A few moments earlier…
The visage on Clark's face was of stoic determination in the face of action. Hitting Projekt Endstation was a bust as they learned from some civilians in a nearby town that Von List evacuated from his base weeks before Clark and his team had gotten there. Around when they were attacking Dr. Vought's lab at Dachau so they had been gone for a while. They took the road heading west so they most likely were heading back to Germany but they were long gone. Clark radioed back to the SSR and told them what happened. Their intelligence division got to work on trying to pick up the trail on Von List and even reached out to the SOE for assistance. With their primary objective no longer feasible, Clark and his team stayed behind enemy lines in Poland working with the Polish resistance to disrupt German war efforts while the main offensive force continued to push north. The Polish Resistance informed them of a large prison camp the Germans have been running since they invaded in 1939 and if it was anything like Dachau then Clark and his team were more than happy to take it out. Despite the massive size of the camp and the number advantage for the Nazi's, Clark wasn't deterred in his plan. There were no secret labs or special weapons projects from Auschwitz, mainly being just a prison and extermination camp meaning that Clark wouldn't have to worry about any surprises. He and his team would be able to handle this but decided on another approach instead of the train set up like before though they heard that the SOE had assists in the area that would be able to help them transport everyone out of there.
Clark checked the compass and slightly adjusted his heading, turning the controls slightly which in turn turned the German plane towards the camp. The Polish Resistance informed Clark and his team about a nearby airbase that they would need to hit before they hit the camp and Clark was able to do that on his own using his speed to avoid detection. Fighter jets were destroyed, bombers were grounded and their fuel reserves were destroyed but Clark made his escape via a German transport plane. He had seen enough flying to know what to do for his purposes. He piloted the plane closer to the ground until he was about 100 feet off the ground when he saw the camp in the distance. By now the camp guards saw him on approach and were on alert but it was too late. The plane flew over, taking out one of the watchtowers as it did. It crumbled down and crashed through the perimeter fence, causing the guards to scramble for cover while a few took shots at the plane flying above. Clark jumped out the door of the plane and crashed through the roof of a command building filled with Nazi soldiers.
"Guttentag, gentlemen." Clark gave them a mock salute before they opened fire. It didn't do them any good as a few seconds later a large hole was made when two Nazis were thrown out of the building.
[Blaring Alarm]
Clark stepped out and a nearby watchtower gunner opened fire at him with his MG-42 but the bullets bounced off his body. Clark's eyes then glowed red and he shot a quick burst of his heat vision, destroying the watchtower perch before doing the same to every watchtower he saw within the camp. There was the sound of a distant explosion likely from the stolen plane crashing down outside the camp towards the east. Back near the western part of the camp where the plane crashed into the first watchtower which crashed down onto the perimeter fence, stolen German trucks and other assorted vehicles, mainly civilian trucks or cars drove out from the forests and to the camp. They drove through the opening made by the collapsed watchtower with the passengers opening fire as they did, shooting the German soldiers and prison guards. One of the big stolen German army trucks swerved to a stop and the tarp over the back opened up revealing Diggle manning a German MG-42 Light Machine Gun. He opened fire, gunning down a dozen soldiers that scrambled out of a building when the alarm sounded. The other members of Taskforce Vanguard got out as more and more vehicles drove out of the tree line and made their way to the camp.
Arthur Kingsley saw flashes of red light on the far side of the camp which was where a greater concentration of gunfire could be heard. "All right, the plan is working out so far. Ok, we move fast and hit them hard! Polina, Daniel, take overwatch positions and give us sniper cover!" Arthur shouted and the two team snipers nodded, heading over to a building, and climbing the scaffold to get to the roof. "Solange, Diggle, Webb, you three stay here and coordinate with the Polish Resistance. Keep our exit clear! Everyone else, on me! We've got a lot of ground to cover!"
