Silvia had taken Superboy back to Victor, who then ran a few simple tests. He was definitely Kryptonian, and not just that, he had Clark's specific DNA. There was something else too, an abnormality that he couldn't quite detect, one surprisingly... human. If nothing else they discovered that he was growing at a rapid rate and within a few weeks he had hit puberty.

Silvia acted as his guardian, and let him live in her underground lair, but she honestly felt bad for the kid. To go from eight years old to fourteen in such a limited time span must have been extremely difficult...

Silvia had convinced a few of the others to accept him as an ally, but Superboy was constantly going against what was expected of him. The rebellious teen faze had set in, and Silvia felt less than equipped to deal with it. It was at this time that she started greatly regretting not sending him back to Smallville. Martha had already raised one incredible person, she would have done a better job then Silvia could.

It was too late though. She would just have to grin and bare it... but whenever she smiled at him Superboy became highly irritated... or when she laughed, or spoke, or sneezed, or did practically anything else. She couldn't even stand near him without the boy marching off to find a spot free of adults.

Things were so easy when he was a kid, but now Silvia felt like she was knee deep in quick sand - she was going to sink no matter which direction she tried to go in. Their lives largely consisted of voids of empty silence, and fighting the occasional villain that would appear. In these instances though, Superboy was unconventionally violent. He didn't kill anyone, but he made them so terrified that they wished that he would.

Whoever was present would stop him and remind the boy that Superman never hurt people, not even the worst scum on the earth, unless he had no other option. This only seemed to make him more irritated.

"Clark knew the difference between right and wrong, kid." Steel spoke up after a particularly intense fight. "He was firm in his beliefs, and he stood against anyone that disagreed. He didn't throw villains weaker than him into street lamps, he gave them a chance. Maybe you should reconsider today's choices."

Superboy snarled at the man angrily, lip twitching upward and eyes fighting the urge to burst into heat rays. "Back off, tin man."

Silvia suppressed the laugh that forced itself through her throat, lips tightening to refuse the sound from being released. She took a deep breath, processing that this was a little more serious than she was treating it to be. "He's only trying to help."

"How?" Superboy spat back. "By doing what the rest of you do? Comparing me to some dead guy?"

Silvia jumped back at the pain his words sent to her chest. Was that what Clark was now? Just some old dead corpse with nothing left to teach... Harsh. Steel flashed Silvia a sympathetic look, obviously aware of her pain despite her unreadable expression.

Superboy didn't bother apologising. He just sauntered away with a clenched jaw and his hands in fists. Steel didn't go after him, and at first, neither did Silvia. She didn't know how to deal with him, and more than that she was growing tired of the boy's resentment for Clark.

"I need to get back to the tower." Steel said with an exasperated sigh. "We should probably just leave the kid alone for a while."

"Yeah... probably." She agreed, but once Steel had left the premises Silvia started walking after Superboy.

Much to Silvia's delight, Superboy hadn't learnt to fly yet so anywhere he could run, so could she. He could, however, leap tall building in a single bound. Thankfully Silvia knew where he had run off to, it would just take her a lot longer to get there.

The outside of the store had a grungy look to it; the paint was peeling off, graffiti littered the stone walls, and the window had been smashed in the middle of a fight months ago. The owners didn't bother replacing it, they said it added to their shops 'aesthetic'.

Mainly, it was the punk crowds and rocker kids that hung out here. If Silvia was a little younger she could almost guarantee that she'd be one of them. It was the kind of atmosphere that didn't suit heroes, and yet Superboy always seemed to go there when he was angry. Maybe it was just another rebellious thing...

The moment Silvia walked through the door she was bombarded with the sound of a heavy guitar solo coming directly from the broken down juke box. In this sea of dark shades, it was easy to spot Superboy sitting in the far corner. He no longer wore the bright costume of his youth, he had swapped it out for simply a shirt with the 's' symbol lined in red on the front. Still, he was the odd one out in such a rough atmosphere.

