Chapter Ten:
Clark tries to laugh child Bruce's deduction off. "No you're not. You're just a kid, Batman is an adult."
Bruce's eyes narrow again and Clark swears his voice drops an octave while he practically growls out, "What happened to me on that spaceship, Clark?"
"Nothing happened that I haven't already told you," Clark says.
Bruce almost jumps out of his booster seat. "But you haven't told me anything!" He lowers his voice when he sees a few people looking over at their table. "You just told me some bad people took me and they hurt me but you never told me how they hurt me."
"Because you don't need to know, Bruce," Clark pleads.
"Yes I do." He sounds almost panicked. "Yes I do, Clark, I need to know and it's not right or your responsibility to keep it from me." Bruce sighs. "I can handle it. I know you think I can't, but I can."
"You're only four," Clark almost whispers, his words laced with sadness and grief even to his own ears.
Bruce stops narrowing his eyes and instead takes on almost a sad questioning look. "Am I?"
Clark can't look the child in the eyes when he answers. "Of course, you are."
When Clark looks back to Bruce, the kid looks even more sad. "You keep lying."
"I'm trying to protect you," he tries explaining.
Bruce shakes his head slightly. "But at what cost?"
It's a way too adult thing to say and Clark doesn't really like it. "There is no cost, not with this."
"There's always a cost." Bruce looks away then, indicating that the conversation is over, at least for now.
Clark sighs, wondering how the conversation went from child Bruce channeling his inner four year old and enjoying the pizza, to child Bruce channeling his inner forty year old and asking questions and reprimanding him like his adult self would do. Sighing one more time, he continues to eat as does Bruce.
It isn't until they are done with the pizza and Clark is about to get up to throw the trash away that two people sit beside them, one large male in the chair to Clark's left and one female in the booth to Bruce's right. "Hey, handsome, fancy seeing you here," the female says.
Clark looks at her, trying to figure out if he's seen her before. Bruce's heart beat has sped up and he's looking at the two suspiciously. "Do I know you?"
The woman answers with a smile. "No you don't. My name is Imogen and he is Cormac." She holds out her hand for Clark to shake but he looks at it distrustfully.
Clark looks back to her eyes. They're a weird color, almost a shimmering purple with some green in it. "Who are you?"
"Should we call you Clark, Kal, or Superman?" Imogen smiles at him but he can tell it's faked sincerity.
"How do you know me?" Clark notices Bruce trying to secretly slip down under the table. Unfortunately, Imogen notices too and grabs the back of his shirt, yanking him back up. The boy squeals with alarm and Clark almost jumps up from his seat but a hand placed on his shoulder causes him to collapse back down. He looks to the hand, Cormac's hand, and notices a faint glow. Magic... not again. Can't we have a break from the last time? Clark now knows who these two are. "You're two of the mages, aren't you?"
Imogen smiles again. "You're pretty sharp aren't you." She pulls Bruce close to her and the boy pushes against her, trying to get away. Clark looks around the room but no one notices this. Does she have a cloaking spell up? "Yes, we are the 'mages'. Cormac and I were sent to you to talk."
Clark is starting to sweat and feel nauseous from the hand on his shoulder. He wishes magic didn't affect him so much. "Talk about what?"
"Things, like who we are," she says.
Clark shakes his head. "I don't really care who you are. Let go of the boy."
"We are Broorg, and are a, as you would call us as well as yourself, Kryptonian, a 'humanoid' species. Cormac and I come from a planet called Vulbir V," she begins despite Clark's statement of not caring. "Except we have two stomachs and much stronger bones than these humans. We also use these," She lifts her shirt to show her stomach. Clark can see a black, round, implanted thing right where her belly button should be. "Implants to breathe. Our home world was rendered uninhabitable due to an environmental catastrophe. That planet was called Vulbir and it was a beautiful place. But the catastrophe killed many of us and we had to leave. We decided to terraform a nearby planet in our star system and make that planet our new home."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Clark asks, starting to pant from how sick he is starting to feel. Bruce looks at him with worry and Clark wishes he could comfort him. "I don't care."
