Chapter 52: A New Path

Sora's black eyes opened weakly, feeling mental fatigue as he regained consciousness. The memories and emotions of the previous day left him drained as he felt the soft bed beneath him.

Still feeling drained, he felt something touch his shoulder lightly. He weakly turned to the side of the bed, seeing Zatanna's familiar figure beside him, her hand now resting against his shoulder.

He honestly didn't even mind anymore. Though, he raised a brow at the fact that she was only in a black nightwear. He didn't even want to think too much about it.

The memories of what occurred played in his mind as he let out a sigh of tiredness.

He was truly stumped.

Ever since he got this power, all he had been focused on was finding his mother's killer and getting his revenge. Now that he had finally done it, he didn't feel as fulfilled as he thought he would.

All he felt was a sinking emptiness that threatened to swallow him. With how much blood he had on his hands, a normal life was out of the question.

He held back a sigh as he got off the bed. Clad in only pajama trousers, he sat at the foot of said bed, deep in thought.

He was so lost that he almost missed Zatanna moving around the bed towards him. He didn't need to turn back to see that she was awake.

"Hey." She said softly from behind him as her hand rested on his shoulder.

"How are you feeling?" She asked again gently, knowing he could hear her.

"I don't know. I don't know what I'm feeling." And he honestly didn't.

The confusion only grew worse with each passing second. He had settled into a routine for he last three months.

Wake up. Train. Eat. Train. Sleep and repeat the cycle.

Now that cycle was broken and he was left stranded with nothing. He almost missed the arms that gently wrapped around him as she whispered.

"It'll be okay." Would it though? He had nothing to look strive to anymore. His goal was accomplished but left him with no sense of accomplishment.

'What do I do now?' He thought as his eyes looked more tired than they had ever looked before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He'd tried to level up some of his skills to take his mind off it but that didn't work either. That left him standing at the kitchen counter distractedly as Zatanna cooked.

Even she had been surprised when he stepped into the kitchen. He'd normally busy himself with something until she was done by instead decided to join her.

She was surprised but she took it in strides. Though he couldn't focus on anything, at least he wasn't laying in bed all day like one would expect him to be.

It didn't take long for her to finish up and be seated in the living room with food on their laps.

Okayu or as it's known in simple terms, Japanese rice porridge was the theme for the morning. She had taken it upon herself to learn how to cook Japanese cuisine and she was already good at it.

*Knock!* *Knock!*

Zatanna's head swerved towards the door as Sora only stared at it dully. He already knew who it was, recognizing the energy signature for who it was.

The homo magi stared a look with him, silently asking only for him to shake his head as she relaxed back into the chair.

The knocks sounded out once again but it was ignored by both of them. A few moments later, a clicking sound was heard as the door opened from the outside.

"I don't recall telling you to come in." Sora said, still not looking backwards as he took a sip of the tea in his hand.

"What do you want, Batman?" He asked, finally turning as the dark knight walked into the apartment, accompanied by another figure.

Sora gave them a once over before his dull eyes rested on the former.

"We need to talk." Batman said in a strange tone the he couldn't place nor was he in the mood to place.

"We'll 'talk' when I'm through." He replied lightly but there was an edge to his tone.

In the state he was in, he was very likely to kill someone simply on a whim. Basically breaking into his house for the second time was already leading him to consider leaving Gotham without its protector.

"I don't th-" The dark knight was interrupted as he felt a sudden pressure push down on him as well as his partner he had brought with him.

Staring at Sora, all they could see was an unstable person who had enough power to be a major threat.

While he was tempted to push further to see what the boy would do, he didn't think it was wise.

The pressure suddenly reduced as they felt themselves release a breath of relief. Zatanna who had a hand on Sora's own looked concerned as for the first time, he had let go of his control of his chakra.

The two heroes were then forced to stand and wait for the two children to finish up their breakfast in silence. They are at a slow pace but they couldn't really do anything about it.

"Now, what do you want?" Sora demanded with narrow eyes as he stood in front of the dark knight.

The man was silent as a deep breath escaped his lips.

"There is someone who wants to speak with you." He revealed as Sora's glance moved to the man's companion.

A woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes, a slender yet toned build. Her outfit consisted of a black, one-piece bustier-leotard combination under a blue lapelled jacket, with gray stockings with seams up the front and back.

She wears black, heavy, calf-length boots, black fingerless gloves that go past the elbow to the biceps, and a black choker.

He vaguely recognized her from the choker itself as black canary. What was odd to him was the woman's composure.

From the moment they neared the apartment, Sora had sensed them and kept them in his focus. Upon intruding, he had studied their features for hints to their 'visit'.

Batman was the same, stoic as always but the woman was something else. She seemed to be holding herself back as she stood there.

