Thank you to Aragorn II Elessar for some suggestions with this chapter.

TW: Thank you. Glad to hear it. Indeed.

In a flash of purple light, Oliver, Clark and Brainiac appeared in what seemed to be a graveyard. Oliver looked around in bewilderment as Clark followed after Brainiac.

"I'm not sure if you're a ghost from my past or the darkness Jor-El warned me about, but this will come to an end," Clark said hotly as Oliver followed after them.

"Who is this guy?" Oliver asked.

"I'm known as the Brian Interactive Construct. On Krypton, I was the mainframe by which all technology was run through. Similar to Tony Stark's JARVIS, I suppose you could say, on a much grander scale," Brainiac explained.

"Krypton?" Oliver echoed.

"My home planet, but he's telling you half the story. He turned on us, and he's been nothing but trouble since he showed up on Earth," Clark said angrily as he stepped in Brainiac's path. "You helped unleash Zod from the Phantom Zone. You trapped Kara there. You tried to destroy Chloe; you tried to destroy the world."

"And you saved me from all of that, Kal-El," Brainiac said holding up his hand and Clark noticed a familiar ring on his ring. "I've come back to do the same for you."

"Legion," Clark said, all kinds of horrible scenarios running through his head. "You're from the future? What'd you do them?"

"He joined us."

The trio turned around, seeing a blond haired woman standing a few feet away.

"Kal-El, Mr. Queen, allow me to introduce Olivia Jones, Leader of the Legion," Brainiac said.

"What the Hell is the Legion?" Oliver demanded, out of patience and tired of being confused.

"The Legion of Superheroes. A group of heroes - Mutant, Alien, Human and everything in between –about a thousand years in the future, Oliver Queen," Olivia said, looking at him with a look Oliver couldn't describe. "We were inspired by heroes of your time, none greater than the two of you."

"She serious?" Oliver asked Clark in disbelief.

"I've had encounters with the Legion before, although I can't see why they'd let someone like Brainiac join," Clark said with a distrustful look at Brainiac.

"With him in the state you left him in last time, it was easy for us to strip away Zod's sabotage and return Brainiac to his original programing," Olivia assured him.

"In the 31st century, I'm known as Brainiac 5. The Ring, time travel, all my creations. I've brought the Legion into a new realm of heroism," Brainiac explained.

"Really?" Clark asked, looking at Olivia in disbelief.

"Sometimes, someone just needs the right person to show them the way," Olivia said with a smile. "As I recall, you used to believe that, Kal-El. When did you stop?"

Clark opened and closed his mouth but nothing came out. Oliver, seeing Clark was momentarily speechless, spoke up.

"Why are you here?"

"For the two of you. History says that Darkseid falls in battle to the two of you. But in the state you are now, the two of you can't stop Darkseid. So we're here to help you," Olivia said as she walked over to Oliver, looking at Brainiac meaningfully before glancing back at Oliver. "As Brainiac 5 said, this is the moment where your lives change forever."

Then, in a flash of light, Oliver and Oliva vanished, to Clark's disbelief.

"What happened? Where are they?" Clark demanded.

"Calm down, Kal-El. Like she said, we're here to help you. Trust me, Oliva knows what she's doing," Brainiac said confidently.

Oliver and Olivia appeared standing on top water, seemingly in the middle of the ocean. Glancing down, Oliver saw to his belief that they were standing on it as though it was hardwood floor.

"What's happening? Where are we?" Oliver demanded.

"The past," Olivia said simply. "You remember your encounter with Adrian Chase earlier this night?"

Oliver was unable to stop the grimace that crossed his face as the memory of his encounter with Chase flashed through his mind. Seeing the answer on his face, Olivia nodded.

"Had Darkseid taken you over tonight, all would be lost, history forever changed. I cannot allow this to happen again. You have allowed your guilt to consume you, which has left you vulnerable to Darkseid. The only way to fix that is to force you to confront your guilt head on."

Almost as if in answer, the sound of a gun shot rang out. Oliver looked up and paled, seeing a familiar lifeboat near them. Inside were two passengers, both very familiar to him.

"Dad?" his past self, eight years younger and far less burdened with pain and guilt, stared horrified at his father, who looked at him for a long moment, a gun clutched in his hand.

"Survive," Robert said before putting the gun to his head.

Oliver turned away as the shot rang out, unable to watch.

