FIC: You Have Your Father’s Eyes
Title: You Have Your Father’s Eyes
Summary: Zod has set you up the bomb. Make your time. Only... the body he has been given to be revived on the plane of existance is PREGNANT, dammit. What’s an evil warlord to do?
Pairing: Zod/Jor-El/Lara, a dash of Zodana, Clex, Brex, Lexiac, plus Vessel/others
Rating: NC-17 because I’m a perv
Warning: MPREG. Twice!
Spoilers: Smallville through Season Five "Vessel", Superman II, basic wikiable Batman and Superman comic canon.
Thanks to my wonderful sparklie beta herohunter
Parts One and Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Part Twelve
Part Thirteen
Part Fourteen
It seemed strange to be such a sunny day amidst the endtimes, but shine the sun did, and Clark came out into the unsheltered courtyard, hoping that none of the new Kryptonians would spot him. There was plotting and planning inside, and Clark needed to be away from it for a moment, so he didn’t rip Bruce’s head clean off his shoulders. Bruce and Lex had this vibe, this way about them that made it clear that they had known one another forever and would continue to forever no matter how angry Lex currently was. Clark hadn’t felt this kind of jealousy since he’d met Lucas, and it was worse now, because back then it had seemed that he could do no wrong where Lex was concerned.
He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, soaking up the sun.
It was even stranger still, when he felt, felt, that he was not alone out in the circular, well-lit courtyard. He felt it before he even noticed the new heartbeats approaching.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?”
Clark said nothing. It was still a little creepy how similar Zod’s voice was to Lex’s. Same made a gurgling sound, and Clark looked up at his new brother and sister. Before he knew what had happened, Lal was placed in his arms and Zod sat beside him, cuddling Same to his chest. Zod clearly favored his new son, and Clark wondered why, since Same was weak. Perhaps because he was weak, and would therefore need Zod much more.
Clark couldn’t help but wonder, as he bounced his little sister, what it would have been like to grow up with this lunatic as his father. Or one of his lunatic fathers.
The awkward silence spread out before them like waves of water. It felt as though Clark would have to fight his way towards saying anything of any importance beyond, “nice day.”
“How is Same doing?”
Zod petted the boy’s back. “He seems content when I am around, and he is beginning to put on a little weight, finally.”
“I’m glad,” Clark murmured. Something about the weight of his sister in his arms was comforting. He’d been pretty lost over the past year, but inexplicably, he was sitting here with his family.
“He will make it. And if he does not, the fault is not yours,” Zod said in a dispassionate voice. “It is mine.”
“No, it was me. I attacked you-“
“I am his ima and his only parent, his only family. The responsibility for his care lies solely with me.”
Clark frowned, letting Lal wrap her hand around his finger. “You’re not his only family.”
“You made it perfectly clear that you consider your loyalties to your adoptive race,” Zod said pointedly.
“It’s complicated.”
“It always is. Always will be. You will need to learn to make choices, Kal-El, to become comfortable with unanswered questions, and unclear lines between right and wrong.”
“Not everything is shades of gray,” Clark protested. “You can’t just say that and cover up murder and experimenting on people.”
“No. Too much uncertainty is madness; at the same time, inability to see beyond black and white is the same. Find the balance, and you will be an extraordinary man.”
“And that would be you?” Clark challenged.
Same made an unhappy noise, and so Zod pulled him up to his chest to support him there. “I did not find a balance. Desperation will cause a person to do things they’d never imagined, if the goal is noble enough. Survival of the species, it’s good enough, isn’t it?”
Clark thought about that for a moment. That was probably something Lex would say.
“Well, is it?” Zod asked again.
Clark met Zod’s narrowed eyes with a mingle of disbelief and pleasant surprise.
“When pressed by your inevitable destruction, when doing nothing would make you as evil as if you had done the wrong thing, no matter how horrible, when you chose to sacrifice your own soul for millions, and yet billions die…” Zod mused, turning his face up to the sky pensively. “If you plan on sending me back to the Phantom Zone, you can go ahead and kill me. I should not have outlived my triad anyway.”
Clark continued to stare, mouth open and waiting for the proper words to respond to Zod’s words. This encounter wasn’t doing much to change Clark’s mind that Zod’s mission and the subsequent years in the Phantom Zone had left him more than a little unhinged.
“But Lal and Same need you.”
“This is true. Kally, there are things that you should know. Perhaps the time of Krypton has passed as well. Perhaps we should not have outlived our people either.”
Clark licked his lips. “And everything you’ve done to take this planet?”
“Do you believe in them so much?” Zod turned his exacting gaze on his firstborn. “The people of this planet? They seem inferior. Petty. I have told you before. Have you such faith I them? Are they worthy of raising a Kryptonian?”
“I still don’t know what’s so good about being a Kryptonian,” Clark admitted. “But they were worthy of raising me. I only had trouble when Jor-El started butting in.”
“You no longer have to worry about that. As you know, I destroyed that part of the AI. I couldn’t have it acting of its own will to stop me. It cannot act of its own will to punish you any longer, either,” Zod pointed out. He dipped his head to kiss Same’s cheek. “They must be fed,” he stated simply.
As Zod slowly stood, Clark thought that he’d lost far too many father figures in his life, and he should have made a better effort to bring the AI under control, if it were possible. Clark rose to join him. “I do have faith in them. Maybe not all of them, but assuming the worst of people hasn’t gotten me anywhere in my life. I’ve only ended up making situations worse. If I’d had more faith in Lex, you and I would never have met under these circumstances.”
“I would not be so certain, Kally. The Brainiac computer is quite resourceful, as I have learned.”
“Still… I think things would have been better. You can’t trust everyone, but there are people out there who are worth putting your faith in. We have a lot of problems as a society, but…” Clark shrugged as the two of them walked inside. “If Kryptonians were to call this a new home, and join human society instead of conquering, it would be for the greater good of us all.”
“I wonder if the Kryptonians freed would be amenable to that. Surely they see humans as animals.”
“And you don’t?”
“I am not particularly enamored of humanity, but your foster mother could have crushed the heads of my children as they were born. She did not.”
Clark grimaced at the grisly image. “She wouldn’t do that. Most humans aren’t that cruel.”
“Humanity is much like we were before our age of peace. Watch them, Kally. They will set themselves up for destruction before they reach their peak, just as we did.”
“I don’t understand why you wanted to conquer us at all,” Clark said irritably. “You said yourself that the glory of being supreme ruler didn’t appeal to you. You were just… well, not just, but before, you were motivated by survival. You had to be this time, too.”
“You and I, we cannot do nothing as others suffer. You know that I have watched you. I have seen how you cannot stand idly by.” Zod looked up and down Clark. “I won’t let the grand culture of Krypton be destroyed because of a few shortsighted fools.”
“One person can’t save the world alone.”
“I beg to differ. If they hadn’t stopped me, I would have done so,” Zod snapped.
“Then what happens if that one person is captured and sent to the Phantom Zone? The plan falls apart, and everything goes back to the way it was,” Clark argued. “And that’s what happened. They took out the head, the body fell, and they damned themselves. Our entire planet could have been saved by one man, but instead it was still destroyed, and in the process you took your soul with it.”
