The older Jonathan looked over to the holographic image of his grandmother, he learned to love, to respect and look up to over the past years, while they trained together and researched for a way to safe humanity from his brother's selfishness and his superior behavior.
Lara kept a close eye on him while he was talking. By scanning his brainwaves and his mimic she always knew when he was telling the truth and when he was lying.
"Most of what you told us was the truth!" Lara said. "But at some points you were not honest!"
"I know you can't be tricked when the speaking person is under your scanning field!" the older Jonathan said with a smile. "Yes, I admit the book about my mother was just to tease her. And it were just around 241 million fatalities. The one hundred million more will definitely come as soon as those nuclear missiles explode. But everything else was mostly true. Grandmother, I know my story sounds odd to you, but I have good intensions. I am not the bad guy in this story. And my experience taught me that I need to take extreme measures when my family is involved."
According to his brainwaves and his mimic, Lara saw that he was right.
"I believe you!" she said warmly and nodded. "This barn-scene was absolutely unacceptable…"
If there was any chance to fulfill the plan, then it was now, Jonathan thought. As much as it hurt him to let his younger self be hurt, he needed him now. The first plan was a fail, thanks to the earlier arrival of his mother at home. But they will help him. No matter if they want or not.
Lara meanwhile let a holographic image appear in front of them. It was like a TV screen and the program was a direct view on Jonathan's younger self and his family, standing outside and having a hot discussion…
The younger Jonathan was ashamed. Because things got revealed he successfully denied and repressed over the past few years. Things he always thought but never dared to speak out loudly, because his parents taught him to keep everything for himself as his brother was always more important.
Of course, the current situation was not easy for him, too. There was this adult version of himself, that told them terrible things. Like the disastrous seminar, that luckily got saved by his appearance. But also that everything he always hoped that it will become better one day will even get worse, or that his greatest fears were legit. Like his grandfather and his true intensions. Sure he always had that suspicion. But he was not so mean to tell his brother directly into the face that his father and grandfather only spend time with him because of his powers and that they would ignore and neglect him as much as they do it with Jonathan if Jordan wouldn't have them.
There were also a lot of occasions when he really wished, his brother was powerless, too. Or that his father was not Superman. For example, when Jordan cheated to get in the football team and ruined his chance to prove himself. Or when he broke his arm. Or every time, a family-member or a Smallville-townie openly showed him that he is useless without powers. Or when they punished him instead of Jordan when latter abused his powers.
Those were also moments when Jonathan wished, that he had powers, too. To be able to defend himself. Not to be forced to hide behind his brother, like they do it all time. To be able to fight back, whenever he gets attacked. To get the same respect from his family that Jordan gets…
Ever since the secret training and Sam's lies, Jonathan kept himself at distance from the General, too. Because he knew that everything his grandfather did, was only for the DOD. The suit he gave to Jordan, was just one more prove that all the past fishing-trips were just a task for him. Of course he was shocked when he heard what happened to Sam. But he also felt not as bad for him as he should normally. His first thought was that he could use the chance and burn that ugly suit. Jonathan was never happy about the suit. Not only it looked awful and scary, it was more a suit for a villain who has to hide his face.
Jonathan spoke out most of this loudly while walking up and down on the edge of the fortress, with an expression as if he wants to jump into the water to either drown himself in the cold water below, or just swim away to escape. His family was shocked to hear all this terrible things, their son and brother always kept for himself. And that Jonathan was not the always easy child, that always agrees and never complains. They only raised him to be like that and now they had to deal with the consequences!
"Why did you never tell us, how much you are struggling?" Clark asked shocked.
"Because every time I tried to talk to you, you appeased me with empty promises and changed the topic. Telling me to be patient and that everything will calm down or become better sooner or later. Instead I feel as if it just get worse. I tried! I really tried it! To help you and because I thought I could have something from it, too. Instead I got only pushed around. No surprise that I will leave. And hearing that all from my future self makes me even more upset. I guess you wouldn't even brought me here if my future self hadn't insisted on it. I would sit alone at the farm and you would had scolded me for what he did."
