Title: Reverse 2/2
Author: Nadia Mack
Disclaimer: I Own Nothing
Author's Note: Whew! Yay, I finally completed this thing. It's about time, if I say so myself. Feedback is welcome. Thanks everyone who has reviewed.
"In life, what sometimes appears to be the end is really a beginning."
Previously on Reverse…
Clark uses magic to travel back in time, taking him from 2017 Metropolis to 2005 Smallville, Kansas. With the help of his childhood friend Chloe Sullivan and an unsuspecting Lois Lane, he struggles to set things right for the future he is desperate to save.
And now, Reverse continues…
One hour became two. Then three. Four. Before Clark knew it, he could hear her footsteps ascend the wooden stairs leading up to his loft as clear as if someone had a trumpet blown right to his ear.
She had said that they would talk, and so he counted the minutes she would arrive home. All three hundred and seventy nine minutes since she's been gone.
As awkward as the day has become, one thing he knew for sure.
Lois never disappoints.
"Small… Clark?"
Clark grimaced at the hesitated use of his real name. He has grown much more accustomed to his many sobriquets she's given him over the years; he really was at a lost as to what to do.
"I'm here," he answered robotically.
"Hey," she greeted politely. Lois walked slowly towards his silent form, handing him an espresso.
Clark smiled warmly at the gesture, but he made no move to show it to her.
"Thanks"
Lois moved back and timidly crossed her arms to her chest, unsure herself how to proceed. In her mind, she had it all worked out… do the job, come home and get an explanation. Now that she was there, in front of him, she wasn't so certain.
He looked torn, sad even like he was having some epic internal battle inside himself. She could almost see it in his eyes, but she laughed inwardly, she wouldn't know because he has yet to look at her.
So Lois took the initiative and asked what's been bothering her all morning.
"What's wrong Clark?" Her voice was soft and full of consideration. Lois had no intention of berating him until she understood at least some of what is going on. Last thing she wants is for moody-eyed farmboy to become, well, moody, depressed and all the colors of a misbegotten rainbow that comes with it.
"Has there ever been a moment in your life that was absolutely perfect…" he began to speak, his back still to her. "When everything you thought wasn't possible is?"
Lois didn't know where he was going with his inquiry, but she played along.
"No, not really," she replied honestly.
A weak smile graced across Clark's lips and he finally turned to face her.
"I do"
She was leery of Clark; there was something suddenly impeccably different behind his easily read eyes, even in his voice there was a change. It felt like she was talking to an entirely different person, the same yet clearly very different.
"What does that have to do with what happened this morning?" She swerved the conversation back on track, images of kissing and out-of-place expressions surfacing hurriedly to her mind.
"Everything," he says simply.
Lois shook her head, perplexed. She still had no clue where he was going with this.
"You're losing me," she commented offhandedly.
Clark flinched, his memory of her in his own time creeping into his consciousness.
"You have no idea," his face an expression of sad.
Lois didn't know how she should feel; their exchange is leaving her with more questions than answers. So what exactly is she feeling right about now?
Aggravated? Very.
Upset? That's a given.
Confused? So very much so.
"You've got to elaborate here more, Smallville," she explained. Then she ended it with a quip. "You're not making any sense to me, not that it's unusual."
"I wish I could"
"Then tell me," she urged, her resolve quickly draining. "I'm not asking you to tell me everything. I want to know why in the last 24 hours, things have suddenly changed between us – Or, if we really want to be specific, which I do… what's changed with you?"
His voice broke. "I can't…" and he turns back around, avoiding her stare.
This time, for that moment he allowed her to see, Lois saw through his eyes, he really did want to tell her. So why can't he?
Then he began to shake, and she immediately knew that he was crying. She could hear the soft sobs he desperately tried not to share and though everything is telling her to pursue the matter, she made the decision right then and there to drop it for the time being.
Lois awkwardly stepped closer to him, putting a hand to his shoulder in hopes to reassure him that she didn't hate him, or that the world wasn't out to get him. She felt him tremble further and his sobs getting louder, but not enough that anyone but her can hear.
