AN: Like I said, this took a bit of time to fix the mess that "Power" was. No one should ever watch that episode twice. Just a warning to all you readers out there: don't watch it again. Read this instead!

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Chapter Six: To End Their Power

"Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other." ~Carl Jung

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." ~Jimi Hendrix

"I will not surrender responsibility for my life and my actions." ~John Enoch Powell

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Lois was careful to set an alarm for the next morning. She did not want to waste another half of a day by sleeping. There would be plenty of time for sleep in the future, especially if that future had no Luthor or Lana. So when her alarm went off at 8:47, even though her bed was nice and warm, she pulled herself out of bed and hoped that Clark or young Lois had made coffee downstairs.

She stumbled out of the room and was halfway down the stairs when she realized that Clark and young Lois were in the living room. She heard the tail end of something that sounded like Lana's break-up DVD to Clark, but then someone turned it off. Looking back, she really wished she had burned that thing the day after Clark got it. Lois waited on the stairs, listening intently and not wanting to further complicate that situation.

"What're you up to, Smallville?" young Lois said.

"I needed to remind myself that Lana left for a reason," Clark said.

"You didn't get that the first time you watched this?" young Lois said.

"I know, I know," Clark said. "I don't even know why I turned this on. I'm digging up feelings from the past that need to stay buried for everyone's sake."

"So put away the shovel," young Lois said. Lois privately agreed profusely.

"Yeah," Clark said. "Lana thought she was never coming back and she was right. I mean, look what happened after she left: I got off the farm, I got a job, I started feeling like I could actually help people."

"Everyone grows up and figures out what they want to do with their life, eventually," young Lois said. "You've done pretty well for yourself, all in all."

"You really think so?" Clark said. "You're not just saying this so I put that disc away?"

"Well, I think you know you should put that away without me saying so, but yeah, I do think so," young Lois said. "You are growing up. Which is why I think it's important that I tell you something. I mean, we need to get future me here too, but I think we should talk to you."

Lois took this as her cue. She walked down the rest of the stairs and entered the living room. "Good morning. I take it we're telling him now?"

Young Lois actually jumped slightly, looking a bit taken aback. "Uh, I just thought we were planning on telling him anyway."

"No, you're right," Lois agreed. "He should know now."

"Know what?" Clark finally said.

"Coffee first," Lois said. "And you need to have an open mind, Smallville."

Five minutes later, with a cup of steaming coffee in her hand and sitting around the table with Clark and young Lois, Lois tried to find the best way to present the situation to Clark. "Eleven years may seem like a long time and a lot certainly has changed between my time and this time now, but some things haven't changed a lot. For example, Luthor may still be missing at this time, but in my time, he's taken over the government and is mobilizing to take over everything else. He's the reason why my future is terrible."

"What? How is that possible? Why didn't…someone stop him?" Clark said, struggling not to allude to his powers.

"In my time, I don't know where there are people that could stop him," Lois said significantly. Clark looked like he understood and his brow furrowed. "Now, that part might be believable enough, but now we're diving headfirst into the rabbit hole. Remember to keep that open mind. In the future, Luthor's right hand man is actually Lana Lang."

"Lana? That's impossible!" Clark yelled. "She wouldn't do that!"

"I'm just telling you what's happened!" Lois snapped back. "It's possible because it happened to me! So if you trust me you need to believe me. She gets power somehow and helps Luthor take down the people that could take down Luthor."

Clark sat there in silence, not knowing how to respond. Lois hoped he was keeping up. It was almost too early in the morning for her even to be fully conscious.

"Ok, so in my future, Lana helped Luthor. Unfortunately, Luthor managed to use the same way I did to time-travel and followed me here to this time. He's here in my past now."

"Luthor's here? Where?" Clark said angrily.

"I don't know where he is right now, but I know he's been in contact with Lana. I overheard them talking when I went to pick her up for dinner the other day. She accepted his help and is working with him now," Lois said.

