Chapter Two: Waking Up Part Two.
Harry knew one thing, he was in for a battle, for Bellatrix Lestrange was one of Voldemort's most formidable Death Eaters. The fact that she slipped on a banana peel and got killed by an overbearing housewife was remembered by him, but it was Bellatrix's arrogance that defeated her and not any skill on the part of the person that defeated her. Harry, Kara, and Karen stood together, the wind blowing through their hair when they braced themselves for the fight.
"Where are they?" Bellatrix asked in her most dangerous voice, before she shrieked at the top of her lungs. "WHERE ARE THEY?"
"I don't really know who you're talking about," Harry responded when he blocked a blast of purple light and turned around, twisting on his heel. He swung for the fences and sent a blast of red light towards her but she ducked and dodged each every attack.
"They can't all have been dead, I know you did something, you are the destroyer of our world," Bellatrix stated but it was at this point where Kara flew at her at super speed and prepared to strike hard.
A shield appeared around Bellatrix and Kara struck it at super speed. She cracked her face against it and flew back into Harry's arms. He caught her, and helped her stand on her feet, with her heart beating steady.
Karen, Kara, and Harry let out a triple attack of their heat vision but Bellatrix used another charm to block these assaults and strike out harder.
'There is no way she should be this powerful,' Harry thought when he blinked his eyes.
'No way, but she is,' Karen thought when they tried to use their super breath to throw her off guard.
'Yet, she is,' Kara thought to them all, trying to find a way to get around. 'Think, there's got to be a way for us to get around here, she can't be invincible, there's no way, no how, that she could be invincible."
"Either you tell me what happened, or I will make you pay," Bellatrix stated, her eyes blood shot and her tone nasty, with the malice dripping from her words. She would make them suffer.
Diana watched the battle from the edge and decided to rush forward, joining in. This woman was not the friendly type, in fact she was the type that gave all women a bad name. Bellatrix tried to shot a blast of green light towards Diana but Harry teleported in front of her to take the hit. He thought for sure he was going to get knocked into another out of body experience.
That was not quiet what happened, rather his body began to glow in the light, and his eyes glowed as well. Instead of being taken down by the Killing Curse, his body was empowered, and the energy made him stronger. He blasted Bellatrix with the light but she dodged the attack with reflexes that were not dulled by years in Azkaban. It came to Harry's attention that this version of Bellatrix Lestrange, she was much stronger, much savvier, and much more able to fight.
"I'll make you tell me," Bellatrix responded when she looked at Harry with sadistic intentions in mind.
"We're at a stalemate right now," Harry responded when he stood in a battle stance, waiting for her to strike.
"Perhaps," Bellatrix responded with a grin twisting on her face and she sent flaming purple daggers at Harry but he dodged it and he fired back, whipping his wand. She dodged her powers. "That orb that I came from, it empowered me, even if the rest in that orb lacked their abilities."
"Orb?" Kara asked, but she recalled something. "It's..."
Kara never got to finish her statement but another figure showed up, dark hair, with blue eyes that were locked onto Bellatrix.
"It's a party now," Bellatrix responded but the woman stalked the witch.
"You won't live to harm another life, butcher," the woman stated in a crisp voice, when she locked eyes with the woman who murdered many of them, including General Zod. Kal-El and Lily Potter's betrayal set the stage for that final fatal blow, just before Bellatrix Lestrange transfigured Zod's heart into Kryptonite.
"Have we met?" Bellatrix asked but the woman flew at her, a knife in her hand, before she aimed at her throat. Bellatrix dodged the attack, before she turned around, a twisted grin spreading over her face.
"Could anyone please explain to me what's going on here?" Diana asked in confusion when she watched the progress of the two women who fought each other with great fury. She looked at Harry, Kara ,and Karen, all of them who looked rather tense when they watched the battle.
"That's a good question," Harry remarked, wishing that he had the answer but he had nothing, but another flash of light appeared when someone dropped down from the sky in front of him. The dust cleared, when Harry saw her standing there. "Chloe?"
"Harry?" Chloe asked, feeling pleased to see her husband but also very confused given the nature of how she arrived here. "Would you explain what's going on here?"
"Sure, when I figure it out myself," Harry stated when he continued to watch the battle between these two wicked woman. He had no idea where the mystery woman came from or why she had such a mad-on for Bellatrix. Now he focused on picking the dark witch apart and ending her once and for all.
