Age of Heroes

Part sixteen of a fanfiction by Velkyn Karma

Disclaimer: I do not own, or pretend to own, Young Justice or any of its subsequent characters, plots or other ideas. That right belongs to DC, Warner Brothers, and associated parties.

"We gotta go to the crappy town where I'm the hero!"
~Firefly

In the end Connor decided to do it.

He spent the better part of the next two weeks working overtime, building up enough credit and trade to start collecting necessary supplies for the journey. He wouldn't need too much—food and water, mostly; other supplies were virtually useless to him—although he made sure to purchase some warmer clothing in trade just to avoid suspicion. The commander might have covered up his superpower displays, but that didn't mean he needed to advertise them more than necessary. People would definitely start asking questions if he wandered off into a snowstorm in nothing but his (now extremely worn) Washington Redskins t-shirt and cargo pants.

But most of his work overtime was for Wally, because his friend would have to be left behind at the Base, and he wouldn't be fit to work for his own trade for a while now. So Connor did much like Wally had back in New Batcave, establishing a line of 'credit' with the Base's commander directly. He worked hard, often taking projects the commander specifically requested of him to utilize his strength, and earned enough in trade in return to ensure Wally would be able to live at the Base comfortably until Connor returned. And he would—there was no way he would abandon his 'brother,' not for anything.

He was also careful not to tell Wally where he was going, or what his plans were. It felt uncomfortably close to the stunt Wally had pulled on Connor when he'd tried to run for it, but in this case Connor felt that his choice was justified. He didn't want to raise Wally's hopes or get him worked up over what could potentially be nothing at all. The mountain settlements might not exist after all, just like Dick repeatedly warned them about, or they might just not be the place where Wally's family was at. Or they could be dead, or worse—there was no denying that the more gruesome possibilities were still possibilities, and Connor didn't want Wally getting excited only for him to bring back devastating news. He also didn't Wally worrying over him, and it wasn't the same as the reasoning Wally had used before, because Connor knew he wasn't running off to die—he was going to come back, and nothing would stop him from doing so, so there was no reason to worry. Better for Connor to return with confirmed news one way or the other before he let Wally in on the secret.

Besides—if he did find something good, it'd be a great surprise, something that would really cheer Wally up. And Wally could probably use a little cheering up, after everything they'd been through recently. He put on a good show of being excitable and happy, but Connor knew him well enough by now to know his friend was miserable on some level.

So he prepped everything on his own, and was careful not to tell anybody else in the colony where he was really going. When it was finally time to leave and Connor had to come up with some excuse for his extended absence, he told Wally that he'd offered to go on a final hunting trip for the colony to collect food for winter preservation. Wally looked distinctly put out about his friend being gone for potential weeks, but he didn't seem to suspect any ulterior motives. Connor repeated the same story to the medical staff as he pointedly paid them off in trade to make sure Wally was well cared for in his absence and not harassed or threatened by other citizens or officials when he wasn't there to protect his family. The nurses had cheerfully agreed and did not seem terribly upset with the task—most of them had come to enjoy Wally's presence, if not his shameful attempts at flirting.

With everything arranged and his own supplies collected, Connor decided he'd wasted enough time. He made sure he got a decent night's sleep, and took off bright and early at dawn the next morning, in the last week of September.

The Saint Francois Mountain Range was approximately a hundred miles southwest of the Base, based on the maps Dick had supplied them with ages ago. Connor planned his route accordingly, and although he knew he could make it easily in the span of just a few days, he was careful to take it a little easier this time. He still used his strength to enhance his speed, and travelled far faster than any human could, but he paced himself and allowed himself to rest more often than he had when he'd force-marched himself for Wally's sake. He was also careful to locate potential shelters at reasonable stopping points, prepping them for protection against zombies and memorizing very carefully where every one was, leaving himself clues and reminders and marking them on the maps for later. He'd definitely have to come back this way to get back to the Base, after all, and it would be useful to know ahead of time where his safe zones were. Plus, if he came through again with Wally later on, it would be good to know where his friend could rest. Connor was all too aware now just how fragile humans could be, when conditions turned poor, and he wasn't risking those circumstances again if he could help it.

