A/N: The mystery continues... we have some chapters still to come to solve this. I just wanted you guys to know I don't intent to leave anything unanswered. One step at a time. So, questions and thoughts are always nice so I can be sure I am tying all loose ends.
Thank you to all those who read and reviewed. You guys are awsome.
CHAPTER 11:
Lex Luthor had struggled with his dual identity for a long time. And though the two different parts of him had seen victorious battles over the years, they had never been able to win the war, one way or another. In recent months, though, Lex couldn't deny that the darker part of his soul had been gaining dominance. It was not that he found himself to be evil, exactly. But his actions as of late would paint him more as a villain and less as a hero.
His days of wanting to be a hero were long passed, though.
He closed the file the less than honorable detective he had hired had presented and turned to face one of his personal guards. If he had been a villain in a comic book, they could as well be referred to as minions. Lex was amused by that thought.
"I am a very curious man. And as such, I have to know all the answers." Lex sobered up and his dead serious face made clear just how successful this mission was supposed to be. "Bring me Lois Lane. Leave no traces of who took her and that she was even taken. And be quick about it."
The man, simply known as Krychek - for Lex preferred it that way - nodded curtly and left.
Lois had been acting strange lately and a suspicious occurrence involving dancing lights above the Talon had been witnessed by the hired detective. That nosy reporter was messing with something and Lex wanted... no, needed to know what it could possibly mean.
xxxxxx
It was just as the dawn was breaking through the horizon, that Clark startled awake, that ever present drumming in his ears growing louder and more insistent. He knew not what it meant and where it was coming from, but one thing he was sure of.
Something bad was happening.
And as his own racing heart slowly calmed, the beating falling again to its usual rhythm, Clark realized that the sound he had been constantly hearing, hadn't been a drumming, but the drum of sequential heart beats echoing in his ear.
He frowned at that realization and wondered whose heart it was and what it all could possibly mean. Jor-El had put him through some strange trials in the past and not been forthcoming with explanations either.
He tried to focus and locate the heartbeat's point of origin, but it seemed the sound came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
Clark would have to wait and see how it would all play out.
He hated waiting.
xxxxx
Chole stared at the desk across from hers in distaste. The chair stood empty and though the surface of the desk - a veritable mess - might have normally indicated some work had been done on it that day, she knew well how messy Lois could be.
She hadn't seen her cousin last night or this morning, Lois having already left when Chloe had woken up. The only indication, in fact, that she had been there at all that morning, had been the fresh jar of coffee and the dirty mug left inside the sink. Her bed had been made and the shower was still slightly damp. Chloe had naturally assumed she would meet up with Lois at the Planet.
It was almost lunch time, though, and the blond had yet to see any sign of her cousin.
She was preparing to grab some quick lunch in the form of a sandwich from the vendor across the street, when her boss, Grant, appeared, casting a shadow over her own much tidier desk.
"Sullivan, is Lane working on a piece I should know about? I haven't seen her all morning. Or is she down with something again?" The way he almost sneered at the last question made clear to Chloe how much he had not believed that Lois had been ill during her absence the previous week.
"I haven't seen her or know of any case she is working on. Lois likes to keep it close to the chest." There was bitterness to her tone and she should have felt like a hypocrite to be criticizing her cousin when she herself carried so many secrets. Chloe couldn't hear her own voice, though, and failed to notice it.
Grant, however, heard it loud and clear, and refrained from asking further questions. He sensed a rivalry between the two woman and doubted Lois had confided anything to her cousin.
It was as he was strolling through the bullpen, checking up on other reporters that the memory of his last conversation with Lex came to mind. The other man had been nothing but a good friend to Grant, but something about him still put his instincts on alert. And his sudden interest in Lois had been mighty suspicious.
Grant paused in the middle of the busy basement and frowned.
Lex wouldn't.
xxxxx
It actually took the sun setting and her return to their apartment over the Talon for Chloe to start feeling like something was off with her cousin's absence. The eerie silence of the apartment as she entered caused goosebumps up and down her spine. Something wasn't quite right.
Chloe placed her key in the bowl by the entrance and that's when she noticed the keys already inside.
"Lois?"
The silence remained. Calmly, for there was no need to panic, yet, Chloe searched the small apartment for signs of her cousin's presence. Everything, however, was exactly as she had left them before heading to work this morning. Except for the fact that Lois hadn't shown up for work in the morning or afternoon.
Absentmindedly, Chloe wandered the apartment, willing her memory to yield some reason or explanation for Lois's absence. Something she was going to do. Something which would have prompted a trip out of town. Something... anything! Still, her memory had little to add. And the heavy weight on her chest made her worry that Lois had gotten into trouble. Knowing about Jor-El, the crystal and this whole 'destiny' nonsense that had been plaguing them of late, Chloe worried even more.
Where are you, Lo?
Unbidden, the memory of an older Chloe sitting in front of a computer, crying and searching for Lois replayed in her mind. Her already uneasy emotions went into a downward spiral, coming very close to outright panic. Was this it? Was this what destiny had planed? Or was this what had gone wrong?
