Authors Notes: I really love writing this series, honestly I do. If I
didn't why would I write so many parts in such a short time? Again,
characters, shows, songs, blah blah blah, all owned by whomever should be
the company or companies that own them. I'm messing with the continuity
some more by powering up a certain villain and giving a weakness that a
character may or may not have just to make the story flow better. Nothing
else to say really, so lets get started shall we? Please note that anything
with the ^ mark notes telepathic communication.
Chapter One (Not Kon's Point of View) The boy had spent every free moment he had sitting on his window seal and mourning the loss of his love. School had become a burden on his soul, something that he once tolerated had become nothing more than pain and suffering. Everyone there, the teachers, his friends, her friends, even random people who he barely knew, they all offered their support to him. In reality all they really did was remind him of the love that once was, the love that would never be again. The light was turned off, only the moonlight shone through the window. He noticed a sudden drop in the temperature in the room and turned around to start his heater, all he saw, was someone else. He gasped, but the other person put his hand over the boy's mouth, the boy could smell the brimstone on whoever this person was. "I have a proposition for you, if you do not alarm the other people in the home of my being here, I will tell you about it. Do you wish to listen?" The boy, somewhat fearful for his life, agreed via a nod of his head. The person smiled, his fangs glistened from the light, and he removed his hand from the boy's mouth. "Who. who are you?" The boy gasped for air. "I am someone who can make your pain go away, I m someone who can make everything better." "How can you do such a thing?" "Allow me to answer that question with another question, how much are you willing to give up in order to be reunited with the girl that you love?" "You. you could arrange that?" "If the price is right, I can arrange almost everything. Again, how much are you willing to give up?" "I'd be willing to give anything I own to be reunited with my love." "Even your soul?" "Yes, even my soul." The mysterious man smiled, and his eyes became a blood red. "Very well, your soul now belongs to me!" The boy looked around, hoping that he would see her. "Where is she, where is she at!" "Oh. you'll see her, in time." The boy knew he was in something that he needed to get out of, he began to back towards the door. It proved futile. Within moments an indescribable pain wracked through his entire body, and he screamed out. "Can't even take a minor amount of my essence, some of you mortals are just so weak. You claimed that you wanted to be with this girl more than anything, but the soul knows limits that even the mind cannot. Oh well, there are other humans who claim that they want something bad enough to give away their soul, I will find the perfect one. So swear I, Neron!" Neron teleported out of the house as the sounds of someone running up the stairs became less faint. "Perry? Son, is everything alright?" The boy's Perry's, Father heard no answer and pushed the door open. "Are you in." He didn't have time to finish what he was saying, he saw his son lying there, unconscious. Instinctively he checked for a pulse, there was none. He screamed as loud as his voice would let him, "Someone call 911, HURRY!" Neron watched the scene unfold unbeknownst to all others. "Another town, another failure, but I know that the perfect human body is in this town, in Smallville. I will find this person."
Chapter Two (Kon's point of view) Saturday, it's one of my favorite days since I've been staying here. Why? It's pretty obvious, because I don't have to go to school. I guess I'm becoming more like a norm and less like a meta as of late. I've been here for three weeks and Young Justice hasn't asked me to go help them on something. Clark's been able to handle all his problems, well save whatever marital spat he and Lois are currently having, alone or with the aid of other people. We haven't even had one of those world threatening "band together the forces of man" crises. Aren't we due for one of those? About the only thing that could get me some action right now is if something bad happened here in Smallville, and honestly, what are the odds of that? Before I used to hate not being in the middle of something, not being able to smack the face of someone. Yet now I find myself content with the small town life that I didn't think I would survive two days in. Sure, the occasional urge to be back in the spotlight comes up every so often, but I can quell that urge with an hour or two of flying. Now I find myself having the occasional word with Chandler, which I almost always seem to win, or spending time with the friends I've made since I've been here. The transition wouldn't have been easy, if I didn't have Kevin to keep me in check. Ma and Pa are great people, and I love them both dearly, but I wouldn't be able to spend every day with just them and keep my sanity. That's not saying that I think they are boring, I don't, it's just that they are a little to old fashioned in some walks of life. They don't even have a computer, but they didn't put a fuss up when Kevin's finally came in from the U-haul. One of the best parts about adjusting to my life here is that I can sleep for the entire night, that damned rooster that bugged me the first couple of days doesn't even phase me anymore. It really is a wonderful life, one that I would have loved to have during my childhood. Of course, I don't have anything to compare it to, not having a childhood, but seeing how Clark turned out, it should work for anyone. I walk down the stairs into the kitchen, still in my pajamas. Hey, it's the weekend, I'm entitled to being a little lazy. Besides, I worked hard on that physics homework last night, I just want to lounge around the house in my bunny slippers for a little while longer. Bunny slippers? What the hell am I doing with bunny slippers on? A quick run back up to my room and I take off the slippers. Socks, just socks, can't go wrong with socks, unless they are pink. A quick look down and I see that they aren't. A sigh of relief later and I'm walking back down the stairs for breakfast. I know Kevin isn't up yet, boy doesn't get up early unless he has to, so he won't be up for at least another hour. Ma and Pa aren't in the kitchen, where could they be? I can hear a faint sobbing come from the porch, best go investigate. As I open the door to go outside I see them both sitting on the porch swing, Pa cradling Ma's head as she weeps. "Ma, Pa, what's wrong?" Pa looks over at me, takes off his glasses, and wipes his eyes. "We just got the morning paper, this was on the front page." Pa hands me the paper and I see in bold heading "Teenager found dead in his room last night." I read further and look at the picture, it's Perry Marx. I had him in my math class, real quiet type. I also know that his girlfriend died in a car crash in Kansas City a couple of weeks before I got here. As I scan the article looking for reason of death it comes out with no answer. The only thing that the entire article says about the cause of his death is that he was found dead after he was heard screaming in his room. A police inspection of the room showed nothing drug related, so an overdose was unlikely. It would be unlikely anyway, I didn't talk to him that much, but I highly doubt he would be the type to do drugs. Of course, grief does a cause someone to do a lot of things, some of them could lead to drug use. So the big question is why? Why did he have do die? I clench the paper in my hand and begin to shake. "I should have tried to do something." Ma stops crying for a moment as she and Pa look at me. "Kon, you can't save everyone. No one expects you to be able to stop death." "I know, Ma, I've seen people die before. I've had people die because of the actions that I took. Still, it's never easy, and I'll always feel like I should have done something." Pa gets off the swing and gives me a hug, "Don't let it eat you up. Maybe the good lord just thought it was his time to go." Maybe, but I'm not buying that. "Well, we're going to go over to the Marxs' house and offer a shoulder. Are you going to be alright?" "Yeah, I'll be fine. Please, offer my condolences to the family." Pa nods as he walks down the stairs, Ma slowly trails behind. I give her a hug to comfort her as best I can and she mouths "thank you". I may not be able to save his life now, but I will do everything I can to see how he died. Lucky for me that Kevin's computer is in the study, or else I would have had to wait for him to get up, and who knows how long that would have taken. As I boot up the computer I can't help but think about all the people of importance in my life that have died. Tana, Cooper, Impulse's scout, and many others. Now I have to add Perry to that list. No matter how much I tell myself that we can't save every single person on the earth from meeting their faith it doesn't help. Plus things like this just shouldn't happen in Smallville. I run through the possibilities of death in my mind. He probably didn't OD since the scene didn't have anything drug related near it. He didn't have any allergies, or at the very least he wasn't on any medications that would prompt an allergic reaction. One thought runs through my head and it doesn't want to give up. Suicide. Perry was going through some very tough times in his life. Could it have been possible that he just wanted to end it all, rather than face another day with the grief? It doesn't seem likely, the scene was clean, and most suicides are messy, or at least leave some evidence, like a noose or something. What could kill someone but not leave a visible mark? Even super- powered means of death usually leave a burn mark or something, and it would account for the screaming. I'm obviously stumped and almost ready to call Tim up, but I want to keep trying to do this on my own. "Good morning, Kon." I close the windows quickly before I turn around. I don't want him to know what I was looking up, don't want him to suspect that I'm more than who I appear to be. "Good morning Kevin, you're up early aren't you?" "Yeah, I guess. I just had a hard time sleeping. What are you doing on the computer so early?" "I was expecting an important e-mail from a friend back home. And looking for anything to get my mind off of what happened last night?" "Why? What happened last night?" "Perry Marx died in his room under unknown circumstances last night. Ma and Pa are on their way over to the house right now." Kevin just looks at me, "Oh, well people live, people die, what are you going to do?" Did I really here what I think I just heard? "I'm going back to my room, please don't disturb me." Damn, before I get the chance to blow up at him he leaves. Did he really just say what I think he said? I know he's still not over his parents' death, but he I've never seen him have such a low regard for another persons life. Something is going on with that boy, but I can't deal with that right now. I've got to find out what happened to Perry.