"You see, Superman, we are governed by a religious hierarchy and it's a brutal religion that is up on top," she continues, ignoring him. "Of course, all our religions can be demanding and harsh but necessary, even the very bottom one. If you're wondering, I'm third in from the top, Cormac is fifth from the top and second to last. That's why he hasn't talked, he's not allowed to." She chuckles. "But at least he's not the bottom. Now those are the real slaves and the ones that get no rights at all. They should be lucky we allow them to live." Clark is disgusted and wishes he had the strength to tell her so... with his fist. "Anyways, after we moved to Vulbir II, we started to explore more and claimed over half our galaxy. We have conquered and colonized many planets. Now, now Superman, we aren't here to take over Earth. We have no interest in this filthy planet that is overrun by this," she looks to Bruce, "scum. We are only interested in our galaxy," Imogen says to his worried look. "But the problem is, Superman, with so much colonization, with so much conquering, we are running out of our own species to be... the lower religion."
"Then why not stop colonizing?" Clark asks.
She laughs. "We will never do that until all the planets are conquered in our galaxy." She calms. "We find, however, that getting slaves that are already adults difficult because they like to revolt, try to get out of it, and complain," she spits the last word out. "Then we learned about magic and how wonderful it can be and with that, we soon realized that raising kids into adults that are already slaves are much less of a hassle and a pain in the ass. They complain less, revolt less, and do their damn job." Clark narrows his eyes in anger as Bruce's widen, probably finally figuring out what happened to him back on that spaceship. "Removing their memories is just another perk." Bruce looks to him in shock but doesn't say anything. "Oh and by the way Superman, I suggest you get back to your cute little Watchtower soon. You see, Gorganeerians have a wonderful talent at lying and overcoming truth serums and truth magic. They also have quite the knack at keeping telepathy out of their head. They're pretty good at that defense." Clark looks at her in alarm. They were lying! Diana was right! Imogen chuckles. "I promised them this world so I guess you do have to worry about an alien force conquering this world." Except the queen wasn't just lying about coming to conquer but about being sent by the mages too. Oh no! "Gorganeerians are very useful. After all, they made it possible for me to find you." Clark rakes his brain to figure out what she could possibly mean. Then it hits him. The sword. Before Clark can ask how being stabbed made it so she could find him, though he suspects it must have something to do with magic, she says, "Now, I have said all that I came to say, we'll be leaving now."
She makes to get up but Clark stops her by saying, "Not with the boy."
Imogen looks at him as if she is shocked he is being so unruly and defiant. "Of course, with the boy. He belongs to us now, he's our property," she says this as if it's obvious.
Clark finally finds the strength to shove Cormac's hand off his shoulder and stand. "He's no one's property and therefore belongs to no one!"
She eyes him for a short minute before saying, "Kria owa." Imogen flicks her wrist and the next thing Clark knows is he is being flung backwards. He knocks over the chair and hits the wall, creating huge cracks in it. Before he has time to recover, Imogen walks over to him and places her hand just above his eyes and on his eyebrows. "Crorur." Clark feels really tired all of sudden and he struggles to keep his eyes open but Imogen pushes them down with her fingers. Before he's spelled into full sleep he sees her smile victoriously at him and hears her say, "Goodnight, Kal-El, we will be seeing each other again soon."
...
Clark intakes a large breath as he opens his eyes. Looking around rapidly and blinking to clear the fog in his brain, he realizes he is still sat at the table as if nothing happened. The other people in the restaurant are still eating their food, engaging in conversation and laughing, and to Clark's relief, Bruce is still across from him albeit asleep. Shaking his head, Clark gets up abruptly, knocking the chair over in the process, and causing all eyes to turn to him. It was a dream, a vision, she hasn't been here yet... but their coming. Rushing to the other side of the table, he shakes the child awake. "Bruce."
Bruce groggily wakes up, rubbing at his eyes to try and rid the magic. "What happened?"
"We need to leave." He picks him up. "We need to leave right now."
Snapping fully awake, Bruce asks in alarm, "What's going on?"
There's murmuring going on around him, the other patrons wondering what is going on as well. "We just need to-" There's a bang and Clark turns to the front of the building just in time to see the door fly off its hinges. It almost hits the woman behind the counter, who screams and ducks for cover. There are more shocked screams that echo around the room and Clark watches horrified as the two mages walk into the restaurant.
