WMG / Reflections Lost on a Dark Road

The microbot swarms are working for another group of survivors in the "Space Hulk" dimension.

They're stealing power from functional electronic devices. While they could be using it to power themselves, they could also be gathering it to transfer it to a main ship to keep the ship running and the survivors on board alive.

• It's irrelevant now. They're no longer in the Space Hulk dimension, and it was never stated one way or the other.

The "AA" psychics are in a Cuckoo Nest.

What better way to deal with a world full of metahumans? The Hive Mind learned its lesson with the Nerima Wrecking Crew - abducting Ranma and his allies simply made X-Com aware of Supernatural Martial Arts. Why do the same to demons, magical girls, garage super-scientists, etc... when all it takes is a few subtle memory tweaks and a hidden Ethereal or two to make X-Com lock up all of Earth's native superhuman assets and drive them insane by insisting they're insane - and them and their tasty DNA will remain safely on the moon base until the aliens invades en masse. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.

• Doesn't work well; the aliens' experiments (including the free range psychics) are far older than the six months or so since X-COM and the Mind discovered the Nerima Wrecking Crew, and it's likely that X-COM has been dealing with the psychics since before the Mind considered X-COM an actual threat; rather the aberration of the abilities of the Neriman martial arts communities moved the Mind to act unusually in that case. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that stuffing all the powerful psychics you can find in a loony bin on the moon may still be a handy way to drive the sane ones over the edge...

The aliens are "a cult of addiction in the guise of a species".

When the Hive Mind started conquering, they were just the Sectoids, an empire of mad scientists who enslaved and experimented on other species. Then they tried to enslave the Ethereals and lost. In the process, the Ethereals became as amoral, bloodthirsty and entitled as the Sectoids. After the Ethereals seized their databases and technologies, they continued conquering and enslaving and experimenting due to the xenophobia they developed in the course of defeating the Sectoids. If Humanity doesn't start caring that they're becoming exactly as monstrous as what they are fighting, they will simply take the Ethereals' place atop the hierarchy and continue the cycle. This might even be an intentional element of their civilization: a Social Darwinist Batman Gambit - lose to them and become their cattle, defeat them and make them even stronger as their new leadership. Heads I Win, Tails You Lose.

The aliens are the Anti-Spirals.

...Only smarter. Instead of trying to break the wills of the spiral races, their attacks are carefully tailored to make the defenders break their own. You and your fellow soldiers are cannon fodder; don't cling to life when there is a mission to accomplish. Your loved one could converted into a Trenchard at any time; don't get attached so watching what's left of them suffer doesn't break your concentration. There are no super-heroes, just psionic puppets; lock them up and torture them so they can't get in the way. Your ethics prevent you from learning about your enemy's capabilities; abandon them so you can tear secrets from their flesh. Your strongest soldiers have brutalized themselves for their entire lives to become strong; Misery Builds Character, and everyone should embrace it. The result is a species that could never understand Spiral Power.

Psychic interrogation is always hyper-traumatic Mind Rape.

It's just that XCOM erases the short-term memory containing the rape when they perform it on humans to spare them the trauma. But by the time they decided not to vivisect Starfire, the window had already closed as it had become part of her long-term memory.

Tresspasser is not from the Teen Titans' universe.

The Teen Titans in The Titans and the Lost Boy and Dark Titans are the incarnations of them from the tv show. Meanwhile, Tresspasser seems to be from the comic book universe. While there's a lot of overlap characterwise, even the X-COM universe from The Road to Cydonia has some characters in common with Dark Titans. The point being that if the Titans try to get home by going to Tresspasser's universe, it's not going to work.

Time Travel was involved with the dimensional incident in chapter 1

When they arrived in the X-COM universe, the Titans discovered they were a year into the future. This isn't because the dimensions are misaligned timeline-wise. The reason Robin hasn't put together a rescue team for them is because he did. But since they went into the future, the Titans literally vanished from existence for a year, and thus could not be found because they didn't exist anywhere. Or alternatively, the dimensions are misaligned and they went back in time, in which case the reason he hasn't searched for them is because they haven't left yet.

Slade's new apprentice is Kodachi.

