trans_9 | The Revelation (bendy-timed before the Meet and Greet)

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The Revelation (bendy-timed before the Meet and Greet)

The Sub-Visser was dying. It was obvious to anyone in the MedBay, from the way Paco was shuddering and moaning in his restraints. The last hold-out of the Yeerk infestation was dying. It would all be over soon.

He looked up as Superboy and Robin entered the MedBay and laughed, baring his teeth in a grin.

"Hey Superboy, want to know a secret?" he asked. "It's a good one. A real kicker, that Francisco and Jaime and Speedy have been keeping from you and your little friend there."

And before Jaime can stop him, he spits it out:

"You're dead when you go home. Dead! Had a nice funeral, too bad you weren't there too enjoy it. Oh!" he rolls Paco's head to look at Robin. "And I wouldn't get too attached to your little buddy Kid Flash either. Oh wait, too late isn't it? Ah well. At least Superboy goes out saving the world. Flashy drops the 'kid' off his name and goes out like a punk."

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"There are millions--no, billions of lives at stake here. I wasn't sure how to handle this without altering the timeline. Until I figured it out, I didn't know what to do, and wanted to keep it secret until I did..."

"...Seriously, I'm really going to die?"

"Why don't you go look in the Statuary?" the Sub-Visser sing-songed. "That'll tell you all you need to kn...aaaugh!"

Paco shuddered hard and then went still, gasping like someone half-drowned. Something gray and slimy began to protrude from his ear.

"Kill you kill you, $#%&ing kill you..."

That's when Superboy runs out to go down to the city to look. He doesn't even noticed the podpop announcement as he does.

When he gets there, a brief burst of X-ray vision reveals...

Someting distorted. Cloaked. And a little thingy on the floor that seems to be projecting it. Kon picks it up, crushes it in his hands, and when he does, a statue like Superman's suddenly appears.

It's him.

It's a memorial statue of him, preserved in this place, hidden all this time by this little gadget...

The plaque reads:

In Memory of Superboy
For all he did in the face of of infinite crisis.

Kon drops to his knees.

Tim shoots Jaime another glare, and tears after Kon. His hand can wait. This--is impossible.

Except--

He comes to a stop just behind Kon. It's a statue--just like Superman's, only it's not Superman. It's Kon--Superboy. Tim's best friend. He can't believe this.

Kon drops to his knees in front of him, and Tim takes the final step forward to rest a hand on Kon's shoulder. There's just... There's nothing he can do, and no way he can make this anything like better. All he can do is just... be here.

Oh, God. This can't be possible. Tim doesn't know what he'll do if he has to lose his best friends--both of them--after everything else he's lost.

He hadn't really thought he could feel any worse today.

He probably shouldn't have come, but he can't just leave them to this.

"Superboy--Superboy, lo siento, I--I just--"

"Go away."

"I just want to explain--"

Tim whirls to face him. "Explain? Do you really think there's anything you can say that would help right now? Anything at all? Because really. I'm all ears." The last words are practically dripping sarcasm as Tim faces Jaime down. He looks almost as hurt as he does furious.

"I'm not going to just let him die. I never planned to..."

Tim shakes his head sharply. "Sure you're not. What were you going to do?"

"Mess with time, if I could. Find a way so he still saves the world, and a way to pull him out of that without messing up the timeline. Problem was, it might've still needed him to go into it not knowing what would happen."

"He's Superboy," Tim says, scowling. "Do you really think he would do things differently just because he knows the outcome?"

"Now that I've met him? No. And once I realized that, the trouble was admitting I'd lied. When I first lied? I didn't know him. I'd never met him. I knew him as the guy who used to have the earring and bad haircut and that corny cartoon on Sunday mornings. I didn't know how he'd react, or if he'd do what he needed to do."

Tim's scowl deepens. "He's a hero, Jaime. You've seen this." He gestures sharply toward the statue. "You should have known he was the kind of guy that would do what it took to keep the world safe."

"And if he absolutely had to die in the end to save the world, even if he was willing, would you let him?"

That... makes Tim pause. Losing Kon would be terrible. He doesn't even want to imagine it.

"He's my best friend," Tim says slowly. "He's one of the only people left in my life who really gets me. I would do everything in my power to find another way that doesn't involve him dying. But if he had to? And it was his choice? He's my best friend. I respect him enough to let him make that choice."

"I didn't know that. I couldn't know that, because I don't know either of you. He's gone, and I never met him, and you're..."

A pause.

"It's like meeting a different person, meeting you here. It gets that bad for you. It gets worse than just him."

Kid Flash. Batman.

"Billions of lives were...are at stake, and I hate what I did, but... BLue Beetle, in his notes, always talked about playing the long game. Thinking ahead. Until I figured out everything--when we were taken from, why, how we could get back, if we could use time travel to mess around with things--I needed time to think. To get some answers. And if the right way to do everything needed both of you to go forward without knowing what was going to happen, once you knew there'd be no going back. Now, even if he does go and--and it has to be that way, will it happen exactly the same? What if a key thing is different? What if it changes the outcome of the fight?"

Tim frowns. "How can I be so different that you're a Titan and you don't know me?"

He's not going to argue Jaime's other point because--damn it--he's kind of right. And Tim isn't sure he would have done anything different if he'd been in Jaime's position, and knew Paco was going to die.

"He's...he's not the only one you lose. You were so...miserable. And then you left the team. Everybody left the team. There's only the three of us now. Wonder Girl keeps telling me the Titans are family, but I haven't seen it yet. I mostly stick around just because Eddie's my friend."

Tim blinks. Things... are going to get worse? Worse than losing his family, and Steph, and Kon? And he's going to quit the Titans? No wonder Jaime doesn't know anything about him. He doesn't even recognize himself from that description. He grinds his teeth a little. As furious as he--still--is with Jaime... He can't sahe was wring. They just... have to move forward from here.

"I think," Tim says slowly. "That you need to tell us what happened. The truth, this time. So we can try to figure out what to do now." He's trying to be patient, and not vent his anger.

Kon finally speaks up.

"Did we win? Did we stop them?"

"You did. You stopped them. You saved everyone. That's why the statue. Everyone--everyone was grateful for what you did. For all of us."

"Then that's all I need to know."

Tim smiles very slightly. He had known Kon would react like that. It's just... the kind of hero he is. He turns toward Jaime and does manage to keep the "see?" to himself.

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