The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[AmenRa]

BRAINIAC bounced off the rock wall of the cave. The disc was ripped from its hand. A rock struck its head.

But none of this mattered. It had already uploaded its artificial intelligence sub routines into the console. The ancient crystal power source had been activated. It took exactly 18.7 seconds for the power source to come on-line. Then all it took was a singular over-the-air broadcast command from the BRAINIAC to activate the console.

And the portal was opened.

The BRAINIAC turned his head to view the Wraith. And it smiled. Then it simply disolved into a molten puddle of black oil which dissipated into the air. The disk, however, stayed wrapped in its new cocoon, pinned against the wall. It would be an artifact to be studied by someone some other time.

Outside, the black ship pulsed again, the ground vibrating and breaking around it. It began to rise into the air, and then it simply disappeared.

Var-Sen weakly looked over near the entrance to the cave where a rip in space/time opened. First, there was blackness. Then there was a swirling vortex of shiny reflection. He took a deep breath. He and Nam-Ek were closest to the opening, and because of this, he and Nam-Ek were pulled into it.

Var-Sen released his hold on the soldier. Nam-Ek slid across the ground and then went airborne, slipping quietly into the portal. Var-Sen did not know if Nam-Ek was alive or not. Nor did he care.

Var-Sen was too weak to hold on. He found a last reserve of strength from somewhere and dug into the ground, piercing rock with his hand to find purchase. He looked up and saw Rose. He swallowed his fear and he gave her a smile. He then reached into his pocket and took out a palm-sized crystal. It was in the shape of the symbol of the House of El.

Hope.

He flung it towards Rose as best as he could. "Give that to Kara!" he yelled over the sudden rushing of wind. "Tell her it will guide her destiny! She will know what to do with it, how to use it!"

Var-Sen slipped.

He looked to Jamie, then to Ceri, then to Bruce. He thought of Chloe.

"Tell Chloe - - -" and he slipped again.

He was too weak to hold on. He had lost too much blood. The poisonous Kryptonite still ran through him. And he would have sacrificed it all again if it meant to save those he cared about.

For a while, Var-Sen had walked among the people of Earth as an outsider, as a visitor, as an alien. But in the last few weeks, he had become part of something. He had met those that accepted him and his unique abilities without question or fear or hatred.

For a time, Var-Sen knew that he was not alone.

And for a Kryptonian stranded among humans, that was all that mattered.

And so the black void of unconsciousness and sleep overtook him, and he slipped again, and his hold upon Earth was loosened.

Var-Sen of Krypton passed through the open portal and into the Phantom Zone.

And without a sound, the portal closed behind him.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ceri, Jamie, and Rose

"You will all die," Athyr weakly rasped.

Rose staggered a bit, almost utterly exhausted.

She wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, her eyes darting gratefully to Bruce for the merest of instants before returning to the Kryptonian villainess' face.

"'Hey hey,'" Rose murmured to Athyr. "'You you. I don't like your' boyfriend."

A tear rolled down Rose's cheek.

Mourning for lost innocence.

But what is it that one woman should die, that a whole planet might survive her? What is it that one girl should grow up too soon, that a soldier of darkness might not stand back up under a yellow Sun and lay waste to a world?

What would Kyle do?

Rose had a pretty good idea.

Her hand wrapped around Athyr's throat as Var-Sen had done to Nam-Ek.

"Lumos," she whispered, her tear boiling into steam on her cheek.

Another surge of Fire stormed out of her, a flashbulb from Hell, a coruscating cleansing blast of solar-flare plasma, and reduced the now-vulnerable Athyr to molecular ash. The ash filtered through her fingers like sugar or flour, and more tears rolled down Rose's cheeks.

She sank to her knees, and watched Var-Sen vanish into The Wasteland Between The Worlds...

"Don't leave me," she whispered. "Don't leave me here alone in this horrible nonfictional place."

The Crystal of Hope spun end over end through the air towards Rose's kneeling form, and Jamie Hamilton reached up as he walked up, simple and gentle and casual, and snagged it from the air with one hand.

