Kal El's body has been presented to the audience for three days in a row and there was still no end to the queues. People were still waiting. Lois was legally defined as the guardian of the body and had to deal with various requests. Seeks to receive his semen to explore the body scientifically. There were scientists who wanted to create a clone out of it, but Hal circled the body non-stop in a force field that prevented people from touching it or kidnapping it.
After two weeks it was decided to hold a funeral. It was J'ohn J'ones who suggested holding a funeral in Metropolis and sending the body later to the sun. A long line of people wanted to eulogize him, and the audience stood patiently and listened to them.
"This is not the same person who killed our loved ones." Joseph Keenan, Karen Keenan's father who was killed in an Ultraman's tantrum nine years earlier, was one of the first eulogizers, "That man, Ultraman, died many years ago. The man lying here shares the same body, but his soul was cleansed with indescribable pain. This man sacrificed his life to save the whole world. People died in battles with Doomsday," he bowed his head in sympathy and mourning, "but many more people were saved thanks to this man. For many he was salvation in their darkest moments. They called for help in their difficult time. And he came and he did not disappoint anyone. He gave everything he had for us, above and beyond his duty. He did an act full of grace of truth without asking for anything. He did not do what he did to win our forgiveness but to give us a new, hopeful, full of light future, Full of grace.
"If we respect him, and we must respect such an act of heroism, we must do our best to fulfill this hopeful future. We must remember this unselfish act of grace in all our deeds, in all our plans, in every moment of our lives. This man sacrificed his life to ours. There will be the possibility to plan, to do, to live, to love, to build, to rehabilitate, to enjoy. In his death he commanded us life. "
Lois, passing through the crowd, came across an elderly couple clinging to each other. The woman's face was flooded with tears. The man noticed her and stopped her, he looked familiar.
"Mrs. Queen? You must not remember me."
"I'm sorry, you know me but ..."
"My name is Jonathan Kent. I ... I broke into your husband's funeral years ago. I'm afraid I did not behave respectfully, and I would like to apologize."
"That's fine, Mr. Kent. Oliver could certainly have acted a little less like a bulldozer then." A small smile rose to his lips.
"You were with him when he died, right?"
"Yes." They looked at the glass coffin. Jonathan Kent cleared his throat after a few moments.
"I met ... his double, I mean, hmm, Clark Kent." Lois looked at him in surprise. "He came to look for me after Mr. Queen's funeral, helped me in a very dark time. I guess I wanted to know if ..." Lois smiled sadly.
"He helped a lot of people. Still helping from what I understood." Jonathan Kent nodded.
"Yes, but that's not what I meant."
"Oh ..."
"Is he..."
"Mr. and Mrs. Kent, really, honestly, it was not your fault."
"If we were ..." Mrs. Kent whispered.
"You could not know." They did not seem convinced. "Think of it this way. Somehow you are responsible for him ceasing to be a murderer, for choosing to atone for his actions." Mrs. Kent looked at her hopefully and Lois smiled. "He would not have faced his crimes without Clark Kent and Clark Kent grew up with your doubles, with people who were the same to you in everything." She took Mrs. Kent's hand and took them both with her to the coffin.
In the evening, at Watchtower, Lois stood by the coffin and looked at the man lying there. The Kents heard that the league intended to add him to its ranks and demanded that his name be changed to Clark Kent. Diana agreed and no one objected and now there was a small plaque with the name Clark Kent on the side of the coffin. Lois refused to accept this end, refused to accept that Clark lost his life precisely at the moment of his redemption. She pounded her fist on the glass cabinet.
"I thought you promised me no evasions!" She said, "I call it the ultimate escape!" There was no answer. Of course. "You had the power to do so much good, to atone for your past and now you are dead, and people have not had time to know you, to really know you not the monster you were." She moved to the other side of the coffin. "Ultimately, in the moment of truth you have proven yourself as a good person, maybe even the best of us all. You were in hell and came back a better person because you chose it. But if you think sacrificing yourself in that way makes you stronger then you are wrong. Do you hear me? To keep fighting is to be strong, it's hard and painful and everyday but that's what we must do, and we could have done it together. Now, get up, damn it! Get up! " She slapped her hands on the coffin.
"Wow!" Hal's voice from the doorway startled her, "In his place I would have risen only from fearing you."
"What do you want, Hal?" He entered the room and stood beside her.
