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viking-raider · 4 years

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Of Truth and Justice - Part II

Summary: Clark tries his best to convince Calea into helping the Justice League in defeating Steppenwolf and saving Earth. The League works on gaining more information on the Mother Boxes.

Pairing: Clark Kent/Superman x OFC

Word Count: 8,866

Parts: I

Rating: PG-13 - Justice League!AU, Language, Fluff, Angst, PTSD, Anxiety

Inspiration: Something that’s been on my Muse’s brain after watching Justice League a couple of times.

Author’s Note: TY to the amazing @wondersofdreaming for being a stellar Beta! Tell me what you think!

Tag List: @jennylovelyheart, @peakygroupie, @jessevans, @rosie-loves-things, @ohjules, @mary-ann84, @omgkatinka, @the-freak-cassie-131, @wardl0w, @agniavateira, @cap-barnes, @romyr4, @michelehansel, @kaatelyyynn, @badassbaker, @mrsaugustwalker, @authentic-bish-face, @rizeandvibe, @severuined, @supernaturalvikingwhore, @bellastellaluna, @wondersofdreaming, @thisisntmyrightera, @michelle-1185, @winchwm, @royallylazy, @sofiebstar, @worldicreate, @agniavateira, @fantasygirlsuniverse, @witches-of-discovery-a, @xuxszx, @ayamenimthiriel, @keiva1000, @fantasygirlsuniverse, @itsreigns, @constip8merm8, @scorpionchild81, @mylifefallingupthestairs, @onlyhenrys, @luclittlepond, @ellixthea, @lebguardians, @geralt-yennefer-jeskier, @cherrybloomn, @p3nny4urth0ught5, @iloveyouyen, @hollydaisy23, @mcuimagination, @psychosupernatural, @sweetlybigdragonn, @whitewolfandthefox, @moviemonzy, @the-soot-sprite, @hell1129-blog, @trippedmetaldetector, @captaingothgirl1996, @dont8mind8me8eue, @peaky-marvel, @desperate-and-broken21, @monstersnmoney, @dancingwendigo, @redhot-mystacism, @thereisa8ella, @black-ninja-blade, @oddduckthatgirl, @rosewinx, @henrythickcavill, @tinabean37, @hnryycvll, @msblkfire84, @romangenesius, @emelinelovesjc, @strangerliaa, @lovieebby, @pinksdaydream, @fanfictionaddiction99, @seb-owns-these-tatas, @oh-for-fic-sake, @sauvage-et-libre, @mis-lil-red, @angreav, @crazyandanonymous4u, @the-mighty-jellybean @henrycavell, @jimmypagesandbrianmayshair, @iam-laiya, @worshipping-skarsgard, @thetruthandotherstories, @ruthoakenshield, @lostinaseaoffictionalbliss, @theonetheycallhannah, @nina-skyee, @thatgirly81, @inanna999, @suueeeeeee, @spideysimpossiblegirl, @x-wingwarriorbbpoe8, @beckster07890, @daddys-littlewhitegirl, @magic-and-the-macabre, @stxphmxlls, @radaofrivia, @lostinaseaoffictionalbliss, @starstruckkittyangel, @heartfelt-pen

“Ouch.” Clark hissed, pulling away from Calea. “That keeps happening.” He frowned, watching teeny blue bolts of electricity jump from the top of her hand to the pads of his fingers.

“It happened, when I touched you in the--”

“Sol-Gel.” Calea replied, watching two more sparks jump from him to her, even with their hands centimetres apart. “It's like, super advanced Human Stem Cells.”

“It's the same as the Genesis Chamber, in the Fortress of Solitude.” Clark nodded, understanding. “Why does it keep happening though?” He asked, frowning at her.

Calea frowned at him. “Not to be untoward.”

She opened his brown leather hoodie and pushed her hand up inside his shirt, feeling the downy trail over his abdomen, half smirking as his muscles spasmed under her warm touch and the teeny sparks their skin continued to generate between them. Her hand skimmed over the pectoral muscles of his chest and met his eyes, through the glass of his black frames. Taking a deep breath, Calea rested her hand over his heart, fingers spread and pads pressed into his skin. Both of them gasped as a painful jolt of electricity passed between them, a bright blue tinge coloring both of their eyes for the briefest of moments.

Calea gasped and ripped her hand away from his chest and stumbled to her feet.

“What is it?” Clark frowned, getting to his own feet.

“Nothing.” She replied, turning away from him. “It just hurt, is all.” She lied, running a hand through her hair, fingers shaky.

“Can I do anything?” He asked, fretting.

“No, I'll be fine.” Calea replied, taking deep breaths and calming down her heart. “How does it feel to be alive again?” She asked, changing the subject.

“Itchy.” He chuckled, rubbing his arm. “Loud and bright.”

“Do you prefer it?” She asked, turning to look at him again. “Being alive or dead.”

“Being alive is nice.” Clark smiled. “Especially, since I get to see my mother again.” He took a deep breath, the air cool and fragrant in his lungs. “Why is it, you prefer to be asleep in the Sol-Gel, than being out here?”

“Other than Ryder, I have no reason to be here. No connection or bond rooting me in place.” Calea explained to him, glancing up at the dimming sky. “All I have is a reminder of what I lost and will never get back. Now, all that is for not, with Steppenwolf in possession of the Mother Boxes.”

“The pouring of salt in a never healing wound.” She sighed.

“So, if Calea is the only Selian left in the universe,” Barry started around a mouthful of cereal. “What are you?” He asked Ryder.

“I am a Coteran.” Ryder replied, rubbing his face at Barry's four hundredth question. “An ally to the Selians. Many of us train to become elite servants to the Selians. I was one such.”

“Are your people still around?”

“It's most likely.” Ryder answered with a shrug of his shoulders. “I haven't encountered one since we arrived here on Earth. I also haven't looked for any, I'm kept busy watching over Calea.”

“How hard can she be to watch, when she's in a tub of goo?” Arthur laughed.

“It's not as simple as that.” Ryder huffed at the Atlantean. “I have to maintain the temperature of the Sol-Gel, to make sure it stays fresh and active. Maintain her vital signs and comfort, make sure no one finds us and tries to harm her. I also have to keep her up to date on what's going on in the world.”

“How the hell do you do that?” Arthur rasped, lifting a brow at him.

Ryder looked at Arthur and narrowed his eyes. “Painstakingly.”

Clark and Calea stepped into the house and Ryder moved to her side, looking her over and making sure she was all right.

“I'm fine.” She sighed, patting him on the cheek. “Why don't you make them dinner, I'm going to lay down, I still have a lot of re-acclimating to do.” She told him softly, and turned to the rest of them.

“If I don't see you in the morning, it was a pleasure meeting you all.”

“Wait!” Bruce snapped, jumping up from his chair. “You're not going to help us?”

“I don't know how.” Calea told him, shaking her head. “Or, if I even can. By the time I try and learn how to, it will be far too late.”

“But, we need you.” He tried to argue.

Calea smiled at them, chuckling. “No, you do not.” You told him, meeting their eyes. “You have each other.”

Then, with a bow of her head to them, she went upstairs to her room.

“You have to convince her to help us.” Bruce said, looking over at Ryder. “You're the one that brought us here.”

“I am also the one that said you would have to convince her of it. I can't, or anyone for that matter, force Calea to do anything she doesn't wish too. Many have tried, and died, in the attempt.” Ryder replied, pushing up the sleeves of his shirt.

“Great, so we wasted valuable time.” Arthur groaned, rolling his eyes.

Clark touched his chest and frowned up the stairs. “Perhaps not.” He whispered. “She's just woke up with the bad news that one thing her people were trying to hide and protect, has been found and taken, by the very thing that wiped her people out. I can understand her reluctance to face that, if it wiped out your whole race before, killing you shouldn't be so hard.”

“I had the same qualm with Zod.”

“Do you think you can convince her to help us?” Diana asked, frowning up at him.

“I don't know.” Clark sighed, he had felt a connection with Calea, an understanding about something only someone in the same boat would understand and know how to shoulder. “I can try in the morning.” He said, stifling a yawn.

Calea whimpered in her sleep, it had been decades since she had slept unaided by the monitored and controlled Sol-Gel. Instead of well placed memories of a happier life, she was tormented by the memories and nightmares of things she couldn't stop or change. Growling, she sat up, tugging the bunched up blankets off her legs and got out of bed. She went to push open the double doors leading out to the balcony off her room, when the quickening of a heart somewhere in the house, started pounding in her sensitive ears. Sighing, Calea pulled on a robe and stepped into the hall, closing her eyes and swiveling her head to catch what direction it was coming from.

Honing in on it, Calea followed it down the hall to one of the guest rooms. Quietly opening the door and stepping inside, her eyes rested on the sleeping form of Clark, laying on his stomach and breathing hard, his handsome face pinched. Frowning, Calea's bare feet silently crossed the floor and she sat on the edge of his bed, her head tilting at him and her fingertips drifted down the length of Clark's back, small bolts touching each of his vertebra as she passed over them.

“Clark.” She whispered, hearing his soft whimper and rested her hand between his shoulder-blades.

Gasping, Clark jerked up, his pupils glowing red as he reacted to her touch.

“Clark.” Calea snapped, cupping his face in her hands and leaning forward.

Clark blinked, his heat vision cooling as he pulled away from her. “I almost hurt you.”

“No.” She shook her head. “You're all right.”

“What are you doing in here?” He frowned, running a hand through his hair.

“I heard your heart rate pick up.” She replied, heaving a sigh. “I just wanted to check on you.”

“It was just a nightmare.” He replied, turning to sit next to her. “I'm sorry for waking you.”

Calea chuckled, smiling softly. “I was already awake.” She assured him. “Nightmares of my own. What were you dreaming about?”

“The same dream I've had since coming back to life.” He sighed, licking his lips. “Dying all over again. Being trapped in my coffin. A deafening darkness.”

Calea narrowed her eyes for a moment. “Walk with me?” She asked, lifting a brow at him as she stood.

Clark stared at her for a moment, then stood up, pulling on his shirt and followed her out. They tiptoed downstairs and out the door, Calea smiled at him, slipping off her robe and walked barefoot into the forest. Tilting his head, Clark curiously followed after her, they didn't speak for a long time, just walking through the quiet darkness of the trees, a light and cool breeze stirring around them, making the tree branches rustle and wave at them as they passed underneath.

“I'm sure you're a good jumper?” She asked, turning to him and smirking.

“You can say that.” He smirked back. “What are we jumping to?” He asked, looking around.

Calea winked at him, crouched and sprang up, vanishing above the trees. Not sparing a moment, he pushed up and followed after the sound of her heart and found her sitting on a plateau, her feet swaying back and forth over the edge.

“I used to come up here, when I needed absolute quiet and I couldn't sleep. It's nearly impossible for anyone, but me, to get up here. So, it's perfect for solitude.” She explained as he sat beside her.

“How did you die?” Calea asked, curiously.

“Bruce and I didn't like each other, when we first met.” He answered, scanning the horizon in front of them. “We didn't see eye to eye on things. I felt his 'brand of justice' wasn't right and attempted to expose him through my job as a Journalist, at the Daily Planet. Bruce already had an issue with me, being an Alien and Superman, he worried that I would turn and try to take over the world. Like some, dark god.”

Calea snorted and shook her head. “Such is the will of Humans. Always worrying about someone, from Earth or otherwise, wanting to be supreme overlord.” She said dramatically, making Clark laugh.

“It is.” He nodded. “Well, we met up as Batman and Superman and nearly leveled half of the city. While in the process, another Human, Lex Luther, managed to break into a scout ship General Zod crashed and raised a Kryptonian monster, he named, Doomsday.”

“Appropriate, if unoriginal.”

Clark snorted, looking down at his hands. “After Doomsday was unleashed, Bruce and I put aside our dislike for each other, with Diana's help, and worked on trying to stop him together. But, everything we and anyone else did, the creature only grew stronger. Since Luther created him in the Scout Ship's Genesis Chamber and his own blood, it was nearly impossible to kill him without..”

“Kryptonite.” Calea nodded, resting back on her elbows.

“You know about it?” Clark frowned, looking at her surprised.

“I'm well over five thousand years old, Clark Kent.” She teased him. “There aren't many Races and their history I don't know about.”

“I've only been around for thirty-four years. So, you've got all that on me.” He replied, laying back with her. “Have you met any other Kryptonians?”

“You're the third Kryptonian, I've ever met.” She answered, staring up at the stars. “I really liked one of them, Zall-Ba, he was part of the Kryptonian Science Guild. He would come to Selion periodically to confer with our scientists, and my parents would host him.” She smiled, recalling him fondly. “I loved listening to him talk about the different sciences with my father. Such spirited and good natured debates.”

She turned her head and looked at him. “You're the last one, the last Kryptonian?”

“I am.” Clark nodded, solemnly. “It blew up, almost forty years ago now.”

“That really sucks. Have you met any other Kryptonians?”

“Oh yeah.” He laughed, his body shaking. “Zod was a Kryptonian General. He had been exiled from Krypton for trying to do a hostile takeover with the rest of his exiled crew. They wanted to kill me and turn Earth into a new Krypton. So, I..” He sighed and rubbed his face. “I had to kill him. He was the first person, whose life I took, and whose body Luther used to help create Doomsday.”

Calea wiggled her body closer to him. “You see that purplish dot?” She asked, pointing up at the sky.

“Mmhm.” Clark nodded, tilting his head towards hers, as he looked up at it.

“That's Selion.” She smiled at him. “That's my home planet. Now, if you go out a few dots,” she moved her finger across the inky and sparkling sky. “That faint red dot, is the star Krypton used to orbit.”

Clark blinked, his body relaxing as he stared up at that teeny, but beautiful, dot. No one had pointed it out to him before. Then again, there hadn't been anyone around that could point out where his birth planet had once been. Now that Calea had, he felt more grounded to where he was in the world. Now, when he was feeling lost and out of place, he knew where to look to bring himself back.

“Thank you.” He whispered, turning his head to look at her.

“You're welcome.” She smiled at him. “It's nice to be able to see home, even if you can't go back.”

“What scares you about trying to help us stop Steppenwolf?” He asked her, suddenly.

Calea sighed and looked back up at the stars. “I don't know.” She whispered, biting her lip. “Losing myself.”

“Losing yourself, how?” Clark frowned.

“I've fought this dark part of myself that wanted to scour the universe for wherever Steppenwolf went, after his defeat, and kill him in the slowest way possible. I want to kill him in a way that would take him years to die from.” She told him, her face and eyes hardening, as the anger she had kept pent up inside for so long, surfaced.

“I want to punch my hand through his chest and slowly squeeze that black hole heart of his, until it's mush in my palm.” She added, making Clark blink at her. “Sorry.” She cleared her throat, catching the look on his face from the corner of her eye.

“I can't say I blame you.” He replied, giving her a soft expression. “I would want to avenge my parents, if I could, had they died like that.” He empathized with her, his hand touching hers as they rested between them.

“I guess you can say, I'm afraid of losing myself, in the attempt to stop him, and not being able to find myself again.”

Clark bit the inside of his lip and nodded at her, he could understand that. “But, you won't know, until you try.” He pointed out to her. “You have to be willing to make that leap of faith.”

“True.” She sighed, pressing her lips together. “I don't know, Clark. But, I'll think about it.”

The Justice League left that morning, without Calea and Ryder, much to their frustrated and dejected dismay.

“I can't believe we wasted all that time.” Arthur rasped as they all entered the Hall of Justice.

