A/N: Hey everyone. This is my first Young Justice Fanfiction, so feedback is really going to be appreciated as it continues on. I haven't wrote a story in a long time, but fell in love with the series and figured I'd give Fanfiction another shot.
Warning: This is a really dark book, and this chapter is especially dark. So please be warned about that. If you don't like it, don't read it.
-If you don't know who Dr. Destiny is...Wiki him. He's a great villain. I based his look off of how he looks in the Justice League Animated Series.
-I commonly write about dark things, and if there's more you would like to learn about me, please feel free to take a look at my profile. Most of my content warnings are located there.
-I'm sorry if there are many mistakes in here. I did proof read it, but I'm only human and it's been a while since I've written anything. Mistakes will happen, please don't belittle me for them. C:
I do not own Young Justice or its characters. I merely own the story idea and writing.
Pounding. That's all Conner could hear ringing in his ears as he groaned and swallowed a heavy lump in his throat. Something was very wrong. He was…sore, really sore and his shoulder burned like fire. It was a sensation he'd never truly felt before; normally his invincibility would protect him from such things, but not this time.
As he woke up more, he realized he wasn't at Mount Justice, or truly anywhere near it. Below him was a wet, grimy concrete floor that had puddles pooling on it. A consistent drip was next to be heard besides the pounding, causing Conner's head to burst to life with agony. An audible groan slipped from his throat as he slowly reached his hands up to cover his ears. Everything was aching, and his shoulder sparked up with a sharp pain as soon as he moved his arms to cover his ears.
Cussing under his breath, he attempted to open his eyes. The room he was in was filled with the gray light of dawn, but even then, it was still too bright for his sensitive head. Eyes immediately clamped shut again as his muscles tensed up, trying to ward off the pain so he could focus for a few seconds.
To make everything worse, his mind was reeling as his head was pulsing with pain. The combination made it almost impossible for him to catch his bearings and get a grip. However as a few moments passed, he was willing to try opening his eyes again. The process was very, very slow but he managed to open them up enough to catch a glimpse of what was going on around him.
At first everything was just blurry, but after a few blinks, certain things started to become clear. He was in some kind of small caved in room. The place was made purely of concrete and stone, giving it a very dull vibe. Puddles and grime lined the floor along with large rocks and slabs of concrete that appeared to be smashed through. For a brief moment, Conner wondered if he was the one that smashed through them. The idea would explain a lot, but it didn't explain what was going on, or why he was hurting so bad. He couldn't remember anything that had gone on recently. Sadly enough, the last thing he remembered was being asked by his human father to attend a small get together.
Groaning again, the super clone slowly released his hands from his ears and lowered his arms, hissing in agony throughout the entire process. His good arm felt fine, and quickly went to wrap around the aching one; massaging the muscles and putting pressure on the areas that hurt the worst.
He lifted his head slowly to look through the gaping hole in the roof of the room and stared for a long moment. Something was off, very…off. The sky was gray, as it usually was during the winter months, but it wasn't the normal gray color he was used to seeing. That and the snow looked almost black and orange.
Eyes snapping wide open then, Conner realized that what he was looking at was not snow; it was ash. A heavy layer of ash and a deafening layer of silence. The only noise he could pick up was the water dripping down into the dark, lifeless puddles. Otherwise the world around him was completely silent. Heart rate increasing ever so slightly, he attempted to call out to anyone who might hear him, but all that came out was a raspy whine. Even after clearing his throat he found that he could not manage to form words and that terrified him.
Where was the team? And why was he alone here? Sure he would go off on a solo mission here and there, but Kaldur worked tirelessly to make sure missions were handled with at least two members of the team. Of course, being alone never bothered Conner; in fact, at times he preferred it, but that was not how he was feeling right now. He felt nervous at how quiet the world was, and was uneasy that he was alone. Even more so he was concerned that he could not remember what had happened, or if he had started the mission alone in the first place.
'Am I even on a mission?' he thought to himself as he attempted to lean forward. Answers to his questions weren't going to fall into his lap, so he needed to get up and find out what was going on himself.
Unfortunately, the movement caused even more pain to flare up in his body. Conner gasped and paused to try and contain the agony that was invading his muscles and his head. He felt weak, like all his strength had been stripped away, leaving him with nothing but his wit to help him through the situation. When he set his aching arm against the floor and tried to push against it, he realized that it must've been broken considering that it screamed in pain, and shifted awkwardly under the pressure.
Making a sad attempt to scream, he quickly fell on to his opposite side and gripped the broken humerus as tightly as he could. Sharp breaths had to be sucked in through his teeth just so that he wouldn't scream again when his next attempt to move came. He had to think. He knew basic first aid from when he was still at Cadmus, under the control of the genomorphs, but he never realized he'd have to use it! He was Superboy! Invincible, impenetrable, strong, unbreakable…so why was his arm broken. It didn't make any sense.