He looked like a mess. His blue suit was covered with dirt and meteor ash, and his face was haggard. He'd fought an alien artificial intelligence and he hadn't even held his own. But he looked... hard.

He looked ancient and hard and stern and powerful.

He held The Crystal of The House of El in one hand, and the other hand was in his pocket.

He ran his thumb over the pentagonal symbol there on The Crystal's face, over the "S"-like shape that sat in the centre of that Symbol.

"That looked like a particularly murky subdimension," he mused not irreverently, glancing down at The Crystal. "Good luck, John Smith. Best of British."

The winds had been noisy. The displacement effect caused by the extraspacial rift had caused John Smith's last words to very nearly be drowned out.

But Jamie's ears were sharp.

'Kara,' he reflected.

Ceri staggered to her feet. She felt like the left half of her face had been caved in.

But she saw her daughter in tears and she staggered across the distance between them and she wrapped her daughter up in her arms from behind, kneeling.

"You okay?" Ceri breathed into Rose's ear.

Rose shook her head. Rose nodded. Rose shook her head again, tears spilling down her face.

"I'm okay," she whimpered. "Are you okay? I saw you out there... you were like River Tam versus Sharon Ventura."

Ceri grinned and laughed softly. "You were like Johnny Storm and Bobby Drake put together."

Rose shook her head. "Little bit of Victor Creed in there, too," she whispered, gazing down at the hand that had microwaved Athyr.

Ceri hugged her tighter. "You did the right thing, Rosy. No question. The Bible says 'Thou shalt not murder.' There's no way that was murder. But right or wrong the first kill is always hard. The first few..."

Rose stared at her mother, blinking away heated tears.

"'The first few?'" she breathed, incredulous.

Ceri smiled, and blinked away a tear of her own. "We have a lot to talk about."

Jamie put The Crystal in his suit-coat's inside pocket, and turned and knelt and wrapped his arms around The Women McCrimmon.

"Molto bene," he murmured, and squeezed gently.

Ceri blinked at him, bewildered. "'Molto bene?'" she murmured. "Not bendigedig?"

"Well," Jamie began, smiling lopsidedly, "I thought," he shrugged, "big traumatic turn of events? New catchphrase."

Rose glanced up at her half-broken father, more than half-broken herself. "I love you, Dad."

"Love you too, Rosy," Jamie murmured, and kissed her on the ash-stained forehead.

"'Molto bene,'" Ceri whispered, and hugged her family tighter.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Pete

Pete leaned hard against the wall of The Cave, scrunching his eyes shut for a moment.

Then he turned his gaze upon the disk that had been glued to the wall.

He glanced over his shoulder at The Wraith.

"Nice moves," he smiled faintly, "'Ray Charles.'"

 

[ChasNicollette]

"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit."

Once every hundred years, Death spends a day as a mortal, so as to reacquaint herself with the travails and the triumphs of them whom she escorts into her realm. Ten centuries ago, Death spent her mortal day on Krypton rather than Earth, and she had quite enjoyed herself. She and Rao had been old acquaintances, after all, and His people were quite brilliant.

(A little stiff around the edges, sometimes, but brilliant. They'd reminded her of another brother of hers. They'd reminded her of Dream. And she'd been a bit of an ice-cold bitch in her day, too, so who was she to judge?

A person could change a lot in a quintet of billions of years.

Death had changed a lot.)

They were gone now, Rao's people. Save but for a few.

(One less, now, since Athyr...)

She walked through Dream's realm, now. (Speaking of people who had changed.)

She had gone into her Gallery from the run-down Soho apartment in which she'd hung with Chloe, and she had called to Dream through his Sigil.

She walked through Dream's realm, now.

A place of mists and of stories written in unconsciousness.

She walked through one dream in particular, having already conversed with Matthew and Lucien and dear, sweet Mervyn. And Daniel. Gentle Daniel.

She walked through one dream in particular, having already left those folk behind and seeking a mortal with whom she felt particular need to speak. Her big black boots cludded on the pale-white crystal floors of The Council Hall.

