Author's note: This episode is set after the end of the movie "Superman Returns", but it makes reference to events in the "Smallville" TV episodes "Commencement" (Season Four) and "Arrival" (Season Five).*********************
Perry sat back down at the kitchen table. Floating dust particles danced in the beam from the setting sun. The quiet soothed Perry's racing heart. He put his head in his hands, feeling the throbbing veins in his temples.
It took ten minutes, long enough for Perry to regain his equilibrium. Clark came back, bearing containers with delicious smells. "Ten minutes?" he asked Clark, able to tease him now. Clark was out of the Suit. That helped. "That long?"
"Most of that was standing in line to pay," Clark retorted. "You want chopsticks?"
"Nah, I'll stay with a fork and spoon for this one," Perry replied. A momentary silence as Clark puttered around the kitchen, getting out plates and utensils, offering Perry a choice of water or lemonade.
The two men ate their dinner in silence. After a few minutes, Perry leaned back in his chair. "That was pretty good." He stared straight at Clark. "Now, start talking."
Kent looked sheepish. "I don't really know where to start, Perry."
Perry took a deep breath. "I'm not happy about the memory loss." He saw Kent grimace. "But you said, you didn't know? What do you mean?"
Clark sighed. "Here it is from the beginning, Perry. Ask questions if you will." He caught Perry's eye, and Perry knew the other man would answer fully. "I got the glasses from Jor-El at the Fortress of Solitude – "
"Whoa. Stop right there. Jor-El? Fortress of Solitude?" Perry asked.
Clark sighed again. "OK, I'll go back further. The Fortress, um…this goes back a while. You remember that Smallville was hit with a meteor shower?"
"Twice, wasn't it?" Perry asked.
Clark smiled bitterly. "Yep. The first one was when I came to Earth. I was…young."
Perry felt his eyebrows raise. He'd known that Clark had a past, a childhood. But connecting this with Superman, who'd appeared as an adult…all new. He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his notebook and pen. "Go on," he said.
Clark said, "And the second one was sixteen years later. I was a senior in high school. And, um, it's a long story that I'll go into at some other time, but during the meteor shower, I ended up with a Kryptonian crystal. You know, Kryptonian technology is based on crystals. And I got an important one."
"That sounds interesting," Perry said noncommittally. After seeing what Lex Luthor had done, he thought it sounded more frightening than interesting.
Clark nodded. "I ended up in the Arctic, and threw it into the snow." His eyes were distant as he relived the memory. "It grew into a…a…well, I call it my Fortress of Solitude. It's a re-creation of a Kryptonian, um, dwelling? Library? Museum? I'm really not sure." He took a sip of coffee. "What I do know, is that it's for me. It's private."
"Fascinating," Perry said, making some quick notations in his notebook, scrawling a combination of drastic abbreviations, keywords, and personal shorthand.
Clark went on. "As I said before, Kryptonian technology was based on crystals. Somehow they used them to manipulate forces, do things that we can't do yet here on Earth."
"Uh-huh," Perry muttered, making more scrawlings.
"And, when the Fortress grew from the single crystal I had, it developed an artificial intelligence." Perry raised his eyebrows as Clark continued. "The AI runs the place. It has power, not just at the Fortress, but, I think, power that can extend over this whole world, in some ways. It's done some things…" Perry caught his breath as Clark continued. "This AI, it thinks of itself, it calls itself, Jor-El." Clark stared straight at Perry. "My biological father."
Perry froze. "Oh," he said weakly. Revelations coming thick and fast here. He took refuge in his reporter persona. "How do you spell that?" he asked.
"What?" Clark asked, momentarily nonplussed.
"Jor-El. I really hate to misspell people's names."
Clark stared at Perry's notebook, sick fascination in his eyes. "You're not going to publish…." His voice trailed off.
Perry looked up at Clark. The other man sat still, tension in his posture. Perry caught a glimpse of Clark's eyes and had a sudden flash of understanding.
Clark had offered, at the diner in Metropolis, to take Perry somewhere else for their conversation. At that time, Perry had had a sudden fear, knowing he was in this man's power and he couldn't get away. Right then, he'd backed off in fright. Momentarily, to be sure, but even his long friendship with Clark hadn't stopped him from the instinctive move. Knowing that Clark could destroy him, if he chose.
