Rachel's expression had become unusually serious.
To Clark, it felt entirely different from the image he had always carried of her.
In his mind, Rachel was still a child. Even though she occasionally displayed flashes of maturity, most of the time she remained playful, emotional, and innocent.
Hearing her speak about adulthood with such certainty caught him off guard.
"Rachel, do you really believe that?" he asked quietly.
"Yes."
Rachel pressed her lips together before continuing.
"Eric Kent has told me the story of the Trinity Goddess more than once. I understand the price of magic."
A faint trace of pride entered her voice.
"I know what magic represents, and I've always tried to make sure it never harms this family."
Then her gaze shifted directly toward Clark.
"Magic isn't some uncontrollable flood or wild beast, Clark. You don't have to fear it all the time. And you don't need to worry about me acting like a reckless child who embarrasses the family."
After saying that, she walked ahead and led him toward his old bedroom.
The sound of their footsteps echoed softly through the quiet hallway.
Rachel pushed the door open and stepped aside for him.
Clark entered slowly.
The room looked almost identical to how he remembered it before leaving the farm. The arrangement of the furniture had barely changed, and everything was spotless, as though someone cleaned it regularly.
His chest tightened slightly.
"How long are you staying?" Rachel suddenly asked.
There was an unmistakable distance in her tone.
She sounded less like a sister speaking to family and more like a host addressing a temporary guest.
Clark disliked that feeling immediately.
"I'll leave tomorrow," he answered after a pause. "Amy is alone in Riverside. I'm worried something might happen to her."
"Oh, right."
Rachel nodded lightly.
"I almost forgot you adopted another sister."
Adrian had mentioned Amy before, though Rachel had never actually met her.
Robin Girl.
Even the name irritated her a little.
Adrian often called Rachel "Raven," and now another girl associated with birds had suddenly appeared beside Clark. It made her feel strangely replaced, though she refused to admit it aloud.
And honestly, she thought Raven sounded far better.
"I thought you were planning to stay here permanently," Rachel muttered.
Clark could not tell whether she sounded disappointed or relieved.
What he could tell was that Rachel clearly held some hostility toward Amy despite never meeting her.
His gaze drifted toward a picture frame sitting on the desk.
"This photo..."
Rachel followed his line of sight.
Inside the frame was an old Christmas photograph of him and Adrian together.
The room in the picture glowed warmly beneath Christmas lights. The atmosphere looked peaceful, untouched by conflict or division.
"It was taken during Christmas," Clark said softly, his expression growing complicated.
"Oh, that one."
Rachel unconsciously bit her lip.
"It was damaged before, but Eric Kent kept it anyway. I guess he didn't want this room to feel empty, so he put it back here."
Clark stared at the photo silently.
"Is that so..."
Rachel stepped toward the doorway.
"I'm going to sleep now. Good night, Clark."
With that, she left the room.
Clark remained seated for a long while before finally lying down on the bed he once considered home.
It had been a long time since he left the farm.
Now, returning to the room where he grew up filled him with emotions too tangled to sort through clearly.
He rested both hands beneath his head and stared at the familiar ceiling.
Everything that happened today replayed endlessly in his mind.
The invasion of the Green Lantern Corps.
The brutal war between the Green and Yellow Lanterns.
Hal Jordan surrendering himself to vengeance after the destruction of Coast City.
And Adrian placing the Yellow Lantern Ring onto his hand while unleashing fear powerful enough to shake the entire planet.
One memory after another passed through his thoughts like frozen images.
Clark closed his eyes and forced himself to sleep, but rest refused to come.
Eventually, he sat up again.
He picked up the picture frame from the desk and gently brushed his fingers across the glass, staring quietly at the younger versions of himself and Adrian.
That Christmas had probably been the happiest one of his life.
Back then, they had not yet become enemies standing on opposite sides.
Clark let out a long breath before lying back down.
This time, he placed the frame against his chest, covering it with both hands.
A strange sense of peace slowly settled over him.
Not long afterward, he drifted into sleep.
---
In his dream, he returned to high school.
Pete, Chloe, Adrian, and Clark were riding the school bus home beneath the setting sun.
Pete excitedly talked about the Metropolis Sharks' game from the previous night.
Chloe held a cup of coffee while brainstorming headlines for the next edition of The Torch.
Meanwhile, Adrian sat beside the window, quietly staring outside as though lost in thought.
The bus overflowed with noise and laughter.
Students discussed the upcoming homecoming dance with excitement, speaking about the future as though it stretched endlessly ahead of them.
At that time, none of them knew where life would eventually lead.
And the complicated bond between Clark and Adrian had quietly begun there.
Clark had not dreamed in a very long time.
Ever since moving to Riverside City, dreams had disappeared from his sleep entirely.
He once assumed it was part of growing into adulthood as a Kryptonian.
Adrian had once told him a story about a country where children stopped dreaming once they became adults.
Clark never believed it completely.
But tonight, lying once again inside this room, he could dream again.
---
Next door, Rachel sat beside her bedroom window with her chin resting in her hands.
Outside, the rain soaked earth released a cool scent into the night air.
Resting before her was the magic book containing the Fairytale Queen.
"You look miserable, Rachel," the Fairytale Queen complained. "Isn't a family reunion supposed to make people happy? Don't tell me you've already reached the age where only cigarettes, alcohol, and bad decisions can fix your problems. Honestly, little Raven, you cannot turn into one of those girls who constantly swear, chase football players, and drip with jealousy."
The woman inside the book spoke rapidly without stopping for breath.
Her voice sounded rougher lately, probably because of how frequently she smoked.
