Mark's POV:
I'm sitting here with my mom in this weird GDA room they gave us, watching her drink tea with shaky hands.
She looks better than yesterday when I first showed up, but still pretty messed up. Can't blame her, really. Finding out your husband is an alien conqueror who killed your son, then having that son show up alive again... that's a lot for anyone.
"You're sure you're feeling alright?" Mom asks me for like the millionth time. "You look... different somehow."
"I'm fine, Mom. Really," I tell her, trying to sound normal. "Just younger than when you last saw me."
That's the understatement of the century. I can't exactly easily explain that I'm literally from another dimension where I got reincarnated after Dad killed me (though I have given her a brief summary).
That I've lived a whole other life she knows nothing about.
My mind keeps bouncing between my two lives like some weird ping-pong ball. In one, I'm Mark Grayson, suburban kid with superhero dad (well, before he went psycho and murdered me).
Nice house, regular meals, video games, friends like William and Amber, college plans – the whole normal-except-for-superpowers package.
In the other, I'm just Mark, some random orphan kid in Gotham City. No last name, no parents, no powers until recently.
Just one of hundreds of kids crammed into underfunded orphanages where we were lucky if we got three meals a day.
The Gotham orphanage system is a complete joke. On paper, there's tons of money – Wayne Foundation donations, city funding, charity events.
But somehow that cash never made it to actual kids.
Later on, when I was older, I figured out why – the director drove a Lexus while we wore donated clothes with holes in them. Do the math.
"Mark?" Mom's voice snaps me back. "You drifted away there. What were you thinking about?"
I squeeze her hand. "Just... processing everything. It's been a lot to take in."
"I can only imagine," she says, tearing up again. "My boy came back from the dead. If I hadn't seen you fighting your father on the monitors after I woke up, I might think I was hallucinating."
When she mentions Dad, my mind zips back to my other life again. To the first time I met Goku at the Gotham East Side Children's Home.
I was six, this scrawny little nothing, huddled in the corner of the dining hall. These older kids – thirteen, fourteen maybe – had just taken most of my food, like they always did.
I was trying not to cry because crying just made them target you more.
Then this skinny ten-year-old kid with weird spiky hair slides his tray over to me. Just pushes his food right in front of me.
"Here," he said. "You need to eat to grow strong."
I remember staring at him like he was crazy. Nobody gave up food at the orphanage. Nobody.
"But what about you?" I asked him.
And Goku – not that I knew his name yet – just smiled this weird confident smile. "I'll be fine."
I found out later he'd gone hungry that night. But that was Goku all over. Even at ten, he somehow knew how to take care of people. How to protect people.
It wasn't just me. He looked out for Lelouch and Mikasa too. The four of us became like this little team. This little family inside those cold institutional walls.
"He saved us," I say out loud without meaning to.
Mom gives me this confused look. "Who did, honey?"
I hesitate, then figure a partial truth is better than nothing. "Goku. The man who helped me come back. In a way, he raised me... in the time I was gone."
Mom's face does this complicated thing – worried, curious, protective all at once. "Tell me about him. About all of them. They seem so young themselves."
Where do I even start? How do I explain what Goku did for us without making her feel bad about the life I missed with her?
"Goku was always looking out for us," I begin carefully. "In the orphanage, he would make sure we had enough to eat, even if it meant he went hungry.
He would stand up to the older kids, to the staff sometimes, when they were being unfair."
The memories come flooding back now – Goku sitting with me after lights-out, helping me sound out words in this tattered old comic book he'd found somewhere.
Goku volunteering for extra kitchen duty so he could sneak us extra food. Goku stepping between me and this staff member who liked to use his belt on kids who "misbehaved."
"The system was broken," I continue, trying to keep my voice steady. "Too many kids, not enough resources. The director was skimming funds, we found out later.
Food that was supposed to go to us was being sold on the side. Winter clothes and blankets that were donated somehow never made it to our rooms."
"That's terrible," Mom says, looking genuinely upset. "Those poor children."
I nod. "It was. But Goku made it bearable. Even though he was just a kid himself, he somehow knew how to take care of us." I can't help smiling at one particular memory.
"He used to sneak into the kitchen at night and cook these amazing meals with whatever he could find. Said he learned from watching cooking shows through the staff room window."
I know now that wasn't true. Goku probably knew how to cook from his previous life (things that bled into his mind even though none of us yet remembered anything).
The previous him, whoever he was, not the orphan kid version. But back then, it seemed like magic – this kid making delicious meals out of basically nothing.
"When he turned eighteen, he aged out of the system," I continue. "But instead of leaving us behind, he fought to become our legal guardian.