Jonathan was trembling. He was visibly upset and Clark could hear his heartbeat being accelerated and the blood running through his veins faster than it was healthy for any normal human.
"Jonathan, I am so sorry! I know I wasn't the father you needed and you were forced to experience things, that nobody should!" Clark said.
"You mean when he broke my arm or I almost got killed multiple times? By him, by your brother, or by my Kryptonian inverse doppelganger? And you really dare to ask me why I say that nothing good comes from Krypton?!" Jonathan moaned before he turned around to look out on the quiet sea.
The sun that was shivering beautifully in the water. It was no wind, and the sea was surprisingly calm. No stormy waves, no icy breeze. Perfect beach weather, Jonathan thought. He actually liked the new fortress, because it was nice and quiet. The sound of the waves and the ocean around them had this calming effect on him. When he closed his eyes and just focused on this beautiful sound, he felt better.
If they had a suitable place here, they could place some deck-chairs, a ton of sand and they would have their own private beach. But he was not in mood to enjoy it. Or think about sunbathing. With his family standing right behind him, it was impossible to relax. Thousands of questions and thoughts shoot through his mind. And suddenly he felt his brother's hand on his right arm…
"I am…" Jordan began, still upset about his brother's offensive words about his suit and demanding an apology. But Jonathan shied away, turned around with a loud scream and used his left hand to slap away his brother's hand violently while hiding his right arm behind his back again. Jordan was shocked and scared because it really hurt. "…OUWCH…"
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Jonathan yelled and went a step backwards again. He was only an inch away from the edge and would fall directly into the water if me moves further.
"Calm down! Both of you!" Lois yelled now before turning back to Jonathan. "Please!"
Jonathan looked down on the ground before coming a few inches closer to them and away from the edge. But his arms still hidden behind his back.
"What now?" Jonathan asked upset. "Do you expect me to forget everything what happened here, or do you want me to convince my future self to give Jordan his powers back?"
"We just want you to calm down!" Clark said. "And you Jordan, apologize to your brother and then to your grandmother for your behavior!"
"Okay… fine!" Jordan moaned reluctantly.
"Sounds very friendly!" Jonathan said sarcastically.
"Hey, do you have any idea what I am forced to go through now? I don't have powers anymore. I am struck on the farm now! I can't go anywhere."
"Learn how to drive!" Jonathan respond quickly.
"But…" Jordan wanted to reject but suddenly he realized that he was offending his brother again.
"But, what? Is driving only for humans?" Jonathan moaned. "Wasn't it you, who made fun about my eagerness to get my driver's license? Who said to me that I am only good to take coffee-orders? Who called me a cheat, for taking X-K as we know that you were actually the bigger cheat? You know what: Use this current situation! Because unlike you, I had to learn the hard way that you can't solve all of your problems by powers. That there a certain things where heat-vision and super-speed don't help! And that's your problem! You think that you can do everything and deserve everything just because of your powers. You think the whole world is only about you and that you are not more than your powers. But you were once so much more. Think about it and maybe you see that there is a world beyond your powers. At least you got support after our move! I was always all alone."
A tear ran down his face, while Jonathan turned away again. Jordan thought about his brother's words and start to think about everything. Was it true: Was he limiting himself only on his powers?
"Jonathan, we are so sorry that you got the feeling that you are alone!" Clark said. The story of the older Jonathan still ringing in his ears. "I know I should have included you in everything more. I should had been more around and listening better to you."
"Me, too!" Lois said. "If I had kept my promises, too you would had it easier after our move to Smallville."
"You came home earlier!" Jonathan realized. "That's how you prevented my future self from taking his powers for good!"
Lois thought about it. "You are right! I came home earlier…"
"What happened, Mom?" Jonathan asked, looking his mother directly into the eyes. "You rejected the offer, didn't you? For what? To stay in Smallville, even if you holding yourself back there, too?"
