The House of the Earth part 4 (6/8): High Noon
Title: Chapter Six: High Noon
Pairing/Characters: Kal/Bruce, Dinah Lance, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, Kara Zor-El, J'onn J'onnz, John Stewart, Wonder Woman, Zor-El
Notes: " The House of the Earth" is an AU in which a few thousand Kryptonians escaped the destruction of Krypton to flee to Earth and conquer its people.
Warnings: Character death
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Word Count: 3200
Summary: The battle for the fate of the Earth, and its aftermath.
"Oh boy," Guy Gardner's thoughts echoed through the link, "This is gonna be fun." There was a distinct impression of knuckle-cracking.
"I estimate they will be upon us in less than a minute," J'onn said. "There are still eighteen minutes until the nanobots can be deployed."
"The ones coming from the West Coast will get here first," Hal noted, and the six of them wheeled to face west. The sun was almost directly above them: high noon in just a handful of minutes.
"The first wave from the west will be younger and likely not battle-trained," Bruce's voice came through the link. "The older, experienced Kryptonians will be coming from the troops in Metropolis. You should be able to scatter these fairly easily. There'll be more coming from the east soon, so strike these hard and fast and demoralize them before the big guns arrive."
"...Teach your grandma to suck eggs..." Guy's mental murmur elicited laughter from Bruce that felt like a handful of gravel thrown into water. "Crap," Guy said more strongly as the first Kryptonians came at them, "There's only like three hundred! I'll barely break a sweat."
Indeed, the first Kryptonians to arrive were hardly a challenge. They arrived raggedly rather then en masse, scanning the ground intently, unaware that there would be flying defenses. A shower of green beams from the Lanterns snapped them to attention, but far too late--Kal could see their looks of shock, anger, and horror as they were bombarded with brilliant energy.
Kal heard Kara murmur a brief prayer to Rao, then she went flying into the fray. Kal followed her scarlet cape into battle.
As Bruce had predicted, the Kryptonians were young and undisciplined. The one Kal closed with was almost a boy, his eyes wide. He screamed once as Kal's fist connected with his chin, sending him head over heels in the air. Then he bolted away from the battle. Kal felt almost guilty, watching him retreat--until a searing bolt of heat vision burned past his head and forced him to turn his attention there. A sharp exchange of blows sent his new opponent spiralling downward, but then Kal saw a Kryptonian lunging at J'onn. He surged forward to help--but as the Kryptonian reached him, J'onn's body shimmered and went insubstantial. His foe yelped in alarm as she went right through him, only to have J'onn resolidify behind her and send her careening out of the sky. Kal would have stared, but someone grabbed him from behind and they went spinning through the air, grappling desperately until Kal shook him off and struck him down.
It seemed to take forever, but as the last of the Kryptonians turned tail or went spinning earthward, J'onn's calm mental voice informed them the skirmish had taken five minutes. "The second wave from the east will be here in less than a minute," he added.
The six of them re-assembled in the air. Guy Gardner's lip was bleeding but it was stretched in a fierce smile; beyond that none of them were injured. They turned eastward, where the sky boiled with approaching Kryptonians, almost twice as many as in the first assault. "They'll have the Crimson Guard with them," warned Kal. "They're all older Kryptonians, combat-trained, the best fighters of Krypton."
"My father is at their head," Kara noted, her mental voice strained.
"Can you talk to him?" asked Hal. "Stall. We don't need to defeat them. We only need to keep them from locating and destroying the command center another ten minutes."
"I can try," she said, but there was no hope in her voice.
At the forefront of the wave of Kryptonians Kal could make out his uncle, Zor-El. "Father!" cried Kara across the space between them. "We must talk. We don't want to--"
< Traitors! > Zor's voice howled across the narrowing gap. < Faithless, wretched--you shall burn forever in Cythonna's icy grasp after we tear you limb from limb! >
"My ring didn't get all that," said Jordan evenly, "But I get the impression talking isn't high on his list of things to do."
< Ungrateful vipers! > Zor's face was contorted with rage. < I should have left both of you to die with my worthless brother! > At the last words, his heat vision lanced out, closing the gap. Kara cried out in shock and pain and clapped a hand to her shoulder, and Kal and J'onn surged forward as one to crash into the oncoming rush of Kryptonians.
