Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jon blinked. He pulled in a deep breath. His head hurt. His mouth was dry, too, and there was a deep ache coming from his joints.

He had been at this split identity thing for a while now, but no matter how many times it happened, he still hated this feeling of suddenly returning to consciousness with no idea where he was or what was going on.

And something wasn’t right.

There was a heavy, damp smell in the room he was in. Something he wasn’t used to at all. Scratchy fabric dug into his cheek where he was laying. He was uncomfortably warm, and as he started to shift in his seat his headache throbbed even more intensely.

This wasn’t his apartment. This wasn’t the Met U campus. It wasn’t their family farm, Nat’s new home, or any of the other places where Jon found himself waking up these days. With another deep breath, he wrenched his eyes open and forced himself to take a look around.

Wooden walls surrounded him with only a single window that was curtained shut. He was on a— a sofa of some sort. The firm cushions were upholstered with an ugly brown fabric and that’s where the musty smell was coming from.

He was dressed as Nightwing. That was a bad sign. Jon didn’t have access to the powers on his side of the personality split, and so literally everyone had agreed that they’d only do the switching with Nightwing and Jon dressed in regular clothes. Nightwing apparently found that annoying, but Jon had always appreciated it. The fact that he was wearing a suit and boots meant that this switch hadn’t been planned.

“Nightwing! You’re awake!”

There was someone here?!

He startled, shooting upright faster than he should have. That was the one thing he hated about not having powers. He couldn’t sense people like he should be able to. So, he was in a… a cabin? With a stranger. And who knows how long he had been unconscious for.

“Nightwing?”

It was a girl about his age who had spoken. Her long dark hair was tied back in a low ponytail, but that wasn’t enough to disguise how dirty and greasy it was. There was red rimming her eyes and she looked so tired.

“Are you okay?” she asked warily. “I’m— I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… It was just meant to be protection. I didn’t know it’d hurt you that much.”

What was ‘it’? There wasn’t really much that could hurt Nightwing. Not unless it was…

A glass of water appeared in front of him. It shook in the girl’s hand. There didn’t seem to be anything to do other than to take it, so Jon took hold with his own weak grip.

Should he drink it? That could be bad, right? If it was… poisoned or something? Was that a thing he should worry about? Man, his head hurt. He needed Jordan for these kinds of ‘straight out of a comic book’ situations; he never knew how to handle it even without half his personality missing.

He did know he needed to say something, so he finally cleared his throat and tried to pull something together.

“Where are we?”

“It’s a— a place I found. Don’t know where the actual owners are, but you can tell no one’s been here in months.” She licked her lips as she glanced over her shoulder towards the rest of the cabin. “I’ve been spending a lot of time in the woods. You know, with everything. Came across this place a couple weeks ago.”

There was something he was missing. She was talking like she knew him. And Jon didn’t share memories with Nightwing, but he did remember everything from before. He’d know everyone that Nightwing did. Unless something had happened earlier?

Screw it, he was drinking the water. His head hurt so bad and hopefully getting some hydration would help things to make sense. It was tepid and had that slightly off taste of bad well water, but it got rid of the dry feeling in his mouth, so it was worth it.

After swallowing, he took another good look at the girl. She was wearing a bulky flannel shirt over a pair of oversized jeans that were cinched in tight. Probably not her actual clothes, then. Stuff she had found here?

So, she had broken into this cabin, made it her home, and then was talking like Jon should somehow know why she would do that.

And it was so stuffy in here. Uncomfortably warm, actually. The water hadn’t helped at all with that, and he tried to keep the grimace off his face as he handed the empty glass back to her. For just a second, their fingers brushed together, and hers were hot.

Oh. That’s who it was. Jon had only seen a couple pictures of her without her gear on, and she looked so different now that her entire life had been turned upside down.

“Nightwing?” She was watching him closely. “Look, I really am sorry, okay? I swear I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s just like I was saying before, that’s all. I promise.”

Jon swallowed. He still had no idea where he was, or what they were talking about ‘before’. But he did know who she was.

Somehow, he had found himself alone and powerless with Fire Starter.

Natalie knew that the typical college student wouldn’t be excited for a Friday night dinner with their dad, but she had never been typical, and she wasn’t about to start now. She couldn’t take time with her dad for granted, especially after everything they’d been through. The recent busyness with their identities getting publicly leaked added to it all, and it was nice to sit down together in their new high security building and share what was going on in their lives.

“So, Dr. Palme thinks we can get the whole patent process expedited. Maybe even have something official within a month.” With a grin, she speared an asparagus tip onto her fork.

Her dad flashed her a shallow smile. “That’s great news, Bug.”

“Yeah, and he’s already talking to the research head at STAR labs about using it in-house. I’ll get a percentage royalty for every unit and…” She paused, watching her dad’s eyes glaze over yet again. “Okay, what’s wrong?”

He snapped back to attention, blinking at his plate and then up to her. “Huh? Oh, nothing, Nat. I’m sorry. So, is STAR labs going to use your new compressor?”

“Yes. That’s what I— Dad, seriously. What’s going on?” They didn’t lie to each other. That had been their promise ever since the bunker. But Natalie’s dad had a habit of trying to protect her by avoiding the truth, and she wasn’t going to let that happen right now.

