"How about both?"
It felt as though all of the air around him had disappeared. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. He couldn't even begin to think what it meant to hear her voice again, especially here of all places. He wanted to be hallucinating. He wanted it to be another one of Jor-El's trials. Maybe it was. Maybe he was testing to see how he'd react to the one thing that'd been constantly on his mind since last night. But as she slowly turned around and saw her standing there, dressed in a black jacket and jeans, he knew that he wasn't imagining anything, no matter how much he wished it.
Standing not ten feet away from him, in the middle of his Kryptonian stronghold, was none other than Lois Lane.
Run. That was the first thought that bulldozed through his brain like a runaway train. He would run until he hit Mexico and then keep running until he found himself in São Paulo. The only problem was that his feet seemed to be glued in place. And as much as he wanted to run far away from the situation he found himself in, he knew that he couldn't exactly leave her standing in the middle of a frozen wasteland. She wore a familiar winter jacket, which told him she had known that she was going to end up here, unless it was a very bizarre coincidence. Even so, he couldn't concentrate on those observations and the questions they led to. All he could focus on was her.
It struck him like a punch to the gut how beautiful she was in that moment. Her chocolate hair cascaded down and framed her angles of her face, which sported a healing cut on her left cheek. Hazel eyes twinkled at him knowingly, which again, confused him, but he couldn't be bothered to lament on why she didn't seem surprised to see him or be standing in the middle of the Arctic. All he could concentrate on was how completely and totally enamored he was with her. The crystals of the Fortress sparkled behind her, casting an ethereal light behind her that made her seem like some sort of angel standing before him.
He knew he should say something, but his mouth felt exceptionally dry. What was he even supposed to say to her? She had not only been missing for three weeks, but here she was in the middle of an extraterrestrial structure, staring at him in his Blur outfit, wearing an expression that told him she was not shocked at all by the situation they were in. Lois was never one for silences, but it seemed that she was caught in the same trance that he was. She simply stared at him. It was only when he saw her eyes begin to glisten with unshed tears that he finally found his voice.
"Lois?" he said, his voice thick with emotion. A watery smile graced her face as she let out a breath, and then, without warning, she took three large strides and flung herself into his arms.
It felt as if he could finally breathe again. She clung to him like he was going to disappear beneath her grasp at any second. Her chest vibrated briefly against his and he held on to her even tighter, unconsciously comforting her against whatever had made her so emotional to see him. The brush of her lips against his neck sent shivers down his spine and as he inhaled the scent that radiated off of her that was purely Lois Lane, he thought that his legs might give out. She was real and she was here, in his arms, heart thrumming beneath his touch. He knew from that moment on that he would never let her go again.
He wasn't sure how long he stood there holding her. It could've been minutes or hours, he really didn't care, but eventually, he felt her grip on him begin to loosen. Her legs slid down his hips as he dropped her back down to her feet and he felt the space she was trying to put between them immediately, but he didn't allow her to extract herself from him completely. He had closed his eyes at some point and the thought of opening them again frightened him. Part of him still believed that this had to be a trick or another test that Jor-El was putting him through. But her arms were still solid beneath his fingertips, he could still hear her heartbeat and breaths right in front of him, and her smell still enveloped him like a cloud. Even Jor-El couldn't fake that. So he finally relented and opened his eyes. No matter how advanced Kryptonian technology may be, he was positive that Jor-El couldn't replicate the woman standing in front of him right now.
"Hey, Smallville," she said. Hazel eyes were still shining with unshed tears and a small smile played on her face as she looked at him, catching him in a sort of trance that he couldn't comprehend. He wanted to say something, anything, but he found his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. But she didn't say anything. She simply grazed her fingertips against his cheeks, eliciting a shivered response from him, and continued staring at him like she never had before. A lump formed in the back of his throat that he swallowed back, afraid that she was going to reduce him to tears if he did not. A pleasant warm cloak shrouded him as he continued to stare at her, taking in every tiny little detail he could, until he had memorized every aspect of her face. When he still didn't answer her, he watched as one of her eyebrows cocked up and her lips spread into a genuine smile.
"I know it's been a little while since I've seen you, but you can't have forgotten how I feel about long, sullen silences," she said. Her words seemed to shock him out of his stupor. He wasn't dreaming or hallucinating. Lois was really here, standing in front of him, in the Fortress. Blinking, he took a small step backwards to put a little space between them in an attempt to screw his head on straight. Clearing his throat, he took a breath and finally forced himself to speak.
"How are you here?" he asked. His voice cracked, causing his face to flush in embarrassment, but if she noticed, which he was sure she did, she didn't comment on it, which shocked him. At any other point in their relationship, she would have ribbed him about going through puberty again or cracking some other joke, but something had changed between them. Something that he couldn't put his finger on.