Zod narrowed his eyes sharply at Clark, and the two infants began to cry. Even Clark could feel Zod growing warm with anger.
“You can’t do that here, either. You can’t force humans to rise up to a Kryptonian standard just because you think we’re pitiful. No one can be the pillar of society alone. They have to come up with you, or it’s not progress at all. And if you have everyone under your control, then when you die-old age, murdered, childbirth-they’ll just revert and be worse than they were before, because before they had the tools to be independent, and you stripped them away in order to ‘better’ them. Ask Lex about this. He’s explained a lot to me about colonialism during my years in public school, suffering through their history.”
“You do not believe we can coexist?” Zod arched a brow.
“I don’t think we can coexist if you come here thinking that you’re better than them. We can move faster, live longer, see things they can’t, but up here, in our heads? We’re still beasts with big brains. If we want to move forward, we’ll have to find a way to make everyone get along.”
Zod’s face relaxed, and Clark could no longer read what he was thinking or feeling. Inscrutable, not unlike Lex, only Zod was more terrifying. He was a warrior, primarily, and he had lived the streets and sacrificed his soul for a greater good.
Clark swallowed when he realized that he was looking into the potential future. For Lex, or for himself. Lex had suffered enough abuse at his father’s hands to harden anyone’s heart, and he’d certainly proved recently that he had no qualms about sacrificing himself for what he considered to be the greater good. And Clark himself, well, his experiences with Red K and Jor-El’s tests had certainly taught him what he could become.
“Tell me, Kally. How now? How do we convince humanity to accept a handful of an alien species now that we have conquered their world?” Zod asked in a quiet voice. “Not once, but twice over, we have done so. How will they believe that we could have peace? How would they have faith that Kryptonians can be good?”
At a loss, Clark just shook his head. “I dunno. Maybe we should ask Lex. He’s better at spinning things for the press. As is, he doesn’t think anyone on the planet is going to give him the time of day, now that you’ve ruled the world with his face.”
“It is no longer his face,” Zod replied. His cold eyes were reflective. “Perhaps we should speak to the people. Once we have dealt with the others, we may find a scapegoat for them to blame, so that the rest may live free.”
Clark frowned and rolled his head around on his shoulders. He didn’t like this talk of spinning and manipulating the people. He wanted to tell them the truth. There were aliens, but he was Kal-El, and he was here to help.
“If nothing else comes to pass, I want the twins to grow knowing of their Kryptonian heritage. If they must be tested, so be it, but the cruel, manipulative tests of the House of El, I do not approve of,” Zod informed him sternly.
For a moment, Clark thought that Zod had switched subjects yet again. Then his frown deepened.
“We are not scapegoating you. We’ll come up with something,” Clark said shortly, heading to the impromptu nursery.
***
Lois was sitting alone manning the radio when Chloe came in, her face red and blotchy as she made soft whimpering noises through closed, tight lips and sat beside Lois without a word. Lois’s arms went around her automatically, because she hated to see her little cousin cry. It must have been a bad day. It must have been a real bad day because it wasn’t often that she caught Chloe crying.
She knew Chloe did cry, but she had the habit of hiding it, just as Lois did, but for different reasons.
“C’mon,” Lois coaxed. “Don’t cry. I don’t have any tissues or anything…”
“Dad’s…”
Lois closed her eyes and wrapped her arms more tightly around Chloe. “Oh, Chloe…”
“They…. They found him,” she sobbed softly. “In our apartment building… It was leveled.”
Lois bit her lip hard and rubbed Chloe’s back. It was wrong and unfair and it sucked, all because these stupid aliens couldn’t find another planet to harass. She’d never given extraterrestrial life a second thought before because she wasn’t convinced there was intelligent life on this planet sometimes. Uncle Gabe had been a good man, and he didn’t deserve to die, any more than any of the others had.
Most of all, her cousin didn’t deserve to lose her only active parent.
“Stupid, stupid aliens,” Lois grumbled.
“They’re not all bad,” Chloe replied softly.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. My alien babydaddy is on our side now,” Lois replied irritably.
Chloe wiped her eyes and slumped in place, staring at her feet as the tears continued to roll down her cheeks. “Not him. J-just trust me. Some of them are okay. “
“When one of them steps up without us coercing them into it, I’ll buy it. “
Sniffing and hiding her face, Chloe didn’t stop crying for a while, and Lois waited with her. She still didn’t know if her sister and father were all right, and for the moment, it was better not to know. They were at war, and distractions like these were only going to make matters harder.
She’d bite down and deal with the aftermath later.
***
It was a beautiful day. Such a beautiful day to go out and collect survivors.
Nevaeh loved this job. It was the best she had ever had in her short sixteen years on this planet, the most useful, and the most fun. If people were trapped behind walls, she just set her flame alight and took the offending parts down. Together, she and Feign had collected a number of survivors, identified a few of the fallen so that those back at the base could add to their lists for after this was all over and families could be contacted, and were now heading back to their new hideout just outside of town in hopes that a few of the people would join their fight. The rest would be sent on to a safer place.
Certainly not a safe place under normal circumstances, Belle Reve had proved to be a nice little stronghold. A better stronghold than it had been an asylum, anyway.
Recently, the newly arrived Kryptonians had taken a step further than Zod’s plan. They had begun randomly executing humans, blowing up buildings, and showing their exploits on television. It was more important than ever to stay out of the Kryptonians’ sight.
Tan lifted a twelve-year-old girl who had broken her leg into his arms and let her play with the blue streaks in his hair. “We should head back now,” he urged.
Feign nodded, moving along behind them and making sure to keep her cover on them even. After a moment, she motioned them forward. With Nevaeh at the lead, they began to navigate their way back through the city. Although some of their number had been injured, they made a good pace until they hit Centennial Park.
“Don’t move,” Feign whispered once she’d spotted the figures in the sky. “They’ve never seen through my illusions before.”
“How many are there?” Nevaeh asked. She paused, squinting as she looked up and scanned the sky. “There’s only two.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Tan snapped. “Boss wouldn’t approve.”
“Shouldn’t we get into hiding?” hissed one of the men who they had just pulled out of a building.
“My powers will keep them from seeing us,” Feign said certainly. “Um… Tan, what is that? That one’s Peru-Col for sure. But what is that beside her?”
“I dunno, Feign, but they’re coming down. Geezus, it’s… like a black hole.”
The group stared up at the creature beside Peru-Col as she touched down in the middle of the park. It was humanoid, at least, and completely black. Now and then the background could be seen through it. It had no visible eyes, or mouth, just two twitching holes on the lump that could be its head. It went from upright to all fours, then up on its hind legs again, twisting its head around as it emitted a strange moan.
“Find them. Tasty. Good treats for you,” Peru-Col said in a humorless voice.
It moaned again and turned its head in the other direction.
“Feign, I think…” Neveah whispered, her eyes glued to that thing. “I think you should take everyone else in the other direction. Get them out of here, and I’ll deal with… that.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If it doesn’t kill you, then Peru-Col will,” Feign snapped, running her hand over her closely cropped hair.
Tan held the girl tighter. She lifted her head and blinked rich, honey colored eyes at the scene before them. “Well, we got to do somethin’,” she said seriously. “Cause that thing knows we’re here.”
“There’s no way,” Feign argued.
