Reaching Kansas, Fine breezed past Metropolis and headed toward Smallville. The key was there, he was certain, and so was Kal-El. It would not be long before he could release his master, and then Zod would take over the Earth, bringing pestilence and disaster to purify this planet from the filth that had over taken it. It would not be long at all. The song about being happy was still there, but Fine had picked up the message about hiding articles in an abandoned missle silo in Smallville. The key. Hidden in a lead lined missle silo. He increased his speed. Too much time had already been wasted.
"Hello?" Lois had returned to the Kent farm, and found everyone gone. Everyone, that is, she knew. A slender, dark haired man stood at the clean table, his fingers pressed to the middle of the tabletop. She dropped her purse to the floor, and took a defensive position. "Listen here, Sparky, not very bright breaking into a State Senators house in the middle of the afternoon." He turned, and appraised her with the coldest eyes Lois had ever seen. No problem, Lois thought, feeling her stomach turn. She licked her lips, pulled her bottom lip in and bounced a little on her toes. "I've been trained by the Green Berets, but I'll go easy on you. The new Sheriff will still be able to identify you when I'm done."
"I'm lost." The man said, in a mild tone, but Lois could feel the menace dripping from him. "I need to find an abandoned missle silo in the area. Can you help me?" He walked closer to Lois and tipped his head, with no expression on his face at all. "And what exactly is 'the pompatus of love?"
"Okay, Mister..a nappy poo in the drunk tank will help you." Lois threw a punch, and the man ducked, moving faster than she could even see. "Whoa, what the hell are you?" She threw another punch, faster this time, ready to turn and kick next.
"I'm a world history professor." Fine said, catching her fist easily and twisting her arm back around her in a biting grip. "And I need you to help me teach a very important lesson to a former student of mine."
"Well…" Chloe looked around, staring up at the majestic spires of ice that made up the Fortress of Solitude. "No trace of Fine yet." She walked over to the panel of tubes, touching each one with her left hand. Each tube glowed a different color as her
hand left it.
"Chloe, look." Clark pointed to the console, and Chloe turned around, taking in what she had just done.
"Isn't it supposed to do that?" She asked, going back over to examine the tubes. "Yes, it's working right."
"How did you, hey," Clark walked over to her and looked at her hand. The scar was a shimmering opalescent frost on Chloe's palm. He looked into her face. "You know how to use this console?"
"Of course I do. You take a crystal, like this one," Chloe lifted a prism from a side rack. "and you put it into the tube, like this." She slipped the crystal into the rose colored tube, "and then, you get the information that you need." A voice, more than likely Jor-El's, began to explain the courtship process on Krypton, arranged marriages for political and social advantage, the accepted guild of courtesans. Clark and Chloe grinned at each other. "I had to go and pick the Kryptonian sex-ed crystal." Chloe rolled her eyes. "Figures." She blushed prettily, and started to walk away. Clark caught her hand in his and turned her to face him. Clark looked at Chloe's palm again. It glowed the same rose color as the tube, and he leaned forward and kissed the scar, his lips tingling. The sensation of warmth and comfort he had felt when he had first found the crystal swept through him, and when he looked up, Chloe's eyes were full of tears.
"Chloe." Clark pulled her close. "What is it?" He wiped the tears that had spilled down her cheeks, "Don't cry."
"I'm scared, Clark." Chloe sniffed. "I have all these things flowing through my head…I used to think I had cornered the market on useless information in my brain, but now, there's so much up there I don't even know what's useful and what's not." She looked up at him. "I don't want to end up like that linguist that got all Krypto-infected…" Chloe shuddered, and Clark held her tighter.
"I'm not going to let that happen, Chloe, I promise." Clark kissed her forehead, her eyes and then her lips. Chloe sighed and returned the kiss, closing her mind to everything in it and around her. All that mattered was that she and Clark were together. Feeling safe for the first time in days, Chloe felt herself completely relax into Clark's embrace.