Clark was quiet for a while. Young Lois sat nursing her own cup of coffee quietly but kept on glancing between Clark and Lois. Lois took long sips and tried not to stare too hard at Clark. She needed him to trust her and understand what she was saying.

"I'm not sure how I can believe you," Clark sighed. "This is Lana we're talking about. I don't think she'd do something like that."

"I know this is hard to believe, Clark, but this really is what seems to be going on. I don't know if Lana's the same person she was when she left," Lois said. She tried to sound as serious as she possibly could in the hopes that he would listen to her.

"People change," young Lois said quietly. "Look at what seven months has done for you."

Clark blinked at her as everyone recalled the discussion about the DVD.

"I need to talk to Lana," he said. "You're coming with me," he said to Lois. "Maybe this is all just a big misunderstanding. Jimmy got called out on assignment last night so Lana and Chloe had a girl's night at the Talon since the mini-honeymoon is over."

"You guys go ahead," young Lois said. "I don't think I really should be a part of this. I'll go back to the Planet and see if I can dig up anything else on Lex's plans."

Clark nodded grimly. After Lois had changed and put her disguise back on, she and Clark drove in silence to the Talon. She knew Clark had only brought her along in the hopes that Lana would be able to prove Lois wrong in front of her face and he wouldn't have to deal with relating the whole story to her. She didn't really know what she could say to Lana to get the truth out of her. She'd probably just have to make it up as she went along. Even though she hated this confrontation plan, maybe it would flush Luthor and Lana out if they tried to silence Lois.

"I don't think Lana would side with Lex in order to get rid of me," Clark finally said as they climbed the stairs up to the Talon apartment.

Lois wasn't sure if he was talking to her or trying to convince himself, but she had no real answer in any case.

Clark knocked on the door. No one answered. "Lana?" he called. He looked at Lois, who simply shrugged, and then opened the door.

The place was a mess. Furniture was upended, papers were all over the floor, frames on the walls were askew, and nearly every drawer was open. It looked like it had been ransacked by a tornado.

Before they even had a chance to react they heard a noise behind them. They spun around to see Tess Mercer pointing a gun at them.

"Clark," she said. She lowered the gun a bit but then noticed Lois and raised it again. "Who're you?"

"Clark's cousin," Lois said quickly. "I'm Kara."

"You can trust her. Anything you can say to me, you can say to her," Clark said. Lois hoped he believed that trusting part.

Tess lowered the gun again and ignored Lois as she focused on Clark. "I didn't know it was you."

"I didn't realize that breaking and entering was one of your hobbies," Clark said sternly.

"The damage was done when I got here," Tess said. "I was worried about Lana and I came to warn her but I was obviously too late."

"Warn her about what?" Clark said.

"It seems that she's been poking around some classified LuthorCorp technology," Tess said after a slight hesitation.

Lois didn't trust herself to say anything in the presence of Tess. It was weird being back next to her old boss, especially when she now knew so much about Tess. Lois had no idea where Lana could have went, but she had a feeling that the answer wasn't going to be clear-cut, no matter how much Clark would want it to be. She wandered around the apartment while Clark and Tess talked.

"The last time I checked, you were in charge of Luthercorp," Clark said to Tess.

"Everything but the nanotechnology dedicated to sustaining Lex's life," Tess said as she examined something on the floor.

"You think Lex is behind what happened to Lana?" Clark said.

Lois would have bet the whole future that it was in fact future Luthor that had orchestrated this disappearing act, but she wanted to know what angle Tess would lead Clark down. Lois was now definitely appreciating the ridiculous mess that time-travel created.

"I don't think, Clark, I know," Tess said. "And I am really concerned for her."

"Since when did you and Lana become close friends?" Clark said.

"I will forever be grateful to her," Tess said. She cast a quick glance at Lois before continuing. "Lana is responsible for finally showing me who Lex really is. The least that I can do is repay the favor."