A few of the customers turned at the sound of the door clicking shut, the men of the group letting out wolf whistles at the sight of the woman. Superboy looked over his shoulder hesitantly, perhaps in false hope that it wasn't Silvia. When he saw the head of long blonde hair and eyes of cold steel he slumped in his seat, turning back around again and crossing his arms.

It was times like these when Superboy regretted his advanced hearing. He could hear Silvia approaching him, and it left no chance that she might not have seen him. When the footsteps stopped right in front of his table, the teenager still refused to meet her gaze.

"Why do they always whistle at you?" The boy hissed sourly. "You're so old it's like flirting with a grandma."

Silvia smirked in amusement. "Hormones, kid. Teenagers would whistle at a guinea pig if it had big enough tits."

Superboy grimaced, then made a face similar to a son finding out that his parents had sex to conceive him. "Gross..."

The woman's expression fell and she slid into the seat opposite of him. "Sorry, I know that I should watch my mouth around you."

"Is that really what you're worried about? You don't think I've heard, or even said, worse than that?"

"It's hard to know... I'm not use to witnessing someone grow so quickly."

Superboy shook his head, it was unclear whether this was in disappointment or frustration though. "Since when do you care what you say around me anyway?"

"I always cared." Silvia sighed. "I'm just not very good at words... especially if they don't include swears."

Superboy huffed in irritation. "Is that the reason you came here? To tell me that a toddler has better speaking capabilities than you?"

Silvia folded her legs beneath the table and tapped her fingernails against the surface. "No, I came to apologise."

Apparently, this took the boy off guard. His mouth opened slightly in surprise and his eyes finally darted up to look at her. He never thought he'd hear that from Silvia... but it had piqued his interest enough for him to press forward. "For what?"

"You're right, you're not Clark." Silvia started. "So it was wrong of us to hold you to such an impossible standard."

Her apology was met with nothing but silence. Superboy was staring at her, completely unsure of what to say or how to react. He was beginning to feel like he should say he was sorry as well for being such a brat, but he was stubborn and had no desire to admit he had done anything wrong. "Took you long enough to figure that out."

Silvia leaned back until she was resting completely against her chair. The world could fall into an apocalypse at that very moment and it still wouldn't have been any harder than taking care of that kid. "Yeah, I was never really cut out for parenting. That's just another reason that we shouldn't be comparing you to Clark. He was raised by amazing people, and you've only had me... It shouldn't come as a surprise that you act more like me than him."

Superboy still suppressed any urge to admit wrongdoing. He listened, shocked at her apology, but unable to find a reply.

"As long as you do what you think is right... then I'm proud of you." Silvia said sincerely, yet still hoped that the boy's version of what was 'right' didn't correlate with her own past morals. "Besides, I wasn't exactly a gem when I was younger either... So that's just another reason why I should have taken you to Smallville when I had the chance. Martha would have raised you a lot better than I ever could."

Superboy's eyes fell, and suddenly he was staring at the table again. He only now noticed that there were engravings in the hard wood, most of which were done by a sharp blade. There were initials such as 'D.W' and 'R.G', but there were also gruesome depictions of skulls on fire and stick figures getting stabbed.

Whilst he distracted himself by pondering why someone would take the time to carve something so useless into a table, the atmosphere seemed to grow heavier. Silvia, obviously assuming that the boy had no wish to speak, began to shuffle out of her chair.

This only heightened the guilt welling in Superboy's stomach, and before she could get to her feet, he managed to find enough courage to talk. "You're not doing such a bad job either..."

Now it was Silvia's turn to be surprised. She managed not to make any audible confirmation that she'd been taken off guard, but that didn't stop her arms from stiffening. "Thanks..." She said, somewhat unsure if the boy was pulling some cruel prank on her. "That means a lot."

Sitting there without anything more to say made them both realize that silence has a sound. It's awkward, consuming, and much louder than any other noise. This was their everyday, but at least now they finally understood each other.

"So..." Silvia said, desperate to break that horrid quietness. "They sell ice cream here, ya know? Do you want some?"

Superboy exhaled heavily. "Of course not, I'm not a child anymore."