Cormac looks bigger than in the vision and Imogen looks ten times more menacing. The sounds die down in the room and everyone watches the two walk in and stop ten feet from Clark. "Give us the boy." Clark stands there, holding Bruce close, and says nothing. "We can do this the hard way or the easy way, Clark. Give us the boy right now."
"Hold on tight." He whispers to Bruce and he feels the arms wrapped around him grow tighter. He takes a hesitant step back, watches as Imogen catches the action, and then he turns and bolts for the back entrance. As soon as he is out of sight of the customers in the pizza joint, he uses his super speed to get the rest of the way out of the building and hits the sky. Clark goes high up into the sky, high enough for it to be impossible for anyone on the ground to make out who he is. Clark lost his glasses at one point too, sure they are in the alley that he entered while exiting the building and probably fell off when he hastily flew off the ground, and now Bruce is shivering in his arms because he is so high up. There's also no sun to even remotely warm them up a little bit. The further he goes, the more it gets cold, Clark going to the only place he can think of that will buy the two some time before the two Broorg follow him there. He lands gracefully within the confines of the Fortress of Solitude, making sure to lock it so only he can enter. Going to the main room he sets Bruce down, grabs the blanket one of the droids brings to him, and wraps it around Bruce's shivering form. He then tells the Fortress to warm up a bit as he quickly changes into his Superman costume. Going to the bank of computers, Clark hits a button. "Superman to Justice League, Justice League come in." He's worried by what Imogen told him about the Gorganeerians. There's only static that comes from the other side so he tries again. "Superman to Justice League, please come in." More static sounds.
"Clark," Clark looks to Bruce. "Did that woman make us see all that?" He nods in confirmation. "How much was it made up?"
Clark thinks about this and wonders as well. It must have been after his conversation with Bruce since the people in the restaurant reacted to Bruce yelling but not to what the Broorg were doing. However, Clark also knows that's what Bruce is currently trying to figure out. Was their conversation real? Yes, but... "I would have to say it began as soon as we started talking."
Bruce's eyes narrow and Clark is almost afraid he's going to see through the lie. "Why do you think that?"
Clark shrugs. "Because, she probably wanted us to be pinned against each other and what better way of doing that than causing us to have an argument."
Bruce's eyes stay narrowed for a long time, the silence stretching out. Bruce finally talks, letting his face relax. "I... suppose that makes sense." There's still an undertone of suspicion in the kid's voice.
Clark doesn't think Bruce believes him and after what happened at the pizza place, he most likely is right, but Bruce drops it so Clark does as well. He tries to get in contact with the League again. "Damn it." He hits the crystal surface that the computer sits on in frustration.
"Something's wrong isn't it?" Bruce has set aside the blanket as the Fortress is plenty warm now.
Clark pinches the bridge of his nose then side eyes Bruce. What is he going to do? "Yes, something's wrong. They should be answering." Rubbing at his face, Clark takes a step back from the computer. "Something's happened up there and the only way for me to figure it out is to fly up there but I can't with you because you can't breathe in space."
"It's too bad Batman isn't here." Clark sighs, not missing the jab at him. Bruce takes a step towards him. "What are we going to do then?"
"I don't-" Both Clark and Bruce jump by the loud bang they hear. The Broorg are here!
Bruce runs the rest of the way to him. "They're trying to get in."
Clark scoops the child up and speeds to his bedroom. He sets Bruce down by the bed. "Stay in here."
"Be careful," Bruce calls after him as he leaves.
Once the door slides shut behind him, Clark says to the Fortress, "Lock the door. Don't allow anyone access except for me." He waits to hear the click of the door before making his way back to the main room of the Fortress. There, Imogen and Cormac are already waiting.
"Where's the boy?" Imogen asks.
"Safe." Clark stands up straight and tries to look intimidating. When Imogen and Cormac's hands start to glow, he braces himself.
