Chapter 102: The Return

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.

Smallville, Earth, the Present

For the first time in what felt like forever, Kara sat down on the front porch of the Kent farm and just let her gaze wander over the vast wide plains before her. The sun had set some time ago, the stars were out, and it was almost completely quiet except for the movement of the wind in the fields. Focusing, Kara could easily hear the steady heartbeats of her two children as they slept in their rooms. It was the most beautiful sound in the world, one she had feared she would never hear again.

It had been a mere few hours since they had arrived back home, where not much time had passed thanks to the marvels of time travel. As far as Martha, Jonathan, and the rest of the world was concerned, less than a day had passed since Kara, the Justice League, and the Legion had begun their travel into the past to rescue Kandor from Krypton. For Kara and her family, though, more than three months had gone by, not counting the various added time shifts they had undergone.

Suffice to say, it had been a long time.

"You should be in bed, sweetie," Martha said, coming out into the porch to sit next to her. "You have to be at least as tired as Kona and Clark are."

Kara chuckled. Tired? That was far too weak a word for what she felt like.

"I just need to unwind a bit, get my thoughts in order, then I will certainly take you up on that."

"Let me guess! You are already composing another to-do list in your head, aren't you?" Martha asked.

Kara sighed. "There is so much to do these next few days. We need to announce Superman's return to the world, make sure Clark Kent can resume his life without problems, I have to check up on Brainiac and Luthor, make sure the War World is safe, and..."

Martha scooted closer to her and pulled her daughter against her side, resting her head against her shoulder.

"I know there is much to do, sweetie, and I'm sure you will handle it all. Right now, though? You need to come down and rest up. I'm sure that was just the bare-bones version of events you told us earlier. I cannot even begin to imagine what you have gone through."

Kara just rested against her mother for a few minutes before she began to speak.

"I wanted to kill that monster," she whispered. "Rao, I wanted to kill him so badly for what he did to my son."

"Believe me, honey, I felt the exact same way."

"It is not like I have not killed before," Kara continued, her voice even. "I let the Black Mercy kill Mongul. During the Dominion Invasion I tried my best to keep the loss of life to a minimum, but we still ended up with quite a few dead Dominators. But Darkseid... that was different. He was not just... just someone I needed to... remove… to protect innocents or save the world. He was... Rao, I wanted to tear him apart with my own hands just to hear him scream. I wanted to make him pay for the way he had tortured and twisted my little boy. I almost allowed Lightray's power to consume me just so I could keep beating on him."

Kara looked up a bit. "I can hear him. Clark, I mean. He is muttering in his sleep. There are nightmares. Rao, the things that monster forced him to do."

"We will help him through it," Martha assured her. "That's what family is for."

Kara nodded, relaxing back into the embrace of her mother. There was so much left to do, that was true. Her mind was buzzing with all the things she still had to take care of. As she was sitting here, though, with nothing but the silence of home around her, she finally found her mind slowing down. A few minutes later, Martha smiled down at her beloved daughter, who was sleeping soundly.

Finally her family was home again. Everything would be well.

Lana Lang got out of her car, looking around the familiar vista of her hometown. Since leaving for college last year, this was only the second time she had come back home. The first time having been... that day. The day the world had shifted from its axis. The day she had lost her brother, her best friend, the cute and courageous boy from space who was supposed to be invulnerable and live forever. Or so she had always imagined it, at least.

Immediately after having heard the news she had come home and visited the Kents. Clark's mother hadn't been there, but Jonathan and Martha had been and the three of them had spent many hours crying together. Clark Kent was still alive officially, of course, as it would have been too dangerous to have him and Superman die on the same day. But three months had passed since then and Lana was sure that there would be some kind of staged accident or something really soon. And then Clark Kent would be dead and gone forever.

Holding back the tears, she decided to get her visits to the Kents over with before going to see her parents. She wanted to express her condolences once again and inquire whether they already had plans for a funeral for Clark. She was not sure how she would make it through such a ceremony, to be honest. Watching Superman's funeral on TV had already been more than she could endure.

Walking up to the Kent farm, she smiled as she saw the two people sitting on the porch, still fast asleep. Ms. Kent was home, evidently, and had obviously fallen asleep resting against her mother, the two women cuddled together in sleep.

The moment Lana put her foot on the first step, Ms. Kent's eyes flew open.

"Hello, Ms. Kent," she greeted the sleep-rumpled woman.

"Lana? Hi," Ms. Kent replied, carefully unwinding from around her mother, who was still asleep. "Wow, I haven't seen you since... you are home from college?"

"Semester break," she replied, keeping her voice low so as not to wake the elder Kent woman. Wringing her hands, she decided to get it over with. "I never... well, I never had the chance to express my condolences, Ms. Kent. About Clark, I mean. I..."

