The only noise in his immediate area was from the wind, so he focused on extending his auditory range. He heard signs of animal life and the telltale hum of human civilization several miles away. At least I'm still on Earth, Clark thought with an incredulous chuckle. He took his phone out while slipping the crystal into his right jacket pocket, which he regretted immediately. He'd forgotten that that pocket had a sizeable hole in it he'd neglected to fix, so the crystal went straight through his jacket and bounced on the ice next to him. Instead of coming to a stop, however, the crystal sank into the ice where steam started to billow out from underneath it. The ice cracked at Clark's feet and he immediately jumped up, willing himself to stay in the air.

The air exploded with the deafening sound of the glacier beneath him splintering into thousands of pieces as something came shooting upward through the ice. Scores of translucent crystal columns surged toward him, forcing him to take off higher into the sky to avoid getting hit. After about two seconds, he stopped and floated, looking back down to see he was about a couple thousand feet off the ground. The columns continued to grow skyward.

"Holy crap."

Clark watched as the crystal structures grew and weaved along each other. Eventually they stopped, and he found himself in awe of the colossal formation. The whole thing was almost a third of a mile wide and easily over 500 feet tall at its highest point. Columns of crystal stood diagonally, crisscrossing one another in all directions. There was an austere beauty to it, as if it were designed solely for practicality and not at all for comfort. Clark flew around the perimeter of the structure twice, x-raying all of it. He hadn't come across anything on earth that could hurt him yet, but given that this was very clearly alien tech tied to him, he wasn't going to take any chances.

There didn't seem to be anything inside, so he flew back around to find an opening. Most of the crystal columns had grown close enough together to create a solid ceiling at the top of the erection, but there were still a few spaces present toward the center. He flew through one of them straight down into a large clearing in the middle of the structure. As he saw from the outside, there wasn't much on the inside except for a small, raised semicircular block of crystal that faced an oddly flat piece of more crystal several yards away. It looked like a wall.

The original crystal that had transported Clark was nowhere to be found. His phone still in his hand, he unlocked the screen and was relieved to find he had cell service, though barely. He immediately went to Google Maps and turned his location on.

"Please be in the northern hemisphere at least," he muttered. A couple seconds later, the map zoomed in and the blue dot meant to serve as his location was resting in the middle of a mass of light blue. He was in the Arctic Ocean, somewhere close to Greenland. "Swell."

His phone vibrated as he stared at it, a notification popping up to tell him he'd received a picture message. It was Lana again, so he opened it immediately. She'd sent a selfie taken at an odd angle, with her dark orange hair falling over part of her face in messy waves. Below the picture was a message. So bored. Somebody save me.

Clark smiled while his legs carried him forward seemingly of their own accord. He wanted to think of something clever to respond with, but his mind was too preoccupied by what had just happened to him. Curiosity won out, and he went to examine the raised platform jutted from the smooth, level ground. There were grooves and symbols all over it, almost like a computer keyboard, but he couldn't discern any order to what he was seeing. He ran his hand idly over the surface, and eventually the platform began to glow from within. A soft golden light illuminated the crystal. Then it spoke.

Greetings. I am Kelex.

Clark jumped at the sound. He didn't understand what it said, but it seemed to be automated. That gave him a small bit of confidence amid his fear and confusion.

"Um…hello there?" he answered. Even if there's a language barrier, always start with salutations, right?

A soft whirring sound filled the air. Then Clark heard the voice again.

"Greetings. I am Kelex."

Clark blinked. Well, that's lucky , he thought. He looked around the crystal monument once more, marveling at how advanced this technology must be. After being told by his parents that another planet was probably exactly where he'd come from, the rest of the universe both fascinated and terrified him. That's exactly how he felt now.

"You speak English."

"Yes, as well as thousands of other languages and dialects across Krypton's record of the known universe," answered the disembodied voice.

"Krypton?" The only krypton Clark knew was the chemical element, but something told him that wasn't what it was talking about. An odd coincidence, if anything. "Who am I talking to right now?"

"I am Kelex, the artificial intelligence assigned to this monument in memory of Krypton, the home of my maker, Jor-El. I am to assist in the protection and maintenance of this fortress, and am currently directed to answer only to Kal-El."

Artificial intelligence? Humans were just now barely scratching the surface on that kind of technology, but Kelex seemed pretty close to an actual person. Clark was astounded at how advanced Krypton must be. Well, aside from the interstellar travel, of which he was living evidence.

"And who is…Kal-El?" Clark asked, despite being almost completely positive of the answer. He held his breath regardless. He was close to freaking out.

