Days later

Clark decended into the living hell that was the torture chambers of Apokolips. It was a place where the heroes that had dared to challenge Darkseid were eternally punished for their courage.

The team didn't trust him and after the horrors he had brought upon their homes, Clark couldn't blame them. He hoped that freeing these prisoners might be the first step in proving his intentions were good. Though even if it didn't get back to them, he was just glad that he was trying to make amends, instead of wallowing in his own self pity.

The team or League, as the speedster, Barry was starting to call them, were already busy overthrowing Darkseid's remaining Generals, the ones that were scattered from Apokolips to Earth.

Clark was haunted by all the things he had done under Darkseid's control. Images of suffering and cruelty refused to let him sleep at night. One such scene of shame played out over and over in Clark's head. It was during the first year of Stepphenwolf's invasion, Clark had buried Lois's remains near the farm house when he was approached by a green skinned man.

The man bore the face of an old ally and revealed that he was in reality an alien, that he had lived on Earth for years and was the very last of his kind. The green man asked Clark to cease his actions, called on him to have compassion and to rise above the will of Darkseid. Clark beat him within an inch of his life and threw him into a chamber of fire.

The fire wouldn't kill but the man would be kept in constant pain and misery as the flames danced nearer and nearer, never reaching him but always appearing to be dangerously close.

Clark hoped that the man was still in his right mind after all his years of suffering. Clark had a lot to make up for.

Succeeding in the release of the other prisoners, Clark made his way to the last chamber, unlocking it with a simple bio scan.

"I didn't think I'd see you here again" his old friend sighed

"Things have changed, Calvin"

"I can see that... you're finally free, aren't you?" Calvin Swanwick smiled, sitting on a long ago deactivated flame pad

Clark offered him a hand and Calvin took it, standing with a loud crack in his knees.

"At least when you were my prisoner, you had appropriate leg room" Calvin laughed, dryly

"I'm sorry" Clark broke down "For everything"

"Hey now" Calvin put a reassuring hand on Clark's shoulder "An impossibly powerful force took possession of your mind, what's important now is where you go from here"

"I want to inspire hope" Clark said, remembering his time as Calvin's prisoner and the plucky red head who asked him what his S stood for. He wanted to stand for that again, he wanted to make that red head proud of him

"Would you be opposed to someone standing by your side? inspiring that hope with you"

For the first time in years, Clark smiled to himself, Swanwick wanted to keep an eye on him, some things would never change.

"I'd be honored, Calvin"

"Please call me J'onn, I think the Calvin Swanwick alias has had its day"