Achilles Heel
Part 3: The Truth Hurts
Jon's words hit Chloe with an almost physical force, stopping her dead in her tracks. Her head spinning, she reached out to a nearby signpost for support. She suddenly found it hard to breathe, her throat tightening in shock.
"Yeah, bet you didn't see that one coming." Jon pulled a pack of cigarettes and lit one with a spark of electricity between his thumb and forefinger, "Hope you don't mind: something I seem to have picked up from your side of the family."
"I'm...just...a...little...shocked." Chloe gulped down air, trying to get her mental bearings, "Who's you're father, if you're allowed to tell me?"
"Biologically speaking, Kal-El; but he wasn't around a lot when I was growing up."
"Clark and I have kids?"
"Kid: single. I was born, or rather will be born, in 2010, a little over a year after you two get married." Jon looked round, "Do you mind if we go somewhere a little more private if we're going to discuss this?"
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Jon's motel room was cold and impersonal, but Chloe was grateful for the opportunity to sit down and take stock of what she'd been told. The fact that in fifty years, her son would be living on some kind of spaceship orbiting the Earth, with the grownup Jenny Quantum and Clark was mind-blowing to say the least.
"Jenny, she said you came back in time to change something." Chloe looked at the young man she could hardly believe was her son, "What is it?"
"You don't want to know." Jon shook his head, "Trust me."
"You going to tell me, or do I have to give Elijah a call? I'm sure he knows how to get information..."
"That creepy old goat? I've been threatened by things bigger and nastier than Elijah bloody Snow. But I would take it as a personal favour if you don't involve him; his pet monkey can actually see genetic information, can read your DNA like it's a cheep, second-hand book. He'd only have to glance at me to know that I'm your son, and that a path I don't want to go down."
"That's not answering my question."
"It's, complicated: all life is surrounded by layers and layers of protective systems, each one more complex than the last. Some, like the human immune system, are easily seen and understood. Others take more time and a deeper understanding." Jon sat on the bed, "The so-called Century Babies like Elijah and your mother, to an extent Jenny-Q, are part of a deeper protective system: they're not quite human, not truly. They exist to make sure tomorrow follows today. They're sort of the planets immune system: it wills them into existence as humanity reaches a level that needs added protection."
"You sound crazy."
"In less than ten years, there are going to be so many meta-humans that no one is going to be able to pretend that they don't exist. The Century Babies and their predecessors were the first, but they were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. People like The Drummer, Shen and Bart Allan, they're the next step. The world I grew up in was an amazing place, but it was also dangerous: there are as many villains as there are heroes."
"Is that what you are; some kind of superhero?"
"Not exactly; Kal is a little, unhappy with me going into the family business as it were."
"Why do you call him that? Why not Dad? Or even Clark?"
"Like I said, he wasn't around much when I was growing up. And we don't exactly see eye-to-eye on a lot of things."
"And where am I in all this?"
Jon remained silent, unable to meet his mothers gaze.
"What happened to me?" Chloe asked, feeling a lump forming in her throat.
"You died when I was eight; killed trying to save some innocent bystanders. Kal took it worse than anyone; didn't speak to anyone for months, not even at your funeral. He took himself off...somewhere he could be totally alone. No one knew what to do with me, so I was sent to live with Jenny-Q at your mother's old place in London. Even after Kal came back, he wasn't the same, and it was decided that it would be best all round if I stayed in London."
"I died..." Chloe slumped back into the chair, "Always knew it would come on day, but now I've got an idea of just when..."
"That's why I came back: Kal was never the same after you died, none of us were. The others, they've carefully hidden the records of just how you died, trying to protect me. It's take me years, with Jenny's help, to piece it all together: something happens, something major, and it happens soon. If I can change that, then maybe I can, I don't know, move us into an alternate timeline." Jon pulled up his jacket sleeve to reveal the computer clamped around his wrist, "This is my temporal stabiliser: every action I have has a knock-on affect on the timeline. Without this, I'd cease to exist the moment I changed the timeline to any major degree. This bar here measure how much I've affected the timeline" he pointed at one of the controls, "While it remains in the Green, I can take it off to shower or something like that. If it goes into the Yellow, then I can't go back forward again. Into the Red, and taking it off erases me from existence, possibly with everything I've changed."
"Then how can you change the timeline?"
"When it glows Blue, I've changed history to fit the designed parameters Jenny programmed into it. After that, even if I take it off and cease to exist, whatever I changed remains changed."
"And what are you trying to change?"
"I want to try and stop the events that led up to your death: as I said, Kal was never the same after you died. Even when he remarried five years later, he was different. Then when she died...he went away again; wouldn't listen to anyone, least of all me. A lot of people died because the one hero everyone looked up to turned his back on humanity. Some say the war would never have happened if he'd stuck around after..."
"What war?" Chloe interrupted.
"There was an, incident, which shocked Kal back into action. But you know what they say about good intentions and hell. Things went from bad to worse, and if it was only because of men of good will and strong character that anyone came out of it. But a lot of good people died before we learnt our lessen."
"Did you fight in the war?"
"Yeah, I was one of the 'good guys', but not for the best of reasons: by that point I'd taken to doing to exact opposite of what Kal did, just to spite him. Signing on with the Loyal Opposition was just another way of hurting him."
"Why do you hate him so much?"
"I was just a kid when you died; I didn't understand how or why. I'd just lost one parent, and the other didn't want to know me because I reminded him of what he'd lost. That kind of resentment grows." Jon stood and looked out of the window, "Elijah and his people will be here soon, along with a man named Jackson King."
"I know of him; he was in StormWatch with my mother and some of the others from Planetary."
"Yeah, well he now heads-up the UN's meta-human monitoring unit, what Team Achilles should have been, if Santini wasn't such a frigging psycho. He's going to want to interview you, about your powers and about Team Achilles. Answer the questions as truthfully as you can; he's a good guy to have on your side."
"What do I tell them about you if they ask?"
"If, and only if, tell them I'm a human/Kheran hybrid: the UN has a long-standing arrangement with the planets Kheran population, so they'll probably leave me alone. And Elijah not crazy enough to step on their toes: he still thinks he can get their support for his little war against The Four. Worse case scenario, I end up having to explain myself to a slightly upset Kheran. But they're smart guys; they'll get what I'm trying to do here."
"Can we talk some more?" Chloe asked as she headed for the door, "There's so much I'd like to know."
"And there's only so much I can tell you." Jon shrugged, "And, hopefully, the world I came from will be drastically changed by the time I'm done."
To Be Continued...