"I knew Lex was still alive but I had no idea that he was still capable of kidnapping Lana from a distance," Clark said.

Lois really wished that she could just shout out that it must have been future Luthor. But since the other two people in the room were ignoring her, she knew she'd have to wait for when Clark had taken a moment to step back and think this through fully.

"It wouldn't be the first time he's abducted her from afar," Tess said. Clark looked at her sharply. "She didn't tell you," Tess added.

"Tell me what?" Clark said.

"Do you remember that DVD she made for you last spring?" Tess said. "Did you ever wonder how Lana got her hands on a video camera right after she awoke from a deep coma?" She proceeded to tell a story about Lana making the DVD at the gunpoint of Lex's men. Clark seemed to be buying the story, but Lois definitely wasn't.

"That disc was a lie?" Clark said when Tess finished. "She left because she was escaping from you? You're no better than Lex."

Tess looked flustered. "If I had known what I know now I would have never been a part of it. Lex convinced us it was for her own good."

"How nice of him to kidnap her," Clark said angrily.

"Lex also said that she was in that asylum because of you," Tess said. "That your relationship was so dysfunctional that you were constantly hurting her."

Clark chose to ignore that comment. "The thugs that Lex used, he could have used them again, what were their names?"

"They're both dead," Tess admitted. "The people Lex employs now are brand new without any ties to his past. I don't know what more I can do to help, but I have to go now." She gave Lois another unreadable look before she turned and left the apartment.

"See?" Clark said, rounding on Lois. "How could Lana work for Lex now if he kidnapped her? Twice!"

"I don't know what happened then, Clark, I only know what happened two days ago!" Lois yelled back. "I don't have all the answers! This doesn't make any sense, though. Take a step back and look at this. Look at it! We know that there are two Lex Luthors in this time right now. We know that. Lex may have taken her seven months ago, but I'm more willing to believe that she's with future Luthor now."

"So future Luthor kidnapped her. You must have been wrong about what you overheard, then," Clark said.

Lois desperately wanted to hit him hard on the head. He was so much easier to talk to when he wasn't being stupid over Lana Lang.

"I know what I heard," Lois said, her own anger rising. "You just don't want to believe me."

"How can I believe you when I'm hearing three different things?" Clark returned.

The door of the apartment and Chloe walked in. She paused when she saw the two of them angrily facing off against each other and then her eyes widened when she took in the rest of the apartment.

"What's going on?"

"Lana's missing," Clark said.

"What do you mean?" Chloe said.

"We don't know where she is but we think Lex kidnapped her," Clark ignored the noise Lois made at this. "Do you have any idea what happened?"

"No, I went out to visit Jimmy at the Planet early this morning. Lana was still asleep and the apartment was fine," Chloe said. She looked around the room and then looked at Clark. "Look, I didn't say anything before because I promised Lana that I wouldn't, but I actually saw her a few months ago."

"You saw her? You saw her and you didn't tell me?" Clark said.

"I promised I wouldn't. You know I keep my promises," Chloe said.

"What happened? What did she say? Do you know anything that would explain why she's been kidnapped?" Clark said quickly.

Lois righted a chair and sat down. She knew this was more complicated than Clark seemed to think it should be. No one could really get kidnapped as often as Lana had.

Chloe told her story about running into Lana at the Isis Foundation. Lois was getting pretty tired of that place, to be honest. Apparently, Lana had come back to find out more about Project Ares, which was Lex's scheme to genetically enhance soldiers using alien DNA. Chloe had checked on the project, but it had been shut down a while ago.

"She must have just wanted to do her thing without other people getting in the way," Lois said when Chloe was done.

Clark shot her an angry look and she leaned back in the chair again. "Tess Mercer told me that Lana was looking into technology that could keep Lex alive and she thinks that Lex abducted her."

"Why would Lana want to keep Lex alive?" Lois said to the air. She was not going to let Clark snowball his own thoughts his own way without putting in her own two cents. She had to make him see the holes in this.