"Where do you know about the offer?" Lois asked shocked and turned red.
"When you don't want me to listen to your calls, you should close the window and not yell loud enough for the whole town to hear." Jonathan moaned, remembering how he heard everything through the open window of her office, while he was outside on the porch, learning for school.
"So, you know everything?"
"Yes, and as I know that you came earlier it just means that you rejected!" Jonathan concluded.
"Woah… wait wait wait…" Clark was wondered now. "What offer? Lois? What did you do?"
"Nothing!" Lois blushed and lowered his head in shame. "I… ehm… I wanted to tell you tonight to discuss it with you! And, Jonathan I didn't reject it. I asked for some time to think about it!"
"Will my future self confirm that?" Jonathan moaned.
"WHAT?" Clark got impatient. "Lois, what? Are you in trouble? Is it Luthor?"
"No, Clark!" Lois said and took her hands to hold Clark's. "I am fine! It isn't Luthor! It is… A couple of months after the Eradicator crisis, the Daily Planet asked me to return. As deputy Chief-Editor!"
"I know! You told me that! But it was a bad timing, with Natalie and your sister and everything else." Clark remembered.
"Well, over the past years, they came up with that offer again. Better payment, insurance, a own car, own parking-lot, and a lot of more things, we both could had only dreamt of when we worked there." Lois said.
"And you prefer to stay in Smallville, despite you can't do there what you would love to do!" Jonathan moaned.
"I wanted to discuss that with your father, before!" Lois intervened.
"Lois, tell me what's going on!" Clark said calmly. "I won't be mad or upset. Please just talk to me!"
Lois sighed and start to tell her family about the generous job-offer from the Daily Planet…
Inside the fortress, the older Jonathan and Lara listened, too.
"And this is the reason I came to this day, too!" the older Jonathan told to Lara. "Jordan being powerless would had taken them the main reason to stay at this awful town, without future and perspectives."
"Smallville seems to be an awful place! How did my son survive there?" Lara asked.
"Well… I believe him that it was once a good place. But these times are long over! I have seen the future; I know that this place is destined to fail!" the older Jonathan told. "Believe me… when Smallville is mentioned, it means nothing good…"
Meanwhile in Smallville…
Sarah had no time to scream, to call for help or to react in any other way when suddenly this bright white light appeared on the farm and a person stepped out…
Sarah should have been used to the fact that having Superman and his family means that weird things happen on this place. This was a place where literally a spaceship crashed that was hidden under the barn. Where superpowered individuals trained their powers. And not to forget the whole X-K in the mines and the trouble that it brought over the town.
When her father called her to ask her to check Jonathan on the farm she wondered what happened this time. Maybe it was not anything bad and just false alarm. Since the barn burned down and Lex Luthor was walking around freely, they had been all warned to be aware more. To be careful and most of all don't trust any foreigners. After what happened to General Lane it was clearly why!
But it was still a huge shock, when this 'whatever' opened and this man stepped out…
Tall, broad, muscular… a black skin-tight suit with red boots, and a red Superman-crest on his chest. No cape, but a red belt and his head covered. It almost looked like Jordan's Superboy-suit. Just with some upgrades! But it still looked awful. Sarah never dared to speak out loudly that she didn't really like Jordan's suit (believing it is too dark), but she didn't want to hurt his feelings.
The man didn't notice her at first. His eyes where just fixed on the construction site of the barn…
"This time…?!" he murmured with a deep but familiar voice.
Sarah had to gasp. That was the moment the unknown person noticed her presence and turned around to look at her. The face was uncovered. And Sarah gasped in shock again, when she immediately recognized the man in front of her as Jordan. Just about 10 to 15 years older…
"Sarah?" the older Jordan asked surprised and with big eyes.
"Jordan? Is that you?"
Jordan didn't answer to that. He just speeded towards her with Superspeed to hug her. Sarah shrieked when she felt that strong and tight hug that she knew will leave bruises on her arms. But the older Jordan seemed to be too happy that he didn't notice that his hug was a bit too strong.
