Chapter 47 : Rebirth
Dazed, Lois stares blankly at Clark's lifeless body.
Unlike Lee, who has immediately fallen to her knees beside him, transfixed, she just couldn't acknowledge the terrible evidence. She threw herself at the Kryptonian, shoving the red-haired woman out of her way. Ripping his coat, sweater, and shirt open with a strength born of despair, she repeatedly punched his blemished chest in a mockery of CPR, or possibly just rage? She finally realized that she was screaming, hot tears blinding her eyes, when Richard grabbed her by the waist to pull her away from the corpse. Trembling, she refused his embrace and stalked a few meters away instead, leaning against a crystal pillar, sobbing.
Now her hands are hurting, her eyes are burning, and she wishes she was with her son now and not so far away in the emptiness of the Arctic. She feels drained and empty.
Lee has crawled back to her lover and is gently rocking him now, her head lost in his cold, wet, raven hair, silent tears running down her cheeks. She has known from the very second his heart stopped that nothing could be done anymore to keep him alive this time, and she curses her empathetic gift as she wanted to believe against all hope… But it wasn't meant to be; Clark had long ago exceeded his limits and there was nothing she could do about that. Now all she wishes for is for the inevitable explosion to come and ease her pain.
Running his hand through his hair, Richard looks around and spots the backpack his fiancée threw away a few moments ago. He gets it and opens the main pocket, retrieving the Father Crystal from inside, then he walks back to Clark and puts it on his chest, placing his limp right hand over it reverently. "Here, Clark. It belongs to you," he says softly, tears burning his eyes.
As soon as the crystal touches the Kryptonian's skin, it starts to glisten, a soft pulsing light emanating from it. Soon the light gets brighter and all the crystals around seem to respond to it in an enchanted dance of colors.
"What the--" Richard starts, getting to his feet and looking around in amazement. Now the whole place seems to pulse like a crystal heart, brighter and brighter in a humming melody. The assistant-editor grabs Lee and forces her to step a few meters back, soon met by Lois. The three stay there, dumbfounded, waiting.
The light and sound intensify until the whole place bathes in a blinding white light engulfing everything. Suddenly, the ground under Clark's body starts to move slowly into growing crystals as luminous as the rest. They grow and extend until they form a sort of coffin around the Kryptonian, others growing downward onto it as if to seal it like a lid.
Protecting his eyes with his arm, Richard has just enough time to see the 'cocoon' lock before being hit by a powerful shock wave that knocks the three human friends off their feet and sends them flying back to strike a wall nearby, knocking them all out.
Lee is the first to wake up, a strange sound resonating in her ears like a heartbeat, yet not as low or organic. It's more… crystalline. Then the light, soft and warm, hits her face, and to her utter shock, she can feel it through her closed eyelids. It can't be… Slowly, she opens her eyes, holding her breath as if it could break the spell. The light is still here, bright, vivid. Colored and blurry shapes dance into it. It can't be… I can't see… As her sight focuses finally, she spots him and her heart stops.
Bathed in pure bright light, he stands there just a few meters from her, looking at her with impossibly clear blue, bright eyes. His hair seems to flow softly in the cool breeze; his raven locks illuminated by electric blue shades. His skin is impossibly pale, yet it's unblemished; he seems to shine from inside as if he was made of crystal. Blinking, Lee soon realizes that his powerful and well defined body has been cleared of all his human clothes; light is enveloping him like a tangible wrap. No… it's not an illusion! The light materializes into a myriad of shining fibers which weave an ethereal suit directly onto his body, fitting to it perfectly, subliming his powerful muscles. Over his chest, an even brighter 'S' shaped crest forms. Crystalline ribbons of light follow its contours up to his shoulders, flowing down his back and slowly morphing into a translucent cape.
As the god-like apparition walks slowly and gracefully to her, she whispers, "Am I dead? Is--"
He doesn't answer but hunkers down in front of her instead, tilting his head. Gazing at her with an elusive expression, he brushes her left cheek with the tip of his fingers and she gasps at the contact, an incredible heat emanating from him, almost burning her skin. She wants to touch him in return but he straightens up before she can move, turning his back to her, his light-woven cape flowing silently behind his back.
