I don't own the Justice League. Enjoy.
It wasn't supposed to happen, yet here they were.
The founding members of the Justice League were trapped in a dungeon by Lex Luthor and Jonathan Crane.
You know, Scarecrow? The guy with the fear gas?
Yeah, I bet you do.
Anyway, here they all were, at the mercy of Lex Luthor (assuming the guy even understood what "mercy" was), and Luthor was about to try something very interesting.
All of them were going to be injected with fear gas, one by one...
...And Luthor was going to make the group watch their friend's fear.
Sure, most of them already knew what the fears were. For Shayera, who happened to go first, it was here claustrophobia. Every moron could tell you that. However, that didn't stop most of the group from wincing as she yelled and thrashed from a coffin buried in the ground.
Shayera, who was hooked to a monitor so everyone could see the fear, was twisting and turning.
Flash went next. The guy's fear was pretty well known. He was just afraid that he would go too fast one day. Everyone, even Shayera who was exhausted, still cringed as he called out for help. No one could here him though, and Luthor left it on so as to watch the speedster suffer.
It was basically the whole Dr. Destiny thing again. Clark was out of control, John was exiled, Wonder Woman had been unworthy, and J'onn lost everything.
"My, my. Best for last, I suppose? Let's see what the all knowing and all fearing Batman is afraid of."
Bruce did not want it to come to this. He would not show them his greatest weakness. He thrashed and he pulled and he kicked and he twisted. He did not want them to know. They couldn't know.
"You know, ever since I met with Dr. Destiny, I was compelled to ask him what your greatest fear was. However, I guess that's what made him crazy in the first place. I am quite...eager."
Scarecrow, too, seemed quite interested. The two men hooked him to the machine. Bruce tried to steer the mental intrusion out of his mind, but it was just to strong.
Soon, the heroes and villians see nothing but pitch black darkness. After a few moments , Lex started to laugh heartily.
"Batman, the shadow himself, is afraid of the dark?! This is priceless!"
That stood for a few seconds, until the moniter made the sould of screeching bats upon the seen. Soon, a light seemed to switch on in the fear hallucination. They all gasped.
There, in the light, was Robin in cold blood.
The sight was gruesome, seeing the small boy so mangled. Even Lex gagged. It was a strong silence.
That is, until all the the lights in the vision went on.
Dead bodies was all you could see. Superman's, Wonder Woman's, Joker's, and even Lex's were seen in the mass. Superman was startled by it, Wonder Woman was absolutely disgusted, the Flash almost vomitted, Shayera was abhorred, John was afraid of what would happen next, and J'onn was a bit worried about Bruce's mental health.
Heck, even Scarecrow and Lex were shocked.
However, it didn't end there. Soon, the screen turned black again, and two pairs of eyes could be seen. One pair was a toxic green, while the other pair flashed between cerulean blue and a bloody red.
It wasn't that feature that had everyone a bit sickened, however.
It was the fact that the blue eyed one had the outline of two bloody hands.
The light shone on the green eyed one, who everyone knew as Ra's al Ghul. The blue/red eyed one was still envoked in darkness. Ra's started to chuckle.
"This is your true potential. Do you understand that you have done this? This was what we all trained you for, what you live for. You brought this upon yourself."
The man with the blood on his hands seemed to be fighting something within his mind. "...noo...I.."
Ra's laughed again."Do not deny it my student. Look at all the good you have done for our world order. You did it. I did not even have to lift a finger, you see. I just gave you a list, and you did everything I asked."
The man quickly shot his head up and shrieked. It was an unearthly sound that every single being in the room cringed at. Ra's kept talking. 'You are vengeance, aren't you? Isn't that why you came to me? So you could destroy the man that destroyed everything that you held dear?"
The man held his head, tears of blood running down his face. Ra's leaned in. "You held all of the rage in. Now look at what it has become. You cannot be good, boy. It isn't in all of your training. Since you could not have the one death of their killer, You have had thousands. Good or bad, right or wrong, they are all dead, and all but one is your fault."
