Chapter 5

End of the week and Clark is home at the farm, up in the loft of the barn perusing through some magazines which was definitely a mistake on his part. They're full of talk on 'heroes'. Oliver revealing himself. Mia, who has been buzzing around Metropolis, covering for him and even an article about himself, the Blur, questioning if he is even a hero.

It's just about the last thing he needs to be reading about. He already had doubts, made worse by his last visit up to the Fortress. Jor-El was very blunt about the fact that if Clark cannot rid himself of his self-doubt he can never be this world's saviour. Let's face facts his Kryptonian father is not good at positive motivational speeches.

Maybe his father is right. Maybe he's not the one. Maybe none of them are.

Clark's attention is caught by the sound of footsteps. Lois.

"Lois. Um, sorry I've been kind of out of it lately, I left you a message," he says, assuming she is here due to the fact he hasn't been into work all week and therefore they haven't seen each other.

"Yeah, 3 days ago," she points out, trying not to sound hurt…and failing.

"I've had a lot on my mind," he mutters.

"Anything you want to share?"

Yeah, in no way is Clark ready to have that conversation with her because what is on his mind is his other life as a costumed hero and his daughter. He shrugs non-committedly.

Lois frowns. Since she got back from Africa Clark has seemed to, if anything, become even more clammed up about his feelings. Not to mention that their relationship seems utterly frozen…if you can even call it a relationship at the moment. But instead of confronting him about it Lois does what she always does and puts on a blasé front. "Well, no worries, you didn't miss anything in the news department."

"Okay."

"Seems the Blur took a little vacation this week too."

"There must be something going around," Clark brushes it off.

Lois eyes him carefully. Hmm," she says before her attention is caught by the magazines on the table. "Hero haters, just when you think the world couldn't get more upside down, right?"

"People probably don't want to put their hope in someone who is going to let them down."

"He never would, let us down. The Blur, I mean, this person for one is going to stand by her hero no matter how much mud they sling."

Clark looks at her, wondering where this unreasonable belief is coming from. "Why?"

"Because, that's what you do when you believe in someone," she says and when she says someone she means him. What is up with him? Maybe if she just comes out and says that she knows he's the Blur she can tell it to him straight and they can move forward. Or she can remain a coward where her heart is concerned and totally avoid talking about it. She clears her throat. "You know what you need? A pick me up," she says, picking up a football lying around and throwing it at him.

"Thanks Lois, but I don't think playing quarterback is going to make my day," he comments. Not that he doesn't appreciate the effort.

"Depends on the cheerleader," she quips which gets a smile out of him. "Come on, did you forget? Tomorrow's our Smallville High reunion," she reminds him.

"Wha-Did you say our reunion?" he asks, having totally forgotten about that.

"Yes."

He looks at her sceptically. "You were enrolled there for like…"

"23 days," she says, somehow proud of that fact.

"You showed up for 5," he reminds her.

"That's a record in my book. Smallville's the closest thing to a pass that this military brat has, and I am not going to miss it. We don't have to be dating to show up at a reunion together," she points out, though she would really love it if they could go as a couple.

"A lot of memories there for me," he murmurs, lost in those memories.

"Come on, Clark. It would mean a lot to me, seeing all those familiar faces it was like I had a place, like I fit in. And you, I mean, you put the Smallville in Smallville, Smallville. Besides, what's the worst thing that could happen?" she asks innocently.

Clark chuckles at that. After all it is Smallville…and speaking of that particular curse…

There is loud muttering in Spanish as one very unhappy time traveller marches up the stairs, holding in her hand another of the hero-bashing magazines Clark has been reading this week. One unhappy time-traveller whose clothes are in the laundry so appears in nothing much more than one of Clark's shirts.

Now imagine how that looks to Lois as said brunette stares aghast. Anger seethes in her breast.

"Oh!" Mia yelps. "I, uh, didn't know we had company," she says apologetically as her eyes fall upon Lois

Clark groans. This is not going to go well.

"I was just leaving," Lois says in seething, angry tones as she storms off.

Clark gets to his feet and chases after her. "Lois! Wait up! Will you stop please?!" he almost begs her, before resorting to grabbing her arm just as they reach her car.

