A large shadow cast its presence over the moon, a black mothership not too far behind. It was large, a twisting of thorn-like structures and sacks. The distinct impression of something being birthed, or it being an egg of some kind came to mind. There were multiple glowing red outlets around its sides. Ports presumably containing weaponry.

Slowly, it inched into Earth's orbit. Floating next to a natural satellite twice its size.

From the east coast of North America, both League-certified Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart flew up to address the mothership. As the Lanterns of this sector, it's their duty to inform the intruders of their trespassing and inform them to leave. And if that didn't work, deal with the problem accordingly.

Another ship came up behind them, almost indistinguishable from the dark, inky black starry expanse of space. But with its blocking of those same stars, it was easy to find the outline of the bat-themed jet. Two bat-shaped probes are released from it and orbit around the main ship.

"Deploying camera sensor units."

The view tapered out and the two blurs of the Green Lanterns became clearer as it inched closer. John Stweart called toward the alien ship, his voice projected by the Lantern Corps ring that gave him his powers and authority.

"Attention," his voice boomed as he managed to capture the alien mothership's notice, "You have entered the boundaries of Earth Space. Disengage all weapons and engines. This is your final warning."

For a moment, just a singular moment, everything was deathly still and it seemed like that might've been the case. But then the red, glowing port right in front of the Lanterns began to power up.

There's a flash, a beam of light, and then suddenly both Lanterns are gone. Nothing remained in their place except the vast emptiness of space. Nothing to prove that they were ever there, ever existed.

The BatPlane continued forward without hesitation, even after witnessing the obliteration of the pilot's allies, his friends.

"Code red. Full offensive deploy." The Bat's voice was monotone. It conveyed no emotion, no heartbreak. He continued on with his mission, as if they meant nothing. Just tools or stepping stones to the greater goal.

The bay door of the shuttle swung open and Superman descended wearing an oxygen mask, Captain Marvel fell out with him too, followed by Captain Atom and the Martian Manhunter, each wearing their own masks. They flew toward the ship, launching their attack.

The ship ports charged once more, and even as the heroes split off, Manhunter with Superman and both Captains together, they were not able to escape the rays that overtook them. The powerfully charged weapons the invaders used also managed to take out the BatPlane, its pilot escaping in an ejected pod before he too, met his end. Shot down by a smaller drone. Even still, it dwarfed the size of his pod by tens.

The Dark Knight was gone.

With that last vision, the transmission ended and we were left on our own in the cave of Mount Justice.

The beating of our heart felt uneasy. It must be (Y/n), this isn't real, and yet the painfully human sympathy for the fake people who just lost their lives ran through us. In reality, they're okay. But yet, for some reason, it hurts. It hurts, and we can feel grief for them. A heavy sigh escaped our lips and our fist clenched.

Robin grabbed our other hand and squeezed. There's no reason to comfort us, and yet, he was. Why?

A human mystery we'll probably never know. But (Y/n) does. So (Y/n) squeezed his hand back in turn. The tiny, non-linguistic interaction ended with that, as we separated our hand from his.

A thought occurred to us, was it not him giving us comfort, but the other way around? The way Robin's teeth grit together seemed to suggest so. But we were utterly tranquil now.

Another transmission came onto the screen as the last ended. Zatarra's face appeared on the screen. The Italian adult's emotions are reflected in his face's worry lines.

"Tornado? Did you..?" His voice is low and saddened. Clearly choked up.

"Yes, Zatarra, we saw." Red Tornado handled it better than he did, "Celestial defenses have failed. Initiate all terrestrial measures."

The magician's face morphs into a more serious, less emotional facade, hiding what he truly felt in order to get the job done.

"Affirmative. See you in the field." He nods, and the call fades. Red Tornado turned, cape fluttering behind him as he addressed us and the rest of the Team.

"I must join the League. We will protect the planet at all costs. But should we fail, the responsibility will belong to you." Red Tornado turned to us, nodding in our direction. We nodded back.

This is for which we are named. A Failsafe in case the machine ceases to function. The machine is already failing. It's time.