Suddenly, Chloe had a flash – a vision of Lois, through someone else's eyes and Lois had been hurt. "Clark…" Chloe pushed him away, and stared at him with wide eyes. "Fine has Lois." Clark hung his head. Once again, faced with a choice – save a friend or potentially save the world. He knew Chloe was worried, it came off her in waves.
But Clark was worried about Zod getting free of the Phantom Zone for good. If Zod had been able to directly affect everyone here – from the Phantom Zone – what would he do once he was free. There was no choice, and Clark would have to trust that Bruce would be able to find away to save Lois.
"We need to get to work." Clark said, turning to the console again. "Which one tells me everything I need to know about Zod?" He heard Chloe sob, and she nodded, looking away from him, embarrassed. She had been reading his mind the whole time.
"You know I don't have an option, right, Chloe? We have to trust Bruce with saving Lois."
"It's his part in this, I know." Chloe shook her head. "I just hate not being there for her, when she's risked everything to help me. "
"You are going to help her." Clark put his hands on her shoulders. "You can get into Fine's brain. Find a way to get in there and stay in there, while we work on stopping him here." He kissed the top of her head. "Let's get to work. We don't have much more time."
"I'm not telling you anything," Lois hissed through clenched teeth. "I don't know about any key." Fine had dragged her out into the Kent's front yard.
"You know about the place I need to go." Fine's reply was icy cold. "Harming you has no relation to my function at this time."
"Yeah, right." Lois struggled. Her arm was definitely broken, felt like it was on fire, it hurt so bad. But she wasn't going to give in. "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Milton Fine, world history professor.' Fine said again, as if talking to a particularly dense student. "You are important to Clark Kent, and I need to find him."
"ME?" Lois actually laughed, which hurt her arm and side tremendously. "Important to Clark? You ARE drunk. I'm the last person that means anything to him."
Fine was quiet. The music had stopped. He focused carefully, ignoring the struggling girl and her lies. The frequency of the key grew louder, and he could track it easily now.
"You will come with me, " Fine released Lois' arm, and grabbed her around the waist. "When we find the key, I will decide if you will be exterminated now, or given as," His voice took on a nasty inflection, "an offering to my master when he is freed."
Before Lois could protest, Fine took off, heading toward the missle silo at lightning fast speed.
Bruce stood outside the silo, watching the horizon with binoculars. Clark was completely out of communication range, wherever he was. Uttering silent curses under his breath, Bruce turned around and stalked into the silo to wait. He had put on the body armor he'd brought with him – it was by no means the Batsuit, but it would give him some protection from whatever this thing, Fine, chose to dish out. His laptop open, Bruce was working on classifying the different types of Kryptonite that had been collected here. The women had put most of the stuff behind the blast shield, where the missle used to be, and Bruce wasn't very happy with the sickly glow that radiated through that plexiglass. The other thing that Bruce did not like was that they had gathered this stuff in a new place, but still in deep in Luthorland. It was still a danger to Clark, and Bruce made a mental note to send geologists to the area to assess the levels of radiation in this town. Lex had done some research, but only as it pertained to the mutations the radiation had caused, possibly seeking to replicate the effect. Bruce was thinking about preventing further infection. He sighed, picking up a chunk of green Kryptonite and staring at it balefully.
"That must have been one hell of an explosion." Bruce said, shaking his head.
"Oh it was." Fine's voice echoed in the silo. Bruce turned, and did not react to the sight of Lois, who fine had tossed into the room as if she were no more than a doll. "You are the guardian of the city to the East."
"I don't really like being called anything that formal…" Bruce said, his eyes sliding over to where Lois lay in a crumpled heap. He could see she was still breathing, and for now, Bruce told himself, that was about as good as it was going to get. "And you are…"
"For your purposes, it really doesn't matter what my name is…" Fine informed him. "My master will be quite pleased to conquer your city. I've been there. So many willing recruits to the cause of Zod." Arkham came unpleasantly to mind, and Bruce scowled at Fine.
