From now on italics beyond the Chapter and title at the top, now indicate Polybius's native Language being spoke.

Chapter 31

Defeated Answers...

"Okay, that was pure luck!" Zatanna said as the second door of Polybius's safe opened.

The second door, like the first, required a code that was not the same one used for the first door. However, this one was an eight-digit code.

Superboy began guessing random sets of numbers that could mean something to Polybius. Turns out, the code to the second door was Donna's birthday, which Superboy just happened to guess at random.

"Yeah." Superboy agreed as Zatanna opened the door.

Opening the door, the trio saw what looked like a treasure trove of knowledge. Inside there were numerous documents, pictures, and items in there that each seemed to have a story of their own.

"Woah." Zatanna said, "Look at this."

The first thing she saw and grabbed was Polybius's handgun. However, just by looking at it, she could tell that this wasn't a normal gun. There was no slot to feed in a magazine, nor anywhere to expel spent brass. On the side, there was a dial that could easily be manipulated by the shooter's thumb. Lastly, there was also a tiny screen on the back that was turned off.

"A gun?" Miss Martian asked, "Isn't he a pacifist? Why would he have that?"

"I think he believes in deterrence too." Zatanna said as she tried to figure out how to turn the screen on, "Somebody, I don't know who, once there 'There is no shame in deterrence. Having a weapon is very different from actually using it.' Or something like that."

As Zatanna played around with the gun, Superboy and Miss Martian took their turns pulling items out of the safe. Together, the first item they pulled out was an old picture with five people, four men, and one woman. The first thing Miss Martian noticed was how the four men looked exactly alike. The first thing Superboy noticed was that the woman in the picture appeared to be blind as she had something covering her eyes.

"Was Polybius a quadruplet?" Miss Martian asked.

Superboy then suddenly realized how bad of a situation he had just unknowingly put himself in. He had made a promise to Polybius a long time ago that he would keep his secrets so long as he kept Polybius's. And now, with Polybius knowing about his connection to Lex Luthor, and a myriad of other things, everything Superboy had been building up in his short life thus far could come crashing down if Polybius kept his word. And Superboy had no doubts that he would.

"Uh…" Superboy started as his mind raced to find a solution to the problem he just created.

"And what's up with her?" Miss Martian questioned, now shifting over to the woman, "What is covering her eyes?"

"There we go!" Zatanna said as she finally figured out how to turn the weapon on.

When the weapon turned on, Zatanna had expected the screen to give off light. However, it didn't do that. In fact, all it did was show the number 10596. However, when she began manipulating the dial on the side, the number changed depending on how she turned it. The more she turned it up, the smaller the number got, and when she turned it back down, bigger. She also noticed that towards the bottom, there was one spot where she had to apply extra pressure to the dial and got a small 'click' when it passed through that spot.

"Must be a safety feature." Zatanna mumbled to herself as she continued to mess around with it.

"Careful." Superboy cautioned, "We don't know what that thing can do."

"It's a gun." Zatanna said, "I think we know what it does."

Superboy couldn't really argue with that logic. It was obviously a gun, and they all knew what guns did.

"Just don't shoot it." Superboy said.

"Well duh!" Zatanna said, "What'd you think I was gonna do? Start shooting left and right, see the bullet holes this thing leaves in the walls? No! Polybius would find out immediately someone went through his safe and got ahold of this. Plus, with how weird this gun is, he'd probably recognize the damage right away."

As Zatanna hit Superboy with a heavy dose of common sense, meanwhile, Polybius arrived at the restaurant he and Donna had agreed to meet up and have dinner at. He had arrived early like he always did. However, when he got there, he was surprised to find Donna arriving at the exact same time as he was.

Donna had matched Polybius's level of formality. She didn't wear a dress due to the cold weather and chose to wear a nice pair of dress pants, high heels, and a nice, long sleeve, button-up dress shirt.

"Polybius!" Donna happily greeted him when she saw him.

The two exchanged a quick but warm hug before stepping back.

"Look at you!" Polybius said, referring to her clothing, "Getting all dressed up for me."

"I could say the same to you." Donna returned, "I can't remember the last time I saw you this well dressed."

"Ah, well, you know me." Polybius said, "I'll avoid getting in monkey suits at most costs."

"Well I'm glad I'm not 'most costs.'" Donna teased.

"Oh, you know I'll do just about anything for you." Polybius replied.

From there, the two-headed inside and were taken by the waitress to their seats. After they ordered their drinks, both of which were water, they began looking into their menus to see what they wanted to order.

Meanwhile, back in Mount Justice, Zatanna and Miss Martian were studying the picture of the four men and one woman, trying to figure out who the other three men were and why there was a blind woman with them.

Superboy, meanwhile, had only grown more and more nervous. Both of the girls in the room had a lot of questions, many of which he knew the answers to, but many more he didn't.

