A/N: I changed a few things here. Sorry.
Chapter II
Diana felt dull.
The underworld had taught her well how to survive and deal with the consequences of it. Survival meant beat the odds, fight and succeed every day before someone else took away her food, water, space or life. Due to the circumstances, one would choose only two sometimes. To live underground Diana had learned how to act towards every being there and, like the others, she had the Lord's code ingrained in her.
That's why she obeyed.
But the fear she felt now was very new. Diana had to do whatever the Lord wanted, but she killed Lowlies, and they'd seek explanations later.
Coldness crept into her sore bones, even with the hot atmosphere stinging her raw flesh. Her dress covered her body even less after so many rips and pulls, but the blood painted her skin, covering it from the eyes turned in her direction. She knew that the True People wanted rational answers for what they've just seen, they wanted her inspected by their only scientist to learn about the mutation on the Earth's Rubbish.
She stayed unmoving before the Lord's dais, too astonished to do anything by herself but still strong to keep upright.
"The underworld molded you to be powerful, child."
The Lord held up a hand to silence his second in command who whispered suggestions on how to kill the monster child.
"Privileges will do you no good. You'll stay underneath until proven your merit."
Ruby nodded automatically, giving no second thought to what he was saying. In fact, she wasn't listening to a word he said.
He addressed his people.
"We'll rise for a new beginning. We will be known. After so many years rebuilding our world and our pride, we finally will rise as the True People we are. Peace will no longer prevail outside of Haecatombè while I, Zciaran, am alive. Armies shall grow, warriors shall be prepared and my Furies shall become the best alongside you, mighty little one, my Ruby. We'll reach our glory. Nations will respect our superiority and will fall before us. We will forever attack to conquer!"
Unlike the crowd of True People, no reaction came from her, she just showed an expressionless face like someone in shock. She was oblivious to everything; even when a guard took her arm, burning her skin with his hot metal glove and guided her to the nearest gate. He ruthlessly threw her inside.
"You murdered my brother, Trash!" He spat on her, furious. "You run, Rubbish, or I will kill you with my bare hands after giving you to everyone of the families whose members you finished on the arena."
His threatening fists proved his intentions, so she ran away fast, scared, a blur to awaiting hands that wanted a round or two with the traitor of Haecatombè's underground.
Her mind was in a fog and she didn't understand the hateful glares until she stopped suddenly and looked at her blood soaked body. Realization sank in mercilessly. She had really killed those people!
A swift hand out of nowhere grabbed her short hair before she could react and shoved her on the wall, causing her to pass through due to the brute force. Diana, disoriented, fell hard on the floor along with cracked stones and dust. Many memories came to her at once and she couldn't get up. She held her head and shrank closer to the wall, feeling a scorching and unexpected pain consume her mind.
She remembered everything now.
One after another, the events of the afternoon came fast and strong. Images of pure madness overwhelmed her memory and death filled all of them. She was responsible for the losses of many families of the underworld. And she remembered vividly every one of them now. Their pained faces and mutilated bodies… Fearful eyes, begging her to stop, plagued her terrifying nightmare that only now she acknowledged to herself as reality.
Diana felt her body smash another wall and heard heavy stomps as the green male walked in her direction. He grabbed her around the throat and lifted her to face him.
"Did you feel that when you shoved my daughter on the arena wall?" He squeezed her neck. "Answer me, Rubbish!"
Appalled, she didn't respond. Diana tried to turn away from his hurting eyes, but he never allowed her. He shoved her on the split wall many times, each time harder, transferring all his pain and anger to his movements.
None of the onlookers did anything to stop him. His actions gave them a chance to mourn the same way as he.
"What did you do after? This?" He kicked her far into the cavern. Punishing her made him feel a little bit better, knowing she'd feel the pain his loved one suffered in the arena.
The others went closer to the fallen girl's body. They inspected her to see if her stillness meant more than unconsciousness, but, by seeing her tear filled blue eyes, they started to attack as hard as they could.
Fifteen thousand was the population of the underworld. More than half stayed cloistered inside jails with only darkness as company. But the ones that could walk free, excluding the Apokoliptians, who still craved the violence preached by the Dark Lord and enjoyed the massacre, took the opportunity to unleash old frustrations towards this girl, who they had just discovered was way too dangerous.
She looked around to see rage, the same blind hate that she bestowed upon a hundred of them. She was Rubbish to them. This tiny, dull girl that had no ability to even aim a sword properly was the same one that had killed many of their own.
The first punch she received openly on the face barely hurt her. Then a giant of seven feet slapped her on the wall, causing some tremors. This gave courage to the rest to attack her as she did not even react.
Diana didn't feel the pain they wanted her to. Without her bracelets, somehow, the battering that would hurt her for days, felt like light touches to her dense skin. And she wanted a punishment for what she did, she needed someone to stop her before she really started whatever the Lord wanted her to, before she really began.
But no one on the underworld could stop her. And someday even she wouldn't know how to be stopped.
Kal-El pushed his sheets aside after hours of trying to find sleep. Supporting his upper body on both elbows, he looked at Kandor through the window. Again the crystals disturbed him immensely, as if he didn't belong to his planet anymore, neither Kandor nor Kryptonopolis attracted his interest anymore. Strangely, he felt that what waited on Earth was truly the right thing for him since the beginning.