• Slade mentioned having a new apprentice a few times when he showed up.
• When he was fighting Shampoo, he said that she had the second most potential of all the girls that ever pursued Ranma Saotome. Shampoo responded that she was superior to Akane and Ukyou, and that they were the only competition. Slade answered with an evasive response.
  • Slade really shouldn't know anything about Ranma, what with having died before Ranma or any other members of the Nerima Wrecking Crew had any interaction with Jump City.

All this indicates that his new apprentice is someone that has information regarding Ranma Saotome and his fiancees, and is probably one herself. Furthermore:

• In Dark Titans, it was established that Kodachi went missing after the explosion at the end of The Titans and the Lost Boy.

Therefore, the most likely person for this is Kodachi.

Jinx is going to pull a Face–Heel Turn.

In The Titans and the Lost Boy and Dark Titans, Jinx pulled a Heel–Face Turn because she felt guilty for what the Headmaster was doing to Ryouga due to being in love with him. Jinx was in love with Ryouga because the Headmaster brainwashed her. Raven undid the Headmaster's brainwashing. Already we're seeing signs of her reverting to form, complete with a comment that she "can't remember why (she) joined the Titans". All this seems to be leading up to a Face–Heel Turn.

The EDC-FTL (Extended Dimensional Contact Faster Than Light) Drive is going to be used to build a cyborg like usagi from Millennium

Shampoo will take a level in baddass].

T-Ryouga, Raven, and Shampoo's conversation in the alien goo tube (Kinky!) was fun to read, and it's neat seeing T-Ryouga hone and find new uses for his ki synchronization technique. The verbal explanation of what T-Ryouga and Shampoo were doing and description of their actions were both well written, and Shampoo's sadness at not having more potent ki reserves herself struck a chord and left me wondering if either from the experience of manipulating T-Ryouga's aura or exposure to the alien molecular control technology her own aura might begin to grow. Compared to her India and Juliet teammates, Shampoo's own combat abilities seem to have made little forward progress since the start of TRTC.

T-Ryoga will become a combat med

if Emotional ki is the easy and Elemental ki the hard settings, respectively, then Sentient Ki Melding is the martial artist equivalent to Nightmare Mode. X-Ryouga and Jinx's double-tech brought the former to his knees and delivered the latter to death's door, and from what has been said T-Ryouga's triple-tech with Jinx and Terra in Atlantis nearly killed all three of them.

Its pay-offs are also dubious. The potential for power generation is phenomenal, but extremely fine and subtle control is required and relying on others for power can backfire stupendously if they're taken out of the fight or inconveniently absent when you need them. It actually seems like it would be more useful if applied to medical purposes, such as how T-Ryouga used it to keep Jinx's aura flowing long enough for her to be resuscitated. If T-Ryouga can figure out how to make his ki more universally compatible then he could very well develop an amazingly beneficial healing technique with virtually no combat utility whatsoever which, considering his progress in this direction started with the incredibly destructive Bakusai Tenketsu, would be ironic but probably in a good way.

Of course, with that said, I'm still interested in seeing T-Ryouga try a 5-man combo with Jinx, Raven, Starfire, and Terra. And by "interested" I mean watching from the safe distance of my computer monitor as they channel POWER OVERWHELMING into a continent shattering coherent beam of destruction.

XCOM will sty in DC for awhile

I assume they will be getting there at some point as I'm sure Lathis wants his characters back in his story Universe to further his original story. I think the question was answered before, but I don't remember the answer.

There is a speed force in the XCOM UNIVERSE.

The do have speed force dc comics just doesn’t have enough understanding of it for cyborg to utilize it in this new world

The ending battle is about to start

My guess is that it concludes with Yankee, Juliet, and India frantically fighting their way through a HUGE battle already in progress in an alternate dimension between the Cydonia aliens and the Micronoid aliens to reach the 26-dimensional hypergriffin, with some of the revamped aliens and tech from the new XCOM game (Giant sectopods! Chryssalids that can jump 2 stories! Cyborg with a jet pack!) showing up along with a cadre of Trenchard Cologne's own alien creations/trainees to lay some groundwork for Cap'n's take on the Cydonia invasion.

