Chapter Eleven

A/N: I'm sorry if there are more mistakes than usual in this chapter. While I was proofreading my mom called me to tell me that my grandfather died so I kind of read the rest in a daze and breaks for crying, etc., etc…. I didn't want this to be posted late though so here you go.

Clark stares for about another second before rushing up to him, pulling his cape off. "Bruce? Bruce?" Bruce is starting to come through and is trying to push himself up on weak arms. Clark wraps him up in his cape to cover up his nude body. "Bruce, are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"What..." Bruce's voice is raspy and he has to clear his throat in order to keep speaking. "What happened?"

The others start to gather around them as Clark looks at him. "You don't remember?"

Bruce stares at him and Clark wonders what he is thinking. He then eyes everyone else, J'onn shifting uncomfortably behind Clark for some reason, and then Bruce looks back to Clark to shake his head. "No, I don't remember anything."

"What do you remember?" Diana asks.

Bruce turns his focus onto her and away from Clark. Clark feels his stomach sink. He doesn't remember any of it. For some reason that bothers Clark greatly. "I remember getting captured by the mages-"

"Broorg," Clark says quickly.

Bruce eyes him from the corners of his eyes, stares, and then goes back to looking at Diana. "By the Broorg, getting knocked out by them in the cages they kept Kal and I in, and then waking up here. What day is it?"

Clark answers him. "Just barely Friday morning."

Bruce nods and then goes to stand up. Clark tries to help him but Bruce shrugs his efforts off. "What happened?"

Diana answers. "You were de-aged to a four year old child. Kal took care of you until Zatanna could find a spell to turn you back and then she and Doctor Fate performed it just now."

Bruce looks over at Clark again, stares some more which Clark really wishes he could interpret, and then looks down at himself. "That would explain why I'm naked."

Clark can't decide if he's glad the scars are back or if he hates it. He takes a step closer to his friend. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore but I'll be fine." Bruce wraps Clark's cape around himself a little more and Clark has to physically stop himself from reaching out and ruffling his hair by grabbing a hold of his own hand.

"You should rest," Clark says and the others agree with him by nodding.

Bruce's eyes narrow at him and Clark already knows what is coming. "No, I don't need to."

Clark doesn't take a step toward him. "But-"

"Clark," Bruce snaps, glaring at him. Clark takes an abrupt step back and looks to the floor. He's not a little kid anymore. He's not a little kid anymore. He's not a little kid anymore. "I said I don't need to." Bruce then stalks off, most likely to get cleaned up and dressed. Clark looks after him. You can't treat him like that anymore. No more showing him your concern, your caring, your... love. No more showing him your love. Clark slumps, feeling disheartened.

The other League members disperse, eyeing him cautiously. It's only Diana who doesn't leave him. "Kal, give him time. He doesn't remember anything and for someone like him, I'm sure that is hard."

Clark bows his head and tries to rein in his emotions. "I know." He looks up at his friend with a fake smile that he hopes looks genuine enough. By Diana's frown, however, he thinks he must have failed.

She gives him a soft smile. "He'll come around."

Clark doesn't say anything to that and eventually Diana walks away as well. Clark then turns to Zatanna and Doctor Fate who have been standing off in their own little corner, talking about something. "Thank you. We appreciate the help."

"No problem," Zatanna says. "Wouldn't want to leave Bruce like that."

Clark nods in agreement even though his heart only half agrees. Then Fate begins to talk. "The Broorg, they use magic?"

"Yeah, but not Earth magic. They use some kind of alien magic and though they do use spells and words for some things, they don't always have too."

Fate looks thoughtful, Clark thinks, and then says, "I will collaborate with J'onn and John about the Broorg and the magic. Maybe I will be of some use."

"Same here." Zatanna tips her hat. "I might not know much about aliens but magic I can do."

Clark smiles at them. "Thank you." The two then walk away with their final acknowledgments towards him. Clark sighs and leaves the room himself. He, too, could really use a shower. Clark heads to the showers and when he gets there, he hesitates. He can hear one of the shower heads on, water pouring on a body, and knows it's Bruce. Taking a deep breath, he enters. Bruce is in the middle of scrubbing soap on his body and Clark realizes this is the first, real time that he is seeing Bruce naked without some magicians taking his clothes off without consent, as a little kid, or in front of everyone because he was re-aged and then quickly wrapped in a bright red cape. Said cape is hanging on a hanger that is on the wall and Clark quickly fixes his gaze there as Bruce finally becomes aware of the fact that he is in the room. Clark shuffles on his feet, swallowing thickly. Bruce has turned full circle on him, facing front, and not bothering to cover up anything as he continues to scrub at his skin. Clark can feel his cheeks heating up. "Um... Bruce?"

"What do you want Clark?" He sounds calmer than earlier but not super calm either.

Clark dares a peek and decides that it's safe to look at Bruce as long as he stares at his face and not anywhere else. Like his... his... oh gosh! Clark's cheeks turn a bright red as he desperately tries to keep his eyes trained on Bruce's eyes and gathers up his composure. "I was wondering if we could talk?"

"No," Bruce finally turns back around and Clark's eyes fall, his whole body relaxing. Except that was a bad idea because now he is staring at Bruce's naked butt. Clark internally groans.

"Are we ever going to talk about it?" If the way he asks the question sounds like a whine from a whiny child, Clark will deny it until the day he dies.

"No," Bruce says again.

"Why not?" Clark asks, trying to find something he can fidget with but comes up empty handed. Clark grabs his cape and puts it on instead.

"Look, Clark," Bruce turns again and Clark jumps with the sudden action and because of the fact that he wasn't prepared to get an eye full of Bruce's... Fuck! "I get that you took care of me and I thank you for that; though why you didn't just have Alfred take care of me, I'll never know." Clark smiles at Bruce not knowing that Clark was trying to protect Bruce's pride. "But- Why the hell are you smiling?"

This causes Clark to smile more despite his efforts to stop. "I'm sorry, go on."

"Not when you're smiling like that." Bruce scowls. "Stop smiling."

Clark starts to chuckle then. "I can't help it, I'm sorry."

"Eh," Bruce gives a dismissal wave of his hand and turns back around to rinse himself off, giving up on Clark.

