Don't panic folks, all the characters will be in this at some point ;) Thank you so much everyone who has reviewed so far. Your kind words are appreciated!


A stream of voices first alerted the detective that he was no longer alone with Lois, and that he was now sprawled across her plush couch, shirt open. Please tell me she hasn't called the paramedics... Panicking, he tried dragging himself up before they could get another look at him, only to suddenly realize his tired brain recognized the intonation of the newcomers.

"Lex? Dr Klein?" The abrasive hollow edge to his own words scared him, as did the revelation that he had blacked out long enough for his two friends to be summoned and arrive.

"Clark, Thank God!" Lex turned from his intense conversation with Klein and almost bear hugged his long time chum. It was an action he would not let just anyone witness, because it implied a weakness to his business enemies he couldn't afford to show, but here, among these people, Lex revealed his softer side without reservation.

It was an emotion seconded by Lois. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" Gently she took a seat by his side. "When you didn't come around I knew you needed help, I'm sorry if it wouldn't have been your choice...but I had to do it..."

Lex's wicked smirk appeared. "She was frantic with worry about you Clark. Don't be too hard on her." Luthor patted the cop's shoulder, and then his face grew much more serious with what was to come next. "It's a good thing she called when she did though, this is a problem that isn't going to go away without help." The lilac shirted millionaire nodded to his head scientist to take over the narrative, and Klein looked stressed by the sudden attention, and by what he had to tell.

Rubbing his hands together in anxiety, the bespectacled doctor looked to his boss, then back to his patient. "I'd like you to come back with me to the labs to run some tests, but..."

"But?" Clark asked, although he really didn't need telling. Since the spray had first hit him, he had subconsciously known its deadly origins, and what it might take to 'cure' him. If I'm dying, then only the ship can help, like it saved me and mom...at least I hope... In his mind tiny doubts were already creeping in. In this world, nothing was absolute...except maybe death.

Klein swallowed hard, his graying moustache ticking with nervous dread. "Clark, I think you're dying from some sort of kryptonite engineered virus or toxin, and...and frankly I don't know what to do to fight it..."

Lois took her cop partner's hand and squeezed firmly, letting him know she was there for him, and that she wasn't giving up if Klein was. "Molly rang ten minutes ago with the preliminary results on our victim. Apparently he died from a heart attack, and it wasn't natural causes. His blood work shows an unknown toxin too...We can still beat this though Clark, don't you give in on me!"

No one spoke, no one moved. Even Lex looked to the floor in shaken silence. Of them all, it had seemed that Clark was destined to live the longest, to do great things for the world.

After awhile the failing detective sat forward, not willing to give in just yet to the pollution within him. He wished he could have said he didn't fear death, but alien or not, his thoughts were mortal and very real. Chloe, I can't leave Chloe like this... but if I'm to die, I want the man behind it before I go...

"I won't spend my last hours in a lab." He looked up to the doctor, then to Lex, "the answer to all of this is back in Smallville, back at the plant. I'm sure of it. And if not, at least I'll die at home with my family."

Lex licked his lips, his eyes abruptly showing no emotion. "You might be right, my contacts tell me Lucas has been spending a lot of time there just lately. Although as of yet they've supplied me with nothing concrete about his covert operations. If you go back there, you at least take Klein with you though? I'll pay for anything he thinks might help you, regardless of cost..."

"Where will you be?" Clark gazed his rich friend, wanting him to be there if the ship failed to save him.

"I'm not giving up on you, you'll come back from this Clark, and I just might know of another possible source of help to make sure you do." Luthor grabbed his Interceptor's keys and headed for the door, not wanting to waste one precious second.

Klein called him back with a heart rending speech. "Lex, I don't think anyone can do anything, maybe not even this things creator...It's been produced by one of the best bio-engineers I've ever seen, that much I can tell you without even going back to the lab..."

Lex didn't stop, his reply was simple. "Then I guess I need to find someone even better to get rid of it..."

As the door slammed shut with a hollow thump, Lois turned to her two remaining guests, a look of immense determination on her troubled face. "I'm coming with you; maybe we can solve this thing between us. We'll need to get Chloe back here too."

"No!" Clark's physical agony was abruptly beaten into submission by his mental torment, "I don't want Chloe told, not yet, not while there's a chance." The ship might still cure me...I just have to hold on, but I can't tell Lois that, she still doesn't know I'm anything more than a meteor freak...

Lane's brow knitted, but she didn't question his reasoning. "Clark she's your wife, she'd want to be with you!" His anguished expression made her say no more, and instead she looked to Klein. "Can you arrange a chopper back to Smallville? We need all the time we can get."

The fidgety bow-tied scientist bobbed his head in acknowledgment. "Lex has one on standby all the time at the airfield; I can drive us out right now."

"Okay, you two head on out there, and I'll catch you up. I'll need to call Captain Manning and make up a suitable excuse for our absence. Want me to call your parents and tell them we're on our way too?"

"Don't tell them everything just yet though," Kent's normally sparkling eyes beseeched, "just tell dad to go to the bank and make a special withdrawal, he'll understand." I can't let her know about the key and ship. I already burdened her with the truth about my gifts...

Lois didn't understand the cryptic message, but Kent gave her little time to query it. Grabbing Klein for support, he headed out into an early morning sunrise; one that may well be his last.

Lane watched him go, and partly hated herself for what she was about to do, but her unrequited secret love for him couldn't let him suffer this alone. Tugging out her cell phone, she gently parted her kitchen blind and watched Kent climb into Klein's Volkswagen, while she waited for a tone.