If the scientists' predictions of years ago had been correct, maybe his parents would have sent him to Earth for him to survive. With a sigh, he sat on the bed, running a hand through his hair as he always did when an unsettled feeling consumed him. He was curious about Earth, a little bit too curious to even admit to himself and his parents. But, as curiosity appeared unexpectedly over the past few days, fear came along much stronger. Leave his world was not like the visits he made to his elder family, where he knew even the terrain of their home.
Krypton was formidable in every way, a technological beauty in the form of cities, surrounded by the planet's unique flora and fauna. Science was primordial there; Krypton had the most brilliant personalities of the universe, and superiority filled their existence. Kal-El was living proof that Jor-El never stopped trying to unite his planet with the many others around until the day that the Council allowed his experiments. And that victory was taking him far from home. To Earth. Primitive planet, galaxies away from Krypton, with strange people that still battled amongst themselves over minor things such as color or culture. Krypton reached peace and union; discussions happened over scientific matters when one tried to prove the other wrong. But it was their science, always revealing, that took away what Earth still had: mysteries. An infinite amount of them that included even its self-centered inhabitants.
And there was not an ocean in Krypton to keep him wondering.
That simple image, taken by his father, was burnt on his memory like nothing else, the beautiful sight of the deep blue water meeting a much lighter blue that was their sky was so beautiful he could not think straight. It kept him dreaming awake every minute of the day and distracted what should be a focused mind. The wonders of the much primitive world seemed tempting even for someone as rational as him.
But above all worries stood his father's prediction about the powers given by the yellow sun that Earth revolves around. He imagined how it would feel like being invulnerable and how much he'd have to learn not to break unbreakable materials to humans with his bare hands due to his future superhuman strength. Or even his enhanced hearing and vision…
"The machine…"
He jumped off bed and ran silently towards his bedroom door, not caring about going out with his sleep clothes. Kal-El remembered the machine his father created with his uncle to simulate, with less potency, Sun's radiation and some effects caused by it. He went inside once and the prototype didn't work with total efficiency, he felt only a headache when exposed to the bright light, but he knew, even with his father's denial, that the machine had been worked upon and now it would provide him the experience of an almost real exposure to the Sun.
The laboratory door was closed, but never locked, so he went in cautiously, paying attention to his surroundings. The lights turned on, sensing his presence. Kal-El ignored them, knowing no one would acknowledge him there anyway.
At the end of the room he saw the lone machine covered by a white fabric. Rethinking his plans, he sat down and stared at the machine for more time than his patience would normally allow. He jumped off of the chair and went closer to the forbidden instrument, decided to discover whatever would happen to him in a few hours.
Changing his mind before the gray machine, he turned toward his well built ship and made a new plan right then and there. Kal-El booted his uncle's computer to finish the last adjustments on the ship. He had won the tournament proposed by the council and he'd have to leave anyway, anticipating his departure in six hours would not be a problem.
His parents would forgive him, he hoped, by the time he arrived on Earth. Preferably close to the sea. Typing commands, setting his trajectory and analyzing landing procedures took him two hours. He had two more before someone woke up.
"What did you do?" The low and soft voice broke the silence for a second time.
"Fought… Won… Killed." She responded monotonously with an unusual cool voice. "I must conquer now."
After so much violence, finally the Lowlies had stopped their frenetic attack and left the bruised child to perish alone in the middle of the main chamber, the largest place of the cave. Maila observed the child crawl into darkness, leaving a red trail behind her. She was scrubbing her hands on the pasty floor to disguise the blood staining them and putting some dirt on her face, removing it later with a piece of her torn cloth. She spent long minutes dirtying her reddish dress so she could go back to her cell feeling less bloody.
Diana had been different from everyone on the underground. Maila fell in love the moment she saw the blue eyed girl who resembled so much the daughter she had lost when her planet had been attacked by the Lord five years ago. Somehow Diana showed some affection at the beginning, even with the heavy environment of the underworld. But eventually she missed the almost nonexistent kindness and became indifferent to everything.
It started two years ago when guards came often after her.
"Mother said it was necessary," Diana said without emotion, completely dissociated from her surroundings. "I'm to take her out of here."
"No, Diana! That's not the right way." Maila grabbed her arms and hugged the dirty girl. "You're one of the good, remember? You don't kill for fun like the green kids and you don't torture like the Apokoliptians. You're brave and kind and…"
The vacant glare Diana had, told Maila she was not listening. What happened that afternoon was too much more than a child could take. Playing around that hell and tricking people with other kids was different from going up alone to the arena and being forced to kill. Maila knew she had lost Diana to the cruelty of Haecatombè.
Because of the people's lust for blood, a child had lost her slim connection with sanity.
"You'll be fine, Di. In time you'll be." Maila let tears fall and kissed Rubbi's head, still holding her close. "You have me."
"Mother said I was cursed by some Gods of my planet." She suddenly seemed sober while whispering quietly, "The cuffs restrained the beast I have within, but I broke it to fight. My body hurt so much…" Tears left a streak of white skin where the black sand and dried blood were before. "But this guilt is so much worse."