"No Bruce," Clark takes two urgent steps towards him. "Really I'm sorry, what were you going to say?"

Bruce turns his head to peek behind himself, narrowing his eyes. "I was going to say that even though you decided to take on the burden of taking care of me, that doesn't mean we need to talk about it."

Burden? "You weren't a burden." Clark's smile all but disappears, leaving only a small quirk at the edges.

"Whatever," Bruce stops looking at him. "It doesn't matter because I don't want to talk about it."

Clark takes another step forward. "Why?"

Bruce bends his head back, closes his eyes, and sighs loudly. "Clark, I was just a four year old for the last few days and not even a half hour ago was turned back into a forty year old. I'm tired and we have Broorg to defeat. I'm really not in the mood to do this right now and I'm certainly not doing it while I'm naked in the shower."

"Well too bad." Clark crosses his arms, getting serious. "I'm not going to just let you blow this whole thing off and never talk about it with me. So, yeah, we're going to discuss it at least at some point."

Bruce surges around and gets right up in his face, scowl firmly in place. Clark has angered him. "You don't tell me what to do. You might have been able to get away with it when I was four but I'm now older than you again Kal, so don't you dare boss me around." Bruce practically punches the shower off, shoves past Clark, and grabs a towel to wrap around his waist, leaving.

Clark sighs. And once again, you've brilliantly screwed it up. Clark takes his shower quickly, changes into the spare uniform he has in his quarters, then goes out to meet the others in the meeting room. Bruce is already there, dressed in the Batman suit, and Clark has to admit, it's good to see again. He stops short from sitting down at his seat. His spot is next to Bruce and though he's sat next to him before after pissing him off, this time feels different, though he's certain it's not because Bruce is mad at him. He figures it's because he is used to Bruce sitting on his lap now and it feels weird to have the man beside him again. "Kal?" Diana asks and Clark snaps out of it, sitting down with a heavy sigh that he doesn't even bother trying to hide.

During the meeting, Bruce asks to be filled in on what he's missed and only the bare minimum of what Clark and he got up to while Clark was watching him. Clark wouldn't meet his eyes. He knows he shouldn't have ambushed Bruce in the shower like that, but knowing that they are never going to talk about what happened, especially since Bruce doesn't even remember, hurts Clark. Clark got so close and attached to the four year old Bruce that he feels like talking about it with said previous four year old is only fair and if not something Clark deserves. Clark feels like he lost something important, whether that be little Bruce himself or just the attachment that the two had, he's not sure, but he does know with a feeling of dread and even a little loneliness that he'll never get it back.

"So now that Batman is caught up with everything, it brings us to what we are going to do about the Broorg," Shayera says.

Wally is the first one to say anything. "Is it too much to hope that now that Bats is back to his grown up broody self that they'll leave us alone and go away?"

"They have de-aged captives," Clark points out. "We can't leave them there."

Zatanna steps forward. "How many are there?"

Clark looks at her and Fate. "Too many for the two of you to turn back. But even if we can't put them back to their regular age, they still don't deserve to be kept captive and enslaved."

"Okay, so hold on, what exactly are Broorg?" Wally asks. Clark explains it to him, telling him what Imogen had told him. John then tells them that from what he's learned from being in the Green Lantern Corps, is that Broorg are a ruthless, very dangerous species. "So then how do we beat them?"

"We beat the Gorganeerians, how will these Broorg be any different?" Shayera asks.

John shakes his head. "Broorg are a lot more powerful and a lot more mean."

Clark steals a glance towards Bruce who has been listening quietly. It's not surprising that he doesn't have anything to add, after all he's the one with less knowledge than everyone about the situation, and it's not weird that he would be silent even if he did have information, at least until he felt the need to inform them, but Clark can't help but look at him and wonder what is going on in his head. He's so mysterious. Even when he was a kid, I still couldn't figure him out. "Doctor Fate, Zatanna, will you help us out in the fight?" he asks the two.

Zatanna smiles. "Of course."

Fate takes a little longer to respond but eventually he says, "I will help."

"Good," Clark begins. "That gives us two magicians on our side."

"Then that just leaves the rest of us to try our best," J'onn inputs.

"Yeah," Wally tips back in his chair, folding his arms behind his head. "And hope we don't get our butts kicked." He leans forward and his chair hits the floor with a loud clang. "Are you guys forgetting that Supes has no defenses against magic and supposedly these guys are stronger than those Gorganerians or whatever they are called, and the Gorganeerians are the ones that almost killed him?" Clark looks at Bruce to see if he has any reaction to that since they conveniently left that part out of their description of what happened when he was de-aged but Clark doesn't see any outward acknowledgment and he can't hear one either. "Bats has been de-aged by them, and the rest of us, we had our butts practically handed to us by the Gorganerians which, again, are weaker than these Broorg." Wally throws his hands up in the air. "How do you expect us to defeat these guys?"

John holds up a fist, the hand with the Green Lantern ring on it. "With pure willpower."

Wally gapes at him, Shayera shifts nervously, Diana's hands turn into fists, J'onn straightens a little, Bruce just sits there, and Clark swallows hard. He knows how hard it is to fight the Broorg, he's done it twice now, and he's not so sure working off "pure willpower" will be enough. Unfortunately, however, it's all they've got.

...

Clark enters the holding room that they have placed Imogen into. They're currently waiting for the rest of the Broorg to arrive which Clark has a feeling is going to be soon. In the mean time they have to decide whether or not to send the Gorganeerians queen, her "chief executor", Imogen, and Cormac to the Phantom Zone. As soon as Imogen sees him, she laughs. "Why hello Superman. What do I owe this visit?"

Clark keeps his distance. "The kid has been turned back."

She looks surprised but quickly hides it. "That's impossible, our spell is irreversible."

"Apparently not." He paces a little then stops, stares at her. "Are you one of the ones that de-aged him?"

Imogen scrutinizes him, looks him up and down, before answering. "No, I'm not normally assigned that."

"Were you even on the ship that the kid and I were on?" Clark asks.

She shrugs. "No, that's not my sector. I don't handle the transportation and delivery of the ones that we de-age."