One of the survivors bolted away from their group, heading for the remains of the Centennial Hotel. Just a quickly, one of the women ran after him, arms out-stretched to grab him back.
“No, you idiots!” Neveah cried.
“Let’s go,” Tan urged, taking the hand of another child and motioning with his head for Feign to come with them. Nevaeh took two hands herself, a woman and a young boy, and looked back.
The thing blurred forward, its gaping maw opening, and they were gone. Without a trace. Neveah drew in a sharp breath and kept moving with them. She felt a prickling on the back of her neck.
“More where that came from. More energy. More. Find the energy. The metas have it waiting for you,” Peru-Col urged coldly.
The keening moan of the creature echoed through the silence of the park. It knew they were there.
“Guys, when I say, you’ve got to run. Run for all you’re worth, and I mean it. Don’t look back, and don’t wait for me. You’ve got to get the hell out of here, and you can’t let them follow you,” she instructed.
“Look, kid,” Feign began.
“Do it!” Neveah snapped. She let go of the hands she’d been holding and broke into a run towards Peru-Col, burning her flame as brightly as she could burn. She hadn’t let it go this hot since her family had died, and she had been sure that she would never burn this brightly since, but today was a special exception.
Her steps melted the pavement and set the grass alight. Peru-Col gaped as Nevaeh came for her, and then crossed her arms, deciding to hold her ground against this crazy human barreling toward her. Neveah could hear the water evaporating from the air, and she could hear that thing, whatever it was, screaming in hunger as it moved towards them.
Peru-Col must have been surprised when Nevaeh wrapped her arms around her. She thought of Zod’s story about how this woman had sacrificed her daughter to save her own life.
Nevaeh wondered what Peru-Col thought of as the thing engulfed them both.
***
In a smooth, slick motion, Lionel entered the infirmary and walked up to Martha before she realized that he was there. Carefully, he touched a lock of her hair.
“Oh!” She jumped in surprise and looked back at Lionel, who was smiling. She swatted at him. “You scared me.”
“Ah, my evil plan worked.” Lionel curved the right side of his mouth upward and looked at how well Martha had organized their supplies. They had begun relocating people to Smallville. It was an arguably good thing; while their numbers dwindled, they rid themselves of those who could or would not fight, and were able to ensure that those people were protected. Still, Lionel was glad that Martha had remained, even if he would have liked for to her to have left for safer lodgings with Miss Lang. Martha was quite capable behind the scenes, as always.
Martha rolled her eyes. “I think we have enough evil plans going around here without you adding to it. Why don’t you help me sort out these medicines the last scouting group brought in?”
“Why, Martha, are you hinting that I make myself useful?” Lionel sat down across from her.
“Not so much hinting as asking, but whatever makes you comfortable.” After a moment of quiet sorting, Martha spoke again. “Lex seems to be healing well, now.”
“He’s a survivor. Always has been.”
“Had you worried there, though,” Martha said knowingly. Her eyes flitted up to meet Lionel’s, which held hers for but a moment before looking down at the pile again.
“He came back to us as a corpse. What father wouldn’t be concerned?”
“You were telling me before about your concern that Lex was slipping down a bad path, ath that you’ve been unable to deter him from. And yet he gave everything he had to save us all. Have you two talked about this?”
“Lex and I don’t have those kinds of discussions.”
“Because you prefer to challenge him,” Martha concluded. “Lionel, there needs to be a reward for a challenge. Things will never get better between the two of you if neither is willing to budge, and you’re older. You’re the parent.”
“Martha, if I tell Lex ‘good job,’ he’s going to think I have an ulterior motive, simple as that,” Lionel scoffed. He put down a vial of medicine and shook his head.
“Then you make him believe. You show him that you care. Words don’t mean much when you’ve used them in the past to manipulate him,” Martha replied sternly. “Lex will never accept that you mean to actually be his father if he doesn’t witness consistently repentant behavior from you. And Lionel, Clark will never accept you at all, if you don’t get Lex on board. You’ve kept his secret, and that gets you a lot of credit from me, but there are more and more people who know about Clark’s secret these days.”
Lionel lifted his chin and pulled his irritation back. He would not have taken this lecture from anyone else. He could tell for Martha’s tone that she was swayed by Lex’s recent heroism, and Lionel would have to change tracks to keep her sympathies.
“I know this isn’t easy to hear, but I can’t continue to be around you, knowing how you have treated Lex, unless you at least try to make amends. I’m a mother,” Martha explained with a discontented frown. “No matter what I want, that will always be a part of me.”
“And how would you suggest I go about fixing this? Lex isn’t exactly in the frame of mind for a tête-à-tête with me.”
“No, I’d say not, Lionel,” Martha replied quietly. “He’s basically been abducted and raped and put into a situation that was worse than it had to be because he had no support. This isn’t a good time, but you can broach the topic, and you can try to be understanding. I saw how much love you have for your son when you were giving him the transfusion, but you never let him see that. Is it so hard to imagine that he can’t believe that you care? You and Lex don’t have that kind of relationship because you, the parent, set that kind of relationships when he was younger, and it only gets worse.”
“You don’t understand how difficult it’s been,” Lionel replied sharply. “What he let me think he did-I couldn’t even look at him, let alone admit that I still loved him, to him or to myself. I’d be loving my little monster. His mother murdered our baby and let Lex take the blame!”
Martha’s jaw dropped. “Oh… oh, Lionel, is that why he was so…” She covered her mouth and shook her head. After taking a breath, she touched his hand. “What a brave, strong son you raised, for him to try to shoulder the blame for such a thing.”
Lionel pulled his hand back and stood, turning himself away from her.
“You can still make amends with him, if you try, because Lex can be a wellspring of love and forgiveness, if he believes that you’re earnest,” Martha encouraged. “You have an amazing son. When you look at him, when you talk to him, imagine what you would do with Clark. You treat Clark as though he is something miraculous.”
“That won’t work with Lex.”
Martha sighed and stood as well, shrugging lightly. “Maybe not at first. But I saw how he responded to any positive reinforcement that Jonathan was willing to toss his way. It wasn’t consistent; it wasn’t even always unmitigatedly kind, but Lex always shined to it, no matter how harsh Jonathan had been to him recently.”
“That is not a good thing, Martha. He favors abuse.”
“I wonder where he learned that,” Martha shot back. She brushed her hands against each other and headed for the door. “I have to start lunch. See you around, Lionel.”
Lionel turned his head, watching her go. This woman, this unbelievable woman, she did things to him that he could never quite get a handle on. She pushed, and he pulled. He caused her to light up, and she shut him down and challenged him to be better. He wondered if her love felt to him anything the way his had felt to Lex. Incredibly frustrating, and yet he wanted it.
It was the first thing Lex had said, directly after Lex had admitted to accepting the blow for Julian’s death.
Maybe you could have loved me.
“Maybe you’ll believe it before I die,” Lionel murmured. He took his leave of the infirmary, considering his choices. To keep Martha, he would have to brave an interaction that he had been avoiding for years. Or make her believe that he had.
***
“Do you really expect me to work with this lunatic?”
