Lois could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She could feel the bruise in her face burning. She felt the hot sun from the sky burning her skin, which was a clear sign that she spends too much time in her office lately…

Lois was still weak. Her cancer treatment was over, but she still felt the aftereffects of the chemo and her mastectomy. Her body was by far not as fit as it was before the cancer, and she was still dependent on her husband and her sons in many ways. But if she had to defend herself and her family, she will fight. Even if it is vs. herself.

She just told her elder/ alternative self that she will only let her out, when she obeys to her condition. The wild hammering against the jammed door of the tool shed stopped. Instead, Lois could hear the other Lois breathing hardly.

"WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE YOU?"

"Because I know how you feel!" Lois responded without hesitation and without any need to think about her words. "After your/ our son appeared here and took Jordan's powers away, Clark… caught him and we interrogated him in the fortress…"

Lois didn't mention that Clark actually knocked him out and they hold him captive in the fortress. Or that the elder Jonathan was unconscious for hours.

"…he told us everything what happened and what we made wrong. I promise, nothing of this will happen anymore. Jordan didn't break Jonathan's arm and the rest we will prevent, too. 341 million people will survive, my father is not allowed to see them anymore and Jordan is powerless for the next weeks."

"What happened to my son?"

"I don't know!" Lois confessed. "I was back here when Jordan from your time came, and they fought in the fortress. Our time's Jonathan saw them vanishing…"

"VANISHING? WHERE?"

"I don't know! We guess the future was changed and that's why they vanished. Listen I understand that you are mad and worried. Believe me… if someone knows what you feel it's me. Jonathan is extremely mad and upset on all of us. Lara is extremely mad on all of us. It is a terrible feeling, and you feel it much longer than I do, I get it. Just please calm down. I open the door and we talk about everything…"

Lois couldn't finish, as suddenly a piece of paper was shoved under the door slot. Lois looked down and saw that it was a page that was torn out of a book.

"READ THIS!" the elder Lois ordered. "LOUDLY!"

In the fortress meanwhile, Clark looked back and forth between Jordan, who was laying on the table and got scanned and his other son Jonathan who spent the entire last week here in the fortress with his grandmother Lara after she demanded him to stay and learn more about his heritage.

The situation felt actually very awkward for Clark. He imagined the reunion with Jonathan differently. He even prepared a speech and a very long apology for Jon and for Lara. Knowing that there was absolutely no excuse for some of the things he did. Ans so there was this awkward silence after Clark finished telling them what happened on the farm.

Lara focused on the scan and Jonathan silently prepared a wet towel to put it on his brother's forehead. Nobody dared to ask something. The just all asked themselves how much they will hate each other in the future that they stab each other? Or how something like this is even possible? Jonathan is mad on his family, but he would never dare to go that far? At least not yet! And their mom? Jonathan had so many questions, but he saw how upset and worried his father was. His simple presence near Lara (who was mad on him, too) and Jonathan was unsettling.

Clark noticed all the damages of the fight between the older Jonathan and the older Jordan were repaired. The big hole in the roof was closed and everything returned back to normal. Expect the guess that the room seemed much brighter than before.

After her scan and a short check with the data, Jonathan provided her with since he was here, Lara found a plausible and surprising explanation for Jordan's sudden outburst of fever and headache…

"A flu?" Jordan asked with big eyes.

"Yes, Jordan! According to the scan, you only have a flu! There is nothing I can do for you here with my technology!" Lara explained. "It is a human-flu!"

"But… I got stabbed… and it was shivering yellow-golden and… and…"

"Jordan, everything will be all right!" Suddenly Jonathan interfered and placed a cold wet towel on his brother's head. "It's just a flu! You might be sick the whole time and all the stress caused the flu to finally break through?"

Jordan thought about it. He really felt pretty odd and weaker than usual since yesterday. But why the flu has to show up just minutes after his 'mother' tried to stab him? Bad timing?

"Due to the exposure to the golden Kryptonite, your body cells were temporarily reformed and converted to a state where your human side is dominant. Until your condition has restored you are as powerful as a full human being of your age should be." Lara explained.