"Somehow, I'm pretty confident that this Zod character isn't going to get 50 miles near Gotham City." Bruce replied casually. "He's not going to get 50 miles near anywhere."
"Your confidence is woefully misplaced." Fine said, his hand morphing into a long, sharp blade. "Kal-El will fail."
"Yeah, well." Bruce shrugged. "We'll have to agree to disagree on that."
Fine studied Bruce for a moment. "You have the key." The blade moved closer to Bruce's neck, and Fine's normal hand opened. "Give it to me."
"I don't actually have it on me." Bruce shrugged, moving away from the blade. "That would be stupid."
"It would be stupid for you to try and resist me, Mr. Wayne," Fine said reasonably. "Look what happened to Lionel Luthor, and to that girl there. " He pointed to Lois, who was just starting to move a little. "Give me the key." Fine twitched a little, almost imperceptibly, and Bruce realized what he had to do. The concentration of the different types of Kryptonite were weakening Fine, and Bruce knew that he'd have one small chance to get Lois and himself out of there in time. He only hoped Clark and Chloe would have the same sort of chance on their end.
Chloe
stood at the console, picking up a crystal with her left hand. It
was as if each crystal was downloading directly into her brain, and
the rush of information was dizzying. Clark, meantime, was busy
reading the flat, shield shaped plate that he had found in Lex's
room of Clark. Putting the crystal she'd already seen down, Chloe
reached out with her mind and looked for Fine. Fine number one was
in Smallville, having a battle of wills with Bruce. No one was hurt
yet, but the Kryptonite was affecting him. Which meant that Fine
number two was on his way here, but slowed down. Time for a song,
Chloe thought, with a grin. Something completely catchy,so annoying,
in fact, that it would occupy Fine number two….and Chloe had it.
She began to hum, and grinned when she heard Clark humming it too.
"Yo, I'll tell you what I
want, what I really really want,
So
tell me what you want, what you really really want, I'll tell you
what I want, what I really really want, So tell me what you want,
what you really really want,
I
wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really really really wanna
zigazig ha. "
Back in Smallville, Fine grasped his head, and growled. "It has to stop! My processors can't take it!" He fell to the floor, and Bruce took his opening. The door to the missle bay was open, and Bruce shoved Fine in, tossing in a plastique charge from his belt.
He had less than two minutes. He grabbed his laptop, and raced to Lois.
"Lois!" He shook her, and she opened her eyes. "We have to get out of here, now!"
She stood shakily and Bruce threw her over his shoulder and darted from the missle silo, just as the plastique charge went off.
Chloe's eyes opened. Bruce and Lois were safe. Her e-mail beeped and she knelt to see who had sent her a message.
"Chloe, I think I figured out how to bring Fine down…I'm getting Lois to a hospital, and I'll start writing the code there. Hang tight, and stall for time. Bruce."
"Clark!" Chloe turned around, and but Clark's attention had been drawn elsewhere. Fine stood, a slender figure in black, looking haggard, but not at all defeated before them. They had run out of time.
Bruce sat by Lois' bedside, her rollaway bed table in front of him. He had stripped off his body armor and left it near the silo after he had e-mailed Chloe. I hope she got it, Bruce thought, looking over at Lois. Now, Bruce was writing code, a virus of the most gargantuan proportion that he was not even sure if it would work. But his plan was so simple, all the pieces had to fall together just right and it would work like a charm. Clark just had to deal with the one holding Fine's leash.
"Excuse me, sir." A nurse in blue scrubs opened the door and smiled at him. "There is a General Lane on the phone. He said you called him?"
"Oh, yes. I'll take it at the nurses station." Bruce rose, and he felt a hand reach out and weakly grab his wrist. He turned, and Lois was shaking her head, eyes closed.