"You can't defeat me..."
The mysterious woman ripped Bellatrix's wand out of her hand and nearly her hand off, before she snapped it in half. Bellatrix screamed in anger.
"You're not so tough without your little magic stick, are you?" the woman practically taunted Bellatrix but the nasty witch gave a spiteful grin.
"If you know me, you should know that I am very versatile," Bellatrix responded, before she pulled a dagger out of her sleeve and plunged it into the stomach of her enemy.
Said enemy dropped to her knees, blood splattering out of her stomach. She looked towards Harry, Karen, and Kara.
"You must save us...save Kandor...you are our only hope."
She passed out and sputtered to a slow death from the blood loss. This gave Harry Potter a moment to dive in and grab Bellatrix around the throat. Kara and Karen used their heat vision to melt the dagger out of her hand.
"You're like a fungus that won't just go away!" Bellatrix screamed when she scratched at Harry's face, before she activated the ring and vanished into a time hole.
"She has the legion ring, maybe I should have warned you about that?" Chloe asked before she paused and looked guilty. "And yeah that's kind of my fault, I took out the Legion Ring, I thought about going back twenty four hours..."
"Chloe, your intentions, whilst noble, would have made matters worse," Harry stated in an exasperated tone of voice when he looked at his wife and she nodded.
"Yeah, I got that when the wicked witch of the midwest knocked me out of a window," Chloe answered when she turned around.
"How is Clark?" Kara asked suddenly. "Did he beat Doomsday or..."
"Yeah, about that," Chloe responded when she turned around. "I don't suppose you can shed some light on what happened. To make a long story short, Clark's body is alive but his soul isn't."
"That's...unprecedented," Harry responded but he checked the life line reading. "Doomsday served his objective."
"What?" Chloe asked in confusion so Harry decided to clarify a bit more.
"He killed Kal-El but Clark Kent is alive," Harry responded to her and Chloe frowned, raising an eyebrow.
"Could you clarify that statement, please, a little bit more?"
Kara looked at Chloe, before deciding to take up the explanation. "I...well Clark's always lived a dual life in some respects. There's mild mannered Clark Kent and there's Kal-El of Krypton. His inability to find a balance between the two sides has caused him problems in the past. And now he sacrificed Kal-El for Clark Kent to leave. And I fear...his powers might be waning or even gone should he wake up."
"That's gone from bad to worse," Chloe stated when she looked at the trio and this woman that she did not know, hovering around in the background, an awkward witness to this conversation. "Lana, Lois, and I we got our powers back, with generous upgrades. I'm guessing the Powers that Be decided that we were worthy of them."
Chloe shook her head.
"Aren't the least bit worried that psycho-witch has her hands on a powerful ring that can send her anywhere in time?" Chloe asked Harry but he shrugged.
"Not exactly, given the most she can do is go one hour back or one hour forward. That ring, I set it to where only I can access the greater time travel capabilities."
Chloe figured that was the case, which made her mad plan to save them all that more useless.
"And I set a tracker on her," Harry responded when he looked at Chloe. "Strictly speaking, she could keep doing time jumps forward, forward, forward, or back, back, back, but she'd end up burning up the ring or burning herself out."
Harry paused before he decided that introductions were long over due.
"Chloe, meet Diana, the newest member of our little group," Harry responded when Chloe looked at the woman who towered over her.
"Well, this is new," Chloe answered when she shook hands with Diana, who towered over her. "Please to meet you."
"Likewise," Diana responded but Harry had to figure out what he needed to do with their mysterious friend. When she died, she said something about Kara, Karen, and Harry being the only people to be able to save Kandor. He wanted to find out more about that if he could.
They were back at the Shining Light Foundation, with Harry on the phone.
"Thanks Megan, I know Claire's been worried sick, tell her that we're back...thanks again for keeping an eye on her, I owe you big time," Harry responded when he spun around and Kara saw the woman.
"The marking on her back, it's a family symbol," Kara responded when she turned around. "I've done some background checks on the computer from my ship, since the Fortress has been locked out. Her name is Alia, she's from the Ter line on Krypton. She was a soldier in the Kandorian army but she died in Zod's attempted siege before he got sent to the Phantom Zone."
