Standard disclaimers

Requiem

Part 2

Liber scriptus proferetur
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus iudicetur.

A written book will be brought forth
in which everything is contained
from which the world shall be judged.

Before he even got back to the hospital room, Nightwing could hear Jimmy raving. "Let me spell it out for the SLOW people... JORDY is still ALIVE. Granny Goodness used the nanos as a cover, so we wouldn't come looking for him. She's using HIM to power that thing! You need a limitless Green Lantern-only-inhibited by-will-sort of power source to get that thing running."

Nightwing decided to hang just outside the door. One tended to learn interesting things that way.

"Then tell me why we found his RING in what was left of the Tower?" Roy was going to belt him upside the head again, probably. He'd step in before it came to that.

"Sometimes it hurts being the only one with a fucking clue." Yeah. Jimmy was about to be unconscious again. Dick had been talking with Oracle, trying to coordinate with the Justice League some sort of plan of attack. No one could find the device, and no one could figure out how to disable it once they had it. "Superman told me this one time, that when Jordy was born, he had his mom's powers. And he got abducted when he was like three, and ALL of you guys had to get him back. And you never knew who REALLY took him, or why, and when you got him back, he didn't have his powers. HELLO? She's tapped into them—turned him ON again."

Nightwing stepped into the room and grabbed Roy's shoulder, instinctively knowing the boy was in real danger of taking another nap, courtesy of the archer. Wally was staring out the window; it was probably the only way he could keep himself in check. "HOW did she turn him on again?" He had a good feeling that Jimmy knew.

Jimmy blushed.

Folding arms over his chest, Nightwing glared down at his son lying flat on the bed. He wasn't letting Jimmy out of this. If he had to treat him like the criminals he usually dealt with, he would.

"I... It was another project I was working on. Like a birthday gift. They were just designs. Scribbles on paper, really." Jimmy struggled like a beached whale to roll onto his side and sit up. The sides of his head were bruised black and his eyes were glazed over and watery, pupils dilated, gaze wandering past Nightwing nervously. "I didn't freaking mean it, dad. I didn't mean any of it. But let me help."

Nightwing looked to both Roy and Wally.

Roy didn't move. "Are you sure, man?"

"Yeah. Check in with Oracle, she can catch you up on the game plan. I got it." Nightwing opened the door for them. "Thanks, guys. For real."

Wally grabbed his best friend's shoulder and squeezed, then walked out.

"Let's see," Nightwing started. "You've pissed Wally off into silence, you're getting the crap slapped out of you by your God-dad, and you're responsible for the current state of the world. Have I left anything out?"

Jimmy set up and dumped his head into his hands. "My wife wants a divorce, and my sister wishes I was dead. I think that's everything." He rubbed his eyes and yawned, trying to suck in as much air as possible. "Dad, I want to help. I didn't mean for it go this far. But we gotta get out of here and get to work."

"I told you. BRUCE told you. Goddamnit." This wasn't starting out well. He'd fully intended to "interrogate the prisoner," but he was frustrated. This was HIS partner, HIS sidekick. HE had formed the boy from the ground up.

Nightwing felt betrayed. "Did you think we were telling you that for our HEALTH?"

"I just thought you guys were spastic over nothing." Jimmy said it so simply, like he couldn't fathom why putting such things to paper could possibly be a BAD idea.

That pissed Dick off. "Are you an idiot?"

"Dad--"

"Answer the question, Jomider. Are you a fucking idiot?" Nightwing stripped off his glove and wiped a hand over his face. "Did it ever fucking occur to you that maybe... JUST MAYBE we had a reason we did not want you to commit those things to paper?"

"Because the Old Man was a kill joy, and because he said jump, and you always asked How High?" Jimmy had the nerve to actually look him in the eye when he said that. "Dad, you're wasting time. You have to let me out of here, or Jordy's going to die. That machine can't handle more than one use. AFTER it takes out half the planet, disrupts electronics on the other half and destroys weather patterns, it's going to explode. Even Nth metal has its limits."

Jimmy started to get up, but Nightwing slammed him back in the bed. "It's because if that stuff is on paper, it exists in a form that the wrong people can get their hands on. It even being in your BRAIN was bad enough. Holy crap! I can't believe you were my SIDEKICK. I can't believe we used to WORK together. On the RIGHT side. And all the time you were planning on ways to destroy the world. EXPLAIN that to me!"

