Chapitre 73: Kara's advice
She scratched her cheek as she thought about how to best describe it. "It's complicated. The Justice League kind of reached out to me. You know, they visited to help me get on my feet during your... absence."
I couldn't help but frown at her words. The first thought that came to mind was that this new Justice League was meddling with my business, but I quickly dismissed that thought. After being busted by them, there was no way they would approve of me continuing my business with Westmob.
Of course, they couldn't disallow me from working with them, but they could exclude me from the Justice League. Now the question I had avoided thinking about came up again. Am I going to stay with the Justice League?
Although I was able to be at the forefront when an invasion happened, it wasn't truly beneficial for my training, since any force we had encountered until now was barely an opponent for me.
Was it wise to continue working with them when they were holding me back? Not to mention the broken trust between us. Were they even willing to work with me? Was I willing to work with them?
To be fair, I didn't truly see their actions against me as a form of betrayal, apart from that misunderstanding with Raven. They had seen what I did and acted upon their morality, which I knew would happen if they found out about my... misgivings.
Another aspect was whether I was willing to give up on finding a way back, or rather, if they would help me with it. If they helped me, I wouldn't need Westmob, right? If they didn't, then I had to continue, which put me on a course path opposing the League. I shook my head. I would figure it out when I arrived back there.
"The Justice League? So who visited you?"
"All of them visited at least once, though it was mostly Kal-El and Diana. Batman visited a couple of times too."
Diana? Since when were they on a first-name basis? "Since when are you two on a first-name basis?" I couldn't help from asking. "And what do you mean, Kal-El visited you? Aren't you at the Kent's place?"
"I am currently living at your place. I knew you wouldn't die this easily, and I didn't want to let it gather dust while you were away. It felt wrong to abandon it." She answered wryly. And it wasn't difficult to see her point, especially when she thought we were still alive.
I smiled after knowing that she believed I was capable of holding time itself at bay, though she wasn't wrong, was she?
It was also obvious why her cousin had visited her often if she wasn't living at the Kent's place anymore. Diana and Batman were surprising, but it made sense why they would visit, given the history we had in another timeline. Although it also made sense why Shayera hadn't visited, I was still saddened that she hadn't.
Of course, although I could understand why Diana visited, it still left a bad taste in my mouth. Before I could say anything, Kara held up her hand. "I know. Diana is annoying, but she means well. She is incredibly stubborn as well. Even after I told her to piss off, she came in and checked up on me."
"You don't have to tolerate them if you don't want to-" I started, but was quickly interrupted by her.
"I know. Believe me, if I wanted to, I would have chased them off, but I guess I was missing some company. Can you blame me? Although I believed you were still alive, there was still that doubt... I thought I might have lost the two most important people in my life-" She choked up in the end and I tried my best to comfort her.
"Kal-El would probably be depressed if he knew he wasn't among the 2 most important." I joked and Kara chuckled lightly through her tears.
"Yeah... I have been a bitch to him lately as well. Not only to him, I guess. I had given everyone attitude." She smiled weakly as she looked at me. "Dr. Wakati had already theorized that you were still alive, but knowing something and having evidence were two different things."
I snorted. "Well, I hope you haven't been mopping around," I asked pointedly, even though I could guess what her answer would be by the way she presented herself.
"I haven't! I picked up drawing a couple of days ago, and I was in school for the last 3 weeks. Also, I had gotten in contact with Westmob for a possible position." She argued and, to be honest, that last bit was something I hadn't expected. No, her picking up drawing was also something I didn't think she would do. I had guessed something like photography or writing news blogs.
"And I am sure it wasn't because of the insistence of your cousin."
"No, it wasn't... more like Diana's." She mumbled the last bit, which made me glance at Raven. It was strange that Kara had spent so much time with her and I was concerned that it might put a wrench between her and Raven. Kara noticed my glance at her best friend. She grimaced slightly before she looked at her.
