Lois & Clark PG Fanfic Archive

Plane Storm

Author: Dandello

Email: momkat@dandello.net

Rated: PG-13

Description:
A Superman Returns/Lois & Clark Xover. When Superman and Lois are thrown
into a world where Clark Kent is EnC of the Daily Planet and married for ten
years to Lois Lane, things get more than a little strange for both sets of Lois
and Clark.

The
usual disclaimers apply, as always. I don’t own any of them, but I do borrow
freely and I don’t always put them back where they belong.

——————————–

–Earth
I–

Superman
was patrolling the city only few days after leaving the hospital where he’d
ended up after an uncontrolled fall from high orbit to Earth. New Krypton, the abomination of a landmass
Lex Luthor had created, was in a stable orbit beyond Mars.

Metropolis
was quiet, too exhausted from the past few days to muster a crime wave. The
fact that the National Guard had been called out to patrol the streets also
helped.

He’d
only been back to Earth for month, a week back as Superman, after having been
gone for six years, searching for something, some meaning. Looking for his home
in the depths of space. That was when all hell had broken loose, thanks to Lex
Luther.

There
was no sign of Luthor and his cronies. Luthor had managed to escape the
landmass he’d created using stolen Kryptonian technology before Superman flung
it into the asteroid belt. Luthor was somewhere, planning something that boded
ill for both him and humanity. It was only a matter of time.

He heard
Lois Lane calling him from the rooftop of the Daily Planet: "We have to
talk, Superman!"

He came
down beside her. "Yes, Lois?"

"I
need to talk to you about Jason, my son," she said.

"What
about Jason?"

"Do
you remember what I said to you in the hospital?"

"Yes,
I think so," Superman said. "I remember you telling me that Jason was
very strong, and that he was my son."

"So,
what do we do?"

"Lois,
I promise I’ll be there for him when, if, his powers manifest. But that’s all I
can promise."

"And
what about us?"

"You
have Richard, Lois. You don’t need me," he said, referring to Lois’s
fiancé of five years. Richard White was the nephew of Perry White, and
assistant editor of the Daily Planet newspaper.
He was a good man and Superman actually liked him as a person, rather
Clark Kent liked him. Richard was a very likable guy.

Lois had
moved on in the six years he’d been gone, trying to find his roots, trying to
find Krypton. She’d had a son, gotten engaged, won a Pulitzer. He loved her
still, but he knew without any doubt that they had no possibility of a future
together. It was too dangerous for her. Besides, she only loved the man in the
‘suit’, not the man he was raised to be: Clark Joseph Kent from Smallville,
Kansas, adopted son of Jonathan and Martha Kent. She didn’t see Kent even
though he worked beside her every day. Kent was a bumbling fool, not worth a
second glance.

"Why
don’t I remember being with you? Why don’t I remember the night Jason was
conceived? Was I so disappointing that you shut me out, denied me those
memories of us?"

"It
wasn’t you, Lois," he said sadly. "It was me. I thought we had a
chance together. I was wrong and I hurt you. I’m sorry. I should never have
done what I did."

"Sorry?
You’re sorry?"

He took
a step backwards, away from the venom of her voice. She had every right to be
angry with him, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. "Lois, I don’t know
how to return your memories of that time. I don’t know if it’s possible. But if
you’re game, we can try."

"How?"

"Come
with me to the Fortress of Solitude, my ‘ice palace’," he said. "I
need to do some work there anyway. It might jog your memory."

"When?"

"Now’s
as good a time as any," he said. "You might want to let your boss
know you’re going to be out for at least the rest of the day."

He watched as she pulled her cell phone from her purse
and pulled up Perry White’s personal number.

"Perry? Lois. I’m going to be out for the rest of
the day, maybe longer," she said. "Could you have Richard pick Jason
up at school?" She listened for a moment as Perry replied. "No, I
don’t want to say anything about what I’m working on yet, in case it doesn’t
pan out."

"Tell him Clark’s going with you," Superman
said softly, almost mouthing the sentence.

She raised one eyebrow at him but said into the phone,
"Oh, and Clark’s coming with me, so I hope you haven’t given him anything
that can’t wait a day or so."

"Kent lit out of here like the devil was after him
about ten minutes ago," Perry said over the phone. Superman’s acute
hearing picked up the conversation from Perry’s office as well. "You two’d
better have something good for me when you get back," Perry warned before
hanging up his phone.

Lois put her phone back in her purse. "So Clark’s
coming with us?"

Superman shrugged. "I’d rather he didn’t get into
more trouble than he’s already going to be, if this works."

"Why would Clark get into trouble? Where is
he?"

Superman smiled. "Just trust me on this one, Lois.
Please?"

****

In his office on the 60th floor of the Daily Planet
building, Perry White looked over at his nephew, Richard. He was Lois Lane’s
fiancé, as well as the newsroom’s assistant editor, a job the young man earned
by being one of the best in the business. It hadn’t hurt him, though, to be the
boss’s nephew.

"Richard, what *is* Clark working on?" Perry
asked.

"Something Norm Parker was working on before he
died. The trouble Americans with foreign dependants have getting through all
the bull Homeland Security throws at them," Richard told him. "From
what Clark’s told me, he’s got enough material for a whole series on it."

"Isn’t he supposed to be working on the building
collapses?"

"Yeah, and he’s already turned in the first two
articles."

"Good. So, what’s up with Lois?"

Richard looked uncomfortable. "She hasn’t been
herself since Superman came back. She told me she was over him, but . . ." He shook his head. "She said
she was over Superman, but I didn’t think to ask her how she felt about Jason’s
father showing up again. People have been asking why I haven’t left her, now
that Clark’s back. Although," he added, "with the way she’s been
treating the poor bastard, I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t ask for a transfer
to Tokyo soon. Why did you even hire him back?"

"Because he’s one of the best writers in the
business," Perry said. "And I owe him a second chance after what I
did to the two of them."

"And what was that?" Richard asked, knowing
what the answer was.

"I let Cat Grant talk me into sending Mad Dog and
the Boy Scout on an undercover assignment as newlyweds, knowing full well what
the gossip mongers would do to them. Knowing what Lois would do to *him*
afterwards when she caught wind she was being set up. I’m surprised he bothered
to come back at all, considering how he left. He came in one morning and told
me he was leaving. I tried to talk him out of it. Even offered him a raise and
the assistant editor’s post that was open, but he wouldn’t budge. He just
finished that day’s assignments and walked out."

–Earth II–

"The next time, you’re the one carrying the baby to
term," Lois Lane-Kent complained as she sat on the side of the bed,
rubbing the small of her aching back.

"That’s what you said when you were carrying CJ, and
Lara, and Jordan," Clark Jerome Kent, her husband of ten years, reminded
her with a smile, taking over massaging her back.

"I look like a blimp! I feel like a blimp. How can
you love a blimp?"

He nuzzled her neck. "You do not look like a blimp.
You never look like a blimp. You look like a well-loved woman who’s having a
baby any day now."

"I’m a week over due!"

"Lois, they’ve *all*
been a week overdue," Clark said with an even broader smile. She
turned in his arms to gaze into his warm, dark chocolate eyes. She kissed him,
hard.

"Uh, honey, you keep this up and we’re going to be
late for work. Again." He said it lightly, pulling away from her only far
enough so he could talk. "Besides, I have to get CJ and Lara to school,
and I have a meeting at nine with the board of directors."

"We are going to continue this discussion later, you
know," Lois warned him with a grin as he headed to the master bathroom to
get dressed for work.

"I’m looking forward to it," he called back as
he shut the door.

–Earth I–

Lois Lane inspected her surroundings, the white crystals
that made up the Kryptonian designed structure, the control console with shafts
of sunlight glistening across its crystal clear surface.

"I remember this was burnt up, destroyed," she
murmured, touching the console with one tentative finger.

"The father crystal wasn’t in the console," he
told her. "I’m not sure how it happened, but it wasn’t with the others. It
wasn’t destroyed. I was able to regenerate the console and the other crystals with
it. Those were the ones Luthor stole from me."

"So, what are you doing?"

"I’m regenerating the rest of the crystals and
making a copy of the father crystal for safekeeping."

"I thought Luthor stole the father crystal,"
Lois said.

There was amusement in his unearthly blue eyes. "I
got it back," he said. "I found the father crystal in the wreck of
Luthor’s helicopter. I don’t know why Luthor didn’t find it."

"What about the others?"

"I don’t know where they are," he admitted.
"I just hope Luthor doesn’t have them. Even without the father crystal, he
could do a lot more damage than he’s already done."

He placed the father crystal into its place in the
console, twisting it just so. "This is going to take a while," he
said. "What would you like for lunch?"

"We had dinner here before, didn’t we?"

He nodded.

"You gave up your powers so we could be
together."

"Yes. I was told that if I wanted a human woman, I
had to be human. I couldn’t just live like one, I had to *be *one."

"We spent the night together."

He nodded. *Was she remembering, or just logically
linking the facts together?* He was afraid to ask. He was the most powerful
being on the planet and he was afraid to ask her if she remembered his other
name.

"I remember watching your face while we watched TV,
watched the disasters across the world. I watched you suffer because you
couldn’t do a damn thing for them," she said softly. "I told you to
come back here, see if there was a way to undo the damage."

"There was a way," he said. "But the price
was the ability to be with you. To share your life. I watched you suffer at
work, trying to deal with the fact that we’d lost any chance to be together. I
thought I was doing you a favor."

"You watched me at work?" she wondered aloud.
He just looked at her. *How could she not see it? She was a top investigative
reporter. How could she miss all the clues he’d given her over time? How could
she not see him? *

"What would you like for lunch?" he repeated.

"Chinese?" she said. "Clark knows a little
place somewhere with funny fortune cookies in Chinese. They have the best *mu
gu gai pan. *"

"I know the place," he said with a smile. He
gave her a tiny bow and flew off faster than she could see.

–Earth II–

"Richard, Penny!" Clark yelled from his office
door. "When can I see something on the Goldman murders?"

"Waiting for one more confirmation, Chief,"
Richard White answered, glancing over to his partner, Penny ‘Lane’. She nodded
her head.

Clark stepped back into his office, the editor-in-chief’s
office. From his desk Clark could watch the entire newsroom. He loved the
energy of the bullpen. From his office, he could watch it all happen, see the
paper come together as he directed, just as Perry had done before him.

It was the best job in the world, next to being an
investigative reporter. And one of the beauties of being the boss was that no
one asked questions when he disappeared in the middle of the day to handle a
job as Superman. At least, no one asked them very loudly.

Richard White, Perry White’s nephew, had joined the Daily
Planet five years before. He had been an award winning reporter at the Planet’s
London bureau and had covered the Middle East. So when an opening appeared in
Metropolis for someone with his skills, Perry offered it to his nephew. Richard
had jumped on it and hadn’t looked back.

Perry assigned the young man to work with Penelope
Landris, an up and coming city beat reporter who had taken the pen name of
‘Penny Lane’. The Landrises were old
money in Metropolis, and hadn’t taken kindly to one of their own becoming an
investigative reporter. But it was a match made in heaven, much as Perry’s
match up of Lane and Kent, nine years earlier. White and Landris would be
celebrating their second wedding anniversary next month.

Clark checked his watch. Lois was meeting him for lunch
over at a new bistro she’d found not too far from Centennial Park.

–Earth I–

"That was fantastic," Lois commented, finishing
the last egg roll. "So, where is this place with this great food and funny
fortune cookies?"

"Shanghai," Superman answered with a crooked
grin.

She gave him a puzzled look as if she couldn’t get her
mind around the obvious. He watched her and realized, with a sinking feeling,
that there was something seriously wrong if she couldn’t put the facts together
even when they’d been practically thrown in her face.

"Do you remember any more?" he asked gently.

"I remember making love to you, here. I remember
seeing a beautiful blonde woman dressed in white. She was very sad when she
talked to you."

"That was a hologram of my mother, Lara," he
explained. "It, she, is part of the Artificial Intelligence that is part
of this place, part of the crystals." A musical chime rang out from the
crystal console. He got up from his seat beside Lois and stepped over to the
console.

"The backup father crystal is complete," he
said. "We can head back to Metropolis now, unless you want to stay and
talk some more."

She shook her head. "I remember most of it, I think.
Like waking up from a dream. But there’s still something I’m not catching.
Something that’s just out of reach. I remember being at Niagara Falls with
Clark and you coming to save a little boy who’d fallen. Then we were here."
She looked up at him. "We didn’t just abandon Clark there, did we?"

"No, we didn’t abandon him there," he said with
a smile. At least she was concerned for his alter ego. Maybe things were
starting to come together, finally.

–Earth II–

"You’re not
eating," Clark observed. The bistro was as good as promised, but Lois was
picking at her food.

"I’ve been thinking," she said. "Have you
heard from Zara and Ching recently?"

"The last I heard from them was that they were
planning on visiting soon after the baby’s born. They still want to foster one
of their kids on Earth and would really like to foster one of ours."

"Not going to happen, Clark," she warned.
"I am not sending one of my babies off to that hell-hole. I nearly lost
you when you went there and I know you still have nightmares about what
happened to you the year you were gone. I am not going through that
again."

"I’ve already told them that," Clark assured
her. "I suggested that maybe when CJ’s old enough for high school . . .
he’ll be old enough to make his own choice, and he is an heir to the ruling
house . . ."

He expected an explosion from her, but she simply sighed
and rubbed her belly. "Well, at least I have five years to get used to the
idea," she said finally. "Let’s go take a walk."

–Earth I–

They were flying back to Metropolis and were fast
approaching the city.

"Superman, what’s that?" Lois asked, looking
back over his shoulder. He paused in midair to turn and look behind. A quarter
of a mile back, the blue sky was gone, replaced by a curtain of roiling black
clouds lit up by phosphorescent green lightning. Wind began to whisper around
them. The afternoon sun had vanished behind the black clouds.

"I don’t know," Superman admitted. Lois was
surprised to see worry in his face. The wind grew louder and stronger and
Superman dropped to the ground, hunkering down to protect Lois from the brunt
of the wind.

The storm was on them. Gale force winds shoved at them
and even Superman’s strength wasn’t quite enough to stand against them, which
surprised him. There was a piercing wail as if the universe itself was crying
out in agony. The sound drove through their skulls. They covered their ears,
but the keening wail was too knife-sharp, driving itself into their brains. It
was louder even than the thunder that rolled all around them. Lois screamed.

Then, the world
fell *up *.

The knife sharp scream stopped. The thunder stopped. The
lightning stopped. The slashing rain stopped.

They stood and looked around. The afternoon sun was
shining through a cloudless blue sky.

"What was that?" Lois asked. Superman’s face
was pale and his eyes were dark with worry.

"I don’t know. I’ve never seen or felt anything like
it."

"Maybe we’d better get back to Metropolis," she
suggested. He nodded agreement, picked her up in his arms and took off again,
toward the city.

–Earth II–

They walked through Centennial Park, taking time to sit
beside the fountain where he’d first proposed to her, and where, later, she
proposed to him.

"Are you okay?" Clark asked. Lois had been
unusually quiet.

"I’m fine," she said, brushing a dark strand of
hair away from her face. "Have you told Richard and Penny yet, about Zara
and Ching, I mean?"

"I’ve told them they’re expected sometime this
week," Clark said. "But I haven’t filled them in on the details. I
didn’t want them to get their hopes up."

"It’s a pity they can’t have kids," Lois said.
"Richard’s so much like you it’s scary sometimes. He’ll make a great dad, and
Penny will make a pretty good mom."

"Well, you certainly shaped up, Mrs. Kent,"
Clark said with a grin, nuzzling her neck.

She slapped his chest then grabbed her belly, wincing in
annoyance more than pain. "I think this one’s just about ready to make an
appearance."

"Do you want me to get the car, or do you want . .
." He made a sideways waving motion with his hand, their sign for
Superman.

She repeated the sign back to him. "My water hasn’t
broken yet, but this kid is on its way."

"Stay right here, and I’ll be right back," he
promised.

* * *

If the first sign that something was amiss was the
unnatural storm, the second sign had to be that the Wannamaker building was
still standing.

The city below them was undamaged. Superman looked closer
and realized there were other differences from the city they’d left only hours
before. Buildings had been subtly shifted. The Daily Planet building was the
most changed. It was the same height and similar in appearance, but there was
no mistaking the building was not the same as the one he and Lois had left that
morning.

"Lois, I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more,"
Superman muttered.

Lois’s eyes followed his gaze to look over at the Daily
Planet building. Her eyes widened as she realized what he meant.

"Where are we?" she asked, heart pounding.

"I have no idea," he admitted with a frown. He
could hear Lois’s heartbeat next to him, but Jason’s was missing from the city.
And, more oddly, there was another heartbeat below him, in Centennial Park that
almost matched Lois’s. This one belonged to a pregnant woman who was in labor
and appeared annoyed. She had dark hair pulled back into a loose French braid.

"Superman!" she was calling quietly, as if she
didn’t want to be overheard by bystanders.

He landed softly near the fountain, setting Lois on her
feet before approaching the dark-haired pregnant woman.

"You called, ma’am?" he asked. The woman turned
and her eyes widened in an odd mixture of shock and disbelief.

"Who the devil are you?" she demanded before
doubling over with a hard contraction as her water broke.

–Lois II–

Lois Lane-Kent took a deep breath as she straightened up
to look more closely at the tall man wearing the Superman suit. The suit design
was different, a little darker, and definitely more alien, almost New
Kryptonian. He was tall, at least two, maybe three inches taller than her
husband with the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.

"I’m Superman," the tall man said, scooping her
up easily. He turned to the business-suited woman standing a little way from
the fountain. "Stay here, I’ll be right back."

He took off for Metropolis General Hospital.

–Lois I–

Lois Lane watched as Superman scooped up the pregnant
woman and sped off into the sky. She was alone in a city that looked only
vaguely like the one she was supposed to be in and she was annoyed. Who was he
to tell her to stay, as if she were a dog, or someone he could simply order
about? She was Lois Lane, Pulitzer winning writer and top reporter for the
Daily Planet.

"Uh, miss?" A man said, clearing his throat.

She turned to see a man wearing a Superman suit standing
next to her. Her eyes widened in confusion.

"There was a pregnant woman here," he
continued. "Where is she?"

"Superman took her to the hospital," she
said. She watched as astonishment,
confusion, and something else, flickered across his face. She noted that his
eyes were a warm brown. He was shorter than the Superman she knew. A little
over six-foot, maybe, and built like a quarterback. But the strong presence was
there, the ineffable aura of ‘good’ that she was familiar with.

She put out her hand. "I’m Lois Lane, Daily
Planet."

To her astonishment, he took a step back and looked up
into the sky, hands out in supplication. "Come on! Give me a break here,
will you!" After a moment, he
seemed to come to a decision and held out his hand to her. "Okay, Miss
Lane, let’s find out where your Superman took my Mrs. Kent."

"Mrs. Kent?" Lois repeated as Superman scooped
her up and let go of gravity.

A moment later, they touched down in front of the
emergency room entrance of Metropolis General Hospital. He set her on her feet
and strode into the building, keeping hold of her hand so she had to hurry to
keep up with him.

Superman, her Superman, was standing to one side of the
room, trying to keep out of the way. The brown-eyed one let go of her hand and
walked over to the admissions desk.

"Has Lois Lane-Kent been checked in?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, Superman," the admissions clerk
said. "She’s on her way up to the birthing suites. *He *brought her
in." She nodded her head in the direction of the other Superman.
"Relative of yours?"

"Not sure, yet," the brown-eyed one said.
"At least he’s not a clone. I’m not all that fond of clones, you
know."

The clerk chuckled. "I assume Mister Kent is on his
way."

"He should be here in a minute," the brown-eyed
one said. "In the meantime, is there a place I can put them until he gets
here?" He indicated Lois and the blue-eyed Superman.

"There’s a little waiting room around the
corner," the clerk said. "They should be okay there."

The brown-eyed Superman beckoned for her and her Superman
to follow him to the waiting room. He stopped the taller one. "Kal-El, I
presume," he said. Her Superman
nodded. There was a worried look in his eyes.

"I assume you have some civvies?"

Again, he nodded.

"You might want to change," the brown-eyed one
suggested. "You’ll be less conspicuous. And try to stay out of
trouble." He looked straight at Lois. "If that’s at all
possible."

He left the room, closing the door behind him.

Lois turned to her companion. "Superman, what is
going on here?" she hissed.

"We’re in an alternate dimension. A different
universe. I don’t know how, except maybe that storm we went through. It wasn’t
a normal storm, I know that."

"So, what do we do?"

He gave her a crooked grin. "Try to get on *his *
good side. I haven’t done such a good job of it, so far. Mrs. Kent was waiting
for *him *to show up. She was seriously annoyed with me."

"Mrs. Kent?" It suddenly dawned on her.
"Lois Lane-Kent?"

He nodded. "Clark Kent’s wife. He’s married. To Lois
Lane."

He had the most peculiar look on his face, almost as if
he couldn’t quite believe what he’d just said.

"He’s right, though. I’d better make myself less
conspicuous."

"You have a change of clothes?"

Again, that impossibly familiar grin. "I’ll be right
back."

–Clark II–

Clark had gone to the side of the building and changed
into his business suit and tie at superspeed. He hurried to the birthing suite
on the fifth floor, where he knew Lois was already harassing the birthing room
nurses.

