"You have to start out learning to believe the little lies to believe the big ones."

[matchmadeinhell]

They had to try their best to do this thing incognito. After all, the plan was get in, get the shard, get out, and while several of them were total unknowns in this world, three of them ran the risk of being recognized by some of the resident superheroes and supervillains since they were from a similar dimension and had equivalents here.

Nightwing, not so much since he usually wore a mask, but Cassie and Kon didn't wear masks as part of their costumes, and Kon especially wore a very familiar face. He was younger than Kal but still approaching adulthood now and that meant his cloney resemblance to the current de facto ruler of the world was pretty uncanny now.

That was why Kon was in disguise. He was wearing his usual jeans, black long-sleeved shirt, black boots, and black gloves. But he had a dumpy, shapeless, brown jacket over top of it all, a blue baseball cap, and a pair of dorky, large-framed glasses. Fortunately, spring was only just starting in this world and hadn't quite chased away the chill of winter so they could all bundle up with clothes that made them look innocuous.

The magical door had appeared in an alley, against a nondescript wall. As soon as they were all through and had closed it behind then, Kon peered around a corner to see if he could recognize where they were by the city's night-time skyline.

"Looks like Gotham." A pause. "It's hardly recognizable, though. I've never seen Gotham this clean."

He squinted instinctually, trying to peer around some more with his X-ray vision and found it working in full when he usually struggled with it back in the Guardians' universe. He held up his hand and poured on the teke, creating a field around it.

"My powers seem to be stronger here for some reason. The ones that are limited in the Guardians' universe are back, like my teke. You guys feeling the same? Most of us are superheroes or equivalents in our worlds. Being in a superhero universe might be amping up our powers or something. Maybe making the belief stronger."

It all ran on narratives, right? Stories? This was a story superheroes were supposed to be in.

Comments

[injustice_npcs]

"Had a scare a few years back and I've been taking a daily aspirin ever since, if that puts your mind at ease," Pa said to Kon with a little smile, clearly touched by his concern.

But what Cassie said made him frown and get right to the point.

"What do you mean by that? Where is our Conner? Clark said the Titans disappeared and that whatever villains killed them were likely too scared to take credit. Possibly that Deathstroke fella."

[holynpcsbatman]

"We didn't want to believe it," Ma said, her voice somewhat brittle. "There's time travel, different dimensions - they could've even been abducted to space, for all we knew. We wouldn't - couldn't accept it, so we've just been...we've been leaving it to hope," said Martha, putting a tray of glasses and a pitcher of lemonade on the table. Then she stood there, next to Pa, reaching for his hand, unconsciously.

She had a feeling They both would need support for the answer to the questions she asked next.

"What happened to him? Is he alright?"

[matchmadeinhell]

"He's alive," Kon reassured him, "and there's a way of getting him back. I'll start with that. Mostly because I have no idea how to tell you the rest."

He drew in a deep breath, tapping his fingers on the table.

"See, Cass and I are from a world a lot like yours. It's still a bit of a mess because we had one of those big crises but it was getting better."

Even if it hadn't been getting better for Kon personally, the return of the heroes had been helping.

"Lois is still alive there. But otherwise, it's...all the people, they're the same. Except Kal. Kal's...our Kal would never do this. And if he ever lost it so much he'd try, he'd have most of the League and most of the S-family tackling him, not helping him."

He waved a hand.

"Anyway, Cass and I got pulled away from our world to this dimension that's in trouble. Big evil dark god thing trying to destroy all of existence. We've been working with a lot of other heroes to stop it and sometimes that means going into other dimensions to get these shards of that reality that broke off. That's why we're here now and - and one thing we have in that dimension is this sort of...magical way of seeing things in other worlds we're going into. Sometimes things that there were not witnesses for, 'cause magic."

He wanted them to understand this wasn't coming from nowhere and also knew "I read it in a comic" wasn't going to fly. Not with an accusation like this.

"Using that, I saw. I saw what he did to your Conner and the Titans. Conner confronted him about him starting all the killing and the Titans backed him up and - and Clark hurt your Superboy real bad. Like, he needed medical attention right away, that kind of bad. Made it so a rib punctured his heart. And to save his life he put him in the Phantom Zone - but he only agreed to do it if the Titans would surrender and go with him. He wanted them out of the way for..."

He waved vaguely to the world outside.

