A Life of Battle and Worry [Ky]

[Deleted]

"Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry." -- Democritus



The room was maintained with mechanical precision, kept comfortable at 250 Kelvin, chilly with prolonged exposure, the technician wore a white coat that reached down to the ankles, reinforced with insulation to ward off prolonged chill. Her face was covered by goggles and the hood that resembled some sort of scientific parka. A few buttons were pushed and a dial was checked against a terminal. The figure in the coat spoke "01-14 showing temperature of 312 despite cryogenic influx, increased temperatures are leading to cytoplasmic apoptosis, quarternary protein denaturation and what appears in latest blood samples to be autophagia as the DNA itself seems to be tearing apart. . . recent increases in Oxygenation levels appear to be ineffective, with no noted significant changes in subject. Approximate"

The technician turned to the cart, pulling out a large cylinder. It glowed blue with tubes and handles, it inserted into the side of the large tube, the glassy surface frosted over once again. Vital signs shifted slightly, the heart rate dimming slightly, oxygenation reduced instantly as a blue light beeped repeatedly on the screen.

"I don't think that'll be necessary, Doctor." A bald figure stood in front of the tube, bald headed, the parka did not cover his head. He left his goggles off as he reached into his pocket.

"Mr. Luthor." The technician blinked, she was a little surprised to see the man here.

"Now now, Doctor, I was never here. I think that subject B-0 might require extra attention. . . "

The technician blinked for a moment. Lex Luthor added "It's alright, Doctor. You'll find this is covered in your NDA. . . and there are a few things about subject 01-14 that you might not be aware of." He looked at her for a moment, her face was hidden by the face reflective surface of the goggles. She turned and then walked away, drawing away the cryogenic tubes, nothing more was said.

Luthor turned to the surface of the tube and then began to work with the station. The blue of the cylinder turned dark as the vital signs began to crash. The tube turned a dull greenish color, the fluid within bubbling slightly as the subject's face became visible. Lex Luthor pulled off his gloves, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small hexagon, the size of the palm of his hand, a silverish and black thing with buttons on the side, and a simple readout. The L logo on the side showed the proprietary nature of the object, which had limited applications, although in this case it would be perfectly suited.

"Terra autem erat inanis et vacua, et tenebræ erant super faciem abyssi"

He secured the device to the side of the glass tube, carefully holding it until it made the whirring sound followed by a quick thunk of suction. It was secured. Lex Luthor started to hit the buttons on the side of the device, numbers appeared on the side, 15. He hit the up button repeatedly, until it read 60, then more until it read 125.

"Dixitque Deus: Fiat lux. Et facta est lux."

The device powered on, the liquid within the container turned an amber yellow as Subject 01-14's face glowed in the concentrated power of the yellow sun.

Lex Luthor touched the side of the container, looking into her closed eyes. He looked at her face, "Live." His finger traced down the side of the glass. She gasped within, eyes opening for a moment as her heart rate began to beep on the monitor, there was a moment where their eyes met before she closed them again, basking in the life giving radiation.

"And it was good. . . "

Lex Luthor looked at the monitor again, then reached into his pocket and pulled out the small screen of his cell phone, an image projected upwards, holographically as information was drawn from the computer. Subject KY 01-14, her body shown in three dimensions, changing vital signs popped up in small holographic projections.


It was later now. . . same cellphone, same 3 dimensional image, different information appearing. Perhaps Lex Luthor maintained it as some sort of sentimental thought. He swiped his thumb through the hologram and shifted the phone slightly. With the movement of his eyes and the phone it brought through another set of information. Lex Luthor fit another device over his eye and ear, looking upwards for a moment and then in front of him as the augmented reality display showed more information. A globe at this point.

The cellphone glowed dimly on the roof of a West Gotham Skyscraper. Lex Luthor's coat and tie ruffled in the wind as he kept his off hand in his pocket. It was an evocative enough image, perhaps a bit overdramatic, but Gotham City loaned itself towards dramatic vistas that were often as excessive as they were pointless.