Aqualad made a cursory glance at the Team before looking resolutely at Tornado. "We stand ready."

"I will keep them busy until the League members have made it to their desired coordinates, but my responsibility still lies with them," We motioned with our hand to the Team as we took a step forward. Tornado nodded in agreement and we gave a passing glance to Aqualad to make sure it was okay with him. He nodded as well.

Before the Team, we would have been deployed already and left to clean up the mess, not to return until it was finished. But we were part of the Team now, not honorary, but a full, existent member, so we had to follow the rules and plans of the Team. Which required us to stay beside them. Exactly where we wanted to be.

"Understood." Red Tornado turned on his heel and walked to the Zeta tubes, we followed, giving a glance back to our comrades.

We will return to them. But the reassuring smile from Miss Martian, Aqualad's confident smile, Artemis's wink, Kid Flash's thumbs up, and Superboy's grunt of support all made that fact bubble in our chest with strength.

Robin had given us a look we couldn't distinguish, but we knew he was supportive of us too. His ever-present smirk was on full display.

'What's up with him?' (Y/n) asked, slightly bothered by the recent change in attitude to our similar-in-age, masked companion.

'If I had to take a gander at it,' we started, pulling up the memory of Tuesday after the lunch bell rang. 'Maybe it had something to do with the way you revealed knowledge of his secret identity.'

What had happened was that after the lunch bell rang and Barbara had left, (Y/n) had leaned over the table and declared, "Hey, hands off Zatanna, by the way. She's mine, Rob."

He'd been so baffled he didn't respond and they hadn't talked about it since. Though we could tell he was itching to.

'Oh, right, that.' A bead of sweat trailed down our neck, and we took that as a message to leave. Giving the Team our own assured smile and walked through the tube.

"Recognized: Red Tornado, Zero-One-Six." The Zeta tube mainframe announced, continuing on to register our designation as we disappeared from the cave as well.

"Recognized: Failsafe, S-Zero-One."

We reformed somewhere else, an alleyway in a larger city. Tornado was there, staring at us as we exited the old, rickety-looking photo booth.

'Ready to kick some ass?' (Y/n) asked, sounding excited, but much less than usual. There was a hesitance that went unacknowledged. We didn't ask, and (Y/n) didn't tell. But with everything that had happened recently, we could take another gander at what it could be.

'This is exactly what we were inducted into the League to do. To fight the battles others couldn't.' We responded, tacking on at the end to clear some doubt, 'Not even the Martian's mind can comprehend how powerful we are.'

'That's what worries me. What if he puts limits on you subconsciously? He's in complete control, isn't he?'

'We'll be fine.'

Even if we'd given up substantial power to be here, imagination, as it turns out, is a powerful thing. If the Manhunter thinks we can do anything, then we can do anything. And we can.

"League members are coming into position. Keep the enemy occupied as long as possible, you are free to engage however you please." Red Tornado informed us before a wind current likened to his namesake appeared underneath him.

"Affirmative, Tornado. Moving out now." We hovered above the ground with him, about to teleport up and fly out.

"I am heading into the field, this is goodbye, Failsafe." He moved away, flying out of the alleyway. We watched him leave, saying a last goodbye despite ourselves.

"...Stay safe, Tornado." We said, and we knew Tornado had heard. He didn't turn around, but he paused only briefly before disappearing. We did the same, going up into the stars.

Why did we say goodbye when we knew it didn't mean anything? A meaningless effort of wasted energy.

Unlike the other League members that had come up here to battle, our physical body was less equipped to handle the atmosphere, but with some enhancements, we'd be fine. We didn't even need an oxygen tank, we could create a bubble to help us breathe and heat our body to save off the effects of the void of space.

There was a scout ship, presumably the same that had defeated Batman, floating around the mothership; in the distance, more were coming out of the ports. A laser fired out of the closest scout and we dodged, the beam was larger than us by far. We'd only just escaped because the distance was so great that we were able to move out of the radius.

In the large vacuum of space, most Earth-effective attacks wouldn't work, so we took the safe route, copying the aliens' own disintegration beam and using that energy to fire back at it. It dodged our first ray, a smaller strike only coming out the size of our hand. It didn't manage to dodge our second strike.