"So she's dead but she's tried to kill Bellatrix...I'm sorry but I'm not following any of this at all," Karen responded when she turned around. "What the hell happened in the six weeks we were gone?"
"Well Lois, Lana, and I got back our powers," Chloe reminded them. "Oliver and the rest of the gang...they pulled a disappearing act. Except for Batman but he went back to Gotham City to do the Batman thing. Raya took Clark back into the Fortress for his healing and...Tess Mercer has disappeared."
Harry slammed his head up and turned to face Chloe.
"She disappeared around the same time that you guys did," Chloe stated when she looked at Harry. "The day everything went to hell."
"Tess is gone, Clark is...what Clark is, and there's a psychotic witch with a time ring going after me, hopefully she's not resourceful enough to bypass my fail safes," Harry responded when he began to access the Shining Light Foundation computers. "And then we have...we have this Alia girl, do you remember what happened?"
Karen and Kara both shrugged before Kara answered. "I...I have a feeling that we should remember it. Like I said, all I remember is a red sun and your grave."
Karen held her head down to the side; she did not want to think about what would happen if Harry died. The world would be doomed; there was no question about it. Clark simply wasn't ready and she wondered if a day would be come if he would ever be ready. Harry held the world together, sure there were other heroes but they should know that they didn't do a fraction of what Harry was doing.
"We need to get to the Fortress," Kara responded, she wanted to see what the damage to her cousin was.
"Tried to, locked out," Chloe responded with an apologetic shrug.
"We'll worry about that later, bigger fish...ah Bella there you are, now you're mine," Harry stated with a calculating grin.
His prey stumbled into his net and now it was time to cash in.
"I'm confused, are my powers..."
Clark stood in the middle of the Fortress, bathed by the blue light, the Kryptonian symbols surrounding him when he watched everything around him. He felt like he lost a huge piece of himself after the battle with Doomsday. His mind was more confused than ever before and Jor-El seemed to be reluctant to part with the answers. Even his mother, who was more forthcoming with the answers, decided to remain mute.
Lara decided that the truth, while nasty and often times hurtful would be the best thing to tell her son at this present point. "Kal-El, your powers, once you defeated the destroyer, you sacrificed a part of them to save the Clark Kent side of yourself but you sacrificed much more."
Clark wondered how there could be two sides to himself but Lara was only happy to explain.
"The Clark Kent side of yourself was repressed once you were exposed to the liquids of the Lazarus Pit, but over time you returned because that was the dominant side of yourself. Now your Kal-El side is slowly dying. We all have two sides to ourselves Kal-El, but in your case, the duality has increased, with there many more than two sides. You have done much in the name of saving humanity but you have also sacrificed a great deal of your Kryptonian heritage in your attempts to save them."
"How is this possible?" Clark asked, he could not believe that this was the case.
There was an unspoken statement that Lara blamed Jor-El for this event and they would be having a discussion when their son departed the Fortress.
Jor-El chimed in with a few years of his own. "As your mother had said, it is all about finding a balance which you had failed to do. Whilst I wish that you would embrace your Kyptonian heritage fully...there are two sides to you. And you walk that fine line. If you do not learn to accept that side of you as much as you do your human upbringing, your powers will be forfeit and all will be lost."
"Surely there is something that you can do," Clark begged when he looked at the Fortress.
"As much as I think it is rushing the matter, I think that there is only one way for you to accomplish that heritage," Lara responded when she blinked and thought about it. "Your training may hold the keys to your powers, but I fear that….well it is a necessity, unfortunately."
Lara wondered if it was possible to kill her husband for the position that she put their son in.
Clark paused for a moment, Jor-El wanted him to begin his training almost four years ago and he neglected to do so. He wondered if any of this would even happen if he had not stepped forward and done his training. Guilt filled his body, he wanted none of this.
"The decision is yours, but it would be for the best," Lara stated, not wanting this for her son and a part of her blamed her husband for this. The Doomsday incident was all on Jor-El's head.
"I will do what I have to do to succeed, I won't fail," Clark stated, he was sick and tired of being the weakest link while everyone else had powers. Sick and tired of things being out of his control and being in the control of others.
"You must find this balance, it is not about completely embracing your Kryptonian heritage, but equally embracing all sides of you," Lara explained once more, it was hard to convey this notion to her son and wished she could do so clearly. "We understood there was a possibility that this would happen."
