Smallville/Torchwood - fic - Our Last Hope, PG (Chapters 4-5 & Epilogue)
Our Last Hope, continued from http://laurab1.livejournal.com/192931.html
Chapter 4 - Starman
There's a starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds
In Cardiff, it was late, and Peter and Jack were the only two people left in the Hub. Peter was reading the headline story on the Smallville Torch’s website. Over the past couple of months, he’d discovered that Smallville had suffered a horrific meteor shower back in 1989. Since then, there had been a huge number of strange occurrences, some blamed on LuthorCorp, the town’s main employer, and some blamed on the meteors, with the green and red crystals. Now, one of the symbols from the cave was scorched over the side of the barn belonging to a Jonathan and Martha Kent. “Jack,” he called, “come and see this.”
“What have you got, Peter?” Jack said, walking over.
“This.” He indicated the picture. “We found the same symbol -"
“- in the cave,” Jack finished. “Yeah. I couldn’t quite make out what it was at the time, but I know exactly what that symbol means. It’s ‘hope’ - they used it in the same way you people use the cross, the crescent moon, the star of David. Combined.”
“Sounds like a big deal.”
“It was a very big deal.”
Peter sighed. “Jack, this is new, and it isn’t a crop circle thing or a prank. This was deliberate, it means something. I don’t know if it gets us any further in translating the message, though.” He then noticed Jack apparently had a confession to make.
“Yeah, I know, Peter. However, I may have something that’ll help,” he admitted. “I found some names in my wristband, back when we first got the message - Marcus Ventra, and Krypton, both in Kryptonian.”
‘And were you ever planning on telling us any of that, Jack?’ Peter asked silently.
Then a rather bizarre idea went through his mind, and he laughed. “So, we’re going to play Hangman, then, to try to actually get somewhere with translating the Kryptonian?”
Jack was smiling wickedly. It seemed he’d had just the same thought. “Yep. Unless you have a better idea?”
“No, I don’t. It’s not terribly scientific, though.”
“Peter. Has that ever stopped us before?”
“Hardly.”
“Exactly. C’mon, then. Let’s go.”
Rolling his eyes, Peter got the picture of the message up on his screen, and sent two copies to Jack’s LaserWriter. They both went into Jack’s office.
“Our message is in letters. But they did have a another variant of their language, where symbols represented a whole word or concept. This one, the diamond and the square, with the dot, that’s a sound similar to your letter ‘M’,” Jack said, handing him a sheet.
The separation thing still bothered Peter, like Jack didn’t count himself as human. But with all the other things that were a little weird about their captain, he suspected there was more to it than just that.
They went through the rest of the letters they had. Peter’s ideas about which symbols could be equivalents to vowels were proved right, which was rather gratifying. “Now what do we do with all this? And why does it seem to be in English?” he asked, about midnight.
“You go home and get some sleep. Thanks for staying so late. I don’t want to see you until noon, tomorrow.”
Peter left Jack’s office, but as he was packing up, he heard Jack make a phone call.
“Siobhan, it’s Jack.”
Anticipating the yelling, Peter left the Hub.
***
Peter was right, this burnt symbol was new. This had happened today.
A dozen scenarios went through Jack’s mind, and he had a sneaking suspicion he hadn’t been told everything he should have been, all those years ago. He called Siobhan, and announced himself.
”It’s midnight, Jack. You woke me up, you bastard. Why the hell are you calling me this late at night?”
“Well, maybe you should have thought that this might happen, before you gave me your home number. Was there anything you deliberately or ‘accidentally’ forgot to tell me, Siobhan, thirteen years ago?”
Jack heard her sigh, and she was silent for a couple of minutes. “Siobhan?” he asked, a little more gently.
”There was a ship, Jack. And the meteors, of course, which I’m sure you know about. We calculated the ship’s trajectory, and organised our moles in the FBI to collect it from the expected crash site. But when they got to the site, there was nothing, like someone had already taken it away. Seems to be par for the course, with those two.”
“What size was this ship?”
”We thought it was just big enough to hold a baby, maybe a toddler.”
“Thank you. I’ll let you get back to sleep, now.”
”Thank you. I didn’t tell you any of this, of course.”
“Yeah. ‘Night, Siobhan.”
”Good night, Jack.”
They hung up on each other. Just one scenario was now in Jack’s mind, but some research was clearly in order. Fifty first century computer systems and their security may have eluded him on very rare occasions, but twenty first century systems were a piece of cake.
***
Twenty minutes later, Jack had a whole load of information.
There were all the strange occurrences in Smallville since 1989. There was an organisation called Metropolis United Charities and its one single adoption. Thirdly, there was the homepage of the Smallville Torch, complete with exactly where the ‘hope’ symbol was.
Jack’s supposition was:
1. Jonathan and Martha Kent had been harbouring an alien for over thirteen years.
2. This alien was their son, Clark Kent (always in the right place at the right time), or whatever his birth name was. His Kryptonian name.
3. They might need to bring this alien in. After all, the Torchwood motto was, “If it’s alien, it’s ours.”
Whatever else they did, they needed to pass the message on. Yes, it was only half translated, but no doubt the boy would be able to fill in the blanks. With all that in mind, Jack emailed the Torch.
***
Chloe was in the Torch office, answering emails, when Clark appeared.
“I'd like to thank you for turning our farm into Area 51. We needed a couple of sheriff deputies to keep all the wackos away.”
Oh, he was mad. “Sorry, Clark. You have to admit, it is really intriguing,” she said, trying to placate him.
“It's probably just a K.U. frat prank.”
‘Yeah, right. You don’t believe that anymore than I do, Clark,’ Chloe thought. “Or could it be that aliens think crop circles are passé so they've moved onto barn scorching? Come on, Clark, this is Smallville. I mean, you have to consider the possibility.”
“I'll let it go if you forgive Lana for what she did,” he said, sighing.
So he was playing that card, then? The one that never worked. Chloe rolled her eyes. As much as she loved him, Clark could be such an idiot, sometimes. “Why didn't I see this coming? Did she tell you what she was doing on my computer?”
“No, but she did tell me she was very sorry for what she did. I can't believe --"
She cut him off, saying, “You know what, Clark? This is one time you don't need to come to Lana's rescue.” Suddenly, Chloe’s computer started beeping at her, rather frantically. They both looked at the monitor, argument pushed aside, for the moment. There was a huge list of emails in Outlook. “Hello... what's this?”
“Someone spammed your email account.”
“Yeah, but they're all for you. From...Torchwood?”
“Never heard of them.”
Chloe opened one of the emails. There was a drawing of the symbol she’d snapped, and the word, 'hope’. The main text of the message was, "I have something for you."
Chloe looked at Clark, but she couldn’t read him.