Chloe and Clark didn't pay too much attention to her while they were wrapped up in their own line of thought. "Since when do you trust what the First Lady of LutherCorp has to say?" Chloe asked Clark.

"Excellent question," Lois said again to no one in particular.

"She came clean with me," Clark said. "She told me that when Lana made that disc she was being held at gunpoint by a team of Lex's men led by Tess."

"If she didn't make that disc then why did she never come and see you?" Chloe said.

Lois looked at her young cousin carefully and tried to determine which side Chloe was on. She wasn't sure that she came up with an answer.

Clark didn't seem to have a good answer to this. "Maybe she was too busy planning her revenge on Lex. I need to find her before she does something she'll regret," he eventually offered.

"Let's go to Isis, maybe I can dig up something on Project Prometheus," Chloe said.

"Clark, can I take the truck into Metropolis to the Daily Planet? I want to check on something there," Lois said.

"Sure," Clark handed her the keys. "This isn't over, Lois. I know this isn't all adding up. Come and meet us at Isis when you're done at the Planet. We'll sort this out and find Lana."

Lois drove as fast as possibly dared on a license that wouldn't even be reissued for another five years. She needed to find Tess and make sure that her side of the story checked out. She wasn't sure how she was going to accomplish that short of a direct and strange confrontation, but she figured that searching Tess' office wasn't a bad start. She didn't even check in with her younger self once she reached the newspaper building, either. She went straight up to Tess' office; found it mercifully empty, and started opening drawers. She didn't find anything. She was about to leave when she saw Tess and a man approaching the office from the stairs. Not knowing where else to go, she ducked under Tess' desk.

"You're taking a big risk coming here in the daytime, Lex," Tess said.

Lois heard the door close and she swore in her head. What was Lex doing here? Which Lex Luthor was it? Why was she always getting stuck listening to other people's conversations these days?

"This disguise hasn't attracted any attention yet. No one would connect a Lex Luthor that's eleven years older and has hair with my younger counterpart," Luthor's voice said. "Besides, I needed to check in with your progress."

So, Luthor was moving around the past in a disguise, too. And Tess knew he was from the future? Luthor must not be taking any chances. He had found both Lana and Tess from his past and had somehow recruited them to his cause for the future. Lois had no idea how he had managed it. She had never really understood the Luthor charm.

"Clark's on Lana's trail. He bought the story about the kidnapping and the video camera. I'm not sure what his next move is, but he's probably trying to find out about what Lana did after you supposedly took her seven months ago. That should lead him to the Prometheus Project," Tess said.

Ha! Lois knew Tess' story was Swiss cheese. It always felt good to be right.

"Good, good," Luthor said. "The project should bring him to Lana soon enough. He's fairly predictable. Hopefully he'll understand what Lana's suit is when they are reconnected. Everything's happening just as it should."

That frakkin' nano-suit again. Lois was hoping that she would be able to stop all this before Lana got the suit, but she quickly realized that that's where Lana must have disappeared. The timing made sense. Good thing she still had the gun alongside the crystal in her purse.

"Lex, I know you told me all about the future that I help you build and how Lana was never supposed to tell me about how you gained information by having me be your eyes and ears, but why should Lana get this suit? Why not take it for yourself?" Tess said.

"Lana needs that suit for the long term," Luthor said. "She can get closer to Clark than I ever could. I'll need that later on. Plus, after I find Lois Lane from my time, I'll need to return to the future eventually. If everything works out according to my plans, I'll have a nano-suit in the future as well."

"Lois Lane from your time?" Tess said. "You never told me Lois Lane came back from the future too."

Lois didn't even have to purposefully breathe quietly at this point. She felt like she had no air in her lungs. Too much confusion was being cleared up too quickly. She was feeling almost faint from the information overload. Being right was exhausting.

"Yes, yes, she did. That's how I got back here."