Even at a slower pace, Connor was still able to make it to the mountain range in just over a week. But that was where things became trickier, and Superboy began to realize that even with all his powers, this would still be no easy task. Mountains, it turned out, were a lot bigger in person than they looked on maps, and they were tall, too—there was practically no limit to where people could hide. Dick had mentioned loads of caves, too, and cool stone interfered with his infrared vision more than Connor had anticipated, meaning he couldn't just sweep the area with a glance to find out if people were hiding below ground. Not for the first time, he found himself wishing he had the X-ray vision instead of the infrared—it would have been far more useful in a zombie apocalypse.

It's just a scouting mission, Connor told himself repeatedly, and after a few days he gave up on trying to search out every cave. It was simply impossible to do, even with his speed and strength, and he only had so much time. It was October now, and Connor had only collected enough credit to pay for Wally's care and protection through the end of November—if he spent all his time searching every nook and cranny he'd be here all winter and Wally could be in trouble. He'd be healed by then, but there was still no need for him to push himself after being so sick.

A week later he gave up even that, and resigned himself to broad sweeps and searches, often risking leaping into the air and potentially being spotted in favor of getting a better lay of the (extremely large amount of) land. A week after that Connor began to realize how daunting the task really was, when the only humanoids he'd encountered had been the walking dead, and there was still no hint of the living. He was sure the only reason he hadn't gotten lost in the mountains was due to his super-leap, which let him get above the trees and reorient himself—if he was human he was sure he'd have long since lost his way and been destined to die of starvation or zed attack. Or maybe the cold—he thought it was probably cold, the way his breath misted in the mornings and some afternoons, but he wasn't sure. He was glad he'd kept his decision to go hunting for Wally's family to himself, because at this rate he was going to have nothing to show for it, and Wally would definitely be disappointed then.

In the end, well into his third week of October, it was sheer dumb luck that let him catch any sort of lead at all. There had been a light dusting of snow overnight, and Connor had woken from his perch in the fork of a large tree to find himself covered in white powder, much to his bewilderment. His breath was even more visible than usual, which he took to mean it was particularly cold, and the sky looked almost blindingly clear, without a hint of a cloud in sight, which made the entire skyline look particularly sharp and empty. That was the only reason Connor caught it at all: the faint wisp of smoke, trailing from beneath the trees many miles distant. A quick glance in infrared told him it was warm, and there weren't any signs of other fires or the trees burning. That meant a campfire—and that meant people.

Reenergized, Connor barely spared time to wolf down a few bites of food before making his way for the smoke. It vanished within a few hours, but Connor had marked the location carefully in his mind and made for it unwaveringly. And the closer he came the more signs he saw of potential human habitation: human tracks, precise and non-dragging, areas where trees had clearly been marked or carefully cut back, and (closer still) well-hidden signs of platforms above or strung wires and traps to act as early warning signals. There were definitely people here. The question was, were they friendly?

It was close to three in the afternoon when he finally came across them. A small band of obvious humans were trying to fend off a pack of zombies that had gotten past the tripwires and alarms. There were only about ten of them, but the humans were having trouble with them all the same, and looked frantic and desperate. Connor didn't even think about it before leaping into the fray, smashing down on a pair of zeds with Wally's favorite 'goomba-stomp' and almost casually beating the rest to death with half a tree he'd uprooted moments before. After taking out more than forty dead heads in the dark when Wally was in danger, beating ten of the things in broad daylight was almost laughably easy. When his super-hearing confirmed all the zeds in the area were dead, he turned to the humans and said without any preamble, "Hey. I'm looking for somebody. Do you guys have a camp around here?"

The humans looked stunned, and one woman stammered, "S-s-superman?"

That, Connor decided with irritation, was really starting to get old. It had been nice to be put on the same level as his predecessor before, but now it was starting to get obnoxious when these people never noticed him for who he was. Never mind that they were sort of justified thinking he was Superman, after what he just did and the way he looked; couldn't they see he was clearly much younger and didn't look quite the same? Not to mention the lack of costume. Or even the missing S-shield, which didn't bug him as much as it used to straight out of Cadmus.

His eye twitched, and they flinched, but he managed to curb his temper, and snapped, "No. So. Settlement?"

