Author Note: I wrote a different chapter six which I posted but I felt it was wrong. I felt I was trying to do so much so I've replaced it with this one. I will also leave a note on Chapter Seven because of this. I've had the flu recently, but I like the subtleness of this chapter a lot more.

Chapter SIx

With all the luck that he had been having, Clark had thought that putting himself on the edge couldn't have anything other than positive results. He had felt that telling his parents who he was could save them from heartache. After all, these were people who had supported him against all odds. These were the people who were supposed to love him unconditionally and staring out at the sky, it felt as if there was an even greater disconnection.

So far things had been going well. His wife and close friend believed him, he was going to be living in the house he had bought and the home he had made with his wife. He was going to start learning a whole new subject, get a degree that had never appealed to him before. He was going to start his life on the right foot.

That was until he realized that it wasn't that easy.

With everything that he had gone through, that he had experienced during this deceptively simple life he had lived, he had thought telling his parents about his identity would be as easy as scraping the skin off a sauce.

He stared at his new hands as he realized that even though he wasn't technically alone, he couldn't gain it all back. He had his abilities and memories, yes, but somebody else had the cape, the emblem, his life. It was going to take a lot of work to realize that he couldn't go backwards and he just needed to turn forwards in life.

"Y'know, since he retired, I'm starting to like that Superman guy a lot more," a member of a street gang said as they pulled up to the harbor where Clark, no Troy, was sitting. Clark turned around, there were three men here and there was definitely something deceptive happening, he might need to get in contact with the police even though he didn't want to.

"Are ya saying that the stuff aint gonna sell?" the second man, a relatively stick like figure with two guns on his person continued, "I mean if Superman got good and aint gonna be a threat to us, boss, well who's gonna buy the stuff."

The first man grinned as Clark stood, getting off of the deck and swinging to sit at the side of the port, he peeked out for a second as he looked at the different clues all around. He just wished he had a notebook or a camera. Without evidence this wasn't going to do him any good, he knew he couldn't develop a story without any meat on the bones. Without evidence, there wasn't anything going on. He felt his phone buzz and grabbed it and quickly silenced it.

Lois: I promise we'll work on convincing them together. You know I'm not a fan of redundancy, but be safe out there. Love you.

It was too early to just text back despite being invulnerable. If he could just secure some evidence of what these men were doing. He knew that any person in the presence of gangsters was not safe, but he felt safe being in an unknown and unrecognizable body.

"Y'know boss, Superman has a lot of enemies," the third guy said, "Sure some of them want revenge and they'd love to see him squirm. Maybe even some kind of blackmailing tool, you know, we give it ta them and they tell Superman he has to join them or…"

"Then why aren't we using it?" the second man said, "Having Superman on the team really helps us score big, plus with that element of surprise we can put our hands on anything we can grab."

Clark stared at the box, he adjusted his glasses and took deep breaths as he realized what they had hold of.

He wasn't sure what kind of effect Kryptonite would have on his old body, but it was definitely making him feel ill as Troy. As much as he hated the idea of his body being out there, if it was going to lead to someone's death then he had to try to stop it.

He watched as a second car arrived and tried to get all the clues he could, he repeated the license plate number to himself committing it to memory. This was the buyer. If he could commit this entire encounter to memory then he could both find out who it was who wanted to kill him so badly and then he could also retrieve the item or help Lois retrieve it.

A seasoned news reporter like Clark Kent was an obvious target if he started to look into cars. It was easy to track him down and even easier to understand what he was doing. Even Superman would have that kind of reaction and attention drawn to him. Troy however, a young nobody, he could solve these crimes more easily.

All he needed was patience and the guts to do it.

After a total of nine minutes was the first time that this patience paid off as he came up from the edge of the water and looked down into the water where there was a $100 bill just sitting there.

Now he just needed to put pen to paper so he would have everything ready for the next step.

….

….

Martha Kent loved her family, that was one thing she was always proud of. In her heart, she had the love of her life in her patient and loyal husband and her life had become even more wonderful when they had discovered the infant Kal. Not knowing what else she could do, she had learned to love the little boy, her Clark. She had seen him fall time and time again and still get up with a smile and a want to do good in this world.

Taking deep breaths, she thought about the disappointment in the young man's eyes when her husband had told him not to try any sick games. She could see that look of hurt and betrayal, but what he had been asking them to believe was near improbable.

She was also disappointed in him, he had had a chance to speak up and try to prove those words were correct but instead he left. He ran away and that only seemed to prove to her husband that he was lying. Martha wasn't as sure about it.

Although Clark did know that retreat was sometimes the best plan of approach, running away from demons that meant no harm didn't help. The real harm was that which was circling around in the man's head. Either he really was her son or he thought he was her son. The first was confusing, but the latter was heartbreaking.

Maybe that was why he was at their house, maybe Lois had seen the real tragedy of the situation and she had tried to help the poor soul.

Picking up the phone in the hotel room, she took a deep breath in and then dialed the number for her son's phone. She needed to get all the pieces together so she could figure out what was going on and who was who. If that boy was her son then she definitely wanted to be in his life somehow. Clark was her child, her baby and it didn't matter if he was a reporter investigating a crime, a superhero flying around the planet, or a lord of a new world, all she would ever see was a little boy who had been laughed at as he gently pulled on her hand.

"Mama, can we go home, please?"

…..

…..

This body was too much trouble for Woody Sams, it was a younger and not too unattractive body, sure, but it wasn't really him. He had already committed to public appearance events as the man of steel but he didn't want to do them. As much power as this body once had, it had very little freedom. He wanted his own body back, his old body.

Becky watched her dad and sighed, "You know his spirit might still be out there, that might be one of the reasons you don't have his abilities anymore Daddy."

"Well, not really looking to become a floating ghost hun," Woody said as he looked at the money in front of him. "There's too much going on that I need to keep up with. I regret the whole thing, getting this body means I need to research that Kent guy."

Becky looked down, "Daddy, I did manage to find something you might like to know."

"What's that, kitten?" Woody asked as he picked up the glasses he didn't wear anymore.

"I found your old body," she smiled, "It's in bad shape, but it's still whole, I even…" she pulled out her phone and showed him the body that hadn't been buried yet. It had definitely expired but it could be revived and cleaned up a little, "but if you take your old body back then what happens to this body?"

"It's as dead as Kent is," Woody nodded, "I'll go out tonight and retrieve it, then we'll skip town and go somewhere else."

"You mean, after you get the government to unfreeze your bankrupt bank account," Becky rolled her eyes. "What are you going to do about social security information, citizenship, everything that was signed over to me when you passed apart from that little bit sent to mom."

"Three words, kitten" Woody smiled, "Witness protection program."

Becky sighed as she picked up a wad of cash that was nearby, "I think it's one of your better ideas," she tried to smile. She looked down, hopefully this would work out and they wouldn't be blamed for the death of Clark Kent. Nobody could find out what was going on. It was a good thing that Lois Lane knew her husband wasn't in this body, but there were friends, parents, fans, colleagues.

Maybe keeping the life and work of both Clark Kent and Superman alive for so long was a dishonest thing to do, but he was so much more loved than her father had been. Killing the body was the right and honest thing to do, but the heartbreak of the world especially when it came to the death of Superman, that would surely create a ripple effect.

Becky just hoped that things would work out okay. It was all that she could wish at that moment.