Finally, he caved, letting out a sigh as he set his fork down. “Something happened at the DOD today. It’s… well, for now it’s classified, but word’s bound to get out sooner or later.”

Her meal suddenly felt very heavy in her stomach. “What is it?”

A deep frown puckered on his brow. “You know Caleb Parker? The kid who was known as Water Warrior? He… started having some medical issues early this morning. I’m still trying to get the full story, but from what I can tell, they did everything they could for him: brought him to the ICU on base, worked with the doctors. But…”

“No,” Natalie whispered.

Her dad’s face crumpled into a wince. “I’m sorry, Bug. I know you knew him.”

Not all that well, honestly. Koehn’s interns had kept mostly to themselves when they were working at STAR labs. And out of all of Koehn’s former team, Water Warrior was the one who had definitely crossed the line. He had killed for Koehn.

But it still hit hard. All of those interns had been taken advantage of and had been hurt both by Koehn and by public opinion. They were all young, too. Supposedly healthy. Koehn wouldn’t have taken anyone with underlying medical conditions.

“How did he die?” Natalie asked. “I mean, what caused it.”

Her dad grimaced. “It was something to do with his powers. He started losing control of them. At first, they thought he was using them in an escape attempt, but he started losing cellular function. They couldn’t keep his heartbeat or breathing stable.”

Her stomach turned to ice. “So, it’s something to do with how Dr. Koehn gave him his powers?”

With a heavy sigh, her dad scrubbed his hand over his face. “Most likely. They’ve got the rest of his team under close observation and there… might be some early warning signs in a couple others.”

“Well, they have to fix it!”

“They’re trying, Nat. But Koehn’s research isn’t easily understood, and he’s refusing to cooperate. Not unless they meet his demands.”

Natalie could guess what those were: special privileges, a lighter sentence, maybe even a full pardon? And she could also guess how the DOD would respond to that.

“They’re not going to work with him,” she said.

“No. I don’t think they will.”

“So… Then the interns are going to get sick. They’re going to die just like Caleb did.”

“We don’t know for sure—”

“Dad. C’mon. You know.”

There was a pause while he avoided looking at her. Natalie didn’t back down, though. Her dad couldn’t always protect her anymore.

Finally, he let out the heaviest sigh yet. “Yeah. You’re right. It doesn’t look good at all.”

So, where the hell had Nightwing gone?

Jon was still trying to figure that out. Obviously, the guy had been in the middle of some type of face off with freaking Fire Starter and then he just… what? Ditched?

Jordan wouldn’t have switched them without checking in. That was another rule they had agreed on from the start. And… it was kind of weird, but lately Jon had been feeling a sort of presence in his mind. When he was conscious. When he talked about it with Sadie, she said it could be that he and Nightwing were finally getting closer, and he was actually supposed to go see her tomorrow so she could help them dig a little deeper into it.

He couldn’t feel that presence now. All he could feel was the slow throb of that headache and a deep sense of unease.

“Look, are you going to say anything?” Fire Starter asked shortly. Her irritation was starting to show. “You wouldn’t shut up earlier and now what?”

“Yeah, well, that was before you… attacked me.” That’s what had to have happened, right? Although he shouldn’t have phrased it like that, all grouchy and snippy. He remembered his dad’s lectures on being perfectly professional and never letting the persona slip in front of other people but… Jon couldn’t do that right anymore. Not when it was just him. He had even tried, just a couple days ago, to pull off a Nightwing impression. Nat had ended up laughing so hard she almost choked on her lunch.

Predictably, Fire Starter’s frown got deeper. “I didn’t mean for this to happen! And I put the Kryptonite away.”

So that’s what it was. Something Jon had guessed right. But he wasn’t ready to take a guess on anything else with Fire Starter. Or Caroline, to use her real name. It felt like it fit this pale, tired person better than any sort of code name.

He dragged in a heavy breath. He just needed to… to think.

Kryptonite always gave him brain fog. That had to be part of the problem. And also the fact that he didn’t know what was happening and that he couldn’t tell her that she had actually been talking to his alter ego before this, and finally that he had no idea where that guy had gone.

“Oh, just forget it!” Caroline suddenly said. “I have no idea why I even believed you. You’re all the same and I’m better off on my own!”

A glow flared from within her eyes, and the temperature of the room surged. With a scowl, she snatched the glass of water from him and even though she turned away, the heat didn’t fade at all.

Jon took another deep breath, hoping something would click for him. He shouldn’t call his dad or brother for help, not when there was the potential for Kryptonite. And he didn’t have a way of contacting the Steels or Evergreen from a distance, not without his powers. He was stuck in a strange place with a person who had dangerous powers and a very short temper.

He had zero clue of what he should do, but he knew he needed to figure it out quick.

They probably all should have seen it coming. Koehn was doing experiments on people’s DNA. According to every single sci-fi movie Jordan had ever watched, there was gonna be problems with the serum that Koehn had used.

But for some reason Natalie’s news was a punch to the gut, and he was still reeling as he tried to make sense of it all.

“There’s really nothing the DOD can do?”

She shrugged. “Not in time to actually make a difference. I guess Caleb took a turn quickly.”

Katie rested her head on his shoulder as she shifted in closer. “And he would have been alone, right?”

