Chapter Thirty Three: Gearing Up.
The weather outside was not too hot but not too cold either. There was a nice breeze that was flowing through the air and the leaves were moving around because of it but did not scatter too badly. The birds were singing pleasantly but it was not to the point it was too obnoxious. The sun shined brightly and it was the type of day where people were extremely happy to be alive. There was a sense that the world was going to have many bright days.
"Checkmate will come under new management," one of the voices remarked in the backroom of a club outside of Metropolis.
She was Martha Kent, a woman also known as the Red Queen of Checkmate.
"I can't believe Clark...I just can't believe that he's this far gone," Martha commented as she learned a lot of what happened with Clark during her short visit and he was not the same that he was a couple of years ago when she visited during Harry and Kara's wedding. She cupped her hand onto her chin and faced Lara. "Do you think that there's any chance that..."
"There's always a chance he could get better," Lara interjected as she talked to Martha although she knew that Clark being sent off world for a long time would be the best thing for him. He could learn how to be a leader and deal with everything that came with it. She was dreading the consequences of what might happen if he wasn't and the blonde hoped that everything would turn out for the best. "I'm hoping with his minders there to keep tabs on them."
"They'll get a chance to go, naturally," Martha remarked.
"Yes...Raya will do anything for the House of El, Lana and Alicia will go if they think that the other is going," Kara commented as she leaned out of the shadows, with Karen and Harry sitting next to her, along with a fourth party that remained hidden from Martha's eyes. "Hermione...she'll go as well I suppose."
"I notice that you're leaving someone out of that party," Martha commented to them.
"Well, we all know that Lois has other responsibilities that she can't exactly be pulled away from although given the set up, the choice is in her hands," Harry remarked to them all as he looked over the notes. "All Clark has to do is set up the Book of RAO and the male Kandorians were be on their merry way home."
"Have you ever heard of a plan that has so many variables where it could go wrong?" Karen asked but she placed her chin on her hand. "If we don't send Clark away, his mind could be ensnared by it."
Harry knew what she was talking about so there was no need to really say much more other than that. He placed his hand on the top of his head and pondered...yes he was getting a headache just thinking about it. Clark's attitude lately and the fact despite there was steps taken to correct it, nothing that they did stuck. Sending him off for a while, that was the best situation as far as he was concerned. It was also a scenario where he could envision a fair lot going extremely wrong.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't, and Harry would be damned if he did not make one last attempt in fixing Clark so he could become the hero that he was supposed to be. Although he thought that he was fighting an uphill battle and he thought that sending him away without the pressures of living up to that moniker, on a world where he'd be essentially the only hero, would ease the burden for him. It was not like Earth was lacking in heroes.
"Just got to do what we've got to do," Lara commented with a smile, she thought this over far enough and the blonde kept going over the different scenarios in her head. She wondered if it had been the smartest decision to bring Jor-El back after his essence got banished in the first place. There was a few seconds where she recalled the different trails and how many of Clark's perils had been due to what the defective version of her husband had forced upon their son.
Harry's hand found hers and he squeezed it tightly, the blonde relaxing with a smile after taking one deep breath in followed by one deep breath out as she felt her Lovers hand in hers. After a moment she turned to look at Harry so he could see the slight smile on her face before arching her back, and head in a stretch letting out a soft sigh as she released the tension.
"Don't worry, Lara, everything's going to be fine," Harry told her as he kept squeezing her hand.
"You seem to think that there's...there's a plan where nothing could go wrong," Lara offered to Harry as she used her other hand to cup her chin.
There were thoughts going through her mind.
"I believe it, if Harry believes it," Martha remarked with a smile crossing her face but she thought about all of the problems that she had to deal with. Checkmate was a mess thanks to Maxwell Lord. She was not sure who was under his thrall and who was doing these things of their own accord. She cupped her hand on her chin and she thought about everything that transpired as of late. "So, let's hope that everything goes fine."
"Clark...I think that there was a lot of pressure put on him and he wanted to shield himself from that for long," Karen remarked to them and they all nodded in agreement.
'I just wonder how much we're going to have to clean up in the aftermath,' Kara thought to her bonded as they pondered that notion.
'I just hope that Zod isn't going to make one last desperate play to get Clark on his side,' Harry commented to them all. The green eyed wizard breathed in and breathed out with a long and labored sigh.
'Don't worry...it will work out, we've taken a look at this plan from every single angle,' Kara thought to them.
'And yet, I'm still worried,' Harry thought suddenly.