Arthur lead the teams into the camp as more and more reinforcements came in the form of the Polish resistance. This was a big offensive for them so they had all their agents present for the attack on the base and all of them were ready for some payback. The German soldiers and guards were gunned down as Taskforce Vanguard led the way through the camp. Logan rushed out from cover, firing some quick bursts from his Thompson submachine gun and dove behind the corner of a wall to avoid getting shot by a watchtower gunner. A second later the gunner's head was blown open as Logan saw Polina and Daniel on the roof. He gave them a wave and they nodded back before providing sniper support when Logan saw the vehicle bay of the camp. It had some vehicles they could use including several 251 armored half-tracks that had machine guns mounted on them.
"Kingsley!" Logan shouted, getting Arthur's attention. He then pointed to the vehicles nearby including the half-tracks.
"Right!" Arthur nodded before looking at Lucas. "Lucas, cover!"
"On it!" Lucas threw out two smoke grenades for some cover before the team ran to the vehicle yard with members of the Polish Resistance following them.
Back with Clark, he was zooming all over the base at super speed. Without enhanced super soldiers or Maschinensoldaten in his way then there was nothing the soldiers or guards could do to stop him. Still, try as they might it was all in vain. Clark raced across the camp as a blur and whenever he passed by German soldiers or guards they were thrown through the air and knocked into walls while their guns were destroyed or taken. He raced into buildings and knocked out all the German personnel including the doctors before he managed to find the office of the Camp Commandant. Clark broke through the door, sending shrapnel all over and knocked a man to the ground. Clark saw the man burning documents, likely in a desperate attempt to keep what happened at the camp from being discovered but unfortunately for him he wasn't fast enough. Clark picked him up via his collar and saw Camp Commandant Rudolf Höss look back in pants-wetting fear.
"I'm sorry, Commandant, but you're not escaping justice…" Clark's eyes glowed red to make him seem more menacing which worked too well resulted in him passing out.
Clark exited the building and quickly shielded the Commandant's body with his own as German soldiers ran down the road at him, shooting him with their guns. Clark wasn't going to let the commandant escape justice because of a stray bullet. Thankfully, several 251 armored half-tracks and large transport trucks pulled up and the soldiers were gunned down. Clark's team had arrived along with backup so Clark walked over to a truck and tossed the commandant in the back where he was met with several gun barrels pointed in his face. "Keep him alive. He doesn't get to take the coward's way out." Clark spoke Polish and the Resistance fighters nodded before he got onto the side of a half-track that Kingsley was driving. "Let's go!"
Their little vehicle convoy cleared out the rest of the soldiers on their way to the prisoner barracks but Clark knew that they would need more trucks for transport. "Arthur, call in more trucks! The rest of you, let's get these people out of here!" Clark shouted and everyone nodded. The team split up, taking some of the Polish Resistance members with them as they ran to the various prisoner huts.
Clark and Logan rushed to one of the smaller ones with the former kicking the door down. Inside there were about three dozen people crammed into a space that could comfortably house a dozen. They were all in somewhat good health, likely the most recent arrivals to the camp. The people looked at Clark and Logan in slight fear before a young boy stepped forth, only around ten years old at the most. At his side was his mother who looked worse for wear but when she saw the S on Clark's chest she felt relief. "It's him. It's the Superman!" She told the others and even those that didn't understand German lit up when they heard Superman.
"It's ok. You're all safe now. Come with us." Clark picked up the young boy and ushered everyone to follow him, which they did. Clark and Logan led them back to the trucks when some die-hard Nazi loyalist soldiers opened fire at them. Clark covered the boy and his mother with his body while Logan tackled others to the ground for protection. Two of the soldiers unscrewed the cap of their grenades and threw them. The boy saw the grenades coming to them and raised his hand. To Clark and Logan's shock they saw the grenades fly up into the sky where they exploded safely out of range from everyone. The Germans were quickly gunned down by Webb and some Polish Resistance members as they arrived with more trucks. Clark and Logan looked at the young boy in awe. Looks like they weren't the only two who were special.
