As soon as Jon said this question everyone was looking on him with big eyes. They couldn't believe it.
"Abandoned you?" Lois yelled shocked.
"You?" Clark said shocked. "Why do you think that?"
Everyone shied away from him and looked on Jonathan with big eyes…
Jon's face was full of sorrow. Full of shame and guilt. But also full of questions and eagerness! He wanted to get answers. He travelled through space just to get answers. And his family was shocked.
They guessed that something happened in his past that let him assume that they did it: That they really abandoned him!
"That is not true!" Clark said. A tear running down his face. "We never abandoned you! We would never do that!"
"Not even if I am powerless?" Jon asked directly.
Everyone looked on him with even bigger eyes…
"Powerless?" everyone asked.
"Jon, you can fly!" Tal said. "I wouldn't call this powerless?"
"My visions!" Jon said abashed. But nobody heard it…
"Jonathan, my baby…" Lois cried again. "Why do you think we abandoned you? They told us you died at birth!"
Just thinking about it, let them shudder. There was a lot to talk about…
And so, they all came together in Tal's living-room where Jon start to tell his story… and Lois and Clark were able to retell it, as it matched mostly with their investigations they made… of course they told him about their live, too and how he was born.
About Jon, who was found in front of his parents' house. About the note that was with him and what was written on it. They never figured out how Jonathan ended up in Boston, only 24 hours after his birth. Or why he was left behind in front of right that house. They always guessed that it was an insider. And Jonathan learned a lot about his actual family. Including his twin-brother and his adoptive-grandparents, the Kents! Listening to their stories in awe…
Sam tried to call all of them countless of times.
"What, dad?" Lois snapped after finally picking up.
"Lois, why is nobody responding to my calls. A spaceship crashed into Lake Yellowstone. And witnesses claim that they saw a flying teenager. Did Jordan…" Sam yelled through the phone.
"No, Jordan is here. That was Jonathan…" Lois said while suddenly realizing that Sam should be here, too. "…oh, you have to see him, he looks a bit like you… CLARK, GO AND GET MY FATHER…"
Clark nodded and left to get Sam, who was dealing with the fallout of Jon's public landing in Yellowstone.
Sam was in his office when Clark took him, to bring him to London, too. The arrival of the General, let Jon see that his biological family was even more impressive. And Sam recognized Jon immediately as the boy, he saw on countless of photos Lois and Clark collected.
Sam burst out in tears, too and hugged him. Ignoring his Kryptonian clothes or that the boy caused a lot of chaos and panic in Moldova, Germany and especially in Wyoming…
Earth-AU…
After a couple of minutes of intimacy in his fortress, Connor activated Lara's crystal again to continue figuring out about the current ongoing crisis in his head.
"I have an idea how to localize the origin of these seizures. Maybe we can reverse the affect and stop it." Lara said.
"Let's do it. Nothing stops me from flying to Juneau tomorrow." Connor said.
His wife walked a few steps away to not to be affected by the scan, too and the lights changed…
Earth- Krypton…
"You kidnapped my doppelganger on that other Earth and set him free for adoption?" Connor yelled shocked.
"You completely changed the timeline in that dimension!" the Jonathan-A.I. said.
"I had no choice! He killed himself! My doppelganger over there was a terrible father. Like I was! And I couldn't see it happen again. So I travelled back in their time, took your doppelganger and brought him to Tess Mercer!"
"Tess? She is existing there?" Connor asked.
"Yes. Big house in Boston! Happily married! They adopted you immediately. And I thought that he would be better in a normal human family, than with uncaring Kryptonian-human journalists."
"This Earth is the epicenter of the chaos, dearest father!" the Jonathan-A.I. said. He might be an emotionless A.I. but he was still carrying his sons personality. The tone in his voice threatening and more venomous than Clark had ever heard it from Jonathan when he was young. And he heard a lot of bad things from him when the boy was bullied and abused on Krypton-island. "Something is happening over there and we need to interfere, before the whole multiverse is trapped in a new antimatter-crisis."