Two heads turned to see Victor Stone walking in with Chloe Sullivan. He had kept his hair shaved close to his chocolate colored scalp, and he wore only a worn gray shirt, scuffed sneakers, and a pair of threadbare jeans. His arms were crossed, and his eyes narrowed at the bald, thin man that he remembered too well.
“You were saved to help prevent this, you know,” Lex said coldly. “How’s the hardware working, by the way?”
“You’re an ass,” Victor spat. Lex stood and walked away from where he had been sitting with Bruce, talking about the design of their weapons. Victor’s frown deepened and his eyes widened as Lex drew nearer, and the thick scars peeking out of his sweater became apparent. “What the helll happened to you?”
“I did my part. It’s time to do yours. We need all the hands we can get to stop these aliens, and it wouldn’t hurt to have someone specifically designed to match them in speed and strength.” Lex shrugged his head to the side. “Sorry, I didn’t know about the flying at the time.”
“That’s what you’re sorry for?” Victor asked with a laugh.
“Well, I’m not sorry that you’re not a corpse. If you want to commit suicide, that’s on you,” Lex said flippantly and turned away from him.
“I’ve been thinking about it! I’ve been living on the streets because of you. I lost my girlfriend because of you. My entire family-“
“I didn’t cause their deaths!” Lex argued. “I’ll have you know there was an explosion in the lab. It was sabotage.” He looked up at the ceiling and swallowed.
“My family died in a car crash,” Victor said slowly and uncertainly. “That’s what the papers said.”
“Car crashes are an easy cover-up in this city. I’ll show you the tape sometime, if they haven’t been destroyed in this mess. I’m telling you that someone has been blowing up my buildings for the past couple of months,” Lex insisted.
“Who?” Bruce asked in his calm, even voice. He rose and began walking over to them.
Lex looked to him for a moment, licking his lips. “Don’t know. They don’t exactly leave a calling card, although there have been some arrows left behind.”
Victor looked over the two of them suspiciously. Then he glanced back at Chloe.
“You said you were willing to help. I know he had no right to experiment on you without your consent, but you’re alive,” Chloe whispered to him earnestly. “You’re alive, and you can do something about this. God, if it were possible, I’d ask them to give me your implants so that I could at least do something.”
“I lost my family. It isn’t that easy, Chloe,” Victor told her, although his voice had grown less angry.
“Well. It’s not like I can’t relate.” Chloe swallowed and looked away. “People are in jeopardy, here. I’m not feeling really sympathetic to anyone letting their petty differences prevent them from stepping up.”
Victor’s eyes widened as he stared at her.
“Wayne. Bruce Wayne.” Bruce held out his hand to the young man with a stern look on his face.
“As in the Bruce Wayne? From Gotham?” Victor asked. He looked back at Chloe for a moment, but she had walked over to the plans laid out on the table and was ignoring him stonily.
“Yes. Look, we’ve moved some of the elderly, the injured, and children to the next town over, Smallville. If you aren’t interested in helping, then we’ll send you over there on the next trip.” Bruce withdrew his hand. “Now, I understand your anger, but right now, we just need all the hands we can get, and if they’ve got extra strength behind them, the better.”
“You don’t look like a playboy,” Victor said flatly.
“You don’t look like a cyborg. You look like a kid. And as much as I want soldiers, I’m not comfortable putting kids out there on the line,” Bruce said bluntly.
Lex turned his head. “I’m not either, Bruce, but-“
“I know you aren’t, Lex. That wasn’t a dig. I watched you arguing with your father about sending them out for two hours, at least. They’re alright,” Bruce told him, then looked back to Victor. “For now. However, the fight we’re going to be entering into soon will be a whole other level.”
Victor rubbed the back of his head. “What are you planning on doing?”
“We’re going to launch an attack on the Kryptonians, with two at our side, and hope that we can take them out of power before they bring anything else out of the Phantom Zone,” Lex answered.
Victor drew in a deep breath and shook his head. “I’ll do what I can. I played football. I’m no hero.”
“That doesn’t mean you couldn’t be,” Bruce replied, giving Victor an appraising glance. “But it’s up to you. We’re just going over our final specs for a weapon to deal with the Kryptonians.”
“Is… is that what these things are? This is crazy. I could have sworn the one that came first looked like you,” Victor told Lex, looking over at the table.
“It did. It was using my DNA,” Lex replied shortly.
“Don’t they have their own bodies?”
“Some do, some don’t. That one’s body had been destroyed. It’s a long story-“
Lois burst in with her hair pulled into a messy ponytail and a small radio in her hand. “Sorry to break up the party, but our little rescue group that we sent out is in serious trouble.”
“Trouble how?” Lex asked immediately, coming over to her.
Lois swallowed and met Lex’s eye. “The good news is that the one Zod identified as Peru-Col is probably dead.”
“Bad news?”
“So is Nevaeh.” Lois registered the distraught looks on Lex and Chloe’s faces but continued. “Peru-Col came down with this thing, some new kind of alien, and it knew they were there despite the illusions. It just sucks people in. I don’t know what’s up but it sounds really bad. Like they let loose something they can’t control.”
“Fools,” Lex whispered. Bruce came up behind him and put a light hand on his shoulder.
“Exactly. Feign says that Nevaeh was able to distract it probably because she gives off so much energy when she uses her powers, but it’s still out there, and the other Kryptonians are still out there, and who knows what else those idiots are gonna set loose!” Lois threw a hand up in the air. She spotted Victor and raised a brow, but said nothing. She didn’t have time for introductions right now.
Lex bit back a rush of pain. He’d pulled that girl back from the brink of insanity, and she’d given her life for a few strangers. “We… we need to get together and talk about this. Where is the rescue group now?”
“They stopped off at Zero, but they had to cut their message short. I don’t know if the alien was after them, but we all know that the Kryptonians can see sound waves, if they try, so they gave me the message and shut up. You can call them if you want.” Lois handed the radio to Lex. She’d imagined that manning the telephones, so to speak, would be boring, and this happened. All in all, she’d prefer boring.
“Not now. We may check on them when we’ve decided on a plan of attack.” Lex looked back at Bruce.
“They’re one down. I didn’t think we’d be getting out of this without any losses,” Bruce said in a tender voice.
“She was sixteen. And she was one of mine,” Lex said ardently. He pulled away and left the room.
“That’s not your fault,” Lois told Bruce.
“He’s not angry with me. He’s just upset,” Bruce assured her.
Chloe came up to his side and just dropped herself on his well-muscled arm. Bruce gave a soft, humorless laugh and put his arm around her little shoulders. Nevaeh had been harboring such a crush on Chloe, and he could see them becoming fast friends in this crisis.
The losses weren’t going to get any easier. Bruce knew that for certain.
Lois gathered her cousin in her arms and left with her, nodding back to Bruce as she went.
“Come with us if you want to join, Victor. If not, find a room and occupy yourself,” Bruce instructed. “We can’t have people outside of our efforts listening in, lest they end up betraying us in hopes that the aliens will spare them.”
He took a step toward the door, then paused.
“They won’t, by the way. They think of us as insects, mostly.”
As Bruce Wayne strode confidently out of the door, Victor hooked his right thumb on his pocket and stood there alone for a moment, digesting the rush of events he had just experienced. Aliens, cyborgs, mutants… people were dying everywhere, and Victor was only seventeen, but he really didn’t have much to live for.
