Hearts and Bones - A Justice Lords Story by BillA1

Copyright November 2005

 

Disclaimer: The characters Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Superman & Flash their respective secret identities are all owned by DC Comics. This story is intended for my own pleasure and is not for profit. It has been posted to this site for others to read. Places and characters not own by DC Comics are my own creation. This story is based on characters from The Justice League story "A Better World" written by Stan Berkowitz. Many thanks to Merlin Missy for her beta on this story.  Not a direct sequel to, but references material found in Steel Sunrise.

 

 

Hearts and Bones - A Justice Lords Story

Rating: (PG-13)

Synopsis: Even family must tow the line with the Justice Lords.

 

 

These events may have had some effect
On the man with the girl by his side
The arc of a love affair
His hands rolling down her hair
Love like lightning shaking till it moans
Hearts and bones. (Hearts and Bones - Paul Simon)

 

(Second planet in the Betelgeuse star system)

(Six months after the death of President Luthor)

 

The cave was dark and it had started to snow outside. The fire had gone out. Dawn would break in an hour or so. He hoped. With the daylight, in theory, came warmth, but if the last couple of days were any indicator, the sun would bring no relief. He was cold and had been for days. It was a dry, bitter cold and it kept him awake at night. He knew that soon, in a couple of days or in a week at most, it would be over for them.

 

He sighed.

 

He'd been watching her sleep for the last ten minutes. He marveled that she could sleep in this cold. He thought, perhaps, it was because she'd experienced much colder weather than this when she was younger.

 

But John Irons, who in another lifetime was known as Steel, knew that very soon they would go to sleep and not wake up. He knew he was a lot closer to that moment than she was, and he felt sorry for her, knowing how much sorrow she'd experienced in her relatively short life. He prayed that his God would allow them to die at the same time, so that one didn't have to awaken to find the other dead.

 

He smiled tightly to himself. Two years ago, he would have never imagined this moment could exist. Now he couldn't think of a universe where he didn't sleep next to her; a universe where they weren't lovers; a universe where they wouldn't die together.

 

The same red sun, which removed her superpowers, was slowly killing him.

 

This was their fate.

 

This was their destiny.

 

This was their punishment for rebelling against the Justice Lords.

 

Exile and certain death.

 

He snuggled a little closer to Kara In-Ze. She stirred and turned toward him in her sleep. For a moment, he reflected that she'd always turned toward him ever since he'd known her, always looked to him for support, and always viewed him as a touchstone. He hoped that she knew that he viewed her the same way.

 

Superman got two for the price of one when he banished them to a planet in the Betelgeuse star system, exiled them to live under a red sun. Maybe Superman didn't know what would happen to a human under a red sun or maybe he knew and just didn't care. The red sun was to neutralize her, and if John died because of his body's inability to make Vitamin D under red sunlight, well...he was just collateral damage.

 

But the real irony was that Clark didn't know John's Steel metal suit was powered by the rays of a yellow sun, just like Superman, just like Kara.

 

Guess it turns out the suit was too perfect a tribute to Superman.

 

Once he was under a red sun, John's twelve hundred pound suit became dead weight.

 

Not even the electronics worked; it was just dead.

 

She shivered and he wished more than anything that he could give her more cover, more protection from the cold. But what covering they had was threadbare and this planet didn't seem to have the raw materials for them to fashion anything that would ward off the approaching harsh weather.

 

She'll wake up in a minute. He slid down under the thin covers so that he was at her eye level. When her eyes finally fluttered open, he smiled. She smiled back and gently stroked his face with her hand. Her touch was cold, but he didn't move away. Her hands were always cold, even during the mild weather, now that he thought about it. Must be her species.

 

"Hi," she murmured.

 

He moved her blonde hair away from her forehead, making sure not to disturb the cloth cap she wore, the caps they both wore, in an effort to keep body heat in. He gently kissed her. "Hi yourself," he answered.

 

She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer as if she was trying to melt into him through the many layers of thin clothing they had on.