Silvia, finally, felt the serious expression edge away from her face. She found herself smiling and shrugging at the boy's response. "Oh really? Not even the new bourbon ice cream? Steel told me that you asked him to get it for you."

The boy's face turned several shades darker and he pouted. "I-I was just curious, that's all... They said I wasn't old enough."

"Well, as long as you have a guardian present I'm sure it'll be fine." Silvia grinned. "And besides, you're Kryptonian. Alcohol has no effect on you unless you drink it by the gallon."

"Does that mean you'll let me try it?" Superboy asked, something in his voice akin to gratitude.

"I'd prefer you to try it with me around instead of by yourself." She was aware that it wasn't the actual alcohol that interested Superboy, it was knowing that he was trusted enough to make his own decisions and experience the world for himself. Silvia knew that 1% alcohol wasn't going to do anything for a human child, let alone a Kryptonian. "So, is ice cream still for kids or did you want to try it?"

It didn't take much convincing for Superboy to agree. He was all too eager about it despite how hard he tried to hide it. When Silvia returned with the two bowls of ice cream he had instantly taken a bite but, alas, he didn't taste anything outside of dairy. Superboy wished that he could be disappointed, but he was happy to have tried it and quenched his curiosity.

Silvia, on the other side of the table, dug into her own serving of mint choc chip. She dug the spoon into the soft structure and brought it to her lips. She could already feel the bitter cold radiating from it.

"I was thinking," She spoke up, catching the boy's attention once more. "Ever since we found you we've called you 'Superboy'. Maybe it's time to give you a proper name."

The black haired boy instantly appeared disheartened, muttering disdainfully "Like 'Clark'?"

Silvia blinked at him in confusion, then fell into a small laugh. "Nah, you don't really look like a Clark to me. I was thinking something more like Conner."

The annoyed expression quickly disappeared from his face, and was replaced with an almost unseeable smile. At last he was being acknowledged as an individual. He had spent so long being told that he was someone else that he had almost given up on ever being able to feel this way. It made him realise that he should have sat down civilly with Silvia instead of acting like some spoiled jerk.

It was dawn by the time they left that place and 'Conner' was determined to never go back again. It had never been his scene, he just went to develop something that made him appear unique. This time of the day was when nothing breathes, everything is transfixed, only the light moves. It made it a fairly calm journey back to Reapers hideout. Once they arrived there though, it was anything but peaceful.

The moment they rounded the corner a large 'boom' shook the earth beneath them. In the distance a building fell in an array of smoke and debris. Soon after, two figures darted through the air. As they came closer their identities were revealed. Cyborg Superman blocked Eradicator's punch, and retaliated with his own. The metal knuckle made contact with his jaw and the man was sent crashing to the ground.

"You are nothing but a pretender." Cyborg Superman's voice erupted through the chilling wind. "I am the only Superman there is."

Eradicator growled and pushed back into the air, grabbing the cybernetic arm and twisting it out of place. "You are a soulless husk, nothing more!" He retorted.

Silvia tugged on Conner's hand, rushing towards the secret tunnel. "We need to get out of here."

The boy grinded to a halt and Silvia could no longer move him. "No... I need to stop them."

"What are you talking about? It's too dangerous!"

"You told me that I should do what I think is right." Conner said, puffing his chest out with determination. "And I can't hide knowing that innocent people might get hurt."

As Silvia looked at the bright eyed boy, her chest swelled with pride. Though she'd never tell him, this was the first time she actually saw Clark in him. It made her believe that maybe she hadn't completely failed in raising him.

"I'll go with you then."

Conner instantly tensed. "No, go inside. You have cameras all over Metropolis, so you're of better use in there."

The woman nodded but with a frown twitching at her lips. "As much as I hate that you chose this exact moment to start being responsible... I've never been prouder."

Conner didn't waver at all when he flew away, sparring Silvia one last smile before heading into the chaos. She couldn't help but think she'd seen this before... and she feared that she might lose another loved one at the end. She cursed him under her breath. Why did both Kryptonians always smile at her in the face of certain doom? As if she was more important than what they were about to face... It was heart wrenching, especially knowing that there was nothing she could do.

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