"Don't." Lois rasped, blinking her eyes. "I'm fine." She cleared her throat. "Okay, Florence Nightingale? Tell the General that Lois is fine. You have my permission – tell him whatever you want." Bruce and the nurse looked at each other, and the nurse nodded and left.
"Lois." Bruce turned, and took her hand in his. "How's your arm?"
"It'd be great if I hadn't just hurt that shoulder a month ago." She sat up a little, using her other arm for support. "You saved me."
"Nothing you wouldn't have done for me." Bruce said gently and Lois rolled her eyes. "Well, maybe not." She smiled up at him, and sighed.
"Look, Flyboy, I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier." Lois squeezed his hand and let it drop. "I've kind of had my share of Smallville's, er, Clark's out there friends. There was this guy last summer that, well…" She looked up at him and smiled sheepishly.
"You don't want to hear about that."
"Nope." Bruce smiled back, returning to his seat. "Didn't want to talk to your Dad, huh?"
"And I don't want to talk ABOUT him, either." Lois settled back on the pillows.
"Fair enough." Bruce nodded, turning his attention back to the computer.
There was a short silence. Bruce's keystrokes on the laptop were the only sound to be heard. Lois wiggled in her bed, and Bruce could sense the questions building up inside her. Any second she would pop like a bottle of soda that had been shaken.
"What happened to Mr. Personality, Bruce?" Lois asked, finally "One minute, I'm struggling to get away, and the next, he's gone, and you are in my face in the grass."
"He blew himself up inside the silo." Bruce said simply. It had been his explanation to the police as well. The Smallville Sheriff's office took the story of a meteor freak gone bad with a philosophical acceptance that Bruce loved. Lois, however, was not to be so easily placated.
"With what? I didn't see any explosives, and that was where Chloe and Mrs. Kent brought all that meteor rock. And what were YOU doing there anyway?" Lois sat forward abruptly, wincing from the pain in her arm.
"I followed you and Fine…I was afraid he was going to do worse than break your arm." Bruce lied smoothly, topping it off with a heroic smile. 'I'm a hero, and you are badgering me with twenty questions."
"I guess." Lois sat back, and she looked over his shoulder at his computer screen. "What's that?"
"Oh, nothing." Bruce continued typing. "Just a little present for a friend of mine. I'm hoping that it will help them out of a kind of immigration problem."
"So, you're a software guy." Lois nodded knowingly. "That explains your geeky clothes, and your hair. I'll bet you played Dungeons and Dragons in college and have a membership the Star Trek fan club."
Bruce laughed, looking down at his clothes, and raised a hand to his dark blonde hair. "Yeah, I'm in computers. They're more of a hobby, and I'm not a fan of Dungeons and Dragons." He turned and caught her studying him intently, and her quick blush when their eyes met. "You've been checking me out."
"I have not." Lois turned her face away. "Please. Don't flatter yourself. You are soo not my type. Lex Luthor has a better chance with me than you do, and he's the LAST guy on earth, believe me."
"Okay, Lois." Bruce nodded. He continued typing, and after a moment, when he turned back to see why she'd gotten so quiet, Lois was asleep, smiling.
"I was not successful in getting the key to the ship." Fine said, his voice flat. "But I realized that a far more useful tool for opening the Phantom Zone was already where I had to be." He held out his hand for the metal plate Clark held, and it left Clark's hand and flew through the air toward Fine.
"NO!" Chloe called out, reflexively reaching for the plate herself. The shield flipped over, and hurtled toward her, landing in her outstretched hands. "Whoa." Chloe gasped, looking down at the shield. When her left hand touched it, it hummed loudly, causing the crystals at the console to chime together. She quickly shoved her hand into her pocket, clutching the shield in her right. Fine's eyes fell on her, and he pointed a long finger at her.
"You are not to interfere again, Chloe Sullivan. I am not certain how you accomplished your meddling, but it is of no importance now. Give me the portal." Fine moved toward her, but Clark put himself in front of Chloe.