Clark helped the civilians into the trucks before taking one more super speed check of the entire camp to make sure all the soldiers and guards were dead or in custody. He didn't want another near fatal accident again and he was extra thorough this time. All the German guards, prison officials, and doctors who were captured were under guard to await transport into Allied custody while the prisoners in the camps were freed. With how many people there were an army of trucks wouldn't be enough but luckily the train was docked at the camp and it had ten train-cars attached so it would help. The train and the trucks would be enough to get everyone south back into Allied territory where the MPs would take all the German prisoners including the Camp Commandant to await trial while the freed prisoners would be assessed and taken care of.
When Clark and his team went through the camp to say that they were horrified was an understatement. Things at Dachau were bad but Auschwitz was on another level and it further solidified the team's motivation to continue fighting in the war. The barbaric and inhumane things the people at this camp did definitely make an impact on Clark and the team with the former finding it difficult to keep his anger and frustration tempered with control.
Clark walked out of the building that was the camp's medical wing and had this thousand-yard stare fixed on his face. No words needed to be said for what he saw as his face said everything.
"Kal…Kal…KAL!"
Clark jolted out his momentary brain freeze and saw Logan standing there. He had been calling out to him for the last minute and got nothing. The other members of his team were slightly concerned to see him out of it. Clark was usually so calm and collected with everything they've seen so far but what he had just seen really messed with him no different than what Logan, Padma, and Lucas saw in Dachau that made them do what they did to Dr. Vought. Clark saw the camp doctors being escorted into one of the trucks and with everything he saw and was feeling, something inside snapped. He marched past Logan and stormed over to the prisoners.
"Kal, wait!" Logan rushed over to stop him from doing something out of character. He got in front and tried to physically halt him but Logan's boots just dug through the ground as Clark kept moving like an unstoppable force of nature. "Kal, you don't want to do this! This isn't you!"
Clark picked up Logan and moved him to the side before he violently grabbed two doctors by their necks and lifted them up into the air. His hands squeezed their airways as his eyes narrowed in anger. "No, please…we surrender…"
"Mercy…"
"Is that what these people told you when you dissected them? When you tore them apart piece by piece?! When you tortured them?! When you treated them like nothing?! They were people! They were mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, and children! You treated them like they were nothing! How many of them screamed for mercy and you gave them nothing!" Clark's grip tightened constricting the doctors airways even more and causing them to begin turning red as Clark's eyes glowed red. Their skin began to burn from the intense heat of Clark's heat vision and it would only take one simple thought for them to be burnt away.
"Kal, stop!" Logan grabbed Clark's arm and tried to pull it away with Arthur, Diggle, and Halima trying to help him. "Kal, this isn't you!"
"They deserve this! You saw what I did. All those people dead because of them!" Clark's glowing red eyes made him even more terrifying which made all the captured prisoners, recently freed civilians, and Polish Resistance members shirk back in fear but Clark's team weren't deterred despite their own fear. "They deserve this!"
"You're right, they do but not like this! You're not an executioner, Kal!" Arthur pleaded.
"Arthur's right. This isn't you! Stop!" Diggle shouted, trying to wrestle Clark's grip but it was like trying to pull a massive steamer ship with a rope. It wouldn't budge.
"Kal, please!" Halima shouted.
"Kal, you're right and they are bad people but you are not!" Logan tried to reason with him and while he would have been more than fine with letting these Nazi scientists die, Kal wasn't a cold-blooded murderer. Everyone on the team looked to Kal as their sort of moral compass, their guiding light. He led by example and was one of the most compassionate people on the planet with a strong sense of right and wrong. Some called Kal a boy scout and he wore it with a badge of honor. Kal kept to that boy scout honor throughout the war but even the best men had their breaking points. "Kal, this isn't you. Yes, they deserve to die, no one is arguing that but this isn't the way. This isn't your way. Not like this! You do this and you'll just make them martyrs and give them vindication! Kal, stop!"
Clark's eyes didn't stop glowing and a part of him just wanted to keep squeezing until the doctor's necks snapped. Killing them like this is what they deserved…but he couldn't do it. He threw them to the ground before he turned around and unleashed his heat vision.
"RAHHH!"
