The Scattering of Tall Trees
The building is unstable, Clark thinks.
It is an odd disturbance in Metropolis: no high-powered villains in sight, just a collapsing building with hundreds of civilians in danger of debris. He herds them carefully away. They watch in awe as he muscles concrete, darts in and out of danger, and keeps his calm. He can almost hear their thoughts: Superman will protect us, will always save us.
It is a heavy burden, sometimes. But it is what he chose.
At least there is no one in the building. He is silently grateful. If Clark is lucky, he will have them all out of harm's way before Perry or Lois notice he's in the bathroom unnaturally long. Especially Lois. She's nosy and loud and unforgiving, and she's probably closer than anyone to guessing why Clark's shirts are too thick to be one layer.
Distracted by thoughts of Lois, Clark doesn't notice until everything's happened and it's too late.
Superboy is at his feet, bleeding profusely. In his chest is a hole that glows green, and Clark feels telltale weakness coming on. He quickly moves away, looks around wildly. He is… he is… he can't place it, this… whatever it is, and he doesn't know why.
He sees Miss Martian fly to Superboy's side, her breath a sharp hiss.
"Connor!" he hears her lament.
The other members of Young Justice form a perimeter and stand alert: Aqualad's whips at the ready in his hands, Artemis' bow drawn, and Kid Flash's hands clenching and unclenching rhythmically while his eyes dart from one direction to the other.
Robin crouches over Superboy with Miss Martian, but he is far calmer than she. M'gann muffles sobs, and he can hear her ask Robin, "Why would he do that?"
"What's the verdict, Rob?" Kid Flash calls with poorly feigned nonchalance.
"Bad," Robin replies. There is none of his usual sarcasm or laughter.
"He escaped," Aqualad informs them lowly.
"Can you get it out?" Artemis asks.
Slowly, Robin shakes his head.
"It's deep, and I don't know enough about Kryptonian physiology…"
Miss Martian has gone silent. She turns towards Clark. In a rush there are images of Batman deploying the team on yet another stealth mission. There are clues pieced together and the startling realization of an assassination plot against Superman, a race against time, anxiety and anticipation running high as backup is debated and called. Then, for a moment, he can feel a heart breaking, sees himself rejecting Superboy at the destroyed Cadmus building and on the bridge, hears the roar of uncontrollable anger, senses the depth of untold loneliness. And then it is gone, sucked away suddenly. The unexpected contrast causes him to stagger. As he recovers he realizes Robin is still talking.
"… Rendezvous in two minutes."
Aqualad nods.
"M'gann," he says softly. "Can you levitate him to the ship?"
She nods sharply, her eyes dark and focused. She stands and raises her arms, Superboy's body gently following the motions. She carefully rolls him face up, and his arms droop limply at his sides. The teens make their way to the newly revealed Martian bioship, Miss Martian leading the way, Superboy floating in front of her. Robin and Aqualad flank their sides while Kid Flash and Artemis take the rear.
They fly off as soon as they're all onboard, and Clark stands and watches.
Mount Justice is preternaturally tense. The Flashes are together, and if Clark listens, he can hear them arguing loudly somewhere in the depths of the hollow mountain. The rest are gathered outside the infirmary where Batman is systematically removing the shattered Kryptonite bullet from Superboy's chest.
Aqualad and Aquaman converse quietly in Atlantean. Aquaman's posture is reassuring, and he has one hand on Aqualad's shoulder. J'onn holds M'gann close; they are both stiff, a sure sign they are talking in their minds. Artemis and Green Arrow stand off to one side, silent, but Artemis has inclined herself towards Green Arrow while he glances at her with concerned eyes. Robin waits with Black Canary and Red Tornado, watching the infirmary door intently.
Only Clark stands alone, aloof. He feels hollow, ignorant, unsure.
There is a whoosh of air as Flash and Kid Flash join the group. They are not speaking, and Barry looks winded, almost, while Wally practically vibrates with impatience.
Batman emerges suddenly, a lead box in hand. He glowers in Clark's direction before turning to the children. Robin raises his eyebrows expectantly
"Five minutes," he rumbles.
The teens crowd into the infirmary. Clark hears them slow somberly as they approach Superboy's bed.
J'onn steps to Clark's side.
