Authors Note: Hey Guys, another saturday, another 2 chapters!
So, I get that people are a bit confused, so here's the requested timeline:

- Lois died during Reckoning (5x12), which was january 2006.
- Six years later on the anniversary of her death Clark returns to Smallville. So, january 2012.
- Clark goes back in time to the second Meteor Shower, or the episode Arrival (5x01), which was june 2005.
- After he changes Jor-El's programming, he's transported back to the present.
- Clark is transported six and a half years ahead, back to january 2012, but where the past six years were with a different Jor-El.
Six years where Lois was alive and he made different choices, lived a different life.
A life he's just woken up in, still remembering his previous one.

Enjoy!

~Chapter six~

~June 2005~

"You have a choice now. A choice to continue your training and learn the ways of your people, gain the knowledge and power that you have not yet been able to explore, and to learn the means to better protect this planet.
Or you can choose to forsake your powers and become a mere mortal. The choice is yours my son, so choose wisely."

Clark stood frozen, stunned into silence by Jor-El's words. Here he was presented with what he most wanted in the world – to be normal. Or he had the choice to potentially save all mankind. Why was his life never fair? He wanted to be normal, he wanted to be like everyone else, free. He wouldn't have to lie anymore; he wouldn't be different. He and Lana could actually….

But could he be that selfish?

Clark clenched his hands into fists. Could he really choose himself? And would being normal really solve all of his problems? Or was that just wishful thinking? He'd just said that no one else could've stopped the Kryptonians. Could he really walk away from that?

Clark leaned against a pillar and slowly sank down to the floor. He needed to think.

Destiny.

Over the years he'd grown to hate that word. He'd wanted to live his own life, make his own choices, and learn from his mistakes. He'd wanted what everyone else had - the option to become whatever they wanted.

The option.

Nothing more. And now he did. He had a choice and he needed to make it. He could control his own destiny and he'd have to live with the consequences of his decision. It wasn't so simple.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked quietly. "You've never given me a choice before, you've always done what you wanted with my life. Why now?"

"I have tried to teach you what you needed to know, to become the man this planet needs." Jor-el responded. "Everything I have done has taught you something invaluable. But I cannot force you to take on the responsibility of this world. I could try and I would fail. This must be something you choose to do and you must do it with all of your power."

Clark stared at the solid walls of ice around him. 'A task you must accept fully, or not at all.' The echo of Jor-El's earlier words resounded loudly in his head.

"You wanted me to leave my family - my home - behind." He reminded Jor-El. "I killed my mom's baby trying to defy you and ended up leaving anyway. I was in Metropolis for months before you let my dad come get me." His jaw clenched at the memory. "What exactly did I learn from that?" He spat out angrily.

"You spent time in Metropolis, relying on your powers to survive. You used them liberally and broke the laws of this planet every day. You did as you pleased and let the idea of being unstoppable consume you." Jor-El recounted calmly. "But if you remember that time, do you wish to return to that way of life?"

"Of course not." Clark answered indignantly.

"Then my task was successful." Jor-El told him. "You will never use your powers for unfair or unjust purposes. You will never use them to exploit the people of this planet. As your powers grow, you will not let it consume you and be tempted to think yourself a God. You learned that from time. You learned to be good."

Clark sat in shock at the revelation. "That's what that was about?" he sputtered. "I was already 'good'. I already knew right from wrong and would never use my powers for evil!"

"And yet you did during that time." Jor-el reminded him. "Despite your morals and your beliefs, you still lived as you pleased."

"I was on Red Kryptonite." Clark argued desperately. "I wasn't myself."

"You were wearing a ring Kal-El. The option to take it of was never absent."

Clark blanched and closed his eyes. He didn't want to admit it, but Jor-El was right. "There was no other way that you could think of to teach me that?" He asked bitterly.

"You were simply told to leave your home. The events that transpired were set in motion when you chose not to listen."

Clark swallowed. "I have morals and I had them then too. You didn't need to do that."

"And yet your actions proved otherwise." Jor-El countered.

Clark balled his fist. He couldn't argue with Jor-El, not about this. He'd proven Jor-El right. And the reason behind Jor-El's insistence that he collect the three stones was also clear. He could've prevented a meteor shower if he had listened.

Damn.

"My son." Jor-el said. "I understand that you are confused and bitter. I know that though my intentions were good, my methods left a lot to be desired. Because of that I do not have your trust, nor your respect, nor your love. For that I am sorry. And for that reason I am giving you this choice - the choice to choose your own path and to make your own destiny. Once your decision has been made I will no longer interfere. I will guide you should you ask me for help, but you have my word; your life is your own."

