As I walked out of the League meeting room, Donna followed me, and I could hear her footsteps quickening to catch up. The hallway stretched out before us, all sleek metal and reinforced glass, the kind of architecture that screamed "we're in space and everything here could kill you if something goes wrong." The Earth rotated slowly below through the massive observation windows, peaceful and blue and completely unaware of the conversation that had just happened above it.
"Caius, please wait. You need to calm down."
I stopped abruptly, my boots making a sharp sound against the polished floor. I looked at the clear view window that showed the Earth below, the continents drifting past in their slow rotation. I paused for a moment and breathed, forcing air into my lungs in a controlled rhythm. Then I looked back to Donna.
"Look, Donna, it's been a day for me, okay?" I said, my voice coming out more strained than I intended. "I just came back from Paradise Island, and besides..." I paused, not wanting to say what I did with Nubia. The memory of her body against mine, and the way she'd looked at me with those predatory eyes. "Questionable choices, I found out my grandfather is Ares, and that conversation didn't go well. And I had a talk with Psyche, and that blew my mind. Now I find out I have a whole sister that wants to fight me to the death to see if I'm even worthy to live, and now I have to train with the two people I want to kill the most in the world for the next month."
The words came out in a rush, all the frustration and anger and confusion pouring out at once. My hands were clenched into fists at my sides.
Donna stood there and looked at me with her caring eyes. Her bright blues had nothing but concern in them, and something else. Something deeper that I couldn't quite place in the moment.
"I understand you had a lot thrown at you," she said softly, taking a step closer. "You have a sister. The God of War is your grandfather. And I take it you don't want to talk about what happened between you and Psyche?"
I shook my head. What Psyche had told me about my soul, this world, and about what I was becoming, that was something I needed to process on my own. The weight of it all was still settling.
Donna looked at me with a warm smile, "Then how about a hug?"
I sighed feeling so defeated and so encouraged at the same time, "That would actually be nice."
As she embraced me, I wrapped my arms around her, and we just stood there alone in the hallway. Her arms wrapped around me, and I felt some of the tension in my shoulders ease. Donna was strong, not just physically but in the way she carried herself. She'd been through her own hell, her own identity crises and battles and losses. She understood what it meant to carry weight and how to ease it.
"Caius, I'm sorry for everything you've been going through," she said, her voice muffled against my chest. "These past two months must be crazy, but remember you're not alone."
I nodded, resting my chin on top of her head. "You're right. Well, at least your life is less crazy than mine."
She smiled against me, and I felt it more than saw it. "Yeah, well, I don't know about that. This whole invasion thing is kind of making it hard for me to announce a few things."
I pulled back slightly, looking down at her. "What's wrong, Donna?"
She smiled, but there was something vulnerable in it. Something that made my chest tighten. "Well, I want to say this not to stress you, but I've had a crush on you for years."
My eyes narrowed in a "really?" expression on my face.
She chuckled and said, "Was it that obvious?"
I smiled despite myself, "Donna, the only woman in my life to touch me as much as you, if not more, was Starfire, and I believe we all know how she feels about me."
We laughed, and the sound echoed in the empty hallway. It felt good to laugh with her, even for a moment. Especially with everything hanging over us.
"Well, for the past three years, Conner and I were dating."
My eyes widened. Her? Conner? "What? You and Conner?"
She nodded. "Yeah, but it didn't work out, and we broke up. Last time I heard, he was dating someone, or sleeping with someone. I stopped paying attention."
I processed that for a moment. Conner and Donna. It made sense in a way. They were both powerful, and both were dealing with their own identity issues, both trying to figure out who they were beyond their origins. But clearly, it hadn't been enough.
"Okay, Donna," I said carefully. "What are you looking for from telling me this?"
She pulled me in close, putting her head to my chest, and spoke softly, "Caius, you have a lot of women who want you, and between the invasion and possible war with the Viltrumite Empire and more, I just didn't want to not say anything. Plus, a girl can hope since I'm probably one of the few people who can live as long as you, if not more."
I knew what she meant. Donna Troy in the comics was basically immortal age-wise. She could die, but considering she was an Amazon and was near the level of Wonder Woman, plus depending on her iterations, she could be resurrected. The thought of living for eternity, watching everyone I cared about age and die while I stayed young, had been something I'd tried not to think about. But Donna was right. She could be there all the way to the end.