"How will I do it?" Clark asked when he raised an eyebrow. "How will I know?"
Lara's part of the Fortress blinked. "You will know when your heart believes in it. I cannot give you a time table on when you embrace this part of you. It may be years before you figure this balance out, everyone goes at their own pace and it is all different with you."
"But it may be too late," Clark pleaded when his heart thumped wildly when he turned his head around.
"It cannot be rushed for the sake of being on someone else's time table," Lara stated when she hoped to convey a warmness towards her son. "If you fail, then no one will think less of you."
"If I fail, I will think less of myself," Clark managed when he hung his head.
"Self-pity, one of the more frustrating human emotions," Lara mused in frustration.
"Yes, but it's hard not to pity myself after what has happened," Clark argued heavily.
"You pity yourself because that is what you are doing," Lara answered when she blinked. "Do what you must to achieve this balance, to achieve your goals, not your destiny as your father claims, but your goals. It is in the palm of your hands my son."
"Do you wish to begin your training, Kal-El?" Jor-El asked. "It is time for you to step forward and understand what this destiny is?"
Clark stepped forward into the light but he felt conflict. His heart was not into it.
"What's wrong now?" Clark demanded, wanting to frustrate.
"Your heart still goes in a certain direction," Lara offered him in a pained tone as she sighed. "Or rather your heart is with your human side, you still believe that you are one hundred percent Clark Kent and Kal-El has no meaning to you. You gave up on that side of you with the battle with the Destroyer, and within days, what remains of your powers will be forfeit."
"There has to be some way, some other way," Clark stated when he practically pleaded with his parents to help him but he felt like his pleas fell on deaf ears. His heart thumped against his chest loudly.
"There is a way but I doubt you want to sacrifice much of your other side," Lara responded.
"That is why you must cut all of your ties from that world, for you to reclaim the powers that are needed to survive the world," Jor-El responded and Clark looked confused.
"Cut all..."
"Leave them all behind, including your protectors, your friends, and your family," Jor-El responded when he stated this matter in a booming voice.
Lara seemed rather reluctant to go this far, frowning when she blinked. "It may not be that extreme but you best find a balance and soon...or much will be lost."
She could throttle Jor-El for suggesting such a thing. Granted, she knew it would work in restoring Kal-El's powers but at what cost? What cost would it be if he disconnected himself with everything that he knew and loved? That was something that Lara thought about when she considered her son, the trials and tribulation he went through and the trials and tribulations that were yet to come.
"Can I have some time to think about this?" Clark asked to them.
Before Jor-El could answer, Lara cut in. "Of course but remember, you should feel no pressure."
Clark sped off and the moment that he was gone, Lara lit into her husband.
"This is all your fault you know!" Lara yelled when her voice rattled throughout the Fortress.
"My fault? I am the greatest mind in all of Krypton…."
"Oh yes, Mr. Greatest Mind of All of Krypton, let me list your fundamental flaws!" Lara snapped sarcastically when she ticked them off. "Your first flaw, is tricking our son with a flawed representative of our niece to suck him into a cave wall so I can reprogram him. Speaking of which, what did you do to that poor girl that you brainwashed? Is she still trapped in the cave walls somewhere?"
Jor-El did not answer.
"Then you led our son on some demented scavenger hunt for stones of power and nearly got him killed in the process, when you could have been more forthcoming with what you wanted him to do and why these stones were so important," Lara responded when the Fortress rattled from her anger.
"But I…."
"Then you take away his powers to teach him a lesson because he did not return before the curfew that you set to him, putting both his life and the lives of his friends and family in process," Lara continued, building up a good head of steam. "And then you try to drive a wedge between him and the only blood family he has left, because you and Zor-El had a petty squabble years ago, that left Kara's mother dead I should add."
"Lara wait…"
"Then, here's the kicker, genius," Lara stated when she paused. "You have all of this insight, all of these resources, and you build an escape pod only large enough to contain a baby, and left it to chance that it would land in the right spot. What if the Kents didn't find the ship? What if the meteors crushed them? What if we were mistaken in them and they didn't pick up the child? What if the government picked up our child instead and had him in some lab for years and years, dissecting him and making him their lab rat? DID YOU EVEN THINK OF THAT?"
