This is a spin-off or a "what if Superman had died?" during the events of "In the safety of their hearts". So please if you haven't checked that story out, it's recommendable that you do before you read this one. Thank you!
"KAL!"
He didn't say anything… instead he closed his eyes as he continuously took in every punch meant for his wife. The only time he opened his eyes was to see his wife's worried and tearing face… and to look at her stomach wrapped in a red scarf… where his baby laid.
Diana felt the tears on her face. She couldn't bear it any longer… She tried to stand up until-
"Flash, Shazam, Green Lantern!" a voice shouted from behind the clone, "you all know what to do!"
Diana saw that it was Batman, Flash, Shazam, Green Lantern and the rest of the Justice League. They have come to fight the clone and defeat him. Diana couldn't have been gladder to see that they have come. Soon after the clone was occupied with the other members of the Justice League, Superman dropped on his knees and on Wonder Woman's arms... He was unconscious…
"Kal?" Diana called out to him.
He didn't answer. He lay beside her as she leaned closer to his face.
"Kal? Please open your eyes." she gently shook him.
There was still no answer. Diana was worried. She put her ear on his chest and heard only a faint sound of his heartbeat… she was scared.
"KAL!" she shouted as if she was demanding for him to open his eyes.
Soon after, he slowly opened his eyes- half closed, half opened. He then gave out a half-smile, "Hey" he croaked in a low voice.
"Hey." she smiled; her heart was at a relief.
"Is it over?" he asked, "Have I protected everybody?"
Diana turned. She saw that her team members were at an advantage against their opponent as they used Kryptonite against him. Normally she would be against the use of Kryptonite since it could harm her husband but since their opponent was strong and dangerous then it was okay.
"It is… it's over," she caressed his cheeks, "you've bravely protected everybody."
"That's good," he kept his smile, "how about you? Have I protected you and the baby? Are you both safe?"
"Yes… We are both safe thanks to you."
"That's… good…."
His eyes were closing again, "Kal stay with me please."
"Diana…" he put up his hands to touch her face, "everything seems blurry… it's getting hard to see your face."
Diana took his hand on her cheek and tightly held onto it. Tears were flowing down her cheeks, "Stay with me Kal."
"You are going to be a terrific mother Diana… I just know it… our child…" he was finding it hard to catch his breath and speak, "will grow… to be… strong…"
"Kal please stop! Everything will be over soon!" she was finally begging, "Our child will grow up with a family- you and me; a mother and a father"
"Thank you for everything Diana… you were my family…"
"Kal," her voice was breaking, "you promised me you were going to stay with me forever right?"
Everything was blurry to her; her eyes were filled with tears; but she could still see her husband's face clearly. He gave her a gentle smile, "I love you Diana."
"Don't! Don't say your goodbyes yet! Not now!" Diana shouted.
Suddenly his hand dropped on the ground beside him…. Diana's eyes widened as she gasped…. Her heart dropped… It was as if everything around her stopped… that time had stopped… and nothing, nothing could bring it back up for her again…
She held him tightly in her arms and buried her face on his chest. No.. No… NO…
"NOOOOO!"
2 weeks later
Diana Kent opened her eyes to the cold and clear ceiling of the icy fortress above her. The yellow sun's rays came upon her so brightly she was slightly blinded. She groaned as she covered herself in her blanket once more to try and go back to the sleep she was deprived from the whole night. Suddenly, her stomach growled; she was hungry. It was understandable since she hadn't eaten properly for two days. She allowed herself to go on a hunger strike without any cause. She sighed as she jumped from her bowl structured bed.
She walked slowly towards the kitchen of the fortress. The kitchen looked like a normal kitchen you would see in houses around the world except for the fact that the counters were all made from glass. She pressed a button on the coffee machine and looked around the kitchen.
Clark Kent, her husband, had renovated his whole Fortress of Solitude to make sure that, inside, it was just like any other houses most people lived in. He wanted to make sure that the Fortress was a second home to her. Diana faced the high ceiling of the fortress as she pondered a thought; that his thoughtfulness was one of the things she loved about her husband.
The thought of her husband made her heart dropped. Even though outside, she didn't feel fazed with the thought, it was only because she has already shed too much tears that she couldn't shed anymore. But inside, she was suffocating.