"Then why were you sent to get the kid?" Clark takes a small step forward. "And why are you being so cooperative right now by answering my questions?"

"I was sent because I'm on the retrieval team. If there's something that we need retrieved, which isn't normally one of our captives, then Cormac and I are normally sent out to get it," she begins. "As for my reasoning of why I'm answering your questions, I really don't have much of choice now do I? I either answer them or you force me too, either with your fists, that pretty little rope that one woman has, or that telepath. I've decided to do the easy way."

She's smirking and he wants to wipe it off her face. Taking a deep breath, he asks next, "How long do we have until the rest of the retrieval team gets here? Will the ship with the other captives come too?"

Imogen's smirk gets bigger. "I was supposed to rendezvous with the captive ship after I got the kid back."

She stops there and Clark tries to not let the irritation show. "How long?"

Imogen doesn't answer at first and instead just looks at him, smile still in place and a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Let's just say I was supposed to have the kid by now." Clark nods, understanding that answer means they should be here quite soon. He turns to leave and just before he gets to the door, Imogen speaks up again. "Wait, what are you going to do with me?" Clark turns halfway to face her. He's not yet sure what they are going to do with the four captives that they have so he doesn't have anything to tell her. Plus, she doesn't need to know that they haven't decided yet. He turns back around and leaves, hearing a faint huff from behind him.

He heads to where J'onn is. "Hey J'onn." The Martian looks up from the console. "Back when we turned Bruce back into an adult you seemed a little nervous. Are you okay?"

"I am fine," J'onn says. "I was just taken aback by how swift Bruce put up his mental blocks from me."

Clark is surprised. "He didn't let you read his mind? That quickly?"

J'onn nods. "Yes, I found it strange too. Bruce normally does keep me from reading his mind but after being so disoriented, I didn't expect him to put those barriers up so fast."

Clark is thoughtful. "Well he is a cautious man. Maybe it's just an automatic thing?"

"Perhaps you are correct. I was able to read his mind for only a second before the blocks appeared so it does stand to reason that it is an automatic thing." J'onn looks back to the console.

"Hey." Both Clark and J'onn turn to John's call. "Shayera, Diana, Wally, and I were just discussing a plan. We decided that Flash, Batman, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, and Zatanna will be on Earth to defend it. You two, Doctor Fate, and I will infiltrate the ship they come with."

"They're bringing the ship with the captives," Clark informs him.

John smiles. "That's even better. We'll be able to kill two birds with one stone." Clark and J'onn nod. "I'll leave it up to you, Kal, to tell Batman. He's been held up in his quarters since our meeting and won't come out. Just yells at everyone to go away, even Wally." John winks at the speedster being named and Clark smiles.

"I'll talk to him." John then leaves and J'onn goes back to whatever he was doing before Clark interrupted him. He goes to Bruce's quarters and knocks.

There's an immediate, "Go away!"

Sighing, Clark knocks again. "Bruce it's me."

"You especially go away," comes the reply.

"I will break this door down if you don't let me in," Clark threatens. "And you know a reporter's salary will not be able to pay for a new door upon the Justice League's Watchtower which means you'll have to-" The door opens just before he finishes his sentence. Clark beams in victory.

Stepping into the room, he sees Bruce out of his suit, dressed in a white tank top and black sweatpants, and tinkering with the suit. "What do you want this time?"

Clark shuts the door behind him and sees Bruce's shoulders tense. "John, Shayera, Diana, and Wally have come up with a chain of action."

Bruce is struggling with something on his suit and Clark takes a step closer to investigate. "Which is?" His hand slips. "Damn it!"

"Bruce." Clark goes up to him and helps Bruce get... whatever the thing is, Clark isn't really sure, onto the Bat suit. "There."

"I could have gotten it," Bruce stubbornly says and then begins to work on another part of the suit. Clark isn't really sure what is so important that Bruce is willing to be out of the costume hours, maybe minutes, before the Broorg attack.

"I brought your utility belt back." Bruce looks up at him then, a questioning look on his face. "Before they took you away to do the de-aging ritual, they stripped you." Bruce looks away at that. Clark isn't a fool, he knows what Batman's job entails and what Bruce has had to do to get what he wants. The ends always justify the means when it comes to Batman, even if it means seducing someone he doesn't want to seduce to get there, even if it means doing something he doesn't want to do. Clark knows what goes on with those plans and he definitely knows that sometimes things don't always go the way Bruce wanted, no matter how much Batman prepares, and sometimes those seduction plans turn out worse than putting the fear of the Bat in someone. To say that Batman has ever been forced into sex, except with Talia Al Ghul in which she got impregnated with Damian, against his will isn't exactly correct, after all, Batman would be able to fend off someone who tried unless they were stronger than him or he was drugged, and as far as Clark knows, that's only happened once with Talia. But to say that Batman has never given consent when he really didn't want to would be a lie. Brucie might be the publicly labeled playboy but it's Batman who really knows how to play someone, even if it damages himself in the process. "They piled your suit with some other clothes from the other captives," he continues, not wanting to dwell on the obvious invasion of privacy that the Broorg put Bruce through. "I couldn't bring you and the whole suit back with me so I just brought the utility belt. You're actually the one who carried it."

Bruce looks back to him. "The whole time?"

"Most of the time." Clark smiles at him. "I thought you wouldn't like some magicians to have your utility belt at their disposal." Clark doesn't bother telling him that he left the belt in here because he knows Bruce has already seen it and taken care of it.

Bruce looks down at his suit again. "Thank you Clark," he says quietly, so quiet that Clark has to use his super hearing to hear. Bruce rubs his face, sighs, and looks at him. "What's the plan?"

"You, Shayera, Diana, Wally, and Zatanna will be fighting on Earth while J'onn, John, Doctor Fate, and I infiltrate the ship to free the captives," he answers and Bruce nods.

