A/N: My dear readers, the chapter you've all been waiting for :) The song is Blinding from Florence + The Machine.

Busard: Computers can be a pain sometimes...

Supesfan18: Thanks for your support!

MLouiseE: I'm sure you will love this chapter :)

Jremme, you are so amazing, thank you for your help to get my English right!

This chapter is dedicated to Busard!

14.

The pictures in her head were a jumble of events Celeste had experienced throughout her life - her first performance in front of an audience when she had just been three years old; the birth of her twin brothers, which had been an amazing event for her, when she had been twelve; her first love Mathieu, who had helped her out when her old car had broken down on the day of her audition for the Australian Romeo and Juliet production in Sydney; Thomas, her dancing partner, who had had a car accident, forcing him to stop dancing; her, traveling to Metropolis; Clark! The love of her life. Jason. Superman. The monster. Being trapped in the Phantom Zone. Raya. Indescribable pain. A strange crystal. Blood, so much blood….

Celeste opened her eyes and was totally confused. Trying to turn around, something stopped her midway. She sat up and looked down, only to realize that she was attached to an EKG monitor. Totally puzzled, she tried to take in her surroundings. She was lying in a hospital bed girded by syringe drivers, infusion pumps, and all sorts of medical things attached to her.

Getting on her feet, she ripped the IV line out of her arm and got rid of the EKG monitoring, and walked slowly out of the room as she looked around for clues as to where exactly she was.

Strangely enough, the hospital was completely empty. Celeste did not notice one nurse, a doctor, or any other living soul.

Nervously, she put one foot after the other, her body wobbling with every step so that she had to touch the wall with her hands to aid her walking. At the end of the nearly endless corridor, she suddenly heard a voice. Picking up her speed, and walking as fast as she could manage in her condition, she followed the noise.

When she finally found the source of the voice, she saw all the people standing in front of a huge plasma TV, located in the patient lounge room. Nobody spoke a word, nobody even seemed to breathe as they eagerly followed the broadcasted report.

Celeste stopped and shifted her attention to the television. She felt as though she were still being held in a dream state as she watched the camera moving over a huge crowd of people. Everybody was standing in silence when the camera finally focused on a far away spot, slowly approaching.

Some of the people standing with her in the room started to sob when they could finally recognize the spot as a coffin. When Celeste realized the red-yellow-and-blue banner spanned over it, she felt a pain ripping through her body, like she had never felt before. Clenching her fist until her knuckles started to turn white, she could feel the agony everywhere! In her feet, in the hollows of her eyelids, shaking through her skull, through her spine and down through her ribs. All the bones in her body began to shake and her eyes flew wide open, her hands finding her mouth, trying to suppress the sob that threatened to escape from her throat.

Absolutely devastated she felt her legs giving in and her whole body starting to shake uncontrollably. Her eyes remained glued on the television, following the ceremony as the tears were running uncontrollably down her cheeks.

The coffin was carried by Green Arrow, Batman, Hawkman, and the Martian Manhunter, closely followed by the other members of the Justice League. Right after them, and all by herself, was Lois Lane White followed by the President of the United States and his family. Celeste pressed her hands even tighter over her mouth. Not being able to hold it together anymore, she had to turn her head away from the television as she felt her legs giving in once again.

Mathieu Perontier had just been out of Celeste's room for less than a minute. He had needed a cup of coffee after he had been sitting at her bedside and holding her hand, only with short breaks in between, for more than a week. He had been totally shocked after Oliver had told him about the events that had happened after the monster had shown up in Metropolis. How the Justice League and Superman had tried to defeat it, and what Lex Luthor had done to Superman. Very thankful about the fact that his boss had asked him to look after Celeste as Oliver knew that they both had been very good friends for a long time, Mathieu knew that she needed him now more than ever before in her entire life.

Oliver had been able to occupy Lena Baker to such an extent that she hadn't been able to follow Mathieu as Wayne Industries and Queen Industries had taken over Luthorcorp since Lex Luthor had been officially declared dead and the acting CEO had to attend all the meetings in person. Nevertheless, the NSA had sent an agent to watch over him, but Mathieu couldn't care less as he only had one priority, and that was to make sure that Celeste was as okay as she could be in her given circumstances.

