Chapter 9

Oliver and Chloe were having lunch together, they were talking about Lois, "I'm telling you Oliver she doesn't want to see Clark ever again. I think it's best if we don't try and find him."

"But Chloe we know exactly where he is now. We can bring him back." Oliver pressed.

Chloe shook her head, "He had four years to come back Ollie. I think it's safe to say he doesn't want to come back."

"That's because he hasn't heard his family in any serious danger yet. What are we supposed to do. Wait for a tragedy to happen to Lois or Chris for him to come back?"

"He told us to take care of them. And we're succeeding. So far Lois and Chris have been safer with Clark gone."

Oliver sighed of frustration, "You sound like him now. His kryptonian side. What about his human side. As a father he never should've left."

"Exactly! And he did! That's what Lois is angry about. She's let go and blocked him out of her life because he left his son. I'm telling you she doesn't want to find him. The only reason we're trying to find him is because we need Superman back. But Lois doesn't want Clark back." Nearby, a little girl had fell off her bike and was badly injured. Her mother was by her side but she was crying frantically holding her scraped knee.

Chloe had a weird feeling possess her and then started ranting, "I just can't believe this happened! It just hurts so much it-it hurts! He shouldn't have left her it hurts!"

"It hurts mommy! It hurts!" the little girl was screaming to her mom.

Oliver got very confused when Chloe started to cry, "Chloe what's going on with you? Don't you think you're overreacting a bit?"

Chloe immediately came to her senses as she felt like herself again and stopped crying. She looked confused, "You're right. That was a bit too much wasn't it?" She then turned to look at the girl who was crying and realized she was feeling what that girl was feeling. She turned to Oliver with a shock in her face, "Oh my god. Zatanna!"

Oliver was confused, "What?"

"Yesterday when Lois and I were arguing, Zatanna came in and cast a spell on us."

"What? I can't believe she would do that! Her spells are known to be dangerous."

"I think she made me an empath. Because when Lois was walking away after we fought I felt like my heart was breaking, and I just felt so sad."

Oliver held her hand, "Chloe I'm sorry."

Chloe shook her head, Oliver didn't understand, "No no! It wasn't me who was feeling it. Lois' feelings were projected into me and I guess I felt her sadness. And right now when I just ranted. I just projected that little girl getting hurt from falling off her bike." Chloe gestured towards the girl who was up by then and walking beside her mom, limping with her hurt leg.

Oliver turned to Chloe, "So Zatanna gave you powers of an empath so that you can understand how Lois is really feeling about Clark?"

Chloe nodded, "Exactly!" At that moment, Kara was walking up to them with Chris by her side. Chloe got up and picked up Chris, "Hey buddy!"

Chris hugged her back when Chloe noticed the worried look on both his and Kara's face. Kara spoke, "We have a problem. I can't find Lois."

"What do you mean?" Oliver got up off his seat, looking serious.

Chris spoke, "We can't find her. She won't answer her phone. She was supposed to pick me up from Auntie Kara's a long time ago."

"An hour ago to be exact." Kara said with a worried look constantly looking at her phone for any missed calls.

Chris looked at Oliver with sad eyes, "Momma's never late."

Oliver patted his head, "We'll find him buddy. I promise!"

Oliver looked at Chloe and nodded, they were all going to meet at Watchtower.

"Chloe! Lois is missing?" Bruce and Diana stormed in to find Oliver, Chloe, and Kara with Chris sitting on a couch playing with some of his Lego toys.

Chris looked up and ran to Bruce, Bruce picked him up, and saw Chris was worried about his mother. "I'm scared uncle Bruce. Momma's been gone for long time."

Diana stroked his face, "We'll find her Chris. Don't worry." She looked up at Chloe, "Do you mind if I take him out for some ice cream? You like that right? What do you say I treat you to some rocky road?" Chris grinned at Diana and nodded his head fast. Chloe nodded back at Diana as they exited Watchtower.

Bruce turned towards Chloe and shook his head, "What happened to her?"

