"This is not the right way. This is not want you want."

That urging voice, innocent and sincere riddling him from the inside. The voice of a man... no not a man, an alien of great, immense power that could rule and ruin all the world speaking to him as if somehow he knew what it was that he truly wanted. Wasn't this the right way?

A hard decision had to be made ever since Superman was unleashed on Metropolis, flying through the skies and rescuing those who's fate finally found them, ill hearts and burning eyes look to their savior and mark him their nemeses. The villains of this world rose to the battleground that was Superman's awesome power and developed new ways to bring him down, by the sheer strength of those equal to his power who followed him here, those who sought out technology to defeat him and finally the desperate few who threatened the lives of the innocent. The scale of warfare brought upon this place, the devastation and misplaced worship all because of one being who wanted to do good.

This man possessed immense power and the will to use that power for good when so many in his place would abuse it, Clark cared for a world that would never understand him a world even Bruce would sometimes look upon with disappointment and frustration, and in truth Bruce envied Clark's heart. The Batman held the power over him now and there should have been a swell of victory in his veins but they had only chilled, ice cold under his skin, he felt nothing but those words.

If Superman was allowed to go on many more would come for him, and many would die in the crossfires of those battles, many against the few, this was the way.

Bruce took the crystallized Kryptonite from Luthor's hands and the young man took a step away from him, the crystal glowed a brilliant green that was almost too hard to look at. Bruce waved it over the motionless body of Superman and the alien began to writhe against the pummeled cement under him. Clark opened his blue eyes to stare at the man who was trying to destroy him, was this the justice that had to be done?

Bruce watched on as Clark's body shook under the glow of green, cries of immense pain ringing in his ears, a hand reached out toward him and the voice rang out in the wreckage
that had once been a building.

"Please..."

Bruce's grip on the Kryptonite began to weaken for just a moment, destroying the Superman was what had to be done but at what cost? Everything Bruce stood for was about to stain his hands with blood, would he really try to plunge this into his heart? His body was defying him as he felt the blood drain from his face, fear of his own conviction.

"Th...There's another way..."

Clark was losing consciousness and Bruce had to make a decision. After what felt like weeks of planning, training, fighting and trapping it seemed now that all he had believed was no longer in his heart. Alfred's words echoed in his mind even though he hadn't listened the first time "He is not our enemy!" followed by the screams of his rage in the collapsing streets of Metropolis watching Wayne Financial Tower crumbling to dust, taking with it more lives. So many conflicting feelings were divided and fighting inside him to surface.

What alternative was there to ending Superman's life? Would the powerful aliens really stop coming to earth, if they did come and did not find what they were looking for more lives would be lost. Criminal's would keep growing stronger with the technology they'd already built, more natural disasters would arrive, and people would die.

Bruce would close his eyes and every moment he would see this; a hand reaching out to him for mercy and the last breaths of someone he should have saved. And suddenly Jason Todd's face appeared a bloodied hand outstretched to him before the Joker smashed his face with a crowbar and carried his body away into the shadows.

The Kryptonite flew past Lex's face hitting the damaged wall on the other side, the young man was taken by surprise "What are you doing?" he shouted approaching them but stopping short of a batarang pointed centimeters from his eye.

"Leave us!" Bruce commanded his voice full of authority and rage, an internal anger and disappointment with his own actions. The Batman fell to his knees beside Clark's body, he was still and for a moment Bruce thought it was too late.

After what felt like an eternity Clark's eyes opened a blue of a clear sky over the peak of day, soft with a forgiveness that Bruce could not understand, he did not deserve it. It was too late for him to be redeemed for all the fighting and pain that he had caused.

"I have failed our cities." he declared as he stared at the cement floor filled with nothing but regret and frustration, he'd lost too much this last few years and now finally he'd lost even himself.

A hand took hold of his wrist and surprised him, Bruce met Clark's eyes and suddenly something changed, hopelessness was replaced as the broken voice hardly above a whisper

"You are a good man, Bruce."

Bruce laid his free hand over Clark's and spoke in his deeper voice "When our enemies come I'll be there to help you fight them." Clark's expression grew brighter and a smile appeared as some of the mobility in his body came back to him but he was still clearly in pain, Bruce had finally accepted him and understood why he couldn't give up this fight.

Clark used the wrist as leverage to pull himself up and nodded to Bruce "We're on the same side." the older hero allowed a weak smile to appear for only a brief moment before it disappeared. Bruce slipped his hand under Clark's knees and placed the other at his back lifting him up into his arms before carrying him out of the building that began to crumble behind them, the rubble rolling downward to cover the glowing Kryptonite and the rain began to fall from the ever overcast sky of Gotham.

And so it was that the death of Superman was not the solution to keeping the world safe rather it was not letting him fight alone against power equal or succeeding his own. More would come to see this as the way and fight alongside each other so neither had to stand alone.

A new age was dawning over the sister cities, a dawn of what was right and fair, a dawn of justice.