When I announced a while back that I was trying to close in on the end of the fic (something I wish I had made more progress on than I have) it was suggested that I list out the plot ideas and arcs that ended up on the cutting room floor. After suddenly remembering that comment, I decided to write this out before I forgot it again.

So, here are some ideas that never made it in:

The Girl of Tomorrow

Having his Amazo android destroyed down to the last bits by a complete unknown, Doctor Ivo decides that a different tactic is needed. He needed to study this foe first, and reaching out to the few contacts he has, the man discovers the existence of the Team. Machina would have to be dealt with first before he would make another Amazo bot to take on the League, and that would require a bit more subtly. So, with some reluctance, he contacts his old mentor T. O. Morrow so that they could finish an old joint project of theirs: An android so life-like that it could fool all tests and scans, one capable of incredible telekinesis and telepathy. The Tomorrow Girl.

This would be a sort of play on the Judas Contract, with an infiltrator joining the team. Jacob would know nothing of Tomorrow Girl, as I didn't before I did the research and found out about Tomorrow Woman. The arc would focus on her internal conflict of her naturally heroic personality vs her subconscious programming, much like Red Tornado before her. In this case though Ivo would be giving her more active reinforcement to keep her on task, and eventually her arc would play into the rise of the Silver and her own actualization as a person.

This arc didn't happen because I didn't have enough of Tomorrow Girl's personality down to really want to do anything with her. It was a neat idea, but I didn't want to add a character to the already large roster just for the hell of it. That said, this decision also led to me adding Donna, because I just couldn't help myself.

Failure State

This would have been my take on the Failsafe episode in the show, where the team goes through the psychic no-win training exercise that goes wrong and they forget that it's not real. Jacob wouldn't actually be a part of the training event due to his robotic nature, the League trying to figure out what to do with him. The part would open with him walking in just as their scenario ends… and none of the team wants to talk to him. Kori would look at him in horror and run away from him. The rest of the arc would have a very distraught Jacob trying to figure out just what the hell happened to his team (and being absolutely livid with the League).

He would eventually piece together that the psychic scenario went wrong, with the twist being it starred Dream!Jacob being corrupted by the Dream!Imperium and turned into the main antagonist of the scenario. As the scenario spiraled out of control, Dream!Jacob picked off the team one by one, culminating in a fight between him and Starfire that takes both of them out before M'gann finally wakes up. It would be a pretty emotionally heavy arc.

This one got axed because the timing didn't really work out. Things progressed fast enough so that the Titans formed before the training scenario happened, plus Jacob got his psychic ansible form which would have made it awkward to write around. Also… not sure if I would have enjoyed putting Kori and Jacob through that much of an emotional ringer.

Just Some Guy

This is the arc that would be part of the non-canon chapter of the same name. There would be sporadic extra-dimensional incursions all over the world by bug-like aliens intent on terraforming the planet. But while they are a problem, the good guys note that they didn't bring nearly enough to actually be a global threat, and sometimes they came out of their portals horribly disfigured. On top of that there a mystery figure shows up, a humanoid black void with a white mark on its face. It never communicated with them, just annihilated any of the bugs it found.

Due to clues it leaves behind though, Jacob pieces together what they are and confronts them, confirming the truth: It's himself from the future. Specifically, a future where the bug aliens had wiped out most of the Earth and his team along with it. After years of gaining power he traveled back in time to sabotage the aliens efforts and save his team. His mission done, Future!Jacob has only a few minutes to talk with his past self before casualty catches up with him and he disappears.

A Fair Child

This was a rough arc focusing on Superboy I came up early on, delving into exactly how Superboy was made. While investigating Connor's biology, Jacob realizes that while he got his human DNA from Luthor, that didn't explain his human mitochondria (POWERHOUSE OF THE CELL), as that come from the mother. More specifically, the ovum. The two of them do some more digging into Cadmus and its connections to find out just who it came from. The answer would be one of the scientists who worked on the project before being booted off, one Caitlin Fairchild.

Even in my own head, this one never really got off the ground. There were too many questions of how they would actually track Caitlin down, what they would do when they found her, and what the lasting impact would be for it to be more than just an idea. In the end I found a different way to develop Connor, and Caitlin made an appearance in the Variant sidestory.

Bit Rot

This would have been an arc for a potential '4th' book of the story, after the Silver had properly established itself in the world. Either because someone inevitably went looking for someone to counter the Silver, or perhaps simply in response to their sudden rise, the Black (aka the Rot) would respond. In this story, the Black would be framed as a sort of cancer; less a 'natural' elemental kingdom and more something that feeds ravenously on all the others. The Rot can take animals, plants, even fungi and bacteria can be subject to viruses and entropy… so why not machines as well?

Data corruption, digital viruses, even rust and hardware failure would be free game, though that would just be the physical problem. Rot elementals aping machines would be the most horrifying version of 'gears greased with blood'. The machines must be fed, production must be ceaseless, and all those that work will be part of the machine in the end. It would be an ongoing problem for Jacob and the Silver to hunt down any Rot infections that popped up.

Spirit of Self-Determination

Another arc for the 4th book, Darksied takes notice of his efforts on Earth being thwarted more than he anticipated, and interference from Apokolips starts to go up. Things start to shift from backing criminals and the Light to more direct terrorist actions, specifically to draw out the heroes that have been causing so many problems. The Silver has progressed enough that with their help Jacob takes point, finding meaningful ways to counteract Apokolips's tech advantage. On Earth at least.

This would be a bit of a slow burn that would dive into 4th World politics / metaphysics, and Jacob's growing place in it. The entire time this is happening, Jacob keeps expecting for Darksied to come after Superman; after all Superman was the natural figure to oppose the Despot, and in the comics Superman's status as the Spirit of Hope / Freedom may have actually been created by that conflict. But by the end of things, Jacob realizes that through his own actions he's the one who has become Darksied's nemesis on Earth. He's become the Spirit of Self-Determination.

Forever Jacob

I'll be honest, I'm still debating if I will actually write this one or not. It would slot in right before the final arc of the story, but I'm worried that it will take away from the ending I'm building towards. So we'll just have to see.

As for what it would be about, well, I'm sure between the arc's name and certain bits I've written, you can figure it out.