I liked the timing of this question to Superman, too. It makes sense that Lois would have all the wedding unpleasantness brought back up when the reappearance of Lex.
"Yeah. Clark, can you please contact Superman for me? And get him to meet me at my apartment?
There's something I need to ask him." She caught the sudden tension in Clark's frame at her
request and hastened to reassure him as he nodded his assent.
Yes, I bet that caused Clark undue panic. Poor fellow.
"And Clark, about the date thing?
I'm sorry about before. I just wanted to stop Perry and Jimmy from getting suspicious and-" He put
up a hand to stop her, a much more genuine grin on his face now.
I'm not sure how these words were reassuring to Clark that Lois wasn't dumping him for Superman (again). I'm also lost about what she's talking about. What were Perry and Jimmy becoming suspicious about? Her and Clark? Her and Lex? Something else? Very vague.
“Something that Lex said... He said that this was the second chance he'd had to kill you. Was it?”
Did Lex actually say that in canon? If he did, I totally missed it! Good catch!
“I
should've known it was a trap. My parents tell me I'm too trusting sometimes. But I went.”
Ooops. Clark your mask slipped a bit there. He had told Lois previously that his Mom made his uniform, so she knows he wasn't formed from a spec of dust... but still big revelation.
“Yes. I talked to Henderson about it after everything had settled down. No one found any
Kryptonite- or at least no one reported finding it. I think what Luthor had is the piece that was sent
to the lab by Wayne Irig, the piece that went missing.” He paused. “Kryptonite exposure is...
agonising. It drains my powers, and I can't touch it because it burns. Even if it didn't drain my
powers, I still wouldn't have been able to break through the bars... It burned too much...” His voice
trailed off as he remembered what it was like, being trapped in Luthor's cage for hours, the
intense, whole body aching, the burning of his lungs every time he breathed, the knowledge that
he was going to die.
Very well described. Beautiful even, if a description of such ugliness and pain can be beautiful.
Clark looked back up at Lois, suddenly aware of how far he'd let the mask slip. He hadn't sounded
much like Superman in the last few minutes. Maybe it was time...
Oh, dear. Superman just showed Lois a glimpse of his artistic tie.
“You were outside? I didn't see you... But why-”
Open mouth, Lois, insert your tasteful heeled shoe.
“Why didn't I save him?” He cut her off, a little angered.
I agree that Clark has every right to feel angry. That was insensitive of Lois to ask that, especially after what he had just told her about being tortured and losing his powers.
A wild impulse seized him. Smiling a little, he made eye contact with her. He wasn't sure if she
remembered every detail of that day, but he suspected that she did- and that she'd tortured
herself with them in the aftermath.
Still holding eye contact, he said "I tried to take off, but all I could manage was a sort of jump.
When I realised I couldn't save him, I said 'I can't'. He hit the ground a moment or two later."
Oooooh! He went for it. The whole, wildly-obvious hint.
I like "House of Phoenix" for a title as well. I had some other not so good ideas, but they left my head upon reading that one. If they return to me, I'll let you know.
You did a good job on reprising that scene in BatP on the bench. It fit perfectly into the return of Lex and rehashing of old demons plot. Actually this whole story mirrors that traumatic time for Clark. Will Lois break his heart again? Did Lex's return remind Lois how much she loved Superman more than Clark? It was a great way to draw us into how Clark is feeling at that exact moment. Well done.
