"Hera, I've missed your cooking," Donna moaned as she took another bite of her pancakes.
Jason smirked as he took a sip of his orange juice. "I see. That's your motive for getting back together with me: so I can be your house husband and make you food everyday."
"Curses! You've discovered my evil plot! But no matter, I shall still ensnare you so!"
"You already have," Jason teased, as Donna and him exchanged loving gazes.
Kon swallowed a bite of his eggs. "Okay, now I'm starting to regret getting you two back together. You're somehow worse than you were before."
"Your own fault, Kon," Donna told him, feeling absolutely no sympathy. "Your own fault."
It was early in the morning for breakfast. Everyone else was still fast asleep, except for them and Alfred, who was currently making breakfast for the rest of the family. Right now, it was just them in the breakfast nook.
"So," Kon asked as he set his utensils down, completely satisfied as much as a Kryptonian hybrid could be, "what are we doing today?"
"Young Justice has the weekend off thanks to the meeting tomorrow, so I told Bruce to take the kids to the amusement park so we can have the day to ourselves," Jason revealed.
Donna placed her chin in her hand and her elbow on the table. "You already checked out our rooms and everything for bugs, didn't you." It was a statement, not a question.
"Of course I did — what do you take me for, an amateur?"
Kon shook his head. "Only your family, Jay. Only your family."
Of course, it wasn't that easy. While the children liked the idea of heading to an amusement park well enough (outside of Gotham, of course — going to amusement parks within the city limits was just asking for trouble), they surprisingly didn't react well to the idea of Jason, Donna, and Kon not going with them. Of course, all of them except Jon — and really, at this point, they should consider telling Jon already, if only just to get it out of the way — knew why those three were going off on their own, but it seemed that wasn't a sufficient excuse. It appeared the group had really bonded with Donna and to a lesser extent, Kon, the night before.
"Why are you going with Jason?" Stephanie whined. "He's boring and we're cooler than him."
"Wow, Steph, really feeling the love there," Jason said dryly.
"What am I? Chopped liver?" Kon demanded.
Tim shrugged. "You're the one who said it, not us."
Donna smiled. "I'm sure you are," she told Stephanie warmly, ignoring the 'Hey!' Jason shouted in the background, "but it's been a while since I've seen these two and I need to reconnect with them first. We'll all go out together another time, alright?"
Stephanie sniffed. "Very well then. Come along Cass, Tim let's go outside and make sure Dami and Jon haven't set fire to the car already."
"You don't really think they'd set fire to the car, do you?" Tim asked Jason as he was dragged away by his girlfriend and sister.
"I don't know. I mean, Jon's powers are still developing, and Damian is, well, Damian."
"Right," Tim cringed. "Are you sure you don't want to come?" Jason was the best in the family at handling Damian, after all.
"You lot need to learn how to handle him without me," Jason bluntly responded.
"I hate you," Tim told him flatly.
"Sure you do, Tim."
"Enough, boys," Bruce rumbled, coming down the stairs with a pair of black sunglasses on his face. Tim scoffed and followed his girlfriend and sister out the door. Bruce moved to follow him, but not before giving a severe look to the time travelers. A look that had even the most defiant heroes and villains quaking in their boots.
Absolutely none of the three looked intimidated in the least. Donna was still smiling blandly. Jason crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow. Kon yawned.
I hate time travel. Bruce quickly decided.
"Okay, so where are we going? Robinson Park? The mall?" Kon asked hours later in their own car. He was sitting in the back seat, while Jason was driving in the front with Donna in shotgun.
"Mall," Jason answered. "Need to do some shopping and we can eat in a restaurant there. And before you ask, yes, I brought the white noise machine, so no one should be able to overhear our conversations."
"What if the others do come?" Donna suddenly asked, leaning against her window. "How do you think everyone will react?"
Jason winced. "Wallace will probably be fine, and J'onn should come around eventually with M'gann, but it's going to be a while until Kaldur earns Aquaman's trust."
"Unless he tells Arthur what he did to Black Manta in the last timeline," Kon pointed out.
"Yeah, but you know how difficult that was for Kaldur to talk about in general. It's going to be even more difficult considering Manta is alive right now."
"True," Kon admitted. "I mean as much as he hated the guy, and as much as a monster he turned out to be, Manta was his father."
