Interlude

The Fortress of Solitude

Jonathan Kent, also sometimes known to his parents and to a select few by his Kryptonian name of Jon-El, lay restless in his cradle. He had cried out repeatedly for his Ma and Pa but they had not come to sing or play with him, as they usually did when he became loud. They had not answered at all, which was most unusual. Only the strange metal bugs responded instead, and he was not much interested in them. They were weird-looking, and did not coo nor play with him, just buzzed around him like the bees that sometime got into his room. He had seen these robots before, but he had only the dimmest memory of it in his young mind. He also knew that this was not first time he had been to this place of ice and steel; he did not care for it very much. This place was not like his other home, his real home, with its comforting smells of Ma and Pa and bright sunlit rooms and all that made him feel happy and secure. Jon did not know these things as words quite yet, more as sensations. But his mind was alert and curious and he could remember many things.

He remembered the first time he had been here: then, Ma and Pa had been with him. He knew this, but he could not recall it as clearly as other, more recent memories. This place was still strange to him, but somehow he knew it wasn't so for Ma and Pa. He just knew that they had been here many times before.

It was Clark and Diana's first time at the Fortress since the return from Themyscira. Diana held their precious infant in her arms tightly, protectively. Kelex had offered to take the baby to be registered in the Fortress's security system but she had growled warningly at it in Themysciran, and it zoomed away quickly.

Diana knew Kelex wasn't a threat, but ever since her return she was reluctant to let Jon out of her sight, even for a moment. She couldn't forget how close she had come to losing him, so soon after he was born. He had become the most precious thing in the world to her - that realization seemed as natural as breathing, now.

She was aware that Clark was worried about her. He believed that she would feel safer, at least for awhile, ensconced in the Fortress but the truth was, she didn't know if she would feel safe anywhere.

Themyscira, for her, was gone. Her mother was gone. She had no more home. The Fortress was just that to her. A Fortress...not a home, despite what Clark had said.

Clark knew how she felt, and he thought he knew the reason for it. When they started getting serious about their relationship, and then after that, after their self-proclaimed marriage vows, he had asked her to stand with him in the great central hall where his relics from Krypton were kept, and the items he had collected on his travels.

They had stood together there in that huge space, which was dominated by the giant statues of Clark's biological parents, Jor-El and Lara. They were magnificent and handsome to look at it, positioned with their arms raised supporting a globe that represented long-vanished Krypton. It reminded Diana of the statues of the gods on Themyscira. She felt both awed and intimidated by them at the same time. She couldn't help but think of them as Kryptonian deities. Did they watch over their son, even now? Clark had said that Jor-El's hologram would appear and talk to him, even answer questions, sometimes. She knew why he asked her to be here and she felt honored that he would invite her to meet his father.

"What are you going to do?" Diana was curious.

"I'll just…speak aloud. It's what I did before."

He composed himself for a moment, then began.

"Father?" Clark said. His voice was squeaky and wobbly, revealing his nervousness. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Diana conceal a stifled chuckle behind her fingers. A bit chagrined, he tried again, this time louder and more confident-sounding.

"Father, I'm here. I have brought…I have taken a mate from among the Earth people. A wife. Her name is Diana. She's here, with me, in the Fortress."

Nothing.

After a minute, Diana whispered. "Is something supposed to happen?"

"Um…I don't know," Clark rubbed the back of his head in that awkward mannerism of his. "He usually appears, but not always. Mother too, but not as often. I think the crystals must have gotten damaged when my ship crashed."

He hadn't appeared then, and although she had been to the Fortress many times since then, she never saw Jor-El's hologram or any other. She had come to think of it as some kind of divine disfavor - maybe they looked down their tall noses on a wild Amazon warrior woman as a daughter-in-law, for all she knew - although Clark assured her that that certainly wasn't the case.

Now, they had baby Jon and Clark wanted to try again. Diana thought he would just be disappointed like before, but he was insistent. He seemed to think it would help her, but she wasn't so sure. She had a thought that this meant perhaps more to him, to have his father's blessing. This seemed to be an important thing in Man's World, she'd noticed.

Again, they had stood there in the great hall. Clark glanced at Diana and their baby, who was bundled up in the same soft blanket he had been wrapped in when the Kents had found him. The red and blue colors had never faded. Jon's face was scrunched up in sleep, his silky jet-black hair contrasting against the blanket's vividness.

Clark looked in his wife's eyes and she nodded, wordlessly. He took a deep breath.

