A/N WARNING FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER: THIS CONTAINS CHARACTER DEATHS

If you are sensitive to Major Character Death and do not mind spoilers for the upcoming episode arc, I beg you to please watch the episode first. Watch Failsafe (16) so you are prepared for what is in store. Failsafe is a known episode to be traumatizing to the characters in canon and is famously made worse by authors, me included. The above warning will be repeated until the chapters containing MCD have finished.You have been warned

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October 16

Batman was gone

Missing

Dead

Gotham had fallen without it's heroes there to protect her.

The Justice League had fallen, each and every one of them a victim to the attacks. On live news no less. Reports kept coming in about more and more heroes falling until finally the last one, Red Tornado, disappeared before their eyes.

Danny felt like he saw the devastation first hand. He felt like he had watched on as people were killed by the aliens attacking. They came out of nowhere, black ships equipped with a laser gun of sorts. Everything it hit vaporized like it was never there.

Everything

He doesn't know how he got himself here, he can't even remember what they had for breakfast that morning. Everything happened so fast and he can't remember the last time he was this stressed out. All he knew was that this was one giant mess and his brother was stressed out beyond belief.

He wandered a couple steps forward, filtering through others as he slowly got to the front of the crowd. There he was! Right in front of him! He looked stoic on the outside but Danny knew better. He knew Robin was just another shield to hide how hurt he was. He could tell so easily by how his hand kept twitching ever so slightly.

Danny could help, he could just reach out, hold his hand and tell him everything would be fine. It would be okay because he has his team and they're superheroes and he isn't alone. He won't make the same mistakes Danny did.

He could just sneak in, stay invisible so nobody would see him. They never noticed him before, and they hadn't noticed him even now when there were so so many people in a small space. He just had to weave between the others and hide like he always did.

Just reach out and hold his hand, that's all he had to do.

Ever so carefully he floated forward, praying nobody would notice him there except for Robin. He couldn't just stand by idly when he could do something to help. He shook off the nerves and reached for Robin's minutely twitching hand.

The second he slid his hand into Robin's, the boy gasped out. With more strength than Danny had expected, Robin spun around and grabbed him in the tightest hug ever. If Danny had a need to breathe he would have been choking from the intense grip. It shocked Danny enough that he accidentally dropped his invisibility.

Robin pulled away by only a few inches. Just enough that he could inspect Danny for any injuries. "What are you doing here? How did you even get here?!" His voice was shaking, not even years of practice was enough to keep the Robin persona going at this very moment.

Danny let it happen, just happy he was there to support as his brother clearly needed it. "Gotham's gone." He finally whispered out. "I-" Danny paused, how did he get here? "You always said that should the city fall, we had to go to the Hall." Right, Dick had said that the moment Danny told him he knew he was Robin. The Hall Of Justice is where the League is, the focal point of all heroes. No matter what, there would always be somebody there that could help.

He felt Robin pull his head down, looking for any head injuries. Bright white strands of hair fell in his face. Right, right, he had transformed. Of course he did, he always did when being around Robin as a safety precaution.

Robin pushed on his sunglasses to make sure they were securely back on his nose. He must have forgotten to apply a mask that morning before leaving. At least he had his favorite muted green hoodie on so that was something. It would have been rather embarrassing if he had forgotten that too.

"Where's Cujo? He would never let you leave Gotham alone?"

Now that he mentioned it, where was Cujo? Danny couldn't remember the last time he saw the pup. A sharp headache pierced his skull the more he tried to remember. Something didn't feel right but he couldn't tell what.

Not liking the lack of an answer, Robin grabbed his hand and started to drag him closer to where the rest of his team had been staring at them. Right, the others were there too. Well...at least they weren't attacking him again so that was a plus point. Did they even remember him? Recognize him? God, Danny hoped not. He gained quite some weight since then and with the outfit change and the stress from an alien invasion. Well, all of that should account to something, right?

"M'gann." Robin called out, on a mission to drag Danny somewhere and not caring about the odd looks they were getting. "Does the Bioship still have our emergency backup gear bags?" Oh yeah, Dick had mentioned they all added a backpack with spare gear for long missions a while back. Something about a mission in Bialya that went south.

When M'gann nodded softly, Robin immediately pulled Danny away again. Pushing past both his team and the dozen of soldiers all around them. Not a single one of their silent questions went answered.

Bioship wasn't that far away. Before he knew it, they were alone inside Bioship. "Hey, sorry for dropping by so suddenly. Again." Danny greeted as Bioship reached out to him. She didn't get much time to greet Danny as the boy was pulled into another tight hug. Danny gladly returned it as he could tell this wasn't Robin in front of him.

This was just Dick.

