Chapter Three:
Broken

To be honest, Bruce hadn't expected very much when the lights had dimmed under the Big Top.

In the past few years, he'd seen too much of the strange and incredible to believe himself capable of being awed by animal tricks, fancy illusions and incredible feats. He'd seen a man bounce bullets of his chest and a woman who had fought a god. After that, a circus seemed rather trivial in comparison. Nevertheless when the time came, Bruce played the part of the gracious benefactor, taking his front row seat amongst the elite of Gotham, that included American aristocracy, politicians and other luminaries that added as much to the spectacle as the players about to perform.

There were other reasons for his ambivalence that had little to do with the quality of the performance and everything to do with his own damaged psyche. He hadn't been to a circus since he was a little boy. His parents had taken him on his fifth birthday. It was a circus not unlike Haly's and Bruce remembered sitting on his father’s shoulders as they navigated the crowds of people moving through the fairground. The world had seemed so vast then, with so many people that he had been a little frightened but his father had that way about him, that calm, reassuring voice that everything would be alright.

And for that day at least Thomas Wayne was right.

Once the lights had dimmed and the calliope music started to play, Bruce had forgotten all about his fear and become lost in the wonder of clowns, dancing bears and acrobats.

However as the light dimmed to herald the beginning of this performance, Bruce found himself slowly and surely being won over by the charm of the event. Unlike most of its contemporaries, Haly’s Circus had opted to not to update its look for modern audiences. No David Copperfield lightshow or CrissAngel sideshow here. The decor was traditional in bright, cheery colors of red and cold with old style playbill posters announcing the acts with girls, smiling happily at the audience.

With its strobe lights zigzagging across the tent and crushed velvet curtains hiding the next act before they entered the center ring, the atmosphere and the performances charmed younger audiences while reminding older ones of better days. There were all the old favorites, clowns, trained animals, sword swallowers, musicians, jugglers, unicyclists and even hoopers. The audience was gasped and cheered, overwhelming the carnival music with thunderous applause.

Of course, by the time these had concluded; the audience was eager for what came next and with that the high wire acts were unveiled. Tight rope walkers, the various acrobats and trapeze acts all whetted the crowd's appetite for Haly's Circus star attraction, which was of course the Flying Graysons, the family of flying trapeze acrobats who were capable of performing the much lauded quadruple summersault.

Despite his earlier indifference to attending this performance, Bruce had to confess that by the time the Graysons were announced, he was rather looking forward to seeing the act. Particularly after meeting the youngest member of the troop whom he'd met backstage. The exchange with Dick Grayson still brought a smile to his face and made Bruce recall the time when he had considered the possibility of having a family.

He and Chloe had talked about it after he'd proposed. Bruce remembered being surprised by her statement that she'd love a bunch of kids. He never considered that she would want children. She always seemed more focused on her career as a journalist and Bruce's ideas for righting the wrongs in Gotham had yet reached its full shape. However, Chloe had wanted a family and when he was hers; Bruce had wanted one with her.

He'd liked to think a child with Chloe would have been happy like young Dick Grayson.

"Haly's Circus is proud to present, the stars of the high-wire, the Flying Graysons!"

The lights dimmed even further and the spotlight darted to the top of the trapeze board where the family was perched, mother, father, two other trapeze acrobats that were part of the troop but didn't appear to be family and finally Dick. The applause grew deafening as the little boy waved to the crowd, beaming in pride before looking to his mother and father, happy not just to be performing but for performing with them.

The act began with the troop making a few routine stunts. John Grayson was the catcher, mounting the fly bar and catching the rest of the troops as they leapt off the board and performed their stunts. It appeared that it was the Grayson family unit that was the real stars of the troop. Both John and Mary were capable of executing the quadruple summersault and had thought the technique to their son. It showed in his performance. Dick held his own with against his older team mates, soaring through the air like a bird into the outstretched hands of his father.

Robin Redbreast, Bruce was reminded once again.

