Note: deleted the last scene of the last chapter. I was unhappy with it. And I think it improves the flow and characterization with it gone.
Timeline again for the young justice side was Post Infiltrator. Artemis just joined the team.
Catching Icarus
Chapter 9: Mourning
Superboy slept for a week straight.
The devastated clone barely remembered returning to the farm with Clark before he passed out on Kara's bed.
He couldn't go home again.
He would never see his friends again. His world. They had probably long given up on him.
Everyone would move on without him. He would be reduced to just a afterthought to the league's history. It may have been his entire life. But he had only been with them a month after all.
He would never see Wally, M'gann, Robin, Kaldur or Artemis again. The Wally of here was a stranger. M'gann and Artemis didn't exist here. And he had no idea what might have happened to Robin or Kaldur. If they existed either. The differences he gleamed from the Atlantis of here. He doubted the case for the latter.
A loud part of himself told him that he had done the right thing. If he hadn't moved Superman out of the way. He would be stranded here instead. And his world needed Superman far more than a half powered Superboy who couldn't fly. His friends would be safer with the man of steel watching out for him. He could protect them a lot better than Superboy ever could. Another darker part of him wondered if his Superman was happy? Glad that annoying clone of his had up and died instead of trying to get his attention anymore.
If it was anyone else. He'd have said no. Superman would mourn even the worst villain. But Superman didn't treat him like everyone else so who knows how the man would react with him out of his hair.
Clark was tired.
He had been stuck in a eternal hell of reliving that night in the Museum again and again.
He had gotten too confident. He had underestimated Faust and had allowed the sorcerer to get the drop on him. All his super speed, and he didn't see him coming.
All he saw was a bright light about to hit him before he was shoved out of the way to safety.
And then Superboy was gone.
He could still hear Miss Martian's scream of horror echoing that night.
They searched the sorcerer for any clue and besides the artifacts of Le Faye, Faust had a dark charm from a lord of chaos that had inflated his abilities along side it. The last sighting of a lord of chaos hadn't been seen since Doctor Fate was active in the Second World War.
Clark had slammed the sorcerer into the ground. Not caring how many bones he shattered at the moment.
"Where is he?"
Faust had only laughed, unaffected by his broken body.
Zatara tried desperately to return Superboy but failed. The lord of chaos's abilities dwarfed his own. Miss Martian and Batman tried to contact the clone through their mind link and communicators but came up empty. The Martian girl ripping into the sorcerer's head with such viciousness, they all heard the sorcerer's psychic scream echo in their heads.
"He killed him," Miss Martian said, tears spilling openly. "Superboy's gone. He's gone forever."
That was the night Superboy died.
The days following that night pass Clark by like a bad dream. Trapped in a never ending fog.
Clark doubted he would ever get over the feelings of violation he had felt when he saw the boy standing with the children.
But he had thought there would be time. For his pain to numb. To be able see past the crime he was innocent of. He didn't like the child. He didn't trust him. He didn't even know him to have any strong feelings besides raw pain. He couldn't even have eye contact with him. But that didn't mean he wanted to hurt him.
Canary and Red were better adults in his corner. They could be objective and keep him more emotionally stable than Clark could. That had been his excuse when the boy asked for his help.
He could have at least told him, his powers came with age. He had seen the teenager openly disappointed with his lack of flight. He could have passed it along to the boy's actual mentors to put him at ease.
He could have.
He should have…
What ifs had flooded his mind as he thought about the millions of ways he could have done things better.
He wondered if he had known that their time together would be so short would he have sucked it up? Be Superman to him like he was to anyone else. He liked to think so.
But he probably would have disappointed the boy in a completely different way.
He still didn't completely understand why the boy Superboy saved him. He had never given him cause to care. All he had done was let him down. Would he have intervened if he was anyone else? Did Superboy think he was special?
Clark would never know.
He headed to the Mountain. For what he didn't really know. It was Superboy's home. And maybe he'd understand the boy a little more. Fortunately it would be empty for once. The children would already be at school.
He didn't need their harsh gazes at the moment.
The children blamed him for Superboy's death. They had lost their roommate, teammate and friend because of his negligence. Artemis glared openly whenever she saw him. Miss Martian refusing to entertain even being in a room with him. Kid Flash would make a quick excuse to leave. Even Robin and Aqualad who tried to be mature couldn't hide their disappointment in him.
He couldn't blame them.
He was just as disappointed in himself.
He entered Mount Justice and before he knew it, he was in Superboy's room. For a moment he thought it had been already cleared it out by another league member. Before he noticed a line of photos on the dresser and shirts hung up neatly.
The room wasn't empty.
It was barren.
