Alright...Let's see how this chapter goes.

I've finally graduated from high school - now I'm a college freshman...urk. Still, I am going to Florida soon as well as Japan so if I stop updating, I've become swamped with other things. Whoo.

Most of this is stream of consiousness and I'm thinking I'll wrap this story up soon since now it's just wandering blindly. Plus, I caught up to the most recent episode of YJ (Why Kaldur? Why? And M'Gann...you scare me. Plus, where's Artemis and Roy?) and feel like I made an alternate dimension story almost. *Shrug* Whatever. Hope you enjoy this.

They were falling.

Simple as that; they were falling again. Conner pulled Robin close to his broad body as they felt like the vortex was trying to press them into tiny pieces whilst pulling them apart like a kid with taffy in her hands. He cradled Robin's head in the crook of his neck as they tumbled for what seemed to be forever in stagnant air and gripping silence that made their breathing echo.

Suddenly, sound slammed into Conner's sensitive ears, the stagnant air abruptly cool and biting at his skin. His eyes blinked open to find they were in the air, Gotham glowing in the distance and the ocean roaring nearby. He was also over Robin's smaller body, their weight caught sharply by gravity and yanked downward. Acting quickly, Conner spun them in the air to make sure Robin was the one looking at the ground while he looked at the sky which seemed to grow as they shot to the earth.

"Supes!" Robin yelped as he began to fully realized the situation. He tried to thud his fist against Conner's chest but with the bigger boy's thick arms around him, he found himself trying to move in vain. "Superboy! We can't land like this; even you'll get injured!"

"I'll be fine," Conner shot back. "It's you who'll get bruised up from this fall; not me."

He knew he was lying though. He'd be bruised up from this but it would be better than his not realizing soon enough and getting Robin killed because of the earth coming to meet them and him sandwiching the boy so he couldn't even bounce away from the fatal fall. Robin had to live through this though or else he'd never become Nightwing and argue with the other team members in Young Justice.

The ground met them, Conner curling around Robin as best he could, and he felt his body protest. This was different from falling from the bioship and landing on his feet. He'd never really hit terminal velocity in a fall before now and his knees had always flexed enough to soften the landing. He hadn't really been able to prepare for this one though and his back screamed out in pain as it landed against hard rock and couldn't recover as they ricocheted off it, bouncing haphazardly as Conner barely managed to keep Robin from getting too badly bumped.

Once they settled, Conner was lying on his side, Robin clutched to his body in a protective hold. They panted as they tried to find a way to calm their hearts. Slowly, Conner rolled onto his back and let his arms fall limply to his sides. Once Robin felt the weight lift, he rolled off Conner and lay on his back to catch his breath.

"Bruised?" Robin hissed a bit bitterly.

"Shut up," Conner groaned, nearly pleading. His head was pounding from a rock's rather lucky slam to his cranium. Robin scoffed at him as his hand raised to his ear to try to call the team and say they were alright. He found that he'd misplaced the earwig though and he sighed irritably.

"I lost my earwig," he muttered. Out of the corner of his eyes he caught Conner checking his own ears with his fingertips.

"Me too…What about that button on your belt?"

Robin's hand strayed to the belt to find the call button. He smiled softly when he found it.

"Broadcasting," he sighed with a bit of relief.

"You're sure?"

Robin frowned. "Mostly."

"Great…"

"The button works at least."

"What a silver lining."

"You even know what that means?"

"Yeah…Kid Flash explained it to me once."

"Wow…you're blushing!"

"Shut up…quit laughing!"

Robin couldn't; he knew he should but he couldn't and found himself rolled into a ball as he laughed uncontrollably. Conner scowled at him, irritated that his friend was able to laugh at him so easily. He'd never liked being laughed at and was fairly thankful that people at school had enough sense to feel his size was a bit daunting. All he could say was it was probably a good thing he'd gotten his father's broad shoulders and thick chest.

"Sorry," Robin managed after a while. "Sorry." He dissolved into more laughter and Conner swore he heard his lungs not getting enough air. He scowled at the stars as if they could be to blame, and waited for Robin to stop laughing. He did, gasping for air.

"Why is it always so funny when I blush?" Conner asked when Robin was breathing normally again. He winced softly after he spoke, his ribs finally screaming in pain at him.

"Because, it usually takes a lot to get Superman to blush so it's always a bit of funny thing when it happens for seemingly no reason," Robin explained through gasps. "Like you blushing when I point out things about your knowledge growing. It's a good thing that you're learning Supes."

"The least you could do is not laugh at me…"

"If it weren't so funny, I wouldn't," Robin shrugged. "After all, you did sprout denial when you told me to shut up."

"That's nice to know," Conner retorted as best as he could manage.

