Chapter Text
Jon's mind was currently racing at the moment. He had just left the Legion of Superheroes, his father had no clue about him leaving the 31st century as far as he knew, and he wasn't sure where he was going to currently stay. All he knew was that the teleporter he had gotten had sent him in Gotham City in present time. He has just finished destroying it into nothing with his heat vision, and he flew up above the buildings. Jon stared in awe of the night time city as he flew above the city. He never knew Gotham was so beautiful from high up.
Jon started to think about the last time he visited Gotham City. He remembered visiting Gotham to bring Damian to the 31st century. Jon remembered being so excited to show Damian around. His mind started to wander to his best friend, Damian Wayne. He remembered how Saturn Girl unfairly wiped Damian's mind, how he was forced to take Damian back to Gotham, and how pissed he was at Saturn Girl.
.
"This is bullshit! How come I get to stay while Damian gets forced out?!" Jon yelled as he slammed his hands at the meeting table.
"Jon, please-" Saturn Girl urged him to calm down.
"Don't "Jon, please" me Imra! Actually answer my question instead of avoiding it!" Jon interrupted while his eyes glowed red in anger.
Brainiac 5 knew letting Saturn Girl try to speak before coming up with an answer would end badly, so he decided to speak up before things got more heated.
"What Saturn Girl did was wrong. She violated your friend's mind, and didn't talk to the other founding members before what she did. You have every right to be angry." Brainiac 5 calmly explained to Jon.
Jon calmed down a little, which was seen by his red glow starting to fade from his eyes.
"That still doesn't answer my question, Irma." Jon aggressively asked. Even if he was calmer than before, there was still tension in the roundtable of the 3 Legion members.
"Damian turned evil during the 21st century timeline. I didn't want to take any risks in case he already turned evil. That doesn't excuse me messing with his mind. I'm sorry" Saturn Girl apologized, obviously regretting her earlier decision.
"Why does Damian have to leave the future while I'm here? Why am I even on the team?" Jon asked, doubting himself internally.
"Look, it might not seem like it, but you're here because you're so much more experienced than us. We want you to guide our team to be better." Saturn Girl earnestly explained. This answer somewhat confused Jon. He was just a 17 year old who just had 7 years of his life stolen by his evil grandpa and an evil doppelganger of his dad from another dimension.
"What can I even teach you guys that you can't learn from anyone else?" Jon asked in absolute confusion.
"You're the son of the greatest hero of your timeline. You grew up, learning all of Superman's wonderful lessons. You saw how great of a hero he was. Some of Superman has probably rubbed off on you. Who better to teach us how to be heroes than the boy of steel?" Saturn Girl explained. Jon was surprised that he was considered as important as his dad.
"You really think I'm as good as dad?" Jon asked the two other legion members, still unsure about what Saturn Girl said. Both Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5 nodded in response.
"Makes sense for the Man of Steel's son to be as good as his dad." Brainiac 5 stated, happy that the meeting had been sufficiently defused.
Even though he was no longer angry, Jon's guilt about what happened to Damian was still lingering in his mind. As he followed Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5 back to where the rest of the Legion was, Jon couldn't help but think that they might think too highly of him.
.
Jon sighed softly, the guilt about what happened to his best friend still in his mind. Since he was already in Gotham anyways, he decided it would be best to look for Damian. He started to fly around Gotham, making sure to fly above the clouds so he could stay hidden.
Jon looked around for Damian using his enhanced vision from up in the sky. As Jon looked around, he recognized a certain red cladded figure sitting on a rooftop next to a gargoyle.
"Jason?" He thought to himself, not sure if it's actually Red Hood due to the lack of the helmet. Jon remembered Damian talking a lot about his older brother, and even remembered coming across him once or twice. He flew over to the top of the building, which of course caught the attention of Jason.
"What the?" The red masked vigilante asked as Jon descended down to the roof level. "Aren't you supposed to be shorter?"
"It's a long story." Jon told him, not feeling comfortable talking about how he became 17. "Do you know where your little brother is?"