Worked three jobs, took classes at community college, lived in this tiny apartment that barely fit the four of us. But he never complained, never made us feel like we were a burden."
Mom's eyes go all soft. "He sounds remarkable. Especially considering how young he was when he started looking after you all."
"He is," I say simply. "He raised us. Protected us. Taught us. He was our brother at first, then became our father... everything we needed him to be."
My throat gets tight saying this. It just hits me right now how different my two lives were. With Mom and Dad – before everything went to hell – I had everything a kid could want.
With Goku, Lelouch, and Mikasa, we had almost nothing material, but we had each other.
"And the others?" Mom asks. "Lelouch and Mikasa, right? They seem very protective of you."
That makes me smile. "We've been together since we were little. Lelouch is brilliant – always reading, always planning.
He used to organize these elaborate schemes to get us extra food or better assignments at the orphanage. And Mikasa..." I shake my head, thinking about her.
"She doesn't say much, but she's the strongest person I know. Not just physically, but here." I tap my chest. "Nothing breaks her."
As I talk about my other family, something weird happens. My two lives start feeling less separate. Like they're both equally real, equally mine.
Dad's betrayal still hurts like hell. Being beaten to death by your own father isn't something you just get over.
But now there's this other set of memories balancing it out – memories of people who would literally cross dimensions to help me.
It's almost like... acceptance. Like after finally fixing things I can just accept my new life without worrying about abandoning my first one. Abandoning my mom and the world I previously failed to save.
"They came with you," Mom points out. "To help you find me. That says a lot about how much they care."
"We're family," I tell her simply. "Not by blood, but by choice. By the things we've been through together."
Mom reaches out and touches my face, like she used to do when I was little. "I'm grateful to them. For taking care of my boy when I couldn't." Her voice breaks a little. "When I thought I'd lost you forever."
I grab her hand. "You never lost me, Mom. Not really. And now I'm back." I pause, then add, "But they're still my family too. Goku, Lelouch, Mikasa – they're part of who I am now."
"Of course they are," Mom says, and I can see she really gets it. "Love isn't a finite resource, Mark. Your heart just makes room for more people to love."
Man, that hits me hard. Mom always knew exactly what to say, even when I was a kid and came home upset about something dumb. She still does.
Someone knocks on the door, and when I look up, Goku's standing there. He looks almost nervous, like he's worried about interrupting us.
"Sorry to interrupt," he says. "Cecil wanted me to let you know that lunch is being served in the common area, if you're hungry."
Mom stands up, smoothing down her clothes like she's trying to pretend everything's normal. "Thank you. I should probably eat something."
She heads for the door, but I stay sitting. I'm suddenly hit (man am I getting hit a lot in this short time span) with this overwhelming feeling, looking at both of them.
My mom – who raised me in my first life, who loved me unconditionally, who thought I was dead.
And Goku – who protected me when we were both just kids, who gave up his own food so I could eat, who crossed freaking dimensions to help me fix things.
Both of them parents to me in different ways, in different worlds. Both of them shaped who I am.
"Mark?" Goku asks, sounding worried. "Are you coming?"
I look up at him, and it's weird. I can see both versions of him overlapping – the skinny orphan kid who became my big brother, and this incredibly powerful being who can apparently tear holes in reality.
But what stands out most isn't the power or the cosmic whatever – it's just Goku. The guy who's always had my back, no matter what.
"Yeah," I say, standing up. I walk over to the door, then stop next to him. Something clicks into place inside me, and without overthinking it, I just say what feels right.
"Thanks, Dad," I tell him.
It's the first time I've called him that since getting my memories back. It feels right though. He earned that title a thousand times over.
Goku's eyes go wide for a second, like he's surprised. Then he puts his hand on my shoulder, and that simple touch says more than a whole speech could.
"Always," he says quietly.
Two of us then follow Mom towards the common area and I begin to feel finally at peace.
That everything will be alright from now on, because I know it will.
Goku always makes it so.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter!
Do tell me how you found it.
I hope it made logical sense. Since yeah, Bruce does a lot for Gotham, and fights the corruption a lot, but even in Arkham where most of his focus is on there is insane corruption, let alone orphanages.
BTW, next chapter we will step into Goku's nature as a crazy chick magnet. Keep in mind this world is not the canon one, it is an AU, as established in the first chapter, since Mark wasn't killed in canon.
So... For those who read my Sukuna fic, there was an idea I scrapped to have Sukuna end up with Eve, here that idea is gonna be back, though this not mean Goku will end up with her.
As I said, crazy chick magnet.
So yeah, that's all I had to say and again, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you all later.
Bye!)