The House of the Earth Part 4 (5/8): The Last Night in This World
Title: Chapter Five: The Last Night in This World
Pairing/Characters: Kal/Bruce, Oliver Queen, Carter Hall, Lex Luthor, Kara Zor-El, J'onn J'onnz, Guy Gardner, Dinah Lance, Wonder Woman
Notes: " The House of the Earth" is an AU in which a few thousand Kryptonians escaped the destruction of Krypton to flee to Earth and conquer its people.
Warnings: None needed
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4500
Summary: Final conferences of war, final conversations, and a final night before the battle.
Carter Hall's fist banged angrily on the table; some of the people around it jumped nervously. Kal-El was not one of them. "Impossible! The timetable cannot be moved up."
"The weather wands will be complete in a week, maybe ten days. We can move as soon as they're done. There's no need to wait a month." Kal-El felt his hands curl into fists against the wood of the conference table as he faced Hall, glowering on the other side. Hall didn't seem to enjoy having his plans questioned. Kal felt the other leaders of the resistance watching him, felt Bruce's quiet presence across the room. He took a deep breath. "The sooner we strike, the less likely it is information will leak and the Kryptonians figure out what's going on. We don't even need a deliberate turncoat; all it would take is one slip, one incautious overheard word. We should move as soon as possible."
Dinah was pacing the room restlessly; she stopped to cast Kal a challenging glance. "And I suppose this has nothing to do with your desire to save Selina and salve your guilty conscience?" Ollie caught her hand as she stalked by him and she glared at him but didn't shake off his touch.
Kal looked around the room, meeting dozens of pairs of human eyes: doubtful and hopeful, bitter and kind. "I would like to save Selina, yes. She sacrificed herself to help us. I would rather not abandon her. But moving quickly also has tactical advantages--"
Hall made a scornful sound. "May I remind you Selina was working for Luthor, not us?"
Bruce leaned forward slightly: a tiny motion, and yet every eye in the room turned to him. "Luthor is technically on the same side as us," he said smoothly. "And she did put his goals aside for the sake of the greater good."
"So you support this mad plan to risk everything by moving up the schedule?"
"I didn't say that." Bruce moved to the conference table, casting his eyes over the world map etched across it, the tiny markers scattered across the continents. "Our forces are spread thin. Delaying a couple of weeks would give us a chance to muster more support. There might be cells that haven't checked in, especially in Asia where communications are sparse." He touched the map in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. "I'm still hoping we can get support from Atlantis."
Ollie snorted. "That cold-blooded bastard won't lift a finger to help us, he's made that perfectly clear."
Bruce frowned. "But with a few more weeks...time to test the wands more carefully, to recruit more help...it would be much safer." He shifted position and touched Metropolis. "Metropolis is key. I have Diana's Amazon squad focused there, for maximum chaos. But I'd greatly prefer to deploy the Amazons as flying shock troops, moving up and down the Asian coast." One of his hands curled into a fist and he tapped it gently against his mouth, lost in thought.
Kal pointed to a handful of purple markers placed on the side of the board, off the map. "What about those?"
"Hnh. Those are Luthor's people. We have no agreement with Luthor--I can't count on them. Though I suspect--"
A screen on the wall sprang into crackling life and Ted Kord's face appeared on it, looking harried. "General Hall," he said. "Luthor is calling. Wants to speak to you."
Shocked silence echoed in the room. "An interesting coincidence," Hall said. "Put him on."
Ted faded out and Luthor's face filled the screen, his chin tilted arrogantly, green eyes glinting. He chuckled slightly, apparently at the stony expression on Hall's face. "Come now, Carter," he said, "Don't get paranoid. It doesn't take a network of spies and informants to tell me that when Wayne and your Kryptonian quisling show up there, the war conferences are set to begin."
"And how did you know we'd arrived here?" Bruce raised one eyebrow but looked otherwise totally unruffled.
"Oh, that." Luthor preened just a bit. "Well, I suppose a spy or two in the El household might have informed me when the two of you left rather abruptly. The rest is simply deduction. Brilliant deduction, but not spying."
"What do you want, Luthor?" Hall's voice was curt.
Luthor put a hand to his heart. "To be of service, somehow, in the great revolution. To add my small part to bring about the glorious day of emancipation." His smile sharpened, lost its oiliness. "I will be responsible for the attack on Metropolis. While you deploy the nanobots, my people will provide a distraction there, lure the Kryptonians out into the open sunlight."
"What kind of distraction?" said Bruce.
"Well now," Luthor drawled through a lazy grin. "I don't think I need to tell you. I'll let it be a surprise." The smile fell away as if it had never been there; for a moment Luthor seemed entirely predatory, his face avid and angry. "Metropolis is mine, one way or the other. Consider it a gift that I'm even bothering to alert you of the fact."
The transmission went dead.
In the thoughtful silence that followed, Bruce removed the yellow Amazon markers from Metropolis and moved them to Asia. Then he put Luthor's purple markers on the map. They made tiny clicking noises as he set them down. "Maybe the Kryptonians will do us all a favor and off him," muttered Ollie sotto voce.
"With Luthor covering Metropolis, we can move earlier," Kal stated into the stillness. There were murmurs of support around the room; surprised, he looked around to see that most people in the room were nodding. "We don't have to abandon Selina to her fate." He looked at Hall. "I know it's your decision, but must we found our new world on the blood of our comrades?"
Hall looked around the room, reading faces, and his eyes were flinty when they met Kal's again. "I'll put it to a vote," and Kal could hear the resignation in his voice.
The vote was close but in favor of accelerating the plan. Kal took a deep breath, seeing again Selina's face streaked with blood, and felt some weight lift from his shoulders.
