By David Mycock Time Wave 17
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of smallville or superman they belong to the people who created them at the time the other characters belong to their respective creators.
Pairing: Clark/Lana/Raya/Diana
Summary: Set during season Four, Clark is hit by a mysterious wave of energy which gives him knowledge of the future and how to prevent a dark future from befalling him and those around him. He decides to act on the knowledge especially concerning Lana.
(Lex's Jet)
Lex smirked as the plane began its landing run pleased he would soon be able to remove Jason as a threat to his plans, Jason had money and power now thanks to his mothers death which meant he could hire contract killers to try and take him out and he wanted to stop that. He hid the container with the stones in his safe before getting ready to leave, finally he plane came to a halt and the door was opened and he departed with his guards.
Brainiac formed from the wall where he had been watching and walked over to the safe and quickly opened it, the locking mechanizim was easily broken by him and he removed the box and looked inside and was not surprised to find three fake stones inside. So Kal-El must already have them and must likely had created the fortress already, no matter these stones were going to help him take control of Luthor's goals even more and he began to rewrite their coding adding his own. When Luthor merged these stones they would infuse him with the knowladge of how to find the fortress and access the portal to the phantom zone as well as make him trust Brainiac and Zod's two disiples, it would also make it want to release general Zod who he would be made to believe would help him gain control of the world which he knew Lex wanted.
He also added a real burning desire to start a war of conquest with his allies and the growing number of meteor freaks he had, finally when he was done he put the box back into the safe and sealed it before he reformed into the wall to wait knowing he was about to set things back onto the path which led to his future.
(Fortress of Solitude)
Kal-El stood infront of the control panel of the fortress going over once again what his past self had mananged to do, he was looking at certain changed Clark had put into effect such as the new costumes they were wearing as well as not only confessing everything to Lana and restarting their relationship but he had also fallen for Raya something he knew he had once thought of trying before her death and now Diana. According to Raya his emotional ties to certain people had come back through the transfer as well as his memories effecting Clark all the more, he had never believed such a thing was possible and yet the evidence was right in front of him but at the moment it was not his main focus.
Brainiac was here on earth and he knew with that information the war was closer than ever before, the world really did stand on the knife edge only years earlier than it should have. The original thinking behind the plan had been that once the transfer was complete the time ripples would destroy the future before Brainiac could stop them, they had been wrong and now the world may pay the price of their mistake. He now knew why Clark had pushed him into being, he did not believe he could take on Brainiac and stop him in time before he did something that brought the war ever closer.
His past self had done much but he was still retained a lot of innocence and a lack of killer instinct the same instinct he had lacked when he had been told to kill Lex when he had been possessed by Zod, Clark was most likely afraid it would come down to that once more and like he himself had failed he feared failing as well. He could understand how the attack had brought all this to a head creating him but he worried that by been here he may tip things far too much towards the war as well, he was a solider used to killing used to fighting to the last. He no longer had the hope of stopping the war like Clark and the others had, he stood and walked over towards Diana, Raya and Lana to discuss this with them as he believed they would have to keep closer watch on his actions.
Dax-Ur and Jor-El worked side by side to speed up work on the chip they hoped would stop Brainiac, both were very concerned by the realisation they had been tricked by the A.I they had created but they were not surprised by how smart it was been. They cursed the day they ever came up with the idea, at the time it had seemed to be the best solution to many problems on Krypton they just had not forseen Zod corrupting the program into what it was today.
Kara was talking with Donna who had along with her sister from putting their people on alert, she found the subject of the hidden amazon nation fasinating and she was enjoying learning about their culture. However she could Donna was troubled most likely by the knowaldge her island and most of her people were destroyed in the future that they had not been able to stop Luthor and his army.
She could understand this as she had seen many of her own people with the same look before she left Krypton including her uncle and Lara, she missed Lara and she wished she could ask if there was a way to bring her replica online without freeing her father but she knew they had bigger problems to deal with that now and so she kept silent.
