Chapter Three

Clark had no idea how many hours he had been trapped in this metal box that was more like a cage than a cell. He followed the earthly rules for the most part and he had stood in jail cells before and been a law abiding individual but even in his boy scout type of mind, Clark would have wanted to escape from this place. It was the way that the Kryptonite was placed in the walls that made it so that he was weakening over and over until it was killing him.

He felt the same pain before when he had had the virus that Lois's father had helped him with. However, he knew he needed to live through this pain this time. Despite how woozy he was. Despite how he didn't feel able to stand or speak properly, he had to get through this pain and be with Jon and Lois. He just had to find his own strength.

He felt his head rest on the back of the wall as the researcher came in, followed by two women. His eyes felt blurry as he tried to pay attention to them. They had said that he would be meeting with legal representation soon, that he would be able to make a case over how he was being mistreated as an animal and that even livestock had rights. He was more than just a pig or a sheep or a cow though. He was equal to a man.

He felt a sharp pain in his lungs as they gassed the room but let the doors open and he fell down still wearing the superhero uniform they hadn't let him change out of. This didn't feel good at all.

….

….

It was a good thing for Lois that she had made so many connections and had favors to call in. She also had years of experience of sneaking into any situation undetected. This time it was more dangerous but there were still the same clues as to who she should become in order to get the story. She was going to hopefully get a lot more than that. Her career which had been around longer than her relationship was worth risking to save him. She looked at herself in the mirror, strawberry blonde wig, green eye contacts, a research assistant outfit that looked sexy as well as professional.

She was supposed to be a trainee with excellent references, the youngest of the team. She just needed to learn where the youngest of the team turned into the one who had special privileges when it came to working closely with Superman. She heard the buzz of her phone and checked it instinctively. Nothing. She wished that he would call her. Perry was waiting for her to give the go-ahead on publishing his identity and Lois was shocked the government hadn't done it themselves.

As she got to the area where the researcher was going to prep them for their task, Lois's eyes widened on a number of boards all showing different pictures of Superman and close ups of all parts of his body. There were illustrations near them of how people thought that his body worked. There were lists and as Lois managed to get a few photos snuck of them, she realized that they were a list of tests and experiments that they wanted to do. Her eyes widened. There were so many drugs, so many…procedures. It really looked like they were talking about a dinosaur or other mythical creature.

"It's very important that we have you ladies all give your solemn oath to keeping the confidentiality which we require," a scientist addressed them and Lois paused as she watched him in an attempt to stay neutral, "the specimen has been sedated. He is no longer dangerous." Okay. Maybe it was going to be a huge attempt to try to look neutral during this but she needed to do so. She was Lois Lane, skilled reporter. She could do anything. She would do anything if it meant saving him.

"The specimen is not to be told anything of this. He is to be sedated and operated upon. In a few weeks, hopefully the tests will have been performed and we'll start the work on cutting into the brain of th-" Lois froze, her eyes widening. She hadn't expected them to say that. It terrified her but she knew that she had to act like some kind of android without emotions.

"Wouldn't that hurt him?" one of the other women asked, "Why would you want to cut into his brain?"

Lois felt a little relieved when someone else was bringing this up. Clark must not know about any of this yet but he had to. She could come up with a plan to keep both him and Johnathan safe. There were other people that they could ask to help.

"We don't like to think of it as a he," the scientist said, "it's hard to perform these tests when you show the specimen empathy."

"He might have a family though. A wife and kids. He's more of a -" the first woman said and Lois watched her closely. She saw the scientist go over to her, examining her before putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You are excused from this experiment," he said and shoved the woman away. "You are still under our confidentiality contract, however, you will no longer be needed at this time." Lois froze, taking a couple of steps away from her. As much as it hurt, the main thing was to get in and get close to him. She listened obediently for the further instructions.

Once they had been briefed Lois and the other woman followed the researcher into the lab where Lois had her attention drawn to the metal box that was barely large enough to stand up in. It was a heavy steel but all over it were pieces of Kryptonite. It was some kind of torture chamber for keeping Superman in.

Lois took a look at her husband. He wasn't doing well at all, it appeared as if he were having trouble even maintaining consciousness. Everything inside of her was screaming at her to tell them that he could die if they didn't change the amount of Kryptonite near to him. That was in their own interests though, they wanted him dead eventually. She saw his agony as some kind of gas was released into the cage and he lost consciousness.

It was killing her inside having to see him like this. After all that he had given to everyone, they were treating him like an animal. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks as she tried to keep herself together. He was as good as dead and she was here pretending that everything was okay. It wasn't fair. She saw them drag his body over onto an operating table as if he were some kind of bovine who was being cut up for steaks.

"You," the researcher said as he pointed to her and Lois froze, pointing to herself, "Prepare the specimen for testing." He gestured to Clark's limp body which looked almost lifeless. Lois nodded, knowing that they didn't suspect her and nodded. She went over to him, seeing how limp and lifeless he was. If he were a weaker man, he would most likely be dead at this point.

Lois put a hand to his strong jaw and let a couple of her fingers go over his lips.

"I have something that I'd like to discuss with you in the other room, I'm sure that Ms. Clearwater is able to tend to the subject," a second researcher said and the voice sounded familiar to Lois but she couldn't place it. She was surprised when everyone else left the room and she was left alone with Clark. Was this planned? She had been told there would be other people who would help her.

Lois gently let her fingers spread out over his skin, she nervously looked at him trying to make sure that his injuries weren't too damaging. There was some scarring and bruises and scrapes and he had obviously had some wounds that had bled but they looked like something he could survive. It was the Kryptonite that was making him feel weak.

Lois quickly got some green costume jewels from her pocket and started to take the Kryptonite from the handcuffs out, exchanging them for the green plastic gems from anyone trying to wear the costume of a typical green glowing alien. She squeezed his hand lovingly as she exchanged the last piece and heard his voice or his murmurs.

"Clark?" she whispered as she saw his eyes widen slightly, he stared at her but she hadn't seen him this way. This was worse than the illness he had had that holiday period. At least with a cold, you could expect some symptoms to be similar. This looked like he wasn't even present but he was still staring at her confused. "Are you…are you awake?"

"I…I'm awa—" he said sounding exhausted and it made Lois feel horrified to what was happening around her. "Do I…I ca-I can si-"

"You just stay there for right now," Lois whispered as she kissed his cheek and he looked at her extremely delirious. She would have understood had he turned to her and said that he didn't know who she was even looking right at her. "I'm sorry that I can't help you more. I'm trying. Do you think that you can escape from here?"

"From…here?" he asked and then let his body rest. Lois sighed as she saw the equipment next to him. She stared at the vials, some of these had chemicals in them that were toxic to humans. She wished that she could do something, take him somewhere. She took some very quick photographs of everything before she heard the researchers coming in. She squeezed Clark's hand again. She wanted to end this, she wanted to do more for him but this was the extent to what she was able to do.

She looked at him before taking a few steps back into her character. She hated seeing him in such a position but drawing attention to herself might hurt him even more and she didn't want to endanger their son. Clark was doing all of this for their son. He would never forgive himself if anything were to happen to the two of them.

"They're not going to get away with this," she whispered to him as he blinked and tried to look around. Lois felt her heartbreak as she stayed there whilst they made cuts into his skin, took out parts of his tissue, parts of bone to analyze, used numerous chemicals on him to see a result.

She wanted to stop them but fortunately she was able to get some photographs from this. Hopefully by going to the right people, these experiments would have to stop on him. It was the worst day of Lois's life and how she was able to leave at the end of the day with the evidence was some kind of a miracle to her.

End of Chapter Three

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