How can I help? Renata Takemori called back. Who are you?
Go to see the Bumblebee, the voice replied. I am very near to you. I need the Bumblebee. I need the Titans Wessssst!!!!
Ren sat up in bed, wide awake. She was sitting in a pool of her own sweat. This was the third night in a row the voice had come to her, but this was the first night she knew who it was.
"Dawn," Ren said softly. "She's not dead."
"But she needs help." Ren stood up and threw her old bathrobe over the nightshirt she was wearing. Then she picked up a phone and dialed a number. The other end answered on the third ring.
"Hello," a masculine voice sleepily answered.
"Mr. Duncan, my name is Renata Takemori. We have a mutual friend who needs our help."
"Who?"
"Dove."
"Dove's dead, Miss Takemori," he told Ren. "Monarch killed her."
"I know. But I also know that S.T.A.R. Labs has a dimensional portal to the land between life and death. Dawn told me about it. I also know that you are the Titan known as the Herald, and that your wife is the Bumblebee."
"I was the Herald once. Not any more."
"But will you help me find out the truth about Dawn?" Ren pleaded. "I've been having these dreams lately, with Dawn crying for help."
"Dreams you say? Lilith was great at analyzing dreams. Go see her."
"Maybe I will, Mister-I'm-Not-Getting-Involved-Cause-I'm-A-Retired-Titan. Dawn did say she needed Titans West, and Lilith was the team's founder, wasn't she? Good night!" The line went dead.
As he dressed in his outfit, Mal thought about the last time he wore the threads of the Herald. It was during that Zero Hour debacle, when a number of stranded future Titans simply... disappeared.
After he finished, he made a phone call to an old friend.
He reached the answering machine.
ThisisWallyWesttheFlashspeaking.I'minarushandcan'tgettothephonerightnowsoifyoujustleaveanamenumberandamessageafterthebeepinexactlytwopointthreesecondsI'llgetbacktoyouassoonasIcan. BEEP!!"
"Wally, this is Mal. I have a favor to ask of you. I need a weapon similar to the old Gabriel's Horn I used to use. Think you can help me? Thanks." He walked over to the bed and patted his wife on her rear. "Honey, wake up."
"Is it morning already?" Karen asked sleepily.
"Not yet, honey. We have a small crisis on our hands."
"S.T.A.R. Labs?" Karen asked.
"Not quite. Titans business."
Karen finally focused her eyes on her husband and smiled. "Playing the Herald again, are we?"
Mal smiled. "Just me. Here's your Bumblebee outfit."
"Who's in trouble this time?"
"Hawk and Dove."
As Mal expected, the words shot through his wife the same as they had for him.
"The full Titans West roster?"
"That's who I think we should get. I've already phoned Wally to see if he has a replacement for my Gabriel's Horn."
As Mal spoke about Wally, there was a knock on the bedroom window. Mal opened it and peered out.
Dressed in his distinctive red speed-resistant clothing with gold trim, Wally West, also known as the Flash, stood outside. In his hand, a strangely shaped object gleamed in the night, reflecting the porch light. The object reminded Mal of a cross between a trumpet and a saxophone.
"Here you go, Mal," Wally said as he handed the horn to Mal. "One replacement Gabriel's Horn for the Herald, courtesy of the Pied Piper. Trouble brewing?"
"I think so," Mal replied. "Hawk and Dove."
"Impossible," Wally exclaimed. "Dove's dead, and Hawk went berserk. From what I've seen, Hank is now going by the moniker Extant, but hasn't been heard of since that Zero Hour madness."
"Well, something's brewing," Mal replied. "Did anyone tell the rest of the superhuman community about S.T.A.R. Labs Arlington's Project Zeppelin, alias the 'Stairway to Heaven'?"
"Mal," Karen asked, already in her Bumblebee outfit, "is it possible we can bring Dawn back to life using the Zeppelin Project?"
"Not just Dawn, but Charley, Kole, Joey, and any other Titan who died."
"Can I speak to my Uncle Barry?" Wally wanted to know. Barry Allen, Wally's uncle, was also Wally's predecessor as the Flash.
"If we find him," Karen replied. "Hand me the phone, will you, hon?" Mal handed her the phone. "I'm gonna call Bette and Chris to see if they can help us."
After a few minutes, Karen set the phone down and said, "It's a go. Flamebird and H-Dial will meet us at S.T.A.R. Labs Arlington at nine in the morning, Eastern time. That's six our time."
