TEN
Brynnan linked elbows with her sister as they led the way down the corridor. It had been three years since they had last seen one another, and they knew they didn't have much time to get reacquainted.

"What about him?" Karyn asked, referring to Xavir.

Brynnan shrugged. "Gray will know if he's worth saving or not."

Xavir heard the comment and glanced warily at Chloe, who was walking beside him. Chloe shot him a weak smile. She was sure Brynnan's intention wasn't as ominous as it sounded.

Karyn nodded and pulled a wireless earpiece from her pocket and tapped a combination of buttons on it before attaching it to her ear.

"Honey, Brynnan has arrived at the manor… you need to bring Gray back as soon as possible… We're going to need the Flyer."

She seemed to listen to someone talking for a moment before she responded again. "I know he wanted to hear the speech, but this is really important. You'll see why when you get here… Okay. Love you, too."

Karyn ended the call and slipped the earpiece back into her pocket. "They are on their way," she informed Brynnan. She turned to look at Chloe again. "I'm sorry if I stare… this is just… unbelievable."

Chloe's eyebrows rose. "I feel the same, but… um, when is the part where someone tells me what's going on?"

Karyn turned to her sister with a questioning expression. "You didn't tell her about the origins of the Guardians?"

"We hadn't quite gotten that far yet," Brynnan replied.

Karyn turned and took another look at her guests. "I guess now is as good of a time as any," she sighed.

Clark posed for another picture and handed the little girl back to her father. He smiled as Lois answered a barrage of questions from a dedicated Superman fan.

"What does the symbol on Superman's chest represent?" the boy asked.

"His family crest," Lois responded, crossing her arms and leaning against the desk. "The House of El."

The boy narrowed his eyes. "Who was Superman's girlfriend in the JLA?"

Lois cocked an eyebrow. "He didn't have one."

"Wrong! It was Wonder Woman, the First Lady of the Justice League."

Lois cast a sharp glance at Clark, who had been watching the exchange from another desk a few feet away. He shrugged guiltily at the boy's announcement.

Lois turned back on her interviewer with a suspicious look. "Conjecture," she stated, calling his bluff.

"What?" he asked confused with the word.

"Rumors," Lois explained. "Take a note, Regis. Truth is built on fact not flame. Make sure you know the difference next time."

Clark chuckled softly at the awed looked on the boy's face.

"Andrus, let's go," a woman called as she walked over to the boy.

He turned to her with a disappointed look. "But I have more questions… can we come back after the parade?"

"I really wish you wouldn't," Lois muttered under her breath.

Not hearing the comment, the woman nodded. "Sure, now let's go. We need to find a good spot so we can see everything."

"Bye, Andrus," Clark called, earning a glare from Lois. "What? He was fun."

Lois gave a forced smile and waved as the family trickled out of the room behind their tour group. As the group disappeared through the door, Clark overhead the boy asking his mother what a Regis was.

Picking up one of the festival brochures, she flipped through the pages until she found a photo.

She held it up for Clark to see and then slapped in into his chest. "Wonder Woman? Really?"

Clark pulled the brochure back and grinned at the stylized drawing of the super heroine. "She looks… nice," he commented.

Before Lois could respond, they were interrupted by the museum curator they had met the day before.

"Hi," Sheridan greeted. "Everyone has really been enjoying the new character additions to the museum exhibits. Thank you for your hard work. Did you remember to bring back those employee forms?"

Lois shot Clark a look. They hadn't filled out the forms the day before because they asked for social security numbers and home addresses… neither of which they had for the year 2109.

"They're downstairs in our lockers," Clark piped, ignoring Lois's death-stare. When Sheridan turned to look at Lois for confirmation, he shrugged. What else was he supposed to say? "We left them there after we changed into our costumes…"

Lois fixed her expression as Sheridan faced her. "Yeah… um, how about we give them to you after the parade?"

"That'll be fine," Sheridan replied with a smile. "Just don't let me forget. We want to make sure you get paid. Oh, by the way, if you don't want to fight the crowds, you can get a pretty good view of the parade from the patio on the third floor. Most of the other curators and character reps are meeting there in a few minutes. If I didn't have to be behind the stage for the speech, the patio would definitely be my seat of choice."

Lois jumped at that information. "Do you think there is any way we could help backstage?"

Sheridan laughed knowingly. "I'm sorry. With Superman arriving for the speech, security will be at a max. I won't even get a chance to see him, myself. He usually just lands on the stage, makes a brief statement and flies off." She winked at Lois. "Too bad, though, right?"

Lois nodded, and shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to ask."

Sheridan headed out, reminding them to find her with their forms later.

Clark glanced around the simulated newsroom and noted that all of the other characters reps were leaving. "So, do you want to go to the patio with everyone else?"