Earth-TUD25…
Clark meant well when he once created the new 'family-fortress' in the Pacific. After all the bad things, Jon went through in the past year, he wanted to give the boy a feeling that he has a place in this family and that he is a part of it. Thinking that Jonathan's big interest in technology gives him a chance to bond with him.
But things went different. Jordan got stronger and they trained more often. Jon tried to get his life back under control in the meantime. He got his license, which give him more freedom (what Jordan was only amused about), found a job at the firehouse (which Jordan made bad jokes about) that let him feel special, too and he tried to make up for the X-K mess from last year. And he showed on multiple occasions, that he learned from those mistakes and is reliable, mature and trustworthy. Giving his parents a lot of reasons to be proud on him.
He grew up, and Clark realized that Jonathan doesn't really need him anymore. Not that he really had a chance! Clark was aware that he made some serious mistakes. And Jonathan was drifting away from him more and more, before he had a chance to bond with him, like he did with Jordan over the past years. While Jordan was currently struck in some kind of 'ego-trip' , Jonathan was grounded and adult, without even considering to ask them for help. Proving that he actually doesn't need them.
The family-fortress was his attempt to let Jonathan feel more included. But that plan was a huge failure. As today was Jonathan's only third time in the fortress. The first time he was so scared of Lara that he didn't get a word out. Today he confessed that he was simply afraid to offend her with his 'humanity and powerlessness' and that she might reject him, like Jor-El. Which was a huge shock, as Clark never dared to think that Jonathan believes this. But that was his own fault. The second time, Clark openly showed Jonathan that he was not allowed in the fortress. And now today… And Jonathan knew as much about Kryptonian technology than before: nothing!
Lara and Jonathan talked alone in the fortress for a while and Lara was able to get through the boy. She also learned some shocking stories. She was very sad to hear that Jonathan never got to meet his grandfather Jor-El, that his father does not tell him anything about Krypton, or that he sees nothing positive about his Kryptonian heritage which only caused him trouble and disadvantages.
Now they were back home. Lara recommended Jonathan to stay home and get him checked tomorrow again. As soon as they were home, Jonathan stormed up to his room to pout! Like Jordan since they grounded him. And Clark was sitting with Lois and Sam (who actually came to discuss the latest chaos regarding Jordan's public reveal, two weeks ago) in the kitchen to talk about it.
"Could it affect Jordan, too?" Sam asked. "Maybe this is the reason for his arrogant behavior lately?"
"No! My mother guesses it could be a late side effect from the merging attempt of his inverse doppelganger last year. But that is just a theory! But this is nothing compared to what happened with me! Just that Jonathan has vision of his own memories instead!" Clark explained.
"And how is Jonathan?" Lois asked.
"He is mad, of course! I thought that we got over it? But it feels like someone is trying to use his negative feelings to turn him mad on all of us again." Clark said worried. "Not to forget that my mother is really mad on us now for not including Jonathan in his Kryptonian heritage. By the way, she says we are not allowed to call him human anymore! Because he is Kryptonian, too! Powers or not! And that we should be all ashamed of letting him feel that being Kryptonian is only about having powers?"
"Okay! But who is messing with him? Lex Luthor maybe?" Sam asked.
Two weeks ago, Lex Luthor stood on their porch and threatened them. But Lois didn't dare to retire. That Luthor would use their kids to hurt them was plausible. Luthor was indeed someone who would do that.
"Luthor is rich and smart. But not even he is able to cause interdimensional disturbances." Clark said.
"He is out of prison for two weeks and he doesn't have access to his fortune yet." Lois said. "I am more worried about Jonathan, now. Did he have any more flashbacks?"
"No! But he is not looking forward for more!" Clark moaned. "First the barn-scene, then the evening when he got caught with the X-K, I really hope that nothing else happens! I have the feeling Jonathan is distancing himself from me even more!"
"I don't get smart of the boy for a while now!" Sam moaned.
"If you would spend more time with him, you might get?" Lois said.
"What is that meaning?"
