Disclaimer: The television series "Smallville" is owned by the WB. Characters on which it is based are owned by DC Comics and were created by Jerry Siegler and Joe Schuster. This fanfiction is purely for entertainment, and no profit is being made from it.
In Somno Omne RevelaturBy Jeune Ecrivain
Rating: K+
Genre: drama, romance (Clana)
Summary: A dream reveals all and forever changes Lana's understanding of a certain farmboy.
PART II
Clark Kent sat idly on the couch in the loft of the family barn, alone with his thoughts. Even though his father had seemed to reluctantly accept his doubts about leaving the farm and going to college (even showing some hesitant admiration of the decision despite himself), Clark knew that his father still believed his future lay far beyond Smallville. Jonathan Kent wanted only the best for his son, and Clark couldn't blame him for that. The younger Kent, however, wasn't so sure leaving his hometown was the right thing.
Clark had let his father believe that it was because he felt obligated to stay and help run the farm. In truth, this was indeed a part of the reason for his reluctance to go to college. However, there was a greater reason that Clark kept to himself, mostly because he knew Jonathan would contest his reasoning even more vehemently than he had the simple reason of farm maintenance.
It was by a sense of responsibility and by no means arrogance that Clark believed that the entire town needed him. With a different supernatural or mutant threat emerging from the midst of meteorites and secret laboratories every couple of weeks, he believed it to be his duty as a superpowered being himself to do his best to protect the town and the people he had grown to love. It was his arrival that had brought the devastating meteor shower and its after-effects to the otherwise pleasant locality in the first place, so his conscience constantly kept him on a crusade to undo what he believed he had done.
But his thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a rather unwelcome voice stating harshly in his ear, Do not feel responsible for all the evils that surround you, Kal-El. They have only made you stronger and all the more ready to fulfill your destiny. Your feelings of guilt are futile and without foundation. You must look beyond them. You must look beyond your so-called home, for those whom you believe to be family are not.
"Family?" Clark repeated aloud with bitterness in his voice. "You don't know the meaning of the word!"
I am your father. My persistence in attempting to guide you towards your future should demonstrate family loyalty beyond anything any Terran has shown you.
"A real father doesn't try to coerce and manipulate his son into following a destiny that's not his to decide!" At that, Clark groaned as a loud ringing filled his head. Rubbing his temples, he leaned back against the couch.
I have decided nothing for you. I have only attempted to guide you towards the destiny fate has so obviously placed on your shoulders. You are the last surviving member of a once mighty race. That alone should tell you that you were meant for greatness.
Clark gritted his teeth and grunted loudly as a familiar burning sensation spread across his chest. He ripped open his flannel shirt to see an all-too-familiar coat-of-arms being branded for the second time onto his otherwise invincible skin. Writhing in pain, Clark collapsed as the figure-eight-shaped emblem briefly emitted a bright light before abruptly extinguishing itself, signaling the completion of the symbol's formation.
Time is running short, Kal-El. The knowledge of the Kryptonian race was meant for you and you alone. You must recover the three stones I sent to this planet and reunite them within the cave. Once that is achieved, you will learn all you need to know to fulfill your destiny. Heed my words, my son, or you will hurt those you love most.
You sound like a broken record, Clark retorted inwardly as his arched back fell to the floor in relief as the branding ended. Grunting softly, he rose to his feet and looked around him.
At that moment, Lana was just finishing her ascension of the steps that led to the loft. After always having thought it would be a huge relief to know Clark's mysterious secret, she found herself ironically feeling quite nervous about the confrontation she would have to initiate. She chuckled at the though that she seemed almost as nervous as Clark would've been if he had voluntarily divulged his secret to her.
"Clark, we need to talk..." she began tentatively, but her thoughts of irony and nervousness left her, however, when her eyes met Clark's and then wandered to his exposed chest. She gasped. "Clark! Oh, my God! What happened?"
Clark was immediately buttoning his shirt protectively. "Um…I…uh…had an accident branding the cattle," he said, the pitch of his voice at the end of the sentence seeming to ask her, "Would you believe that?"