Rachel still had no idea how the Fairytale Queen managed to smoke while sealed inside a magic book.
Somehow, cigarettes simply vanished into the pages.
Maybe it was another strange magical ability.
"No, I'm happy," Rachel answered quietly, pulling herself away from her wandering thoughts.
"I always wanted Clark to come home."
Admitting it aloud embarrassed her slightly, and her voice became awkward near the end.
"Then why do you still look so unhappy?" the Fairytale Queen shot back immediately. "Your face practically screams it."
The book snapped open and shut rapidly as she talked, making Rachel's eyes ache.
Rubbing her temples, Rachel sighed.
"I know Eric Kent never says it directly, but he wanted Clark to come back too. He still stares at that picture frame in Clark's room when nobody's looking."
Her voice softened.
"He cares about Clark a lot, even if he refuses to admit it."
"Men are strange creatures," the Fairytale Queen declared dramatically. "Superheroes especially. Society favors them constantly, but underneath all that power, they can still be ridiculously fragile."
As usual, she somehow redirected the topic toward men and women again.
Rachel ignored most of it.
She had never cared about those discussions.
"Men rarely say what they truly mean," the Fairytale Queen continued.
"Maybe."
Rachel tilted her head slightly.
"I don't hate Clark either. I just think leaving home was irresponsible. He should've supported Adrian instead of opposing him like some outsider."
To her, Clark's departure had always felt like abandonment.
"That's not how family is supposed to act."
Her voice became quieter.
"The real reason I'm upset is something else."
She sat upright and brushed her bangs aside before speaking again.
"Lately, whenever I use magic, I feel like something is watching me."
The Fairytale Queen immediately fell silent.
Rachel continued slowly.
"It feels familiar somehow. I don't know what it is, but I can tell it understands me completely. Every spell I cast feels transparent in front of it."
She lowered her eyes.
"Maybe Clark was right. Magic really is dangerous. Someday I might accidentally bring something terrible into this family."
Although she argued against Clark earlier, part of her knew he had a point.
Still, she refused to show uncertainty in front of him.
She always tried to appear mature in front of her family.
The Fairytale Queen remained unusually quiet before finally speaking.
"If something can frighten you and avoid my detection, then it's definitely dangerous."
Her tone lost its usual playfulness.
"You should tell Eric Kent. He may not be good at emotional conversations, but nobody can deny his strength."
"It's only a feeling," Rachel muttered.
She carried the book over to the bed before throwing herself backward onto the white sheets.
The perfectly arranged blankets wrinkled immediately beneath her.
Lying there, she clutched the book tightly against her chest just as Clark held the picture frame next door.
"How am I supposed to explain a feeling?" she whispered with closed eyes.
Whether she was speaking to herself or to the Fairytale Queen, even she did not know.
Outside, the night deepened further.
---
The following morning, after searching throughout the night, Constantine finally found Detective Chimp hidden inside a cramped room overflowing with books.
Stacks of books towered everywhere, leaving barely enough space to walk.
Some leaned dangerously to one side as though ready to collapse at any moment. Others lay scattered across the floor, open and forgotten.
The entire room smelled faintly of old paper, alcohol, and stale food.
Constantine casually pulled out a lighter and lit his cigarette despite the mountain of flammable clutter surrounding him.
"Do you always appear uninvited?" Detective Chimp asked irritably while lowering his newspaper.
Constantine took a drag from his cigarette before answering.
"You don't seem surprised."
"I'm rarely surprised anymore."
Detective Chimp grabbed a beer mug from the table and took a long drink.
"What do you want this time? You only show up when trouble follows."
Pizza boxes were stacked beside the couch.
Inside the nearby microwave sat half a cold pizza.
Judging from his filthy fur and pale appearance, Detective Chimp had clearly been hiding indoors for quite a while.
Without the fur, he would have resembled an exhausted shut in.
"I can smell garbage," Constantine remarked while glancing around. "Have you taken the trash out at all recently?"
"That's irrelevant."
Detective Chimp reached for another newspaper but noticed jam smeared across it. Annoyed, he tossed it aside.
"If you spent years trapped in a circus cage performing tricks for tourists, solving fake math problems, and sleeping inside a filthy iron box barely large enough to breathe in, you'd learn to adapt to any living condition too."
His tone carried little emotion, though the bitterness underneath remained obvious.
"That sounds miserable," Constantine admitted.
Detective Chimp snorted.
"I'd rather get betrayed by you than hear your sympathy. So stop wasting time. Why are you here?"
To avoid Adrian's growing influence over the magical world, Detective Chimp abandoned the Oblivion Bar and disappeared into hiding.
The last person he wanted finding him was Constantine.
Unfortunately, Constantine always found people eventually.
"Obviously, I'm here because of the man who scared you into hiding," Constantine said while stepping closer.
Detective Chimp immediately glared at him.
"Nobody forced me into hiding. I am the world's greatest detective, greater than Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Elongated Man combined. I simply wanted peace and quiet."
"Right," Constantine replied dryly. "Then let's talk about the reason you suddenly wanted peace and quiet. Homelander."
Detective Chimp sighed heavily.
"The entire planet saw what happened yesterday. Green Lanterns, Yellow Lanterns, alien invasions, near extinction, Adrian practically turned the Earth into a war zone."
He lifted the newspaper again.
"Listen to this headline."
He cleared his throat dramatically.
"President Homelander Once Again Saves Earth from Alien Invaders, His Greatness Beyond Question."
Detective Chimp tossed the paper onto the table.
"He's untouchable now."
===
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