After dying of cancer, involuntarily traveling back to 2010, and coming back from the dead for the nth time, Jason Todd is fully reunited with a past version of his family and ready and willing to move on with his life.
However, when an unexpected development throws the entire superhero world on its head, he must put those plans on hold. Directly affected by this seemingly miraculous event, Jason is forced to confront the one question that has plagued his mind ever since he arrived to the past:
Why was he sent back in time?
(Or, Jason plays the Superhero Game, where everything you love is always at stake and the only way to win is to say that you did and not break down from the lie.)
(Or, the action-packed sequel to one day at a time)
Well, here it is: the sequel to one day at a time. It came a lot sooner than I thought it would, especially considering the amount of work and research that went into this. Whatever the case, I hope you all enjoy it.
On another note, the theme song for this story, if there should be one, is "Underdog" by Alicia Keys. I think as the farther the story goes along, the more you'll understand why. I'll see if I can make a playlist for this story later.
Edward Nygma would like to think he was something of an accomplished supervillain, thank you very much.
Sure, he wasn't as murderously insane as the Joker, or as rich as Penguin, or as self-righteously powerful as Poison Ivy, or even as…distracting as Catwoman, but yeah, he was an accomplished supervillain. He was, after all, smarter than them all, smarter than even the Bat. He was the one that could create the perfect crime and get away with it…if it weren't his pathological need to leave riddles behind for people to solve as clues. And even then, the Riddler was still a feared quantity among the criminal underground, enough that he even had third-rates like Cluemaster emulating him in hopes of attaining even a fraction of his success.
So yeah, Edward Nygma was an accomplished supervillain. One of the greats, to be honest. Which begged a question:
Why the hell was this brat kicking his ass?
"'What goes up be never comes down?' Age, duh. 'What gets bigger when more is taken away?' A hole, bleh. Are you even trying anymore? I'm pretty sure you could find every riddle on this list by searching 'common riddles' on Google and clicking on the first link," Gotham Knight complained as he continued punching the head of Nygma's last henchman. Edward twitched.
Gotham Knight. The new kid on the block. Appeared around five months ago, helping out the Bat with that incident with Shiva and then with the Joker's latest breakout. Unlike most new vigilantes on the street, Batman had quickly endorsed this one to the police and had been seen patrolling with him occasionally ever since. In fact, Knight had been his main patrolling partner while Robin, for whatever reason, had been missing. Then Robin came back and he stopped showing up so much, disappeared even for a bit, only to make a roaring return over two months ago by essentially taking over Crime Alley as his turf. He still hung out with Batman and Robin whenever there was something big going down, but for the most part he operated on his own.
Selina thought he was cute and Penguin seemed oddly grateful to him for some reason, but as for Nygma? Nygma hated him. It was like dealing with a meaner Nightwing. At least Nightwing could be polite even as he was insulting you and sometimes his corny jokes and one-liners could even be funny.
This brat? This brat was irreverent of everything and everyone. He was never impressed with any of his traps or riddles and frequently insulted everyone and everything he saw. He could be brutal too — maybe even more brutal than the Bat himself. Zsaz was still recovering in a high-security hospital after Knight found him trying to slice up some toddlers. The serial killer would be eating out of a tube for weeks.
It made Nygma wonder where the kid had come from. There were rumors that he was the second Robin, but he couldn't be. Everyone in the super community, be they villain or hero, knew the second Robin was dead. The Joker hadn't stopped crowing about the deed after it was done, even after the Bat put him into a coma for months and then started a wild rampage throughout all of Gotham, taking down every criminal he could find no matter whatever personal harm he suffered to himself. A rampage that Superman himself had to stop, and really only ended when the third Robin rolled into town.
So who was he?
"Right." Knight tossed the thug away and turned to Nygma, who was holding his iconic question mark staff at the ready. He wasn't up to par against the Bat or Nightwing in a fight, but maybe he stood a chance against this one, brutality be damned. It's not like Zsaz was all that good in a fight himself anyway.
"If you think I'm going to be an easy target—Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Nygma demanded as Knight turned away from him to talk to someone on his comm.
"What was that Spoiler? A situation in the Cave? Alright, I'll be there." Knight buzzed his comm off and turned his attentions back to Nygma. "Sorry about that, but I'm needed elsewhere. I'll make this quick."
"Why you cocky little—" Before Nygma could say more, he found himself tugged forward by his staff, which was quickly ripped out of his hands. Knight used it to throw him off his feet and onto his back.