Everyone shielded their eyes from the bright flash of red light but once it died down they could see the destruction left in the wake of Clark's heat vision and to say it was devastating would be an understatement. Everything in the southeast section of the camp was completely obliterated. Buildings were reduced to smoldering, burning wrecks of hot magma with nothing left standing. Not even so much as a fence post or piece of wood. Everything was destroyed.
Clark's eyes stopped glowing but his chest heaved in and out as his breathing was labored. The doctors gasped for air and were still shaking in fear as Clark looked back at them and the two covered their heads and stuck them in the ground. Just Clark's gaze terrified them beyond anything at all.
"Get them out of my sight…" Clark muttered before he walked away.
Logan and Diggle grabbed the two scientists who dropped to their knees and kissed their boots. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
Logan just kicked them back. "Save it. You're not dying today but you will die for what you did." Logan and Diggle picked them back up and moved them to a truck for transport.
Clark found a secluded spot against a building and slumped to the ground. He sat down with his back against a wall and looked out to where there used to be buildings before he obliterated them. Now, just smoldering wrecks of molten rubble and burning wood. While the timing may not be ideal, Clark was having a serious crisis of faith in his ability to cope with how the war was affecting him. He understood that when he first wrestled with the idea of joining the army under a false identity and then joining the SSR for Project Rebirth that he would be required to fight as a soldier and take some lives. It wasn't something he was exactly comfortable with but he made his peace with that. Growing up in Smallville, Clark's father taught him all he knew about compassion, honor, justice, and the value of human life. His father heard horrible stories from World War 1 and he raised Clark with understanding the value of not taking a life for granted. Jonathan and Martha raised him to find the best in everyone and always do the right thing. Knowing right from wrong and knowing when to act and when not to. He made peace with the fact that fighting in the war as Superman he may need to be a soldier and kill but it would always be for a mission, for the war, and to save lives. Despite everything in the war, he stuck close to what his parents taught him but just now he realized how easy it was to slip and let anger and revenge cloud his judgement. Seeing the looks of fear in the civilians, the prisoners…and his own team…he became someone he didn't recognize anymore. Clark was wrestling with his inner demons and right now…he felt like a monster…and he never felt so alone.
[Clack-Clack-Clack]
Clark's ears perked up as he heard the distinct clacking of a hammer putting nails through wood. He knew the sound well because he heard it all the time back on the farm. To his disbelief he saw a figure in the distance near the edge of the section of the camp he had obliterated with his heat vision. It was a person and they were building a fence. Clark got up and walked over to see who it was and why they were doing what they were doing but as he got closer his surroundings began to shift. The destroyed rubble of the camp was replaced with the wide-open green pasture of a farm and he saw a large wooden fence that looked all too familiar. As he got closer to the man working on the fence he recognized the boots and leather jacket he was wearing.
"Dad?"
The man turned around revealing himself to be Jonathan Kent, looking just like Clark remembered him. "Chores, Clark. Hard work keeps a man honest. You've got to protect the things you've built." Jonathan smiled before he stuck the hammer in a post.
"Are you real? Or is this all in my head?" Clark asked as he stepped closer. Tears began to well up in the corner of Clark's eyes but he didn't care. "I missed you."
"I never stopped watching out for you, Clark."
Clark swallowed the lump his throat and turned his gaze down. "Then you must be disappointed. I haven't grown into the man you raised me to be."
"No, you haven't." Jonathan grasped Clark by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "You are so much more than that and I'm so proud of you, Clark."
"You shouldn't be." Clark said as Jonathan walked back to the fence.
"Give me a hand." Jonathan told him as Clark removed a piece of the fence, whether it was real or not, it didn't matter.
"I let my anger get the better of me. I nearly hurt my team. I destroyed part of the prison camp in a rage, and I was ready to kill those two doctors like an executioner, even hurt my team if they tried to stop me. Just because I was angry. I knew what I was getting into when I joined the army but this…I now know I have it in me to do worse. I failed!" Clark told his father.
"We're all confronted with trials, son, but the true measure of a man is how he chooses to react in the face of those trials."
"But you never had that problem." Clark said and Jonathan sighed.
"Come on, son. I was so far away from perfect. I could never keep my own anger in check. It got to the point where it made my heart give out. We can't make excuses for the dark stains on our hearts, son."
"I don't even know how I got to this place." Clark said and Jonathan held him by the shoulders.
"We all make sacrifices, son and every time we do, we lose a little something in the process." Jonathan told him but Clark stepped away to get some air. "You've sacrificed more than anybody. What you've seen, what you've done. It'll be easy to let resentment build inside but it's got to get somewhere."
"I feel like every time I do something right, I do something wrong!" Clark shouted in frustration. "I hid away on the farm for years when I could have done more. I could have stopped the war sooner, couldn't I? All these people that died because I couldn't get here in time. What the Germans did to them? I failed." Clark's voice broke as he felt the weight of everything rest on his shoulders. "Sometimes I think things would be easier if you were still here."
Jonathan sighed as he saw how much Clark was dealing with. "Not a day goes by Clark when I don't regret not being able to be right here for you. I would do anything, I would give anything to be able to get a second chance to do it right. You still have the chance to do that. Ever since you've started wearing that S on your chest you've become a symbol of Hope, a true symbol for everyone and you will inspire so many more to follow in your footsteps. You can become the greatest hero the world has ever known. All of that is up to you, though. You'll stumble and you'll make mistakes…but I know you can do this." Jonathan kissed Clark on the head and held him close. "Your friends from the future were right about one thing, Clark. This is only the beginning of your journey and it's not going to be easy. You will be tested again and again…but I have faith in you. Just remember one thing. Lean on those close to you. They will help you as much as you help them."
Jonathan gave Clark a smile before he got back to work. Clark looked out to the horizon and the sun that was shining above him. He looked back to his dad but saw he was gone as was the fence. Clark was back in the camp and standing near the destroyed rubble. His whole conversation with his dad was just in his head but it felt so real. Maybe in a way it was but in a way that mattered it gave Clark the metaphorical talk he needed.
"Kal…" Logan walked over to Clark standing alone near the rubble. "We've got just about everyone loaded up. We're ready to leave."
Clark nodded and looked at the place once more. "Logan…thank you for stopping me…but can I ask why?"
Logan shrugged his shoulders before he took out his cigar. "God knows none of us would have argued that those doctors deserve to die. Hell, everyone who worked in this camp deserves it. Padma, Lucas, and I sure felt the same at Dachau with Dr. Vought and we were fine with that. But you, Kal…it's not you. Sure, you fight with us and you do what you need to do but you've never taken it for granted. Hell, even now you could have killed every single soldier we've come across but you knock them out to be taken into custody giving the MPs a headache to deal with and only kill when needed. Guess your Midwest boy scout charm still rings true and it's rubbed off on all of us. That's what makes us want to continue following you because you make us want to be better despite everything we've seen so far." Logan lit his cigar and took a puff. "You're a good soldier, Kal but a better man. Guess I didn't want to see that change."
Hearing all of that restored some of Clark's faith in himself. From Logan of all people who wasn't exactly touchy-feely but if he didn't want to lose their shining example of hope than it must really mean something. Clark walked over and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Thank you, Logan."
"Don't get mushy on me, boy scout. We all know it's true. You just had a bad day. We all have them." Logan told him before walking away.
Clark smiled before he looked up into the sky. "Thanks, dad…"
Clark joined up with his team near the train as the last of the freed prisoners got into the train cars. They'd take the train down all the way south to Allied territory along with a literal army of trucks and vehicles that were finishing loading up. Clark walked over to the last truck filling up. When he walked over he saw some fear which was natural considering what just happened but he saw the mother and son he saved before and they smiled at him. Clark lifted the mother up into the truck before doing the same with her son.
"What's your name, son?" Clark asked.
"Erik Lehnsherr. Thank you for saving us."
"My pleasure, Erik." Clark ruffled his hair as the young boy held his mother close. Seeing everyone was secured Clark got onto the train. "All right, let's go!"
It was time to leave Auschwitz behind and get everyone to safety.
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