Everything dissolved into chaos, a maelstrom of red and green light, heat vision versus green energy. Vast emerald walls sprang up around the mountain, a massive edifice, and through the link Kal could feel Stewart's satisfaction. Nearby, Guy was unleashing furious bolts of crackling power, his fury surprisingly focused and devastating. Zor-El was lost in the tumult, but Kal caught a brief glimpse of a vast, scaled dragon like an alien nightmare twining through the battle, teeth clashing, and felt J'onn's cold and implacable anger within the form.
Cousin? Kal reached for Kara and found her in pain but fighting, her blows driving back a score of Kryptonians. The Lanterns were channeling the fight with great gleaming barricades, keeping it from reaching the mountain, pushing it back. A form broke through their line and Kal darted forward to wrestle it backwards, feeling heat vision score his chest. For a brief moment his eyes locked with Vek-Ozh's, and Kal saw mad hatred flare in them, but he threw his classmate backward, sent him tumbling into a wall of green energy, stunned and disoriented.
The battle seemed to go on interminably, the yellow sun beating down upon them. Kal could feel burns and welts along his back and chest, aching. Seven minutes left, J'onn's voice intoned in his mind. Hold the line. Hold--
And without warning the mental link was gone, vanished like a burst bubble, leaving Kal's mind strangely empty. He reeled, reaching--and heard a scream of agony pierce through the air: not J'onn.
Kara.
His cousin rose like a star into the midst of the battle, an avenging spirit, and all fell before her. Kal caught a glimpse of her eyes: they were bereft of sanity, bereft of hope. Her cape was in tatters, her hair a wild corona around her head. The Lanterns were reduced to merely corralling the other Kryptonians as she scythed through them.
< You! > Kal heard the clarion call and saw Zor-El barrelling toward him. < This is all your fault! You have corrupted my daughter, betrayed your race! I shall rip you apart as I ripped apart her demon lover! >
The two collided with a crack of compressed air, Kal standing his ground against his uncle. "Me? No, this is your fault, uncle!" he cried in English over the sound of Kara's desolate keening. "Your fault for your overweening pride and cruelty! Yours!" With a strength he hardly knew he had, he drove his uncle toward the earth. "You abandoned my parents to die because they opposed your mad dreams of power! You warped our people into tyrants and slavers!" With a desperate, furious blow he slammed Zor into the rocky ground, sending waves of shattered earth in every direction. He landed beside his uncle and slammed his head against the ground again, nearly sobbing with rage. "It ends here!"
Zor glared at him, his face streaked with blood and grime. < You seek to shame me by forcing me to kiss your filthy dirt. But it is you who shall be humiliated! > With a surging roundhouse, he threw Kal into the air; Kal felt his arms and legs grabbed and pinioned by members of the Crimson Guard, yanked backwards until he gritted his teeth in pain. As Zor-El lifted himself into the air and fastidiously bushed dirt from his clothes, a soldier slammed a fist heavily into Kal's gut, knocking the wind from him. < Make him hurt before he dies, > Zor said casually. < As for me, I have larger game to hunt. > As Kal endured a volley of kicks and blows--one connected with his temple and he felt blood trickling down his forehead, into his eyes--he turned his attention to the mountains below them.
Kal blinked blood like tears out of his eyes, reaching with his mind for Kara, the Lanterns, anyone, but the link was gone and he was alone. How long until high noon? He couldn't tell anymore, it felt like years had gone by while he hung in pain, why was the sky still blue and the light still yellow? His uncle's scanning gaze passed over the mountains, and then his eyes widened.
< I see you now, you burrowing worms, > he crowed. His eyes narrowed and Kal saw them kindle into scarlet light.
With a wild cry, he threw off his tormentors, sending them flying, and launched himself in front of his uncle. Searing pain in his shoulder, agony that he flew through to collide with Zor, sending them spinning through the air. "No more!" he cried. "No more!"
Zor-El's hands managed to close around Kal's throat; Kal could feel the knuckles grinding into his larynx, cutting off his speech. He struggled for breath and found none. No air. No breath. His vision went scarlet at the edges, the world growing dim, blood-soaked and hazy.
