When Jonathan was able to stand up again, he saw his older self, his brother's older self and Lara with him in the fortress. Lara was in full control of the fortress again and tried to trap the older Jordan in a forcefield made of red sunlight while sending yellow sunlight on Jonathan and his older self. Obviously, she believed that they help him.
Jonathan just spotted his older self using his heat-vision to zap the older Jordan and prevent him from killing him, before he used superspeed to attack Jordan and push him out of the room.
The older Jordan tried to use his own heat-vision on his brother, but the older Jonathan was able to dodge the attack while the blast from his eyes hit the wall and stopped after a heavy punch on his face that let him smash into the wall.
"Jonathan, come here!" Lara yelled and the younger Jonathan crawled over the ground towards the little chamber, she led him, to treat him inside.
His whole body was aching. Blood drippled out of his nose and his left foot felt as if his ankle was sprained… but at least his bones seemed to be all okay.
"YOU JUST CAN'T ACCEPT THAT MY DESTINITY WAS TO BE THE NEXT SUPERMAN!" the elder Jordan growled and punched the elder Jonathan violently. When he hit the other wall, he crashed through it and left a big hole in the wall before he was able to stand up again and speed towards his brother.
"THIS ARROGANCE IS THE REASON EVERYONE HATES YOU AND NOBODY ACCEPTS YOU AS A HERO ANYMORE!" the older Jonathan yelled and was able to grab his brother by his throat and throw him on the ground.
Bad memories came up in the younger Jonathan as he suddenly had that fight between his inverse-doppelganger and the younger Jordan on their farm. He felt so useless and so bad back than to be forced to hide… so he turned around and start to search the glove with the green Kryptonite again…
"Jonathan, watch out!" Lara yelled only seconds before a big heavy part of the roof crashed directly on the ground in front of Jonathan.
The older Jordan grabbed his brother and crashed with him through the roof to continue the fight outside. He realized that the fortress, he needs in future, would be damaged too hard if they fight inside…
"Jonathan, are you okay?" Lara asked worried as soon as they were alone.
Jonathan had a lot of luck, if he was one foot ahead, a big piece of debris would have crushed him. But his whole body was full of bruises, scratches, cuts, and his nose was bleeding.
"I think so!" Jonathan lied. In truth he felt awful. Lara sent a strong beam of yellow sunlight on Jonathan who start to complain immediately. "That's not necessary! It doesn't work for me!"
"It will! You are Kryptonian, too! No matter what your father let believe you!" Lara said and went closer to look for his injuries. "You also got a high dose of Kryptonite; we need to get it out of your system."
Jonathan looked up through the big hole in the ceiling and saw his older self jetting through the air like a rocket while fighting the older Jordan…
In Smallville…
"FASTER!" Lois yelled while sitting on the passenger-seat of Lana's car while Sarah sat on the wheel and raced them back into town.
"I am driving as fast as possible!" Sarah yelled back. She was crying. Lois just explained to her what happened, and she felt guilty for trusting the bad guy.
"Come on… pick up… pick up…" Lois prayed while waiting for Chrissy to pick up the call.
Lois looked on her wristwatch and remembered that Chrissy should be with the doctor now for a check-up. Maybe that's why she isn't picking up. Lois hangs off full of frustration and grabbed her ELT…
"CLARK!"
Clark was distracted… he just shooed into the DOD, right in the moment a group of soldiers were about to open the safe in Sam's office to retrieve some documents that would destroy everything… their family, their freedom… probably the world…
The moment Clark appeared in the office in a blur and throw himself in between the soldier who was about to open the safe and the safe itself, everyone in the room immediately lift his gun to point it on him. But mostly they were surprised that Superman suddenly showed up.
"Superman?" several men asked.
"Sorry to crash in so rapidly but I figured out that General Lane has some things that belong to me!" Superman apologized turned around and opened the safe by himself, where he saw the folder with the for him dangerous files and took them. "This is my private property!"
"Superman, we received a call that…" the also present General Hardcastle start to talk before Clark could suddenly hear Lois' ELT in the distance…
"CLARK… JONATHAN IS ALONE AT THE FORTRESS… WE WILL HANDLE THE DOD… GO GO GO…"
Suddenly Clark realized that Jonathan was still in the fortress and probably alone with the future Jordan and the future version of himself. Without a word to the present soldiers, Clark left the office in a blur and vanished.
"Superman? SUPERMAN!" Hardcastle jelled after Clark, but he was already gone. So, she turned to the other soldiers. "Search this place! Whatever General Lane and Superman are hiding, it is somewhere here. Collect everything up to the tiniest speck of dust… maybe we figure out what Lane's special connection to Superman truly is?"
