Chapter 43
The Future…
Fortress of Solitude…
Mia sits amidst the stark white crystals of the remnant of her father's homeworld, looking up at the sculpture of her grandparents her father made. It had been a few days since her suspension from the Justice League. A fact she was still stewing about.
Another fact she was stewing about is that this place had almost become her prison. Jor-El had been assigned to 'keep an eye' on her whereabouts. To make sure she didn't go off and snap the neck of the little psycho bitch who murdered her mother.
That's because, unlike Conner, her grandfather can watch her 24/7.
A third fact. She is going to go stark raving mad if she doesn't get out of here soon.
The Latino woman rises to her feet and then floats upward.
"Cir-El," the voice speaks reproachingly.
"I'm just floating!" she says defensively.
Silence.
Mia sighs. "Abuelo, can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"Before Krypton was destroyed there was a war, right?"
"A great global conflict initiated by General Zod, yes."
"Did it not enrage you? To see all that death and destruction?"
"I had little time to dwell on my emotions. My main concern was trying to save Krypton and its people."
"I see," she says, somewhat deflated.
"You seek to know if I have ever felt the way you do," Jor-El surmises.
"Have you?"
"You ask the wrong question. It is not what we feel but how we channel those emotions into actions."
"You don't understand. She used me. Abducted me. Tied me up. Used me a bait in a trap and made me watch my Mamá die and then…then she let me live. Mocked me as being unworthy to kill and then joked about me coming to find her when I was out of diapers. She left me there with my Mamá's corpse…" she trails off, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.
"I sympathise with how you feel, my granddaughter but if there is one thing above all else I wished to preserve it was Krypton's sense of justice. It was harsh by human standards but fair. Killing Rose Wilson in cold blood is not justice, Cir-El."
"Well then I guess I'm just a great, big, slagging failure aren't I," she snaps, her emotions raw and her hurt bleeding through. "The public don't think I'm good enough. The League doesn't and you don't too," she beats herself up.
"That is not what I said."
"And if my Papá was here he'd be disappointed in me too, right?!"
"Clark would have loved you."
Mia's gaze turns to her right as Conner walks towards her.
"He would have," the dark-haired man insists. "He would also have been proud of you."
Mia arches an eyebrow in extreme scepticism. "So what is this? Prisoner visiting times?" she asks, her voice full of anger and resentment as she lowers herself to the ground.
Conner sighs. "You're not a prisoner, Mia. You're on a probation. One that'll end as soon as the Councillor that's been assigned to you says so. Speaking of which your first appointment is the day after tomorrow so I'll be here to make sure you attend."
"Oh Schway!" she rattles off sarcastically.
Conner tries not to utter some sexist remark about 'women'. Mostly because Cassie would castrate him. "But until then I'm to invite you to Smallville."
"Why?"
"A belated birthday celebration."
Mia looks back at him perplexed. Her birthday was days ago.
"I know. I know. It was days ago but that obviously was bad timing and I would have sorted it sooner but Titan Tower was a mess…and then I had to arrange things with your Aunt and Ma Kent."
"You spoke to Aunt Penny?" Mia asks in surprise.
Conner nods. "Yeah. Well, went to visit her actually. She's…uh…friendly."
"Ay Dios mio!" Mia exclaims. "She hit on you didn't she," she guesses, cringing with embarrassment.
"I was flattered," Conner says jovially, brushing it off. It was no big deal.
"Voy a matarla."
"Yeah. Saying things like that is not going to help end your probation any quicker," he points out which earns him a look that makes him glad she doesn't have heat vision. "Look, everyone's waiting for you back at the farm. I got Cassie to pick up your Aunt. Plus Ma Kent has made you a chocolate birthday cake," he tries to tempt her into coming.
"Chocolate?" the young woman queries, her eyes lighting up with interest.
"So like Clark," Conner murmurs. "Yes, so are you coming or going to mope around here and miss out on all that sweet, sweet, chocolate cake?"
"I'm coming…but just to be clear I'm doing so for Abuela's sake…and Aunt Penny's," she totally lies. It's all about that sweet, sweet chocolate cake.
"Absolutely," Conner goes along with it just as long as it gets her to come.
Smallville…
"Happy Birthday!" Martha and Penny say together upon Mia's arrival at the farm. The blond then rushes forward and hugs her adopted daughter, whom she has not seen since that day Mia left to go to Titan Tower.
"Thank you," Mia says back softly as she hugs her adopted mother back.
