Soul of the Justice League

Chapter Eighteen

Athena's POV

"Athena, darling! Where are you? It's time! Athena! You said noon and here I am! Athena!"

"I can hear you!" I said as Kara, Alex and I stepped out.

"Where's the dress? The flowers? The pigs in blankets?"

"Ah...See, that's the thing, Mxy. I'm not going to marry you," I told him as Kara handed me a glass of Orange Juice to drink.

"What do you mean?"

"We brought you to the Fortress in case you got violent again. Cause I didn't want anyone to get hurt when I broke the news. It's not going to work between us. Ever."

"But you said...You don't love me?"

"Love isn't making demands of someone, or forcing them to marry you. Love is putting someone else's needs above your own," I told him.

"So you brought me all the way up here just to reject me? I think you're going to have to explain your catastrophic lack of judgment to your family. What's that, Jor-El? If you have to hold Kara and Alex down till Athena sees reason and becomes my bride, you will? I offered you the world, Athena. Anything you wanted. And you reject it all? I could have made you a god, like me."

"I don't want to be a god, Mxy. I just want you off of Earth!" I told him as Kara started fighting with the ice sculpture version of her uncle.

"You don't get to tell me what to do until after we're married!"

"Sorry, Uncle Jor-El!" I heard her say as she smashed through him.

"You think this is the worst it can get? One snap and I'll crack your world in half. Then where will you go, Athena? I will hound you across the stars, Athena, until you admit that you love me."

"I'm done with this, Mxyzptlk. And I'm done with you. You wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts."

"Now sealing the Fortress of Solitude," a female voice said as Kara punched some buttons.

"What are you doing?"

"Setting the Atomic Cauldron to self-destruct," she said.

"The Atomic whatnow?"

"The Fortress has one of the most powerful fusion furnaces on Earth. I'm overloading the Sunstones at its core."

"Okay, well, Athena. Let's not be too hasty, huh? Maybe we should..."

"Atomic Cauldron fusion increased 2,000%."

"When the Cauldron goes up, it'll explode with the force of a 400-megaton bomb. The Fortress is sealed so should contain the blast, but anyone inside it will..." I looked over at Alex and Kara glad that nothing would actually happen since I would never have been willing to do anything that actually risked their lives.

"This sounds bad."

"You can't stop me from killing myself!  It's in the rules!" I told him.

"Okay. There's only room for one crazy person in this relationship. Maybe we should just, um, control-alt-delete this, and we can talk it over with a cup of Thoni tea."

"Being with you would mean being at odds every day with my heart, Mxyzptlk. I'd rather die in here than be with you."

"Atomic Cauldron detonation countdown initiated."

"Well, here's the thing. I'm calling your bluff. I don't believe that you'd destroy all of this."

"Atomic Cauldron detonation in one minute."