"Do you mean how am I here after disappearing for three weeks? Or how am I here standing in your ice daddy's Krypto castle?" she asked. His eyes bulged. How did she know about Krypton? About his father? It was obvious from her lack of shock that she had expected to find herself here. Maybe she had known about his secret for a while and just hadn't chosen to divulge that she knew. Chloe had done the same thing. But that still didn't explain how she knew about his heritage. Unless…
Chloe. That was the only logical explanation. Whether she had told her long ago or she had done it out of spite for the recent decline of their relationship, he didn't know. But he knew his mother would never have divulged his secret. Lana was gone. Lex was dead. That left her cousin. Or Oliver. Maybe he had told her while they were dating. Maybe he had been jealous of their friendship and wanted to sabotage it. His skin began to flush with anger and he felt his heart start hammering against his chest as the possibilities flew in and out of his head. Evidently, it showed on his face.
"Woah there, calm down, cowboy. I can see exactly what highway you're already barreling down, so let me put a stop to it before you crash," she said, placing her hands against his chest. He couldn't deny how much he loved the feeling of her hands against his body again, but he was too angry to allow that to calm him down. Instead, he stepped back to create some much-needed space between them. She warmed him to his core and right now, that was the last thing that he needed. He wished he could feel the chill of the Fortress right now, but he knew better. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and exhaled before looking at her again.
"Who told you?" he asked. He didn't mean to sound so angry, but she didn't flinch at the venom in his voice. Instead, she simply crossed her arms against her chest and shifted her weight to her back foot. Her face was a mask of calm as she looked deep into his eyes and said two words that he wasn't expecting.
"You did."
All he could do was look at her. He told her? Was she trying to trick him? Was she trying to protect Chloe or Oliver or whoever had revealed his secret to her? Lois had never been a very good liar and as he looked at her right now, he knew she was telling the truth, which led him down a completely different road. Had he told her and had his memory wiped? Had Jor-El done this? Even if she wasn't a hallucination, was her knowledge of his secret another trial that his father was putting him through? His mouth opened to speak, but he couldn't find any words to say to her. Thankfully, Lois took the reins.
"Look, I know you have a lot of questions, but I really just need you to listen to me right now and try not to interrupt, okay? There are a lot of things that you need to know and if I don't tell you, it could have world altering consequences," she said, pinning him with a stare to ensure that the information had sunk in. All he could do was dumbly nod at her. After pausing to gauge if he was going to let her speak or not, she took a deep breath and reached into her pocket. When she pulled her hand out and stretched it out in front of him, he felt his heart drop to his feet. There, laying in the palm of her hand, glinting from the light that reflected off the crystals surrounding them, was the unmistakable golden Legion ring.
"I kind of pulled an unintentional Marty McFly. Except I hit fast-forward instead of reverse."
His eyes snapped to hers and he could tell instantly that she was telling the truth. He wanted to deny it, to tell her that she must have been hallucinating and that time travel wasn't possible, but he didn't know what good it was going to do. It was evident that she knew about his heritage and if she was telling the truth, he was the one who had told her about it. If he tried to lie to her now, he wasn't sure how well it'd go over. And if he was honest with himself, he didn't want to lie to her. Here she was, talking to him as if everything was normal between them, even though he was an alien. But she wasn't looking at him like he was one. She was staring at him differently, that was for sure, but it was a good different. She looked at him in a way that made him feel vulnerable and safe, all at once, as if he could tell her anything he wanted to, good or bad, and she wouldn't hold it against him. So he decided, then and there, that he wasn't going to try to pull the wool over her eyes anymore.
"You've been in the future… for three weeks?" he asked carefully. A contemplative expression briefly crossed her face, but she shook it away almost immediately.
"Well, three weeks in this time. For me, it was less than two days," she said. All he could do was nod and she took that as a signal to continue. "I was fighting at the Planet with Tess and this ring fell out of your desk. When I picked it up, I accidentally put it on and it took me one year into the future. And let me tell you, I didn't exactly land in a bed of roses."
Every hair on the back of his neck stood up at her words and the expression that followed. One year. She had jumped one year into the future and from what he could tell by her tone, things were bad. What had happened? What was going to happen? Could he do anything to stop it? Could he change things?
His train of thought stopped dead. No. No matter what she had seen or what was going to happen, time was a dangerous thing to mess with. He knew that first hand. Whatever she had seen or heard, he couldn't know. He wasn't supposed to know. He wouldn't let anyone else in his life die because he wanted to change things that were meant to happen.
