My heart still pounded even after the battle.
Not out of fear. Not out of adrenaline.
Out of awareness.
Something had shifted. The instant I battled Superman, the instant I held back my power rather than unleashing it, I sensed it something immense, something limitless stirring within me.
And now, it would not be silenced.
---
Back at the Hall of Justice, the League watched me in silence. They had their answer I wasn't a savage brute, or an instant danger. But they still didn't understand me.
Neither did I.
Superman had referred to it as control, but I knew better. That wasn't control. That was restraining myself.
Real control meant knowing what I was.
I needed time.
I spoke to them. "I have to have time to think."
Wonder Woman watched me. "What's the emotion?"
I paused. How could I say it?
"My mind. it's expanding. " I let out my breath. "As if I am standing over something boundless, and for the first time I can see it."
Martian Manhunter approached, red eyes squinting. "Explain."
I drew a breath and started to speak and then quit.".
Because I could see it.
Not with my eyes. With something beyond them.
The Hall of Justice faded from around me, giving way to a vast cosmos. The universe lay before me not as some endless emptiness, but as a living, breathing thing.
Stars beat in rhythmic rhythms. Planets orbited in perfect harmony. Galaxies whole spun like clockwork cogs on a machine beyond human understanding.
And time
Time wasn't linear. It wasn't a river that flowed in one direction.
It was an ocean, spreading in every direction at once. Past, present, future all stacked on top of one another, ready to be understood.
I stretched out
A pull. A surge of knowledge.
Visions crashed into me
The formation of stars. The implosion of galaxies. Timelines diverging, splitting, shattering. A conflict among gods, a long time past, trembling the very fabric of reality.
And then
A presence.
Something observing.
No multiple things.
I tear myself back. My vision jumps into focus, the Hall of Justice returning in a flash.
I stumbled. I breathed in shallow gasps.
Superman was in front of me, holding me steady. "What did you do?"
I gazed at him.
How was I supposed to tell him what I had just seen?
"…I see," I said, my voice echoing from far away. "I'm not human. Not Kryptonian. Not… anything that should exist in this world."
The Flash blinked. "Uh. That's kinda dramatic."
I ignored him.
Martian Manhunter's voice was low, but knowledgeable. "Your mind has expanded beyond mortal understanding."
I nodded slowly. "I can see things now. Not just the present. Not just the future." I breathed out. "I can feel the framework of the cosmos itself."
Superman's face grew stern. "That sort of knowledge. it changes people."
I looked into his eyes. "I won't let it alter who I am."
Wonder Woman advanced, her gaze keen. "Then demonstrate. Employ this knowledge well."
I balled my fists. The visions, the knowledge, the presence that loomed over me from beyond the bounds of reality all of it would not deter me.
This was only the start.
I would get to the bottom of it.
No matter the cost.
---
**End of Chapter 7**