After "Kent", I tried to think how is Clark Luthor going to redeem himself? Does he really want to redeem himself? The way I see it one needs to see that something wrong in oneself before he can make amends, become a better man. Is that logic applied to Clark Luthor? And what will keep a man like him on the path to redemption?

So, I open a new word doc, gave it a name and let those questions run inside my head.

First came the question: What do I know about Clark Luthor? I tried to understand, why will he run away from a world where he had everything? He killed Lex; he killed other people why didn't he kill Lionel? Why was he willing to kill Tess in "Kent"? He is the most powerful man in the Earth-2 why did he stay with Lionel?

It was also important to understand what were the circumstances of Lex's death? Was it an accident? In self-defense? Or a cold blooded murder? Was it the first time?

What were the circumstances surrounding the scar?

And I realized something. Clark Luthor is sick asshole who more than anything was scared of his father. I think that he got that scar as a child in his last attempt to run away from abusive father. He realized than that he has nowhere to run to. He saw the mirror box as his only chance to escape an abusive father who also pimped him [He fucked the two woman in the beginning of "Luthor" to avoid an audit]. I'm not saying that he didn't enjoy it [the fucking women bit] just that that was the way he was raised. When he could have any woman in the world why did he met with Tess in secret? I don't think Lionel cared either way, probably will have encourage him to keep going and I don't think he really loved her, more like she fulfill a need. He cares about her to a point but his survival was much more important to him.

Jor El of Earth-2 will need to go to extreme to bring his son back in line. The fact that the whole world hates him and he has no place to run to, no one on his side except Jor El will force Clark Luthor to stay in the FoS and do whatever Joe El wants him to do. Like it or not, he has no choice. Jor El [always the judgmental SoB] will force him to face his crimes.

Then I wrote the fic and couldn't stop crying.

Here we go:

Lois Queen went into her bedroom and closed the door. The bodyguard remained standing in the hallway as if he were guarding the president. Lois still thought the whole idea was ridiculous, as if the bodyguard could do anything if Ultraman decided to show up but the Queen Industries board made one hand with the General and Lois gave up. She has given up a lot of things in recent years. She gave up her career as a journalist, gave up the search for Ultraman, gave up any chance for love. She began to get tired of giving up things. Everything changed when Oliver was murdered. She sighed and then froze in place.

In the gloom of the room someone moved.

Reflexively she placed her hand on the medallion around her neck. She gave up the lead box in favor of the medallion years ago. The medallion was made of a special material, insulated like lead and inside it a green meteor stone.

"Who's there?"

This is stupid. No one has seen Ultraman since Oliver was murdered five years ago. She must be imagining again, the man haunted her in her dreams. Lois turned on the light. The light usually drove away all the demons. Not this time.

On the other side of the room stood Ultraman. He did not move. Lois opened the medallion. She locked the door behind her with a knock. Ultraman moved his head and raised an eyebrow. She had no intention to let anyone disturb her now. Lois straightened up looking into his eyes, refusing to show weakness, determined to take revenge on the man who murdered her husband. He smiled and Lois was surprised to see understanding in the blue eyes, consent, approval and then the smile disappeared as quickly as he appeared and with it every sign of life in those cold eyes.

He advanced towards her, the meteor stone began to glow, and Lois could see the pain in his face, the pallor and still he advanced towards her. He stopped two meters away from her, barely standing. Lois reached for the dresser next to the door and took out a meteor stone dagger from the drawer. He looked at her curiously without saying a word, his face pale, green.

"I will not try to stop you." He said suddenly, his voice emotionless, weak from pain.

"Do you want to die? Suitable for me!" She advanced toward him.

"Only one thing." She was arrested. He could barely stand. "Murder is a stain that cannot be erased."

"It's not murder! It's an execution of a rabies animal!" He nodded.

"I made a lot of mistakes, I lost everything, I brought it all on myself ..."

"I'm glad you got a moral revelation." She said, "Too bad it did not happen before you murdered Oliver!"

"I did much worse things. There's no way to atone for everything I did."

"Did you come to ask for forgiveness? Because the only thing I am willing to give you is a slow death in agony!"

"I know. I guess I'm here to see if you can, if you're willing to pay the price."

"No jury will convict me!"