 

As she placed his hand on her stomach, he regretted that the child growing inside of her would never know life under a yellow sun.

 

 

Kara wasn't sure, but she thought she was pregnant and had told John so. There was no need to be coy or try to hold anything back or wait another month for confirmation. They'd been totally honest with each other from the beginning because their survival depended upon not keeping secrets. And if her suspicions were correct, in a couple of months, it wouldn't have been a secret anyway.

 

She knew getting pregnant was the worst thing that could happen to them here. She'd not given any thought to children in her life before and particularity not now when she couldn't guarantee a child's survival, let alone her own. No other way to put it. This is not good.

 

John sat up and glanced at the burn site on the cave floor. The fire had been out for a couple of hours. They both knew it was dangerous to have a fire in a closed space, but they needed the heat. Carbon monoxide or freezing to death. Your choice, Kara. 

 

In a corner of the cave, they'd collected several piles of the only vegetation that would burn on this planet, a thin and spiky leafed weed. It was the only plant life they'd seen besides moss. But now they were running out of that, too.

 

"Almost no water in this plant," John had said when they'd stumbled across it in the early days of exile. "We can't use it for food. It would be like eating straw and will probably burn too fast for heat. The roots are too small for us to get any water from."

 

Kara examined the plant and agreed. "Maybe if we collect enough of it, we can use it to sleep on," she suggested.

 

John nodded. "Good call. It can be our polyester fill."

 

"Polyester fill?"

 

"Yeah, we can stuff this between layers of cloth and make bedding or blankets. As long as we keep it dry, it can act as an insulator for us."

 

She remembered smiling as she answered, "Yeah. Keep the ground from sucking the body heat out of us. This ground is so cold." The smell of the mattress, stuffed with the weeds, made her nauseous now in the morning, but sleeping on the cold ground was just intolerable.

 

When the Green Lantern left them on this nameless piece of dirt six months ago, promising to return in a year, she'd thought she'd hit rock bottom in her life. Yet, she'd found strength and optimism in John Irons that sustained her through the dark days that followed after the Green Lantern disappeared into the morning sky.

 

No shelter.

 

No provisions, other than the rations and clothing Hawkgirl had supplied, probably without Clark's knowledge.

 

She shook her head. Clark probably thought they wouldn't last a week. Well, they'd showed him.

 

(Three month earlier)

 

Within a couple of hours of their arrival, they'd found shelter in a nearby cave and located a stream with fish, or something that passed for fish.  It was a promising beginning.

 

Kara was amazed at how creative John was as he used pieces of his non-working suit to devise two sharp weapons that they could use to hunt and fish and protect themselves against bigger animals.

 

But they never saw any bigger animals, never saw any birds or creatures larger than a house cat, and those animals moved too fast for them to trap or catch. They had to settle for catching and eating a small animal species the size of a large rat; they named it "Clark."

 

"But what if it's poison," she asked.

 

"Would an animal named 'Clark' poison us?"

 

She laughed. She'd given up Superman's secret identity to John almost the moment they were exiled. No need to keep that rat bastard's secret. 

 

"We really don't have too much choice, do we?"

 

"Less everyday and soon, Kara, we'll have no choice. At some point, we're going to have to eat the local cuisine. And we're going to end up eating anything we can to stay alive, including insects if we can find them, or anything that moves slower than us. Anything we can kill is dinner."

 

"But we have rations from Hawkgirl."

 

"Which won't last us forever and you know that. This is our best opportunity to test the food here to determine what's safe to eat, before the rations run out, not afterwards."

 

The Clarks were safe to eat and became their primary food source.

 

Together, they hunted along the streambed, following its meandering course for miles, scraping out a meager daily existence, until the day they dug the bottle traps near the stream.

 

She struck something really hard while digging and after examining the dirt in the hole called out, "John, I think I've hit ice. The ground is really hard here."

 

His reply was rather casual. "How far down you dig before you hit the ice?" He didn't sound surprised. He stopped his digging and came over to help her step out of the hole she'd dug.