"AGHHH… BE CAREFUL…" Sarah yelled shocked.
"Sorry, I am just so happy to see you again!" the older Jordan said and let off. "You are so young again."
"EHM… Thanks! And you look so… old…!" Sarah was surprised about her words. But it was true: this is an elder Jordan!
"Which date is today?"
"What? Are you… are you from the future?" Sarah was astonished.
Considering that this was an older Jordan and after everything she knew about the Kents, she should not be surprised about time-travelling.
"What day?"
"EHM…" Sarah was still confused, but she told him today's date while looking on her smartphone for the time. "…Tuesday, the 3rd… 3:44 p.m."
"What happened here?"
"I don't know! When I came here I found these damages." Sarah said.
The elder Jordan looked around again and remembered what 'happened'. Or at least what was supposed to happen.
"This egoistic Bastard! That was so clear that he choose this day to come back to, to destroy everything."
"WHO? Is it true? Are you really from the future?" Sarah asked astonished.
But before she could even start to think about how cool the Kryptonian technology must be that it makes them possible to travel back in time and about all the possible dates she would go back, the elder Jordan used his superspeed to move around the area.
Sarah couldn't see what he did. But it looked like he was searching something or someone.
"Where is he?"
"Who?" Sarah asked again.
"My stupid brother! Where is he?"
"Jonathan? Hey this is not very kind of you!"
"Where is this jealous Brat! He will destroy the whole future!"
"Wait, your brother came back in time, too?"
"What did he try?"
"I don't know it! How many times I need to repeat that?!" Sarah became more nervous. "My dad called me after Jonathan left the seminar rushed to look if he is okay! And when I came here, nobody was here."
The older Jordan looked around again. His brother's truck, he knew he won't have in near future anymore, stood on it's usual spot. He guessed that his brother forced their pasts parents to bring him to the fortress, too.
"Sarah, something terrible will happen. The future is in peril. Do you have something to write?"
Sarah was nervous and upset and searched her pockets. She was not someone who always had a pen and a notepad with her. Everything she had was her phone.
"Just this…" Sarah began and lift her phone before the adult Jordan snapped it with Superspeed out of her hands to type something on her 'notes-app'. "…HEY…"
"Go to the phone booth in town next to the diner. The left one! And call this number…" the adult Jordan said and presented her what he wrote on her phone. "…wait for the woman to pick up and say what I wrote here before she responds. It's important. Don't say your name and don't say anything else than this."
"What is this?" Sarah asked and start to read the text.
"It is really important. Lives depend on it. Yours, mine… My brother already changed the future for worse. We have to prevent that any worse happens. Just do it!"
And with that, the adult Jordan shot up in the air like a rocket and vanished between the clouds…
Sarah looked after him briefly before looking on the message she was supposed to call to someone. With a phone-number, that had a prefix from Metropolis. She had questions and reservations. She couldn't imagine Jonathan to come back in time to destroy the future. Otherwise why else should Jordan travel back in time?
The voice in her head said 'Do it' while she rushed to her mother's car to go to mentioned phone booth in town. But it also said 'no…that's a bad idea'!
At the fortress…
Lois just finished how the Daily Planet tries to convince her to return for almost two years now! A ridiculously high payment, grants and benefits that were more than unfair towards the other employees and even support for the inevitable move back to Metropolis, Jonathan would have agreed without hesitation.
Lois knew she wanted this job ever since she began working at the Daily Planet. It was a job she could reach something. Much more then with her current work at the Gazette, that would run bankrupt in one to two years if they lose more readers. And the Planet offered to acquire and financially support the Gazette, if Lois agrees. Chrissy, pregnant and going to be a mother with a child she has to feed, would profit from it, too.
But Lois knew how much Clark loved the farm and would not like the thought about moving back. Unlike Jonathan…
"Seriously, why we are even still in Smallville?" Jonathan asked.