Chapter Three
Forty-Five minutes later and I'm still stumped. Rather than press my rage on more I decide to take a relaxing bath. The change of scenery added with the relaxing feel of water may help me think of other things that I didn't when I was in front of the computer. Maybe I should just call Tim, but he's probably busy saving Gotham with the rest of the Bat-Brethren. As I'm washing my hair, it hits me. I've looked at almost every natural means of death, but I haven't even touched the supernatural. The answer was right in front of my face the entire time and I didn't even think about it. I wonder if I can get in touch with Zatanna. I'd get the added touch of seeing her in those very sexy fishnets. No, I have to stay focused, can't let myself get distracted, not right now. Looks like I'll have to take a rain check on the relaxing bath. After I change into some more comfortable clothing (can't walk around the house naked, people might start to talk) I'm back, staring my one link to what happened right in the eye. or monitor as it would be. I fire up the search engine and look up supernatural deaths. Well over a million hits, this could take awhile. Wait, this link looks like it could do fine, it claims to list every single death that could be caused via supernatural means. It's as good a start as any, so I'm off to search this site. As soon as I click on it I get several pop ups, including x-rated goth girls. why would anyone want to see those? Stupid pop ups, they deter me from my goal. I can rule out the obvious, turned to stone, turned into a zombie, blood sucked dry from a vampire, etc. I can't rule out other stuff, and let's be honest, my arcane knowledge is less than adequate to do this. Still, I'm going to keep going, I won't give up. People who say that being head strong is a fault certainly aren't in the business of saving people day in and day out. He wasn't possessed, because possession usually results in staying alive, Perry obviously died. Maybe he arranged to have himself raised from the dead, but that still doesn't provide the information on the scream, and the less than usual death site. The only things that I can say are a possibility are that he had his heart taken out of his body during a weird ritual of some sort. Something like that would obviously be painful, I know I'd scream like he did if that happened to me. The other possibility is that he had his soul taken out of his body, again, that would hurt. Who has the kind of power to do that kind of stuff though? I know Neron could take peoples souls, but he's currently busy talking like Etrigan, and last I checked he had that power taken away from him. Is there some weird cult running around Smallville? I haven't heard about something like that, and none of the people at school have been acting too strangely, at least for teenagers who have the misfortune of growing up in one of the most uneventful places in the country. Maybe it's an unknown sadist who wants to make him or herself known. Why did they pick a kid from here though? If I wanted to make a name for myself, well actually, where I did make a name for myself, was in a big city. He didn't die by natural means, I'm sure of it now, but how did he die? "Kon? Kevin? Where are you boys at?" I know the voice is Pa's, but they shouldn't have come back so soon, they've barely been gone an hour, right? I glance at the clock and can see that I've been searching for almost an hour. The good thing is that at least now I have something to go on. "Hello?" Pa's voice is getting sterner, better go down there. I yell as I walk down the stairs, "I'm coming!" I can see that they both don't look any more normal than they did when they left, but at the very least Ma has stopped crying. "How was it?" A stupid question, but sometimes the only thing you've got is a stupid question. "They're taking it pretty hard, as would be expected. I can't think of something more painful to go through than seeing your child lying there, lifeless." Ma replies as she hangs up her coat. What was it like for them to see Clark "die", on national television no less. It would probably be best not to ask them right now. Pa sits in his chair and sulks, "Perry was their oldest boy too, had a bright future ahead of him. Boy was as smart as they came. They don't even know how he died. That poor, poor, family, they deserve to know that much." Funny he should mention that, "I've been doing some research while you were gone, and I know that his death was somehow supernaturally related. I just don't know what caused it yet." "Kon, it's great that you're trying to help them out, but can we please not talk about that horrible occurrence anymore, please?" "Of course, Ma." "Thank you dear. Do you happen to know if Kevin got up yet?" I nod, "Yeah, he got up a little while after the two of you left. Come to think of it, he was acting pretty odd, like he was angry about something." Pa gets up from his chair and starts to walk up the stairs, "If he's angry about something we better go find out what it is and try to see what we can do to help him." We all walk to Kevin's room, Pa leading the way. I hold Ma's hand, she's a strong lady but she's still shaken about Perry. This town is so neighborly that if anyone dies it's like a piece of each person gets taken away too. Just like the entire town is one big family. Pa knocks on Kevin's door. "Kevin, are you alright?" No answer, "Are you in your room?" Still, we get no answer. Ma walks up to his door and puts her hand on the knob, "Maybe he fell back asleep, we should check." Pa gives a slight nod and she twists the knob, it's unlocked. We open the door and notice that Kevin isn't on his bed, he's on the ground, looking at a photo album and tears are openly flowing from his eyes. Ma gasps, walks over, and kneels next to him. "Honey, is everything alright?" He looks at her, and we can see that his eyes are blood red, obviously from all the tears. "No Aunt Martha, everything isn't alright. Today. today." Ma places his head on her chest, "Tell us what's wrong dear, please, tell us." "Today would have been my parent's anniversary. Now, they're both dead, and I'll never spend another day with either of them." He starts to cry again. Pa's already at his side, placing his hand on Kevin's back. I stay in the doorway, I don't know what to do. Pa picks Kevin's head up and turns it to look at his face, "You know that death can't take people away from us, as long as we keep them in our hearts." "He's right sweetie, you'll never be able to feel them again, but nothing can take away from the times that you had." Ma kisses him on the forehead. "Come on now, no more tears, where's that spunky little fireball that I used to know?" "He's dead, Aunt Martha." Wasn't expecting that for an answer, "That part of me died with them, and that part is never coming back." "Kevin, son." "Please Uncle Jon, I'd really just like to be alone for awhile longer. Please." "If that's what you want, of course we'll respect your privacy." Pa clutches Kevin's hand for a second and walks out. "If you need any of us, we're here for you, you know that right?" Kevin nods, "Yeah, I know that, Aunt Martha." "Good." She gets up and walks out the door, "Come on Kon, he wants to be left alone." I feel like I should tell him something, but right now I don't think even a stupid question would help. He just said that a part of him died, a really big part. I can't help him with that, and I'm afraid that I'll make it worse if I try. We all walk down into the living room, three people, completely silent. Finally, I break it, "I had no idea." "None of us did Kon, but even if we did, I doubt it would have been any easier." "Pa's right Kon, this isn't something that we can help him get through. This is a battle that Kevin is having within himself, all we can do is make sure that he knows that we will be there for him if he needs us. During situations like this a persons words tend not to help, but a shoulder to lean on is more than enough." They really know what they are talking about. Chalk it up to years of experience and the fact that these two people are the greatest people in the world. "We really aren't having a good day, are we?" Idiot, you weren't supposed to say that out loud! They both look at me and I hang my head down, "Sorry." "Don't be." Pa assures me, "You should never apologize for saying something that is the truth, even if it is something that the people don't really want to say." "Honesty is an important trait to learn during your life, Kon. However, painful honesty is a much more important one. When it's much easier to tell a lie or just ignore the entire situation altogether, the stronger person will speak the truth. Remember that." "I will." Listen to them, here I am thinking that I've made a huge ass out of myself, which I probably still have, but they tell me that I'm learning a very important skill. "I'm going up to make sure he's alright." "He told us he wanted to be alone, Kon." "I know that Ma, but like you said, sometimes a shoulder to lean on helps more than anything else. Including privacy." I walk back up the stairs and see that the door is still cracked open a bit. I push it open, "You alright in here." but he isn't in his room, he's gone.
Chapter Four I search the entire room, which isn't that big, the rest of the upstairs rooms, he isn't here. Where in the hell could he be? "Ma, Pa, Kevin's not in the house!" I yell as I run downstairs. "He's gone." "What do you mean he's gone?" Pa asks, worried. "I mean I went to his room and he wasn't in there, and I searched the rest of the house upstairs and he wasn't in any of the rooms there either. He is not in the house." I run out the door and take to the air. Ma yells from the porch, "Where are you going?!" "To look around the area, he couldn't have gotten far!" Why would he just take off like that? He said he wanted to be alone, so he probably just went somewhere he could be alone. There are a lot of trees for him to climb up and sit in silence around here. I fly up and down the farm, and a little bit out, nothing. I even fly at full speed through the orchards so if I did see him he couldn't see me, still. nothing. This isn't good, he wouldn't just disappear like that. He must be hiding real good, the things I would give to have those x-ray vision goggles that Professor Hamilton made me back. My Young Justice communicator goes off. I still carry the thing around with me at all times, just in case something bad happens, and we each have our own frequency so I know that they need to talk to me and fast. I stop in the air and answer it, "Superboy here, this had better be important." "Superboy." I hear Snapper Carr's voice over the communicator, Young Justice's current nursemaid. "What is it Snapper, I'm kinda busy right now." "Look, I know you wanted your privacy while you were doing something or other in the middle of nowhere, but Wonder Girl and Impulse have gone missing." "What do you mean missing?" "They aren't answering their communicators, but they are both together, we've got a lock on them and they are about 100 miles east of where you are." "What about the others, where are they?" Now I'm concerned, is this a personal attack against me? "Cissie's right here with me, helping me get the info I need to you and the others. Empress, Lobo, Secret, and Ray are off in Tokyo stopping a remote controlled Rhodan from demolishing Osaka, and Robin is busy helping the rest of the bat clan on a case that he can't talk about, orders from papa bats himself." "So everyone except for Cassie and Bart are all accounted for?" "Yeah." "Tell the others to get over to where those two are as soon as possible, I'm on my way over there right now." "Be careful, Kon." "Superboy out." I'm a little to angry right now to be careful. I'm also in too much of a hurry to change into my costume. Fighting evil in jeans and a flannel shirt, I bet that'll impress the ladies. "Get your mind out of the gutter and focus!" I'm almost positive that this is an attack against me now. Does someone know that I'm posing as Conner Kent in Smallville? Does someone want me dead and is hurting the people who I know and care about? Whoever this person is, I will make sure they never hurt another person, or die trying. It doesn't take me ten minutes to get to where Snapper told me that Cassie and Bart are at, and it's a cave in the mountain ranges. Great, this just screams evil mastermind at work. I'm in deep trouble. Not that it ever stopped me before. I coast around a bit, looking for anyone, but it's just barren. Better call it in, "Snapper, I'm at the location, but I don't see either of them." I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn around. "Cassie! You're okay!" She looks at me, then down at the communicator. She grabs it from my hand and breaks it. "Cassie, why did you do that?" All I see is her sneer at me. "Cassie, it's me, Kon." She doesn't answer with words, but she punches me in the stomach. I gasp for air, but she's already over me, and with her hands clutched together she rams them into my back. The force alone sends me back down to earth in a hurry, and I make a mark on the