by IronRaven
Ok, after a long haitus inflicted by the real world, I'm going to try to finish this before moving onto other writing projects.
Watchtower
"Clark?" Timidly, Kara stepped into the room. The lights were dimmed almost to nothing, the window polorized to nearly opaque. It was stuffy, the air stale. The bed was unmade and well used. It didn't feel like person's a room any more. It was more like the den of a animal. A wounded one, who had retreated there to heal, or to...
She stopped next to his chair, looking down into the overstuffed extravegance Clark had brought up from the surface. His hair was matted and dirty, and he hadn't shaved in a while. He slumped in the lounger, staring out into space with eyes like holes lanced into a snow bank with a red hot poker. Cautiously, the young woman poked her cousin in the cheek with a fingertip. "Clark."
Slowly, like an underpowered machine in dreadful need of lubrication, Clark turned his head, staring at her without comprehension for a few seconds before his jaw worked. "Kara?"
Elsewhen
Batman dropped into a defensive crouch, his last remaining baterang in his hand as looked at the source of the voice. "Ra's Al Ghul."
"He would send his greetings if he could, Detective." A tall, distinguished form stepped from the shadows, his voice deeper, more gutteral than Ghul's. "Hello, Bruce, Diana. You two still make a lovely couple."
Both hero's voices hissed a name at the sight. "Savage!" Wonder Woman drew the flint knife she carried at her belt, her lips curled back in a snarl. "What are you doing here?"
"living, suriviving," Smiling warmly, the immortal continued to step forward. "Hopefully, making peace. It has been several thousand years since I've seen anyone."
Standing, Bruce's hand did not move, his voice brittle and angry. "When are we?"
"Hmmm..." Glancing at the ceiling, his fingers moved as he did the math. "About thirty thousand years have past, give or take a few millenia."
The two heros glanced at eachother in disbelief. "Thiry thousand years?"
Savage grinned sheepishly, spreading his hands. "Approximately: after the first ten thousand, I might have lost track."
Watchtower
"All we want is access to your communications and information network." Robin's hands were pressed flat to the table top. He gritted his teeth as he tried to keep from raising his voice.
"This is no place for children." J'onn's eyes glowed softly as he thought about what the teen had just said. "You are gifted, but by your culture, you aren't ready to join us. Yet."
Hawkgirl shorted in contempt of the discussion. "You're what, kid: 16? 17? On Thanegar, he'd already be doing his time in the military. They might be younger than the rest of us, but the Titans are a good asset. Besides, John, what about that kid you know in Dakota?"
"She's right." Nightwing unfolded to his feet, scowling at the Martian and the Latern from under his mask. "They might be young, but the Titans aren't inexperinced. They've logged deep space time already, and know more about magic than any current member of the League. No offense, but Robin was patrolling with us before some of those at this table were even on this world." With a grunt, Hawkgirl grinned to show none was taken, while J'onn and John were impassive. "And that's just five of them. Supergirl. Batgirl and I. So how about it? Give us the access we are asking for, and we our services can be made available the same way Batman's were. And people who still owe us favors. Or does the 'Batclan' and the League go thier seperate ways?"
"Are you trying to black mail us, kid?" Green Lantern scowled as he crossed his arms. "You might be Batman's kids or something, but-"
"John, he isn't kidding. Look at him. I've known Dee for a while, and he could teach statues a thing about poker faces." Flash's aprehension shown through his cowl. Dick had always cleaned the table when he touched the cards.
Grinning slightly, Green Lantern dropped his elbows to the table and leaned forward, staring into Nightwing's mask. "'Dee'? That's interesting." Seeing an opening, GL lept at it, trying to make the other guy flinch as the ante was raised.
Flash had the decency to turn the color of his uniform as Robin glared at him.
