Chapter Thirty-Two

Wayne Manor

Gotham City

United States

12:41 – EDT

August 24, 2007

Superman held his adoptive mother in a tight hug while his father sat there in stunned silence.

Kara remained by the rear door staring out towards the ocean beyond. Despite no one blaming her, she felt that this was all her fault.

There were only two people she could think of that could possibly be ultimately responsible for the destruction of Kent farm. That was either Galatea or Mercy Graves. Either way, it was through her that they knew about the farm.

As to who had actually done the deed? Logic said the one who had done the actual deed was Weather Wizard, but he still got the information of where to strike from somewhere and that somewhere again was either Mercy Graves or Galatea.

She should never have gone to the Daily Planet. She should have contacted Clark via the league communicator once he had gotten home from work instead. But she had gone to the Planet, reacted to Jimmy when he activated his signal watch, and it had led to the destruction of their lives.

Kara turned to look at them. "I'm sorry," she said loudly before stepping outside onto the grass and slowly walked over towards the cliff and stared out to sea.

It was calm, the antithesis of how she felt. She kept going over the moment she had heard the beeping of Jimmy's watch. She now knew that she shouldn't have reacted. She should have known not to react, but her thoughts were elsewhere on what Galatea had told her regarding yet another clone of her. Being so distracted she hadn't thought and had just reacted, asking him innocently what the noise was.

She glanced to her side as Superman stepped up beside her. She didn't want to talk to him.

"It's not your fault," he tried to reassure her. "I should have been smart enough to not talk about it in the car."

"I'm still the reason," Kara disputed. "And even if he hadn't clicked his watch, I was still there to talk to you about what Galatea told me regarding the other clone. I still would have mentioned it and Mercy Graves would have still have known who I was. Who we are."

He looked out to sea, following her gaze. "Why would she do this now?" he asked. "Why the farm? She has to know we'd easily trace it back to her."

"That's why it's unlikely that it was her," came the voice of Bruce Wayne.

The two Kryptonians looked around and waited for the new arrival to explain, which he did.

"Mercy is a lot of things, but she's not suicidal. She would not attack, or hire anyone to go after your parents."

"She's only one that could have done it," Superman said in annoyance. "If not her, then who? Galatea? They were the only ones that knew. It was one or the other."

"In regards to Mercy, it's possible that someone could have hacked her servers, gained access to her files and found the information about you."

Superman scowled. "Don't make excuses for her, Bruce. It's about time I gave her a visit."

"Clark!" Bruce called out, but it was too late, he had taken off and was flying north-east towards Metropolis.

"Idiot!" Bruce said as he stared after him. "I hope he doesn't do anything stupid."

Kara said nothing as she turned back to face the ocean. "It's my fault," she said again.

"Yes it is," came Bruce's emotionless reply. "You were both careless and it's cost the Kents everything."

She glared at him but said nothing. She wanted to say something snide, but she held her tongue. Things had been a complete disaster and she didn't even know how it had gotten to this.

The last few days had been unpleasant. First, the mental attack, second her briefly thinking that she was Galatea, which just the thought made her shudder.

During that, she had managed to get Kryptonite dust in her lungs which had then been absorbed into her bloodstream.

Thankfully it was gone thanks to the machine she had been wired up to, which had filtered her blood. A tiny amount still remained, but as the doctor had said, she should pass that within a few days in her urine. Or so she hoped.

Now the farm was gone and both Jonathan and Martha were homeless and it was her fault.

Maybe it would have been better if she had stayed in the future.

"I want to be alone," she said finally as she continued to stare out across the ocean.

Question's Hideout

Beneath Hub City

12:01 – CDT

Huntress awoke feeling rather groggy and sore. Being sent through a wall and then being sat in a car for nineteen hours had taken its toll as it had resulted in her muscles seizing up.

She sat up on the small bunk she had slept on and looked over at the Question who was sat hunched over his laptop studying whatever was on the screen.

"You still at it?" she asked as she rose up with a grunt. Her whole body felt stiff. "Maybe I should have checked in at a hospital," she commented as she made her way over.

She looked over his shoulder at the screen as he tried to open a document.

"Damn, another one that's encrypted," he muttered. "Takes forever to decrypt."

"What have you found so far?" Helena asked him.

He glanced up at her. "You're awake?"

"You didn't hear me talking?"

"I'm busy."

"I can see that. So what have you found?"

"I have some information on Cadmus."

"I'd hope so," she said. "Considering that's the whole reason we were there."

