Chapter 65

Amara is livid. She has a hard time putting into words how livid she is. She is so angry parts of her dress are starting to singe as she barely keeps from transforming into her fire form. Gods the idea that Selene, of all people, turned out to be more honest than her own parents. It staggers the mind.

Amara stomps her way through the palace for a showdown with her parents. She is so angry she might just follow Tabby's suggestion and yell at them no matter how undignified that may look for a princess.

After asking one of the guards about her parents' whereabouts she gets directed to the dining room. She guesses it is time for the early evening meal. Amara storms into the room, not waiting to be announced as protocol dictates. Essentially she's just been quite rude. She doesn't care. "Everyone out!" she orders the servants.

"Amara!" Lucius snaps. "What is the meaning of this?"

"The meaning of this, father, is that you and my mother are liars...but if you want the servants to know the truth of your parentage, then by all means let them stay. In fact why don't we invite the whole Senate. I'm sure they would love to know your mother is her."

Lucius can see in his daughter's face that what he said before won't wash this time. His face grows grave. "You heard my daughter. OUT!" he snaps.

The servants, confused as they may be, leave as commanded. Lucius takes a moment to check both the halls at both entrances to make sure no-one listens in.

In the meantime Pomona's face has gone white and she looks stricken. "How did...?" she starts to ask how Amara now knows this.

"Superman. He saw it through his father's eyes. Now why don't you answer me why this was kept secret? How does no-one know?"

"You really need to ask?" Lucius asks of Amara. "You know as well as I do what happened after Selene's exile to everything deemed tainted by her. Imagine if they knew she had a son."

Amara does know. Everything touched by Selene was destroyed. Those who refused to abandon her were put to the cross and crucified. "But how did no-one know before then? You would have already been born."

"I don't have a full answer to that. I only know that Selene deemed that the marriage was to remain secret for her own reasons, as was my existence. After she was exiled my father continued the lie to protect me."

"But you would have been only a boy," Amara argues. "Surely they wouldn't have held you responsible for who your mother was."

"It would not have mattered," Lucius argues calmly. "If they knew I was her son they would have killed me. Your grandfather loved me too much so he kept it a secret. Passed me off as a son he had with another woman who sadly, but very conveniently, died in the rebellion."

"Why did grandfather marry her in the first place?" Amara has to know, to try and understand.

"Because she wanted to marry him. You never refused her."

"But why?" Amara asks, still not understanding. "There must be a reason. I don't believe for a moment it was because she loved him...no offence to grandfather," she adds because her grandfather was a great man but Amara doubts Selene is really capable of feeling true love.

Lucius' face turns grim. "My...mother," he says and it has been a long time since he called Selene that. "She is immortal. She plans and plots on a different time scale. Her longest held desire has to be to find a way to transform herself into a real God, not the one she pretends to be."

"Is that possible?"

"She's tried it twice and failed on both occasions yet she still strives to achieve her insane ambition. One thing she cannot do is achieve this on her own. She would need help from another powerful practitioner of magic."

"I do not follow."

Lucius takes a deep breath and holds his hand out in the direction of a vase on a table by the wall. He mutters some words in Latin and the vase rises and floats over to him. "I don't practice it much," he says as he takes possession of the vase in his hands.

"You have her gift?" Amara says, astounded by this revelation. She never knew to right this moment her father could do magic.

"That's at least part of why she married your grandfather. To produce a child, male or female, she could teach and use in her quest for godhood," Lucius explains.

"You don't need to marry someone to produce a child," Amara points out.

"True," her father knows. "As I said it was part of the reason. The full reason is only known to my mother. Perhaps it was another piece of her insane ambitions, I don't know. What I do know is that if her rule had continued one day, when my skill and power had grown sufficiently, I was to have helped her ascend. Of course this would mean the end of our nation and the death of everyone here."

"I don't understand," Amara says, puzzled by that.

