Chapter Four – Justice Lords Universe:
A/N: I'm going to refer to Lord Clark in the Justice Lords Universe as Kal in narration whenever it's his point of view. That way it's easier to keep normal universe's Clark's POV separate from Justice Lords Universe's Clark's POV.
Kal is floating out in space, just outside of the Earth's atmosphere, with his eyes shut.
Listening.
Listening to the sound of the Earth; the shift of its plates, the water currents as they flow, the wind as it blows. He listens to the animals on Earth; a cheetah chasing a gazelle, a deer wandering the forest and eating, a squirrel jumping to a bird feeder. He listens to the people as well; a Nigerian woman singing to her three-year-old, an Egyptian man buying a new handbag, an American waking up for a late shift at her job.
But the most notable of all the things he is listening to is the conversation that Alfred Pennyworth, Dick Grayson, and Tim Drake are currently having. The three of them have been staying in France for the past month now, India before that. As soon as Bruce went missing, Dick had confronted him in the Bat-cave and Kal ended up beating him pretty badly, not giving the man the chance to get at the Kryptonite. At the time Kal hadn't known where Bruce was and neither did Dick. So Dick thought Kal had killed him. After defeating him and leaving him alive on a whim, Dick left, found Alfred and Tim at one of the safe houses, and hauled ass out of Gotham. Even though they know Kal could easily find them, they still move from one place to the next. In fact, they're almost due to change locations again. Kal wonders where it'll be; Russia, somewhere in Africa? Kal doesn't know but he'll always be able to find them easily and the family knows they're lucky he just hasn't wanted to kill them yet.
"It's been almost three months since Bruce disappeared Alfred," Dick says. They don't know Bruce had come back just a week ago, leaving Kal's child in another dimension to be raised by strangers. They also don't know about Bruce's current state. "I don't think he's ever coming back. I think we were right the first time. Clark killed him."
A long, dreary sigh from the butler. He doesn't want to believe it. "We shouldn't lose hope quite yet Master Richard." Another sigh. "Especially for young Master Timothy's sake."
Tim walks into the room then and just by the way he talks Kal can tell he's happy. "You'll never guess what just happened." He climbs up onto a stool, the legs creaking, and beams at the other two. "This stray dog just came up to me and I played with it and fed it and it licked me and-and, Alfred can we keep him?"
"Absolutely not."
"Why not?"
"Because Master Timothy, we are not keeping strays."
Tim sighs heavily. "Okay, fine." A sullen look. "Any news on Bruce yet?"
Dick tries to give him a reassuring smile, Kal is sure. After all, he knows those two boys like he knows the back of his hand. "I'm afraid not Timmy, but don't worry. I'm sure he's fine and we'll see him again soon."
"How do you know?" Tim asks.
"Because he's Batman," Dick says.
There's a frown in Tim's voice when he speaks next. "You know guys, I'm thirteen and not stupid." Kal hears a ruffle of clothes as Tim rests his head on his arms that are crossed on the counter. "He's dead and not coming back, isn't he?"
No one says anything to this and Kal stops listening. Instead, he turns and heads up to the Watchtower. He enters and heads straight to his destination. Walking into the room, the first thing he sees are a group of people leaning over papers and more papers. Then, if he looks beyond them, he can see the beginnings of a machine, of a portal. John and Shayera are also in the room, over-seeing the construction. Kal walks up to them. "How are things going in here?"
"Fine so far," John answers. "They're putting the portal together fairly quickly. The tricky part is getting it to work and to work correctly."
Kal turns to the head scientist and approaches. "Doctor, how is it going?"
Startled, he turns to Kal. "Fine, Superman. The construction of the portal is well on its way. However, we are having a trickier time figuring out how to get it to work."
"I want it done soon, Doctor."
"I-I understand, Superman, but we don't have Batman's notes and I don't even know where to begin," he says.
Kal glowers at him. "I don't think you do understand, Doctor. I want this complete by the end of the month. No later."
"Th-That's impossible," he exclaims. "There is no way that I will figure out the equation of how to run the machine and have it actually transport you to the correct... uh… universe. I don't even know how Batman figured it out."
"Because Batman was smart, something that you apparently aren't."
"Please, you can't expect-"
Kal cuts him off by grabbing a hold of his neck, lifting him two inches off the ground, and squeezing. "By. The. End. Of. The. Month. Doctor." He drops him and turns back to John and Shayera, ignoring the man coughing behind him.
As Kal passes John, John stops him. "Kal, are you sure you want to go through with this?"
He looks at him incredulously. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, why don't you just forget this crusade of getting revenge on that Justice League," John says. "Focus on our world."
"You know it's more than just revenge."
John thins his lips and crosses his arms. "I do and I understand but do you think going there is a wise decision? Maybe you should leave the baby where he can be raised by both people who look like you and Bruce."
Kal looks at him angrily. "Are you suggesting that I abandon my child, my son, in another universe to be raised by strangers?"
"What I'm saying is maybe he'll be better off." Kal grabs a hold of his neck, much like the Doctor, and slams him back against the wall. His eyes glow red with the impending doom of his heat vision and John brings a fisted hand up to his temple, Green Lantern ring pressing into invulnerable skin.
"Kal," Shayera says in warning, placing a hand on his arm.
The two glare at each other for few seconds longer, daring the other to take that extra step in killing one another. Kal lets the red in his eyes die down, reigning in his heat vision, and dropping John. The man brings a hand up to his neck and rubs it, lowering his other hand that was fisted against Kal's temple. Kal leans in close to him and growls, "You don't get to speak about my son. Next time I will kill you."