"I know what they've been up to," he told her. "At least some of it. Firstly, they've been trying to recreate their failed Ultimen clones with only partial success. They are still imperfect."

"Anything else?"

"I also found some information on our new clone."

"Yeah?"

"They call her Divine."

Helena rolled her eyes. "Who gave her that name?"

"Maxwell Lord."

"The business elite? Wasn't he the guy who had something to do with that Ultimen fiasco?"

Question stood up and made his way over to a large billboard that had a web of string on it, connecting images, words and maps.

"A lot of the files were corrupted and I still have a lot to go through. However, I believe he is behind a lot of things. I believe he was the one that ordered Galatea's termination."

"Why? Because of his new project?"

"Because of Hamilton's influence on her," Question answered. "Also because she was a bit of a wildcard. On the Watchtower she disobeyed an order to cease the assault and continued to fight Supergirl until she was rather violently subdued."

"With a power conduit as I recall," Helena said. "Or at least that's what I heard."

"Yes," Question confirmed. "One that had enough power running through it to turn you or me to ash simply by being near it."

"So Lord wanted her dead. What else?"

"This new clone isn't a clone of Kara."

Helena frowned. "Who's it a clone of, then?"

"Unknown. I don't have access to that data. If it isn't Kara, then my guess is that Lord had Doctor Sivana, his puppet in all this, clone Galatea."

"A clone of a clone?" Helena asked in disbelief. "I don't know much about genetics, but I didn't think you could do that?"

"Of course you can. Cloning is imperfect, though, so cloning a clone would end up with more imperfections developing. That is, if this is a clone of Galatea."

"Who else could it be a clone of?"

"Who else indeed."

Huntress sighed. "Anything else?"

"They have been continuing their research on the other universe."

"Other universe?" she asked.

"The one with the Justice Lords," he answered.

"Is that the one where their Superman melted Lex's face off?"

"That is correct," he confirmed. "Though it is not the only alternate reality. According to the files, a few years back an incident at S.T.A.R labs sent Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane to another parallel dimension. Do you know what they found between both incidents?"

"No?"

"That is both of these alternate realities, Superman became tyrannical."

"And they believe the same will happen here?"

"It's almost a given," Question said.

"So you believe it too?"

"With that much power, all it takes is a single incident and things can begin to unravel."

Huntress turned away from him. "I hope you're wrong." When it came to conspiracies, he tended to make connections where none existed. She just hoped that this was one of them, because the unfortunate truth was that he was right more often than he was wrong.

Lexorp HQ

Metropolis

13:02 – EDT

Mercy Graves was looking over her schedule when a shadow fell over her. She looked around to see Superman hovering outside her window, his arms folded with a deep glare on his face.

With a press of a button, the window opened and he flew in, landing on the other side of her desk.

He didn't give her the chance to speak. "Freak tornado hit Smallville. What do you know about it?"

She was immediately confused and taken aback by his hostile tone. "I don't know anything about it," she answered. "Why would I? I don't even know where Smallville is."

"You're lying."

"I assure you I'm not. What's so special about Smallville?"

"You know what's so special!" he accused.

It was clear that he was really angry about this tornado and for some reason, he thought that she was behind it. "I assure you Superman that I do not."

Superman slammed his fist down onto the desk splitting it in two. Mercy jumped back, out of her seat, narrowly avoiding getting hurt.

"What is wrong with you?" she snapped at him.

He closed his eyes tightly shut. "You are the only one that could have known."

"Known what? What's in Smallville?"

"It's where my parents lived."

She swallowed hard. "In Kansas?" she asked. Galatea had mentioned Clark Kent's parents living in Kansas. "Are they?" she began to ask but couldn't finish.

"You'll be disappointed to know that they weren't there and survived."

"It wasn't me," she urged.

"The timing says otherwise. You find out who I am, then the next thing I know the place I was raised has literally been wiped off the map!"

"It wasn't me," she repeated.

"Then who was it!?"

She shrugged as she looked down at her destroyed desk. "I have no idea, but I suggest you go cool-off before you do something you regret."

"I will be back," he threatened as he made his way towards the window. "And you will have answers."He didn't let her respond as he flew off.

A moment later the door to her office opened and security swarmed in. She glared at them.

"You guys are so slow that he's been and gone." She moved away from the desk. "Get this cleaned up. I'm going home early. I need to calm down with a nice glass of wine."

Clark Kent's Apartment

13:21 – EDT

As soon as he landed he changed out of his Superman uniform.