And now Clark had that same feeling, Perry realized. Perry, if he chose to publish, could destroy Clark's life. It all blossomed in Perry's head, the power he now held over the Man of Steel. And, just like Perry had felt, being ninety-nine percent sure that the other meant you no harm, didn't keep you from being scared about the other one percent. He felt a sudden sympathy for Clark.
Perry realized abruptly that he'd left Clark without a response for several minutes. "No, I'm not going to publish," he said gently. "I wouldn't do that, Clark. You know that." He gestured at his notebook. "This whole thing is so weird." He gave a short laugh. "I'm taking refuge in the basics. Get the interview. Put the personal feelings aside till later." He gave Clark a look. "
You know that, I'm sure."
The other acknowledged with a reluctant smile.
Perry went on. "I have to write it down. Then, at the end, I'll rip out the pages and give them to you. You can burn them or whatever."
"Thanks, Perry," Clark said softly. He gathered himself, visibly, and went on. "Um, it's spelled J-O-R-hyphen-Capital E-L."
"Jor-El", Perry repeated, writing it in his notebook. He looked up. "Your biological father?"
"It thinks of itself as my bio father, yes," Clark repeated evenly. "But some of the things it's done…" his eyes looked inward for a moment, "are things no father could or should do. At least no
human father," he said bitterly. "I'm glad I grew up on Earth if that's what Kryptonian families were like."
Perry only nodded.
"Anyway," Clark said, recalling himself from whatever painful memories he'd been reliving, "I knew I had these abilities. And my father – Jonathan Kent, who I think of as my real father, Perry, and my mother, they were both very big on helping. So I got to a certain point in my life and decided that it was time to go public. Instead of keeping to the shadows, which I had been doing for years."
Perry nodded again. He understood much now. "But if you were out in the open, how could you have a life?" He knew only too well the churning seas of paparazzi. An alien with superpowers was fresh chum to those bloodthirsty sharks.
"You understand, Perry," Clark said. "Lois came up with the idea of a secret identity. She said it was in the best literary tradition." He smiled fondly. "And I said to her, 'You can't have a secret identity these days – we all get monitored and video'ed and computerized to within an inch of our lives.' And she said, 'Well, maybe Jor-El could help out with some super-duper Kryptonian whizbang tricks.'" His voice caught. Perry saw that Clark felt strongly about something here.
Clark collected himself and went on. "So I went up to the Fortress and told Jor-El what I was going to do."
"How'd he take it?" Perry asked, fascinated.
"Not all that well," Clark said. "He had some idea that I'd be Earth's conqueror." He looked away from Perry and began polishing the lenses of his glasses, ignoring Perry's sharp intake of breath. "I told him, No, in big letters, No, a thousand times, No." Clark held the glasses up to the light, checking the lenses. "I don't know why I bother doing that," he said quietly. "These lenses never need cleaning." He laid the glasses gently on the table. "I can't lose them, either."
"So conquering the Earth was out," Perry said, just a little shakily. He knew Superman could have done that. But he didn't. He wouldn't. Zod had tried, and Superman had stopped him.
"Yep. Right out," Clark agreed. "So I put the Superman idea in front of Jor-El, and told him I needed something to separate my private identity from the superhero. Something that would fool people, and cameras, and computers, and just about everything else we could imagine. I suppose a Kryptonian AI could imagine more stuff than we ever could," Clark said softly. "And after a whole lot of cajoling and wheedling – and being firm about the No Conquering thing – the AI produced the glasses, told me they'd do what I wanted." He turned the glasses upside down, spun them gently on the hard wood of the table. "Actually, it was Lois who came up with the idea of glasses," Clark murmured.
"She always did have good ideas," Perry replied. Clark stayed quiet. The silence rose between them until Perry was compelled to ask, "So, then what happened?"
"I found out that the glasses worked. They worked wonderfully," Clark said. Perry found himself wondering at the bitter tone in Clark's voice. Clark kept his eyes down, not looking at Perry. "It was a monkey's paw wish," he said. "You know, the kind of wish, where when you get it, you wish you hadn't wished it?"
"Um, yes," Perry said hesitantly.