"Let go of me!" she snaps at him.

"It's not what you think!" he says in defence of himself.

"Don't dare tell me what I think, Kent!" she snaps, the fact she's using his surname a sure sign of how angry she is. "Moved on quick didn't ya!"

"Ay Dios mio," he finds himself saying in Spanish, showing that he has been hanging around his daughter enough to start picking up phrases.

"Yeah, whatever!"

"Will you just listen for once in your damn life!" he finds himself snapping at her.

Clark so rarely loses his temper it catches Lois' attention.

"She's my cousin. She's staying for awhile," he comes up with on the hoof.

"Nut uh," Lois refuses to accept that explanation. "I've met your cousin, remember," she says in reference to Kara.

"I have more than one cousin."

"First I've heard about it."

"I didn't realise I needed to run it through you first."

"Well, I just thought we were partners. Partners share." Couples too.

"Really? Just like you shared the reasons why you disappeared off to Africa without a word?" he retorts, unable to keep the question in because amazingly she still hasn't explained herself.

Lois' expression hardens, shakes her arm loose of his grip and opens her car door. "See you tomorrow, Smallville," she says tartly before getting in, starting her car up and skidding off.

Clark sighs and rubs his face. That went well…not.

"Perdón."

Clark turns round to find his daughter looking sorry. "Don't apologise. That was bound to happen sooner or later. I should have come up with a proper story for you before now," he accepts the blame upon himself. "So, I guess for anyone asking you're my cousin, ok?"

Mia nods. "Ok."

"And it seems like I'll be attending my High School Reunion tomorrow."

"Yeah? Hated mine. Don't know why I went," she says with a sad shake of her head.

"To meet old friends?"

"I wasn't exactly Ms Popular. Never had many friends."

"No? Me neither," Clark confesses to her.

"Like father, like daughter?" Mia suggests, grinning slightly at the idea that she is just like her father.

"Seems so."

When Lois comes to pick Clark up the next day she seems to have calmed down and is actually being quite pleasant to him. Though you have to know her to realise this is her being pleasant.

As for Clark he agreed to come to the reunion more to spend some time with her than any overwhelming desire to be here and that reasoning is only more enforced as he walks round the school and memories almost assail him of the people he knew and loved and are no longer in his life. Lana. Chloe. Even Alicia.

Though the fact his old Guidance Counsellor just came up and hugged him was really strange.

There was a funny moment when he and Lois went to the Torch and he bumped into the couple of kids who now run it who so reminded him of himself and Chloe. Hopefully that ends better for them than where he and Chloe sit right now.

He is only half-listening to Lois when she talks about dating a superhero and defends the Blur and how he has inspired a generation of followers. Only half-listening because while he appreciates it, he's heard this from her before and none of it has really helped in washing away his self-doubts.

Somehow, after that, he and Lois get named Homecoming King and Queen which is super weird since Lois barely ever attended this school. The fact she's super happy about it when he's most decidedly not does remind him that even though he and Lois are close there are still massive differences between them.

Looking over the crowd Clark is surprised to spot Greg 'Bugboy' Arkin. Just as he is about to move Clark finds everyone around him freezes as if time itself has stopped. He looks around as the door to the gym opens and in walks Brainiac.

At first Clark fears this is a rerun of all his previous confrontations with Brainiac but it turns out that the Legion had managed to purge the AI's programming of its corruption and it was now here to help do the same with Clark's spirit.

There was a trip the past where Clark saw how his dad really died. Protecting him from Lionel. Brainiac did this because it said that this was the moment where Clark's corruption began. Him taking responsibility for his dad's death due to him changing time and being unable to let it go.

They then jumped to the present where Oliver was sitting alone in his office, watching as his attempt to try and have an inspirational effect on public opinion with his reveal is backfiring. And Oliver is all alone because Clark has been a God-awful friend this last week by not being there when he should have been. He's been terribly self-indulgent, hasn't he?

What followed next was a trip back to the reunion where Brainiac seems to want to make Clark face where he is in regards to his relationship with Lois. Where Clark argues he pulled away to protect her but Brainiac points out she doesn't look very protected all alone did she?

