The funeral was horrible. Kon stayed in the back with Cassie and Bart (hiding from the paparazzi). They weren't supposed to be there. The superhero community had had a memorial service, but this funeral was for the civilians. Tam Fox was there, but that was to be expected. His friends from high school. Steph and her mother. The Waynes. Of course the Daily Planet sent someone but it was Jimmy, not Clark or Lois.

But Batman had never been able to keep Kon away from Gotham when Tim was-before. And certainly not now. Batman would have to kill Kon before he kept him out of Gotham.

Kon just wished he could have said goodbye, could have told Tim-

Told Tim nothing. Because Tim was coming back. Tim wasn't dead. There was no way he was dead. No way, this was some stupid Bat thing. Some stupid-Bruce was lying, and the rest of the Bats knew it. Kon didn't know where Tim was or when as the case could be, but Tim wasn't-

Tim couldn't be-

He wasn't. So it didn't matter.

So Kon didn't cry. Cassie and Bart did. They sobbed into his shoulders. Kon held them close. An anger crawled up into his belly as they clutched at him. How could Tim do this to them? To his best friends? Without telling them? Tim was always one to follow Bruce's orders but only until the point when they didn't make sense, only until they went too far.

Steph and Lucius were the first two eulogies. They stood by his grave.

Kon burst into the cave. He was immediately forced to his knees by Kryptonite lamps, but there was no way that they would be able to keep him away. He had to find Tim-He had to-

"Kon!"

"Tell me it's a joke! Tell me it's a lie-! Where is he?" He grabbed Dick by the shoulders. Damian was on his back before anyone could stop him. The Kryptonite poisoning was like the worst hangover he'd ever had. Nausea that made him want to vomit right there on Dick Grayson. Damian on his back only made the pounding in his head and limbs worse. He knew that Damian had stabbed him before someone had pulled him off, but he couldn't seem to gather any willpower to care because he was so focused on the pain that shot through his belly and the way that light in and of itself hurt and the nausea- Why was it so horrible?

Tim… where was Tim?

Someone was grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him up. The heat from their hands burned his skin and their voice grated on his ears.

The Kryptonite was gone. That was all Kon knew as he felt himself fall onto something soft. Someone was sticking him with something and suddenly he was cold. Freezing.

Tim… Clark had said that Tim had-But Tim couldn't. Not strong, persistent, ever there Tim. Funny and warm and… alive. So alive.

He didn't even know he'd said anything until later, after he'd come back to himself, and recovered from the kryptonite.

"Tim… where is Tim?"

"Timothy Drake was many things. But the number one thing, I think, was loyal. He stood by his friends. He stood by his family. He stood by his company. He tended to have a few troubles when it came to punctuality, as everyone knows." Lucius said. A small good-natured laugh rolled through the funeral. "But he was always responsible. For himself and for others. He knew what he wanted to take on and once he did it got done, even if it meant that he had to work a little overtime occasionally. And as everyone knows, he never wasted a second when it came to a quick nap." Another polite chuckle.

He wished Tim was with him. He wished he could laugh with him at these stupid jokes and how there was so much these paparazzi didn't know. The real reasons they had so many pictures of Tim napping, why he took on those specific projects, how Tim really was.

It was painful to watch Lucius and Steph talk about him. Speaking like they didn't know him and saying things that were either straight up lies or incomplete. They never spoke about how Tim saved the world. How Tim brought together the Titans or Young Justice when it came down to it. How he brought back Bruce. How he never ever gave up.

"Kon? Do you want to go?" Bart asked, his hand curled in Conner's. Bart reached up and brushed a thumb across his cheekbone. Kon hadn't realized he was crying. He rubbed angrily at his cheeks.

"No. I want to know what they're saying." He said.

"I-I can't do this again." Cassie whispered. "I need-I need to go."

"I'll take you. Kon, do you want me to come back?" Bart asked.