“I need to call...someone,” he said, scribbling something down, before doing his usual disappearing act.
“Well, let’s do some investigating, then. Who are you, Torchwood?” Chloe asked, tapping away at her keyboard.
***
Clark ran back to Lex’s mansion at almost human pace. He did not want to tell his parents just yet. “Someone else can read the cave symbols,” he said, re-entering the study.
At his desk, Lex swore, incredibly creatively. “Do you know they are, Clark?”
“Some British organisation called Torchwood. Chloe got a load of emails from them at the Torch, saying they had information for me. I think I want to contact them, but I have no idea who they are, Lex. What if...?” He couldn’t finish the sentence, and broke off with a slight sob.
Lex rose from his chair. He came round to Clark, took him by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. “I will never let that happen. Never. Okay?”
Clark nodded at him, still not trusting his voice. He let Lex go back to his desk, and took a seat opposite him.
“Knowing Miss Sullivan, she’s been investigating since you left,” Lex said. “Why don’t we call her, and see what she’s got?”
Getting out his cell phone, Clark speed-dialled Chloe. She picked up; he placed the phone on loudspeaker and handed it to Lex.
"Chloe, it’s Lex. Clark’s here with me.” Then he was all business. ”Who the hell are these Torchwood people?”
From Lex’s tone of voice, Clark could also hear the unasked question, Just how worried do we need to be?
"I'm still working on it, Lex. Torchwood was founded by Queen Victoria in 1879, for the purposes of using stolen or abandoned alien technology for the benefit of the British Empire, and catching some guy called the Doctor. There was some kind of horrific attack on Torchwood House, during a stopover on the way to Balmoral, which prompted her to establish the organisation. That's pretty much all I've been able to find.”
“Okay. Thanks, Chloe. Clear your history and delete the emails, please,” Lex said, ending the call and handing back the phone. “Let’s see what they’ve got to say, Clark.”
“And set your lawyers on them, if necessary?” Clark said, looking straight at his friend.
“Of course.”
Something he'd once read about sharks came to mind, as Clark pulled out the piece of paper he’d just scribbled on, unfolding it to reveal a generic Torchwood email address, torchwood3@torchwood.org.uk. Recognising the laptop as Lex’s personal one, and knowing it was safe from Lionel, Clark asked Lex to swivel it around.
Lex joined him on the other side of the desk, as he loaded up Outlook and began typing: “I got your message. What do you have for me?” Clark was ready to send the email, but he then became concerned, and hesitated for a couple of minutes.
"What's wrong?” Lex eventually asked.
“What if my parents are right?”
“Then we can just pull the plug on this whole thing, and you don’t send that email.”
Clark could see that Lex was going to close the program, and stopped him. “No, Lex. I need to know.”
He sent the email, and couple of seconds later, a box appeared on the screen, saying, “The user 'jharkness’ has sent you an instant message. Do you wish to accept it?” Clark opened the message, which said, “If you can read this we have the answers you're looking for.” Under the message, there were several symbols like the ones he could now see in his mind.
“What's that, Clark? I assume you can read it.”
“It says ‘Krypton’, but it’s backwards, for some reason.”
And then the land line phone rang. Lex picked it up, announcing himself.
The caller said something. “Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood...That was quick,” Lex replied. “Captain, I think whatever you have for Clark should be discussed face to face. How soon can you get to Kansas?”
***
Jack closing the messenger program and hung up on Lex Luthor and Clark Kent (tracing everything about a person, from their computer, was so incredibly easy). He then retrieved the documents that would allow him and Peter through the VIP gate at the airports from the safe. Finally, he called Torchwood Five, otherwise known as the secure hangar at Heathrow’s Terminal Four which housed the Institute’s own personal Concorde.
Codewords were first exchanged. “This is Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood Three. I need that beautiful plane of ours, please.”
”I’ll get her ready for you, sir, and organise a pilot,” the nightwatchman said.
Jack had supervised the purchase of the aeroplane, back in 1969. She was partly fitted out as a laboratory, with enough toys derived from alien tech to make James Bond very jealous indeed.
“Thank you.”
”Thank you, sir. Goodbye.”
Jack went to his quarters, to relax for few hours. The next day, when Peter arrived, he held up the passports and IDs and said, “How do you fancy a trip to the USA?”
***
Dr Walden entered the cave, shining his flashlight on the paintings, and the octagonal groove in the wall. Then he spotted the disk, sticking out of the cave wall sideways. Chipping away some of the rock with his pick, he pulled the disk out, and regarded the symbols on it. He looked back to the groove, before walking over to it and placing the disk inside.
Clark followed him into the cave, in time to see the symbols on the disk light up as before. This time, the opening changed into a triangle and blasted Frederick with a beam of light, knocking him out. Clark shielded his eyes against the blast and then went to check on the doctor.
“Dr Walden! Dr Walden. Dr Walden?” There was no response.
Seeing the disk on the ground, Clark picked it up, holding it tightly in his hand.
***
Lex looked at Dr Walden, as he lay in a hospital bed, unmoving. His eyes were wide open, and completely white; so pathetic. Needing to see something better, Lex went out into the hallway, where Clark was waiting.
“How's he doing?” Clark asked.
“The doctors have never seen anything like it. He's completely catatonic,” Lex said.
“Is he gonna be okay?”
“It's impossible to determine without knowing the cause. What happened, Clark?”
“The caves blasted him, but I don’t what with, or if it was the same thing that they did to me. At least I got the key back, though.”
“That’s something. Get on home, Clark. You need to tell your parents what we’re doing.”
“I’ll see you later, Lex.”
***
“Has there been a change in Dr. Walden's condition?” Lex asked the doctor who was now with the scientist, a couple of hours later.
“Whatever he was exposed to over-stimulated his cerebral cortex causing a massive seizure.”
“You're saying he suffered from information overload?” Lex asked. That would certainly go with what Clark had thought.
“In layman's terms, yes. It's doubtful he'll ever regain consciousness. I'm sorry, Mr. Luthor,“ the doctor replied, before leaving the room.
Lex looked at the unconscious man. “You’re unbelievably stupid, Dr. Walden. You attempted to cross me, a Native American tribe and an alien culture. You should have thought that at least one of those would come and bite you on the ass. Consider yourself fired. Looks like I’ve got people who can actually read the symbols, anyway.”
He stalked off.
***
At the Kent farm, Clark and his parents were sat at the dining room table, discussing the messages he’d received, and what he and Lex had planned.
“Clark, this whole thing is very suspicious,” his dad said.
“They could give me some answers. They knows how to read the language.”
“According to you, they do. I mean, how do we know that you're even reading it right? We have no idea what that cave did to you, son.”
