In The Interim : Adjustment

Ben Tennyson stood before five of the six remaining members of the Justice League, waiting to see what they were going to do with him. After all, he wasn't even a citizen of this universe. Superman was the first to speak.

"Well, Ben, first we'd like to thank you for all that you did during the Thanagarian invasion. The world needs more heroes like you."

"Hold it." Superman paused at Ben's interruption. "I never said that I would keep doing the hero thing. Before yesterday, the only thing I got out of being a hero was pain. I helped you guys because I didn't know what else to do. Now that the crisis is over…" he let the sentence hang.

"I don't understand," said the Flash, "why wouldn't you want to be a superhero?"

Ben looked J'onn in the eye, and the Martian was quick to notice the haunted weariness in the young man's eyes. "You're a telepath, right?" the Martian nodded. "Okay. Read my mind and look at the memories from two days ago."

J'onn looked confused for a moment, but then his eyes glowed as he did as he was asked. A few seconds later, he rocked back in his seat, a look of horror on his face.

"J'onn?" Superman looked at the other alien in concern, but the Martian just shook his head.

"Two days ago," began Ben, his expression growing dark, "one of my old villains attacked me. Short version: everyone that I cared about, my parents, my grandpa, my aunt and uncle, my cousin, my best friend and my girlfriend all died." Tears began to show in the corner of the young man's eyes. "There isn't a single person on my Earth left for me." He raised his left arm, showing the Ultimatrix. "And it's all because I got this stupid thing attached to my wrist."

The Justice League didn't know what to say. None of them, save for Batman, quite knew what Ben was going through, though it was clear that he blamed himself to a degree.

Superman held up his hands in a placating gesture. "All right, Ben, we understand. Do you think that you could wait outside while we discuss this?"

Ben couldn't speak past the lump in his throat, so all he did was nod. When he left, the League members turned to look at each other.

Flash spoke first. "Well, that kinda ruins the whole 'ask Ben to join the League' plan."

"He has lost everything that held meaning for him," argued J'onn, "it is a wonder that he hasn't completely broken down already."

"I had sensed before that he was in pain," added Diana, "but I had no idea that he'd already endured so much."

"On top of the loss of his family," said Batman, "he found himself in another universe. He was thrown into a battle that he wanted no part of, and he hasn't even had time to grieve."

Superman rubbed his chin, thinking of what to do. "Maybe we should give him that time." The other Leaguers looked at him. "I could take him to my parents' house; give him some space to come to terms. At least it'll get him out of your hair, Bruce."

The Dark Knight merely scowled at Superman's joke.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea, Clark." Diana added. Then her expression grew thoughtful. "Maybe he could meet your cousin while he's there. It might be good for him to meet someone his own age."

Both Superman and Flash nodded in agreement. "Once he starts feeling better, maybe we can show him around. He did say that Metropolis didn't exist in his own universe." Superman looked at the other Leaguers. "Now, if there aren't any other matters, I think that we should adjourn for now."

"Actually," said J'onn, "there is one more matter concerning Ben. When I looked into his mind, I saw one thing that we should all be aware of..." He paused, as if unsure of what to say. The others frowned. J'onn was usually very direct in his speech, so for him to dance around a subject was strange. Finally, J'onn spoke.

"You should all know that before he arrived in our universe… he was trying to kill himself."

The others leaned back in their chairs, shock evident in their expressions. Batman was the only one who wasn't surprised, or if he did, he hid it well.

Flash let out a low whistle. "So instead of waking up to see his family, he wakes up in a universe with aliens trying to kill him." He shook his head. "That's rough."

Superman stood up. "I'll have Kara keep an eye on him. I won't tell her about this, but I will make sure that he doesn't attempt suicide again."

The other Leaguers nodded, then began leaving the room; some to their homes, while others went to rooms loaned to them by Bruce. J'onn sent a telepathic summary of the meeting to Green Lantern, while Superman left to get Ben.

…

Smallville, Kansas

Superman and Ben, now transformed into Jet Ray, flew just over the cloud layer over Clark's home town of Smallville. Ben hadn't said much since leaving the meeting, other than saying agreeing to going with Superman and saying goodbye to the other members of the League. Superman had been slightly relieved to find that Ben hadn't completely withdrawn into himself after his outburst; he'd given small smiles to each member, even Batman, and had blushed when Diana had given him a gentle hug.

