Brave New World: Black Lightning

Chapter 17

"You sure you can't stay a little while longer? You know the girls love seeing their Uncle John." Lynn asked her brother as she watched him pack up his gear after the ASA raid.

"I wish I could Lynn, but honestly, just like you and Jeff have a team here that needs you, I have my own team in Star City that needs me and I've been away from them for too long." John said.

"Before you go, you mind telling me what your problem with Andy is?" Lynn asked, since John had never gotten around to telling her what his issue was with their other brother.

"Trust me Lynn, you don't want to know. It's better if you remember him as you thought he was." John said.

"Really, because it sounds like he's a very different person than I remember." Lynn said, making it clear to her brother that she was not letting this go.

"Fine, only because I know you won't drop it. Andy was not the man we thought he was. He was a corrupt soldier through and through and the reason he was shot wasn't because he was protecting his client, it was because he was the target, simply because his criminal enterprises threatened those of some dangerous people, but that's not the worst of it." John said.

"What could be worse?" Lynn asked.

"In the old reality at least, Andy was a traitor of the highest order. He was recruited by the very people who faked his death and then when I found out, he tricked me into trusting him before he revealed his true colors and got a very close friend of mine killed. And it ended with me putting a bullet in him." John said.

"My god. I knew Andy had problems, but." Lynn said.

"He's beyond redemption Lynn. Trust me on that. I believed that he could be saved and it got one of my closest friends killed. I will never make the mistake of trusting him again and neither should you." John said.

"Don't you think you should hold out hope that maybe this reality means that Andy is a different man, if he's even still alive?" Lynn asked.

"No. Andy is a brother only in name and blood. He's not family anymore and he's sure as hell is not my brother. I have another one and his name is Oliver Queen and he's waiting for me to return home." John said.

"Sounds like you and this Oliver guy are pretty close." Lynn said and John smiled.

"We weren't at first. I thought he was a killer, but then he showed me that he was so much more. We've had our fair share of fights over the years, just like brothers, but we always worked through it. And honestly, I owe him for not only helping me move on past Andy's death, but also for helping me find my way back to Lyla." John said.

"He's not wrong. Oliver put our family back together in more ways than one more than once." Lyla said.

"Then I can't wait to meet him. When is that going to happen?" Lynn asked with a smile, since she'd always believed that one of her brother's biggest mistakes was letting Lyla go, so if this Oliver Queen guy had helped him pull his head out of his ass, then she liked him already.

"Well, I'm sure you'll meet him soon since he'll be John's best man at our next wedding. What is this, the third?" Lyla asked John.

"Actually, I think it's our fourth." John said with a chuckle.

"Why didn't you tell us you were engaged?" Lynn asked.

"It didn't really seem appropriate due to the mission." Lyla answered.

"What about you? Think you and Jeff will ever try again?" John asked.

"I don't know. Honestly, I feel like we still have a lot to work out, plus, there's the whole Black Lightning thing." Lynn said.

"Lynn, I know you're not a fan of Jeff putting his life on the line like that, but it's just who he is. You can't stop him from being a hero anymore than he could stop you from being a scientist. If you really want to make things work with him, you've got to learn to accept that." John said.

"I know, and I'm trying, but it's going to take me a while, mainly because I'm still trying to get Jeff to agree to go to couples counselling with me." Lynn said.

"Good luck with that." Lyla said.

"Anyways, Lyla, I need to get back to Star City, I'll see you when you're done here." John said and Lyla nodded as John pulled out his extrapolator (In this series, since Cisco still has his powers, he was able to figure out how to make extrapolators work again, though they only open breaches to places on this earth for right now. I only added this note because I know that someone is going to complain about it otherwise) and activated it, opening a breach in the Sanctum.

"You definitely get the better toys." Lynn said.

"Maybe if you got out of Freeland more, you would too." John said with a smile before stepping through the breach and heading back home.

Later on that day, Jen was watching her mom treat Khalil.

"How is he?" Jen asked.

"Well, it looks like his cybernetics took the brunt of your dad's blast, but he'll still be out for awhile." Lynn said.

"So, should we give him his memories back?" Jen asked.

"I don't know Jen? I'm not sure if Khalil would want to be reminded of all the things he did as Painkiller on the old earth." Lynn said.

"What do you mean?" Jen asked.

"He killed his mother, he killed Tayvon, he even tried to kill your sister." Lynn said.

"Plus, there's no guarantee that it won't bring back the old Painkiller, who'd kill us all." Lynn said.

"Mom, the only reason Khalil was any of that mess in the old reality is because of us. Besides, don't you think he deserves to know that there are people in Freeland who still care about him, since we have no idea what it was like for him all these years. We don't know if he had anyone to care for him." Jen said.

"It's still risky, since we have no way of knowing how the memory restoration will work on someone with two different people in their head." Lynn said.

"Actually, I do." Lyla said as she joined them.

"Aunt Lyla?" Jen asked, since even though her Uncle John had divorced her, Anissa and Jen still called Lyla their aunt.

"My friend Dr. Caitlin Snow has a similar state as Khalil. While she's not a cyborg like he apparently is, she is a metahuman whose power is actually a completely different person that she shares a body with. The memory restoration restored both of their memories, so I'm guessing it would have the same effect on him." Lyla said.

"Wow, you just know everyone." Jen said.

"Only because until a few weeks ago, you guys were cut off from the rest of the multiverse. Now we're all here on this earth together, so we can make the most of it. Anyways, I can reach out to her, see if she'd be willing to help counsel Khalil between the two halves of himself." Lyla said.

"That would be great. But are you sure that she can handle a situation like this?" Lynn asked.

"Since her other half used to be very similar to how you tell me this Painkiller character is, but they overcame it and it's my understanding that they're now as close as sisters." Lyla said.

"You just know everyone, don't you." Jen said playfully.

"And soon you will too, once your dad introduces you to his other friends outside of Freeland. Speaking of which, I have a few more things to discuss with him before I head back to Star City too." Lyla said.

"We'll leave you to it, but I think that we should wait until we talk to this Dr. Snow before we wake Khalil up or restore his memories." Lynn said and Jen nodded reluctantly, since she didn't like it at all, but knew that her mom would not budge on this, so she decided to just go along with it instead of getting in a fight about it.