Try to remember

by Faff

Sixteen year old Kenny McKormick must adapt to his new life in Gotham City, while the same is also true for his eldritch alter ego, Mysterion. But while the agnostic angel of Denver makes his mark on Gotham, the Justice League and hero community at large must adapt to the emergence of this little mystery person who knows far more than he lets on…

27. Sleep or Die

Chapter 27: Sleep or Die.

-?M?-?M?-?M?

You open your eyes, and I blink to clear his vision. We open our mouth.

Air feels… feels like nothing. No breeze, no cold or heat. It's a vacuum, devoid of breathable atmosphere. At the moment all that dominates existence is a halo of colour, a core of amber, with a prism of black rotating within its centre like a cruel eye. It's up, or what counts for up, so that makes it the sky, and that rippling orb the sun.

You start to feel pins and needles run up and down your body. I'm losing blood, I think, irritated. We try to move and find our body unresponsive. He tries to speak instead, but all that comes out is a wet gurgle.

Something is listing slowly around, floating, caught in a trail of momentum. There is a horizon, filled with things. Shapes of varying size, wings and fins curl and twist these bodies through the void, hungry little fish. Those flyers arc and turn around larger creatures, as big as buildings, methodical as whales. There are islands in the sky as well, broken shards of stone, some as small as a car, some as large as a castle. The black orb above closes, resolving into more wet orange light. Was it really the sun, the perspective was indecipherable, it could have been close enough to touch or too far to imagine.

You blink again, but your vision is still blurry. I have blood in my eyes. We have blood in our eyes. He has blood in his eyes.

That can't be healthy. He's had pinkeye before and that was a fucking nightmare. He doesn't know if blood in the eye can give you that, but maybe it's best not to tempt fate.

Those thoughts coagulate inside Kenny McKormick's mind, dissolving slowly like a sugar cube in hot water. He grabs hold of his own existence again, and his thoughts come back into focus.

Kenny is slowly drifting downwards, coasting a gentle course towards a jagged and dark landscape of stone. Behind him his cloak trails, turning him into just another one of these strange silhouettes. To his left Psi-mon is also drifting, though he is mercifully unconscious. Blood is leaking from the man's eyes and ears, which is probably a bad sign Kenny thinks.

There is so much pain that he also wonders why he hasn't died yet.

"Easy does it."

The voice is masculine, with a soft British accent. Kenny tries to look at the speaker but can't turn his head, something is broken within him. A great many somethings, which have names like spine and ribcage.

"You're going to die, Kenny."

He recognises the voice, he thinks. But from where?

"But I want you to focus on something as you pass."

He can't respond, but he blinks twice to try and convey that he heard. The ground is still very distant, and the voice is coming from his right side. All he can make out is a dark shape, roughly human in form.

"We are all roamers of vast spaces and travelers of many ages."

There is a face within that form, pale and gaunt, dark eyes staring at him with a gentle understanding. Kenny focused on the words, set them standing in the middle of his mind like a statue.

"Close your eyes. Do not die. Instead… Sleep."

Kenny did so, all the while trying to sift the difference between the two states. Death and sleep, how different were they. People called death the final sleep, but how true was that? For him it was truer than most, since he seemed to wake up after each death.

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, in eons untouched by the waking mind."

What was death. What was sleep. What the fuck was happening to him?!

Kenny's eyes flew open, his mouth shot wide drawing in a breath of air that was not there. His body convulsed and he felt himself flying outwards from where he had been drifting. As soon as he shot forward, a hand reached out and snagged him, arresting his momentum and swinging him back around.

His body felt so strange, loose and ashy, like with every movement he was falling apart into dust. As the hand that had grabbed him redirected his body to face him, Kenny saw two things. First, the slim sharp features of the man who had been speaking, with the voice he recognised but could not place. Behind this man, floating in the air like a dead fish, was his body.