"There you are!" his wife called as soon as she
caught sight of him. "Who was that other fellow?"

"Superman, I guess," Clark said.
"Remember, this *is *Metropolis, land of the weird and home of the
crazed."

Lois grimaced at another contraction and he held out his
hand for her to squeeze. One of the perks of being Superman, she couldn’t break
his hand with her vise-like grip.

He took a moment to look around the room. This was the
third delivery they’d had in this very room. CJ had been born at STAR Labs,
before Doctors Klein and Anderson determined that half-Kryptonian newborns were
indistinguishable in any way from normal newborns. The room itself looked like a regular
bedroom. Only the medical equipment in the side-room indicated it was more
specialized.

The attendant came in and checked under the sheet to see
how his wife was progressing. After three previous deliveries, Clark was still
embarrassed to be present while a stranger examined Lois’s cervix. He watched Lois’s face instead as she relaxed
between contractions.

"I figure another hour or so," the attendant
said.

"Lois, I need to take a minute and check on our
‘friends’ downstairs." He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "I’ll be right back."

"You’d better be," she warned. He feigned a
shudder and she giggled.

He hurried down to the waiting room where the other
Superman and Lois were supposed to be waiting.

To his surprise, they were still there. They’d gotten cups of coffee and another
couple had joined them in the waiting room. The other, younger, couple looked
grief stricken. Clark noted that Kal-El and his Lois were talking to them,
reassuring them, offering condolences.

Clark wondered if this Kal-El and Lois had children. He’d
noted an engagement ring on her hand, but no wedding band and wondered what
that meant. His journalist instincts were kicking in and he knew he would be
going after answers. He was also going to have to introduce Kal-El to a tailor.
The gray suit his counterpart was wearing was simply too out of date to be
believed, not to mention it didn’t fit as well as it could. Oddly, he wasn’t
wearing glasses.

All the Clark Kents he’d met during various
inter-dimensional treks wore glasses as part of their persona.

Clark cleared his throat to catch their attention and
both couples looked up at him standing in the doorway. He nodded to Kal-El and
Lois. "Superman told me you were here. I’m Clark Kent."

Kal-El stood and shook his hand. "I’m . . . Charlie
King and this is . . ." He looked back at Lois.

"Wanda," she announced. "Wanda
Detroit." She looked disconcerted when Clark began to chuckle.

"Well, Ms. Detroit," he said, fighting back
laughter. "I’m sure the Stardust Lounge will be pleased to know you’re
back in town."

He searched his pockets a moment, found his business card
case and handed ‘Charlie’ one of his cards. "I think it might be best if
you two went down to the Planet and waited there for me. I’ll call my assistant
to let her know you’re on your way."

–Clark I–

He looked down at the business card in his hand. The
Daily Planet logo was embossed in one corner. *Clark Kent, editor-in-chief, the
address and office phone number, fax, email. *Editor-in-Chief? He looked at the
other man in surprise and increased respect. This Clark Kent couldn’t be more
than five, possibly ten, years older than himself. He was editor-in-chief of
the largest newspaper on the east coast?

He handed the card to Lois and saw the same confusion in
her eyes.

"Thank you, Mister Kent," Kal-El said.
"We’ll do that."

"I’ll see you there in a couple hours, then,"
Clark Kent said. He nodded a good-bye to the other couple and left the waiting
room.

"Clark Kent is the editor of the Planet?" Lois
muttered. "But he’s . . ."

"A hack from Nowheresville?" Kal-El asked,
using X-ray vision to follow his counterpart to the stairwell beside the
elevators. "I don’t think so, ‘Wanda’. He may be wearing a Marvin the
Martian tie, but that’s not a cheap suit. He is definitely not the Clark Kent
you know." He looked back at Lois. "We’d better get over to the
Planet. He’ll be expecting to find us there."

"And being on *Mister Kent’s *good side will help us
how?"

"Don’t be difficult, please," Kal-El said.
"We’re going to need all the help we can get."

–Lois I–

They were able to catch a cab in front to the hospital
and ‘Charlie’ directed the driver to the Daily Planet. Lois watched her
companion out of the corner of her eye. Dressed in a gray three-piece suit,
even if it was a little out of date, made him look ‘human’, approachable, and
disconcertingly familiar. Annoyingly familiar.

"So, Charlie, is that your real name?" she
asked.

He grinned at her. "No."

"So, what is it?"

"Right now I don’t think you’d believe me if I told
you," Kal-El stated.

She could hear an oddly sad bitterness in his tone and
again she felt that odd sensation that she was missing something. Like she was
looking all around whatever it was but couldn’t focus on it. Her companion was
Superman, Kal-El of Krypton, Metropolis’s favorite son, savior of the city –
just not this city. They had their own Superman. But Kal-El had another name,
of this she was positive. And somehow, she knew she once knew his other name.

The cab stopped in front of the Daily Planet building and
Kal-El pulled cash from a worn leather wallet to pay the driver. She forced
herself to overcome the urge to grab the wallet from him to see what his
identification said.

"Coming?" he asked, getting out of the cab.

Wanda climbed out after him, then stopped to gaze,
open-mouthed, at the larger-than-life poster set in a display case on the side
of the building. Richard White, looking charming and debonair, with a handsome
woman standing beside him. The photographed pair smiled out at passersby. The
caption read *Lane and White, hottest team on the Planet. * Lois didn’t recognize the woman.

"I see Richard has a counterpart here," Kal-El
commented. "And that’s Penny Landris, if I’m not mistaken. She’s a new
hire at our version the Planet."

"How do you know?" she wondered.

"I know," he assured her with a crooked smile,
leading the way in to the building.

The lobby held a coffee kiosk and newsstand. The cashier
gazed at them incuriously as they made their way to the elevator banks, past
framed front-pages of famous events covered by the Daily Planet – the Hindenberg,
the first Moon landing, the first appearance of Superman.

"This is dated fourteen years ago," Kal-El
pointed out, scanning the articles. "He showed up here five years before I
did."

The doors to one of the elevators opened and they
entered. Wanda hit the button for the editorial floor. "And Clark Kent is
the E-in-C," she said. After a few minutes, the elevator slowed and
stopped, the doors opening into the Daily Planet bullpen.

Again, the room was familiar and unfamiliar at the same
time. The crowded desks, the flat-screen monitors hanging off the support
columns, the offices and conference room on the outside walls were familiar
components, but the colors were different, warmer. Half the desks were
currently unoccupied. Wanda/Lois knew from experience that these reporters were
out on the street and would be returning in a few hours to complete their
assignments for the next edition.

A petite oriental woman in a blue business suit caught
sight of them and strode over to where Wanda and Kal-El were standing in the
elevator lobby outside the bullpen. "You must be Charlie and Wanda,"
she said with a wide smile. "I’m Margot Tanaka, Mister Kent’s assistant.
He called and said you were on your way." She held out her hand and Kal-El
shook it.

"You’re free to look around, and we have a computer
in the conference room if you want to check email or do some research,"
she continued. "Or you can wait in Mister Kent’s office. Just stay out of
the way, but I suppose you know that."

Kal-El and Wanda nodded. "We’re familiar with
newsrooms." Kal-El said. He took Wanda’s elbow and guided her to the
conference room. "We can use that computer to check out this place,"
he murmured to his companion.

"I wonder what happened to Perry?" she murmured
back.

"Let’s find out," he said, closing the
conference room door behind them.

–Lois II–

Lois’s contractions were close. She had hold of his hand
as he coached her in breathing, panting along with her. "Another big
push," he told her. One part of her mind, the reporter, noted his glance
at the midwife stationed between her legs. The midwife nodded.

"Come on, push Lois, push," Clark told her. She
grabbed his arm through the surgical gown he was wearing and squeezed. She was
thankful he was invulnerable to most things. She’d be leaving bruises
otherwise. It wasn’t good to leave bruises on her husband, even if he did
deserve them, sometimes.

"The baby’s crowning," the midwife announced.
"Give us another good one, Lois."

Lois was sweating and her hair was damp, pointing in all
directions as the latest contraction rolled through her body. She looked a
mess, she knew it, and it annoyed her, even though she also knew that Clark
didn’t care how she looked right now.

She grimaced as she put all her energy into the muscles
of her belly, aiding the contraction, pushing the baby out of her body. Another
moment’s rest and another push. After three previous births, it still wasn’t
any easier. Why had they decided on having one more? Oh, yes, Clark, an only
child and adopted at that, wanted a big family. Well, *he *was having the next
one.

She groaned as yet another contraction hit and she bore
down.

"Come on, just a little more," Clark said. The
midwife moved even closer and there was a sudden wail from a new life arriving
on the scene.

"You have a daughter," the midwife announced,
placing the bloody, slimy, new arrival on her mother’s belly.

"She’s beautiful," Clark marveled as Lois
caressed the baby’s body. He bent closer to his wife and kissed her. "Just
like her mother."

–Clark I–

"Perry’s obituary," Kal-El pointed out the
article on the computer screen in front of him. "He died of ALS two years
ago. Survived by his wife and sons. Kent was the assistant editor and was
promoted to E-in-C on Perry’s death. He was thirty-eight at the time, which
made him the youngest E-in-C in the Planet’s history."

"He showed up here about the same time their
Superman first appeared," Wanda observed. "Why are you so interested
in Kent?"

He chose not to answer her question. *She doesn’t get it,
* he thought to himself. *Why can’t she
see it? What did I do to her six years ago that she can’t make such an obvious
connection? *

His thoughts were interrupted by a commotion outside
conference room. Wanda opened the door to listen. A man with reddish-brown hair
was standing at the railing to the elevator lobby holding his hands up for
quiet. The room had more occupied desks now as the reporters trickled in to
write their stories for tomorrow’s paper.

"I have an announcement to make, everybody,"
the man said. He looked to be about thirty-five. "Martha Michaela Kent
arrived at 1:44 PM today. Seven pounds, ten ounces. Mother and child are doing
fine. Dad is a basket case, as usual." There was a round of applause at
the announcement.

Kal-El heard a cry for help somewhere uptown, made a lame
excuse to Wanda and headed for the stairwell to escape the building. The local
Superman was busy with family matters and whether or not this was his universe,
he was needed.

–Clark II–

The midwife took the baby to be cleaned up and checked
out, leaving Clark alone with Lois.

"Ya done good, partner," he said. Even sweaty
and exhausted, she was beautiful and once again, as he did almost every moment
of every day, he marveled at how lucky he was to have her.

"I know," Lois said with a tired grin.
"When can we go home?"

"In a couple hours," Clark said. "You need
to rest a little, let them check you out. You know the drill."

*’Kal-El?’* Zara’s voice intruded inside his head.
*’Ching and I will be landing in four hours. Can you have everything ready?’*

*’Yes,’* Clark replied mentally.

"Clark, what’s wrong?" Lois asked.

He had realized many, many years ago that he couldn’t
hide anything from her. Not since she figured out that Superman was Clark
Kent’s alter ego. "Zara and Ching are on their way. They’ll be here a
little after six."

"So soon?"

"I have the impression they’re in a hurry," he
told her. "And she did say they’d come after the baby was born."

"I figured they meant a few days, not a few
hours," Lois commented. "You’d better get things ready for
them."

He kissed her, a long, lingering kiss, tasting the sweat
that was still on her face. "I’ll be back to get you as soon as I
can," he promised.

–Lois I–

That odd feeling of missing something was even stronger.
Kal-El’s excuse for leaving was as bad as one of Clark’s. And Superman certainly didn’t need an excuse
to go handle an emergency.

He came back less than twenty minutes later, smelling of
burnt rubber and gasoline. "There was a multi-car smashup on the West
Channel Bridge," he explained. "No serious injuries, thank
goodness."

"Good job. Thanks," Clark Kent said with a grin
as he walked into the conference room. He had a small dark haired boy on one
hip. The boy had large, brown,
almond-shaped eyes that watched her solemnly. "Oh, this is Jordan. Jordan,
say hello to Wanda and Charlie."

Jordan hid his face in his father’s chest.

"He’s a little shy," his father explained with
an embarrassed smile. He looked over at Kal-El. "Who handles the Superman
exclusives where you come from?"

"Lois, or Clark. Our Clark," Kal-El said.

Clark checked his watch. "Well, you have forty-five
minutes to give me something. We’ve got a great shot of the visiting Superman
for the front page."

"And Superman sells papers," Wanda said. It was
something she’d heard often enough over the past week from Perry White. Her
Perry White.

"Almost as good as tragedy and sex," Clark
said.

"Almost?" Wanda asked.

Clark shrugged. "Well, Superman’s been in Metropolis
nearly fourteen years. He’s not exactly old news, but it has to be a pretty big
problem to make the front page anymore. Now, a different Superman visiting,
that’s news."

Kal-El had already started typing on the computer
keyboard, fingers moving faster than any normal human’s. Wanda noticed that
Clark didn’t seem surprised at Kal-El’s typing speed. *What does he know? *

Clark turned and headed back into the newsroom. Wanda
watched as he approached two of his reporters. Richard White and his partner
had come in and were settling in at their desks.

"Richard?" Wanda murmured. He looked so much
like her fiancé it was unbelievable. But she saw that he only had eyes for his
partner, Penny.

"He’s not the Richard you know," Kal-El said
softly, not looking up from the computer screen.

"I know," Wanda said. She watched the Daily
Planet’s E-in-C as he spoke quietly with his two stars. Whatever he was saying
had surprised and pleased Richard and Penny. Wanda couldn’t remember the last
time *her *Richard had looked so happy. Before Superman came back into her
world. Maybe even before that.

Clark disappeared into his office and Wanda went over to
where Kal-El was writing. She peered over his shoulder at the screen, forearm
resting on his shoulder, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"You don’t say anything about how we got here. For that matter, you left
me out altogether."

Kal-El shrugged and patted her hand. "There are some
things better left a mystery. This needs to about the new Superman arriving on
the scene in this Metropolis. I think Mister Kent will be relatively pleased
with it."

"Good quotes. You do good work. Most people can’t
write about themselves, especially in third person."

"Thank you, ma’am." Again, the crooked smile
that was so annoyingly familiar as he sent the document over to Clark. Kal-El
tipped his head to one side, listening, watching something she couldn’t see.
"He’s finished writing the sidebar, welcoming the new Superman to
Metropolis."

A few moments later, Clark walked back into the
conference room, Jordan once again on his hip. "Good piece," he said
to Kal-El. "I have to get the other kids from school, and since you’re
obviously staying at my house, tonight at least, we’d better get going."

"What about putting the paper to bed?" Wanda
asked. Perry would never leave before the next edition was locked down and
ready to go to press.

"Unless somebody blows up the Lexcorp Tower in the
next couple hours, we’re ready roll," Clark said. "Besides, my
assistants all have my cell number. And I do usually answer it." He
beckoned them to follow him out.

He lead the way to the elevators, down to the lobby and
out to the parking garage, to a champagne-colored Windstar van. He chirped the
doors unlocked and belted Jordan into the car-seat in the middle row of seats.
Wanda noted a booster seat in the back row and wondered how many children the
Kents of this world had.

"Who’s sitting up front?" he asked.

"I’ll sit back here," Kal-El volunteered,
allowing Wanda the front passenger seat. She gave him a grateful smile. She
didn’t like being a passenger and being in the back seat only made it worse.

As it turned out, Clark was a reasonably good driver, if
a little cautious for her taste. But then, she realized, she had gotten more
cautious after Jason was born. She was startled when she recognized the route
he was taking to pick up the ‘other kids’. The same route either she or Richard
took nearly every weekday to pick Jason up from school.

"Something wrong?" Clark asked. Wanda hadn’t
realized she’d actually jumped.

"No," she said. "I just recognize the
neighborhood. My son goes to school here."

He raised a dark eyebrow at her. "How old is
he?"

"Five years, four months," Wanda said.

"Same age as Lara," he commented. "How
long have you been married?"

"I’m not," she said. He gave her a look she
couldn’t decipher. Surprise, puzzlement, consternation? She glanced back at Kal-El.
His expression had gone bleak and more than a little guilty. "My son’s
father disappeared without a word or a trace six years ago. I moved on. I had
to," she explained. "My fiancé is a very good man. He’s stood by me,
helping raise my son when his biological father was nowhere to be found."

"I see," Clark said, very quietly. She was sure
he didn’t understand. How could he understand something when she didn’t
understand it herself.

Clark pulled the van into a parking space in front of the
school. Two children, a boy about eight or so, and a younger girl came running
across the driveway to the van. The girl had the same dark hair and eyes as her
father. The boy’s coloring was a little lighter, with hazel eyes. Kal-El got
out and let them climb into the van before settling back into his seat beside
Jordan.

"CJ, Lara, this is Wanda and Charlie," Clark
introduced them. "They’ll be staying with us a few days," he added.
The older boy gave Wanda an appraising look, as if trying to decide who and what
she really was.

"Has the baby come, yet?" Lara asked. The girl
reminded Wanda of Jason. Same fine features, knowing gaze. She was going to be
a knock-out when she was older.

"Yup," Clark answered, starting the van and
pulling into the street. "A little before two. You have a baby
sister."

"When can we see her?" Lara demanded.

"Well, I was planning on dropping you guys off at
home with Grandma, then going to pick Mommy and baby Martha up and bring them
home, too. I want all three of you monsters on your best behavior. Mommy’s
going to be really tired and it’s going to be a long day," Clark told
them. "CJ, you remember Lady Zara and Ching, don’t you?"

The boy nodded. "Mommy doesn’t like them much,"
he said.

"I know, but they’re on their way and Richard and
Penny are coming to talk to them tonight."

The van headed north over the City Center Bridge to the
Lafayette neighborhood, one of the suburbs that had undergone a rebirth in the
past ten years, becoming a magnet for middle and upper managers who wanted to
live close, but not too close, to the city.

Clark turned the van down an impossibly familiar street,
pulling into the driveway at three-twelve Riverside Drive. Wanda recognized the two-story house
surrounded by a white picket fence. It was the house she had awoken in that
morning, before that impossible storm and the even more impossible situation
she found herself. Herself and Superman.

One of the garage doors opened by remote control and
Clark parked the van beside an older model Jeep Cherokee.

Kal-El let himself and the three kids out of the van and
the youngsters ran into the house yelling "Grandma! Mommy had the
baby!"

Wanda followed them into the house, Kal-El close on her
heels. The layout was the same, the furniture different, naturally. Educational
toys, children’s books, and stuffed toys were strewn across the family room.
These were well-loved kids.

An older, gray haired woman came into the family room
from the kitchen and gave the kids hugs. She gave Wanda and Kal-El a curious
look over the heads of the children.

"I’m Wanda Detroit and this is Charlie King,"
Wanda introduced herself.

The older woman gave her a disbelieving look and began to
laugh. "Clark, what gives?" she asked as she caught sight of Clark.

"Martha Kent, Mom, I’d like to introduce you to Lois
Lane and Kal-El. They’re visiting from another time-line, another
dimension," Clark explained.

Wanda felt her jaw drop. How did he know? Had Superman
told him? Why hadn’t he said anything earlier? Her astonishment started to turn
to anger. He’d been laughing at her, at them! But, wait – he knew they were
from another dimension? And Martha seemed to take that announcement in stride
like they’d just come in from out of town.

"Lois, honey," Martha said with a grin.
"Anyone who knows Clark’s wife knows she uses Wanda Detroit as a pen name,
among other things. I’ve seen her sing at the Stardust, too."

"Mom, I have to get Lois and the baby, plus, Zara
and Ching are on their way," Clark explained.

"Zara and Ching?" Martha repeated. Wanda could
tell the older woman was not happy. "Clark Jerome Kent, you’re not
planning on letting those two take one of these babies, are you?" There
was a definite threat in her voice.

"Hardly," Clark assured her. "It’d be
worth my life to even suggest it. It’s Richard and Penny they’ll be talking to.
But I admit, there’s something a little odd going on, too. I wasn’t expecting
them to show up so soon."

He grabbed a newborn’s car-seat and started to head back
to the van. "I’ll be back in a little bit with Lois and the baby." He
turned to ‘Wanda’ and Kal-El. "Please try to stay out of trouble."

As soon as Clark left, Martha took charge of her
grandchildren, ushering them into the kitchen for snacks. She beckoned for
Wanda and Kal-El to join them.

"Would you like some coffee or tea?" Martha
asked.

Wanda nodded. "Coffee would be nice."

"Mrs. Kent, who are Lady Zara and Ching?"
Kal-El asked. "And what are you afraid they want?"

Wanda watched conflicting emotions cross the woman’s
face, worry, relief.

"Zara is the First Lady of New Krypton, acting head
of the ruling house, which happens to be the house of El. Ching is her consort.
Clark tried to explain it all to me but I still don’t understand it. It’s just
too foreign," Martha said. "Under Kryptonian law, Kal-El, our Kal-El,
and Zara are in a binding contracted marriage between the House of El and the
House of Ra, but are legally separated since he refuses to live on New Krypton.
She has control of his lands and estates until his heir goes to New Krypton to
accept the titles and responsibilities as head of the House of El."

"And you’re afraid they’re coming to take one of the
children to become his heir on this other planet?" Kal-El asked.

Martha nodded.

"How barbaric," Wanda found herself saying.

"It’s a barbaric place," Martha said. "He
almost didn’t come back went he went there eleven years ago to help stop a
civil war."

"Wait a minute," Kal-El said. Wanda watched as
astonishment and disbelief washed over Kal-El’s face. "There were
survivors of Krypton?"