"It's just…" Clark now continued. "…I thought about it since Jonathan mentioned something when we were in the fortress. And I think it could be true. But you used to spend a lot of time with Jordan and Natalie over the past few months. I mean, you took Natalie to the movies, or quad-riding. And Jordan fishing and you gave him that suit…"
"Which would had been nice, if you discussed that with us before!" Lois interfered with a stern look on her face.
"What? Are you accusing me of something? Listen… I know he was mad on me for not including him in the training I gave to his brother! And before you complain about that again, Lois, I had only good intensions" Sam said. "Anyway, Jonathan wouldn't have been any help. He doesn't have powers and would have been only in the way. If something is happening his brother or Natalie can help him out! What is Jonathan able to do?"
Clark's and Lois' faces turned deeply red and were full of shock. Mainly because they were shocked about Sam's words, but more about that they were heard by someone, who shouldn't. Sam could see that they were not looking on him, but on someone who was standing behind him…
He turned around and saw Jonathan standing right behind him in the entrance to the kitchen. His arms crossed and his face full of shock first, then fury, and finally resignation…
"WOW! I knew you thought I am no help for your training-sessions for Jordan! Now I know you expect me to be a useless damsel in distress that can do nothing and that you don't believe in me, too. And that for powers, you told me to be afraid of! Just good that I don't do, what I do now, to prove you something. I know you wouldn't appreciate it anyway!"
Jonathan turned away and stormed towards the door to get out. Sam could feel a painful stich in his heart when he realized how terribly he just offended Jonathan, who smashed the door close so hard that it let everyone flinch. Sam turned around to face Lois and Clark again. Clark was overwhelmed by Jonathan's statement about being 'afraid' of him. Lois just trembled in fury…
"You go… and apologize to him! NOW!" Lois yelled.
Sam wanted to say something, but Clark already grabbed him to push him out through the front door, so he can apologize to Jonathan…
Earth-359…
Sam forgot all the stress of the previous hours immediately. Knowing that his long lost grandson, he thought that he died at birth first, then turned out to be alive and later lost in space, was back. He was back, healthy and well…
Sam embraced him in a tight hug and the normally stiff and gruff man, didn't hold back his joy this time.
"OH, YOU ARE ALIVE… JONATHAN! I AM SO HAPPY!"
"Thank you, I am happy to be here, too." Jon said.
"OH... Oh my gosh… you look your uncle in that suit. Is everyone on Krypton wearing the same?" Sam asked. Even after four years of knowing about Tal, he still didn't got Tal's real intensions from the past out of his head. Even if Tal worked hard to prove that he really changed and that he regrets what he did.
"I just grabbed what I had in the closet. My journey here was a bit rushed!" Jon said. He still had to explain them what happened and why he so urgently wanted to talk to them.
"I like your Boston-accent! Good that you don't forget our language… And… you were the meteor that crashed into Lake Yellowstone?"
"OH… WELL… I guess my arrival caught a lot of attention?"
"Right in this moment, several units are on the way to Yellowstone. And the meteor impact in Chisinau… was that a part of your pod, or are there more visitors?"
"OH… I hope I didn't hurt anyone!" Jon said worried.
"OH, don't worry about that! It's more important that you are back!" Clark interfered.
Jon was back. That was what really mattered. The three-hundred injured people and the tenth-of-millions of property damage in Chisinau and Stuttgart were not really his fault.
"Aww… look at you! You look great." Sam said. "Do you… have powers, too? There is a video of you circulating online, that shows you flying. And there were reports of a boy colliding with a plane over Boston!"
"Oh my gosh, you got hit by a plane?" Lois asked shocked, trying to imagine it. She always feared it could happen to Jordan or Nattie before they got better at flying.
"Ehm… yes!" Jon confessed. "But I promise, it was not on purpose! And the plane was still intact when I left."
"And you are not visibly hurt! The four years in Argo really let your cells adapt to develop powers under the yellow sun here." Tal said proudly. "A lot has changed since Java!"
"Oh, I will never forget Java!" Jon said happily, when he remembered his first flying-lesson over the Java-sea four years ago.
"I don't want to know what this training looked like!" Sam said abashed.
