If you were thinking, gee after all that build up Doppelganger ended a bit abruptly; well yes you're right. Was there a reason? Yes there was.
Even though Regression (R), Doppelganger (D) and Justice (J) all combined make one really one long story, between the end of R and the beginning of D a month had passed. That is, in the story timeline it was a month later when D opened and a further two weeks before Clark's life was affected once again. However, as you know by the way D ended, Clark is on a mission to get his life back properly. So between the end of D and the beginning of J, there is NO break at all.
D had come to the end of its road so to divorce it from J, I had to terminate D suddenly and without fanfare, so that J could take over and continue the final chapter in this series. J is really just an extension of D but a separation was needed for the storyline to work (hopefully you'll understand once you start reading).
If you haven't read Regression and Doppelganger, I strongly advise you to do so, as Justice hits the ground running with no apology. There is no build up, no time to stop and smell the flowers and no back story; it literally takes up where D ends.
Linda
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Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
A time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
A time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
A time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
New International Bible
oOo
Summary: There comes a time when the truth will out, when restitution must be made; there comes a time for Justice.
Chapter 1
Clark knew that he should sleep, come tomorrow he was going to be busy searching for the book, finding a way to merge his two selves back together correctly then looking for a way to take any power Lana still had away, but he didn't want to close his eyes. He just wanted to continue savouring the feeling of holding Lois close in his arms, while he was awake and aware.
The problem was that no matter how close he held her, it didn't feel close enough. Being taken from Lois had scared him, knowing that Lana had the book, so also the power to do it again frightened him; but it was the unknown that terrified him. According to J'onn, Lana had decided to wait for him to realise that he didn't love Lois, and in turn re-discover his love for her, but when he didn't, or if she changed her mind before he could stop her….that was the unknown.
Gathering Lois closer against his chest, he brushed his hands lazily up and down her spine which helped to soothe his anxieties somewhat. Nuzzling his nose into the crook between her neck and shoulder, and smelling the scent that was hers alone calmed him even further. He pressed lips softly against her jaw before lifting his hand to stroke his fingers over her cheek, but ended by pressing it against his mouth when a mammoth yawn overtook him.
When his eyes grew heavy and scratchy he rubbed them hoping to force himself to stay awake, but was finding it hard to do. The events of the past few days, culminating in the agony of being merged back together were all taking its toll. His eyes closed, he forced them open, they slid closed again, he shook his head lightly compelling them open once more, until finally the lids dropped down pulling him deep into slumber.
He'd no sooner fallen asleep than Lois was shaking him awake. Why did the night time hours go by so fast? He groaned and rolled over taking her with him, cuddled her against his chest gently and hoped that would be enough to still her movements. However, when she continued to jiggle his shoulder, he decided that waking up might not be so bad after all. His mouth curved, lashes fluttered up, eyes focused and the smile automatically dropped from his lips.
He rubbed his eyes but the view didn't change. All he could see was ice, ice all around him; he was back in the fortress.
"Are you alright?" He heard the voice but was scared to look "Smallville; are you ok?" He turned his head, saw his twin kneeling beside him, and closed his eyes.
After taking several deep breaths, his lashes fluttered open, and again all he could see was spears of ice up above. Reaching out with his hand, he hesitated for a moment before touching his twin's knee. At the solidness under his fingertips he knew this wasn't a nightmare, or hallucination; it was real "Clark?"
"Yeah"
"What am I doing here?"
"What'd you mean?"
"I mean, how did I get here?"
Clark raked a hand through his hair and sighed "Don't you remember? Lana was going to reverse the spell. I mean she must have done something because I've never felt so much pain in my entire life but..."
Becoming impatient with the soliloquy he cut in "I know that Clark, but after I woke up last night I went home to Lois and..."
Clark shook his head slowly "Smallville you haven't been anywhere."
"Yes I have." He retorted tightly "I went home to Lois and..."
"You haven't been anywhere." Clark repeated cutting him off quietly but firmly.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I woke up about 20 minutes ago, found you lying beside me and I've been trying to wake you up since then." He replied gently.
"That's impossible!" Smallville felt his heart tilt, and knew that his twin was speaking the truth, but didn't want to accept. He sat up, and looked his double dead in the eye "When I woke up I had memories of both our lives in my head Clark. I remembered how it felt to be you; being married to Lana, feeling happy at first then later trapped and miserable with no way out. Hating the dreams when they first started; then needing them just to get through another day. Meeting Lois again, knowing that I should have waited for her, and feeling the despair that I could never be with her. I remembered it all and I felt it all."
Once again Clark shook his head slowly "You've been dreaming. I don't know how long we've been here, but either yesterday or earlier today Lois walked away after discovering the truth. Lana did something that affected us both, and while you were unconscious, you dreamt that although everything wasn't alright, you were with Lois once again." He paused and continued regretfully "You said that you had memories of both our lives in your head. Well you do have yours, and in a way you also have mine." When his twin flinched, he smiled sadly "You've read my journals and you know that nothing I've felt or thought was hidden; not in them. They were the only place before you arrived where I felt free to speak out the truth about my life, and what was in my heart."
Smallville felt his mouth become dry; his heart batter against his rib cage "You're saying that I never went home to Lois."
"Neither of us has gone anywhere." Clark confirmed once again.
"But...but it was so real." He whispered wretchedly.
"I'm sorry." Clark replied squeezing his twin's shoulder "I really am sorry. If your dream was as solid and tangible as the one's I've had, then I know that finding out it wasn't true hurts like hell, because the real nightmare is waking up and having to live without her."
Smallville pressed his lips together hard to control the quivering of his chin, before dropping his head in his hands "I had a fight with Lois."
Clark frowned lightly and shook his head "You couldn't have had a fight with Lois because you haven't seen her; if you were fighting then it was with yourself."
He dropped his hands, looked at his twin and confessed softly "I was angry with her for turning me away and going back to Oliver. She made me face that I was angry, felt betrayed and...it was all me." He closed his eyes before opening them to fasten on his twin's once again "I didn't want to acknowledge it. I told you, mom and even myself that I didn't blame Lo for not remembering our life, for turning away and although that was true, I still felt betrayed by it."
Clark nodded gently "Take it from someone who knows, when you're awake you can pretend anything you like, but when you're asleep and you're minds at peace, the truth will out."
He let out a deep breath and bobbed his head minutely "I knew that logically it was another life for her, but in my heart all I could focus on was that Lois and I had been together only three days before. I was so angry and hurt because I expected her to remember our life, remember that she loved me and when she didn't, I felt completely gutted. While I was dreaming she made me face it. She said that if I didn't, if I kept pretending that I was ok about it, that one day I'd drive her away with suspicion."
"Lois didn't make you face that Smallville, your inner voice; your heart, did. If everything had been reversed correctly, you wouldn't have remembered my timeline or Lo turning you down, but your heart was still carrying the scars from when she left earlier. I think if you didn't acknowledge how you really felt, when everything was ok one day you would have driven her away. You would have questioned her and been suspicious without even understanding why you were doing it, and that's why you made yourself face it." Clark paused and asked low voiced "How do you feel now that you know it was only a dream?"
He smiled fleetingly "I feel good about it. Dream or not I have faced it, and I know that Lois and Oliver never betrayed me."
Clark tilted his head slightly in accord "No, they didn't."
"Did you ever feel like they had?"
"No."
Smallville nodded in acknowledgement "I must have known you felt that way, because I told Lois that you were more practical minded than me about our situation." He pressed his lips together and lifted them in a small smile of pathos "Thinking about it now, most of the time I talked to her about you in the third person, but referred to myself in the first."
Clark smiled lopsided "That makes sense, it would have been easy to put yourself in my place since you read my journals and we've talked, but you're not me; not really. So in the dream you were the dominating personality, while I was the extra; do you know what I mean?"
"Yeah I do." He sighed and confessed softly "She said that she loved me; both Clark and Smallville."
"We call you Smallville, but your name is really Clark Kent. Lois hasn't called me Smallville in years, not in real life and never in the dreams." Clark paused and when his twin nodded in accord, he continued "However, right now both of those names are important to you; otherwise she wouldn't have used Smallville at all." He replied kindly.
He bobbed his head and scrubbed his hand over his eyes "God, it was so real Clark."
"I know." He smiled dolefully "If there's anyone who understands how real a dream can feel, and how much of a jolt it is to find out it's not upon awakening, it's me.
"I've read your journals but I didn't understand before, not really; now I do." He sighed heavily and scrubbed his hands over his face "Even knowing that I was dreaming it still feels like it happened, like I really was with Lo again. How long will it take before my heart accepts that I wasn't?"
Clark shrugged helpless "I'll let you know when I find that out myself."
He swallowed hard and looked around the room "Do you know how long we were unconscious?"
"No, my watch says it's just after 9 o'clock but..." Clark shrugged helplessly.
He frowned lightly "I don't remember blanking out; unlike the last time I didn't feel the burning reaching my heart, I just remember trying to stay conscious."
Clark nodded "Me too, I looked up at one point and saw that you were out, but I don't remember going down either."
He flushed slightly "So you held out longer than me huh; gees how embarrassing."
Clark gave a small smile and shook his head "Yeah I held out longer, but don't forget when we were split I wasn't affected, whereas you were. So only three days before your body had already been put through the ringer, but mine hadn't."
"Are you trying to make me feel better?"
"Kind off, but it's also true."
"Thanks." Smallville sighed deeply and looked at his twin in disappointment "I was going to steal the book from Lana, merge us back together properly, and then take away any power she had before destroying the bloody thing once and for all."
Clark turned around, picked up the object and held it out to his twin "We have the book."
"How?"
"I don't know how but we still have it."
Smallville looked around the room before looking back at his twin "But your apartments not here anymore which means..."
"Which means that Lana's done something, that has once again changed everything; but we don't know what?" Clark summed up neatly.
He swore quietly under his breath and sighed heavily "She changed her mind."
"She must have done." Clark replied fatalistically "She obviously intended to reverse the spell but changed her mind at some point. What I don't understand is how she could have done anything. J'onn and I watched her all day, so we know that she never left the house. She didn't have the book or any powers; so where did Lana get the knowledge to do anything?" He asked rhetorically before pushing to his feet and stalking around the room.
Smallville likewise stood and paced around the room thinking out loud "J'onn said that she was going to reverse the spell, and she couldn't have tricked him because she didn't know that he was reading her mind, right?" Clark stopped, blew out a deep breath and nodded "Ok, well he also said that Lana had forgotten the magic, so there's no way she could have done a spell, yet obviously she's done something." He sighed heavily shook his head "So if she didn't know any magic; then how?"
Clark shrugged and rubbed his brow "I don't know how, but she has because we were affected."
"Yeah but how?" Smallville raked his fingers through his hair, tugged hard and began pacing once again "How the hell did she kno...oh SHIT! Shit, shit, shit!" He spun around and looked at his twin "We fucked up Clark, Lana does know magic."
"No she doesn't J'onn said..."
Smallville cut him off impatiently "J'onn said that she doesn't remember any magic, the only thing she knew was how to transfer the memories to herself and..."
"You think when he was reading her, it triggered something and she remembered?" Clark interrupted doubtfully.
"No worse." When his twin's brow furrowed deeper, he exhaled heavily "J'onn told us that Lana knew the spell that split us Clark; she knew it verbatim." He finished by swearing colourfully.
"Yeah so..." Clark paled once his twin's words registered "Oh fuck! She knew that spell word for word, and inside out; she knew how to make it work and how to reverse it. So sometime after J'onn returned to the farm, she changed her mind about reversing the spell, and just went back to the past again right?"
"Exactly! J'onn was going to check up on her at 8.30 if nothing happened before that time, but it was well before then that we started to be affected. So clearly at some point she changed her mind, and while we were in agony thinking that it was ok because at least we'd have our lives back, she was actually using the spell again." Smallville finished angrily, and slapped his hands hard against his thighs.
"And because she knew that spell backwards and forwards, the book was superfluous to her needs." Clark concluded bitterly.
"Yeah." Smallville nodded shortly "Dianna said to do the spell you needed the ingredients, but for the reversal you didn't; and since Lana never left the house, she must have had some stuff on hand."
Clark rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and sighed deeply "Why the hell would she keep anything on hand, when she didn't know any magic? J'onn said reversing the spell had never even entered her head until you turned up, so why would she keep stuff if she was never going to use it?"
"I keep a photo of Lois in my wallet, even when we were living together and I saw her every day, that photo was and is important to me. You created a whole apartment from the one in your dreams, and it gave you a sense of familiarity and comfort. Likewise the magic had been important to Lana. Maybe because it gave her the power to get you back, or change her life to suit what she wanted, but even though she didn't remember how to utilise it, it had been important to her. Having the stuff available might have given her a sense of control or succour, especially after your affections for her changed." Smallville shrugged unhappily "But getting back to the point, since we were affected and the apartments gone, more than likely everything's changed once again and there's going to a third Clark now."
Clark leant against the wall and nodded "J'onn told us Lana knew that spell by heart, but we were so busy focusing on her reversing it, that we never stopped to think about her using it again."
"No we didn't..." Smallville shook his head softly "...we seriously miscalculated. She really did intend to reverse it, there's no way J'onn was wrong about that, but something made her decide to use it again instead."
Clark sighed and grew quiet for a minute before swearing softly under his breath "It was me, it was probably my fault." At his twin's raised brows, he elucidated "When I confronted Lana I told her too much. I told her we had the book, that we knew she didn't know any magic, that I was going to be with Lois, and finally that the only thing she had left was the knowledge to reverse the spell." He breathed out deeply "You and Chloe warned me not to tell her everything and although I didn't, I obviously said more than enough to push her into doing it again."
Smallville shook his head firmly "No, it was the day after you confronted her that she decided to reverse the spell and give us our lives back. It would only be normal for her to dwell on what you said, so your words might have egged her on a little, but it wouldn't have been the whole reason. If there's a third Clark and I'm betting there is, more than likely it's because Lana figured that she had nothing to lose by trying again."
Clark frowned lightly "But J'onn said that she didn't want to use magic on us, and he also said that she was going to wait for us to discover that we didn't love Lois."
"Yeah, but for all we know she could have decided that if she went back again, but this time advised her younger self to tell younger Clark the truth from the very beginning, then he couldn't accuse her of tricking him later. She knows how we feel about deception, even more so now, so she probably thought by being upfront with everything, that he'd stay devoted to his sweet honest wife." Smallville replied swiftly.
"Of course; I mean honesty being the best policy and all." Clark retorted sarcastically "And as I told you before, if Lana had told me the truth 8 years ago, I wouldn't have believed that I'd ever love anyone else, so I would have married her to prevent us from being parted."
"After you left the house mom asked me if we had dreamt of our life with Lois years ago, would we have married Lana anyway, and I told her yes." When Clark's mouth opened in protest, Smallville continued undaunted "I said that even though I've lived it, and you've dreamt it, when we were younger Lana was the only thing that mattered. We would have been...upset knowing that she wasn't part of our future, so we would have done anything to ensure that she was; regardless of any dreams that we'd had." He finished quietly.
Clark stared at his twin for a long moment before nodding grudgingly "Yes we would, and it burns like hell to admit it." He sighed heavily and posed the next "Ok, so getting back to the point; for Lana it's not technically using magic on us, if she goes to the past and tells young Lana everything, then further advises her to tell young Clark everything, before suggesting they should elope to safeguard their future, and to further ensure that Lois won't come between them." He rubbed his brow wearily "We both know that he'd do it, and then Lana has a clear conscience about not using magic to get us back; even though it takes magic for her to go to the past, to get what she wants."
"Precisely; so we'll go to the farm and meet Clark, he's going to tell us that he's been miserable and blah blah but because Lana didn't lie to him, he can't leave her even though he loves Lois." Smallville smiled humourlessly.
Clark wiped a hand over his face and shook his head "There's no apartment here, so he might not love Lois."
"Do you believe that?"
"No, if he came from you, me or a combination of us then he's going to be in love with Lois as well."
"Yes, mind you I think that Clark Kent in any universe is meant to be with Lois Lane, so he'd love her whether he came from us or not, but for now we'll worry about our own world." Smallville smiled tightly.
Clark nodded then offered a suggestion "We don't have to go and meet the new Clark; we have the book so we can just reverse the spell to take us back to my timeline."
"Yeah but the only problem is that we thought you were feeling the effects earlier due to us being merged back together. However, since we now know that didn't happen, we still don't know if you're going to be affected or not when it does. As you now know the separation hurts like hell, so if the assimilation does too then he's going to be affected, and we can't let him be caught unaware like that." Smallville finished with a small shudder.
Clark grimaced and shook his head in accord "God no, that was agony and although there was no way I could have been prepared for it, it would have been a whole lot worse if I didn't know why it was happening."
"Yeah..." Smallville blew out a deep breath and shook his head in frustration "...We also have another problem. Mom and Chloe aren't going to remember your timeline, anymore than they remembered mine; so we're back to square one again."
"Not quite, the first time you never found out what caused young Lois to be in the future with all of you. In my timeline no one knew there was a problem at all until you showed up and talked to Jor-el. However, this time we're not going in blind; we know up front that Lana's behind it all, so that puts us one up." Clark reminded his twin.
"Yeah, and the only other positive in this damn mess is that even though we never destroyed the book, at least Lana never got it back either. So I'll consider it a plus that whatever she did, it wasn't enough to return the book to her." He replied soberly and at his twins nod, he shuddered once again "I hope like hell Lois isn't married in this timeline Clark. I know that you're not me but in a way you are, so I know that I shouldn't be a hypocrite about it because you're married to Lana, but the thought of Lo being married, having children with anyone but me..."
Clark swallowed hard "You're worried that Lana married the new Clark, and then somehow got Oliver to return to Smallville before Lois left to travel, and played cupid to get them back together, thereby ensuring Lo was forever out of Clark's reach correct?" At his twin's nod, he nodded in reply "We both know that Lana never thought of anyone's problems but her own, but she would consider Lois her problem, so yes; that had occurred to me as well. But until we go and find out if that is what's happened, don't entertain the possibility, ok?"
Smallville sucked in a deep breath "Ok; so let's go."
"Jor-el's program wasn't altered the last time, so the same should be true now. Maybe he could tell us what's going on."
"He'll tell us the same thing he told me last time. That our lives are wrong, someone's mucked about with the past, there are now three of us, and we all have to work together to fix it before everything right's itself." Smallville summed up neatly.
"True." Clark nodded in agreement.
"Like before we're going to have to split up and fly really fast so that no one sees us. We can't assume that Superman doesn't exist, but until we know otherwise let's play it safe, ok?" Smallville suggested.
"Ok, so I'll meet you at the farm shortly." The two men floated up, flew to the rim of the fortress and after exchanging salutes, took off in opposite directions.
oOo
Although he was moving faster than the eye could see, that didn't prevent his vision from being affected. Looking around the first thing Smallville noticed was that it wasn't night, which meant they'd been unconscious for a lot longer than they'd previously assumed. That wasn't surprising really, the first time around it had hurt like hell when he'd been split, but this time it had been so much worse. He didn't know why, but it had been. Shaking off thoughts that at present were irrelevant, he flew over the farm and landed beside the barn. Less than a minute later, he saw Clark swooping in from the opposite side, sent him a wave and was joined by his twin.
"It's not night time."
"I noticed, but whether that's important or not..." Clark trailed off and shrugged "Also there was no barrier on my side, how about on yours?"
Smallville shook his head "No, but since we were clearly unconscious longer than I was when I arrived in your timeline, the wall would have had plenty of time to fall before we even woke up."
"Yeah; I was hoping no invisible wall meant nothing had happened, but I knew that was wishful thinking." He looked around, zeroed in on the house, saw his mom was in the kitchen and smiled "For now let's go and see mom."
Smallville smiled for the first time "She's gonna be surprised seeing both of us, but..." Breaking off, he likewise looked around before turning back to his twin "I don't see him, do you?"
Clark swept his gaze over the farm, through the house and barn, over the fields but ended by shaking his head as well "No, he could be in town or still at home with Lana."
Smallville took a quick look at his watch and calculated "It's just after 10, and that has to be am considering its daytime. So if he works the farm like you did, then he'd have to be here somewhere or he's in town getting supplies. He wouldn't be at home with Lana at this time of the morning."
"He especially wouldn't be at home with Lana this late in the morning if he's unhappy, and just wants to get away from her." Clark put in dryly "Look, let's just go and talk to mom, tell her we're here and give her enough information so that she's not scared. When the other Clark arrives we can fill them both in to save having to repeat ourselves."
Smallville nodded "Alright, but one of us has to go and give mom a heads up that there's two of us first, and then the other can follow a minute later ok?"
"Ok, I'll go in first." Clark offered, Smallville bobbed his head agreeably, and the two men walked to the house and up the stairs.
Leaning his shoulder beside the doorframe, Smallville waved his twin forward; Clark pulled the door open and stepped inside.