I smiled, holding her face gently in my hands. "Thank you for sharing that, Donna. I can't answer your feelings right now, so please give me some time."
She held me tighter and said, "Caius, we have all the time in the world. Just let's promise each other to make it through this war."
I smiled. "That's a major death flag you just announced."
She chuckled. "Whatever you say. Now go kick Mark and Omni-Man's asses."
I smiled squeezing her tighter. "Will do."
Back in the Justice League conference room, the tension hadn't dissipated. If anything, it had gotten thicker.
Cecil looked to Mark. The older man's jaw was set, and there was a protective edge to his posture that spoke volumes about how he felt about the young man standing next to him.
"Listen, kid, if you don't want to, you don't have to," Cecil said, his voice firm. "Immortal, Brit, and a bunch of other heroes are willing to train with you so we're ready for the Viltrumites when they come. You don't need to train with your dad if you don't want to."
Nolan walked up to the two and spoke, his voice calm but carrying an undercurrent of something else. "There's only so much your heroes could teach him. I know you probably taught him a lot, Cecil, but Mark can...."
"Don't you dare say his name," Cecil said, cutting him off. His voice was sharp, dangerous. He took a step forward, and despite the fact that Nolan could kill him with a thought, Cecil didn't back down. "I was here for the kid after you taught him your oh-so-ancient world conquering ways, and then fucked off to Mars for the last five years. I was also the one there to guide him back to the light after you taught him the ways of your people. I was the one that was there to help him clean the blood off his hands, and help the people of his home. The same blood you still have on yours. So Nolan, as Mark's guardian, I can tell you to fuck off."
The room went silent. Even the heroes who'd been preparing to leave stopped and watched.
Cecil stared fiercely at Nolan while Nolan only had a stoic expression on his face. Then he calmly looked to Mark and said, "Son, if this is how you feel, I understand. But I need you to look after your brother while I act as a decoy. I think it will be nice if the three of us got to know each other this way."
Mark looked to Cecil. Cecil shrugged and said, "We're still figuring out that part."
Mark looked to his father, frustrated, and then his eyes drifted to the small boy standing next to Nolan. Oliver. His little brother. The kid looked nervous, his reddish-pink skin almost glowing under the conference room lights. He was small, maybe five-seven tall, with black hair and blue eyes that reminded him of his dad.
Mark stepped over to the boy and smiled softly. He knew he couldn't hold the sins of his father against his little brother that he just met. Mark raised out a hand. "Hello, Oliver. I'm Mark. It's nice to meet you."
Mark then abruptly heard a voice in his head, clear and strong despite the fact that the boy's mouth hadn't moved. "Hello, Mark. It's nice to finally meet you. Father has talked so much about you."
Mark winced, and he looked at the reddish-pink-skinned boy with confusion. Then he looked back to Nolan. "Did he just use telepathy? How did I hear that? I thought unless it's psychic attacks, Viltrumites have to let someone into their minds?"
Nolan looked to Oliver and said gently, "Oliver, unlike on Mars, everyone here speaks verbally."
Oliver looked sad and said aloud, his voice small, "Sorry, Mark. Please don't be mad."
Nolan looked to Mark. "Sorry about that. Oliver may look like a teenager, but he is actually only five years old. This is just due to his hybrid nature of being half-Viltrumite and Red Martian. And as for telepathy, yes, while Viltrumites' minds are very durable, we are not exempt from mental touching's from psychics. It just goes to show that your brother is a very powerful psychic."
Cecil sighed and asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Any more kids we don't know about?"
Nolan said, "No," with an almost serious expression that made it impossible to tell if he was being truthful or not.
Mark sighed as his frustration was building, "That's enough. Let's just find Caius and start training."
Nolan nodded as Mr. Terrific walked up to them and spoke to Nolan. "Omni-Man, the doctor and I are ready. Follow me."
Nolan and Oliver followed Mr. Terrific, and Mark followed after, looking back to Cecil and nodding.
Once they left the meeting hall and Cecil was standing next to Batman, Cecil exhaled a long breath he'd been holding and began ventilating as he looked exasperated. His shoulders sagged, and he put a hand on the table to steady himself.
Batman said, "You need a moment?"
Cecil just raised his hand as he was bent over from the stress of confronting a man who could have ripped him apart instantly. His heart was pounding, and he could feel the adrenaline crash hitting him hard.
Wally and Barry then walked up to Cecil and said, "How about we get you out of here and grab some food to calm down? You can help us convince Red Rush to come out of retirement."
