A/N: I'd like to thank those who take the time to review. Creative comments do help. DC and Warner own the rights to Superman, Clark Kent, etc. I'm just having fun creating havoc in his fictional life.

It was the third morning that Clark awoke to his family snuggled against him. The third morning that he hadn't returned to emptiness. He was starting to get used to the routine: he'd return to the farm from his nightly rounds, attempt to move Lois to her bed in the guestroom only to have her plead with him to stay until she fell asleep claiming that she slept better when he was there. He had to admit he slept better. He smiled as he nuzzled her ear, taking in her scent, enjoying the warmth of her body against his. Clark's contentment grew as the wild curls of their little boy peeked from beneath the blankets he cocooned himself into. Jason would wander into their bed just before the sun would start to climb into the sky, snuggle up against his mother, and fall back to sleep.

Jason giggled and squirmed as Clark reached over Lois and tickled his son. Lois snuggled deeper under the covers, "It's too early," she moaned.

Suddenly he stopped his attack on his son as he heard a police broadcast. Leaping from bed, he dawned his famous suit, gazed lovingly at his wife – a designation he would never take for granted - and son, said a quick goodbye and flew off to Metropolis. A new day had begun.

Superman landed on a private beach a few miles south of Metropolis. The sun peeked through a bank of fog that stubbornly hugged the shoreline, gulls fought over some litter left on the sand. Police officers and medical examiners were already on the site; a body bag placed on a gurney was testament that this was not going to be a very good day.

"Superman!" Bill Henderson welcomed the hero, his hand outstretched.

"Detective Henderson," He could tell from the look on the officer's face that things were bad.

"We haven't seen you around much lately, how are you doing?"

Superman was a little embarrassed by the note of concern in the usually gruff detective. "I'm fine." He answered, "What do you have?"

"We have a white male, early to mid 50's. Looks as if he has been dead for a couple days."

Bill led Superman over to the gurney, and unzipped the body bag to reveal its contents: a very bloated, very dead Lex Luthor. "Bruising around the throat is consistent with strangulation. Looks like Mr. Luthor made the wrong person very angry," the detective remarked.

Superman blanched then took a step back, his body wracked in pain, his face visibly paling. "Kryptonite," he said weakly, backing away from the gurney to put as much distance from it as possible. From the way he felt it had to be a significant piece. His strength was rapidly fading.

"Search the body, Mahoney. Superman says there's Kryptonite." A rookie, who couldn't be much older than Jimmy started to search the body for the dangerous mineral.

"I found it! It looks like it's been broken," The young officer held up a broken shard of Kryptonite that was gripped tightly in the rigid hand of Superman's nemesis. Superman flinched as he realized that it must have been part of the shard Luthor stabbed him with. Henderson grabbed the offending crystal from the officer and dropped it into a metallic tube.

"We found another one, Sir," the young officer held up what appeared to be another Kryptonite crystal that had been in a hidden pocket of Luthor's jacket.

"This one isn't Kryptonite," Superman stated as he took the crystal to inspect it further. "It is a Kryptonian communication crystal." The green crystal indeed looked like Kryptonite, but on closer inspection the hue was deeper, more vivid than was common to Kryptonite.

"You bugged Luthor?" Henderson asked.

"Not me." Superman responded vaguely.

"But, then –"

"Zod."

"Why?"

"That's a good question. One I intend to find the answer to." Superman removed another odd shaped crystal from a pocket in his cape. It almost looked like a crystal candleholder. Placing the green crystal in the holder it began to vibrate. Images seemed to be projected from the crystal device: images of Lex Luthor meeting with very important members of congress and making backroom deals. That Zod would leave incriminating evidence proved to Kal El just how confident he was in his plan. That or plain recklessness and somehow he didn't think that was the case.

"Interesting gadget you have there, Superman. Does it work with DVD's?"

Superman chuckled at the officer's attempt to defuse a very tense moment. "You know, I haven't tried it."

After making a statement to police officers, Superman flew up into the stratosphere to soak in the healing rays of the sun. He hadn't realized how weakened he had become, so much recent exposure to Kryptonite seemed to be taking its toll on his body. Grabbing a few minutes to ponder the direction his life was headed, he knew that there was one thing he had to do before bringing his family back to Metropolis. The game was afoot.

Zod stood at the end of his roof garden, feeding on the early morning sunshine. He flexed his fingers into a fist and brought it down on a concrete pot, crushing it.