'Beautiful, white, shining. The Great Dome, the Council Hall, the spires of Kryptonopolis. The Great Valley, where there still stood a monument to the first of the three Great Houses, their symbols forever etched into the crystals.'

She was a little patch of black and of white in a world made of white and edged with the tiniest colour. Her ankh necklace glinted in Rao's ruddy light.

She removed her top hat out of reverence as she walked The Council Hall, and she kept her cinched-shut umbrella on her pale shoulder. She had chanced, on her day as a mortal Kryptonian, to see a meeting of The Council, to be in the balcony among the audience as the Scientists debated.

It had been quite thrilling.

She missed these people; they had been quite sad to go into The Night.

But they were all not yet gone. Not yet. Not quite yet.

She sought Var-Sen.

 

[AmenRa]

Wish that I could cry
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
About a home I'll never see

It may sound absurd, but don't be naive
Even Heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed, but won't you conceed
Even Heroes have the right to dream
It's not easy to be me
​

- - - - - - - - - -

He was no more of Earth.

He had never been, truthfully. It had been a place of refuge for him. It had been a place of hiding. A place of sanctuary.

But those from Krypton's past had found this peaceful planet. And they had come, and they had sought to destroy all that Var-Sen had come to hold so dear. And they were going to interfere with the natural motion of destiny that had been set in place so long ago for the Last Daughter of Krypton.

And for that, Var-Sen had unleashed his powers upon them.

And he had paid the ultimate price.

Or, so he thought.

He was deposited so carelessly by the vortex into the black sand and howling winds of the Phantom Zone. He slept, healing slowly, fading away at the same time.

But his subconscious mind was somewhere else.

Var-Sen looked around the Great Hall, with its pure whiteness and crystal lights, and he wondered why he was there. Perhaps this was the place he would go now that he had passed on?

No, that wasn't right. This was home. This was Krypton.

He wandered the halls for a moment, and he saw people he knew, but they didn't see him. He stopped and looked at the matrix resonator rings that he and Zor-El had just finished designing. They would keep prisoners within a confined dimension while they were being held and awaiting trial.

Var-Sen looked farther, and then he saw something that was not Kryptonian at all.

Or, rather, he saw someone.

 

[AmenRa]

Some human somewhere had said, "Good things come to those who wait."

It was true, even in the Phantom Zone.

He Who Waits had waited long enough. When the gate opened, he didn't even get a chance to fully smile his triumph before he was whisked away through the portal.

One moment, Zod was there, sitting on that same black rock, and the next he was simply...gone.

There was a brief flash of light, and then blackness. Exiting the Phantom Zone was so unlike its entry, which memory held all too well. There was another flash, and he felt himself land bodily with a thud on some soft ground.

He looked around and saw lush vegetation. The roar of a large waterfall sounded nearby. Overhead, pink and white birds flew against a blue sky.

He took in his surroundings. He touched the large leaves on a plant near him, and smelled the scent of a white orchid at his feet.

Now did he smile. Earth. Earth, at last.

- - - -

The BRAIN InterActive Construct had had to remove itself from the battle the moment its mission was complete. It had stood a danger of being destroyed, and that was something it could not allow. It knew that the portal to the Phantom Zone it opened at the cave site was an entrance; the exit would open somewhere else. So, BRAINIAC took the black ship high into orbit, and there it sat, cloaked and undetectable until it located the specific bio-signature of its Master.

- - - -

Zod took a step back as the black ship suddenly de-cloaked in front of him. He was pleased to see it in one piece. He watched it land lightly, and then open, and the BRAIN InterActive Construct emerged in its bland, humanoid form.

"Report," Zod ordered. The BRAINIAC handed its Master a change of clothes, all black, with a long, black coat that matched the coldness of Zod's eyes.

"Nam-Ek and Athyr are dead, and I have not yet uploaded my programming into the planetary defense network," it replied.

"Why?" Zod demanded an answer.

"There has been a setback," it answered. "There are other Kryptonians on Earth."

