Chapter Three

... The rage had spread and now infected every living soul of both worlds. While some tried to grasp just what was occurring as the two sides hurtled towards each other, others revelled in the new found power it gave them. Enemies on each side had banded together to stop the invasion of the other side, all unaware of who or what had started it all. An endless crack of pure energy was all that managed to keep the two worlds apart and yet at the centre of it all were two that had been seemingly untouched by the rage that taken over everyone else.

While both sides rallied to tear each other apart these two fought to fuse together. The majestic crimson cape that held him in his own world as a sort of anchor enveloped them both as if to protect them from the pain the other's experienced as they fought...

With a sharp gasp, Mileena awoke in the same manner she had the last time she had experienced one of these dreams only this time she had been sitting in her bathtub. It seemed that water acted as a clearer conduit for whatever it was that had been sending her the visions. Her eyes flitted about the bathroom as she tried to regain her bearings when suddenly she was brought back to the world by a pounding at the bathroom door. 'Mileena?' A concerned voice called to her on the other side. 'Is everything alright?'

She scrambled to find a towel and noticed a trickle of blood coming from her nose as she attempted poorly to reassure him. 'Uh... I'm fine... Just a bad dream.' She got out of the now frigid water and shivering, she wrapped one of her towels around herself before staggering to the door. 'You know it's not good to fall asleep in the bath...' Clark said as she opened the door a crack and peeked out at him. 'You could have drowned.'

'I've been through worse.' Mileena said through a nervous smile. Carefully she pulled the door back and slunk past him as she headed for her room to get dressed.

It had been two weeks since he kissed her in the living room after she had basically attacked him for turning his back on his Kryptonian heritage and everything that went with it. Mileena had expected him to return to his home in Smallville soon after but to her surprise, he stayed. Since then it had become awkward between them. Mileena barely spoke and for the most part threw herself into her work with Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen's team.

Similarly Clark had thrown himself into trying to regain his abilities. So far all that had returned to him were his strength and speed but when he thought of Mileena he could have sworn he felt the beginnings of his heat vision returning. Even if the sudden distance had confused him, at least it gave him time to think about where he was headed without the added stress of other people's opinions. He had to do something for himself for once instead of hiding behind a misguided need for normality.

Mileena emerged from her bedroom moments later and gave him a furtive smile as he stared at her. Had Clark been waiting outside the bathroom all this time? He opened the door to the bathroom and smiled back at her sheepishly, cursing himself internally while she made her way to the living room. The least he could have done was apologise for the kiss. Not that he was sorry but he could see how confused she had been by it and how obviously uncomfortable it made her to be around him.

Maybe it was time. Mileena had made it clear to him but the way she acted that just being around him was too difficult for her so maybe it was a sign that he needed to get his affairs in order and begin his training. He thought about what might happen after and if she would forget him and surmised that it probably didn't matter since she had most likely been scared off by his sudden display of affection.

There was still the matter of his abilities, which, for the most part were still sorely lacking. Would Jor-El accept a powerless son after he had left someone like Lex Luthor to destroy the Fortress? There were so many questions that were still unanswered that he suddenly didn't have time to ponder the feelings of his nursemaid-cum-flatmate.

Clark's mind ticked over as the water from the shower ran down his back. How could he even begin his training if there was no Fortress of Solitude to train in? Would he have to put up with the Kawatche Caves? There was no guarantee that he could even rebuild it let alone that the essence that had once been tainted by Brainiac would be cured of its infliction. There were so many unknowns that he began to wonder if taking such a huge step was even worth it.

It was then that he heard a voice inside him say. Something that is easy is rarely, if ever, worth undertaking Kal-El. The tone had sounded alarmingly similar to the few glimpses of a benevolent Jor-El Clark had experienced and yet it was feminine. 'Lara?' He asked aloud, focusing his vision on the fogged up shower door and allowing it to fall away. He scanned the room but saw nothing and settled on the assumption that it was all in his head.

He turned the shower off and reached for a towel, wrapping it around his waist while that one sentence repeated itself in his head over and over. He took a breath and left the bathroom to find Mileena had left him a note as she normally did only this time attached to a small pentagonal crystal. 'I've been keeping this safe for when you might need it. I'm sorry I'm not there to give it to you in person but if I stay then you won't go. Goodbye Kal-El... M.' Clark's heart sank. While he wasn't all that surprised that she knew what he was thinking, it hurt him to see that she was keeping herself away out of a sense of duty.

Clark dressed quickly and for almost an hour held the crystal that had once formed his Fortress in his hands. Unlike before this one had not been tainted by the blood of a human and she had protected it for him. He wanted to be angry at her for hiding it but for the most part he understood. He had to heal first and she had given him time to do so.

He paced what had become his bedroom and considered whether to honour her wishes or to stay just long enough to say a proper goodbye but as much as it pained him, she had been right about that too. One look at her and he would have given up everything, he couldn't help himself and it was just easier to not see her, or anyone else for that matter.

Two hours had passed since his epiphany and in that time Clark packed anything he might need into a suitcase Mileena had kindly set aside for him and written letters to everyone in his life who meant something to him. So many times as he wrote he choked back the tears that threatened to fall, comforted only by the fact that he was doing it for the greater good. He fabricated some story for Lois about how he decided that he needed to find himself and that Smallville wasn't the place for it.

To his mother he wrote about how he planned to sell the back 40 paddocks of the farm to their neighbour Ben Hubbard and ask him to watch in on Shelby while he was gone. He explained at length that now, with nothing holding him back, it was time to fulfil his destiny. He wrote something similar to Chloe despite not knowing where she was or if she would even read it. He wrote a smaller note to Oliver, one that was far less personal than the others but stating that if there was still a place on his team when his training was done, he was only too willing to join the Emerald Archer's cause.

