Superman Finds Connection

 The scene opens in the Fortress of Solitude where Superman and Nikita stand talking with the living memory of Superman's Kryptonian father, Jor-el. Superman narrates.

“I don't understand why you're leaving.” Sasha Jordan Scott said to her friend.

Joe smiled faintly. “Sasha, you have already risked enough on my behalf. And I...I honestly don't know how to thank you. But I cannot put you in any more danger. Especially from the general. What was it, Elling?”

“Listen to me. I seriously need you to understand this. The instant I welcomed you under my roof you became a guest in my house and my responsibility. It's a lot like being in custody without being under arrest. And regardless of that, you became...you are my friend. And no one with a brain in their skull insults a friend of mine in my house. But if you really want to leave, I can't stop you.” Nikita took a breath. “I appreciate what you are trying to do for me.”

“You saved me from that fanatic. I wouldn't be a very good guest if I didn't at least TRY to return the favor.” 

Nikita looked sad. 

That's when I realized they were no longer quoting the day of their meeting. Something else clicked. “It didn't work did it? He came anyway.”

“Five days later.”

“By Rao. I am so sorry.”

“Jor'el...I met two dear human souls who finally knew who I really was...because I got arrested. They knew, and I met them at all...sitting in a cell at the D.E.O. Because of what happened that day.”

“I can sense there's something else about that. One does not need to be an empath to read you.”

“I've been wondering. Did you send the message to me? I mean was it intended for me alone?”

Jor-el looked thoroughly caught off guard. “Yes...of course. Did you not believe so?”

“Six years ago when I first met,” she motioned toward me. “Superman as he is known on this planet, I recognized the symbol of the house of El on his chest and put him together with the charge to keep I had. It was kind of hard not to put the symbol of the house of El together with a message in your head 'This is Kal'el of Krypton, please protect him and deliver him of evil.' But until a little over a week ago, I never put that message together with your visit. And now I'm feeling kind of like an idiot about that.”

“Why is that Nikita?” I asked her. “I mean, why would you feel silly about that? You said yourself you never knew his true name, or what planet he was actually from.”

“There was no electronic recording of that message. I was literally the only one to hear it. I spent so long wondering who could have known Xavallen physiology well enough to send a signal I could pick up. After all, we don't have dog ears for sound and we're not telepaths. The rest of the time I kept searching my mind trying to figure out who would trust me that far. Out fo the very few people who knew what I was, who would ask me to take care of their son? I couldn't work it out in my head. It didn't help that when I received the message I wasn't even capable of helping myself. I was...in a prison for dangerous aliens at the time. Once I was freed I couldn't think of that memory without knowing I'd failed the man-- and his wife given the word our infant son-- that had put so much trust in me in the first place.”

“You realized that this particular alien you once sheltered would have trusted you that far. No you didn't realize it. You must've already known that. It follows then something must have helped you recognize me.”

“Not you, no. But I did recognize him because of you. The man who rescued me from that alien prison, his name was Jeremiah Danvers. He reminded me a lot of...Well, you Jor-el.”

Suddenly I felt panicked. “Nikita wait!" Jor-el and Nikita both turned to me. "I am sorry father. There's something I have failed to explain." I felt like hanging my head as I turned to Nikita. "Jor-el ...doesn't know who Jeremiah is...to me.”

Nikita put her hand over her mouth, then balled it into a fist as she pushed her teeth down into her skin. It was the single most horrific thing I have ever seen.

"My son, I require an explanation."

"Jeremiah Danvers...Is the man who found me when I was little. He raised me as his son. The only reason he agreed to work for the D.E.O. – The organization that had captured Nikita – was so the leader of that organization wouldn't come after me. Wouldn't turn me into a solider...Or worse."

"Jeremiah had worked for Hank Henshaw for almost six years when he broke me out of that place. And Hank was not Elling. He was a man of restraint and duty...just misguided. He was willing to do any-thing to protect his people from those he honestly believed were a threat. Something he eventually changed his mind about.”

"Well, what exactly constituted a 'threat' in the first place anyway." I muttered.

"Quite so. When a man you don't think anything of good or bad shows you boundless courage, true fidelity and dies saving your life, you tend to re-examine your assumptions on such matters. I now serve under Hank Henshaw. I have for several years. A free choice and one we have all accepted. The particularly dangerous alien they had been pursuing gave Henshaw the memories of Jeremiah's death; out of the belief that it as the only way to keep both himself and Jeremiah safe. We have only quite recently learned the truth of that matter. That Jeremiah has been, essentially under house arrest and living with a man -that is a GREEN Martian named J'onn Jo'nzz - in a remote community called Arias.”

“This is...an almost unbelievable amount of truth to learn.”

“That's pretty much how I felt when I realized that the two dearest souls and truest-hearted people I have ever met on this planet, the two BEST men I have ever know are in fact the biological and adopted fathers of one of my closest current friends!”

I use the French rules of address when I write my stories. This is especially evident when I write stories about Superman or other aliens. In French you would call someone not by how you regarded them but by how you were speaking of them in that moment in that statement. It goes beyond addressing the person directly. Superman speaking to his father Jor-el naturally called him 'father'. But in that same conversation, talking to Nikita who was standing there called him 'Jor-el'. It's because in that moment he was not speaking of Jor-el as his father but as an individual. That's why they switch modes of address so often in the same conversation. If 2 truths are possible which truth you speak depends on which truth you are speaking of. The royal 'we' for royalty only applies when the monarch is speaking of themselves as a king. When they are speaking of themselves as a person, they say 'I' like everyone else. To put it another way, if I was talking to General Lane, who happened to be my father, I might call him General Lane and 'father' several times in the conversation. It would depend solely on whether I was speaking to him as a general or as my father. Because obviously he's both. In that example I'd presumably call him 'General' more often.