Thank you for the support I got on the last chapter! It was a really random idea that I had but I'm glad to see that you all seem to like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice. Just the idea of this story.
Bart is randomly running around in the middle of nowhere (aka El Paso) – because how crash is it that he doesn't have a collar anymore? – and he isn't paying attention at all to wherever his feet are actually landing. Which is probably why he trips over some rock and face plants on the floor.
"Ow," he groans, his nose feeling all stuffy and moding, rolling over onto his back and staring up at the sky. Then Bart blinks, because suddenly there is a figure leaning over him and blotting out the sun.
"Dude, are you okay?" the person asks, and Bart squints his eyes behind the goggles as he tries to figure out who it actually is (he can't tell – sunlight and all). "That looks like it hurt."
It did, Bart wants to tell him, but all that's forgotten once his eyes focus on the familiar figure, and he shoots up because grife, but Blue Beetle is standing right in front of him.
Suddenly all he can think about is his years in the camp and inhibitor collars and stand up, meat, and all Bart can think to do is run because it's Blue Beetle and…
"Wait!" the person – no, the monster – calls after him, and Bart doesn't listen, just keeps running, even though he knows that the Blue Beetle of now is not the Blue Beetle of then, but he's scared and…
"Bart, you look troubled," Lex Luthor comments, making Bart blink as he realise that he's run to the older man's office at LexCorp on instinct. It's scary how quickly he seems to have adapted to doing that, but Blue Beetle is scarier so he doesn't focus on it all too much. "Care to take a seat?"
Lex gestures towards the empty chair in front of his desk, and Bart flops into it, exhausted for reasons entirely different than the running, and takes a couple moments to collect himself as Luthor waits patiently.
"I just met Blue Beetle," Bart says after a couple moments, the words sounding hollow and numb and simple to even his own eyes but making him flinch at them nonetheless. "It wasn't – he wasn't what I thought he would be."
Because, looking back, the Blue Beetle he just met was smaller, and nicer, and he seemed to care and Bart's sure that he's heard some mutterings about how Blue Beetle wasn't always bad. Though that doesn't change the fact that Bart was still so, so moded when he saw him.
Lex arches an eyebrow (on first name terms with a supervillain – wow).
"And what was that?" he asks coolly, and some level of Bart knows that he's probably begin manipulated for information but he ignores it – he told himself he wouldn't let himself feel any regret – and shrugs, eyes on the floor as his feet fidget.
"I dunno," he answers vaguely, although he knows exactly what he expected and both of them know it. He shrugs, a quick blur of the shoulders that no one but a speedster would probably catch. Lex isn't a speedster (or at least, not that Bart knows about), but he seems to spot the movement anyway. Bart guesses that's what makes him such a good supervillain. "Big. Mean. Scary." Lex looks calculating, and Bart tries to throw him off by adding, "it's complicated."
"It's looking that way, yes," Lex answers back, a glint in his eyes and amusement in his voice. Sensing that Bart probably wants to change the subject and it wouldn't do to push him, the businessman does exactly the former. "How was your room? Have you been there yet?"
Bart perks up instantly, the image of the room itself coming into his mind, and he begins babbling a mile a minute about how great it is (and this is true – it's been years since he slept in a nice, comfy, real bed and to suddenly have one again is crash). Lex seems amused, one eyebrow still raised, and as this is happening a gunman bursts into the room.
It all happens so quickly that it's over in a flash (literally, with Bart involved). The man bursts in, gun held firmly in front of him and pointed straight at Lex Luthor's heart, and Bart is supposed to be protecting the latter so he just dashes over there, plucks the gun out of the gunman's sweaty gloved hands and knocks him out with a harsh blow to the head.
Bart thinks oops, because he still hasn't learnt to hold fully back with his powers; Lex looks impressed, though, clapping slowly and smirking slightly.
"Very good," he comments, with Bart is sure is probably high praise coming from him. "You passed the test."
