A/N: This chapter took longer than expected because writing an apathetic character makes me apathetic as a result.. and that was just a bad cycle. Anyway, my apologies for taking so long. Hopefully the next chapter won't take a month!

Inferus
III. Acedia

Conner was in the forest when he watched Wally hunt down, slaughter, and gorge upon Artemis's sister and her unborn child. He witnessed the entire chase with his hawk-like vision, heard the shredding of flesh and snaps of bone, smelled the blood mixing with dirt, and thought about Superman. The man of steel was always fond of saying, "Son, always remember evil exists when good men fail to act."

And so Superman acted, and told the men, women, and children of the world how to best behave, and brought to justice those who didn't. Yet despite all this, evil still existed. No matter how much Superman fought, no matter how hard he tried to be a symbol of good and hope, the world remained a filthy place. Conner watched as the drug addicts, sex traffickers, murderers, kidnappers, and all the twisted corpses of darkness slithered forward in circling, endless smoky waves. For every good act the tireless Kryptonian accomplished, ten tendrils of evil would leak through the streets, poisoning, choking, ravaging, torturing, killing... At first Superboy was angry. He fought fire with fire, hoping that with enough forests burned, the fuel for those infernos would run out. But the ashes he created continued to smolder, and the flames refused to perish. He gradually stopped believing in Clark's favorite quote, and created his own: Evil doesn't exist because good men fail to act; evil exists because it just does.

Then Superman died, and with his mentor's death, Conner took his last breath as a good man. He finally removed himself from the burning lands, and watched from afar, devoid of any sense of purpose.

And so the once-Superboy did nothing that night in the woods, and stood idly by as Jade was murdered by his former teammate and friend.

He walked back to his apartment afterwards and took a nap, because what else was there to do in the evening?

He dreamed he was in a desert—an expansive polyester blanket of shapeless beige. Surrounding him was a raging storm of grey, with snarling teeth of lightning and barks of thunder. However, the storm couldn't touch him; couldn't ooze any of its rain onto his oasis of dryness. At his feet was a cube—it was once made of noble and unbreakable wood polished to a fine luster. Some deep memory from the more primal parts of his mind remembered seeing this cube float in the air, hovering with a deep hum that reverberated through sand dunes and storms alike. But now it lay motionless and silent at his feet, dull and crumbling from the inside out.

Scattered all around the dying cube were shattered pieces from something that once was whole: a twisted metal nail here, a splinter of painted wood there, and everywhere planks of steel that once ascended towards the moon. It was all broken now.

A figure moved next to him, and he slowly turned. It was simultaneously a green horse, and simultaneously a flicker of static. It nuzzled his shoulder apologetically, and then flickered away.

Conner sighed and gazed at the horizon, knowing he should walk through the storm, but just not caring. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning tore through the sky and struck him, and he could feel the fire shatter his bones and solidify his blood. He smelled ozone mixed with burning meat and hair. It was the most pain he's ever felt in his life, but at least he was feeling something. A yell splintered out of his body, more from instinct than anguish, and it raggedly tore him awake.

He thought about the dream during his walk to his usual diner. He chewed over the possible meanings along with his steak dinner. He knew the cube represented him. It looked like what he felt—if that made any sense.

"Conner."

Her voice sounded like silk and steam, and she looked like the sun, with dancing light and feathery flames.

"Artemis." He was neither surprised nor expectant of their meeting, and briefly wondered if she knew what Wally had done earlier that night.

Conner's chosen path to his apartment cut through one of the city's cemeteries. He walked through there often, and would look upon the names of lives taken too early—probably from acts of violence and misfortune a superhero could have prevented. There was a handful he had watched being crushed by drunken drivers, or stabbed by thieves, or kidnapped by beasts in white vans. He would stare at those names and the dates engraved underneath, and wait for any feeling of remorse, but none ever came.

Artemis walked quietly at his side, her warm fingers still in his. They came to the edge of the plot where fresh grass still waited to overturn for new coffins, and Conner thought about Jade's gravestone.

"How's Wolf?" Artemis finally spoke as they exited the gate.

"He died," Conner answered flatly.

Artemis gave a tiny shake of her head. "He was a good teammate. And Sphere?"

"Left."

"After…?"

"Yeah. Told her there was nothing left anymore, so she went home."

Artemis squeezed his hand. "It was for the best."

Conner shrugged. He remained silent for the remainder of the walk even though Artemis continued talking about "the good 'ol days". He had no idea what she was trying to accomplish by taking the sheets off one memory at a time. He knew they were still there; how could you walk through a house and not realize the sofa is here and the shelf is there, even if they are covered. He just had no use for reclining against the cushions or organizing the books.

The sensation of Artemis's lips against his was like drinking room-temperature water. Conner briefly wondered if she had just come from kissing Wally, so now all three of them had feasted upon Jade's flesh. He felt her tongue lap across the inside of his lips, and with a jolt, he was thrown backwards onto the mattress.

It would be a lie to say he was never attracted to her. Even though he had loved M'gann, there was always an under-current pulling his eyes towards Artemis's crimson lips and smooth skin. His mind knew it was just pheromones hoping for the recombination of two compatible genomes, but his heart sometimes daydreamed if it was something more passionate. Whenever he found himself alone with her, he thought about all the "what-if's"—what if she felt the same magnetic hum; what if he wasn't with M'gann and she wasn't with Wally; what if it they kissed, and she pushed him onto a bed and took off her clothes one by one…

And now his phantasm was finally brought to fruition, and he watched silently, hoping that maybe this would be the spark for him to find his emotions again. It wasn't until Artemis brought his member into her mouth did the flood-gates open, and suddenly he felt simultaneously angry at the woman above him for cheating on her boyfriend, as well as an explosion of arousal bursting with scarlet desire. He clawed at the sheets and felt a sensation he thought to be long-dead race through his veins, finally bursting through his mouth as a moan. Artemis kissed him again, and this time his wet lips moved with hers.

The cube from his dreams was shuddering—shaking violently until its own seizures picked it off the ground. An orb of bright light began to form in the middle, and as it grew, pieces of the decaying cube clambered back together. Superboy was finally coming back.

Conner's hips ground upwards and he closed his eyes with a groan. He was running fast towards a cliff's edge, his muscles taunt, ready to jump, and ready to feel the rush of air once again. Closer, closer… he could see the clouds, he could smell the dirt and trees through his gasps of air…

Right before he took the leap, he opened his eyes. Somehow his vision had switched to heat-sensing, and his head jerked towards a sudden hooded figure of red in the corner of his room. His mouth opened to call out to her, but at that instant he felt the cold fire of metal slicing through his chest, scraping past his ribs, and into his racing heart.

His last thought was how he knew he was going to the darkest parts of hell.

Apathy