"Whasthematter, Superman?!" Livewire snaps, "A lil sick?!" Lightning arcs into me, my entire body numbs but I still stand up.

"Leslie, I thought you knew..." In moments, I'm in front of her and close enough to almost touch her, my fist rips through the air, flames hitting me in the side and blasting me into a wall.

"Sorry about this, Supes!" Volcana exclaims, "Lexia's payin' us real well." Spinning, the Kryptonite’s got its hold on me. Soon enough my powers will fail and I’ll be a sick mess on the floor!

I get on one knee, fire and lightning hitting me hard enough to stun. Lexia’s voice comes floating in the air.

“Just give in, Superman. I hate seeing you so affected by Kryptonite…” she sighs, “When will you realize you belong to me? When the city, and all its people, belong to me?” It starts to hurt, and I let out a scream, trying to ward off the lightning.

“Like it? It’s a purer sort of Kryptonite. That poor fool Wayne only had millions, my father had billions, and NASA in his back pocket.”

That’s when I grit my teeth, “Lexia… enough…” my eyes start to burn, focused on the rod of Kryptonite in the center of the plaza. Livewire and Volcana’s attacks keep hitting me over and over.

But then, the rod superheats, the green glow turns to slag and I rise. The power I have returns but a spare rises up. Lesile bolts right for me, grabbing onto me and shocking me to hell and back.

I buck her off and run, trying to fly but a fireball whisks by me and hits Livewire’s bolts. Volcana lets me fall into her arms.

“What are you doing, Selton?!” Lexia yells, “Just keep hitting him!”

“Nah, not my style!” she snaps, “Consider this paying it forward, Superman.” She blasts Livewire away and holds me in her arms. The Kryptonite making me so weak that I can’t even move. She streaks away across the skies.

“Where to?” 

“Why?”

“Because I know what it’s like.” she huffs, “Now, where to?”

“Daily… Planet…” I groan, closing my eyes and letting myself rest for a bit. When I come to, I’m on top of the roof with the huge bronze planet looming over me. Heading down, trying to cover up my suit with normal clothes, my white cape snaps off in the wind and flops uselessly into my hands.

I still smell the smoke, and feel her warm hands. She didn’t need to. She didn’t have to. But she did. She saved me. Now here I am walking towards the door, ramming it aside and changing out of my ruined suit.

Shirt, check.

Pants, check.

Glasses, double check. I can’t exactly just step in with my costume. Although Mom and Uncle Jimmy work here, I can’t really trust everyone. I lurch my way towards the office, everyone sort of watching me and I open my mom’s door, closing it behind me.

"Aaron, what's-" Mom sees me with my singed, burnt costume in my hands. Ruined and I can't even look her in the eyes.

"Lexia got me with Kryptonite, then got Livewire and Volcana to rough me up." I mumble, "Volcana had second thoughts though, she dropped me off." she sits me down and undoes my shirt, seeing all the burn scars and cuts. Even with all my durability…

Kryptonite still wins.

"Oh baby..." she breathes, "God, is this what she does to you?"

"I know, it's horrible. But... what choice do I have?" I look around at her office with articles lining the walls that Lexia approved, "She has everything."

Mom gently presses a wet cloth to some of the gashes I had, hissing breath sounds out of my lips and she touches my cheek.

"Aaron. She doesn't have your soul, she's not some demon. And hey, if I do get fired because my sweet little boy couldn't stand the rat maze anymore? That's worth it." she frowns at the suit.

"Plus this is tacky as all get out. Where'd she get off with the white and gold? The blue n' reds were just fine." Mom always knew what to say.

"Mom? What would Dad do?" she smiles up at me.

"Your Dad would march right in there and give her a very, very stern talking to. That's what he'd do. But that's not what I'd think of." she sets her hands on my shoulders.

"What would you do, Aaron? You're her boyfriend. You can choose to leave her, and hey... looks to me like that Volcana girl might be a good pick."

"Wha? Mom! N-no!" I sputter, "She was the one who did HALF of those burns!"

"Hey, you know me. I'd like my boy's girlfriends to have some backbone." She kisses me on the forehead, "Go get 'em, Supes."

---

“Just so you know, I’m mad at you.” I huff, taking off my suit and Lexia pads close, wrapping her arms around me, kissing my back right between my shoulder blades. Silken robe brushing against my bare back. Her embrace is tightening. I could fly out of here, I could leave.

“I know, darling…” she sighs, “But please understand, this is for us. For me, and for you!” she buries herself against me, “I just want you to be the best you can be, Aaron.”

“I don’t want to be a king, Lexia. Not a god. When I wear that suit, I feel like one.” she turns me around, touching my cheek, her dark eyes meeting my bright blue. The lights of the city glowing up around us, banishing the darkness.

“That’s what you are, silly!” she coos, “You can fly, lift tons, shoot lasers out of your eyes, breathe mighty winds out of your mouth!” she throws her arms around my neck and kisses me, gently pulling away and looking at me through hooded eyes.