"Your Conner's alive and if there's someone that can give him medical attention when he's taken out of the Phantom Zone, he has a chance. We even have some friends with magic back in the dimension we've been fighting evil in that we can maybe bring through here so they're right on hand when he's freed."

[holynpcsbatman]

It was pretty much every parents' worst fear, and not one of the normal ones that seemed reasonable. It was one of those things you weren't afraid of until it happened, and then it became something you never knew you'd been afraid of all along.

No parent in the history of parenthood wanted to hear that their one child had done something horrible to their other child.

"Oh, Jonathan," said Ma, squeezing his hand, her other hand covering her mouth with horror. "How could he?"

She took a seat next to her husband, gratefully accepting his comfort as he wrapped an arm around her.

[injustice_npcs]

Pa shook his head.

"We should have known," he said. "He's done so much - so many horrible things. Lied sometimes to get his way with all this."

A pause.

"To himself more than anyone. He probably got it in his head that he was doing Conner a favor, keeping him out of the fight so he didn't get hurt."

The expression on Pa's face made it clear how disgusted he was at that. And how angry. His anger was quiet but not less ferocious because of it.

[holynpcsbatman]

"How could we have not figured it out sooner?" she looked to Kon and Cassie, her eyes glassy. "Conner said he was going to confront Clark, but Clark said he'd convinced him to drop it. And then the Titans disappear right after? Clark was the one that came up with the story about their enemies, suggested it might be Deathstroke."

She hung her head.

"I just - I just didn't want to think that he'd -"

A tear dripped down her cheek.

"But why not? He's already hurt and killed so many of his friends. What was to stop him from doing the same to family?"

She leaned closer to her husband, leaning her head into his shoulder.

[matchmadeinhell]

Kon couldn't help himself, he stood up and went over to her, leaning down to give her a hug. She hugged him back gratefully with one arm.

Then Pa even joined in, hugging them both.

"I'm so sorry, Ma, Pa. I wish it wasn't true."

After the hug, he settled back in his chair, still gently holding her hand in his massive ones.

"Everything about this world, it's - I mean ours is cleaning up from the world's worst natural disaster, but at least everyone's on the same team, you know? Working together. Nobody's been fighting anyone else, doing crazy stuff like he's been doing. The only ones trying to mess up the world like that are supervillains. I'm so sorry you have to deal with this."

[mark_in_the_sands]

Cassie's memory flashed briefly back to when she, her mother, and Diana had gone to talk to Julia Kapatelis about her daughter and how she might have come to become the new Silver Swan. She hadn't been much help and comforting Julia, but she had found some useful information snooping through Vanessa's room and diary. That wasn't going to be an option here. But she could do better now.

"It's perfectly understandable that you'd believe him," she said softly. "No one wants to think someone they love could do something like to someone they're supposed care about and want to protect, even if they're doing awful things to other people."

She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "I really wish we could just magically wave a wand and fix all this. I really do."

[injustice_npcs]

"What do you plan to do?" asked Pa. "If you're anything like the Conner and Cassie we know, I know you won't stand for this."

He looked afraid to hear the answer but also hopeful, like he was desperate to hear something would be done.

[matchmadeinhell]

Kon pressed his lips together for a moment.

"If I tell you our plans, you can't tell him. And I know that's a tough choice, knowing it might hurt him. I know it's asking a lot when I'm not your Conner. But this is...this is fate of the world stuff, and we gotta do what we gotta. If you tell him and ruin our odds, you're going to make it so this world doesn't have a chance. And if Cass and I can't get back to the dimension we came from, with the reality shard we came for...that could doom all of existence."

He shook his head.

"This is us taking a side-trip, helping out, because we can't just look away. But we have huge responsibilities we're dealing with on top of this. We screw that up - or die so we can't do our jobs - and we're looking at a potential multiversal apocalypse. You can't tell him anything we're telling you. You can't tell him you know about what happened to the Titans and your Conner. You can't even tell him we were here."

[mark_in_the_sands]

"We barely even sit for this," Cassie quipped before sobering again. "We came here because we wanted to make sure you were safe. We just told you what he did to your Conner, and this one-" she jerked her thumb at Kon, "-knows you two well enough to know that you wouldn't stand for this kind of thing either. So we wanted to check in and make sure you were staying safe while trying to talk him down...and help keep you safe, if we can."

Which they damn well couldn't do in Superman's childhood home.

