Jordan didn't know how to describe the process of being unmade.
Actually, he could describe one half of it. It was painful. Intensely painful. The kind of pain that made him want to scratch his nails against his own skin to feel anything else than that other specific pain.
The other half was different.
He could feel himself stop feeling. It was like he was standing on one end of an endless hallway. The hallway was full of lights, one every foot or so on the ceiling. The lights were red. And the lights were flickering off. Starting from the very far end of the hallway, he watched each light go from electric white to pure black.
And each light had a buzzing that sounded suspiciously like a voice.
Jon.
His mother.
His father.
Sarah.
Other voices floated around his head as well. He heard players from the football team. He heard his grandfather. His grandmother.
Then, it was just dark.
He woke up again to a familiar face.
"Hello, nephew."
"We found a video."
That was all Sam Lane had to say over the phone. Clark was there at the army base the next instant with Lois beside him. The landed in what appeared to be an intelligence room. Sam was the only other occupant and computer monitors littered every wall space.
"Show it to us." Lois shook her jacket back into place, trying to hide the slight tremor in her hands.
"First off, He's okay. Jordan's okay." Sam stated, giving the parents both a second to take a shuddered breath and confirm they weren't about to hear the worst news. He paused before continuing. "You're not going to like this video, that's obvious, but I want you to know Jordan is okay as of the end of it."
"Just play the video. Please." Clark nodded.
Sam hit a button and the largest screen in the room flickered to life. Lois unintentionally gasped, recognizing her son immediately. He was center screen, being pulled along by Leslie Larr through a nondescript appearing hallway.
"This was taken from surveillance from one of Morgan Edge's facilities in Nevada. They tried to erase it but the government's tech people are better." Sam pointed toward the far corner of the screen. "They're heading toward the eastern exit right now."
Lois' reporter instinct told her to study the crime scene. Focus on Larr. Figure out the perpetrator's actions. Lois' motherly instinct, something she had been terrified of not having for a long time before her twin's birth, meant she couldn't look away from her son's face.
He looked exhausted for one. And terrified for another. Larr was dragging him in a death grip. Her son's usually unruly curls were basically a rat's nest at this point and he was wearing black clothes she had never seen before.
But he was alive.
"When exactly was this taken?" Lois asked, not looking away from the video.
"The exact same time Superman was taking out Edge's army. I would bet Edge has been taking advantage of Superman dead zones this whole time to keep his plans under the radar."
Lois clenches her teeth, frustration outlining her features.
The video cuts to a more open room at Jordan and Larr turn a corner.
"This camera is positioned directly over an emergency exit." Sam describes quietly.
Lois watches Jordan's eyebrows raise as he catches sight of the door. He's obviously confused to be lead directly to an exit. Larr turns to say something to him and Lois clenches her fists involuntarily.
The teen's expression goes rigid from whatever the woman said and he jerks to a stop. Lois was dying to be able to hear anything from their conversation, her entire life was built on learning information. She wasn't sure if hearing her missing son's voice would soothe or terrify her at this point, though.
Sound or no sound, whatever the conversation was obviously wasn't going well. They exchanged a few heated words before Larr looked directly at the camera and, like she somehow could see the couple on the other side in the future, rolled her eyes. She turned back to Jordan in a moment and threw him backwards with just a tap of her palm.
Clark froze next to her, most likely working very hard not to react too suddenly. A misplaced gasp for him could take out the wall.
Larr waved her hand like she was giving Jordan some permission to do what he wanted. The teen paused for just one second before yelling. Lois' hand instantly reached for Clark's as they both saw Jordan mouth the word "dad" twice in a row.
"I didn't hear him." Clark said quietly to the room, visibly deflating as his breath was sucked right out of him. "I'd been trying to listen every minute up to then…but I couldn't for the solar flare."
"That's not on you." Lois pried her eyes away from the screen for the moment it took to catch Clark's eye. She squeezed his hand even though she knew her words probably weren't able to do anything to ease his guilt. "That's not on you."
Lois gasped as the next events on the screen took place in the blink of an eye. She would have begged her son not to try to take on Larr if she could. But she couldn't. And he was too much like his parents to listen anyway. Even with Jordan knocking Larr down once with heat vision, the older Kryptonian had him pinned in seconds.
Lois' stomach dropped as a man in a lab coat entered the scene.
"Oh my god." She said to herself, silently thanking every lucky star she had that Jordan only grazed his arm him. He was only defending himself even if it had been worse, but the kid was always brutally hard on himself.
Clark flinched when Larr took the scientist out then both she and Jordan flashed out of the camera's view. The father took one deep breathe before crossing his arms and turning away from Sam and Lois, taking a few steps to attempt to somehow collect himself.
"He shouldn't have had to see that." Clark turned back sharply. He rubbing his hand over the growing stubble on his face, the anxious movement reflecting in his posture. "He shouldn't be there. I…I don't even know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything. We beat the psycho's plan now we beat the psycho." Sam nodded. "Let's remember the good news in this video. Jordan's alive in it, somewhat okay, and Edge hasn't possessed him. Since we now have what Edge's scientist insists is the only device that can transfer Kryptonian consciences, Edge won't be able to use it on anyone from now on. That was a major concern."
"You're right. That's good" Lois says though her tone doesn't exactly seem to agree with the good part of the statement. The mother crosses her arms, her mind racing faster than her husband could fly. "We need to narrow down a search area. Wherever Jordan is now, Edge won't have moved him to just another one of his business facilities with the military now very aware of his invasion plans. If he has access to Kryptonian tech and knowledge, he must have some kind of special location for it."
Lois looks to Clark for agreement and even a little Kryptonian insight. Her husband is still staring at the video screen and its paused image of an empty and dark room. She lets her words sit for a moment then Clark blinks, finally processing her question.
"Um." Clark nods his head and pushes his glasses up with one hand. "Yes….yes. I'm almost sure he has some equivalent to what I have set up somewhere." Clark pauses. "Whenever he tried to convince me to join him, he always chose desert, like it was his home turf maybe. It didn't feel random. We should start there."
"Okay then." Sam folded his arms. "Let's find this bastard."
"What exactly will he remember once he wakes up?" Edge peered down on his nephew laying on the stone floor. The red light faded from above as the red kryptonite beam stopped.
Zeta-Rho's figure flickered behind him.
"Even I cannot predict everything from this process, but Kal-El's son will retain all of his original memories, though hazy and unclear I imagine. It is only his perception of events that will change and therefore his allegiances. He will likely not know exactly why or bother to think into it, but he will know he sides with you completely."
"And his family?"
"They will be unimportant. He may likely even feel disdain for them as his brain will be conflicted by past perception and current perception."
"Interesting."
"The effect should stabilize within a few hours." Zeta-Rho folded his arms. "We will continue with our plan to retrieve the Eradicator as soon as possible afterwards. The boy's role in its retrieval is key, so you will need to prepare him fo it quickly."
"Yes, father." Edge nods.
"Hello, nephew."
Jordan Kent coughed once, opening his eyes slowly.
The teen immediately cupped his head and groaned. Edge hesitated a moment, for once not quite sure what to do, before helping him sit up.
"I feel like I got hit by a truck." The teen blinked. Then…chuckled and smiled up at Edge.
"Yes," Edge searched the teen for some sign of rejection of the process. His spirits raised as he couldn't find anything false in the teen's expression. "Everything my father does,tends to end that way."
Edge freezes for a moment, unsure of how to proceed.
"What exactly…do you remember?"
"What do you mean?" Jordan asks, looking down at his hands and flexing his fingers. His expression was perplexed.
"Never mind that actually." Edge holds out a hand to the teen. "Let's get to work."