They looked startled at the request, and it took them several moments to get over their shock at the unexpected super-powered save before they could even begin to react. Connor tried to be as patient as he could with them—they were in the middle of the mountains and there was no reason for them to be used to an outsider saving them at all, much less one with superpowers post Z-day—but even so it ground on his nerves to have them wasting his precious time trying to recover their wits.

Once they got back into the groove they were unexpectedly efficient, though, and slipped back into their paces with only a few uneasy or confused looks in Connor's direction. The group had clearly been a hunting party, since two of the four stooped to collect a dead deer that had been abandoned for the fight before trekking off with purpose in an Eastern direction. The woman, apparently elected their spokesperson, told Connor that normally they wouldn't show a stranger the location of their settlement. "But since you're obviously like Superman," she finished, oblivious to the rigid set of Connor's jaw or the sound of his teeth grinding, "and you did save us, I suppose we can take you there."

The settlement was perhaps a forty minute walk from the battle site and the paths to it were well travelled but cleverly hidden—Connor wasn't sure he would have found the place at all with his scattered searching methods. It was fairly impressive in its own right, too, once he saw it: a whole series of caves that had been carved in and expanded upon to make a semi-underground village, with a cavern entrance that could only be reached by a careful climb that would be easy for humans to manage, but impossible for zombies. Outlying areas had been carefully cultivated for gardens, although this late in the season most of the produce was dead by now, and there was a fresh stream nearby for a clean water source.

From what Connor gathered, there were roughly fifty people living there, mostly original family units with a smattering of newly formed families or unattached loners. It was mostly adults, but there were a few kids and young teenagers, and Connor was immediately struck by the watchful sense of community—he suspected everyone here was familiar with everyone else and would take care to look out for each others' families. It was no New Batcave or even the Base—it reminded Connor of a campsite than anything else and lacked any hints of technology or communications with the outside world—but there was still a sense of humanity here that made it feel safe, almost comfortable. These people trusted each other. It was rare these days, from everything Connor had seen and experienced. And now they were trusting him with their fragile little home as well. He wouldn't make them regret it.

The people on-site at the nameless settlement regarded Connor with suspicion now, probably born out of a desire to protect their fellow settlers. The hunting party's spokeswoman hastily put in a good word for him, though, explaining how he'd saved them from a large zed pack (Connor couldn't hold back a derisive snort at a mere ten zeds being referred to as 'large.') He remained silent as the camp's unofficial leader was found and brought forward, but when he was introduced for the third time as being "just like Superman" he finally had to step in.

"My name's Connor," he snapped. "I'm not Superman."

"But you came down out of the sky," the spokeswoman said incredulously. "And beat the zeds to death with half a tree. Humans don't do that! You have to be—"

"I'm. Not. Superman," he repeated, with a low hiss. "My name's Connor. If you really want to call me by some title, it's Superboy. Not Superman." They looked a strange collection of baffled, hurt, and disappointed, and he finally sighed and said with barely contained impatience, "Look, can we just forget about that and move on already? I'm looking for these people, is there anybody like that living here?" And he brandished the photographs of Wally's family at the leader and the spokeswoman.

The settlers regarded the photographs carefully, leaning forward to study the faces intently. After a moment the leader said, "I'm sorry. There's nobody like that here."

Connor cursed under his breath; and he was sure he'd finally been on to something here, too! "Are there any other settlements in these mountains?" he asked instead. "It's really important that I find these people if I can." The leader and the spokeswoman exchanged hesitant, uneasy looks, and Connor added, "I'm not interested in hurting anybody or exposing where anybody is. I just want to help my friend find his family again. That's all."

The leader regarded him carefully for a moment, but finally said slowly, "There are a few other settlements in this mountain range. Three, in fact. Most of them are only two to three days walking from here if you're diligent and careful. We have...alliances, of a sort...with them. Sometimes we trade crops or supplies, and sometimes we band together to take care of particularly large packs of zombies if they become too threatening. If you promise not to disclose the locations of any of them or harm or steal from them in any way, I can provide you with the locations..."

"I have all the things I need," Connor said flatly. "And I won't share your secrets if you don't share mine." He gave him a pointed look. The man nodded after a moment; it wasn't hard to figure out what 'secret' of Connor's was in question.