Clark did not get an answer from Kelex. Instead, the light emanating from the platform intensified and two holographic images were projected upward from the symbol in its center. The first showed what looked like a map of space, with a celestial body highlighted to stand out from the rest. He assumed this was where Krypton was supposed to be. Clark didn't recognize any of the surrounding stars or constellations. He looked to the other hologram.

It showed a man with white-streaked black hair wearing a full length blue bodysuit made of an odd woven material. On top of it he wore what looked like a white robe, open down the middle and embroidered on the left chest with the same symbol Clark saw on his ship back in the storm cellar. The man had a hard, stoic face belied by kind eyes. They were a vibrant blue, like Clark's.

"Kal-El, my son," said the man in the hologram. His voice was deep yet soft, with a melodic lilt. The words were in Clark's own first language, but wrapped in an accent he'd never heard before. "You do not remember me, but I am Jor-El. I am your father. As you are viewing this now, I, along with all of Krypton, will have been dead for many of your years, leaving you the sole survivor of our world. I am sorry that I could not be there with you, Kal, but in order to spare you from the destruction of our home, your mother and I had to remain.

"You will have grown up on Earth and lived among humans, but you must remember that you are not one of them. We sent you to this planet because of the similarities between its people and ours, in both visage and culture, but as you have likely already discovered, you can do extraordinary things no other human can do. This will be both a blessing and a burden for you, yet our hope is that with time and teaching you will thrive and deliver them from the darkness that consumes so many civilizations, the way Krypton never could be. I have gifted you with Kelex, my personal assistant, and Krypton's complete archives comprising knowledge from the 28 known galaxies. Use them well, my son, and keep Krypton in your heart as you will always be in ours. Goodbye, Kal."

Clark stared at the crystal platform with wide unfocused eyes as the hologram disappeared. His vision was blurry, and he rubbed his eyes to find them wet. For years he'd wondered where he came from, and now that he had answers he felt a kind of pain he hadn't expected. He'd only just heard of Krypton, but knowing it had been destroyed felt worse than not knowing at all. In minutes, he'd been given a home and then had it ripped away.

But his name was Kal-El. His father's name was Jor-El. He had an artificial intelligence under his command, and knowledge more extensive than anything Earth had to offer at his fingertips. He shook his head to clear it from the heaviness of it all. Only half an hour ago he was eating pie with his mom.

"Kelex…how long has Krypton been gone?"

Kelex answered immediately. "In Earth's measure of time, it has been forty-nine years, seven months and thirteen days."

Clark exhaled in a huff.

"Do you know when I was born, in Earth's time?"

"Your birth on Krypton coincides with the Earth date, at this geographical location, of February 28th, 1964. Due to partial time dilation as a result on your travel to Earth, however, your relative age would be that of someone born in 1989."

Clark smiled at that. Even when factoring in the distortion of time he was older than he'd thought. But that was more than enough information to deal with for now.

"Thanks, Kelex. Now, is there some sort of tutorial or user manual that comes along with all this?"

"Yes. Would you like me to walk you through the basic functions and controls?"

"Uh, yeah. That would be good," said Clark, not really knowing where to focus since the voice continued to come from all around him despite the glowing platform. On an unrelated note, he found it interesting that the A.I. could use idiomatic expressions properly. "Thank you, Kelex."

Kelex provided a detailed yet efficient description of its capabilities and the external controls on the platform. Clark found he could toggle through languages, give Kelex a robotic or android-like form, access formal archives of information spanning dozens of subjects, personalize the fortress's security systems, synthesize hundreds of different materials both foreign and familiar, and even speed up or slow down any and all lessons themselves. The last part he utilized immediately after learning of it, as he was intent on maximizing his time and more than a little worried his mom would check on him to find him inexplicably missing. After absorbing the remaining basic lessons at 25 times the original speed, he stopped for a break.

Using some of the abundance of crystal around the structure, Clark crudely fashioned bits of furniture with his heat vision to suit the space. He sat down in the freshly-made chair closest to him and admired how quickly he'd adapted to all this. It felt like a dream, but he knew it wasn't.

His phone vibrated with a low battery message. Taking that as a sign to wrap things up, Clark quickly responded to Lana's previous message with a heart emoji and walked back to the crystal platform to set the last commands.

"Hey, Kelex? The likelihood of someone stumbling across this is pretty slim, but I'm sure some satellites and Geiger counters have picked something up already. Cloak everything and make it so that nobody else finds this place, okay?"

Kelex answered immediately. "Of course, Kal. Would you like intangible cloaking or dimensional cloaking?" Kelex had gone over these measures earlier, and Clark was still astounded that both these things were even possible.

"Intangible's fine," he said quickly. He wasn't exactly ready to go dimension-hopping any time soon and didn't feel the need to make it a necessity at the moment. "Thanks, Kelex."

