A/N: Set a few months after Chapter 75 Training.
"Come on...I...I can take another hit," Rex huffed, blood slowly trickling down from his split lip, before squaring up once more. "Mom come on," he beckoned for Shayera to continue. She had been working with him to develop his endurance, sparring with him in long drawn out bouts. If he were being honest, Rex could hardly stand from his exhaustion at this point. His legs threatened to buckle at any time and his arms felt like Jell-O. Even so, he tightened his clenched fists and smirked, trying to reassure the Thanagarian before him. "I'm still standing Mom. I barely felt that last punch."
Shayera bit her lip. She raised her fists reluctantly, growing more and more anxious at the sight of Rex's blood. She quickly flew at him and shut her eyes just as she threw a punch towards his chest. Rex's eyes widened as Shayera's right fist crashed into him. He couldn't have dodged it even if he wanted to. He flew across the room and slammed against the wall.
Slowly lifting himself off of the floor, Rex sat up and clenched his chest, painful gasps racking his body. Numbly, he looked up to see Shayera kneeling next to him, traces of fear and worry in her eyes. Rex sighed and stumbled to his feet, refusing any help from his mother as he did so. He lightly shook his head, biting back the pain he felt throughout his body, "It's okay...I'm fine. We can keep going and-"
"Fine?" Shayera immediately scowled as she narrowed her eyes. "You think that you're fine? Dammit Rex! You can barely stand!" Shayera then closed her eyes as she slowly inhaled, fighting to remain calm. She knew better than to allow her temper to get the better of her, especially when it came to either of her children. The two knew how to test her patience to its limit. They were both confident to the point of arrogance; with Shayera silently cursing the fact they both got that trait from her. The Thanagarian opened her eyes as she deeply exhaled, "At least take a break and go ice some of those bruises."
Letting out an exasperating sigh, Rex rolled his eyes, "Oh come on Mom, it's not that bad. I can stand and I-"
"And you're way over your head," Shayera cut him off. "Just be realistic Rex. It's clear that you're pushing yourself too far."
Rex just frowned and clenched his fists. His mother probably didn't think he noticed but he knew that she was still going easy on him. He saw the way she pulled her punches. The way she purposely didn't try to block some of his hits. The way some of her punches just happened to miss him. Rex saw all of it. He highly doubted a military lieutenant with so many decades of combat experience under her belt would fight that sloppy. Honestly he was slightly offended that she wasn't giving any of these sparring matches her all.
It almost felt like he was five-years-old again and his mother was teaching him some minimal self-defense moves. Back then he was just learning how to properly form a fist and punch without hurting himself. Back then his mother humored him and pretended his punches hurt when they hit her palms. Back then he was just a little boy who thought it was all a game.
Maybe that was the problem. She still regarded him as that little kid. The same little kid who would cry over the smallest of papercuts and would need to be coddled by his mother to make everything better. The one who would get beat up by his sister whenever they play fought. The one who got pushed around at school and needed his sister to come to his rescue.
Rex then paused. That wasn't it. There was another reason.
It was because of his sister.
The same sister who was older but smaller than him. Despite him being physically stronger than her, Emma was faster and had an all around better fighting technique than him. The very few times Shayera had persuaded Emma to even spar with her, Rex could see the difference in the way the fights would go versus when she sparred with him. Shayera didn't hold back against Emma like she did with him. It was as if she wasn't afraid that she could hurt Emma. She had confidence in Emma.
The same confidence he wished that she had in him.
Rex's gaze shifted to the ground as his frown deepened, "You don't think I can do this, do you?"
His sudden question surprised the Thanagarian and she didn't immediately respond. Instead Shayera bit her lower lip as she looked away. It wasn't that she didn't believe in Rex, it was the fact that she knew what was in store for him. If this whole destiny thing was coming to fruition than he was going to be Warhawk one way or another. According to John himself, Warhawk had her strength. What was worrying Shayera was that she still hadn't seen that level of strength come from her son. He was nowhere close to being as strong as she was. His fighting technique was still sloppy and he didn't have a raw talent for it. She was worried that he wouldn't be able to fight out there. That he would get hurt or even killed.