"To check that you're okay. Apologize for my silly behavior. Pray for my life. It was a one hell of a speech." Lois smiled. "Oliver was ... my real and best friend. The kind who would shout the truth in your face especially if that's the last thing you want to hear. But I always felt like I was competing with Clark."
"They were not friends."
"No but they could have been. I think the potential for that is what pushed Oliver to his obsession with kryptonite. And that's also why he did not kill him when he had a chance. And it always bothered me that Clark Luther did not seem to have a similar problem. I guess that's what made me hate him so much. "
"Do you still hate him?"
"No. You and Bruce were right three years ago. Clark Luther died a long time ago. All that was left is a lost and frightened man struggling to rebuild his life. I could not see it even when Doomsday killed him. But Diana must have taken lessons from you, she gave me a scolding speech. If Oliver was around, he would agree with you."
"Thanks."
Hal looked at the coffin.
"Well, it does not look like he's going to get up in the next few moments. You did not really expect that to happen, did you?"
"I do not know. When it comes to him, I think anything is possible."
"I would have been happy to know him if that had happened." Lois was silent. Hal put his arm over her shoulder. "How about I invite you to a hot chocolate and then go get some sleep? Tomorrow will be a not easy day." She nodded and they left the hall.
The white fog surrounded her. She walked around the place, looking for some landmark but saw nothing. She looked at herself. She was wearing a white coat, she had gloves and a scarf, but she was not cold, and the fog covered her legs. She chose a direction and started walking. After a few moments she noticed a crystal emerging from the fog. She stopped next to him and touched him. She noticed another crystal and moved towards it. She went through several crystals until she found herself in the center of the Fortress of Solitude. She looked around in shock. The fortress was completely white, huge, and very empty.
"Jor El?" She asked apprehensively.
"Lois Lane." Whispered Jor El's voice.
"I'm sorry, Jor El. I could not keep him alive."
"My son knew what he was doing when he left the fortress."
"Why did you bring me here, Jor El?"
"Now is the time for you to decide."
"Decide? Decide what?"
"When we spoke recently you told me that my son was incapable of love because he never knew it. We both made a mistake that day. The emotion existed within it only hidden, hidden, protected from Lionel Luther. You have awakened this love to life. " "
"I do not understand."
"His love for you pushed him to risk his life in Phantom Zone. It was not just curiosity that led him to examine life in the parallel world. He wanted to know what was happening to you, what was happening to his other version."
"He fell in love with her." Lois whispered.
"No, she awakened the spark, you turned it into a flame, a flame that every difficulty, every test, every pain just made it stronger. He fought Doomsday for you. I can't deny him the possibility."
"The possibility?! What are you striving to, Jor El?"
"Kal El is not dead." Lois opened her eyes wide. "After the battle with Doomsday I felt his heartbeat, one every few days."
"We're about to throw it in the sun! What should I do ...?"
"The heartbeats are weakened."
"But..."
"And the moment to decide is now."
"What has to be decided ?"
"Should we let nature do its course or intervene?" Lois looked around the fortress.
"Is this at all in question? Of course, it needs to be saved!"
"Will your world accept him?" Lois bit her lower lip. "Did he not gain peace?"
"Death is not peace. Death is the end! He worked so hard, fought so hard to change, to be a better person. Is he not entitled to enjoy the fruits?" Jour Al did not answer. "You said I made him love. So, I want him back! I want to see him laugh in the sun. With me." She finished quietly, the things she said being absorbed in her mind. "I want to see people happy to see him because they know he came to help. I want to see little kids give him his drawing that they drew because he is their hero. I want him to be happy. He was so close to all this stuff when this monster destroyed everything! " She paused and bowed her head for a moment.
"This path will not be easy for him."
"Since when do you choose the easy way for him?" But she understood. Jor El has always tried to protect his son. "Kal El ... Clark and the easy way, they do not get along. He needs these challenges because nothing else is difficult for him. He can do anything; nothing is an obstacle for a man who can move planets off their orbit but gain the trust of people, that people will respect him? These are the things he really wants, that he has to fight to get them."
"Thank you, Lois Lane. I will always be grateful to you for your role in my son's life."
"Wait!" But the fog covered everything, and a second later Lois found herself in her bed at Watchtower.
She jumped out of bed and ran to the door and then everything went out, the light, the noise of the ventilation system. Lois' heart shrank in fear. She was in a tin box floating in space, hundreds of miles above the earth. She thought of knocking on the steel door but other than sore hands she would get nothing out of it.
"Lois? Are you okay there?" She heard Diana.