Clark donned his jacket before taking off into the air and departing through one of the spaces in the ceiling. He looked back at the crystal structure and watched it disappear as he flew higher, gaining altitude to avoid being seen. He assessed his phone's GPS on the way up, saving the coordinates so that he knew where to come back to.

Once high enough, he started to fly southwest and gradually willed himself to hypersonic speeds. Making a mental note to ask Kelex next time of a way to make it home more quickly, he cruised uneasily with the realization of just how much he didn't know. Clark could have asked about Krypton and his father, but he just wasn't ready for it. All he wanted now was to get home, talk to Lana for a bit, and sleep for the next twelve hours.

Eventually he made his descent, cruising slowly beside Keystone City and then gliding out over the highway until he saw a large sign that read: SMALLVILLE. He checked his watch and was happy to find he'd made it home before nine.

One shower later, Clark was lying on his bed and staring at the blank ceiling above him. The last few years had been so full, but he felt like it had just blown by and now everything was catching up to him. College in Denver was over before it really began since he overloaded his life with courses year-round. So many young people like him had the expectation that they were supposed to have everything figured out by graduation, but just like the majority of others he had never felt more lost than when he'd come home. He was lucky to have earned a few scholarships both before and during college, but the lack of financial burden was filled by a mental one. The nagging need to fly away gripped him and sent him all over the world to find some sort of meaning or sense of home. Clark loved his mother and he loved Smallville, but he'd felt out of place even before he was told he wasn't human. The only thing that made him feel human was spending time with strangers in foreign countries and living to enjoy company.

He'd been anxious about bringing up the prospect to his mother but she gave him nothing but encouragement when he did. She reassured him countless times that she'd have help on the farm, and with Jonathan's life insurance policy and her pension from her tenure as Smallville's sheriff, she wouldn't want for money in the short term.

It was liminal timeframes like these where the melancholy of being a 25-year-old extraterrestrial weighed upon him. Clark was in a mood to brood further, but alas, it was not to be. Charging on his nightstand, his phone buzzed. It was Lana again.

Turn on your laptop. We're video-chatting in five minutes.

Clark raised an eyebrow at the text. Lana was quite the assertive woman, but could be very soft and sweet when she wanted. Like now, she usually gravitated toward the former. Happy to have her take his mind off things, he grabbed his laptop from the desk, turned it on and carried it back to his bed before answering her.

Rather presumptuous of you.

When his computer finished booting up he went on Skype. His phone buzzed again.

Quite. One might even call it brazen, forward or audacious. But if you don't I'll kick your ass :)

Clark saw her username with a green dot next to it pop up, so he clicked the video call option. A couple seconds later, he saw her face.

Lana's cheeks were flushed and her hair was damp, strands of it sticking to her temples and forehead. Her face was covered in freckles as always, but the light on her end made the ones on her nose and cheeks stand out darker. She was cross-legged on her bed wearing long mismatched socks and a large red shirt that said: CENTRAL CITY UNIVERSITY. Whatever lamp she had on made it so that she was awash in gold, and when she tilted her head with a wide smile at seeing her friend pop up on her screen, her brown eyes captured the light and glowed.

"Hi, Clark."

Clark was never so grateful to have super speed and enhanced perception than in that moment, because he knew he would've never been able to stop himself from staring. His eyes drank her in for what felt like minutes but were surely only seconds to her.

"Hey, Lana. What's up?" he answered as passively as he could. She was holding a pen and a spiral notebook in her lap, and Clark was thankful to have something else to look at for a moment. She seemed to have been scribbling something in it when she answered the call.

"Just got back from an absolutely torturous three hour class and took a show– hold on. Are you naked?"

Lana leaned forward, squinting at the image on her screen. Her face scrunched up in confusion, and then relaxed into a curious expression with a raised eyebrow. She saw Clark look down at himself incredulously to find his bare torso on display.

"What? No, I'm still wearing pants," he answered, looking at himself in the right-hand corner of his screen and realizing she obviously couldn't see them since the image was cut off above his waist. "Let me put on a shirt."

Lana's eyes flickered between his chest and his face. "Sure, I guess."

She saw him get up and return a few seconds later wearing a blue t-shirt. He must have turned another light on because she could see him much more clearly now.

"Better?" he asked as he sat back down.

Lana looked at his chest again and shrugged, mentally deciding that no, it was not better but instead considerably less favorable. She put on her signature smirk and looked at his face. "Like I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by your nipples, I just came from a three hour class on advanced fluid mechanics. A liberal amount of sympathy would be appreciated."

"Sounds like fun. Maybe I'll get my Masters in Mechanical Engineering with a Specialization in Energy Systems too."

She was mildly impressed that he'd memorized the exact title of her degree program and could barely suppress her smile, though she did manage it. Instead, she raised an eyebrow challengingly. Clark sighed.