“I totally thought she was going to come with us!” Barry said, who was, as usual, stuffing his face with food. “Doing that 'edgy, hold them in suspense' thing. Telling us, she'd come at the last moment.” He mumbled.

“Well, she didn't.” Bruce grunted, running a hand through his hair. “We need to look to other sources for stopping Steppenwolf, since Calea isn't going to help. Victor, do you have anything?”

“Steppenwolf hasn't activated the Mother Boxes, yet.” Victor answered, pacing the room. “But, it's all a matter of time until he does.”

“Do we have any ideas on where he would take the Boxes to activate them?” Diana asked, looking at him.

“I've been actively searching every place and keeping an ear out for any changes, but so far...” He trailed off.

“Nothing.” Bruce sighed, dropping into a chair and rubbing at his face. “He has to show his hand at some point.”

The team broke off to their own areas to work on various things, Steppenwolf related and otherwise. Victor was searching a globe mainframe and scanning all the possible pathways he could for any sign of Steppenwolf and his Para-Demon. Diana went to the training area of the Hall, needing a distraction, Barry found his way to the kitchen, while Bruce talked to Alfred about Wayne Industries and anything he's found about Steppenwolf, and Clark sat down with his laptop to start working on the article he was supposed to have turned into Parry the next day.

“Guys!” Victor yelled out. “I found something!”

“What is it?” Clark asked, setting his laptop aside and joining the team around Victor.

“There's a huge blip of activity here.” He touched a spot on the map and it blew up between them, showing a flashing red dot. “From the readings I'm getting, it has to have something to do with Steppenwolf and his horde.”

“Where?” Diana asked, getting ready.

“Romania.” Victor replied, heading towards the jet. “I'll fly us there.”

“I'll meet you there.” Clark said, all suited up and heading out.

Clark landed a little distance away from the scene that was swarming with Para-Demons, they were all agitated and flapping around one area of the forest, but Clark couldn't pinpoint what it was they were so frantic to get their hands on. His ear twitched, hearing the sound of the League's jet landing several yards behind him and turned around to join them.

“They're looking for something.” He told them, as they stepped off the jet.

“What more could they possibly be looking for?” Diana frowned. “They have all three of the Mother Boxes.”

“I don't know, but they are whipped up into a frenzy for it.” Clark replied, shaking his head. “Shall we get the bug spray out?” He asked, smirking and making the team chuckle.

“Let's do this.”

The team ran and flew through the trees towards the thicket of Para-Demons. It took a moment for the heavily distracted Para-Demons to notice their guests, but after Clark used his heat vision to melt three in half and Diana sliced through another two, the full intensity of the swarm's focus was on the Justice League and a full blown battle commenced.

Bruce used his grappling gun to grapple a Para-Demon, swinging him in a wide arch and swatting several other Para-Demons out of the air, Arthur stabbing them through with his trident. Barry used his speed to push Para-Demons into Diana's sword or Clark's heat vision. Punching a Para-Demon square through the chest, Clark picked up on a muffled sound and scanned the area around him, identifying the opening of a mining shaft. Glancing at his team, Clark zipped into the mine, finding three miners trapped inside and cornered by a pair of Para-Demons, who were drawn by the thick scent of their fear.

“Hey, bug boy.” Clark called, catching their attention. “That's right.” He smirked.

The Para-Demons screeched at him, dragonfly-like wings beating furiously as they took off at Clark.

“Run!” Clark barked at the miners in Romanian, as he deflected one of the Para-Demons.

Not needing to be told twice, the miners tore out of the mine shaft, like bats out of hell. Clark ducked the clawed swipe of one of the demons and shoved the second away from him, pushing him into one of the mine's support beams. The already strained wood buckled and splintered, before collapsing as the Para-Demon recovered and jumped on Clark's back. He grunted as they gave him a front to back assault, but managed to snap the neck of the Para-Demon in front of him and tossed him away, inadvertently breaking another support beam as he reached behind him to grab the last Para-Demon. The rough dome ceiling groaned and crumbled on top of Clark and the Para-Demon, burying them under a massive amount of stone.

It didn't hurt Clark, a mountain swallowing him whole, but it did stun him. The sudden crash of falling rock ringing in his ears, the screech of the Para-Demon being crushed flat, the vile smell and feel of its radioactive green blood oozing all over the back of his black suit and down the side of his neck; the uncomfortable press of rock crushing him down to the ground. But, what got to Clark, was the pitch black darkness, not even his sensitive eyes and heat vision could penetrate it, he could just barely hear the faint and muffled sound of the rest of the Justice League still fighting at the surface, probably unaware of his current situation.

Had this been four months ago, Clark would have easily blasted his way out of the rubble, through the mountain top and into the clear blue skies above. But, his heart started to race and his chest tightened, panic setting in as his mind flashed back to the dark quiet of death and his coffin. He had only been six feet under the first time he was buried, now, he was easily miles below ground. The team would never find him, he'd be trapped there, forever. He would never see his Ma again, never turn in another piece for the Daily Planet. They would all wonder what had become of Superman and Clark Kent.

Had he left them, tired of being their hero and supposed god?

Had he died all over again?

Or was the supposed resurrection of Superman a complete lie, a hoax to garner who knows what?

There was nothing Clark could do, laying there, paralyzed to run darker and darker scenarios in his mind; breathing hard, chest tight and his heart clenched like a hard hand was wrapped around it. Then, a soft sound came to him, he wasn't sure if it was coming from around him or just in his head, but it was there. So soft he couldn't make it out, but it raced down his spine and crackled throughout his limbs, popping in the base of his brain, clearing away all the anxiety that had been washing over him.

His muscles tensing, Clark rocked through the almost endless feeling layers of rock, bursting out the top of the mountain and taking a deep lungful of fresh air as he did.

“Where have you been?” Arthur asked as Clark landed beside him.

“Rescuing some trapped miners.” He replied, not willing to talk about what truly happened. “Did we discover what they were looking for?”

“No.” Bruce replied, appearing out of the treeline, his suit covered in flakes of Para-Demon blood.

“There has to be something.” Diana added in, looking around for any clues.

“Victor, are you picking up on anything?” Bruce asked, turning towards him.

“Nothing.” Victor answered, shaking his head. “Whatever reason they're here, it must be why Steppenwolf hasn't activated the Unity with the Mother Boxes.”

“It's the only thing that makes sense.” Clark commented, frowning. “Let's go back to the Hall, and compile what we know.” He said, and shot off into the sky.

“What happened to him?” Barry asked, looking around the remaining group.

“No idea.” Bruce rasped, concerned, as he watched Clark disappear.

“Clark, are you all right?” Diana called, opening the door to Clark's room in the sleeping quarters of the Hall of Justice. “Clark.” She called softer, as he jerked and twisted in his bed, trapped in a night terror.

Frowning, Diana rested her hand on his tense back, only for Clark's thick arm to fly out and swat her across the room, and nearly through the wall. Clark rose up, body still tense as he turned to face her, his eyes glowing red hot. Diana tensed, ready to defend herself, but the door flew open and a blur moved past Diana. Grabbing Clark by the shoulders and twisting him around, they ducked, as Clark unleashed the beams of his heat vision, through the bedroom window.

“Clark, wake up!”

“Calea!” Bruce's voice yelled from the door, as he and the others ran in, hearing the commotion. “What are you doing here?”

“Clark, no!” She barked as he turned to him and growled.

Calea grasped Clark's arms tighter as he tried to move towards Bruce, snarling at him. Dropping down to a squat and throwing herself backwards, Calea tossed Clark over her body and through the wall, sending him skidding across the back lawn of the Hall of Justice grounds.

“What are you doing here?” Bruce asked, looking at her astonished.

“Well, I came to tell you, I changed my mind and want to help.” Calea answered, panting. “But, I heard a crash and came to investigate, finding Clark had thrown Diana into a wall and about to mel-” She tried to explain, just as Clark came jetting through the hole his body made and collided with her.

Both of them spiraled through several walls, before Calea was able to gain traction and push back against Clark, slowing him down considerably. Their muscles strained against each other, she groaned and took deep breaths, just barely holding him back, teeth gritted. Releasing enough of her push against him, Calea drove her knee into his stomach, driving him back again, both of them dropping to the floor, feet first.

“Clark, please.” She begged him. “You're having a waking nightmare, Clark. Whatever you're thinking, it isn't real.” She tried to reason with him, holding a hand out to him.

Growling, Clark drew in a deep breath, his bare chest swelling.

“Please, don't do this, Clark.” Calea pleaded with him. “Please, don't do this.”

Clark let out a blast of cold breath, that would have made Antarctica feel like Hawaii. Calea gasped, doubled over to shield herself, her warm breath coming out in a frosty mist. She squeezed her eyes shut and her hands into fists, the lights around the hall, and even out on the street, flickered and blinked rapidly, several bulbs popped and shattered. Calea stood up straight, her eyes glowing bright blue with crackling bolts of electricity around the corners of her eyelids. Bending her arms at the elbows, hands up and her open palms faced out towards Clark, she sent out a strong bubble of energy towards him, stopping the flow of his frosty breath and sent him staggering backwards several steps.

Snapping forward, Calea grabbed Clark by the face, her face and body returning to normal as she whispered his name. “Kal.”

“He won't let me rest.” Clark whimpered, brow creased.

Calea's eyes rose to Bruce as he and the rest of the group stood in one of the gaping holes they left behind. She brought her mouth close to Clark's ear. “I'll let you rest, Kal-El.” She cooed to him, stroking the nape of his neck and hairline.

His arms snaked around her waist and his head dropped heavily on her shoulder, his breathing light and even against the skin of her neck. Bruce and Arthur picked their way through the rubble to help Calea get Clark back to a room that was still all in one piece.

“How did you do that?” Bruce asked, standing next Calea as she sat beside Clark's bed. “You stopped him. You almost matched him.”

“I'm a Prime Selian.” Calea sighed, rubbing her tired face. “It's--” she shook her head, trying to find the words. “It's my people's version of Superman.” She gave in. “A tortoise is always a turtle, but a turtle isn't always a tortoise.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Bruce frowned, shaking his head.

“Prime Selians are always Selians, but Selians aren't always Prime.” She groaned, too tired to give the Human a history lesson. “We never understood what caused it, but some Selians, when they were born, were far more advanced and enhanced the rest of us; stronger, more stamina and endurance, so on. You know your child is a Prime Selian in only one way.” She said, standing up and removing her jacket.

“Their markings.”

A line of blue runes lit up and raced over Calea's arm to her shoulder. Bruce studied them, reaching out and carefully touching them, he could feel the hum of power in them, charging Calea's body up with power; he found it fascinating.

“I am a Royal Prime Selian, which is basically an Alpha, in terms you would understand.”

“What is it that makes you more different?”

“The Royal Blood of Selion is pure.” Calea replied, sitting back down. “Was pure. Not like other Selians that might fall in love and have kids with other Races around the galaxy. There were two Royal houses of Selion, my mother's and my Father's. They were never related, but they would marry one another and have kids.”

“How does that even work?”

Calea laughed. “I matured, when I turned a thousand years old, Mr. Wayne.” She smiled. “I've looked just as you see me now, for the last four thousand years. The 'peak' of our lives, unlike Humans and many other Races, never changes, only we change. Only we decide we no longer wish to produce children. So, my mother's parents, who looked no older than you,” She snorted at him, teasingly. “kept producing children. As did my father's parents, and when a pair of them reached maturity, they would marry and so on.”

Bruce looked blankly at her.

“I know, it's horribly complicated and there's always an easier way, but that's the way they chose to do it. For thousands of years. While still managing to keep track of the line of succession. I was the first Prime Selian, in almost two hundred years, I'm the only female Prime Selian ever known to our history.”

“Not to mention the only Royal one.” He laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

“Especially, then.” She smiled back at him, her eyes drifted back to Clark as he started to fuss in his sleep again.

“I should go.” Bruce said, shifting uncomfortably. “I'd rather him see your face first, than mine. He's less likely to punch it, and I have a mess to clean up.”

“I am sorry about that.” Calea frowned at his back.

“It's all right.” He smiled, turning back to her. “I'm rich, it just looks like a scratch to me.”

Calea snorted as Bruce went out, then slid herself and her chair closer to Clark's bedside. “Hey, you're all right, Clark.” She cooed at him, squeezing his hand and rubbing his forearm. “Whoa!” She gasped, when Clark shot up in bed.

“It was just a dream.”

“Calea?” He gasped and frowned at her, brows furrowed. “What—am I?”

“You're awake and alive.” She smiled at him.

“What happened?” He groaned, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed. “Why are you here?”

“To the latter, I changed my mind and want to help.” She told him, softly. “To the former, you had a night terror.”

“A what?” Clark sighed, shaking his head and glanced around.

“You were having a nightmare, a waking one. You nearly sent Diana through a wall.”

Clark's head snapped back to Calea. “Is she all right?”

“She's fine.” Calea assured him. “Typical Diana and all.”

“I hope I didn't make too much of a mess.”

“Well,” She snorted, looking down at her feet and smirked. “We made a mess.” She replied. “You tried melting her with your heat vision, then you saw Bruce and started after him, so I..uh..threw you out a window.”

“You threw me out a window?”

“You're not that heavy.” She chuckled, brushing her hair behind her ear. “But, you did pay me back for it. I'm not entirely sure how we didn't level the whole building.” She commented glancing around, expecting it to suddenly collapse on top of them.

“Your frost breath is extremely cold, by the way.”

“I'm so sorry.” Clark sighed, raking a hand through his disheveled curls.

“What happened, Clark?” She asked, concerned for him.

Clark rolled his shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck. “We found a swarm of Para-Demons in Romania. They were looking for something, we didn't find what it was they were after. But, a couple of miners got trapped inside a mine by a pair of Para-Demons, so I went into the shaft to save them. I knocked out the support beams and the shaft fell in on me.” He explained to her, his mind flashing back to it.

“It was--” He closed his eyes. “Dark and quiet, cool. Like, when I was dead. I was crushed more by the anxiety of being trapped in another coffin, than I was by the thousands of tons of mountain on top of me. I couldn't move and could barely use any of my powers to free myself, convinced I was going to die there, and no one would find me or care that I was gone.”

“But, you got out.” Calea cooed at him, soothingly.

“Because of something I heard.” He replied, he could still hear it in his mind. “A small sound and all the anxiety went away, allowing me to free myself.”

“You have PTSD.” She replied, lightly.

“I'm an Alien.”

“And?” Calea countered, brows drawn down and eyes wide. “PTSD is a mental and emotional state. Anything capable of thinking and feeling, is more than unfortunate in possibly suffering from it.”

“And you speak from experience.”

“I do.” She nodded. “For a very long time. You said the Para-Demons were looking for something in Romania.” She asked, sensing Clark's need for a change in subject.

“Yes, but we don't know what or why.”

“Hm.” Calea hummed, frowning.

“We think it's why Steppenwolf hasn't unleashed the Mother Boxes yet.” He explained.

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation.

“Not to intrude.” Barry said, a hand pressed over his eyes.

Calea and Clark looked at each other, smirking, and rolled their eyes at him.

“What is it, Barry?” Clark asked, lifting a brow at him.

“Victor has something he wants us all to see.” Barry replied, peeking through his fingers at them.

“We'll meet you down there.” Clark told him, standing up.

“Nice to see you again, Calea.” Barry said, smiling and blushing at her.

“You too, Barry.” She smirked, chuckling as he blushed even harder. “What do you think it is?”

“I'm not sure. But, I am sure, it's related to Steppenwolf.” Clark answered, showing her the way down to the labs.

