A/N: My dear readers, the next action filled chapter!
Theroyalhighness supergirl: You basically just have to sign in on the right bar, once you have an account and then you should be ready to go. Posting stories, writing signed in reviews, or writing PM's... By the way, there is a hint in this chapter regarding your theory ;) Enjoy!
Thank you very much my betas Dragon166, Astha22, annabelsmith and very new in the mix rose123579 and Jremme who help me to improve my English and writing style! A special thanks goes to Supesfan18 for the creative input :)
9.
Lex Luthor was really angry! Checking his wrist watch for the gazillienth time, he walked up to the cage where his victims were trapped.
"Superman is obviously not too concerned about you!" he yelled at Jason.
Realizing that Celeste looked at him with her eyes wide open, he walked closer to her as he played with the big gun he was carrying in his hand.
"Didn't you know?" he asked, an obnoxious grin appearing on his face as he glared at her.
She turned her head away as he eyed her more closely.
Catching her chin with his right hand, Lex forced her to look him straight into his eyes. "You don't seem to be too surprised about my statement my precious ballet angel. Did you already know that Jason is the bastard child of our beloved hero?" he asked her as he held her head harshly in place to find any evidence about what she knew in her eyes.
As she bit her lower lip until it started to bleed, he got very suspicious.
Squeezing her face even harder than before, he yelled at her, "Tell me what you know!"
All the cells in Celeste's body started to vibrate as she looked at him, shaking her head mutely.
"She knows Lex," Kitty answered for Celeste as she walked slowly into the room and closed the door.
Lex turned around, totally surprised. "How?" he asked, loosening his grip just enough that Celeste could manage to slip out of his hands and get to Jason to hug him tightly.
Kitty glanced into Celeste's eyes.
"HOW?" Lex asked again, this time much more aggressively.
"Because she loves him," Kitty finally admitted what she had known for a while now.
"You bloody manipulative bitch!" Celeste screamed at Kitty. Her heartbeat doubling out of the fear that Kitty could spill the rest she knew about Superman.
The criminal mastermind's jaw literally dropped on the floor. "She does WHAT?" he screamed as the last of the self control he somehow still had maintained, left his body.
When the jarring sound of a ringing phone shrilled into the deathly silence of the room, the criminal mastermind ignored the phone first as he continued to stare down Celeste with clenched teeth for more than a minute; but when the damn thing didn't stop, he mumbled angrily as he picked up the ringing phone.
"Who has the nerve to disturb me right now!" he shouted into the receiver.
"Mr. Luthor," the voice on the other end of the line whined desperately. "You should come and have a look at this. It's bad, really bad."
The next Lex noticed was a loud scream and then the line went dead. What in the world was going on there? "Am I surrounded only by amateurs?" he asked, looking at his wife who just shrugged.
Lex knew that he had to go and make sure his henchmen did what he had told them to do. Walking up to Kitty, he pressed the gun into her right hand. "Keep them in check until I'm back," he whispered into her ear and jumped out of the room, his index finger pointing at Celeste and his lips forming 'I will get you bitch'.
"No problem," Kitty said, not leaving the young ballet dancer and the boy out of sight.
When Lex had finally left the room, Celeste suddenly sensed a way to escape. "You didn't tell him the rest of the story."
Now Kitty went closer to the cage. "Only because I didn't have the opportunity to do so," she corrected the young blonde woman. "Something I will make up for once he's back!"
In the manner Kitty looked at her, totally despising, Celeste knew that Lex Luthor's wife would not help her and Jason this time. Walking closer to the bars of the cage, she glanced straight into the other women's eyes. "What happened to you?"
"What?" Kitty counter questioned. "Who are you to ask me this question?"
Celeste just bit her bottom lip as she looked back at Jason who was sitting on the floor, still sobbing. She needed to find a way to break out of the cage and this was maybe the only chance she had before Lex Luthor would come back.
"You let me escape two years ago," Celeste started to argue.
"Yeah," Kitty snorted out, "How Samaritan of me. Listen," the young woman waved with the weapon in front of Celeste's face. "I was stupid and naïve. Too much so in fact!"
"But you believed in love back then. You wouldn't have let me go if you hadn't," Celeste said softly.
Kitty walked very close to Celeste. "Look how far I came with my girly-girly dreams about true love and the man I thought would give me what I wanted the most."
"But Lex isn't capable of love," Celeste tried to explain Kitty the obvious.
