Chapter 8

Lois gently closed the door behind her as she entered the hospital room, pausing briefly. She'd been so concerned about Clark and so focused on getting in, she hadn't had time to acknowledge her own feelings. Now she found herself needing a moment to prepare.

The doctor had said he was healing well, but she had no idea what to expect. What she'd seen at the factory had already shaken her deeply, but it had been dark that night and there was so much blood it was hard to get a true sense of his injuries.

She allowed her eyes to fall on the hospital bed and made her way over to her husband's unconscious form, the steady beeping of the heart monitor accompanying every step.

As he came fully into view, Lois lifted her hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp. Her eyes filled with tears and she tucked her arm around her waist for comfort.

Seeing the remnants of his injuries in the bright light of the hospital room took her breath away. With a twinge of guilt, she wondered if maybe it was a blessing she hadn't been allowed in earlier. How bad had it been before the sun lamps had been set up, allowing his advanced healing process to kick in?

The skin on his chest was still an ugly tapestry of black, blue, purple and yellow. There were cuts and scrapes on his face and hands, and claw shaped marks around his neck. His face looked pained & anxious even in his sleep, and every now and then he twitched slightly then like he was in distress. The cast on his nose had been removed and it looked like the bone had been pushed back into place, but it was horribly sore and swollen. There was a deep cut at the bridge that had been stitched up.

They'd been through a lot of traumatising events over the years. She'd seen him in plenty of near-death states, much worse than this. But something felt different this time. Like she wasn't able to compartmentalise it all anymore, and now she was faced with the full brunt of her emotions.

She leaned in and gently stroked the single curl of hair back from his forehead in the way she always did when it appeared. The tears she'd been holding back cascaded down her cheeks.

'I'm here now Clark,' she choked out, trying to sound as comforting as she could. 'It's okay, it's over. You're safe now.'

She looked around for a chair and pulled it up to the side of the bed, taking his hand in hers as she sat down and tracing small circles with her fingers.

She cursed herself inwardly again. She should have realised how stupid their plan had been! They should have just had the DOD arrest Marcus as soon as Clark found out he was the Stranger. Why did she let Clark talk her into playing along, knowing he had kryptonite weapons?

The man had kidnapped her sons! There obviously had been some evidence he'd been able to retrieve from the RV of Clark's secret identity. He'd taken Jordan and Jonathan to make sure Clark wouldn't be thinking straight and would walk straight into his trap.

Then he'd nearly killed him.

God, if Jonathan hadn't been able to get through to him…

Her son had briefly explained what had happened – what he'd seen on the video in the RV. The other world's Superman killing another Lois Lane. That she was married to this John Irons guy there, and apparently they had a child… called Natalie.

She hadn't even had time to process the emotional impact of that little nugget of information, but it felt like just another knife twisting in her heart.

Whatever John Irons had been through, he'd got it in his head that killing her husband would save the world. But the particularly vicious beating he'd proceeded with told her it was about something much more than altruism.

This was vengeance. This had been an expression of the man's grief fuelled rage.

She watched in awe and a little bit of relief as one of the cuts on Clark's face started to shrink & heal before her very eyes. As hard as it was to think about the pain that he'd had to endure, at least it looked like he would recover quickly.

Physically anyway.

And Lois would be right there beside him for the rest.

'Where is he?' General Lane demanded as he entered the control room at the DOD.

One of his younger recruits stood up quickly and saluted him before pointing down the hallway.

'He's in the interrogation room ready for you, sir,' the young woman confirmed.

He nodded and began turning towards the hallway, but she called his attention back.

'Wait, General, before you go in there… you should see this video we recovered from the RV,' she added nervously.

Sam frowned. He could see the rest of the soldiers in the room tense up as well. Whatever it was, they were clearly anxious about him seeing it.

'What is it, Farris?'

'His motive,' she tentatively explained, before directing him towards a computer monitor showing his daughter standing on top of a rooftop in a version of Metropolis that looked like it had been hit by a fiery meteor.

'And we must defeat them if we are to save humanity…'

Sam Lane watched on in horror as a darkly clad version of Superman burned his daughter alive.

Clark lifted out of unconsciousness much more suddenly this time, his fear bringing him immediately into awareness.

The continued presence of that steady beeping sound confirmed that he was still in the hospital room. The memory of his attempted escaped drifted through his mind and he realised with a crushing sense of helplessness that they had overpowered and drugged him.

He tried to steel his mind against the terror fuelled thoughts of what might be in store for him, but he could hear the heart monitor giving away his body's fear response.

Suddenly he realised there was a familiar scent in the room.

Could that be… Lois' perfume? No, it had to be some kind of trick.

He froze as a soft gentle hand took his own and started tracing familiar small circles on his palm. Despite his best effort to remain sceptical, he couldn't prevent himself responding to the growing hope that she was actually in the room.

