Just Another Meteor Freak

by jadedbluerose

Clark Kent has seen many strange things in his life; he's an extra terrestrial living in a town of meteor infected humans. But in the aftermath of the second meteor shower he discovers a cousin with his own strange past. What will the Kryptonian do when Danny Fenton arrives, bringing the ghosts of his own mysterious past along with him?

38. Martyr

Chapter 37

Martyr

Disclaimer: I own neither Danny Phantom nor Smallville

Martha let out a fearful scream as Lionel guided her through the barn. She had been dazed after Lana's departure, taken aback at the thought that she'd just handed the dagger over. And she blamed herself, Clark and Danny were both gone, likely never to come back, and she'd just given over the one thing that would bring her closure. But it was what needed to be done, and it just took time to reconcile herself with the fact that she had entrusted the legacies of her nephew and her son to Lana's hands.

In her distraction she didn't notice the first trembling, but gradually the earth shook more and more to the point where the rafters above her were groaning under the pressure. She felt Lionel's arms grab her around the shoulder, guiding her through the horrendously vacillating barn as the earthquake shook everything loose off its hinges. It was impossible; there had never been an earthquake before in Smallville, not of this magnitude. But with how quickly everything seemed to be spinning out of control it shouldn't have been surprising.

Lionel pulled her back to safety just as the fishing boat fell down from its usual position, crashing to the ground just in front of them with a horrifying thud. Everything around them was shaking, debris falling everywhere and making it hard to move even an inch forward without another dangerous projectile falling haphazardly down towards them. Lionel's arm was wrapped around her, the man acting almost like a shield for her as they tried fruitlessly to escape the crumbling barn.

Suddenly there was an almighty creak, and Martha's eyes widened as the support beams that held the loft landing in place cracked. Above her the timber groaned, the earth's movement apparently having made the landing slip loose from the rest of the loft. Almost in slow motion the heavy wooden platform dropped, tilting threateningly towards them with deadly precision.

Martha was frozen, but suddenly found herself down on the floor, Lionel wrapped protectively over her as though he could save her with his own body. Her heart caught in her chest as she let out a tense breath that she was sure was going to be her last. And she waited for the platform to crush them.

A second lasted an eternity, stretching out longer and longer until Martha dared to open her eyes. The heavy wooden platform seemed frozen, and it took a moment to realise why it hadn't crushed them. She saw a pair of boots, so unbelievably familiar that a tear pricked to her eyes. Clark was there. By some miracle Clark had come back. And she shakily stood up as her son lifted the heavy wood up and away from them, freeing both her and Lionel from their certain demise.

"Clark." She gasped, unable to say anything more as a surge of disbelieving gratitude washed through her heart.

"Where is he?" Clark demanded, his eyes filled with sheer determination as he looked at them.

Martha couldn't find an answer in her, all she could feel was the overwhelming gratitude that her boy was back safe, that he was alive. It promised the world, that everything would be okay because Clark was here. Wherever Zod had banished him to, wherever he and Danny had been exiled away, her son was here again looking unharmed. And for her, just seeing him back was more than enough.

Line Break

A deep growl fought its way to escape his chest as Clark made his way through the Luthor Mansion. Righteous fury and roiling rage surged within him, his own anger driving him forwards while his sense of justice demanded payment. The ground beneath him was trembling, noisily rattling and groaning as the earth itself seemed to shrill. Clark took no more notice than the fact that it accentuated the destruction, giving just another reason why Zod had to be defeated.

There was so much wrong with this situation. He should have been facing this with Danny at his side, but the reckless boy had all but forced him to leave him behind. The crystal Danny had given him was an iron weight in his pocket, reminding him of everything that the Zod and the Phantom Zone had taken from him. He didn't know if his cousin was even alive, if the people he loved were still safe. But it was necessary that the threat was stopped, and by threatening Earth, Zod had only sealed his own death warrant.

"You could've been by my side as Krypton is reborn." Zod's voice echoed down the hallway, a cruel knife through the sound of the rumbling earthquake. "Now you'll die with all the rest."

Clark's nostrils flared as he rounded the corner, slamming open the wooden office doors with enough force to leave them splintering off the hinges. Zod was standing there, wearing a long dark trench coat. Lana's unconscious form hung limply from his hands as he pressed the brunette woman hard against the wall. She looked pale and battered, and something in Clark broke at the thought that this monster had wounded her like that.

"Let her go!" Clark snarled, rage flaring in his eyes as he watched Zod drop Lana's unconscious form to the ground.

"Kal-El." Zod commented, an expression of almost concern in his eyes as the man turned around to face him.

Clark didn't pause; his gaze went to a strange looking octagonal disk that seemed to be spinning on top of Lex's laptop. A half-turn revealed Kryptonian glyphs, and Clark was prepared to bet that the octagonal thing was the cause of the earthquake. Fire flared behind his eyes and without conscious thought he sent a flaming bolt of heat vision straight towards the device, shattering the thing with the boiling intensity of the sun itself.

"NO!" Zod snarled, surging towards him at the velocity of a speeding bullet and the anger of a charging elephant. Beneath them the earth stilled, the earthquake ended. And Clark had a bare instant of smug satisfaction before Zod was upon him, flesh made of Kryptonian steel slamming into him with the force of a locomotive.

Clark felt glass shattering against his back as the two of them were sent through the window. Then there was the sound of wind rushing around them as the two of them grappled, moving through the air so fast as to be flying. Clark glared into ice blue eyes, wrestling for domination as they began to descend.

Trees shattered beneath them, a shower of wood dust and leaves puffing out around the two as they thudded heavily into the ground. The force kept them moving, leaving them half buried in the dirt before inertia relinquished its hold on them. Clark grunted, refusing to let go of Zod as he dragged the man up to a standing position.

Zod smirked at him, pulling his hand back in an instant before snapping it forward and delivering a jaw shattering punch to his right cheek. Clark growled in response, baring his teeth before pressing forward himself, pounding the man's chest with a blast of heat, generating enough force to drive Zod backwards and into the dirt. Clark followed up with a secondary blast, directing his gaze to the trees and dropping a heavy branch on top of Zod's head.

The tree limb exploded, splintering as soon as it came into contact with Zod's Kryptonian flesh. But Clark wasn't dissuaded. A third blast of heat lit the dust on fire, rendering a blinding ball of yellow flame around Zod's head. Taking the opportunity Clark sped forwards once more, the sound of flesh meeting flesh crackling through the air as Clark's fist made contact with Zod's shoulder.

Zod was once more sent flying, but landed with casual grace before turning back to face Clark. A dark look crossed the man's eyes, and Clark got the distinct impression that he'd just antagonised a raging bull. He wasn't even given time to think before Zod was on him, carefully controlled arms punching and prodding at him, giving Clark the impression that this wasn't a fight so much as him being herded.

Zod's hands dug deep into the flesh of his arms, pressing with the strength of a vice as he struggled for domination. But Clark wasn't about to give up; too much was at risk if he let Zod go free. Instead he twisted, borrowing a move he'd seen Danny use as he borrowed just enough momentum to deliver a quick jab into Zod's stomach.

Zod gasped, the breathless sound moving quickly into a snarl as he levered Clark up and around him. Suddenly Clark was flying through the air, barrelling into an ancient tree and pulling the heavy trunk down with his weight. The crackle of collapsing wood sounded through the forest, breaking through the silence. In the distance Clark heard the cawing of fleeing birds, his mind momentarily dazed by the sheer force of Zod's heavy blow.

Clark rolled onto his side, picking himself up quickly in anticipation of Zod's next attack. But before he could do anything, Zod was there, eyes blazing with sparks of fiery red as the man grabbed Clark's jacket around the cuffs. "I don't know how you escaped the Zone," Zod growled between slitted teeth, "but you were safer where you were."

Clark growled with fire burning in his eyes as he lashed forward. Zod's callous remark scorched deep into him, lashing against his soul at the thought of what had been forsaken to get him out. His cousin had stood there, taking an injury that no human could live through just to make sure that Clark got out safely. Teeth bared Clark attacked, delivering a bone shattering punch to Zod's ribcage.

The man was thrown backwards, flying out over the forests edge and landing heavily in the bottom of a quarry. An almighty crack shot through the air as Zod collided with the quarry wall, leaving deep fissures sliced into the rocky walls. Clark followed close behind, pausing at the quarry's lip as he looked down on the fallen man. But Zod was unaffected. With easy grace the man stood up, smirking at Clark as blue eyes sparked red.

Suddenly the earth beneath him was scorching hot; a laser beam of concentrated heat burning the rock till it was a bright shade of cherry red. Clark's eyes widened an instant before the rock exploded, sending him tumbling forwards deep into the bottom of the quarry. A shower of rock tumbled around him, and Clark was left staring dazedly up at the sun for a moment as he struggled to figure out what had happened.

Coughing weakly he stood up, whirling around as he failed to find his opponent. Around him rocks crumbled, cascading avalanches of stone tumbling down the quarry walls. Each new sound attracted Clark's attention, but Zod was nowhere to be seen. Clark frowned, straining his hearing to its limits to try and detect any sign of the man, the loud explosions of shattering rock making it difficult to locate the one sound that he needed to hear.

His eyes widened as he heard it, a strong fast heartbeat, pounding towards him faster than a jet plane. He couldn't evade, he couldn't move. All he saw was the fire burning in the eyes of his opponent before two fists of relentless steel impacted brutally with his ribcage.

Clark grunted as he was thrown backwards, his back colliding heavily with a boulder. Zod's insane face bore down at him, glaring at him with the furious intensity of a rearing snake. Zod lashed out, his fist pounding into Clark's cheek faster than the lightning strike of a scorpion. Clark felt the boulder beneath him crumble beneath the force, each succeeding blow from Zod's hand forcing him further into the crumbling stone.

Clark coughed, tasting blood in his mouth as he tried to make his eyes focus. He'd never felt this easily outmatched. It was Lex's body, but the iron will of Krypton's greatest nemesis coupled with the cold calculation of a militaristic general left Clark with little opportunity to gain an upper hand. All his fights before, every training match he'd faced against his cousin were nothing to the ruthless aggression in Zod's maniacal eyes.

"Did you really think you could win, Kal-El?" Zod demanded, teeth bared as he lifted Clark close enough that he could smell the acrid scent of stale breath. "You're an idealistic fool, just like your father."