He dodges an attack from Imogen who decides to shoot a beam of magic towards him while Cormac charges him. Cormac misses by a few inches and Clark brings down both his fists onto his upper back, slamming him to the floor. Cracks form around the man and he seems to be dazed for the moment so Clark turns his attention to Imogen. She's closer to him than he thought, however, and Clark gets punched in the face causing him to stumble back. He rubs his cheek, feeling the sting, and sees Cormac getting up. The magic makes them strong and it doesn't help that Clark has no defense against it. Cormac shoots a rapid succession of magic balls in which Clark dodges easily but then there's a sharp pain in his back where Imogen has managed to sneak behind him. Turning around, he lands a blow to her own face, flying her backwards and into the wall with the force of the punch. Clark has a feeling they can take him being a little rough and using his strength.
He goes after Cormac this time, flying with super speed to him and grabbing him around his midsection. He flies him into the wall where he punches him in the gut and then the head. It only fazes the big guy for a second before he grabs a hold of Clark's face with both hands and the next thing Clark feels is a burning, nauseating pain to his cheeks that radiate all through his head. Clark yells and wrenches himself out of Cormac's grasp, floating back a few feet away before falling to his knees, holding both his cheeks.
"Where is he?" Imogen screams and when Clark looks up, he can see her approaching him.
Clark stands, shaking the pain off the best he can. "Safe." He flies towards her but she is ready. With a few words, there's a shield in front of her and Clark promptly flies right into it. It electrocutes him and he has to quickly stumble back to get away from it. He's breathing heavily as he looks from Imogen to Cormac. How can he defeat these two? He doesn't know but he has to protect Bruce... even if it kills him.
He flies towards Imogen again but this time instead of a shield stopping him, Cormac ramming into his side does. He hits the floor hard, both of them rolling to a stop, Cormac on top of him. Before he has a chance to get up, Cormac's glowing fist comes down and connects with his jaw. The pain radiates through Clark's entire body, causing him to tense up with each blow. "Tell us where he is right now!"
Imogen is getting angrier but Clark still won't tell her no matter how much pain they put him through. He will protect Bruce, no matter the age, with his life. Clark catches the next punch in his hand, feels the burn of the magic but ignores it, returning a punch to Cormac's own jaw. The guy rolls off him, holding his face as blood pours out of his nose. Clark hit him a little harder than he has been.
Struggling to get up, he manages to shakily get to his feet. Defiantly, he stands his ground to Imogen, not saying a word. This only seems to piss her off more. She charges and Clark catches her by the wrist, twists it until it breaks and she screams, then falls to the ground again as Cormac recovers and kicks him in the stomach. Imogen screams profanity at him as Cormac keeps kicking him with a magic infused foot. A kick that lands painfully on his stomach causes him to roll away, getting him out of Cormac's reach. He tries to get up, spitting blood onto the ground, but his arms are too shaky to lift his body weight.
When Cormac reaches him again, Clark looks up into his smiling face. The mage lifts his leg, posing to stomp on Clark's head and possibly end it all, but before he has a chance there's a voice and then a yellow beam of magic that hits Cormac and sends him flying. "Quickly, get to the kid." Superman looks over to the one who owns the voice, the one who has decided to join the battle, the one who has saved his life, and is shocked by who he sees. Doctor Fate is standing there, currently in heated battle with Imogen. "Go, Superman!"
Clark pushes himself up with still shaky arms and begins to stumble his way back to his bedroom where he left Bruce, having to stop himself from collapsing by catching himself on the wall more than once. Clark slowly makes his way to the locked door, leaning on the wall as he says, "Open." There's a click to indicate the door unlocking and then it slides open. Clark practically falls inside, taking a few steps before he hits the floor. He lands on his hands and knees.
"Clark!" Bruce runs over to him and grabs a hold of his arm, pulling. "Come on, get up."
"Lock," Clark mumbles and the door behind him locks once again. He then waves Bruce off of him. "I'm okay... I'm okay." He crawls over to the bed and leans his back against it, trying to take even breaths. Clark then closes his eyes. "I just need to rest."
Bruce pulls his arm again. "No, don't rest like before. Rest is bad."