"M'gann is sorry she projected," he apologizes for his niece. "She said she could not control herself."
Clark doesn't know how, or if, he should respond, so he doesn't.
"Prognosis," Black Canary demands of Batman.
Batman stands silently—not un-ordinary—but he is furious, Clark knows.
After a few minutes of pregnant silence, Black Canary chokes on air. At the sound Green Arrow moves quickly to her side and grips her shoulder.
"Is he…gonna make it, Bats?" Flash asks with uncharacteristic slowness.
"Fifty-fifty," Batman growls.
Aquaman's eyebrows shoot up at the low odds while Flash glances worriedly at the infirmary, where the kids are still crowded around a silent, prostrate Superboy. J'onn bows his head.
"Do you know why this happened?" Batman grinds out, dark and dangerous and barely controlled, openly accusing Superman.
Clark's eyes narrow at the implication he's at fault and he clings to that. It's the first indication he's had that he can still feel in a way that's familiar since he's seen Superboy bleeding at his feet.
"Zeh'dh," Batman answers his own question.
Kryptonian from the Batman's mouth startles Clark out of responding. The word, with all its implications, sinks into him as Batman stalks back to the infirmary to shoo the kids out. With them, Clark can see, he is firm but gentle, and they file out solemnly, one by one. M'gann is last, floating, hugging herself loosely with her arms.
The stars above Mount Justice burn brightly in the black sea around them, but Clark takes little notice from his perch atop the mountain. Instead, his thoughts are consumed with Batman's words, first quietly admonishing (the boy needs his father), then furious and sharp (do you know!).
He doesn't know, and that's the problem, he guesses. He's never known, from the first moment Superboy had looked at him with that childish earnestness so out of place on his teenage face in the ruins of Cadmus.
So, no. No, he doesn't know why Superboy would intentionally take a Kryptonite bullet for him. Clark has never given him a reason, and he never planned to.
Only M'gann's brief lack of control has given him insight, and now, amidst the silence of the starry sky, he feels something. Something different, new.
It's like he has a context now, a framework to place it in, that look and the subsequent clashes and Batman's insistence. It's coming together, and he can't ignore it anymore.
As the sun begins to rise, he finds himself alone in the infirmary with Superboy.
Connor, M'gann called him.
There's no beeping, no machines. Nothing on earth is equipped for Kryptonians, not even the Justice League, so there's nothing to interrupt the silence, nothing to interrupt Clark's study of his own face, albeit younger. Though it's paler than it should be, it's exactly as Clark remembers his reflection from high school. Not exactly, a small part of him argues. Clark's hair was a little longer than Superboy's is, and fifteen-year-old Clark Kent did not have such a steel-set jaw nor lines constantly worrying his brow.
Clark thinks about that, and when he's done thinking, he acts. Carefully, stiffly, he picks up Superboy from the bed and carries him from Mount Justice. When he reaches open air, he pauses in the sunlight, takes a deep breath, and then he begins to ascend. Distantly he wonders if Batman would be alarmed he's taking a still-bleeding Superboy out of the atmosphere, but he shrugs it away. No one would get away with telling Batman what to do with Robin if the situation were reversed, and Clark knows instinctually that his plan will work, so he flies higher and higher, paying attention to the intensity of the sun's radiation. It's not long before Clark begins to feel it: the burn in his bones. He's never really tried to describe it to anyone else, but it feels amazing. It's power, raw, a blessing of Krypton, to have genes like this, that live like this.
He feels a slight movement from Superboy, and Clark knows the boy feels it, too.
Superboy's eyes blink open. He looks around, sluggishly at first, but as his body continues to heal, Clark can see his gaze sharpen and focus.
On him. (How does Batman make this look so easy?)
Superboy's eyes are guarded; Clark can't blame him—suspecting they will be that way for a long time. Still, the glimmer of hope isn't entirely gone, and Clark wonders how often in the future he will be grateful for that.
"I'm… sorry," he begins.
one by one objects are defined
Translations
zeh'dh: home, family, belonging; on the Kryptonian flag, Krypton itself represents zeh'dh
Notes
Serious gratitude to the genius behind kryptonian info; he is a linguist like whoa. Any fault in the Romanization of Krypton characters is completely on me.