The sun was going down over the wheat fields when Finn settled on the front step of the Kent house with his journal open on his knee.
He wrote, filling in the route he had travelled through as best he could remember it. The frozen world, the ashen one, the oceanic crossing, and now this. He drew the rough shape of the path between worlds, and then he stopped writing and just watched the light move through the wheat. The stalks that had gone gold with the season caught evening light quite well.
His mind kept coming back to the world itself.
Batman. The Teen Titans. The House of El. The Kents. All of it sitting inside a world that looked, as far as he could tell, entirely medieval. Kingdoms. Plate armour. Carts on dirt roads. Yet the people in it were unmistakably from the world of DC comics. The symbols, the names, the powers. All of it lined up.
Which meant this was an alternate version. A DC world that had developed differently, or had been reset somehow, or had simply always been this way in whatever corner of the multiverse it occupied. And that opened a question that he always thought for a long time, whether the doors could lead him to alternate versions of worlds he'd already visited, or even alternate versions of his own world. A version of the Witcher world where things had gone differently. A version of the Pokemon world where some catastrophe had happened. A version of his own world where any number of things had changed.
He didn't know the answer. The compass that he made found doors, it didn't tell him what was on the other side, and his knowledge of the multiverse was still full of gaps. Four years of travelling and he'd barely scratched the surface of what was actually out there.
He exhaled and looked at the wheat.
All he could do was keep moving and keep writing things down and hope that enough time and enough worlds would eventually add up to something. It wasn't a satisfying conclusion but it was the only one available.
Suddenly, the door behind him opened.
Ciri came out carrying two bowls, holding them carefully so as not to spill. She held one out to him without saying anything and sat down on the step beside him.
"Martha made soup," she said.
"Thanks." He took it and drank from the rim, watching the light shift over the fields.
They sat in silence for a while. The soup was good, thick with vegetables and all kinds of herbs.
"You're quiet," Ciri said.
Finn smiled at the wheat. "You're going to ask me if I'm alright."
"I was going to, yes."
"I'm fine. Just thinking."
She raised a brow but didn't push. She drank her soup.
After a moment she said, "Is this another world from your world's fiction?"
Finn turned the bowl over in his hands. "That's a complicated question."
"How is it complicated now?"
"Because the answer is both yes and no. I'll explain it properly later, it's a long story."
Ciri's mouth pulled slightly at one corner. There was no point pressing before he was ready. She looked at the fields instead.
"Are we staying here?" she asked. "Or moving on?"
"I want to stay a while," Finn said. "I'm curious about this world. There's more to it than what we've seen."
"And we're staying with the Kents?"
"Until the Batman wakes up. See where that leads."
Ciri nodded slowly, considering it.
Finn reached into his jacket and pulled out Chip's ball, setting it on the step beside him and pressing the button. Chip appeared in the dirt in front of the steps, shook himself, and immediately went into a low crouch, head moving from side to side. Still wary, eyes going to every corner of the yard.
Finn crouched down to his level. "We're safe here, Chip."
Chip looked at him. Then bit his hand.
"Right." Finn pulled his hand back and reached into his bag for the food instead, putting it into the empty bowl and setting it on the ground. Chip approached it with one eye still on the surroundings, ate quickly, and then seemed to decide that a place with food in it was probably fine.
Ciri had taken out Kelpie's ball and released her into the yard. Kelpie appeared, tossed her head once, and pressed her nose into the bowl Ciri held out for her.
They watched them eat.
Then the door opened again and something dog-shaped came barrelling out, nose going immediately to the ground, tail moving. Beast Boy crossed the yard in his dog form with his nose working hard, following whatever had caught his attention, and then he pulled up short in front of Chip and Kelpie and sat back on his haunches.
A second later he was human again, sitting cross-legged in the dirt with his mouth open.
"What," he said, "are those?"
"That's Chip," Finn said, pointing. "That's Kelpie."
Beast Boy's eyes went from the small triangular creature eating from a bowl to the horse with a mane made of actual fire and back again.
"What kind of creature is Chip?" he said. "It looks like a tiny shark. Walking on land."
"He's a Gible."
"And Kelpie's a Ponyta," Ciri added.
"Where are they from?"
"Far away lands," Finn said.
Beast Boy narrowed his eyes. "Are they your pets? And how did you hide them until now?"
Finn smiled and said nothing.
Beast Boy sat there waiting for an answer that clearly wasn't coming. "Fine," he said. "Keep your secrets."
He shuffled forward on his knees toward Kelpie, who raised her head from the bowl and watched him approach. He reached out and she let him put his hand on her neck, her mane burning steadily, the fire warm but not burning. Beast Boy's expression went from suspicious to completely won over in about three seconds.
Then he moved toward Chip.
Chip watched him close the distance, deciding whether an approaching thing was food or a threat.
"He's a bi—" Finn started.
Chip bit him.
Beast Boy yanked his hand back and held it against his chest. "A little warning would've been nice!"
"He's a biter," Finn said. "Sorry."
"You should say that before I put my hand near it!" Beast Boy held the bite up to inspect it, then put it in his mouth. "That actually really hurt."
Ciri was trying not to smile. She crouched beside Kelpie and ran her hand along the Ponyta's neck. "Go on then," she said quietly, to the horse. "You can run around. Just mind the wheat. Don't burn it."
Kelpie's ears went forward. She looked at the fields, then back at Ciri once, and then she was off, her mane trailing behind her as she went, disappearing between the rows of wheat in a streak of orange.
Beast Boy watched her go with his bitten hand still cradled against his chest.
"That," he said, "is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen…"
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