Clark shakes his head and opens his eyes to look at the kid. "No, it's okay. It's not like before. You don't need to worry Bruce." There's a loud noise on the other side of the door, as if someone got knocked into it. Clark scrambles to his feet and grabs a hold of Bruce's shoulders to spin them around. "Get under the bed. Don't come out for anything and don't make a sound. I mean it Bruce, stay there no matter what." Bruce nods and Clark nudges him towards the bed. He watches the four year old crawl under the bed and then turns to the door.
The door is knocked off, which would require some pretty powerful magic, Clark notes, and Doctor Fate is flung into the room. Fate rolls across the room and stays down. Cormac then follows, blue magic flowing between his hands. He goes to do a finishing blow but Clark flies into his side. Cormac flings him off with a blow of magic and Clark is hurled across the room. He hears a tiny gasp from Bruce but at least the kid has stayed there.
Imogen then walks in. "I know the kid is in here somewhere."
Clark gets to his feet as Fate does the same. Doctor Fate faces Cormac and engages in battle with him. "I'll never tell you where he is."
"Then you'll die." Imogen says some words and Clark has to dodge her next attack. He goes to do his own but Imogen recovers a lot faster than he thought she would and attacks him back. When the magic beam hits him this time, instead of knocking him back like before, it surrounds him and causes a pain to flow through his entire body. He screams, vaguely hearing Fate's concerned yell of Superman, and falls to the floor in agony. When the magic finally subsides, which is only a few seconds but it felt like ages to Clark, he is a withering, panting mess on the floor.
"Superman!" He opens his eyes through the pain and sees Bruce running towards him. No! Damn it, Bruce, even as a child you can't stay safe. Bruce is by his side but Imogen is quickly gaining on them. "Get up." He pulls at his arm and unlike the last time adult Bruce did this, Clark actually tries to get up despite the pain. "Come on."
Clark manages to somehow get to his feet. "Stay behind me." He pushes Bruce behind him. He has to think of a different tactic. How did he defeat the Gorganeerians? It comes to him after only a few seconds of thinking about it.
Imogen goes to shoot another beam of magic at him but this time Clark stops it with his heat vision. The magic and the heat vision lock together in the air and Clark starts to advance slowly. Imogen has to keep the magic beam up or else she will get hit by the heat vision but her back is also to the wall. She manages to take a few steps back but then her back hits the wall and Clark makes it close enough to punch her. He does so hard, hoping it's finally hard enough to knock her out. She falls to the ground, blood coming out of her nose and a little dribbling out of her mouth along with her eye starting to swell. Doctor Fate then comes up beside him, says some kind of spell that he directs towards Imogen, and then says to him, "She will stay asleep now."
Clark looks around the room and sees Cormac knocked out as well. "How?"
"It's only a matter of getting the upper hand instead of being the most powerful," Fate explains.
Clark holds back a chuckle. "You sound like Batman."
"Speaking of Batman." Doctor Fate turns to child Bruce, who is starting to come towards them. "We must go. Diana sent me here to get you and Bruce. We'll take these two as prisoners."
"And the Gorganeerians? How is everyone up on the Watchtower? Did they get hurt badly?" Clark asks.
Fate shakes his head then makes his signature cross portal. "No, no serious injuries. The Gorganeerians have been defeated again and their queen has been placed into custody again." He turns to the portal. "Come, we have no time to waste." Fate walks through the portal and Clark, picking up Bruce, follows.
...
They're in an empty room, Wally and Shayera entertaining Bruce while Clark and the rest of the Justice League talk to Fate and Zatanna. Apparently while captured, the queen of the Gorganeerians attacked along with the, as she called him, "chief executor" that they had also taken into custody. The other Gorganeerians, thinking that their queen and "chief executor" we're strong enough to defeat the whole Justice League by themselves, stayed out of the fight. Because of that, Diana told Clark, they had no problem taking out the two but during the fight their communication systems got damaged. They now want to vote on whether they should send the queen and her "chief executor" to the Phantom Zone or not. The vote will have to be later though since the League has more important things to concentrate on right now.
"Zatanna approached me and told me of the situation. She managed to find a reversal spell but the problem is the fact that the reversal spell is very powerful. It'll take more than one person to cast and have it work. We aren't even sure just the two of us can do it. If it comes down to it, we'll need to find some more people that do magic," Doctor Fate tells them.
