"So long Clark Kent," whispers Superman.
It is to that line that he never turns back into Kent ever again. It would be an emotional bender for his adopted parents, but to protect them, he would have to stay dead this time. He had become convinced that being Superman had just become a full time job. He could no longer see the point of being Clark because as it had gotten closer to the day he killed Luthor, it felt so fake to him. He had seen how giving up being Clark hit Lois just as hard as it hit his adopted parents. He did not bother answering Lana's attempts to phone him once she heard about the story that Clark was gone.
She even decides to pay a visit to Metropolis, she went the Planet, but of course there was virtually no trace that he ever worked there. Lois was gone too as he had put her under security protection for her own 'safety' he claims as cause when explaining it to Kent's former boss Perry White. He even goes so far as to refer to Clark as a separate person once he stops turning back into him. A head stone is placed where his ship landed on Earth after its lengthy journey from the destruction of Krypton to the field where they found the baby Kal-El all those years ago. The final blow is the costume change, which got Martha Kent in a state since more than once she had to repair the fabric damage to the extra pairs when he still wore the other costume.
In a way one might say she actually made his costume though nothing can be said for certain on that count. The last bit of symbolism is finding multiple pairs of fake eyeglasses that he used to wear as Clark after a certain point before leaving to go to Metropolis for the first time. The darker costumes set the tone for the protracted interim and so he repeatedly cautions against resuming the system as it was because it just is not the right time. A civil rights protest at Smallville U. is not enough to convince him to break with having dinner with Lois.
He like the others watches the Justice League battle their Luthor though he like the others also sees their Flash is still alive too. A trap is set for the League after deceiving them with a tale of collapsing universes. He leaves the League in Batman's charge figuring Batman won't be stupid enough to allow them to escape, but of course one significant variable is Flash. It had been one thing to not foresee Darkseid murdering Dan Turpin right in front of him, but to let it happen again with Flash had been the tipping point. The push came from knowing Luthor was right about the cyclic pattern to their battles, it was a make or break moment, and he made it by breaking the cycle.
The fight with that near invincible powerhouse had shown that he was out of practice, but that's what happens when you wrong out of situational bad guys. He had done many things in the last two years, but it started that sunny day when he fought his way to that office. Some of others were having second thoughts about taking their brand of help to this reality. Hawkgirl would speak of them not being ready for what he did back home, Lantern insists they all go, but like he had plenty of patience.
They were duped with their own trap, but Hawkgirl broke her way out before being struck down by the other Lantern. The two Martians began to trade punches in a symmetrical fashion. The Lanterns fight using ring constructs and of course Diana is giving the other Diana a lesson in sparring. However it is Flash, not the other Superman that begins pummeling him with rocks no less. As he charges at him, he forgot how quick Flash was in cramped quarters and inwardly curses as he goes flying through the ceiling then crashes through the skylight in the warden's office.
Flash makes an expected joke, but he cuts off the rest of the punch line by throwing a fallen bookcase at him. Flash backs up towards the wall and in his rambling tries to dissuade what he believes Superman is about to do to him. His reasoning is sound from his point of view, he had done a lot of things that seem beyond him at the time, but use the same trick one too many times and its acceptable even if it is to someone that looks exactly like a dead friend.
Superman appears with the other Luthor carrying some kind of weapon. He flies to take down both of them, but then Luthor opens fire on him. It felt like kryptonite's side effects, his powers were fading away, his limbs refuse to respond, his flight ends as he falls back to the floor, and as the other Batman takes him away he can only shout in frustration. The other him insists what he had done is better than the alternative, but this is only the beginning of his problems knowing how the government would react if their Luthor ever got into the fold.
As he watches the news conference following the presidential pardon, he felt like he was right and so it really is on their heads now. The other him would never last as an idealist, the other Batman could not just keep patching Gotham, and the rest of the League would learn the worse way just how bad things could get if they did not just take down their enemies. This Earth was doomed in his mind, but if he ever made back home, if his powers ever came back, his Batman would be at the top of the list.
"I have given some thought to politics…"
He only mutters told you so at the screen before noticing who was in the press crowd on the scene. It was Clark Kent and Lois Lane, but it did not surprise him that she was there, it only bugged him that Kent was there. Many had told him giving up being Clark was a bad decision, but he always disagreed, he could not waste time being a reporter anymore. Most insisted it more to do with having a life without the costume too. In a way, he had really committed a double kill that year, first Luthor, then Kent, but that's not his opinion just something he picked up from the way some would try to persuade him of that notion.
Kent's usefulness ended in his mind not long after Luthor became president, but he could see how much it hurt others that he really elected to have Clark stay dead. It made sense coming back after Walker, because Walker was innocent, but Luthor would always be guilty in his mind. It was time to sleep as he had nothing else to do with his time for now. His world would fall apart without him, but his world is not there anymore, it would be a different world without a Superman.
Clark was dead, Superman was gone, and he was only Kal-El tonight.
A/N: The first line is a twist on that line from Superman Returns where Lex says "So Long Superman". I also made some references to events to StAS episodes such as Apokolips Now and The Late Mr. Kent.