"There was a woman with Clark at the Talon," Tess said after a moment. "She had horrible black hair. She said she was Clark's cousin, but she did look a bit like Lane."

"She was there?" Lex yelled. "She was there and heard everything you said to Clark? I'm trying to hold together what the future should be and you're telling everything to strange women?"

"I'm sorry, Lex," Tess stammered. "I was focused on telling Clark everything you told me to say. At least she's just following the same trail you left for him. Lane was always slow on the uptake."

"You need to find her," Lex said. "Find her and bring her to me. I'm going to check on Lana and the suit application. No more slip ups, Tess."

Lois saw Lex's feet leave the office, but Tess' heels walked to the desk. Lois tensed.

Tess moved something on the desk and picked up the phone. "Bring the car around," Tess simply said. Her heels then left the office, leaving Lois alone.

She waited three minutes before she crawled out from under the desk and ran for the stairs. She didn't stop running until she reached young Lois' desk in the bullpen. She pulled her younger self into a supply closet and shut the door firmly, ignoring young Lois' protests until they were completely alone.

She quickly told the story of everything that had happened so far that day, from meeting Tess in the Talon to Chloe's story and ending with Luthor and Tess up in the office. She was nearly wheezing for breath by the time she was done and she felt a little tired from the steady supply of adrenaline she'd been running on all day, but she was finally able to relax.

"This is ridiculous," young Lois said. "Luthor's using both Lana and Tess. He's pitting them against each other and against Clark."

"Exactly," Lois said. She massaged her left hand slightly, but it was more from habit than from actual pain. "But Luthor never was the type to have only one iron in the fire at a time. He's trying to preserve what happens in the future by helping Lana along her path. He's also trying to fix what Tess did in the past by pulling her into his plans, too. He's pulling every string he can find to try and stop me."

"He's just making sure everyone thinks they're dependent on him for the sake of the future," young Lois snorted. "I would love to know the cock-and-bull story he made up to get Lana and Tess to follow his plans again."

"I only heard the end of his discussion with Lana the other day," Lois reminded her. "Tess probably would have been a harder sell. I don't even know when he approached Tess. He's feeding them lines and stories, though. He's telling them exactly how to act and what to say about him and about each other. I don't think any of it's real. It doesn't matter now, though, it's still us against them for the future."

"What's your plan now?" young Lois said.

"I'm going back to Isis to keep up with Chloe and Clark," Lois decided. "I'll tell them about Luthor and Tess. They usually find information at crucial times."

Young Lois nodded, "They do have that habit, don't they? I'm getting bogged down in security systems here. I can hardly do anything but cover for Clark and work on regular news."

"Just let us know if you see anyone that looks like Luthor or if Tess comes looking for us," Lois said. "This is starting to move even faster. I'm just hoping that I can wrap all of this up soon."

"You need to get Clark to believe you," young Lois said seriously. "Whatever you do to Lana, you need to make sure that he understands and doesn't stop you."

"You're right," Lois nodded. "That's why I need to get back to Isis. I'll call you if something comes up."

"Don't forget to get rid of Luthor, too," young Lois said. "Let's not drag this out any longer than it needs to be."

Lois quickly and carefully left the Daily Planet building and raced back to the Isis Foundation to find Clark and Chloe. She didn't see any of Tess or Luthor's cronies, but she knew that it was only a matter of time until she was tracked down again. She would need to stick close to Clark to prevent that.

Clark and Chloe were watching video screens of Lana talking to some guy in glasses when Lois walked in. They turned when she walked in but then resumed watching. She joined them by the computers.

"I found out you designed Prometheus," Lana was saying to the guy. "I want to commend you, that is an amazing achievement."

Lois thought Lana was laying it on a little thick.

"You must be mistaken, Mrs. Luthor," the guy said.

"It's Miss Lang," Lana corrected. "That will never change. I promise, Doctor, I don't intend on destroying your technology. I want to put it to good use."

"I'm an academic, I hold a chair in biophysics at Metropolis University," the doctor said.