But Carter Hall turned as he left the room and pointed at Kal. "I believe your motives are good, Kryptonian. But there is no battle without sacrifice, and victory is always won at the cost of comrades' blood. Remember that."
: : :
With the schemata done, Kal's major job in the preparation was complete. Since then he had mostly been a glorified errand-boy, carrying messages and material as fast as possible through the endless warren of tunnels beneath the mountains. At times he caught a glimpse of a vis-screen showing Selina's trial: a glimpse of her mocking green eyes, an echo of the prosecutor's implacable voice listing her crimes. He kept moving forward.
He was returning from delivering a heap of circuit boards to Michael Holt when Bruce stopped him in the hall. Kal blinked at him, slightly surprised; he had only caught glimpses of Bruce here and there since they arrived. "Come with me," Bruce said.
Kal signed the forms indicating his delivery was complete. "I've still got to--"
"Someone else can do that. How long has it been since you slept?"
"Uh..." Kal racked his mind. "I know I have since getting here at least once. Maybe twice."
Bruce looked disgusted. "Come with me."
"This is my room," Kal said blankly when Bruce ushered him in.
"I know that. Sit."
Kal sat on the cot. There were two large machines that looked like lamps installed in the tiny room. "What are those?"
"Hush."
"That's an interesting name for them--" Kal was cudgeling his mind for some kind of joke to finish the sentence when Bruce flipped a switch.
Warm, golden light filled the room, washed over Kal's skin. "Ah," he said involuntarily, closing his eyes as the radiance kissed his face.
"You've been in a cave for five days now. No sunlight," Bruce said.
"I was fine," Kal said, although the blissful sensation of soaking in light was giving lie to his words.
"You were looking like hell," Bruce said. "Oh, you could function okay, but you wouldn't be feeling great. So I requisitioned a couple of these for you."
Kal blinked at Bruce. "Thank you."
Bruce shook his head, unsmiling. "We're going to need you in the coming battle, and we're going to need you at full capacity. I'm just being pragmatic--doing maintenance on our secret weapon." He took Kal's chin in his hand and tilted it up into the light. His face was expressionless, but his fingers on Kal's jawline were gentle, almost caressing. "Any additional benefits at seeing you look less haggard and more healthy are...entirely extraneous."
Kal smiled up at him and Bruce's hand tightened slightly, his eyes narrowing for a moment. "Thank you," Kal said again.
Bruce released him and turned to the door. "Stay here for two hours minimum. If you can't get some sleep, at least get some light." He paused, his hand on the doorframe, face turned slightly. "As we no longer share a room, I see you rarely. Make sure you look more rested when I do." He started to swing the door shut.
"You voted against moving up the schedule," Kal said suddenly, a little surprised to hear himself say it.
Bruce's shoulders slumped slightly, and he moved back into the room, his jaw set. "I did," he said. "It risks the whole enterprise to rush it. Selina wouldn't want us to fail at the big picture in order to help her."
"I know," said Kal. "I understand why you voted that way." There was a faint flicker of surprise in Bruce's eyes. "I just...I just couldn't..."
"I know," Bruce said in turn. "You are who you are." He smiled, very faintly. "I was not...entirely unhappy to lose the vote, Kal. Despite what people might say, I do actually have a heart, you know."
Kal stared at him through the dazzle of sunlight he had brought, his gift to Kal, warm as an embrace. "I know you do," he said, his voice much lower and rougher than he had expected. "Oh, without a doubt."
Bruce blinked and took a step forward without seeming to realize he had. He stopped, one hand extended slightly. "Get some rest, Kal," he said very gently. His eyes rested on Kal's face a moment longer, and then he was gone.
Kal fell asleep still bathed in sunlight, warm as an embrace.
: : :
The corridors of Cheyenne Mountain were emptier than they had been--maybe not to the casual eye, but as Kal moved through them he was aware of how many people were missing, moving into position for the final stage of the operation. Ollie, Dinah, Michael, Tora, Bea, Ted, Kimiko, Vic--all of them were in the field now, on teams ready to strike. But as Kal entered the conference room his sense of loneliness and disquiet fell away at the two familiar figures there.
"Kara! Zhon!" He moved forward to embrace them both as the humans in the room continued to speak quietly. Bruce was adjusting one of several screens in the walls; he looked up to meet Kal's eyes and quirk him a fleeting smile, and Kal almost stumbled, winding up in a huge hug from his cousin. "I was beginning to be afraid you wouldn't be here."
"Last-minute distractions," Zhon said as he shook Kal's hand.
"I was busy stalling Selina's trial a bit more," Kara laughed. "It's taken them an extra three days to untangle all the demands and requirements from the House of El about our 'property'." She shook her head, the smile dimming a bit. "It wasn't much, but it was enough. After tomorrow, one way or the other it won't matter."
"One way or the other," Kal echoed, anticipation and anxiety tightening his chest.
"All right," Bruce said, "Let's begin the final briefing." The room fell immediately silent. "As you may already know, every active member is on one of three teams: distraction, deployment, and central command. The distraction teams are to create as much chaos as possible on our signal, to lure as many Kryptonians out into the open and keep them from realizing our true goal. Once the unrest is at its peak, the deployment teams will use the weather wands to disperse nanobots into the stratosphere. Once the nanobots are fully deployed, they'll all be activated simultaneously from central command here. It must be simultaneous, or the Kryptonians from unaffected areas will simply find and destroy the other wands." He turned and flicked a switch. "We're going to do a last check in with our teams in the field." The screens flickered to life, each team reporting in.
"We're planning to torch the California iao fields," Dinah said, her face grim. Behind her, Ollie flashed a peace sign. "That should get every Kryptonian on the West Coast out to stop us."