Martha made her excuses to leave. "I suspect we'll meet up again. If anything breaks, you'll call me, right?"
"Yeah, I'll call you," Harry remarked although he thought about his fail safe plan to deal with the Kandorians if this plan with Clark failed and he thought about all of the different angles of approach, as well as all of the things that could go wrong.
So many things could happen and there were a lot of things that could go wrong.
Power was an element that many people debated the true meaning of. Clark Kent debated this point with himself as he held the Book of Rao within his hand. He could not believe that his mother got it for him and he kept it away from Lana, Lois, Alicia, and Raya. He felt that this was his destiny, his destiny alone, and no one should stand beside him other than himself. His face contorted into a brief smile as he considered his next action.
"You have it in your hand, all you need is the means to send them away."
Clark turned around and once again, he saw his father standing in the background. His eyes was locked on that of Clark's and the two of them stared down each other. They stood there like that for several second with their eyes locked onto each others, and the tension between the two could be felt in the air.
"I don't know...it could send all of us away...including me," Clark remarked to him and Jor-El moved towards him.
"You are far above these Kandorians," Jor-El remarked to his son. "You are strong, my son, you are not some genetic copy of a relic that has long since passed it's prime. You are much more. Even the great Zod...he is but a copy of a far superior model."
Clark nodded, although he had yet to figure out why his father continued with his praise of Zod. There was a few seconds where he surveyed the man before him, the man who gave him life all of those years ago.
"There are those that have betrayed you, Lana betrayed you once for Lex, what makes you think that she would not do so for Harry or anyone else?" Jor-El asked Clark and he hit the moment of indecision. "Alicia was never mentally stable and Raya...she had an obsession towards me."
"I'm...I don't know," Clark remarked, he was about to defend them but he did not have the conviction to defend any of them. There was a few seconds where he paused and remained calm, looking at his father. Could they betray him, could they stab him in the back?
"You can still teach them obedience my son, you had the power at one time to outstrip all of them," Jor-El told him, there was no room for anything that resembled argument in his voice. There was a few seconds where Clark stared back at him, wondering what he was talking about.
He dropped to one knee and he felt the thumping echo through the back of his head. He felt the pain that resounded through his body and his breathing was getting heavier. He was trying to keep himself from falling underneath everything. Clark's eyes continued to mull over as he tried to scramble to his feet but his legs failed him.
"You feel yourself weakening, don't you?" Jor-El asked him, half of a taunt going through his voice and his gaze becoming serious. "You need the power, you're running out of time. It's going to end with you weaker than ever before."
"I'm not weak!" Clark yelled but he felt himself slump to the ground, as if he had been weighed down by an immense force that was greater then anything that he ever experienced.
Tons of weight pressed on the back of his head and he kicked his legs but there was no movement coming from him. He tried to push himself back up but he collapsed once again. There was a few seconds where he tried to get himself back up.
"Prove it then!" Jor-El bellowed to him in a firm voice as he stood over Clark. "You are a noble son of the House of El, therefore you should stand up and face me...face me like a man!"
Clark tried to scramble to his feet but it was hard to get back to his feet. Jor-El stood over him and Clark was breathing heavily.
"There can only be one Kal-El!"
"CLARK!"
Kal jerked out of his thoughts and he saw Lana kneeling next to him. His hands were bleeding and he was shaking, looking completely pale and out of it. As his breathing became extremely labored, the dark haired woman raised a hand and practically slapped Clark in the face.
"Raya, get...get some help, he's not responding!" Lana yelled as she saw Clark's pupils dilate but he reached forward and wrapped his hands around her throat.
Clark saw nothing but enemies around him. Lana was taken off guard by his sudden burst of violence but Raya rushed in and knocked Clark off of her. Lana dropped to her knees, massaging her throat.
Alicia grabbed Clark and teleported him out of there.
"Are you okay?" Raya asked to Lana who was massaging her throat.
"Yes...yes I'm fine," Lana stated although she felt anything but fine. There was a few seconds where she struggled to get up. "He looked like he was having a seizure."
"I got a sample of his blood," Raya told Lana and there was a nod. Alicia would be keeping an eye on Clark for now.
'Alicia handcuff him to you if you have to,' Raya thought. This was not supposed to happen.
"What do you think happened?" Lana asked Raya.
"There are any number of poisons that could effect Clark, some of them causing delusions and delirium," Raya remarked to her. "One of the Kandorians could have infected him, there are members of that army that were deceitful."