‘I told you what it did to me,’ Clark thought. “Mom, help me out here.”
“Clark, we don't know anything about these Torchwood people,” she replied.
“For all we know, the whole thing could be an elaborate plan just to get to you,” his dad added.
“Now you're just being paranoid. Did you ever think for a second that maybe they just want to help?”
“No, Clark, I haven't. When it comes to protecting you and your secret, all I've ever seen are people who want to exploit you for their own personal gain.”
“You can't protect me forever!” Clark replied, just as loudly.
“I'm not ready to give that up yet!”
There was a few minutes silence, and then his mom tried to calm the situation, saying, “Clark, we're not trying to keep you from learning about your past. We just don't want to see you get hurt, either.”
“I have got all these questions, and I can't leave them in the storm cellar anymore. Why did my parents put me in that ship? What was so bad they had to send me away? I have to do this.”
His mom and dad were nearly crying. “Then let's go together. We'll go as a family.”
“Dad, it’s only gonna be at Lex’s. And his security will be on hand. I can go on my own.”
His mom stood, and took Clark's hand. “No matter what I find out, it is not gonna change the way I feel about you. You're still gonna be my mom and dad,” Clark told them, and they all hugged each other close.
***
Chapter 5 - True Faith
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun...
“Captain Jack Harkness and Mr Peter McBain of Torchwood,” a member of Lex’s staff announced, before vanishing.
A man wearing what he suspected was a World War II vintage RAF officer’s greatcoat swaggered into his office, accompanied by one in a very sharp suit.
Lex knew his own swagger was incredibly effective, but this... Yeah. ‘Very coherent, Lex,’ he mentally chastised himself, replacing his eyes in his head, and putting his game back face on. Rising, he shook the men’s hands. “Captain, Mr McBain. Thanks for coming all the way out here. Take a seat, please.”
“Thank you,” the captain replied. With a blinding grin. Silently, Lex apologised to Clark.
They were straight down to business. He was passed a drawing of the Kryptonian symbol for ‘hope’. The one Clark had scorched into the barn. With his own eyes.
“I presume you know what this means?” Jack said.
“Yes. Of course.”
“Then we’ll talk. You, Clark and the two of us. Like I said, we have information for him. And I promise you, here and now, we only want to help.”
Pressing a button on his desk to alert his security, Lex then got out his cell phone and speed-dialled Clark.
***
Clark Kent pushed open the double doors as soon as Lex had ended the call, Jack noticed. Enhanced speed? Yes, he’d seen pictures, but God, Clark was beautiful, they both were. Watching how they greeted each other, Jack began to doubt if his plan to bring Clark in, as an alien, was the right one.
Lex introduced them, and Jack pressed a sequence of controls on his iScan. The message from Krypton was then displayed, as a hologram. “Does any of that look familiar, Clark?”
“What is it?”
“Thirteen years ago, the Torchwood satellites picked up a signal. Well, a couple of signals, as I’ve recently discovered.”
“The day of the meteor shower.”
“Yeah. The sound they picked up transformed itself into symbols. Our London branch had no luck translating them, so they sent the case to me, to see if my team would have any luck. I recognised the symbols immediately. ”
“He didn’t exactly tell us that, though,” Peter cut in with.
“Can you read it?”
“Not all of it. But you can, Clark, can’t you?”
“Why should I be able to do that?”
“It’s your first language. Well, kinda.”
Jack watched the gears turn in the boy’s head, as he scanned the message, and then he said, "It's...in English. Why's it in English? And it's still backwards. Can you reverse it, please, Jack?"
"I can only assume that some of your people visited Earth, when, I don’t know. And I did think the backmasking was pretty clever," Jack said, playing the message the way it should have been read, and re-displaying it. “What does it say, Clark?”
"This is Kal-El of Krypton. Our infant son, our last hope. Please protect him and deliver him from evil. We will be with you, Kal-El, all the days of your life."
After watching Clark process the message, Jack looked at Peter, who shook his head at him. Jack nodded back at Peter. Torchwood didn’t need to apply the motto in this case. They didn’t need to bring this boy in, he wasn’t a threat. The words were those of parents desperate to ensure their son would be safe, and he was. Jonathan and Martha Kent had protected this boy as their own for thirteen years. Clark had a family, he had friends, he even had a boyfriend. What right did they have to take him away from all of that?
“You think this is for me?” Clark asked. “You think I’m Kal-El?” He sounded worried, now.
“Three days ago, I saw the symbol for ‘hope’ burned onto the side of a barn in Smallville -” Peter said.
“- And I found that the farmer and his wife had an adopted son,” Jack finished. “Clark, we know you’re Kal-El. Nothing said here will go any further. We’re not trying to expose you, I promise.”
“How do you know this is me? How you know there aren’t other people from Krypton, Jack?”
“There were two signals, just two.”
”Did your colleagues trace the path of the signal, Jack?” Lex asked. Jack could see he was giving Clark a moment to think.
“We did, going light years out into space. But we found nothing. Krypton was gone.”
“Then really am that last hope, that son,” Clark said, “Kal-El of Krypton.”
“Yeah, Clark. I’m sorry, but I have no idea what happened to it.” Jack looked at Peter before continuing, “I’m not from this time,” he admitted. “When I worked for another organisation, I visited Krypton.” Jack watched Clark’s eyes light up. “Beautiful planet; gleaming towers, domed buildings, gorgeous people and love, like you wouldn’t believe.
“Then it all went wrong; the clone wars, violence, hatred, destruction, people becoming cold. Some people tried to get the love back. The hope sign, that was their symbol. Then the planet disappeared.
“I did try to discover what happened to it, but the level of access required to see those records was higher than I possessed. Believe me, I did try hacking into them.”
“I need to go home and think about all of this,” Clark said, before leaving them.
***
Clark heard his dad enter the storm cellar, the place that had housed his ship since 1989.
“Your mother told me you were back. Clark, I know that whatever these Torchwood people told you must be... overwhelming, but... if you need to talk about it, your mother and I are always here.”
Clark didn't answer him immediately, and Jonathan started to leave. “Ever since you told me about this ship, I wondered if there were others out there like me. Now I know there's not. I'm totally alone,” he eventually said.
“Clark. You are never alone, son. This is your home, and we love you very much. Come on, let's go back up.”
“In a minute.”
His dad started to leave again and Clark turned around. “I figured out what this is,” he told him. He held the piece of metal that was found along with his ship the day of the meteor shower, and the octagonal disk. “It's the ship's heart.”
“Really? Have you used it yet?” his dad asked.
“I didn't want to do it alone,” Clark admitted.
“Let's do it together.”
Clark put the key into the octagonal slot. The ship rose into the air, and opened completely. Looking inside, they saw the indentation of a small child in the bottom.