Clark … she thinks with a mix of awe and self-deception. It's not him… She looks back at the now empty crystalline cocoon. No, he's not inside it anymore, so is this really him? It's like he was looking at me without seeing me.
As the divine being walks away from her,he passes before Richard and Lois, who have also woken up, staring at him with similar shock. Apparently oblivious of their presence, he crosses a platform which seems to end at the center of the chamber, hanging above the deep void. Responding to a subtle wave of his right hand, a crystalline console appears before him. When it has stopped growing, he inserts the Father Crystal he still had in hand into one of its multiple slots, and the place seems to activate itself again, light patterns dancing into the crystals of the structure, glinting in a symphony of colors.
Lee holds back a sob as she stares at him from her corner. It's not Clark, is it? Whatever has happened to him, this magnificent being is not her Clark. The strange and beautiful figure seems remote, withdrawn, as if he was made of crystal like the rest of this place. Could it be Kal-El the Kryptonian freed from Clark's humanity, or just the reflection of her former lover, created by a tweak of that advanced Kryptonian technology?
Lost in her thoughts, she has not noticed yet that the crystal under her feet has suddenly started to vibrate. Soon the entire place seems to shake, chunks of crystals and snow tumbling down and coming to crush the various platforms all around them. A few feet just in front of the shining alien, a ball of light materializes and morphs into a bright crystal mass, which grows until it's the size of a mid-sized car, hovering in mid-air. A deafening rumble replaces the melodious pulsing and forces the three humans to put their hands over their ears.
Run… Get out of here…
Lee jumps with a start when she hears that voice – Clark's warm voice – inside her head. Although the heavenly figure has not made a single move in her direction, she's absolutely sure he's there somewhere, his disembodied voice comforting her. He's still here!
It's above us now… You don't have much time… Get them out there and run as far as you can… Everything will be alright…
His voice is insistent now, yet she recognizes his incomparable compassionate tone. With a frown of resolve on her forehead, she jumps to her feet and runs to Richard and Lois, still paralyzed by the scene.
"Let's get out of here!!" the red-haired woman says, grabbing Lois's arm.
"What?" Richard shouts through the noise, noticing the red-haired woman's focused vision.
"He told me to run away! This place is not safe anymore!!"
"Who--" he starts, but gives up, seeing the whole structure shaking dangerously above their heads.
With a last look at the bright being now hovering toward the pulsing crystal mass, the three friends run out of the chamber, heading back to the entrance as fast as they can.
Beep, beep, beep…
Batman throws a rapid look at the radar on his left, glad he had enough clarity despite his wounds to place a tracker in Lane's coat back at the Manor. Hmm… they must be here, he thinks, pushing slightly on the yoke. The black supersonic jet aircraft tilts down and dives into the sea of clouds.
"H minus 6 minutes and 30 seconds," a synthesized voice says from the speaker.
Clenching his jaw, the Dark Knight pushes a button and Alfred's face appears on one of the screens.
"Master Wayne," the butler simply says, his face tense but calm.
"Is everything okay down there?"
"Yes, Sir. I activated the security system when you left, and I checked everything. The Batcave is perfectly safe now, and the system is completely self-sufficient." Looking at something at his side, the old man then continues, lowering the volume of his voice, "May I ask you to make haste and find little Master Jason's parents?"
"I just found them. I'll contact you when--" A crackling noise interrupts him. "Alfred?" The image of his butler flickers and disappears suddenly. "Alfred!" Annoyed, the billionaire checks his instruments; every one of them seems to malfunction, displaying erratic data on the different monitors. Looking through the window of the cockpit, Bruce grumbles and scans the landscape as soon as his jet wriggles out of the clouds. At his utter surprise the place seems to be bathed in daylight. No way! he thinks to himself before realizing that the light is not natural, but seems to emanate from the peak before him. His eyes widening under his mask, he opens his mouth in shock. This is not a peak! It's a glowing crystal as huge as a mountain; Superman's Fortress!!!