"And look at this propaganda poster." Zatanna said, shifting her attention away from the picture and holding up the poster.

"What does it say?" Miss Martian asked, looking at the poster.

"I don't know." Zatanna said, "This language… I can see very strong Latin roots in it, but it's disordered.

"Can you make out what it says?" Miss Martian asked.

"Something about a war." Zatanna said, "But that soldier's armor isn't like anything I've ever seen. It looks super futuristic."

"Maybe Polybius is a fanboy of some space war franchise." Miss Martian offered.

"N- No. He's not." Superboy spoke up.

"Huh?" Both women questioned as they looked over at him.

Superboy took a deep breath before he began explaining to them what he knew about Polybius.

Oddly enough, when Superboy decided to tell the two about what he knew, his decision was based on what he thought Polybius would do. He felt that if Polybius walked in right now, while he would be furious, he would be forced into an explanation. However, he would also make it very clear that he wouldn't want them telling other people about this.

And for his sake, he needed them not to tell other people about this.

"Polybius and I are, uh, close." Superboy started, "He's helped me a lot with understanding the struggles with being a clone."

"What, you're saying Polybius is a clone?" Zatanna asked.

"He is." Superboy confirmed, "I'm guessing the men in that picture were some of his 'brothers' if you call them that."

"That… makes sense." Miss Martian said, looking back at the picture, "But it still doesn't explain who this blind lady is."

"I don't know anything about her." Superboy said, "However, before I continue, you guys can't tell anyone about this!"

"Obviously not!" Zatanna said, "Don't want Polybius figuring out we went through his stuff."

"No, you guys don't understand." Superboy said, "Polybius knows some stuff about me that I don't want to get out. He said that if I go and start dropping his secrets, he would start dropping mine."

"Then our lips are sealed." Miss Martian assured him.

"Thank you." Superboy said.

"So, Polybius was a clone." Zatanna started, returning the conversation back to the original subject, "What was he created for?"

"Well, unlike me, Polybius wasn't one clone. He was actually a part of a clone army." Superboy explained.

"I remember him saying he fought in a civil war." Miss Martian added.

"Well one side must have been well funded." Zatanna commented, "However, where has a civil war been fought that has used weapons like this and a clone army?"

"I don't know." Superboy said, "I know English isn't his first language."

"That still doesn't answer my question." Zatanna said, "I can't think of a place that has recently been through a civil war and used a clone army to fight it. Plus, if he was a part of a clone army, and those other men were soldiers, then why is there a blind woman in that picture? Blind people have no place on the battlefield."

"There's still a lot I don't know about him." Superboy said, "However, Polybius has never lied to me before. And I trust what he says. Plus, he's shown me proof that he is indeed a clone. In fact…"

Superboy then went over to the safe and looked for a very specific document. It didn't take him long to find it as it was sitting on top of a pile of papers.

"He said his birth number was 1453." Superboy explained, "This sheet was the proof he showed me."

Zatanna then looked at the page and shook her head.

"This doesn't prove anything." Zatanna said, "It's just a bunch of numbers with either a check or an x next to them. That's it."

"I'm telling the truth." Superboy insisted.

"And I'm finding it hard to believe." Zatanna countered, "I would be flat out saying that Polybius was lying to you if it weren't for this."

Zatanna then held up the gun.

"The technology is extremely advanced, and I've never seen anything like it." Zatanna explained, "And as of right now, it's the only thing that's holding up this story."

"Maybe he's not from Earth." Miss Martian offered, gaining the other two's attention.

"Then where would he be from?" Zatanna asked, "Timbuktu?"

"No." Miss Martian answered, not picking up on the sarcasm, "While it is uncommon, it's not unheard of for alien species to use other species to fight their wars. Maybe some aliens came to Earth and kidnapped a group of people and used them to fight their war."

"Then why take a blind woman?" Zatanna asked.

"Maybe they didn't take her when she was blind." Miss Martian said, "More than likely, they just grabbed a random group of people and picked the best one to clone. Then they made the others go and work for their cause."

"So Polybius is an alien." Zatanna said, "That's… actually kinda cool."

"Or maybe not." Superboy said, "Maybe there is something else we're not understanding or don't know about."

As the group debated the origins of Polybius, meanwhile, said person and his date were waiting on their food. Unfortunately, something really bad happened to one of the ovens in the kitchen, and it forced the cooks to stop working for fifteen minutes while they got the situation under control. Now they were backlogged with orders and just couldn't move fast enough to keep up with the new ones coming in as it was an exceptionally busy night.

Polybius and Donna debated on leaving as they were told it was going to be at least a half-hour wait until they got their food. However, when the manager came out and offered them half off this meal, as well as the next if they stayed, the two decided to do precisely that.

