Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Danny, go!”

Danny stared at his family, scared and afraid. They were holding back the GIW agents who were coming in streams. Jazz came running to him, blood from her temple and bleeding heavily. She pushed him back gently and smiled at him, full of love. Danny’s face fell, and tears were in his eyes. His eyes met his parents, and they only nodded to him, none of the looks of disgust they aimed at Phantom, only parental love for their child. Maddie was crying but continued to knock down the GIW agents, while his father was full-on sobbing but wouldn’t let any of the agents hurt his family.

Danny stumbled back to the portal. It was open and ready to be dived through. He couldn't see Sam or Tucker, but he knew they were somewhere in the fight. 

There was little use. This fight wasn’t one they could win. Not with the time they had.

A few weeks ago, the planet's satellites found a meteorite hurtling toward them. The meteorite trajectory headed straight for their planet, and they would collide soon. Danny noticed and wanted to see if he could make the meteorite intangible with his powers. Before he got close to touching the meteorite, he got sick, and it took all he got to fly back home. Danny didn’t know why it was so hard to get close to at the time, but with the scanners and other scientific equipment, the meteorite was found to be extremely radioactive to the entire population. That caused even more frenzy because even if people survived the initial collision, the entire population would be killed by radiation. 

Somehow the GIW got the information Danny, or Phantom in this case, was also susceptible to the radiation. Even if they were idiots, they could still connect the dots. Ghosts didn’t have any humanoid physiology. Ghosts were energy beings, not physical. 

Phantom shouldn't be affected by the radiation. 

They found that Phantom wasn’t just a ghost, he was a Halfa. A hybrid. 

And not one civilized being on this planet was a half-breed. And what people do not understand, they fear. 

The GIW somehow managed to convince the world council that capturing Phantom would allow them to figure out how to survive the collision. 

It was bullshit. 

There was no way to use the information of Halfas to survive. A halfa would still be killed by the collision too. The GIW just wanted Phantom gone and experimented on, no matter how much time they all had left.

Danny had told his parent about his identity a few months before this came to light, even before they found out they had a chopping block over their head. It took a while for them to understand everything, but they came around and said they loved him all the same. Danny waited for the other shoe to drop, but it never did. His mother and father still loved him and now excepted him for his status as a Halfa. Which was something he never dreamed of happening. He knew on this planet that a half-breed status was a death sentence, and he was already dead. 

With his parents knowing, Danny could finally explain what ghosts were without any bias. His parents' studies progressed by leaps and bounds, now not blocked by the harmful stereotypes ghosts held. They were helping to explain to the entire world that ghosts were sentient and not animals to be killed. It was an uphill battle, but they were getting to a point where ghosts weren’t immediately called evil. 

It was progress.

More than Danny ever dreamed of happening, and he could see the day off in the future when ghosts weren’t hunted down just for being "animated" ectoplasm. 

But now it was all gone, and Danny wanted to scream in frustration while crying green blood, his core breaking. 

He didn’t want to leave. 

He didn’t want to leave his planet to be destroyed. He didn’t want to leave all of the people he swore to protect. He didn’t want to leave his family and friends to die on a planet doomed to be destroyed. 

Danny had the beginnings of a plan started when the GIW came after him with the force of the World Council's influence. He planned to recruit the ghosts to help protect his planet with the promise of what they wanted, but now with the GIW coming for blood, there would only be a slaughter, and Danny couldn’t make a deal with the ghosts knowing they would be killed for the second time if the GIW got their hands on them. 

Danny would have tried anyway if he had more time, but everything happened too fast for him to keep track of. 

Danny was stuck between a meteorite and a dead place and couldn’t do anything. 

Danny couldn't do anything for his planet or his family. They would all die, and all Danny could do was run. 

Danny was the only one who could survive in the Ghost Zone, while others could only be in the Ghost Zone for a while before their material body started to rip apart at the seams. Vlad could have also survived, but Danny knew that wasn’t possible. 

The GIW got Vlad two weeks ago in a surprise attack. 

Danny couldn't even find a speck of his cape when he went to look, only a destroyed mansion with green ectoplasm on the walls. Danny knew Vlad was strong, but the amount of ectoplasm he found was fatal, even for a ghost as strong as Vlad. 

That was the day fear settled in this core because Danny knew it was now out of anyone’s control. 