However, Juliet and India have secret orders to destroy the hypergriffin because extracting it is impossible with the surrounding battle and XCOM has deemed it too dangerous to remain in alien hands, Yankee secretly knows about these secret orders, and Juliet and India suspect Yankee secretly knows about their secret orders, thus resurrecting the trust and morality issues again! Is it justifiable to eliminate an alien who's guilty of no crime of its own but whose powers can (and already have) unleashed malevolent alien horrors upon multiple worlds? Can Yankee, Juliet, and India trust each other enough to work together and do the right thing? What is the "right" thing in this scenario? Yadda yadda yadda.

But wait, in true TV Tropes fashion the protagonists Take a Third Option when the critical moment of choice is upon them! T-Ryouga and X-Ryouga gain mutual respect for each other as they fight side by side to reach the hypergriffin and choose the riskier option of freeing the 26-dimensional creature instead of killing or capturing it even though this means Yankee might never have the means to return home. Fortunately, the hypergriffin uses its hypergriffin powers to A) show the aliens why you don't chain up anything that exists in 26-dimensions and B) send Yankee and Juliet and India back to their respective universes.

The story ends with the protagonists reflecting on their experiences and interactions with each other and the two Hibikis deciding that – even though they still don't like each other – the other wasn't such a bad guy after all and that, all in all, they've learned some very important lessons from this adventure and from each other and can become better people because of it. After all, if Gen "Urobutcher" Urobuchi can write a happy ending then I have faith that Lathis and Cap'n can too! ...At least until Trigon arrives/XCOM invades Cydonia and all bets are off.

Yankee Juliet and India will end up in one of The Altered Destinies Universes.

While older the XCOM Charecters are still in the process of maturing. This is the main cause of conflict between them and the Titan’s, because while XCOM are more sensible and aware of their faults there are still too many similarities that preventing a clash of ego’s is incredibly unlikely. This is why I think the before they get home the heroes are going to end up in a world where they meet their adult selves. As adults they will be older and wiser with kids of their own and would no longer be willing to put up with put up with the shenanigans of their younger selves. I think one of The Altered Destinies universes would be the best one. While the Works of Jim Bader are my favorite but any world would do and there is already president in this fic that shows that it would work.

Nabiki mentioned that when Kasumi is a prodigy who manifested her first aura at six. The day after she manifested it they got a visit from three shrine keepers and a Buddhist monk. Now imagine her reaction as well as the others if they meet the Kasumi from A Scary Thought

• Or better yet the Kasumi from Shampoo ½ learning that Kasumi is the current incarnate of the strongest Amazon warrior to ever live would be a incredible shock to their system (as well as give them a few ideas about what is going on with T-Kasumi). She might even give them a few pointers maybe even the dreaded DOOM.
  • Though in keeping with the DCU crossover it would be better for them to end up in Inherit the Storm or Thunder in the Mountains and meet Ekko Daitokuji. Imagine their surprise when they find out this isn’t the first something like this has happened. The Titans could end up with more knowledge about Superman and Wonder Woman then Superman and Wonder Woman have and also go home with the knowledge that Lex is evil because of a Science-Related Memetic Disorder.

• Them going to an Altered Destinies Universe wouldn’t be a good idea if they are meeting their adult selves then they will be insanely powerful. While its obvious an adult version of them in any universe would be stronger the ADU’s take it to another level. Especially the universes you mentioned. That could be over looked (especially since even if they were the same age they would still be stronger) what can’t is the likes of Siren and Elder Lotion who could solve all of the Titan’s problems with a snap of their fingers. Siren or Lotion could send the Titan’s home, she could give Raven advice on exactly how to stop Trigon or even train her. Kasumi could tell her exactly who would make Trigon wet his pants. Depending on how powerful a wizard he Ranma might be able to send them back
  • They don’t have to end up in those worlds. They could end up in the Jedi Kasumi universe and we can watch Jinx and cyborg would have a nerdgasim while begging Trieste to teach them the ways of the force (and Nabiki can talk to her mother).
  • Both have mentioned being fans of Paradise Lost so that seems to be the most likely universe the characters would go. Or the Most Unlikely of Friends and have Soon Li teach them elemental combat techniques that don’t have consequences. They don’t even have to go the specific universe but use the Quantum destinies route and create there own parallels