The other scouts noticed the first's defeat and two more came, weapons firing up to shoot. We blocked their cannons and watched as they exploded from the backlash. More came, a whole group. We couldn't be sure what would happen if we took a headfirst strike of these beams, so when one fired straight in our direction we teleported away, disintegrating the ship closest to our destination point.

Behind us, one took us by surprise and had already charged the beam to fire up. We gasped, just barely teleporting away as the blast took out one of their own. As our attacker's weapon recharged, another group of drones approached. This time there were plenty more than the three we'd defeated. Tens more, a hundred perhaps. More would soon come.

One of the oncoming assailants had charged up their weapon and tried to fire, we blocked the beam from reaching the barrel telekinetically and used the blowback from the explosion as energy to spread out across the rest. Taking care of the ones closest to it and the recharging drone in a chain reaction.

But it still wasn't enough, there were more. So many more.

'This is getting ridiculous.' (Y/n) complained. 'How many are there?!'

The Martian's mind-space is vast and we had to give up quite a bit of power to yield to him for this exercise. But there is no telling the limits here; we have to be cautious. Imagination is powerful, but not infinite.

Without knowing if defensive options would work, we were only capable of the offensive and avoidance. But with so many, it might not be possible to combat all at once. As the last line of defense to Earth, we could break through and try to attack the mothership, trusting the other heroes to handle it, or stay, and hold them off as long as we can.

We had a decision to make. A drone fired and we veered out of the way, far enough away from its blast it was possible for us to fly away. In the distance more drones flew past us, heading for Earth and trusting their allies to deal with the problem, us, on their own.

The other heroes should be in position now. If memory serves correctly even if we attacked the ship with its own rays it wouldn't work, they're protected against it. The only way to do damage would be to get inside and destroy its core. Staying up here would only tire out the remaining energy we can afford to spend and would eventually allow more slip-ups, and more chances for the enemy to take advantage and deal the finishing blow. The Team still needed us.

It was best to retreat.

We used a great deal of strength to teleport ourselves quickly, a last-second escape from an incoming beam of disintegration ray. When we landed back in the cave, everyone was still there, waiting for news. They hadn't seen it; the probs long gone.

We shook our head. There was little we could do without accurate knowledge of this imaginary species. The Lanterns had tried to create shields before they'd perished, but they were also imaginary, meant to die. And the human body reacts negatively to even a semblance of peril and pain. What they did and what we can do are separate. Thus, they were unreliable, inaccurate sources to draw from. Still, is there no way to benefit from their information?

Aqualad nods in solemn understanding. But upon finding we had more to say, let us continue with the hushed floor.

"There are too many. If I had tried to launch an attack upon the mothership from close range I would have ended up like the Lanterns. There were too many drones, I couldn't watch myself and get in a clear shot without knowing what exactly works and what doesn't. Without testing, I'm completely defenseless." And if we tried to test out even a shield and it didn't work... The Team would be down one of its more valuable assets.

Not that the others weren't valuable, but we were more useful strategically, is all.

Aqualad took a quick moment to process the information we'd given him before coming to a conclusion. "Then we need to find a way to combat them ourselves. Remove the danger of their numbers."

Aqualad looked to Robin, who was still managing news feeds from across the world. We hadn't seen them when we'd first come in, but now we noticed the Justice League members valiantly fighting against the alien invaders, taking down some of the drones as more and more of them are wiped out.

Flash and Zatarra in Central City. In Taipei, the Hawks, Black Canary, Green Arrow... One by one, they fell.

Red Tornado reported in through the comms and we were able to see his perspective as Wonder Woman perished, the mothership landing in Smallville, USA.

"Red Tornado to cave. I fear I am all the remains of the League." He tried to say more but was gone before we even had a chance to respond. To help.

We stifled a breath and looked away as the feed cut out and switched somewhere else. Aqualad cut through the thick atmosphere.

"We are Earth's heroes now."

Superboy turned to him, a little upset and very impatient. "So what are we waiting for? A theme song?"

Aqualad answered simply, "A strategy."