The two aliens had made good time in getting to Smallville; at his maximum speed, Jet Ray could reach Mach 10. Superman could fly much faster than that, but he didn't say so, and he doubted that Jet Ray would care very much right now if he did.

When they landed in front of the Kent family farm, Jet Ray turned back into normal. "Nice place." Ben commented. He didn't mind being on a farm. That meant there would be some peace and quiet. At the very least, no one would be trying to kill him. Probably.

The sun had just started to rise; Ben asked if it was okay to go inside if his parents were still asleep, but Clark laughed. He told Ben that it was rare for his parents to get up after sunrise.

To prove his point, he called out. "Ma! Pa! I'm home!"

A moment later, an elderly man and woman opened the door to greet them. While both were getting on in years, they seemed lively and in good shape. The man kind of reminded Ben of Grandpa Max.

The woman, Martha Kent, walked up to Superman and gave him a hug. "Welcome back, Clark."

Clark smiled down at his mother. "It's good to see you both." He turned his head towards Ben. "This is Ben. I was hoping that you could let him stay here for a few days, a week at the most. At least until we can find a place for him."

Martha looked at the young man. He seemed nice, but his eyes looked haunted, as if he'd seen too much. Jonathan, who had also come forward to see his son, had seen the same thing. He shared a look with his wife, who nodded.

"Sure, Clark," he said, then turned to Ben. "Why don't you let Martha show you to Clark's old room? You look tired; you should get some sleep, then we'll show you around the old place."

Ben gave a small smile. "Thank you, Mister Kent."

As Martha led him into the house, Jonathan turned to his son.

"So, Clark, what's the story with the boy?"

Clark sighed. "Well, dad, it started with the Thanagarians…"

…

Martha had shown Ben around the house, and then to Clark's old room where, after thanking her profusely, Ben had immediately fallen asleep.

He did not get much sleep, however, because the same nightmares that had been plaguing him for the last two nights woke him up. After drying the tears off of his face, and knowing that he wouldn't be getting any more sleep than the three hours he'd already gotten, he decided to start his day. He took off his jacket, which he'd fallen asleep in, when he realized that he didn't have any other clothes. In fact, he'd been wearing the same clothes for three days straight. He would have to do something about that.

After he showered, he placed his clothes on the bed, then activated the Ultimatrix. After finding the alien he needed, he slammed the dial down. In a flash of green light, a copper-coated robot stood in Ben's place. Its body was round, and its legs were stubby. Its head was small and had neither a mouth nor neck. On top of its head was a winder, similar to that of an old clock. On its chest was the Ultimatrix symbol.

"CLOCKWORK!" the alien cried in a German accent. "Okay, let's do something about these clothes."

He pointed his hands at his clothes, and a green beam shot out towards them. After a moment, the beam stopped. Clockwork leaned forward to examine the clothes. They were completely clean. He had used his powers of time manipulation to reverse time around his clothes, until they were in the condition they'd been in before he'd put them on three days ago.

Pleased with his handiwork, Clockwork slapped the Ultimatrix dial and turned back to normal. After getting dressed, he walked downstairs. Sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of tea, was Martha Kent.

She looked up in surprise. "Hello, Ben." She said, "I thought you would still be asleep."

"I haven't been sleeping well for the last few days." Ben scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Martha nodded in apparent understanding. "Well, I'm sure that if I found myself in another universe, I would have trouble sleeping too." At Ben's look of shock, she chuckled. "Clark told Jonathan, and Jonathan told me."

Ben smiled. At least he wouldn't have to tell his story again. He was getting kind of tired doing that. His smile grew wider when Martha brought out some pancakes.

"Hungry, dear?"

Ben's smile became a full-faced grin.

…

Ben sat back in his chair with a sigh. He hadn't had a breakfast that good in years. Martha watched him with a bemused smile.

"Good heavens, dear, you must really love pancakes."

"After my grandpa made me eat jellyfish, octopus and bugs for so many years, stuff like pancakes are the food of the gods." His completely straight face told Martha that he was being serious.

Before she could ask for more information, Ben stood up.

"Do you want my help cleaning the dishes?"