"I tell ya, I've seen a lot of strange things." Polybius went on, "But seeing a crackhead pick up a fridge full of food, put it on his back, get on a bike and take off is definitely up there. And the only thing I could think of is where he was every time I had to move!? Cause I could have used his help hauling around that heavy safe in my room. Crackhead strength is real."

Donna giggled as Polybius finished recalling his story.

"Yeah, that's bad." Donna agreed, "However, I remember one story my Diana told me about the time Zeus seduced one of our mother's friends by turning into a swan. A swan! True story."

"A swan?" Polybius questioned, "Who the hell has a swan fetish?"

Donna laughed when Polybius said 'swan fethish' as she wasn't expecting to hear that.

"Like seriously!" Polybius followed up, "What was it about this sawn that made this woman go: 'I'm gonna fuck that swan.'"

Both Polybius and Donna laughed.

"Oh, I need to watch my language." Polybius said, looking around, "We're in public, and there's little kids over at that table. The Mom is giving me a dirty look. Yeah, I shouldn't be dropping that word."

"Still." Donna started, "I never thought about it like that, and sure enough, you're the one who puts it like."

"As always!" Polybius said, "However, I shouldn't be surprised. Like, don't take this the wrong way, but from my understanding, like at least half of all greek mythology, is people telling Zeus not to stick his dick in something, and him immediately turning around and saying 'Too late!' with a big old smile on his face."

Donna laughed before she responded, "Now I want to say you're wrong. But you right."

"I know!" Polybius laughed on, "And I don't get why Hera puts up with him. Like seriously! If I didn't have you, and she showed up in front of me and said, 'we're dating, I don't care if you don't have a weiner' I ain't gonna lie, I'd probably be down."

"You would be." Donna said, getting a bit more serious when Polybius threw in Hera.

Donna then decided to take a drink of water. This, however, turned out to be a massive mistake as Polybius's following words got her really good.

"Of course, next thing you know, like four hours later, I'd be forced into some weird BDSM situation with a strapon twinkie." Polybius nonchalantly said.

This completely caught Donna off guard and caused her to do a spit take due to a sudden burst of laughter. When she did this, she nailed Polybius with a full blast of water and spit. Not expecting that reaction, Polybius failed to cover himself in time, and the water and spit caught him unprepared.

"By the gods Polybius!" Donna half shouted, half laughed as several eyes turned on them, "Stop! That's so gross!"

"Gross?" Polybius asked as he reached for his napkin. "You gross! You just nailed me with your spit!"

"You deserved that." Donna said as she reached for her napkin to wipe herself on.

"I did." Polybius truthfully admitted, "But you have to admit, that was funny."

"It was." Donna also truthfully admitted.

As the two continued to laugh and joke, meanwhile, back in Mount Justice, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Zatanna had finally come to an agreement about what they thought of Polybius's origins.

"Alright." Zatanna started, "If Polybius isn't outright lying, then we agree that he came from somewhere off-Earth, fought in a civil war, saved a big part of the Justice League, and chose to return to Earth with them rather than stay because he was disturbed by the genocidal things he saw."

"That sounds like it." Miss Martian said.

"We're missing a big part of this story." Zatanna commented, "Why did only he come? What happened to the people in that picture? And what happened to the League while they were there that caused Polybius to feel the need to step in and save them?"

"Those are questions only Polybius can answer." Superboy said.

"Or maybe Red Tornado can fill in some of the blanks." Zatanna said, "Honestly, I don't think we're going to get more answers if we dig deeper into this safe. However, Red Tornado might know more about this than we do."

"So then let's go find him." Miss Martian said as she used her powers to put everything back in the safe and close both doors.

Meanwhile, Claudia, Irene, and Chief Z were finally coming to an agreement about Mr. Court.

"So we've all agreed to bring him onto our project?" Claudia asked.

The other two nodded their heads.

"Alright." Claudia said, "Time to go to finance so they can make up some random number for his salary."

"Don't they have a formula?" Chief Z asked.

"Supposedly." Irene answered, "However, if you ask anyone who's worked here for a while, you'll find everyone convinced that they just make up a number cause they make no sense."

"Never heard of that." Chief Z said.

"Yeah, well, you're a Chief." Claudia said, "All Chief's pay is on the same, flat rate cause y'all do basically the same job no matter where you are."

"We don't all do the same job." Chief Z said, "We're technical specialists in our fields."

"You manage and teach." Claudia said, "Of course, knowing Irene, this job must be a real change of pace for you."

"Actually, I wanted this job." Chief Z countered, "I love getting my hands dirty."

"Good." Claudia said, "Cause if you didn't, then Irene wouldn't be working with you."

From there, Claudia left to head down to finance to begin processing Mr. Court into the facility. Meanwhile, about thirty minutes later, Zatanna, Superboy, and Miss Martian, after breaking into Red Tornado's room and finding the android body he was building, proceeded to confront him with their questions about Polybius.

