Chapter 11
Kal-El just stands there watching her sleep. He can barely believe that she is real. He studies her youthful face and thinks how she looks as perfect in real life as she did in his dreams. He has had her injuries treated. Fortunately Kryptonians possess advanced medical knowledge and technology and for them her injuries had been a relative simple task to heal. Especially combined with her own healing abilities.
While she was being treated the physicians had taken the opportunity to study her DNA. The results were intriguing. For the other advanced humans their DNA had been altered at some point in their lives. For her she had always been like this since she had been created. For Kal-El it was confirmation of what he had read up about her. He had read up everything he could find out about the Justice League after their attack on the base but he will admit about being more thorough on finding out about Diana or Wonder Woman he believed these humans called her.
She shifts slightly in her sleep and Kal-El can clearly see the outline of her body move under the sheets that covered her. His breath catches a little bit and he has to drive down the temptation to use his enhanced visual abilities to look at her. It is not out of some cultural nicety he resists. Kryptonians don't feel shame as in regards to their bodies. Also in a way he has already seen it in his dreams but this is different. This is the real woman and he is worried that if he looks at her that way he will...sully her...is that the term?
Or taint her is perhaps better.
Sully? He has been spending too much time studying human languages. He is almost certain that is not a Kryptonian word.
Yes he is afraid he will taint her by even looking. He is certainly not going to even dare touch her and risk marking her flawless skin with his clumsy touch. His physicians did good work Kal-El notes. It is hard to tell how badly Kara beat her and he has not forgotten about that. He will deal with Kara later...maybe. Or maybe he should let it go. If he took it further he has no way to know exactly how Kara will react and he can't afford to make her his enemy. She is too dangerous and powerful. While she came here in one ship Kal knows she has an entire battlegroup at her command all of whom are fanatically loyal to her. She had had 6 years to shape the Kandorian Elite to the way she wants. Not to mention she has his father's complete trust in her or at least she did when he gave her the command all those years ago.
Back then the Kandorian Elite also acted as his father's personal bodyguards. Nowadays that task befell on the Argosian Guard who had been created by his brother Lor in another one of his paranoid driven decisions that everyone was out to overthrow Zod's regime. Lor personally selected each and every single member of the Argosian Guard so that each was unquestioningly loyal to Zod. Personally Kal-El thought it was designed to remove the regime's weakness, its dependency on an alliances of Houses. His father needed the support of those who had allied themselves with him during Krypton's civil war to set up a functioning government. Part of that was stripping the Houses of those who opposed him and splitting their assets between his allies and then granting them more possessions over the years from the conquered territories. The weakness though was obvious. His father's house was not powerful enough to keep order without the others so Zod's grip on power relied on keeping his allies happy.
If Lor could make the Argosian Guard powerful enough that the House of Zod was more powerful than all the other houses combined then Zod could finally rule truly unquestioned. The trick was to do it without the heads of the other houses noticing. It was part of why Kal-El was more than happy to be a soldier on the front line away from all the political machinations of his family even if it meant he missed his home world greatly some days.
His musings are interrupted by his guest stirring. Her heartbeat has increased and incidentally so has his. It is a sign she is waking up. Kal-El finds that his mouth has gone oddly dry as her eyelids flutter open and he catches a glimpse of that blue that has haunted his dreams for so many years.
Diana wakes up to the feeling of lying on something wonderfully soft. Much softer than her usual bed. Her eyes blink open and she finds herself staring at a ceiling made of crystal. It slowly comes back to her. She had been fighting the Kryptonian woman and she had lost. The woman had simply been too fast and too strong. It had shocked Diana immensely just how much power the woman had or it would have if she hadn't being beat into unconsciousness at the time.
Diana takes a moment to assess herself and oddly feels in little pain. The sheets covering her certainly aren't brushing up against any bruises or wounds. They are in fact caressing her skin more like a lover not that Diana knows exactly what that feels like. Then it occurs to her that they are caressing her bare skin. She is naked.
"How are you feeling?" a voice she has never heard in person yet is all too familiar to her asks with great concern and tenderness.
