HELLO! Look who's back!
I'm sure that several of you doubted I would ever update again, but I promised that I would never abandon the story, didn't I? I know it has been a very, very long time since I updated. But I'm really glad that I waited to write all of season six before I began uploading because please believe me when I say that the chapters are so much better than if I had uploaded as I went.
I'm so excited to finally be able to share with you all of the ideas I had for this particular season and show how much Emmeline has grown and how much I have grown as a writer with her.
Enjoy season six!
Emmeline felt as if the world was closing in on her.
Half of her mind was trying to fight while the other half was shutting down as a way to mentally protect her from what was happening.
"Em!" Chloe screamed, somewhat bringing her back to her senses. "Emmeline!"
Emmeline looked over and saw one of the many looters on the street grabbing Chloe from behind. The sight of her best friend in trouble sent a fresh wave of adrenaline through her, and she once again began fighting back against the people attacking her as hard and as frantically as she could. She didn't care what she did or where her arms or legs ended up as long as they made contact with someone and got the looters to release her.
Just when she felt like she was about to be overwhelmed and possibly assaulted, a man in a suit that stood out against the ratty beanies and hoodies punched one of her attackers in the face and kicked the others until they backed off.
Lionel grabbed her arm and quickly ushered her towards the LuthorCorp building while the man who had fought off the looters helped Chloe limp inside behind them.
The three of them ran up to the roof just in time to see Lex jump into the air with Lana in his arms.
Emmeline couldn't believe this was happening. Lex was now the vessel for pure Kryptonian power and he had taken Lana with him to do who-knew-what with her. Where was Clark? Was he okay? What had happened to him?
"That was him, wasn't it?" Chloe asked down in Lionel's office. "That was Zod."
"Clark must not have been able to get to Lex in time to-to stop him," Lionel answered as he retrieved a gun from underneath his desk. "Zod has taken over Lex."
"Clark," she whispered in horror. "You don't think Zod actually…"
"It's the dagger. The dagger that Jor-El gave to Clark. It might still be there at the farm. We can use that to stop Zod."
"You mean kill him. Kill Lex."
Lionel grimaced, trying to think of any other possible option that didn't include him having to murder his only son.
Chloe realized he didn't like the idea any more than she did. "I'll make my way to the Daily Planet and see if I can learn anything else about this Kryptonian virus that's shutting everything down. I mean, maybe if I can match those symbols to the ones that you were scribbling—"
"That won't help us," Lionel lamented as he crashed down onto a chair. "We need Clark to decipher them."
"But you're Jor-El's Oracle. I mean, don't you have access to some sort of Kryptonian-English dictionary?"
"The connection that I felt with Jor-El and the Fortress…it's gone. I can't feel his presence anymore. But if we can get to that dagger, we can stop Zod. We can stop all of this."
"I can't make it back to Smallville with my leg like this."
"I can," Emmeline said. "I'll go with you."
Lionel nodded and stood up before slowly handing Chloe his handgun. "Here. You take care, Miss Sullivan."
"You too, Mr. Luthor."
Emmeline tightly hugged the blonde. "Please be careful."
"I will. Promise me you'll be safe."
"I think we both know I can't promise that."
"Yeah, but I'd feel better if you said it anyway."
"Then I promise I'll be safe."
Chloe pulled away, nervously biting her lip as she watched Emmeline walk out the door with Lionel. "…Clark, wherever you are, we could really use your help right now."
Lionel and Emmeline raced into the barn at the Kent home and found Martha kneeling in the middle of it holding the very knife they were looking for.
"Martha," Lionel said breathlessly, rushing to her side. "Martha. You're all right."
Martha nodded and looked over at Emmeline. She gently touched her cheek which reminded Emmeline of her own mother's touch she missed so much. "I'm glad you're okay. Is Chloe—?"
"She's fine," Emmeline answered. "But she got a little hurt so she stayed at the Daily Planet while we came here."
Martha gingerly held the knife in her hand as she looked up at Lionel. "Your son…Lex—"
"I know, I know," Lionel said quietly. "I know what I have to do. I…I…"
Unable to finish the thought, he tightly hugged Martha. She sympathetically rubbed his back. She couldn't even begin to comprehend how he was feeling. Despite everything he'd done, Lionel still loved his son, however twisted that love was.
"Where's Clark?"
Emmeline turned at the sound of Lana's voice. When she saw her covered in a light sheen of sweat and tears forming in her eyes, she quickly rushed over to her and put her hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?" She gently held up her bandaged hand that had blood leaking through it. "What happened to you?"
Lana clenched her jaw. "I'm fine."
"I don't know where Clark is," Martha told her.
"I heard him talking to Chloe and Em about killing Lex. I didn't understand what was happening."
"You heard us?" Emmeline asked.
"Yes. I thought Clark was just being paranoid as usual, but now…"
"Lana, where's Lex?" Lionel said firmly. "We have to find him."
"It's too late. The things he can do now, I don't think there's anyone on Earth who can stop him."
"There might be," Martha said as she held up the Kryptonian knife. "I have to kill him with this."
"You would never get close enough to even use that. But I can. A lot of people are going to die if you don't let me do this. It's the only way."
"Lana, are you sure about this?" Emmeline asked. "We're talking about taking the life of someone you care about very deeply."
Lana clutched the knife in her good hand. "He's not someone I care about anymore."
Shortly after Lana left, the ground began to rumble. It started softly but quickly began to grow in power. At first, Emmeline thought that another meteor shower was on their hands which wasn't totally out of the realm of possibility, but it had been less than a year since the last one and they had only just finished making repairs from the damage that one had caused. The town couldn't take another event like that so soon.
