Chapter 9: A Temporary Pause
Diana is covering the wound on her hip, since it is the worst, with her hand trying to staunch the flow of blood while she both waits for her rapid healing to at least stem the flow and watches her mother fight Artemis. There is little she can do for the scratches Cheetah inflicted on her back, arm and leg at the moment.
Diana watches on as her mother and Artemis exchange blows and little else. There are no words. Words are not necessary. There is only one way this is ending. When one of the two combatants is dead.
Sparks fly as Hippolyta and Artemis' swords clash. Strike and counterstrike are exchanged at an increasing pace as each tries to find the weakness in the other's defence. Hippolyta was using all of her 3 thousands years of experience not to let her emotions get the better of her. The sight of her daughter being attacked had lit a rage inside her she had not felt in quite some considerable time but she would not allow that to be her weakness.
Artemis on the other hand was rapidly losing control of her temper. By any and all Gods who could hear her why did Hippolyta have to show up at the very moment of her victory...of her revenge! She strikes at Hippolyta with all her rage and fury. It is a clumsy crude move for someone with Artemis' skill and she pays for it when she feels the sudden cold pain that comes from steel penetrating her stomach. Artemis looks down to see Hippolyta's sword, the one Hephaestus made for the Amazon Queen, has manage to penetrate right through her armour.
It is then that both Hippolyta and Diana are struck by a strange sound. Laughter. Artemis is laughing. She turns her head to look directly into Diana's eyes "I may have fallen today Princess but in the end you will join me in losing everything."
Before Diana can ask what Artemis means she slumps forward into Hippolyta's arms as the life fades from the former Leader of the Bana. Hippolyta soon lays Artemis' body down before she hastily moves to her daughter to check up on her wounds.
"Diana are you alright?" Hippolyta asks with all the motherly concern she possesses within her being.
"I will be," Diana replies. "But Mother what are you doing here?" she asks with an odd quizzical tone.
Hippolyta tears some of her own tunic as a temporary bandage for Diana's wounds and replies in a rhetorical fashion "Themyscira's most notorious prisoner vanishes and you expect me not to hear of it?"
Diana had to concede that point. "How did you find me?" she asks.
"The Oracle had a vision of you in danger," Hippolyta explains simply and once the Oracle showed her where to go that was all she needed to know for her to quickly retrieve the Gauntlet and the Sandals and make her way here with all haste.
Diana winces slightly as her mother tends to her. "It was a trap," Diana tells her mother.
Hippolyta looks around at the other fallen women who, still alive or not, were not moving. "Set by who?" she asks her daughter.
"I am uncertain although Artemis mentioned that Ares helped her escape."
Hippolyta's expression darkens. That immoral sorry excuse for a God dared to set foot on Themyscira and worse dared to assist in an attempt to take her daughter's life. Hippolyta may just have to see about sending Ares to Tartarus sometime soon.
Just then Diana's League communicator goes off. "Wonder Woman here."
"Diana," J'onn's voice speaks with some relief. "Are you alright?"
"Mostly," she chooses to reply with. "I was ambushed," she goes on to say.
"So have many others," J'onn informs her.
Diana frowns. "What do you mean?"
"We are under attack Diana. Someone sabotaged the communication system and has been sending the others into their own traps. Many are hurt. Some I can't reach at all. I fear..." J'onn trails off not wanting to finish that sentence but Diana can. Oh Great Hera. Her friends.
"We are trying to regroup. Can you get back to the headquarters?"
"Yes. I will be there as quickly as I can," she tells J'onn.
"Very well and Diana one more thing."
"Yes?" she queries wondering what else J'onn can possible wish to say right now. What J'onn tells her makes her blood freeze in her veins.
"I can't reach Superman."
"Is that really necessary?" Connor just has to ask as his father makes sure Cassie is securely restrained to the wall in a small room down on the bottom level of this complex. Where his father got restraints strong enough to hold her Connor had no idea but since she is still unconscious and clearly hurt he is not happy at all about the way his father is treating her.
