Author's Note: I came across the idea for this ficlet while reading an interview with Bryan Singer. A scene was written into Superman Returns where Clark stands at Ground Zero as Superman and looks out across it as if to say 'If I had had been here, this might not be'. I would've liked to have seen that scene very much but then a fictional character can't take the blame for what happened there. I visited Ground Zero a little after it all happened so Clark's thoughts are also a little reflection of mine, except I know I couldn't have saved anyone like he might have done.
Disclaimer: I certainly do not own Superman nor even the plot. It's just my take on the scene that never was. No copyright infringement intended.
Ground Zero.
Clark stared hard at what was before him and sighed heavily, the sigh of a weary man. The sight was overwhelming even though it had been cleared away to only rubble now but remembering what once stood here and what they had been reduced to was very humbling. It was like standing on the brink of Hell and faltering before the sight.
Clark had found out about September eleventh by accident as he had been flicking through old copies of the Daily Planet in a bid to find any articles Lois may have written about Superman that may have possibly been praising him in some way. Reading the words of Lois' hand was comforting to him because unfortunately, it was the only way to really get close to her and feel what she was feeling.
When Clark had actually found the glaring headline of the tragedy and the pictures that accompanied it, he had felt nothing but guilt and intense sadness about his failure to these people. What would have happened if he had been here, on Earth? Could he have saved them? Could he have made a difference?
He had felt it apt that he visit Ground Zero, as it had been dubbed by the press, as Superman and not Clark Kent for it wasn't Clark that had failed the New Yorkers, it was Superman. The whole area was still fenced off to the public but the railings didn't hide a thing. Clark curled his fingers through the metal fencing and held it tight as he surveyed the big empty space before him. It really was an incredible feeling staring into a void that had once housed the two mightiest buildings of America.
Clark pushed his forehead against the metal fence and screwed his eyes up tight, not knowing what to think. He regretted not being here with such bitter force, it scared him. But what could he do? What could anyone do?
He let go of the fencing with an angry sigh and turned away from the site and was faced with a once white wall which had been adorned with messages, threats, promises and goodbyes. Clark wandered the short distance toward the wall, mesmerised by all the different handwriting and pictures. He reached out his hand and trailed his fingertips across a message to the President that had been scrawled in thick black paint, covering many of the smaller messages underneath it. He touched a photo of a policeman and the dried wreath of flowers that hung next to it with a message begging him to make contact if he was alive. It really was heartbreaking.
Clark had to turn away from the wall of messages but was only faced with the empty space that once was. He decided to walk the space, to really get a feel of things and hopefully put them in some kind of perspective so he gently lifted his feet off the ground and cleared the railings. He landed just in front of where he had been standing previously but the scene before him was very different. He felt exposed here, even though a flimsy metal railing had separated him before.
He padded forward cautiously, feeling the rubble under his feet and feeling as if he really were trapped in a void for there were buildings scraping the sky all around him but then suddenly this drop of flat and empty space. Clark walked forwards, treading the places of hundreds of footsteps and tried to imagine being here, as a regular human. An awful thought entered his mind, what if Lois had been here with Jason instead? He could never forgive himself for not protecting his family when they would've needed him most.
The sun was rising quickly now, the brilliant orange sun bursting through the spaces between the skyscraper buildings told Clark that his dawn visit would soon be coming to an end and it would be back to his life as Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent.
Truth was, Clark felt exhausted. Not physically but emotionally and being here didn't help one bit. Clark stood silently and looked across the emptiness that lay before him and could only think one thing. If I had been here, this might not be.