His parents were the ones to tell Danny to retreat into the Ghost Zone. Danny fought and fought, but his parents didn’t retreat. They told him it was him or no one else. Their planet would die, and they wanted to at least save their son. 

They were crying. They knew their time was coming, and Jazz and his two best friends were the same. 

“Danny, I know this goes against your entire being, but please. Please save yourself. We all can die happily knowing you are safe. We don’t want our entire planet to die without anyone to tell the tale. We know we’re bad parents for pushing this onto you, but we don’t want you to die because of our mistakes again.”

“Mom, I don’t… Even if I do this, which I won’t, where would I even go? I don’t want to live in the Ghost Zone forever.”

His mom put her hand on his shoulder, eyes red, and brought out a hologram. She activated it and zoomed out. It was the galaxy, but Danny noticed a red blinking dot in a distant galaxy. She looked at Danny with a grin, the gleam of excitement dimmed because of the circumstances. 

“I found this a few weeks ago, and it would have been the day of the century since we found the existence that our home planets people still live. But I didn’t have the opportunity to share it with everyone.”

Danny and everyone in the room stared at his mother was disbelieving gaze, along with surprise. 

Their people didn’t originally belong on this planet. They were the descendant of an advanced race that could travel the stars. Their ancestors crashed on this planet and were lucky enough to survive, especially lucky they could survive in this atmosphere. It was the goal of the entire world population to go back to their original planet, to find where they came from. They only knew bare-bones information about the planet and the culture, most of which could only be learned in history class because it had been a very long time since their ancestors crashed on this planet. 

But they still wanted to go back. It was something they could do for their ancestors that died wishing to go back to their planet. 

To Krypton. 

And even if they were not born on Krypton, they still called themselves Kryptonians. This planet was called Amity, and it had been debated that they should call themselves Amitians, but it was always shot down. 

Maddie continued like she didn’t just prove there were more Kryptonians alive in the universe. They discovered ten years ago that Krypton was destroyed by their own sun’s collapse. Everyone that day mourned for the ancestral land and cried that they would never be able to see it in its entirety. Danny barely remembered that day, a six-year-old who could barely understand why everyone was sad. 

His love for the stars was derived from the stories of their original planet, Danny wanting to explore the stars and find new planets. It was his dream, like many other children. But unlike them, he never gave up the dream, not until he died. After his death, he knew he would never be able to pass all the health tests. No one would allow a borderline bradycardia disorder into the space program. His heart rate was too slow, and his internal temp would raise so many red flags it wouldn’t even be funny.  

“There is only one signal, but from the stories from our predecessors, the signal is from a knowledge bank. It is only possible to have one if a Kryptonian is there for its construction. This means that where this signal is, it is safe enough for you to go. You would be able to live there.”

“But-”

“No buts. I can program a map for you to follow in the Ghost Zone to find a door that leads you to this planet. And if that doesn’t work, you can use the Infiniti Map to get there. Danny, please don’t fight us.”

Danny looked into his mother’s eyes, and he saw how close she was to breaking, grief in her eyes and desperation in equal measure. He couldn’t bring himself to say no, not to his mother, who loved him so much. 

He breathed shakily, the air getting stuck in his throat. 

“Okay. Okay . I’ll… go.”   

Maddie smiled brilliantly, tears of relief escaping her purple eyes. 

“Good boy. You make your mother proud, son.”

Danny bowed his head and tried whipping away the tears because he essentially just promised to abandon his family. He was hugged from all sides, but all he felt was despair .

The day before he would leave, at the last moment he could, his parents came to him in his room. He was packing his things, taking pictures, and other things he couldn’t leave behind. He didn’t bother to bring clothes, it would only weigh him down.

His mom knocked on his door, and his dad was behind her, tears in his eyes like he had for the past couple of weeks. He was always emotional.

“We have something for you.”

Danny looked at his parents and nodded, gesturing for them to come in. He didn’t feel like talking. Maddie smiled sadly but set down a wrapped box on his bed. She looked at him, and Danny got up, grabbed it, and stared at it. She nodded, and Danny hesitated but opened the gift. He ripped the paper to see a rectangular box. He paused but opened it.

He froze when he saw what was in it. 

He looked at his parents with wide eyes, and his mom was nodding, hand over her mouth, and Danny knew she was trying not to cry again.