Her heart raced and again she focused on finding something off with their apartment. Anything!
As she walked frantically about, Chloe started noticing things her sleep addled morning brain had been too quick to dismiss. First, there was the shower. Though the mirror had been damp before she herself had gotten in, it was much too tidy. Lois was messy with the curtains, the shampoo bottles and her towel when half asleep.
Frowning, she searched more thoroughly, noticing further details that were off. Like the mug in the sink, which still had half the coffee inside. Lois only threw coffee away when it was bad or cold. And, sometimes, not even then. The coffee maker also brought suspicion. The thing had its timer on, a set Lois had never been able to master.
Desperation slowly started bubbling up. The sight of Lois' clothes from the day before inside the hamper, instead of being thrown about, the missing PJ's her cousin had surely worn to bed, the bed itself, sloppily made... Lois was not really in the habit of making her bed, but on the rare occasions she did do it, the result was a military precision the General couldn't have found fault in.
The evidence piled up and they didn't paint a pretty picture. This smelled of cover up and only heaven knew why.
It wasn't all this which made her stomach drop, though. No, it actually took the sight of the mysterious crystal lying by Lois' bed, glowing red, to make her feel nauseous.
Red couldn't be good, right?
Something had happened and Chloe was almost sure it was not supposed to happen this way.
With fingers fumbling and air leaving her lungs in almost panic bursts, Chloe hit speed dial and called Clark. Her cousin was missing and the crystal was trying to say something.
Pick up!
xxxxx
Lex had been expecting many a result from the simple and the sophisticated tests he had ordered done on Lois Lane. He had allowed his fast paced mind to conjure all sorts of scenarios, ranging from the strange to the simply unexplained. Her association with Clark Kent made her condition even more important. To find, then, that what ailed her was simple and quite ordinary was majorly disappointing.
He stood before her gurney, watching as she continued to sleep, drugs being steadily fed into her system by an IV attached to the back of her hand. It wouldn't do to have her waking up unexpectedly. She looked peaceful, thus, and the lack of the suspicious glare she often sent his way made her beautiful indeed. He had, of course, noticed how naturally attractive she had always been, but there was something about her present state - fragile and still - that made him see her with new eyes.
Maybe...
Not now, though. Other, more pressing matter, demanded his attention.
The only thing that remained was the decision of what to do with his patient. Should he have her disposed, taking one more thing from Clark's life? Should he have her delivered back to her apartment, none the wiser? Lex could be a compassionate man when it suited his interests. Her sudden disappearance could also mean that undue attention could - and likely would - be called upon himself. Clark Kent seemed to think him culpable for every wrong thing in the world these days.
That wouldn't do at all.
Convinced that simply releasing her to her own care would wash his hands clean of any involvement, Lex walked away, banishing her from his thoughts completely.
"Get her home..."
xxxxxx
Clark came into the room seconds after Chloe had spoken the dreaded words of Lois' strange disappearance in a swirl of wind. He scanned the place and then turned to face Chloe, acutely aware of the crystal she held in her hand.
"What happened, Chloe?"
"I don't know..." Her lips were trembling, or maybe it was her whole body doing the trembling. "I didn't see her last night, but I thought I had heard her come in late. And then I didn't see her this morning, but I figured she had already left for work. Only she didn't show up at work at all. And when I got home, I started noticing all these little things... the bed, the coffee machine, the clothes, the bathroom, the m..."
"Chloe!" Clark had grabbed her shoulders gently, but steadily, willing her to breathe and calm down. The last thing they needed was to have a panic attack. Both of them. "Have you tried her cell? Called anyone?"
"Yes!" Chloe breathed in deeply. "Yes. I've been trying to reach her all day. And nobody's seen her today at all." She put her hand over his arm, making sure his attention was focused on her words. "This smells of a cover up, Clark. Someone wanted to make me believe Lois left here voluntarily this morning. Someone has Lois and doesn't want us to know about it."
He nodded, taking all of her words in. The tall man took the time to look at all the things his friend had mentioned as being off in the apartment. Having lived with Lois for some time, he came to the same conclusion Chloe had.
"And the crystal?"
"It was here and it was like this, glowing red. It hasn't done anything else."
Now, it was a true understatement to say that Clark hated that piece of kryptonian technology. It had brought him and those he loved nothing but grief. Some things were more important than his aversion to the crystal, though, and Lois' safety was high on that list.
So, without giving it a second thought, he reached for the it and took it from Chloe's grasp. Immediately, the red light changed to blue, and a scene appeared. The ground was concrete, the rain could be seen falling - though the drops made no impact upon them - and a very darkly dressed and very wounded Clark lay upon the hard ground. A sharp, blue glowing knife was buried deep in his stomach.
"You're bleeding", Chloe whispered, entranced by the scene.
