S/N: Rewrites are gems and so are fellow fanfic writers such as Belphegor.

All that is left of the man he used to be is in a lead box in her closet. She rarely takes it out especially not when he is in her apartment. It feels strange to mourn someone who is not physically dead, only perhaps spiritually gone from her life. She cooks and cleans like always, but she is never allowed to leave the apartment tower anymore. The SWAT that guards the tower usually provides the same rhetoric she heard from him all the time about why she is to remain there in his absence. It is for her own safety he says, it is in her best interest to not roam Metropolis without him around to mind her from the sky, and other similar excuses have been given for nearly two years now.

She can see the familiar Saturn shaped globe turning in the distance. It seems more than just too far away. It feels like she'll never be able to get back to it, because there is the only place where she ever felt like her voice did the most good in the world. The last article she wrote was about Luthor's assassination as she fearlessly called it and papers across the country all had responses to it. Some supported her views and others refuted it given what the country learned of Luthor's war plans. Either way she opened the door to the debate about the Justice Lords on-going interventions across the world.

Luthor was the only beginning of the end of what the world as it was and the beginning of a world where the word of the Justice Lords was the only law that matters for humanity is too 'inept' to govern itself. The opinion is not one many take with dignity, but many seem abide the notion out of fear of the Lords. She however is not afraid of them, she despises what they have become, but more so what he had become through what he had given up in becoming a full time Superman.

She didn't like the fact that Luthor won the election, many did not like, but everyone went along with it because he had done it legal and proper. It was not until Luthor had sent the world towards war that people began to question what they had been thinking they voted for him. It was an awakening for millions, but others they had been suspicious of him all along especially Superman as well as Clark Kent. Kent was quite vocal in his article against the election of Lex Luthor. The Planet and more so Perry White took a risk running it.

It was largely ignored out of turn. Those who did read either wrote letters demanding a retraction or simply went after Kent on the street. It was probably the first time she had seen Clark flick someone down the street with only his index finger. It also became the first of many acts by Clark she couldn't forget, let alone forgive or even understand.

It was then that she began to see less of Clark and more of Superman.

There were also those who support some of Kent's views about Luthor as president and they would be proven right with the war. However they became divided after Superman vaporized Luthor in the Oval Office because for them a costume doing that is crossing the line.

Dissension became increasingly more common throughout the world, but most protests were defused by active marital law coupled with a show of force from the Lords so the opposition became scaled back though it would not go away, Lois knew that from the start. Things on a whole were disintegrating from her perspective yet the Lords are indifferent because as far as they are concerned it is security over freedom. 'Excessive' freedom got Luthor elected and the only to prevent a relapse was to mind all politicians. Furthermore all crimes must be dealt with no matter how small.

Lois recalls her last conversation with Bruce only weeks after the assassination.

"You want people to respect the big laws. You better enforce the little ones."

"True, but what happens when you start treating civilians as criminals?"

"If they break the law then they are by definition a criminal."

"It can't be that simple."

"It is not, but from now on nobody gets a break."

"You can't be serious. "

"I am Lois, now if you don't mind I have patrol shortly."

She had known Bruce Wayne for several years and he never struck her as hardhearted though his responses were quite chilling though she had to wonder if his behavior was in response to Superman's aggressive handling of Strykers' escapees. The convict escape attempts fell to an all time and then to nil within months. The injuries they sustained by Superman's change of tactics did the 'trick' and not long after the lobotomies started being inflicted by way of Superman's heat vision. His first 'patients' were Batman's Rogues (aka the Arkhamites).

The very first as she learned was Joker.

She heard the circumstances surrounding the incident. All the same, she felt Superman's response to Joker's actions to be extreme. She also expected Batman's and Bruce's response to the outcome of that intervention to similarly fault Superman.

Nothing deterred him from lobotomizing the rest and then to her horror he inflicted the same on his own as well as trying to do it to some of the dead Flash's Rogues. Some manage to go to ground or skip town to escape what happen to the others.