Lana knew at that moment, just by the look in his eye and the way he was acting, that this had something to do with Jor-El. It seemed that Lara had gotten to her just in time. "That didn't look like the Kent cattle brand," she observed skeptically.
"Well,…"
She
cut him off. "Clark, look. I think you can save your breath. We
need to talk."
Clark looked surprised for a moment, then a look
of nervous impatience clouded his eyes. "About what?"
Lana opened her mouth, then shut it, surprised at her own loss for words. "I don't really know how to say this. I…"
Clark seemed to take the hint that this would be a rather serious conversation and took a seat on the couch.
Lana briefly admired his sensitivity before returning to the task at hand. She walked over and sat down next to him. "What would you say…if I told you I had a dream about your biological mother?"
Clark
arched his eyebrows. "I'd say it was just a dream. I don't
even know anything about my biological mother. It would be pretty
amazing if your brain had anything about her that it could craft a
dream out of unless it was completely fictional."
"That's
why I think it wasn't just a dream," Lana stated deliberately.
"And…your biological mom, she…told me to go to the Kawatche
caves when I woke up from what she freely admitted was a dream of
mine so that she could prove that she wasn't just a figment of my
imagination."
"Did you?"
"Yeah, and she appeared before me. She was like a hologram, just like in my dream. Technically, she's dead, but she said she was some digitally preserved essence or something like that."
Clark turned his gaze away from her, a deep look in his eye. "That's some technology!" he remarked dryly. Standing up, he shoved his hands into his pockets thoughtfully. "I don't know Lana," he said skeptically. "What all did my birth mom say to you in the dream?"
Lana swallowed, knowing the moment of truth was imminent. "She told me a lot about you…that you keep hidden."
"So she told you my secret, basically," said Clark even more skeptically, though Lana could sense a trace of apprehension in his eyes.
"Yeah," she confirmed.
"Well,…" he began. "…I'd say it was your brain's desperate attempt to explain all those things about that side of me that I don't think either one of us are very fond of."
Lana half-smiled at him sadly, inwardly knowing all too well that he was choosing his words carefully. "Then how do you explain the same woman appearing right in front of me when I was awake?" she challenged him as gently as she could.
He shrugged. "Are you sure what you thought was you waking up and going to see her wasn't part of the dream itself?"
"I woke up once this morning, and I don't remember waking up, for real or in a dream, between the time I saw your birth mother and now."
Clark turned his back towards her and looked outside. "Looks like we have another Wall-of-Weird incident on our hands," he said. "What all did she tell you about me?"
Lana opened her mouth to respond, but realized that they were both just beating around the bush. "Clark,…do you remember my necklace? The one with the green meteorite rock?"
"Yeah," he replied, turning around once more to face her. "What about it?"
"Did it make you sick?" she asked before she lost her nerve.
"What?"
The flicker of familiarity in Clark's eyes did not escape Lana's notice despite Clark's puzzled façade. "Does the green meteorite rock make you weak and sick?" she asked again with conviction.
Clark's jaw dropped slightly, and try as he might to look at her blankly, his eyes betrayed him. She had hit a nerve, and she knew it. She stepped closer to him, and looked him straight in the eye. "Tell me the truth…Kal-El."
Clark's jaw dropped once more, this time in no small measure. Staring at her, he managed to utter, "What did you call me?"
"Kal-El," she repeated. "It's okay, Clark," she added, bringing a hand to his cheek. "I know. I know about Krypton, I know about Jor-El…"
Clark took a step back, stuttering in utter bewilderment.
"…and by the way, if I ever found out you've used your see-through vision to look through my clothes, I'll make the Kryptonian race officially extinct," she joked, trying lamely to lighten the mood just a little.
Clark swallowed and turned to lean over the railing of the loft. Lana looked at her tortured friend. "What was her name?" she heard him say almost at a whisper after a long and heavy pause.
"Lara," Lana answered. She stepped up to him silently and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Clark,…are you okay?"
Clark nodded and even gave her a small smile, the first one she'd seen since the conversation had started, and stated frankly, "I'm just trying to decide if I should curse my birth mom…or thank her."
