Thank you to everyone who favorited, followed or reviewed this story! It means the world to me sorry it took so long to get this chapter up editing is a female dog! Welp enjoy the chapter darlings and also anon who sent the three long reviews that didn't make much sense someone wanna explain?
disclaimer: I don't own young Justice and this is just purely not canon
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Dinah was worried about Conner. It had been almost two weeks since his nightmare, and he still seemed troubled over it. In their bi-weekly therapy sessions, he mentioned it a few times, and said since then he had trouble sleeping. He also stated that any dreams he did have he didn't really remember, that all the details were murky and hard to make out.
She was fond of the cloned teen, he reminded her a lot of Roy. Knowing he had no one else who truly looked after him, she had begun to take a motherly role for him, Dinah even considered herself the boys mentor. Hell the boy used her surname for his civilian identity!
They didn't talk about that sort of thing during the sessions usually, but Conner had expressed to her that she was the only adult he fully trusted. This only made her resolve to protect him grow even greater. She knew his trust was not a gift to be taken lightly and treasured it trying to never keep a secret, when she could, and explain why she had to when she did.
They were currently in a session and Dinah listened with happy amusement as Conner told her about the teams antics at their Friday movie night. As always, they were playing a game as they talked. The superheroine had found out that Conner talked more, revealed more of his thoughts, if he could focus on another task- in this case? chess.
"Of course I didn't really understand why it was so funny. Surprisingly, the g-nomes didn't teach me a lot about pop culture references," the Canary smiled at her teens sarcasm, "but Artemis explained afterwords." One of her pawns made its way closer to his queen and he triumphantly took it, placing it by the other white pieces next to the board. Three pawns, a rook, and both of her knights. He had gotten better since Tuesday
"How is Artemis adjusting to the team? Are you comfortable around her?" She questioned and he nodded, shrugging and moving a black little tower four spaces forward
"Yeah, I mean she's a good fighter, and she's not totally freaked out by the whole, Kryptonian clone of superman grown in a test tube thing, so yeah she's good. I, um. I had that dream again. Last night," Shock coursed its way through Dinah, and a worm of worry wheedled its way into her heart. She fought to keep her voice neutral.
"You did?" He nodded and his arms went to cross in front of him. Defensive gesture. But what was he trying to protect himself from? He couldn't protect himself from his own mind. Conner nodded absently, and made a move on the chess board. One of his bishops was swept off the board.
"Did you remember anything specific this time?" He shrugged biting at his lip. She waited patiently choosing a place to put her queen. Take his last rook.
"I think so. I- I remember parts of the woman's appearance. I remember the creatures voice. And I remember how I was related to her. In the dream anyway,"
"How were you related to her, Conner?" Dinah pressured gently. She didn't want to push him to much, or else the teen would shut down and pretty much refuse to talk for the rest of their game. Best to just wait him out. There goes another one of her pawns. She was getting sloppy. Then again, so was he.
"I think she was my mom. In the dream, I'm a lot younger and I remember calling her momma. But that doesn't make sense. I don't have parents. I don't have a mom," Dinahs heart ached again, and she practically screamed in frustration. Conner was her son in everything but blood and word. How could he even think he didn't have a mother? She wanted to tell him this desperately, but feared scaring the child. Play it cool for now. Pick and chose your words carefully, Lance.
"You don't need parents to have a family," he uncrossed his arms and looked up at her confusion dancing in those blue ice eyes. She was about elaborate on that statement, when the holocomputer popped up with a message from the watchtower. Signing in annoyance, Dinah strode to the computer and opened the message. A view of Superman popped up into her line of sight. Damn it.
Conners entire demeanor changed instinctively. Gone was the content smile, replaced only by a scowl and arms crossed comfortingly over his chest. Canary growled in annoyance, now he would refuse to speak for the entire session. That was the precedent for whenever Superman had been brought up in their conversations.
