A/N: My dear readers, finally the new chapter... Sorry it took me sooooo long, but my betas are very busy at the moment :)

Busard: Thank you very much for being one of my biggest fans!

Supesfan18: I know you will like this chapter...

Theroyalhighness supergirl: You absolutely blew me away with your reviews. I'm really happy that you like this AU story! Guess what? My betas always try to get an update by offering me cookies and gummy bears, too... :)

Dragon166: Honey, I saw your extra little gummy bear :o) Without your encouragement, constructive criticism, and huge heart, I wouldn't be able to write. Thank you sooo much for taking this journey with me my Mausi *big hugs*

A huge thanks goes to my betas Dragon166 and Astha22, and brand new in the mix to support them due to their busy schedule, imnotjkr and annabelsmith, thanks for putting my writing attempts in proper English! A special thanks goes to Supesfan18 for the creative input :)

7.

Clark put Celeste gently on their bed. She was already deep asleep. Slowly, he removed her pointe-shoes and put the covers over her. Slipping out of his shirt and trousers, he cuddled up next to her and swept her into his arms to gently kiss her brow.

Deep in thought, he tried to plan a way to tell her about what had happened in the past twenty-four hours. Of course, he had been much too late to the Prometheus gala after Celeste had seduced him, he thought with a smile on his face. He had arrived just in time for Lex Luthor and Tess Mercer's announcement: that Prometheus would be up and running in less than a couple of weeks. The space project was going to research serious illnesses in outer space in order to find a cure for them.

All the well known scientists in the world had been there and talked about their plans for their research projects. Lex Luthor had been the hero of the day, Clark remembered as he shook mutely his head.

However, what he had found out after the official press conference, still gave him chills all over. Turning his head and brushing a gentle kiss to Celeste's golden locks, he still couldn't believe the magnitude of Lex Luthor's evil plan.

During the official reception, Clark had been able to sneak into Lex's office. After he had disabled all the security measurements the bald billionaire had in place for uninvited intruders, he had snooped around to find out more about Prometheus and, most of all, the excavations in the Cambodian jungle. Instinct told him that the two projects somehow had a connection.

It had taken him a while to find what he had been looking for, but when he had finally found the secret room behind the bookshelf, Clark almost wished he had never been able to find out what Lex had planned.

After he had gotten access to the secret room, he had found the blueprints of Prometheus. The space project was anything but what Lex Luthor had presented at the gala just minutes before.

With his eyes wide open, Clark had made the discovery that Prometheus had only one purpose:

To kill Superman!

The space station had been built purely for the purpose of getting a huge amount of Kryptonite dust into the Earth's atmosphere during its launch into space.

Turing his head to look out of the window, he remembered that that discovery had made him feel ill as he was well aware that not only his life was at stake but his son's life as well. Considering that the project was about to launch in just a couple of weeks, he had almost lost it.

After a couple of minutes, when he had been able to think straight again, his hate for Lex Luthor had hightened even further than before. He had needed all his willpower to not burn Lex Luthor into dust with his heatvision on the spot. Instead he had sat on the floor with the blueprints in his lap, and had tried to find a solution for the incredibly threatening problem.

He knew that he had to make sure that Jason was safe, but in all that mess, he also had to make sure that his life wasn't in danger and most of all, the lives of the people he loved, especially Celeste's.

After he had made the discovery about the real purpose of Prometheus, he had needed some time to recover from the shock. He had made the decision to finally find out what was going on with Lex Luthor's secret excavations in the Cambodian jungle and why the criminal mastermind needed to dig in the jungle at all. He knew that the project was somehow related to Prometheus, but there were still some pieces missing from the gigantic Luthor puzzle. But as he had been on his way to the excavation site, a big cyclone over Australia had caught his attention and hadn't left him with the opportunity to check out Cambodia as making sure the people in the storm affected area were safe had been more important and had taken up most of the day.

Now pondering about if he should just tell Celeste everything he had found out, he suddenly heard his cell phone vibrating.

Cautiously slipping out of the bed to not wake up his wife, he picked up the phone. "Yes?" he asked quietly.

"Clark!" The person on the other end of the line exhaled deeply. "Could you please come to the Planet. We have important new information we have to share with you," Lois informed her friend.

Turning around and looking at his sleeping wife, he sighed. He didn't want to leave her alone again.

"I'm on my way," he said, nevertheless, and pushed the red button to hang up.

Still looking at Celeste, he was deep in thought. The sooner they could take care of the problem, the sooner his wife and son would be out of harm's way.

Bending down, he kissed her cheek gently. "Celeste," he whispered, waiting until she started to stir a bit. It really bothered him that he had to wake her up after her very exhausting day, but he didn't want to go without telling her either. "I have to go."