He didn't do many rooftop meetings in Metropolis, although he'd found he'd been engaging in them with much greater frequency in the past few years. Perhaps it's why he kept insisting on those penthouse offices, although perhaps it's because the height provided him a clearer view of the big picture.

Gotham city was cast in shadows, false readings from gargoyles and heat vents. It was harder to fool the heartbeat monitor. No one appeared close enough to observe this little meeting, and if they were, the scramblers would disrupt any laser microphones, this would likely not be observed. The globe, however, was more important. There was a beep of light over Metropolis, arcing upwards. . . into orbit. Another blinking light moving westward over Kansas, arcing upwards into low earth orbit, out of the immediate atmosphere. The time was now.

Lex Luthor knew the time was appropriate. A button was pushed and the pre-recorded message began. "I know you can hear this, I know about you. I know where you come from. You have questions. I have answers. " She would hear the source of it. She'd be able to triangulate it. "Come to the Adams Building." He added, voicing the last part live. Then the button again, the signal off. The arcs came back to Earth, they'd be overheard on this frequency now.

Now he just had to wait, not for long, though, he thought. A quick final glance to make sure the other machines were in place. Enough to make sure this meeting was private. A final glance at the 360 scan, heartbeat and infrared, directional vital signs and ultrasounds, a quick ping. There were 3,496 people within the surrounding square blocks, none on rooftops, none hanging from the side, none moving in the arc pattern that suggested movement from swinging on a grappling hook, none hunched on the sides of the buildings, the reflection from the building materials suggested that. If anyone was watching through a window, the angle would be wrong without enhanced vision, and with luck the mild scramblers would prevent casual laser microphones and other targeted investigation. The globe display showed two satellites directly overhead. A quick uplink showed Lex that one was LexCorp 340B, the other was a communications satellite, a quick check showed it had a LexMark AX40D controller in it, a few swipes, the central processor went into maintenance mode. They'd have possibly 30 minutes, but by that time the meeting would either be over, or they could reset that. The Wayne Enterprises satellite, though, would be in range in approximately 24 minutes. If necessary, he'd have to use the scrambler for that one, although he hoped that wouldn't be necessary. Still, the box on the ground was pointed directly upwards.

A quick connection to the satellite network and he paired the box to the WE satellite, if it came overhead, the scrambler would blur any sort of recording. The 360 scanner would warn about incoming drones or other incoming airborne visitors. It was technology he had to put a significant amount of time and investment to lately. So far, it had been worth every penny.

And now he waited for the prodigal child to pay him a visit.

[Deleted]

The voice hit her like a punch to the face, striking and loud, it overshadowed the din of all the other voices within a two mile radius. Ky had been idly listening to said din, enjoying the singing of a man two blocks down; as she normally did late at night when it was inappropriate to bother the other JSA members.

So punctuated and sudden was Lex’s summons, that the young Kryptonian had to cover her ears with her palms and squeeze her eyes shut to try and control the sensory overload. She wasn’t able to catch everything, but ‘answers’ and ‘Adam’s building’ were all she really needed.

Ky moved through the JSA Headquarters as if in a trance, walking through the halls and corridors until her palm was placed against the front door. Only then did she pause, feeling the wood beneath her fingers, Ky looked back into the dark depths of the mostly empty building. She felt a momentary sense of hesitancy, for the strict rules she had to conform to were never more enforced than at night.

She knew even as she paused she would simply deal with the consequences later, once she was caught. Ky took a deep breath and pushed passed the doors out into the warm night. The teen looked up and down the street, there were few cars and even less people; so the Kryptonian took one last look at the double doors behind her before she took off like a shot.

The world passed by quickly, running at fifty-five miles per hour was an odd sensation that Ky did not often get to experience as she was never much in this sort of hurry. She made turns, dodged pedestrians and cars and even scaled a fire escape to eventually ascend far above the veritable obstacle course that was Gotham City’s streets.