Donna hummed. "As bad as Kaldur might have it, though, I think Kyle will have it even worse. He'll be so different compared to what they're used to, especially since Alex didn't die in this timeline—"
"Wait, Alex is alive?" Kon cut in, sounding genuinely shocked.
"Yup," Jason answered, hitting the horn on his car. Freaking Gotham traffic. "I was surprised when I heard too. Apparently they never got back together, so Major Force never went after her. Kyle figured out the ring with Alan Scott's help."
"So he's still in awe of the whole superhero thing."
Donna sighed. "Like you wouldn't believe. It's been months and the others still treat him like a kid. Granted, he still kind of acts like one, so…" she gave a half-shrug.
Kon leaned back into his seat. "And when you compare that to our Kyle…" he trailed off, and there was a collective wince. There was a reason Kyle Rayner had been the most feared member of the Era 2 Council, after all.
"Well, there's no guarantee any of them will come back, so we'll deal with it as it comes," Jason said with finality.
Donna, however, was not so convinced. "What if a villain comes back?" she blurted out. "Hell, what if a villain from our time is responsible for all this?"
There was a moment of silence.
"Like I said," Jason replied, tightening his grip on the wheel of his car. "We'll deal with it as it comes."
Compared to that tense conversation, the rest of the trip was relatively benign. They arrived at the mall with little fanfare and quickly found a decent Japanese restaurant to eat at. After ordering three bentos for themselves, they got into really talking about what had been going on in their lives lately. There were inquiries about how Donna's talk with the Titans went, along with Jason confessing more details about what he had been up to before Kon arrived. Including the possibility of opening up his diner again in Crime Alley.
"I'm trying to clean the place up before I decide," Jason explained over his bento. "It was one thing when I was Red Hood and everyone was terrified of me even after I went straight, but as Gotham Knight it's harder because I'm basically meaner Nightwing."
Donna snorted. "'Meaner Nightwing' — oh, if only Dick were around right now to hear that."
Kon dropped his chopsticks. "That does it. I'm going to tell him."
"Don't you dare Conner Kent—!"
"Nah-ah!" Kon stuck out his tongue. "You can't tell me what to do!"
"How in the hell are you an adult?" Jason demanded.
His best friend grinned. "Technically I'm not, remember?"
"Ah, right. Your body finally matches your mental age, being a year old and all."
"Oh, screw you Jay."
"Alack, here I am, the perpetual peanut gallery!" Donna proclaimed with mock despair.
Jason crossed his arms. "Which has worked greatly for you over the years, judging by the amount blackmail material you held over us all."
"Please. Like you didn't have our entire lives on video in the Bat-Computer."
The former Batman dipped his head, conceding the point.
"How much do you want to bet Bruce has been modifying all our profiles on the Computer since we got here?" Kon wondered.
Both Jason and Donna gave him flat looks.
"Yeah, right. Stupid question."
"He does know you have access to those too, right?" Donna asked her boyfriend.
"Of course he does. We just don't talk about it."
"Stupid Bats and your stupid 'you know I know you know' routines," Kon half-heartedly grumbled.
Jason ignored him. "Kinda like how he knows I didn't actually delete his contingency plans for the JLA but rather transcribed them on paper and hid them in the maximum security vault we keep in the Cave. You know, since you can't hack hard copies and all."
Donna hummed. "That's no longer going to be an issue, is it? Since you killed Ra's?"
Jason shrugged. "Maybe. Ra's isn't the only smart person in the world who would be able to figure it out and use it to their advantage. Then again, he's one of the few who had the resources to try and find them anyway."
"We should be prepared for that. And for the potential fallout."
"I mean, we're okay with it," Kon pointed out.
"Because we've been working with the Bats and their paranoia for decades, Kon," Donna countered. "By our time there had been so many situations where they proved necessary that not only was it expected that any Bat on a team had contingencies to disarm their teammates, but it was also outright considered part of their job."
"And that is something I shall forever be grateful for," Jason claimed. "It made my life so much easier."
"Yay for you," Kon said dryly.
"The JLA would've been a lot more accepting of the existence of those plans if they had not been used against them by Ra's al Ghul, without provocation," Donna continued, ignoring the byplay. "But they were, and it became the first domino in a very long line of them that led to, well…"
The table fell silent.