Clark was overwhelmed: he felt his lip twitch and bit down on it. He was not going to cry. But he couldn't do this anymore - he could no longer hide. It was time to stand up and face the world. He would have to put his anger and resentment and even his hate aside. He didn't know what had brought on this change in Jor-El, but he could recognize a peace offering when it was presented. They had both made a lot of wrong choices and other people had paid the price. It wasn't fair and it wasn't going to happen again. He would take responsibility for what he did from now on. He'd become a man worthy to protect this planet.

He slowly got up and walked to stand in front of the console.

"I've made my choice." He said.

Squaring his shoulders, there was no doubt in his mind and no regret in his eyes.

"I want to keep my powers. No more running."

Clark Kent was facing a dilemma. He had three options at the moment. The first was to return to the farm, the second was to run to the Fortress and the third was to fly. Why was he faced with these choices? Because in his haste to get to the caves, he'd forgotten to take the key that activated the portal with him. And then he'd been hit with another memory: in this world, Clark no longer used the caves – he flew.

Not happening.

Not that Clark couldn't fly, he'd discovered that power almost two years ago and had perfected it since then. It was one thing however, to fly in circles 25 feet above the ground and something completely different to fly at several thousand feet to the Arctic.

Running it was.

Clark reached the Fortress a few minutes later and slowly walked inside. When he'd woken up in this world he hadn't actually taken the time to think things through. His first instinct had been to return to the farm and see if he'd been successful. Now he found himself once again in the Fortress and he couldn't help but feel somewhat uneasy. He was going to have to talk to Jor-El and he'd have to stay calm. This wasn't the same Jor-El he knew, the one who had made him face such difficult moments. But the essence of the man who had long ago sent his only son into space to protect him. If he was going to be living in this world, he'd have to accept that here, Jor-El was one of the good guys.

Clark slowly released a breath. Here goes nothing.

"Jor-El." He called out.

Behind him the console lit up and startled Clark whirled around, trying to find the source.

"My Son."

Clark turned back around and nearly took a step back. Not ten feet away from him stood his biological father. And he was smiling. Clark blinked slowly at the sight in front of him but it remained the same. Jor-El was still looking at him with a pleasant expression on his face, his hands clasped comfortably behind his back. It was eerie.

"I need to know if I'm done." Clark finally stuttered.

Jor-El regarded him thoughtfully. "Done?" he questioned.

"With my journey." Clark clarified. "I want to know if I've seen everything I've needed to."

Jor-El frowned at him. "Your journey is your own Kal-El." He answered.

"So, it's up to me to decide when to stop?" Clark asked skeptically.

Jor-El's frown deepened as he looked at him intently. "You wished to see the happenings of this world for yourself, so as to figure out the most efficient way to help this planet." He told him. "Suffering cannot simply be known about, it must be witnessed and lived. Only then can it be understood. Only then can one truly fight an enemy, when one has seen its face and the destruction it leaves in its path."

Clark stood in silence at Jor-El's words and nodded slowly.

"I wanted to see the true face of the world." He whispered.

Jor-El watched him as he slid down a pillar to sit on the floor and rested his head on his knees. He slowly rubbed his temples and tried not to be overwhelmed; but he was. He hadn't thought that his life would become so much different. But he'd only been here for a few hours and the changes were glaring. Hearing Jor-El's words he'd felt a sense of recognition and empathy. He'd had a similar conversation with Jor-El before, several in fact. Hours of discussing suffering and pain; trying to figure out how he could help, how much he was allowed to interfere with human history. He'd finally decided that it was no use debating about the nature of evil, but for him to truly understand he'd have to see it for himself.

Clark closed his eyes. How was he supposed to live up to this guy? To the man he'd become in this world?

"Are you alright Kal-El?"

Clark looked up to find Jor-El looking at him with concern and he debated for a moment about his answer.

"Not really." He finally answered. "I just need some time to think."

Jor-El nodded. "Then I will leave you be." He said. "Be well, my son." With that the Hologram lit up and disappeared and Clark found himself alone once again. He sighed and leaned back, knocking the back of his head against the pillar a few times in frustration until he came to a decision.
He had screwed up his life once before, and he wasn't going to do that again. But for him to do any good in this world, he'd have to become the man that he was, that he could be. And that meant that he'd have to know what had made this Clark Kent so much better then him. He'd have to live through the memories of this world until he knew everything. Once he did, he'd be able to change, and he'd become the man this world had apparently created.

Piece of cake.

