Chapter Fifty-One

"Twenty minutes!" Lois pulled her arm away. "What?"

"I'm not sure, but I think the device you're wearing has a Kill Clock on it. It's a device used at Luthor Corp for dangerous experiments. The Kill Clock acts as an automatic fail safe to avoid harmful effects on humans. If an experiment is being performed with a device that could have deadly or unknown effects, a Kill Clock is placed on it. The KC has a timer and will turn the device off remotely when the countdown is complete. In this case, I believe it will turn the device on and take you back to your Earth, Miss Lane."

Lois thought back to being at the basement level at the fertilizer plant. When Hamilton first put the bracelet on her wrist, the clock had been eight minutes. After she saw Julian's body and ran out, somewhere along her running away the clock had reset.

She had been given four hours. Had she really been here that long? There had been the driving time, of course. From the fertilizer plant to the Talon. Then, she had to try and convince this Chloe and Lana that what she was saying was true. And she wanted to stop by the bank. Lois remembered Jeff said something about the Smallville Savings and Loans had convinced him he was Julian. And see the Wall of Weird Clark had mentioned.

"Yeah. That's probably what happened. Okay, so proof. I need proof to convince Clark I was here and he's from this Earth."

"Take this," Johnathan ran to the hall and brought back a framed photo of the three Kents. Lois couldn't help but laugh at seeing someone she knew who only wore Angel Warrior T-shirts and couture suits dressed in flannel.

"He seems so natural here." Lois mused out loud. "All right, what else you got?"

"Can't someone go with you?" Lana asked.

"Not sure," Lois admitted.

"If anyone goes, it's me." Lex said.

"Now, wait a minute," Johnathan spoke up. "Clark is my son."

"Yes, Mr. Kent, however we are dealing with someone who intentionally kidnapped Clark from another dimension. I can only imagine what else this person is capable of."

"Will he hurt Clark?" Martha asked.

"No." Lois assured her. "From what I've seen, Alex truly wants Clark as his brother." In the back of her mind, she wondered why Alex was keeping the real Julian on ice. "Come on, people. What can I tell Clark to convince him?"

"But anything we say, he already knows," Lana protested. "And it sounds like he told you a lot."

"Okay, cuz," Lois turned to Chloe, "how can I convince you?"

"What?"

"How can I convince my Chloe I've met another version of herself?"

"This might not mean anything to her, or maybe not the same thing, but say Thomas Wellington. He's an actor. At least here."

"Got it. Anybody else? Hopefully something special about the bank."

"Why that?" Pete asked.

"It's what first convinced him. I couldn't see any difference."

"I finally got the hang of the new cappuccino machine. The last one caught on fire," Lana said.

"Hang on," Pete pulled Lois off to the side. He leaned in real close so no one else could hear. "I think I know what you can say to convince him."

"Out with it. Tick tock."

Pete took a deep breath in. "I can't say it, because I promised I would keep his secret."

"How is that helpful?"

"It's all I got. Clark should just know I said it. Maybe it'll mean more if on your Earth I see him as a mortal enemy."

They returned to the group. Lois looked at the clock. Five minutes.

"Perhaps you should stand outside, Miss Lane," Lex said. "Just in case."

Lois stood in the driveway, the idea of getting fused to a truck that was on the other side terrifying her. Lex stayed beside her. "I'm going to try and come with you."

"Tell him we love him and to come home," Martha said as she Johnathan stood on the porch.

The clock counted down to zero. Now that Lois was standing still and watching for what was going on around her, Lois could feel the air crackle with electricity. There was a flash of light so blinding she had to close her eyes. Lois expected to still be on the Kent farm, the one on her Earth, when she opened her eyes again.

Instead, she was back in the room at the basement of the fertilizer plant. Alone. The body of Julian had been removed. There was no trace anything had been here for the past year. Lois turned towards the door, and in the doorway was Alex, smiling as if he had been patiently waiting for her to show up.

"Welcome back." Alex smiled.

Then he pulled out a gun and shot her.