The change in Metropolis began to remind her too much of the alternate reality she crossed over into several years back. The crossover was an accident, but to her it feels more like déjà vu nowadays. Superman's costume looks far too much like that alternate Superman's look except he kept the cape. The alternate Superman forged an alliance with the alternate Luthor, which led to the militarized style of law enforcement. In effect Superman was almost Luthor's errand boy to put it lightly, but then he went into working with his greatest enemy in order to 'protect' Metropolis. The alternate Superman claims her death as part of why he turned to Luthor in order to truly police Metropolis.

The alternate Superman goes into detail about the circumstances surrounding his Lois' death and how Intergang was responsible for it. It was from then on he saw that he a war on his hands and the only way to fight it was with resources, which meant going to Luthor and Luthor was more than willing to do it because it meant having Superman pliable. Pliable in that he would be more receptive to Luthor's agenda in regards to Metropolis. It was only later that Superman found out just how inhuman everyone was being treated especially those he used to see constantly while working as Clark Kent at the Daily Planet.

He would have a long road ahead of him if Metropolis chose to give him a second chance, but it meant first putting a stop to Luthor's authority. In some ways he is just as guilty as Luthor for what happen to Metropolis, but then those who had to confront Luthor along side Superman and Lois chose to direct their grievances onto the other half of the authority that hounded them in the past few years.

Luthor attempted to flee, but Superman chased him down except Luthor still had the Kryptonite taken from Jimmy. Superman dropped back whilst damaging Luthor's escape vehicle to the extent that Luthor can no longer maneuver it or eject it from before it smashed into the face of the stone statue with Luthor's face on it.

Superman and Lois return to the ruins of STAR Labs since it is more than time for her to return to her reality though before she leaves she gives him a parting kiss. He would have to learn how to be someone like he used to be and most assuredly bring back Clark. However he would also have to learn to be both sides of his personality without a Lois Lane. Lois had hope that he becomes what she knows he can be again even if it means leaving him without someone like her to be an anchor for him.

Repeat encounters with Darkseid did little to improve Superman's disposition and then there was Dan Turpin's death. Darkseid in a rather cruel exit gesture used something called Omega Beams to vaporize Turpin much to the recoil horror of everyone present with the exception of Orion and his backup from New Genesis. She saw him snap and begin pummeling the tank that he had been cuffed to by Darkseid as a way of showing the city what resisting him would bring them, but Turpin saw something else, it was only after that she began to understand see what the late hero saw in her hero.

He had seen a hero that was uncompromising in his ideals. He had seen someone who would take all manner of punishment for the sake of what he believes he must always be true to. It had also shown that Superman even in his battered state could still rally others to do the right thing as they saw it. It was Turpin's stand that inspired them and perhaps it even renewed Superman's determination to face the invading army as well as its malevolent leader.

The arrival of Orion with an army to match Darkseid's is only part of why Darkseid backed down for it was clear that the conqueror saw his chance bungled once more though like Lois already thought he did something worse than stormed the gates of Metropolis. He had killed one of their own, the very same who stood his ground and paid the ultimate price for it. A price too high especially for Superman and his outrage literally shook the city. He crushed the tank into metal shards until he could no longer summon the will to keep pounding it.

It wouldn't change the fact that Darkseid murdered Dan Turpin. It was the first she had seen him cut loose and snap visibly. It is a life taken for no other reason than to enrage Superman. It was violent and senseless end to one of the bravest men she knew among the Metropolis SCU. She could only imagine the heartbreak that both Turpin's wife and Maggie Sawyer went through that day or even in all the years after. Sawyer was stuck in the hospital after an earlier skirmish left her badly injured and most think of her as Dan's other partner in that she knows how to handle him on the job.

Life went on after Turpin's funeral, but for many that moment had left a permanent scar especially in the memory of Superman. The two were more than just allies because together they had foiled a prior association between Intergang and Apokolips. However it was Superman's resistance to Darkseid's moves against Earth through Metropolis that kept Darkseid and his lackeys coming back for more.

In truth, the calm that eventually came to Metropolis after that incursion was temporary though most didn't want to think of it that way.