Martha stood up as well. "No, thank you dear, but if you do want to help, Jonathan could use some help with some of the farm work. Without Kara around, it can be a little hard for a man his age. He's around the barn; it shouldn't be too hard to find him."

Ben nodded and headed to the door. Just as he reached for the doorknob, he turned around.

"Who's Kara?"

Martha laughed. She'd forgotten to tell him.

"Kara is Clark's cousin. She goes by the name of Supergirl sometimes."

Ben's eyebrows rose. He hadn't known that Superman had a cousin. The last part had also piqued his interest. "So she has the same powers as Clark?"

Martha nodded.

"Cool." Ben flashed a grin. As he was opening the door, Martha called out again.

"It's a little chilly out today," she said, "don't you want your jacket?"

Ben frowned and looked at his arms. All he had was his black t-shirt. He turned to Martha.

"That jacket belongs to a hero." He said. "I don't know if I'm ready to be that hero again."

…

It's a wonderful day for flying, thought Kara Kent, aka Supergirl. She was heading to the Kent farm from Gotham City, where she'd been keeping her friend Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, company during the Thanagarian occupation. Once Batman had returned, she decided to go home before Batman kicked her out of "his" city.

Once she reached the farm, she used her super speed to rush to her room, so that she could change out of her costume. After a quick hello to Martha, she zoomed upstairs. Before she entered her room, however, she noticed something amiss.

Usually, the door to Clark's room was closed. But now, it was partially open. Did that mean that her cousin was home? He usually called her cell phone to let her know when he was back. She walked up to the door and slowly opened it. Everything seemed in order, save for two things. First, the bed was not made to the exacting Kent standards. Second, there was a green jacket with a 10 emblazoned on the left side.

Kara picked up the jacket. It was much too small to be Clark's.

"That belongs to our guest." Kara jumped and spun, seeing Martha in the doorway.

"We have a guest?" Suddenly Kara was worried. Clark was always lecturing her about not using her powers in Smallville. She fervently hoped that this guest hadn't seen her flying in.

"Clark brought him here this morning," Martha explained, "before heading back to Metropolis. His name is Ben, and he'll be staying here for a few days."

"Does he know about…?" Kara pointed to the symbol on her shirt, the same "S-Shield" that was on Superman's uniform.

"Apparently Ben flew here himself, right alongside your cousin." Martha looked Kara in the eye. "Be nice to him. He's had a rough time lately."

Kara nodded, placed the jacket back on the bed, and then headed to her room. She came back out in jeans and a white t-shirt and headed outside. All the while, she was wondering about this Ben person. What was he like? What powers did he have other than flight? Was he an alien like her? Was he also a hero?

She was so lost in thought that she hadn't realized she'd reached the barn until she hit the side of it. Embarrassed, she looked around to make sure that no one else had seen her. She was going to head inside when she heard a deep, guttural voice.

"OW!"

She rushed inside, but then froze. Standing in front of her adopted father was a twenty foot-tall brown dinosaur. It was rubbing its elephantine foot, then glared at a bale of hay. Apparently it had dropped the hay bale on its foot. It stopped when it noticed her.

"Please tell me you're Kara." A flicker of fear showed on its face.

Kara nodded. The dinosaur sighed in relief, then grabbed the hay bale and placed it with the others it had been stacking. Kara noticed the strange, green and black symbol on its chest. What was that?

Jonathan Kent walked up to her. "Quite a sight, isn't he?"

Kara nodded again. Speech had apparently left her.

"Kara, this is Humongosaur." Said Jonathan, pointing to the dinosaur. Then he frowned. "That is what you called yourself, right son?"

Humongosaur nodded, then stepped away from the hay bales, his job complete. Then he slapped the dial on his chest. Kara covered her eyes as a green flash lit the barn. When she opened her eyes again, Humongosaur was gone. In his place stood a boy about her age, with brown hair and green eyes. On his left wrist was a green gauntlet-like device, with the same symbol on it.

The boy held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Ben. Ben Tennyson."

Kara shook his hand, then frowned. "I thought your name was Humongosaur?"

Ben laughed. "That's only when I transform. Ben is my real name."

Jonathan coughed, causing both teens to look at him. "Sorry," he said, "but I'm going to take a nap inside. Old age is a pain." He grumbled the last part.

