013
— to old friends —

WHILE THE SHE WAS IN THE WRONG FOR LYING, SHE COULDN'T HELP BUT FEEL MAD AT THEM FOR TRACKING AND FOLLOWING HER. Hazel stared at the others for a moment and Hazel caught a glance at Gar's face, but she was quick to spin back to Mercy. "You stay right fuckin' there," Hazel ordered, pointing a finger in Mercy's face.

Gar pushed past Dick and Kory, walking to Hazel and grabbing her by the arm. He pulled her out into the hall, far enough that others couldn't hear them. He let go of her arm once they reached the end of the hall, but he couldn't help but continue pacing. Gar ran his hand down his face and Hazel finally looked at him. His face was a mixture of disappointment and anger, and Hazel couldn't blame him. "What the fuck?" Gar hissed, his voice barely above a whisper. Hazel looked away and Gar shook his head. "Mercy?"

"I swear I didn't know she was gonna be here," Hazel said quickly. She took Gar's hands and squeezed his hands. "I got a hit on Conner, Kruger said he was here. I was checking it out. Thought maybe I would find Sebastian."

"On your own?" Hazel sighed softly as Gar's question, and he shook his head. "Hazel, we're doing this together," Gar insisted.

Hazel took a deep breath and looked Gar in the eyes. "There is nothing to do together, Gar. There are no more other options," Hazel started, keeping her voice soft. "Jinx is dead, Terran's dead, Cole's in a coma I can't fix. Do you know how powerless I feel right now?" Hazel took her hands back, toying with her rings to try and stay steady. "He's right there and I can't do anything. If this has to end with me, so be it."

"Maybe not," Rachel spoke up, walking up to Gar and Hazel. "Dick found something."

Gar and Hazel followed Rachel back to Mercy's room, Dick and Kory hunched around the monitors and Gar rushed over to them quickly. Rachel sat by the door, watching Mercy closely but Mercy kept her eyes on Hazel who stopped in front of her.

"Come look at this," Dick called, looking over his shoulder at Hazel. She glanced at Mercy before she stepped beside Dick, reading over Kory's shoulder. "She had been deleting files to cover her tracks," Dick explained.

Hazel stepped back into front of Mercy, throwing another punch across Mercy's face. Dick jumped in shock, but Gar quickly piped up, "She deserves that." Mercy laughed and Gar looked over his shoulder, glaring at her. "Hit her again."

Hazel stepped forward but Dick was quick to jump in front of her, stopping her quickly. Hazel stepped away, moving to stand behind Kory and look at the computers. "Found this is the trash," Kory spoke, pulling a file from a secure LexCorp folder.

"LMD," Hazel read aloud.

"Lex's Weapons Development Division," Dick explained, and Hazel looked back at him. "Think of everything he's used to try and defeat Superman. Kryptonite weapons, suits, guns, everything dangerous you could think of."

"Yeah, wait till you see this," Kory said, drawing Hazel's attention back to her. She pulled up another file with a blueprint detailed to the smallest extent, with at least 2 dozen pages worth of safety protocols and dangers. Hazel raised her eyebrows at Kory, and she flicked through another half a dozen pages of instructions. She paused, showing Hazel the file information page with the block red letters PROJECT ANNIHILATION on the top. And then underneath the title in messy writing was Hazel Drew Lillis.

Hazel stepped back to stand in front of Mercy, and very notable Dick didn't step aside. "You come up with that on your own?" Hazel scoffed, raising her eyebrows at Mercy.

"Don't make a joke out of this," Rachel called, and Hazel spun to face her. Rachel moved her eyes from Hazel to stare at Mercy, but she stayed in her spot by the door. "This is terrifying."

"Well, the creep took more than just your name," Kory spoke up, taking her time to properly read through the documents. "From what I read, this weapon is designed to replicate your red light."

Hazel turned to Mercy, and she immediately began to speak. "Lex knew you had the power to defeat Brother Blood," Mercy began her eyes darting around. "He wanted that power for himself, so he attempted to replicate it."

"Replicate powers, is that even possible?" Rachel questioned.

"If anybody could, it's Lex," Dick said with a nod. "You'd be surprised what jealousy and a shit ton of money can do."

"It wasn't jealousy," Mercy insisted, almost offended at Dick's comment. "He was determined to leave an enduring legacy. Show the world he was as beneficent as Kal-El."

Gar hummed softly, taking over messing around with the computer, "Sounds like jealousy to me."

Hazel turned back to Mercy tapping her foot in impatience. "Through a secret branch of LexCorp, he spent millions developing a red-light weapon; Project Annihilation. . ." Mercy dragged out her words but Hazel did was shrug in response, it had been a very long time since Mercy had ever scared Hazel.