Clark's stomach lurched as he was once more thrown away. His shoulder screamed at him as it was dislocated, jolting painfully out of its socket as Clark collided with the compact dirt of a grassy field. He felt himself skidding across the earth, barely able to control his movement as he finally came to a halt in the middle of a sea of dry grass. He rolled over in pain, pushing himself to his knees as he wiped the blood off his cheek.

From behind him he heard a whooshing sound and Clark quickly spun around to watch Zod fly up to him. He landed with easy grace, his black trench coat flaring gracefully around him with the unnatural grace of a dark angel. Clark's agonised mind noted that the movement was a sick parody of the way Danny Phantom moved in flight. His cousin's white cloak would billow around him, a paragon of good in contrast to the cruel malevolence of the figure now before him.

"So easily beaten." Zod commented, looking down on him with disinterested disgust. "Disappointing."

Clark fumbled to his feet, desperation lending him strength as he walked up to the malicious dictator. "I won't let you destroy Earth," Clark declared, feeling steely resolution settle around him. "Like you did Krypton."

"Jor-El couldn't stop me, and neither will his son." Zod retorted, his white teeth bared in a sign of steely domination.

"Then I'll die trying." Clark affirmed, leaving no room for negotiation.

"But you won't be the only one." Zod replied, walking towards him with his chin raised. "These humans you care so much about" Zod paused for the slightest moment, a sadistic look washing through his blue eyes. "Swear your allegiance to me, and I'll allow the ones you love the most to live."

Clark took a step back involuntarily, startled by the cold delivery of Zod's order. But Zod wasn't finished talking. "Kneel before Zod." The man commanded, his nostrils widening as Zod asserted his dominance. "Kneel."

Clark looked at the man, seeing the possessed body of a man he had once considered a friend, and the corrupt soul of a maniacal dictator. Zod was a soldier, and Clark knew that he wasn't even close to being able to out strategise a man who had brought an entire planet to its knees. In a one on one fight against Zod he didn't stand a chance. Even now each of his limbs groaned in protest as he fought to stay standing.

It was ironic, in a way; all his life he'd been the strongest man he knew, capable of fighting anything and everything with brute force. Even after Danny came it was still enough. Sure, he'd done some training with his cousin, learned to employ new techniques and think more than one step ahead. But against an opposition like Zod it all became meaningless. His powers came to nothing when he fought someone else with the power of a Kryptonian, and he realised there was no way he could win this. All he had were half baked ideas that were as good as defeated before he could even try. He just couldn't defeat Zod.

For a moment Clark wished that Danny had been the one sent out of the Phantom Zone. Of the two of them, it was Danny who stood a better chance at defeating the General. Danny knew how to plan things out, heck, in the Zone he'd managed to seize control over two of Zod's followers just by talking. But Danny had sacrificed himself to give Clark the time to escape, even though it should have been the other way around. Clark sunk to his knees, realising that this time he was defeated.

It was over.

No second chances or miraculous recoveries. No Danny appearing out of nowhere to turn everything and magically fix everything. There was only him and his resounding defeat, and all he could hope to do was salvage what little he could of what remained. Everything felt heavy as he sunk to the ground, bowing his head in a sign of piteous submission. His eyes were fixed to the ground, the crushed grass that marked the path of his own destruction as he'd landed.

He frowned, creasing his brow in confusion as they landed on something small and shiny, glittering innocently in the sun. His eyes widened in recognition and he quickly shifted his right hand, catching the small pentagonal crystal in his hand. And Clark hid a smile as the rest of a plan came to mind. He wasn't going to give up yet.

Keeping his head carefully bowed, he felt more than saw Zod extend a hand out towards him. It was little more than the condescending assertion of a king over a peasant, but Clark took the hand in his, feeling the slight pressure as the crystal made contact with Zod's skin between their clasped hands.

Clark looked up in time to see Zod freeze, the smirk on his face paling as it dropped into a concerned frown. Clark stood up, meeting Zod dangerously in the eyes as he kept their hands firmly clasped. A shrill noise pierced through the air, and Clark saw flashes of bright blue light escaping between the cracks in their hands. He let go, withdrawing his grip and smirking as Zod's hand clasped instinctively around the crystal.

"My father sends his regards." Clark commented, looking the gasping figure firmly in the eyes. Zod's eyes paled, the veins on the top of his head bulging briefly before receding. From his hand the light brightened, the shrill noise escalating while the light became so bright as to be white.

"Jor-El." Zod breathed fearfully, his eyes fixing on the crystal as the man stretched his hand as far away as possible from him. But the damage was done, and Clark could see fear wash into his once confident eyes as the crystal flared even brighter.

Back in the Phantom Zone Danny had explained what the crystal did to the Phantoms of the 'Zone, but it was one thing to know and another to see it in person. Clark watched as the phantom of Zod writhed inside his host, Lex Luthor's flesh seeming to bubble and squirm as a horrendous screeching tore into the air.

Lex was screaming, eyes wide with the pain as the wraith was torn from his body. It fought violently, limbs of blackened cloth floundering to find purchase back inside its host as the two were violently separated. But Zod's phantom stood no chance, tearing away from Lex ensnared in a fine net of crackling blue. The phantom screeched, its high pitched shriek squealing out from dark robed vocal chords. But the freed phantom wasn't given a chance before being pulled back inside the bright blue light of the crystal. Banished back to the wasteland.

For a moment there was silence, Lex's eyes unseeing and blank as the two of them stood facing each other. Around them a quiet breeze blew and the grass rustled softly in the sunlight. Eddying zephyrs pulled at long golden strands. Clark breathed, staring blankly at the man who was now entirely free of Zod's cruel possession. Zod was gone. And Lex was safe. Just like Danny had promised him what felt like a lifetime ago.

The moment stretched for an eternity, Lex's blue eyes unseeing as he stared at Clark. But it didn't last, and Lex collapsed limply into the ground, landing on his side with a soft thump. The crystal bounced out of his hand, leaving an angry red burn where the symbol of the House of El had been scorched into Lex's flesh. But that faded after a moment, the flesh repairing itself before Clark's eyes leaving Lex completely free of any sign of Zod's vicious inhabitation.

Clark stood still for a moment, standing in silent vigil over the bald haired man feeling strangely empty. Part of him wanted to hate Lex, for letting himself be tricked into this, but... he couldn't really blame him. In fact, looking at him now, Clark couldn't feel anything but pity. Lex could have been a great man; Clark had always hoped to show him that. But time and again Lex had fallen, too driven by his own ambition and greed.

But in this, Lex was a victim; flotsam to the plans of a maniac and his loyal follower. All the pain and suffering that had been wrought, all the sacrifices that had been made, it was for this. Clark crouched down, picking the crystal up off the ground and taking it in his palm. This was what had allowed Danny to go to the Phantom Zone to save him. This was what had freed the world from Zod. Clark sighed, looking between the crystal and the unconscious Lex, wondering if it was really worth it.

Clark's fingers traced the 'S' like symbol on the crystal as he looked at the glittering blue outline. Jor-El had sacrificed his life to put Zod in the Phantom Zone, and Danny had given up everything to ensure Zod would be put back there. Clark knew that had to mean something; that these two truly great people would devote so much to saving the world. And as his eyes fixed on the sky above he promised he would make sure it did.

Line Break

Lex's heart fluttered wildly as his eyes slowly opened. It took far too long for him to realise where he was, but the half familiar whitewash of the ceiling at Smallville General Hospital was an image that he couldn't forget. Beside him there was the steady beeping of a cardiac monitor, thrilling its steady beat in time with his heart. The minutes passed as he took stock of himself. He was in pain, like he'd just gone through a deep muscle workout, but it hardly warranted being left in a hospital bed.

He stood up, shrugging on his shirt as he pulled away from the bed. Cautiously he stepped out of the room, noting that the hallways seemed much busier than he'd ever seen them. A harassed looking nurse came up to him, and before he even knew what was happening he'd been shuffled towards the front desk and checked out. Apparently with how busy things were, beds were at a premium. And he had no inclination to stay in hospital any longer than he needed to.

Dazedly Lex made his way through the crowded hallways, bumping into injured patients and weary looking doctors as he struggled to make it to the exit. He was approaching the front waiting room when he paused, spotting a familiar figure through the bustle. As he watched a doctor nodded, flipping closed a clipboard and turning away as the brunette picked up a bag and made to leave.

Not giving a second thought Lex chased after, needing to know what was wrong. "Lana!" He called, catching her on the shoulder. "Are you all right?"

Lana turned around slowly, but the look in her eyes wasn't one of warmth and recognition; it was one of outright fear. Lex frowned, stomping down his own concern as he looked in horrified brown eyes. "What happened?" He asked, his gut clenching when Lana pulled away from him.

"You don't remember?" She demanded, a strange cross of disbelief and disgust swirling into her eyes.

"I was in the field with you..." Lex replied, straining his memory for anything more and finding nothing. "And everything went white. Next thing I know, I woke up here." He gulped, his concern mounting as he looked between Lana's distrustful face and the pandemonium in the waiting room. He couldn't remember anything after the field, and the more he thought about it the more unsettling that thought became. His stomach sunk with an insidious lurch as he looked back at Lana. Lana who was nursing her hand close to her chest, and Lex's heart throbbed as he noted a bloodstained bandage wrapped tightly around her hand. The woman pulled it closer towards her as she took a hesitant step back, away from him.

"Is that why you're afraid of me?" He murmured, taking her wounded hand gently into his before turning back to look at fearful brown eyes. "Is all this because of me?"

"Lex, you weren't yourself." Lana said, her eyes glistening dimly as she met his gaze. "The things you did... it wasn't your fault. I tried to stop it." She paused, looking away briefly with her lip trembling. Her eyes were filled with guilt when she looked at him again. "Lex, I almost killed you."

Lex's heart stilled, looking Lana in the eyes. But he could understand what she had done. Why she had tried to do it. Even if he didn't fully know what was going on, what he could see was enough to tell him why it would have been necessary. That mode of thinking was a fact of his life, and he couldn't begrudge her for acting the same way. They really were alike.

"Lana." He said, catching her around the shoulders so he could meet her firmly in the eyes. "Hey. I would have done the same thing." He frowned, looking between the exhausted pain of the patients and the brown eyes of the woman he loved. "Look, I can never make up for what happened. All I can do is move forward and try to rebuild everything I've damaged."