• I think they would go really out of left field and have them show up in the middle of the interdimensional war between the Solnoids and the Musk from Quantum Destinies. Better yet have them meet Ryo Muhoshin
  • That has the same problem the Solnoids and the Musk would definitely be able to defeat the Visitors. Quite easily in fact but then the XCOM Universe would come to their attention and either all the men and all the woman would be enslaved. While Ryo Muhoshin is the opposite depending on when they are meeting him (considering they are traveling dimensions) he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them especially the Ryoga’s. it would be like Zombie Slade again only one who can control time and space.

• Given the way Raven and Starfire drooled over Aqualad imagine what their reaction would be if they met Tenma Saotome or the Kaneda’s

• They don’t have to necessarily meet their adult selves there are other characters in these series. let them end up in American they can see how Bruce is kind of a whore meet Terry, Tim Drake, Huntress is daughter (he is Ranma’s grandfather) are Starfire and Dick married, are Cyborg, Raven, Jinx, teenagers or adults. Meets supermans kids and grandkids.

• Also there are characters in these universes that are established as fictional in Dark Titans and The Road to Cydonia so it would be nice to see their reaction to meeting those people like Tenchi or Sailormoon especially since Ranma and Ryoga are related to them in a few of these fics.
  • I found it kind of disappointed when they were confirmed to be fictional. As Supermans famous word of cardboard speech earth is insignificant in the DC Universe and Humans more so. Being with god like powers, advanced aliens civilizations. Even in this fic the Titan’s brag about how the XCOM aliens simply don’t match up. How would they react if they found out that Earth is actually a Jurian colony, that the Oni had taken over the planet just because and the Justice League were none the wiser. They’ve met greek gods and alien gods but what about gods and demons that are still in power Hild, Kami Sama. How would they react if when they discover that not just the universe but earth itself is far bigger then they could ever imagine.
    • By making Tenchi fictional the Justice League lost a pretty substantial bargaining chip.

• What if they meet the counterparts of their parents. In the Baderverse Ranma and Ryoga are brothers (imagine their reaction) though Mitsuko and Tetsuya could still exist as one of the other countless Hibiki’s sired by Razor. Ho instead of Cologne’s father could be Elder Lotion’s grandfather and Happosai’s brother. They could remain the same in the universes where the characters aren’t related. Or instead of elder Sink you have a woman who looks remarkably like Kimiko Tendo.
  • Don’t forget Perfume or universes with crack pairing like Ranma and Aila
    • That’s pretty much just nabiki ½ as Minx can’t travel between dimension at a whelm. Also can you imagine what she would do to Cyborg or their ship.

• With all this dimension hoping they’ve been doing they might meet up with Shiva-Ranma.
  • I doubt what they are doing register him getting involved most I’m thinking Kei and Yuri

• It would also be funny to see the Titans worn Batman and Green Lantern that their lives are in danger.
  • Why would their lives be in danger
  • Frankly I don’t think the time cops and superheroes have a very loving relationship with each other. Chronos while intelligent was just some loser going around stealing trash. it would be the equivalent of writing a parking ticket to who ever was assigned to stop him. Then enter batman wonder woman and green lantern and cronos becomes this megalomaniacal maniac who destroys three universes. And in the end they leave that particular universe in somekind of temporal loop. You know someone was pissed.
    • Yeah, I am sure the best you can say would be tentative to dubious. In part I would think, because when they have to show up it’s because the heroes have failed, badly. Luckily most of what time cops do is behind the scenes, so much so that few heroes would even be aware of them. And it does help that the TC rarely ever have to go to the same world more than once, so if the heroes are not the kind who are in touch with other realities or times it is far less likely they will have met them.
  • Most likely someone wasn’t called to deal with Cronos himself but the aftermath of their battle with him.