Cecil then recomposed himself and said, "Yeah, that actually works. But not the League cafeteria. My god, I've had better food in Bludhaven."
Nightwing then spoke up, "Good, 'cause I'm joining. We can coordinate a training plan between the Titans, Young Justice initiates, and the GDA."
Cecil smiled somewhat, the tension finally easing from his shoulders. "Nightwing, if you ever want a job, I will hire you in a heartbeat. I know a few other agencies that will hire you too. Just don't work for Waller or a guy named Minos. They are the fucking worst."
Dick chuckled. "Noted."
As Mark, Oliver, and Nolan walked into an all-white room with Mr. Terrific, I approached from another side of the room and was immediately tripped out.
The room was a void-like white with no features. No walls that I could see, no ceiling, no floor markers. Just endless white in every direction. It was disorienting, like standing in the middle of a blank canvas that stretched on forever.
Mark seemed calmer than I last saw him, though there was still tension in his shoulders and the way he held himself.
"Caius Dawn, how's my favorite young up-and-coming hero doing?" Mr. Terrific said with a warm smile on his face. "By the way, I heard about the name you chose. Superior. It's a little pretentious, but hopefully in a few decades, you'll grow into it."
I smiled despite myself. "Good to see you too, Terrific. I will make sure to remember that." Then I gestured to the room around us. "So what's this room?"
Mr. Terrific's smile widened, and I could see the pride in his expression. This was his baby, clearly.
"This," he said, gesturing broadly, "is a simulation room, like the ones you Titans have. But unlike that one, this one has higher calibration and settings since we have powerhouses like Wonder Woman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, and such. This room was specially made."
He walked forward, and a holographic interface appeared in the air in front of him. He tapped a few commands, and suddenly the white void around us flickered, showing brief images of different environments. A desert planet. An ocean world. A city street. A black hole. They all looked and felt real.
"I, along with Cyborg, Batman, Superman, Steel, and Doctor Fate, made this room," Mr. Terrific continued, his voice taking on a lecturer's tone. "It's basically a planet or solar system in itself. This room can recreate any planet in the League archives, enemies, environmental conditions, and even gravity."
He pulled up more displays, showing technical readouts and specifications that made my head spin. "The walls, floor, and ceiling are made of a composite material that can withstand impacts equivalent to a samll nuclear explosion. The holographic projectors are embedded throughout the entire structure, creating a seamless three-dimensional environment. We can simulate atmospheric conditions, temperature extremes, radiation exposure, you name it."
He gestured to another display. "The gravity controls are particularly impressive. We can adjust from zero gravity all the way up to one thousands times Earth's normal gravity. The system compensates for the structural stress, so the room itself won't collapse even under extreme conditions. We've tested it with Superman going all out, Green Lanterns creating massive constructs, and even Martian Manhunter phasing through the walls. It holds."
I whistled low. "That's... that's incredible."
"It is," Mr. Terrific said with a grin. "And you're about to experience it firsthand."
Nolan then said, "Good. Can you release me and let me handle the settings?"
Mr. Terrific looked to Nolan and then back to me. I nodded, even though every instinct in me screamed that this was a bad idea. But if I was going to survive what was coming, I needed this training. I needed to push myself beyond my limits.
Mr. Terrific said, "You get one chance, Nolan." And then he snapped his fingers, and the giant cuff restraints around Nolan's wrists disappeared with a shimmer of light.
Nolan rolled his shoulders, and I saw the relief in his posture. He'd been wearing those restraints for hours, and even for a Viltrumite, that had to be uncomfortable.
Mr. Terrific then turned back to me, "I will be in the observation room if you need me." He gestured to a section of the wall that suddenly became transparent, showing a control room beyond with monitors and equipment. "Just shout, and I'll hear you."
He then walked out of the room, and the door sealed behind him with a hiss.
A holographic command pad appeared in front of Nolan, floating in the air at chest height. He stepped up to it and started typing, his fingers moving with practiced ease across the interface.
"Okay, boys," Nolan said, his voice taking on a tone I remembered from when I was younger. "Sorry, but we're just gonna jump right into it." He tapped a few more commands, and I saw the readouts change on the holographic display.
"Oliver, the gravity will be higher than what you're used to, but for us, it will be a slight discomfort."