"Father? Father..." Clark began, then paused. He started again. "I don't know…I don't know if you're still there," he continued, more quietly. "If you are, you should know...I have a son."

As before, there was no answer from the Fortress and its crystals.

"His name is Jon-El, after the founder of the House of El. He is, he will be, the first generation after Krypton. He is our future, with the people of Earth. A new beginning."

Still, nothing.

"Father?" Clark tried again, a little more urgently. "Are you there? I want you to see him! Please!"

The baby stirred in Diana's arms, began crying again. The sound was very loud in the enormous and silent chamber, and it was the only one for several long minutes.

Diana sighed. "I'm sorry, Clark."

He shook his head, disappointed. "I guess it doesn't work anymore. I worked hard to fix them, but perhaps I made it worse, I had hoped…"

His voice trailed off. She hated to see him look so despondent, like a lost child himself. She gently rubbed his shoulder.

"It's all right, Clark," Diana said soothingly. "We're all the family we need, right here, you and me and Jon. There's nothing we can do about the past. Maybe...maybe our parents are with the gods now."

"I thought your father was a god," Clark replied, but he smiled sadly.

"Well, then, perhaps they're all together," Diana replied lightly. "Come, there's nothing to be gained by staying here. Let's go home together."

Jon cried harder, but Ma still didn't appear. The metal bug reappeared, proffering a bottle of formula, speaking in its metallic voice. Jon frowned. His little hand pushed it away and Kelex silently glided away. He puffed his cheeks, irritably. He didn't want food, he wanted his mother. He cried louder – maybe that would help. He had learned if he did it loud and long enough, someone would eventually appear, cranky maybe, but still ready to take care of him.

Finally, there was a response.

Jon sat up eagerly, touching the railing of the bar. Yes, down the corridor, he could see a light appear, and a sound, a musical noise like the start of one of his beloved cartoons. But a sound he hadn't expected - it wasn't anything he had heard before. The elliptical buglike robots were suddenly hovering, frozen, in place.

"Dada?" Jon called out, uncertainly. The sound came again, not his Pa's voice, but somehow he knew it was similar.

He stood up, and looked at the cradle's railing; it was designed to prevent him from falling out. But now, it was preventing him from going to see what that light and noise was all about. He wanted to see it, and this thing was stopping him.

It came to him suddenly, how to get past that annoying bar. He pushed himself up, and then it was like a new muscle flexed, and he floated up and over it. Landing on the ground was a little tougher, and he sat down hard on his bottom.

"Ow!" He cried, but his tears disappeared quickly. The light was growing outside his room, a very pleasant and promising glow. He scurried quickly to see it.

The hallway outside was unfamiliar, high-ceilinged. The light came from one end, and he approached it. The floating bugs followed him silently. That was unusual. Before, when he had tried to climb out of his crib, one of them would promptly stop him, a reason he disliked them.

He saw a person standing, shilouetted against the light. He stopped, unsure suddenly. It wasn't either Ma or Pa, he was sure.

"Ah?" Jon called out, tentatively.

He heard a voice then. A deep and warm voice, a lot like Pa's but different too.

"Jon-El."

He was certain he had never heard that voice before. The person in the light stepped forward. Jon didn't move. Then the voice spoke again.

"Jon-El, child of my child, Kal-El. Come closer."

The little boy toddled closer, and now he could see the person clearly. He was a tall, slender man, much like Pa, only older, with streaks of iron-grey in his hair and beard, and dressed in clothes he had never seen before. He stared up at the man in wonder. The man looked down at him and a slight smile appeared on his lined, careworn face.

"I am Jor-El. I am your grandfather."

"Da?" Jon wasn't sure of what the man was saying, but he knew now that the man meant him no harm. He stretched out his arms to him eagerly.

"You are older than when I last saw my son, Kal-El, in the flesh. I never saw him again. Only as this projection, did I set eyes on the man he is now. I have watched him, from my disembodied state, be the embodiment of the House of Hope for this world. Yet there is so much he still does not know."

The ancient Kryptonian regarded his grandson thoughtfully, and nodded.

"You are young yet, Jon-El," Jor-El said gravely. "But you have the ability to learn much, and there is very little time. Let us begin."


[A/N: Just something to tide you over until the next chapter! I've wanted to write a Fortress scene like this for awhile and thought it might as well go in here as anywhere else. Jon-El will turn out to be a very special little boy, but you dear readers already have guessed that I'm sure. What role will he play in the future? What did Jor-El mean by 'there is very little time'? What did he teach him? Tune in once again, and see!]