Before Nygma could recover, he saw Knight swing the staff true, and knew no more.
After tying up the thugs and leaving Nygma hanging off a street lamp (ah, memories) for the police to arrest, Jason sped off on his new motorcycle to the nearest entrance to the Cave. As he did so, he couldn't help but reminisce on how much things had changed since Ra's' death three months ago.
Now that there were no secrets being kept between the Manor's most frequent occupants (nor with the Birds of Prey), the atmosphere had become a much more relaxed. Jason felt more comfortable commenting on things that reminded him of the future and answering questions now that there was no need to talk around it with Damian or Stephanie. Of course, some subjects were still off-topic, but for the most part things were much more open in the house.
Life, for the most part, had gone on. Dick couldn't visit as much thanks to his triple-shifting as Bludhaven cop by day and Nightwing, protector of Bludhaven and leader of the Titans by night, but he still visited. Damian palled around with Jon while terrifying his classmates into submission and was probably plotting to take over the world (Jason seriously needed to consider keeping a closer eye on him — hacking into Gotham Academy's security feeds were not enough). Cass blossomed with her new ballet and ice skating lessons and had even made a friend or two. Even Bruce was less broody than he used to be. A better father too, though considering what he was like before, that wasn't much of a standard to exceed.
Of course, the biggest change was Tim and Stephanie's relationship. The two were nigh inseparable now, or as much as a couple like them could be with Tim doubling as Robin on weeknights and as Young Justice's kinda-but-not-really-leader on weekends. It helped that Stephanie practically lived at the Manor these days. With her mom's constant working it was a valid alternative and a great excuse for her to be here more often while she started her self-defense training. She had permanent lodgings in Cassandra's room (because not even Bruce was parentally-inept enough to let her stay in her boyfriend's room overnight) and had even taken to helping out in the Cave at night, handling comms whenever Alfred needed to go out or Oracle was busy handling the Birds. She wasn't ready to be vigilante quite yet, but if she ever decided to take that step, she'd be a lot more prepared for it than her counterpart was when she first started.
Jason was happy for her. For all of them, really. Life was finally beginning to settle down. Sure, there were some hard times ahead, but he was sure that they'd make it through. He didn't die a fourth time and come back to kill a six hundred year old immortal to accept otherwise.
Such were his thoughts when he sped into the Cave only to spot an overgrown Robin and a miniature Batman waiting for him. Jason quickly slowed his motorcycle to a stop as he took off his helmet and stared. Off in the periphery, he could see both Alfred and Stephanie staring as well, wincing and cringing. The latter was tapping her point fingers together in repeated manner, betraying how anxious she was. After all, this was strange even for Gotham.
Jason ignored them both in favor of too-tall-Robin and too-short-Batman. He blinked, making sure it wasn't a hallucination, before sighing. He dropped his forehead into his hand, and pinched, beginning to rub his fingers back and forth. He could just feel a headache beginning to build.
"Witch boy?"
He didn't need to look up to see the both of them nod. He already knew the answer.
"Right. Alfred, Steph, contact Oracle and ask her to have the Birds and Batgirl watch Gotham for the rest of the night. B, Rob, please tell me you two warmed up the plane already. I want to get this over with as fast as possible."
Jason twitched.
"Why did you bring your brother here?" An adult Cissie King-Jones whispered to Tim behind him. Another sign of how the timeline had changed — Cissie had left the team by the time this incident happened.
Tim grimaced. "He has a lot of experience with kids. I thought he could help."
"Well, he's just standing there instead."
As the adult members of Young Justice continued to bicker amongst themselves over the validity of the decision to bring him here, Jason continued to twitch as he observed the inner sanctum of Mount Justice, which was crawling with de-aged superheroes. A child Jay Garrick was racing around with a teenage Wally West, Kyle Rayner and Alan Scott were playing rock-paper-scissors, the JLA and JSA in general were just screwing around the only way young children and teenagers could, and the only adult even trying to keep things under control was Starwoman, aka an aged-up Stargirl (and God, it was weird to see Courtney like that again, even if she had shorter hair than he remembered), and one of the culprits, the Old Justice sidekick Doiby Dickles. Apparently, he had tried to reverse the transformation already, but it was ineffective without Klarion.
It was chaos. Pure, unadulterated chaos. It reminded him of all the times he had been forced to chaperone the annual Teen Titans/Young Justice holiday parties as both himself and as Batman, except worse because there were toddlers — babies, really — here too. A thousand times worse. Jason was sure there was a tick growing above his eye as his twitch became twitchier.