"Not if you don't want to."

"Kon …"

"Conner don't… do this to yourself. God, Kon, I know what it's like. What it can do. Don't… do what Tim-Tim did. Don't do this to yourself-"

"I'm not Tim, Cass. I'm fine. I'm-I want to be here." What he didn't say was that Tim had been there for him. That he couldn't do what Tim had done because he wasn't-he wasn't smart enough or persistent enough and he knew that it wouldn't be Tim if he tried to clone it but it wouldn't matter anyway. He didn't know how. And Tim wasn't dead, he reminded himself almost as an after-thought, so it didn't matter anyway. He was coming back. Tim was always coming back.

"Where's the body?" Kon asked.

"Conner…" Steph said, as if she wanted to warn him, to scare him away.

"If he wants to see the… if he wants to see Tim-"

"I want to see the body." Kon snarled. "The one you're keeping as a stand-in for Tim."

"Conner, it isn't a stand-in." Cass said so quietly that Kon wouldn't have heard her without his super-hearing.

Damian scoffed and Kon charged at him only to have Dick hold him back. "Damian. Leave. Now." Dick said so harshly that Damian actually looked hurt and scared. He turned on his heel and ran, Kon was even sure he saw the kid tearing up.

Kon's suspicions were confirmed. Damian wouldn't have been… like that if Tim had really died. He couldn't have been. Not that callous. Hell, he looked more upset by Dick chiding him than anything else.

Dick, however, was crying a little bit. He was a good actor, but Kon didn't believe him. "He didn't-He doesn't get it. Not really. He thinks… he thinks we're lying to him."

"Like when they said when you died." Kon spat.

Dick looked guilty. "Yeah… like that. But, Kon… Tim… He's really…"

"Show me the god damn body."

Dick turned to Steph who shook her head, hands in front of her eyes. "I can't go," her voice cracked, which was certainly a nice touch, "back there. You take him."

Dick's heart stayed at its steady pace. Liar, liar, liar, liar. Kon's heart pounded along that rhythm. Liar, liar, liar.

Next up were Dick, Dana (who Bruce somehow had tracked down, though really, Conner supposed, he shouldn't have been surprised), and Bruce himself. Dick spoke about Tim and his relationship with his new younger brother after Jason. How he recovered from it all only to lose someone else. (Conner hated him in that moment, more than ever before.) How much more than Jason Tim was, etc etc etc. Kon stopped listening after a while.

Dana spoke about how kind and polite he was. What the perfect student (Kon snorted) and son (he had to bite his lip not to laugh) he was. Then it came to Bruce. Kon tensed.

Brucie Wayne looked broken. Utterly and completely ruined. Kon's hands clenched. He shut his eyes, not to cry but to keep his heat vision from activating and setting poor Bruce Wayne's pants on fire like the liar he was.

"I'll take him." Cass said from behind him. Her heart steady as always. Liar, liar, liar.

"Thank you." Dick mumbled. He choked a little. Liar, liar, liar.

Cass took him by the hand, and led Conner gently to the garage in the manor. She took the Bently, and they pulled out of the driveway.

Cass pressed a hidden button in the Bently and a small drawer opened under the passenger's seat. Conner pulled out what looked like a plaid shirt and jeans. "What…?"

"Put that on. Hide your S-Shield. You're a family friend. Don't say your last name."

Conner shot her a look. Her heart stayed steady, but that meant almost nothing. Cass had been trained to be steady and calculated. Without emotion or fear. Steady. Calm. Even Cass' face was stony.

For all Conner knew she could be shut down. She could be crying on the inside.

But she wasn't. Because Tim couldn't be dead. Liar, liar, liar.

They pulled into the morgue. The coroner gave Cass a pitying look and she didn't even make eye-contact with him. He didn't ask about Conner. Cass said simply, "friend," and that was all that was needed.

