Okay; I lied. I had to work on this chapter. I always thought the pace was too fast…

AFTER APOCALYPSE

Legion, 3011

When awareness returned, Lois was in a sterile white room in a hospital bed.

Jesus, not again …

She'd had enough of hospitals to last her a lifetime. Blinking, she forced her body to stay still. Fighting the Darkness had taught her that not every facility was friendly.

Before she could even move her eyes to assess her surroundings, the monitors next to her started beeping, and the door opened. A young blond woman walked serenely into the room.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, using that "hospital" tone that grated on the nerves, at least Lois' nerves.

"Like I'm ready to go home," said Lois warily.

"Well, you're not quite ready for that yet, but you will be … soon."

Lois noted the hesitancy in her voice. Something about her tone-about her- felt off. Lois' internal alarms fired in response.

"No, I think I'm ready now," she said, sitting up and swinging her feet to the side of the bed.

Whoa.

She felt like road kill, every muscle in her body aching when she moved. The door suddenly seemed miles away. Still, she needed to get out of here, find out what happened to her team and to … Clark. After seeing the light return to his eyes, she couldn't think of him as Nightany more.

"You can't leave yet," the young woman said calmly, stepping forward with her hands extended.

Lois didn't wait, using every ounce of determination to place her feet on the floor. When she tried to rise, all the muscles in her legs contracted and she had to sit back down.

Furious with herself and the situation, she waived the concerned blond away. She could feel the woman coming closer and her instincts were screaming at her to get away.

"Let me go! You can't keep me here," Lois threatened, frustrated by her weakened condition. She had to find out what was happening. What had she and the team done?

The young woman stopped and smiled calmly.

Lois frowned.

"Don't worry, I will not harm you. We want to help you and your world, just calm down…"

Lois felt herself shake. The woman had spoken the words without moving her lips.

Who was this?

Where was she?

As usual, when she couldn't attack physically, Lois attacked verbally.

"Calm down? I'm perfectly calm; why wouldn't I be calm? I just lost my team and destroyed my … and I don't know where I am!" She yelled, trying to stand again.

Her legs still wouldn't work.

The woman simply stood there with sympathetic smile on her face, but didn't try to approach again.

Lois rubbed the scars on her neck self-consciously. God, she hated long silences. Eventually, she had to ask.

"How did you do that- speak into my mind?"

The blond seemed to relax at the question.

"I am what you'd call a telepath," said said, moving her lips to speak out loud this time. "My name is Imra," she smiled, genuinely this time. "You are Lois Lane," she said with a flourish, as if she were Lois' biggest fan.

Lois just stared, thoughts churning. "Should I know you?"

Or am I going crazy?

The young woman's smile widened a bit, and somehow it seemed like she was laughing on the inside.

"Wait, can you hear my thoughts?" Lois demanded.

Oh, boy.

"Not your thoughts, exactly," Imra said, looking down with the smile still fixed to her face.

"Okay," Lois let the word drag out, trying to keep her thoughts quiet. Imra hadn't exactly answered her question. Still, she didn't seem to want to cause Lois any harm at the moment.

"Well, say I believe you, Imra, I still want to know where I am and why I'm here," Lois demanded, hearing the General's words in the back of her head.

When in doubt, take charge of the situation.

"Oh, and I'd like something to eat, I'm hungry. By the way, I hate hospitals and, if you really know me you should know that, so I need a room that doesn't feel like a hospital room."

Imra blinked, seeming overwhelmed for a minute. She paused.

Lois smiled.

"I can get you something to eat," she said.

"Great," Lois responded. "Now tell me where I am."

Imra tilted her head for a moment in thought.

Lois tried to stand back up.

Imra stepped forward, seeming to reach a decision. "I can tell you … that you are with a group that has banded together to fight the Darkness," she responded, her words slow and deliberate. "You are here to heal and, we hope, to help us."

"Well, I've got no love for the Darkness, but you probably know that, being a telepath and all - what kind of 'group'?" Lois fired back at her.

Haven't lost my touch, she smirked to herself, seeing the young woman blink again.

"That's a lot to cover right now, especially when you need rest," she responded carefully. "Now why don't you relax and I'll search for new accommodations and make sure you get something to eat." Ever so slowly she walked over to the bed and pulled back the covers.

With a roll of the eyes, Lois laid back down. She hadn't gotten a lot of information but she knew when to back off.

As soon as Imra was gone, Lois wasted no time looking around for anything that might indicate where she was. Nothing, the room was solid white with no windows, and even the equipment had no markings. She laid back and sighed, frustrated with the situation. She wasn't worried about her safety, exactly. Her gut was telling her that the woman … Imra, was honest. It was Lois' team she was worried about.

Had they made a difference?

What kind of help did this group want from her? She couldn't even stand up right now.