"Good," Mal said. "Pack a bag, Karen. We're on the next flight to Arlington."
"If it's gonna be at least another hour before we leave for Arlington," Wally said with a smile, "does anyone mind if I grab a bite to eat?"
"Just don't clean out the fridge," Karen replied as Wally raced towards the kitchen. "We had to completely restock it the last time you visited."
"So this is what remains of Titans West," Bette commented. "Too bad you couldn't get Dick to show up. I'd really like to see him again."
"Right now," Wally replied, chewing on a sandwich, "Dick's probably busy busting heads up in Gotham, alongside Batman and Robin."
"Hmm. I'll have to arrange a tennis match there soon." A mischievois glint appeared in Bette's eyes.
"HEY!!" The Titans turned to see a woman with red hair approaching them. "I thought I felt your presences in town."
"LILITH!!" Bette called. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to check up on Dawn," Lilith Clay replied, a little perplexed by her friends' reactions.
"What do you mean, 'check up on Dawn'?" Wally asked. "I thought she was killed during the fight with Monarch."
"So did I," the others said simultaneously.
"You mean they didn't tell you?" Lilith asked. "Dawn is still alive, in the medical wing."
"Then let's see her!" Wally yelled as he raced at superhuman speed into the building. The others followed him as best they could.
"What's her condition, doctor?" Karen asked as she ran her hand down Dawn's arm.
"She's is a deep coma," the doctor replied. "All of her involuntary life functions are going strong. But there has been no voluntary movement since she was brought in here. We're monitoring her life functions and feeding her intravenously, but that's all we can do."
"She's not here," Lilith commented.
"Who," Mal asked.
"Dawn. She's not in her body."
Wally put his hand on Mal's shoulder. "I think its time we took a peek at Project Zeppelin."
The Titans strode into the room, a grim determination on their faces. Behind them, an orderly pushed Dawn's bed into the room.
"Remember, time passes differently on the other side," Mal told the others. "Be prepared for anything. Dead villains will most likely use the portal to try to reclaim their lives before we get to our friends. Don't worry about killing any villains we see, they're already dead. Let's go." With that, the Herald grasped his wife's hand. "On three.
"One."
"I hope this works," Bumblebee whispered.
"Two."
"It's gotta work," Flamebird replied. "We're Titans West."
"Three!"
The Titans leapt through the portal...
"If I remember correctly," Flamebird mused, "the mountains are where the decent dead are to be found."
Chris' body suddenly experienced a violent change. He was now dressed in an outfit resembling Wally's, but was blue with gold trim. Chris' outfit also lacked Wally's distinctive lightning bolt on the chest. Instead, Chris had a Z on his chest.
"In that case," Chris said, "race you to the mountains, Wally."
"And just who are you supposed to be this time?"
"Call me Mister Zip."
"Mister Zip?" Flash asked. "Did Lilith give you that name from my thoughts? At one point I was toying with new names. Mister Zip was one of them."
Chris smiled. "I'll never tell. One, two, three, GO!" He raced off towards the mountains. Less then a second later, Wally followed him.
"We should follow them," Herald said. "Come on." The others headed towards the mountains.
"What happened?" she asked him.
"I must've expended my hour's worth of energy, because I changed back. The Flash had already overtaken me. That's when they attacked."
"Who? Mal asked.
"We did, suckers!" a female voice rang out.
The Titans turned, prepared for battle. Before them stood a variety of villains, all recently deceased, as such things go. Terra was there, the sixteen year old girl who had died when she used her powers over rock to try to kill the Titans in an avalanche. The Reverse-Flash stood beside her, in an outfit that resembled Wally's but with reversed colors. A man dressed in outrageous clothes stood off the the side. But in the front, apparently the leader of the group, was the Ravager, a young man who had been the Titans' first villain after the team had been reorganized by Raven.
"Terra, please show your fellow Titans how we greet interlopers."
"With pleasure, Ravager," the teenage girl said, as she dropped a deluge of rock on the Titans. "But I was never a Titan. I was only a plant used by your father to capture them. But I wanted them dead. They killed me, instead. Now they're dead."
An electric blast shot out of the pile of rock, followed by the Bumblebee. The others climbed out behind her.
"You're going to have to do a lot better than that to kill us, Terra," she told the girl.