"That might not be easy." Lana replied quickly, a shadow of the warmth he'd come to adore flittering into her eyes.

Lex looked at her, a thousand declarations passing across his mind. He could see all the pain here, and he knew that in some way he was responsible. He also knew that the road to recovery would be a long one; that trust was easier to break than it was to build. But he had never been one to shrink away from a challenge, and as he looked into Lana's beautiful brown eyes he knew that he wasn't going to be conquered. The challenge wasn't in rebuilding lives; that was relatively easy.

But he was willing to fight through the fires of hell to earn one more blissfully contented look in Lana Lang's eyes. Even if it took everything he had to do it. He wasn't about to lie down and give up, no, this time he was going to fight.

"Well, nothing worth it ever is." Lex declared, watching with pride as a small hesitant smile worked its way onto Lana's trembling lips.

Line Break

Clark ran a tired hand through his hair, long strands of dark brown flicking back messily onto his forehead. He was standing outside Smallville General Hospital, just watching the crowds as people were brought in and taken out. As he'd been standing there three ambulances had arrived and four more had been deployed back out. Even now people were still being found, cut off by rubble and covered in wounds of varying severity. Clark could barely stand to walk the streets, seeing people he knew injured or dead because of his choice.

Here at the hospital things were better. It was busy, even more so than it had been after the tornadoes five years before. But here everyone was alive. And Clark needed to see that.

He let out a deep breath, feeling some of the tension melt away from his shoulders as he walked towards the door. The waiting room was crowded, claustrophobic with pained moans and the cries of injured children. Harried nurses bustled through the din as doctors were forced to treat patients out in the corridors. Clark was gently pushed out of the way as two more nurses rolled a filled hospital bed past him, the man looking pale with white bone sticking out of his leg.

He eventually made his way to the desk, being given just enough direction to help him find the room before the receptionist was occupied by the next person in line. Clark pushed through the crowd, finding it was just as thick in the long hospital corridors. He didn't know what to think, and didn't know how to meet any of the people in the eyes.

Guilt was something he'd always known, but never fully appreciated. In all his years he'd striven to do the right thing, to put justice and integrity before even his own wants. But in a moment of weakness he'd fallen. He could see that now. In the first instance he'd wanted to save everyone, even Lex. But seeing the effect of that choice now made him feel inadequate.

In life everyone had choices to make. Some were easy and some were hard, but all of them were choices that had to be made. Months before he'd watched as his cousin chose to strip the powers of the only man who could have ever truly understood him, and he'd seen how much that decision had destroyed the dark haired boy. Some choices made for the greater good were hard, crushing for the person who had to make them. Clark had chosen to try and save Lex and now he was witnessing the consequences of that decision.

But as he moved through the long hospital wards he couldn't help but think about everything that had preceded that choice. His mind strayed to the debate he'd witnessed between Lionel and Danny, and remembering how uncertain he'd been at the time. But now he knew. An evil act that served the greater good was still an evil act, and he would never hold himself to that standard. Danny had been right in saying that they needed to find a better solution.

Because killing Lex, even in the name of the greater good, would have made him nothing more than a murderer.

The consequences he could live with, he would have to. But there was a difference between the pain and suffering here and a cold act of murder. All these people, they'd been hurt by Brainiac and Zod, not him. That was their choice, not his. And while the guilt still partially lay in his hands, it was still better than taking the power into his own hands and killing a man himself. That was something he would never do, and that certainty gave him the strength to bear the burden of all the consequences.

Clark nodded to himself, realising that he was standing in front of the right door. He rapped twice before gently pushing the door open and making his way in. The room's solitary occupant was gazing out the window, looking drowsy and battered in her blue hospital garb. But she was safe, and after all that had happened Clark decided to count his blessings.

"Hey, Smallville." Lois said tiredly, looking in his direction as he ambled over towards her bed.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" He asked, absently pulling his jacket off and taking a seat beside her bed.

Lois smiled and emitted a tired laugh. "Bad enough to know I'm still alive." She retorted wryly. "Guess I have your mom to thank for that."

Clark smiled fondly, glad for Lois's stubborn brand of bravery. She was a remarkable young woman, really, and Clark was sure that even if his mom hadn't been there Lois would somehow have found a way to make it through.

"You know, honestly..." Lois continued, looking at him with weary eyes. The distant look in her eyes suggested that she was currently under a lot of pain medication and Clark was only impressed at how her determination kept her conscious. "I don't even remember the plane going down. The cabin lost pressure and I was gasping for breath and then I was in this palace of ice."

Clark's eyes widened in concern, realising that Lois remembered being in the Fortress. He gulped, wondering how he was going to explain it away. But Lois didn't seem to have noticed his mental derail, ploughing on with her recount of what little she remembered. "It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I was bathed in this warm light, and I knew everything was gonna be okay."

"Lois, you were, uh, hurt pretty badly." Clark dismissed, not sure whether he was trying to ally his own fears or truly convince her she was wrong. "Maybe you were hallucinating."

"No." Lois denied with a tired shake of her head. "It was real. I think I died and went to heaven."

Clark felt his stomach drop, a slightly uncomfortable feeling settling in the pit of his stomach as he realised she believed the Fortress didn't exist in this world. He was... glad she didn't know. But at the same time there was a small part of him that secretly wanted to share that part of himself with her.

Maybe he was still reeling from what had happened. Danny was gone and he still had no idea if it was even possible for his cousin to come back. Zod had been defeated and people were gradually recovering from his brutal machinations. The whole world felt slightly different, like something had shifted. He knew he was still struggling to find a new equilibrium, he knew things couldn't stay the same as they had been.

But he wouldn't let himself think on that just now. Instead he smiled and clasped his hand firmly around Lois's placid one. Fond thoughts went through his mind as he looked at the beautiful strong woman before him; a woman who could see something impossible and could look at it with benevolent eyes; a woman who would believe that she'd seen heaven rather than an alien storehouse of knowledge. A woman who Clark didn't know how he could ever live without.

"Then I'm glad you're back." He replied, still smiling affectionately at her.

Lois smiled back at him, simple happiness lighting her hazel eyes. And he knew in his heart that somehow everything was going to be okay. Because it was moments like this, a soft smile in a crowded hospital, which made everything worthwhile.

Line Break

Martha frowned as she made her way through the barn. It was a mess, the broken remnants of the loft landing were scattered among the debris on the floor. She bent over, moving to shuffle some of the splinters out of the way. She was wearing Jon's old jacket, something about the worn material made her feel like he was still with her, still keeping her safe even after his death. Tears pricked to her eyes as she realised what was beneath her fingers, half buried under the rubble. It was Danny's sketchbook.

Martha hadn't seen him since just after his graduation, before all of this had started. And now...

Clark had told her, very briefly, about what had happened in the Phantom Zone, how Danny had appeared and done everything he could to get Clark out safely. And Martha had been so grateful to Danny for doing that. Out of pure selfishness she had been desperate to have her son returned to her. But now Danny was gone, and Martha wasn't sure if she'd ever get to see her nephew again.

Gentle fingers unburied the book, almost reverently picking through the pages as she looked through Danny's last few works. The book was by now almost full, only a couple of pages remained blank. And Martha paused as she caught sight of the last few images. They all seemed to have a common theme, although it took Martha a moment to pick up on it.

The first image was, surprisingly, of her. Half the page was taken up with a picture of her in the orchard, picking apples off the trees, and the other half depicted her standing over a podium making a speech before the senate. They were both beautiful, and her eyes stung with the care that Danny seemed to have invested into each delicate pencil stroke.

The second was of Chloe, and Martha saw so much in the way Danny had drawn her green eyes. Like hers, this image was in two parts. Divided at an angle, the top of the page had Chloe as a reporter, her eyes glimmering with intelligence. The other half of the page had Chloe wielding a recognisable ecto-gun, calm and confident and ready to take on the world. They were two sides to Chloe that Martha herself had witnessed, and once again she found herself surprised at how well Danny managed to capture that moment.

But the last image made her breath catch. It was her son; half the page was coloured, showing him smiling as he worked on the farm with Jon's bike. He looked so at ease and happy, bathed in a pool of sunlight that Martha almost cried at the thought of it. But the other half of the image wasn't finished; only the beginning shades of colour had been introduced. It was Clark, but a Clark that she'd never seen before. On the page her son stood tall and proud, looking over the city of Metropolis like a guardian. A cape billowed loosely around his shoulders, and he was wearing a skin tight costume that somehow added to his confidence.

Martha touched her fingers to the page, feeling her heart skip in her chest as she studied every detail. There was an emblem on the caped Clark's chest; an 'S' inside a pentagon that seemed strangely fitting. It was similar to his Kryptonian family's symbol, but different. A balance of the planet he was born on and the one he was raised on. This was the hero Clark could be; a symbol of hope for the whole world to look up to. And while it wasn't fully coloured, Martha could see it clearly in her mind; red and blue and yellow all together, and all shining as brightly as the sun in the sky.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she looked at the picture. An unfathomable wash of emotion as pride and fear whirled together. It seemed so personal, so private, that Martha almost felt like she was intruding on her nephew for looking at it. But at the same time she'd needed it, some way to feel that he was still there. She didn't regret looking at it even though it was almost painful to see.

There was a slight rustling sound from the back corner of the barn, and Martha looked up, closing the book and setting it aside on a small unbroken stool. "Clark!" She called, slightly surprised at seeing her son back so soon. "How was Lois?"

"Fine." Clark replied, his voice sounding somehow small. "She's gonna be fine."

Martha nodded. "Good. Lionel told me his connection to Jor-El is gone."

"Along with any influence he had over him." Clark confirmed.

"Maybe we're all better off without Jor-El in our lives." Martha remarked, walking through the debris so she could look her son in the eyes.

"I went up to the Fortress," Clark explained, and suddenly the reason for his dejectedness made sense. Her heart sunk, Clark had been hopeful that he could bring Danny back, save him from being trapped in the Phantom Zone. He'd said that he'd seen Danny stabbed, but neither of them knew how fatal flesh wounds in the Phantom Zone were. They'd both been hopeful that Danny had survived, but the defeated look in her son's eye said that that hope was crushed.

