Rosetta – Twentieth Chapter
Picks up exactly where the last one left off.
"Call me Rory," Rory told Dr. Swann.
He nodded and said, "You two are probably wondering why a billionaire scientist works in the backroom of the planetarium."
Clark shrugged and said nonchalantly, "The thought did cross my –"
"Well, our," Rory interrupted.
"- minds," Clark continued as though there had been no interruption.
"Well, I find it peaceful," said Swann, also acting as though this was perfectly normal. "Besides, I own the building." Speaking towards a microphone on his desk now, he said clearly, "Activate screen."
A screen in front of the wall next to Swann's desk lit up. On it appeared rows of the alien symbols, each row travelling in different directions.
Rory and Clark both stared at it, entranced, trying to read the symbols.
"Does any of that look familiar?" Swann asked, eyes gleaming now that he well and truly had their attention.
"What is it?" Rory asked him, not looking away from the screen.
"It's a message from the stars, Aurora," he said, ignoring her earlier request. "All my life, I've been staring out into space, wondering. Wondering is anybody else out there?" He paused, watching them both closely. "And then, 13 years ago, I got my answer."
"The meteor shower," Clark said, tearing his eyes away from the message and looking at Dr. Swann.
"One of my receiving stations picked up a faint signal," Dr. Swann continued. "It took me years to decrypt it. And finally, I discovered a mathematical key that was built into the transmission."
"Can you read it?" Rory asked, desperate to know what the message said.
"Yes," Swann said simply. "It says, 'This is Kal-El and Kara of Krypton. Our infant children, our last hopes. Please protect them and deliver them from evil'."
"Kal-El," Clark said, touching the screen.
"Kara," Rory whispered, mirroring her brother.
"I've always wondered what happened to those children," Swann said, convinced he had discovered the truth. "If they survived that journey – if they lived among us, now. And then, three days ago, I saw the symbol for Hope burned onto the side of a barn in Smallville, and I found that the farmer and his wife had two adopted children – a son and a daughter."
"So you think that I'm Kara, and he's-" Rory jerked her thumb at Clark, "he's Kal-El?" Listening to her brother's silent warnings, she smiled and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but we're just two simple farm kids from Smallville."
"No, no, no, no, no," Swann said, also smiling. "I'm not trying to expose either of you. I'm just... I'm just seeking the truth. Like you suggested," he addressed Rory," earlier, before I announced my presence."
"We're very sorry, Doctor. The truth is," Clark shrugged, "we're not who you think we are. Come on, Rors."
They turned to leave, but Swann stopped them.
"If you can live with that decision," he said, "so can I." They turned back to face him, and he continued ominously, "But if you walk out that door, it will never be open to you again." Clark turned once more and began to leave.
Rory however, had already investigated his mind and discovered what Swann hadn't told them – yet. The revelation stopped her from going anywhere, and she said quietly, "Clark."
Swann smiled, knowing that he had her, and if he had one, he had the other. "And you'll never know the second part of the message."
Clark, who had stopped when he heard his name, turned to face Swann. They watched each other for a few moments, before Clark said emotionlessly, "We want to know."
"Tell me something, Doctor," Clark said, still suspicious, to Swann. "Why are you doing this to us?"
"We all have our windmills, Clark," Swann answered. "I need to know I'm right." Clark still looked apprehensive, and Swann promised, "Once I do, it'll never leave this room."
Clark looked at him for a long moment.
I think we can trust him, Rory said mind-to-mind.
Yes, well, maybe we can, maybe we can't. I don't trust him.
You trust me, don't you?
Clark said to Dr. Swann firmly, "Show us."
Swann didn't hesitate. "Second screen."
The first message disappeared, and another, different one appeared. Its rows also moved in alternating directions.
Rory read it aloud, "We will be with you, Kal-El, Kara, for all the days of your life." She turned to Swann. "What does that mean?"
"I'm not sure, but one thing I've learned about science is the value of patience," he said wisely.
"Yes, but this isn't science," Rory said. "This is our family, our origins, our –" she struggled for another word to describe it.
Clark noticed a picture of outer space with an area circled on it. Disturbing the argument, he asked, "Is that where Krypton is?"
"No, that's where Krypton was," Swann said matter-of-factly. "I followed the signal's path light years out into space. I was hoping to discover its origin but instead, I found nothing.
"Planets don't just disappear," Rory argued, upset but trying not to show it.
"What do you think happened to it?" Clark asked reasonably.
"Oh, it could be any one of a million scenarios. War, famine, plague..." He trailed off, emphasising his point. "I mean, look at the world around us. Is it really that hard to believe?"
