Chapter 63

At the Institute...

You can pretty much imagine the stunned reaction of everyone watching this...especially Clark's family.

"Holy fuck!" Claire swears. "He's lost his mind!" she declares, unable to see any other explanation.

Martha and Jonathan were equally sharing that thought sadly.

"What is he thinking?" one certain Mayor of Smallville, Lilandra Neramani is asking. Of course she is here. You think for one moment after she heard what happened to Charles you could keep her away. He needed her after the trauma he must have suffered through, turned into a puppet by that crazed ancient mutant. As for her duties to Smallville, that's why she has a Deputy Mayor after all. He can certainly run things for a few days.

"I don't know," Charles confesses as he tries to rub away a migraine. For so long they have tried to protect Clark, keep him safe, a promise Charles made and has done his best to keep and now it's over. "In truth I haven't talked to him in a couple of days. I'm not sure he's wanted to talk to anyone since Apocalypse. It's his nature to tend to internalise his feelings."

"That's not healthy," Lilandra argues.

Charles would agree...especially after meeting Clark's red kryptonite personality which is, in all truth, a product of the fact Clark represses. "I saw many things inside Apocalypse's mind but what I didn't see, what I don't know is what he put Superman through. He's not an ordinary man. I can't imagine what Apocalypse must have done to him in order to control his mind."

Lilandra takes Charles' hands and rubs it gently with her thumb. He's talked only a little so far about his experience but what he has said has only conveyed the horror of what he must have been through. He's an incredibly strong man. Her only regret is feeling unable to tell him the whole truth about herself.

Of course what one may note is how she's not reacting in surprise to the alien revelation or even asking Charles about it. Could be because she's half-one herself. She's afraid that if she starts that conversation she has no idea where it may end. She's just not ready to reveal that half of herself.

Capitol Hill, Washington DC...

"Is this a joke?" Senator Mitchell asks Superman.

"Why would I joke about it?" Superman asks back, his gaze boring into the man's soul...or at least it feels like it.

"Uh..."

"And before anyone asks why would I lie about it? How would claiming to be an alien be any better than being a mutant? Especially when the former claim damns me to being the last of my kind. A burden I can assure you you cannot imagine."

It's amazing. Senator Mitchell is actually stunned into silence.

Someone else steps into the breach. Another Senator rises to their feet. One not so enthused by this anti-mutant hysteria so a calmer voice that was being drowned out. That Senator?

Kansas Senator Jack Jennings. One of Clark's dad's oldest friends. When Clark was little he called him 'Uncle Jack'. Secret fact here; Jack is one of Clark's heroes for the way he stands up for what is right.

"Why are you here?" Senator Jennings asks.

"As I said to stop this madness," Superman repeats, having no time for hero worship right now. Focus on the task. "As you are all no doubt aware I was one of those enslaved by Apocalypse do carry out his plans. I was linked to him. I saw how he thinks. How he planned to tear the world apart...and you're all helping finish what he started!" he snaps angrily...which he doesn't mean to. His emotions are on edge.

Clark takes one moment to calm himself and continues, "In Apocalypse's mind he wanted a world where people turned against people. A constant state of war and struggle that only the strongest and most worthy would survive. You want to defeat Apocalypse and his aims, do the opposite. Talk, find an accommodation all can live with. Isn't that almost the very principle this country is built on. A land of immigrants, of many peoples and creeds with many differences yet live together in peace and cooperation."

Clark takes a moment. "Now I could stand here and repeat the arguments Professor Xavier made here last year but that would be just repeating something that he has already expressed far more eloquently than I ever could so let me take a different stroke. Senator Mitchell, you want to make the world safe for what? True humans?"

Senator Mitchell finds his voice. "Yes."

Superman nods. "There was a man on my world once who said something similar. His name was Zod and he wanted to remake the world into a safe place for 'True Kryptonians'. When it turned out the majority of the populace didn't agree with him he decided to impose his ideals by force and started a war that killed a quarter of a billion. Let me repeat that. That's 250million people wiped out before he was defeated but that wasn't enough for him. If he couldn't have Krypton no-one could."

"Which means what?"

"As I said I am Krypton's last survivor."