The broken and dead body of Kenny McKormick, which begged the question, what body was he in now? As he reflexively looked down, he saw that the answer was not so simple. He didn't appear to have much of a body in the physical sense. He had felt ashy and untethered because he was, his form nothing more than a coalescence of charcoal grey smoke, vaguely grasping at the human shape it had held.

"Let's get ourselves too somewhere less exposed." The British guy said, hands having shifted to rest calmingly on Kenny's incorporeal shoulders. "I will explain everything there."

Dumbly Kenny nodded, words somehow materialising out of him, despite his lack of vocal apparatus. "What the shit."

While the stranger floated over to the two limp bodies, Kenny had time to collect his thoughts. Even further as he followed the stranger on a downward trajectory, the immortal teenager had time aplenty to settle his mind. This was, sadly, nothing especially new. He'd died and found himself in other strange places before. He'd been to Hell, to R'lyeh, to Hawaii. Come to think of it, this place felt eerily similar to one of those.

If only it had been Hawaii. Fuck, he'd take hell. Both of those places at least had luaus.

As he found himself without any pain clouding his mind, Kenny could recall the scenery around him. The spires of spikes, the shimmering almost liquid appearance of the sky, the far-off cyclopean monoliths. It was here. It was R'lyeh, the sleeping city.

It was after they had set down on the ground, the two bodies having been laid out by a twisted natural archway of mossy stone, did Kenny make the connection. Thoughts of sleep, of dreams, a voice he recognised. When the tall, darkly dressed figure turned to look at him once more, Kenny voiced his hypothesis.

"You... you're Morpheus?" Kenny asked, trying to sketch any hint of doubt out of his mind. Despite his desire to maintain a grip on his conviction however, his voice made the words a question.

"I am," Morpheus replied with a calm, assured tone. In the motionless atmosphere of R'lyeh, the middle-aged man's hair floated around his head, creating a wreath of tangled blackness about him. It did not feel as such, but things around him almost behaved as if they were underwater, almost, but not quite. As if committing to something as certain as physics was a tiresome task.

Looking at the seemingly ordinary human across from him, Kenny hesitated for a moment, then confessed. "Going to be honest... I don't have a great track record with Gods."

Morpheus offered a faint smile, his eyes filled with a mixture of understanding and nostalgia. "That's alright. I'm not like the Gods you've encountered before."

Quietness fell between them, a solid bar of awkwardness wedging itself into the conversation. What could he ask, what should he say. Why was the God of Dreams here, what was he, how was Kenny existing outside his body. Eventually he just spewed out the first thing that came to his mind. "So… you come here often?"

Gesturing behind him at the vista of alien geometry, Kenny gave what he hoped was a sarcastic look. Though with this ghostly aspect he didn't exactly know what his face had turned into.

Whether he picked up on the irony, or just ignored it, Kenny couldn't tell. But Morpheus sighed softly, his gaze drifting into the otherworldly distance. "Too often. This time, however, I have come here to see you. Walking these realms has become easier for me than navigating Earth these days."

Surprised by his candid admission, Kenny inquired further, "And why's that?"

Morpheus's expression grew wistful as he confided, "It's strange. I've longed to meet someone like you for so long. And ever since we spoke over the phone at the Hall of Justice…" The guy, whose appearance was more like an interdimensional hobo than a grand cosmic entity, trailed off.

A feeling of satisfied confirmation came over Kenny. "So that was you? And then, the page in Henrietta's book, the one that wasn't supposed to be there."

Morpheus nodded, acknowledging his deduction. "Just a little clue to point you in my direction. It didn't work as I had hoped, but at that point I wasn't entirely certain if our meeting would be a good thing." As seemed to be his default manner, the God sighed wearily, like a man who had never known restful sleep, finishing. "Not that there was much more I could have done."

The weight of his words hung in the air, as Kenny tried to comprehend the significance of their encounter. Small little tidbits of contact, this being reaching out to try and converse with him, perhaps initially at the behest of Kent Nelson.

Kenny's suspicion of the deity lingered; his voice laced with defiance. "Why not just drop me another page, shoot me a text, or friend request or something."

