CHAPTER 9:


All the way over Metropolis, in the second story of a building, which bore the pinkish sign of Isis Foundation on the front, another woman suddenly stopped in her tracks at the sight of the mysterious crystal, resting innocently on her desk.
She didn't hesitated a single moment and picked it up, willing it to show her anything. Lana Lang felt frustration building within her as the crystal remained clear, still and unresponsive.

Refusing to feel defeated for its inactivity when the crystal had presented itself to her voluntarily, Lana placed it back on her desk, determined to make it work. She justified her actions, rationalizing away the potential danger the alien crystal might be trying to warn them about. Ignoring it as Clark seemed determined to do was not the answer.

Lana never stopped to think of herself as being potentially dangerous as well.
Just as she turned away to grab the portable scanner she kept in her war room of ever seeing eyes, the reflection of light against the wall caught her attention. Slowly, she turned around again, almost cautious in her motion. And sure enough, the crystal, so inactive moments before, glowed brightly in red and blue. The lights danced around themselves and were quite awe inspiring.

Lana swallowed hard and considered her next course of action. Touching the crystal seemed a bad idea. It had failed to work before. Chloe had mentioned that she had tried, unsuccessfully, to will the crystal to show her what she wanted to see. Still, unable to think of anything else to try at the moment, Lana stepped closer and thought of herself.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then, in a burst of white light, the crystal projected an image, like it had in the barn that first day. Startled, Lana saw herself fighting off a man with skilled precision. Her hair was curly and much shorter than she sported now and her clothes were all leathery and black. She looked like a vigilante. And a mighty good one at that.

A smile flourished upon her lips.

If this was some sort of future, Lana had nothing but good things to look forward too. Being a woman capable of being an equal to Clark's hero side was a dream come true and all Lana had wished to aspire since learning of Clark Kent's powers.
The crystal wasn't done yet, though.

The imaged of fighting Lana dissipated and in its place, there appeared a bridge, with long iron cables holding it in place. And again, there she was, same hair and clothes, standing alone over one of the columns of the bridge. There was an aura of loneliness around her and this fact was confirmed by the silent tears running down her face. No sign of Clark at all.

Just as the thought of her ex-boyfriend flashed through her mind, the crystal emitted another burst of light, changing the scenario once more. And this time, Lana was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was Clark, flying! He landed in through the open window of an apartment she didn't know. He was wearing the bright colored uniform they had seen that day in the barn and held several food containers in his right hand.

Something in the apartment caught his attention and he smiled fondly. The sight of that smile made her heart ache in a way it hadn't ached in a long time, because that particular smile hadn't been directed at her for much too long.

"Lo!" He called out and the name tightened the fist around her already aching heart. "I know you are mad at little old me, but are you really going to make me eat this pizza, all the way from Italy, by myself?"

Lois suddenly popped into the scene, eyes narrowed and at the same time straying. Whatever her issue with Clark was, the food seemed to be temptation enough.
"Hand it over." She grumbled. And even as the woman assured Clark that he was still in the doghouse for his 'stunt' earlier - whatever that had been - Lana could see the love and easy companionship these two shared. It was so widely different from her own relationship with the same man. So very different. When Clark stole a kiss, before changing out of his costume in a swirl of color, no doubt remained about the status of this relationship.

And even if Lana had been inclined to dismiss the crystal's showing as flights of fancy and not in any way linked to the future - which she wasn't, unfortunately - Lana couldn't deny that scene. Her hopes for Clark and their future happiness finally broke into pieces too jagged and too plenty to ever be fixable again.
Clark wasn't hers. Hadn't been for years and it was time she finally admitted that.
Looking upon Lois' treatment of Clark, with fury and love all mixed together, made Lana regret the past few years and her never ending streak of bad decisions, which ultimately led her to this sad conclusion. And, regret, she had long since learned, was a bitter, bitter thing to taste.

The light faded and the crystal faded with it, disappearing from sight altogether.

xxxxxx

The shiny white ball rolled smoothly over the green carpeted surface of the pool table, nudging its blue companion, before striking a wooded corner. The other ball, dispersed the extra energy received and slid to the opposite direction, falling into the netted abyss.

Gabriel Grant rose from his bent position and briefly smiled at his partner.

"Really, Lex, the way you fret over my new position, it almost seems like it is your head on the employment chopping block. I told you I'm doing fine."