“It's hard to believe you were ever that small.”
Clark placed the other piece of metal into a slot at the front of the ship. Its inside lit up with circles of rotating symbols. Scanning them quickly, Clark became worried.
“What is it, son?”
“It's a message from my biological father. I'm sure I'm reading it wrong.”
“Why? What does it say?”
"On this third planet from this star, Sol, you will be a god among men. They are a flawed race. Rule them with strength, my son. That is where your greatness lies," Clark read, before walking away from the ship.
What the hell did that mean? It didn’t quite fit with what Jack had told him. “I think I was sent here to conquer. What kind of planet am I from?”
“Maybe you did misread it, Clark. But even if you didn't, it's you who decides what kind of a life you're gonna lead. Not me, not your mother, not your... biological parents.” Clark saw his dad glare at the ship.
“What if it's part of who I am? Is that the kind of person I will become?”
“Clark Kent, you're here to be a force for good, not a force of evil.”
He sounded pretty adamant, but Clark still asked, “How can you be so sure?”
His dad put his hands on Clark's shoulders, and said, “Because I am your father. I raised you, and I know you better than anyone.” He placed a hand on Clark's face and nodded at him, before pulling him into a hug. Clark looked over his dad’s shoulder at the floating ship, still concerned about the message. He could feel his dad’s heart hammering away, and knew he was equally worried.
***
With the chief reason for their coming here dealt with, Jack mentally reviewed the information he had gathered together about Lex.
Lex Luthor was twenty two. He should be in an Ivy League place, or at one of the ancient British universities, studying some kind of science. Instead, he was trying to maintain a relationship with Clark Kent, and look after his town, his fledgling company, his workers and the caves, with their Kryptonian symbols. He’d been forced to grow up far too quickly; he’d never really had much of a chance to be a kid. He didn’t exactly have the best dad in the world, either.
It could only be a matter of time before it all blew up around him, in an even worse way than it already had. He needed help, as well. “Lex...” Jack began.
"Just who do you answer to, Jack?” Lex interrupted. “You know about Krypton, you waltzed in here like you owned the place... Another one of Clark's friends, who I know to be an expert hacker, could find practically nothing about Torchwood, other than who it was established by, and for what purposes."
"Sounds like someone I could use,” Jack said.
“She’s still at school, and she’s the daughter of my plant manager.”
“That’d be a ‘no’, then? Shame, she’s pretty, your Chloe Sullivan.”
Lex glared at him, and Jack got the message. He didn’t have to play a Big Brother type card. Yes, he knew all of the founding information off by heart, because he’d helped to write it. "Day to day, we answer to no-one. Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Empress of India, gave us carte blanche, providing we didn't blow up the planet," he said, before laughing, a little bitterly. Yeah. That worked.
"Jack..."
"If need be, we can go practically directly to the British Crown, Lex, on any matter. I have more authority than you can possibly imagine." Bizarrely, Jack saw him relax a little, at that.
Then Lex asked, “Royal militia? Cavaliers?”
This boy knew his history, that was for sure. Outside the government, beyond the police? “Yeah, I guess we are, Lex. Now, this is what we do, to protect Clark: Torchwood buys the caves, under a front called Windsor Holdings. LexCorp will still be responsible for maintaining them, but there will be absolutely no way Lionel can get his hands on them. Then, I want to put the whole town under Torchwood's protection, just to be extra safe.”
“Isn’t that going to make us stand out even more?” Lex asked, not unreasonably.
“Like I said, with the extent of my authority, I can personally ensure that Smallville doesn’t stand out.”
“I warn you, Jack, if any of this hurts Clark, I will sue you so fast, you’ll have no idea what hit you.”
“Then let’s make sure it doesn’t, Lex. Do you want to call your lawyers, and get this going right now? Once that’s done, you need to go and speak to Clark. Do whatever you have to, to ensure he’s okay. If he wants to talk all night, let him.”
“Yes, sir,” Lex replied.
Jack smirked at him.
***
Weeks later, back in Cardiff, Jack was drinking whiskey with Suzie. A child had fallen victim to a Weevil.
“I want to see something beautiful, Jack, just once,” Suzie sighed, and took another sip of whiskey. “That’s not too much to ask, is it? Most of what the Rift and the universe spits out at us is just bloody ugly.”
She sounded so depressed, his brilliant girl. Jack handed her the now translated message, sighing himself. “I know, Suzie. Believe me, I know. This is beautiful, though, isn’t it? The last message, from a dying planet: ‘This is Kal-El of Krypton, our infant son, our last hope. Please protect him and deliver him from evil. We will be with you, Kal-El, all the days of your life.’”
***
Epilogue, 2013
"I have another friend who does that," Jack heard, as he watched the sun set and surveyed his domain, standing atop the Alto Lusso building.
"What, lurking ominously on the top of tall buildings?" he said.
"Yeah. And he does it dressed as a bat. Hey, Jack." Clark Kent, Kal-El, Superman hovered in the air in front of him.
"Hi, Clark." God, look at him. Ten years ago, the boy had been gorgeous. Now, the man was magnificent. "What brings you here?"
"I finally discovered what happened to Krypton."
"Did you? How?"
"Another one of my friends can read minds and communicate telepathically. He pulled it out of my memory. Quakes. Years and years of quakes. My father told the science council about the quakes, but they wouldn't listen. Destabilised the core, made it radioactive, tore the whole planet apart."
They’d already been over the Kryptonite issue numerous times, there was no need to mention it now.
He hadn't realised it had been quite that bad. Well, he’d suspected, at least. No. Hell, he knew it had been that bad, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so deeply hidden. "I'm sorry, Clark."
"Yeah. He also found the names of my birth parents - Jor-El and Lara. They loved each other, and me, even though they weren't meant to do either."
"My kinda people, then. Doing what I shouldn't really do has always worked for me as well, Clark."
That got him a bit of a glare, but Jack laughed it off. "Go on home, and stop harassing me!"
Clark started to leave, and Jack remembered he wanted to ask him something else. "How long did it take you to get here?"
"About a minute."
"All the way across the Atlantic in a minute? Pretty impressive."
"Yeah."
With that, he zoomed off, and seconds later, Jack heard a sonic boom. "Very impressive," he changed his mind to, laughing.
Tapping the tiny comms device sitting in his ear, he said, “Ianto, get the coffee on, please. I’m coming back inside.”
“Yes, sir. What was that blur I just saw on the CCTV?”
“A friend, Ianto. Just a friend.”