"This is stupid." Standing suddenly, Batgirl nearly tipped her chair over. "Superman either isn't able or isn't willing to do his job. None of you are. And you want to keep playing games. So Flash knows some of us from before he was Flash. Does it really matter?" The redhead's fists were curled. The lies and the avoidence were pissing her off. What her mentor had seen in them was beyond her at this moment.
"No, it doesn't." J'onn spoke quietly from his chair, somehow looking at both Robin and Hawkgirl at the same time; they looked like they were ready to wade in, fists and maces and staves swinging at any moment. "We need to think about this before we do anything."
"Do we?" Having recoverd from his slip, Flash swept his eyes over everyone in the room. When he spoke, his voice was trembling with anger. "We've done a lot of thinking the past week. It's time to do something. The big guy is ready for the rubber room ward, and Batman and Wonder Woman are dead. In case you haven't been keeping up in the news, we are in some really sorry shape right now, man."
The explosion Hawkgirl had been waiting for was building before her eyes. Decisions had been made, things had been said, but Flash was laying all the cards on the table. And the League was holding aces and eights. She was about to say something when Supergirl slammed into the galley in a rage, flying at shoulder height.
Kara grabbed J'onn by the shoulders and slammed him to the deck, back first. Her face was streaked with rage as she bounced the Martian's head of the deck a few times, before he phased through. With a streaky discharge of light, Hawkgirl's mace crashed against a barrier thrown from GL's ring, only inches from the back of Supergirl's head.
"What are you doing!" The Latern's harsh bark brought everyone to a stand still. Nightwing, Batgirl and Robin had eached retreated to the edge of the room, weapons in hand. Hawkgirl's lips were curled back in feral rage, her mace already crackling from its rebuilt charge. J'onn had phased back up thorugh the floor, but he was careful to keep the table between him and his attacker, watching Supergirl squrim in the grasp on Green Lantern's energy.
Her voice an angry hiss, Supergirl bit her words off. "He used Clark! He made a puppet out of him!" Vainly she struggled in the grip of the green energy as she kicked her legs. Tears of rage streaked her face as she stayed focused on her target. "You bastard! You are his friend, he trusted you!"
Weak, Superman stumbled against the door way. "No fighting. No fighting." The shape of the Man of Steel brought Flash out of his stunned state as he rushed to the big guy's side to support him. "Don't fight them, Kara."
J'onn set his hand on his John's shoulder. "Let her go. She is right, we should-"
"We?" Taken aback, Hawkgirl blinked. Even as she let her mace return to a safe condition, she stepped towards the two Johns, looking between them. "What do you mean we?"
"Green Lantern and I decided that it would be best this way."
Sliding Superman into a chair, Flash glared at his teammates. "When did you do it? We decided that was out of the question!"
"Probably while Hawkgirl was getting Diana's mother." Robin lowered his staff, his anger still visable along side that of his teammates. "Flash, you probably had to crash about then, right?"
"Good guess, kid." Green Lantern released his hold as Kara stopped her struggling, ready to resume his grip in an instant. "We needed the League to look strong."
"And if Superman wasn't able to speak at the funeral..." Nightwing's words trailed off slightly, only to be picked up by Batgirl "...Every supercriminal would have known that the Justice League was out of commision."
Nodding angrily, Hawkgirl hung her mace on her belt. "You should have told us."
"You told me you didn't think you could do it safely, that you might lobotomize him." Fast as thought, Flash's finger was under J'onn's nose, twitching so fast it buzzed like a humming bird. "But you went and did it anyway. What were you thinking? Where you thinking! "
"Too many telepaths and empaths were at the funeral." J'onn's shoulders hung as limp as his head, repeating the excuses he had said to himself since he started down this path. "We couldn't take the risk of them finding out. His ring protects Green Lantern to some degree, and I would have sensed it. Hawkgirl's natural barriers are strong. The fewer people who knew, the safer it was. We couldn't let Superman's condition become public. I'm sorry, Flash."
"You're sorry? Sorry!" Gloved hands on her shoulders held Supergirl back beofre she could launch another attack.