"I know you already said this!" Jordan moaned.

"You and your brother's Kryptonian genes provide you with a significant better immune system than humans. But since your Kryptonian side has been switched off, your human-side's immune system had to take over. And it was too weak since it probably never had a chance to develop antibodies against the bacteria on Earth!" Lara concluded.

"Aghhh… you mean I am sick like a normal human? Oh… that guy… he was sneezing…"

Jordan could imagine where he infected himself.

"You had your last vaccination when you were 10!" Clark confessed, realizing that he was wrong in one more thing.

"Your stab wound shows just normal reaction. You were exposed to the golden Kryptonite long enough the first time, that this short exposure to it had no significant influence on your cells anymore. They were already damaged. I guess your powerlessness will only be extended for a couple of days. Maybe another week!" Lara continued.

"What? But it sucks… First sunburn, then a stab-wound and now a flu? What comes next? A broken arm…"

Jordan just said that when Jonathan flinched and hid his arms behind his back again. Jordan realized that he went too far again. One of the reasons he was in this situation in the first place.

"Sorry, Jon! I…" Jordan tried to say before Jonathan turned away and faced his father.

"DAD! Before you go to the pharmacy to buy some medicine for Jordan, you should look after Mom! I am sure she needs some help!"

"Yes… yes I guess so!" Clark said. Seeing his son's mad face, let him flinch, too. But than he remembered Lois, who was indeed home alone with a lunatic version of herself. "Ehm… Mother, thank you for allowing us to come! Jonathan, take care of your brother…"

And in a blur, Clark was gone…

Clark wondered what Jonathan and Lara did the whole week. He knew that Lara wanted Jonathan to be proud on his Kryptonian heritage and stop denying it. And Clark could see that Jonathan hastily tidied up before he entered the fortress with Jordan? Making it obvious that the boy still doesn't trust him anymore. But now he had to look after Lois first. On his way out, he took a small lead-box with him, to free house and farm of any Kryptonite.

When Clark landed back on the farm, he was totally stunned to see his wife sitting on the ground, with her back leaned against the jammed door of the tool shed. Tears flowing down her cheeks like waterfalls and her eyes fixed on a piece of paper that was obviously a page from a book.

Lois looked up and immediately folded the paper to shove it into her pocket before Clark could read it before she knocked with her free hand against the metal-door.

"Clark is here!"

"Bring me to my son!" the elder Lois demanded.

"Your son is not in our time anymore!" Lois said again. Still not sure how to explain her that her son was probably dead! Or in another dimension? Or a pile of dust? Lois had no idea.

"I want to see Jonathan!" The elder Lois demanded again.

"Okay, accepted!"

Clark looked on his wife with big eyes. Lois looked back at him with a poisonous glare.

"But you behave, okay! I know you are mad on Jordan, but you apologize for your outbreak. And we keep you in the fortress in a cell…"

"I SAID I WANT TO SEE JONATHAN!"

"You will…"

"But in the fortress, I won't see him. You have done absolutely everything to keep him away from the fortress, why I should believe you?"

"Because he is in the fortress, now!" Lois said, with another tear in her eyes. "Lara insisted on him staying with her after his older self appeared here. Listen… I know how you feel. I know how it is when your own son does not trust you! When you ask ever and ever again what you made wrong! And I made a lot of things wrong! Things that let me look like I am selfish, egoistic, reckless, dumb… all but not extraordinary… so when we bring you to the fortress to see Jonathan, I don't want to regret it!"

"Fine!"

"Okay… And you apologize to Jordan! The boy is currently powerless, and you scared him as hell! Anyway… why you so urgently want to your Jonathan and help him?"

"Did you take X-K again!"

"What?" Lois was confused.

"Did you take X-K again! With this sentence I destroyed our family!" the elder Lois burst out in tears and Clark could see with his X-Ray-Vision that she stumbled backwards and sat down. Her head buried in her legs and her hands covering her face while sobbing.