Martha nodded. "A whole colony. Believe me, it was a
surprise to us, too. I guess nobody on your Krypton believed Jor-El when he
warned them the planet was doomed."

"I guess not," Kal-El said. "What keeps
them from coming here and trying to take over? I mean they’d be
super-powered."

"There’s only a couple ships that can make the trip,
for one. And two, a couple of Lord Nor’s followers tried it, and our military
took them out pretty handily. There’s not a lot of kryptonite around, but we
know how to use it," Martha said. "I’m also told that Zara and Ching
have emphasized to their people how barbaric and dangerous –Earth I–s and how
courageous and self-sacrificing Kal-El is to stay here and ‘lead us to
civilization.’"

Martha turned her attention back to her three
grandchildren. "It’s homework time, CJ. Lara, piano practice. Your
recital’s next week."

Lara made a face but headed off to the living room. Wanda
followed her, leaving Kal-El talking with Martha over a second cup of coffee
and a plate of doughnuts. Wanda’s head was spinning. She was a reporter, but
she wasn’t making a lot of sense of what Martha had told them.

The little girl sat down at an electric piano, turned on
the power and began practicing scales. Wanda sat down beside her. "My son
plays piano, too. And he’s your age."

Lara didn’t stop playing. "He is? What’s his
name?"

"Jason Peregrine White."

"I’m Lara Ellen Kent," the little girl announced.
"After two of my grandmas. Daddy was adopted, you know. So I have three
grandmas, but one of them is dead."

Lara continued her practice, switching to ‘Heart and
Soul’, the piece Jason had been working on for weeks. Wanda’s heart began to ache for her son. Lara
reminded her of him so much it was frightening. She wondered if she would ever
see him again. If she and Kal-El, ‘Charlie’, would be trapped here forever, in
this version of Metropolis where Clark Kent was Superman, was married to Lois Lane,
and had four kids – not to mention a wife on the different planet.

*Clark Kent was Superman. * It sounded right, like
something she’d known before. But for some reason, she still couldn’t get her
head around it. *What the hell had he done to her? Did he even know what he’d
done? *There was no way that Kal-El
could possibly be the Clark Kent she knew. That Clark was a geek, a nerd, a
hack, a brilliant, idiotic, clumsy, dweeb, who tripped over his own feet and could
barely talk coherently. *No way! It was impossible! But still . . .*

She left the piano bench and walked back to the kitchen.
Martha was cleaning up and Wanda could hear Kal-El talking to one of the boys
in the family room. She walked in to see Jordan sitting on Kal-El’s lap as they
both sat next to CJ at a computer. Kal-El seemed so natural, so easy, with
Clark’s kids. *He’d make a fantastic father. What am I thinking? Jason has a
father, and not one who ran out before he was even born! *

She stepped closer to him. "You’re good with kids,"
she said. "You’ll make a great father, someday."

"I am a father, remember?" The hurt was
palpable in his face, his voice. "I just don’t know how I fit in to his
life, or yours."

"I don’t honestly know, yet. I’ve got memories
floating around in my head. I know some of them are real, but some of them, too
many of them, I still can’t grab hold of, still don’t make sense. What really
happened?" Wanda asked. She suddenly felt her pent up anger starting to
boil over. *"Why did you leave me like that? What aren’t you telling me?
What did you do to me?" *

–Lois II–

Lois waited for Clark to help her out of the van. Baby
Martha has asleep in her carrier wearing a yellow jumper that was far too big
for her. But like all the previous Kent kids, she’d grow into it in no time.

Clark had explained to her that Wanda and Kal-El would be
staying overnight, and possibly longer, if a way to send them back to where
they belonged couldn’t be found. Wanda would have to share a room with Lara, or
stay with Martha at her apartment.

"They’re not together?" she asked.

Clark shook his head. "She has a son Lara’s age, and
a fiancé, but it’s not *him.*" Clark grabbed the baby and followed Lois
into the house. "She said her son’s father disappeared six years ago and
she moved on. I’m pretty sure Kal-El’s the father. He looked awfully guilty
when she was talking about it."

*Why did you leave me like that? What aren’t you telling
me? What did you do to me?"* Wanda was practically yelling at Kal-El when
Lois and Clark walked in.

CJ’s eyes were wide in surprise as were Jordan’s.
Kal-El’s eyes were narrowed in that peculiarly Kryptonian fashion Lois was
familiar with, the one that said ‘back off now’. Lois also noted that Wanda didn’t seem to be
getting the hint.

"I’ve got her," Lois murmured to her husband,
taking the baby from the carrier.

"I’m on him," he murmured back.

"Wanda, come with me, please," Lois ordered
firmly. She saw Wanda’s eyes widen in surprise and was pleased when the younger
woman’s mouth snapped shut. *"Now."*

Lois started toward the living room, then stopped as she
realized Wanda wasn’t following. She turned back and grabbed the younger
woman’s arm and led her away. "I
will thank you not to yell at your boyfriend, or whatever, in front of my
kids," she hissed.

"He’s not my boyfriend," Wanda grated.

"Whatever. Absentee father of your child?
Irresponsible lout that got you knocked up?"

"You don’t understand," Wanda said.

"Then explain it to me," Lois said, settling onto
the leather sofa and cuddling her newborn. She kept her voice low and
controlled.

Wanda sat down on other end of the sofa, turning to face
Lois. "Kal-El and I had a relationship six years ago. Hell, relationship
isn’t the right word. One night stand. Then he decided it wouldn’t work, and he
did something to my memories, erased them, shut me out of his life, shut me out
of his world," Wanda explained. "A month later he left without saying
goodbye, disappeared without saying a word to anyone. He was gone for six
years. *Six years*. I didn’t know if he was dead, if he’d just gotten tired of
rescuing people who wouldn’t take care of their own problems, if I’d done
something to drive him away. We, I, didn’t know I’d gotten pregnant. I had a baby and I didn’t even know how it
happened. I did what I had to."

"And then he came back?" Lois asked.

Wanda nodded. "I won a Pulitzer for an editorial on
why the world doesn’t need Superman. And then he comes waltzing back into my
life as if he hadn’t been gone all that time, as if he could make it all up to
me, to my son, wave his magic cape and it’ll all be better. I have a man who
wants to marry me, I have a good life." Tears were running down Wanda’s
face.

"Wanda, if your Superman was so horrible to you, why
were you with him when whatever it was happened that brought you here?"
Lois asked.

"We were trying to recover my lost memories,"
Wanda explained. "Even though he doesn’t want a relationship with me. He
can’t have a relationship with me."

"I assume you mean Superman can’t have a
relationship with you?" Lois asked.

Wanda nodded.

"You do realize that Superman can’t have a
relationship with a real person, because he isn’t a real person? He’s a
character in an improv play with the world as a stage who wears a blue body
suit and red cape. He’s not real." Baby Martha had started to protest and
Lois put her to her breast.

"Of course he’s a real person," Wanda
protested. "You’re married to your Superman. You should know."

"No, I’m married to Clark Jerome Kent who happens to
have a second job that doesn’t pay at all well, that involves dressing up in a
blue body suit and red cape so he can go flying around rescuing people, and
having bad guys shoot at him," Lois said. "Clark Kent is the one who said
‘I do’, takes the kids to school, helps pay the bills, holds my hand, sleeps in
my bed, and was my birthing coach for four babies. Superman didn’t do any of
those things. He can’t. He’s not a person, he’s a job. You need to be looking
for the man *doing* the job."

It was a vast over-simplification, Lois knew, but Wanda
just seemed so oblivious. She hoped Clark was having better luck with his
counterpart.

–Clark I–

*"Why did you leave me like that? What aren’t you
telling me? What did you do to me?" *Wanda’s words kept reverberating in
Kal-El’s ears, despite Clark’s glower in his direction.

"You’re with me," Clark repeated. Kal-El set
Jordan on his feet and unfolded himself from the chair.

"You are in so much trouble," CJ muttered, shaking
his head. "Nice meeting you."

"CJ . . ." Clark warned. He beckoned Kal-El to
follow him downstairs.

Kal-El didn’t remember Wanda’s house having a basement.
He followed Clark down carpeted steps, to a large office lined with books and
native art. The rest of the basement was finished as well, and appeared to be
an art studio.

"You have some explaining to do, mister," Clark
began.

"You sound like my father," Kal-El commented.

"I’ll take that as a complement."

"I’ve already had the ‘responsibility’ lecture from
my mother," Kal-El said, taking a seat in the chair by the door. Clark was
leaning against the desk, arms folded across his chest. His expression was one
that Kal-El recognized from himself – annoyed Superman. It was more than a little
disconcerting to be on the receiving end of that cool gaze.

"I didn’t know she was pregnant when I left,"
he started to explain. "I would never have left if I had known. I don’t
know what I would have done, but I wouldn’t have left."

"So, where did you go?"

"Krypton. There were reports, supposedly verified
reports, that Krypton had been found, and there were signs of life,"
Kal-El said. "I had to see for myself. It was like a compulsion, I had to
go and see it. The reports were wrong. In fact, the reports were completely
false, planted by a psychopath who wanted Superman out of the way."

He looked up. Clark’s expression hadn’t changed.

"Krypton was more than just dead. It was poison. I
almost didn’t make it back. When I did get back, I discovered Lex Luthor was
using Kryptonian technology to recreate Krypton on Earth. He damn near
succeeded in destroying the planet." He noted a flicker of interest in
Clark’s eyes at the mention of Luthor and Kryptonian technology.

"The Luthor here died about twelve years ago,"
Clark said. "And so far, he hasn’t come back again, yet. And the only
Kryptonian technology I know about on –Earth I–s the spaceship I was sent to
–Earth I–n and the programming in the navigation module. And I didn’t get access
to those until I’d been in Metropolis for six months or so."

"You don’t have access to Jor-El’s AI?"

Clark shook his head.

"Lucky you," Kal-El commented. At least Clark
had stopped glowering at him. "That damned AI is one of the things that got
me in trouble with Lois six years ago. I was told that in order to have a
relationship with a human woman, I had to *become* human. Give up the powers,
everything. So I did. The worst mistake I ever made up until that time.
Everything else afterward came from that one decision."

"Go on," Clark said. The stern father was still
in the older man’s voice, but ‘annoyed Superman’ was gone, at least.

"I couldn’t stand to not have the powers, to lose
that part of myself, to not be able to help. I convinced the AI to let me have
my powers back. The price was having a relationship with Lois, with any human
woman. She didn’t take it very well. So I went ahead and did another incredibly
stupid thing, I erased her memory of what we had. I don’t know exactly how I
did it, but I did. And now she would cheerfully finish what Luthor started with
his kryptonite dagger in my back."

"Do you blame her? You took away her freedom of
choice. For all intents and purposes, you raped her. You abused your powers to
take away her right to choose," Clark said harshly. He was sounding more
and more like Jonathan Kent, or at least how Kal-El thought his father would
have reacted. "Right now, I would
like nothing better than to tan your hide like cheap leather," Clark
added.

"You are not my father."

"No, but I figure I’ve got about twelve years on you
in the Suit. So that makes me the voice of experience. And the voice of
experience says you, buster, are acting like a spoiled brat. ‘Lois couldn’t
handle being dumped by Superman so I went and hit the reset button.’?"

"That wasn’t it. I told her the truth, who I really
am."

"And who are you?"

Kal-El gave him a puzzled look. "I’m not sure I
understand."

"When you look in the mirror in the morning, who
looks back at you? Clark Joseph Kent, son of Jonathan and Martha Kent, or Kal,
son of Jor and Lara of the house of El? When they find your dead body, who do
you want them to identify you as?"

Kal-El slumped back in the chair. Clark was annoyingly
perceptive and he wondered if it was due to the man’s having more life
experience – twelve years seemed about right – or if he was simply brighter and
more competent. Kal-El couldn’t see himself ever handling Perry White’s job and
this Clark seemed to be taking it in stride. He found that he was actually
jealous of the older man.

"Clark Kent, I suppose," Kal-El said finally.
"That’s who I’ve been for as long as I can remember. I only found out
about Kal-El when I was seventeen, when my powers came in, right after my dad
died. The AI wanted me to stay in the Fortress for years to learn to become
Kryptonian. I wasn’t exactly cooperative. I didn’t stay. I went out to see the
world instead, went to college."

"Did it ever occur to you that the AI was being less
than truthful?" Clark asked. He’d left the ‘stern father’ mode and had
switched to what Kal-El mentally labeled ‘reporter’ mode. "The AI wanted
you to be Kal-El and Kal-El can’t have a relationship with a human woman, it’s
too dangerous for everyone involved. But what’s keeping Clark Kent from being
with someone?"

"Lois Lane never gave Clark Kent the time of
day."

"And whose fault is that?"

Kal-El didn’t answer the question. "I don’t know how
to undo the damage I did," he admitted instead. "I was trying to jog
her memory, help her get things sorted out when we ended up here. I don’t know
how I even managed to do what I did."

"Kryptonians are telepathic, at least with people
they’re close to," Clark said. "A few of them are a lot stronger than
that. I’m betting that’s how you did it, even if you didn’t realize it."

"So, how do I undo it?"

"The same way you did it?"

"I doubt she’ll let me get that close," Kal-El
said with a grimace.

"You can but try."

–Clark II–

Clark was not proud of losing his temper. As Superman he
couldn’t afford to ever loose control that way.
And it simply wasn’t Clark Kent’s way. Doctor Friskin was going to have
a field day at their next session. But Kal-El had been so blasted obtuse. In
fact, of all the varied versions of Clark Kent he’d met from various alternate
time-lines, this one had to be one of the densest. Erasing someone’s memories?
*Give me a break.*

He checked his watch. Half an hour till every one showed
up. It was going to be a long night.

"Why don’t you go talk to her now?" Clark
suggested. Kal-El’s expression was bleak, defeated. He sighed as he stood and
headed up the stairs to the main floor.

After a few moments, Clark followed him up the stairs.

Clark went up to the master bedroom and changed out of
his suit into black trousers and a black turtleneck shirt. He refused to wear
the black Kryptonian body suit that still hung in the back of the hidden closet
with his other ‘suits’. His one concession tonight to signify his Kryptonian
obligations was a blue enameled pendant with the sigil of the House of El.

Coming back downstairs, he noticed Kal-El and his Lois
had gone out to the back deck to talk.

"How did it go?" he asked his wife.

"Was I that galactically dense?" she wondered
aloud.

"No," he replied, busying himself with setting
out snacks on the dining room table for their soon-to-be-arriving guests.
"Wasn’t it Herb who said you were simply blinded by love?"

"He only said that to make me feel better about it
taking so long to figure you out," Lois said with a grin. "I mean,
who’d a thunk it? The Man of Steel was just a disguise for the hack from
Nowheresville Perry was trying to set me up with?" She came over to the
table. "No chocolate?"

"You know Lara and Jordan are allergic and you can’t
have any until the baby’s weaned. Sleep good, baby wired on chocolate bad,
remember? Have some carob kisses instead." He popped one in to her mouth.

"It’s just not the same," she complained.

There was the sound of a car driving up and stopping in
the driveway. A moment later, the doorbell rang.

"I got it," CJ yelled, running to the door and
opening it. Standing on the front porch were Richard and Penny and just behind
them was the Kent family lawyer, Constance Hunter.

"Come on in," Clark said, waving them into the
house. "Zara and Ching aren’t here yet, but should be any time now. Oh,
Constance, this is Penny and Richard White."

The attorney gave the couple a nod in greeting. "Constance will be the one handling the
necessary paperwork, assuming everything comes together," Clark added as
explanation.

Richard gave Penny a hug. Clark knew they had high hopes
for tonight’s meeting. Like he and Lois before them, they’d been turned down by
adoption agency social workers. Even the foster care system thought the risk of
placing a child with a pair of Daily Planet investigative reporters was too
great.

"I assume the natural parents are aware of the
documentation they need to have?" Constance asked.

"The message
was passed to them, so I assume they’ll have proper documents with them,"
Clark said. "We may have to translate them, however."

Constance nodded.

Clark had told her early on it was to be a privately
arranged fostering involving foreign nationals. He hadn’t added any details
aside from the fact that fostering was a normal part of the culture among the
high ranking families of that nation. He assumed Constance had done her
homework and realized that no current Earth culture was doing that sort of
thing these days.

Clark glanced out the French doors to the back deck.
Kal-El and Wanda were still talking. Then, he leaned over and kissed her, a
long tender kiss. He pulled away and Clark saw Wanda’s eyes widen. Then she
slapped Kal-El. Hard.

"That had to have hurt," Richard commented.

"They have some serious issues to work out,"
Lois said.

–Earth I–

"Uncle Perry, have you heard from Lois, yet?"
Richard asked. He had five-year-old Jason Peregrine White on one hip as he
walked into his uncle’s office.

Perry shook his head. "Neither she or Kent have
called in and I haven’t been able to reach them on their cells. You know, Lois
hasn’t run off like this in ages. She usually gives me some sort of run down on
what she’s working on before she takes off."

"Ralph asked me a little while ago if the two of
them had run off to Niagara Falls again," Richard said. "He’s lucky I
didn’t punch him." He set Jason on his feet. "Jason, why don’t you go
to my office and draw? I need to talk to Perry."

"Okay, Daddy." Jason headed off to the adjacent
office.

"Okay, son, what gives?" Perry asked.

Richard looked solemn. "I’m worried about them. The
two of them going missing is just going to make the rumors that much
worse. It’s bad enough the whole
newsroom knows Clark’s Jason’s father, and now they’re going to think Lois is
two-timing me with him."

"Do you think she is?"

"No," Richard said, "But, Uncle Perry, the
opposite of love is indifference, not hate. And since he’s come back, she’s
been treating him like he’s her ex. I know she still has feelings for him, even
if she won’t admit it. I admit I’ve been hoping all this time that she’d come
around, that she’d feel for me what she felt for him before whatever it was
happened that made him leave. I just hope she can get through her anger at him
leaving when he did, so she can forgive him."

"Do you want her to forgive him?" Perry asked.

"I want what’s best for Jason," Richard said.
"Whatever Lois decides, she needs to do it quickly, for Jason’s
sake."

–Lois I–

Wanda had never seen Kal-El looking so glum as when he
came into the living room where she and Lois were sitting. Or maybe she had and
just couldn’t remember.

"We have to talk," he said, head bowed, hands
in his pants pockets. His posture was so familiar, so Clark-like. She almost
had it . . . and it was gone again.

Lois gave Wanda a little nod. Wanda stood up and followed
Kal-El out to the back deck.

It was about an hour before sunset and the western sky
was beginning to glow pink and red.

"They’re happy," Wanda said, looking at the
clouds. "Married ten years, four kids, two cars, a mortgage. They’re in
love and they’re happy." She glanced at Kal-El. His head was still down,
looking at his feet, not at her.

"She was trying to convince me that Superman was
nothing more than a character, a job. Somehow I can’t quite get my head around
that either."

"I think Mister Kent was channeling my father,"
Kal-El said. "I know my dad would have been terribly disappointed in me
for what I did to you. And he asked me some questions I’m not sure I have good
answers for."

"And what were the questions?"

"Just one really. Who am I, really? And I don’t have
an answer. I’ve spent seventeen years trying to be the person my birth father’s
AI thought I should be. And in that time, the person I ought to be, the person
I really am, has turned into someone I don’t even like. He’s a clumsy, cowardly
fool and I’m not even sure how it happened."

"Do you always refer to yourself in the third
person?"

That brought a touch of a smile. "It helps me keep
track. I don’t really have disassociated personality syndrome. It just looks
like that sometimes."

There was a long silence as she tried to put more pieces
together. "I know, intellectually, that you’re also Clark. But I still
can’t quite believe it."

"He told me that Kryptonians are telepathic. He
suspects I may have used that talent on you without intending to."

"Can you undo it?"

To answer, he stepped closer, tipped her head up with his
hand and kissed her. She remembered the sweetness of his mouth, the soft lips,
the fervent promise of more.

He pulled back and the memories of that night, the night
Jason was conceived, the night in the Fortress of Solitude came flooding back,
overwhelming her senses. There was more than just that night – all the things
she hadn’t put together afterwards, all the sly comments at work when it was
discovered she was pregnant and Clark Kent, her partner, had disappeared to
parts unknown, the understanding looks from Perry, the orders from Perry to go
with Clark to do a story at Niagara Falls. Clark’s unconvincing arguments
against it. It all came into focus and she was furious.

She slapped him as hard as she could.

He took a step back and she could see the confused pain
in his impossibly blue eyes.

"I’m sorry," he murmured.

"Was it your idea to do that story at Niagara?"
she demanded.

"Is that what you remember?" he asked,
confusion obvious in his voice.

"Was it?"

"Hardly. It was an idiotic fluff piece and you know
it. Jimmie could have written it," he answered. "Perry went and gave
the story I was working on to Mike. You have no idea how furious I was."
He paused, watching her warily.

That was something. The Man of Steel was afraid of her.
She felt the beginnings of a hysterical laugh and ruthlessly quashed it.

"What else do you remember?" he asked.

"I remember Niagara Falls. And things I didn’t put
together then, that didn’t make sense at the time," she said. "We
were set up. Somebody had a great laugh sending Mad Dog off on a honeymoon with
her dweeby partner. Even if nothing had happened, they would have said it had.
Only something did happen, and then you took off and they blamed me for it. Oh,
nobody actually said it, and Perry was so understanding, and you hadn’t placed
any blame on anybody for you needing to leave. And then when Jason was born and
he looked just like you, only you didn’t come back . . ."

