AN: Thank you thank you thank you all so much for the fantastic reviews! They are so motivational! I'm just glad that other people can find comfort in hating Lana and CLana with me! Long live Lois! Long live CLois!
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Chapter Three: The Past
"Nothing lasts forever - not even your troubles." ~Arnold H Glasgow
"Time is the reef upon which all our frail mystic ships are wrecked." ~Sir Noel Coward Blithe Spirit
"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." ~Andy Warhol
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Lois lay in the hay for a minute or two, watching her younger self bark out orders left and right. If only this hadn't been so many years ago, she would have an easier time of remembering the exact sequence of events on that terrible day. She would just have to make the best guesses she could. At least she didn't have to worry about when to find Lana. That particular memory still shone bright with bitterness.
This crazy plan to get Lana out of Clark's life could still be pulled off, Lois realized, even if she had missed the original mark that they had planned on back in the fortress. Lana came and went out of Clark's life enough; it was just luck that Lois had still managed to hit a time when Lana was about to come back. She just needed to get out of the barn and find somewhere safe to wait for Lana to crash the wedding.
She stifled a yawn and realized that she was still carrying the grime and exhaustion from eleven years in the future. She'd escaped Luthor and his minions twice in the past day, or at least what her brain was telling her was the proper amount of time for a day. Lois felt her left hand flare up in pain again. She needed sleep.
Jimmy passed her unknowingly with a pair of tuxes and headed for her younger self. Lois tried to hear what they were talking about across the barn, something about tadpoles and prince charming. It took her a moment to remember that they were talking about Clark. She rolled her eyes, thinking that Jimmy's advice to 'hop his lily pad and plant one on him' really hadn't turned out that well.
But maybe, just maybe, Lois would be able to fix that for her younger self. Getting rid of Lana would certainly get rid of a very large distraction for Clark. Lois couldn't help but wonder how much of her life would be affected if she succeeded. How much could she dare wish for?
No, the most important thing was to follow Jor-El's plan to enable Clark to achieve his great destiny, whatever that meant. This little jaunt into the past wasn't to make sure that Lois didn't end up an old spinster. This was business. Plus, she realized, she now knew so much more about Clark than she had in the past. She wasn't so sure that if she were face to face with him she wouldn't start yelling at him for not trusting him with his 'I'm an alien' secret.
On the other side of the barn, young Lois was admiring Clark's tux and then yelling at the cameraman for being in her face. Lois took advantage of the distraction to climb out of the hay and head for the farmhouse. She vaguely remembered that she had taken over Clark's bedroom for her own wedding preparations. Her younger self would be occupied for the next few hours, so she could get in a good nap to be fully prepared for the Lana takedown later.
She prayed that she wouldn't run into Clark on the way to the house. She moved quickly, dusting the hay off of herself before she went in the back door. She glanced nervously around as she made her way to the stairs, certain that the next person she saw would be him and that there would be no way to escape him seeing her. What was she supposed to say if that happened anyway? 'Hi, I'm here to send your ex-girlfriend to the Phantom Zone when she comes back tonight, don't mind me?' That didn't sound like a very good plan.
Luckily, there was no sign of him on the first floor. She ran up the stairs and didn't slow down until she had closed the door of the bedroom firmly behind her. She was safe for now. She stumbled over her clothes for the wedding to get to the bed. She needed this nap. As soon as her head hit the pillow she decided it was a truly great plan.
Lois had a very strange dream. She was back in the fortress talking with Jor-El. He kept on talking about some red crystal she needed to get from Clark's trunk in the loft. She was just coming up to consciousness, wondering if the dream was real or not, when someone poked her hard in the face. She opened her eyes slowly and saw…herself, looking utterly petrified.
The younger Lois yelled and then aimed a kick at Lois' head.
Too many years of fighting against all sorts of attackers had honed Lois' reaction time well, even if she was barely awake. She had survived three midnight home invasions, after all. She grabbed the foot inches from her face and twisted so that her younger self hit the ground, although not very hard. Lois scrambled up from the bed and grabbed her younger self in a headlock while covering her mouth. Young Lois struggled but Lois kept her grip firm.