Ms. Kent's eyes widened, then she groaned and massaged her temples. "Oh, Rao, Lana! I am so, so sorry. There was so much going on, I completely forgot to... oh, Rao!"

"What?" Lana asked, completely confused.

In that moment the front door opened, and someone came walking out who could not possibly be here. Someone whom the whole world had seen perish three months ago.

"Mom, did I hear...? Lana?"

It was Clark! Clark was standing before here, looking tired but otherwise completely whole and healthy. Not dead. Not crumbled into ashes. He was here! But this was impossible! She had to be dreaming.

"Clark?" she whispered, not quite daring to believe. "You... are you... Clark?"

She reached out with her hand, half-convinced that her fingers would find nothing but empty air, that this cruel mirage would simply vanish into nothingness the moment she tried to touch it. Instead, though, Clark smiled that adorable little half-smile of his, brushed his left hand through his messy hair, and touched her hand with his right one.

"Yeah, I'm here, Lana," he said. "Still alive."

The moment his hand touched hers and she felt solid, warm flesh, she launched herself forward and wrapped herself around him, tears flowing freely from her eyes.

"You're alive," she muttered over and over again. "You're alive! You're alive!"

Clark hugged her back, carefully, and Lana could feel the world shifting back into its rightful place. Clark was alive!

"Why did no one remind me to tell Lana that Clark was alive?" she heard Ms. Kent grumbling behind her. "Do I have to think of everything around here?"

It made her laugh.

Metropolis

Lena Luthor, not currently using the name of her college alter ego Lena Ruthlo, was sitting in her office in the Lexcorp Tower, trying and failing to focus on the computer screen in front of her. She had recently decided that, as the majority shareholder of the company, she would actually try and shape the future of said company somewhat. While all of Lexcorp's activities were above board and legal, quite a few of them were not something she was really comfortable with, such as its large weapon research and development wing.

She couldn't quite concentrate, though. As fascinating as the workings of a multi-national conglomerate were, they paled in comparison to the other things on her mind. Because somewhere out there in space the closest thing she had to a sister was off fighting some super-powerful alien menace with the aid of a genocidal computer program, all in the vain hope that a certain young man Lena might or might not have feelings for might still be alive. And while she had been able to render some assistance in the planning stages, she was now reduced to the role of a helpless spectator. No, less than that, as she did not even have any idea how things were going, what was happening, and whether or not her sister would ever come back.

It was driving her mad.

"Knock, knock!" someone suddenly said, startling her.

Outside her office window, a person was floating in mid-air. A person with blonde hair, wearing Jeans and a black Superwoman T-Shirt, who was waving at her with a huge grin on her face. Lena jumped out of her seat and quickly opened it, allowing Kona to float inside.

"Are you mad?" Lena asked, exasperated. "What if someone had seen you?"

"Hey, evil sis! Is that any way to greet someone who has come home from the space wars?"

Lena maintained her stern look for another few seconds, then gave up and hugged her sister.

"I'm so glad to see you again, Kona." Breaking the hug, she motioned for the girl to sit down. "So, tell me everything! What happened?"

Kona hesitated a moment, which told Lena that the girl was internally ordering her thoughts into the categories "stuff I can tell Lena about" and "stuff I absolutely cannot tell Lena about", the latter category probably defined by Kona's mom, Superwoman. Lena was very much aware that Superwoman aka Karen Kent did not fully trust her yet, mostly because of her last name. Lena could hardly begrudge her that if she was honest.

"We found him, Lena," Kona finally said, a huge smile on her face. "We found Clark. He's back!"

Something unknotted inside Lena's body, a tension she had barely noticed anymore lessened and relaxed. Leaning back in her chair, she took a deep breath.

"That is... wow! Kona, I am so happy to hear that!"

Lena was not sure what exactly it was that she felt for Clark Kent aka Superman. At first, he had merely been a means to an end so that she could get to meet her sister, Supergirl. Getting to know him, though, she had certainly found him to be a charming, adorable, and rather handsome young man and she certainly hadn't minded going on a few dates with him. Learning that he had died... it had hurt, she admitted. Not so much because of what he was to her, but rather because of what he might have become. And, of course, because his death had hurt Kona, whom Lena had become incredibly fond of in a very short amount of time.

"We'll give him a few days to recover and relax," Kona went on, "before we go public with his return. We want to tell all the people who know him and who helped us in person before they read it in the paper or see it on the news."

Lena nodded, seeing the wisdom in that. Then a wicked thought occurred to her. "Does that include letting evil dad know?"

Kona laughed.

Gotham City

Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl entered the Bat Cave after another night of patrols around Gotham. It had only been a year or so since Batman had invited her into his main base, in the process revealing his identity to hers. To be honest, it hadn't been that much of a surprise, as Barbara had long had Bruce Wayne on her short list of people who had the necessary resources and motivation to be Gotham's Caped Crusader. Still, the fact that he trusted her by now felt good.