His ribs were still yelling at him to be quiet, to lay still. He wanted to. For once, he wanted to just lay still for a while and ignore the world. He wanted to pretend it didn't exist for an hour or so. Maybe…maybe this is what it'd feel like when he was older and tired of protecting the world from other things that really only wanted to have their way for a little while.

"Your ribs in pain?"

Conner nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Robin speak. It had been quiet for a while and he'd even let his eyes close to enjoy the silence. It was easily shattered when Robin spoke but the sound was strangely welcome.

"Yeah…"

"Told you you'd get bruised up."

"Be quiet!" A pause as his eyes widened. "Ouch."

Robin gave him a look but didn't say anything else on the subject. He let his eyes wander back up to the sky, hoping for the sound of his father's jets to reach his ears and tell him that they were home free. That jet meant good things to him; any engine of a Batman's making was comforting to him ever since that night so many years ago.

"This is stupid," Conner muttered.

"What is?"

"The fact we have to lie to our team, our mentors. I think it's stupid."

"It may seem stupid to you but it's necessary. Even Batman cringes from knowing the future and would prefer to steer clear of it if it can be helped. You're not supposed to know absolutely everything; especially not when you're mortal."

"That…almost makes sense."

"Good to know."

They lay in silence for a while, the stars dimming as the horizon began to turn a sherbet orange and pink. Robin pressed the button on his hip again and again, his lips going fry as he began to think it'd been busted in the fall or in the warp tunnels or hit with strange radiation. Conner was silent beside him but it was still a comforting silence since he could feel the heat rolling off the bigger boy's body.

The sky was turning blue when a familiar hum reached their ears, Conner pretending he only caught it when Robin's ears would have. As Robin tried to not sigh in relief, Conner angled his head to catch sight of a jet racing through the air as if turbulence was something of the imagination. It dipped and then dove to a hidden entrance somewhere that Conner couldn't spot. Robin sighed unhappily beside him when he realized that they weren't getting picked up after all.

"The button works at least right?" Conner mumbled halfheartedly.

"In the fact that I can press it and it won't resist being pressed," Robin mumbled back. "Yeah…the button works…sort of."

"Silver lining."

"Shush."

Conner chortled for a moment before wincing again, his ribs protesting at him.

Silence enveloped them for another moment as they let their thoughts run rampant.

The jet had been one of Batman's but it hadn't landed nearby to pick them up – knowing Batman they'd be yanked off the ground and thrown into the jet like rag dolls. That probably meant that the beacon was well and truly dead which meant…they had to find a way to get a hold of someone some other way. They didn't have ear wigs and so they were completely cut off. Conner's body hurt too much to move for a while – though the sunlight seemed to be helping him a bit as it began to warm his skin – so they'd have to stay put for a little while longer than he'd like.

"I think…you'll be able to move in ten minutes," Robin murmured. Conner gave him a look.

"What math is that coming from?"

"You've got maybe half of Superman's strength, speed, power, etc. I think…from a fall like the one we took it'd take Clark maybe five minutes to heal up with enough sunlight." Conner gave him a glare. "I'm doubling it to be on the safe side. I've never actually been able to time Clark's healing ability before because you're always in a fight when he's using it and either way, he shows up at the perfect time."

"Oh…"

"Good to know I'm not going to get punched for making a guess."

Conner's cheeks flushed a bit at that statement. "Sorry; I hate being told I'm not as good as the person I'm cloned from."

"Well how do you think it feels to be measured up to Batman? You know, when you only catch the bad guys goons, you get ignored – and Batman always catches the bad guys."

Conner frowned at the revelation. It was a little difficult to believe that Robin had any grudge to hold against his father figure – since his actually gave a damn – but it made sense. Red Arrow disliked his mentor since he'd felt like he'd gotten the short end of a stick. M'Gann didn't seem to have family issues though her telepathic powers worried her.

"How're your ribs?"

"Better," Conner grunted as he sat up. "So…what's the plan now?"

"To get our bearings first," Robin explained as he hopped to his feet gracefully. "Then, we find a way to contact the team. We also have to come up with what we're going to say to them about where we were."

"Future Blüdhaven, met our future-selves, got transported back to here; not much else to say right? Even Batman doesn't want to know absolutely everything."

"Right…and when Wally gets all curious and starts bugging us with questions?"

"You lay down some industry glue, we run him into it, and I punch him as lightly as I can."

Robin stared at him for a moment for breaking down into laughter. Conner grinned. Yeah, he liked that plan too though he hoped Wally wouldn't go that far to annoy them.

"As wonderful a plan as that sounds," a deep rumble growled from behind and above their heads, "I seriously doubt it would get him to leave you two alone."

The boys looked up, their eyes widening.

"So," Superman said as he landed before them. "Where have you two been?"

Please review.