The House of the Earth Part 3 (3/8): Scarecrow

[mithen]

Title: Chapter Three:  Scarecrow
Pairing/Characters: Kal/Bruce, Scarecrow
Notes: "The House of the Earth" is an AU in which a few thousand Kryptonians escaped the destruction of Krypton to flee to Earth and conquer its people.
Rating: G
Word Count: 2900
Summary: Kal and Bruce encounter the overseer who calls himself Scarecrow.

At previous plantations, people had spilled from the houses along the row of shacks as the truck pulled up;  the arrival of the supply truck was a rare point of interest in an otherwise grinding day.  But today the dusty, rutted road remained empty and silent.

Bruce pulled the truck to a stop and got out.  "Supplies?" he called.  After a moment, a door swung open and a woman peeked out, glancing in all directions.  Then she beckoned them in, her eyes fixed fearfully on the main house far down the road, as if it were watching her.

"Do you need anything, sister?"  Kal asked politely as they entered the shack.  It was mostly bare, tidy, one corner screened off by a curtain.

"I'm Nicole," she said.  "Do you have any..."  She bit her lip.  "...any morphine?  Or any other...?"

"I'm sorry, we don't," said Bruce, and started to add more--but was cut off by a hoarse, agonized scream from behind the curtain, a scream that started low and rose to agonized levels. 

Nicole rushed to the curtain and threw it open to reveal a woman on a cot, her back arched in convulsions, bloody foam flecking her lips.  "Frida, dear," said the other woman, throwing her arms around her, "It's a nightmare!  It's gone!  There's nothing here!"  But Frida seemed unable to hear her, and her screams went on and on until Bruce pulled the sobbing woman away from her side.  He knelt down and touched her forehead, captured one of her flailing hands to take her pulse.  In the middle of his check she went limp with such suddenness that Nicole gasped--at first Kal thought with terror, but then he realized it was with relief and a sort of hope.  When Frida took a long, ragged breath she sobbed and turned away.

"She's dying," she said.  "She's been dying for days.  Her brother left.  He couldn't--I can't do anything for her.  I just wanted--"  She broke off and sobbed again, once, "--I just wanted to make it a little easier for her."

Frida's eyes stared through Bruce unseeing, her mouth twitching in horror at something only she could see.

"What happened?" Kal said as Bruce lifted her eyelids and laid a hand on her flushed cheek.

"Scarecrow," Nicole said, and her eyes darted to the door as though she expected something unspeakably horrible to come through at the word.  "He took her a week ago.  Three days ago she was dumped on his doorstep like this.  He was done with her."  She bowed her head, rocking in on her grief.  "She's dying, and I can't even give her a moment's peace."

"What did he do to her?"

Nicole stared at him hopelessly, her eyes bloodshot from weeping but dry.  "He tests his drugs on the slaves.  They give visions.  Horrible nightmares of whatever you fear most.  All of the people he takes die.  The lucky ones die quickly."

"He's got to have some kind of antidote," Bruce said, rising from Frida's side.

"Why?" Nicole said, her voice flat and dull.

"People like this always want to know how to reverse what they're doing.  They just don't care to do it," Bruce said.  He looked over at Kal, then reached out and lightly tapped one of his hands.  They were clenched into fists and Kal hadn't noticed.  "So, Clark," said Bruce, "Are you up for some breaking and entering?"

The smile that met Kal's was fierce and angry and beautiful.

: : :

Nicole begged them not to go, but Bruce just laughed.  "Don't worry about us," he said.

She wrung her hands.  "You don't understand, Scarecrow is dangerous.  May the Bat eat his soul!"

Kal looked up from where he was putting a damp cloth on Frida's forehead.  "The Bat?"

"Oh," Nicole looked embarrassed.  "It's not like I actually believe in it.  They're just stories."

"What stories?"

Nicole shot a quizzical look at Bruce, who smiled and said,  "He's been fairly isolated the last few years."