"I thought that was why Supes was acting odd, but I didn't want to admit it. How could you, J'onn." Flash's voice was tight. He liked J'onn, and he looked up to John as a mentor. The older Centralite had taught him a lot. "Both of you; we have a word for this back home."
"Look, kid, it wasn't-"
This was the last lesson. This was the lesson called 'trust no one'. His self control gone, Flash blurred to his friend, a red finger poking the white center of the latern like a minature jackhammer. "Don't call me kid! None of us are kids! And don't tell me it wasn't personal. The Big Guy needs some real help." The crimson blur moved to the side of the once again unconcious Kryptonian. "And he can't get that here."
The joker, the peacemaker, Flash had saved the team on more than one occasion. The Leaguers knew what the future might hold without him there. And how much they needed him with them. And this time, they were pushing him away.
"I'll send the shuttle back up on auto." Picking the withdrawn man up like a child, Flash grunted softly. "I'm out of here."
The younger heros looked at eachother before following thier peer towards the lift, and the waiting Javelin in the hanger one. Robin paused in the hatch way, to look at those who remained behind. "What I said about there being a lot of people who wanted to join your club: forget it. Stay out of Jump City."
Elsewhen
"Toyman had no idea what he was building. He thought he had created a weapon that tore matter apart at the quantum level." Savage smirked, his arms crossed. "What he really was doing was firing tachyons."
"So he made a time machine," Batman growled.
"An extremely powerful one. I- omph!" Savage doubled over with a grunt, Wonder Woman's fist in his belly.
Wonder Woman yanked her arm free of Batman's hands angrilly, furious. "And you can send us back."
Rubbing his solar plexus, Savage grimaced. It had been a long time since he had been punched, he was out of practice. "It isn't that easy. Let's go back to my house, and we can discuss it." The immortal grinned as he stood, an honest smile. "Like you've got something better to do."
Wayne Manor
The living room was filled in a way it had never had been. A group of people, late teens and early 20s, friends and friends of friends. But this group was deadly somber beneith thier exhaustion.
Wally West sat on a couch, sprawled with feet up on the low table and resting on his mask. He was staring up at the ceiling, not really seeing it. Instead he was replaying the "discussion" at the conference table and the flight down from the Watertower. A part of him had almost expected Green Latern to follow him, intercept him, make it look like an accident on re-entry. He expected it, but he knew that John wasn't capable of something like that, but two weeks ago, he knew the brainwashing was also out of bounds. It had been risky landing the Javelin so close to Wayne Manor, but it was worth the risk in his opinion. If anyone said anything, the League would just deny it. Just another lie.
The others were likewise unmasked, but uniformed. Barbara closed her laptop down, having fed it the last of the information Wally had given them about how to get into the Watchtower's computers and listen to the League's coms. "So, whats next."
"We start talking to people, building a network." Dick set the pencil he had been writting with down on his notepad. "You and me, we talk to everyone from Boston to DC. Steele, Jason Blood, Zatanna, Static, there must be 50 heros on the East Coast."
"And the Titan's co-ordinate the West Coast?" Tim had used a suit from the Javelin to cross to his... ship? The thing needed a real name badly. He had already planned an suborbital hop shortly after last light in Jump City. "Lots of the people out there are already in touch with us from time to time. I'll email Speedy tonight, we can reach Green Arrow through him, and we can talk to Aqualad within a few days. He can get word to his uncle."
"Aquaman will probably stay out of this." Wally swung his feet down to the thick carpet, resting his chin on his palms. "If he picks someone to side with, it will probably be the League. He isn't in it for Earth, just his part of it."
"We also need some help with Europe and Asia. And the center of the country. Queen Audry snd Kara might be able to help there." Barbara sipped quietly from the cup of coffee that Alfred had given her hours ago. "Wally, you aren't going back to the League, are you."