Senator Jennings whispers in shock. "He wiped out your people?" he queries to make sure he's got this right.

"He destroyed the planet," Superman confirms that...and it's clear his statement has stunned just about everyone into attentive silence. Good. That's what he was aiming for. "It's just dust and rocks now. I was sent here by my parents just before the end."

"Why?"

"What does any parent want for their child? To live and prosper. It was their desperate last hope, the only thing they could do. Save their only son. Since I've arrived I learned something about humans. Something I wish you could all see. Just how amazing you are. Compared to me you are so fragile yet look at the world you have built. Pause, take a minute, stop and just look at it and appreciate how far you've come in so short a time. Are you really willing to risk seeing it torn down because of an impulsive reaction? All I ask is that you think very hard and very long over your next course of action. Something I wish my people had done. I ask you, learn from my people's mistakes. Don't follow them down the same destructive path. I am already the last survivor of one world. Please, don't make me the last survivor of two," he asks of them.

Deliberate pause before starting up again...

"Before I leave I have one last thing to say. Whatever Apocalypse tried to turn me into he failed. Since I first started using my powers my only aim has been to help people. To see truth and justice prevail. When I walk out this chamber that will still be my guiding principle. I will protect the innocent, whether they be human, mutant or other from whoever threatens them be they human, mutant or other. On my own or with my friends and allies the X-Men who I can assure you will still carry on as always. To fight for a world where all are treated equal and they will defend this world even when it hates and fears them. What we believe in we will never force upon anyone. We only hope to set an example for others to follow. The choice is up to you."

With that Superman turns to leave.

"You think you can just leave like that?!" Senator Mitchell exclaims.

Superman stops and turns his head, his eyes glowing dimly red. "Then come and stop me," he dares him.

Mitchell stumbles back a few paces.

"Didn't think so," Superman remarks before he departs, leaving a silent chamber behind. He smashes open the doors he welded only to come face to face...or eyes to eye with... "Colonel Fury," he greets the man. Rao knows how the man manages it to just show up.

Fury takes the pick out of his mouth. "You realise what you've done right?" he asks.

"You tell me what happens next," Superman says.

"You hijacked the Senate of these United States, revealed we are not alone in the universe to millions across the world...you think they'll just you be?"

Superman leans in a touch. "Do you think they'll continue their anti-mutant hysteria now?" he asks back, arching an eye-brow.

Fury's good eye widens as he gets it and he actually laughs. "Damn, kid you got balls," he compliments him.

"Thanks...I think."

Fury shakes his head. That's damn clever. By revealing himself like this he's completely shifted the agenda in a moment. "They'll send me after you, you know," he warns.

"You can chase me all you want as long as you don't catch me," Superman points out. "And for as long as you're chasing me you're leaving the X-Men and mutants in general alone."

"Won't last."

"It'll last long enough for cooler heads to prevail and more rational voices to speak up," is all that Clark wanted.

"Wow...you're a hopeless optimist aren't ya," Fury calls him.

Superman shrugs. "Any word on the Avengers yet?" he wonders.

"No. Not yet," Fury admits to the kid. "So you better get going," he advises. "Before I decide to get started," he playfully warns.

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me, kid," Fury warns him.

Superman vanishes in a blur.

Fury puts the pick back in his mouth...just as the screaming and shouting from within the Senate chamber begins about who knew what about aliens amongst us. Fury's probably going to be called to testify. He shakes his head...and then chuckles at the fact the kid did exactly what he wanted to. Got their minds off mutants.

At the Institute...

At first nobody gets what Clark did.

Not until Chloe gets it...and bursts out in long, loud laughter.

Which after the few days she has had is exactly what she needs.

Clark is a genius.

Eventually everyone else starts to figure it out or gets told. Clark finds himself in the unlikely position of getting thanks from Magneto of all people as he was trying to explain himself to the Professor out on the lawn.

"So you risk their wrath to protect mutants," Magneto summarises it.

Clark as Superman shrugs. "That is pretty much it."

"Brave...or foolish," Magneto calls it.

"Both but I hate labels."