Imra returned with a tray later but refused to answer any of Lois' questions.

The food was more for rabbits than humans, but Lois felt better after she'd eaten.

Still, to her dismay, she had to be assisted to her new room, which was situated like a small apartment- complete with a full-sized bed, couch, chair, desk, kitchenette and small bathroom. There were still no windows, but the colors were yellow and blue with hints of red.

Lois felt more at ease right away.

After a night's rest Lois was able to stand but her mobility was limited. Still, by the next morning when Imra returned, she was feeling restless.

"Tell me where my friends are and why I'm still here," Lois demanded, pacing back and forth, her hand on the bed for support.

"I will, but first you need to heal-"

"No," Lois interrupted, leaning on the bed, stopping to lean on the bed. "I need to know now. Where am I? Where's my team? What happened to…," Lois found that she couldn't speak his name. "What happened?"

Imra studied Lois in that same calm way until Lois wanted to throw something at her. She started to take a step away from the bed.

The blond took a step back. "I need to talk to some members of our group," she told Lois. "I'll try to return this evening with the answers you seek."

Lois sat down on the bed. It was an effort to stand. "You'd better," she told Imra, keeping eye contact so that the woman would know Lois was serious.

The woman nodded. "I will get you the answers you seek."

The door had barely slid closed behind Imra before Lois was asleep. To her frustration, she slept most of the day away.

Dinner- or at least Lois thought it was dinner- appeared on Lois' tray before Imra reappeared.

When she did she had two young men with her, one with brown-hair and a serious expression, the other with red hair, freckles and a twinkle in his eyes.

"Lois Lane," said the brown-haired man, "I am Rokk and this is Garth." He pointed to the red-head. "We are with a group called the Legion and we have brought you here to help us with the Darkness," he paused and looked at Imra.

The blonde nodded back encouragingly.

"You need to know that you are in the future, the thirty-first century to be exact."

Lois laughed; she couldn't help it. Even though she knew about the telepath- or at least what the blond had told her about being a telepath- these kids all looked too normal to be from the future.

Of course, Clark had looked normal, too …

Her heart skipped at beat at the thought. God, she hadn't wanted him to die. He'd been a taken over by the Dark, used as a vessel. She hadn't planned on killing him; she'd wanted to bring him back. She could still his eyes, gray fading to soft blue as he finally returned to himself, only to struggle with each breath until the color turned to black.

Her laughter turned to tears, and Lois found herself gasping for breath. She waved Imra away with her hand, forcing herself to get control. Embarrassed, she took deep breaths and a few sips of water, finally nodding toward the serious kid in an effort to get him to continue.

His voice, unusually somber for his age, reminded her of Clark. And, as he persisted in telling her about the Darkness, mostly things she already knew, her mind wandered to her early days on the farm and the young boy with the weight of the world on his shoulders. This young man seemed the same. What responsibilities were these kids carrying?

It was when Rokk started talking about the Legion and about time travel that he captured all of Lois' attention. Evidently what had happened with the Darkness was not what was supposed to have happened. Some break in events had allowed the Darkness to invade Earth. According to Rokk, Clark Kent was some sort of hero who was supposed to have stopped it.

"Clark, a hero?" Lois laughed but even to her ears, it sounded forced. She thought of the times he'd saved her, Chloe, Oliver, and other friends and family. She'd known he was special even before the Darkness had taken over.

Of course, she'd heard Oliver complain that Clark never lived up to his full potential. Is this what he meant? She'd ignored it mostly, especially after Chloe… Oliver was always so bitter where Clark was concerned. His opinions were biased.

When Rokk was finished, all three looked at her expectantly.

Lois stared back. "Okay," she said, trying to get her thoughts together. "Assume I believe all of this… that Clark…" Lois found herself choking up and took another deep breath. "What happened? Why didn't he stop the Darkness?"

"Events did not transpire as they were meant to," Rokk told Lois. "There was a break in one chain of events that affected Clark Kent in a way no one anticipated."

Lois stared at the man, irritated. "And what was that?"

It was Imra who finally spoke, after the three of them stopped staring at each other. Lois wondered if they were communicating telepathically. She was about to admonish them for being rude when she was rendered speechless.

"You left him."

Two months later

Lois was pacing in her room, her legs back to normal but her thoughts in chaos. Foremost, she was kicking herself for letting this Legion talk her into anything. Only secondary was the thought that these kids must have been spending time with the General if they thought this was all her fault.

It simply wasn't possible.