Finally he wrote to Mileena, which had been the hardest of all of them. He thanked her for giving him the slap in the face he needed and for rescuing him, not only in the Arctic but all that time ago in China. He charged her with getting each letter to its recipient and finally confessed all the things he hadn't been able to say around her. With a kiss for luck on the envelope of the last letter Clark placed them all on the shiny granite of the kitchenette counter and picked up his suitcase before speeding out the door.

Lex Luthor strolled down the long celled corridors of the maximum security wing at Stryker's Island, occasionally glancing down at the small piece of paper in his hand. All the while Metropolis' more dangerous criminals leered at him as they shouted obscenities at him. For a moment it reminded him of his freaks gallery in the days when his father's empire had still been known as "LuthorCorp". While the experimentation on those with paranormal abilities continued, everything else that had been tied to the memory of his late father had been removed.

Now was the age of LexCorp...

But there was still something that tied him to his old life and if he couldn't have that, he would at least have the one who had taken it away from him. She was an interesting specimen for what little he saw of her that day as she vanished in a swirl of tiny purple lights. Like every other woman in his life she was beautiful and despite their obvious connection, he still longed to have her on his operating table. Teleportation would be an invaluable ability for his soldiers and the man he sought would help him get it whether he liked it or not.

Lex finally reached the cell he had been looking for and stopped to stare at the man doing push ups one handed. Waves of silver hair fell about his war ravaged face and as he looked up at the billionaire tycoon Lex's attention was brought to the patch covering his right eye. 'Slade... Keeping busy I see.'

'The facilities in here are pathetic. This is all I have to keep myself sharp.' He replied as he stood up and wiped the sweat from his face. 'Then you might enjoy what I'm proposing. What if I gave you all the intel you needed and a shot at the woman who put you here?' Lex asked in an attempt to get the assassin's attention.

Slade smirked as he remembered the last time they fought. He hadn't known if it were because she was a woman or because she appealed to the part of him that was sill mad at the country he served for betraying him but she had blind-sided him. It wouldn't happen again. He turned to face his sporadic employer and replied, hanging the towel over his neck and squeezing it in a way that had Lex feeling a little uneasy.

'Alright Luthor, I'm listening.' Lex held up a briefcase and with a self assured smile he said. 'But first, a little going away present.' He placed the case in the plate glass lazy susan and spun it around then turned his back while Slade inspected the contents. 'And my weapons?'

'After your release. I might need your help but you're still a dangerous criminal Slade... So, do we have a deal?' Wilson dug past his beloved disguise and found groups of bank notes that he had to guess added to at least $50,000. He smirked and closed the case, returning it to its "owner" and replying. 'And the rest?'

'Wired to your account when the job is done. I don't want her dead, only apprehended.'

'I believe we have a deal Mr. Luthor.' Both men smiled in agreement then Lex motioned for the guard to release Slade from his cell.

Mileena stood against the ledge of her rooftop garden, a cup of tea in her hands as she stared up at the stars. Had she done the right thing in pushing him away. She looked down at her cup and watched the swirl of leaves beneath the steaming greenish-brown liquid. It had hurt her to be so cold to him but he needed it. It was the only thing he would listen to but she still couldn't help but think on what might have been.

'Care for a cup... Detective?' She asked as she sensed a presence behind her. A pair of glowing red eyes stared at her from the darkness as a wise voice answered her inner thoughts. You did the right thing, highness. Others in your position might not have been as strong as you. Mileena turned around as the man watching her from the dark revealed himself. 'I don't feel strong. I feel lost.' She lamented as he joined her. She poured some tea from the small oriental teapot on the tray beside her into a cup and handed it to her guest carefully and as he took a sip he assured her. 'Kal-El would not have taken his path had you not pushed him in the right direction. It may hurt you to let him go but you know, deep down that it's what he needs right now.'

'That doesn't mean I can't worry.' She replied as she finished her tea. J'onn smiled sympathetically and again tried to reassure her. 'He'll be safe where he is. All we can do in the meantime is make sure that everything is in place for his return.' Mileena nodded and went back to watching the stars then all of a sudden she was reminded of her visions. 'You sent them, didn't you? The visions I mean.'

'Something terrible is coming, something I'm afraid that you know all too well.'

'The emperor.' She replied without needing to think. 'Do you really think it will happen?'

'I'm only passing on what was shown to me. I don't know what the outcome will be.'

'J'onn, if the emperor and this other entity were to merge, it could be the end of everything in both worlds. I'm not sure I want to go home but I'd at least like to have a home to go to.'...

Clark stopped once he reached a clear area of snow that appeared to stretch out for miles and miles and glanced down at his crystal. Despite the squinting to keep the sun out, it was what made him feel powerful. It was as if every cell in his body vibrated with energy then he tossed the crystal like he had once before. It flew through the air before him then descended into the ice, the ground below him beginning to shake.

Before his eyes enormous shards of crystal ascended from the snow, crossing each other until there stood a shimmering bastion of Kryptonian civilisation. Cautiously Clark entered through the snow capped entrance past a statue of his birth parents that looked to be carved out of ice, and yet to the touch it was strangely warm. While most things he remembered from the first fortress, this one had been more elaborate, as if he was now getting the whole picture of what his father had wanted for him.

Astonished by the sheer size of it all Clark's eyes roamed around this new, improved Fortress of Solitude, marvelling at its comparative grandeur when suddenly a loud voice shook him from his thoughts. It was a familiar voice, although any menace it once possessed was now gone. 'Welcome home, my son.'...