"Why did you bring me here? I don't want to see this," Oliver said, looking anywhere but at the lifeboat.

"Because this is the moment that has defined your life for the last eight years, the source of all your guilt, Oliver. You blame yourself. For your father's death, and everything that has happened since," Olivia pointed out.

"Why wouldn't I? It was my fault he did this. If I had never been there…" Oliver trailed off but he didn't need to continue.

"Do you think your father could have survived what you have? Fyers, Ivo, Slade, Hong Kong, Russia, Stryker, Hydra? Do you think your father could have survived as you did?" Olivia asked and Oliver was silent. "You know the truth, deep in your heart. Whether or not you were or weren't on that lifeboat, your father would never have survived to return home."

"Then why do I feel otherwise?" Oliver wondered out loud.

"You're a son who outlived his father in the cruelest way possible. It's natural that you want to find some way of believing that your father would still be alive," Olivia said gently. "But you need to let go of your guilt. And not just about your father. There's more you need to see."

"The problem is, you and I are not that different, Kal-El," Brainiac told Clark, who looked at him in disbelief. "We were both created, in one way or another by Jor-El. Both intended to save civilizations, to bring peace to a brutal world. But neither of us…is immune to corruption, to darkness."

"What does that mean? All of the sudden, everyone's telling me that I have a darkness in me. But I don't know how to understand or change it. You destroyed cities," Clark pointed out angrily. "I may not always make the right decisions, but at least I'm trying to save the world."

"Then let me show you, Kal-El. We can't always see it within ourselves," Brainiac offered. "My corruption started with a nanobyte. Smaller than the eye can see, but that's all it took."

Brainiac walked a foot away and the scene changed behind him. Clark stared in shocked at a younger version of himself, dressed in a suit, staring down at a grave as he dropped dirt on it.

"My father's funeral," Clark said after a moment, staring at the scene. "If you're trying to save me somehow, why show me this?"

"Because this was a defining moment for you, perhaps thee defining moment. The moment you started to blame yourself," Brainiac said once Clark turned to face him.

"Why wouldn't I? I chose to change fate, it was my fault he died," Clark argued.

"Was it?" Brainiac asked cryptically.

Brainiac started walking off and Clark followed him before the scene changed. They were at the barn on the farm and Clark stared in shock at seeing Jonathan toss Lionel Luthor across the room.

"Dad?"

"I won't let you destroy my family," Jonathan sneered as he made his way over to Lionel. "We can withstand anything you rain down on us…because we have each other. That's what will always separate the Kents from the Luthors. Now why don't you get…"

As Jonathan paused, in obvious pain, Clark tried to rush to him. But Brainiac put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"You can't change his fate, Kal-El."

"He was just protecting me," Clark protested.

"And that was his choice. Whether it happens on this day or any other day, Jonathan set his own destiny into motion. You know that. You just won't let yourself believe it," Brainiac said as Clark walked Jonathan stumble out of the farm, the headlights signaling the arrival of Clark and Martha on this night. "Why won't you forgive yourself?"

"He didn't have a choice. He's my father, of course he'd sacrifice anything to protect me," Clark snapped.

"We all have a choice, Kal-El. Your father didn't have to care for you the way he did. But still, he made that choice every day he was with you. He chose to be your protector. Just as you've chosen to be the Earth's protector," Brainiac pointed out. "Nobody forced that on you. But you've embraced it. We all choose our own fate."

Metropolis

Chloe brought security footage of Watchtower just before Oliver and Clark vanished. They all watched, seeing that Oliver and Clark appeared to just vanish into thin air.

"They can't have just vanished," Sara protested.

"Well whatever happened, I don't smell anything," Logan said as he sniffed the air.

"I'm running facial recognition across Metropolis, but nothing so far," Chloe announced.

"I'll head back, see if the Professor has something that can track them down," Logan offered and Chloe nodded.

"Lois, you should probably go with him. Magneto tried to take out the General tonight," Chloe said with a glance at her cousin, who started.

"My dad? Is he okay?"

"He's fine; we got him hauled up in a hotel. But you might want to check on him, I think he'd like to see you," Chloe said and Lois looked thoughtful for a moment.

At the hotel, Lane was staring out the window, deep in thought when someone walked up behind him.

"Can't sleep?" Lane looked over to see Ororo had walked up behind him.

