weeks, Neal was a master with it.

The day came faster than Neal wanted it to. Part of him was still hoping that it wasn't real, and yet he knew that it would come. There was no avoiding it. It was on one particular day, that J'onn made the shout. They were here. Neal quickly got up from his position, running to his designated gun turret. They didn't have a large window of opportunity, and as soon as those bombs were activated the League needed to destroy everything that Darkseid was going to throw at them.

Neal fastened himself into his chair and armed the controls. "Alright Darkseid, let's see what you have" Neal muttered to himself as he activated his controls. "Whatever I hit you with, it's for all my friends that you were going to kill"

The first thing that the wave of enemy ships ran into on their way into range was the Thorium mine field that Batman had spread out in orbit. Hot flashes of radiation began to spread across space, taking out quite a large amount of the Apokoliptian ships as the technology aboard sputtered and died, causing them to drift off aimlessly and helplessly. Some, however, managed to escape the radiation waves and kept coming.

"Concentrate your fire on the active ships," J'onn commanded, watching all fronts carefully. The crippled ships were of no threat at the moment, after all.

When the enemy came closer, it was the Javelins' turns. The swift, agile fighters sped through open space and began firing in defense. They were easily able to outmaneuver the much larger battle cruisers, causing most of them to explode and spin off in all directions. A second wave of ships began to arrive, these ones learning from the first and avoiding the mine field. A much larger majority were still active now, increasing the intensity of the battle. But they were still ready.

From the space beyond, thousands of green streaks began to appear, as the Green Lantern Corps. arrived. Sarah joined with them, leading the charge as they assaulted every enemy in sight, cutting through their hulls with beams of energy from their power rings. Darkseid's forces were quickly losing ground. And then, it came into view, finally. Darkseid's war ship.

J'onn's Martian eyes narrowed. "I have located Darkseid's vessel," he declared, brigning it up on the main screen. It was time to begin the big attack. "Fade, concentrate fire on the ship's main hull. Rip open an entrance point for our troops."

Neal watched through his target screen as the first wave of ships came into view. Batman had placed a mine field of the bombs all over though, causing the enemy ships to activate them and get caught in the blast. They were just useless now, even better they would actually be in the way of the other enemy ships that were coming. It was a good starting strategy, but many of the other ships that were arriving were now avoiding the mine field, leaving them still in full fighting condition.

"Roger that!" Neal said mainly to himself as J'onn said that they should concentrate fire on the ships that were still active. Neal began to take aim, quickly firing at the ships that seemed slowest or were trying to maneuver around the other ships. It seemed to be working so far, and Neal kept it up.

Neal continued his attacks as the Lantern Corp arrived, dealing out damage and attacks that were better than the javelins even. Neal had made sure to tell Sarah about any weaknesses in this ship that he had remembered, and she had passed on all the information to the other lanterns. So far the battle was clearly in their favor.

Neal glanced up as a ship was shows on his screen. Neal recognized it instantly. That was Darkseid's ship. "Oh I am going to enjoy this," Neal said before hearing J'onn's order. "On it now!" he said as he adjusted his weapon. Within seconds Neal began to fire at the same location on Darkseid's ship, trying to punch a hole big enough for the heroes to enter and take out Darkseid themselves.

It only took several shots, with the improvements that had been made to the Watchtower's weapon systems. Once a large enough hole had been ripped open, the Javelin with the designated team went straight for it, entering into the much larger war ship. J'onn could only wish them luck from his command post, as the Thorium bomb inside went off and cut off their communications. While the battle continued to rage all around them, their prime focus was what the ensuing battle aboard the main ship would yield.

After what seemed like an eternity, with the space battle all around them starting to reach a close, with most of the losses on the Apokoliptian side, static began to appear on the monitor in front of J'onn. He started pressing a series of buttons, curious over what it meant.

"We have an incoming transmission," J'onn stated.

Mr. Terrific looked over at him from the secondary post. "From who?"

"It's coming... from Darkseid's ship," J'onn responded. After several moments, the static began to clear up. "Hello? Who is this?" When no response came, J'onn narrowed his eyes. "Darkseid?"

And then, Flash's face appeared on the screen. "We're sorry, Darkseid can't come to the phone right now," he said. "But if you leave your name and number after the beep, we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Hey, Green, how's things on your end?"

J'onn managed a small smirk. "Things are good. Scans show that most of the enemy fleet has been defeated, and the survivors are retreating. How are things in there?"

"Fantastic, thanks for asking," Flash responded, with a thumbs up. "I'm afraid you won't be able to talk to Darkseid, though, we beat him up pretty bad. It was mostly Power Girl, though. Turns out Darkseid is the one that set old Doomsday free... Kara kind of went a little berserk after that. Trapped his ass in the Phantom Zone with one of those special crystals Superman kept in his fortress. I don't think we'll be seeing him for a while."

The moment that Neal had punched a hole through Darkseid's ship, he decided that it would be best to turn his attention to the other ships that were still fighting. There was no point in just hitting Darkseid's ship, it would only serve to drive Neal's anger. He calmed his mind before turning and attacking the various other ships. He kept it up until J'onn made an announcement. They were receiving a transmission.