"Well, we can't be the only ones," Rory said confidently. "There has to be others like us somewhere."
"There was only one message," Swann pointed out.
"Why us?" Clark asked – he seemed to be the rational one in this particular discussion. "There must be a reason why we were sent to this planet."
"You won't find the answers by looking to the stars," Dr. Swann said in a mystical tone. "It's a journey you will have to take by looking inside yourselves. You must write your own destinies... Kal-El." He nodded to Clark, then to Rory. "Kara."
Storm Cellar, just after they got back to Smallville
Clark and Rory stared at the spaceship.
"All of a sudden, it's much more... I don't know. Significant?" Rory said.
Clark nodded just as the door opened and Jonathan came in.
"Your mother told me you were back," he said softly. There was silence, neither of the twins responding, and Jonathan continued, "Listen, guys, I know that whatever Dr. Swann told you must be... overwhelming, but..." He paused, not knowing if they were even listening to him and not talking to one another. "If you need to talk about it, your mother and I are always here."
They still didn't answer and Jonathan turned to leave.
"Ever since you told me about this ship – told us about this ship," Clark said, correcting himself halfway through. "We wondered if there were others out there... others like us."
"And now we know there's not," Rory said quietly. "We are totally alone."
"Clark, Rory. You are never alone," Jonathan said, smiling slightly. "This is your home, and we all love you very much. Come on, let's go back up."
"In a minute," Clark said, and Jonathan, accepting this, started to leave again.
Rory and Clark turned also. "We figured out what this is," she said softly.
Rory was holding the rectangular piece of metal that was found along with the ship on the day of the meteor shower. She glanced at it, then looked back at her father. "It's the ship's heart."
"Really?" Jonathan asked, interested. "Have you used it yet?"
"We didn't want to do it alone," Rory replied, looking at the ground.
Jonathan looked a little confused. "Alone? Honey, there's two of you."
"Yeah, but..." She looked back up at him. "You know what we're like, Dad."
He smiled at her, then reached out and put a hand on Clark's shoulder. "Let's do it together."
Clark put the octagonal disk, the key, into its slot on the ship. The pod opened completely for the first time as the ship rose into the air. The three Kents looked inside and saw the indentation of two small children nestled next to one another in the bottom.
"It's hard to believe that you were ever that small," Jonathan murmured.
Rory put the rectangular piece of metal into a slot in the front of the ship. The inside lit up with rows of rotating symbols, just like the messages Dr. Swann had showed them.
"What is it?" Jonathan asked, seeing the confusion on both his children's faces.
"It's a message from our biological father," Rory said, mystified.
"We must be reading it wrong,"Clark tried to reassure both her and himself.
"Why?" Jonathan asked anxiously. "What does it say?"
Rory read it out for him, her voice trembling. "On the third planet from this star Sol, you will be as gods among men. They are a flawed race." Here she faltered, unable to read on.
"Rule them with strength, my children," Clark continued for her, his voice also shaking. "That is where your greatness lies."
Rory walked away from the ship, wrapping her arms around herself.
"I think we were sent here to conquer," Clark said in disbelief.
"What kind of planet are we from?!" Rory asked, upset.
"Maybe you two did misread it," Jonathan said. "But even if you didn't, it's you who will decide what life you're gonna lead. Not me, not your mother, not even your... biological parents."
"What if it's part of who we are?" Rory turned back to them and asked. "Is that the kind of person that we are going to become?"
"Aurora Kent, you and your brother are here to be a force for good, not for evil," Jonathan said firmly.
"How can you be so sure?" Clark asked, voice filled with doubt.
"Because I am your father." Jonathan's voice was strong. "I raised you both, and I know you better than anyone." He hesitated. "Except for each other, of course."
Rory walked back over to Jonathan and Clark. They hugged her, and she hugged them back, looking over their shoulders at the ship. They couldn't see it, but her expression was worried, lines creasing her forehead – just like that of Clark and Jonathan.
A/N Ahem. The end. Yes, I know what you're probably thinking – what happened to their cousin being called Kara? Well, for one thing, Kal-El and Kara sounds so much better than what I had in mind before I changed it. Also, I'm not sure I'm gonna write Kara in. I still might, but I'm debating. Plus, if I do write her in, I'll just pretend that Kara is a really common name on Krypton, and Jor-El didn't realise that his hated brother had called his daughter Kara when Jor-El called his daughter Kara.
Did anyone even understand that? Oh well.
Xx.maddy-sparx.xX