Lex barely glances at Kon-El. His son had just added a complication he could do without and although Lex knows that he should just kill Wonder Girl he has a feeling that Kon-El would physically try to oppose him and Lex does not have the time right now to deal with that so he'll deal with both Wonder Girl and his son later after his plans have reached their finale. Lex doubles check the chains. They were of an alloy that he was confident that Wonder Girl here could not break. Now he turns his attention to his son. "In case you have forgotten she is our enemy."
Connor fights back an urge to say that she is not his enemy. He is certain his father would not approve of that. "I couldn't let her die," he says in a whisper.
With a small shake of his head Lex tries to force back the headache he can feel coming on. He had suspected this but had hoped he was mistaken. Kon-El has fallen in love with this girl and it was obviously severely weakening the programming in Kon-El's mind. Lex isn't quite ready to give up on Kon-El but he is certainly going to have to do some reconditioning later when he has the time which again he doesn't right now. "Since I do not have time for a debate right now I will leave the issue of what to do with her until later. You may treat her injuries but she is not to be released from her restraints under any circumstances. Am I clear Kon-El?"
"Yes father," Connor replies dutifully which in itself is strange. When he saved Cassie he knew he was disobeying his father but he did it anyway but as soon as he came here, the only place he could think of to come, he found himself obeying his father's instructions again like a good little soldier or something and he doesn't know why. When he was flying here he was furious at his father for what had happened to Cassie but as soon as he saw his father it was like something in his brain clicked on, his rage subsided and the voice in his head reminded him that a son obeys his father which is what he has done.
Satisfied for now that Kon-El will obey him Lex turns and leaves the room. Outside he has posted two of the men he has hired to assist in this plot. Normally he left them up top guarding the entrance but he needed them down here now. "She does not leave that room under any circumstances," he commands. The two men nod their obedience. At this point Metallo walks up to Lex.
"The survivors are regrouping at their HQ just like you said," Metallo informs Lex.
"Good. Signal the surviving members of our alliance to head there too. The time is nearing for the final showdown." Lex then checks his watch and mentally works out how long that will take. Hmm well it isn't too long. The League will only get a temporary pause and not a real rest-bite from his assault. "Right I have to check up on the surprise guest I have for the League. Once you have sent the signal keep an eye on Superman for me in case he tries something foolish and if he does remember to leave him alive. I want him to see everything he has created fall before I bring his life to an end."
"You're the boss," Metallo replies obediently and truthfully he liked this idea of making Superman watch what was about to happen. The overgrown Boy Scout deserved to suffer before his end.
"Hello Connor."
Connor blinks in surprise that he had been noticed. He had left Cassie to find some supplies to treat her wounds when he just had the urge that he had to go see Superman. He had never known exactly what his father planned for Superman and to see him in this room whose walls were glowing green with kryptonite was not nearly as much a surprise as the fact that in the room with Superman were two small children. Connor moves closer to the window or as close as he can get. The room is lead lined. The window is not and he can feel some of the kryptonite radiation affecting him.
"Are you going to say anything?" Clark asks him. "Or just stand there looking at me?"
"Who are they?" he asks in reference to the children.
Clark looks at Jon and Lara in his arms. They were getting sicker all the time which was breaking his heart. They were at the point they could no longer stay awake. He reckoned they only had a few hours left before the kryptonite killed them and he had yet to figure out a way out of this and therefore is failing in his one major duty as a father and that is to protect his children. It wasn't like he hadn't tried but he couldn't get near the door or the window without the radiation dropping him to his knees. His failure to protect his children is destroying him from the inside and if they were to actually die...
Clark shakes his head trying to drive any such thoughts from his head. He can't allow himself to think like that if he is to escape. He looks back up at Connor whom he spotted peeking in. "They are my children," he tells Connor.
"Children?!" Connor repeats in utter surprise. "How?" he asks as in how was that possible.
"Did it never occur to you that I would have a life beyond being Superman? That I might have a wife and family? After all you are dating Cassie."
No it had not occurred to Connor. "But why are they here?"
