Update! Enjoy, you restless little monkeys. . .

Chapter 4

My legal name for the past 30 years has been Lucy. But you know me better as Lois. Lois Lane.

"Come again?" Clark asked, praying that he had heard Lucy wrong. As if the day hadn't been strange enough; if Lucy was telling the truth, it would basically seal the deal that he and Lois were stranded 50 years in the future.

But something inside Clark told him that the fragile, old woman sitting next to him was really the person she claimed to be.Her eyes, her smile, her presence, and especially her driving, all screamed of Lois. The more he thought about it, the more comfortable he felt with Lucy's confession. After all, it would mean that he and Lois were in safe hands, a necessity for them at the moment, given their situation.

"You heard me right. My real name is Lois Lane, and we are overdue for a little chat. . .and you can still call me 'Lucy'. I'm so used to it, anything else would sound foreign to me," Lucy explained. Her tone appeared very composed, but Clark caught a hint of apprehension in her voice, reaffirming the gravity of Clark's situation once again. He nodded in silent approval of Lucy's command.

"How did we get here?" Clark blurted, unable to contain the burning question any longer.

Lucy sighed deeply, her eyes half-closed in deep thought. "That's the million dollar question, and I'm sorry, but I can't answer it. I don't know how you got here.Time travel is dangerous and complicated. Forget a permit, you need plently of recommendations, tons of paperwork, special Visas, and more money that God to get anywhere near a time machine."

"Well, I didn't exactly see any time machines back home, anyway. But there must be some kind of expanation! People don't just jump 50 years into the future by magic!" Clark argued.

Lucy was stumped. "Time machines arene't exactly what you'd imagine them to be. You're thinking of a huge, bulky machine with gears and engines and tons of metal, right? Nahh, those were too inconvenient, not to mention useless for covert operations-you could spot those a mile away. They're more like portals, that can be transfered from location to location, even to different time periods. Virtually invisible to the naked eye. But still, I can safely say that you weren't brought here by a conventional time machine, considering that it's illegal to transport unlicenced individuals. . .which you obviously are. Penalty of death."

"That sounds kinda harsh," Clark interrupted.

"You don't know the half of it, Lucy said sadly. "Let's drop this for now. . .my head is killing me thinking about this. My brain wasn't meant for science."

"Alright," Clark said, far from satisfied, but accepting the fact that Lucy obviously knew nothing about their sudden appearance. "So, can you tell me why you changed your name to Lucy?" Clark asked.

"Yeah, this is the juicy part of the story," Lucy said jokingly. But she was still afraid of how Clark would handle everything she was about to reveal to him. He was only a kid, after all. "None of this is gonna be easy to hear. . .are you sure you want to know?"

"Just get it over with. . ."

"OK. . .it all started after college. You and I started dating, and--"

"We started dating!"Clark interfered.

"OK, Smallville, if I'm gonna tell ya everything, you can't interrupt, understood." Lucy snapped. Clark shut his mouth, but smiled when Lucy called him "Smallville." It was, after all, Lois' favorite name for him.

"Anyway, we dated for a few years. We were inseperable. You and I even began working at the Daily Planet together. A bit after that, we were married." She paused briefly to sum up Clark's reaction so far. He was clearly shocked. It's understandable. . .we used to hate each other's guts, especially when Clark was dating Lori. . .but he'll change in time. . .

"Life was good back then. We were young, succesful, and most importantly, in love. We even had a child---she's the one in that picture. We named her Lara, after you're Kryptonian mother."

Clark flinched. "How do you know that name?"

"I told you not to interrupt! I married you, Clark. I think I found out your secret at some point before I made that commitment!" Lucy shot back. Clark fell silent once again---he could not argue with her logic.

Lucy continued. "Lara was so beautiful--she took after me, luckily" Lucy said playfully. "You two were always together. She loved you more than anything."

"Then one day, you left extremely early for work. Your mother. . .she'd just passed away. . .and I figured that you needed some time to collect your thoughts. But you never showed up at work, and you never came home. I convinced myself that you went to the Fortress for a few days. I waited almost 3 weeks until you came back. . ." Lucy stopped. She didn't know how she was going to be able to recount the next part without bursting into tears. Clark was upset as well, but over the death of his mother. What Lucy was about to reveal was how Clark Kent broke her heart, with none other than Clark as her audience.

"When he came back, something inside him had changed. He was so cold. . .he acted like he didn't even know me. The things he said--"

Lucy couldn't hold it in any longer. One tear fell, then another, until she was bawling. Clark put his hand on hers, but she swatted it away. "I'm fine!" she shouted, althugh she clearly wasn't. She wiped her eys, but continued to tell her story, her voice cracking with every word. "Every bit of humanity was sucked out of him. He became a monster. . .He left me alone to raise Lara and John, who was born later that month. His last words to me were something about conquering the world. And he did--in less than a month. The empire of Kal-El had been born."

For a moment, Clark stopped breathing. All he could do was shake his head violently. "No. . ." he muttered, over and over again.

A new emotion swept over Lucy--anger. All those lonely days, the horrific torture she'd been put through, it all came rushing back to her. Her children, her cousin, her family; they were all gone, at the hands of the man sitting before her. She could supress her rage no longer. She kept talking, because she came to the realization that the truth was what would hurt Clark the most.

"My children grew up, and I never told them who their father was. I didn't want them to experience such shame.Chloe, Lex, Lana, Pete, everyone who knew you tried to stop you. It was futile- we needed kryptonite, but you're first action in office was to have all traces of green meteor rock destroyed. We started an underground resistance group. But your police was rutheless. And you killed all prisoners with your bare hands. You killed our children! They may have had your powers, but they didn't have your killer instinct! They launched an attack on your headquaters. Almost everyone in the resistance was killed that day! You murdered them. . . You killed Chloe, Lana, Lara, John. . .Lex and Pete escaped somehow, they're living in hiding. And me? You tortured me. . .in the most horrific ways possible. I was your slave for years, Clark, and only because somewhere in that black heart of yours, in some sick way, you still loved me! You 'repayed' me with a new name, a new residence, a new life. But if you had really loved me, you would have killed me. . .you would have let me escape your world!"

Lucy was panting--she hadn't realized that she was yelling. Her elderly body was shaking violently, and she felt as though she had just exploded. Her teeth chattered, and here eyes poured out steamy water. Clark was hyperventilating, choking on his own tears and spit. He started screaming as loud as he could. It was too much. . .too much to handle. . .he needed to wake up. . .he had to get out of here. . .he needed to run away.

And like a bullet, he was gone.