Danny touched the suit in the box, sitting back down at his desk. The box was on his knees, and he couldn’t stop staring at it.

Danny saw the diamond and what it contained. He saw the symbol in the middle, the same symbol he had on his suit for years. Danny’s hand floated over the diamond until he touched the symbol. It was the symbol for the dead, for Ghosts. Sam thought it would be funny if he had that call sign on his suit like it was a pretty obvious call sign to everyone. But Danny knew there was more to it by the way Sam smiled like she was getting away with something she wouldn’t be caught for. 

Danny never bothered to ask what the symbol really meant, and he didn’t want to. Not in these circumstances. 

The diamond and its occupant were white, while the rest of the suit was black. Danny bought it out of the box, and he saw the wrist and ankle area was pure white too. It was nothing like the flimsy hazmat suit he had on when he died in the portal, but the material was tougher and clearly not something his parents should have.

“Where… did you get this?”

Danny knew this material was rare because the material could only be made on their home planet, and it was so expensive and protected it wasn’t even possible to see it in museums. He didn’t know how his parents got this to make a suit for him, and he was sure if it wasn’t taken legally the World Council would have their heads. 

Not like they weren’t doing that anyway.    

His dad grinned, giving him a thumbs up, and it was clear he was putting on a front.

“Well, Danny-O, we had a few favors people owed us, and we cashed them in. Say how cool your parents are.”

Jack posed, and Danny choked up. It was like his throat didn’t want to work. It happened often these days.  

“You guys are very cool.”

Danny stared back down at the suit, and his mom smiled, a glimmer of excitement in her eyes that was drowned out by melancholy.

“Why don’t you try it on? We want to see the dashing young man we know you are.”

Danny nodded, still focused on the suit.

He couldn’t stop staring at it. 

Danny was staring at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. 

He looked the same, yet not, the same colors but different. The material was different on his skin, but it wasn’t irritating. His natural glow gave the suit more of a supernatural light, but he was used to it by now. His glowing green eyes roamed over his reflection, trying to understand if it was him. 

He had never changed the hazmat suit of his Ghost form. He wasn’t even sure he could. 

But he could. 

The minute he changed into his gifted suit, his old one seemed to fade, and it was gone before Danny could do anything. He was attached to it in some measure but he wasn’t going to cry about it. 

It was like his old suit knew it was past its time. 

His family was happy with his new outfit, and his mom looked at him with pride. Danny remembered his mom speaking and how it made Danny want to stay even more.

“That symbol is you , and I want you to wear it with pride. It doesn’t matter that you won’t wear our ancestors' House Crest. I think they would understand because of the circumstances.”  

Danny always looked forward to the day when he would be allowed to wear their House Crest. There was a time when he wasn’t sure if he would be able to with his parents' reaction to ghosts, but after Danny knew it was a useless worry. Now he could never wear the Crest that filled the family with pride.

It was like Danny finally understood that things were serious and that it wasn’t a joke. 

The day came before Danny was ready.

The GIW surrounded the house, guns blazing. His family and two best friends were holding back the agents, and Danny wanted to fight with them, but there would be no point. They’re there for him and him alone. Once Danny went through the portal, his family would destroy the portal, and Danny would have no way home. Not like he would be able to return to a healthy planet. The meteorite would be here in a few days, and the population was already uncontrollable in their fear.

Jazz pushed him back a little more, and Danny knew it was time to go, no matter how much he hated the premise. He could see his parents, and all he could feel was the love they had for their son. Danny wished he could see his friends again, but time was ticking away. 

His feet were stuck where they were, only shooting a few ectoblasts at some agents that were getting too close for comfort. He knew he was delaying the inevitable, but he just couldn’t bring himself to leave, to let his family die when he would survive(Even if you could call him alive in any matter of the word).

He inched back when he saw even more agents swarm the lab stairs, and started to see his parents get pushed back even with their combat training and experience. 

A wide shot sailed through the air, and Danny’s eyes widened and pushed Jazz out of the way and in turn, got hit in the shoulder with an ectoshot. Danny didn’t even flinch at the pain, having gotten used to the aches and pains when fighting ghosts. But he did feel the blood start to seep out from his shoulder. He grimaced, and Jazz yelled at Danny again. 

“Danny, run. Get out of here!! You have to survive!! You have to!!”