ground because of the impact. She lands down in front of me, but all I can see is her sneakers. "Cassie, is this some kind of sick training session that you wanted to drag me too?" She tries to kick me, but I'm ready for it. It's obvious she isn't herself, something is wrong with her. "Would you look at me? I don't want to hurt you, but I will if only to knock some sense into you." She takes to the air, with me holding onto her foot. Once she gets high enough she flips me over again, this time both her heels hitting me right in my chest. I plummet back down to the ground. If I don't mount an offense soon she can probably kill me. But I don't want to hit her. She stands over me and slaps my cheek. I manage to slide under her legs and get her in a full nelson. I know that unless I pull everything I have in this hold she can break out of it. She screams in rage, "Look Cassie, I don't know what is wrong with you, but you are going to calm down or I won't let you go, the choice is yours. Talk to me!" She's struggling, and I have to keep tightening my grip, I might be hurting her, but she'll thank me when she comes to her senses. "Come on Cassie, you're stronger than whatever it is that has a hold of you, fight it!" She screams again, this time more in pain, I want to let go, but I can't. I feel the wind rustle around me and when I blink Impulse is standing in front of me. "Bart, help me with Cassie!" He walks closer to me and touches my arm, I'm about to let go when he punches me as fast as he can, which makes me let go of Cassie. I'm losing consciousness, but I'm not out of it yet. Bart runs around me at full speed, sucking the air from the whirlwind he's created. I'm temporarily blinded by the dust. I don't even see Cassie's fist come towards my nose till it's too late. All I see, is the blackness. I awaken inside the cave that I flew by, I think. I'm also stuck onto some sort of apparatus that looks like an operating table, but I'm shackled down. Another noticeable factor in my current dilemma is the fact that I can't get the strength to break them. "I see you have finally woken up from your slumber." Who the hell could be saying that? Cassie, who had been standing to the side of me, out of my sight, pulls a lever and makes the thing that is holding me stand up. "It's a good thing too, because I'd hate for you to not feel what is about to happen to you." My jaw drops, "Neron." The scum laughs, "Why so shocked, Superboy? Surely you didn't think that being demoted from my post would keep me out of this planet's trite meta- human activities now did you?" "How. how did you." "How did I get out of the position I was stuck in? It's quite simple actually. You see, the higher lords of evil really don't like your precious little Justice League of America. All it really took was a promise that I would cause them a shattering amount of pain before I took each of their lives and I was back where I started, with some added powers. Now I can take souls, and even kill people, for no reason. It really does add to my "evil demon lord" persona, don't you think? So, just how do you fit into this? As I thought of a way to harm the league it became all too apparent, harm their children. None of the members have actual children, but many of them have children whom are their protégés. If I kill these namesakes, it would be a crushing blow to all of them. And that is just step one of my plan, but there is no need to let you in on the rest, since you'll be dead soon enough." He walks over to me and punches me in the gut. I cough out some blood. "I always wanted to do that, it felt good too. Oh, don't bother trying to break free of those bonds, they are laced with kryptonite, and the outsides of the bands are lead, so should Superman come to try and free you, he'll be in deep trouble too. You'd be surprised how easy that stuff is to find if you have the right connections." Great, kryptonite won't kill me as fast as it would Superman, but it does drain a lot of my juice from me. "What have you done to my teammates?" He takes a flask out and dangles it in front of me. "You see the contents in this flask? Its water from the river Lethe, you know, the river of forgetfulness. All I had to do was make sure that those two drank a drop of this and they wouldn't remember anything about who they were, but they would remember everything that they did while the water was working it's magic. I plan on having both of them dead before that, but hey, it was easier to lure you here since the odds of you pushing aside that moronic "code" that you people all seem to live by, except Batman, cold hearted man that he is. You people can't win this fight, Superboy, and you're going to be the first victim." He snaps his fingers and Bart undoes my shackles, both he and Cassie carry me closer to him. I've only got one shot at keeping myself alive at this point, and it isn't going to make me sleep better at night. The Kryptonite drained me of a majority of my power, but I've still got enough to do what I need to do, I hope. Unexpectedly I kick part in the stomach with as much strength as I can get out, it sends him flying back and down. Cassie tries to punch me in the face again but this time I grab her wrists and put her bracelets together. She told me once that if she didn't want someone to do that it would take away her powers for a bit, and I doubt this mind warped Cassie wants me too. I elbow her in the chin with a lot of force and she goes down too. "Forgive me you two." "Well, I had the odds of you pulling something like that weighed out, and I must say I'm surprised. But I wouldn't come without a plan B, and here he is." He steps aside, "Here is the perfect body I need for the rest of my plan!" It's. its Kevin.
Chapter Five
What does he mean? Perfect Body? "Shocking, isn't it? You'll attack members of your team, but will you attack this normal human? Someone who you call "cousin?" Kevin walks up to me and gives me the same sneer that Cassie gave me earlier. "Well Superboy, what are you going to do?" He's right, I can't attack this boy, he doesn't have anything to do with the entire situation, I can't hit an innocent. "As some dead person once said, "he who hesitates is lost." Kevin, you know what to do." Kevin takes out a green knife and stabs in the ribs with it. "ARGGGGGGGGG!" I scream as he continues to stab and dig the knife into my body. Then, he drops the knife. "Oh my god. Kon, what I have done?" "What the hell? How could you have broken the effects of Lethe's water, HOW!" I smile as blood protrudes from the sides of my mouth. Weakly I reply, "You've never given the human heart the credit it deserves, demon. It can break just about anything if given the chance." My body gives in on me and I fall into Kevin's arms, "Kon, I'm so sorry." "Oh enough of this. He may be the perfect body, but I can find another." Neron raises his hand and I know what's coming. I turn us around as fast as I can, my body blocking Kevins. "GAHHHHHHHHHH!" I scream as the energy hits my body. Kevin lets go of me and I drop to the ground. (Not from Kon's point of view, but it's pretty good ain't it? *shameless plug*) "Well Kevin, you said you wanted to be with your parents again. Kill Superboy and I promise that you will be with them again." "I won't kill him, I will not kill my cousin." "Don't you see? He lied to you from the moment he met you, they all lied to you. And don't you want to see your parents again? To feel their touch on your skin?" Neron's voice was getting more forceful. "You know I want to see my parents again, but they wouldn't want me to kill someone just so I could be with them. I know that much." "FOOL!" Neron yelled. "If you do not wish to submit to our agreement then it will be my pleasure to do it for you. Prepare to die, mortal!" "I don't fear death, demon." Kevin replied, showing no fear. "You will once you realize how close it is to you!" "I'm afraid you won't be killing anyone today, Neron!" A voice boomed from behind him. "Superman!" Neron hissed. "I see you've brought along some friends." He saw the man of steel, along with Flash and Wonder Woman. "I don't need them to take care of you." "That is a very bold statement from one who hasn't seen the fruits of my labor. Take a look for yourself." Neron pointed to the slumped over figure of Superboy. "A piece of work if I do say so myself, of course, I could not have done it without the aid of your cousin." Superman began to run over to the side of Kon, but stopped as soon as he came close enough for the kryptonite radiation from the knife to affect him. "Flash, get that knife out of here!" "I'm on it!" In a blur Flash grabbed the knife and ran out. "You Justice Leaguers just don't know when to quit!" Neron yelled out. "I won't retreat without a life claimed from this botched up effort." He looked at Kevin, "Yours!" Neron placed his hand out and began to shoot out energy, but he found that his power was redirected, by the golden lasso. "Demon, did you really think that I, a former goddess, would not be able to detect your evil presence on this earth?" "We've danced this dance before woman, and last time we did I killed you, causing your ascent to "godhood". Perhaps it is past time I repeated the process, but with more. permanent results." "You can kill me as many times as you see fit, Neron, but I will always come back, we will always come back." "I'll make sure I tell your mother you said that when next I taunt her in tartarus, Diana." "Demon! You will regret tarnishing the name of my mother!" Diana released the hold that her lasso had on Neron and attacked him head on. It was a battle between the two, one the ultimate being of truth, the other, corruption. Their combined fury began to bring the cave in which the battle took place down. Amidst the battle that the two were having, Superman was checking for any signs of life in Superboy. "Kon, Kon, wake up!" Superman turned Kon around so he lay on his back, in an effort to open the air channels in the kids body, it was in doing this that he saw the many stab wounds that aligned Superboy's body. "These wounds, they are massive." ^Do not worry about him right now, Superman.^ The voice of J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunnter, ran through him. ^I can't just let Kon die, J'onn.^ ^I will teleport him up to the watchtower and do my best to mend his wounds.^ ^Teleport me up with you!^ ^No, Clark, I know how you must feel, but you have to aid Diana, or else Neron might kill her, again.^ Superman looked over and saw that Neron was indeed gaining the upper hand against the mighty amazon. ^Please my friend, go help her.^ ^Alright, take care of Superboy for me, I'll be up as soon as I can.^ Superboy's body faded away, a visual side effect of being teleported to the watchtower. Clark looked over at Kevin, who was shaking, in a state of shock. Quickly, he flew over to aid Wonder Woman, who was kneeling on the ground. "And so it ends now. You never were a match for me Wonder Wom." Neron was cut off mid-sentence by the force of Superman ramming him into the wall. Furiously Superman continually pummeled his fists into the face of Neron, but the demon teleported behind him. "I can sense the rage in you. I like that, I'll still kill you, but I like it." "I told you, you are not killing anyone today!" Superman fired his heat vision, but Neron had again shifted his position. "I will do as I please, Kryptonian."
"You can't do anything if you can't concentrate!" The flash had returned and was using his accelerated speed to surround Neron in a mini-tornado. Superman again fired off his heat vision, this time connecting with the demon's chest. Kevin stayed knelt in the area where he had been while he was staring at Kon's bleeding form. He stared at his hands and saw that they were covered with blood, the blood of someone he deeply cared about. He knew that he had to make Neron pay, and he intended to do just that. "Enough of this!" Neron's form began to glow black, and a massive blast of power came from his center, knocking all three members of the league back. "You've meddled in my affairs again, caused me to exert myself to my breaking point, but this will be the last time!" Another shot hit Neron, this time from the side. "Who dares?" Kevin screamed out, "I dare! You don't think I was paying attention to what you told me did you? You said that you needed the perfect host body to contain your power, and that I was it. I knew you were staring to transfer power to me, and now I know how to use it. Step down demon, you will not win this!" "You think you have power boy? When I return, you will see what real power is!" Neron again teleported, this time however, he teleported to an unknown place. Kevin, still shaken, ran over to Superman, who was getting up from the ordeal. "Clark, take me to Kon, please." Superman, while taken back by the fact that his cousin now knew who he really was, nodded. "Flash, Diana, you two make sure that Impulse and Wonder Girl are alright, I need to go check on Kon." Superman and Kevin were whisked away in the familiar blue light. It should have freighted Kevin, but he was too busy worrying about Kon to notice.