To the redheads credit, she only had to go back down to the streets to verify that she was indeed heading towards the Adams Building. Once her destination was clear, Ky arrived at the Adams Building in a total of twenty minutes, start to finish.

The youth stared up at the structure, determined and almost possessed by the thought of answers. While Kent and Inza had never hid anything with her, they did not know everything. No one seemed to, this might be her only chance, and Ky would not give that up.

The redhead moved to the fire escape and began her ascent, with little subtilty as she banged and even bent some of the metal on her way up. Ky felt no fear, perhaps this was foolhardy on her part and she did consider that maybe Cadmus was trying to take her back. If this was the case she would fight, but that voice---no this was not dangerous. Her gut told her she was ok.

Ky pulled herself up and over the ledge of the building, keeping her eyes lowered as to avoid looking at the bald man who awaited her. She would let him move first, he summoned her; he could take initiative.

[Deleted]

Twenty minutes, he waited, sitting down in the corner, tinkering quietly with the scrambler, modifying it with that holographic emitter that he's been playing around with in his spare time. The multitool he kept in his pocket burned quietly at the edge of the probe as he lightly fixed the connection of the diode within the small device. The calibration to work with the Eyepiece took a little bit longer, but it was an idea he'd been tinkering with and it's so rare to get spare time these days. He had the device back together after a good 17 minutes. Then he had three minutes to spare. The scrambler he considered again, maybe if he connected it with the holographic projector. That's an idea, instead of just projecting the light upwards to scramble the computers slightly, the visual input could actually be interrupted. That's not a bad idea. He started to open the device again and started to connect it to the scrambler, establishing a quick handshake protocol between the two devices and starting a simple program in his LexEye to combine the two using the satellite network. An easy enough solution, if the Wayne Enterprises satellite passed overhead, the emitter would project an empty roof slightly above the roof, it wouldn't need to be precise, just enough to give a static image. 

Sometimes he missed taking the time to just tinker with his devices in the lab. While he always tried to set aside time in one of the LexPods scattered throughout Metropolis, Star City, Coast City and now Gotham to at least keep his hand in the game, it was rare he actually had a good 20 or 30 minutes to himself to actually do anything. Often business matters or plotting or politics or intimidating people just took too much time out of his schedule. It helped that he almost never slept, honestly, but even then maniacally brooding in the Penthouse Offices of LexCorp as he looked at a well manicured city took significantly more time than he'd like to admit. 

Plus the meetings, he always had to set aside time for people to just ramble and brood and posture and show character establishing moments and whatnot. These days most of his engineering time had to go towards paying ventures, larger scale projects. No one ever spared a thought for the daily travails of a Megalomaniac Power-mad Futurist Visionary CEO/Inventor/Whatever he was this week. It was honestly nice to have a few minutes to himself, to just think. "Memo to self: Set time aside for the simpler things. Reminder: Two weeks." The quiet scanner in the eyepiece recorded the memo dutifully. He'd need a reminder soon, things would get even more busy before too long. 

It was then that the sensor blinked. One of the predetermined alarm functions, a figure of the approximate size and shape was moving quickly about a few blocks away. He closed the holographic emitter and the plate of the scanner.

The figure was moving up the fire escape now. Good, the meeting could start. He brushed off his coat and straightened his tie, so he'd be presentable in the time it took her to race up the side of the building. It was a small thing, but he had his pride. This was an important moment, after all. The Prodigal Child had returned. She'd been going by Ky, he'd heard. . . 

She came up and over the ledge of the building, avoiding his gaze, petite, red haired, bright eyed, confused. "You are beautiful." And she was, he could see some of himself in her, the hair, well. . . hopefully she wouldn't inherit that quality from him. But maybe the nose, the eyes belonged to another, though, although Lex Luthor had rarely looked into those cutting blue eyes. They'd almost always been Red when he saw them. They were quite evocative, though. And he remembered them vividly from the last time he'd seen them, while she lay suspended in a tube, dying.

