Chapter Forty-Five - Dead Again
The Doctor was busy doing some last minute adjustments to the console when Chloe Sullivan interrupted him.
"So when are we going back to get Clark? It's been over a week now."
"No rush," said The Doctor, not even turning his head away from what he was doing. "We've got a time machine. We can turn up the day after we left him, any time we want."
"But Louise will be dead by then," said Chloe, still remembering the scenes she'd seen on television earlier that week.
"That's right," said The Doctor matter-of-factly. "Exactly as things are meant to be."
But things weren't exactly as they were meant to be, thought Chloe. Not if the television series was to be believed. Sure, The Doctor had only let them watch the first three seasons, but she'd read about later seasons from the internet and, in those seasons, Lana was still very much alive. Then there was the last-but-one reality where she'd thought that the Tardis had crashed and then Lana turned up telling her that everything would be alright. None of that made any sense, and Chloe was a person who needed to make sense of things, so she headed for the only person on board who might be able to provide the answers she needed - Lana.
Rose Tyler wandered the corridors of the Tardis, trying to find Lex, when she heard a familiar banging sound coming from nearby. Following the sound, she came to a familiar smashed-in door, and, stepping beyond that, she found another smashed-in door.
About ten minutes later, having made her way past numerous similar broken doors, she came across Lex swinging a sledgehammer at yet another door, that was in the process of becoming broken. Rose wondered when Lex had had the time to create all of this carnage.
"Lex," she said, in order to distract his attention from his destruction.
Lex put his sledgehammer down, and looked at Rose. "So, have you come to help?"
"But don't you remember what The Doctor said?"
"Of course I do," replied Lex. "He warned me that I shouldn't know what's behind these doors."
"So, you're going to find out anyway?"
"Of course I am," replied Lex, picking up his sledgehammer again. "I hate other people keeping secrets from me."
"I also remember The Doctor telling you that you'd never forgive yourself if you found out what was behind them," said Rose. "Don't you believe him?"
"Does it matter? There are so many other things that I'll never forgive myself for, that adding one more to the list is fairly irrelevant."
And with that Lex turned from Rose and started hitting the latest door with his sledgehammer. Rose stood there silent, looking at Lex, as he swung his sledgehammer at the latest door. Then Lex turned to Rose. "Still here? If you're not going to help, you may as well go."
"I came for the rock," said Rose.
Lex smiled, and then his smile froze as Chloe Sullivan's scream was heard throughout the Tardis.
"Later," Lex said, as he dropped the sledgehammer to the ground and started running in the direction of the scream.
By the time Lex and Rose had made it through the broken doors, Chloe's scream was now a joyous shout: "Lana's alive."
Lex was the first to reach Chloe, as he saw her huddled over Lana's body, now out of the cryogenic chamber which it had been stored in.
"She's alive?" asked Lex, unbelievingly.
"No," said Chloe. "That gremlin must have pulled her out of the cryogenic chamber long ago. I'd thought it had scalped her as well at first."
Chloe passed what appeared to be Lana's hair to Lex.
"It's a wig," he exclaimed.
"That's right," said Chloe triumphantly, just as Rose, The Doctor and Jimmy finally arrived. "This isn't Lana, it's Louise. Lana must have taken her place."
"We've got to get her back then," said The Doctor. "Switch her with Lana."
"Great," said Chloe. "Let's do that."
"Okay," said The Doctor, "but I've got to get the timing just right."
"Timing?" asked Chloe.
"Yes, we don't want to disrupt things too much," replied The Doctor. "After she's shot and before the autopsy should do it."
Back in 1961 Smallville, Clark and Lana had been hovering in the sky. Unfortunately they'd had to come back down to Earth eventually and, after an uneventful drive home (that the mom-O-random didn't even deem worthy of recording), they found themselves standing in the barn by the car. Earth Angel was playing on the radio.
Kind of appropriate, thought Clark, as he looked at Louise who would soon be becoming an angel.
Kind of appropriate, thought Lana, as she looked at the drifter who she now knew to be an angel.
Lana leant against the shiny blue car as the angel kissed her in the way only an angel could kiss. As the kiss ended, she reached for the buttons of her blouse. Time to be touched by an angel, she thought.
And then the angel said "I have to leave tonight."