"Attacking the iao fields is the most certain way to lure as many Kryptonians as possible into the Western hemisphere where they'll get a full dose of red sunlight. Alan Scott is on his way to help you," Bruce said, clicking over to another monitor.
Tora and Ted were preparing an attack on a crystal-refinery in eastern Siberia, where the sun would be just starting to rise. "That should get most of the Kryptonians in Asia into the light." Tora kissed Ted on the cheek "for good luck" and Ted blushed while Guy made a growling sound.
Kimiko was preparing to strike directly against what used to be Tokyo, one of the few remaining cities and concentrations of Kryptonians. "Solid-light holograms should distract them effectively while Michael uses the wand from the northern island."
His next call was to Diana. Behind her Kal could see marble pillars and a green sward of grass. "I have a squad of twenty Amazons ready to strike at the Asian Rim," she reported briskly. "We shall provide a moving target, striking and running, drawing them out into the sunlight." She smiled fiercely. "Though some of us object rather strenuously to the 'running' part."
"You'll get your fight, Princess," Bruce said.
Diana bowed, a mischievous smile on her face. "As you wish, General Bat," she said.
Bruce snapped off the monitor as a ripple of laughter went around the room. "I told her not to call me that," he muttered, prompting more laughter.
He moved on to check in with the deployment teams, scattered evenly acorss the globe. After the final checks, Bruce turned off the screen, then stood with his back to the room for a moment. Kal saw him take a long breath. He turned and paced across the room, his steps measured. "The distractions will begin at 10AM, our time, spreading from Africa into the Western continent. The deployment will begin at 11:30, and the activation at noon--if all goes well. It is in the time between the beginning of deployment and the activation that we are most vulnerable. It is a window of only thirty minutes, but if the Kryptonians figure out what is happening, if they find some way to track us here...by destroying this facility before activation they will win the war. All will be lost."
He met Carter Hall's eyes briefly, then looked deliberately around the room. "This is why we need a force of people with flight capacity to defend Cheyenne Mountain. I'm asking the people I trust most. We're finally going to use our Green Lanterns: Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and John Stewart. I am also asking J'onn J'onnz--" He pronounced Zhon's name with a strange lilt that turned the Kryptonian syllables alien, "--Kara Zor-El, and Kal-El." He looked in turn at each of them; his eyes locked last with Kal's and stayed there as he continued. "It is an essential and dangerous job. If the Kryptonians trace us they will come in the greatest number they can mass, and they will strike with all their fury to stop us. You will be humanity's last defense, our last hope. Are you willing?"
"Hell yeah!" whooped Guy Gardner, throwing his fist in the air. "Lemme at 'em!" The room broke up in nervous laughter, but Bruce's eyes didn't leave Kal's.
"Thank you," Kal said quietly, knowing Bruce would see the words on his lips, would understand. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for giving me this chance. Thank you for knowing I would want to protect you at the end, to stand between you and harm. "Thank you."
: : :
The facility was eerily quiet; a tense silence, not a restful one. Kal lay down on his cot and stared at the ceiling, trying to will himself to fall alseep, to catch a few hours of rest before the morning came. It was no use--his brain wouldn't stop scurrying in circles, playing out every possible way the next day might go. He saw Cheyenne Mountain razed in his mind's eye, Bruce's body buried forever beneath tons of rock, and turned restively from side to side, trying to banish the images from beneath his eyelids. "No, no, no," he muttered to himself, throwing a forearm over his eyes.
He almost leaped through the ceiling when a voice suddenly spoke next to him. "Trouble sleeping?" Kal blinked at Bruce Wayne, standing next to his bed, and realized he had actually jumped into the air slightly and was still hovering there at about eye-level. "Sorry," said Bruce, looking anything but.
"What--uh--"
Bruce lifted a package wrapped in brown paper cradled in his arms. "I have something for you."
Kal lowered himself to the bed; Bruce sat down next to him, his shoulder almost touching Kal's. "This is..."
"Open it."
Kal untied the rough string binding the package to reveal tissue paper wrapped around something soft. A small note in precise, looping handwriting sat on top: To my son, Clark, with love. Ma.
The tissue paper lifted to reveal cloth, soft and silky, red and blue fabric gleaming in the dim light of the room. "What..."
"If things get...complicated tomorrow, we need a way to tell our side from their side," Bruce explained. He pulled the paper aside more and scarlet silk spilled across both their hands. "The Lanterns have their uniforms, and J'onn is quite distinctive. But you and Kara...so I asked Martha to make you something."
"It's...beautiful," Kal said, touching the jewel-bright colors reverently. He lifted it up and only then caught sight of the golden insignia emblazoned across the chest. The outfit dropped as though it burned him. "I can't--I can't wear that," he stammered.
"It's your symbol," Bruce said.
"The symbol of slavery, the symbol of all the pain and suffering my House has visited upon your people, upon the world!"
Bruce took Kal's hands in his, put them back down onto the cloth, touching the stylized shape. "Symbols mean what we make them mean. It's time you make it stand for something more. Courage. Freedom. Hope."
"Hope," Kal echoed in a whisper, looking down at the symbol, at their hands locked together over it.
"Tomorrow the world ends, Kal. Understand that. If we succeed, this world ceases to exist, and together we enter a new world. If we fail--" For a moment his hands tightened on Kal's, "--If we fail, I would like you to be wearing something you received from me, at the end." He cleared his throat and looked away from Kal with the air of someone changing the subject. "So. I have found that I sleep better with you in the room." He cast a quick glance at Kal, then looked away again. "I need a good night's sleep tonight. Thus I shall be staying here." Another long pause. "If that's...all right with you?"