Zod raised his eyebrows. "Really?" he questioned, "and who are the 'other' Kryptonians?"

"One is a scientist assigned to a research team that was abandoned here some time ago," BRAINIAC stated. "But it appears he replaced you in the Phantom Zone."

"Hmm," Zod said, "interesting, indeed. And another?"

"Information provided by the transference console located at the source of Kryptonian power suggests the other is the daughter of Zor-El."

Zod's eyes went wide. Yes! Zor-El had a daughter! And Zor-El would have been the one to send her here to keep her from Krypton's destruction. To try and save her from certain doom.

Zod's fists clenched. "At last I shall exact my revenge upon the House of El," he stated. "At last, Zor-El's heir will kneel before me."

He walked close to the edge of the lush covered cliff top upon which he stood, and he looked out over the spectacle of Iguazu Falls. He was holding a white orchid in his hand, which he crumpled in his grip. He opened his hand and watched the crushed petals fly away in the wind.

Then Zod tilted his head back and laughed.

 

[AmenRa]

In Smallville, in the deepest sanctuary of the Luthor mansion, Lionel Luthor's knees buckled and he grabbed onto Emil to stop from falling to the floor.

His eyes were closed for an instant as it hit him.

Then he wiped his eyes and shook his head, as if he were fighting what he knew. What he felt. What he had been told.

Quietly, oh so softly, Lionel Luthor whispered two words of impending doom.

"He's here,".

 

[ChasNicollette]

"I am banished to the grey waste at the end of the world..."

She strode into the corridor, a great expanse of windows looking out upon Kryptonopolis, and as she saw Var-Sen, she smiled at him faintly.

She stopped. She set the tip of her umbrella down against the floor, and leaned on the umbrella like a cane.

Mortals were generally terrified of Death until they met her. Not all of them were less terrified once they did meet her, but some would find her beautiful.

She smiled a beautiful smile at Var-Sen of Krypton.

"Hello, John," she murmured. "It's good to see you again. It seems... it seems I owe you an apology of a kind. If only it could be under better circumstances; but in my defence? Usually I'm only talking to people when they're dead."

 

[ChasNicollette]

"...but I mourn myself no longer."

Raya Ro-Zan saw the flash of light from a distance, and she took off at a run.

"Oh, Rao above us," she murmured, horrified, and sprinted best as she could across the sand.

Lar grabbed his crutch and seethed with pain as he struggled to his feet and followed as best as he could.

When he caught up to her, he found her kneeling in the black sand over a man dressed in strange attire, colours of black and colours of blue.

She had a stricken look on her face.

"No, no," she whispered. "No, no, no... Var-Sen of Krypton, The Universe is too cruel a place. You escape the death of our cradleworld only to be doomed to this ignominy? Please... please... The Universe cannot be this cruel."

Lar limped over to the other, the dark-skinned male, and poked the man with his crutch.

It looked like this one was either dead or not long for this world, and Lar wasn't positive that he knew enough about Kryptonian anatomy that he would be a hindrance rather than a help.

Instead, he looked up, and gazed wearily at the now-abandoned rock.

"General's gone," he rasped softly.

Raya lifted her agonised gaze from where she gazed upon Var-Sen's too-still form, and regarded that same conspicuously empty sitting-rock.

She made a prayerful gesture, a spiritual leftover from Pre-Unified Krypton, a petition for mercy.

"He is to Earth, then," she murmured. "Rao help the living."

Lar nodded quietly.

His people had always had a love-hate relationship with their own star, a red Sun called "Valor," because stars produced heavy elements like carbon, which made life possible, and lead, which could kill his people dead. But still, he couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.

"Amen," he murmured. "Amen."

 

[AmenRa]

Var-Sen looked at her.

She smiled, and she spoke.

She was....beautiful.

And, she felt familiar.

He approached closer to her, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

She had called him "John".

"I am Var-Sen," he told her. "But then, you already knew that, did you not?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

"Who am I? Just a friend. Sometimes. Maybe."

