Chapter Thirteen - A Place Where Nobody Dared To Go
After Lana Lang's choice of a coffee shop, Chloe Sullivan had gotten to choose the next place they'd visit on their tour of Metropolis. And so, while Chloe was sat in a corner of a library reading about this amazing world that they were now visiting, Lana Lang, who wasn't blessed with Chloe's caffeine reserves, was sat on a chair, struggling to stay awake. As she looked out of the window at the brilliant blue sky outside, she also glanced at her watch. It said four o'clock, which would have been four o'clock in the morning Smallville time, or maybe even four o'clock the next afternoon. It was so hard to tell with time travel. Regardless, she was ever so tired, probably suffering from Tardis-lag, and her eyes could stay open no longer.
And the next thing she knew a loud voice was saying "Lana Lang come with me!" and she was opening her eyes to see mist everywhere, along with a dark figure and Rose and Jimmy. Stupid dream, she thought, although it was better than the usual one about her parents meeting a rock. Still, she'd play along until something more interesting came along.
"What about Chloe?" she asked the stranger. "Can she come too?"
The Phantom Stranger nodded. "Indeed, she can. As soon as we manage to wake her."
Superman lay on the ground, a dream of Krypton suddenly giving way to consciousness as he felt once more the kryptonite-induced pain running through his body. He turned his face up to see an unfamiliar Lex Luthor standing there, uncaring of his plight, talking to the black-clad woman who had her foot rested on Superman's back.
"Krypton?" she said, her voice betraying none of the hope that was building up inside her. "And how exactly do you propose to get us there? If you hadn't heard, it's gone."
"It is now," replied Lex. "But there's always the Tardis."
"And you think you can pilot this Tardis?" asked Ursa, her flat voice almost tinged with excitement.
"No," admitted Lex, "but I think I know somebody who can."
Ursa took her foot off Superman and walked around him, closer to Lex, before sitting down on the Man of Steel's prostrate body. "Tell me more," she said, looking up at Lex with interest.
"Clark Kent should be able to with that mind of his," replied Lex. "He grows up to be Superman you know." Lex looked at the other Superman lying on the ground, hoping for a reaction, but he'd lapsed back into unconsciousness.
"Zod and I were aware of Clark's heritage," said Ursa. "When we first met him he was covered in the blood of a dinosaur he'd just slain."
"Sounds a bit bloodthirsty for Clark," observed Lex.
"You know us Kryptonians, we're all alike," said Ursa, rising to her feet.
"Oh, wait," said Lex, as he realized the meaning of Ursa's words. "You think that now I've told you about Clark you can kill me."
"The thought was crossing my mind," said Ursa, walking right up to Lex.
"But you'll need me to control him," explained Lex.
"I don't think I'll have any trouble controlling the boy. I've seen the way he looks at me."
"Trust me, Ursa. Nobody knows Clark like I do. Although if you're really desperate to try and kill me again, you're welcome to try, although I have to warn you - you really won't like my Plan B."
Ursa laughed. "You're all talk. But you amuse me, bald man, so I'll keep you around. At least until you've gotten us to Krypton."
Lex's face hinted at a smile. "Glad to see that you're seeing sense."
"And then I'll make you wish that I'd killed you this day," she added.
"As long as we know where we stand," said Lex, looking ambivalently at Ursa's face, millimeters in front of his.
Ursa turned away from Lex and walked back to Superman. Bending down, she rolled him over onto his back. "Got a sharp knife?"
Lex put a hand into one of his many pockets and pulled out a knife.
"Plan B?" asked Ursa.
"Plan F," replied Lex, passing her the blade. "What are you going to do?"
"Something I meant to do a long time ago," she said, grabbing Superman's costume in her hand and putting a knife to his chest.
"You realize that we're supposed to be saving Supermen," said Lex, as he saw Ursa, from the back, making rapid cutting movements with the knife. "Although I guess one won't hurt."
"I am saving him," explained Ursa, as she got to her feet.
"Saving him for later," she added, as she walked away from Lex and out of the alleyway, holding a piece of Superman's costume in her hand.
Lex looked at Superman, lying there unconscious, the S symbol cut out of his costume. Once a badge collector, always a badge collector, he mused, and then, kneeling down, he picked up his green rock and followed Ursa out of the alleyway.
"Where are we?" Chloe Sullivan asked The Phantom Stranger, as the mists around them started to get blown away, only to be replaced by the sights and sounds of a busy city.
"We are about to enter a doorway to nightmare," proclaimed The Phantom Stranger ominously.
"So where exactly are we?" asked Chloe Sullivan, hoping for a direct answer.
"Can anybody say where we really are, or if we're truly here at all?" replied The Phantom Stranger helpfully.
Lana Lang, having enough of this so-called Phantom Stranger, walked up to a passerby and asked him where they were. "This guy says we're in Greenwich Village," she shouted over to the others.
"Cool," said Chloe Sullivan, forgetting that she really needed to sleep. "So who's this woman you said was going to help us? Wonder Woman? One of the Justice Society?"
"No, even better," replied The Phantom Stranger, leading them into a doorway with a sign Enter freely - unafraid above it. "Madame Xanadu!"
Clark Kent sat on a bench outside the church thinking about things. Although his ears picked up all the sounds around - the church bells, Chloe talking to Lex, a car crash, The Doctor talking to himself - he didn't pay any attention to them. At first he just thought the same thoughts that he'd thought back on that bridge in the alternate future Smallville. He thought about the corpses he'd seen when he'd used his X-ray vision to check the graveyard, about how he'd almost gone back to the Green Rock Café just so that he could get that mutant girl to show him the faces of his loved ones one last time. And then his thoughts moved back to the present, about how even this future seemed to be missing a Lana Lang, and about how his father appeared to have two distinct voices.
Suddenly Clark knew what he had to do. He'd spent enough time thinking, now was the time for action, time to get some answers. Time to change the past - which, as Clark was about to learn, was so much easier said than done.