"Anti-Titans, ATTACK!!!" Ravager yelled, lunging at the Herald with his sword. Mal leaped out of the way, rolled, placed the new Gabriel's Horn to his mouth, and let fly one of his favorite chords, a D-Minor. The Ravager was thrown by the force of the sonic blast across the battleground. Unfortunately for the Titans, he landed on his feet.
"Wow" was all Mal could say.
"Terra, erect an earth dome around us," Ravager called out to her.
"You got it," she called back. "Though I don't recall who died and left you in charge."
"We're all dead, that's the whole point," the Reverse-Flash said, pummeling Mal to the ground at super-human speed.
Terra erected her dome, leaving holes in the rock for air to pass through. While she did this, she tossed a rock at the back of Chris's head. He dropped, unconscious.
Bumblebee was having her hands full with Ravager. No matter what she threw at him, he managed to dodge it. He eventually knocked her out with a blast from his power lance.
Flamebird, in the meantime, was battling the last of the Anti-Titans.
"My name's Flamebird, big boy," she said while trading punches with him. "I don't believe I caught your name."
"I'm called the Mad Mod," her sparring partner said with a smile. "Jewel thief extraordinaire. Pleased to meet you."
"So," she said as she avoided one of his punches, "why do you hate the Titans? Did you fall to your death?"
"No," the Mad Mod claimed, "they caught me when I stole Her Majesty's crown jewels. I ended up getting the firing squad."
"Sounds like you brought it on yourself," Bette claimed as she tripped him.
"I hate being humiliated," he said, and blasted her with a burst of tear gas. Then he dropped her with a blow to the side of her head. "Waste of a nice piece."
Ravager stood over Mal, his sword poised to strike the final blow that would sever Mal's head from his body. Without warning, before he could bring the sword into play, the rocky dome Terra had erected fell to pieces.
"TITANS TOGETHER!!!"
The Anti-Titans, surprised, turned towards the sound of the shout. On a rocky rise above them, two Flashes, Wally West and his uncle, Barry Allen, stood above the fallen heroes and the assorted villains. Other than the assembled Flashes, two Doves, Don Hall and Dawn Granger, stood on the hill. Above them, the late Titan Golden Eagle hovered in the air. Also on the ground were deceased Titans Aquagirl, Jericho, Kole, and the second Robin.
"Let them go, Grant," Jericho called, his newly restored voice carrying in the ethereal surroundings.
"Well," Ravager replied in disgust as he lowered his sword to a defensive position, "if it isn't my wimp brother Joey. Dad always was disappointed in you. It's no wonder he killed you."
"He set me free, Grant. Can you say the same?"
"Anti-Titans!" Ravager called. "Wipe up these losers!"
Wally glanced at his late uncle. "Up for the old twin tornadoes trick, Uncle Barry?" Both of them smiled.
"Just try and keep me down, kid," Barry Allen, the older Flash, replied.
The battle was joined, fast and furious. Jericho and Ravager fought, brother against brother. The Mad Mod fell to the Titan Golden Eagle, who yelled a hearty, "COWABUNGA!!" as he attacked. Robin, Aquagirl, and the female Dove attacked Terra, who fell unconscious due to the combined assault of the attackers. In the meantime, Wally and Barry had their hands full with the Reverse-Flash. Soon, the Reverse-Flash was the only Anti-Titan left.
"You lost again, Zoom," Allen stated. "Give it up."
"Never!" Professor Zoom yelled.
"I always wondered why you hated me, Zoom," the older Flash said. "Wally told me about your little impersonation of me a while back. Pathetic. You hated me because you knew I was going to kill you in your future."
"I'll wipe you into the ground!" Zoom yelled.
"The future can be changed from what you know, Zoom," Wally told his opponent. "Once back in your own time, you could have stayed there and died of old age. Instead, you returned to the past to be killed by a man you used to admire."
"So kill me again!" Zoom yelled. "I'll just keep returning from the dead to stalk you again and again."
"No, Reverse-Flash," Joseph Wilson, Jericho, told him. "Return to your death. Rest in peace."
The Titans' opponents, the Anti-Titans, all disappeared in puffs of smoke.
"Thank God that's over," Bette stated, removing her costume's mask. "I never want to come here again. ICK!"
"I'm glad you came," Charley Parker, Golden Eagle, told her.
"Well, Eagle-dude," she replied, "we all make mistakes. Yours was not calling me in to help you before you died. How's the afterlife treating you?"
"It's a bummer, babe. All there is to do is listen to the higher-ups argue over where the next person to die is going. I want to return to life."