Morpheus's expression remained impassive; his tone measured. "Because I am limited in how much I can affect the waking world. Then, when you found yourself here, I figured why pass the opportunity by?"

The teen had been about to continue on his irritated path, until one word in Morpheus's sentence stalled him. A flicker of confusion sparked within him. "Waking world?"

The God nodded, his gaze steady. "Yes." Between that one word and the rest of Morpheus's speech, dwelt a nearly tangible feeling of tiredness, it prevented Kenny from interrupting with even the barest of noises. "The reason I can dwell here, in places like R'lyeh, is because they are sleeping places. Realms that restlessly drift in oblivion, their eyes shut to the goings-on in the waking world." It was not a thin tiredness however, not a bored gothic despondency. It was the weary voice of a man who can hardly bear the weight of a great burden.

Kenny's skepticism resurfaced as the unreal dimension churned around them, his thoughts evident he said. "Sleeping worlds, waking world... you are saying this stuff... isn't real?"

Pausing, the God chose his words carefully. "Yes, it is not necessarily the truth of the matter, but it is how I choose to perceive it." More of that exhausted pausing, more time to feel the absence of any familiar breeze or wind around them, more time to stew in this alien realm. "I see it this way because I was once human. The world I grew up in, the world I lived a life in. That will always be real to me, for if it becomes a dream, then what am I? If life is but a dream, then on which next nighttime breeze will I be carried away?" The admission that this man, who had awoken his spirit from his body with nothing more than simple instruction, who had found him immediately, here of all places, shocked Kenny. Was the being before him honestly telling the truth? The now ghostly mystic was in such a position that he couldn't tell, more important was a feeling within him. A notion that maybe he wanted to believe this. "That way lies madness, Kenny. R'lyeh cannot be allowed to be real. If that were true, if places like this were the waking real world, it would mean the universe is a nihilism so complete it would become unbearable."

The incorporeal McKormick's cold facade faltered momentarily, his hardened expression softening as he grappled with the weight of Morpheus's words. His conviction wavered as he deliberated on what to say to this. "The waking world is real because it has to be. Otherwise…"

Morpheus's gaze pierced through Kenny, his voice carrying a weight of solemnity. "Otherwise, the universe is not simply uncaring, but so apathetic that it becomes a parody of sanity. A place where simple souls have no purpose but to survive, and that itself is seldom fulfilled. The waking world must remain, in your heart, real. Because if it is not... then the true reality is this…" A pale hand cast out to the side, Morpheus drew Kenny's attention once more to the melting, reforming existence around them. "This formless cosmic soup. This playground of outer Gods. If this is real, you are a dream."

The teenage vigilante shook his head, a hint of exasperation in his voice. "This is too goth for my blood."

Chuckling for the first time, Morpheus's gaze softened, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. "You've died a hundred times over, Kenny. You make it your business to spit in the faces of the Great Old Ones. I'm sorry, but you're goth as shit."

Blinking, he was taken aback by Morpheus's unexpected remark. "Huh... I should stop brooding so much."

Another faint chuckle escaped the apparent Brit, a glimmer of levity in his eyes. "It's not so bad. I find the pathos gives me perspective."

The awkwardness between them fractured and the silence that passed was less of two beings uncertain of the other, and more of two like souls meeting for the first time. With a purposeful look to his eyes, Morpheus continued. "I have more to tell you, Kenny. It's not going to be pleasant. But I'm the only one who can tell you, or rather, the only one who would. And it's important that, as I tell you these truths, you remember what is real."

Kenny's brow furrowed, a hint of concern creeping into his voice. "Do I need to sit down for this?"

Morpheus gestured towards a nearby outcropping of stone. "We might as well."

Floating over to the cliff edge they had chanced upon, Kenny took a seat, bracing himself for what was to come. "Lay it on me, dude." Then a weird feeling came over him, a realisation that caused him to laugh before the God could answer. "Why the fuck do I need to sit down? I'm a freaking ghost!"