Well, if the angel was going back to Heaven, Lana was sure that she wanted to go there too.
"I'm leaving with you," she explained.
Clark looked at Louise and the longing in her eyes, but he knew that, for the sake of the Universe, she would have to die. "Louise, I told you, that's not possible. I've got to go on my own. I'm a drifter and I was born to walk alone."
While the mem-O-random was busy , editing Clark's comment to avoid possible future copyright infringement, Clark watched on helplessly as Louise made another plea: "I can't stay with Dex anymore. I don't love him. You're the one I want to be with."
And the words were true, for Lana was willing to die to be with the angel. Although, she knew she was going to die tonight anyway so that wasn't that big a commitment.
"Where I'm from we wouldn't be accepted," explained the angel.
"I don't care what people think. I never have," said Lana, and then laughed as she remembered something Lex had said to her about it once back in future Smallville. Changing his name slightly in order to protect the timeline, she told the drifter "Dex says that's my curse."
Clark stepped closer to Louise and touched her face. "No, Louise. That's a gift," he replied, wishing he himself didn't care what his father Zod thought, wishing he could just fly Louise away from here right now.
"We're not that different, Joe," said Lana, as she realized that an angel and herself were probably pretty even in the perfection ratings. "I'm willing to try."
Clark stepped past Louise. "This wasn't supposed to happen. I have to return home alone."
"Why?" she asked.
Clark turned to face her. "Because it's my destiny. I can't change it."
He walked to Louise and held her face in his hands. "Louise, as much as I want this, I can't have it."
Tears came to Lana's eyes as the angel told her that she wouldn't get into Heaven, while the angel continued to talk. "My father told me that someday I'd understand that my actions have consequences. I guess this is what he meant."
Lana's fingers touched the medallion around the angel's neck, and she whispered to him "It's not fair. We should be together."
Clark took Louise into his arms, holding her tightly, for what he knew would be the last time, and then, just as he was expecting, Lachlan Luthor walked into the barn brandishing a gun."
"Louise," said the angel, pushing Lana out of the way just as Lachlan fired bullet after bullet at the angel. Suddenly, as the bullets hit Joe in the chest, having no effect, Lana realized that the angel had come to save her, not take her back to Heaven. The reason she wasn't being allowed into Heaven was that this wasn't her time to die, not because she'd insulted God's color scheme.
Clark's mind went into super-speed mode as his eyes traced the trajectory of every bullet bouncing off him, including the bullet that went ever so slowly towards Lana. He could have grabbed it in mid-air or vaporized it with his heat vision but, in order for the future to survive, he could do nothing … except watch. In the future, Clark would be called a hero for using his powers to divert catastrophes, but Clark would never consider himself a hero. When all was said and done, he was just taking the easy option. Using his powers to prevent catastrophes was easy - doing nothing would have been so much harder.
As Clark saw the bullet hits Louise's chest, and Lachlan Luthor dropped the gun and ran out of the barn, Lana slowly looked down at the blood that had appeared on her white blouse, and decided that maybe God was right after all and maybe red and white really wasn't that good a color combination.
"Joe…" she whispered, and then her legs gave way, and she was falling to the ground.
Clark caught Louise and helped her gently to the ground.
"No, Louise. Don't leave me," he begged, as he realized the full awfulness of what he'd done. He'd let her die - possibly the only woman he'd ever truly loved.
Lana looked up at the drifter, but this time she didn't see the drifter - she saw Clark.
"I'll never leave. I love you," she said and then her eyes fell closed.
"Louise... No. No, Louise," said Clark, as tears fell from his eyes, and he pulled Louise closer to him.
"Louise…" he said one last time helplessly, as he looked down at her unmoving body and remembered their times together.
Outside the barn, hidden in the shadows, stood Zod and Ursa. As Lachlan ran out, Ursa turned to Zod.
"Do you think he'll just let Lana die?" asked Ursa.
Zod used his X-ray vision to look at the weeping Clark, in the barn, holding Lana's limp body. "I'm sure of it."
"That's my boy," said Ursa, as she and Zod turned away from the barn and started their journey back to the caves.
Clark held Louise in his arms, oblivious to all around him. He didn't even notice the thrumming sound behind him as the Tardis pulsated into view.