And then suddenly red light flooded the whole sky.
Kal could see the horror in his uncle's eyes, the realization. < No, > he whispered.
And then they both started to fall.
: : :
Wind snatched the air from Kal's lungs as he fell, the ground rushing to meet him, vast and rocky. At least I'll die on the earth, he thought briefly, inanely. Zor-El's hands were still locked around his throat, cutting off the air as they both tumbled downward.
They were almost at impact when green tendrils of light reached down, curled around his arms and legs. They were thready, overextended, but Kal stopped falling with an abrupt jolt. He heard a dull snapping noise and felt pain lancing up his left arm; his uncle's hands were ripped from his throat, nails scoring his flesh as Zor-El continued his downward plunge. Kal-El reached for him and caught only a fringe of cloth that tore away in his hand. Zor-El's eyes glaring mad defiance were the last thing he saw before he closed his eyes.
He felt the green light give way as if exhausted of power, the emerald threads dissipating, and Kal started to fall once more.
He landed in a patch of sagebrush and briars. Despite the cushioning brush the wind was driven from his lungs. He lay under the dull purple sky, feeling a thousand fresh scratches burning his skin, his arm screaming in agony, and couldn't seem to move.
"In the name of the Green Lantern Corps, I command you to stand down!" An unfamiliar woman's voice, strangely-accented, resonated eerily from the sky, amplified in some way. "Guy Gardner, Hal Jordon, John Stewart, you have violated Regulation Three Six Five Point Two regarding--"
"Katma!" John Stewart's voice also carried easily to Kal's ears. He pried open his eyes to see the three human Green Lanterns hanging in the air high above, captured in energy bubbles created by a dark-skinned alien woman in a Lantern Costume. Behind her, the sky was filled with Corps members of every size and shape. "Katma," repeated Stewart, "We surrender ourselves willingly to the Corps for judgment. But we request the Corps take action to stop the genocide unfolding on our planet--"
"The genocide your people are perpetrating?" the woman said scornfully. But then she seemed to relent. "Even now the Corps is interceding to save the Kryptonians you have robbed of their powers. They shall be taken from this planet and resettled...somewhere more appropriate. Somewhere uninhabited, with a red sun." She considered the three humans for a long moment. "The Guardians have been...concerned about the Kryptonians for some time now. But you three must still face judgment on Oa."
Stewart, Jordan, and Gardner bowed their heads--Gardner the last and most slowly. "We submit to the will of the Guardians," said Stewart.
"It was totally worth it to finally kick some ass," Guy muttered, his amplified voice echoing against the mountainsides.
"Come, then," said the woman, and soared away, the three green spheres trailing after.
Kal closed his eyes again as they disappeared. With a horrible shock he realized he could hear hardly anything; had he been deafened in the battle? Then he realized it was just the muffling of his senses caused by the red sun. He could hear weeping and cries of pain faintly in the distance, curses in Kryptonian. He managed to sit up before the pain in his arm caused the world to tilt sideways and disappear for a while.
: : :
"He's with us, I tell you. You can't take him." There was a shadow falling across Kal; it took him a moment to recognize Bruce's voice. What was Bruce doing out here, away from the safety of the base? He tried to ask, but his mouth wasn't moving.
"What if he wants to go with his own people, huh?" The other voice was a deep, rumbling bass. "Maybe he wants to stay with them when they go."
There was a small silence. "He might," Bruce said. "I've...never had the chance to ask him. He might want to leave." There was an odd, aching sound underneath Bruce's voice, a hoarseness Kal had never heard before. "But for now, let me get him back to safety. Please." The unseen Green Lantern made an uncertain growling noise. "The two of us can get back without assistance. Help the others. And if you find a woman wearing this same costume, please...help her."
"Stubborn poozer, ain't you?" said the Lantern. "Good luck to you both, then. I'll come back and get him later if he wants to leave the planet."
There was a cold breeze playing over Kal; the red light provided no warmth. He felt himself shivering. "Kal," whispered Bruce as if to himself. "Don't leave me now."
He pried his eyes open and Bruce's face swam into view. "Never," Kal managed, his voice thready and weak. Bruce's eyes widened. "I'll never leave you. If you'll have me. If you'll let me stay on this world."