"Probably not. I don't know, Barbara." The redheaded man shook his head. "I can't believe that John and J'onn could do that to Superman. It was so cold. That's the kind of thing I expect from Luthor or the Joker. Maybe Savage. I'm not sure I can trust them ever again."
"That might not be a bad idea." Leslie Thompson stepped into the room, her usually pleasent face clearly annoyed. As the Wayne family doctor, she had been a part of the secret since the beginning. "Mr. Kent has lost a noticable amount of weight, and he's obviously traumatised." She poured herself into the next to last chair in the room. "Post traumatic stress disorder. He's largely retreated from reality. And from what Kara said, the Martian and the Latern didn't help."
Tim glanced towards the ceiling, then at the doctor. "Can't you help him, like you helped me?"
Leslie shook her head. "I don't know. I was able to help you with medication; I have no idea what it would do with a Kryptonian. And I didn't have to worry about you tearing the building in half if you became agitated during hypnosis."
Like a genie, Alfred appeared with a cup of coffee at the physician's side. "I'm sure the others would agree that Master Bruce would have wanted to make sure Mr. Clark would be well, and would have opened every door within Wayne Enterprises to be sure." Every eye turned to Dick. He was the new lord of the manor. Alfred had volunteered to stay with Wayne Manor for the time being. This might have been a test from the older man to his new leige.
"Clark can stay as long as is needed." Dick nodded silently, his jaw set like Bruce's had been so many times. As it had been with Bruce, he took Alfred's suggestions seriously, probably more so. "Doc, tell me what you need. You'll have it."
Elsewhen
Batman unwrapped his arms from Wonder Woman's middle and leapt down lightly. "Where are we?"
"This used to be Metropolis. The World Assembly was here... someplace." Dusting the dust from his leg, Savage walked over. "What's much left of the city when I started building, but the earthquakes leveled most everything in Metropolis. The only area where anything was left was the Park. You two will want to see this." Waving with his hand, he started walkign briskly towards a low hill.
Her long legs quickly eating the distance between her and Savage, Wonder Woman caught up with him. "Earthquakes? Metropolis wasn't on a fault line. What happened."
Slowly slightly, Savage sighed without stopping. "I happened."
"What do you mean, you happened."
As the made thier way up the rise, Savage's voice continued, softly relating a tale that he had spoken until it was just words. "I was able to get my hands on a quantity of dark matter. The scientist I stole it from had planned on using it to learn about the creation of the universe. I tried to rule the world. I used it to make a gravity weapon."
Batman shook his head. "Gravity weapon?"
"Here we are." Throwing his arm out with a showman's gesture, Savage pointed to the one piece of remaining sculpture in what had once been a park, surrounded by waist and ankle high walls outlining where buildings had once been. He smiled when he heard the two gasps. "They erected it as a tombstone for the both of you. Your funeral was quite moving, it was on all the networks. I had the DVD."
"It is remarkably well preserved." Batman eyed Savage suspisiously.
"Thank you, it's restoration was my project for about ten years." Savage walked with his hands clasped before him, an almost holy air about him. "Since Ra's Al decided he couldn't deal with the world any more, I turned to my projects to keep my sanity."
"You're insane, you always have been." Striding down the hill, Diana could mearly marvel at it's condition and the detail that had survived this long. She remember posing for her part of it, in Kasnia. She hadn't known that Br- Batman had done so as well. She tried not to let her annoyance show at Savage's comeback, "True, but I'm in good company. Sane people don't target a strategic weapon at themselves."
From the back of the line, Batman growled silently. "You were telling us what happened."
"Oh, yes, were was I... Oh, yes. The gravity weapon was more powerful than I anticipated. It disrupted the orbits of the planets and even the sun was damaged." Savage looked up the statue, thinking back. "The League and it's allies tried to stop me, but even they weren't able to stand against me. The hardest challange was the Latern; I killed him over there." He paused, pointing in a direction. "Or maybe it was over there," he pointed do a different corner, lost in his memories, oblivious to the anger growing around him.
