Chapter 9

After holding Lois Lane for a few more hours and having her questioned once more so that no-one would be suspicious that they had released her too easily Kal-El watches her wander through her life through the 'transmitter' they placed inside her body. Of course calling it that is a simplification. It is a very sophisticated nano-technological device that integrates itself into the auditory and visual regions of the brain. More importantly it is a device that is well beyond these humans' ability to detect and Kal-El believes not even the Green Lantern he knows is on this planet should be able to detect it. Of course his major enemy here is time and that is why he is employing what could be portrayed as less than honourable means to achieve his goals. His father, General Zod, will be here in less than 6 days and if he gets here before Kal-El finds this Justice League to present to him then he fears his father will punish these humans severely for the attack on the base.

It is not that he isn't upset over their attack or Aethyr's death because he is. He just doesn't believe millions of innocent human beings should pay for the actions of a few. If he had more time he would be mourning Aethyr's death more he is certain. On the plus side this is giving himself something to focus his mind on. Back on the planet's surface when Asha had told him that Diana, the one from his dream, was real he almost lost control of his emotions which is not a good thing. Kryptonians do not allow their feelings to govern them and as a commander in the Kryptonian military he cannot allow his feelings to govern his actions. He has too much responsibility, too many lives depend on him to allow his feelings to make him make rash decisions. He has worked too long to get where he is to allow his emotions to risk ruining it.

Kal-El watches through Lois after his soldiers return her to her place of employment. He had found her moderately interesting during the brief time he talked to her and under different circumstances might even have found her physically appealing. However right now she was simply a means to an end. He continues to watch as Lois explains to her fellow colleagues what happened to her before she seems to return to her work. At the end of the day she leaves but she doesn't seem to head home. Kal-El leans forward in the seat he is in in his quarters with interest. She heads down the side of the building and to a primitive communication device which she picks up and activates.

"It's L.L," she says.

Bruce virtually runs through the bunker so he can speak to Lois. "Lois. Are you alright?" he asks with great concern.

"Yeah. I'm alright," she replies. Lois looks around nervously just in case she is being watched. "I thought it better to phone just in case they released me so they could follow me to you."

Bruce nods. He is glad Lois is smart enough to do that. "So what did they want?" Bruce asks.

"To know where you are. Bruce. What happened? All they would say is that you committed acts of terrorism against them."

Bruce sits down wearily as he recounts what happened unaware that Kal-El is listening to every word.

So someone named Bruce killed Aethyr Kal-El notes. In some sense he is relieved that it wasn't Diana. However as an accomplice her fate is as sealed as this 'Bruce'. Saying that, he wouldn't have to put her to death immediately. Maybe even he could find a way to avoid having to kill her. At least until he gets the answers he seeks about why she haunts his dreams like she does.

Lois listens on and can hear Bruce's sadness and pain at what he did. She bites her lower lip. She is torn. She wants to rush over and comfort him but doesn't want to risk leading the Kryptonians to him. "Bruce. I...Can't you come over to my apartment. I mean no-one is looking for Bruce Wayne. In fact I'm surprised no-one has picked up on your disappearance."

Bruce smiles down the other end of the phone. "Bruce Wayne is having a extended vacation on his private island," he tells Lois as to where he is if anyone asks.

"So you can disguise yourself into someone else. I know you do it all the time." She pleads softly "Come and see me tonight."

Bruce contemplates it for a few minutes before answering. "I'll be there at 8."

Back on his ship Kal-El reaches for his communicator and contacts the bridge.

"Yes commander."

"Get me all the information you can on a Bruce Wayne," he orders.

"As you command," the voice on the other end replies obediently.

"Boring!" Kara complains childishly from her seat next to Kal-El.

"And just when I was beginning to enjoy you being quiet," he says acerbically.

"Oh come on. She works, she makes a phone call, she agrees to meet someone. I mean what a boring life she leads. You should have let me have her for an hour."

"She wouldn't survive an hour with you," he comments. "And did you miss the part where this Bruce Wayne talked about being the one who killed Aethyr?"

"No I didn't. So what are you going to do to him?"

"I have no choice but to put him to death Kara. You know that."

"I do," she admits. "Can I interrogate him first though?" she asks with enthusiasm.

Kal-El looks at her dubiously. He is well aware of how she interrogates people. On the other hand this Bruce Wayne killed Aethyr. "Sure. Just as long as he is alive to receive his formal execution once your done."