"Are you saying he actually completed it? Kory questioned, turning in her seat.

Gar scanned through the rest of the document and nodded quickly, "Looks like it, yeah."

"Hold on," Hazel said, raising her hand as something clicked in her mind. "Listen I don't care how much money he has or how jealous he is, you can't replicate red light," Hazel said, matter of fact-ly. Mercy looked up at her with raised eyebrows, but Hazel cut her off, "Nuh-uh, don't care, not possible."

"He had a lab where he conducted his weapons' development and testing," Mercy explained slowly, looking between Hazel and Dick. "I believe its location and the access codes are somewhere in those encrypted files." Mercy motioned over to the computers and raised her eyebrows at Hazel.

"Which. . ." Gar pulled the hard drive out and smiled as presented Mercy with the empty computer storage, "is now ours."

Mercy's face dropped and she stared at Gar. "You really need to take all the files?" Mercy scoffed.

"You cut my skull off," Gar said with a deadpanned voice and flat look at Mercy. He stood and handed Dick the hard drive, taking a spot next to Hazel as Dick stepped away. Kory sent another look at Mercy before she stood and followed Dick back down the hall, Rachel too.

"You should know," Mercy said, stopping Hazel before she turned away. "I gave a copy of those files to Conner. Before he went rogue."

"So, if he unencrypts them before us. . ." Gar mumbled, trailing off.

"He can destroy it before we even get there," Hazel realised, dragging a hand down her face.

"What if he already has?" Gar asked, his voice soft.

Hazel stared at Gar, taking a breath. "But what would that do for him?" Hazel asked. "It's his only safeguard."

Hazel took a nervous breath, and they turned for the door, but Mercy called her name. Hazel turned back to Mercy with a reluctant huff. "Good luck," Mercy grinned.

"I am going to erase you from existence," Hazel threatened before she grabbed the metal door handle and slammed the door shut.

❁

Gar and Dick were able to decode the files and find the location of Lex's lab and Kory took the speed limit very leniently to get them there quickly. Kory turned down the alley to a modern grey street with a dozen tall buildings that all looked nearly identical. She parked the RV on the sidewalk and Hazel was already halfway out the door, Gar and Dick standing to follow her.

"Where are you going?" Kory asked, jumping from her seat and chasing after Gar.

"With Hazel," Gar said plainly, jumping onto the sidewalk beside Hazel. Dick let out a deep sigh at Kory, matching how he felt with the uncertainty written on her face.

"Gar's coming with me," Hazel insisted, holding her hand up and stopping the argument before it began. "He knows my powers best." Dick shot Kory another look before he reluctantly nodded, and he urged them to be safe.

Before Kory could close the door Rachel stopped her. Rachel took a deep breath and smiled at Hazel, "You got this," she said with a shaky smile.

"Thanks Rache," Hazel nodded.

Gar and Hazel walked into the third mundane building down the street, pushing the door open. Inside was just as barren and empty and dark as the facade building that led to Mercy, just as cold as well. Hazel looked over her shoulder at Gar and he nodded softly. They checked through the rooms before finally finding the padlocked door tunnels to the underground.

Hazel basted the lock away and Gar yanked the door open. The lights were in working conditions letting them see the staircase down to the tunnels, again. But instead of the flat concrete walls, the walls were lined with pipes, running gas, watcher, whatever the city needed, the walls were rusted, and Hazel wouldn't be surprised if the stairs gave out under them as they started to descend.

They got to the bottom of the stairs and Gar booted up their comms, sharing their location with the others on the RV. Dick led them from there, using the decoded files and blueprints from the city to lead them. Rats that battled the sizes in the big cities ran along the floor, squeaking and squealing. "Dick?" Gar called, pressing the button on his earpiece. "We're in the North tunnel with rats bigger than New York. Where to next?"

"About 100 yards ahead is a storage room," Dick explained, his voice echoing in their ears. "Follow the steps up into the facility. I'll turn off the motion detectors."

"Once inside there's a security code for the lab. We're working on cracking that," Rachel said, clearly distracted by what she was doing.

They continued walking straight ahead, dodging the dripping water and racing rats. Rachel began to talk again but Hazel cut her off as she stared at Conner. She and Gar froze as they watched Conner slowly step closer, clearly nervous. He stopped a few metres from them and raised his arms high in defence. "It's okay," Conner said, although there was a noticeable shake in his voice. "I'm on your side."

Hazel glared at Conner; her jaw clenched so tightly it hurt. She could feel the anger rising within her; that same burning, seething wave that threatened to drown the small part of her still trying to reason in Conner's favour. But no matter how hard she tried; her thoughts kept circling back to Cole—lying motionless, helpless. It might not have been his fault, but he was helping Sebastian.

