Note: Well, here it is…the first Lois chapter. Next chapter is about Clark and what he's been up to! Please let me know what you think. You guys are the best!!!
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Chapter 3
She was impatient to be on her way.
After spending what felt like an eternity in another world, Lois Lane just wanted to go home.
To her time.
To her Clark.
Her finger tapped nervously on the table in front of her as her mind slipped back over the events of the past few days.
She'd learned a lot dropping into the future unannounced and unexpected. A thousands years did have a way of changing the world. Some of it, not to her liking.
For instance, Rocky Road ice cream had been outlawed some centuries back. Something about too much sugar, blah, blah, blah. Lois found that law downright criminal. Seriously? Did people not understand the purpose of Rocky Road?
First order of business when she returned? Start a campaign to stop the insanity.
Ok, so…maybe not the first.
Also criminal was the overuse of primary colors. They were…Every. Where. She felt like she'd stepped into a rainbow universe where shades of anything weren't permitted. Really? Come on. She liked her wild cherry reds and electric blues just as much as any other subtle-as-a-freight-train personality would but…
No subtle shades of pink just waiting to flush across endearingly embarrassed cheeks?
No baby blues mixed with dancing swirls of seafoam green and layered with hints of tender gray?
It was unthinkable.
A longing sigh filled the room.
And she especially didn't like that she wasn't allowed to return home immediately. The Legion, as the group of super powered beings that greeted her was called, cautioned that her return in the midst of chaos could alter the universe indefinitely. Especially if she were to fall prey to the havoc of Doomsday.
That name alone led her to a string of discoveries that had altered her universe indefinitely.
Which, to be honest, was one of the changes she liked most. Knowing her future. Knowing Clark's.
That one had been a shocker. After all, who would have thought that Kansas-bred-corn-fed Clark Kent, her Smallville, would end up being her…well, everything. On second thought, that one wasn't as hard to believe as say…the fact that apparently, she was also his.
But the evidence was all around her. Their legendary love was immortalized in statues and monuments. A picture of the two of them, side by side, fingers entwined hung high on the walls of the Ministry of Peace, giving hope to the masses. She couldn't enter a room without encountering some homage to the partnership that was Lane and Kent.
To the love that was Clark, Lois…and Superman.
Lois chuckled to herself.
What a triangle they must have made.
Meanwhile, billed as "a classic for our time", Lois Lane's Rules of Reporting was sold on every street corner and book shop right next to the tiny Superman sleepers that were made for even the smallest and newest of Earth's citizens. She spent more than a few spare minutes working out how to negotiate a deal for profit sharing before deciding the 31st century's version of 'money' simply wouldn't fly in good ol' 2009 Metropolis.
Then of course, there were mundane changes that a millennium can bring. Like 31st century technology that made hers look like the tools of a pre-historic caveman. The flying was super cool. And the general atmosphere was...well, generally peaceful.
Until everything changed.
There was a knock on the door and a pretty blonde entered the room, giving Lois a sympathetic smile. "I know you're anxious to go."
"Imra, how many times have I told you not to read my mind?" Lois replied, irritation flashing in her eyes.
Imra's lips curled at that. "I didn't have to." She nodded to Lois' tapping toes, rigid posture and crossed arms and grinned at what some considered the matriarch of their present world. "Your body language says it all."
She was one that had always supported the Lois side of the Lois/Clark/Lana triangle. That there were still debates on the subject was beyond any reasoning except they were conducted among the basest of all intellectuals. It had pained her on their trip back in time to feign ignorance of the future, to not just tell the tiny brunette named Lana to get over it and move on. Destiny had claimed another to be by Kal-el's side.
But she'd been forbidden. The rules of Time Travel would not have allowed it and she would have been banned from such activity for…well, the rest of her life. Now, after having met both Lana and Lois Lane, she was glad to know her faith in Kal-el's heart choices had been wisely placed.
"Can you blame me?" Blowing out a sigh of frustration, Lois abandoned her chair and began an agitated pace in front of the younger blonde. "I mean, you guys have been great and all but I'm starting to feel like a prisoner here. There's not really much I can do for your world in your world, you know? And beyond that…I just…"
"You want to go home." Imra finished for Lois.
Lois stopped her pacing and turned to Imra with irrational fear in her eyes. "Something isn't right, Imra. I can feel it twisting inside of me. I should be doing something more than just waiting. How long does it take to know for certain that the future is safe anyway? Because I'm telling you now, I'm just spinning my wheels here, wasting time when..."
"Someone needs you?"
"Yeah." Lois swallowed hard and nodded. There was no question who that someone was. Her expression crumbled into worry. "Any word on..."
"Yes, actually." Rokk, the obvious leader of the Legion entered the room, closely followed by an uncharacteristically solemn Garth.
Imra's eyes narrowed at the later then snapped to the first. "What's wrong? What's happening?"
Rokk's gaze shifted from Imra to Lois then back again. "It's worse than we thought."
Instantly alarmed, Lois added her questions to the discussion that hadn't yet begun. "What do you mean? What are you talking about? I thought you said Clark was safe after what we did. That he'd managed to bury Doomsday and stop him from destroying Earth."
"He did." Rokk confirmed.
"Then what's the problem?" An increasingly agitated Lois demanded.
"Kal-el...or Clark rather..." Rokk paused feeling the weight of his own words. His own actions that had led to this. "...has given up."
The words sounded wrong. Were wrong. This was something they hadn't anticipated. Though why they didn't, he would never know. Once a hero's reason for being is lost, he often ceases to be a hero.