"To see if Jor-El could help get Danny back." Her son continued, his voice was halting and broken and it broke Martha's heart almost as much as what he was saying. "I tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't..." Clark paused, meeting her in the eyes before looking guiltily away. "He wouldn't answer. The Fortress is dead. Everything's changing. Dad's gone. I can't talk to Lex. Lana's... I don't know where to go from here."

"I didn't either when I was your age." Martha comforted, resting a hand on her son's shoulders. Her own grief would have to wait; right now her son needed her more. It wasn't okay, nothing was, but he needed her to help remind him that it would be, eventually. "Just follow your heart... and you'll always do the right thing."

"Maybe it's not just humans who believed the same thing." Clark commented almost ruefully. "Jor-El sacrificed himself trying to save Krypton, risked everything to keep the whole universe safe."

"Every world needs its heroes, Clark." She replied. "They inspire us to be better than we are. And they protect us from the darkness that's just around the corner."

Clark let out a self derisive breath, closing his eyes before meeting hers sadly with twin orbs of faded blue. "When we were in the Phantom Zone," Clark said, sounding like he was forcing out every word. "Danny said something, made me think about what I was doing. And I asked him, if it was the only way to save everyone, if it was worth the risk dying. I think he knew then... I just... mom, what if Danny doesn't come home? What if he died, just to save me?"

Martha pulled Clark into a tight hug, momentarily rendered mute. Danny was so brave and while the selfish part of her was desperate to have her nephew back, she knew in her heart that the self-sacrificing boy couldn't have lived with himself if he hadn't done what he had. In that moment she knew, Danny wasn't returning. Without the Fortress there was no way into the Phantom Zone, and Clark had already told her that the only exit was the blood of the House of El. Even if Danny was still alive in there, if he'd been stabbed like Clark had seen, there was no way for Danny to come back.

Martha held back her own grief, looking Clark firmly in the eyes. "Danny would have done anything to keep all of us safe," She stated, allowing conviction to colour her tone. "It has nothing to do with you or me; it's just who he was. All we can hope to do is make sure his sacrifice wasn't meaningless. As Phantom he was a light in the darkness, and he wouldn't want that light to go out."

Clark stared back at her, but she could see the moment when a glimmer of acceptance shone into his blue eyes. They may never get Danny back, but the two of them would honour his memory. Danny had made such a difference in their lives, and sometimes she wondered how they'd have been able to survive everything that had happened this past year without him. She would do everything she could to make sure his sacrifice meant something, that his martyring himself to save Earth was worthwhile.

But that wasn't now. Now she just hugged her son, clinging to him as they both shared their private grief. Danny Phantom was a hero, and he'd be heralded as such; already people in Metropolis were celebrating just how much good he'd done over the last few days. But Danny Fenton was their family, her nephew and the closest thing to a brother that Clark had ever known. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she buried her head in Clark's shoulder, and if the young man shed tears of his own, well, that was personal. Eventually they'd have to report Danny as missing, presumed dead, if only for that small bit of closure.

But for now there was only the two of them, standing in the debris of the barn floor as the daylight faded around them.

Line Break

Clark sighed, rubbing the back of his neck tiredly as he stood outside the door of the Daily Planet. This was... probably the last place he wanted to be right now, but Chloe deserved to know. He gulped, staring at the door with trepidation. It seemed like the closer he got, the harder it was to move. Some small part of him, the part that had spent hours in the fields laughing with Danny's strange sense of humour, found the irony in his hesitation to deliver the news at the Daily Planet. But that part of him was numb from the fact that Danny wasn't coming back.

He stood there, untouched by the crowd as people walked in and out. The Planet itself had suffered little structural damage, and what little there was had been fixed quickly to get the paper back up and running again. Clark knew he'd find Chloe there; it was her safe haven and retreat whenever things got tough. And he knew that he needed to tell her. But at the same time he didn't want to because telling Chloe would make it real. Permanent.

Eventually he moved forward, not with conscious motivation but with the mounting feeling of discomfort as he stayed standing outside the building. He pushed through the door, making his way down the steps to the basement. The staircase had never seemed so long and the lights of the subterranean level had never seemed so painfully bright. Clark clenched his jaw, finding it hard to take the final steps that would lead him to his friend of so many years.

"Clark." The blonde's soft voice poked out, saving him from trying to find her. Chloe rounded a corner and pulled him into a tight hug. "Oh my God. I thought were dead."

Clark gulped, unable to prevent the physical pain in his heart at the word. "Um...so did I... for a while there." He replied, not able to quite meet her in the eyes.

Chloe ducked into his line of sight, tugging him into the main bullpen and over to her desk. "What happened? Where did you go?" She asked, her voice laced with curiosity. Clark was grateful for it, it was easier to focus on something small like this than the proverbial canyon that seemed to lance between them.

"A place I never want to go again." He replied before looking up at her. Aesthetically she seemed okay, although she did have a slight limp and a red graze on her forehead. "Are you okay?"

Chloe smiled at him, and in that instant Clark would have given anything to be that carefree. "Yeah. Everything's great now that you're here." She answered and Clark didn't know how he was going to tell her. He knew he needed to, but the words kept catching somewhere in the back of his throat.

"Hey, bright eyes." An new voice spoke, preventing Clark from saying anything as the new man came up to stand beside Chloe. He was fairly average in height, rumpled blonde hair and blue eyes and a sparkling sort of jocularity that reminded him painfully of Danny.

"Hey." Chloe replied with an almost embarrassed look on her face as she glanced between the two of them.

The new man paused, looking eschew at Clark before creasing his eyebrows in defensive awkwardness. "Oh, bad time?" He asked, his eyes staying on Clark for just a few seconds before returning to Chloe.

"No, uh..." Chloe replied, biting her lip. "I was just talking to a friend."

"Whoa." The man said, looking at Clark appraisingly. The blue eyed man released a clumsy chuckle before giving an askew smile. "Grow 'em big in Kansas, don't they?"

"I'm sorry." Chloe said, looking between the two of them and shaking her head lightly. "Jimmy Olsen, this is Clark Kent."

"Actually, it's, uh... James Olsen." The man – Jimmy – said, sounding almost defensive in his tone. But at the moment, Clark couldn't find it in him to be bothered by it. Maybe before he would have been worried about a new guy on the scene, so soon after such a horrendous disaster. But Clark couldn't find it in him to be bothered by Jimmy's brash variety of bravado.

"Really?" Chloe pressed, raising a sceptical eyebrow. "Since when?"

Jimmy offered a half embarrassed smile, rubbing the back of his neck in an agonising echo of Danny's movement. "Since... now-ish." Jimmy answered embarrassedly.

Chloe smiled indulgently and let out a soft laugh, her green eyes sparkling with mirth as she looked at the guy. A moment later she looked up at him, her eyes curious. "So how far away is Danny?" She asked. "Now you're here I thought the four of us could head out for dinner."

Something must have shown in his eyes because an instant later Chloe's face paled. All signs of mirth vanished leaving her eyes hollow and scared. "No." She whispered, looking desperately up at him. She shook her head franticly as she pressed fearful fingers to her lips. "Please, no."

Clark bowed his head helplessly. For all his powers and 'heroics', for every life he'd saved by defeating Zod, in that moment he would have traded them all to have Danny back. But all he could do was watch as Chloe sat bonelessly into her chair, Jimmy wrapping his arms comfortingly around her. Danny had become such a huge part of their lives, a shoulder to lean on when everything was wrong and a generous smile when everything was right. It seemed, now, like he'd been there forever, a steady constant in Smallville's chaos.

Chloe's beseeching eyes looked up at him, shining wetly with a thin teary lining. And Clark couldn't help but see his own helplessness in her eyes. Because Danny had become vital to them, and there didn't seem to be a way to go on without him there. Clark felt his own heart shattering, a different sort of ache than Lana's lost love or Lex's betrayal. This was raw in the loss of a kindred spirit and deep in the loss of a brother. And Clark couldn't cope with the fact that it was his failing that Danny was gone.

Because Danny wasn't coming back.

And it was Clark's fault that he couldn't.

Line Break

Lionel Luthor frowned, his heart pounding in his chest. The connection to the Fortress was gone, and Lionel relished in the thought that once more his mind was entirely his own. Jor-El's presence in his mind had been omnipresent. The closest he would have been able to describe it as was a silent business partner, a known presence but not interfering significantly. Now that Jor-El was gone, however, Lionel was glad for the autonomy that that freedom offered.

The only detraction was the necessary estrangement from Clark Kent's life. While that connection had existed he had been a necessary aspect of the young man's life. Now that it was gone Lionel knew that Clark's suspicions would form a natural divide between the two of them, regardless of whether or not he wanted to act in the younger's interests. That was a significant downside, but Lionel was not about to let that deter him.

Lionel's eyes strayed to the page of symbols he could barely recall writing. Despite the fact that the connection to the Fortress was now gone, he was still finding himself writing the symbols. Already four new pages were filled with hundreds of Kryptonian glyphs. The images seemed to spill out of his subconscious in an almighty deluge as the images seared before his eyes and occupied his entire vision.

They were still as meaningless as they had ever been; the images burned onto the back of his retinas and overtook all conscious action until he had little choice but to write them down. But looking at them was still foreign; he couldn't make any sense of the symbols or what they could represent. Unfortunately there was no Rosetta stone to help translate the words and while he suspected either Clark or Daniel held the answers, it was unlikely that he would be given them freely.

Lionel groaned, tired eyes turning towards his computer. Daniel was a variable he would have never anticipated. It shouldn't have been possible, but the boy was Phantom. Paradoxically existing as both living and ghost simultaneously. He wasn't sure when the realisation had struck him, he had no visual confirmation. But there was something in the boy's words and mannerisms that betrayed him. Between what he'd seen of Daniel and the way the young miss Sullivan acted around the two of them it had become blindingly clear.

Or perhaps it was simply hearing Danny Fenton's words echoed by a half delirious Phantom that had verified his suspicions.

His eyes scanned his computer screen, looking for one key detail. Clark's timely return from the so called 'Phantom Zone' had been marked by the appearance of a large crater on the outskirts of Evan's field. Daniel had apparently not returned, and Clark was reticent to say any more than the fact that the young boy-ghost had accompanied him through the Phantom Zone and ensured Clark's escape.

