Yue

 15th January

07:05 GMT -5

Kon's already up when I stroll into the kitchen area. The television is switched on to a news program, but it's background noise. He isn't paying it any attention. There's a pad of paper next to his empty plate and a school textbook next to that, but all he's doing with that is drumming his pen against it.

"Up early, aren't-" His head jerks around. "-you?"

"Couldn't sleep." His eyes return to his homework, then with a small shake of his head he closes the textbook and puts the pad on top of it. "Jor-El called Superman yesterday. He says that Match is… Pretty much ready. In a few weeks he'll have done everything he can to fix how Cadmus made him."

I nod. "Excellent. Will he be coming here once he's out?"

"I… Didn't ask. I just said I wanted to be there when he wakes up." I pull out the chair next to him and sit down. "I didn’t ask Mom about it. I don't know…" He hesitates. "I know Superman still feels kinda bad about.. how he handled.. me. He might want to adopt Match."

I look at him carefully, but there's no real sign of jealousy or envy.

"It would be a bit hard to explain why the mild mannered Clark Kent suddenly had a son he would have had to have sired while in High School."

Kon shakes his head. "I don't think… I don't think that would stop him. Now. I was.. a shock, but.. now? I think Mister and Missus Kent would like it if he did."

"How are you getting on with them?"

"They're… Nice, I guess." He shrugs. "Comparing myself to Superman just used to upset me. Whenever I visit them they do it."

"There's always the Luthor part of the family."

He glances at me, a small smile on his lips as he decides not to take the suggestion seriously. "Yeah, let me think about that."

"You've got an aunt and a cousin. It wouldn't be too hard to put you in contact without Lex finding out."

"I've got an island full of aunts." He shrugs. "But maybe it's a good thing if we don't live together? I had a huge chip on my shoulder about Superman for months, but I got over it. Is he.. going to be in my shadow if we were living together?"

"I wouldn't have thought so. You were programmed to want to be Superman. The impression I've been getting is that Match's programming didn't take. So if he doesn't want the same things that you do, he probably wouldn't feel that way about it."

"I guess…" He frowns. "Then what.. does he want? You know, right?"

"Whenever I've looked at him before, all I've seen is a confused mess of jagged red lines. But I haven't been visiting him. I might see something if I looked at him now, but…" I shake my head. "He's physically an adolescent without any life experience. You had programming, sets of things you valued. Your personality grew out of that. Match will have.. whatever programming Jor-El gave him, if anything." I frown. "What programming did Krypton used to give clones?"

"Loyalty and training for whatever job they were getting made for." He shrugs. "They weren't supposed to be people. Jor-El's giving Match a full education program."

I nod. "Is Kara going to be there?"

"Yeah. I mean, Match is probably going to have more in common with her than anyone else."

"How's she getting on? I haven't seen her since KordTech New York got levelled."

"She's doing okay? She's actually been living in Superman's Fortress."

I frown. "Is that.. sensible?"

"She doesn't.. spend all her time there. But…" He shrugs. "I slept in Wally's closet on my first night out of the pod. I guess she just feels more at home there."

"Kryptonians… Did go for a Spartan aesthetic? But their homes didn't look like the Fortress. That's an emergency habitation setup, not a place for living long term." I frown. I don't.. remember what comic Kara did for a place to live, or what she did while not being Supergirl. And since this one doesn't want to be Supergirl… "I'll talk to her about it."

He nods, and… I'm a little touched that as far as he's concerned that's the problem dealt with.

"You wanna come?"

"Yes, of course. Assuming that I won't.. be crowding him."

"You're the one other guy he might recognize. What are you doing today?"

"Visiting both sets of Hawks. I told Lantern Dul that I'd visit Thanagar, and I want to try and talk the four of them into coming with me."

"How are the old Hawks… I mean, Mister Cantrell and Miss Parker… How are they handling suddenly being thousands of years old?"

"It isn't actually that big a change. Sometimes they.. do a thing and it triggers a memory, but for the most part they're still themselves. It's like… You remember how before the genomorphs fully integrated your memories, you did that thing where-."

"I went onto autopilot." He nods. "But they're starting to change, right? Most of my programming only did that to me once."

"As they recall events, that extra knowledge will work its way into how they think now. But it's gradual. They didn't suddenly become new people."

He frowns thoughtfully. "And Miss Parker is the one who was actually thanagarian, right?" I nod. "Has she been back before? Since she died?"

"No. Shiera Hall died before Shayera Thal and Katar Hol arrived on Earth, and the tools to fix her spaceship didn't exist on Earth while she was active. And… Given the reincarnation, she's been human for longer than she was thanagarian anyway. I'm not sure how attached she is to the place."

"Huh." His frown deepens.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Reincarnation. I mean, that's gotta be weird for their son."

"I suppose?"

"Thana said that.. people who worship the Olympians can choose to get reincarnated."

I nod. "I don't see the appeal of a form of rebirth that strips you of everything that makes you you, but Hades does allow it."

"So how do we know if..? If our past lives chose it?"

"Well, mine definitely didn't."

He looks at me, nodding. "Yeah, but… You're kinda unusual."

"True. Well… We wouldn't. Most of the methods for reincarnation suppress or remove memories of previous lives. And if you end up practising a faith that doesn't allow reincarnation that's it. Off to a permanent afterlife you go. I suppose that if you really wanted to know, you'd have to petition the death gods of every faith that allowed reincarnation and persuade them to check their records. Why, are you having some sort of flashback?"

"No, I just thought it would be kinda weird. Or…" He frowns thoughtfully. "Not. I knew I was programmed by Cadmus, but other people might have stuff in their heads from dead people."

"Thinking about Match?" He nods. "While that's an interesting idea… And a me solution-" He smiles, nodding. "-I think perhaps we should just let him be his own person."