"Call it a conceit," she admitted, popping her top hat back on at a jaunty angle, "Var-Sen of Krypton. I have a good friend named John, he also with passion and a good heart and a tendency to sometimes--" and at this one of her endlessly deep eyes winked "--bite off more than he can chew."

 

[AmenRa]

Var-Sen didn't look at her. His eyes sought the endless white of the floor.

"Sometimes too much, indeed," he agreed. "Sometimes sacrifices are made to fight the good fight, to spur the triumph of good over evil, and to learn to believe."

He looked into her endlessly deep eyes. He could get lost there, and know only he existed in the real by tasting her lips.

"Which, I suppose, is why I am here, now, talking to you," he mused.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Merick realized as the battle ended exactly how much he had spent. He realized his nose was starting to really flow, his head was pounding. Everything was starting to blur. Slowly he made his way out to the group gathered outside. His vision was going in and out now. He was breathing very hard.

Merick removed his mask, having a hard time seeing, breathing, and functioning in general. He locked eyes with Rose first, "Rose... you were like Fire and Ice and Rage. Merick stumbled, dropping to one knee, gazing toward Ceri and Jamie, She's like the Storm in the Heart of the sun, and you sir, you are ancient and forever, you can see the turn of the Universe. And you are all beautiful. Merick grinned once more before he collapsed. His head smacking the ground with a terrible thud.

Tommy looked o dumbfounded. Knowing full well he could do nothing to help. He wept. He wept for the innocence he watched be lost, he wept the good that had departed this world, and he wept for his sweet brother. "Help him... someone help him..." with that Tommy was gone.



______________________________________________________________


Dale Tennylson sat serenely on a picnic table in Oklahoma. He looked like some type of Yogi as he sat there, eyes closed, breathing deeply. When Dale was 17, he found out that his father was not the simple man he always seemed to be. Dale overheard his father discussing military contracts, virsuses, genetic mutation, these were the true source of TennTechs millions. Dale was disgusted. He left home immediately and didn't look back. He graduated high school, and joined the US Army to pay for college. While in the Army, Dale was brought into a research project. For several years Dale Tennylson worked on Project Stargate. He was excellent at what he did. A prodigy. Then he quit. It had be a very long time since Dale had used these techniques. He had never even told Marcy. Now, on the darkest day of his life, Dale sat there using his Remote Viewing skills to watch the battle unfold in Miller's Bend.

After seeing Merick collapse, Dale jumped off the table.

"Merick's hurt. And somehow, I think Tommy's alive. They need help and we're stuck here. Dale started sobbing. Never in his life had he felt so useless.

"Dale, Tommy died ten years ago. And what the hell are you talking about Merick is hurt. I don't understand any of this.

"I was a Remote Viewer when I was in the military. I just watched our son selflessly, bravely save several lives, before he collapsed. God help us." Dale sat down on the table and wept.

Marcy Tennylson was always a strong woman but this was too much. All she could do was hold her husband while he cried. She hoped whatever all of this was, it would be ok. It had to be. She lost one son, and she couldn't lose another. Marcy Tennylson held back her emotions, except for one tear. One tear slid softly over her haggard face.

 

[ChasNicollette]

"There is a madness needed to touch the gods."

She smiled softly, wearily at him. It was not given to The Endless to take mortals as lovers, though Dream had tried it more than once. Always it ended in tears. Always such Desire ended in such Despair.

And that brought her, in her mind, to the real reason she was here, now, talking to "John."

She turned away from him and, hooking her umbrella around one elbow, gazed out at Kryptonopolis with her arms crossed over her stomach.

"It was my sister's idea," she murmured softly.

"There was a council of stars, once, long, long ago," Death explained, bowing her head to look away from her reflection on the interior of the pane, "when only Oa had thus far sentient life upon its surface, when Rao had been but an impressionable young fellow and when Sol had been but a bouncing boy."

("Stars have lives of their own, you see," she confided. "Like in Voyage of The Dawn Treader. C.S. Lewis was right about a lot of things.")

She turned to face Var-Sen once more, and leaned her shoulder against the pane.

