dare not meet in dreams
All recognizable characters and concepts belong to their respective owners (Cartoon Network, DC Comics, Frank Miller, T. S. Eliot).
This story is set mid-season one.
WARNING: This story contains non-graphic death of minor characters, references to drug use, sketchy science and unabashed continuity porn
...
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
...
Part 1: shape without form
Sometimes, when it's dark and still, the voices come out to play.
On those nights when he can't sleep, when he tosses and turns, he can hear them just on the edge of his consciousness, knowing they're talking but unable to hear what they're talking about.
It's a familiar sensation.
When Project Kr first gained consciousness, they sedated him. He was awake, but unable to control his body. He could hear the movement and the clickings of the lab, and he could just make out the voices, if he tried. That's how it is now; he knows there's someone there, but it's like they're through the thick, nourishing fluid and behind a wall of soundproof glass.
He never thinks to mention it, because he's Superboy now, not Project Kr. He's a him now, not an it.
Besides, it's not like it's important, anyway.
"There!" M'gann says, pointing to an empty stretch of corridor. "Did you see that?"
"See what?" Wally wants to know, zooming over to join her. He scans the corridor, and then runs it up and down quickly, just to make sure nothing's there.
M'gann falters. "I saw...I thought I saw..." she trails off
"Ooh, do we have ghosts?" Artemis asks. "I've always wanted to meet a ghost."
"Don't be silly," Wally says. "There's no such thing as ghosts."
"Oy," Robin says quietly. "Here we go again..."
M'gann is inclined to agree, but she still glances over her shoulder more than once as they head towards the den.
She doesn't ask them straight-out again. What she does do is up behind one, and say, "Hey."
Artemis looks up, directly at her, not seeming to notice the misty form in between them. "Yeah?"
"Oh, um. I was thinking, maybe it's time to try a different food. How do you feel about brownies?"
Kaldur walks right through one. She opens her mouth to warn him, but he's already passed through the image, the slight outline that's almost human. It breaks and fades, and she shivers.
Once, she tries talking to one. "Hello," she says, with her voice and her mind. "Is there something I can help you with?"
Although there hadn't been anyone in the room when she'd started talking, Wally was there by the time she'd stopped.
"Great reflexes," he grins. "And, if you insist, I'd love to take you out. Around the town, I mean."
She shivers and looks away. There are more of them outside. "Not today," she says, trying a small smile. "Thanks."
"Hey," Robin asks from the table. "You're not part cat, are you?"
"What?" she asks, startled. "No, I'm not."
Robin seems unconcerned, balancing a textbook on one knee. He's poking it with the pencil eraser to make it spin, which is apparently far more amusing than actually reading the book. "You keep staring at nothing," he says. "Cats do it too. Following the empty with their eyes. It's kind of unnerving. Hey, so would something that felt normal be 'nerving'?"
"Cats?" M'gann asks, ignoring the question. Robin's just thrown her a lifeline, and she's grabbing on with both hands. "Why do they do it? What do they see?"
He shrugs. "No one knows. The stories go that cats can see a level beyond our reality, like they can see spirits and ghosts and stuff." He starts the textbook rotating in the other direction.
She's turning the information over in her head before she realizes that he's probably waiting for a response. He isn't, though; he's finally opened the book, and is trying to balance the spine on a finger.
"Will you take the cake out when the timer goes off?" she asks, already heading towards the library room.
"Sure." He watches her go, and makes a mental note to talk to Batman.
He sets the textbook down, frowning at it. He didn't notice it was last year's. He flips through it mindlessly, and when the cake comes out, he idly applies the chocolate icing, doodling little bat symbols into the frosting.
M'gann is a little late to the meeting, but she arrives carrying a tray of cupcakes. She moves around the table, handing them out. Kaldur's is chocolate brown with little black swirls, probably meant to be his Waterbearers, and he thanks her quietly. Superboy's is black with the red S, even if the letter's a little crooked. He stares at it for a while, and then pokes it. Frosting sticks to his finger, and he looks at it, bewildered.
Robin accepts the red one with the yellow R symbol, and M'gann moves to give Wally the yellow one with the red zigzags. He blinds her with a smile, and Robin deftly trades his cupcake for the black one with the yellow bat. Artemis' is green, of course, with a large white arrow. She ducks her head and gives Megan a shy smile.