"Which one? I currently have 3 little brothers." Jason asked, with a hint of snark in it. Jon knew he was referring to Tim, Duke, and Damian.
"Looking for Damian. Know where he is?" Jon asked while letting his feet float a little above the roof. He expected a somewhat simple answer.
"Oh, him? Don't know where he's gone off to. Talked to his team earlier. Maybe they might know where he went, or at least they'll know by the time you find them." Jason nonchalantly told the superson. He honestly wasn't sure what happened to his little brother after they fought, and after the funeral. He may not show it, but he hoped Damian was okay.
"The Teen Titans! Of course! Since Damian is still the leader of the group. I find them, I find Dami." Jon thought to himself. "Thanks Jason." He said before quickly flying away.
Jon wasn't flying that fast, since he assumed that if Jason talked with the group early, they must be around in Gotham somewhere. He focused his super-powered hearing around the areas he was flying in.
Jon was disappointed when he hadn't heard a single recognizable voice so far. He hoped to at least hear from Beast Boy, Raven, Statfire, Aqualad, or Kid Flash.
While flying near the harbor area, his super powered hearing caught a familiar voice.
"Are you sure Gizmo just sold this warehouse?'
He knew that voice. It was Kid Flash.
Jon never got to know him too well, but he remembered him being a very cool dude to hang out with. He was rather confused by the three other voices that seemed to be talking to Kid Flash. He didn't recognize any of them.
"Damian must've gotten new team members while he was away." Jon curiously said to himself as he started to head to the direction of where Kid Flash's voice was. He soon found himself near an supposedly abandoned warehouse. Jon heard fighting and tiny explosions inside, and knew something wasn't right.
He zoomed over to the warehouse, and zoomed into the building at the scene of the fight.
"Time to die" The Gizmo robots said to the teenage team before a red blur zoomed through the robots, which destroyed them. With the robots blowing up, he floated above the group, looking rather intimidating. Jon wasn't in the mood for them to give an "I don't know" answer like Jason Todd gave, he wanted to find his best friend.
"I want answers. I'll only ask this once. Where is Robin?" Jon asked while looking down at the team. He was intimidating with his serious voice, and his glowing red eyes.
"Superboy?" Kid Flash asked, surprised at how old he looked. "What happened to you?"
"You know this guy?" Crush asked the speedster. She, along with Red Arrow and Roundhouse, had no clue who Jon even was.
"Of course. We met a few times back when Superboy hung out with Robin." Kid Flash explained to Crush and the other Teen Titan members.
"Look, I don't care if most of you guys are new team members. I just wanna know where Robin is." Jon stated yet again, getting somewhat impatient. Everyone looked away awkwardly, not sure which one of the four should explain what happened. Red Arrow decided she would be the one to explain things.
"Okay so Damian had a secret villain prison where he tortured bad guys and wiped their memories, killed some bad guys like Brother Blood and Deathstroke, even though he's alive again, and tried killing KGBeast before Batman and us intervened. He just quit being Robin yesterday. Long story short, we haven't seen Damian since he fought Batman back in Gotham." Red Arrow explained, feeling awkward as she explained everyday.
"What? This has to be some sort of joke. No way would Robin do that. He was my best friend, he would never do that!" Jon stated in disbelief. He remembered back in when the Legion worried about Damian being evil. Jon was scared that they might have been right. "Come on guys, this can't be true. Right?" The team simply nodded.
"It's true. Robin legit tore off his logo, and walked away after a fight with the Batman." Roundhouse told him in a serious tone of voice. This made Jon's mind rush with thoughts.
"They have to be lying, right? What if they're right? Where even is Damian? Is he even in Gotham? Were the Legion right? He can't be a villain." Jon thought frantically, still denying what the team had told him. Soon, he calmed himself down a little, and got ready to look for Damian.
"Sorry if I can't help you with whatever you're doing, but I gotta look for my best friend." Jon told the team of four before he turned around, and flew out of the warehouse. As Jon flew up, he hoped that Damian was okay no matter where he was.
Jon started to fly around the city, using his super hearing and enhanced vision to look for Damian. The more he looked through the city from above, he was getting more frantic. He was internally panicking as he started to worry that Damian wasn't actually in Gotham, and had gotten himself in trouble.
