Bruce was used to being the grimmest presence in the Tower. Now, the whole place was charged with grim. They hadn't even needed to contact each other. The news had spread like wildfire.
In fact, he was probably going to be the last one here. It had been difficult to get away from the carnage of the gala, and he had needed to stop at the Manor. He did not want to attend this particular meeting in his tux. The uniform that made him feel helpless.
Yet the halls were quiet, there was no one in sight, and he did not bother to diminish the echo of his footsteps. Normally, it would please him. Get in, get out, get back to Gotham.
Perhaps the others were reluctant to leave their cities now as well. Unsure of if or when the Kryptonians would strike, and it was odd, to use 'Kryptonians' in reference to the living. That there were actually multiple, living Kryptonians.
Only J'onn and Diana were there, when he got to the meeting hall. He was late to the party. J'onn, somehow more somber than usual, and Diana with a look of barely contained condemnation that went beyond ideals. This was personal. This Zod had made a fool of her.
Had made a fool of them all. And Bruce needed to confirm to just what extend he had done so, and wasted as little time as possible doing so.
"Talk to me. Does he know the rest of our identities?"
"Yes. All of us." Diana said, voice cold, eyes of steel.
It was the worst case scenario, but what Bruce had prepared himself for on the way here. He'd found out Clark's, after all. And if he knew all that, Zod almost certainly knew of he and Clark's current relationship, but first things first, as J'onn supplied further information, voice reserved. More than usual.
"No further sightings. Everyone is on look-out. We haven't managed to find their location."
"They could be off-world." Bruce added, perhaps unnecessarily, considering who he was talking to.
"Yes, they could be. It's what I would do, if I wanted no disruptions." J'onn replied.
"That's what you think he wants?" Bruce questioned.
"I cannot say for sure. Only that there have been no other attacks. If he is trying to conquer, this is a strange way to go about it."
"The woman with him, Ursa, she called him 'General.' That, and from what I witnessed from him… he is more than capable of it. I agree with J'onn. I don't think he is launching on attack. Though his actions at the gala show he is not opposed to lethal force." Diana joined in.
"What about Clark's other villains?" Bruce asked.
"...You think he's going after them too?" Diana furthered.
"I think he's already gone after them." Bruce predicted bleakly.
He'd been running through that dreadfully long and dreadfully short minute over and over again. Why had Zod done it the way had. He could have killed Lex any time. Why do it publicly? To send a message to Superman's other enemies? That he was coming for them?
That was something the Joker or the Riddler might enjoy. They thought of their crimes as fun, as a game. They enjoyed leaving insane clues for him to ponder. This Zod, however was deadly serious, but also economical. He had wasted nothing.
He had three goals. To reveal himself, to reveal Superman, and to kill Lex. He had accomplished them all succinctly and effectively.
Bruce could only conclude, that though there was an element, of frightening the masses with that execution, the main witness of that murder was meant to be Clark. But also, oddly, to protect him. For if Lex had gone mysteriously missing, of course Superman would be under suspicion. There were few others who had as much motive as he did.
Zod proved Superman's innocence by making him watch.
Also proving to everyone there were some events, even Superman couldn't save them from. For as much as everyone wondered who Superman was, where he had come from, to finally find out was not exhilarating to the crowd. There was a shared, if not discussed understanding, that that was necessary, for him to do what he did, and now that he was revealed, they'd lost Superman as they'd known him. There was a shared revulsion, that Bruce felt more personally than most, that they were witnessing something inherently wrong, that as much as people debated the rightness and wrongness of what Superman did, the thought of life without him was more dreadful than they had imagined.
Bruce was often grateful that most criminals he dealt with were not particularly clever.
Zod was not one of those criminals. He was brutal and ruthless, not in a psychotic way, he was not inflicting harm for the enjoyment of it, though his companion, Ursa did. Bruce could tell, the mad gleam in her eye as she'd carried out his command.
Zod did what he felt needed to be done. And the truth that so terrified Bruce, that made his principles ripple and wane, was that the targets of his killings were not anyone Bruce would lose sleep over.
But that did not make him right.
Because even he could not deny, that despite being a terrible man, Lex Luthor had been dealt a terrible cruelty in that death. That sometimes, in the darkest corners of one's mind, one thinks that is what they want. That that will make things right. Balance the scales.
And in someways it does, but in many more important ways it doesn't. That to meet an act of violence with another, only creates two acts of violence. It does not bring peace.
Peace was an elusive concept however, and sometimes it was easier to settle for the quick gratification of violence and vengeance.
And he looked to Diana, for though they so often disagreed on this, they were colleagues, comrades, he valued her opinion, and he needed to know where she stood, with their previous discussion about Lex hanging heavy between them, but she looked him right in the eye, something not many made a habit of doing, and slowly shook her head, and he slowly let out a sigh of relief, that she did not condone this, and she spoke confirming this.