"Murder changes you and you can call it whatever you want, it will still be murder. You will no longer be the woman you are." He was silent for a moment, the radiation clearly weakening him. "You will be like me."

"I'll never be like you!" He gathered the rest of his strength and said only one word.

"Good!"

Then collapsed on the floor unconscious.

When he woke up he did not know how long it had been. Prolonged exposure to kryptonite has always done it for him. He looked around. He was tied to a metal chair with handcuffs. A bright light shone above him but the rest of the room was completely dark. He wore white surgeons' clothes and began to feel his powers returning. Panic washed over him.

"No!" He screamed, "Return it! Return the ring!"

An athletic tall man dressed in black with a black mask that covered half of his upper face and a long, lush black robe that caressed the floor, on the chest of the suit was a large dark gray bat-shaped emblem, entered the circle of light. Clark Luther examined him and smiled bitterly.

"Theatrical as always. Give me back the ring!"

The man in black took a ring with a blue coating out of his pocket.

"You are not in a position to make demands."

"I need the ring! My powers are back!"

"So you're blaming your forces now."

"I'm not blaming anyone and anything. I need the ring!"

The man just looked at him. Clark took a deep breath, trying to bring his anger, his fear under control.

"Listen, idiot! I promised something to ..."

"Who exactly? Who has been hiding you for the last five years?"

"Five years have passed?" Under the mask the man narrowed his eyes. "It does not matter. I only have a short time; I came to do something and did it. I must meet certain conditions and this ring ..." Clark pointed his head at the ring, "it's one of them."

"And if you do not meet these conditions? What then?" The man in the mask looked at the human-like monster in the chair, there was real fear in that face. "What hole have you been hiding in since Queen's murder?"

Clark bowed his head and was silent for a long time.

"My powers are back, I feel them." He said in a quiet, measured voice, trying to make sense, "Even now I can get out of the chair and kill you before you blink. I'm not asking you to let me go, just give me back the ring!"

The man in black walked away and out of the circle of light. Desperate Clark shouted and started to get up, the metal handcuffs curving. The man shook his head slightly and the white light turned green. Clark collapsed on the chair and lost consciousness.

"Leave the meteor lighting on." Said the man in black as he entered the control room.

"Yes sir."

Lois sat in the sitting area. She was wearing a gray pantsuit. A red scarf was the only color on her. She did not even put on make-up.

"What do you think?"

"He's not the same person."

"Certainly!" Hal Jordan stood next to Lois. "It's Clark Luther!" The man in black shook his head.

"It's indeed Clark Luther, not this Clark Kent, you told me about, but he has changed. Something in him is different, Lois."

"He's playing with us!"

"Hal, please." Said Lois. "Something scared him, that promise he was talking about. Who has such power over him?"

"Only he can tell us and I'm afraid he will not cooperate."

"What about flying?" The man in black shook his head.

"Whatever it was that Lionel ordered to do to her in Belle Rive left her defective. She barely remembers her name and that only because she is reminded every morning. She will not be able to help."

Lois stood up and held out her hand to him.

"Give me the ring." Hesitantly he placed the ring on her outstretched hand.

"What are you going to do?"

"To talk to him."

"Are you mad?!" Cried Hal Jordan, "he will kill you."

Lois looked at monitors that showed Clark Luther from different camera angles.

"He will not hurt me."

This time when Clark woke up the green light was still on. He gasped in pain, feeling the cold sweat flowing down his back.

"Good morning, sleepy." He raised his head barely.

Lois sat across from him, holding the ring in her hand. Clark then looked at her and at the ring, too weak to speak.

"If I give you back the ring, will you answer all my questions?"

"Yes." Was the weak answer. Clark felt the intensity of the kryptonite decrease.

"No evasions?"

"The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." He giggled without humor and with weakness. Lois threw the ring at him, and it landed on his knees. "It's not enough."

"Sorry?"

"I need the ring to touch my skin."

Lois got up and walked over to him. She lifted the ring with two fingers and slid it on one of his fingers and then wiped her hands on her pants. Clark waited for her to sit down.

"Thanks."

"What's the matter with the ring?"

"It's a family heirloom. It's a blue meteor stone, it takes the forces away from me. Temporarily."

"Family Inheritance? Of the Luthers?"

"Of my biological family."

"I do not see it changing anything."

"I'm still 'allergic' to the green meteor."

