Superman Rex 2 of 7: The Defiant

His name was Lex Luthor.

He looked at himself in his mirror and nodded to himself, satisfied. Clean shaven and trimmed, he looked a bit like he did when he was The Lex Luthor, one of the most powerful men in history. However, the heavy bags under his eyes and the wrinkles over his face betrayed his ordeal. It was not as if his multi-billion dollar shelter was inhumanely small, or if he had sparse access to necessities. In fact, his little rabbit hole was distinctly more luxurious than what most men would ever experience in their daily lives. He had spared no expense in making it particularly undetectable by a particular person, and did not bother to be stingy as he furnished it. Thinking on it, however, he realized that he was reminiscing an era long past.

His attention returned to his mirror, he was in all things meticulous. He had allowed himself to be sloppy as of late, but he knew he had to look good for this. His last few minutes alive.

He left his bathroom and walked over to his kitchen, and automatic doors hissing open as he moved from room to room. His kitchen was packed full of all kinds of things, but he did not have to spend a second looking for what he sought. Picking out a bottle among the hundreds on his wine rack, he inspected it closely, in great anticipation. Then, without rushing, walked himself to the counter and pulled out a crystal wine glass. Bottle in one hand and glass in the other, he then walked over to the main room. He carefully placed them both near the computer in the center, sat down, savoring every moment. For once, every single breath he took was sweet. Softly, He said "boot.", and the computer hummed to life.

Softly, He said, "camera on", and on his monitor (too small for his tastes) he saw himself staring back at him.

He paused. Opened the bottle he had brought, and poured himself a glass. He moved it softly across his nose, breathing in, savoring the anticipation. He had saved this particular bottle for a very, very long time.

Then he drank, and the look on his face was disappointment at the taste, then satisfaction at finally scratching an itch he had long willed himself not to. A little braver for it, he sat up. and said, softly still. "begin transmission endgame"

And a little red light told him his transmission had begun.

Loudly, carefully, relishing every syllable he said

"Greetings, everyone."

"I know that as I broadcast this, nobody will be watching, but I know also that he will see the wavelength of my broadcast and that, even now, Superman is coming for me.

My life is measured in the minutes it will take for him to track me past my bypasses and false transmitters, so I will be brief.

If you are capable of watching this, then you are perhaps one of the last hopes for humanity. So i hope for humanity's sake you're on my side. Which is, right now, against him. Along with this transmission I have attached the blueprints for my battlesuit, and the location of the my caches of apokalyptian tech you'll need to build it. Both are heavily encrypted. It's a long shot, but perhaps these will buy you some time to get to them. "

He paused then, and exhaled as if a weight had been lifted off his back. like he had at last passed on a burden he had been shouldering for a long time.

Then,

"I know that I have done a lot of terrible deeds in my time. I'm not repentant. Just a little more...aware. But history, remember this of me:

His words gained strength, and for a second it was filled with all the pride and glory of Lex Luthor victorious.

"I was right."

Almost on cue, alarm sirens starting ringing off, and the room began to flash bright red.

He looked up and said, "alarms disengage." and they did.

His attention returned to the camera.

"I'm down to my last few seconds.

"You." he said, eyes intense. (and, later, after Batman had recovered the footage and watched it, would feel a small chill run up his spine, because it was as if Lex Luthor were speaking and looking directly at him. He, of course, did not show he felt anything.)

"You never gave up against me. Do not give up against this- " Mid-sentence, a wall in the background glowed hot red, and caved in.

Behind Luthor, the camera took Superman, in stoic white armor slowly float in, eyes aflame with rage. The atmosphere of the room dropped into something medieval. Something out of a renaissance painting of Hell.

He opened his mouth and said "Luthor." It was a death knell.

Lex Luthor turned around, hands moving faster then they ever had, as he pulled a futuristic handgun from his desk and fired off a few rounds- then Superman was next to him, crushing the hand holding the gun.

Luthor screamed in pain, but then bit it back, staring Superman in the eye. This close, he could see Superman's mouth turned up a fraction of an inch. He was enjoying himself. Luthor, realized. He laughed a bit, saying "Funny how this all turned out, Kent."

But Superman said nothing. He was in that instant vengeance made flesh. Every last inch of him was destruction.

He put his fist through Luthor's chest, effortlessly.

Luthor, slowly entering shock, said softly, difficultly, almost to himself "Kent. To think all this time it was you. Perhaps if I had known things would have been different."

Superman pulled his hand from Luthor's chest, looking him in the eye, saying nothing still.

A dying man, Luthor fell towards Superman, and said "and now, even I am out of your reach."

He died like that, Superman supporting his weight, blood from his chest sliding down the ivory armor.

From the angle of the computer, it was almost as if they were in an embrace between the closest of friends.

And then Superman dropped the carcass, turned to the computer, raising his arms like a forgiving god and said, "Cry out to me in mercy, and your cries will be heard."

Then his eyes glowed red once more, and the video ended at last.

Next: The Resistance and Superman engage for the first time! More is revealed of The Last Son of Krypton's "turning."

Author's Note:

Chapter two of seven is done! For those of you who think that Supes should have tortured Luthor a bit, or at least made his death more painful, I think the whole chapter was about how Supes had wanted for a long time to put Luthor down, which I tried to parallel with the wine (which still has a little more screentime in the next chapter)

Also, I wanted to show here the possibility that he isn't simply insane Joker-style, but rather that his moral's have been let go.

Any thoughts or comments, and ideas of people you think should be pertinent in this story, would be appreciated!