That's when his keen eyes see the three tiny figures fighting their way away from the shining structure. Got them!! Slowing down, the jet initiates his descent in a loose loop before coming to a halt in mid-air and going down. It lands vertically on the ice-sheet.
Richard was the first to see the dark jet and runs to it as soon as it's landed; Lois and Lee hanging onto his arms. In no time they're inside and the airplane takes off as smoothly and silently as it landed. Once in the cabin, they all huddle together in the narrow place, still shaking from cold.
"Is everyone okay?" Batman says with his usual hoarse voice over his shoulder.
Richard nods, "Yeah, but Clark-- Hey! Look over there!!" he shouts, pointing his finger toward the Fortress a few miles from them.
They all look at their right, amazed, as something even brighter than the structure ascends slowly, directly above it.
"What the--" the dark hero mumbles, grabbing a pair of high-tech binoculars from his belt.
"What is it? What's going on?!" Lois asks with panic in her voice.
"It's Superman," Lee says with unexpected calm, almost in a trance.
"She's right, at least that's what it looks like," Batman adds, zooming in with his powerful electronic binoculars. "What the heck is he doing?"
The assistant-reporter runs his hand through his hair nervously once again, "Bruce, something happened in the Fortress; he… Well, I don't know what he's doing, but maybe we should go back to the manor and wait there."
Not even looking back at him, the Dark Knight says calmly, his voice almost frightening, "We have no time to go anywhere. If I were you all, I would fasten my seatbelt, because the explosion is in less than 60 seconds now." Saying so, he tightens his grip on the yoke and fixes his gaze on the luminescent point climbing higher and higher in the dark purple sky until it's just barely bigger than a star.
55 seconds…
"What!?" Lois cries out, in shock, grabbing her seatbelt frenetically.
"Don't worry, this aircraft is designed to resist things like this," Bruce says. "Well, I think so…," he whispers, gritting his teeth.
47 seconds…
Richard's hand grabs his fiancée's and squeezes it passionately. They exchange a loving gaze while the shining star keeps ascending high into the sky above the Fortress.
40 seconds…
Still transfixed, Lee can't tear her newly seeing eyes away from the bright dot that seems to have stopped his ascension. Everything will be alright, she keeps hearing Clark's warm voice in her head, not knowing if he's actually talking to her or if it's a twist of her battered mind.
25 seconds…
Lois bites her fist to tame her growing fear, nervous tears running down her cheeks. Jason… How she would love to hold him tight in her arms right now. Is he really safe?
11 seconds…
Everything will be all right…
8 seconds…
Hovering at the lower part of the mesosphere, Superman holds the pulsing crystal device, bearing it over his shoulders. Looking up toward the dark space, he sees the shadow of the gigantic landmass silently gliding above him, almost feeling its oppressing gravity with his acute senses.
7… 6… 5…
Looking back down at his Fortress, now just a little shining dot lost on the white ice-cap, he closes his eyes and exhales deeply, the vapor of his breath crystallizing instantly into frost in the high altitude. He's ready…
3…
I won't have a second chance…
2…
The timing has to be perfect…
1
Everything seems to happen simultaneously and at an impossible rate. As soon as the giant landmass illuminates in a myriad of shiny greenish cracks over its surface, Superman triggers something on the device he carries and a powerful ray of white light ascends instantly from the Fortress, reaching him. From there, a luminous wave made of pure energy spreads out and expands into the mesosphere at an tremendous speed, so fast that it soon covers the entire area above the Northern Pole then above the whole Northern hemisphere. The hero has actually used this crystal as a deflector to convert the energy from his Fortress into a protective shield.
"Holly sh--!!!!" Batman shouts out when he sees with his own eyes the formidable explosion of New Krypton being simply stopped by the gigantic field of energy above their heads. Although he prepared himself for the shock wave, it never came.
"It's… beautiful…" Lee whispers, her hands clasped on the window, mesmerized by the iridescent colors the sky has been filled with; it's like a giant Aurora Borealis.