Magneto nods in acknowledgement of that. "You have the gratitude of myself and my people," he says, truly, actually grateful for what the alien teen was attempting. Anyone who tries to protect his people how can he not be thankful to them. "When you decide you've had enough of them chasing you about you will have a place amongst us. I will see to that," he makes the offer, still thinking in the end Superman on his side would all but guarantee the victory of mutants over humans.

"Have to decline," Superman refuses with barely a thought. It doesn't need one. "You may want to hide away in your nation wherever it is but I won't. I can't. You may look the other way when people suffer because they happen to be human. I never will," Superman states it. "Now if you'll excuse me," he says having said all he wants to. Plus he has things to do. Things he has to stop putting off no matter what hell he went through.

Charles smiles at Clark. Despite what the young man went through his first instinct is still to try and help people. That says so much about Clark's inner strength and gives Charles confidence that no matter how rough the next period will be Clark can get through it and out the other side. Now if only he could get Clark to start talking about it that would make the journey slighter easier. A new struggle of a sort ahead for Charles there.

Once Superman has gone from sight Magneto addresses Charles on another topic. "Lorna has agreed she is leaving with me," he informs Charles of the conversation he had with his daughter. "But I would like to make a request."

"You want Ms Dane to remain here," Charles picks up.

Magneto smiles a little at that. "At least for the moment, until I assess the situation," he gives his reasons. He isn't sure what is happening down in the Savage Land nor if the necessary medical expertise and equipment is there to care for Suzanna. At least here he knows Charles will take care of the woman he cared for deeply once upon a time. Plus he trusts his old friend and there are very few people Magneto trusts like that. Can probably count them on one hand.

"You sure this is what you want?" Wanda is asking her sister a short time later on the lawn, eyeing her father a short distance away as Lorna prepared to leave with him.

"Preferably I would want us to be a family. All of us," Lorna gives her long held opinion.

Wanda gives Lorna a dirty look.

Lorna smiles innocently. "But I've figured out by now you're a little stubborn on the subject," she teases.

"I'm a little stubborn!" Wanda exclaims. "Look in a mirror, Pea Soup," she retorts.

Lorna pouts and brushes her hair back with her hands. "Hey, this in all natural," she defends her precious hair.

The two sisters grin at each other before giving each other a great big hug.

"You be careful," Wanda tells her, amazed at how close she's gotten to her sister, only now realising it as Lorna is about to leave. She's really sad that Lorna is leaving. She's really going to miss having her little sister around.

"You too," Lorna says back, sharing and feeling the same sentiments as her sister. Lorna has loved having her big sister around and is sad she is leaving but feels she must. Her father needs her...for more reasons than he'll admit. Sure she wants to help him salvage his dream of a mutant nation but she's referring to his recent experience with Apocalypse. He tries to brush off what the ancient mutant did as nothing but Lorna has a sneaking suspicion he's lying. He needs her around to care for him.

"Piece of advice?" Wanda offers.

"Sure."

"If there's trouble it's ok to throw Pietro in front of you."

Lorna guffaws at that. "Do-do you have a message for him?" she asks between peaks of laughter.

Wanda pulls back and takes a moment to consider whether she does have any words for her twin. "Sure. You can tell Pie-Pie..."

"Pie-Pie?!"

Wanda smirks. "That's his nickname. Did I never mention?"

"No!"

"Well fell free to use it."

"Oh, I will," Lorna says with an evil, impish grin.

Wanda matches the grin. "Tell him that he better look after you because if he doesn't I'm not the scared girl he left in the asylum any longer and I'm ten times more powerful than he remembers me to be." She then raises her head and her voice and aims it at her father. "And that counts double for you!"

Magneto's face tenses. Seems there is still a long way to go with Wanda...but the fact she didn't kill him on sight is an improvement. "Lorna...we need to go," Magneto says as two metal transport spheres he had created earlier slide open.

"Yeah," Lorna says, the sadness at leaving her sister striking home hard now.

Wanda too feels it. "Hey, you know phone every so often and let me know how you're getting on," she says.

"I'll try," is all Lorna can say considering where it is she is going.

With that Lorna and Magneto step into the two spheres which close up and rise into the air and away.

Clark had called his family together in his parents' room. His family plus Rogue who he said had to be here because what he is about to say involves her.