There's silence after that which kind of surprises Clark. He expected Bruce to pitch a fit that they came up with this plan without a formal meeting or without his own input. Instead he stays quiet in order to indicate that the conversation and visit is over. Slumping, Clark turns to leave. Before he gets to the door, however, Clark feels a tug at his cape. "Wait, don't go!" Bruce says urgently. Clark turns around to look at him, wondering what changed his mind of having the conversation be over. "What if you die?" Clark's mind immediately flashes to kid Bruce saying the same thing just before he left to fight the Gorganeerians. Bruce lets go of his cape and Clark can't see any recognition of that statement on his face. Is it just a coincidence? "You are going to infiltrate a ship full of Broorg that can use magic with only one other person who can also use magic and without someone who is an expert at sneaking into places. I mean, you barge into places, J'onn can be translucent but can still be seen, Doctor Fate can be impulsive at times, and John, John glows green." Clark covers his mouth with his hand to hide his chuckle. Bruce is rambling and Clark finds it adorable. "You guys really think with a team like that you'll be able to successfully sneak into that ship? You were on that ship right? It's the same one?" Clark nods. "Then you should know what it's like on it. So do you really think that team can go without someone who is used to doing things like that? Sometimes I wonder about you people and the way you think. If it was me, I would have gone to you, asked what the ship was like when you were on it, and then formed the teams. But no, you all just go with the first plan that you come up with not bothering to come to the guy that actually knows what he is talking about." By now, Clark can't hide his laugh. No, it was definitely just a coincidence. Bruce still doesn't remember. "What? What's so funny?"

"Nothing Bruce." Clark chuckles a few more times and has to look away from Bruce's exasperated look before calming down. Taking a couple of deep breaths, he continues. "Bruce, is this your way of saying you should come with the infiltrating team?"

Clark watches Bruce swallow, compose himself within seconds, and then cross his arms across his chest. "I should come because you idiots will need me."

Clark looks to the floor with another small chuckle. "Okay, you can come." Bruce huffs and Clark turns to leave again with a shake of his head. "You should get dressed, they'll be here soon." He then leaves, not missing the small sigh Bruce lets out as soon as the door shuts.

Clark goes to make sure that everyone knows the change of plans and then after that, it's just the waiting game. At some point, Bruce comes out of his quarters and joins them in the room that they are all in; debating on what to do with the aliens they have in their custody. By some kind of unanimous vote, they all decide to wait until they have defeated the Broorg to do anything about them, though they are leaning towards exiling them from Earth instead of sending them to the Phantom Zone. After all, the Phantom Zone tends to be a last resort short of killing them.

It's an hour before the alarms in the Watchtower sound, alerting them to the incoming danger. The whole team exchange quick glances before rushing to either the teleportation tubes or to the hangar. Clark and his group go to the hangar and John activates his ring to form a bubble around Bruce, J'onn, and Doctor Fate. Once they are all ready they leave, making the silent journey to the ship. Clark follows John who follows Batman's orders. John takes them to a side of the ship that isn't being exited by Broorg magicians and waits for an opening. Clark watches as the twenty or so Broorg head straight to Earth and hopes the team down there will be able to fend them off long enough for the rest of the League to join. When the last of the Broorg exits, Batman tells John to enter the ship.

It's an easy entrance with no one guarding the door. The hangar is also empty. Batman steps up next to him, looking around at the wide expanse of the room. "You remember this place?"

Batman takes no time to answer. "No." He then moves on. Clark supposes that maybe it is better that he doesn't remember, at least this part. After all, he was only four the last time he was in this room and Clark doesn't want Bruce to feel that fear again by reliving the memories. "Superman?" Clark snaps out of his thoughts. "Come on."

Clark floats to catch up and then leads the way to the room that has the captives, pleased that they still don't believe in guards. As soon as he enters, he can already tell some of them are missing. A wave of guilt washes over him as he scans the room and sees how empty it is. There's only five occupied cages, each one with a de-aged captive in it, when before there must have been up to fifteen. Clark assumes that the five that are there now are the adults that he saw when he and Bruce were also captured. "There's..."

"There's not as many," Bruce fills in the rest for him. John asks for clarification but Clark is too stunned and guilt ridden to answer. So instead Bruce does. "When Superman and I were here there had to be about fifteen captives. Now there are only five."

"This is all my fault." Clark walks up to a cage and can tell even before touching it that it's surrounded in magic. "I should have come back sooner." Oh gosh, he promised child Bruce that all the children were okay! Now they're... they're...

Batman walks up beside him and places a hand on Clark's shoulder. It's the nicest he's been since he's been turned back. "It's not your fault Superman." Clark bows his head and allows Fate to open each of the cages. They each then take a sleeping child into their arms and start making their way back to the hangar. Each child is of a different species of alien, none looking like a human. It's not a big deal, not when there are plenty of aliens, good and bad, that don't look like humans on Earth, but the complications arise when they try to figure out what to do with them. Should they try to find out where they came from and send them back? Would they be accepted back? Would their family like to have them back, even as children, or would they have rather been left with the idea that they were dead? Or maybe Doctor Fate and Zatanna can turn them back after all since there are only five of them. Clark guesses he'll just have to wait and see.

John hands the child he is carrying to Clark and then forms a bubble around all of them. They quickly go back to the Watchtower and drop the children off in the medical bay, Fate putting a sleeping spell on all of them in order for them to sleep during the duration that the League members will be gone. "Are you sure the spell will last long enough? We don't need them wandering around the Watchtower alone."

"I could always stay and monitor them," J'onn suggests.

Fate shakes his head. "We will need you in the upcoming fight." He then turns to Clark. "Don't worry, the spell lasts for twenty-four hours. They shouldn't wake up again until this time tomorrow morning."

Clark feels Batman walk up to him and stand beside him as they watch J'onn hook up the children to the medical beds. Clark is certain he's about to hear how much Bruce doesn't like leaving the kids here unattended but instead he says, "That was a little too easy wasn't?"

Clark blinks at him. "They didn't have any guards when I escaped with you either."

"But why leave the ship with no one on it at all?" Bruce asks. "It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe they're so arrogant that they think they don't need to have anyone guarding the ship," Clark says.

Bruce is quiet and it isn't until they are ready to join their comrades on Earth that he speaks again. "I doubt that's the case. Even when you escaped there must have been someone on the ship to try and stop you, right?"

"Well, yeah but they weren't guarding me and were in the hangar working on their ships," Clark explains. "And besides, they also weren't about to go fight on a planet."

