Smallville: An Alternate Future Chapter 11, a smallville fanfic

Author's Note: Italics signify thought or emphasis. Underlined is telepathic communication.

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Zin got out of the truck first and stared at Clark in amazement, "So, it's true. Nice to meet you, Kal El." He came closer, "If you hurt her, I'll shove Kryptonite down your throat."

When Clark frowned, Zin clarified, "The green meteor rocks."

Clark nodded his understanding. The usual 'hurt her and I'll kick your ass' wasn't strong enough a threat in their case but Zin was still a protective, caring brother.

Zin moved away from him and said to Aen, "I'll make your excuses to the others. Take all the time you need."

Zin entered the house and Clark turned back toward the truck to face Aen. She took a single step toward him then stopped. Clark walked slowly the rest of the distance between them to stand in front of her.

Clark's chest was tight with emotion. He couldn't believe that she was like him, that he had spent as much time with her as he had without finding out. A million emotions flashed in Aen's eyes as she stared at him, but she waited for him to speak first.

He begged simply, "Tell me."

Aen took a deep, shuddering breath and started softly, "Well…"

"Wait," Clark interrupted her. "I want my parents to hear everything from you. Do you mind if they know?"

Aen shook her head. She liked the Kent's. How could she not? They had raised the man she loved, helped mold him into who he was.

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When they reached the farmhouse minutes later, Aen sat down and waited while he went to wake his parents. He returned and sat across from her, his parents trailing slowly behind. Martha yawned and Jonathan wiped the sleep from his eyes.

"What's going on, Clark?" Martha asked when she and Jonathan had sat down next to him.

Clark looked over at Aen. She was still avoiding his gaze as she had on the very quick trip here. After a moment, she lifted her head and what he saw in her eyes was overwhelming. Hope so intense it made her eyes shine took his breath away. It was in that instant that he knew what she had been thinking about on the way here. They really could be together if she was truly like him, truly from the same place. A smile of wonder lit his face, and his eyes promised her that they were far from through.

"How did you come to have Kal, uh, Clark?" Aen asked Martha softly.

Martha and Jonathan both stiffened, but Clark reached over and squeezed his mother's hand lightly to reassure her. "It's okay, just tell her the truth."

"We…we found him during a meteor shower a little over twenty years ago."

Aen nodded, "Was there a ship?"

"Yes."

"Where did it go?"

"Go? Nowhere, we brought it here. We've kept it out in the storm cellar ever since."

Aen looked slightly puzzled by Jonathan's answer.

"This may be easier to do if we can go to the ship," Aen told Clark.

At Clark's urging and after checking on a sound asleep Zoey, his parents followed the two younger people out to the storm cellar, a flashlight in Jonathan's hand for he and Martha's sakes. When they were down in the cellar, Clark removed the tarp on the small ship that had brought him to earth.

"We've never been able to get it open. There was a small octagonal piece we thought might have been the key, but it only activated the ship a few times, it never opened it."

"It shouldn't be the only way to open it."

Aen knelt next to the ship and ran a hand over the rounded top, snatching her hand away when a section of the seamless panel lit up beneath her palm.

"I've never seen one this size, it's so small. That must have been how Jor got away with it," she said to herself, then, "Kal, put your hand where the light was."

He hesitated just a moment before doing what she had instructed. The light shone once more and a faint hum filled the air while sections of the dome disappeared from view.

Just inside the ship was a cushioned seat only big enough for one person, and a small one at that. On it was a piece of cloth. Aen reached in and pulled the blue material out.

When she shook it out and laid it on her lap, Clark instinctively caught the six inch green crystal that fell out. Thinking it was Kryptonite, he almost let go of it before realizing it wasn't hurting him. He lifted his gaze from the crystal to the woman he loved. Aen was smiling sadly.

"You are Kal El," she said, her fingers tracing a red stylized "S" in a red and yellow shield. "This is the House of El's crest. You are the last of your line."

"You know where Clark is from?" Martha asked in shock.

"I'm from the same place," Aen said, picking up a nearby length of lead pipe and bending it easily. She bent it back into shape a moment later. "I met Kal a few times when we were very young."

"Oh my god," Martha and Jonathan said as one.

Clark noticed Aen hadn't mentioned their former betrothal to his parents and wondered why.

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The ship closed itself and Aen stood.

"We should go back in the house now." In a whisper that only Clark would hear she said, "Your parents need to absorb this and we should be comfortable when I finish the story."

Aen reached for his hand when they were outside and held him back from his parents. Martha and Jonathan didn't notice, continuing on to the house. Clark looked down at her and smiled. When she smiled back, Clark dipped his head and kissed her with everything inside him. She gave as good as she got, and they both smiled when they parted for air.

