LXXXVI
The Last Days of Krypton
Author's Note: Toss everything you know about Superman and Krypton out the window. Take a deep breath… Proceed heroic reader.
On the fields of Elysium, they stood transfixed as the mysterious old stranger embraced the spirit of Clark, arms estimating where a body should be, spirit and reality. Tears fell in the space-man's eyes as his muffled sobbing was heard across the plains of heroes.
No one was more surprised than Clark.
The stranger pulled back to proudly gaze upon the image of Clark and spoke, a wistful smile upon his lips. Barbara Gordon listened intently, she was fluent in three languages, and considered herself an amateur linguist. But this was definitely like no language she had ever heard before…
The commissioner's daughter was shocked to hear the shade of Azar reply in a similar tongue. The stranger seemed to understand her reply and adjusted a radio button near his neck. Barbara marveled when the old man replied to Azar in perfect English.
"They call it the language of Barbarians here. Greek seems to be the predominant tongue… Can you understand me now, Kal-El?"
"Yes, but my name is Clark...Who are you?"
"Too many years have passed from when I had to leave you, my son… I am your father, Jor-El. I have longed for nothing except this day when we should meet again. "
"Are we in heaven?"
"A sort of heaven, yes. A place of the brave dead. How I wished to be with you while you were alive, but it could not be. But now you have returned to me, my son…"
"I'm not dead."
"Many who arrive here say so... But I see you arrived with the living. Sit, tell me of your story and your companions."
"Please…" It was Barda who cut in. "Can someone wake Raven? He's dying... We don't have time for this!"
"No one dies here. Time is too slow. See for yourself." The white-bearded Jor-El motioned to the prone body of Scott Free.
"By the gods, it's true! The power level on mother box hasn't budged. You are forgiven, Raven for your hasty arrival. Heal her well, priestess."
"This land is ruled by Cronus," continued Jor-El. "Time in the land of the dead moves slowly, a shimmering dimension traveling at the speed of light between points of focus. Even shadows may not be cast. That's the reason my old necronaut suit has survived all these years…"
"Excuse me…" Clark said with a quizzical look. "Did you say necronaut?"
"I did, my son. The Science Counsel mocked my research, my life's work… I'm sorry… These are painful memories for me… but you should know our story."
"I would like that." Clark now lowered himself upon the grass. He had waited his life to understand his mysterious origins. Could this be his true father?
"Then where shall I begin?... You and I are from a planet called Krypton, once a shining marvel of the universe. A place of accomplishment. The people of Krypton evolved over the millennia to worship science, building sprawling temples to technology. Knowledge was our shrine, our passion, our hubris. Progress…
…Your mother, her name was Lara…a proud and beautiful soldier of the military guild. Like her brother and your cousin, hair of shining gold, eyes of blue… A strong, beautiful woman. This white mess I wear now upon my head was once as dark as yours. But when I was younger…
As a youth, I was fascinated with the afterlife… where did the spirit travel after death? What is the essence of being? I dreamed too large, perhaps. My parents, your grandparents, often told me so. As an adult, there were members of the Science Guild who questioned my sanity, accusing me of being a heretic, left-over from the primitive age of religion. But what is science if not to explore? And explore I did…
I discovered the soul.
The very recording template of our emotions, our memories, our perceptions and even reflections of those around us. The divine energy each of us carries inside, the 'memory effect' of the mind's event horizon - a lifetime of firing synapses and neurons recorded, the ejected from one life upon death and able to be inserted into another... to combine.
How amazed I was when I first transcribed a soul, to reveal the experience and emotion of life, a recording of all someone had felt, had experienced, not only in one life, but many! The history of Krypton began to reveal itself through the lives of our past. Not in language, but emotional currents, memories…
I built a machine to view these energy effects, to measure their frequency, to chart the progress of souls to the afterlife and then I made my greatest and most tragic discovery…
Like a radiation belt spinning around the planet, the souls of Kryptonians danced in our stratosphere. Like a million giant electrons coursing near light-speed around the nucleus of planetary life, these orbs of consciousness weaved their tales of the past through the radiation belt. It was magical…
And like a fool, I published my findings for my peers.
Our scientists did not believe in souls, Kal-El… Whatever evidence I presented, they were convinced that my 'religious' bias tainted the pure research I should have conducted. Science was not superstition. Souls were abstract, interpretive.
But obviously there was something there… something they believed I had stumbled upon. An energy that could be harnessed...
And it was, Kal-El. The fools built giant transducers to harness the very consciousness of their ancestors and convert it to raw power. They labeled me an idiot savant as I begged them to stop… To respect the memories and lives of those who had come before us."
"The soul barrier…" Azar covered her face with both hands, eyes wide with horror.
"As fitting a name as any, dear lady. I see you are familiar with my discovery. My reaction was much the same as yours, my warnings dire. But they fell upon uncaring ears. My reputation as a scientist diminished and my wife… was driven away from me, to her older brother, Zor-El, a prominent member of the Counsel and founder of Kryptonian eugenics. His earlier work had modified his unborn daughter, and your cousin, Kara Zor-El into something incredibly powerful.