Better him than another kid.
Summary: Zod has set you up the bomb. Make your time. Only... the body he has been given to be revived on the plane of existance is PREGNANT, dammit. What’s an evil warlord to do?
Pairing: Zod/Jor-El/Lara, a dash of Zodana, Clex, Brex, Lexiac, plus Vessel/others
Rating: NC-17 because I’m a perv
Warning: MPREG. Twice!
Spoilers: Smallville through Season Five "Vessel", Superman II, basic wikiable Batman and Superman comic canon.
Thanks to my wonderful sparklie beta herohunter
Parts One and Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Part Twelve
Part Thirteen
Part Fourteen
It seemed strange to be such a sunny day amidst the endtimes, but shine the sun did, and Clark came out into the unsheltered courtyard, hoping that none of the new Kryptonians would spot him. There was plotting and planning inside, and Clark needed to be away from it for a moment, so he didn’t rip Bruce’s head clean off his shoulders. Bruce and Lex had this vibe, this way about them that made it clear that they had known one another forever and would continue to forever no matter how angry Lex currently was. Clark hadn’t felt this kind of jealousy since he’d met Lucas, and it was worse now, because back then it had seemed that he could do no wrong where Lex was concerned.
He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, soaking up the sun.
It was even stranger still, when he felt, felt, that he was not alone out in the circular, well-lit courtyard. He felt it before he even noticed the new heartbeats approaching.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?”
Clark said nothing. It was still a little creepy how similar Zod’s voice was to Lex’s. Same made a gurgling sound, and Clark looked up at his new brother and sister. Before he knew what had happened, Lal was placed in his arms and Zod sat beside him, cuddling Same to his chest. Zod clearly favored his new son, and Clark wondered why, since Same was weak. Perhaps because he was weak, and would therefore need Zod much more.
Clark couldn’t help but wonder, as he bounced his little sister, what it would have been like to grow up with this lunatic as his father. Or one of his lunatic fathers.
The awkward silence spread out before them like waves of water. It felt as though Clark would have to fight his way towards saying anything of any importance beyond, “nice day.”
“How is Same doing?”
Zod petted the boy’s back. “He seems content when I am around, and he is beginning to put on a little weight, finally.”
“I’m glad,” Clark murmured. Something about the weight of his sister in his arms was comforting. He’d been pretty lost over the past year, but inexplicably, he was sitting here with his family.
“He will make it. And if he does not, the fault is not yours,” Zod said in a dispassionate voice. “It is mine.”
“No, it was me. I attacked you-“
“I am his ima and his only parent, his only family. The responsibility for his care lies solely with me.”
Clark frowned, letting Lal wrap her hand around his finger. “You’re not his only family.”
“You made it perfectly clear that you consider your loyalties to your adoptive race,” Zod said pointedly.
“It’s complicated.”
“It always is. Always will be. You will need to learn to make choices, Kal-El, to become comfortable with unanswered questions, and unclear lines between right and wrong.”
“Not everything is shades of gray,” Clark protested. “You can’t just say that and cover up murder and experimenting on people.”
“No. Too much uncertainty is madness; at the same time, inability to see beyond black and white is the same. Find the balance, and you will be an extraordinary man.”
“And that would be you?” Clark challenged.
Same made an unhappy noise, and so Zod pulled him up to his chest to support him there. “I did not find a balance. Desperation will cause a person to do things they’d never imagined, if the goal is noble enough. Survival of the species, it’s good enough, isn’t it?”
Clark thought about that for a moment. That was probably something Lex would say.
“Well, is it?” Zod asked again.
Clark met Zod’s narrowed eyes with a mingle of disbelief and pleasant surprise.
“When pressed by your inevitable destruction, when doing nothing would make you as evil as if you had done the wrong thing, no matter how horrible, when you chose to sacrifice your own soul for millions, and yet billions die…” Zod mused, turning his face up to the sky pensively. “If you plan on sending me back to the Phantom Zone, you can go ahead and kill me. I should not have outlived my triad anyway.”
Clark continued to stare, mouth open and waiting for the proper words to respond to Zod’s words. This encounter wasn’t doing much to change Clark’s mind that Zod’s mission and the subsequent years in the Phantom Zone had left him more than a little unhinged.
“But Lal and Same need you.”
“This is true. Kally, there are things that you should know. Perhaps the time of Krypton has passed as well. Perhaps we should not have outlived our people either.”
Clark licked his lips. “And everything you’ve done to take this planet?”
“Do you believe in them so much?” Zod turned his exacting gaze on his firstborn. “The people of this planet? They seem inferior. Petty. I have told you before. Have you such faith I them? Are they worthy of raising a Kryptonian?”
“I still don’t know what’s so good about being a Kryptonian,” Clark admitted. “But they were worthy of raising me. I only had trouble when Jor-El started butting in.”
“You no longer have to worry about that. As you know, I destroyed that part of the AI. I couldn’t have it acting of its own will to stop me. It cannot act of its own will to punish you any longer, either,” Zod pointed out. He dipped his head to kiss Same’s cheek. “They must be fed,” he stated simply.
As Zod slowly stood, Clark thought that he’d lost far too many father figures in his life, and he should have made a better effort to bring the AI under control, if it were possible. Clark rose to join him. “I do have faith in them. Maybe not all of them, but assuming the worst of people hasn’t gotten me anywhere in my life. I’ve only ended up making situations worse. If I’d had more faith in Lex, you and I would never have met under these circumstances.”
“I would not be so certain, Kally. The Brainiac computer is quite resourceful, as I have learned.”
“Still… I think things would have been better. You can’t trust everyone, but there are people out there who are worth putting your faith in. We have a lot of problems as a society, but…” Clark shrugged as the two of them walked inside. “If Kryptonians were to call this a new home, and join human society instead of conquering, it would be for the greater good of us all.”
“I wonder if the Kryptonians freed would be amenable to that. Surely they see humans as animals.”
“And you don’t?”
“I am not particularly enamored of humanity, but your foster mother could have crushed the heads of my children as they were born. She did not.”
Clark grimaced at the grisly image. “She wouldn’t do that. Most humans aren’t that cruel.”
“Humanity is much like we were before our age of peace. Watch them, Kally. They will set themselves up for destruction before they reach their peak, just as we did.”
“I don’t understand why you wanted to conquer us at all,” Clark said irritably. “You said yourself that the glory of being supreme ruler didn’t appeal to you. You were just… well, not just, but before, you were motivated by survival. You had to be this time, too.”
“You and I, we cannot do nothing as others suffer. You know that I have watched you. I have seen how you cannot stand idly by.” Zod looked up and down Clark. “I won’t let the grand culture of Krypton be destroyed because of a few shortsighted fools.”
“One person can’t save the world alone.”
“I beg to differ. If they hadn’t stopped me, I would have done so,” Zod snapped.
“Then what happens if that one person is captured and sent to the Phantom Zone? The plan falls apart, and everything goes back to the way it was,” Clark argued. “And that’s what happened. They took out the head, the body fell, and they damned themselves. Our entire planet could have been saved by one man, but instead it was still destroyed, and in the process you took your soul with it.”
Zod narrowed his eyes sharply at Clark, and the two infants began to cry. Even Clark could feel Zod growing warm with anger.
