Chapter 27
The Present…
Smallville…
Clark is doing some chores around the barn, trying to work off the frustrations of his talk with Mia…or to be more accurate his attempted talk with her.
After the rig blew up and he found himself in the ocean he had spotted her floating there unconscious and rescued her before heading home.
Once he was certain she was physically ok he attempted to talk with her over what Brainiac had revealed. Why she was really here in the past.
Her reaction had scared him. She looked and sounded exactly like Andi that night she had killed her mother's killer. Justifying how cold-blooded murder is justice instead of revenge. What made it worse is that Mia wanted to kill Rose Wilson for something this version of her hadn't done yet and if he has any say in it will never do.
Clark shakes his head as he recalls the expression on his daughter's face as she made this justification. For one brief moment all the masks had fallen away and he saw the broken, grieving, angry, vengeful young woman his daughter is underneath. He had finally gotten what he had wanted from her since the moment she arrived. The truth. Now he almost regrets it.
Along with a new slab of guilt that he could have prevented all of this if he had just known she existed in her timeline.
For the moment he can hear her stalking around the house, indulging in some comfort eating and he'll have to keep an eye on her and makes she stays on the farm for the time being. His hearing then picks up someone entering the barn. "AC."
"Boy scout."
Clark snorts at the nickname.
"Glad you didn't find your Davy Jones down there after that explosion," the Atlantean says genuinely.
"I know how much you love the water... but I couldn't be happier to have my two feet on solid ground."
"Oh, just as well. Cause let's be honest. Underwater, you look like a clown fish," AC jokes.
Clark manages a smile. "I guess I should thank you for uncovering those holding cells. Part of me wishes I could have kept on believing in... everything I was raised to believe in," he says being both grateful to AC but regretful at the same time.
"Don't let an overzealous Warhawk shake your faith in people, Clark. Your endless optimism is the one thing I actually like about you," AC says in a moment of honesty.
"Did you learn that vocabulary from Mera?" the dark-haired farm boy jokes, gently prodding his blond friend.
"Seriously, though, you made a good point. Digging in our heels and being as extreme as Slade makes us no better than them."
"Well at least one person is listening to me."
"Yeah. About that. Mera mentioned what happened with you and Lois."
"You want to know if Mia is really my daughter," Clark guesses.
AC nods.
"She is."
"I'm guessing Lois didn't take it so well and that is why you broke up."
"She took it as if I had cheated or betrayed her or something which is impossible since this was 5 years ago and I could barely stand her."
"We both know that isn't really true," AC argues that Clark felt like that about Lois.
"AC, I have a daughter, 2 different versions of her, a child and an adult. I have my job at the Planet as well as my costumed 'hobby'. I do not have the time to try and figure out whatever neuroses Lois is working through."
"What I learned from my relationship with Mera is that if something is important you make the time. If you're not willing to for Lois then perhaps that should tell you something."
"He gets married and now he's a philosopher," Clark says in a light jest.
"Well…"
"Or a relationship counsellor."
"Now you're just being mean."
"AC, I'm glad you found someone that makes you happy. Really but my heart is a little too bruised at the moment…"
"I get it," his water loving friend says, not needing Clark to finish. "So, even with General Nutcase down where does that leave us?" AC moves into a serious topic.
"Regret that they got what they wanted out of the VRA."
"How's that?"
"We didn't exactly rush to sign up, but we got scared. We stopped communicating. We stopped trusting each other. Now, there's no way we can beat this if we splinter."
"I may not trust the commandos in Washington, but I trust you, Clark. So we'll do it your way ... lead by example, not by resistance. Though I think you already have another battle brewing on the home front."
"That battle has already begun," Clark says gravely.
It's at this point the two men are joined by Mera who shares a kiss with her husband.
"Clark," the redhead addresses him, "I must confess that I thought Orin was exaggerating but everything he said about you is true. Even when the tide is turning, you work hard to bring change by delivering justice, not bombs. As a patriot to the country, not just the cause."
"That's our boyscout," AC teases.
"I miss one meeting," Clark mutters under his breath about that infernal nickname.
"Orin, can you give Clark and myself a few moments please," she requests.
"Sure," he agrees, a puzzled expression on his face as he exits the barn.
"How can I help you, Mera?"
"It is I who wish to aid you."
"With what?"
"I cannot help but notice Lois is not here."
"She isn't here a lot lately," he says, a tad bitter.
"Orin thought you two would be a good match."
"So did I," Clark sighs sadly.
"This life is not easy. Especially when one leads it alone."
"Mera, my heart…"
"…is a little too bruised. Yes, I overheard the two of you."
"Then what are we discussing?"
"If Lois could not come to terms with you having a daughter, Clark then perhaps she is not the one to stand by your side."
