Chapter 2

Metropolis

May 25, 2042

Elle listened to Lana recount the events immediately following President Ross' announcements that he had made twenty-one years ago. Listening to the story filled her with a sense of the surreal. On the one hand, many of the outcomes she anticipated occurred. Some of the history that she lived was repeated but twisted and fractured by the new conditions that arose after her father and mother had visited the White House.

"To this day, I believe Pete overplayed his hand dealing with Lex. The Attorney General's staff obviously had people loyal to Lex and withholding the video until the Supreme Court hearing on Lex's case was a mistake," Lana said. "The electronic file that Pete had given the Attorney General wasn't 'first evidence' so the server in the White House library was surrendered to the Attorney General. But that server was wiped of all data sometime after it was transferred to the AG."

"So the only person who had evidence was my mother," Elle interjected.

"No. Pete still had a copy as well. But that evidence no longer had the same value as the recording that was captured by the server. Ultimately, it never mattered. A copy was provided to Lex's attorneys as part of discovery before the Supreme Court heard the arguments." Lana hesitated, glanced at Clark and then out at the terrace. "Pete was assassinated a couple days after that took place."

"On no," Elle gasped. "How did it happen?"

"The assassination was allegedly committed by a Chinese nationalist who then took his own life," Clark said. "Pete died in the attack and Lana was injured."

"And I probably would have been killed had it not been for your father," Lana said solemnly. "Pete and I were holding a welcoming ceremony in the White House Rose Garden…"

Washington, D.C.

July 22, 2021

"I'll be home as soon as this is over, Lois," Clark said on his cell phone. "I'll want to say hello to Pete and Lana for a few minutes if they have time but I'll leave right after that."

Clark stood at the rear of the press representatives assembled to cover the welcoming ceremony for the wife of the Prime Minister of Taiwan. The ceremony was not due to begin for another five minutes and as the final touches on decorations and podium were being completed by contractors and White House staff, the credentialed members of the press milled around perfecting camera angles and finalizing sound checks.

During the years that Lex Luthor spent as President, he inflamed relations with China and steadily turned the American public against the Far East giant. Pete had extended an olive branch to the Chinese and had leveraged Taiwan's normalized relations with China to help diffuse the building tension. The ceremony was an important step for Pete and his efforts to repair the strained diplomatic ties with China.

"I'm still mad that Perry wouldn't let me attend; I could have been in the front row," Lois carped. "And Lana wanted me to go shopping with her for maternity clothes after the ambassador took Madam Yu back to their embassy."

"If I get the chance, I'll ask them to visit Metropolis and you two can go shopping then."

"You think they'd come?" Lois asked eagerly.

"I guess it all depends on the President's schedule…and how the soon the Supreme Court rules on Pete's case," Clark said quietly. He had wandered away from the mass of reporters. "We could even sneak a trip out to Smallville."

"That would be cool," Lois said. "Maybe you and Pete could finally get in that game of one-on-one."

He spotted Pete and Lana moving toward the doors that led to the Rose Garden access. "Hey, I probably need to go. I think they're on their way."

"Okay," Lois said. "Hurry home."

"I always do," he replied and disconnected.

Madam Yu was between the President and First Lady, talking with Lana as they neared the walkway that led to the Rose Garden. They stopped and greeted the Taiwanese ambassador to the United States and his wife, then moved behind a hedgerow toward the staging area. The White House Press Secretary issued brief reminders before introducing the President and Madam Yu.

As Pete and the Prime Minister's wife walked to the podium, Clark heard an unnatural click and instinctively scanned the podium area. He spotting a cluster of plastic explosives planted beneath the ring of flowering azaleas positioned along the walkway leading to the podium. With no time to change, he blurred through the throng of media, weaving and bumping cameras and reporters milliseconds before the blast. As the ground erupted, Pete and Madam Yu were impacted by the concussive force of the massive blast. Clark reached them as they were flying backward in mid-air. He grabbed both, driving them backward beyond the reach of the erupting fireball in the direction of the staging area where only Lana remained. He deposited them softly as possible on the grass and turned to see the fireball and debris spreading in all directions. The blast tore the podium to slivers and sent chunks of chiseled granite from the planter hurling towards Lana who was now in mid-air after being hit by the concussion. Launching himself in her direction, Clark caught her before she hit the ground, flew her behind the hedgerow next to the staging area and covered her as the chiseled granite missiles deflected from his back and tumbled harmlessly onto the lawn beyond the Rose Garden.

Lana opened her eyes to see Clark covering her only for an instant and then disappear before screams and cries erupted. Secret service agents raced past her and converged on the President and Madam Yu, surrounding and shielding them from view. Lana's security detail arrived seconds later, holding her down to shield her from any follow-on attacks. Medical personnel raced to the Rose Garden from all directions.

"Let me up!" Lana ordered but her protective detail did not comply. "I'm okay, let me up!"

"You're not okay, Ma'am," one of the agents said. "Please stay down until we know it's safe and the medics can check you."

"I'm fine, she said and struggled in vain. "I need to see if my…" Her sentence was cut short by a stabbing pain in her midsection. She cried out as the sharp pain intensified and then she immediately lost consciousness.