The Gotham City Morgue was cold and white and soulless. Tim would have hated it. Part of Tim's inevitable messiness meant that in every place he lived looked lived-in. This place was… empty. Clean.

Conner followed the coroner. His feet clicked against the floor. Too clean. Too empty. The room where his body was being kept was cold. "There was a mugging. The poor man had no chance." The coroner said. Kon wanted to throttle him. Cass put a hand on his shoulder. Another thing that made no sense. The unofficial story was something else-Tim had been killed by a distraught victim of a Joker poisoning who hated Wayne Industries.

He pulled out the refrigerator drawer. The man on the tray looked like Tim shot that permeated the head looked like it had gone through Tim's. The scars that littered his body looked just like the ones that Tim had. Even his spleen was gone (Kon checked).

But it wasn't Tim. It couldn't have been Tim.

"Young man. Eighteen. GSW to the-"

"Please. We don't need that." Cass whispered. Conner heard her heart uptick. Heard something… break.

Tim wasn't dead. It couldn't be Tim. Because Tim couldn't be dead.

Kon was the last one there. He was the one sitting at the grave long after even the last of the paparazzi had left. He ran his fingers through the fresh dirt on the grave, drawing Tim's symbol over and over.

Had Tim destroyed all of his cloning labs? It would explain the body in the casket. How he managed to age up the clone in time and manage to scar it well was a real achievement though.

Maybe they'd gone to Zatanna or another magic user, and made a duplicate of him. Perhaps used one of those weird Batcave souvenirs. Had they ever come up against a person who could duplicate their opponents? No, that would be totally impractical.

Then there were the shapeshifters, but he hadn't sensed any vitals. No heartbeat, no heat, nothing. Zip. Nada. Wasn't a robot or android, because he would have been able to see the mechanics in them.

As Kon thought through the possibilities of how they'd managed to convince everyone that Tim was really dead he felt something sink in his belly. It really was… airtight.

But Tim was alive. Cass knew he was so he had to be. She knew-They all knew.

What would they do when Tim came back? They'd killed his civilian persona, and yeah, they could make up a story but what could they possibly say to justify faking Tim's death? Unless Tim didn't want to return to Tim Drake-Wayne. Or whatever life he'd had as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises.

Kon used his x-ray vision to check the box. The double was still there. No life signs, still. Unmoved. Trapped under six feet of earth.

The brothers had buried him. Jason had showed up at the end, not that he could help the others bury Tim. He had hung back with Conner, his face like murder.

"He shouldn't be gone." Jason had said. "It should have been Bruce. Or Dick."

"Yeah." Kon had echoed hollowly. Had they told Jason that it was fake? Did he know?

Jason had wiped at his eyes and stayed the rest of the burial in silence. Then he'd left. Everyone had left Tim until Kon was alone, sitting in the dirt, drawing symbols.

Conner looked for everything. For one thing. One small thing out of line. One scar he remembered that was missing or one hair that wasn't dyed perfectly.

Liar, liar, liar, liar.

Cass took his hand. Her own felt clammy. He listened for a heartbeat from the man on the table just in case- just for anything.

Liar.

Don't do this to yourself. That's what everyone said. Don't lie to yourself. Don't give yourself hope.

Liar, liar, liar.

Then he felt it, the flicker in Cass' pulse. The double beat that was gone and back into it's more sombre staccato. Sadness. Hopelessness, except for that one beat. That one change in breath. Kon felt it-Kon knew it with all his soul.

Liar.

Tim was alive. That wasn't Tim.

Stephanie Brown crawled back to the Cave. Her legs burned, the rakes down them stopped her from walking. Bruises were already beginning to form on her shoulder and back where she'd hit the asphalt outside the Cave highway when they'd thrown her from the van.

She had to tell Bruce. She had to-

"And tell the Bat exactly what Hades says: this is my town. My people. My realm. You want to take it from me? Not even Zeus' lightning will be enough."