Chloe looked back at her computer, "I've put a tracking feed on her phone a while ago. But It's been deactivated. I think someone has taken her phone and destroyed it so we wouldn't be able to trace her."

"So what are you saying? We can't find her?" Bruce was pacing back and forth.

"Calm down. I'm trying to track down surveillance footage. She was at Lex's press conference. If I get her photo recognition, I can find out the last place she was spotted by a surveillance camera." The computer was searching through the face recognition system for Lois. After a while, a match was found.

Everyone crowded around the screen and had their eyes wide open. Oliver opened his mouth, "She's outside Lex's mansion! Is she crazy how could she go there alone?"

Chloe turned to face Oliver, "You don't think Lex has taken her do you?" Chloe started to get worried, but then she felt a mixture of anger, frustration, emotions that wasn't hers. She closed her eyes and yelled out, "PLEASE! You guys need to bottle up your emotions I can't take this much in one room my head's gonna explode!"

Bruce looked at Oliver confused, Oliver shrugged, "Zatanna turned her into an empath. Long story. She was feeling stressed earlier because Chris was feeling REALLY worried. That's why she hinted Diana to take him out."

Bruce nodded with understanding, "So we go break into Luthor's mansion and bring back Lois."

"There's obviously a reason to this. He wouldn't just take her for breaking in?" said Kara.

"This is Lex we're talking about. He has no reason to be evil!" exclaimed Oliver.

Another computer beeped, with Watchtower's satellite system, Chloe typed in the computer and her eyes went wide open. "Oh my god! There's a nuclear bomb activated towards Earth!"

"WHAT?" Bruce and Oliver said together.

Chloe shook her head, "This is no protocol. This is the real deal. It's enforced by... Luthorcorp."

Oliver sighed, "This is why he took Lois. She found out too much about his plans."

"As psychotic as Lex is, even he isn't suicidal" Bruce said, "This is Brainiac's doing isn't it."

Kara nodded, "It sounds like it. We need to stop this."

Chloe turned to Kara, "You can stop it can't you?"

Kara furrowed her eyebrows, "Can't you break into Lex's hardware system and de-activate the launch?"

Chloe shook her head, "It has a billion firewalls, and it's protected by Brainiac, I can't hack it I've tried before it's useless. Brainiac was the one who broke into Watchtower and enabled me to get into any of Lex's software systems. And this is why." Chloe grabbed Kara's arms, "You need to get Clark."

Everyone in the room looked at each other, Kara and Chloe kept their eyes on each other, Oliver started, "Chloe I thought you said-"

"I KNOW WHAT I SAID!" Oliver swallowed his words and Chloe turned back to Kara, "You know where he is. You need to bring him back Kara. Brainiac has Lois!"

Kara nodded sternly, "I know what I have to do." With that, Kara sped off and Chloe was left with Bruce and Oliver.

"So now what?" Bruce spoke, feeling helpless.

"We're going to the Luthor mansion and breaking out Lois." Said Chloe with a serious expression. The other two men nodded and went to go save Lois.

Kara flew millions of miles into space, she took out her GPS watch and located the coordinates to Kandor. Right before her eyes, was the city of Kandor. She laid her footsteps on the city for the very first time. A piece of her home planet was standing right before her eyes. Kara took a deep breath and walked around the city. She walked up to a Kandorian, "Where is Kal-El?" The Kandorian pointed towards the highest tower which looked like a piece of the Fortress of Solitude. Kara took a deep breath and flew up to the tower.

She broke in through the window to find an isolated room. She started walking down a long corridor and opened a large bolted metal door. Kara broke the door off its hinges and threw it down the corridor. She turned around and faced an astonished looking Clark. He was in his Superman suit and was surrounded by satellite projections of Kandor, and Earth, mainly on a certain city in Earth, Metropolis. "Kara what are you doing here?"

Kara ran up to him and hugged him tightly. "Kal-El! I missed you!"

"How did you find me?"

She pulled back, "Chloe is still the amazing tracker. She found the coordinates to Kandor and she got your letter."

Clark swallowed, "What are you doing here?"