"The spell, assuming it is even possible to fully cast, requires massive amounts of energy. The most readily available source was every man, woman and child of Nova Roma. She would have drained us all to death for her madness."

Amara takes a moment to try and to come to terms with this. She looks to her mother. "When did you learn of it?" she asks, since it is clear that her mother knows the truth.

"Your father told me the same night he asked me to marry him," Pomona answers.

"She had a right to know the truth," Lucius says. "Any children we would have..."

"Could inherit Selene's gift. Well she did!" Amara barks angrily, getting back to the part of all of this that has her so angry. The fact they lied and deceived her.

"In what way?" Pomona asks.

"My 'divine' gift. Where do you think I get it from? Or did you two already suspect that was the case?"

"It occurred to us," Lucius confesses.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Amara asks in a shaky whisper. There is silence from her parents which Amara takes to mean that they considered not telling her. "You weren't were you?"

"It would only have upset you," Pomona says, a pleading expression for her daughter to understand that she was trying to protect her.

"And having Selene tell me the truth to my face wouldn't have?!" Amara cries in disbelief. "Gods how do you live with it, father? Knowing her blood is inside you? Knowing the same evil is inside you?"

Lucius moves to his daughter and kneels down to her level, taking Amara by her arms. "You are not tainted by her, Amara. You are beautiful, compassionate, brave and kind and everything my mother is not!" he insists.

"But what I am comes from her! My mutant gift...it comes from her! All her cruelty, all her greed, her lust for power, her evil, it courses through me!" Amara covers her face with her hands and takes a shuddering breath. "I don't want to be like her," she pleads in a quiet voice, sounding like a small child.

"You're not. I promise you," Lucius says.

Amara removes her hands and looks at her father. "But you can see her in me can't you. I know now she and I have a resemblance."

Lucius struggles for what to say. He can't deny the fact the older Amara has gotten the more of a resemblance to Selene she seems to have developed.

"All the things she has done. All the pain she inflicted on our people, my friends...she's still out there, no doubt planning her revenge and how to inflict more suffering. My own grandmother. I...I can't deal with this right now!" Amara cries as she tugs herself free from her father and runs. It is all just too much.

"Amara! Wait!" Pomona calls out to her.

Lucius stops her from chasing after Amara. "Let her be. She needs time," he says from his own experience of trying to deal with Selene being his mother.

Anguish is on Pomona's face at seeing her daughter suffer. "We should have told her the moment we agreed to let her leave. We should have known it was possible she would meet Selene. We shouldn't have lied when she confronted us earlier."

"Perhaps," Lucius might concede. "However, there was no reason to think Selene would have taken an interest. My mother is capricious at best. She has had many children and taken little to no interest in them, let alone a grandchild of hers. Amara could have gone through her whole life and never seen Selene."

Pomona schools her emotions as a Queen must but she whispers a prayer. "Lord Kal-El, hear my prayer. Watch over our daughter and allow her heart to forgive us for we were only trying to protect her."

Lord Kal-El...or he prefers Clark is still on the trail of his father's memories. He was compelled to see the end of the story and the end had brought them back to where it started. He was once more inside the grand temple to his father. He is kneeling down, his hand flat on the ground. "This is where Selene fell," he relays to his friends what he has seen. Selene's temple, which once stood here, wasn't razed to the ground in the uprising, exactly, she and Jor-El destroyed it during their battle.

Since Amara had left he had seen the last part of the story. Jor-El and Julius plotted to overthrow Selene. Jor-El managed to figure out how Selene's magic worked and came up with a way to disrupt it. A device...kind of like the power inhibitors they were familiar with for mutants. Still she put up a hell of a fight even then. His father looked definitely the worse for wear as did Julius who had led the line in the pitched battle against Selene's forces.

"Amara described she managed to escape," the Professor adds what he knows of the tale.