"I'm fine. What's going on?"
"There's a power outage at the station."
"And Bruce allowed this station go up into space without backup?"
"Nothing electric is working from what I understand. And Bruce is currently stuck in an elevator." Lois giggled. "Are you okay, Lois? With everything that happened ..."
"I'm fine. It's just ... you will not believe me."
"I come from a culture where the gods impersonate a rain of gold to rape women. I will believe almost everything."
"I think Clark is alive." Diana said nothing. "I think I was dreaming ... not sure dreaming is the right word. Jor El told me he was alive. I just hurried there to check when it happened."
"Oh."
"You do not believe me. You must think I'm crazy and who will blame you?"
"I do not know what I think."
"Not very decisive for the head of the Justice League."
"From the first moment he scrambled all the cards. It would not surprise me if he also provoked death." Lois was silent. "Lois?"
"I think... and how crazy is this going to be? They will hospitalize me if they know and who will blame them..."
"Lois ..."
"Maybe I should do it myself ..."
"Lois! You're blabbering on."
"I think, I think I'm in love with him." The light came on, the ventilation system went back on, and the door opened. Diana stood in the hallway with a smile on her face. Lois blushed. "Hmmm ..."
"You wanted to check that he's okay, didn't you?"
"If you tell anyone what I told you..." Lois threatened Diana with her finger, "...not even Hera will save you."
"So, what exactly happened?" Diana asked. They stood in the large control room of the Watchtower. Lois and Diana returned from visiting Clark who showed no change in his condition. Victor Stone and Bruce worked on the computers.
"At 10:42 a.m. Metropolis time zone there was a power outage across the planet." Said Victor. "It lasted exactly 76 seconds."
"All over the planet?" Said Diana.
"76 seconds?" Said Lois.
"Is there an echo in here?" Said Victor.
"How is such a thing possible?" Diana asked.
"Electromagnetic pulse." Bruce replied. "What I don't understand is who has the power to do such a thing and why? No special incidents were recorded at the time. I thought there might have been a robbery or murder or assassination. But nothing." Lois and Diana exchanged glances. "What?"
"It's nothing." Said Lois. Bruce looked at her suspiciously.
"Bruce?" Said Diana. Bruce looked at her questioningly. She looked at one of the screens that ran an international news channel. Bruce also looked at the screen and his mouth opened. "Who is that?" Lois and Victor also looked at the screen.
The announcer talked about Clark Luther and the funeral planned for the early morning hours but the picture in the background was not of Clark.
"What the hell...?" Said Lois.
"Check the rest of the channels." Said Diana. Victor uploaded every news channel.
"It's the same man in all the pictures but it's not him!" Said Lois.
"What about our database?"
"Even there, even in the videos from the fortress." Said Bruce.
"It's very similar to him, the changes are really small, but he looks like a different person." Said Victor appreciatively. Lois' gaze ran through all the screens and then without explanation she ran out of the room.
"Lois!"
Within moments she was in the great hall, struggling with the lid of the glass cabinet. Clark looked at her frightened from the inside. He had been knocking on the closet lid for a few minutes. He was as weak as a baby and had no idea where he was, and the air was starting to run out. Bruce appeared and within seconds the coffin lid opened, and Clark sat down, taking deep breaths. Diana and Victor stood next to them in shock.
"A man kills a monster, and you lock him in a glass coffin?" Said Clark panting. Lois hugged him tightly. After a moment of shock, he hugged her back.
"Well?" Clark looked at the League's doctor running around the clinic. Pieter Cross looked at him with a smile.
"You're still Kryptonian." Clark smiled crookedly.
"Funny, Doc. How much longer will you leave me here?"
"Hurrying somewhere?" Said Bruce as he entered the clinic.
"No special place. I hate closed places." He looked around and then back at Bruce. "But I'll probably have to get used to it." Bruce looked at Dr. Mid-Nite.
"I'm not an expert," Pieter said, "but I suppose bringing you back to life had a price and the price was your strength. With enough sun exposure and some time, you will come back to yourself." He patted Clark on the shoulder, "I need to check on some more patients and it seems to me that Bruce wants to talk to you alone. I'll come see you later."
"Thanks, Doc." Dr. Cross left the room, closing the door behind him. Bruce took a chair and sat down on it. "Am I at least getting a lawyer?"
"There will be no trial." Clark raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?" Bruce opened the folder he came in with.