 

"Less than a meter," she replied as she wiped her hands on her shirt. She paused. "That's not good, is it?"

 

"I struck ice about a minute before you did." He took a deep breath. "Kara, do you know what tundra is?" John asked as he squatted next to the hole and examined the dirt.

 

She nodded. "I was afraid you were going to say that. You think it's permafrost, too, don't you?"

 

"I do, and I think," he said solemnly as he stood, "this explains the lack of plant life and larger animals. I think we arrived at the end of a short warm period and this cooling weather is the winter season approaching."

 

"I thought the warm period for a tundra lasted a couple of weeks. We've been here for months."

 

He frowned. "On Earth, the warm period is several weeks out of the year. But we don't know how long a year is on this planet. A single year here could be several Earth years."

 

"How bad do you think it's going to get?" she asked. She knew the answer. She'd witnessed people on Argo dying from the cold when she made house visits with her mother, the chief physician of Argo.

 

John spoke softly, "We both know how bad it's going to get. As bad as it has been, it's going to get worse, much worse." He paused and frowned. "Your cousin might win after all."

 

(Now)

 

Cousins.

 

They'd called each other "cousin" almost from the moment he'd rescued her from the suspended animation in which her mother had placed her in a last desperate attempt to save their lives. In hindsight, maybe calling her "cousin" allowed him to exercise some control over her; made sure she understood she was now part of his family, should follow his rules and live the life he wanted for her.

 

She'd been ten years old when Krypton exploded and had lived five years on the planet Argo as it drifted deeper into the coldness of space. She'd spent almost three decades in suspended animation. She was nine years older than Clark and that seemed to bother him to no end.

 

But she played the young child for him and tried to mirror his life on the strange planet, Earth. She'd surprised him and learned his rules too well and accepted his moral code too rapidly. She'd been fifteen when he found her, but five years on Earth had told taught her that sometimes Clark's way wasn't the only way.

 

She'd been proud to be Supergirl, proud to the "cousin" of the "Last Son of Krypton," prouder to be the "Last Daughter of Argo" and proudest that she had been called by some, "The Last Defender of Freedom."

 

But like others before her, she'd failed.

 

She and Steel had been unable to stand against the Justice Lords and fell like so many other heroes who'd resisted the sinister six. And yet, because she was his "cousin," Clark had permitted her and Steel to live, without the telltale burn marks on their foreheads.

 

So. He did not kill them, did not mentally cripple them, but instead beat them both within inches of their lives before Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern intervened.

 

It was weeks under this red sun before the bruises healed and finally faded.

 

She sat up and watched him stir the cold ashes of the extinguished fire. Before they were exiled, he had been a physically big, powerful and strong man. Now he was much thinner and moved slower because of malnutrition and the deadly effects of the red sun. But it didn't matter if he didn't look the same because he was the same man she'd come to care for, a man she'd come to love.

 

Yes, she loved him. What was there not to love about him? If she was going to die, she wanted to die by his side. She was more certain of that now than she was of anything else in her life. Being pregnant had nothing to do with it. She'd loved him since he saved her from Metamorpho's Kryptonite attack years ago. Metamorpho was unable to stand against Steel's ferocious assault and perished in the fight.

 

She couldn't remember exactly how long they'd been marooned on the planet before they finally became lovers; to her way of thinking, it was long overdue. She was sure it was one of the many days they'd failed to find food. They'd both realized that as the weather started to turn severe, there'd be no rescue, no reprieve. They would be dead before the Green Lantern returned. All they had in this new world was each other and it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time, the natural thing to do.

 

He had been as gentle as she could have ever hoped for and she tried to please him and take pleasure from him and this new experience. And she didn't regret it a bit, not that time or the other times that followed.

 

She smiled. It was hard not to smile when John smiled. Before John, she wasn't sure she could ever mate with anyone who wasn't Clark, anyone who was human. And now she knew not only could she mate with a human, but that she could reproduce with one as well.