Outwardly Connor kept his composure around these strangers, but inwardly he was elated. More settlements, and now he had clear directions to them—Dick had definitely been on to something with this intel, at least, and if he'd been right so far there had to be a good chance Wally's family was somewhere around here, right? He wanted to take off right away for the next settlement, but it was getting darker far earlier than it used to in the summer now, and it would be suicide to go traveling through an unknown forest and mountains in the darkness. The settlers here offered him a safe place to sleep for the night and a few food supplies as thanks for his assistance with the zed attack, and he accepted the offer without argument. In the morning he took off at first light with only the shortest of goodbyes to their leader, and continued his search with a more determined air than before.

He spent the next four days making his way around to the other settlements that the first leader had given him the coordinates for. He could cover the distance much faster than regular humans, but his lack of familiarity with the area slowed him down considerably, as did the snowfall that hit on Halloween (because he discovered that while the cold and the wet hardly bothered him, it did make his footing slippery, and rendered super-leaps practically unusable). It made travel more frustrating than Connor had anticipated, even with all his abilities.

And his frustration increased when, for all his efforts, the visits to the settlements were basically pointless. He knew they were friendly based on his own gathered intel, but finding them was hard enough—all of them were well hidden and fairly well defended, and their inhabitants tended to be wary of strangers. One set of guards had even tried to shoot him, to no effect of course, prompting another stunned cry of "Superman!" and another growl of irritation from Connor. In all cases it took a great deal of time for him to prove his trustworthiness and intentions not to cause harm, and always for nothing, because none of the people he were looking for were at the settlements in question. Connor usually resupplied in exchange for work, kept to himself quietly, and left them quickly, anxious to get on to the next location.

There was only one settlement left to try, now, and if this was a bust Connor grudgingly admitted he'd have to turn back for now. It was the second of November by this point, he was fairly sure, and with the snow slowing him down a little he wanted to give himself enough time to get back to the Base before Wally really started to worry. His friend was probably well aware by this point that Connor wasn't on a 'hunting trip' anymore, and was likely angry.

Connor just really, really hoped he'd have something to show for his efforts to keep his friend's concern at bay.

He reached the rough location of the last settlement in the early afternoon, and was almost immediately aware of shouting close by, and lower still a moaning sound. For a moment Connor was confused. By this point it was far too cold for zeds to be active, after a few snowfalls that had stayed on the ground, and there hadn't been a thaw yet—there should be no dead head attacks. Then he realized the moaning had changed to pained whimpering, and realized it was a distinctly human noise, not a dead one.

He grimaced slightly and altered his direction, resigning himself to another day of being mistaken for his predecessor. He didn't regret helping people in the slightest, when he could, but he had to admit he was getting real tired of people thinking he was somebody he was not.

Connor came across the source of the noise relatively quickly—a gaggle of about six or seven people were surrounding a fallen, dead tree, which looked to have collapsed due to heavy snow. There was somebody else pinned beneath it partway, Connor noted, when he did a quick sweep with infrared vision. Wordlessly he shoved the crowd aside, ignoring their wary, startled, and suspicious looks, wrapped his arms around the tree, and lifted it easily. "Pull him out," he ordered the closest person, who, to their credit, recovered from his surprise quick enough to carefully haul his trapped companion away from the tree. When everyone was safely away from it Connor dropped the trunk and stepped over it to pick up the injured person, who was too large for anyone else to carry there. "There's a settlement here, right? Lead on."

Sure enough, the inevitable wide-eyed, hopeful stares and tentative "Superman?" followed soon enough, and Connor resisted the urge to throw something or punch down another tree, mostly because his arms were full of injured civilian.

"No," he said instead, with tired resignation. "Superboy. Let's go, your friend needs help." In just a few days he'd given up trying to fight people on this one, annoying as it was. He was the only person left in the world, definitely confirmed still alive, with any form of superpower, which meant for all intents and purposes he was the only thing left that these people had close to a hero in the age of nothing. He was rapidly growing to hate it because it felt so heavy (why had he ever liked it?) but it was perfectly reasonable for them to think he was Superman, especially when they were desperate. Who wouldn't want a miracle in the apocalypse?