M'gann's own is the same green with star-shaped sprinkles, as is her uncle's, who thanks her solemnly. Canary's is yellow with a cherry on top. M'gann grabs the last cupcake, does a double-take, and glances at the Boy Wonder. He twiddles his fingers at her, and she has to grin.
She sets Batman's cupcake in front of him, and he stares at the little yellow R for a minute before deciding to ignore the treat altogether.
He waits the minute it takes the others to unwrap theirs, and then says, "The world is ending."
People choke on their cupcakes. Batman pointedly does not smile.
"There's something happening. We think dimensions are crossing," he explains. "Reality is...bleeding. We have reports of 'ghost' sightings from psychics and magicians all over the world. M'gann, have you noticed anything?"
The girl swallows heavily, but she keeps her head up and her back straight. "Yes. I've been seeing them for a while, now. There aren't many in here, but. But I don't like going outside."
"I hear them," Superboy says unexpectedly. "Their voices, I mean. Right on the edge of my hearing, and I can't make out what they say."
"Makes sense," Wally says, trying to lick a dab of yellow off his nose. "You spent your life hearing voices in your head. You're probably borderline psychic yourself. Able to receive, but not send."
"It's a warning," Batman states. "Something big is going to happen, and this is the spillover."
"But if it hasn't happened yet, then how is there spillover?" Superboy wants to know.
"Because time travel," Robin says, and leaves it at that.
"We're trying to determine the cause, or find the incident that is causing this. If we can isolate the event before it occurs, then maybe we can mitigate the fallout. J'onn and I are trying to trace the psychic feedback. If we can find the weak spot, we'll be sending you in to secure the area."
"Why us?" Artemis asks.
Batman appears to be choosing his words. "Because your impact on the timestream isn't as strong."
It's Kaldur who translates. "We're not as important as the League. We are not as...established, and we are the covert team, and so not well known. Our time imprint and history are still malleable, and thus less likely to cause more damage," he guesses.
"Very good," Batman nods, and Kaldur beams and finishes his cupcake. "When you arrive at the event, you're going to have to improvise. Stay hidden and analyze, if you can, lend a hand if you think it's needed. Since this whole has something to do with time, be very wary of interfering directly or causing paradoxes."
They all nod. "Very well. Be prepared to leave at a moment's notice; we're running out of time."
Batman sweeps out of the room, pausing at the door to add, "Your baking skills have improved greatly, M'gann."
She glances at the table, and sees the paper wrapper of the cupcake. The empty wrapper. "Thank you," she says, blushing, but by the time she looks back at the door, he's gone.
It takes about a week before Batman has a location, and by the end of that time, the rest of the team can see the ghosts, too.
Well, kind of.
Artemis is jumping at shadows, Robin stays well above ground level, and Wally speeds everywhere. Kaldur doesn't move if he can help it, and they all learn to look from the corners of their eyes instead of straight-on.
Superboy's got a constant headache that not even the static on the television can drown out. The voices are getting closer, pushing up against the edges of his mind, twisting and twining and still unintelligible. It makes him feel sick.
M'gann's talking to the figures, though none have ever answered her back. She chatters at them, and it helps her cope. If she thinks of them as people instead of, of ghosts or spectres or anything, then she doesn't have to face her world collapsing. Not quite yet, anyway.
Finally, finally, they're called to their briefing. They pile around the table, no cupcakes this time, just twitching and sidelong glances and frowns.
"We found the center of the anomaly," Batman says, and shifts his weight from foot to foot. This causes Robin to sit up straight, which has the chain effect of everyone paying closer attention.
"We're calling it a shatterpoint. It's one moment, one event, one something, that, if changed, can shatter our universe. And maybe the multiverse, too."
Kaldur raises his hand, and Batman waves a glove at him. "I'll give you all a crash course in theoretical dimensional physics later. Fascinating, though not widely applicable. But this event, this shatterpoint, we can't pinpoint it ourselves. But we have something that can."
He produces a bulky square of tech that has about three angles too many. It almost hurts to look at.