Turning fully to the woman, he raised a brow as she walked closer towards him. His hand tensed in preparation for an attack as her arms spread, only for him to falter as he realized something.

She wasn't trying to attack as her arms spread around his back as she sobbed in a low but audible tone.

"I-I'm sorry." She managed to say among the sobs as she held him, his face just above her shoulder.

He was utterly confused at her reaction as she didn't let go even as Batman put a hand to her shoulder.

"What do you mean I'm sorry? What is going on here?" Sora questioned as he pushed her off with an annoyed expression.

"I-I was a friend of Asami's. By the time I heard she was g-gone it was too late." She said as she slowly composed herself, tears still dropping as she said it.

"The last person that said that…it didn't end well for them." He spoke calmly as his memories went to Kaito, his chakra already pulsing in preparing for a chidori.

He could practically hear Batman's disapproving glare, probably already knowing what went down. Zatanna had put people to sleep and destroyed the cameras upon her arrival but he doubted that would stop him.

"Try to remember." She requested softly with tears in her eyes. Sora gave her a distrustful look as the woman seemed to look even more desperate.

"Please…" She whispered out almost begging.

Sora narrowed his eyes at both of them before letting his gaze settle on the woman in front of him for a few moments.

With Art of the mind, it is unbelievably easy to recall memories from even his early years. His eyes closed briefly but his body was tensed and alert.

Any sudden movement they made would end up with a fatal injury if not death.

He replayed memories from when he was younger, not knowing what exactly she wanted him to remember.

The scenes kept playing until he paused for a moment.

'Wait a minute!' He thought as he found a memory from when he was much younger, when Shinji was still alive.

His brother was about twelve years old was sitting beside his mother while he himself was curiously enough sitting opposite them.

More importantly, he was being held by someone. It was a woman judging by the voice in their conversation.

His eyes widened as the woman's features came to mind. That had been before he figured out that he was in DC.

He had found it weird that there was someone with american features in Japan but didn't think much of it at the time.

It wasn't the only memory where she featured in. There were several others but none after he figured out his situation.

He returned from his journey down memory lane as his eyes opened to the two adults before him.

'To think the famous Black Canary was my caretaker.' He thought with a small sigh as recognition entered his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sora and Canary sat in Sora's 'workshop' opposite each other. Of course he already had his seals in his inventory to avoid problems.

From what he remembered and from her own input, Canary was a friend of the family for a very long time. Her and Asami met here in Japan when she was on a break from work and they had been in touch ever since.

He cursed his distracted mind that he didn't recognize her at that point. She had become nothing but a figure of the past after his discovery of the danger level of the world.

Though, he used Analyze on her just to be sure it was her and not a telepath, not that Art of the Mind wouldn't notice but he couldn't be too safe.

"I'm sorry about what happened. By the time I heard the news, I was in no condition to come and see you. It would've only made things worse." Dinah said as she had now composed herself.

Sora stayed silent with his eyes closed, showing that he was deep in thought.

"Then why come now? If this is you showing pit-"

"It's not. I have no doubt that you'd hate that more than anyone." She answered solemnly.

"Then why?" Sora prodded, his eyes narrowing as his fingers clenched around his arms.

She was silent for a moment, thinking of the best way she could put her words.

"I've run away from this responsibility long enough. I left you on your own when you had nobody to go to and that's on me." She said, taking responsibility.

"I can't imagine how devastated you must have felt. Losing your mother after losing your brother. The anger you must feel is more than justifiable." She said as she lowered her head.

The room descended into silence with that sentence.

"Make no mistake, I don't hold you responsible for anything." Sora started as her eyes widened.

He truly had no reason to hold her accountable for anything. He wasn't the type of person to blame someone else for his circumstances.

People were not obligated to do anything besides what they wanted to do. In his opinion, her worries are trivial.

"I have already moved past it. I've gotten my revenge." Sora announced, not caring about the fact that he just openly admitted to murder.

Judging by the unsurprised look on her face, he knew he was right about his judgement that she was already informed of trust by Batman.

"I know…Batman told me." She admitted, further confirming it.

"It's not unexpected. Trauma does things to people. I'm sure his betrayal didn't help either." She said softly only for him to counter it.

"I wouldn't call it a betrayal. I never trusted him from the start. He was an arrogant fool who thought he was in control. Look where that got him." Sora explained simply as he remembered the confident look on Kaito's face when he caught him on the roof.

"You say that, yet you don't seem happy." She said after a pause, causing his eyes to narrow.

"What are you talking about? I'm as happy as possible." He retorted, not facing her as he spoke.

"We both know that's not true." She said, cutting through his lies.

"After she died you spent all you time and energy on getting revenge. Now that you've gotten it, you don't know what to do with yourself."