They joined the rest of the team and saw what it was Victor had to show them. Trapped inside a protective cell and beating its hands against the thick glass, was a Para-Demon. Screeching so loud, that everyone winced. Victor had managed to capture the creature and content it in its current jail. Beams of multi-colored lights scanned all sides of the tube, reading as much information they could about the creature; various monitors flashing and beeping in unison with them.

“You captured a Para-Demon.” Diana said, in disbelief. “How?”

“It wasn't easy, believe me.” Victor replied, smirking at her. “I thought, if we could get our hands on one and run some tests on it, we could find out more about Steppenwolf and his plans.”

“Any luck?” Bruce asked, folding his arms over his chest as he squinted at the creature.

“Nothing so far, my scans just started.”

“I have something that I want to see how it reacts too.” Bruce said, moving over to a work table and picked up a chunky black device. “I found out a few weeks ago, after encountering a Para-Demon on the top of a building in Gotham, there's a high frequency sound that agitates them. It came off a building's security alarm.” He explained, stepping closer to the encapsulated creature with the device.

Bruce flipped the device on and a loud wailing and whirling screech filled the room, making everyone grimace and plug their ears. The Para-Demon screamed along with the siren-like noise, withering in agony as it desperately tried to escape its cell, obviously to no avail. Calea whimpered, her ears felt like they were bleeding. She shook her head, trying to lessen the pain throbbing through her skull, the Para-Demon's screeches pulsed through her brain, making her eyes hurt and blur.

“D-De-” A sketchy and raspy voice clawed at Calea's brain, like scrapping steel wool and red hot pokers. “De-Defas Se-vit.” The words echoed in her skull.

“Defas Sevit.”

“Help me.” Calea whimpered back.

“Defas Miresa.”

“Help us.” She echoed back.

“Calea?” Clark groaned, grasping her arm as she stumbled. “Turning off!” He snapped at Bruce. “Turn the damn thing off!” He hissed, maneuvering Calea into a chair.

Bruce quickly switched the device off, the silence more deafening than the sound it made. They crowded around Calea, Diana sent Barry zooming out for a glass of water, as they tried to make sure she was all right.

“Help me. Help us. Help me. Help us.” Calea kept repeating, pressing her fists to her temples.

“Who, Calea?” Clark frowned, kneeling beside her and shook his head. “Who needs help?”

Calea shook her head hard, trying to dislodge the voice in her head. “I don't know.” She panted, taking the glass from Barry and downing it in one go. “I don't know.” She gasped, pressing her fingertips into her throbbing and watering eyes.

“I don't know.”

“It's all right, just relax.” Clark replied, rubbing her arm.

Victor looked between Calea and the Para-Demon, calculating. “You heard it.” He said, suddenly. “You actually heard the Para-Demon.”

“That's impossible.” Diana shook her head at him.

“There's only one way to find out.” Arthur commented, lifting a brow.

“Absolutely not.” Ryder's voice boomed from the doorway. “You are not putting her through that again.” He hissed.

“I'm starting to wonder if I should just forego the security systems in my buildings.” Bruce sighed, shaking his head.

“How did you find her?”

“It's my job to keep track of her.” Ryder growled, moving over to Calea and checking her out. “Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?” He chided her.

“I don't need your permission to do things, Ryder.” She replied, rolling her eyes and shaking him off.

Standing up, Calea moved to stand in front of the trapped Para-Demon, unflinching as it gnashed its sharp teeth at her, going wild against the tempered glass. She pressed her hands and forehead to the glass.

“Lusnet uda ecto.” She whispered, holding the creature's eyes.

“What is she saying?” Barry asked, looking around the room.

“I can hear you.” Ryder translated. “It's Solean, Ancient Solean, at that.”

The Para-Demon's screeches faltered for a moment, before recovering and going wild again. Sighing, Calea turned around and looked at the group. “Turn it back on.” She said to Bruce. “It's the only way for it to answer me.”

“I don't think this is a good idea.” Diana protested, shaking her head. “We saw what happened the last time we messed with something we didn't understand.”

“Clark nearly wiped the entire planet out.” Arthur agreed.

“Yeah, but as bad as that was, he ended up just fine.” Barry argued.

“Barely.” Victor huffed.

Growling, Calea shot forward and snatched the device from Bruce's hand, turning it back on as she refocused on the Para-Demon. “Let's see what you got to say, bug boy.” She hissed, gritting her teeth against the sound.

“I can hear you. Tell me what you know.”

The Para-Demon shook its head, pressing its back to the other side of the cage. “Help me. Help us.” It hissed in agony.

“How?” Calea whined back, a bubble of pain in the base of her skull made her feel cold. “Tell me!” She yelled, eyes glowing blue.

The air in the lab changed, the hairs on everyone's bodies stood erect and on end, the Para-Demon snapped forward, colliding with the grass in a dull thud, but Calea still didn't move or change, their eyes only the thickness of the glass apart.

“Princess Calea Stormborn of Fallborn.” It spoke in a slurping hiss, that echoed in her mind.

“You know me?”

“Of course, I was once Kulas of Everhaven.”

“You were a Selian.” She let out in a startled gasp.

“We all once were.” He choked, head twisting and jerking to the side with stomach turning crunches. “Steppenwolf's most advanced Para-Demons were all once Selians. He turned us into his most perfect and effective soldiers, as a penalty for not giving over the Boxes.”

“And now, he has them.” Calea sighed, shaking her head. “What is he looking for in Romania?”

“The--” His head smashed against the glass, startling Calea back a step. “My bloo-” He rasped, pounding his forehead against the glass several more times, neon green blood dripping down his ashen face and splattered on the cracking glass. “Will tell you.”

With one more solid smash, the Para-Demon's neck snapped and he felt limp to the bottom of his cage. Ryder snatched the still screaming device out of her hand and smashed it against the wall, ears ringing. Looking around, Calea spotted a small, half empty bottle of Tropicana apple juice and grabbed it, unscrewing the lid and dumping it out on the floor.

“Hey, that was mine!” Barry protested, his mouth dropping open. “Rude.” He pouted.

Calea squatted down and held the empty bottle under the cage, catching the green ooze as it dripped from the grated floor. Almost full, she stood back up, looking at it at half an arm's length, curious how it would tell her anything about what Steppenwolf was searching for Romania. That was so important, it would delay his plans for the Unity of the Mother Boxes.

“Oh, that is so gross.” Barry grimaced, swallowing.

“He said, his blood would tell me what Steppenwolf was looking for.” Calea said, ignoring Barry and still staring at the container of blood.

“We can run it through a couple of my scanners.” Victor said, stepping up to one of the control consoles and hurriedly typed on its keyboard. “Put some of it in right there.” He told Calea, pointing to a centrifuge-like device.

Calea poured some of the Para-Demon's blood into the device's chamber and closed the lid. It started out slow, but eventually spun at a fast rate, the compounds of the blood separating into different chambers and making a variety of glowing lights flash around it and on the monitor in front of Victor.

“There are dozens of isotopes in this creature's blood, some that can't even be identified.” He said, shaking his head. “There's almost zero plasma as well. But, I don't see anything that can be a clue or hint to what Steppenwolf is up to.”

“Whoa!” Arthur snapped, grossed out as Calea touched the bottle to her lips.

“Calea, no!” Ryder barked, but it was too late, she had already started chugging it down. “What have you done!”

“Something stupid, I'm sure.” She replied, smacking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, the thick metallic and bitter taste of the blood on her taste buds.

“This girl's nuts.” Arthur laughed, grinning. “I dig it.”

“Oh.” She groaned and grunted, doubling over as sharp pains spiked through her chest and stomach.

“Stupid in-fucking-deed.” Ryder hissed, resting his hands on her.

“Stop babying me.” Calea hissed back, eyes glowing a blue-green color.

“Oh shit, the blood is affecting her.” Victor gasped, shocked.

“Calea.” Clark panted, watching the change come over her, her body shivering in pain and the blood's affect.

Her mouth fell open and she gasped, eyes going huge. Making a choking noise, Calea's eye rolled into the back of her head and she fell limply to the floor. Clark nearly shoved everyone away from her and picked her up into his arms.

“Her heart is slowing.” He frowned, scanning her.

“She's dying.” Diana whispered, astounded and horrified.

“No.” Clark whimpered, hugging her tight against his body and rocketing out of the Hall.

“Why couldn't he have just used the door?” Bruce groaned, as they glanced up through the massive hole he left behind.

“Where's he taking her?” Ryder demanded, snarling at the League.

“How are we to know?” Arthur huffed back at him. “Aren't you the one that's supposed to be keeping track of her?”

Clark landed in front of Calea's home in the forest, her heart even slower than it was at the Hall. “Hold on, Calea.” He murmured to her, carrying her inside and down the lift to the Sol-Gel chamber.

He carefully laid her down and grabbed the black mask that helped her breathe in the Sol-Gel and put it on her, before gently easing her into the Gel. Clark didn't understand any of the equipment that maintained the whole system of Sol-Gel, so he wasn't at all sure how to make it work, or tell if it was working already. He stood beside the chamber and glanced at the back of his hand, turning it over to look at his palm, an idea striking him. Biting his lip, Clark plunged his hands into the Gel, pushing up the sleeves of Calea's jacket and gripping her bare upper arms, the electric current that always sparked between their skin made the hair all over Clark's body stand and charged the Gel.

Calea's heart suddenly started to beat stronger.

Relieved, she'd be all right, hopefully. Clark pulled away from her, wiping the Gel off of his arms and paced the room. He felt agitated as he moved around the room, touching things, picking them up and putting them back down, trying to calm himself and reassure his nerves that she would be more than fine now that she was back in the protection of the Sol-Gel. But, Clark wasn't completely satisfied or comforted by that fact.

So, he did something that was more than likely, irrational.

It was an amazingly beautiful day in Selion, the native mint sparrows twittering and zooming about, trying to catch flying insects. The rays of the white sun shielded by a few puffy clouds, letting out a pleasant warmth. The air was a buzz with bees lighting on wildflowers, that gave the clear and fresh air an alluring and soothing fragrance.

Calea could feel the soft blades of wild grass under her bare feet and closed her eyes, nothing felt better than being back home, especially when you've been homesick for thousands of years. She paused and dipped her cupped hands into a small babbling stream beside her, lifting them to her lips and took a deep drink, the clean and cold water tasted sweet and refreshing to her taste buds and senses. Glancing around, Calea made her way through the streets towards home and smiled seeing it, shining in the high afternoon sun.

“Mama!” She called out, voice echoing in the grand halls. “Papa?”

She received no answer, but she could hear the echo of voices, and followed it. The sounds led her into the banquet hall and her blood ran cold before she even entered the vast room. A group of hissing and screeching Para-Demons stood menacingly behind, none other than, Steppenwolf. Her mother and father stood in the hall with several of the house's servants cowering on the floor.

“No!” Calea screamed and ran at them, but she skid through them, like a ghost.

“Where are the Boxes!” Steppenwolf growled, pointing his Electro Axe at them.

“We will never tell you!” Her mother, Solea, hissed back at him.

“Oh, I think you will.” Steppenwolf grinned, raising his Axe and striking one of the servants, taking their head clean off. “I will either kill every Selian on this planet or turn them into my Para-Demons, until you tell me where you've sent the Mother Boxes.” He threatened.

“Then, that is what you will do.” Calien replied, standing strong.

Steppenwolf roared in fury and hacked his way through the servants, several turning into Para-Demons, while others had a more fortunate fate in death. He brought in more and more people into the banquet hall, giving the King and Queen countless opportunities to tell him where the Mother Boxes had been sent, but Calien and Solea never budged or spoke up, watching Steppenwolf ravage their people. It wasn't long though, that one of the Selians brought into the Hall spoke up.

“Please, please!” They begged, slipping on the massive puddle of blood covering the floor. “I don't want to die! I have a family! I'll tell you where the Boxes are.”

“Finally, someone with a shed of intelligence.” Steppenwolf smirked. “Tell me where they are.”

“They're no longer on the planet.”

“Adas!” Calien barked, veins bulging in his neck.

“Then, where are they?” Steppenwolf asked, ignoring the enraged King.

“They've been taken off of the planet.” Adas trembled, looking between Calien and Steppenwolf.

“Is that so?” Steppenwolf rasped, eyeing Solea and Calien.

“They've been taken to--”

A scream rang out in the hall and a crackling bolt of electricity struck Adas, his body trembling as the massive surge coursed through him. Calien released the flow of electricity with an exhausted gasp, shoulders slumping as his energy drained. Solea wrapped her arms around her husband, supporting him as Adas's body dropped to the floor; dead. Steppenwolf shoved everyone aside, grabbing Calien by the throat and holding him off the ground.

“I will find everything for my Mother Boxes, with or without your help, Selian.” Steppenwolf rasped, tightening his hand around Calien's throat more and more. “And your planet will be the first of many to crumble.” He said, letting out a rumbling laugh.

“Papa, no!” Calea cried, watching as Steppenwolf killed her father, tears streaming down her face.

Laughing, Steppenwolf turned on his heels and left the hall. Solea cradled Calien's head in her lap, rocking back and forth as she wailed and sobbed. One of the servants crawled across the bloody floor towards her Queen, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and rocking with her, crying into her neck.

“He will never find what he seeks, never.” Solea wept, stoically. “I thank the gods my sweet girl is safe away from this place.”

“What is he looking for?” The Servant asked.

Solea seemingly met Calea's eyes as she answered the question.

Ryder barged into the house with Bruce and Diana, it was the only conceivable place for Clark to take Calea in the condition she was in when he took her from the Hall of Justice. The ride down in the lift felt longer than the flight from Gotham, and their mouths dropped open, when they finally got off the lift.

“He's taken the Sol-Gel Chamber.” Ryder growled, picking up a chair and sent it crashing into a wall. “He's not only taken Calea with her life in danger, he's stolen the Sol-Gel. Where could have gone with them?” He hissed, getting into Bruce's face.

“I don't know!” Bruce snapped, taking a step back.

“Ryder, calm down.” Diana sighed, pressing her hand against his chest. “If Clark has taken the Chamber, then it means he's put Calea in it, to try and save her.”

“How!” Ryder roared, face beet red. “All the equipment that controls the Gel is still here and even if it wasn't, he doesn't know how to use it.”

“Clark wouldn't do anything to harm or endanger her.” Bruce growled at him, offended by Ryder's disrespect of his friend.

“Oh yeah?” He replied, throwing his arms out and motioning around the room. “The one place she was the safest, he's taken her from.”

“We'll find them.” Diana told him, trying to cool off the situation before Bruce and Ryder came to blows.

