Chapter Fifty - The Mark Of Zod
Lex Luthor, now residing in Chloe's body, watched from afar, without any concern, as a couple of doctors carried his old body, that he'd left there lying on the ground, into St. Eligius hospital. They'd no doubt been attracted by all of the screams that had been coming from his old mouth, but Lex knew that it didn't really matter whether they tried to save the body or not - the end result would be the same.
Lex smiled Chloe Sullivan's smile. It was time for him to take on his new role.
"Are you sure about this angel?" asked Death.
"Of course I'm sure," replied Lana. "I saw him with my own eyes back in 1961 Smallville. At first I thought he was Clark's father, but then I realized the truth. If only there was some way to show you."
Death smiled. "Well, if you met him on Earth, then there is a way. They're always looking down on Earth from up here in Heaven."
Lana looked down at the cloud below her. "What, it's that simple? We can just look down to Earth?"
"Not quite," answered Death, shaking her head. "But there is a place we can go - a sort of cinema - that shows us anything on Earth that is or was worth watching."
"Then let's go there," demanded Lana.
"Your wish is my command," said Death, as two pink ponies, the main mode of transport in Heaven, suddenly trotted up to them. "Climb aboard and we'll soon be there."
"So, what's this place we're going to called?" asked Lana, as she sat down on her pony.
"You've no doubt heard of it," replied Death. "It's called The Talon."
Meanwhile, down on Earth, Jimmy Olsen sat at the bedside of Lana Lang's vacated body. As he looked at her, lying there motionless, the various tubes sprouting from her body in order to keep her alive, he couldn't help but feel that this was all his fault. Sure, he'd been trying to help the Clark in his dimension, but now it looked like a different dimension's Lana Lang was going to die as a result.
Then he heard some footsteps behind him and turned around to see Chloe Sullivan standing there, tears in her eyes, her clothing torn.
"Jimmy," she said, "I… I think I've killed Lex. I didn't want to, but he… but he…"
Jimmy got up and held the distraught Chloe in his arms. "Don't worry, Chloe. It's all over now."
"I hope so, Jimmy. I hope so," she said, and Jimmy couldn't help noticing that her words were slower than usual. After what Lex had done to her, she clearly wasn't herself.
At which point, just as Jimmy was going to blame himself for what had happened to Chloe and Lex, the Tardis suddenly started to appear in the room.
"They're back," said Chloe. "Clark will save her. I know he will."
As if on cue, Clark appeared from out of the Tardis. His eyes first took in Lana, lying there on the bed, and then he noticed Chloe.
"Chloe, are you okay?"
"I am now," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Now go to Lana, Clark. She needs your help."
Clark nodded, as the rest of his entourage appeared from out of the Tardis, and then he went over to Lana's bedside.
"This will save you, Lana," he said, as he opened his hand to show a stone with a symbol painted on it.
While Jimmy Olsen blamed himself for having caused this Clark's obvious insanity - expecting Lana to be saved by his pet rock of all things - Clark took Lana's hand and then pressed the stone to it and waited.
Chloe, or rather Lex, could have told him that the waiting was in vain, but it was far more fun just to watch.
"It's not doing anything," said Ursa, saying what everybody else was avoiding saying.
"But it's got to work," said Clark, and then, finally, even he realized the futility of what he was doing. "Stupid stone," he said, tears in his eyes, as he crushed the stone into dust.
"But, Clark," said The Doctor, "we had to return that stone to where it was originally found - by destroying that stone you could have upset the timestream."
"It's doesn't matter, Doc," said Clark resignedly. "Nothing matters anymore."
Dr. Mark Craig looked at the device he'd just found in the body he was operating on.
"What is it, Dr Craig?"
"I don't know, Ehrlich," he said, looking at the object through a magnifying lens. "It's got some writing on it… Basin City?"
"Never heard of it."
"Me, neither. But this home-made doohickey is definitely the cause of death."
"But he's not dead, Dr. Craig."
"No, but he will be. Trust me, Ehrlich, we may be able to slow things down but, with this much pulmonary damage, it's only a matter of time."
Lana stood at the doors of The Talon.
"Looks just like my Talon," she said. "Although there can't be room for many screens."
Death pushed open the doors to reveal the vastness inside. "It's actually like the Tardis," she explained. "Bigger on the inside."
"So, it's a multiplex," said Lana.
"Yeah," replied Death, "but a really big one. We call it a googolplex."
Lana looked at the large queue. "We have to wait behind all these guys?"
"No, that's the queue for Nicodemus. We want Relic."
"So, can I see anything here?" asked Lana, suddenly curious.
"Well, I guess so," said Death reluctantly.
"Can I see how Clark and Chloe are getting on without me?"
"Well, there was a separate trans-dimensional movie set up for when you left our dimension. It's called Time but it goes on and on and you're not even in it much anymore."
"Can I see it?" begged Lana.
Death shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, let's go in."
And so it was, seconds later, Death and Lana found themselves walking through a doorway marked Time to find themselves in a three-dimensional holographic replica of what was going on in another dimension. Clark was kneeling on a bedside beside Lana's body while The Doctor, Rose, Zod, Ursa, Chloe and Jimmy stood around watching.