She was a qualified therapist and counselor. She could easily see through his body language and appearance that he was far from okay.

"Shut up! You don't know a damn thing about me!" Sora nearly screamed as his tone increased.

"I know enough to say that you're hurting. Despite how much you hide it, you're in pain that I can't imagine. You finally achieved your goal but you have nothing driving you anymore." She spoke gently as he glared at her through narrowed eyes.

"Let me help you." She added softly.

"I don't need help." He said immediately.

"I think you do."

"Then you know nothing!" He declared as his eyes were beginning to turn red before they calmed down.

They sat in silence for what felt like a few minutes as Sora collected himself.

"I was there…" He said, just barely above a whisper but she heard it.

"What do you mean?" She asked in confusion.

"That night…I was there. I saw everything." He said as her eyes widened, finally understanding what he meant as she held back a gasp.

"At that moment I thought it was a lie. That I was just seeing things. That she would come home and act like nothing happened. She never did." He narrated, his voice noticeably trembling.

"I'm very sorry you had to see that." She consoled as he continued speaking.

"Call it childish but a long time ago, I dreamt of being a hero." He said, getting her attention.

That was before he died and got reborn in this hell.

"You certainly have the capabilities to be one. What changed?" Dinah asked, leaning forward.

"I woke up. Heroes would sacrifice the ones they love to save the world. That's not me." He spoke before adding on.

"If it meant losing someone I cared about, I'd sacrifice the world over and over again without batting an eye." He said seriously as he stared the woman straight in the eye.

The woman sat in shocked silence for a moment as she gathered her thoughts.

"That's certainly a unique way of viewing it. Zatanna must be very lucky." She said, moving the topic to something a bit lighter.

"What does that have to do with anything?" He asked as the woman stared in amusement.

"I heard about what happened when Zatara showed up. There's also the fact that she was practically glued to you when we barged in. It's obvious from the way she looks at you." She answered with a smile.

"Yet you are afraid of that." She noted as his eyes narrowed.

"You feel the same way but you're afraid you'll lose her as well." She added gently as his fingers danced on his lap restlessly but didn't speak.

"Sora, it's okay to have people you care about. You don't have to push them all away." She said, her eyes softening up as she spoke with the boy who was considered her godson.

"I'm only doing what's best." He spoke in a strange manner.

"Best for her…or best for you?" She asked as he immediately fired back.

"I think we've already established that I'm not a selfless person." He said strongly but she didn't back down.

"That may be true but that doesn't mean you're a bad person either." She said, causing his eyes to widen in shock for the first time since they began their 'therapy'.

Before he let her into the room, with the use of enchantment magic he set a zone spell in the room.

With the spell active, he was able to differentiate truth from lies and so far, she hadn't lied once. She truly believed he wasn't a bad person despite knowing he was basically a murderer.

"You can't always run away from it. If you ignore it now, it'll come back even worse later on. If not me, then let her help you." She spoke genuinely.

He honestly didn't know how to feel at this point. He was prepared to be the worst of the worst to achieve his goal. To be hated and hunted for the murders he had committed but here was someone who genuinely wanted to help him.

There was also the fact that she helped raise him a bit. For some reason a certain memory played in his head.

A memory of a younger Dinah Lance attempting to teach him the alphabet despite him already knowing it, not that she was aware of that.

Something within him broke as the emotions that he had been holding on to spilled out at once, a few drops of tears leaving his eyes.

"I don't know what to do anymore." He said, his voice trembling with each word.

Her hand went to his shoulder as she pulled him closer in comfort.

"We'll help you figure it out." She said in a motherly tone as she gently patted his back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the long overdue therapy session with Dinah and an exchange of contacts, the heroic duo left with Batman not speaking a word to Sora till they left.

Apparently, he had spoken with Zatanna a bit while he was occupied, trying to gain any kind of information he could from her.

He also informed her that her father wanted to speak with her, something that she suspected would happen sooner than later.

Despite the turn of events and their unexpected and slightly unwelcome visit, Sora couldn't help but feel a bit lighter.

After Shinji and his mother died, he had dodged the thought of therapy, not that anyone ever suggested it to him.

Before she left, they had agreed on a somewhat rough schedule of a therapy session once a week.

That was all dependent on whether he wanted to have it or not, he wasn't being forced into anything.

He couldn't help but feel grateful to Dinah as she left. While he didn't even entertain the thought of being some cliché hero, he wasn't confused anymore.

He knew what he wanted to do and with how powerful he was at the moment, he wasn't afraid of anything.

He looked down to Zatanna whose head lay on his lap as she read a book in her hand.

"Is anything wrong?" She asked with a cute confused look.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." He replied with a small shake of his head as she went back to her book.