Diana blinked back more tears, failing miserably, and sobbed uncontrollably. "Mad'an cried so much and… and Kolli begged me to stop when I punched him… Even Arrhya had a frightened look when a let her go… Tania…"
Maila sat beside the girl and embraced her with soothing arms. "Shh, Diana, everything is gonna be alright. It wasn't your fault. Since Apokolips you fight for survival. You're just a child."
"I'm no child. I'm a murderer."
Maila had no words. So she just cradled her, like once she did with her daughter, while she cried herself to sleep. Diana was the toughest girl she had ever met, but no one raised by Granny Goodness would turn out to be all good and sane. She thought Diana had survived long enough without showing such violence her mother inflicted on everyone. Deep down she knew that someone as powerful as the girl she held would not go unnoticed in such a place as this one. Diana's fate had been sealed too long ago for someone like her to try to intercede.
She let the girl put to rest her torments of the day. Tomorrow, if the rumor was correct, Diana would be called upstairs to start training. And knowing her, that day would be forgotten, the child was resilient and determined. The Lord would make the best warrior out of her, Maila was sure, a mighty and dangerous warrior.
Diana would become the predator after so many years of being prey. She'd be the destroyer of the new world, the conqueror of Lord Zciaran. And no one could stop her. Not even her race of four armed beings that used strength as a form of living. Not even her love for Diana would be enough to reverse the trauma suffered that afternoon or the misery of the upcoming challenges thrown at her.
Maila placed two thin bracelets on Diana's tiny hands and closed her fingers around it. Her weakness was those cuffs that somehow subdued the power she had. If Granny spoke the truth, Diana was a magical being with no restraint, so she needed the cuffs to know someday, that she wasn't unstoppable, that something was capable of bringing her down when the uncontrolled part of her took all her reason.
She caressed the short and stiff black hair of Diana's, seeing her troubled expression change slowly to a peaceful one. Nothing better than a day after the other and a night in between to mettle everyone underground, including the guilty child.
Maila slept with the thought of how this day had started the tragedy of the near future.
One last thing and… Everything was ready. Kal-El smiled proudly.
Codes were rechecked to work perfectly, mechanisms answered to his commands and the ship was stored for the long travel. With his father's gift in one hand, he used the other to program the laboratory roof to open for the passage of his ship. While it opened with an acute noise, he ran towards the ship and sat on his chair with the crystals on his lap. With a last look at home, he touched a button to lock the door and turned on the engine.
"I'm ready."
He heard the commotion outside when his ship fell silent, ready to fly. Kal-El's eyes widened seeing his parents walk inside the laboratory, meeting them while doing that crazy escape was not on the plan. Looking at his father's shocked face and his mother's tears, he decided to postpone his travel.
Kal-El pushed a button to stop the engine and another to reopen the door.
"Mother…" Before he rambled apologies, Lara walked to him with open arms.
"I'm so glad to have one last hug… but go, don't adjourn your life because of us." She smiled, holding his hands. "You have a purpose and, even it being far away from us, I'm happy and so proud of you. Don't let anything stop you from doing good."
"Earth awaits you, Kal-El. Honor our name." Jor-El patted his back. "My son."
"I will, father. I love you, mother."
Kal-El hugged them tight and walked away, waving goodbye one last time. His smile showed a confidence that his parents always wanted to find in him. Within minutes, he was once again ready to go.
The ship moved upward.
He flew above home slowly, and then over Kandor's pointed crystals, seeing his city become smaller until beneath him he saw only the land and the red sun on the horizon. He went through Krypton's atmosphere with some difficulty, but his ship remained intact as meteors passed him closely.
The sight of space was incredible, but he was not surprised to see its extension as with his father's telescope he had seen it all. The word "pretty" described their red sun faithfully; that single and big star had his planet's scientists worried about its explosion, bringing the destruction of Krypton. Jor-El had proved they were a long way from doom, at least a million years before their sun would finally grow and burst, taking Krypton and many others orbs with it.
Kal-El stared through the window for a few more minutes to finally take his mind off of Krypton and everything he was leaving behind. A new life waited for him on Earth, one he still didn't know how would work out, but he accepted the challenge now with less fear.
A frown formed on his face when a tremor shook his seat from below. He stayed frozen, fearing some mistake made by him in the engine. He checked the computer screen, but nothing seemed wrong with the adjustments. His ship was working as planned.
"What the…?"
Kal-El looked down when the vibration worsened, only to see a tail of white fur escape from its hiding place.
"Krypto?!" He said, surprised, seeing a head come out from under his chair. "How did you get here, boy?"
Kal-El smiled brightly, caressing Krypto's fur gently, very happy to see the dog. He swore he had left him sleeping in his bedroom, but somehow Krypto sneaked inside the ship within the three hours that he stayed programming the computer. Kal-El was pleased to have the dog's company.
Krypto lay down between Kal-El's feet and watched quietly while the young man typed some commands and touched crystals, opening the portal that would lead both of them to the Milky Way galaxy. To Earth.