A way too bright light assaulted her eyes as she blinked them open and groaned at the intrusion. She was exhausted and entirely not ready to get up yet. Rolling her face into the pillow, her senses were attacked again, but this time with the familiar scent she had dreamt about all night. Burrowing herself into the mattress as she snuggled into the covers, she smiled as she thought about him. Clark. She'd had a pleasant dream that he'd visited her last night, simply sitting with her as she slept, but she knew better. He had cut off his humanity and was most likely brooding away in his ice palace while his robo-father chastised him. Letting out a sigh, she cracked her eyes open again to look at the digital clock beside her. It was just after eleven, so it wasn't too late. Honestly, she had expected to sleep until the late afternoon with all that she'd been through, but maybe her body knew that she had a lot to do today. With a sigh and a push of the covers, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up with a groan.
Her body felt like it had been a punching bag. Though if she thought about it, it wasn't that far of a stretch. In less than twelve hours, she had travelled through time, thrown down with an alien, and nearly died in a monorail crash. If all she had to show for it was a couple of bumps, bruises, and sore muscles, she really couldn't complain. Stretching her arms above her head, she let out a big yawn before dropping her arms to her side and making her way to the bathroom. But before she exited the room, she stopped. The door was shut. She could have sworn she had left it open last night. Hadn't she? She tried her best to remember, but honestly with all that had happened, she couldn't be too sure. But if she had… maybe it hadn't been a dream after all. Maybe Clark actually had been here last night. The thought alone made her flush with warmth, but she tried to push the feeling away. She wasn't going to let herself get worked up by wishes and maybes.
After she took a much-needed shower, brushed her teeth, and changed the bandage on her hand, Lois felt like a new woman. The only thing she needed now was a cup of coffee and she'd be ready to get on with her day. She had a hell of a laundry list of things to do and she had to get started as soon as possible. She made her way down the stairs, dressed in another one of Clark's flannels and one of the many pairs of jeans she had stashed here for occasions such as this, and walked into the kitchen, where she was greeted with a golden ball of fur running at her.
"Hey there, Shelbs. Bet you never thought I'd be happy to see you, huh?" she said as she crouched down to greet him. Scratching his head, she smiled at the only canine she had ever secretly loved, not that she'd ever admit it. He licked her hand and nuzzled his head into her leg affectionately, eliciting a smile and a sneeze from Lois. She chuckled as she pet him for a few more minutes, then stood to get a pot of coffee going. As it brewed, she rummaged around the kitchen in search of a pad and pen. While she was in the shower, she had decided that the first thing she needed to do was write down everything that had happened to her in the future. If she forgot one thing, even one little detail, it could wreck everything. The only thing she was sure as hell keeping to herself was doing the horizontal tango with Clark. That certainly wasn't going to do anything other than make things awkward, so she was keeping that piece of information to herself until the time was right. If the time was ever right.
As soon as the coffee was ready and she poured herself a mug, she began to write. She wrote anything and everything she could think of, from what she saw, to what she did, down to every conversation she'd had and overheard. She wrote down the descriptions of the places she visited, what the Kandorians looked like, and what it felt like to be under the red sun. In the margins, she drew rough sketches of the solar tower and Zod's symbol. She wrote and wrote until she was sure she had covered everything that had happened to her. Three cups of coffee and a cramped hand later, she thumbed through fifteen pages of notes, reading over everything she had written. After adding a few notes and bullet points about little things she had forgotten, she was satisfied with her work. As she flipped to the last page, she read over her to-do list she had written.
1. Find Clark & pull head out of ass (if necessary)
2. Tell Clark about the future & make him believe it
3. Stop solar tower from being built
4. Find Kandorians & prevent from taking over the world
5. Call Chloe
6. Pull Oliver out of whatever ditch he's in
7. Kick Tess's ass to Timbuktu
8. Jump Clark's bones
She ripped the list out of the notepad and looked at it, smiling to herself at the last scratched off item. She couldn't help herself. Even though she knew that she had a lot of world saving she needed to do at the moment, that didn't mean that she still didn't dream of being at the mercy of his hands and body again. But she had to remind herself that this Clark wasn't the same one she had shared that intimacy with and the fluttery feeling in her stomach died. He loved her, she knew that, but he didn't have a year of missing her and losing his world to the hands of evil aliens under his belt. But it was beside the point. She could deal with her feelings later, because she had more important things to worry about right now. Like finding Clark.