Danny felt tears run down his face, but all he felt was numbness. The core in his chest started to compress in on itself, and Danny knew even if he survived, he would be hurt. Hurt in the most horrible way a ghost could be. 

Because protection was part of his Obsession, and this goes against everything his being still existed to be.    

Danny bowed his head and turned his back. His shoulders were shaking from the silent sobs, and couldn’t bare to look at his family. Shame came to his chest, the repressed emotion coming up, and Danny couldn’t stop it. 

Danny ran into the portal, and even the comforting embrace of the Ghost Zone couldn’t calm him down. 

Danny flew into the Ghost Zone, and then he felt a shift in the fabric of the Ghost Zone. Danny whirled around, tears still coming from his eyes. His eyes focused on the shell of the portal, but it was no longer green and swirling, and Danny could only see the green sky of the Ghost Zone. The portal was no longer a gateway into the Living Realm, and Danny felt alone.  

His family and friends were gone. Danny would never see them again.

Danny could find a natural portal to his planet, but it would only happen again. 

Danny screamed in the Ghost Zone, but no one living heard a thing. 

Danny drifted through the green dimension, knowing he should be following the hologram on his wrist but too numb to care. 

Screw everything else, he deserved to mourn. 

Unconsciously, he appeared in front of Clockwork’s lair, his tower. Danny looked up at the structure and decided to fuck it, he had nothing better to do.

Danny landed on the doorstep of the lair, and before he could even knock, the doors opened with a grating sound. Danny scoffed with none of his usual humor, too emotionally drained to make a joke about how cliche it was.

Danny walked through the winding halls of the tower, hearing the clicks and dings of clocks that floated in the air and on the walls of the lair. Danny liked Clockworks lair, but today wasn’t the day to take his time and just look.

The young ghost made his way to the main part of the lair, and he saw the gears that held the future, seeing scenes that have played out or will. Danny saw the person he was looking for, and he knew Danny was there. The grandfather clock in the Ancient's chest clicked on, and Danny found it soothing in some measure of the word. That Clockwork wouldn’t die before him.  

Danny walked to the ghost and started to float again, curling in the air with arms around his knees. 

“Why? Why did they have to die, Clockwork?”

Clockwork stopped what he was doing and looked down at the ghost. His form changed to his young one, and this time Danny looked directly into the child Clockwork’s dark eyes. They still held the knowledge and age that came with Clockwork’s existence. Danny thought of it before, that Clockwork had seen too much because no one deserves to see the past and future forever and could never stop. It made his existence feel like heaven, and that was saying something. 

There was a heavy silence, and Danny put his head on his knees. 

Clockwork sighed and put a small hand on his shoulder. 

Danny looked up with more tears and found Clockwork in his grandfather form. Clockwork pulled Danny into a hug, and Danny unraveled. He sobbed into Clockwork’s void of a chest, but his hands were shaking where he held onto Clockwork’s robes, but he couldn’t stop. 

“I’m sorry, young one.”

Danny breathed shakily, grief still overpowering. Clockwork didn’t make excuses but allowed Danny to understand through his silence. 

The planet’s destruction wasn’t harmful to the time stream. It wouldn’t harm the Infinite Realms in any way. 

Clockwork didn’t move because he had no authority to. It was out of his hands and had no way of making it his problem without causing greater death and destruction. 

Danny knew that logically, but it didn’t make the feelings go away. He wanted to scream and yell at Clockwork, saying he could have done something. He had the power to save his family and friends with a snap of his fingers, and it was only his mind telling him it would be no use even if he did. 

It happened, and nothing he could do would bring them back.

Danny swallowed some of his tears, but his throat was still scratchy to use without voice cracks.

“Did they…?”

“Your family didn’t die in pain. It was instantaneous.” 

Danny covered his face in Clockwork’s purple robes, trying to hide how he was feeling. It was a losing battle, and Danny knew that. 

When Danny finally started to calm down, he felt the pain in his shoulder that was numbed for all of this time. The adrenaline finally started to leave his system, and he was crashing. Clockwork must have noticed or knew it would happen because nothing gets past the Ghost of Time, he ushered Danny to a side room, and Danny saw a simple bed, and he collapsed into it. He didn’t even question why Clockwork would have a bed before he passed out. 