Jonathan and Martha were of to the side with Lois watching as events progressed hoping their son regained control of himself soon, but Jonathan suspected until this reached a conclusion Kal-El would remain in charge of his sons body. He was in two minds about this as on one hand Clark would not have to maybe take a life to stop the war from coming but on the other Kal-El seemed to have few connections to him and Martha and Lana and the others he considered dead. Diana was the only one he seemed to fully connect with, Martha was deeply upset but all this but he had assured her once Luthor and his allies had been dealt with their Clark would return.
Talia remained by Bruce's side as he recovered from been stabbed by Bane, she had listened as Bruce cursed his own foolisness in getting carried away and she was beginning to see how much Bruce had been affected by the message from his future self and what he head learned from Clark. She prayed he would not loose himself even more, they had a chance at a wonderful future if they could deal with Lex and his forces but she wanted and needed Bruce to be there for that future to be realised.
Her father was off to one side talking with Lionel, Oliver and Arthur about their next targets, she worried about him as she knew he died in the future and she feared what would happen when they came face to face with her sister Nyssa.
(Madrid Spain)
Jason sat as his father stood off to side taking in everything he had said to him, a lot of old wounds had been reopened but they both seemed to have come to an understanding somewhat. Jason did not think his father would do anything to avenge his wife's death especially consideing he seemed to have become a priest and if he was not it was a very good act he had to admit.
His was perplexed by his fathers interest in Clark and how he had known where he was, it was the same kind of obession he had seen in Lex and Lionel Luthor and he wondered why everyone including Lana seemed so interested in a small town farm boy. When he met Lana she seemed anything but a small town girl and yet when he had come to Smallville she had seemed different than when he had met her, he had watched try and stay away from Clark almost as if she was afraid to be tempted been near him. He should of guessed it was only a matter of time before she gave in and went back to Clark but he had allowed himself to be blinded by his feelings and hopes, well he would gain his revenge on her as well as it became clear she had used him as a distraction from Clark.
Before he could speak again the door to the back of the church was klcked in and he was shocked to see Lex enter with his boydguards, how the hell had Lex tracked him down then cursed himself for failing to realise Lex had a lot of resources to call on
"It was not polite of you Jason to run its made me delay some of my plans whilst I tracked you down" Lex said he looked over the man with Jason and was about to allow the priest to leave when he realised he had seen this man before even more he had believed he was dead "Edward Teague, I am surprised to see you still alive, my father believes he killed you" he added
"Yes well that was the point" Edward replied as he realised his hopes to see the traveller were finished as he doubted Luthor would not kill them both "You're not welcome here Luthor leave" he ordered
"No I don't think so, I came here to kill Jason but now I have to also kill you and finish this problem once and for all" Lex responed with a smirk "But before you die Jason know I have all the stones and when you are dead I will unite them and become all powerful and I will gain the knowaldge they contain" he added
"Those stones will bring you nothing but empty promises Luthor" Edward spat in disdain "You are a fool like many others who believe those stones are meant for them" he added
"And who are they meant for Teague?" Lex inquired annoyed at the slight to his character
"You'll never know Luthor" was all that Edward would say determined to take his secrets to the grave to protect the future savior of the world
Lex quickly grew bored of the conversation and he did not believe either Teague had any information that could be useful to him or his plans and so he nodded to his guards and watched with no small bit of satisfaction as they shot both Teagues through the heart and then planted evidence to make it look like both of them were murdered for money before turning and leaving the church confident he was now close to realising his goals.
He got in his car and headed back to his plane intent of returning to Smallville and turning his attention to finally dealing with Clark, he phoned Jackson for an update and was incensed to learnt three more of his 33.1 labs had been destroyed. He wanted to know who was responsible for this and how they knew where the labs were, he was shocked to learnt that Bane had reported Batman was apart of the force that had attacked one of the labs and somewhat pleased to hear he had managed to stab the hero although he doubted he had been killed as Batman was noturious for surviving things he shouldn't.