Nicole blushed and dropped her eyes at the implication that Clark had been a pleasure companion and thus cut off from human society.  "Oh, the Bat is Robin Hood, King Arthur, Zorro--all rolled into one.  An avenging spirit.  Justice for those who suffer." 

Bruce shook his head.  "You know the kinds of stories.  Everytime a machine breaks down, every time an overseer falls ill or a slave runs away--it was the Bat."

"I suppose it makes us feel better."  Nicole looked down at Frida's contorted face.  "He's not real."

"He'd be quite a brave man if he were," Kal said, looking at Bruce.

"But he's not," Bruce said, with a small smile.  Kal might have said more, but Frida had another spasm of screaming at that point and all of them were too busy trying to keep her from injuring herself to continue the conversation. 

"She won't make it to another sunrise," Bruce said softly when she went limp again.  "We may already be too late."

Nicole's eyes were devoid of hope, dull pebbles in a face beyond suffering.  "Don't go," she whispered again.

Kal and Bruce just shook their heads.  Simultaneously.

: : :

The moon was the tiniest sliver of silver in the sky that night, leaving most of the world plunged into darkness.  Kal followed behind Bruce as they slipped up toward the main house.  Silently, carefully, Bruce opened a window and they moved inside. 

The house was quiet, but Kal could hear rustling noises below them, sounds that broke into moans now and then.  Chills chased along his spine as they moved deeper into the house.  Everything was cobwebbed and disused, covered with dust.

Bruce met his eyes, a mere glint in the darkness, and slowly opened a heavy oak door--to stop in surprise.  The room beyond was clean and sterile, filled with neatly arranged beakers and burners, gleaming countertops and sophisticated computers.  Bruce moved soundlessly into the room and began to rummage through the neat piles of notes;  Kal did the same.  After a moment, Bruce hissed triumphantly.  "It's a red powder," he whispered.

As if his voice had triggered it, a steel shutter clanged down over the rough-hewn wooden door and a monitor flickered to life.  "Now, now," said a skinny older man from the screen.  "Is someone being naughty down there?  I'll be right down to deal with you."

The screen went dead and Kal could hear a hissing sound coming from somewhere, as if gas were being vented into the room.

"Help me look," said Bruce, pawing through the vials and flasks with increasing urgency.  "Hurry."  Kal was tempted to rip the shutter off the door, but that would surely reveal him as a Kryptonian and put them--and the rebellion--in deadly danger.  So he kept looking for a red powder, rummaging through drawers and cabinets.

"Do you think--" he started to say, but turning to look at Bruce the rest of the sentence died in his throat.

Bruce was cowering on the floor, crouching with his hands over his eyes, shaking so violently that it seemed possible he might injure himself.  Kal jumped forward to touch him, but Bruce didn't acknowledge the touch, not even to throw it off.  He merely made a high, horrible keening sound between his teeth that ripped Kal's heart to shreds.  "Bruce!  It's not real, whatever it is!"  He put his arms around Bruce's unresisting body.  "You can fight it!  You won't let it happen.  Do you hear me, Bruce?  Whatever it is, however bad it is, you won't let it happen!"  Bruce's keen turned into something like a groan, choking and lost, but he didn't take his hands from his eyes.

He heard a click and looked up to see a man standing in front of the re-sealed door.  He was wearing some kind of mask, ragged burlap covering his features.  He looked at Bruce and Kal as if at two interesting specimens.  Kal went to his knees next to Bruce, turning his eyes down, feigning the terror that was gripping Bruce.  He couldn't let the man know he was an alien and unaffected...

Footsteps on the floor as the man approached;  Bruce shuddered and muttered meaningless syllables in Kal's arms, a croon of horror that seemed to twine around Kal's spine, sending sympathetic tremors along his limbs.  "Bruce, please," Kal whispered.  "Come back.  I need you."

Bruce shivered all over.  "Kal?" he whispered, as if to himself, almost too low to hear.

