Endless Legacy Ch. 39 (DC Comics) (Patreon)

A/N: In which we get in touch with a character we haven't spoken to in a while~

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“… Gotham. We’ll go to Gotham City.”

The reactions Lucien gets from the two Tamaranean Princesses are initially the same. Both go wide eyed at the name drop. However, from there they differ. Blackfire’s gaze turns thoughtful and considering, and slowly but surely Lucien can see a glimmer of interest and excitement appear in the alien woman’s eyes.

Starfire on the other hand, blanches after the initial eye widening, wringing her hands in front of her and looking more than a little concerned. On the one hand, her and Lucien’s relationship was pretty clear cut along the lines of submissive and dominant. On the other hand, she cared for him and Blackfire deeply, and so she couldn’t really bring herself to be quiet.

“I… a-are you sure, Lucien? That… does not seem like a good idea. Robin has told me much about Gotham City. It is a place of perpetual darkness.”

Lucien just smiles and nods.

“That’s what makes it the perfect place for us to lie low for a while.”

“But… what about the Batman?”

But Lucien just shakes his head.

“We won’t be going there to fight crime or anything like that, Star. In fact, I don’t think I’ll take the Remedy identity with us. It’ll be better for both Komandr and I if there’s very little connecting us to our pasts. And seeing as we’re planning to just up and vanish, I’m guessing Robin will probably put out an alert about Blackfire at the very least… the last place they’ll be looking for her is Gotham though. She’d have to be crazy to hide out right under Batman’s nose, wouldn’t she?”

Starfire bites her lower lip, even as Blackfire snorts.

“It’s a good plan, I say. Gotham is as good as any if I have to stay on this stupid mudball of a planet.”

Lucien raises an eyebrow at Blackfire’s rather ham-fisted manipulation of her fellow Tamaranean. And yet… it works. Starfire’s breath catches at the thought that they might go off-world, going even further away from her. In an instant, she sets aside her reservations, nodding rapidly.

“Y-Yes! I think Gotham City is the best place for you to go too!”

All too easy, in the end. And honestly, that was part of the reason Lucien felt like it was better for all of them if they had some time apart from the very manipulatable Tamaranean Princess. Seeing how both he and Blackfire were naturally manipulative people, Starfire just couldn’t help bringing out the worst in them. That said, there needed to be one last bit of manipulation.

“You won’t tell anyone where we’re going, right Star? Not a single soul can know.”

Starfire blinks, but then nods in agreement, looking a little downcast but also resolved.

“Yes… you’re right of course. I won’t tell anybody. I… thank you Lucien, for looking after her for me.”

Blackfire scoffs, arms crossed over her chest.

“I’m not a child to be babysat.”

But for once, Starfire isn’t paying her any mind. Instead, she steps up to Lucien and takes his face in her hands, kissing him deeply on the mouth as her eyes shut. Lucien kisses her back of course, recognizing that this is a ‘goodbye’ moment between two lovers for Starfire and giving her exactly what she needs to say that goodbye.

Finally, they have to pull apart for air and after one last look at both him and Blackfire, Starfire takes to the air and flies away, leaving them behind. There’s a brief pause as Blackfire watches her disappear into the distance before turning to him with an incredulous look on her face.

“I can’t believe you managed to convince her that you coming with me was her idea… or that it was even YOU coming with ME instead of me going with you in the first place!”

Lucien chuckles, shrugging his shoulders as they head back inside the apartment.

“I did tell you that I could get it done, didn’t I? And now…”

Blackfire huffs, rolls her eyes… but nevertheless drops to her knees as Lucien moves to the living room and sits down in the armchair there. Crawling across the apartment, the Tamaranean Princess gives him a half-hearted glare as she situates herself between his legs and pulls out his cock.

A moment later and she’s dutifully sucking on his dick, paying the ‘penalty’ she ‘owed’ for losing the little wager they’d made before they contacted Starfire. Basically, Blackfire hadn’t thought Lucien could pull it off. Making Starfire send him away of her own volition to look after her sister seemed too farfetched for the selfish Tamaranean, but as Blackfire had learned, not everyone was as self-centered as she was… especially not her sister.