Kal blinked and suddenly realized Bruce was waiting for a response. "Oh. Of course. That would be...nice." He resisted burying his head in his hands and groaning only with a great effort. Nice. "Yes."
He expected Bruce would leave to go get an extra cot or a bedroll, and almost jumped again when Bruce shoved his shoulder. "So move over." Kal stared, and Bruce huffed an annoyed breath. "Do you really think I'm spending the night on the concrete floor, Kal?"
"No! Uh...no." Apparently unable to manage more than monosyllables, Kal laid down on the cot, still holding on to the bright costume like it was a child's favorite stuffed animal. He turned his back to Bruce to grant the other man his space, and found himself further shocked when Bruce curled up behind him, his chest pressed to Kal's back, his legs tucked in next to Kal's legs. His breath brushed the back of Kal's neck and Kal felt his breath shuddering in his throat. "Bruce--"
"Our last night in this world," Bruce murmured. "I'll spend it as I please. Unless...you want me to leave?" Bruce's voice was suddenly uncertain, and Kal shook his head vigorously, not trusting himself to speak. Bruce sighed, sending shivers down Kal's spine, and put an arm around Kal, pulling him closer. He tugged the red cape over both of them. "Then get some sleep."
Kal had assumed he wouldn't be able to sleep a wink with Bruce's body against his, warm and solid, but to his surprise his nervous thoughts stopped spilling over each other and he felt his muscles relaxing. He wanted to savor the moment, the sensation, but the world shifted sideways and he fell into dreamless sleep, sheltered under crimson cloth.
: : :
He stirred, half-awake, and felt a hand on his forehead, stroking his hair. There was a touch on his temple, feather-light and fleeting...but by the time Kal turned over and opened his eyes the room was empty.
He put on the red-and-blue costume still half-asleep and made his way through the corridors, ignoring any double-takes. Courage. Freedom. Hope. His eyes scanned the hurrying figures in the corridors, his eyes yearning for one in particular despite himself. Kara came hurrying up to him, wearing a costume that matched his. "Kal, you look...magnificent," she said, making him laugh. "We need to get outside with the Lanterns when the distracting attacks begin. Let's go."
They hurried through the halls, joined soon by J'onn, the three of them striding through the rocky corridors toward the surface. Kal didn't see Bruce anywhere. "You ready?" Hal Jordan's voice cut into his thoughts, and he looked up to see Jordan, Stewart, and Gardner waiting in front of them in full Green Lantern costume, their rings glowing eagerly.
"We're ready," Kara said for all three of them, and together they went out onto the slopes of the mountains to wait.
Cold, thin wind whipped at Kara, Kal, and J'onn's capes; the air smelled of frost. Guy Gardner brandished his ring at the sky like an eager hound. "Come on, ya alien freaks, just give me a chance to punch some of ya in the snoot." He glanced at his companions. "No offense to any of the good guy aliens," he said, his voice unapologetic. "So J'onny boy, you said something a while ago about some kind of psychic link thing?"
"If I have your permission, I shall connect our minds with a light mental link. That way we can coordinate any possible defense more easily."
Kara was looking at the sky, her face drawn. "Perhaps they won't trace us. Maybe we won't be needed."
"That'd be a shame," muttered Guy. "Go on, link us up."
The others nodded, and Kal braced himself for the invasion of his mind. But when it came, it was merely the most delicate of touches, a polite brush along the surface. I shall keep us all connected. J'onn's mental voice was dry and gentle as a spill of sand.
Kal could feel each of their minds as a light pressure nearby, unobtrusive but present: Guy's molten, barely-contained violence like a curl of lava, John Stewart's clean, crisply-structured lattices of thought, Hal Jordan's thoughts like a forceful wind, pushing. He touched Kara's mind and caught a glimpse of her thoughts, a scent like cinnamon and sandalwood, scarlet dunes under twinned moonlight--he pulled away feeling he had somehow broached her privacy. She smiled at him and touched his hand as if sensing his apology. Before he could say anything, a new voice touched the link.
This is Wayne. J'onn will keep me in touch with you in case you are called to action. Kal's heart and thoughts leapt toward the mental touch, and he felt a sudden rustling tremor in his mind, like dark wings folding around him. May hope fly with you today. Bruce's "voice" slipped away from the link with a last flickering caress across Kal's mind.
"The distractions are beginning," J'onn said, his voice calm. "In Africa, in Europe, as dusk falls there." Kara's hands clenched tightly in her cape, holding it around her body as if for warmth. They waited, the whistle of wind across rock the only sound. Even Guy was quiet, his eyes scanning the horizon. An interminable time later, J'onn stated, "The distractions have spread to the North American continent. Metropolis is under seige by Luthor's forces. The Western iao-fields are ablaze."
"They won't need us," Kara whispered as if to herself as the sun inched upward toward noon, toward the moment of activation. "They won't need us."
"Deployment of nanobots has begun. An estimated ninety-five percent of the Kryptonian population is quelling the distractions," J'onn said tonelessly. "There are twenty minutes remaining until the deployment is compl--" he broke off, tilting his head to the side. "They have traced us," he said. "They are coming."
"How many?" said Jordan.
"Nearly all of them," J'onn said, his voice flat. "It is time." He rose into the air, and the others rose with him, into the golden sunlight above Cheyenne Mountain.
From the East and West Kal could see them coming: thousands of Kryptonians, a vast wave of them, coming to destroy the mountain and everyone in it. "Don't let them get to the base," Stewart snapped. "Nothing else matters."
"They won't get past," Kal heard himself say, felt his certainty blazing through the link. The Lanterns turned briefly to stare at him as if he had burst into flames. "They will never defeat us."