Good point. Clark will admit. He then acts rashly when he sees Greg walk up to Lois and attempts to grab the Legion ring from Brainiac and he ends up in the future. And it's almost everything he hoped. It's a world where he is acting as the world's saviour and he and Lois are a couple. And it works. Lois knows who he is and had embraced it, doing what she can to protect his secret.

Brainiac arrives and tells Clark that he wanted him to see this so he would not fear the future but embrace it. They return to the present where he and Lois have an almost dance which doesn't quite happen much to, he knows, her disappointment. He determines to make it up to her but first he has something he has to do.

That night he visits his dad's grave. Emotion is wrought upon his face. "Brainiac was right dad, I never stopped blaming myself for what happened to you. It was a way not to have to let go. It's exactly what I have to do to move on, getting rid of the darkness of my past I've been carrying around. To be there for the people who need me now. I seem to hold onto Smallville. I will, I won't ever forget; 'Cause you'll be with me no matter where I go. I have to say the one thing I never could…" He grabs a piece of grass on the ground and lifts it placing his dad's watch underneath. "Goodbye dad. I promise to be the man you knew I could be."

Clark then moves to leave only to stop and return to the grave. "You know I saw the future. My future and it was everything I wanted it to be but since I got back, I keep feeling like I missed something. And I can't think what. I'm sure it'll come to me," he says and turns to leave.

One minute later he's back. "I know you're probably going to think this is me going back on my saying I've moving on but I wanted to tell you something. I'm a dad. I have a daughter. You have a granddaughter. Her name is Mia. You're probably going to be disappointed in me as to how it happen-that's it!" he declares with a snap of his fingers as it suddenly hits him. "That's what I missed. Mia. There was no sign of her…but how…unless the future I saw is the one she came from. The one where I never knew she existed but how does that work? Surely future me has my memories? Ugh, I hate time travel," he complains, rubbing his face. He stares intently at his dad's grave. The dad who sacrificed his life to protect Clark and now that Clark himself is a dad how can he do any less?

"I need to figure this out, dad. I've been treading around Mia since she got here just in case it was a deception but I need to know for certain who she is and why she came back in time. Then I need to be part of the Mia of this time's life. I can't not be part of her life now that I know she exists. You would expect me to take responsibility and I will. I promise. Though I have no idea how I'm telling mom…and yes, I know, I'm being a coward but seriously can you imagine her reaction?"

Clark takes a moment to recompose himself. He just came here to say the goodbye he never could before and here he is rambling on. However, he is determined to stop wallowing. He needs to be more proactive and discovering the full truth of Mia is part of that. And yes, he does need to tell his mom.

But all things in order.

First task he undertakes is to be there when Oliver next gives a press conference and show him, he supports him. Afterwards Clark manages to see Oliver alone in his office at Luthorcorp. "I'm sorry, Oliver about not being here before."

"Well, I'm sure you're busy with your daughter and all."

Clark smiles slightly. "That's generous Oliver but it's not an excuse. I…had an epiphany about how self-indulgent I've been lately. If you need me for anything, just call."

"Thank you, Clark," Ollie says, genuinely moved.

"But I have to ask; have you really given up on finding Chloe?" he asks in reference to something Ollie said during the press conference.

"I've given up on any notion of being able to find her unless she wants to be found."

"I'm sure she's got some stupid idea in her head that she's protecting us."

"She probably is."

"Yeah, still don't think we need all this cloak and dagger stuff. We should be working together."

Oliver gives Clark a look.

"Bit rich coming from me?" he guesses.

"You suddenly become psychic?"

"Nope. Had an epiphany, remember."

"Ah. 'Bout time."

The two men share a laugh.

"How are things? With your daughter?" the blond man wonders.

"Which version?"

"Time travel gives me a headache," Oliver complains.

"Me too…but I did meet Andrea."

"How did that go?"

"So far she seems receptive to me being part of Mia's life."

"That's good. I'm happy for you, Clark."

"Hmm."

"Told Lois yet?" Oliver asks with a smirk.

Clark rolls his eyes. "No. Still don't know how I'm going to have that conversation. God, I haven't even worked out yet how I tell Andrea I'm an alien."