For a moment, the scene remained unchanged, making Clark shift uncomfortably. He had no real desire to see his own death play out. Footsteps started echoing around them, fast paced and frantic. Someone was coming. Wide eyed, Clark and Chloe saw Lois appear, her hair wet and plastered to her head. She didn't hesitate on seeing Clark on the street bleeding. In fact, she made a straight line in his direction, dropping by his side, as if that had been her intention all along. With loving and worried hands, she tried to rouse the fallen man, calling his name and suppressing sobs.
Now, both Clark and Chloe knew that if the knife were to be removed and thrown far away, the fallen man was more than likely to heal and awake. Lois didn't know that, unfortunately. Or so they had thought. As if listening to their prompting, Lois pulled the knife away and tossed it across the street, losing it from sight. Wounded Clark showed no reaction.
"Oh, Clark..." The hope Lois' appearance in this scene had brought disintegrated. It seemed the crystal was truly showing his own death. Chloe seemed to come to the same conclusion.
After what seemed like an eternity, Lois persistence was rewarded. Her Clark started to stir. Clearly overjoyed, she next did something that baffled her spectators... she ran and hid behind a crater near an alley.
The perspective of the scene changed to follow Lois and it was practically through her eyes, that they saw the black clad Clark gingerly rise to his feet. The wounds on his chest healing were clearly visible and then, his disappearance in a whoosh, was equally hard to ignore. Curious, Clark and Chloe both turned to look at Lois, to see her reaction. And, though she seemed awed, she didn't seem surprised.
She knew.
And he didn't know she knew.
The scene faded shortly after that.
"Wow... how? Why?" She breathed in deeply. "Why would she hide? We know she knows..." Chloe's question was met with silence and she curiously turned to face her companion. He seemed stuck within himself. "Clark?"
"Clark!"
He then started. "She was alive..." he said. "So that means..."
Chloe nodded, understanding his train of thought.
"You're right. She's okay." The thought was comforting, until another took its place. A much more frightening possibility. "But... she hid", Chloe reminded him. "She hid as if she knew about you and you didn't know about her knowing. Why?"
Sighs all around.
"This is not our future, Chloe. I think... I think this was either what was supposed to happen or what wasn't supposed to happen. But it seems almost impossible that this could be out future...", and here he turned his eyes to the crystal, which still glowed blue. "Jor-El said that You can take different paths... The future is not set in stone. But at the same time destiny must not be tampered with. Jor-El said that."
"So, we can get there many different ways, but the end result is always the same?" Chloe asked, placing a hand on Clark's arm to draw his attention back to her. "Even if that were true, Clark... how do we know where the finish line is at?"
"We don't."
Chloe sighed and pulled away, clearly swallowing her anger. "Lois said the same thing! And this doesn't help, Clark. Not at all!"
"No, Chloe, listen." He raised his eyes from the crystal. "Lois knew. In the vision, Lois knew and she managed to save my life because of it. If she hadn't known, she wouldn't... She wouldn't have pulled the knife, right?"
"Maybe..."
"So, she knew. But I wasn't the one to tell her. Maybe, what went wrong was not me or her dying. Maybe what went wrong was that Lois didn't find out for some reason..."
"That would have changed everything..." Chloe agreed, though still not a 100% certain that they should be trusting a mysterious crystal, without taking any kind of action.
"Exactly!"
"We don't know, though. Clark, this is all speculation. We don't know anything!"
"That's the point, Chloe. Maybe we are not supposed to know. Because knowing would alter the future too much. But the crystal is fixing things. It showed Lois about me and we don't even know what else it's doing to make sure things happen the way they are supposed to happen."
"And Lois? Where is she?"
"I don't know. But she is important, right? The crystal chose her, because she is important." He glanced at the crystal once more. "She has to be okay..."
It was exactly what she was trying to convey. "But the things we saw... The funeral with all the heroes we saw that first time... Lois' with her stomach bleeding. You... Me as a damn fighter with kryptonite weapons... Maybe none of us end up okay, Clark. Maybe that is the final destination."
"Too many deaths and despair..." Clark ran his hand through his hair. "Too much death."
His words were hollow in sound, echoing around them in a way that seemed ominous. His voice added to the hopelessness they transmitted. Seemed his life was filled with too much death and despair and Clark was growing weary of it.
Would it always be like this?
"I wish..." Anything further they might have been inclined to say or do was interrupted by the crystal's renewed activity. It glowed again, bright blue. Except that, this time, it projected no scene from the future. It actually showed nothing at all.
"Clark?" She became worried as she noticed how Clark's eyes glowed blue as well and that he was quite unresponsive. "Clark, can you hear me?"
Chloe was just reaching to touch his shoulder, when the light grew in intensity, blinding her completely. When it finally faded and her eyes managed to readjust to seeing again, Chloe saw her best friend flat on his back, unconscious.
He wouldn't rouse, no matter what she tried. And worst, she couldn't seem to pry the crystal from his grip.
Not knowing what to do, she grabbed her phone and called Lana. At least then, someone who knew of Clark's secret would be there to help her get through this mess. And soon, for Lois was still missing.
The proper question is not whether Lois is safe. But what her role is supposed to be and... what caused it to go astray? Thoughts?