Chapter 3

Nam-Ek and Aethyr

Alex walked up the barn stairs to the hay loft. Jonathan had turned part of the loft into a clubhouse for Alex and Clark and so they spent a lot of time there. Jonathan called it their fortress of solitude.

Alex stood looking at the corpse of Clark that was laid on the couch. His brother had died with a wish that Alex fulfill Clark's destiny. That was what Alex had to do. The question was, where was he supposed to hide Clark until he could break the news that Clark was dead.

It was clear to Alex that his first duty of business was to tell Jonathan of Clark's death. Then he would proceed to unite the stones. Alex picked up Clark's body and super sped to the hospital.

Alex had taken Clark's body to the morgue and then gone up to the fourth floor of Smallville Medical Center. The hall was filled with people that had been hurt by the meteor shower. Alex headed down the hall until he arrived at Chloe and Lois in the hallway on a bench.

"Girls, where is my Dad?" Alex asked.

"He's in the room there with your Mom," Lois said.

Alex nodded and proceeded into the hospital room. He locked the door and looked at his mother in the bed. Jonathan was sitting in a seat beside the bed.

"Dad, I need to talk to you," Alex said.

Alex was terrified of breaking the news to his father of Clark's death. He hadn't been this nervous since asking Kellie Talman to the 8th grade prom.

"Sit down, son. What is it?" Jonathan asked.

Alex didn't sit down. "We need to talk somewhere else. Mom might be able to hear us and I don't want her to hear what I need to tell you."

"Well, Alex. There is not really anywhere private in the hospital right now," Jonathan informed. "It's packed with people injured from the meteors."

"Exactly," Alex said.

Alex and Jonathan were sitting in the truck in the parking lot of the hospital.

"Alex, what is so important that we had to come all the way out here to discuss it?" Jonathan asked.

"Dad, um. I really don't know how to tell you this," Alex began.

Jonathan knew something was serious by the expression on his face. "What's wrong?"

Alex decided to just cut straight to the chase. "Dad, I just got back from the morgue. Clark is dead."

Jonathan's mouth fell wide open. "That's not possible."

A tear came to Alex's eyes. He had been bottling up the grief of Clark's death as long as he could.

"Yes it is, Dad," Alex cried. "He's gone. I watched him die. I'm the one who took him to the morgue."

Jonathan was trying to fight the tears, but they also came to him. "What happened?"

Alex told Jonathan about what had happened to Clark with the lightning and the Kryptonite. He also told Jonathan that he now had Clark's powers.

"Clark's powers were transferred to you, like they were to Eric Summers," Jonathan said.

"Don't you understand? It's might fault. If the powers hadn't transferred into me, Clark wouldn't have died," Alex took the blame.

"You are just like Clark, always blaming yourself," Jonathan said. "Alex, there was nothing you could have done."

"Clark left me with a mission. I have to complete it," Alex said reaching into his pocket. He pulled out the stone. "I have to unite the stones."

"I've already lost one of my sons to Jor-El's crusade," Jonathan said.

"I know," Alex said. "But I'm not doing this for Jor-El. I'm doing it because Clark asked me to."

Alex super sped from the truck and to the Kawatche Cave. When he arrived, he saw the wall in the cave, where he knew the stones must be behind. He broke through the wall with his strength and approached a stone table. Two of the stones were on the table and the octagonal disk that had come on Clark's spaceship was inserted in a slot on the table.

Alex pulled the stone from his pocket and looked at it. He set it on the table and the three stones lit up in the primary colors. The stones all formed into a triangle shaped crystal and it began to float. Alex grabbed it and it began to burn his hand and suddenly, he was standing in an arctic desert.

He looked around and saw nothing but snow…and some mountains….and snow….and a blue sky….and snow. He looked around wondering what he was supposed to do. The crystal floated from Alex's hand and pointed into the distance. Alex grabbed it and threw it in that direction.

He stood, watching it fly. It crashed into the snow and Alex watched as large crystals, bigger than a house, began to blast out of the ground. He watched as a giant crystal fortress formed in front of him.

