©July
2003
Rating:
PG-13
Disclaimers in Part One
The Host
By SKH
Part
Three
The JLA shuttle touched down in the pre-dawn darkness, several miles from Wayne Manor and the entrance to the Batcave. J'onn J'onzz turned to his passengers as they prepared to leave the craft.
"Batman, I'll notify you immediately when I hear about the Duon. And Tem... you can reach me any time." The Martian tapped his forehead and smiled at the Batman's young partner.
Batman ushered Robin off the shuttle and to the waiting Batmobile, brought to the vacant field by remote control. Buckling the youngster into his safety harness, Batman noticed Robin had already removed his cape. He had done so twice since leaving the orbital station. Batman let the matter rest. By the time they reached the Batcave, the laces on Robin's tunic had all been undone and his shoes and gloves were off.
"I would hope that some explanation is forthcoming, Master Bruce," Alfred said as Batman helped Robin out of the car. "You gave me quite a start, returning earlier without Master Dick. Thank goodness you both seem to be in good order."
"That's a matter of opinion, Alfred," Bruce grumbled. He pulled off his cowl and cape, draping them over one arm. "Watch him for me. Don't let him out of your sight, and *you*," Bruce pointed at his ward, "...do exactly what Alfred says. I'll be right back."
The boy watched Bruce walk away, then looked down at his own shoeless feet. He wiggled his toes, then promptly sat down and began pulling on the feet of his tights, trying to remove them.
Alfred watched for a moment, nonplussed. "I say, stop that, Master Dick. Get up off the floor immediately. What in the world has gotten into you?"
The boy halted and looked up, fixing his silver-blue alien stare on the old man. "Tem. Tem is inside us now."
"Tem? Oh, lad, what has happened?" Alfred murmured to himself.
Dick stood up, sloughing off the tunic. He walked past Alfred, pulling his green shirt over his head and dropping it on the floor. Stunned, Alfred watched as Dick shuffled to the table with the tray of refreshments intended for the two returned crimefighters. Dick stuck one finger in a mug of hot cocoa, yanked it out quickly. He shook the offended digit and popped into his mouth. The silvery eyes widened and the finger returned, gingerly, to the mug.
Alfred recovered, finding his voice. "Master Dick," he gently reprimanded, unsure as to just whom and what he might be addressing. "We do not put our dirty fingers in our mug of cocoa. Please sit in the chair."
"We... we have hunger," Dick explained.
"Yes, I'm sure you do. However, before we eat, our hands must be clean." Alfred dampened a hand towel and gave it to Dick. The boy looked at the cloth and squeezed it until it dripped. "We wipe our hands with the towel, Master Dick." Alfred bent over the boy and began to clean his hands with the damp towel. He noticed the bruising around the boy's navel, and peering closer, discerned stitches.
"What have we here, my boy?" asked Alfred. "What happened to you tonight?"
Dick's fingers went to his wound. "Rhyn sent Tem through here into the Other, the Without," he said quietly. "Rhyn is gone, and now Tem and the Other are joined." He looked up at Alfred with his sad, changed eyes.
"There was an encounter with an alien space craft, Alfred," said Bruce. Quickly showered and dressed in a robe, he joined them. "A Justice League matter, but I took Robin with me. It was my mistake. I should have brought him home first."
"What is the boy talking about, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked. "What does he mean by 'joined'?"
Bruce sat down at the table, across from Dick, who again placed a finger into the mug of chocolate. "The alien from the ship was a symbiotic being," he explained. "The host body was dying, and in its desperation, it placed its internal symbiotic organism into Dick's body to preserve its life."
"At what cost to Master Dick?" Alfred demanded.
"His life, if Superman doesn't get back to Earth with another host, one from its original species, the Duon. I thought Dick would be more comfortable at home, rather than at the space station, which is where Superman took him after the incident." Bruce picked up his own mug of cocoa. "Tem... like this." He drank, and the boy followed his example.
