Chapter Twenty – Justice Lords Universe

A/N: I'm sorry I've taken so long to update this chapter. I just haven't been in the right mindset lately to sit down and write. If you follow me on Tumblr then you might know that my depression has kind of been difficult these past few weeks and it's just sucked all the motivation out of me. I'm trying to get back into the swings of things though, so here is a long overdue chapter.

Kal paces as he watches J'onn look over Clark. When Kal walked through the portal with Clark in his arms, the baby had looked around curiously, no doubt feeling the strange sensation that the portal gives to whoever goes through it. They had arrived on the Watchtower and to Kal's confusion, the Justice League had let them go. He expected a harder and longer fight than what they gave him. Not that he is complaining. Kal is glad that it was so easy to take his son back. It's just not what the Justice Lords had planned for.

Once they got through the portal and onto the Watchtower, Kal had taken Clark straight to the med-bay, telling J'onn to follow. He then handed Clark over and had the Martian look over the baby to make sure no one in that other universe contaminated or hurt his son. It's been about twenty minutes since J'onn started testing and Kal can see Clark is starting to get restless.

"Is he okay?" he asks the Martian.

J'onn turns to him and with his back towards Clark, Clark takes this opportunity to fly into Kal's arms. Kal holds him close to his chest, leaning his cheek against the top of his son's head. He feels a warmth building in his chest and he's glad he has his son back. "Everything seems to be perfectly fine."

"And the bond?"

"You have not yet spent enough time with him to form a familial bond." Kal feels angry at that. Bruce and the Justice League stole the opportunity from him to form a parent child bond with his son. "However, it is not too late to form one as Clark is still very young. Given enough time, the bond he has created with the other Batman and Superman should break and break easily as the bond cannot be formed in return due to them not having caste systems. Then, your own parent child bond should form, replacing the old bonds."

Kal feels relieved at that and kisses Clark on the head. Then he asks, "How long do you think we have until the Justice League comes for him?"

"They let us go."

"For now."

"If they do pursue, given how badly their Batman and Superman are, I would say a few weeks. Though their Superman will only need a few hours to heal, their Batman will need much longer. Same with the rest of the Justice League besides The Flash."

Kal nods in understanding. "Then we should prepare. I'm not going to let them take my son from me again, J'onn. I can't lose him again."

"What about Bruce?"

Kal turns around and looks at his sleeping partner. He still has the tube down his throat and the machine that helps his heart to pump. "He hasn't woken yet. I thought when I brought Clark here he would awake. Why hasn't he J'onn?"

J'onn noticeably hesitates but then says, "I'm afraid that the damage might be too extensive."

Kal shakes his head in denial. "No. No, I didn't hurt him that bad. He should have woken up by now. What is going on J'onn?"

"Kal, there was a lot of blood loss."

"Not enough to cause this!" he yells and Clark makes a small noise in his arms. Kal startles and bends his head to his son. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Papa didn't mean to yell." Clark squirms but only to bury himself further in Kal's arms. Kal raises his head to J'onn again. "Tell me what happened. I'm not stupid J'onn. I know exactly what I did to him and it shouldn't have caused this." J'onn stays silent. "What are you guys hiding from me? Bruce being hooked up to this machine. I thought it was weird but I went along with it, thinking that maybe I miscalculated. But then I started thinking that even if I did miscalculate, he still would have woken by now."

"Kal, you must understand-"

"J'onn," he says in a deadly calm voice, making sure J'onn knows that he means business. "You're either going to tell me what is going on right now, or I am going to put Clark somewhere and then I'll come back and make you tell me."

J'onn is silent for several seconds but then he speaks, calmly and emotionless, careful to not anger Kal. "We all thought it was for the best."

"Thought what was for the best?"

"For Bruce to die."

Kal is shocked into silence. He had doubted himself. Thought he had hurt his beloved so severely that he would never wake up and would die. He thought he did this but he… he didn't. He didn't miscalculate when he stabbed Bruce to subdue him. He would never kill Bruce. He loves him.

Kal swallows, feeling the bile rise up his throat. "Then why keep him alive?"

"Because when he started to die, you ordered us to."

Kal is shaking, not being able to look J'onn in the eyes as he feels his own eyes flood with tears. Clark is looking up at him in concern, looking from Kal to J'onn. "Why?"

"Because Bruce had betrayed us and because you were not focused on the mission at hand. We needed you to help save the Earth, put the people in their places once again. When we came back after getting our powers taken away, the people fought against us, disobeyed. We need you to put an end to that. Instead you were too focused on finding Bruce and your child. Unfortunately, putting Bruce in this state didn't change matters and instead made you more driven."

"You betrayed me." Kal takes a shaky breath in. "You all betrayed me."

"No Kal-El. We tried to help you. But I see now that you are lost."

