.
Intoxicated
"I got it! I got it!"
Lois ran between the glass pillars, bleeding from an arrow wound in her right leg. Under normal circumstances she would barely have been able to take a step, but now she was running gleefully with a smile on her lips.
"REMOVE CRYSTAL NUMBER 17 AND DEPOSIT THE RING IN THE OPENING LEFT," Jor-El's voice rang out as thick layers of ice formed a dome over the Fortress, completely sealing off any route in or out.
Lois followed the A.I.'s instructions as faithfully as she could, completely ignoring the Legion's attempts to break into the Fortress. They were angry no doubt, or perhaps frightened, at the use she was about to make of one of their precious rings.
"YOU'LL HAVE A WEEK, THEN YOU'LL GO BACK TO NOTHING, JUST LIKE THE REST OF YOUR WORLD."
I wanted to yell at him to shut up. Jor-El had repeated to him ad nauseam that the ring had not been created for this purpose, that it would be destroyed and would have no way of returning. But none of that mattered to her. She just wanted her husband back.
And soon she would have him. Of course she would. I'd be in his arms again! I could kiss him again! I'd send the world to hell for a lot less than that!
"THERE WON'T BE ANOTHER CHANCE, WOMAN. THE STORY MAY NOT LEAD TO THE CREATION OF THE LEGION. THERE WILL BE NO OTHER RINGS."
"I will not let him die. He will accept his fate and begin his training as soon as possible. Trust me."
The ice dome broke and one of the Legion members began to fight against the crystals that were trying to close the breach.
"Don't do it Lois, he won't be the same Clark you knew! Stop this and let's talk!"
Jor-El, perhaps fearing that he would succeed in convincing her, executed the time command. There was a burst of white light and Lois Lane volatilized.
She had not considered repenting at any time. She knew very well what the Legion would say, the same thing they had repeated countless times: that her husband's sacrifice would mark a turning point in history, that it was the first step toward Earth's acceptance of other intelligent species, that it was "necessary" for the future.
Every particle within the Earth-Moon system stopped in place and an instant later began to move in the opposite direction. Something similar happened to the rest of the solar system, but with less precision. Without life on those planets, no one would notice the difference.
Like a video set in reverse, Lois emerged from nowhere and ran backwards as the blood leapt from the snow back into her veins. The sun rose in the west and set after a thousand sunrises, millions of lives returned to unbornness. Those individuals who had traveled into the past and made the journey back would find themselves in a space and time that no longer existed, they would be erased.
It was not a trip to another timeline, there were no parallel universes. Just a cruel alteration of history.
Lois Lane opened her eyes in her younger body. She only had a week before her consciousness and memories were also swallowed by the void, once again leaving this body under the control of the Lois of this era.
She was to use that time to bring Clark closer to his Kryptonian heritage, to eliminate his obsession with Lana or any other time-consuming distractions, and to justify her sudden seven-day amnesia.
They were vague goals, as was the exact period to which she was traveling. But they were a priority, and she might not have the time or opportunity to love her husband as she had longed for. She would have to settle for watching him from afar and dropping a seed or two for a future relationship.
Lois blinked and focused her gaze on the crimson lipstick she held in her right hand.
The objectives of her mission vanished from her mind.