She was really into this now, this was therapy for her.
"I wanted to come with, I would have come with, if you had the sense to build a ship larger enough and if you would have swallowed your pride and used the same design that Zor-El used for Kara's ship, I could have, we both could have. But, no, you stated that this is Kal-El's destiny, he needs to leave alone."
Lara breathed heavily even though she didn't need to.
"And then, your little AI, which you use a flawed process, which removes all emotional attachment and thus all understanding of the plights your son goes through, including some of the same plights you went through," Lara added when she gained momentum. "But the great and powerful Jor-El doesn't want to admit that he might have flaws as much as the next person. No you have to be all high and mighty with a crystal the size of Kandor shoved up your…."
"Lara, you've proven your point," Jor-El responded when he remained even. "But it is Kal-El's destiny…."
"Oh for the love of Rao, just shut up about his destiny!" Lara screamed when she wished she had the ability to bang her head into something hard. "He won't have any destiny without his powers, all thanks to you! So just shut up and not one more word about it!"
Lara was not going to lie, that felt good.
Bellatrix offered a twisted expression on her face when it all came to her. She thought turning her head and realized everything.
They were all gone, all of them were dead.
They could not be gone, the Dark Lord was supposed to live forever and a day. None of this happening like she imagined. Bellatrix could have lashed out and attacked someone, destroying them all. Her fist curled together when her eyes blinked and her teeth gritted. There was a nasty expression that crossed her face.
"I don't think we fished what we were starting."
Harry Potter dropped down on the ground, going face to face with Bellatrix Lestrange.
"You have no wand," Harry responded when he looked down at her.
"What happened to our world?" Bellatrix demanded when she stared down the young wizard.
"We all died, we couldn't move forward, I'm the only one that's left," Harry responded when he sent a blast of red light towards Bellatrix but she ducked her head and rolled over to the side. She found herself knocked down to the ground but she got up back on her feet immediately. "Our world, we're all dead."
"We were strong, the Muggles couldn't have outlived us!" Bellatrix yelled before she tried a wandless curse to rip his organs out but he blocked it. Her wandless magic was not strong enough to match his. "The Dark Lord will rise again..."
"His time passed a long time ago," Harry stated curtly before he looked to the side and swooping down from the side, Kara super sped it and ripped the Legion Ring from her hand.
"NO, IT'S MINE!"
Bellatrix shrieked this at the top of her lungs and tried to attack Kara, but she dodged the attack. She motioned them to come forward. In response, Harry and Kara rushed forward, to knock her back off of her feet, and propel her back. She gave an inhumane shriek when her spine snapped slightly and her eyes rolled into the back of her head, when she slumped down onto the ground.
The dark haired witch was dead, with blood splattering from her mouth. After she tried to kill Chloe and she attacked Kara, Harry found his sympathy lacking. He wanted to know why she was here, given the fact that she was dead.
"Let's try and put more failsafes on this thing," Kara stated, holding Harry's hand, which had the Legion ring in it and it glinted in his eyes.
"Agreed," Harry responded when his heart thumped a little bit off of his chest.
What was this the beginning of something or nothing at all? That's what Harry wanted to know, he had more questions and not enough answers. Hopefully he could figure out he mysteries but he needed to figure out his powers even more. There was something wrong with his powers, he couldn't really figure out what that was.
Harry sat himself down at the table at the Shining Light Foundation, carefully taking a look at the blood that he drew from Bellatrix when she died. If he looked at what was in her blood, perhaps he could figure out something regarding her appearance here. He did not like it, he hated it in fact, and he watched the blood, before he carefully analyzed every single drop of the blood on the canvas.
"Well, I've figured it out," Harry responded to Chloe, Kara, and Karen, when he turned his head around.
"Figured out what, what did I miss...oh you're back."
Lois stopped in the doorway and watched, looking at Kara, Karen, and Harry.
"So did you figure out what happened when you did this mysterious disappearance act?" Lois asked but Chloe shrugged at her. "Yeah, I thought not, just another thing that I want to chalk up to the weird and unexplained files."
Lois paused before she decided to ask the question.
"Not to bother you with all that you have going on but there's something that I need to ask you about Clark..."
"Yeah, his powers might be gone, I know," Harry responded when he turned around.
