Lois was gone. Captain Luthor cursed. Didn't she know by now that he was only trying to protect her? He thought back to another time she didn't think she needed his protection. It had cost her dearly.
"That's not Superman," she said quietly after they'd literally just watched him take down a building with his heat vision from their bedroom window.
"Really? That's the best you've got? I've listened to you defend that alien time and time again, but that was Superman. And apparently there's more of them. Not such an extinct race after all. We've got to go somewhere safe."
Natalie was frightened, frozen stiff, and she soothed her. "Get only the things you need. Your father's right. It would be better if we were somewhere else. This is a war, but we're Lanes, survivors. You hear me?"
It snapped Natalie out of her daze. Superman had been like an uncle to her, unwanted as far as he was concerned and weird but doting. She loved him and thought the world of him much like Lois had. This was a terrible shock to her, this evil side he possessed. He wished he could say he was more surprised, but he'd never lost sight of the fact that Superman wasn't human.
Lois, to her credit, didn't try to argue his goodness again until he was called in from the reserves as he knew he would be.
"Why do you have to do this?" she'd pleaded.
"Why do you think? I'm trying to save the world that your inhumane friend from outer space is bent on destroying."
"Don't hurt him, Alex. Please."
He laughed. "Us hurt him? You better pray the brave men and women that face him down escape with their lives. We are going to be sitting ducks. We need a miracle."
Despite their disagreement, she let him hold her in his arms, and she said, "Come back to me."
It was her lips on his, but even before finding out they were romantically linked, he'd wondered afterward if the words had been for him or Superman.
sss
Attacking was a loose word. It was like Superman was having a fight with himself. Destruction was definitely happening though. They all cringed as a street light went down and sparks flew, but no one was hurt.
He would start to fly upward, eyes glowing, and then come down again as a parked car was flattened.
"He is possessed," Sam said. "Lois, I need you and the boys to get out of here. You won't want to watch what I'm about to do."
"No," she said, grabbing his arm as if that was enough to keep him from firing with the weapon he'd made from kryptonite. "Can't you see that he's struggling against whoever is inside him trying to take over?"
"I see it, but none of victims were ever successful in beating this on their own, and unfortunately, his guest doesn't seem to want to operate covertly like the others did to give us time. The army has to take him down now, and I have to protect the people I swore to serve."
"Let me talk to him. I can help. I can get through to him."
He was reluctant. She could see it in his eyes. He was torn between his duties as a general and his responsibility as a father. She knew which of those things usually won out, but he sighed. "I can give you a couple minutes. That's it."
"That's all I need." She went charging in, determined to help. Her husband's life depended on it.
He saw her and said in such distress and fear that it broke her heart, "Lois, get away from me!"
"No, I'm proving to you that you won't hurt me. You are stronger than any consciousness of someone long dead; you can beat this for me, for our sons, but you have to get out of here. My father will do whatever it takes to bring you down even if it means killing you."
She wasn't sure who heard her, Clark or whoever was inside him, but the message was heeded, and he disappeared instantly.
It was a small victory, she knew. The army would find him again, but it bought him more time to battle. What worried her most right now though was that Captain Luthor was running loose somewhere, and he wouldn't have the mercy that her father had.