The red light and pain were doing odd things to Kal's vision; Bruce's eyes seemed strange somehow, glimmering with light and something else. "I wasn't sure," he said, his voice low and rough. "I wasn't sure if you'd want to go to your peoples' new home."
Sensation was coming back into Kal's hands. He could feel Bruce's fingers gripping his and clasped them as tightly as he could in weakened fingers. "You are my people. This is my home."
Bruce scrubbed his sleeve across his eyes briefly, looking away, then met Kal's gaze again. "Can you stand?"
"I can try."
It took them a while, but eventually Kal was more or less standing, Bruce supporting him with an arm slung under Kal's good arm. The other hung awkwardly and Kal bit his lip and hissed a breath when it was jostled. White vapor hung on the cold air. "We're pretty close to the entrance of the base," Bruce said. "We'll take it slow."
"Sorry," Kal muttered, wavering on his feet and trying to get his balance. "Sorry to be a burden."
Bruce's laugh was so quiet it hardly shook the shoulder supporting Kal. "It's not a problem. Okay. Ready? Nice and slow."
Kal took his first tiny step, feeling gravity drag at his feet for the first time, the way the ground pulled him downward. Another step. Another. His feet stirred the frosted dust. He leaned heavily on Bruce's arm.
Together, they moved forward.
: : :
Later, Kal would hear about how Bruce Wayne had seen him plummet from the bloody sky and had bolted for the exit, shouldering aside all who tried to stop him in his haste. "You don't need me now," he had shouted over his shoulder at an apoplectic Carter Hall, "And he does."
Later, as he lay in the infirmary, he would see Alan Scott, his face streaked with blood, his arm around a stone-faced Dinah. "He's just missing," Dinah said, her voice flat. "Ollie's a stubborn one, nothing can keep him away for long. He'll turn up like a bad penny, you just wait and see." Alan nodded and his arm tightened on her shoulder briefly.
Later, he would sit by his cousin's side and whisper her name, hearing the sounds of celebration starting to ring through the grim mountain halls. Kara would turn her face to the wall, her eyes distant and dull as if listening for vanished music, heedless of the sounds of joy.
Later, he would see the footage of Lex Luthor's glorious raid on the Metropolis prison. Clad in a massive battle-suit, flanked by two tall women with pistols that shot green energy--Kal would blink to recognize Hope and Mercy, their long hair lifting in the heat-shimmer of burning buildings--Luthor ripped open the prison walls to free Selina. As the sky went scarlet and chaos reigned, he took her hands in the public square and went to one armored knee to ask her to rule at his side as the Lord and Lady of Metropolis. The massed human mob cheered in a frenzy of joy before turning on the dazed, fallen Kryptonians--just as the sky filled with Green Lanterns.
Later, he would hear Diana laugh as she described the end of the battle. "And then these strange ships came up out of the water and dumped a bunch of half-drowned Kryptonians on the beach, and he came striding up out of the sea and glared at me and said, 'Don't dump your trash in my kingdom.' The arrogant, high-handed gall of the man..." She laughed again and shook her head. "Kal, I think I'm in love."
Later.
For now, it was just the two of them, moving step by careful step together. By the time they reached the entrance, Kal was gasping for breath in the thin air, every scratch and bruise on his body burning. His knees buckled and he reeled against Bruce. Bruce held him up, and Kal found himself almost nose to nose with the other man, their breath mingling between them in plumes of mist. Kal found himself leaning forward as if the earth's gravity was pulling him--but Bruce turned his head aside to look out across the landscape, dark red in the setting sun.
"Look," he whispered. "Look, Kal." Kal turned to look across the rocky terrain, the mountains rising into the dusky sky. Beside him, Bruce continued, his voice yearning with a dawning wonder: "Welcome to the new world, Kal. Our world."
Kal turned back to look at Bruce again and this time Bruce's mouth was there waiting for him, as simple and as sweet as that. Bruce's lips were cold but his breath was hot, and for a moment all of Kal's injuries vanished in a flood of warmth and delight. "Welcome home," Bruce whispered into his mouth, into his heart, and Kal tasted the words like honey, echoed them back.