The tremendous energy passing through his body, Kal-El ignores the tearing pain, clenching his jaw and gathering all his might to stay still and hold on. Most of the debris are burnt up in the mesosphere, but the biggest chunks, not entirely consumed, hit the force field at a vertiginous speed, threatening to pass through it. Fortunately, they all disintegrate or simply bounce off it.
I have to hold on… the hero keeps repeating to himself, the energy running through his body being too much for even him, burning him from inside, overloading his solar cells. I have… to hold… on…
His iridescent suit is the first to deteriorate, its luminous material melting here and there on his skin. Expelling a silent cry, he tightens his grip on the deflector, summoning even more energy into it and out of the Fortress.
The little jet still hovering at a safe distance from the crystal structure, Richard suddenly shouts, "Hey, look at this!!!"
They all look down at the Fortress, which is collapsing in on itself, the ray of light coming from it faltering. It finally vanishes when the structure disappears in a monumental cloud of vapor. Not fed by energy anymore, the force field weakens too, disintegrating rapidly, but fortunately most of the debris has already been destroyed and what remains won't be able to make much more than local damages to the Earth's surface.
The four friends stare back up at the tiny shining dot high in the sky, holding their breath when in turn its light starts to falter, too.
Bruce lifts his binoculars again. "Damn," he just says before tossing them aside, hitting a few buttons, and pulling at the yoke.
"What is it?" Lois asks, her voice tense and trembling.
"He's falling," he simply says.
The jet gathers speed and climbs, heading to the falling spot in the chaotic sky now filled with a rain of shooting stars. It soon reaches its course and they all see, horrified, Superman plummeting toward the ice-sheet at an impossible rate, leaving a trail of flames and smoke behind him. Bruce punches a few buttons and leaves his seat in haste, looking at Richard. "Take my seat!"
The assistant editor stares back at him in shock. "What?!"
"At this rate, he'll pierce through the ice-sheet and sink into the depth of the ocean. We won't be able to reach him down there and he'll be lost," the Dark Knight explains while retrieving an oxygen-mask from inside a closet. "You know how to pilot, don't you?"
"Yeah, but--"
"Then land this plane!" With that, Bruce puts the mask on and disappears behind the door separating the cabin from the tiny cargo bay.
The wind whipping his face despite the oxygen mask, the dark figure slices through the air, his whole body tensed like a dart, trying to gather enough speed to catch the burning torch his alien-friend has now become. The ground seems to close in really fast but he dismisses the idea, tensing even more. He finally reaches Superman and catches him in his arms, muffling a cry when the contact burns him despite his own reinforced suit.
They fall for a few seconds more, until Bruce activates a trigger in his glove. His cape tightens and takes the shape of powerful bat wings, sustaining him in his descent and allowing him to slow down until he can glide safely down to the icy ground.
The plane lands a few moments after the two heroes, not far from them. When Richard and the ladies get out, running toward Bruce, the hero shouts out, "Keep away!!! He's burning-hot!!"
Coming to a halt just a few meters away, they see in horror that he's holding a lifeless Superman, bathing in a pool of warm water, formed in the thick ice by the alien's incandescent body. His iridescent suit is torn and melted over his reddish skin, exposing his arms, torso, and feet.
After a few minutes, the Dark Knight judges that his friend's temperature has lowered enough to drag him out of the pool with Richard's help. They lay him carefully on the snow.
Immediately at his side, Lee takes the Kryptonian's head, resting it gently on her lap. "Clark… Do you hear me? Kal-El…" she says with a shaking voice.
His eyes open slowly, eliciting sighs of relief all around him. Focusing on his lover's face, he smiles faintly. For a moment, their eyes lock, seeing each other for the very first time. Faintly, his hand tries to reach her face but he soon gives up, too tired for even that.
"You made it, Clark… You kept your promise…" she says through her hot tears.
Smiling brighter, he closes his eyes, too exhausted to keep them open. With a visible effort, he manages to whisper before sinking back into unconsciousness, "I… really… need… vacation…" His head falls back, limp on Lee's lap.