"What have we here?" said the Scarecrow.  "I don't know you two."  His voice was like fingernails on slate and Kal wanted to clamp his hands over his ears to make it stop, he couldn't seem to draw breath.  "Look at me," he commanded.

Bruce ignored him, lost in nightmares, but Kal looked up to meet the man's blank, burlap-filled sockets.  Scarecrow chuckled.  "You're a strong one.  Good."

He kept speaking, but Kal's eyes were drawn to the wall behind him.  It was shifting, writhing with black-violet energy--it was a wormhole of the kind the Kryptonians had created when they came to Earth.  Opening up right here.  How could Scarecrow not see it, how could he keep talking like that?

Out of the gate, arm in arm, came Jor-El and Lara.

They were dressed exactly as they were in the portrait-- the portrait that had looked down at him every meal of his childhood.  Their eyes were filled with sorrow.  Sorrow and--he realized with a jolt of horror--anger and shame.  "Kal-El," said his father, his voice mournful, "How could you?"

They walked over to him, their feet on the floor, on the earth.  Lara shook her head, gazing at him with tears in her eyes.  "We've been trapped in this portal for years, unable to do anything but watch you."

"Watch you as you betrayed all we stood for!" his father burst out in fury.  "We fought, we struggled against this hideous reign, and you--you just accepted it, like it was your rightful due."

Kal staggered to his feet, ignoring the bewildered Scarecrow.  "Father--Mother--"

"Don't call us that!" snapped Jor-El.  "You have no right!"

"I didn't know!" Kal cried.  "I didn't know that you--"

Jor-El's mouth twisted in a snarl.  "You didn't know that slavery was wrong?  You honestly thought we'd ever be part of something like this?  I'm ashamed you bear my name."

The tears in Lara's eyes brimmed over.  "Selfish, cruel, monstrous child!  I--I wish you had never been born!"  She buried her head on her husband's shoulder, her furious weeping tearing at Kal's heart.

Kal wanted to say something, but there was nothing to say.  They were right.  He bowed his head, remorse and guilt a torrent underneath which he was lost, an infinity of shame.  Lost.

Somewhere in the anguish that tore him like knives, a voice was crying.  "Clark!  Clark!  Damn it, snap out of it!"  The voice was familiar, but Kal had no idea who Clark was.  "Help me!  Please!"  There was a crashing noise nearby.

Bruce's voice.  Bruce needed help.  Kal raised his eyes to his parents;  they swam before him, prismed by tears, witness to his shame.  "I'm sorry," he whispered.  "I have to help Bruce."

Fury flickered on their features, distorting them.  "Don't you dare," snarled Jor-El.  "Don't you dare turn your back on us, you ungrateful child."  Lara merely wept, the disappointment in her eyes more painful than the rage in his father's.  But he shook his head.

"I can't abandon him.  He needs help, can't you hear him?  Even from someone like me--"  He broke off and turned away from his parents.  "I'm sorry," he said, grief wringing his heart.

Bruce was dodging a vicious scythe being swung with surprising strength by the Scarecrow, his movements hampered by the vial clenched tightly in his hand.  A beaker had overturned onto a burner, and flames were licking around a table, moving up the wall, greedy.  Smoke was filling the room.  "Catch!" Bruce yelled when he saw Kal looking at him.  The vial arced in the air between them;  Kal caught it out of the air.  Unrestrained now, Bruce moved forward with lithe grace, slipping past the Scarecrow's guard to lay him out with a precise jab to the jaw. 

He caught the man on the way down.  "We have to get out!" he choked past the acrid smoke.  Kal ripped the metal shutter off the door and the flames leapt higher at the influx of fresh air.

They staggered out into the night air, coughing, Kal's vision still smeared by tears.  Bruce dropped the limp Scarecrow on the ground a safe distance from the house.

As one, they wheeled to run back into the flames, to get into the basement and release his other victims.

Back and forth in the night they went until all the humans in the building were out.  The house was close to collapse now, a blaze against the night.  Kal turned to go back, and Bruce caught his sleeve.  "Where are you going?"