Right. No nice way of doing this. He snapped open one of the pockets of his utility belt and took out a miniature flare gun. Aiming it so he wouldn't hit anyone and make things worse, he shot flares into the sky three times. The flares fired with audible, loud pops that almost resembled explosions, catching everyone's attention and drawing all eyes on Jason, who calmly pocketed the flare gun back into his utility belt.
"Everyone sit down. Right now."
There was a moment of silence. Then a teenage Aquaman swaggered forward with an arrogant look on his face. "And why should we listen to you—Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow!"
Before he could finish that statement, Jason had grabbed him by the top tip of his ear and twisted. Aquaman cried out in pain as the former Robin tugged, before whimpering as he sat down on the ground. Jason finally let go of the ear, then patted Aquaman on the head. Then he looked at the rest of the troublemakers, who cowered under his hard gaze.
"I'm going to say it one last time: sit down. Now."
Everyone under the physical age of eighteen quickly did what he said, some trembling in fear and shying away as he scanned the entire crowd, doing a head count. He narrowed his eyes when he realized there were four very important people missing, along with the other perpetrator. He glanced back at Young Justice and Starwoman, all of whom couldn't help but flinch when they saw the severe expression on his face.
"Where are Superboy, Superman, Wonder Girl, and Wonder Woman?"
That caused the group to cringe. "Our latest intel indicates that they've been captured by this organization called the Agenda, one that Superboy has been tangling with for some time over in his home-turf of Hawaii. They've been taken to their headquarters over at the Arctic," Tim quickly explained.
"Right then," he turned back to the congregation of miniaturized superheroes. "I'm heading out. While I'm gone, Starwoman and Young Justice are in charge. If I come back and find out there was so much as even a hint of trouble while I was gone, I will not be happy. Understood?"
There were mutters of confirmation and shifty looks.
"I said: am I understood?"
Upon hearing that dark tone, there followed loud noises of affirmation and a lot of furious nodding. Jason, satisfied, turned on his heel to leave. "I'm going to use the JL's emergency teleporters," he told Tim as he walked past the members of Young Justice. "Send me the coordinates for the Agenda's headquarters. I'll rescue those four, hitch a ride on one of them on the way back. While I'm doing that, try searching for Klarion or his cat Teekl. Whether you succeed or not, until I get back, make sure this lot don't get into too much trouble."
The newly-made adults stared at him wonder, more than a little bit intimidated. "How did you do that?" Impulse couldn't help but asked, amazed.
Jason turned to look at him, then patted him on the shoulder. "You'll understand when you have kids of your own one day." That said, he gave a pointed look to his younger brother. Tim swallowed, rattling off the coordinates to Jason. Jason quickly memorized them and went to the computer system to hack into the Watchtower.
As he teleported away, the remaining members of Young Justice and Starwoman turned to Robin. "What did he mean by that?" Starwoman asked, an eyebrow raised.
Robin groaned.
The Arctic. I fucking hate the Arctic.
But of course, the Agenda's headquarters just had to be there. Jason kept his complaining inside his head as he stealthily evaded the Agenda's soldiers, both man and clone and everything in-between, inching closer and closer to the chamber where the intel indicated the Kryptonians and the Amazons were being held. Of course, once those four were released, stealth would have to be thrown out the window, but there was no need to go Nintendo hard right from the beginning. Jason already had enough of a headache trying to wrangle the JSA and the JLA earlier today.
Thank God the Titans weren't all affected. Nightwing can handle them and the press while I deal with this. Jason thought to himself as he moved across the shadows.
BOOM!
Which is, of course, when the alarm sounded.
As soldiers started running around calling out various codes and shouldering their guns, the Gotham Knight looked up to the ceiling with sad, mournful eyes. "I hate everything," he said in a deeply bland and embittered tone. Then he flipped off the ceiling he had been hanging from and moved towards the direction of the explosion, kicking away anyone who recognized him as an intruder.
It wasn't long before he found the source of the disruption: the very people he had come here to rescue. The four were debating how to escape, and with them was a young African-American woman that Jason didn't recognize. He approached them, clearing his throat.
The four turned around, prepared to fight, only to relax slightly when they saw it was him. "Knight? What are you doing here?" Superman Jr. (aka de-aged Superman) asked.
"To rescue you. Which I guess I didn't need to do."
All four smiled awkwardly.