Lana's glance looked off of Raya's face. "It was Jor-El."
Raya turned away from Lana, an unreadable expression on her face.
"You don't believe it at all, do you?" Lana asked Raya and the woman shook her head. "Fine, don't believe it but we both know it's the truth, it was Jor-El who..."
"Lana, I don't wish to have this conversation," Raya commented as she held the blood in the tube and she looked adamant that it was not Jor-El who did this to his son.
"I think I know what's happening to him," Hermione offered as she turned up. The two of them faced her and there was a lack of trust in their eyes.
"Do you now?" Raya asked as she locked her gaze onto Hermione's face.
"He's been poisoned, it was modified silver Kryptonite combined with a magical extract from a rare plant," Hermione offered to them.
"Silver Kryptonite...oh god," Lana remarked.
"And coupled with the residual Lazarus Effects, this caused any delusions to heighten," Raya remarked to them. "All we have to do is find the person who poisoned him."
Hermione and Lana both thought that the same person was behind it, although Raya was not about to believe that person was capable of doing so.
"Can you create an antidote?" Lana asked and Raya looked at her.
"I'll see what can be done," Raya offered to her but there was no promises that she could make.
Rose sat in the front lobby of the Shining Light Foundation, she offered an extremely long and extremely labored sigh. She'd only been able to remember a few fragments of what happened since she left the country during the second war with Voldemort. It was some kind of bad nightmare and she could scream with terror at what she saw in her nightmares.
Lily arrived to join Rose and there were a few seconds where the two Evans sisters stared each other down. Neither really knew what to say, both were at a loss for words and neither wanted to be the one to break this silence that was created with each other. One could cut the tension with the knife as this was the first time the two of them came face to face properly in years.
"So?" Lily asked Rose.
"Petunia said that you abandoned me, said that you wanted nothing to do with me," Rose remarked to her.
"Petunia...she's a known liar," Lily commented to her sister and Rose nodded in agreement, that was not something she'd dispute at all. "I just wish...I just wish things would have ended differently than they did."
"Yes, apparently I was Voldemort Junior and I went on a psychotic rampage...the savior of something or other," Rose remarked as she placed her hand on the top of her head. "I must have fucking snorted that meteor rock and it wedged in my brain."
"The old Death planned it like that," Lily remarked as she recalled her accident, assuming that it was an accident, to set her up as the vessel for the Herald of Death. "I hope the former Death is being tormented for what she did."
"But we've got one thing left to do and that's help Harry and his fellow Heralds in their role," Rose remarked, as she closed her eyes. She regretted everything that happened to her nephew when she was that abomination. She hoped to make it up to him before too long and Lily did as well. "So there's...Kal-El."
There was something about Rose's tone that indicated that she was underwhelmed.
"He's a special young man, and his heart is in the right place," Lily commented to Rose delicately.
"Is that your poor attempt to be politically correct?" Rose asked Lily and the two women locked eyes with each other, emerald eyes on emerald eyes.
"Call it what you want, but yes, it's essentially that," Lily admitted, as she regretted all of the grief she had caused Harry in regards to the Traveler.
"It seems to me we're going to have an Evans sister pity party," Rose remarked to Lily, recognizing the look in her sister's eyes immediately.
"Call it what you want," Lily remarked with a sigh.
This was not the most ideal situation and sure enough, they saw Kara arrive there, she had a frantic expression in her eyes.
"Kara, what is it?" Lily asked her daughter-in-law and Kara turned towards the woman.
There was a second of indecision in Kara's tone, she wondered if she should be able to trust this woman. On one hand, this was Harry's mother. On the other hand, she had done so many things that were considered to be...of questionable morality. She was going back and forth with it in her mind and the blonde wondered if she could trust her at this point.
Then again, within the past couple of days, Kara's hormones had been thrown out of whack and she got upset easily. At first she thought it was because of Clark but now that she spent all morning throwing up, she wasn't so sure.
She had to focus one problem at a time and tried not to get too upset.
"Kara, you're upset, you sound like you need help," Lily remarked to her and Kara took a few seconds to process it.
"Clark's been poisoned," Kara remarked and to be honest, in the back of her mind with all of the stress that hit her, she was looking at two the most likely suspects to this poisoning.
"How?" Lily asked and Kara looked at her with a tense look flickering through her eyes. "I might be able to help him."
Kara was skeptical about this but she kept her eyes locked onto Lily's. The two of them faced each other, both trying to get a feeling for the other. The redhead watched Kara.