Clark didn't notice the chaos at the DOD. He only thought about Jonathan now…
At the fortress…
Jonathan didn't want to admit it, but the intense sunlight seemed to help him really. He felt good enough again to stand up and search the heavily damaged fortress for the other lead-box with the Golden Kryptonite… He only looked up once, after hearing a severe explosion…
Up in the sky was a bright red flash when the two heat-visions hit each other and overloaded in a bright explosion that was visible even hundreds of miles away...
The passengers and crew of a plane on the way from Vancouver to Seoul saw a bright explosion in the distance, followed by a small black object that passed them at high speed and flew back.
"What was that?" the captain asked.
"Looked like… The 'Smallville Samaritan'…?" his first officer responded.
The adult Jordan had trouble to keep himself in the air, after almost hitting the jet and flew back to assault his brother who had much to his surprise less trouble to keep himself in the air and flew as if he had years of experience. Jonathan meanwhile used his much better flying skills to dodge the attack, fly behind his brother and give him a strong kick in the neck to send him down into the water.
Jordan smashed violently down into the water, but flew up just a second after to attack Jonathan again…
"HOW MUCH X-K DID YOU TAKE?" Jordan asked when he tried to punch him. But Jonathan dodged the attack again.
"I NEVER TOOK THAT STUFF AGAIN!" Jonathan yelled back. "I HAVE THESE POWERS BECAUSE WE ARE BROTHERS! IF YOU LIKE IT… OR NOT!"
Jonathan was able to give Jordan a fist-punch into his face. Latter punched him back. Both were falling through the sky.
"WAKE UP, JORDAN! All the power has blended you!"
"You are just jealous! You were always jealous on me for my powers!"
Clark who could hear everything was shocked to see his both grown up sons beating each other violently when he got closer.
"STOP IT!" Clark yelled and jumped between the two men, grabbing both on their collars to keep them apart.
"YOU BELIEVE HIS LIES?!" Jordan asked.
"HE IS LYING! HE TRIED TO…"
"STOOOOPPP!" Clark yelled loud enough to let it hurt in both adult twin's ears. He looked back and forth between them while they floated around 20.000 feet over the fortress in between the clouds. The folder with Sam's secret documents struck in his belt under his cape.
"DON'T BELIEVE HIM! He is just jealous because he had no powers!"
"You can't handle the powers, or the responsibility! Wake up, Jordan! Just because they always spoiled you doesn't mean you can act like you are better than everyone else. This is why Sarah left you! This is why Mom…" the older Jonathan yelled but was cut off when Jordan sends a blast of heat-vision on him.
"DON'T DARE TO MENTION HER…"
"STOP IT!" Clark yelled again and pushed the adult Jordan away violently when he realized that he was about to blast him with his heatvision, too. Clark turned to the adult Jonathan again. "What about your mom!"
Jonathan was not able to answer as he got suddenly punched by his brother again and send away. Clark was shocked about the violent attack that would have killed him if he was still powerless and grabbed Jordan by his arm to prevent him from flying after the falling Jonathan.
"WHY, JORDAN? WHY ARE YOU BEHAVING LIKE THIS…" Clark asked desperately.
"He destroyed everything! He is fault that our family broke apart! He is the reason mom left us! And he is the reason everyone mistrusts us!" Jordan growled full of hate.
"What?" Clark was even more shocked.
In Smallville…
The car with Lois and Sarah stopped with squeaking tires at the phone-booths next to the diner. Lois was full of adrenaline. Her weak condition after her cancer-treatment was forgotten. With pounding hearth, she jumped out of the car, before it even fully stopped and ran around the car to get into the old public-phone that was barely used these days.
"This phone?" Lois asked while standing in front of the left phone.
"No, the other one!" Sarah yelled through the open window. Her heart was pounding, too. She felt guilty for being responsible for this chaos.
Lois went to the other phone both, put the horn on her hear and searched her pockets for a coin. Sarah jumped out of the car with a coin and handed it to Lois, who inserted it and start to hammer in the number Sarah called earlier…
"Let's hope it works!" Lois said, a tear running down her face again. She didn't want to imagine the chaos that will break out if the DOD figures out things, they are not supposed to know…
Lois heard the dial-tone ending and voices. Before the woman on the other end of the line could say anything, Lois start to talk…
"The earlier call was a hoax! Code red-and-blue void! Fat cows give fatty milk!" Lois said with a disguised, much higher voice before hanging off.
Sarah, who heard everything, looked on Lois with big eyes.
"Don't ask me who comes up with these codes!" Lois wailed before she used a disinfectant-wipe to clean the phone and the horn from all fingerprints and rushed back to the passenger-seat. "To the Gazette now…"
At the fortress…
Jonathan searched the fallen debris for the other lead-box. He knew that the Golden Kryptonite was their only hope to stop this…
"Jonathan, the box is there!" Lara said and led Jonathan to the still closed lead-box that was struck under heavy pieces of debris.