After he left the barn, Ben turned to Kara.

"So," he began, "Superman's cousin, huh? Can you fly?"

Kara responded by lifting a few feet off the ground. Ben had a massive grin on his face, showing brilliantly white teeth.

"That never gets old."

Kara tilted her head. "Why are you impressed? Ma said that you flew here with Clark."

Ben nodded. "See this?" he showed her the device on his wrist. "It's called the Ultimatrix. It lets me turn into different aliens, with different powers."

"Seriously?" Kara was shocked to hear such a thing. She had never heard of such technology. Even the most advanced scientific achievements on Argos, Krypton's sister planet, had never even come close to something like what Ben was claiming.

Ben pressed a button on the Ultimatrix, causing the dial to pop up. When it did, a small, green hologram of Humongosaur appeared. Then Ben began twisting the dial, seemingly in notches. With each notch, a new hologram would appear.

Kara pointed at one. "What's he do?"

Ben smiled. "Well, my next chore was to sweep out the barn. This guy'll do fine."

He slammed down the dial. Kara covered her eyes from the green flash that followed. When it died down, she saw a six foot-tall, green and black turtle, standing upright on its back flippers. It had two larger flippers for arms, and a stubby head with no neck. The front of its shell had large holes in it, and the Ultimatrix dial appeared in the center.

"TERRASPIN!" the turtle cried out.

"What do you think?" Terraspin's voice was deep, but it also sounded sleepy, or bored.

"I think you were missed in The Little Mermaid." Kara's tone indicated that she was joking.

"Ha ha." Terraspin walked to the back of the barn, then faced the doors. "You should probably get behind me."

Slightly unsure, Kara walked behind the giant turtle. Terraspin jumped a few feet into the air, then his head disappeared into his shell. His arm-flippers straightened out at an angle, while his feet-flippers joined together, to form a third "blade". All in all, he looked like an "O" had been placed over a "Y". Then the blades began spinning, and huge gusts of wind blew out of the holes in his shell. All of the dust and loose hay on the ground blew out the door. In a few moments, the floor was swept clean.

Terraspin slapped the dial on his chest, turning back to normal. Ben turned to see Kara staring at him, eyes wide, before she smiled at him.

"That was awesome!"

Ben shrugged, trying to look modest, but that grin wouldn't leave his face. It just felt too good to be appreciated. After that stupid reporter, Will Harangue had used his influence to turn the world against him, he had forgotten what it was like to be liked.

"I'm just glad that I toned down Terraspin's power." He said, "Otherwise, I'd have probably blown the barn down."

Kara gave him a quizzical look. "Have you knocked down barns before?"

Ben's grin turned sheepish. "Well, before I really got the hang of it, I used to cause a lot of damage to buildings and stuff. People don't really appreciate having their car crushed by an alien."

"So where'd you get that thing?" Kara gestured towards the Ultimatrix.

"It's a long story."

"I'll get popcorn?" Kara offered.

"Deal."

…

A few hours later saw Ben and Kara sitting on top of the barn. Ben had been willing to turn into one of his flying aliens but, after getting popcorn, Kara had been a little impatient and had grabbed Ben by the hand and lifted him up to the roof. Ben had been a little embarrassed, but had obligingly begun his story, starting with that fateful summer, when he had found the Omnitrix. He went on to tell her about several of his adventures, the people he'd met, as well as the battles he'd had.

Kara had been like a little kid at story time; neither Superman nor Batgirl told her many stories of their battles. In fact, the only hero that she knew who consistently told stories was Flash, and she was pretty sure that those were exaggerated.

At the moment, Ben was telling her about his first time turning into Rath, an aggressive, humanoid, tailless tiger. Apparently, when Ben turned into that alien, he lost some of his self-control, and became more instinct-prone.

"… and then, when we get to the palace, we give the Tiffin to this big, red alien named Jarod. At first, we thought that everything was all right, but then he picks up the Tiffin, and eats him!"

Kara's jaw dropped. "He ate the baby!?" she screeched.

Ben chuckled, remembering what happened next. "Yeah, we pretty much had that same reaction. I think Kevin fainted. Anyway, I got ticked off, well, more than usual as Rath, then I jumped up to the guy, opened his mouth, jumped down his throat…"

Kara gasped. Ben just laughed.