As Jon was basically looking around frantically, a familiar voice mumbling something quietly got his attention. His face lit up when he heard his best friend.
"Damian!" He thought to himself as he flew over to where he heard the voice. Jon was relieved that he was in Gotham instead of somewhere else. He located Damian in an alleyway in the Gotham City outskirts. Jon flew over to the outskirts, having a sliver of hope that perhaps Damian wasn't a supposed villain after all.
Damian hadn't changed from his Robin outfit since yesterday, and was walking around in an empty alleyway. He didn't notice that Jon was above him until Jon slowly floated down in front of Damian.
"It's so good to see you again!" Jon opened his arms out for a hug, yet Damian simply looked away from him. As he was confused on why Damian didn't accept the hug, he noticed that the Robin logo looked like it was torn off. Just like Roundhouse told him.
"You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." Damian asked, before looking where Jon was looking at. Jon quickly looked away from the ripped insignia.
"Oh it's nothing. It's just that I noticed your logo is gone. One of your teammates told me you tore it off and became evil, but it's not like you're actually evil. They were probably joking about it to me. There's no way you'd be a villain." Jon knew that it might have been true, but a small part of him hoped that his denial would be correct.
Damian looked hurt by this, and looked down. Jon's eyes widened as he realized what this meant. "Dami?" Jon asked, still foolishly hopeful yet starting to accept the truth.
"What you've heard is true." Damian solemnly said as he turned away from Jon started to slowly walk away. Jon was in complete shock at the fact his best friend was indeed a villain. "But, why?" It was all he was able to ask while in shock.
"It's the only path for me to go down. I've made so many mistakes on the team, I even killed people. There's no way to redeem myself.' Damian solemnly told as he was still faced away from Jon.
"Damian please, you're better than this. I know you're a good person at heart. You don't have to do this!" Jon exclaimed, having a feeling that something wasn't right with his best friend.
"No I'm not! I'm not better than this! I'm a bad person Jon! I don't deserve the titans or my family for all my sins!" Damian yelled, there was a hint of sadness in his voice. He feels disappointed in himself, and in Jon for thinking he's redeemable at this point.
Jon knew for sure this wasn't like Damian. He seemed more sad, serious, and self depreciating than the last time he was with his friend. He also noticed how he seemed to lack any emotional support as of now. "Something must've happened to him." He thought to himself before focusing back on Damian. He still wouldn't give up on Damian. "So what if you killed before? It's never too late to change."
"Yes it is Jon. It's too late for me to change. I've already "changed" once, but I blew my chance." Damian said while clutching the place where he tore off his logo.
Jon could see the sadness in Damian's eyes. He wanted to help him so bad, but he kept pushing him away. He started to think of what to do. He knew he couldn't just leave Damian alone considering he might be self destructive, and there's a low chance of him being able to talk his friend out of his decision. As Damian started to walk away again, he thought of an unexpected question in his head. Should he join with Damian in villainy?
Jon at first shot down the idea. No way was he going to be evil! He was the son of Superman. However, he started to dwell on the question more. He felt tired from being put up on a pedestal by the Legion. He was tired of all the pressures put on him. Just because he was the son of Superman, he felt like he couldn't screw up and had to live up to his dad's expectations. He was tired of being seen as the savior, tired of all the pressure, tired of not being able to make his own decisions. He just wanted to do something on his own. He just wanted to help a friend going through a tough time.
He just wanted to feel free after the hell he went through.
Despite the decision being hard for Jon to accept, he walked over to Damian, and crouched in front of him with a stern look. "Dami, I want to join you."
"What?" Damian asked in shock, not expecting someone like Jon to tell him that.
"I want to join you in whatever your villainous plans are." Jon told him yet again. Damian would've never expected the son of Superman of all people to be willing to become a villain. He could tell that Jon was completely serious. After a little bit of consideration, he came to a decision.
"Fine, you can join me." Damian told the taller male.
The decision had been made by both of the former Super Sons. They were back, but in a different way.