“Yeah.” Natalie frowned at her clenched fists, sitting stiff and still in Jordan’s patched armchair. “Look, I know he wasn’t a great guy. He killed someone. But I still…”

“Doesn’t mean he deserved to die like that,” Jordan filled in. “And the rest of Koehn’s team are going to face the same thing, aren’t they?”

She swallowed. “Yeah. That’s what my dad said, anyway.”

“Well, that can’t happen!” Katie exploded. “Someone has to help them! They have all of Koehn’s notes and everything, right? They can figure it out!”

But Natalie shook her head. “It’s still all encrypted. And Koehn’s not cooperating.”

“Asshole,” Katie muttered.

“There’s no telling he actually knows how to fix it, either,” Jordan said. “This team was his first round of human trials, right?”

Natalie grimaced, shoulders finally slumping.

And Jordan hated it, too. Since that very first appearance from Fire Starter, he had wanted to help the new heroes. But things had gone from bad to worse, and now— Now, the worst was going to happen. One by one, they’d get ill and probably die. Fire Starter was still at large; she could already be gone, and they’d have no way of knowing.

Jon was going to be so upset when he learned about it. Both sides of his weird split personality cared about Koehn’s former team. Now that things were looking this bleak…

But that made Jordan remember something. With a frown, he looked at his phone to check the time.

“What’s wrong?” Katie asked.

“Nightwing’s late,” Jordan replied. “He was supposed to come home an hour ago for me to switch him.” They could do the switch remotely, but it was way harder for Jordan. They had gotten in the habit of meeting up at home or on campus to make it easier.

And… that was a big deal, right? It wasn’t just Jordan spiralling. While the Kent family might appear to be flaky to others, Jon never actually was.

“He wouldn’t be late for a switch,” Katie said as she squeezed his hand. “He— they’ve been really on top of that lately.”

“Maybe he got caught up on a save?” Natalie asked.

Jordan tilted his head, letting a bit more of the collective sonic frequency drift in. “If it was big, one of us would have heard about it. Or he’d reach out for help.”

“I’m calling him,” Katie decided.

“It’s Nightwing,” Jordan pointed out. “He probably doesn’t even have his phone on him.”

Sure enough, he soon heard the sound of his brother’s phone vibrating from his bedroom. Dammit. That meant Jordan couldn’t track the signal either.

“We could ask Amber?” Natalie suggested.

“Uh… yeah. Good idea.” With clammy hands, he fumbled his phone. He didn’t want to be overreacting, but at the same time…

“I’ll text her,” Katie said.

Jordan drew in a shaky breath and nodded. Yeah, that was a good idea. Maybe that’s all it was: Nightwing had gone out with his girlfriend and lost track of the time. He didn’t need some neurotic twin brother flying up into the atmosphere and tracking him down. With their powers, it was too easy to invade people’s privacy, and they always respected a set of solid boundaries—

Except for one thing. A holdover from when they were younger and so much worse at controlling their abilities. When they both felt so different from everyone else on Earth and needed that sense of connection.

Pressing his hands onto his knees, Jordan let out a carefully measured breath and went into his mind to hold up the image he always used: that of a yellow sun.

As always, Jordan felt a little dumb as he did it. He didn’t actually have telepathy or any of Jon’s other powers, so he was basically relying on his brother to notice what he was doing.

Jon said he always did, though. Just like Jordan was sure he’d hear his brother calling for help from literally anywhere on the planet.

And so Jordan sat there, yellow sun stuck stubbornly to the front of his mind, as he listened to Katie and Natalie bounce ideas back and forth between them. He wanted it to be no big deal. He wanted it to be something stupid that he could get annoyed about in two minutes.

But then someone crashed into Jordan’s mind. They landed hard and heavy and exhausted in a way Jordan hadn’t felt since those uncertain teenage years. Sucking in a gasp, his eyes flew open as he adjusted to the cold, itchy presence he had come to know as his brother.

“Jon?” he asked, staring straight ahead.

The presence shifted, uncomfortably constrained where it sat, although it didn’t make a move to leave.

No. It’s Nightwing. But I really need your help.

Chapter Text

It was crazy to think about all the absolutely bonkers superhero stuff Katie had gotten used to. She was there beside her boyfriend, sitting across from his parents who had flown in from Smallville, and they were all listening while he relayed all the things his brother was telling him from inside his own head.

“So then Fire Starter got upset, and that’s when she took out the Kryptonite. He says it knocked him out of his body instantly and he couldn’t get back in.” Jordan paused for a second, digging into his scalp like he had a bad headache. “It made it hard for him to navigate, too, so he couldn’t find me until I reached out.”

“Do you feel anything from it at all?” Lois asked urgently.

Jordan shook his head. “No, I don’t think it could, you know, travel like that.”

“So that means Jon’s still feeling it,” Natalie filled in.

“Uh— I guess… But he doesn’t have powers, so it might be easier for him, right Dad?”

Clark’s heavy frown got deeper. “It’s hard to tell. Kryptonite’s always affected Jon differently. What does Nightwing say about it, Jordan?”

“He— Ugh, it’s easier if you talk to him yourself. But fair warning, he’s annoyed at me.”

Then the weirdest thing happened. Jordan’s eyes fluttered closed, he slumped forwards, and then he snapped back up straight just a second later. There was a different edge to how he looked around the room, and his face pulled into a scowl.