The young man grabbed his father's hand and thrust it away. "I'm not some fucking super villain." He tried to stand up, but Nightwing didn't move from the side of the bed, and he didn't have any room to maneuver. "I meant it when I was out there. I gave you one hundred percent, even when I had no business being out there. I meant it when I was helping people. This was... this was kid stuff. It was a game. I didn't take it seriously, and I never understood why you guys did either. I always thought you should have KNOWN I wouldn't actually build any of that stuff."

Nightwing didn't understand where the communication break down was. Didn't his son know how wrong it was, and on how many LEVELS it was wrong? "Jimmy, all that stuff WORKED. That's why we didn't want you to write any of it down. Not even the stuff that technology hadn't caught up to yet, because it WOULD. It wasn't a game, it wasn't kid stuff, it wasn't—we took it seriously. We took YOU seriously."

The young man's eyes lost their glazed over look for the first time since the conversation had begun. "I—." He had to stop. He wasn't sure there were words for that. "Thanks."

Thanks?

Dick had a very bad feeling that he'd misjudged his son for too many years. "You weren't some stupid average kid with the regular destructive tendencies. Spray painting a bridge I could deal with. But Jimmy... this stuff was WAY more serious than you realized." Nightwing peeled off a glove then his mask a moment later. All that so he could rub his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose, as if that would stave off the headache that was threatening to break his brain in two. "Dammit, Jimmy. Why did you think you were average? We knew you weren't. We knew your sister wasn't. We tried to treat you like you were. We made you do chores, we gave you curfews. We tried to make sure you had social lives. But Goddamit. You were in the suit two weeks and you zapped your sister into the Phantom Zone. That's not NORMAL."

Jimmy's gaze was firmly planted on the floor. It was a hell of a time for another confession, but since dad had brought it up... "It... wasn't the Phantom Zone."

"What? No. I don't want to know." It was the story they both had given, and that was what Dick decided to continue to believe until this was all over with.

"The day after you did that, Bruce and I went through ALL of your stuff. Your room, your locker at school—everything. HE found the binder. I told you to destroy it because I knew there was no way in hell you'd listen to him, but I hoped to God that I had enough influence that I could make you see how DANGEROUS it was." Maybe his brain would rupture and get it over with. This was a headache on par with when he tried to talk sense into Mara. Wally and Roy were right—kids just sucked. They sucked the life right out of you and then blamed YOU for trying to turn them into responsible members of society NOT bent on destroying civilization as it was known.

Unconsciously chewing on his lower lip, Jimmy examined his hands. "He... sort of talked to me about the binder. I was gunna let you burn it, but then he said he knew about the binder and he didn't approve... and I rescued it before it hit the incinerator." His eyes clenched shut as he anticipated another whack to the head.

"Why couldn't you just listen to him? HE said it, therefore you had to disobey?" Was it some kind of holy quest to his son? To go against Batman with every fiber of his being?

"I—I don't know. I just... couldn't. I couldn't listen to him. I still can't listen to him. He said I'm going to do something awful before this is all over and you won't forgive me unless I talk to you now."

"Oh great," Dick sniped. "You're going to do something even MORE horrible? And I'm supposed to believe the coma dream of a sociopath with grief issues." As soon as it came out, he regretted it. He was supposed to be the parent, the mature party in this discussion.

"I'm not a sociopath." Jimmy looked as if he'd been stung. "I'm NOT a sociopath."

"That remains to be seen, kiddo." He could tell that Jimmy was about ready to try to get out of bed again, so Dick just put a hand on his chest and held him there. "You're not going anywhere."

"I want to help."

"You need to be cleared by the Justice League before I'm letting you out of here."

Jimmy folded his arms over his chest. "You don't believe me."

"I believe you," Dick managed to keep his voice even. "I don't TRUST you."

The door opened, and Wally's head popped through with uncharacteristic caution. "Oracle just got Tim's kid on an open channel. She just had a run-in with something that LOOKED like Jordan Rayner but was obviously playing for the other side. Tried to kidnap Mara's baby, but Tim's kid apparently kicked his ass. There aren't any more details, but I think we're out of time."

"Oh God. He got a recharge," Jimmy got on his feet before his dad could do anything about it. "We're in trouble now. For real."