Kara had to tell him everything, time was running out, "Look there's no time. But you have to come back to Earth."

Clark sighed and turned around, leaning on the table in front of him, "I told you before, I can't go back."

"Clark, Lois is in danger!" At the sound of Lois' name, Clark spun around to face Kara again.

"What kind of danger?"

Kara breathed hard, "Lex is president. Brainiac is controlling him and they've kidnapped her. She found out about a nuclear bomb heading towards Earth. It's already been launched and we only have minutes! Clark, Brainiac is on Earth and he has Lois. Please! You have to come back!"

Clark looked back at her, "Kara you know you can stop the nuclear bomb... Why do you need me to do it?"

Kara grabbed on to both his arms, and looked him straight in the eyes, "Because you need to come back. You need to go back to her. It's been four years Clark! You need this. You don't belong here. You belong on Earth. That's your destiny! Not Kandor! Kandor can stand on its own. You need Kandor more than it needs you. And LOIS needs YOU!" Clark looked back at Kara and swallowed hard, Kara continued, "You stayed away to protect her. Well she's in danger Clark and you're not there." Kara squeezed his hand, "It's time for you to come home Clark. Go save her."

At that moment, Clark closed his eyes and pictured the last time he saw her. Lois' image was always stuck in his head. He opened his eyes again and super sped away. Kara followed and saw Superman fly away towards the missile that was heading towards Earth. Clark picked up the missile and pointed it towards the darkness of the Galaxy and shot laser beams from his eyes at it and a huge explosion erupted. The explosion made Clark fly back, the pressure of the nuclear missile made him continue to fall. In the middle of a field in Texas, Clark ended up crash landing in a crop field, creating a huge hole. Farmers were surrounding the hole. Clark stumbled up and said, "Sorry about that." He flew up and away towards Smallville, where Lex's mansion was.

Clark entered to see Green Arrow and a figure that looked like a Bat fighting off about 30 guards in the mansion. Clark super sped and knocked out all the men unconscious in a matter of seconds. Clark stood still in front of them and turned to face Green Arrow and Batman. Green Arrow put away his compound bow and stared at Clark for a while. "It's been a while Superman."

Clark nodded, "Indeed it has, Green Arrow." They shook hands.

Clark turned to Batman and nodded, Batman held out his hand, "It's good to finally meet you. You have no idea just how much I know about you."

Clark looked at him suspiciously and shook his hand, with a firm grip, "Thanks I guess?"

Bruce smirked, Green arrow started, "Come on! We don't have time to stand around!"

They both nodded at the archer and started to go down the corridors of the mansion. Their path was blocked by Brainiac himself. Clark stepped in front of the other two and said, "You two go find Lois. I'll take care of him." Green Arrow nodded and headed down the other way.

Lois opened her eyes to find herself sitting on a chair with her hands tied behind her back and her legs tied as well. She lifted up her head as she recovered from being knocked out. She noticed her surrounding and found herself in a dark room with two other men. Lois shook herself and tried to break free. She kept struggling but nothing would help. The two guards smirked at her failed attempt to break free. Lois was starting to get annoyed, "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU! UNTIE ME YOU BASTARDS!"

"Careful Ms. Lane. You should watch that mouth of yours or else the last thing you'll see is your own breath."

Lois smirked, "You think you can scare me? I'm an army brat and I've been through hell and back." As she was speaking she managed to break her legs free off the ropes. As soon as she felt the rope loosen up she stood up and spun around, knocking out one of the guards and she ran backwards and smashed the chair on the other guard against a wall. When she walked forward, she tripped on the rope still tangled around her legs. She fell flat on her face. She felt her head knocked against the cold floor again, another guard grabbed a chunk of her hair and made her face him.

He pointed his gun at her forehead and said, "You'll pay for that bitch!" Lois swallowed hard and shut her eyes, thinking about nothing but her son.

She heard a bang as the door exploded off its hinges. The guard fell forward as he was on top of Lois. "Get off me!" Lois yelled as she rolled him off. She looked up to see Green arrow and Batman enter the room.