Three humans and three aliens, together they waited under the yellow sun, standing between humanity and those who would destroy its hope.
Pairing/Characters: Kal/Bruce, Oliver Queen, Carter Hall, Lex Luthor, Kara Zor-El, J'onn J'onnz, Guy Gardner, Dinah Lance, Wonder Woman
Notes: " The House of the Earth" is an AU in which a few thousand Kryptonians escaped the destruction of Krypton to flee to Earth and conquer its people.
Warnings: None needed
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4500
Summary: Final conferences of war, final conversations, and a final night before the battle.
Carter Hall's fist banged angrily on the table; some of the people around it jumped nervously. Kal-El was not one of them. "Impossible! The timetable cannot be moved up."
"The weather wands will be complete in a week, maybe ten days. We can move as soon as they're done. There's no need to wait a month." Kal-El felt his hands curl into fists against the wood of the conference table as he faced Hall, glowering on the other side. Hall didn't seem to enjoy having his plans questioned. Kal felt the other leaders of the resistance watching him, felt Bruce's quiet presence across the room. He took a deep breath. "The sooner we strike, the less likely it is information will leak and the Kryptonians figure out what's going on. We don't even need a deliberate turncoat; all it would take is one slip, one incautious overheard word. We should move as soon as possible."
Dinah was pacing the room restlessly; she stopped to cast Kal a challenging glance. "And I suppose this has nothing to do with your desire to save Selina and salve your guilty conscience?" Ollie caught her hand as she stalked by him and she glared at him but didn't shake off his touch.
Kal looked around the room, meeting dozens of pairs of human eyes: doubtful and hopeful, bitter and kind. "I would like to save Selina, yes. She sacrificed herself to help us. I would rather not abandon her. But moving quickly also has tactical advantages--"
Hall made a scornful sound. "May I remind you Selina was working for Luthor, not us?"
Bruce leaned forward slightly: a tiny motion, and yet every eye in the room turned to him. "Luthor is technically on the same side as us," he said smoothly. "And she did put his goals aside for the sake of the greater good."
"So you support this mad plan to risk everything by moving up the schedule?"
"I didn't say that." Bruce moved to the conference table, casting his eyes over the world map etched across it, the tiny markers scattered across the continents. "Our forces are spread thin. Delaying a couple of weeks would give us a chance to muster more support. There might be cells that haven't checked in, especially in Asia where communications are sparse." He touched the map in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. "I'm still hoping we can get support from Atlantis."
Ollie snorted. "That cold-blooded bastard won't lift a finger to help us, he's made that perfectly clear."
Bruce frowned. "But with a few more weeks...time to test the wands more carefully, to recruit more help...it would be much safer." He shifted position and touched Metropolis. "Metropolis is key. I have Diana's Amazon squad focused there, for maximum chaos. But I'd greatly prefer to deploy the Amazons as flying shock troops, moving up and down the Asian coast." One of his hands curled into a fist and he tapped it gently against his mouth, lost in thought.
Kal pointed to a handful of purple markers placed on the side of the board, off the map. "What about those?"
"Hnh. Those are Luthor's people. We have no agreement with Luthor--I can't count on them. Though I suspect--"
A screen on the wall sprang into crackling life and Ted Kord's face appeared on it, looking harried. "General Hall," he said. "Luthor is calling. Wants to speak to you."
Shocked silence echoed in the room. "An interesting coincidence," Hall said. "Put him on."
Ted faded out and Luthor's face filled the screen, his chin tilted arrogantly, green eyes glinting. He chuckled slightly, apparently at the stony expression on Hall's face. "Come now, Carter," he said, "Don't get paranoid. It doesn't take a network of spies and informants to tell me that when Wayne and your Kryptonian quisling show up there, the war conferences are set to begin."
"And how did you know we'd arrived here?" Bruce raised one eyebrow but looked otherwise totally unruffled.
"Oh, that." Luthor preened just a bit. "Well, I suppose a spy or two in the El household might have informed me when the two of you left rather abruptly. The rest is simply deduction. Brilliant deduction, but not spying."
"What do you want, Luthor?" Hall's voice was curt.
Luthor put a hand to his heart. "To be of service, somehow, in the great revolution. To add my small part to bring about the glorious day of emancipation." His smile sharpened, lost its oiliness. "I will be responsible for the attack on Metropolis. While you deploy the nanobots, my people will provide a distraction there, lure the Kryptonians out into the open sunlight."
"What kind of distraction?" said Bruce.
"Well now," Luthor drawled through a lazy grin. "I don't think I need to tell you. I'll let it be a surprise." The smile fell away as if it had never been there; for a moment Luthor seemed entirely predatory, his face avid and angry. "Metropolis is mine, one way or the other. Consider it a gift that I'm even bothering to alert you of the fact."
The transmission went dead.
In the thoughtful silence that followed, Bruce removed the yellow Amazon markers from Metropolis and moved them to Asia. Then he put Luthor's purple markers on the map. They made tiny clicking noises as he set them down. "Maybe the Kryptonians will do us all a favor and off him," muttered Ollie sotto voce.
"With Luthor covering Metropolis, we can move earlier," Kal stated into the stillness. There were murmurs of support around the room; surprised, he looked around to see that most people in the room were nodding. "We don't have to abandon Selina to her fate." He looked at Hall. "I know it's your decision, but must we found our new world on the blood of our comrades?"
Hall looked around the room, reading faces, and his eyes were flinty when they met Kal's again. "I'll put it to a vote," and Kal could hear the resignation in his voice.
The vote was close but in favor of accelerating the plan. Kal took a deep breath, seeing again Selina's face streaked with blood, and felt some weight lift from his shoulders.