"We come back and everyone's telling us you're working with Sebastion," Gar called out, finally breaking the silence. "That you've taken over and you're running LexCorp." Gar's voice picked up with each word, growing in speed and anger.

"You want to take a swing at me, I wouldn't blame you," Conner said, his head roping slightly in shame.

Hazel stepped away from Gar, taking the comms from her ear as she stopped just in front of Conner. He watched Hazel closely and slowly powered his hands to his sides, waiting for her to speak, or hit him. "That game that you signed on, that you approved of," Hazel swallowed hard and looked up at Conner, trying to keep herself steady and focussed. "It put him in a coma I can't fix. And Terran. . . she's dead." Conner's eyes widened and Hazel nodded softly. "Just so you know."

"I thought I could do it myself," Conner admitted, his voice filled with guilt and defeat. ". . . Stop Sebastian. Stop them both."

"You wanted to prove yourself?" Hazel questioned and Conner nodded softly.

Conner shook his head quickly as his hands began to shake "But I made things worse. I did things. . . Things Titans don't do." Conner looked up at Hazel, absolute pain and guilt burning in his eyes. He stammered, trying to breath and speak at once, "I tried, I— I tried to keep Sebastian close. Use his game as a distraction. When I found out it was hurting people, I created a vulnerability in the code to try to help you bring it down."

"Yeah, we figured that was you," Gar said softly, nodding at Conner.

Hazel glanced back at Gar, taking a deep breath through her nose. Hazel looked up at Conner and when he looked into her teary eyes he had begun to shake, "It wasn't enough." Conner took a deep breath, trying to force his nerves down but it was like he was falling apart at the guilt. He shook his head at Hazel, trying to steady himself, "I'm so sorry, Hazel."

Hazel kept her eyes on Conner, taking a deep breath as she tried to think of all of her options, playingly over the words in her mind. Conner took a deep breath and looked up at Hazel, but she stopped him before he could speak. "When we first got to Metropolis, I went with you to see Lex," Hazel reminded, taking another step forward. "Not because I had to, but because I wanted to." Conner looked up and Hazel smiled softly at him. Conner was still her friend. "I wanted you to know, no matter how bad a place you came from, whatever expectations people had of you, you had people that cared about you."

Conner took a deep breath and stared at Hazel, "You'd trust me again?" he asked, almost unsure of his words.

"Doing questionable things comes with the job," Hazel said, toying with the earpiece in her hands. "But you did them for the right reasons. Or right intentions at least. I don't have time to stay mad at you Conner, and right now all that matters if you're going to help us."

"Haze," Gar called, and Hazel looked back at him. "Dick cracked the security code into Lex's lab."

Hazel nodded softly and slid her comms in. "Let's go," Hazel called. She looked at Conner and walked around him, Gar following her closely. Conner paused for a moment before following them both. Hazel led Gar and Conner through the tunnels to a large metal door with the serial number 07 19 19 99.

"Why is this the only door with a number—?"

"It's my birthday," Hazel mumbled, cutting Gar off. She reached for the door handle and yanked the door open.

"You were born in the 90's?" Conner asked, almost amused.

"99," Hazel hissed. They stepped through into the doorway into the small interim room, a much more complicated metal door and lock sealing the door tight. "Rache?" Hazel called, tapping her earpiece. "Two things. One, the serial number on the door is my birthday. Two, I need that security code," Hazel relayed, tapping her fingers against the electronic lock.

"One, creepy," Rachel mumbled. "Two, give me one. . . second." The code on the electronic lock beeped and then the code shooting star. Hazel groaned, running her fingers through her hair as Rachel laughed softly.

"Shooting star?" Gar asked, leaning forward slightly. Rachel had begun to explain it was a sports nickname as Hazel tugged on the door. The locked door.

"Guys," Hazel called, stopping Gar and Conner. Conner tugged the door, but he hissed through his teeth. "Its base is kryptonite," Hazel realised watching Conner clench his hand in pain.

"Hazel, tell me what is happening?" Dick instructed, his voice rising in concern.

Hazel looked at the electronic lock, clicking it quickly in hopes it would register something in the program. With a beep and a screen change a second required password appeared, a voice recognition password. "There's a second passcode," Hazel relayed, looking it over. "Want's a specific phrase from a specific person. Or persons."

Dick mumbled something under his breath the mic didn't catch. Hazel gleaned between Gar and Conner, waiting for Dick for Dick to get back to them. Lex Luthor was an undeniably paranoid, secretive and secure man, who knew what was lying beyond the door if they tore it down. 

A few moments later Dick called for their attention. "I have an answer for you but it's complicated," Dick relayed.