"What he did to Luthor was inhumane, but in my eyes what he did to Clark was worse. You didn't see the look on his face, Bruce." Diana said in dismay.
"What did he do to Clark?" Bruce needed to keep them separate, the Clark that was Superman, that was his colleague, his ally, from the Clark that wanted to wake and go to sleep together, to dine together. The Clark who reached for his hand in celebration of a job well done, from the Clark who reached for his hand in impossibly intimate situations.
He needed to keep his feelings at bay.
He needed information. Information that Diana was most capable and most willing to give, judging by the obvious dismay on her face, still fresh in the retelling of it. From hours prior that felt like days.
"He approached us in the crowd. Proceeded to immediately reveal he was Kryptonian. That he knew who I was. That he knew who you were. Even that he knew who Selina was, along with the entire Justice League. That he would reveal all of our identities if I tried to stop him.
"And I know you think Clark is soft, and you know Bruce, that sometimes so do I. He isn't a warrior, in the way you and I are. But the way he froze, it was unlike him. So in regards to the theories, of possible magic? That caused Clark to collapse? I think there's something to it."
"Are you sure?" Bruce challenged.
"As sure as I can be. Magic is not my specialty, but also, it fits what we know about him. I cannot imagine him relying solely on his first plan, his blackmail, as his only means of neutralizing me. If I had engaged him in combat, I doubt he would have been unprepared. Regardless of if his powers truly match Clark's or not."
"It could have been some form of telepathy," J'onn offered. "Or empathic power. The possibility occurred to me, but I quickly discounted it, because Clark's mind is extremely difficult to penetrate, even with his consent. Another of his gifts. Magic seemed the more likely culprit. Knowing now the assailant is Kryptonian, this is not outside the realm of possibility. We have a tremendously poor understanding of Clark's powers to begin with. Zod may have discovered some latent ability that Clark did not realize he possessed. Or perhaps there is some variety, in the powers each Kryptonian would gain under a yellow sun. Though may I offer, not an opposing theory, but a parallel one?"
"Of course." Diana encouraged with a nod.
"First, a personal question, for context. You believe me to be calm?"
"One of the calmest I've ever met." Diana affirmed.
"Certainly the calmest in the League." Bruce conceded.
"This calm of mine is hard won. There are days when I wake, or am going to sleep, or to meditate, that Mars comes to my mind, as it inevitably does, and its destruction still burns me. I believe you, when you say something else was involved, but believe me, when I say, if I had two Martians approach me, I could not guarantee my actions. Only hope they meant no harm, because the lure of them would be so great, and in my yearning for them, I am not positive I could tell the difference.
"I have often envied Clark. He looks human. It is easy, even for me, to sometimes believe he is. That is why I sometimes refer to him as Kal. To remind myself. And to remind him. That I acknowledge the burden he carries, because I know it as my own.
"Do not think him weak, for faltering, even if there had been no other influence on him. The longing for home haunts us all… Diana, do you think it likely Zod would resort to violence with him?"
"Not unless Clark outright challenged him. He seemed… fond of him, in some way, but he sees himself as the leader, and Clark the follower, make no mistake of that."
"I will keep trying to contact Clark, but we cannot cover the entire solar system in a search. I imagine we will have to wait for him to return to us. More specifically, we will have to wait for Zod to let him return to us."
"You think he will?" Bruce wanted to know.
"...I do. He has not directly attacked us, or made any effort to antagonize us, besides revealing he knows our identities, which he has currently not revealed. Apart from Clark's, of course. He knows we would see Clark's disappearance as hostile, if he were to be gone too long, and in his public display of flying off with him, he let us know Clark is with him currently. If he were intending to hold him against his will, why let us know it was he who took him? No, I believe at this stage, he just wants to talk, in a place where they will not be disturbed."
"So if Clark returns on his own, it will prove your theory." Bruce elaborated.
"We'll know soon enough then."" Diana closed.
J'onn let out an uncharacteristic sigh, with a nod of agreement, only adding. "In the meantime, I can only hope Clark uses his considerable affability wisely."
"Make friends, not enemies?" Bruce rephrased.
"He let Luthor live this long. I am sure he can handle a conversation with this Zod. What I fear more though, is if Zod truly has some telepathic ability, what if the Clark that comes back to us is not the same one who left us?" Diana postulated.
"Then we will deal with it when it comes." J'onn concluded.
Bruce knew he would find no satisfactory answers at this meeting, but he retraced his steps, back through the still empty halls in a worse mood than when he'd first walked them. Taking to the sky in the jet eased his thoughts somewhat, but when it came time to retire, he could no longer separate his personal feelings from the matter, not looking at the bed Clark had been occupying with him, that Bruce could still see him posing on, bashful and burned into his memory, who in one fell swoop had lost his life as he'd known it, and it made Bruce do something he rarely did, pray to a god he had a tenuous relationship with at best.
"Bring him back to me."
So they could rebuild, he kept to himself.