"You and Roy are still on babysitting duty," Nightwing told his best friend. "If he gets out of line, shoot him." Then he looked to his son. "Roy'll do it, too. Talk to Oracle. Fill her and the League in. Find a way to disable it. And while you're at it... find a reason WHY Granny Goodness is doing this." It wasn't her usual game. Something drastic had happened, and he needed to know why.

"Well, then we need to go back to my lab." Jimmy tied the sheet around his waste. "Clothes couldn't hurt either. I... I'll work on the Granny Goodness angle."

Dick shook his head. "No. I need you working on disabling this thing." It wasn't open for negotiation. Sealing his point, he walked out.

"I don't need a babysitter!" Nightwing hadn't been in the room for five minutes before Mara had gotten 'that tone' in her voice. The baby was tucked under a blanket in the kitchen with Sammy, and Mara seemed content to stare at the gaping hole in the wall, like it would have some kind of answers for her.

"OBVIOUSLY you DO," he told her, surveying the damage to the apartment. He didn't know what the hell the problem with the manor was suddenly that she was relocating. An attack on the manor would have been a hell of a lot easier defended, and it would also have been easier to sweep under the carpet. The police had finally left, leaving the matter to the Justice League. Tim was still trying to persuade Sammy that she really WANTED to take the ring off.

"Fine, then leave Sammy here with me. She did just fine before." He didn't know what he was doing there, really. Superman had already dealt with the police and gave the media that stern look that said don't do it, or I'll be REALLY disappointed in that 'using my heat vision to destroy your cameras' kind of way.

"Are you TRYING to give Tim an aneurism?" he hissed. "And there's no 'here' to stay in." The wind was whipping through the apartment and a freezing rain was starting to spray in.

Her eyes creased as she gave him a look that could kill. "Fine. Who're you sticking me with? Cassandra?"

Coming here was wasting time. Mara was unreasonable because she was Mara. At least Bruce wasn't a time waster. "I need Cassandra."

"The world's about to end. You need everybody. Who the hell could you possibly NOT have on call right now?"

Nightwing gave a tight smile. For the first time in ten years, he had checkmate. "Crystal."

"HELL NO."

See, he'd learned a lesson today. During that brief moment that you had the upper hand, there was only one thing left to do—walk away. That is exactly what he did. He headed toward the window, and looked back over his shoulder at Tim. "We haveta go."

Tim looked torn between Sammy and the gaping hole with the wind whistling past.

"Crystal'll watch her. She stays with Mara and the baby till we can figure out what the hell's going on with her and the ring."

Tim looked back down at Sammy. "You can't keep it," he repeated for the thirty second time. "Be good, and we'll talk about it when I get home."

"I wanna come too..."

"Sammy," Nightwing said as he shot off a line. "Not THIS time. You need to be trained first." Before Tim's head could explode, Nightwing jumped. They had a world to save and fighting with a seven year old wasn't the best use of their time.

Jimmy swore then activated a containment field as the nanites avoided the Nth metal and tried to eat his lab table. Held in stasis, they stopped their destruction. Roy shifted uneasily, leaning against a parts locker. "It's no good. I can't think of anything that'll stop it."

Mom's voice was loud and frustrated with exhaustion in his ear. She was three floors above him, and far too busy cleaning up his mess to berate him in person. "You'd better think of something. And you'd better do it fast."

"God... I'm working on it." In desperation, he slid a pair of dark glasses over his eyes and turned his plasma welder on and began throwing sparks around the room, but it had no effect.

Tearing off the glasses, he sent him sailing across the room, into one of his metal equipment lockers. "This isn't WORKING!"

Roy glared at him with a locked jaw.

"I'll fix it," Jimmy responded with resolve. The old man was so full of shit. His family wouldn't help him. They hated him right now. He pushed his stool away from the table, and into the hazardous materials vault.

"Where're you going?" Roy asked as Jimmy pulled the ceiling-to-floor length vault door opened.

"I have an idea." He'd fix it, alright. He'd just have to do it by himself.

Mara stared at the windows of the Gotham Towers suit. They weren't as large as the ones in her now wrecked apartment. They sucked. This whole place sucked. The paintings of fruit and pastoral scenes coupled with the orange and red flowers in the foyer were pissing her off. She hated that she couldn't punch anything right now.

Kristin sat down at the table in the dining area with a plate of cookies and milk. "Sammy's asleep with J.B. in the bedroom. Shouldn't he need to be fed soon?"