Welcome home.
Pairing/Characters: Kal/Bruce, Dinah Lance, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, Kara Zor-El, J'onn J'onnz, John Stewart, Wonder Woman, Zor-El
Notes: " The House of the Earth" is an AU in which a few thousand Kryptonians escaped the destruction of Krypton to flee to Earth and conquer its people.
Warnings: Character death
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Word Count: 3200
Summary: The battle for the fate of the Earth, and its aftermath.
"Oh boy," Guy Gardner's thoughts echoed through the link, "This is gonna be fun." There was a distinct impression of knuckle-cracking.
"I estimate they will be upon us in less than a minute," J'onn said. "There are still eighteen minutes until the nanobots can be deployed."
"The ones coming from the West Coast will get here first," Hal noted, and the six of them wheeled to face west. The sun was almost directly above them: high noon in just a handful of minutes.
"The first wave from the west will be younger and likely not battle-trained," Bruce's voice came through the link. "The older, experienced Kryptonians will be coming from the troops in Metropolis. You should be able to scatter these fairly easily. There'll be more coming from the east soon, so strike these hard and fast and demoralize them before the big guns arrive."
"...Teach your grandma to suck eggs..." Guy's mental murmur elicited laughter from Bruce that felt like a handful of gravel thrown into water. "Crap," Guy said more strongly as the first Kryptonians came at them, "There's only like three hundred! I'll barely break a sweat."
Indeed, the first Kryptonians to arrive were hardly a challenge. They arrived raggedly rather then en masse, scanning the ground intently, unaware that there would be flying defenses. A shower of green beams from the Lanterns snapped them to attention, but far too late--Kal could see their looks of shock, anger, and horror as they were bombarded with brilliant energy.
Kal heard Kara murmur a brief prayer to Rao, then she went flying into the fray. Kal followed her scarlet cape into battle.
As Bruce had predicted, the Kryptonians were young and undisciplined. The one Kal closed with was almost a boy, his eyes wide. He screamed once as Kal's fist connected with his chin, sending him head over heels in the air. Then he bolted away from the battle. Kal felt almost guilty, watching him retreat--until a searing bolt of heat vision burned past his head and forced him to turn his attention there. A sharp exchange of blows sent his new opponent spiralling downward, but then Kal saw a Kryptonian lunging at J'onn. He surged forward to help--but as the Kryptonian reached him, J'onn's body shimmered and went insubstantial. His foe yelped in alarm as she went right through him, only to have J'onn resolidify behind her and send her careening out of the sky. Kal would have stared, but someone grabbed him from behind and they went spinning through the air, grappling desperately until Kal shook him off and struck him down.
It seemed to take forever, but as the last of the Kryptonians turned tail or went spinning earthward, J'onn's calm mental voice informed them the skirmish had taken five minutes. "The second wave from the east will be here in less than a minute," he added.
The six of them re-assembled in the air. Guy Gardner's lip was bleeding but it was stretched in a fierce smile; beyond that none of them were injured. They turned eastward, where the sky boiled with approaching Kryptonians, almost twice as many as in the first assault. "They'll have the Crimson Guard with them," warned Kal. "They're all older Kryptonians, combat-trained, the best fighters of Krypton."
"My father is at their head," Kara noted, her mental voice strained.
"Can you talk to him?" asked Hal. "Stall. We don't need to defeat them. We only need to keep them from locating and destroying the command center another ten minutes."
"I can try," she said, but there was no hope in her voice.
At the forefront of the wave of Kryptonians Kal could make out his uncle, Zor-El. "Father!" cried Kara across the space between them. "We must talk. We don't want to--"
< Traitors! > Zor's voice howled across the narrowing gap. < Faithless, wretched--you shall burn forever in Cythonna's icy grasp after we tear you limb from limb! >
"My ring didn't get all that," said Jordan evenly, "But I get the impression talking isn't high on his list of things to do."
< Ungrateful vipers! > Zor's face was contorted with rage. < I should have left both of you to die with my worthless brother! > At the last words, his heat vision lanced out, closing the gap. Kara cried out in shock and pain and clapped a hand to her shoulder, and Kal and J'onn surged forward as one to crash into the oncoming rush of Kryptonians.