Jonathan climbed over the big rocks and start to lift the debris off the box while high over him, his future self, his brother's future self and his father were still fighting. Jonathan was able to grab the box and pull it out form under the debris.
"Bring it over here! I need to analyze it." Lara said and Jonathan placed the lead-box on the podium. "Be careful! Don't open the box by yourself!"
Jonathan only opened the clasp and let the box itself closed before leaving and hiding in the little chamber like Lara ordered. Before he could react, the gate closed and trapped him in a space full of yellow sunlight to protect him from the radiation of the golden Kryptonite while analyzing it.
20.000 feet over them Clark looked with big eyes back and forth between his grown-up sons and wondered how much they could hate each other. Was it really jealousy? Did he not keep sure that Jonathan is really okay? Did he really give Jordan the feeling that he is superior?
"Jonathan, Jordan… stop this before you hurt anyone! Especially yourself!" Clark begged.
"This jealous bastard published a book about our family and humiliated us so much, that mom divorced you and stopped writing!" Jordan ranted. "And after that he faked his own suicide to plot this!"
"What?" Clark was shocked to hear that and looked over to the adult Jonathan who told them a whole different story.
"I was sick of the whole world looking on me and only seeing Superman's powerless-useless loser in me that can do nothing except failing in everything! After because of you, the whole world learned our family secret, I was the laughingstock of the world! But what do you know about it! You had always been the favorite one because of your powers and you made it clear that I am not part of your world…"
"Everyone knows?" Clark was shocked and looked back and forth between them. "Part of our world… Jonathan…"
"I was willing to leave everything behind me, but no matter what I did, you always made it clear that my only purpose in life is to be in your shadow. You would leave, too if you were in my position…"
"Jealous!" Jordan yelled again.
"Spoiled!" Jonathan shoots back.
"STOP IT!" Clark had no idea how to deescalate the situation. He remembered that Jonathan proved him over the past months that he was very good at deescalating and wondered how he would handle this situation. It was obvious that the older Jonathan experienced too many bad things. "We… aww…."
"We should had left you behind in that DOD lab!" Jordan said spiteful.
"DON'T DARE TO MENTION THE LAB…" the adult Jonathan yelled and lost control over himself.
He shoots forward and the fight continued. Clark was shocked and didn't notice the folder with the documents, he stole from the DOD only minutes ago, slipped out of his belt, where he kept it the whole time and fell into the fortress below them…
Jonathan and Jordan grabbed each other by their throats and tried to strangle each other. Clark tried to interfere but suddenly Jordan lasered him…
Down in the fortress, Jonathan saw through the little opening in the wall how Lara was opening the lead-box and putting out the glove with the golden Kryptonite to analyze and use it to help the older Jonathan. Jonathan saw the latch on the glove closing and the lights changing again before the gate opened and he could leave the chamber again.
"I analyzed it! A very impressive invention of yours!" Lara said only a second before a heavy object fell through the hole in the roof and hit the floor.
Jonathan looked on the object and realized that it was a folder with documents, that were now spilled all over the ground. Jonathan ignored them and turned back to Lara…
"Can you do anything…" Jonathan asked before suddenly a loud explosion sound up from over them.
Jonathan looked up and saw another big explosion and a falling object. The one with the cape… his father…
Clark just got a terrible shock when the two fighting men tore apart their suits and Clark saw terrible scars on the adult Jonathan's arms and his back. Scars that looked like someone abused him terribly or made experiments on him. It was always one of his biggest nightmares, that someone could capture the boys and make experiments on them in a laboratory. If it was right, what the men yelled on each other, it could had really happened to Jonathan. The scars were obvious indications. But Clark had no time to react to this as suddenly both shoot with their heat-visions on each other, causing another big explosion that knocked him out and let him fall.
Clark crashed through the big hole in the ceiling and smashed onto the ground right next to Jonathan who shrieked loudly.
"DAD!"
Jonathan rushed to his father to look after him. Clark was alive but unconscious. Jonathan looked up and saw his future self and his brother's future self trying to strangle each other again.
"They will kill someone if they fight over a populated area!" Jonathan said.
"I decrypted the structure of the golden Kryptonite. We need to lure them back here!" Lara said.
Jonathan looked up and saw them fighting. Suddenly he got an idea…
"JORDAN! I SURRENDER!" Jonathan yelled, knowing that they can hear him.
Jonathan could see his older self being pushed away before the older Jordan shoot down and landed with a loud thud in the severely damaged fortress, looking on Jonathan satisfied…
"Why not so from the beginning?" he said and walked closer.
Over the fortress, the older Jonathan was shocked. He flew closer and was floating over the big hole in the roof. Clark regained consciousness briefly but fainted quickly again. The room was filled with red sunlight. It was weak, because of the damages. But enough to slow the older Jordan down at least enough to lure him into their trap.