For the first half of the act, the netting below ensured that no one was seriously injured by a fall, not that there was any danger of that happening with the expertise on display. Each one of the Flying Graysons performed their stunts with Olympic level precision and even Bruce was impressed by their skills. Even when Dick leapt off the platform and performed his quadruple somersault, the net remained.

Clearly, no matter how talented their son was; Dick's parents was determined that he remained safe. Bruce respected them for that.

Finally the act moved towards it climax and the net was removed with much fanfare from the ringmaster. The audience was asked to refrain from flash photography or making loud noises to ensure the performers were not distracted during the dangerous stunt. Bruce noted that Dick was sidelined as John and Mary Grayson stepped forward. Clearly they weren't risking their young son for this particular stunt even though Bruce thought the boy was quite capable of executing it perfectly.

John Grayson leapt off board with flawless execution again, taking up position on the second fly bar as the catcher, swinging back and forth to maintain the perfect rhythm he needed for when his wife joined him. Suspended by his knees, his outstretched hands awaited his wife to step forward. Mary was a graceful beauty with a swan like neck and a brilliant smile, stepped off the board, leaping into the air. She caught the first fly bar easily and began to propel herself towards back and forth, preparing for her next stunt.

When she picked up enough momentum, she would let go of the bar to execute a perfect quadruple somersault before catching her husband’s waiting hands. The crowd felt silent as they saw Mary complete the somersault, her agile body sailing towards her husband’s outstretched hand, moving through midair like a human Catherine wheel. John caught her easily and the crowd exploded into applause.

And then it went horribly wrong.

Like the rest of the horrified spectators, Bruce could only watch as the weight of the couple on the fly bar snapped the ropes attached to it. The sudden drop and the smooth surface of the fly bar gave Jon no traction to maintain his grip and it was lost in a split second. Neither of them screamed as they plunged to the ground though if they did, it would have been lost in the shocked cries of the audience.

They landed in a sickly thud of bone and flesh against the sawdust, the height they'd fallen from allowed no chance of survival. As the blood spread across the sawdust, creating a pool of red around their broken bodies, only silence followed. The audience was still too stunned and horrified to find the words though it would be only a momentary pause before the chaos erupted. Before the screams began.

Bruce thought he was going to be sick. John and Mary’s bloodied bodies were so reminiscent of that night in Crime Alley that he could barely stand it. The only thing missing was...

Oh Jesus Christ. The boy.

Bruce raised his eyes slowly to the trapeze board, feeling the world slow around him. He almost didn't’t want to look at the eight year boy staring down at his dead parents, wearing an expression that ripped the very core right out of Bruce Wayne. It was a reflection of anguish and horror that would be years in the making, that had killed a childhood as surely as the people lying dead before the audience. It was everything that he'd fought so hard to prevent, to ensure would never happen again.

It wasn't just his failure that Bruce Wayne saw in the boy's face, it was himself.

*******

The screaming didn't stop. It lanced through the brain like a splinter bent on driving him mad.

Unable to think or even fight back, the only action that Clark could take was to leave the farm before he lost complete control of himself and inadvertently harmed both Lois and Martha in the process. The pain was all encompassing, the white sound eclipsing all his senses, demanding his attention by using any means at its disposal to make him submit. Forced to the skies, Clark had no choice but to answer the desperate call of a ship whose origins he knew nothing about. Only that it needed help and he was the only one who could provide it.

Struggling to maintain some semblance of control, Clark slipped out of his everyday clothes, hastily changing into his suit to avoid exposing his identity, all the while enduring the torturous ringing pounding through his skull. Had he presence of mind to think of it, he would have wondered whether or not Smallville's residents had looked up into the evening sky and seen Superman flying by. Most likely wondering what catastrophe had taken place locally that warranted his appearance. However, his current circumstances allowed him no such preponderance.

And yet despite the agony he felt, there was something familiar about all this, even if the intensity was different. In fact, the closer he got to the source of the white hot sound, Clark became convinced this was not the first time he had been assaulted this way.

Jor-El had often summoned him like this.