Oh. Katie took her hand back. It was Nightwing looking out through Jordan’s eyes now. And the weirdest thing was that this wasn’t the first time Katie had seen this. God, her life was chaotic.

“I keep telling Jordan that we need to go find Jon,” he said. “He’s there alone with Fire Starter and he doesn’t have any powers. The Kryptonite might be a problem, but we can overpower her before there’s too much exposure and—”

“You don’t know where they are,” Lois pointed out.

“I sort of know where I was. She couldn’t have gone that far. We can start combing the area and listening in. Jon should be reaching out, too.”

“He won’t,” Clark said. “Not with the chance of Kryptonite.”

Jordan’s face settled into an incredulous expression that looked eerily different from his normal self. “Why not? He’s vulnerable without any powers. He can’t protect himself against Fire Starter.”

Lois sighed. “Honey, you would do the same, wouldn’t you? It’s not about the powers, it’s just who you are.”

Nightwing slumped down, convinced for now. As weird as it was, it was totally obvious for Katie to see him through her boyfriend.

And why was everyone in this family so ready to take crazy risks to protect other people? It was inspirational when you saw it from a distance, but now that she actually cared for these people, it was terrifying.

And she knew that Nightwing had another good point.

“The Kryptonite’s probably not the most dangerous thing for Jon. He’s there with Fire Starter and he doesn’t have any powers. That’s how I almost got hurt.” She tried, but her voice still shook at the end of her sentence.

“You did get hurt.” All of a sudden, it was Jordan there again, reaching out and pulling her into a tight hug, just like the one he had given her that night.

She took a second, let her eyes close, and drew in a deep breath. It was pathetic. Literally everyone else in the room had faced way worse and was totally fine, but she still felt her skin crawl whenever she thought back to that scene with Fire Starter. If Jordan had been just a second later, she would have died and—

“Hey, it’s okay.” He whispered softly into her hair, soothing the shivers that she hadn’t even noticed were starting. “I’ve got you; you’re safe, remember?”

“I’m sorry. This is— it’s not important right now. We need to find Jon.”

She clenched her jaw tight. She needed to pull herself together. Her short time as Superwoman had taught her a lot, but mostly it had confirmed that she wasn’t cut out for hero work. Clark and Jordan had their powers, Nat had her suit, and Lois had her career, but even if Katie had any of those things, she couldn’t do what those people could do. How lame was that? She had said ‘we’ needed to find Jon, but there wasn’t anything she could actually do other than get out of the way.

But despite all that, Jordan was still holding her tight.

“You’re important,” he said. “And I love you, Katie. For exactly who you are.”

And she believed him completely. It’s what their relationship had always been built on. She was the bubbly, sunshiney social butterfly; he was the quiet, slightly awkward boy who shied away from crowds. She was the ordinary, forgettable small-town girl, he was the awe-inspiring hero who made the entire world a better place.

But most important of all, he wanted her here. She belonged by his side. Maybe she wasn’t a hero, she fit, somehow. That’s all that mattered.

“I love you, too.” She took one more deep breath, soaking in his steadying scent before she straightened in her seat. “Now how are we gonna find your brother?”

Something was wrong. The longer Jon sat here, the more he was sure of it. The air was thick, and he was sweating through his Nightwing suit. It couldn’t have been from the Kryptonite; it never affected him this way. It had to be something else.

“I knew I shouldn’t have talked to you,” Caroline was saying. “You supers are all the same! Not everyone has it as easy as you, you know.”

“I don’t… have it easy.” Jon wiped his forehead with his sleeve. It was downright soupy in here. He needed air.

Caroline scoffed, pacing across the small space. “You tracked me down and it took you, like, ten seconds before you started lecturing.”

Friggen Nightwing. Jon had no idea what his other self had said, but he believed Caroline that it had made things worse. The guy had no clue how to relate to people which, for an empath, was ridiculous and sort of pathetic. And now the picture was starting to solidify in Jon’s mind.

Nightwing had somehow come across Fire Starter. Maybe she had left a signal like she did before with Katie, or maybe the cross-country empathic combing Nightwing had been doing had finally paid off. Either way, he had found Fire Starter, they had started to talk, and then he had screwed it up somehow. Then she had brought out the Kryptonite. Not as a way to attack him, but probably just because she was scared.

“Look, I’m sorry for… for what I said,” Jon told her. “I… wasn’t thinking.”

It was as specific as he could get, but it seemed to work. Caroline’s pacing slowed. She twisted her fingers together.

“You don’t look good,” she said.

“Yeah, I… It’s kinda hot in here.” Which shouldn’t matter, normally, but Jon couldn’t protect himself right now. Another thing he was missing from his powers.

Caroline was still staring at him with an odd expression on her face. It looked like she was barely listening to him.

“I really am sorry about the Kryptonite,” she finally said. “I just kinda… freaked out.”

She still looked freaked out. Which made sense, actually. For all she knew, he still had all of his powers. With the Kryptonite stashed away for now, Nightwing would have been able to incapacitate her or get away well before she managed to take it out again.

But Nightwing wasn’t here and so Jon had no choice but to keep her talking until he could figure out another plan.

“Where did you even get the Kryptonite?” he asked.

She bit her lip. “Dr. Koehn had a supply. It was a stable, clean energy source for a lot of his designs. And he, uh, he liked that it protected his work from you guys. He always called it extra security.”

