Chapter Forty-One – Heat and Lust
Chloe Sullivan had felt better in her time. To be honest, she'd seldom felt worse as she lay there with every sinew in her body aching. Slowly she opened her eyes and, squinting due to the bright sunlight, looked around at her surroundings. There wasn't a lot to see – just trees. Closing her eyes again, she tried to remember how she'd gotten there – wherever there was.
She remembered the Tardis spinning and all of them being flung around like rag dolls and she remembered thinking that the Tardis was about to crash and … and that was all she remembered.
No, there was something else … no, someone else. Chloe remembered waking up earlier, briefly, and there'd been a girl looking down at her.
It had been Lana and she'd told Chloe not to worry - that everything would be okay.
As Chloe struggled to get to her feet, wincing with pain, she realized that the Lana she saw must have just been a hallucination, and, as she looked over the tops of the trees, she realized that worrying was really what she should be doing because things would never ever be okay again.
Beyond the trees there stood something resembling a mountain, stretching into the sky higher than Chloe could see. It was a bizarre mixture of organic and inorganic material, some of it following precise mathematical patterns with honeycomb structures and dodecahedrons, other parts of it seemingly bolted on at random, other parts just suspended in the air seemingly unconnected to the rest of the structure. The bottom part of it was on fire, a fire that would surely rise to engulf the rest of it, at least the part in Earth's atmosphere, eventually.
Chloe had known the Tardis was bigger on the inside than the outside, but she'd never appreciated just quite how much bigger until now.
Clark had not been in the best of moods since he'd left the caves. First there was the journey back to Smallville, pondering his new father Zod's words and also worrying about how some of Zod's hair had suddenly seemed to have turned white and worrying even more about the possibility that it might be hereditary.
Then he'd reached Smallville and encountered that little boy in Louise's garden who'd insisted that Clark play rock-paper-scissors with him. Of course, not wishing to draw undue attention to himself and thereby accidentally disrupt the timeline, Clark had deliberately lost to the boy each time, which had made the boy want to play with Clark even more.
Then, finally, when the boy had left Clark free to look in Louise's window, Clark had spent at least five minutes unnoticed by Louise, just gazing at her. Part of him had been filled with sadness as he considered her unchangeable fate while another part of him had been feeling guilty at spying on her, which just didn't feel right somehow, especially without a telescope.
Just as Clark hadn't been in the best of moods, neither had the mem-O-random which had found everything that had happened since Clark left the caves far too boring to consider recording, including the current time when Clark just stood in the barn, gazing towards the McCallum house with his X-ray vision.
Just as bored was Lana, who was having to put up with dull 1961 talk from Dexter and the Langs when all she really wanted to do was go to the barn and see the drifter again. Finally, after what seemed like a very long eternity, the bridge game reached its conclusion and Lana made her excuses and left the house to set off towards the barn.
After all her waiting, Lana was in a hurry to get to the barn and was determined not to let anything or anyone get in her way. She even largely ignored her four-year-old non-biological-father-to-be who she passed in the garden. He insisted on telling her that he'd won with a rock, which saddened her greatly as she remembered how he'd lose with a rock twenty-eight years later.
Fate certainly wasn't kind, she thought, as she walked into the barn, although she wasn't thinking about little Louis anymore, but about herself and her impending doom. Today was the last day of the rest of her life but Lana was determined to make the most of it.
As soon as Clark saw her striding into the barn, looking so much like Lana (which wasn't really that surprising since she was), and saw the way that she was looking at him, with that look in her eyes that Clark had only seen once before, a single word leapt to his mind. Around his neck, the mem-O-random briefly wondered what Nicodemus meant, and then, realizing that this was going to be a memory that Clark would replay forever, commenced its recording.
Remembering the events that he'd already seen thanks to the medallion, Clark walked over to Lana and stood behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders. He then leaned over to kiss her neck and then, just as he knew she'd do, she turned around to face him. She then led him though the barn, by the hand.
"I couldn't stop thinking about you all day," she said.
Clark looked at Lana, who he thought was Louise, and marveled at how much she resembled herself. For a moment he thought it was wrong, being here with Louise but thinking about Lana, feeling these feelings for Louise that were really meant for Lana, but those thoughts were only there for a moment before being brushed aside by the raging emotions inside him. He pulled her to him and kissed her passionately.
"I've never felt this way about anyone," he lied, and then followed this with the truth: "All I know is I want to be with you."