They didn't argue with him further, and dutifully led him to their settlement, something not unlike the first one he'd been to. Thankfully these at least had the decency not to question why he walked with them there, rather than flew ahead. He silently carried their companion to the cave they used for the sick or injured, left him in the care of the woman in charge, and then launched into his usual inquiries about Wally's family, producing the photographs as usual.

He'd tried three times already, all without any degree of success or even recognition, and by this point Superboy was tired of the hunt and sure this would be another dead end. So he was shocked to find one of the rescue party expressing genuine recognition as he pointed to the photograph of the single woman and said, "That's Iris! She does most of the gardening work in the other seasons."

For a moment it was Connor's turn to lose his voice from sheer surprise. After a moment he recovered, though, and said urgently, "Can you take me to her? I need to talk to her. Now. It's important. About her family."

The rescuer had looked suspicious up until Connor's last words, but at the mention of family his eyes widened, and he nodded. The man silently led Connor through a small series of paths to a larger cave that appeared to act as a store room, where a woman was carefully stacking preserved vegetables in jars against one stone wall. The man called her name, and when she turned Connor found himself face to face with the woman in the photograph, only this time it was really her. There were differences, of course; she looked much older than she did in her picture, thinner and more worn, and her bright red ponytail had been cut to leave her hair short and practical. But the face was the same, and the polite smile she offered them when the rescuer called her name still had traces of Wally's own in it.

"Hi, Greg," she greeted as they neared. "Who's the new guy? Did he get stuck out here with the weather?" She offered Connor a sympathetic look, and the clone couldn't help but note she didn't treat him with immediate distrust the way a lot of the settlers tended to.

"Hey, Iris," the rescuer—Greg—greeted back. "No, he's...he's looking for you, actually. He says his name is...uh...Superboy." Connor's eye twitched just slightly at the way the man seemed to stumble over the name, like he'd wanted to say something else and remembered just in time that it was wrong. "I'll leave you to it, I gotta get back to work. Later."

It wasn't until the man was completely out of the cave that Iris turned her attention to Connor. "Superboy, hmm? I haven't heard a name like that in a while. You do look a lot like Su—"

"Don't say it," Superboy snapped immediately, the last of his nerves frayed. It was one thing for complete strangers to give him that treatment; he really didn't want to hear it from somebody he considered to be important, even if it was only via association to Wally.

Iris blinked in surprise, but unlike the others she didn't react as though intimidated. In fact, now that Connor thought about it, she hadn't tried to compare him to Superman with a sense of hero worship either, the way everybody else did. It had been much more casual—like family commenting on just how much a son had grown up to look like his father.

Connor hesitated, feeling a little confused, and Iris must have caught on to the expression because she said softly, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize that would strike a nerve. But it's probably unfair to put that responsibility on your shoulders, isn't it?"

She looked a little sad at the end, when she finished speaking, like she understood exactly what kind of responsibility she was talking about. Belatedly, Connor realized she would—she'd been married to the Flash, or something like that, right? She'd have known what her husband went through. And a second later he felt like a real jerk when he thought even further into it, because of course of all people she'd get excited if Superman showed up at her doorstep—if he had a chance at surviving when he was supposedly dead, it'd just mean the Flash had a chance at being alive, too. She'd want that to be true more than anything, right?

Feelings are hard, Superboy grumped in his head. Emotions were stupid and difficult to understand and he had a feeling he'd just been a colossal ass without realizing it—and she'd tried to save face for him anyway. "Sorry," he muttered after a moment.

Fortunately she seemed to get what he was apologizing for, and her nod was a clear acceptance of it. "Greg said you were looking for me?"

"Um...yeah. I need your help with some things. Finding people." He pulled out the photos again, and said, "These others. Are they here too?"

Iris took the photographs, blinking momentarily at her own before shuffling it to the back. Her eyes fell on the family portrait next, and her expression immediately went sad. "Oh...this is...Rudy and Mary, and their son, Wally. They...no. They're not here."

Connor frowned. There was a tremor in her voice that probably wasn't perceptible to the human ear, but he'd heard it regardless, and was almost afraid to ask. "Do you know where they are? I'm looking for them, too. Rudy and Mary, I mean."