Perry assigned Clark to cover the impending execution of Ernest Walker and somehow her Smallville had become convinced Walker was innocent despite having fenced a stolen necklace that belong to the woman he convicted for killing in cold blood. 'Smallville' had by some rare streak found something that Walker's public defender overlooked, which was that Walker was paying for a pizza takeout order at relatively the exact time that the woman was murdered that night. He had found the restaurant and floppy disks that kept back logs of orders made to the restaurant. A delivery boy's memory would be spotty, but an order log was impossible to falsify unless the real killer knew about the restaurant's logging backups.

It was shortly after that Clark left to speak to the governor about his discovery and get Walker a pardon, but Clark never made it. He was killed by a car bomb left in his car. The explosion destroyed the disk, but the lack of a body made Lois suspicious yet the fact that Clark didn't try to contact her steadily dimmed her hopes that he survived the blast. She went to search his apartment only to find several things missing including his computer and she found police model taps in his phones. She had known things about taps thanks to her father who in his earlier years was an MP.

She encountered Superman in the midst of her search. The conversation led to them talking about Clark and she found herself picking up a photo taken of the two them together. She recalls admitting she had great respect for him despite regularly teasing him, she heard voice cracking, and crying just a little, which she had never done while alone with Superman.

Only moments later they find another bomb and Superman quickly rushed Lois away from the apartment as the bomb explodes setting the apartment on fire. She saw someone she thought was Detective Bowman down below on the street watching Superman put the fire out. The coincidences were one too many. Bowman was the first on the scene at the woman's murder, was the one who arrested Walker for said homicide, and again first to arrive after Clark's car exploded days earlier.

Together she and Superman get Bowman to incriminate himself.

[+++]

Ernest Walker is pardoned and Bowman is sent to the gas chamber in his place. She caught the man responsible for Clark's 'death', as well as the woman whom Walker was framed for murdering, and Walker was now a free man as Clark would have wanted it. The story was satisfying, but the fun of it died along with losing her other half, losing Clark. Her mood gets a kicker when her phone rings and she hears Lana Lang's voice telling her that Clark is still alive.

She literally raced to the elevator then impatiently waited for it to reach the underground parking garage. She nearly was speeding on her way to Lana's address. She alternates between giggles and tears the whole way. She considered the idea that Clark's jest about him being Superman was actually true because how else could he have survived a car bomb, but instead she decided that it was better having him back then trying to validate or invalidate that line of thought.

She took time to redo her mascara before going upstairs to face whether that phone call was real or imaginary. It was real enough once she saw Clark lying in bed with a bandage around his head and wearing the ever familiar pair of eyeglasses. Her conversation with Clark and Lana is brief though in retrospect telling. She was indeed jealous of Lana in some way because he had gone to her to facilitate his return instead of her, but instead out loud she claims to be jealous of Clark's luck. She had the thought that Lana knew better to believe her response.

Life as she knew was back on track with Clark at the desk opposite hers, but that again would get an enormous upset once it became clear that Clark as well as Superman had gone M.I.A.

Darkseid had captured and brainwashed Superman. He was then put at the head of another Apokolipitian attempt to invade Earth. Everyone automatically assumes the worst possibility except Lois among others.

Hardcastle using Kryptonite given to him by Luthor tries to kill both Kryptonians at once. Superman does more than survive the blast though Supergirl is another story because she is younger and has never been exposed to Kryptonite before that afternoon. Lois with help from her father tracks down where Hardcastle is keeping them.

They keep him powerless using a trick similar to the one Luminus used to nullify his powers. Red solar lamps are quite effective yet Superman doesn't entirely need powers to save his own life. He roughs up Luthor pretty badly in the process though it is in part to Lois that he instead leaves the base after finding Supergirl. They go to STAR Labs for Hamilton's help, but he refuses to assist on the grounds that he would be guilty of treason. Superman lifts Hamilton up and threatens him before putting the old professor back down.

Hamilton goes to work under duress while Superman turns to leave by boom tube to have a 'talk' with Darkseid, but in the end Darkseid remains in control of Apokolips and Superman is now left a planet torn its views of him.