Or punching someone. She could definitely handle punching SOMEONE right now. "He doesn't eat."

"That's ridiculous." She sounded so damned self-righteous.

"Not since we got the ring back. "That was one of the reasons those creeps at STAR wanted to run a zillion tests. They were fascinated with the self-sufficient environment the ring had created around the child. She'd feel better after she cut their grant money. And punched something.

She was sure Kristin was behind her at the table making a face. "Don't you think you should have that LOOKED at?"

Mara hoped the cookies made her fat. "Don't you think you should mind your own business?"

"I'm just concerned." Her voice was flat, even, insanely annoying.

Mara's eyes narrowed. She continued to stare across the living room at the reflections in the windows and the rain hitting and running down. "The last time I checked, Jimmy took YOUR kids to their last four checkups." Judgmental bitch.

God, Mara wanted to be out there, doing something. Finding him.

"That's none of your business."

Mara folded her arms over her chest. "It's going to be a long freaking night."
"Jimmy?" Roy wanted to be optimistic. Really he did. But when Jimmy didn't bitch that Roy should stop harping on him the FIRST time he said the kid's name, Roy knew that he was going to be pissed off in about ten seconds. Walking around the workbench and kicking discarded equipment out of his path, he dug his fingers into the cracked open vault door, and pulled it back.

Yup. He was pissed off.

Roy opened a com channel. Kids sucked so completely much. "Barb, the kid's AWOL."

"WHAT? I thought you were WATCHING him." He could hear her screaming in his ear, and the muffled sounds of her discontent passing though the house.

Pushing equipment out of the way, Roy just couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "Gee wiz, mom. I didn't know he had a MAKE SHIFT BOOM TUBE in his lab!"

He looked at the dialer and tried to place the coordinates. "Oh he's not evil," Roy mocked. "He's just GOING TO APOKOLYPS."

"Phased into another dimension?' Dick promised himself he wasn't going angry. That would only lead to him getting hystericale------------------------------------. He leaned against the oversized round table in the JLA conference room. This was tiring.

Superman was silent, arms folded over his chest, standing behind Green Lantern's chair. Kyle was staring at the white surface of the table, trying not to have an opinion.

"We think it temporarily phased, and that's why we've been having trouble finding it. But here." Wonder Woman pointed to a shining round spot detected by a satellite. "It looks like it resurfaced here. Just past Mars."

"Oh that'll be easy to get to," he pointed out sarcastically.

"I'm not worried about that," Batman stated curtly. "We need a solution first."

"You're going to be waiting a really long time," Barbara's voice echoed throughout the conference room, the large monitor display clicking over to her Oracle avatar. "Jimmy just skipped town."

Nightwing slammed his fist down on the table. "I must be an IDIOT."

Barbara ignored the outburst. "He had a make-shift boom tube, and he booked it to Apokolyps."

Batman looked at Superman, and some sort of silent conversation is taking place. Finally Batman spoke up. "We may have to accept the possibility that extreme measures may need to be taken."

"We can transport the entire thing to the Phantom Zone, where it can't do any damage," Superman supplied.

"My SON is in there," Kyle reminded them. It had been the first time he'd found his voice since this evening, when they told him that Jordy was still alive.

Batman's voice held no emotion. "We're talking about the fate of an entire world." He paused for a moment. "At least this way he'll have a chance."

It was raining harder. She could actually hear it now through the thick glass.

Mara continued to watch the windows, so many thoughts flying through her head, she didn't know what she was thinking of from moment to moment. There were a few ideas she kept coming back to. Drowning Kristin in two percent milk, setting her brother on fire, and blowing this popsicle stand were really high up on the list.

"You should get some sleep."

It only took two inches of water to drown someone. Mara was certain she could do it in one. "Are you done telling me what to do?"

Kristin took her plate to the kitchenette. "I don't want to be here any more than you do, so give it a rest."

"Oh, that's right, all the respectable superheroes are off saving the world."

Kristin came back into the living room area, her hands on her miniscule hips. "You don't need to have an attitude about it. Just go to sleep."

Mara stared past her, going back to watching the rain. Lightening bounced off the building across the street.

"There isn't anything you can do tonight." Kristin grabbed her arm to try and urge her to her feet.