"I'd recommend John Constantine, he's normally pretty good," Zatanna suggests.
Fate looks at her as if she is crazy, or that's what Clark assumes how he is looking at her since he is wearing his helmet. "Constantine is..."
"Oh don't pretend you don't like him. He's... unique." She smiles sweetly and Clark can still see the eye roll Doctor Fate gives her even with the helmet on.
"Anyways, I'm sure when they initially cast the de-aging spell, they had at least three to five people to do it," Fate continues. "It's a very difficult spell to make and even more difficult one to reverse. It will take some time."
"Also," Zatanna says. "I think it would be best if we put a sleeping spell on Bruce. That way he doesn't fight it and it lessens the possibility that complications will arise."
Clark agrees with that. He doesn't want Bruce to be awake and witness what is being done to him or get frightened. "Can I have a minute with him first?"
Zatanna and Fate exchange glances and Zatanna is the one who answers. "We would like to start as soon as possible." Clark's shoulders slumps. "But we can spare a few minutes."
Clark thanks them and walks to the middle of the room where the ritual for the spell will be taking place. "Bruce, come here for a minute please." Wally and Shayera allow Bruce to leave them and go up to Clark. When Bruce reaches him, he kneels down and places his hands on his shoulders. "Bruce it's..." He's not really sure how to tell him.
Bruce saves him from having to though. "It's time for me to go away isn't it?"
Clark feels a pull at his chest. Can he do this? Does he even want to anymore? He nods. "Yeah it is."
Bruce looks sad. "I don't want to go. I want to stay with you."
Clark wishes he could tell him that he won't be leaving him only growing up. Growing up to be totally different than how he is now. Instead, Clark pulls him into a hug. "I know you don't."
He pats Bruce's hair as the child buries his face in his shoulder. "I thought you said you wouldn't abandon me? I thought you love me?"
"I'm not going to abandon you, Bruce. I promised that," Clark says. "And I do love you but…"
"You told me you love Bruce Wayne and I'm Bruce Wayne." Bruce looks at him. "That means you love me like you love him." When Clark doesn't comment, he continues. "But you're not going to show adult me that, are you, even though I love you too?"
Clark shakes his head. "Bruce, what you're feeling right now, is different. It's not the kind of love I feel for… for Bruce Wayne. You're only four; you can't possible feel that way."
"But what makes you think adult me doesn't?" Bruce asks. "How do you know? You're not me Clark. You don't know what adult me feels."
Clark looks away from him. "But I do. I've known Bruce Wayne for a long time. I know what he's like. There's no way he would ever love me like that."
"If that's how you really feel, then don't turn me back." He lays his head back onto Clark's shoulder. "If it means staying with you, I don't want to be turned back," Bruce whispers against his shoulder so only Clark can hear. "Please, just don't leave me." Bruce isn't crying, Clark can tell, after all, he's heard the kid cry plenty of times now to know, but Clark can hear the pain in Bruce's voice. Clark doesn't say anything. "Just don't leave. Please Clark, don't leave. Don't leave me."
He continues patting the back of Bruce's head. "It's okay; it's going to be okay. I'm not going to leave you." Clark then kisses his temple. "I promise it'll be okay."
Zatanna walks up behind Bruce and places her hand on the top of his head as she says some spell. The next thing Clark knows is that Bruce is going limp and falling asleep in his arms. "He's asleep now."
Clark pulls the small body towards him. "Please just give me a little bit more time."
Zatanna gives him a sympathetic look and then nods, walking away. Clark isn't sure how long he sits there holding Bruce, but eventually Diana comes up and kneels beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Kal?"
He looks up at her. "Am I doing the right thing, Diana?"
She looks at him confused. "What do you mean?"
He sighs. "Like this, Bruce gets a second chance at a childhood. I'm willing to raise him now if that's a problem and, of course, there's always Alfred who could raise him again too but he's getting older and has Damian to deal with and-"
"Kal," Diana cuts him off. "I think you just answered your own question."
"What do you mean?" Clark asks.
She doesn't answer his question and instead asks, "Why are you thinking this all of a sudden?"
He shrugs. "It's just that..." He looks down at Bruce who is still sleeping. "Just..."