Kara leaps up and into Kal's lap and hugs him. "Thanks couz."

Kal-El is not entirely comfortable with Kara sitting there especially as she is grinding into him yet in a way that she is trying not to make it obvious what she is doing. "Kara. Forget it!" he tells her in no uncertain terms.

Kara looks at him and pouts. "Oh come on. Be a man."

Kal-El lifts her off him with the ease that comes from possessing the immense strength the yellow sun grants him and places her back in her seat where she folds her arms and huffs. Kal-El rolls his eyes. If he didn't know just how deadly she was he would dismiss her a petulant child but Kara was no child. She would just as happily kill someone as she would have sex with them. In fact he has heard stories where she has killed people during sexual intercourse. By refusing her Kal-El reckons in fact he has a better chance of staying alive. As long as he does so Kara will see him as a challenge she has to overcome. With Kara seemingly not speaking to him for now he turns his attention back to the transmission they are receiving from Lois Lane. He knows that what he learns through this is the key to him locating the Justice League but more importantly to him personally in locating her.


Kal watches Diana sleeping peacefully in their bed. She looks so beautiful and perfect and innocent. The bed sheet was only half covering her and her long legs are visible. He lets out a happy sigh. Only a short while ago they had been making love and he had found a completion with her that he somehow had never managed to find before. Before sexual intercourse was merely about satisfying his body's physical need. His body had a physical need to have sexual intercourse and on the many planets he had conquered or visited he found females who could satisfy that urge. It was perfectly logical. It was perfectly Kryptonian.

However with her it was so much more. He didn't have the words to describe it. His people had so long ago tried to bury their emotions that he thinks the word may have slipped out of usage if not existence on how to describe it. He just felt...whole. He turns away from her and heads out onto his balcony so he take in the splendour of Kandor below him while he tries to reconcile these strange new emotions he is feeling. It is currently dark but Kandor was lit to make it perhaps the most beautiful city he had ever seen. Superior to any he had come across and his actions had made it possible. Krypton was at peace with itself as well as its neighbours.

He looks once more into the room where Diana lays. Her world too was at peace allowing her to be with him. Kal tries to remember what choice he made that allowed him the fortune to have Diana as his Bonded One and frowns when he can't remember it. How can he not remember it?

"Because you haven't made it yet."

Kal spins round at that voice and comes face to face with someone who looks remarkably like himself only older. "Jor-El?" he queries hesitantly at whom he believes is his long lost father.

The man smiles. "You have travelled far my little Kal-El. But one journey is ending and another is about to begin."


"Kal!"

Kal-El's eyes shoot open and he finds himself sitting in his chair in his quarters. He must have dozed off. That was a very different dream from the others he has had. It felt different too yet in a way he can't quite find the words to describe the difference and was that truly Jor-El he saw. Kal-El has no real memory of either of his parents as they had been banished to the Phantom Zone when he was but a baby. He only has images of them he managed to retrieve from the archives illicitly. He thinks back on the dream for a moment more. It was like some dream future and he and Diana were bonded and it felt so right, so natural, so...this is madness. Truly it is. Now he is dreaming of being bonded to a woman he has never met. 'Rao please tell me what they mean,' he prays.

"Kal?"

At the second utterance of his name he looks up and finds Kara standing over him. "Kara?"

Kara gives him a little odd smile. Kal-El had noticed she had a lot of odd smiles. "Time to wake up couz. Our little spy just woke up too."

Kal-El focuses on the holographic display. Lois Lane had indeed woken up. He had been watching her last night until she fell asleep. It had not been a very profitable night as she and Bruce Wayne had said nothing that revealed where the Justice League's base was. "Is the squad still in position?" he asks Kara as he pushes the memory of his dream aside and focuses on the here and now.

Kara nods. "They are."

"Good." Since it had become obvious that both Lois Lane and Bruce Wayne were too cagey even when alone to let something slip that would assist in his search Kal-El had sent a small squad to the vicinity of Lois Lane's home. When Bruce Wayne left this morning they would follow him and since the yellow sun granted them visual abilities beyond what these humans can possibly comprehend it would be a simple task to do so without Bruce Wayne being aware of it. Their abilities could allow them to follow him from such a distance that Bruce Wayne could have no possible way of knowing he is being followed.

Kal-El watches as Lois Lane and Bruce Wayne exchange farewells.