"Despair," she continued, "my troubled young sister, sat Rao to one side in the middle of things, and she suggested to Him that it might be the most beautiful kind of sadness if there were a lonely planet orbiting His starry form, and that this lonely planet were to die with Him, leaving only a single sentient mortal to escape... to wander The Universe alone."

She smiled faintly.

"So," she murmured, "for what it's worth. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that Despair suggested this, I'm sorry for whatever Desire suggested to Despair in the first place because Despair rarely follows where Desire does not lead her, I'm sorry for how impressionable Rao was that He allowed this to take place. (I know I can't hold myself responsible for the actions of my siblings, but I'm the second eldest and the eldest of the girls and I should take better care of them.)

"On the bright side," she suggested, "if this is a bright side, Rao made allowances for variation on Despair's theme. Because even though you're lonely, Var-Sen, rarely are you alone."

 

[Superman1496]

Something had happened that Bruce could not explain. But rather stick around and find out, he figured he would get out of there to think it through.

He slipped past everyone outside, and began to walk away, out of mind of everyone.

Or at least, so he thought.

 

[AmenRa]

Var-Sen listened, and he listened until he noticed his hands were trembling. And then he knew a tear had made its way down his cheek. He wiped it away.

Rarely did Kryptonians cry.

But her story of the birth and death of his home world was beyond sadness.

It was pure pain.

Var-Sen reached to hold her, and then he stopped himself, and folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the clear crystal pane in a reflection of her reflection.

"Where are the others?" he asked her, his voice a sob.

 

[ChasNicollette]

"I don't need to know the future. When the future's over, then it's me..."

Death gave Var-Sen a moment to recover... she wanted to give him a hug. She wanted to hold him. She wanted to show him that he wasn't alone.

But he'd find that out soon enough, and The Touch of Death... well. Touching Death was just like it sounded.

"They're out there, waiting for you," she murmured encouragingly. "Granted, Zor-El's daughter is waiting a little further out there than the others, but still she lives, and Krypton lives on in her. But already, even in the place to which your mortal form has gone, you have found kin and kind."

She smiled, and pushed her top hat back on her head, and gazed up at him in his tallness.

"Already you have found those who love you," she promised him. "All you need do is open your eyes and see. But I have another apology to make.

"You may or may not have heard the legend of the Kryptonian who escapes Death?" she gazed at him, she gazed at him, deep eyes gazing into his agonised ones. "You have escaped Death of a kind, Var-Sen of Krypton. And now, and now you're not going to die for a long, long time. I'm sorry, Var-Sen. 'John.'"

She drew away from him. The dream would fade soon.

She smiled sadly. "I'm sorry."

 

[AmenRa]

The Kryptonian Who Escaped Death? Of course...

And then she was moving away. Her last words were an echo down a long corridor....

He was waking up.

Var-Sen's eyes suddenly opened.

He sat up with a start, rubbed his head, and looked up into the face of Raya.

He looked around and the blackness of the rock and sand, the merciless winds that whipped and tattered, and the ugly sky that spat lightening from angry clouds.

And despite the fact that he was in the Phantom Zone, Var-Sen of Krypton looked at Lar and then again and Raya.

And he smiled.

She had apologized. I'm the one who should have said 'I'm sorry'.

And for some reason that probably only The Girl In His Dream knew, Var-Sen began laughing.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ceri, Jamie, and Rose

Ceri's left eye was swelling shut, but she still recognised the boy, now unmasked, and her parched lips parted, and she almost managed to speak that name before--

--Rose: "Merick!" ...her voice was a panic, her pain forgotten inside and out. Many nights had she spent arguing the relative merits of Labyrinth versus The Dark Crystal with Merick Tennylson, or whether Voltron could beat Superion in a fight, or if Severus Snape was friend or foe, and here he was helping to save the day and getting a skullful of terra firma in the process.

Ceri and Jamie reached Merick first.

"You have to help him," Rose encouraged, desperately, "I don't even know how he got here..."

Ceri helped support the boy as Jamie gazed into his eyes.