"Raven, maybe I should be saying this since she wanted to apologize herself, but she is truly sorry about everything that happened. I know it doesn't make it any better, but... I can understand her pain. She can be annoying sure, but she isn't a bad person. After having her heart broken, she was in a bad place." She glanced in my direction and I wasn't sure how I felt about it.
We suffered from the consequences of something we had no control over and now had to be mindful of it, but I guess that was life for you.
"Of course, that doesn't mean I have forgiven her for what she had done, but I can understand where she was coming from. I imagined if I was in her position... I would have been worse, by a lot."
Raven held her hand up to interrupt her. "I am not judging who you associate with, and I understand that Wonder Woman was just handling a crazy situation poorly. To be clear, I don't judge her character. Given the events and what my mere presence had triggered, she and the Justice League were in the right to have reacted the way they did." She opened her mouth to say something else, but stopped herself before looking at me.
A heavy sigh left my mouth as I thought about the events. Truly, I was still pissed about their persistence to fuck with my plans, but I couldn't say they were in the wrong. Hell, if I knew Flash wanted to fuck with the timeline, I would have beaten him to a pulp.
Kara would need to deal with the new Justice League, and I wanted to give her my opinion on it. "I don't like that I don't know how much they know about me and I am still pissed at their persistence in attacking me, but I guess that were heroes for you. Besides checking up on you, did they try anything else? Are they trying to rope you into the League or get more information?"
It was something that I could see them approaching her in an attempt to get more information about me or to let her be a positive influence in my life. Honestly, though, she already had been a positive influence on me. It was just bad luck that I was already waist-deep in the muddy waters back then. As for more information, there probably wasn't much they would need to know. The other Nathan seemed to have been blabbering too much, anyway.
"No, not really, though they are pushing me into being more active as a hero. Diana was pushing me to train more, and I was kind of learning from her as her sidekick."
I nodded slightly. "What about Westmob? Is everything alright are they still working on it? Was the data useful?" I asked with some hope in my voice, though I could see that Kara was a bit disappointed at my questions. She didn't voice it, though, and just answered the questions.
"They hadn't found it useful yet. The focus hadn't been on it for the time you were away." I opened my mouth to voice my opinion, but she interrupted me with a pointed glare, "Even if it had been useful data, without you being alive to witness it made it useless, regardless!"
I grew quiet at her brief outburst. She sighed before she spoke up again. "I am sorry. It's been some difficult weeks."
"You don't have to apologize, I understand." I kissed her forehead as I rubbed her back.
"How are the Teen Titans?" Raven suddenly asked and Supergirl gave her a comforting smile.
"Your absence is felt by the group, but they are holding on. However, I heard the city was getting a bit rowdier lately. I am helping from time to time, but they are managing on their own."
Raven only nodded and opted to be quiet as she thought about it.
"I am not sure when we can contact you again or when we are able to return, really. As I said, we have made contact with this world's Justice League and hope that they can help us get to our earth. It is difficult to know how much time will pass until we see us again." I finally said, making the other two solemn.
"So, when the next time comes around, I hope you can show me how much you have progressed. Try to distract yourself from our current separation. It won't be forever."
"I understand. You don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself." She gave us a confident smile as she grabbed her biceps, though her earlier retelling didn't ease my worry for her well-being. At least she would be better now. Now that she had some reassurance, I was sure she would perk up from now on. "By the way, how is your version of the Justice League?"
"They have a different setup, but from what I could gather, they don't seem that bad. Their life force also wasn't how I imagined from a tyrannical Justice League. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash were initial members this time as well and their mannerism was honestly the same I would expect from our... former league, at least." I answered easily. There wasn't much to go by after all since we only had one conversation that was more of a Q&A than an actual conversation.
"The same, huh?" Kara grew quiet and blankly looked straight as she seemed to be lost in thought.
At that point, Raven fidgeted slightly as she seemed to hesitate about something. It made me realize she hadn't told her about her little spell that used me as the target for her human side.