Still half asleep, she opened her eyes. "What?" she asked, blinking up at him.

"There is an emergency. Lois called. They need me at the Planet," he explained and added, "Sorry."

Celeste just caught his chin and kissed his lips. "I love you," she breathed, smiling.

He kissed her back. "I love you, too," he said and buried his head in her shoulder. He really didn't want to leave her right now, but he also knew that he had to make sure the world was safer for her and Jason.

Kissing her one last time, he got upright and turned around to go, but something held him back and he stopped in the doorframe.

Celeste was already asleep again. She looked absolutely beautiful with her golden locks spread over the pillow and cuddled up with the blanket, one of her extremely sexy legs on top of it. She had a glow, he had never noticed before.

Smiling, he walked out of the door, wondering if it was even possible to fall in love with her all over again.

Lex was on the top of the world. Standing in his huge beach house and taking a sip of the best single malt he had ever owned, he smiled broadly as he watched the waves brushing on the shore. His plan to rule the world was almost complete.

Picking up a piece of paper next to him, he got a lighter and held the flame at the lower corner of the only existing birth certificate of Lutessa Lena Luthor. This time nothing would get in the way of him killing the world's biggest hero.

Unfortunately, he had to admit that Tess Mercer did her job as acting CEO of Luthorcorp extraordinarily well. She was a Luthor after all. It was almost a shame that she had to die, but in his plan there was certainly no place for another member of the Luthor family.

After the birth certificate had caught fire, he put it into the ashtray next to him and watched it burn until there was only black ash left. To complete his evil designs there was only one more thing he had to do.

Clark arrived at the Daily Planet ten minutes after Lois had called him. Sitting down on his desk, he turned around. He was alone in the bullpen, but he could hear Richard and Lois talking in Richard's office.

Waking his computer by moving the mouse, he made the decision to check his work emails and to type up the story about Lex Luthor's space project. As he clenched his teeth at the thought of the most evil plan the maniac had ever had, he rubbed his wary eyes. Shifting his attention back to his computer screen, he didn't notice Lois walking up to him and placing a coffee mug on his desk.

"That was fast," she noted.

Smiling, he just shrugged and picked up the mug to take a sip. He had gotten used to their little ritual.

"Thank you," he said sincerely after he had put the cup back in its place.

She smiled as Richard walked up to them.

"Hey Clark," he greeted his friend. "Thanks for coming at this time of the day, but unfortunately this situation couldn't wait any longer," he said, apologizing for waking Clark at such an early hour.

"That's okay," Clark reassured Richard. "What happened?"

Richard got two chairs and he and Lois sat down just next to Clark. Both of their expressions concerned Clark as Richard started to explain. "I just got this very alarming email from one of my informants." He shifted a bit to give Clark and Lois a hardcopy of the email. "My source claims that there was a major incident in the Cambodian rainforest."

Clark blew a strand of jet-black hair out of his face, a gesture that got Lois' attention. Smiling, she looked at him. "What?" he asked, shrugging.

"Your wife is really rubbing off on you," she realized out loud.

"Is that a bad thing?" he asked, smirking.

"No not at all," she reassured him, still smiling.

Richard looked at them, stunned. It was really spooky how well they both got along. There was a bond between them that he wasn't able to define. He just didn't know if he should be happy or jealous. "Kids, are you ready to carry on?" he asked, very annoyed.

"Yes," Lois confirmed and kissed her husband gently on his lips.

"Great. My source said that there was a major earthquake at an excavation site of Rothul Industries."

Clark exhaled slowly, which alarmed Lois even more.

"And what's the problem?" she asked a bit puzzled. Earthquakes weren't exactly uncommon in that part of the world.

Richard ran a hand through his hair, stood and walked up to one of the plasma screens. Picking up a remote control, he pushed the buttons.

"The quake wasn't the problem, more what caused it," he explained.

They watched the video that had been sent from Richard's source to confirm the story. One of the workers on the excavation site had filmed the whole disaster with his smartphone camera.

People were running around, panicking. A loud growl rocked through the video and the man holding the phone was shaking uncontrollably. It was very hard to recognize anything. As he was screaming in agony, a very nasty looking monster appeared in front of two workers. The monster grabbed them and squeezed one in its right hand until his guts literally came out of his mouth. When the monster was sure the worker was dead, it dumped his body on the floor and grabbed the other one in both of its hands. Pulling on his neck and feet, it ripped the body of the second man in two.

Lois let out a loud scream, while watching the disturbing recording. Turning around to face Clark, she wanted to tell him to do something when she noticed him getting very tense. He had shifted his attention from the screen and was now looking into direction of the elevators.

"Clark?" she asked, concerned.

