Chapter Eighteen - Return To Smallville

Chloe Sullivan was awoken by a loud banging sound. Fortunately she'd fallen asleep wearing her clothes, so within seconds she was able to start roaming the Tardis' corridors looking for somebody to unleash all of her pent-up anger on. Finally she found the source of the noise - Lex Luthor, standing there next to a smashed-in door, a sledgehammer by his side..

"What do you think you're doing?" she shouted, grabbing hold of Lex's jacket and wincing slightly from the pain in her hand, which was still bruised from Clark brushing it away earlier.

"The sign said PLEASE KEEP OUT!" replied Lex calmly, assuming that that would be explanation enough for anyone.

Chloe shook her head in disbelief. "I'm going back to bed, Lex, right now. If I hear one more sound from you it will be your last. Capiche?"

"But …" started Lex, pointing to another sturdy door beyond the door he'd just smashed in, a door with a sign containing the words WE REALLY MEAN IT!

Chloe Sullivan used her good hand to pull Lex's head towards her and talked to him as slowly as she could. "I'm going back to bed! I don't want to be disturbed! Now if you'll just let me …"

"Rest in peace?" offered Lex.

Chloe Sullivan fell silent, pushed Lex's head away, turned from him and marched back towards her bed, even though she knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep.

"Nice way with words, Lex," said The Doctor, suddenly appearing with Rose by his side. They'd also gone to investigate the banging and had caught the tail end of Lex and Chloe's conversation.

"Do you know what's behind these doors?" was Lex's response.

"Of course I do, Lex, but you shouldn't know. Trust me, Lex, you'll never forgive yourself if you find out."

"Very well, Doctor. If you say that this knowledge is forbidden, then that's good enough for me."

"We need to talk, Lex," interrupted Rose. "About Lana's death."

"Well actually I'm still in denial, taking out my subconscious anger on doors, but go ahead."

"It was General Zod who killed her, wasn't it?" said Rose accusingly.

"How could you think that?" asked Lex.

"Well first there was Non who died near Chloe," said The Doctor. "We suspect he was following her."

"Oh, Ursa told me about that. Eaten by a dinosaur. That must have been awful. It's a good job the dinosaurs were wiped out."

The Doctor glowered at Lex.

"Oh, me and my big mouth," replied Lex. "Adric died then as well, didn't he?"

"Adric?" asked a confused Rose.

"One of his assistants," explained Lex. "You'll be surprised how many he gets through."

"Anyway," said The Doctor, trying to get back to the subject, "when you and Ursa returned to the Tardis from that other Metropolis we couldn't help notice that you seemed a bit the worse for wear."

"I walked into a door," explained Lex. "Anyway even if General Zod did kill Lana Lang, what do you expect me to do about it? I'm all out of medals."

This time it was Rose's turn to glower at Lex, while The Doctor continued calmly. "I'd talk to General Zod myself but military types tend to ignore me, so I'm leaving it all up to you, Lex. You're in charge of him from now on, Mister President. If any of your Black Pack takes one step out of line then I'm abandoning you all on the worst planet I can imagine."

"Well, if you could make that planet Krypton a few years before it exploded maybe it would explain Clark's father having Zod's voice," said Lex, although the way he said it made it impossible to tell whether he was joking or not.

"The Tardis visit Krypton," laughed The Doctor. "Over my dead bodies."

That could be arranged, thought Lex. Admittedly it would make him feel guilty, after all he'd hate violating continuity, but, yes, that could be arranged.


Meanwhile Jimmy Olsen stood alone in the Tardis' console room. Once they'd landed at their latest destination Rose had, as usual, asked him where they were now. The second he'd replied Smallville and that previously he'd met Lana Lang there, they'd felt a draught and looked to see Clark Kent gone and the Tardis door open. Jimmy was pretty sure that Clark was in for a shock.
General Zod woke up again, aided by Ursa's slaps to his face.

"What do you mean? Lana beat you up after you killed her?" she demanded.

"There were two Lanas," he explained.

"Two Lanas? So you killed this second Lana as well?"

General Zod looked at Ursa sheepishly. "By the time I recovered consciousness she'd gone. Still it doesn't matter, Ursa, we've cut down their numbers. There are now just six of them left to go."

"So who's next?" pondered Ursa. "We need The Doctor. We need Clark. We may even need Lex. After Lana's death, Clark's too fragile to risk killing Chloe, and killing Rose might anger The Doctor. That leaves just that one puny human. Leave him to me, it'll stop me from getting bored."

General Zod snored in agreement.

"Not the last person I'll put to sleep today," said Ursa, to nobody in particular, as she wandered off to find Jimmy Olsen.


This wasn't the Smallville Clark remembered. It wasn't even the year Clark remembered - 1983 - Lana wouldn't even have been born yet. And judging by the newspaper of a passerby, Virgil Swann was Superman in this reality.

Still he was glad to be out of the Tardis, alone with his thoughts, his thoughts that were flying by so fast that the outside world seemed to move at a fraction of a snail's pace. As he sat on the sidewalk using his memory to replay once more every moment he'd ever had with Lana, he suddenly noticed a familiar face across the road. It was a young Martha Kent. Boy, was she going to get a surprise when she found out who he was.


Jimmy Olsen first heard the sound of stiletto heels approaching, followed shortly thereafter by the sight of Ursa striding into the console room.

"Alone together at last," she said, looking him up and down. "Terrible about all these deaths isn't it, Non and Lana. They say bad things come in threes, a bit like Phantom Zone villains."

Nervously Jimmy Olsen backed towards the wall.

"Oh, Jimmy, there's no need to worry. I know exactly what I'm doing," she said as she slowly made her way towards him. "I'll even let you pick which finger I break first."