 

She looked over her shoulder toward the mouth of the cave. The wind had started to blow the snow underneath the cloth flap they'd put up at the mouth of the cave to keep the elements out. Soon there would be snow inside the cave, sealing them in and sealing their fate.

 

She missed her super powers more than ever now.

 

She missed flight most of all, but she also missed invulnerability. She was pretty (and she knew it) and would have remained blemish-free under a yellow sun, but not now. Her hands had calluses, her feet had blisters and her body ached all the time. Her fair skin had cuts and scratches from the brush and thickets they hunted in.

 

But most of all she could feel the cold now and it was cold all the time. The planet was clearly entering a winter season and they had no idea how long it would last. They hadn't found any larger animals they could skin to use for additional clothing and the outfits Hawkgirl had provided were inadequate for the approaching weather. It was almost as if Hawkgirl didn't know the planet they were exiled to had a winter season.

 

"Steak and eggs, or would you rather have a piece of Clark?" she said as she stood and walked slowly to a corner of the cave. She retrieved a small frozen animal carcass. Three left.

 

"Hmmm," John answered. "I really felt like a Denver omelet, whole wheat toast and coffee, but I'll have a piece of Clark, instead."

 

She cut the animal in half and handed a piece to John. "I take it you now want your coffee with lots of cream."

 

A broad smile came over John face as he used his knife and cut small strips off the rodent-like animal. "You know I do," he answered.

 

She smiled back as she sat down next to him and whispered. "That's good to know. Thanks."

 

She knew if even John didn't say it, they would not survive the winter. They had days, perhaps a week before they froze or starved to death. All of Argo had frozen to death and the "Last Daughter" and her child were not to be spared either.

 

(Watchtower - Diana's Quarters)

 

"Kara," Clark said softly in his sleep, but loud enough to wake up Diana.

 

This was almost a weekly ritual now. He would toss and turn, waking Diana up before he finally called out Kara's name. Some nights, he called out loud enough to wake himself up. Diana didn't know what she could do to ease Clark's mind.

 

He wouldn't talk about his dreams and he wouldn't talk about Kara at all. Diana knew that Kara's betrayal had hurt him in ways no other enemy could have, but she wasn't sure it was really a betrayal. She'd been in the room when Kara and Clark had their first confrontation on his killing of President Luthor. She remembered it like it was yesterday.

 

(Two weeks after the death of President Luthor)

 

Kara had been transported to the Watchtower, with Clark's permission, so they could speak. As far as Diana knew, this was the first time the cousins had spoken about Luthor's death.

 

"You told me there was always another way, Clark. Talk to me," Kara pleaded. "Tell me what happened. We're family. Help me understand, please!"

 

Diana thought that Kara looked lost as she asked her cousin for guidance or at least an explanation.

 

Clark folded his arms across his chest. "He was going to destroy the world. I couldn't let that happen."

 

"So you killed him?" she asked incredulously. "What happen to 'hurt before you maim, maim before you kill?'"

 

Clark shook his head. "Kara, you're young and you don't understand. Sometimes, there is no other way. We must destroy evil wherever we find it, whenever we have the chance. All that evil needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing."

 

Kara leaped in the air and hovered in front of him. "I was born nine years before you, Clark. Don't treat me like a child. I know right from wrong. I want you to remember those words, Clark, about destroying evil, because they will come back to haunt you one day."

 

Clark didn't say anything as Kara left, but Diana knew he was seething with anger.

 

Days later, when Kara, Steel, Green Arrow and Black Canary, held a joint press conference to say that they condemned the murder of the President, and asked that Superman submit to the appropriate authorities, Diana thought Clark would hurl the television set to the moon. He stomped out of the recreation room saying he needed to get some air.

 

She thought nothing more of Clark's outburst until two days later when the Daily Planet reported that billionaire Oliver Queen and his long-time companion Dinah Lance had been found dead in Queen's home. Both had died from broken necks.

 

Diana burst into the conference room looking for Clark. She found him seated at the table with the Green Lantern. "Did you do this?" Diana shouted as she flung the newspaper at Clark.