Lex Luthor had been too well taught to really believe the best of people and it showed in his treatment of the world. Gabriel, however, was his last chance at companionship, an idea deserted since his estrangement from Clark. How could he not worry that some busybody of a reporter would dig deeper than they should?
"You are my friend, Gabriel. I worry like an older brother".

Somber, Grant accepted the compliment in that sentence and cued the white ball once more, aiming for another colored ball perfectly poised to fall. Thoughts in his mind prevented his complete concentration, though, and he ended up missing the mark.

Lex took his place near the lead ball and arranged his shot so as to take down at least two balls down in one swoop. Sometimes - he pondered to himself -, Gabriel lacked ambition. Lex did not miss.

"So tell me, are you yet regretting Lois Lane?"

Grant laughed. "Not at all! She has fire and great potential. I truly think she'll be a great reporter one day."

"And that is exactly why you should keep an eye on her... and your distance. That woman is too curious and too reckless. I don't trust her at all." What Lex failed to mention and Grant simply didn't know to ask, was how the bald man knew Miss Lane and why he detested her so. Luthor seldom spoke of Smallville as more than the place the mansion was situated.

"I don't know... there is something about her that draws me in... she has such fire and passion. I would love to see her display that outside the newsroom." Grant nodded, as if conceding some point to his own thought process. "It is true, though, that she has been acting strange. And I even saw her with a crystal once, looking like she was close to unraveling some sort of mystery. If the crystal had been round, I would have worried!"

"Probably your mind playing tricks. A crystal? Probably a paperweight." Gabriel shrugged then, conceding to Lex and his logic.

"Better stay away..."

Gabriel Grant heard him, but the temptation of what he perceived as Lane's mystery was powerful, indeed.

xxxxxx

Chloe dropped her bag on the kitchen chair and surveyed the place. This room, this house, actually, was as familiar to her as her own home had ever been. If she closed her eyes, Chloe could still see Mrs. Kent with an apron taking a pie out of the oven and smiling their way.

"Chlo?"

She wiped her hair around and smiled when she saw Clark standing by the kitchen door, a curious expression on his face.

"Hey, spaceman..."

Clark rolled his eyes and allowed a small smile as he closed the door behind him.
"What brings you by? Good news, bad news, no news?"

"Actually, I do have news, I'm just not sure whether it's the good or bad variety". Clark crossed his arms over his chest and frowned, waiting for his best friend to continue. "I talked to Lois".

"And?"

"She told me that the crystal has been showing her things from the past. And, every time it activates, Lois goes into some sort of trance. I'm surprised people haven't noticed how often she vacates the premises in the middle of something or another". Chloe leaned on the counter and studied her friend.

"Ok... The past, you say. What from the past specifically?"

"That's the jig... She sees people she knows. Mostly you."

The way his eyes widened, in that ever recurring mask of utter panic, made her want to drop to the floor and laugh all her worries away. How come she had never noticed how pessimist Clark Kent really was?

"Me? Me doing what?"

"She refused to divulge details - said the things she was seeing shouldn't be said out loud carelessly -, but I'm pretty sure she knows about you, at least partially".
He gulped. "What did she say about that?"

"Nothing really. Don't know how much she has been shown, but Lois seemed to have digested it without any sort of stomach ache". Chloe had been surprised by that as well. Lois had sounded almost dismissive about it all.

Chloe took the time to explain to Clark all the happenings of that morning. "And then, the crystal took itself on a walk and we haven't seen it since it vanished into thin air back at the Talon".

"So she's not mad at me anymore?", he asked, hopeful, completely dismissing the part where the crystal had gone AWOL... again.

"Not so fast, cowboy. She is still pissed. You omitted, after all, details about the crystal and what was happening to her".

Clark didn't try rationalizing or making excuses. Guilt showed clearly on his face. "I know".

"What happens now? Do we try to find the crystal? Let it do its thing and hope for the best? And are you going to tell Lois everything, once and for all?"

"Absolutely not!" The calm atmosphere dissolved into tension. "You saw what happened to Lana when she found out."

"Lana and Lois are two completely different people!"

"Not when it comes to this!"

"She should know, Clark. She already knows a lot! And we still have to resolve this crystal of destiny mess. I know it supposedly showed us that we should leave things as they are, but I don't trust this to resolve itself unaided".

"What else can we do but wait?"

"Tell Lois everything and try to..."

"No, Chloe. One hasn't anything to do with the other. You are complicating things! We should just focus on finding the crystal and figuring out what it wants!"