"Where you designed and built a meta-dermal skin graft that will not only sustain Lex's health but will give him super-human abilities," Lana said.

This doctor must have been the one that Lana got the suit from, Lois realized. But when was this conversation from?

"Super-human abilities?" the doctor said. "Have you taken up reading comic books?"

"For someone intelligent enough to harness alien DNA into the ultimate power suit, you are dangerously naïve," Lana said. "What good will your technology do in the hands of a madman? You and I both know that Lex is too dangerous to wear it. But I can."

"I'm sorry, Miss Lang," the doctor said. "I don't have time to discuss fictitious—"

Lana interrupted him, "Do you want to be remembered for saving people's lives and for improving the human condition all over the world? I have a space in East Metropolis in a warehouse in 95th and Bristol. You can set up your lab. Tell your coworkers it was on Lex's orders and that he wanted me to be the guinea pig. It's not so farfetched, is it?"

The video ended. Lois was having a bit of trouble connecting the dots with this new information.

"When was this from?" Lois asked.

"A few months ago," Chloe said.

"Her attitude's changed since then," Lois remarked.

Chloe disregarded this. "Clark, I don't think Lana was kidnapped," Chloe said.

"That's what I've been saying," Lois said.

"Lana doesn't want to destroy the technology, she wants to use it on herself," Clark said.

Lois wondered what had taken him so long to figure that out. "Yeah, but was the Lex from the past really willing to have her take it? I think he'd have a better handle on the thing that's going to save his life than that."

"Why are you so willing to believe that Lana would work for Lex?" Clark suddenly yelled at her.

"Because I'm from the future and I know what happens, Clark!" Lois yelled back. "When will you get that through your thick head? You may not believe it now, but I'm telling you that someday Lana Lang works with Lex Luthor! Jor-El told me that you even figured this out in the future! If she does it eventually, why not now?"

"This doesn't make sense," Clark offered weakly. "She set up a way to get the suit before Luthor came back in time. Why would she work with him now to get the suit if she didn't need him?"

"I don't know how Lana's mind works," Lois said derisively. "But he said it would be easier if he helped her. If he talked to this doctor guy then that would have made the suit application process even easier. We don't know what happened between Lana and the doctor between this conversation and now. Maybe he was balking until Luthor from the future showed up and told him it was ok to give the suit to Lana."

"But this is Lana," Chloe said softly.

"Lana is not perfect!" Lois said loudly. They needed to get on her side. "Do you want to know why I came back? Do you really want the whole story just so that you believe me?"

"That would help," Clark said.

"Fine!" Lois yelled. "I came back because Jor-El told me that Lana is the crucial piece in determining the future. Her influence on you, Clark, leads to the terrible future where Luthor is in charge. Lana ruins the future! Do you know how bad that is? Chloe, unless I do this, you are going to be tortured to death in five years. And Clark…I don't know where you are. You're certainly not dressing up in an outfit and saving the world. Lana and Lex did something to you. Yes, Lana worked to keep you from using your powers. Do you really want that to happen? I'm the only one alive in my future!"

"I die?" Chloe said.

Clark looked at Lois sadly. He pulled her into a hug, which took her by surprise. But then again, he was a hugger. She didn't want to relax in his arms, but she couldn't help it. "I'm so sorry, Lois. I just want to make sure that you're right before we condemn Lana for things she hasn't done yet."

"We need to find her then," Lois said as he released her.

"Do you have a plan?" Clark asked.

Lois thought for a minute. "We'll go find this lab place. We'll talk to Lana and figure out what she's doing with Luthor. If I'm right about her involvement with Luthor, then I need to go ahead with my plan from the future. I have something that will remove the suit from Lana."

"And then what?" Chloe said.

"I have this," Lois pulled the crystal out of her purse. "But I would prefer using it on Lana and Luthor at the same time."

"That's a Phantom Zone crystal," Clark said with horror. "You're sending her there? She'll die!"