Thankfully she had long shed that teenage crush she'd had on him, otherwise working together as much as they did would have been very awkward.

"Nothing new to report," Barbara said, removing her cowl. "There were some shady characters hanging around Cobblepot's, I've forwarded their images to the computer. That's pretty much it."

As she reached the main computer, where Batman (sans cowl) was sitting, she stopped in her tracks. Could it be... was he really... was the Batman smiling?

"They're back," he told her. "Superwoman and the League are back from their mission. And Superman is with them."

Barbara had known that Superwoman, Supergirl, and a large part of the Justice League had gone on some kind of outer space mission to find and defeat that huge alien thing that had kidnapped Superman (making everyone think that he had died). Batman hadn't gone into details, only that he had volunteered to remain behind along with several other Justice League members, so that Earth would not be left unprotected. It had been hard on him, she had seen as much, but he had decided that he would be of more use here than in outer space.

Now, though, he was smiling. And Barbara found that she was smiling as well. For a moment she was caught up in a memory, recalling when an awkward teen Superman, still called Superboy at the time, had asked her out on a date. She had declined and had only seen him a handful of times after that but hearing about his death had still broken her heart. To learn that he was alive and well... that felt good. Really good.

Metropolis

Perry White took a deep drag from his cigar, enjoying the feeling of the smoke curling through his old lungs. He knew it was bad for him, he knew he should stop, but on days like this, he simply could not help it.

"Looks like there is some fairness in this old world after all," he muttered happily.

The blonde woman standing next to him on his balcony simply nodded, taking a sip from the drink he had offered her upon her arrival.

"Sometimes at least," Superwoman agreed. "Sometimes the bad guys actually lose, and the good guys come out the other side whole and healthy."

They clinked their glasses together, quietly celebrating. When Superwoman had arrived earlier that night, Perry had been highly apprehensive. She and many of Earth's heroes had been absent for several weeks, after all, and given her state the last time he had seen her, he had feared that she had gone on some kind of suicide mission or something. Then she had smiled, though, and he had known that everything was all right.

Superman was alive. That wonderful young man he had first met as an awkward, eager teenager was still alive. It warmed his old, cynic heart.

"When do you want to let the public know?" he asked, finishing his drink. "I can put something together or you can give me a statement to publish."

"Give me a few more days, Perry," she said. "There are still a few people we want to tell in person, and we can all use a bit more time to recover, too. It's been a tough six months for us all."

Perry perked up. "Six months? What are you talking about? It's only been three months since... well, that day."

She chuckled, finishing off her own drink. "Yeah, it kind of gets confusing to keep track of the days when you are travelling backwards and forward in time."

Perry's eyes widened. "Time travel? Really?"

"Really! And a really long story, too, Perry, that is not meant for publication, just so we're clear."

Perry rolled his eyes. "Have I ever published anything without clearing it with you first, Karen?"

She put a hand on his shoulder. "I know, sorry. So much has happened this last year, even before Clark was kidnapped, I guess I am getting a bit paranoid in my old age."

"You are hardly old," Perry replied. "You still look absurdly young for someone who has to be at least 30 years old, my dear."

"It's not the years, Perry, it's the mileage," she replied, deadpan.

"Are you really quoting Indiana Jones at me?" he asked.

"What? Those are really good movies."

The two old friends laughed, even as Perry poured them another round of drinks. For the moment, at least, all was right with the world.

Stryker's Island Penitentiary

"So your appeal is next week?"

Lex Luthor leaned back in his chair, regarding the two girls sitting across from him. It was still a strange feeling, to be honest. He had never given a damn about family, nor about any of the children he had sired. They were simply things that happened, things that required a certain amount of money to be spent, and that was that. It was only when Kona, the artificially created daughter that was also half Superwoman, had shown actual moments of brilliance, that he had considered looking into his other offspring and whether or not any of them actually showed any signs of having inherited his genius.

Enter Lena Luthor, now majority shareholder of the company he had built from the ground up, who appeared to be the smartest of the lot. Except, of course, for her apparently overdeveloped desire for family, given how quickly she had latched onto Kona as her sister.

"On Tuesday," he replied. "My lawyers are rather optimistic that I shall be released on probation. Probably going to have to wear one of those charming ankle trackers for a while."

Kona snorted. "As if you aren't capable of reprogramming those in a heartbeat if you want to."

"I would never do such a thing," he replied. "Haven't you heard, girls? According to Superwoman herself, I am an honest citizen who was simply led astray by an evil alien machine."

Lena snorted. "As if! I read the statement Superwoman gave to the courts."

"Well, the exact wording might have been different," he shrugged, "but the outcome will be the same. I will be out of prison next week."