Totally stressed about where she could possibly be, he stormed around the corner and found her standing behind the people, watching Superman's funeral ceremony.

She was dressed in a hospital gown, pale as a ghost and blood was dripping from her hand where the IV line had been. Noticing that she was starting to wobble, he walked up to her and wrapped his arms firmly around her. „Shhh sweetheart, I've got you!" he tried to soothe her.

Absently, Celeste looked up into his eyes, her expression confused. "Mathieu?" she asked.

He nodded and brushed a kiss on her brow. "Yes. Come let's get you back into your bed," he said gently to her and picked her up to carry her back into her room. Once there, he put her on the bed. "Are you okay?" he asked when she looked into his eyes, her own flooded with tears.

"I'm all right," she let him know, still sobbing and trying to process what she had seen.

Taking both of her hands in his, he swallowed hard. "I am very sorry Celeste." She just nodded as he grabbed the remote control for the television in her room. "Do you want to continue watching?" he asked out of courtesy.

Celeste gently squeezed his hands and shook her head. "I've seen enough Mathieu." He nodded as she looked around the room, confused. "Where are we?"

"In Paris," he broke the news to her.

The young woman's eyes widened in shock. "Paris? Why Paris?"

Mathieu brushed gently over one of her locks, falling over her shoulder, and trucked the strand behind her ear. The black rings under her eyes were so evident, it made him sick to look at her without getting extremely angry. Whatever had happened to her, it was huge. "What can you remember?" he asked as casually as possible, but still not able to suppress the shaking in his voice.

Sitting a bit more upright, she buried her face in her hands, trying really hard to make sense of all the mess in her head. "I… I can remember that I went to bed after the male audition for the new movie we are working on," she started to compile the pieces in her head. "Clark was there and picked me up to bring me back home, but somehow he got called away to the Planet. When I woke up, Jason and I were in a huge cage captured by Lex Luthor… Superman came to rescue us, but he asked us to run away as far as possible as some monster was on his heels. Lex… L," Celeste suddenly started to shiver all over and Mathieu hugged her firmly as she turned her head and sobbed into his shoulder. It took her a few minutes to be able to continue to speak. "Lex had some strange gun that he had stored liquid Kryptonite in." Looking up in Mathieu's eyes she said as her voice was breaking. "He killed him. That son of a bitch killed my husband," she sobbed and Mathieu held her even tighter than he had before.

"It's okay Celeste. You can take a break if you want to," he tried to calm her down.

Looking up into his eyes she said. "No. I have to tell you what happened so I don't totally go nuts. Do you understand that?"

He nodded silently.

"The monster jumped through the ceiling and grabbed Jason," she thought about what had happened next. "I don't know why, but for some strange reason this thing spared my life and took me with it. When I woke up, we were in the Fortress."

Mathieu looked at her, puzzled.

Realizing that he didn't know anything about the Fortress of Solitude she just said. "Long story. It's a sort of getaway for Superman, built out of ice and crystals from his home planet. The monster totally destroyed it while I went into a panic as I couldn't find Jason. I was so scared that something happened to him. When I finally spotted him, he was so confused the poor kid. I grabbed him and we both tried to flee but the monster was faster. It ripped Jason out of my arms. Mathieu, I swear to you, it wanted to kill him. I can still hear his desperate screams echoing in my ears as I tried to find a way to help him." Shaking her head, she tried to put into words what had happened next. "I knew I had no chance against that thing and the moment I had lost all hope, I felt a strange object in my hand." She lifted her right hand and looked at it. "The artificial intelligence of Clark's birth mother gave it to me on our wedding day. It's a crystal. I kept it back in Metropolis in a safe place and I really don't know how it landed in my hand at that moment, but I grabbed it and aimed at the monster out of pure desperation and all of the sudden a bright light shot out of it…."

Mathieu had followed her story, absolutely tense. „And then?"

Shaking her head, Celeste said. "I can't remember. The next thing I remember is waking up in this bed."

Getting up, Mathieu walked to the window and looked outside, taking in the magnificent view of the majestic Eiffel Tower looming over the town. "That still doesn't explain why you are in Paris."

Slowly something dawned on Celeste. "Jason? Jason! Oh God, what happened to Jason?" she asked in total panic as she jumped out of the bed and grabbed Mathieu's cell phone.