'Lois?' he croaked out, the question in his voice barely audible.

'Clark!' she responded, sounding both relieved and concerned.

He opened his eyes carefully and his wife's face came into view. He fought back tears of relief

'It's okay, babe,' she reassured him, stroking her other hand over his cheek. 'I'm here now, you're okay.'

'I thought…' he started, but his voice choked up – partly due to his dry and bruised throat and partly because the words were so hard to say.

'I know,' she said sadly. 'I'm sorry, I told them they should never have let you wake up here alone, but would anyone listen to me? No! Typical military men and their stubbornness, apparently even the military doctors have a thick head!'

Clark felt his face muscles pulled into a smile at the bizarrely reassuring sound of his wife's ranting, but the involuntary movement caused the swollen areas of his face to protest, and he winced painfully.

'Are you okay?' she turned to him, 'Do you want me to call the doctor back in?'

His eyes widened and she could see the flash of terror behind them.

'No!' he said quickly, before attempting to cover up the intensity of his response. 'I mean, not yet.'

The few small words scratched at his throat and caused a coughing fit. Lois adjusted the hospital bed so that he could sit up and handed him a plastic cup with ice chips in it. He placed one of the ice chips on his tongue and felt the cool water soothing his throat with each uncomfortable swallow.

'We're in the DOD hospital Clark. I know this is a scary place to be, but you were in really bad shape…' she explained.

'What happened?' he asked, his voice sounding a little bit less broken.

'You don't remember anything?' she asked, surprised and concerned.

He shook his head gently in response.

'I remember going back to the farm and seeing that the boys weren't home… then… nothing,' he revealed, looking to her for an explanation.

Lois bit her lip, obviously not sure how to explain what had brought him there and surprised by his memory loss.

'Clark… it was Marcus… well his name is actually John Irons… he found out who you are. He took the boys,' she explained.

'What?! Where are they?' he exclaimed, panic once again spreading across his features as he looked at her intently.

His heart rate on the monitor tripled.

'It's okay, they're fine,' she quickly assured him, 'They're just outside.'

Clark relaxed slightly, breathing out a slow shaky breath.

'It looks like he called you from Jordan's phone and threatened to hurt them unless you flew over there… but I don't think he was ever planning to hurt them. It looks like he was just using the boys to get to you,' she continued.

Clark looked down at his own chest and hands. He had been so focused on the assumed threat of the hospital environment last time he hadn't really had an opportunity to look himself over. It looked and felt like there was not a part of him that hadn't been in some way damaged.

'Clark, the factory was set up with red sun lamps… and he had kryptonite built into some kind of enhanced steel hammer. He was going to kill you…' Lois explained, her voice catching in her throat.

Clark looked away, even just the description of the events filling him with disgust. He wondered if it was a blessing his memory was gone.

'If it weren't for Jonathan…' she continued.

'Jonathan?' he asked, concerned that his son had anything to do with the outcome.

'Yeah… he convinced John Irons to let you live,' Lois confirmed, a hint of pride in her voice.

Clark winced slightly at the notion this John Irons had allowed him to live.

'He hasn't said much,' she continued, deciding not to tell him everything yet, 'but he said he saw some videos in the RV of Johns daughter and used her to get through to him.'

'Why does this guy hate me so much?' Clark asked.

The knowledge the man had a daughter and apparently a strong enough conscience for his son to reach him made all of this even harder to understand.

'We'll know soon enough,' she assured him. 'Dad's interrogating him now.'

Clark relaxed slightly knowing that he was in Sam's custody.

'And Jordan?' he continued.

'He seems to be okay, but his powers are still gone after being exposed to the kryptonite and red sun lamps,' she admitted.

Tears filled his vision again and a low groan escaped his lips. He couldn't bear the thought his son had been exposed to that torturous poison and he'd been unable to do anything to protect him.

'I hoped he'd never have to go through that,' he said, his voice low and full of pain.

'This is not your fault, Clark,' she said with conviction.

She knew his tendency towards misplaced guilt, and was an expert at shutting it down quickly.

'Lois, they were kidnapped to get to me… They almost died because of who I am,' he argued, often matching his wife's stubbornness when it came to self-flagellation.

'No, Clark. They survived because of who you are,' she said with determination to reframe that narrative.

Clark lifted his eyes to hers and softened a bit at her loving and reassuring gaze.

'Our boys are strong, Clark. Like their dad,' she said with a proud smile, stroking his hand between her own.

He looked at her gratefully and placed his other hand over hers.

'No,' he countered softly, 'Like their mom.'

'I'd introduce myself, but you already know who I am, don't you John?' the General began as he sat down at the table in the interrogation room.

He was still reeling from the video he'd just watched. Seeing one of his girls die like that was the stuff of nightmares, even if she wasn't exactly his Lois.