Clark became pale. He knew a lot of arguments, but he also knew that Jonathan would be able to counter them all thanks to what his future self said.
"Really, you told me it was to spend more time with us but in truth it was only to train Jordan. He is trained now and you let me wait too often to let me believe that you really want to spent time with me, too! The town is dying and everyone you once knew and called a friend has moved away. Coach Gaines and some others still try to scapegoat me and ruin all my attempts to gain the trust of the people back. Mom is not able to do what she used to do all the time in Metropolis and is working far beyond that what she is capable of. You are not even farming the land. You spend 24/7 as Jordan's trainer or being Superman instead of showing him that there are things beyond the powers. But what should I say? In Smallville and especially in this family, you need either powers, or have to take X-K to reach something."
A tear ran down Jonathan's face again and he looked out on the see again. Oh it looks so beautiful today. Clark wanted to say something but Jonathan continued before his father could even start.
"Everyone there made it clear that I don't belong there, even before I began taking that devils-stuff! And think about what I said about your beloved Smallville. Nearly everyone there would do everything to live somewhere else. And they are speechless about your naivety and about your decision to move on the farm. And I am sure if grandma and grandpa Kent would see how you not farm the land, they would spin in their graves. You know, I could destroy Smallville if I want! Not with powers, but with a single call! Because that place is a dead end!" Jonathan finished his rant.
Clark's heart dropped and his face turned as white as chalk after Jonathan finished and passed them to get inside again. He had some questions to his future self.
"Ehm… Jon…" Jordan began but his mother cut him off.
"Jordan, give your brother a moment! Everything was just a bit… much!" Lois wailed.
"Lois, when did you want to tell me about… aghh…" Clark remembered that he asked that question already and looked after Jonathan who stepped through the entrance that closed immediately behind him to prevent any of them entering the fortress, too. "…Jonathan?"
Suddenly Lara's holographic head appeared on the closed door. "Kal, I want to talk to your son Jonathan alone now. I told you everything regarding Jordan's condition."
After she vanished, Clark sighed and prepared to fly Lois and Jordan back to Smallville while waiting for Jonathan to come out again. Jordan complained…
"Jordan, we are done here. You get your powers back in a few weeks! And for now, we go home. I fear after everything what got revealed today, we two are not allowed here for a very long time anyway!" Clark said and left.
Inside, Jonathan walked over to his future self to see that the forcefield around him was gone and he could walk around freely again. Lara looked at him encouragingly and was happy to see him. Apologizing to him again for all the bad things he experienced. Jonathan was glad that at least she was on his side and then looked over to his future self again.
"You want to ask me something! I know my curious face!" he said.
"Sure… but I fear to change the future too much!"
"You don't want to see the future, like it is now, believe me! Believe yourself!"
"When you say it!" Jonathan said and took a deep breath before asking his questions. "The book about mom was a lie to tease her, wasn't it?"
"Yes!" his older self said. "I know I shouldn't have done that so shortly after her cancer treatment. But I knew it would help! For that I can confirm that the cancer won't return!"
"That's great… It's Coach Gaines, we want to sue, right?"
"Yes! There are documents in his desk that prove his own crimes! Don't tell our father! He would ruin it. That was so embarrassing? After that even the judge said we are better without our dad!"
"And we really have powers?"
"We were supposed to have them all the time! No broken arms and no trouble! If our dear father wouldn't have been so…you know…"
"Wow! I had really luck with being born into this family!" Jonathan said sarcastically.
"But you know what… we will… ehm… we are able to fly much better than Jordan." His older self said.
"REALLY?"
"Really! And our father didn't get the chance to brag about how he taught us that!"
"Finally something nice!" Jonathan said satisfied. That will be his revenge for the barn-scene. "Okay… ehm… our fiancée… don't tell me a name so I am surprised… Just tell me… him or her?"
The older Jonathan smiled and was just about to say it, when he suddenly heard a loud boom in the distance and was distracted…
"OH NO!"
"What?" Lara and his younger self asked simultaneously.
"He is here!"