"We shouldn't keep your parents," she whispered softly. "I love you, Kal El."

"And I love you, Aen…"

"Ni," she supplied.

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Even walking human speed, they easily caught up with his parents. The four of them went into the house and sat down at the kitchen table. Martha and Jonathan both looked worried. Clark lay a comforting hand on Martha's arm, even though he was just as anxious about this as she was, if not more so. Aen reached across the table and lightly took Jonathan's hand. He stared down at their joined hands for a moment and then back up at her.

Aen smiled gently, saying, "He will always be your son, you raised him into the man he is now. The only thing that has changed is that you will now know he has another name, and you'll know where he came from. No one can take him away from you, and I would never suggest that he come with the rest of us. If Kal so chooses, I won't tell the others that he is one of us, and Zin is the only other one who knows."

"You don't think he'll tell whoever your leaders are?" Martha questioned, her soft voice still wary.

"No," Aen replied, "he is my brother. He would never do something I asked him not to."

"Your brother? You have different last names."

Aen looked pained at Jonathan's comment. "Unfortunately, we have the same father. We're not allowed to acknowledge it, so even when we have assumed names, as Smith and Jones are, they have to be different. I was born while Zin's mother was still alive."

"What does that mean in your culture?" Martha asked delicately.

"If anyone ever found out and Geo, our father, was reported, he would be imprisoned. Adultery is a very serious crime for the Purists. But my brother and I are both afraid of him, too afraid to report him. He's done much worse. He…he killed my mother, and probably Zin's as well."

"Oh my god," Martha cried. "Are you safe from him?"

"I don't know," Aen answered honestly. "Zin is Geo's only heir, and Geo knows that Zin would react very badly if anything ever happened to me. It's kept me safe so far."

Martha and Jonathan were silent, and Aen had the feeling they didn't know what else to say to that.

"Anyhow, we're from Krypton. A planet many thousands of light years away. At least, it used to be. The same year Kal was sent to Earth, Krypton exploded. Our sun had been dying for some time, and it caused severe gravitational shifts in the planet's core. Kal's father, Jor El, was Krypton's top scientist, but when he told the Council, the leaders of our planet, what was going to happen, they condemned him as a heretic and forbade him and his family from leaving the planet. This happened the year before, the same year the Purists left Krypton, so I guess he figured out that he could only get Kal off the planet without the Council knowing what he was up to."

"What was my mother's name?" Kal asked softly.

"Her name was Lara. She was so beautiful, Kal. I'm sure I can get some pictures of both of them from the Purists' database for you, as well as the history of our planet if you're interested. The crystal from your ship will probably be a message from your parents."

Kal pulled the crystal out of his pocket and rolled it back and forth on his palm. "How do I get it to work?"

"You have to insert it in ice. Krypton's last five thousand years were an ice age, and ice was a major component of most of the technology."

He looked at it for a few more seconds before slipping it back into his pocket. "I think we should wait til tomorrow. We all have a lot to absorb already, and it's really late."

"I don't think I could sleep right now, Clark." Jonathan said.

"Jonathan," Martha warned softly. She hugged Kal and then Aen, smiling at them. "We'll see you two in the morning at breakfast."

Jonathan's mouth formed a silent "Oh!" and he followed his wife upstairs.

Kal turned to Aen and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly to him, his face buried in the curve of her neck. Aen closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around him, stroking his head with one hand, delighting in the feel of his silky hair.

Minutes passed in silence before Kal lifted his head and smiled down at Aen, "That was my mother's way of saying she's giving us her blessing and it's okay for you to stay with me."

"I'm glad she's so understanding," Aen said softly. "I don't think I'd be able to leave you right now. I'm not sure how I'll ever be able to now that I know we can be together without me hurting you."

Not wanting to dwell on the fact that even now, even knowing that they were the same, she would still have to leave, Kal changed the subject, "How many of us are there?"

"One thousand five hundred sixty-seven, well, you make eight, and there are three men to each woman."

"And you never chose one of them to share your life with?"

"I didn't love any of them, Kal. I love you. I loved you just as deeply when I thought you were human and there was no chance for us to have a future."

"I know," he assured her. "And I love you even more for it." He kissed her gently before asking, "Is there a way to get our betrothal reinstated?"

She smiled at that, unshed tears making her eyes glisten. "Not without everyone knowing about you. The Council would have to hear our case and my aunt would have to give her permission since I'm under the protection of her husband's House."

"You don't think she'd give it?"

"I just don't know, sometimes I think my father controls what she allows me to do, and he certainly wouldn't want me happy. He's the main reason I don't think you should tell the Purists about yourself. He has a lot of power even though he's not on the Council, and he might be able to sway them to say that it would be irresponsible to let you stay here instead of coming with us."