He turned back to face her, his baby-blue eyes wide open. "Go back to your house. NOW!" he ordered and was gone within a split second.

Richard, who had watched the whole scene and who was slowly about to recover, looked, stunned, into Lois' eyes. "What was that?" he asked, still gaping beyond belief.

Celeste opened her eyes and turned around. Her head hurt terribly. As she tried to open her eyes, her ears caught the sound of a very young voice from far away. Jason?

"Jason!" she cried out when she finally realized that he was with her.

Jumping straight into her arms, the boy hugged her as if there was no tomorrow.

"What happened?" she asked him, trying to get up and looking around to take in her surroundings. The last thing she could remember was that Clark had shown up during the audition for the movie. Everything else was blank. Realizing now that she and Jason were locked in some sort of a cage she started to panic.

"I don't know," he told to her. "I was in my bed and now I'm here."

Celeste held him even tighter as he started to cry, totally frightened. "It's okay Jason, I'm here." she tried to reassure him as she brushed her hand through his wavy hair.

Looking around, she noticed a person approaching them. "Lex!" she exhaled, somehow not surprised at all.

"Precious ballet angel," he shouted delighted. "I just can't believe it. It feels like a deja vu. You unconscious on the floor and I'm the one in charge." A loud laugh escaped his throat. "Sorry for the inconvenience, but my wife practically begged me on her knees to not only kidnap this little bastard, but you as well. I don't really know why, but I can understand that she wants to have some fun, too. After all she deserves some revenge after you escaped from her on New Krypton."

Blowing a lock of blonde hair out of her face, the young ballet dancer just stared at the maniac as a cold shiver ran over her spine just by thinking about what his evil mind had planned for her and Jason this time.

Clark walked into Lois' and Richard's house, totally devastated. The house was a mess. The CSI unit and the police were still there, investigating Jason's disappearance.

Slowly, he walked up to Lois who was sitting on the couch, hugging Jasmine tightly. The little girl seemed to be okay, which relieved Clark. Looking around, he saw Richard standing in the doorway. Lois' husband had tears in his eyes.

Sitting next to Lois, Clark just looked at her.

"They came through the backdoor, Clark. The babysitter is in the hospital with very serious injuries," she explained as tears were rolling uncontrollably down over her cheeks. She hated herself for leaving Jason alone that night. "Sorry Clark, I know we had an agreement not to leave Jason alone without one of us," she apologized.

Clark just nodded and tucked his chin in. "Is Jasmine okay?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes. They were after Jason." Looking up at him she asked, "Could you find him?"

He shook his head. No he hadn't been able to find his son, even though he had searched everywhere for him. Standing up to look out of the window, he knew that he had to tell her everything. Turning back to face her, he opened his mouth, when the head investigator walked up to the absolutely shattered woman.

"Mrs White, sorry to bother you, but we are finished." He pulled out one of his business cards. "Everything is prepared. Should anybody try to contact you we will be able to trace the call and hopefully find out who has kidnapped your son. For now I will leave you alone with your family to give you some privacy. I'm really sorry for what happened," he added sincerely as he walked out of the house, asking his team to follow him for a short briefing.

Clark looked at the cables attached to the phone line and the computers. Shaking his head, a tear rolled down his cheek. Unfortunately, the police couldn't help them.

Richard walked up to Lois and sat down next to her and took Jasmine from her.

It was really astonishing for Clark, how well Richard had digested the fact that he was Superman. But, considering the circumstances, they were in at the moment, there was no other way to handle the situation.

Looking around and x-raying every room in the house, Clark made sure nobody could hear what he had to say to the mother of his son.

Nervously, he shifted from one foot to the other, adjusted his glasses, and looked deep into her eyes. "Whoever kidnapped Jason knew how to hide him," he said, finally telling them the truly disturbing news.

Lois turned to Richard as he turned to her. "Lex Luthor!" they realized out-loud in unison.

Clark nodded.

"Why couldn't you stop him?" Lois asked, accusingly.

He ran a hand through his raven black hair.

"Lois," he said in his deep Superman voice, something that caught Richard by surprise, who still hadn't been able to get his head around the fact that his friend and partner at the Daily Planet was Superman, the biological father of his son. "The reason why I super-sped out of the bullpen was not the fact that Jason got kidnapped," Clark continued. "I blew my cover because I noticed Jason's heartbeat stopping."

"What?" she asked in shock. All of a sudden, she felt her blood draining from her body.

He nodded. "I can always hear his heartbeat in the background," he explained. "Lois, Jason's heart wasn't the only one that stopped beating."

"What are you saying?" she asked, totally shocked.

"Celeste," he answered totally desperate, and not able to say anything anymore.