Gar's eyebrows furrowed and he looked around. "What do you mean complicated?" Gar complained.

"We think it's a cipher," Dick spoke up, his distracted tone covering his irritation. "Some sort of substitution."

"What do you got?" Conner asked, clearly taking advantage of his super hearing.

"A.N.U.E.V.A.S.A.M.I.G.A.S," Kory recited, letter by letter. Conner eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but something clicked in Hazel's mind.

"How's that split?" she asked quickly

"Uh. . . A then N.U.E.V.A.S then A.M.I.G.A.S," Kory answered. "Why? Do you think you know how to crack it?"

Hazel scoffed, shaking her head as she realized what the letters would sound like if they were said together, specifically in Spanish. Hazel pressed the recorder button saying the phrase in Spanish just as easily as English, but it was specifically searching for the Spanish phrasing.

"To fresh. . . friends?" Rachel guessed, and Hazel could basically see her eyebrows twisting in thought.

"To new friends," Hazel corrected.

The door beeped in success and the locks on the door clicked open, the door opening a crack. Gar moved first, slowly pushing open the door and revealing the cream-coloured padded room inside. Hazel stepped through as Gar did, their eyes wandering the walls, the roof, the small pillar in the centre of the room displaying some sort of sphere. Hazel walked closer, stepping up onto the small platform, the metal of the pillar the same as the floor.

Gar carefully walked around the room, carefully of the thick cord and wires running over the floor. He looked up at the roof, watching the lights and their reflections move around in the metal sensors. He walked closer to Hazel, standing close by but he didn't step up onto the platform.

Conner stepped up, slowly walking circles around the pillar, his eyes lighting up as he inspected the sphere. It was no bigger than a soccer ball with hexagonal plating that covered the entire creation. "Construction of the shell is nested, perfectly aligned, to the nanometer," Conner listed off, clearly impressed by its creation. "Kinetic shielding, but the surface of each plate has a microarray of energy absorption to house the energy across the sphere itself. The internal mechanics are flawless and fully intact."

Conner tried to move forward and grab the weapon, but Gar yelled, flailing his arms in an attempt to stop him quickly. Which it did. "Why don't we not touch that thing?" Gar instructed, laughing slightly to hide his nerves. "At least until we know how it works."

Conner looked between them, nearly stammering like his old self. "Well, actually, uh, it doesn't," Conner explained.

"I'm sorry?" Hazel nearly scoffed, her eyes snapping up to Conner.

"Conner's right," Dick confirmed.

"According to Lexs files, the engineering is complete," Rachel summarised, "But it's lacking an energy source to activate it."

Hazel shrugged her shoulders as if she were expecting that to be the answer. "I told you guys, you can't just create power like that," Hazel said, shaking her head softly.

"But maybe. . . maybe he wasn't trying to create it," Gar thought out loud, staring at the sphere as if it would tell him all the answers. "He was trying to contain it. It's a bomb with no explosives inside."

"Lex must've had someone watching you," Kory realised, "There's dozens of files on you, some of the latest from Gotham. He needed to learn whatever he could while the weapon was still being developed."

"And he realised he needed you," Conner finished, looking up at Hazel.

Hazel nodded softly, sighing through her nose. "Yeah, there's a lot of that going around at the moment," Hazel joked dryly.

"So. . . how do we activate this thing?" Rachel questioned.

Conner took a small step closer, his eyes glowing as he inspected the would-be bomb again. "The orb's like a nuclear grenade, meant only to be launched at a metahuman," Conner explained, ensuring the emphasis of only to be launched at a metahuman. "If the math is right, the meta-human absorbs all of the blast."

"Otherwise, it'll blow a hole in the planet," Gar said, pulling his lips tight. Hazel's eyes widened and she turned to Gar, staring at him.

"If the math is right," Dick repeated.

"Activation is fairly straightforward," Conner said with an airy shrug. "Hazel infuses the orb with her power, and it's designed to initiate a fission chain reaction."

"And then the orb holds the energy until we pull the pin," Gar said with a nod.

Conner shrugged softly, nodding at Gar, "That's pretty much the idea."

"So wait," Dick called out, stopping anyone before they had a chance to move or think. "Has this thing ever been tested?" Dick questioned.

Hazel and Gar's eyes snapped up to Conner, and he took a deep breath. "Prototype," Conner confirmed.

Hazel took a deep, nervous breath and ran her hands down her face. "So. . . if I set off the fission reaction," Hazel said slowly, trying to lay it out for herself. "There is no way to know if it will destroy Brother Blood or—"

"Kill us all," Gar interrupted.

Hazel looked at the sphere, the shell casing to hold her power and make it a nuke. Hazel huffed, "Thanks for your optimism."

— legacies —