-- Part III --

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dykerachelsummers · 4 years

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Can ya tell me about Cassandra Cain on earth 82 👀👀👀

cassandra “cass” martha wayne was born because david cain manipulated sandra wu-san into having his child, in an experiment to create the perfect bodyguard for ra’s al ghul.

cain deprived her of verbal and sign language for the first five years of her life so her first language would be body language. when she was five and he decided to teach her language, he learned that she essentially had childhood dyspraxia of speech and auditory processing disorder.

two people in the league of assassins were kind to cass as she was growing up: talia al ghul and her left-hand woman, jade nguyen. talia didn’t approve of cain’s training but was forbidden by her father to interfere.

cass was eight when she killed a man for the first time. horrified, she ran away. nine years later, at the age of seventeen, she met barbara gordon during the events of no man’s land. babs took her in and had her act as a messenger. during this time, she taught cass language. she was a more patient teacher than cain and learned how to work with cass’s disabilities. they focused on american sign language, both learning from dick grayson. babs eventually decided to pass the mantle of batgirl to cass.

as batgirl, cass became close friends with robin—though tim drake is only robin for two months during her tenure. she becomes just as close to the next robin, stephanie brown, and stays close to tim as well. during this time, she also becomes close to kon kent, cassie sandsmark, bart allen, and connor hawke. she and kon try dating for awhile, but she realizes she’s not attracted to men. her first girlfriend is brenda miller.

cass ends up passing her mantle of batgirl down to athanasia al ghul after nearly two years of the role, when she realizes she doesn’t identify as a girl. she takes on the role of black bat and takes over protecting the city of blüdhaven with the steph (the new nightwing) and bette kane (the new flamebird).

cass becomes batman at the age of twenty-six, when bruce is forced to retire. she takes over the mentorship of the newest robin, carrie kelley. cass joins the justice league at street-level.

cass and steph get married when cass is thirty-one. cass is also in a relationship with harper row. cass and steph adopt nell little shortly after getting married.

cass is officially unemployed! the ceo of wayne tech is tam fox. cass is living happily off her trust fund, especially with the supplement of steph’s income as a surgeon.

other cass relationships before she and steph and harper get together: cass/raven, cass/cassie, and cass/rose.

#tee answers #joey tag #cassandra cain #cass wayne #stephcassharper #earth 82 #my personal dc reboot #dc #long post

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cryptocism · 4 years

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ive been scrolling through ur blog for a while (cuz ur dc opinions are Top Fucking Notch) and i saw what you said abt bart in tt 03 and f:fma and while i totally agree (it killed tt 03 for me lol) im super curious abt how youd do his development if given the opportunity?

I’ve been thinking about this one like A Lot so buckle up this is long:

it would kind of depend? On whether or not he’d be in an ensemble team like Teen Titans or with his own solo series.

I understand metatextually why he became Kid Flash in TT, since they needed him to be more mature and a more recognizable character and having him upgrade costumes/codenames is a good shortcut for both. But I’ve already talked about why it didn’t sit right with me.

So, lets flip the script a little bit - the start of TT would be largely the same. Our boy Bart is on the new Titans team, and things are kind of awkward after YJ disbanded, also Max is gone and Bart’s relationship with Wally is still not doing great. Things are rough, Bart has newfound doubts to deal with, especially now that the world seems to have gotten harsher and everyone seems to have a lot less patience to deal with him. The pressure to be more mature and a recognizable character is coming from other characters now rather than an authorial need: he’s reminded to take things seriously, or that he should know better by now, that he needs to slow down and think more. So Bart decides a change is necessary, and we get the library scene. He reads all the books, he reappears as Kid Flash, saves Tim via bullet catch, disassembles a gun, takes down Slade, etc. etc. Here’s my departure from canon though: it doesn’t work.

Kid Flash is not a solution, or a magical cure for immaturity. Reading a whole library so he’s miraculously smarter and more mature and capable is, at its core, a pretty naive conclusion. And it makes sense he would think that. But it doesn’t work. He’s still impulsive, distractible, hasty. He can’t put a lid on his own sense of humor. People still think he’s annoying or lazy or careless. And he keeps trying - he knows all this stuff now, he read a whole library! - but he’s still apparently too much the same person as he's always been. And even though he’s trying very hard to live up to the Kid Flash name, it still doesn’t feel like him. Wally doesn’t like it, since Bart is literally just imitating him now, which makes things between the two even worse. And Bart keeps worrying about what’s supposed to come afterwards, since “Kid Flash” is inherently temporary, and while Impulse was only peripherally related to the flash legacy, Kid Flash comes with expectations.

Bart is trying very very hard to be ‘grown up’ and ‘mature’, but he hasn’t actually learned anything other than a bunch of facts (which are still useful, but) he’s just trying to be who everyone expects him to be.

And this is what i mean about the ensemble thing, because this arc would be in conversation with the rest of the core four, who are also trying very hard to be people they’re not, but all in different ways. Bart obviously with the codename change, but Cassie, Tim, and Kon all have similar issues, they’re all trying to imitate people.

Tim is doing his Batman jr. routine, reverting back to the persona he had at the start of YJ. He’s cagey and mysterious and does questionable things without telling anybody, because he’s de-facto leader of the team again, and he has to be better than he is. No more kid stuff, the Titans are serious, he has to treat it like a job, not like a sleepover. And this whole act is putting distance between him and his friends.

Cassie is trying her hardest to put herself in a support role. Donna’s gone and she has some big shoes to fill (she and Tim could probably bond about that if he weren’t stubbornly trying to brood at all hours of the day) and she’s doing her best to just Be Donna. Cassie and Tim would work better with their team roles swapped, and they both sort of know this - Cassie is naturally charismatic, thinks on her feet, can maintain good PR, and when she’s confident in herself is great at leading. Tim is partial to planning ahead, secrets, and keeping in the shadows, and is better at being a confidant and emotional problem solver among the team (when he allows himself to be open among friends, that is).

But they’re both trying to fit themselves into what they see as pre-ordained roles: Robin is leader, Wondergirl is a supportive mediator. But Cassie’s got a temper and little patience for people being idiots, and Tim’s not predisposed to spotlights.

Kon on the other hand has a story that’s less about who he should be and more who he shouldn’t be. The Lex Luthor dad storyline is here (minus the mind control shit, although the threat of it is still brought up) and Kon is doing his level best to do nothing that could be interpreted as something Lex might do. While everyone is doing their best to Not be their own person, Kon has no idea if he ever was his own person. He’s questioning everything he does, wondering if it’s some kind of evil gene showing through when he’s angry or petty or selfish. He’s going through lots of clone angst.

So they’re all dealing with expectations and who they are or aren’t supposed to be, trying to fit themselves into boxes that don’t suit them and then convincing themselves that this is how it ought to be. Kon ought to avoid feeling or acting in any negative light because any sign of Luthor is a sign of evil, Cassie ought to tone herself down and act like Donna, Tim ought to step up and lead the team and act like Dick, and Bart ought to listen better and be smarter and slow down and grow up and do his level best to just Be Wally.

Throughout the issues they’d all get a spotlight on their various crises, taking them through complimenting character arcs. Kon would realize through a couple close encounters and chats with ma and pa and talks with his friends and citizens of metropolis that nobody is all good or all bad. Clark can be a real asshole sometimes and Luthor’s actually done a fair bit of good (usually in his own interests, but still we’re gunning for nuance). Turns out he doesn’t have a dark side to be tempted by, he was made from 50% complex person and 50% complex person, just like everyone else. Which means he isn’t destined to be the next Superman, or Superman’s next supervillain. He’s just like, a person. With his own thoughts and feelings that have nothing to do with genetics.

Tim would wear himself out and hide it from everybody until he killed himself, but it’s only when he sees Cassie also wearing herself out too that his ‘somebody needs somebody’ instincts kick in and they’re actually able to talk about how miserable they both are. Through some trial and error they’re able to figure out a good co-leader system for leading the team, having each other’s backs along the way, which allows for them both being able to help out the other members of their team with their own shit i.e. Kon and Bart’s identity issues.

Bart is, like Cassie and Tim, wearing himself out trying to be this perfect version of Wally that never actually existed. He actually hates the recognition the new name gives him, because people have expectations for him now, ones he can never seem to live up to. He’s bad at following orders still, which makes him a pretty shit sidekick for Wally, in fact he’s just pretty shit at being a sidekick in general. But, he reasons, he’s supposed to be grown up and responsible now, and responsibility is all about doing shit you hate until you die, so he’s probably on the right track.

It’s only later, once he gets some support from his friends, who help him deal with things like Max and YJ disbanding and stuff that he’s able to actually sit down and have a heart-to-heart with Wally. Wally confesses that he understands the pressure to live up to a legacy, and how he did his best to just Be Barry when he became the flash. In fact while Bart was trying to live up to Wally and be a good sidekick, Wally was trying to live up to Barry and be a good mentor. Wally’s the one to tell him that Bart’s always done his own thing, and is at his best when he does. They both agree they suck as partners, but maybe they should’ve tried to be family first. And there’s probably a racing metaphor in there somewhere because speedsters love their racing metaphors.

ANyway Bart returns to Impulse, forging a new path, getting along better with Wally now and hanging out with him just as civilians with no pretense. He learns some valuable lessons about how maturity can’t be learned in a book, and that he’ll get it himself the more he lives and learns from experience. The Titans all get along better now that they’re all sure of their places in the group, and they can all go on just being themselves without worrying about expectations or roles to fill or whatever.

...If Bart still had his solo series instead though, id actually want it to go in a sort of different direction? The thing about living up to predecessors and trying to be some ideal version of another person works well for the Titans because they can all deal with a similar issue in different ways, but I think it would also be interesting to do the complete opposite.

Lots of shitty things happened in very quick succession in Bart’s life that he had no control over: Max’s disappearance, having to move in with Jay and Joan (who are nice, but whom he barely knows,) leaving his friends in Alabama, Young Justice breaking up… Basically, things kind of suck for Bart, and all he wants is for them to go back to the way they were. Instead of trying to be grown up or mature or whatever, Bart is resisting every single encroaching thing about coming adulthood. Because all growing up ever seems to mean is that everything changes and either you have to leave the people you love or they have to leave you.

So this series would focus mostly on that, both in his civilian life; going into high school, not knowing anybody, the few friends he does make are less interested in ‘kid stuff’ and more focused on dating and interpersonal drama, high school itself seems to be geared entirely toward the “what are you going to do with your life” question, when he visits his old friends back in manchester, they’ve all kind of grown up without him. And in hero life; everyone from Young Justice is trying to move on and not talking to each other, his father figure and mentor is gone and he's not really jiving well with the rest of the flash family, and people just seem to have less patience for Impulse now that he’s older.

Growing up is hard. It’s hard and no one understands. Especially not when you’re also a superhero and have dealt with some quality trauma like losing loved ones and feeling yourself die. So it makes sense that Bart would resist that in every way possible, do his best to pretend like everything is still how it used to be, for once in his life just trying to make everything stay put. He refuses to get rid of his old stuff, he doesn’t want to treat any villainous threats seriously, people in school keep talking about college and jobs and tuition fees and Bart wants none of that, he acts out, refuses responsibility, gets reckless under the pretense that he never used to have to be cautious.

And this is the part where I’d bring in Inertia, cause Thad was robbed and I want him to have an actual arc that doesn’t end with infant-splosion. Also he can have a good ol companion arc to Bart. Welcome to foils everybody, where two identical boys with opposing life experiences get to thematically compare and contrast with each other as they deal with the trials and tribulations of growing up.

So, I’m ignoring every appearance Thad ever made after Impulse 1995, picking up instead where his story left off where he swore vengeance on his creators and disappeared into the speed force. And he’s off to do exactly what he said; Thad Thawne II is going to kill his namesake/grandfather/creator - the president of Earthgov.

But, turns out assassinating the president of a whole fucking planet is a lot harder than he thought - Thad has planned extensively for every moment of his life, so once he starts going off script things predictably go a little off the fuckin rails. Thad fails, obviously. For one because despite how much President Thawne might deserve to die, Thad at this point hasn’t done anything worse than attempted murder, and making him a killer would put a wrench in any kind of redemption arc he could have. Also he’s acting on rage, in a highly emotional state, basically going up against the entire government. Of course he’s going to get caught by the science police and brought into custody.

Bart, meanwhile is jumping with both feet into any kind of escapism he can find, which involves various time travel shenanigans and lands him in the 30th century. He gets to reunite however briefly with his mom, but the mission he had gets derailed by the appearance of Inertia.

Every time Bart and President Thawne interact, the president always seems to make a bid to sway Bart to the Thawne side. This never works, which is part of the reason Inertia exists in the first place; a version of Bart that the president could control. When Inertia landed in the 30th century, hell bent on assassinating his creator, the President subdued him and eventually coerced him back over to the Thawne side of the family feud. No longer a rogue agent, Inertia is back to his old self, all about destroying Bart and the rest of the Allens.

They have a battle, taking place all over the 30th century city, and Bart does his best but Inertia has the entire Earthgov police force on his side, and Bart eventually gets captured. He gets taken to some kind of holding facility, meets with the President who monologues as him while Inertia stands beside him like a good lackey. Then suddenly the speed-inhibiting cuffs or whatever Inertia had put on Bart to stop his speed malfunctions, and Inertia drops the act, now Impulse and Inertia working together to take down the Earthgov people holding them there.

Turns out as soon as Inertia knew he couldn’t take out the president, what with all the military force President Thawne had on his side, he bided his time until he could. He uses Bart’s help to finally get President Thawne cornered, and the assassination plan is back on track. Except now Bart is the thing stopping him. He makes the argument about how murder bad. Heroes don’t kill, etc. Inertia insists he isn’t a hero. But Bart reminds him that that’s not how Max saw him.

Inertia hesitates just enough that President Thawne is able to get away, and now the two of them have to make an escape attempt back to the past. Bart insists on trying to take Meloni with them, and they try but ultimately fail somehow (maybe someone has to stay behind to make sure they can make the trip safely, idk. At first Thad is willing to stay behind, since there’s nothing really for him in the past. But Meloni knows that President Thawne would destroy him if he did, and she can’t let harm come to either of her sons - and she does consider Thad her son, just like Bart. She’s had far too little time with either of them, but she loves them all the same. She tells them to take care of each other, and is the first to encourage them to be like, actual brothers.)

After yet another tearful goodbye, Bart swearing he’ll find a way for them to all be together again, Bart and Thad go back. And they do end up having to lean on each other, because shit’s tough for the both of them. Thad initially wants to apologize and possibly reunite with Max and Helen, and then finds out Max is gone. And Bart has someone who understands exactly what he’s going through.

Things get a little more lighthearted from here. Bart and Thad don’t get along well at first, since they’re both going through rough times and lots of changes and their first instincts are to lash out at each other. But eventually they form a sort of camaraderie through shared grief, then shared fish-out-of-water experiences. Which evolves into shared inside jokes and video games and comic books and they become slow but steady friends.

They upgrade into brothers when Bart defends Thad against the repeated (and not entirely undeserved) suspicion he receives from the rest of the Flash family. Jay and Joan take him in, but it’s clear they don’t trust him, and neither does Wally. Bart stands up for Thad, arguing that he’s as much of a Thawne as Thad is, and treating Thad like he’s the next Cobalt Blue is just going to ensure that history never changes and stupid family feuds are forever. After this, Thad starts trusting Bart a little more, and kind of solves Bart’s problems regarding encroaching adulthood with his friendship. Neither of them really had a childhood, and Thad hasn’t experienced 21st century life at all, much less the societal expectations to grow up. So Bart gets to have fun again, and Thad won't judge any of his games or his books or his attitude or interests for being childish or lame because he’s fascinated by the experience of anything regardless of the target audience.

And from there it's a series about these two becoming brothers and growing up and the different lessons they learn and wacky characters they meet along the way. Thad ironically also puts Bart in a position where he has to take on more responsibility, since even though Thad can imitate heroic actions and is actually pretty good at it, he doesn’t understand what makes them heroic. Bart has to draw on a lot of the things Max taught him and now has to teach them to Thad.

There’s crossover comics with Superboy, where Bart laments about having to deal with grown up stuff, and Kon gives him a new perspective on the whole “being young forever” thing, since that was a reality Kon actually had to deal with and it sucked.

Through various misadventures they meet new and familiar characters to give them different perspectives on the whole passage of time thing. Villains who despise children or childish things, villains who embrace it but probably too much. People who talk about growing up as the worst time of their lives, others talking about it like it was the best. Kids and adults alike trying to force Bart and Thad to act a certain way while treating them another.