His mother's lack of a response was more than enough for him. Rex gritted his teeth as he lightly glared at his mother, "Why can't you answer my question?"
Shayera slowly swallowed. She wasn't used to Rex being angry at her. It was the norm for her daughter to be angry at her. She actually couldn't recall a time where Rex was ever angry with her.
"Mom!" His sudden and angry voice broke her out of her train of thought. "Answer my question!"
Before she could even stop herself, Shayera found that the words just spilled right out of her mouth, "Half of my body's ripped apart and you can't even beat me in a fight. And you think you'll be able to take on supervillains?"
Rex found himself scowling, "Oh but I'm sure if this was Emma than you'd be perfectly fine with going on. You'd have no problem-"
"At least Emma can fight," Shayera wanted to punch herself as soon as the words had left her mouth. As much as she didn't want to admit it, there was truth behind her words. Comparing the two of them, Shayera knew Emma had more natural talent when it came to fighting than Rex did. Emma had that innate drive for battle that Rex didn't. The issue was that this supposed destiny dictated that Rex was fated to be Warhawk, not Emma. The Thanagarian sighed, "Rex...I...I didn't mean it like that."
"No, you did mean it," Rex continued to scowl at her. "Everything I do is never as good as what Emma can do. That's the problem. To you she's smarter than me, she can fight better than me, hell you probably think she'd make a better superhero than me."
Shayera growled under her breath as she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Rex that's not true."
"Of course it is," Rex argued. "Why don't you just train her to be a superhero instead since she's so much better than me? Oh wait, that's right, you're forcing her to go to college instead. Do you even care that she doesn't want to do that?"
Shayera groaned in frustration, "Of course I care Rex but you're the one who wanted to be a superhero. You begged me to train you."
"Emma wanted to be a superhero too," Rex pointed out.
"When she was a kid. All Emma wants to do nowadays is go beat people up in an illegal fight club," Shayera rolled her eyes. The Thanagarian hated that those things called YouTube and TikTok even existed. Though she was impressed that her daughter learned how to fight by just watching videos alone and was able to apply it to actual combat. "That's hardly being a hero. She's lucky she isn't in jail after that stunt she pulled."
"Do you even realize how much she hates college?" Rex asked her.
"Please," Shayera rolled her eyes once more. "She can't wait to transfer out-of-state so that she won't have to be around me anymore. Plus being in college is keeping her out of trouble for the most part."
"But she's not happy and it doesn't look like you even care about that. No wonder why Emma hates you," Rex blurted out before wincing at his own words.
Shayera's eyes momentarily widened at his statement before they slowly narrowed into a glare. She then snarled through gritted teeth as she stormed towards the door, fists clenched at her sides.
"Stupid, damn idiot...never should have said that to Mom," Rex muttered into his pillow as he pounded his fist into his bed. The half-Thanagarian had immediately went to his room in the Metro Tower after what had happened in the gym. He knew trying to talk to his mother right now would get him nowhere. She needed time to cool off. If anything they'd probably end up in another argument with each other.
A loud knock echoed throughout the room, resonating from the metal door. Rex could only groan at the sound. He was in no mood to speak to anyone about anything.
"Rex, you can't stay in there forever," he could hear his father's voice on the other side of the door. He could also hear that he sounded annoyed. He knew that his father didn't like being used as a buffer between them and their mother. It was unfortunately not uncommon for his father to have to breakup most arguments that his sister and mother got into.
"Go away!" Rex called out as he lifted his head off of the pillow by an inch before dropping it back down with a grunt.