Iris looked very tired all of a sudden, and sat down on a rickety crate of supplies, still clutching the photos. It seemed like she wanted to mourn, to cry, but had done it often enough long ago that she was too exhausted to manage it anymore. She looked like she was trying to compose herself, and Connor suddenly had a very bad feeling about what she was going to say.

Her voice wavered as she spoke, and her hands and the photos shook slightly, but all things considered she was surprisingly calm. "They're dead. They...it happened almost two and a half years ago, for Rudy. We'd heard about the settlement and were trying to get to safety in the mountains, but...there'd been zombies. A lot of them. My brother...he did his best to keep them off of us, but he'd been bitten, and...well. You know."

"Yeah." It didn't feel adequate, but Connor wasn't sure what else to say.

"Mary...she made it to the settlement here with me. I helped her keep going. And she tried, I know she did, but..." Iris sighed. "I don't think her heart was in it anymore, to be honest. She watched her own husband turn, and Wally...God, we don't even know what happened to him. We wanted to believe the best—I still do—but I think at some point she just figured that there was no way he survived, and...I don't know. I guess she just gave up. She passed away here in the settlement maybe a year ago."

Connor felt ill inside. He didn't even know these people beyond their photos, and yet the news horrified him. And Wally, this would crush him, after so much searching...

Iris shuffled the photos again so the one of Wally and Barry was visible, and smiled down at it fondly for a moment before her expression went sad again. "I...don't have any news on Barry or Wally. I don't know what happened to them. I just remember taking this picture not too long before Z-day happened..." Her expression turned into a confused frown, and her finger ran over the photo, gently touching the grinning faces of her husband and nephew. "I took this picture and gave it to Wally," she said suddenly, looking up at Superboy again. "Why do do you have his things?"

"Because I'm tracking people down for him. Wally's a close friend of mine. I've been traveling with him—he's alive and he's fine."

Iris' eyes went wide at the revelation, and Connor couldn't help but grin a little as her expression shifted rapidly from that exhausted sadness to exhilaration—she really was related to Wally, no doubt about that. "Wally's alive?" she gasped, leaping to her feet again. "Is he really okay? Where is he, did he come with you? I want to see him, it's been so long." She looked a very confusing mix of anxious and excited that baffled Connor more than a little as she added, "We were so worried we'd never see him again after that field trip he took, especially when we heard about the child protection camps being swarmed by zombies...Barry tried so hard to find him at first and couldn't, and then the League..."

She trailed off, so Connor hastily reassured her before it could dip into uncomfortable territory again, "He's fine! Really. He couldn't come with me, I had to leave him back at the medical facility in the Base in Indiana—"

"Medical facility? What happened?"

"He's fine," Connor said, wishing he was better at this whole reassuring thing, because so far all he'd done was make her worry more. "I promise. He just got a little sick when we were traveling from New Batcave to the base. But he's making a full recovery, I made sure of it before I came out to find you..."

He explained as briefly as he could about their journey from New Batcave to central U.S., based on a tip that they might find Wally's family in the mountain range near Central. Connor was careful to leave out most of the gruesome details, and toned down the severity of Wally's illness considerably—there was no use worrying Iris now that all was said and done. He added that Wally had never stopped searching for them since the outbreak hit, and that it was his obvious disappointment at being forced to break his search for the winter that had prompted Connor to come looking for people he'd never even met in the first place.

"I figured I had a better shot at it than he did, and now I can bring him back some news about you," he finished. "I mean...you probably can take a guess at some of the things I can do, so..."

"Some," she agreed. "Barry talked about him a lot. This was a a very noble thing to do, Superboy."

"Connor."

"Connor, then." She smiled, although her eyes looked suspiciously wet. Oh God, don't cry, Superboy thought in a panic. I don't know how to deal with that, that's Wally's department, not mine!

But Iris was apparently made of much stronger stuff than that, because she didn't actually start sobbing (could tears even be for anything else? Happiness, maybe? Connor had no idea) and when she spoke next, her voice was full of determination. "I'm going back with you."

"What?" Connor had not been expecting that. He'd just sort of assumed he'd scout everything out, figure out where the noteworthy settlements were, and head there directly with Wally in the spring, instead of spending months searching the mountains.

