Jordan had no idea how long he had been in his cell. There wasn't a window for reference and he'd only slept in a few short bursts so far, waking up abruptly some unknown amount of time later.

It could have been one day. It could have been five days.

He knew he was being monitored. Water bottles and granola bars were waiting by the door each time he had fallen asleep. Edge was probably making sure no one else talked to him for some reason. Or maybe he was more paranoid about Jordan being able to escape then he was letting on.

Although, that would be pretty unnecessary, Jordan thought to himself. The past however many hours had left him exhausted, hungry, and basically constantly on the edge of an anxiety attack.

Yeah, what a great super-powered asset he would be to the Kryptonian cause.

When he wasn't straining to hear something outside of his cell or making half hearted attempts to yell for his dad or heat vision the door, Jordan was thinking about his family. Jonathan and his mom had just been attacked the few days before he was taken and his dad was getting ready to face some unknown number of Kryptonian possessed humans. Who the hell knew what they were doing right now all while having to try to find wherever he currently was.

Because he let himself get kidnapped.

Great.

Jordan took a deep breath and tried to let go some of the tension racking his body. His therapist would not be super happy about his current negative thoughts. Although, the absurdity of thinking about positive self talk at this current moment in time for the closest thing the teen had felt to laughing in a really long, sucky time.

…being ignored in his little box was driving Jordan insane and questions were racking his brain. His anxiety had never let him relax much in the past. Now was something new all together.

Did being left alone mean Edge was enacting some grand plan right now? Did it mean his dad had tracked Edge done and that's why he wasn't here? Did it mean Edge had already hurt his family and was on his way to gloat right now?

Did it mean that Jordan was just going to be left to rot in this dark room for the rest of his life no matter what was going on outside?

His thoughts spiraled.

Jordan's head snapped up at the sound of the door starting the slide open. He didn't bother jumping up from his his position on the floor, leaning his back against the bed frame. If someone was trying to get in here now, it was probably Edge. And the teen didn't particularly want to get up for that prick. Some of his fear had turned to anger from the worry of not knowing what was happening with his family.

Not to say that he didn't immediately break into a cold sweat as the door moved, though.

To his surprise, it wasn't Edge standing in the doorway this time. It was a woman with an unreadable expression and short hair. She looked familiar-

The realization crashed down on Jordan that he knew this woman from his mother's "clue board" (or that's what he and Jon called it at least). Leslie something? Leslie Larr, he finally decided. She was one of the humans who attacked his mother and brother.

"Get up." She commanded, staring down at him without even blinking.

Oh shit, Jordan thought. This woman could rival the scariness of his own mother.

And that was saying something.

"We've got places to be, kid." She repeated, crossing her arms. "Get up."

"Where…are we going?"

"A secondary location."

"Oh."

Jordan got to his feet slowly, his mind racing and his legs feeling weak. Being transported somewhere might be the best possible thing for him right now. Moving around could give him an opportunity to signal his dad outside of an underground bunker. Or it could give Edge a chance to make a mistake. His mother was basically the world's best detective.

Or he could end up in an even worse prison than this one.

"Why?" Jordan took the smallest step forward, also hesitant to be walking into some kind of trap. He definitely knew what the this woman was capable of.

Larr rolled her eyes silently and took a step back to give him more room to pass her.

"You start walking and maybe I'll start talking." She offered and raised her eyebrows at the boy.

Jordan conceded, walking out into the hallway. He glanced around the hallway, getting his first good look at it. The walls were concrete and there weren't any visible windows.

He jerked to the side as Larr suddenly wrapped her arm around his and pulled him closer in an iron grip. Her breathe was cold by his ear.

"No sudden moves, got it."

Well, Jordan figured he must be somewhat durable as that moved would have dislocated any human's shoulder. He tested pulling against the woman for a second to test her grip. Maybe if he could surprise her? He tucked that into the back of his mind.

"Where are we going?" He gritted as she suddenly jerked him around a corner.

"Your parents have been making trouble for Morgan Edge's facilities. I'm moving you to home base."

Jordan's eyes light up at the mention of Lois and Clark.

"My parents will find me wherever we go." Jordan gave her a pointed look, slightly more confident.

Larr scoffed. Her expression was amused to Jordan's confusion.

"They weren't looking for you." She enunciated each word. "At least, not completely. They're going after the super humans. Like they logically should be if Kal-El is really so determined to remain with his Earth natives. You're more a convenient afterthought."

Jordan would be lying if he didn't admit it stung to have his father's split responsibilities thrown in his face. The pair turned another corner and entered an open room. Multiple hallways broke off from the different sides of the room.

Jordan was surprised to see that they actually were heading straight toward a heavily fortified door, one that looked suspiciously like the outside exit. Did they not realize he was going to scream his head off the second that door opened?

