Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville.

If Lex could be believed then today was the day he returned to normal. He hadn't always known whether or not he could trust Lex – well, with his secret at least – but he had most certainly proven himself these last four days. When he had first woken up in the body of his future self (assuming that's what happened. According to Lex, he could just have amnesia but he wouldn't know for sure until he tried going home), he had absolutely freaked out.

Lois was the only one he'd talked to before going to see Lex but it was frankly a miracle that she hadn't thought he'd been exposed to Kryptonite. Kryptonite, that was what the meteor rocks were called now. They were exploded pieces of his home planet, Krypton. And green wasn't even the only color. Green, he knew what they did and he could deal with them. Red, though, took away all his morals and caused him to be reckless. Blue might actually come in handy since while in contact with it it made him seem to be just a normal human. Gold took away his powers permanently and if it weren't for the fact that he had already tried that and so he was quite sure that he'd never get anywhere on time, would never be able to run the farm, and would get himself quickly killed then he'd find that very tempting.

And then there was the artificial Kryptonite! Black split someone in two with yin and yang personalities. Gemstone Kryptonite seemed to give him powers of persuasion and something about gaining wish-fulfilling properties. Silver Kryptonite would make him paranoid and that was a disaster just waiting to happen. Clear Kryptonite was the best kind because that meant it was neutralized.

All of that to remember, all of that to encounter. He was really lucky that Lex had given him the spoilers on his own future. Some things might have been disastrous to know, but basic things like Kryptonite would only help him. Trusting Lex really was turning out to be a godsend and he was glad that his future self had finally decided to take the plunge and tell him.

"Hey, Lois, I was wondering about something," Clark said slowly. In the past four days, Clark had gotten to know his future wife a little better though the fact he was supposed to be married to her kind of freaked him out. She was very pretty, yes, and quite a bit like Chloe with her spunk and determination. He was pretty sure that he liked her but right now his heart still belonged to Lana so it was a bit of a weird situation.

His future self must trust her a great deal if he actually married her and he knew he would never marry anyone who didn't know his secret but he hadn't told her about his time travelling because he wanted to keep that news as contained as possible and everyone who knew just made it more likely it would somehow leak out. And then, of course, there was the fact that he just hated telling people things in general and he was trying to build up the courage to tell the people of his own time about him. In the long run, it didn't matter if Lois knew about these past four days.

"What's that?" Lois asked, taking a bite out of her muffin. If she had noticed the fact that Clark had quite pointedly been out patrolling at night so he wouldn't have to deal with any…marital issues he certainly wasn't ready for then she didn't say anything. Though obviously it must be possible to do it safely without hurting a human (perhaps with the Blue Kryptonite?), he didn't know any of the details and Lois just wasn't Lana.

"What do you think about the idea of telling someone your secret because you somehow stumbled across knowledge that they knew in the future and were fine with it?" Clark inquired.

To his surprise, Lois laughed. "Considering that's what convinced you to finally tell me your secret – not that I didn't mostly already know – I'd say that I'm just fine with it. I would have liked it if you could have told me before seeing that I would do anything to protect you but I understand. Every time you tell someone is a chance that you'll be rejected or the information will be used to hurt you."

Since he'd learned from Lex that he hadn't even met Lois until his senior year of high school and it took them a few years to get around to dating, it would seem that he'd never gotten better at telling people. But then, who had he ever told? Kyle, sort of, and he was a recluse. Cassandra had died as had Phelan who had found out on his own.

"So if I were to get more future evidence of someone reacting just fine to my secret, you think I should go ahead and tell them?" Clark asked, just to make sure.

Lois nodded. "Absolutely. Well…as long as you know them well enough to not be surprised by this information. People can change, you know. If I had known that you had powers a few years earlier, I probably never would have gone out with you. I'm fine with being Superman's wife now but I just couldn't handle dating a superhero back then. Maybe if you just meet someone they'd sell you out but if they were closer to you then they'd keep it a secret."

Clark nodded. That made sense. Pete's loyalty had never been in doubt; they'd had each other's backs for ages. He might be annoyed both that Clark had never told him and that he was dumping it on him now but he'd never tell. Chloe's wall of weird had freaked him out and she was always so eager to report all about the 'freaks of the week' – as she called them – in the Torch. This made her the biggest gamble but she had also seen Eric as a hero and she was his friend who had apparently kept his secret for years.