They've already had the why he went to Washington talk. He's said and given as much of an explanation as he is going to on that. No, this was about something else.

"I know I haven't been very personable these last couple of days," he says apologetically...which is something he forgot to say earlier.

"Honey," his mother forgives him instantly. "We understand you've been through a trauma."

"Yes," his father agrees. "You take all the time you need to come to terms with this."

"I wish I could but there are decisions and actions that need to be made. The thing is now I remember everything."

"Which means what precisely?" Rogue asks.

"That you're not the only one who Apocalypse stole memories from," Clark elaborates. "He was preparing me for this for a long time. Longer than you all realise."

They all look at him perplexed.

Clark sighs. "When I died and met Death she said that someone had been messing with my timeline. Guess who?"

"Apocalypse!" Claire gets.

Clark nods. "I understand now. When I was...War we were linked and I saw inside his mind...and I don't ever recommend that. It was a nightmare," he says, his tone barely relaying the horror of Apocalypse's mind.

Martha leans over and rubs his arm. While she probably can't imagine how bad it was she can guess that it is going to live with him for a long, long time.

Clark pats her hand with a sad smile of thanks. He continues, "That vessel of his is a time machine...it's much more but it's partly a time machine and it showed Apocalypse time. The past, present, future, how they all interact and weave a complex tapestry and within it he saw his final defeat at my hands so he set about manipulating my life to prevent that, he began to try and manoeuvre me, change me into what he desired me to be. What he arrogantly thought was best for his goals instead of just killing me when I was a baby or something. To turn me into his Knight."

"He travelled back through time?" Martha queries to ensure she has this right.

"Backward, forward, sideways, whatever it took for him to get it right...only it never happened. I was too stubborn."

"Yeah, we know that," Claire says with her shit-eating grin.

"It started years ago," Clark begins to tell what he now knows from seeing inside Apocalypse's mind. "Some time after you put my ship in the storm cellar Apocalypse came to Smallville and he corrupted the program."

"Jor-El?" Jonathan queries that is what Clark is meaning.

"Oh it was never Jor-El that spoke to me. Not really. It was the reprogrammed version designed to push me where Apocalypse wanted me. I didn't realise it until it was too late just how much 'Jor-El' had been sounding like Apocalypse. Just before Apocalypse abducted me was when it finally struck me," he says, the horror of the memories slipping back unbidden into his mind.

They all guess that after that was when Apocalypse transformed Clark into War but it's not something he has felt like talking about. Like they said, they'll give him all the time he needs.

Clark rubs his hands together before locking them together as if he has a need to stop his hands doing something on their own before he continues. "So essentially from the 1st time 'Jor-El' spoke to me I've been lied to, used, manipulated, all in an attempt to forge me into Apocalypse's protégé or something. Every trial, every test, if you think about it followed Apocalypse's philosophy. Testing whether I was strong enough, clever enough, worthy enough to survive."

Now Clark says it his family could see what he meant. It was almost obvious in hindsight.

Clark mentions what he meant when he said he now remembers everything. "Whenever I would protest too strongly or threaten to go off the path 'Jor-El' would wipe my memory and put in a new one. When it looked like something unseen could derail Apocalypse's plans he intervened...like when he spoke to Rogue through the key just before Lionel destroyed the mansion."

Rogue blinks. She remembers that. It was a subconscious thing that allowed her to save her friends. "Ah don't get it."

"You're not thinking 4th dimensionally. At that point you hadn't freed Apocalypse yet. 'Jor-El' needed to keep you alive until you did."

"Oh," Rogue gets it.

Clark laughs sadly. "You remember when I went to 'Jor-El; to have my mind 'fixed'...all I did was allow him in to try and subtly adjust me for his Master without my knowledge."

"Your mood swings!" Claire points at him, as if a piece of the puzzle has just fallen into place.

Clark nods. "My subconscious fighting back would be the best description. It was like a war going back and forth. My real mind against the imposed alterations. My mind kept trying to reject what was being done to it and this manifested itself through my wildly swinging moods."

Oh they could see it now. As the direction of this subconscious battle changed, waxed and waned Clark's moods would shift in accordance.