This noise that he had so dreaded in his youth was the same as what he was experiencing now, he was sure of it. But it was impossible! With Zod imprisoned in the Phantom Zone and the Brain Interactive Construct destroyed for good, there was no way for a Kryptonian to escape and come to Earth, no way for any technology that did not originate from the fortress to find its way back to him. Indeed it couldn't even be the fortress that was issuing this summons.

After the Jor-El matrix had sacrificed itself to destroy Brainiac, the fortress a shell of its former self. It was now little more than an interactive archive that would answer questions when asked but the guidance that Jor-El had offered was no more. That aspect of the fortress was gone forever, much to Clark's sorrow. For so many years, he had only wished Jor-El to leave him alone. Now that the last trace of his biological father was gone forever, Clark felt anything but relief.

How this had come to pass was incidental to his immediate problems. The sound, a Kryptonian siren song that only he could hear was overriding all his senses. The pain could not harm him permanently but that didn't mean he wanted to endure it any longer than he had to.

He was barely aware of the journey as he flew across the length of Lowell County where Smallville was located. Familiar landmarks rushed past him but Clark was in no condition to appreciate them. He was nothing but a red blue blur as he soared across the skies of Riley Field where the Smallville Fertilizer plant, now reopened by Lex, stood. Crater Lake rushed past him, as did Burnham Wood and Shuster's Gorge. For a moment, Clark actually wondered if the ship was speeding towards the fortress, the white noise leading him like he was tethered to it.

But he soon realized they were not going north but moving from one end of Smallville to the other.

When it appeared that he might have been nearing the source of the sound, Clark realized exactly where he had been brought. He even wondered if the place was transmitting some unknown signal that directed all alien traffic to it. The place was Miller's Field. It was here, that his parents had found him years ago when his rocket ship crashed during the Great Meteor Shower of Smallville.

Using his enhanced vision as he descended into the field, Clark caught his first glimpse of the craft and confirmed his suspicions about the ship's origins. The ship was from Krypton.

It led a trail of destruction across the unfarmed parcel of land. The ground was smoking with the charred remains of incinerated corn and grass, presumable from the engines when it finally touched down. This ship had landed badly with the nose coming in too low, creating great rips in the earth when it finally touched down. Its velocity propelled it ahead nonetheless, plowing the land before it came to a gradual stop. The destruction ensured that was no hiding this from anyone. There were intermittent fires of still burning vegetation scattered across the field but these he had to ignore for the moment.

He had to know what this ship was. Approaching it, he could see its angular shape, wedge-like in its configuration. Once it had come to a stop, its nose was partially buried in the dirt but the rest of it remained visible. Clark was immediately reminded of the Black Ship, the one piloted by the Brain Interactive Construct to Earth who caused so much destruction and death.

Like Chloe, he thought sadly.

Clark closed in quickly on the Kryptonian ship. The impossibility of its presence had superseded the evidence of his eyes. The engines were still rumbling with life and Clark saw that instead of being black like Brainiac's ship, this one was red and with its engines activated, resembled an ember of hot coal in the fire place. It continued to emit is high pitched wail making Clark race towards it at super speed. When he reached the hull, he noted the symbols displayed along the length of its wings.

What they meant sent such a wave of shock through him that for an instant, he forgot the noise because these weren't just symbols of a dead language; this was a message to him.

To the son of Jor-El, we give our most precious gift, the only thing we have left to us of Argo, the last city of Krypton.

What? Clark's astonishment at those words almost overrode the pain he was feeling. The intensity of the sound was ear splitting now, as if it was reaching crescendo and Clark shook off the mystery to silence it once and for all. It didn't take him long to find the means to do that. What passed for the ships canopy bore an octagonal symbol against its hull, not unlike the disk he had recovered from the Kawachi Caves.

The etched symbol reacted immediately to Clark's touch. The screaming sound noise stopped abruptly without any warning. For a few seconds, Clark stood there, letting the ringing in his ears diminished to nothingness. Nevertheless, it still left a bitter metallic aftertaste in his mouth but Clark was already recovering quickly and as his senses returned to normal, he became acutely aware of the state of Miller's Field and how exposed he was.