Not even five seconds later did Rex hear the metal door hiss open followed by foot steps. At least his father was alone and didn't bring his mother with him. Though he had a feeling that his mother didn't want to see him so soon after what he had said. Rex let out an exasperated sigh as he got up and sat on the edge of the bed. John apparently took that as an invitation as he sat next to him. Rex let out another sigh, knowing full well that his father wouldn't leave that room no matter what.
"So," John began as he glanced over to Rex. "You wanna talk about what happened?"
"It's just," Rex let out a frustrated huff. "I don't know. It's like Mom doesn't believe in me at all. She doesn't think I can do this whole superhero thing."
"Rex, that's not what your mother thinks," John said to him. "She's just...concerned is all. She wants the best for you and you're not exactly going into the safest line of work. You know that."
"She doesn't act like it though. With the way she acts you'd think I've never fought a day in my life," Rex replied with a frown. "It's like I'm just a kid that needs to be protected all the time. I'm not a kid anymore Dad."
"We know that Rex," John sighed. "It's embarrassing to hear but you have to try to understand it from a parent's point of view. To us, we'll always see both of you like that no matter how old you are. Especially when it comes to your mother. You know how much she loves both of you."
"I know that but she doesn't need to baby me," Rex sighed. "She doesn't baby Emma. Why doesn't Mom treat Emma like that? Why does Mom always act like Emma is better than me? Mom said it herself. Compared to me, Emma can fight. Why is she even bothering to train me?"
John was silent for a moment. He debated whether he should say what he was about to. Though he figured it really wouldn't hurt anything at this point. He also figured it could help Rex understand things.
"Look this is going to be somewhat complicated to explain," John stated. "A long time ago your Uncle Bruce and I went on a League mission. It involved time travel."
Rex tilted his head slightly, "Time travel?"
John lightly nodded, "Yeah we went fifty years into the future. To say the least we saw some things."
Rex gave John a sly smirk, "What an old version of Mom?"
John rolled his eyes, "No and I'm being serious here Rex."
Rex held his hands up, "Sorry, sorry just kidding."
"While we were there I met a superhero," John faltered for a brief moment. He figured he should at least not say the name Warhawk in case it did create some type of time paradox. He knew that the Rex that he met had come up with that name one way or another. He figured that his son would similarly come up with that name as well. "That hero was you."
"Me?" Rex's eyes widened. "So you met a future version of me and I was superhero?"
John nodded, "Yeah and I eventually told your mother about you. I think the problem Shayera has is that she's comparing the seasoned superhero I had met with the teenager she's training. I honestly believe that Shayera just believed that you'd naturally be able to be a superhero without much training. She's just afraid that the future laid out for us isn't going to pan out like it's supposed to. She doesn't want you to get hurt or killed by doing something you can't do."
"But that's what being a hero is about," Rex stated as he looked down. "You guys risk your lives to save people everyday. It's not like I don't know what I'm signing up for. I know the risk I'm taking. I get it now why Mom acts the way she does. So I'm guessing Emma wasn't a superhero then and that's why you guys forced her to go to college?"
John swallowed as he scratched the back of his head, "Um about that...your sister...she didn't exist in that timeline. At least as far as I know. All I know was that you were the superhero. We thought it would be for the best to try to get Emma to live a normal life. We're trying to keep her out of trouble Rex."
"But she's really good at fighting," Rex argued. "She likes to fight. She'd be good at the whole hero thing."
"Being good at fighting and liking to fight doesn't make someone a superhero," John countered with a light frown. "Bad guys know how to fight as well and your sister doesn't exactly have the best morals either."
Rex sighed as he shrugged, "I guess you're right. You knew all the time what I was supposed to do growing up but not when it came to Emma. So I guess it makes sense what you and Mom are doing."
"And it's not that we don't think either of you is better than the other," John sighed. "Your mother is harder on you because she knew that you were going to be a superhero one day. She doesn't think that Emma is better than you. She's just pushing you to be the best that you can be."
"Then why does she go easy on me? That isn't going to push me to be better," Rex replied in an annoyed tone. "If anything that's not going to get me ready for anything. Except for getting my ass kicked. She's so worried that I won't be able to be this superhero she heard about but at the same time she won't fight me seriously."