Clark blinks rapidly as the story plays out in his mind. It comes much easier to him the closer to the end they reach. He doesn't even have to be in the place now. "Yes. Her last surviving followers broke her out of prison before she could be executed. They removed the device my father had created to restrain her powers. She teleported away before anyone could stop her. My father knew she would return to seek her revenge and he could not stay so he built the barrier that keeps her out to protect the people he had come to admire and cherish as friends. He...I know how to open the door," he suddenly announces at seeing the memory.

Clark rapidly stands up and briskly heads off for the access to the chamber deep below the temple. The X-Men follow.

"Do you think Amara is alright?" Storm asks the Professor. She was concerned for the young princess.

"I believe she has to sort out this with her parents by herself. There is nothing we can do. They must reach their own resolution."

Storm wasn't happy but Charles is correct. Amara's parents must explain for themselves why they lied to their daughter.

"Do you, like, find this weird?" Kitty asks Kurt.

"Vhat?" he asks, not sure what she means.

Kitty gestures around herself. "This," meaning the temple. "I mean I know a few rather extreme people back home who would call these people Godless Pagan Heathens."

Kurt understood what Kitty meant. Everywhere else in the world this religion was, at best, reduced to a small minority. Seeing this very old pagan religion in action didn't reduce his belief in one God one little bit though. "Zhere are many vays to find God. Zhe most important part is alvays zhat people are free to choose vhich vay zhey take," Kurt gives his view on what he thinks truly matters.

Kitty supposed that was true and nods in agreement. "It's still strange though," she repeats her argument. She may not be the most devout Jew in the world but she believes in God and this polytheistic religion she is witnessing here is just very odd to her.

"Ja," Kurt agrees. "But interesting," he adds with his little toothy grin.

"Oh definitely," Kitty agrees with him. Despite what she said about it being odd her naturally curious mind did find it fascinating. "I can't wait until we get home and I can like totally tell Peter all about it!" Kitty enthuses.

Ooh. Poor guy. Kurt's been on the receiving end when Kitty goes into a full scale babble. It's not pretty.

They soon arrive back in the underground chamber and Clark is quickly to the hidden door. There is no key in the sense of a slot. It's entirely different. Clark just didn't know how to activate it before. Now he's seen Jor-El's memory of this place he can open the door. He takes his finger and draws it along the surface in an intricate pattern. When finished the pattern he drew appears in glowing white light which stretches out and touches Clark's body. The pattern changes until it is the unique S Clark wears on his chest and the door slides open.

"What was that, Clark?" Hank asks.

"A genetic scanner," Clark reports what he saw from Jor-El's memory. "Keyed to my familial DNA. Jor-El obviously believed one day one of the family would follow in his footsteps...at least I think that was what he was thinking," Clark modifies his assertion. "This way," he encourages them to follow him as he wanders down a narrow passage.

The X-Men follow until they reach another chamber made from great crystal like pillars. At the far end of the chamber is a plinth or alter like platform with smaller crystals embedded in it.

Using Jor-El's memories Clark manipulates the crystals and a column of light surrounds him.

"Superman!" Cyclops calls out in alarm.

"It's alright," Clark assures them. "It's just a holographic display...I think. No, a holographic interface. Sorry, I'm still trying to process through Jor-El's memories. Give me a second."

The X-Men watch as Clark's fingers trail over the surface of the column of light. It unwraps from around him and becomes a flat display hovering above the plinth. "User friendly," Clark explains how he did that with a goofy grin.

"What is this place?" the Professor asks.

"It's like I said. It generates the barrier that keeps Selene out," Clark replies. He then pulls one of the crystals out of the plinth and holds it up for all to see. "You see this black stuff in the middle."

There was a black...almost tar like material in the heart of the crystal. "Yes," they all say.

"Selene's blood," Clark explains what it is. "The barrier is encoded to her unique genetic structure and energy signature. My father was actually able to identify and classify the energy we call magic. Remember what he said in Smallville about magic being the ability to harness, channel and utilise fundamental energies. This is where he figured it out. He figured out how Selene's body did it. There's a genetic component...uh wait a second...I think I can bring up his research. He kept detailed records." Clark replaces the crystal in the console and then works the holographic interface and manages to translate it into English. "Here. Professor. Mr McCoy. You'll probably find it interesting."

