After some questioning and investigation, an officer walked over, saluted Barry, and said, "Sorry, sir, I have some bad news."
"What?" Barry asked.
"These two cunning Martian people might have desecrated your parents' grave. When we went to investigate, we found that the coffin was opened, and the grave was empty."
"What?!!!" Barry almost jumped up, saying, "How could this happen?!!"
"We suspect they wanted to create an excuse for their infiltration, pretending to be resurrected. They had to stage a revival scene. That's why they dug up the grave and took your parents' original bodies away, pretending they crawled out of the grave to cover it up."
"Oh my God!" Barry said incredulously, "Then where did they take my parents' bodies?!"
"We are still interrogating," the officer said, "These might be the first live Martian people we have captured. The higher-ups mean to hand them over to the Federation and find the most professional experts to conduct research. But from the president's side…"
"We'll handle the explanation," Hal said, "But you better be professional enough. If you don't give us an explanation, the president might be very angry."
"Don't worry," the officer said, "There has been no result from the espionage investigation that has been conducted for so long, and now that we've finally caught a live one, we also want to achieve merits."
After leaving the police station, Barry sighed deeply and said, "I have to go to the cemetery first, to at least restore my parents' grave."
"I'll go with you. A Green Lantern's energy might come in handy." Hal nodded in agreement.
The two went to the cemetery where Barry's parents were buried and found the grave had indeed been excavated. Hal circled the area a few times, then said, "It does look pretty real, as if someone climbed out of the grave. It's just so unbelievable."
He was actually implying that they both knew there was no such thing as Martian people. So, these two might have really climbed out of the grave, just that Barry didn't think they were the original people, so he could only treat them as monsters for the time being.
"Do you think I'm a monster?" Hal asked.
"Do you want to hear the truth?"
"Of course, I'm ready for it."
Barry, in a rare moment of solemnity, said, "'Revival' is Pandora's box. The human race absolutely does not have the capacity to open it right now. Anyone attempting to do so, or who has already done so, is bound to face retribution."
"Then you're right," Hal sighed, "I'm now facing retribution, in a state between life and death, feeling horribly uncomfortable. However, at the time, it was a stopgap measure, and if I didn't come back to life, who knows what would've happened in the battle afterward. But this was ultimately a mistake, maybe I should end it?"
"But the problem now is, you can't end it. Do you think that just because you die, the problem will be resolved?" Barry shook his head and said, "It absolutely won't be that simple. Until you figure out how you were resurrected and why it didn't fully succeed, you can't die. Otherwise…"
"But you just said that revival is an area humans cannot touch. Why study it now?"
Barry closed his eyes for a moment, then said, "I don't know if I've ever told you, the Power of Time can transcend time itself. The Power of Time represents the force of cause and effect. The sequential relationships of events on each timeline are an embodiment of predetermined cosmos rules.
"If someone who wasn't supposed to be alive is alive, the entire future trajectory will change. Even if they die afterward, the trajectory won't revert to its original state but will turn into a different future, meaning it's impossible to correct the mistake.
"So even if I know those aren't my parents, I know they shouldn't be alive, I still can't kill them because that won't make the future revert to what it was. You can't compare which future is better by killing them post-resurrection or letting them live after revival. Perhaps dying turns out worse, so you still can't die."
Hal was a bit bewildered by him, but he roughly understood Barry's meaning. In any case, if he had died at the hands of Savage Wolf that day, that might have been the worst outcome. Now that he survived, it's a slightly better one.
And if he tries to rectify mistakes by committing suicide again, then perhaps there will be things in the future that he needs to do but cannot, leading to another bad outcome. But if he keeps living, it might still be a slightly better outcome.
In conclusion, from the moment he was resurrected, the future already changed. So perhaps his living out the ending will be better than if he had died, meaning it's better not to die.
Barry wasn't being two-faced. Although he was very scared and angry, he indeed didn't do much to those two people. At first, he just wanted to drive them away, but it was they who cried foul and called the police, leading to the current situation, which can only be said to be self-inflicted.
After returning to the base, Hal comforted Barry for quite a while. And at this time, Arthur returned, and Hal asked, "How's the situation with Atlantis?"
"It's okay. We lost some manpower in the last battle, but we managed to get our hands on some Type Demon corpses. Scientists are racing against time to study them, hoping to come up with something useful."
Arthur sat on the sofa. Seeing Barry, he asked somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong? You look a bit upset."
Hal was just worried no one would joke with him, so he immediately recounted what had just happened to Arthur. Arthur was shocked and said, "Resurrected out of thin air? That's really strange. Do they have your parents' memories?"