He smiled as he put his hands together and started to walk towards her. "I'm sorry for the dramatic nature of this meeting, but it's hard to get a hold of you, especially with your caretakers. Ky? I've heard you've been going by Ky now. Not the name I would have chosen, but it's evocative, I suppose. It's because of the identification number you had. . . it's interesting that you chose to hold onto that name, but then again. I suppose it's really all that we had left you with before you were kidnapped. I'd always intended for you to have so much more, but I suppose there wasn't time." 

He shook his head walking towards her "But here you are, and you are beautiful, and you are a miracle." He smiled, genuinely pleased for a moment at what was before him, it was miraculous. Despite the setbacks, the kidnapping, the problems, everything had been successful. "I'm Lex Luthor. I suppose you could say. . . "

He thought about how to say this. It was best to be blunt. This might be the only chance. "I suppose you could say I'm your father. I know you have many questions, and I'm not sure how much time we have before they'll be looking for you, and I'm very sure that your caretakers would be very angry at the thought of us meeting." 

[Deleted]

The voice was like a memory filtered through syrup, dredging feelings out of some sort of primordial ichor. It pricked and tore at her recollection, but for the life of her, Ky could not place the cadence.

The youth had enough clarity left in her to mutter a 'thank you' at his first compliment. Perhaps it was not meant as a compliment and it was inappropriate to say thanks, but it felt right to Ky.

The Kryptonian knew this man, not personally but she knew him. His words were a mishmash of things she didn't know how to understand, not yet; her face read openly of her confusion and hesitance.

Despite this, when he smiled and moved to approach her, her mouth mimicked the gesture and she moved to meet him; step for step.

Ky did not know how to breach the thickness of her tongue, desperately she wished to speak but what to say? What could she ask? There were too many questions and he was right---far too little time.

The youth worried her bottom lip with her teeth, looking about them to determine they were alone; before quickly closing the distance between them. Whenever Ky did not know what to say she would default to a physical response. It was not often she did not have a comment or reply, but she felt no one could cast judgement on her for her mental delay in this instance.

She went with her instinct. When he said father she could only think to gently embrace this stranger and press her face to his meticulously kept suit.

Mostly she just needed to buy herself time to think.

[Deleted]

Of everything Lex Luthor was expecting. . . this wasn't it. He wasn't used to hugging, he wasn't really a hugging kind of guy. It went against his image for the most part and frankly most people didn't find him remarkably huggable. Bald, imposing looking, part of the 1% and blamed for everything wrong in the world. He was used to snark, suspicion, banter, distrust, greed, promises, tears. . . not this. He wasn't really sure what to do with the hug for a moment, although he felt the strain of her muscles on his spine. He would hardly show that, though, the reinforced crystaline plating of the suit dispersed the strain over a wider area, so that he wouldn't be totally crushed. 

She was not a full Kryptonian, and she had a significantly reduced power in this cloudy and dark city, far away from the sustaining energies of the sun, but even so she could crush him like a grape if he weren't very, very careful. He had almost expected her to attack him, her memories of the facility couldn't be pleasant. But the hug. . . caught him off guard. It took a moment, but he put a hand around her back, then up to her hair. He ruffled it slightly and held her close to him. It was . . . awkward, but paternal. He exhaled some, partly in relief, and partly to let out the extra air so that he wouldn't break a rib. The armor wasn't built for prolonged punishment. Luckily, she appeared to be holding back.

He smiled and laughed a bit. "It's alright, Ky. I'm here now. You're not alone. You have an origin. You have a father. And he's very impressed with you, and he's very proud of how far you've come." 

The warning bling. Two minutes to get under cover before the scramblers go to work. "We should go inside. We can talk there." 