"No offence, Mera but is this going somewhere?"
"What of your daughter's mother?"
"What about her?"
"You and she are not close?"
"We're friends."
"You say that in a clinical manner without emotion yet you have a child together."
"Ships passing in the night. I had lost my dad. She had lost her mom. We found comfort in each other for one night. I didn't even know Mia existed until her future self showed up a few months ago."
"You are not angered by this omission?"
"Anger…my anger has nothing to do with it."
"In what way?"
"I need to see my daughter. That's all that is important."
"So you pushed your anger aside at the deceit," Mera gets.
"Is that wrong?"
"I do not believe it is the best way to have a relationship with this woman, even if it is just friendship. At some point, you must forgive her or risk the darkness of your anger consuming you and in time affecting your daughter."
Clark frowns at her words. He was already worried about the Darkness, that dark entity possessing him due to his weakness. If he is holding onto his anger at Andi is that making him more vulnerable? "That's easier said than done," he says back.
"It is only as hard as we choose to make it."
"You're a good influence on AC."
"I am aware of this," she boasts which makes Clark chuckle. She in return smiles at the strange man. He is so full of contradictions. "Before Orin and I catch the next tide can I enquiry what of your daughter and her darkness?"
"She isn't listening to me. She's too caught up in her anger and grief."
"So what are you going to do?"
Clark's face goes pensive. "Honestly…I don't know. I just know I can't let her fall into that pit of anger and revenge. There's too much good in her to let that happen and I know there's good in her. I've seen it."
"Then I wish you good fortune in your quest, Clark."
"Thank you," he says gratefully as he watches her depart.
Clark lets out a breath.
"Cir-El's fate is not yours to determine, Kal-El."
"Oh my God, seriously?!" the young man mutters to the heavens before turning to face the artificial construct known as the Brain Interactive Construct.
"I did say we would converse further," Brainiac points out.
"I thought you could give me at least 5 minutes to recuperate. I've had a long day."
"I am aware of what transpired at the VRA Facility…or at least the original version of history. Cir-El's presence is distorting events."
"How's that?"
"Think of it as the temporal equivalent of a sonic boom. From the moment of her 'impact' in the past she sent out ripples of distortion along the space-time continuum. Events, even ones she has no direct influence on, get reshuffled. For example, your cousin."
Clark's interest perks up. "Kara?"
"She was catapulted into the 31st century through a wormhole. A wormhole created by the distortion of Cir-El's impact."
"Is Kara ok?"
"Your cousin is fine. I assure you."
Clark's relieved about that but also possibly sad. If she's in the 31st century is he never going to see her again? "You know, you and I time-travelled. It didn't have the same effect?" he queries.
"Your misbegotten attempts most certainly did but they are also part of history and were supposed to happen. As for myself, I know what I am doing to ensure my travels have no significant effect. Cir-El, on the other hand, travelled back with the express purpose of changing history. Her intent alone caused disruption."
"Temporal mechanics makes my head hurt."
"I know it can seem complicated and almost contradictory at times. It is why there are laws governing time travel and agencies who ensure their enforcement but that is irrelevant to the matter at hand."
"Mia," Clark airs what the matter at hand is.
"She must be sent home and then as I mentioned previously I will attempt to repair the damage she has caused as much as possible."
"No."
"What do you mean, Kal-El?"
"I mean, no. I'm not sending her anywhere. Not in her current state."
"Kal-El, you must not let any parental connection you may feel blind you to what must be done," Brainiac insists.
"Tell me, what fate becomes of her if I send her back, hmm? When she is this full or rage, hatred and grief?"
"As I said her fate is not your concern," the AI avoids answering the question.
"Ok, lets try another question. What do you mean by repairing the damage?"
"With her removal from this time that will, ideally, reduce the turbulence of the time stream and enable me to return to the moment she first arrived and intercept her before your first encounter with her and send her back. While that sounds convoluted I believe it is the action that will restore the timeline closest to its original shape."
"And therefore erase all knowledge of my own daughter," Clark fills out the consequences.
"You were never supposed to have such knowledge."
"I don't care what I was supposed to not know! The point is I do know and you cannot seriously expect me to forsake my own flesh and blood," Clark argues passionately, almost exasperated.
"You saw who you are supposed to become. Together with Lois Lane. Are you willing to risk losing all of that?"
"She is my daughter," is all Clark feels he needs to say.
"Kal-El," Brainiac reproaches him.
"You think I haven't thought of this?" he asks rhetorically. "I can't live in any version of history or the future or whatever where I don't know my own daughter exists. Where I am not there for her. That future version of me you keep referring to would think exactly the same. If I had been there for her," he points towards the house, "would she be like this? Would be so full of anger and hate?"
