The World Is Still Beautiful

Chapter One: A Father's Worry

Clark was concerned about Conner.

When it came to Superboy, Clark was aware he didn't have the best track record. For the first few months of his life, the man of steel had done his best to not acknowledge his existence. The feeling of violation and disgust that came up whenever he remembered that someone had taken his DNA without his knowledge to make a child in his image had made it impossible for Clark to look the boy in the eye. Back then he would take any excuse under the sun to stay away until he could come to terms of it to the reality he was now living in. He knew it was cruel to the boy, the most innocent in this situation. He saw how much it hurt every time he brushed off his attempts to approach him, a little less eager with every attempt.

But then again everything about the situation had been cruel.

He had known long before the prodding of Bruce who would update him daily about everything related to Superboy, that there was not a rotten bone in his body. "He's a good kid," Bruce had said in many of their conversations. It was an underestimate, Clark had always thought, and that the boy wasn't just a good kid. That he was perfect. But that the most unfair thing he could do to the clone is be around him and let him know just how much he couldn't be near him. Neglect would be better than being around the still healing Kryptonian. He knew neglect would hurt him, but it wouldn't break him like being around a man who couldn't meet his eyes.

It was why originally didn't tell his new wife about his existence. The duo had long been pained about the fact that they were unable to have a child of their own. Kryptonian and human DNA was too incompatible. He knew with the news she would she would have dragged the boy into their apartment the very second she learned about his existence in spite of any protest that Clark would make. And that she wouldn't understand what he was going through at that moment. She would just see a child that was him.

Dinah had been livid about his plan. She had not seen the pain of his violation, or the fact that he had been essentially raped. She had only seen a hurt child who needed his parent. Not the adult who couldn't be a parent yet. The Black Canary had taken it upon herself, to be Superboy's de facto mentor in his absence, teaching him the importance of skill along with his strength, to hear his fears and worries. To be the rock that he wasn't able to.

Even through her glares and snide comments during those days, Clark was never happier that Superboy had her in his corner.

"His name is Conner," she said to him coldly at the end of a mission. It was a perfect name, he had thought, much like everything about that boy.

Before he knew it, new years had fallen. And once again he had been violated by the mysterious Light organization that had made Superboy. His free will stolen by Luthor of all people and rescued by the children.

Rescued by Superboy

The perfect boy who he couldn't see.

Until right that moment.

When all the insanity had died down, he knew what he had to do. The boy had been fidgety and nervous when he had approached and unused to hearing words of praise from him. Clark couldn't blame him for having any other reaction. After revealing his name, the child apologized for having his name. Worried that Clark would think he had stolen it.

"No, It was nice," he had said.

It was perfect.

Lois reacted just as he thought she would. She accepted Conner into their lives without a second thought. Only angry at Clark for keeping her away from him. "You bring him to me," she had demanded when he revealed his deception, her violet eyes blazing with anger. He wisely did not tell her he already invited Conner to live with them. She dropped his pillows on the couch, where they remained for a month, long after Conner moved into their apartment. When he had asked about the living arrangement, Clark had simply told him, "It's a punishment for being an idiot." His ma had called and said he deserved twice whatever Lois gave him.

Clark couldn't agree more.

Over the following months that had followed, he got to know his son. Something he thought he would never have, thanking Rao every day that he had forgiven him for the time he needed to adjust. His son had gotten to know his grandparents who loved him as his own. He had gotten to know his hobbies, his likes, and dislikes—he really hated monkeys—amongst other minor things. That he had a girlfriend in J'onn's niece who would glare at Superman every time she saw him. A silent threat of, if you hurt him, hung unspoken in the air between them.

It was one of the reasons Clark had liked M'gann. She hadn't hurt Conner, not like he did. She had loved him unconditionally. The very first person who told him, they loved them he would later learn. And he had done the same, even if his attempts were clumsy and brimming with inexperience. It was clear to Clark, that Conner would have moved heaven and earth to make her smile and stop her tears.

Nearly six months into their new living arrangement, Clark had taken Conner on their first mission together. The teenager up until this point had been busy with missions for the team so they hadn't had a chance to fight together. The encounter with Metallo had left him nearly half dead and Clark terrified. He had made the decision that Conner wouldn't fight until he had all his powers at his disposal, he would have been fine if he had flight or heat vision in his pocket.

"That's not going to happen," Conner said over breakfast when he approached him on the subject. "I'm not going to fly."