"I've already handled Jean Loring, not that it helped in the end when it came to Jack Drake," Jason mentioned the last part bitterly. "But Eclipso is still an issue. And that doesn't account for Light."
"All he needs is a trigger and he'll remember," Kon muttered. "And that will finally give Luthor Jr. and Prime the opening they need."
"We can cut them off at the pass, expose Luthor early," Donna started, only for Jason to hold up his hand.
"And do you think any villain will believe us once what happened to Light spreads?"
Donna bit her lip. "Then what are we supposed to do?"
Jason leaned his chin against his hand. "I'd say we find the real Luthor and have him expose Luthor Jr., but then again Luthor was already working against him using the Secret Six. So our next best option is keeping the heroes of the world united instead. And, well, dealing with Maxwell Lord before Diana has to kill him on live television."
There was a collective flinch at the reminder of that incident.
"He hasn't done anything illegal though, yet."
"Yet." Maxwell Lord's plan, after all, had been in the works for a very long time.
"And keeping the heroes of the world united? Jason, it took years to make that happen, and even then…" Donna cut herself off. The memory was still painful, even now.
Jason sighed. "Look. I know it's a tall order. But I don't want to lose either of you, or any of them. At least not until they're old and gray and their kids have kids. So, we'll do it. No matter how much or how long it takes."
"Things are never easy with this job, are they?" Kon noted in a mournful fashion.
"Never," Donna agreed, taking a sip of her water.
There was no longer anymore 'shop talk' as it were for the rest of the visit to the mall. Instead, they went and did some actual shopping. Jason had a credit card and a rich father, and two friends who was eager to reconnect with. They had to be careful with their words, unlike in the restaurant, and Jason and Donna had to resist the urge to be more affectionate in public (not an entirely difficult task, considering their own attempts to hide their relationship in the previous timeline), but for the most part, the trip went alright. It was nice, not having to play the adult. To just hang out with friends without the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Jason was self-aware enough to recognize how lonely he had been when he first arrived in this timeline. It had been easy to push it away because he had his family to focus on. Studying Gotham. Training his body, training Tim and then Cass and now Stephanie as well. He loved his family, he did, but… family wasn't enough. Not for a social life, at least.
It felt wrong, to be happy like this. He had his lover and his best friend back, but at a cost — the same cost he had to pay over nine months ago. They were good at hiding it, but Jason knew them both too well to the shadow of grief hanging over them. Kon missed Hiyori, missed Van, was now an adult in a time when his three closest friends growing up were still children. And Donna…
Robert was the obvious one, the one that all three of them had zeroed in on. And Roy, of course, if only in relation to what she had with Jason. But there were also the others too. Of the current iteration of the Titans, only Kori and Victor had maintained their friendships with Donna due to still being affiliated with the team in the future. Jesse Chambers and Toni Monetti had long retired from the superhero life to raise their own families. Everyone else had died. To Donna, they had been dead for more than thirty years, and unlike Kon or him, they hadn't traveled back in time.
Donna hadn't been a Titan in over three decades. The Tower was foreign to her. Jason had gone back to the Manor because his entire life had been in that house. The same with Kon and the Kent Farm. Donna had no such home here, beyond, Themyscira — just an apartment in New York City that she occasionally crashed in when she wasn't crashing with one of them or at the Watchtower. An apartment that probably didn't even exist yet. She didn't have a home, not like they did.
She was lost. Maybe that's why she had asked to stay with them. She was lost, and they were the only people in the world that felt even remotely familiar. They might have been dead to her too, once, but they understood in a way that no one else ever would.
"What are you thinking about?" Donna asked, piercing his thoughts.
They were laying down on a hill in the Wayne Estate, watching the sunset. Bruce and the others were on the way home, and the three of them decided that they wanted some peace and quiet before the children arrived and the chaos started all over again. Some rest before they went through the meeting with the JLA and had to explain everything to them.
Jason had his arms folded behind his head, eyes completely on the sky. Donna laid next to him, her head on his chest. Kon was on the other side of him, legs spread and bent, with his arms hanging off his knees. It was almost picturesque, the way they had arranged themselves.
"I'm just wondering why things turned out like this," Jason confessed, eyes diverting towards Donna. "Why we're here and now. Why…"
Donna placed a hand on his heart. "We'll figure it out, Jason. We always do, don't we?"
