Barry's eyes fluttered, and he saw familiar sights buzzing by him once more. He saw Iris. She was in danger... He heard her calling for him. But he wasn't fast enough.

Professor Zoom held Iris tightly in his grasp. Barry knew what came next, he had seen it over two hundred times by now but it never got any easier. He tried to lift his arm, then to compel his legs to move, but they were frozen in place.

Zoom vibrated the molecules of his hand through Iris' skull, inching just slowly enough to create excruciating pain. She screamed and the sound rang through Barry's ears like an alarm. Even after all these years he reacted to her voice... to her pain. He tried again to break out of his frozen state but it was impossible. Even in dreams he couldn't change the past.

Zoom finally reached her Cerebellum, located at the very back of her brain. He squeezed it in his palm and the girls screaming seemed to intensify then drown out in a matter of seconds. She collapsed, eyes wide and mouth twitching open. Zoom repeated this action once more, this time pressing his fingers through the frontal lobe, then materialising them near the Medulla - the area that controlled life sustaining functions. He dug his nails into it then crushed it altogether. It was then that Iris finally died; afraid, paralysed, and in horrible agony.

This memory slipped away from Barry. He wished he could cry but his own consciousness would no longer allow him to. He was then forced, in this never ending nightmare, to watch his failed attempts of saving her. He went back in time, killed Zoom...only for Iris to die in a car accident. He did it again and again and again, but to the same result. She would always die one way or another, as if time had solidified itself.

He had resigned himself to an entire night in this torturous existence, but just as he was watching another timeline of Iris' death, he was suddenly yanked out of it.

Sweat drenched his body and his lungs felt enveloped in lead. Every breath was a chore and sent a painful jolt up the side of his torso. There was a point of initial panic, like he was compensating for his lack of action in the dream. It took another few moments for his eyes to finally adjust to reality and for him to realise that he was no longer asleep.

"Barry?..." Mineko's voice reached him, and her tone was so gentle that it managed to calm him enough to start breathing properly again. He felt her hand glide over his and, at last, forced himself to look at her concerned face. "Are you alright?"

The man took a large inhale, tense muscles not going unnoticed by Mineko. "Yeah... why?"

"You were... screaming in your sleep." Mineko hesitated to tell him. "I thought that, perhaps, you were being attacked. Is there anyone here that can enter people's dreams?"

"Uh... not that I know of?" Barry sighed. "It was just a nightmare, alright? No need to worry."

He pulled his hand away from hers and he visibly saw her expression drop. She almost looked a little hurt. Still, she had always been good at burying those feelings so it wasn't noticeable for very long. "I know a good remedy for bad dreams... I could make it for you."

"No." Barry snapped. "I just want to be alone."

Mineko was taken by surprise at his bluntness, but didn't allow the shock to silence her. "Is this about what I told you before? Because I assure you that I will not allow my feelings for you to get in the way of my mission again. I can promise you that."

"That's not what this is about."

Mineko bit her lip, then offered him an understanding smile that Barry had never expected to see on her face. "You're lying. It's alright. You still love Iris, and I am not the type to beg for people to return my feelings. It won't come up again if you don't wish it to."

"That's not- Look... if you value your life, you should try and get away from here as quickly as possible. The future and me. I'll only end up getting you killed."

Mineko blinked at him cluelessly. "I do not need empty warnings and protection. If I die it is my own fault for being weak, not yours."

This time Barry looked offended, even angry at her words. He knew that she wasn't referring to Iris, but with the dream still fresh in his mind, he couldn't help but feel infuriated. "I think you should leave now."

This time Mineko could tell that he meant it and she obliged, standing up and shuffling towards the door.

"I apologise if anything I said upset you. My intention was only to show my support." Mineko glanced over her shoulder, obviously saddened by his coldness. "I hope you find happiness, Barry, even after I'm gone. No one deserves to be stuck in their own past forever."

When the woman left, Barry was left wallowing in his own guilt. He couldn't save Iris, and now he was turning into Bruce. It was like he was stuck in some dark alternate reality- one that wasn't suppose to be his.

Mineko was quiet for the rest of the day. It was like she had suddenly entered some weird astral plain. She only appeared when he asked her to, and only spoke when he asked her something. Any other time she was practically invisible.

It had become so uncomfortable that Barry was somewhat relieved when Wally came knocking on his door.

"Hey... you got any plans today?" Wally had said as soon as he stepped into the apartment.

"Well I was going to visit dad." Barry said lowly. "Any reason you're asking this?"

"Oh, no reason... maybe you should go see him right now though." Wally suggested. Barry cocked his head to the side and Wally shrugged. "I just might need your help later. Not sure yet."