"Are you kidding? We have the room to ourselves… What do you think we should do?" Lois countered with a sly grin.

Clark felt an unexpected surge of attraction to the seductive look and cleared his throat. "Research?" he proposed with a slight crack in his voice.

"Absolutely," Lois agreed with a grin. "You're quick. I like that." She walked to the corner of the newsroom to a special exhibit.

The computer set up there allowed the museum visitors an opportunity to search for any article published in the Daily Planet since the newspaper's conception in 1775. Lois pulled out the chair at the designated desk and sat down.

Tapping the pad on the desk, Lois entered Chloe's name into the search box. Clark leaned over her shoulder as the first article appeared on the screen. Lois swallowed and forced herself not to react to his closeness.

A message in a highlighted block underneath the article on the screen informed them that additional articles were found, but the one showing was considered the most relevant to the query.

Lois scanned the headline and leaned back into the chair. "Wow."

Billionaire and Award-Winning Novelist Wed

Clark frowned at the screen. "Chloe married Lex?"

"I guess when I read about him earlier, I thought C. Elizabeth Luthor stood for Countess…" Lois said in wonder. "Why do you think she started going by an initial? She used to hate her middle name."

Clark barely registered that she had spoken. He felt a bit of trepidation over the information that he'd just encountered. Chloe knew his secret… and Lex was the person he'd been trying to keep in the dark about it. Did this mean that Lex had found out about him?

Clark glanced at the article again, his mind working overtime. From what he and Lois had learned about the future, no one had ever publicly made the connection between Clark and Superman. If Lex knew… then he must have reacted like Chloe and decided to help protect him.

Lois turned to face Clark when he didn't respond to her question. She noticed his worried expression and reached for his arm to get his attention.

"What's with the look?" Her eyes flicked to the computer briefly and back to his. "Lex and Chloe? I know he's not exactly the type she usually goes for… but he's your friend, right?" Lois suddenly felt uneasy.

Clark hesitated for a moment before nodding. "We've grown apart a little… but maybe that changed."

Lois's eyes narrowed. She could tell that there was more he wasn't saying.

"I saved Lex once…" Clark began.

Lois nodded. She had heard the story from Chloe when it happened. At the time, it had seemed to be just another amazing tale from Strangeville.

"He was really obsessed with finding out how I survived and how I was able to get him out of the car. Things got pretty tense between us when he started investigating me and my family."

"Like Chloe did," Lois added.

"I forgave her," Clark quickly inserted.

"Did you forgive him?"

"Yes," Clark replied.

Lois studied his face for a moment, feeling slightly unconvinced. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Lex has a dark side," Clark answered, remembering the time Lex's personality split into two people, creating the treacherous Alexander. "I've always felt that he had the potential to be… dangerous. Like his father."

Lois frowned at the mention of the man who had killed his own parents and then attempted to dispose of her cousin to cover the story. "Maybe Chloe was able to tame the beast."

"Maybe," Clark repeated in a soft voice.

Lois turned to the computer again and clicked inside the yellow box to pull up the next article; an announcement of the birth of Alexandra Luthor.

"I'm an aunt," Lois quipped.

Lois's voice was light, but Clark had a feeling that she was covering something. And then he knew. From the obituaries they had read about themselves, he and Lois hadn't had any children. Clark then realized that he hadn't really ever thought of it as a possibility, considering he was from a different planet; but he'd had a lot longer to deal with that topic than Lois.

"I'm sorry," he offered.

"For what?" A quick glance at Clark's expression told Lois that he had seen through her façade, and she let out a sigh. She didn't like the fact that he could read her that easily. She waved a hand dismissively and turned to pull up the next article. "You can't miss what you don't have."

Clark's focus remained on Lois as he tried to think of something to say.

"Oh, Chloe," Lois muttered sadly, immediately drawing Clark's attention to the computer.

It was an article announcing C. E. Luthor's death. Her car had plunged into the bay after the brakes on her Lexus had failed. Images showed the busted guardrail and smashed car covered with blood. No body had been recovered although Lex had employed his every resource in the search. The authorities could only hypothesize that the current had carried her to the ocean.

Checking the date, Clark realized that Chloe had died around a year after his disappearance. Balling a hand into a fist, he gritted his teeth in anger and guilt.

Lois must have sensed his change in mood because without looking at him, she reached out and wrapped her hand around his fist.

"What's the good of all this Superman hype if I can't save the people closest to me?" he growled. First, he had watched his wife die, and then he hadn't been around to save his best friend.

Lois rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb and met his eyes. "You can't be everywhere."

"I should have been there. Why wasn't I there? What was so important that I left for 50 years while my friends and family had to fend for themselves through wars and famine?"