"This," he says with distaste, "will synch with Robin's wrist-computer and use M'gann's psychic powers to center on the point. I cannibalized an alien vehicle we found, and shoved in a boom-tube. This entire device is highly theoretical and unstable. Do not jar it. Do not break it. Do not punch anyone with it. Use it as little as possible."
He passes it to Robin, who takes it carefully, and straps it over his wrist computer. Wally zips over to look over his shoulder, and they discuss it quietly and quickly.
Batman ignores them as says, "M'gann."
She stands, and J'onn glides towards her. "I will show you how to find and focus on this point while shielding you mind from some of its more...troubling effects."
She nods, and the two take up residence in a corner, floating crosslegged a few feet off the ground.
Batman gathers the other three with his eyes. "This is of the utmost importance; do not change anything. Whether you end up in the future or the past, lay low. Mingle if you must, observe and record. Try not to interfere. Try not to touch anything or anyone." He looks directly at Kaldur and says, "Keep an eye on everyone."
"Yessir," Artemis and Kaldur and Superboy chorus, though Conner's eyes are unfocused and he's frowning slightly.
There is quiet, for a moment, and then Superboy says, "It's getting worse."
"I know," Batman says. "You'd best leave soon."
Artemis shivers, though she doesn't know why, and Kaldur goes to get water, some to top off his tattoos and some for the others to drink, too.
Robin and Wally rejoin the group, both unusually quiet. "We're ready," Wally says.
They spend another few minutes, sipping water and sitting in silence, before M'gann's feet touch the floor again.
She looks at them, and everyone looks back. She swallows once, lifts her chin, and says, "I'm ready."
Robin holds out his glove, and she flutters her hands near it, but not quite touching. A steady whine builds in pitch, growing and growing, and a red light blinks on, though there wasn't one there before. A button pops up.
"Good luck," J'onn says, and Robin hits the button.
Wally maintains that this entire thing was caused by a decimal point.
He wasn't a part of the calculations, but somehow, somewhere, a decimal point must have been misplaced or something, because they fall into reality about six feet above the ground.
Robin has the training to turn it into a tumble, M'gann floats her way down, Kaldur lands on his feet, Kid Flash is up again in seconds, and poor Superboy's fall breaks the ground instead of the other way around.
But Artemis lands on a person.
She slams into him from above and behind, riding him down to the ground. There's a quiet gasp from a few feet in front of them, and they instinctively look up, taking on battle formation.
But it's just a couple with a kid, him standing protectively in front of her and the boy. M'gann floats forward, since she's the closest, and she holds out a hand and says, "We mean no harm."
But the lady shrieks anyway, and turns to run, clutching her son's hand and escorted along by the man, and they sprint away.
M'gann blinks. "That wasn't very polite," she says, floating delicately over a puddle and rejoining them.
"You are green and floating," Artemis points out. "That's not exactly normal." She's intent on the guy she knocked out, and the gun he dropped. "Low-class hood," she spits out.
"Right," Kaldur says, taking charge. "First priority, find out where we are, or when. Superboy, guard that end, Artemis, get high, and I'll—"
The shriek of breaks and tires cracks through the air, followed by, "Mommy! No!" at an impossible pitch and decibel.
"On me," Kaldur snaps instead, leading the charge down the alley.
They stop just short of the end of the alley, cloaking themselves in its shadows. The woman and man are laying at odd angles on the road, their boy on his knees beside them.
"He couldn't keep up," Robin analyses, even though no one wants to hear it. "She stopped to let him catch up, and the man tried to protect her from the car..." and he trails off, because the result is laying bloody and dead in front of them.
The scene slowly becomes chaos, as people stop to look and traffic comes to a standstill. They observe until they hear sirens; and then Kaldur says, "Fall back into the alley; M'gann and Superboy, mingle with the crowd and keep us updated."
Superboy scowls, but Megan immediately changes clothes, dyes herself pink and clings onto his arm, looking for all the world like the other young couples out on dates that night.
She links them up, and they see through her eyes as the police arrive, dragging the little boy away from the bodies. Their first priority is damage control, though, and the bodies are unceremoniously dumped on stretchers and carted out of the street.