Charles and Hank move forward closer so they can read it.

"Astonishing," Hank can remark from only a very brief reading of it so far.

"Truly remarkable," the Professor joins in the praise at seeing only the briefest summary of Jor-El's work.

"That's it. Those two are never leaving," Logan mutters. He's seen that look before.

"Feel free to read it," Clark says as he shows them how to make the screen scroll on. "You're perfectly safe here. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go check up on Amara."

"Wait. Why?" Rogue asks, curious as to why Amara warrants his attention.

"Because her mother asked me too," he replies cryptically, well cryptically to them. With a gust of wind he is gone.

The gardens of the palace were vast and when she was growing up Amara always managed to find little places where no-one could find her. In fact she managed to find ways out and over the wall and to sneak off to explore the city. That would give her parents grey hair.

Amara has always had a curious streak. It was what compelled her to step forward the day the Professor arrived in the black flying monster as they all thought it to be. She has to smile slightly remembering that day. She had been going through a lot. Her powers had just manifested. She was afraid of what she was becoming. Mostly because she didn't know what she was becoming. The term mutant...it was the Professor that taught her what it meant.

To this day Amara can't really say what compelled her to step forward up to the man who emerged from the belly of the black beast when everyone else was too afraid to. Whatever it was she has never regretted it. To see the things she has, to learn the things she has, things no-one on Nova Roma can even imagine, Amara can't imagine not having been allowed to see the outside world. Of course the main point of leaving with the Professor was to learn to control her mutant powers. Her 'divine gift' as her parents had called it then.

Only it wasn't so divine. More like a curse from the devil...to use a phrase from more modern religions.

So here she was in a hidden corner trying to decide who she is now that it has been confirmed that Selene...Gods she can still barely make herself say it. Her face drops into her hands.

Suddenly there is that familiar gust of wind whose meaning you learn if you stay at the Institute long enough.

"So has your mother set a date yet?"

Amara had sat herself down on a rock hidden by trees and bushes. She turns her head to her right to see Clark standing there. "What?" she asks with a puckered brow.

"For our wedding?" Clark says with a teasing glint in his eye.

Amara flushes with embarrassment. "I'm sorry about that."

Clark moves next to her. "Can I sit?" he asks.

Amara gestures for him to do so.

Clark sits down. "What are you sorry for? Anyone would be lucky to have you," he says honestly.

"But you're dating Rogue and my mother...she's been trying to set me up to be married since I was 12."

"Really?"

"Arranged weddings...it's traditional," Amara tries to explain, knowing it is mostly a foreign concept in the States. Not that she, herself, likes the idea either. That was why when her mother tried it she told her mother where to stick it. Amara sees the concept as outdated, a leftover from a bygone age.

"Still doesn't detract from what I said. Anyone would be lucky to have you."

"Uh...thank you," Amara says, not sure of what else she can say in reply to that. She supposed it was nice to hear that you can be considered a fine choice as someone's future companion.

"Although I thought...and don't take this wrong...I thought you liked girls," Clark says, knowing...overhearing about her crush on his sister, Claire.

"I like both girls and boys as matter of fact," Amara educates him about her sexual preferences.

"Ah. I see. Well smart move. Keeping your options as wide as possible," Clark praises her as he easily takes her bi-sexuality in his stride.

"Clark, please don't take this the wrong way but what are you doing here?"

"Your mother prayed to me to watch out for you."

"S-she did?" Amara asks, surprised to hear that.

"Yep."

"And you heard her?"

"I can pretty much hear everything within a certain radius Amara," Clark tells her although he is currently not certain what radius that is. Like all his powers it grows as time passes. "It's easier here because there aren't so many people," he admits to her. "Now the 10 million or so people of New York...imagine trying to sort through that."