It was amazing. It was like a crystal palace. He took off walking towards it. When he finally arrived inside, he looked around to see that it was massive. Down the steps, in the fortress was a crystal console.

Alex approached it and a crystal floated out. Alex grabbed it and it lit up. A voice suddenly began to talk to him.

"You are not Kal-El," it said.

"Who are you?" Alex asked.

"Where is Kal-El?" the voice asked.

"Tell me who you are and then I will tell you where Kal-El is," Alex boldly stated.

"I am Jor-El, the father of Kal-El," the voice said.

This must have also been an artificial intelligence like the one in the cave.

"Where is Kal-El?" Jor-El asked in a more angry tone this time.

"Kal-El is dead. He was killed in the meteor shower," Alex said.

"Why are you here?" Jor-El asked.

"Kal-El's powers were transferred to me before he died. He asked me to unite the stones as he could trust me in doing it," Alex explained.

"This destiny was made only for Kal-El. You cannot be part of it," Jor-El said.

With that, the fortress went dark. The only light was that of the sun shining in through the crystal. Alex looked up.

"Jor-El, this is what Kal-El wanted me to do!" he screamed. "Let me do what he was supposed to!"

Jor-El did not respond. Alex dropped the crystal on to the snowy floor.

"If this is how you want it to end, so be it," Alex yelled in anger.

Alex super sped from the fortress.

Alex arrived back at the hospital. He took the elevator to the fourth floor and walked into the hall. Upon arriving, he saw the entire hospital torn apart, about half as bad as the Kent house had been. Alex took off down the hallway to Martha's room. The room wasn't damaged and Alex could see Jonathan and Martha inside it.

He turned to see Lois standing on the other side of the hallway.

"Lois, what happened?" Alex asked.

"This guy and girl showed up and destroyed the place," Lois said.

"What were they doing?" Alex asked.

"They were looking for some guy named Kal-El," Lois said. "Ever hear of him?"

Alex was shocked. Whoever had destroyed the hospital knew Clark's Kryptonian origins. Alex decided that he would have to play the part of Kal-El to earth now that Clark was dead.

He turned to Lois. "Where'd they go?"

Alex walked into the Luthor mansion and super sped around looking for the two people. Then he ran into the library to see Lana lying in a pile of broken glass unconscious. He saw the two that Lois had described standing there.

"Who are you?" Alex asked as the man and woman looked at him.

"Where is Kal-El?" the man aske.

"Tell me who you are and I will tell you where Kal-El is," Alex said.

"I am Nam-Ek and this is Aethyr," the man said.

"Now, where is Kal-El?" Aethyr asked.

"I'm Kal-El," Alex said.

"Excellent," Nam-Ek said. "Now, join us, Kal-El. We will make this planet a utopia like that of Krypton."

"Killing people at the hospital? Destroying the place? You call that a utopia?" Alex asked.

"Some must die for the greater good," Nam-Ek said. "They were necessary casualties."

"There will be no more casualties," Alex replied. "I'm not going to let you kill anyone else."

"So be it," Nam-Ek sinisterly smiled.

Nam-Ek began to pull a silver bracelet off of his wrist. Alex quickly super sped at him and knocked the bracelet from his hand. It began to float into the air and Alex saw a blue portal open.

Nam-Ek punched Alex in the gut and Alex sent an uppercut at him. Nam-Ek flew back into one of the bookshelves. Aethyr came running at Alex and he pushed her away. She flew back into the portal and vanished into it.

Alex felt Nam-Ek get a choke hold on him from behind.

"You are going into the Phantom Zone," Nam-Ek said. "You will rot there forever."

Alex struggled with Nam-Ek as he dragged him towards the portal. As Nam-Ek was about to throw Alex in, he swung around and sent Nam-Ek flying in. The portal closed and Alex saw a glasslike square float out of the window and into space with the two of them in it.

Alex looked over at Lana. He ran to her and held her head up.

"Clark," Lana said, still with groggy vision.

"No, it's Alex," Alex said.

"Where are they?" Lana asked.

"They're gone," Alex replied. "We need to get you to the hospital."