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Metropolis

Clark woke up and yawned as he entered the living room. He turned on the news and an anchor started babbling about some Chinese dam program in the Himalayas. He went into the kitchen and started cooking breakfast for him and Lois. As he put a pot of coffee on he heard Lois get out of bed in the other room. She walked into the kitchen and nodded towards the television.

"Indians are going to be upset."

"What? Why?"

"Just wait, a few weeks from now they're going to be sending me over there to get comments on how this will affect India's water supply."

"Ah. Where are you going today again?" Clark put salt and pepper on the eggs before moving to butter the toast.

Lois beat him to the toaster, refusing to let him do everything. "Turkey. President Erdogan agreed to an exclusive with the Daily Planet as long as he got to tell everything from his perspective."

"You're going to ask leading questions anyway, aren't you?"

"Perry wouldn't have given it to me if he hadn't wanted me to."

"Couldn't that burn a bridge though?"

"Considering how relations between him and pretty much all of his neighbors are going right now, it might not matter soon. There might not be anything left on the other side of the bridge to get to."

"Alright, just be careful. I'd rather not fly to Turkey in a hurry today."

"You got it, Smallville."

They ate and drank their coffee in a hurry, it was only five in the morning, but they were both already in a hurry.

Lois grabbed her pre-packed suitcase and her ticket and headed for the door. "Love you. I'll see you in two days."

"Love you too." Clark left not too much later for the Daily Planet.

Upon arrival Perry made a quick jab about him being on time for once and how it probably meant that he would disappear halfway through the day. Clark often wondered why Perry let him get away with as much as he did. Maybe he was just riding on Lois' coattails, or maybe Perry knew where he disappeared to and chose to keep it a secret. He was a journalist after all.

Once he got to his desk, Clark pulled out a case he had been working on recently instead of working on his article. He had observed an uptick in suspicious reports to the Planet near the docks, so he had staked out the area in case there was anything going on. During his stakeout (which for him meant flying above the clouds and getting an aerial view of everything) he had seen suspicious activity men moving crates in the middle of the night. There was definitely something criminal happening, but the crates and the ship had been lead-lined. Bruce had taught him a while back not to go in guns-blazing. That you could often find enough evidence to take down an entire operation if you just hung back and observed, but a full-frontal assault would send a criminal organization scurrying into the woodwork only to reemerge when you least expected. He had taken his friend's advice and just watched for a couple nights, but it yielded no fruit.

After a skim or two of the notes he had taken, he decided that he was not going to get anywhere without more information and began to work on the copy. All in all it was a rather uneventful day, plenty of sirens in the city, but nothing that the authorities could not handle. He turned in his copy for the day to Perry not long after lunch, Perry raised an eyebrow in apparent surprise that he was still there. He gave it a quick look.

"This is good, Clark. I wish I could give you more important articles, but… Do you have anything pressing left to do for the day?"

Clark's thoughts immediately went to the case he was working. "No."

"Good. Come on, let's go get a drink."

Surprised, but not against the idea, Clark went to get his coat.

The nearby pub was nothing special, but it was mostly empty during the workday, so it was perfect. Perry led Clark to a sheltered booth in the corner after they got beers from the bar. The two reporters sat and sipped at their drinks for a bit before Perry began.

"I have a special assignment for you, Clark."

"Oh. What is it, Sir?"

"Someone is investigating Superman's identity. I don't know for sure, but they seem to be hot on his trail."

Clark's mind began to race; he used his super speed to give him a bit of time to process. He often used this trick when he knew his reaction would be inappropriate for the situation. It had saved him from blowing his identity countless times. Even given the "extra time", Clark was unable to glean any new information from the situation. He had no idea who would be investigating him and he could not for the life of him figure out why Perry was telling him about it. Unless he knows?

"I want you to beat him to it. I would have Lois do it, but this is a long-term project and I need the regular sales she brings in."

"Of course, Sir. Do you have any leads to get me started?" He pulled out a notebook. He had no idea how he was going to handle this, but he figured it was better for him to be on this project than someone else.

"Yes, the person doing the investigation is some independent, Superman-freak, hothead. He turned some of his findings into the Daily Planet in hopes that we would publish it and Superman would come find him. Absolute crackpot. I'll give you what he turned in when we get back to the Planet. Unfortunately, he turned it in anonymously so you'll have to hunt him down."

"Alright. One question then: Why didn't you just publish it in the paper? Why put me on the trail?"

Perry stood up with the clear intention of leaving. "You're not supposed to be a reporter around me, Kent. If you must know, it's better that I can put one of my own mens' names on it."

Clark did not follow him back immediately, there was a lot to think about.

Year One

"-But that's just how the island is. We boast all the time about it being paradise, but the reality is, no matter how prosperous or large an island is-" Diana thrusted her sword down into a creature's head, "-it's still an island; and wherever there's people, there's drama."

"What'd your mother do about that spat?" Bruce casually broke the neck of another creature.

"Oh, you know, overly concerned. Wanted to make sure everything was okay and then as soon as she knew I hadn't gotten seriously injured in the fight all the doting instantly turned into wrath...It's weird that anger is often more indicative of love than happiness."

