Martha was in charge of of the batmobile and was very excited to actually drive it. She saw Clark heading for her father.

"We don't have to do this Bruce." Clark frowned at the man. "You could just surrender."

Bruce shook his head. "Why would I surrender? I'm not like you, Clark. I'm not about to bow to a system that hates me because I managed to do what they couldn't."

"Fine." Clark reached forward ready to end this he really didn't want to hurt his friend but if Bruce pushed him he would push back.

Bruce moved into position, thinking of Lori for luck before starting.

After a hard fight Clark stood over Bruce right in the line of Cal's fire. "Please Bruce you can still stop this. Think of Lori and Martha how hurt they'll be if I do permanent damage."

Bruce laughed breathlessly. "You should be more worried about yourself, Clark." He said.

Recognizing the signal, April sent distracting thoughts at Clark, holding him still for just a moment. It was more difficult than she thought it would be.

As soon as he felt April's power activate, Cal brought his to the forefront. Instead of using a gun or bow and arrow, he simply used his power to launch the packet. It hit Clark hard enough to hurt and burst open, showering him with green dust.

Clark gasped and fell to his knees groaning. "Damn." He cursed and looked up at Bruce it was then that he noticed something. "Bruce your heart."

Bruce ignored him and continued the fight. "I could have killed you, you know. But I chose a nonlethal amount of kryptonite because I wanted you to live. I wanted you to remember, in your darkest moments, the one man who beat you."

"Yeah by cheating." Clark grumbled and shuddered as the kyptonite stole his strength.

"There's no cheating in war, Clark." Bruce said. "If you have an advantage, you use it. That's something you never learned." He gasped as pain lanced through his chest, collapsing.

"Bruce!" Clark tried to go to him but he flinched. As the soldier's got closer he sent them back one helped him up and he walked over to Bruce "this was never war." He sighed. "I'm so dead." The soldier blinked. "What do you mean? he's dead." "You'll find out." Clark chuckled as Gordan came forward.

Lori was pacing a whole in the ground snarling when any animal or human neared her. She stopped when a car pulled up. Joker vanished from view as she opened the door and Gordan was standing there. "No." She felt her legs give out and the world tilted but Gordan caught her. With his help she sat down and just stared at the ground not even noticing when Martha and the twins slipped in from the back.

Gemini wanted, very badly, to cry. She almost did, when she noticed the twins and Martha. She couldn't read Martha's expression, but she knew her kids well enough to see through their act. They were hiding something.

Cal watched Lori react to the news, feeling horribly guilty. "How long until we can tell her?" He asked quietly.

"Not long. She's going to kill us all when she finds out." April replied. "Hey...do you think this counts as fulfilling that prophecy, Martha? The one you were worried about? I mean...technically, Cal and I- two friends with superpowers- have taken away everything from you. Does it...is this what that lady meant?"

Lori took a breath "I guess we'll have to prepare the funeral." Her voice was flat and her eyes had lost there usual sparkle.

"I does make sense." Martha mused. "Poor mom. She needs to at least believe until we can dig up the body. If we don't have him to prove it she'll never believe." She went to her mom and hugged her.

Gemini was there the second the police left, hugging her friend. "Oh, Lori..." She couldn't manage to say anything else.

Cal glanced at April, who looked guilty. "Keep looking like that and you'll blow it." He told her.

"I can't help it! We were there...we should have been able to do something." April answered, making Cal nod. As long as that was her cover, then the look of guilt made perfect sense.

Lori started to cry clinging to Martha and Gemini trying to focus threw the heartache for her daughters sake. When she finally calmed down she made all the needed phone calls. As they sat there Lori holding Martha close a look of pain on her face.

Unsure what else to do, Gemini went into house wife mode: cleaning everything until it was spotless, then baking, then cleaning up from that, all to keep herself from thinking.

Cal and April both stood by awkwardly, not knowing what to do or say.

Eventually Lori and Martha went back to the manor to discover the mess and Alfred who was dead in the snow. Lori stood there staring at the old man as a rage filled her. Martha gasped at the sight of Alfred lying in the snow and hurried to keep him from getting buried. The next day they had a quiet burial with his family before everyone gathered for Bruce's. Once the coffin was down Lori stood for a moment then rounded on Clark "This is all your fault you son a beep." she slapped him hard then marched off.

Gemini and her family were shocked by the news of Alfred's death. At the funeral, she kept giving Clark deadly looks. After Lori slapped him, she confronted him. "You have a lot of nerve showing your face here." She said. "I've got two very angry teenagers who would jump at the chance to kill you while you're weak. You'd better leave, and don't ever come back." With that, she marched away.

April blinked. "Whoa. Mom's scary." She whispered.

Cal nodded, though he was glaring at Clark as well. "Come on, we need to go tell Lori." He said, leading his twin sister away. "Lori! Martha!" He called as they caught up. "Listen, you need to come with us. I know you probably don't want to, but we need to show you something really important." He told Lori.

Lori stopped and smiled at Cal then like a viper she hit him as well. "I know what you did to this city Cal." Her voice was laced with sugary sweetness. She had never hit any of them before but she was in no mood to be messed with. "Show me what you want to and make it fast but I don't want you near Martha for a week."

Martha blinked repeatedly at a loss for words hoping Cal's face was alright though she had done no better to his arms.

Cal stumbled back, shocked. It hurt, but the tears that sprang to his eyes were from a completely different pain. "On second thought, maybe April should show you." He said, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking away.

April was stunned, but she didn't know what to say. "Uh...um..." She swallowed. "Okay, then. Come on, Lori. It's just this way." She said. It took all of her restrain to stop herself from defending her brother.

Lori felt bad seeing the look on Cal's face. "Cal..." She sighed. "I didn't mean." She scuffled her felt and started to cry. "I'm so sorry." She pulled him back crushing him into a hug. "I'm sorry." She kept repeating it as she sobbed.

"Come on mom." Martha managed to pull them apart and took Cal's hand in one hand and her mother's in her other she lead the way following April while her mother stumbled along after them hiccuping.

Cal paused, unsure how to proceed. He'd never been good at handling tears, but he really didn't want to make Lori feel worse. So, he let Martha take his hand and lead him, not speaking.

Feeling awkward, April led the way. She was sure things would get better once Lori saw that Bruce was alive. She led them down into the network of caves, where Bruce was already directing the reformed mutants.

Bruce looked up at their approach. He wasn't 100% better, but he was doing pretty good. Seeing Lori made him smile more than anything.

Lori stare at him. "A ghost. Come to haunt me." She placed a hand over her chest where her locket say. "Be gone creature. Be you ghost, ghoul or my own imagination I can not take you being here."

Bruce raised an eyebrow and stepped forward. "Lori, it's really me. I'm okay. A little bruised, but mostly fine." He said.

"It's true. We had this set up the whole time. We're really, really sorry we couldn't tell you." April said. "It had to look good."

"No one else can know he's alive. But on the upside, he never has to be Batman again. Damian can handle that from now on, and you get Bruce all to yourself." Cal said quietly.

Lori approached Bruce her hand raising she slapped him looking surprised when she hit something solid. Her face turn livid and she began to punch, and slap every inch of him not caring if he was hurt. "You jerk!" She screeched calling him every name she could think of.

Martha wisely stepped out of the way and pulled the others with her.