Unfortunately, although this was what he wanted, he knew it could never be. They kissed again, and Clark was still thinking about Lana and how she used to kiss just the same way, and then, when they'd finished, Lana walked away toward some haystacks near the barn wall. Clark followed her, turned her around towards him and leaned her against a wooden beam. As they kissed frantically Lana unbuttoned Clark's shirt and pulled it off his shoulders. Kissing her neck, Clark unbuttoned Louise's blouse and she shrugged it off.
She then tugged at his top and, as he pulled it off, they fell onto a blanket on the hay. Lana lay on top of Clark kissing him and as the kiss ended, Clark gently turned her over so that he was now above her. The mem-O-random hung from his neck, shining in the sunlight, as Clark leaned in to kiss Lana again, running his arm underneath her back as she touched his head, running her hand through his hair, then up his back.
As Clark and Lana made eye contact one more time, the mem-O-random read the thoughts going through Clark's mind and, due to its in-built PG-13 ratings system, decided now was the time to stop recording.
As Clark looked down at what he thought was Louise, he suddenly realized how terribly wrong what he was doing was. Sure, he was about to make love to Louise, but he'd actually be thinking of poor dead Lana - it almost bordered on necrophilia.
Lana looked at the horror and doubt that had suddenly appeared on the drifter's face. Surely he wasn't going to deny her this one last chance at happiness. Surely a condemned girl deserved a last meal.
Grabbing hold of the drifter's neck she pulled his body down to hers, pressing herself hard against him and whispering sweet nothings in his ear. And then she grabbed hold of his hand and started to move it along her body.
This was all too much for poor Clark and suddenly he lost control. The next thing he and Lana knew, the hay beneath them had suddenly caught fire. As Lana pushed Clark off of her, and then leapt up and rushed for her clothes and then for some water, Clark remembered Madame Xanadu's words about there being an accident and somebody starting a fire.
Funnily enough, in a different time and place and reality, Chloe Sullivan was also remembering Madame Xanadu's words, as she stood there looking up at the blazing remains of the Tardis. She didn't know whether to feel totally awestruck at the spectacle or totally helpless knowing that she'd be trapped there forever.
Still, at least, against all the odds, she was still alive and if she could survive then maybe, just maybe, she wasn't the only one. Turning away from the Tardis she slowly started making her way through the trees, and, after a minute or so, she emerged onto a beach. Sitting on the edge of the beach, looking at the sea, was Lex, tossing a stone up in the air and catching it in his gloved hand, while standing to her left, next to what must have been yet another section of the Tardis, was Jimmy.
She wanted to rush over and hug them but, for one thing, her legs didn't feel up to it, and, for another, outward displays of emotion were never her big thing, and so she settled for just being her usual self.
"Hey, guys," said Chloe with a forced jollity. "Where are we? And where are The Doctor and Rose?"
"Lost," replied Jimmy, answering both questions at once.
"The TV series?" asked Chloe.
"What TV series?" asked a confused Jimmy Olsen, who, coming from the '90s, had no idea what Chloe was talking about.
Lex turned to them, revealing some scratches on his face. "It was a TV series from your future, my past, Chloe's present," he explained to Jimmy. "I don't think this has got anything to do with that."
"Nothing to do with it?" exclaimed Chloe. "We have a crash and survive against all the odds, ending up on this strange island. And then there's you, a bald guy with scratches down his face."
"Once upon a time you'd have said I was the hero who kept losing his shirt," said Lex wistfully, pretending that he was Clark, even though he knew Chloe didn't believe him. "Anyway, if this was Lost, wouldn't one of us have had a flashback by now?"
Chloe gave some clever reply but Lex wasn't listening, but rather looking at the stone in his hand, with its strange markings, as his mind drifted back an hour.
Lex woke up in the forest to see a figure standing over him.
"Well, well, Lex. Long time, no see."
Lex looked up at the figure, a figure he recognized straight away. "It hasn't been that long, old man."
"Not for you, no," replied the man, "but for me it's been lifetimes."
"So, what do you want me to call you? Can I call you -"
And then Lex stopped as he felt the tip of a sword blade at his throat.
"Ra's Al Ghul will be fine," replied the man as he lifted the sword away from Lex.
"So, where are the others?" asked Lex.
"You think I know everything? Well, actually I do," replied Ra's with a smile. "They're around here somewhere ... except for The Doctor and Rose - my latest acolyte seems to have taken an interest in them."