"You heard me." Iris gave him a firm look, and Connor wondered vaguely if this was what it was like to get stared down by a mother with a no-nonsense attitude.

"That's a bad idea," Connor said, frowning. "Wally got sick from traveling in bad weather, and it's way colder now. Moving around is already tricky for me—it's going to be harder for you. No offense." But he wasn't going to risk getting Wally's aunt killed from a treacherous slip or from the cold after going through all this trouble to find her. Especially after learning she was basically the only family Wally had left.

But Iris shook her head, crossed her arms, and said firmly, "I know the risks. Winter in the mountains is dangerous. But I haven't seen my nephew in four and a half years, Connor, and I've worried about him every day since the apocalypse hit. I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here until the spring thaw when I know exactly where he is after all that time. One way or another, I am going to be out of this settlement and heading towards that base before the week is out."

Connor shook his head in exasperation. Well, now he knew where that stubbornness of Wally's came from—it was clearly in the blood. He didn't doubt for a second she'd set off on her own if she had to. And after that stunt Wally pulled when he was sick, Connor was absolutely not willing to let her out of his sight until she was back at the Base safely.

"Okay," he growled, still exasperated and not even bothering to try and hide it, "fine, have it your way. I'll take you with me, but you need to listen to everything I say, okay? If you live here I'm guessing you're not familiar with zed travel, and it's not easy. I'd like to get you back in one piece and it'll be easier if you cooperate."

"You're an expert, are you?" Iris asked, raising an eyebrow. It didn't sound mocking, strangely enough, just curious.

"No," Connor said truthfully. "Wally is. He taught me everything I know. I'm just a fast learner."

She smiled fondly. "He always was brilliant, even back then...I'm not surprised in the least to learn he mastered zombie travel. They'd be so proud of him." Her face fell for a moment, and Connor didn't have to ask who 'they' was. Then she shook her head, and said firmly, "Alright, Superboy, you have yourself a deal. I'm smart enough to know when to listen to somebody who knows what they're talking about. You tell me what to do and I'll do it, and we'll make it back to Wally as quickly as we can."

Connor nodded in agreement.

He insisted on staying in the settlement for a full day in order to resupply and get Iris ready for the trip, and was thankful that she didn't argue the point. Iris, it seemed, had far more patience then Wally did, and was willing to concede that time was necessary for preparations—unlike his friend, who was much more likely to try and rush into things. When he pointed it out, Iris merely laughed, and said, "Just like Barry, really. Wally's always been a speedster at heart, I think, even if he doesn't have the power. I'm sure it's one of the reasons he was such a huge Flash fan even before he met Barry."

Well. So that explained a few things.

Iris also proved to be determined and, much like Wally, did her best to carry her own weight and earn her keep. Over the course of the day she traded in everything of worth she possibly had in her possession for travel supplies: food, warmer clothing, blankets, matches, a first aid kit, and half a dozen other things that Connor suggested after racking his brains for things Wally'd used in the past. There was no need for a weapon, at least; by this point the weather was cold enough that zombies would no longer be a problem, and Connor was positive he could protect her from any other potential dangers out there, at least.

Connor checked and rechecked all their supplies at least two or three times before he was satisfied, but finally determined they were ready. Iris spent the rest of the evening saying her goodbyes to the other settlers (all of them openly shocked at her leaving at all, much less in early November, when it was much smarter to hole up for the winter) before finally settling in for a good night's rest. Connor insisted on it—he wasn't sure when they'd be getting it again. Zeds wouldn't be an issue, but he wasn't sure how much rest Iris would be able to get with the cold like this, at least. But I am not going to let Wally down, he promised himself. I'm going to get his aunt back to him if I have to walk through a field of Kryptonite to do it.

And with that familiar stubbornness to reassure him, he fell into a restful sleep.

They were off at dawn, seen off by most of the settlers, and Connor spent most of their next few days of mountain travel carrying all their supplies and frequently Iris as well. The footing was frequently too slippery and treacherous, or the snow piled too thick, for a normal human to make any sort of headway, and Connor wasn't about to take the risk. Fortunately Iris didn't whine and moan about being carried "like a baby" every thirty seconds the way Wally did, which made things a little easier. Without having to wander all over the mountain range he could use his super strength to push straight through it at a steady pace, and halfway through they second week of November they were finally out of the Saint Francois mountain range.