[+++]

Many like Hamilton became afraid, suspicious, and eager to find some way to develop a countermeasure against him, something more substantial than Kryptonite. Others however realize he made a glaring mistake, but he was broken from the grips of the brainwashing before it went too far. However for some his leading an invasion is already too much and so Luthor kept the event in mind as he would build a list of events to leverage for voters to see the merit of placing someone like him in charge of the government.

Luthor preyed upon the fears of millions and it worked almost too well, but it is too late by the time they realize that there is something more dangerous than costumed 'vigilantes'. There are dangers to the world who take the form of persons like Lex Luthor who are charismatic yet manipulative, convincing yet malevolent, and often possess ulterior motivations for doing the things that they do. Luthor's gamble towards Superman appears in retrospect to have backfired literally.

The proof of Luthor's intentions become known within months though the most vivid image is a remote box with a red button taken from the desk in the oval office. It as it turns out controls the launch sequences for dozens of warheads across the country. She considers that is what he used to taunt Superman with, but that again is where the backfire happen Superman decides instead to vaporize him as if to the end cycle between them.

She briefly catches the news of a protest at Smallville University, but she quickly flicks the television off before turning to finish preparations for lunch. Superman still maintained having 'dates' with her when he didn't go out of his way to conduct interventions and she knew for certain he would be here this afternoon especially once he heard about the protest in Smallville. His arrival moments later validate her prediction, but in the old days any incident would impede his arrival for a date. It made more human in a sense that people who had jobs anywhere in Metropolis could be late getting home, overdue for a restaurant meal or simply held up at work with some assignment.

However his selective tendencies with interventions made him more predictable and less surprising.

She made sure to hide the lead box like always if only to guard the last physical remnants of the way her life used to be when she still had Clark. Their arguments inevitably led to his modus operandi and indirectly hover around what she suspects happen to Clark. His behavior exudes this idea that Clark really is dead this time. Often she thought of smacking him and demanding that he bring Clark back into the world. Some part of her considers that he would refuse, that he would tell her that there's no need for Clark, but often in mental response she would tell him off saying Clark is more necessary than you know.

The lunch is meant to be cold, but of course he complains about that though the conversation degrades into her reminding him that this temporary nonsense has to stop as well as this suspension of individual rights. He goes after her by saying she is ignoring the bigger picture, that she's wrong on all counts, but their conversation gets an interruption thanks to a comlink call from Batman. The Bat demands his presence at the Batcave or at least she assumes that to be the case, she doesn't have super hearing after all.

"I'm not done with you yet!" hisses Lois.

"I know, believe me, I know!" snaps Superman.

Her attempt to follow him out of the apartment is cut off by the SWAT left to guard the entrance to it. They chime in with the temporary garbage too and so she turns around then slams the door.

She undresses and climbs into the bathtub after adding lavender body wash to the water. Her only physical retreat in the apartment is the tub or the shower, but usually she differs to the tub. She just feels soaking hoping in part it could drain her all negative energy flowing through, but appears as if the water can only make her smell fantastic though it only temporarily tips her disposition. She runs her fingers through her hair and continues to luxuriate in the bath water until she feels too cold to stay in, but as she climbs out she feels the tinge of a flashback of a time she got caught in a downpour.

It is raining heavily though Lois being Lois decides they can make it.

She and Clark were trying to get back to her car except she slips when gripping a railing though Clark somehow manages to catch her before the slip turns fatal. However his eyeglasses had fallen to the ground so he in some effort to fool her into thinking his eyesight was bad tries to find them by feeling around for them except she gets them first and puts them back onto his face. The lenses were all blurry looking, his hair was a mess, his suit soaked, and she felt she probably looks similar though on some level none of it matters all that much.

She pulls herself towards him and kisses him deeply on the lips much to his surprise apparently. He felt remarkably warm to her despite both of them being soaked to the bone. She tells him this after the kiss, but his lenses fog up as she speaks so she takes them off to wipe them with the handkerchief in his coat pocket before replacing them. They take it slow the rest of the way to the car. Once inside she kicks off her heels and slowly drives back to her apartment where she invites to stay the night.

