It was strange really, in all her years in the world of humanity, she had never seen something quite like this. The Justice League some of the most powerful individuals and collective, the world had ever seen were at a loss over what to do. Superman, Kal, Clark, their friend, their family was grieving, and Lois Lane, the lady who had centred him and thus them all was gone, dead, not yet buried as the police continued their investigation and examined her body. Diana knew grief, Steve's image flitted briefly through her mind, alongside that of her sisters, and friends lost along the way, but she had never known something like this. There was a palpable shift in the atmosphere, as everyone, quite literally everyone felt Lois Lane's loss.
She landed at the entrance to the Fortress and sighed. Bruce should be here as well, the three of them had helped form the Justice League in its current form, after Clark's days in Smallville, and they were the closest out of all the members, apart from maybe Kal and Oliver, but Bruce did not think he could help Clark. Diana, felt he was wrong but she respected his decision. She stood before the entrance, unsure of how to approach the situation. This was no battle, this was her friend, someone she respected completely, and she wanted to approach the situation properly. Diana took a breath, then pushed open the entrance, hidden behind snow as it was. A scan happened and once it confirmed who she was, she walked through. She said nothing, knowing that Kal could hear her, if he wanted to, he would find her.
Diana reached the central part of the fortress, where two solid statues of someone who resembled Kal and a lady who resembled Lois stood, the statues had been there long before Kal had ever met Lois, though. They were holding up the world, crowns atop their heads. Kal's voice cut through her musings. "What do you want?"
Diana looked at her friend, she saw the lines around his face, the grief writ raw, his eyes looked haunted. Just as she had looked after Steve had died. "I've come to help."
"I don't need help." Kal replied. He took a breath. "I need to know why. Why did it happen? Why did they take Lois, why did they kill her? It was me they were after, if they wanted to kill someone why didn't they kill me?"
Diana didn't say anything, she suspected this was something Kal had needed to say for some time. "My whole life I have been afraid, afraid that because of who I am, and what I can do, that the people I loved would be hurt by it. I tried to stop myself from being who I am, but I couldn't. I had to help people, it was the right thing to do." Kal took another shuddering breath. "Was I wrong? Should I have stayed as I was, Clark Kent, man from Smallville, Kansas, nothing more than that? Should I have denied who I was Diana?"
"No." Diana said firmly. "Lois would agree with me Kal, you are Superman, you are a hero to millions of people, you have made the world much safer, a much better place. You bring hope, where there was none. If you denied who you were the world would have been a much worse place than it is now. And truthfully, do you think you could have avoided doing this?"
Kal closed his eyes. "No. I have always wanted to help. I just, I just never felt as though I fit in anywhere. At school, I had to constantly hold back so that I didn't scare anyone, so that nobody knew my secret. I lost a friend because of that. Pete never wanted to carry such a secret. Lana wanted me because of my secret, for something she couldn't have. Lois was the only person who truly understood me." Kal opened his eyes, and behind the blue, Diana saw pain, such raw pain, her heart broke for her friend. "And now she is gone. Lois is dead, because some mad man thinks that that is necessary to drive me to something that I can't ever see myself becoming."
"What did Devoe say, Kal? What did he do?" Diana asked, she knew from speaking to Barry that Devoe was a master at getting inside people's heads, making them question themselves and everything they believed in.
Kal said nothing for a long time, then when he answered, his voice was laced with sadness. "He said that Lois was the only being that could keep me tied to my humanity, toward compassion, toward sanity. He said something was coming that needed to be dealt with, something that would take away the knowledge and the wellbeing of Earth. That the governments of the world would not deal with this threat accordingly." Kal looked at her, but Diana sensed he wasn't really seeing her. "He killed Lois because he thought that would turn me into a monster, someone who could stand before the madness and stop it." there was a long pause then. Kal took another breath. "And I'm afraid he was right."
"What do you mean?" Diana asked.
"I feel angry, Diana. Braverman and Devoe both of them should have been in prison, for a very long time, yet Devoe escaped, and the authorities did nothing because his cousin serves in Matthews administration. Braverman should have died last year, but was released instead. The system is broken and none of the politicians are going to fix it. I know if I wanted to, I could fix the system, but I can't. If I get involved then, am I no better than Zod?" Kal said. "But then I think of Jonathan, my son, I left him in Smallville, he lost his mum, and I left him in Smallville with my parents. I came away, I ran away from my own son. What kind of father does that make me? My own son must hate me. I hate myself."