"Of course you are," Clark had pressed as the boy continued to shake his head.

"I'm not fully Kryptonian. Half of my DNA…." Conner looked away from him and bit his lip, focusing particularly on a knife on the table."It's Luthor's."

Clark liked to think one of his greatest achievements in life was not super speeding away and ripping the bald billionaire out of his tower that night. Conner confessed about Match—his damaged predecessor who was buried in Cadmus, a irrational beast who attacked anything that carried the symbol of El. A being that by the time they searched Cadmus was long gone. Conner admitted to using the shields—the drugs that Lex had hooked him on. Clark had thought he had seen the depths of Luthor's depravity.

But the fact he could do this to his own son without blinking was truly another level of atrocious.

After assuring the boy he was proud of him. That his blood meant nothing, he could be part devil for all that Clark cared at this point. He was someone worthy to be proud of a million times over. He had decided to take him to the fortress to see if hopefully Luthor was wrong.

Unfortunately, Luthor wasn't.

He had in fact omitted a secondary effect of his manipulations. Conner couldn't grow—not externally, due to the forced growth that made him sixteen in a few months. Without informing him, Clark had spent the next few weeks running from Themyscira to Oa in the name of finding a cure all in vain. Kryptonian DNA was too complex, too strange to tamper with. In his darkest thoughts he thought of even asking a certain fifth dimensional imp to correct the issue. He would have gone through with it if he wasn't terrified of the catch he would slip in, something that wouldn't go away with just getting him to say his name backwards.

"It's okay," Conner had said with a fake smile when he had given him the news. "I'm okay. All this means is I'm going to look good forever."

In what seemed like an instant, three years passed him by since Conner entered his life. Conner out of convenience had decided after his first year in University to move back to his first home to live with M'gann and her younger brother Garfield to make his commutes to Ivytown easier and to have more private time with his girlfriend in between missions.

"You visit me every weekend," Lois had ordered her step son as they prepared to say goodbye. "If you don't, I'm coming for you. I'll be very embarrassing. No one will want you."

"I will," Conner said, pecking her on the cheek.

In the following weeks, Clark made sure to check up on him. Conner had omitted that he had moved into M'gann's room and they can't keep their hands of each other to the disgust of Garfield and whoever was at the mountain at the time. But they were happy and that made the kryptonian happy for them. Lois hadn't been quite as content when she had found out. But she had adjusted. Even if he missed his son's presence back home.

Their pseudo-honeymoon phase had ended with a trinity of tragedies that occurred over the next two years.

First Tula died. The brave Aquagirl had sacrificed herself for the entire world and ended crushed to death along with the demon she had singlehandedly stopped. Aquaman had declared a holiday in her honor, made sure none of her family would have to worry about their finances and had let Tempest leave the team in peace. The team had taken the hit hard, unlike the senseless death of Jason Todd at the hands of a mad man. Her death had been a grim reminder that they all could possibly be forced to make the same sacrifice that day.

In the shadow of her death, Aqualad had abandoned the team. He had left in the middle of the night without a hint off where he was going, shortly after learning of the identity of his true father, Black Manta. Despite months of desperate searching from his teammates, there was neither hide nor hair of him until Atlanteans had reported that he had resurfaced in his father's camp. As Conner's closest friend on the team had taken his betrayal especially hard. The Atlantean had always been a source of untouchable serenity to the clone who had struggled to overcome the rage that came so easily to him. He confessed to Clark he had spent many nights wondering if there could have been anything in the world he could have done to stop the betrayal, to keep his friend at his side.

Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle, had died next. While he was nowhere near as close to the two as Tula and Kaldur'ahm were, his death had been a huge hit to morale of the League and Team alike against their war against The Light. Unlike Jason or Tula, he was the first official member of the League who had truly passed away, killed by Deathstroke and Sportsmaster in the name of protecting a strange scarab that had vanished in the chaos. It had been the last straw for Artemis and Kid Flash, and they had gone into retirement to live as normal kids.

It was his eyes as a reporter that noticed a strain between them early on. He had originally assumed it was because of the increase of responsibilities they had taken in the name of easing Nightwing into his new leadership role and losing three of their original members. Conner had taken over Black Canary's position of training the younger members of the team, memorizing old case files of the league and team. M'gann on the other hand had taken a noticeably more aggressive approach towards her opponents, which particularly troubled not only him but even her own uncle. But even when they had gotten adjusted to their new roles, their affection hadn't returned and the duo became more distant with each passing one. Many had ended with Superman noticing Superboy couldn't meet Miss Martian's gaze. Mal Duncan, another inhabitant of the mountain had admitted to him in secret that he had heard the duo yelling at each other when they thought no one was around and had been doing his best to keep Garfield out of the loop.