"It seems like they do," Hal said somewhat dejectedly, "even down to my parents' habitual little gestures."
"No," Arthur said, "those things are easy to mimic, and even that clueless feeling can be acted out. But there's a method to unmask them completely."
"What?"
"Mental investigation," Arthur said, "Ron is a master of mind reading, able not only to read surface thoughts and deep memories, but even those things deliberately sealed away can't escape his scrutiny. If you want to know the origins of these two people, go to him for an investigation—it surely won't go wrong."
Hal and Barry exchanged a glance, both feeling this plan was feasible. Those disguised parents couldn't possibly be completely unaware; even if their conscious minds didn't know, perhaps their subconscious was suggested, and all of this could be discovered.
Arthur immediately took out his phone to call Ron, but found there was no signal. He said, "Ron should be on Mars; let's go find him."
The three of them headed to the Mars spaceship together, but Ron wasn't on the spaceship either. Arthur had to call Bruce. Upon learning Ron had gone to the east side of the city, Arthur frowned slightly.
They all heard that Ron's house was on the east side of the city. Mentioning it always made Ron avoid talking about it, and they rarely brought it up for fear of triggering Ron's sad memories. Why would Ron voluntarily go there?
Feeling something was amiss, the three heightened their vigilance and hurried towards the east side of Mars City. They searched for half a day. Barry used his Divine Speed to scout the entire east side and finally found Ron's house.
As they pushed the door open, they saw Ron sitting alone on the sofa. Arthur cautiously called out, "Ron?"
Ron seemed to have just awakened, turning his head to look at them. But Arthur saw a hint of panic on his face, as if caught doing something wrong.
"What's wrong, Ron?" Arthur didn't enter, just stood at the door and said, "Have you encountered any difficulties? If there's anything, you can tell us, and we can figure it out together."
This pause seemed to bring Ron great comfort. Ron took a deep breath, wiped his face, and then said, "It's nothing, I'm just..."
Hal seemed to sense something, glanced upstairs, but said nothing. Naturally, Ron noticed this action. He sat there, conflicted for a while, then said, "Actually, I might really be in some trouble. Here's what's going on..."
Ron explained to them why he would appear in the east side of Mars City, a place he had always avoided.
It was this morning when he suddenly felt a faint psychic wave connect to his spiritual link. This is a connection unique to the Mars people, generally maintained with family for seamless communication. Connecting with strangers requires their consent.
But this faint psychic wave connected directly, and the frequency was very familiar to Ron; it was his daughter's brainwave, and its source was precisely the east side of the city.
Ron couldn't suppress his curiosity, even knowing it might be a trap, he still went. Then, he saw his wife and daughter.
"I still feel like I'm dreaming," Ron said, "I can't believe it's all real. I really saw them again, and embraced them again."
"And they..."
Ron fell silent. Then, he showed a bit of a sorrowful expression: "I suppressed their spiritual power, which can make them fall into a coma. They are upstairs now."
Arthur was a bit shocked and said, "Why did you..."
"Anyone can see something's not right," Ron said, "I witnessed their deaths with my own eyes, and there was absolutely no chance of survival. Their bodies were burned to ashes in the fire. What's returned now must be phantoms created by someone unknown."
He paused before continuing: "If it were before, when I was living alone on Earth, perhaps I would choose to stay here and enjoy a dream. I would never have unmasked them voluntarily before waking. But not now.
"From the moment I decided to join the Justice League, I had new responsibilities to shoulder. Just as I once swore to become a Hunter on Mars. I can't allow myself to indulge in any unhealthy emotions because this might bring harm to the entire world. So I can only...I can only first control them..."
Evidently, this situation caused Ron great pain, but everyone present couldn't help but feel admiration. Not just anyone can remember their responsibilities when facing such situations. Especially since Ron's experience was the most painful among them: watching his beloved family burn to death, listening to their screams through the spiritual link, helplessly, and eventually losing his home planet, drifting to another.
In such circumstances, facing returning family, maintaining half of one's sanity is already remarkable, let alone Ron's remarkably fast clarity and decisiveness.
Ron was a Martian Manhunter, essentially a police officer on Mars, and a heroic one at that, renowned throughout Mars. Such a law enforcer is inherently self-sacrificing, placing the greater good above the individual one. Years of occupational habits and professional spirit constantly remind him of his duties, even now.
One can only say that whoever is manipulating all this behind the scenes, setting up this situation and encountering Ron, they really hit a brick wall.