"I don't want to talk about them right now." Aen smiled her agreement when he tightened his hold on her. "Shall we sleep in the barn loft so we don't disturb anyone?"

"Is there a light? I want to be able to see you this time."

Kal grinned, "That goes double for me. You don't know how many times since we got out of the mine that I almost looked through your clothes to see if you looked as great as you felt."

Aen blushed but grinned, "So, you have X-ray vision? Sometimes I wish I did."

Kal stopped grinning, his eyebrows furrowing together. "You don't?"

"No," Aen answered. "Here on Earth, and on other planets with yellow suns that we've been to, all of us have enhanced speed, strength, hearing and sight, heat vision, too; we can fly and we're also pretty much invincible except when it comes to Kryptonite. Other than that, powers are individual, kind of like not all humans are good cooks or can carry a tune. Zin is the only one of us that you've met who has x-ray vision."

"What's your power?"

This, her voice appeared in his head, but her mouth was closed.

"Whoa," Kal said. "I thought I heard your voice in my head once before, when that rattlesnake bit me."

"Yeah, I was so worried that I just… slipped. Now I wish I had slipped more. Maybe we would have figured everything out faster."

"We did figure it out. That's what's important." Kal dipped his head and kissed her passionately.

Several minutes later when they both needed air, Aen pulled him by the hand toward the door.

"Hold on," he said when they were outside. "There's something I've wanted to do with you for a long time."

He lifted her into his arms, and even though they both knew she could do it on her own, he flew her into the barn loft through the open window. She smiled lovingly at him as he set her down, sliding her body down his in the process.

"I love you," Kal said.

Aen bit her lip and smiled crookedly. She backed up a few steps, toward the bed, and held her arms out toward him in invitation.

"Show me how much."

So he did.

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Aen and Kal were awake a few seconds before Zoey tackled them. They hadn't remained undressed the night before in case of just such an event, pulling on a few articles of clothing before falling asleep. Aen was wearing her panties and Kal's t-shirt, and Kal had on his boxers. Zoey burrowed under the covers between them.

"Did you have a sleepover?" the little girl asked matter-of-factly.

"Yes," Kal answered. "Aen is my girlfriend now, Zo. And you can't tell anyone, but she's special like me."

Zoey nodded, seeming indifferent, and Kal frowned.

"It's all right, Kal. She already knew. That day at the bank, I really was shot while I was holding her. I was worried that she'd slip to someone about what had happened, but obviously she's very good at keeping secrets."

Kal leaned on one elbow to kiss each of them on the forehead. If Aen hadn't been from Krypton, he would have lost both of them that day and he hadn't even known it.

Zoey wiggled, and Kal let her go.

"Go tell Mom that we'll be there in a minute. We need to get dressed."

Zoey nodded but frowned, "Are you going home now, Aen?"

"No, Zoey, I'm not leaving." Aen wished with all her heart that it were a permanent situation instead of a temporary one.

"She's going to be staying with me for awhile." Kal clarified. The couple had discussed it last night. As long as it didn't become a problem with any of the other Kryptonians, Aen would be spending most of her time with Kal until she had to leave Earth. "Later today we'll go get some of her things from Zin's house and bring them here."

"Okay," Zoey said.

She skipped across the loft and was gone moments later.

Kal and Aen smiled at each other. They kissed and snuggled for a few minutes before getting up and pulling on their clothes. Kal paused in buttoning his shirt and turned to look at Aen.

"It's you and the others that have been getting rid of all the Kryptonite, isn't it?"

Aen blinked in surprise but nodded. "I can only assume you know how the radiation from the rocks can change those that are not our species. Whenever we come across a planet that has Kryptonite, we help the locals get rid of it. In the case of a planet like Earth where they don't know about other life in the galaxy, we take care of the problem ourselves."

"Is that why you travel so much?"

"No," Aen answered, moving closer to help him finish with the top buttons on his shirt. "We can't really be held responsible for the effects of the natural destruction of our home planet and the pieces of it that have scattered throughout the galaxy. We just help when we come across it. The Purists left Krypton a year before it exploded, hoping to find a new home planet and build a colony. We're still looking."

When Kal gave her a questioning glance, Aen elaborated a little.

"The Council doesn't want to make our home on a planet that has people stronger or weaker than us so that neither race could easily destroy the other. And the few planets we have been to that were like Krypton enough that we were nearly equal to its people… well, there have been problems."

Just then, Zoey bounded back up the stairs, hopping up and down excitedly and smiling at them. "Hurry up, Momma's making waffles!"

Kal and Aen smiled at each other and followed the energetic girl, putting off more talk of Kryptonians and space travel until later. But before too long Kal would at least have to ask Aen when she was scheduled to leave. As much as the thought hurt, he had to know how short their remaining time together was going to be.