No meteors started hurling towards them, but the ground shook more and more and the barn started to crumble around them. Martha quickly shielded Emmeline while Lionel shielded the both of them.
Each time they tried to make it out the door, something else fell and blocked their path.
The first landing to the loft broke away from its supports and began to fall on top of them.
They all fell to the ground, everyone trying to shield one another from the impact, but the impact never came.
Emmeline looked up and saw Clark holding the landing to prevent it from crushing any of them. She met his eyes and gave him a relieved smile, but she could see that whatever had happened in his absence since the night before was already weighing on him.
"Clark," Martha breathed.
"Where is he?" Clark demanded.
No one needed to ask who 'he' was.
Clark must've managed to free Lex from Zod because the ground stopped shaking, and the Kryptonian virus spreading throughout the country abruptly stopped. Power restored to the major cities and all of the electronic devices started working again. Gradually, the looting stopped when the police were finally able to intervene.
Emmeline ran inside her house. "Dad?!"
Her father quickly hurried to the door.
"Are you okay?" she asked him.
"Yeah, everything's fine here. I thought we were about to have another meteor shower there."
"Yeah, so did I."
"What about you? Where have you been? I was worried."
"Okay, don't freak out, but…I was kind of…in Metropolis when the whole thing started."
Her father's eyes widened in horror. "How can you tell me something like that and not expect to freak out?! Are you all right? Did anyone hurt you?"
"Dad, I'm fine, I promise. I've taken self-defense lessons, remember? Though granted…it's kind of been a while since I took those classes."
"Not helping."
"The point is that I'm okay. And I wasn't alone. Chloe was with me."
"Is she all right?"
"She hurt her leg in the chaos, but other than that, she's totally fine."
"Did you happen to find out what caused this whole mess?"
Emmeline bit her lip, wondering what she should say. She absolutely hated lying to her father, but how could she tell him that the reason behind the worldwide power outage and riots was because of an alien virus designed to get rid of Clark and bring back a long-deceased alien dictator?
"No," she told him. "No idea."
Early the next morning, Emmeline arrived at the Daily Planet just as Clark did. She ran up to him and enveloped him into a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're okay," she smiled. "After the craziness of yesterday, I never even got to say how happy I was to see you."
Clark smiled back. "You and me both."
"How did you manage to stop Zod and save Lex? I heard that he got out of the situation mostly unscathed, but I thought that the only way to stop him was to kill him."
"Let's just say I had a little help from my father."
"So Jor-El actually came through this time?"
"Yes. And no."
"You're always so cryptic."
Clark laughed, and the two of them stepped inside the Daily Planet.
The second Chloe saw them, she ran over and wrapped her arms around Clark's neck. "…I thought you were dead."
"Hi," Clark smiled. "Um…so did I…for a while there."
"What happened? Where did you go?"
"A place I never want to go again."
"Why?" Emmeline asked. "What kind of place was it?"
"It was called the Phantom Zone. It's an intergalactic prison that houses the worst criminals in the universe."
"I can see why a return trip wouldn't be ideal."
"Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah," Chloe smiled. "Everything's great now that you're here." She tightly hugged him again, thankful that he was alive and breathing before her. The last 12 hours where she hadn't known if he was okay had been an absolute nightmare.
"Um…Chloe…" Clark began as he pulled back. "Before I left…there was this moment that we, um…"
"You mean when I laid one on you? Don't worry, Clark. It was the end of the world. It's not like I'm expecting us to hook up."
"Um…yeah, me-me neither."
Emmeline mentally face-palmed. If she had a dollar for every time these two shared a beautiful moment together and then proceeded to sweep it under the rug like it was no big deal…
"Hey, bright eyes," a young man wearing a red shirt with a camera around his neck smiled as he joined them.
"Hey," Chloe smiled back.
"Oh, bad time?"
"No, uh…I was just talking to a friend."
Emmeline suppressed an eye-twitch when she saw how Clark reacted to the word 'friend'. Why on earth could the two of them not own up to how they really felt about each other? It was clear they had chemistry and it had been clear for five years.
Though, she supposed she wasn't really one to talk. And if she truly did have feelings for him, then shouldn't she be happy that Clark and Chloe weren't actually getting together?
The young man's eyes widened a little as he looked at Clark. "Whoa. Grow 'em big in Kansas, don't they?"
"I'm sorry," Chloe quickly apologized. "Jimmy Olsen, this is Clark Kent and Emmeline Brooks."
Jimmy politely shook their hands. "Actually, it's, uh…James Olsen."
"Really? Since when?"
"Oh, since…now-ish."
Chloe giggled. Giggled. Clark and Emmeline shared a knowing look.
"You want to grab some dinner at the vending machine?"
"Love to…James." After staring at Jimmy for a second, she shook her head and turned to the two of them. "Uh, are either of you hungry?"
Jimmy lost his smile and quickly deflated, something that did not escape either of their notice.
"No, we're-we're okay," Clark answered for them. "You guys go ahead."
"Catch ya later, C.K, Em."
They both watched the pair head off to the vending machine to grab some snacks.
"Twenty bucks says they're dating within three months," Emmeline stated.
"Chloe?" Clark answered. "No way. She doesn't fall for people that fast. You're on."
What Clark didn't know was that she had the advantage on this one. Chloe had previously told her that she and Jimmy had already gotten pretty…close once before back during her summer internship in high school. It wouldn't be so much of a surprise if they started dating.
Maybe that would be good for both her…and for Emmeline.