The last thing he felt was a gentle hand brushing back his white hair, and he felt yet another heartbroken tear slip from his eye, wishing to see his family just one last time.  

Clockwork gazed at the young but powerful child ghost and smiled sadly. He fixed up the child’s hair was even more unruly than usual. Clockwork retracted his hand when he saw the young one cry in his sleep, a glowing green tear drip down his young face. 

Clockwork floated out of the room, knowing he was safe in his lair. No one would attack the halfa with Clockwork guarding him.

The Ancient floated in front of his visions of time. He swiped through them, and he saw the paths of the future, the information appearing in his head in a rush he had gotten used to in his eons of existence. He came to be knowing the overview of all time and the End, but he didn’t know the finer details until he looked specifically for it. It was no fun if he knew everything. But he decided this was a time when he would look specifically into the diverging paths of time.

Once he finished, he looked at the room he made for the halfa. He appeared in that room with a flash of green and gazed at the disturbed slumber of the ghost. His face was scrunched up, and noises of pain were coming from the sleeping child's mouth. Clockwork touched the boy's forehead, and the sleep became calmer. It was the least he could do for the boy. 

Clockwork made a green portal, the cold air coming from the other side burst through the room, but neither ghost even shivered. If anything, the halfa was relaxing in the cold.

Clockwork touched the young ghost and used his telekinesis he barely used, and moved the ghost into the portal gently. Clockwork shut the portal just as fast as it came, but now without the young halfa in the room. 

The Ancient looked away from where the portal was, but he could see halfa nevertheless. He saw the boy sleeping in a snow pile, and Clockwork smiled. 

“Rest, Young Prince. For you will be loved.”

Clockwork twirled around, the robe bellowing behind him even with no wind in his lair.

The Crown Prince of the Infinite Realms was too young to take the mantle of High King, but that was perfectly fine. Young Phantom would only need more experience and not worry about solely protecting everyone (And the young child needed time to heal from his recent wounds, mental and physical). That was too much for one person alone, especially a child, and Clockwork knew his choice was the right one. It may not be that way for the Prince immediately, but he will understand.  

In time. 

And time was something he had an overabundance of.

Chapter Text

Clark was in a Justice League meeting. 

It had been a good three hours, and everyone was looking forward to ending it. Clark even saw Oliver start to nod off and righten himself, shaking the tiredness out of his head. Oliver probably thought he was sneaky about it, but Clark wasn’t the only one who caught the motion. Bruce did too, and Clark looked away, leaving Oliver to his fate. Clark could feel the disapproval from where he sat. 

Clark inwardly sighed, focusing his hearing on the Earth. He ensured everything was alright in Metropolis and Smallville and then focused back on the meeting. 

At this point, he was more than eager enough to return home, but he didn’t let it show. Many thought of him as the peacekeeper of the League, never annoyed by anyone’s questions, and was always present and patient. If anyone needed him for anything, he was there. 

Clark couldn’t show just how much it was all a front. Sure, he did his best, but he wasn’t as god-like as some thought. He was just a guy who had great power and didn’t want to see people get hurt. He knew some of his friends understood to an extent, but not everything. Sometimes the pressure from their expectations got too much, and Clark had to fly to destress from everything. He was just one guy, and he couldn’t be everywhere. 

Clark then heard something weird from Earth. 

With a frown, Clark tilted his head, and people noticed. 

Clark held a hand for silence, trying to focus on the sound. It was a whirl of energy and wind, and it sounded like a rip of some sort. Clark was surprised he heard the sound since he didn’t usually notice everything. The sound was gone after ten seconds, fading from the Earth. 

“Oh fuck.” 

Clark turned his head to the side to see Constantine pinch the bridge of his nose. The sorcerer was here as the representative of Justice League Dark for an incident a few weeks ago. He didn’t want to be here from the sound of annoyed grumbling Clark picked up with his super hearing. 

“This isn’t going to be bloody good.”

“What is it?”

Clark asked because he felt like the sound he heard was the same thing Constantine was talking about. The sorcerer glared at Clark but sighed, taking out a cigarette from a pocket, and didn’t seem to care about the disapproving looks he got. He breathed out the smoke and scowled.

“I felt a powerful surge of magic. I think any half-decent magic user would be able to feel it.”

“Do you know what it is?” 