"Because Lex thinks that two 3 year old children are a threat that has to be removed. Two innocent children who have done nothing." Clark stares hard into Connor's eyes. "Two innocent lives you are helping to end."
Connor swallows a lump that has suddenly formed in his throat. Helping rid the world of the League is one thing but his father never said anything about having to harm children. "I'm sure my father has his reasons," he says not sounding too convinced. Something Clark picks up on.
"Why are you doing this Connor? Why are you helping Lex destroy your friends?"
Connor hesitates for a second before answering. "The League is a threat to the freedoms of the world. My father simply wishes to remove this threat and as his son it is my duty to assist and obey him."
Huh. Clark knows a conditioned reply when he hears it but there is a major flaw in Connor's reasoning. "Is that so? Is that why you saved Cassie? I am assuming that is what you did to make Lex so angry." Clark had picked up that utterly annoyed expression of Lex's face when Connor showed up. He had seen it too many times not to notice. Of course generally Clark himself is the cause of that expression.
"I couldn't...I wouldn't...she was going to die. I could not let her die."
"Because you love her," Clark fills in for his clone.
"I..." Connor stops and takes a few moments as he thinks it over and comes to only one possible conclusion. "Yes. I do. I love her."
"And what do you think she will think of you once she learns that you have helped kill her friends, not to mention two children she treats like family?"
Connor's face shows the mixture of conflicting feelings raging inside him. "I don't have a choice."
"Yes you do," Clark tries to make Connor understand. "You always have a choice Connor. No matter what Lex has filled your mind with the power to choose your own destiny is and always has been in your own hands."
Connor's gaze drifts to the door to his right. It would be so easy for him just to go over there and open it. Then innocents would not have to die and Cassie may be able to forgive him for what he has done thus far.
"Connor," Clark says to get his attention. "I can guess what Lex has filled your head with but over these months I have watched you grow. You are a good person. You have helped save many innocent people. You are not someone who will stand by while other good people suffer and die and that is what is going to happen unless Lex is stopped."
"It's too late," Connor says in a mournful whisper that Clark barely hears.
"It is never too late to do the right thing," Clark tells him. "And if you help me it may not be too late to save our friends and to get Cassie the help she needs."
Connor takes one step towards the door and for a moment Clark's hopes rise that he may be able to escape and save his children but the hope only lasts a second.
"Hey!" Metallo shouts as he returns from carrying out Lex's instructions. "What are you doing in here?" he demands to know of Connor.
Connor's thought of opening the door flees his head. He quickly straightens out his emotions before he turns to look at Metallo. "I was just looking," he explains.
Metallo eyes the kid suspiciously. "Yeah well this isn't a petting zoo. Go and take care of your girlfriend and I'll keep an eye on the Boy Scout and his brats."
Connor moves to the far side of the room while Metallo passes him by on the other. He soon enters the corridor and heads back down the level to where Cassie is while he contemplates what he was about to do. What was he about to do?
'The right thing,' a little voice in his head tells him.
God why and when had this gotten so complicated. His father had never said anything that it would be this difficult or that he would feel this bad. As he nears the room Cassie is in he can't get the image of the pale, sickly look of Superman's children. Is this who he is now? The aider and abettor of the murder of children who are too young to have done anything wrong?
He enters the room where Cassie is chained to the wall and hanging limply since she is still out. His heart constricts painfully at the sight of her. God, any god who is listening, what has he become and what is he suppose to do?
Diana sits on a bed in the infirmary while her wounds are bandaged properly. It had been a difficult decision for her to come here upon learning that no-one could reach Kal. She just had to have faith that he was alright because right now her friends needed her. She hopes that Kal understands. The infirmary is overflowing. It seems that that virtually every member of the League had been sent into traps and worse a third of them could now not be reached at all. Diana had great fears for their well-being.
Diana turns her gaze across the room where her mother is helping treat the seriously injured. Her mother is a very skilled healer.
"There," J'onn says as he finishes on dressing Diana's wounds. "How does that feel?"