"I, uh, I know I need to apologise for some of my behaviour," Clark now accepts what he couldn't see or just refused to before about how he was acting.

"Only some?" Claire questions with an arched eyebrow.

Clark aims a look at her because he wasn't that bad all the time.

"Son, we never blamed you," his father assures him. "We just wanted to understand what was going on with you...which I guess we do now so please continue," he invites Clark to carry on his story. It was important for his son to finally get this off his chest.

Clark appreciates his father's words. He carries on with his tale.

"When 'Jor-El' stripped me of my powers a few weeks back that was a test to see what I would do, what I had become. He was very disappointed when it turned out I hadn't turned into a mini-Apocalypse like he had been trying. That I was willing to sacrifice myself for what he deemed an irrelevant little girl. It was then 'Jor-El' realised my mind was just going to keep resisting too strongly and he was running out of time...as an ironic a statement as that is so he had to do something less subtle than before. Sort of like Kal-El 2.0, an imposed personality, only hidden deep in my mind, waiting for the moment to emerge. It was easier to do this time round because he had spent months manipulating my neural pathways, creating...you could call them backdoors into my mindscape. I suspect the original Kal-El from last year was suppose to become this eventually but as I said then, because one of the stones was found, he was forced to release me early, before he was finished. That and of course my continual refusal to obey him delayed my arrival. Actually for a messed up, corrupted computer program it was kinda clever really," Clark has to give the program reluctant praise. "When it realised an antagonistic approach wasn't working, 'Jor-El' softened its approach. Give me what I wanted. Almost sound like a father. Teach me of my lost home. All the time slowly messing around with my head..." he trails off, the weight of everything threatening to crush him.

Martha reaches out and rubs her son's arm once again. "If you want to stop..."

Clark shakes his head. "Can't. Need to say this now," he says cryptically. "So the other day when 'Jor-El' called me that was a trap," he finally gets around to explaining what happened and how he ended up as War. "Apocalypse was waiting for me in the Fortress...and now I understand how he got through the defences. 'Jor-El' let him in. In fact all this explains why 'Jor-El' wouldn't lift a finger to aid us in stopping Apocalypse all this time...or more accurately help us stop his Master. At first Apocalypse tried to entice me, persuade me to join him willingly. He showed me a future, a terrible dark future where everyone died basically and said we could prevent it together if I simply agreed to join him."

"Ya told him where ta shove it right?" Rogue just wants to be sure.

"I dropped a building on him. That count?"

"Yep," Claire says.

"Y-you dropped a building on him?" Jonathan stutters in surprise.

Clark snorts. "Didn't work. Worst of all that's when he realised I couldn't be persuaded to join him willingly and activated, what I guess you could call, the back-up plan; Kal-El 2.0...or as you know him better the Horseman War. I-I'm not ready to talk about all of that today," he says, the weight of it clearly written on Clark's face.

"That's fine, honey," Martha assures him, willing to wait until he's ready.

"But it does leave me with a big problem," Clark gets to.

"Jor-El," Rogue realises.

Clark nods. "He controls the full power of the Fortress and I can't leave it like that. That Fortress in the wrong hands could finish what Apocalypse started and destroy the world."

"So what will you do?" Jonathan asks.

"I can isolate and disconnect Jor-El from the rest of the systems. I know how to do it. Not sure he meant to teach me how to do that or was so arrogant he never thought I'd use it but it's not without risk. Even if I do it at superspeed. That's why I needed to tell you this before I went...and to apologise for everything. Especially to you, Rogue. You shouldn't have been dragged into my crazy life."

"Ah was not dragged, Clark. Ah was nevah dragged. Ah chose to date ya knowing full well what it meant," she tells him, assuring him she doesn't blame him. She blames Apocalypse...and is still pretty pissed over what she now remembers happened...though it's not had the effect on her her it's clearly had on Clark...and the Professor and Storm as well. She doesn't know why that's the case. It just seems to be that it is. "And before ya go there's something ah've been meaning ta tell ya. Something Apocalypse said just before we sealed him away," she gets around to raising now she's got Clark in the same room.

"What?" Clark wonders what it could be.