"My mind's racing too much to sleep," Lane answered and she smiled tightly.

"I know how that feels," Ororo said and a beat passed. "Thinking about what the Professor said?"

"Yeah," Lane admitted, seeing no point in hiding the truth. "He certainly has a way of making you look at things."

"He always does," Ororo agreed. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking…that as much as I want to find fault in his logic, he's right. While not all vigilantes have the same honor as Steve Rogers and The Flash, punishing all Enhanced is wrong. Which means I can't support The Accords, even if they keep people like Lehnsherr in line," Lane sighed.

"They never kept him in line, they just proved his point. You wanna fight Magneto? You can't do it by fighting his way," Ororo told him and Lane looked thoughtful.

"You might be right. What separates us from him is how we chose to fight. And I have a feeling I'm gonna make a lot of people angry with how I choose to fight," Lane said, staring out the window, knowing what he had to do tomorrow.

When they next appear somewhere, Oliver found himself standing in a darkened room, watching a scene that had been burned into his nightmares for years. His part self, Sara and Shado were kneeling in front of a wounded Slade Wilson. Oliver was holding the Mirakuru.

"This can either save you or kill you," Oliver's past self told Slade.

"From the looks on your faces, I'm dying anyway," Slade said gruffly.

"Why are you showing me this?" Oliver asked, looking away, knowing what happened next. "Slade is dead."

"But his ghost still haunts you," Olivia pointed out and Oliver barked out a humorless laugh.

"Well, that tends to happen when you kill someone who used to be your best friend, all over events you set in motion," Oliver said darkly.

"It was Slade's choice to be injected with the Mirakuru, you saw it," Olivia pointed out.

"He only got hurt because he was trying to save me. Which he always did," Oliver said in guilt.

"Would you have done any differently for Tommy Merlyn or Roy Harper?" Olivia asked and Oliver was silent. "Slade didn't have to try to save you; he could have left you to get yourself killed. But he cared about you too much to let you die. You were his brother. What do you think Slade Wilson, before the Mirakuru of course, would say if he were in my place?"

"He'd probably kick my ass for trying to take responsibility for his choices," Oliver said after a moment of thought, finally acknowledging it.

Slade had always taken responsibility, never letting Oliver or Shado take the blame for things he felt were his fault.

"If Slade himself wouldn't let you blame yourself, why are you?" Olivia asked and Oliver didn't have an answer.

The conversation was interrupted by a wail of pain. Oliver looked over, seeing Slade thrashing, tears of blood pouring from his eyes. Something about the scene causes words to erupt from Oliver.

"The Slade Wilson I knew died the moment he was injected with Mirakuru. Shado or not, he would've still turned on us. Deathstroke was right: I didn't kill Slade Wilson, the Mirakuru did," Oliver said, surprised to find tears falling from his eyes.

"It's good that you acknowledge that, Oliver. But that's still only one part of this. There's still so much more to see," Olivia said gently.

The scene changed in a flash of light and Oliver paled, seeing himself in a rundown clinic, holding Bobbi as she sobbed into his chest.

Of all the things she had to show him, why did it have to be this?

"I don't want to talk about this," Oliver said, his voice trembling slightly as Olivia looked at him in compassion.

"I know, Oliver. But you need to. You lost a child, the guilt consumes you," Olivia said gently.

"How can it not? I should have done something, I should have-"

"What could you have done, Oliver? There was no way for you to know that Richard Dragon was Hydra, that he give up the location of your safe house to Kovar," Olivia pointed out. "There are many people to blame, but you are not one of them."

"Then why do I feel like this?!" Oliver exclaimed angrily, at his wit's end with Olivia's games.

"You're a father who lost a child, in the cruelest, most brutal way possible. It's a difficult thing to accept. But you have to let go, for the sake of those around you as much as yourself," Olivia said gently.

There was another flash and the scene changed again. This time it was at City Hall, Moira was on the phone.

"What? This-this isn't the past," Oliver realized.

"No, it's the present. This very moment, in fact," Olivia explained.

"Yes, I'm aware Councilman. Yes, I know I promised you a meeting, but I'm swamped. We'll have to reschedule. My sincerest apologies."

From the look on his mother's face, Oliver didn't need to hear to know the Councilman had hung up. Moira put the phone down, pinching the bridge of her nose before the door opened and Thea walked in.