He awkwardly obliges and so she goes to change while he takes off most of his outerwear though he likely is in something of a panic about what he keeps under the business suit only she finds no trace of the costume when their wet clothes are put into the clothes' dryer. It was only moments like that one that made her think that her gut instinct reaction of Clark and Superman being the same guy less than solid, but not all heroes are always in costume as if constantly waiting for disaster to strike.

He stands there in an undershirt and boxers. She offers him one of her bathrobes, which looks cute in a silly on him to her. She remembers him holding her close and in less than an hour the chill from getting drenched by rain is gone. He left her skin feeling toasty just by holding her.

His eyeglasses although dry were left off on purpose. She went about kissing him again. This went on until they made something of a dinner, which then led to her bedroom. She had no idea what had come over her, but maybe it had always been there though it took this long for the rest of her to step in with the idea that she is in love with Clark who also helps the world as Superman.

After her first encounter with his adoptive parents she could see where his ideals and behavior patterns had come from. The whole near extinct chivalry act made her not like him too much at first being a career oriented woman and all, but in time, those same qualities set him apart from most other men she had known in her life. She went on to continually to call him Smallville and usually it at times made him respond to her quicker, which she inwardly took gratification from on some level.

Her usage of makeup begins to drop ever so slightly because of him too as he often said that she didn't need wear so much because she looks lovely enough without it. This actively counts for all the times she had been unable to stop herself from crying in front of him as Superman and later as Clark.

At some point after shifting around in bed for hours with all sorts of moves, Lois settles into keeping his arms around her under the covers. She felt warm, felt safe, and most importantly of all loved by him. He made her believe more in the potential for good in the world and more so believe that she is part of that good through her voice as a reporter.

She wonders in the present if she will ever have her voice back.

She holds a pair of Clark's eyeglasses, a pair she kept along with other items in a lead box such as photos of her together with Clark in the old days before he quit Clark for Superman. She had the memories of happier times to console her and make her cry at the same time.

Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months before it becomes clear the Justice Lords are gone. The only question now is where does she and the world as a whole go from here?

A/N 1: The core idea of this chapter is the same, but the plot itself changed in degrees. All events referenced all pertain to StAS episodes. Episodes such as The Late Mr. Kent, Brave New Metropolis, Tools of the Trade, Apokolips Now!, Legacy and to some degree My Girl.

A/N 2: "I am Clark... I need to be Clark. I'd go crazy if I had to be Superman all the time!" - Clark Kent/Superman, The Late Mr. Kent. Best outburst explanation of Clark to the duality of Clark Kent and Superman. Also glimpses of Lois' softer side and her feelings for Clark. As for My Girl it shows how Clark is caught in a way between two women. However at the end, he is seen walking off towards Lois while Lana goes to Paris alone.

A/N 3: Tools of the Trade/Apokolips Now!/Legacy - the Darkseid Trilogy reveals that Superman is vulnerable to more than just Kryptonite. He is also dealt the first death on his watch (Dan Turpin). Then there's the brainwashing by Granny Goodness and being sent to lead an invasion of Earth by Darkseid. The consequences of Legacy are far reaching as it ties into the Cadmus Arc.

A/N 4: Brave New Metropolis like A Better World offers a look into a reality where Superman changed tactics and costume except there it has in part due to the death of his Lois Lane. BNM Superman ultimately ends up indirectly causing the death of BNM Luthor unlike Lorder Superman vaporizing President Luthor intentionally.

A/N 5: The biggest changes were adding a lead box full of keepsakes and the flashback scene where Lois remembers the night they became much closer than they were before yet in retrospect it shows how they have drifted apart at least to her.

A/N 6: The lack of a Clark Kent in the Lords reality is speculative though one can make that guess from the shouting as he walks out the door to follow up on Lorder Batman's summon. I interpret her behavior to be evidence that she knows and it ticks her off a lot. He's not the guy you fell in love with anymore, he acts okay with who he has become, but she isn't... she wants... needs Clark back.