Chapter 58

They were standing in an enormous palace of ice, surrounded by lightly blowing snow and a howling wind. Although it was nearing midnight, there was plenty of light to see the beauty of the place. Reflected starlight and moonlight bounced about the huge crystalline beams of silvery blue ice, creating a strange internal glow that was quite, and appropriately, unearthly.

Clark seemed unfazed by any of it, but Lois was entranced.

"I have been here before…" she said as she looked around her, her mouth gaping in surprise. "It was…I can't…" She was trying to recall something that seemed like a dream, but wasn't. Then it flooded back to her in a flash and she exclaimed, "The plane crash! I thought this was …heaven!" She said the last word excitedly, but her face fell in disappointment the minute it was out of her mouth.

"That's what you told me at the time, and I let you believe it. Sorry. But you were here. The plane crashed not too far from here, and somehow Mom managed to drag you to the fortress. Jor-El saved you both by transporting you back to the caves."

"Who?"

"My biological father from Krypton. His name is Jor-El or rather, it was. I've figured out by now this place is a sort of huge computer complex that houses some kind of artificial intelligence based on his personality. I used to think it really was him talking to me, controlling my life, but now I know differently. It's just scientific equipment advanced to a degree totally unknown on earth. A few hundred years ago, we'd have been calling it magic, what this place could do." He looked around them appreciatively.

Lois saw some sadness behind his eyes, and filed that thought away in the back of her mind for later. She had too many other questions right now. "What do you mean controlling your life?"

"There were times…" He turned to look at her and noticed she was shivering. "Lois, you're cold. Let me take care of that." She was startled to see a red glow come from his eyes as he used his heat vision on her. Directing controlled pulses of warmth up and down her body, Clark quickly drove the biting chill away until spirals of white steam began to float about her.

Somewhere deep inside of her, the red tinge of his irises struck a chord of memory. Before she could consciously retrieve the thought, he had walked over and zipped up her parka to trap the warm air inside the coat.

Their eyes met, and, for a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her, but he abruptly turned around and moved over to what seemed to be some kind of console. Long, clear crystals jutted out from it and Clark chose one, pulled it out, and replaced it into another space between the crystals as if he knew exactly what to do with the strange contraption.

"Clark, what are you do—"

A deep, booming voice came from every direction around them. "Welcome, my son."

Lois spun around and looked for the source of the voice. "Is that him?"

"Yes. But that's all he says these days. It's like the whole place was short circuited, and I don't know how to fix it." He turned back to Lois. "He was always trying to get me to 'complete my training.' It was almost a mantra with him. I don't even know what that training would have consisted of, because there was always something that prevented me from doing it …and I really never trusted him enough anyway." She could feel his frustration; it was palpable. "There was a whole library of knowledge from twenty-eight galaxies hidden in these crystals at one time, and I am responsible for letting it all be lost. Now it's gone. Brainiac took it."

"Brainiac." She nodded her head as if she understood, but she really didn't have a clue what he was talking about at all. "But it was meant for you," she said with certainty.

"Yes. But maybe it was meant to help all the people of Earth through me. I can't help but feel I royally messed up by not taking advantage …of not doing what Jor-El wanted me to do before it was too late."

"Why didn't you? I mean, why didn't you trust him?"

"I didn't because…because I was afraid that he'd take me away from my family, from my home, from everyone and everything that meant anything to me. He actually imprisoned me here once to do just that. He was going to keep me here until everyone I knew was dead."

"And I thought the general was tough!"

Clark laughed. "I'm not sure that is really what the real Jor-El would have wanted, but that's what this place seemed to want for me …to distance me from the world so I could better serve it."

"Well," she said as she went to stand beside him and pulled out the same crystal he had moved. "that is just plain stupid!" She ran her fingers along the smooth, cold crystal and peered over it at the console. "You think there's a way to jump start it again?"

"If I ever do figure out how," he grabbed the crystal out of her hands, "remind me never to bring you here if you're going to have that attitude toward Jor-El. You'd probably end up as a beautiful, life-size ice sculpture."

"'Beautiful,' huh? Careful, Smallville, you're getting awfully close to a compliment there." She walked away from him to touch a crystalline beam. "Who made this place? Some very cold Indians? Your ancestors? Why hasn't it been found by anyone?"

"A large, blue crystal made it, the crystal that formed when I united the three Stones of Knowledge that had been scattered and hidden around the world many years ago for me to find." At her blank look, he asked, "Remember that 'funky blue paperweight' you saw at the farm once?"

She thought a moment, and then her eyes lit up as she remembered. "Oh yeah! It was pretty and it lit up and it was shaped like," her eyes looked down to his chest, "the Superman emblem on your costume. But, it's funny," she frowned, "I don't remember what you did with it." She looked up at him suspiciously. "You know, there's an awful lot of fuzziness in my brain when it comes to being around you at times. Did you do something to me to make me forget?" she asked.

"No, I didn't. But I'm not surprised you don't remember. That crystal sent us to a very unpleasant place called the Phantom Zone. And when we got out, you—"

"Okay, Smallville, I'm pretty much on overload here. I don't think I can take much more in the revelation department right now, and if this place is really out of juice, why did you bring me here?"

"To show you just how 'alien' I really am. I don't think you have ever fully realized that about me."

She bit her lower lip, lifted her chin and smiled up at him. "Trying to scare me off? Not gonna work."

"You said you wanted to know everything. I'm just trying to do some serious show and tell."

"That's good." She hugged herself. "But it's freezing in here. Can we finish the conversation back in—" Her eyes darted left and right. "Where the hell are we anyway?"

"Somewhere in the Arctic."

"Well, it's a nice place to visit, but…"

"It's time to go back," he agreed as he saw her start shivering once again.

********

Author's notes: JamesTKent – You guessed it! I hadn't planned on any arguments for Lois with Jor-El, but that might be fun. Good idea. CloisHarley- Well, the idea of pet dander is sort of yucky, but someone getting their "dander up" is them getting mad. That's all I can think of for it. So you're safe! Anacaro – I still have to laugh whenever anyone says I have a plot. If you only knew how I write…it just sort of happens. The closest I get to planning is when an idea of something pops into my brain as I'm about to fall asleep and I actually remember it later and use it. Only the keyboard knows what's coming. I sure don't. Wow, two new readers! TheGryfter and Ily18 – glad you found this 'little' fic and decided to catch up! And I have been using ideas that reviewers have suggested when they fit in. When I wrote before I tried to always have a story finished before I posted any of it, so this is a new thing with me to post as I am writing, but it's a lot of fun to read the reviews this way. It's just scary that I don't really know how or when it is going to end! Klynn07 – uh, saying something is great is a pretty nice review! I'll take it anytime! And thanks to the rest of you as well for the nice words. Now to post this chapter to earn good comments about how dependable I am. LOL!