This was the price she now had to pay for being wrong about that. Not that she seemed to mind that much, bobbing up and down on his cock with increasing enthusiasm. No doubt she thought he would be fucking her soon enough and she was already looking forward to that.

Instead, Lucien pulls out his phone, causing Blackfire to pause and look up at him with narrowed eyes. He gives her an apologetic smile that’s really not very apologetic at all.

“Sorry, but if we’re moving to Gotham, I have to get things in place for us. You don’t mind, right?”

The look in her eyes makes it clear that she definitely does mind… but they both understand their power dynamic. She’s the henchwoman and he’s the boss, and in this case, she lost a bet. So Blackfire keeps sucking, even as Lucien calls someone he really doesn’t want to call… but really, has no choice.

“What is it?”

As the slightly cold tone of Mercy Graves comes over the phone, Lucien winces. They hadn’t ever really patched things up between them since the time she’d figured out he was lying to her. He probably could have reached out and tried to repair their relationship, but he honestly hadn’t wanted to touch anything to do with his father with a ten foot pole, especially after finding out the current Lex was a clone.

Ultimately however, Lucien knew better than to just up and disappear off of the face of the Earth without warning. Maybe he could have gotten away with it if his father, clone or otherwise, still thought he was the same weak and sickly boy he’d been for most of his life, but that ship had already sailed and Lucien wasn’t looking to rewind that far back, no sir.

Basically, to avoid having Lex Luthor hunting him down with all of his considerable resources, Lucien had to get ‘approval’ to move to Gotham. But obviously, no part of him wanted to actually talk to his father about that sort of thing. Given Mercy hadn’t turned him over to Lex yet, he could safely assume that the version of his father running around was still a clone even all these months later. And that meant he and Mercy still had their tentative truce.

Speaking clearly with a no-nonsense tone and giving absolutely no sign whatsoever that he’s currently being blown by a gorgeous alien princess, Lucien makes his pitch.

“Mercy, I want to move to Gotham. And I need your help to… smooth things over and make the move as easy as possible.”

There’s a long pause from the other end of the line as Mercy processes that request. Finally though, she speaks.

“Gotham. You want to go to Gotham. Why?”

Lucien considers how much of the truth to tell her. In the end, he decides to obfuscate things a bit, while giving out some half-truths.

“Jump City has started to grate on me. Specifically, I’ve had a few run ins with the Titans and I don’t want them to start digging into my past.”

“Oh? And why are you having run ins with the Titans of all people, Lucien?”

Her disapproving tone brings a smile to Lucien’s face. He glances down at Blackfire, who continues to suck his cock. In the end… given the surveillance he’s under, there’s no doubt in Lucien’s mind that Mercy already knows about Blackfire. She shouldn’t know about the other things, he’d gone out of his way to hide his actions as Remedy from the bugs in his apartment, as well as using a device to cover up some of the conversations he’d had here like the one with Raven.

But Blackfire had shown up when he wasn’t expecting it, like a stray cat who’d followed him home. The fact that no one ever came to check on him after that meant Mercy had taken a personal hand in his surveillance coverage, obfuscating some of what was happening with him from his father’s clone. Basically, she was his nominal ally despite the bad blood between them, and right now she was giving him another chance to come clean and not lie to her quite so much this time.

Obviously, it was a chance Lucien was happy to take given what he already knew that she knew. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

“I met someone. You might be familiar with them. They go by Blackfire.”

Blackfire looks up at him with surprise at that, but Lucien just gives her a reassuring smile. Only to be surprised himself by Mercy’s next words.

“You mean the alien princess you currently have kneeling between your legs gobbling up your knob as we speak?”