“After all, they love you as much as I do!” she exclaims, “They need you as much as I do.”

“But letting them get hurt? Letting them down?” I clench my fists, “Why would I ever consider doing that?”

Lexia frowns, “What are you-”

“What I’m trying to say is that this isn’t working. Using Livewire and Volcana as a way to teach me a lesson? Forcing me to pick and choose my battles? If you had my power, if you could hear what I hear…”

I close my eyes, “Look, I love you. I never once doubted that, but if you’re going to hurt me just because I don’t do what you want then I want a break. Just to figure out who I’m going to be.” I give her a smile.

She doesn’t return it, “Regardless of who you are, you’re still my Superman. That’s all you are and all you need to be.”

“Alexandria, dammit…” I huff, “You’re actively leashing me, and absolutely keeping me from being who I need to be.”

“What else do you need to be? You’d be nobody without it.” she snorts, “Besides, you’re a shining golden god, a man who can save the world thousands of times over.”

That’s when there’s a high, piercing sound. Rapid beeping like a code I only knew. Bolting up and flying out towards it, there’s a moment when I remember what it is. A scouting robot, one built for the purpose of finding new planets. I scooped up Lexia and she tied together her robe.

“Seriously?! Warn me!” she yells.

When we land, there’s a crater in the middle of a field somewhere outside of Pittsburgh, cops are already moving to set up a perimeter but by the look on Lexia’s face she knows what fell. She rushes like she’s a woman on a mission, expensive slippers and robe getting dirt and mud all over them.

She gets to the edge, “No…” she breathes, skidding down into it and I join her in a flash, my spare suit all clean. In the crater itself are cooling bits of metal. Looking them over, I recognize them as the Styx rover Lexia sent up a few years back. From the look of it, it was torn to shreds. A multi-million dollar, maybe even billion dollar rover lays there broken in the ground. Which shouldn’t have happened because it was durable enough to take entire rounds of military power, as well as my own strength.

But it’s shattered.

I land in there and pick up the still smoldering pieces. The authorities look at us like this is a normal enough thing. Mostly because any and all extraterrestrial cleanup is usually contracted out to STAR Labs, or Lexcorp, or even Wayne Enterprises if it's anywhere near Gotham.

Lexia clings onto my back as I fly us back to Lexcorp, “What could’ve destroyed Styx?” She asks, “Couldn’t be just a meteor.”

I squint, “Impacts.” Of course my eyes could be on the fritz from all the Kryptonite, but the metal’s dents and chips all point to it.

“From what, exactly?” she pulls out the master chip and puts it into the computer, “There’s nothing that could-”

“Unless it was someone like me.”

Lexia falls silent, pulling up the files, “Damn, most of these are corrupted. Except one…” she pulls it up and it’s a final video feed. The static fills the screen, the coordinates and the planetary location put it in the Vega system.

When it refocuses, there’s a lot of ruined buildings and standing atop one of them is a dark figure with a long dark cape billowing in the wind. The rover wheels a little backwards before it whisks away and dead in front of us is a woman with cold blue eyes and face covered by a breathing mask.

In seconds, we hear her voice, “I found you.”

And then… darkness, static, a distressed beeping, and silence. Lexia looks at me almost like she’s seen a ghost, but I clench my hands into fists.

“Which planet was it?” I ask.

“Daedalus-5. It’d take her I assume three or so years to arrive.” she says, “At least if Kryptonian tech with all the bells and whistles is on her ship and not like the one your father arrived in.”

Closing my eyes, I think a little longer, “Lexia, they’ve had years to improve and hone their tech. My grandparents had to strip the pod down, this… person. Could be here within the month. I dunno if I’m strong enough to-”

Lexia grabs a hold of me, kissing me fiercely and deeply, “Don’t you dare say that.” she snarls before sinking right back into the kiss. I pull away though.

“I have to get to training…” I thumb my way back, “Just ahh… see you later?” I float upward and fly out. Going towards another place I needed to go. The Fortress of Solitude up in the North Pole.

The crystalline structure juts out of a glacier, the area around it colder than most humans can take. Looking around for the key, I find it piled under a drift of snow and dig it out, putting it in the keyhole, opening it and feeling a burst of cold. It’s still beautiful. Crystals as far as I can see, walking in with my eyes taking in all of Dad’s old things. Stuff from Lexcorp, Cousin Kara’s old suit, even the car he dumped a few guys out of. But as I step towards the console…

It all lights up, and instead of Grandpa Jor-El… it’s someone familiar. Gray around the temples, wrinkles around his blue eyes, but a warm smile and in his classic suit. My heart soars when I see him, he stands there, solid enough.

“Dad?” I warble.

“Hey there, son. I’ve left this Superbot version of me here for training. I know you’ve been stumbling around in the dark for a long time. When you see this, you’ll need me. Don’t worry about breaking this, it’s self-repairing…”

He cracks his knuckles, “So, shall we?”

I get into my stance and smile, “Let’s!”