Salvation: Man or God?

Posted: 10.02.2005

Author: Batman_Wolverine (a.k.a. Bruce Logan)
Rating: PG13/15
Summary: Inner turmoils in Solitude. (Second in my *Salvation* series. Not necessary to have read the first one 'Heaven or Hell', but some references have been made.)
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman, Wonder Woman or any of the other character Justice League characters. All owned by DC.

Author’s Note: Based in the JLA comicverse, although not in the current arc or in the Infinite Crisis….not a big fan of it….mainly because Batman (Bruce) and Wonder Woman (Diana) are at loggerheads.

Its cold here….*very* cold…..its the Arctic. Not that it affects him. No normal man can exist here….but then again…..He is no normal man.

He is Superman. The Man of Steel. The last Son of Krypton. He is a *God* among men.

He is here….alone….in his sanctuary…his fortress of Solitude….fortress of being single, being alone.

----

Why is he here?

He is here because he is tired of being a man.

He is here because he is tired of being Superman.

He is tired of the confusion….of the heartache.

He is tired of Lois and Diana.

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Lois,

Not the first woman he loved, but the first one he loved….truly.

She knew him first as Superman.

She captured his heart as Superman.

He captured her heart as Superman.

But she is married to the man, to Clark Kent.

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Diana,

Not the first woman he loved, not even the first one he loved truly….but true love it is.

She too knew him first as Superman.

She too captured his heart as Superman.

He also captured her heart as Superman.

But unlike Lois, she loves him as Superman.

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And therein lies the difference.

Both Lois and Diana love him in their own way.

Both Lois and Diana have names for him….*Smallville* for Lois….*Kal* for Diana.

Lois reminds him of the man he is….where he comes from *now*…..Kansas, Earth.

Diana reminds him of the man he is *not*….and where he is from *originally*….Krypton.

----

With Lois, he can be who he is…..who his parents brought him up as….*who* he has become….a human, a reporter…..Clark Kent.

With Diana, he can be who he was meant to be…..who his *birth* parents meant him to be….*what* he has become….a superhuman, a legend….Superman.

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However, while with Lois he can just as easily be Superman, it cannot work that way with Diana.

With Diana, he cannot be Clark Kent…because Clark Kent, is a *common* person and not worthy of a Princess, an Amazonian one no less.

Clark Kent would not have ever met her, let alone have become so close to her.

A Princess deserves…and gets...princes, both conventional *traditional* ones and the modern *non-conventional* ones.

Princes like….Bruce Wayne, the Batman.

And that hurts him.

-----

That brings him to the main reason that he is here today.

He knows how his friend’s heart beat changes with anticipation…with a longing...and that is just at a single look, a mere glance.

How the body reacts at a single touch….even if it is from gentle caress or from blow during their sparring sessions.

He also knows that right now he might as well be describing Bruce rather than Diana.

And that angers him.

----

Time was; he had the sole possession of Diana’s affections. Even though she may have liked others, had cared for others, he was always above all rest.

But not anymore.

Now he has to compete with the other….the other who is everything he is not.

And maybe that is what attracts her to him….to Bruce Wayne, to the Batman.

-----

He knows about Bruce’s nighttime visits to Diana.

He knows that in the night…his time, Batman allows himself one luxury. He allows himself to bathe in the ethereal beauty of their princess.

‘Princess,’ he almost chuckles at that, because he does not call Diana that, no one does…except one….except Batman.

“Why don’t I?” he wonders aloud.

‘Because you dare not,’ the answers comes from within. ‘Because if you do that, then you come down to titles, and while Superman the super-hero might work with Wonder Woman the super-heroine….Clark Kent, Daily Planet will not work with Diana, Princess of Themiscyra.’

‘Not like Clark Kent, Daily Planet works with Lois Lane, Daily Planet, or….

….like Bruce Wayne, CEO and Chairman, Wayne Enterprises with Diana, Princess of Themiscyra.’

-----

He notices, he sees, that even in battle, his two friends, his teammates gravitate towards each other – either deliberately or automatically, he does not know.

Both of them are ready to give their lives to safe the life of another teammate or an innocent civilian.

But when the question comes to the lives of either of them, the other seems to have an *insane* urge to deliberately do so.

Its as if they are not fighting for the life, the wellbeing of the other, but their own, which resides in the other.

Just like he is with Lois, more so than he is with Diana.

And that pains him.

----

He angers….he hurts…he pains…but he also loves.

He is but after all a human….a man. If not by birth, then by virtue…by emotions.

He could rise above it all….be *just* Superman….the legend...the God.

He could, he *might* even want to…sometimes. But he cannot.

Because if he does that, he will lose everything….he will lose everyone.

Lois, the keeper of his heart, as well as Diana, the keeper of his conscience. His parents, his friends, his teammates….Everyone.

-----

And as the lone survivor of a lone gone race….

….that thing *scares* him the most.