It was easier to get to the caves with Lex's help. Clark leaned heavily on him as they traversed the forest toward the rock outcropping. They both know Lex could have easily carried him, but Lex left him his dignity. Clark was grateful for that. Bug came behind them with the lead box and the piece of what Lex was calling Kryptonite. Chloe had gone ahead to make sure there was no sign of the other Clark. Clark had kissed her before they parted.

"Stay safe, Chlo."

"I will. It's you I'm worried about."

"I'll be fine. We've got a powerful ally in Lex. Pretty soon we'll get this wrapped up and you'll have your Clark back."

Her expression had been pained. "Clark, in a way, that's what I'm afraid of."

"You'll miss me," he'd asked softly.

"Yes, but it's more than that." Her eyes had filled with tears. "I was in love with Clark, and I never saw this coming. I should have been there for him after Corbin died, and I wasn't. I could have prevented this and I didn't."

"Chloe..."

"He's not a bad person! He isn't. He's just - confused."

She'd started crying in earnest then, and Clark had held her close.

"How is it going to end?" Bug asked him later, having witnessed Chloe's breakdown from a respectable distance. "When our Clark comes back? What will be be like?"

"I wish I could say, Laura. I hope he'll have learned something from this, and maybe then Chloe will have her chance to step in and help him." He paused. "Or there's another possible scenario."

"What's that?"

He'd looked at her with a sigh. "That none of us will remember any of this. When the portal closes everything could snap back into place right where we began."

She'd nodded. Her eyes had been dry, but she'd looked up at him with a sadness in her expression that had cut him to the core.

"Either way, you'll be gone. I'll miss you, Clark. It'll be just like losing Corbin all over again."

"I'm sorry. I wish I could give you Corbin back. I wish..."

You were my Lana.

He'd kissed her too.

Looking back over his shoulder, Clark saw her gamely struggling through the underbrush in her long overcoat and baseball cap. Slung over one shoulder was a large cloth bag. She was also carrying Clark's crutches. He thought of the many times she'd pulled something useful out of her pockets and wondered if she had ever been a Girl Scout - she was obviously prepared for absolutely anything.

Except maybe body swapping aliens and tears in the fabric of the universe. That would sort of take anyone off guard.

"Everything is strange to me, but not completely. The world is like a painting by Picasso. You can recognize things but they aren't quite - right."

Lex nodded. "I felt the same way when I was in your world. I saw my father - Lionel - briefly."

Clark didn't have to look at him to get his opinion on that subject. He could hear it in the troubled tone of Lex's voice. "He's different?"

"Your Lionel Luthor is a rich man, Clark. Here my father is nearly penniless. He's a brilliant man, with a generous heart. He took in a strange, alien child and kept him as his own through some pretty rough times."

"You really admire him."

Their progress through the forest slowed to a halt. Lex steadied him as the faced each other.

"I want to make him proud of me, to pay back to him in any way I can for what he's done. The only way I can do that is to use what's been given to me to help others."

"That doesn't leave you much time for yourself," Clark remarked. "And having to hide what you are, what you can do, that's not easy."

Lex put his arm around Clark's shoulders once again. "I'll figure out a way to have both. I just haven't thought of anything yet."

Clark sighed heavily.

Let me know when you do.

"No sign of him," Chloe whispered as they met her in the main cavern.

"That doesn't mean much," Clark whispered back. "He's quiet and he's fast. When he strikes you'll never know it."

"Why do I feel like I'm in a vampire movie?" Chloe looked at Lex. "You don't suck blood do you?"

Lex glared at her. "No."

Bug's voice had a slight tremor to it. The light of her flashlight hit her glasses and turned the lenses white, obscuring her eyes so that she looked more alien than any of them.

"Technically speaking, Chloe, bats don't suck blood, they lap it from shallow cuts."

"Gee, Laura. Thanks for the zoology lesson."

"I'm just nervous," Bug shot back defensively. She checked herself, changing her tone with an apologetic glance at her friend. "Why do I have to go?"

Lex brushed past Chloe to the head of the column. "You're the least likely to be recognized, Laura. You don't exist as Laura Potter in that world."

She sniffed. "I don't know anything about being a distraction..."

Clark patted her sympathetically. "All you have to do is chat up Lionel and his men long enough for Lex to slip in and get the key. They'll be focused on you anyway - you aren't supposed to be there."

"I wanted to study the bats." Laura repeated. They had gone over her role before setting out from the Kents' house. She patted the cloth bag slung around her shoulder. "And when they say, 'what bats?' I say, 'these bats.' "

"You've got it." Flashing a toothy grin, Lex flicked the brim of her hat down. She rewarded him with a shy smile as she pushed it back up, and Clark, watching, could not help feel the slightest twinge of jealousy.

Would Lana be so accepting, if she knew the truth about me?

"Try to stay where I can find you." Lex added. "We'll only have seconds before the portal closes. I've got to get both of us back through before we're caught on that side. I don't know if putting the key back in will reopen the door or not."

Chloe winced. "And if it does, whether you'll come back here, or into some other plane of existence."

Bug shot Clark a terrified look.

"You won't!" he promised. "Lex knows what he's doing."

Lex reached out a hand to Bug and gave her his most reassuring smile. "Come on, Laura. It will be alright."

She hesitated, looking at the fissure and the void of white light within it. Suddenly she turned and threw her arms around Clark's waist, nearly knocking him of f his crutches. "When I come back, you won't be here," she said. "Good-bye, Clark. Good-bye."

Clark balanced himself on one crutch as he wrapped an arm around her and gave her a good, solid hug. In his world his hugs were cautious, given rarely. It felt good to squeeze her hard and not have to worry about breaking her bones. "Good-bye, Laura," he whispered. "Be safe."

Turning away, she straightened her shoulders. He saw her face set in a determined look he had seen before. For a moment, as he looked at her profile against the bright light of the portal, Clark saw his Lana. It lasted only a second before she took Lex's hand and he guided her forward.

They vanished in an instant.

Quietly Chloe edged up beside him. She took his hand, and they waited.