"You are risking the entire future," Brainiac chastises him.
"You said that while the future had changed it was still there," Clark retorts.
"The timelines are still in flux. The future remains in peril," Brainiac warns.
"Nothing you say can change the fact you are asking me to choose to abandon my daughter."
"I am asking you to be the man you met in the future. The man who chooses the world over his own personal desires."
"And that man being together with Lois wasn't him choosing his personal desires?"
"That is inaccurate. You and Lois are destined to be together."
"You're arguing that destiny is something inevitable. That we have no free will."
"You know that is not what I am arguing."
"It kinda is actually. Also I will remind you, Lois walked out on me. Why don't you go give her this lecture about us being 'destined'?"
"Kal-El…" Brainiac begins only to be cut off.
"Ok, what? What is it you want me to say? That I love Lois? I do. That I thought we were this perfect fit for each other? I believed that right up until she walked off after finding out about Mia."
"And that is the issue, Kal-El. Cir-El's appearance disrupted the process of you and Lois completing the foundation of your relationship. As I have said I believe I can undo most of the changes."
"And I've said I will not agree to anything that separates me from my daughter."
"I wished to do this with your cooperation Kal-El…"
"Or what?" Clark asks, his tone serious at the implied threat. "You'll force her back? If you had the ability to do that we wouldn't be having this conversation," the alien hero reasons.
"As I said time travel can be complicated."
Clark cocks his head slightly, takes a few steps forward, takes his hand and waves it through the air…and right through Brainiac whose image flickers. "You're not actually here."
"Very good, Kal-El," Brainiac praises him.
"You know for someone whose programming was supposed to have been fixed you're still very good at lying," the dark-haired man comments.
"I was not entirely untruthful. I did attempt to travel back to before Cir-El first appeared but I couldn't reach it. I was caught in the temporal storm she has unleashed."
"So where are you actually?"
"I remain caught in the storm. Lost in the timestream."
"So you're a projection?"
"Directly into your mind."
"So time never was frozen. It was all in my head," Clark gets from what happened at the Aquarium.
"I cannot escape until time is reset. That depends entirely on you sending Cir-El back."
Clark closes his eyes momentarily as he contemplates what to say and do. "I'm sorry for your current predicament. I really am but I can't send her back. Not in her current state. I need to save her. Surely you can grasp that."
"You are being selfish."
"Then I'm selfish," Clark snaps back without apology before turning and exiting the barn, done with this conversation. Though he has no way to stop Brainiac speaking to him….and just to prove his point.
"And what of the Darkness, Kal-El?!" the disembodied figure shouts after him.
Clark pauses. "What of it?" he asks without looking back.
"In Cir-El's current state, that you are so concerned about, you must realise how easily she could be possessed and with that possession will come knowledge of the future."
"I'll protect her," Clark insists.
"You can't even yet protect yourself," the AI retorts.
"I'll find a way," Clark argues without any justification for that statement.
"Not by yourself. You can't win this battle alone."
"You're right. I can't," Clark concedes…and then proceeds to walk off.
The Watchtower…
"For the supposed fastest man alive how is he always late?" Oliver grumbles.
The archer's question is answered by the flash of golden lightning that signals the arrival of Impulse. "I'm never late," Bart insists as he pulls down his hood and removes his shades. "I just work in a different time zone to you slow pokes."
"Garrick was never this bad," comes the gruff remarks of Hawkman, who is standing in the corner being his usual unsocial and intimidating self.
Something flashes over Bart's face for a moment before he looks around the room and lets out an impressed whistle. Everyone seemed to be here. If not in person then on video link. "So what's the sitch?"
"Didn't realise you were a Kim Possible fan, Bart?" Clark teases him which makes Stargirl chuckle.
"Dude," Bart whines at being embarrassed in front of the pretty girl.
"Is that everyone?" Tess queries having a look around.
"Except Supergirl," the Martian Manhunter raises.
Clark shoots him a sour look. He's not forgotten J'onn abducted Mia for Jor-El awhile back. They had words about that. "She's grounded at the moment," is all he says.
"Why?" Bart asks.
Clark takes a breath. "I'll answer that later and any other questions you have about her but there's something else I want to raise first…if Tess does not mind me taking the lead?"
"This was your idea," Tess allows him.
"Um, by now, I think we all know what the government was up to?"
"You mean their secret prisons, right?" Hawkman suspects, his anger at it quite clear since it feels like Checkmate and the destruction of the Justice Society all over again.
"Yes. However, those prisons were part of a much bigger threat. Hate crimes are up. People like Slade Wilson, they're getting more control. And Godfrey's anti-vigilante message ... it's reaching more ears than ever before, and I don't think it's a coincidence."