"I don't like it." Clark doesn't have time to comment to Bruce's statement as that is the time they are teleported down to Earth, right in the midst of the battle.

The first thing Clark notices is that it is complete chaos. The group that was sent down here already are horribly outnumbered four to twenty. Clark is actually amazed that they have been able to stay alive for so long. Flash has surrounded five of them in a whirlwind by running around them, Shayera is blocking any magic thrown at her with her mace and then hitting them with it, Wonder Woman is also blocking the magic with her bracelets and getting a few hits in as well, and Zatanna is fighting with her own doses of magic. Despite the chaos they are holding their own, even with a few bleeding scratches and bruises.

Clark is knocked back by a stray beam of magic that was meant to hit the speedster but missed when Wally dodged. It didn't hurt that much, must have been from one of the weaker Broorg, but it does steer him into action. He fights along his comrades, punching and using his heat vision on them. After fighting the Broorg twice and the Gorganeerians once, Clark has picked up a few things about how to attack them successfully. He relies on his heat vision the most as the war between Justice League and Broorg continues, remembering how it was a good distraction and defense in both fights with the Broorg and Gorganeerians. When he tries to fight alongside Diana and Shayera, the only two besides possibly Doctor Fate and Zatanna strong enough to have a viable defense against the Broorg's magic, Clark is ordered to stick to the weaker ones by Batman. Of course, he doesn't listen, but it does make Clark feel a little warm inside that Bruce is looking out for him, at least in his own way.

He flies up next to Diana and helps her but he'd be lying if he said it was easy. At one point a blow from a magic encased fist to his jaw causes him to come crashing down to the Earth, creating yet another crater in the road. He tastes blood and spits it onto the ground as he struggles to get back up. "Damn it Superman," Batman is beside him, yanking at his arm. Unlike last time when adult Bruce did this, he manages to get him up enough for Clark to stand the rest of the way up by himself. "I told you to stick to the ones that are weaker."

"And you should know that's not going to happen." Clark hears the growl that Batman gives him, sees the threatening snarl forming on his lips, but doesn't back down. This isn't the time to get into a fight with Batman. "I'm going to help wherever I can."

"You can't help if you're dead but you're too stubborn to keep that in mind." Batman's hands turn into fists and Clark knows he's glaring at him with narrowed eyes underneath those white lenses.

"Says the most stubborn man I know," Clark counters.

Batman turns away with an annoyed huff but doesn't leave. Clark shakes his head in his own annoyance. Looking back up to Diana, he sees she's pretty much got it handled. Since the rest of the League has joined, the odds changed to nine to twenty. It's still not the greatest but the League also has the best of the best, even with Superman not being able to fight well against magic. They've already taken out quite a few of the Broorg. "The ones that aren't knocked out are retreating."

"The weaker ones you think?" Clark asks Batman.

"I would assume so." Clark looks around and notices the multiple Broorg that are retreating back to their ship, shouting orders that he can't understand. "They're either the weaker ones and think their teammates that haven't fallen to us yet are going to finish the fight or we are actually winning." Batman looks to the sky. "I still don't understand why they left their ship unattended."

Before Clark can answer him they both have to dodge out of the way of a magic shot. Clark takes the one that shot it out easily as it was one of the weaker Broorg that have yet to retreat. He then lands next to Batman where he is crouched amongst some rubble. "I still think you're over thinking it."

Batman looks to the sky once again. "We should have stayed on that ship and investigated."

"We were needed down here," Clark says.

"It would have kept you out of trouble and somewhat safe," Bruce says as if he didn't even hear what Clark just said.

Clark is at a loss of why Bruce is acting like this. "Why are you saying all this? Why are you acting like this?" Batman turns to him without an answer, mouth parted slightly. That's when Clark notices something that he can't believe he didn't realize long before now. "Wait a minute; I can't hear your heartbeat."

"That device I was putting on my suit earlier, it suppresses the sound of my heartbeat." Clark stares at him in shocked disbelief. "I don't know if the Broorg can use magic to enhance their hearing. These keep them from hearing my heartbeat if they do."

It only takes Clark a second to respond. "Take it off."

Bruce looks taken aback. "What?"

"Take it off." Clark reaches for where he had placed the device earlier but his hand is slapped away.

"Leave it alone," Bruce retorts, irritated.

"No I need..." Clark trails off not really sure how to say what he wants without royally embarrassing himself.

Clark can feel the eye roll Bruce gives him as he brings his attention back to the sky. "You can get your heartbeat fix later." Clark's cheeks heat up. Bruce knows he listens to his heartbeat! Since when? Clark opens and shuts his mouth like a fish out of water, trying frantically to think of something to say. Bruce pays no attention to him though. "I need to get back on that ship."

Just as Clark is about to protest there is a blinding flash of light in the sky. Everyone stops what they are doing, even the Broorg, and watches. As the light dissipates, the Broorg start to cheer. "They blew the ship up," Clark says. Batman doesn't say anything, only watches just as stunned as Clark is. Clark looks to him. Now who would have been the dead one? As the cheering comes to a stop, the Broorg begin to attack again. "They blew up their own people!"

The fight continues except this time it's more brutal, as if the death of their men renewed some of the remaining Broorg's energy. Clark doesn't understand how they could do such a thing, knows that if they hadn't gotten the de-aged kids off that they would be dead as well, and wonder how the rest of the Broorg are going to leave Earth without a ship. Batman dodges some magic off to Clark's side and before Clark knows it, he's thrust back into the battle with no more time to talk. He fights the best he can, continuing with his tactic of using his heat vision. He also begins to use his freeze breath as another way of distracting the Broorg long enough to attack them.

After the retreat and death of the Broorg that went back to the ship, there were only eleven Broorg left to fight. Diana and Shayera each are fighting two Broorg at the same time while the rest of them are fighting just one. Someone presses against his back. It's Bruce who is back to back with him, still in a fighting stance. He pulls something out of his utility belt and throws it, smoke coming out of the small balls. Clark charges the Broorg that he is fighting, breathing the cold air onto them and dodging the magic they shoot out. The air hits them, causing the Broorg to stumble backwards and allows Clark enough time to punch him. He knocks him out with that one punch.