"Shut up! It's ok, calm down, I can explain everything," Lois whispered to her younger self.
"Lois?"
Lois froze, instantly recognizing Clark's voice from the other side of the door. Young Lois struggled a bit more, but Lois just pulled her over to the door. "Lois, is everything all right?" Clark called again.
Not willing to take the chance that her voice had changed at all, Lois decided her younger self should answer him. "Tell him everything is fine," Lois whispered again before removing her hand.
"Yeah, Smallville, everything's fine," young Lois said easily. "Just having some Bluetooth kickback."
"All right, Lois, just don't hurt yourself in there," Clark said, his voice fading as he walked down the hall.
Lois waited a second before she slowly released the younger version of herself. It might have been easier if she hadn't run into herself, but at least she knew that out of anyone, she could make young Lois believe her and trust her. "Now, I'm going to let you go, but don't freak out. We need to talk."
Young Lois turned around and they stared at each other. Lois had a bit more preparation for actually seeing another living and breathing Lois Lane. Young Lois didn't look convinced of the reality of the situation. Lois still felt tired and was amazed at how much visible energy she used to have. She had also forgotten that her hair had once looked that good. She thought of her own disheveled appearance and was sure that she was disappointing some dreams of the younger Lois. Oh well, that would hopefully change after all this.
"You're…me?" young Lois was obviously having trouble with this idea.
Lois nodded, "About eleven years down the line, yeah."
Young Lois shook her head, "I don't believe it. This is too weird. Why should I believe this? What if you're just some badly cloned version of me?"
"No, I really am from the future," Lois knew she couldn't give too much information away, since she intended to be gone later tonight, but she could at least convince the other Lois. "You want me to prove it to you? I know everything that you know. I know that you're seriously considering Jimmy's advice. I know that about five minutes ago Clark gave Chloe the flower she gave him for their freshman homecoming. I know that I…we…you slipped and fell in the shower last week and that bruise on your elbow is still hurting today. I know that the safest and scariest feeling you've ever had is when you're looking deep into Clark's eyes—"
"Ok, ok, ok! I get it! You're me and I'm you!" young Lois said, throwing up her hands and walking around a few steps. There was a long moment when neither one knew what to say. "So, uh, what're you doing here exactly? I mean, if you're from the future and all."
Lois thought for a moment before choosing her words carefully. She didn't want her younger self to be completely overwhelmed. "I've come back because I need to fix something."
"Fix something? Something goes wrong today? This is Chloe's wedding day, everything has to go perfectly!"
Something going wrong was a horrible understatement. After all, this was the day that Chloe was abducted by that monster thing. Lois wished she could do something to prevent that, but she had heard all about that Brainiac thing taking over Chloe. On a particularly bad night during her divorce from Jimmy, a very drunk Chloe had told the whole story to Lois, wondering if being taken over by a machine meant that she could get an annulment. Apparently, if she hadn't been abducted then Clark never would have found the special way to free her. Lois had never understood the whole story, it was just another weird supernatural thing that Clark and Chloe did together. She supposed now that Clark's superpowers had helped him save her cousin.
"Look, you don't need to worry about anything. If everything goes well tonight, I'll be in and out in no time. I can't tell you very much more than that. We've seen Star Trek, we know how the space-time continuum gets messed up."
Young Lois quirked an eyebrow at the mention of 'we.' "You look like hell. What happened to the future?"
"Bad stuff," Lois said, trying to flatten her hair out.
Young Lois gasped when she saw Lois' left hand. She grabbed it and stared at the missing pinky. "Please tell me you've come to get a finger back!"
Lois laughed, completely understanding how shocking the missing pinky could be. "Hopefully."
The younger Lois released her hand. "You can't go save the future looking like that. Go ahead and take a shower. I've got to change for the wedding. You can just wear these clothes that I'm wearing, I guess, since you're me and all. Have you changed size?"
Lois shook her head, "Some things don't change."
The two Lois Lanes paused and looked at each other. Lois knew her younger version had plenty of questions, but she also knew that young Lois wouldn't press her for information.