Wonder Woman's anger was feeding on her teammates, forcing her to ask the question he never would. "What happened to Batman and Batgirl, and the Titans."
Savage looked at Wonder Woman, half expecting another blow. "They tried, but they were dust before-" That was as far as he got Batman's fist crashed into his jaw, spinning him, the first of a flury of blows. When Savage looked up, the Dark Knight was standing over him, the last bararang again in hand, the sun glinting on the razor-sharp edge. "Go ahead, kill me, I deserve it." Savage started to sit up, his voice bitter. "Do it, get it out of your system. But it gets boring. Trust me, I know. I did it enough times."
Wonder Woman stepped in, grabbing Batman's wrist, holding it tightly. "Don't do it, he isn't worth it." She glared down at her old advisary. "Besides, we can always kill him later."
Standing fully, Savage dusted himself off. "That isn't very reassuring."
Kent Farm, Smallville
"Martha, they might not have had the right, but they had the reason. Clark would have sacrificed himself to save the world if he could." Johnathan Kent leaned against the rail of the front porch. "The League waved the flag, even if they might not have been able to back it up."
Kara sat on the porch swing, her legs curled under her as she stroked her cat, Speedy. "Like a scare crow. It works, so long as the crows don't notice."
Martha Kent was an intelligent and reasonable woman. She knew the world wasn't black and white, and even heros had thier failings. But she was still a mother. "It doesn't change that they used him like a puppet."
"It was the Latern. And probably Hawkgirl. They are soldiers; they can detach their feelings from the mission." Johnathan let his mind wander back, to his youth in the service of his country. "Sometimes sacrifices have to be made."
"But why Clark?" Martha thought back to the last time his mind had been twisted, by that beast Darkseid. Clark still talked in his sleep when he returned and would would say that name with fear or hatred. She knew how close he felt to most of those on his team. Hawkgirl was the one he said the least about; Martha wasn't sure if she trusted the winged woman as much as the others. She seemed... too aggressive.
"Becuase he and Batman were the leaders of the League. As Uncle John said, they had to 'show the flag'. Otherwise, people might think the League is broken, and every wacko with a nuke would stick thier heads up." Kara rubbed her nose between Speedy's ears, taking comfort in his scent.
"Clark is stronger, more resiliant than most people in the universe." Johnathan looked up, shading his eyes. "It won't work too long. It sounds like they are falling apart up there."
"Barb and me and the others have talked about it. We are going to try and talk people into forming regional co-operatives. Not teams like the League, but say Flash needs help in Central: I can be there in 25 mintues, 15 if I annoy people." The cat jumped out of her lap with a feline grunt. "And we aren't limiting it only to the top percent of heros like the Justice League. We'll be unlimited- if you are a hero, we want your phone number and what you can do."
"But Kara, what about Clark?"
"Dick told me that there if you call him, there will be a Wayne Enterprises jet at the air field about the time you guys get there. They can have you in Gotham in a few hours." She shrugged. "Until he's a little better, Dr Thompson wants him to stay at the Manor. How long that is is up to him. Then we can bring him home."
Elsewhen
Diana moved through the halls, silently, looking for Bruce. He hadn't said very much since he attacked Savage, not that she blamed him. He had quickly disappeared into the labrynth of halls and rooms that Savage had constructed. She had already searched the grounds, there was no sign of him leaving. Savage was confident that he hadn't gotten far, and he would return, but she was worried.
She found a door ajar leading to a suite of rooms on one of the upper floors, as she wondered why one person needed this much room. She found her prey on a balconey, staring out at the mutilated moon. "So this is where you've been hiding." She stepped onto the perch, standing next to him. "I was worried about you. You weren't yourself earlier."
For a long time she stood with him, in silence, before turning to go back in. "If you want to talk about it, I'm in the guest rooms off the Greeco-roman artifacts."