They enter to see both me on the ground unconscious, Green Arrow ran up to Lois, "Nice work legs!" he untied her hands as she finally broke free.

Lois made out a smile, "Thank you. But these walls would've been painted with my brain if you hadn't shown up a second sooner."

Green Arrow cupped her face and hugged her, "I'm so glad you're safe! You have no idea how worried we were. And you'll never guess who's helped us-"

"Ahem!" Bruce cleared his throat to shut Oliver up. Lois looked up at Bruce.

"What's going on?" Lois said with suspicion in her tone.

"Nothing. We needa get out of here." Bruce spoke and started to pick up Lois when she stopped him.

"Don't worry, I can get up on my own. I just need help." She put her arm around Batman who helped her stand up.

Green Arrow chuckled, "Always the stubborn one."

Lois rolled her eyes and they made their way out of the mansion.

Chloe was waiting outside with her car as she was pacing back and forth. No one had answered their pages. She rolled her eyes at the fact that no one would follow the system. She turned to see fire erupting in the mansion. Her heart started racing. What was going on? For some reason, she was starting to feel calm. The emotions she was feeling from the mansion were, clam, relief, joy. At that feeling, Chloe herself became happy. Everything was okay in there. She could feel it. She smiled to herself. There were some perks to being an empath.

Chloe suddenly heard a whoosh of air around her, she turned to see someone she hadn't seen in 4 years. Her eyes widened when she saw Clark and Kara walk up to her together. Chloe felt tears in her eyes as she ran as fast as she could towards Clark. She jumped on him and embraced him with so much love. "Clark! I'm so happy you're here."

She finally let go of him and went to hug Kara, "Thank you Kara!"

"Thank YOU Chloe." Clark spoke for the first time. It felt good to hear his voice again. Clark continued, "Without you, Kara wouldn't have brought me back. You never gave up trying."

Chloe grinned, "Clark I can't believe it's really you!" She hugged him again. She pulled back, "What happened in there?"

Kara responded, "We fought off Brainiac and transported him to the Phantom Zone. He won't be back again."

Chloe sighed of relief, "Thank god! And Lex?"

"It looks like he fled the scene before we got there." Clark replied.

"That explains the helicopter that flew away right before we got here." Said Chloe.

Chloe saw three figures behind Clark walking up to them. Lois stopped flat on her tracks when she saw the red and blue figure in front of her. Her eyes went so wide that they were ready to fly out of its sockets. Clark turned around to see her again. Standing right before him was the love of his life. She looked very different than the last time he saw her. Her hair was short like a bob cut. Clark swallowed hard, he never felt as happy as he was at that moment. Chloe ran up to Oliver and kissed him briefly, "Well done hero." They smiled at each other, and noticed Lois' expression as she was facing Clark. Frozen in her tracks.

Clark gulped but finally spoke for the first time, "Lois.."

"What's going on?" Lois spat out breathing loud and hard, "What's he doing here?"

Clark was hurt the way Lois addressed him, Chloe spoke, "Lois it was me. We asked him to come back and-"

"You.." Lois started, looking at Clark, "You left me.."

Chloe started to breathe loud and hard like Lois as well, "Ow..." Chloe said under her breath, squeezing Oliver's arm.

"Chloe what's wrong?" Chloe started wincing, shaking her head at him. Oliver started to get worried at her reaction.

Sirens were heard from a distance heading their way, "We gotta get out of here" Chloe said and started walking towards the car with Oliver and Bruce but Lois didn't move. "Ahhh!" Chloe looked like she had just gotten winded she grasped her chest.

"Chloe what's wrong!" Oliver sounded worried, crouching over her.

Chloe kept breathing hard, "I-it's Lois..." Everyone started looking at Lois, who swallowed and took a step back at all the eyes on her. Clark never stopped looking back at her and her eyes never left his, but they were hard, and cold. "Her heart is b-breaking..." gasped Chloe. The pain was so much for Chloe to handle. Her empath powers were taking over.

Clark looked at Chloe and back at Lois. He took a step towards her, "Lois-"

"Don't!" She pointed a finger towards him, "Stay away from me!"