"Lois, you can't tell me about the future. It's dangerous," he said. It wasn't her fault, she didn't know any better, but he couldn't let her mess with things she didn't understand. She simply frowned and stared at him with a piercing gaze.
"Actually, it'd be more dangerous if I didn't," she said, but he shook his head, willing her to understand the danger that she was putting him and everyone else in.
"You don't understand. Time isn't something you mess around with, okay? I can't know anything," he said and turned around. Where was Jor-El when he needed him? Why couldn't he back him up when he needed him for once? He raised his eyes to the cavernous ceiling in a silent plea, but the deep echoing voice was silent. Instead, he felt a hand on his shoulder pull him backwards until he was faced with an irritated Lois standing in front of him.
"Would you just listen to me for once? I know you don't want to hear it, but you need to," she argued. Now he was beginning to get angry. She thought that just because she knew about his heritage and his powers that she knew everything it meant to be him. The fact that it was Lois who knew this information only made it worse. But at the end of the day, she was still just another human thrust into the midst of his confusing world. Unfortunately for him, she wasn't the type of person to back down without a fight. "Look, when—"
"Lois, stop!" he exclaimed, cutting her off. She drew back slightly at his outburst, but she made no inclination that she was done arguing with him. "My own father died because I messed with time and changed the past! I'm not going to risk anyone else, okay? I can't."
That finally elicited a reaction from her. Wide eyes blinked at him in confusion, before they softened, which in turn, tamed the flames of anger in his chest that had been beginning to consume him. Closing his eyes, all he could think about was his father. There, dead in his arms, after he had been so selfish in trading his life for Lana's. It was the one decision that would haunt him for the rest of his life and he'd be damned if he'd ever do anything to jeopardize anyone else in that way again. The touch of a small, warm hand against his broke him out of his reverie and he opened his eyes to find Lois staring up at him with apology written all over her face.
"I… I didn't know that," she whispered and he swallowed a newly forming lump in his throat. His eyes skirted to a random point on the wall behind her in an attempt to keep his emotions at bay.
"It's not exactly something I like to talk about," he said roughly. Her hand squeezed his gently, ushering his eyes back to hers.
"I'm sorry, Clark," she said softly. He simply nodded at her in thanks, unable to say anything else for the moment. Her eyes closed briefly, but when she opened them, he found the same fire dancing in them that had been there moments ago. "But people I love died to make sure I could get back here and change the future. I'm not going to let you stop me."
"Well, maybe that's just their fate," he said coolly and slipped his hand out of hers. Rolling her eyes, she groaned in frustration and balled her hands up beside her.
"God, you told me that you'd be stubborn, but I didn't think it'd be this bad," she said, throwing him a familiar look of irritation. If they hadn't been having such a serious conversation, he would have been elated to see the well-known expression that he had become acquainted with for so many years, but then her words caught up to him. He told her he'd be stubborn? He was the one that told her to tell him?
"What?" he asked. That's what caused her to finally lose it. Throwing her hands up, she let out an exasperated sigh and shoved her pointer finger into his chest while her eyes practically burned holes into his own.
"You! Future you! You are the one that told me I needed to come back here and ram it through your concrete skull that you need to know about the future! You are the one that sent me back! You are the one that died to make sure I could change things!" she yelled. His back was against the wall now, having been pushed several steps backwards with every sentence she had uttered. He had seen her angry before and he had seen her upset, but he couldn't remember a time he had ever seen the combination of the two so forceful, especially when aimed at him. There was only inches between them and a stray thought slipped its way into his mind that told him how easy it'd be to kiss her right now, but he pushed it away just as it came to him. The rage and sorrow in her eyes made all of his anger dissipate almost immediately.
"I died?" he whispered. He watched the fire in her eyes extinguish as grief took hold of them and he couldn't help but reach out to her. Nodding, she sniffed and clutched his hands so hard that if he was human, he was sure he would have winced at the pressure.
"So did Chloe. And Oliver. And Tess and hell of a lot of other people. So don't tell me that's fate. Because I don't accept that," she said, her voice wavering at the mention of her cousin, then hardening with a determined resolve. As his eyes locked with his, he felt her determination seep through him. But even so, it terrified him to think about interfering with time once again.
He had used the Legion ring once before and while it had stopped Linda Lake from exposing his secret, it had also changed something with Davis Bloome. There was part of him for a long time that refused to believe it, but after Jimmy died, he couldn't help but wonder. Before he used the ring, Lois was in the middle of telling him something about Davis, but he had disappeared to the past before he had known what she was about to tell him. If he had stayed a second longer, maybe he would have known something that could have saved Jimmy. But he didn't. So if he really thought about it, both times he had interfered with time, someone he cared about had died. The thought of going through that again was too much to bear.