Lionel, however was suspicious of the circumstances around Clark's release. It seemed highly probable that in fact more than one inmate had escaped the Phantom Zone concurrently with the Kryptonian due to their proximity to the opening portal out. As such, as soon as the systems were back online Lionel had directed his resources towards identifying the location of any additional impact sites. Surprisingly there was one strange report from a small hospital in Australia.

Apparently a teenager had been brought in after falling over, presumed drunk, into a crater. Lionel would have passed it over if it weren't for the fact that the boy had dark hair and was apparently wearing a large white cloak. He was about to follow up and trace the physicians involved when his breath hitched in his throat.

Suddenly an image seared onto the front of his mind. Frantic hands scratched at the desk for a pen as the vision consumed. Quick angular strokes, seemingly of their own volition shaped a symbol. Lionel's eyes rolled, the symbol seeming to dig further into his mind, touching on mental pathways and concepts and he soon found himself unable to resist writing down an English word underneath the Kryptonian glyph.

The pain cleared and Lionel looked at what he'd written. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew that somehow this was an accurate translation of the word. Lionel's fingers traced the Kryptonian glyph, somehow finding it fitting. Of all the words that he could have understood, of all the cognitive connections that were suddenly slotting into place in his mind; the first word that he'd been able to fully understand was 'Power'.

Line Break

Danny's mind shifted through rolling white mists, dancing around something that he couldn't quite understand. He wasn't sure where he was, he couldn't feel any of his senses aside from fleeting brushes, there and gone again before he could really comprehend them. But that didn't seem important just at the moment. He was happy, for once, in the feeling of not knowing. It was safe, and he didn't need anything more than that. Nothing else mattered.

Gradually recollection came to him, and he began remembering what had led him here. The fight in Metropolis and the trip through the Phantom Zone to make sure Clark got back safe, the betrayal in Clark's eyes when he'd worn a traitor's mask to ensure Clark's safety and the look of grim acceptance when he'd signalled Clark to leave without him. He remembered being stabbed, remembered the feeling of the dagger sinking into his heart and the feeling of pain as the blade came out. But... it hadn't been unpleasant.

And that somehow didn't disturb him. In fact, Danny couldn't remember a more welcome pain than that. The whole time he'd been in the Phantom Zone he'd felt lost, completely bereft of something he'd relied on to the point it ascended his own name. But even still he'd been able to push his concern aside out of the desperation to make sure Clark was returned to Earth, to make sure that Clark could stop Zod. After that, Danny had known it didn't matter. He'd gone into the Phantom Zone expecting that he'd never come back, and as the blade was removed he'd been able to smile knowing that, after everything, he'd been ended doing what he was always meant to do. Protecting people.

Danny groaned, moving to rub his hand against a throbbing temple before collapsing back in a pained heap. Every limb ached as though his whole body had been sent through the underside of a steamroller. It felt like he'd been unmade and then made again, thrown back together only just tightly enough that he was self aware.

Foggy thoughts danced through his mind as he idly wondered if this is what true death was like. Disconnected nothingness. Or whether even in ending, he was to be an anomaly. He didn't know, but then, he wasn't really worried. It didn't seem to matter amongst the endless whiteness. And if he moved his thoughts on, he found that even the pain disappeared as though it had never been.

It was a relief in a lot of ways. A pressure that he'd been aware of for nearly three years was finally, finally gone. He couldn't feel his core, his obsession, tying him down and making him act. In the endless expanse of white nothingness he felt liberated. He was free of the ties that had bound him to the Earth for so long. He couldn't remember what it was like to feel this free, this complete. He felt like he'd done all he needed to do and now he could finally rest.

Eventually he noticed something, a distant high pitched noise, sounding far off and echoing strangely, but it was steady and regular and ubiquitous. Eventually it was all he could focus on, indistinct noise becoming a recognisably electronic beeping that seemed to override all his thoughts. He tried to let go, to return to his rest, but the noise became even more blaringly obtrusive.

Beep, beep, beep.

Danny's lips twitched in a frown as he tried to shove the noise away, to make it disappear like the pain had. But the noise was too persistent.

Beep, Beep, Beep.

The whiteness was dimming, rolling mists of white were gradually being replaced by a strange shade of red and Danny squinted his eyes closed in a feeble attempt to return to his rest.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.

His eyes fluttered open, fixing on an absurdly white ceiling. It took a moment to figure out where he was, what the beeping was. But eventually he recognised it as the steady sounding of a cardiac monitor. He was in a hospital room; a very worn and outdated hospital room. The wallpaper was peeling in the corners, faded in the sunlight and the paint on the ceiling was yellowed and cracked. The room smelled like disinfectant and starch and the slightly stale scent of cloying bodily fluid.

Danny coughed, struggling to pull himself into a sitting position before collapsing heavily back against crackling pillows. Every cell screamed in pain, it felt like all his bones had been put through a blender and then put back together in a flimsy papier mâché replication and each of his muscles had been flayed with electrical lances before being glued back together. White spots danced on the edge of his vision, only serving to emphasise the fact that he was apparently very much not ended.

"Welcome back, young one." A half familiar voice spoke, but it took Danny a minute to place the face that swam into his vision.

"J'onn." Danny emitted, creasing his eyebrows at the sight of the Martian. "What...?"

"You have done well, young one." J'onn replied. "Kal-El has returned and Zod has been defeated. The danger is past and this is in no small part due to your intervention."

"I..." Danny said, struggling to find the right words. He didn't need praise at the moment, he was just glad that everything was okay. "I didn't expect to come back." He confessed.

J'onn frowned, his eyes briefly creasing into a picture of grim understanding. "You took a great risk in venturing to the Phantom Zone."

"And yet I wouldn't have chosen otherwise." Danny stated bluntly before widening his eyes in confused realisation. "You knew that."

"I did," The dark skinned man replied, nodding his head in acknowledgement. "I only stepped in because you would not have arrived at the solution in time."

Danny frowned, but nodded realising the truth to that statement. Now he could think back he realised that he'd been clutching at straws, and in his desperation he hadn't been thinking clearly. By the time he'd realised Clark wasn't on Earth... it could easily have been too late. "Thanks." He replied eventually.

A silence developed between the two of them. It wasn't uncomfortable, but contemplative. It held for several minutes, long enough for Danny to wonder whether a nurse would come in soon and then dismiss the thought when he realised he didn't care. "Why doesn't Clark know about you?" Danny asked eventually, finding it easier to ask about that than some of the other things plaguing his mind.

"Jor-El asked me to watch over his son." J'onn replied evenly, taking a seat in the small green chair opposite the bed. "But he also asked that I not interfere in Kal-El's lessons. There are many things that he has to learn alone; some that he still has yet to learn."

Danny groaned, sinking back into the pillows at the realisation that J'onn was like Clark's Clockwork; unseen but always watching. He must've said something to that effect because a small smile played on the Martian's lips. "That sounds like an amusing story, young one." The man commented. "Although I do not yet want Kal-El to know of my presence."

"Yeah, yeah." Danny replied, managing to wave a hand dismissively. "Mysterious guardian figures prefer to stay in the shadows until they can make a grand entrance. At least you're not waiting until the last possible minute before pretending to try and kill him just so he learns a lesson." Danny paused frowning in contemplation as he looked at the dark skinned man. "You're not planning on pretending to kill him just so he learns a lesson, are you?"

"No, I'm not about to go to that extreme." J'onn replied with a wry smile on his face. "In fact, now that we've met I'm more inclined to allow the two of you to learn from each other. Kal-El is not yet ready for the destiny set out for him, and I suspect you too have much still to learn."

Danny sighed, staring musingly up at the ceiling. There was probably a lot of truth to that, and he'd always suspected that Clockwork had an ulterior motive in his lessons. But he didn't know anything for certain. He was just glad that none of Clockwork's subsequent lessons had been quite as horrifyingly life changing as the first one. For good or ill he was grateful for that; that the Ghost Master of Time had offered him a second chance, and that was enough for Danny to know not to ask why.

"Maybe you're right." Danny replied, absently rubbing his hand on his chest over his heart. Now he thought about it, something felt different. He hadn't acknowledged it in the Phantom Zone; he'd been surviving on a cocktail of adrenalin and desperation and hadn't been really thinking much more than how to get Clark back to Earth. But now he thought of it, the sensation had started then. It was like something in his chest was missing... no, more like numb. He felt like something had gone to sleep and he couldn't figure out what it was for its absence.

He gulped, briefly looking up at his visitor before prodding his chest a bit more forcefully. "It's gone." Danny murmured fearfully a minute later, realising what was missing. He couldn't feel his core, his obsession; anything connected to his ghost half. It was like he'd been zapped by a Plasmius Maximus only worse because this time he couldn't feel his powers at all. He took a startled breath, bulling himself further up against the pillows. "They're gone!"

Some distant part of him realised that he probably looked hysterical, but he didn't care. His powers were gone; the only thing that had kept him grounded for the past three years and they were gone. He couldn't remember the last time he felt like this, to not have that subtle whisper in his ear telling him what to do. He didn't remember what it felt like to not have that power shimmering just beneath the surface. And as he listened to the cardiac monitor it was too fast, beating more frequently than his heart ever had since the accident. He felt panicked tears sting to his eyes as he ground his hand into his chest, trying desperately to find his ghost core once more.

"Calm yourself, Danny." J'onn said, suddenly by his side and holding his shoulders steady. Danny let out a shaky breath as he looked up into warm brown eyes. J'onn was looking down at him, two chocolate orbs filled with almost paternalistic concern as the Martian helped his panic subside to something manageable. He was still breathing heavily, deep breaths that somehow didn't seem to supply enough oxygen because he couldn't feel his ghost core.

J'onn shushed him, and for a moment Danny thought the man was going to hug him, but the moment passed and J'onn simply stood back, meeting him in the eyes. His eyes weren't sympathetic, but filled with acceptance and understanding, and somehow that lessened the pain. Sympathy would have hurt. Sympathy would have made it harder. Sympathy would have made it all too real that at the moment he may as well be human. And that would have killed him the rest of the way because somehow, despite it all, he knew he was still half dead.

"Thanks." Danny murmured, not sure what he was thanking the man for. But it felt right to say it all the same. "Jor-El suggested something might happen." Danny said eventually, long after J'onn had taken a seat again. Danny didn't know why the Martian was still there with him, he didn't even know where he was other than a rural hospital. But he didn't really care. He was just glad that the man was there, a small comfort that he wasn't about to refuse.