-end-
Thanks and &hearts &hearts &hearts to in_the_bottle, miss_tress, ladydey, msp_hacker, kyanoswolf, isilweth, jadesfire2808 and fajrdrako.
crosspost:
sv_fanfic
torch_wood
torchwood_fic
galactic_conman
torchwoodgenfic
crossoverfic
Chapter 4 - Starman
There's a starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds
In Cardiff, it was late, and Peter and Jack were the only two people left in the Hub. Peter was reading the headline story on the Smallville Torch’s website. Over the past couple of months, he’d discovered that Smallville had suffered a horrific meteor shower back in 1989. Since then, there had been a huge number of strange occurrences, some blamed on LuthorCorp, the town’s main employer, and some blamed on the meteors, with the green and red crystals. Now, one of the symbols from the cave was scorched over the side of the barn belonging to a Jonathan and Martha Kent. “Jack,” he called, “come and see this.”
“What have you got, Peter?” Jack said, walking over.
“This.” He indicated the picture. “We found the same symbol -"
“- in the cave,” Jack finished. “Yeah. I couldn’t quite make out what it was at the time, but I know exactly what that symbol means. It’s ‘hope’ - they used it in the same way you people use the cross, the crescent moon, the star of David. Combined.”
“Sounds like a big deal.”
“It was a very big deal.”
Peter sighed. “Jack, this is new, and it isn’t a crop circle thing or a prank. This was deliberate, it means something. I don’t know if it gets us any further in translating the message, though.” He then noticed Jack apparently had a confession to make.
“Yeah, I know, Peter. However, I may have something that’ll help,” he admitted. “I found some names in my wristband, back when we first got the message - Marcus Ventra, and Krypton, both in Kryptonian.”
‘And were you ever planning on telling us any of that, Jack?’ Peter asked silently.
Then a rather bizarre idea went through his mind, and he laughed. “So, we’re going to play Hangman, then, to try to actually get somewhere with translating the Kryptonian?”
Jack was smiling wickedly. It seemed he’d had just the same thought. “Yep. Unless you have a better idea?”
“No, I don’t. It’s not terribly scientific, though.”
“Peter. Has that ever stopped us before?”
“Hardly.”
“Exactly. C’mon, then. Let’s go.”
Rolling his eyes, Peter got the picture of the message up on his screen, and sent two copies to Jack’s LaserWriter. They both went into Jack’s office.
“Our message is in letters. But they did have a another variant of their language, where symbols represented a whole word or concept. This one, the diamond and the square, with the dot, that’s a sound similar to your letter ‘M’,” Jack said, handing him a sheet.
The separation thing still bothered Peter, like Jack didn’t count himself as human. But with all the other things that were a little weird about their captain, he suspected there was more to it than just that.
They went through the rest of the letters they had. Peter’s ideas about which symbols could be equivalents to vowels were proved right, which was rather gratifying. “Now what do we do with all this? And why does it seem to be in English?” he asked, about midnight.
“You go home and get some sleep. Thanks for staying so late. I don’t want to see you until noon, tomorrow.”
Peter left Jack’s office, but as he was packing up, he heard Jack make a phone call.
“Siobhan, it’s Jack.”
Anticipating the yelling, Peter left the Hub.
***
Peter was right, this burnt symbol was new. This had happened today.
A dozen scenarios went through Jack’s mind, and he had a sneaking suspicion he hadn’t been told everything he should have been, all those years ago. He called Siobhan, and announced himself.
”It’s midnight, Jack. You woke me up, you bastard. Why the hell are you calling me this late at night?”
“Well, maybe you should have thought that this might happen, before you gave me your home number. Was there anything you deliberately or ‘accidentally’ forgot to tell me, Siobhan, thirteen years ago?”
Jack heard her sigh, and she was silent for a couple of minutes. “Siobhan?” he asked, a little more gently.
”There was a ship, Jack. And the meteors, of course, which I’m sure you know about. We calculated the ship’s trajectory, and organised our moles in the FBI to collect it from the expected crash site. But when they got to the site, there was nothing, like someone had already taken it away. Seems to be par for the course, with those two.”
“What size was this ship?”
”We thought it was just big enough to hold a baby, maybe a toddler.”
“Thank you. I’ll let you get back to sleep, now.”
”Thank you. I didn’t tell you any of this, of course.”
“Yeah. ‘Night, Siobhan.”
”Good night, Jack.”
They hung up on each other. Just one scenario was now in Jack’s mind, but some research was clearly in order. Fifty first century computer systems and their security may have eluded him on very rare occasions, but twenty first century systems were a piece of cake.
***
Twenty minutes later, Jack had a whole load of information.
There were all the strange occurrences in Smallville since 1989. There was an organisation called Metropolis United Charities and its one single adoption. Thirdly, there was the homepage of the Smallville Torch, complete with exactly where the ‘hope’ symbol was.
Jack’s supposition was:
1. Jonathan and Martha Kent had been harbouring an alien for over thirteen years.
2. This alien was their son, Clark Kent (always in the right place at the right time), or whatever his birth name was. His Kryptonian name.
3. They might need to bring this alien in. After all, the Torchwood motto was, “If it’s alien, it’s ours.”
Whatever else they did, they needed to pass the message on. Yes, it was only half translated, but no doubt the boy would be able to fill in the blanks. With all that in mind, Jack emailed the Torch.
***
Chloe was in the Torch office, answering emails, when Clark appeared.
“I'd like to thank you for turning our farm into Area 51. We needed a couple of sheriff deputies to keep all the wackos away.”
Oh, he was mad. “Sorry, Clark. You have to admit, it is really intriguing,” she said, trying to placate him.
“It's probably just a K.U. frat prank.”
‘Yeah, right. You don’t believe that anymore than I do, Clark,’ Chloe thought. “Or could it be that aliens think crop circles are passé so they've moved onto barn scorching? Come on, Clark, this is Smallville. I mean, you have to consider the possibility.”
“I'll let it go if you forgive Lana for what she did,” he said, sighing.
So he was playing that card, then? The one that never worked. Chloe rolled her eyes. As much as she loved him, Clark could be such an idiot, sometimes. “Why didn't I see this coming? Did she tell you what she was doing on my computer?”
“No, but she did tell me she was very sorry for what she did. I can't believe --"
She cut him off, saying, “You know what, Clark? This is one time you don't need to come to Lana's rescue.” Suddenly, Chloe’s computer started beeping at her, rather frantically. They both looked at the monitor, argument pushed aside, for the moment. There was a huge list of emails in Outlook. “Hello... what's this?”
“Someone spammed your email account.”
“Yeah, but they're all for you. From...Torchwood?”
“Never heard of them.”
Chloe opened one of the emails. There was a drawing of the symbol she’d snapped, and the word, 'hope’. The main text of the message was, "I have something for you."
Chloe looked at Clark, but she couldn’t read him.
“I need to call...someone,” he said, scribbling something down, before doing his usual disappearing act.