Before Kal can say anything in return, Clark looks at J'onn and activates his heat vision. The baby starts to cry immediately, but Kal can only watch in amazement as J'onn is thrown backwards from the heat vision, his skin scorching. J'onn yells in anguish until the heat vision finally dies down. He passes out and Kal smiles, bringing Clark into a hug to calm the baby. "Good boy. That's a good boy." He holds Clark out in front of him, the baby stopping his crying and looking at Kal with wide, curious eyes. He smiles at his son and his son smiles back. "How about we take care of the rest?" Clark laughs right along with him.

...

Kal is sitting on the floor, flames and blood surrounding him. Clark is sitting in front of him, clapping and smiling with glee. Kal smiles back.

He killed them. Kal killed them all. It wasn't easy, especially Diana but he managed. He didn't have Clark watch him. His son shouldn't have to see that. Instead he left the baby with Bruce. By the time he snapped Diana's neck, the last member of the Lords to fall, Clark had flown to where Kal collapsed onto the floor, exhausted and bloody. Clark started to babble at him with gurgles and small noises, smiling and clapping the whole time. He did this until Kal smiled and started laughing, and continued until Kal picked him up into a hug. Kal pulls him close against his chest, burying his face in the top of Clark's head.

"I think I over exerted myself little one." He sighs, standing up on weak legs. "Wonder Woman is one strong woman. But they betrayed us and I will not tolerate betrayal of any kind." Clark squeals. "Well, except for Bruce, of course, but I love him so he gets a pass."

Kal breathes in deeply and exhales slowly. "Come on, let's go get your daddy. We wouldn't want him to be in here when the life support on the Watchtower fails due to the fire."

He flies to the med-bay quickly, where he had left J'onn's body. After Clark had attacked him, Kal had broken his neck as well, and then set his body on fire just to make sure the death was permanent. Now his body is just a crispy set of Martian flesh. Kal places Clark on top of Bruce in order to work. "Look at him Clark. They put him like this. How could they do this to me? To us? I trusted them." Clark gurgles in response.

Kal goes to shut off the life support but then hesitates. He doesn't know if he'll be able to get Bruce to the Fortress in time to save him. He looks at Bruce's face; how peaceful it looks despite the tube down his throat. He can't lose him either. He has to try.

He shuts each machine down and quickly unhooks him and takes the tube out of his throat. He picks him up bridle style, Clark flying off him. "Clark, follow me."

Clark squeals but does as he is told which surprises Kal. He didn't expect the baby to be able to understand him. It must be his Kryptonian genes that are speeding up his learning. After all, he is a three-month old baby that can already sit up on his own when normally babies can't do that until their between the ages of four and seven months. He wonders when Clark will be able to crawl and walk, however, especially if the baby is flying everywhere then how will he learn. That will be something Kal will have to worry about later. He carries Bruce to one of the teleporters that are still working despite the destruction to the Watchtower, waits for Clark to get in beside him, and then teleports down to the Fortress.

He takes no time in hooking Bruce up to the advance machinery that he has in the Fortress. This is what he should have done in the first place. Of course, Bruce would never had needed to be hooked up to anything if it weren't for the other Lords betraying him. Clark floats around him as he does this, making little baby sounds every once in a while. When Clark yawns, however, Kal pulls him down from the ceiling and brings him to his crib that he had set up in the Fortress when Bruce had gotten pregnant.

Kal watches his son fall asleep and when the baby is fully out, he rubs a finger gently over Clark's cheek. He had thought his life would be so much different. Now he has a husband who betrayed him and tried to keep his son away from him, the Lords who have also betrayed him, the Justice League coming after him, and Bruce dying.

Bruce dying. No! He can't be. He won't allow it!

Turning back around, he walks back out to where he left Bruce. "Status report on Bruce," he demands of the Fortress.

"Vitals are low. Brain activity almost non-existent."

"Likelihood of-" he chokes on the word and has to swallow before continuing. "Likelihood of survival?"

"Slim."

Kal pinches the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut to stave off the tears he can feel there. "No. Run the scan again."

"No change."

"Do it again!"

"No change."

"Do it-" he's cut off by a sound and when he turns around, he sees Clark floating there. "Clark." He goes up to the baby, cradling him in his arms. "It's going to be okay. Your daddy is going to be okay." He kisses Clark's head. "Try to heal him," he says to the Fortress. "Do everything you can. Save him. Please save him."

"The likelihood of saving-"

"I don't care! Just do it!" He then walks out, bringing Clark back to the room with the crib. Kal sits down in a chair, holding Clark against his chest tightly. "How did this get so messed up, Clark? I didn't want any of this. I just wanted you and Bruce back. I just wanted us to be a family again so we could quit the team and go live somewhere happily. And now I've lost the Lords, I might lose Bruce… Clark, I can't lose you. I can't lose you too. Please… please don't let me lose you too. You're all I have left."

He doesn't bother wiping the tears off his cheeks as he holds his son as close as possible to him, never wanting to let go.

A/N: Well, this is not what I had planned. I didn't plan on the Lords betraying Kal but that is where my mind took me. *Shrugs*.

I hope you all didn't mind the fade to black when it came to Kal taking on the Justice Lords. I didn't really feel up to writing him fighting all them. :/

Hope you all enjoyed and thank you for reading. :)