"I feel I must apologise." J'onn commented eventually. "I did not know what sending someone like you into the Phantom Zone would do..."

Danny shook his head, cutting the man off. "It's... it's alright. It was my choice to go there, I knew what could happen and I still chose to go through with it. I... I guess I'll just have to learn how to be human again."

"You are very brave, young one." J'onn answered. "And strong. Now more than ever I am glad that you were the one who came into Kal-El's life. Your integrity alone marks you as a great man; I know this will not hold you back for long."

Danny blinked, looking at the man. J'onn may have said something more, but a wave of warmth rushed over him, feeling like a soft wind on his troubled mind. He yawned contentedly, something about the man's smile made him feel safe and relaxed and he found himself drifting towards the comforting embrace of restful sleep. He hadn't even been able to ask the man where he was or how he'd got there, but it didn't seem relevant. Instead he let the warmth overtake him, settling down into a deep, peaceful slumber.

Time passed, and Danny found himself gradually waking. There was a young woman standing by his side, brunette and with her hair tied back into a neat ponytail; a nurse judging by her uniform. Danny didn't get much of a look at her before she stepped back, pulling a clipboard out from the foot of the hospital bed. She made a note, the pen scratching noisily against paper before the clipboard was noisily put back in place.

"He hasn't woken up since he got here. But you're welcome to go in." The nurse commented as she made her way out of the room, and Danny heard light shuffling as the door opened and closed. Danny frowned, wondering who the nurse was speaking to before the sound of the nurse vanished down the hallway. Danny's eyes flickered open, trying to adjust to the bright sunlight that pooled in through the hospital room window.

"Good afternoon, Daniel." A cultured baritone voice spoke. But of all the people Danny had expected to visit him while he was in hospital, this was the last man he would have imagined. After all, what reason would Lionel Luthor have to visit Danny Fenton in hospital?

"Mr Luthor." Danny replied cautiously, his throat dry from hours asleep. Absently he reached towards the small side table, having noted earlier a plastic cup filled with water there. But his fingers met something strange, and it took a minute for Danny to place the small figurine in his hand.

"It seems, Mr Fenton, that rumours of your death have been greatly exaggerated." Lionel observed, meeting Danny's confused gaze evenly. "Imagine my surprise when rumours of a boy, rescued from a crater in rural Australia reached my ears, although your heartbeat and low body temperature does have the staff rather perturbed."

Danny groaned, looking away from the man to the small ornament in his palm. He froze, eyes widening as he looked between the man and the white statuette, recognising it instantly. It was a knight chess piece. No, it was the knight chess piece. The message-in-a-bottle, last shot message he'd given Lana in the desperate hope that if all else failed she'd be able to keep Lex in line. But... he'd given that to her as Phantom, and now Lionel was here, handing him the exact same chess piece that he'd given Lana when all this started.

Danny gulped, looking back at the man as his stomach filled with dread. There was a reason that Danny had left Lionel to make his own assumptions; that was the only thing that had ever kept him safe. Lionel wouldn't hurt Clark by virtue of his connection to Jor-El, but Danny didn't have that same protection. Danny closed his eyes slowly, mentally bracing himself for what would no doubt be a hard conversation. "It would seem that your secrets are quite different to those of your cousin, Danny Phantom." Lionel finished, his voice weighted with heavy implication.

Danny let out a long breath, leaning back into the pillows so he could see Lionel properly. The silver haired billionaire was standing, arms behind his back as he stared at him, and Danny couldn't help the small shiver that ran down his spine at that gaze. Lionel knew everything; the whole truth and not just whatever he'd inferred about his powers. Normally Danny would be talking, or fighting his way out. But he was in too much pain, and there was the fact that he didn't have access to his powers right now, if he ever would again.

He was in no position to fight with Lionel, and the billionaire knew it.

"Your secret is safe with me." Lionel commented, and Danny bit back the urge to scoff. 'Safe' was a relative term, and at least with Vlad he'd had collateral. But... Lionel had managed to keep Clark's secret, and that was worth something. Small hope though it was, it wasn't like Danny could do anything about it just now.

"Lex?" Danny asked, avoiding responding directly to the subject.

"Doesn't know." Lionel replied. "He claims total amnesia of the last few days. He doesn't recall anything after the ship took him, so whatever lessons you sought at first to impart have been lost."

Danny nodded. "Not entirely unexpected." He replied. "When a ghost overshadows someone they rarely remember anything, and Zod was... more than an overshadowing. What do the people here think?"

Lionel closed his eyes briefly. "I informed the physicians here that you have a form of bradyarrhythmias explainable by low resting bradycardia." Lionel explained, taking a seat in the visitor's chair. "They seemed less concerned after that, although they are still puzzled by how a seventeen year old boy apparently manages to survive being thrown into a crater with no significant damage."

"Let me guess," Danny groaned. "They thought I was out drinking and passed out when I fell down."

"That is no doubt better than the truth." Lionel commented. "It would also explain why you were out wearing a cloak. Apparently you're not the only one hospitalised for an 'End of the World' party gone too far."

Danny scoffed shaking his head. "It feels a bit that way." He confessed.

"I suppose being thrown back from an alternate dimension would do that to you." Lionel replied wryly, a dangerous flicker in his teasing eyes. "Your cousin told me a most interesting story of your incarceration in that place. He believes he watched you die."

"In all honesty, Mr Luthor, I didn't expect to be coming back." Danny replied, too tired to try and talk circles around the elder billionaire. His body had taken a battering, it had felt like he was being ripped apart when he went into the Phantom Zone, and the return trip hadn't been any different. He was bone weary, and struggling with the fact that he couldn't feel his core anymore.

"Yes, you were quite the paladin; convincing Clark that he needed to go to any lengths to stop Zod by sacrificing yourself in front of him." Lionel replied, his eyebrows rising in a strange mixture of prideful accusation. "It was an expert manipulation, especially considering the riveting performance you put on before doing so. In contrast to your cousin you play a very dangerous game Daniel, by appearances sake alone your motivations seem questionable at best."

"Haven't you heard? I'm a ghost." Danny replied dismissively, sending the billionaire a disarming smile. "My morality and mode of thinking is questionable at the best of times. Besides, I wouldn't have thought you'd care; I did what needed to be done to get Clark back on Earth."

"Very utilitarian of you." Lionel replied dryly, raising an eyebrow in a half smirk.

Danny groaned, falling heavily back against the pillows. "I didn't do it for that." He paused, shaking his head wearily as he looked at the elder billionaire. "Look, I chose to go in there because I knew what would happen if I didn't. It was the only way to make sure that everyone survived, and I don't regret anything I did going about it."

"I never said you should." Lionel replied, taking the chess piece back and thumbing it between his fingers. "What you did was admirable, martyring yourself to the cause like that. More so, you seem to realise that naïvely pursuing 'good' and 'evil' leads nowhere. I do, however, caution you to be more careful; you know as well as I how your cousin views the world. The mask you took on in the Phantom Zone could as easily have backfired, destroying what confidence Clark had in himself to end Zod's threat."

Danny scowled, his eyes creased as he sent an icy glare towards the silver haired man. "Don't pretend to know my mind in there, Lionel. You have never been to that place, nor will you ever have to. In contrast I've known exactly what going to the Phantom Zone means since even before Clark did. Despite everything, I knew what was at stake and I knew the risks of wearing that mask."

Lionel was silent for a minute, and Danny could feel the intensity in his gaze as Lionel stared at him, re-evaluating him. "You're much more than you seem, aren't you, Daniel."

"I'm impossible." Danny replied, letting his anger slip away. "And while I'm the first to acknowledge that I'm flawed, I'll always do whatever it takes to keep people safe."

"So you chose to take the lesser of two evils in pursuit of the greater good." Lionel commented.

"'The Way of War is a Way of Deception; Lure with bait, Strike with chaos.' I did nothing more than what was needed to return Clark safely." Danny replied.

"'The Art of War' Daniel?" Lionel asked.

Danny shook his head, settling back into the pillows once more. He hadn't even realised he'd sat up. "Your son gave it to me for my seventeenth." Danny replied with a shrug. "In a lot of ways I've seen more of this world than Clark has, I know it's not black and white and that sometimes you have to do things that hurt you personally to keep those you love safe." He paused, sending the billionaire an inquiring glance. "Do you know how it started, in the riots, where everything went wrong?"

Lionel shook his head, seemingly confused by the apparent non-sequitur.

"She was a little girl." Danny murmured, his eyes looking out the window to the unfamiliar shape of an eucalyptus tree outside. He felt more than saw Lionel's questioning glance and elaborated for him. "In all of this, all the death and destruction, the first person to die was a little girl. She was probably only about six, gunshot wound to the chest. She didn't stand a chance."

"You saw it happen?" Lionel asked, although Danny couldn't tell whether it was out of morbid curiosity or genuine empathy.

"No." Danny replied, shaking his head. "I never met her, never saw any of them. But I felt them, every single one. That's what I hate the most, being what I am; I can always feel things like that." Danny paused, pressing a hand to his chest and feeling disturbed at the hollow feeling where his core usually resided. "It's gone now."

"What does that mean?" Lionel asked, temporarily losing his calculated composure, which was partially what Danny had intended.

"I can't feel my... my ghost powers anymore." Danny replied, not keen have to explain ghost cores with Lionel. "I know I don't fit the profile of normal human, but for all intents and purposes I may as well be."

"I find that difficult to believe." Lionel replied, his eyes once more masked. Danny sighed, tiredly shaking his head. He didn't entirely know why he'd told Lionel, all it could do was put him in a weaker position. But after the accusations and the lies, the truth had seemed necessary.

"The Phantom Zone is the single worst prison in the known universe." Danny elaborated. "It is supposed to completely desecrate a ghost, eradicating anything that could be considered part of their identity. But I'm lucky in as much as I am only half-ghost. I have a physical form to return to; that's what saved me from the meteor and it's the only thing I can think that saved me when I went into the Phantom Zone. But there's always a price; the 'Zone strips people of their powers and ghosts aren't supposed to get them back."