Jason shook his head. "Whatever. We need to leave. And I need to know — who is the woman tagging along?"
Superman Sr. (aka aged-up Superboy) glanced at the woman, rubbing his head sheepishly. "Oh. She's my…friend, Tana Moon."
Tana Moon? Why does that sound famil—shit. "You," Jason pointed at Tana, "come here," he ordered.
The woman froze for a moment, before hesitantly complying. The moment she was in arm's reach, Jason took out a lock pin from inside his utility belt and quickly started working on the collar around her neck. Within a minute, he had managed to crack the locking mechanism and toss the collar away. "Great, that's done. Now let's get out of here."
"Not if I have anything to say about it!"
Jason resisted the urge to groan as he turned around and spotted the newest interloper. Another African-American woman, this one older and with shorter hair, appeared, backed by a number of soldiers. A high-ranking member of the Agenda, no doubt. One with a solid grudge against Kon, judging by the hateful glare she shot Superman Sr.
"And who the hell are you?" Jason could help but ask, voice clearly exasperated.
"Amanda Spence," the woman introduced herself, smirking. "And the only reason I'm telling you that is because it'll be the last thing you'll ever hear."
The Gotham Knight stared at her, unimpressed. Then he tossed a couple of smoke bombs on the ground. The group of Agenda agents coughed as smoke enveloped the area around them, obscuring the superheroes and their civilian tag-along from sight. When the smoke finally dissipated, all six were gone, with only a hole in the ceiling indicating where they'd went.
Amanda grew red in the face, and she took out a communicator. "GO AFTER THEM!" she barked into it, "NOW!"
"Why did you have us drop off Tana?" Superman Sr. asked curiously as the five superheroes flew through the air back to Mount Justice.
"Because she's a civilian and would've only been a liability while we dealt with Klarion," Knight replied pointedly as he hung awkwardly from Superman Sr.'s back. As the largest person here, it had quickly been deemed that he would have the easiest time transporting Jason with them back to Young Justice's headquarters.
Superman Sr. glanced at the aged-up Wonder Girl, who shrugged. He had a point, after all. But before anymore could be said about the matter, the entire group stopped. They hadn't reached Mount Justice. They didn't need to.
"What. The Hell," Jason hissed angrily.
Beneath their feet was a battle being waged between the miniaturized JLA and JSA and what looked suspiciously like a bunch of de-aged versions of many, many prominent supervillains. Jason felt the twitch in his eye return as he scanned the area until he spotted who he wanted to see. "Drop me off next to Robin," he ordered Superman Sr., who quickly complied.
The adult-ified Robin was currently using his staff to fight off a mini-Poison Ivy's plants. Jason quickly took out one of his specialized batarangs and tossed it, only barely stopping to watch it freeze the vines before it shattered on its own to pieces. Before mini-Ivy could even react, he tossed a bolo at her, tying her up and keeping her distracted for the time being. Then he turned his attentions back to his younger brother, who shrunk beneath his wilting glare.
"I told you and your team to keep things under control until I got back!"
"We did!" Tim defended himself. "They were all being obedient and stuff and Secret even managed to find Teekl! But before we could use that to bring in Klarion, he showed up with this army of supervillains to attack us! And even after he was going to surrender for the cat, this older version of him showed up and attacked him, starting the fighting!"
Jason felt his twitch grow worse with every word that spilled out of his little brother's mouth, and he was certain there was now a visible tick on his forehead. Whatever, it didn't matter. He was ending this now.
"Where the hell is Klarion?" He asked viciously. "I'll fix this right now."
Tim swallowed but pointed his bo-staff towards the right. Jason turned to see what was undoubtedly a pale kid in a tiny suit fighting an older version of himself in a magic duel. Yup. Klarion the Witch Boy, alright.
The former Batman stomped off to deal with the source of all of today's troubles, jumping over heroes and villains alike. He arrived in the middle of the duel and quickly tossed another bolo at the elder of the two combatants, tying him up before he could continue the fight. Then he looked at the younger one with the most terrifying expression he was willing to shoot a child with. "You. Fix this. Now."
Klarion puffed up his chest, and Jason would've found it adorable if he wasn't up to his wit's end dealing with children today. He loved kids, but even he had limits. "And who are you to order around Klarion…Bum, Bum, Bum…the Witch Boy!"
It was adorable.
Jason still wasn't moved.
No, instead he drew out one of the All-Blades and pointed it at the child, seething. "I'm Gotham Knight, that's who. And if I'm telling you to fix this, you fix this."