She knelt down, her eyes meeting just below his. "It's gonna be okay," she tries to comfort, even though she had no idea why she was doing it.
He watched her in his tear-strained eyes that he refused to wipe away.
"I'm sorry," he says softly.
"What?" she exclaimed, wondering why he was sorry. "No, don't, okay." She found herself tightening her grip on his shoulder before she could even question why it had done that. Clark sunk to her embrace, sinking into her chest with quiet sobs that wouldn't go away.
"I'm sorry," he held onto her.
Lois was lost as much as he was. Not to mention still very confused.
After a few minutes of silent comfort, Clark managed to calm down. Stillness hung in the air between them but Clark was content to remain as is. Unfortunately, his better half wasn't thinking along the same lines and slowly, but carefully, she moved away.
"Why don't we call it a day?" Lois presented. Whatever Clark was going through, she knew badgering him about it won't get either of them anywhere.
Clark reluctantly nods.
"Do you have to go?" Clark asks in a childlike fashion.
Lois eyed him curiously, wondering what it is that is making Clark Kent grow more attached to her. What did she miss?
Standing dumbfounded in front of him, she went back through her memory banks and recalled as best she could every memory. Every word exchanged. Every glance they shared.
Nothing… there was nothing she could recall that would account to his sudden change of… feelings, if that was in fact what it really were.
There's an unspoken understanding between them, a friendship that though not often verbalized, is very much present.
So she stayed.
She didn't quite know how long they sat there. She watched him fall asleep just barely out of the afternoon, but she remained by his side. Watching… wondering… Just as another thought was breaking into her mind, she hears a car pulling over.
Lois got up, careful not to wake Clark and tip-toed out of the loft and down the stairs. Walking out, she caught sight of her cousin, exiting her car.
"Lois!"
"Shh!" Lois says, her forefinger in front of her mouth, signaling to her younger cousin not to speak so loud.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, its Clark. He's upstairs sleeping; I don't want to wake him"
Chloe looked at her oddly. How much did she know? Did Clark change his mind and went ahead and told her?
"Did something happen?" Chloe immediately became concerned, all the while suspicious.
Lois shrugged. "I have no idea"
"Huh," Chloe responded flabbergasted.
"I really don't know what's going on, Chlo." She takes her cousin's hand and began leading her to the house. "Ever since this morning, Clark's been acting a bit more weird than usual," she revealed in a whisper.
Chloe's face contorted to sadness, her cousin was still in the dark and sighed in relief that she didn't catch her reaction.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know, Chloe, he won't say." There was a pause between them for a moment before Lois continued. "He hugged me," she admitted.
Chloe's face remained indifferent and that made Lois worry. She began to confess everything, and it wasn't even her fault.
"And he kissed me," Lois added, then bracing herself for the eventual repercussions. When none came, she continued. "And I kissed him back. Reluctantly! But it happened only for a second!" she spitted out quickly.
If Chloe hadn't known the entire situation, she would've been angry, possibly even betrayed, but she knew that wasn't the case, and she knew how confused her older cousin have become since future Clark's magical jump to the past.
Chloe wished she could tell her, she wanted to tell her, but she knew it wasn't her place to.
"Is that all that happened?"
Lois gawked at her. "What – what else would you expect happened?"
"So you guys just kissed?"
Lois's eyes shifted away from her cousin and looked at the horizon setting.
"Yeah"
"For how long?"
Lois frowned. "Does that matter?"
"I'm kinda curious"
Lois sighs. "What the hell is wrong with you, Chlo?" Clark and Chloe's incredibly odd behaviors as of late are really bothering her. "You're the one who's hung up on him, not me!" she argued, her mind going a mile a minute.
"So are you telling me you don't find Clark the least bit attractive?" she continued to fish. How can these two be together let alone married when she's being this stubborn? Clark must've done a miracle.
She's had a few hours to think it over, and the more she did, the easier it was to let him go and move on. Perhaps it also had to do with the idea of the two most important people in her lives finding love in one another, either way she wasn't quite sure.
"I'm your cousin not blind," she shot back, a little annoyed at the peculiar interrogation.
Chloe grins.