But Carter Hall turned as he left the room and pointed at Kal. "I believe your motives are good, Kryptonian. But there is no battle without sacrifice, and victory is always won at the cost of comrades' blood. Remember that."
: : :
With the schemata done, Kal's major job in the preparation was complete. Since then he had mostly been a glorified errand-boy, carrying messages and material as fast as possible through the endless warren of tunnels beneath the mountains. At times he caught a glimpse of a vis-screen showing Selina's trial: a glimpse of her mocking green eyes, an echo of the prosecutor's implacable voice listing her crimes. He kept moving forward.
He was returning from delivering a heap of circuit boards to Michael Holt when Bruce stopped him in the hall. Kal blinked at him, slightly surprised; he had only caught glimpses of Bruce here and there since they arrived. "Come with me," Bruce said.
Kal signed the forms indicating his delivery was complete. "I've still got to--"
"Someone else can do that. How long has it been since you slept?"
"Uh..." Kal racked his mind. "I know I have since getting here at least once. Maybe twice."
Bruce looked disgusted. "Come with me."
"This is my room," Kal said blankly when Bruce ushered him in.
"I know that. Sit."
Kal sat on the cot. There were two large machines that looked like lamps installed in the tiny room. "What are those?"
"Hush."
"That's an interesting name for them--" Kal was cudgeling his mind for some kind of joke to finish the sentence when Bruce flipped a switch.
Warm, golden light filled the room, washed over Kal's skin. "Ah," he said involuntarily, closing his eyes as the radiance kissed his face.
"You've been in a cave for five days now. No sunlight," Bruce said.
"I was fine," Kal said, although the blissful sensation of soaking in light was giving lie to his words.
"You were looking like hell," Bruce said. "Oh, you could function okay, but you wouldn't be feeling great. So I requisitioned a couple of these for you."
Kal blinked at Bruce. "Thank you."
Bruce shook his head, unsmiling. "We're going to need you in the coming battle, and we're going to need you at full capacity. I'm just being pragmatic--doing maintenance on our secret weapon." He took Kal's chin in his hand and tilted it up into the light. His face was expressionless, but his fingers on Kal's jawline were gentle, almost caressing. "Any additional benefits at seeing you look less haggard and more healthy are...entirely extraneous."
Kal smiled up at him and Bruce's hand tightened slightly, his eyes narrowing for a moment. "Thank you," Kal said again.
Bruce released him and turned to the door. "Stay here for two hours minimum. If you can't get some sleep, at least get some light." He paused, his hand on the doorframe, face turned slightly. "As we no longer share a room, I see you rarely. Make sure you look more rested when I do." He started to swing the door shut.
"You voted against moving up the schedule," Kal said suddenly, a little surprised to hear himself say it.
Bruce's shoulders slumped slightly, and he moved back into the room, his jaw set. "I did," he said. "It risks the whole enterprise to rush it. Selina wouldn't want us to fail at the big picture in order to help her."
"I know," said Kal. "I understand why you voted that way." There was a faint flicker of surprise in Bruce's eyes. "I just...I just couldn't..."
"I know," Bruce said in turn. "You are who you are." He smiled, very faintly. "I was not...entirely unhappy to lose the vote, Kal. Despite what people might say, I do actually have a heart, you know."
Kal stared at him through the dazzle of sunlight he had brought, his gift to Kal, warm as an embrace. "I know you do," he said, his voice much lower and rougher than he had expected. "Oh, without a doubt."
Bruce blinked and took a step forward without seeming to realize he had. He stopped, one hand extended slightly. "Get some rest, Kal," he said very gently. His eyes rested on Kal's face a moment longer, and then he was gone.
Kal fell asleep still bathed in sunlight, warm as an embrace.
: : :
The corridors of Cheyenne Mountain were emptier than they had been--maybe not to the casual eye, but as Kal moved through them he was aware of how many people were missing, moving into position for the final stage of the operation. Ollie, Dinah, Michael, Tora, Bea, Ted, Kimiko, Vic--all of them were in the field now, on teams ready to strike. But as Kal entered the conference room his sense of loneliness and disquiet fell away at the two familiar figures there.
"Kara! Zhon!" He moved forward to embrace them both as the humans in the room continued to speak quietly. Bruce was adjusting one of several screens in the walls; he looked up to meet Kal's eyes and quirk him a fleeting smile, and Kal almost stumbled, winding up in a huge hug from his cousin. "I was beginning to be afraid you wouldn't be here."
"Last-minute distractions," Zhon said as he shook Kal's hand.
"I was busy stalling Selina's trial a bit more," Kara laughed. "It's taken them an extra three days to untangle all the demands and requirements from the House of El about our 'property'." She shook her head, the smile dimming a bit. "It wasn't much, but it was enough. After tomorrow, one way or the other it won't matter."
"One way or the other," Kal echoed, anticipation and anxiety tightening his chest.
"All right," Bruce said, "Let's begin the final briefing." The room fell immediately silent. "As you may already know, every active member is on one of three teams: distraction, deployment, and central command. The distraction teams are to create as much chaos as possible on our signal, to lure as many Kryptonians out into the open and keep them from realizing our true goal. Once the unrest is at its peak, the deployment teams will use the weather wands to disperse nanobots into the stratosphere. Once the nanobots are fully deployed, they'll all be activated simultaneously from central command here. It must be simultaneous, or the Kryptonians from unaffected areas will simply find and destroy the other wands." He turned and flicked a switch. "We're going to do a last check in with our teams in the field." The screens flickered to life, each team reporting in.
"We're planning to torch the California iao fields," Dinah said, her face grim. Behind her, Ollie flashed a peace sign. "That should get every Kryptonian on the West Coast out to stop us."