The younger Lois meanwhile became paler than she already was. This was her first reaction when the elder Jonathan showed up for the first time and they realized that he has powers. He told them how offended and hurt he was when they 'will' tell him these words.

"He was gone! Long before! Sick and tired of being reduced to nothing! He was not Jonathan Kent! He was only powerless son of Superman and powerless brother of Superboy! He was sick and tired of the constant gossiping and the constant public humiliation. He called me! Not Clark, not Jordan… me! He was in pain… he was suffering… he was crying… and the first thing I accused him of was that he took that stuff again, even if I should had known earlier that he took it the first time only to get his father's attention and that he had already given us up. But this sentence was the final quietus for our family!"

Lois tried to imagine it: Jonathan… desperate… in pain… in need… she saw how much Jordan was suffering when his powers kicked in. Back then, they were there for Jordan. She couldn't imagine how offended Jonathan must had (will be) been if she (when she) says this to him.

"He has forgiven me all my bad choices and all my wrong apologies and bad excuses! 'At least we have radio!; It could have been worse!; Extraordinary Humans; my X-K reaction; the election night; 'Your father is a bad driver'… The fooled trial, or when we only got Jordan out of the lab and not him… no matter what I did wrong… Jonathan always forgave me." The elder Lois cried desperately. "But 'Did you take X-K again' he never truly forgave me!"

Totally apathetic, Lois lifted from the ground and took the small lead-box, Clark brought from the fortress for the Kryptonite on the farm and without looking on him, she walked away to collect the two minerals before she joins them on the way to the fortress. She had questions! Now even more than ever before! But she didn't dare to ask them now! Not with Clark listening! Not with this awful stench of dung in her nose! And not at this place that turned more and more from a home to a prison…

After picking up the piece of green Kryptonite she went inside, ignoring all the blood in the corridor and went straight to the living-room.

Lois found the Golden Kryptonite dagger under the couch, right where she saw it falling before. Carefully she pulled it from under couch and looked on it. Jordan's blood on it was already clotted. And the picture of her falling son came back in her mind. Then she looked over to the couch and suddenly had that picture of her and Jonathan sitting on it. His arm in a cast and she tells him about her miscarriage and her promise to show her hurt, sad, and left out son how to be an extraordinary human in this extraordinary family.

A promise she never truly kept and just continued watching her son being pushed around, verbally abused, and expecting from him to bear it for his superpowered brother's sake… what kind of mother is she? She should had been there for him, too! She should had helped him when he needed it! She should had been harsher with Clark and Jordan, too! Realizing earlier that Jonathan was suffering and struggling! And that even more than his brother some times! Not under his powerlessness, but under the rejection and this constant feeling of being inferior! Lois went with her free hand into the pocket to feel the page she had to read…

Desperate… in pain… like later when his powers will show up… how could she promise him to show him how to be extraordinary when she is not as extraordinary as she thought? She didn't get it out of her head…

With even more tears in her eyes she placed the 'potato peeler' in the lead-box next to its green counterpart and left the house dazed to harshly ordering her waiting husband to bring her and her older self to the fortress. The elder Lois obeyed. Putting her hands behind her back and even offering them a cable tie she found in the shed to tie her hands up. But Clark couldn't doo it. Instead, he just took his trembling wife on his back and his now also crying elder 'ex-wife' in his arms before flying them to the fortress.

They were all so upset, that they even forgot to close the door of the farmhouse…

In the fortress, Jordan was placed in an armchair and wrapped into a thick blanket by his brother. Over the past week, Clark had to fly a lot of stuff over to the fortress to make it comfy for Jonathan, next to food, water and some books. Jordan became paler with every second and it was evident that he was really sick.

Jonathan felt bad for his brother. Sure, he was mad on him for his arrogant behavior over the past few months. And after learning would had happened if Jonathan's future self wouldn't have appeared to take his brother's powers, he was kind of glad for the long overdue break. But Jonathan also knew that there was no place for malicious joy. There was no way that he tells his brother things like 'It could have been worse' or 'At least you have radio'. Especially now.