There were only two places he could be if he wasn't at the farm: Metropolis or the Fortress. Since it was daytime, her bet was on the Fortress. Nighttime always seemed to breed the most crime, so she figured he would most likely be in big city after the sun went down. She also reckoned that since she had already taken the time to drive to Smallville, it wouldn't do her any good to drive all the way back to the city without knowing for sure that he was there. So the Fortress it was. The only problem was figuring out how to travel 3000 miles to the Arctic.
Future Clark had told her about the first time the Kawatche Caves had transported him to the Fortress, but he had conveniently forgot to explain just how to get there. She didn't blame him though. He had told her a lot of information that night, so between that, the imminent prospect of them dying, and the copious amount of time they'd spent rolling around in the sheets, she couldn't exactly fault him for not telling her every little detail. Still, she wished she had asked him for more specifics about what exactly he had done and where he had gone after she disappeared. She'd had no idea when exactly the Legion ring was going to send her back, but that didn't mean she couldn't have gotten more information out of him. Sadly, wishes weren't going to change the fact that she needed to find a way to the Fortress, so she needed a plan. And it just so happened that she had one.
If there was one place that was going to hold any answers about his Fortress, she bet anything that she'd find them in the original one standing right outside. She'd never understood why he spent so much time brooding up in his loft before two days ago, but now it made perfect sense. It was the one place where he could be alone to think and simply be himself, so she had no doubts that it had to hold some answers for her. As she made her way out the door and into the familiar barn, her steps faltered and her mind flashed back to the last time she'd been here.
An earthquake made the earth tremble beneath them… wood splintered and ricocheted across the barn… the roar of the monster shook her very core… blood spilled across the floorboards… Jimmy…
She shook the images out of her head and blinked the tears away before they overtook her. She couldn't let her emotions get in the way of what she needed to do right now. Later, when the Kandorians were taken care of and the world was safe, she'd mourn properly with her cousin, but for now, she had work to do. Climbing the creaking wooden steps, she entered the loft and stopped once again. A small, irrational part of her had hoped he'd be up here, standing with his back to her as he gazed out the window. It was stupid, but she couldn't help it. Not only did she need to find him, but the simple truth was, she missed him. She missed how he'd made her feel. Even though they had been in imminent danger the entire, he'd made her feel safe the entire time she was with him in the future. And she wanted that again. But more than anything, she just wanted to see him and make sure he was okay. Last time she saw him, he was bleeding out in front of her and until she had tangible proof that he was alright, she couldn't relax.
She climbed the last step and began looking around. She could practically hear a younger version of him chastising her for looking through his things, asking why she had to be so nosey. Back then, when they'd first met, she had looked through every nook and cranny, simply in an attempt to annoy him, though she never found anything worthwhile. All she'd come across were a lot of classic novels, star charts, and books about ruin translations. She'd teased him for being such a bookworm and said that he needed to spend more time in the real world rather than spending his days looking at maps and symbols and—
Lois practically ripped the drawer out of his desk.
Of course! He'd been obsessed with deciphering the symbols in the Kawatche Caves and spent hours looking at the maps he'd drawn. There had to be something on those pages that could lead her to the Fortress. She shuffled through every drawer, notebook, and stack of papers she could get her hands on until she found the beaten-up pages of she was looking for. Foreign symbols stared back at her that meant nothing, but a crudely drawn map of the Kawatche Caves showed promise. There was a large chamber connected to the caves, but it seemed to be sealed off by the wall. Inside the chamber, there was a drawing of an octagon with more symbols she didn't recognize written inside of it. There it was. That had to be the entrance. She nearly ran down the stairs then and there, but before she allowed herself to move, she stopped to think.