"I promise I will explain everything but right now we need to go home." Clark gestured his hands towards her.

Lois narrowed her eyes, "Home? We don't have a home. You left us!"

Clark hesitated and looked back at Chloe, Chloe pushed him, "Clark talk to her!" she said with frustration as her heart kept aching, she leaned on Oliver for support.

Clark turned his attention back to Lois, "I didn't have a choice" He said sternly. "I needed to leave because knowing my identity would put you at risk. It's not something that I wanted it's something that just happened." His tone got gentle.

"Yeah see I know all of this. Why couldn't I remember it?" Everyone looked at each other very confused. Lois continued, "The first week you left, I started forgetting you. Forgetting why you really left and how much it affected MY son."

Clark winced, "It's because I asked Jor-El to... suppress your grief. So you wouldn't have to." Lois blinked, "Your anger and pain clouded your judgment to be a mother for Chri-"

"Don't you dare say his name!" Clark held his breath, Lois continued with a cold look, "So you took my feelings away?"

"NO. Never. I just... I just didn't want you to deal with it all at once, you didn't deserve that."

Lois huffed, "Yes well, feeling it, then shutting it off, and then feeling it AGAIN didn't help me either."

Clark was confused, Kara spoke up, "I told Jor-El to reverse whatever he did to her Clark." Clark turned around to face her. Kara gulped, "I had to Clark. She's human. She isn't supposed to shut it off that wasn't your choice to make. It turns out it was a lot for her to handle again, but she managed to get through it."

Chloe shook her head and whispered to herself, still in pain, "No she hasn't."

Bruce spoke up, "Listen I don't wanna rush this.. but we have to go." Hearing the sirens get louder.

"I have to second that." Oliver said.

Clark looked back at Lois with pleading eyes, but she wouldn't look at him, she looked down, shaking her head of disbelief, putting her hands on her hips. Clark sighed and turned to walk away. Chloe and Lois made eye contact, Lois had cold eyes full of hatred, it projected into Chloe. All of her emotions she has hidden so well for four years had went into Chloe, she had no control of her body anymore, Lois' emotions were in control now. Chloe now had the same cold eyes Lois did, she stood up straight with a look of hatred, "You bastard!"

Clark turned around to see Chloe facing him.

"Chloe?" Oliver called out her name but she didn't respond.

"How dare you do this to me. To our son!"

"Chloe?" Clark called out her name, but he could see she wasn't Chloe anymore. It was Lois, her same eyes in Chloe's.

Chloe continued, "We had a life together. A family! And you destroyed it! You destroyed me!" Clark looked behind Chloe, to Lois, who took a step back, her lips parted at the shock of what Chloe was saying, was exactly what she was thinking for four years. Clark didn't stop staring back at Lois. Chloe continued, "You left me alone to raise our son by myself! How could you do this! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!" Chloe raised her hand into a fist and punched Clark, she kept punching him over and over again. Even though Clark couldn't feel it, it still hurt ten times as much as it did. Because that's how Lois had been feeling the whole time. Because of him. Lois squeezed her eyes shut and her lips trembled. Chloe raised her fist again but froze in mid air. She relaxed her hand and spun around to face Lois. Chloe was breathing hard, "I-I don't feel Lois anymore."

Lois swallowed hard as everyone stood staring back at her. Kara tilted her head and had tears in her eyes. Oliver took a deep breath, he took off his sunglasses and put down his hood and walked up to Lois. He was a couple feet away from her and pulled her into a hug. She didn't hug him back, she didn't dare feel anything because she knows Chloe will express it. "C'mon." Said Oliver, "Let's go home." Lois looked down and nodded and he led her to Chloe's car. Everyone followed in silence except Clark and Kara. Clark stood by himself and watched the car drive away. He choked back a sob in the back of his throat, and felt Kara's hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's go to my place." Clark didn't respond, he kept looking where the car had driven off to. Kara sighed, "Give it some time Kal-El. She didn't see you coming... ever again." Clark nodded, together they flew back to Kara's house, which was the Kent farm in Smallville.