[Deleted]

Ky did not linger too long, unlacing her arms from his person and stepping back so that she could look him in the eye. She didn’t believe he would fight her on this and placed a palm on his chest to smooth out the wrinkles she had crushed into his suit.

There was much she had to say, and she opened her mouth to do so until he spoke of continuing this conversation; albeit one sided, inside. Ky did not have a desire to impress this man with her intellect, but she did not want him to find her slow or dull witted either; she had only muttered since their meeting began. She no longer had the luxury of staying silent.

“I will follow you, but--I will---I will defend myself if you have set up a trap” Her voice was strong despite her soft expression, she did manage to frown up at him, eyes unblinking and unwavering as she tried her best to express her seriousness.

[Deleted]

He taps her on the side of the head, smiling faintly "Good. You're thinking. You're distrustful. Just what I'd expect from my daughter. That is an instinct that, unfortunately, will serve you very well, although I wish we lived in a world where it wouldn't." And he honestly seemed to mean it, walking casually through the doorway into the roof. Thirty three seconds, Lex Luthor disabled the sattelite scrambler remotely, the equipment would blend into the rooftop, just more junk amongst junk.

He walked down the staircase casually, and into the hallway of the top floor of the Adams Building. One door from the staircase, he placed a device on the door and then turned the knob. "In this room you might see some equipment. I've set them up near the window as a way to baffle anyone who might want to overhear our conversation. If you hear any odd noises, that's what you are hearing. As for the door, I will leave it unlocked. Unlike others, I don't see any need to keep you here against your will." He tapped his wrist and then waved his hand in front of him as if doing some simple incantation, and Ky could hear the subtle white noise of static, the hum of machines, but nothing too significant or disturbing.

The interior of the room was dim, with a sofa and some nice chairs. Lex Luthor rubbed the back of his neck as he went to the sofa and sat down, leaving a seat next to him, and leaving the two chairs open, letting Ky decide how close or far she wanted to sit from him. He then said "If you are hungry or want something to drink, do help yourself. I didn't have a lot of time to stock the room, but I'd hardly be a gracious host if I didn't provide the basics."

There was a charcuterie platter on the table, a pitcher filled with what appeared to be water and two carafes filled with a juice and one with a coffee. He poured a cup of the coffee for himself into one of the LexCorp mugs on the table. The L on the surface changed color with the heat, looking like it was rotating in place in a nifty little special effect.

"Now, I'm not sure how long we can talk, but the first thing I will do is give you a way to contact me again, just in case you need to." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Lexmark Xi, a lovely smartphone just released on the market, he placed it on the table in front of Ky saying "It has my phone number programmed in already, the personal one that I answer. You might want to memorize it if you get the chance. It also has some other useful programs, but I'm sure we'll have time to talk about that later. Think of it as a way to make up for a few missed birthdays, I promise I'll make it up to you with more if you like."

He put a piece of salami on the bread on the platter, and took a bite, as if to show the food was safe. "Now, you have questions, I'm sure." He smiles.

[Deleted]

The youth didn’t so much as flinch as the man tapped her on her head, she made no comment and merely followed him through the door; though her eyes were narrowed with deep suspicious playing across her features.

As she followed him deeper into the guts of the building, Ky remained mostly silent; absorbing what he said with stoic introspection. On the inside; however, she was a maelstrom of confusion and skepticism.

Why? He had thousands of more important things to see through, surely she was a mere footnote on that every growing list. There had to be something else to all this, and Ky was not certain she understood this man enough to discern that something.

Idly, a hand skimmed along the various surfaces she passed as they walked, feeling the shapes and textures through her gloves and trying her best not to break anything as she went. The humming all about them was a mild distraction, but every now and then the teens head would twitch towards different directions depending on the volume.

Ky snapped back to attention as she realized they had entered a room and Lex had sat down on the couch. She stood for a moment, watching him pour coffee for himself and deciding that she would partake of the sweeter smelling juice. Gently, she picked up a glass, poured, and proceeded to sit down mere inches from him on the couch.