It has been 2 weeks since the incident in Metropolis occurred. All seemed well after it; except for the one unbearable fact that haunted her and will haunt her for the rest of her life: the death of her husband.
Since then a lot has happened: Lex Luthor was sentenced to a life imprisonment, his laboratory was destroyed and so were all the clones, Doomsday was sent to the Phantom Zone and the Justice League have all recovered from their physical injuries. Diana too, has recovered from all of her physical injuries but since the incident, she has locked herself in her husband's fortress; unwilling to talk to anybody but the computers in the fortress.
Hiisssss
Diana jumped at the whistling sound of the coffee machine. She immediately turned it off and took her cup of coffee. Slowly, she blew onto it and took a sip. As she continued her drink, she thought of her plans for the rest of the day… nothing. There was nothing for her to do and nothing she felt like doing. She merely wanted to stay in the fortress- where his husband used to work, spend some time with her and stayed.
She walked over to the living room and sat on the couch. She reached over the table beside her to get the remote control for the TV but stopped when she saw a specific artefact that lay on the table beside the remote. It was a glass jar with its mouth tightly sealed with a wooden stopper. Inside the jar, was a blooming white iris flower. The flower's petals still had its radiance shine and bright colour. She took the glass jar and stared at it as she remembered a memory that concealed itself in the artefact:
Diana slowly placed the jar of iris flower on the table beside the couch in her husband's Fortress of Solitude; and she did so with a huge smile on her face.
"Are you really okay with just putting it there?" Clark, her husband, asked from behind her.
"Why not?" she angled the jar so that it would stand out in the living room, "You said so yourself, you want this fortress to be my second home."
"I just thought you would be more comfortable putting it in our house in Smallville." He brushed the back if his neck as he did.
"Well this gift is one of a kind," she turned to him, "just like my husband and his fortress."
Clark put his hand around her waist and pulled her close to him, "Is that so? Well then I guess this scarf from a certain someone just fits me perfectly."
Diana raised her eyebrow, "Speaking of which, for someone who isn't affected by the cold at all and has a fortress in the middle of a frozen land, you sure do wear that scarf a lot."
"Well it fits me." Clark laughed.
"I'm just glad you like it." She put her arms around his neck, "I thought it wouldn't be enough."
"You know if you feel like this gift isn't enough, I have another idea for a gift."
"What is it?"
Clark gave her a cheeky smile and raised his eyebrows. Diana furrowed her eyebrows and pondered over the thought for a while until finally, she got it. She widened her eyes, "Kal no… not now."
"Why not?"
"It's cold."
"You've never been bothered by the cold before."
"I'm tired."
"You seemed full of energy just a couple of seconds ago."
"Kal..." she shot him a look.
Clark ignored her and grinned. Suddenly, he started tickling her on her ribs. Diana tried to block herself from his attacks.
"Kal!" she couldn't help but laugh.
Clark laughed. Diana continued blocking herself until she couldn't take anymore and decided to run; she was still laughing as she did.
"Trying to have a race with me is like trying to have a race with… well Superman… or Flash!" Clark shouted.
"Yes but I'm not like other humans, aren't I?" Diana shouted back.
"True…"
Clark ran after her around the Fortress of Solitude until finally their small game of cat and mouse eventually led them in… London.
Diana tightly hugged the jar in her arms. Slowly, tears began streaming down her face until she couldn't help herself anymore and the whole room was filled with nothing but the sound of sobs and cries.
Riingg…
Diana slowly woke up to the sound of ringing. She sat up from the couch and saw that she was still hanging onto the jar. She placed it on the table beside her and walked over the monitor screen on the wall beside the living room door. She pressed a button and the monitor immediately lit up to show footage from outside the Fortress. In the footage, she saw a man dressed in a black tight suit with a mask consisting of pointy ears, on his head; standing outside of the Fortress door. On his chest was a shadowed shape of a bat.
Diana took a deep breath and turned to press a button that would turn off the monitor when suddenly-
"Diana I know you're in there," he said, "so don't pretend that you're not and just open the door."
She held a button and spoke on the monitor, "What do you want Bruce?"
