Chapter Text
December
Tears stinging his eyes, Clark watched as Jonathan Kent’s coffin was lowered into the grave. He stood behind his mother and sister, arms around their shoulders as Martha and Keira clung to each other. Behind them, Lana, Lois, and Lena stood solemnly.
“We’ll never forget him,” Clark said quietly, and Martha and Keira nodded.
Jonathan Kent’s spirit would live on, in the lessons he’d imparted to his children, the values that turned Clark and Keira Kent into Superman and Superwoman.
One Year Later
Lena smiled at her brother as she entered the visitation room. “Lex,” she said.
“Lena,” he replied. He drummed his fingers on a notebook as she sat, then slid it across the table to her. “I want you to check something.”
“Alright,” Lena replied, taking the notebook and opening it. The pages were littered with equations and diagrams. She studied them carefully, understanding what Lex was getting at. “This looks very good.”
“Promising?” Lex asked.
“Extremely,” Lena said.
“Useful?”
“Undoubtedly.”
Lex smiled, waving a hand at her. “Then it's yours, and Lcorp’s.”
Slowly, Lena nodded. This work was very valuable, but there could be complications. She set the notebook down, sliding it back towards Lex. “I’ll get in touch with Legal, see what we’ll have to draw up to–”
“Lena, no strings. It’s yours. I just want to help out.” Lex pushed the notebook towards her.
Hesitantly, Lena picked it back up. “Still, I’ll contact Legal. I want to make sure everything is above board.”
Lex nodded. “Of course. I’m happy to help.”
Lena smiled at her little brother. “How have you been?”
Lex shrugged. “Well as can be expected. And you? Things are going well?”
Lena’s smile widened. “They certainly are.”
“I’m happy for you, Lena.”
“Thank you, Lex.”
Six Years Later
The wormhole opened into the Royal Chambers of Queen Maxima of Almerac. From it stepped Clark Kent, Lana Kal-El, Lois Lane, Mia Lane, and Jonathan Kent.
Maxima smiled as her friends appeared. “Welcome!” she cheered, rushing up to hug them all. Her true love, her sisters who shared that love, her honorary niece and nephew.
“Cir! Jon!” a voice cried, and a dash of green-and-gold surged from deeper in the royal apartments to squeeze the young Kents in a tight hug. “Come on!” Suprema yelled, grabbing their hands. “I’ve got something so cool to show you!” In another blur, Suprema dragged her half-siblings away.
“Good to see you too, Suprema!” Clark hollered, but the seven-year-olds were gone.
Lois shook her head, smiling. “She’s still as excitable as ever.”
“Indeed,” Maxima replied, playfully thrusting a finger into Clark’s chest. “I blame you, Superman.”
Clark shrugged. “I’m used to getting blamed for things by now,” he replied.
“And we love you anyway,” Lana said, hugging him.
Maxima drew Clark into a hug, kissing him tenderly before laying her head on his broad chest. “It is always good to see you,” she sighed. Then she looked at Lana and Lois. “And you as well, sisters.”
“Don’t get to feeling too sisterly,” Lana said, a light friskiness in her tone.
“Why not?” Lois said. “That’s apparently a thing in this family.”
“True,” Maxima hummed.
Three Years Later
Bruce grimaced as he pulled down the top of his Batsuit, wincing at the aches and pains moving through his body. He raised his head. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“Of course you do,” Superman said from behind him, striding into the dim light of the Batcave. “But even so. . . you’re getting too old for this.”
“I’ve been too old for this for a while,” Bruce replied. He turned to look at Clark. “No snappy comeback?”
“No. I’m shocked you admit it.”
“Little point in denying it,” Bruce replied. “I probably should have seriously considered retiring after Darkseid, but. . . you needed me.”
“Yes,” Superman said quietly. “I hate to say it, but, maybe–”
“It’s past time,” Bruce agreed. “But don’t worry. I have a successor picked out.”
“Dick?” Clark asked. “Tim?” His face fell. “Please not Damien.”
“None of the above,” Bruce replied. Slumping into his computer chair, Bruce pressed a button. “You can come in.”
A door opened, and a young man strode in. Bruce smiled. “Superman. . . meet Terry McGinnis.”
Five Years Later
John Henry Irons, in a suit he’d made special to withstand the rigors of deep space, connected crystalline circuits and power couplings. “Last module in place,” he said, closing the panel.
“Good here,” Superman replied, his heat vision snapping off, the weld he’d just finished cooling in the vacuum.
“Readouts are green,” Lena Luthor said over comms. “Come on in.”
“On our way,” Steel replied, firing the rocket motors in his suit, keeping pace with Superman as the pair returned to Watchtower.
Once through the battlecruiser's airlock, they made their way to the bridge.
“Connections stable,” Lena said. “Platform is ready to power up.”
“Rechecking orbit,” Lex Luthor said from another console. “Looks good.”
“Spin up primary power system,” Kara said.
“Online,” Lena replied. “Charging. Primary power stable. Capacitors charging.”
“Charged,” Lex said.
“Activate atmosphere barrier,” Kara said.
“Powering up,” Lena said. “Barrier stable.”
“Lex, give us a ten second test of the defense screens,” Kara said.
“Defense screens active.” They waited. “Capacitors stable. Power grid shows no strain. Screens steady.”
“Deactivate defense screens. Lena, atmospheric generators.”
“Online,” Lena replied. She studied the screens as the readings changed. “We’re stable at one atmosphere. No leaks.”
“Gravity generators?” Kara asked.
Lex nodded. “Online, standard Krypton gravity, no fluctuations.”