For a moment, her gaze slipped away, focused on something within her own mind. Then she gave her head a small shake.

“Anyway. Right after he was taken into custody, I managed to raid his stash and grab some. Just in case. I— I really didn’t think it’d knock you out like that, but after what happened with Superwoman, I didn’t want to use my powers on any of you again. And I think they’re—” She cut herself off before finishing.

Jon wished once again that he could sense what was going on in her mind. There was something there that he couldn’t figure out.

“Look, can we… uh, can we start fresh?” he asked. “I really do just want to help you. That’s all any of us want.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Yeah. You guys keep saying that.”

“Because it’s true! What Koehn did was wrong, and now you’re in an awful situation because of it—”

“I’m better off than the rest of the team. You really think I’m gonna give up and let you drag me to the DOD?” There was something sparking in her eyes again and a fresh wave of heat rippled through the cabin.

“That’s not what I want to happen. I promise.”

She scoffed. “Oh, you promise, huh?”

“Yes! Caroline, I know how hard all of this is. I just—”

“You can’t know! You have no idea! My friends are locked up. My family is terrified of me. The whole world hates me and I— I’m a freak!” She shook her hands out, and a shower of hot sparks skittered across the floor. Some of them dug into the wood and started to smoke.

Jon swallowed and forced himself to take a deep breath. He needed to stay calm. One of them had to, and Caroline obviously couldn’t. Slowly, he leaned forward, holding his arms out in a gesture of peace while staying seated.

“Look, you’re right. I haven’t gone through all of that. But I do know how terrifying powers can be. And how isolating. You’ve got this uncontrollable force living under your skin, and you have no idea when it’s going to escape and hurt the people around you.”

Caroline stood still, arms dangling limply as she stared at him.

“And it’s more than just that,” Jon continued. Hopefully it was helping to get through to her because he wasn’t sure he could force himself to stop. “The powers make you different from everyone else. You walk through a crowd and feel like a total freak, convinced that everyone can tell you’re messed up. And as much as you try to lie to yourself, deep down you always know the truth. You’re never going to have a normal life. You’re never going to be normal. And that hurts more than you ever want to admit.”

He remembered all of those feelings from his high school years, back when he had no clue which unnerving power was going to suddenly appear and if there was any hope that any of them could be useful in any way. There were still times where he felt those same feelings, although he was getting a lot better at handling them.

“I had my family to help me through all of that,” he told Caroline. “And some really good friends, too. I want to be that person for you. To help you know that it does actually get better. That you figure things out and… and that it’s okay to not be normal. It can be pretty awesome, actually. As long as you’ve got some good company.”

He was out of words and had probably said more than he should have. But he felt so much lighter having spilled all of that out to her. He still didn’t have the ability to be able to tell what she was feeling, but it had to have made a difference, right?

Glassy tears welled in her eyes, and then, finally, she gave him a tight, silent nod.

Okay. He had done it. His posture sagged. That was good. Something had finally gotten through to her and—

With a sharp gasp, she curled inwards. A glow stirred in her eyes.

“It’s happening again,” she mumbled.

“What? Caroline—”

“You need to do it! The— the thing you were talking about before.”

What was… Oh. She was talking about Nightwing. Something he could do with his powers? But there was no way Jon could do anything his other self had offered.

She cried out again, eyes squeezed shut in pain as she fell to the ground. “Please! I— I can’t stop…”

Heat spilled out of her, so intense that Jon could actually see it. Sparks were flying once again, and the glow brightened steadily.

Something bad was happening. Caroline was losing control of her powers.

And Jon couldn’t do anything to stop it.

It was hard for Clark to concentrate. Sifting through the world’s sounds was always a difficult task, and the fears racing through his mind were making it even harder.

They needed to find Jon. No matter what protective instincts he might be feeling, facing Fire Starter on his own wasn’t worth the risk. Clark had built up a resistance to Kryptonite and, as much as he didn’t like thinking about it, Jordan had some of that same resistance, too. Worse come to worst, they had Natalie and John Henry here for backup. Amber, too, although she was upfront about her abilities not being the best suited to go toe to toe against a dangerous superpowered person.

She was here helping with the search, though, using her powers to skim through the hundreds of trees for any clues. Clark was glad for the support even if he still didn’t completely understand how her abilities worked.

And this had to be hard for her. Clark knew how much he worried when Lois was in danger, and he couldn’t get to her right away. If it had been someone else, he’d be tempted to pause his own efforts to check in on Amber, but he could see the set expression on her face. She needed this to be over as fast as possible. There’d be time to debrief later.

So, instead, he dug deeper with his hearing, concentrating to filter out the sounds of the people close to him. Although it made his hearing more challenging, he was glad there was so much help. For so many years, he had been working on his own, relying on tenuous alliances with groups like the DOD despite never fully trusting them. But now he had so many people he could count on: a man whom he saw as a brother, a girl who was like a niece, yet another girl who was folding into the family perfectly, and, best of all, his own sons.

Well, one of his sons. They were going to find the other soon.

Cutting through the air, Clark doubled back to hover beside Jordan. “Does anything look familiar to Nightwing?”

He scanned the dense trees with a heavy frown. “He says it’s hard to tell. He didn’t mark an exact location when he first started talking to Fire Starter. Her powers seemed normal at first.”