The Witch Boy stared at the All-Blade, then at Knight, before sighing, looking incredibly downtrodden. "I just wanted to have friends…" he whined pathetically.
That finally melted Jason's icy exterior, and he sighed as well, dispersing the All-Blade back into his soul. He crouched down next to Klarion, absentmindedly tossing another bolo at his struggling clone, and gingerly wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulders. "I know. But this isn't the way to go about it, Klarion."
Klarion sniffed. Jason opened another pocket in his utility belt and took out something — a bag of cookies. He unzipped the bag and took one out, handing it over to the magical child. Klarion took it gratefully and bit into it, lighting up immediately as the chocolate chip gooeyness melted into his mouth. Alfred's cookies, as always, saved the day.
"Fix this and I'll give you the rest of the bag," Jason promised.
Upon hearing that, Klarion grinned toothily before floating up to the sky, nonchalantly eliminating his clone on the way up. Jason winced as the clone disintegrated, and then watched as the villains were transformed back to their proper ages and teleported away. Once they were gone, the mini JLA and JSA stopped with their fighting, instead looking around in confusion. A look from Jason had Robin ordering them to gather around, and minutes later Doiby Dickles and Klarion shot two simultaneous beams of energy at the crowd of superheroes. Jason felt himself relax as everyone returned to their proper ages.
Teekl the cat jumped up and curled herself around Klarion's shoulders as Jason handed off the bag of cookies. Klarion took one out and munched on it, giving Jason one final wave before popping away to God knows where. Jason sighed in relief before glancing at the crowd of heroes, who were all trying to get used to being back to their proper ages again. It was finally over.
Or at least that was what seemed to be the case, until Superboy collapsed.
"KON!" someone shouted as the crowd immediately surged around him. Jason was one of the first ones there, helping turn Kon on his back. The young clone was shaking fitfully, almost like he was seizing.
And then he glowed white.
Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. His eyes turned white and when his mouth opened a ray of white light burst out. Two similar rays burst out of his eyes as well, before an entire white colored aura surrounded him. The aura grew stronger and stronger, almost blinding as it burst out of the younger hero, before gradually fading away, leaving an unconscious Kon-El behind. He was breathing, and a quick check-up by Jason indicated he was healthy, stable, and that the light, whatever it was, hadn't caused any physical changes. But he wasn't waking up.
Jason looked up from the past version of his friend to gaze at the rest of the heroes, who were all looking every bit as confused and worried as he was. There was no doubt the same question had crossed all their minds:
What was that?
Several hours later, and Kon's condition still hadn't changed. The group of heroes had dispersed in the meantime, each returning to their respective headquarters and/or cities. Only Young Justice had remained, along with Gotham Knight, Batman, and Superman, to watch over the young hero. The younger heroes congregated around their teammate, watching him with worry, with Superman observing his young protege a little ways off. Batman and Knight were the farthest away, but they too were watching Kon, waiting. The latter was worried like everyone else; the former was also worried, but also mostly concerned of the potential threat.
"You did a good job today," Bruce complimented his son, arms crossed.
Jason gave a small shrug but didn't answer. He only had eyes for Kon. This might not be his Kon, but he still cared for him all the same.
"I guess you had experience dealing with so many kids?"
"You could say that," Jason finally said, exhaling deeply. "Granted, not so many so young, but with teenagers…yeah, I've had to deal with more than my fair share of teenagers. Especially teenage superheroes. It's a never cakewalk, but I've picked up a few tricks over the years."
Bruce nodded slowly. "Like the ear thing?"
Jason quirked up a small smirk. "Like the ear thing. Though that one isn't just useful when it comes to kids, you know."
"Oh?"
"You're not the only one who's had to deal with teammates acting stupid over the years," Jason explained, mind awash with memories.
His father gave one of those almost-smiles of his, which might as well be a smile when he was in Batman-mode. It was nice to see.
"Arrgh…"
Everyone immediately perked up at the sound of Kon's groan. He was waking up! Batman and Knight joined Superman in joining the small crowd of Young Justice, watching eagerly as their friend awakened. Kon blinked repeatedly up at the ceiling, before sitting up, scrunching his eyes a bit. Then he looked at them.
And stared.
"Hey, buddy," Robin started, voice soft and comforting. "How do you feel?"
Kon glanced at him, still staring. Robin's smile, and the smiles of everyone else gradually faded away when he failed to respond to the question. Confused looks were exchanged.