“You can’t do that here, either. You can’t force humans to rise up to a Kryptonian standard just because you think we’re pitiful. No one can be the pillar of society alone. They have to come up with you, or it’s not progress at all. And if you have everyone under your control, then when you die-old age, murdered, childbirth-they’ll just revert and be worse than they were before, because before they had the tools to be independent, and you stripped them away in order to ‘better’ them. Ask Lex about this. He’s explained a lot to me about colonialism during my years in public school, suffering through their history.”
“You do not believe we can coexist?” Zod arched a brow.
“I don’t think we can coexist if you come here thinking that you’re better than them. We can move faster, live longer, see things they can’t, but up here, in our heads? We’re still beasts with big brains. If we want to move forward, we’ll have to find a way to make everyone get along.”
Zod’s face relaxed, and Clark could no longer read what he was thinking or feeling. Inscrutable, not unlike Lex, only Zod was more terrifying. He was a warrior, primarily, and he had lived the streets and sacrificed his soul for a greater good.
Clark swallowed when he realized that he was looking into the potential future. For Lex, or for himself. Lex had suffered enough abuse at his father’s hands to harden anyone’s heart, and he’d certainly proved recently that he had no qualms about sacrificing himself for what he considered to be the greater good. And Clark himself, well, his experiences with Red K and Jor-El’s tests had certainly taught him what he could become.
“Tell me, Kally. How now? How do we convince humanity to accept a handful of an alien species now that we have conquered their world?” Zod asked in a quiet voice. “Not once, but twice over, we have done so. How will they believe that we could have peace? How would they have faith that Kryptonians can be good?”
At a loss, Clark just shook his head. “I dunno. Maybe we should ask Lex. He’s better at spinning things for the press. As is, he doesn’t think anyone on the planet is going to give him the time of day, now that you’ve ruled the world with his face.”
“It is no longer his face,” Zod replied. His cold eyes were reflective. “Perhaps we should speak to the people. Once we have dealt with the others, we may find a scapegoat for them to blame, so that the rest may live free.”
Clark frowned and rolled his head around on his shoulders. He didn’t like this talk of spinning and manipulating the people. He wanted to tell them the truth. There were aliens, but he was Kal-El, and he was here to help.
“If nothing else comes to pass, I want the twins to grow knowing of their Kryptonian heritage. If they must be tested, so be it, but the cruel, manipulative tests of the House of El, I do not approve of,” Zod informed him sternly.
For a moment, Clark thought that Zod had switched subjects yet again. Then his frown deepened.
“We are not scapegoating you. We’ll come up with something,” Clark said shortly, heading to the impromptu nursery.
***
Lois was sitting alone manning the radio when Chloe came in, her face red and blotchy as she made soft whimpering noises through closed, tight lips and sat beside Lois without a word. Lois’s arms went around her automatically, because she hated to see her little cousin cry. It must have been a bad day. It must have been a real bad day because it wasn’t often that she caught Chloe crying.
She knew Chloe did cry, but she had the habit of hiding it, just as Lois did, but for different reasons.
“C’mon,” Lois coaxed. “Don’t cry. I don’t have any tissues or anything…”
“Dad’s…”
Lois closed her eyes and wrapped her arms more tightly around Chloe. “Oh, Chloe…”
“They…. They found him,” she sobbed softly. “In our apartment building… It was leveled.”
Lois bit her lip hard and rubbed Chloe’s back. It was wrong and unfair and it sucked, all because these stupid aliens couldn’t find another planet to harass. She’d never given extraterrestrial life a second thought before because she wasn’t convinced there was intelligent life on this planet sometimes. Uncle Gabe had been a good man, and he didn’t deserve to die, any more than any of the others had.
Most of all, her cousin didn’t deserve to lose her only active parent.
“Stupid, stupid aliens,” Lois grumbled.
“They’re not all bad,” Chloe replied softly.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. My alien babydaddy is on our side now,” Lois replied irritably.
Chloe wiped her eyes and slumped in place, staring at her feet as the tears continued to roll down her cheeks. “Not him. J-just trust me. Some of them are okay. “
“When one of them steps up without us coercing them into it, I’ll buy it. “
Sniffing and hiding her face, Chloe didn’t stop crying for a while, and Lois waited with her. She still didn’t know if her sister and father were all right, and for the moment, it was better not to know. They were at war, and distractions like these were only going to make matters harder.
She’d bite down and deal with the aftermath later.
***
It was a beautiful day. Such a beautiful day to go out and collect survivors.
Nevaeh loved this job. It was the best she had ever had in her short sixteen years on this planet, the most useful, and the most fun. If people were trapped behind walls, she just set her flame alight and took the offending parts down. Together, she and Feign had collected a number of survivors, identified a few of the fallen so that those back at the base could add to their lists for after this was all over and families could be contacted, and were now heading back to their new hideout just outside of town in hopes that a few of the people would join their fight. The rest would be sent on to a safer place.
Certainly not a safe place under normal circumstances, Belle Reve had proved to be a nice little stronghold. A better stronghold than it had been an asylum, anyway.
Recently, the newly arrived Kryptonians had taken a step further than Zod’s plan. They had begun randomly executing humans, blowing up buildings, and showing their exploits on television. It was more important than ever to stay out of the Kryptonians’ sight.
Tan lifted a twelve-year-old girl who had broken her leg into his arms and let her play with the blue streaks in his hair. “We should head back now,” he urged.
Feign nodded, moving along behind them and making sure to keep her cover on them even. After a moment, she motioned them forward. With Nevaeh at the lead, they began to navigate their way back through the city. Although some of their number had been injured, they made a good pace until they hit Centennial Park.
“Don’t move,” Feign whispered once she’d spotted the figures in the sky. “They’ve never seen through my illusions before.”
“How many are there?” Nevaeh asked. She paused, squinting as she looked up and scanned the sky. “There’s only two.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Tan snapped. “Boss wouldn’t approve.”
“Shouldn’t we get into hiding?” hissed one of the men who they had just pulled out of a building.
“My powers will keep them from seeing us,” Feign said certainly. “Um… Tan, what is that? That one’s Peru-Col for sure. But what is that beside her?”
“I dunno, Feign, but they’re coming down. Geezus, it’s… like a black hole.”
The group stared up at the creature beside Peru-Col as she touched down in the middle of the park. It was humanoid, at least, and completely black. Now and then the background could be seen through it. It had no visible eyes, or mouth, just two twitching holes on the lump that could be its head. It went from upright to all fours, then up on its hind legs again, twisting its head around as it emitted a strange moan.
“Find them. Tasty. Good treats for you,” Peru-Col said in a humorless voice.
It moaned again and turned its head in the other direction.
“Feign, I think…” Neveah whispered, her eyes glued to that thing. “I think you should take everyone else in the other direction. Get them out of here, and I’ll deal with… that.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If it doesn’t kill you, then Peru-Col will,” Feign snapped, running her hand over her closely cropped hair.
Tan held the girl tighter. She lifted her head and blinked rich, honey colored eyes at the scene before them. “Well, we got to do somethin’,” she said seriously. “Cause that thing knows we’re here.”
“There’s no way,” Feign argued.