He turns and leaves the room, ignoring the fearful stares he is receiving from the scientists. When he exits the room he hears Shayera speaking to John with his super hearing. "What were you thinking challenging him? He could have killed you." John doesn't say anything in response, a wise choice from the man. He probably suspects Kal of listening and knows not to say anything that will get him killed.
Kal continues to walk through the Watchtower, coming across Diana and J'onn speaking lowly in the main room. He passes them and pays them no attention. They are not what he seeks right now. Kal walks into another hall and travels down to the medical wing. Entering the room, he approaches what he came to this section for. "Hello Bruce."
He eyes the man; lying on a bed, eyes closed, an endotracheal tube that is hooked up to a ventilator shoved down his throat, and hooked up to a machine that is keeping his heart pumping. His side is bandaged where Kal had stabbed him. Bruce had lost a lot of blood and Kal stabbed him in a vital spot, then taken him here right away once the man passed out. He walks up to him and brushes his hair back. "Don't worry Bruce, I'll get our son back and I'll take good care of him." Kal brushes his cheek next, Bruce's skin void of any color. "He'll be safe with me and once you get better, you'll see how wrong you were and then we'll raise him together." He chuckles, low and dry. "I don't even know what you named him." Kal leans down next to Bruce's ear and whispers, "But this time I won't let you take him away from me or else I'll start taking the rest of your family away from you."
He presses a soft kiss to Bruce's forehead and then straightens, running his hand through Bruce's hair one last time. Kal then leaves, no longer having any reason to be in there. He's been visiting Bruce every day ever since he brought him here and Bruce has been like that the whole time. He never wakes up but Kal is sure he just needs to give it a little time. He meets Diana and J'onn back out in the main room where they have stopped talking. Now they just sit there, watching the screens for any trouble. Every once in a while J'onn asks one of the assistants for an update on whether or not there is any trouble going on down on Earth. So far there isn't.
Kal goes up to them. "What were you two talking about earlier?" Diana eyes him warily and J'onn doesn't look at him at all. Kal's lips twitch upwards. The two people that are probably the only ones that could take him on — especially Diana — turn away from him and are wary. It makes Kal feel good and powerful, in control.
"We were talking about how everything seems to be getting back to normal ever since we came back," Diana says. "When we were gone things resorted back into chaos but now the crime rates are plummeting again." She smiles and her wary look turns flirty. "It's good."
"Good," he says, eyeing her. Like him, Diana has no caste. She is neither alpha, beta, or omega. Strangely, Martians do. However, on Mars the omegas were the ones in power unlike here on Earth where alphas have more power over the other castes. J'onn is a beta and according to him, the lowest rank you could be for a Martian. Thanagarians also have castes but they aren't categorized as alpha, beta, and omega. Instead they have castes of gamma (similar to alpha), theta (similar to beta), and zeta (similar to omega). The gammas are the ones that go into "heat", though, instead of the zeta like it would be on Earth. Still, zeta are the ones that get impregnated while the gammas are the ones who sire the children. Shayera is a zeta while John is an alpha.
Kal ignores Diana's flirty smile and asks for an update on the situation down on Earth. "Everything is fine so-" a pause. "A confrontation has just popped up in London. Some kind of protest that has gotten violent. Two casualties so far, five more critically injured."
"I'll go," Kal offers.
"Are you sure?" J'onn asks.
Kal gives him a reassuring smile. "Yeah, I need to get off the Watchtower for a little while.
Diana is still smiling at him flirtingly. "Do you want help?"
"No." Her smile disappears in disappointment and Kal floats over to one of the transportation pads. J'onn sends him down and he flies over to the protest. There's a good hundred people there and some of them see him. They start to run away immediately but for the ones that don't see him, Kal shoots a warning shot of his heat vision. "Go. Home." They stare at him before turning tail and running away.
Kal looks at the one remaining person who is injured and hasn't been brought to the hospital yet. He goes up to her and when she sees him, she tries to back away. "No, please! Don't touch me!"
He stops, staring at her and tilting his head in confusion. "I need to get you medical attention."
She looks scared. "I have a child, please don't hurt me."
"I'm not going to hurt you," he growls, feeling his anger rising. "I'm going to bring you to the hospital." Kal starts to go to her again and she cowers away, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. He ignores them and picks her shaking body up, flying her to the nearest hospital. They take her in right away, not wanting to let Superman wait. After, he flies back to the U.S. and to Gotham where he lands outside the Manor.
Before Bruce betrayed him, he had been living here due to the pregnancy. He didn't want to be that far away from Bruce by being in Metropolis and besides, he would need to raise their child here with him. Kal is still living here even though there is no one else here. Maybe someday he'll force Alfred, Dick, and Tim to come back. Maybe once Bruce wakes up and he has his son back in this universe.
Kal walks up to his and Bruce's room, takes a shower in the conjoined bathroom, and then goes and lies on the bed, naked. He lies there for a long time, just thinking about Bruce and his son. He wants his son back. He hasn't even been able to hold him or see him for that matter. He has no idea what he looks like and he'll die before he ever gives up on trying to get him. He's his son and he should be allowed to raise him.
Turning on his side, Kal watches out the window as the sun sets. Soon, when the sun is behind the horizon, he gets under the covers and finally goes to sleep.
A/N: Boy did I mess up Lord Clark in the head. Whew…
I hope you liked this chapter everyone! :)