Barry groaned, but nodded to show his understanding. "Alright. Stay here, I'll be back soon."

In the blink of an eye, Barry was gone and Wally was left standing in the middle of the doorway alone... or so he thought.

"Barry has never spoken of his parents to me. I thought they were dead." Mineko's sudden voice jolted Wally a few inches into the air in fright.

Wally, now recovering from the near heart attack she had given him, took a heavy exhale. "His mom is. His dad's in jail."

The boy only realised after saying this that he probably shouldn't have revealed something so personal about his best friend. He cursed under his breath and firmly slapped his palm to his forehead.

"Why is his father incarcerated?" Mineko asked curiously but Wally didn't answer so willingly this time. "Oh... I understand. Well, perhaps Barry would like to know that it was you that told me about his parents..."

"You're evil." Wally huffed, glancing all around the apartment to ensure no one else was around. "His dad's in jail... for the murder of his mother."

All oxygen seemed to leave Mineko's body. She stared at Wally, blinked once... twice... thrice, then finally took a long overdue gasp of air. "That... what?... why would he-"

"Barry insists that he was falsely accused." Kid Flash admitted. "Says it was Professor Zoom that was behind it all. The guy's seriously gotta grudge against Barry... he's made it his life goal to destroy everything he loves."

This calmed the woman down, at least enough for her to speak in proper sentences again. "Why is he in jail if he did not do it?"

"There wasn't any evidence that someone else had entered the house. Without any other suspects they automatically assumed his father was guilty."

"But he's not." Mineko stated. "If Barry says he is innocent then he must be."

"Yeah, well, that's not how the law works here. Someone had to pay for the crime and, unfortunately, they weren't going to listen to the plea of a traumatised kid."

Sympathy washed over Mineko until it felt like she was drowning in it. That was the problem with developing feelings, any pain of theirs was yours to bare as well. "Perhaps there's a way to prove his innocence...?"

"Yeah, good luck." Wally muttered. "Barry's tried practically everything to get him out."

It was another hour before Barry returned to a quiet apartment with the television humming lowly. He entered the living room to see both Wally and Mineko watching the electronic device unblinkingly. His forehead wrinkled, but instead of questioning them, he slipped behind the couch and followed their gaze.

They were watching the news. A woman sat straight-backed behind a large desk. She had short blonde hair, brown eyes, and golden skin. Her fingers were folded elegantly in front of her as she continued to read the teleprompter behind the camera.

"We now bring you a live feed of the attack in Manhattan, New York." She said rather calmly considering the situation.

The screen skipped, then the image changed from the stuffy news room to a city of burning buildings. Much to Barry's shock, the camera eventually caught sight of the culprits. Beast boy had transformed into a giant T-Rex and was ripping structures apart in his jaws. Wonder Girl was lifting trucks and whirling them into abandoned cars and buses. Cyborg was blasting large holes into the roads and cement. Starfire was whirling through the sky, throwing balls of energy on every direction imaginable. And, finally, Raven had blackened the sky with her dark power.

"What the fuck." Barry hissed.

"Yeah... this is what I came to talk to you about." Wally said sheepishly.

"This is urgent, dude! Why didn't you tell me this sooner?!"

"I didn't know it would get this bad!" Wally defended himself. "They were acting a little strange, I had a bad feeling, but this is... something else entirely."

"We need to get there. Now." Barry said in a desperate tone. "Before they do something they'll truly regret."

Wally nodded, and seconds later, Barry was out of view. Wally almost followed suite before he heard Mineko clear her throat behind him.

"I could use a lift." Mineko said. "Since my usual ride took off without me."

Wally sighed but complied nonetheless, bending down and motioning towards his back reluctantly. "Hop on..."

The streets of Manhattan closest to Titans Tower were rendered to ruin by the team of young superheroes. By the time Barry skidded to a halt before them, all civilians had been evacuated.

Barry sighed to himself as he watched the destruction continue. "How the hell am I gonna take all of these guys at once...?"

The first one to notice Barry's presence was Cyborg, who could see anything with his multi-spectrum vision. Instead of saying anything, he pointed his white-noise cannon at Barry and fired.

The real Victor Stone would know that The Flash could easily evade a sonic attack, but it seemed that Yan didn't. This thought was relieving to Barry; she wasn't as experienced with the Titans' abilities as they were. Barry calmly sidestepped the bolt of white energy, which impacted with the sidewalk.

Wonder Girl's eyes darted over to Barry with a vicious rage in them. "Shit." Barry muttered.