She was a super girl, able to fly at speeds unmatched by our fastest craft… to lift objects even our mightiest equipment could not. Nothing could harm her. And like the Zor-El's, she had hair of spun gold and eyes of pale blue, a beauty through-and-through. Powerful… like you, my son. A blessing and a curse I was unable to prevent.
As I sank into emotional ruin, my brother-in-law lured his sister, my wife, into his eugenic experiments. I had not even known she was pregnant, you see… Promises of a perfect baby, like Kara. I had no idea until it was far too late… too consumed with my own grief and remorse of what I had allowed to happen. I'm sure she believed her husband to be insane with all his talk of spirits and ghosts…
But you were born my son.. and your mother, my beautiful Lara…"
They watched as the tears began to fall down the old man's cheeks into a beard of white. The sobs were interrupted by a gasp of air before he continued, wiping his eyes…
"You were too much life for her, my son… But she would not have wanted it any other way… She gladly gave her life so you could have yours… As any parent would.
You must never blame yourself for this. She wanted you to be strong… Like Kara.
So, while you were a lump in Lara's belly and I was consumed by the spirit world, I happened upon another disturbing discovery… In space beyond our… 'soul barrier', I spotted what I could only rationalize was a soul singularity.
Through monitors, I watched as far-reaching spirits disappeared into this black hole of existence, ringed by red swirling fire. Where had they gone? If it approached closer to our planet, could it even consume the souls of the living? Were we in danger? It seemed to be moving towards Krypton…
Again, I brought this before the Counsel. Again, they dismissed me as a broken man who had shunned his wife, a hysterical charlatan trying to build a cult of fear among the weak-minded. In desperation, I went to Zor-El and was horrified when he revealed what he had done to Lara. As magnificent as Kara was, I realized the enormous risk such experiments placed upon the mother…
'But if our children breed, Jor-El…'
I still shudder to recall those words, the plans he had for you and your older cousin…
But to his credit Kal-El, he did believe me. If nothing else, he was convinced that something was devouring our new energy source. And it needed to be stopped. With his influence, he was quickly able to convince the Counsel.
And so they built a gun. A cannon the likes of which no one had ever seen.
And I, my son… I built this suit you see here. One for me, one for Lara, and one for our soon-to-be baby boy. Constructed to protect the soul. To defy the effects of the singularity, the spiritual black hole.
It also allows me to travel amongst the dead, to imitate the frequencies and cross untold dimensions the living have no business traversing. I only sought to protect my family and inadvertently became the first necronaut…
We finished on the same day, Krypton and I. The suits were built and the immense cannon was also completed, powered by soul energy - designed to increase the angular momentum and reverse the charge of the singularity drifting in space. Our scientists had calculated the exact trajectory so as not to destroy the moon of Krypton on a misfire… or nearby planets. It was the greatest project of our time.
Then soon after, you were born, your mother died, and a husband was broken… But the father was born! When I first saw you Kal-El, my beautiful, baby boy… I did not know if the cannon could succeed. I only knew that we could escape. And that my son must be protected. He must live.
So I prepared.
And then it came… the singularity. And at the right time, the cannon was fired, hitting the target. But it was not a black hole.
Like a giant from space, it fell. It wasn't a singularity, it was a crimson alien, four eyes of fire, a god of the past…"
"Trigon," Azar spoke.
"I did not realize it had a name. The cannon had worked, but it was not enough. The giant channeled its energy into Krypton itself. Powerful earth quakes began to destroy our world as energy began to tear the planet apart and poison the land itself. Your cousin Kara battled the monster, flying so fast and hitting with such force…
Until the giant shot beams from its eyes which reduced her to mere blackened bones tumbling through the skies above. I will never forget that horrible image, Kal El. It was the exact moment that I knew our world was doomed. We had channeled the souls of our dead against the beast and it had simply turned our power against us, destroying our world. Even Kara was no more than a distraction.
No one was spared... save you and I.
Crossing dimensional space, we escaped. I eventually found the planet where you were raised, my son. Imagine my surprise when I saw that its inhabitants looked exactly like us! It was fate, it had to be... My mind recalled ancient Kryptonian explorations of the universe, what was known as the Great Colonization. Could I have stumbled upon a lost Kryptonian Colony?
Perhaps, but I knew immediately the atmosphere was not right for me. The oxygen was overwhelming and the gravity too strong. I had to rely on the limited capabilities of my suit. But you, the strongest of your race, you were not overwhelmed. And I realized my error, Kal-El…
I had built the suit for a baby.
And you would grow to become a boy, to surpass the structure of your suit. I could traverse dimensional barriers, but there would soon come a day when you could not. Could we find a world for both of us before then? Observing this Earth, I reached a very painful decision. We had to part.
My investigations located a childless couple, removed from the complexities of society, hard-working, good people. On the most difficult day of my life, I secretly left you, my only son, at their doorstep. I did not want you to grow up immersed in science, to be a fool like your father. Better to enjoy the beauty of nature and the pleasure of working the land. I was sure your uncle's eugenic engineering would give you a superior physical advantage and allow you to survive on this new world, even if I could not.
Days passed. I shifted in and out of the continuum to watch over you, to make sure they took you in as one of their own. That they loved you… The power of my suit was growing low… so I said farewell and followed the spirits to this place… Elysium.
I knew that someday fate would bring us together again.
And now it has, my son"