Diana doesn't panic despite the urge inside her to do so. She grabs the sheet so it doesn't fall off and then sits up which allows her to note that her body has a slight general ache. Her eyes falls immediately upon that standing across the room from her is him. Diana can't help but look him over in his skin-tight uniform that shows off the muscular physique. The same one she had been seeing in her dreams. He stands there looking almost shy as his stunning blue eyes study her with gentleness. For a soldier which she knows he is she finds it odd that there is so much warmth and kindness in his eyes considering he has committed less than kind acts since he arrived on Earth.
Kal-El walks forward a few paces. "Are you in pain?" He asks a different question this time.
Diana finds her voice. "No. I'm fine but I wasn't...did you treat me?"
Kal-El smiles at the first sound of her beautiful voice. "Not me personally no but I did order it."
Diana looks around. "Where am I?"
"In my quarters on my ship," Kal-El explains simply.
Diana remembers back to the bunker being overran. "Did you capture all my friends?"
"If you are referring to the Justice League then I can inform you we captured a great many of them. They are being held in specially designed cells that negate their abilities." Kal-El had left Kara's two lieutenants to take care of it while he was more concerned with Diana's well-being.
"Why?"
Kal-El frowns slightly like the answer should be obvious. "You violated Kryptonian law."
"The base," she whispers.
"Yes. The base where you killed my second-in-command."
Diana screws her eyes shut. "It was an accident. He didn't mean to."
"Perhaps but he did and now Bruce Wayne will be punished accordingly along with all those that assisted him."
Diana opens her eyes with surprise at Kal-El saying Bruce's name. "How did you know his name?"
"We have many ways of gathering information," Kal-El answers vaguely.
"What about me? Am I going to be punished?"
"Yes," Kal-El answers honestly. "But not before you answer my questions."
"What questions?"
"Why are you in my dreams?"
At the same time Bruce is pacing back and forth in what is obviously an interrogation room of some kind. He has a fair idea what is coming and of what his fate is. Hal had explained that the punishment for what he did was execution. Funny thing is he isn't afraid in the least of dying. In a sense he has been dead for years. A part of him, maybe the best part, died the day his parents were killed. The only thing he is worried about is if Lois will be alright after he is gone. He does love her and he is sorry that they won't take that journey together to wherever it would have led.
When Bruce became Batman he accepted that it would probably end with his death but he hoped that he could make a difference to Gotham City before that happened and when he helped form the Justice League make a difference to the world. Unfortunately when Luthor had been elected President years of work Bruce had undertaken was undone virtually overnight. Then these Kryptonians came with all their vast power and once more changed things in an instant.
The crystals slide open and Bruce stops his pacing as a single Kryptonian woman enters the room and seals the door behind her with a simple passing of her hand over a particular section of the wall. From Bruce's guess the doorway must be keyed to her genetic code since he had already tried to open that doorway himself. The woman sits herself down and then rests her head on her hands as she looks him over. He studies her back noticing the prominent scar on the left side of her face and what is a healing black eye and what looks like partially healed burns.
"Well. Well. What do we have here?" Kara says while assessing her prisoner. She had been dying to get started on this and hadn't even waited until her injuries had fully healed.
Bruce says nothing in return.
Kara portraying an air of professionalism reads over the data pad in her hand. "Lets see now. Bruce Wayne. Only son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, both deceased. Head of the multinational Wayne Enterprises and is worth, at least on this primitive little backwater planet, a great deal in monetary value."
Kara looks up at him. "Now lets see. We caught you with the Justice League who have a member called Batman, origin Gotham City, which is the same place you come from. Coincidence?"
Bruce still says nothing which causes Kara to smile. "Oh good. You're the silent type. I thought you might ruin all my fun and tell me all your secrets right off but since it seems you won't it means I get to employ certain interrogation techniques to make you talk. My cousin's only restraining point was that I leave you alive to receive your execution. You have no idea how many possibilities that leaves me with."
Bruce locks eyes with her and at this moment realises just how much trouble he is in. The look in her eye. He has seen it before. The barely concealed insanity. What she projects is a thin façade of civility out of necessity. However there are people whose safety rely on his silence so Bruce will remain stoically silent and tell her nothing.
Kara places her pad down and gets to her feet. She wanders up to her prisoner who simply continues to lock gazes with her. Oh this is going to be so good she realises. She then grabs his arm and snaps the bone and is mildly impressed by her opponent's lack of reaction.
Bruce grits his teeth as he tries to block out the pain as the woman gazes him with malevolence.