It was coming from Darkseid's ship.

The moment that Neal heard the voice he couldn't help but laugh. Flash, he loved that guy. He could put humor in any situation, much like Beast Boy. The summary was good too. Darkseid was gone to some phantom zone, and the rest of the warriors were running and leaving. Neal exited the gun, there was no point in continuing to slaughter the soldiers. Enough people had died today.

"We won! Victory for earth!", Neal shouted with a laugh. Xanadu's prophesy wasn't going to come true, the future had been changed thanks to her and Neal's actions! Neal began to make various fireworks appear out in space around the ships, as if the whole world was celebrating the victory that had just taken place. "Darkseid will never take over this world, not while we're here" Neal said to himself with a smile.

A couple weeks after the successful defense of the Apokoliptian invasion, it was business as usual back at Titans Tower. Things seemed rather dull, though, after the whole exciting space battle. Of course, much better to be somewhat bored than the alternative. The Titans mostly kept themselves busy with training and smaller alerts that came in every now and then. For the most part, though, things were quiet.

Raven and Neal continued their relationship, at least as best as they could it seemed as though Raven, while having been open emotionally lately, was starting to slightly withdraw again. She hadn't said anything to Neal about why... it was something she kept feeling nagging inside her, like a bad dream in the back of her mind. She enjoyed spending time with Neal, with opening up to him, she loved him... and yet, she constantly felt as though if she pushed herself too much, something bad might happen.

Every time her emotions reached a high point around him, she felt like she had to stop. She didn't know why... it just happened. It was causing her to be constantly angry at herself, for being unable to be as close to Neal as she could. She was sure that he'd noticed something was wrong by now, too. How could he not? But she didn't have an answer or a reason for it, and so she constantly avoided the subject.

One quiet night, while Starfire and Sarah were out on a date, and Raven was up meditating alone her her room (after politely declining to go out on a date with Neal, much to her own chagrin. Why couldn't she just say yes? Or ask him to come meditate with her? Why had she felt the need to be alone all of a sudden?) Nightwing went over various files on the computer, while Cyborg was down in the garage performing maintenance on some of their vehicles.

Suddenly, a red light began blinking on the left side of the computer console. Nightwing glanced over and stared at it, his eyes narrowing. "Silent perimeter alarm just triggered," he said. "Someone's on the island that shouldn't be here." With that, he got up to go investigate, heading outside in the near pouring rain. If Neal had been nearby, he might have gone as well.

Darkseid was defeated, banished to the phantom zone where he would hopefully be stuck for at least a very long time. The next time that Neal saw Darkseid it would be an eternity too soon, thankfully he didn't have to worry about it for now though. He gladly went back to Titans Tower with everyone else, glad to be back home where things were normal. Neal measured that had Xanadu not warned him, he would probably be dead right around now. For the moment life was good.

The only problem that Neal had, was Raven. As much as he thought that he had been doing the right thing, it seemed like Raven was trying to openly avoid him. Neal kept playing back the memories of the past few weeks and months in his mind, trying to figure out what he did wrong. He knew that he hadn't spent as much time with her a few months ago, but they were preparing for a war. Surely she understood that right? Neal didn't know what to do, but he couldn't help but think that he hurt Raven somehow.

Neal was laying down on the couch tonight, pondering about why he was going through this right now. He had tried to act extra nice to Raven all week, but she still declined going on a date with him. She never did it rudely, but when it once brought her so much joy it just seemed strange now for her to say no.........what had Neal done to hurt her?

It was at that moment that a blinking red light caused Neal to look up. He recognized it, since Cyborg had taught him a few things about the alarm system around the tower. It was important for Neal to know in case he was the only one around after all. As Nightwing got up to go investigate, Neal hopped up as well. "I'll come with you, can't be too careful after all," he pointed out as he followed Nightwing out to investigate. Hopefully, it would be just some fan that wanted to get way too close to the Tower.

Based on Neal's past luck though, he had a doubt it would be something that simple.

"See anything?" Nightwing asked, trying to get a clear view through the rain and the darkness. The lenses on his costume's mask was working to sift through all the natural interference. He was managing to make out as clear an image as possible, but he didn't see any intruder roaming around the small island. That was odd, considering there weren't exactly a lot of places to hide. Not to mention, once the silent alarm was triggered, the perimeter defenses activated, which were motion sensitive. But so far, the stun turrets remained motionless.

While Nightwing went off to search the east side of the island, he told Neal to go head to the west side. If they split up, they would probably be able to cover discover whoever this intruder was faster. As Neal investigated his designated side, he'd soon discover the reason why the defenses weren't picking anything up. The intruder wasn't moving, rather lying face down in the mud, her clothes torn, and her body bloody and bruised. Long, snow white hair topped her head, draping over one side, the ghostly strands floating in a neighboring puddle. An equally whit eye patch draped over the left side of her face, covering her left eye. She clearly needed assistance.