 

He picked up the paper, glanced at it and offered it back to her. "I wrote the story. It says so in the by-line. See?" he said as he placed the paper on the table.

 

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Diana retorted. "Look at me, Clark. Did you kill them?"

 

Clark stood and glared at her. "No, and don't you ever ask me that kind of question again."

 

Green Lantern glanced at the paper. "But you do know who did it, don't you." Lantern said.

 

"I'm worried about the safety of my cousin. Does that answer your question?" Clark replied as he walked to the door. He looked at the Green Lantern. "Kara may be in danger."

 

Truer words were never spoken. Only later, did Diana realize that they were the danger to Kara.

 

Three days after confronting Clark, Diana got an urgent distress call from J'onn.

 

"Diana. Lantern. Superman is at the Metropolis Library. Supergirl and Steel have attacked him. Provide assistance." J'onn's voice was surprisingly calm Diana would later recall.

 

"On my way," she replied.

 

"I'm on it," Lantern answered.

 

She and Lantern arrived on the scene at the same time. A crowd had gathered across the street from the library. Superman, Supergirl and Steel were fighting on the steps of the building. From Diana's perspective, it wasn't much of a fight. It was clear to both her and Lantern that Superman needed no help. Steel and Supergirl were outclassed and outmatched.

 

Superman had stripped most of Steel's armor away and left the man, who'd showed signs of a vicious beating, battered on the steps. The crowd gasped in horror as Clark held a barely conscious Kara up by her cape.

 

"You wear my shield, but stand against me," Clark shouted as he raised his hand to hit the girl again. "Then die!"

 

"Enough!" Diana shouted as she grabbed Clark's arm and the Green Lantern put an energy shield around Kara.

 

"This stops now," Lantern shouted. "Look at yourself, man. Don't do this. Not here!" He pointed to the crowd across the street.

 

Clark dropped the limp woman to the ground, shook his head and flew off. Diana took off after him as the Green Lantern formed a ball around Steel and Kara, and with the injured pair in tow, followed Diana.

 

They landed in a deserted part of Metropolis Central Park. "I don't know what came over me," Clark said softly as he lowered his head. He looked at the pair inside the Lantern's protective bubble. "I'm sorry."

 

"What happened?" Diana asked as she placed her hand on Clark's shoulder.

 

"There was a rally across the street from the library," Clark answered. "These two were telling the crowd not to give up hope, that the Justice Lords would be brought to justice." He pounded his closed fist into his open hand. "Brought to justice. We are justice. Look at them."

 

He pointed to Steel and Kara now huddled together in the Lantern's bubble. "She's wearing my old blue colors and Steel has my shield on his chest." He looked at Diana. There was a plea for understanding in his eyes. "They are telling the world that I dishonored my insignia. They're mocking me."

 

"So when did they attack you?" Diana asked.

 

"Yes," Steel interrupted. His eyes were swollen, his lip busted, and he wheezed for breath. "Tell them when we attacked you."

 

Clark closed his eyes, put his fingertips to his temples and rubbed. "I don't remember," he said softly. "I just don't remember."

 

"Yeah, you don't remember because you attacked us first," Kara whispered in a voice cracking with emotion. "We never had a chance and you knew it." She cleared the sob from her throat. "Look at us. Damn you. Look at us!" Tears ran down her cheeks and Steel put his arm around her.

 

Clark lowered his head and said nothing other than to repeat that he didn't remember what happened.

 

Why doesn't he remember? Did he attack them first? Why'd he tell J'onn they attacked him?

 

"Clark, this can be worked out," Diana said as she slowly shook her head. "No one has to die here. What if they remove the emblems? What if they swear not to speak out against us...against you?"

 

"I won't speak for Kara," Steel groaned. He struggled to get up, but couldn't. He knelt on the ground instead. "This 'S' of mine stays regardless of how much you try to punish me for wearing it. It's my call for justice. It honors the memory of what used to be right and the memory of the man I wanted to help, the man I wanted to be like."