"You'll have to get through me, Fine." Clark said, suddenly seeming tremendous, a breathing, impenetrable wall between Chloe and her aggressor.
"It is sad, Kal-El, how you will put yourself at risk for these, lesser, creatures." Fine tipped his head. "It is without any kind of logic whatever."
"That's because I'm not an artificial being." Clark replied, folding his arms. "We have our own logic."
"ENOUGH", a voice boomed through the Fortress, much like the voice Clark had come to know as Jor-El, but rougher. Zod. "The girl IS the key, you fool." Fine bowed toward the voice, falling to one knee.
"You cannot touch her." Clark yelled out defiantly, "She has nothing to do with this."
The wind picked up and swirled around them, making Chloe almost lose her grip on the shield, but she grasped it tighter, and the meaning of the words inscribed on the front surface bubbled to the top of her mind.
"Clark!" She called, the wind nearly drowning out her voice. "Clark! This shield! This shield is the portal!"
"Throw the portal, human." Zod's voice was a mocking parody of Jor-El's now. "Throw it with your left hand. You are the key. And you will be the first of your kind to welcome me."
"Chloe!" Clark turned, and put his arms around her. "Don't listen to him…" He looked down. Chloe's eyes were closed, and she had begun to glow. It was as if she had been created from pure light, and Clark released her. Powered by a force not her own, Chloe turned, and held the reflective side of the shield in the direction Zod's voice had issued from. Light bounced from it, as she spoke, both in English and Kryptonian.
"What was hidden, must now be revealed…"Her voice was crystalline, removed from her body – seeming to echo through the Fortress like pure bells on a summer morning. The hulking mass of the largest Kryptonian ship Clark had seen to date appeared, its very darkness an affront to the pristine majesty of the Fortress. "Kal-El…Clark." She spoke his name and Clark heard Lara's voice join in. "Your part in this has begun….take the shield."
Clark stepped forward, reaching out for the shield. Chloe's hand released it and the small silver shield hovered between them, beginning to spin. Clark took it in his hand. In the place of the massive Kryptonian ship, a large, black shield had appeared opposite him and it too, had begun to spin, whipping up the already fierce wind.
"You are too late!" Fine cried out, something like rapture on his face. "My master comes!"
"The Phantom Zone has opened." Chloe/Lara said, "This must be."
"Why? I don't understand!" Clark called out, and he heard Chloe, inside his head, next to his heart. His Chloe. She strengthened and supported him, and he could feel her.
"Read the shield, Clark." There was a small snort and then Clark heard Chloe translate the Kryptonian.
"Son of Jor-El, protector of the Phantom Zone, the last child of Krypton. Heal the breach, seal the tomb…."Clark repeated the words, stepping in front of Chloe, Her light had grown brighter, and begun to pulse with colors. "From Krypton's fate, your home preserve…."
"And all living creatures, you vow to serve…" The crystalline Chloe's voice rang over the howling, tornado like winds. Suddenly, the wind ceased, and the silence in the Fortress was tomblike. The black shield had become a dimensional hole, a doorway, so black that the light around it did not seem as bright. Clark recognized that void - the Phantom Zone. Fine dropped lower, bending forward so that his head nearly touched the floor, chanting in Kryptonian. Chloe fell to the floor in a heap, the light that had illuminated her gone. Clark knelt beside her, and sighed with relief when she moaned.
"Clark…"She whispered, but did not open her eyes. "You have to let me help you…"
"Chloe, it's not over yet…stay down." Clark said urgently, and Chloe shook her head.
"Clark, listen, the crystal.." She grasped his shirt, and pulled him down toward her.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I don't need the crystal, Chloe…"
Her eyes opened. They were no longer the warm and mossy hazel he loved, the irises were an opalescent swirl of color. Before Clark could register his shock and horror, Chloe spoke again, her voice very much her own. Nothing in her words reassured Clark at all, in spite of her familiar voice, and tender smile.
" You do need me, Clark. I am the Crystal."