Diana takes a moment to test it. "It is fine. Thank you J'onn."
J'onn's look is grave. "Diana. There is something else you should know."
Oh Hera! Not more bad news.
J'onn decides to just say it. "Kyle is amongst the missing."
"What!!!"
Both turn their heads to the source of that loud exclamation. Oh Gods. Donna!
"What do you mean Kyle is missing??!!" Donna demands to know. Despite her pregnancy she still had her own communicator and had heard J'onn's general call to everyone about what was going on and for them to regroup and since she knew Kyle had been called out her fears for him had motivated her to come to the League HQ.
Hippolyta quickly moves over to her younger daughter. In her condition she really shouldn't be stressing herself like this. "Donna. Remain calm," she instructs.
Donna turn her head. "Mother I say this with all due respect but don't tell me to stay calm when the father of my child is missing on a night when we are under siege!!!" Donna's hands are stroking the small bump under the shirt she is wearing.
Diana gingerly gets up off the bed and moves to her sister. "Donna. Please. I know how you feel."
"Do you?" she asks not very convinced.
"Yes I do because no-one can reach Kal either. I don't even know where Jon and Lara are right now or if they are safe. I..." Diana trails off and raises a shaky hand to her head as her emotions suddenly threaten to overwhelm her.
Donna's anger fades. Oh Gods. What a nightmare this situation is. "I'm sorry Diana. I didn't know."
Diana takes a calming breath. This situation is the one she and Kal have always feared the most. The one where they would have to choose between helping save people or saving their children or each other. She had prayed that a day like this would never happen but here it is and she is having to make the choice and it is not to abandoned all else to search for her family. Whatever is going on seems designed to remove the League and Diana suspects that that is only the beginning of something because without the League there is nothing to protect the people of Earth. She turns to J'onn. "What is the latest status on League members?" she asks him.
"We are down to about half strength if you subtract the missing and the injured," J'onn informs her.
"Maybe we should call in some help from Young Justice to help?" she suggests.
"Good idea in practice," a new voice says. All turn to see an obviously beaten and hurt Robin at the doorway. "But the reality is that the League were not the only ones to be attacked tonight." Behind Robin Diana can see other members of Young Justice, many hurt, some being carried or held up.
This can only mean one thing and that is that this is even bigger than they thought.
"J'onn," Diana says taking charge. "Tell everyone who is able that we are having an emergency meeting in 15 minutes."
J'onn nods in agreement.
Diana pushes any remaining thoughts about looking for Kal to the back of her mind. This is a serious situation that needs her total focus. She will just have to have faith in her husband that he, and by extension their children, are alright.
Connor gently washes the blood off Cassie. With that removed he is relieved to see that her wounds aren't as serious as he feared they were. He moves the damp cloth to her face and washes the blood away to reveal her beautiful innocent face. Connor can't help but stroke her cheek gently. At that Cassie starts to stir. Her eyes flicker open and take a moment to focus on him. "Connor?" she queries before she tries to move only to find she is restrained by chains.
Cassie tests their strength and finds she can't break them, at least not easily. "Connor. Help me," she requests.
"I can't," he replies.
"What do you mean you can't?" Cassie asks incredulously.
"Because I told him not to."
Cassie gaze shifts to the door across from her to reveal a bald man in a expensive looking suit. He looks kinda familiar she thinks. "Who are you?"
"Oh how terribly rude of me not to introduce myself. I am 'Connor's' father but you can call me Lex Luthor."
Cassie's mind reels. She has heard all the stories about Lex Luthor and "What do you mean you are his father?" she asks of Lex.
"Oh I created him. In fact I used my own DNA to stabilise his genetic structure so in every sense I am his father and he is my son and that is why you are currently restrained as you are. I feared you may not react too well to learning the truth upon waking up."
"What truth?"
"Oh the truth about how my son here has set in motion the fall of your Justice League. In fact thanks to his actions a third of them have already fallen and the rest will follow soon enough."