Clark walked up the dirt drive to the farm lost in thought. He'd spent over an hour at the Fortress, first trying to figure out how to work the memories and then living through them. It seemed that whenever he concentrated on a subject that was different in this world then in his own, he'd relive the memory. But the longer he was here, the more things he simply knew. Over the course of fifteen minutes he'd relived the two years he'd spent traveling the world. He was still a wreck. The things he'd seen, the suffering, the loss and the unfairness of it all had left him emotionally drained. It seemed that no matter how perfect a world it looked like to him, inevitably, somewhere there was someone suffering.

He had seen a lot of things himself in the six years he'd been away in his own world, but nothing like he'd witnessed here. In this world, he'd deliberately set out to find the places that needed a hero the most and had done all he could. But it wasn't enough – he hadn't been enough. But he'd had a plan; an idea to help people and Clark was determined to do it. This was his home now, his world. He wasn't anywhere near the man that this Clark had been, but he could be. He would be. He may not of made the same choices or lived the exact same life, but he was going to follow through on his counterpart's idea.

Clark nodded to himself with determination. It would take him a while to adjust to this world and keep the memories straight, but he would get it right eventually. The most important thing was not letting his family notice while he made the transition. He didn't know how well he'd be able to pull it off, especially since he still felt a bit off. He squared his shoulders as he entered the front yard. Suck it up Kent. He couldn't let the things he'd seen in his memories affect him, if he was going to go through with this – he was going to see things that were a lot worse.

Clark paused as he was about the climb the porch steps. He could hear the faint sound of a consistent ticking. It was more of a beat really, a repeating rhythm. Kind of like a heartbeat…

Clark hurried his way up the steps and entered the living room. Once inside, the door silently fell closed from his limp grasp as he stared at her.

Lois.

She was curled up on the couch, a laptop resting on her legs and files and papers strewn all around her on the coffee table and couch. Her hair was a dark auburn brown and pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a simple combination of a dark blue blouse and black pants. She sat leaning back against the armrest, intently scanning the paper in her hand. She circled something and grabbed another file to double check before typing it on her laptop.

Clark blinked away the moisture that had filled his eyes and tried to swallow as his throat constricted. There she was, alive and grown up. These were things he'd never been able to see her be. He knew his parents and Chloe were in the kitchen, but his legs moved of their own accord, bringing him closer to the couch. He drank in the sight of her, trying to commit it to memory and he suddenly realized that it was her heartbeat that he was hearing.

As if feeling his eyes on her she suddenly looked up and caught his gaze. Her hazel eyes were locked with his blue eyes for a moment before her face broke out into a smile. He didn't think he'd ever seen anything more beautiful.

"Clark!" she exclaimed, quickly putting her laptop on the table and getting up to meet him.

He shakily walked towards her and opened his arms. She stepped into his embrace happily, hugging him tightly. He wound his arms around her and pulled her body flush against his, burying his head into her hair. He held her tightly and tried not to crush her as his emotions ran wild. He moved his head so she wouldn't see his tears and let her presence envelop him.

"I missed you so much." He whispered brokenly.

Lois smiled quietly into his chest. "I missed you too Smallville." She admitted. She stepped back and gave him a once over. "Well," she concluded, "the lack of your moms cooking didn't do you any harm."

Clark chuckled. "Is that a round about way of saying I gained weight?" He asked.

Lois cocked her head and reached out to poke him in the stomach. "A little mushy there don't you think?" she teased. "I mean, I hugged you and it didn't feel like hugging a rock."

Behind them Chloe emitted a laugh. "The abs of steel." She added. She and Lois exchanged grins as she handed her a cup of coffee. Chloe also poked Clark and playfully shook her head. "Gone." She concluded. "You're out of form Clark." She told him disapprovingly.

Clark merely crossed his arms. "I didn't exactly have time to keep in shape while I was traveling through South Africa and the Middle East." He told them.

Lois held up her hands. "Hey I like it." She assured him. "You're like a big teddy bear now."

Clark grimaced at the comparison and tried to look aghast. Chloe nearly keeled over in laughter and Lois' smile only grew. Clark reached out and snatched them, tucking both of them into his sides and hugging them close. They squirmed and tried to move away, but he kept them securely in his arms and they gave up, dissolving into fits of laughter.

*flash*

Martha grinned from behind the camera and shook her head. "There I was thinking things had changed." She lamented to Jonathan.

Jonathan eyes twinkled. "You would think that maturity would come with those extra candles on the birthday cake." He teased.

Lois shook her head. "Nope, things are exactly the way they're supposed to be." She told them.

Clark smiled and silently agreed. Things were finally the way they were meant to be.

~ TBC

Reviews are happy thoughts, shared with me