Everything dissolved into chaos, a maelstrom of red and green light, heat vision versus green energy. Vast emerald walls sprang up around the mountain, a massive edifice, and through the link Kal could feel Stewart's satisfaction. Nearby, Guy was unleashing furious bolts of crackling power, his fury surprisingly focused and devastating. Zor-El was lost in the tumult, but Kal caught a brief glimpse of a vast, scaled dragon like an alien nightmare twining through the battle, teeth clashing, and felt J'onn's cold and implacable anger within the form.
Cousin? Kal reached for Kara and found her in pain but fighting, her blows driving back a score of Kryptonians. The Lanterns were channeling the fight with great gleaming barricades, keeping it from reaching the mountain, pushing it back. A form broke through their line and Kal darted forward to wrestle it backwards, feeling heat vision score his chest. For a brief moment his eyes locked with Vek-Ozh's, and Kal saw mad hatred flare in them, but he threw his classmate backward, sent him tumbling into a wall of green energy, stunned and disoriented.
The battle seemed to go on interminably, the yellow sun beating down upon them. Kal could feel burns and welts along his back and chest, aching. Seven minutes left, J'onn's voice intoned in his mind. Hold the line. Hold--
And without warning the mental link was gone, vanished like a burst bubble, leaving Kal's mind strangely empty. He reeled, reaching--and heard a scream of agony pierce through the air: not J'onn.
Kara.
His cousin rose like a star into the midst of the battle, an avenging spirit, and all fell before her. Kal caught a glimpse of her eyes: they were bereft of sanity, bereft of hope. Her cape was in tatters, her hair a wild corona around her head. The Lanterns were reduced to merely corralling the other Kryptonians as she scythed through them.
< You! > Kal heard the clarion call and saw Zor-El barrelling toward him. < This is all your fault! You have corrupted my daughter, betrayed your race! I shall rip you apart as I ripped apart her demon lover! >
The two collided with a crack of compressed air, Kal standing his ground against his uncle. "Me? No, this is your fault, uncle!" he cried in English over the sound of Kara's desolate keening. "Your fault for your overweening pride and cruelty! Yours!" With a strength he hardly knew he had, he drove his uncle toward the earth. "You abandoned my parents to die because they opposed your mad dreams of power! You warped our people into tyrants and slavers!" With a desperate, furious blow he slammed Zor into the rocky ground, sending waves of shattered earth in every direction. He landed beside his uncle and slammed his head against the ground again, nearly sobbing with rage. "It ends here!"
Zor glared at him, his face streaked with blood and grime. < You seek to shame me by forcing me to kiss your filthy dirt. But it is you who shall be humiliated! > With a surging roundhouse, he threw Kal into the air; Kal felt his arms and legs grabbed and pinioned by members of the Crimson Guard, yanked backwards until he gritted his teeth in pain. As Zor-El lifted himself into the air and fastidiously bushed dirt from his clothes, a soldier slammed a fist heavily into Kal's gut, knocking the wind from him. < Make him hurt before he dies, > Zor said casually. < As for me, I have larger game to hunt. > As Kal endured a volley of kicks and blows--one connected with his temple and he felt blood trickling down his forehead, into his eyes--he turned his attention to the mountains below them.
Kal blinked blood like tears out of his eyes, reaching with his mind for Kara, the Lanterns, anyone, but the link was gone and he was alone. How long until high noon? He couldn't tell anymore, it felt like years had gone by while he hung in pain, why was the sky still blue and the light still yellow? His uncle's scanning gaze passed over the mountains, and then his eyes widened.
< I see you now, you burrowing worms, > he crowed. His eyes narrowed and Kal saw them kindle into scarlet light.
With a wild cry, he threw off his tormentors, sending them flying, and launched himself in front of his uncle. Searing pain in his shoulder, agony that he flew through to collide with Zor, sending them spinning through the air. "No more!" he cried. "No more!"
Zor-El's hands managed to close around Kal's throat; Kal could feel the knuckles grinding into his larynx, cutting off his speech. He struggled for breath and found none. No air. No breath. His vision went scarlet at the edges, the world growing dim, blood-soaked and hazy.