"What is it, Superman?" She said with a stiff voice, upset that all of her progress had been lost. The older kryptonian looked behind her and noticing superboy in the background he became awkward and standoffish. *Oh honestly* she thought in anger. *Get over yourself, Clark*
"Um well uh... Bats needed you for a me-meeting right away something about, uh boy work-I mean blood! Something about blood work!" Dinah sighed and rolled her eyes at the mans ridiculous bumbling, maybe Diana was right and she too should swear off men. Goodness knows they all needed to mature a little. Well maybe not Bruce, but the rest of them definitely.
"Fine, I'll be there in an hour when Superboy and I finish our session," she said in a sharp tone. She wanted to keep her contact with Clark to a minimum. Unfortunately, the older man could not grasp this fact.
"It's urgent, Canary. Bats said now," she groaned in frustration, then nodded.
"I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Tell Batman this had better be good," the video conference ended, and Diana walked back to where she had been sitting with Conner grabbing her jacket off the couch. He watched her gather her things, then said what was pressing at his mind.
"Superman doesn't know your civilian identity?" It came out more as a question then a statement. dinah shrugged on the black leather and sighed once more. all she seemed to be doing lately was sigh.
"No, he does. He just doesn't think that you know my civie name,"Conner cocked his head to the side and gave her a questioning gaze.
"But I do. It's Dinah. Dinah Lance," she gave him a motherly gaze, all of her anger at Superman vanishing. God, this kid was turning her into a softy.
"And you are Conner Lance. Now, Conner Lance, I have to leave and go to a snoring meeting but I promise to see you tomorrow to hear more about the rest of that movie night. Oh don't forget tomorrow we were going to see that new exhibit in the Museum of Natural History," Conner perked up, thoughts of the older kryptonian fading at the idea of new knowledge.
"Yeah the one about hyperbolic crotchet coral reef," Dinah shook her head fondly. Conner was absolutely obsessed with new knowledge. It was one thing he had gotten from the gnomes that she approved of. They had taught him to be curious and she also suspected that was partially from his true age. While most 7 month olds were just figuring out what their names were or who friend and foe was, Conner was figuring out the depths of the ocean and the largest land mammals. Dinah supposed she could stand a dreadfully boring museum exhibit, just to see her kid's eyes sparkle like that.
She walked over to the zeta beam and inputed the information needed to bring her to the watchtower, turning back to watch the teen for a moment. He looked deep in thought, putting chess pieces away, and Dinah waved goodbye stepping into the beams bright glow.
She stepped out to the quiet bustle of the watchtower. In a way, she almost preferred the orbiting headquarters to the base carved into the mountain, because no matter what time it was on any given day you could hear shuffling papers, or people conversing in almost all rooms. Whether it be a member of the JLA or the small army of star scientists that practically lived here, there was always someone. The cave, being inhabited by only less than ten people, was generally silent and it threw Dinah off. Really none of the kids should be living in that place, but M'gann said living situation was still up in the air seeing as J'hon slept at the Watchtower. Besides Black Canary was already working on finding Conner a new place to live. Namely, with her.
She walked past groups of doctors, and saw Flash speed past with stacks of files in his hands, she finally reached Batman. He rested at the holo computer with his necessary scowl on
"I'm here, so what's so important I had to cut Conner's session short?" He began walking and Canary kept his pace as he explained what was happening.
"It's Superboy. Jameson called me this morning and said there was urgent news, and I thought you would want to be filled in too," she nodded as they walked down various corridors.
"Of course I do. Have you thought about what I mentioned to you after the last JLA meet?" He gave her a terse nod and silent gaze.
"Yes I have. I still think that we should wait it out. See what happens between the two of them. But, I will have the papers drawn up if this is what you really want. Did you ask him?" They were in front of a door now, and batman signed to her with ASL quickly:
'Supers on the other side. Will hear anything you say.'
"I didn't mention anything yet. I was going to but I got interrupted. Let's just get this meeting done with so I can get back to that, eh?" They entered and she saw that a few people were already standing in the room. Diana and Clark were chatting softly in the middle of the room, Steven Jameson, Conner's doctor, was typing on a tablet in the corner, his eyebrows drawn in concentration and his jaw set in a frown. Everyone looked at the two new arrivals, falling silent.