He turns to Bruce, wondering if the man will need his help but then he sees Bruce's Broorg is knocked out as well and he is now helping Green Lantern. Fate is helping Shayera after he defeated his own Broorg, Flash is still fighting his and so is Zatanna. J'onn has his hands on either side of one of the Broorg's head, his eyes glowing and the Broorg's face contorted in pain. Clark flies up to help Diana. With the both of them working together, they soon defeat those two as well.

Clark looks around and notices that all the Broorg are finally finished. He's panting and feeling a bit weak so he lands, Diana following him and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

He nods. "Yeah, just a bit worn out."

"From what I understand, you haven't had much time to rest in between fights," Bruce says as he comes up to the two of them. Diana releases his shoulder and Clark takes the opportunity to slouch a little in exhaustion.

Flash crosses his arms as he and the rest of the members join the three. "Why do you think they blew up their own ship with their own people on it?"

Clark turns to the speedster. "I don't know but I do know exactly who to ask."

...

Getting back to the Watchtower takes a little longer than Clark first anticipated. They had to talk to the army and the police then they had to decide what to do with the knocked out Broorg. The army wanted to take them, probably to do experiments on and study, but the League refused to allow it. Instead, Doctor Fate offered to take care of them, said some spell, and sent them somewhere. When Clark tried asking where he had sent the Broorg, Fate only avoided answering the question. This gave Clark an indication that he really didn't want to know where. Bruce will most likely find out later and if Clark is really inclined or becomes curious enough, then he'll ask him.

Next on the agenda was making sure every civilian was okay which they were. Some only had a few scrapes and bruises but other than that, nothing serious happened. They were then free to go, the League promising to come back soon in order to help rebuild anything that was damaged in the fight. Soon after, they are back on the tower and Clark heads straight to Imogen, the rest of the League following. Once there, they decide that Clark should go in alone since it seems like she responds to him best.

He walks in and sits down at the table that is bolted to the floor in the middle of the room. Imogen smiles and joins him, sitting in the chair opposite him. "So, I'm assuming you won."

Clark nods. "We did but only because some of the Broorg retreated and then got blown up." He studies her. "You don't look surprised."

She shrugs. "Because I'm not. Losing a battle isn't Broorg style. When we know some of the team members are weak and holding us back, then we take care of them... meaning we kill them."

"Why?" Clark asks.

She takes a deep breath. "Let me explain something to you first. As soon as I didn't make it to the meet up, they knew something was wrong and what they had to do. They knew who they were going to fight since this is Earth and everyone has heard of arrogant Earth." Clark stops himself from snorting at the irony of her saying that when her own species sounds just as, if not more, arrogant than humans. "They knew they would have to fight the Justice League and since we rely mostly on magic, they knew that in the end they wouldn't win and I'm sure they were pretty weak to begin with. After all, it was only the transportation and de-aging crew. It's not like they were warriors. Besides, if by some miracle they did win, then who wants a pissed off Justice League on their ass? The weaklings should be glad that they died."

"But killing them?" Clark says. "It doesn't make sense. What you just told me doesn't make any sense. Not all of them died anyways."

Imogen shrugs again. "It happens all the time with Broorg war. You either have victory or you die because you're weak. You don't go back home empty handed. It's a disgrace and the higher ranks will then kill you if your other teammates don't. And about the ones that didn't die, if you hadn't defeated them when you did and the fight had gone on longer, they would be dead now too. Not because they are weak, they probably didn't die with the others because they were probably strong, but higher ups would have definitely killed them. Either way, the ones that came today are only third from the bottom of the hierarchy. They weren't all that important."

"How can you say that?" Clark asks, flabbergasted. "They were your own kind."

"So," She looks bored. "It's not like I cared all that much about them. It's the same with Cormac. He could die anytime and I wouldn't care. They're not in the same hierarchy as I am so I have no need to care about them."

Clark shakes his head in disappointment. "Then what about the captives? They would have blown them up, killed them."

"Just a few sacrifices in order to reach our goal. There's always more where they came from. We can always get more to replace the ones that were sacrificed," she says. "It's really not that big a deal." Her face then twitches with realization. "Did you say 'would have'?"

Clark nods. "Yeah, we got them out."

Imogen laughs. "And what are you going to do with them? Raise them like you were trying to do with that little boy? Sorry to break it to you Superman, but unlike you, the aliens that you rescued don't look like humans. They would be exiled before you know it." Clark doesn't say anything so she goes on. "Have you checked on them?"

"Why?" Clark asks, going on alert.

"You might want to check on them." She laughs again. "Your Batman isn't the only one that has contingency plans."

Hearing that, Clark rushes out of the room and heads straight to the medical bay with Batman, J'onn, and Doctor Fate close behind him. He enters the room and looks towards the kids. Each of them are bright red and sweat drenched. "What's happening?"

J'onn goes up to one of them. "They have a high fever. I must try and get it down." Bruce is the closest to the freezer so he immediately turns around and rummages through it. He produces a few ice packs and quickly hands them to J'onn.

Doctor Fate then walks up to one of the children. "They must have put a spell on them that caused them to develop a fever."

"Can you reverse it?" Clark asks as Zatanna walks in along with the rest of the League.

"I can try. Zatanna, I need you to try reversing whatever spell they put on these children to cause such a fever." Zatanna nods and heads to one of the beds with a little boy in it. Doctor Fate then starts to work on a little girl while J'onn places the ice packs down on their foreheads. A few minutes later and Fate stops his chanting. "This isn't working."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Wally asks.

Zatanna stops then too and listens. Fate takes a minute to answer but eventually shakes his head. "I'm not sure. I don't even know what spell they used since it's an alien one."

"I couldn't tell either," Zatanna says. "And whatever it is, it's powerful."

"We can't let them die," Batman says.

J'onn backs up from the beds. "I don't know what else we can do." Clark watches Batman's shoulders slump in dismay. He knows what his Bat is feeling right now since Clark is feeling it too. "I'm sorry." Clark looks to the floor. It was Batman and Superman's initial job to save these captives; after all, they were the ones that were sent on the mission in the first place. It was their duty. But now all they've managed to do is fail. They've failed in every way possible.