Willing himself upwards Kenny found that he could fly, with ease and speed. He turned circles in the air before looking back down. There, Morpheus was watching him with a calm smile, the man having taken the seat to dangle his legs over the precipice they had come to. Floating down to be level with him, Kenny hovered over the infinite expanse of R'lyeh, below him a seemingly endless chasm, teeth made of stone jutting out from the cliff face they had landed atop.

"You've got answers. Kenny asserted, looking the God right in the eye. For his part, he tried to keep the eagerness and anticipation out of his voice.

Peaceful almost lazy eyes looked back at him, before Morpheus took a deep breath, his voice tinged with a mixture of solemnity and compassion as he began to share the unsettling truth.

—?M?—?M?—?M?—

For Dinah, it was hard to believe the young man sat across from her was a supervillain. His boyish features and messy bright blonde hair made him seem far younger than he apparently was. The way he rocked slightly from side to side, nervously twiddling his thumbs also made him seem anything but threatening. His watery blue eyes blinked rapidly as she stepped into the interrogation room, and it was he who was first to speak.

"Is Mysterion okay?"

Tucking a strand of her own blonde locks behind an ear, Dinah smiled as she moved into the room. Standing across the table from this kid, she answered calmly. "We're looking into that, don't worry."

"I didn't mean to really hurt him, oh geez, I'm sorry." The panic in his eyes was like a kid caught stealing from the cookie jar. "Is the other one okay too? The one I hit, he looked fine, but I um, passed out."

"Superboy is fine, that much we know for sure. He's tough, don't worry." Dinah took her own seat across from him, placing the folder she was carrying down on the shiny metal surface of the table.

"I'm really sorry, Mrs. Black Canary." At his address of her, Dinah could barely help a small smile. "I get carried away and-and-and I don't think."

With a reassuring nod, Dinah continued. "That's quite alright, now let's talk a bit about what happened, is that ok?"

"Right, uh, can I ask one more thing first though?" He ventured, raising a finger into the air like he was a kid in school, anxious to ask a question. With a nod from her he continued. "Where am I?"

Her response was calm and even, her tone meant to put his obvious nerves at ease. "You're in the custody of the Justice League."

"I saw the room where we came in." The boy rambled. "We're underground somewhere, aren't we? Some big cave?" To answer she just gave him a small smile, one he returned with a dopey grin of his own. "I just want to make sure I'm safe, in case, you know, in case they try to come get me." The real fear she saw in his eyes softened her opinion of him further. It was becoming clear to her that this young man was not a voluntary part of the operation the team had uncovered. How could he be, she had never before seen a villain so sweet and innocent.

Leaning forward she held eye contact with him and spoke. "Whoever they are, they won't be able to get you here."

The boy gulped awkwardly and simply said. "Ok."

Spreading her papers out before her, Dinah began. "Now, if we're going to help you, we're going to need to know who you are. Let's start with your name."

"I'd rather wait for my lawyer."

There was no shift in tone from the boy, but his bluntness stumped her. "Excuse me?"

"My lawyer?" His head cocked to the side quizzically. "If I'm under arrest and stuff."

"We can get in contact with your lawyer, just give us your name and a number to call." She replied, sitting back in her chair and starting to reappraise the kid sat before her.

He shook his head, blonde hair wobbling from side to side. "Nah that's alright, I'll just call them myself."

Blonde hair, blue eyes, outwardly goofy but hiding a clever mind. He almost looked a little like Green Arrow, maybe a little like her as well. She could almost believe, looking at this kid that he would be what her and Ollie's son would look like.

He blinked at her, that slightly distant expression still present on his face. "Butters, is it?" She tried.

Another curiously blank blink back at her. "Who's Butters?"

"That's what Mysterion called you, right?" She pointed to him with a pen, prompting him to deepen his answers.