First things first, Clark decided, putting his curiosity about the ship aside for the moment, to extinguish the flames caused by the landing. It took only one extended exhale on his part and the flames were snuffed out, bathing the field in darkness once more although he knew it wouldn't be long before people came to investigate.

While Miller's Field was on the other side of Smallville and not terribly populated, there were still a few farms scattered about the area and those engines had sounded like a plane doing a flyby. The landing would have been even louder than that. Even if no one had noticed that, it surely had to be tracked by satellite when it entered the atmosphere. Whatever needed to be done with the ship, he needed to do it fast because company was almost certainly coming.

However, when Clark turned back to the ship, his senses were invaded by another sound just as compelling as that high pitched scream.

Crying, someone inside the ship was crying.

Pressing down on the octagonal symbol again, it radiated with a bright white light before the ship's canopy retracted. The hatch slid back with a low, metal screech to expose the cockpit that was just large enough for one occupant in a prone position. Except when Clark laid his eyes on that one person, they weren't lying in serene repose but crouched against the wall of that small space, body shuddering from wracking sobs.

It was a girl.

"Hey," Clark's tone became gentle immediately. "Its okay, no one's going to hurt you." He wasn't sure if she could speak English but assumed that like most Kryptonians who travelled to Earth, there had been some kind of language imprint on route. Certainly, every Kryptonian who'd arrived on Earth had been able to communicate.

She raised her chin and stared at him, blue eyes filled with tears that showed despair and fear. He estimated she was about fifteen, perhaps even younger. She was just a kid. With long blond hair that lie across her shoulders and face in an unruly tangle, her wet cheeks were still chubby with baby fat. She was wearing some kind of white shift, with a blue, gold pendant held around her neck with a thin gold chain. Clark thought she was very pretty and would be dazzling when she grew up but right now, all he saw was fear.

Her eyes latched onto him and he noted her brows furrowed in confusion.

When she spoke, it was a stutter. "Uncle...uncle...Jor-El?"

Clark's eyes widened.

"No," he corrected her but was nonetheless surprised as all hell by the assumption. "I'm Kal-El. Jor-El was my father." He introduced himself politely making no sudden moves. She looked like a frightened rabbit, ready to jump at the slightest movement. Besides, his memory of Diana was a lesson well learnt about dealing with super powered females who were caught unawares.

"No," she shook her head as if he'd reveal some preposterous truth, "you can't be! Kal-El was a baby! He laughed when I tickled his feet."

Still did but that was for Lois to know, Clark thought to himself.

"You knew me on Krypton?" Clark couldn't help but smile at that, though if she did, she would have been older than him. "Who are you?" He had to ask. She's obviously known Jor-El to make the mistake that he was his father and she'd called him Uncle. Was that because they were related in some way?

"I'm Kara," she whispered, still appearing as if she was trying to wrap her head around what was happening. "Jor-El was ...was... my father's brother but I don't understand...my father said that I had to come here to find Jor-El to help Argo City."

With a flash of insight, Clark guessed what might have happened but he had to ask Kara to tell her story nonetheless. "This Argo City was in trouble?"

"Yes," she nodded wildly, "my father was a scientist too and…and…he protected Argo City by creating the Dome. We lived inside of it for years. I was nine cycles when Krypton was destroyed. We drifted out of the system but the Dome kept us safe until the sickness came."

"The sickness?" Clark asked

"Yes, we didn't understand why but people were getting sick. We tried to build ships to bring everyone to Earth but we couldn't get them ready in time. This pod was the only thing that could leave the city. My parents said I had to come to Earth to find Jor-El so that he could help us."

Clark made the calculations. If Kara was nine when he was a baby, then she would have spent five years in space in her Argo City. He would have been six years old by the time she left her home to come here. The journey from Krypton to Earth with Kryptonian technology should have taken months, not this length of time.

There was only one reason why it had taken her almost two decades to get here. She was in stasis all that time and he was certain her father knew she would be. Perhaps it was the only way a desperate father could convince his frightened child to leave without her parents. In the same way that Jor-El had sent him here to Earth so that he would not die with Krypton, Clark was certain Jor-El's brother had done for Kara.