"Seriously, though…" Lois went back to the topic at hand. "This morning with all the hugging and the crying. I know you said it was about high school but I can't help but feel there's something else"
Chloe tries to get a word in until she catches a glimpse of Clark looking down on them from his loft window.
"It's nothing Lois. Just one of those days," she lied to her. And she hates lying to her.
Meanwhile, in the distance, a shadowy figure loomed. He watched and observed. Waiting. Calculating the best and most successful way in fulfilling his mission.
Metropolis, 2017 (One Week Before)
"I'm giving you a rare opportunity Mr. Gog"
"And what opportunity is that?"
"To destroy a common enemy." A pause. "Superman"
Gog isn't impressed. "Many have tried and failed," he scoffs. "What makes your offer any different?"
"Because Mr. Gog," he begins with great confidence. "I know his weaknesses." He drops a newspaper in front of him with a picture of a woman circled in deep red ink. "Her name is Lois Lane, a reporter for the Daily Planet. You might've heard of her. Won a couple of Pulitzer's, several Kerth's…"
"Why should I care about this woman?"
"She isn't just Lois Lane. She's Lois Lane Kent." Off Gog's confusion, he continued. "Clark Kent's wife. Clark Kent who also happens to be Superman, an alien disguised as a terran," he reveals with an evil smile.
Gog is a bit alarmed, but then sadistically hopeful.
"He dares to imitate the human race! Live as Them! Love as them!" he spat out angrily, feelings full of hate and vengeance exuded in every word. Gog takes the photo off the table. "You want me to kill her"
"Yes"
"Why? He'll just come after us," his anger subsides but only a little, and he attempts to rationalize the situation.
"You don't know him as well as I do, Mr. Gog. Superman doesn't have many known weaknesses… except her. Once I discovered his identity, it all fell into place."
"What shall you have me do?"
"I've found the perfect time to make your attack against Miss Lane. 2005. Smallville, Kansas." It was the perfect time. Going over as much history as he could, he has discovered that she is never alone. Whether with her father General Lane, or traveling the world with professionals on a news story, there was barely a time where the teenage Lois would sit and stay put. Any time but now is as good a time to make their move.
Gog's eyes go wide. "You want me to travel back in time?"
He nods. "You want to bring Superman to his knees, don't you? You've traveled through time. You're a master at it. Killing Superman won't be enough. He should be made to suffer first"
"How can a mere human carry that much power over Superman?" he asked reasonably.
"Because… Lois Lane is the key to Superman's humanity. You eliminate Lois Lane, we eliminate any chance of Clark Kent ever fulfilling his destiny."
Gog finally understands.
"Superman," they both say together.
Before Gog leaves, he is called to once more.
"Don't forget this." He tossed the lead box onto his hands. He opened it and took out a green crystal.
"What's this?"
"Reinforcements," he smirked.
Smallville, 2005
In the loft, Clark felt something off. Like he wasn't alone watching Lois walk into the house with Chloe by her side. Closing his eyes, he tuned his hearing sharply, finding the source of the feeling.
His ears catch the sound of a steady heartbeat not far from the farm.
Immediately, he races to it.
"You!" Clark says as he watched his enemy turn to him. It was him?
"Well, if it isn't Superman."
Clark's eyes remained focused on Gog, not even trying to figure out how he knew. "I'd ask what you're doing here, but that's pretty much obvious," he says instead.
Gog grinned at his forwardness. "Didn't think there was single sarcastic bone in your body Superman. You surprise me." Not!
"I'm going to give you one last chance. Leave now."
"Just like my parents," he dutifully reminded the people he could've saved but didn't.
"I'm sorry about your parents, but killing an innocent person won't bring them back"
"And you think killing me will bring her back," he smiled ruthlessly at the man responsible for his hate.
Clark balled his hand into a tight fist.
"How did it feel, Superman? How did it feel watching her die?" he taunted. "You felt hate, didn't you. Grief. Vengeance. Revenge!" Gog boldly closed their distance. "How did it feel to become me?"
The closer he came, the weaker Clark began to feel.
"I tried to save them." Weaker, he fell to his knees. "What…" Then he saw it, the Kryptonite he removed from his pocket. How?