"Do you need to?"

"While she doesn't seem to possess any yet, one day Mia will develop powers. I know that for certain from her adult self. How can I not let Andrea know what our daughter is?"

Ollie has to concede that. "Ok, on that front I definitely don't envy you."

"Yeah. I don't envy being me either but my epiphany showed me that I've been avoiding making the hard choices for too long. Though there is a time and a place for that talk."

"I'm certain you just contradicted yourself but I do agree you need to choose wisely when and where to lay the revelations down."

"Uh huh. Well, I should be going and check up on my adult daughter. I'm certain I need to say a few things to her as well. Damn epiphanies are hard work," he jokily complains.

"Most good things in life tend to be," Oliver sagely advises.

Smallville…

"Mia, we need to talk," Clark says to his daughter upon returning to the farm and finding her up in the loft. She's so like him sometimes he wonders why he still has doubts about her.

Mia looks concerned. "Ooh, nothing ever good comes from those 4 words."

Clark chuckles lightly. "It's nothing like that, Mia. I need to apologise for the way I've been behaving this last week."

"No. You don't."

"Yes. I do," he insists. "I've probably been a big disappointment to you."

"You could never be a disappointment, Papá," she assures him.

"You're being kinder than you need to, Mia. I'm a big boy. I can take criticism. The truth is that I've been letting the past weigh me down too much and stop me from embracing the future. In all honesty I should have listened to you."

Mia blinks. "To me? In what regard?"

"You said that I shouldn't worry too much about the future. That I'll get there."

"Well, you will. Trust me."

"I do, Mia but trust is a two-way street. When are you going to trust me with the reasons why you came into the past?" he asks, living up to his vow to his dad that he was going to confront the issue.

Ut oh! Not now. Mia's not ready yet. She still hasn't found what she came here for and her father…he might understand but she fears he won't. She better think fast. "Papá I…" she takes a breath. "It wasn't easy you know. Growing up. Having these powers appear and not having you around to help me. I know, I know, that sounds horribly selfish of me considering what you mean to the rest of world."

"No. No, it doesn't," he replies while feeling a gnawing sense of guilt that he wasn't around for her. He briefly flashes back to his future self he met. Meeting him showed Clark he can be the hero he wants to be yet clearly, if he is correct about his assumption, that man was never the father he should have been to Mia. If that is true Clark can't be that man. At least not exactly. Something to think on later. Right now he continues to listen to his daughter speak.

"And at first I didn't know where they were coming from. I think I assumed I was just a metahuman, like Mamá. Later, when I found out the truth, I then had the burden of trying to live up to you and I was afraid I couldn't do it."

"Mia, we talked about this. You shouldn't try and live up to me."

"Yes but you weren't in my life to tell me that. Everyone…they all had these expectations of me and I just felt like that I was constantly disappointing them. I didn't know what to do. Who to turn to. Then I learned time travel was possible and that's when it struck me. I could travel back and meet you. Learn from you. You could teach me how to honour your legacy the way it should be honoured."

"But why this far back? Just when I'm starting?"

"Um…ok, confession time. I really didn't mean to travel this far back. You have to realise that I…um…borrowed the ring and I was in a rush…"

"The ring responds to your thoughts. If you're distracted…" Clark says, nodding as he understands.

Mia shrugs helplessly.

Clark moves to sit down beside her on the couch and places an arm over her shoulder. She responds by leaning her head on his broad shoulder. "What are we going to do with you?" he asks in a half-joking manner.

Right now, all Mia wants is this. To be with her father. What she said just there wasn't a lie. It just wasn't the whole truth but she meant it. She came back to be with him. She wraps her arms around him and hugs him tight as if trying to fill the hole inside her from 24 years of not having him in her life.

"So, I was thinking."

"Ut oh!"

"I get that enough from Lois. Don't you start," he warns her off.

"Perdón," she apologises, truly not wanting to be like Lois. They met once in the future and while she did tell her father that Lois didn't like her what she didn't say is that she didn't like Lois right back. If anyone took the time to psychoanalyse that no doubt it would come from the resentment that Lois took her father away from her, no matter that that is not the case.