Cassie can't believe it. She won't. "You're lying." She turns her head to look at Connor. "He's lying right?" she asks of him. "Tell me he's lying," she begs.
Connor's gaze falls to the floor. "I am so sorry Cassie," he says at a whisper.
Tears fill Cassie eyes. "Why?" she just has to know.
"Because a son always obeys his father," Lex answers for Kon-El. Lex checks his watch again. "Right well I have the finale to see to so I'll leave you two love-birds alone to sort out your issues."
Lex leaves and Cassie turns her now furious gaze at Connor. "I trusted you," she spits out in fury as tears of hurt at Connor's betrayal sting her eyes. "I gave you a chance. I told the others that if they gave you a chance you wouldn't let them down but you have done far worse haven't you. You have betrayed us all."
"Cassie I...," Connor begins to say but Cassie cuts him off.
"Gods I am an idiot!"
Connor's head shoots up at that comment. "No Cassie!" he says. He hates the idea that she thinks she is stupid in anyway.
"Yes I am. I should have kept our relationship professional. Watched you like I was suppose to. Then maybe I would have seen what you were. Then maybe I would never have allowed myself to fall in lov..." she bites her tongue cutting off what she was about to say.
Connor's eyes widen. "Never allowed yourself to what Cassie?" he asks with great trepidation and a small bit of hope.
Cassie allows her head to drop so she doesn't have to look at him. "Doesn't matter anymore does it. I'll be dead soon."
Connor shakes his head. "No you won't. I won't allow anyone to hurt you," he promises her.
Cassie laughs, a bitter scornful laugh. "Oh so it is only our friends, our team-mates you allow harm to come to."
"I had no choice," he says as unconvincingly as he said it earlier to Superman.
"Yes you did."
Connor bows his head once more. "Yes I did."
Cassie raises her gaze, a little surprised that he said it. "What is it you did exactly?" she asks him having to know what is going on.
Connor tells her. Tells her about him rigging the communication system and how it was used to send everyone into traps and that his father is now planning something to finish off the League one and for all although he does not know what.
"Release me Connor. It isn't too late to help them. It is not too late to do the right thing."
"That's what he said."
"Who said?"
"Superman."
"Superman?" Cassie queries.
"My father has him a few levels up. Him and his children."
"What!!!" Cassie shrieks. "He has Jon and Lara???!!!"
Connor nods. "In a room surrounded by kryptonite."
Cassie's mind works fast. Kryptonite will kill Jon and Lara. She has to act now. "Connor release me," she orders of him. Connor doesn't move. "Connor if you ever want the possibility that I can forgive you one day you will release me. Then we will go save Superman, Jon and Lara and while we are at it kick your father's butt from here to the moon and back. Otherwise all I can promise you is that I will go to my grave hating you with every fibre of my being."
Connor looks at Cassie and in his eyes she can see the conflict raging within him. The conflict between the part of him that was programmed in him to obey his father and another part which has grown up during the time he has spent being Superboy. The part of him he learned from his friends, his team-mates. The part of him that is saying that he has to do the right thing no matter how hard that may be. Cassie locks her eyes with his desperately hoping to reach this latter part of him. "Connor. Release me."
Diana sat down in a chair, still in some pain and discomfort wishing her healing abilities would work faster, in the rather overcrowded conference room where those still able to stand from the League and its Young Justice counterpart were gathered to pull their information together and get to the bottom of just what is going on, who is behind this attack on them and how have they managed to accomplish it.
What catches Diana's attention more right at this instant is not how many of them are here but how many of them aren't. Black Canary was back in Star City. Dinah was alright. She was just looking after her daughter because Green Arrow is amongst the missing. Her mother was comforting Donna somewhere at the moment over Kyle's absence. Hawkman was also missing along with Steel and Vixen and Ice and Animal Man and Elongated Man and many more Diana almost wishes she hadn't noticed were not here. Aquaman, from what J'onn heard, was wounded down in Atlantis as he too was ambushed but he should make a full recovery.