Chapter Six
Superman and Kevin teleported to the teleportation room and within seconds where at the medical bay. The Kid was already on a respirator and his entire abdomen was bandaged up. "J'onn. is he." Superman choked up but continued, "is he going to be alright?" "That depends on many factors. The wounds that he sustained were massive, and the amount of healing required is too much for me to handle. Fortunately, Dr. Mid-Nite answered my telepathic call for aid." The Martian put his hand over Clark's shoulder. "We'll do everything we can, but a large part of his survival depends on his own will." Mid-Nite turned away from the monitors that he had been keeping watch over, "We had to bandage him up in order to stop the bleeding, but he will require surgery nonetheless." "Thank you for coming Dr." Superman said, watching someone he cared about deeply fight for his live. "I'm a doctor, Superman, it's my job to save lives, and those whom bear your crest are among the most treasured beings on the planet. It's the least I could do. However, I need both you and your guest to leave the room and let us work." "Of course, come on, Kevin." "No." Kevin replied sternly. "I will not leave Kon, it's my fault that all this happened to him." "Kevin, regardless of what you think, what happened wasn't your fault. At least not directly. But right now all we can do is respect the wishes of the two people who can save him. Trust me, he couldn't be in better hands." Kevin looked up at Clark, if you can't trust Superman, who can you trust? The boy finally relented and walked out of the room. Clark took one final look back and soon followed. "How did you find out?" He asked as he saw Kevin looking out the window. "It was pretty easy once I saw that Superboy was Kon. The logical thing to assume would be that you were Superman. After all, why would Superboy be staying with the Kents' unless they were somehow connected to Superman. Plus, the look, I don't see how you're able to fool so many people wearing only those glasses when you're Clark." "Well, you know now, I can't do anything about it." "Yeah, you can't do anything about a lot of things, Clark." "Do you want to talk about what happened, Kevin?" "No, what I want to do is find that Neron guy and turn his head into a soccer ball. He hurt my." He turned around and looked at Clark, "you've lied to every single one of us since day one. They lied to me too, he isn't even my cousin!" "You know that Ma can't conceive a child on her own, you've always known that I was adopted. As for keeping this a secret, I have a lot of enemies, Kevin. A lot of enemies would harm any member of my family just to get at me. The less people that know who I really am just means the less chance that those very people have at getting harmed. While it may be true that he isn't biologically your relative, do you truly think so lowly of him now that you've found that out? Would the relationship that the two of you have developed since you've lived with my parents and met him have changed so drastically if you knew he wasn't?" Kevin thought long and hard over what Superman. Clark. had just told him, and he knew that he was right, it really wouldn't have changed anything. "It still doesn't make what I did any easier. I may have just killed someone, someone whom I care about a lot." "You can't take responsibility for the things that you have no control over. It's obvious that you were influenced by Neron, what you did was not of your own accord." "I'm still possessed by a part of him. I was his "perfect" body, the one body on the planet that could take his essence without rejecting it and having the body shut down. Another step of his plan was to posses a normal human body, a body that would be his husk. The only person who could be this husk is the person who wants something so badly that in consumes their being, and it was me. If I had only gotten over what happened to my parents I wouldn't have been." "No one expects you to come to term with the deaths of both your parents so quickly, Kevin. No one expects you to ever come to complete peace over it. Don't tear yourself up over a human trait. As for Neron's essence, the JLA knows many mystics, we could get you exorcised." "No Clark, I know I can control whatever I have inside me. And I intend to take revenge on Neron, even if I have to follow him into the gates of hell." "Hell doesn't really have gates, they should really get a new travel agent." Both Kevin and Clark turned to the side to find out who said that, it was Flash. "Hey, someone had to break the drama, it was beginning to get as thick as tar." "Kevin, I believe you know of the Flash." Wally took Kevin's hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you kid. A quick word of advice from someone who's been doing this longer than big blue over there, don't lust for revenge, if you do than you are no better than Neron." "He's right Kevin, revenge isn't what we do. Wally, how are the others?" "Diana and I took them over to Young Justice's HQ, she's still over there helping Snapper make what's going to counteract the effects of Lethe's water. It's a good thing that Snapper reached us when he did, or else. it could have been a lot worse." Clark nodded, "We owe Snapper." "What's that bring the running total of favors up too? I lost count." Superman looked at Flash who took the hint. "Alright, I'll let the drama start up again, but you mind if I make some popcorn and watch? I tell you, you two have already had more drama than the entire series of Dynasty and Melrose Place combined. And I just admitted that I watch Aaron Spelling productions. gotta go." And with that, the Scarlet Speedster was off. "Sorry about that Kevin, he's a little." "Hyper-active?" "That's putting it lightly. But when it all comes down to it, few people have a dependability rating as high as Flash though." "Okay, so you people don't do revenge, fine. What do you do?" "Anything that doesn't involve killing, we kill only as a last resort, and even then, only to save more lives. More often than not we put the villains in jail, stripping them of their power." "I somehow doubt that Neron can be stripped of his power now. He's promised whomever he answers to all your heads on a black platter." "Many people have offered more, and they can never make due with their promise. We're the JLA Kevin, we don't lose." Quietly Kevin asked, "Then why is Kon fighting for his life?" Unbeknownst to both of them, J'onn had walked in from the Medical Bay, "He's not, not anymore. He lost a lot of blood, and the wounds were kryptonite induced, so they will take longer to heal, even for him, but he'll pull through." "Can. can I see him Mr." "Please, call me J'onn, and yes, you may see him." "Thanks, J'onn." Kevin ran into the Medical Bay. "You did it, J'onn." Superman said with relief. "We did nothing, Clark. Nothing more than making sure that his body did not go into shock. I was scanning his mind while we worked, and he came back for the people he cared about. But most of all, he came back. for you. He knew that if he died on that operating table then Neron would have won a small victory, and a crushing blow would have befallen you, which was just what the demon wanted. Go and see him my friend, he's waiting." Clark nodded and walked through the door. (Back to Kon's point of view) I awoke on a table, but I knew that I was in a safe place. Slowly, and with an enormous amount of pain, I manage to sit upright. "I see you are up, Superboy." "Yeah," I grab my side to brace the pain, "but I wouldn't have gotten up if it weren't for you. Thanks." "Please, the fact that you will continue to inspire people the way your namesake has is more than enough thanks for me." "Any long term effects I should be aware of, Doc?" Mid-nite shuffled through the papers on his clipboard. "Aside from the stab scars you will not have any other permanent effects to my knowledge. However, you won't be able to be at full strength for quite awhile, and I'm insisting that you stay here for the rest of the night so that J'onn or myself may monitor you and conduct other tests." Great, I'm gong to miss. well, nothing happens in Smallville anyway. And given the other alternative, I can manage staying put here for the rest of the night, can't really beat the view. "Kon!" Kevin yells as he runs up and grabs me. "Watch the ribs!" I say as I wince in pain. "Oh, sorry." He starts to cry again. "Would you stop crying, I'm fine. Well. I've seen better days, but I'll be fine." "This is all my fault." "No it isn't Kevin, and I won't let you blame yourself for what happened. Just drop it okay?" "Alright." He moves to the side and I see Clark standing over me. "Superboy." "Look, I'm sorry that you had to come save me, but thanks." "That doesn't matter, you're fine, and I was just doing what I've pledged my life too." "Umm. could you do me a favor?" Clark smirks, "What do you need, but I won't do anything along the lines of having Black Canary do a pity strip to make you feel better." "It's a good show if you can catch it." Mid-Nite says as he shuffles through more papers. "No, I want you to go to the Marxs' house and tell them that Perry had his soul taken from his body. They deserve to know." "I'll make sure to tell them that." He looks down at Kevin, "We'd better get you back home." Kevin looks at me, "Aren't you coming home too, Kon?" "I've got to stay here for the night, doctor's orders. I'll be home tomorrow, tell Ma and Pa not to worry." "I've got Monitor Duty tonight, so I'll be back." Clark and Kevin leave the room. "So, is it really a good show?" Mid-Nite answers, "Indeed it is. indeed it is." (Not Kon's point of view) Clark and Kevin landed in front of the Kent farm. "Well, we'd better go tell them what happened." "Clark. can we make a couple of stops before we tell them?" "What kind of stops?" Kevin whispered something into Clark's ear. "Yeah, I'd be happy to do that." Within five minutes they were at the cemetery where Kevin's parents were buried. "Do you think I'm doing the right thing, Clark?" "If you feel you are doing the right thing, then you are doing the right thing. I can fly you here anytime you want to pay a visit. If it's too much on you right now we can just fly you back to the farm and try again later. The choice is yours to make, Kevin." Kevin looked over at the grave and turned back around, looking at his cousin. "Can. I do this alone?" Clark nodded. Slowly Kevin walked over to his parents grave and knelt down, "I didn't think I would be paying you this visit so soon, but I figure now is the right time. I gave up the chance to be with both of you again. I know that part of that bargain would mean that I would have given him my soul and we wouldn't have been united in body. To be honest, I was ready to do it, I didn't care that you wouldn't be back here, I just cared that I would be with you. I wanted it that badly. Now that I think about it, the odds of someone who sold his soul going to the good place as opposed to the bad place are rather low. It obviously wasn't a very wise choice on my part, but I was blinded by my pain over what happened, nothing else mattered. I didn't know that the guy I made the deal with expected me to kill someone who I care about in order to finalize the deal. I did know that no matter what, you would never have wanted me to kill someone, no matter what. I realize now that as long as I have people who are willing to be there for me, that's all I need. It won't ever make up for losing you two, but I can't change fate." He placed a bouquet of roses on the plaque that marked their burial plot. "At least I know that you two are together. Mom. Dad. happy anniversary." And with that, Kevin walked away.