"Attacking the iao fields is the most certain way to lure as many Kryptonians as possible into the Western hemisphere where they'll get a full dose of red sunlight. Alan Scott is on his way to help you," Bruce said, clicking over to another monitor.
Tora and Ted were preparing an attack on a crystal-refinery in eastern Siberia, where the sun would be just starting to rise. "That should get most of the Kryptonians in Asia into the light." Tora kissed Ted on the cheek "for good luck" and Ted blushed while Guy made a growling sound.
Kimiko was preparing to strike directly against what used to be Tokyo, one of the few remaining cities and concentrations of Kryptonians. "Solid-light holograms should distract them effectively while Michael uses the wand from the northern island."
His next call was to Diana. Behind her Kal could see marble pillars and a green sward of grass. "I have a squad of twenty Amazons ready to strike at the Asian Rim," she reported briskly. "We shall provide a moving target, striking and running, drawing them out into the sunlight." She smiled fiercely. "Though some of us object rather strenuously to the 'running' part."
"You'll get your fight, Princess," Bruce said.
Diana bowed, a mischievous smile on her face. "As you wish, General Bat," she said.
Bruce snapped off the monitor as a ripple of laughter went around the room. "I told her not to call me that," he muttered, prompting more laughter.
He moved on to check in with the deployment teams, scattered evenly acorss the globe. After the final checks, Bruce turned off the screen, then stood with his back to the room for a moment. Kal saw him take a long breath. He turned and paced across the room, his steps measured. "The distractions will begin at 10AM, our time, spreading from Africa into the Western continent. The deployment will begin at 11:30, and the activation at noon--if all goes well. It is in the time between the beginning of deployment and the activation that we are most vulnerable. It is a window of only thirty minutes, but if the Kryptonians figure out what is happening, if they find some way to track us here...by destroying this facility before activation they will win the war. All will be lost."
He met Carter Hall's eyes briefly, then looked deliberately around the room. "This is why we need a force of people with flight capacity to defend Cheyenne Mountain. I'm asking the people I trust most. We're finally going to use our Green Lanterns: Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and John Stewart. I am also asking J'onn J'onnz--" He pronounced Zhon's name with a strange lilt that turned the Kryptonian syllables alien, "--Kara Zor-El, and Kal-El." He looked in turn at each of them; his eyes locked last with Kal's and stayed there as he continued. "It is an essential and dangerous job. If the Kryptonians trace us they will come in the greatest number they can mass, and they will strike with all their fury to stop us. You will be humanity's last defense, our last hope. Are you willing?"
"Hell yeah!" whooped Guy Gardner, throwing his fist in the air. "Lemme at 'em!" The room broke up in nervous laughter, but Bruce's eyes didn't leave Kal's.
"Thank you," Kal said quietly, knowing Bruce would see the words on his lips, would understand. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for giving me this chance. Thank you for knowing I would want to protect you at the end, to stand between you and harm. "Thank you."
: : :
The facility was eerily quiet; a tense silence, not a restful one. Kal lay down on his cot and stared at the ceiling, trying to will himself to fall alseep, to catch a few hours of rest before the morning came. It was no use--his brain wouldn't stop scurrying in circles, playing out every possible way the next day might go. He saw Cheyenne Mountain razed in his mind's eye, Bruce's body buried forever beneath tons of rock, and turned restively from side to side, trying to banish the images from beneath his eyelids. "No, no, no," he muttered to himself, throwing a forearm over his eyes.
He almost leaped through the ceiling when a voice suddenly spoke next to him. "Trouble sleeping?" Kal blinked at Bruce Wayne, standing next to his bed, and realized he had actually jumped into the air slightly and was still hovering there at about eye-level. "Sorry," said Bruce, looking anything but.
"What--uh--"
Bruce lifted a package wrapped in brown paper cradled in his arms. "I have something for you."
Kal lowered himself to the bed; Bruce sat down next to him, his shoulder almost touching Kal's. "This is..."
"Open it."
Kal untied the rough string binding the package to reveal tissue paper wrapped around something soft. A small note in precise, looping handwriting sat on top: To my son, Clark, with love. Ma.
The tissue paper lifted to reveal cloth, soft and silky, red and blue fabric gleaming in the dim light of the room. "What..."
"If things get...complicated tomorrow, we need a way to tell our side from their side," Bruce explained. He pulled the paper aside more and scarlet silk spilled across both their hands. "The Lanterns have their uniforms, and J'onn is quite distinctive. But you and Kara...so I asked Martha to make you something."
"It's...beautiful," Kal said, touching the jewel-bright colors reverently. He lifted it up and only then caught sight of the golden insignia emblazoned across the chest. The outfit dropped as though it burned him. "I can't--I can't wear that," he stammered.
"It's your symbol," Bruce said.
"The symbol of slavery, the symbol of all the pain and suffering my House has visited upon your people, upon the world!"
Bruce took Kal's hands in his, put them back down onto the cloth, touching the stylized shape. "Symbols mean what we make them mean. It's time you make it stand for something more. Courage. Freedom. Hope."
"Hope," Kal echoed in a whisper, looking down at the symbol, at their hands locked together over it.
"Tomorrow the world ends, Kal. Understand that. If we succeed, this world ceases to exist, and together we enter a new world. If we fail--" For a moment his hands tightened on Kal's, "--If we fail, I would like you to be wearing something you received from me, at the end." He cleared his throat and looked away from Kal with the air of someone changing the subject. "So. I have found that I sleep better with you in the room." He cast a quick glance at Kal, then looked away again. "I need a good night's sleep tonight. Thus I shall be staying here." Another long pause. "If that's...all right with you?"