One of the survivors bolted away from their group, heading for the remains of the Centennial Hotel. Just a quickly, one of the women ran after him, arms out-stretched to grab him back.
“No, you idiots!” Neveah cried.
“Let’s go,” Tan urged, taking the hand of another child and motioning with his head for Feign to come with them. Nevaeh took two hands herself, a woman and a young boy, and looked back.
The thing blurred forward, its gaping maw opening, and they were gone. Without a trace. Neveah drew in a sharp breath and kept moving with them. She felt a prickling on the back of her neck.
“More where that came from. More energy. More. Find the energy. The metas have it waiting for you,” Peru-Col urged coldly.
The keening moan of the creature echoed through the silence of the park. It knew they were there.
“Guys, when I say, you’ve got to run. Run for all you’re worth, and I mean it. Don’t look back, and don’t wait for me. You’ve got to get the hell out of here, and you can’t let them follow you,” she instructed.
“Look, kid,” Feign began.
“Do it!” Neveah snapped. She let go of the hands she’d been holding and broke into a run towards Peru-Col, burning her flame as brightly as she could burn. She hadn’t let it go this hot since her family had died, and she had been sure that she would never burn this brightly since, but today was a special exception.
Her steps melted the pavement and set the grass alight. Peru-Col gaped as Nevaeh came for her, and then crossed her arms, deciding to hold her ground against this crazy human barreling toward her. Neveah could hear the water evaporating from the air, and she could hear that thing, whatever it was, screaming in hunger as it moved towards them.
Peru-Col must have been surprised when Nevaeh wrapped her arms around her. She thought of Zod’s story about how this woman had sacrificed her daughter to save her own life.
Nevaeh wondered what Peru-Col thought of as the thing engulfed them both.
***
In a smooth, slick motion, Lionel entered the infirmary and walked up to Martha before she realized that he was there. Carefully, he touched a lock of her hair.
“Oh!” She jumped in surprise and looked back at Lionel, who was smiling. She swatted at him. “You scared me.”
“Ah, my evil plan worked.” Lionel curved the right side of his mouth upward and looked at how well Martha had organized their supplies. They had begun relocating people to Smallville. It was an arguably good thing; while their numbers dwindled, they rid themselves of those who could or would not fight, and were able to ensure that those people were protected. Still, Lionel was glad that Martha had remained, even if he would have liked for to her to have left for safer lodgings with Miss Lang. Martha was quite capable behind the scenes, as always.
Martha rolled her eyes. “I think we have enough evil plans going around here without you adding to it. Why don’t you help me sort out these medicines the last scouting group brought in?”
“Why, Martha, are you hinting that I make myself useful?” Lionel sat down across from her.
“Not so much hinting as asking, but whatever makes you comfortable.” After a moment of quiet sorting, Martha spoke again. “Lex seems to be healing well, now.”
“He’s a survivor. Always has been.”
“Had you worried there, though,” Martha said knowingly. Her eyes flitted up to meet Lionel’s, which held hers for but a moment before looking down at the pile again.
“He came back to us as a corpse. What father wouldn’t be concerned?”
“You were telling me before about your concern that Lex was slipping down a bad path, ath that you’ve been unable to deter him from. And yet he gave everything he had to save us all. Have you two talked about this?”
“Lex and I don’t have those kinds of discussions.”
“Because you prefer to challenge him,” Martha concluded. “Lionel, there needs to be a reward for a challenge. Things will never get better between the two of you if neither is willing to budge, and you’re older. You’re the parent.”
“Martha, if I tell Lex ‘good job,’ he’s going to think I have an ulterior motive, simple as that,” Lionel scoffed. He put down a vial of medicine and shook his head.
“Then you make him believe. You show him that you care. Words don’t mean much when you’ve used them in the past to manipulate him,” Martha replied sternly. “Lex will never accept that you mean to actually be his father if he doesn’t witness consistently repentant behavior from you. And Lionel, Clark will never accept you at all, if you don’t get Lex on board. You’ve kept his secret, and that gets you a lot of credit from me, but there are more and more people who know about Clark’s secret these days.”
Lionel lifted his chin and pulled his irritation back. He would not have taken this lecture from anyone else. He could tell for Martha’s tone that she was swayed by Lex’s recent heroism, and Lionel would have to change tracks to keep her sympathies.
“I know this isn’t easy to hear, but I can’t continue to be around you, knowing how you have treated Lex, unless you at least try to make amends. I’m a mother,” Martha explained with a discontented frown. “No matter what I want, that will always be a part of me.”
“And how would you suggest I go about fixing this? Lex isn’t exactly in the frame of mind for a tête-à-tête with me.”
“No, I’d say not, Lionel,” Martha replied quietly. “He’s basically been abducted and raped and put into a situation that was worse than it had to be because he had no support. This isn’t a good time, but you can broach the topic, and you can try to be understanding. I saw how much love you have for your son when you were giving him the transfusion, but you never let him see that. Is it so hard to imagine that he can’t believe that you care? You and Lex don’t have that kind of relationship because you, the parent, set that kind of relationships when he was younger, and it only gets worse.”
“You don’t understand how difficult it’s been,” Lionel replied sharply. “What he let me think he did-I couldn’t even look at him, let alone admit that I still loved him, to him or to myself. I’d be loving my little monster. His mother murdered our baby and let Lex take the blame!”
Martha’s jaw dropped. “Oh… oh, Lionel, is that why he was so…” She covered her mouth and shook her head. After taking a breath, she touched his hand. “What a brave, strong son you raised, for him to try to shoulder the blame for such a thing.”
Lionel pulled his hand back and stood, turning himself away from her.
“You can still make amends with him, if you try, because Lex can be a wellspring of love and forgiveness, if he believes that you’re earnest,” Martha encouraged. “You have an amazing son. When you look at him, when you talk to him, imagine what you would do with Clark. You treat Clark as though he is something miraculous.”
“That won’t work with Lex.”
Martha sighed and stood as well, shrugging lightly. “Maybe not at first. But I saw how he responded to any positive reinforcement that Jonathan was willing to toss his way. It wasn’t consistent; it wasn’t even always unmitigatedly kind, but Lex always shined to it, no matter how harsh Jonathan had been to him recently.”
“That is not a good thing, Martha. He favors abuse.”
“I wonder where he learned that,” Martha shot back. She brushed her hands against each other and headed for the door. “I have to start lunch. See you around, Lionel.”
Lionel turned his head, watching her go. This woman, this unbelievable woman, she did things to him that he could never quite get a handle on. She pushed, and he pulled. He caused her to light up, and she shut him down and challenged him to be better. He wondered if her love felt to him anything the way his had felt to Lex. Incredibly frustrating, and yet he wanted it.
It was the first thing Lex had said, directly after Lex had admitted to accepting the blow for Julian’s death.
Maybe you could have loved me.
“Maybe you’ll believe it before I die,” Lionel murmured. He took his leave of the infirmary, considering his choices. To keep Martha, he would have to brave an interaction that he had been avoiding for years. Or make her believe that he had.
***
“Do you really expect me to work with this lunatic?”
Two heads turned to see Victor Stone walking in with Chloe Sullivan. He had kept his hair shaved close to his chocolate colored scalp, and he wore only a worn gray shirt, scuffed sneakers, and a pair of threadbare jeans. His arms were crossed, and his eyes narrowed at the bald, thin man that he remembered too well.
