Chapter Seven

Clark sat in stunned silence as Wells finished the story. Superman stared at the ground with his arms folded across his chest. Clark sat on the floor with his legs crossed, hunched forward. Wells looked at the ceiling, clasping his hands behind his back. For several long, agonizing minutes, no one said a word.

"This… Tempus person," Clark finally said, his voice hoarse, trembling. "…he killed my parents, and Lana, and Chloe… all to get me to give in to Jor-El, and conquer the Earth." His breathing was heavy.

"…Yes," Wells said, sorrowfully.

Clark stood up. "Okay. Okay. This… this is all right. All we have to do is go back in time, and stop it from happening. If we go back to right before Tempus killed them, and stop it from happening, then everything will be all right again."

"…No," Wells said.

"What do you mean, 'No'?"

"I already did it, Clark."

"You already did what?"

"I already went back in time, and prevented everything that I just described to you from happening. But, Clark… the future refused to change."

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I said. After I discovered what Tempus had done, I traveled back in time and alerted the authorities to the fact that Tempus was going to attempt to cut Jonathan Kent's brake lines. He was caught in the act, and taken to prison. Your parents and friends lived. Then, I returned here, to the future… only to find that what I had done had made no difference. Everything had turned out exactly the same anyway."

"How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure exactly. But, I have a theory. Do you remember the Temporal Disruption Regulator in my cabin? The device that was hidden inside the face of the grandfather clock, which kept the cabin separate from the influence of all time and space around it?"

"Yes…"

"I believe that Tempus must have created a Disruption Regulator of his own, only he's modified it somehow. Adapted it, so that this entire universe now exists in its own separate timeline. Once he had created this terrible future, he activated the Regulator, thus ensuring that this future would continue to exist, even if the past was changed."

Clap… Clap… Clap.

Slow, sarcastic clapping echoed down the hallway of the dungeon. The man with the brown hair and the black business suit slowly emerged from the shadows.

"Bravo, Herb! Bravo! You truly are a man ahead of your time. Though I'm not sure that means much when you're stuck more than a hundred years in the future."

"Tempus," Superman growled.

Clark's eyes went wide with rage. He threw himself at the glass, pounding on it like a madman. "You son of a bitch! You killed my parents! You killed two of my best friends! Why! For what! What did they ever do to you?"

"Ahhh, Clark… what did they ever do, what did they ever do?" Tempus said with an evil smirk. "They loved you, my boy. They filled you with confidence, with hope, with that sickeningly irritating desire to do what's right, and stand up for Truth, Justice, and Mom's Apple Pie. I just couldn't have that. You'd end up like the boob in the cape over here, flying around in a pair of long underwear and saving kittens from trees."

Clark punched the glass again, as if he could somehow punch Tempus right through it.

"Think about it, Clark!" Tempus yelled. "I did you the biggest favor of your life! Without Ma and Pa around, you were finally able to give in to Big Daddy Jor-El, and become the man you were always meant to be. Kal-El of Krypton, the conqueror! The king! You should get down on your knees and thank me for turning you from the world's biggest Boy Scout into the world's biggest Bad Ass!"

"You've gone way too far this time, Tempus," Superman said.

Tempus turned around to face Superman's cell.

"Oh, come off it, Big Blue. This is it! It's over! I won! So stop the posturing for once, hm?" Tempus stood up straight and folded his arms across his chest, mocking Superman. He leaned in close to the glass. "The game is over… and I've got the most powerful being in the entire freaking universe in my corner!"

"In your corner?" Superman asked.

Tempus backed away and held his hand to his chest. "You are speaking to the official Advisor-in-Chief to Lord Kal-El. His 'Right Hand Man,' if you will."

"Egads… Tempus, you fiend!" Wells exclaimed. "Don't you see that you've created a terrible, awful world full of corruption and despair?"

"Of course I do! That's what makes it so fun," Tempus replied.

"I don't care how long it takes, Tempus," Superman said. "We will find a way to get out of here. And we will bring you down."

"Y'know, Supes… I had a feeling you'd say that. And I've been doing some thinking. You do have a hell of a track record for thwarting my evil schemes. And, given a long enough time in that cell, even though it seems impossible, you probably would find some way to escape, and ruin everything. That's why I've decided not to leave you kids locked up any more. I've devised a much more permanent solution."

Tempus held up a metal box which Clark immediately recognized. Legend said that it was forged from the armor of Saint George, the Dragon Slayer. Tempus opened the box, revealing a large glowing chunk of green kryptonite.

"Harper! Delgado!" Tempus called.

Two men wearing helmets and full body armor stomped down the hall, carrying laser rifles. One entered a passcode into a keypad on the wall, and the glass slid away from the three cells. The first man held a rifle to Wells' temple and hauled him out of his cell. The other grabbed Clark and pulled him close to Tempus, who had already yanked Superman from his cell. Clark and Superman immediately felt the ill effects of the kryptonite, struggling to stay on their feet. Superman clutched his forehead as it throbbed from within, his head feeling light and his vision blurring. Clark's hands burned as his veins turned green and pulsated.

"Isn't it ironic that two men with the powers of gods are rendered weak as baby kittens when they get near a little green piece of home?" Tempus laughed to himself. "Lord, I love this stuff!"

Tempus and the men called Harper and Delgado marched Wells, Clark and Superman down the dank, musty dungeon hallway. There were rows upon rows of cells, but Clark could see now that they were all empty. He silently wondered to himself where all the other prisoners had gone. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. Wells had said something earlier about those who opposed Kal-El being imprisoned, executed or exiled. Where do you exile someone to when you control the entire world?

At the very end of the hallway was a large chamber. Mounted on the far wall of the chamber was what appeared to be a huge ray gun of some sort.

"The Phantom Zone…" Wells gasped.

"Ahhh… someone's read up on their Kryptonian history," Tempus teased. Harper and Delgado led the three prisoners to the center of the chamber, right in front of the ray gun.

"Wells… what's he talking about?" Clark asked.

"Oh, please, allow me," Tempus insisted. "It's an ingenious penal system that your planet came up with. Instead of prisons or executions, the criminals of Krypton were banished to The Phantom Zone. There, you can see and hear everything that takes place in the physical world, but you exist only as a disembodied wraith, unable to interact with the world around you in any shape or form. You become nothing more than a ghost, doomed to an eternity of solitude and loneliness. And you people call me sick and twisted!"

Tempus handed the box with the kryptonite in it to the man called Harper. Then he walked over to the ray gun at the end of the room.

"This device is called the Phantom Zone Projector. It was invented by your father, Jor-El," Tempus explained. "So when you're serving out infinity in your own living hell, remember, you have Daddy Dearest to thank for it." He pulled a lever on the side of the Projector, and it hummed to life. "Any final words, last requests, etcetera?"

Harper closed the box. All eyes in the room turned to him.

"Keep that open, you idiot!" Tempus hissed.

Harper tossed the box on the ground, and smashed the butt of his gun into the side of Delgado's head. Delgado crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"Harper, what the hell are you doing!" Tempus dove for the box, but it was too late. With his powers now returned to him, Superman reacted with super speed, snatching the box away before Tempus could even get close. Harper hoisted Tempus up and delivered a crushing blow across his face, knocking him out.

Clark, Superman and Wells just stared.

"Who are you?" Superman asked.

"My name isn't Harper." The one who had been called Harper reached up and removed the helmet, revealing not a man under the armor, but a woman. Long dark brown hair fell down around her shoulders, and her eyes were a beautiful icy blue. "I am Diana of Themyscira," she said. "The people call me Wonder Woman."