New Year's Eve, Fortress of Solitude

The doors to the Fortress of Solitude stood wide open.  It was New Year's Eve, and Superman knew this was an ancient tradition. 

Though what did tradition matter now, when all the world lay buried under ash, and only he survived?

There were other worlds, other planets, other intelligent life forms.  But for Superman, this world was home, and he had failed it in its hour of need.  It was his self-imposed punishment to stay here, and watch over the evidence of his failure.

Wind howled around the crystal battlements of the Fortress.  The crystals hummed, and sighed.  Sometimes Superman thought he could hear voices on the wind, and singing in the crystals.  Sometimes he could hear words in the voices.  Sometimes he wondered if the voices were real, and not the wild imaginings of a hermit who had not heard another voice for decades. 

Sometimes he talked back.

The arctic wind howled through the Fortress. It seemed to say, 'Let me in.'

'The doors are open,' said Superman.  'Come in if you want.  I'm not stopping you.'

'Let me in let me in let me in.'

It was winter and cold, but Superman never felt the cold outside, only the cold within, and that cold never left him, even at the height of the short arctic summer.  It was dark for almost the entire twenty-four hours of the day, this time of year.  But Superman barely noticed the difference.  His soul was dark, to its very depths, always.

'Let me in let me in let me in.'

The clocks were about to strike midnight.  Superman remembered so many New Year's Eves.  Champagne and kisses and laughter. Tears and anger and regrets.  Smiling faces and voices wishing him a Happy New Year. 

The clock struck midnight.  It was the New Year.

'Happy New Year,' said Superman.  But no one answered.  Superman couldn't remember the last time someone had answered.

'Happy New Year!' he called.

Sometimes, out in the wild, silent dark of the long arctic night, Superman could almost hear an echo of his own voice, as though his voice looped around the Arctic Circle and made its way back to him.

Superman went out into the midnight, through the open doors of the Fortress of Solitude.

'Happy New Year!' he called, and waited for the echo.

A long-drawn howl answered him. It didn't sound like the wind. 

'Happy New Year?' called Superman. He listened for the response.

What he heard was the soft padding of feet upon the snow.  Just there, off to his left.  He looked and saw something white moving against a field of white. A wolf!

But wolves didn't live this far north.  Not normal wolves.  And Superman knew he was the only creature left alive on Earth.

'Who are you?' he called.

The wolf stopped, stood still in the snow, regarded Superman through bright blue eyes.

'Who are you?' asked Superman, again.  'Are you a Skinwalker?  Did some of you survive, hidden in the caves?'

The wolf snarled.  It launched itself at Superman, all four legs off the ground.  Launched itself like a rocket through the cold night air, its mouth open in a nightmare snarl.  Superman stood waiting, waiting for the wolf to batter itself against his invulnerable body.

The wolf crashed into him, knocked him to the ground.  Stood over his prone body, and tore into his throat with savage teeth.

Superman cried out with the pain, and the terrible surprise.

The wolf licked his blood, and then jumped back and away, into the pure white snow.  Its jaws left a trail of blood droplets, and it raised its head and howled.

'Who are you?' Superman whispered.  'And what are you?'

The wolf shook its body, as if to free itself of the blood and the snow.  Its skin peeled off, and it stood: a naked man.

'Lex?' said Superman.  'I thought you died with all the others. With all your victims.'

'With all my victims?  Do you think I wanted that war, and all that blood? I tried to fight it, my destiny.  My destiny fought back, and won.'

'It was our destiny,' said Superman. 'My destiny to be Naman, and yours to be Sageeth. The balance of good and evil.'

'Good and evil?  With all the good on your side, and all the evil on mine?  That is not balance.'

'What is it?' asked Superman.

'Look into your heart, and see.' 

Lex raised his head and howled, as the wolf had done.  Blood dripped from his fangs.  His eyes glowed an evil red. 

'That is not you,' said Superman.  'You are not a wild beast.'

'You are not as pure as driven snow,' said Lex. 

The wind howled, shaking the crystal Fortress to its foundations.  Superman struggled to his feet, feeling dizzy from the loss of blood.  He steadied the crystals, labouring under their great weight.  When he turned back to Lex, the man had turned, once again, into a wolf.

The bright blue eyes shone out against the white snow for a moment, and then disappeared. 

The Old Year was dead.

The New Year had begun.