The Atlantean turned to the half-Kyrptonian and elaborated. "Earth's weapons are ineffective and it has been made tragically clear a direct attack will not succeed."

"Checking satellite imagery." Robin contributed with his holopad, pulling up a satellite view of the entire planet for the Team's eyes. It was a computer-hued blue, darker in areas with land. On top of it were ugly red dots, where the invaders resided. "Here's where the aliens are now."

Superboy took a step toward the hologram and pointed up toward the North Pole, the image enhanced as Robin enlarged it on his holopad. "This one get lost?"

Robin took a moment to think about it and we started to feel the jitters, as (Y/n) called it, again. We should be out there, doing something. It was hard to tell if it was our belief or (Y/n)'s.

Robin realized what it could be after a moment of thought, saying it aloud, "It's Superman's Fortress of Solitude."

Affronted and a bit confused, Superboy recoiled subtly. "Superman has a Fortress of Solitude?"

There's a vulnerability in his voice that made us want to walk over and confront it, we forced it down. It wasn't the time.

Rather than answer him, Robin tried to find a plausible answer for why they would go up there. "Its power source must have attracted the aliens' attention, at least enough to send a scout ship to investigate."

"Must be some fortress..." Superboy mumbled to himself as he turned away, sulking. Miss Martian was quick to put a hand on his shoulder in comfort.

"Connor."

"No, it's okay," Superboy responded, clearly not sounding okay but brushing it off. "No, it's okay. I guess there's a lot about Superman I'll never know." He stopped and stuttered out, "Uh, you know, now."

With this information settled amongst the group, our leader made his decision. "We will target this lone ship."

Kid Flash was all for it, getting heated as he exclaimed, "Yeah. Break it down. Build more. Hit those ugly aliens with their own mojo— Ow!"

He got elbowed in the side very harshly by Artemis, who motioned to us, Miss Martian, and Superboy. "Martian, Kryptonian, and Nikton in the house." She corrected him. We didn't tell her that technically that was the name Zatanna called the unproven entity and that we were actually called a Niktonian by the mages. We weren't technically called anything but the scales officially, so it didn't bother us much for there to be other names amongst the different species.

Kid Flash rubbed his side and tried to fix his language, looking apologetically at us. "Uh, heh, not that all aliens are automatically ugly."

His awkward smile was enough for us to brush it off, not that we cared. The same seemed to apply to the other two.

"Team, to the bioship," Aqualad ordered and we all followed.

__________________

The drone ship hovered over the ice in front of the Fortress of Solitude, whose door was marked with the Super shield and S. The arctic wind also raged, and even with the protective snow gear, we could barely hear anything over it. Goosebumps ran up our arms even as the heavily lined fur coat of our jacket did its best to protect us.

Our winter outfit was a little different from the regular one, like everyone else's. Ours had a full jacket instead of half and we were wearing a turtleneck underneath that had sleeves as well. We traded out the leggings for baggier, properly lined, and layered pants. Snow boots accessorized the look. Artemis had on a full coat too, instead of the usual crop top. And Robin's outfit included a hood and goggles that reminded us of an alien from all those bad comedy movies (Y/n) liked to watch with the Team on 'movie nights.'

Movie nights were really just an excuse for (Y/n) to drag our fellow teammates to the couch and force them to watch the prerecorded reels with her. But they didn't seem to mind doing so, so it kept happening. They'd been nice for the most part, if not a bit rowdy.

Artemis jumped out of the bioship and used the cover of the jutted ice caps to get in position by the drone's blind spot. Miss Martian went next, camouflaging against the stormy sky to try and get a surprise attack on the ship. The boys exited once they'd gotten far enough, Kid Flash with Robin and Superboy, Aqualad with us.

Aqualad directed us out of the ship and dropped down behind us, the last of the Team to exit. Using hand signals so the drone wouldn't notice he brought us to a patch of arctic water found under the ice. We grimaced, but followed in after him, putting up a protective bubble to help us breathe and to stave off the effects of the temperature underwater.