"I can't help you unless you tell me what happened," Lily told Kara and there were a few seconds where Kara paused and she held up the paper.
"Here's the results, make of it as you will," Kara told her and Lily snatched the papers from her.
Lily saw the blood test results and scanned them over. She caught even more dire notes as she read through it. There was a few seconds where she hoped that she was reading this wrong but each passing note of it brought more dire thoughts to her mind.
'This might be the darkest hour,' Chloe thought to Kara.
'No, I've been through worse,' Harry remarked as he heard about this.
'I just...I don't know what to say,' Chloe thought as she wondered if Clark would even live to see another day.
"I can formulate an antidote," Lily remarked to them slowly but there was a second where she kept her eyes locked onto the rest of the group. "But it might be too late for it to do much good."
"More good news," Kara commented as she locked onto the link for Lana.
'Yes,' Lana thought in a tense tone.
'Is Clark...sedated?' Kara asked her and there was a long sigh where Lana appeared to be at the end of her rope regarding Clark and his recent problems. 'Lana...I know...I know...I know things are bad but...everything will work out right.'
'I...feel something...we don't have much time,' Lana thought as the headache that she received was not getting any better, it was getting much worse.
'What do you mean?' Lily asked to Lana.
'I don't know, it's a feeling that I have,' Lana thought, she wished she could put her finger on everything but there was something about this, something that unsettled her greatly.
Kara did not have time to worry about mysterious feelings that Lana had that may or may not be true. All she needed to worry about was to find a way to figure out how to cure Clark before it was too late.
The time was ticking and Kara felt her stomach go in knots even more and the desire to throw up once again visited her.
Business might not be the best thing for Harry Potter to work on right now but it did keep his mind off of more stressful situations. At least that was the prevailing thought that went through the mind of the youthful wizard as he went over everything in his mind.
'I don't even know if this is going to work out for the better or worse,' Harry thought to himself as he reached the Daily Planet building.
Harry nearly bumped into Lois and stepped back.
"So, I guess you heard about Clark," Lois informed him and Harry nodded without another word. "Yeah...Lana seems to think it was Jor-El who somehow managed to poison him. I can't believe he'd stoop that low...well actually I can believe that, I just don't want to believe it."
"I'm not sure if it was Jor-El, at least not this time," Harry told Lois and there was a second where the woman locked eyes with him. The look that she gave him was one of those looks that asked Harry if he was crazy. "Yeah...something about that...it just seems too clean."
Lois smiled about that, Harry would find a deeper conspiracy other than the obvious.
"Do you really think things are going to get better after he gets sent away?" Lois asked.
"I don't know, he'd have less pressure to live up to until he grows into it," Harry told Lois and there was another statement that was on the tip of her tongue.
"Do you think that you'll ever be able to bring him back?"
That was a deep question that Harry had no idea if he could answer it with any clarity, given what had happened. The fact that Clark was poisoned...well Harry had his own theories on who did it. His trust of certain parties were at an all time low. He wondered if they had been looking at the wrong Kryptonite when Zod stuck that pin on Clark all those months ago.
"I'm not going to lie Lois, things are going to get ugly in the next couple of days," Harry told her. "You better look out for yourself."
"I always do, Potter, I always do," Lois remarked as her voice softened. "Seriously...you've got to do what you think that you've got to do. You've showed way too much faith in me by giving me this job in the first place."
"It's a dirty one, someone's got to do it, but we're reaching a crossroads," Harry remarked to her.
"I'll do what I can as we transition on through," Lois remarked as she debated about who she thought poisoned Clark, really. With a clear mind, she suspected that there were more than a few suspects.
She watched Harry leave as quickly as he arrived.
A second later, Harry returned back to Watchtower, looking more worn out and beaten down than ever before.
"The antidote should be ready in a little bit," Chloe remarked to Harry as he reached towards her and engulfed one of his wives in a hug. "Do you honestly think that it will work?"
"I honestly hope it does," Harry told her and Chloe rested with his arms wrapped around her. "This is unprecedented."
"You don't look good," Chloe remarked as she watched him. "When's the last time you've gotten any sleep?"
Harry tried to figure that out.
"Claire is on the island, with Donna, I don't want her in the middle of any of this," Harry remarked as he cupped his hand to his chin. "She'll have fun."
"You do realize because of the time dilation, she might be a full grown adult by the next time you see her," Chloe commented to him lightly.
