Disclaimer: Legion of Superheroes belongs to DC comics and Warner Brother Kids.

Warnings: Slight spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen the end of the series.

Author's Notes: Hurrah for staying up until all hours of the night...

... er, morning...

I always seem to be able to write better at three am, which is probably why I barely do it. Cause staying up this late increases the migraines which have been particularly bad lately, but I was watching LoSH for a while and Brainy makes me poetic.

It's such fun delving inside his mind.

Anywho, sucky ending, I know, whatever, I have a stomach ache and had to go to the dentist's today and can still taste the gloves. DDD:

Not beta'd.

Pale green fingers, long and slim and graceful, nails bitten to the quick and a small bandage around the left ring finger gently flick through the old dictionary pages, the words so clumped together that they were starting to blur in front of green eyes. He has started reading from the back, this book, this antique, a thing written many years ago, back when Superman was Superman, and not The Man From The Past. From Z to E Brainiac 5 – although he’s not sure if he’s allowed to be called that, because he’s human – has read each word, each letter and is slightly terrified.

Because he’s already forgotten several of the words he’s read, something that has never happened before. Once upon a time he had been able to drag even the strangest fact from his mind, and now... now it’s just a huge white space, unsorted and confusing, and oh so scary. It’s like he’s forgotten who he is, what he is, for is he android or human, sane or mad?

He thinks that maybe he’s mad, because then that would give him an excuse for the strange thoughts that swirl about his mind, twisting and turning and slippery, so hard to catch a hold of. He wonders what they are, what they mean, but when he catches an elusive glance the words are in gibberish, a mass of misunderstandings and oddities.

Dam ro enas? Diordna ro namuh?

Pale green fingers, long and slim and graceful, nails bitten to the quick and a small bandage around the left ring finger trace down the page, E for Eggs, E for Easy, E for Emotion.

Emotion: Any of the particular feelings that characterize such a state of mind, such as joy, anger, hate, horror, love, etc.

Love. The word makes his mind spin and his heart pound, and he grips the page so hard it tears. Oh well – he could always go back to Superman’s time and purchase a new one.

Superman. Another word, another thought. Stuck in his head, making him crazy, crazy, crazy, for both the man and an understanding. Because Superman is what makes him Brainiac 5, because Superman keeps him sane.

His flicks to the S section, and looks up the word.

Superman: The ideal superior man of the future.

The future – the now. If Superman is supposed to be of the future, should he not stay here? Stay with Brainy, stay and help him understand?

Human or android? Sane or mad?

Good or evil?

Deserving of love?

Love, love, love. L, page three hundred and fifty two.

Love: A deep romantic feel or sexual attachment to someone.

Sexual attachment – romantic feel?

Is that what makes his heart pound when Superman comes near him, touches him, holds him when the wretched emotions become too much?

What are the symptoms of love? What are the effects? The dictionary tells him nothing, and another page is ripped, another page is ruined, another page is destroyed, lieslieslieswhywon’tittellmethetrurth?!

He storms from his room, and into the large cafeteria area, where the ovens and stoves are, where the knives and forks and matches are.

Good or evil?

Deserving of love?

The dictionary burns easily, the paging turning black and curling, the smoke causing water to burst from the ceiling and shouts to echo down the hall outside. But the book keeps burning, smouldering, it’s lies disappearing, and Brainy starts to cry, and falls to his knees.

This is how Superman finds him, huddled and sobbing, the dictionary naught but a pile of sopping ashes. This is how Superman sighs, feeling his friend’s pain, not knowing that he is both the source, and the salvation.

And this is how Superman, everyone’s Hero, gathers the small green android-turn-human in his arms and coos, and this is how Brainy decides that insanity is both good and evil, and thinks that maybe he’s deserving of love.

“Human or android? Sane or mad?” He asks, peering up through wet bangs.

Eyes as blue as the sky glimmer, and a whisper of, “Human, and maybe both sane and mad, but definitely good.”

Do you love me?

A question forever unanswered – the source of his sanity, the solution to his pain.

“You’re still Brainy though, and I’ll always be by your side.”

Love obviously lies... so am I human or android? Sane or mad?