The teen saw no reason to keep her distance, she had already consented to meet and speak with him; though she admitted to herself she had done very little of the later. Setting her glass down on the table, Ky appraised the device in Luthor’s hand and offered a modest smile.

“I am so bad with these things” Reaching out, the youth plucked the phone off the table as if she was trying to capture a ladybug or some other small, easily crushed thing. “I go through them so fast, if I try to press a button and don’t think about it first---My fingers go right through them---But I will endeavor to treat it gently and memorize your number” She placed the device atop her thighs and tucked her hands daintily in her lap over it.

Those sharp, blue eyes turned then to bore into the man next to her, open appraisal and curiosity now replaced what was once nervousness. “I think you might already know what I want to ask.” Ky admitted, huffing a soft snort of derision at herself for the statement. “I think it’s what anyone like me might want to know. But there are more relevant things---What do you want from me? What are Cadmus’ plans if any in regards to my recapture? Why did you use Superma--” The redhead paused and shook her head as if reminding herself to stay on task. “Nevermind. Irrelevant---Answer those first.”

[Deleted]

He was calm, moving slowly, no obvious gestures or threats. He seemed to be approaching her as if she were a very dangerous and very frightened animal or child, which wasn't so far from the truth. No obvious threatening gestures, he drank the coffee, and listened to her. "The phone's been reinforced. I made it myself to try to compensate for the Kryptonian DNA. It's quite a challenge, honestly, but it's actually using some of the motion sensors that I use in the holographic technology. If I'd had more time I'd have set it up so that the entire system would work on motion capture and projection technology, it's the prototype I'm using for my own phone right now, but I'm still working out all the bugs of it, so it's not quite ready for general release yet, although I might try to develop something less fragile, with less opportunity for super strength or extreme environmental trauma to damage the inner workings. Perhaps I'll market it to the rising Metahuman market. I might ask you to help me stress test it, later on, with the next iteration, if you're still willing to talk with me or meet with me after tonight."

Gentle conversation as he says "I'm not sure if you're interested in that sort of thing, construction or design, it was my salvation when I was your age and younger. Something to put my mind towards when things got hard. It didn't matter how awful or complicated things were, there was a certain purity to putting my mind to a specific engineering problem, and seeing what I could do to solve it. Still, this should last for a little while, with any luck. It'll certainly raise fewer questions if you're caught with it than a newer design unlike anything on the market." His forehead reflected the strange neon lights outside, it cast his features into stark relief. The room was very dark, but then again most things in Gotham were. This would not have been Lex Luthor's first choice of a meeting place, but it was convenient, easy to secure, and most importantly, entirely unconnected to him should anyone attempt to follow up on things. The Adams building was easily forgotten, just another old and nearly forgotten building from Gotham's industrial and economic glory days. Maybe he'd buy it later, refit it, rebuild it, then again historic buildings were such a pain to work with. . . something to consider later, though. 

The coffee was sipped, still warm and steaming as he listened to her question, he thought for a moment, then put the cup down on the table with a quiet clink.  "Recapture, such a funny word for it. But I suppose considering your point of view. . . what you must remember of the Red Room. . . and I'm certain that your friends must have told you a very skewed version of things. To be completely honest, Cadmus isn't entirely certain what their plans are for you yet, or how to go about them. It's a rather standard government organization, you see, despite all of the cloak and dagger and secrets, it's a bureaucracy with the right hand and left hand not really certain what it's doing, always fighting for funding with very mixed goals. They're likely still in meetings about how to move forward, no one saw your being taken as part of any plan, and in fact you weren't supposed to be . . . ready, for quite a bit of time, honestly. There really weren't any plans in place for you when you came out, because everyone thought they'd have at least another five or so years before the question would arise. We were, of course wrong." 