Earth-TUD25…
"I want to tell you…" Sam begged while he found Jonathan walking around the barn upset to let out some steam.
"WHAT?" Jonathan snapped and faced his grandfather now. "I heard what you said. Jordan has superpowers and Natalie is a tech-genius, I know that. I am just the ordinary, boring, useless human that is just getting in trouble!"
"Jonathan, I am sorry. I never meant to offend you…" Sam said. Knowing that he just made a huge mistake.
Earth-359…
"I don't want to offend you…" Sam said. "…but I have to admit, that even after all those years, these powers are very intimidating."
"Well… I openly admit, I am not used to them, too. The sun does not feel different than before. But now I feel how it is different from Rao." Jon said. "But… don't tell me you are afraid of me!"
"Oh, my gosh no! You're my grandson! I would be never afraid of you!" Sam said proudly.
Earth-TUD25…
"You told me directly into my face, frigid and without hesitation to be afraid of him and Jordan! Right over there on the porch!" Jonathan said angrily while pointing on Clark.
Clark and Lois came out of the house, too to keep sure that Sam really apologizes to Jonathan. And they were shocked to hear this statement from their son and wondered why Sam would say this.
"And you know what: I was really scared! Two days before, Jordan broke my arm when he tried to kill another teen. Do you know how it hurt when nobody asked me how I was after? Mom told me 'It could have been worse!' And that's it. But anyway I told you I would never be afraid of them, because I simply thought that you are just thinking as a soldier and not as my grandfather. Like usual! Six months later, you show up here, I figure out that you are secretly training Jordan, because he is something special!"
"I know you are mad that you were not included in your brother's training better. But your brother is very powerful and he needed to be prepared."
"AND I? People tried to kill me! And you want me to be a coward who his hiding behind his superpowered brother. I always thought you hate his powers? You hate dad's powers! Or was that all a lie to keep me out of your business? You retired because you wanted to spend more time with us, but instead only trained Jordan and tried to hire Natalie."
Earth-Krypton…
Ever since his stroke, former general Sam Lane was just a shadow of his former self. Living paralyzed and sick in a nursery home. Wheelchair bound, wearing diapers and having the attention span of a goldfish. Having no real memory of how unfair he treated his grandson Jonathan after his powers didn't manifest.
Lonely and abandoned, he spent most of his time alone in his room and looked through the scrapbooks of the happier times. Knowing that he was not a good grandfather when he had to be and a tear running down his face when he looked on that old photo of him and a six-year-old Jonathan during a fishing-trip…
Earth-359…
"I planned a fishing-trip with Jordan next weekend. Wanna join us?" Sam asked. And put his hand on Jon's shoulder…
"Fishing?" Jon asked.
Earth-TUD25…
"You always took me fishing in the past. And now you don't even talk to me every time you are showing up!"
"Jonathan, listen…" Sam said and put his hand on his grandson's shoulder…
Earth-Krypton…
Sam stroked with his hand over the picture of his young lost grandson. Far away in Arizona, in Connor's fortress, the A.I. of latter realized it is happening again…
"It's happening…"
Suddenly every Jonathan who was once rejected by Sam on when training Jordan, had this vision. And every Sam who was focused on his Jonathan in this moment, too…
Earth-AU…
"We intervene!" Lara said when her grandson collapsed.
And suddenly the memory of Earth-AU-Jonathan shoot in the minds of all Jonathan's… every Sam, and everyone who was close enough to both of them…
…
"Why you train him?"
"Because unlike you, your brother has some very impressive abilities. And now get out. You are just disturbing!" Sam said rude and banished Jonathan violently out of the barn. "Your brother is going to be a Superhero."
"What about me? You said we go fishing!"
"You go back to your farm-chores! It's more important to prepare your brother…"
It was painful! The feeling of rejection, being unloved, and uncared so intense as if it really happens…
…
On all Earths, the Jonathans and the respective Sams (if they were still alive there) collapsed in pain, while everyone and everything close enough to them, experienced this painful memory, too.