Fin.
Chapter One (Not Kon's Point of View) The boy had spent every free moment he had sitting on his window seal and mourning the loss of his love. School had become a burden on his soul, something that he once tolerated had become nothing more than pain and suffering. Everyone there, the teachers, his friends, her friends, even random people who he barely knew, they all offered their support to him. In reality all they really did was remind him of the love that once was, the love that would never be again. The light was turned off, only the moonlight shone through the window. He noticed a sudden drop in the temperature in the room and turned around to start his heater, all he saw, was someone else. He gasped, but the other person put his hand over the boy's mouth, the boy could smell the brimstone on whoever this person was. "I have a proposition for you, if you do not alarm the other people in the home of my being here, I will tell you about it. Do you wish to listen?" The boy, somewhat fearful for his life, agreed via a nod of his head. The person smiled, his fangs glistened from the light, and he removed his hand from the boy's mouth. "Who. who are you?" The boy gasped for air. "I am someone who can make your pain go away, I m someone who can make everything better." "How can you do such a thing?" "Allow me to answer that question with another question, how much are you willing to give up in order to be reunited with the girl that you love?" "You. you could arrange that?" "If the price is right, I can arrange almost everything. Again, how much are you willing to give up?" "I'd be willing to give anything I own to be reunited with my love." "Even your soul?" "Yes, even my soul." The mysterious man smiled, and his eyes became a blood red. "Very well, your soul now belongs to me!" The boy looked around, hoping that he would see her. "Where is she, where is she at!" "Oh. you'll see her, in time." The boy knew he was in something that he needed to get out of, he began to back towards the door. It proved futile. Within moments an indescribable pain wracked through his entire body, and he screamed out. "Can't even take a minor amount of my essence, some of you mortals are just so weak. You claimed that you wanted to be with this girl more than anything, but the soul knows limits that even the mind cannot. Oh well, there are other humans who claim that they want something bad enough to give away their soul, I will find the perfect one. So swear I, Neron!" Neron teleported out of the house as the sounds of someone running up the stairs became less faint. "Perry? Son, is everything alright?" The boy's Perry's, Father heard no answer and pushed the door open. "Are you in." He didn't have time to finish what he was saying, he saw his son lying there, unconscious. Instinctively he checked for a pulse, there was none. He screamed as loud as his voice would let him, "Someone call 911, HURRY!" Neron watched the scene unfold unbeknownst to all others. "Another town, another failure, but I know that the perfect human body is in this town, in Smallville. I will find this person."
Chapter Two (Kon's point of view) Saturday, it's one of my favorite days since I've been staying here. Why? It's pretty obvious, because I don't have to go to school. I guess I'm becoming more like a norm and less like a meta as of late. I've been here for three weeks and Young Justice hasn't asked me to go help them on something. Clark's been able to handle all his problems, well save whatever marital spat he and Lois are currently having, alone or with the aid of other people. We haven't even had one of those world threatening "band together the forces of man" crises. Aren't we due for one of those? About the only thing that could get me some action right now is if something bad happened here in Smallville, and honestly, what are the odds of that? Before I used to hate not being in the middle of something, not being able to smack the face of someone. Yet now I find myself content with the small town life that I didn't think I would survive two days in. Sure, the occasional urge to be back in the spotlight comes up every so often, but I can quell that urge with an hour or two of flying. Now I find myself having the occasional word with Chandler, which I almost always seem to win, or spending time with the friends I've made since I've been here. The transition wouldn't have been easy, if I didn't have Kevin to keep me in check. Ma and Pa are great people, and I love them both dearly, but I wouldn't be able to spend every day with just them and keep my sanity. That's not saying that I think they are boring, I don't, it's just that they are a little to old fashioned in some walks of life. They don't even have a computer, but they didn't put a fuss up when Kevin's finally came in from the U-haul. One of the best parts about adjusting to my life here is that I can sleep for the entire night, that damned rooster that bugged me the first couple of days doesn't even phase me anymore. It really is a wonderful life, one that I would have loved to have during my childhood. Of course, I don't have anything to compare it to, not having a childhood, but seeing how Clark turned out, it should work for anyone. I walk down the stairs into the kitchen, still in my pajamas. Hey, it's the weekend, I'm entitled to being a little lazy. Besides, I worked hard on that physics homework last night, I just want to lounge around the house in my bunny slippers for a little while longer. Bunny slippers? What the hell am I doing with bunny slippers on? A quick run back up to my room and I take off the slippers. Socks, just socks, can't go wrong with socks, unless they are pink. A quick look down and I see that they aren't. A sigh of relief later and I'm walking back down the stairs for breakfast. I know Kevin isn't up yet, boy doesn't get up early unless he has to, so he won't be up for at least another hour. Ma and Pa aren't in the kitchen, where could they be? I can hear a faint sobbing come from the porch, best go investigate. As I open the door to go outside I see them both sitting on the porch swing, Pa cradling Ma's head as she weeps. "Ma, Pa, what's wrong?" Pa looks over at me, takes off his glasses, and wipes his eyes. "We just got the morning paper, this was on the front page." Pa hands me the paper and I see in bold heading "Teenager found dead in his room last night." I read further and look at the picture, it's Perry Marx. I had him in my math class, real quiet type. I also know that his girlfriend died in a car crash in Kansas City a couple of weeks before I got here. As I scan the article looking for reason of death it comes out with no answer. The only thing that the entire article says about the cause of his death is that he was found dead after he was heard screaming in his room. A police inspection of the room showed nothing drug related, so an overdose was unlikely. It would be unlikely anyway, I didn't talk to him that much, but I highly doubt he would be the type to do drugs. Of course, grief does a cause someone to do a lot of things, some of them could lead to drug use. So the big question is why? Why did he have do die? I clench the paper in my hand and begin to shake. "I should have tried to do something." Ma stops crying for a moment as she and Pa look at me. "Kon, you can't save everyone. No one expects you to be able to stop death." "I know, Ma, I've seen people die before. I've had people die because of the actions that I took. Still, it's never easy, and I'll always feel like I should have done something." Pa gets off the swing and gives me a hug, "Don't let it eat you up. Maybe the good lord just thought it was his time to go." Maybe, but I'm not buying that. "Well, we're going to go over to the Marxs' house and offer a shoulder. Are you going to be alright?" "Yeah, I'll be fine. Please, offer my condolences to the family." Pa nods as he walks down the stairs, Ma slowly trails behind. I give her a hug to comfort her as best I can and she mouths "thank you". I may not be able to save his life now, but I will do everything I can to see how he died. Lucky for me that Kevin's computer is in the study, or else I would have had to wait for him to get up, and who knows how long that would have taken. As I boot up the computer I can't help but think about all the people of importance in my life that have died. Tana, Cooper, Impulse's scout, and many others. Now I have to add Perry to that list. No matter how much I tell myself that we can't save every single person on the earth from meeting their faith it doesn't help. Plus things like this just shouldn't happen in Smallville. I run through the possibilities of death in my mind. He probably didn't OD since the scene didn't have anything drug related near it. He didn't have any allergies, or at the very least he wasn't on any medications that would prompt an allergic reaction. One thought runs through my head and it doesn't want to give up. Suicide. Perry was going through some very tough times in his life. Could it have been possible that he just wanted to end it all, rather than face another day with the grief? It doesn't seem likely, the scene was clean, and most suicides are messy, or at least leave some evidence, like a noose or something. What could kill someone but not leave a visible mark? Even super- powered means of death usually leave a burn mark or something, and it would account for the screaming. I'm obviously stumped and almost ready to call Tim up, but I want to keep trying to do this on my own. "Good morning, Kon." I close the windows quickly before I turn around. I don't want him to know what I was looking up, don't want him to suspect that I'm more than who I appear to be. "Good morning Kevin, you're up early aren't you?" "Yeah, I guess. I just had a hard time sleeping. What are you doing on the computer so early?" "I was expecting an important e-mail from a friend back home. And looking for anything to get my mind off of what happened last night?" "Why? What happened last night?" "Perry Marx died in his room under unknown circumstances last night. Ma and Pa are on their way over to the house right now." Kevin just looks at me, "Oh, well people live, people die, what are you going to do?" Did I really here what I think I just heard? "I'm going back to my room, please don't disturb me." Damn, before I get the chance to blow up at him he leaves. Did he really just say what I think he said? I know he's still not over his parents' death, but he I've never seen him have such a low regard for another persons life. Something is going on with that boy, but I can't deal with that right now. I've got to find out what happened to Perry.