"Oh, no. Butters was a twerpy little kid who people always took for granted, underestimated. I'm not him." There was no blinking all of a sudden, his eyes were fixed quite unerringly on her. Something had happened behind those eyes, or rather, something was still happening. Though it was impossible to tell what. Was he really as innocent as he first seemed, was he really a cunning villain, was he both, neither. "I'm Professor Chaos." An unwavering gaze, Dinah felt pinned. "Is my lawyer allowed inside this cave?" He broke the staring contest, looking around the interrogation room with a clueless tilt to his features.

Dinah felt a frown crease her brow, she cut to the chase. "Butters we're not trying to 'get' you, we just want to know what your plans were in the temple, what happened to the monks of Azarath, and who you are working for."

"Huh, you want to know a lot of stuff then. And I want my lawyer, so…" He trailed off, biting his lip awkwardly. "Could, um, could I have a glass of water as well, please?" He sounded so damn genuine, of all interrogations Dinah had ever conducted, she had never seen someone quite like him. Was it because he was so young, because of the resemblance, or because he just seemed too honest. "M-Mrs. Black Canary?"

Dinah realised that as he talked, she had been staring daggers into him, her face unmoving as stone. She broke that stone and sighed, getting up with a nod. "I'll go and see about that."

—?M?—?M?—?M?

"Black Canary looks pissed." Robin whispered, jabbing Kid Flash in the side.

The duo were joined in the lounge area of the cave by Artemis and Aqualad. Superboy and Miss Martian having gone with Raven to help her settle in. It had been little more than two hours they'd been back, and in that time a lot had happened. Batman and Black Canary had been waiting for them upon their return and following a debrief Batman had made several quick decisions after consulting with Canary. For the time being Raven was to stay at Mt. Justice with M'gann and Superboy. It seemed like a good choice to Robin, given how powerful it turned out she was, it made sense to keep her somewhere safe, secure, and with plenty of other powerful people in arms reach. Raven was hard to read but given that she'd barely left M'gann's side made Robin smile and reassured him that she'd definitely enjoy her new living situation.

Raven's reassignment had been perhaps the quickest decision they came to, followed in short order by a call for backup. Given that they had returned without Mysterion it was decided that more specialised assistance was required. Robin didn't know who they were calling in, but he and the Team certainly had their suspicions. Odds were in favour of Kent Nelson showing up, with an added bet that he turned out to be Mysterion's mentor.

Following that, Professor Chaos had been locked away in one of their security rooms, until he could be dealt with by the adults. The decision coming last only because it was at that point that the unconscious villain had woken up. It was just five minutes ago that Canary had gone into the security room to question him, and it surprised the three of them to see her emerge so soon after, and with an expression that was a little too controlled.

"Think he was giving her trouble?" Artemis said, lips pursed in contemplation.

"He didn't seem the type." Mused Robin, propping his head up on his hands.

"Guy was hard to get a read on. One moment he seemed all evil and zappy, next he was like all 'wha-wha-what?! Weird." With a barely accurate impersonation, the redheaded speedster looked at them all with an open expression of confusion.

"He said he was Mysterion's nemesis, and they both knew each other. Like, knew each other's secret identities." With a significant look sent to each of them, Artemis guessed. "Maybe he's the real deal."

Kaldur nodded, their leader looking contemplative, but like with all of them showing hints of tiredness. The mission had been anything but easy and they were running on fumes. "He was powerful as well. With one blast he managed to send Superboy across the room."

"That did overcharge him though, guy hit the deck after that." Robin recalled, running the battle over in his mind for the umpteenth time.

"Speaking of Supes, where are those guys? They've been gone for a while." Wally mulled, looking around the space.

"I'll go look for them." Artemis sighed, getting up and walking away into the depths of their hideout.

Perking up, Robin chimed. "I'll come with, I wanna make sure Raven's happy with her new room. You two comm me if anyone shows up." With the added comment to Wally and Kaldur, the Boy Wonder chased after the blonde archer.