"I'd like Leslie to take a look at him, not that there's much that can be done. Evidently the organism is fused to Dick's spinal cord and brain. Dick's consciousness is still intact, just not on the surface. 'Tem' is the dominant consciousness." Bruce pushed a plate with a sandwich toward the boy. "Tem, eat this."
Dick reluctantly put down the mug of cocoa. Bruce watched him devour the sandwich and drain the glass of milk Alfred gave him.
"He's running a low-grade fever," Bruce told Alfred. "Let's try to keep it from going any higher. He also doesn't seem to be too fond of clothing."
Alfred arched an eyebrow. "So I've noticed. Let's hope he's not averse to bathing as well."
Beyond the outer reaches of the Solar system, Superman streaked through space. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an approaching flash of green. He slowed his speed as the green light came closer, obviously on an intercept path. Seconds later, the light became the energy bubble surrounding the Green Lantern, on his way back to Earth. The bubble expanded to engulf the Man of Steel.
"I received a message from J'onn," Hal Jordan explained. "He thought I might be of some help. I contacted the Guardians, and they're familiar with the Duon. They're refugees from a system gone nova, and consider themselves pilgrims of some sort."
"I'm glad you're here," said Superman. "Batman's kicking himself pretty badly for involving the boy in something of this magnitude, however accidental it was. I regret I didn't get there sooner. I've met the boy, and he's an amazing little fellow."
"A guy like Batman with a kid in tow," Hal mused. "Somehow it doesn't make much sense."
"It will when you meet the boy," Superman smiled.
Dick's bath and teeth-brushing was accomplished reasonably fast, considering the curious alien within him. Now, dressed in short summer pajamas, he lay in bed. Tem fought the Without's heavy fatigue, observing this world. Light crept around the shaded window as the sun rose. Sounds from outside intrigued the alien presence. Tem-Dick climbed out of the soft bed and walked to the window, shedding his pajama top as he went. The boy climbed onto the window seat and moved the shade aside, slipping behind it. He watched the rising sun until the ball of light was obscured by a distant bank of clouds.
Abandoning the window, the boy walked around the room, touching things that were familiar to Dick and novel to Tem. He stood looking at framed photographs on the bureau top, of Dick and his parents, and Dick and Bruce.
"You're supposed to be in bed," Bruce called out from the doorway. His ward looked at him, then at the photographs again.
"These images please the Without," Tem said quietly.
Bruce walked slowly into the room toward the boy. "That's true," he said, laying a hand on Dick's shoulder. "And I'm sure what would please the Without is letting him sleep, to rest his body."
Tem sighed. "We *are* weary."
Bruce escorted his ward back to the bed, leaving the abandoned pajama top where it lay. He pulled a chair and ottoman next to the bed and sat down. "Sleep now, Tem."
Bruce watched over Dick until the boy was deep in slumber before returning to his own room.
The Green Lantern navigated across the void, taking himself and Superman through a wormhole, a wrinkle in the fabric of space that shortened the distance between the two heroes and the system the Duon were passing through. Before long, a flotilla of perhaps twenty spacecraft appeared in the distance. They approached the largest ship. Green Lantern created a doorway through the hull, and they went inside.
The startled Duon reacted defensively, reaching for handheld weapons.
Using his ring to translate his words, Green Lantern reassured them. "I'm a member of the Green Lantern Corps, sanctioned by the Guardians of the Universe. Superman and I come to you from Earth, in the Sol system, where one of your ships landed after suffering an accident."
One of the Duon stepped forward. "We are missing a scout ship and pilot. Are they well?"
Hal Jordan extended the translating power of his ring to Superman. "The ship was destroyed," the Kryptonian explained. "The pilot was injured. Before he died, the host transferred his symbiont into a young Earthling. We're here to bring him a new host."
The Duon murmured amongst themselves, their dark eyes blinking anxiously.
"Tem-Rhyn... poor Tem-Rhyn..." the one Duon spoke sadly. He nodded his head. "We understand Rhyn's desperation. Tem-Rhyn was a first join, an only join. Tem had no Other before Rhyn." The Duon turned back to its clan and spoke to them briefly. They nodded their heads and one of the group left.