Catching a glance of herself in the mirror above the dresser, she paused to look. She didn't look like a destroyer of worlds. Her face was a little thin, her hair was shoulder-length and dark, hazel eyes reflecting the battles she'd fought, but there was no way she'd played any part in bringing the Darkness to Earth. She'd never even heard of it until Nightbrought it with him from Metropolis. From that point on, she'd fought the Darkness with every fiber of her being

She definitely was not at fault for Clark's ultimate demise, even if she'd left him. He hadn't seemed that upset when she'd decided to stay in Star City. Any unhappiness on Clark's part always had more to do with Lana than with her. Lois could clearly remember one of their last conversations.

"Oh, hey, Clark," Lois said into her phone as she opened the door to her tiny Star City apartment.

"Hey, Lois, I was just calling … you know," Clark said, seeming unable to finish his thought.

"Right," Lois said sarcastically, "I could tell because we're talking on the phone." Tucking her phone under her ear, she dropped her purse on the counter and kicked off her shoes on the way to her bedroom. It had been a rough day. "Look, if this has something to do with Lana, I don't want to be rude but I've had kind of a bad day."

"No, it's nothing about Lana," Clark said. "Why don't you tell me about your day?"

So she did. It was nice to talk to someone who knew her, who understood her reactions to unreasonable deadlines and outdated computers and geeky little interns who followed her around …

"Kind of like you, Smallville," Lois teased, falling on the bed and looking through the mail while she got comfortable against the headboard.

"So, when are you coming back?" He asked.

"What do you mean? I've told you, I like it here," Lois answered irritably. He always asked her that question.

"You're too good for the Chronicle," Clark told her sounding irritated himself. "You belong at the Daily Planet."

Lois grimaced as the comment hit home.

The Planet was the best.

She took a deep breath. "Maybe I'll get back there someday, but there's a lot I can learn here at the Chronicle," Lois finished, knowing her excuses were starting to sound lame.

"What can you learn there that you can't here?" Clark asked, lowering his voice.

Lois paused as her first thought was 'how to get along without you.' She couldn't tell him that.

"A lot of things," she mumbled. "Look Clark I've got to go. I have a busy day tomorrow."

"What about the team of Lane and Kent?" Clark's quiet voice sounding almost desperate.

"We were never a team," Lois let her voice reflect her frustration. "We wrote some stories together, that's all. You're a big boy now and you'll just have to get along without me."

"What if I can't?" Lois barely heard the whispered comment.

"You don't have a choice," Lois said firmly, her decision made as she disconnected.

Lois shook her head at the memory. It was all about Lana. Clark called her a few days later and admitted that Lana had left him, confirming what Lois suspected all along.

There was nothing special about Lois and Clark.

Still, the three Legion members kept telling her that she was the only one to help them. She scoffed at her reflection. Haunted hazel eyes looked back at her.

She didn't look like a hero either.

Oh, she'd argued with all three, telling them their facts must be wrong. She'd discussed her friendship with Clark more than she wanted to, pointed out that Lana and Chloe were so much more important to the boy wonder. Hell, she and Clark were barely friends on a good day… how had she ruined anything in his life?

Rokk's response was to show her numbers and charts on some sort of data pad.

Lois didn't understand any of it.

Imra pointed out that there was a connection between them, strong enough that it survived Clark being taken over by the Darkness. That ended the argument for Lois; no one was supposed to know about her and Night.

With that, she kicked them all out.

It didn't take long for her to rebound, she'd called them back the next day, pointing out that she and her team had tried to fix things. How did they know her team hadn't succeeded?

That was when Rokk allowed her to look outside. Evidently, League headquarters was some kind of space station that circled the Earth, but not the Earth that Lois knew. Instead of a beautiful blue and green planet, the station floated above a charred and blackened sphere. According to Rokk, the planet darkened and the population disappeared only a few months ago. Somehow, the station and its affiliates remained immune.

Lois couldn't accept what she was seeing. No life existed on Earth. An entire planet and its population had disappeared because of a decision she'd made.

It was inconceivable!

Mind made up, Lois turned from the observation deck and looked at Rokk.

"How do we fix it?" She'd asked him.

For the first time since they'd met, Rokk smiled.

Now she was waiting, ready to implement the plan they had in place.

It was crazy and desperate and Lois understood very little of the science behind it. Still, somehow, she was going back in time.

Evidently she was the only one who could fix this.

The girl in the mirror grimaced and Lois heard herself say. "The only one crazy enough to try."

Great, now she was talking to herself.

Thank goodness it was Garth that they sent. She liked the red-head; he was the only one with a decent sense of humor.

"Your chariot awaits," he told her with a smile and bow. When she didn't react, he grew serious. "Are you ready?"

Lois took a deep breath to steady herself. Really, there wasn't a lot of choice here. "Sure," she smiled and shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Before Garth could answer she held up her hand. "Don't answer that," she said. "I'm not sure I'd understand it anyway."