Amara couldn't imagine...she doesn't even know how to begin imagining that.

"So how did it go?" Clark asks in relation to her confrontation with her parents.

"They lied to me!" Amara says bitterly.

"So did my parents until I was 14."

"What?"

"Mom and dad, they didn't tell me how they found me until I was 14. I was angry at them at first until I realised why they did it."

"Why did they do it?"

"They didn't want me to think of myself as different...except for, you know, the superpowers obviously. It was also to protect me. They have done so much to try and protect me. Even risked their health, their safety," Clark says and guilt wells up a little at everything his parents have endured for him. Guilt...but mostly love for them for doing this. "I'm sure your parents were trying to do the same; protect you."

"Maybe," Amara might concede. "But after my powers manifested...they should have told me. My powers can only have come from her!"

"Perhaps you got your x-gene from Selene, via your father or you could have easily as got it from your mother. It only takes one parent."

"Thanks for trying Clark but we both know where it came from," Amara says, appreciating what he is trying to do and make her feel better but deep down Amara knows it came from Selene.

"It's only one gene."

"Yeah but it came from her. Why Selene? Why did it have to be her of all people that is my grandmother?" Amara asks, almost desperate that it wasn't.

"I ask myself that about Jor-El all the time. Why does it have to be him who is my father?"

Amara turns her head to look at him. "You do?" she asks, her expression hopeful, if anything, that someone might be able to understand what she is feeling.

Clark smiles wistfully. "You keep thinking of him as your people's saviour. I keep thinking of him as the arrogant prick who makes my life hell. In one sense I'm glad I came here and was able to see he wasn't always like that."

"Selene has never changed. Never will. She is evil down to her core...and her blood flows inside me," Amara says with a disgusted expression on her face at having Selene's blood within her.

"Doesn't make you her. Doesn't mean you will ever become like her," Clark argues.

"The potential is there," Amara argues back.

"The potential to do evil is inside all of us. Wow, I'm sounding all philosophical ain't I?" he jokes with a goofy grin.

Amara giggles a little.

"Let me ask you this? What about your father?"

"What about him?"

"He's more closely related to Selene. Is he a bad man? Did he ever treat you badly?"

"No. He...he's always been the best father anyone can ask for," Amara says in soft, loving tones that show how much she adores her father even through her current anger.

"And I'm sure you're the best daughter anyone can ask for."

"Well I wouldn't go that far," Amara demurs a little. She's gotten into her share of trouble.

"Selene does not define you Amara. Your parents don't either. I know this to be true because I am not Jor-El and I do not agree with him at least 99% of the time. My dad says that parents are there to set their children on the road but it is they who choose the route. Essentially we are who we choose to be. Selene chooses to be an evil bitch. Jor-El chooses to be a pompous ass. I always choose steak for dinner."

Amara stares at him.

"What? I like stake."

Amara stares more.

"Ok fine. I choose...sometimes hard choices that seem to aggravate everyone around me," Clark says, sounding sad all of a sudden. "My point is choice. I've seen your grandfather through Jor-El's eyes. Being married to Selene did not make less true one thing you spoke about him. He was a good and courageous man who chose to fight evil without any of the powers you or I possess making him the sort of hero I can only wish to be," Clark says with an admiration he has gained from Jor-El's memories. He knows Jor-El also shared that admiration giving him, he thinks, the first thing he and Jor-El have ever had in common. "On the plus side you didn't have to see him and her like I saw Jor-El and her..." Clark shudders. "I'll never be able to get the images out of my head."

Amara pats Clark on the leg sympathetically. It can't be nice to have seen that.

"Amara, a lot of us have less than ideal members of our families. I know it may be worse for you because of what Selene became to symbolise to your culture but is Wanda like her father? Is Tabby like hers? Is Rogue like...ok bad example because we all know where she got her temper from now."

Amara smiles. She truly does appreciate Clark coming and trying to help her.