John sighed once more, "Goes back to what I said earlier. I thought that people were exaggerating when they said that mothers always see their kids as babies no matter how old they are. I especially didn't think Shayera would be like that but I can tell you that I was proven wrong. The way she looks at both of you is like when you were first born. She's afraid of seeing either of you get hurt and she doesn't want to be the person who hurts you at the same time. That's why it's so hard for her to train you. She's trying to see you as that superhero I told her about while ignoring the fact that you're still her son." John then paused for a moment before continuing, "She also has to contend with the fact that you aren't as strong as her. Don't get me wrong Rex, you're a lot stronger than a human but you aren't as strong as a full-blooded Thanagarian. Your mother sees that every single day and has to remind herself that she could seriously hurt you if she's not careful."
"But it's not like the bad guys are going to go easy on me. I rather Mom beat the shit out of me now so that I'm used to it by the time I'm ready to go out there," Rex stated with a light frown. "But I get it now. I didn't think about it like that. I know how much Mom loves us and I get it now how hard this has to be for her to do this."
John swallowed, "It's also Shayera's fear that you'll end up like her. She doesn't want to see you go out there and get yourself mangled. You know how hard that was for her to get over. She already told me before that she doesn't know what she'll do if something ever happened to you. With this job it's a reality we have to live with."
"I know that," Rex quietly replied. "I know I was only eight but I understood back then what happened. I'm not going to let anything happen to me, at least for Mom's sake."
John lightly nodded as he patted the back of Rex's shoulder before standing, "I know you won't. I'm going to talk to your mother again. You also might want to ice those bruises she gave you. We don't need your teachers at school thinking we're beating you or something."
Rex snickered, "Well technically Mom is."
John let out an exasperated sigh as he rolled his eyes, "Smartass, just like your mother."
An hour had hardly passed before Rex had heard another knock on the door. He figured it was either his father again or this time it was Emma. Though he had his doubts over his sister openly showing that she cared.
Wordlessly, Rex got off of his bed with a low, pained groan. No sooner the door had opened did Rex's upper body get pulled down in a hug. At first Rex was too stunned to process what had happened. Then his brain slowly began to function again. Once he comprehended who was standing in front of him, Rex slowly wrapped his arms around his mother.
"I'm sorry," Rex was shocked to hear her apologize. He honestly felt like she had no need to. Shayera's tone was quiet and downcasted. "I'm sorry what I said to you. I never should have said any of that to you. I didn't mean it Rex."
Rex swallowed as he tightened his arms around her, "I'm sorry too Mom. Dad explained things to me about all of that future stuff and I get why this is so hard for you to do. I promise that I won't let anything happen to me. You have my word Mom."
Shayera finally let go of him with a deep sigh as she took a step back, "I've heard that one before."
"Yeah from Uncle Wally," Rex quietly mumbled. "But I'm not going to let that happen to me. I'm not going to let myself get killed Mom."
Shayera let out another sigh as she looked down, "I don't need that to happen to you too Rex. It was hard enough to lose Wally. I honestly don't know what I'd do if anything happened to either you or Emma."
"Well," Rex began with a small smirk, trying to lighten the mood. "You'd probably start by murdering whoever did manage to kill us."
Shayera snorted back a laugh, "Damn straight I would." Shayera lightly placed her hand on Rex's arm. "Now, no more apologizing. That's not going to help you in the long run. I didn't see what I was doing to you before but I know better now. Tomorrow we start this all over again and this time I'll try my hardest to not go easy on you anymore." Shayera then hugged him again, "I love you Rex. No matter how hard I am on you going forward, don't ever forget that."
Rex hugged her back, "I know Mom. I love you too."
After a moment, Shayera let him go with a smirk, "And go take a shower Rex. You reek of sweat."
Rex groaned as he felt his cheeks burn, "Mom!"