Diana shakes her head as she tries to take all this in. Hera who had done this to them. Who had attacked them and left many missing and seriously hurt and even the ones that were one here at this meeting, some were walking wounded. Shayera, broken wing and all, was here and heaven help anyone that tried to stop her from being here. Flash was alright. Diana had seen him eat about half the commissary stock which is of course no indication of anything since Flash will eat anywhere, any time, under any circumstances. Bruce didn't seem too badly hurt although he is good at hiding his feelings so Diana can't be sure that he isn't hurt more than he is letting on. Right now he is chatting to Robin and Nightwing as they compare notes.
J'onn calls the meeting to order and the plethora of voices draw silent. Just as he about to summarise everything he is interrupted by an alarm going off. The collective group of heroes quickly stream out of the room to the Monitoring Womb where J'onn flicks up a camera. The alarm that had gone off was the perimeter one around the League Headquarters and on the monitor the image that came up was a depressing one for they who had been ambushed and attacked at all angles. On the monitor was a large group of their many enemies. The ones who had been victorious in their ambushes. The more notable ones at first glance being Atomic Skull, Killer Frost, Livewire, Copperhead, Star Sapphire, Parasite...to name but a few.
The League members rush outside to confront this Legion of villains head on. If it was a fight they wanted then the League members were in such a mood that they would be only too glad to give them a fight.
As the two forces line up a round flat metal device is tossed from the group of villains to land in-between them. A beam of light shoots upward from it that projects a hologram. A hologram of a certain bald-headed man.
"Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen. For those that don't know I am Lex Luthor. No doubt it is dawning on you that I am the one behind everything that has been going on. Before this night reaches its conclusion I just wanted you to know that."
"What do you want Luthor?" Batman asks him.
"Your deaths," Lex answers simply. "Now I'm guessing you are surprised to hear me admit it but I had many, many years in prison," Lex says that with obvious bitterness at his incarceration, "to observe the world and come to one inevitable conclusion. That for humanity to stand any chance at survival the super-human must be eliminated. Towards that end I would like to draw your attention to the 18-wheeler across the street." All head turns to note a large truck with trailer parked conspicuously nearby. Then a loud inhuman roar echoes from inside the trailer.
"Behold your Doomsday."
Suddenly the side of the truck is torn open and standing there is this huge inhuman creature with grey skin and bony protrusions all over its body. The same one Lex stole from Cadmus and had spent the last few months reconditioning its mind to make it obey only him. The creature lets out another roar and leaps high into the sky. It lands with great force right in the middle of the group of villains and with one mighty swing of its arm it sends several flying through the air with cuts, broken bones and even more severe injuries.
Star Sapphire who had been swiped and a gash torn in her side crawls to pick up the communication disk. "Lex!" she screams into it with her English accent. "That thing is attacking us!" It was only suppose to attack the League. That was the plan and then she and the others would wipe up what was left.
Lex, the image of Lex, shakes his head and looks to the heavens. "Oh Lord you gave them ears to hear but they do not listen." He then looks coldly right at Star Sapphire. "Super-humans are a threat that needs to be eliminated. All super-humans."
That is when it dawns on Star Sapphire. "You...this what you were planning all along. To get us all in one place where you get rid of us all in one go."
"Well not all of you but the vast majority yes," Lex confirms for her with a cruel smile. Then a shadow looms over Star Sapphire and Doomsday's foot comes crashing down. There is a scream, the sound of bones breaking and back in Lex's hideout the screen that was showing the transmitted image fills with static as the signal cuts out. The pause is over. The curtain has risen on the final scene which is about to play out. Lex's victory is at hand and then finally he can assume the destiny that has been denied to him for too long. Lex reaches for a cigar out of his pocket, cuts the end off and lights it. He puts it in his mouth as he can't help but quote a certain cigar smoking tv character with a cheery smile on his face. "I love it when a plan comes together."
Author's Note: You can take the last line as a note that I am looking forward very much to the upcoming A-Team movie. I loved that show. Anyway that aside I'll say my usual thanks to everyone who has written reviews.