The two of them come to opposing conclusions about this; Thad wants to embrace change completely, partly because he wants to experience firsthand all that life has to offer, but also his worldview depends on believing that anyone can change, and anyone can be better, because he has to believe he can be redeemed for all the shitty stuff he did. Bart, on the other hand, knows his life isn’t perfect but thinks, based on recent events, that it’s all just going to get worse from here, and so resists change as much as possible.

Thad, in his haste to experience everything, sometimes ends up going too far, either burning both of them out, or pushing them into situations that they’re not ready for or are ill-equipped to handle. Bart, on the other hand is so resistant to change or responsibility that he stops them from doing actual necessary things like planning their futures or doing chores or making new friends. This acts as the crux for their main conflict that slowly builds throughout the series, and then in a finale to the arc, they both figure out a way to get Meloni back to the past, and to raise some stakes they have a falling out in the middle of the mission about it.

Bart accuses Thad of trying to leave him behind, or trying to be the better version of him again, and that old insecurity about Thad replacing him crops up. Thad thinks Bart just can’t handle anything outside his personal bubble and wants to force him to live in the real world. Plus he also feels kind of abandoned by Bart, who often would leave Thad to do the scary adult things on his own.

Tensions still high, there's suddenly an external threat to deal with - probably president thawne and the science police - and they attempt to continue arguing even while fighting the president. I’m making this up as I go so lets say yada yada big climactic moment it's looking like the two might fail to get Meloni back and they’re both still angry with each other and Bart just… can’t take it anymore.

He keeps losing people, and the ones he keeps he always seems to screw up with. And at the end of the day he’s just a kid who wants his mom. Is that really so much to ask? So there’s a reversal, a parallel, if you will, of the assassination attempt from the beginning of the series, this time with Bart. Or, because I don’t think many people would buy that Bart would actually ever for real kill someone, maybe he’s finally about to get his mom back, but she doesn’t want to go (since she made that deal with the president that he wouldn’t harm anyone of the Allen family so long as she stayed with him) so he’s trying to force her, risking the lives/well-being of the entire Allen bloodline across all of time.

This time it’s Thad who has to talk him down, who has to remind him about being a hero, who has to remind him that trying to go back to some magical time in the past where things were better is just going to stop him from learning and growing as a person, and that doing anything and everything possible to get there is just going to lead to Bart doing something he Actually Can’t walk back from.

Alright but here’s the thing because having Bart be forced to leave his mom again for like the billionth time is tired and overdone, and personally the whole message about heroics involving extreme and damaging amounts of sacrifice can only go so far. So here; Thad and Bart are both right.

Like on the one hand, yeah, it’s childish and selfish for Bart to want to be with his mom at the expense of literally everyone else in his family. On the other hand, the fact that they can’t be together because some asshole is upholding a stupid grudge is bad and unfair and wrong. The issue needing to be fixed is not the kid who wants his mom, it’s the jackass keeping them apart (and who also wants to kill/imprison people). So Bart convinces Thad that they have to save Meloni, and Thad convinces Bart that there has to be another way - one where they get their mom back and the Allens don’t have to be hunted.

The whole story would be leading up to the two of them coming to this conclusion; the healthy middle between the two extremes. Where they have the maturity to plan ahead and sort through their differences and figure out the best course of action with the least amount of collateral, but they don’t let go of that adolescent need for justice and fairness - that thing that makes you dig in your heels and say “no. That’s not fair, that’s not right.”

SO here’s where I’d put the title card: “Bartholomew and Thaddeus Take Down The Government”. How do they do it? No idea! I’m flyin by the seat of my pants here! Do they run for office? Do they publicize the president’s crimes in such a way he gotta go to jail? Do they somehow turn public opinion against him enough to get him out of office? idk!!! And I don’t remember enough about Earthgov’s political situation to put an accurate read on what exactly they might do to disrupt it.

Either way they don’t kill him, manage to free their mom, and they all go back to the past together. And a new arc would involve the three of them getting settled in the past; Meloni would be a main character now, and hers is a two-pronged fish out of water story where she’s trying to figure out how shit works in the past, with overtones of the struggles of being a single parent.

And... I’m not going to say any more about that because this is long enough already oof.

TL;DR I think a coming of age story would be cool for Bart, and having to deal with growing up when he never really had a childhood. Also the comic itself would be aimed at younger audiences, who can probably relate to having a Bad Time in the Teens and wacky hijinks with friends and siblings.

#soapbox #anonymous #asks

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sweetwriting · 4 years

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TimKon Week 2020 Day 6: Au Temps des Cerises

Category: Gen or Pre-slash

Genre: Angst/Fluff,

Fandoms: DC Comics, Red Robin, Teamverse

Continuity: Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint Future AU

Summary: I mixed both prompts, you get canon era Bakery and Coffeeshop AU. I'm proud of what I did in just 2 hours

Word Count: 1840

AN: Hey everyone! hope you enjoy this. Warning, the beginning might be a bit hard.

PS: I know lots of this could be solved by going to the authorities but I didn’t want to

PPS: I might actually go in more depth later.

Prompt: Canon AU – Coffeeshop/Bakery

Can be read on AO3

Conner had been living in California for 2 weeks now. He was going to start his classes there next week and had mostly used that time to settle in his apartment, his neighborhood and his job.

He was working at a small bakery near his apartment and thanks to everything Ma had taught him he could do something other than just staying near the register.

Truthfully he didn’t need it, Bruce Wayne and later on Dick Grayson made sure every young hero who wanted to study got a scholarship so they wouldn’t be burdened by having to work in addition to studying and heroing.

But Conner needed it. He needed to keep busy.

Because when he had been brought back to life, it was to the news that Tim Drake had died while looking for a flimsy hope that Bruce Wayne was still alive.

That had been about 5 months ago.

At first he had tried to follow his trail and find his voice but his powers were nowhere near Clark’s and after three months he finally gave in.

Tim was dead.

But he couldn’t accept that and move on. He tried to bury himself in heroing, in catching up on homework, on helping Ma. But in order to really bury everything he had to use his powers and that meant he was done very quickly with high school and he needed something new and time consuming.

He chose to study both Law and Psychology. Tim had told him once that he was too emotional to take a step back when he needed it but that he also had the uncanny ability to perceive parts of people no one else noticed. Tim would talk to him about it sometimes. Or about how he and Batman dealt with the law in Gotham. About a lot of things really, but he had once told him it could be useful in their line of work, in knowing how to deal with victims and criminal.

So Conner was pursuing it.

Partly because Tim’s advice had been sound, partly because it was one of the last talks he had had with Tim.

He didn’t really hang out with the Teen Titans. He was there when he wasn’t busy but…he had tried for a bit. Got back together with Cassie, hung out with Bart. But he couldn’t do that in hero form and as Titans…Well even if they called themselves family they didn’t hang out together the way they had done in Young Justice. When they’d just play ping-pong and other dumb things. Now him and Bart still tried but Conner wouldn’t be able to actually do that until he at least managed to accept Tim’s death.

But no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

It was his third week at Au Temps des Cerises, the little bakery and he would start his classes in two days. His boss, a sweet middle aged woman called Samantha had just asked him to go deliver some of their baked goods to a coffee shop and a restaurant for a taste test. If they liked it well enough then they sign a contract to sell them.

He was just finished with the restaurant manager and their chef and was heading toward the Café Culturel et Solidaire, a small café not far from Conner’s campus. Not that he’d ever gotten anywhere near close to it before. He liked coffee but not more than any other drink. Apparently that coffee shop was not very well known but pretty cheap and with quite a few regulars.

As he was nearing it however, he started losing his focus which meant he lost control of his super hearing. And he heard him.

His voice was coming from the coffee shop.

Before he knew what was happening, Conner was running toward it and opened the doors with a bang yelling Tim’s name.

Which obviously meant that he scared more than half of the people in the shop, including the staff. Including the boy at the register, who looked so much like Tim. Probably the source of the voice. He walked toward him.

“Have we met?”

- - - - - - - - - -

Conner was waiting in the Café Culturel et Solidaire’s kitchen. After being shocked silent by Tim’s -he knew he was Tim…he didn’t know how he knew it but he did- answer he screamed again.

“Of course! How dare you say that to your best friend!”

Tim startled. “Wha- No! I meant that literally I… Look…Are you part of the Bakery that was supposed to drop by?”

Conner stopped for a second, reminded that he had a big bag with the name and logo of his workplace in his arms. He nodded and Tim sighed.

“Ok, go wait in the kitchen, I’m gonna get the manager and I’ll be off soon just…Stop making a scene.”

So Conner had followed the instructions and was now waiting for the manager to taste test the bakeries.

He didn’t have to wait more than five minutes before a man who seemed to be in his early 60’s came in and after a good 20 minutes, the Au Temps des Cerises bakery had a new deal. The old man did look at him in a slightly distrustful way though.

When he got out, most of the clients that had been there when he had entered were gone and he let out a relieved sigh. Especially when he saw Tim waiting for him.

The young man looked up at that moment and it allowed Conner to see how nervous he was. He sighed. He didn’t like the idea of Tim being nervous because of him. And he knew there was something wrong. Or at least he hoped. It was a horrible thing to say but he hoped that there was a good reason for Tim just leaving like that.

They got out of the shop and started walking. From what Conner could guess, they were going toward the big parc near the campus.

They spent the first couple of minutes in silence. It seemed longer. Then Tim breathed in and said:

“I meant what I said when I asked if we had met before. It wasn’t to be mean or anything but I was comatose for 5 months when I was in Paris and when I woke up I had lost all my memories. I only knew my first name and that I was from the US. Granted that was deduced from my accent and the fact that I didn’t speak a work of French. I worked there for two months in a small toy shop because the owner was the brother of my doctor and took pity on me.

When they found me I only had a book and some money on me. Turns out my passport was hidden in it so after two months I took the first flight I could afford. Now I’m working in that café because I needed the money to go to the address on the passport and coffee shop will accept pretty much anyone who asks and can handle the rhythm.

You…You knew my name. You just saw me through the window and you recognized me so I just…I was surprised.”

Conner was relieved. Of course it was awful for Tim and that meant his best friend had forgotten him but he hadn’t avoided him on purpose. Now how would he be able to manage that was a different question entirely.

But he didn’t care. It was Tim. Tim was alive and there was a chance he could get his best friend back.

So he hugged him. Also he cried on his shoulder but that was just a detail.

AN: As always, Tim will never be a coffee addict in my fics. For one thing he drank like 3 cups of coffee in canon overall. So while he can enjoy it, that's pretty much all there's to it, so, when compared to Dick and Barbara who are often, often often seen with a mug of coffee in hand, it's even more laughable to me. Also the guy loves to sleep. He's not gonna force himself to stay awake if he doesn't absolutely have to. That's why he falls asleep on a roller coaster, he just changed his sleep schedule.

Anyway, the idea is that Tim will remember things after a while in Gotham. Dick's been crying for months and now that his baby brother is back he won't leave him alone. They don't bring up the reason why Tim left. Things explode, which help Tim get the last of his memories back, they get Bruce back. Tim and Dick are mending things. Meanwhile Conner is happily baking for Tim and he's learning how to be around people again after shutting everybody out. Bart also gets lots of Cake. Ma's happy Conner's feeling better. Did I say Conner baked for Tim? 'Cause it's important.

#TimKon Week #TimKon #Tim Drake #Conner Kent #DC Comics #OTP:TimKon #BrOTP: BartKon #BrOTP: TimKon #Angst & Fluff #Post Crisis #Red Robin Comics #Teen Titans v3

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yellowcanna · 4 years

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Two Sides, Same Coin

Summary: Since the beginning of Quirks, Yokohama has announced independence from Japan and closed itself from the rest of the world.

To this day and age, no one knows what lies within the city of Yokohama—or that was what the public was made to believe. In reality, Yokohama has long fallen into the control of the world’s largest criminal organization known as the Port Mafia.

Follow Class 1-A as their principal organized a field trip to Yokohama! In their short trip there, they must change their perspectives and learn exactly what it means to be justice and what it means to be villains.

Rating: T

Genre: Crossover, hint of shounen-ai (boy love)

Pairing: Contains mild Soukoku (Dazai x Chuuya) and Shin Soukoku (Akutagawa x Atsushi) if you squint

Author: Canna / Yellow Canna

Available on AO3!!

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◅ PREV MAIN NEXT ▻

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CHAPTER 13

MOONLESS NIGHT (NIGHT 3: TUESDAY)

This story has been beta'd by Momentary_Flight

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Sunday 8:32pm—Yokohama

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“What the fuck is this?”

Shigaraki Tomura stood at the top of a building as he stared down at the brightly lit street below him.

People were walking around like normal.

People were going about their night like normal.

People were laughing like normal.

And all of that added together was anything but normal.

“This is…Yokohama?!” Spinner gaped in disbelief before he whirled around to Kurogiri. “Didn’t you say this is a city ruled by criminals?”

"It's…supposed to be," Kurogiri replied unsurely.

"Then perhaps we ended up somewhere else?" Magne looked up at the clear night sky. “I don’t see any signs of that barrier we broke through.”

“Maybe this barrier also has a warp power?” Toga suggested.

“So…are we in Yokohama or not?!” Twist shouted in confusion.

“Are you blind?” Dabi snorted at his companions.

Before an argument could break out, Shigaraki spoke.

"This place is Yokohama."

“Indeed.” Mr. Compress twirled his staff around before pointing it down at the street. “Take a closer look at those people.”

Everyone looked back at the people walking about. They only needed a glimpse to know what Mr. Compress was referring to. After all, where e lse in the world could they find a bunch of people looking like the carbon copies of each other?

“Old Humans…” Magne mumbled before her head snapped up upon catching a glimpse of a shadow from the corner of her eye. “They sure are annoying. They’ve been following us since we came through the barrier.”

“Can we kill them?” Toga was already reaching for her knife.

“Forget them.” Shigaraki’s blood-red eye darted to the narrow alleyway beside the building they were on. There were three punks at the bottom, each of them armed with a baseball bat as they chattered and smoked. "We need to find a temporary hideout."

Half an hour later, the group arrived at an abandoned warehouse. It was run down and filled with dust, but it at least had a proper roof. It was a perfect temporary hideout for them.

Shigaraki walked around the warehouse, leaving footprints on the dusty floor.

"C-can you please let me go now?" The man in Magne's grip asked with a trembling voice. He was from the trio back in the alleyway.

“Yeah, you did a great job.” Shigaraki strolled back to the man and wrapped all five of his fingers around his face.

Everyone watched with cold eyes as the man shrieked. His body began to disintegrate into ashes, starting with his face. Once the body was fully gone, Shigaraki looked down at his palm, then to Kurogiri.

“Kurogiri, can you warp us out?”

Kurogiri’s glowing yellow eyes narrowed before purple mist erupted from his body. The villains watched as the dark mist flickered. It tried to form a warp portal, only to disperse before trying again.

After several failed attempts, Kurogiri ended up opening a portal three meters beside him.

"I cannot warp us back out," Kurogiri said as Shigaraki picked up a small piece of cement that had fallen from the wall. "It's the same as trying to warp us inside the city. My Quirk isn't able to go past the barrier. It seems that I can now only warp within the city."

Shigaraki tossed the piece of cement into one end of Kurogiri’s portal and watched it fly out from the other.

“So we have to crawl through that hole we made if we want to leave?” Magne frowned, not liking that idea.

"But what exactly is that barrier?" Spinner asked. "None of our Quirks worked on that thing, not even Shigaraki’s. I’ve never heard of any material that can do that.”