The figure leaned down, shaking uncontrollably. He curled into a ball, seeming to want the man to stop. Ra's continued to smile. "It is quite amazing that two deaths were all it took, don't you think?"
The figure cried out in pain. "One of the bird, and the other of the butler."
Suddenly the man stopped, and slowly broght himself up, with his eye's closed. He did not cry out or shriek, he did not speak. The light on Ra's vanished, and all the people could hear was a whisper. "Your mind snapped without them."
Suddenly, another light came on, the pair vanished. It's manical laughter was no stranger to anyone in the room. His green hair and screwed up make up gave him away as the Joker. The clown started to speak with a grin on his face.
"Batsy! How happy you could join me today. Heard that screw that went loose in your head finally showed through. Death to the Justice League, huh? Very impressive. Even heard that most of the villians in Gotham are no more. Ivy, Bane, heck even Penguin died at your hands! It's so exciting, isn't it? Knowing that you control whether or not they see another day? It's absolutely hilarious when they try to reason with you for their life isn't it?"
Suddenly, out of no where, a black gauntlet grabbed the man's throat, seeming to suffocate the clown. The green haired nutcase started to laugh uncontrollably. It wasn't until the figure holding the maniac's throat plunged something the other's could not see through his back that the clown started to spasm.
Blood pooled around the Joker as he coughed, suddenly the guy froze, right as the man who had killed him kicked in whatever was in his back. The Joker fell on his face, and everyone could see the batarang in his chest, and the Batman's now cold red eyes.
Suddenly, as they all were in shock of this nightmare, a wall burst open. The debris that flew everywhere hit the machine and broke it, causing the Bat to wake up and the screen to stop working. This brought everyone to their senses as Green Arrow and Orion ran into the building. They soon broke all of the dazed league founders out of their cage and Batman out of his bonds.
They also grabbed Crane and Luthor for the authorities. It was surprisingly easy.
Finally knowing that they were out, and that the day was saved, the founder's decided to take off to their home cities and recover from...that. Superman was the first to leave, followed by Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, and Shayera.
RIght as Batman was about to leave, as Orion and Green Arrow said they would handle everthing, the Scarlet Speedster tapped his back, albeit nervously. Batman sighed, knowing that their would be questions in this conversation that he didn't want to answer.
"What is it, Flash?"
The Flash frowned a bit, and was a bit frightened by the man's hostile attitude. "Umm, ya know, I was just wondering if...well..."
Batman was beginning to get annoyed. " What were you wondering, West?"
The other man took a step back, and decided to blurt it out all at once. "Would you really do that? Kill all of us?"
Batman was taken aback. He knew what they had seen, but he imagined that just as everyone else, his nightmare would be dismissed as the other's were. He didn't imagine it would affect anyone.
The Flash seemed to wait patiently for the answer, though the silence piling up frightened him that he would say yes.
The Bat felt a bit bad for seeming to scare the founder's youngest member, knowing that if anyone would be affected by this, it would be the Scarlet Speedster. Bruce sighed.
"Wally, do you think that anything that happened in those nightmares will actually happen? I mean, think about it. John would have to do something pretty awful to disrupt his nieghborhood. The place he comes from is pretty tight knit, and though some of the people might act a bit different if they found out what he did, they would never shun him."
The redhead was a bit unsure where this was going, but continued to listen.
"It's the same thing with me. Even if Agent A and Robin died, I would not go absolutely insane and destroy everything, and especially not for Ra's al Ghul. I would be a bit more depressed, and probably angrier, but I wouldn't kill anyone. Do you understand that these nightmares are just extremely exaggerated and unlikely fears that we all have?"
Wally seemed to brighten up at his answer, and saluted the Batman. "Thanks for clearing that up Bats."
He then flew off toward Central City, confident in Batman's answer. The Bat frowned as he went off into the distance, a lot less pursuaded in the answer he just gave than he should be. He often feared as to what would happen if Alfred and Richard died. Would he go over the edge? Would he finally slip into the darkness that he has tread so lightly around?
The nightmare that they had seen even unnerved him. He quickly hooked onto his plane, and flew from the scene in silence, contemplating his fears all the way back to the mansion.