Kara smiles oddly. "You will scream. I guarantee by the time I am done you will scream. You will beg. You will plead for mercy. Then you will tell me all your secrets and once you have I will make you scream. I will make you beg. I will make you plead for mercy all over again." She pats him lightly on the cheek. "Now doesn't that sound like fun?" she says with insane cheerfulness.
"Why are you in my dreams?"
Diana isn't sure she heard that correctly. "I'm sorry. What?"
Kal-El moves to the bed and sits down. He raises his hand to her cheek, no longer able to resist the urge to touch her. As his fingers touch her cheek ever so gently Kal-El takes in the feeling. She feels as soft as he dreamed of. "My dreams. For so long I have dreamed of you. Why?" he asks with gentle earnest.
Diana swallows at the feel of his fingers on her cheek. They are making tiny electric shocks travel through her entire body. "I...I don't know." She swallows once more. Her mouth has gone dry. "I...I have dreamt of you as well," she admits.
Kal-El tilts her head trying to read her, trying to see if what she says is true.
"I...can I have clothes?" Diana suddenly asks.
Kal-El's lips curve upward in amusement. "Interesting moment you have chosen to remember that," he wryly comments.
Diana too smiles at the warmth and humour in his eyes. Diana had met soldiers whose experience had left them totally bereft of warmth, like that woman she fought, but she is glad to see Kal-El hasn't lost his. He finally takes his hand from her face and speaks to what looks like a bracelet on his wrist in a language Diana doesn't understand.
"Clothing and food will be here shortly," he informs her.
"Thank you," she says genuinely.
"You are welcome but this is only a temporary delay. I require answers."
"About the dreams."
Kal-El nods to confirm it.
"I know. I want answers too. I don't know if you believe me."
"I neither believe or disbelieve you for the moment."
Diana nods in understanding. "Um what of my friends?" she asks changing the subject temporarily.
"As I said we are holding them. Some suffered minor injuries but they are well. We will question them and then decide their punishments."
"Hal said you execute those responsible for killing a Kryptonian soldier."
"Hal?...You mean the Green Lantern. Yes he is correct. Kryptonian law is quite strict." Kal-El turns his head as there is knock from outside. "Enter!" he orders.
A soldier bring food and varying choice in clothing before leaving quickly.
"What happened to the clothes I was wearing?" Diana asks.
"You would not want them. They were stained with your blood," he tells her.
"I see. Is it possible I could be alone while I change?"
Kal-El feels slight disappointment at that. A primal part of him wants desperately to see her in the bare flesh but he needs to remain professional. He stands up. "I shall be outside. Also if you think of trying to escape please note that outside this room is an entire squad of my troops. Even you for all your obvious strength could not fight that many. Also note that we are in space and I don't believe you can survive in a vacuum."
"I understand," Diana tells Kal-El who then departs leaving Diana alone. She takes a deep breath. Funnily escape is not as forefront in her mind as it probably should be. She was speaking the truth about wanting answers to her dreams and only by staying here can she get answers. Also she would not contemplate escape without at least seeing if it was possible to rescue her friends and for that she would need to know where they are and the layout of this ship. To do that she needs Kal to trust her. She wants him to trust her and part of her wants to trust him.
Diana takes in what to wear. Not a lot of choice actually. What is it with Kryptonians and these black uniforms they are so fond of. Well it is better than sitting here in the naked flesh so she puts one on and turns her attention to the food they brought her. She picks up a slice of odd looking meat and nibbles it unsure if she will like the taste. After a few small bites she decides that it is perfectly edible and tucks in. Even what she thinks is some sort of purple vegetable is not too bad.
A short time later after Diana has finished her food Kal-El returns to find Diana sitting on the bed her legs folded under her. He can't help but think that a plain uniform looks most pleasing on her figure. "Was the food adequate?" he inquires.
"It was fine," she replies.
"Good. I am glad."
Diana watches him stand there awkwardly almost shyly. "So. Where shall we start?" she asks.
"I am uncertain. How long have you had dreams about me?"
"A few years I think. At least that is how long I can clearly recall having them."
"I believe it is the same for me. What do you dream about?"
Diana blushes instantly. "Well at first there was nothing more than flashes of you Kal."