"You needed time to grieve, Kal." Diana said. "You needed to be able to process what happened. You can't help Jonathan if you are too buried in your own grief."
Kal sighed. "I know that, but I don't feel as though I've done anything to handle my grief. It's still there, sitting inside me like a fire, burning through everything. I know that if I wanted to I could take control of everything, and nobody could stop me. I know Bruce would try to stop me, but he would not be able to succeed. That mere thought alone terrifies me. I think I've been spending more time here, I am scared of what will happen when I leave."
"Kal, I know that you are grieving, and I know you are hurting. I know what that is like. When Steve died I wanted to shut myself away from humanity, to never help again. I was disgusted by what I saw, by what happened. Then I met a boy, someone so filled with hope and determination, this boy did not have much in the world, but he was determined. He would change the world, in whatever way he could, for good. That boy gave me the confidence to handle the world. You have an entire league of friends who are there for you, your son is a great kid, he has fought hard for himself, he continues to help people despite his own grief." That last part might be true or a lie, Diana was not sure if the word of a blur passing through Smallville and Metropolis were true or not. Ma and Pa Kent would not answer direct questions. "Kal, you have an amazing network of friends and family, waiting to help you, all you need to do is ask. You don't have to hide from yourself or anyone. You are Kal El, Last Son of Krypton, Clark Kent, Superman. Whatever you decide, I will support you."
Kal nodded, though he didn't seem convinced. He seemed about to say something when the monitor beeped. They both looked at the screen, and saw something that horrified. "That's in Syria." Diana said. "Those are children they're about to kill."
"Not again." Kal said, he sped off, Diana soon joining him.
"What's the plan?" She asked.
"We shall stop these terrorists, and we shall make an example of their leader." Kal said. There was a note of finality in his tone, and so Diana nodded. They sped off, landing in Raqqa sometime later. Kal sped forward, knocking the guns out of the hands of the terrorists whilst Diana moved the children to somewhere safe.
"Stay here." She told them. they nodded.
Kal had tied the terrorists up, he stared at them. In Arabic, Kal spoke. "Why?"
"They are threats to our way of life. They are the spies of the infidel. They would turn our country into another America. They deserve nothing but death." Said the leader, a man with a bald head, and beady eyes.
"They are children. They are innocent of any crime you might think they have committed." Diana replied.
The man spat at her. "You would dare speak to me, you are nothing more than a woman, your best use is in producing children."
Diana advanced forward, but Kal held up a hand. "So, you were to kill these children, making their parents grieve, turning their parents against you. You are not very smart. Nor are you very brave. Whatever God you worship, I do not think they would find you to be brave, or smart, or kind."
"Pah, what do you know? You are American, you are a problem, you will die." The man replied.
A scream broke out. Diana turned around. "The children."
Kal sped off, when he returned he brought with him a woman. "Why?" He demanded of the woman.
"They are ruined, they have been soiled by the ideologies of the devil." The woman replied.
"You told me they were your children. You would kill your own children?" Kal demanded, his eyes wide.
"Yes." The woman replied.
"Then you do not deserve to be a mother." Kal replied, he moved quickly, and when he returned he looked at Diana. "She will face justice at The Hague." The men before him were shifting and panting. "Who are these men?"
Diana looked at them and recognised the sign on their clothes. "They are part of the so called Islamic State, they claim to want to re-establish the Caliphate in the Middle East before moving toward the rest of the world. They have killed more people in the past year than any other terrorist organisation. This man here," she pointed at the bald man. "Is their leader."
Kal didn't say anything for a moment, something clearly playing out in his mind. When he did reply, his voice was soft. "What should I do here? We both know that if we let them go they will kill more people, take them to The Hague and they will face no justice, but that is the right thing to do."
"There is another option, Kal." Diana said. "One that will take care of them forever."
Kal looked at her. "Diana, I am not a killer."
"Superman, these men are turning their country into a pit of madness, removing them from the world completely is the only way to go. Kill every single one of them and you will spare the world more heartbreak and pain." Diana answered.
Kal said nothing for a moment, and Diana wondered if perhaps she had pushed too hard. Then, he sighed. "Very well." In a flash of blue and red, Kal moved, and when he stopped, the men were all dead. "We find their base and we finish this." Diana nodded, and together they followed the trace, they found the base. "Get the children out." Kal demanded, and so that was what they did, when they were convinced the children were all out of there, Kal unleashed his laser vision, reducing the camp site to ash. When that was done, he turned to her and said. "I have a funeral to attend."