"Listen, I know you're scared and I don't know what happened with your dad, but changing the past and trying to change the future are two very different things," she said. Part of him wanted to believe her, he really did. It wasn't him this time in the driver's seat that was changing things that were supposed to happen. He wasn't the one who had been to the future. Maybe that had enough to do with it that it wouldn't have dire consequences if he tried to change something this time around. But it was too much to place his bets on. He couldn't risk it. But as he opened his mouth to respond, he found himself cut off once again.
"She is right, Kal-El. The past has already been written, but the future is never set in stone."
Jor-El's familiar timbre echoed throughout the Fortress and Clark couldn't help but watch Lois for a reaction. He felt her entire body flinch at the sudden intrusion in their conversation, but she showed no signs of shock, which told him she had been listening to them earlier. For how long, he couldn't be sure, but as he watched her throat bob up and down, he knew he was in for an interesting interaction.
"Thanks for the back-up, Father Christmas, but I have my own bone to pick with you," she said, turning her attention to the ceiling as Clark felt himself tense with anticipation. "How could you possibly think that telling Clark to get rid of his humanity was a good idea? I mean, weren't you the one that sent him to Earth in the first place?"
He couldn't believe his own ears. For years, Jor-El had been an unwavering force to be reckoned with. He had hated him and feared him, with good reason, before he finally understood that he was only here to help Clark live up to his fullest potential. Once he embraced that, he had found that Jor-El wasn't the monster he had always made him out to be. Most of the problems in their past stemmed from distrust and rebellion, but ever since he had accepted his destiny, their relationship had smoothed out. But here was Lois, arguing with a voice in the sky, like he was nothing more than one of her co-workers. Part of him feared what Jor-El would do, if he would even respond or perhaps resort to something more sinister, and he felt his body tense, ready to speed her away if necessary.
"Kal-El must learn to set aside trivial human emotions if he hopes to unlock every aspect of his Kryptonian power," he replied. His briefly body relaxed at his minimal response, but he should have known better than to think that Lois wouldn't continue her tirade against him.
"Sorry to burst your proverbial bubble, but that idea is exactly what will lead to Zod and his merry band of Kandorians to pulling a Nazi Germany on all of mankind," she said. With one sentence, he felt his blood run ice cold.
"Zod?" he immediately asked, reaching out to grab her arm. He couldn't keep the fear out of his voice. He hadn't thought of him in years, but images of Lex, possessed by his spirit, infiltrated his mind. He had been powerful and ruthless, cunning and calculating, and he had nearly been successful in turning Earth into a new Krypton. But how? He had banished him to the Phantom Zone. If he was here on Earth, it could mean that other Phantoms had escaped. Faora, Aethyr, Nam-Ek, Baern… the thought of any of the prisoners being on Earth sent his stomach plummeting to his feet.
"Zod? He is here on Earth?" Jor-El asked. The surprise and alarm in his normally stoic tone only set Clark more on edge. If the mention of Zod could evoke emotion out of artificial intelligence, he knew that he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear.
"Yes. Our egotistical editor Tess decided she was some new-world Jesus and got tangled up with this glowing orb that released Zod and his militant faithful," she said, before turning her gaze back to him. He could see the anger pulsing through her, but he also saw undeniable fear. If whatever had happened in the future had been bad enough to scare Lois Lane, he knew that things in this world were about to get much worse. He just wondered how much time he had to prepare.
"Kal-El, if Zod is on Earth, he and the other Kandorians must be dealt with immediately. They are a threat to you and every inhabitant of this planet," Jor-El said. It was only then that he finally registered that it wasn't just Zod that was on Earth, but Kandorians too. He didn't remember Zod talking about releasing any other Kryptonians when he had tried to persuade Clark to take over Earth with him years ago and he couldn't recall running into any of them in the Phantom Zone, so where had they been? Did it mean there were actually more of his kind left besides Kara?
"I sent him to the Phantom Zone years ago. How did he escape?" he asked, looking from the ceiling back to Lois, who opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off.
"Zod's true essence is still trapped there, but if the Orb was activated, it means his DNA replicate has been released," he replied. Clark frowned in confusion.
"What are you talking about? DNA replicate?" he asked, needing clarification on what exactly he meant.
"Years ago, before Krypton was destroyed, we were at war with a rebel group, known as Black Zero, which destroyed the city of Kandor. Fearing the planet's demise, the Ruling Council insisted that I safeguard the DNA of Krypton's strongest soldiers in the Orb, so that Krypton could be rebuilt on Earth, if the time came. I refused, knowing that it would mean the death of mankind, but the Council forced my hand. I finished the project, but I irradiated their DNA with Blue Kryptonite, so that they could not acquire any of the powers you possess under the yellow sun."
