"In every broken mind sleeps a child waiting to be woken by kindness."
---
LexCorp Command Suite
The lights were dim in the command room. Screens flickered with chaos — feeds from bodycams showing nothing but static and bursts of distorted sound.
Lex stood unmoving, one hand on his chin, eyes reflecting cold calculation.
"Three minutes." He said quietly. "He ended a sanctioned operation in three minutes."
Amanda Waller's face appeared on a nearby monitor. "You knew this was a bad call, Luthor. I warned you."
Lex turned, his expression unreadable. "And yet… he didn't retaliate. He didn't destroy the carrier. He let them go."
Waller scowled. "Which should scare you more than if he had."
Lex smiled faintly. "Oh, it does."
Behind him, monitors switched to two faces: Harley Quinn and Floyd Lawton, alias Deadshot both walking out of Belle Reve's main gate, unchained, escorted by no one.
"How...." Waller stared.
"He didn't break them out." Lex said. "He simply… existed."
Belle Reve, Hours Earlier
Guards had frozen mid-patrol. Doors that never opened for mercy stood unlocked.
Deadshot blinked, looking around. "You seein' this, Quinn?"
Harley tilted her head. "Seein' it? I feel it. Like… somethin' big's watchin' but not mean."
She glanced upward and there he was, standing outside the compound gates.
No guards. No alarms. Just him.
King.
He looked at them the way one looks at tired souls who'd carried too much. "You are free."
Deadshot frowned. "What's the catch?"
"No catch." King said, stepping aside. "The chains you wore were never mine to unlock. I simply reminded them they didn't belong."
Harley blinked, a tear welling. "You serious? That easy?"
"Freedom," He said, "is rarely easy. But truth can be."
And with that, the locks and the bombs on their napes disengaged — systems deactivated by no signal, no hack, no key.
They simply stopped obeying lies.
Harley took a hesitant step out. "You… you ain't human."
King smiled faintly. "No, Harley. Just very, very tired."
The Amusement Park (Abandoned Zone)
Later that night, the city's outskirts glowed faintly with rusted light bulbs and flickering rides.
The old Gotham Funland — empty, forgotten, haunted by laughter that never came back.
King walked slowly through the gate, a soft hum echoing behind him — a psychic tremor warping reality itself.
He stopped before the carousel.
A girl sat at its center. Pale, thin, eyes wide but lost. Her mind trembled like static on an empty channel.
Ace.
Her voice was small. "You shouldn't be here."
"I'm exactly where I should be." King said gently. "You're the one who's lost." Meeting her eyes without going insane.
She tilted her head, confused. "They told me I was dangerous."
"You are," King said. "But so is a sunrise. So is a storm and yet both bring life."
Her hands trembled. "They made me… hurt people. I didn't want to."
"I know." he said softly, stepping closer. "You were a weapon built out of pain."
Her eyes filled with tears. "They cheated me out of my childhood and got their weapon."
King knelt before her, his tone as steady as the world itself. "Then let's find out what happens when you live instead."
The air quivered. Psychic waves rippled outward, bending the ferris wheel, shattering nearby glass.
King didn't move. The waves hit him, passed through him, like a breeze through stone.
Ace gasped. "You're not afraid of me."
"I don't fear children," King said, "only those who forget they once were."
Her lips quivered. "I don't… know who I am."
He reached out his hand. "Then let's start there."
Dawn Over Gotham
Hours later, the first rays of sunlight hit the rusted rides.
The ferris wheel turned slowly, the sound of laughter — soft and genuine — echoing faintly between the broken stalls.
Ace was smiling.
She pointed at a cracked mirror. "I look… happy."
King nodded. "That's because you are."
From a distance, Superman and Batman watched from a rooftop via drone feed.
Bruce's tone was quiet. "She hasn't had a psychic episode in hours. Her readings are stabilizing."
Clark exhaled. "He didn't fight her. He didn't restrain her. He just… made her believe she could stop."
Bruce said nothing. His eyes were fixed on King's reflection in the broken carousel glass.
Clark's voice lowered. "You feel it too, don't you?"
Bruce glanced at him. "What?"
"That… presence. Like he's not just a man. Like he's something the world needed… but wasn't ready for."
Bruce's reply was grim. "No, Clark. He's something the world earned."
LexCorp, Later That Day
Lex stood before a holographic projection of King's latest movements — the volcano, Belle Reve, Funland.
His reflection in the glass looked almost pale.
"Waller," He said, "pull back your men."
"What?" She snapped.
He looked up, eyes cold, voice even colder.
"Because I finally understand what he is."
"And what's that?"
Lex leaned closer to the glass. "He's not a god. He's not a hero."
He smiled faintly, but there was no arrogance in it — only fear.
"He's a constant."
The Carousel, Twilight
Ace lay curled up on a bench, finally asleep.
King sat beside her, watching the city lights flicker in the distance.
Harley's voice broke the silence as she approached, still wearing her red and black jacket.
"So this is what you do now? Save the lost kids and fix the broken toys?"
King smiled faintly. "It's quieter than saving the world."
She sat next to him. "You really think you can fix all this?"
He looked up at the sky, where the first stars began to appear.
"No." He said softly. "But I can stop it from breaking further."
She leaned back, watching him from the corner of her eye. "You're somethin' else, King."
He chuckled quietly. "No. Just… someone who never stopped trying to be human despite surpassing the limits that made me human."
The Watchtower
Batman and Superman stood before the window again.
Below, Gotham gleamed faintly in the night, calmer than it had been in decades.
Clark spoke first. "He freed two criminals. He healed a psychic. He broke nothing but despair."
Bruce closed his eyes for a moment. "And that's what scares me most."
"Why?"
"Because he's showing the world that gods, monsters and men… were never supposed to be that different."
The silence stretched.
Below, King walked through the city streets, every step echoing with quiet certainty.
He wasn't conquering Gotham.
He was teaching it how to breathe again.
Read 24 chapters ahead on P.A.T.R.E.O.N
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