'Focus! Come on you can do this!' Conner sternly thought to himself. He took in a deep breath, biting his lip and preparing himself for the waves of pain to come. Once he felt that he had readied himself, Conner shifted his legs underneath himself and pushed up with his good arm. Discomfort washed over him as he got up onto his knees, but he tried not to think about it. He needed to focus on the task at hand, and that was merely getting himself up.
Never had he felt so drained and pathetic in his entire life. It was like his whole body was working against him to hold him back from reaching his goals…his simple goals. Goals that should be accomplished with ease.
Taking in sharp breaths once more, he attempted to get one leg up so that he could push off of it with his good arm and stand completely. But in attempting to do so his muscles screamed at him to stop and all his energy was sucked away from him like water to a sponge. Pushing on was the only option, even with what little strength he was managing, he had to figure out what had happened.
It took a good five minutes, but before Conner knew it, he was up on both his feet. The dizziness was paralyzing, causing him to take another couple of minutes just to let him blood flow properly throughout his body again. The cold air mixed with ash was irritating his lungs, causing him to cough and sputter helplessly against it. The need to get out of the small concrete room grew with every passing second that he was sucking in ash filled air.
The process was slow, and every foot step felt like a ten pound weight pulling him down; but he eventually made it to the lip of the cave in. A few more steps and he'd be out in the open to see what in the world was going on.
The air wasn't really thinning out the higher up he climbed over the lip, but as soon as his eyes saw the world around him, the air quickly became the least of his problems.
Adrenaline pumped through him as his eyes snapped wide open at the sight of bodies littering the vast ash covered waste land that was once the world. The smell of death, rot and ruin quickly assaulted his senses as his eyes roamed the sea of civilian bodies that surrounded him. Brown, dried blood caked the ground and mixed with the ash to create a slippery, slushy mess.
Everything was gone. There were no buildings, no sky scrapers, not plant life, no mountains, no nothing. It was all just a barren waste land that stretched as far as his eyes could see in the foggy ash laden landscape.
The carnage didn't end there though. Everywhere he looked, the bodies of innocent victims lay, mangled and sprawled out in unnatural positions. Realization dawned on him that the water he'd heard dripping earlier, was actually blood seeping through the cracks of the small room and drizzling into small pools.
The realization was the final straw, causing Conner to gag and throw up anything he had left in him before quickly looking himself over to see if any of the blood was on him. He didn't find blood, but instead discovered rips and scuff marks all over his outfit. Mud covered his boots and lower pant legs along with more wet ash. The combination made him shudder when the suddenly started feeling the cold seeping in through the fabric and encasing his bare skin.
A helpless feeling of panic started rising up in his chest; causing his throat to tighten up as he scanned the area for any signs of life. The panic mixed with the stench of death made him feel like he couldn't get in a deep enough breath to keep him conscious.
"Hello? Is anyone out there? ANYONE!?" He hollered, voice sounding strained and scratchy like he'd been screaming for an insistently long amount of time.
Teeth clenched as only the wail of silence answered his calls. For the first time, in a long time, Conner felt absolutely helpless. He commonly strived in his own company, but now that he didn't have the option of interaction he realized that being alone was terrifying.
This of course brought up another issue. Conner was petrified…of everything. Feeling pain scared him, all the death and destruction petrified him, and now being alone was sending his anxiety through the roof. Sure the situation was bad, but he'd never felt anything like THIS before.
A small voice in the back of his head whispered to him that something about this situation didn't fit. However as soon as the voice spoke, it was shunned out by the endless torrent of terror that would not empty out of his head.
Reaching his only good arm up, his pressed his thumb and pointer finger against his eye lids, trying to calm his breathing and heartrate down. Unfortunately, they only increased. In fact, they'd only been increasing since he woke up in this hell.
Very quickly, his mind told him the only solution to the issue, was to run. To get away from the danger, to find safety. Normally his fight or flight instincts would tend to stick to sticking it out, but not this time. Even as weak as he felt, Conner felt he could do nothing but run.
"Anybody! Hello! Is anyone out there?" Superboy shouted as he sprinted across the ash covered land. Lifting his arm, he tried to contact the team through his com link, but all he got back was static.
A panicked whine escaped his throat as he continued to press on. The cold nippy air of December was slowing him down, but he barely felt it with how fast his heart was beating. It felt like pins and needles were jabbing his skin all over and an insistent ache continued to originate from his hurt arm continuing down to his now burning legs.
"Please, anybody! Someone please answer me!" His cries continued to fall on deaf ears. Even as he entered town and slammed doors open, he found no signs of life. "What happened?" He wailed, taking a step back to observe his decimated city.