"My parents--they're still in there.  I have to get them out!"

Bruce's eyes were wide;  reflected flames danced in them.  "Kal.  They weren't real.  They were a hallucination."

Kal stared at him for a long moment, taking deep breaths of cool, untainted air, his head clearing.  Then he staggered over to a grassy spot and sat down hard, rocking back and forth, body clenched against tears.  "They said that--that they saw it all.  My whole life.  I've failed them utterly."

There was a long pause.  Then Bruce's hand rumpled his hair, almost roughly.  "Bullshit," Bruce said hoarsely.  "Don't say that again," he said as Kal started to speak.  "I don't want to hear it."

"But you must have seen them."  They had been so real...

"No.  I saw something else, something--"  Bruce broke off.  "It doesn't matter, it wasn't real, it was a drug.  Whatever you saw, whatever we saw, it was caused by a chemical.  It wasn't real."  He turned away and went to check on the coughing, sobbing victims.  Firelight glinted in his hair like scraps of sunlight.

Kal realized there was something in his hand.  He uncurled his fingers to find the vial of the antidote.  He wanted to lay down on the grass and close his eyes and weep, weep until he washed the toxin out of his body and his mind.  But instead he stood up.  There were people who needed the antidote. 

There would be time to weep later.

: : :

The dawn was turning the skies rose as Nicole pressed a small bundle into Kal's hands.  "Bread.  I bake a pretty good loaf, if I do say so myself."  When Kal tried to give it back, she just shook her head.  "You gave me my Frida back.  I owe you more than my life.  At least take my bread."

Kal took her bread.

Bruce started the engine and the small village fell away from them.  Better to leave before the Kryptonians came to investigate Scarecrow's abuses of Kryptonian property--both the stolen scientific equipment and the lost slave labor.  With any luck the next overseer would be less brutal.

They drove in silence down the long road leading back to the main highway.  Bruce had said little since their escape, throwing himself into distributing the antidote, not meeting Kal's eyes.  Kal struggled for something to say, unwilling to push at the pain he saw in Bruce's eyes.  "They must have twisted him," he said.  "The Kryptonians.  To make him see humans as plaything and subjects like that."

Bruce's laugh was dry.  "Don't romanticise humans.  We did things like that to each other long before you got here.  And most of us just let it happen, didn't fight it.  We are...capable of great cruelty and vast apathy.  We just don't have as much power right now."

They reached the main road, a long ribbon winding from the east to the west.  Bruce drew the truck to a stop, but then didn't pull onto the main road.  He just sat there for a moment.  "The toxin," he said, then stopped.

Kal said nothing.  Waiting.  Unsure he wanted Bruce to continue at all.

"I saw," Bruce paused.  "We fought the Scarecrow and won, but I was hurt.  Nothing too serious.  But we decided...decided to turn back.  To go home.  Home," he repeated, his tone torn between softness and venom.  "We went back.  Time passed.  I healed.  I missed some meetings of the underground.  It didn't seem that important.  I became content with my life.  With our life together.  Years passed.  I stopped worrying about the struggle.  I was happy."  His voice was wondering and pained.  "I was happy."

Kal couldn't look at him.  "You'd never let that happen.  Never."

Bruce's hands clenched on the steering wheel.  "It's...not inconceivable."

"No."  Kal wanted to touch those hands, knotted around pain and determination.  He didn't.  "You'd never let that happen."

"You said that, back...there.  I heard you say that."  Tendons flexed, eased a little.  "You wouldn't, either."

"I wouldn't," Kal agreed.

"Well," Bruce said.  He nodded slightly.  "Good."

Kal gestured toward the road, the rising sun spilling out across it.  "Shall we continue?"

Still staring ahead, Bruce reached out and very briefly clasped Kal's shoulder.  "Yes," he said.  "Let's."

They pulled out onto the road, heading west, the morning sun bright behind them.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

yes a new chapter !