He was shaking slightly, fighting back tears as he nuzzled into Danny's neck. "I thought I lost you." He barely whispered out, voice cracking as he choked down a sob. Danny struggled to keep the tears at bay himself. He gave a reassuring squeeze back, being careful of the fact Dick does need to breathe.

"I'm here, Dickie, I'm okay." Of course, that was the exact moment his brain reminded him of another person they should be worried about. "Have you heard from Zatanna?" Danny wanted to kick himself for asking as panic shot through Dick.

Immediately he reached for the control systems around him, typing furiously until his call got answered.

"Rob? Is that you?" Zatanna's voice came over the speakers. She sounded out of breath as explosions were happening all around her.

"Yeah, Z, we're both here. Where are you?"

"Pompom made it? Good. I'm still at home. I haven't heard from Dad and I can't do this alone. There's too many of those-" A loud blast sounded from just next to her, her sentence cut off by a yelp of surprise. "-Those damn aliens!"

Dick was typing furiously, trying to track down where her signal was coming from. Maybe he could lead her to safety. "Z, take a right at the next street. There should be an old diner at the end that has a Zeta. I'll prep the coordinates for the Hall so just get there safely!"

"On it. I don't think these things can track magic but I'm all out. Do you think my dad-" Zatanna's voice suddenly cut out as the transmission was interrupted.

"Tanna!" Danny yelled out, gripping the seat until his knuckles turned pale. Dick typed harder, nearly breaking buttons as he tried to relocate Zatanna's signal. No matter what he tried, error messages kept popping up as they slowly accepted Zatanna got hit too. "I...I'm sorry." Danny tried to place a comforting hand on Dick's shoulder but the other pulled away.

Storming over to his unofficial seat, Dick punched in the little secret code he had set up with Bioship to get his duffle bag. With extraordinary determination, Dick started putting his spare gear on Danny.

Danny pulled away slightly, not letting Dick clip on the utility belt. "No, I-I can't. Not again." Dick's frown softened, he tried to step closer but Danny stepped further away, half floating. "What if I mess up again? Zatanna had more training than me, she has magic! The League was stronger and they couldn't do it so why would I be able to do what they couldn't?" Danny started pacing, slightly losing his grip over his powers as he started fading in and out of visibility.

"What if I let everybody down again?"

"You won't, Nini." Dick said confidently. "And don't even try to argue with me. We trained for this exact reason. I taught you all the tricks B taught me back in the day should it be that a new Robin was needed." Dick dropped the belt over his seat and walked over to where Danny was floating. Reaching out, he waited until Danny grabbed his hand and let himself be pulled down again.

"There's only one Robin, though. I could never replace you and that was years ago! I'm not even cleared to actually be back in the field outside of patrols, how am I supposed to fight against alien death rays?!"

Dick gently held onto Danny's face, pulling off the sunglasses so he could look Danny in the eye. "And there is only one Phantom. What happened in Amity wasn't fair. You were alone and had nobody there to help against something even the League would have struggled against. But now you got the literal army, the team and me." Dick smiled warmly at Danny, knowing he was slowly convincing his brother as he wiped away a stray tear with his thumb. "You knew people needed help and you showed up, that's already half the job done. Let's show those bastards what happens when both halves of the same idiot are united."

Danny couldn't help but laugh at the comment. He knew Dick was right, it didn't make it any less scary but he was right. "At least you can't get in trouble for the unsanctioned distribution of Batgear." Danny joked as he clicked on the utility belt himself. Helping out with his hair, he ignored just how right gearing up again felt as Dick pressed on the spare mask. He had half a mind to ask if there was a whole spare suit stuffed in there but decided against it.

Dick chuckled softly, doing a final check to make sure they didn't miss anything. The gloves might shortcut again if he uses his powers too much but that shouldn't be too big of an issue. "Are you ready to go back out there?"

Danny paused his own mental checklist. Was he ready? Ready to be Phantom again? Ready to be somebody the world can depend on? To bear the burden of saving people after last time? No, he couldn't think like that. If Robin was going in, so was he.

No matter what.

Taking a deep breath, Danny linked their pinkies again and nodded. He could feel Dick tense slightly, slipping back into the persona of Robin, before leading them both outside. The team was mostly still in the same place, either resting outside against a tank or talking to the general.

Robin guided him over to Aqualad and the general as he tried to match his brother's confident stride. Actual confidence was pretty much non existent but he could fake it for now. They stayed relatively close together, somewhat hiding their linked fingers but also just for comfort's sake.

The general saluted them both. "I see our little trespasser is a friendly." They let go for just a second, awkwardly saluting back which caused the general to smile just the faintest bit. "No need to salute me, boys. The way I see it, Justice League outranks us by a long shot."