"She might not, look how long Kara survived there, Clark," Lois said. "This is what Jor-El said to do. You know bad things happen when you don't follow what he says."

"If you're right…I'll do it," Clark said after a long moment of silence. "I should be the one. It's my responsibility to protect the future as much as it's yours."

"We'll do it together," Lois offered.

Clark nodded, looking determined. "Let's just go."

Lois nodded and put the crystal back in her purse. Clark stepped towards her and pulled her to his side. He advised her to keep her feet up and then he started running. Lois felt like her hip was connected to a train rather than Clark. The wind whipped through her hair as Clark took miles by the second. She wasn't sure how this compared to flying, but she certainly appreciated the speed. It didn't take long before they were bursting into the lab. Lana was smiling and stepping out of a glass chamber.

"Lana!" Clark called.

"Hello, Clark, Lois," Lana said.

"What're you doing?" Clark said. "Do you have the suit on already? Are you ok?"

Lana continued smiling, which really creeped Lois out. "I have the suit. I've never felt better. All this power…I can feel it tingling on my skin. It's amazing."

"The last time you had powers it didn't end so well," Clark cautioned, taking a step in front of Lois.

Lana held up an arm, examining her appearance. "I'm different now. I've prepared myself for this power. This suit is meant to be mine."

"It's too dangerous, Lana," Clark said. "It's never been tested on humans."

"Give Lex credit where credit is due," Lana said sharply, only partially paying attention to Clark. She clenched a fist and focused on it. "He pulls off the impossible when it comes to science. It's happened on more than one occasion." She unclenched her fist and began wiggling her fingers. "You don't need to protect me anymore. I can take care of myself."

Clark turned to look at Lois. Her eyes widened and she shrugged. She didn't know how he was supposed to reach her, either. If he was looking to bring her back to the good side, it looked like she wasn't going to go easily.

"You don't know what's going to happen," Clark said to Lana.

"Yes I do," Lana said. She lowered her arm and finally focused on him. "Lex told me all about the future. I'm surprised your little future girl didn't tell you about his great society she's trying to destroy. I know what's going to happen. I'm going to make the world a better place."

"Lex is lying!" Clark yelled. "The future isn't good. That's why Lois came back! She's trying to fix it and you're not helping!"

"I'm not giving this up, Clark," Lana said. "This power is mine."

"Lex is just going to use that power against you and everyone else," Clark said.

Lana shook her head. "Lex isn't always the bad guy you make him out to be. At least he has plans. He knows what to do in order to secure the future. I can help him, now. Nothing can hurt me."

"You need to be careful about Lex--"

"We're equals now, Clark," Lana snapped. "You don't get to say what I do. I'm going to make my own decisions."

"And that means you're siding with Luthor?" Lois spoke up.

"Yes, I am," Lana said, straightening up proudly.

"Clark," Lois said. She pulled out the gun that would remove the suit. "She's not backing down. I'm getting that suit off of her."

Clark's eyes widened but then he nodded very slightly.

He stepped aside and Lois raised the gun to Lana. Lana was examining her hands again, flexing them and smiling. Lois wasn't sure how this was supposed to work, but she braced herself and pulled the trigger. Instead of firing a bullet, the gun sent out some sort of electric-blue net that moved faster than Lana could, even though she tried to escape. It hit the walls and moved inward quickly, going easily through solid objects. It ensnared Lana, who fought in vain against it. She glowed electric-blue as the net condensed and dissolved into her.

Lana's back arched and she screamed primally.

*******

AN: I know Lois just did a lot of listening to people in this chapter. She can't change the fact that this stuff happened. Lots of plot. Should be more action coming up!

The following chapter should theoretically be "Requiem," but this has turned so much that I should be able to wrap up the past/future story lines and take care of Lana and Lex in a different way. It should only take a few days, we're getting to the good part that has very little to do with the stupid stuff that actually happened on the show! Reviews are loved! Please!