"Come on… let's go over with it!" Jonathan moaned.
"Hmm… well well… I admit I would miss your inventions! Otherwise, I will never be forced to reveal our family-secret to save you, so you don't tear apart our family."
"You and dad made it always clear that I am not a full legit member of the family. So where is the difference?" Jonathan moaned and lifted his arms to show that he is ready to die.
"I don't allow this!" Lara said.
"This is the reason, dad never wanted to introduce him to you! He is weak…" the older Jordan moaned and looked on her, not seeing how Jonathan used his distraction and went a step backwards to be in the chamber again.
"I might be not the stereotypical Kryptonian who is respectless, arrogant, superior and has superpowers… but I am something I am very proud of: Human! Like you used to be before Mom, Dad and you start to spoil you more than you deserved!"
"Aww… shut off…" Jordan moaned while stepping on the dark spot with the self-destruction-device below.
"NOW!"
Suddenly the dark spot began to glow golden. But unfortunately, Jordan realized what was happening and jumped aside after receiving only a minimum dose of the radiation. The gate between Jonathan and the main chamber began to close again.
"SO… YOU TRY TO TRICK ME… DIDN'T DAD TAUGHT YOU THAT YOU CAN NEVER KEEP UP WITH A KRYPTONIAN…"
"THIS IS NOT HOW KRYPTONIANS ARE!" Lara yelled now offended and used the beams again to hit the older Jordan. Hoping to weak him enough to make an analysis how he turned so evil.
Maybe there was a specific event? An influence from outside that changed him. Or maybe really all the mistakes of his parents?
Jordan shoots forward, to dodge the beam of the golden Kryptonite, but suddenly the older Jonathan appeared in front of him in a blur, grabbed him and pushed him back into the light… together with himself…
Jordan was shocked when he saw his brother right in front of him. Together with him in the beam of energy of the golden Kryptonite. Draining out not only his powers, but also his brother's.
"You… you idiot… why… are you… doing that… your powers…?" Jordan stuttered before slowly losing consciousness.
"I learned to live without them! So long… I can do without…" Jonathan stuttered before he lost consciousness, too.
Jonathan watched everything from the chamber in shock. That was too long! They were exposing themselves to the golden Kryptonite way too long! He remembered his older self talking about that a too long exposure could kill them. He hammered with his fists against the door, but it just opened after Lara was able to turn off the energy in the main chamber to make it possible for him to enter without fearing to lose his powers, too.
Jonathan walked over to his future self, that was laying on the ground next to his brother. The older Jordan wasn't unconscious. He was laying with wide opened eyes, grey skin, and green protruding veins on the ground. Jonathan was terrified when he realized that he was dead…
"I didn't plan this!" the older Jonathan wailed out of breath. His skin was totally grey, too. His body looked ask if it was going to crumble into dust any second. "I… didn't want… to kill… anyone… but… that's destiny…"
Jonathan was so shocked that he fell on his knees… he was now able to see the scars on his future-self's arms that looked as if someone made experiments on him...
"You… you need help… you…" Jonathan stuttered. He was shocked about the condition of his future self. "Why did you do that?"
"Some… things… need… to… be… d… done…" the older Jonathan stuttered. "We… are older… we… overdosed… a few seconds… too much…"
"LARA… Can you do anything for them?" Jonathan asked desperately but Lara shacked her head.
"They got too much radiation! I can't do anything!" Lara said. Jonathan turned back to his younger self.
"The… the files… of Sam… don't publish… The files… of Coach… Coach Gaines… publish them… don't let… them rule… your life and… fight… fight… back…"
"I will! I do it, I promise!" Jonathan said, a tear running down his face.
A smile appeared on the older Jonathan's face while his eyes turned grey, and his head tilted over before he stopped breathing. This was also the moment; Jonathan realized his older self fainting away. First turning translucent, while also seemingly crumbling into dust…
Jonathan was shocked when he saw his older self and the older Jordan both vanishing into nothing… Dead! Or will they return to their time alive now?
"What's happening?" Jonathan yelled. "Are they dead?"
"Yes… but the future has been changed!" Lara realized. "That's why they vanish! Their time and their future isn't anymore."
Jonathan looked back on his vanishing self, and he was gone! The older Jordan, too. No trace of them was left. Only damages in the fortress and the still unconscious Clark were still visible.
"Does… does it mean… the future has changed?"
"The future is made of what we do and decide in the present, Jonathan!" Lara explained. "They are dead… but you and your brother are alive and can make better decisions!"
Jonathan considered her words. What he learned today, had definitely influenced him. Jonathan lift of the ground and looked around. The place had some serious damages, but according to Lara they were all fixable. His father was still unconscious but would wake up in an hour, according to Lara and he was relatively unhurt.
Jonathan began to walk around and collect the documents that were spilled over the ground. When he read them… he was shocked and sad again…