“Well, let’s do some investigating, then. Who are you, Torchwood?” Chloe asked, tapping away at her keyboard.
***
Clark ran back to Lex’s mansion at almost human pace. He did not want to tell his parents just yet. “Someone else can read the cave symbols,” he said, re-entering the study.
At his desk, Lex swore, incredibly creatively. “Do you know they are, Clark?”
“Some British organisation called Torchwood. Chloe got a load of emails from them at the Torch, saying they had information for me. I think I want to contact them, but I have no idea who they are, Lex. What if...?” He couldn’t finish the sentence, and broke off with a slight sob.
Lex rose from his chair. He came round to Clark, took him by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. “I will never let that happen. Never. Okay?”
Clark nodded at him, still not trusting his voice. He let Lex go back to his desk, and took a seat opposite him.
“Knowing Miss Sullivan, she’s been investigating since you left,” Lex said. “Why don’t we call her, and see what she’s got?”
Getting out his cell phone, Clark speed-dialled Chloe. She picked up; he placed the phone on loudspeaker and handed it to Lex.
"Chloe, it’s Lex. Clark’s here with me.” Then he was all business. ”Who the hell are these Torchwood people?”
From Lex’s tone of voice, Clark could also hear the unasked question, Just how worried do we need to be?
"I'm still working on it, Lex. Torchwood was founded by Queen Victoria in 1879, for the purposes of using stolen or abandoned alien technology for the benefit of the British Empire, and catching some guy called the Doctor. There was some kind of horrific attack on Torchwood House, during a stopover on the way to Balmoral, which prompted her to establish the organisation. That's pretty much all I've been able to find.”
“Okay. Thanks, Chloe. Clear your history and delete the emails, please,” Lex said, ending the call and handing back the phone. “Let’s see what they’ve got to say, Clark.”
“And set your lawyers on them, if necessary?” Clark said, looking straight at his friend.
“Of course.”
Something he'd once read about sharks came to mind, as Clark pulled out the piece of paper he’d just scribbled on, unfolding it to reveal a generic Torchwood email address, torchwood3@torchwood.org.uk. Recognising the laptop as Lex’s personal one, and knowing it was safe from Lionel, Clark asked Lex to swivel it around.
Lex joined him on the other side of the desk, as he loaded up Outlook and began typing: “I got your message. What do you have for me?” Clark was ready to send the email, but he then became concerned, and hesitated for a couple of minutes.
"What's wrong?” Lex eventually asked.
“What if my parents are right?”
“Then we can just pull the plug on this whole thing, and you don’t send that email.”
Clark could see that Lex was going to close the program, and stopped him. “No, Lex. I need to know.”
He sent the email, and couple of seconds later, a box appeared on the screen, saying, “The user 'jharkness’ has sent you an instant message. Do you wish to accept it?” Clark opened the message, which said, “If you can read this we have the answers you're looking for.” Under the message, there were several symbols like the ones he could now see in his mind.
“What's that, Clark? I assume you can read it.”
“It says ‘Krypton’, but it’s backwards, for some reason.”
And then the land line phone rang. Lex picked it up, announcing himself.
The caller said something. “Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood...That was quick,” Lex replied. “Captain, I think whatever you have for Clark should be discussed face to face. How soon can you get to Kansas?”
***
Jack closing the messenger program and hung up on Lex Luthor and Clark Kent (tracing everything about a person, from their computer, was so incredibly easy). He then retrieved the documents that would allow him and Peter through the VIP gate at the airports from the safe. Finally, he called Torchwood Five, otherwise known as the secure hangar at Heathrow’s Terminal Four which housed the Institute’s own personal Concorde.
Codewords were first exchanged. “This is Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood Three. I need that beautiful plane of ours, please.”
”I’ll get her ready for you, sir, and organise a pilot,” the nightwatchman said.
Jack had supervised the purchase of the aeroplane, back in 1969. She was partly fitted out as a laboratory, with enough toys derived from alien tech to make James Bond very jealous indeed.
“Thank you.”
”Thank you, sir. Goodbye.”
Jack went to his quarters, to relax for few hours. The next day, when Peter arrived, he held up the passports and IDs and said, “How do you fancy a trip to the USA?”
***
Dr Walden entered the cave, shining his flashlight on the paintings, and the octagonal groove in the wall. Then he spotted the disk, sticking out of the cave wall sideways. Chipping away some of the rock with his pick, he pulled the disk out, and regarded the symbols on it. He looked back to the groove, before walking over to it and placing the disk inside.
Clark followed him into the cave, in time to see the symbols on the disk light up as before. This time, the opening changed into a triangle and blasted Frederick with a beam of light, knocking him out. Clark shielded his eyes against the blast and then went to check on the doctor.
“Dr Walden! Dr Walden. Dr Walden?” There was no response.
Seeing the disk on the ground, Clark picked it up, holding it tightly in his hand.
***
Lex looked at Dr Walden, as he lay in a hospital bed, unmoving. His eyes were wide open, and completely white; so pathetic. Needing to see something better, Lex went out into the hallway, where Clark was waiting.
“How's he doing?” Clark asked.
“The doctors have never seen anything like it. He's completely catatonic,” Lex said.
“Is he gonna be okay?”
“It's impossible to determine without knowing the cause. What happened, Clark?”
“The caves blasted him, but I don’t what with, or if it was the same thing that they did to me. At least I got the key back, though.”
“That’s something. Get on home, Clark. You need to tell your parents what we’re doing.”
“I’ll see you later, Lex.”
***
“Has there been a change in Dr. Walden's condition?” Lex asked the doctor who was now with the scientist, a couple of hours later.
“Whatever he was exposed to over-stimulated his cerebral cortex causing a massive seizure.”
“You're saying he suffered from information overload?” Lex asked. That would certainly go with what Clark had thought.
“In layman's terms, yes. It's doubtful he'll ever regain consciousness. I'm sorry, Mr. Luthor,“ the doctor replied, before leaving the room.
Lex looked at the unconscious man. “You’re unbelievably stupid, Dr. Walden. You attempted to cross me, a Native American tribe and an alien culture. You should have thought that at least one of those would come and bite you on the ass. Consider yourself fired. Looks like I’ve got people who can actually read the symbols, anyway.”
He stalked off.
***
At the Kent farm, Clark and his parents were sat at the dining room table, discussing the messages he’d received, and what he and Lex had planned.
“Clark, this whole thing is very suspicious,” his dad said.
“They could give me some answers. They knows how to read the language.”
“According to you, they do. I mean, how do we know that you're even reading it right? We have no idea what that cave did to you, son.”
‘I told you what it did to me,’ Clark thought. “Mom, help me out here.”
“Clark, we don't know anything about these Torchwood people,” she replied.