Bart blinks because what test?, but then the frown fades from his face as his brain catches up with the situation (for a speedster, he can be so incredibly slow sometimes).
"Oh," he says dumbly, using the gun to gesture slightly at the man on the floor (which is all fine and crash, because it isn't like he'll use it or anything). "So this guy works for you?"
Lex nods, and smiles.
"It seems you don't require much additional training," he states, pulling out the little notebook and jotting down some more things. Bart wishes he could read shorthand, but unfortunately that was never really important in the future and, to be honest, he's lucky to even be able to read basic English. "Some, obviously, but it would seem that you are too fast for the majority who would try to harm me."
Bart isn't sure whether that's good or bad, so he decides to take that as a compliment and beams.
"So, when do I start?" he asks enthusiastically, because it's the first job he's actually going to have a choice in and he's genuinely excited for this.
"How does tomorrow morning sound?" Lex asks, and Bart doesn't even care that it's more of a demand that a question and enthusiastically nods.
It's his first day on the job and it's already exciting. Some person (he looks like Superman but he can't be Superman because Superman isn't that young) storms in and completely ignores all the safety precautions that Luthor's set up, and Bart goes to knock him out but Lex tells him not to.
"Don't worry," the older man assures, looking calm and relaxed and amused, if anything. "Conner isn't here to hurt me. He's just here to… talk."
Bart decides that that's definitely an understatement when 'Conner' rips off the metal door and storms right inside, but Lex has told him not to attack and so he doesn't attack.
"Conner," Lex greets coolly, looking for all the world like a casual businessman. "What brings you here?"
"Don't play dumb," the Superman-lookalike growls, frowning but looking confused and upset and Bart knows how that feels. "You took the Kryptonite down. You knew I was coming."
"Yes, I did," Luthor states, not denying anything and yet still in full control of the situation. Bart admires him for it. He knows that he would be freaking out by now. "But why?"
"…Artemis is dead," Conner finally says, and Bart isn't quite sure who this 'Artemis' is but she clearly meant a lot to Conner and he feels bad because he's been there – he's known grief and he's lived through it and lived with it, but something he's learned is that no good can come from confronting those with more power than you.
Lex looks unsurprised.
"Thank you for informing me," he states dryly, though all of them know that he already knew. "And I'd like you to meet my new bodyguard." He gestures to his left, where Bart is standing. "This is Bart."
"Hi," Bart chirps, but Conner just frowns and looks confused.
"What happened to Mercy?" he asks, and seems very unimpressed by Bart's answer.
"I squashed her," he informs with embarrassment, fidgeting nervously a little. "Sorry about that, but it was accident, I swear!"
"Great," Conner sarcastically enthuses, sounding entirely the opposite of enthusiastic, before turning away with disinterest and back towards Luthor. Bart frowns, because he appreciates grief and all but that was just rude, but Conner doesn't really seem to care about him. "But Artemis is dead, Luthor. She's dead and she was my friend."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Lex states, and he almost manages to sound sincere. Then he grabs some paperwork from the corner of his desk and begins to write on it. "If that will be all?"
Conner frowns but turns to leave, and as he walks out Bart decides to be nice despite the other guy's rudeness.
"Nice to meet you!" he calls after him, but Conner doesn't even spare him a glance as he walks out. Bart turns to Lex, frowning slightly. "Who was that?"
"That," Lex states, and Bart can almost swear he can see a little hint of warmth in the older man's eyes. "Was Superboy. Also known as Conner Kent."
"What a jerk."
"He's normally a lot more friendly," Lex states, looking almost disappointed but not quite. "Particularly in recent years." Lex finally lifts his head, staring at the spot where Conner left through the door. "But grief does funny things to people."
Doesn't Bart know it.
Grief drove him to travel back in time in order to save the world.
Thanks for reading, and please REVIEW! Next chapter we should be seeing some of Original Roy, which should be fun!