Skyler couldn't believe his ears. Perish? Didn't that mean die?

"No!" Kara cried. "There has to be a way. I don't understand why they can't use my ship."

"I assume you know why they can't use Kal-El's. Their father has to make it to Earth for them to exist."

"Duh, not that it's big enough for Skyler anyway. Not to mention that he would be older than his parents and Noel would only be slightly younger, but I'm not suggesting his ship. You never listen, Uncle Jor-El. I'm suggesting my ship."

"And you never think. It is true that they would both fit into your ship and their parents would be adults, perhaps not together or ready to raise children, but adults nonetheless. Answer me this, have you ever saved Kal-El's life or his wife's?"

"Of course and they've saved my life on occasion too. but that doesn't mean they wouldn't have survived without my help."

"A pretty big assumption to make when the children could just disappear altogether over it, wouldn't you say? Even if you hadn't saved their lives, you were at least a part of it. Time isn't to be taken lightly and one seemingly minor thing, could throw the whole balance off."

"No time to build another ship?"

"If there was, don't you think I would have built one for Lara and myself?"

"I never understood why you didn't give my ship to Aunt Lara."

"Isn't it obvious? You were still a child, our niece. Granted you were a bit of a hellion and probably not fit to watch over Kal-El, but Lara and I both agreed you should have it. Besides it's only big enough for one full-sized person and Lara refuses to leave me behind."

"I suppose there's nothing we can do to keep Zod from destroying the world?"

"It's too late."

"Of course it is. Why would that stupid cult bring us to a time that we could escape? I'm just surprised they didn't bring us here seconds before it was ready to blow up. I guess they wanted some leeway, in case something went wrong. I know they believe all Kryptonians must die together to be at peace when the world is destroyed but honestly, it wasn't even due to natural events. It was caused by a stupid, evil human. I'd like to know how they got portal, time-traveling technology in the first place. They're the last ones that should have it, the nuts. Wait a second, Kal-El is still going to escape."

"I expect his older self to arrive very soon. They know young Kal-El and his ship are too well-guarded for sabotaging to be an easy task. They'll get his older self, no doubt."

"But—but Lois, Kal-El's wife, is bound to be with him. They're always together. They work together and live together obviously. Lois is almost sure to be there when they try to bring him to Krypton."

"More than likely."

"Why are you so calm? You know what they'll do to non-Kryptonians who get in their way? They won't need her to die with Krypton. They'll kill her right then and there."

"Yes, I'm afraid they probably will."

"They'll not only slaughter her, they'll use her blood to write their sign, a red sun. It's a disgusting practice. Don't you care what happens to Lois, your daughter-in-law and mother of your grandchildren?"

"I do indeed, but the fact of the matter is we shall all die. Lois will be the most fortunate because she'll have the quickest death."

Skyler felt his lungs tightening. They were all going to die and he wouldn't ever get to see his mom again. He couldn't breathe. Air would not reach his lungs. He wheezed and coughed as everything started to get dizzier and darker. It caught Kara and Jor-El's attention and Kara caught him before he hit the floor.

---

"Repeat after me 'bon restaurant'," Lois instructed.

"I know what I'm saying," Clark said with the phone in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. "The translation is right here."

"But your pronunciation is lousy. Are you sure you don't want me to ask? I want to eat somewhere good this time unlike last night and with your pronunciation, they might think you're saying something like I want garbage."

"Who says that?"

"The garbage man."

"How good a restaurant are we going to get anyway? This is a country that eats snails. Technically, we could find lunch in the hotel garden."

"Don't make me lose my appetite, and they eat a lot more than just escargot."

"Like frog legs?"

"Are you sure I shouldn't order?" Lois asked, starting to get exasperated.

"I'm sure. I want to practice my French."

Lois sat down on the edge of the bed and listened as Clark asked the desk where a good place to eat was.

After he got off the phone, she told him in a surprised voice, "Good job. You didn't sound too bad."

"The problem is you have no faith in me."

"Sure I do, Smallville. I have faith that you'll always save the day. I just don't have faith that you can speak good French."

"Are you hungry now or do you want to start writing the article?" he said, changing from playful banter to a more serious question.

"Actually I was kind of hoping that you would fly me over to the U.S. for a second."

"We're going home tomorrow."

"I know, but it's our son's first day of school. It should be about 3 in the U.S. I want to see how it went and not just on the phone."

"Fine, you win, but we can't stay gone very long. We're supposed to be in France and if someone, especially someone at work saw that we're home early without officially leaving France or reentering the U.S., we're in trouble."

"I know that."

They flew to Kara's apartment, but no one was there.

"That's strange," Lois said. "It's 3:45. They should be home by now."

"They might have driven to Smallville to pick up Noel," Clark suggested.

"Let's be realistic. Did you think impatient, rule-breaking Kara wasn't going to fly? The only time she really uses a car is to drive back and forth to work and that's for looks."

"Well, I hoped anyway. So where do you think they are?"

"I don't know. Maybe they're still at school. They could have had trouble finding his birth certificate or medical records and gotten delayed or something."

"It's pretty unlikely since he went there last year but I guess there's no harm in checking."

They were too high in the air for Lois to see the ground.

"What's the matter?" she asked. "Why have you stopped? You look worried."

"Well, the building's there, but nobody's in it."

"Nobody? It's August 27th, his first day. We didn't get the date wrong, did we?"

"No, that was the date in the letter. Something is wrong. I'm going to go check it out."

"We're going to check it out."

"Lois, it could be dangerous."

"Has it ever stopped me before? He's my son too."

"We'll go down. You'll make some calls. Double check that Noel is still safe with Mom and also check that we got the date right. If anything seems wrong, call the police."

"What are you going to do?" she asked, as he set her down in front of the payphone.

"I'm going to take a look around the school and see if I find anything suspicious. I just think Kara would have called if we'd gotten the date messed up or anything unusual happened.

Lois nodded and he left. She dug in her pockets for change to use in the payphone. She dialed the number she knew first. "Mrs. Kent?"

"Hi, dear."

"Is Noel still with you?"

"No, I thought I must have misunderstood and Kara didn't have to work today. Is something wrong?"

"Listen, don't worry. I'll call as soon as I know where they are."

She hung up before Martha had a chance to reply. She found the number for the school board in the phone book.

"Hello?" came an older woman's voice. "Metropolis School Boar—"

"When does Metropolis Elementary start?"

"Why not for another week, but there's usually someone in the office if you need—"

"The letter said today."

"I haven't heard anything about an erroneous letter."

Lois didn't waste any time with polite goodbyes. She just hung up. She reflected on what this could mean. One of their many enemies must have laid some sort of trap and a good one to beat Supergirl and 2 half-Kryptonian kids. They'd surely get Clark too, if the trap was still there. She rushed down the street to the school. There were no cars in the parking lot, but the door was unlocked. She dashed in and ran down the hall, her heels clacking nosily as she looked for Clark. She stopped and rubbed her eyes. She thought she saw something like a fuzzy TV signal in midair for a moment but it was gone before she could be sure.

"Clark!" she called but the only response she got was her own echoes.

He wouldn't have gone anywhere without telling her and he wouldn't have left her in what could be a dangerous vicinity. She felt a chill as she realized her husband and children must have been kidnapped or worse—but she didn't want to think about worse. In the old days, if Clark mysteriously disappeared, she would get annoyed that she was missing out on what could be a potential story and excitement, but journalism wasn't everything to her anymore. Everything changed when you had a family. She had a funny feeling that the police wouldn't be able to help with this, or the Justice League for that matter. All she could do was pray that they would come home from wherever they might be.

TBC