I gave her a nod, and that seemed to have pushed her towards recounting that little tidbit she avoided previously in our retelling. She looked like she was expecting Kara to chew her out, but I knew differently. After being separated, she wouldn't be mad at her best friend over something that practically preserved her humanity.
"I see." As expected, she responded understandingly. "That is why you are still full-on demon mode," before she turned her attention to me. "I guess that makes it finally official. Honestly, I thought I would take it worse, instead, I kind of feel happy. Had been long enough already, I guess."
I frowned, a bit confused. "What do you mean?"
Her eyes widened in shock before she glared at me. "Nathan Lewis! You aren't thinking about letting this energy corrupt her, are you?!" Her palm rose as if ready to slap me before she lowered it again. "If I wasn't so happy that you weren't dead, I would have smacked you!" She said angrily.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, "Kara, listen. It's not that easy-"
"Yeah, bla bla. 'Kara, you don't know what you want yet. You will regret it. Think about the society bla bla' Fucking bullshit. If you aren't going to be the greatest fucking boyfriend to her and return with human Raven, you can just stay away. You are not abandoning my friend after she saved your sorry battle-manic ass from Trigon!" I grimaced slightly, but didn't say anything.
She wasn't wrong, but I still felt uncomfortable to introduce Raven into our relationship, especially with her being away and probably mentally unstable after our separation.
She turned to Raven again and was still in her reprimanding mood. "Raven!"
"Yes?!"
"I want you to keep him away from other-world-me. I can accept if there was someone else as I am irreplaceable in his heart and no one can take that from me, but I can't say the same about another me. So keep that bitch in line if she shows up. Wait. Scratch that. Keep all the other bitches at bay. I don't want a couple of women flocking to our universe for him. You need to keep an eye on him, so he does not lead them on only for me to have to fend them off!"
I snarled and wanted to retort, but she waved her hand at me dismissively while still looking at Raven. "Yeah, yeah. You aren't leading them on, it's their fault. Anyway, considering that he wouldn't be able to train anytime soon, he will have a lot of pent-up energy, so you have to let him rail you hard."
She really was speaking about me as if I wasn't there and what was I, a fucking animal??
"After that training maniac trains again, just make sure his balls are empty. When he is releasing his energy by training, afterward he usually wants some playful fighting in bed or for you to take charge completely. If he is comfortable, he will even ask you to sit on his face or whatever. I usually don't, but if you want to do that, this would be the perfect opportunity. If you don't, then just do it before his training session. Afterward, he would be too exhausted and will fall asleep pretty quickly."
"Kara!" I was aghast at her revealing all that, especially after I realized it was mostly true. No wonder she would initiate it in the morning before I trained! It was because I had more energy. This woman...
"I will rely on you!" She held up her pinky and forcefully took Raven's pinky into hers when the other woman was too stunned to react. She shook on it as if they were swearing on it before grinning, satisfied.
"What the fuck did just happen..." It would be an understatement if I said I was lost.
"Don't pretend that you didn't want this to happen. What man doesn't want 2 women loving him?" She rolled her eyes and, quite dramatically, let out an unwinding sigh before she fell on her back onto the bed. She looked like she had accomplished something that had been bugging her for a while and, well... it probably had.
This had been the topic of several conversations in the past, but I didn't quite realize that it would go in that direction, especially after we had separated a few days - I suppose a few weeks in her case - just now.
Perhaps it was precisely because we had been separated? No rather, it was because Raven And I together had been away from her. I scratched my head as I mulled over it and glanced at Raven, who had a helpless and surprised expression on her face, perfectly mirroring what I was feeling. I probably had the same expression as well.
"Wha... I..." Articulate as I always was. "Whatever. Your decision and you are going to live with the consequences." I glared at her, to which she just returned with a haughty smirk. Was she in her rebellious phase or...?
Her posture, even lying on the bed, was a bit more confident than what she had been before. Was she growing more independent? The realization hit me like a truck. Although she had her cousin and apparently a pestering Wonder Woman to help her, she still 'lost' two people she loved and tried to pick herself up again.