Larr must have seen the confusion on the teen's face and knew the origin of it.

"Don't worry about your dad. He's being taken care of right now."

Jordan stopped with enough force to give even Larr a pause. Of course they wouldn't move him unless something else was going on. Fear coiled in his stomach.

"What are you doing to him?"

"He refused to join his people so we decided he would be a problem if we let him remain alive."

"You can't kill him." Jordan insisted and thought he may have saw the slightest flash of worry on Larr's face. "He's stronger than any of you."

She spun toward him suddenly and caught both his arms in his hand, forcing him to look at her.

"We're not just a handful, kid." Her tone intense. "We are in the dozens at this point and growing. You are in the middle of something…huge." Larr stately, calm again. Then, without warning, she pushed Jordan, sending him flying. He landed five feet away, hitting the ground with a thump.

He felt the impact at the same time he heard the door latch click open and the door swing wide open. The sounds of the outside world hit him full force again and he had to blink away the distraction and the brief pain.

"Go ahead, shout." She told him, waving her hand toward the outside."Get it out of your system before I fly you to the mountain."

And Jordan did. He screamed twice for his father and waited.

And waited some more.

He was just distracted with something, Jordan tried to reason. And it was difficult to hear just one person shout from who knows where in the world. He knew that now himself, right? The teen wasn't sure if he even believed his own arguments. His dad would be listening if he could be. Images of Kryptonian-possessed humans catching his family off guard again flashed in his mind.

He couldn't let Leslie Larr take him anywhere right now.

The teen steeled himself as she stepped toward him. Maybe Larr saw the red glow growing behind his gaze because the next moment passed in a blur.

Larr sped at him just in time to get thrown into a concrete wall by a heat vision blast. The deep red lit up the room. Jordan's small win was tampered out quickly as he felt himself being thrown to the floor again. The woman moved at a speed he couldn't even see. He was pulled into a death grip, both his arms pulled behind his back in the next eye blink.

There was an unfamiliar shout in the background as his vision involuntarily went red again.

Then, everything stopped as a scream of pain echoed around the room.

It might have been his recent experience with Jonathon or the responsibility his father was drilling into him over his powers, but that shout froze Jordan in his tracks. His vision cleared to show a stranger in a lab coat clutching his newly grazed arm and Jordan felt every ounce of energy leave his body. He had almost killed that man.

"And now you left a witness." Leslie sighed, rubbing her forehead with one hand. The lab coat man had just turned to run when a flash of red shot straight through his chest.

Jordan watched in horror as Leslie Larr killed the man.

He didn't try to resist again when Leslie forced him to his feet to fly him wherever they were going.

Clark had to be Superman in this moment. The glowing orb was burning hot against his chest as he raced up into the sky, tens of Kryptonian humans chasing him.

He was faster. But only by so much.

Clark had to be Superman in this moment because this was his one chance to undo the damage Tal-Rho had done. If he didn't do this now, the Kryptonians could go on to destroy cities, even countries. John Irons had been sure to warn them of that.

Despite this, Clark's stomach had dropped when they found the Eradicator in a nearly raid. He knew it would mean him and Lois would have to temporarily switch their attention to reversing its effects. It was an agonizing decision every time he choose a different task over scouring every possible location for his son.

Each of these choices echoed every moment in the past he had picked a disaster or attack or robbery over Jordan. And there were a lot of them.

Then, he had met his mother. And she was everything he had hoped she would be. Lara was kind. She was hyper intelligent. She told him that no matter what, all he could do was the next thing he knew was right. Her hardest moment was trying to protect Clark during Krypton's destruction and she knew he was doing everything he could to protect his family.

The cost to this next right thing was just going to be all of his energy in one solar flare. All of the energy he was supposed to use to find Jordan. All of the energy he would need to protect his family from Edge.

All these years he'd convinced himself that the Superman world would never touch his sons. Even when Jordan developed powers.

He had been as naive about that as he was the first day he arrived in Metropolis

Clark had never had a problem choosing the right thing before. And he was usually, in his opinion, very good at seeing it. Selflessness defined every moral his mother instilled into him.

He just never realized how far that would be tested.

Finally reaching the upper atmosphere, Clark slowed down just enough to get in range of his chasers. He knew they would go straight for heat vision. It was the easiest ability to start with and they must have all been fairly recent possessed.

As each beam hit the orb, Clark hesitated and hoped it was worth it. All he could do was hope.

The super human father screamed as he emitted every drop of power he had stored within his cells. As he allowed himself to fall back down toward Smallville, knowing he would need to be around Lois and Jon, Clark thought he could hear Jordan yelling his name.