Finally, Clark understood what the message on the ship really meant.

Their greatest gift to him was Kara, his cousin.

******

Lex's desire for a Thanksgiving with his family came to an abrupt end shortly after he and Lana had started to clear the dinner table once the meal was done. They'd eaten early to accommodate Laura's bedtime after which he intended to spend the evening watching television with the little girl and stealing some quality time with Lana. Lex had also planned to tell her what they'd found at Reeves Dam.

There had been a moment when he had considered hiding the truth from her but it was a fleeting. thought. He could not forget that his relationship with Lana had really started to evolve out of their mutual need for answers regarding the Black Ship. Hiding it from her now would be a betrayal on a very profound level. Lana had given him a second chance at the family he'd always wanted and it was not about to squander it.

All Lex had ever wanted was to be a better man for her and part goal of that required honesty. He wasn't going to lie to her now that they were beginning their life together again. She was his partner in all things and this was one instance where he would have to trust her. If he didn't she'd never trust him again.

The call from Dr. Groll had come through to him by way of his cell and though he had resolved to ignore the call, the number of times Groll had called, was too many for Lex to ignore. The insistence of the man to reach him after his explicit instructions made Lex draw no other conclusion other than something of urgent had come up. After he taken the call and learnt what had happened, it was all he could do to keep himself from flinging the cell against the wall.

Groll's incompetence had forced him to bring up the subject now instead of later after Laura had gone to bed because even after five years, Lana could read him well enough to know something was wrong.

This was exactly the case when he returned to the dining room where he'd been helping her clear the table because right away, she knew something was troubling him.

"Lex?" She asked, her brow's knotting in concern. "What is it?"

Lex exhaled loudly, dispelling his reluctance to get the words out. "Lana, I was trying to save this conversation until after Laura went to bed but something's happened that I need to tell you about now." He stared at her apologetically across the table. In the next room, they could hear the television blaring with holiday cartoons, keeping Laura sufficiently entertained while they had this discussion.

"This sounds serious," Lana retorted even though she'd guessed as much just by the look of him, without his even having to admit that it was. Setting down the plate in her hand onto the forming stack on the table, she prepared to listen.

"I know what Fine was after when he killed my father and framed me for Chloe's death." Lex announced, watching her reaction closely as he spoke.

Her expression became granite but her eyes burned with rage at the sound of that name. Fine had taken Chloe away, ruined her marriage and near destroyed her family. When his crime was discovered, he had threatened her baby's life. There were some things that couldn't be forgiven and even though Fine was dead, as much as a living computer could die, Lana didn't feel he had paid nearly enough for what he had done.

"Why?" she asked, her voice icy.

"There was another ship in Reeve's dam, another Black Ship," Lex answered and saw a shudder run through her. However, she was listening intently so he continued. "Dr. Groll told me about it when I was down at the dam today. It had crashed into a section of the facility that Fine, when he was posing as my father, had kept restricted. I think that during the second meteor shower, when we had that seismic disturbance, it had become dislodged from wherever it was and slammed into an outer wall."

The timeline fit because Lana remembered the occasion when Lex had left her and the baby to go investigate the damage. It was shortly after that, everything started to go wrong.

"If it's been there all this time, "Lana replied evenly, refusing to become overwhelmed by the implications, "then what was Fine doing? He could have removed it at any time?"

Lana knew the whole truth about Fine even more than Lex did because of Clark. She knew he wasn't really a person and that he was a Kryptonian AI. What terrified her now was that this ship could be some kind of failsafe to restore his program in case he was destroyed.

"I don't know," Lex admitted, glad that he had told Lana because she not only could handle the information, she had valuable insights he might not have considered. "I ordered Groll to move the ship somewhere safe but not to touch it. From what I remembered about the Black Ship, Fine made sure human contact would activate some defense system. The fool..." he paused, his jaw ticked at keeping his composure because he was furious at the doctor. "He touched it."

"Oh no," Lana gasped needing to sit down now. "What did it do?" She was almost afraid to ask.