She had almost made it to the door when a pained, ragged voice stopped her. It wasn't the voice of Batman, or of Bruce Wayne. It was the voice of utter, total dispair, of a lost child grown large. "He killed them, Diana. He killed my children, and can't even tell me where he did it."
She quickly returned to his side, his frame seemingly shrunk. She pushed his mask and cowl up, off of his face, seeing the tears in his eyes again, his face bleak. "Bruce, they died trying to protect people." She hugged him to her, letting him cling to her as the pain flowed through him.
"I didn't find them, they found me. Dick, and Tim. Even Barbara. They needed revenge, just like I did, and I gave it to them. They were just kids when they died, Diana. The League, Batman, all the tights and capes, it didn't make a bit of difference. They never had a chance to be normal children."
"You said that Nightwing became Batman after you died. He had been Robin before, and then the younger Robin created that group in Jump City, right?" He nodded, the tears starting to flow from under his mask. She was still wearing his cape, which she wrapped around both of them. "To the Greeks, 14 was old enough to lead a house hold or be a soldier. They were old enough to make thier own choices. Robin was that old, and Flash was probably about the same age as Nightwing and Batgirl."
A small, sad laugh escaped Bruces lips. "They went to college together. Did you know Flash was trained as a chemist? Wally and Dick were in the same fraternity, Dick tutored him in a couple of classes. He's a good man, he'll put it together. Dick will know who Flash really is by now, and he tell Wally the truth."
"It is a small world." Diana glanced at the door, glad to see it was still empty. "Bruce, there is somethign else. Tell me, please. It doesn't have to be your private burden."
Bruce thought back to an angry night in the Batcave, years ago. "I asked them to quit, Diana, to live normal lives. After what the Joker did to Tim, I couldn't stand the thought of them working with me any more. I told them to leave." Drawing a shudeering breath, he continued after a moment "They followed orders, at least part of them. Dick and I fought again, and he left. Even Barbara stopped talking to me for a while. And Tim just left in the middle of the night. I had no right, Diana. They've all nearly died so many times. Dick has never had a normal life; neither has Barbara, although she tries. Tim is barely 16, and he almost killed the Joker. The Joker kidnapped him, and brainwashed him; if Barbara hadn't forced me to bring her, and if she hadn't talked Dick into joining us when we rescued Tim... I stole thier childhoods, Diana. They never got to be normal people, they didn't know what they were giving up. Savage didn't kill them, I did." The guilt flooded him, robbing his breath as he sobbed against her, collapsing physically and emotionally.
All Diana could do was hang on, stroking his back, letting him cry. "You gave them a purpose, Bruce, and you taught them to survive on thier the path they chose for themselves. That counts for something.
Author's notes:
Everyone has a breaking point. I think this would be Bruce's. And when the strong break, they usually shatter.
I can see the two Jons talking about this, with Wally saying just how bad of an idea it would be. And the two of them doing it anyway. It is a strategic move, and a ballsy one, but one I'd think about making myself. But I've been accused of being heartless.
Last time I looked, Smallville is somewhere in Iowa. Central City is in Missouri, just across the river from Keystone in Kansas. A couple times the speed of sound, after you climb high enough to not break windows, you could be there in 25 minutes. The alternative version of the past(AFAIK, it is non-Prime) puts Keystone in (duh) Pennsylvania, and Central in Illinos on the border with Iowa- even closer. Hey, do you think Kara likes redheads?
Aces and eights are the deadman's hand in poker. So named becuase Wild Bill Hitchock was holding black aces and black eights in his hand when he was shot from behind; no one is sure of what the kicker was, but the best bet is either the five of diamonds or the queen of clubs, based on what is in two musuems. Two pairs isn't a horrible hand, but you can do a lot better- I would fold or bluff like mad. And some people have a house rule that the deadman's hand is the worst hand, But it is always a bad omen.