Black Mercy was seriously messed up.
The illusions Black Mercy created drew on the deepest recesses of a person's subconscious, trapping them in a nightmare they could never escape.
So after taking some time to recover, Shane actually recalled more of what he remembered about the DC universe from his previous life.
There was really nothing shameful about being taken down instantly by Black Mercy.
If those long-buried memories it had dredged up were accurate, even the black-suited Superman still hiding somewhere on Earth, whose power remained far beyond Shane's reach...
Had been brought down by this thing too.
Apparently, after it latched onto him, he had taken Lois back to a Krypton that should no longer have existed and settled into a happy married life inside the illusion.
Even after realizing it was an illusion, he had refused to leave of his own accord.
Then there was Batman, who had dreamed of a life where his parents had never died, becoming an ordinary, happy rich kid in Gotham.
Even after Batman recognized the illusion, it had taken him considerable effort to convince himself to leave, despite possessing some of the strongest willpower in the world.
Shane had it even worse.
Whether Black Mercy couldn't erase his memories or simply chose not to, it hadn't erased a thing. Instead, it kept digging deeper, unearthing all the memories Shane had deliberately forgotten out of overwhelming terror on Viltrum.
His twenty years in the illusion hadn't been a second trip through his youth.
They had picked up directly from the moment before he was reborn on Viltrum.
Shane shot up from his desk.
He scanned the unfamiliar yet faintly familiar faces around him in confusion, then quickly left his seat, rushed through the automatic doors, and ran down the corridor.
**"Rachel!