"To talk to you."
"You've never been a man to talk."
"If talking with you means I can get you out of that place then so be it."
"You need to leave, Bruce!" Diana turned and threatened to turn the monitor off.
"Diana it's about you and Clark's farm in Smallville."
Diana stopped and sighed. She reluctantly pressed the button which allowed Bruce to enter the Fortress.
She sat on the couch once more and took her cup of coffee. The coffee has grown cold so she decided to settle it back on the table in front of her again. Just as she did, Bruce appeared in the living room.
"So is this how you spend most of your time now?" Bruce asked as he remained standing on the living room door.
"What about the farm in Smallville?" Diana ignored him.
"You weren't in the funeral."
"That's because I didn't want to go," Diana replied, "now what about the farm in Smallville?"
"But you were still there weren't you?" Bruce continued, "Just not near your husband's body."
"….."
"You watched from far away but what does that do?"
"It saves me from hearing the cries of people from all over the world," Diana explained without looking at Bruce, "a cry meant for my husband who they don't completely know or understand."
"Diana, you can't live your life like this anymore."
"Who are you to tell how to live my life, Bruce?" Diana furrowed her eyebrows at him.
"I'm your friend. I'm Clark's friend; your husband's friend."
Diana stood up and took the cup and headed towards the kitchen. She walked past Bruce as if he wasn't there.
"Diana we are all mourning for his death," Bruce continued, "you don't have to mourn by yourself."
"…."
"We all feel the same way."
"No we don't!" Diana snapped. She accidentally broke the cup on her hand by holding onto it tightly ;then turned to Bruce, "you don't know what it feels like! None of you do! He wasn't just my husband, Bruce! He was my friend! The father of my unborn child!"
"Which is why you need to snap out of it!" Bruce took off his mask, "your child might've lost his father but he hasn't lost his mother! Your baby needs you! The whole world needs you!"
"No they don't," Diana washed the blood on her hand, "they have the rest of the Justice League. As you just said, only my child needs me."
"I admit, the Justice League doesn't feel complete without Clark," Bruce explained, "and if Wonder Woman isn't there as well, the Justice League might never be the same anymore."
Diana took a deep breath and ignored him, "Is that why you're really here Bruce? To get me back in the League?"
"Partly yes."
"Then you're time here is futile."
"…."
"What's wrong with the farm in Smallville?"
"That day," Bruce sighed, "when Clark sacrificed himself for you and the world; he did it willingly in hopes that the world will go on; that you and your child will go on. All of us are still grieving for his sacrifice. The whole world still finds it hard to move on without their hero too, Diana."
"But they don't know my husband like I do!" Diana washed her hands with force which made blood appear even more, "they don't even know that he's married and that he's about to become a father to a child who will now grow up without one!"
Diana didn't turn her head to Bruce. Instead, she heard something dropped on the kitchen table.
"Inside these papers are information about property management for the farm in Smallville," Bruce explained, "since Clark was revealed as one of the unfortunate victims during the attack, real estate managers have been trying to buy the farm. And since you're Clark's wife and the only one legally allowed making decisions about the farm, you're the only one who can decide what will happen to it."
"Thank you." Diana said.
She still didn't turn to look at Bruce. Instead, she listened as he told her, "I know you blame yourself for his death… but no one but Clark could've kept himself alive. There was nothing any of us could've done. And this is not the right way to repay him for saving you, Diana."
"….."
Soon after Bruce has left the Fortress, Diana stared at the papers on the kitchen table. She looked over the papers and pretended as if she was reading over it; when in actual fact, she became scared of the thought of arriving to Smallville.
Tears slowly fell on the papers and drenched it as she went over the thought. She was scared because it was the place Clark and Diana both decided as their future home with their children; but with Clark gone, she felt as if that future completely… disappeared.
The moment her husband died was the moment her future with him and her dream… fell.
I'm not sure how this will turn out completely but I don't think it will be a massive storyline because I will start the next arc to the "Lucky" storline soon and I still have "Two Worlds".
Thanks for checking out this spin-off and please leave a review of what you think (negative criticisms are welcome but please refrain from making snide, sarcatic or hurtful comments)
Thank you.