"I don't know… but those are questions that you can ask…" She trailed off and released his hand. "Maybe if I search under C. E. Luthor instead of Chloe Sullivan, we might get more hits."

She turned and tapped in the new instructions, frowning when the only additional information referred to book reviews and posthumous literary awards. As she began scrolling through the search results, a loud cheer sounded from outside the building.

"Superman. He's here," she said, suddenly rising from the chair. It was time for the speech.

"Do you want to go to the balcony like Sheridan suggested?"

Lois shook her head. "Let's try the roof."

Lois peered down at the figure of the superhero on the stage at street level, wishing she had thought to search for binoculars before they left the newsroom.

"The people of Metropolis have always been my family…" Superman's voice echoed through the multiple speakers that were mounted throughout the park. "This festival is more a testament to your dedication to fairness, justice, and liberty, than it is a celebration of what the super class has done. We learned from you. And you continue to teach me every day… humility… loyalty… tolerance…"

"How do we get him up here to talk to us?" Lois asked. The security around the elevated stage was tight.

Clark thought about one of the famous articles that Lois had written in the future and chuckled. "You could always fall off of a building."

"That's actually a good idea, Smallville," Lois retorted, stepping onto the building lip.

"Clark, help me."

Clark rolled his eyes and ignored her, refusing to look in her direction. "That's not funny, Lois."

Lois's breath hitched as she fought for her balance. This was a replication of the Daily Planet, but it was obvious that they didn't make buildings the way they used to. The lip was slowly separating from the roofline, and she was teetering precariously.

"Clark…"

A sudden pain stabbed Clark in the abdomen as the wall crumbled and sent Lois spiraling over the edge. Paralyzed with pain, Clark's movement was too slow to reach her and he made it to the edge of the building in time for his outstretched fingers to only graze hers.

"Looooiiiiiissssss!" he screamed.

Clark's scream mingled with hers as the world began to slow.

Superman paused in mid-sentence as his hearing picked up a cry of distress. In a blur of primary colors, he disappeared from the stage and launched into the air, sweeping the woman out of the sky with one hand while diverting debris away from the crowd with the other.

She seemed to be in terrible pain, and her eyes were clenched. Slowly rising, Superman headed up to the roof from where she had fallen. Below them, the crowd erupted in cheers for the unexpected reenactment.

As soon as Lois slid from Superman's arms to her feet, Clark pulled her into a tight embrace. "I thought I'd lost you again," he whispered, hot tears burning his eyelids. "Don't do that to me."

Lois returned the hug wholeheartedly. She had meant it only as a joke and wasn't expecting the fall. The sudden distance between them had brought the strange pain back, and it seemed that the only thing that would make it go away was for them to touch each other.

"Eh-hmmm," Superman interrupted by clearing his throat. "Miss, are you okay?"

Feeling better, both Lois and Clark finally registered that someone else was there. Releasing one another, they turned to face their visitor.

Lois gazed at Superman's face, having a clear look for the first time. "He's not you," she muttered. "I mean, he looks like you… A lot like you, actually… but he's not… you."

Superman's expression turned questioning. "You are look-alikes for the festival, right?" There was something strange about these two that he couldn't put his finger on. "Were you trying to reenact that scene? Because the council didn't have that cleared with me… that was a very dangerous thing to do," he finished with a stern tone.

Clark stepped closer to the super hero and studied his face. While they were the same height, there were other differences. Superman's hair was a hint lighter and his eyes seemed to be a different color with each angle. Brown… or blue… or maybe even green.

"You're right. He's not me," Clark said wondrously.

Superman frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. They didn't seem to have heard a word he said, and were only talking to each other.

Clark removed the costume glasses he was wearing and ran a hand through his hair. At the motion, Superman turned a sharp gaze on him. His eyes flicked to Lois and back.

Lois was the first to gain her composure enough to acknowledge Superman's questions. "Um, no. We're not look-alikes. We're… them. We're us. Lois Lane and Clark Kent."

Superman would have smirked if the superhero did anything other than glower. But he didn't, so he glowered instead.

Lois caught the look and shook her head. "We are! Somehow we got sent from our time in 2006 to here… in 2109."

Clark chimed in. "It's true. We were going to try to get your attention… because we thought… you were me. That you could help us."

Superman's eyes narrowed. "What makes you think I would believe a story like that?"

Clark met his gaze. "Because it's the only way to explain how I know Clark Kent was born on a planet called Krypton; My name is Kal-El from the House of El, and I was sent as a baby to escape the death of my home planet by my parents: Lara and Jor-El."

Superman's jaw twitched almost unnoticeably. Reaching behind him, he pulled something from a hidden pocket in his cape and lifted it to his mouth. "Dad, I need you to meet me on the roof of the Daily Planet. It's an emergency."

TBC