"Given up? What do you do mean 'given up'?" Lois pressed. "He defeated the beast. The world...humanity itself has been saved."
"Yes." Rokk conceded before cautiously approaching the unpredictable brunette. His voice softened as if to shield her from the blow. "...but he...believes you have not."
"What?" Horror slipped through her eyes.
"We need to talk." Touching her arm to reassure her, Rokk indicated the chair behind Lois, hoping she would take his hint and acquiesce without question. "Please."
For once, Lois Lane did as told.
Rokk pulled up a chair and faced her, leaning forward. "That night at the Daily Planet. The call between you and..."
"The Red and Blue Blur." Lois supplied the name that was a mere footnote in the history books of the future.
"Right." Rokk nodded. "Did you promise each other anything?"
Searching her memory for anything that might constitute a promise between her and a stranger she knew intimately, Lois shook her head. "No. No, he...he asked me to publish a letter if anything happened to him. And..." Realization flashed through her eyes. "...and I told him I'd be at the phone booth on 4th and Main at midnight. I wanted to meet him. Just once."
"Meet him." Lois chuckled with a wry shake of her head. "I've been so stupid. All this time telling him I wanted to see him. Telling him so much…like he didn't even know…and…" Her gaze shifted to another world as her voice dropped to a whisper. "…there he's been. Right in front of me…all this time…"
She silently promised she'd make it up to him. After strangling him, of course, for making the proverbial fool out of her with his oh-so-obvious 'secret' identity.
When Lois' words faltered, Rokk and Imra exchanged glances. "That must be it."
"What?" Looking back and forth between the two, Lois shifted her gaze to a silent Garth standing behind them. Her heart warmed to the younger man. He'd been by far the most excited to meet her upon her arrival. Whatever was going on now that was keeping his usually wagging tongue perfectly still had to be bigger than big. "What's going on?"
"Lois, he showed up. And you weren't there. Then there was the battle with Doomsday." Rokk answered slowly, himself only now putting things together. "By that time, you'd already vanished without a trace to..."
"The future." Lois finished for him as sudden panic gripped her. It was not difficult to guess the conclusions that had been made. "Oh, God. He thinks I'm dead."
Two days ago, that news wouldn't have had such an impact. But knowing now just how strong their love was, the intensity of their connection, how deeply entwined their two lives became, she felt every agonizing word. Lois' eyes filled with unshed tears.
"He's already searched for her." Garth commented suddenly, knowing if Lois Lane was in his life and had suddenly gone missing that would be all he would do. And she wasn't even his love, his future wife. His soulmate.
"He won't be able to hear her heartbeat." Imra supplied quietly, adding more evidence to an already stacked pile.
"No wonder Kal-el has lost his hope." Rokk's conclusion was jarring. "And we have lost Kal-el."
Rejecting the thought outright, Lois shook her head. "No. No, you don't understand. I know what you've been taught about us, I see the evidence of our love all around me even now, but…right now, in my time, Clark doesn't feel that way about me."
"Yes, Lois, he does." It was Imra who spoke. "He may be much too afraid to admit it yet or unsure even of what it all means, but your presence in his life…it is his strength. You are his hope. Even now, in your time. Why do you think he's reached out to you as the Blur? He needs to hear your voice on the other line. He craves that connection with you. Even if he has to hide his identity to do it."
"You really believe that?" Lois' gaze shifted among the three. "All of you?"
All three nodded in silence.
"We know it to be true." Imra added softly. "Lois, soulmates are always connected. But those of your caliber have an unbreakable bond that transcends everything. Time. Space. Distance. Hasn't your own experience here proven that?"
Lois nodded slowly. "Then why does Clark think…"
"He's never had a soulmate before. How is he supposed to know?" Imra answered wisely. "And now, when he needs you most, he's acutely aware of your absence. The adverse affect on him is bound to be monumental. Because without you, Lois…"
"The world will lose its greatest hero." Rokk finished Imra's thought.
Garth was left to point out the obvious. "And the future will change, perhaps even as we speak."
"There's more." Rokk ventured quietly. "Lois, a string of events has occurred in this fight that has caused Kal-el to question his faith in humanity. And with you, his strongest and last remaining connection to that faith, gone missing…there is now nothing left for him to believe in."
"Then I have to go back." Lois jumped up from her seat instantly in action. Gathering what little belongings she had. Pulling them into a pile. Wiping the tears from her eyes. "I have to go back right now."
"Lois..."
Jerking away from Rokk's comforting hand, her face twisted in anguish. "No. Don't you dare tell me I can't leave this time. Don't you see? Everything depends on it. The future. The past. You, me, even..." His name stuck in her throat.
"We are sending you back." Rokk responded to her outburst with exceptional gentleness. "But, Lois, Kal-el..."
"Clark." She corrected through gritted teeth.
"Clark..." Rokk amended. "...is not the same man you left. And you, Lois…are not the same woman he lost." Shaking his head, Rokk's statement sent a chill down her spine. "You can't leave here until you understand what you're walking back into. The danger that awaits you."
Hands on her hips, Lois issued a command that could not be ignored. "Then start talking, buddy." Determination claimed her expression and steeled her heart. "Cuz I've got a world-class saving the world record to uphold. And this is one save I refuse to miss."
tbc...
p.s. I know I have Lois as being in the future 2 days while it's been 2 months for the rest of the gang. That's not a typo. Not being well versed in time travel issues, I actually did some minor research and discovered something like the time difference is possible in theory. That is, if time travel is actually possible at all. Anyway…hope those of you that are more 'in the know' don't ding me for my lack of knowledge.