Daughter of Superman

Getting Some Perspective

Clark was NOT expecting this when he woke up this morning. At all.

He supposed he should've seen it coming, sort of, since it was a long time since his enemies had done something so wrong . Not that they did anything right in the past. It's just... The idea of making a child and force-feed him "education" and growth... All because they wanted their personal Superman... Was so wrong that twisted Clark's guts in a painful way.

True, he had practically fled once Batman finished getting his explanations from the three trouble-makers that had freed him ; but he really didn't know how to handle this . He needed to figure it out first, that's why he made an awful apology to the boy and fled.

He went home as soon as the Lanterns agreed to take Blockbuster to somewhere that could hold him, and was met with the smell of apple pie getting out of the oven.

He smiled, despite of his conflicted thoughts and feelings. She always knew when he need it.

"I'm home," he said out of habit, speeding into his room and rapidly changing into normal clothes and going to meet her in the kitchen.

"Hi dad," Madine gave him a very brief peck on the cheek and came back to the stove where she was mixing something. "I'm making a cake for tomorrow's school party. But after the sun-blocking thing, I thought you could want some pie, so I made it too."

"Thank you sweetie. You always know... Can I?"

"Sure. I got it out five minutes ago."

Clark served a piece to himself and sat on the chair by the counter, watching his daughter finish the cake and putting it in the oven.

"Is the pie good?" Madine asked, turning to look at him.

He took a moment to answer, concentrating on her features. The short black hair, the bright blue eyes...

Madine Lily Kent was product of a mistake in judgement he made when he was twenty years old. One college party, a friend with too much to drink flirting with him, and his heart broken for having lost the former love of his whole teenage life to another guy came all crashing down on him, and he slept with Lily, who three months later told him, in tears, that she was pregnant.

They didn't engage in a relationship, but Clark knew he had to take responsibility, or the child would be in danger. But short after Madine was born, Lily suffered a car accident, dying and leaving Madine - beautiful and still very vulnerable Madine - without a mother.

Clark made his damn best to raise his child. After he became Superman - she was only four at the time - even more so. Madine was a good girl, kind hearted and compassionate, and he couldn't be more proud of her if he tried. But she was also lonely.

Which led him to think about the boy .

"Dad?"

Apparently, he spent more than just a few seconds thinking.

"Are you okay?" she looked worried, and he tried a smile for her.

"I'm fine, sweetie," he said, although he didn't know if it was true. "I'm just tired."

"I bet." Madine started cleaning up the mess in the kitchen while talking. "It took how many Leaguers to stop that wizard?"

"Almost everyone." he said. "Canary and Green Arrow were busy with something else, but ended up getting there in the end."

Sighing, he finished his pie.

"Something is wrong." Madine said, cleverly so.

"What makes you think that?"

Madine looked at him with a face that clearly said ' don't lie to me, dad' . He couldn't supress the smile looking at it.

"You are beyond tired. You're too quiet and there's this haunted look in your eyes that I don't like one bit. What happened?"

Madine demanded with a tone that left no space to argue, and Clark decided that she needed to know anyway. Maybe she even helped him think clearly about this, about what to do with the boy who was an exact copy of himself at the age of 16 that was somewhere with a Leaguer - probably Batman.

He sighed, and decided that it was best to tell her already. She had ways of always know what she wanted.

"After we stopped Wotan..." he started, noticing how she stopped everything to listen to what he had to say. "Batman became aware that the three sidekicks - Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash - that were at the Hall of Justice, had left, even after he explicitly told them to stay."

Madine didn't said anything, allowing him to continue.

"He was furious, even more so after we realized that Cadmus' laboratories building had been destroyed, and their tracers were pointing they were there. The whole League went there to see what had happened and..."

He suddenly had his mouth dry. Madine frowned, confused, and Clark sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Cadmus had a small fire which we ignored after we heard about Wotan. The boys went there to investigate, since Batman was suspicious about it, and ended up finding out a lot of things, including a clone, made by Cadmus to eventually replace me."

Her expression became shocked. "What?"

"His name is Superboy," Clark sighed, more tired that he realized. "They freed him, and he helped them escape. Together, the four of them left Cadmus. But not before the scientist in charge transformed into a sort of monster to stop them, and they ended up destroying all the main building at the surface. We got there right after they got out of the rubble."

"Wow... I... Are they alright?"

"Yes, mostly unharmed. Just a few cuts and bruises, but..." He sighed again. "They decided that don't want to be treated as sidekicks anymore, and while Batman makes his mind about what to do with it... Superboy is at the League's custody."

Suddenly Madine was mad.

"At the League 's custody? Why not yours , dad?"

"He is my clone , Madine. I just..."

"You couldn't take him?" she seemed pissed, for some reason. "I'm assuming he's a copy of you, physically."

"Yes."

"So he could be your son."

"... Yes."

"Then why not bring him home? To stay with us?"

Clark didn't have an answer for that. Madine looked tired, all of a sudden.

"Dad, I can only imagine how you feel after seeing that someone used your DNA to make a clone, but... He doesn't have anything to do with it."

That made him look at her puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"He didn't asked to be made. It's not his fault. You can't blame him for other people's faults." she explained, slowly. "Please tell me you're going to reconsider that and talk to him properly."

"I can't promise you that."

She sighed and started to leave.

"I'm not going to force you to, dad. I just think you owe him at least the benefit of the doubt. He chose to leave Cadmus with the other three, so I'm guessing he didn't want to be Cadmus' lab pet anymore. That says something."

"What?" he asked, wanting to have some kind of revelation at Madine's words, but getting nowhere.

She looked at him with kindness and patience in her kryptonian-blue eyes.

"It says, at the very least, that he wants to be his own person. That he wants to live his own life, make his own decisions. It says that he wants to do what Superman would do ."

He didn't have anything to reply to that, and with a quick kiss on his cheek, Madine went to her room, leaving Clark with his troubled thoughts alone.