Lionel looked like he was about to say something in reply, but another nurse came in, bustling around him and offering to get him another blanket since his temperature was still far too low. By the time she'd finished Lionel had left, saying an abrupt farewell and that he'd be staying near the hospital until Danny was recovered enough to return home. Danny nodded in acceptance, realising that he had little choice at the moment but to trust the billionaire.

Sighing tiredly he settled back down under the sheets. There was little he could do at the moment, and until he found some safe way into the Ghost Zone without his powers, he was stuck. More than that he felt physically exhausted, the talk with Lionel had taken a lot out of him, and even his conversation with J'onn had been tiring in its own way. Danny knew more than anything that he needed to recover, and that was going to take time. So Danny took the opportunity to settle back and rest, taking the time for some much needed recuperation.

Despite everything, a peaceful smile settled onto his lips as his eyes fluttered closed and he drifted back to sleep.

Line Break

Lex Luthor was a powerful man; this was something he had always known. In his childhood it had been a bane, few of his peers had held any interest in befriending him, especially after the '89 meteor shower which had rendered him bald. But he had long since transcended that, becoming a significant figure in the business world in his own right. His whole life he'd held the lives of others in his hands, able to manipulate their entire lives remotely if he so desired.

He was aware, of course, that there were other sorts of power in the world. The meteor infected individuals and the Aliens that had invaded a year ago proved such. But he had never imagined possessing that sort of power for himself, but he had woken up to find out that not only had he temporarily possessed the powers of one of those Aliens, but he was in no small part responsible for the destruction that had been wrought all over the world. He loathed that he couldn't recall it, however a small part of him preened at the notion that it was his power that had brought the world to its knees.

He acknowledged, of course, that that was in no way a good thing, but his friendship with the young Danny Fenton had taught him ingenuity if nothing else. Danny was sometimes an enigma, but it had been clear from their first formal meeting that the boy was well aware that it was the wielder who directed the power and not the other way around. Lex knew that there was more than one way for power to be used, and if he was given his time again, Lex couldn't imagine the very beneficial uses those same powers could be put towards.

A man could become a god with powers like that, and while he would never admit it in polite society, there was part of Lex that reached for that goal. However, he couldn't remember any of it, it was though those days had been completely wiped from his memory, or his brain had been shut down. Lana had inferred that he'd been possessed by an alien spirit, and Lex was not about to discount that theory. Ghosts had been proven to exist, so logic dictated that alien ghosts were at least plausible too.

Lex sighed tiredly, resting his chin on interlaced fingers. Most of the video footage of the past few days was sketchy at best, and he'd spent the whole night going over it to try and figure out exactly what he'd done in the hours he couldn't remember. But nothing he'd found had been even vaguely helpful. He was loosely able to track some of his movements, enough to infer that apparently Phantom had been with him at the beginning, but the ghost was apparently able to move through the blind spots of every video feed because he just wasn't there. And after that everything had crashed, so that avenue proved fruitless.

His eyes strayed to the broken octagonal device he'd rescued from his office. It was completely alien in design, lightweight black metal of an alloy Lex had never seen before. Dark etchings were carved into the sides, glyphs of a language which Lex couldn't begin to understand. But it was broken; a good third of the device looked like it had been melted away leaving the thing incomplete. Many would have considered it useless and cast the thing aside.

Lex, however, was nothing if not persistent. He recognised that this device could hold answers to questions that he desperately craved the answer for. Instinct told him that it was this device that was responsible to the worldwide destruction that had ensued mere days previous. Lex looked at it and saw power; secrets and knowledge that were beyond anything ever seen on Earth before. And if he could replicate it, the technology had vast implications for the developments in defence and in countless other fields. This was the key, Lex was certain, to finally asserting his power and breaking away from the chains of his past once and for all.

Line Break

Danny sighed, staring at the dashboard of Mr Luthor's car. The elder billionaire had helped sign him out of the hospital, even paying the hospital fees so that he could get home sooner. The flight back to Smallville had been long and arduous and it seemed that three quarters of the globe was still badly affected by the aftermath of the Kryptonian virus. But for how long the various flights had been, they couldn't compare to the final distance between Metropolis airport and the Kent farm.

Danny glanced in the rear-view mirror, catching a fleeting glimpse of his face. He looked mostly human. And he knew that anyone who didn't know what they were looking for would pass it over as nothing. His hair was black, but edged with stark white tips, and his skin was slightly too pale, too luminescent, to be normal. His eyes, luckily, were still blue, but Danny could see tiny slivers of green and silver dotting through his iris. It was as though his ghost half wanted some physical sign it existed, even if he was currently cut off from his powers.

"So, Daniel." Lionel said, breaking the silence that had built between them and shaking Danny from his musings. "When we arrive I think it would be best for you to stay in the car until I call you." Danny just nodded numbly, staring out the window as the black car pulled into the farmstead. A slight shiver ran down his spine as he passed under the archway, the ever present sign reading 'KENT FARM' was swinging lightly in the wind.

It had been nearly a year since Mr Samson first drove him through that same archway, since he'd first arrived in Smallville and since he'd lost everyone he'd ever cared for. He watched as the now familiar fence was replaced by the stable, the shadow of the barn hanging just behind it. And surreally, the yellow house looked pristine. For all that had happened it looked completely untouched. The white picket fence innocently surrounded the garden, and Danny could see the soft purple flower heads poking through the gaps in the white timber palings.

It looked almost the same as the day he'd arrived here. But he knew that in that time so much had changed. He'd come to love his aunt and his uncle and had been devastated when his uncle, in turn, passed on. They could never take the place of his parents, but he loved them just as dearly. He'd met Chloe, the wonderful and kind woman that she was, and had spent time enjoying verbal tête-à-tête's with Lex Luthor.

He'd fought ghosts that were considered gods and been called one himself, something that was still completely incongruent. He'd made new enemies in the Zone that he'd never believed existed, and made allies with old ones. He could still hardly believe that the Fright Knight had sworn allegiance to him, or that he was now able to count on Ember as a loyal friend. He'd finally defeated Plasmius and offered Vlad the second chance he really deserved. But perhaps, for him, the most unbelievable thing that had changed was Clark.

Nearly a year ago he'd been brought to this home, desperately lost and struggling to find hope when faced with the fact that his family and closest friends were all gone. He'd arrived expecting nothing, to have to live still hiding what he was from what little family he had left. Instead he'd met a being from an extinct planet and come to rely on him as more than a friend or a cousin, but as a brother in almost every sense of the word. Clark was someone who he could trust with anything, who could understand almost everything because it had happened to him too; something he'd believed had died along with his family when the meteor had killed them.

The car pulled up in the driveway and Danny heard as Lionel stepped out. The windows were dark tinted, allowing him to look out, but he knew that no one could look in. His eyes cautiously strayed up to the porch, looking nervously up at the people who had become his family. Clark was standing on the porch, one arm wrapped consolingly around Aunt Martha's shoulders. Chloe was sitting in the chair; she had a cushion pressed tightly against her chest and long tear tracks running down her cheeks. Surprisingly Ember and Wulf were there, standing in the corner. Danny figured the pop diva must have sought the wolf ghost out and convinced him to open a portal. But Ember wasn't looking at the car, instead she seemed to have buried herself in the large wolf's fur, and Wulf was returning it with a clumsy hug.

Danny gulped, watching as Lionel walked past the gate and up to the porch. He murmured something, and not for the first time Danny wished he still had his powers. Instead all he could do was watch as five pairs of eyes turned towards the elder billionaire, seemingly freezing as he walked up the stairs. His aunt seemed to choke back a sob, and Ember turned around concernedly in Wulf's furry arms, glistening green eyes staring at the silver-haired man.

They spoke, not for long, but Danny couldn't help but feel paralysed at seeing the sheer despair written on each of their faces. It took him a minute to realise when Lionel signalled him to step out, and a minute more for him to steel himself enough to make himself move. Sweaty palms met the door handle, pushing it open just enough for him to slide out of the car.

Six pairs of eyes immediately swung around to face him, and Danny felt frozen as five of them widened in disbelief. Danny didn't know what to do, what to say. They'd thought he was dead, completely erased from existence. He gulped as he saw Chloe's eyes fill with tears and a look of stunned shock spread across Wulf's canine face. He blinked as a flaming mist appeared in front of him, and then Ember's raging green eyes filled his vision.

The blue haired ghost growled, her hand slapping across his face like a lightning strike. Her righteous fury made physical as her palm struck loudly against the side of his cheek.

Danny barely had a second to feel the sting before two fiery lips pressed hard against his. It was clumsy and furious, little more than hard pressure pushing against his lips, but had a desperate undertone that Danny couldn't understand. Then they were gone, the pop diva stepping back with green eyes still blazing.

"Don't you ever do that to me again, babypop." Ember hissed, glaring at him with impotent fury burning in her eyes. Danny could understand her anger, but was confused by the kiss. Ember was a tough skinned ghost, and she rarely let her true emotions show. She always preferred to physicalise her emotions, which was why fighting with her had always left him with bruises. But he didn't know what to make of that kiss, it was heated, but impersonal, and he just didn't understand why.

"My friend, we thought you were ended." Wulf said in husky Esperanto, not allowing Danny the opportunity to think as he ran up to him and caught both Ember and Danny in a tight hug. Danny let out a long breath, feeling somehow protected in Wulf's furry arms. He could see nothing but grey and green, but there was something instinctively welcoming about being wrapped in the safety of Wulf's tight embrace. "Please, don't do anything like this again. You had me terrified."

"I'm sorry, Wulf." Danny replied, mumbling indistinct words into thick grey fur. "I... I'm so sorry." Tears were starting to prickle in his eyes and he fiercely blinked them away, burying his head deeper into Wulf's warm chest. He hadn't expected the ghosts to be there, but now they were he couldn't be more grateful. It seemed that these two were as much a part of him as anyone living, and he needed them desperately. He just hadn't realised that until both ghosts were there.

Wulf squeezed one more time before letting Danny go, allowing his aunt to step forward and give him a tight hug. She might have said something, but it was choked up on tears as she squeezed as tightly as possible. Danny leaned forward, pressing his forehead against his aunt's shoulder as he hugged back. It wasn't much in the way of comfort, but it was all that he could offer. His aunt was so brave and so strong, and Danny hated the thought that he'd caused her pain.