Normal until they had started to become dangerously uncontrolled. Clark had seen the DOD reports. He knew what was happening. And the thought that Jon was with someone like that…

“Dad, we’re gonna find him.” Jordan gave his arm a squeeze, cancelling out Clark’s heavy spiral. “We just have to keep trying.”

How was it that he deserved to have this kid? This amazing, compassionate, determined kid? The more Clark saw of him as Superboy, the more he had to sit back in awe. Jordan didn’t need him anymore, and yet Clark still got to work by his side.

But then Jordan stiffened. He sucked in a short gasp, snapping his head to the side as a frown appeared.

Clark reached out and held on with his own supportive grasp. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s— it’s Nightwing. I can’t feel him anymore! I don’t know where he went.”

Jon was cringing away from the heat, hunching his shoulders and squinting his eyes in some small hope that it would help to keep both of them safe.

But he already knew it wasn’t going to be enough.

“Take a deep breath,” he coached, raising his voice to be heard over the hissing sparks.

“I’m trying! I— I can’t do it!”

And that wasn’t a surprise. Caroline has superpowers. What hope did deep breathing have against that?

Jon had done some of that, way back when. It had always been his first go-to when trying to wrangle whatever dangerous, unasked for power had made itself known in his brain. And it helped, sure, but a clear head hadn’t been the only thing he had needed.

He had also needed to tap into something deeper, something bigger and stronger than he was. He had needed to push his mind past the point of what he had thought was possible, and then make that strange power his own.

And it had felt good once he finally managed it. Like he was figuring out who he really was.

“You need to stop it!” Caroline shouted. “You said you could knock me out!”

Oh. Yeah. That would make sense. Nightwing could do that easily with his powers. It would cancel out whatever uncontrolled energy was happening inside Caroline. It would buy them time to figure out a solution. With his grandmother’s help, Jon was getting pretty good at figuring out how powers reacted with human and Kryptonian anatomy. They could help Caroline.

But first he needed to make her safe. He needed— he needed his powers. He needed that part of him that was different from anyone else.

For so long, he had been terrified of what was inside of him. He had locked away his powers and ignored them until they came spilling out in uncontrolled bursts. For years, he had struggled to accept them and master them and then finally learn to wield them. And after all that time and effort, it felt good to be that way. It felt right.

Taking a deep breath of his own, he dug deep into his mind. It was smaller and more limited than he remembered it being. Scarred barriers blocked the places where he once had access to amazing capabilities. It hadn’t bothered him before, but now he railed against it, hating the way it penned him in and restricted him. He knew he could be so much more. He was determined to make it that way.

Digging deeper, he searched for a way through. The barrier wasn’t just a blank wall. It was a convoluted network of anxieties and pain and even anger. It was more complex than he ever imagined, but it was also more delicate than it looked. He was strong; he could do this.

That well of strength that lived within him, the one made up of family and sunshine and his sense of self, was brimming with power. He gathered it all together, faced his target, and pushed.

The wall crumbled on impact. He burst through and there, finally, was the rest of him. The part that had been disconnected for all this time.

Nightwing.

They recognized each other instantly, drawn together by a force so strong that he couldn’t stop it even if he wanted to.

When he finally opened his eyes, he was whole. Jonathan Kent and Nightwing: the complex, many-faceted reality of his identity. It might be too much for most people, but for Jon it was exactly right. Exactly who he was.

Caroline was still in front of him, hunched inward as flames curled around her. She needed his help, and he knew exactly what to do.

Reaching out with his mind, he calmed her fear, soothed her anger, and settled her thoughts. The oppressive heat still radiated off of her, but he could easily protect himself from that. In two steps, he was at her side, lifting her slack body into his arms.

He’d take her to the fortress. He’d go over everything with Lara. They’d figure out how to help her and then… then they’d help her find her place. Just like Jon had found his.

But before he was able to do that, the door to the cabin flew open, flooding the room with sunlight and fresh air.

“Nightwing!” Jordan dressed as Superboy sped inside, followed by literally everyone else who flew around in a suit helping people. He paused as he took a good look at Jon. Ash floated through the air. “Or— wait, are you Jon right now?”

“I’m both,” he answered. “And I’m glad you’re here. We need to get Caroline some help.”

Chapter Text

Lois knew what some people said about her: that she had been gifted with a few lucky coincidences early in her career and now any news about the heroes fell into her lap because they all trusted her. In truth, even with the family connections, these sorts of stories were just as challenging now as they were over twenty years ago.

She always had to walk a difficult balance between telling people the truth and hiding the things that kept her family safe. Also, some information was too dangerous for the public to know, as much as she hated to admit it. And then she also had to hide how much she loved those people who were speaking into the microphone. Her pride was growing in pace with the boys’ reputation as heroes, and she was so glad for it.

“And so, thanks to some experimental treatment, all of Dr. Koehn’s remaining former interns are safe and healthy,” Jon finished, sparing a glance over to Lois before looking back at the camera. He was so good at these interviews now. No one would be able to guess that Nightwing was once a nervous teenager asking his mom to help him practice before a big press conference.

“They have all publicly denounced Dr. Koehn and given statements that will help in his prosecution,” Jordan added, standing right by Jon’s side. “The DOD has determined that they are not culpable for any of the actions carried out under Koehn’s direction.”