May the Bat eat his soul. Lol. Ever since people started to refer to Selena as the Cat I wondered if Bruce still had his secret identity too in this universe. Is it just me or does Kal seems to have figured out that Bruce was the Bat ?

I love your scene with the Scarecrow, especialy how at first de think Kal isn't afected because he is kriptonian and then Lara and Jor-el arrive. It was really well done.

Do we get to meet the Kents next chapter ?

[mithen.livejournal.com]

Is it just me or does Kal seems to have figured out that Bruce was the Bat ?

He definitely suspects--it seems very much Bruce's style, doesn't it? And I have to credit my beta with "May the Bat eat his soul," he gave me that one and I loved it!

I knew what Bruce's worst fear would be, but for some reason it took me longer to figure out Kal's! It's always dubious about fear toxin (and sex pollen, alas!) affecting him, but I figure it would make sense if Scarecrow were working on a version that would affect Kryptonians as well...

Do we get to meet the Kents next chapter ?

Two chapters from now, actually! Next chapter they pick up some hitchhikers on their way. :)

[fictionalknight.livejournal.com]

I love seeing them like this, fighting together (well, it's not fighting per se, but... you know what I mean) -- like they're a team. Working together, and making good things happen (or bad things to bad people!) it's really nice. :)

It's a dark tale, but you can see hope somewhere in there, too. Because they're there, and they're doing something about all of this. And I just can't help but hope they'll help change things - make a difference (to quote a certain Captain of the Enterprise *lol*) and make the world a better place. (ya know, reading this is really making me sorry that I didn't have time to visit the Civil Rights Museum when I was in Memphis...)

There's a few little things I meant to comment on, while I was reading, but I've forgotten. :/ And my head hurts too much to read it over again and see (from a migraine - not from reading the story!) I'll be back later - or maybe I'll just send you a Word file this evening. *lol*

[mithen.livejournal.com]

I was really happy to get to this chapter and finally have them working together--they really hadn't had the chance much before, I realized as I wrote it! It was a huge relief to write them doing something kind of classically heroic in a world that doesn't give them a great deal of latitude for it.

Ack! Migraines, nooo! damos gets those sometimes (a LOT less since we finished grad school, thank goodness), and I know they're killer. *careful hugs*

[hitokaji.livejournal.com]

Wait! I'll just have to read the whole thing from the very first chapter first. ;___;
( I'm on part 2 now and I really enjoy it so far. ^_^ )

[mithen.livejournal.com]

*grin* There's been a pretty long gap between two and three, I'm afraid! But I'm hoping to get into a more regular rhythm now... *hugs* Glad you're enjoying it so far!

[brushed-velvet.livejournal.com]

Oh! That closing section - kind of rips my heart in two. Bruce hallucinating that he was happy in his apathy is quite a stroke of genius. It's such a beautiful example, as a reader, of the struggle in wanting your beloved characters to be happy versus them doing the right thing.

Not that doing the right thing doesn't make them happy of course but there is a real sense of both Clark and Bruce denying themselves their true desires for the greater good of others... *sigh*

Angst at its best!

[mithen.livejournal.com]

It's such a beautiful example, as a reader, of the struggle in wanting your beloved characters to be happy versus them doing the right thing.

Oh man, lol. My desire to wrap them up in blankets and feed them cocoa is intense! This series is probably the angstiest thing I've ever written over an extended period, and it's not my natural tone in writing, so I keep fighting the desire to indeed, send them home and let them just relax for a few, uh, years. :)

Poor Bruce, I stick him in a world where refusing to be happy is in fact not such a bad choice... *pats him just a little*

[saavikam77.livejournal.com]

Awwww... Such nightmares. So glad they caught the Scarecrow.

*applauds*

[mithen.livejournal.com]

Scarecrow is loads of fun to write, lol. He and Poison Ivy...the fanfic writer's one stop shop for chemical-based character development! :D

[bradygirl_12]

Wow! Excellent, dear!