"So, are you the mastermind behind everything? Have we been traveling through time and space and realities all of this time just for your amusement?"
"No, Lex, this is no plan of mine. Plans are best kept simple, after all. No, I'm just a bemused observer. My cameras picked up Jimmy Olsen's first visit to this island of mine earlier today. It seemed a bit of a no-brainer that the Tardis would be following soon after, although I must confess I was expecting it to arrive in one piece."
"So, why are you here? Have you come here to gloat?" asked Lex. "To finish me off? To unleash some of your quotations one me?"
"No, I've given up quotations for the time being, Lex. I had to - being immortal I'd finally used them all up, and I hate repeating myself. Having said that, I still often quote myself - I find it adds spice to my conversation. Speaking of quotations, are you still pretending to be Clark?"
"Yes," replied Lex.
"You're not fooling Chloe, you know?"
"I know," replied Lex.
"Still, there's always a way to turn such distrust to your advantage," said Ra's, pulling something from out of his pocket. "I promised myself I wouldn't interfere, but I just couldn't resist."
"What's this?" asked Lex, as Ra's dropped a stone into Lex's hand.
"Just something I found off the coast of Honduras. Now tell me about The Doctor."
"Clark, are you listening to me?" shouted Chloe, dragging Lex back to the present.
Lex stared at the stone in his hand, with its Kryptonian symbol.
"Sorry, Chloe," replied Lex. "You know me. Sometimes my mind goes elsewhere."
There was a knock on the door of Sheriff Billy Tate's office.
"Sheriff, there's a woman here demanding to see you," said his worried-looking deputy.
"Show her in," said Billy Tate, who stood looking out of the window, his mind more occupied with other things.
"Hello, Sheriff," said Ursa, pushing the deputy aside and walking in. "Nice badge. I've got one just like it."
The sheriff looked at Ursa, as she walked up to him in her strange garb.
"Are you some kind of performer?" he asked.
"I perform very well," replied Ursa, running her finger over his badge. "And are you some kind of Sheriff?"
"Yes, Ma'am, I uphold the law in this here town."
"Really?" asked Ursa. "I've never been big on law enforcement, Billy. Having said that, crime and punishment are two of my favorite things. Then there's police corruption …"
"I think you'll find I'm incorruptible, Ma'am," said Sheriff Billy Tate, backing away from Ursa until he was against the wall.
"Even where Louise McCallum's involved?"
"You know about our plan?" he asked, a worried tone in his voice.
"I thought it was just your plan?" said a surprised Ursa.
"You think too much," said Sheriff Billy Tate, pulling out his gun and pointing it straight at Ursa.
Rose Tyler woke up to find herself sitting on the most comfortable chair she'd ever encountered.
"Where am I?" she asked, her hand rubbing a large bump on her head.
"You're on my Tardis," exclaimed a bearded man dressed in black, standing to her right.
"Your Tardis?" she asked, looking over at the man and then at The Doctor, who was sat next to her, battered and bruised, on a similar chair.
"Yes, I'm a Time Lord, like your friend The Doctor," explained the bearded man. "I am The Master."
"But I thought all the other Time Lords were dead," said a confused Rose.
"That might be the case, my dear Rose, but I left your reality long before that occurrence."
"Yes," said The Doctor, smiling. "But I know you'll return back to that reality one day, and you'll die just like the other Time Lords. Not that you won't die before then, anyway. You've regenerated several times since I last saw you looking like that."
The Master smiled back. "So, it appears that I'm my former self, whereas you, dear Doctor, are just a shadow of yours."
The Doctor looked at The Master scornfully. "All of this time, I've been wishing that I wasn't the only surviving Time Lord and then you appear and being the last survivor of a race suddenly doesn't appear to be such a bad thing after all."
"So, you two know each other?" interrupted Rose.
"Yes, The Doctor knew me when I wanted to be the master of the Universe, but that's no longer the case."
"Why?" asked Rose. "Wouldn't He-Man let you join?"
The Master ignored Rose and continued. "Now I plan to be the master of the Multiverse!"
"You'll have to defeat me first," said The Doctor.
The Master laughed. "But, my dear Doctor, I already have. Surely you can't have forgotten already."
As The Doctor looked at him blankly, The Master took a strange-looking object out of his pocket and activated it. Suddenly a screen appeared in front of them playing back some familiar events.
"So you where behind that," said The Doctor.
"Quiet, Doctor," urged The Master. "Relax and enjoy the show, and when it's all over we'll discuss how you're going to die."