 

Kara leaned against Steel for support and shook her head. "This shield is all I have left to remind me to do the right thing. Even if it no longer talks to you, Clark, it still talks to me. The 'S' stays."

 

Clark's look of bewilderment faded as he frowned. His face was resolute. "Not on this planet, it doesn't."

 

(Watchtower Conference Room)

 

Kara and Steel were recuperating in the Medlab. Kara was shackled in titanium-Kryptonite restraints while Steel was strapped to a regular hospital gurney. Kara's manacles had been designed by S.T.A.R. Labs for holding Superman without killing him. The Justice Lords had removed the shackles and other similar weapons before they destroyed the S.T.A.R. Labs building and Clark lobotomized the staff.

 

Clark had called for a meeting of the Justice Lords. Once Bruce found out what the subject of the meeting was, he refused to come, instead answering Clark with, "It's your family. Handle it!"

 

Deciding what to do with these two was difficult. Clark had wanted to send them to the Phantom Zone, but wouldn't promise he'd ever bring them back.

 

Diana was direct. "Sending them to the Phantom Zone without ever returning them is the same as killing them. Clark, the killing must stop. Now!"

 

"Don't make martyrs of them," Shayera added. "If you kill them or if they don't come back and appear contrite, hundreds, maybe thousands will take up their cause and we will have a problem that will eventually grow out of control."

 

Diana nodded in agreement. "Imprison them somewhere where they'll be no threat and return them in eight or nine months and have them stand with you at a news conference. If they don't want to do it, keep them imprisoned until they do. But you don't have to kill them."

 

The Green Lantern nodded. "That's a good idea. We still need popular support to be effective and those two seem to resonate with a large segment of the population. We need more allies, not more enemies. "

 

J'onn frowned. "Those who threaten us should pay the price for doing so. Letting these two live sends the wrong signal. It says we encourage dissent and dissent will lead to our destruction. I know the torture that the humans can inflict when they are frightened or when they find courage in groups. I will not allow myself to fall into the hands of the humans again."

 

Clark was silent; J'onn's statement surprised everyone with its finality. "We don't encourage dissent, J'onn," Clark said softly. "But there will always be those that speak out against us. It's true we have to minimize that number." Clark's eyes narrowed as he looked J'onn in the eyes as he added. "But not all dissenters should meet the same fate as Green Arrow and Black Canary."

 

J'onn looked stunned and then said quietly, "I'll find a planet under a red sun with a mild climate where they can be imprisoned for a year."

 

Everyone nodded. Diana smiled. This business was finished and no one would die today.

 

(Now - in Diana's Quarters)

 

Clark had resumed sleeping quietly. As she lay beside him, she thought about his words to J'onn. She'd been so busy at the time, and so grateful that Kara and Steel's lives had been spared, she hadn't realized the full implications of what he'd said or J'onn's response to it. Now she had that time, and she understood J'onn had almost certainly had a hand in Arrow and Canary's deaths, and Clark had suspected as much from the beginning.

 

That's why he was concerned about Kara's safety.

 

She turned over and tried to go back to sleep. Maybe she'd ask the Green Lantern tomorrow to visit Kara and Steel on that planet and make sure they were okay. The Justice Lords needed to ensure those two remained alive. Their deaths would only fuel more protests. As she drifted off to sleep, she suddenly had another thought, a new sharp thought.

 

No.

 

She wouldn't ask Lantern anything tomorrow. It could wait. Those two would be okay. Yes, another month of isolation wouldn't hurt them at all.

 

(J'onn's Quarters)

 

Yes, another month of isolation wouldn't hurt them at all.

 

J'onn opened his eyes satisfied that Diana would believe that thought was her own. He re-assumed his lotus position and started his meditation in preparation for sleep. He mentally reached out to a distant planet orbiting a red sun and smiled to himself. It would be finished in a day or two. Those two would never lead the humans against the Justice Lords. And the humans would never take him prisoner again.

 

Never again

 

END