"Like I said, hopefully you won't have to worry about seeing me again after the wedding," Lois said as she headed to take the shower.
"If you do need help, just let me know," young Lois said, glancing again with a frown at Lois' missing pinky. "Just go do your thing."
"Ok," Lois said. Before she closed the door behind her, she decided one small piece of advice couldn't hurt. "Oh, and Lois? About what Jimmy said…trust your gut."
A couple of hours later, Lois was hiding in the shadows of the Kent barn. She was wearing the clothes her younger self had left her and was definitely enjoying feeling clean again. She had listened to the wedding inside and kept track of what was happening. The waiting was getting increasingly annoying, though, now that the reception was in full swing. Her stomach growled, but she couldn't sneak anything from the caterers without being recognized as out of place. Her purse was slung over her shoulder, unzipped to provide easy access to the Phantom Zone crystal.
She continued scratching the divot in the ground. As much as she wanted this over and done with, she had been thinking more about the strange dream she had earlier. What if Jor-El was somehow actually communicating with her through time? She had no idea if that was actually possible, but she decided that after she sent Lana to the Phantom Zone she would at least take a peek in Clark's trunk to see if the red crystal was there.
The sugary sounds of a solo saxophone broke her out of her focus on the dirt. Lois couldn't help shifting out of the shadows and sneaking a look in the barn. Sure enough, Clark was pulling young Lois to the dance floor and they were slowly revolving. Her breath actually caught in her throat. She was actually watching herself dance. She decided that this was the single weirdest moment of her life.
To add even more to the mental complexity, this was the first time she had seen Clark since coming back in time. It had been too long since she had seen him. He didn't look as good as she remembered, no, he looked about fifty times better. That boy certainly was a sight for sore eyes. No one could wear a suit like he could. All the feelings she thought she had been repressing since this very night somehow found a way to rise back up again. She rubbed her temples, trying to tell herself that she could not possibly be jealous of the position her younger self was in right now. It was her after all.
Lois completely blamed Clark for being able to distract her this much. She was losing track of the exact timing of the night. She turned around, tearing her eyes from the couple on the floor and searching for Lana, knowing that she should be right there.
Lana was right there, just to her right. But Oliver Queen was right in front of her.
"Lois?" he said.
Lois reached into her bag for the crystal and attempted to block Lana, but Oliver pulled her into a giant bear hug. Lana walked right past her, completely ignoring her. Lois would have liked to shrug off Oliver and tackle Lana before she could disrupt young Lois and Clark's almost kiss, but it had been eight years since she had seen Ollie alive and well. She hated herself, but couldn't help hugging him back.
She heard the shouts of surprise from inside the wedding and knew she had missed again.
Oliver let her go, but then really looked at her. "You look different. Why are you wearing that?"
Lois sighed. She wracked her brain trying to figure out what she was supposed to do now. Lana was back and Clark had seen her. She couldn't get to Lana now without Clark knowing and probably protecting Lana from a weird-looking Lois. This was not good. Plus, Oliver was giving her a very strange look. She had no idea how she was supposed to explain this to him. How many people were going to find out about her?
She needed the other Lois and she knew the other Lois needed to talk to Oliver, too. "Let's go to the house and talk, Ollie."
She set off at a brisk pace for the house and Ollie matched her pace easily. "Where's your maid of honor dress?" he asked after a moment.
"Back at the house," Lois said shortly. She zipped up her purse, not taking the chance of losing the crystal.
"Did you spill champagne on it already?" he joked.
They trotted up the porch steps and sure enough, young Lois rounded the corner with a bottle of champagne. She looked startled but didn't jump nearly as much as Oliver did.
"Whoa! What's going on here?" he looked desperately between the two Loises.
Lois figured the truth would be a lot shorter and it never hurt having the Green Arrow on your side. "Here's the summary: I'm actually from the future, Oliver. This here is Lois Lane from your time. Don't freak out or anything, I'm just here to fix something bad that happened. The future isn't so great."
He blinked at her, looking like he hardly understood a word she had said, and then looked back at young Lois. "You know this? You believe this?"
Young Lois nodded and took a swig of champagne. "Unfortunately, yes. Welcome to the Twilight Zone, Ollie. But watch out, the advice from the future sucks."
