Lois was on the roof of the Planet. When she'd first started working there, it was a place to have a smoke break. Now it was a place for contemplation.

"Ms. Lane," he called politely to her in greeting before landing though she was used to him showing up out of the blue, he didn't want to take a chance of startling her.

She smiled at him, always happy to see him. "Saw you redirect the asteroid. That was impressive. Though what's new, right?"

"Just following orders."

"And modest. No wonder everyone loves you."

Except for her. At least, not in the way he needed. "Thank you."

"I've been dying to ask you what's with the color change? Is that the latest from Gotham's fall fashion line?"

She only teased. She didn't know. "My mother passed away."

"Oh no, Kal-El. I'm so sorry." She opened her arms and he went into them.

She smelled so quintessentially Lois like coffee beans and cocoa. He had no right to take comfort from her like this and shouldn't have given his feelings had yet to diminish after all these years, but the brief contact did soothe his aching heart if just for a moment.

Still, he pulled away first. "I actually didn't come here for sympathy or even to give you an interview though I'm happy to give you an exclusive anytime you wish. It's something I need you to help me look into."

"Anything."

"This is classified information at least until we dig up a reason for why it has to be told."

"Understood."

"You ever heard of Morgan Edge?"

"The business mogul? I've heard of him."

He gathered from her tone that her opinion of him wasn't high. "He's making people like me."

"What do you mean people like you?"

"People with powers, who are supposed to be a healthier, stronger version of themselves. This genetic experiment is being sponsored by the military."

"And you don't think they are better versions of themselves?"

"No, I don't. There's something off about the whole thing. I don't know what is exactly, but it bears investigating."

"It certainly does," she agreed.

He told her everything he knew, which wasn't much, but she was top in her field. If there was information to be dug up, she'd find it.

And speaking of the devil, he was waiting for him when he got back to the base. "Kal-El, I've been wanting to have a little chat with you for some time."

"Oh?" the uneasy feeling he always got around him increased tenfold.

"The program now has over a hundred like you. You aren't alone anymore."

"And General Lane approved that?"

"This has nothing to do with him. You thought you were the last of your kind, the Last Son of Krypton, but that's not true. I've managed to bring the noblest, most intelligent people the universe ever saw from the brink of total extinction."

"Just because you give them powers, it doesn't make them Kryptonian."

"Oh, I've done more than that. I've put the consciousness of our people into them, brother."

He wasn't sure what part shocked him more, the fact that there were people being possessed by the souls of long-dead Kryptonians or the fact that he'd just called him brother. "You can't do that. Why would you do that?"

"Humans are wasting Earth's potential, creating more problems than solutions, constantly at war, their technology isn't even a fraction of what ours was. And here you are serving them, bowing to their whims, after they captured you and made you suffer. One Kryptonian alone could rule the world. Why do you allow it when you could lay waste to them and their world?"

"They're not perfect, but neither are Kryptonians if they're willing to inhabit human hosts and cause mass destruction. Might does not make right."

"Since when? It has always been survival of the fittest. Why deny yourself for people who will always see you as other? You can truly begin to live. Have whatever you want. Do you find one of them attractive? We can turn her Kryptonian and you can have a family of your own. I can put our mother's consciousness into into someone and you can finally meet her."

A family. A chance to meet his biological mom, especially after losing his adoptive one. That was truly his weak spot. There was nothing he desired more. Belonging, never having to feel lonely again, family. To say he wasn't tempted would be a lie.

Nonetheless, he said, "I could never turn on humanity, destroy other families to get what I want. Love and compassion is a part of their makeup as well, the best part, and I will protect them until my dying breath."

"I'm sorry to hear you say that, Kal-El."

Suddenly two of the humans turned Kryptonian were on either side gripping him tightly with all the strength of natives of Krypton.

"You are my brother," Edge continued, "and it's sad when families have to fight. Take him to the chamber."

He fought and struggled against the hold as they took to him to what remarkably looked like a CT scan machine but try as he might, he couldn't get free, and he was plunged into darkness as he was pushed inside of it. He knew what was going to happen. They were going to replace him with a Kryptonian for who ethics and morals were not a problem. And there would be Krypton on Earth if anything was left of it when it was all said and done.

"Lord, help us all," was the last thing he remembered thinking before he lost consciousness.