She stepped back, looking him in the eyes briefly before letting out a small relieved sob. Then Lionel was there, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder and leading his aunt back inside the house. Any other time, Danny would have been worried, but as things were he couldn't help but feel grateful for the billionaire. For all his questionable motives, it was Lionel who had brought him back to his family, and Danny owed him for that.

Chloe came forward, the cushion still clutched between her arms like a protective barrier. "You came back." Chloe said listlessly, her voice sounding strange.

"I promised I'd do my best." Danny replied. A tense sort of silence built around them, and while Danny knew that the others were around, all he could see was the heartbreak in Chloe's eyes.

"I thought you were dead." Chloe emphasised, squeezing the cushion tightly against her. And the sight broke something inside him.

"I'm sorry." Danny emitted, for the first time feeling guilty for his choice in the Phantom Zone. He honestly hadn't expected to come back, he'd tried, but he had known that it wouldn't be enough. And this was the consequence of that belief. He'd gotten Clark back safe, and by extension saved everyone from Zod's wrath. But that came at the expense of hurting Chloe, and he hated that he was the one that had put that horribly small look on the blonde's face.

Chloe's lip twinged and she shook her head, emerald eyes watering as she looked up at him. "God, Danny I just..." And then she was crying, and Danny instinctively wrapped his arms around her as the cushion fell listlessly to the ground. They stood there, for how long, Danny didn't know. He just let Chloe cry, knowing that she needed this. Eventually she quietened, thick sobs fading to disjointed gulping hiccups.

"I'm sorry." He repeated, his voice gentle as he patted her on the back. He didn't know what to say because... what words could make up for essentially coming back from the dead? Even for someone who'd been literally half dead for nearly three years, this was far closer to the recovery of Lazarus than even he liked to imagine. And she'd been there for him, brought him back to reality when he'd almost faded out of existence way back in Metropolis. And Danny hated himself for putting her through all that, albeit unintentionally.

Chloe let out a shaky sigh, stepping back and releasing him from her death grip. She kept her hand firmly wrapped around his wrist, as though she was scared he might disappear, but Danny couldn't bring himself to pull away. She deserved better than that. They all did. Danny bowed his head briefly, feeling a strange sort of catharsis from the emotion in the air. He couldn't feel them physically anymore, not without his ghost powers, but he was aware of it all the same.

Danny let out a long breath before looking up at Clark. His cousin was standing there, arms lose by his shoulders and wearing that same red plaid shirt he had worn the first day they met. His face was understanding, a simple acknowledgement and a brief exchange of gratitude. Danny had been returned safely and the world had been saved. No words were passed between them as the two raven haired young men looked at each other. There didn't need to be.

Because deep down they were both the same.

Clark was Kryptonian, but for all his many powers he was brought up on Earth and had a human's heart. And even though Danny was a ghost, he still retained a human's heart. They thought much the same and believed in the same things. Clark had said it, in the Phantom Zone. 'If it's the only way to save everyone we love, isn't it worth the risk dying?'

And it was as simple as that.

So they looked at each other in mutual understanding, because both of them knew that, if it happened again, both of them would be prepared to make that same sacrifice in order to keep all this – Smallville and Metropolis and all the people and lives in the world – safe.

Clark stepped forward and shook his other hand, clasping his hand firmly around Danny's wrist in a greeting of respect. The handshake was strong and the smile on his face was almost the same as the one Clark had had when they were first introduced. Danny could half imagine the way his cousin's aura would swell and wash over them, powerfully strong and bright like the sun. And a small smile crept onto his face at that thought.

Ember was the one who broke the silence, clapping a hand around his shoulders and practically dragging him into the house as if she owned it. The rest of them followed, all of them winding up crowded around the kitchen table as Aunt Martha presented a pot of tea between them. Wulf curled up around Danny's chair, seeming content to play the role of loyal 'pet' as the rest of the group asked about where he'd been and how he'd even ended up in the Phantom Zone.

Danny leaned contentedly back into his chair, a soft smile playing on his lips as he looked at his family. The house was warm and comforting and everyone seemed to grow more enthused as the afternoon wore on. Chloe smiled at him across the table, her earlier tears dried up and colour returning to her cheeks. Nearly a year had passed since he first arrived in Smallville, and so much had changed in that time. He'd grown into trusting new friends and family, and somehow despite the absurdity of everything he felt like he was really home.

His thoughts drifted away to the white cloak that currently sat on the back seat of Lionel's car. He'd been found wearing it when he was rescued from the crater, and it was one of the few physical symbols he had left of his life as Phantom. He hadn't told his family yet that his powers were gone, happier to just enjoy the reunion for now. He would eventually, but not yet. There was more to being a hero than just superpowers, and each of the people at this table had been a true hero in their own way.

Ember had saved him months ago and kept him from giving up hope. Wulf was an ever loyal protector, and the one who brought Ember back here. Martha had rescued Lois from a plane wreck and stood up to Jor-El. Lionel had pushed through the riot; done everything he could to try and stop Zod. Chloe had stood through it all, stoically working towards breaking the virus and giving the people an opportunity to recover. And Clark; Clark had faced down Zod, despite everything he'd been put through and sent the wraith-like phantom back to his wasteland prison. Clark had proven himself a true hero, and Danny felt truly lucky to have found such a kindred spirit as his cousin.

Danny looked at the dark haired man, feeling a surge of prideful warmth swell up in his chest. Both of them were alone in the world, in their own way. Clark was the only Kryptonian on Earth, and Danny was the only Halfa. But they were exactly the same for wanting to make the world a better place for the people around them, trying to find a place in a world they didn't really belong to. Things had been different since he first arrived in Smallville, not that he'd expected them to stay the same. But that didn't matter in the slightest.

Because he'd found a place where he really fit in. Despite new ghosts and strange meteor infected people, he'd found a place that he could call home. And to him that meant the world. He didn't know what was ahead; he didn't know how he'd adjust to being almost human again or if he'd ever get his powers back. And he knew that no doubt there were more trials ahead for all of them. But as Chloe laughed at one of Ember's jokes he couldn't help but feel completely content.

The sun streamed through the window, drenching them all in the warm glow of early Kansan summer. Time would go on, as it always did and only Clockwork could know how everything would turn out. But the moment seemed to stretch out for an eternity, a quiet reprieve of peacefulness as they spent the afternoon together.

"Hard to believe, isn't it?" Chloe commented after a while, a soft smile playing on her lips. "That all those months ago we thought you were meteor infected and gonna go mental on us?"

Danny laughed, smiling at all of them as everyone joined in. And the absurdity of it was that it was an easy mistake to make. Both he and Clark, unique in their own rights, could easily be seen as meteor infected, after all this was Smallville; the meteor capital of the world. But at this small table the truth was so much greater, and what connected them was so much bigger than just small lumps of radioactive green rock.

After all, both he and Clark were far more than just another meteor freak.

And Danny couldn't have been happier for it.

~ FIN ~

---

AN; That's it. The end of JAMF. I hope there were a couple of tear-jerker moments in there for you and that you've all enjoyed the ride.

But do not worry, there will be an epilogue coming which will lead into the sequel. This story was originally planned to go for 40 odd chapters, covering season 5 and 6, I've sorta decided to split it because, well, it's getting way too long.

Now I need to say thanks for 5C2's, 245 Followers and 285 Favourites. I'm amazed that something like this has grown so large for such an uncommon crossover.

And I feel particular need to thank every single one of my reviewers;
1dgrayman; Alalaya2; alixanderbolster; Asaki the wolf; Athina Dark-Angel of Death; auPHE; Aurora Borealis 97; BerryEbilBunny; Black Footed Ghost; BriefShiningMoment ; brown1423; BRYGUYB16; Catflower Queen; ChopSuzi; Chrizzie1; Clear As Myst; Clockwork's Apperentice; Clockwork's Apprentice; ComeHellOrHighWaterBringItOn ; crazy-ghost-girl; Culaio; DannyPhantomluver2; DarkAssassinB34; dark-kitsune-chan; Dcharger; deathnoteno1fan-codegeasslover; DemonCry; DizzlyPuzzled; draconisFlightling; Dragon-Wolf-Mustang Rider; DusksDarkness; dwelian; Enchanting Elf; ethiopian1987; Ex10; Excess; Exess; Fabian Hunter; Fantasy-Mania31; Fantasy-Mania31; forever Luna; ForeverHalfa; foxglove66; G. ; GJMEGA; Gloden feathers Edward; GreenDrkness; Hexal; I-AM-THE-LOVE-MONKEY; Jade Riddle 19; jeanette9a; JoWashington; Karyn Phantom; Kendra Kent; Kickaka; Kit Ninja; Kree Minory; Kung-fu Blaziken; Lady Avarice; Leonard L. Church; Lexo-Mancer; Liza Cobbler; Lost dreams can be found; LoverGirl101; LuNa; magical fan18; Mango Supreme; MarianasPhantom; MidnightOwl260; Moon Goddess; Moon Goddesss; mpl3; Mystic; NedFynTanon; NekoAmi1216; nickorin fusionspark; nonapal13; Perseus Pax; Peter-Pevensie-da-Best; Poppy; quietest; Ray Rider; RedHerring1412; Riquis Inna Sunja; SeanHicks4; seantriana; Selias; shadowxdragon; SherryPin; shugokage; Sparxthehedgehog; Squirrel holding a bazooka; stormingnight; SunShark; supaherolena02; Tabet; Taboo22; ThwartAbyss54; TiFu; Unknownmusic; Vrow; werestillflying; WildWulfchild; 4392; WolfsTrinity-TSO; WordSmyth; xMidnightHunter1553x; Zii Raevyn; zoeshade

And a special thanks to
Fluehatraya, you're always available for a chat, be it on topic or not and I really appreciated every moment of it
Lord Jace for always engaging with what I've written, you made it feel so rewarding
Topaz Skye for finding intricacies that I hadn't realised were there and such steady and detailed feedback
TheTragicHero, for continued support, corrections and inspiration (and always a laugh)
WCSII for your regular detailed and thoroughly enjoyable commentaries and somehow making me smile at every one, although I'm still not sure about Danny being Smallville's Xavier...

I have been positively thrilled with all the positive feedback I've gotten. I've always loved writing, but getting such engaging commentaries from all of you really adds a new dimension to it and I'll ever be grateful for the inspiration and encouragement you've all given me.

With that said, thanks dearly.

'Till next we meet again,

Bluerose