And then suddenly red light flooded the whole sky.
Kal could see the horror in his uncle's eyes, the realization. < No, > he whispered.
And then they both started to fall.
: : :
Wind snatched the air from Kal's lungs as he fell, the ground rushing to meet him, vast and rocky. At least I'll die on the earth, he thought briefly, inanely. Zor-El's hands were still locked around his throat, cutting off the air as they both tumbled downward.
They were almost at impact when green tendrils of light reached down, curled around his arms and legs. They were thready, overextended, but Kal stopped falling with an abrupt jolt. He heard a dull snapping noise and felt pain lancing up his left arm; his uncle's hands were ripped from his throat, nails scoring his flesh as Zor-El continued his downward plunge. Kal-El reached for him and caught only a fringe of cloth that tore away in his hand. Zor-El's eyes glaring mad defiance were the last thing he saw before he closed his eyes.
He felt the green light give way as if exhausted of power, the emerald threads dissipating, and Kal started to fall once more.
He landed in a patch of sagebrush and briars. Despite the cushioning brush the wind was driven from his lungs. He lay under the dull purple sky, feeling a thousand fresh scratches burning his skin, his arm screaming in agony, and couldn't seem to move.
"In the name of the Green Lantern Corps, I command you to stand down!" An unfamiliar woman's voice, strangely-accented, resonated eerily from the sky, amplified in some way. "Guy Gardner, Hal Jordon, John Stewart, you have violated Regulation Three Six Five Point Two regarding--"
"Katma!" John Stewart's voice also carried easily to Kal's ears. He pried open his eyes to see the three human Green Lanterns hanging in the air high above, captured in energy bubbles created by a dark-skinned alien woman in a Lantern Costume. Behind her, the sky was filled with Corps members of every size and shape. "Katma," repeated Stewart, "We surrender ourselves willingly to the Corps for judgment. But we request the Corps take action to stop the genocide unfolding on our planet--"
"The genocide your people are perpetrating?" the woman said scornfully. But then she seemed to relent. "Even now the Corps is interceding to save the Kryptonians you have robbed of their powers. They shall be taken from this planet and resettled...somewhere more appropriate. Somewhere uninhabited, with a red sun." She considered the three humans for a long moment. "The Guardians have been...concerned about the Kryptonians for some time now. But you three must still face judgment on Oa."
Stewart, Jordan, and Gardner bowed their heads--Gardner the last and most slowly. "We submit to the will of the Guardians," said Stewart.
"It was totally worth it to finally kick some ass," Guy muttered, his amplified voice echoing against the mountainsides.
"Come, then," said the woman, and soared away, the three green spheres trailing after.
Kal closed his eyes again as they disappeared. With a horrible shock he realized he could hear hardly anything; had he been deafened in the battle? Then he realized it was just the muffling of his senses caused by the red sun. He could hear weeping and cries of pain faintly in the distance, curses in Kryptonian. He managed to sit up before the pain in his arm caused the world to tilt sideways and disappear for a while.
: : :
"He's with us, I tell you. You can't take him." There was a shadow falling across Kal; it took him a moment to recognize Bruce's voice. What was Bruce doing out here, away from the safety of the base? He tried to ask, but his mouth wasn't moving.
"What if he wants to go with his own people, huh?" The other voice was a deep, rumbling bass. "Maybe he wants to stay with them when they go."
There was a small silence. "He might," Bruce said. "I've...never had the chance to ask him. He might want to leave." There was an odd, aching sound underneath Bruce's voice, a hoarseness Kal had never heard before. "But for now, let me get him back to safety. Please." The unseen Green Lantern made an uncertain growling noise. "The two of us can get back without assistance. Help the others. And if you find a woman wearing this same costume, please...help her."
"Stubborn poozer, ain't you?" said the Lantern. "Good luck to you both, then. I'll come back and get him later if he wants to leave the planet."
There was a cold breeze playing over Kal; the red light provided no warmth. He felt himself shivering. "Kal," whispered Bruce as if to himself. "Don't leave me now."
He pried his eyes open and Bruce's face swam into view. "Never," Kal managed, his voice thready and weak. Bruce's eyes widened. "I'll never leave you. If you'll have me. If you'll let me stay on this world."