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Clark." Chloe answered in a huff. "Things are already way passed complicated. You can't keep all this in the dark forever. You think Lois is just going to forget about the crystal and move on?"

Clark's furrowing brow was part confusion and part stubbornness. Chloe knew him enough to know that Clark's denial was a very long river in Egypt indeed. He huffed and turned away. "Maybe not forget, but do we have to talk about it? Can't we just go back to the way things were?"

"Life doesn't work like that, Clark."

"I know, I know..." He sighed again and seemed to surround himself in a bubble of self-pity. Lois would have rolled her eyes at this bad habit of his.

"Look, Clark, go talk to Lois, ok? Either way, you guys have to talk. This avoiding each other thing is only going to make things worst in the end."

"I... I just don't know how I'm going to... what do I say to her?"

It was Chloe's turn to sigh. "That is between Lois and you. I'm not sticking my nose in this. It was bad enough being stuck between Lana and you."

"So not the same situation, Chlo." He leaned against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms. Clark's face was pensive and filled with apprehension.
"Oh, c'mon. Lois is not that scary to deal with."

He snorted. "Yeah, sure."

The semi smirk soon disappeared, being replaced by the somber expression he wore so well. "What about you? What did you talk about?"

"We kept trying to communicate without talking about you, which is really hard in our present situation. And..." She hesitated, looked away and bit her lower lip. "And we got the crystal to work, to show us things."

It was clear, by the expression on his face, that he was not satisfied with their attempts to meddle with the crystal. Chloe couldn't understand his reluctance. The crystal was not showing them the same consideration, anyway.

"We saw Lois... bleeding. Dying. And, in another vision, you, dead, in the middle of the street."

Clark squeezed his eyes tightly close and felt a shudder go by his body.
"What is the point here? What is that thing trying to say!" He yelled, arms dropping to his sides and fist curling onto themselves. "I die? She dies? We all die!?"

"I don't know!" She screamed back. Her shoulder slumped in defeat. "I don't know", she whispered.

"Why Lois? Why her?" A hand combed his hair back, making the locks stick wildly in every other direction. "She can't die. She can't leave m... she can't leave us."

"Oh, no you don't. This is my cousin we are talking about, Clark. And I have watched the Clark and Lana show long enough to know where it leads!" Chloe breathed in deeply and tried to reign in her temper. It wouldn't do to say things they couldn't take back and lose themselves in an argument that would lead nowhere.

"What are you talking about?" Clark looked genuinely confused and Chloe had to sigh at that.

"Look, Clark. You and Lana have broken up. I get it. But you have done that too many times for me to be truly convinced that it's going to stick." She held up her hand to stop his opening mouth from issuing a protest. "And until you are sure yourself, Clark, don't pursue my cousin."

At that, all other emotions fled from her friend's handsome face, leaving only clear bewilderment. That statement seemed to have caught him quite unawares.
"Lois and... me?" It seemed incomprehensible to him.

"Maybe not yet... but, c'mon, Clark. You can't tell me that feelings aren't growing somewhere in there." She pointed vaguely to his chest and actually took a moment to realize that she had completely lost Clark's attention.

Dismissing the rudeness of it, she glanced around the farm's living room, finally seeing what he had seen. The crystal. It was innocently lying on the coffee table, where it had been around the time Lois had had her second encounter with it. It was still and yet managed to command their attention in such a way that was very imposing.

"What the..." She approached it, almost believing it would disappear. Then, she glanced around and towards the front door, expecting Lois to come through it at any moment. After all, the crystal had never voluntarily presented itself to them before, preferring Lois, wherever she might have found herself in.

"Chlo... Do you think it is here now, because it has already changed what it needed to change with Lois to..."

"Fix what was wronged, as Jor-El explained?" Chloe finished the question. Clark swallowed hard and nodded.

"Or maybe..."

Chloe nodded again. "Or maybe Lois was just the beginning and one of us is its next target."

"What does that mean, though?" He wondered and Chloe was afraid to wonder past that. She had years of experience with kryptonian technology and there was always a shoe, somewhere, waiting to drop.

They touched the crystal, willed it to work. Tried many different tactics their wild imagination managed to come up with. And then some.

The crystal remained unchanging, mysterious and more frustrating than ever.


A/N: Thank you to those who reviewed. I plan to post more tomorrow. I just need to polish it up a bit. And, yes, it took a while, but there will be Lois and Clark interaction.

Please continue to review!