Chapter Three
Forty-Five minutes later and I'm still stumped. Rather than press my rage on more I decide to take a relaxing bath. The change of scenery added with the relaxing feel of water may help me think of other things that I didn't when I was in front of the computer. Maybe I should just call Tim, but he's probably busy saving Gotham with the rest of the Bat-Brethren. As I'm washing my hair, it hits me. I've looked at almost every natural means of death, but I haven't even touched the supernatural. The answer was right in front of my face the entire time and I didn't even think about it. I wonder if I can get in touch with Zatanna. I'd get the added touch of seeing her in those very sexy fishnets. No, I have to stay focused, can't let myself get distracted, not right now. Looks like I'll have to take a rain check on the relaxing bath. After I change into some more comfortable clothing (can't walk around the house naked, people might start to talk) I'm back, staring my one link to what happened right in the eye. or monitor as it would be. I fire up the search engine and look up supernatural deaths. Well over a million hits, this could take awhile. Wait, this link looks like it could do fine, it claims to list every single death that could be caused via supernatural means. It's as good a start as any, so I'm off to search this site. As soon as I click on it I get several pop ups, including x-rated goth girls. why would anyone want to see those? Stupid pop ups, they deter me from my goal. I can rule out the obvious, turned to stone, turned into a zombie, blood sucked dry from a vampire, etc. I can't rule out other stuff, and let's be honest, my arcane knowledge is less than adequate to do this. Still, I'm going to keep going, I won't give up. People who say that being head strong is a fault certainly aren't in the business of saving people day in and day out. He wasn't possessed, because possession usually results in staying alive, Perry obviously died. Maybe he arranged to have himself raised from the dead, but that still doesn't provide the information on the scream, and the less than usual death site. The only things that I can say are a possibility are that he had his heart taken out of his body during a weird ritual of some sort. Something like that would obviously be painful, I know I'd scream like he did if that happened to me. The other possibility is that he had his soul taken out of his body, again, that would hurt. Who has the kind of power to do that kind of stuff though? I know Neron could take peoples souls, but he's currently busy talking like Etrigan, and last I checked he had that power taken away from him. Is there some weird cult running around Smallville? I haven't heard about something like that, and none of the people at school have been acting too strangely, at least for teenagers who have the misfortune of growing up in one of the most uneventful places in the country. Maybe it's an unknown sadist who wants to make him or herself known. Why did they pick a kid from here though? If I wanted to make a name for myself, well actually, where I did make a name for myself, was in a big city. He didn't die by natural means, I'm sure of it now, but how did he die? "Kon? Kevin? Where are you boys at?" I know the voice is Pa's, but they shouldn't have come back so soon, they've barely been gone an hour, right? I glance at the clock and can see that I've been searching for almost an hour. The good thing is that at least now I have something to go on. "Hello?" Pa's voice is getting sterner, better go down there. I yell as I walk down the stairs, "I'm coming!" I can see that they both don't look any more normal than they did when they left, but at the very least Ma has stopped crying. "How was it?" A stupid question, but sometimes the only thing you've got is a stupid question. "They're taking it pretty hard, as would be expected. I can't think of something more painful to go through than seeing your child lying there, lifeless." Ma replies as she hangs up her coat. What was it like for them to see Clark "die", on national television no less. It would probably be best not to ask them right now. Pa sits in his chair and sulks, "Perry was their oldest boy too, had a bright future ahead of him. Boy was as smart as they came. They don't even know how he died. That poor, poor, family, they deserve to know that much." Funny he should mention that, "I've been doing some research while you were gone, and I know that his death was somehow supernaturally related. I just don't know what caused it yet." "Kon, it's great that you're trying to help them out, but can we please not talk about that horrible occurrence anymore, please?" "Of course, Ma." "Thank you dear. Do you happen to know if Kevin got up yet?" I nod, "Yeah, he got up a little while after the two of you left. Come to think of it, he was acting pretty odd, like he was angry about something." Pa gets up from his chair and starts to walk up the stairs, "If he's angry about something we better go find out what it is and try to see what we can do to help him." We all walk to Kevin's room, Pa leading the way. I hold Ma's hand, she's a strong lady but she's still shaken about Perry. This town is so neighborly that if anyone dies it's like a piece of each person gets taken away too. Just like the entire town is one big family. Pa knocks on Kevin's door. "Kevin, are you alright?" No answer, "Are you in your room?" Still, we get no answer. Ma walks up to his door and puts her hand on the knob, "Maybe he fell back asleep, we should check." Pa gives a slight nod and she twists the knob, it's unlocked. We open the door and notice that Kevin isn't on his bed, he's on the ground, looking at a photo album and tears are openly flowing from his eyes. Ma gasps, walks over, and kneels next to him. "Honey, is everything alright?" He looks at her, and we can see that his eyes are blood red, obviously from all the tears. "No Aunt Martha, everything isn't alright. Today. today." Ma places his head on her chest, "Tell us what's wrong dear, please, tell us." "Today would have been my parent's anniversary. Now, they're both dead, and I'll never spend another day with either of them." He starts to cry again. Pa's already at his side, placing his hand on Kevin's back. I stay in the doorway, I don't know what to do. Pa picks Kevin's head up and turns it to look at his face, "You know that death can't take people away from us, as long as we keep them in our hearts." "He's right sweetie, you'll never be able to feel them again, but nothing can take away from the times that you had." Ma kisses him on the forehead. "Come on now, no more tears, where's that spunky little fireball that I used to know?" "He's dead, Aunt Martha." Wasn't expecting that for an answer, "That part of me died with them, and that part is never coming back." "Kevin, son." "Please Uncle Jon, I'd really just like to be alone for awhile longer. Please." "If that's what you want, of course we'll respect your privacy." Pa clutches Kevin's hand for a second and walks out. "If you need any of us, we're here for you, you know that right?" Kevin nods, "Yeah, I know that, Aunt Martha." "Good." She gets up and walks out the door, "Come on Kon, he wants to be left alone." I feel like I should tell him something, but right now I don't think even a stupid question would help. He just said that a part of him died, a really big part. I can't help him with that, and I'm afraid that I'll make it worse if I try. We all walk down into the living room, three people, completely silent. Finally, I break it, "I had no idea." "None of us did Kon, but even if we did, I doubt it would have been any easier." "Pa's right Kon, this isn't something that we can help him get through. This is a battle that Kevin is having within himself, all we can do is make sure that he knows that we will be there for him if he needs us. During situations like this a persons words tend not to help, but a shoulder to lean on is more than enough." They really know what they are talking about. Chalk it up to years of experience and the fact that these two people are the greatest people in the world. "We really aren't having a good day, are we?" Idiot, you weren't supposed to say that out loud! They both look at me and I hang my head down, "Sorry." "Don't be." Pa assures me, "You should never apologize for saying something that is the truth, even if it is something that the people don't really want to say." "Honesty is an important trait to learn during your life, Kon. However, painful honesty is a much more important one. When it's much easier to tell a lie or just ignore the entire situation altogether, the stronger person will speak the truth. Remember that." "I will." Listen to them, here I am thinking that I've made a huge ass out of myself, which I probably still have, but they tell me that I'm learning a very important skill. "I'm going up to make sure he's alright." "He told us he wanted to be alone, Kon." "I know that Ma, but like you said, sometimes a shoulder to lean on helps more than anything else. Including privacy." I walk back up the stairs and see that the door is still cracked open a bit. I push it open, "You alright in here." but he isn't in his room, he's gone.
Chapter Four I search the entire room, which isn't that big, the rest of the upstairs rooms, he isn't here. Where in the hell could he be? "Ma, Pa, Kevin's not in the house!" I yell as I run downstairs. "He's gone." "What do you mean he's gone?" Pa asks, worried. "I mean I went to his room and he wasn't in there, and I searched the rest of the house upstairs and he wasn't in any of the rooms there either. He is not in the house." I run out the door and take to the air. Ma yells from the porch, "Where are you going?!" "To look around the area, he couldn't have gotten far!" Why would he just take off like that? He said he wanted to be alone, so he probably just went somewhere he could be alone. There are a lot of trees for him to climb up and sit in silence around here. I fly up and down the farm, and a little bit out, nothing. I even fly at full speed through the orchards so if I did see him he couldn't see me, still. nothing. This isn't good, he wouldn't just disappear like that. He must be hiding real good, the things I would give to have those x-ray vision goggles that Professor Hamilton made me back. My Young Justice communicator goes off. I still carry the thing around with me at all times, just in case something bad happens, and we each have our own frequency so I know that they need to talk to me and fast. I stop in the air and answer it, "Superboy here, this had better be important." "Superboy." I hear Snapper Carr's voice over the communicator, Young Justice's current nursemaid. "What is it Snapper, I'm kinda busy right now." "Look, I know you wanted your privacy while you were doing something or other in the middle of nowhere, but Wonder Girl and Impulse have gone missing." "What do you mean missing?" "They aren't answering their communicators, but they are both together, we've got a lock on them and they are about 100 miles east of where you are." "What about the others, where are they?" Now I'm concerned, is this a personal attack against me? "Cissie's right here with me, helping me get the info I need to you and the others. Empress, Lobo, Secret, and Ray are off in Tokyo stopping a remote controlled Rhodan from demolishing Osaka, and Robin is busy helping the rest of the bat clan on a case that he can't talk about, orders from papa bats himself." "So everyone except for Cassie and Bart are all accounted for?" "Yeah." "Tell the others to get over to where those two are as soon as possible, I'm on my way over there right now." "Be careful, Kon." "Superboy out." I'm a little to angry right now to be careful. I'm also in too much of a hurry to change into my costume. Fighting evil in jeans and a flannel shirt, I bet that'll impress the ladies. "Get your mind out of the gutter and focus!" I'm almost positive that this is an attack against me now. Does someone know that I'm posing as Conner Kent in Smallville? Does someone want me dead and is hurting the people who I know and care about? Whoever this person is, I will make sure they never hurt another person, or die trying. It doesn't take me ten minutes to get to where Snapper told me that Cassie and Bart are at, and it's a cave in the mountain ranges. Great, this just screams evil mastermind at work. I'm in deep trouble. Not that it ever stopped me before. I coast around a bit, looking for anyone, but it's just barren. Better call it in, "Snapper, I'm at the location, but I don't see either of them." I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn around. "Cassie! You're okay!" She looks at me, then down at the communicator. She grabs it from my hand and breaks it. "Cassie, why did you do that?" All I see is her sneer at me. "Cassie, it's me, Kon." She doesn't answer with words, but she punches me in the stomach. I gasp for air, but she's already over me, and with her hands clutched together she rams them into my back. The force alone sends me back down to earth in a hurry, and I make a mark on the