“For all we know, the whole thing could be an elaborate plan just to get to you,” his dad added.
“Now you're just being paranoid. Did you ever think for a second that maybe they just want to help?”
“No, Clark, I haven't. When it comes to protecting you and your secret, all I've ever seen are people who want to exploit you for their own personal gain.”
“You can't protect me forever!” Clark replied, just as loudly.
“I'm not ready to give that up yet!”
There was a few minutes silence, and then his mom tried to calm the situation, saying, “Clark, we're not trying to keep you from learning about your past. We just don't want to see you get hurt, either.”
“I have got all these questions, and I can't leave them in the storm cellar anymore. Why did my parents put me in that ship? What was so bad they had to send me away? I have to do this.”
His mom and dad were nearly crying. “Then let's go together. We'll go as a family.”
“Dad, it’s only gonna be at Lex’s. And his security will be on hand. I can go on my own.”
His mom stood, and took Clark's hand. “No matter what I find out, it is not gonna change the way I feel about you. You're still gonna be my mom and dad,” Clark told them, and they all hugged each other close.
***
Chapter 5 - True Faith
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun...
“Captain Jack Harkness and Mr Peter McBain of Torchwood,” a member of Lex’s staff announced, before vanishing.
A man wearing what he suspected was a World War II vintage RAF officer’s greatcoat swaggered into his office, accompanied by one in a very sharp suit.
Lex knew his own swagger was incredibly effective, but this... Yeah. ‘Very coherent, Lex,’ he mentally chastised himself, replacing his eyes in his head, and putting his game back face on. Rising, he shook the men’s hands. “Captain, Mr McBain. Thanks for coming all the way out here. Take a seat, please.”
“Thank you,” the captain replied. With a blinding grin. Silently, Lex apologised to Clark.
They were straight down to business. He was passed a drawing of the Kryptonian symbol for ‘hope’. The one Clark had scorched into the barn. With his own eyes.
“I presume you know what this means?” Jack said.
“Yes. Of course.”
“Then we’ll talk. You, Clark and the two of us. Like I said, we have information for him. And I promise you, here and now, we only want to help.”
Pressing a button on his desk to alert his security, Lex then got out his cell phone and speed-dialled Clark.
***
Clark Kent pushed open the double doors as soon as Lex had ended the call, Jack noticed. Enhanced speed? Yes, he’d seen pictures, but God, Clark was beautiful, they both were. Watching how they greeted each other, Jack began to doubt if his plan to bring Clark in, as an alien, was the right one.
Lex introduced them, and Jack pressed a sequence of controls on his iScan. The message from Krypton was then displayed, as a hologram. “Does any of that look familiar, Clark?”
“What is it?”
“Thirteen years ago, the Torchwood satellites picked up a signal. Well, a couple of signals, as I’ve recently discovered.”
“The day of the meteor shower.”
“Yeah. The sound they picked up transformed itself into symbols. Our London branch had no luck translating them, so they sent the case to me, to see if my team would have any luck. I recognised the symbols immediately. ”
“He didn’t exactly tell us that, though,” Peter cut in with.
“Can you read it?”
“Not all of it. But you can, Clark, can’t you?”
“Why should I be able to do that?”
“It’s your first language. Well, kinda.”
Jack watched the gears turn in the boy’s head, as he scanned the message, and then he said, "It's...in English. Why's it in English? And it's still backwards. Can you reverse it, please, Jack?"
"I can only assume that some of your people visited Earth, when, I don’t know. And I did think the backmasking was pretty clever," Jack said, playing the message the way it should have been read, and re-displaying it. “What does it say, Clark?”
"This is Kal-El of Krypton. Our infant son, our last hope. Please protect him and deliver him from evil. We will be with you, Kal-El, all the days of your life."
After watching Clark process the message, Jack looked at Peter, who shook his head at him. Jack nodded back at Peter. Torchwood didn’t need to apply the motto in this case. They didn’t need to bring this boy in, he wasn’t a threat. The words were those of parents desperate to ensure their son would be safe, and he was. Jonathan and Martha Kent had protected this boy as their own for thirteen years. Clark had a family, he had friends, he even had a boyfriend. What right did they have to take him away from all of that?
“You think this is for me?” Clark asked. “You think I’m Kal-El?” He sounded worried, now.
“Three days ago, I saw the symbol for ‘hope’ burned onto the side of a barn in Smallville -” Peter said.
“- And I found that the farmer and his wife had an adopted son,” Jack finished. “Clark, we know you’re Kal-El. Nothing said here will go any further. We’re not trying to expose you, I promise.”
“How do you know this is me? How you know there aren’t other people from Krypton, Jack?”
“There were two signals, just two.”
”Did your colleagues trace the path of the signal, Jack?” Lex asked. Jack could see he was giving Clark a moment to think.
“We did, going light years out into space. But we found nothing. Krypton was gone.”
“Then really am that last hope, that son,” Clark said, “Kal-El of Krypton.”
“Yeah, Clark. I’m sorry, but I have no idea what happened to it.” Jack looked at Peter before continuing, “I’m not from this time,” he admitted. “When I worked for another organisation, I visited Krypton.” Jack watched Clark’s eyes light up. “Beautiful planet; gleaming towers, domed buildings, gorgeous people and love, like you wouldn’t believe.
“Then it all went wrong; the clone wars, violence, hatred, destruction, people becoming cold. Some people tried to get the love back. The hope sign, that was their symbol. Then the planet disappeared.
“I did try to discover what happened to it, but the level of access required to see those records was higher than I possessed. Believe me, I did try hacking into them.”
“I need to go home and think about all of this,” Clark said, before leaving them.
***
Clark heard his dad enter the storm cellar, the place that had housed his ship since 1989.
“Your mother told me you were back. Clark, I know that whatever these Torchwood people told you must be... overwhelming, but... if you need to talk about it, your mother and I are always here.”
Clark didn't answer him immediately, and Jonathan started to leave. “Ever since you told me about this ship, I wondered if there were others out there like me. Now I know there's not. I'm totally alone,” he eventually said.
“Clark. You are never alone, son. This is your home, and we love you very much. Come on, let's go back up.”
“In a minute.”
His dad started to leave again and Clark turned around. “I figured out what this is,” he told him. He held the piece of metal that was found along with his ship the day of the meteor shower, and the octagonal disk. “It's the ship's heart.”
“Really? Have you used it yet?” his dad asked.
“I didn't want to do it alone,” Clark admitted.
“Let's do it together.”
Clark put the key into the octagonal slot. The ship rose into the air, and opened completely. Looking inside, they saw the indentation of a small child in the bottom.
“It's hard to believe you were ever that small.”