"I only remember my parent's being angry with me once. I wouldn't be surprised if I've actively tried to remember them as happy."

Diana's ears perked up, this was the first time Bruce had brought up his parents unprovoked. "Why were they mad? If you don't mind me asking?"

"I think I had climbed on top of the roof of the manor and then instead of waiting for them to fetch a ladder, I tried to climb back down, but fell the last few feet. I remember the same thing happened that you were describing, they made sure I hadn't been injured, then all their worry turned into anger."

Contrary to how he was making it look, it was not easy to share memories with her, even after all this time. As he forced himself to do so, he took out his anger on the last of the horde for the day.

"I hate to press, I know it's a sore subject, but what was it like to have a father?"

Bruce sighed. "I don't remember a whole lot. He was busy all the time, I resented him for that sometimes, but looking back it's frankly astonishing he made as much time for us as he did. I looked up to him, thought he was the coolest person to ever live. And this is probably just my memory playing tricks on me, but when all three of us were together something just felt right." Bruce said all this like it did not matter, but his words betrayed him.

"I wish I had a father. I don't even know why, but I do. Maybe it's just because everyone else does, even the Amazons, though some of them don't remember their fathers anymore."

"I thought you said-"

"He wasn't present, even if he was telling the truth."

Bruce grunted. "Fair enough."

They checked traps on their way home.

A thought came to Diana. "I heard a story recently of someone that a lot of people believe didn't have a father either. What do you think of all that?"

Bruce shrugged as he bent over to check a trap. "Based on the language you're using, I'm guessing you are referring to Jesus. In which case, I don't really have anything to say on the subject."

"Oh come on! There is no way you haven't thought about religion before. You've gone through too many tragedies to count and you frequently encounter deities. Surely you have some thoughts, if not on Christianity than just spirituality in general."

These were the sorts of conversations Bruce typically avoided if they came up on the Watchtower, or anywhere else really. "Fine. Yes, I have thought about 'what it all means' or whatever, but as far as I can tell there is no way to come to any conclusions on the subject. One minute we're fighting with or against a deity that people have worshipped for thousands of years, the next we're fighting the embodiment of mankind's sins in a place called Gehenna. Clearly there is a strong basis for most, if not all the beliefs humanity has had over the years. However, so far all these god-like beings have turned out to be rather mortal, just not human."

"I suppose. But all those god-like beings have narratives they tell about how the world came into being, how they came into being. Are they all just wrong? Are they making stuff up? Is anyone right? If not, how did they come into existence then?"

"My guess. None of them know any better than we do. Problem is, they can't explain away their existence with something like evolution. They had to either have been created or just spontaneously popped into existence. So, they tell stories like that."

"Hmm. The Greek gods have this whole family tree. They say that they are descended from the Titans, who are descended from Gaia and Ouranos, and Ouranos was spat out by Gaia, and Gaia just sort of popped into existence along with Chaos, Tartarus, and Eros."

"Do you know how they claim to know all that?"

Diana shook her head. "I suppose all of that is in direct contradiction with what most people believe today. From what I can tell, most people believe in a single God who created everything."

"What do you believe, Diana?"

She kicked a small rock. "I don't really know anymore, in that way we're similar. But I want to figure it out, do you?"

"I don't know, Diana. I'm not sure it's possible. Besides, what does it matter? We're trapped here, and here our purpose is clear: Defend humanity."

Bruce's statement brought The Gentle Man to her mind. "You know, I don't think he's coming back. It's been over a year now."

"The hordes are everlasting."

They had gotten pretty good at ignoring it, but every once in a while, all the pain that their circumstance brought, hit them in force. Today was one of those days. They decided to give themselves the rest of the day off, despite the work they constantly needed to do to support themselves. A couch they had made welcomed them after they had gotten home and changed. The couch was perfect for just sitting and staring into the fire.

The fire licked and crackled, mesmerizing them as they sat, leaning against each other. They let their hearts break for the world and the people they had left. The fire seemed to show them the ones they cared for, a somber dance, a reflection of their hearts. Loneliness attacked them both, no quarter was given to them, so they sought it in each other. Desperate to alleviate their loneliness and their pain, they drew closer. A heat took hold of them and all thoughts of the world were shoved aside as their breathing quickened.

A quiet voice whispered in their ears: "There is comfort you can give to each other."

Then they leaped apart with the realization of where that road led.

"We're fighting too many battles, Bruce. We're bound to lose one eventually." They now sat on opposite ends of the couch.

Bruce shuddered, shaking off the temptation. "You're wrong. You have to be." He looked into her eyes, looking past the material, past the pain. "We don't have a choice."

A year of suffering, of isolation, of fighting their urges, of fighting others' battles for them, of each other and no one else. All these things were a well-crafted spear, designed for the express purpose of piercing their hearts. It should not have been possible for them to continue, but such was their vigil. The hordes were everlasting, but, inexplicably, so too were they.

Elsewhere

"The Gentle Man has been allowed to leave."

"Then it is time."

"No, my lord, he has been replaced."

"Replaced? Replaced with who?"

"Two humans."

The superior one laughed. "Humans? You must be joking. How long have they been at it already?"

"Over a year of their time."

"Work quietly, we'll push harder and harder as time goes on. They won't last long."