Lois shared a subtle glance with Clark, who was standing behind the boys. He hadn’t had to say much yet. Nightwing and Superboy had it all handled, just like they had handled strong-arming the DOD (with a little support from a certain retired general). Although she didn’t want to make her biases known, Lois was with the boys on this one. The surviving team members hadn’t physically hurt anyone, and they had been under duress. They deserved a fresh start.

“Does this mean we’ll see some new heroes take to the skies soon?” Lois asked. There was that balance again. She already knew the answer to that, but it was important to get the word out to the public.

The boys shared a look, and then it was Jon who spoke.

“We’re not sure yet. Through the treatment, some of them were able to reverse the process that gave them their powers. Some of them decided to keep them. It was important they had the choice.”

The ‘treatment’ was a custom regimen designed by Lara and Jon’s combined efforts. He had been insistent on giving the former interns a choice on whether or not to keep their powers. Lois hadn’t been as sure about that and neither had Clark, but now that some time had passed, she could understand the reasoning. It showed just how much Jon understood them.

Just like she understood where this interview needed to go. “But if some of them kept their powers, that means we will see them at some point, right?”

Jon shook his head. “Not necessarily. It still has to be a choice of theirs. This life is… it’s amazing. And important. I’m so grateful I have the opportunity to help people the way I do. But it’s not for everyone. You have to decide if this is what you want to do and if it’s something you can handle. Even with me, there've been times when I’ve doubted my place or… or needed to take time to reevaluate. None of this is a given.”

And Lois wasn’t ready to respond. Her throat was suddenly too tight to speak. It was a risk, but she couldn’t help stealing another look over at Clark. They had both sat with their son as he wrestled with those issues. The hardest part about it was that it was something he had to work through on his own. She couldn’t take that burden away from him.

And this was not the kind of thing she could get emotional about during a TV interview. Cutting her head away from Clark, she blinked rapidly and tried to clear the moisture from her eyes.

Thankfully, Jordan jumped in and saved them all.

“But, just to be clear, you’re stuck with both of us for a long time,” he said.

Jon laughed. “Yeah, that’s right. Superboy and I are definitely sticking around.” He leaned sideways, bumping his shoulder against his brother’s. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The house was packed. Pockets of conversation dotted around the kitchen and into the dining room while ever-changing trails of emotional signals wove through and around each other. Jon barely managed to keep his plate of food balanced as he navigated it all, and even that would have been beyond him if Amber hadn’t caught it when he was halfway through a conversation with Sadie.

“You’re sure you’re still doing okay?” she checked.

He took a breath. “Yeah. It’s a lot, but the good kind of a lot. All the, um, input feels a lot more intense right now for some reason.”

As always, Sadie saw right through him with her stormy grey eyes. “Your abilities have always been more attuned with people you are close to, and the ‘Jonathan’ side of you has many more meaningful interpersonal relationships.”

“Hey, c’mon, you’re making it sound like Nightwing’s some kind of loner or something.”

She raised an eyebrow as she took a sip of her tea. Jon finally broke first when a laugh escaped him. Maybe it wasn’t as dire as that, but she definitely had a point. And now that he was fully Nightwing and Jonathan all together, it was actually kinda nice to feel the full force of his abilities. Even if he did need to lean on his girlfriend to keep himself steady.

“The disorientation will improve as you gain strength,” Sadie lectured. “You’re still doing the exercises we spoke about?”

“Yeah, of course. You taught me how important that kind of stuff is.”

Something like an honest to god smile lifted onto her face. “I’m glad to hear it. And I’m also glad you’re feeling better, Jonathan.”

“Well, it’s good to have you here for my, uh, reintegration party or whatever.”

Amber laughed. “That’s not what your parents are calling it.”

“Yeah, well, it’s basically what it is.” And he didn’t really mind. It was nice to have a reason to get together.

Soon, Sadie went over to chat with his granddad in the breakfast nook, and Jon got the chance to mingle a little more. He put up with some fussing from his parents and hung out with Jordan and Katie, who was trying to convince him to take some sort of communications elective next term.

“It’s all about the effect of social media on public perception,” she said to him. “Jordan already said no, but one of you needs to, seriously, because it’d be good for the Superfam. And it’d look good for med school! You said they wanted well-rounded applicants, right?”

“That’s a stretch,” Jordan said with a laugh.

“Oh, c’mon, Jords, you gotta give me something here.”

“I might actually do it,” Jon said, “if you can guarantee the professor isn’t secretly caught up in some sort of conspiracy or evil experiment or dark web blog.”

She pouted. “That’s totally unfair. It’s Met U; it’s, like, a given there’s something going on.”

“Get your mom to do a background check,” Amber suggested with a grin.

“I am not opening the door for her on that.”

Katie dropped it for now, even though Jon knew he hadn’t heard the end of it. And while he had managed to find the rest of the college-aged crowd in the house, it took him a bit of effort to track down Nat. He knew she was here, but she wasn’t in the kitchen or the dining room or even the living room.

He found her outside, right by the back door with someone he didn’t expect at all.

“Kendall!”