This put a whole new picture of things and he wondered what in the hell he had done to attract the attention of Gotham Citys most famous Vigilantie, Bane also stated other customed heros had been there and he began to suspect they somehow knew what he planned and he knew of only one person who could and would have alerted them to his actions and that was Clark. This intensified the anger and hate he had begun to nurse against his former friend and he was determined that one he got a hold of him he was going to make Clark suffer before he killed him and part of that tortue was going to be making him watch as he took Lana from him as he was sure he could convince the girl what was trully in her best interest was being with him.
He smirked at the idea confident in his ability to manipulate the girl into believing his way of thinking, confident that he could make her turn on Clark if he gave her enough power and expensive gifts to forget her low born past. As they arrived at the airport he began to make his next few moves, with all these new players he would have to be careful and he would have to dodge the sheriff who wanted to arrest him even though the people who had fingered him as the one who ordered the attack on Clark were now dead. He knew the sheriff was not one to let things slide by here and even more she was awed by his money and power, she barely even liked him if that and would not let this go until she was satisfied.
He boarded the plane and headed for his safe no longer willing to wait to merge the stones and he quickly opened the box as he felt the plane take off, he looked over the stones before he placed them next to one another and watched as they all began to shine with a bright light which intensified as the seconds passed by before three stones turned into one and he grabbed it not even waiting to check it for any type of traps his lust for power pushing him forward. Brainiac watched not surprised in the least with Luthor's lack of inspection of the stone, Lex stood holding the stone now bathed in light as the knowladge he had downloaded into it went into his mind. He had also made sure the stone would give Lex a boost in strengh and speed and help in the eventual possession by Zod so his body would not burn out so fast.
Finally it was over and Lex allowed the stone to fall from his hand infused with new power and new knowaldge and he smiled as he saw Brainiac appear before him, he had not know he was been watched but he knew he could trust this person who wanted to help him gain power.
"How do we take the fortress?" he asked using the knowaldge he now had to press forward
"We wait for the right moment, Clark is most likely helping these new enemies in attacking your labs so I suggest you move them to a new one and I mean a complete new one" Brainiac answered "Build your strengh and when they attack one of you other labs strike the fortress, we only need to hold it for enough time to free Zod then we can leave and they will be facing utter defeat" he continued with a smile of his own
"I like it" Lex said before grabbing his phone to contact Jackson and put the plans into motion pleased to have some more help
(Fortress of Solitude)
"So what do you expect Brainiac will do first once he reveals himself to Luthor?" Oliver inquired as they all sat to discuss their next move "How does this change things?" he added
"It changes things a lot Oliver especially if he has all the knowaldge of his future self like, he can ensure the war starts a hundred ways so no matter what he has to be defeated" Kal-El replied "As for his goal he has only one goal and that is to free General Zod from the phantom zone" he continued
"Which means he will want to get into the fortress right?" Kara spoke up disturbed by the A.I presence on earth as it made their job all the tougher
"Yes he will by any means possible" Jor-El was the one who answered "I have reprogramed my cyborgs to defend the fortress and I am now making more, if Zod is freed the war will happen unless we can destroy him" he added
"Luckily Raya has the crystal which can obsorb Zods spirit from whoever he possesses" Kal-El told them holding up the crystal "It was how I beat him in my timeline, most likely Lex will be the vessel and if he is I will kill him this time I will not fail a second time to stop Zod he did enough damange because of my weakness in the first time line" he explained
"It is not weakness to be merciful Clark" Martha interupted annoyed by his speech and intention
"No offence mom but you have no idea of what you are saying spearing Lex will never have a good ending, he will keep coming at us keep trying to rule this world until he his dead" Kal-El responded "He maybe human but he sold his soul a long time ago" he added
"I'll bloody say" Oliver said "Even as a kid mrs Kent he was evil and twisted and I watched as he beat his only friend to within an inch of his life, Duncan survived because me and my friends pulled him off but he walked straight into the road and was hit full speed by a car he died from his injuries" he informed them "I saw the darkness that lived in Lex unfront and it has never left him, he may have acted like the reformed man when you met him but I assure you he was proberly planning how his friendship to you could benefit him and he was even more likely planning on stealing Lana from Clark early on as well" he continued to hammer the point home "I and my friends are not blameless for what happened to Duncan but we never would have beat him like Lex did" he finished feeling the old guilt well up but he pushed it aside
Martha stared at Oliver in shock and horror as she began to really see who Lex Luthor was, she guessed even with learning all she had about his future actions she had believed the man who had befriended Clark had been a decent person but it was clear now he had never been decent and she shivered with how wrong she had been. Jonathan was not surprised to learn this as he had always suspected the truth about Lex but he kept silent but he noted Lionel looked sad and weary as Oliver finished his speech and he wondered if he felt responsible for the man his son had become.