Gog tossed the green piece of meteor in the air and back like a baseball. "I can't believe that this little piece of rock will be your death, Superman. Kind of makes this whole thing anti-climactic. Gotta say, I'm seriously disappointed"
"Please!"
Gog squats right in front of him, leaning his ear close. "What? Is that begging? Do I hear 'The Man of Steele' begging for his life?" He reaches into his other pocket to remove a knife, he wanted this done quick.
Gog waves it in front of him, not a even a tiny speck of compassion crossing his eyes.
Clark hangs on with his life.
"I'm going to walk into that house, and I'm going to kill her," he promised, his voice sounding deadly.
Clark could only shake his head, afraid.
"I'm going to drag her limp body right here in front of you just so you could watch her bleed to death"
Anger coursed through Clark like he's never felt before. He needed to save his wife. He has to.
"And then," Gog continued, and in a whisper. "I'm going to kill you once and for all."
SMACK! Gog is thrown flat on his back, the pressure of a bat hitting him straight under the jaw.
"Fat chance!" replied Lois, with a bat wound tightly in her grip.
"Oh my God, Clark!" Chloe runs up to her fallen friend. He groaned in response, the vision of Lois dead enveloping his mind.
"Chlo, get him out of here before this psycho pulls a George Romero on us"
"What about you?"
"I'll cover you"
"No," Clark grumbled, getting back on his feet. He saw the Kryptonite Gog still held in his hand, but it was far enough that he can move.
"Lois, get away from him," he mumbled under his breath.
Lois stood in front of the attacker, anger flaming in her eyes. She went back to the loft to check on Clark when she saw he wasn't there. From his loft window, she could see movement in the far brush, and grabbed Chloe and a bat to investigate.
When she saw Clark on the ground and in pain, she knew what she had to do.
Suddenly the world around them began to look distorted, and for a moment, Lois thought she was going crazy.
"Chloe, what's going on?" she looks around, reality didn't seem real anymore.
"I don't know," she shook her head.
"Gog," Clark weakly answered.
"Who?" Lois repeated.
"ME!" Gog attacks Lois and she spun fast enough to duck under his massive blow that barely hit her.
"Son of a…" Lois jumps on back of him, putting him onto a chokehold, but he threw her over, shifting his weight to his left foot and slamming her down on the ground.
Gog wipes the blood off his chin their earlier introduction.
"Not bad, Mrs. Kent. Not bad at all." He picks her up by the throat, her mind a bit frazzled by his throwing her around a bit and she didn't even hear his earlier remark about being a Kent.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Clark flew himself to him, at the same time, knocking the Kryptonite away.
Lois collapsed unconscious with Chloe running to her side. She looked back to Clark fighting, the image of him flying towards the man who tried to kill her cousin stapled in her mind.
"This ends NOW!" Clark says strongly, Gog's ability to manipulate time making their surrounding change back to… Metropolis. Clark throws himself and Gog further into the temporal whirlpool, leaving Lois and Chloe behind.
When the two realize they weren't in Smallville anymore, they break apart. "Lois?" Clark's hearing picks up the familiar heartbeat. He was so focused on her that he didn't even catch Gog picking up the Kryptonite and running away, limping.
Clark rushed out of the empty street, speeding home to where the sound remained constant. Before he could reach his front door, he saw her. It was Lois… and him, coming home from a late night cram session at the Planet.
It was the night before his whole world tore apart.
Clark fell to his knees once more. "AH!" he withered silently in pain. He wanted neither of his future selves to see this.
"You made a mistake coming here," he heard barely.
"A mistake indeed," another voice spoke out.
Clark blinked a few times to straighten his line of sight. Gog. And another. Both. Here. And both have Kryptonite on them.
Not good.
"It's too bad you're too weak to kill me," the Gog of the present time taunted. He takes out the knife he was going to use to kill one young Lois Lane, but Superman would definitely suffice. "I'm going to enjoy this"
He attacks but Clark barely moves away, slicing a bit of flesh from his arm. The other Gog moves around and attacks from behind. At that point, everything to Clark went by in slow motion that he was strong enough to duck just in time as both Gog's pierce one another with their own weapon.