Metropolis

May 25, 2042

"Pete suffered brain hemorrhaging from the blast and died three days later," Lana said, almost in a whisper. "And I lost our baby. But I would have been dead if it hadn't been for your father," she added, looking his way.

Elle didn't know what to say. She had never met Pete Ross but in the last few days she had grown to admire him. No one was talking. Clark was reflecting on that day, reminding himself he had done the best he could and his actions had saved Madam Yu and Lana. Finally he spoke. "If only I could have done more things would have turned out much differently; especially for my best friend." He paused for more than just a moment but finally continued. "I had a couple of other saves afterwards where I helped someone in a dangerous situation but that day at the White House Rose Garden was about the last time I could say with any confidence that people were still alive because of me. It wasn't too long after that day that things really changed."

There was absolutely no sound emanating from the terrace. No sounds of car or truck engines, no horns or no random shout or crescendo of reveling voices from the city below. Even more than when she arrived, silence covered the city like an acoustic shroud.

"The Supreme Court had notified all parties that it was prepared to hear arguments the following week. After the assassination, the Court reversed its decision to hear the appeal because the petitioner was no longer alive and the White House arguments would lack judicial standing for the Supreme Court."

"And was that because Luthor had the court in his pocket?" Elle asked.

"No. I think the Supreme Court felt there was enough upheaval and that two lower courts had already ruled in Lex's favor so there wasn't any point of hearing the case. If they had ruled in Pete's favor and Pete was no longer alive, it would have just thrown the whole political scene into a larger crisis than it already was in. The American public's psyche was probably another major consideration." Lana interjected.

"Lex had aready raised his head publicly again. Pete had remained silent about Luthor's plotting; he never took his case to the American people or the courts." He took another sip of coffee and then continued. "Lex played the whole event for the media. To watch it from afar, you would have thought Lex and Pete were lifelong friends and Luthor was simply trying to cross all the "T"s and dot all the "I"s. Sadly, to this day I'm convinced that Lex had Pete murdered and framed a poor Asian laborer who was a new worker in the company contracted to do the work on the Rose Garden. They accused him of concealing high explosives in the root balls of several plants and wiring them together with a detonator that was planted along with the shrubs."

"Didn't you say he committed suicide?" Elle asked.

"Reportedly," Lana answered. "But it's obvious to me that Lex had him murdered." She leaned forward and rested on her forearms. "You see, Lex used that man's ethnicity to help enflame an already whipped up public."

She looked at her father. "But you knew what was really happening, right? I mean, I told you about my timeline and Luthor's plot. Did he launch the nuclear strike?"

Clark shook his head. "He couldn't because he knew there would be a massive annihilation of his military capabilities once he did that and that I would not be there to intervene."

Elle frowned. "How would he know that?"

Taking a deep breath and then letting it out slowly, Clark began. "This is where your mother comes in. In your timeline, I think you said your mother died when you were eight years old if recall."

"That's right."

Clark looked down and back up at her. "When you told us about her death and how it came about, we believed that changing the present to prevent Luthor's rise to power and launching a nuclear attack on China would save your mother. It's hard to believe that preventing that future made this future even worse."

Washington D.C.

July 31, 2021

Lois, Clark and Chloe sat in the front pew, next to Lana. They were her closest and oldest friends. Lacking any family, they filled the vacancy and proved to be the support she needed the most. She was holding up better than any of them would have suspected after losing Pete and their baby in one horrendous afternoon. Lana asked Clark if he would give the eulogy and Clark spoke eloquently of their friendship and Pete's humble beginnings growing up in Smallville; his reflection on those times brought Lana, Lois and Chloe to tears. He spoke of happier, simpler times and of his best friend's loyalty, patriotism, fidelity and character.

Lex had returned to office and as President, he offered glowing remarks of Pete's contributions to America and his loyalty as part of the Luthor administration while tacitly accusing the Chinese government of ordering Pete's assassination. He recognized Lois and glared at her for a moment. She had been a thorn in his side more than once and it irritated him that she was sitting near Lana and had to look in her direction.

Lois bristled at Lex's remarks and had Lana not been seated nearby, she would have openly confronted Lex. Instead she squeezed Clark's hand and clenched her teeth, silently vowing to bring Lex down.

Immediately following the burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Lois left for Metropolis alone. Clark stayed to talk with the former White House counsel to see if he could develop any leads at the Attorney General's office that could help find Lois a source willing to go on the record. Chloe stayed a few extra days to help her former roommate organize her life and be her main source of support for the moment when the magnitude of her loss finally set in.

Metropolis

May 25, 2042

They sat at the dining room table, still sipping coffee that Lana had refreshed. The light seemed dim, illuminating only the immediate area and gave the meeting a clandestine feeling. Clark leaned forward across the table, resting on his forearms and speaking in a hushed tone.