"I think we all will miss this version of him, Kal. That's understandable." When Clark looks at her again, there's another sympathetic smile on her lips. "What do you want?"
"I... don't know. Damn it, Diana, this is another thing I wanted to avoid. I didn't want to get attached to a de-aged version of my best friend." Clark scowls.
"Of your love," Diana supplies.
Clark sighs again and looks down. "Yeah... I love him so much but turning him back just because of that is selfish, isn't it?"
Diana stays silent for a little while before saying, "Then let me decide." Clark looks at her quizzically. "Gotham needs Batman, the Justice League needs Batman, Alfred needs his surrogate son, Bruce's children, especially Damian with how young he is, needs their father, and, Kal, you need him too." She smiles. "As much as we like this version of him, it's still not him. He's not the Batman Gotham knows and the Justice League knows, he's not the Bruce Alfred and all of Bruce's children know, and he certainly isn't the one you love."
"So you're saying to change him back?" Diana nods and Clark bows his head. "Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking."
Diana stands. "You were thinking of giving your best friend who you love dearly a second chance at life. There's nothing wrong with that and there is nothing wrong with enjoying this version of him and missing him when he gets turned back. It's okay to feel all those things, Kal."
Clark squeezes Bruce one last time in a tight hug, undresses him since he doesn't want him to be turned back in clothes that will no longer fit him, and then stands. "Thank you Diana." She smiles and they both walk over to Doctor Fate and Zatanna together. "I'm ready."
"Good," Fate advances towards Bruce along with Zatanna. "We have no more time to spare."
"Are you sure you want to watch this?" Diana asks him as the rest of the Justice League members come up to them.
Clark nods. "Yeah, I have to."
Wally speeds up to them. "Who's looking forward to big, bad, forlorn, grumpy Bat to be back?" His smile fades slightly when his eyes land on Clark. "Well except for you big guy, I bet you can hardly wait."
Diana beats him to an answer and he's grateful to her for it. "We all should be looking forward to Batman's return to normal."
Wally shrugs. "Well yeah, I know and I am, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to miss the little guy and how much more carefree he is compared to regular Batman."
Clark clears his throat. "Excuse me, I need to get some air."
As Clark walks away, he hears Wally say to the group, "Did I say something wrong?"
Clark exits through the door and wanders down the hall. He keeps going, hearing with his super hearing Doctor Fate and Zatanna starting to chant, until he reaches a window that is overlooking the Earth. He looks down at the planet but his thoughts are distracted with Bruce. He hates that he feels this way. He hates that he wants Bruce to stay the way he is right now but also wanting his old friend back. Child Bruce is something he's never seen before. The child's personality, despite some of adult Bruce's personality leaking through, was nothing like adult Bruce. He was happy even though he cried a lot, he was carefree even though he was clingy to Clark, and... and he liked Clark, loved Clark, something adult Bruce doesn't. Maybe that's the reason Clark doesn't want him turned back? Child Bruce loves him when adult Bruce doesn't, even if it is only familial love child Bruce is feeling. Clark always thought his friendship with Bruce would be enough but now... now he's not so sure. Clark sighs in misery and conflict.
"Superman?" Clark turns to see Wally behind him. "Are you okay?"
Clark gives him his best sincere smile which isn't that sincere. "I'm fine Wally, thank you."
Wally walks up to the window and looks out of it. "I love looking out of these Windows and seeing Earth." Clark turns to look too. "Since I can't fly like you and Diana and the rest of the JL along with not perching on roof tops like Batman, I don't get to see cities from high up above very often. That's why I like seeing Earth like this. Even though I can't fly or stay on roof tops all the time, I still get to see Earth from up high." Clark looks at him. Even when Wally is wearing his cowl, he's always been expressive and it's always been pretty easy to read his expressions as well. Right now, he looks calm and reminiscence. Clark likes seeing him like this. "I think I'll miss kid Bruce a lot but... I still want the Bat back as well. I'm conflicted about it and feel guilty that I want him to stay the way he is in the first place though." Clark knows Wally is trying to cheer him up by giving Clark something to relate too but he also can't help but get the sense that the kid is telling the truth. Bruce was pretty attached to him too. Maybe we both need some comforting right now.