It was in Superboy's room that they came upon the rather adorable sight. On one side of the room a television played static, and opposite from the display the three superpowered teenagers were laid out. Rather than lean against a bed, or bean bag, or pile of cushions as most teens might, the trio were instead nestled up against a giant gerbil. A purring sound not dissimilar to an idling motorbike emitted from the huge furball, who thanks to his size took up most of the wall but had admirably stretched himself out to avoid taking up a solid quarter of the floor space.

Sat in-between Superboy and M'gann, Raven was resting her head back against the giant rodent, hood pulled down over her head. Beneath the dark purple cloak however, Robin and Artemis could see her placid face as she dozed peacefully.

The other two had smiles on their faces, and the Martian herself looked about halfway to sleep as well. Superboy looked up as they entered. "Hey." He said simply. "Anything?"

A look was shared between Robin and Artemis, a cheeky smirk that was soon hidden as they wrestled with the desire to coo at the cute trio resting together. "Nah." Robin said with a shake of the head. "Just wanted to see if Rae was settling in okay. How is she?"

"She was… pretty upset." With a movement that was half morose sigh and half exhausted yawn, M'gann shifted slightly. "We tried to distract her, even picked out her room, but there's not much there."

"Nothing about Mysterion?" Superboy pressed again, his eyes going to Raven's sleeping face.

The four of them stilled in worry, the disappearance of Mysterion under such strange and frightening circumstances having shaken them. Sadly, they were all in the position where there was nothing, they could do but wait.

"Still waiting." Robin said, his voice calm but dulled from tiredness.

"We'll let you sleepyheads get some rest." Artemis finalised, grabbing Robin by the arm and dragging him away.

—?M?—?M?—?M?—

A/N: This chapter begins something that is really taking me some effort to get right. That being Kenny and Dream in R'lyeh. My god, it's tricky, getting everything in order how I have envisioned it for so long. When I sit down to write long bits of dialogue, I basically just write out the speech without adding in any prose unless it really strikes me. First draft for me is just about getting the meat of the conversation out there, then drafting again I edit the talk to make it sound more believable and in-character. Then comes the prose. All that to say, when I started working on this chapter I had 1600 words of dialogue alone, just between Kenny and Dream. Needless to say, I had to split it up into separate chapters. The next one will probably be a little while coming, but as I said I've got most of the dialogue written down, it's just getting it right that's the tough part. Finding a way to do exposition in an interesting way as well, which I've got ideas for, they'll just take time to write. This chapter is very much part 1 of a larger piece, which you can expect to come once it's ready. Answers, powers, dreams, mythos, all kinds of crazy business! In a way I kind of had to write the Butters bit and the team section just to break up the main bulk. Anyway, I hope you liked it! Let me know your thoughts and theories in a review,

Oh, and the start is not me losing my grip on sanity, it was just some perspective shifting to try and make R'lyeh feel different, to set the chapter off with even the style of writing letting you know that things are getting weird here.

Announcement for anyone interested in more of my writing. I HAVE A NEW STORY! Exciting. It's another South Park crossover, this time with my Hero Academia, so more superhero stuff, if you like this story I'm sure you'll like that one too. It's very different in tone though and has none of the mythos in it, so it's more light-hearted, has way more South Park cast in it, and it's been a real fun break from this. It's helped me get back my writing motivation tbh, so I'd love it if you checked that out and left a review. I'll be alternating this story and that one to keep me fresh, and since my update schedule is non-existent it shouldn't be affected lol.

Another announcement/promotion here as well. This story is being translated - very kindly I might add - into Spanish by user Ayerdehoy. You'll be able to find it through their profile, or in the crossover section I'm sure. So if Spanish is your native language, I'm happy to say Ayerdehoy will have that in a more easy to read format come 30th July! Won't lie that it also feels like an awesome milestone for this story, what with it going over 100,000 words as well!

Last thing I swear, I also made a minor edit to chapter 25, just a continuity thing that I explain in that chapters author's note. It's worth a re-read I think, since I added some more prose to it.

Thanks for reading and for staying with this story over the literal years I've been writing it, I appreciate every single one of you reading right now!

- Faff