Suddenly, everything started to spin and Clark loses consciousness.
Moments Later
Clark materializes back in Smallville, waking suddenly to Chloe's yells.
"Clark!"
Clark gets up and speeds to their side.
"Where'd you go?"
Shaking his head and gathering his thoughts. Everything seemed all too fuzzy for him right now. "Doesn't matter." Clark kneels besides Lois.
Chloe feared the worst. "Is she…"
Clark x-rayed Lois's body for any internal injuries. "She's going to be all right," Clark assured her. "A mild concussion and some bruises," he explained relieved.
"What are you talking about, what about that guy?"
"Gone." Clark suddenly begins to feel the effects of the altered timeline. Old and new memories of his life with Lois coming at him in all directions. He smiled, there was still hope.
There was one tiny bit left to do, and he searched his mind for something important. He couldn't bring anything physical with him back in time, so he committed the incantation that brought him back to memory.
"Get her to the hospital as soon as I'm gone," he ordered lightly.
"What about you?" she asks in concern.
"Don't worry about me. My younger self shouldn't remember anything once I'm back to my time"
"How am I going to explain this day to him?" If there was anything else she worried about besides Lois, it was that.
"Think of something." He smiled gratefully to her. "I trust you. I always have, don't forget that." Clark takes one last look at the woman he loves, stroking her cheek and then placing a single kiss on her lips.
It's strange. Clark begins recalling the words that'll bring him home, but truth is, no matter where Lois was, that was his home.
Clark held her in his arms till the end, cradling her like his life depended on it. And he began to recite the incantation.
"Un tempo per tutto
e tutto è il luogo
ritornare ciò che è stato mosso
attraverso il tempo e lo spazio"
As soon as he finished, he could already feel the effects taking place. His head fell back and a beam of light exited and entered his body. Chloe sat back completely mesmerized.
In heavy breaths, Clark comes to and looks at his surroundings in confusion.
"Chloe?" He felt he held something in his arms. He looked down and saw that he did hold something – someone. "Lois?" He looked up and stared at Chloe with even more confusion.
"What happened?"
Chloe gulped. "Let's get her to the hospital and I'll explain the best I can"
Metropolis, 2017
"LOIS!" he yelled, startled out of bed. His breathing heavy. Erratic.
"Clark, honey are you okay?" Lois sat up and whispered comfortingly to his ear, her left hand on his cheek while her right rubbed the small of his back.
Clark covered his hand on top of hers, feeling her softness against his skin. "Lois?"
Was she really real? Could it had all been just some vivid dream?
"I'm right here," she replied softly. She reached with one hand to the other side, turning on her bed light. She looked at her husband and saw how sad and exhausted he looked. "Shhhh… it was just a dream"
"I thought I lost you," he uttered, his fears still present in his eyes.
Lois wrapped her arms around him, assuring him that she wasn't going anywhere. "If you ever lost me. If I ever left. It would never be by choice," she spoke softly, her arms still wrapped around him.
Touching her. Hearing the rhythmic beating of her heart. Feeling the love in her voice. This was real. It was all real. "I don't ever want to lose you." He held her a little longer, and she let him.
"Sweetheart," he whispered.
"Hmm?" Lois murmured against his shoulder.
"We need a vacation?" It was all just a dream.
She chuckled. "You're on"
A day later, Lois and Clark drove to Smallville, much to the insistence of Clark, and a quick visit to see his parents before going off for a two week vacation on an island in Hawaii.
At the farm, Clark exits the bathroom, almost running into his wife.
"Oops, sorry," he smiled, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before running to his room. He stopped right at the door when he heard Lois laughing. He turns. "What's so funny?"
Lois smiled, recalling an interesting memory.
She shook her head, "Nothing. You just kind of reminded me of the time when you literally ran into me right here in this very spot, pre-dating era." Her face formed a lop-sided smile. "You were so weird that day." Then she disappeared to the bathroom.
Clark stood dumbfounded.
It wasn't a dream.
But he knew some things were meant to be.
Lois and Clark is one of them.
The End