"What his powers...you're not talking about the soul being dead thing are you?"
Harry turned to Lois, he wondered what Raya was telling her and Lana but that was not his part to meddle. "Clark sacrificed a part of himself to live on for another day. By all rights, his final battle with Doomsday was supposed to kill him."
"How do you know this?" Lois asked when she looked at him, confused.
Harry looked grim and decided to drop this bombshell. "His lifeline turned black before we got all of our powers pulled. And...I'm guessing his destiny changed twice. I'm thinking that there's some kind of power struggle with the highers up."
"I don't suppose you could ask them," Chloe responded when she focused on Harry.
Harry gave a pained smile. "They don't exactly have a Facebook page."
He decided to get himself back on track and turned his head a little bit, before he blinked and looked at the blood readings.
"Well this is strange, curious, most curious," Harry responded, channeling the spirit of Ollivander. "Bellatrix Lestrange is dead, and this version is a clone."
"You mean you had to fight some kind of cheap duplicate," Chloe commented when she turned her head around and Harry placed his hand on her.
"No not a cheap duplicate, a very good duplicate, she was not a cheap one, not at the slightest. She was a dangerous woman and she had all of her abilities. If I might make a guess, her memories were restored to a moment in time, before Azkaban, before I was even more. She was more focused and sharper without fifteen years under the tender loving care of the Dementors."
"All of these people coming back to life and a whisper of the orb," Kara stated when she looked at them all.
"Yeah things are weird, like with you," Lois stated when she looked at Kara with an accusing expression in her eyes.
Kara blinked and was confused. "With me?"
"After this all happened, I saw you and you acted like you didn't know me," Lois stated when she regarded Kara. Kara frowned when she looked at Lois. "I was there; I thought you lost your memory."
"Possible," Kara admitted grudgingly, it was disturbing her that she did not have more than scrambled memories for six weeks ago.
"Well if it wasn't you, than who was it?" Chloe asked when she looked at both Kara and Karen. "When I was flying out of that window, I could...I could have been a big blood smear on the pavement. That blonde blur saved me and..."
"We need answers," Harry responded but suddenly everyone in the room went rigid. His eyes blinked. "Um...guys?"
There was no one moving in the room and Harry turned his head a little bit before he found himself standing in the same room where Death met him when he got informed of the Herald of Death Powers. He watched and waited, when he saw a pedestal with a dozen robed figures in crimson red robes. He watched them carefully, turning his head around to see them.
"Greetings Harry Potter."
He raised an eyebrow, blinking a little bit to see what their game was. He had no idea what they were up to but he had a feeling that he was going to find out before too long. He shifted his weight and watched them, carefully taking his time to step towards them.
"We are the higher ups. We feel that it is our duty to inform you that Death has been displaced and will be replaced."
That was news for Harry and he decided to offer the question that burned the tip of his tongue.
"If Death is gone...how does the trafficking of those between the living and dead world happens?"
"Did you not think that we would not have contingency plans in place?" one of the higher ups stated, and Harry saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes between the robes, with the nasty looking fingernails that poked out from them. "We are allowing some to return for we believe that Death abused her powers, especially over the past thirty years. The only wise decision was to choose you as your champion but be warned that we will be watching you carefully as well. Those powers can be dangerous and can corrupt."
"All power can," Harry offered them as he tried to figure out what their game was.
"You are wise beyond the years of many, Harry Potter," one of the higher ups stated when they peered down at him. "There will be some who have returned from your old world, given that Death has claimed them too soon. They will be given another opportunity. There will be more who will be gifted abilities but be warned that we have a chance to revoke those powers at any given time if you do not toe the line."
Harry figured it out when he stared them down, he knew that Death likely tried to throw them underneath the bus for their abilities. He watched them all commune with each other. He had a concern to address with them.
"You brought people back to life. Can you..."
"If the balance is upset, then we can and Death in her obsessive attempt to maintain the balance has upset it greater than any of her heralds had in the past," one of the higher ups stated in a breathy voice. "We will be looking for a replacement to be groomed in that role, of the one who will be the passageway between life and death. This one, we have had our eye on her for countless years."
Harry had a complaint to give when he watched them all.
"You brought these people back," Harry stated when he looked at them. He figured out he needed to blame these people for the Bellatrix incident. "What if some of them can't cope with being brought back?"