Earth-Krypton…
Sam shrieked and cried in pain when he fell out of his wheelchair in his room at the nursery home and lost his consciousness. In his grandson's fortress, the A.I. localized the origin of the foreign memory…
Earth-TUD25…
Jonathan and Sam collapsed in front of the barn, all while Lois and Clark were shocked about the recent event. Suddenly the air around them was so hot, as if they were in a desert… and then as cold as if they were in Alaska…
Earth-359…
Everyone in Tal's living-room was shocked about this strange happening. Especially Jon, who shied away from Sam immediately. Feeling that terrible feeling of rejection and pain. The rest of the family was shocked, too.
"What was that?" Nattie asked shocked. "And why I could suddenly see Jordan with this terrible curly-head?"
Everyone was looking on Jon, who was breathing hardly while holding his head that felt if it was going to blow up, soon. Sam was terrified. He saw everything, too. But how was it possible? It never happened...
"What was that?" now Clark interfered. He was shocked about how rude Sam was towards Jonathan in this vision.
Everyone looked on Jon, who was kneeling on the ground in pain and breathed hardly to calm down and to stop the pounding pain in his head.
"That… is the reason I came here so rushed…" Jon said.
And so he start to explain his family everything he figured out about those visions he has for a while now and what could have caused them. Memories that he actually shouldn't have, as he didn't grow up with them. And that it was the reason, he thought that they abandoned him…
Earth-AU…
Connor hugged his crying wife, who held her baby-bump in sorrow. Hoping that this terrible feeling had no negative affect on their unborn daughter.
"OH, I am so so sorry that you had to experience this, too." Connor cried before he turned to Lara upset. "How could this happen?"
"Someone on another Earth is watching us, too. It looks like we are not the only ones who try to figure out what happens." Lara explained. "The barriers between our worlds are breaking apart more and more. Everyone on the other Earths saw your memories, this time…"
Earth-TUD25…
Sam was pale. He knew that it never happened like this. He was at least trying to be polite when he threw out Jonathan. Lois, Clark and Jonathan were furious. Especially Jonathan…
"Jonathan, you know that it went differently…"
"Don't touch me!" Jonathan yelled when he pushed his grandfather away as strong as he could. "I know you all think I am useless, because I don't have powers. So, stop pretending that you care! I am done with you!"
Jonathan had tears in his eyes when he turned away, and start to run. Just to get away from them and to not to face them anymore. Sam was terrified. He knew that it didn't happen like this. A tear running down his face when he realized how right Jonathan was to accuse him to prefer his powered brother over him and when he just got 'disowned' by him. And that he was not really working on proving the boy better over the past few months.
Sam turned to his daughter and his son-in-law, who both looked on him in disgust. They saw and felt it, too.
"I swear by my soul, that I didn't talk to him like that. It went differently!" Sam said with more tears in his eyes.
Seeing Sam crying, a man who was usually never doing that, let Lois and Clark assume that it could be true. Someone was manipulating Jonathan. And now it's getting worse.
"I bring him to the fortress again." Clark said and was gone in a blur, to fly Jonathan (who protested violently) back to Lara, for more checks.
Earth-Krypton…
"This was not my memory!" both Connor, and the Jonathan-A.I. said at once.
"I saw it, too." Clark confessed crying. He not only saw it, he also felt the rejection and the pain of that other Jon…
"Another Earth is trying to localize the origin of this event, too!" the Jonathan-A.I. said while looking on the holographic image of his clone in his hand. "It's getting worse…"
They were all unaware of Sam, regaining consciousness in his room in the nursery home. Holding his aching head with a groan while lifting up from the ground. Holding himself on the table while opening a bottle of water to pour some into a glass for himself to drink it. After drinking, Sam felt a lot better. But suddenly he realized something else… He was standing!
Sam, whose left body-half was paralyzed since the stroke was working again. He was able to move his leg and his left arm again. And his mind was suddenly so clear again. It was like everything he forgot was back. As if his damaged brain got bypassed and rebooted… and filled with new information…
"What the hell?" Sam said looking on his hands and then down on the scrapbook with the picture of Jonathan.
Something was going on… something big…