The room spun wildly while LL tried to maintain her balance. She would maintain what dignity she could and walk on her own two feet, no matter how difficult the task.
Zara hovered worriedly near her – but kept her distance, not wanting to upset her friend.
“Where are you taking me,” LL rasped, her throat was in agony. She squeezed her eyes against the shooting pains – like shards of glass against the tender tissues of her throat.
“To see the truth,” Zara replied. “Lois, you need to know you aren't a prisoner anymore. But first – I give you this.”
LL eyed the proffered weapon warily.
“A radiation emitter?” Kal-El had used this to weaken Kryptonian concubines that defied him.
“You can use it if you feel threatened.”
“This can't be real,” she hissed.
“If you use it on me, you will see that it is.”
LL raised the emitter, her thumb on the button, ready to press.
“It's a trap, isn't it. I try to kill you and I get punished.”
“No.”
“Just take me wherever it is you plan to.”
“If you will follow me,” Zara responded, turning away and walking out the door.
“These are earth people, like you,” Zara told her gently while also trying to appear harmless in front of those her people had harmed. LL had once overcome her aversion to Zara to befriend her wholeheartedly, but Zara knew the other earth people tolerated her, at best.
There were people on the way –so many people. Humans from the looks of it , but how could she really know? These could be Kryptonians, setting up an elaborate hoax – all for Kal-El's amusement.
LL stopped in her tracks. Zara looked at her calmly. The two held eye contact and then LL pressed the button on her weapon without warning releasing a substantial amount of the substance known to be deadly to her captors.
Zara cried out in pain as her body collapsed and she fell down. LL watched dispassionately, relieved that the others in the vicinity did not fall down. If they were Kryptonians, she would have disabled them all.
Zara did not plead for mercy, choosing instead to lie on the ground and take the punishment LL doled out. She kept her eyes on her friend, wanting her to know that she accepted this as her due.
LL snarled and lifted the weapon as if to bash Zara on the head with it. This yet could be an act. This gun could be harmless to Kryptonians -the only way to truly know if Zara was disabled was for LL to make her bleed.
“No, no, no!”
Lex came running down to intercept her. He placed himself between Zara and LL having already been waiting to help LL recover her awareness of where she was, and what they were trying to do. He hated all Kryptonians, but he wanted his freedom. That required Zara's continued existence.
“Lois! You'll kill her. Stop!”
“Why shouldn't I kill her?”
“She isn't our enemy and we have a plan, and this plan will fail without Zara's participation and support. The Kryptonians who we hope are sympathetic to the original Kal-EL will be more easily swayed by her support of him.”
“This is a crazy story,” she cried out, furious that a human was trying to further Kal-El's cruelty, but of all the humans to ally with her tormentors – it naturally would be Lex Luthor.
“Yes it is – completely, but it's true. Look – I can take you to the original. Keep your gun, Lois – you can use it on him -”
Weakness threatened her and Lex grabbed her gun, startling her back with sudden moves.
“No,” Zara groaned from the ground. “Let her have it -”
“She'll kill you – and we need you. Lois, come on. Come with me.”
“If this is a trick – I don't have a choice.”
“I swear it's not a trick.”
He handed back her weapon.
Taking it, she eyed him carefully.
“Then you bring him here,” she rejoined.
Lex eyed the other humans – the larger number had been asked to vacate the area by resistance leaders who now kept a careful watch on the proceedings.
“Prepare yourselves,” he told his audience grimly. “It's startling to see and hear him at first.”
Kal-El took in the scene exuding a calm he did not feel.
Zara was in pain on the ground and he mustered his resolve to allow her to remain in danger. He knew he could not intervene.
He looked over at Lois, afraid to see the other humans fully. He sensed their terror and it was enough. He wondered how the Clarks had been here as long as they had without it driving them to despair.
LL's gaze shifted from Lex's as soon as Kal-El rounded the corner. Her heart raced as terror engulfed her.
“I am here as you requested,” he told her, breaking a horrible silence.
LL reacted quickly, pressing the button and bringing him down like Zara. Kal-El gasped at the pain, but like Zara did not resist. He didn't try to intimidate her with words or threats. His gaze, still fixed on hers, held no anger – just pain.
“Two down,” she ground out.
“And how many to go,” Lex snapped. “You kill these two and we are never going to be free.”
“Open your mind to me,” she ordered Kal-El.
Without waiting for a verbal response she forced contact with him, reaching out with her thoughts as she had been forced to learn simply by Kal-El's repeated invasions.
Pain. Deep remorse and self loathing.
Shaken, she broke the link.
“They aren't your enemies, Lois,” Lex insisted.
Exhausted, she slid to the floor insensate.
Last edited by L; 08/13/14 05:28 AM.