Jordan noticed his brother being stiff but also in totally 'protection-mode'. The Jonathan he always looked up to and always respected for everything he did for him. After his powers kicked in and during the time, Jordan was more suffering than enjoying them, his brother was supporting him. No matter how much his brother suffered by himself under his powers.

Ever since he lost his powers, Jordan was hit by the painful wave called 'reality'! It made him clear that he was not thinking beyond his powers. Having actually no real plan what to do in his future. Jordan was so focused on becoming Superboy, that he totally forgot that he couldn't be Superboy, without being a stable Jordan Kent. Like his father couldn't be Superman without being a stable Clark Kent! His powers literally gave him a golden ticket to everything, thanks to his parents' and his grandfather's support! But now? His grandfather's support was only because of his powers and his parents were mad on him. Jordan's life was not as great as he always believed!

Jordan thought about telling his brother about how he struggles with everything? Even the seemingly easiest things were difficult for him now. Or about that he understands his brother better now? Jonathan deals with his powerlessness so easily. But Jordan feared to tell this to his brother! Jonathan had the same disappointed expression in his face, like that day he learned to fly and figured out that he got coldly ditched! If Jordan says his brother now that he knows how he feels all the time, Jonathan will only see it as sheer mockery. Jordan made fun about his brother's drivers-license, about his fire-fighter-training and all his other attempts to feel special, too. Because if he was honest to himself: He and his parents made it impossible for Jon to feel special. Instead, they let him all feel inferior! Now that Jordan couldn't fly anymore, he knew what it means to be struck on the farm.

"Are you better?" Jonathan asked relatively emotionless.

"Yes!" Jordan murmured. Thinking about everything he actually wanted to say to his brother and the apologies he prepared for him and his Lara. Instead, he was laying here with a flu, sunburn, and a stab-wound. "Jon… what I said about the broken a…"

"Forget it…" Jonathan cut him off before he could finish and unconsciously hid his arms behind his back again. "…it… ehm… It could have been worse!"

Did he really say that? That's what both boys were thinking after Jonathan's statement! Jonathan didn't want to be mean and didn't want to use his mother's words against his brother! He planned it, but stopped it after hearing what happened! And Jordan suddenly remembered that evening again when they returned home and their mother was brushing his brother's broken arm off with this sentence. Suddenly realizing how offending and how hurtful it must had been for Jonathan to hear this.

"Jon, I…"

"Just… don't Jordan! Please!" Jon said and hid his arms behind his back again before they could both hear the loud thud of a landing person from outside. "Dad is back!"

Both boys were grateful for the distraction from this awkward conversation between the brothers, that was only made worse by Lara's stern look on her face.

"LET ME TO HIM! LET ME…" everyone could hear Lois (the older one) yell from outside like a maniac. Suddenly she stormed inside, hold by Clark to prevent her hurting anyone again. "JONATHAN…"

Jonathan instinctively placed himself in front of his brother to protect him. A clear indication that no matter how mad and disappointed he is about his family, he still cares for them. Jordan asked himself what he had done to deserve such a brother and why he always forgives him when he messes up?

"JONATHAN…" the elder Lois yelled desperately as if her life depends on her reaching him.

"Calm down, we have a deal!" Clark ordered, still holding the elder Lois by her arm.

"SHUT UP… Oh, Jonathan…" the elder Lois cried.

This was the moment, Jonathan could see the terrible condition the elder Lois was: Full of scars, emaciated, looking older than she should be…

"Dad… don't be so harsh!" Jon advised.

"What? She tried to kill your brother and punched your mother into the face?!" Clark said shocked.

"I didn't try to kill him! I wanted to keep sure that he really looses his powers!" the elder Lois yelled, sending a poisiounous glare towards Jordan who flinched even more.

"He is already powerless!" Jonathan answered, indicating on his sick brother. "Look at him, he is sick and weak! And my arm is not broken!"

The elder Lois looked on the younger version of her estranged son and tears start to flow down her face while she fell on her knees and start to sob uncontrollably.