"Yeah. We always do." A pause. "I know this, all of this, it isn't ideal, but… I'm glad you two are here, you know?"
"Same," Kon admitted.
"I've missed you both," Donna confessed. "I loved the others, but it just wasn't the same without the two of you, and we all knew it."
"It's not going to be same now, though," Jason reminded her.
Donna pursed her lips. "No. I guess it won't be. Nothing will ever be the same again, will it?"
Kon shrugged. "Maybe not. But that's not a bad thing. Not entirely, at least."
Another beat. Kon was right of course. There was good in this situation too. It was just a little harder to see.
"…I'm scared about the meeting tomorrow. We're going to get grilled."
"I hope Diana doesn't make us use the Lasso during it. We're never going to be able to talk around things with it on."
"And of course, that's what you were worried about, Jay."
"Hey, do you want to be the one to tell Aquaman that one of his successors is the biological son of his worst enemy and that his estranged wife has been lying to him for most of their relationship?"
Kon blinked. "Shit."
"Yeah. Plus the whole white martian thing with M'gann, and oh my God, how are we supposed to explain that Wallace isn't actually supposed to exist?"
Donna also blinked, and sat up abruptly, pressing her hand against Jason's chest roughly. "Wait, Wallace is already here? With no Flashpoint?"
"Yeah," Jason confirmed, also sitting up. "That was one of the things I was confirming last night. He's here, and he's currently living with Iris West-Allen right now. Apparently his mom died a couple years earlier than she did originally."
"So," Kon started, hands beginning to shake, "we're going to have to explain, to the entire Flash family, that not only is Barry Allen alive, but he also tried to change the past after he came back, only to create an absolutely horrific timeline, and then changed it back, and in the process gave a reality warper from another universe the opportunity to overwrite our timeline with a new one. And then, even after restoring the original timeline, some changes still lingered, such as one of their members who didn't exist until Barry changed the past and then changed it back."
Jason thought his answer over for a moment. "…Yes."
Kon groaned. "Okay, forget what I said before, all of this bones."
Donna sighed. "Don't worry Kon, I'll handle it. Wally trusts me, so he'll listen to me."
"And if that doesn't help, Bart trusts you Kon, and Dick trusts me and Wally trusts Dick, so…" Jason hummed. "Huh. We actually got a lot going for us."
"The question is…after we explain everything, what are we going to do?" Donna asked, biting her lip. "We can't just sit back anymore. Something is coming, and I'm scared that whatever it is, the heroes of this time won't be able to handle it. Not as they are now."
Jason and Kon exchanged glances. "Well, we can't do anything about the adults," Jason pointed out. "They'll have enough issues trusting us as is. The kids though — I'm already teaching Tim, Cass, and Steph right now. I've handled more students than that. All of us have."
"Mount Justice, the Secret Sanctuary, they're too well-known," Kon noted. "But our second base in the Catskills isn't. If I remember correctly, Bruce bought it and had Oracle lead us there so we could use it. Of course, we didn't know that at the time…"
"But it's remote, right?" Donna asked, catching on.
"It is. Might need some fixing up, but since we've got some speedsters with construction skills on hand, that's not much of an issue."
"And of course," Jason finished, smirking slightly, "I've got the money to pay for it all."
The three time travelers felt smiles gradually grow on their faces.
"Training System 2.0?" Kon said hopefully.
"Training System 2.0," his friends chorused.
Kon clapped his hands. "Great. Now we just gotta convince everyone else."
"You want to what?" Diana and Clark chorused on the Bat-Computer's screen. Beneath them, sitting in the chair, was Bruce, who had cocked an eyebrow. Unlike them, he looked positively intrigued.
"A training camp? For young heroes?" He locked his hands together. "Tell me, what spurned this on?"
Jason, Donna, and Kon all exchanged looks. "Well, we can all agree something is coming, right?" Jason started off, looking up at the three other heroes. He got swallows and nods in return. "Okay, good. And we can agree we need to prepare for not just that, but everything that comes after. Especially since adult heroes aren't always going to be around."
"We actually had this idea back in our timeline. We created an entire training system for young heroes and adult heroes just starting out. To help learn the skills they needed and gather the experience necessary to survive this life," Kon further explained. "Obviously, we can't implement that training system right now in this timeline, since it'll take time to set up. Time we don't have. But if we can present something of a test case, and then expand from there, it will make things easier for us in the long run."