Bruce spoke, the dark gravel of his voice making all the other superheroes in attendance gain seriousness. Bruce was frowning, already moving to a computer to start typing, trying to figure out the epicenter. 

Constantine looked at the vigilante and gave a so-so gesture with the hand that didn’t have the cigarette. 

“It felt like a being but also felt like a rift of some sort. That is all I could figure out from that surge of magic.”

“Hm.”

Clark was looking at the Earth from the window of the meeting room. He disliked fighting any magic user since it was too easy for them to take him out of commission. It turned out Kryptonians had no resistance to the mystical since they never were in contact with any magic. It was a weakness of his that he would never overcome.

But this could be potentially dangerous for Earth, so Clark would suck it up.

“It sounded like it came from the Arctic.”

Bruce glanced at Clark but continued to type away, but narrowed down the search area. Constantine raised an eyebrow at the alien but shrugged and didn’t mention it.

Clark had a feeling he wouldn’t be back to Metropolis anytime soon. 

Clark was flying over the snowy environment of the Arctic, using his vision and hearing to spot anything out of the ordinary. It was all hands on deck, and multiple heroes searched the continent for anything that would explain what was happening. Anyone would think they were being paranoid, but they all were in a type of work where one mishap could kill thousands. They couldn't afford to be caught unaware. 

Especially when magic was involved. Clark didn’t know anything about magic, but from what he heard from some of Constantine's rants, it was over complicated, and with some spells, it could spell death if one thing was wrong. Clark was good without looking into that mess. Bruce could do it for both of them with his paranoia about the unknown. 

Clark breathed in the freezing air that did nothing to him. Even in this situation, he relaxed a little. He spent a long time in the Arctic since the Fortress of Solitude was here, and he wanted to learn everything he could. It was a calming place, so he wanted to keep that peace. 

Clark had been flying for hours, not seeing a thing out of place. It was almost impossible to hide things from him, so Clark decided there was nothing where he searched. 

When Clark was flying over yet another portion of the Artic, he heard a status report over the communicator. He may not have needed to hear his teammates, but they wouldn’t hear him otherwise. He could deal with people yelling in his ear if it made everything easier. 

“Hey, guys. I might have found the source of the magic.”

Clark nodded to himself, and from his hearing, he flew to the sound with more speed than before. 

He saw Barry waving at him, and Clark stopped and touched down, feet crunching the snow beneath them. His cape moved behind him and walked towards Barry.

“Flash, what did you find?”

Barry shrugged but used his thumb to point behind him.

“It looks like a person, but I decided to get back up first. It feels weird.”

Clark frowned and looked to where Barry was pointing. He frowned harder at what he found, or more specifically, what he didn’t find. 

“I can’t hear a heartbeat.”

Barry grimaced, and Clark sighed, sadness starting to appear. He shook his head, trying to keep those thoughts out of his head. 

“Come on, let’s go look.”

Barry nodded with determination, and Clark slightly smiled at his actions. Clark rose a few feet in the air and went in the direction Barry said. Barry ran to a pile of snow, and Clark squinted, seeing a pale hand sticking out from under the snow drift. Another strong gust of wind swept over the snow fields and moved some snow. Guess that was why it took so long to find the body. 

Clark tapped the communicator in his ear, turning around when Barry started using his speed to unbury the body from the snow pile. 

“We found a body to the south. I am unsure if this is the reason for the disturbance.”

“Affirmative, Superman.”

Bruce’s voice came over the line, and Clark could hear Bruce’s jet start to accelerate. Guess he will be here soon. Clark let his hand go to his side, not at his ear anymore. 

“Uh, Supes?”

Clark turned around, seeing Barry staring at what was left of the snow pile. Barry looked to Clark with wide eyes and pointed at the ground. 

“You might want to see this.”

Clark cocked his head in question but flew to where he was pointing. Clark looked at Barry and spoke before he turned to glance at what he was pointing at.

“Wha-”

Clark stopped speaking, the words getting jumbled in his mind. The breath was knocked out of his lungs, and he stumbled to the ground, unknowingly moving forward. Clark was on his knees, and he reached a hand out before he stopped himself.  

It was a teenager. Probably, from how the body looked. A young face that looked calm, cushioned by snow. The teenager had snow-white hair, almost blending in with the snow. Tan skin that almost seemed to be too smooth for a person. Clark could see slightly pointed ears from where the boy’s hair was moved by the wind. A green substance seemed to be dried on the boy's face, almost looking like tears from how they dried.