"Will you manage to get back in the daytime?" Lois asks Bruce with some concern for his safety. She had persuaded him to stay the night with her feeling that he needed the comfort she could bring.

Bruce smiles touched by her concern as he put back on his disguise of what would appear to be a homeless person. "Of course. No-one ever notices the homeless. Have you ever noticed that? People look away because they don't want to be reminded of the failings of a society that allowed such a thing to happen."

"Way to look on the bright side there Bruce," Lois says with her usual sarcasm.

Bruce laughs slightly and gives Lois a quick kiss. "I should leave. Have a good day at the Planet." Bruce then heads for the door.

"Bruce!" Lois calls out stopping him. He turns to face her. "Don't be a stranger. Ok?" she requests.

"I'll try," he says non-committally. He then makes his departure from Lois' apartment, down the staircase and outside. He looks up and sees it is overcast. It will probably rain later. With that thought he starts his journey back to the now empty and defunct League HQ. He takes an indirect route adding as many unnecessary turns as he thinks is appropriate. He doesn't believe he is being followed. When he had made his way to Lois' apartment last night he had done his best to check that Lois wasn't being watched. Maybe in an ideal world he wouldn't have even risked going but the truth is he loves Lois deeply. More than he is ever willing to admit and last night he needed her to comfort him so he took the risk and went. He takes one last look around as he enters the League HQ through a side door and then makes his way inside. As he does so he is unaware that high above him above the clouds those who can see through clouds and stone and brick and almost anything track him. They watch until he goes through some door in a sub floor of the building and then he disappears from even their sight.

Bruce makes his way to the main computer room and finds J'onn still trying to filter his way through the data they stole. "Any progress?" he inquires.

"Some," J'onn admits. He is looking over what appears to be information on Kryptonian physiology. "I don't have a complete grasp of their language but if I am reading this correctly their extraordinary abilities are a result of the interaction of the electromagnetic energy of the sun on their cellular structure."

"So in simple terms the energy of the sun fuels their abilities," Bruce interprets it.

J'onn nods. "Exactly." J'onn then looks up so he is looking at Bruce. "How was Lois?"

"Fine. She doesn't seem to have been mistreated in any way."

"Good. That's good."

"Did you manage to contact the magical members of the League?" Bruce asks since they were going to need them since they learned of the Kryptonian's weakness to magic.

"Some," J'onn answers. "A few left into other dimensions rather than stick around and you know that your friend Zatanna is in Europe."

Yeah Bruce does know. In fact he had talked to Zee over the phone to make sure she was alright and safe. "Where's Diana?" he asks since she is usually awake by now.

"Still asleep," J'onn answers before he elaborates. "With her injuries combined with the fact she hasn't been sleeping well lately it was only a matter of time until it caught up with her."

"How do you know she hasn't been sleeping well?"

"It doesn't take psychic powers to see how tired she is lately." J'onn then smirks. "Although it helps. In fact I believe I shall check up on her and ensure she is ok. Her ribs were quite painful yesterday." J'onn gets up and leaves and in fact this is a good excuse to take a break from his research for a few moments. It had been consuming his every waking moment trying to decipher the data so a break was welcome. He gets to Diana's room and can sense she is still asleep. In fact J'onn can sense something else. A psychic field? He opens his mind and tries to connect to it.


Diana lies peacefully in bed after she and Kal had made love. Her eyes are closed and she probably looks like she is asleep. She knows Kal is not next to her. She can sense the lack of warmth but she can feel him watching her. She wonders what he sees when he looks at her. She wonders if he felt the same completion she felt when they were joined as one.

All her life she had felt a little empty inside but when she and Kal were together the emptiness was gone. She felt whole. She felt like her soul had found its missing half. She can remember a story her mother told her of how men and women were once one until Zeus with a mighty thunderbolt split them into two and scattered them across the world and that for their whole lives men and women search for that half that was torn away. She had always believed it a story until now.

Diana can sense Kal has moved off onto the balcony. It is then she hears a new voice. One she has never heard before.

"Because you haven't made it yet," the unmistakably male voice says.

"Jor-El?" Kal asks back with what Diana notes is hesitation and even perhaps a hint of nervousness.

The male voice speaks again. "You have travelled far my little Kal-El. But one journey is ending and another is about to begin."


"Diana!" J'onn shouts as he bursts into her room.