"I found out, sure, the glasses kept acquaintances and strangers from noticing anything odd about me. They wouldn't connect Clark Kent with Superman." Clark stared at the glasses on the table with a weird mixture of fondness and hatred. "But the people who actually knew me…knew me well…people who knew that I was an alien, or who had actually seen me use my powers….it erased all their memories of that." Self-loathing and bitterness were in Clark's voice.
"Uh…" Perry couldn't say anything else.
"Jor-El told me that the effect wouldn't be triggered until I put them on the first time." Clark looked down to stare at the glasses once more. Perry saw the careful glance and was reminded of a man sitting next to a sleeping tiger – not panicked, but watchful.
"That first time was in your office, Perry, the day you made Editor-In-Chief. I put these glasses on, that day, and stared at you through them." Clark said. "And they wiped out your memories of me. Some of your memories, anyway. Obviously the ones of me doing, um, inhuman things."
Perry's mind was awhirl. Anger at the violation mixed with understanding and relief. At least that explained why he hadn't noticed that Superman was working in his newsroom for all these years. He wasn't washed up. And it sounded as if Clark hadn't really intended what had happened. Then Perry breathed in deeply as he understood something. "Lois?" he asked.
"Lois," Clark breathed. "That was the hardest thing of all." He took a deep breath, got up, and walked to the window. He stood with his back to Perry, watching the setting sun.
"Lois was, is, my closest friend. She discovered my secret when we were seniors in high school, at the time of the second meteor shower in Smallville," Clark said. Perry saw Clark holding himself stiffly. "She managed to follow me to the Arctic – " there's a big story there, thought Perry, " – right after the Fortress had been constructed." Clark turned around, sat down wearily at the kitchen table again.
"I think Jor-El hated her from the beginning," Clark said. "There I was, in this forty-story igloo." Perry raised his eyebrows at the description, but Clark didn't pause. "The Fortress was new and exciting, and I really didn't know much about myself or my origins. Jor-El wanted me to begin my training, urgently. Training in Kryptonian ways and thoughts," he said at Perry's questioning look.
"Then, in stumbles Lois, or Chloe as she was called then," Clark said. Another questioning look from Perry, and Clark added, "OK, she'd been teleported to the Arctic from a Kansas summer day."
"Right," Perry said, amazed at the casual mention of teleportation, but not wanting to interrupt any more than he already had. Get the story.
"So, there I am, at the Fortress which was modeling Krypton. I was standing in some sort of virtual reality training chamber, while Chloe – while Lois was freezing six feet away." Clark shook his head. "Thank God I heard her calling me. I was able to break out of the simulation. I had to get her to a hospital before she froze to death."
"Obviously you did," Perry said lamely. He kicked himself. Could he say anything more stupid?
Clark's face was grim. "Jor-El was mad at her then for interrupting my training, and he's never liked her since." Then Clark's face relaxed into a smile. "He's always blaming Lois for giving me improper ideas."
"Improper?" Perry asked.
"Yeah, improper. Ideas like not being a conqueror and being a superhero instead." Clark's eyes danced. "Ideas like having a secret identity."
"Um, well, I think it worked out pretty well," Perry offered. Heck, Superman had been a fixture for over ten years.
Clark's smile disappeared. Pain crossed his face. "Not really," he said, his voice flat. "When I put on the glasses for the first time, they wiped out everything. All her memories of me. All our days together. The times I took her flying, right after I learned how to fly. The times I saved her life, and the times she saved mine. Helping me through my training. Working together, at the Planet. The one person that I was closest to, my best friend, the woman I loved." Clark clenched his fist. Perry saw the knuckles were white. The carefully controlled fury awed Perry more than destruction of the furniture would have. "Jor-El took that from us. He got his revenge on Lois."
********************
Author's notes: "Most of that was standing in line to pay" – this comment is a tribute to the excellent (and very funny) fanfic "Thirty Minutes or Less" by butterflykiki. Don't miss it.
Jor-El told Clark to "rule them with strength" in "Smallville" TV episodes "Calling" and "Exodus".
The "monkey's paw" wish is a reference to the chilling story "The Monkey's Paw". Written over a hundred years ago, it still has the power to frighten. Don't miss this story either.