She looked at him closely. The fact that he did not ask for the green light to be turned off surprised her.

"You do not want us to turn off the green light?"

He looked at her, raising his head barely.

"Do I want to? Yeah, sure but you will not do that and I'm capable of dealing with that intensity."

"Where have you been for five years?"

"In the freezer." There was an ironic smile on his face. "There is a place in the North Pole, it is called the Fortress of Solitude."

" Fortress of Solitude?"

"Clark Kent ... I'm sure you remember him." Lois' mouth narrowed to the line, "When he returned to his world, he sent me there."

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Yes. Why would he do that? Why exactly there?"

"Two good questions. Five years I've been trying to answer the first."

"You do not know...?" He shrugged.

"He claimed that I have something good in me, that he knew me and knew that given the opportunity I would be a better person."

"So, he sent you there to mend your ways."

"I can imagine."

"But do you want atonement at all?"

"I've been struggling with this question ever since."

"Why there?" Clark did not answer immediately. Lois lost her patience. "You promised to answer all the questions!"

"I'm not human." Lois laughed.

"I'll take that ring now." She got up. With considerable effort he straightened up in the chair and looked at her.

"I promised you the truth. I'm trying to do it now." There was silence in the room. Lois sat down.

"I am listening."

"I was born on the planet Krypton. Before it was destroyed my parents sent me here in a small spaceship. Lionel found me in the meteor shower and raised me as his. When I was growing up Lionel took me on a quest for the wisdom stones that formed a crystal that in turn formed the fortress. Then he tried to destroy the fortress so he could control it. The fortress did not cooperate, just went into a kind of coma. When Clark Kent sent me back the fort woke up."

"Okay, wait. Krypton? Are you ... an alien?"

"Yes."

"It means Clark Kent is also ..."

"Yes."

"Why did not you flee back to the other world?"

"When I was there, I demolished the mirror stone that moved me. I did not want anyone to bring me back or bring him back."

"And yet he managed to get you back."

"His connection to his fortress is much closer ... close."

"So, what is this fortress?"

"It's a reconstruction of my parents' house in Krypton. There's an artificial intelligence there based on my biological father, Jor El." Lois stood up, walked around, appeared, and disappeared from the light into the darkness. "There was no other place I could be. I had not found Tess since the first exchange, and I was the most hated person in the world. So, I stayed there."

"Avoiding prosecution, taking responsibility for your actions."

"The punishment you have planned for me is nothing compared to what I face in the fortress."

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you? You are alone there in the fortress with enough power to move people between universes!"

"Jor El is not happy with me and has varied and creative ways of expressing this dissatisfaction."

"But here you are, healthy and whole."

"For a limited time and without powers."

"You can always take off the ring." He shook his head. She had a feeling it was a topic he would not talk about. "How did you intend to return?"

"He gave me three days to find you, convince you not to kill me and come back. Exactly 72 hours." She looked at him in surprise.

"Why? Why me?"

"It seems like the right thing to do. I admit I'm not a great expert at it. There were two possible outcomes. You will kill me and the torture that is my life will end, or you will not kill me and I will find myself imprisoned somewhere until time runs out."

"And that was the right thing to do?" He looked at her. He heard the buzz. He did not have much time.

"Your desire to avenge me for Oliver Queen's death began to ruin your life, you live in a cage of gold. I thought that if you gave up the desire to kill me you would be able to go on with your life so that there was one thing, I did in my life that was the right thing to do."

"Did you know it would happen ..." she ordered with her hands around them. "And you still agreed ..." he looked at her.

"Yes." Lois began to hear the buzz as well. She looked at him.

"What is that?"

"My time is up. When it gets here stay away from me."

"You arranged a rescue for yourself?" She exclaimed angrily.

"Wayne!" Clark shouted. The man in black appeared next to Lois after a moment. "Keep her away from me when it comes here. Let no one come near me."

"When will it come?"

"This!"

An angry silver whirlwind suddenly appeared in front of Clark. In front of their eyes, it sucked him inside. Before the stunned Bruce Wayne could do anything, Lois run inside.

"Lois!" He called.

He tried to run after her, but the vortex closed. It turned to the window and Bruce saw the faces of Clark Luther and Lois Queen in the window and then the window flew out through the armored windows and disappeared.