"No, he's not," Kitty agreed. "But the worst part is that I have to share the little respect or whatever it is he has for me with your husband and you and the boy here!" she screamed all of the sudden, her chest rising and falling as she puffed in fast breaths.
Celeste was puzzled, "What do you mean?"
Kitty got so angry that she grabbed into the cage, yanking Celeste's blonde locks until both of their noses almost touched. "You don't get it, do you?" she asked furiously.
Trying to suppress the pain in her head that almost caused her to faint, Celeste just shook her head mutely as thick tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Let me explain," Kitty offered with an evil smile on her face. "Lex's obsession with Superman is hardly a newsflash, but what bothers me the most is that Lex is also obsessed with you. Pretty much since the day he saw you dancing as Julia. Or why do you think he kidnapped you straight after the premier? And don't get me started with this bastard boy over there!"
Celeste just gulped. Lex, obsessed with her?
"Yes I know," Kitty continued. "Imagine my surprise when I found out about your connection to Superman… Jackpot! That's why I will finally see an end to at least two of his obsessions and prove to him that I'm worthy of his love," she suddenly said as Celeste's heart skipped a beat.
Letting Celeste go and pointing the gun on Jason's head through the bars of the cage, Kitty released the safety catch and put her index finger on the trigger.
Celeste's eyes widened. Jumping in front of the boy, she yelled, "I will kill you if you hurt the boy," her eyes fiery, looking at the other woman as she hugged Jason in order to shield him from the gun.
Kitty just started to laugh, extremely unimpressed about Celeste's attempt to protect the boy.
Meanwhile Celeste knew that it was now or never. Within a split second, she grabbed Kitty's hand and bashed her fist against the cold metal bars with all the force she could muster.
The gun jumped out of the brunette woman's hand, but unfortunately, it landed on the other side of the room, where Celeste couldn't reach it. Kitty looked at her with her eyes wide open.
Holding her now bleeding hand, she clenched her teeth. "You bloody bitch you broke my fingers!"
Extending her other hand to grab Celeste's hair again, she suddenly stopped midair when an explosion hit and shook the whole building.
Frightened, Celeste ran back to Jason and hugged him to protect the boy. When the door opened, Celeste realized that it had been Superman coming for them. Totally relieved, she put her hands out of the cage and yelled out for him.
When Superman realized that Celeste was with Jason and his wife and son were okay for the moment, he smiled, but Celeste got really concerned when she noticed that his supersuit was ripped apart and that thick drops of blood were dripping from his face, his chest and his thights.
"What happened?" she yelled, totally devastated.
Superman wanted to walk up to the cage to release them in order to help Jason and Celeste to not only escape Lex Luthor, but the deadly monster as well. He knew he hadn't much time to act as the monster was literally on his heels. But unfortunately, he felt a stinging pain shooting through his body the moment he had entered the room.
Lex Luthor had somehow managed to sneak up just behind Superman. Celeste couldn't believe that this maniac had been able to do that. Holding on the bars of the cage, she tried to warn her husband, but realized that it was already too late. The only thing she could do was watch Lex executing his evil plan with her eyes wide open.
"FINALLY!" Lex Luthor shouted out, lifting his hand and putting a shotgun that looked like one of the old vaccination guns on Superman's throat. "YOU WLL NEVER EVER STAND IN MY WAY AGAIN," Lex realized out loud as he pushed the button, releasing the green and blue fluid stored at the top of the gun directly into Superman's blood system.
"Nooooooooooooooo!" Celeste screamed when she saw her husband collapsing on the floor. He looked up and as he did, she could see the excruciating pain momentarily flashing in his eyes. His expression caused her heart to stop for a moment.
"Dad!" Jason yelled out, when he saw the deadly fluid causing his father to have serious problems to breathe.
Wheezing, Superman looked at his hands. All the blood vessels in his body were now shining through his skin in the cyan color of the mixed Kryptonite. When a paralyzing pain shot through his body, he knew that nothing in the world could save his life anymore. With all the strength he had left, he pushed Lex Luthor out of his way, knocking him on a wall on the other side of the room, where the criminal fell unconscious on the floor.
Stumbling, and with a severe stridor, Superman walked up to the cage and opened it.
"Oh God!" Celeste screamed borderline hysterical when he collapsed into her arms.
"Celeste," he wheezed. "Y... You h... have to get Jason and r... run away."
"No. I won't leave you alone. Are you nuts?" she protested in total panic.
He touched gently her face, his hand shaking.