Clark placed the other piece of metal into a slot at the front of the ship. Its inside lit up with circles of rotating symbols. Scanning them quickly, Clark became worried.
“What is it, son?”
“It's a message from my biological father. I'm sure I'm reading it wrong.”
“Why? What does it say?”
"On this third planet from this star, Sol, you will be a god among men. They are a flawed race. Rule them with strength, my son. That is where your greatness lies," Clark read, before walking away from the ship.
What the hell did that mean? It didn’t quite fit with what Jack had told him. “I think I was sent here to conquer. What kind of planet am I from?”
“Maybe you did misread it, Clark. But even if you didn't, it's you who decides what kind of a life you're gonna lead. Not me, not your mother, not your... biological parents.” Clark saw his dad glare at the ship.
“What if it's part of who I am? Is that the kind of person I will become?”
“Clark Kent, you're here to be a force for good, not a force of evil.”
He sounded pretty adamant, but Clark still asked, “How can you be so sure?”
His dad put his hands on Clark's shoulders, and said, “Because I am your father. I raised you, and I know you better than anyone.” He placed a hand on Clark's face and nodded at him, before pulling him into a hug. Clark looked over his dad’s shoulder at the floating ship, still concerned about the message. He could feel his dad’s heart hammering away, and knew he was equally worried.
***
With the chief reason for their coming here dealt with, Jack mentally reviewed the information he had gathered together about Lex.
Lex Luthor was twenty two. He should be in an Ivy League place, or at one of the ancient British universities, studying some kind of science. Instead, he was trying to maintain a relationship with Clark Kent, and look after his town, his fledgling company, his workers and the caves, with their Kryptonian symbols. He’d been forced to grow up far too quickly; he’d never really had much of a chance to be a kid. He didn’t exactly have the best dad in the world, either.
It could only be a matter of time before it all blew up around him, in an even worse way than it already had. He needed help, as well. “Lex...” Jack began.
"Just who do you answer to, Jack?” Lex interrupted. “You know about Krypton, you waltzed in here like you owned the place... Another one of Clark's friends, who I know to be an expert hacker, could find practically nothing about Torchwood, other than who it was established by, and for what purposes."
"Sounds like someone I could use,” Jack said.
“She’s still at school, and she’s the daughter of my plant manager.”
“That’d be a ‘no’, then? Shame, she’s pretty, your Chloe Sullivan.”
Lex glared at him, and Jack got the message. He didn’t have to play a Big Brother type card. Yes, he knew all of the founding information off by heart, because he’d helped to write it. "Day to day, we answer to no-one. Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Empress of India, gave us carte blanche, providing we didn't blow up the planet," he said, before laughing, a little bitterly. Yeah. That worked.
"Jack..."
"If need be, we can go practically directly to the British Crown, Lex, on any matter. I have more authority than you can possibly imagine." Bizarrely, Jack saw him relax a little, at that.
Then Lex asked, “Royal militia? Cavaliers?”
This boy knew his history, that was for sure. Outside the government, beyond the police? “Yeah, I guess we are, Lex. Now, this is what we do, to protect Clark: Torchwood buys the caves, under a front called Windsor Holdings. LexCorp will still be responsible for maintaining them, but there will be absolutely no way Lionel can get his hands on them. Then, I want to put the whole town under Torchwood's protection, just to be extra safe.”
“Isn’t that going to make us stand out even more?” Lex asked, not unreasonably.
“Like I said, with the extent of my authority, I can personally ensure that Smallville doesn’t stand out.”
“I warn you, Jack, if any of this hurts Clark, I will sue you so fast, you’ll have no idea what hit you.”
“Then let’s make sure it doesn’t, Lex. Do you want to call your lawyers, and get this going right now? Once that’s done, you need to go and speak to Clark. Do whatever you have to, to ensure he’s okay. If he wants to talk all night, let him.”
“Yes, sir,” Lex replied.
Jack smirked at him.
***
Weeks later, back in Cardiff, Jack was drinking whiskey with Suzie. A child had fallen victim to a Weevil.
“I want to see something beautiful, Jack, just once,” Suzie sighed, and took another sip of whiskey. “That’s not too much to ask, is it? Most of what the Rift and the universe spits out at us is just bloody ugly.”
She sounded so depressed, his brilliant girl. Jack handed her the now translated message, sighing himself. “I know, Suzie. Believe me, I know. This is beautiful, though, isn’t it? The last message, from a dying planet: ‘This is Kal-El of Krypton, our infant son, our last hope. Please protect him and deliver him from evil. We will be with you, Kal-El, all the days of your life.’”
***
Epilogue, 2013
"I have another friend who does that," Jack heard, as he watched the sun set and surveyed his domain, standing atop the Alto Lusso building.
"What, lurking ominously on the top of tall buildings?" he said.
"Yeah. And he does it dressed as a bat. Hey, Jack." Clark Kent, Kal-El, Superman hovered in the air in front of him.
"Hi, Clark." God, look at him. Ten years ago, the boy had been gorgeous. Now, the man was magnificent. "What brings you here?"
"I finally discovered what happened to Krypton."
"Did you? How?"
"Another one of my friends can read minds and communicate telepathically. He pulled it out of my memory. Quakes. Years and years of quakes. My father told the science council about the quakes, but they wouldn't listen. Destabilised the core, made it radioactive, tore the whole planet apart."
They’d already been over the Kryptonite issue numerous times, there was no need to mention it now.
He hadn't realised it had been quite that bad. Well, he’d suspected, at least. No. Hell, he knew it had been that bad, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so deeply hidden. "I'm sorry, Clark."
"Yeah. He also found the names of my birth parents - Jor-El and Lara. They loved each other, and me, even though they weren't meant to do either."
"My kinda people, then. Doing what I shouldn't really do has always worked for me as well, Clark."
That got him a bit of a glare, but Jack laughed it off. "Go on home, and stop harassing me!"
Clark started to leave, and Jack remembered he wanted to ask him something else. "How long did it take you to get here?"
"About a minute."
"All the way across the Atlantic in a minute? Pretty impressive."
"Yeah."
With that, he zoomed off, and seconds later, Jack heard a sonic boom. "Very impressive," he changed his mind to, laughing.
Tapping the tiny comms device sitting in his ear, he said, “Ianto, get the coffee on, please. I’m coming back inside.”
“Yes, sir. What was that blur I just saw on the CCTV?”
“A friend, Ianto. Just a friend.”
-end-
Thanks and &hearts &hearts &hearts to in_the_bottle, miss_tress, ladydey, msp_hacker, kyanoswolf, isilweth, jadesfire2808 and fajrdrako.
crosspost:
sv_fanfic
torch_wood
torchwood_fic
galactic_conman
torchwoodgenfic
crossoverfic