• I think meeting Shiva-Ranma would be pretty emasculating for the Titans. Their counterpart in the other universes while significantly stronger then them would be so in a way they could handle. Siren is an archmage, in Nabiki ½ you futuristic martial arts style eluni would be the equivalent of ancient atlanteans, wizard, ect ATOTW Nabiki is a mystic, demi gods, ect. But Time Cop Ranma and Ryoga’s strength is purely the result of training. They will see first hand exactly how strong a regular human can become.
  • I thought they were avatars
    • Their had to be some degree between Ranma getting his edge back and him fighting a cosmic entity during those 10 years.

• I’d go with something simple like one of the Anime universes that follow superhero Tropes. Like Superan, Avenging, or Kryptonean ½.
  • What are Superan, and Kryptonean ½.
  • In Superran is what would happen if an amnesiac superman was intimate with Nodoka and Kryptonean ½ is what would happen if after burying Happosai Genma fled to america getting work at Kent Farm.

Divine Blood

If they are going with another fanfic universe I think Divine Blood would be a better choice. Mainly because it serves as a great middleman between the two universes. Like DC there are metahuman, mages, gods, ect but these things are kept separate from the general public and the paranormal are trained in a more military mind set so they won’t become a danger to themselves or others.

Also while Yankee, Juliet and India will walk away with a lot of updates they won’t be given a free win. Given that from a different universe I highly doubt she could become a god, demon or , ainur which would allow her to block out Trigon. But Ranma could give her some pointers in exorcism and the Lambda driver would be a god send for XCOM.

• Like XCOM this universe is more in the grey. However mostly the Titans would be considered Akira’s and woudn’t be taken remotely seriously which they would not take well. Also given the unfortunate nature of mental affair in that universe especially in relation to Ranma don’t you think it would be kind of dangerous for T-Ryoga do to the fact he willingly allowed himself and jinx to stay coerced into loving each other.
  • Like you said unlike with the XCOM characters DB characters are fully Older and Wiser while Yankee, Juliet and India are teenagers (and also represent their more immature selves). The Titan’s would not be given remotely as much leeway and Jinx and T-Ryoga would just end up getting the crap beaten out of them if they throw their usual temper tantrum. As for the mental affair I see ranma giving Ryoga The East Way Or The Hard Way option.

This universe would act as a middle man solving a lot of the problems that the three teams have with each other.

I also want to see this universe because of the Nightmare Fuel. When the Titan’s hear about D-Kodachi what would their first thought be. I’ll tell you it will be Oh, Crap!.

The reason X-Com can't keep aliens alive disconnected from the Hive Mind is because they don't want to.

The real-life term for this is the Observer-expectancy effect; "a form of reactivity in which a researcher's cognitive bias causes them to subconsciously influence the participants of an experiment." No-one makes it into X-Com - let alone into the high security research divisions - without being heavily vetted as being reliably pro-human/anti-alien. Thus, even the most objective researchers they have are at Mengele/731-levels of sociopathy when it comes to the status of the aliens, and subconsciously if not admittedly desire every alien dead - them being un-salvageable makes their extermination far easier to justify. The only scientist they have who might approach the problem in a way that potentially saves them is Cyborg - and they are specifically keeping him away from live alien subjects because they know he's predisposed to aiding "traitors" like Trenchard!Akari.

There is a community of people unaffiliated with X-Com or the Hive Mind.

Basically a re-creation of World War II; there are thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of psychics and inventors who are aware that Earth is being invaded by mind-controlling aliens, but as the only alternative is an unaccountable pan-national military force that seizes all advanced technology and whisks all psychics off to "Sanctuary Communities" without consideration for collateral damage, they don't trust either side. Everyone's pretty sure that the Hive Mind wants to assimilate all life on Earth, but they're equally concerned that X-Com will enslave every psychic and enforce a government monopoly on super-tech. That's why the Trenchards lets all those "rogue" psychics run around - by giving them free range, they appear less threatening than X-Com, who remorselessly kill every rogue they are unable to capture. This is a theme not often seen in post-WWII fiction but was constant in period pieces like Casablanca; that those who were trapped in the crossfire saw little difference between Nazi Germany's crimes and the Soviet Union's bloody revolutions - three from 1905 to 1917. The nasty part is that history supports this viewpoint; for people caught on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain after the fall of Nazi Germany, the war has never really ended.