"I am afraid I do not have an answer to that," Kurogiri replied as purple mist took the form of a human body once more. “The master had spent years researching the barrier of Yokohama, but he was unable to find anything. The only thing he was certain of is that Yokohama’s barrier is neither technology nor power.”

“Oh?” Mr. Compress perked up in surprise.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Twice gaped.

Dabi raised a brow as his fingers lightly tapped on the crate he was sitting on. He gazed up to the sky, looking through the hole in the roof and to the stars twinkling in the night.

“You’re not saying this thing is alive, are you?” The raven-haired villain asked.

"No, I do not believe so," Kurogiri replied.

“What else can you tell us about Yokohama?” Mr. Compress asked.

“I have nothing more.” Kurogiri shook his head. “I have already explained to you about Ability users. The master rarely spoke of Yokohama.”

Rather than not talking about it, it was more like something had happened in the past that made All for One not want to think about it.

Truthfully, Kurogiri knew he shouldn’t have allowed Shigaraki to come here. Since a long time ago, All for One had instructed all of them to never go near Yokohama. Unfortunately, with All for One’s capture, Shigaraki was in a mess. He had completely lost his way and only calmed down after they received information of U.A High School planning a class trip to Yokohama.

It was the mention of Yokohama that pointed out a new path for Shigaraki. As the master's disciple, he too knew about the situation within Yokohama. The master had told him how dangerous Yokohama was, but he wanted to see just what a Hero-free world was like with his own eyes.

“I want to see it…” Shigaraki told Kurogiri when the latter tried to stop him. “The hidden boss behind the final one.”

Kurogiri glanced at Shigaraki who was standing in the middle of the warehouse.

Perhaps the master had anticipated this as well.

"For now, we need information," Shigaraki announced as he turned to his team. “Dabi and Mr. Compress will go out and gather information.”

“Eeeh?” Toga whined. “Then what about the rest of us?”

"We wait here," Shigaraki said as he sat down on a dusty old chair.

“No! I want to go out too!” Toga complained.

“Same here!” Twist shouted, raising his hand like an elementary kid.

“Now, now, calm down.” Mr. Compress waved his hands to calm his comrades. “We’re in the enemy’s territory. It’ll be risky for us to split up too much. We’ll bring some food back, what do you all want?”

Just like that, Mr. Compress smoothly put out the flames before it even ha d a chance to ignite.

"Also, if those guys out there follow you, let them," Shigaraki added. “Don’t do anything unnecessary.”

"We know that much," Dabi muttered as he and Mr. Compress headed outside.

Thus began the League of Villains’s first night within Yokohama.

◤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◥

Present

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

“For a couple of brats, you have some guts to come into a nightclub." The orange-haired man said as he came to a stop before the kids.

“W-what do you mean?” Kaminari stammered. He didn’t know why, but there was a strange pressure slamming down on him when he met the man’s eyes.

“What’s it to you?!” Bakugou shouted, standing up. “We can be here all we want!”

“Y-yeah!” Mineta joined in, finding some confidence through Bakugou. “We’re legal!”

The red-haired man snorted out a laugh. “Listen here, kid. No adults would ever call themselves legal.”

“But we’re all sixteen! We can be here!” Kaminari argued.

“Yeah, for Yokohama citizens that is.” The man replied, causing all of them to freeze up in shock. How did they get found out again?!

“H-how—” Mineta spluttered, unable to finish his sentence.

“Anyone can tell with one glance that you’re outsiders.” The man spoke with amusement lacing his husky voice. He looked over to the waiter. The moment their gaze connected, the waiter hurriedly walked up to him with his hands folded behind his back and his posture straight.

“How may I serve you, Chuuya-sama?” He inquired respectfully.

“Tell me what these kids order.” The man called Chuuya said.

“Yes.” The waiter bowed before he began listing out the drinks in perfect order from first to last.

“Sakura Martini for the lady in the inner booth.

Sake Blossom for the lady with the ponytail.

Peach Fuzz for the russet-haired lady.

Tangerine Ginger Sake Sangria for the lady with earmuffs.

Matcha Highball for the long-haired lady.

Raspberry Sake Tea for the lady in the outer booth.

Sake Bomb for the gentleman with ash-blond hair.

Red Eye for the gentleman with red-hair.

Umetini for the dark-haired gentleman in a varsity jacket.

Cassis Grape for the petite gentleman.

Lychee Martini for the gentleman with blond hair and a black streak.

Fuzzy Navel for the blond-haired gentleman in the brown trench coat.

Mango Margarita for the strong-looking gentleman.

Samurai Caeser for the blond gentleman with long bangs.

Ginza Mary for the gentleman with the blue scarf.

Lemon Drop for the gentleman with the knitted hat.

Sake Mojito for the warmly dressed gentleman.

Japanese Sling for the gentleman with glasses.

Shochu Melon Citrus for the green-haired gentleman.

Umeshu for the gentleman with split coloured hair.”

The waiter barely took any breaths in-between as he recited the long list of orders in what could only be described as perfection. The students stared at the waiter with wide eyes. No one had any idea how in the world that waiter pulled it off.

When the red-haired man gave the kids a pointed look, more than half of them ducked their heads in guilt—like children caught stealing from a cookie jar.

“Remove the alcohol in all of those and replace it with something nonalcoholic.”

“Yes, Chuuya-sama.”

“Hey!” Bakugou hollered but was ignored by the two adults.

“What about the Spirit Bomb, Chuuya-sama?”

“Why the heck are you asking him?! I’m the customer here!”

“Hm.” Chuuya waved his hand dismissively, looking as if he couldn’t care less. “Replace it with milk.”

“As you wish.” With another bow, the waiter walked off to bring the kids their new orders.

“HEY!!!”

“Kacchan!” Midoriya hissed softly, looking back at the man every now and then as he tried to calm his childhood friend down. After all, this person found out who they were and could kick out any minute. The fact that the man even let the waiter give them drinks meant that they were being allowed to stay.

Fortunately, Bakugou was aware of this as well. He grumbled as he plopped himself back down into his seat, refusing to speak another word to the singer.

“After you finish your drinks, leave,” the redhead told them with his arms crossed over his chest. “Kids should act like kids and go home by their curfew time.”

“…Yes,” they replied dejectedly. They watched as the redhead leaned against the wall, seeming to have no intention of leaving. It was obvious that the man had his eyes on them now.

There was a moment of awkward silence as they stared at the man who was just scrolling through his phone.

“Um…Chuuya-san?” Midoriya called hesitantly. That was what the waiter had addressed this man by, right?

The singer looked up.

“Are you the owner of this place?”

The redhead didn’t respond. He stared at the boy, to the point where Midoriya was starting to fidget in his seat, wondering if he had said something wrong.

“Well,” the man closed his phone and shoved it into his back pocket, “I guess you can say that.”

Midoriya blinked at the vague answer. Did he mean that he wasn’t the only owner?

"We are sorry!" Iida, the ever responsible class-president, stood up as best as he could in the limited space of the booth and bowed at the man. "We didn't mean to intrude into your club like this! Thank you for letting us stay!"

A waiter walked up to Chuuya and held up a tray with a single glass of wine like an offering. The red-haired man took the glass by the stem and swirled the red fluid inside around. His movements were swift and elegant.

"I'm only letting you stay until you finish your drinks," he told them, taking a small sip at his wine. "‘Being out this late isn’t for kids like you."

"We're sorry." Yaoyorozu dipped her head in shame. As a straight "A" student growing up in a good household, she had rarely ever been scolded, so this was a harsh hit on her.

“We’re sorry as well.” The rest of the class except for Bakugou followed.

“Um…Chuuya-san, we saw you singing on the stage, you were super amazing!" Uraraka said as the other girls instantly nodded in agreement.

“Yes, it was amazing!” Ashido praised.

“I’ve never heard of anyone that can change pitches like that!” Jirou added.

“Yeah!” Hagakure was waving her hands in the air.

For the first time since he appeared before them, a smile lifted the redhead’s lips. It was a small smile, but with a handsome face like Chuuya’s, a small smile was enough to get the girls flustered.

Thankfully for them, it was at that moment that three waiters came over to their little corner, each of them carrying a tray of colourful drinks.

Everyone watched with stars in their eyes as they received their drinks. Each of them came with a paper straw and fruits decorating the rim of the glass.

“…It’s so good!” Ashido beamed when she took a huge sip of her drink. "It's like cola, but raspberry flavoured! I can even taste the tea!”

"You're right, this is good!" Uraraka gasped. “It’s all bubbly!”

“It’s sparkling water,” Asui croaked happily.

“I didn’t know sparkling water and plum juice could taste so good! Hey Todoroki, is yours the same as mine?” Sero asked, looking over to Todoroki whose drink looked identical to his.

“Yes.” Todoroki smiled as he looked down at his glass.

Despite not having any alcohol, the people that made these drinks took the effort to make them resemble the pictures on the menu. While everyone was admiring and tasting their drinks, Bakugou was glaring at his milk.

The milk was poured into a rocks glass with one gigantic ball of ice floating at the center. There was a layer of coconut flakes over the surface and around the rim of the glass. As the finishing touch, there were two cranberries skewered by a toothpick balancing on the tip of the ice.

It was obvious that whoever made this was trying to give this glass of milk a wintery theme.

However…it didn’t change the fact that this was just a stupid glass of plain milk.

“Woah Bakugou! That milk looks so good!” Kirishima commented, not noticing how the look on Bakugou’s face was getting worse.

“Yeah, that milk sure looks great, Bakugou!” Sero whistled while trying to restrain his laughter.

“That’s the fanciest milk I’ve ever seen!” Kaminari didn’t have the restraint that Sero did and was clutching onto his stomach as he laughed.

“Let us see over here too!” Ashido called from the other table.

With a roar, Bakugou grabbed his glass. He tossed the cranberries away and dumped the entire glass of milk into his open mouth. The rich milk floated down his throat, but Bakugou had completely forgotten about the large globe of ice that was now stuck in his mouth.

The boy's face distorted from rage as his teeth ground against the gigantic ball of ice. Bakugou could spit it back out, but his pride wouldn’t allow that to happen, so he ended up sitting there trying to grind the ice apart with his teeth.

The other students quickly went back to talking about their drinks. They’ve known Bakugou long enough to know when to stop their teasing. As they talked, the grinding sound of ice continued to echo by their ears.

“Um, the money—” Yaoyorozu stood up, about to pull out her wallet when Chuuya held up a hand to stop her.

"It's on the house,” the singer told them before waving one of the waiters over. "After you're done, this guy will escort you out the back door. It'll be bad for business if a suspicious group of people like you walks out the front door."

"Thank you so much! We appreciate it!"

“Yes! Thank you!”

"Thank you!"

An echo of thanks came from the students, but the man only brushed it off. Those bright blue eyes only gave them a brief look before he turned, his jacket flapping around him as he walked away.

The waiter that the redhead had called over just stood there dutifully, looking as if he was going to keep standing there until they finish their drinks. Under the man’s stare, there was no way anyone would dare to overstay their welcome. They hurriedly finished their drinks and followed the waiter to the back door that was next to the bar.

There was nothing in the back aside from a long, plain white hallway. At the very end of the hall was a door made of wood. No words were exchanged the entire time they walked. Some of them wanted to talk to ease up the strange atmosphere, but the presence of the waiter made it hard for them to find anything to talk about.

Once they had arrived at the wooden door, the waiter opened it and the cool night air blew in. The man held the door open with one hand folded behind his back and bowed. Startled by such formality, they walked out the door one by one, bowing back and thanking the waiter as they went.

The sky was completely dark.

The street they came out to was just as empty as the street by the club’s front door. The street lights were functioning properly, but it didn’t make the place any less eerie.

Midoriya glanced back at the building they came out from. Unlike the front of the club that had nothing but a black door, the back looked more like an ordinary house. There were windows and all, but the hallway they walked through clearly didn't have any other doors that lead to the rest of the house.

He frowned, feeling as though he had overlooked something important.

The moment the last person—Koda, walked out, the waiter closed the door shut. In the silence, everyone could hear the clicking sound of the lock being turned on the other side. They stared at the door, then to one another, and finally to the empty street.

Perhaps…they should have asked for directions?

◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥

BAM

The slamming sound of the iron door was drowned out by the music and voices. When a group of oddly dressed people (especially one with hands all over his body) walked into the club, it attracted some attention, but the people around just brushed it off as some weird early Halloween cosplays.

Shigaraki Tomura looked around the club before his eyes landed on the glass staircase with black-suited men standing guard.

“There.” He walked straight towards the stairs with his hands tucked in his pockets.

When those suited men saw them approaching, they immediately blocked their path.

“State your business,” one of the men demanded.

"Tell your boss we're here to see him," Shigaraki told him.

The guards didn’t seem put off by his attitude. One of them went up the stairs, most likely to report while the other two continued to stand guard.

The League of Villains didn’t mind the wait. They stood there idly, taking their time to look around the club.

Shigaraki eyed every person that passed by them. After taking in his surroundings, his eyes eventually landed on that stage. There was a band playing and a singer singing, but that singer was only mediocre in terms of looks.

Nothing about him stood out.

This made Shigaraki frown as he thought back to all the information Dabi and Mr. Compress had collected.

For an organization that controlled an entire city, there was very little information about them. The top brass within the Port Mafia were a complete mystery, yet strangely enough there was information on the boss himself—as well as those next in line to the position of boss.

The first and foremost piece of information they found was about the succession battle—or the Selection War as they called it. This peaceful little city wasn’t as peaceful as it seemed. It had only been two short days and they’ve already discovered countless organizations moving within the shadows.

And whenever there was movement, there were always two individuals involved.

The White Reaper and the Rabid Dog of the Port Mafia.

It was as if all the eyes within Yokohama were on these two so-called successors. While they couldn’t find any information as to what their powers are, one thing for certain is that the White Reaper and the Rabid Dog were no friends. Everyone in the underground knew that if these two were put in the same room, they would tear each other apart and wouldn’t stop until one side is dead.

The next piece of information would be about the boss of this joke of a crime syndicate.

It was said that four years ago, the previous boss of the Port Mafia suddenly retired, handing over his position to the current boss. Where that retired boss went, no one knows. All they knew was that the new boss was formerly nicknamed Demon Prodigy in the underground world.

While they weren’t able to find out why he had gotten such a name, they were able to come across some interesting gossip, and that was this club right here.

It seemed that the Port Mafia boss had his eyes on one of the singers. Since that singer only sings on Tuesday nights, the Port Mafia boss will always come to the club at this time without fail.

Shigaraki looked up when the guard came back down and gave a curt nod to his companions. Without a word, they stepped aside, making way for the uninvited guests. Shigaraki didn't spare these grunts another look as he walked upstairs with the rest trailing behind him.

Although he looked completely laid back, Shigaraki’s mind was turning as he played out countless scenarios of what this Demon Prodigy would be like. At the same time, two phrases continuously circled inside his head.

These were phrases that were heard repeatedly during Dabi and Mr. Compress’s investigation. Whenever the Port Mafia was mentioned, these two phrases would turn up without fail.

“Those who oppose the Port Mafia will be crushed by vicious gravity.”

And,

“Double Black.”

Shigaraki exercised his fingers as he arrived at that last step. Ruby red eyes locked on to the man sitting in a black round armchair with guards lined up beside him. There were three guards on each side, each of them dressed in the same fashion as the guys at the staircase.

The leader of the League of Villains had run countless simulations inside his head of how their first meeting would go.

…Never had he imagined it to be like this.

“Oh my!” Magne had to suppress a delightful gasp as the rest of the League of Villains arrived. Like Shigaraki, their eyes naturally fell to the person sitting at the center of the platform.

