Chapter Text
It's official, Damian hated today. He had tried to get out of the grasp of Laney mid-flight but without anything to counter a Kryptonian, there was little he could do. So in an act of defiance and quite frankly the only thing he could do right now was to ignore Laney’s attempt at conversion and once the manor came into view Damian let out a little sigh in relief to finally get out of this mess.
When entering the familiar cave, he noticed the conversation that usually fills the dark scenery halt to a deafening silence as all eyes fall on him and Laney. Damian for his part just stared straight ahead stealing his gaze. He may be forced into this situation but he still had his dignity to think about and once Laney had gotten close enough to the ground despite Damian’s injury he pushed himself off of the Kryptonian. He did wince a little from his ankle falling from the few feet in the air but once on his feet, he felt the hands of his father push him away from Laney.
"Who are you?" Bruce growled, holding up kryptonite. Bruce had seen the pair coming from the surveillance cameras. When it first popped up on the screen he was a little annoyed that Damian was letting his friend fly around Gotham with no regard but that thought process quickly changed once observing the near-identical copy of one of his closest friends' son. It was quite frankly unnerving for him but looking closely you could tell that the person who stood in front of him was not the young man he had seen grow up, no there was something off about this one.
Bruce wasn’t sure what was wrong with this man but the white and black suit was the first sign that something was wrong. He also did not like the way this imposter was looking at his son.
Laney for his part just gave a soft smile before putting his hand to his heart and bowing before the Batfamily. "I am Jon Lane Kent but you may call me Laney," He looked up from his bow to give the pair in front a slight smirk "and I am here to court your son,".
Damian heard some of his siblings gasp and whisper among themselves but he was focused on Laney's eyes, there was a tint of red to them for a split second that he couldn't help but feel off by. He quickly got ready to deny ever wanting to be courted but he could not even utter a single word when his father pushed him further behind him. “You are making assumptions that my son would even want to be courted by you,” Bruce retorted glaring down at the man.
“I am not one to sound arrogant but I make no assumptions,” Laney moved his head slightly to look Damian in the eyes ``But I am the only one who knows your son and I know he wants a Jon,”. Laney watched as Damian’s face turned red and was already hearing the outrage about to come out of the boy's mouth about ‘How dare he even excuse him of such things’. Which Laney did not have to wait long to hear.
“You think you know me? I do not care what lunatic ideas you have of me but have you known I am the son of the bat, heir to the League and most importantly I am Robin,” Damian glared at Laney who still just smiled at the other, “I do not need to think to know that you haven’t a clue what any of those truly means and subsequently I do not need a Jon, you do not know me,” he finished limping away from the scene to head upstairs.
—
“Why can’t he just understand,” Jon complained leaning against Jay.
“He will, he always does,” Jay nudges his boyfriend's shoulder “I mean you still plan to ask him to be your best man so even you know he will relent,”.
Jon smiles at Jay while cradling the other’s hand and kissing the gold band around Jay’s finger “You always know what to say,”
“Isn’t that what reporters do? They know what to say at the right time,”
“Praise Rao for giving me such a great partner,” Jon teasingly closed his eyes and folded his hand together in a prayer previously giving Jay a slight smirk. Jay laughed at his fiance's antics causing Jon to drop the act and laugh alongside Jay. Moments like this are why Jon is so grateful for his life. Being a superhero is hard especially when one is part of a legacy family like his so to be able to find Jay who was not only an amazing person but someone he didn’t have to fear getting hurt because of him was relieving. As Jon just watched Jay with a smile he just wished he could capture these moments and live in them forever; no more drama or chaos just him and his fiance.
But when his emergency alarm went off he knew that could never happen. Jon gave his boyfriend a sad smile and pulled out his communicator. “Dad? Is everything okay?”
“Yes and no, it's nothing world ending, hopefully,” Jon heard his dad let out a sigh “But Batman wants us to deal with it,”
“Well, what is it?”
“It’s better for you to see, be in Gotham in an hour” and with that Clark hung up.
It was Jon’s turn to sigh now, looking down at his communicator and then back up at Jay, “I’m sorry,”
“It’s okay,” Jay kissed Jon on the forehead. “I knew dating a superhero would mean foregoing any routine, now go save the world,” Jon took Jay’s face and kissed him.
“I will be back,” Jon said while flying off.
Jon couldn’t keep the anxious feeling away especially as he got closer to Gotham. Batman was letting whatever it was being dealt with by his family which in itself is weird but also the fact his dad wouldn’t tell him straight up what was going on was a little concerning. Jon also realized Damian is still going to be pissed about what was said earlier.
Sighing for what seemed to be the tenth time today, Jon watched as the familiar manor came into view. He slowed down before descending to the hidden passage that connected to the Batcave. Jon mentally readied himself for anything.