Clark's stomach rolled again as he realized this room was all Superboy managed to gather in his one month of life. The cruelty of the life cut short stings even more as Clark realized how little he had managed to experience outside league missions.
He didn't know what he had thought he would find from this room. But he knew one thing clear as day.
He shouldn't be here.
Funeral arrangements had to be made. The mentors off to take care of their wards. While the remaining leaguers took care of the logistics.
Dinah had given Clark an out. She had told him that he didn't need to be there.
But that was out of the picture.
The least he could do was this.
He had thought they would be deciding what wood to make the coffin. What city to bury him. Would he have wanted to buried next to sea? Questions like that. But five minutes in this meeting corrected him of the notion.
Superboy was part of a black ops team and he had never been Clark's partner. A public funeral was out of the picture. It would cause the league too many questions that they could not answer. There was no way body there would just be a empty coffin with the name Superboy that couldn't be buried anywhere without causing questions. No one had named the child—why hadn't anyone—But it was too late. Like everything with Superboy. Too little and too late. Naming him posthumously seemed like a mockery. An erasure of how he had lived.
He was Superboy to until the day he died. That's how he would be remembered.
His heroic career would never be known. His whole life reduced to the league's dirty little secret.
Clark's stomach turned at the thought.
Superboy deserved a lot better than that.
Superboy deserved better.
After a lot of deliberation. The league decided to forgo a coffin altogether. There would be a ceremony on the beach of Mount Justice. And they would build a holographic memorial in the Mountain and the Watchtower. A larger then life projection to never forget his sacrifice.
He called his parents to Superboy's funeral. There was no point hiding him anymore from them. He had known they'd immediately take him in if they did. These were the same people who took in a boy from the stars. And he couldn't bare the thought of the boy possibly hurting them.
But none of those excuses really mattered anymore.
It would have been better if they had gotten mad. If they had yelled at him. Even if they had been disappointed. But all they had asked was when the ceremony would take place. And then he was stuck alone with the loud sound of the dial tone.
When it was time for the ceremony he saw that it was not only him who decided to inflate the count. The entire Flash Clan decide to make a appearance hero and civilian alike. And for a moment he remembered Kid Flash's parents had taken Superboy in for the first days of his life. Beside Miss Martian are several girls that could only be her sisters. Red Arrow standing close but not too close beside Green Arrow and Artemis. Arthur had invited Mera while two Atlantean teens he didn't know flocked around Aqualad. Alfred joined Bruce and Dick in his agent A guise. Guy Gardner, Icon, Blue Devil and other heroes unaffiliated with the league joined the crowd to pay respects for a fallen hero. Even the genomorphs from Cadmus arrive to mourn their sibling.
The larger than life projection of Superboy stands in front of all of them. A pale blue ghost of the boy.
His parents slipped into the back while he made his way to the front of the crowd taking a spot next to Diana. The Amazon Princess held his hand and looked straight onward.
The gaze of the rest of the occupants felt like daggers piercing him.
Black Canary headed the ceremony. Speaking of how desperately he tried to be a person outside the weapon he was born to be. Of what a bright young man he was. And what a tragedy it was to lose the youngest member of their team.
The burning sensation of shame overcomes him with each word spoken. The fact the floor doesn't already take him was already a miracle.
His teammates take turns telling anecdotes of the boy, Clark would never know. Artemis, the newest member started of with a anecdote of their first training exercise together. Miss Martian gushed about how Superboy would always eat any dish she made even if it was terrible. Robin mentioned fixing a bike together. Kaldur praised how much growth he has witnessed. And finally Kid Flash of how promised Superboy the moon when they first met.
Even the genomorph—Dubbilex, his bright red eyes shining with unshed tears about how proud he was that his youngest brother had this many people who cared about him when he passed. That he was glad that he was free for at least a short time.
After each person finished, he felt the gaze on him become heavier and heavier. Their unheard question echoing in his ears.
He stared at the neutral expression of the holographic boy. And took a step forward, the rest of the heroes parting like the sea to give him a wide berth. As he made his way to the front of the crowd to address everyone else.
This would be the last thing he could do for the boy.
He could at least be honest.
He cleared his throat.
"As you all know, I reacted negatively to having a clone. I gave myself excuse after excuse. But I never gave him a chance. I was distant and cruel and I made him suffer. I never made things easy for Superboy. And despite how badly I treated him he still saved my life. I think he was far more of a Superman than I had ever been."
"I am the Last Son of Krypton. And for one brief month I wasn't. I wasted that opportunity. And I will have to live with that for the rest of my life... "
"I can only hope wherever Superboy is, he's happy. "
End chapter.
Note: M'gann could only read what Faust's thoughts. He thinks he killed Superboy. So that's what they all believe.