Pete Ross rolled over and glanced at his bedside clock, then groggily answered the chiming phone. "Aww man, days like this I wish I wasn't Mayor..." He grumbled as he sat upright, and checked exactly who the call was from. Seeing Detective Lane was the one to rouse him from his slumber, he abruptly became concerned. "Lois, is everything alright?"

Lane paused. When she had first been partnered with Clark, she had never met Metropolis' Mayor, nor had she had the urge too, politicians just weren't her forte. Since then however, Pete had convinced her on their numerous meetings, that honesty really was a virtue he still had, mayor or not. Now, for Clark's sake she owed him nothing less in return.

"It's Clark, he needs you Pete. He's dying..."

Pete wanted to laugh, wanted to tell her his alien farm boy chum couldn't die, but instead at Lois tearful tone he almost dropped the phone with trepidation. Ross knew she wasn't joking, Lois wasn't the type, and that could only leave one alternative. His voice shook as he asked the obvious questions. "Where are you? What's going on? I'm grabbing my coat..."

"Listen, I need a favor Pete. Can you find Chloe? Clark doesn't want her to know yet, but I know my cousin, she'll want to be with him. We'll be back in Smallville, I'll explain everything there." Sighing, Lois flipped her phone closed. She didn't have time for all the questions she was sure Pete was about to fire at her, and the only solution was to end the conversation, before it all became too much and she began to sob. A rogue tear already fell from her face, and she suspected it would be the first of many to come, on this the worst day of her life...


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Smallville Four Hours Earlier...
A Back Road Near The Luthorcorp Plant

The armored, black Rolls Royce sat amongst the blowing tumbleweeds, blending in perfectly with the dark Kansas night. It hadn't moved for over an hour, while its influential occupant watched trucks trundle to and fro from Lucas Luthor's latest venture. The mini-tankers bore no markings, no company insignia, but then their cargo was far too deadly to acknowledge with a logo.

Vuong Ishii Kazuku needn't have visited the site personally to watch, but when he suspected a double cross, he liked to deal with the individual face-to-face. There was no evidence yet that Lucas was reneging on their deal, but it was also clearly apparent he had staged Tanner's murder back in Metropolis, and had the full intent of framing Kazuku and his people for it.

Vuong tapped the Plexiglas that separated the driver's compartment. "Move in closer, no lights..."

The huge car slid forward, and satisfied he had a better view, Kazuku resettled himself to his thoughts. Spies deep within Luthorcorp were suggesting Luthor would sell the merchandise to the highest bidder, despite his agreement that Vuong should be the sole recipient. From all these truck movements, Luthor was looking more and more capable of doing just that. Terrorists may bid the highest in cold hard cash Lucas, but in the end you shall be the one to pay the highest price with your life, should you deceive me.

A vision of carving up his business partner, inch by inch, with a finely crafted blade made Kazuku's tanned features grin with pleasure. No one stood in his way, ever, and that meant Lucas and all who consorted with him...


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The Kent Farm

Martha Kent hurried around the kitchen, busying herself with all the daily chores she had come to do routinely each day. Dishes needed washing, meals needed preparing, and produce orders needed making up, ready for her husband to deliver.

To the untrained eye, she carried about her business as if nothing was wrong, but to Jonathan she was the most frantic he had ever seen her. Gently he moved beside her as she worked and wrapped a loving arm around her waist, pulling her head to his chest with his free hand.

He gulped involuntarily. "It's time I made the trip into town honey, but don't worry, I'm sure Clark has a perfectly innocent reason for wanting the key."

Martha gazed up into his eyes, and he was reminded of the day they had once been told they'd never have kids. It was the same devastated look that was on her face now. "Then why didn't he make the call himself?" Martha dug her hands tightly into Jonathan's shirt, needing him to reassure her. "Why are they using a helicopter to fly out here?"

"Mom?" Karyn Kent's innocent form padded into the room, somehow sensing her mother's distress, and wanting to understand it. When Martha didn't reply she looked up to Jonathan for answers, her tiny forehead wrinkling as she raised a brow. "What's wrong Dad?"

"Nothing Sweetie," Jonathan tenderly pried from Martha's grasp, and bent his tall frame low enough to look his daughter in the eye. "I'm just going into town. What say you come with me in the pickup, give your mom a few minutes to herself?"

Karyn considered it, her young mind smart enough to know something was still gravely wrong, and that she should do as her father asked without question. "Sure..." She grabbed Jonathan's hand, then glanced back momentarily to where Martha had been standing.

Strangely, the kitchen was now quite empty, and for once the normally inquisitive little girl didn't ask why her mother had vanished. Something big was going on, and Karyn Suzann Kent had seen enough in Smallville to know it wasn't anything good.

Martha watched as the old pickup kicked up dirt, leaving a dust cloud behind as it bounced down the lane. She hadn't been able to face Karyn in the kitchen; in fact she hadn't wanted to face anyone, because try as she might she couldn't stop the tears from flowing in abundance. Clark was in trouble, and if he needed the key it meant he was either hurt, or ill. What if Lois doesn't get him here in time? What if the ship can't do it again?

The distraught parent looked up into the clouds, as the sound of approaching rotors signaled her son's imminent arrival. It was odd to think of him arriving in some man made machine this way, when usually he could swoop from the heavens under his own power, graceful and protecting. Oh God Clark, Please let me be wrong...