"I AM SO SORRY… I AM SO SORRY… JONATHAN… PLEASE FORGIVE ME! I WILL DIVORCE YOUR FATHER! WE MOVE BACK TO METROPOLIS AND START ALL OVER AGAIN! YOU CAN ATTEND ON YOUR OLD HIGH SCHOOL AGAIN! WE DON'T NEED CLARK! WE DON'T NEED JORDAN'S POWERS! WE DON'T NEED SMALLVILLE AND ITS SHITTY REDNECKS AND HILLBILLYS! AWW… PLEASE…"

The elder Lois collapsed in Clark's arms and fell on the ground. Reaching her hands out in an desperate attempt to get to Jonathan…

Everyone was shocked about her behavior. Lara ordered her son to get the elder Lois on the table to make a proper scan of her, to see if there was a plausible explanation for her behavior. Everyone was silent, while Lara made a scan of the elder, crying Lois and gave her a high dose of a 'sedative-light' that led her fall asleep quickly…

"She has clear traces of treatments with Kryptonian-technology!" Lara said.

"What?" Clark asked shocked. "Did she… did someone brainwash her?"

A terrible suspicion rose up in Clark's head and he looked over to Jonathan who looked back to him with big eyes. But before anyone could make any accusations, suddenly the younger Lois turned around and stormed towards the entrance.

"I need some air…" she murmured abashed and left.

"MOM, wait…" Jonathan said and followed her with another wet towel. But Clark tried to get in his way.

"Wait, Jonathan… I…"

"DAD, got to the pharmacy and get the medicine for Jordan! He looks as if he is going to vomit any second!" Jonathan moaned and followed his mother outside. "MOM!"

Clark wanted to interfere. But Lara gave him another stern look. "For once, trust your son, Kal-El! In the meantime, you should take care of your powerless son, or did you decide to treat Jordan like Jonathan now that he has no powers?"

Clark blushed and was terribly embarrassed…

Jonathan found his crying mother outside…

"Mom!"

Lois turned towards her son and was embarrassed.

"Excuse me, Jonathan… I was just… aww… I don't know!" Lois rarely showed emotions. One thing she and Jonathan had in common. She didn't want to bother him with her sadness. But Jonathan (who was also as stubborn as his mother) took her by her arm to turn her around and to put the cold and wet towel on her swollen face to treat it. "Aghhh…"

"Mom, you need a break! Follow me!" Jonathan ordered and took his mother by her hand to led her up a narrow path outside the fortress.

Lois followed her son up the narrow path while holding the cold towel on her bruised face, wondering what Jonathan was planning. She was glad to see him again and didn't want to be inconsistent.

Lois was surprised to see a flat surface there were Clark told her was a big hole in the roof. Obviously, Lara reconstructed it and made (under Jonathan's advice) a flat space. The fortress had a roof-terrace now! A real roof-terrace with a deckchair…

"Mom, sit down, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and just say nothing! At least for a minute!" Jonathan ordered harshly.

Lois obeyed. She sat down in the deckchair, wondering where Jonathan got that from, closed her eyes and just listened to the waves. The sea was so calm! The sound from the weak waves that splashed against the fortress ad this calming effect on her. She already starts to love this new spot. Tears shoot in her eyes again.

"I am so sorry…"

"For what?" Jonathan asked.

"For everything!" Lois cried. "I am a terrible mom… To you, to Jordan… I sold my soul… I… aww…"

Under tears Lois pulled the page out of her pocket and looked at it again. Jonathan noticed it.

"What is that?"

"My future self brought it with her! I… I think this is from the book you will publish one day!" Lois said upset and handed the page with trembling hands towards her son!

Jonathan took the piece of paper and start to read it silently. Lois could see countless of emotions in her son's face: anger, sorrow, embarrassment, shame, discomfort… Jonathan's face color changed from pale to blushed, back to pale and back to blushed faster than she could count.

"Wow…" Jonathan said after a while and folded the paper before he sat down next to his mother and looked with her together out on the calm sea and the clear blue sky. "Do you think… this is the reason why you will… you know…?"

"I think so?"

"Mom, we need to talk…"