“Kal-El,” Zara said, entering his room. “A decision has been made.”
He remained silent, allowing her to speak.
“They are choosing to trust you. You will no longer be poisoned. You will be allowed to gain strength and you will be part of strategizing meetings to consider our plan of attack.”
He exhaled, feeling immensely grateful to LL for deciding in his favor. He knew she was the leader.
“Thank you. I thank you all. I thank you, Zara. I know you spoke in my favor. I also am grateful you held by your own principals and aided the resistance.”
“You do not need to thank me. I have wronged you and the human race. My actions are what they should be.”
“You did not wrong me,” he said softly, approaching her carefully. She stood, waiting for his approach, her body stiffening imperceptibly. Kal-El knew she was afraid for him to touch her, and he did not even try.
“I should have known. My Lord, I committed treason against you. When this is over, I submit myself to whatever punishment you deem appropriate.”
“I was under the impression you were unaware that he was a clone. Are you telling me now this was a lie?” His tone was deliberately hard and she looked at him, startled.
“No. I did not know, my Lord.”
“Zara, please call me Kal-El,” he urged, frustrated by the conversation. “I wanted you to see that you did not commit treason. You did not know what they did.”
“I should have,” she shouted, letting her emotions come out. “I should have known – from our very first night together as man and wife – I should have known.”
“Because the person you knew me to have been would not treat you with such disrespect?”
She nodded, her gaze still on his, although he sensed she wanted to look away.
“I … am … somewhat troubled by that as well. However – you believed what was in front of you. He looked exactly like me. You may have believed that time and duty had changed me.”
“But I should have known.”
“You should have. You did not. Nobody is perfect. I am not sure I would have known if they had done this to you, either. We had been separated for many years. When last we saw each other, we were still growing into adulthood.”
She looked away. To her greater dismay, he didn't demand her full attention. He just placed a very tentative hand on her arm.
“I am sorry my clone treated you so poorly. I am sorry he invaded this world and laid such waste – killing so many. I am sorry that you are burdened by the pain of your memories – of what he did. I am sorry we will never be friends again.”
Her eyes met his, startled.
“I am your -”
“No. You are not. I dissolve our union. It is my right as Lord.”
She flushed.
“You must be with Ching. We both know this to be true. And when this is over and we have won, I will name him a brother. And pass on the rulership to you both.”
“No,” she gasped. “You cannot do that.”
“Why?”
“Neither Ching nor I deserve your trust. You do not know what we both have done to survive - I did not aid the earth people right away – I – saw their suffering.... witnessed it close at hand, and I did nothing. And Ching – he enslaved women -”
“To protect you?”
“Yes. To protect me. To keep him from hurting me -”
“You were all victims. As much as I was. We cannot move forward if we let the past chain us. We must work together and in order to do this, you must let go of your self hatred.”
Tears pricked her eyes. This would have been a worthy man to call husband.
“Kal-El... I will try. I hope one day we can be friends. I know I would like that very much.”
“If you can get past what he did to you, then I would consider myself lucky indeed. But we can only at best be friends. Certainly this union cannot continue. You would not welcome intimacy with me – not when you feel so strongly about Ching, and have all those terrible memories of my clone. So I give you your freedom, in one of my final acts as the leader of our people. Accept this, my friend. Because I have nothing more to give you in recompense.”
She nodded, squeezing his hand, no longer afraid to touch him.
“I must still play my part – with him.”
“I do not like that,” Kal-El said, showing the same fear and anger that the two Clarks had regarding her situation.
“We all must do what we must do,” Zara insisted. “I will give up my life if need be, but I will not jeopardize our mission.”
“You will be a wonderful leader to our people, Zara,” he told her, his eyes glowing with respect.
She felt the stirrings of the old pleasure in his company and smiled gratefully for his praise. His clone had never once said a kind word to her.