The man has short brown-hair curling at the tips and was dressed in tailored black suits with a long maroon scarf hung on his neck.

And sitting on his lap was another man.

This second man was dressed differently than the rest of the suited men here. Anyone could tell he was one of those locals that came to a nightclub to have fun. His clothes were disheveled with the straps of his tank tops falling off his shoulders and his jacket pulled down to his elbows.

Long slender fingers of the brown-haired man slid into those wavy orange locks. At first, he stroked the hair as if it were the finest silk, but the next moment he fisted the strands and pulled harshly.

The orange-haired man fell back with a sharp gasp leaving his open mouth before the rest of his voice was sealed by a pair of hungry lips.

Even with the loud music, the League of Villains could hear the moans and slick sounds being produced between these men’s connected lips.

None of them could see the face of the brown-haired man. With his head turned to the right, the only thing they were able to see were the bandages covering his left eye.

When Shigaraki snapped out of shock and disgust, he noticed that it wasn’t just the face. The man’s neck and even his arms were covered in bandages. The leader of the League of Villains furrowed his brows as he squinted at the redhead.

This must be that singer the Port Mafia boss had his eyes on.

Finally, the brunet pulled away from those kiss swollen lips with a wet pop. The sound made Shigaraki gag, but he held it back. His crimson eyes were locked onto the man like a hawk as he watched that face slowly turned, revealing a single dark eye that stared back into his.

“You’re the boss of the Port Mafia?” Shigaraki frowned. He had imagined countless times what this person would look like…but he never would have guessed for him to be so young. As grating as it was, the brunet looked around the same age as him.

“And?” The man leaned back against his chair, not forgetting to pull his little boy toy along. “Who might be asking?”

Shigaraki’s brow twitched. From how casual and laid back the other was behaving, it was obvious that this man didn't view them as a threat at all.

No, it wasn’t just him.

Crimson eyes fell to the redhead. He was comfortably nestled against the Port Mafia boss like a cat. His head was tucked under the Port Mafia boss’s chin and his fingers played around with the man’s scarf. He occasionally rubbed his cheek against the man’s neck and whispered words they couldn’t hear while blue eyes filled with mockery looked down upon them.

"You've been watching us for the past two days," Shigaraki stated.

“It’s common knowledge to introduce yourself when you’re the ones that came to me,” the Port Mafia boss pointed out. He grabbed the hand of the hooker that was traveling a little too low and brought it up to his lips for a kiss.

Seeming to take this as a sign to continue where they had left off, the redhead sat up. He wrapped his arms around the brunet’s neck, leaning in for a kiss when he was stopped by a slim finger pressed against his lips.

“Be a dear and go sing me a song.” The brunet spoke softly to the redhead, but loud enough for the League of Villains to hear. With the same finger that touched the redhead’s lips, he hooked the man’s tank top straps and pulled them back over his shoulders. After that, he grabbed the black fedora by his side and placed it onto the other’s head.

The redhead wasn't happy. He glanced at the guests and let out a small huff. He slid off the Port Mafia boss’s lap and sauntered around the table.

He didn’t even look fazed by the group of disturbingly dressed people and walked forward as if expecting them to make way for him. The League of Villains naturally wouldn’t step aside, but the redhead had no intention of backing down either.

In the end, he roughly shoved past them. Each villain received a rude knock on the shoulder as the hooker forcefully walked through them and down the stairs.

“The heck’s his problem?” Twice wondered out loud.

Never had any of these villains been ignored by ordinary civilians like this. It was one thing for the Port Mafia boss, but another thing entirely for a lowly prostitute.

This helped them become fully aware of their situation.

These people of Yokohama—none of them saw them as threats.

"We are the League of Villains," Kurogiri spoke with a hand against his chest as a polite gesture. “We have simply come to pay our respects to the boss of the Port Mafia.”

The brown-haired man crossed his right leg over his left and laced his fingers together over his knees. “Ah yes…” he said as if just remembering, “that little gang that All for One made.”

Shigaraki’s eyes narrowed when the man brought up his teacher’s name. While All for One was no longer a secret to the public after his fight with All Might, Shigaraki had a feeling there was more to it than that.

“Tell me, who came up with the name? I’m quite curious as to who is the one with such a…tasteful naming sense.”

Anyone could hear the sarcasm dripping from the man’s tone as they watched his lips curve upwards in a mocking smile.

“You—” Spinner was going to step up but Shigaraki quickly held out a hand, stopping him in his tracks.

“You know about All for One,” the young leader of the League said with certainty.

“Unlike your world that prefers to keep secrets from their citizens, Yokohama is extremely open about our history.” The brunet leaned forward and picked up the glass of whiskey on the table. He swirled the golden fluid inside the cup as ice cubes clattered against one another.

Shigaraki watched this man's movements carefully. In enemy territory, they couldn’t let their guards down. Every movement, every word, Shigaraki was trying to decipher just what this man’s intentions were.

"Have you heard of the story of Icarus?" The Port Mafia boss suddenly asked. No one in the League of Villains responded, but the brunet didn't mind the lack of response and continued. "Despite his father’s warning, he grew too confident in his newfound ability to fly and flew too close to the sun. In the end, his wings melted off and he drowned in the sea.”

“What is your point?” Shigaraki gritted out.

“Oh? You don’t understand?” The man blinked innocently. “Then perhaps you’ll understand a fairytale better? Once upon a time, there was a little ant that viewed the world around him with contempt. He didn’t understand why he should work for the sake of the colony just because he was born as an ant. So when a mysterious power began to appear, he used all of his tiny legs to grasp onto this power. He decided that instead of continuing to serve the Queen, he would become the King and create a new world governed by new laws.”

The clanking sounds of ice cubes continued as the man swirled his glass around and around.

"He gathered his little ant followers and beat the opposing ants that stood in his way—including his brother who had hatched out of the same egg as him. He successfully took over the colony, but, overgrown with confidence, he decided to take over the world. As the first step in his conquest, he decided to target the elephant that lived near the ants' nest. With his little army of ants, they stormed into the elephant's territory…only to be squashed under its feet."

The man grinned at the League of Villains and took a small sip of his whiskey.

“They tried to bite the elephant, but their jaws were so weak and small that they couldn’t even break through the dried mud clinging onto its skin. They tried to crawl towards the elephant’s face and ears, but the elephant only needed to stomp its feet to shake them off its body. They tried to overwhelm the elephant with their numbers, but all the elephant needed to do was blow through its trunk and the ants would be swept away into the wind.

In just a matter of minutes, the army of ants was no more. The only one that remained was that tiny little ant that started this fight. In a panic, that little ant jumped into the ocean to escape the elephant, not knowing how it was so insignificant that the elephant never even saw them as enemies, but mere pests."

As the brunet spoke, he slowly poured the whiskey onto the floor, little by little until only ice cubes were left.

"A funny story, no?" The Port Mafia’s boss looked up, his dark eye locking directly with Shigaraki’s through the gaps between the fingers on his face.

Shigaraki was seething. His hands were clenched tightly by his sides and his body was shaking with rage.

Kurogiri tensed, ready to warp them out any second. It wouldn’t be wise for them to face off against the Port Mafia on their territory. Just as the dark purple mist on his body began to flicker, Shigaraki’s shaking stopped.

Kurogiri stared at Shigaraki in surprise. He hadn’t expected the boy to be able to restrain himself and force himself to calm down under such blatant provocation.

“So...” The Port Mafia boss leaned back to get comfortable in his seat, like a child would before playing his favourite movie. “What does the League of Villains want from the Port Mafia?”

"I came with a proposition, but it looks like there's no need anymore," Shigaraki spoke in a dull tone, causing the man to raise his brow.

"HEY, ALL OF YOU OUT THERE!" A voice screamed so loudly that it felt like the entire nightclub was shaking. “WHERE’S YOUR ENERGY?! DON’T TELL ME YOU’RE ALL DONE!”

A massive wave of cheers shook the club even harder than the loud voice had. The League of Villains turned. From this high up view, they were able to perfectly see the stage below. A familiar redhead was standing on the center of that stage, holding a mic in his hand and surrounded by a band.

“IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?! THE NIGHT IS JUST STARTING, SO LET’S HEAR SOME REAL CHEERS!”

If possible, the cheers increased by tenfold.

Dabi was frowning.

Spinner had to cover his ears.

Twice, affected by the mood, cheered along with the crowd.

Magne also looked quite interested.

Toga just yawned.

Mr. Compress tapped his staff lightly against the floor.

As for Shigaraki and Kurogiri, the two of them only spared a brief look behind them before focusing back onto the Port Mafia’s boss. Said boss didn’t seem to care much about them, as he too was focused on the stage below.

“Hit it up, Tachihara!" The redhead snapped his fingers. The booming sound of guitars echoed across the club as the crowds roared.

“Woah uh oh—oh oh!

Woah uh oh—oh oh!”

The drummer with a bandage across his nose sang into the mic as his drumsticks danced across the drums.

“Woah uh oh—oh oh!

Woah uh oh—oh oh!”

The colourful spotlights that had been flashing across the club were replaced by flickering red lights. The yellow spotlight that had been shining on the stage also bled into red. In an instant, everything within the club was swallowed by the red light and at the center of that light was a single man.

“Woah uh oh—oh oh!

Woah uh oh—oh oh!”

Blue eyes slowly parted, looking across the crowd and towards the VIP section. At that moment, the redhead’s aura completely changed—as if he had become a completely different person from when he was sitting on the Port Mafia boss’s lap.

He pressed his lips into the cold metal of the mic and began to sing.

“What is the true identity of this uncomfortable feeling

Which lurks gently inside of you as if being entangled

Soaking me so empty that it burns me out

And having the chaotic afterimage lingering!

Receiving unwanted stimulation and peaceful contradiction at the same time

Making me subtly and exquisitely crazy!”

Shigaraki clicked his teeth at the disturbance, but he looked back at the Port Mafia boss and continued where they got cut off.

"I've always wondered what a city ruled by criminals was like," Shigaraki said as he held his hands up. “Everything that Villains have been fighting for—a world completely free of the existence of Heroes and law which Yokohama has achieved...”

The League of Villains all stared at the Port Mafia boss sitting high up on his throne.

“I’m super troubled to taste the act of being loved

Continue to pay for the pain it brought

Opening a trance enough to make my heart shiver for a moment

I’m being controlled by the increasing anguish

Even though I know it’s only a Momentary Love.”

“It’s nothing but a joke.” Shigaraki’s hands fell to his side from the lack of motivation. “The boss of the world’s largest crime syndicate is here drowning himself in alcohol and hookers while the city is being run by a government that is still functional. The Port Mafia is nothing but a joke." Shigaraki huffed disinterestedly as he turned and began to walk off.

The rest of the League followed him. Obviously, they shared the same thought.

“Even though I deemed this stretched love to be no good

I thought that I wanted to hear more of your pure and innocent voice

That I heard while gazing at the night sky

The moon up there is beautiful.”

Shigaraki only felt the red light around him brightening before his entire body was slammed into the floor. The marble tiles underneath him shattered from the force. He let out a dry, breathless cough, having the air knocked out of his lungs. He tried to move, but it was as if an invisible force was crushing him from above.

He couldn’t even lift a finger!

When red eyes darted around, he realized that he wasn’t the only one. The rest of the League was the same. They were all lying within a crater created by the force, all of them unable to move. Shigaraki practically broke his neck trying to turn his head just so he could look up at that man sitting high up in his seat.

That single blackened eye was looking down at them with a smirk lifting his face.

“I’ve thrown away those regrets of love 200 million years ago

This uncertain despair is a necessity

This wild and crazy dance which supposed to be flat, just like a scattered flower petal

I became too absorbed to it that I keep tripping my footsteps

Opening a trance enough to make my heart shiver for a moment

I’m being controlled by the increasing anguish

Even though I have this Momentary Love.”

“You know, it’s very rude to talk during a performance,” the Port Mafia boss said disapprovingly while tapping his finger over his knee. That seemed to be a signal as the six guards by his side whipped out their guns and took aim at the group immobilized on the floor.

Immediately, Kurogiri tried to activate his Quirk to warp them away, but they only saw a blur of black, and Kurogiri was gone.

No one could react to what had happened.

It was only when they heard a loud crash followed by the wind blowing by did they realize what had happened. This power—whatever it is—had flung Kurogiri away.

“Let’s try to forget you little by little, until I can remember you no more! ALL TOGETHER!”

“WOAH UH OH—OH OH!” The crowds sang to the song. “WOAH UH OH—OH OH!”

“I want to swallow a flood contains only of joy

I’m super troubled to taste the act of being loved~!”

“WOAH UH OH—OH OH!

WOAH UH OH—OH OH!”

“Gravity…!!” Shigaraki gritted his teeth.

"I wonder…just what gave you the impression that you could come and go as you wished?” The Port Mafia boss chuckled as he rested his elbow on the chair’s armrest and leaned his cheek against his knuckles.

“I want to swallow a flood contains only of joy

I’m super troubled to taste the act of being loved~!”

The singer grabbed the microphone stand and stomped a foot onto the speaker at the edge of the stage. “IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?! SCREAM LIKE YOU MEAN IT!”

“WOAH UH OH—OH OH!” The crowds were practically hollering from the top of their lungs at this point. Their faces were all red, not certain if it was due to the screaming or the red lighting.

“Continue to pay for the pain it brought

Opening a trance enough to make my heart shiver for a moment!”

WOAH UH OH—OH OH!”

“This is Yokohama. Ants should crawl back into their hole.” The Port Mafia boss raised his glass of ice cubes, sending them a meaningless cheer.

“I’m being controlled by this increasing anguish—NOW SING IT!” The singer pulled the mic away from his lips and pointed it towards the audience.

“LEAVE THE KISS FOR LATER!” The crowd sang together in perfect harmony.

At the very back of the club, where no one paid any attention to, the members of the League of Villains were lifted into the air one by one.

“I’M BEING CONTROLLED!”

“EVEN THOUGH I KNOW IT’S ONLY A MOMENTARY LOVE!!”

Their bodies crashed through the sturdy brick wall. The sound from the impact of their bodies and the shattering wall were drowned by the singing of the crowd. Within the quiet night outside, the villains flew across the street and smashed into the building on the other side.

Shigaraki slammed into the ground. He would have bounced off from the force and kept rolling, but Kurogiri appeared, warping all of them away and back to the warehouse that they set as their temporary hideout.

Even though Kurogiri intervened, many of them suffered heavy bruises and maybe even a cracked bone somewhere from the rough treatment. Shigaraki coughed as he painfully pushed himself over so that he was lying on his back and staring at the dirty ceiling of the warehouse.

“Do you have your answers now, Shigaraki Tomura?” Kurogiri came over to check on the boy he was assigned to watch over.

“Ah,” Shigaraki slowly smirked.

Everything had gone according to his plans. All thanks to these Port Mafia bastards looking down on them.

Just from these two days of the Port Mafia watching over them, Shigaraki already knew that they didn’t see the League of Villains as threats. It was this underestimation that gave Shigaraki the confidence to waltz into their little party. If the Port Mafia had no intention of killing them before, they wouldn’t now.

This meeting only further confirmed this.

These Ability users obviously thought they were much stronger and looked down on people with Quirks. As the people sitting at the top of the food chain, it was even more so for them. These were people who wouldn’t bat an eye at a tiny ant crawling by their feet because, to them, they weren’t even worth wasting their time on. Even if that ant got in their way, the most they would do was kick it away. To those with their heads tilted so high up, allowing their shoes to become dirty from mere ants was the same as smearing dirt over their faces.