Diana shoots up in bed. "What?!" she yells after being awoken so suddenly.

J'onn stares at her a moment and realises the psychic field he sensed dissipated as soon as he woke Diana up.

Diana tries to gather herself as she awakens from her dream and finds J'onn in her room. "J'onn what is it? Is something wrong?"

J'onn looks at her intently gently probing her mind. "Diana. How long have you been having these dreams?"

Diana's eyes widen noticeably and she gulps. "A few years on and off," she tells him honestly. "You're not going to tell the others are you?"

"Diana I may have to. I sensed a psychic field. These dreams are being projected into your mind while you sleep."

"They are?" she asks in not complete surprise if she was being honest. She doubted she could dream about someone she had never met.

J'onn shakes his head. "I do not understand why I never sensed it sooner."

Diana makes sure the bed sheet is wrapped tightly around herself and she swings round so she is sitting on the bed. "J'onn I...maybe I should have told you but the dreams they never made any sense and they never foretold of this Kryptonian invasion."

"I know. I saw," J'onn confesses to Diana.

Diana blushes at the thought of what J'onn saw. "Um. They only became like that shortly before the invasion. Before then they were simply odd flashes of Kal."

"Kal?" J'onn queries interested.

"In my dreams I always call him Kal."

J'onn takes the chair on the opposite of the room and pulls it near Diana and sits down. "Diana. I fear your mind maybe being manipulated."

"If it was some devious plan to deny me sleep then I can tell you they succeeded. Otherwise J'onn you've been with me. I have been myself haven't I?"

J'onn would have to admit apart from her obvious lack of sleep Diana had not been acting abnormally. "I would like, with your permission, to scan your mind and make sure," he requests.

Diana nods. She too wants to be sure she isn't under some outside control. J'onn very thoroughly begins to scan Diana's mind. He is bombarded by images. Many he has seen before previous times he has had to enter Diana's mind. Then come the dreams and the intensity shocks even him. He has never completely understood dreams as he himself doesn't have them but he knows enough about them to know they should not be so intense. It is like someone wants them to be remembered yet there is something else. A lingering impression left behind by the one responsible and it is not as he expected at all. There is no coldness or hate from someone trying to manipulate Diana. There is warmth. An almost tenderness. Perhaps even love. He steps back.

"Well?" she asks once he is finished.

"Your mind is not being controlled. The psychic field I detected earlier is completely gone. From what I can detect it is merely projecting images into your mind. Nothing more."

"Any idea what or who is doing this?" Diana asks.

J'onn shakes his head. "It is nothing like I have felt before. It is odd though."

"Odd?"

"The remnants of it felt warm, loving even. Whoever or whatever is doing this is taking great care not to be overly intrusive or forceful. That would explain the shortness of your earlier dreams. They were making sure not to send you anything more than you were ready to handle."

"Can you block it?" Diana asks.

J'onn shakes his head. "No. It is accessing your dreams. The only way to stop it would be to stop you sleeping and that isn't an option. Sleep is a biological requirement for you."

Diana lets out a sigh. "So I'm stuck with them then?"

"It would seem that way."

"But what is the purpose J'onn?" she asks. "Why show me these images?"

J'onn shakes his head. "I do not know beyond I sense there is a greater purpose at work here. That something important is about to happen and that whatever is to come will involve you and Kal-El."

'It is more important than you can imagine J'onn J'onzz,' a voice in J'onn's head says.

'Who are you?' J'onn thinks back.

'A parent whose children have lost their way. Please don't interfere. If you do then this world will share the fate of Mars. Diana and Kal-El are key to this planet's survival and to my children's future. Allow the events I have set in motion to play out. There is little time left.'

'Why is there little time?'

The voice answers in such a way to send shivers through J'onn's being. 'Zod is coming.'


"What hideous clothes these humans wear," Kara comments unflatteringly at her current clothes.

Kal-El gives her only a customary glance as he is more interested in the sensor readouts he is trying to obtain. After his soldiers reported on where they lost sight of Bruce Wayne he realised that scouting needed to be undertaken and due to the importance he decided to do it himself. Not wanting to draw attention or alert the Justice League he had dressed himself like a human so he could scout around the location where Bruce Wayne vanished. He didn't want them to be alerted and disappear. This was his chance to capture them. For some reason Kara has become his shadow and decided to follow him.