From that point on things were a little easier. Which was not to say that getting back was easy; it wasn't. By now the snow was thick, it was very cold, and they had to be very careful to take it slow so that Iris didn't get sick or have her strength sapped away by the weather. She never complained, and was always determined to keep going, insisting she was fine. But Connor had learned his lesson with Wally, and kept a vigilant eye on her to make sure she really was fine, because he was not going to be the one explaining to his best friend why he was hauling his aunt into the Base with a bad case of pneumonia or hypothermia or who knew what else due to his negligence a second time.

But it was a little better than his last trip to the Base, at least. Connor was extremely glad he'd marked safe-zones for himself on the way in, because they were a blessing in disguise now. He was able to stop them at safe intervals regularly to let Iris get some much-needed rest, food and shelter, and since he'd reinforced most of the points already they were also decent for providing warmth once he'd started a fire. If Iris was irritated with their frequent stops and slow but careful travel she didn't complain, and appeared to be adhering steadfastly to her half of the deal—to listen to the expert—without fail.

Connor reminded himself to have her give Wally a sound lecture on that later, when they got back to the Base.

It was slower going back than it had been getting to the mountains with the weather and an unexpected travel companion, making a week-long trip for a solo superpower stretch into two with an extra person. But they did it, and it was with no small degree of triumph that Connor marched up to the Base's gates in late-November, giving the guards—the same ones as before—a cool look. "I'm back, with another friend. Let's get this over with, fast this time."

To their credit, they had the zed dogs there in under a minute, and silently let him back through without a single argument. Connor smirked, and blatantly ignored the newly patched and discolored stone on the wall as he strode past it with Iris trailing after him.

A quick stop by the medical facility told Connor that Wally had long since officially recovered and been released to make room for newer patients. The nurses directed him to one of the large buildings that had been converted to sleeping quarters for travelers, though, where Wally had since been given a bed. It was close to nightfall now, and too cold to hang around outside after dark, so Wally would probably be in by now. They made a beeline for the traveler's dorms without a shred of hesitation, and Iris even had a new spring in her step despite being exhausted from walking all day.

Finding Wally wasn't as hard as he thought it'd be. Travelers weren't as common at the Base as they were at New Batcave due to being smack in the middle of central U.S.' zed swarms, meaning the building wasn't packed with visitors wintering there for the season. He found Wally by himself on the second floor in a classroom converted to a dorm room with half a dozen cots packed into it, flipping through Connor's Justice League interview book. He looked up idly when Connor barged into the room, but tossed the book aside immediately and leapt to his feet off his cot when he recognized the newcomer.

Connor frowned. "Hey, be careful with that book—"

"Where the hell have you been?" Wally interrupted, nearly screeching the question. Connor blinked at the blatant anger and worry that all but saturated Wally's voice, and at the curse—Wally was prone to none of those things, and it sounded almost strange coming from his friend. Seconds later Wally was rambling at about a million words a second, gesturing wildly to emphasize his point. "I've been worried sick! Hunting trip my ass, you've been gone way too long for that, it's been almost two months, I figured you'd left or something or maybe you just found a convenient Kryptonite mine or whatever and just chucked yourself into it, and you lectured me on stupid stunts Supey and then disappear for this long, did you think I wouldn't worry, I swear—"

Connor actually backed up a pace at the verbal onslaught, uncomfortable, and glanced over his shoulder. "Help?"

"Yeah, you'll need help when I'm done with you, maybe I can't punch you without breaking my hand but I can talk you down with the best of them, I mean I learned from the best, but seriously what were you thinking—"

"Wally," Iris interrupted, stepping through the doorway. Her tone was lecturing, but the way she was grinning, it was obviously joking. "Is that really the way to speak to your friend, after he's gone through all this trouble for you?"

Wally froze, and slowly his stare shifted away from Connor to the woman behind him. His eyes widened, and his jaw worked, but his steady stream of rambling words had suddenly dried up, and for the first time in years Wally was struck speechless.

We're close to the end, my dears! Just one more chapter left...