"Clark Luther. The adopted son of Lionel Luther. Height: 6' 3", blue eyes, black hair. A scar in the shape of the Luther House emblem on the forearm of his right hand." Clark looked at his right hand, the scar had not been there for almost three years. "Charged with a long list of violent crimes and murders. Died three weeks ago after sacrificing himself to defend an entire city." Bruce closed the folder and raised his head to look at the stunned Clark.
"I'm dead?"
"Clark Luther is dead."
"So, who am I supposed to be?"
"Clark Kent." Bruce threw a thick envelope on the bed.
Clark looks at Bruce like he's going crazy, pulling out documents from the envelope. Birth certificate, adoption certificate, passport and other documents that created a complete identity. Even a photo album with two people he did not know.
"You'll have to wear glasses and get to know the Kents. And since you don't have a penny on your ass right now, it was decided that you would live with them in Metropolis."
"And glasses will mislead people into thinking I'm not Clark Luther? You hang out too much with bats, rich boy." Bruce took the remote and turned on the TV.
"This was Clark Luther."
"The picture! It's not me! How did you manage that?"
"We think Jor El did it. It was a serious story to organize your childhood pictures."
"Bruce, I ..."
"The adoption was an idea of the Kents. They insisted on it even before you decided to return from the dead." Bruce stood up. "This is a second chance, Clark. Jor El gives you a clean slate to start a new life. I in your place would have taken this opportunity to the fullest." Clark looked at the documents scattered on the bed.
"People know me. Like Tess. It's not ..."
"Tess has started a new life in New Zealand. She runs a sheep farm, remembers nothing of her life. Lionel did something for her in Belle Rive and finally we decided to give her a chance at a new life instead of forcing her to go back to her previous life."
"What happened to Doomsday?"
"The Green Lanterns took it. We didn't like it, but they left us no real choice."
"People will not accept me. I ..."
"Diana has accepted you as a conditional member of the league. She's just waiting for you to put on a uniform and become a superhero."
"And if I do not do it?" Bruce looked at him quietly. "If I want to be just one of the crowds?"
"I do not think you will be able to make do with it, Kent, but if that's what you want..." Bruce shrugged.
"Thanks."
"You earned it."
The Daily Planet building towered over him in all its glory and Clark failed to calm the butterflies in his stomach as much as he tried.
Adapting to life again has not been easy. It was weeks before he dared to leave the small apartment of the Kents and even then, the huge numbers of people who passed on the street without noticing him frightened him. For eight years he was almost completely alone, being part of the crowd demanded adaptation. His powers had not yet returned, and Clark did not really miss them. It was easier to adjust to life again without them. But to stay in the apartment meant to stay in the company of the Kents and Clark just did not know how to behave next to them. They were normal people, the salt of the earth. They loved each other very much and gave of this love without any expectation of return and Clark just did not know how to deal with it. The first time he woke up from a nightmare and found Martha next to him he almost fled the apartment.
Three months after his return to life he decided to find a job and maybe even his own apartment, although the idea of moving away from the Kents scared him greatly. It was too small an apartment for three people. He wanted to work at the Daily Planet. It was ridiculous and a bit ironic but that's what he wanted so he found himself a job at the Daily Planet, copy boy in the basement. One of the lowest steps in the newspaper, only work in the mail room was lower on the ladder. Clark Luther had a bachelor's degree in business administration from Princeton. Clark Kent had a high school diploma from Smallville. But Clark did not care. The same reason that led him to work for the Daily Planet pushed him to look for the poorest job he could. He wanted to work for her newspaper but did not want her to notice him.
He has not seen Lois Lane since he came to life. An hour later she had already left the Watchtower and he did not blame her. He just wanted to be close to her and today would be his first day on the Planet.
"Perry? What the hell happened to the copier?" Lois entered Perry White's office without notice. He smiled at her. "It arrived just two days ago! How did you manage to destroy it already?"
"It's all thanks to the new guy."
"The new guy?" Perry nodded toward the newsroom. "Oh. Clark Kent. He's been working here for a year. Is he still the new guy?"
"He will probably be the new guy for a long time to come. The guy has two left legs and despite the glasses he sees nothing, but he has more luck than any other person I have met in my life."
"If he's destroying expensive equipment because of his sluggishness maybe he should not be here."
"Well..."
"His name appears in a lot of work accidents."
"He's been to the hospital more times than all my journalists put together and takes it all in with a smile."
"So, what happened to the copier?"
