Both men stood outside the room where they would be meeting with the Kryptonians tasked with teaching them how to emulate Lord Kal-El.
Each could sense the other's lack of ease, but neither men had any desire to give voice to these feelings right now.
"Okay," said Clark, breaking the long silence between them, before opening the door. "Ready for this?"
"I'll never be ready for this. But let's get it over with."
They entered the room and looked around at the Kryptonians gathered for the task. Both men felt relief at not sensing the thick and anxious fear that the humans radiated whenever they were around, but the Kryptonians were clearly thrown by their stark resemblance to their vicious leader and they could sense that turmoil.
"Greetings to you both," said Zara, who was now a source of familiar comfort to them both. They both gave her identical smiles that radiated warmth and relief. In addition to enjoying the comfort of seeing a familiar face, they were relieved to see that Zara seemed to be well. Since knowing she returned 'home' daily, they both fretted for her well-being. Both men eyed her carefully looking for signs of abuse. Her returned gaze was even and calm and they finally looked at each other, feeling a bit foolish about how out of place they felt with their own people.
"Ah, and greetings to you," said Clark awkwardly. He felt very much a stranger amongst these people. Kent, at least, had interacted with Kryptonians in his universe.
"Let me make you all known to each other," Zara said politely as she began to introduce the two of them to the rest of the group. No hands were shaken and both of them had to restrain the urge to stick out their hands as they were introduced around.
"Perhaps you might tell us about yourselves," one of the women said. "Zara tells us you were both raised on earth?"
"We were sent to earth as infants," said Kent looking to Clark to see if it was okay to take point. Clark nodded and indicated he should continue. "Obviously we were raised on earth by earth parents," he said flashing his typical disarming grin. "I have dual identities where I live, so I can live much of my life as if I wasn't an alien. Unfortunately the same can't be said for my friend here. But he manages all right."
"And you are both married to earth women? Doppelgangers to Lois Lane?"
"Yes."
"But - one of those women endured years of abuse at the hands of Lord Kal. How is it possible she got past your resemblance to her abuser?"
Clark turned pale and tried to beat back the rage he felt at her words - rage that was directed at Lord Kal-El and not the people in this room.
His questioner seemed to stiffen and Clark realized that even to his own kind, his rage was naturally going to be alarming.
Clark forced himself to relax and then shook his head to show his own confusion.
"I have no idea," he said. "She hated me for a long time, and then everything began to change. I loved her the moment I saw her, but I never planned on telling her until she made the first move."
"You are physically identical to the man who abused her, and yet she fell in love with you. I guess your obvious human mannerisms created a distinction in her mind, but to actually marry you and therefore enter into intimacy with you - it speaks well of who you are that she could ever do that."
Clark reddened, deeply embarrassed now by the conversation.
"I was just profoundly lucky," he said quietly. "I wake up every day grateful for her presence in my life."
"I'm glad she found a measure of peace," the woman responded. "After such experiences - that isn't always possible." Her own face seemed to darken. "Unfortunately to our task, you both *are* very human. The way you walk, talk, and hold yourselves - if we didn't know who you were, we would think you were human."
"Absolutely," said Kent. "I interacted with New Krypton back home, and I didn't fit in at all. I didn't want to, actually. I found their society to be cold, patriarchal and sexist."
"You believe that men and women are social and political equals?"
"Yes," both men said simultaneously.
Kent continued.
"I didn't like the concept of inherited power, either. Back in my world, Lord Nor was a psychotic freak... yet he very nearly became ruler of new Krypton. Zara was a far better choice, and she clearly was in love with Ching. It made little sense to me that she would have to marry a killer, rather than the man she loved just because of who was born to whom."
"Yet if your region is like it was here before our incursion, this democratic system doesn't work so well either. Without absolute authority there is so much strife and back-stabbing."
"Your society led to a situation where a good man is in stasis while a mad man who looks like him runs things," said Clark in disbelief. "How is *that* not back-stabbing?"
The Kryptonian who had posed the question smiled unbidden.
"You are right. I just wanted to see how you would react."