"Can they hear us?" asked Lana.
"No," said Death. "Now, keep quiet so we don't miss anything."
Lana was just about to reply when she heard The Doctor's voice.
"So, Chloe, it looks like that plan failed. Back to the old decision - do we switch Lana off?"
"Switch me off?" asked Lana.
"He's talking about the life support machines," explained Death.
"What? No, Chloe would never do that."
Chloe nodded. "Yes, switch her off."
"No, you can't," yelled Lana.
"No, you can't," yelled Clark.
Chloe knelt down beside Clark, tears coming to her eyes. "She's not going to get any better, Clark. I know it doesn't feel right but it's better this way. That way you can carry on with living your life - rather than just spending the rest of your life sitting by this bedside hoping something that will never happen will happen."
Clark nodded. "Can I just have a few moments alone with her."
Chloe patted him on the shoulder. "Sure, take all the time you need."
And then Chloe and the others went back into the Tardis, leaving Clark alone with Lana.
"Looks like it's time for goodbyes," said Death.
"No, I think Clark's going to tell me the secret that he's always kept from me," said Lana.
Clark held Lana's hand.
"Lana, if you can hear me, then please come back. I thought the meteors rocks were painful but it's nothing compared to the pain I'm feeling right now…"
"Meteor rocks?" exclaimed Lana. "What's he talking about?"
Death put a finger to her lips and made a shushing sound.
"… I lost a planet," continued Clark, "but it's nothing compared to losing you…"
In the Tardis, Zod's super-hearing heard Kal-El's crass words about his destroyed homeworld. Unable to contain his fury, he super-sped out of the Tardis and towards Kal.
Before Clark even knew what was happening, Zod's super-speed blows were flying into him from all angles, and then, before he even had time to react, Clark was falling to the floor.
At super-speed, Zod took a tooth that he'd knocked out of Kal's mouth, and carved his initial on Kal's chest. Then, talking so fast that only Kal, barely clinging to consciousness, could hear him, he said "Your words disgust me, Kal-El. You talk about pain, you talk about loss - you don't know the meaning of the words - but you will!"
The people within the Tardis saw its door flicker open and closed and then they heard a loud explosion outside - the sound of a sonic boom intermingled with multiple super-strong fists colliding with a near-invulnerable body.
Ursa turned to Zod, who'd been by her side all along, or so she thought. He smiled at her, as he stood there with his hands behind his back - hands covered with blood.
"What happened?" asked Lana, as there was a loud exploding noise, followed by the scene changing. "Has the movie jumped?"
"No," said Death. "This is what's happening now."
Lana looked down at Clark lying unconscious on the floor, covered in blood, his face battered, his shirt tattered and a red Z scrawled on his chest.
"Clark, is he…" she started, and then her eyes went to the bed were her body had been lying - it was no longer there, just the tubes that had been going into it. Then she spotted her body, lying there on the floor, beyond the bed, bleeding.
"No, Clark's resilient," said Death, as Clark's eyes started to blink open.
Clark felt pain in every muscle and sinew, but that didn't matter - Lana was what mattered. Pushing himself up from the ground, he used his X-ray vision to spot Lana's blood-covered body behind the bed. Within a second he was holding her as her heart carried out what would have been its final beats.
As she saw the tears falling from Clark's eyes onto her, Lana knew what she must do.
"I've got to be with Clark. He needs me … I need him."
Death shook her head. "No way. It's against the rules."
"But he's just like that angel, except Clark wouldn't have been mean enough to let me die."
"Sorry, Lana, but we can't make an exception."
"I don't care," said Lana, as the people from the Tardis finally turned up to see what the noise was. "I'm checking out of Heaven."
"You can check out any time you like," explained Death, "but you can never leave."
Zod watched with the others as Clark held Lana's dying body in his arms, and his blood intermingled with hers as her heart beat for what looked like the final time.
"So I can't leave Heaven," argued Lana, "but Heaven's not Heaven without Clark, actually …"
"Actually what?" asked Death.
"Heaven's a place on Earth," said Lana triumphantly. "It must be true - they wrote a song about it."
"Oh, I must be getting soft in my old age," said Death. "Go on then, you've outwitted me."
Scientists might point out that Lana's life was saved that day by the recuperative powers of Clark's blood, whereas romantics would say it was their undying love that brought her back, and Lana would point to the brilliance of her debating skills with Death, but, as Clark saw Lana's eyes blink open, the reasons for Lana's survival were the last thing on his mind.
"Lana?"
Lana looked into Clark's bruised eyes and smiled. She was still in Heaven.
Death looked at Lana, who only had eyes for Clark, and waved goodbye.
"Well, I'm going now, Lana, but , hey, let's keep in touch."
Dr. Craig looked down at the body in front of him - a body previously owned by Lex Luthor.
"Time of death, four-" he started, and then the surgeon opposite him fainted. Which was kind of understandable - after all, this wasn't normally the stage where the corpse opened their eyes.