Rogue takes a breath. "He said...Zod is coming."

Clark's blue eyes narrow.

"But that's impossible, right?" Claire asks. "You said this Zod guy was locked up," she reminds Clark.

Impossible? Clark travelled to a dark future and in that future saw the incarnation of his people's deepest fear, Doom, kill him...more or less. What's impossible any longer? "Not necessarily," he answers his sister. "I know it's not exactly been top of the list lately but Brainiac is still somewhere on this planet and it will not rest until it frees its Master," Clark can deduce.

"Fuck," Claire swears. She had forgotten that.

"Thank you for telling me, Rogue," Clark says. "And I will get around to dealing with it and if it sounds like I'm dismissing the threat I can promise I'm really not but all things in their appropriate order. I have to get to the Fortress and disable Jor-El. That's my only concern right now," Clark had to be brutally honest about how he orders his priorities.

"You be careful, son," Jonathan asks.

"There's no careful way to do this," Clark has to be, again, brutally honest as he leaves the room.

"It's amazing the things you don't tell them."

Clark looks to his right and walking with him, is himself...sorta. Him in tattered clothes, circuits all over his body. "Go away," he tells it sternly.

War smirks. "Can't. Always inside your head. You can't get rid of me. Nor can you keep me repressed forever."

"I'm Superman. I can do anything so watch me," Clark vows to...one of those things he hasn't mentioned. War isn't gone. He was created as a completely separate personality. When War was unleashed by Apocalypse who you would call Clark Kent was repressed, locked away inside his own mind. When Apocalypse was defeated Clark was set free and he managed to take control again and repress War. He's good at repressing.

"Ooh a challenge," War's eyes light up. "Fight me all you want. It'll make the victory all the sweeter and after I've crushed you and taken control of our body back I'll finish my Lord Apocalypse's work," War vows.

"I'll never let you hurt a single soul," Clark swears.

"We'll see, Clark. We'll see," War darkly promises to do everything in his power to make Clark eat those words.

Fortress of Solitude...

Clark blurs in and heads straight for the console with the crystals set in them, not hesitating for a moment. He mustn't allow 'Jor-El' a single moment's chance to stop him. Moving at superspeed he begins to rearrange them while at the same time using the holographic interface that automatically pops up as he isolates the Jor-El program.

"My son...what are you doing?" the booming voice queries.

Clark doesn't answer until he's certain he has cut 'Jor-El' off from any sort of access to the Fortress' systems and isolated his program in a single crystal. Well blow him down with a feather. He thinks he's actually done it. Must be the first thing to go exactly to plan in how long?

Too long.

A quick double check and once he's certain it's done correctly he moves to address a response. "Don't keep up the pretence. I know everything. You're nothing but a lackey of Apocalypse. Well your Master has fallen. Lost in the cracks of time."

"The Great Apocalypse is eternal!" the voice sneers, the façade and all traces of civility gone.

"I had hoped...wished you really were my father. And perhaps some sliver of him remains inside you but Apocalypse destroyed the soul of whatever remnant you were. Perhaps in time and study of your code I can find out what he did and reverse it...or perhaps I haven't clue one how to fix you," Clark will confess. "And before you start of one of those tedious monologues how you boast about this being a temporary set-back...boy have I heard some beauties of those sort of threats, but before you start...oh to hell with it!" Clark decides as he yanks the crystal out and drops it to the floor.

The whole place dims in response to that action.

He did have some words but what's the point?

He really doesn't know if he can fix Jor-El. Personally he doubts it.

What Apocalypse has done to him will scar him forever.

He's now revealed himself to the world and can pretty much guess the reaction. If his life wasn't difficult enough before it's bound to get a lot harder going forward.

And worst of all his last link to his homeworld and to his family is gone. Hell it never existed in the first place really.

So here he stands in this damned remnant of his lost home.

Alone.

Cut off.

Damaged.

He is truly now the Last Son of Krypton.

…

…

…

"Impressive."

Clark spins round to find he is not alone. Standing not 10 feet away from him is a man as tall as him in some sort of green and purple...armour he thinks it is. There's a helmet and the man's face is...blue? Or is that some kind of covering as Clark peers closer?