But what got Clark’s attention was the suit the teenager was wearing. Clark could see where Barry moved the boy. Clark bets that the teenager was on his stomach when Barry moved him, now on his back. But that allowed him to see the Crest on his chest. 

Clark reached out a hand and touched the arm of the teenager, feeling the material. Clark, in a stupor, touched his chest, feeling the cloth. 

It felt the same. It was the same.  

Clark noticed after getting out of most of his stupor there was a wound on the teenager's shoulder, looking almost like a burn that had a wet and drying green substance coming from the area. Clark realized it was the teenager’s blood, but that made the question appear in his head. Why was the teenager crying blood?

Clark pushed the problem to later, the sadness coming in harder. He grimaced, face falling. He stared at the symbol on the boy’s chest and felt hopelessness. He recognized the symbol and knew no one on this planet could understand it. He doubted Bruce knew it, even with his almost fervor in learning languages, especially Kryptonian. And Bruce was the only human he knew that learned even a  small portion of the language. 

Clark heaved out a breath, gritting his teeth. Clark snapped his head up when Barry put a hand on his shoulder, and Barry shook his head. 

Clark's head bowed. He always hated to see someone he could have saved if he was a little faster. One of the fastest people in the universe, but even he was too slow. 

Clark’s eyes were down, so that was why he saw the movement. His hand was still on the teenager's arm, and Clark was taken out of his head when he felt movement. 

To Clark’s shock, the boy he thought dead mumbled gibberish and squirmed deeper into the snow. The boy seemed to smile a little, a sound of comfort coming from his mouth. Clark now noticed the slight glow the boy gave off, something barely visible, and Clark only noticed it with his vision. Clark in a flurry of movement, put his head on the boy’s chest, ear directly over where the heart was. He still couldn’t hear a heartbeat, but he did hear the boy breathing imperceptibly. It was barely there, but the boy was breathing.  

Clark didn’t wait for Barry to say anything, immediately bringing the teenager into his arms. Clark put the boy’s head on his shoulder, wary of aggravating the injury on his shoulder. Clark carried the white-haired boy from under his legs and behind his back, letting the boy’s left arm hang. 

The boy needed medical attention immediately.

Clark ignored how he was too panicked, not needing the doubts to come to the forefront of his mind. There were too many questions about this whole thing, and it could be a trap. But if it wasn’t, Clark wouldn't forgive himself for depriving someone of medical attention. 

Before Clark could speed off, he turned to Barry.

“Tell everyone I am going back to the Watchtower with an injured person who could explain and tell us some answers.”

And with that, Clark was off to the nearest Zeta tube. Usually, Clark would fly to the Watchtower, but he didn’t know if the boy would survive in outer space or not. Clark wouldn’t risk it. 

Clark paced outside the infirmary, arms crossed.  

He set down the teenager there thirty minutes ago, and some of their onboard doctors got to him. They were good doctors, but Clark was worried. He couldn’t get that symbol out of his head, trying to understand why it was that symbol out of the thousands. 

Clark stopped pacing when he heard people come closer, and Clark recognized his teammate's heartbeats along with the unique gate of Constantine. Clark sat on the chair near the room, not willing to go too far. Clark spotted his friends come into the hallway, seeing him and getting situated before they started talking. There was Diana, Barry, Bruce, Constantine, Oliver, Arthur, and Hal. They all sat on some chairs where some stood, game faces on.  

Clark saw Bruce look knowingly at him and looked ready to start talking, but he knew if Bruce started to talk he would take control of the conversation.

“Constantine, did you find the source?”

Constantine nodded, back against the wall and hand in his pocket while the other one rubbed his temples. Clark leaned forward because he may not know the sorcerer that well, but he did know that this was slightly out of character. 

“It was by where you found that being. There was evidence of a portal, but I can’t tell you where it originated. Usually, I could, but this was different.” 

Clark wasn’t the only one to send questioning looks his way, and Bruce was the more unsubtle looks to keep Constantine talking. Constantine sighed again and started explaining, even though everyone knew he didn’t want to be there. 