I liked the fears that you elaborated on. They fit!

The menace of Scarecrow knows no bounds! :)

This was good:

Bruce's laugh was dry. "Don't romanticise humans. We did things like that to each other long before you got here. And most of us just let it happen, didn't fight it. We are...capable of great cruelty and vast apathy. We just don't have as much power right now."

Because it's easy to romanticize the oppressed, but all too often once a persecuted group gains power, they turn right around and oppress another group. If Kal delved into human history, he'd see that!

There are so many threads that can run through a story like this!

[mithen.livejournal.com]

Because it's easy to romanticize the oppressed, but all too often once a persecuted group gains power, they turn right around and oppress another group. If Kal delved into human history, he'd see that!

Human beings are amazingly capable of screwing stuff up without any help from external oppressors, alas. :)

Scarecrow is always fun to write and endlessly useful, lol.

[jlvsclrk.livejournal.com]

Wonderful chapter. How Clark to dream that his parents would be disappointed in him because of what's happened around him. And how horrible for Bruce, that his nightmare was happiness at the cost of allowing the injustice to go on. I'm glad that they each helped each other through it.

[mithen.livejournal.com]

I knew Bruce's fear right away, but I had a harder time figuring out Kal's somehow! Remembering the portrait helped a bit...

Glad you liked it!

[starsandsea.livejournal.com]

New chapter, yay! :)

"She's dying," she said. "She's been dying for days. Her brother left. He couldn't--I can't do anything for her. I just wanted--" She broke off and sobbed again, once, "--I just wanted to make it a little easier for her."

*hugs her*

"So, Clark," said Bruce, "Are you up for some breaking and entering?"

Hee.

Nicole blushed and dropped her eyes at the implication that Clark had been a pleasure companion and thus cut off from human society. "Oh, the Bat is Robin Hood, King Arthur, Zorro--all rolled into one. An avenging spirit. Justice for those who suffer."

Oooh, the Bat, huh? Hmm. *ponders a bit*

"But he's not," Bruce said, with a small smile.

*pets Bruce*

Bruce was cowering on the floor, crouching with his hands over his eyes, shaking so violently that it seemed possible he might injure himself.

Meeep! *huggles Bruce carefully*

Out of the gate, arm in arm, came Jor-El and Lara.

Oh... oh, that is not good...

"Watch you as you betrayed all we stood for!" his father burst out in fury. "We fought, we struggled against this hideous reign, and you--you just accepted it, like it was your rightful due."

Ouch!!

"Don't call us that!" snapped Jor-El. "You have no right!"

Even more ouch!!! *huggles Kal*

"Selfish, cruel, monstrous child! I--I wish you had never been born!"

And even more ouch!!!

The voice was familiar, but Kal had no idea who Clark was.

Oh, I loved that! We're so used to Kal who is Clark that it's really jolting to be reminded that this Kal really had no idea who Clark is yet... *pets him*

"They said that--that they saw it all. My whole life. I've failed them utterly."

There was a long pause. Then Bruce's hand rumpled his hair, almost roughly. "Bullshit," Bruce said hoarsely. "Don't say that again," he said as Kal started to speak. "I don't want to hear it."

Ow! That is a great twist on that theme! How Bruce is normally the one who feels that... *pets them again* They need lots of petting and hugs in this chapter!

There would be time to weep later.

*huggles Kal*

"I saw," Bruce paused. "We fought the Scarecrow and won, but I was hurt. Nothing too serious. But we decided...decided to turn back. To go home. Home," he repeated, his tone torn between softness and venom. "We went back. Time passed. I healed. I missed some meetings of the underground. It didn't seem that important. I became content with my life. With our life together. Years passed. I stopped worrying about the struggle. I was happy." His voice was wondering and pained. "I was happy."

*wibbles* *huggles Bruce*

"You said that, back...there. I heard you say that." Tendons flexed, eased a little. "You wouldn't, either."

"I wouldn't," Kal agreed.