Lex could clearly be trusted as he was being so incredible now and that really didn't surprise him. Lex may be investigating the accident but he had also proven time and time again that he'd do anything for a friend. As for Lana…their friendship was really taking off this year. He knew – or thought he knew – that she wanted to be with him just as much as he wanted to be with her but with Whitney's father…but he wouldn't be dependent on her forever. When he'd asked Lex about Whitney, he said something about him joining the military. That showed moving on, right? She may not have believed in Kyle and she may have had her parents killed by the meteors but it was never a question of trust when it came to Lana. He just knew that she could be trusted. He hadn't wanted to burden her, though, or for her to think that he was a freak but he'd been assured that she wouldn't.

Since Lex seemed to have all the answers, Clark sort of cheated but asking him if his future self had ever managed to get over or at least lessen the guilt of the meteor shower being all his fault. Lex had promptly rolled his eyes, pointed out that it wasn't Clark's fault that his planet blew up, insisted that the meteors would have still fallen if his ship hadn't been there, and pointed out that Lana never would have made it to her sixteenth birthday without Clark constantly rescuing her from her stalkers. It took awhile, but Lex had been persistent and eventually he got the picture. Besides, Superman was clearly saving far more people than the meteors had hurt so if nothing else there was always that.

He stayed in the apartment he shared with Lois for a few more minutes before taking off and heading to Lex's lab. Now, the very thought of being in a lab had featured in too many of his nightmares not to freak him out but he knew that he had to do this. It was the only way to get home and he couldn't fool people forever. It was actually pretty miraculous he'd manage to fool them for this long. He'd never been the best liar around.

"Are you ready for this?" Lex asked the minute Clark, in full Superman regalia to protect his identity at Lex's insistence, arrived.

"I guess so," Clark said, nodding. "Do you have any idea why I can fly now? I definitely couldn't fly before."

Lex spread his hands out. "It might be just a matter of not knowing how to. You should be able to test that out when you try to fly upon your return. Or it might be a matter of that power just not having developed yet. You said your invulnerability grew stronger in time and that your X-ray vision developed your freshman year."

Clark nodded. He kind of hoped he could fly, actually. It wasn't something he could do where anyone could see him, of course, until he adopted the mantle of Superman but he knew that Lex would get a big kick out of it. "Listen, I just wanted to thank you for what you've done for me these past few days. I guess my future self must really trust you and so this isn't so much of a big deal for you but for me…thank you."

Lex smiled at him. "It's really no trouble. Just remember that all I ever wanted was to help you become a hero. Trust me to help you do that and we'll be the stuff of legends."

Clark rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Always you with your legends. Is there anything you do that doesn't have to be epic?"

Lex laughed. "Why settle?"

"It's ready," one of the scientists announced. "Just step through that portal and if you truly are from a different time, it should send you back and leave your present – or in your case, future – consciousness in control."

Clark nervously took a deep breath. "This is it."

"You'll be fine," Lex encouraged him. "I promise."

Clark nodded and, without another word, stepped through the portal.

Clark opened his eyes. He was in his own bed in his own room and he was most certainly not forty. It had worked. He really had been sucked into the future and hadn't just gotten amnesia.

A quick look at his alarm clock showed that it was the day that he thought it was. That only left one question: was what he had seen and experienced those four days from the future actually his future or just a dream? He thought it seemed far longer than the few hours he was asleep but time didn't really have the same progression in dreams.

He'd know if the dream was true if anyone ever told him his planet was called Krypton or he ran into different kinds of Kryptonite. He did quite like the name Kryptonite either way and so he'd probably start calling them that. Every time he called them 'meteor rocks' instead of 'meteorites' Lex started twitching anyway.

Well, he didn't want to wait that long and it might be too late to get things off on the right foot with Lana anyway and when Pete found out on his own he'd feel all the same pressure that drove him out of Smallville in the first place. It made sense that the more people knew the secret, the easier it was for them to keep it as they could confide in each other and talk about it amongst themselves. Plus Lex had said something about how Chloe could get in serious trouble and almost get herself killed by his father if didn't tell her by the end of sophomore year, although he claimed to not know the details.

Clark knew that what he should do was tell his parents that he was thinking of telling his friends but he also knew what they would say. They would both be firmly against it because the minute people started to know, people could reject or betray him. Even just telling Pete meant that it was possible someone could get it from him, even if he would never willingly tell that secret. His mother would handle the idea better than his father who would probably prefer it if Clark told the entire freshman class over him telling Lex.

Well, Clark had only met Mr. Luthor once but he'd been willing to let his own son die in order to save face for his company and not admit to Level 3 so Lex clearly wasn't anything like him, no matter what his father thought.

No, it was really best to just tell everyone and present it to his parents as a fait accompli.

He decided that it would be best to tell them all at once and there would be no better place than the Fortress of Solitude where he knew that they wouldn't be overheard or interrupted.

His hand shook slightly as he reached for the phone. He was really going to do this.

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