On an intellectual level, Lucien knew it was likely that there were electronic eyes in his apartment, on top of electronic ears. And also, it was entirely possible Mercy was watching him in that moment. However, he hadn’t exactly expected her to admit it as easily as that. Humming, Lucien rests a hand in Blackfire’s hair, not to prompt her to pull away, but to encourage her to continue sucking his cock. After a beat, Mercy huffs on the other end of the phone.

“You really are your father’s son, Lucien. No sense of shame whatsoever.”

Chuckling, Lucien rolls his shoulders.

“Like I said, Mercy… I want to move to Gotham. Me and my… new friend.”

“You realize the leader of the Titans is from Gotham, right? Trained by Batman himself? Who, in case it somehow skipped your genius mind, is the primary guard dog of Gotham as well.”

Lucien hums.

“That’s what makes it the perfect place to go, Mercy. Robin will definitely try to hunt Blackfire and I down after we leave. But Gotham is the last place he’ll expect to find us. With your help and a little obfuscation, he’ll look everywhere else first and by the time he thinks to check Gotham City, we’ll either be too established and entrenched for anyone to do anything about us, or we’ll be long gone.”

There’s another long pause as Mercy mulls over his words. Until finally, she gets down to brass tacks.

“You’re not just asking me to obfuscate your trail from the heroes, Lucien. You’re asking me to do the same for him as well.”

The fact that she says ‘him’ and not ‘your father’ or ‘boss’ or ‘Lex’ tells Lucien all he needs to know. The Lex Luthor everyone is seeing in public is still a clone. His real father still hasn’t shown up or contacted Mercy in any way. And that means she’s still tentatively on Lucien’s side. Not out of any loyalty to him, but because she’s upset with his father.

“… That’s right. Obviously if I just try and run, I’ll be hunted down. But if you work some magic on your end, make it all above board and keep things… smooth, then he probably wouldn’t even pay much attention presumably. I’m assuming all he really cares about is that someone is keeping tabs on me. So as long as I’m still under YOUR watchful gaze, no alarms will sound, right?”

Another pause, before Mercy finally sighs.

“That is… not incorrect, yes. He’s currently working on his latest plan to kill Superman and has left dealing with you completely in my capable hands, along with many other projects. I suppose, given that… I could move you and your ‘friend’ to Gotham. But what would you even do there, Lucien? You realize if your new friend makes a mess of things, Batman is likely to find you out far faster than Robin, and from there, I can’t tell you what will happen.”

Lucien hums, glancing down at Blackfire, who is still sucking his cock of course. Not that she’s putting much effort into it at this point. She’s more suckling than sucking at this point, just quietly nursing at his pulsing member as she waits for him to finish his call. She’s never going to make him cum like that, but to be fair, she clearly wants his undivided attention before she puts her back into it any further.

“You don’t have to worry about Blackfire, Mercy. She won’t raise a fuss without my permission. As for what we would do there… well, I suppose you’re right that just ‘lying low’ isn’t an acceptable answer. We’d be at our wit’s end in no time. Maybe… we could start a business.”

Even Blackfire, who can only hear half of this conversation, looks a little incredulous at that. Mercy, meanwhile, scoffs on the other end of the phone.

“A business. What kind of business, exactly?”

Lucien hums, considering that for a long moment. A clinic seemed like the most obvious answer, given his powers. He could heal people literally from anything except death… if it’d been too long. Opening a clinic in Gotham might also put him into contact with a lot of folks, including those with powers, maybe.

But at the same time, he was planning on leaving the Remedy identity behind. So maybe a clinic was a little bit too ‘same-y’? They could open a research lab instead. That would also be a great way of getting access to a lot of different DNA for his power to feast upon.

Or hell, they could open a shell company. Just a simple office with no real employees except for maybe a secretary. A business to cover up… more clandestine dealings, maybe? The majority of powered individuals in Gotham were villains, after all. A business that let him make in roads with them might be best.

Lucien has taken a moment to increase the speed of his perception, so he has plenty of time in his own head to consider Mercy’s query as only a second or two passes in the real world. Still, what’s the best option? Now that he’s going to Gotham, he needs to decide what the hell he’s going to do there to further his goals…