What they'd learned from Jonathan's stay in the RV combined with what they already knew about the multi-verse made it clear they were dealing with some kind of alternate version of earth – but that didn't make it any less horrific.

'That is your real name, isn't it? John Henry Irons…? Ranger… two tours in Afghanistan. Got into the private sector and made a name for yourself as a mechanical engineer, right?' Sam continued. 'The problem is, John Irons died six years ago under mysterious circumstances. At least that's what happened to the John Irons of this Earth.'

He paused to see John's reaction, but he didn't seem phased to hear they knew he wasn't from here.

'Let's go over what we know about the events on your earth so far,' Sam began. 'One - You were married to Lois Lane. Two - You had a daughter called Natalie. Three - You worked for Lex Luthor. Four – Metropolis was destroyed by a kryptonian army. Five – Your evil Superman killed my daughter.'

'He wasn't always evil,' John responded tentatively, but looking Sam straight in the eye.

'Superman?' the General clarified, and John nodded.

'He wasn't quite as famous as your Superman, but he was helping people. We trusted him,' John reflected, before turning sombre. 'And he turned on us in an instant.'

'I guess this world is different,' Sam glared at him defiantly.

'Maybe,' John conceded, guilt briefly crossing his face. 'But so far, everything that happened on my world is happening on this one. Edge has been mining for X-Kryptonite. He's been selecting candidates to be implanted with kryptonian consciousness… he's probably already succeeded by now. They will try and take over soon, whether Superman is with them or not.'

'Why didn't you just come to me with this from the start?' General Lane questioned.

'I didn't know who to trust,' John explained. 'When I saw you were working with him…'

'You thought Superman was working with Edge?' Sam filled in.

John nodded. 'They are his family, Sam. Once he'd turned on us, he showed no mercy. I held you in my arms as you died. You and so many others'

'Your daughter…' Sam queried.

'Natalie,' John clarified, regret and grief returning to his features.

'My mother's name,' Sam acknowledged. 'Did she…?'

'I don't know…,' he shook his head. 'I was about to finally take out Kal-El with a solar flare device Lex Luthor developed when my ship was hit with some kind of wave, and I ended up here. If Kal-El survived the flare… then I left them all to die.'

John's words were filled with despair.

Sam stiffened, pulling back from the sympathetic response he was creating within him. The memory of Clark's bloodied and beaten form lying on that factory floor suddenly filling him with renewed anger.

'You think that excuses what you did?' he exclaimed angrily. 'You kidnapped my grandsons! You nearly killed our greatest ally. I don't care what your Superman did, it doesn't give you the right to attack an innocent man.'

'I thought I HAD too, Sam,' John defended himself. 'Please, you have to understand. Kal-El killed thousands of people in MINUTES… and all we could do was watch.'

Sam grimaced at the thought of being powerless against that kind of attack. His job was to defend against alien threats, but most of the time it was Superman himself who saved them. He often feared what would happen if Superman wasn't around… or worse, if he became a threat himself.

John continued, 'On my earth we made a pact - never to hesitate. We used 7734 to take out some of them… but it wasn't enough. By the time I'd finished developing Lex's solar flare technology, there was barely anything left to defend. They'd taken over the surface and driven any survivors underground.'

Sam began to imagine his own head state in that situation. What he might be capable of, the desperation it would have driven him too. The lines he would cross.

'When I arrived here, and I saw that it hadn't happened here yet… that I could stop it from happening all over again… I thought this was a second chance to get it right…' John explained.

As much as his loyalty to Lois and his family was getting in the way, on some level, Sam did understand. It was his job to always think about the big picture, to prepare for worst case scenarios when it came to protecting the world.

And it wasn't always pretty.

Sam nodded to whoever was on the other side of the mirror and the door to the interrogation room opened. He was satisfied the man was telling him the truth, but he needed time to process what he was saying.

For now, they needed to take action to stop Edge from continuing with his plan. If John was right, they didn't have much time.

'Sir?' Trask asked, waiting for the general's command.

'Get a team down to 7734 to armour up. I want Morgan Edge and anyone who's with him brought in immediately for questioning,' General Lane ordered.

The man nodded and turned quickly down the hallway.

'It won't be enough Sam,' John warned. 'There's too many of them.'

'Well, what would you suggest? You've taken out our first line of defence against alien threats,' Sam retorted angrily. 'We haven't got much of a choice.'

'If I could replicate that solar flare technology…' John explained.

'You won't be doing anything. Give me the plans and i'll see what we can do,' General Lane replied.

John shook his head in frustration. 'I don't have them,' he said, pausing before making a suggestion he seemed to sense was going to go down like a sack of bricks. 'But I know who does.'

'And who is that?' Sam asked, sceptical of the man's offer of help.

'Lex Luthor.'