"Okay fine," he offered, infusing his voice with an even more intense wave of sarcasm. "'Oh poor Lana and her three hour class. That's obviously something so egregiously awful and she totally deserves better than to be bored in an advanced class because she's just soooo smart.' How's that?"

"Better, marginally," she replied, "but points off for lack of sincerity." Tossing her pen and notebook aside, she scooted closer to her laptop to bring it just in front of her knees and get a better look at her friend. "Anyway, how was your trip? When'd you get back? Tell me every little detail, and leave absolutely nothing out."

Clark told her as much about his trip as he thought prudent, which was actually quite a bit. He'd been more open with Lana than anyone else over the years (with the exception of his mother), and the only thing he ever really held back from her was anything involving his powers. He trusted Lana and knew she wasn't one to be judgmental, but a small part of him still feared the potential for rejection and awkwardness between them. During his regalement she reacted with a wide variety of expressions and interjections, all absolutely sincere. One of the many things that made him fond of Lana was her inability, or at least unwillingness, to hide her emotions. He always thought her braver than him because of it.

"I'm glad you were able to do all that," said Lana when he finished. "I know I was the most eager to leave the nest, but you needed to get out of Smallville for a while too."

Clark nodded. A while ago, he'd come to the conclusion that though he loved his home, he didn't want to stay. "Yeah, I definitely don't regret it. But what have you been up to besides complaining about your courses?"

Lana gave him a look. "Volunteering at the animal shelter down the street and going to lots of parties. They're both great stress relievers, you know."

"I'm not much of a party person."

"Don't I know it," she muttered, reaching up to pull her hair back into a ponytail. "Now, when are you coming over?"

Clark stared at the live video and found Lana staring back at him with an expectant look. Knowing she wasn't the patient one in their friendship, he gathered his wits again and answered.

"You…want me to come over?"

"Well, duh," she replied in an exaggerated drawl. It was then her Kansas accent came out. "I haven't seen you in person in almost two years so you'd better get that farm-boy ass over to Central City pronto. I don't exactly have time to go all the way back to Smallville for an extended stay but you certainly do."

Lana wouldn't have told him, of course, but she was actually really nervous about asking him. She'd always felt like they were in an unorthodox friendship. The two of them were constantly around each other in high school, but after graduation they'd drifted apart and only occasionally wandered back into each other's orbits. They had cell phones and laptops to help keep them in touch, but in reality they didn't talk all that much. Sometimes they'd spend days or weeks talking nonstop and then months would go by without a word between them. Nothing overtly romantic had happened either, but there was an odd and palpable magnetism between them that was anything but platonic. At least, that's what she felt on her end. Even though Clark seemed to be open with her, his reserved personality always made her feel like there was a part of him she'd never get to see. The realization of how much she wanted to see it surprised her and made her uneasy, but after years of practice she'd gotten good at playing it off. The distance helped too, but she was getting tired of it.

Clark still hadn't answered.

Two short knocks shattered the tension between them. It was on Lana's end, and she turned toward the sound with a look of pure annoyance. It faded quickly, however, melting into a sigh of resignation. "Come in."

A short, pale blonde girl came bouncing through the doorway and stopped behind Lana, just close enough so that Clark could see her pretty clearly. Strangely, she was wearing gray sweatpants with red pumps. "You still coming to the party tonight, Lana?" the girl asked. "Because if you are, you should start getting – oh, hello !"

The girl's gray eyes widened as they fell on Lana's laptop screen. She turned back to Lana, who was uncharacteristically stoic at the moment. "And who is this handsome fellow?"

"Keep it in your pants," Lana grumbled. "This is my friend Clark. Clark, this is my roommate Chloe."

Clark waved awkwardly at his screen and put on an amiable smile. "Nice to meet you, Chloe."

"Likewise, Clark," she said with a wave of her own. She looked at Lana again. "So…party or no?"

Lana looked at Clark again and then cast her eyes down slowly. Her change in mood was not lost on him. "Nah. Not really in the mood tonight."

"You sure?"

"I think you should go," interjected Clark suddenly, deciding to throw caution to the wind. Both girls turned back to him, but he was looking directly at Lana. "Blow off some steam after that awful three hour class. I'll let you go get ready. Besides, I should get some sleep if I'm gonna be driving over tomorrow. Say around one?"

Lana's eyes met his and this time she couldn't suppress the smile that made its way onto her face.

"Yeah," said Lana softly. "That's perfect."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then. Bye, Lana."

"Bye. Oh and Clark?"

He was just about to end the call when he looked back up again. Lana cocked her head to the right a bit the way she always did when being playful. Clark stared, seemingly distracted. "Yeah?"

"Don't be late."