ground because of the impact. She lands down in front of me, but all I can see is her sneakers. "Cassie, is this some kind of sick training session that you wanted to drag me too?" She tries to kick me, but I'm ready for it. It's obvious she isn't herself, something is wrong with her. "Would you look at me? I don't want to hurt you, but I will if only to knock some sense into you." She takes to the air, with me holding onto her foot. Once she gets high enough she flips me over again, this time both her heels hitting me right in my chest. I plummet back down to the ground. If I don't mount an offense soon she can probably kill me. But I don't want to hit her. She stands over me and slaps my cheek. I manage to slide under her legs and get her in a full nelson. I know that unless I pull everything I have in this hold she can break out of it. She screams in rage, "Look Cassie, I don't know what is wrong with you, but you are going to calm down or I won't let you go, the choice is yours. Talk to me!" She's struggling, and I have to keep tightening my grip, I might be hurting her, but she'll thank me when she comes to her senses. "Come on Cassie, you're stronger than whatever it is that has a hold of you, fight it!" She screams again, this time more in pain, I want to let go, but I can't. I feel the wind rustle around me and when I blink Impulse is standing in front of me. "Bart, help me with Cassie!" He walks closer to me and touches my arm, I'm about to let go when he punches me as fast as he can, which makes me let go of Cassie. I'm losing consciousness, but I'm not out of it yet. Bart runs around me at full speed, sucking the air from the whirlwind he's created. I'm temporarily blinded by the dust. I don't even see Cassie's fist come towards my nose till it's too late. All I see, is the blackness. I awaken inside the cave that I flew by, I think. I'm also stuck onto some sort of apparatus that looks like an operating table, but I'm shackled down. Another noticeable factor in my current dilemma is the fact that I can't get the strength to break them. "I see you have finally woken up from your slumber." Who the hell could be saying that? Cassie, who had been standing to the side of me, out of my sight, pulls a lever and makes the thing that is holding me stand up. "It's a good thing too, because I'd hate for you to not feel what is about to happen to you." My jaw drops, "Neron." The scum laughs, "Why so shocked, Superboy? Surely you didn't think that being demoted from my post would keep me out of this planet's trite meta- human activities now did you?" "How. how did you." "How did I get out of the position I was stuck in? It's quite simple actually. You see, the higher lords of evil really don't like your precious little Justice League of America. All it really took was a promise that I would cause them a shattering amount of pain before I took each of their lives and I was back where I started, with some added powers. Now I can take souls, and even kill people, for no reason. It really does add to my "evil demon lord" persona, don't you think? So, just how do you fit into this? As I thought of a way to harm the league it became all too apparent, harm their children. None of the members have actual children, but many of them have children whom are their protégés. If I kill these namesakes, it would be a crushing blow to all of them. And that is just step one of my plan, but there is no need to let you in on the rest, since you'll be dead soon enough." He walks over to me and punches me in the gut. I cough out some blood. "I always wanted to do that, it felt good too. Oh, don't bother trying to break free of those bonds, they are laced with kryptonite, and the outsides of the bands are lead, so should Superman come to try and free you, he'll be in deep trouble too. You'd be surprised how easy that stuff is to find if you have the right connections." Great, kryptonite won't kill me as fast as it would Superman, but it does drain a lot of my juice from me. "What have you done to my teammates?" He takes a flask out and dangles it in front of me. "You see the contents in this flask? Its water from the river Lethe, you know, the river of forgetfulness. All I had to do was make sure that those two drank a drop of this and they wouldn't remember anything about who they were, but they would remember everything that they did while the water was working it's magic. I plan on having both of them dead before that, but hey, it was easier to lure you here since the odds of you pushing aside that moronic "code" that you people all seem to live by, except Batman, cold hearted man that he is. You people can't win this fight, Superboy, and you're going to be the first victim." He snaps his fingers and Bart undoes my shackles, both he and Cassie carry me closer to him. I've only got one shot at keeping myself alive at this point, and it isn't going to make me sleep better at night. The Kryptonite drained me of a majority of my power, but I've still got enough to do what I need to do, I hope. Unexpectedly I kick part in the stomach with as much strength as I can get out, it sends him flying back and down. Cassie tries to punch me in the face again but this time I grab her wrists and put her bracelets together. She told me once that if she didn't want someone to do that it would take away her powers for a bit, and I doubt this mind warped Cassie wants me too. I elbow her in the chin with a lot of force and she goes down too. "Forgive me you two." "Well, I had the odds of you pulling something like that weighed out, and I must say I'm surprised. But I wouldn't come without a plan B, and here he is." He steps aside, "Here is the perfect body I need for the rest of my plan!" It's. its Kevin.
Chapter Five
What does he mean? Perfect Body? "Shocking, isn't it? You'll attack members of your team, but will you attack this normal human? Someone who you call "cousin?" Kevin walks up to me and gives me the same sneer that Cassie gave me earlier. "Well Superboy, what are you going to do?" He's right, I can't attack this boy, he doesn't have anything to do with the entire situation, I can't hit an innocent. "As some dead person once said, "he who hesitates is lost." Kevin, you know what to do." Kevin takes out a green knife and stabs in the ribs with it. "ARGGGGGGGGG!" I scream as he continues to stab and dig the knife into my body. Then, he drops the knife. "Oh my god. Kon, what I have done?" "What the hell? How could you have broken the effects of Lethe's water, HOW!" I smile as blood protrudes from the sides of my mouth. Weakly I reply, "You've never given the human heart the credit it deserves, demon. It can break just about anything if given the chance." My body gives in on me and I fall into Kevin's arms, "Kon, I'm so sorry." "Oh enough of this. He may be the perfect body, but I can find another." Neron raises his hand and I know what's coming. I turn us around as fast as I can, my body blocking Kevins. "GAHHHHHHHHHH!" I scream as the energy hits my body. Kevin lets go of me and I drop to the ground. (Not from Kon's point of view, but it's pretty good ain't it? *shameless plug*) "Well Kevin, you said you wanted to be with your parents again. Kill Superboy and I promise that you will be with them again." "I won't kill him, I will not kill my cousin." "Don't you see? He lied to you from the moment he met you, they all lied to you. And don't you want to see your parents again? To feel their touch on your skin?" Neron's voice was getting more forceful. "You know I want to see my parents again, but they wouldn't want me to kill someone just so I could be with them. I know that much." "FOOL!" Neron yelled. "If you do not wish to submit to our agreement then it will be my pleasure to do it for you. Prepare to die, mortal!" "I don't fear death, demon." Kevin replied, showing no fear. "You will once you realize how close it is to you!" "I'm afraid you won't be killing anyone today, Neron!" A voice boomed from behind him. "Superman!" Neron hissed. "I see you've brought along some friends." He saw the man of steel, along with Flash and Wonder Woman. "I don't need them to take care of you." "That is a very bold statement from one who hasn't seen the fruits of my labor. Take a look for yourself." Neron pointed to the slumped over figure of Superboy. "A piece of work if I do say so myself, of course, I could not have done it without the aid of your cousin." Superman began to run over to the side of Kon, but stopped as soon as he came close enough for the kryptonite radiation from the knife to affect him. "Flash, get that knife out of here!" "I'm on it!" In a blur Flash grabbed the knife and ran out. "You Justice Leaguers just don't know when to quit!" Neron yelled out. "I won't retreat without a life claimed from this botched up effort." He looked at Kevin, "Yours!" Neron placed his hand out and began to shoot out energy, but he found that his power was redirected, by the golden lasso. "Demon, did you really think that I, a former goddess, would not be able to detect your evil presence on this earth?" "We've danced this dance before woman, and last time we did I killed you, causing your ascent to "godhood". Perhaps it is past time I repeated the process, but with more. permanent results." "You can kill me as many times as you see fit, Neron, but I will always come back, we will always come back." "I'll make sure I tell your mother you said that when next I taunt her in tartarus, Diana." "Demon! You will regret tarnishing the name of my mother!" Diana released the hold that her lasso had on Neron and attacked him head on. It was a battle between the two, one the ultimate being of truth, the other, corruption. Their combined fury began to bring the cave in which the battle took place down. Amidst the battle that the two were having, Superman was checking for any signs of life in Superboy. "Kon, Kon, wake up!" Superman turned Kon around so he lay on his back, in an effort to open the air channels in the kids body, it was in doing this that he saw the many stab wounds that aligned Superboy's body. "These wounds, they are massive." ^Do not worry about him right now, Superman.^ The voice of J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunnter, ran through him. ^I can't just let Kon die, J'onn.^ ^I will teleport him up to the watchtower and do my best to mend his wounds.^ ^Teleport me up with you!^ ^No, Clark, I know how you must feel, but you have to aid Diana, or else Neron might kill her, again.^ Superman looked over and saw that Neron was indeed gaining the upper hand against the mighty amazon. ^Please my friend, go help her.^ ^Alright, take care of Superboy for me, I'll be up as soon as I can.^ Superboy's body faded away, a visual side effect of being teleported to the watchtower. Clark looked over at Kevin, who was shaking, in a state of shock. Quickly, he flew over to aid Wonder Woman, who was kneeling on the ground. "And so it ends now. You never were a match for me Wonder Wom." Neron was cut off mid-sentence by the force of Superman ramming him into the wall. Furiously Superman continually pummeled his fists into the face of Neron, but the demon teleported behind him. "I can sense the rage in you. I like that, I'll still kill you, but I like it." "I told you, you are not killing anyone today!" Superman fired his heat vision, but Neron had again shifted his position. "I will do as I please, Kryptonian."
"You can't do anything if you can't concentrate!" The flash had returned and was using his accelerated speed to surround Neron in a mini-tornado. Superman again fired off his heat vision, this time connecting with the demon's chest. Kevin stayed knelt in the area where he had been while he was staring at Kon's bleeding form. He stared at his hands and saw that they were covered with blood, the blood of someone he deeply cared about. He knew that he had to make Neron pay, and he intended to do just that. "Enough of this!" Neron's form began to glow black, and a massive blast of power came from his center, knocking all three members of the league back. "You've meddled in my affairs again, caused me to exert myself to my breaking point, but this will be the last time!" Another shot hit Neron, this time from the side. "Who dares?" Kevin screamed out, "I dare! You don't think I was paying attention to what you told me did you? You said that you needed the perfect host body to contain your power, and that I was it. I knew you were staring to transfer power to me, and now I know how to use it. Step down demon, you will not win this!" "You think you have power boy? When I return, you will see what real power is!" Neron again teleported, this time however, he teleported to an unknown place. Kevin, still shaken, ran over to Superman, who was getting up from the ordeal. "Clark, take me to Kon, please." Superman, while taken back by the fact that his cousin now knew who he really was, nodded. "Flash, Diana, you two make sure that Impulse and Wonder Girl are alright, I need to go check on Kon." Superman and Kevin were whisked away in the familiar blue light. It should have freighted Kevin, but he was too busy worrying about Kon to notice.