[holynpcsbatman]

"We won't tell him," Ma promised. "Even if - I know you might have to do something drastic. Lord knows what he'd do to you if he were warned, and you're - well, you're family, even if you're from another world."

She was still crying, because she had to say the words and actually admit her son might kill them.

[injustice_npcs]

Pa was far colder.

"As far as I'm concerned, at this point, anything that happens to Clark, he brought down on his own head."

There was no reasoning with his son and he refused to admit anything he'd done was wrong.

"He's our son and nothing'll change that, but he's dug himself into this hole he's in. I won't do anything that helps him hurt more people so he digs himself deeper."

[matchmadeinhell]

He could trust them. He could feel it. They were just so...so much the same. Every single good thing this Clark could've been. Should've been.

"We're working with Batman. We don't like it. Guy's been a monumental dick, but he's the only one organized, that has any resources and we can't do it alone. We, uh, have a few options open, to maybe overpower or depower him. We do plan on freeing the Titans from the Phantom Zone. Getting your Conner out will have to wait until we can get a hold of some of our friends back in the universe that we came from to heal him, and that'll probably have to wait for the end of all this. But we plan on sneaking into the Fortress and getting the Phantom Zone projector out and freeing the other Titans. So we have more firepower. And so we can get Conner out after the fighting's over."

He went on, "We have some people we brought in with us, like Nightwing and some other superheroes, and there's a few heroes Bats thinks our guys can talk out of retirement. They're doing that right now."

He looked at the table.

"We're gonna try to take him in alive, that's what I want you to understand. We'll do whatever we can to bring him in alive, to make it so he faces justice, and, I don't know, has time to think about it in jail. Maybe in time he'll actually have some remorse."

He drew in another deep breath.

"But if we can't bring him in alive, we do have a...a magical option. Last ditch. We're not using it unless there's no other way and even then we're still - we're still working out how far we're willing to go. You know? It's not easy. Even after all he's done, none of us really wants to..."

[mark_in_the_sands]

Cassie put a hand on Kon's forearm and squeezed it reassuringly before looking at the Kents again.

"We want you to come with us, if you're willing," she said softly. "I won't pretend that we didn't consider that having you somewhere he can't find would be a substantial psychological blow, but we mostly want you along because we want you to be safe." She smile humorlessly. "I'm sure he promised you safety too, but if you feel at all inclined, we'd like to have you along."

[matchmadeinhell]

"Please consider it. We don't know how this is going to trip him off. And I could hear your heartbeats when you were getting us inside, looking out on the horizon..."

Kon's expression was almost anguished.

"You're afraid of him, and you have good reason to be. We don't know that he won't snap and if he does -"

He couldn't bear the thought of that.

"You may not be my Ma and Pa but I can't stand the thought of something happening to you." He looked to Pa. "I wasn't there when my Pa needed it. I was...incapacitated, is a good way of putting it. It wasn't just his heart, it was Brainiac, he attacked the farm and Pa just - it was the shock. His heart gave out."

He shook his head frantically.

"But I can be here for you two right now. We can take you to Batman's bunker - at least until it's all over. I mean, either we'll win and you can come right back to the farm, or we'll lose and this world won't have another chance, and you can leave and pretend it was all under duress or whatever. And hell, if you want a chance to talk to him and say what you really think without risk of him losing it, we can arrange that. You can talk to him and wouldn't have to dance around it or mince words. You could maybe shake some sense into him."

[holynpcsbatman]

"We can't," Martha said, shaking her head furiously, looking at her husband. "Oh Jonathan, we can't. We just can't."

[injustice_npcs]

"Martha, we need to at least consider it. Look at all he's done - all he'll do. Land sakes, what he did to Conner - are we supposed to just nod along and act like nothing's changed? He's our boy, but from the sound of it he was willing to hurt our other boy and lock him away without a care in the world."

He shook his head.

"He didn't care about Conner or what it'd do to us, thinking he might be dead."

He jutted out his jaw.

"There's lines, Martha. There's so many lines he's crossed. He killed poor Oliver right in front of us. Why, he even left me there in the Fortress with that arrow in my arm so he could run off after Bruce. All of it shows what he thinks of this family. Not a care for anything we ever taught him, any of the values this family holds dear, for Conner, for us, for anything but his crusade."

Pa was not a man of many words but right now he had more to say than he probably ever had before.