"Br- Bats what's going on?" Superman asked throwing a look to the blonde doctor, who threw a look back. Dinah smiled, she liked Jameson he had a "no bullshit with metas" attitude that she admired.
"Something's wrong with Superboy. I'm not quite sure yet, but I called this meeting because it pertains to all of you." Supermans gaze hardened as the younger Kryptonian was mentioned.
"If this is about the Clone then it doesn't pertain to me. I'm not affiliated with it," Dinah's eyes flew wide open, and she wished for Clarks laser vision, so she could throw him out of the watchtower. She ground her teeth and willed away the canary cry tearing at her throat
"He's not an It. He's a boy, and you not being affiliated to him is ridiculous. Who's genetic makeup is the same as Superboys?" Dinah ground out. Wonder Woman looked between the three feuding leaguers and sighed, voicing her own opinion.
"While I can understand the argument that Superman should be here, I have no genetic link to the boy, nor a mentoring link. In fact I don't think I've ever had a conversation with him," Diana made sure to say *him* and not *it*. She didn't want a repeat performance of Canarys anger directed at herself. Jameson looked up and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by superman.
"Exactly. Also why are you here, Canary? No offense, but you aren't the Clones mentor," Dinah have a disbelieving scoff, and took a moment to take in what he just said.
"You're serious? Okay, if I'm not his mentor then who is? You? I don't think so, please Clark, you can't even maintain eye contact with Superboy for more than thirty seconds! Who was it calling him an It? Who was it just saying they had no affiliation to the boy? Let's face it Superman, if Bats had told you this meeting was about him, you wouldn't even be here. Unlike you, I've spent the last four months training the child and taking care of him." Silence held a harsh reign over the room and the two observing heroes conversed with only looks.
Wonder Woman inclined her head to the glaring metas *Should we intervene?*
An almost imperceptible shake of bat and head *No*
Furrowed eyebrows from her *Why?*
He sighed a soft sigh *Later*
She returned his sigh but here tinged with annoyance and crossed arms *Fine*
"Um can we get back to the task at hand please? When I was analyzing Superboys blood and I found... Anomalies," Jameson made the Supers gather their attention once more.
"What sort of anomalies?" Canarys voice was tinted with worry.
"Well look here," the blonde man flipped to a slide of two Petri dishes side by side. One was completely a metallic purple while one was purple but with red splattered through. "On the right is supermans blood. See all purple; all Kryptonian. On the left is superboys. Not all purple..."
"Not all Kryptonian," Batman finished for him, earning a nod from Jameson.
"I have a pretty good estimate that a week ago it was about 75% Kryptonian but this is the sample now after a week," he flipped slides but the samples looked the same. When Wonder Woman expressed so Jameson went into more depth, "it's about 76% now. That means that in a week more of his cells multiplied Kryptonian than other. This can lead to multitude of problems, his other cells could crash or die, we may be even looking at another bizarro situation," they all instantly looked up.
"Bizarro? It's that bad?" Dinah said in a hushed tone.
"It could be. I'm working with Flash and everyone at STAR labs to try and find a way to stabilize his cells and they're moving at a very slow rate, so time is on our side right now. Also if we have his other donor, then we can try to see if we can fix some of the cells that were mutated into Kryptonian cells," Jameson explained, and Wonder Woman spoke once more.
"Speaking of that, who is his other donor?" The doctor appeared awkward suddenly and rambled holding a file in his hands.
"Well, I ran the cells through the full Meta list. It has all superheros and super-villains and a sample of their DNA and after checking four times each time I came up with the same answer...," The Amazonian princess's patience wore thin.
"Well, who is it?!" Jameson sighed and slid the file over to her. It contained Superboy's medical and field records, along with four identical DNA tests.
"Congratulations Wonder Woman... You're a mother,"
so now they all know. But what is going to happen next? Who knows I may or may not know! Till next time my doves don't forget to review!