There was no way she could simply waltz into the caves and expect they'd magically take her to the Fortress. It would be harder to get there than that, unless the Kryptonian species happened to be extremely stupid, which she highly doubted. There was no doubt the path to the Fortress would be protected, so if the caves were the gate, that meant there had to be…
"A key," she breathed as she stared at the paper in her hands. There must be a key. She couldn't understand how in the world a cave on the outskirts of Smallville could possibly lead to an ice castle somewhere in the Arctic Circle, but if she knew anything about teleportation in sci-fi movies, it was that there was almost always a door or a gate someone had to step into in order to get to where they were going. And if there was a door, there was a key. There had to be. Placing the map on the trunk in the center of the room, she shuffled through his desk again, but this time, she ran her hands along all of the seams and crevices she could reach. She had done enough snooping and undercover work to know that something that important had to be hidden in a secret compartment somewhere. The next best hiding place was under a loose floorboard, but since she was standing in a loft, there was only air beneath the wooden planks. The left her next go-to hiding place.
She shifted to the bookshelf. Without preamble, she began pulling out and shaking every book she could find. He could yell at her later for the mess, but for now, she had to exhaust every avenue. The textbooks on outer space and hieroglyphics were dead ends, as were the first few novels she pulled off the shelf. To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, The Adventures of—
The clang of a hunk of metal hitting the ground made her gaze snap to the floor. There, next to her feet, laid a small, metal octagon etched with strange symbols. She picked it up and stared in amazement. It looked exactly like the drawing on the map of the caves. This had to be it, she could feel it. A tremor of excitement rippled across her body as she held the disk in her hands. She was going to find him. And she was going to save them. The image of Chloe's body, bleeding out under a red sky, infiltrated her mind as she ran down the wooden steps. The darkness in Oliver's eyes as he looked at Clark seeped into her as she flung the kitchen door open and ran upstairs in search of a winter coat. Even Tess's sputterinf last words rang in her head as she grabbed her car keys and notepad, before practically bursting out the front door. She could save them all. All of them.
She'd never been to the caves before, so she wasn't quite sure what to expect, but she was surprised at how captivated she was by them. Maybe it was just because she knew they were connected to Clark, but another part of her felt like it was something different. As soon as she stepped into the mouth of the caves, she felt almost a sort of pull. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. She couldn't explain it, but something inside of her told her that she was meant to be there. Even though she knew she was supposed to be finding Clark as soon as possible, she couldn't help but take her time looking at all of the symbols on the walls. There were tons of paintings, like one of a two-headed creature that looked like it was about to eat itself, more symbols that looked nearly identical to the ones written all over the papers in the loft, and shapes that were carved directly into the stone. But there was one image that she felt resolutely drawn to. It was a painting of what looked to be a woman with a turquoise diamond painted over top of her. She had no idea what it was or what it was supposed to be, but something about it called to her. It was as if it was meant for her to see.
It took several minutes longer than it should have for her to snap out of her reverie, but when she did, all sense of urgency returned to her. Not paying any attention to anymore cave drawings or pictographs, she followed the map until she reached the end of the cave. There was a depression in the wall with an octagon to her right, surrounded by what looked like hundreds of symbols. This had to be it. The depression seemed to be the exact shape and size of the disk in her hand, but aside from that, something in her bones simply told her that this was the door. This was where she needed to be. Without hesitation, Lois placed the small metal disk in the divot in the wall and prepared herself. For what, she didn't know, but she was dealing with ancient alien technology, so it was best to be prepared for anything.
But nothing happened. She tried rotating the key, but still, nothing happened. Anxiety started to creep up on her as she rotated it several more times until each combination had been tried, but still nothing. Exasperated, she pulled the key from the impression in the wall and looked at the map. The chamber should've been directly in front of her, but all she saw were rocks. Taking a step forward, she looked a little closer to see if there was a hidden door or something that was missing. That's when it happened.
The brightest white light she had ever seen in her life spilled out from the rocks in front of her, causing her to shield her eyes. A rumbling sound filled the cavern and for a moment, she was afraid that the roof was going to cave in. But then it stopped. All was quiet once more and the light had dimmed back into nothing. Slowly, she dropped her arms from in front of her eyes and when she looked ahead, it was there. The entrance to the chamber had opened. She took careful steps forward, halfway afraid that the rocks were going to swallow her up, but nothing moved. As she crossed the entrance, she saw a large octagonal altar standing in front of her. More of the same symbols and hieroglyphics were etched into the stone table in front of her, along with a small slit that looked just the right size for the piece of metal clutched tightly in her grasp. With a shaking hand, she slowly lifted the disk over the opening in the stone and slipped the disk inside.
There was another flash of fluorescent light, then the world around her disappeared.