"We know an Only to send to Tem," the one Duon said. "Syr is young and has no Other. Syr will accept Tem. It will be a good join. Rho-Phan has gone to bring Syr to us."
Rain began to fall at Wayne Manor by midday. Alfred Pennyworth had been able to sleep no more than a couple of hours before waking. He dressed and set about to check on his charges. Peering into Master Bruce's room, he was pleased to see his eldest still asleep. Moving along to Master Dick's room, Alfred looked into the open doorway. The bed was empty. Slept in, but now empty. Entering the room, Alfred checked the adjoining bathroom, but found no boy. He saw the pajama top on the floor and picked it up. "Oh, dear," he sighed.
Alfred quickly inspected the nearby rooms in that section of the manor, to no avail. Reluctantly, he returned to Master Bruce's room to awaken him.
Tem-Dick watched the rain from the steps of the front porch. The falling drops and rivulets of flowing water on the driveway fascinated the Duon Within. Before long, curiosity overcame Tem. The boy stepped off the porch into the rain, holding his arms out to catch the raindrops in his open palms. He followed the flow of water from the driveway to the lawn. The grass under his bare feet was unlike anything Tem had ever experienced. The Duon's entire life had been spent aboard the fleet of traveling ships, the Duon world gone long before Tem-Rhyn's time.
The boy came upon one of Alfred's rose gardens, in full summer bloom. Tem was immediately attracted by the display of colorful blossoms. The boy drank in the sweet fragrance of the roses, visiting them one by one, like a bee.
Dr. Leslie Thompkins pulled her car up in front of Wayne Manor. Gathering her umbrella and black physician's bag, she got out of the car, grumbling silently about the inconvenience of the rain. Something caught her eye, and she looked over at the side of the Manor to see Dick Grayson in the rose garden. The youngster seemed oblivious to the rain. Glancing back up at the front door, Leslie wondered where in the world were Bruce and Alfred, to let the boy, who supposedly was feverish from his bizarre ordeal, wander around getting chilled from the rain.
Bruce and Alfred quickly searched the rest of the second floor, without success. Alfred took the back stairs while Bruce went down the main staircase. At the bottom of the steps, he saw the open front door past the foyer. Bruce started toward the door when Leslie Thompkins appeared, ushering Dick, draped in Leslie's blue raincoat, inside.
"Don't just stand there, Bruce, get us some towels!" the doctor scolded crossly.
Ten minutes later, Dick was in dry pajamas and back in bed. Leslie methodically examined the boy, unhappily noting his elevated temperature and blood pressure. Bruce, unshaven and still in his pajamas and robe, paced the bedroom floor, waiting for Leslie to finish.
She broke off the examination when Alfred entered the room with a teacart. She poured herself a cup of tea while Alfred set a breakfast tray across the boy's lap.
"His temperature is 101.5, Bruce, and his blood pressure is 120 over 95. That's a good twenty-five points higher than his norm. I won't even start on his eyes."
"A manifestation of the joining," said Bruce. "Several hours ago, Dick's temperature was 100.2 and his B.P. was lower. He hasn't exerted himself; we've kept him relatively inactive."
"Other than his little walk in the rain," Leslie commented. She watched the boy eat. "At least he has a good appetite." Leslie set her cup and saucer down on the teacart. "Let's get a blood draw and see what his white count is doing. Give him acetaminophen for the fever, and try to keep him out of the rain."
"The rain pleases us," Tem volunteered, lifting the glass of milk to his mouth.
"It pleases *Tem*," Bruce corrected, pointing his finger at the boy. "*Tem* needs to remember that the joining is putting a lot of stress on Dick, on the Without."
Dick put the glass down on the tray. "Regrets and regrets, Guardian," said Tem with downcast eyes. "Tem is grateful to the Without. We will take more care."
Leslie studied her young patient as Alfred removed the tray, trying to imagine how the alien organism inside Dick could be removed without injuring or killing the boy. With considerable effort, she fought the temptation to tear into Bruce about putting the boy in this kind of jeopardy. She had the feeling she'd have that opportunity again in the future... if Dick survived.
Concluded in Part Four...