"Lois," he said quietly. "You’re
babbling."

She stopped. To her horror, she was crying. She stepped
toward him, recognizing through her tears that oh-so-familiar
deer-in-the-headlights ready to bolt look. "I’m sorry," she said.
"It just came at me too fast." He seemed to relax just a bit, enough
for her to put her arms around him. "I missed you. I missed my
friend."

"I missed you, too. I should never have left,"
he said, resting his cheek on the top of her head.

"If I had stopped you, you would have ended up
resenting it, resenting me," she said. "We both know that."

"So where do we go from here?"

"I have no idea," she admitted. "But it’s
a moot point if we can’t get back home."

"You know, you’re not nearly as mad at me as I
thought you’d be," he said. "How’s your hand?"

She flexed it experimentally. "Nothing broken. And I haven’t decided
how mad I am. When I do, you’ll be the first to know. We have some serious
trust issues to deal with. Not to mention how the devil I’m going to explain
all this to Jason, and Richard, and Perry. This isn’t over yet." She looked
over at the house, into the room beyond the French doors. "We seem to be
the floor show."

–Lois II–

The couple on the deck seemed to have come to some
agreement. Lois saw them glance back at the house, then start for the
doors. As they came into the living room
the doorbell rang and once again, CJ ran to get it.

"CJ, wait," Lois yelled. The eight-year-old
opened the door instead. Three figures, a man, woman and small child, all
dressed in form-fitting black, stood on the porch. The man was holding a metal
case about a foot high and wide and two-feet long.

"Kindred in the bonds, I greet thee thrice,"
Clark greeted the newcomers with the slightest of bows, hands held out in the
Kryptonian fashion. "Lady Zara, welcome to my home."

Zara smiled, moved forward and gave Clark a hug. The
Kryptonian woman was un-customarily friendly, given how formal Clark had been.
Lois knew that Kryptonians were not given to public displays of affection. It
was one of the problems Clark had during his year on New Krypton – he was a
very physical person and having to deny that part of himself, his need for
physical contact, had hurt him very badly.

"Clark, it’s so good to see you," Zara said.
"But we need to talk privately when this is done." Lois saw the strain
in Zara’s face and wondered at how things were faring on New Krypton.

Ching had followed Zara into the living room, ushering
the child before him. Clark crouched
down in front of small boy. "And who is this little guy?"

"This is Jos-Ra, heir to the House of Ra. My son by
my consort Ching."

The boy looked to be Lara’s age with medium brown hair
and hazel eyes like CJ. His long hair
was secured by a blue headband.

Zara looked around the room, stopping at Richard and
Penny. "Mister and Missus White?"

Richard nodded. "Yes, Lady Zara?"

"It is our custom to foster our male offspring to
allied Houses," Zara explained. "However, one of the Great Houses,
the House of El, does not currently have a presence on New Krypton and is not
readily available for this type of alliance."

Richard looked to Clark for guidance, or at least an
explanation.

Clark gave him a crooked grin. "Among other things,
I happen to be the equivalent of the Consul General for New Krypton,"
Clark said. "I have been asked to facilitate such fosterage on Earth on
behalf of the House of El. I wasn’t going to go into details until they got
here. I didn’t want to get your hopes up."

"Oh, wow," Richard muttered. "When you
said foreign, you really meant it. The House of El is Superman’s family, isn’t
it?"

"Yes, it is," Clark answered.

"Does he, I mean will he, have Superman’s
powers?" Penny asked. "He’s so small."

"Superman has said his powers didn’t fully manifest
until he was nearly eighteen years old," Clark explained "So it’s
unlikely Jos-Ra will show any powers or anything to mark him as being anything
other than human until he’s an adult,"

"Unless he’s under great stress," Kal-El added.
"Strength shows up first and it is possible for that to manifest at an
early age *if* he is under life-threatening stress."

"How do you know that?" Richard asked.

"I know," Kal-El said with a sigh. "It’s
complicated."

Zara gave Kal-El a curious look. The tall man pulled to
his full height and gave the Kryptonian woman a polite nod.

"Lady Zara, may I present Charles King and Wanda
Detroit," Clark said. "They’re new here."

Ching had moved closer to Lois and now leaned over to
speak with her. "Lady Lois, which house is he with?" Ching asked
softly.

"The House of El from an alternate time-line,"
Lois said. "Like he said, it’s complicated."

Ching stared at her in obvious disbelief.

"Clark and I have had some experience in this sort
of thing," she explained. Ching didn’t look convinced. "How did you
know he’s Kryptonian?"

"His life aura is as strong as Kal-El’s," Ching
said quietly. "Earth humans don’t radiate quite as strongly."

Lois’s attention was drawn to Zara crouching down beside
her son. "Jos, this is Richard and Penny. Lord Protector Kal-El, Superman,
has arranged for you to stay with them."

The child looked at his mother with wide worried eyes.
"But I want to stay with you and father and Suren. Why can’t you stay with
me?"

"We’ve talked about this. Your sister has to stay
home with your father and me. You will be under Lord Kal-El’s protection and
you will learn many things here, many things you can bring back to us when it’s
time," Zara explained patiently. "Mister and Missus White will take
care of you just as though you were their child and Clark and Lois will be here
for you too."

Lois wasn’t sure how she would act if their positions
were reversed. Her heart broke at the thought of leaving one of her children
with strangers, giving them up for treaty obligations, even if it did make
political sense. Children shouldn’t be pawns in political games, and if that
was the price of being royalty, she wanted no part of it. They were never
getting one of her babies.

Constance cleared her throat. "It’s getting late and
we need to get these documents squared away."

"Yes, of course," Ching agreed.

The document signing only took fifteen minutes or so.
Constance had everything ready and the signature lines were highlighted for
them. Legally it was simply an open adoption. In the documents, the child’s
name was now ‘Jason Ryan White’.

As soon as the papers were signed, Clark hurried Richard,
Penny, Jason, and Constance out the door.

"File the rest of the Goldman murder story tomorrow
from home, then take the next couple days off. Family leave," Clark
ordered with a smile.

–Clark I–

Aside from meeting Superman/Clark Kent earlier today,
Kal-El had never met another Kryptonian. Had never dreamed that such was
possible. But now, two Kryptonians who had evaded the holocaust that had
brought Krypton low, that had blasted the planet into poisonous shards, were
here, on Earth.

They were both a little shorter than he had expected,
dressed in black Kryptonian bodysuits with their house sigil emblazoned across
their chests. The woman’s outfit was completed by a cape-like coat of a
slightly heavier material than the body suit, with a high collar. He wondered a little that Clark had chosen
not to dress as a Kryptonian at this meeting, but then Richard, Penny, and
Constance obviously didn’t know that Clark was also their world’s Superman.

He recalled from his father’s lectures on Krypton’s
social structure. El, Ar and Us were the oldest, most honored of the twelve
houses. Those three had been founded first by the three representatives whose
efforts had finally brought peace to the warring nations of Krypton. Ra, Et,
and Ah were close in time, and the others evolved from other powerful families.
Martha had said something about a civil war. Had the checks and balances that
Sor-El, Pol-Us, and Kol-Ar created somehow failed in the new colony?

"Okay, Zara," Clark said as soon as Richard and
Penny had ‘Jason’ well away from the house. "Why are you fostering Jos
here on Earth? You know how dangerous it’ll be if the other Houses discover
–Earth I–sn’t the hellhole you’ve been telling them it is. You also know how
hard it’s going to be to re-assimilate him back into New Kryptonian
society."

Zara looked over at Ching, worry written across both
their faces. "We didn’t see that we had a choice, Clark," Zara said.
"For the past year or so, the House of Et has been attempting to
reestablish itself and destabilize the other houses. Nor’s nephew, Xon, has
been making noises about bringing the House of Et back to its former glory. Trey
is dead and several heirs to the other houses have been assassinated, forcing
those houses to reconsider their birth marriage contracts and their fostering
options. Xon has demanded Suren’s hand in contract."

"We have no intention of acceding to his demands, of
course," Ching added. "But we need to have Jos safe from Xon’s
agents. And as to Earth’s danger – I admit it may be a risk, but we have been
successful in getting our people convinced that not only is Earth a barbaric
and dangerous place, but the planet is the property and domain of the House of
El. Hence your title of Lord Protector. They also know what you tried to do for
our people, and how you killed Nor to save us from his madness."

"That’s just wonderful," Clark commented.
Kal-El wasn’t sure if Zara and Ching heard the sarcasm in his voice. "And
how soon before Xon starts gunning for me to avenge his uncle’s death?"

"It’s unlikely he’ll come to Earth, Clark,"
Zara said. "He is more cunning than that. And that is what we need to talk
to you privately about."

Clark sighed. "Come down to my office," he
said. "We can talk there." He led them down the stairs to his
basement office.

Kal-El took a moment to inspect the bookshelves that
lined the living room. At home, he owned nearly every one of the books here,
with the exception of the romance novels – they obviously were Lois Lane-Kent’s
choice of reading material.

One volume caught his attention: A Year on New Krypton by
Clark Kent. He skimmed the book, stopping to read certain passages more
closely.

"Mrs. Kent, how much of this book is fiction?"
he asked.

"The part were Clark Kent *isn’t* Kal-El," Lois
replied. "Why?"

"Krypton was an advanced, peaceful society.
According to this, the colony of New Krypton was a barbarous war zone. How did
it happen?"

"I don’t know," Lois said. "I don’t know
if they know what happened or why, except to blame Nor." Lois’s expression
became distant. "Except for what he wrote there, and a handful of things
he was actually proud of, Clark won’t really talk about what happened to him
while he was gone. It still gives him nightmares, and it took nearly six months
before he was willing to put on the suit, to come back to his other job. I’ve
read what he wrote and I know he left a lot out." She hugged herself as if
suddenly cold. "I remember the scars he came back with. Some of them were
so awful, we thought he’d never heal."

"You don’t like them much, do you?" Wanda
observed. Lois shook her head.

"I know Zara and Ching try to understand Earth
society, mores," Lois said. "They try, and I know the multitude of
cultures here confuses them, but they don’t understand that life has to be more
than pragmatic analysis of needs. There has to be joy and love and hope. There
has to be art that has no purpose other than to be pretty or sentimental,
poetry and music that aren’t dirges or military marches. And I don’t like the
way they assume they have priority in my husband’s life."

Kal-El canted his head to one side, listening. Zara was
talking about Nor’s grand-daughter and her child. A child who, if Zara could be
believed, was biologically Clark’s daughter. It was Zara’s solution to the
political problem such a child presented to the stability of New Krypton that
appalled him.

Downstairs, Clark was shouting at them. "You’re the
brilliant military strategist, Ching. You come up with a different solution,
cause I’m not buying into the one you’ve got. Superman does not kill! And I
will not sanction the death of a child in any case!"

"I don’t see that you have a choice, Kal-El,"
Ching said.

"There is always a choice," Clark insisted.
"And I have made mine."

Kal-El heard a whoosh and a moment later a sonic boom.

"They must have him gotten pretty upset," Lois
said softly. "He doesn’t normally take off that fast from the house."

"They asked him to do something completely
reprehensible," Kal-El. "They asked him to kill."

–Clark II–

Ching had grabbed the metal case he’d brought with him
and carried it downstairs with him. Clark noted the case was sealed and he
didn’t see an obvious way to open it. It was lead-lined so he couldn’t see into
it. That worried him.

"Clark," Zara began as soon as all three of
them were behind the closed door of Clark’s office. "We have a crisis on
our hands. Not only has Xon been trying to destabilize the Great Houses, but
he’s specifically targeted the Houses of Ra and El. A few weeks ago our people
caught Nor’s daughter Conza. She was pregnant, close to term."

"I remember Conza, I think. She was only about five
years old when I killed Nor. She was there that day," Clark said.
"She was with her mother, watching."

He closed his eyes against the unbidden memories.
Memories of that last duel with Nor, when he was forced to use every trick he’d
learned from Ching in drei combat. Nor was taller, more experienced, and simply
meaner than Clark. But luck, desperation, and a few moves from martial arts
movies, and classes Lois had made him take, had been on Clark’s side. Somehow, he had brought Nor to his knees and
the Kryptonian quarterstaff down on the back of Nor’s neck. The photon
emissions had burned through skin and bone.
*No doubts, no mercy. Only the kill.*

"The mother swore vengeance against the House of
El," Ching said, continuing Zara’s explanation. "She was one of the
leaders taken out in the final raids against Nor’s strongholds before you left
for Earth. The daughter disappeared, and we had assumed she had died as
well."

"We don’t know who had her, who raised her, but when
she was found, she had become what you would term a ‘terrorist’. We believe she
was responsible for the assassinations of the heirs," Zara went on.
"When she was caught and discovered she was in the hands of the Houses of
El and Ra, she tried to kill herself and the unborn child with her. We managed
to prevent it only to discover when the child was born that she carried the
genetic markings of the House of El. We assume they got your genetic material
when you were held by Nor."

"That’s probably a safe assumption, considering I
don’t remember most of what happened while Nor’s people had me," Clark
said. What little he did remember was best described as a drugged out
nightmare. Not that he’d had any experience with drugs prior to that. On Earth,
under the yellow sun, they didn’t affect him at all. But it wasn’t an
experience he ever wanted to repeat.

"What happened to her, to Conza?" Clark asked.

"After the child was delivered, she managed to end
her life," Ching said. "I swear we had nothing to do with it. We
wanted her alive to stand trail for her crimes."

"So, what’s the crisis?" Clark asked. He
trusted Ching, trusted his judgment.

Zara sighed and shook her head. "Clark,
biologically, the child is yours. A female member of the House of El out of Et,
as such she is a valuable pawn in whatever Xon has planned."

"So, give her back to him," Clark said. "I
haven’t been on New Krypton in ten years, so obviously I didn’t consent to any
union with the child’s mother."

"Clark, you’re being dense," Ching said.
"The child is a pawn. She was bred to take down the House of El. Whether
you claim her as a member of the House or not, Xon can make the claim that the
child’s mother was your bound concubine as right of victor, and the child has
the right of inheritance in preference over your natural, half-breed, heirs.
You’re only choice is to repudiate any claim the child might have on you, and
take steps to ensure Xon has no chance of using her against you."

"But you just said he’ll use her whether or not I
claimed her."

Zara and Ching just looked at him. He saw pity in their
eyes and he finally realized what they were referring to.

"No!" Clark found himself shouting at them.
"You’re the brilliant military strategist, Ching. You come up with a
different solution, cause I’m not buying into the one you’ve got. Superman does
not kill! And I will not sanction the death of a child in any case!"

"I don’t see that you have a choice, Kal-El,"
Ching said.

"There is always a choice," Clark insisted.
"And I have made mine."

"Clark, just sign the repudiation documents,"
Zara insisted. "Your hands will be clean. Ching and I can handle the
rest."

"No!" He found he had his fists clenched and he
was shaking with fury. He stalked out of the office and blurred his way through
the underground passage that led from the house to the river’s edge. Then he
took off, into the sky, as fast as he could, without bothering to change into
the blue and red suit. The night was a good enough disguise.

He headed north, to the glacier he frequently used as a
refuge when he was close to losing control. The glacier had taken a beating
over the years. This time, instead of taking his anger out on the ice, he
simply sat, head on his hands.

He didn’t understand Zara and Ching. Even on New Krypton
life was precious. They’d started out with only fifty thousand colonists and
the number had dropped to half that between the harshness of the planet they
were on and Nor’s war. But now they wanted him to authorize the death of a
child whose only crime was to be born.

He heard the swoosh of a Kryptonian coming to ground and
looked up to see Kal-El standing a few yards away, wearing the familiar blue
and red.

"I don’t think I like the Kryptonians in this
universe," Kal-El said conversationally, sitting down on the ice facing
Clark. The aurora borealis streamed above them in the darkness, coloring the
landscape.

"I *know* I don’t like them," Clark replied.
"And I don’t understand enough of Kryptonian law to argue against them.
Assuming they’re not making things up as they go along. I know Nor was. By the
way, how did you find me?"

"There are only four full-blooded adult Kryptonians
on the planet. It wasn’t that hard."

"I’m not used to having other Kryptonians
around," Clark admitted. "And I admit that I have a bad habit of
avoiding emotional confrontation by taking off." He sighed. Ten years of
therapy hadn’t broken him of the avoidance habit. "I should be working on
a way to get you and your Lois back to where you both belong. But the usual
suspects haven’t shown their faces yet either to apologize or to gloat,
depending which one, so I don’t have a lot to go on."

"There are ‘usual suspects’?"

Clark nodded. "Oh yeah. There’s H.G. Wells and his
time machine. When he shows up it’s usually to apologize for messing us up
again. Then there’s Tempus, he’s a psychopath from the future who will do just
about anything to keep Lois and me from doing whatever it is he thinks we’re
going to do. He almost got himself elected president ten years ago. And then there’s
Mix’m. He’s a demon or imp from another dimension and he just loves making my
life miserable. It’s his idea of fun."

"H.G. Wells, the writer?" Kal-El asked.
"Isn’t he dead?"

"Sometimes," Clark said with a bemused smile.
"And then, sometimes just he shows up out of the blue and Lois and I end
up plane hopping, or time hopping, or both. It gets a little weird, sometimes.
I’ve lost count of how many alternates I’ve met, or heard about."

"Maybe I should be glad I don’t know him,"
Kal-El said. "I don’t recall seeing any humans, or imps, when that storm
hit us. And I’ve never seen, or felt, a storm like it. It was like it had
intelligence, like it was following us. And it was moving fast, faster that
anything natural. When it hit us, it was like the world turned inside out. If I
were back in my own time-line, I could ask the AI in the Fortress of
Solitude."

"I don’t have one of those, at least not since I
outgrew the tree house in the back yard," Clark said. "And there was
no AI there. Dad wouldn’t even let me bring in power."

"I wonder . . ." Kal-El murmured. He reached
behind him, to a hidden pocket in his cape and pulled out the copy of the
father crystal he’d made just before he and Lois had ended up here. "There
was no memory crystal, or memory block with your ship?"

"There was a navigation module with recorded
messages, but nothing that looked like that," Clark said. "But then,
the ship that brought me here was stolen not long after I arrived. I got it
back a little before I went to New Krypton. It’s possible there were more
modules, but I doubt it." He held out his hand and concentrated. The small
blue and green globe of the Earth that normally rested on a shelf in Clark’s
office appeared in his hand. It shifted into its red Kryptonian view.

"That’s a neat trick," Kal-El commented.

"It’s tuned to me," Clark explained. "But
I still haven’t figured out all the things it can do."

Suddenly, the globe in his hand began to glow bright
white as it levitated away from him. Clark saw that the crystal in Kal-El’s
hand had also started glowing. Kal-El opened his hand and the crystal floated
up to a spot only inches from Clark’s navigation module. After a long moment
the light became even brighter and Clark found himself shielding his eyes
against it. Then, there was a musical chime and the crystal went dark, dropping
to the ice. The sphere’s glow dimmed to a more tolerable level as it sped away
from the two men.

"Hey, get back here," Clark muttered as he
stood and watched the sphere disappear over an ice ridge.

Kal-El held out a hand. "Wait."

The glacier quaked and steam billowed from the far side
of the ice ridge. Soon, even the ridge was enveloped in the steam. There was a
sound like crackling ice cubes, only a thousand times louder and Clark saw huge
shafts of crystal thrusting upwards out of the ice, coming together at odd
angles, creating something resembling a structure. The crystals glowed from
some light shining within the structure.

Finally the quaking ended, the lights dimmed, and the
only sound that remained was the icy arctic wind.

Clark saw a puzzled frown on Kal-El’s face. "That’s
odd," Kal-El murmured. "It’s not the same."

"It’s different than the one you have?"

"Yes. It’s simpler, somehow. Like from an earlier
age," Kal-El said. "Shall we go in and look?"

–Lois I–

Kal-El handed Wanda the book he’d been skimming through.
A Year on New Krypton by Clark Kent. She opened it and glanced through it. It
read like something her Clark, Kal-El, would write, except, as far as she knew,
he’d never been a war correspondent and this was about a war as vicious as any
she’d heard about. The writing was as clear, as understandable, as
understanding, as anything she’d ever read. So much like her Clark. But there was
so much death, so much pain, so little hope. *This world’s Clark went through
all this and came out okay? Jimmy spent three months in Chechnya and almost
didn’t make it back at all. He still drank too heavily.*

She put the book back on the shelf where it belonged and
looked more closely at the other books in the case. Several had Wanda Detroit listed at the
author. *Wanda Detroit? No wonder Mister Kent had laughed.* The titles
indicated they were probably romance novels.

She pulled one out and looked at it. It was almost
identical to the unfinished novel Wanda had on her computer at home. This Lois
had not only finished it, but had gotten published as well. Wanda was struck by
a pang of jealousy as she put the book back in its place.

She heard the sonic boom that indicated something – or
someone – had broken the sound barrier fairly close by.

"They must have him gotten pretty upset," Lois
said softly. "He doesn’t normally take off that fast from the house."

"They asked him to do something completely
reprehensible," Kal-El. "They asked him to kill."

"They what?" Wanda said in disbelief.
"Who?"

"They were talking about a threat to the House of
El, a child," Kal-El said. "Nor-Et’s granddaughter."

