Chapter Twenty-Seven - Journey To The Center Of The Earth
"1961?" said Chloe, suddenly distracted from feeling sorry for herself. "Couldn't we just go and save Lana before she dies."
"That's not possible," said The Doctor.
Elsewhere in the Tardis, Clark's super-hearing had picked up their conversation. A second later he was in the console room asking "Why? Just because of some possible temporal paradox?" And then, before The Doctor could answer, he added "I'm going out to rescue her anyway."
"Don't, Clark," shouted The Doctor as Clark opened the Tardis door, started to set his foot on the ground outside, and promptly found his foot going through it. Suddenly he was falling through the ground outside, and, as he struggled to comprehend what was happening, he heard The Doctor's voice shouting after him "The Tardis - it hasn't fully materialized."
Clark reacted instantly, turning around, and reaching out with his hand to grab the Tardis, but he missed it by millimeters and suddenly everything went dark as his head went below the ground and only his X-ray vision, which was somehow managing to work with the insubstantial reality around him, enabled him to look back up at the worried faces of his friends looking down at him. No, not at him. At the ground. A ground he was falling further and further into.
"Surely there's something we can do to save him?" asked Chloe.
"Well, unless he suddenly learns to fly," started The Doctor, "we'll need a really, really long rope."
"How long?" asked Rose.
"Around four thousand miles," answered The Doctor. "The local gravity seems to be affecting him, so he should stop once he reaches the center."
"I'm guessing you don't have a rope that long," said Jimmy.
"That's a reasonable assumption," replied The Doctor.
Meanwhile Zod and Ursa, uncaring of Clark's plight, were returning to their quarters, when they ran into Lex.
"Good news, Lex," said Ursa, as they passed him. "Looks like that list of yours is one name shorter."
"Who?" asked Lex, confused. Surely Chloe's mistake at the memorial service hadn't been sufficient excuse for Ursa to kill her.
"Clark," she replied. "He stupidly rushed out into a world we weren't even phased into.
"But, but I was just talking to him a moment ago," said Lex, and then he realized what had happened. "Curse that boy and his super-speed. It wasn't meant to be like this."
And then Lex found himself running towards the console room, his eyes suddenly taking in Rose, Jimmy, Chloe and The Doctor crowded at the door looking down. Chloe's hands were over her mouth and tears were dripping down from her eyes, falling through the ground outside.
"How long's he been down there?" asked Lex calmly.
"Maybe a minute," said The Doctor.
"Have you got any flight rings, jet packs, teleportation devices?"
"There's bound to be some lying around somewhere, but we'd need to look."
"No time," said Lex, dragging Chloe away from the door. He turned her face towards his. "Thanks for believing in me," he told her, and then ran out of the door.
Jimmy, The Doctor and Rose watched in disbelief as Lex leapt into the air, before diving into the ground below.
"Did he just do what I thought he did?" asked Jimmy.
"He must have an idea," replied Rose.
"Looked like suicide to me," admitted The Doctor.
Chloe Sullivan dragged herself back to the door.
"No, Doctor, the exact opposite. Suicide's when you take your own life. He was trying to save his."
Meanwhile, over in Smallville, inside the home of Dexter and Louise McCallum, Lana and her great-aunt were beginning their incredible transformation into each other.
Meanwhile, outside on the streets, General Zod wandered around. He'd lost sight of Lana Lang, but if he just stayed patient she was bound to turn up sooner or later. And so, ignoring the jeers of the local populace who failed to appreciate his snazzy black outfit, he roamed the streets of Smallville, ever watchful.
As Lex plummeted towards the Earth's core, unable to see, he wondered if it might have been better to come up with a plan first. Admittedly, he was far more able to cope in this situation than that plaid-clad farm boy, and his resourcefulness was legendary, and inspiration would no doubt strike at any second, but still it was possible that he might have been slightly rash here.
First of all, there was the small matter of oxygen, or the lack of it. Fortunately he'd filled his lungs before diving down, and his early asthma had taught him to control his breathing. Still, he wouldn't have long to attempt to communicate with Clark.
"Clark Kent," he said, not knowing whether even Clark's super-hearing would be able to hear him over this distance (on the plus side the intangible Earth wouldn't block the sound waves). "Don't panic! You're largely invulnerable. As long as you don't use up all of your oxygen, you'll live. Now just relax and listen to what I say."
And then Lex started using various persuasion techniques to convince Clark that now was the time to fly. And then, suddenly, Lex could no longer breathe and, as he struggled to carry on talking, his mind flashed back to his childhood, gasping for breath, searching for his inhaler, and then he was older, underwater, a phone floating beside him, and suddenly strong arms were picking him up, and then he felt lips pressed against his, and oxygen being blown into his lungs.
He opened his eyes, but still couldn't see anything.
"Don't speak," said Clark, holding him securely, as they soared ever shallower towards the ground above.
And then there was a pain in his chest and things went black again and the next thing Lex knew he was on the floor of the Tardis, the others gathered around him.
"That was a stupid thing to do," said Clark, "you could have gotten yourself killed. You're lucky I heard you when I was flying back up. You were delirious - trying to tell me to fly."
Lex smiled. "But you did fly."
"Well, yeah. Once I'd thrown myself at the ground and missed, I guess it came to me no problem. Besides, down there, there were no heights to be afraid of."
"I guess not," said Lex. "Thanks for saving me."
Lex wondered if his words had actually subconsciously triggered off Clark's flying ability, or whether it was just Clark's being thrown in at the deep end, so to speak, that had forced him to fly. It didn't really matter anyway - regardless of whether he'd saved Clark or Clark had saved him, he'd still need to save Clark hundreds of more times to make them even.
All that mattered now was that Clark was alive, that he hadn't perished in some clumsy accident. Lex would never allow that to happen for, if Clark Kent was to die, Lex was adamant that he was going to be the one responsible for it.