Mara slapped her hand away. She wanted to break it off, but she settled for that. "It's only midnight." She picked up the red and gold pillow from the side of the sofa, and held it to her as a protective barrier.

Kristin took an offended step backwards. "WHY in the name of the gods are you SUCH a hardass? You're not going anywhere. You might as well just take it easy."

Mara took her eyes off the windows long enough to scowl at Kristin. "Why am I a hardass? Why're you such a bitch."

"Lord and Lady! The Princess of Pain can't go out there and get herself killed, or worse, so she's taking it out on me. THERE is a big surprise! You just NEVER get over yourself, do you? I've tried to have sympathy for you, but you don't even DESERVE it."

Mara resisted the urge to get up and smack her, and only twisted the edges of the sofa pillow. "I didn't ask for your sympathy and I don't WANT your sympathy. You're the LAST person I'd ask for it from." She'd successfully avoided having anything more than a conversation about the weather with Kristin for two years, why couldn't she just have avoided this for one or two more days? "And I'm not going to bed just because you say so."

Out of spite, Kristin froze the sofa. The lush warm colors grew pale as they were surrounded and infused with an aura of cold.

Still stubborn, Mara didn't move. Her eyes went back to the windows. What she was hoping for was unrealistic. Her grandfather would have told her that. The odds were very low. However, in lieu of being able to bring him home herself, waiting for a repeat performance seemed about the only thing she had left to hold on to.

"You can't sit there all night," Kristin informed her.

"Stakeouts in Gotham in February. Try me." Mara clutched the pillow closer to her breasts. They had been hurting her since she realized the baby wasn't going to eat. Physically it was just one more thing to endure. Inside, though, she was disappointed. Crystal could go to hell if she didn't think Mara could tough out a cold couch on top of everything else happening at the moment.

"You were ALWAYS like this. You always have to be a little show-off. Look at me, I'm better-trained than you, I'm meaner than you, can endure more than you, and I can be sadder and more miserable than you, too." Stepping away, Kristin broke her concentration and the sofa began to return to normal temperature. "I TOLD them I didn't want to be here!"

Mara got off the sofa with that. She took the pillow with her and went to stand at the window. She'd avoided having actual conversations with Crystal for something like four years. She could go one more night.

Why wouldn't they give her an update on Jordy's whereabouts? Were things really that bad?

It was cold in space, and the metal sphere that surrounded him held that chill close. He wanted the child. She promised him that he would, after he had finished his great task. He had gone to retrieve the child, but that little thing had stopped him. It was embarrassing to be thwarted by a wood elf. His muscles ached, every last fiber, every bit of him.

Soon he would be done with his work for granny, and he could pay that wretched woman back for taking his child, his only kin. She would pay, the way Apokolyps had paid for it's treachery against his grandmother. Planets had souls, and it's was crushed.

The space was tight, confined. The air was humid, but cold, and the moisture clung to him. It was only for an hour more. He needed time to heal. The evil little wood elf had hurt him; far more than a tiny creature should have.

Darkseid sat upon his stone thrown, looking down upon the groveling creature at his knees. "This is the second time you have penetrated my castle. Explain yourself."

Jimmy got off of his knees, and dared to look the lord of Apokolyps in the eyes. "The way I see it... you want her stopped before she destroys the other half of your planet. And I just cleaned my room. I don't want it vaporized."

"You are presumptuous." Darkseid folded his arms over his armor. "How do you know she does not do my bidding?"

Jimmy looked around the chamber, at the alien guards, the enormous pillars and the rough granite floor. "I know that you do not tolerate failure. I know she was replaced as your general."

Darkseid rose, looking down upon the young man with distain. "Leave. You have nothing to offer me."

Jimmy gulped, and reached into the bag thrown across his shoulders. He knew this was wrong, however, it was unavoidable. If his family wouldn't listen to him, he'd get help from someone he could at least play hardball with. "I only ask one thing in return."

"And you think I will give it?" Darkseid sounded as though he was prepared to be horribly disappointed.

Jimmy handed over the tattered orange binder with the biohazard symbol on the face.

Darkseid took it from him, his harsh stare lessened as he contemplated the possibilities.

He "I know you are a god, and can do almost anything. It's just one thing... and I know I can stop her."

Continued in part 3

donum fac remissionis
ante diem rationis.

grant me the gift of pardon
before the day of reckoning.