"Well...it doesn't quite work that way...but...she's getting to that age where she doesn't need me that much anymore," Harry remarked and Chloe shook her head.
"No she needs you, the world needs you, just like Kara, Diana, Karen, Tess, Rachel, M'Gann, Carol, Lara, Alura, Iris, Vala, Faora...and everyone else that you've gotten in your bed needs you," Chloe remarked, she was out of breath. "And then there's Lana, Raya, Lois...need I go on? And I think in some twisted way, Clark needs you as well."
Harry wondered how Clark would react if Chloe said something like that.
"You forgot Courtney and Shayera," Harry remarked to Chloe trying to lighten the mood. "We should really make a flow chart, because even I'm having trouble keeping track of them."
Chloe knew that this was a coping mechanism, him joking about the size of his collective like this.
"The Amazons are at your disposal, Harry, should you want them."
Diana turned up and Harry detached himself from Chloe to go meet another one of his wives.
"I'd...prefer not to turn to them because this isn't their fight," Harry remarked to Diana but she reached around his waist and pulled him into a tight hug.
"Zod threatens the entire world, this is their fight," Diana remarked to Harry and Kara showed up.
"Any progress on Clark?" Harry asked her and Kara sighed.
"The antidote is being finished, it should be done but if it doesn't work, we're going to have to find another way," Kara told Harry and there was a second where she paused. "We need to find a way to put him into stasis."
"There is a way, pioneered by a scientist in Gotham, Doctor Victor Fries I think his name was," Harry remarked. "He invented the technology to put his wife into stasis, she had a terminal illness and he needed more time to cure it. If it could work for humans without any complications, it should work for Clark."
"And we do have the ability to get it set up in the Shining Light Foundation," Karen remarked to Harry who nodded in response.
He set up the foundation to help super powered people in need and Clark Kent, for better or for worse, was a super powered person who was in dire need of help.
"It was a three step problem," Lara said as she showed up. "You do realize that it was a multitude of things that caused Clark to crack, not just this one thing."
It wasn't just Zod, it wasn't just the Lazerus after effects, it wasn't just Jor-El it was a combination of the three.
Time stopped around Harry and Death showed up before him.
"There's one piece of business that you need to deal with," Death told him and Harry nodded.
Before they could help Clark and anyone else, Harry had to deal with some family issues, which was always the worst type of problems. A smile crossed his face.
It was time to have a chat with his mother, aunt, and twin, to make sure they were all on the same page and there were many complications that needed to be ironed out regarding what happened with them.
"So, we're in this room," Alex commented as she placed her hands on her hips and it was obvious by the expression on her face that she was not pleased by this.
She was dressed in a tight black top, a black skirt, that molded around her body like a second skin. Her body was amazing and Harry stared at his female counterpart.
"We're here, and according to Death, we're not going to be able to leave until we've ironed out our differences," Lily commented with a half of a smile plastered on her face. "So we might as well make the most of it."
"I'm guessing that time is not the problem in this room," Alex remarked as she placed her hand on her forehead. "I'm just...I'm just wishing that everything was more clear than it is now."
"All four of us were pawns for the original Death in different ways," Lily suggested with a shrug of her shoulders. The redhead's hair framed her face and the smile continued to widen over it for better or for worse.
"Pawns, that's putting it mildly, our abilities were exploited," Rose commented.
Harry watched his aunt, mother, and sister, for lack of a better term. It was a shame that they had some bad experiences together because they were all extremely beautiful. Their flaming red hair, green eyes, large breasts, flat tummies, long legs, delicious asses, it was a man's wet dream but he wanted to keep his head above the water.
"I'm really sorry for this Harry, you know I am," Lily commented as she placed her hand on her son's lap. "And I...I do want to make it up for you, what she did?"
Harry had no idea what the she was, whether it was the book Lily or the old Death.
"I haven't been loved in a really long time and I'm lonely," Lily remarked as she draped her legs over Harry's crotch. The redhead looked into her son's emerald green eyes. "I've...I've see what you can do and I want...I want to experience it just one time."
Harry said nothing once again.
"People might think it's wrong because I'm your mother but fuck them all," Lily remarked as she ran her hand down his cheek.
"Given all that I've done, I doubt that tapping my own mother would be the most morally objectionable thing that I've done," Harry remarked and he bent her over, turning the tables.
He flipped her skirt up and saw her red thong that was clad around an amazingly enticing ass. He felt like he could feel that ass up for days and not get bored with it, not at the slightest.