"It's not really clear. He had to copy research for Vicky Vale and the copier started emitting paper, almost creating a storm in the copy room. We called a technician ..."
"I know, I have the repair bill here. At this price you can buying a new machine!"
"Miss Lane, I do not know what the technician told you, but the police bomb squad unit took the photocopier."
"What?"
"As evidence."
"I do not understand."
"Clark Kent managed to spoil the photocopier enough to call a technician. The technician identified circuits and equipment unrelated to the photocopier's specifications and we called the police." Lois looked at Perry, "Someone changed the copier. The machine was designed to explode long before its next maintenance check. Someone added explosives to it with such intensity that all that was left of this floor were the retaining walls."
"I want the rest of the machine in the building to be checked."
"Already being done."
"And as for Mr. Kent ..."
"He's a good guy, Miss Lane. I know he's been through a lot of departments in his short year with us and I know he's an accident walking on two, but I want to keep him here."
"Because he destroyed the copier?" Perry approached Lois and they both looked out the window of his office at Clark.
"I do not think he really is like clumsy. It's hard to know him, he barely utters a word and even then, he stutters, it seems like people scare him, but his 'accidents' help a lot more than are disturbing. Two months ago, Vicky Vale worked on that story of the strangler from Hob's Bay... "
"I remember."
"Kent kept walking around between her legs and eventually slipped on all the research, made her a complete mess. She yelled at him for a quarter of an hour, demanded I fire him and an hour later she found the missing piece in the puzzle and since then she insists on working only with Kent. She claims that he brings her luck. " Lois smiled to herself.
"Okay but if it's a problem I want to know about it."
"I thought Kryptonians had perfect coordination." Clark turned around, a slightly frightened look on his face. When he saw Lois leaning against the closed roof door, he allowed himself to smile. She smiled back. "So, your power are back."
"Yes. But if it's a problem, I ..."
"Oh, calm down." She advanced toward him. "If you leave now, I will have a rebellion in the newsroom."
"Rebellion? Why should there be a rebellion?"
"Didn't you know? You're Vicky Vale's mascot." She leaned back smiling on the eaves. Clark joined her.
"She is good."
"Yes."
"But she's not Lois Lane." She looked at him in surprise. "I may have embittered your life but you were the best reporter on the Planet. If I had not been so preoccupied with being a fucking pain in the ass, I might have noticed that. Maybe." Lois giggled.
"Thousands of types of vision and still blind?"
"Something like that."
They were silent, the city below them continued, time passed.
"I've been avoiding you ever since, you know." Lois said quietly.
"You owe me nothing."
"Why did you choose Planet?"
"Few reasons." He looked at the city below him and then turned and leaned his back against the eaves. "It's pretty much the center of attention. Something's going on in the world and the Planet's the first to know about it. It's the last place I worked and ..."
"And...?"
"It belongs to you."
"Oh. Honest and to the point."
"You never released me from that promise." She looked at him.
"Do you want me to do it?"
"It will not change anything." He glanced at her. "I feel free to be me when I'm by your side."
"Oh?"
"You saw the darkness within me and did not flee."
"I saw the light too." He did not look at her, embarrassed. "You're a good person, Clark, you probably already know that." He nodded, unable to speak. Lois decided to change the subject. "How are the Kents?"
"They're fine. They're thinking of trying to buy the farm back or at least go back to Smallville. Metropolis is a little expensive for them."
"From what I saw half of your salary goes straight to them."
"Yes. I tried to give them money or checks but they did not use the money."
"So directly to the bank account, eh?" Clark shrugged.
"They need the money more than I do."
"I know what your salary is, Kent. You have access to money in the Cayman Islands and you did not tell anyone?" Clark laughed.
"There was. I gave everything to Bruce. It's dirty money."
"You could have done something good with the money."
"I do not want anything to do with Luther!" She put her hand on his. "I'm sorry, I did not mean to raise my voice."
"It's okay. I understand."
"It was like an infection." He said quietly after a few minutes. "Like an oil slick on water and it started slowly and before you realized what was going on everything was polluted. I did not even realize it was the case. I have powers why not use them to get what I want? And if other people were hurt by it then so be it, they were too weak anyway. Lionel liked to say that the owner of the power is the one who has the opinion and that the strong survive. He forgot to add that the power corrupts, and I let him corrupt me. "But it was an important lesson and in the end it's what opened my eyes."
"The price was high. You still suffer from nightmares, right?" He nodded briefly.