"Clark would never agree to something like that.
Never," Lois said.

"I know," Kal-El said. "I’m sure that’s
why he took off."

Wanda gave him a curious look.

"He needs to get his head together, before he does
something rash," Kal-El said. "At least, that’s what I would do. I’d
head north, to the Fortress of Solitude."

"Clark doesn’t have anything like that," Lois
said.

"I’ll be back shortly," Kal-El promised. He
blurred into his suit and went out onto the back deck. He looked back at the
two women standing in the living room. "They do say that two heads are
better than one. We’ll come up with something. I hope."

With that, he disappeared into the night sky. A second
sonic boom echoed over the river.

–Lois II–

Lois heard footsteps coming up from the basement, from
Clark’s office.

"What the hell do you think you’re playing at,
asking Clark to kill a child?" Lois hissed at them.

"Considering the gravity of the situation, we didn’t
see another solution," Ching said. At least he had the courtesy to look
uncomfortable in the face of her fury.

"We had hoped that when Kal-El killed Nor ten years
ago, that the threat he posed was over, that no one else would make the attempt
to overthrow the legitimate government Kal-El and I represent," Zara said.
"Kal-El and I were bred to lead. I was raised to rule. Kal-El, for reasons
I still do not fathom, was sent to –Earth I–nstead of New Krypton. He does
not understand the needs of our ruling system."

"I think you’re wrong," Lois said. "I
think he understands too well. What you don’t understand is that this planet
has invented and discarded more political systems than most people can imagine.
Clark spent some time researching that when he came back. And believe it or
not, he found precedents in Earth history. I mean, calling you ‘La Princessa’,
wasn’t exactly a complement."

"I was aware of that," Zara said.
"Although I admit I was not aware of the full connotation at the time and
I know it annoyed him when I refused to be insulted by the title. If he’d been
raised on new Krypton, or just accepted his duties to his home world, we
wouldn’t be having this discussion."

"Zara, I’ve met a Kal-El that was raised on New
Krypton. The one I met had his Zara and Ching murdered for betraying him. He
was a monster, worse than Nor. His greed and ambition nearly destroyed New
Krypton *and* Earth," Lois told her. "Remember, in Earth mythology,
Satan, the lord of evil, was born an angel."

"We have reason to believe that the priests may
support Xon’s claim that your children, being half-breeds, are not valid heirs
to the House of El," Ching said softly. "We’re not sure where the
guilds stand. I know that when Kal-El was on New Krypton, he made allies of
many of the guild masters. I admit, that was something I had not considered to
be of strategic value, but it was one of the things that helped us, then."

"And the elders?" Lois asked. When Clark came
back, she’d spent many hours trying to understand the political realities of
New Krypton. She knew the council of elders was the real ruling power, as it
had been on Krypton before its destruction. Each of the twelve major houses was
represented on the council. Each had one vote and how the votes went on an
issue was usually determined by backroom deals, marriage contracts, ‘gifts’ and
just plain schmoozing. Ethics, even in theory, were not part of the process.

"At this time we are fairly certain we have the
support of a majority of the elders in the council, but with Trey’s death our
position is becoming difficult," Zara said. "We need for Clark to at
least give the appearance of having concern for our position in the council and
the threat Xon poses, not just to our Houses, but to the council as a
whole."

"And killing a child will do this?" Wanda
wondered.

"This child is a time bomb in our midst," Ching
said. "We don’t know what else to do."

–Clark I–

The Fortress was smaller than the one his father crystal
had made, simpler, less like a cathedral than a simple temple to some god that
had no name on this planet. A temple to Rao perhaps. But then, did Rao still
have dominion on Kryptonians who considered themselves more human than not? He
had his doubts. It was something, Kal-El decided, he should discuss with Father
Daniel, his spiritual advisor of many years, when, and if, he got back to his
own time-line.

One thing that was at least similar to his of fortress.
There was a raised central console, only this console held the spherical
navigation module as its centerpiece instead of the father crystal. The module
glowed with a comfortable yellow light that was more than sufficient to light
the interior of the crystal construction. Surrounding the spherical module were
a set of metallic blocks. *Memory modules?*

"It’s beautiful," Clark said, looking around.
"Is this what Krypton looked like?"

"Well, the Krypton I was born on did, sort of,"
Kal-El said. "They grew their buildings, re-engineered their planet. They
were too proud to recognize they didn’t control everything. They couldn’t
believe their own sun could betray them."

"Except for Jor-El," Clark said. "And
here, somebody must have listened to him, because New Krypton is still
around."

Clark stepped up to the console and placed one hand on
the navigation module. A holographic
image of a tall, slender man wearing a white tunic bearing the sigil of the
House of El appeared in the space in front of the console.

"Kal-El, I know you do not remember me. I am Jor-El.
I am your father," the hologram announced.

It wasn’t the same white haired man Kal-El had seen in
his own Fortress. This man was younger, thinner than his own father. But he
still had a distinguished look about him, with a shock of white hair that was
held back from his face by a silver headband. His almond shaped eyes were a
warm brown.

"On the console beside the module that guided your
ship to Earth, are memory modules covering the scientific and cultural facts of
the twenty-eight galaxies known to our scientists," the hologram
continued. "Here you may ask questions so that we may explore the answers
together."

"Tell me about the colony of New Krypton,"
Clark asked. The hologram smiled.

–Clark II–

"I assume you are referring to the industrial colony
originally designated Halos I, financed by the House of El, in alliance with
the trading and industrial guilds. It was also an experiment in self-determined
governance. The colony was considered a success for over three generations, and
paid back its debt to the both the parent guilds as well as to the House of El
within two generations. The House of El maintained close financial and personal
ties with the colony."

"It was an experiment in self-determined
governance?" Clark repeated. "Could you explain that?"

The hologram’s pleasant expression didn’t change.
"The governance of Krypton has traditionally been based on a balance of
power between the noble houses, the industrial and trading guilds and the
priesthood. Halos I was granted the right to use a more representational form
of government much like ones my great-grandfather had observed on other
planets, including Earth. The experiment was surprisingly successful and
suggestions were made to allow this form of government to be permitted in
future colonies.

"Unfortunately, no other colonies were founded prior
to my discovery of inherent instabilities in Krypton’s orbit due to the
immanent death of its sun."

"So, what happened to the colony?" Clark asked.
"If it had a representational government, why is it now ruled by the great
houses, why was there almost a civil war?"

"Some members of the Council of Elders took my
warning seriously enough to evacuate themselves to Halos I and apparently made
the attempt to recreate the political structure of Krypton in that new
environment," the hologram said. "I must assume their attempt was
only partially successful."

"The general population didn’t want to give up their
rights," Kal-El surmised. "The guilds sided with the Houses of Ra and
El, didn’t they?"

"Yes, I’m pretty sure they did," Clark
admitted. "Ching was surprised I even bothered to contact the guilds when
more of the houses started to side with Nor, demanding the heir of the House of
El, namely *me*, take his rightful place as ruler beside Zara or allow Nor to
do it. Zara wasn’t about to marry Nor and I wasn’t about to become king. I
refused to betray Lois’s trust. "

"But Krypton hadn’t had a monarchy in millennia, not
since Pol-Us, Sor-El and Kol-Ar crafted the government that brought peace to
Krypton," Kal-El said. "I’m assuming that’s true of the Krypton in
this time-line."

The hologram appeared to blink its eyes as the AI
recognized Kal-El’s presence. "Correct. The government created by Pol-Us,
Sor-El and Kol-Ar brought about the Great Peace, allowing Krypton to become the
most evolved and enlightened society in the known twenty-eight galaxies."

"Modest, too," commented Clark. The AI had
given him a little background on the political situation on New Krypton, but
nothing he thought he could use, yet. It certainly didn’t explain Zara and
Ching’s demand that Nor’s granddaughter be killed, unless . . . "Explain
property inheritance among the noble houses."

"Within the Great Houses, the eldest legitimate male
heir inherits both his father’s property and title. In the event there is no
legitimate male heir, the property and title will devolve onto the eldest
legitimate female heir, then to the eldest male heir born to a noble concubine,
then to the eldest female heir born to a noble concubine. Any offspring, male
or female, born to non-nobility are not eligible to inherit either property or
title without special dispensation of the Council of Elders."

"Bingo," Clark murmured to himself.
"According to the original charter of the Halos I colony, who owns the
land, the property, the colony is on?"

"The House of El. Specifically, the High Lord of the
House of El" the hologram replied. "You."

"That’s Xon’s plan," Clark said to Kal-El.
"Disenfranchise my kids since Lois isn’t Kryptonian nobility, and then
announce the granddaughter is my heir by a noble concubine, whether or not I
ever slept with her. Whether or not I was even on the planet. The granddaughter
inherits the lands and titles, which happens to include the whole blasted
colony. It’s property, not politics."
He turned back to the hologram. "Is there a legal mechanism to sell
or otherwise dispose of this type of property, say deed it over to the Council
of Elders or to a consortium of the guilds?"

"Negative. Only *individuals* of noble birth may own
property. Also, a property transaction of this magnitude to another House must
have the unanimous support of the Council of Elders."

"Damn," Clark muttered to himself.

"So, what do you plan to do about it?" Kal-El
asked.

"I still don’t know," Clark admitted. "I’m
not sure there is a viable solution. I can’t claim her, that’d be feeding into
Xon’s lie. If I repudiate her, she can still be used against me. I can’t foster
her out on Earth cause he may find out and attack Earth. I could try to find
Herb and send her off to another time-line, but there’s still a chance she
could be used against the Kal-El of that world."

"Assuming you could find this sometimes dead time
traveler?"

Clark nodded. "And assuming he was willing to help.
He hasn’t shown up yet. I don’t know what that means, except that Utopia isn’t
threatened."

"Utopia?"

Clark nodded. "According to Wells, my descendants,
Lois’s and mine, will found a Utopian society centered in Metropolis. No
poverty, no crime, the whole nine yards. Wells intervenes, or tries to, when he
sees that future in jeopardy. He’s very invested in that future."

"And since nothing has happened yet to endanger your
children, there is no threat to the future Wells is protecting," Kal-El
reasoned. "Obviously a second Superman and Lois doesn’t have an
effect."

"Or something will get you out of here before you do
effect it," Clark said. Again he turned back to the hologram. "What
is known concerning inter-dimensional travel or inter-dimensional rifts?"

"Please insert the eighth memory module into the
reader."

Clark looked through the blocks on the console until he
found one with the proper Kryptonian number engraved on it. He placed the
module into the square hole beside the navigation globe. The hologram appeared to change, it’s
expression growing more solemn.

"Kryptonian law forbids research into that
area," the hologram began. "Kryptonian theory is that transferring
matter from one dimension to another would alter the static state of each
universe affected, potentially destroying both universes. Another theory has
that a transfer of an individual would initiate a chain-reaction throughout all
related realities, shifting each counterpart into an adjacent reality. The
energy requirements of this shift also has the potential of destroying one or
more realities."

"I know from experimental evidence and personal
experience that both of these theories are incorrect," Clark said.
"It is possible to transfer one or more individuals from one time-line to
another without transferring out their counterparts. Given that fact, there is
no evidence to support the theory of a chain-reaction throughout all related
realities and maintaining the static balance between realities appears to
simply require that the mass be balanced, not the individuals."

Clark continued: "Is there any evidence to support a
natural phenomenon being able to create a dimensional transfer or dimensional
rift?"

"There is a phenomenon known to the Dakaari as the
Nexus. They believe it to be a primordial super-string. Should the Nexus
phenomenon in one reality intersect the Nexus in another, it would be
theoretically possible to use the phenomenon to transfer from one time-line to
another, or to travel backwards in time within a time-line. However, the
gravitational anomalies created by the approach of the Nexus can and has
destroyed entire star systems, including the Dakaari home world."

"Any other possibilities?" Clark asked.

"There is also a phenomenon known as a ‘tempocane’,
a highly localized magnetic storm that is theorized to be able to create a
conduit between dimensions or different points on a single time-line. According
to the scientists of Aldierra, a tempocane nearly always returns to it’s
initial site of manifestation within seventy-two hours and creates a reverse
effect, returning objects transferred back to it’s original space, if not
time."

"Can you describe the physical manifestation of a
tempocane?" Kal-El asked.

"It is reported that a tempocane within an
atmosphere appears as a severe cyclonic atmospheric disturbance that is frequently
mistaken for a severe thunderstorm, except for the magnetic disturbances within
the storm’s epicenter. It is also reported that the static discharges appear to
be shifted to the blue end of the spectrum. Green is the most commonly reported
color," the hologram reported.

"A severe storm with green lightning," Kal-El
murmured. "That’s what it was. That’s what brought Lois and me here. And
it may reappear sometime in the next sixty-six hours or so, so we can go back
home." Kal-El suddenly looked worried. "What if it’s already come and
gone? I’m on a different part of the planet altogether from where it dumped us.
And so is Lois."

"According to Aldierran science, a tempocane
magnetically marks the matter that was initially transported and is attracted
to that marked matter upon its reappearance," the hologram explained.
"However, it is postulated that the two ends of the tempocane can shift,
causing the transported matter to be left in a different reality than it
originally came from, unless a ‘homing beacon’ is established to guide that
matter into its home time-line."

"Translation," Clark said. "It’s going to
come after you, but there’s no guarantee it’ll take you back to where you
belong."

Something else crossed Clark’s mind, something he’d
wondered about for the past eleven years, ever since he’d found out about the
existence of New Krypton. "Father, why was I sent to –Earth I–nstead of
New Krypton?"

The hologram’s expression turned sad. "It was to
save your life. I became High Lord of the House of El following the
assassination of my elder brother, his wife and two sons. It was not my choice
to become High Lord. I much preferred my scientific studies. The assassins were
never found and it was assumed by the Council that the conviction of General
Zod and his accomplices had put an end to the threat. However I had reason to
believe that my son and heir, you, was still in danger from Zod’s followers,
specifically members of the House of Et. There were attempts made against both
you and your mother. Lara, Zor, my younger brother, Sen-Ra, Zara’s father, and
I decided it was better to send you to a safe haven known only to myself, Lara,
Sen-Ra and Trey, our seneschal on Halos I. I programmed the navigation module
to land in an area known as Kansas, in the proximity of individuals whose
psychological makeup was such that they would accept and protect you."

"Thank you," Clark said. "I’d always
wondered how I managed to land so close to the two people most likely to take
me in." He turned to Kal-El. "I think we should be getting back
before Lois has a fit. She hates it when I take off and it’s not an
emergency."

"You want to find a safe place for the memory
modules and the master module," Kal-El reminded him. "You don’t want
anyone else to get hold of them."

"The voice of experience?" Clark wondered.
There was something in the other man’s tone that told him it was more than a
simple suggestion. That Kal-El had experience in this.

"Let’s just say I’ve had to put better locks on the
doors."

Clark looked around the crystal structure. "There
aren’t any doors."

"Yeah, I know."

–Lois I–

Wanda looked up at the sound of two swooshes at the back
of the house. After a few moments the French doors opened and Kal-El and Clark
walked into the living room. Kal-El was back in his gray suit.

"Figure out something?" Lois asked.

"Something, maybe," Clark said, sitting down on
the sofa next to his wife. He was looking over at Zara with a familiar,
speculative look in his eyes. "I
found another function in the navigation module. Cultural and historical data
on the Halos I colony, also known as New Krypton. I also looked up property
ownership and property transfers."

Zara looked puzzled. "I don’t understand."

"Zara, Xon isn’t trying to take out the House of El,
he’s trying to usurp control of the entire colony away from the Council of
Elders even. He’s smarter than Nor. Nor only thought in terms of a military
coup when he couldn’t marry you and rule at your side. Xon is planning on making
Nor’s granddaughter the heir to the House of El since Lois isn’t a member of
Kryptonian nobility."

"I still don’t understand, Clark," Zara said.
"I know Xon can use the child against you, to undermine, even take over
the House, but how can he use that to take control of the colony without the
support of the council?"

"Lady Zara, according to the colony charter, who
owns the real estate the colony is on?" Kal-El asked.

Zara thought for a long moment, looking at Ching in
puzzlement. "I honestly don’t know. I had assumed the Council owned the
property. Assuming anyone does."

"But my information says that under Kryptonian law
only noble *individuals* can own real property. Therefore the Council cannot
own the colony," Clark said. "And the transfer of properties as large
as that requires the approval of the entire council."

"That would be to prevent a House with a lord in
financial difficulties from cashing out the House property to the detriment of
the House’s standing. It would also prevent a single lord from suddenly
accumulating large amounts of cash, for whatever reason," Ching explained.
"What are you getting at, Clark?"

"Assuming my information is correct, and the council
hasn’t made changes to the charter, *I*, as High Lord of El, own the colony on
behalf of the House of El," Clark said. "Xon doesn’t need the
council’s approval to take over if he can convince the council beforehand that
Conza’s baby is mine, however it happened. He bides his time, sends an assassin
to finish me off, she inherits with him as regent. Then he can legally take out
the council and the guilds, not to mention the other Houses because he will be
the only real estate owner in the colony. They own *nothing.*"

"So not only do you need to repudiate the
child," Ching said slowly. "But we need to legitimize your
heirs."

Wanda’s head was beginning to ache. She’d never liked
political discussions and legal matters, aside from libel and copyright law,
left her cold as well. Libel and copyright weren’t exactly warm and fuzzy
either, but they did impact her job so she tried to keep on top of them.

She looked over at Kal-El. He seemed to be listening
intently to the discussion between Clark and the other two Kryptonians. A faint
frown occasionally crossed his face.

He looked over at her watching him and came to sit beside
her. "I am so glad I’m not him," he murmured softly. "Earth
politics is bad enough, but this is straight out of the middle ages."

"Great Kryptonian political writers: Sun Tzu and
Machiavelli," Clark said with a chuckle.

"We both forgot about superhearing," Wanda
muttered back to Kal-El.

"I am not familiar with those writers, and those are
not Kryptonian names," Zara said.

Ching was trying to suppress a grin. Obviously Ching
recognized who Clark was talking about. Clark went to one of the bookcases,
pulled out two slim volumes and handed them to Zara. Wanda didn’t need to see
the titles to know what they were: The Art of War and The Prince.

"I admit I haven’t come up with a good solution for
the problem of Conza’s daughter, but unless there’s a rule against noble
adoption of females, there is a mechanism for solving the legitimacy problem.
Remember, I adopted Ching as my brother, raising him to the nobility so you and
he could be together and your children by him could be in line of succession in
the House of Ra," Clark reminded her. "And if I understand correctly,
Ching was my heir until CJ was born."

"But Lois is an Earth human," Zara said.
"We’re not even the same species. Your children by her are
half-breeds."

Wanda glanced at Lois. Her face had gone white. Clark’s
expression was unreadable. Kal-El just looked puzzled. *Something is seriously
awry here.*

"Wait a minute," Wanda interrupted. "I
assume we’re using the same definition of species here, right? Genetic
populations that can successfully interbreed in nature are the same
species?"

Ching nodded his head. "That is the working
definition of a species."

"So, since they have four kids, and I have one by a
different Kryptonian," Wanda stated. "And since all the necessary
parts are there and working appropriate to their age, we are talking about one
species here. Different races maybe, but one species."

"Logically, that is impossible," Zara stated.
"We evolved on two different planets."

"Logic be damned, Zara, look at the evidence,"
Wanda stated. "Besides, isn’t there a theory that all life started in a
single place and spread out from there?"

"You’re thinking *panspermia,*" Kal-El said.
"But there is the fact that in *our* reality, Earthers and Kryptonians do
come from the same stock. Kryptonians did not evolve on Krypton, could not have
evolved on Krypton. We either emigrated there or were planted there by someone
else. Given that our genetic structure was obviously manipulated so that we
could survive such a harsh environment would indicate the later. I don’t think
whoever did it realized exactly what they’d done, how powerful those minor
changes were. They certainly didn’t expect any of us to come back to Earth."

"Minor changes?" Zara challenged.

"The genetic differences between Earthers and
Kryptonians is so minor that a standard DNA analysis won’t even detect it
unless it’s being specifically looked for," Kal-El said. "I know this
for a fact. The key differences are in the mitochondria, and in a special type
of cell in the skin that acts as a solar collector and battery. The other
differences are actually normal genetic variations some of which have been
found in the Earth’s population. We just have more of them together. We don’t
have third molars, we don’t have appendixes, we do create our own vitamin C.
But there are Earthers who have the same variations."

Zara looked back to Clark. "The council won’t accept
it," she protested.

"They will if you will," Clark pointed out.
"Or is the whole ‘Krypton was the most evolved and enlightened society in
the known twenty-eight galaxies’ a bunch of crap, cause what I see here, and
what I experienced on New Krypton, tells me that Krypton was and is ruled by a
bunch of racial and religious bigots. Quite frankly, right now I’m ashamed to
admit I’m even one of you."

–Lois II–

*This is getting out of hand*, Lois thought to
herself. *It’s sounding like
Thanksgiving with my parents.* "Ching, what happens if we don’t do
anything? If Clark doesn’t repudiate the child and we let you and Zara raise
her?"

Clark stared at her, tirade short-circuited. She knew he
was scrambling for an answer and couldn’t find one, but fighting with Zara and
Ching wasn’t going to solve anything. She looked over at Ching.