"Well I refuse to let these kids die because of some sadistic Broorg." Everyone turns to John. "Can you keep them stable long enough for me to try and figure out what spell they used?" he asks Zatanna.

"I can try," she says.

John then turns to Doctor Fate. "Fate, you and I are going to contact the Green Lanterns, see if they know anything." John leads Fate out of the room in a rush, heading to where he needs to be in order to contact the Green Lantern Corps.

Clark pulls up a chair to the end of one of the beds that way he can overlook each one. He refuses to leave their bedside when they are his responsibility. The rest of the League goes back to the four captives' rooms, worried that this could be a distraction to try and escape. The only ones that stay are Zatanna and Bruce. Bruce pulls a chair up beside him, sighs as he sits, and takes his cowl off. Zatanna is concentrating on the spell and five children too much to notice.

Clark sees he has a swollen cheek, the bruise having a slight red color to it, but other than that Bruce seems pretty unscathed. "It's been a long time since I've failed this bad," Bruce murmurs.

"Same here," Clark mutters back. "It sucks. I don't know what happened to the other ten captives. They could be dead or enslaved. Now I can't even save the last five."

"John and Fate will figure it out." Bruce looks at him. "Besides, you managed to save me."

Clark huffs. "Yeah, at the cost of the others." Kid Bruce was right, there's always a cost.

Bruce leans back in his chair. "You didn't know they were going to do this Clark."

He doesn't say anything back to that and allows the silence between them to stretch, the only noise in the room being the monitors hooked to the kids and Zatanna's magic. Clark eventually breaks it. "I didn't send you to Alfred because I thought I would save you and your pride from the boys being able to tease you about being de-aged. At the time I thought it was the right thing to do and what you would want."

Bruce's eyes flicker to Zatanna but the woman is still too engrossed in what she is doing to hear what is being said. "It was the right thing." The corner of Bruce's lips twitch up a little as he looks at Clark. "Thank you."

Clark sighs. "How would you know? You don't remember any of it." Bruce's small quirk of his lips falls. "And you don't want to talk about it." Bruce turns his gaze away from Clark and stays silent. That's how they remain; no more words being exchanged between them, until John and Doctor Fate come rushing back in. They found a way to save the children and with Zatanna's help, Fate does the spell to each child. Soon, the monitors are no longer alerting them to the kids' impending death and instead tell them that they are stable.

Clark honestly feels like crying even though the de-aged children are safe once again and jumps when a hand is placed on his thigh. He looks to Bruce, who has placed his cowl back on, with tear filled eyes and Bruce graces Clark with one of his rare, sympathetic smiles. "Come Clark, we have more work to do," he says quietly, soothingly, and Clark nods, getting up, and following Bruce out of the room.

Clark, along with Fate and Zatanna, follow Bruce back out and to the holding rooms they have their captives in. The other Justice League members are there. "They're safe now. Fate and Zatanna figured out how to reverse the fever spell," Clark says.

All the members nod and sigh in relief. "We are going to have to do something with them though," Batman informs.

"I will deal with them as well." Fate begins to walk towards the medical bay. "Zatanna, I was thinking since there are only five of them that we can turn them back to adults like we did Batman. I would like to do this at my place, however, where I have more material at my disposal." He then leaves and Zatanna follows along, agreeing to help. J'onn follows as well to oversee them taking the children away.

Clark sighs and then feels a heavy hand placed on his shoulder. He looks over and sees Batman. Bruce addresses all of them, however, instead of just Clark. "We now have to deal with the Gorganerians and Broorg still in our custody. Are we absolutely positive we just want to send them away instead of to the Phantom Zone?"

Clark steps up to his Superman duties. "Even if they come back in the future they don't deserve the Phantom Zone. If and when they come back then we'll deal with them then."

"Even though they tried to kill children and they killed their own?" Bruce asks, staring him in the eyes. "The Broorg at least."

Clark crosses his arms in order to look more confident than he feels. "Imogen and Cormac aren't the ones who killed them and the Broorg that did are already taken care of by Fate."

Bruce nods and then starts heading towards one of the rooms. "We'll start with the Gorganerians then." Everyone follows Batman into the room that is holding the Gorganerians queen's "chief executor".

Bruce and everyone else leave it up to Superman to explain what is going to happen with him. "You'll be let go on the one condition that you never come back to Earth. If we catch you back here then you'll get more than just being sent off."

They decide to release the aliens one by one in order to discourage any fighting back. They send the "chief executor" off and then go to the queen. Clark repeats the process and then again when they get to Cormac. Cormac leaves the quickest, still not saying anything which Clark finds odd, and he seems a bit panicked.

Next is the one they decided to leave until last: Imogen. "Oh, why hello Batman. I finally meet you when you're full grown." Bruce doesn't say anything. "You were one cute little kid. Do you remember any of it?" Bruce still doesn't say anything and Clark is sure he has his eyes narrowed under those lenses. "I'll take that as you don't. Huh, interesting."

"Imogen," Clark cuts in. "You're being exiled from Earth. You'll be let go on the one condition that you never come back to Earth. If we catch you back here then you'll get more than just being sent off."

"Oh don't worry Superman," she says. "I have no interest in coming back to this awful planet." She walks up to him and rubs her hand along his jaw, Batman catching her wrist with a low growl. She eyes him before looking back to Clark with a wicked smile. "The only thing I'll be missing is you. You were fun." She yanks her wrist out of Batman's grip that looked like it was tight enough to hurt. Imogen doesn't seem fazed, however.

Clark doesn't give her the satisfaction of an answer and instead starts to lead her to where they sent the others off. Once there, she says goodbye in an easy tone but Clark stops her quickly. "Wait, before you go, I want to know why you and Cormac don't need to be killed or are you two just going to be killed by your higher ups?"

Imogen smirks at him as she slowly walks away to the small aircraft she will be using to get off of the Watchtower. "Oh don't worry, I'm going to kill Cormac and as for me, well, I'm in a higher position in the hierarchy myself. I'm allowed to go back home and won't be reprimanded for my failure. Though it will be awfully embarrassing. Goodbye Superman, I'm sure we won't be seeing each other again."