"I hope you are not expecting me to sign Lexcorp back over to you," Lena told him, crossing her arms. "Not going to happen."

Luthor waved her comment away. "I grew bored of Lexcorp ages ago, little Lena. You may keep it if you wish or sell off your stock, I do not care. I believe I will start a new venture once I'm free. Something new and challenging."

"Not looking to get back into creating custom-built superbeings, are you?" Kona asked, suspiciously.

"That was more Westfield's thing than mine," he chuckled.

"Well, whatever you are planning to do, evil dad," Kona said. "Just remember that we're going to keep an eye on you."

"Just make sure to be home and in bed by ten," he remarked, smirking.

The two girls turned to leave, then stopped to smile at each other. "Oh, by the way, evil dad! Our mission in outer space was a full success. We got Brainiac on a leash and Superman is back. Thanks for the help, couldn't have done it without you."

Giggling, the two girls left, leaving Luthor behind to ponder this new information.

Metropolis

Lois Lane was not really sure how she had kept on working these last three months. Everything had been surreal, almost like a dream, and she had simply gone through the motions. More than one time she had chided herself for being ridiculous. Okay, someone had died. Someone whom she had certainly developed feelings for, there was little use in denying that. Still, it wasn't like they had been together or anything. They had been out on a few dates. Not even dates, really, they had just met for coffee.

That should not have been enough to make her feel like her heart had been torn from her body, should it?

Suddenly there was a knock on her door, making her look up. Who could possibly be visiting her? Her family still wasn't talking to her and none of her colleagues at the Planet were of the kind that came by to check on her. Had she ordered pizza? She wasn't sure, to be honest. She was still walking in a daze.

Looking through the peephole, she froze. Okay, it seemed she had finally cracked. Gone bonkers. Went mad. What other possible explanation was there for what she was currently seeing? A dead man was standing on the other side of her door.

"Lois, it's me," the apparition said. "It's Clark!"

Trembling, she opened the door, expecting to find nothing but emptiness on the other side. But there he was, real as life and looking almost exactly like she remembered. Some things about him had changed, though. He looked… worn. Tired. There was stubble on his cheeks and his eyes looked years older, though there was not so much as a single line on his face.

But it was him. Undoubtedly, it was him.

"Clark?" she whispered, still not quite believing it.

He carefully stepped inside and closed the door behind him. She still didn't dare touch him, still afraid he would vanish the moment she did.

"Sorry for just showing up like this, I know it must be a shock," he began. His hand went through his messy hair, a gesture she was already familiar with.

"You… you died," she muttered. "I saw it on TV."

He shook his head. "No, I didn't die, Lois. It was meant to look like that, but I was kidnapped. Really long story, I can tell you later if you want."

She was sure there was nothing but confusion on her face. Could it really be true?

"Thing is," he went on, "we're going to reveal my return to the public tomorrow, so mom asked me if there was something I wanted to do before that happened. And, well, the first thing that popped into my head was…" he trailed off.

"What?" she asked, taking a step closer.

"This," he simply said, stepping forward.

A moment later they were in each other's arms and his mouth was upon hers. The daze she had been walking through these last three months was quickly replaced by an entirely different one.

SUPERMAN RETURNS

By Perry White

Three months ago the entire planet joined together in mourning as we lost one of our greatest heroes and protectors, the young man called Superman. Today, though, we were greeted with an impossible sight. At a press conference before he Hall of Justice in Metropolis, Superwoman presented us with her son, whole and healthy, back among the living.

"The apparent death of my son was staged," Superwoman gave a statement to the assembled press. "The monster that seemingly killed him actually kidnapped him instead. It took us several weeks to put the clues together and several weeks more to track them down, but as you can see, we were successful."

Superwoman then surrendered the podium to her son, who stepped before the assembled media representatives.

"I deeply regret the pain and anguish so many of my friends and family went through. I am very touched that so many people all over the world held me in such high regard. I am very happy to be back home, and I promise I will do my utmost to be worthy of the love and respect I've been shown. Thank you very much!"

Neither Superwoman, Superman, nor any other member of the Justice League supplied any further details as to where Superman was held captive, who his captor was, or what efforts were necessary to ensure his freedom. We will keep you posted on any new developments. For now, we can only say: welcome back, Superman! We missed you.

End Chapter 102

Author's Note: Very sorry this chapter took so long, but while I knew very well all the story beats I wanted to cover here, actually getting them down and into a somewhat natural flow really kicked my ass. Not sure why, but it took ages to actually get everything into some sort of order and have the various conversations not sound like staged exposition. Also, I had to reread several older chapters to figure out how much time had passed for whom, who knew what about what had happened, and who had been told how much. Very glad that I have gotten this part of the story over with. It was a great ride, but very difficult to keep track of everything.

Up next: there are still some loose ends to pick up from the Great Darkness Saga. The biggest one is called Brainiac.