"Wally," Wally turns to him. "I understand and it's okay." Clark places a hand on his shoulder. "But... Diana told me something interesting."
"Which was?" Wally asks.
Clark smiles softly. "Basically the short version is, is that the world needs Batman and most importantly, we, you and I, need Bruce, the real Bruce." He keeps his smile up. "It's hard to let go of this version of him since he's so different from what we know and especially because he actually showed that he liked us instead of growling and scowling and yelling at us." Wally barks a laugh at that. "But, adult Bruce is the one we know the best, the one that is your friend even if he doesn't act like your friend, and the one I love the most. We need that back, Wally, no matter how much we will miss this version and trust me, Wally, you're not the only one who will miss him greatly. I will too and we can share that knowledge and that feeling together... if you want to."
Wally stares at him for a few seconds before he lunges and hugs Clark, burying his face in Clark's shoulder. "Thanks big guy."
Clark blinks in surprise and hesitantly wraps his arms around the speedster, gently patting his back. "You're... you're welcome Wally." Sometimes Clark forgets that Wally is so much younger than him and the rest of the League. He's practically a kid himself compared to the others in the group. Whether Wally wants to admit it or not, he's childish but at the same time he's probably a lot more sensitive than the older members of the League. "I'll make sure Bruce doesn't completely blow you off when he's changed back."
Wally pulls back with a snort and a wide smile. "I doubt even you could convince him to acknowledge how much he showed he liked me when he was a child." He then shrugs. "Which is fine because at least I have some ammunition to pick on him with." Clark sees him wink from under his cowl.
Clark chuckles. "Just be careful Wally, he is Batman remember."
A shiver runs through Wally but he's still smiling mischievously. "That's what makes it so fun." They both share a laugh with Clark agreeing with him. Then Wally says, "I'm going to get back in there. You going to be okay?"
"Yeah, I think I will. Thanks Wally." Wally smirks at him then salutes him with two fingers before zipping off. Clark watches him leave in amusement and then turns back to the window one last time before he follows after Wally, taking his time.
When he gets back to the room, he sees Zatanna and Doctor Fate standing on either side of Bruce's prone body, some kind of purplish magic coming out of their hands and surrounding Bruce. They're also chanting in Latin and Clark has to stop himself from laughing at the translation. It's not coherent in English and just sounds ridiculous. I guess that's spells for you. Clark saunters up to his teammates that are all standing together, watching the proceedings. "What did I miss?" He asks no one in particular.
Shayera turns to him. "Nothing really. All they've been doing is chanting something in Latin. It hasn't even bothered Bruce at all either. He's been asleep through the whole thing so far."
Clark nods. "That's good that he hasn't woken. I wonder if it's painful though... I mean if he was awake."
"Was he awake when he was de-aged? I would assume it would feel the same now as it did then," John asks.
Clark shrugs. "I don't know. I was still caged when they did it and they did it in a different room."
J'onn speaks then. "I can assure you all that it is causing no pain to Batman. If it was, I would be able to sense it. Also, he was in no pain while being de-aged as well."
Clark sighs in relief. "That's good news, thank you J'onn."
Silence falls upon them and about an hour passes before they see something happen. The magic gets brighter and brighter, abandoning its purple color for white, and engulfs Bruce so much that you can no longer see him. It makes Clark nervous, not being able to see him, but he trusts Fate and Zatanna. The two begin to chant louder and louder until they reach the climax of the spell and stop speaking abruptly. Fate turns to all of them. "It is done."
Clark takes a hopeful step forward. Bruce is still glowing and he doesn't dare look with his x-ray vision. He waits with baited breath for the white glow to dissipate and when it finally does, there, lying in the middle of the room, is a naked, scarred, just as beautiful as ever, adult Bruce who is curled up on his side with his eyes closed. Clark takes another step forward hesitantly. He's almost in disbelief at what he is seeing. He gets as close as he dares to his friend and whispers, "Bruce?"
Happy New Year everyone!
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. :)
Updates will be every Friday. Next update scheduled for: 1/8/16 EST. To see a full list of dates, please go to my Tumblr, angelcamael, and go to the post under: /post/132217933841/loss-of-time