Clark had hoped that his instincts were wrong and that they would get over whatever issue they were having. So he had kept his opinions to himself.

So when he returned home from Markovia and Lois said Conner was staying with them for the next few days over Sunday dinner with signs of ripped chocolate bars and cheesy b-movies playing in the living room, Clark for Conner's sake feigned surprise. Even though he knew this was an inevitability.

Clark didn't have the best track record when it came to Conner. He wasn't there for him when he was born and adjusting to the world. He wasn't there when Luthor had approached him when he was weak and vulnerable. Even with all his abilities and resources at his disposal he couldn't help him fly, and he couldn't help him age.

But he could be here for him now.

Clark waited until Lois had fallen asleep before he approached his son. Conner was lying on his bed, staring blankly at the wall when Clark entered his room. Sphere's lights had dimmed signaling it had shut down for the night and Wolf was asleep in Krypto's far too small dog bed. The older man handed the eternal teenager, a glass of milk, just as his mother always offered him every time he had a problem, before he took a seat at the foot of his bed. "What happened?"

Sitting up, Conner took the cup but didn't take a sip; instead he placed it on his nightstand. Conner looked down, opening and closing his mouth several times in search for the right words before he settled on, "She changed."

"Everyone changes," he pressed. Even though Conner's issues with rage had lessened over the years, Conner remained an introverted person and never one to open up about his problems if he could help it, which always made getting information from him a trial.

"I don't," he said in a resigned tone that Clark had gotten far too used to hearing lately.

Clark flinched at that but kept his face impassive. Regardless of the five years of research under Conner's nose, he still wasn't even a bit closer in curing his aging problem. Instead he pushed on. "You and M'gann have been together forever. Whatever she did, it can't be that bad. You can get over it."

Conner kept shaking his head with every word Clark said. "I-It's not that simple, Dad. Not after what she did…I can't forgive this."

"Did she cheat on you?" Clark guessed. Conner would move heaven and earth for M'gann. Whatever she had done must have been a earth shattering betrayal.

"No," Conner said shaking his head once more. "Much worse than that."

"Did she-"

"Stop fishing!" Conner snapped, cutting him off. "I didn't tell Mom what she did. I'm not going to tell you."

"Alright, alright." Clark put his hands up in the air in surrender wisely dropping the subject. Now wasn't the time to ask. "Then let's move to a less emotional subject. So what do you plan to do now? You plan on rejoining the team after you cool down?"

"Of course," Conner said. He stared at him as though he had grown another head. "Where else would I go? It's my team."

"That M'gann will also be on," Clark said gently. He placed his hand on Conner's knee and squeezed lightly in support. Clark was certain there was a lot that he wasn't getting about what had transpired the other day and he was certain Conner wasn't willing to offer more information at this point. But the duo being near each other wouldn't do either of them favors. "I'm not sure what's happened between you two but it doesn't sound good. And let me tell you as someone who had dealt with a bad break up before. Space is probably the best thing for both of you. You'll only hurt each more otherwise. I don't think you should go back."

"I can't abandon the team like that, just because I have a problem with M'gann. They need me. " Conner said looking firmly up at the ceiling once more. "Freddy, Garth, Mary, Donna, even Wally and Artemis are gone. It's just us."

"And that's not your problem, Conner," Clark said frowning. "They all made their own choice to leave the team on their own. Because that was what was best for them. Did you begrudge any of them for leaving?"

"No," Conner murmured.

"Of course you didn't, because you're their friend and you wanted the best for them. And that's what everyone else on The Team will want for you, because you're their friend. If a crisis occurs and you had a mission with M'gann tomorrow do you think you can work with her without a problem? Be honest with yourself, here."

"I..." Conner paused thoughtfully, "I… don't know."

"And who said you have to abandon them?" Clark asked, pushing on. "You do remember the team was designed to be training until you guys were ready to stand with us. It was always meant to be temporary. Why not make today the day you take the next step?"

Clark cleared his throat.

"Why not join the Justice League?"

Notes:

Freddy, Mary and Donna were the missing three members of Young Justice who left the team before season two started.