"You admire your grandfather as a hero and try to emulate him...or so mom tells me about why you came to the Hellfire Club after me. Nothing about that has changed Amara. Nothing about you has changed. You are who you choose to be and despite sharing a few chromosomes with Selene I know you'll choose to continue to be the wonderful person that I am honoured to call my friend."

Amara fills up with something...indescribable. It feels good. His words make her feel good about herself. She's not sure how exactly he did it but his seeming faith in her makes her glad he is her friend.

"Your parents...I'm sure they love you," Clark assures her.

"They admitted they weren't going to tell me about Selene."

"Sometimes that instinct to protect can go too far. I drive Rogue up the wall with mine."

"But you realise you do that."

"And I'm sure your parents will too. To err is human. People are imperfect. We make mistakes...misjudgements. Heavens know I've made plenty and unfortunately once or twice you've been on the resulting end of my misjudgements. Sorry about those."

"It's ok," Amara forgives him.

"Do you doubt your parents love you?"

"No." It comes from her lips without hesitation.

"There we go."

"But I'm still angry at them," she insists.

"Never said you couldn't be angry at them. I would be more worried if you weren't. I won't say that lying to you was the right thing to do but I believe, similar to my parents, that they were only trying to protect you from a truth they knew would cause you pain. It's not easy to tell a truth when you know it will hurt the person you care for most in the world since your instinct is to try and shield them from all pain and hurt."

"Personal experience?" Amara asks of him because it sure sounds like it.

"Yeah," Clark admits, his tone glum.

Clark's points are good ones. It's annoying when you want to try and stay mad. Amara rests her chin on her hands and tries to decide what to do next.

"Amara. I've been meaning to ask. If Jor-El is seen as a God...what does that make me?" Clark raises something that has been bothering him since the moment he learned of Jor-El's supposed godhood here.

"Clark...you may not wish me to answer that," Amara cautions him.

"Amara...we're not Gods. I'm certainly not. You've seen me hurt. You've seen me bleed. Gods don't do that," Clark pitches his case for how he is not a God.

"Clark...you really don't want that answer," Amara says because she knows he won't like it.

"You've seen me covered in eggs and flour...mostly because you and Tabby were responsible," he says with a glare at her for that prank.

Amara grins overly innocently. "Who? Me? I think you're mistaken."

"Uh huh," Clark says, not buying it for a second. "The final reason I make is the best. My father is dead. My people are dead. My planet is nothing but dust and rocks. I am the last Son of Krypton, Amara. If we were Gods could we die?"

Amara takes a moment to compose a response. "Clark...you are my friend and like you said sometimes you want to protect people from the truth."

"Just tell me Amara," Clark asks in soft tones, touched she is trying to protect him but needing to know the truth.

Amara takes a breath. "Your father is a God to my people. That makes you the son of a God to them...so the answer to your unspoken question is yes. You too will be seen as a God and I know that makes you uncomfortable but I'm afraid I'm not sure how to change that. I just don't think my people are ready to understand the truth of what you are."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Clark laments. "Well despite your bad news I'm still honoured to be your friend."

"Thanks."

"But you are off my Christmas card list," he tells her as a joky punishment for her bad news.

"I don't celebrate Christmas," she points out since it is a Christian celebration and she's not Christian.

"Well ok then. Just letting you know."

"Well consider me informed," she plays along with him.

"I shall."

"Good."

"Indeed."

"Glad that's settled."

"Soooo...you want to hear the story of precisely how Jor-El kicked Selene's ass?" Clark asks, a goofy expectant expression on his face because it's a great story. Seeing Selene getting her just desserts is enough to cheer anyone up.

"Definitely," Amara says with much eagerness to hear that story.

Author's Note: Of course one could note how Amara never said outright she personally doesn't think Clark is a God. I thought it best not to have her say it and just leave it an open question for the moment. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; The X-Men prepare to go home but first Clark has to deal with his nightmare when the people of Nova Roma discover who he is.