Kal-El looks at the scanner readout in his hand. "There is an underground passage below this building leading into some sort of underground structure."

He and Kara walk along until they are over the structure. Kara looks down through the ground and only gets a blurry void. "Why can't I see it?"

"The structure seems to be lined with element atomic number 82." Due to the density of that particular element even Kryptonian eyes could not see through it. Kal-El looks at his cousin. "Will your soldiers assist me?"

"Are you asking for my help Kal?"

"Yes. We have one chance to do this before my father arrives and the Kandorian Elite are the best."

Kara smiles at the compliment. "Well it is nice to get some recognition finally."

"So you will assist me?"

"What is family for Kal."

"Thank you but please remember I want them alive. Only kill if they is no other option."

"Sure. After all I believe you did promise me I could interrogate this Bruce Wayne and I am so looking forward to that."

"Yes I did." Kal-El looks up at the dreary overcast sky. "We shall return after the sun sets. Is that enough time to get your soldiers ready?"

"Kal. Those under my command are always ready," Kara informs him sounding a little insulted that he wasn't aware of that. Kara prides herself on having the best, most feared soldiers in the 28 known galaxies.


"How's it going J'onn?" Oliver asks as he walks into the computer room that evening. He had seen J'onn analysing the Kryptonian data they seized endlessly.

"I am making progress," J'onn answers.

"Really?"

"Indeed. From this data it is specific wavelengths of light that grant them their power."

"And that helps us how?"

"Well it we were to bombard and surround them with an incompatible wavelength of light it may be possible to inhibit their powers."

"Well that would be helpful," Oliver supposes.

"Yes. Of course that still leaves them with their technology which is extremely advanced."

"There is that."

J'onn looks up for a moment to find Oliver relaxing in his civilian clothes. "How is your relationship with Dinah progressing?"

Oliver looks at J'onn with complete surprise. "You don't usually ask questions like that."

"True but being trapped down here has left me little to occupy my time."

"So you have decided to indulge in gossip."

"You forget Oliver. I am telepathic so it is not gossip but more fact."

Oliver actually blushes. He coughs to clear his throat. "Oh. Yes. I forgot." Oliver garbs a chair and sits himself down. "I take it you know everything then."

"No. Only what you were thinking about when you entered the room. You were projecting quite strongly."

"Ok that is a little embarrassing." When Oliver had entered the room he had been thinking about how he spent his previous evening with Dinah in his room. In his bed. How she lay there and he could gaze at the soft curves of her body and know he finally had her permission to touch them. How it progressed from there and they made love until they fell asleep in each other's arms.

J'onn smiles softly. "I will not say anything," he assures Oliver.

"Yeah. I know that but it just made me think. You probably pick up a lot of private stuff because we humans aren't good at controlling our thoughts."

"I try not to. Imagine it like hundreds of voices in a room chattering away just out of earshot. You can hear the noise but not make out any of the words. As I said you were projecting loudly. Like someone suddenly shouting."

Oliver contemplates that for a moment and then gazes at what J'onn was reading when he came in. "What were you reading when I came in?" Oliver asks.

"History. I wanted to understand better Kryptonian culture, what drives and motivates them. Specifically this coup Hal mentioned and their leader General Zod." Especially since the voice mentioned that Zod was coming. J'onn had had some time to think about what the voice said about leaving events to unfold which meant that the future was still in flux. That it could be altered and that he himself could somehow alter it. Maybe there was a way to block Diana from these telepathic images she was receiving. That thought occurred to him but should he. The voice...J'onn had felt its concern, its love, its belief that what it was doing was for the greater good somehow and it made J'onn feel that as much as he might want to intervene that he shouldn't on this occasion.

Suddenly the alarms go off and J'onn rushes over to the main computer and tries to locate what is happening. Bruce, Hal, Diana, Wally, Dinah and a whole host of others rush in soon afterwards.

"What's happening?" Bruce asks, close to, demands to know.

J'onn stands and speaks gravely. "They've found us."


Author's Note: I had intended Kal and Diana to meet this chapter. I really did but it just kept getting longer and longer so I decided that J'onn's announcement that they had been found was a good place to end this chapter instead. Thanks to everyone who has written reviews. Oh I'll mention for those who don't know or haven't worked it out that the element with atomic number 82 is lead. Up next Kal-El finally finds Diana and the little blond psycho known as Kara Zor-El gets to have some fun with a couple of the Justice League.