He smiles as he says "But then again, plans rarely survive any encounter with events. We had to put you in the Red Room, you see. It was a desperate plan, but unfortunately necessary, for the same reason you have trouble with the phone. You're . . . young and strong, and without even thinking you'd destroyed so much and hurt so many people. Just the first growing pains of a confused and lost young girl. We wanted you safe, somewhere we could help you to safely grow."

He shrugs as he says "I suppose that's all I ever really wanted. What I still want for you. You are . . . unique. There's nothing else in the history of the world like you. Maybe something in mythology. You represent the best hopes and dreams of those who helped to bring you into being. An entirely new life, both human and something else entirely. A first tentative step of a weak and ignorant species to understanding the universe." He smiles as he says "A lot of pressure, to have the hopes of a species on anyone's shoulders, I suppose."

He looks at her, considering her eyes, her face, her hair. "There's never going to be any way for you to really understand everything that led to the choices that led to your creation. You were born powerful, and you were born in a time after . . . Superman. When Superman first appeared in the sky, imposing, powerful, alien. So many answers that had driven humanity were answered in a chilling and sudden way. We knew, in that moment, that we were not alone in the universe. We knew that the universe was larger than we had ever comprehended, and indeed we were unprepared to face what was in it. In a single moment, a single alien proved itself more a match than the entirety of our species, so certain of our centrality in the universe just a few moments before. It was like . . . God had come down to judge us mere mortals. And while he presented himself as . . . benign. . . well. It's impossible to explain the emotions of an entire species as we stared upwards into the sky from the height of our creations, and saw the imposing gaze of the Alien staring down; judging us, saving us from ourselves, as if we were children in need of guidance, and in a way we were children. We didn't have the capability to do anything to stop it should it change its mind, and frankly we were at the mercy of its . . . well, whatever went on in its head. The universe came to our door and we were found insignificant in the face of its power."


He was thoughtful, staring into the distance as if in some form of confession. Perhaps honesty was good for the soul, perhaps he was lying. It was hard to tell, honestly. Considering the stories of Lex Luthor anything was possible. But he seemed sincere. Tortured, even. "Since that time we've been faced with the reality of alien life again and again, each more imposing than the last, more powerful. The weakest and the least imposing of these visitors have the capacity to destroy everything we've ever been or would be. Humanity, as it was at that time. . . was insignificant, no matter what any alien might do, no matter how benign its designs. We were insignificant. This is probably more than you need to know, it would be expected to say "we wanted a weapon to defend us" or "we wanted a savior" or "we wanted to do experiments on you" but none of those really are the true answer to why you were created, to what I wanted from you. In the end we've discovered that we're not alone in the universe, and we need to adapt and change to face it. You. . . well, you're part of those first steps to face the universe, a response to it. To see what humanity can be. You are . . . I won't say you are the future, but you're a potential future for the human race. You're part of us, and you're unique. "

He smiled at her, but seemed very sad, distant eyes as he looked over her. She had grown so beautiful, so far beyond the expectations he had for her.  


"There's no easy answers for what I want from you, because I want what any parent wants for his child. . . I want you to be all that you can be. I want you to thrive, and my only regret is that you were taken from me, before I had the chance to really be there for you. To guide you through what had to be difficult times. Through tough questions. Through all the growing pains. You were taken from me, Ky. Kidnapped from your home by powers beyond any of our capabilities to stop. You were stolen by another who set himself up above us mere mortals, who possibly thought he knew best, and we barely had the capacity to understand what had happened, let alone protest or do anything about it. You were told that your creators wanted to do horrible things to you, I'm certain. . . and kept from us, due to . . . well, I don't know. Political disagreements? Religious or spiritual fervor? Difference in opinion? Possibly he thought he was . . . changing the balance or leaving a mark on history. It's hard to say, zealots always have reasons they see as good and they rarely are open to debate from those they seek to shepherd or save. I couldn't really say the reasons, I don't understand them myself, nor can I change the past, as much as I wish that I could."