Verisimilitude

The Aftermath

She gave him a smile, before leaving the room, guiding Garfield out as well so they could talk alone. The silence, at first, was awkward. Miss Martian, Superboy, and Kid Flash shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what to say first and who should say it.

It was Superboy who broke the silence, when he asked, straight and to the point, "Why'd you do it?"

He gave a small shrug, "If I hadn't, he would have. And if he had..." he trailed off, the whole room knowing what could have happened if he hadn't gone to let the animals out. It was funny how such a small thing could make such a big difference.

"But you couldn't know that." Kid Flash pointed out.

He gave a slight nod, before saying, "Well, yeah. But I couldn't know that he wouldn't do it the second our backs were turned. I was not going to let a eight year old walk right into the line of fire. Kids don't take orders."

"That's what Marie said." Miss Martian agreed, before a look of realization flashing through her arms that made him wary, "How did you know that though, and why do you say it like that?"

"Like what?" He had made a mistake, he sensed, and he struggled to keep his mental balance, especially because the telepath was getting suspicious.

"Uh, dude, 'kids don't do orders', you do realize you are thirteen, right?" Kid Flash pointed out, and he inwardly cursed but managed to scoff and make his tone hold humor.

"Uh, you do realize KF, that normal thirteen year olds do not work with Batman." He mentally congratulated himself. Perfect excuse. He was Batman's partner, and Batman was, well, Batman. The others didn't know that him - the old him - wouldn't occasionally say something that Batman would say (he could picture Bruce as a ten year old, calling other kids his age children like he was already in his thirties).

They nodded, perfectly believing him as he completely lied through his teeth, manipulated his thoughts and facial expressions, and carefully controlled his emotions. He was a living a life that had been lost long ago, and no one knew how much it hurt to do it. He just wanted to go back! Back to when everything made sense. He didn't care if it was before the simulation or during, but either was preferable to what was happening after.

"We found out that Psimon has been controlling Harjavti." Kid Flash reported, and he nodded.

"Makes sense." He agreed, "He's the only one who could influence Harjavti for Bialya, with Queen Bee having an alibi." Psimon. I definitely jinxed it earlier.

"But how can we get him away from Harjavti?" Superboy questioned, making him think for a moment.

"I have an idea." He said to his friends as one formed in his mind. He then began explaining it to them, wondering what would they would think of it.

======================

[Harjavti's alone.] He reported, and one by one (him last, since they were worried about his injuries. He's done more with worse but he couldn't necessarily tell them that) they entered the dark room.

Harjavti was simply staring out the window, in a trance like state before he turned to them. "Where's my daughter?" He asked, emotionless, before he pressed a hand to his head and asked wearily, "Where's Psimon?"

"Forget him. Let's get you out of here." He said to the man, and - of course - it was at that moment Bialyan guards came in with seemingly alien weapons. One man in particular moved so he was at the front of the group.

"Well well well, American heroes here to assassinate the president." he tutted, and he was dimly aware of Miss Martian sneaking behind the man in camouflage mode. "Such a shame we arrived too late to stop them."