New Frontier Ficlet

[icarus_chained]

I've been meaning to write this for ages. Kinda crap, but it filled a hole in my head.

Title:  Hope
Rating:  PG
Characters/Pairings:  J'onn, Faraday
Continuity:  New Frontier, after the end of the book
Summary:  I promise you, my friend.
Wordcount:  366
Spoilers:  Like I said, set after the end, with all that means for Faraday (*sobs*)

It looks such a simple thing. Is, really. Just two words, etched in white. All that remains of my friend, the only reminder. Two words on a grave, to encompass all that you were, all that you meant, all that you did. It doesn't seem enough.

The wind's blowing. Catches the cape. Such a new thing, that. A new thing, for a new time, when I don't have to hide behind a human face. No. A time when I choose not to hide. Real men wear pants. But supermen wear capes. In this new world. So people can see us. So they can look at what's different, and know it's there to protect them. Look at me, who used to hide, as I stand proud before them.

I like to think you'd be proud of that, my friend. I remember, the first time we spoke, when I saw into your mind. When I saw the hope you held so close, so dear, even as you locked me down and away. The hope that one day things like that wouldn't be necessary. The hope that one day ... one day there would be no need for people like you, people who did what you did. That hope ... You turned everything inside me, my friend, with that hope. Changed everything I'd ever thought of humanity, and my place beside it. You made me believe again. Made me see. More even than saving my life, than giving your own for me, you gave me that. That gift. That hope.

I promise you, my friend. Here and now, in the new dawn, on the new frontier, standing on the bones of everything you fought for, everything you meant. Standing over your bones. I promise. It won't end here. It won't end with you. What we fought for, what we stood for, what we started ... I'll carry on. Always. I'll make something more than words on stone for people to remember you by

I promise you, King Faraday. My friend.

We will have hope.

You give me hope, J'onn. That one day they won't need men like me. They won't need us. Because they'll have men like you. Men worth dying for

Thank you, for that.

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