Lex didn't mince words. "It killed everyone on the boat, except for Groll and flew off."

"Oh my god..." She cried, her eyes filling with horror and sympathy as she thought of those poor souls lost because of one man's haste. However, she allowed her vulnerability a moment of time before her mind switched to more practical concerns. "Lex, we have to find that ship."

Lex almost smiled, a woman worthy of him he thought. "We've tracked it to Miller's Field, I was about to tell you that I need to leave to go deal with this."

"I'm coming with you," she stated. Her tone indicated it wasn't a request.

"Lana," Lex hesitated, uncertain he wanted the mother of his child anywhere near that ship. "I don't know if that's a goo idea."

Lana was having none of that. "Lex I don't want to hear it," She said firmly, "I'm going."

He gave up. Just the gleam in her eyes told Lex, she would be obdurate on this point and a part of him that was thrilled that she would be at his side on this. '

"Alright," he conceded. "We did start this together." Lex reminded her affectionately.

Lana smiled at him with similar regard but inwardly, she knew this time, she was the one keeping secrets.

********

THE CROW'S NEST

DESMACHER TOWER

Grace liked coming here.

The crow's nest perched atop of Desmacher Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Metropolis was as its name promised; a place to see the entire city from one end of New Troy island to the other. From Metropolis Harbor to Centennial Park and even Suicide Slum, this spot hid nothing from the observer. It was a panoramic view of this world's greater city. Even the skyline was impressive, punctuated by tall, gleaming skyscrapers, the crown jewel of which was the LexCorp building, standing defiantly over all challengers, like the WGBS Building, Wayne's Metropolis Tower, Queen Industries and the grand lady, the Daily Planet.

With the wind rushing through her red hair, Grace was felt a little less homesick when she stood above this the vast urban sprawl, filled with its little people going about their little lives, waiting for the boot that would bring order to their lives. They would appreciate the ecstasy of submission once they were free from the chaos of free will. She had been in this city for only a number of months but already, she felt nothing but contempt by humanity's arrogance that hope was the miracle salve to all their woes.

Most of all, she was tired of Superman who was the standard bearer for this childish wave of optimism. All it did was weaken them, made them leave their hearts exposed in their chests, ripe for the impaling. Just like Superman was weak.

All that power, squandered on sentimental heroics.

However, tonight, something had changed. Something had cried out to her in fear, begging for help. It pierced her thoughts with its desperation, reaching out to her from a distance, making her flinch with its intense scream. Grace wasn't certain if she could track it, she needed the expertise of someone better suited for the hunt than she. But she had to move fast, she recognized it for what it was.

The distress beacon of a Kryptonian ship.

Darkseid would want to know.

Activating the communicator which looked like a woman's compact, it lit up with red glow before an explosion of sound, easily mistaken for a thunderclap, boomed through the air. It sent the birds perched a top the building, flap their wings frantically to escape. There was a sudden gasp of wind in front of her, like someone had taken a deep breath, before the portal formed in mid air. It was not large enough for her enter but it was certainly wide enough for a signal to be established between Earth and home.

Grace waited until a face appeared through the swirling eddies of quantum particles before she spoke to the other side. "Brother I have news for Darkseid. I've detected another Kryptonian signal."

The face looking back at her was only a few years older, with the same red hair and piercing blue eyes. "Are you sure it's not that Kryptonian flying around your city?" Her brother asked skeptically.

"No," she said quickly dismissing the notion. "It's a ship's distress signal I'm sure of it and its Kryptonian. It could be Brainiac. It's been months since his battle with the Kryptonian. We've had no word from him since. I believe this could be him after repairing himself."

"Alright," he finally agreed. "He was to be our intermediary with Zod in the Zone. Darkseid wants that alliance to happen for his Anti-Life research. I'll get Granny to send the Furies. Lash will help you track the signal with the Swan's help."

"The Swan?" Grace shuddered. The fiercest of Granny's furies, Grace preferred to keep her distance but she had no say in the matter.

"Yes," Godfrey replied. "I believe she's local."

TO BE CONTINUED