"No sign of concussion," he murmured.

Ceri arched an eyebrow. "Don't you need a penlight, or instruments?"

Jamie blinked at her, as if completely bewildered by that. "Why? Do you have any?"

Ceri shook her head, even though it hurt so very very much. "No, no I don't."

"Right then," Jamie nodded, returning his attention to Merick Tennylson, "I'll make do."

Ceri smiled softly, and watched him work.

Gingerly, Jamie touched a fingertip to the perspiration that had rolled down Merick's cheek, and touched that fingertip to his tongue. Tasted Merick's sweat. Made a face.

"Stone the crows," he murmured, "your metabolism's a bit wonky. Some kind of wetwired electromagnetic power source? Don't need protein so much as you might. Sugar. Cacao-derived. Maybe lactose, though that's not... No caffeine, though, caffeine'll do you no good..."

Ceri blinked at him with her one eye. "He needs chocolate milk?"

Jamie shook his head and stood up. "Can anyone here spare a Yoohoo?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

"We write our names in the sand, and then the waves roll in and wash them away."

Raya Ro-Zan sat back on her haunches and she stared with wide mystified eyes at Var-Sen.

He was laughing. Had he taken leave of reason? Had he taken leave of sanity?

Rarely did a Kryptonian cry; rarely did a Kryptonian laugh.

"Var-Sen...?" she wondered.

"He's got a sense of humour," Lar smiled, nodding knowingly, as he leaned oh-so-heavily on that crutch, "your friend. That'll come in handy, at least."

 

[AmenRa]

Var-Sen stopped laughing and took Raya's hand. Perhaps he had been among humans too long.

He missed Rose.

"It is good to see you," he told her. He then stood and gave Lar a nod.

He then looked around and shook his head. So this was Zor-El's Phantom Zone.

Waitaminute.

"How did you get here?" he asked them both, suddenly wary.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

"Nice moves,'Ray Charles.'"
I looked over at Pete. "I didn't destroy whatever he was, he left. I fear I failed."

I looked over at the mass of webbing holding the disk onto the wall.

"This is probably something important" With claws and inhuman strength, I rent open the cocoon and pulled free the disk.

"Lets go check on the others. It sounds like the worst is over."

I walked outside into the sunlight, and over to the group of people by a crater. Rose was there, obviously distraught over guy who had materialized in the cave. I recognized her father and a woman that had to be her mother.

"Can anyone here spare a Yoohoo?" Her father asked.

"I'll be back in a few Sir."

I ran back into the cave and traveled through Shadow to the Mansion in San Antonio. Materializing in the pool house, I ripped the first aid kit from the wall. I then shifted back to my human form, placed the kit and a twenty from my wallet on the floor, then shifted back to my armored form. Then I was off to the Smallville E-Z Mart. I walked in, went to the drinks and grabbed three bottles of yoohoo and some Gatoraids. Walking up to the counter I looked down at the clerk, obviously scared out of his mind.

"I apologize for the abruptness, but this is a sugar and electrolyte emergency. Keep the change."

Stepping back into a darker area, shadows engulfed me and three minutes after I had left, I was back at the crater, drinks and kit in hand. Rose's mother and father were looking at me with some astonishment, and that evil little part of my brain sprung loose.

"Over hill, over dale, Through brush, through brier. Over Park, over pale. Through flood, through fire. I do wander everywhere. Swifter than the moon's sphere." I said, quoting The Bard. "But I'm not that slow."

 

[ChasNicollette]

"I know you; I walked with you once upon a Dream."

The Girl In His Dream walked from that dream and into the presence of Dream himself.

Dream had Lucien with him, the librarian, a Raven who had taken the form of a man. Dream also had Matthew with him, the companion and messenger, a man who had taken the form of a Raven.

Ravens.

"You didn't tell him everything," Lucien prompted, sounding intrigued, adjusting his glasses. "You didn't tell him about the brother's capsule."

"Our kind never do," Dream noted, "tell mortals everything. Always with The Endless there are things left unsaid. Especially in Death. And especially in Dreams."