"But how would this work? Who would be the first students?"
Kon shrugged. "Young Justice, obviously. They're involved thanks to me, and I bet their guardians and parents would prefer them training instead of doing missions." He made a face. "Except for Cissie's mom, but I can make her come around. Jason also wants Cass in there too."
"She needs to know how to work with people outside of the Family," Jason told Bruce, who had given him a look at that. Bruce paused for a moment, then gave a single nod. That was fair.
"We were thinking of poaching Stargirl too," Donna commented. "We know she's currently a member of the JSA, but it would benefit her to learn with people her own age. We'll add more students if the camp proves to be successful."
"You do realize this will take up a lot of your time, don't you? I guess that isn't an issue for you, Jason, nor you, Kon-El, but Troy, you have an obligation to the Titans," Bruce reminded her shrewdly.
Donna faltered upon hearing that, letting out a resigned sigh.
On the screen, Diana's eyes popped out. "Donna, little sister, do not tell me you are thinking of leaving the Titans?"
"Not entirely, Diana," Donna quickly corrected her. "Just… part-timing. Only taking part in the more serious situations, where all hands on deck are needed. I…" she trailed off for a moment, before her expression firmed. "I can't be a full-time superhero anymore. Not this time. Not with my son alive."
Her predecessor made to argue back, only to still as something dawned her. "Alive? What do you mean by that, Donna? My nephew, he—"
"Died. In a car crash, caused by Dark Angel." Donna inhaled deeply. "Him, along with my ex-husband and my former stepdaughter. He was three."
Tears gathered in Diana's eyes. "Oh, Donna…" On the other half of the screen, Clark had adopted a grim and sympathetic look. Even Bruce was not immune, his face visibly softening and darkening with melancholy. He was no doubt remembering Jason's own death over a year prior.
Donna crossed her arms, face filled with resolve and sorrow. "I already told Dick I was reconsidering my membership with the team, but honestly, my mind was made up the moment I realized Robert was alive. I loved being a Titan, Diana, make no mistake, but I haven't been one in over thirty years and right now, I have other people in my life who need me more." She gave a meaningful look to Jason as she said the last part.
"I'm going to tell him and the rest of the Titans my decision tomorrow, after the meeting. After that, I'm going to move out of the Tower and stay at Wayne Manor until I can find my own place and then try to get shared custody of Robert so I can spend more time with him. In the meantime, that should free enough of my schedule to allow me to help with the training camp."
Diana swallowed. "Very well. If that is what you want, little sister, then I will support you."
Donna smiled up at the screen. "Thank you, big sister."
As Jason watched the exchange, he found that what he wasn't entirely surprised by the decision. Donna had confessed to him once, during one of their many outings, that one of the reasons why her relationship with Long hadn't worked out was because of the age difference. Simply put, Donna had been too young for him. Long was a college professor, almost thirty years old, with a daughter from a previous marriage. He was ready to settle down.
Donna wasn't. At the time, she was still young, vibrant, eager for excitement. She hadn't been ready to settle down at all, to be the wife Long wanted, the mother her son needed. As much as the two might have loved each other, the marriage was a mistake for that alone. That was only made all the more obvious when it became clear that Donna wasn't ready to leave behind the superhero life.
Jason could sympathize, because that was the reason why he ultimately couldn't bring himself to take in Lian after her father died. He had been too young, too unsettled, to give her the stability she needed. By the time he had become the person he needed to be in order to be her guardian, she had long been happily in the custody of her adoptive grandparents. She didn't need him anymore, not in that capacity at least.
Things were different now for Donna as well. Donna was now a sixty-five year old woman who had been a superhero for a collective forty-three years. She might as well be a contemporary of the older members of the JSA. Years of years of being worn down by superheroism, of watching friends and loved ones die while she stayed virtually the same, had taken its toll. This Donna had been ready to settle down for a very long time.
"I take it you three already some idea of how this is going to work?" Clark's slightly static voice said, bringing Jason out of his thoughts.
"We've got a general idea. We'll work on the specifics if we get some support at the meeting tomorrow. But we do have an idea of where it would take place," Jason quickly responded.
"And that would be…?"
