InsaneJournal

Who: Superboy-Prime and Primrose Everdeen
What: Prime arrives! Or: Prim finds a stray.
When: Afternoon August 23, 2012
Where: A park! Because every single one of my characters has to show up there.
Warning: Probably PG-ish.

Clark hated this place.

Twenty years ago now, Alex had promised them peace. Eternal peace. After losing his world, after failing his parents and his girlfriend and more than four billion other lives, that had sounded pretty good to Clark. Heck, he’d even been okay with dying there in the collapsing antimatter universe he and Kal-L had finished the Anti-Monitor in. It wasn’t like he was good for much. Wasn’t like he had anything to live for. Even if he had flown into the newly forming universe, what would he have there? His parents wouldn’t remember him, his girlfriend wouldn’t remember him, he probably wouldn’t remember him. People never remembered previous realities in the comics. He didn’t want that, to be a superpowered amnesiac with no connections to the world around him. Death was better. At least then it would be over. At least then he could stop seeing the shadow demons and the other twisted monstrosities of the Anti-Monitor’s horde. At least then he could stop imagining his parents’ screams as the universe died. But Alex showed them another way, a way to what was supposed to be an eternal paradise, and if he could save Kal-L’s Lois then who was to say he wasn’t right?

It wasn’t peace.

Twenty years of loneliness. Twenty years of watching Lois get sicker and sicker and Kal-L get more and more fraught with worry and buried hurt at losing her. Twenty years of Alex, Clark’s best friend, growing cold and distant. Twenty years of being forced to watch his parents and girlfriend dying in a car accident over and over and over again, when Alex wasn’t showing him the worst moments in New Earth’s history. Twenty years where he still couldn’t sleep for more than an hour without waking up in a cold sweat with the feeling of parademon claws on his throat. Twenty years of inferiority, of knowing he’d never get to be Superman, knowing he’d never even get to be just a regular man, never have sex, never marry, never have any kids, never find his career or his destiny. Eternal peace? Clark was pretty sure there was no such thing. No heaven, for sure no heaven, but there was definitely a hell and for the last twenty years he’d been there. The only thing that kept him going was Kal-L’s seemingly limitless hope. Even after twenty years, Kal-L felt sure that things would turn out okay, and Clark had to believe that.

Had to believe it because if he didn’t, he would be lost. He knew that as clearly as he knew that the sky was blue. All he had was another man’s hope, and his own faith in that was waning rapidly. More rapidly now that Alex insisted on showing him things from the life of the new Superboy. Even with his absolute trust in Alex, Clark couldn’t help but think that was cruel. It was bad enough watching other people live, knowing you’d never get to do it yourself. It was worse watching someone take that name, your name, and live the life you always wanted. Even worse, this new Superboy was good. As strange as it sounded, Clark would have felt better if he’d been an incompetent, if this Konner Kent had been some ridiculous moron that couldn’t tell which side of the S was the top. Konner was good, though. He was saving people and making friends and even finding someone he could be close to. He was doing all the things that Clark would never do and he was doing them so well that even if anyone ever remembered that there had been another Superboy, no one would care. Every day it got harder for Clark to remind himself that he’d willingly given up his shot at existing, that he’d voluntarily gone back to help Kal-L. He could still see it now, could still banish the jealousy to the same corner of his mind that he tried to banish all the rest of the raging emotions he had no clue how to deal with, but for how much longer?

He would never get to find out.

One minute he was sitting alone in a room full of crystalline viewscreens, going through another one of Alex’s viewing sessions. This one mostly focused on Darkseid, but on a few of the screens was the all-too-familiar stretch of road and the all-too-familiar car that was about to be turned into a heap of scrap and twisted limbs. He hated Alex for this. As much as he’d come to depend on Alex over the years, maybe even love him like a brother, he couldn’t begin to understand why his best friend was putting him through this again. And again. And AGAIN. Wasn’t it bad enough that they were all trapped here for the rest of eternity, and maybe even beyond? Wasn’t it bad enough that they were all impotent to do anything to help the world, to show it the way? Why did Alex have to show him this? What point did watching as his parents bodies twisted and shredded in a high speed collision make? So as much as he loved his best friend, he couldn’t help hating him just a little, hating him for making him watch this, for trying to prove his point about New Earth in such a horrible way. Even if maybe he did have a point. Even if maybe some of the heroes were getting darker, more corrupt. Even if-

-even if suddenly he wasn’t in the crystalline viewing room anymore. He had only a moment to process this before his butt smacked into asphalt, with the little chair the paradise dimension had formed for him gone. He was out? He was back in the world? NO. He couldn’t be. He couldn’t be here. He didn’t belong here, as much as he deeply, deeply wanted to be. He couldn’t be here. He had no place in this universe. He bolted upright and took flight just in time to avoid being smacked into by an SUV. He didn’t seem to notice or care. He just flew straight up into the clouds, where he could get the best look at his current geographical situation, all the while a slow heat began to build in his stomach. Something, or someone, had plucked him out of the pocket dimension he’d spent the last two decades in, and while a part of him was happy to be out and back in the world, another part of him was rapidly growing furious at whatever had the gall to do that to him. He hadn’t wanted to be out, had repeatedly told Alex no when the other boy had asked him to leave with him, and now something had the balls to force him out? After a quick look with his telescopic vision he became even more furious. Who would have the balls to put him in Kansas? Maybe before he went back to the pocket dimension he would have to give someone a super-punch in the face…

Yeah, he needed to find out who did this before he went back. Otherwise what was to stop it from happening again? That made sense, and besides, that’s what a hero would do. That's what Superman would do, and he was going to be Superman one day. Would have been Superman one day, he had to forcibly remind himself. Still, it was what he needed to do now, while he was here and could. Clark flew higher, up and up and up, almost into orbit. Once he was high enough, he spun about in the air and used his telescopic vision to do a quick scan of North America. He knew that if he was on New Earth, there would be unique cities in places that there weren’t in other universes. He knew where the New Earth Superboy was, but wasn't ready to see him, wasn't sure if he ever would be, so instead he was looking for Superman or maybe Batman. That meant Metropolis or Gotham... So he was a little shocked to find everything geographically arranged in an all-too-familiar way that didn't include either city. “…No. No, it c-can’t be!” This wasn’t possible. He couldn’t be on Earth-Prime. Earth-Prime was destroyed along with the rest of his universe! Even if it wasn't, there was only one universe now! Someone was trying to trick him. Someone was trying to trick him with the image of his dead universe! His face twisted in rage and his fists clenched, every muscle in his body tensing for action. “…Someone is going to pay for this.” Without waiting another moment he swooped back down into the little park he’d first appeared in, landing hard enough to shake the ground around him. Once again everyone around him looked at him, but this time he actively glared them all down. He didn’t care how weird it was for them to see him land in a park in his suit. He had more important things to worry about right now, like using his telescopic and x-ray vision to try and find some clue or seam in this illusionary park.