"Well," Bruce said. He nodded slightly. "Good."

*pets them both*

This was a really scary chapter! The fact that Scarecrow was using slaves as victims of his crimes is somehow more creepy, to me at least, that in normal canon... *shivers a bit* *hugs you*

[mithen.livejournal.com]

Oooh, the Bat, huh? Hmm. *ponders a bit*

Hehehe, I'm not sure exactly when Bruce would have found time for that, but obviously before joining up with Kal he's been busy...

We're so used to Kal who is Clark that it's really jolting to be reminded that this Kal really had no idea who Clark is yet... *pets him*

Isn't it weird? I can't get used to it! I think this arc is all about Kal finding Clark, and then the last arc is, I think, about him finding Superman. :)

Ow! That is a great twist on that theme! How Bruce is normally the one who feels that... *pets them again*

Reading those old Byrne comics has made me think about ways Kal could feel like he let his parents down, and I guess that's sneaked in as well!

Scarecrow as having a sort of...farm of humans is really creepy. I was going to include the detail that when he was done with them he turned them into actual mummified scarecrows watching over the iao-fields, and that actually creeped me out too much to put in, lol...

[snake-easing.livejournal.com]

Nice! Looking forward to the hitchhikers and the Kents! :)

[mithen.livejournal.com]

We've talked about how writing group interactions is a pain, and the next chapter about killed me just with five people around a campfire, lol. It's so difficult to keep everything moving and yet focused at the same time, somehow...

[snake-easing.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is difficult. :) It does get easier when you do it more. The best advice I can give is to decide who the people are with important things to say and then ruthlessly deny anyone else the chance to speak.

[zenithjolt.livejournal.com]

Another wonderful chapter :D 'The Bat'! I was worried for a moment there, after they both became affected by the gas.

This was a slightly creepier Scarecrow, i can't describe exactly why but i liked him, i think you did a great job there. Wonderful :)

[mithen.livejournal.com]

This was a slightly creepier Scarecrow, i can't describe exactly why but i liked him

Scarecrow with basically a "farm" of human test subjects is pretty darn creepy... Originally I had him mummify his victims and put them out in the fields as actual scarecrows, but there was no way to write that in without it being too over-the-top, lol. He was fun in his own way, though!

[ibis-thoth.livejournal.com]

Interesting path of fears for them...

And a very good use of that character.

[mithen.livejournal.com]

Scarecrow is always good for cheap psychoanalysis. :) He can be a lot of fun to write!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm glad recent real world or internet world events haven't put you off writing a new chapter to this story.

The poor dears having to face the fear toxin. I'm glad there wasn't any creepy crawlies. Words can be the worst weapons a lot of the time. I think I'd have creepy crawlies or snakes though. I don't think I'd recover either. At least they have each other even if there's that little issue between them. So they've got to make the humans free. So they're free.

I wonder about those hitchhikers (you want that). I look forward to the Kents although I hope they're alright.

Angeloz

[mithen.livejournal.com]

I'm glad recent real world or internet world events haven't put you off writing a new chapter to this story.

The arc's been done for a while, so...I couldn't bring myself to stop mid-story anyway, most likely. :P

Fear toxin is always fun for what it reveals about people, and with Kal and Bruce having such different backgrounds here it was interesting!

I wonder about those hitchhikers (you want that).

*blushes and shuffles her feet* I try not to indulge in that kind of teasing about future chapters, but when asked directly!-- :)

The Kents are more than all right, they're awesome. Now to see if I managed to get that across correctly...

[cat-13145.livejournal.com]

excellent update. keep writing.
Will we see the Robins in here (I know we've seen Tim, but there are three others)?

[mithen.livejournal.com]

I suspect Dick was there at Tim's birth, actually! There's a child who starts crying in the middle of the scene, and I'm pretty sure that was him. Really he could be anywhere in the world, since his parents could have been traveling anywhere when the invasion happened, there's no reason he has to be in Gotham...but I can't resist seeing him there. I suspect Dick and Tim grow up together in this world, friends from the very beginning. I like that idea. Jason is Gotham-born so he's probably around somewhere as well, although I suspect not on the same plantation as Dick and Tim....