The two girls froze, staring at him with wide eyes. It took Jon a second to catch up. It had been a while since he’d talked to his ex-girlfriend-turned-friend. She was pretty understanding of the weirdness of his life since they had given up on dating, but since he had been limited to spending only half his time as ‘Jon’, he hadn’t made the time for her. But here she was right outside his house.

Holding hands with his sister.

“Uh, look, we’ve been meaning to tell you,” Natalie said carefully.

“We were just trying to figure out the right way,” Kendall finished.

Messy emotions spilled off the two of them: surprise, wariness, and a splash of guilt. Mixed through it all, though, was an undercurrent of attraction that definitely wasn’t towards him.

“Wait, you guys are together?!”

“Yeah,” Kendall said, fighting off a grin as she gripped Natalie’s hand more tightly. “Look, I know it’s kinda weird because the two of us used to date and Natalie’s your sister, but—”

“No! No, it’s fine. We knew for a while it wasn’t gonna work out between us.” And they made each other happy. He could sense that very clearly, especially now that the initial shock was wearing off. “I just… I can’t believe I didn’t notice before.”

Natalie smirked. “Well, Nightwing wasn’t exactly interested in romantic gossip. And Jon literally couldn’t tell.”

“I guess, yeah.” Was he really that oblivious without his powers? Although in his defense, it had been an incredibly busy time. “You should come in, Kendall.”

She winced. “I wasn’t trying to crash. Really. I was just visiting my mom, and I came over here to bum a ride back to Metropolis from Nat.”

“Sure, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come in now. C’mon, it’ll be good for you to see everyone.”

It took her a second to think, but when she finally nodded and followed Jon into the house, he knew that she really meant it. That was one of the things he had always appreciated about Kendall; he never needed his powers to know what she was really thinking.

And she folded into the party as easily as everyone else. It was a varied group spanning over multiple generations and coming from all sorts of backgrounds, but they were all good people, and that’s what really mattered.

Although the party was nice, Jon was more than willing to leave it when he sensed a distress call. His Nightwing activities had been so limited lately, and it felt just as good to fly to someone’s aid as it had been to spend time with so many of the people he cared about.

He took his time at the bank robbery, making sure that everyone felt safe and as comfortable as possible. It was so much easier now that he was his whole self. No more fumbling with how to treat people, no more surprising emotional reactions. Katie had told him there had been some online chatter about how Nightwing had ‘changed’ since his personality split, and he was glad to put those murmurs to rest.

And it was also so good to get back out there. He hadn’t realized how useless he felt when he was just ‘Jon’, and there was a part of him that was enjoying the novelty of his powers in a whole new way. So, he waved off his dad and brother’s long-distance offers of help, stopped off to lend a hand at a low-risk car accident, and took the long way back home.

As he got close, he lifted himself just a bit higher in the air, arched his back, and completed an elegant backflip before straightening out to make his landing. It was fun. He hadn't had a lot of fun flying when it had been only Nightwing.

Jordan met up with him on the way down.

“I took Sadie home,” he said. “With the time difference, it was getting late for her.”

“Oh. Yeah, okay.” He already had plans to see her next week, so it wasn’t the end of the world. But as they walked towards the house, he could tell that pretty much everyone else had also left. He had missed the end of the party because he had been busy being Nightwing and… well, he was out of practice having to balance the two.

He’d get better at it, though. He had already figured it out once before. He had a solid support network, including a therapist who actually understood how complicated his life was. If Ben had been able to make sense of Jon literally splitting himself in two, he could coach Jon through a refresher on work/life balance.

“Amber gave Katie a ride back to Metropolis,” Jordan continued. “They both had eight a.m. classes and Amber told me to tell you she still thinks it’s unfair that we don’t need as much sleep as them.”

Jon grinned. “Heard that before.”

They reached the house, and he saw that his parents were out on the porch, his mom bundled up against the evening chill. Figured that’s where they’d be. Even more predictably, they both had glasses of wine in their hands.

A grin stretched across Jon’s face as he jogged up the steps. “You know, it’s just a couple more months until we’re twenty-one. Barely any time at all.”

The corner of his mom’s mouth lifted. “Enough time to matter.”

“Oh, c’mon,” Jordan wheedled, automatically joining in on Jon’s side. “Did you know that on Krypton, we’d already be of legal age?”

“Well, we’re not on Krypton,” their dad shot back. “And I’m pretty sure that’s not what you’re supposed to be getting from those history modules of your grandmother’s.”

Jon rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “It’s still pretty dumb, you know. We could just fly to, I dunno, Canada and they’d serve us with zero questions.”

His mom winced. “I don’t want to know details, but please tell me you two are being safe.”

“Yeah, Mom. We are,” And even though he could, he didn’t want to fly anywhere else tonight. With a shrug, he hopped up to sit on the porch railing, letting his legs dangle down while his back leaned against the support post. After a beat, Jordan did the same on the opposite end. They both let out a sigh, moving in unison without even trying.

The teasing and angling for illicit alcohol was a familiar script they had been using for a while now. It was weird to think that in a few months there wasn’t going to be a point to it anymore. Things were changing so much these days, and a lot of times in ways that he hadn’t ever expected.

There were bound to be more problems to face, too. There would be outside threats, and issues that he needed to deal with from inside himself. But he knew it would all work out. He had his family to see him through it all, and he had friends to rely on.

He knew exactly who he was, and exactly where he belonged.