Got Your Back, Always

III.XIV

Conner is washing his hands when Gar walks in.

"Take a break." He sets down the bowl, "You've been cleaning for hours. Eat something." He starts to chop.

Conner tosses down the rag, "Can't eat. I failed. Superman never would have failed."

"Don't think like that. We... we did the best we could."

"Then why isn't Hank still alive?"

"Conner, I know this is hard."

"How about stop the bullshit? Just come out and say it. If I wasn't a fucked-up half breed, none of this would've happened."

"Don't say that word."

"I'm talking about the Lex part of me. It's like everyone was waiting for him to take over. So you can all do your happy dance now because Superboy definitely did not save the day."

"Don't do this to yourself."

"Great. Advice from a talking green tiger. Thanks."

Gar scoffs, "You're right." He flips him off, "You're not Superman."

Dawn walks in and gets in the way of Conner storming off, "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt."

Gar softly says, "It's okay."

Dawn looks at Conner, "Hey. It's not your fault. I pulled the trigger. That's not on you."

Conner's eyes start to water, "But it was our job to save him."

"It was our job to try." Dawn sniffles, "And we did." She brings him into a hug. She cries, "I want him back, too."

Gar pulls a pizza out of the oven. "Oh hey, what's up, Kory? I made a pizza. You want some? I should be getting paid an hourly rate for how much house work I'm doing. Not to mention the crisis counseling. Where's Alfred when you need him? Man I wish Cassie would wake up soon."

Kory blasts Gar with flames, out of nowhere.

He gets up hesitantly, "Sorry. Bad joke." He watches as Kory's eyes glow brighter. He yelps and jumps away. "Kory, stop!" He grunts as she blasts him again. His sleeve gets charred.

"What the shit!" He grabs a pan and chucks it at her. She bats it away.

He lean onto the counter and kicks her. The two begin to fight. Kory dodges, but Gar takes her around the waist, spins and slams her on the ground. He holds her down but she grunts and her eyes glow green again.

She whimpers and throws him off of her. "Gar, what happened?"

"Stay away from me," Gar runs off.

"Gar? What?"

Cassie groans and opens her eyes, she holds her hand up to shield her eyes from the blinding sun. She looks around and notices she's in a train car. She places her hand on the table and it goes straight through. She gasps and pulls back.

Cassie looks around at everyone, they all look solid but lacked color. She got up and stumbled, she made her way to the back of the car, where the bathroom was. She yanked open the door and looked at the mirror. What looked back at her was herself, but transparent. Her image would go in and out, almost as if someone couldn't decide if they wanted her to be fully there or not.

She shook her head and looked out the window. The train wasn't moving.

"What the shit?" Cassie walked to the exit and stepped down, beginning to wander around.