"The place that would have been Young Justice's second base," Kon answered, rubbing the back of his head. "An abandoned resort in the Catskills. Bruce originally bought it and had Oracle lead Young Justice to it after Mount Justice had been compromised. We were originally going to go back to the Secret Sanctuary, but ultimately we never left the place and it became our new HQ. It has a lot of space and is remote enough that they should be safe during training."
"What of the curriculum? What would you be teaching them?" Diana asked, having managed to finally compose herself after her emotional conversation with her sister.
"Obviously, we would help furthering their individual training, give them new perspectives to consider. Other than that, we do have generalized specialties that will benefit all of them," Donna outlined. "I, for one, was in charge of physical conditioning and combat, and Jason was in charge of strategy and tactics."
Clark frowned. "What about you, Kon-El?"
"Empathy," Kon answered. At the questioning looks, he sighed. "Comforting panicking civilians, talking down people trying to commit suicide, understanding and reconciling conflicts — that sort of thing. It's a skill as much as it is a quality, as we've come to learn over the years. One that is every bit as valuable as being able to throw a punch."
It was obvious that the older heroes hadn't really thought of empathy that way, and their expressions became more thoughtful. "That is a unique perspective, one that I haven't really thought of before," Bruce admitted, tilting his head. "If the camp does happen, would you be teaching that to the children?"
"Yes," Kon replied, lips pressed in a line. "Young Justice was some of the best years of my life. However, I have to admit that when we were first starting out, we didn't really have a grasp of the harsher realities of life. Certainly, there were dark moments, including one that caused one of us to quit, but, for the most part, it was just…fun. And it was good, for a while, but now…" he exhaled. "I can't leave them like this, knowing everything that's to come. Not when I can give them the skills to survive it all. And if that means ending the enjoyment in all this, well — being superhero isn't about fun and games anyway. They're young, sure, but it's better they learn that lesson now with us, than at a later date."
Like we did last time, is what he didn't say, and he deliberately avoided looking at Donna. She was probably thinking about it as well, as was Jason. Kon reminded himself to go hunting for that Superman android the moment they had some free time. The sooner that was gone, the better.
There was a moment of silence as the three members of the original Trinity exchanged another look among themselves. A silent conversation, not unlike the ones their successors had been exchanging ever since Donna had come back. After a minute or so, they seemed to come sort of decision.
"Very well then," Bruce said, the chosen spokesman. "When you propose this at the meeting tomorrow, you will have our support. However, do expect everyone to be hesitant at first. Even with us vouching for you, not everyone will be sold on the idea." Not everyone will trust you right off the bat.
Jason waved him off. "It's nothing we haven't dealt with before, so don't worry. We'll be fine. If that's it for tonight, I'm going to hit the hay. Tomorrow is a big day, after all."
There were murmurs of agreement from his fellow time travelers. Bruce sighed, and could only agree. Tomorrow was going to be a big day indeed.
Jason licked his lips as he finished the last pages of his book, before getting up to put it back on his book shelf. Just as he did so, he heard a knock on the door. Sighing, he smoothed out his shirt and pajama pants before going to open it.
He was not surprised in the least to see Kon standing there. Nor Donna. Both had pillows in their arms. Silently, Jason stepped aside to let them in. His bed was big enough for the three of them anyway.
"I'm sleeping between you two," Kon announced before anyone else could say anything. "I don't want any funny stuff going on at night."
"Boys," Donna cut in before an argument could erupt. "To bed. I want to be fully alert tomorrow when we face everyone. It's going to be a long day."
"Of course, Donna," Jason answered smoothly. Kon coughed a 'Whipped!' into his hand. That earned him a shove, which was responded with a snicker. Another quelling look from Donna silenced them, and soon they were clamoring up Jason's large, California King-sized bed together.
"You're family is so goddamn rich, Jason," Kon muttered as he settled into the center. "Makes that whole 'Eat the Rich' manifesto all the more understandable."
"Yeah, well, our big bucks are why superheroes can do even half of what we do, so don't buy into it too much Kon," Jason responded, laying on Kon's right.
"And we are all thankful for that, Jason," Donna said dryly, yawning. "Now please — go to sleep."
Jason sighed and proceeded to do exactly that.
It was the best sleep he had in a long time.
A little shorter than usual, but again, extra long interlude. Now we begin the first steps for the training system, which will be a major feature of this fic. I hope you like it.
Next chapter: the meeting.