"Kara suggested that I should take it out on you and that your ass should belong to me," Harry remarked as he grabbed her. "I think that we have some issues to be worked out with, but first the three of you are Heralds now...for better or for worse, and...I need to exercise your needs."
Lily's pussy moistened at the thought of her son drilling her holes in every witch way.
"Please Harry, you're the perfect man," Lily remarked as Rose and Alex massaged his shoulders and offered light kisses on the side of his neck.
"And you're the pinnacle of womanhood," Harry remarked as he grabbed his mother and turned her around for a moment.
He pressed his lips onto Lily's and forced his mouth onto hers with a kiss. This kiss signified who owned her now and Lily exchanged it with lustful desire. Her tongue was nearly rammed halfway down Harry's throat and the wizard cupped her ass from behind, stroking her thong clad ass.
Smut/Lemon Begins.
-PROFILE-
Smut/Lemon Ends.
Alicia dabbed a wash cloth on Clark's face as he started to sweat like a pig in a suit after what happened. She knew of the complications of his illness, she just wished that she could do something more for him.
'There's a slight chance that this could have long term complications,' Raya thought to Alicia and there was a long pause as Alicia just soaked that all in.
'What kind of long term complications are we speaking about?' Lois asked, she tried not to let her worry betray her, even though she was a bundle of nerves regarding what could happen next.
"Water, I need water," Clark breathed heavily and Alicia turned around.
There was a thump and Alicia went down onto the ground.
Lana could sense it immediately and she smelled a rat. She saw that Clark was no longer there and Alicia had been nailed in the back of her head. Raya disappeared as well, likely to track down Clark.
'CLARK!' Lana thought through the link and she closed her eyes.
Clark's eyes were opened as he made his way outside of the temple. It was one of the last ones that had not been destroyed.
Mild mannered Clark Kent would not be able to get the job done and save the world. No, that would not do at all. He was nothing but a weak and spineless jelly fish.
Kal-El planned to commit murder most foul on his weaker, more human side. Even though they were more similar than he would care to admit, he refused to believe that weak fool that allowed a quartet of females to shove him underneath his thumb could be the son of the great and powerful Jor-El.
"Father...be proud...father I will do what you have sent me here for," Kal-El remarked.
"Let it be known that today is the day where you take those first steps towards your destiny and truly become a man," Jor-El commented, his voice echoing through his son's head.
"Stop."
Talia knew this was coming, Harry warned her that the pit would be too much of a temptation for Kal-El. She held it in her hand, a Kryptonite dagger.
"Let me through and I won't snap your neck," Kal remarked to her but she held the dagger in her hand.
"One step closer, and I'll plant this through your heart," Talia told him. It was the final pit, set to be destroyed tonight. She was indifferent to whether Clark Kent lived or he died, he was merely an ant, someone who had been granted a moderate amount of power to squander time and time again.
"Step aside," Kal remarked as his eyes flared with heat vision.
Talia smiled as she lifted up the dagger but another figure rushed in from the side at super speed and knocked her into a wall.
Zod arrived to face Clark, and walking behind him was his fellow Kandorians.
"I'm a man of my word, Kal-El, surely you could see that now," Zod informed Clark and the Last Son of Krypton inclined his head with a nod. "You're going to lead your fellow Kandorians to the pit and together we can have powers beyond the wildest imagines of all man. Just think, together we will rule."
"That would imply that we're equals," Clark remarked to Zod.
"I beg your pardon?" Zod asked him and Clark decided to tell Zod what he thought.
"You're implying that we're equals when that can be the furthest thing from the truth," Clark remarked to Zod and there was a second where the Major watched to him. "Despite your bravado, you're nothing, just a clone, a cheap, bargain basement copy of someone that I've defeated before."
"That wraith you think you've defeated was a shadow of what I once was but I'm stronger than ever," Zod remarked as he looked towards Clark.
"You aren't as smart as you think you are," Clark remarked.
"My blood flows through your veins, naturally I'm intelligent," Zod remarked.
"My blood that you tainted with poison flows through your veins," Clark commented to them.
"I didn't poison...you were poisoned?" Zod asked Clark.
"When you gave me the pin, you injected me with something, clever, devilishly clever, but you outsmarted yourself because if I'm not mistaken, your injected you Kandorians with that blood," Clark remarked.
"They didn't poison you, Kal-El, because I did."
All Kal saw was a hooded figure and a hint of blonde hair coming out from underneath the hood. Then he got a closer look and the betrayal was obvious.
To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.