Work Text:
Kal-El stood on the parched earth, the crisp, burning heat of the wind ruffling his silver-dusted hair. He closed his eyes, willing himself to feel the warmth that had been leeched from his skin so long ago. All around him, the ruins of a once-great city cried out in its emptiness. Voices reached out to him from aeons past, each and every one laughing and crying, raging and loving, all within the span of a few short years of furious living.
Gone. All gone.
The people had fled, searching out new homes, abandoning the world that had given birth to them in favour of more hospitable conditions. He alone had remained, unwilling to let go of that which he had loved and cherished. Like the ground he stood upon, he was tired. Old beyond imagining.
The sun no longer caressed him with loving fingers. It had turned away, its empowering embrace fading with its golden colour. It shone crimson now, painting the blue sky he remembered in blood, scorching the soil beneath his feet. He could feel himself withering, the harsh rays stripping away the bold colours that had once defined him.
Now all was gray and Kal-El waited for it to burn away into black, the world he had once carried on his shoulders twining its fingers with his as they neared the end of the long, winding road. He stared up at the sky yet his feet remained firmly on the ground, gravity binding him to its will.
Once upon a time, he had walked upon the surface of the sun. He had basked in its brilliance. It had whispered loving words into his ear, smiled with him through the rain, lifted him up above the clouds and into the light. Now it was a dream, a ghost. Ephemeral. Time had stilled its heart and broken his.
How he longed to see it again in all its glory. To touch and to taste. To hold and never let go.
Soon, he told himself, that solitary word his only comfort.
Soon…