Chapter Thirty-Four – Wishes
"You're not just letting them go, are you?" Chloe asked The Doctor.
The Doctor just stood there, oblivious to Chloe's question, with a beatific smile on his face. "Did you hear that?" he finally responded.
"Hear what?" asked Chloe.
"The Tardis - it just let out a big telepathic sigh of relief. I think it's happy again."
"Well, I'm not," said an exasperated Chloe. "Sure, we've got rid of Zod and Ursa, and there's nobody I'd rather get rid of, but I don't want them let loose in the past. Who knows what havoc they'll wreak. They'll turn 1961 upside down, they'll change destiny …"
"Yeah, that could be fun," replied The Doctor, "but maybe they're just following destiny, doing what they're meant to do. Besides, 1961 turned upside down is still 1961."
"So, are you saying they've already done whatever it is they'll be doing?" asked Chloe.
"No, I'm just suggesting the possibility. They might be following destiny, or they might not. I've no idea," replied The Doctor. "You could always ask Lex. If he's really Clark then he'll know what should happen here."
"It's fine," said Lex, bluffing, hoping that he could trust Clark, Ursa and Zod not to destroy his future.
As they walked away together from the Tardis, Zod turned to Ursa. "I take it that your honesty in there wasn't entirely honest. That unhappy childhood you claimed to have, your sorrow over Krypton's destruction…"
Ursa laughed. "My dear Zod, you, of all people, should know when I'm faking things. Of course I was lying. My childhood was the happiest time of my life, and Krypton, while hardly as detestable as this blue and green lump we're on now, was still a horribly white sterile place decidedly lacking on the entertainment front. No, I was just trying to build up their sympathy for me in case we end up meeting them again."
"That's what I thought," replied Zod, nodding his head.
"Then again, I might just be lying to you," said Ursa. "You'll never know, and that's the way I like it."
Just as Zod was about to grunt a reply, a shadow fell over them. Looking up, they saw Clark hovering high above them.
"Well, your words certainly inspired young Kal," mused Zod. "He believes he can fly. He believes he can touch the sky."
"Yes, I certainly built up his confidence," replied Ursa, "but it will be so much more fun tearing it down again."
She slipped her hand into the folds of her costume and opened the lead-lined box stored within. "Maybe this will bring him down to Earth."
Up in the sky, the confident Clark suddenly found himself falling. Falling from a great height. He'd been right all these years to be afraid of heights - not for his own safety, but for those below. Right now he was heading straight for Ursa and there seemed to be nothing he could do about it.
Ursa, seeing Clark's descent, snapped the box lid closed and stepped back just in time, leaving Clark to plummet into the ground just in front of her. Slowly he lifted his head from the Clark Kent shaped indent he'd made in the ground. "Sorry," he said, his cheeks flushing.
"No need to apologize, Kal," said Ursa reassuringly. "I'm used to men falling at my feet."
"I guess I just haven't got the hang of this flying thing yet. It just seems so unnatural. It doesn't seem to fit in with any laws of physics…"
Suddenly Clark found Ursa's finger pressed against his lips, as she crouched beside his fallen body. "Hush, Kal. You think too much. You don't want to be governed by laws. Don't be restricted by what people say. You've got to follow your heart, just as Jor-El did when he sent you here, just as Zod and I did when we committed our crimes. That's what we've got in common, Kal. That's why we're all still alive rather than destroyed in Krypton's exploding flames."
"What was Krypton like?" asked Clark.
"It was beautiful, Kal," lied Ursa, "so beautiful. There were jungles of scarlet, volcanoes spewing gold, mountains made of jewels. Our moons were so close they filled up half the sky. We had sunsets that lasted for hours."
Zod shook his head, stunned at how at odds Ursa's colorful descriptions were with the dull white-chambered actuality of what had been Krypton. Meanwhile, Clark looked at Ursa with his eyes wide, falling for her every word.
"I wish I could go there," said Clark.
"You can, Kal," said Ursa. "Your father can take us all there."
"But I belong here."
"No, Kal, you just want to belong. But if we save Krypton then that rocket containing you will never be sent here, and the people of Smallville will never know you. If you go back to the future Smallville then you'll just be a stranger in a strange land."
"So, you're telling me I should go to Krypton with you?"
"I would never tell you that, Kal," said Ursa. "That's your decision to make, and yours alone."
Clark was silent for a moment, and then announced "I've decided."
Getting up, he turned away from Zod and Ursa and started walking back towards the Tardis, tears running down his face.
"He's going back with them?" asked a stunned Zod. "He's not even going to see his own father and try and avert Krypton's explosion, but leave things the same so he can go back to his own cozy Earth future."
"I think you've misjudged Kal," replied Ursa. "He's not leaving us. He's just gone to say his goodbyes."
Young Laura Potter had had a busy day, and now, as she lay in bed, her Auntie Louise was telling her a bedtime story. It was a new one, and Laura liked it because it was all about Laura, and how she'd grow up and meet a handsome prince, and would have a baby who was the most beautiful princess in the kingdom. But Laura knew something bad was going to happen in the story, otherwise Auntie Louise wouldn't keep bursting into tears, and then her auntie got to the bit with big green stones dropping on Laura and it made Laura cry because it was a nasty story and this made Auntie Louise cry even more and then her auntie was saying the story was true and Laura was crying even more and then her parents came and took her nasty auntie away.
And then Laura, wishing her auntie was dead, fell asleep and a few days later her auntie was dead.
Laura Potter would never make any wishes again after that day, or think back to that night. Well, there was an exception, 28 years later, when a big stone was dropping on her, when she did think back to that night and did make a wish - this time wishing for life rather than death. Unfortunately for Laura, that wish didn't come true.