Clark and Kent were both discomfited by her words.
She saw the looks in their eyes and realized she might have offended them.
"I apologize for any offense given. We wanted to try to understand you better before we proceed. I wanted to see where your loyalties truly lie."
"Can I ask you why you defected from your society," Kent rebutted to his interrogator. She paled and for the first time, he saw how young and pretty she was. She had carried herself with a stern authority that made her seem older.
"I was once a concubine," she said, her gaze faraway as she recollected her past. "Born to it. Forced to it by society," she said. "I've had to deal with Lord Kal-El's cruelty first hand. I've also been compelled to aid in the degradation of human females that have appealed to him," she said, her face twisted in distaste. "Choosing to fight for this world's freedom is the same as fighting for my own world's freedom. I don't consider it defection or treason when our leader is a pretender."
Kent looked down as she spoke, ashamed of how he had posed his question.
"We all feel this way," said one of the others. "We may not have been injured in the same way by Lord Kal-El, but we feel he's destroyed our collective honor. We must regain the honor of our people by freeing this world and bringing him to justice."
Clark nodded.
"We understand," he said, knowing he spoke for Kent.
"Good. I know this will be difficult for us all. But difficulty of a task isn't enough to run from it. We can free this world if we do this properly. There can be no room for error."
"Right," Clark said wearily. He exchanged a look with Kent who looked equally depressed.
"Are you both sure you're ready for this," Zara asked them both as she approached. "We will show you our own memories. We will show you recordings - it will not be pleasant."
"We are committed to this cause," said Clark, seeing Kent nod in agreement. "We're ready any time you are."
"Fine. Then we'll spend our time this session going through recordings and memories. How comfortable are you with telepathy," Zara asked briskly, trying to move the proceedings past the awkward beginning.
"Really not a big fan," said Clark. "But whatever. Let's do whatever has to be done. The longer we delay, the more people that get hurt."
"Then I offer my experiences first," said Vina, the former concubine who had first begun to question them.
She reached out a hand to each of the men, inviting them to make contact. Warily they did, each afraid of what she had to share.
She could feel their remorse at forcing her to share unpleasant memories.
"It's okay. I'm not being forced to share this with you. You can let go of your feelings of guilt."
They nodded wordlessly, waiting for the onslaught. When it came, they were both unprepared. Kent had to fight from throwing up barriers, and Clark had to fight from being physically sick.
The images, feelings and memories that she shared were horrific. The fact that she was still sane spoke volumes about her own strength of will. Before coming to earth, Lord Kal-El had abused her horrifically. Once Vina had been strengthened by Earth's yellow sun, Kal-El had used her to aid in the degradation of female slaves. Thankfully Lois had not been one of them, yet it was a small thanks as they witnessed her memories of the abuse of so many human females. The final encounter between Kal-El and Vina had occurred after she had refused to play his sick games any more. He punished her by threatening to kill one of his slaves if she didn't submit to red-radiation treatment. She complied, not wanting the human female to die, and Kal-El had nearly killed her in the following days. Zara had been the one to rescue Vina and Kal-El never knew that his former concubine had survived. He had killed the human anyway after subjecting Vina to the radiation, and he had forced her to watch.
Kent and Clark both let go of her hands at the same time. They staggered back under the weight of what she had shown them, deeply troubled by her memories.
"Oh god," gasped Clark, trying to regain his sense of momentum.
Kent fought to keep his rage from showing. Clark was much better at that sort of thing due to the circumstances of his life.
"I'm sorry," Vina said, regretting that she had hurt them. She took a step in their direction and the both automatically moved away from her.
"No, I'm sorry," said Clark. "You endured it, so I should be able to bear witness to this without falling apart. I'm sorry. I don't want to draw this out because I can't take it."
"You aren't the only one, buddy," said Kent emotionally. "Could we maybe move on to recordings for now - just until we recover from that?"
"Of course," said Zara, "Let's show you some recordings that give you a sense of his body language in different scenarios."
Kent and Clark both sighed. It was going to be a long session.
