Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent & Cassie Sandsmark

Nightwing has to bite back a laugh. “Gotham is a no-fly zone for more than just the JL, Supes. But, from what Blud knows, chances are that whatever you’ve heard is probably true.” Superman pales, which is anything but unexpected. Pretty much all of Gotham tends to be horrifying to Outsiders, as Nightwing is well aware. The question here is which rumors Superman decided were concerning enough to actually look into, the answer to which could be literally anything from the pollution levels to the regularity of the city-wide Fear Gas attacks. Or something entirely outside of the usual spectrum of Things That Outsiders Need To Stop Freaking Out About, Nightwing discovers when Superman blurts, “But the Waynes aren’t actually possessed, right?” …Ah. Well, crap. Or, in Gotham, it’s been common knowledge since the very beginning that the Waynes are unwitting hosts to the parasitic Bats, who protect Gotham and its people from threats both internal and external in turn. There’s nothing anyone can do about it, even if they wanted to. (That’s… not actually what’s happening, but nobody needs to know that. The Batfam is too committed to the bit to pull out now.)

Kon had a good life. A great life, actually, considering where it had started (a test tube in a lab funded by a supervillain, which was admittedly not hard to beat but still). He went to high school, he lived with his dad (Superman!) and his mom (badass reporter Lois Lane!) and his annoying but adorable younger brother, he spent every other weekend at his grandparents farm in Kansas, and he was also a well respected member of the Teen Titans. Yes, anyone who took a look at his life would say it was a good one. Full of family, friends, fun, privilege, and not to mention superpowers. From an objective standpoint, his life was complete. So why could he never shake the feeling that something was missing?

When Dick reveals to Jason that he's not actually related to any of them, Jason tries to figure out why the older man was never adopted. Maybe he should have just left it alone.