Kara released a long, slow breath. Everyone in the room knew her well enough to see she was quaking with nervousness. Kal put a hand on her shoulder. “You did good,” he said quietly.
She smiled at him, then looked back to her screens, eyes flicking over to the readouts Lena and Lex were studying. “Lock placement.”
“Locked,” Lena said.
“Watchtower, activate graviton manipulators.”
“Graviton manipulators online,” Watchtower replied.
Kara took the controls and maneuvered the beams, and the delicate object they carried, to a mathematically defined point.
They were in orbit around Earth’s sun. It had been months of work, but they’d assembled the platform in a perfect counter-Earth orbit, the same distance and orbital velocity but on the other side of the sun. The platform was a massive metal disk, one side with a depression the shape of an inverted cone.
Kara was maneuvering the graviton manipulators to place their package at a specific point within that cone.
“On target,” Kara said, releasing the graviton manipulators. She’d done her work expertly, both objects had zero relative momentum.
Her hand hovered over a crystalline control. “Moment of truth,” she said quietly, her voice quaking.
Clark squeezed his sister’s shoulder. “You’ve got this.”
Kara nodded, then touched the control.
A beam shot from Watchtower towards the platform, hitting the tiny, delicate package that had been placed so carefully.
The beam had exactly the intended effect. The object grew to many times the size it had been, the conical base fitting perfectly in the divot built into the platform. The atmosphere shield held in breathable air, the gravity generators emulated the mass of the planet Krypton.
“It worked,” Lena sighed in relief. Lex grinned. Kara shuddered, grabbing her console and sagging with a momentous weight finally lifted.
“They’re probably freaking the hell out over there,” John Henry noted.
“Quite right,” Clark said. “Hailing frequencies.”
“Open,” Watchtower replied.
“This is Kal-El aboard Kryptonian battlecruiser Watchtower. Kandor city, do you read?”
Moments later, a voice came over the channel. “This is Dev-Re, chief administrator of Kandor. Where are we? What’s happened?”
“That’s something of a complicated story,” Kal said. “With your permission, we’d like to dock, so we can discuss that in person.”
“Dock? We. . . we don’t understand where we are, what’s happened–”
“We’ll handle it,” Kal said reassuringly. “We’d just like your permission to enter the city first.”
“You have it,” Dev-Re replied. “We have a fix on your ship, Kal-El. I will prepare a reception to meet you and welcome you.”
“We look forward to it.” He closed the channel. “Watchtower, dock with Kandor.”
“Confirmed.”
Kal turned, looking at everyone who had been eagerly awaiting this moment. John Henry Irons, Lena Luthor, Lex Luthor, Kara, Connor, Mia, Jon, Kem-El, Lana, Lois. He nodded, smiling. “Let’s go meet the neighbors.”
One Year Later
Supergirl tumbled through the air, reeling from the powerful monster’s blow. She righted herself, shaking her head, and studied the situation, looking for a solution.
“You alright?” Jon asked, flying up next to her.
“Fine,” Mia replied. “We need a plan.”
“How about this?” Connor said, flying up to join them. “Supergirl left, Superboy II right, me up the middle, hit it as hard as we can.”
“It’ll get at least one of us,” Mia protested.
“But not all of us,” Connor said. “And we can take it.”
That was true. “Alright,” Mia said, shrugging for lack of better ideas. “Questions?”
“Yeah,” Jon said. “How am I Superboy II?”
“Because I was here first,” Connor said.
“Dude, you’re, like, a decade older. Shouldn’t you start going by Superman?”
Connor raised an eyebrow at Jonathan Kent. “You want to be the one to have that conversation with him?”
Mia looked between her brother and her cousin. “Is this really an important topic right now?”
“Right,” Connor said. “On three. . . break!”
One Year Later
In the grand convention hall in Kandor, the delegates gathered. King Arthur and his retinue of Atlanteans. Queen Hipployta accompanied by Amazon soldiers and senators. Representatives from the United Nations. Queen Maxima and Princess Suprema of Almerac, their Royal Guards and recently-minted Ambassadorial Corps. The High Council of Kandor, led by Councilor Dev-Re. Kal-El, Kara Zor-El, Kem-El, Lena, Lois, Lana, Kon-El, Cir-El, and Jon-El. J’onn J’onzz and M’gann M’orzz.
And a group of White Martians.
“You’re sure about this?” Kal asked quietly.
“They’re ready to talk,” M’gann replied just as softly. “Seeing Doomsday, the Blackest Night, and Darkseid so close together. . . they know galactic conquest isn’t the way anymore, and if they try and stand alone, they’ll perish. They know they need to change, it’s just taken a while for the old hardliners to get with the program.”
Clark nodded.
They settled around the great table, many of the groups involved eyeing each other warily. Kal-El stood, rapping his knuckles lightly on the table to get everyone’s attention. “Thank you all for coming. Welcome to Kandor city. We gather here today to open negotiations for a permanent alliance between all the powers of this solar system. The surface world of Earth, the Kingdom of Atlantis, Themyscira, Kandor, and Mars. Queen Maxima of Almerac has graciously volunteered her services as a neutral arbiter. Today, we take our first step onto the galactic stage. A system of diverse peoples, but united in our principles. Gentlebeings, today we forge our future. Let’s all work together to make it a good one.”
Clark sat down, and Maxima stood, opening the floor for the first order of business. Clark sat back, smiling.
“Our parents would be so proud,” Kara whispered to him.
“I know,” Clark whispered back.
This would be one of many incredible achievements that would ring throughout history. Perhaps the most notable, perhaps not. But part of that grand story, that legend, that legacy.
The legacy of the House of El.