"Wait," Matthew tilted his head, blinking big black eyes and clacking his beak thoughtfully. "So yer sayin' th' blondies, the two chicas, they ain't th' only Kryptonians left, 'side from Mr. Smith and Big Ugly? The girl on Earth ain't their last hope?"

"'No,'" Death quoted softly, with a gentle gentle delighted devious smile. "'There is Another.'"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Ceri, and Jamie

Ceri stared hard at the armoured lad, but swiped a bottle from his grasp all the same.

She sank back to her knees beside Merick Tennylson and offered him the bottle, sitting him up in her lap and cracking the cap and tilting it gently gently toward his mouth.

Jamie, on the other hand, had his hands back in his pockets and was regarding The Wraith with scrutiny.

"Hello," he greeted, "Native of Talok VIII. How've you been keeping, then?"

Rose looked nervous. She felt nervous.

"Dad," she began, "Mum, this is... this is the boy I mentioned."

"There's a boy, too?" Ceri started. "Between blowing up the principal and meeting noble aliens and meeting boys... what didn't you do yesterday?"

"'We have a lot to talk about,'" Rose admitted.

Jamie grinned lopsidedly at The Wraith. "Well," he mused. "I suppose, being the dad, I have to grill you about your intentions towards my daughter. But seeing as you like my daughter, I don't think that I can fault your taste in women. Or your taste in literature.

"'What seest thou else,'" he recited back, without a hint of irony,
"'In the dark backward and abysm of Time?'"

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick

Its a hell of a thing to burn your body so low. Merick had no idea the stress he had exerted. In one afternoon he had burned a weeks worth of calories, of energy. Not a good thing to do by any means. Merick's metabolism was in a strange state of overdrive. As the cool chocolatey beverage started to pour into his mouth it did two things. First it provided sugars and calories, and carbohydrates galore for his raging body to feast on. Second, and more importantly, Merick's power were psychic in nature. Relying heavily on state of mind. This was a secret of the Yoohoo. With the taste came memory, with memory strength.

Merick may have been unconcious, but he was not alone. In his mind he swam through many places, some light some dark. But there beside him was Tommy. Neither boy said anything to the other. They just made the pilgrimage through Merick's mind. In his mind Merick had conversations with many others, his father, his mother, and while these were not real, they felt very real to Merick. Tommy slowly trying to guide him back to a safer state, for if one dwells within their own mind to long they may be lost forever. The human mind is muh like a labrynth. Especially for individuals with an activated psychic ability. But Merick had two things most did not. Tommy and Yoohoo.

Merick sat bolt upright as Ceri finished pouring the bottle down his throat. He was still sore, his body still a mass of pain, and he was still a bit feverish. But his mind was there. And he could manage the rest through effort of will. "Thank you ma'am. I don't know exactly what happened. How long was I out? Merick paused looking around. "None of that matters right now. Spritely Merick was to his feet. He looked at Rose with a mixture of love, awe, and concern. "Rose!! Are you okay? Since when? Come 'ere! Merick launched to Rose, hugging her tight for the briefest of moments.

He couldn't believe what was going on around him. Merick didn't have many friends, but he had always counted Rose McCrimmon among them. They had spent many nights arguing which were better, the classic Romero or the Hammer films, and whenever Merick pillaged the record store in Granville for the newest import or indy band he always made sure to grab Rose a copy. Seemed they shared more than a taste for the odd pop culture. Merick quickly released her.

"If this is yer mum, is this your dad? Merick didn't wait for an answer he continued to piece it all together. Then he saw Wraith. "Dude, why is I got stuck with the freakin Lone Ranger mask and this dude totally raided Spawn's closet. Damn I need a better gimmick. Especially hanging with the Super Friends up in here." Merick grinned that Tennylson grin once again, eyeing the Yoohoo. "Listen big guy, you mind if I bogart a YooHoo, I don't know how it is for you, but I find trying to save the day to be unbearably thirsty work. By the way, we haven't met. I'm Merick Tennylson. And you are?