"I found the name of an investigator in the Attorney General's office from President Ross' chief legal counsel. The investigator was Danny Laroche. He had been ordered by the Deputy Attorney General to seize the small server in the White House residence and then have its contents examined and secured. He saw the video that your mother had gotten from Lana. He had provided a briefing to the Deputy AG and Attorney General about the video and had prepared a written investigative report for submission to a federal grand jury."

"I'm assuming that report was never located," Elle commented.

Clark nodded. "But not before Lois got the name to Perry but Perry didn't authorized the release of the story. He still wanted someone more official; someone from the White House.

"Your mother went back to her computer and found the story was there but decided the embedded video needed to be enhanced just a bit. She got the flash drive from Perry and reloaded the video onto her computer and using a video enhancement tool, sharpened the image and sound. She saved it back to the flash drive, embedded it back into the article, added my name to the byline below hers and then saved it back in the folder." Clark sat back. "We'll never be sure how it happened. Either someone hacked it or your mother forgot to protect the folder with a password. By the time we got home from the Planet that day, every major and minor news outlet had picked up the story from our site and broadcast it. The story spread like a wildfire and it wasn't long after that, Perry received a call from the Deputy Attorney General. He told Perry to pull the story off line."

"Did he?"

"No," Clark said. "Perry was satisfied that it was authentic, properly sourced, and relevant. He refused to take the story off line. Two hours later, the Planet was served with a court order to take it off line. But by the time Perry complied with the order, the story had already circled the globe."

"So what?" Elle asked. "I mean, the video and story were factual. How could a judge suppress the story? It's political speech, protected by the First Amendment. What about freedom of the press?"

"Not in this country," Lana interjected. "And not with Lex as President."

"Lex invoked an Executive Order from the Year 2012 that banned politically-damaging conspiracy theories from being broadcast or distributed and labeled them dangerous to the domestic tranquility and effective functioning of government. Using that as a basis, he compelled the Attorney General to issue arrest warrants for your mother and me. The Attorney General would not issue them and Lex fired him and promoted the Deputy. He issued the warrants."

"So both of you were arrested at the same time?"

Clark nodded and swallowed hard. "We were arraigned together the following day. That was the last time I saw your mother."

Elle stayed silent for a minute, respecting her father's pain. Finally she asked, "What about Investigator Laroche? Didn't he testify?"

Clark nodded. "The problem was that the entire contents of the server from the White House had been corrupted and the original source evidence was irretrievably lost. He could only testify that he saw the video but the evidence itself was gone."

"Someone in the Justice Department nuked it with a very strong magnetic device," Lana interjected. "At least that is what the forensic examination concluded."

"But Perry White had the flash drive, didn't he?"

"But it had been altered. Your mother enhanced the video and therefore had altered it. The new White House legal staff tore that video to pieces in Grand Jury testimony. Perry lost his job and your mother and I were sentenced to two years in federal prison for attempting to undermine the authority of the President by perpetrating a hoax." Clark picked up his coffee mug but didn't drink it. He stared at the contents of it and then set it back on the table. He looked up at Elle. "That sentence probably wouldn't have held up on appeal but something happened shortly after we went back and began working on our appeal."

"What?"

"Your Aunt Lucy. She had custody of you since both of us were incarcerated and it took only about two months before she realized you were different."

"How? I really didn't have much in the way of powers then, did I?"

Clark smiled and it was the first time she'd seen any sign of happiness in his face. "You were stronger than most 3 year olds but not so evident that it would be obvious. However, two things happened that made your Aunt Lucy realize you were an average human girl.

"You were playing with your cousin Sam. He was about 4 years older than you and not exactly well-behaved. He grabbed something you were playing with just to make you mad and then he was going to run into his bedroom with it. But you jumped up and beat him to his bedroom door and pulled the toy out of his hands." His eyes lit up. "Your Aunt Lucy witnessed the whole thing. At first she wasn't sure that she saw what she did but it was the second thing that convinced her that you weren't an average child.

"About two weeks later, she was talking on the phone while baking cookies in the oven. She wasn't paying any attention to what you were doing. You walked over, opened the oven door and reached in and pulled out the cookie sheet with your bare hands." He chuckled. "She heard the oven door open and came in to see you holding the cookie sheet. It scared her to death thinking that you had blistered your hands. Of course, there were no marks and you had no reaction to how hot the cookie sheet was." He smiled again. "That was when she knew you were Superman's child but she didn't figure out that I was Superman. She thought your mother had just had a fling."

Clark sipped his coffee again and Elle did too. She didn't know her Aunt Lucy very well and couldn't imagine living with someone she didn't know at that age. "Why didn't I stay with Grandma Kent?"

"The court felt that Lucy would be better. She was younger than your grandmother." Elle nodded. "After she put two and two together, she went to the prison to visit your mother. She asked her straight out if Superman was your father." Elle's eyes widened. "Of course your mother tried to put her off but Lucy kept asking, explaining what happened at the house."

"What did mother say?"

"I don't think she ever admitted it but the conversation was recorded and that recording made it up to Lex Luthor pretty quickly. Within a week, the federal government stepped in and took custody of you."

"This is so unbelievable," Elle responded. "I thought my childhood was bad…this is terrible."

"You haven't heard the worst of it yet," Lana said.