"That's why we came, Charley," Mal told him. "There's trouble brewing. I don't know what, but I believe Hawk is involved."
"Then I'm going back," both Don and Dawn replied simultaneously.
"There's a problem, kids," Barry said. "These bodies are on loan for as long as the living Titans are here."
"That's no problem as far as Dawn is concerned," Karen stated. "We have her body alive on the other side of the portal."
Dawn glanced over to Bette and asked, "I'm alive?" Bette only nodded.
"Hank is my brother," Don stated. "If he's gone around the bend, then I want to be there to help him. I'm going back, body or no body."
"I'm returning, too," Jericho said. "I have a voice again, the voice I lost when I was seven. I need to talk to Dad." He smiled. "There's so much we need to discuss." His arm wrapped around Kole's waist. She only nodded her consent.
"So am I," Aquagirl replied. "If nothing else, I'd be able to see Garth again."
Wally glanced over at his uncle. "Uncle Barry," he asked, "how would you like to come back with us? Sounds like we need all the help we can get."
Barry Allen looked his young nephew right in the eye, a tear streaming down his cheek. "There's nothing I'd like better, but my time has come and gone." He smiled, a look of pride coming onto his face. "Besides, is there a need for another Flash? Keep the title, Wally. You've earned it."
Dawn approached the older Flash. "Will the others who want to return be able to, sir? I know I can return, now that I know I'm still alive, but this case may require every Titan."
Barry Allen cocked his head, as if listening to a distant voice. A look of confusion came over his face for a brief instant, then it cleared. He turned towards the assembled Titans.
"It would appear," he stated finally, "that if one Titan wants to return to life, then all of you will have to." The others breathed a sigh of relief. "And that includes Terra."
"WHAT!?!?!" several Titans yelled, as Tara Markov, Terra, reappeared in front of them.
"This is insane!" Karen cried. "She's already tried to kill the Titans once before! And now we have to worry about keeping an eye on her while we face Monarch?! NO WAY!!"
"Think of how I feel, lady," Tara growled. "I have to look at you the whole time now."
"I'll look after her," Joe Wilson calmly stated. The others looked at him in astonishment.
"Why?" Wally asked.
"I was there when she was killed," Joe replied. "I feel kind of responsible for how my dad used her."
"Wait a minute," Mal stated suddenly. "There's one person here who has yet to open his mouth about this caper. Jason Todd."
"I'm kind of resigned to go back, aren't I," the second Robin stated. "But I don't like it here. It's too quiet. I'll go back, but don't count on my help against Hawk, or Monarch, or whatever he's calling himself. I'm going to hunt down and make the Joker pay for my death."
"Let's get out of here, then," Bette called, heading back towards the portal. "This place gives me the creeps."
Wally and Barry hugged each other for the last time.
"Take care of yourself, Wally," Barry said. "Keep making me proud to call you the Flash."
"Take care of yourself, uncle," Wally replied. "I'll be seeing you in a couple of decades anyway."
Barry Allen gazed after the young heroes and their reluctant ally as they removed themselves from the afterlife.
"Well, we won that round," Mal stated, pulling the hood off of his head. He turned to the head technician, "You can turn off the portal now."
"Now that we're back," Don asked, "how do we go about fixing things with Hawk? He may not appreciate us coming back."
"First off, we need a place to meet," Bette commented. "We can't meet at the Tower anymore."
"Why not?" Kole asked.
"It blew up," Jericho stated. "I blew it up." He fell into a seat and put his head in his hands, crying. "I blew it up, trying to kill the Titans."
"Figures," Terra retorted. "It's always the quiet ones."
"Don't be too hard on yourself, Joe," Wally told him. "From what Dick told me, you weren't yourself at the time." This was met by a laugh by Terra.
"Well, blondie, why didn't you tell me you were a homicidal schizophrenic psychopath? No wonder you need to look out for me." Only a piercing glare from Kole shut her up.
"Well," Mal mused, "there's always the Lair."
Wally looked at Mal. "You sure, man? Last time we were there, Dr. Light wiped the floor with us."
"It's our best bet," Don stated. "Do you still have your key, Wally?"
"No," Wally stated, "but Dick probably still has his." He looked at the other Titans. "Meet me at the Gotham River Road entrance to the Lair in two hours. I'm going to see a man about a key." With this, Wally sped off. The other Titans, including Dawn, slowly left the building.
Used without permission.
Written by Ted "Arsenal" Brock
Originally posted to alt.comics.fan-fiction