But,
Jon was not ready for what he saw. He quickly stopped in his tracks seeing the nearly identical version of him, the only difference was the suit and the hairstyle. While he was usually messy, this imposter? Had his hair combined to one side pushing all his curls over. He also seemed to be about an inch taller than Jon but most of all the look on the other gave Jon goosebumps. Though to be honest the most noticeable thing about the other was the fact he was wearing kryptonite handcuffs.
Jon floated over to his dad who was standing next to Batman. “What is that?” he whispered.
“He says he is you,” Clark gave his son a concerned look “We were hoping maybe you might be able to talk to him,”
“Why me?”
“He insists he will only talk to you or Damian,” Batman interrupted. “But I will not have my son anywhere near that thing,” Jon could hear the venom from the words spoken.
“So sacrifice me then huh,” Jon joked trying to lighten the mood but it was shot down by the famous bat glare and Batman walking away to the corner where all the other bats were. Jon did notice the lack of a certain bird in the group, “I didn’t mean to offend,”.
“It’s okay you didn’t know,” Clark said putting his hand on Jon’s shoulder “From what I know he came in with Damian in his arms and the whole family is on edge from that,” this caused Jon to stand at attention.
“He had Damian!” Jon screeched “Is he okay?” Jon subconsciously started listening out for Damian’s heartbeat and only calmed down when he heard the steady beat of his best friend.
“Yes he is okay, but seeing as you calmed down so fast you knew that,” Clark remarked giving Jon a sideways glance. Jon looked away for a quick moment to get out of the gaze of his father only to see the other version of him looking at him.
Jon started walking over to the other, only stopping until he was right in front of the other. The other version of him just smiled at him.
“I heard you wanted me?” Jon stated not backing down from the other.
He just gave Jon a bigger smile “Indeed,” he turned “Let’s go somewhere a little more secluded,” he didn’t even wait for Jon’s response before walking away. Jon shot his dad a look before following the other version of him.
The duo walked for a little while when Jon heard a snap of a chain. Then before he knew it he was slammed against the wall. Jon saw red and got ready to blast the other when he was let go and heard laughing. “Gosh you should have seen your face, ” Jon just watched dumbstruck at the others' actions. The other wiped away the tears that formed before extending his hand “I’m you but I guess you knew that already and before you say it will be complicated with the whole name situation, I can go by Laney while I’m here,”.
Jon looked at the hand for a moment before he shook it, “So… you’re me?” Jon looks skeptical at the other.
“Yup, just a different universe,” Laney just nodded along,
“Why are you here exactly?”
“That is the question now, isn’t it?” Jon waited for the other to finish but after a while, he realized he wasn’t getting anything.
Jon slumped his shoulders while looking at the other ‘Why would he want to talk to me?’ he wondered. Then he shot up remembering Laney was able to break the kryptonite handcuffs, his eyes widened as he looked down at the discarded green cuffs. Jon pointed at them “Can you at least tell me how you did that?”
Laney just looked at the handcuffs with little interest. “Oh, that, that’s easy,” Jon was astounded that Laney made it seem like it was nothing. He wondered if that was maybe something he could do.
Laney must have sensed that Jon was curious and kept on explaining “Our human half truly does make us superior to other Kryptonians,” he leaned down to grab the cuffs “Though I may be special in the fact that I am most intone with both my sides as so far I am the only one who can touch kryptonite without having to be taught first on how to do it,” Laney then crushed the cuffs into a fine powder. Jon just stood there in disbelief.
“Is it okay for me to ask you a question?” Laney spoke, glazing down at Jon.
At that moment, for the first time in his life, Jon felt truly hopeless. He felt that Laney was glaring into his soul, it reminded him of the look Laney gave the handcuffs. That Jon was nothing but an insignificant piece of trash that is just in the way. Jon felt nauseating just waiting for what Laney was going to say.
“How in Rao’s name are you older than Damian?”
“W-what?” Jon stuttered,
“I didn’t want to say this in front of everyone hence why we are here” Laney started to circle Jon, looking him up and down while doing so “But I have been to more universes than you could comprehend and there was not a single one where I have been older than Damian,” he grabbed Jon’s face making him look Laney in the eyes. “There also has never been a universe where we were not betrothed,”.
Laney let Jon go, causing the latter to fall to the ground. All the previous fight Jon had earlier was gone. “It does not matter though, hell this is for the better,” Laney patted Jon’s back “I can have Damian and you” he leaned down to whisper into Jon’s ear “can stay with your fiance, Jay,”. He pushed his hand off Jon’s back making him fall a little.
Jon heard the other walk away for a moment until the steps stopped "oh yeah, don't tell the others what happened here, it would ruin my chance with Damian,"
Laney turned to Jon and gave him a sickeningly sweet smile "But if you do, have you known I am a meta killer, one who could kill someone with invulnerability," and with that Laney continued to walk away.
Jon just waited as he heard the other's footsteps disappear in the direction they came from until he knew the other was gone.