Over the mindlink, we heard Miss Martian establish that the drone's communications had been disabled along with propulsion. We'd had to use context clues from our memory of what the ship looked like to guide them on where best to hit. Still, there was some guesswork. The heavy impact of the ship shook the ground and the water underneath.

There were the sounds of random firing before Artemis declared over the mindlink that 'the ETs are sealed inside.'

That was the movie we watched last movie night. We understood that reference.

Aqualad reached over his back and took his water bearers out of his waterpack and used the mystic weapons to break through the ice and attack the ship. We jumped out after him, landing just a second after the disintegration weapon turned to try and target him, the closest and most confirmed threat. We created a shield to protect him, knowing that the wind-up time was too fast to safely get ourselves and Aqualad out in time.

At the last second, it was Wolf who saved us, launching himself at the weapon and latching on with his snout, the kinetic energy was enough to turn the weapon, and the beam shot out into the open ice. He landed on the ice in front of the ship and growled.

Superboy grabbed the cannon and held it up, keeping it still so it couldn't fire at anyone else. He grunted as Robin jumped onto the drone, scanning the structure. "Identifying weapon's structural stress points and links to the ship."

The holopad told him three places on the cannon's structure and Robin pointed them out. Miss Martian was the one to destroy the links with telekinesis. As soon as that's completed, Superboy started yanking on the cannon to detach it.

All was going well until one of the mechanisms in charge of supporting and firing up the beam began to charge behind Superboy's leg, we noticed too late, but Wolf didn't. Saving his master, the four-legged albino creature rushed up the top of the ship and headbutt the Super out of the way, causing him to fall and Wolf to disintegrate before our very eyes.

'Wolf...' Miss Martian thought sadly over the mindlink, gaping at the empty space where the animal just was. It summed up most of the Team's thoughts. It's not real, but it was sad. Sad because the animal had been with us for so long, and it seemed real enough. More so, it was the reality of thinking about his mortality that was saddening. But we still had a job to do. No time to dwell on it.

Robin tapped at his holopad, looking up at Superboy apologetically despite the fact it wasn't the real Wolf, and thus his death had no weight. "There was no indication of feedback..."

Still, the Boy Wonder sounds almost choked up as he said, "I'm sorry."

Superboy resumed his position under the cannon, looking down before saying, "Can't do anything for him now."

He finished yanking the cannon off, "Let's go." He grunted out before it came loose. Once that was done the camouflage bioship raced over as Superboy jumped, landing on it. Miss Martian de-camouflaged, making the bioship do the same before a hole opened up in the roof to allow the incorporation of the new weapon.

"Rerouting systems to integrate weapon into ship's bio-matrix. We'll need to de-camouflage for a few minutes." She states as she put her hands on the ship, helping to move the process along.

In the distance, two new drones approached at breakneck speed and Robin alerted the Team as a whole as we tried to shoot one down, failing to hit it with the greater distance.

"We may not have a few minutes." The ships fly over us and the bioship, inspecting the area and taking note of the fallen ally before looping back around, starting to shoot.

"Miss Martian, open fire," Aqualad commanded, sparing a quick glance over his shoulder at the still-prepping bioship.

"Can't. Weapon systems are offline to incorporate the new cannon. And that's not fully integrated yet either." With that strategic option now fully gone, Aqualad turned to us, giving us the nod of permission to handle it ourself.

We barely nod back as we focus on shooting them down. It took three shots to accurately hit one, their flight patterns differed from the ones in space. They were taking more effective evasive maneuvers.

Robin and Kid Flash took the time to get on the bioship, but when the other ship came back around to attack us we noticed Artemis was still a distance away, Aqualad had just jumped off the drone as well.

The drone shot at us, but we copied Wolf and redirected the cannon at the last second. The ray hit the ice and the ship jerked, an arrow flew at it, destroying its propulsion. By this time the boys had mostly made it inside the bioship.

"Gotcha covered," Artemis said inside the mindlink, referring to us. "Get inside! I'm almost there."

She kept running toward the bioship, not noticing the way the cannon turned toward her or the noise of the cannon firing up. But we did. And so did Miss Martian. She'd barely gotten out her warning before our body had started to move.