"A crusade it'd break Lois's heart to see, God rest her soul."

[holynpcsbatman]

"If there's any chance at all of him listening to a word we say, of getting through to him, getting him to stand down and turn himself in, that chance'll be gone the minute we leave this house for Batman's bunker."

She was still crying, tears plopping down.

"And I know the chances of that are - well, they're a damn sight near impossible at this point - but I still can't... He's our son. And Lord knows I think every single choice he's made lately is wrong. Cruel. Even evil sometimes. But if there's any chance at all of reaching the boy we raised in there, it's going to be in this home, probably in this kitchen."

She looked over to Kon and Cassie.

"I won't get in your way. You need to do what you need to do," she said. "But so do I."

She turned to look at her husband.

"We'd do the same for Conner if it was him. Try to get through. They're our boys, Jonathan. They're both our boys and you don't give up on your children, even if they've done wrong. And we need to be here to do that."

[injustice_npcs]

Jon considered all this.

"I can't say I agree entirely but there is no moving her when her mind's set and I'm not leaving without Martha."

He looked at his wife lovingly, admiringly, as if even though it was clear he didn't entirely agree, he admired the love tenacity she was showing. Then he turned to look at Cassie and Kon.

"You've done what you can - more than anyone could've asked of you, considering we're not even your Kents. And we appreciate you looking out for our family, Conner. I can tell you're a good boy just like our Conner us. But we're going to stay and we're going to keep trying and if that sets off his temper, well...that's our risk to take."

[matchmadeinhell]

Now Kon started crying a little.

"You are literally too good for this world," he said, wiping at his eyes. "What is wrong with him?"

He rubbed furiously at his eyes, trying not to cry in front of Pa.

"I don't understand how he could do this to you. Or your Conner."

He just couldn't wrap his head around it. They were still just as good, just as kind, just as loving, just as principled. What the hell was wrong with him? Why was he ignoring everything they'd taught him, that they'd shown him just by existing?

[mark_in_the_sands]

Cassie's eyes were damp as well, to see all these good people so upset, but she scrubbed at them with the heel of her hand and nodded to the Kents before putting her hand on Kon's arm.

"We should probably get going," she said, flashing a sympathetic look at Mrs. Kent. "If my hearing was as good as his, I'd definitely come to see why my mother was crying."

[matchmadeinhell]

Kon nodded, taking a few swigs of lemonade. He'd left it sitting and he just...he needed to taste it again after all this time. One small sweet thing from home amidst all this misery.

His mouth puckering up made it a little easier to not curse Clark's name.

He stood up, taking in a deep breath and letting it out.

"You yell if you need me, okay? If he loses it. I don't care about the danger, you yell. I won't always be able to hear it, with what we have to do next, but if I do, I'll come. We can at least try to get you out. I can't - I can't stand the thought of something happening to you."

He smiled a watery smile.

"'Cause you're still you. Universes away." He tapped a hand to his chest. "We're supposed to be the special ones, with all the superpowers, but that - that's a superpower if I ever saw one. Being that decent, all different versions of you. Worlds away."

Ma got up and wrapped her arms around him and he hugged her back, briefly closing his eyes and just reveling in the feeling.

"I love you, Ma. Pa. You don't even have to be mine for me to. Just one talk and I can tell you're just like my Ma and Pa and that's enough. Please be careful."

[holynpcsbatman]

"Oh, Conner, the same right back to you. I can tell you're every bit the brave young man our Conner is."

Ma hugged him in a fierce hug.

"Please, when you get the other Titans out, let him know you're coming for him after it's all over. I don't want him alone in there, not knowing if he's getting out. And you tell him we love and him can't wait to get him home."

Then she let go of Kon to gently hug Cassie.

"And you, young lady, I'm so glad to see Conner's found you in another universe, too. Bless your heart for coming out here for us."

[injustice_npcs]

Jon went in to hug Kon now.

"You're the ones that need to be careful. Please take care, son. You're not the only one that can't stand the thought of something bad happening to family and Martha's right - we can barely tell you and our Conner apart, other than the age."

He drew back and nodded firmly.

"We'll keep your secrets. You do what you need to. He won't hear a word of it from us. And just like Martha said, you tell our Conner he's coming home and we'll be waiting for him when he does."

He gripped Kon's shoulder.

"Thank you for telling us he's alright and for helping get him back. Be careful out there."