Kal. She called him Kal just like she does in his dreams and it sounds wonderful spoken from her lips. He feels this strange warmth in the deep recesses of his heart. "You say my name in my dream just like that."
"I do?"
Kal-El nods. "You do...Diana."
Warmth floods Diana's heart at the sound of her name spoken by his lips. "You say my name like that too."
"Really?" Kal-El goes and sits next to her once more. "I don't understand this...this connection, this pull I feel to you. It isn't logical."
"Affairs of the heart are rarely logical," Diana points out to him.
Kal-El observes her briefly wondering if she is speaking from personal experience. "They are for Kryptonians. We rarely bond out of pure emotion. It is for political union or for genetic compatibility."
Diana observes him back wondering how any society could live without the joy only love can bring. "That sounds so cold."
"It is our way. Emotions must be controlled or otherwise they control us."
"That isn't something that woman who beat me seemed to think. She seemed to be getting pleasure out of killing my friends." Her voice is laced with anger at the memory of what happened to Oliver and Dinah.
Kal-El does not blame Diana for her anger. He was angry at Kara too. "I must apologise for Kara. My cousin went against my wishes."
"Cousin? She is your cousin?"
"She is."
"Will you punish her for her actions?"
"It is not that simple."
"Why not?" Diana asks a little miffed since her friends will seemingly be punished.
"Kara is not technically under my direct command. We are of equal rank. She did not break an order as I cannot give her one. She broke my wishes. There is more I could say but it is not any of your concern."
Diana represses the urge to ask why not but why would he answer her since she is technically his prisoner. Maybe she will ask later if she can gain his trust.
"May we return to the discussion about our dreams?" Kal-El requests.
"Yes. I want to get to the bottom of them as well."
"Get to the bottom?" Kal-El queries at the strange turn of phrase. "I am not familiar with that expression."
"I apologise. It means to gain an understanding of the causes of something. I forgot that English is not your natural language is it?"
"No. It is not."
"It isn't mine either."
"Yes I know. You speak a form of Greek." Diana looks at him but before she can asks how he knows that Kal-El answers it first. "I spent much time researching the Justice League. I like to know my enemies and your internet was most useful in providing information."
"We are not your enemies," Diana protests.
"Yes you are," he assures her.
"Even me?"
"Yes."
"So why am I not in a cell like my friends?"
"I told you. To answer my questions."
"About the dreams."
"Yes. I need to know. For years I have carried them as a secret only known to myself. I thought perhaps my mental well-being was being compromised but I came to realise that was not it. I also prayed to Rao for answers but received none."
"Rao?"
"Our Father. The Creator of the Kryptonian race. In terms you can understand he is our God."
"I prayed to my Gods too," Diana admits.
"And did they answer you?"
Diana shakes her head. "No," she admits in great sadness.
"So that leaves us with the only option of talking to each other and hope together we can find the answers we seek."
"I am not certain it will help. I have tried and tried to find meaning in them without success."
"It is the same for me but what choice do we have left when neither of our deities will answers our prayers."
Diana contemplates his words. If this was a normal situation where she has been taken prisoner she would barely dignify her captor with a response but this isn't a normal situation. Kal said he felt a connection, a pull and Diana feels it too. She has from the moment she woke up to find him here with her but she has resisted it making her do something foolish and unwise. J'onn said that he sensed something important was about to happen and that her and Kal would be at the centre of it or something along those lines. If that is the case then she has to know and only by speaking to Kal does she have any hope of getting an answer. With her decision made she looks directly into Kal's blue eyes. "Ok let us talk."
Kal-El smiles and Diana's heart skips a beat at the way it transforms his face from stern and authoritarian into kind and gentle and...beautiful really. With him smiling the way he is Diana has to say he is possibly the most beautiful man she has ever met. It causes her to smile in return.
Kal-El can feel his heart nearly melt when Diana smiles. He can remember from one of his dreams comparing her to some Goddess and he has to say seeing her in person with that smile adorning her beautiful, perfect face he has to wonder how far off he was. He can't have been very. He mentally shakes himself down. He is allowing his feelings to take over him again. He pushes his emotions down or at least tries to but it isn't as easy with her here as it usually is. Using what control he has he returns to their conversation. "Very well. I will start with what I remember about the first dream I had that involved you." Kal-El then begins to tell Diana that very dream as they both seek to get the answer behind what links them together.
