Endless Legacy (DC Comics)

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Divide and conquer it is~

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Part of Lucien wants to try to ‘make things right’ with Supergirl, even though he’d literally just met her a couple hours ago. In the end, he didn’t necessarily owe her or the Justice League a single thing… but that didn’t mean they couldn’t potentially make his life harder based on whatever Supergirl reported back about this whole debacle.

At the same time though, Lucien knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wasn’t leaving his father’s clone down here alone with an unconscious Mercy. It wasn’t that Lucien didn’t trust Clex… but frankly, he still didn’t trust Clex.

That meant… splitting the difference. Turning to Blackfire, Lucien gives her a meaningful look, one that causes her to do a double take. It’s a testament to how close they’ve gotten that he doesn’t even need to say anything initially.

“What? No, you can’t be serious.”

“I’m deadly serious. I think you should go up with Supergirl, Blackfire. Watch her back and help out against Brainiac.”

Blackfire grits her teeth, hands curling into fists at her sides.

“I’m a villain. They’re not going to trust me. Besides, I belong at your side.”

Sighing, Lucien shakes his head.

“You WERE a villain. You’re reformed, Blackfire. And what better way to make amends than to be seen fighting off an invasion of Earth? What better way to get them off of your back then by turning around and being the Big Damn Hero for once?”

Blackfire bites her lower lip at that, crossing her arms over her chest in response. But just from that subconscious defensive move alone, Lucien knows he’s getting through to her. Only… there’s a small tendril of fear in her eyes that Lucien recognizes. Blackfire, for all her confidence and bravado, is not the heroic type. She’s not the self-sacrificing type either. Given a choice between staying down here where it should be nominally safe and being out there where it’ll be the exact opposite… she’d prefer down here with him every time.

Stepping up to her, Lucien takes Blackfire by her arms, rubbing soothing circles into her flesh with his thumbs as he lowers his voice and looks her in the eye.

“If anything happens to you… I won’t let it stick. Understood?”

Blackfire’s eyes widen in response, showing that the Tamaranean definitely DOES understand. She looks a little incredulous.

“You… would do that for me?”

Lucien smiles and nods, a little surprised himself to find that he’s being completely honest when he says…

“I would.”

Oh, don’t get him wrong… if Blackfire went and did something without telling him or against his advice that got her killed, he’d be a lot more hesitant. But with this? Telling her to go out there and risk her life… if anything happened to her, Lucien isn’t sure he’d be able to live with himself anyways. He’s gotten too close to his ‘henchwoman’ to let her go now. So yes, he’d use one of his large but finite amount of ‘resets’ to go back and save her.

Seeing the sincerity in his eyes, hearing it in his voice… Blackfire lets out a shuddering breath and nods.

“O… Okay…”

He lets her go then, watching as she hesitantly flies after Supergirl. Hopefully she would take his words to heart and with the knowledge that she had a ‘Get out of Jail Free’ card in her back pocket, show the sort of courage that would impress the heroes up there. Because she wasn’t just representing herself and showing how she’d reformed from villainy with this… she was also representing him.

It definitely would have been better for his relations with the Justice League if he could have gone up himself… but there were just too many moving pieces for him to consider that a viable option. This was where he needed to be, no matter what.

Clex watches him curiously as Lucien approaches, the corners of his mouth turned upwards in a slight smirk.

“Hm. You two are closer than I thought. Should I be expecting grandbabies any time soon?”

Lucien blinks at the question, which to his ears sounds completely sincere. He stares at his father’s clone for a long moment before snorting derisively.

“I wouldn’t count on it, no. My powers don’t exactly allow for accidents and neither Blackfire nor I are interested in parenthood right now.”

Of course, he very deliberately doesn’t mention anything about Harley and Poison Ivy. That was a whole can of worms that was better left unsaid, especially if Clex didn’t know the details of everything that had happened to Lucien while he was in Gotham.

“Ah, very well. I suppose I can’t exactly fault you for knowing what you want and being so responsible. Self-determination is a good look on you Lucien, I have to admit.”