Lois glared at her younger self. "I'm sure there's something you need to talk to Oliver about. I'm just going to go over there," she pointed to the other side of the porch, "and figure out what I'm going to do." She walked around the corner and leaned against the porch railing,
"Lois, what's going on? That's you from the future?" Oliver said just loud enough that Lois could hear.
"Yeah, I don't really want to talk about her," young Lois said.
"Oook, so you want to tell me what started this lost weekend?" Oliver said.
Even though she had no idea what to do about Lana, Lois couldn't help but smile as her younger self and Oliver still managed to have roughly the same version of the conversation about Lois' feelings for Clark that Lois herself remembered.
She moved down the porch, trying to put together some sort of timeline for the rest of the night. It was more difficult because she could only remember what she herself had done, and she hadn't interacted with Lana at all. She headed back for the barn, deciding that she needed to keep an eye on Lana and wait for a moment when Clark wasn't paying attention to his ex.
Lois actually went in the barn this time, although she still kept to the shadows around the perimeter. This would be so much easier if people at this wedding didn't know what she looked like. She searched the crowd of people, but couldn't see Lana or Clark anywhere. She had no idea where they could be. She cursed her limited knowledge of all that had happened between Lana and Clark when Lana came back. If only she knew exactly when she would have another opportunity to take down Lana.
She didn't find them until Chloe and Jimmy were about to cut the cake. They came down from the loft, both looking serious but not overly happy or sad. That was a good thing, right? Since she couldn't stop Lana from making contact with Clark again, the best she could hope for was lots of closure for Clark. Lots and lots of closure. Closure was good. Hopefully it could save the future.
A tremor shook the barn. Lois snapped out of worrying about how to fix the Lana problem. She recognized the noise, although she had heard it from the farmhouse the last time it had happened. A thud on the roof caught everyone's attention. The lights started to flicker and people were looking around, scared and apprehensive.
Lois glanced at Lana, wondering if she could touch the crystal to her in the chaos that was about to tear apart the barn, but then she noticed someone behind Lana. Jimmy was standing next to Chloe, trying to figure out what the noise was like everyone else. Jimmy was about to have his stomach ripped open by that monster thing.
Lois decided in a split second that she definitely could fix at least one thing tonight.
The monster tore a hole in the roof. The lights went out. People started screaming and trying to escape the barn as the monster tore it apart. Lois headed straight for Jimmy.
He was trying to protect Chloe, taking a protective stance towards the monster across the barn. Lois noticed Clark trying to punch the monster, but he was blocked and thrown through the air. She was running across the barn and didn't have time to wonder why his superpowers weren't helping him defeat this thing. Jimmy took a step away from Chloe, looking on the ground for something to hit the creature with.
Lois tackled Jimmy out of the way of the monster. They slid across the floor away from Chloe. He fought to get off the floor and back to his bride, but Lois pulled him down again and pinned him to the floor. He yelled Chloe's name over and over again as the monster picked Chloe up and carried her out of the barn. Lois felt a tear slide down her cheek as she watched her cousin be taken, but she knew she could do nothing to stop it. The best she could do was keep Jimmy from doing something stupid and getting hurt. Chloe was gone.
"Chloe!" Jimmy yelled a final time before he broke into sobs.
Lois relaxed her hold on him and rolled off his back. She took a deep breath, reeling from what had just happened and how much she had just changed the timeline without meaning to. She saw a hand lower in front of her face and she took it to be helped up.
She looked up at who had assisted her and her mouth went dry.
"Lois?" Clark said, looking concerned and completely confused.
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AN: Due to popular demand this story will now be LONG! Or at least as long as I can stretch it out, lol. Since this chapter was basically a rewrite of the 'Bride' episode, I'm probably aiming for substantial rewrites of the episodes that followed. I just didn't like how Jimmy and Lois were shipped off-screen for so long and figured that Lois could fix that by saving Jimmy. I know Lois spent a lot of time fighting people who weren't Lana, but I promise that Lana bashing is on its way! Keep the reviews coming and I'll keep the chapters coming!