"Sadly, Clark, there's no mystery to human fear and hatred," Tess points out.
"This time, there might be," he contradicts her. "I think there's something more behind the darkness, something that hero haters like Slade don't even know is affecting them. When I sent the Kandorians away through the portal into space, I opened a door for something else to come to Earth," he confesses what Jor-El told him.
"Are you seriously trying to tell me that, out of all the intergalactic bad boys we've ever faced, this one's actually worse?" Oliver asks in disbelief.
"This is much worse. It's not corporeal. We can't even see it to fight it. This thing is like an evil that's spreading over the Earth. It preys upon the dark side that we already have. It feeds on our doubts, our fears and our distrust."
"Well, I'd say, from where I'm standing, it's already on the winning side," Oliver says grimly.
"I think it even affected Slade. Just before the facility exploded, I saw something on Slade's skull ... the Omega symbol. It was like it was branded there. Almost like the mark... "
" ...of the beast in revelations," Tess finishes.
"That would explain why Slade veered so far off standard military procedure," Oliver says, thinking back on the torture.
"I'm guessing you don't think that Slade's the only pledge to the Alpha-Omega-Die Fraternity, right?" Stargirl raises.
"I think the Omega's a sign of corruption, a mark that the darkness has fully taken over someone."
"Is there any way to protect ourselves from being taken over?" Cyborg asks.
"One must be pure in spirit and purpose and free of all self-doubt," Martian Manhunter relays.
"Sounds good in theory John but which one of us doesn't have that weakness? A hidden hatred or fear that this thing couldn't prey upon?" Clark asks back.
"So, basically this thing doesn't have to do anything," Hawkman points out. "It just has to let human beings be themselves," he lays out what seems like the hopelessness of the situation.
"It just waits for everybody's weaknesses, and then we destroy ourselves," Tess puts it another way.
"That's why I called this meeting. I hoped if we pull all our knowledge and resources together we might be able to find out what this Darkness really is and some way to stop it because if we don't the Darkness will infect every person on this planet."
"Oh great," Bart mutters sarcastically. "So, in other words, we're in the end times."
Smallville…
After the meeting at Watchtower Clark returns home to check up on his daughter who it seems actually listened to him and stayed put.
"Where were you?" Mia asks as he enters the house, her tone full of impatience.
"Watchtower. Team meeting," he replies.
"And you didn't invite me along why?"
"You know why," he replies, giving her a hard look.
"Papá! Don't you understand?! I did it for you. For Mamá. For us!"
"You did it for revenge. Mia, that doesn't achieve anything," he argues with her…again because they're already had this talk.
"It will achieve everything!" she yells back. "Don't you get it?! That bitch is the cause of everything. She dies and Mamá lives."
"Mia," Clark tries to remain calm in the face of her fury. "There is no way she survived that explosion," he reckons.
Mia lets out a choked, bitter laugh. "Ha! You don't know her like I do. Nor her father. They're like cockroaches. I guarantee you we'll see them again. And as soon as she pokes her head up I'll be kicking it off her shoulders."
"Mia," Clark tries again to reach her, physically as she reaches out with his hand but Mia bats it away, not wanting comfort.
"I was stupid," she lambasts herself. "I should have killed her the instant I saw her but I wanted her to suffer like she made me suffer. Like she made Mamá suffer before she killed her. I won't make that mistake next time. Next time I'm just going to kill her!" she says with pure hatred. She then storms off before her father can make any further attempts to reason with her. She doesn't want to hear anything he has to say.
Clark rubs his face after she's gone. He was right before. She's just like her mother was that night. Consumed with grief, anger and hate and right now he just doesn't know how he can prevent history repeating itself.
Elsewhere…
A man sits on a hospital bed, his whole head covered in bandages which are shortly removed by a doctor to reveal the face of Slade Wilson, his right eye now covered by a patch.
"Like father like daughter it seems," a voice from the doorway says.
Slade looks up to see his daughter, a patch over her left eye. He glowers, hate simmering underneath the surface. "They can't hide. There is no place on this Earth where they can hide," he vows with dark intent.
"Oh I agree. I just ask a favour?"
Slade looks at his daughter curiously.
"The Angel of Vengeance is mine," she demands.
"No games, Rose," he warns her off her usual tactics.
Rose chuckles darkly and rubs her hand over the eye patch. "After this…I promise ya daddy, she's as good as dead."
Meanwhile, unseen in the background, the monitors fill with static and amidst it all, pulsing like a dark heartbeat is the Omega symbol…
Author's Note: Is Clark being selfish and risking what Brainiac perceives to be the correct timeline? I leave it up to you to decide. So, yep, Mia is now the one responsible for Rose losing her eye. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews.