Soon I will be unstoppable. Able to control governments, manipulate world powers, start and end wars. I will be a god on this primitive world, and not even Kal El will be able to stand against me.

As soon as I gain control of Krypton's knowledge library, the son of my jailer will have to submit to my authority, he will bow before Zod he and his half-breed bastard.

"General…sir, a Mr. Kent to see you," Zod's assistant interrupted his musings.

Zod smiled to himself at the news. "Please show him to the garden, then leave us. Take the rest of the morning to do whatever it is you do with your free time." Zod continued to look out at the city as Ms. Danvers directed Clark to the rooftop garden.

"Kal El, I have been waiting for you," Zod welcomed his guest without turning around.

"Excuse me General, my name is Clark Kent. I'm a reporter with The Daily Planet."

Zod turned to his guest, his chameleon like abilities hiding his thoughts, a trait he had learned years before Krypton was destroyed. He was glad that Kal El had never nurtured the ability to read minds, a trait quite common amongst Kryptonian aristocracy.

"Yes. I had hoped that you would have accepted my invitation to meet while I was still imprisoned. I am not the criminal you assume me to be, Kal El, nor am I a fool. No, it is the exact opposite: your father was the rebel, the breaker of laws: laws that are far older than this world.

"Your very existence on this world is a desecration of ancient law, and the child that you and your concubine have brought about is further evidence of your father's mutiny. And you are a fool if you believe that a change of clothes, and a flimsy pair of glasses could hide your identity from me."

Kal El removed his glasses, placing them in his pocket.

"I never thought you were a fool, General. As for Ms. Lane, she is not my concubine."

"Excuse my ignorance, these humans don't care much for that term do they? So what should I call her: your girlfriend? No, that is too sophomoric. How about mistress?"

"You can call her my wife." Kal El answered, anger tinting his voice.

"The 'Great House of El,' joined with an insignificant human?"

"YOU of all people should not consider the daughter of a General insignificant."

Zod smiled inwardly, he was agitating his opponent, such an easy mark to anger. Kal El was almost human in his emotions. "Of course not. Please forgive me, I am just trying to assess my responsibilities in regards to the woman and her child. He is your son, is he not?"

"I would do my family and my people a disservice by denying my own son, General Zod."

"I suspected as much. Then I must do my duty, in regards to you, and your family," Zod asserted.

"And that would be?"

"It is my duty to enforce galactic law – even over Kryptonian law. That was my real crime, my sedition. I enforced laws that my brethren felt were unfair, unjust. Laws that were established to control a corrupt, violent people that no longer existed, laws that contained those people to the confines of a slowly dying sun, unable to exist outside its bounds because of modifications made to their genetic structure." General Zod stood proud as he spat out his accusations.

"You and I survived, we live beyond Rao's boundaries," Kal El answered back.

"I can live here because my genes were never modified. I was allowed to exist outside our solar system. I was an emissary for Krypton; I needed to travel outside our bounds. That was my family's place, my duty. Ursa and Non did not have the genetic ability to produce antibodies, they were not needed on Krypton. They died after YOU removed their invulnerability. Their bodies, unable to fight off the diseases of this world, succumbed quickly – and quite painfully I must add.

"Your father was part of a faction that felt that the genetic manipulations were no longer necessary, and refused to allow his child to be nurtured in a birthing matrix, never having the genetic constraints made through the matrix. This is why you survive.

"Your father wanted to allow certain collectives of Kryptonians to leave our world; to save the elite. I was accused of sedition when I tried to alert the people of Krypton as to what was happening. If the council had worked with me, instead of against me I could have gotten the constraints removed. I would have been able to plead our case to the Galactic Counsel. All Kryptonians could have been moved to a new world. We would have been free to travel, to explore. Krypton would have survived.

"Instead, your father and the others had me sent to the Phantom Zone. With me removed actions were set in motion, fail-safes removed. The planet was destroyed in an instant. It is your father's fault that our people perished. It was his genocide."

"Your story does not coincide with the record, General. I have seen the recordings of your trial, heard the testimony against you."

"Can you not believe that they have been altered? Are you that naive Kal El?"

"I believe the record, General. I see no evidence that it was altered."

"I can overlook the fact that your father broke galactic law in sending you here Kal El. I might even overlook that you first married then abandoned your human wife and child, flouting a sacred covenant that is honored even on Krypton. What I cannot overlook is the fact that you left Kryptonian technology unprotected on a primitive planet while you undertook an ill-fated journey back to our home world; technology that was stolen by a criminal whose sole goal in life was to destroy you. It was used against this world in an effort to turn its inhabitants against you.