"That is not our concern," the higher ups stated. "The feelings and desires of mortals are not something that we deem worthy in the grand scheme of life and death."
Harry blinked and he tried to reign himself in from snapping, even though he tried to keep his cool. And it was hard for him to keep his cool after everything that happened.
"Okay, but mark my words, this could backfire if you put them back in the world without context," Harry responded when he waited. "I feel like I'm more your janitor than your herald because I have to clean up all of the messes that you people made. And I'm caught in between some power struggle between you guys and the former Death."
"All happens for a purpose, young one, you shall not forget that ,and farewell," they stated without another word and Harry returned back to the real world.
Kara looked at Harry and saw his eyes widened when he blinked. She grabbed his sleeve and tugged on it.
"Harry?" Kara asked when she looked at Harry.
"We've got more work to do than I thought," Harry offered when he turned to explain to the group what happened.
He did wonder if the new Death would be checking in any time soon.
"I am at a loss for words as much as you all but I can assure you that I will find the answers that you all seek. This is a journey that we will all take together."
Zod turned carefully addressing the group at large when they stared him down. There were hundreds of Kryptonians crowding around, with Lily casually leaning back into the wall, watching and waiting. She would have her moment but she waited for Zod to stay his piece.
"I stand before you, my Kandorian brothers and sisters, and realize that we should all have powers underneath this yellow sun," Zod stated when he eyed the group and all of them nodded carefully, when they watched him. "There is something that happened upon our arrival that we were robbed of those powers but we will find out."
Zod paused but then he looked around at them.
"I recall much of what happened, there are two missing of our number, two that partaken in the experimentation, I was only the third to last," Zod stated when he watched them all. "Jor-El and Alura, they gave their blood as well, but they are not among us. They did not come before their brothers and sisters. There is something that they are hiding, is there not?"
The crowd of Kandorians became rather loud and Zod's face contorted into a slight grin, before he watched everything. His arms folded across his chest.
"I will find the answers and I will find them and I will restore your powers, or I shall die trying," Zod stated when he held his hand up, before he faced them all. "Rise before me."
The sitting group rose completely to their feet.
"Kneel before Zod," Zod responded when he watched them all and they sank to their knees, blinking and watching them all. "The answers you seek my children will be near. We just have to find the right person to find them."
His eyes turned towards the edge of the desk and he saw a brochure for the Shining Light Foundation poking out from underneath the clutter.
'The answers may be closer than we all think,' Zod thought when he watched them, all of them on their knees and waiting, for them.
Zod would wait and he would watch, before he turned to Lily.
"Unless you have a method to restore our powers," Zod responded to her but she shook her head.
"No, I don't have a way to restore your powers," Lily answered in a crisp voice but she then added with a smile. "But I will do what I can to find that method and make sure the people of this army get everything that is coming to them."
She hid the calculating smile on her face when she said that last line.
Clark returned to the Kent Farm, it was harder to say goodbye than he thought, it was a lot harder than he thought. He wondered if Lois or Lana or both were here. He expected to really get to screamed and yelled at, even if this was not his fault. At least not this time, at least that's what he thought when placed his hands upon his hips.
He saw someone sitting in the kitchen and he was not Lana or Lois. Clark stepped forward, and saw a girl with brown hair sitting in the kitchen, with robes of red and gold trip, with a red headband on, and she stared him down.
"Who are you?" Clark asked her.
"I'm someone who has come here to give you a warning," the woman stated when she stared down Clark and he wondered what was going to happen. "Your name is Kal-El, is it not?"
"Kal-El?" Clark asked but he shook his head.
"Kara informed me that you would be sent here, it is surprising to see that you still return here, but you always find your way home," the young woman stated to him with a smile.
"You know...you know Kara?" Clark asked when he looked at this young woman.
"I knew her, yes," the woman stated, trying not to think about what happened to her best friend. She died along with everyone else that she knew on Krypton. "But you need to know this, and that is that if I'm here, that means he is coming."
"Who is coming?" Clark asked when he crossed his arms and inclined his head to the side.
"Zod is coming," she responded in a cryptic whisper and Clark immediately became suspicious, this was not something that he expected to here.
"Zod is in the Phantom Zone, he can't have gotten out," Clark stated when he eyed this mystery woman, carefully, suspiciously looking at her, he was not happy with this development.