Suddenly, I felt it. The weight. It was like someone had draped a heavy blanket over my entire body, pressing down on my shoulders, my chest, my legs. My knees buckled slightly before I caught myself.
Mark grunted next to me, his posture shifting as he adjusted to the increased gravity. Oliver looked like he was struggling more, his small frame bending under the weight.
I looked to Nolan and asked, "What did you do?"
Nolan said, still typing, "I adjusted the gravity to ten times Earth normal. And every ten minutes, it will increase by ten more until we reach one hundred times our goal is one hundred times by the end of the week and one thousand by the end of the month."
My eyes widened. One thousand times? That was insane. Even with my Viltrumite physiology and TTK, that would be crushing.
"No your just not use to fighting in denser gravity. Think of it like swimming, and the more you do it the better you get at it."
Nolan then looked to Oliver, who was trying to adjust, his arms trembling. "My arms feel really heavy, and it feels hard to shift my body's form."
Nolan nodded. "The gravity will make your Martian shapeshifting powers harder to use, but for right now, we will focus on moving and getting used to fighting in higher gravities. Then we will do this in a space environment so you're used to holding your breath while fighting in space."
Then he looked to me and Mark. "Okay, you two. For right now, I want you to have a mock spar like you did when you were kids. It's been five years, so I need to know what you two are capable of."
I looked to Mark, and I felt my blood boil. The memories came flooding back. The fight five years ago. The way he'd looked at me with those cold eyes as he killed and hurt my friends. How he used me as a battering ram smacking against their bodies as they splatter against me. What he said about my mother, and how he killed Beast Boy.
Mark looked at me and sighed. "I saw this coming."
I then said, my voice tight, "Can I even cut loose in here?"
And then Mr. Terrific could be heard and seen as a holographic window with his face appeared in the air between us. "Kid, go buck wild. This thing has handled far worse with Green Lanterns and Superman doing their spars."
And then the holo-image disappeared.
I smiled, pressing the holographic interface on my suit. The controls appeared on my arm, and I navigated to the defensive systems. I turned off the kinetic force barrier and the absorbing feature of the suit. I wanted to test myself while doing this. I needed to see if I actually got stronger compared to when we were kids.
The suit's AI chimed softly in my ear. Warning: Defensive systems offline. Recommend maintaining at least partial shielding.
I ignored it.
Nolan looked at both of us and said, "Don't hold anything back. I need to know what you're both capable of. But don't kill each other or maim each other."
Mark stood in an open stance, his posture straight. "Okay, Caius. The first hit is yours. It's the least I can do."
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Did this fucker really think one hit would be enough? Or that I needed his pity?
I was already in a pissed-off mood. Everything from the past day, the past week, the past months, past five years, it all came crashing down on me at once. My parent's. The Leagues treatment. The blood and bodies on hands. The Empire & Invasion. Ares. Psyche. All of it.
And Mark has the absolute gaul to stand there like he was doing me a a favor. Like I needed his PITY!
I'm gonna rip apart and make him pay!
That's when Nolan and Oliver noticed something was wrong.
Nolan saw how Caius's golden TTK aura flared around his body like golden steam, the energy crackling and sparking in the air around him. His eyes widened in realization as he saw what was happening.
Caius's amber eyes turned blood red. And his golden TTK aura turned the same blood red, but with black wisps appearing in the aura, curling and twisting like smoke.
Nolan could even feel a pressure coming off him. The same kind that made the air bend and shimmer. The same kind he'd only ever felt from one person before in all of the Empire. The Grand Regent. It was like standing next to a star, feeling the heat and gravity pulling at you, and threatening to consume you.
The white room around them seemed to darken slightly, the shadows deepening despite there being no light source to cast them.
I then spoke, my voice cold and empty, "I don't need your pity, but I will take your blood as a starter. Your spine will be a bonus."
Mark's eyes widened as he saw the aura, felt the tinge of bloodlust and pressure coming off from Caius. His body tensed, his instincts screaming at him that he was in danger.
Then Mark spat blood as a fist landed in his gut faster than he could see. He was confused to what had just happened. He didn't even see Caius move.
I moved without thinking, my body reacting on pure instinct and rage. The impact created a shockwave that rippled through the air, and I felt his body buckle under the force of my punch. I launched myself at him, my TTK propelling me forward with terrifying speed.
And Mark noticed my face as I spoke, my voice barely above a whisper but carrying all the weight of a death sentence. "I told you the next time I see you, I will kill you. So try not to die so easily."