"I personally do not know much about that day, as I wasn't there." Red Tornado told him, "However, what I do know is that if it weren't for Polybius, the League would not exist today. It was thanks to him that he saved their lives from that camp."

"Camp?" Superboy asked.

"I believe the full term is 'concentration camp.'" Red Tornado explained, "The side Polybius fought on in the war was defeated, and the survivors were rounded up and sent to those camps to work until they were either publicly executed or died inside. Polybius was one of, if not the very last one alive in his camp when the League, after being defeated by local forces, were taken there."

"What's a concentration camp?" Miss Martian asked.

"They were camps the Nazis set up in World War II to kill the jews." Zatanna explained, "They lived in horrible conditions, and some of the worst treatment of humans in history happened there."

"That is correct." Red Tornado said, "And this camp was no different from that. However, initially, Polybius didn't want to help them and let them fend for themselves. But when they started to fight against the guards, Polybius decided to help them escape."

"So that's why everyone loves him so much." Miss Martian said.

"Love may not be the correct word." Red Tornado said, "But 'care for' is definitely a good one."

"So how did they escape?" Zatanna asked.

"I do not know the full story." Red Tornado said, "However, I do know that there was an experiment building on the camp. They used the prisoners for the experiments, and one of these devices there was used to get everyone home."

"So like, some sort of teleportation device?" Superboy asked.

"I do not know." Red Tornado said, "Black Canary, however, was there. And apparently, Polybius did something above and beyond for her while the League was trapped there."

"And how long ago did this all happen?" Zatanna asked.

"Almost eight years ago." Red Tornado answered, "When Polybius finally came to Earth, he was only eleven and a half and had been living in that camp for the past year and a half by that point."

"And he was still alive?" Miss Martian asked.

"He was extremely malnourished." Red Tornado said, "However, he expressed to me that if he didn't take his chances with the League, then he would have been dead by the end of the week as he had his public execution scheduled for that Friday."

"So it was a do-or-die situation." Zatanna commented.

"Indeed." Red Tornado replied.

"So then what happened when he got here?" Superboy asked.

"The first three months were spent nursing him back to health." Red Tornado said, "His muscles were so damaged by the lack of nutrition, it was a miracle he could walk at all, much less shoot and fight in the way he did. Black Canary was the one who took charge of that and would end up adopting him as soon as she could."

"Well it sounds like he lucked out." Superboy commented, "Found a parent who cared about him."

Meanwhile, Polybius and Donna had finally gotten tired of waiting. Apparently, the oven problem wasn't fixed, and the manager was just stalling for time as they kept announcing delay after delay. Polybius paid for their drinks, left a generous tip for the waiter, and the two left.

"So where off to now?" Donna asked.

"I don't know." Polybius said as the two exited the building, "I didn't plan this far."

"Well, if I remember correctly, there is a pizza place just a couple blocks down." Donna said, "Wanna go there?"

"Let's go!" Polybius agreed.

It didn't take the two long to arrive, and they had their food shortly after ordering it. They split the pizza and then left and began walking around town.

"There's gotta be somewhere to go." Donna said, "I don't want you getting too cold."

"My training house was in northern Alaska." Polybius told her, "This 20-degree weather ain't shit compared to that negative super cold BS that I learned how to war in."

"I just want to make sure you're okay." Donna told him.

"Thanks." Polybius told her before an idea came to his mind, "Oh! Why don't we go look at Christmas lights! Every year they set up a ton of lights in the park that are always beautiful to look at at night."

"Sure!" Donna said, "Let's go!"

Meanwhile, in an unknown location, a meeting was being held. Everyone in the group was a cyborg, having anywhere from at least 55% to some of them having more than 90% of their bodies machine.

The group leader walked up to a large screen and pressed a few buttons on a panel beneath it. He personally was 86.7% machine, the only human parts being his brain, as well as a majority of his head.

When the screen flickered to life, it showed an image of Polybius. The leader of the group then moved towards the group and began speaking in Polybius's native language.

"As you all know, rumor has always had it that Clone 1453 managed to survive the war and escaped from the camps. If these rumors are true, then by now, he would be the only surviving clone, as all the imperial data shows that all of the clones have been killed. However, he is the only one marked as alive." The cyborg spoke.

When the man spoke, his voice was extremely deep and mostly machine. However, his human voice could still be heard, albeit barely audible.

"If it is true that Clone 1453 is the only one alive, then he is our only chance to end the war the way it was supposed to end." The cyborg went on, "With the complete annihilation of the Resistance, and a glorious victory for the Loyalist worthy of Caesar himself."

And there you have it! Chapter 31! Some foreshadowing of what's to come. But regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't be afraid to let me know what you think of it. And as always, have a good one!