The red light and pain were doing odd things to Kal's vision; Bruce's eyes seemed strange somehow, glimmering with light and something else. "I wasn't sure," he said, his voice low and rough. "I wasn't sure if you'd want to go to your peoples' new home."
Sensation was coming back into Kal's hands. He could feel Bruce's fingers gripping his and clasped them as tightly as he could in weakened fingers. "You are my people. This is my home."
Bruce scrubbed his sleeve across his eyes briefly, looking away, then met Kal's gaze again. "Can you stand?"
"I can try."
It took them a while, but eventually Kal was more or less standing, Bruce supporting him with an arm slung under Kal's good arm. The other hung awkwardly and Kal bit his lip and hissed a breath when it was jostled. White vapor hung on the cold air. "We're pretty close to the entrance of the base," Bruce said. "We'll take it slow."
"Sorry," Kal muttered, wavering on his feet and trying to get his balance. "Sorry to be a burden."
Bruce's laugh was so quiet it hardly shook the shoulder supporting Kal. "It's not a problem. Okay. Ready? Nice and slow."
Kal took his first tiny step, feeling gravity drag at his feet for the first time, the way the ground pulled him downward. Another step. Another. His feet stirred the frosted dust. He leaned heavily on Bruce's arm.
Together, they moved forward.
: : :
Later, Kal would hear about how Bruce Wayne had seen him plummet from the bloody sky and had bolted for the exit, shouldering aside all who tried to stop him in his haste. "You don't need me now," he had shouted over his shoulder at an apoplectic Carter Hall, "And he does."
Later, as he lay in the infirmary, he would see Alan Scott, his face streaked with blood, his arm around a stone-faced Dinah. "He's just missing," Dinah said, her voice flat. "Ollie's a stubborn one, nothing can keep him away for long. He'll turn up like a bad penny, you just wait and see." Alan nodded and his arm tightened on her shoulder briefly.
Later, he would sit by his cousin's side and whisper her name, hearing the sounds of celebration starting to ring through the grim mountain halls. Kara would turn her face to the wall, her eyes distant and dull as if listening for vanished music, heedless of the sounds of joy.
Later, he would see the footage of Lex Luthor's glorious raid on the Metropolis prison. Clad in a massive battle-suit, flanked by two tall women with pistols that shot green energy--Kal would blink to recognize Hope and Mercy, their long hair lifting in the heat-shimmer of burning buildings--Luthor ripped open the prison walls to free Selina. As the sky went scarlet and chaos reigned, he took her hands in the public square and went to one armored knee to ask her to rule at his side as the Lord and Lady of Metropolis. The massed human mob cheered in a frenzy of joy before turning on the dazed, fallen Kryptonians--just as the sky filled with Green Lanterns.
Later, he would hear Diana laugh as she described the end of the battle. "And then these strange ships came up out of the water and dumped a bunch of half-drowned Kryptonians on the beach, and he came striding up out of the sea and glared at me and said, 'Don't dump your trash in my kingdom.' The arrogant, high-handed gall of the man..." She laughed again and shook her head. "Kal, I think I'm in love."
Later.
For now, it was just the two of them, moving step by careful step together. By the time they reached the entrance, Kal was gasping for breath in the thin air, every scratch and bruise on his body burning. His knees buckled and he reeled against Bruce. Bruce held him up, and Kal found himself almost nose to nose with the other man, their breath mingling between them in plumes of mist. Kal found himself leaning forward as if the earth's gravity was pulling him--but Bruce turned his head aside to look out across the landscape, dark red in the setting sun.
"Look," he whispered. "Look, Kal." Kal turned to look across the rocky terrain, the mountains rising into the dusky sky. Beside him, Bruce continued, his voice yearning with a dawning wonder: "Welcome to the new world, Kal. Our world."
Kal turned back to look at Bruce again and this time Bruce's mouth was there waiting for him, as simple and as sweet as that. Bruce's lips were cold but his breath was hot, and for a moment all of Kal's injuries vanished in a flood of warmth and delight. "Welcome home," Bruce whispered into his mouth, into his heart, and Kal tasted the words like honey, echoed them back.
Welcome home.