"As the Head of Krypton's Security – by Kryptonian law – you are commanded to surrender ALL Kryptonian technologies in your possession, including the remnants of the Kryptonian Library – the knowledge crystals your father sent with you. You have one week to comply."

"And if I refuse?"

"Your crimes are many Kal El: the abandonment of your wife and unborn child, the neglect of the knowledge crystals, your very presence on this planet. If these charges were brought against you your credibility, your reputation will be lost. Your friends at The Daily Planet would not even be able to support you. I will bring into question your ability to raise a child as special as Jason, and I would request that I be granted custody. As the only other living Kryptonian how could the authorities refuse?"

"Your trip to Krypton has weakened you, Kal El. Returning to Rao as an adult has allowed cellular degeneration to begin. The wound you received from Lex Luthor introduced toxic levels of Kryptonite into your system as well. You do not have the strength to fight this battle. If you resist your future and that of your child would be in jeopardy. You are dying, Kal El. It is only a matter of time.

"If you do not do the right thing, if you do not hand over control to me, the governments of this world will begin fighting for control of the fortress and the crystals. This world would be destroyed in a matter of days."

"If I am dying, General, I am sure that between myself and my father's crystals a cure can be found. I may have been raised in a simple manner, but neither am I a fool. I will not turn the fortress, the crystals, or my son over to you."

"We will see who the fool is, Kal El." Zod turned and walked back to his penthouse. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have other urgent matters to attend to." Zod closed the door leaving Clark to himself.

Lois stood at the fence enjoying the quiet solitude that the stay on the farm had afforded them. Jason was currently playing with Shelby: throwing an old ragged baseball as far as he could. The old dog would always look up at the boy then plod off to retrieve the ball, starting the game anew.

After another round of fetch was started Lois heard the tell-tell whoosh and quiet footfalls: Clark had returned from whatever had called him away earlier. Walking up behind her he placed his hand gently on the small of her back. Lois leaned back into him, her head on his strong chest, his arms wrapping themselves around her protectively his chin resting on her head. They stood there together, watching, content for the time being.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think that dog was baiting your son. He looks at him as if to say, 'thank you, but can't you throw it farther?'"

Clark's chuckle reverberated in his chest. Lois turned and saw a mischievous glint in his eye. "The day I got back, that morning I woke up and buried my ship in that field over there," he said pointing to the blackened field that Mr. Hubbard had been fretting over the day before. "Afterwards I stood at this fence and watched the sunrise: my first sunrise in five years." Clark paused and looked to the horizon.

"Shelby brought me his ball and I tossed it for him. I had to catch it – before it smashed into the ISS. Poor dog won't play fetch with me anymore. Guess I forgot how strong I am here."

"Who would have guessed: Superman has an ornery side," Lois chided, "Now I know where your son gets it from."

Clark's eyes twinkled.

"You don't grow up on a farm, and not get an ornery gene. Dad used to talk about how he would pull the braids of the little girl who sat in front of him in grade school. One day, when she had enough of his pranks, she promised that she would get even with him."

"Did she?"

Clark smiled the biggest smile Lois had seen in a while; "Martha Clark was never one to trifle with."

Martha Clark, "So, they found you, put their names together, and unleashed their joint orneriness onto the world. I see."

Clark hugged her closer. His smile grew as he watched their son, who was now in rapt observation of a busy anthill.

"Where'd you go?" Lois asked.

"I had some things in Metropolis that I had to take care of."

Lois moved away, arms crossed, glaring at him. She knew from the look on his face that he would not divulge anything else. More secrets, damn Kryptonians and their secrets.

"No more secrets, Lois. I promise. I just don't want to discuss this in Jason's hearing."

"I swear you can read my mind, Clark."

"No, sweetheart, I just know you." Clark replied, kissing the top of her head. "I can tell from your face you aren't happy about this. You think I'm trying to keep you in the dark."

"Aren't you? Aren't you trying to 'protect' me?" Lois moved away from Clark.

"I can't protect you by keeping this a secret from you. But I do want to protect our son; he is too young to understand what is going on. And by you getting upset and yelling, you are going to draw his attention and he's going to ask questions. He is so much like you, Lois." Clark walked back towards Lois, pulling her into an embrace.

Reviews are appreciated.