It was a flash of movement. Our vision blurred and suddenly we weren't on the drone ship anymore, we were in front of Artemis. In our hands, a shield was beginning to form as we forced our hands in front of ourselves to protect Artemis.

We didn't tell our body to move.

It wasn't us. We weren't doing this. Our voice yelled out Artemis' name. But it wasn't us. As the beam came, we were caught up in it, the shield shattering. It had no power behind it. Because it wasn't us who'd created it.

Who? Why? How?

Behind us, we were vaguely aware of Artemis who'd turned around to Miss Martian's warning, arrow nocked and ready to fire. The scream of agony given by Miss Martian. We were, however, aware of the split-second head pain that accompanied the destruction of our form in this training exercise. We couldn't even scream.

________________
𝙼𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎, 𝚁𝚑𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟼𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟻:𝟹𝟹 𝙴𝙳𝚃

"Artemis!" A deep, brooding voice broke through the void that was the back of our eyelids. There's the sound of footsteps and we can feel the palpable atmosphere of anxiousness and panic. That sounded like the Dark Knight's voice, and it didn't sound calm. Why would he ever panic?

We tried to open our eyes, observe the issue for ourself and figure out what happened. But our eyes wouldn't open. Confused, we tried again, but the muscles refused to move at our command.

We had the muscles under control one moment, but now they were gone too. It was easy, natural to control them, so why is it so hard now? We can't feel it.

We tried to twitch a finger, but that too was gone.

What was happening?

"Failsafe, (Y/n)," A light shake was delivered to our body and it limply responded, carried by the kinetic energy and not by anything we had done. That voice had been Red Tornado's. In the distance, we heard Martian Manhunter as well.

Our head feels... clearer. Clearer than it's ever been in this body. And that made us worried. The noise isn't there, the thoughts that naturally pervaded this body were... gone.

Gone.

(Y/n) was gone. That's why it was so clear.

'(Y/n)? (Y/n)!' We called out into the void left by the absence, but nothing called back. Not even our memories.

It's dark, and small. The body wasn't reacting to us at all. We needed to do something. We needed to get out.

If we get out, we can try to fix this, whatever this is.

We tried to remove ourself from (Y/n)'s heart as quickly and as carefully as we could. But as more of us continued to leave, the part of us still attached felt foggier, colder. The tips of our fingers and toes started to grow colder, number. Our lips too. As we removed ourself, (Y/n)'s heart began to sow unnaturally. Our blood ran cold as well. Our lungs struggled to fill with air. Goosebumps formed on our body and we broke out into a cold sweat. We had to stop. It was too dangerous to continue.

This was bad.

"Somethings wrong." One of the adults said but we couldn't register who. Too consumed in the panic, the anxiety that had started to eat away at the adults earlier. Except this was a far more serious issue.

We weren't getting out. Couldn't get out. The realization shocked us, slapped us across the face, and hurt us worse than anything we'd ever experienced. And that included the first moments too. Those, and the trial after. It hurt even worse than when Klarion inserted that crystal into our chest. When we'd lost (Y/n)'s trust.

It stung more than anything ever inflicted upon us.

Was that the cause of it? Our inability to leave? Or was this a by-product of our using the secret knowledge incorrectly?

Whatever it was, it didn't change the fact that when we started to leave, this body started dying.

It felt too small on its own like this. Too spacious as well. And why wasn't (Y/n) here? Where was (Y/n)?

Why did our body move on its own? What was the reason for that? It was undoubtedly our power, but it wasn't our mind. But then, whose mind could it have possibly been? Where was (Y/n)? Still in the exercise? No, no, it couldn't be.

The emptiness of our body set in fully, around us, we struggled to fill it all up. (Y/n)'s presence was gone. We miss (Y/n). Where is (Y/n)? We called out (Y/n)'s name, but no response came. Just emptiness, space, a void. Loneliness.

Oh.

Loneliness.

Isolation. Solitude. Remoteness. Seclusion.

That shouldn't have been anything new. It shouldn't have been a revelation. But it was. (Y/n) wasn't here.

(Y/n) was gone. And I was alone.