"No he has to die this time especially if he becomes the vessel" Kal-El told them "There is no other option" he added
"What about the plan to banish him and the others to the phantom zone?" Donna inquired "Are we still going to do that?" she added
"Yes for the most part" Kal-El responded "But not Lex, he is just too dangerous to leave in any way alive as should he be freed from the zone it would be chaos" he told them "I know for most of you this hard to hear but I have seen what he can do what he enjoys doing and I am commited to killing him to end the threat once and for all" he stated "The others go to the zone and if we cannot reprogam Brainiac he will have to be destroyed or banished" he concluded
"And how do we do that Kal-El?" Lana asked feeling depressed at using Clark's kryptonian name but she knew in her heart once all this was done with she would have her Clark back so she refused to allow this to get to her
"Banishing him is no real problem but destroying him is as I believed quite a few times I had destroyed him only for him to return to haunt me but I am sure Jor-El and Dax-Ur can find a weakness we can exploit with time although for us time is now very short" Kal-El answered
"Kal-El do you think Luthor's plans or strageries will change will Brainiac now aiding him?" Bruce asked from his bed still recovering from his wound but listening all the same
"Yes they will, he'll become harder to predict and most likely his labs will be cleared out and a new one he has not used before in either time line will be set up" Kal-El replied "Chloe, Lana and J'onn will look into this and try and locate it once it is up and operational" he began to put plans into motion
"How will we know when he has the new lab up?" Bart inquired from his seat next to Chloe who was resting her head on his shoulder much to his enjoyment
"When we hit one of the labs we already know about which has been cleared out, infact Lionel you'll join that team as you know how Lex thinks and even with Brainiac whispering in his ear that will not change much" Kal-El answered "We have to be careful now how we move, our familes have been put on alert and moved to safer places but they still might try and track them down so we have to make sure there is no traces to lead to them" he told them "Once that is done we will go back to taking out his labs until they are cleared out, then we hold until we find the new lab" he added
The others all nodded and began to leave to do as they had been told, none of them wanted their families brought into this as they now knew just how evil Lex could be from Oliver's tale, Kal-El remained behind stareing out into the artic from the fortress main exit joined a few minutes later by Raya and Diana who both leaned against him
"You are worried Kal-El about more than what you said aren't you?" Raya asked looking up at him
"Yes, as I said before I am afraid of tipping the league to much towards a war footing but I can see no other way of dealing with Lex and I know Bruce plans to kill Joker and Nyssa not banish them our messages have made certain things are set in stone" he responded with a sigh
"I do not believe it will turn as badly as you believe if we are lucky but maybe it is not such a bad things that you are bringing them more into that mind set because if the war starts we will need to change are tactics and rolls" Raya assured and pointed out "I am sure part of what made the war so bad for the league in the original time line is that they were not used to fighting in a war, they did not have the mindset for it until it was almost too late correct?" she asked
"Yes" Kal-El relunctently replied "It was five years before any notion we were anything but soliders was pushed home, by then many were dead and we were loosing" he added
"Then perhaps that will not happen so quickly if they have the right mindset to fight a war now, it may not happen Kal-El but it cannot hurt in the long run if it does" Raya pushed him to understand and was pleased when he nodded and leaned down and kissed her before doing the same with Diana who had kept quite not really believing she could offer much reasurence on this topic
They continued to stare out into the artic as night well knowing in the coming days the future of this world would be decided, they all prayed they would succeed in their efforts.