That's why Shigaraki betted on the fact that the Port Mafia boss wouldn't kill them and lured him into using his power.

His bet was spot on.

“Crushed by vicious gravity…” Shigaraki recited as his body throbbed.

The way he was slammed down, lifted, and thrown…this wasn’t something as simple as turning gravity on and off. That man can freely change the gravitation of objects.

Shigaraki was a hundred percent certain that it was gravity manipulation.

Then here comes the main questions…

How many people can that man control?

What was the range of that power?

Were there conditions to activate that power?

Shigaraki recalled that man’s smug look and the way his fingers so gently held the delicate glass in his hand. For someone that had used his power on eight people, he didn’t look the slightest bit affected. His grip over the glass didn't change either. If it were a Quirk, there would have at least been some signs of strain on the body, but there were none.

Even though Kurogiri had explained that these Abilities worked differently from Quirks, Shigaraki was certain that even amongst Abilities, this gravity manipulation was amongst the strongest ones. Why else would that phrase about gravity constantly pop out in their investigation?

Shigaraki also knew that the power the man displayed was simply a demonstration. It was most likely not even a fraction of his real strength. That was the kind of person their opponent was.

Confident and arrogant—yet he had the strength and the brain to back it up. Shigaraki wasn’t going to naively think that the word prodigy only refers to his strength. The man was no doubt a cunning one. However, he was a young man who lived at the very top of the food chain, believing that the entire world revolved in the palm of his hand.

Shigaraki laughed.

He didn’t care how he looked to the others right now. All he knew was that he was going to crush that man. He will pull him down from the clouds and crush him along with that pitiful pride.

So what if the ants in the story failed to take down the elephant? That was a story from hundreds of years ago. The large elephant in that story was long gone. The only thing left behind was an elephant living inside a fortress created by its ancestor's remains. An elephant that had grown up without any natural predators around.

After this confrontation, Shigaraki was certain that the Port Mafia would remove their surveillance on them. For an overly confident and prideful man like that, he would purposely do it to further humiliate them and show them how insignificant they were.

Now, they have free access to this entire city.

“We’ll see who gets the last laugh, Port Mafia.” Shigaraki cackled.

The Selection War.

That will certainly be interesting.

◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥

“This is bad!” Kaminari panicked as he looked around the empty street. How could there not be a single person around?! “We’re completely lost, aren’t we?!”

“What should we do?” Hagakure looked around at her classmates. “Should we call the teachers?”

“But if we call they’ll find out!” Ashido gasped in horror. She can already imagine their homeroom teacher’s face when he hears of what they did!

“Hey! Look over there!” Mineta pointed towards the park in front of them. Everyone looked over and saw the shadow of a person sitting on a wooden bench beneath a lamppost. Relieved that they had finally found somebody, they hurried over.

Once they were close enough to get a clearer look as to what the person looked like, all of them were shocked.

Sitting on the bend was not an adult, but a child.

They couldn't tell if the child was a boy or a girl, but the kid had split coloured hair like Todoroki. When the kid turned around at the sound of their approach and looked up, the first thing the teens noticed were those mismatched eyes.

The left iris had a circle, while the right was a star.

Having been born and raised in a world where people came in all shapes and forms, none of Class 1-A was surprised in any way by the child’s eyes. What surprised them was that when the kid turned, the doll in their arms became visible.

It was a grotesque looking doll bleeding out of its hollowed eyes.

“Who are you?” The child asked in a sweet, angelic voice.

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#bungou stray dogs #bsd fanfic #bnha crossover #soukoku #shin soukoku #my hero academia

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elecilaombre · 4 years

Text

A waste

So I was in a bad mood an wrote al of this in one sitting. I’m now to llazy to edit it, so let’s just hope it’s not too bad. Enjoy !

Tim’s life has become a nightmare. Tim’s life is a nightmare, a living hell. It has been spiralling for days, for years and he keep going lower and lower.

Deep down Tim known, he known it isn’t going to end well, he won’t have a pretty ending but damn, he did fight for it. He wanted it so bad, to have something nice, to be important to someone, to do good.

Except he didn’t. His end was more than predictable. He was the worst, an echec to everyone.

First to mother and father, stranger tied by him, him tied to them by blood. Tim wasn’t a good bound, not good enough. Alas, Janet Drake couldn’t have another pregnancy and they ended stuck with him.

He was tiny, he wasn’t good at sport, he was looking quite feminine, he was a lost cause to Jack by the age of 4. What a strange world where you decide the worth of a child in not even four full years, decide to ignore him as if he wasn’t part of your world.

So Tim tried, tried his very best to be the son Jack deserved. He did sport, trained over and over again to finally be good at it, to finally learn those skill. He wasn’t the greatest, but quite decent in multiple sport, from gymnastic to basketball, including escrim and boxe and others. Tim also tried to learn as much possible in the masculine interest, like cars, virtual market or science, skills that his father valued.

Except that it was already too late, he was already invisible to Jack’s eyes. He was a waste of his father time. A failed investment

In the same time, Tim tried to please his mother, to be seen as smart she wanted, as dainty and graceful she desired, to be as much the son she wanted.

But she didn’t had time to wait for him to be that, it was a matter of born with or get rid off. He wasn’t born with those. So she get rid of him and spend her time at something more valuable.

He was a mistake, an error, a deception. They made it clear multiple time. Luckily for them, they travelled a lot and didn’t saw Tim so much. They had better things to do.

What was odd is actually how they praised him to their “friends”, acquaintance fitting better, how they praised Tim has if he was the greatest son they could had. How their son knew so much, could so much, was so much. Even if he wasn’t.

In the end, even if they were stranger to him, if they ignored him, he did cried and mourn them each when they died.

Then there was many other person he failed : teachers, nannies, friends … He wasn’t good enough for them, even at his best, he wasn’t doing good enough, he never could. And each left him, for their own good of course, they shouldn’t waste time on him, he didn’t deserve it. He tried, his hardest, but he still ended all alone.

But suddenly, there was an hope, in the form of Batman and Robin. Oh, how much he watched them, hidden on rooftop, through his binocular, then his camera. How he longed to be with them, to do as much good as them. But he didn’t deserve … And Gotham needed much better than tiny lonely Tim.

He did ,anyway, trained as much as he could, as hard as possible. He tried over and over again to do some tricks seen during his stalking session, even if each time he failed it hurted very much. He might not be worth anything, but at least Tim knew he was determined and resistant, so he would do it until it became manageable, until it was worth his father and Batman expectation. Until he trained enough to be a vigilante.

On the other hands, he kept close to his mother’s mindset and trained his brain. It did took time, but 8 years old Tim found Robin’s and Batman’s identities after 4 months of study. Not fast enough but still some results.

And he kept going, watching them with awe and dreaming of becoming as good as them, worthy their attention maybe. He kept watching when the new Robin stepped in, even adapted his training to not be only as flexible and agile than the first one, but also blunt and full of tricks as the second. He watched the duo adapt to their new partnership and Nightwing appear in Gotham’s sky. He knew them, all by name, all by face, by movement and by breath. It felt right.

When the second Robin died, he mourned him, deeply, knowing a teen died for this city, anonymously. He watched Nightwing move away shortly after. He watched Batman turning even more violent and lethal following those.

It took him time to decide to go to them, to offer his help. He hoped during months that another Robin would appear, as Jason appeared after Dick’s resignation. But nobody showed up and Batman needed his partner. Maybe Tim was ready, had trained enough. Maybe he could honor Dick’s role and Jason’s legacy. Maybe he wouldn’t fail Bruce.

Yes, indeed, at first, Bruce rejected him, but Tim was stubborn and kept pushing, knowing it was the right decision. And Bruce took him, gave him the Robin mantle. But the man was still cold and rough with Tim.

But it was alright, he could manage it. Tim customised the costume he had to wear, not wanting to wear the same as Jason out of respect for him, but wearing proudly the big R by love for his predecessors.

And it did work, for sometimes, Tim was barely good enough for the role, not worth anything to Dick’s eyes or Bruce’s, but he could take it. After all, they feared he would fill Jason’s place, except Tim couldn’t, because we can’t replace a person, just fill their role.

But he fought well, had a purpose to his life, worked hard to protect Gotham and defend it against the villains. He did team up multiples time with other outcast from the superhero community, formed a group with them, The Young Justice, and finally had friends in them, real one he didn’t disappointed.

It lasted for maybe three to four years, a pleasant break in Tim’s nightmare, if he except the death of his parents. Because he did had support to mourn them.

Then Jason came back. And Tim loved that news, was so happy, he mourned the young man so much. He loved him so much.

Except it wasn’t reciprocate, not quite the contrary to be fair. The first thing Jason did coming back to Gotham was to attempt killing Tim. Multiples times.

Each times ended in a near death experiences for Tim and left him deeply scarred. Tim told it to Bruce and Dick. Told them that Jason was alive, that he saw him in Gotham, but didn’t talked of their fight, by fear to be left out by them.

At one point, after almost one year, Jason stopped his tentative to kill him, telling him he didn't it mattered that much. That was fair.

And shortly after, his friend Kon died, during a fight in space. Then Bart, few months after, snatched by the spacetime and finally Cassie, who disappeared.

Tim was alone again, but not fully, no not yet, not yet ! He still has the bats. Well, not for so long though.

First, Stephanie, the second batgirl, his ex-girlfriend and best friend died during a mission.

And it’s will Tim was still mourning his former team and bestfriends that Damian appeared at the Manor. He was Bruce biological son. The true heir to the Batman legacy… And to Robin’s mantle. After all, every Robin, except for him, was a son of Bruce, by adoption, but a son nonetheless. But Tim wasn’t one yet, his father and mother just had died before Jason return and the adoption paper where in Bruce’s office, waiting to be signed by both Tim and Bruce. In the end, Tim never had the adoption paper filled, and Bruce never mentioned it again.

He was the odd pieces of the family, he knew it, Damian told him and Jason to. Dick had just begun to warm up to him. Too late as always. Too late.

Then Bruce “died”. To be fair he disappeared. Dick became Batman. Damian was still in training to become part of the vigilante. And Tim hadn’t barely time to proceed his second father figure death before Dick stripped him of his vigilante title.

He wasn’t Robin anymore, he wasn't a vigilante. Those honor had been gifted to Damian.

Tim felt something broke this day, inside him, deep down, something that was already fractured and finally shattered.

He spent days alone in some flat he rented, laying in the bathroom, not moving, eating or doing anything. Just processing all of his life, this whole failure that he was.

When he finally got it under control, barely, but still, he got up and made a plan to find Bruce. He couldn’t be dead if there was no proof or body. There could be some other explanation. And if he could give back Gotham is hero and the family their Bruce, it would be a great achievement.

But nobody believed him. He was a fool to them, as always been.

So he took it alone. He worked for Bruce firm all day, and for his father’s company as well. Became another vigilante to protect Gotham, Red Robin, for Jason and for Dick’s example. They mocked him.

And instead of resting between those two things, he built his case, Bruce case, disappearance. He was so alone, so broken, empty, he had not clue of what he was achieving in the end, how, why, nothing. His memory became a blur, things he couldn’t remember and other he doesn’t wanted to. Stuff to be proud and other ashamed.

He did became “close” to Ra's, did horrible thing during this time that he happily forgot.

And in the end, it paid off. Tim couldn’t remember what he traded exactly to Ra's but the immortal found a way to get Bruce out of time and back to their dimension.

And when finally Tim came back to the manor, exhausted, barely his own shadow, but proud of having saved Bruce, he didn’t earned any smile or acknowledgement. They knew he find a way to get Bruce back, but it was easier to ignore Tim.

Things didn’t fell back as before Bruce disappearance as Tim hopped, new dynamics had been created, new dynamics and partnership in which Tim wasn’t needed.

But he stayed, he tried to fit in, to be useful.

Even if Bruce ignored him.

Even if Dick had abandoned him.

Even if Jason was disgusted by him.

Even If Stephanie reappeared and had faked her death in his back.

Even if Damian hated him.

Even if all his friends were dead.

Even if he wasn’t enough.

Even if he never did fitted in this family.

Tim got reckless. He didn’t slept. Over worked himself at the office, and during his patrol. He stopped to feed himself properly. To tend his wounds correctly. He was decaying. He could pull lightly at his hair and his hand would come back with locks of it. He kept training his body even if he passed out everytime. If he ate more than 400g of food, he threw up. He was dying. And it wasn’t pretty.

Than there was the final day, the famous day when the last strip would romp. It happened as he had imagined it, almost ironically.

First, Bruce confronted him. About his reckless behavior. About his current state. About how Tim wasn’t good enough for the mission, to protect Gotham and should stop. He wasn’t welcome in the Cave anymore.

Then he stumbled on Stephanie who was avoiding him. And given this opportunity, she dumped all her hard truth on him : he never had been her friend, she never trusted him, that’s why she faked her death and didn’t told him… He didn’t deserve it, wasn’t worth the true.

And while Tim was currently crumbling on himself, the new Wayne, Damian found it funny to provoke him, belittle him. To remember him he was a failure, to weak, to thin, it was better if he just stopped to work, has a vigilante and for their incorporation because he wasn’t doing any good. He wasn’t enough.

So Tim just left, tried to not react because he didn’t knew how to. He was empty, that was it, there just wasn't any Tim left. His body was decaying and himself seemed to be no more.

But he wanted to end it well, to make it pretty. After all, that had been the whole point of his life isn’t it ? He visited his parents grave and left there flowers. Did same for the monuments dedicated to his friends. Then made sure flowers will be delivered for each one on there birthday. Same for the living who mattered. Then, he tied up all his belongings. And tried to call Dick one last time.

He tried to talk to him. To tell him to not worry anymore he won’t bother them anymore. It would end soon, soon. But instead, Dick cut him off immediately and told him he hadn’t time - for Tim. So it would be it.

He got home and put his costume on. It was a last time to. After this patrol, he would burn all of his vigilante stuff, take his new fake identity and disappear somewhere in India, or maybe in Russia, he wasn’t sure yet. What he was sure, it’s that nobody would look out for him. They would assume him dead. Nobody had time for Tim. And he could finally decay in peace.

Except he saw Jason during his last patrol. Jason who turned out to known some memory Tim had forgotten. Disgusting stuff Tim had done to find Bruce. How dirty Tim got his hands for the sake of the family. How repugnant it made him, even more than before. Jason never had many tenderness for him. But him looking at Tim pitifully was the final straw.

Tim just fly away, ignoring Jason call. Ignoring everyone’s voices buzzing in his ear, sounding like if they were calling him - as if. He just threw his comm in a street. Then his GPS somewhere else. Then he got on top of his old-house, the Drake’s house, stripped of his uniform that he put in the big barril of acid he had lay out. Put on his new civilian clothes, with his bag containing his new identity and …

And finally felt some tears run down his cheek, realising it was it, his life, Tim Drake’s life was officially a waste of time, of space. An error, an echec…

Then why run away ? It was done. It could had been a pretty end, but Jason was going to tell his secrets to everybody and it would be a repugnant final. And what if he ended up messing his new life, just as this one.

Tim didn’t wanted to waste anyone's time or space anymore. His body was dying. His mind was broken. That was it.

He did heard someone calling his name, but he was already falling, halfly because his body couldn’t support him anymore, halfly because his mind choose too. He fall from the highest point of his house into the bay.

The surface of the water broke just like his heart did over and over again.

That was an end.

#Tim Drake #Batfamily #My writing #My motto is if something bad happen to you just put it on Tim and kill him #Why am I like this #At least I tried to write #Robin #Red Robin

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