“You were saved to help prevent this, you know,” Lex said coldly. “How’s the hardware working, by the way?”
“You’re an ass,” Victor spat. Lex stood and walked away from where he had been sitting with Bruce, talking about the design of their weapons. Victor’s frown deepened and his eyes widened as Lex drew nearer, and the thick scars peeking out of his sweater became apparent. “What the helll happened to you?”
“I did my part. It’s time to do yours. We need all the hands we can get to stop these aliens, and it wouldn’t hurt to have someone specifically designed to match them in speed and strength.” Lex shrugged his head to the side. “Sorry, I didn’t know about the flying at the time.”
“That’s what you’re sorry for?” Victor asked with a laugh.
“Well, I’m not sorry that you’re not a corpse. If you want to commit suicide, that’s on you,” Lex said flippantly and turned away from him.
“I’ve been thinking about it! I’ve been living on the streets because of you. I lost my girlfriend because of you. My entire family-“
“I didn’t cause their deaths!” Lex argued. “I’ll have you know there was an explosion in the lab. It was sabotage.” He looked up at the ceiling and swallowed.
“My family died in a car crash,” Victor said slowly and uncertainly. “That’s what the papers said.”
“Car crashes are an easy cover-up in this city. I’ll show you the tape sometime, if they haven’t been destroyed in this mess. I’m telling you that someone has been blowing up my buildings for the past couple of months,” Lex insisted.
“Who?” Bruce asked in his calm, even voice. He rose and began walking over to them.
Lex looked to him for a moment, licking his lips. “Don’t know. They don’t exactly leave a calling card, although there have been some arrows left behind.”
Victor looked over the two of them suspiciously. Then he glanced back at Chloe.
“You said you were willing to help. I know he had no right to experiment on you without your consent, but you’re alive,” Chloe whispered to him earnestly. “You’re alive, and you can do something about this. God, if it were possible, I’d ask them to give me your implants so that I could at least do something.”
“I lost my family. It isn’t that easy, Chloe,” Victor told her, although his voice had grown less angry.
“Well. It’s not like I can’t relate.” Chloe swallowed and looked away. “People are in jeopardy, here. I’m not feeling really sympathetic to anyone letting their petty differences prevent them from stepping up.”
Victor’s eyes widened as he stared at her.
“Wayne. Bruce Wayne.” Bruce held out his hand to the young man with a stern look on his face.
“As in the Bruce Wayne? From Gotham?” Victor asked. He looked back at Chloe for a moment, but she had walked over to the plans laid out on the table and was ignoring him stonily.
“Yes. Look, we’ve moved some of the elderly, the injured, and children to the next town over, Smallville. If you aren’t interested in helping, then we’ll send you over there on the next trip.” Bruce withdrew his hand. “Now, I understand your anger, but right now, we just need all the hands we can get, and if they’ve got extra strength behind them, the better.”
“You don’t look like a playboy,” Victor said flatly.
“You don’t look like a cyborg. You look like a kid. And as much as I want soldiers, I’m not comfortable putting kids out there on the line,” Bruce said bluntly.
Lex turned his head. “I’m not either, Bruce, but-“
“I know you aren’t, Lex. That wasn’t a dig. I watched you arguing with your father about sending them out for two hours, at least. They’re alright,” Bruce told him, then looked back to Victor. “For now. However, the fight we’re going to be entering into soon will be a whole other level.”
Victor rubbed the back of his head. “What are you planning on doing?”
“We’re going to launch an attack on the Kryptonians, with two at our side, and hope that we can take them out of power before they bring anything else out of the Phantom Zone,” Lex answered.
Victor drew in a deep breath and shook his head. “I’ll do what I can. I played football. I’m no hero.”
“That doesn’t mean you couldn’t be,” Bruce replied, giving Victor an appraising glance. “But it’s up to you. We’re just going over our final specs for a weapon to deal with the Kryptonians.”
“Is… is that what these things are? This is crazy. I could have sworn the one that came first looked like you,” Victor told Lex, looking over at the table.
“It did. It was using my DNA,” Lex replied shortly.
“Don’t they have their own bodies?”
“Some do, some don’t. That one’s body had been destroyed. It’s a long story-“
Lois burst in with her hair pulled into a messy ponytail and a small radio in her hand. “Sorry to break up the party, but our little rescue group that we sent out is in serious trouble.”
“Trouble how?” Lex asked immediately, coming over to her.
Lois swallowed and met Lex’s eye. “The good news is that the one Zod identified as Peru-Col is probably dead.”
“Bad news?”
“So is Nevaeh.” Lois registered the distraught looks on Lex and Chloe’s faces but continued. “Peru-Col came down with this thing, some new kind of alien, and it knew they were there despite the illusions. It just sucks people in. I don’t know what’s up but it sounds really bad. Like they let loose something they can’t control.”
“Fools,” Lex whispered. Bruce came up behind him and put a light hand on his shoulder.
“Exactly. Feign says that Nevaeh was able to distract it probably because she gives off so much energy when she uses her powers, but it’s still out there, and the other Kryptonians are still out there, and who knows what else those idiots are gonna set loose!” Lois threw a hand up in the air. She spotted Victor and raised a brow, but said nothing. She didn’t have time for introductions right now.
Lex bit back a rush of pain. He’d pulled that girl back from the brink of insanity, and she’d given her life for a few strangers. “We… we need to get together and talk about this. Where is the rescue group now?”
“They stopped off at Zero, but they had to cut their message short. I don’t know if the alien was after them, but we all know that the Kryptonians can see sound waves, if they try, so they gave me the message and shut up. You can call them if you want.” Lois handed the radio to Lex. She’d imagined that manning the telephones, so to speak, would be boring, and this happened. All in all, she’d prefer boring.
“Not now. We may check on them when we’ve decided on a plan of attack.” Lex looked back at Bruce.
“They’re one down. I didn’t think we’d be getting out of this without any losses,” Bruce said in a tender voice.
“She was sixteen. And she was one of mine,” Lex said ardently. He pulled away and left the room.
“That’s not your fault,” Lois told Bruce.
“He’s not angry with me. He’s just upset,” Bruce assured her.
Chloe came up to his side and just dropped herself on his well-muscled arm. Bruce gave a soft, humorless laugh and put his arm around her little shoulders. Nevaeh had been harboring such a crush on Chloe, and he could see them becoming fast friends in this crisis.
The losses weren’t going to get any easier. Bruce knew that for certain.
Lois gathered her cousin in her arms and left with her, nodding back to Bruce as she went.
“Come with us if you want to join, Victor. If not, find a room and occupy yourself,” Bruce instructed. “We can’t have people outside of our efforts listening in, lest they end up betraying us in hopes that the aliens will spare them.”
He took a step toward the door, then paused.
“They won’t, by the way. They think of us as insects, mostly.”
As Bruce Wayne strode confidently out of the door, Victor hooked his right thumb on his pocket and stood there alone for a moment, digesting the rush of events he had just experienced. Aliens, cyborgs, mutants… people were dying everywhere, and Victor was only seventeen, but he really didn’t have much to live for.
Better him than another kid.