Chapter Six
Superman and Kevin teleported to the teleportation room and within seconds where at the medical bay. The Kid was already on a respirator and his entire abdomen was bandaged up. "J'onn. is he." Superman choked up but continued, "is he going to be alright?" "That depends on many factors. The wounds that he sustained were massive, and the amount of healing required is too much for me to handle. Fortunately, Dr. Mid-Nite answered my telepathic call for aid." The Martian put his hand over Clark's shoulder. "We'll do everything we can, but a large part of his survival depends on his own will." Mid-Nite turned away from the monitors that he had been keeping watch over, "We had to bandage him up in order to stop the bleeding, but he will require surgery nonetheless." "Thank you for coming Dr." Superman said, watching someone he cared about deeply fight for his live. "I'm a doctor, Superman, it's my job to save lives, and those whom bear your crest are among the most treasured beings on the planet. It's the least I could do. However, I need both you and your guest to leave the room and let us work." "Of course, come on, Kevin." "No." Kevin replied sternly. "I will not leave Kon, it's my fault that all this happened to him." "Kevin, regardless of what you think, what happened wasn't your fault. At least not directly. But right now all we can do is respect the wishes of the two people who can save him. Trust me, he couldn't be in better hands." Kevin looked up at Clark, if you can't trust Superman, who can you trust? The boy finally relented and walked out of the room. Clark took one final look back and soon followed. "How did you find out?" He asked as he saw Kevin looking out the window. "It was pretty easy once I saw that Superboy was Kon. The logical thing to assume would be that you were Superman. After all, why would Superboy be staying with the Kents' unless they were somehow connected to Superman. Plus, the look, I don't see how you're able to fool so many people wearing only those glasses when you're Clark." "Well, you know now, I can't do anything about it." "Yeah, you can't do anything about a lot of things, Clark." "Do you want to talk about what happened, Kevin?" "No, what I want to do is find that Neron guy and turn his head into a soccer ball. He hurt my." He turned around and looked at Clark, "you've lied to every single one of us since day one. They lied to me too, he isn't even my cousin!" "You know that Ma can't conceive a child on her own, you've always known that I was adopted. As for keeping this a secret, I have a lot of enemies, Kevin. A lot of enemies would harm any member of my family just to get at me. The less people that know who I really am just means the less chance that those very people have at getting harmed. While it may be true that he isn't biologically your relative, do you truly think so lowly of him now that you've found that out? Would the relationship that the two of you have developed since you've lived with my parents and met him have changed so drastically if you knew he wasn't?" Kevin thought long and hard over what Superman. Clark. had just told him, and he knew that he was right, it really wouldn't have changed anything. "It still doesn't make what I did any easier. I may have just killed someone, someone whom I care about a lot." "You can't take responsibility for the things that you have no control over. It's obvious that you were influenced by Neron, what you did was not of your own accord." "I'm still possessed by a part of him. I was his "perfect" body, the one body on the planet that could take his essence without rejecting it and having the body shut down. Another step of his plan was to posses a normal human body, a body that would be his husk. The only person who could be this husk is the person who wants something so badly that in consumes their being, and it was me. If I had only gotten over what happened to my parents I wouldn't have been." "No one expects you to come to term with the deaths of both your parents so quickly, Kevin. No one expects you to ever come to complete peace over it. Don't tear yourself up over a human trait. As for Neron's essence, the JLA knows many mystics, we could get you exorcised." "No Clark, I know I can control whatever I have inside me. And I intend to take revenge on Neron, even if I have to follow him into the gates of hell." "Hell doesn't really have gates, they should really get a new travel agent." Both Kevin and Clark turned to the side to find out who said that, it was Flash. "Hey, someone had to break the drama, it was beginning to get as thick as tar." "Kevin, I believe you know of the Flash." Wally took Kevin's hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you kid. A quick word of advice from someone who's been doing this longer than big blue over there, don't lust for revenge, if you do than you are no better than Neron." "He's right Kevin, revenge isn't what we do. Wally, how are the others?" "Diana and I took them over to Young Justice's HQ, she's still over there helping Snapper make what's going to counteract the effects of Lethe's water. It's a good thing that Snapper reached us when he did, or else. it could have been a lot worse." Clark nodded, "We owe Snapper." "What's that bring the running total of favors up too? I lost count." Superman looked at Flash who took the hint. "Alright, I'll let the drama start up again, but you mind if I make some popcorn and watch? I tell you, you two have already had more drama than the entire series of Dynasty and Melrose Place combined. And I just admitted that I watch Aaron Spelling productions. gotta go." And with that, the Scarlet Speedster was off. "Sorry about that Kevin, he's a little." "Hyper-active?" "That's putting it lightly. But when it all comes down to it, few people have a dependability rating as high as Flash though." "Okay, so you people don't do revenge, fine. What do you do?" "Anything that doesn't involve killing, we kill only as a last resort, and even then, only to save more lives. More often than not we put the villains in jail, stripping them of their power." "I somehow doubt that Neron can be stripped of his power now. He's promised whomever he answers to all your heads on a black platter." "Many people have offered more, and they can never make due with their promise. We're the JLA Kevin, we don't lose." Quietly Kevin asked, "Then why is Kon fighting for his life?" Unbeknownst to both of them, J'onn had walked in from the Medical Bay, "He's not, not anymore. He lost a lot of blood, and the wounds were kryptonite induced, so they will take longer to heal, even for him, but he'll pull through." "Can. can I see him Mr." "Please, call me J'onn, and yes, you may see him." "Thanks, J'onn." Kevin ran into the Medical Bay. "You did it, J'onn." Superman said with relief. "We did nothing, Clark. Nothing more than making sure that his body did not go into shock. I was scanning his mind while we worked, and he came back for the people he cared about. But most of all, he came back. for you. He knew that if he died on that operating table then Neron would have won a small victory, and a crushing blow would have befallen you, which was just what the demon wanted. Go and see him my friend, he's waiting." Clark nodded and walked through the door. (Back to Kon's point of view) I awoke on a table, but I knew that I was in a safe place. Slowly, and with an enormous amount of pain, I manage to sit upright. "I see you are up, Superboy." "Yeah," I grab my side to brace the pain, "but I wouldn't have gotten up if it weren't for you. Thanks." "Please, the fact that you will continue to inspire people the way your namesake has is more than enough thanks for me." "Any long term effects I should be aware of, Doc?" Mid-nite shuffled through the papers on his clipboard. "Aside from the stab scars you will not have any other permanent effects to my knowledge. However, you won't be able to be at full strength for quite awhile, and I'm insisting that you stay here for the rest of the night so that J'onn or myself may monitor you and conduct other tests." Great, I'm gong to miss. well, nothing happens in Smallville anyway. And given the other alternative, I can manage staying put here for the rest of the night, can't really beat the view. "Kon!" Kevin yells as he runs up and grabs me. "Watch the ribs!" I say as I wince in pain. "Oh, sorry." He starts to cry again. "Would you stop crying, I'm fine. Well. I've seen better days, but I'll be fine." "This is all my fault." "No it isn't Kevin, and I won't let you blame yourself for what happened. Just drop it okay?" "Alright." He moves to the side and I see Clark standing over me. "Superboy." "Look, I'm sorry that you had to come save me, but thanks." "That doesn't matter, you're fine, and I was just doing what I've pledged my life too." "Umm. could you do me a favor?" Clark smirks, "What do you need, but I won't do anything along the lines of having Black Canary do a pity strip to make you feel better." "It's a good show if you can catch it." Mid-Nite says as he shuffles through more papers. "No, I want you to go to the Marxs' house and tell them that Perry had his soul taken from his body. They deserve to know." "I'll make sure to tell them that." He looks down at Kevin, "We'd better get you back home." Kevin looks at me, "Aren't you coming home too, Kon?" "I've got to stay here for the night, doctor's orders. I'll be home tomorrow, tell Ma and Pa not to worry." "I've got Monitor Duty tonight, so I'll be back." Clark and Kevin leave the room. "So, is it really a good show?" Mid-Nite answers, "Indeed it is. indeed it is." (Not Kon's point of view) Clark and Kevin landed in front of the Kent farm. "Well, we'd better go tell them what happened." "Clark. can we make a couple of stops before we tell them?" "What kind of stops?" Kevin whispered something into Clark's ear. "Yeah, I'd be happy to do that." Within five minutes they were at the cemetery where Kevin's parents were buried. "Do you think I'm doing the right thing, Clark?" "If you feel you are doing the right thing, then you are doing the right thing. I can fly you here anytime you want to pay a visit. If it's too much on you right now we can just fly you back to the farm and try again later. The choice is yours to make, Kevin." Kevin looked over at the grave and turned back around, looking at his cousin. "Can. I do this alone?" Clark nodded. Slowly Kevin walked over to his parents grave and knelt down, "I didn't think I would be paying you this visit so soon, but I figure now is the right time. I gave up the chance to be with both of you again. I know that part of that bargain would mean that I would have given him my soul and we wouldn't have been united in body. To be honest, I was ready to do it, I didn't care that you wouldn't be back here, I just cared that I would be with you. I wanted it that badly. Now that I think about it, the odds of someone who sold his soul going to the good place as opposed to the bad place are rather low. It obviously wasn't a very wise choice on my part, but I was blinded by my pain over what happened, nothing else mattered. I didn't know that the guy I made the deal with expected me to kill someone who I care about in order to finalize the deal. I did know that no matter what, you would never have wanted me to kill someone, no matter what. I realize now that as long as I have people who are willing to be there for me, that's all I need. It won't ever make up for losing you two, but I can't change fate." He placed a bouquet of roses on the plaque that marked their burial plot. "At least I know that you two are together. Mom. Dad. happy anniversary." And with that, Kevin walked away.
Fin.