He gave himself a moment to process and allow all of the information to sink in. He had learned about the destruction of Kandor during his weeks of training, but Jor-El had never mentioned the Orb or the part he played in its creation. Anger flared inside of him, annoyed that he had been kept in the dark while he was supposed to be learning, but the more he thought about it, the less angry and more sympathetic he became. He knew his father had been a brilliant scientist and he knew that he had been a good man, even though it was hard to imagine sometimes, since his intelligence was the only true piece of him he knew. Even though he had been forced to create something he knew would only end in disaster, he had risked his life to protect the people of Earth, against the will of his own kind. For that, he had to give him credit.
But that still left that fact that there were now Kryptonians walking around on Earth. Zod was a force to be reckoned with and even if Jor-El was right about him being powerless, it didn't mean that he would let his guard down around him. Still… if they were just as vulnerable as humans, how could that make them a threat? If they were simply clones of people who died, his people, shouldn't he do everything he could to help them assimilate on Earth?
"So Zod and the Kandorians… they're normal?" he asked. Again, he saw Lois out of the corner of his eye trying to interrupt, but Jor-El cut her off again before she could.
"They are abominations that must be destroyed at once. They are a danger to civilization," he said. This time, when he felt the anger begin to rise, it was not washed away by sympathy for his father. All he felt was pity for his people. Here they were, powerless and alone, in a world that was not their own. Jor-El hadn't wanted to create the Orb and that was fine, but he couldn't ask him to hurt anyone. It would be just like asking him to hurt a human.
"How can they pose a threat if they have no powers? You can't ask me to destroy my own people!" he argued. In the back of his mind he heard Lois's voice and the touch of her hand on his shoulder, but he brushed it off. All he could concentrate on was the fact that his father was asking him to not only kill, something he had vowed never to do, but to kill his own people. It was unthinkable. He wouldn't do it. He couldn't.
"They are not your people, my son. Your people perished long ago. They are merely reproductions of a civilization that lost itself to its own greed. They cannot be allowed to remain on Earth," he said. Clark simply shook his head. He didn't care if they were the original people or not. It didn't matter; they were still living beings.
"I will not condemn innocent lives to death just because of their past mistakes," he said. If he was judged based on every decision he had made in the past, he was sure he wouldn't be allowed to live, so he wasn't about to do the same thing to people he had never even met.
"They will condemn this planet to much worse, if you do not terminate them," he replied. Jor-El wasn't budging, but neither was Clark. The face of Davis Bloome flashed in his head, but he pushed it away. This was different. Davis had been part monster and had murdered innocent people. What Jor-El was asking him to do was kill innocent people for things they might do. He couldn't see that as a reason to condemn them.
"I'll find another way. I won't kill anyone," he said, his voice rising reflexively.
"There is no other option."
"There's always another way."
It was only then, when he felt something hit the back of his head with a small thud, that he finally turned his attention from his argument with Jor-El to the woman he nearly forgot was still in the same room with him. Standing a few feet away with a snow-covered hand, was an irate Lois. Touching the back of his head, he brushed some chunks of snow and ice out of his hair, somehow both equally stunned and not at all surprised that she had actually thrown a snowball at the back of his head.
"Okay, enough! Listening to the two of you argue is going to give me a brain aneurysm!" she yelled. "Don't either of you think it'd be a good idea to, I don't know, maybe ask the person who's been to the actual future for her input on the matter?"
He couldn't deny that as soon as Jor-El told him he needed to dispose of the Kandorians, all thoughts of Lois and her trip to the future had vanished. Maybe that was why Jor-El had been so insistent the past few weeks on ensuring he could break free of his emotions because it was obvious that they clouded his thoughts. Maybe he hadn't learned as much as he thought he had during training. Even so, he was still hesitant to hear about the future. Maybe just knowing that she had been there and things had been bad was enough to change things. Knowing that Zod was here on Earth gave him a new advantage. He knew Zod and what he was capable of, but now that he was powerless, he could go about things differently this time. Sighing, he took a step towards her, trying to explain himself.
"Lois, you don't understand, Zod—"
"Don't you dare tell me I don't understand!" she snapped, effectively cutting him off. "I understand a hell of a lot more than you do! Your head's just too far up your stubborn alien ass to see it!"
Without another word, Lois spun on her heel and took off towards the entrance of the Fortress, disappearing into the Arctic before he could even process what had happened.