Coldhearted

- - - November 12th - - -

Another snowday. The air outside the hangar doors was biting cold, the skies finally clearing up again. Conner took a deep breath of the fresh morning air.

No more ice fortresses floating across the country.

Megan, Mary and Zatanna had left early for the mall, planning to re-decorate the room the enchantress had chosen. She would live at the cave with them for a few weeks, while her father was absent, restoring the Tower of Fate.

Conner wondered if being possessed by Nabu was better or worse than being controlled by Cadmus.

Better, he decided. Zatara might not be in control of his own body, but at least his thoughts were still free, somewhere inside that helmet.

Stepping back into the cave, Conner pulled out his phone.

"Good morning, brother", Dubbilex greeted him.

"Same to you", he replied. "It's been over a month."

"I know, brother. Yet it is still not the right time for you to return here. There are… things in motion…" The G-goblin's voice faltered.

Conner sighed. "We are ready, whenever you send word."

"Thank you, brother. Have there been any problems with the contract?"

"None so far." As the only genomorph who could not simply be ordered to hand the money over to Cadmus, it had been he who signed the sales contract with the French cosmetics company that had purchased their hair growth formula. Well, strictly speaking, a lawyer had signed on his behalf, since apparently these things required adults – Robin had helped him sort out the legal details.

"I saw you on the news yesterday", Dubbilex remarked. "With him."

"Yeah." He had helped Superman bring down the fourth of the floating ice fortresses that had engulfed the country in a disastrous blizzard. The first time they had truly worked together, fighting side by side. Conner smiled as he recalled their battle, and the long talk that had followed.

"It went well."

"I am glad to hear that, brother. Were you also involved in that affair with the Vlatvian princess? They said she died, but the announcement was retracted soon after."

"No, that was Kid Flash's mission. The girl had been very ill, a heart problem, she needed an organ transplantation. He had to carry the donor heart all across the country, despite Vandal Savage's attempts to stop him, and then fend off Count Vertigo when he finally arrived."

"Vandal Savage?"

"You know him?"

"Not personally. Yet I know of experiments – failed experiments, else I would not be able to speak of them to you – that tried to replicate his immortality."

Conner frowned as he pictured the grim tactician with his scarred face and meta-human strength. "Please tell me Cadmus didn't clone him, too?"

"No, not to my knowledge."

"Good." He paused for a moment, recovering his earlier train of thought.

"About that donor heart – is that something you could fix? I mean, the fact that there are not enough organs for people who need them?"

"Yes. We are quite capable of re-growing most individual body parts from human DNA."

"So once you're…" He stopped himself, remembering how to phrase this to spare his brother discomfort. "Is that something that future, free genomorphs would offer to the country that hosts them?"

"Oh, brother, no!", Dubbilex exclaimed. "Of course we would not only offer this to only one country. We could meet the world's demand for donor organs, easily."

"But Cadmus won't let you?"

"The proposal was declined most fervently. It would compromise the institute's concealment."

Very slowly, Conner unclenched his fists, conscious that he would destroy yet another phone if he did not reign in his emotions.

"I really wish you'd send word soon", he murmured.

"By the end of the month, I hope", Dubbilex replied.

Conner glanced at Mary's wall calender. Around Thanksgiving, then?

Someone had circled the previous day with red ink, it was marked 'KF 16'. Wally had certainly not expected to spend all of his sixteenth birthday bracing an artificial snow storm on a literal cross-country run to deliver a living heart. The team was planning to make it up to him by continuing their interrupted 'surprise' party later tonight. There were four different cakes waiting for Kid Flash in the kitchen, Mary and Megan had outdone themselves.

"Do genomorphs have birthdays?"

"We celebrate - it's a silly pun, but we call it our monthly podluck. Yours would have been at the last day of July. There are lots of good food, and those who were released from their growth pods that month are introduced to those who spawned on the same month one or several years ago, so that they get to know their older brothers, and the sisters who will show them our ways."

Conner wrinkled his brow. "Say, I was wondering about that. You mentioned before that most genomorphs are gender-less, biologically speaking, yet you call some of them sisters?"

"Forgive me, brother, for my negligence! I should have explained this much sooner. For us genomorphs, womanhood is an honorary title. It is bestowed onto our most skilled or knowledgeable elders, if they choose to impart their experience to the genomorphs who spawned after them, to provide guidance to the next generations, like a mother would."

"Huh. So you could change your gender?"

"I could", Dubbilex replied slowly, "if I was older, and if there were other G-goblins I could train."

"Right." He swallowed awkwardly. "Say, when is your podluck? You said you were just a few months older than myself?"

"The last day of December."

"All right. I'd like to celebrate that with you."

"Really, brother? That would… I'm looking forward to that."

"Me too", Conner smiled.

He'd make sure to have his brother freed from Cadmus' clutches by then.

"Aww, guys, you shouldn't have!"

Wally eagerly accepted his birthday gifts from his team mates. Megan and Mary had made him cakes – plural, four of them, each quartered and decorated differently to make sixteen deliciously distinguishable pieces. Tanna had filled the cave with magical balloons that changed size and colour, all of them sporting his Flash symbol. Robin, Kaldur and Conner had gotten him a set of video games, and he could have sworn that the last one wasn't even on the market yet, but Robin only smiled and refused to comment…

And then there was a small wrapped parcel from Artemis.

Which meant he couldn't pester her about a birthday kiss for his present, although something told him that wouldn't have been a good idea anyway just yet.

Very carefully, he tore off the green paper, his eyes widening when he saw the label on the fist-sized cardboard container within. Abel's House of Secrets. The strange magic store in New York City where the little ghost girl had led them on their Halloween adventure...

"Souvenir", she mouthed.

Inside the container was a beautiful little box, skillfully crafted from interlinking strips of polished wood. He turned it around curiously, trying to find a lid or a lock or any other opening mechanism. Something rustled softly inside – a piece of paper, perhaps?

"It's a puzzle box", Artemis explained.

"How do I open it?"

She smiled softly, her dark eyes capturing his completely.

"With patience", she whispered.

He nodded, understanding, and returned her smile.