The boy is wrapped in a blanket that's ratty and faded from use, staring blankly forward. The team feels as M'gann reaches out tentatively, a small tendril of reassurance-coping-hope. They watch through her eyes as the boy raises his gaze, combing the crowd. Then his eyes meet hers, and all of theirs, and the sheer, stubborn, venomous hate in his eyes sends M'gann back a step.
"This kid isn't normal," Artemis says, but Robin knows those eyes, knows that stare and that anger, and he also takes a step back, thinking no no no.
He rushes back down the alleyway towards the thug. He has some trouble shifting that much dead weight at that angle by himself, but he manages, and he pulls up his wrist-comp. He hasn't realized his mantra of "no no no no no..." has gone from his head to breathy exhalations, but the rest of the team is by his side now, watching him do whatever it is he's doing.
His glove dings, and Robin drags a hand down his face, which is pale and sweating. "We messed up," he says, staring into the middle distance. "He was supposed to..."
Kaldur recalls Megan and Superboy through the mental link, and they all gather around Robin and the unconscious thug. Robin's tapping furiously, murmuring numbers and figures under his breath.
Finally, Robin looks up. "This was the event," he says a little bit bleakly. "We were the event."
"How do you mean?" Wally asks, zipping beside him to let his friend use him as support.
"This guy was supposed to shoot them," he explains, choosing his way through the words slowly. "But they died anyway, so. So maybe we haven't messed everything up, but we should get back. Now."
"You're sure?" Kaldur asks. "This was the shatterpoint? Our mission is complete?"
"Yes," Robin says. "They didn't die the right way, but at least they died." He winces as how cold that sounds.
The others do, too. "That's..." Artemis starts, but Robin cuts her off.
"You don't understand, and I can't explain it, not here, not now. But if those two people had not died, or if the wrong ones had died, our entire universe would be radically different. We might not exist. This was a shatterpoint of the highest order. Trust me, we're done here."
Because if Martha and Thomas Wayne had not died tonight, then Bruce would not swear vengeance. If only one parent died tonight, Bruce might grieve properly, and not swear vengeance. Or if, god forbid, Bruce had died, well.
Because if Bruce never became Batman, then the world would change. One little boy in Kansas might not be inspired to don tights and a red cape. And so there would be no Justice League, and no heroes, and the world would be a sad, dangerous place. Well. A more sad and more dangerous place.
Robin swallows as he activates the boomtube, hoping it'll be enough.
It has to be.
And at first, it almost is.
They debrief, and it is not pleasant.
No one volunteers anything, and they sit in awkward silence for a while. "What happened?" Batman finally asks, tapping his fingers impatiently.
Robin's staring fixedly at the table, but the others throw looks at each other. "I'm not actually sure," Kaldur finally admits.
"Break it down," Batman orders.
"We came through the boomtube too high," Artemis says. "And I landed on somebody. It was an alley, in some city, I think maybe—"
"We landed in Crime Alley," Robin says, quiet, but his voice cuts across the room. "About twenty-six years ago. And Artemis landed on a petty criminal, preventing him from mugging a couple with a young boy." He looks up, catching and holding Batman's gaze. "Megan made peaceful overtures, but she was still green and floating, so they freaked. They ran, and the adults got hit by a car. Both dead on impact, survived by their child."
Batman is utterly, unnaturally still, and no one dares to even breathe too loudly.
"But they died," Robin says, and his voice doesn't break, though it wants to.
"Right, well, let's hope this doesn't change things," Batman finally says, and, "Dismissed."
But he doesn't move, and neither does Robin.
"Right," Kaldur says, and gets up. M'gann follows, and Conner, but Artemis and Wally hesitate.
"Dismissed," Batman repeats, and everyone exits the room at speed.
And somewhere that doesn't exist, in somewhen that shouldn't be, there's a little boy lost, curled up in a ratty blanket that could not be pried from his hands. He doesn't cry, but his little hands shake, just a bit.
Green, he thinks, and he clings to that thought: green, green, green, green...
"Master Bruce?" an older man asks, holding the car door open. "We've arrived."
Revenge, the boy thinks. Clean up the streets. Clean up the city. Kill them all.
Revenge, he thinks. And, she was green.