"But I'm not-"

"Son, you have the trust of a Bat to give you his gear. That makes you enough to be counted with the rest of em." The general declared. "General Wade Eiling, US Air Force." He held out his hand to shake.

With a little shoulder push from Robin, he shook the man's hand with a grip firmer than his doubt should have let him. "Phantom, ah, Justice League, I guess." Phantom shrugged, looking to the side as Robin snickered slightly. Had it been any other time, he was sure Robin would be holding it over him just like he did with Zatanna.

"The skies are clear for the moment. Gun recovery is going as good as we can expect with unknown alien tech. We got this handled, you can take a break. The Humvee over there has spare rations should any of you need it." General Eiling pointed out one of the cars before he left to discuss with his own subordinates.

Danny looked around the team. None of the them looked particularly excited to have him around but that was to be expected. They just lost a team member, and he had shown up out of nowhere. "We're down one, he's trained. Nothing to it." Had it not been for Robin glaring at anybody who even looked like they were questioning it, he wouldn't have survived the interrogation.

The silence that fell over them was rather awkward until M'gann finally broke the rising tension. "Maybe we could check inside and see if there is anything salvageable that the army missed?" Aqualad gave Phantom a once over, any questions thwarted by Robin who was ready to start a staring match. Breaking eye contact, he nodded and started to head towards the once so magnificent building.

One by one the group followed their leader inside the ruins of the Hall of Justice. Statues that once stood tall now lay in rubble. Robin paused at Batman's decapitated statue, a wave of grief washing over him at the loss of his mentor. "They're really gone." Phantom floated up behind him, leaning his chin onto Robin's shoulder as he leaned his head against his brother's cheek. With the others around, it was about as much comfort as Phantom could physically give.

Quiet sobs filled the air, everybody mourning the loss of their mentors, their family, in their own ways. M'gann seemed to be taking it the hardest as she openly cried at the remnants of Martian Manhunter's statue.

A sudden gasp pulled everybody's attention on her as she immediately floated up. Using her telekinesis, she lifted up the rubble. Under the broken stone laid a dazed and confused Manhunter. "Uncle J'onn!" Elated to see her uncle alive, M'gann wasted no time and flew towards him.

Finding it all too suspicious, Aqualad rushed forward to block her path. "M'gann. Check his mind, make sure he is whom he appears to be." Which, fair. Phantom did his research on Martian Manhunter the moment he figured out how to use a computer. The man was strong enough to have gotten out from under that rubble himself, so why did it take until M'gann found him?

"It's him." She said confidently, her excitement already rubbing off on the others. "He's real, and he's alive!" The others didn't seem as confident however, nobody else stepping forward to greet the last remaining member of the real Justice League.

"But we saw you get disintegrated. You and Superman. And everyone." Superboy nearly growled out in confused frustration as M'gann helped her uncle stand up.

The poor Martian was still clutching his head and looked rather unstable as he tried to stand. Maybe it would have been better to let him sit down while he recovered after what could be a head injury. But it wasn't Phantom's place to speak up.

"Yes. I remember." Manhunter said, stumbling only a little as he stood up tall with M'gann's help. "But... I cannot remember how I survived. Or how I arrived here." Phantom landed back on the floor, feeling the same sentiment. Everything must have gone too fast to properly register on top of the crisis going on.

"Maybe you were density shifting and the beam passed right through you!"

"Scrambling your brain along the way!" Robin supplied helpfully. The others hummed in agreement, finding the logic in it all. Phantom wasn't too sure. He was very confused too but he wouldn't have noticed if he got shot by a death ray, right? It wouldn't be his first time dying due to technology he doesn't fully understand. He didn't go intangible as far as he could remember, only invisible. But, trying to think too hard made his head hurt so badly he didn't want to put too much effort into it.

"My mind is clouded. I feel certain I had something important to tell you." Manhunter looked at M'gann, clearly also experiencing a bad headache as he clutched his head again.

"Hello Wally." Kid Flash said from the back of the group, playfully facepalming as he came to his own conclusions. "Come on!" Robin looked at his best friend with a questioning gaze. Kid Flash hopped excitedly before he ran outside. Sharing a look with Phantom, the pair shrugged and followed him outside. Not even bothering with the effort, Robin let Phantom lift him up onto a Humvee to get close enough to Bioship.

"Check what's coming off of the gun. There has to be something that should explain it." Kid Flash asked excitedly. Robin wasn't too sure of it but did so anyway. Phantom floated up and connected his glove directly into the newly integrated alien gun. Letting his data flow over to Robin's glove so he could actually figure out whatever data Kid Flash was looking for.