That gets a head tilt from Lucien, which causes Clex to smirk harder than before.

“I still have all of the memories of the original in my head. All those yearly meetings where he checked in on you, only to be more disappointed than the last. Meanwhile, I remember him spending so much time and effort and money on trying to kill Superman, when he could have been putting forth effort into trying to figure out what was wrong with you and how to help you get better.”

Lucien flinches at that, but Clex isn’t done.

“It’s like… like I experienced it all from over his shoulder. I feel a step removed from it all honestly… and maybe that’s what’s allowed me to be a better person… a better Lex Luthor. I don’t know if Brainiac intended it that way when he created me, or if he just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t become as much of an egomaniac as the original Lex that I would refuse to listen to his commands.”

Here, Clex winks.

“Unfortunately for him, I don’t need to be as much of an egomaniac as the original to stand against Brainiac. I just need to have pride in my species and love for my home world.”

Honestly, Lucien barely even knows where to begin with all of that. Does he tell Clex it wouldn’t have mattered if his father tried to help him anyways, because ultimately his malady was something that normal human science couldn’t contend with? Does he tackle all that shit about the entirety of Clex’s life experiences apparently being from over another man’s shoulder? Because that certainly didn’t sound healthy.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t get the chance. Clex looks at the bank of monitors and makes an ‘ah!’ noise in the back of his throat.

“It’s almost time.”

Lucien watches as Brainiac’s fleet finally arrives. The members of the Justice League capable of fighting in space are pouring out of the Watchtower to defend it… but the armada that Brainiac has brought to invade Earth is so much bigger than a single Watchtower can possibly block. The ships flow around it in a U-shape, some stopping to attack the Watchtower but even more heading for Earth itself.

There’s a ding from one of Clex’s stations.

“And there it is. Orders from up top to betray Earth and start softening up the defenses down here. Heh, boy is he in for a surprise.

Lucien watches wordlessly as Clex’s fingers fly across the keyboard. At this point, he just has to trust that his father’s clone is on the up and up and knows what he’s doing. And if he isn’t and this is all just a trick, well Lucien will know better the next time around if it comes to that, won’t he?

On one of the screens, Brainiac’s visage suddenly appears again, looking distinctly like an alien version of Lex Luthor just like last time. Except this time Lucien can tell that its live instead of just a recording.

“Greetings People of Earth! I am-!”

And just like that, it cuts out. Lucien blinks, even as Clex chuckles from the side.

“Broadcast like that all across the world? Heavily reliant on LexCorp to make sure it reached everyone he wanted it to reach. Shame that LexCorp isn’t on his side, isn’t it?”

Taking a step back, Clex straightens up and squares his shoulders before clasping his hands behind his back. Then, on the same monitor where Brainiac Luthor had been moments before, his visage appears instead. Its pushed close enough in that Clex is the only one in the frame, even as he stares intensely into the camera.

“People of Earth, this is Lex Luthor speaking. I know many of you do not see eye to eye with the actions I’ve taken in the past. Some of you might even consider me a criminal. But right now we find ourselves on the precipice of assimilation. An alien invasion has landed on our doorstep once again, led by who some call the smartest being in the universe. The Justice League faces down his armada even now to try and protect us from being conquered by his fleet.”

Here, Clex raises a fist into the air.

“Are we going to cower in our homes as they fight for us? Are we going to sit and wait for them to save the day yet again? Perhaps today they will prevail once more. And perhaps the next time as well. But there will come a time when the Justice League will not be able to handle the threats to our world… not alone.”

Lowering the fist slowly, almost reverently to out of camera view, Lex Luthor smiles as he presses a single button on the console in front of him.

“That is why… LexCorp stands with the Justice League, with Superman, and with those brave men and women who would defend our home. Now and forever.”

Another screen on the monitor bank shows the top of LexCorp tower splitting open and a stream of shiny chrome-covered drones flowing up out of it. More streams of drones appear from all over the city as well. Lucien’s mouth goes dry at the sight. If those had been on Brainiac’s side… but no, he still didn’t know for sure that they weren’t.

Tensing up, Lucien prepares for betrayal… that never comes. Brainiac’s ships begin to enter the atmosphere and Clex’s drones rise to meet them, clashing above the Earth in a battle that quickly expands out across the entire sky. Forming something of a defensive net, the shiny chrome drones are clearly doing their part… and so are the heroes and heroines Lucien can just barely make out among them, fighting and pushing back the invasion force.

Mere seconds later, Lucien watches on the screens as the nations of Earth, the so-called superpowers, also begin to react. In fairness to them, their reaction speed is incredible considering the infamous slow crawl of most bureaucracy. But then, these are fairly unprecedented times.

Still, Lucien can’t recall ever seeing Earth truly rise up as one like this. It was like Clex had said in his speech, which Lucien was now realizing had been broadcast to everyone in PLACE of Brainiac Luthor’s message. Most of the time, the Justice League were the ones who handled shit. Entire cities could be burning and in ruins and it was the Justice League who were expected to save the day, time and time again.

Not anymore though, or at least not this time. Clex had put out the call… and Earth was answering it all across the board. Lucien’s mouth is dry as he stares at all the screens, hope rising in his chest. Between the Justice League powerhouses fighting Brainiac out in space and LexCorp’s drones and Earth’s nations fighting his troops down here… it really looked like they were going to pull through. No, more than pull through, this was looking like as decisive a victory as could be possible.

“Now then… about what I wanted to talk to you about.”

Blinking, Lucien pulls his eyes away from the bank of monitors to see Clex standing there smiling at him. The clone chuckles, his hands still clasped behind his back.

“Now is as good a time as any. At this point its mostly out of our hands… up to the rest of them to take advantage of this chance we’ve given them. Still, when all is said and done… once the dust has settled, the world will be very different from what it was this morning. And so will its perception of me… Lex Luthor.”

Lucien tries not to react too strongly to that. In the end, it was just confirmation of something he’d already noticed. Clex… wasn’t intending to differentiate himself from the original Lex Luthor. He wasn’t planning on revealing himself to the public as a clone, or stepping away from Lex’s life to find his own… nothing.

To be fair, if what Clex had said was true, then he likely felt it was his life as much as it was Lex’s. Just because he was the clone and not the original, did that make his memories any less real? Well yes, in a very literal way his memories were fake. But all the same…

Either unaware of Lucien’s inner turmoil or ignoring it entirely, Clex continues on with his spiel. And frankly… his next words are a lot more shocking than anything else he’s said.

“As such, I’m considering running for President of the United States.”

He gives Lucien a grin at that.

“I know, I know. Perhaps it seems a little ridiculous. Lex Luthor, known almost as much for his enmity with Superman as his wealth, running for the highest office in the land. And yet… I’ve put a lot of effort into rehabilitating my image in the past year. And with today’s actions, I suspect my reputation will never be better.”

That was… fair to assume, actually. Thinking about Clex’s speech and how unifying it had been, yeah… Lucien could see the incredibly ambitious man using that as a springboard to take him right into the White House. Even still…

“Of course, if I’m going to be President, I can’t exactly stay the CEO of LexCorp now can I? That would be a conflict of interests. I’ll be required to divest myself of my holdings, meaning I need to find someone I can trust to take over when I’m gone.”

Here, Clex’s eyes flicker over to Mercy, still unconscious and bound.

“Perhaps in another set of circumstances, that could have been dear Mercy. But as we’ve previously discussed, our relationship has come to a decisive end. I could never trust her to take charge in my absence at this point. But you… you Lucien, I know I can trust. I know I can count on you.”

Again, his father’s clone stretches out his hand to him, offering it up.

“What do you say, son? Interested?”

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The Vote:

[X] Accept the offer - 79%

[ ] Reject the offer - 21%

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​A/N: Please check out my newest daily updating project The Age of Chaos (Original Fantasy) if you have a moment!

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