"Hey, Roy and Mr. Diggle are waiting downstairs for us," Thea said before pausing as she took in her mother. "Mom, you okay?"

"I had a meeting with Councilman Kullens. I…mixed up the dates," Moira admitted, surprising both her children.

"That's not like you. What happened?" Thea asked concerned.

"I lost focus, worrying about your brother in Metropolis, chasing after that madman. Has he called you?" Moira asked hopefully.

"No, not yet," Thea said, as worried about Olive as Moira. "I wish he'd call us, just let us know he's okay. Because this waiting is like when we heard the Gambit was missing. Every second is like a million years."

"Do you see now?" Olivia asked as Oliver stared, seeming to comprehend for the first time how much worry he was putting his family through.

"I…I never realized how much they worried," Oliver admitted.

"Because you keep them at arm's length. You never let anyone in, no matter how much they try. You punish yourself and everyone around you for not being able to go of the guilt in your past," Olivia told him as Oliver stared at his mother and sister, unable to deny her words. "Aren't you tired of punishing yourself for not being perfect? Aren't you tired of punishing them too?"

"I don't know how," Oliver finally said the words out loud.

"Let it go, Oliver. You can't change the past, what happened to Slade, your father, your unborn child…but you have to move on. Stop the distance between yourself and those you love," Olivia said gently.

In a flash of light, Clark and Brainiac appeared in a place that was unfamiliar to Clark.

"Where are we?" Clark asked as he looked around, seeing it was just an ordinary house.

"The present. A house in Metropolis. watch," Brainiac said, pointing.

Clark followed his gaze, seeing a young boy, about eight, on the floor. Clark was startled to see the boy had a black eye. And now that he was paying attention, Clark heard the sound of flesh being beaten upstairs, followed by a woman's wail of pain.

"William Fray. That's the boy's name," Brainiac said before Clark could ask. "His father, John, is a construction worker. He beats his wife. William tried to get in the way, protect his mother. Got a black eye for his troubles."

"That's horrible, it is," Clark said with a shuttering breath. "But I'm not sure what that has to do with me."

"You don't see it? You stopped trying to protect people, more focused on whatever threat came your way. Used to be that you tried helping people like William and his mother. Now what do you do? You go looking for the big threats, never focusing on the people you used to go out of your way to help," Brainiac accused.

Clark opened his mouth but no sound came out. Because he's right, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Lex told him.

"But it's not just them you fail," Brainiac said ominously.

In a flash, the scene changed again. This time they were in a cell, someone banging their hands on the bars. Clark knew her.

Even with her hair ratty and unwashed, and wearing a prison uniform, Clark could recognize Tess Mercer.

"Let me out of here!" Tess shouted.

"Tess?" Clark openly gasped as he stared at his former adversary. "She's alive."

"Something Lois brought to you before, did she not?" Brainiac pointed out. "But you dismissed it."

"How was I supposed to know?" Clark tried to defend himself.

"You didn't care to know, Kal-El. You were too focused on the past. But that is your darkness. You hold onto the past, punishing yourself and everyone around you for past mistakes," Brainiac pointed out.

"I don't have the privilege of mistakes. Even if we don't expect perfection from ourselves, the rest of the world does," Clark argued.

"And how has that worked out for you?" Brainiac asked and Clark looked away, which unfortunately, was right at Tess. "You've spent so much time dwelling on the darkness that happened in the past, you're missing the present that's right in front of your eyes."

Clark stared at Tess for a moment, seeing how worn down and thin she seemed. He and Tess had never been best friends, but no one deserved this.

"What is this place?" Clark asked.

"You've find out soon enough. We have more to see. I would like to show you this myself, but Olivia thought it would be better for you to experience it on your own," Brainiac said before there was another flash of light.

When it faded, Clark was surprised to see he was standing in the Daily Planet. He jumped back as one of the couriers walked by him, pushing a cart. Clark looked around in bewilderment before walking by.

So focused on his surroundings, he didn't notice the article of the day he walked by. It had the headline 'Superman saves city' on it, with the date being 'October15, 2022'. Clark had traveled seven years into the future.

The future deserves its own chapter, so I'm going to stop here.

Olivia would be played by Jodie Comer.

The thing with an abused child is actually a reference to a Superman comic, where Superman does end up confronting an abusive father. Great comic that highlights just who Superman is supposed to be.

Tess Mercer is alive and kicking. And we'll get to her soon.