Kal blinked and suddenly realized Bruce was waiting for a response. "Oh. Of course. That would be...nice." He resisted burying his head in his hands and groaning only with a great effort. Nice. "Yes."
He expected Bruce would leave to go get an extra cot or a bedroll, and almost jumped again when Bruce shoved his shoulder. "So move over." Kal stared, and Bruce huffed an annoyed breath. "Do you really think I'm spending the night on the concrete floor, Kal?"
"No! Uh...no." Apparently unable to manage more than monosyllables, Kal laid down on the cot, still holding on to the bright costume like it was a child's favorite stuffed animal. He turned his back to Bruce to grant the other man his space, and found himself further shocked when Bruce curled up behind him, his chest pressed to Kal's back, his legs tucked in next to Kal's legs. His breath brushed the back of Kal's neck and Kal felt his breath shuddering in his throat. "Bruce--"
"Our last night in this world," Bruce murmured. "I'll spend it as I please. Unless...you want me to leave?" Bruce's voice was suddenly uncertain, and Kal shook his head vigorously, not trusting himself to speak. Bruce sighed, sending shivers down Kal's spine, and put an arm around Kal, pulling him closer. He tugged the red cape over both of them. "Then get some sleep."
Kal had assumed he wouldn't be able to sleep a wink with Bruce's body against his, warm and solid, but to his surprise his nervous thoughts stopped spilling over each other and he felt his muscles relaxing. He wanted to savor the moment, the sensation, but the world shifted sideways and he fell into dreamless sleep, sheltered under crimson cloth.
: : :
He stirred, half-awake, and felt a hand on his forehead, stroking his hair. There was a touch on his temple, feather-light and fleeting...but by the time Kal turned over and opened his eyes the room was empty.
He put on the red-and-blue costume still half-asleep and made his way through the corridors, ignoring any double-takes. Courage. Freedom. Hope. His eyes scanned the hurrying figures in the corridors, his eyes yearning for one in particular despite himself. Kara came hurrying up to him, wearing a costume that matched his. "Kal, you look...magnificent," she said, making him laugh. "We need to get outside with the Lanterns when the distracting attacks begin. Let's go."
They hurried through the halls, joined soon by J'onn, the three of them striding through the rocky corridors toward the surface. Kal didn't see Bruce anywhere. "You ready?" Hal Jordan's voice cut into his thoughts, and he looked up to see Jordan, Stewart, and Gardner waiting in front of them in full Green Lantern costume, their rings glowing eagerly.
"We're ready," Kara said for all three of them, and together they went out onto the slopes of the mountains to wait.
Cold, thin wind whipped at Kara, Kal, and J'onn's capes; the air smelled of frost. Guy Gardner brandished his ring at the sky like an eager hound. "Come on, ya alien freaks, just give me a chance to punch some of ya in the snoot." He glanced at his companions. "No offense to any of the good guy aliens," he said, his voice unapologetic. "So J'onny boy, you said something a while ago about some kind of psychic link thing?"
"If I have your permission, I shall connect our minds with a light mental link. That way we can coordinate any possible defense more easily."
Kara was looking at the sky, her face drawn. "Perhaps they won't trace us. Maybe we won't be needed."
"That'd be a shame," muttered Guy. "Go on, link us up."
The others nodded, and Kal braced himself for the invasion of his mind. But when it came, it was merely the most delicate of touches, a polite brush along the surface. I shall keep us all connected. J'onn's mental voice was dry and gentle as a spill of sand.
Kal could feel each of their minds as a light pressure nearby, unobtrusive but present: Guy's molten, barely-contained violence like a curl of lava, John Stewart's clean, crisply-structured lattices of thought, Hal Jordan's thoughts like a forceful wind, pushing. He touched Kara's mind and caught a glimpse of her thoughts, a scent like cinnamon and sandalwood, scarlet dunes under twinned moonlight--he pulled away feeling he had somehow broached her privacy. She smiled at him and touched his hand as if sensing his apology. Before he could say anything, a new voice touched the link.
This is Wayne. J'onn will keep me in touch with you in case you are called to action. Kal's heart and thoughts leapt toward the mental touch, and he felt a sudden rustling tremor in his mind, like dark wings folding around him. May hope fly with you today. Bruce's "voice" slipped away from the link with a last flickering caress across Kal's mind.
"The distractions are beginning," J'onn said, his voice calm. "In Africa, in Europe, as dusk falls there." Kara's hands clenched tightly in her cape, holding it around her body as if for warmth. They waited, the whistle of wind across rock the only sound. Even Guy was quiet, his eyes scanning the horizon. An interminable time later, J'onn stated, "The distractions have spread to the North American continent. Metropolis is under seige by Luthor's forces. The Western iao-fields are ablaze."
"They won't need us," Kara whispered as if to herself as the sun inched upward toward noon, toward the moment of activation. "They won't need us."
"Deployment of nanobots has begun. An estimated ninety-five percent of the Kryptonian population is quelling the distractions," J'onn said tonelessly. "There are twenty minutes remaining until the deployment is compl--" he broke off, tilting his head to the side. "They have traced us," he said. "They are coming."
"How many?" said Jordan.
"Nearly all of them," J'onn said, his voice flat. "It is time." He rose into the air, and the others rose with him, into the golden sunlight above Cheyenne Mountain.
From the East and West Kal could see them coming: thousands of Kryptonians, a vast wave of them, coming to destroy the mountain and everyone in it. "Don't let them get to the base," Stewart snapped. "Nothing else matters."
"They won't get past," Kal heard himself say, felt his certainty blazing through the link. The Lanterns turned briefly to stare at him as if he had burst into flames. "They will never defeat us."
Three humans and three aliens, together they waited under the yellow sun, standing between humanity and those who would destroy its hope.