"You can't kill him," Clark calls after her but she is already hopping into the ship and taking off. Clark can only hope Cormac got far enough away to avoid getting killed by her and that he is smart enough not to return to any of the Vulbir planets. They all clear the hangar then and watch her leave, Clark being glad he'll never see her again. He does feel like someday they should do something about them de-aging people and then enslaving them but that will be a worry for another day.

Wally yawns and stretches. "I don't know about you guys but I could really use a long nap."

John smiles next to him. "I hear you there kid. Who is willing to take first shift on monitor duty?"

"I'll do it," Clark offers without hesitating. He's tired and a little sore but he also really doesn't feel like going home to his empty apartment right now and not having a little Bruce Wayne running around with his plushie. Plus, he's really not in the mood to get rid of any of the things that he bought the child either. So instead he's going to do monitor duty.

"I'll do it too," Diana offers.

"Alright then I guess I'll do it next shift. Who wants to join?" John asks next.

"I will," Shayera says just as J'onn comes back.

"The children have been taken care of. Zatanna and Doctor Fate have given their regards and left as well," J'onn says then looks to John. "I'll do watch duty after you and Shayera."

"Then I guess that leaves me to join with you, J'onn," Wally announces.

They all then turn to Batman except for Clark who keeps his eyes downcast to the floor. The feelings that he had earlier, the feelings of missing child Bruce, have come back now that he doesn't have a fight to distract him. "I won't be doing any today."

They all seem to accept that and then begin to leave, saying their goodnights despite it not being night time. Batman stays, however, and Diana leaves the two alone, placing a comforting hand on Clark's shoulder and giving him a small smile. "You must be tired," Clark says as soon as the Amazonian Princess is gone. Batman doesn't say anything and doesn't even look at him. "I'm sure the boys will be happy to see you. J'onn told them you were going to be stuck up on the Watchtower for a few days working on something. I'm pretty sure Dick thought it was suspicious that you were going to be away from Gotham for so long. So when you go home he might come see you and ask you questions and we all know how you hate answering questions. You can tell them what happened if you want. Since they didn't see you as a child they will have significantly less ammunition to tease you with than if they actually did see you. I guess that was my point of not leaving you with Alfred like I explained earlier. I know how precious your pride is and all and, even if you don't want to admit it, I know you care a lot about how those boys perceive you." He hears Bruce quietly sigh with exhaustion but he pays it no attention, not seeming to be able to stop babbling. "Ah, but, of course, if you don't want to tell them anything then you'll find a way to avoid answering any questions they might have. I'm sure it'll only be Dick who asks though and maybe Tim. Damian is an oddball and can go either way with whether or not he questions you and Jason will probably be curious but not ask about it. Also, Alfred will probably be over joyed to see you but he'll keep his composed self and only show how much he enjoys having you back by cooking and giving snarky, sarcastic comments. That's where I think you get it from you know? You do it all the time and if you listen to how Alfred talks to you then you would be able to-"

"Clark," Bruce interrupts, sounding really tired.

"What?" Clark stops and blinks.

Bruce sighs again. "You're rambling."

Bruce finally looks to him and Clark blushes. "Oh, sorry." Clark shifts his weight and eventually decides to just float that way he won't fidget around.

There's a small quirk of Bruce's lips, almost as if he's amused but Clark is sure that's not it. Or is it? "I stayed in order to-" Bruce cuts himself off, bites his bottom lip, and then says, "Nothing."

Clark frowns "What? What were you going to say?"

"It doesn't matter Clark." Clark's heart sinks. Bruce was so close to letting his guard down just a little in order to tell Clark something but because he had to go and blab on and on, Clark ruined it. Now he'll never know what Bruce was going to tell him. "Goodnight Clark."

Clark watches him walk away but then remembers something. "Bruce wait!" Bruce stops and turns around. "I'm sorry."

Bruce is the one to frown this time. "For what?"

"Not listening to you when we were sent on the mission the first time," Clark says. "You told me to apologize to you when we made it out alive and I haven't done that yet so... I'm sorry." Bruce stares at him, lips parted the tiniest little bit, kind of like earlier. He then shuts his mouth, gives a quick nod, and turns to leave. Clark watches him go. Clark, exhaling loudly, then makes his way to the lookout where Diana is waiting for him.

He takes a seat next to Diana once he reaches the room. "You okay?" She asks.

Clark sighs and rests his chin in his hand. "I think so."

She watches him. "You don't look it."

"Bruce was just about to tell me something but then I screwed it up." She raises an eyebrow at him and he rolls his eyes. "You know how he is."

"But that's not all that is bothering you," she says.

Clark shakes his head. "No it's not." He makes a small anguished sound. "Oh Diana, I don't even want to go home because I know he's not going to be there. Even though we argued at times he was still a real joy to have around. He liked it too and now he doesn't..." He swallows. "He doesn't even remember any of it."

"And him not remembering is what pains you the most?" She asks.

Clark shrugs. "I just miss him overall but if he had just remembered then I feel like it would have made it a little better because then at least I could talk about it with him and share with him how I'm feeling."

Diana leans back in her chair and looks out the window at the vast spans of space and Earth below them. "You look tired Kal."

Clark rubs at his face with a tired huff. "I am tired but, again, I can't bring myself to go back to my apartment right now."

She nods. "Maybe you should try talking to Bruce about it anyways. You have to go back to your apartment eventually, Kal, and if that is what is keeping you from going then you need to work it out."

"He doesn't want to talk to me about it though," Clark says. "Besides, that's not the reason why I can't go back. My apartment is just going to feel empty and quiet without him there and all I'll be left with are memories."

"But good memories," Diana says.

"Yeah... but they just make me miss him as a child now." He frowns.

"Kal," He looks over to his comrade and friend. "I think what you need to do now is accept that you enjoyed him as a child but realize that now you can continue to enjoy him as an adult and someone you love immensely just like you did before this whole thing happened. Try to stay positive of why having the adult version of Bruce back is good." She smiles at him. "You have your best friend back, Kal. What more could you ask for?"

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Updates will be every Friday. Next update scheduled for: 1/15/16 EST. To see a full list of dates, please go to my Tumblr, angelcamael, and go to the post under: /post/132217933841/loss-of-time