Barbara is in the Chicago area, since that's where the Gordons were when the invasion happen. I imagine her as slightly older than Dick in this AU (like she sometimes is and sometimes isn't in canon), maybe 12 or 13ish.

*wanders off, pondering*

[ilovetobefree.livejournal.com]

You know, though I liked first and second part of this series very much, I love this three part (and especially this chapter) even more. Clark and Bruce working together as partners not having to solve master/slave relationship absolutely worked for me in this update. Their conversation and cooperation was so natural and easy – they acted like would work together for years. That was perfectly written!

Bruce was scared seeing his nightmare. But Kal – poor boy! I could understand so well his feelings. He was so unhappy and agonized thinking he failed his parents.

"No." Kal wanted to touch those hands, knotted around pain and determination. He didn't. "You'd never let that happen."

"You said that, back...there. I heard you say that." Tendons flexed, eased a little. "You wouldn't, either."

"I wouldn't," Kal agreed.

"Well," Bruce said. He nodded slightly. "Good."
I love the support and the strength they give to each other. There is so much love and such a strong bond between them (and not only in this chapter :)).

Amazing update.
Thanks for sharing.:)

[mithen.livejournal.com]

You know, though I liked first and second part of this series very much, I love this three part (and especially this chapter) even more.

I was really happy to get to this arc, actually, to give Kal something concrete to do beyond waiting and feeling bad, lol. And having them work together immediately puts them into places that are a pleasure to write for me, so the writing definitely flowed better right away for me. I'm glad you liked this chapter!

[ilovetobefree.livejournal.com]

And having them work together immediately puts them into places that are a pleasure to write for me, so the writing definitely flowed better right away for me.
Yes, that was exactly the feeling I have had reading this update. :)

And - sorry for the mistake - third part, not three part. I didn't notice before. :o

[batfan-sarah.livejournal.com]

new chapter! score!

lovely as always. poor bruce, he can never alow himself to be happy. and i like the kind of role reversal with kal seeing his dead parents from the portrait saying they failed him instead of it happening to bruce.

can't wait for more!

hope all is well :)

[mithen.livejournal.com]

i like the kind of role reversal with kal seeing his dead parents from the portrait saying they failed him instead of it happening to bruce.

It's odd how they switch things around in this verse--Kal's the prince with the parents' memories to live up to, Bruce the one who grew up dirt-poor... I didn't plan that particularly! :)

Glad you enjoyed! All is well here. *hugs*

[skund.livejournal.com]

Oh Bruce. Only you would have a nightmare about being happy and taking things easy. *pets* I really enjoyed this chapter, watching Clark's sense of justice unfurl. And Scarecrow! I hope he got what he deserves.

[mithen.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this chapter, watching Clark's sense of justice unfurl.

Thanks, that was exactly the feeling I had, writing it, so I'm glad that came across!

[wanderer-owl.livejournal.com]

That's it! Kick Scarecrow's ass!

*bow for their sacrifice*

[mithen.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed writing them fighting someone for a change. Humans so far, but fighting Kryptonians will come eventually...

[cursor-mundi.livejournal.com]

I love everything you write! And in this chapter, I was particularly struck by the dialog; seeing it quoted back in other comments just cemented it for me. You capture the dynamic and active flow of how people speak, but without the awkward pauses and intrusions and nonsensical stuff that makes a true transcript read as flat and dead.

And yay for this line: The smile that met Kal's was fierce and angry and beautiful. Mmm. I love your Bruce...

[mithen.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm really glad to hear you like the dialogue; I love when I get in the flow of writing and it just feels like I'm writing down what I hear them saying--although as you point out, transcripts of people talking are not snappy at all, lol. Luckily, in my head they sometimes like to talk like dialogue. :)