"All the important things in life are expensive but they are worth the price." He looked up at the golden globe. "I think I got out of it cheaply."
"To die in the hands of Doomsday is called cheap in your eyes?"
"Clark Luther is not facing his victims, they have no chance ..."
"To what? To revenge? To lynch him?" Clark swallowed. "I'm not saying the reactions to leaving you in an ice castle instead of bringing you to trial were enthusiastic. People took it hard, there was a reaction against it and then J'ohn J'ones showed up with your confessions and it was like someone took the air out of their sails. Especially when the rest of the episodes were published."
"You didn't have to show them what happened in Phantom Zone or with Lionel."
"Certainly, we should have. It was a shock treatment. They wanted 'an eye for an eye'. We reminded them not to judge a person before standing in his place."
They sank into silence again. Birds flew over them, time passed. The air cooled and Lois shivered. Clark took off his jacket and gave it to her without saying a word. Lois wore the jacket with a gentle smile, the jacket was still warm from the heat of his body. She leaned lightly on him.
"Tell me something." She said quietly. He looked at her questioningly. "Doomsday. You said he would come after you to Metropolis and he really did."
"J'ohn J'ones told you about Doomsday." She nodded. "The man who created it, or rather made sure it was created, General Dru-Zod was responsible for destroying Krypton. Zod and Jor El were friends in Krypton until something separated them and they became enemies."
"What was that?"
"Different views on morality." She looked at him in misunderstanding and he smiled. "Zod was a great military hero. He believed in Krypton superiority, racial purity, Krypton's rigid hierarchy in one change ..."
"That he will stand at the top of the pyramid." Clark nodded with a smile.
"Jor El ... Jor El gave more importance to justice than tradition. He wanted Krypton to be part of the galaxy, not to be arrogant above all others."
"And what happened?"
"Civil war. It was especially horrible because Jor El was not a man of war, every death hit him personally. Zod lost."
"Something tells me that Zod did not know how to lose with dignity."
"He managed to get his hands on Jor El's invention and corrupt it to do as he said. From something aimed at preserving knowledge and protecting it, it became a world destroyer and Krypton began to be destroyed. The whole civilization was still recovering from the war, "Everyone just wanted to lick the wounds, and no one wanted to believe that the worst was ahead of them."
"I'm not going to like that part, eh?"
"The High Council feared a global panic and banned Jor El from spreading baseless prophecies of rage."
"Ouch."
"So, he and my mother built a spaceship for me, an escape pod. Somehow Zod found out about it and his followers created Doomsday."
"In order to?"
"To kill me, ruin life on Earth and prepare the ground for New Krypton in the form of Zod."
"And how did they think to restrain him?" Clark smiled.
"They didn't think that far."
"So, what happened?"
"That's the ironic part." She looked at him questioningly. "Bruce checked all the documents Lionel had left behind. He asked me to help him. It turns out that Lionel not only got my spaceship, but he also found Doomsday." Lois looked at him with her mouth open. "He passed him tests and, in the meantime, he was at the mansion. Probably also met Lex at some point. Doomsday's camouflage was good. Lionel didn't think there was anything special about him and he threw him into the street. I was not so lucky." Lois held his hand tightly.
"You are not doomsday! Even in your worst times you were not doomsday!" He did not reply. She turned to him and held his face gently. He did not dare look into her eyes. "Doomsday was a killing machine. He killed anything that stood in his way." Clark looked into her eyes. "I remember all the words I hurled at you, and they were mostly correct." He looked down. "But you are not heartless, you have never been heartless. You have forgotten your heart; you have pushed it into the most secret corner of your soul as self-defense. All you have to do is be free, the spark that will ignite the fire that will cleanse you of Lionel's corruption." His eyes sparkled with tears.
"Lois ..."
She kissed him. Her fingers penetrated between the soft hair of his neck. Clark was stunned for a moment, having a hard time believing it was really happening but finally dared to kiss her back. He wanted to give her back all her trust and belief in him, all the love restrained in him and felt how Lois banishes all self-doubts, the loneliness in his heart. Lois felt a bubble of warmth and love unravel inside her and Clark was the one who released it. She has had such great loneliness since Oliver's death and Clark has filled her with warmth and love. They felt like electricity was flowing between them. Clark's hands encircled Lois' narrow waist. He pinned her to him, supporting her.
Without feeling it, he began to hover above the ground. That eternal kiss was finally over, and Lois put her head on his chest hugging him. Clark hugged her back and flew up in the setting sun.