“When someone makes a portal to anywhere, there is a point A and a point B. Point A is where the person makes the portal, and point B is where the portal opens. When anyone makes a portal, myself included, there is usually evidence of where point A is. Doesn’t matter if it is another dimension or somewhere on Earth, there is some evidence of where Point A is. Less experienced magic users leave behind more clues about where their point A was. And more experienced magic users, like myself, leave barely anything. But it is there, barely. If I use portal and teleportation spells… It’s like a door. It’s closed, but there could be a draft coming beneath the door. It’s closed, but that doesn’t mean you don’t know what is behind that door.”

Constantine rubbed his temples with annoyance and a bit of apprehension. Clark shared a glance with Diana, the Amazonian frowning at Constantine’s reaction. There wasn’t much that flustered the sorcerer who sold his soul to multiple demons. There wasn’t much that made him show this much emotion. 

“The only reason I knew there was a portal there was the remnant magic at that spot where you found that kid. I couldn't find anything that could point me in the direction of where that portal originated from. Whoever or whatever made that portal is a master in the mystical, and I do not want to be anywhere near them. Not even archdemons could make portals that clean.”

Clark digested that information, and Bruce was scowling. Clark knew he was going to stay stuck in the Batcave for the next week.

“But what about the kid?”

Barry spoke up, raising his hand and pointing to the medical room the unnamed boy was staying. Clark didn’t want to call him a John Doe because it felt like the kid had died. 

Constantine stared at Barry, and Barry shifted where he stood.

“What?”

Clark stood up and walked forward, not wanting to sit anymore. Constantine's reaction was evidence enough that this was serious. Constantine looked at the hero with tired eyes, and Clark doubted his eyes because he also saw sympathy. 

“That kid is dead.”

Clark had to fight the recoil at the words, but he couldn't hide the flinch. Diana came to his side, put a hand on his arm, and started talking in her peacekeeping voice which she only brings out when she wants to say something different. 

“The boy is still breathing. He can’t be dead.”

“Did the boy scout hear a heartbeat? I think not.”

Constantine got out another cigarette and lit it with a flick of his fingers. 

“That boy is dead, I can tell from here. He gives off the presence of the dead in a way where it can’t be argued that he was only been in the presence of the dead. He feels like Deadman in that case. The only thing different is that kid gives off a stronger presence of the dead than anything I felt before. If you told me that kid was a death god, I would believe you.”

Bruce frowned harder while Clark hunched his shoulders, not knowing what to feel.

“Then we have undead on our hands. We have to prepare.”

Constantine cut Bruce off with a wave and shake of his head.

“That kid isn’t Undead. I would be able to tell. Undead are unnatural and go against the natural laws of this dimension. If the kid was Undead, I wouldn’t be just standing around. That kid’s existence feels natural. That kid didn’t come back from the dead but is still dead even though he exists. It isn’t taboo. I hadn’t heard of anything like it before, but I don’t think it is something to cause panic. At least until we find out what kind of being the kid was. If he was a kid in the first place.”

Clark breathed out a sigh of relief, something no one commented on. He turned back to the room, eyebrows scrunched together in thought. Clark didn’t like Constantine's explanation, but Clark knew better than anyone that the boy did have no heartbeat. A thought came to him, and Clark widened his eyes a bit.

“What is it, Superman?”

Clark looked at Bruce, who noticed the expression. Clark looked back at the room and then touched his chest feeling his House Crest. He tapped it, and he knew they all saw it. 

“That symbol on the teenager’s chest… It’s Kryptonian.”

“We gathered that by your reaction.”

Clark nodded and let his hand fall to his side. Clark looked at his teammates and shook his head.

“You guys don’t get it. That symbol was never in the House registry on Krypton. No one would use it.”

“Why?”

Arthur asked that his trident leaning on his shoulder. Clark brushed a hand through his black hair, looking back at the room. 

“Because what it means. It doesn’t translate that well into English, but I can try. It means something on the line of spirits of the dead, or more simply, ghosts. No one would use the symbol of death for a House Crest. But…”

Clark remembered the exact symbol on the boy’s chest and the obscure information gathering he did in his twenties. Good thing he did. 

“That glyph was slightly different. It had another meaning by the fire-like patterns on what you guys see has a P. With those added, that symbol means something slightly different.”

Clark looked at his friends, and they were all focused on his explanation.

“It means Protector of the Dead.”