He felt uneasy about the way he had lost his temper with Mercy. The desk had smashed so easily, with barely any force. It was a clear reminder of the reality of who he was. He had to maintain control otherwise people could get hurt or even killed.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and held his head in his hands. They were shaking, something that rarely happened these days. He felt on edge like he could lose it at any moment. A week ago his non-Superman life had seemed so normal. Now it was anything but.

He had already contacted the Daily Planet on his cellphone regarding the events in Smallville, where his family farm had been decimated. He had been given the rest of the day off, which he was thankful for.

As he looked up, he noticed a sheet of paper that had been slid under the door. He stood up and made his way over, picking it up.

On it were two names: Jimmy and Lois

Immediately Clark grabbed his communicator and contacted Kara telling her to come to Metropolis immediately. Something was going on, but he was now somewhat convinced that Mercy was unlikely to be behind it.

His guess was that Bruce might have been correct. Her system wasn't secure and the information of who he was had been compromised. If that was the case, then she was still to blame, but that also meant that an unknown party had his whole life in their hands.

That thought made his blood run cold.

13:41 – EDT

Kara knocked on Clark's apartment door and waited. It was barely ten seconds when it opened and he ushered her inside.

As soon as the door was closed he held up a note which simply read: Jimmy Lois.

"What's that?" she asked.

"This is a threat," he told her. "I'm going to go find Lois. I suggest that you go and keep an eye on Jimmy."

"You think that's necessary?"

"My home was destroyed by a freak tornado, Kara."

She nodded in understanding. "I'll go see if he's at his apartment."

"He'll be at the Daily Planet," Clark told her.

"I'll head there, then."

"Don't let him know you're watching him," Superman told her.

"Why not?"

"Just keep an eye on him and watch for anything unusual."

"Sure, Clark. But why can't he know?"

"Because I don't want to scare him, Kara."

"Okay, I can understand that. I'll head out now."

"So will I. Contact me if anything happens."

"Understood."

She turned around and headed back out of the apartment. Things felt like they were quickly spiralling out of control.

Watchtower II

Earth Orbit

15:24

Zatanna sat there in the Watchtower commissary feeling troubled. It had been a long time since she had revealed to the world that she was an actual magician who could do feats of real magic. She had no secret identity to worry about. She was just herself. There was no-one to protect, not really. She had an uncle, but she hadn't seen him or his family since she had been a young teenager.

Seeing the destruction at the Kent farm, though, made her realise the risk many heroes were taking, and why they needed their secret identities. People could get hurt, killed or have their entire lively hoods destroyed.

Annoyingly while dealing with the aftermath in Smallville, Batman had decided that he needed to head back to Gotham, leaving her to deal with the Smallville sheriff and then the reporters that had turned up.

She was thankful that Terrific had decided to send down some help in the form of Green Arrow. He had been more than helpful as they explained what had occurred. Or rather what little they knew. They had detected a strange weather pattern and had come to investigate finding the destroyed farm. It wasn't even a lie. It was near a-hundred percent factual.

She drummed her fingers against the table. Things were a lot simpler when she lived in San Francisco. Actually, that was a lie. Things tended to be rather complicated, especially when a certain Brit had entered her life.

Thankfully, she had put most of that behind her. But maybe it was time to go back. She missed Shadowcrest, her families' ancestral home and hadn't been there for nearly three years now.

Zatanna stood up sharply from her chair, causing a few of the heroes to look her way. She ignored there stares left heading towards the teleporter room.

She hadn't gone back to Shadowcrest because she knew there was no hurry to do so. It would still be there, waiting. But what if one day it wasn't?

What had happened to the Kents was horrible. As she understood it, they were staying at Wayne Manor and she felt that she needed to go see them. She wanted to meet the people that had raised Superman.

After teleporting down to her apartment in Gotham she got in her car and hit the road, her destination was Wayne Manor. After roughly a half-hour, she finally arrived, pulling up outside the gate to the large building that looked almost like something out of Frankenstein. After getting out of her car, she pressed down the button on the intercom by the gate.

"Wayne Manor, who may I ask is there?"

"Zatanna," she told him.

"Ah, Ms Zatanna. I can see you on the surveillance cameras. I shall open the gates. Just be aware that we have guests."

"I know," she said. "It's why I'm here."

"Very well."

She returned to her car as the gates slid open. She then drove inside and parked in front of the large manor.

With her car locked, she headed up to the front door and was greeted by Alfred.

"Good afternoon," he greeted. "It is good to see you again, Ms Zatanna. It has been a few months since you were last on the property."

"Yes it has, and it's good to see you again too," she agreed.

"Please come in," he said.

She stepped inside and he closed the door.