"I doubt we would be allowed to. Xon claims Conza
was Clark’s concubine by right of victor. However, as Conza’s nearest male
blood relative on New Krypton he can ask, and would no doubt be granted, the
right to act as her child’s guardian, granting him much authority within the
House of El, since Clark chooses not to live on New Krypton," Ching
explained. "Xon could also theoretically have authority over Earth, since
Council of Elders officially declared Earth to be territory of the House of El,
at Xon’s insistence."

"They what?" Lois nearly screeched. "Those pompous, asinine, self-centered,
idiotic, full-of-themselves jerks! How *dare* they!"

"They dare because Clark insists on living on Earth
and by definition, anywhere the High Lord of a House has permanent residence is
a part of that House’s territory. Clark annexed Earth by coming back
here," Zara explained. "Besides, we had already established that
Earth was being protected by Kal-El and therefore the House of El. The council
simply played into Xon’s hands by making it official."

"Just annexing the house where we live wasn’t good
enough?" Clark asked. Lois could hear the annoyance Clark was trying hard
not to show. *He was trying not to be
upset.*

"They felt they were being magnanimous. Giving you
what they thought you wanted, dominion of Earth. They don’t understand how you
can choose to be a servant to . . . . They can’t understand why you choose not
to rule," Ching said. "Clark, if you don’t like us, don’t like
Kryptonians, why have you been helping us? You arranged the fostering for Jos.
I don’t understand."

"It’s the same reason Lois and I invite her family
over for the holidays every year," Clark said. "We know they probably
won’t show, and if they do, we’ll have a major row about something, and Lois
will end up crying, the kids will be unhappy, and I’ll be praying for a volcano
or tornado or earthquake somewhere, anywhere, so I can get away from them for a
while. We do it because they’re family and we were both raised in a culture
that values family. Like or not, you are family. New Krypton is family and it’s
as dysfunctional as they come. Instead of alcoholism, and psychological abuse,
my birth family tends to murder, and megalomania."

Clark paused to watch Zara and Ching. Lois saw that they
looked confused. *They’re confused?*

"It’s about family, about kinship," Clark
continued. "You can love them, you can hate them, be ashamed of them,
despise them, but it still comes down to ties of kinship. When family calls,
you help. Despite the wrongs they’ve done, you care."

Lois watched Ching’s face as he struggled with the
concept Clark was trying to express. It had been something she’d fought with
for years. *You can love them, hate them, be ashamed of them, despise them, but
it still comes down to blood ties. When family calls, you help. Despite
everything they’ve done, you care.*

"The council does not need to approve an adoption,
you know," Ching said. "It’s common practice. It’s simply a mechanism
for bringing new blood into the Houses and ensuring succession when
circumstances warrant, like now."

"But Lois is from Earth," Zara protested.

"What does that matter?" Lois demanded. *Like
hell Zara is going to get away with this.
I thought she was smarter, better than those know-nothing oafs on the
council, the ones who demanded Clark’s help and then sent him back to her
without so much as a by-your-leave when he tried to make changes for the good
of his people. Sent him back wounded, physically and psychologically.* "I
would think that if there was anything wrong with my kids, Doctor Klein or
somebody would have mentioned it before now. My children are *not* mules! And I
have it on good authority I will have grandchildren."

"Zara, please be reasonable," Ching said.
"You know how much this means to my brother."

*Ching understand*s. Lois’s anger abated a little as she
watched Clark’s anger and confusion fade into wonderment. *How long has it been
since Ching and Clark referred to one another as brothers? Too long, I think.*
That he had adopted Ching and brought him into the nobility for Zara’s sake as
one of his first acts on New Krypton was one of the few things Clark had
willingly shared with her when he first came back. It was something he’d been
proud of, keeping his vows to her and helping Zara and Ching get together,
despite what the council had wanted.

"Besides," Ching continued with a smile.
"With the four children in line of succession before me, I am a much
lesser target."

Zara looked at her consort. "We have spent much too
much time on this sloppy planet. We’re getting soft," she said, glaring at
Ching. After a moment she sighed. "We will need to make a public
announcement, and of course, there is the paperwork. And there will be the
matter of making the announcement to the Council of Elders, and letting Xon
know that any attempts made against the High Lord and his consort, or their
children will be met with the full wrath of the Houses of El *and* Ra . . ."
She smiled. "He won’t be allowed to think he can get away with threatening
my consort’s brother, or my sister."

"Besides, it’ll be fun, annoying the council some
more. We have to maintain the House of El’s well-deserved reputation of being
troublemakers and rabble-rousers" Ching added. "The entertainment
guild is still putting out their daily news service on the colony info-net, you
know. The council can’t figure out where they’re uploading from." Ching
was grinning. "Of course, they do have some help."

"I wasn’t sure the idea would take," Clark
admitted. "It was a tough concept to put across. The people’s right to
know isn’t always well accepted even here. How do you want to make the public
announcement?"

"I believe your newspaper is involved with an equivalent
of out info-net?" Ching asked.

"We call it the Internet, and yes, the Planet has a
presence there," Clark said. "I can place an announcement on the
website, in the personals, maybe."

"We can circumvent any action of the council by
stating the actual adoption took place when we were here before CJ was born. I
distinctly recall calling Lois my sister during that visit," Zara said.
She glanced at Ching. "We have definitely been around Earthers too
long."

"I wouldn’t dream of accusing you of being sloppy
and emotional, my lady," Clark said.

"Is everything okay down here?" Martha asked,
coming down the stairs from the second floor and entering the living room.
"It got kind of quiet."

"It’s okay, Mom," Clark assured her. "I
assume you got the kids to bed?"

"Yes, of course," Martha smiled at him.
"And they’ll probably stay asleep so long as you don’t start yelling at
Zara and Ching again. By the way, Lara thinks Jason is cute."

–Clark I–

Kal-El stood and walked out to the kitchen. He was
getting restless and needed to move. He couldn’t say exactly why he was
restless, but maybe uncomfortable was a better description. He was
uncomfortable with his realization that the Superman of this world really was
Clark Kent, a human with Kryptonian powers who had a family, and family
problems. Kal-El had spent most of his adult life believing, as a Kryptonian
living on Earth, that he was, for that fact alone, superior. He made life and
death decisions all the time. So he had decided that Lois hadn’t needed to
remember their all-too-short time together, he had decided to leave for six
years without thinking of the consequences to those he’d left behind.

The coffee carafe was empty, so he quickly looked through
the cabinets for the coffee and started another pot.

"Are you okay?" Wanda asked. He hadn’t noticed
her approach. *I’m getting careless.*`He didn’t bother to look at her, staring
out the kitchen window at the river instead.

"Yeah," Kal-El said. "It’s funny, though.
I’ve known all about Krypton since just after high school, but I knew nothing
about Kryptonians except that I was the last one. I’d idealized them, a proud,
noble, doomed people. He’s known about Kryptonians for nearly that long, but
knew nothing of the planet they’re from. He thinks I’m a self-centered, selfish
fool. And he’s right."

"Clark? Or would you prefer Charlie or Kal-El?"

"I not sure. Kal-El is my birth name. Clark isn’t
exactly someone I’d like to know. He’s a clumsy, unreliable fool. And the other
one, Superman, is a fiction," Kal-El admitted. "The real problem is,
I really don’t know how to change. Part of me, a big part, says I shouldn’t
have to. Superman shouldn’t care for just one person, shouldn’t be bound by
family, shouldn’t be bothered by mundane matters."

"Sounds lonely," Wanda observed.

"Yeah." He turned to look at her, finally.
"Just out of curiosity, are your holidays better than theirs?"

Wanda shook her head, keeping her voice low. "You’ve
met the General. I’m lucky I don’t commit murder over the holidays, although,
he has been behaving a little better since Jason was born."

Kal-El did remember Wanda’s parents. Her father, General
Sam Lane, was an equal opportunity hater. He’d hated anyone he thought
Lois/Wanda, or her sister, was interested in. It didn’t matter whether or not
they actually had an interest, the fact *he* thought they did was all that
mattered.. He loathed Clark Kent, for various other reasons, not the least of
which was that Clark disagreed with the General’s politics. He could hardly
imagine the General’s reaction to finding out that *he* was Wanda’s son’s
natural father. Wanda’s mother, Elinor, was an alcoholic and had been in and
out of treatment centers most of Wanda’s life.

"I’m sorry," Kal-El said, softly.

"For what?" Wanda asked. "For my family
being as screwed up as hers? Comes with the territory. As much as I hate it, I
wouldn’t be who I am without them."

"Your dad’s going to flip when he finds out about
Jason, about us," Kal-El said. "Assuming you tell him."

"He already knows you’re Jason’s father," Wanda
said. "Everybody at the Planet knew the first time they saw him. Perry
figured it was just a matter of time before you showed up again and took
responsibility for your actions. We just didn’t think it would take six
years."

"I’m sorry."

"You keep saying that. I know you’re sorry. But
sorry isn’t the same as being there when your child takes his first step, or
says his first word, or scrapes his knee, or cries all night because of an
earache. Sorry doesn’t mean a lot when you’re simply not there, when you’re not
willing to take the steps to be there for the people who need you."

"Even when the world needs me more?"

"Don’t be so full of yourself. The world got along
fine for six years without you," Wanda reminded him.

Clark II

"We still have one problem left," Clark said to
Zara. "Conza’s baby. Logically, I know you and Ching are right. But I just
can’t do it. I mean, I’ll go ahead and sign the repudiation documents, but I
can’t let you kill her. She’s probably the only innocent in this whole
mess."

"But we can’t take her back to New Krypton and we
can’t leave her here," Zara reminded him. "I don’t see that there’s
another solution."

"I do," Wanda announced, coming back from the kitchen.
"I can take the baby. Charlie and I are from an alternate time-line. I
doubt Xon, or whatever his name is, will be able to find her. And you can go
ahead and announce the child died or was fostered somewhere away from Earth. I
assume there are other inhabited planets around?"

"Yes," Ching said. "Humanoids are spread
throughout the galaxy. Many of them seem to be fully human. We try not to have
much contact with them. We’re not great explorers. We never were and life on
New Krypton is hard enough without letting everyone know where we are and how
poor we are."

"Or how the mighty have fallen?" Clark
observed.

"That too," Zara said.

"Wanda, do you know what you’re doing?" Kal-El
asked. "She’ll be fully Kryptonian."

"Do you think I don’t know that?" Wanda
demanded. "My son threw a grand piano across a room and killed a man. My
five-year-old son. Besides, I think it’s a pretty good solution, assuming we
ever get back to where we belong. It’s not like I’m planning to do this alone."

"According to the memory modules, the storm that
brought you here should return within two-and-a-half days at the outside and
take you out of here. Hopefully back to where you came from," Clark said.
"Assuming you two can find some sort of beacon to guide you back to
exactly where you came from. There aren’t any guarantees."

He thought back over the many alternate time-lines he and
Lois had visited, heard of. He knew there were thousands, millions, of
possibilities. "You could wind up almost anywhere. You could end up in a
time-line where humans don’t exist, where Superman doesn’t or can’t exist or he
did exist and things went bad, either he turned to the darkness, or he died or
worse. There are worse things than dying, you know."

"I know," Wanda said. "But I have a son
who needs his mother."

–Lois I–

Wanda couldn’t say what possessed her to make the offer
to take the child, except it felt exactly right. She wasn’t surprised that
Kal-El had objections. Some part of her recognized that for all his power, he
was afraid of commitment. Afraid of being tied down, of having
responsibilities. Not that being the savior of the planet wasn’t a
responsibility, but that didn’t entail the day-in and day-out grind of being
truly committed to a relationship, of being responsible to and for another
person.

In many ways he was like she had been the day they had
met. Mad Dog Lane had interviews instead of dates and had been unable to tell
the difference. She was a workaholic and smoked too much. She had fallen for Superman
because he was unobtainable. He belonged to the world. And when she was finally
ready for a relationship he wasn’t, either as Superman or as Clark Kent.

Instead, she’d found she was pregnant, without knowing
how, without knowing who.

"Here is the child," Ching said, handing her
the metal case and a metal card with Kryptonian glyphs inscribed on it.
"She is in stasis. When the case is opened with the key, the unit will
revive her."

"How old is she?" Lois asked.

"Only a few hours," Zara answered. "She is
healthy and is the offspring of Lord Kal-El and the Lady Conza Nor-Et. Our
medics found no unusual genetic predispositions."

"Wanda, you don’t have to do this," Kal-El
reminded her.

"Yes, we do," Wanda stated firmly. "I’m a
mother. I won’t let a child die if I can help it. And you’re Superman, you
rescue people. Are you willing to turn your back on an innocent? Do you want to
have Zara and Ching handle it, lie about it, destroy what trust they’ve built
up with Clark and his family?"

He had a grace to look ashamed. "Of course not. But
how do we explain coming back from an investigation that didn’t pan out with a
newborn?"

Wanda smiled. "I’ll think of something." She
turned to Clark. "What do you think she’ll look like?"

"Based on what I remember of her mother and her
grandparents, she’ll look something like Lara, brown eyes, dark hair, a little
exotic, maybe. Why?"

"Just curious," Wanda said. "Plus, I have
an idea."

"I’m not going to like it, am I?" Kal-El asked.
He was eyeing her warily.

"If I know my Lois Lanes," Clark said,
"you’ll be lucky to live."

Wanda saw the familiar deer-in-the-headlights look she’d
so often seen in Clark’s eyes. It was so odd to see it in the face she now
recognized as Superman’s. "Would it help if I promise not to kill you, and
I promise not to tell the world that Superman is a disguise for Clark
Kent?"

"Maybe," Kal El admitted. "But I’d still
like to know what you’re planning."

"Clark," Zara said. "Ching and I have to
get back to the ship and we still need to sign the documents."

"We can do that downstairs. We can also place that
ad in the Planet," Clark said, leading them back to the basement office.
He beckoned Lois to come with them, leaving Wanda and Kal-El alone in the
living room.

"I’m in love with you, you know," Wanda began.
"At first, I admit, I had a crush on Superman. He was perfect,
unobtainable, safe. No strings, no commitments, no next morning recriminations
because he was too good, too upstanding to do anything that was less than
perfectly gentlemanly.

"Then, I discovered the partner Perry had foisted on
me. A tall, good-looking fellow with thick glasses, who so exemplified Midwest
values as to be unbelievable. He was honest, brilliant, and so terminally shy
we all wondered how he could possibly get any leads or do any interviews
because he was afraid to even talk for fear of stammering. But he was one of
the few men I’d ever met who could stand up me, not to mention to my father. He
was my friend. Only he disappeared without a word. He never even said
goodbye."

"I did try, Lois," Kal-El said. "That last
day at the Planet. I tried to say goodbye, but you were too preoccupied with
the story you were working on. You never even looked up."

"I’m sorry," she said, not looking at him.
"I was so used to having you around, it never even occurred to me you
might not be there the next day. I was furious as Perry for not stopping you,
for not telling me what you were planning. Everybody in the newsroom thought we’d
had a lover’s spat. That you’d come back in a few days, all puppy dog eyes, and
things would be back to normal. Only you didn’t come back. And that hurt."

"I didn’t meant to hurt you," he said. "I
swear I didn’t."

"What about us?" she asked. "Is there even
a chance?"

"This morning I would have sworn we didn’t," he
admitted. "That the problems we would face were too big, too many. I
believed my own PR. Superman can’t have any relationships like that."

"And now?"

"Lois, I fell
in love the you the first time I saw you," he said. "You were
beautiful, intelligent, strong, stubborn, opinionated, brilliant, with an
uncanny ability to attract danger. You needed me. And I was too stupid to see
that I needed you even more. Do you think we have a chance?"

"We won’t know unless we try," Wanda said. She
reached up and pulled his head down to her level, kissing him gently.

"What about Richard?"

"Richard knows," she told him. "He’s just
waiting for me to decide."

–Lois II–

Lois watched as Clark double-checked the documents he and
she were to sign. Zara and Ching had managed to transfer the electronic copies
of the documents from the transport to Clark’s office computer. *How many
people on Earth have Kryptonese as a printer font? How many people need to
actually print anything using it, much less legal documents*

"You don’t trust us?" Zara asked.

Clark chuckled, not stopping his reading to look up.
"I trust you just fine, milady. But I am a journalist by trade. ‘Trust but
verify’." Finally satisfied, he handed both the English and Kryptonian
adoption documents to Lois for her to sign.

Lois scanned the English version. The date on the
document set it at eleven years before – the day Zara and Ching took Clark away
from her. She gave Zara a questioning look.

"For an adoption to take place, we both need to be
present. That was one of the few times we were together in front of
witnesses," Zara explained. "I distinctly recall calling you my
sister in front of the people who were attending Superman’s goodbye
conference."

"Lois Sen-Ra?" Lois wondered aloud.

"Well, Lois isn’t exactly a Kryptonian name, but I
have a feeling it’s going to be. We already have a number of ‘Clark’s and even
‘Jerome’s," Ching said with a smile. He turned to Clark, expression more
solemn. "I know that year with us was extraordinarily hard on you, but you
have no idea how many people you affected, how much your presence was felt,
even after your return to Earth. And if you should ever consider just visiting,
please know that you, and Lois, would be welcomed with open arms."

"Thanks, Ching," Clark said. "It’s nice to
know I did some good."

Lois signed both copies of the adoption papers and handed
them to Zara. Zara signed them with a flourish.

"Welcome to the House of Ra, sister," Zara said
formally then pulled Lois into a hug. "I always wanted a sister."

Clark took both documents and folded them neatly. He
pulled out a signet stamp that Lois recalled seeing occasionally, although she
knew he usually kept it in the wall safe. It was engraved with the sigil of the
House of El with an additional glyph Lois remembered meant ‘child’, the meaning
of the Kryptonian name ‘Kal’. His name meant child of the stars, or child of
hope, depending on the translation.

She watched as Clark wrapped white silk ribbon around
each document, then used his heat vision to soften a stick of old-fashioned red
sealing wax. He sealed both papers with the sealing wax, imprinting the stamp
into the warm wax. "I’ll take our copies to Constance for
safe-keeping," Clark said when he was done.

The second set of documents only required Clark’s
signature to repudiate, to deny, Conza Nor-Et’s daughter as a member of the
House of El. Again, Clark sealed the documents, handing the Kryptonian copy to
Zara. These documents she and Ching signed on the outside, above the seal, as
witnesses.

"One last document," Ching announced, placing
two more sheets in front of Clark. "I know the two of you are legally
married on Earth. But also you know that under New Krypton law that wasn’t a
legal joining. This will take care of that."

"A marriage license?" Lois asked.

"Not quite," Zara said. "It’s the same
arrangement Ching and I have. Kal-El and I are bound by law in a birth contract
marriage. We cannot break that contract. However, our law does allow for
secondary ‘marriages’ if the contract partners are unwilling or unable to
fulfill the more intimate requirements of the contract marriage."

"You make it sound so clinical," Lois
commented.

"Just realistic," Zara corrected. "Clark
and I are not the first birth marriage partners who discovered we had other
wishes, other desires, and we won’t be the last. This document legitimizes your
relationship with Clark, even though, legally it does make you a bound
concubine rather than a wife. It also ensures that your children are properly
legitimized so they are in line of succession to the House of El."

"Don’t feel bad, Lois. Legally, I’m a bound
concubine as well," Ching said with a chuckle.

Clark once again checked both documents, signed at the
appropriate places and handed them to Lois. Lois signed her new Kryptonian name
in the proper places, and again Clark sealed the documents. Zara and Ching
signed the outside as witnesses on both documents.

"Hopefully the council won’t have any problems with
these," Clark said.

"Zara can be very persuasive when she needs to be,
as you well know, brother," Ching reminded him. "We need to get back
to the ship. Even with the new star drive it takes several days to get
back."

Lois led the way back to the main floor. She noticed
Kal-El and Wanda seated on the sofa, and based on how quickly Kal-El moved away
from Wanda, she suspected they’d been necking.

"I gather you’ve managed to resolve some of your
issues?" Lois asked with a chuckle.

"We’re working on it." Wanda grinned. "Are
all Kryptonian men such great kissers?"

"Mine is." Lois laughed. "Why do you think
I married him?"

Clark grinned at his wife, then turned to Zara and Ching.
"Safe journey, brother, milady." This time it was Clark who pulled
Zara into a hug. "We’ll keep you posted on how Jason is doing. And keep me
posted on what’s happening with Xon, okay?"

"Of course, Clark," Zara promised. With that,
they were gone.

Lois looked over at the dining table with its now nearly
empty plates of snacks. "Tomorrow, I’ll clean it up tomorrow," she
promised.

"I’ll take care of it later," Clark promised.
"It’s time you went to bed. I’ll be back in a little while."

She smiled and gave him a kiss. "Go do your patrol.
I’m pretty sure your mom’s up in the guest room, so I guess these two will be
sacked out in the living room tonight."

"Actually, I wouldn’t mind going on patrol,"
Kal-El said. "It would seem *normal* after everything that’s happened
today."

–Clark I–

The sky was clear, the stars bright hard diamond points
above the city. Clark had assigned Kal-El the north portion of the city so he
could stay close to the house in the event the tempocane returned sooner than
expected. Clark covered the warehouse district and downtown. It was a
surprisingly quiet night. A couple car alarms going off for no apparent reason,
two convenience store robberies, a couple fender-benders.

After a another circuit of New Troy Island, Clark came to
rest on the top of the Daily Planet building, his usual roost. After a few
moments, Kal-El joined him.