She grabbed the bumper of a car, spun and sent it flying at Barry. Again, Yan had no idea what she was dealing with. With less effort than it took to evade Cyborg's assault, Barry casually strode away from the thrown vehicle which tore a hole through an empty shop front.

Suddenly, in a flash of lightning, Wally appeared with Mineko in tow. "Guys, stop! You can't keep doing this!"

Mineko climbed off his back, dressed in the uniform loaned to her by Batgirl. "They cannot hear you, Kid Flash. Yan is in total control."

"What's the plan, Mineko? How do we do this?" Barry asked her.

Mineko responded, as she unsheathed her katana "Render them unconscious."

"That's easier said than done when you're up against a Tamaranean and an Amazon...!" Wally scoffed as Starfire descended from the sky, eyes ablaze. A green t-Rex then came stomping around from the corner, followed by a hooded figure hovering in the distance.

Another voice promptly joined the conversation. "That's where we come in."

The Flash sent his eyes up and saw two figures suited in black and green. One was a familiar human face, but the other was an extremely pale alien woman. "Hal...?" Barry blurted with disbelief.

"The one and only." He quipped. "This is my space girlfriend and partner, Vell. We heard what was going on."

Barry's brow remained furrowed as he looked at Vell. "Uh...space girlfriend?"

"Yeah. I've always wanted to say that." Hal quipped, willing a handful of laser guns into existence.

Barry ran a hand down his face "I know..."

Vell landed and turned to Mineko "Hey."

Mineko squinted. "Greetings..."

The alien's eyes fell on Starfire. Immediately, Vell turned away and asked "Is that...a Tamaranean?"

"Sure is, rook. Not just any Tamaranean either. That's Princess Koriand'r." Hal replied.

"Grak..." Vell cursed in her native tongue. "This is gonna be harder than I thought."

"She and the Amazon will have to be ours. Knock it down a peg though; they're being mind controlled." Hal continued, Barry, Mineko and Wally being a little too shocked by he and Vell's sudden appearance to say anything useful.

"Ugh. That sucks. I wanted to hurt them."

"I know you did." Hal rolled his eyes, then in a streak of green light, he tackled Starfire out of sight.

"Fritar!" Vell spoke again foreignly. "I wanted the Tamaranean!"

The pale alien grumbled, but set her sights on Wonder Girl regardless of her preference. It wasn't long before they were gone as well, spiralling through the air like a jet.

"Well... that takes care of the heavy hitters." Wally said in relief. "I guess I'll take the dinosaur."

He sped around the city at least four times before returning, and punching the T-Rex with all the speed he'd built up. The massive animal fell to its back, before shifting into a Tiger and pounding at Wally. Kid Flash wasn't as fast as Barry, but he could still dodge the attack fairly easily.

"Okay. Which one do you want?" Barry asked, directing towards the two remaining Titans.

Mineko glanced over at Cyborg who was still tearing up the streets. Afterward, her eyes wandered towards Raven. That woman had an aura about her... something that felt almost familiar to Mineko. She pointed towards the cloaked figure and Barry looked as if he was questioning her sanity.

"Are you sure? Raven's... uhh... pretty strong." There was a hint of something in his voice, almost like he was concerned for her. Even after their awkward encounter earlier.

"I'm sure she is, but I'm no stranger to magic." Mineko said reassuringly. "Besides, I don't even know what that other thing is... let alone how to defeat it."

Barry winced inwardly at Mineko's words. "Yeah... I'll give you some advice. Don't tell Cyborg that when he regains consciousness."

"...You can explain to me exactly what a 'Cyborg' is when we're done."

"Can't wait."

Barry then grabbed onto Cyborg, and somehow, managed to run him into the already broken window of a nearby service station. They both went tumbling inside, and Mineko was left to try and grab Raven's attention.

The samurai swooped the empty space around her, building up enough pressure to lift herself from the ground and float towards Raven. "I sense a great demonic energy coming from you. That of Trigon himself."

The sound of her fathers name made something flicker in Raven's eyes. It swiftly vanished, but her attention stayed stuck on Mineko. At least she'd gotten her attention.

A massive cloud of dark power circled around Raven's body, her sharp features disappearing behind the curtain of energy. Each edge swirled then sharpened, and finally came barrelling towards Mineko. She readied her sword and cut through the magic with ease. Part of her training included how to fend against dark magic. Even her sword was enchanted to deflect it.

Raven sent another her way, then another, but each were avoided just as easily as the last. Mineko's eyes narrowed at the woman. "Either my instincts about you were wrong or Yan has no idea how to use your powers..."