"I'm b... begging you. There i... is a m... monster on t... the loose and I c... can't stop it," he stuttered, desperately trying to get some air into his lungs, looking pleadingly at her.
Sitting with his head in her lap, she brushed some black strains of his sweat and blood covered hair out of his face and embraced him.
"I can't, I love you!" she sobbed.
With these words, he looked lovingly at her, lifted his head and kissed her, collapsing lifeless in her arms the moment he had released her lips.
Celeste's eyes filled with tears. "No!" she screamed, putting her head on his chest, her locks covering his face. When she couldn't hear his heartbeat anymore, she started to panic. Feeling a sob ripping through her body, she slapped her hand over her mouth. Her whole body shook as tears involuntarily fell down her face, her trembling hand unable to suppress the sobs coming out of her.
Looking into Jason's eyes who had started to cry too, she was about to lose it, but a loud crack shaking through the building pulled her out of it.
When all of the sudden the horned monster showed up in front of her and Jason, she gasped.
The monster looked at them for a couple of seconds, then turned around to look at Superman. Taking one arm of the hero and lifting it up, it waited a few seconds and let the arm fall down on the floor. Turning back it slapped Kitty out of the way who had just stood there and looked at it in panic. Then it suddenly grabbed for Jason and squeezed him until he lost consciousness.
Celeste forgot to breathe as the monster turned around and looked at her and very slowly bent down on eye level with her. Its red eyes burning into her gaze for more than a minute. She gulped. Her heart throbbing in her ears so loudly, she was sure she would get deaf. Panicking, she realized that the monster extended its other hand and grabbed her roughly around the waist as it took flight again.
Celeste knew that it was useless to scream. The beast had her that firmly in its grip, that she had serious problems to breath properly. As they were flying over Metropolis, she took in the devastation displaying underneath them. Worried, she turned her head and saw Jason in the other hand of the monster. He was still unconscious. Biting her bottom lip so that it started to bleed again, thick tears ran over her cheeks. Against her better judgment, she hoped that Superman was somehow okay. Remembering in total sorrow what she had promised him the day he had proposed, she also lost consciousness as the monster took flight in superspeed.
Green Arrow entered the location cautiously; Superman had told him to meet up with him. Holding up his bow, he walked through the corridor, still trying to catch his breath as big pearls of sweat dropped from his brow. It was hard for him to get through the destroyed building. Superman had done a real job, but Green Arrow couldn't blame his friend. There was much at stake for him.
Focusing on the door at the end of the corridor, he ran up and opened it. When his eyes had adjusted to the darkness in the room, he gasped.
Lex Luthor was sitting on the floor, next to the apparently unconscious Superman, releasing maniacal laugher.
"I killed him! I killed him! I killed him! I killed the world's greatest hero! Eat that you idiots, I KILLED HIM!"
Next to him stood Kitty, who bled alarmingly fast out of her abdomen, and who looked absently at the unconscious body on the floor.
Green Arrow frowned and walked up to them. The criminal was totally out of his mind.
Checking Superman's pulse, Oliver realized with worry that the hero didn't have a heartbeat anymore. Without hesitation, he threw his bow on the floor and started CPR, when Lex all of the sudden held the gun at Green Arrow's temple.
"Nobody will take this victory away from me," he screamed, pulling the trigger.
The archer lifted his hand and grabbed the gun from Lex before he had been able to shoot, but the maniac wasn't ready to surrender.
With a loud scream, he attacked Green Arrow and threw him on the floor, sitting on top of him.
Oliver struggled for a few seconds, but got hold of the gun again. Trying to knock it out of Lex's hands, he yelled. "You won't win. Ever!"
"WATCH ME!" The criminal screamed back as the gun released a shot.
Kitty finally snapped out of her trance, totally in panic. "I didn't want this. Please honey, I didn't want this all!" she sobbed and ran up to Lex who was now lying on the floor, bleeding.
Oliver got up again and walked back to Superman, finally realizing that there was nothing he could do to save the life of his best friend.
Still holding the gun in his hand, he pointed at the maniac. His hand shaking. The criminal needed to pay for what he had done. Slowly Green Arrow released the safety catch and aimed on the criminal mastermind's head.
All of the sudden, the door opened and Batman stood in between Green Arrow and Lex Luthor.
Looking deep into the archer's eyes, he extended his hand. "You are better than that," he said. "Don't let him win!"
Green Arrow turned his head and looked at the body of his friend lying there.
"He already won!" he realized out loud, past hope.