She probably toughened through, trying to believe in our return, while others might say something else. I sighed as I lay down next to her before petting her hair, "It must have been hard on you, but I am glad and proud to see you take care of yourself."
She looked at me in surprise for several moments before her features softened a bit and she smiled at me wearily, "I believed you two were still out there, but... thank you. It means a lot coming from you." She wrapped her hands around my torso, hugging me before stretching out her arm towards Raven, who awkwardly sat on the edge of the bed.
"Raven, come here." She muffled into my chest. Raven glanced toward me as if she wanted to ask if it was okay. Of course, I couldn't and didn't want to deny her, so I nodded at her with a smile decorating my face.
Raven grasped Kara's hand before she was pulled into a spooning position with Kara between me and Raven. Our faces were close and I could feel her breath on my face as I looked her in the eyes. This brief moment was interrupted by Kara's face sliding upward between ours. Her eyes glanced between Raven and me before she realized she was interrupting us and slid back down.
"Fuckin' hell. The way you slid up and back down again. Hahahaha." I laughed at the display, causing Raven to join in.
Only Kara was pouting before mumbling, "I am not even the smallest here. Why do I have to look at your abs…? Though I can't complain. hehe" Which caused my laugh only to get more hysterical. Our laughs were contagious, and Kara joined in at the end.
After a few more moments, I noticed some cracks in our dream widening. I felt the dream world collapse. The dream would end soon. "Kara, take care of yourself, and even though Wonde- Diana might seem annoyingly persistent, I am sure she has good intentions, so from my side, I don't mind if you trusted her."
Raven interjected, "If you feel like she is good for you, then hang out with her more. Don't let my grudge against her stand in your way to grow." Raven probably felt the dream world collapse as well, as she added calmly.
"At least, she would be a good choice to learn some combat from her. I also trust you to take care of my things. I will try my best to return as fast as I can."
Given my and Raven's speech, she instantly understood that the time for our separation had come already. Although she looked unwilling as we all were, she bravely nodded before giving me a chaste kiss, devoid of lust and full of love and yearning.
She turned around and kissed Raven on her cheek, "Take care of him for me, okay?" Raven nodded shyly at that before the dream slowly faded away, Kara added with a hushed voice, "Remember, balls empty, stomach full, and some training makes for a content Saiyan." She left those words behind and I couldn't help but snort.
In the next moment, I opened my eyes and saw the unfamiliar ceiling of the Hall of Justice.
I brushed over my lips as if I would feel the lingering touch of her. Of course, I wouldn't, and it made me realize I was missing her already. It had only been a few days, and I knew she was still alive, however, I was still yearning for her already. Thinking about how she held herself up for several weeks certainly put things in perspective.
It was truly a blessing to be able to meet her in this dream, but I also had the sneaky suspicion that we might get swept into something because of it.
After musing about that for a few more moments, I turned towards Raven's bed, where I only found a blanket. Raven had pulled the blanket over her head. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, which made her peek out from underneath the blanket, only to realize that I was still looking in her direction. Her blushing red face quickly hid underneath it again.
"Hahaha. Raven, are you serious? What are you, a child? Let's get up." After saying that, I stood up and watched the demon reluctantly get up. Of course, she didn't forget to leer at me when I was getting dressed. She had been rather reserved in the dream with her lusty gazes, but I guessed she could control it more easily in her dreams?
I wasn't sure why that would be, but I would bring it up to her if we were in a place where we could speak more freely. With my telekinesis, I cleaned up the room, trying to not leave behind any DNA, but I was sure Batman already got his hands on it. I was trying not tempting fate, though...
After glancing over the room again and checking if we were ready to leave, I nodded to myself and left it with Raven in tow. Even though it had been only a day, I was sure that Batman would move fast to have us removed from this highly valued facility or we were put into a room where we couldn't escape from.