That's when it hit her. Yan really didn't know how to use them. How could she? The only thing she controlled was their bodies and their consciousness, but she had no way of looking into past memories to figure out how each power worked... this fight was starting to look much simpler than before.

Raven tried again, but this time the magic she pushed in Mineko's direction was a continuous stream. It had enough force to inch her backwards despite her sword splitting the mass in two seperate directions. Using her own authority over wind, Mineko forced herself forward, against the current Raven had created.

The pressure left every muscle in Mineko's body twitching and her hands aching from the effort to keep hold of her sword, but she managed to push herself close enough to Raven to smash the handle of her katana against her temple. It zapped the magic right out of her, if only temporarily, and she fell to the ground.

"Well, that was easy." Mineko said with a raised eyebrow.

Just as she said this, the same green light as before fell from the sky and crashed into the sidewalk. A large crater was forged into the ground at the sheer force of the crash, and Mineko could only barely see Vell holding Wonder Girl by her hair. With her free hand she lifted the power ring on her finger and created a gigantic hammer out of thin air. The object was crushed into Wonder Girl's skull and, finally, she blacked out.

Next to win their fight was Barry. Under normal circumstances, knocking someone out would be a piece of cake for him. He was fast enough to do it quickly and sufficiently, but Cyborg simply wouldn't fall. It took more than twenty minutes in normal time, hours in the Speed Force, for him to figure out why Victor was so sturdy. He was part machine. That must've been keeping him awake.

The Flash shook his head, obviously disappointed that he hadn't thought of this sooner. He opened the compartment located in Cyborg's chest and fiddled around with the wiring. Victor froze, his robotic eye flashed red a few times, then he shut down.

Up near the stratosphere, Hal Jordan was engaged in a fierce dogfight with Starfire. The Emerald Crusader would've had a harder time with the Princess if she were in complete control of her actions, but currently his experience and finesse easily gave him the upper hand.

He weaved through the starbolts sent his way, with a few accurately thrown one washing over his personal energy shield. "Alright your highness, time for a taste of your own medicine." He snapped.

Thrusting his power ring out, Hal conjured a miniature star complete with its own gravitational pull. He then hit the throttle away from the mini sun, which simply kept him in place due to its fierce gravity.

Starfire however was caught unawares, and the sudden force snapped her backwards and sucked her into the star. Just as her orange form fell into the gaseous substance of the celestial body, Hal grimaced and opened his palm.

The star instantly collapsed on itself and went supernova, exploding with light that would've blinded the GL if he wasn't wearing his tactical visor.

Koriand'r fell from the sky, only for her descent to be stopped by a glowing green set of train tracks.

Hal, as smug as ever, concentrated and said "Sorry about this, princess...but you have some trains to catch."

On both sides of Starfire were two express bullet trains created by the Green Lantern, both inbound for the sides of her headr. With a startling crack, the trains collided with the Tamaranean's skull and folded in up on themselves like mechanical snakes.

With that, the newly unconscious Starfire dropped onto the Manhattan streets with a devastating rumble.

With most of the Titans now neutralised, the group met up again, dragging the bodies of their opponents with them. They looked around at each other, no words needed to realise that one was missing.

"A little help?!" Wally's voice pierced the atmosphere and their attention was diverted to the young boy. He was tangled with a large snake, one that was undoubtedly Beast Boy. "I can't move, and my power kinda relies on that."

"Why don't you just vibrate your molecules to walk through him?" Barry sighed.

Wally went silent for a split second then grumbled. "I'm not that fast yet... Are you gonna help me or not?"

Mineko walked nonchalantly towards the viper, and with little effort, kicked it unconscious. The snake unwhirled itself from around Wally, bones sliding and cracking back into place until it took on the more human form of Garfield Logan.

"Thanks." Wally said, seemingly unaware of how bad his failure made him look. "How long do you think it'll take for them to wake up?"

"I don't know about the rest of them." Barry admitted. "But I can reboot Victor as soon as we get them back to Titans Tower."

"Better get a move on then." Hal smirked, already halfway in the air.

"Wait, you're not gonna help?!" Wally whined. "These guys are heavy!... Well, maybe not Beast Boy, but Cyborg and Starfire are impossible to lift!"

"Wish we could, but we've got a whole sector of space to protect."

"Bullshit, you just don't want to help clean up!"

Hal winked and vanished into the sky, Vell following closely behind. On Earth, the three others were forced to heave the Titans back to the tower. Somehow, they managed, but not without a lot of arguing and sprained wrists.

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Author's Note: For those of you wondering who 'Vell' is, she's the love interest in the Green Lantern story. As mentioned, these stories will interlink, so feel free to read it if you're curious. ❤️☺️