"Your city’s only a little different from
mine," Kal-El said. "I love
Metropolis. Ever since I got off the bus from Smallville, I’ve loved the busyness,
the people, the energy."

"Having Lois there doesn’t hurt," Clark
commented with a grin.

Kal-El’s expression became more serious. "What
happens if we can’t get back?"

"Well, I guess we’ll have a second Superman on this
Earth," Clark said. "I’m sure I can get the two of you new
identities. It helps to have friends in low places."

"I meant, the AI mentioned needing a beacon to find
the proper plane," Kal-El said. "But I have no idea what it
meant."

"I would guess that a telepathic link with people
you know who belong to your home plane would work," Clark said.

"But I’m not telepathic," Kal-El protested.

*’Really?’* Clark thought at him. He watched Kal-El’s
eyes widen in surprise. *’I can show you.’*

"Okay," Kal-El said aloud.

Clark touched his face, placing fingers on his temples.
*’Here.’* Clark pointed out mental pathways, neural nodes that weren’t normally
used.

*’I see.’*

*’Clark, we’ve just gotten word that one of Xon’s men may
be on Earth with an assassin,’ * Zara’s mental voice rang out in Kal-El’s mind
as well.

Clark swore to himself.

"That was Zara, wasn’t it?" Kal-El asked. Clark nodded. "Who or what is this
assassin?"

"A nightmare," Clark replied. "We need to
get back to the house."

–Clark II–

A year on New Krypton had strengthened Clark’s natural
telepathic abilities, although his strongest link was still to his wife. That
link had existed even before discovering Kryptonians were telepathic. He gently
touched Kal-El’s face near his left temple. Lois had once commented the gesture
looked like a Vulcan mind-meld. But then, she had also expressed the opinion
that Gene Roddenberry probably knew some Kryptonians.

Finding the telepathic links and strengthening them was
easier than he’d thought it was going to be.

Then: *’Clark, we’ve just gotten word that one of Xon’s
men may be on Earth with an Andelon assassin,’* Zara’s mental voice sounded.

Clark swore to himself. He certainly hadn’t expected Xon
to move so quickly.

"That was Zara, wasn’t it?" Kal-El asked. Clark nodded. They’d been linked when Zara
made contact. "Who or what is a Tez assassin?"

"A nightmare," Clark replied. "We need to
get back to the house." Xon’s man would be after the kids, and maybe Lois.
He hoped she remembered there were kryptonite bullets in the office safe, and a
police revolver locked in his desk. He launched himself into the air and was
halfway across the city before Kal-El responded.

"You don’t sound too surprised," Kal-El
observed, catching up with him.

"Annoyed, maybe, but not surprised," Clark
said. "I had a hunch Xon was already on the move. I’ve fought an Andelon
before. They’re tough. I was very lucky to survive."

"But, you’re Superman."

"Your point?" Clark landed softly on the.
"An Andelon assassin doesn’t need super powers. It uses your own powers
against you. It adapts unbelievably fast. It can also disguise itself as
anyone. And I do mean *anyone.*"

"So, how do you tell the difference?" Kal-El
asked.

"Smell, and mind feel," Clark said.

"And Xon’s man?"

"I’m sure he’ll identify himself."

–Lois I–

Wanda woke with a start, finding herself on the sofa, an
afghan wrapped around her. She looked around to see what had woken her. Kal-El
hadn’t returned yet, or if he had, he wasn’t where she could see him.

A dark figure separated itself from the shadows. It
wasn’t human. "Where is Kal-El?" the figure whispered.

"I don’t know," Wanda said. He was scaring her.
His eyes glowed in the darkness.

"His death was promised to me," the figure said
with a hissing voice. "But do not be concerned. You will survive to mourn
him. There must be mourners. A death is not complete without those who
mourn."

A motion outside the house caught her attention and the
figure turned its head to see what she was looking at.

Clark and Kal-El were back, both still in their blue and
red suits. Kal-El took a step toward the French doors, but Clark laid a hand on
his arm to stop him.

"What do you want here?" Clark demanded,
looking at the creature standing in *his* living room.

"The death of Kal-El, of course," the creature
said. He looked at both men standing on the patio and Wanda could tell the
creature was confused.

"I’d rather you didn’t," Clark responded.
"In fact, I’d rather you just leave and go tell your master to bugger
off."

"Such a charming way with words," another voice
said from the darkness. "Lord Kal-El, always playing with words like a
guildsman." The last word was spoken with venom. "But then, the House
of El always favored the guilds, the under-classes, never their own kind."

"It’s nice to know I’m in good company," said
Clark. "Are you here to watch the assassin take me out, or are you going
to do the honors yourself?"

"I would not sully my hands with your blood,"
the voice said.

"But you would sully them with the blood of women
and children?" There was a hardness in Clark’s expression and tone that
Wanda wondered at. Her Kal-El had never sounded so cold, even when talking
about Lex Luthor and his crimes. She saw Kal-El watching Clark, as if waiting
for a cue.

She saw Clark nod every so slightly and Kal-El
disappeared. Literally. She speculated that he was simply moving faster than
the human eye could see. She hoped the man still hiding in the shadows wasn’t
Kryptonian. She hoped he hadn’t seen Kal-El moving.

There was a whisper in her mind. ‘Keep him distracted.’
She didn’t have to ask who was being referred to.

"When Lord Xon told me of your arrogance, I didn’t
believe it," the voice said. "And now I find you’ve recruited another
fool to your cause."

"I wasn’t aware that Xon had been made Lord of the
House of Et," Wanda said. She moved slowly to the lamp on the table beside
the sofa she’d been sleeping on.

"You must be the concubine," the voice said.
"You are younger than I had been told. But that will make my taking you
away from him so much better."

"Don’t bet on it, buster," Wanda muttered to
herself.

The assassin headed outside. He left the doors open – the
September chill in the air didn’t seen to affect him.

He launched himself at Clark.

It was now hard for her to think of him as just Superman.
He was Clark Kent, editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet, Lois Lane’s husband.
Superman was just another job. She tried to stay calm as she watched the fight
outside.

Clark side-stepped, allowing the alien to land on the
patio deck. The alien came at him again, this time with a drawn dagger. The
blade glowed green in the darkness.

Again, Clark slipped away from the assassin’s grasp, but
the dagger caught his sleeve, slashing open the fabric. It was hard to see in
the darkness, but she thought she saw Clark grimace in pain as he danced away
from the assassin.

"I’m told you are a wizard," the assassin
grated, coming after Clark once again. This time Clark blocked the attack with
one arm, wrenching the dagger from the assassin’s hand and throwing it into the
river beyond. The assassin slashed at him with his claws, tearing more of the
suit.

Three shots rang out, one on the deck and two in the
house.

–Lois II–

Lois had sensed, rather than heard her husband’s warning
that there was an Andalon assassin on the loose. She quietly got up from the
bed and slipped on her robe.

There were voices downstairs. One was a sibilant hissing
that she recognized from eleven years before – Tez, only Tez was dead so this
had to be another assassin from the same planet. Why couldn’t they just leave
her family alone?

"His death was promised to me," the hissing
voice said. "But do not be concerned. You will survive to mourn him. There
must be mourners. A death is not complete without those who mourn."

He had to be talking to Wanda. Did they think she was
Clark’s wife, or was it Kal-El who was going to do battle this night?

The answer to that question came as Kal-El’s voice
sounded in her mind. ‘Is there a safe place for the children?’

She covered her surprise and thought back at him, giving
directions to Richard and Penny’s house. He was gone from her mind.

She made her way downstairs, taking care to not step on
the squeaky tread. Turned the corner for the basement. She kept tight rein on
her thoughts. When she and Clark had discovered, after he came back from New
Krypton, that Kryptonian telepathy extended to Earth humans as well, they had
practiced shielding their thoughts. The link between them was a strong one and
they had found they were prone to distracting one another with the strength of
their link. Although it did take love-making to a whole new level.

The basement. She knew about the gun in Clark’s desk and
the kryptonite ammunition in the safe. As much as Clark hated guns, it was one
of the concessions he’d made for their safety. They had both taken gun safety
training from the MPD police trainer, and as soon as CJ was old enough, he
would go through training as well. Black powder rifles in scouts just wasn’t
the same. Clark had proven to be a competent shooter. Lois had a standing offer
from the MPD to come in as a SWAT team marksman. She assumed it was a joke.

She found the gun and loaded it with the glowing green
bullets they kept in a lead lined box. If she was lucky, she could get at least
one shot off before the other man, the one she assumed was Xon’s agent, knew
she was there. She hoped he hadn’t been on Earth long enough for his powers to
come in.

She climbed the stairs back to the main floor and peeked
around the corner. The assassin was on the patio with Clark. So far, Clark was
holding his own, but she knew the Andalon was learning, making itself stronger,
more in tune with Clark’s fighting style. She didn’t dare give into the despair
she felt at seeing the assassin ripping into Clark’s suit.

Lois spotted the man standing in the shadows. He was
wearing a Kryptonian-style black body suit. He started moving toward Wanda at a
measured pace. Wanda stepped back, reaching over and turning on the lamp beside
the sofa. He had his back to her, but she waited for a clearer shot. He turned
as if hearing something and she fired just as she had been taught by MPD arms instructor.
*Shoot to stop. Shoot to kill. No doubts, no mercy.*

–Clark I–

Lois’s directions to Richard and Penny’s house were clear
and precise. *She’s seen the house from the air*, he realized. He hoped the
couple was still awake. He didn’t want to have to waste time rousing them.

He had picked the two boys up first, not from any
chauvinism, but because their room had an open window. He flew them to the
White’s house, hovering outside the master bedroom window as he tapped on it.
Richard, at least, was still awake and unlocked the window.

"Superman, what’s going on?" the reporter asked
as Kal-El handed him the two boys.

"It’s complicated," Kal-El said. He had no idea
how he was going to explain what was going on at the Kent house. "One of
the New Kryptonian factions sent an assassin after your Superman. And he’s over
at he Kent’s. I’ll be right back with the other two kids."

He didn’t wait for a reply, speeding back to the Kent’s
for the two girls. Martha Michaela was sleeping in her carrier. Lara was awake
and waiting for him with a solemn expression one her face.

"The bad man wants to hurt Daddy," she said
quietly.

"Well, I’m going to make sure the bad man doesn’t
hurt you, or your brothers, or the baby, then I’ll be back to help your Daddy,
okay?"

She seemed to accept his statement, cuddling against him
as they flew to the White’s house.

Richard was waiting at the window to take the children,
handing them over to Penny.

"Does Clark need help?" Richard asked. He’d
pulled a pair of jeans on over his sleep shorts and was pulling a t-shirt over
his head.

"Do you have a gun and Kryptonite bullets?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. Right here,"
Richard said, picking up a lead-lined bag large enough to hold a handgun.
"And before you ask, I have a permit. The chief has a certain paranoid
streak where it comes to Kryptonians."

"Not Superman," Kal-El protested.

"No, all the rest of them," Richard said.
"So I suggest you stay on his good side."

It took only a few seconds to get back to the Kent house
with Richard. They set down under cover of the trees near the fence.

Superman’s suit had rips across the chest and Kal-El saw
blood seeping from a gash on Clark’s arm. The assassin kept coming at him,
hands clawed, and Clark kept evading him, using as little of his powers as
possible.

"How good a shot are you?" Kal-El murmured to
Richard.

"Not as good as Lois," Richard admitted.
"But good enough, I hope."

Kal-El backed away as Richard pulled his gun out of the
lead-lined bag. Richard aimed and pulled off a single shot. Two other shots
rang out from inside the house.

The assassin faltered for just a moment, and Superman
took advantage of the assassin’s distraction to throw the alien into the river.
A simple martial arts throw, but an effective move. The assassin sank like a
rock.

Clark II

The gash in his arm hurt like hell. But he paid little
attention to the pain, concentrating on keeping the assassin occupied, using as
few of his powers as possible to keep the assassin from learning from him. The
dagger was poisoned and he was getting tired.

He noted the arrival of Kal-El and Richard White then
turned his attention back to the assassin front of him. On New Krypton, he’d
done some research on the Andelon assassins. Zara had called them animals, but
they weren’t, really. Andelon was a harsh, desert planet. Death was all they
knew, all they were trained for. But one thing he had discovered about them –
Andelons had dense bones. They could not swim in fresh water.

He heard the shot, saw the Andelon stagger. It took all
his remaining strength to grab the assassin and throw him into the river.

The fight was over, with a little help from friends. He
was so tired. He staggered but was kept from falling by a supporting arm –
Richard.

"Let’s get you into the house," Richard said
quietly. "Penny’s watching the kids, and I expect she’s called the
police."

Clark allowed Richard to help him into the living room.
"Lois is going to kill me if I bleed on the carpet," he muttered. He
looked over to the black clad body on the floor and blood that was already
soaking into the Berber carpeting. "Then again, hardwood floors might not
be a bad idea. The carpet is definitely getting replaced."

He heard Richard as if from a far distance. "Lois, I
think he’s delirious."

"The Andelon had a dagger," Clark murmured.
"It’s in the river. It was poisoned."

He felt hands helping him to the sofa, then the world
went black.

–Lois I–

The assassin was dead in the river. The unidentified
Kryptonian was dead on the living room carpet of the Kent house, the police
were at the door and Superman was unconscious on the sofa. That pretty well
summed up the evening for Wanda. It’d be a great story, if anyone would believe
it.

Kal-El had already retrieved the dagger the assassin had
used. The edge still glowed green and Kal-El hurriedly handed the dagger to
Richard for safe-keeping in the lead-lined bag. Kal-El went to stand beside the
French doors, arms crossed over his chest in his typical stance, expression
calm and watchful.

Wanda let the police into the house, standing aside as
uniformed officers came in, followed by Inspector Bill Henderson.

"What happened?" Henderson asked, after
instructing one of his people to call for an aid car. Lois was tending to
Superman.

Martha had come down stairs and had bandaged the gash on
his arm. Lois was placing a cold compress on his forehead. He was still
unconscious.

Lois looked over at the officers. "We had word from
New Krypton that one of the rebel factions had sent assassins to take out
Superman. The assassins came here looking for him," Lois explained.
"One of them hurt Superman, kryptonite and some sort of poison on a dagger
looks like. Then we found *him* in the house." She nodded to the body on
the floor.

"He’s New Kryptonian?" the female officer
asked. Her name tag identified her as V. Adams.

Lois nodded. "He was threatening me and the kids. I
shot him. I do have a permit."

"You shot and killed a New Kryptonian," Officer
Adams observed. "I thought they were invulnerable."

"Not to Kryptonite," Lois explained. "My
husband represents Superman as the consul general of New Krypton. We have taken
certain precautions against the arrival of ‘unfriendlies’ from there."

Adams looked to Henderson for guidance. The older man
looked to Lois. "Lois, since this house is technically part of New
Krypton, it really isn’t in our jurisdiction. What do you and Clark want us to
do?" Henderson asked.

"Could you get the body out of here?" Lois
asked. "I’m sure the medical examiner would love to have another crack at
a New Kryptonian corpse." She said it lightly, but Wanda could see the
strain in her face.

"Where is Mister Kent, by the way?" Officer
Adams asked.

Henderson answered. "Oh, he’ll show up. Don’t
worry."

Lois gave him a grateful smile.

*Henderson knows,* Wanda thought to herself. *Does our
version know? Does Kal-El know if he does?*

The aid car finally arrived. Wanda ushered the two
emergency medical technicians into the living room, to where Superman was
lying, unmoving on the sofa. She noted how carefully they moved him from the
sofa to the gurney, as if they were afraid of hurting the Man of Steel. Despite
their efforts, he gasped in pain. "Sorry, Superman," one of the
technicians murmured as he secured the safety straps on the gurney.

–Lois II–

It wasn’t the first time Lois had ridden in an aid car
while they took Superman to Metropolis General. And she hated the feeling even
more now than she had the first time. The feeling of helplessness, when all
there was left was hope and prayers. It had been a long time since he’d been
exposed to kryptonite and even then he hadn’t fallen unconscious.

He was so pale and his hands were cold when they put the
stretcher into the van. She had to sit in front, with the driver. There wasn’t
room in the back for her. It wouldn’t look right, in any case. Publicly, she
was married to Clark Kent, not Superman. Superman was married to the Lady Zara
of New Krypton. *Oh, if they only knew how complicated it really was.*

Doctor Klein would be waiting for them. She had called
him before the aid car left the house, rousing him from bed.

Clark was starting to gasp for breath, never a good sign.
The technician tending to him placed an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth.
*Superman on oxygen. He hates that. He hates that feeling of helplessness. Dear
God let him be all right.*

Bernie Klein was waiting in the emergency room when the
aid car rolled in. He trotted beside the gurney as they wheeled their patient
into the waiting examination room. "What happened?" he asked Lois.

"An assassin had a poisoned knife. Kryptonite and
something else," she explained.

"He started having trouble breathing about ten
minutes ago," the EMT said.

Clark’s breathing had gone from bad to worse even as the
emergency room team transferred him from the gurney to the examining table. One
of the technicians pushed a thick black hose-like tube down his throat and set
up the respirator. The rest of the team was already starting their protocols.
Determine current condition, check for other injuries, start IVs, take samples.
The suit was cut off his body, put in a bag for later examination.

The lighting had already been shifted to a redder light
spectrum. After fourteen years of having Superman in Metropolis, the largest,
most modern hospital in the region was actually prepared to treat an injured
Kryptonian.

Klein, a medical researcher at Star Labs, had hospital
privileges for only a handful of patients: Superman, and the Kent family. Lois
knew that Klein had told the hospital administrators that Clark’s year on New
Krypton with Superman had altered his physiology to closer to Kryptonian than
expected. He’d also dropped hints that Kryptonians had visited Earth before and
left offspring who’d bred into the population. According to this theory, there
was the possibility of humans with minor Kryptonian traits, like fast healing
and an ‘allergy’ to kryptonite, being part of the general population. It was a
brilliant ruse.

"Okay," Klein said. "We’re under the Red
Sun protocol. No one is allowed in here unless expressly allowed by myself, or
Mrs. Kent here. There will be a security guard outside this door at all
times." He turned to the EMT still standing there. "Oh, and thank
you, you can go. But, please keep this confidential. We don’t want bad guys to
find out what’s happening."

"Is he going to be okay?" the technician asked.

"I don’t know yet," Klein admitted. "First
we have to figure out what’s wrong with him."

Lois stood in the corner, watching, waiting. The medical
personnel had put her out of their minds. *How many times had she stood like
this? Not that many, really. Most wives would never experience this even once.
But then, she wasn’t most wives.* Clark was Kryptonian, immune to Earth
diseases, except when depowered by kryptonite, or under the effects of a red
sun like Krypton’s had been.

"Heart rate 55, BP dropping, 80 over 60," one
of the nurses announced. She turned Clark’s head to one side and Lois could see
bright red blood pouring from his nose. The fresh bandage on his arm had turned
crimson.

He was bleeding to death before her eyes. *Dear God, help him.*

Klein barked out instructions and activity in the room
became frenetic. She watched as Kenyon started more I.V.s, pouring fluid into
Clark’s veins. An orderly brought in bags of blood, and more tubes went into
Clark’s body. Klein had talked Clark into keeping a supply of his blood in
storage at the hospital some years ago. Lois wasn’t sure how much blood they’d
set aside, but there was so much blood on the floor now.

The phone rang and one of the nurses answered. After a
moment: "The lab says the main toxin looks like a Warfarin derivative, but
there are other things they haven’t IDed yet."

"That gives us something to work with," Klein
said. "Mephyton, 50 milligrams, slow I.V., 1 milligram per minute, no
more, so keep an eye on it." He
turned to Lois. "It may take a while. Maybe you want get some coffee or
something."

Lois managed a smile at the scientist/physician. He
didn’t have any other patients and his bedside manner frequently left something
to be desired, but Klein’s social skills had improved somewhat over the past
fourteen years. "Thanks, but I’ll stay," she said, hugging her coat
around herself.

–Clark I–

Calling this a long day and night was putting it mildly.

Martha and Wanda were trying to get the blood off the
leather sofa. Kal-El flew Richard back to his home, back to Penny who was
watching the Kent children.

"What happened?" Penny asked, obviously seeing
the stricken look on her husband’s face.

"An alien assassin attacked Superman. He’s in the
hospital," Richard explained. "We don’t know how bad it is."

Penny covered her mouth with her hand. "How’s
Lois?"

"As well as can be expected, considering,"
Kal-El said. "She went to the hospital with him. I was going to take the
kids back to their house. Their grandmother and Wanda can take care of
them."

"We can watch them," Penny offered. "No
need to wake them. But the baby should be with her mother."

"I’ll see to it," Kal-El promised.

Within a few moments he was heading to Metropolis General
with a baby in a carrier, looking for the child’s mother.

X-ray vision revealed Lois was seated inside the door of
an examination room. A guard stood outside the room and a medical team was hard
at work over a dark haired man. Kal-El realized with a start that they were
working on Clark. He wasn’t invulnerable. *Kryptonite, or was it the poison?*

He landed outside the emergency room doors and walked
inside. As late as it was, the emergency room was busy.

An attendant spotted him and the baby. "Superman,
can I help you? What’s wrong with the baby?"

Kal-El wondered a moment how he was going to explain.
"Nothing’s wrong. Her mother came in a while ago, with your
Superman."