Garth just laughed and walked her to the room where the device was located. To Lois, it looked like some metal version of the Olympic rings. Garth and Rook assured her that it would work somehow to send her thoughts back to her younger body.

Feeling nervous, she got into position and allowed Garth to secure one of the straps that attached her to the apparatus. "Hey," she smirked. "Where's my DeLorean?"

He laughed, "No mere DeLorean for the great Lois Lane." Luckily, Garth was a fan of "the classics" and had watched Back to the Future and other movies with Lois when she found out about the Legions' movie database.

Garth grinned, "Only the finest Reasoning Interval Repeating Cylinder for you."

"Yeah, say that five times fast without stuttering," Lois fired back, the banter calming her nerves.

Garth laughed again, squeezing her arm before turning to the next strap. When the last strap was in place, she grabbed Garth's hand and held it, turning her head to make sure that Imra was busy. Like an operating room, there was an observation area with a glass separation where Imra and Rokk were working their magic. Right now, Lois did not want Imra picking up on her nerves.

"What if this doesn't work?" Lois asked Garth quietly.

"Are you Lois Lane?" He questioned without hesitation.

"Duh," Lois said rolling her eyes. Garth grinned at her, his eyes twinkling.

"Then this will work," he told her, making a few adjustments to the straps. Lois couldn't resist smiling back at him. Garth and Imra treated her like she was as famous as Clark, or whatever his "hero" name was- which they wouldn't tell her. Still, he must be pretty famous since he was supposed to be known in galaxies far, far away.

Lois wasn't used to having fans. Part of her wasn't sure if this future the Legion envisioned was really for her. Could she make that much of a difference?

Feeling the straps surround her, she took a deep breath.

It was too late to turn back now. With that thought she closed her eyes and tried to prepare for what was going to happen.

It was only after a lot of debating that they'd decided to send her thoughts and memories back, rejecting the idea of sending Lois herself back in time to convince her earlier counterpart to stay in Metropolis. Everyone agreed it was too risky to have two Lois Lanes running around. Even if she could convince her very stubborn younger self to change her plans, there was a chance that someone would see both of them. According to Rokk, that was bad. Besides, Lois would have to do more than convince her younger self to just stick around.

In the Legion's history, Lois was more than friends with Clark. They were a couple.

When Lois found that out, she thought they were nuts and told them so. While Garth laughed and Imra smiled, Rokk was not amused.

"What do you mean?" He asked. "This is the way history was meant to be. You must fix it if you are to save Earth … and many other worlds as well."

"How am I supposed to do that? I tried the romance thing once with Clark once and it bombed … he left me standing alone, high and dry." She was surprised to find that saying the words brought back the feelings. It still hurt.

"But you're more aware now," Imra said, placing a comforting hand on Lois' arm, "and you can act accordingly. It should be easier if you know it was meant to be."

"Of course," Rokk began, earning a glare from Imra, "even if Clark Kent doesn't return your affections, you must continue to support and challenge him. If you make this choice, you can never leave him."

"So I've got to stay by Clark even if he doesn't want me? I'm not sure I can do that," Lois told them honestly, choking a little on the words.

"To save the World?" asked Garth. "Clark will save people without asking anything in return. Surely you can give some of that back to him?"

"And if he doesn't want me around?" Lois finished, knowing that she was grasping at straws. Clark had never pushed anyone away, especially not Lois; it had been her choice to leave the last time.

"There's a connection there, Lois. Clark needs you," Imra said, smiling that knowing smile. "He may not always recognize it, but you can make him see."

The whirring noise of the device brought her out of her memories, a sense of panic flooding her.

This was it. What if she couldn't do it?

Garth leaned down as soon as Lois opened her eyes. "Are you ready?"

"No," Lois told him, shaking her head. "Lanes' do not live in the past," she said, hearing the panic in her voice.

"Then make a new future," Garth told her, placing what Lois called 'the helmet' on her head, before grinning and squeezing her hand.

"Take care of the leftovers," Lois directed, using sarcasm to calm herself as she heard the device activate. She was told that her body would be put into stasis and preserved, which seemed odd, but who was she to stop them if they wanted a souvenir.

As the General used to say, it never hurts to have a backup.

Garth waved, smiling as he walked out of the room. Lois took a deep breath, but it didn't help. She wasn't ready. She didn't feel invested in this plan. There were no specific strategies she could apply, no battle tactics to implement.

Even if it worked, what was she supposed to do?

The acid that was already building in her stomach started to rise up in her throat.

Oh God, I'm going to be sick.

She looked around and spotted Imra looking at her through the observation window.

Imra's words were surprisingly calming.

Clark needs you …

Those words seemed to transport Lois back to the rooftop in Star City. She remembered gray eyes softening to blue as awareness returned to them. Maybe she could save Clark this time.

Maybe she'd never really had a choice.

It was her turn.