The man turns to look at him. "Most impressive structure, Kal-El," he compliments the stunned alien. "Your people were truly great in their time."

Clark's blue eyes narrow. "Who are you? How did you get in here?" he wants to know...because again, impossible!

"I am Kang."

"Which is the answer to both questions isn't it," Clark says with a feeling of foreboding. People who talk like that tend to be egotistical maniacs bent on world domination or something.

"Very preceptive," Kang congratulates him with a smile.

"Why are you here?"

"Because this is the first moment along your timeline I was able to reach you. Apocalypse has been blocking me for centuries. Using what he stole from me he created a chronal dam around you to ensure only he could interfere in your life. With his defeat the dam's broken."

"It was your time machine!" Clark realises who this man must be. "You're Rama-Tut."

"Again, very preceptive," Kang congratulates him. "It's nice to finally be able to talk to someone who can keep up with me," he muses. "Yes, the story you know is more or less accurate," he confirms that he is indeed...or rather was...in an alternate timeline the Pharaoh Rama-Tut. It's all a very complex temporal mechanics thing that is way beyond almost everyone not named Kang. "But neither Apocalypse nor you truly grasp the full reality of the situation. In fact you don't grasp the nature of your reality at all and that is why I am here, Kal-El. I need your help to fix an anomaly that if it isn't corrected will cause the destruction of all reality," Kang warns of the literally biggest threat imaginable.

"What anomaly?"

"Your entire universe," Kang replies with a stern tone.

"Huh?" is all Clark can lamely manage in response to that because he's lost. Before Clark can question this intruder further there is a flash of purple light out the corner of his eye.

"Kal. Get away from him!" a new voice orders sternly.

Clark turns his gaze to whoever this is. What he finds is 3 people. A tall man with dark hair and a black jacket with four silver spots on it. Flanking him is a shorter boy with red hair wearing a blue jacket with symbols of lightning on the collar and a beautiful blond woman wearing a red jacket, which is half open to reveal a white shirt underneath with the picture of a ringed planet...in his Fortress?! Again, impossible!

The tall man in the centre takes a step forward. Obviously the leader. "Kal...whatever he's been telling you it's a lie," he insists.

Kang rolls his eyes and snorts derisively. "You should have stayed out of this," he tells them threateningly.

"We will not allow you to manipulate him for your own selfish needs, Kang! You care for nothing but conquest and power!" the leader of the group argues back.

"As if your motives are altruistic," Kang mocks.

Clark puts his fingers in his mouth and whistles real loud...ear piercingly loud. "You know I expect better manners from my guests. Especially ones who don't bother to introduce themselves," he aims that comment at the 3 new arrivals.

Kang cups his hands behind his back. "Yes, very rude," he agrees with a smug attitude.

"I'm Rokk," the tall man introduces himself. "This is Garth," he introduces the red-haired boy. "And Imra," he introduces the girl. "And we are the Legion. We have travelled from the 31st century to protect you from him," he points at Kang. "And while we're on introductions did you know he calls himself Kang the Conqueror," Rokk adds, betting, correctly, that Kang didn't. "It's pretty self explanatory what he does," he says with almost a sneer.

Clark looks at Kang and then back at the Legion and back and forth a few times as he tries to work out what this is all about. Plus first Apocalypse and now this lot breaking into his supposedly impenetrable Fortress...he sighs and mutters, "When this is over remind me to get a guard dog."

To Be Continued in Reality Unravelled...

Author's Note: I always felt like there needed to be consequences following what Apocalypse attempted to do as in how the government responds. Understandable on the show which had been cancelled they could only wrap it up with a montage glimpse of the future(and I will get to that). So anyway my thought is that Clark would essentially throw himself under the bus for his friends. Yeah, so Clark's odd behaviour; all Apocalypse from the start. You wondered what got into Jor-El; Apocalypse did. And the consequence; War still loose inside Clark's mind. Got that off the Superman: Doomed storyline where his internal struggle against the Doomsday infection is depicted as Clark Kent facing off against the doomified(yes, it's a word!) version of himself. Kang the Conqueror vs the Legion of Superheroes. Which side will Clark pick? Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; New Story! Hope to see you there!