"Mrs. Kent," the attendant said. "They’re
in treatment room five, right over here." She led him to the room with the
guard at the door.

The guard opened the door slightly and spoke to Lois.
"The other Superman is here, with a baby."

Lois came out into the hallway. She looked exhausted,
dark circles under her eyes.

"Richard and Penny offered to watch the children but
suggested baby Martha should be with you," Kal-El explained, handing the
carrier over. "I found the assassin’s body in the river and disposed of
it. I didn’t think you’d want any surprises on that front."

"How?" she asked.

He tapped the side of his face next to one eye and
smiled. The smile faltered as he looked beyond her, into the treatment room.
"How is he?"

She shook her head. "They’ve mostly stopped the
bleeding, but they’ve gone through all the blood he had put away here. Doctor
Klein is wondering if they can use fresh human blood instead. But we just don’t
know. They can’t get his blood pressure up, even with the anti-shock garment.
He’s never lost this much blood before. They have him hooked up to monitors I
never knew existed."

"I’m not sure if human blood would be a good match.
I mean, Kryptonians are human, but there are differences," Kal-El said.
"Maybe . . . I don’t know how close
a match I am, but we can check, assuming we can even get a sample from
me."

"They should be able to," Lois said. "Depending
on how you react to red sunlight."

"Is that how they’re keeping him vulnerable?"

Lois nodded and led him into the treatment room.
"Kryptonite exposure turns off his powers, but it’s too dangerous to use,
and it takes a long time for him to recover. Red sun spectrum is safer."
She stepped over to Klein and beckoned him over to Kal-El.

"Bernie, this is Kal-El. He’s Superman’s counterpart
from an alternate time-line," Lois explained. "He’s offered to donate
blood, assuming it’s a match."

The doctor looked both surprised and relieved, shaking
Kal-El’s hand as he looked over his shoulder at one of the nurses. "Manda,
can we get a type and cross-match here? He’s volunteered to donate."

– – –

The needle actually stung as the nurse found a vein to
take a blood sample to test.

"You’ve never had blood drawn, have you?" the
nurse asked, seeing the surprised expression on his face as he watched the
needle enter his skin.

Kal-El shook his head. "I’ve been invulnerable since
I was about five or six, except when I’ve gotten exposed to kryptonite. And
even then, I recover pretty quickly.

Manda took the sample and methodically cross-checked it
against Superman’s blood. "Perfect match," she announced. "We’ll
have to draw the blood in here, though, so we can keep you vulnerable under the
red spectrum. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes"

She pulled out the chair that sat beside the storage
cabinet and moved it closer to the door. Manda set up the equipment next to the
chair and motioned for Kal-El to sit down. "We’re just going to do this as
if you were fully Earth normal. I’m going to draw one pint and then we’ll see
how you feel. Let me know if you feet faint."

"I can probably give as much as you need, so long as
I can get some unfiltered sunlight in between the donations," Kal-El told
her.

She smiled and patted his hand. "Let’s just follow
the protocols to begin with. Then we’ll see how it goes."

Lois moved her chair closer to him, holding baby Martha
close to her chest. "Thank you," she said.

"You’re welcome," Kal-El responded. He watched
the blood in fascination as it went down the plastic tube attached to his arm.

"You’ve never seen your own blood before?"

"Not like this," Kal-El admitted. "I never
dreamed I’d ever see this." He gave her a puzzled look. "They all
treat him, and me, like we’re pretty much fully human. Like being Kryptonian
isn’t much different than being black or Irish. And they don’t think it’s odd
that Clark Kent’s wife is hanging around Superman while he’s in the
hospital."

Lois chuckled. "I was hanging around Superman, in
the hospital and out, long before I got married to Clark. I’ve been his chief
press contact since almost the beginning. I named him, remember?"

"Nobody wonders about it?" He pitched his voice
low, quiet.

"I’ve been accused of betraying my husband with him,
yes," Lois admitted. "But that was when Clark and I were first
married, and we were able to prove the photos were faked. Since then, people
pretty much understand that I’m a relative, sort of. I’m Superman’s
sister-in-law. Clark went to New Krypton with him. He’s his brother, like Ching
is. Superman doesn’t have any blood relatives on Earth, so we’re his family.
The hospital accepts my authority as next-of-kin since Clark isn’t here and
there’s no one else they can call. I admit, it’s a little odd, but we are
talking about Superman, after all."

"And it works?" Kal-El asked. It seemed too
simple, too obvious.

Lois considered his question. "Superman appeared in
Metropolis as an adult from Krypton, fourteen years ago," Lois said.
"No family, no contacts, no connections. He comes here and makes friends,
me for one, and Clark for another. He helps people and disappears, probably to
another emergency somewhere else in the world. It’s a big planet."

Manda came over to check on him. "How are you
feeling?"

"Okay, so far," Kal-El told her. "I was
telling Mrs. Kent how strange it feels, you and your team treating him, and me,
as if we were ‘normal’."

"Right now, you are," the nurse reminded him.
"And since treating humans is all I know, I’ll assume you’re human until
that assumption stops working." She smiled and began undoing the tubing
from his arm. She put a piece of gauze over the wound and flexed his arm to told
the gauze in place.

She took the newly filled bag and placed it on the IV
stand with a second bag of clear fluid. The man on the treatment table didn’t
move.

"Let’s keep our fingers crossed," Klein
announced as they began the next blood transfusion.

–Lois I–

Wanda and Martha got most of Clark’s blood off the sofa.

"The carpet’s a lost cause," the older woman
muttered, mostly to herself. "I guess they really should have gone
hardwood, like Clark wanted in the first place. A nice light oak, I think. At least
we’d be able to mop it down."

Wanda found herself smiling, wondering if her Clark’s
mother was like this woman. *Probably. The two Supermen were similar enough
even though they were completely different.*

Martha stopped, wiping her eyes and adjusting her
glasses. "I just wish I could be there for him. It’s so hard."

"At least Lois is there," Wanda reminded her.

"But she’s there as a friend, not as his wife,"
Martha said. "Superman doesn’t have a wife or a family. Certainly not a
mother who’s worried about him."

"Lois will call when she has news," Wanda
promised.

"I know she will, honey," Martha said, hugging
herself. "I just wish I could be there with her, be there for my
baby."

"What was he like, as a baby?" Wanda asked.

"He was the sweetest little thing, fit into my arms
like he was my own. Big brown eyes, always looking at everything. Jonathan and
I were so afraid someone would come for him, someone would find out we’d found
him in a spaceship. He was so happy and sweet, hardly ever cried and he loved
everybody. When he was about three or so, talking pretty good, he would invite
the grocery clerks home for dinner. He would tell them what I was planning to
cook and he’d just invite them over."

"Did anybody ever take him up on it?"

Martha laughed. "Heavens no. They all knew he was
just being friendly and helpful, even the ones who looked down on Jonathan and
me for adopting somebody else’s illegitimate baby, especially one that looked a
little ‘foreign’."

Wanda was horrified. "That was horrible. How could
they think that?"

"It was easy," Martha told her. "When we
found him, we had to come up with an excuse for having a baby, since we
couldn’t have one of our own. We told everybody he was my cousin’s baby, and
that she’d died. We never mentioned a father. So people assumed the worst. I
know people said things and Clark heard, but he never mentioned it. But
Jonathan and I always made sure he knew how much we loved him and how proud of
him we were. I just wish I could be there for him."

–Lois II–

"How are you feeling?" Lois asked Kal-El when
he came back from a flight to the upper atmosphere to regenerate in sunlight.
He’d started to look a little pale before leaving the treatment room after
giving blood.

"Better," Kal-El responded. "How’s he
doing?"

"Better," Lois told him. "The bleeding’s
stopped, finally."

Doctor Klein spotted Kal-El and Lois and came over to
them. "I think he’s out of the woods. His blood pressure is coming up and
we’re getting ready to move him into the isolation ICU. As soon as we’re sure
the poison is out of his body, we’ll go to the yellow sun radiation so he can
begin to regenerate."

"And when will that be?" Kal-El asked.

"Tomorrow, most likely," Klein told him then
turned to Lois. "I’d like to keep him here a couple days at least, to make
sure he doesn’t have a relapse."

"Well, you already know how hard that’ll be, once he
starts feeling better," Lois reminded him. "Since things are looking
better, I’ll have Kal-El take me home. I’ll come back later, after I’ve gotten
some sleep."

—

"I’ll give you a call if there’re any changes,"
Klein promised. "We’ll be keeping him sedated, so you won’t have to worry
about him escaping, at least till later tomorrow."

"Thanks Bernie," Lois said, giving him a quick
kiss on the cheek. He blushed.

Outside the hospital, Kal-El picked Lois up while Lois
held onto the carrier with baby Martha. It was a quick flight to the Kent
house, but Lois noticed he was distracted.

"What do you see?"

"I’m not sure," he admitted with a frown. He
landed on the deck, setting Lois on her feet. It was nearly dawn.

Lois opened the deck doors and walked into the living
room. She heard voices in the kitchen and followed the sound. Wanda and Martha
were sitting at the breakfast table having coffee.

"How is he?" Martha asked.

"The blade *was* poisoned. They were able to stop
the bleeding, finally," Lois said, making herself a cup of herbal tea. She
wanted coffee, but caffeine and Kent babies didn’t mix. It was going to be a
long year until this one was weaned. "They got him stabilized and Doctor
Klein was having him transferred to the isolation ICU when we left."

Lois sat down with the other two women. "I’ve never
felt so helpless, watching them work on him. They were working on Superman, for
God’s sake." The day’s events finally caught up with her and she began to
cry.

Wanda put her arm around the other woman. "Believe
it or not, I really do understand. Kal-El, my Superman, fell out of the sky less
than a week ago. There wasn’t anything our doctors could do for him except
wait."

"I’m not sure how long I was unconscious,"
Kal-El said. He was standing in the kitchen doorway. "I don’t remember
falling."

"They managed to keep you in the hospital for all of
about twenty-four hours," Wanda told him. "You know, there might be a
story in who is paying for your hospital stay and the equipment they wrecked
trying to work on you."

Kal-El chuckled. "They should know by now if they
can’t stick a needle in me, they shouldn’t expect anything else to work
right."

His head came up, eyes focused on the outside as he
listened to something in the distance. "I think the storm’s back."

–Clark I–

Kal-El saw the sudden worry in Wanda’s face.

"We need to leave," he said.

Wanda stood up, giving Martha and Lois hugs. "Thank
you for everything," she said.

"Good luck," Lois said. "Remember, be
gentle with each other."

Kal-El went to the living room and grabbed the case with
the Kryptonian baby. Wanda opened the
doors to the deck, then allowed Kal-El to take her in his arms. They floated
up, away from the house, then headed for the storm.

‘Lois?’ Kal-El thought at her.

‘Clark?’ she responded. ‘This telepathy thing is going to
take some getting used to.’

‘The AI in the new Fortress of Solitude said we needed a
beacon from our home time-frame to guide us back.’

‘How are we supposed to do that?’

‘If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to find our Jason,
Richard, and Perry. I’m hoping we can identify a time-frame with the proper
ones, then we can home in on them.’ He knew he didn’t have to tell her how
unlikely it would be for them to find exactly the right combination.
"Praying might help, too," he added aloud.

They could see the black clouds in the distance, coming
at them. Again, the gale winds whipped at them. Again, the piercing wail, the
sound driving through their skulls.

‘Think about Jason, Lois, think! Find Jason! Find
Richard!’ Kal-El thought at he above the storm.

He cast his mind out into the vastness of universes,
searching for a mental signature he recognized, a mind that knew him and Lois.
He saw Jason and Richard through Lois’s mind as well. A Jason and Richard who
were worried that their Lois hadn’t come home last night. He had a path through
the storm and dove for the center, following the traces of mental energy that
would lead them home. They had their beacon.

–Earth I–

The storm vanished as suddenly as it had before. Lois
Lane and Superman found themselves in Metropolis, in Centennial Park, beside
the crater Superman had created when he fell to Earth only days before. The sun
was already high in the sky.

"Are we back?" Lois asked.

Superman looked around. "Looks like it. We should
check in with Perry. He’s probably worried."

She put out a hand, placing it on his chest. "We’re
going to have to come up with some excuse for showing up with a newborn.
Something convincing."

"I know," he admitted. "But I’m all out of
ideas right now. And I’m not sure why you agreed to take this on."

"Do you trust me?" Lois asked.

Superman considered the question for a long moment.
"Do I have a choice?"

She didn’t answer his question. "I’m going to the
Planet, give Perry some sort of excuse for you and me being gone. We need to
find a village in South America that was destroyed or evacuated in the past
week or so. Considering the drug wars happening down there, you should be able
to find someplace like that."

"Why South America?"

"Because that’s where Clark was for the past five
years, isn’t it? Give me about an hour. Then, assuming the baby’s okay, bring
her in, as Superman. Then follow my lead."

"I’m not going to like this, am I?"

"Probably not. But I can’t think of any thing else,
can you? By the way, what’s your blood type?"

–Earth II–

Lois Lane-Kent walked through the front doors of
Metropolis General Hospital. She’d managed a few hours sleep.

She made her way to the tenth floor, to the ICU, to the
isolation room where Superman was. Bernie wasn’t there, but one of the ICU
nurses recognized her and instructed her on what she needed to do before
entering the hospital room. Thorough hand washing, a surgeon’s cap for her
hair, a long-sleeved gown over her clothes.

Clark looked like he was asleep, but Lois suspected he
was still unconscious, whether from his ordeal or from the sedation she knew
Klein had ordered she wasn’t sure. She took one limp hand into her own, taking
care not to dislodge any of the myriad tubes and wires that were attached to his
body. He was off the respirator and Lois assumed that was a good sign.

"Clark, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I miss
you, and I want you back." She kissed him on the forehead. He was warm, a
little too warm, maybe. His body temperature was normally a little higher than
Earth normal, but kryptonite exposure gave him a fever.

‘Lois,’ Zara’s mental voice sounded in her brain. ‘I
can’t find Clark, is he all right?’

‘He was injured by the assassin, but we’re hoping he’ll
be okay,’ Lois responded. ‘You might want to let Xon know that his assassin and
his spy lasted about ten minutes on Earth.’ She sent a brief mental image of
Clark’s battle with the assassin, and Richard’s help in defeating him, then her
own actions in taking out the New Kryptonian invader.

Lois felt a stab of astonishment from Zara. ‘That was Xon
himself. He must have wanted to watch Clark die, to make sure the job was done
right. Lois, with Xon dead at the hands of Kal-El’s consort, an Earther no
less, I doubt we’ll have any more problems with his people. And I can almost
guarantee no other New Kryptonian will ever visit Earth without the express
permission of you and Clark.

‘You did very well, sister,’ Zara thought at her. Lois
could feel the pride in Zara’s thoughts.

"Lois?" Lois heard Clark’s voice. He sounded
weak and hoarse, but she’d never heard anything more beautiful. "What did
Zara want?"

"She wanted to be sure you were okay," Lois
told him. "Now, you just relax and let us take care of you. I love you,
you know."

"Love you," Clark replied with a faint smile.
"When can we go home?"

—

–Earth I–

Lois considered her plan. First, a quick stop at an
engraving shop, then to the Planet.

"And where have you been?" Perry demanded,
catching sight of her as she walked into the bullpen. "And where’s
Kent?"

"I left him at the INS office," Lois told him.
"But I have a feeling it’s not going to pan out. They’re just not
budging."

"Budging on what?" Richard asked, stepping over
to her. He gave her a quick hug, then stepped back as she stiffened in his
arms. *It’s over. It’s really over.*

"I promised Clark not to say anything until we knew
for sure how they were going to jump," Lois said.

"How who were going to jump?" Perry asked. He
guided her to his office, Richard following them.

"The INS and Homeland Security," she said.
"You know that story Clark was working on, about immigration problems.
Well, it’s personal, too. And before you say anything Perry, that’s why we
started working on it together. It was too personal for him."

There was a commotion outside the office and Lois looked
out to see Superman walking through the newsroom carrying a tiny bundle wrapped
in a blanket. He looked like he was ready to bolt and was forcing himself to
stay firmly on the floor. She hurried out of the office, knowing Perry was on
her heels. As she went, she pulled a dirty med-alert necklace from her pocket,
palming it. The dirt came from a flowerpot outside the engravers.

"Did you find the village?" she asked him.

Superman took a deep breath. "They were all dead.
Less than twenty-four hours." He swallowed hard. "I don’t understand
how . . ."

"There’s nothing you could have done. You can’t be
in more than one place at a time," she told him. His expression cleared a
little, but the wariness remained. She reached out and took the bundle from his
arms, uncovering it. It was the baby girl. The baby fussed a little, hands
flailing, looking for her mother. "And is this . . .?" Lois asked.

"Yes," Superman answered.

Lois opened her hand to reveal the necklace, making it
look as though she’d found it in the blanket. She dropped it into Perry’s hand.
His eyes widened as he read the engraving. Lois knew what it read: Clark J.
Kent, blood type O negative, allergic to penicillin. *Jason’s allergic. It
stands to reason his father is too.*

"Superman, who are this child’s parents?" Perry
asked.

Lois held her breath as she waited for his answer.

Superman considered his answer for a long moment, as if
reluctant to admit the truth. Finally: "Conza Nor-Et and Clark Kent."

"That’s what you and Clark were working on?"
Richard asked Lois.

Lois nodded. "He got married while he was down
there. But then he found out he couldn’t get her into the U.S. That’s one of
the reasons it took him so long to come back to the States. I asked Superman to
help. I figured maybe if she was already here, it might help, only . . ."

"Only she’s dead?" Perry completed for her.

Lois nodded. *They’re buying it.*

"Does Clark know?" Parry asked, looking to
Superman.

"I haven’t seen him," Superman said. "I
have to go."

"Superman, thank you," Lois said as he headed
for the nearest window. He looked back at her and nodded once before
disappearing.

"He’s scared to death of you," Perry observed.

"He’s just a little off kilter," Lois
explained. "This whole thing with Clark and the INS has been hard on him,
too. They’ve always been pretty close, you know."

The elevator doors opened and Clark Kent stepped into the
elevator lobby, crossing the floor to the newsroom. He noted the sympathetic
looks he was getting, especially from Perry and Richard.

"No luck?" Lois asked as he came closer.

Clark shrugged and shook his head.

"I’m so sorry, Clark, but Conza’s dead," Lois
continued. "I asked Superman to go down to find her for you, but everyone
was dead, except . . ." She handed him the bundle. "Conza’s
baby." The baby started to fuss a little more. No doubt she was finally
hungry.

Polly stepped forward. "How about I run downstairs
and get some formula and stuff?"

Clark tried to shift the baby onto one arm so he could
get out his wallet. Polly shook her head. "Don’t worry about it,
Clark," she said, taking off toward the elevators.

"Let’s go to the conference room," Lois
suggested, taking Clark’s elbow. He allowed himself to be led away.
"What’s her name?"

Clark paused, thinking. "Esperanza Ester," he
finally said. "Esperanza Ester Kent."

Richard watched them go. "She’s decided," he
told his uncle. "Is that post in Paris still open?"

Perry nodded.

"I can choose my own assistant, right?"

"Of course."

"I’m thinking of asking Penny Landis. I think she’d
do a good job for me and she speaks French better than I do. Plus, we’ve hit it
off the last couple days."

"If that’s what you want, son."

"I think that’s what’s best, right now,"
Richard said, watching Lois and Clark through the windows of the conference
room. Lois was hovering over Clark like a mother hen. "We’ll work
something out concerning Jason. I know they’ll both be fair about it."

* * *

"What have I gotten myself into?" Clark asked
aloud as he sat down on one of the chairs in the conference room. The baby
started to wail and he held her to his shoulder. "What have I done?"

"What you always do," Lois answered, noting how
natural he seemed with a baby in his arms. "What you’re best at. Rescuing
people. And I can’t think of anyone who needed rescuing more than this little
one."

"I can’t do this by myself," he protested. It
finally sank in as to what was happening. What Lois had planned for him.

"You won’t have to," she assured him.
"We’ll all be here to help."

"I don’t know if I can do this."

"Nobody ever said being a parent was easy. But,
welcome to the human race, Clark Kent. This is what being human is all about.
From today on, every action you take, every decision you make, will take into
account the needs of another person. She will never be far from your
thoughts," Lois looked out at the newsroom, to the audience outside the conference
room. "Besides, your marriage-ability quotient just went up about a
thousand fold. A widower with a baby."

"And what about *him*? What about . . .?" He
made the slightest upward motion with one hand.

"Clark, I promise you, we’ll make this work, after
all, they did. And besides, despite the fact that I would like nothing more
than to knock your block off for lying to me, erasing my memory, *and* running
off for six years, I’m in love with you. *All of you.*"

"And I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you.
Will it help if I promise never to do those things again?"

"It won’t hurt."

–Earth II–

"It’s so nice to be home," Clark Kent told his
wife of ten years.

"It’s good to have you home," Lois Lane-Kent
told him, giving him a kiss.

He looked around the house. "Have *they* gone
home?"

Lois nodded. "Not long after he donated the blood
that probably saved your life."

"I didn’t get a chance to thank him," Clark
said. "Do you they’ll make it?"

Lois nodded. "I think they have a chance, once he
gets over the shock of becoming a daddy. Once they figure out that with love,
anything is possible."

"Even the impossible?" he asked with a grin.

"Especially the impossible."