For the record, I'm not sure what Black Manta's real name. I think it's David. That's what Wikipedia says. This is kinda sorta a sequel to my What's in a Name. I don't own Young Justice. If I did, it nevr would have gotten canceled, Searrow would have started, & most of my ideas wouldn't be considered kid-friendly.
It is much easier to become a father than to be one. ~Kent Nerburn, Letters
to My Son: Reflections on Becoming a Man, 1994
It really was a happy accident. At least to David. You might better know him as Black Manta. All of Atlantis and much of the surface world does. Anyway, about the accident. He always had suspicions that Kaldur'ahm's death had not been real. He couldn't really say why. Maybe it was one of those father things. A nagging doubt in the back of his mind.
There had not been a body. Not for Tigeress either. That first started it. And then when he once led an assault on Poiseidonis, he could have sworn he saw Kaldur'ahm pulling people free of fallen debris. But that could have just been wishful thinking on his part. The memories of a time from long ago.
His belief had been cemented when, by sheer luck, he had gone topside and incognito to meet with Psimon. The arrogant fool felt that David owed him for what happened to him with Tigeress. They were meeting in Los Angeles, California, some place where they would not be recognized right away. And while he had been walking back to the his ship stationed at the docks, he saw it. Or rather him.
Kaldur'ahm. Sitting at a table outside of some café or resteraunt or something, honestly David couldn't really say. It is just your imagination, his mind said, projecting your sorrow and love for Kaldur'ahm onto some person who happens to bare a resemblance to him. You have done it before. And he had been inclined to believe that. But still, he thought, still it cannot hurt to sit awhile.
And so he did. And the more he did the more he suspicions seemed realized. The man held himself just as Kaldur'ahm had held himself. When he spoke to some waiter who stopped by his table, the man spoke with Kaldur'ahm's voice. David only truly believed it when the man took of the light jacket he had been wearing and David saw his tattoos. On both arms, dark eels, stopping at the backs of his hands, which were webbed.
It seemed needless to say how David had had an aneurysm where he sat. His son. Obviously alive and well. He almost didn't want it to be real.
He couldn't say how long he sat watching. Only that at some point, a young, blonde, very pregnant woman joined Kaldur'ahm. It didn't take much to figure out who she was to Kaldur'ahm because he got out of his seat to kiss her lips and hold her chair out for her to sit. And David recognized her. Artemis. Artemis Crock. Spotsmaster's younger daughter, the daughter Kaldur'ahm killed.
That really threw David for a loop. He really didn't want to believe what he was seeing then. Truthfully because it meant that his beloved son lied to him. And if he lied about killing the girl, what else could he have lied about?
He really didn't give it much thought, because he realized Kaldur'ahm and Artemis were getting up from their table and walking to a car. He didn't give much thought to throwing a tracker onto the car either.
When some hours later David was far beneath the surface in a submarine, the tracker showed an address in a small, coastal California town, he didn't give much thought to memorizing it for later. He just made sure he had a good excuse when, three days later, he told the troopers he had business on the surface and was not to be disturbed.
He considered it lucky that when he arrived at the address, a small house only a feet from the beach, it was dark and there were no cars parked in the driveway. He didn't give much thought to picking the lock on the front door and entering. He did give some thought to the pictures he saw everywhere. Some of heroes he recognized, Zatanna Zatara and the Superboy. Others of his son and the girl, Artemis. Those were clearly recent.
Your son has been alive all this time and he did not show himself to you. What does that tell you?
It told him that all of the love his son had shown him had been false.
Maybe not. Look around. He has never once been your opponent in battle as before. Kaldur'ahm clearly has a life here. Can you begrudge him that?
He walked all over the house, trying to get a sense of things. He took great pause when he discovered the small nursery. And it was only the lack of knowing when exactly Kaldur'ahm and Artemis would return that made him leave. But not before planting a listening bug in an obscure place.
He hears their return five days later. Along with the clear sounds of a newborn. A girl, Aurora, Rory they sometimes call her. His granddaughter.
It's a week before his curiosity gets the better of him. A week of hearing baby talk and Atlantean lullabies. He wants to see his granddaughter. He also knows that neither Kaldur'ahm nor Artemis would accept the idea. So it would be done in private. And it is. It's the dead of night when he jimmies open the window to his granddaughter's nursery and slips in, careful not to make any noise, also careful to close the window behind him so there is no chance of the baby catching cold.
She is beautiful. A tanned, Asian complexion, and the downy fluff that is her hair is a golden blonde. There is virtually no trace of Kaldur'ahm in her. He chuckles at thought of how much Kaldur'ahm would hate it when she started to attract the attention of boys later in life.
David can't help it when he is overwhelmed with the desire to hold Aurora. So he does. And she doesn't complain, she doesn't even wake up. He leaves when dawn starts to break.
This happens at least once a week for five weeks. David slips inside, closes the window behind him, and holds Aurora for hours at a time. Sometimes she is even awake, and welcomes him with infant gurgling and arms reaching out. He puts Aurora down and slips out back the window if he hears the approach of Artemis or Kaldur'ahm, or she fusses to be changed or fed and alerts her parents over the baby monitor. It's the sixth time he does this that Kaldur'ahm catches him.
"I can only guess by your actions that you mean us no harm." David's back was to the door, and Kaldur'ahm's approach was dead silent, so his calm voice surprised him.
He turns to look at him. Kaldur'ahm is leaning against the door frame, trying to keep up an air of calm, but keeping his eyes on his daughter.
David says "I do not. I merely wished to see her."
Kaldur walks slowly into the room, standing beside his father and daughter. "We found your listening device. Rather, a listening device. So, we had a friend install a hidden camera in Aurora's room."
David just lets this sink in. For awhile neither say anything. Simply look at the baby asleep in her grandfather's arms.
"When did you discover us? How did you discover us?"
"Luck. I saw the two of you in Los Angeles. I tried to tell myself it was not true, merely my mind playing a cruel game with me. But, still, I had to know. I planted a tracer on your car. It gave me this location."
Kaldur is torn between ripping Aurora out of his father's arms and taking a picture of the pair. Again, both just stand saying nothing. Finally, David sets Aurora back down into her bassinet and says "I do not begrudge you this, Kaldur'ahm. A life free of conflict, with a loving, beautiful wife and child. I have no intention of ending this for you. And... I wish you luck." He puts his hand on Kaldur's shoulder, just for a moment, before exiting out the window.
Kaldur stands beside his daughter, unable to speak, kind of overwhelmed with emotion. Artemis, having been waiting in the hall outside, comes in and stands beside him. She doesn't say anything either. She can tell that talking isn't what he needs. Not right now. She just wraps her arms around him and tucks herself into his side. They stay like that until Aurora wakes up and cries for food.