"No problem. Now, you just forget your troubles for today and enjoy yourself," Penny tells her.
"Here, here," Martha agrees.
"I'll try," Mia says. "Now I was promised chocolate cake," she mentions.
Martha rolls her eyes. "Now that, you get from your father."
"Did he eat you out of house and home?" Penny asks the older woman.
"To say Clark had a healthy appetite would be me being kind."
"I wonder what else Mia inherited," Penny idly mentions.
"Well if you want we can share embarrassing stories of our kids growing up."
"Now that sounds like a party!"
"Ay Dios mio," Mia mutters, trying to hold back(and failing) the cringe expression forming on her face.
"Tell me Martha did you have ever have to live with the mental imagery of walking in on your offspring and their 'special friend' in less than a fully clothed state?"
"Aunt Penny!" Mia cries, her cheeks burning bright.
"Walk in, no but there was that morning Clark tried to sneak out the door the girl he had spent the night with," she recalls.
Penny grins at the imagery. "Wow, that gives you a whole new perspective on 'Superman'."
Martha chuckles. Though they had only just met she found she liked Mia's adopted mother. "To the world he may have been Superman. To me he was just Clark and if you ignore the fact he could bench press a truck when he was 3 he was just like every other little boy."
"I don't think Mia started bench pressing trucks until she was 12 or 13. Her powers didn't kick in until around the time puberty hit…which let me tell you was interesting to say the least."
"Stop talking!" Mia pleads, mortified.
"Actually that was also true for Conner. His Kryptonian genes didn't start to dominate until he hit puberty as well," Martha reminisces.
"Oh please, don't drag me into this," Clark's 'clone' pleads. "By the way, where's Cassie?"
"Oh she went to the store for some extra things for me," Martha answers.
"Guess she's dodging the bullet then."
"Ahem!" Martha says loudly.
"Did I say that out loud?"
"Yes."
"I totally meant it," he says cheekily.
"This is what happens when you're half a Luthor," Martha says to Penny who simply nods along.
Conner leans in to whisper to Mia. "That's her go-to insult for everything. Always blaming my so-called 'Luthor side'."
"Uh huh. Where's my cake?" Mia asks in a single-minded obsession.
"Don't you want your presents first?" Penny asks, amused at her daughter's antics.
"We can't do both at the same time?"
"Oh where did I go wrong?" Penny laments in an overly-theatrical manner.
"You want the list?" Mia asks back, dead-pan style.
"Oh Martha, you want to hear what happened when Mia was 6 between her and my neighbours at the time?" Penny asks with a tiny malicious look.
"Oh no, no, no, no, no! Don't you dare tell that story!" Mia begs. "Besides it was all Sheldon's fault!" she points out.
"That wasn't his version of it."
"When did you ever take his side of anything?"
"When it embarrasses you."
"You do remember I know like a hundred stories of your embarrassing dates, right?"
Penny shrugs. "I've grown to accept it. Like water off a duck's back."
"You know I could have just stayed in my prison up north."
"Not a prison!" Conner interjects.
"Says you!"
Martha decides to intervene as this is in real danger of falling into topics that could ruin the day. Not that she doesn't want to talk about what happened with Mia and Ravager but not today. "Lets go eat cake."
"Yay!" Mia cheers, her mood doing close to a 180.
"Just don't embarrass me and do your happy dance," Penny jests.
"Ah, no, you've got that the wrong way round Auntie. It's you who embarrasses me with your happy dance," Mia argues.
"Not how I remember it."
"Well luckily I've got video."
"Since when?!"
"I've been saving it for when I really need it."
"I can't believe you would stoop to blackmailing the woman who raised you."
"Everything I know I learned from you."
That one finally shuts Penny up.
Later Mia finds herself sitting up in the loft in the barn, wearing her father's old red jacket which was far too big for her slender frame. It was a really nice birthday and she liked the gifts and the cake was amazing but in the end nothing can distract away for long her troubles.
"Your father would sit there and mope too," Martha comments as she walks up the stairs, not missing how Mia is wearing Clark's jacket. For probably the same reason she teased her son about. As a security blanket.
Mia gives her grandmother a peculiar look.
The older woman sits down on the couch. "Let me guess, you're thinking about what happened with Ravager."
"With all due respect Abuela, I don't want to talk about it," Mia says bluntly, trying to head off a conversation she doesn't want to have.
Martha sighs. "Clark used to internalise his feelings as well. As if he had to carry the burden alone. It's not healthy. Especially in his case. Every time he would get exposed to red kryptonite it would mean that all his bottled-up feelings would explode out like a volcano. That and it made him horny."