"I grabbed that little flying whipped cream, and then punched Jarod's teeth out so that I could get us free."

"What happened next?"

"He threatened to declare war on the Lodons if he didn't get his delicacy. And an apology. I reminded him that I had just jumped down his throat; I warned him that if he started a war, I would do it again, and then I'd knit his intestines into a sweater."

Kara started laughing hysterically. After a few minutes, she calmed down enough for Ben to continue.

"Then we got back to Earth, I gave the Tiffin back to his mom, then I threatened to beat the crud out of the ambassador; apparently he knew that the Tiffin was a food offering."

Kara's eyes narrowed. She had never met this ambassador, but she knew that she wouldn't have threatened to beat the guy up; she'd have actually done it.

"And then?"

"Well, they left, and then I finally turned back to normal. Kevin said it was because the Tiffin was sending out some sort of signal that messed with the Omnitrix. Apparently he knew the entire time, but never told us."

Now Ben's own eyes narrowed. "And then I turned back into Rath."

"You beat him up?"

"Nah, just scared him some."

Kara shook her head, grinning. "You have the craziest adventures." Then the grin vanished, and she leaned forward with a serious look. "So why don't you want to be a superhero anymore?"

Ben sighed. He knew that question was coming. He decided to counter with one of his own.

"Do you know what it's like to lose everyone that you ever cared about?"

Kara looked at him for a moment, then looked at her feet. "Yeah, I do."

"What?"

Kara looked at Ben, who had a look of surprised shock on his face. "Did Clark ever tell you about what happened to our own planet, Krypton?"

Ben nodded. It had been a few hours after they had defeated the Thanagarians; since Ben had shared his story with the League, Superman had thought it only fair to tell him his own.

"Well, when Krypton exploded, I was on Argos, Krypton's twin; it had been thrown out of orbit, and was freezing over. We didn't have long before we would all die. Most of us were put into stasis so that there would be food and supplies for the scientists that were working on a way to save everyone else. It didn't work."

Tears began to form in the corners of Kara's eyes, which she quickly blinked away.

"When Clark found me, I was the only survivor; all of the other stasis pods had failed." She looked back at Ben. "What happened to you?"

Now it was Ben who was looking at his feet. "One of my villains attacked my home. My parents, my Grandpa Max, my Aunt Lily and Uncle Frank…" Ben paused to swallow the lump in his throat. "Gwen and Kevin and… my girlfriend Julie. All of them, gone."

Kara fought hard to hold back her tears again. While she knew what it was like to lose everyone important in her life, she had had several years to grieve and move on.

Ben had only had three days.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, just watching the sun set. After a while, Kara grabbed Ben's hand again and lowered him to the ground. They headed indoors, where they enjoyed dinner with Martha and Jonathan. Ben shared a few more stories, ending on a high note when he finished his tale of how he had saved the universe from the Highbreed, and then saving the entire Highbreed race from extinction.

After dinner, Ben and Kara headed towards their rooms. It had been a long day, and both felt emotionally drained from their experiences.

…

Ben had been here before. He remembered coming here, running faster when he saw the smoke. He arrived, hoping that everyone was okay. He saw the blood, and knew that someone was hurt. Then he saw the bodies. He saw the expressions of pain and horror. Then he sawhim, standing on the ruins of his house, his sadistic laughter reaching his ears once more…

Ben sat up straight, tears, falling down his face. He looked at the clock. It was 1 o'clock. He'd only been asleep for four hours. He wiped the tears away, then stood. He was wearing a pair of shorts and a white t-shirt that Jonathan had loaned him. He had just gotten out of bed when he heard the door open.

"Ben?"

Kara stood in his doorway, wearing a pink nightgown. Concern was written all over her face. Thanks to her super hearing, she had heard Ben moaning and softly crying in his sleep. After a few minutes, she could no longer take it, and had come to his room.

Ben stared at Kara for a moment, before all self-control abandoned him and he collapsed, sobbing and babbling incoherently. Kara rushed over to him and wrapped him in her arms. She helped him into a sitting position, with both of them leaning against the side of the bed. Ben continued to cry into Kara's shoulder. Kara let a few of her own tears fall, both for those she had lost, and for her friend.

They stayed there for a long time; these two pilgrims of different worlds, united in loss.