Frankly, I was already surprised that they put us into a room where we could leave whenever we wanted. Though, perhaps, another test to verify if we were scheming for something? I wouldn't put it above the paranoid Bat.
Though that gave rise to another question. Why did they put us into a single room? Easier to guard against...? Did they think we were a couple? I glanced to the side where Raven was walking, earning a questioning brow from her.
"It seems like we are now a couple? A throuple?" I mused jokingly, which made Raven's blush creep up her face. To be honest, I wasn't sold on the idea completely, but Kara was right about one thing. I needed and should do something to help her condition. It wasn't like I would mind it if we talked about physical and emotional attraction.
My eyes wandered over her robe covering her body, imagining all sorts of things, especially those dreams… Raven's head turned even redder before her blush reached her ears. Then her hood rose and covered her face in a shadow, preventing anyone from seeing her blush.
I hadn't even said anything... Right, empathy. We turned the corner and arrived at the canteen from the day before. My eyes swept over the almost empty canteen before spotting someone with a bolt of lightning on their chest eating already.
...
Kara opened her eyes after getting probably the best news she could have. She glanced at the nightstand and picked up a picture that she had framed so she could look at it. It was a picture of Raven and her hugging Nathan from both sides. They were laughing quite hard at that point. It was fairly late in the night and they had grown deliriously happy from the lack of sleep.
She quite liked it because it captured a goofy and genuine moment between the three. The only reason she hadn't framed it until recently was that it was made in the training hall. Given that it was a secret a few weeks in the past, making it unwise to have it lying around back then. Now that practically everyone knew of it, there wasn't a need for it anymore.
She placed it back on the nightstand and thought about their conversation last night. A smile and then a giggle escaped her when she remembered what she had said. Although it was only a dream, she was pretty sure they were the real deal. It was just too similar to the dreams they had when linked up.
She wasn't quite sure how they had ended up this way, especially considering they were apparently in different universes, but she couldn't complain about it. With happy thoughts, she rose and walked out, only to open the front door for Diana, who had rung the bell again.
In her hands, a coffee and some bread from the local bakery, so they could have breakfast. Usually, Kara would have just skipped breakfast and gone to school, though today was Saturday and since it was already a habit to not eat, she hadn't thought about preparing something. It was a testament to how aware Diana was of her habits.
"Hey, Diana. Could you set the table? I have to make a call first." She asked the warrior princess, stunning her in the process. It wasn't surprising that she was stunned, given that any previous attempts had been met with a bad attitude. However, now it was different.
She found new motivation to not only pick herself up, which she had tried her hardest already, but she wanted to excel. So, when the two came back, they could be proud of her and she could accept it with her head held high.
After finding a silent place to have a phone call, she called Maxima over the special device the other woman had given her. After a moment, the warrior queen picked up. An image of her on her throne popped open on her holophone.
"Hey, Kara." She greeted before turning to whatever servant that was pestering her at the moment. "Suzu, could you please help this... gentleman?" Maxima said before promptly leaving. She turned her attention back to Kara. "You saved me from an hour-long pointless discussion."
"My pleasure. Hey, I wanted to ask you about that organization Nathan was running. You know about it, right? ... Yeah, that one. Do you think we could talk about some projects? I was thinking about some things... Sure, see you in a few minutes, then."
Kara hung up on the phone before returning to the set table. "Maxima, I presume?" Diana asked, to which Kara nodded.
"I guessed if Westmob had a team of scientists from an advanced alien civilization supporting them, things would progress quicker with... you know."
Diana nodded at her conclusion with some apprehension, "Sure, but we will have to run it with Wayne's R&D department first."
"Of course, Maxima and I are just discussing some things first and might be nice for you two to meet... Hey, Diana. I remember you are currently living alone too, right? If you don't mind, you can sleep here from now on."
One welcoming gesture after the other. Diana was stunned again. It seemed like Kara had slept exceptionally well last night.
"I would love that."
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone