A/N: The first half of this chapter deals with events from the Smallville Season 10 episode "Homecoming", where Clark was accidentally sent to the future (which is the present in this story) and got a taste of what his life will eventually become. The point of including scenes from that episode here is to acknowledge the fact that those events still occurred in this story's version of the Smallville Universe, not to mention the fact that it's one of my personal favorite episodes. The highlights were Brainiac's return as Brainiac 5, Clark meeting his future self, and Erica Durance's amazing performance as then-Future Lois Lane, who was more than ever close to her comic book counterpart in terms of characterization.

Chapter 2

After spending almost two days in his home universe, Conner was ready to head back to Earth-1. Even though neither of them no longer lived there, he and Clark were doing some chores in the barn at the Kent farm.

"Wait, so in a couple of hours, your younger self from 2010 is gonna show up at the Planet?" Conner asked, after Clark told him about his unexpected trip to the future that occurred seven years ago when Brainiac 5 had shown up at his and Lois' high school reunion.

"You're the only person I've told about this," Clark said. "No one else knows. Especially not Lois. When I came to what is now the present seven years ago, I interacted with Lois and she couldn't tell that I was actually me from the past, which is why I decided not to tell her about it all these years to keep things exactly as I remember them. But I will tell her what really happened tonight over dinner."

"That will be an interesting conversation between you two I bet," Conner said, smirking. "So I guess it's sort of a good thing that I decided to go back to the other Earth today. That way, you don't have to worry about me being in your way when Past you show up and possibly changing the timeline."

"You know, the other Earth could definitely use a Kryptonian hero like you to help protect it," Clark said. "In fact, if you want, you're welcome to use the name Superman while you're there. I'd say you've more than earned it by now."

"Nah, I'm totally fine sticking with Superboy," Conner said. "I mean, Superman is your name, Clark, it's not mine. It just wouldn't feel right if I all of a sudden started calling myself that, even if I am on a different Earth than you. Besides, just like with our costumes, it's not our codenames that make us the heroes we are."

"You're right about that," Clark agreed.

"I'll see you around, Clark," Conner said.

After the two Kryptonians hugged each other, Conner activated his extrapolator and leapt through the breach, disappearing from Earth-21. Clark flew out of the barn in a blur, heading back to his and Lois' apartment in Metropolis to get ready for work. He had a long morning ahead of him.

After the bright purple light vanished before his eyes, Clark Kent looked around in bewilderment as he found himself in the basement of the Daily Planet. Just seconds ago, he had been at his five-year high school reunion at Smallville High talking to Brainiac, who was now a good guy thanks to having been reprogrammed by the Legion of Superheroes in the 31st century. Then, he was suddenly transported to the Daily Planet after trying to grab the Legion ring from Brainiac's finger in a panic when Greg Arkin, one of the meteor freaks that Clark had put away back in his Freshmen year, had shown up and approached Lois.

"Whoa, buddy," a mail clerk said, almost running Clark over with his delivery cart as he passed by.

Clark started heading through the basement, unknowingly walking past a rack of newspapers, all of which contained the headline 'SUPERMAN SAVES THE DAY'. Looking around and not watching where he was going, Clark accidentally bumped into someone.

"Hey, watch it!" the person exclaimed.

"Lois," Clark said in surprise. What was she doing here? Last time he checked, she was still at their high school reunion.

Lois, too, was surprised to see Clark. She stared at his clothes, wondering what the hell her husband was doing wearing his old red and yellow Smallville High letterman jacket, a blue T-shirt, and jeans to work of all places.

"How..." Clark was about to ask but Lois interrupted.

"Not again," she said. "Come on." She shoved Clark's shoulder as she led them both into the nearby phone booth, shutting the door behind them.

"Wait, did..." Clark tried again, but was once more interrupted.

"Seriously?" Lois said, taking the letterman jacket off of Clark. "I know we agreed that we would keep our professional lives to ourselves, but what kind of secret story got you to dress-up day? Here, hold this." She handed him her phone and pulled out a pair of reading glasses. "And, honey, I know that you don't like them, but you were the one that decided you wanted to wear them. And, lucky for you, I have a spare." She put the glasses on Clark. "There." As Clark made a face that showed he was uncomfortable with the glasses, Lois then added, "Hey! I know they are not fashion-forward. But if it ain't broke, honey, don't fix it." They stared at each other for a few moments, looking as though they were about to kiss, but decided against it. "Seriously, Clark, I... I thought we agreed on a Daily Planet dress code?" Sighing, Lois turned to leave the phone booth.

"Lois, wait," Clark said. "How did you get here?" As Lois rolled her eyes at him, Clark added, "I need to know about the reunion."

"We need to table this all until later," Lois said. She opened the phone booth door. "We cannot have people thinking things." She and Clark exited the phone booth. Just then, Lois' phone beeped and she answered it. "Perry, what the hell? How many times have I told you that Troupe can find his own sources?"

As Lois walked off, Clark was approached by two reporters, one male and the other female. "I told you it's not him," the female reporter said to her colleague, who obviously thought that Clark was Superman. "It's just the guy from the eighth floor."

Clark watched the two reporters in confusion as they walked away. He headed over to what he assumed was still his desk and sat down, just as he was approached by Jeff Hage, a cub reporter.

"Kent, what are you doing?" Jeff asked.

"This is my desk," Clark said.

"Not for years," Jeff reminded him, "unless somebody's been seriously demoted."

Growing even more confused, Clark stood up. "Years?" Realizing what might be going on, Clark picked up the newspaper sitting on the desk and looked at the date, which, to his surprise, read October 12th 2017.

Behind Jeff, Lois appeared. "Clark? What are you doing?"

"Lois, we need to talk," Clark said, heading over to her. He followed Lois up to the eighth floor and the two of them headed into their office. A smile crept on Clark's face as he noticed the names 'Clark Kent' and 'Lois Lane' printed on the door.

"Gloat all you want, but those names are getting flipped the second the boys from ops do a fly-by," Lois said. They approached their desks, Lois not failing to notice Clark's weird and confused behavior. "Clark. Clark, what is going on with you today? It's like you've never been here before."

"I haven't, Lois," Clark answered. "I'm from another time."

Lois sighed. She didn't have time for this. "No kidding," she said. "Clark, you're from a different planet. That's not exactly a news flash."

Rolling his eyes in shock, Clark moved around his desk and headed over to Lois. Did she know his secret somehow or was that just another one of her sarcastic comments? Unable to believe what he'd just heard come out of Lois' mouth, he asked, "What did you say?"

"I didn't mean to come off so Lois," Lois said. "It's just that, sometimes when you get pensive, I know that it's because you have the whole 'last son of Krypton' thing weighing on your shoulders." Clark's frown deepened at that as Lois continued. "But that's why you've got me, okay? To remind you that, if you were going to crash-land your spaceship anywhere, you couldn't have chosen better people to find you than the Kents. So you need to snap out of it."

Needing a few moments to process everything that Lois had just said, Clark sat down in the chair. It was abundantly clear that this future version of Lois knew his full secret. Not only did she know about his powers, but she also knew about his alien heritage, not that Clark was complaining. He'd always been one hundred percent certain that he could trust Lois Lane. He'd just never managed to find the right moment or the right circumstances to tell her the truth about himself.

"Wait, I know what this is about," Lois said in realization. "I forgot again, didn't I? Our anniversary."

Clark stood up again. "Our anniversary?"

"Oh, don't play dumb, you always hold it over me," Lois reminded him. "The day you told me. The day you finally trusted me, it was... it was romantic. And it was the perfect day and... okay, I always forget about it until the last minute. But I swear, it is not until..." She held up a calendar to Clark. "See? I told you. So, what is it? Wait a minute." She turned Clark around and checked his eyes in an attempt to figure out his out-of-character behavior. "Oh, no, kryptonite again. Blue? Red? Not green. Please tell me it's not the black because that was a disaster.

"Look, I just..." Clark began, suddenly making getting back to 2010 his number one priority at the moment. "I need the Legion ring. Lois, do you know where it is?"

Lois rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Is that a joke, Clark? Touch it once, shame on you. Touch it twice, shame on me. And, actually, I could really use it right now because we have to be on opposite sides of town in ten minutes. And, unlike you, I have to drive. I can't keep the mayor waiting."

With that, Lois walked out of her and Clark's office. Clark followed her as they headed to the elevator.

"Lois, I'm not supposed to be here," Clark tried to clarify.

"I know, we're late," Lois said, not getting what her husband really meant.

"Late? Lois, I need to get back," Clark tried again. "Look, the Legion ring is the only way to do it."

"Back?" Lois said, still not getting it. As Clark nodded, Lois then added, "Okay, listen, why don't you check your trunk of tchotchkes at the farm? Isn't that where you keep all your go-to phantom catchers and fortress disks and stuff? And, if you need me, I'm there. No deadline is more important than you, okay?"

After the elevators doors opened, Lois shoved Clark's shoulder again and lightly patted his backside as she got him into the elevator. "Going up, you're going down," she told him, just as the doors closed.

"She's a handful, isn't she?" Clark heard an extremely familiar voice ask. He turned his head towards the person speaking, only to get hit with yet another surprise as he immediately realized who it was – his future self. Staring his future self up and down, Past Clark was surprised by Present Clark's appearance, which was that of a nerdy, glasses-wearing, uptight, mild-mannered reporter, obviously to conceal his superhero identity from the world.

"You're right on time," Present Clark said.

"You knew I'd be here?" Past Clark asked.

"Time travel, think it through," Present Clark said, having forgotten long ago how naive he'd once been about that particular subject.

"Because you were me when you went through this and I'm..."

"Well done, my man," Present Clark complimented his past self.

"How did I become so uptight and nerdy?" Past Clark asked, still in disbelief about his future self's choice of clothing.

"It's no time to chat about how, where, and why," Present Clark said. "We've been through weirder things. I need you on the roof."

"When did I start taking orders?" Past Clark remarked.

"There's a nuclear reactor about to blow in an abandoned plant on the outside of town," Present Clark explained. "I can't be in two places at once."

"If you knew what was gonna happen, then why didn't you stop it?" Past Clark asked.

"You never would've experienced all this and you never would've become me," Present Clark pointed out.

"Well, that's too bad," Past Clark muttered.

"Roof, now," Present Clark ordered, as he pressed a button in the elevator to open the doors. He then whooshed off, leaving his past self watching him in amazement.

"That's what I become," Past Clark said, just as the sound of a loud explosion erupted outside, prompting the employees in the Daily Planet to rush towards the windows to see what was going on.

Past Clark stared out the window as well and saw a red and blue blur, which he instantly knew was his future self, flying towards the exploded nuclear reactor. Everyone watched as Superman rapidly spun around the explosion, successfully containing and extinguishing the nuclear flames before they got a chance to spread.

"Mayday, mayday," Past Clark suddenly heard Lois' voice coming from a nearby radio. "We've lost control. We're going down. Mayday, mayday."

Outside, the helicopter that Lois and the pilot were in was hanging front-first off the edge of the helipad. As the helicopter then began to fall, Past Clark appeared just in time and caught the back of it. He carefully brought the helicopter back up to the helipad. Lois smiled as she spotted Clark in the rear view mirror, noticing he was still dressed in a blue T-shirt and jeans instead of his Superman suit. Before the pilot could also get a look at the out-of-costume Clark in the mirror, Lois swiftly elbowed the pilot in the face, knocking him out cold.

Once Clark got the helicopter fully back onto the helipad, he went to the door on Lois' side to see if she was all right.

"What are you doing?" Lois exclaimed, looking at him with a 'why aren't you in your costume' expression.

Clark opened the door and helped Lois out of the helicopter as she took his hand. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but there is a pilot with a raging migraine when he wakes up who wishes you could've at least thrown on the cape," Lois said.

They turned to face each other. "Lois, you protected my secret," Clark said, appreciatively.

In response, Lois pulled Clark into a passionate kiss, which he immediately returned. "What else was I gonna do?" Lois said, affectionately. "I would do anything for you. Hardly a news flash. Thank you." She and Clark then shared another passionate kiss. "Oh, you drive me crazy," she added.

"I guess I should get going," Clark said.

"Oh, right, obviously," Lois said. "Busy day for a superhero. Don't be late. Dinner reservations at seven."

With that, she started heading back into the Daily Planet building, leaving Clark smiling as he watched her go.

As Clark felt a hand touch his shoulder, he turned around to see Brainiac 5 standing right there. "Not every man is destined to find a woman like Lois," Brainiac commented.

"She's definitely one of a kind," Clark said. "I know why you sent me here now."

"I had intended to be here with you," Brainiac said. "But you interfered with the ring."

"You wanted me to see how things would be with Lois and flying," Clark said in realization.

"I wanted you to see that your darkness lies not only in dwelling upon the past, but in fearing the future," Brainiac explained.

"I've always hoped my life would be like this," Clark said. "With Lois. Well, with all of it. Lately, I've stopped believing that it could actually happen."

"Well, that's up to you, isn't it?" Brainiac pointed out. "You don't need to worry about the future, Kal-El. You can see that it's just fine as long as you shed the weight of the past. It's just... the next time you decide to defy me, don't strand me back in the dark ages."

With that, Clark and Brainiac vanished in a bright yellow light as they headed back to the year 2010, completely unaware that Present Clark, still clad in his Superman suit, had been observing them from a good distance away and listening to their conversation with a wide grin. Well, that was finally out of the way. Everything had gone exactly as he'd remembered it. Mission accomplished.

"I won't be late for dinner, Lois," Clark muttered. "And I promise you, this morning and my weird behavior will suddenly make perfect sense after I've told you everything."

Immediately after saying those words, the Man of Steel took off across the sky in a red and blue blur.

"Well, that definitely fills in all the blanks about your weird and bizarre behavior at the Planet this morning," Lois said, after Clark had told her about his past self's appearance in the future… or, the present rather. The two of them were sitting across from each other at a table inside an Italian restaurant. "And this all started seven years ago when Brainiac 5 came to you at our high school reunion?"

"I couldn't let you in on what I experienced that day, Lois," Clark said. "Not until after my younger self showed up here and then went back to his own time."

"That part I totally get, honey," Lois assured him. "You didn't tell me because you needed to make sure things stayed the same as they did the first time around."

"Right," Clark nodded.

"Anyway, now that it's over and out of the way, enough about that and let's just focus entirely on our wonderful evening together," Lois suggested. "No more Superman-related stuff. You're just plain old Clark Kent for the time being."

"Good idea, Mrs. Lane-Kent," Clark agreed, moments before a waiter approached their table and asked them what they wanted to order.

Earth-1

After returning to this Earth and heading back to S.T.A.R. Labs, Conner learned that Barry was finally out of the Speed Force and Caitlin Snow, who was apparently no longer Killer Frost, had decided to rejoin Team Flash. Barry thanked Conner for helping what was left of Team Flash protect Central City during the five months he was away.

In Conner's absence, a robotic samurai had shown up in Central City and started wreaking havoc, threatening to destroy the city unless The Flash showed up within twenty-four hours. This prompted Cisco to work harder to get Barry out of the Speed Force, but without destabilizing it and causing another storm. Using the Speed Force bazooka, Cisco and the rest of Team Flash (minus Iris, who, at the time, had been firmly against the idea of trying to bring Barry back since she didn't want to risk another storm devastating Central City for what could be nothing) sent a quark sphere based off of Barry's DNA into the Speed Force, as the sphere would trick the Speed Force into thinking he was still there allowing Barry to escape without problems.

While Barry's return had proven to be a success, it turned out that being trapped in the Speed Force for so long had taken a severe toll on Barry's mental health, resulting in him rambling seemingly random words and sentences. With Barry not in his right mind and the samuroid's twenty-four hours running out, Wally had donned Barry's suit in an attempt to deceive the samuroid and confronted it. Unfortunately, the samuroid, who quickly picked up on the fact that Wally wasn't the actual Flash due to him not being as efficient in battle as Barry, overpowered him and sliced through the fibula in his right leg, leaving Wally out of commission for several hours. After the twenty-four hours had expired, the samuroid showed up once more, but it was confronted by a CCPD task force led by Joe. Iris had then approached the samuroid and allowed it to kidnap her under the belief that this act would snap Barry out of his dementia-like state and make him come for her. Iris' plan worked when a panicking Joe rushed back to S.T.A.R. Labs and told Barry, who was locked in the pipeline, that Iris was going to die if he didn't save her, prompting Barry's mind to instantly return to normal. Wasting no time, Barry burst out of the pipeline cell, donned the new Flash suit that Cisco had made for him while he was still trapped in the Speed Force, and super-sped off. Running faster than he'd ever gone before, he quickly caught up to the samuroid in the outskirts of Central City as it flew with Iris in its possession. With quite a bit of ease, Barry managed to both destroy the samuroid and save Iris' life.

Despite Barry being back, Conner decided to remain a member of Team Flash and went on to help take down the latest meta-human Ramsey Deacon, also known as Kilgore, who had the ability to control any form of technology. However, the day after Kilgore was captured and imprisoned, Conner received a phone call from Sara Lance informing him about Mick Rory's encounter with an anachronism in the form of a time-displaced Julius Caesar, who had wounded up in the present day in Aruba where Mick was having his vacation. Intrigued, Conner told Team Flash goodbye and left to meet up with Sara, Ray Palmer, and Nate Heywood. The four of them jumped back into time travel business, helping Mick capture Caesar and return the latter to his proper place in time in the year 49 BC. That mission led to the official reformation of the Legends, the team which Conner decided to stick with from here on out.

A/N: This fanfic is mostly filler, serving to give readers an idea what happened between the events of the main stories "Heroes Unite, Aliens Invade" and "Two Earths Join Forces Against Another".