"Kon?" Robin prompted again.
His best friend didn't respond, instead sweeping his gaze over everyone else, lingering on Bart, Cassie, and Clark in particular. And then, it morphed into a harsh, almost deadly glare. Several of the people present took an unconscious step back at the sight of it.
"Is this a joke?" he demanded quietly, angrily.
People blinked. "Kon?" This time it was Clark who asked, voice deeply concerned.
"SHUT UP!" Kon snapped at him, and this time everyone did take a step back.
"Kon!" Cassie scolded him, horrified.
But Kon wasn't paying attention to her. Instead he was glaring up at the ceiling, though he wasn't looking at any place in particular. "What the hell is this, Prime? Is this another one of your games? Well if it is, I'm not falling for it!" he shouted to the sky.
Prime? Now everyone was confused.
So confused, that no one noticed Jason, who had grown disturbingly pale.
"Kon, what's going on?" Bart was the one who asked, reaching for his friend's shoulder. Kon immediately shied away, glowering at him.
"Shut up, fake! The real Bart has been dead for years! I went to his funeral!"
That caused everyone to freeze. All the other people present stared at Kon in horror, and in the cases of Tim, Bruce, and Clark, dawning realization. Jason stepped forward, breaking through the crowd as Kon continued ranting.
"I watched the real Cassie's body burn! I saw Tim die right in front of me! You can't be them! You can't!"
"Kon—!" Cissie shouted, disturbed.
"Hiyori Tanaka."
And just like that, the room fell instantly silent.
Kon zeroed in his gaze on Jason, but it was obvious by the perplexity on his face that he didn't recognize him. Not with the mask and domino on, at least. "How do you know that name?"
"You first met her when she moved to Smallville in 2033," Jason continued, not answering his friend's question. "She was this big shot lawyer from Los Angeles who decided she wanted the quiet life after she won this big case on corporate corruption and got a ton of unwanted publicity for it. She became Smallville's new local attorney, and during one of her first trips to the Farmer's Market, she met you at your stall. It was love at first sight. You two danced around for months before you began dating, and finally got married in 2035. A year later, your son, Vance Kent, or Van-El, was born."
Now the clone's attention was entirely on Jason. Everyone else might as well have disappeared, hanging on the periphery as they too all focused on Jason. "How do you know all this?" Kon asked quietly, though there was a tremble to his voice.
Jason stepped forward and sat on the foot of Kon's medical bed. Calmly, he deactivated his mask, letting it slide down the bottom half of his face, and took off his domino, revealing his full appearance to everyone here. He could hear gasps, but he didn't care. His secret identity mattered little in the face of this. "Because I was the best man at your wedding. And when Van was born, you made me his godfather."
Kon began shaking. "…Jason?"
The former Batman smiled back sadly, and there were some tears welling up in his eyes. "Yeah, Kon. It's me."
"But…how? Why are you so young?"
Jason reached out and took Kon's hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Because my soul traveled back in time and merged with the soul of this body, Kon. Just like yours did, it seems."
"Back in time? You mean we time-traveled?" Kon looked completely poleaxed at the thought.
"Yes," Jason admitted, ignoring the second round of gasps from Young Justice.
"Then…that means…" Kon glanced again at his teammates. Then tears of his own began to build, and he began to choke as he tried to suppress his sobs.
Jason kept his hold on Kon's hand as he looked back at his father, the one remaining person in the room he knew was still capable of being impartial and clear-headed. "We need some privacy. Please."
Bruce nodded seriously. "Young Justice. Superman. Let's go," he barked, catching everyone's attention.
"But—" Cassie protested, only to be silenced by Batman's patented glare.
"Robin, Superman, and I will explain everything in the other room. But for now, let's give these two some time to talk," he calmly ordered.
Young Justice looked reluctant to comply, especially when they saw the way Kon had buried his face into his hands and was jerking with his cries. A pleading look from Jason, clearly not in the best emotional state himself, however, convinced them that this was for the best. Glumly, the teenage heroes followed their mentors and superiors to the outside room. It was only after the door shut closed and they were alone that Kon lifted his face, blotchy and red from tears.
"Oh my God, Jason," he said, hysterical. "Oh my God."
"I know, Kon," Jason said, reaching forward to hug his best friend for the first time in eight years. "I know."
Yup. We're going down that route. I'm going to try to answer every unanswered question about the rest of Jason's timeline in this story, and this is just the start of it. I think you're all going to love it.
Next chapter: Jason and Kon.