"You don't get it and unless you put together the pieces, you never will, Kal-El," she responded when she looked at him. "You will be the beacon of hope this world needs, my parents believed that and others did so. There is a reason Jor-El sent you here."
"You know, I'm sick of people telling me about my destiny!" Clark stated hotly, when he looked at this woman. He was sick and tired of being told about his destiny and sick and tired of being the weak link when compared to everyone else but powers. "And you haven't answered my question about this. How can Zod be here?"
"Put the pieces together, Kal-El, it's not difficult. Think about what your father sent here. Or ask him, I know he's here as well. Providing you get to him before Zod does."
Clark moved forward to grabbed this woman but she vanished in a burst of flame, disappearing in the fire before his eyes. He winced when the fire actually hurt him and burned his hands. He looked up and saw his hands heal a little bit, when the fire touched him, and then he blinked a little bit.
"Clark, there you are."
Clark spun around and Kara spun around, before she looked at Clark. "Kara...there you are, what happened, you disappeared and left me to deal with Doomsday on my own."
Kara did not like the accusatory tone in Clark's voice. "I tried to get my powers restored, and it was your chance to step up to prove yourself. I can see it, your powers are nearly gone and you're struggling to hold onto them."
"I'm not struggling, I have everything perfectly under control," Clark stated but Kara scoffed on that, when she looked at Clark. Clark felt agitated about the accusatory expression on Kara's face. "What would you have me do?"
"The right thing, it's time for you to make the choice that is best for you," Kara stated when she turned around.
The words that Clark would betray the Kryptonian race echoed through her mind but she refused to believe it. Well at least completely but something happened with him. There was a part of her memories that Kara latched onto.
"Harry and I can help you, one more time, one last time," Kara responded when she turned around to eye her cousin. "We can restore your powers completely and one hundred percent."
"At what cost?" Clark asked when he looked at Kara.
"Why do you mistrust me, Clark?" Kara asked when she looked at him.
"You ran off without telling anyone and left me to deal with Doomsday alone," Clark stated when he looked at her, feeling a bit betrayed. "I was..."
"You were counting on my help?" Kara asked when she looked at him. "That's fine, I'll happily help you but I can't fight your battles for you. And you might have not died against Doomsday, but there was a part of you that was sacrificed. And you need to get your head on straight if you hope to become the hero that wish to be, if that is your choice."
"I'll restore my powers on my own," Clark stated when he turned around. "And don't tell Lois or Lana that I was here."
"Fine that's on your head when they realize that you've been ducking them," Kara stated when she turned around. "What are you going to do when you can't use your powers, Clark?"
"I haven't lost them all yet," Clark responded when he walked off. "Jor-El is doing what he can to help me restore it."
"He told you that the choice is in your hand, didn't he?" Kara asked Clark and Clark offered a stiff nod. "Well I hope you make the choice that you need to do it, and it's the right choice."
Once again, Clark did not have any information about what the right choice was and Kara was gone, quicker than they could imagine. They had far bigger problems.
She did not even bother telling Clark that he should tell Lois and Lana about this, he needed to learn about the consequences of his actions. It was almost like she did not know her cousin anymore and he twisted into something unfamiliar and foreign to her. He was damaged, broken, and Kara and Harry couldn't technically restore his powers if he did not want them to.
Kara sped off, back to the Shining Light Foundation leaving Clark to wallow.
A young woman stood at the edge of Metropolis, waiting and watching, when she looked up. The last thing she remembered, she was subjected to experiments in the Department of Mysteries when she was grabbed by them. Her tormenters all died but so did she.
The only reason she was even experimented on was because of her parents. Her blue eyes flickered towards the light. She wore black hair tied back in a ponytail, and stepped forward. She thought that she died, in fact she dreamed being sent to the afterlife, but then she woke up in the middle of an alleyway in the middle of this city.
She could only piece together fragments of her life but she understood her name, as Alison Bella Riddle. That was the only piece of information pertaining her past in her head other than the fact she was held since she was a very young child at the Department of Mysteries before she perished in the attack from Sinclair and her followers. She couldn't remember who her parents for or any other details other than her tortured existence in the Department of Mysteries.
She needed to find a way to get those thoughts back together and figure out who she was.
To Be Continued in "Memories."