"I shall show you to the main room," Alfred said, leading the way.

She followed where she saw two elderly people sat talking. They stopped as they looked over at them.

Alfred introduced her. "This is Ms Zatanna Zatara."

"The magician," the man Zatanna assumed was Superman's adoptive father said. "I've seen her on the TV."

"Nice to meet you," the older woman said. "I'm Martha and this is Jonathan."

"Pleased to meet you both," Zatanna said. "I'm sorry about what happened. I was with Batman as we responded to the tornado, so I saw it first hand."

"It was our home," Jonathan said. "The land's been in the family for generations."

Zatanna wanted to offer some help but knew there was little she could do. She couldn't really invite them to stay at Shadowcrest as she doubted either would want to stay there. It was a place of magic and could be quite dangerous if one was not prepared.

"How long will you be staying here?" she asked.

Jonathan answered. "We're not sure. I suppose until Clark can find us a place to stay."

"I see," Zatanna said. She looked to Alfred. "May I take a seat."

"Oh, of course," Alfred said. "Forgive me for not offering."

"It's fine." She said as she sat down.

"Would you all like a drink?"

Martha perked up. "One of those cups of tea you make would be lovely."

"Then I shall fetch you one," Alfred said. "Anyone else?"

Jonathan nodded. "I'll have one as well."

"No thank you," Zatanna said.

"Would you like a lemonade instead?" the butler asked her.

"No thank you, I won't be staying long."

"Very well," Alfred accepted as he made his way to the kitchen.

Zatanna looked around the large room. The manor certainly looked nicer from the inside than the out.

"So," Jonathan said. "Are your magic tricks real or fake? I've seen those shows on TV where they show how some of your tricks are done. With mirrors and stuff."

"Jonathan!" Martha said in a disapproving tone.

Zatanna didn't mind answering the question. "Depends. I like the craft of fooling people with illusions that appear to be rea; magic, but aren't. There are tricks, though, that need genuine magic."

"Why not use real magic all the time?"

"As I said, I like the craft. Besides, real magic can be strenuous. I like to save my energy for the big finale to really wow the crowd."

"You don't use an alias, do you?"

Zatanna shook her head. "No. I'm me. I don't really need to protect my identity."

"Glad you put it that way," Jonathan mused. "Some would see it as hiding. I've seen those shows too."

"I know that heroes need to live their lives like anyone else. Magic is who I am, and there has never been any reason to separate the two. Everyone knows I'm a magician. It's just that over the last ten years that I've revealed that my magic isn't all tricks." Zatanna took off her hat and set it on her lap. "Maybe I could do a show for you. Not now, of course, I don't have anything with me, but later. I'm sure you need to take your mind off things."

"We sure do," Martha agreed. "How well do you know our son, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Barely at all. The only one of the original seven I know is Bruce, and I don't know him all that well either. He was the one that gave the offer to join the league."

"Why did you accept?" Jonathan asked.

Zatanna shrugged. "I felt it was an opportunity." She smiled. "Besides, I wanted to be among people like your son. You must be very proud of him. He is a symbol that many aspire to be. Maybe not in terms of abilities, but in terms of kindness and moral standing."

"We are proud," Martha and Jonathan chorused together.

"I wasn't sure what I could really offer at first," Zatanna continued. "I'm not really a superhero, not like your son or Bruce. I do help people when I can, but it's not something I devoted a lot of time to."

"I'm sure they appreciate you," Martha said.

"I know they do. We all appreciate each other. In a lot of ways, I think most members are just relieved that they're not on their own any more. It can be tough and there are times I know even Superman wished he had some back-up or someone looking out for him. Like that time Parasite got his hands on him."

"We know the dangers all-too-well," Jonathan said.

"We didn't want him to do it at first," Martha said. "And even now there are times we wish he would hang up the cape and retire from it. But the world wouldn't be here now if it weren't for him."

Alfred stepped into the room with the two hot drinks which he placed on coasters on the large coffee table.

"There you go. I do hope you enjoy." He turned to Zatanna. "Are you certain you do not want a cup of tea or other beverage, Ms Zatanna?"

Zatanna thought for a few moments. "Actually, I should be heading off."

"Already?"

Zatanna nodded. "Thank you all for your time."

"In that case, I shall walk you to the door," Alfred said.

Zatanna stood up and walked with the older man to the front door. "It was good to meet you," she told him.

"You too Ms Zatanna. A pity you have to leave so soon."

Zatanna stepped out of the mansion and made her way back to her car. She climbed inside and put the keys into the ignition.

A few minutes later she was heading back into the city.