"As I was saying, how about you and I go out in Metropolis together tonight?" he proposes.

Mia pulls back, her eyes lit up. "Really?!" she asks, excitedly.

Clark nods.

"Yes!" she yells before she zips away in a blur and reappears seconds later in her costume. "Come on, Papá!" she whines. "The night is not getting any younger."

Clark shakes his head in amusement. He blurs away and returns in his own costume of the red jacket, blue shirt and jeans.

Mia quirks an eyebrow at his appearance. It was different to the famous costume she is familiar with but that doesn't make it bad.

Clark has to smile at the palpable enthusiasm emanating from his daughter. The two zip off towards the city, her flying low, him running. Ooh, he then recalls he was supposed to make it up to Lois not getting a dance at the reunion. Maybe tomorrow…ah crap. Tomorrow is Sunday. He's meeting Andrea and Mia. He'll figure something out.

Only problem is that as per typical of his life stuff will come up and he'll never have that dance with Lois. It may seem like a small thing but it is from such a seemingly insignificant difference that entire new futures are born.

31st Century…

"Brainiac!" the voice hisses the name with fury and malice as an impossibly powerful hand wraps itself around the AI's neck, lifting it into the air.

"Kara Zor-El," the Kryptonian construct responds in calm tones that do belie a certain degree of confusion at the appearance of the blond cousin of Kal-El. Brainiac itself had only just returned from his trip into the past.

"Whoa!" Cosmic Boy moves to intervene. "Easy Kara," he says as he grabs her wrist. "He's not the Brainiac you remember. We reprogrammed him. Removed all of Zod's corruption."

"Yeah. Brainy's all sweetness and light now," Lightning Lad says.

Kara frowns as her glowing red eyes fade to their natural blue.

"While I do not ascribe to Lightning Lad's description I can assure you Kara Zor-El that I am now the construct Jor-El intended myself to be when he created me. I now serve as part of the Legion in protecting this world and the galaxy at large," Brainiac says.

"Trust us, Kara. We would not allow him to be a Legionnaire if we weren't sure it was safe to do so," Saturn Girl says in her soothing tones.

Kara relents and releases Brainiac.

Brainiac straightens his collar. "I am surprised to see you Kara Zor-El."

"Likewise," the blond mutters, still not quite willing to just trust this thing.

"How did you come to this time?" Brainiac needs to know.

"I was out in space looking for any remnant of Krypton which may have survived when this wormhole opened up in front of me. Next thing I know I'm crashing down on Earth in this time."

"The chances of encountering a temporal transcendent vortex are…"

"I know what they are!" Kara snaps, annoyed at being talked down to. "But here I am," she points out, holding her arms akimbo.

"Kara wished to know what happened to her cousin," Saturn Girl explains.

Brainiac assesses their location. The Superman Museum. That is when he starts to notice it. It has changed from what his memory files recall. He listens in as a tour guide speaks to a group of school children.

"This is one of the most crucial moments in Superman's life. When he was a young man, just beginning to use his powers to aid humanity and facing the insidious influence of Darkseid, who sought to cloud Superman's destiny with doubts about his purpose. It was at this moment that Superman would first discover that he had a daughter…"

"Wait. Kal has a daughter? I'm an aunt?" Kara asks, miffed. "He never told me that."

"That's because he's not supposed to know," Brainiac mutters as he walks towards the holographic display which is currently projecting the image of a young woman dressed in black with a blue cape. "Cir-El. What have you done?!" he asks, genuine alarm and concern in his tone that all of history, the very history he just thought he had ensured took place as it should, could now be in very great jeopardy.

Author's Note: I was going to do Homecoming in much more detail until I realised that I wasn't going to change anything about Clark's trip through time but it was what happened afterwards where changes would occur. That Mia's presence in Clark's life would have him make slightly different choices. The dance in the barn is where Clark is meant to tell Lois he loves her. Take that pivotal moment away and a whole new timeline can emerge which led to the last scene. I debated a little bit about what to do with Kara. Leave her travelling through the cosmos to return later or send her to the 31st century. I chose the later so I could have that last scene. Thanks to everyone who has written reviews.