"Abuela!" Mia whines. "I don't need to know that!" she complains, shuddering. No-one should know that about their parents.
Martha chuckles lightly. "More seriously it removed his inhibitions. He would actually say what he was thinking. I'd rather not have to go that far to reach you, sweetie," she says, trying to be a sympathetic ear.
"Kryptonite doesn't affect me the same way it did Papá. The League did some tests. Green kryptonite barely gives me a headache."
"And red?"
Mia shrugs. "If they did tests they never told me. Then again they like to keep their secrets behind my back when they think I can't hear them," she mutters angrily, unable to hold it in.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't want to talk about it," she repeats, clamming up.
"Mia," Martha pleads gently.
"No," she states firmly, shaking her head. She's not discussing it. She can't stand the thought of hearing how her grandmother thinks she's a disappointment too.
Martha sighs. "Alright," she gives up…for now. "But if you do ever feel like talking I'm here."
Mia says nothing.
"Oh, I have something for you," she mentions as she reaches into her coat's inside pocket and pulls out a rolled up notebook. "It was your father's."
That gets Mia's intense focus upon the item.
"He started writing in it a few months before…" the older woman swallows down her grief. "Well before," she repeats.
"Writing what?" she asks, clearly intrigued.
"His thoughts and feelings. Stories from his past. He had been in a bit of a morose mood. He wouldn't explain to me exactly why but I got the impression he had gotten tired of living the dual life. Of hiding his true self away behind a pair of glasses and perhaps he was trying to remember who he was by writing it down. It's only a guess but I like to think I know my son enough to be close. So here," Martha hands it over.
Mia takes the notebook almost reverentially. "Thank you," she whispers.
"Don't stay up too late," Martha advises as she leaves her granddaughter alone for the time bring.
"Uh huh," Mia absently replies as she opens the book and begins reading.
Few hours later and Mia thinks everyone else has gone to bed…and Conner and Cassie may have left to fool around or something. Honestly she barely heard them, too engrossed was she in her father's words.
She has smiled more than once at the stories of his youth, growing up here in Smallville, dealing with all the metahumans the meteors created. Talking about his friends. Pete, Chloe, Lana…she had skipped over all the Lois Lane mentions. Bleuch!
She had been shocked to learn that her father had once called Lex Luthor, her father's murderer, a friend. It was impossible to imagine considering how much they seemed to hate each other by the end.
She comes across a page with a detailed drawing of a ring with the letter 'L' and a star upon it.
'Legion Flight Ring' it says in scribbled handwriting.
Mia reads on to discover the ring is from the future. A thousand years in the future. It belongs to a group of superheroes in the 31st century who had been inspired by her father to carry on his work.
There are a few short notes of incidents where her father time travelled and a warning over its uses, citing he had been too 'blasé' about it in his youth. Using it to selfishly rewrite history but he didn't write the details down here on what he is referring to. Only that it had terrible consequences and a guilt he can never lift from his shoulders.
It's then that it strikes her.
The ring. She's seen it. Up in the Fortress.
Ideas begin to flood into her brain.
Ideas on how to fix this. All of this.
The League won't let her deal with Ravager but what if she goes back to before there is a League?
What if she goes back to before Ravager killed her mother?!
She could save her mother!
She could meet her father! Talk to him. Learn from him.
She could, maybe, even subtly push her parents together so they could be a real family.
She's so excited by these thoughts she's literally flying high…well above the couch anyway.
But she needs to be careful. What with her on probation and everyone watching her. She needs to plan it out because when she puts her plan into action she'll need to act quick.
So Mia plays the pliant, compliant little waif for the next week or so. Even attending her first counselling session, all the while she is carefully, slowly getting things into place. She gets a bag packed. She writes a series of letters for her brother, grandmother and Aunt Penny explaining why she has to do this.
Then one night she tries to act nonchalant, pretending she can't sleep and takes a walk. She has to be schway in front of her grandfather's ever watchful eye up here at the Fortress. She enters the room where her father keeps all these artefacts on pedestals. She's wandered through it many times these last few days, making it a routine. Yesterday she 'accidentally' left her bag in which she had packed a few clothes for her trip.
There.
There is what she seeks.
The small golden ring. So innocuous she barely even registered it before. You would never imagine for a moment the power it possesses.
She reaches for it and removes it from its place. Brings it closer to examine. She's almost in awe so at exactly the moment she should be acting quickly she's frozen in place.