Mathieu was next to her with one move. Taking the phone from her, he calmed her down. "Relax sweetheart. He's safe."

"Safe?" she asked disbelievingly. "How?"

Releasing a long sigh, he gently pushed her back down on the bed and put the cover over her. "Lois and Richard told me that he was missing for over a day when they heard a big bang in the middle of the night. They followed the noise and finally found him sleeping in his bed. They woke him up, but he couldn't remember what had happened, except a bright light, he described as being like a huge slide, taking him back into his room."

Celeste just looked at her closest friend, blinking disbelievingly and trying to process what he had just said. "How is he now?" she asked.

"He's okay. Very shaken up though. He told us that he had to witness what Lex Luthor did to Superman." Mathieu bit down on his button lip and clenched his teeth at the thought of what Lex had done to Superman and the people he loved and cared for.

Nodding, Celeste tried to calm down a bit. She needed to find out what had happened to herself. "What do you know about me showing up here in Paris?"

Here we go, Mathieu thought. He had so many questions. There were so many events that didn't fit at all. Sitting next to her, and kissing her hand he said with a slight smile on his face. "You showed up here nine days ago. Totally out of the blue after you were missing for twelve hours." Turning his head, he had to brush away a tear. „You were in very serious condition when they found you in a metro train that had an accident. There was a huge rescue mission and many helpers were involved as the train suddenly jumped off its tracks. Some of the witnesses said that just before the accident a bright light shot through the Metro wagon and the events that followed they described as Hell breakingloose. The rescue team found you among all the other injured passengers. You were awake and could tell them your name. That was how I was able to find you, but you had lost a lot of blood so you fell in a deep coma which you just woke up from." He had to squeeze her even harder. "I thought you were going to die."

Celeste had followed his story with her eyes wide open. Squeezing his hand, she shook her head. "I can't remember anything. Why was I in the Metro?" He just shrugged. "It must had been straight after the events in the Fortress," the young woman tried to find some sense in the events that had lead her to be in Paris. "What if I was sent here, while Jason was sent back home?"

"That could be," Mathieu agreed. "However, there is no sign of the monster at all. It's as if that thing has been wiped off the surface of the Earth."

"Don't know," she replied. "I still can't understand why it took me in the first place."

Now the pilot got up, totally stunned about the fact that he was able to piece together one piece of the gigantic puzzle displayed in front of them. "No sweetheart, it makes perfect sense that it took you!"

"What do you mean?"

Mathieu lifted both of his hands and placed them on either side of her head. "You can't remember?" he asked disbelievingly. "You really can't remember?" Still stunned about the fact that she obviously had forgotten the most important part of her rescue, he tried to explain to her as gently as possible, why it made perfect sense that the monster had taken her. "Superman thought that the monster was from his home planet," he explained her what he knew.

"How?" Celeste asked.

"I seriously have no idea how that thing came to Earth, but Superman was absolutely sure that it was here to kill him."

The young woman lifted her eyebrows, getting suspicious. „How do you know all that?"

Lifting up his hands in defense, he said. "Let's just stay with the facts for the moment please. So, the monster wanted to kill Superman or was sent to Earth with that instruction." Celeste nodded to confirm that she could follow him so far. "Wouldn't it then make sense that the monster also had the aim to kill everybody blood related to him?"

Now the ballet dancer was lost. "It makes sense that it took Jason if your theory is right, but that still doesn't explain why it took me," she said frantically.

Looking into her tear filled beautiful green eyes, Mathieu tried for one last time. "Please tell me that you can remember."

"No," she sobbed, getting totally frustrated with the whole situation. It was hard enough as it was, and sitting in this hospital, in a country she had never been before, without knowing why she was there and what had happened to her, on top of all the horrible things happening, made her feel more helpless than she had ever felt before.

As he brushed the tears off her face with his thumbs, Mathieu explained softly. "Celeste, you weren't alone when they found you in the Metro train." She wanted to say something. To ask him what was going on, but he just put his index finger on her mouth and said. "Don't worry sweetheart. I have the best pediatric specialist and midwife in the world on this one."

At that same moment the door opened and Celeste's father Dr. Christopher McPherson and her mother Heather McPherson slowly entered the room, carrying a little bundle in her arms, and finally Celeste could remember everything!