"Steph?" The voice was soft and horrified. Bruce… she had to tell Bruce-

Dick ran to her, Damian not two steps behind. "Babs," he was saying into his comms, "Steph's back. She's hurt. Really hurt. Call B back. Now!"

B… Bruce… Bruce wasn't here? But she had to tell him-She had-

"It's okay, Steph. We've got you. Bruce is on his way."

Dick grabbed her in his arms. "St-stop struggling-Steph! Stop!" Batman voice. Batman.

The words came tumbling out. Hades had ordered her to tell the Bat, so she told him everything. Everything Hades had told her to say and more that he hadn't bothered one way or another. She spilled her guts like Hades had spilled hers on the floor of that-

That-

That what? Where had she been? It wasn't the Cave… or Gotham… or…

The Underground? No… not there either.

She couldn't remember. Why couldn't she remember? Why couldn't she remember?

"Steph, Steph, look at me, this is important. Do they know why you went there?" Dick's hands were around her face.

Steph shook her head. She hadn't told Hades that. "My boyfriend. M-muh-my boyfriend. I said I was looking for my boyfriend who disappeared… But he doesn't- He's safe for now, for now Tim is safe."

"What did he do to you, Steph?"

"I-I don't-I don't know."

"Babs," Dick straightened and spoke to the air, "you get that?" He waited for a second. Then squatted down to speak to Steph again as Damian tended to her legs. "Steph, did you see Tim?"

Steph shook her head.

"Babs, still no confirmation on Tim. As far as we know… he's gone."

"We can't assume that. Drake is more capable than you give him credit-"

"Damian, he's missed his last couple check-ins. I don't know how much more we can assume-"

"Father selected Drake for this mission. He wouldn't have done that if he didn't trust him. Are you saying that Father was mistaken?"

"It's not that simple. We've always known that maybe-"

"I am not losing another brother, Richard!"

Dick and Damian glared at one another.

"Babs, you get that?" He finally asked softly. Dick nodded. "And who do you think is best for the job, B? According to what Steph said, we're all burned. .. are you sure? .. You call him yourself. Damian and I'll ready the Kryptonite. Oh, and Bruce? I suggest bringing Clark along. Just in case you need some… Super help in keeping him from killing you. .. God, I wish I was kidding Bruce."

Clark does have to hold Kon back. Bruce brings out the Kryptonite a couple times too. But after Clark subdued him enough Bruce explained what he needed. What Tim needed from Kon.

"What he did to Steph was the last straw." Bruce explained patiently. "She'll recover but I have no way to extract Tim without blowing what's left of his cover, and we can't retrieve him. It's simple. You'll enter The Underground and join the gang however you can. Once you're in you will look for Tim, carefully. Don't risk anything or you'll risk Tim too. We still aren't sure how Hades broke Steph, or how he manages to keep his hands clenched around this operation. You don't need to figure that out, Tim'll have what we need, and even if he doesn't get him out. Drag him out if you have to. His life is more important than that information, no matter what he may think." Bruce pulled out a flash drive from his belt. "Don't take this with you. This is everything you need to know about Tim's persona: Eurydice. Yours is in there as well. The code word that'll tell Tim that you're who you say you are is 'pomegranate.'"

"And who will I be?" Kon asked steely. He snatched the flash drive from Batman's hand.

"Who else but Orpheus?" Batman's voice grew deeper. Worse. More terrifying. Even through the boiling fury Kon felt, he clutched the USB close. "Bring back my son, Superboy. Don't make me regret this."

"I'm not the one who sent him there. I'll bring him back, don't worry about that. Worry about how you let him go." Kon snapped. "Now get out. I have some studying to do."

Batman and Superman exchanged looks. Clark tried to reason with Conner but before a word exited his mouth, Bruce put a hand on his shoulder. Superman took Batman by an arm around the waist and took off.

Kon studied until he didn't know where Conner ended and Orpheus began.