Tall buildings were shaved down to mere rubble on the ash frosted land. Broken windows displayed mirrored images of the dark smoke rising from the remnants of burning wood and corpses. A shredded American flag swayed limply in the chilling breeze, resting its fabric against the tarnished landscape; Its stories being drowned out by the blare of silence. The sea of destruction stretched on for miles, as far as Conner's now powerless eyes could see.
The moment of hesitation upon witnessing the carnage made Conner realize something excruciatingly important. If the city looked like this then what was the fate of Mount Justice and his team?
"No…NO PLEASE!" Conner shrieked, his voice cracking in his dried throat, causing the cry to sound that much more helpless. He took off running back towards the beach, back towards home. The wreckage of the city along with its people now became a mere obstacle to the young hero as he leapt over broken beams and skirted around lifeless bodies. All that mattered was his home and his team…his family.
His thoughts slipped to the Justice league. Had they survived whatever catastrophe had crippled the world? If they had, why weren't they here? Why wasn't anybody here? Nothing was adding up. The powerless super still had too many questions galloping around his brain.
Heart aching and lungs burning, Conner finally started to cusp the hill that would reveal the beach to concerned eyes. His heavy boots slipped and stumbled in the slick ash that encased what used to be an emerald green, grassy hill but he couldn't stop now. Quickly fumbling back to his feet, he continued to climb the hill.
The little shred of hope he had left was begging that his friends were okay, and that whatever had happened, had not affected them either. He clung onto that tiny shred as much as he could until he reached the top of the slope. It was there, that the shred shattered into desperation.
His burning eyes widened as his shocked pupils narrowed in horror. Below him lay a battle field of fears. The first one his eyes landed on was Artemis. Unfortunately the only was he recognized her was her long blonde hair, the rest of her was…unidentifiable. Next was Red Arrow; it had looked like he died defending Miss Martian whom was reverted back to her Martian form. The outline of his close friend and loyal pet Wulf was laid peacefully next to a young boy with a head of black shaggy hair. Robin…His hand was still wrapped loosely around a batarang that now stuck out against the pale complexity of his skin. Kaldur and Wally lay back to back with each other, seemingly taken out at the same time, by the same mechanism of injury. Their mouths hung open in a silent scream that only God could hear now.
The devastation didn't end with his team. Continuing on was the scattered bodies that used to be the entire Justice League. All of them slain in the line of duty, dying for what they believed had been right.
A sudden weakness over took Conner's legs, causing him to collapse onto the ground in sheer disbelief. His eyes stung with an onslaught of fresh tears as his heart pounded erratically in his chest. All his friends, his family…they were all gone.
The grief and trepidation that gripped his heart caused him to crack and break down. He didn't understand what was going on, or why he was the only survivor. It wasn't fair that he had to live and grief everyone he'd ever made a connection with while they all got to move on together into the unknown.
Arm and heart aching something fierce, Conner sat back and held himself as he shook like a leaf and sucked in erratic breaths. The shock was too much for him, leading him to feel like he could not get up and go find shelter or warmth. All he wanted to do was sit there beside his friends one last time. He dropped his head into the crook of his uninjured arm and rested them against his curled in knees.
"How could this have happened," he murmured to himself, expecting the same answer as he been getting this entire time. Instead, he was met with another voice.
"Isn't it obvious?"
Head snapping up at speeds that would even put Wally to shame, Conner made shocked eye contact with a large male. The man was dressed in light blue attire with a large black belt wrapped around his waist. He was a dark blue cloak that framed his face along with matching gloves and boots. His face was a paralyzing sight in itself. It was merely a skull, stripped of the flesh and muscle, but implanted with two dark red eyes amongst the black holes that shrouded them. His teeth were jagged and bare as he sneered at the trembling boy.
Conner's eyes couldn't be wider as he stared at the mysterious man. His levels of anxiety rising as he stared in the depths of his deep red eyes. "W-Who are you?"
The skeletal man's eyes narrowed as he stared Superboy down. A large grin slowly played out onto his face as a deep laugh emanated from the blackness behind his jagged teeth, "You don't recognize me? Pity, but the fear on your face gives me all the recognition I need. You're fear may blind you now Superboy, but you will not soon forget me."
Eyes narrowing to near pinpoints, Conner's heart felt as if it burst in his chest. His jaw dropped in recognition and he choked out the man's name in shock, "Dr. Destiny."
A/N: To be continued.
I hope you liked what you've read so far! As I warned it's pretty dark, but I think it'll be a good story line.
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Updates will be Weekly or every 3 days if I'm on a role (Not Likely). Next update will be next week.
Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter!