Eveything Changes but Some Things Don't

Chapter 35: The Fírinne Battles

Three years later after Logan and Ariel’s breakup in the year 3008 found Ariel walking out of the book store just having bought a new novel she had wanted for a while and running right into someone. As her new book fell to the ground along with the files the person had been carrying all she seemed to do was watch it all hit the ground, it seemed her life had been doing that for the last few years just hitting the ground and crashing everywhere. She quickly mumbled a sorry as she kneeled down to start helping the person pick their stuff up but then bumped the person’s head on the way down.

“Sorry, again.”

“No it’s my fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going…but maybe I should have been and then I would have seen your loveliness coming at me,” the person said in a trying to be suave voice.

“Excuse me?” Ariel said laughing a bit as she looked up at the person who she found was a man maybe a few years older than her (or a few years older than her Earthling age that is). He had wavy red hair, pale skin and piercing green eyes.

“Oh, did I say that out loud? Sorry. I have this habit of saying things that I’m thinking without even knowing it sometimes.”

“Yes and that’s fine. It actually made me laugh and I’ve needed a laugh.”

“Oh, okay. Glad to be of service. My name’s Donovan Lachlan by the way. What’s yours?”

“Ariel Kent. It’s nice to meet you Donovan. Well, I need to get back to work. See you around.”

“Wait!”

“Yes?”

“Um, ah…I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner with me sometime?” Donovan said nervously.

“Well, Donovan…as nice as that might be…I have to say…”

“You see I’m new in town and I was wondering if you might know some nice places to go to eat and I hate going to a new restaurant by myself, I feel so stupid when I do that…so…”

“You thought you’d ask someone to go out to dinner with you and lucky me I got chosen,” Ariel said smirking while her tone was cool.

“Actually no. I was going to go by myself but when I bumped into you…well, you’re a beautiful woman and I thought maybe we could get to know each other better through dinner and a movie sometime.” Donovan said trying to save his ass before Ariel kicked it because he could tell she was near that point.

“Oh, well…okay…maybe…sometime…Here” Ariel said handing Donovan her phone number on a slip of paper, thinking to herself what could be the harm and he was an Earthling he couldn’t really hurt her unless she let him and she wasn’t going to let him so there wasn’t any problem with given her number out.

“Okay, thanks. I’ll call you when I’m more settled in. Have a good day at work by the way?” Donovan said gaining his composure and heading on down the street into a busy office building.

“I will thank you.” Ariel said thinking of the new tiger cub that had just been born a week ago that she was to start hand-rearing in another week or two as she walked on her way.

A few months later found Ariel and Donovan in a sweet, budding romance. Ariel liked Donovan, he made her laugh and smile when all she wanted to was throw the nearest car into a building. He didn’t know about her Fírinne self but he apparently loved and adored Ariel’s civilian self. She was hoping that once he found out about her hero self he wouldn’t run or hurt her like so many others had, like her most recent ex - her co-worker and still good friend even though it took half a year to get back to their friends status afterwards – Logan McCain. She recognized this feeling for what it was, it wasn’t true love but it was love. It was the love her mother had once had for a man she once heard her parents calling ‘Jimmy 1’. It was a love that she would be content with, her soul wouldn’t live for eternity with Donovan’s but she could easily live the rest of life in this carefree bliss.

“All she really wanted in her life right now was contentment and peace. So, if this relationship lasted a few more months she was going to tell him her secret and see if he could handle it or not. If it ever got to the point of marriage she could easily live her with Donovan because it would be peaceful and easy and she really wanted something simple, something she didn’t have to fight for, for once.

Her body and mind were suddenly full of visions of children, a nice home and a man at home who loved her, who was there no matter what came their way. She really wanted to settle down and maybe finally put away her hero co-life and let Imra, Rokk and Garth handle the Legion for real like the world believed they already did. She was tired. She was tired of fighting, tired of lying, tired of all the losses and near deaths, of all the pain and suffering. She would always love the people of Earth and want to protect them but didn’t she deserve a life too. She had given everything of herself to Earth and its people, didn’t she deserve something back. She wasn’t asking much just a little. And maybe Donovan would be the guy that would give her this peaceful dream she was so desperate for,” she thought to herself.

Little did she know not a few weeks later Donovan would be learning her secret in the one way no one should learn any secret…

A few weeks later found The Fírinne leading all the heroes in a battle that would probably be called the War of Heroes to end all Wars between heroes or something like that against the anti-heroes that were led by Alexandria Luthor. Alexandria Luthor was the cloned daughter or Lex Luthor and Tess Mercer. She had her mother’s hair and body but her father’s eyes and cruel genius.

Lex Luthor and Tess Mercer were the devil incarnated on their own but combining their genes into one – not a good thing at all. And being a test tube child of a Luthor or Mercer - who were obsessed with her father in their own right - or at least someone obsessed with them and her father in turn to stay true to the two villains, Alexandria of course was given powers to rival Clark’s. Alexandria was supposed to be the final weapon against Connor aka Superboy, the clone of Ariel’s father and Lex Luthor to destroy him and then Ariel, herself.

Alexandria was supposed to subdue and destroy Connor, but Alexandria seemed to be as obsessed with Ariel as her father was with Ariel’s instead of Connor, from the moment she was brought out of incubation. At every turn Alexandria went after Ariel in any way she could. That’s why when Alexandria didn’t kill Connor like she was supposed to but let him die fighting evil alongside his friends and family, a pair of evil enemies Alexandria brought back from Superman’s past, a pair that were the anti-Jor-El and Lara El on Krypton – Faora and General Zod. It was all meant to hurt Ariel killing Connor in the process was just a bonus for Alexandria.

For the longest time the Legion didn’t know Alexandria was leading these anti-heroes but Ariel had had a feeling that was the case though there was no proof. Alexandria was supposed to be dead since their last battle just before the Universal Justice League disbanded in 2755. Ariel had renamed the Justice League Unlimited to the UJL in 2484, the year Connor was born.

Alexandria had a lot of the gifts Ariel did, like the long life thing. Alexandria was actually only a year younger than what Connor would be if he was still alive, at 530 years old.

With everyone following her direction the Fírinne led the heroes of the Legion and their allies into battle with the anti-heroes led by Alexandria on an Indian summer kind of day. A day where you knew a storm was brewing not just by the way it looked outside but by the almost oppressive atmosphere of the heat. It was as if the storm was just waiting for the right moment before it released its fury and it appeared that the storm was going to release its fury during the heroes’ battle if the warm rain starting as the first heroes clashed together on the ground meant anything.

Only after what felt minutes maybe an hour if someone was to step outside their homes and even those in their homes knew it was like walking straight into another world, a world where Hell ruled, where war and death ran rampant outside. Many were abandoning their homes and searching out sanctuary during a raging storm of weather and heroes. That is why Ariel had sent a handful of her heroes to help people escape to a safe haven until the fighting was done. That is why at the moment Ariel’s side was outnumbered and getting their butts kicked.

All Ariel could think as she looked around her on this field of destruction was that this is where the smaller but more determined army standing with her was going to fight the bigger more evil army behind Alexandria to save the world or die trying. The scene like so many before tore at her heart, she could see the damage – all of it. From the destroyed buildings and homes and land, to the hurt and dead innocent bystanders she was sworn to protect, to those left behind to grieve and try to move forward when they were stuck, trapped. Every time a battle like this happened and she saw the destruction it made her think of the song “Stand My Ground” by Within Temptation. She didn’t know why but it did.

Her and her powerful and greatly outnumbered heroes were ‘standing their ground’ against something that wanted to destroy everything they loved, held dear and swore to protect until their dying breathes. Apparently Alexandria was going to make Ariel and her heroes test that theory yet again. Alexandria loved playing this game because she knew it killed Ariel inside to lose any of her heroes no matter if she knew them well or not. Alexandria knew Ariel treated every life, every hero and innocent civilian as if it were her own and so every loss be it a hero or civilian was like a physical blow and she loved to see the pain in Ariel’s eyes.

The battle field was already a war zone of destruction but they stepped on to it ready to fight or die for what they wished to protect, like they and every hero before and after them always had and always would.

As Ariel looked out on Monterey, CA where they were fighting this battle, this war her heart dropped to the ground she was currently flying over. Monterey was completely destroyed. It looked like those cities in the movies hit by a bomb or something worse and she had seen worse, she had been involved in stopping worse a few times. Buildings were crumbled to the ground, some were on fire. Some pieces if standing were in flames. People were stumbling around hurt, wounded, near death. People were running and screaming. Children were crying for parents they couldn’t find. Bodies lay on the ground dead and broken. But what hurt her the most was seeing a little girl in the middle of it all shaking and crying at her dead mother trying to wake her.

She had once been that girl when she couldn’t use her powers and her mother had sacrificed herself to protect the world and her father. Her mother had always been a selfless person. Her only selfish act was to love Ariel’s father to the point where she would do anything to save him from harm so he could go on being the hero she always knew he was and would continue to be.

The land and everything around it were burnt, ripped up, shredded, blood stained, on fire. The woodlands and forests and swamps looked like giants had come and just trampled on everything not caring to try and preserve anything. She could see creatures that were usually in their forest homes out in the open trying to escape to safety. These scenes were likes those you’d find in those superhero movies that people made of heroes’ lives. They got close to the reality and its horror but really the movies could never match the real thing, what she was looking at right now. The scenes that made you wonder if the hero could save the people from the villain or if the villain would win at last. The scenes that made you despair but also pray and hope that the hero did beat the villain.

She just hoped she could do that for these people counting on her and her heroes yet again. She just hoped she could beat this villain that seemed Hell bent on destroying her and everything she held dear, either as her hero self or her civilian one. With simple movements tested and perfected over her many years of being a hero and not just a hero but a hero leader Ariel signaled the separate groups they had created in what direction to go to try and cover as much of the battle zone as possible.

Here it was another fight she had trained to be ready for but wished never to be in and now she had been in two or three already in her hero career. Damn it, could she ever get a break and a life lived in peace. Even when the UJL had disbanded she was still doing her duty watching over the people of this planet because they counted on Superman’s daughter to always be there. All she wanted to do now was live through this and move on, live in peace even if for a little while.

She had more to live for than Alexandria apparently had to destroy. She dodged thrown pieces of buildings catching them and using them against her attackers, knocking them out. She fought hand to hand in the air and on the ground, she used all the powers passed on to her by her father and her mother in an almost choreographed elegance but it was really just her natural fighting instincts working to their peak capacity. She was like a whirlwind of energy taking out whatever came in her way. Ariel knew her heroes were close by and fighting their own battles but as much as she worried about their safety she couldn’t afford to be unfocused at the moment. She just had to trust that they all could handle themselves and she knew logically they could. It was her heart that skipped a beat every once in a while in these situations that didn’t.

~Song ends~

Ariel had just decapitating a ghoul-like monster on the ground with a support beam from one of the fallen buildings that an anti-hero called Black Magic had conjured when she heard a scream from behind her. When she turned she found another ghoul thing attacking Ghost, one of her female heroes that could go through things and turn herself into mist. She didn’t even think about it she just put her hand out and shot a golden bolt of light at it. The light hit the ghoul in the chest and it began to spread like a fire until it engulfed the ghoul and it turned to ash. Once it was gone Ghost got up and smirked, “Thanks, Fírinne. I owe you one.”

“Yeah, well you may get to repay it today if this keeps going. How are you? How are the others doing?”

“I got separated from them, but I’m fine now and don’t worry about the others they can handle themselves.”

“Yeah I know. Well look at that?”

“What? Huh?”

All Ariel did as an answer was look up towards a pair of towers that were still standing until Ghost turned around. All Ghost seemed able to do was stare for a moment, but then she grinned from ear to ear and said, “I have never in my life been more happy to see a fire-breathing, pissed off mystical creature as I am right now.”

As they looked on hundreds of dragons and the hero that conjured them memories of reading about them in a book when he was younger were showing up out of thin air headed by a Norwegian Ridgeback that the hero was riding.

“How the hell is that guy controlling a Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon?” Ghost thought to herself as Ariel went down the street to help some other people.

As Ariel ran over to a small group of students backed up against a wall surrounded by anti-heroes she crushed the ground from where she stood to right below the anti-heroes and created a fissure there. The anti-heroes fell in and she closed it before they fell all the way below the surface. All that was showing was their heads.

“Thanks Fírinne,” someone said.

She nodded and moved on. Ariel knew she was cut, bruised and broken in places from all the fighting and dodging of blasts around her. She may have most of her father’s powers but she could be hurt if certain things were around such as kryptonite and wasn’t it her lucky day kryptonite was flying around everywhere today. The pain she did feel she pushed to the back of her mind. As she took a moment to get some air she looked around and spotted a blast of ice blue which he knew as Alyssa or Glacieria’s. As she looked closer she could see Alyssa and Velcra fighting Flashfire and Slime back to back. They looked bruised but alive which was nice compared to what it could have been like. She was secretly very proud so many of her heroes were staying alive, getting hurt and bruised but staying alive.

“God, how long had they been fighting? She’d lost track of time in all the fighting,” she thought.

Plus the down pouring rain, thunder and lightning, howling wind and all that didn’t help to judge time either.

Once she caught her breath she went right back to fighting the nearest enemy.

A few hours later found Ariel on the ground fighting hand to hand with Alexandria in what seemed the center of the storm. Alexandria had a building’s support beam in her hands and Ariel was weaponless. Ariel kept blocking strike after strike with her hands, feet, arms, legs, any body part she could use. She had just super sped a little girl away from the harm and was turning around to face Alexandria who had followed her taunting, “You and your hero tendencies. I could have killed you when you turned from me, but…that wouldn’t have been any fun. But now we can have a lot of fun…”

“This isn’t really my idea of fun but whatever floats your boat, Alexandria.” Ariel snarked at her old enemy as they continued trading blows as they got farther and farther away from the epicenter of the fighting.

They traded blows and snarky comments until both were at their limit but still going because they knew they had to end this one way or another. Finally, a truly sore and tired Fírinne asked softly while grabbing Alexandria’s hand that was coming at her in a punch. “Why don’t we stop with this? We’ve fought each other for so many years, aren’t you tired of it all?”

“Why are we doing this after so many years Alex? We used to be friends. Where did that go?”

“I want you dead! To prove I’m the best! Because I am! I’m human but I have your father’s legendary powers! I’m even better than my father, who came so close to saving this planet from the aliens. The aliens that now come here every day for their work or vacations. My heroes aren’t aliens! My heroes are human mutants, humans!”

“I’m human too, Alex! You know that!”

“Only half! I’m the better and you know it. You can’t kill me. You’ve never been able to.”

“You’ve never killed me either, Alex.”

“No, but I’ve come close and this time…I will! Then I will start the world over. I will get rid of the aliens, the halves, the alien-friendly humans because they weaken us. The real, true humans should inhabit Earth.”

“Do you even hear yourself Alex? Once upon a time, you believed we all could live in peace, when did that change? I know we’ve had our differences but being human doesn’t mean you have to be 100% human Alex. You’re not. Being human means you believe in humanity. It means you’re…”

“Humanity has become weak! I mean to make it strong again by getting rid of those who weaken it.”

“Humanity isn’t weak because it cares Alex. Its strong because the people of this planet can actually find something within themselves to rise above all of this,” Ariel said throwing her arms out to encompass the war zone they were fighting in and everything it meant.

“Humanity has always needed someone to show it the way and they will always have that someone but I’m not fighting you anymore Alex. Whoever wins this one, wins. We’re getting to old for this and I’m ready to let other heroes take over.”

“Giving up are you? Have you finally realized who’s the better?” Alex taunted trying to compose her anger.

“I’m not giving up Alex. I’m passing the torch on. The heroes you and your anti-heroes are fighting right now are ready. They don’t need my guidance anymore…”

“Good then they won’t mind burying their mentor!” Alex said grabbing another support beam, this one with a sharp end pointed right at Ariel and flew straight at her. Ariel grabbed the support beam to throw Alex over her head but as she grabbed it the sharp end went right through her gut but she still grabbed Alex’s hands around the rest of the beam and threw her like she had planned. Alex fell to the ground where she hit the ground like a meteorite and blacked out. Ariel floated in the air watching the anti-heroes being gathered up trying to catch her breath and to push away the pain coursing through her.

Suddenly Rokk and Imra were at her side and asking if she was alright.

Ariel slowly started to float to the ground with Rokk and Imra there if she needed them.

“You really need to take that out Ariel,” a concerned Imra said.

“I know, but I want to see Alex put away first. So, as the police took Alex away with handcuffs that neutralized her gifts Ariel stood there with the sharp end of the beam still stuck in her and a sad look in her eyes.

Once the police were gone with Alex and the anti-heroes Ariel pulled the beam out herself, gasping at the pain.

“Oh, my…we need to get you to a hospital.” Imra said gasping at the wound and all the blood appearing on Ariel abdomen.

“Not until we help these people.”

“But Fírinne?”

“Not until we help these people, Cosmic Boy and that’s final!”

“Yes, Ma’am. If your sure?”

“I am. They come first.”

So for the next few hours Ariel slowly but surely helped the innocent people of Monterey get a somewhat normal semblance of their lives back by fixing what her and heroes could and helping the authorities when they needed it. Finally the authorities said they could handle the rest so her and the heroes gathered to go.

When they were about to leave Rokk and Garth came over and said, “You look really pale and you’ve lost a lot of blood Ariel. You should go to the hospital and get checked out at least.”

“That’s actually a good idea,” Ariel said to Rokk before she fainted into his arms from blood loss and pain.

“Fírinne?! Ariel?! Kent wake up!” Rokk screamed.

“Garth, tell Imra to call our doctors and to meet us at the hospital! I’m going to take her there now!”

“Right!”

And with that Rokk flew off to the hospital with Ariel Kent known to the world as The Fírinne in his arms.