Then suddenly the entire place is lit in red light.
"Cir-El!" her grandfather's stern voice echoes around. "What are you doing?!" he demands to know.
"Oh schrap!" Mia curses as she almost jumps out of her skin. She shoves the ring on her finger, grabs her bag, closes her eyes and thinks about where she wants to go but because she is now all disconcerted she ends up getting it wrong and ends up missing her intended destination by about a year too early…and of course that is where this story started.
The present…
It is within the Fortress of Solitude that Mia floats in a crossed leg sitting position. She had been up here a lot lately. So much so she found she had missed quite a bit when she last caught up with her father. Like, Earth 2 Lionel Luthor taking advantage of the team, more specifically Tess, being missing for those 3 weeks to take over Luthorcorp, pretending to be this world's Lionel, claiming he had merely faked his death.
Then there was her grandmother getting shot which she was feeling major guilt about. She had learned about that assassination attempt in school but had forgotten about it.
Her grandmother was in town to try and rally support ahead of a referendum on repealing the VRA. Her grandmother had been very busy while her father and co were missing in pushing this through Congress…and yes, Mia does know the result. Obviously.
It is her knowledge or in many cases lack of of the future that has her so lost in thought as of late.
"Mia?"
Mia looks down to see her father below. "Si, Papá?"
"What's wrong?" he asks with concern.
"What makes you think anything is wrong?"
"The fact it took me calling out your name 3 times to get you to notice I was here was a hint," he dead-pans.
Ooh. Mia did not hear him.
"Then there is the fact you spend more time up here with your grandfather than you do at the farm," he lists another reason why he is worried about her. "Is this about what happened with your grandmother?" he speculates really.
"No."
…
"Yes."
…
"Maybe."
Clark resists the urge to be snarky. Clearly something is troubling her. "You know I'm not mad at you any more over lying about the reasons you came back in time ," he feels like he should mention. In fact one of the things he had noticed since he returned from his three week absence is how much calmer Mia is. Andi had done an amazing job in helping Mia's wounds begin to heal. "Would you prefer your mother to speak to?" he asks her. "Because I can go get…"
"No," Mia interrupts. "I don't need you to do that."
"Ok."
"Did…" she stops and then starts again. "Did you and Mamá talk about what happened while you were missing?"
"Some but if there is something specific you're referring to I'm afraid you'll need to enlighten me."
"You know how I mention that I'm not an Encyclopaedia of future knowledge."
"You've mentioned it once or twice," he plays it down how often she's dropped that line.
"I didn't know if you going missing was part of history or something I had caused."
"Ah," he says, beginning to cotton on, he thinks, to what is troubling her.
"I…there's someone you will meet in the next year or so…I considered going to them for help despite knowing enough on history to know you and this person shouldn't interact yet. I know I came back to change events but…"
"But?" he encourages her to continue.
"I'm not my Earth 2 counterpart you know."
"I know," he assures her.
"I'm not here to completely rewrite everything in some self-serving way. You…you have to become who you are supposed to become."
"And you're worried you may change something that will derail that," he guesses.
"Si," she confirms.
"So you're hiding up here where you can't mess anything up."
"I wouldn't phrase it like that," she grumbles.
"Then what would you phrase it like?"
Silence.
"Look. Why don't you get a break from here and come to Metropolis with me. They're about to announce the referendum results. Plus your grandmother would love to spend time with you before she has to head back to Washington," he suggests.
Mia shrugs and ends up agreeing so the two head south. By the time they reach a rooftop in Metropolis the whole team is already there.
Opposite is a gathering of people at the stage where the results of the referendum will be announced and thankfully, as far as Mia is concerned, the result remains exactly as she remembers as the VRA is repealed. At least she hasn't managed to change that.
She stands on the edge as her father puts his arms across her shoulder. As father and daughter stand there he can't know the conflicting thoughts running through the Latino woman's mind. Coming back in time, meeting her father, saving her mother…if she has accomplished all she came back to do then that raises one very obvious question. Has the time come for her to go back to the future?
Author's Note: I decided to essentially skip over Beacon. Yes, I could have had Mia meet Conner before he was really Conner but in all honesty the more I thought about it the more I felt like that the events of that episode should be left alone. Clark needs to discover the truth over his and Lex's lovechild for himself without Mia telling him. Besides it plays into this idea that Mia is hiding away, afraid she's now screwing up the future beyond what she intended to do. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews.