It was 3 AM. Oliver had left on some Green Arrow business, while Chloe was on her third cup of coffee, scanning footage of the Kent farm.
Lois was asleep. Clark kept a watchful, if sleepy eye on the screen from the vantage point of the sofa, next to Lois.
“Wait. Slow down the playback,” Clark said, gently disentangling himself from Lois to get up and get a better look at the screen.
Chloe backed up the footage. “Was that your mom?”
“Yeah, she’s supposedly been in Washington since last month… I haven’t seen her in quite a while. But she went to the paneling, where Jor-El had placed the Book.”
Chloe freeze-framed a screenshot of Mrs. Kent, wearing a red trench coat, pocketing a small golden disk.
“How would your mom even know it’s there?” Chloe asked.
“I don’t know… and I am even more worried that she would go skulking around behind my back to take it,” Clark said sadly. “It’s too late to call her, though. Best I can do is go to her apartment in Washington, DC and see if I can find it.”
Clark whooshed out of Watchtower, leaving Chloe staring at the screenshot. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Mrs. Kent,” she mumbled to herself.
Lois stirred awake, as if she sensed that Clark was no longer there. “Did you find anything?” she asked sleepily, grabbing her half-eaten Chinese food container to finish her leftovers.
“Um, yeah. Apparently Clark’s mom has the Book of Rao… Though how she even knew it was there is beyond me.”
Lois smirked. “Wow, Mrs. K, huh? She must know more than she lets on.”
~L&C~
Clark blurred in an hour later, looking a little worse for the wear.
“Clark, what happened?” Lois asked.
“Did your mom have it?” Chloe chimed in, getting straight to the point.
Clark nodded, taking the small disk out of his pocket. “Yeah… she wouldn’t tell me how she knew about it, but she did say that if a Kryptonian uses it…” he swallowed, not looking in Lois’ eyes.
Lois sat down next to him, taking his hand.
“Clark, tell me. What is it? What will happen?”
Clark eventually met her gaze, looking tired and defeated. He cupped her chin, as if memorizing her features. She laid her hand over his on her chin, fear slaking through her. “Tell me, Clark. What will happen?”
Clark looked at Chloe instead. “That it will send all Kryptonians to another plane of existence.”
Clark could feel Lois’ eyes on him, and he eventually turned to her. “Lois, I have no idea what would happen to the baby.”
Her arms instinctively wrapped around her baby belly. “It would take the baby, too?”
He reached for Lois’ hand. “But it is not a risk I am willing to take. Zod cannot get the Book, that is all there is to it.”
Chloe looked contemplative. “And yet, if they were all to disappear, it sure would solve our other problems,” she mumbled. Both Lois and Clark gave her accusatory looks. “I don’t want anything to happen to either of you, or the baby. All I’m saying is, what if this is what Jor-El intended?”
“This cannot be happening,” Lois said, her arms going protectively around her belly. “I mean, I know it was a total fluke that I traveled to the future and that I became pregnant… but surely it doesn’t mean that Clark has to sacrifice himself to keep Zod from taking over the world!”
“Jor-El placed the Book on the farm for a reason. So that I’d find it,” Clark began slowly. “If this is my destiny… then I have to fulfill it.”
He looked at Lois, whose eyes were swimming with tears. “And the baby?” she whispered. “What happens to him? And to me?”
Clark saw the anguish in Lois’ eyes, and knew there had to be another way. Or at least, a way to protect her and the baby.
“The blue kryptonite,” Clark said decisively. “It takes away my powers, so that I become human… I don’t know if it would protect me, but perhaps it would protect the baby and Lois.”
“What if you carried some as well when you go to face Zod?” Chloe suggested. “Then, if you are able to use the Book of Rao, you wouldn’t be taken up.”
“I have to have all my strength when I face him…” Clark said, his voice full of sorrow. “I don’t know if blue kryptonite would keep me from transporting, but I can’t take the risk that it would render me helpless against Zod.”
“Helpless? Isn’t he as powerful as any other human?” Lois asked. “Would you be at so much of a disadvantage if you were just like him?”
Clark’s already guilty gaze looked even more burdened as he spoke. “Lois, Zod has powers… I saved him once, with my blood… and, now he is as strong as I am,” Clark admitted.
Lois laid a hand on his shoulder. “Clark, it isn’t your fault that you took mercy on him.”
“But it is my fault that I didn’t stop him when I had the chance,” Clark said, contemplating the small golden disk in his hand. “How would I even use this anyway?”
It was Chloe’s turn to look a little guilty as she did some quick typing and brought up an image of Tess. “When you burned Zod’s solar tower to the ground, I found this video of Tess taking what appears to be some sort of console… I was curious as to what she was up to and I tracked her moving it to the roof of the Daily Planet. It appears to be Kryptonian, and I think it’s what Zod intends to use with the Book of Rao. I believe that if the Book and the console meet, then it will activate whatever portal your mom was talking about, Clark.”
Clark continued to spin the disk around in his hand as he thought. “Chloe, can you leave Lois and I alone for a minute, please?”
Chloe glanced at her cousin, who looked appropriately freaked out. “Yeah, of course. I’ll be back in a bit,” she said, grabbing her purse before heading out the door.
Lois continued to stare at Clark, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I’m at a loss here, Clark,” she said in a broken voice. “I mean, there has to be another way besides you sacrificing yourself to stop Zod. There has to be…”
Clark pocketed the small disk that would change both of their lives forever and took both her hands in his. “Lois… “ He sighed, gently squeezing her hands, trying to find the words he needed to say. “From the moment I met you, I knew there was something different about you, something special. For the longest time you simply infuriated me, especially with how you could always read me like a book… You know me in ways that no one else has ever understood. And I am asking you to consider what you know of me, and tell me if you see another way… cause I don’t. I can’t kill Zod.”
“I know,” Lois answered, tears beginning to flow freely down her cheeks. “I know you can’t kill anyone. But while you may not be able to physically destroy someone Clark, you absolutely know how to rip out someone’s heart.”
Clark took her in his arms and held her, desperate to think of another way to stop Zod.
“Lois, I don’t want to go any more than you want me to… but my father planned for me to use the Book of Rao. He’s trained me to make certain sacrifices…” His eyes met hers and suddenly Clark couldn’t continue. “But why that sacrifice has to include leaving you behind, I don’t know.”
“What if I didn’t use the blue kryptonite?” Lois suggested, taking a tissue out of her purse to wipe her eyes. “I’ve experienced some of your powers with this pregnancy… what if I was taken up with you?”
“Lois, my fear is that only the baby would be taken… and I don’t know how ---It could… God, Lois, it could kill you for all we know. No, it’s better that you use the blue kryptonite… I can’t risk you being literally torn apart by all this.”
She pulled Clark close to her. “Don’t you understand that I already am torn apart?”
Clark gave her a quick kiss, but didn’t let her go. “Every instinct I have is telling me to find a way to protect you…” He glanced around him, “To lock you in this tower until it’s all over… But you won’t let me face Zod alone, will you? Even if it would protect our son?”
“Clark, we don’t know one way or another if the blue k would protect him from whatever that little gold disk does… But what I do know, is that I can’t just let you go make a sacrifice for me or… the whole world. You and I… we’re in this together, right?” she asked, feeling vulnerable once more, suddenly doubting if Clark was ‘all in’ like she was. “Let’s face Zod together… maybe there is another way… Maybe, he can see the hope that our child represents.”
Clark absorbed her words, thinking for a long moment. Finally he nodded, and despite the knot of fear in his gut, he agreed. “Then we face him together.”
~L&C~
Lois texted ‘the Blur’ that she would meet him on the roof of the Daily Planet.
Neither Lois nor Clark knew what to expect, except that they would face Zod together, whatever the consequences.
They rode up the elevator of the Planet to the roof, sharing a sweet and lingering kiss, each wondering if it would be their last.
Clark made sure Lois had on the blue K bracelet, and as one hand held Clark’s, she felt the bracelet was like a shackle on the other. She couldn’t imagine living without Clark, even if she had his son to remember him by. They had only just begun to really understand each other, and she felt it was much too soon to say good-bye.
She began thinking of how often Clark had protected her, and the rest of Metropolis… who would the city miss more? A nosy reporter or a selfless superhero? That was a no-brainer. The city needed the Blur, much more than it needed Lois Lane.
Clark had a larger destiny to fulfill, and Lois didn’t think it was giving up his life to go to some other plane of existence… He was needed here. She calculated… knowing that some blue K exposure would remain with her after she took off the bracelet; it might protect the baby. She was half human with a half-Kryptonian baby. Lois figured she – or at least the baby-- would likely survive whatever the Book of Rao might do, but Clark would surely disappear forever if she didn’t at least try to stop him.
And yet, there was Zod.
Clark needed all his powers to confront Zod, so Clark had said. But what if she got to the console with the Book of Rao before Zod could harm Clark? What if Clark didn’t need his powers to defeat Zod?
Lois knew it was a risk, but she thought through every scenario, and in the end, she decided that what was more important was that Clark remained on Earth.
No matter what happened to her… or, heaven forgive her, their child.
As they reached the roof, they stepped outside into the beginnings of a fall windstorm. Lois slipped off the bracelet, and tugged Clark’s arm so he would face her.
“No matter what happens, Clark, I love you,” she said. Clark’s arms encircled her, and she leaned up to kiss him. Unbidden tears filled her eyes, and just before they pulled away, she slipped the blue kryptonite bracelet into Clark’s jacket.
~L&C~
Lois and Clark stood side by side, holding hands, ready to face Zod together.
“Are you here?” she called out to the wind.
Zod stepped out from the shadows, a snarl on his lips at seeing them both there. “Well, I suppose the game is up, then. I should have known better than to try and deceive the Blur’s most devoted follower.”
“It doesn’t have to be like this, Zod. There can be a life for you here, for all the Kandorians,” Clark said, his hand still holding firm to Lois’. Clark looked up and saw what he had only recently suspected, that Zod had given the Kandorians his powers; they were floating overhead.
“You don’t get it, do you Clark?” Zod said, his voice filled with derision as he used Kal-El’s Earth name. “I will rule.”
“You can't stop me, Zod. We're leaving this planet,” Clark said, showing Zod that he had the Book of Rao. “Was this what you were after?”
“I'm not going anywhere. And neither are they,” Zod answered, indicating his army of Kandorians.
“Clark, even you can’t fight all of them,” Lois whispered to Clark, regretting for a moment giving him the blue kryptonite bracelet.
Clark squeezed her hand, trying to indicate that it would all be okay. Clark waved his hand at the Kandorians floating above them. “Having others finish a fight that you started only proves what a coward you are,” Clark said to Zod.
“My soldiers know I have never wavered in the face of death. All you've ever done is hide in the shadows,” Zod responded with derision.
“You've hidden, too -- the truth from them.” Clark stepped forward, giving Lois a chance to put their plan into action. “The Book of Rao will not destroy us! It will lead us to a better place -- another planet where we can live in peace, where we can build a new home. Krypton will live again,” Clark cried out to the Kandorians.
Zod would not be shaken. “This is just another one of his deceits. We all know where his allegiance lies,” he said, gesturing with his hand to indicate Lois and other humans like her.
Lois took the Book of Rao from Clark and slowly began to move towards the console as Clark confronted Zod.
“What about your deceptions? If they knew the truth, they'd never follow you,” Clark answered, directing Zod’s attention away from Lois.
Zod scoffed, “My men willingly follow me.”
But Clark pressed on, all to buy Lois time. “And what about Faora? All she wanted was to leave you.”
“That is a lie!” Zod declared angrily.
“And she paid for it with her life,” Clark responded calmly.
“Faora never should've trusted you,” Zod said, moving closer towards Clark.
“But she wasn't the only one who paid the price, was she?”
Zod cornered Clark, pushing him up against the wall. “Faora was a traitor,” Zod stated. Then, knowing the other Kandorians might hear, he whispered, “Do you think I wanted to kill my own child?”
But it was too late. They already heard everything.
Zod looked up into crowd, desperate to defend his actions “Your sister was a traitor. She would've betrayed us all.”
One of the Kandorians stepped forward, ready to fight Zod himself, but a woman stayed him with a wave of her hand. “Wait! We will deal with him once we're on our own soil.”
Faora’s sister nodded to Clark. “Kal-El, take us home.”
“Lois! Now!” Clark called, drawing Zod’s attention toward where Lois was at the console.
She dropped the golden disk above the console, and it magnetized into alignment. Lois looked up across the roof at Clark, wondering what would happen now.
The console suddenly lit up, shooting a ray of golden light into the burgeoning morning sky. The light shot into the clouds, seeming to release a rain like sparkling gold above them. The Kandorians began disappearing into the beam, causing Clark to glance up in confusion, wondering why he wasn’t taken up with them.
Zod stood between Lois and Clark, anger clear in his features. He glanced at Clark, pulling out a blue kryptonite dagger from inside his jacket, wielding it like a sword. “I told you, I am not going anywhere… and neither is that halfbreed!”
Zod cried suddenly, pointing the dagger towards Lois’ stomach. Zod abruptly lurched towards Lois, almost at a run.
“Zod! No!” Clark cried, trying to cover the distance to Zod, but finding he could only move at human speed.
Time seemed to freeze, as Clark watched Zod rush on Lois. In one fluid motion, not giving her a chance to escape, Zod stabbed her in the gut with the blue kryptonite. Her eyes met Clark’s over Zod’s shoulder, full of shock and horror, just as Clark got within reach. “No!” he cried. But he was too late.
Zod’s aim had been true.
Clark fell to his knees, taking Lois in his arms just as she fell. In the same moment, Zod stepped away from them, and was taken up with the other Kandorians.
“Lois! Lois, speak to me,” Clark cried desperately, the rain mixing with his own tears. “Oh, God… no…” he wept, rocking Lois in his lap.
“Clark…” she whispered softly, her eyes closing with the pain.
He didn’t know if it was the nearness of the large dagger of kryptonite, but he couldn’t access any of his powers. He couldn’t hear if the baby was still alive, or if Lois was breathing. All he could hear was his own desperate cries and the patter of rain on the rooftop.
“This is all my fault… it should have been me… It should have been me,” he said, over and over. In anger, at Zod and at circumstance that had ripped him and Lois apart too quickly, Clark tore the blue dagger from Lois. He tossed it aside, and pulled her closer to him, rocking her as the rain washed away his tears and her blood.
Thunder clapped above them, intensifying the rain. Clark looked up, seeing that the Kandorians had all disappeared, somehow leaving him on Earth.
Worst of all, Lois was limp in his arms, lifeless and still.
“Lois, oh God, Lois,” he cried over and over, rocking her to him. He should never have let her convince him that it would be fine to come along. This should have been his fate, his alone to bear.
After a few minutes, the rain began to slow and the early morning sun peeked through the clouds. Through the haze of his grief, Clark thought he heard his name, but he dismissed it as his imagination.
All Clark could think was that he always loses the ones he loves, one way or another… his father, Lana, and now Lois. “Why…why do I always lose them?” he cried out, a choked sob, rocking Lois against his chest. Was it his curse to save mankind and yet lose those he cared about most? Tears spilled down his cheeks as sobs wracked his body. He felt weak, and he wondered if this was what a broken heart felt like…
Through the fog of his tears, he thought he felt something, like a butterfly touch on his face. Clark opened his eyes, afraid to discover he had imagined it.
“Clark…” came Lois’ voice, softly. “I’m sorry…”
“Sorry, for what?” Clark asked, his voice choked with incredulity.
Lois reached into his pocket and took out the blue kryptonite bracelet. “For this,” she said, tossing it away from them both for the moment. “Now, step back… “ she said weakly. “Our little boy needs the sun.”
Clark helped her sit up, shocked for once, to see the process that he had experienced on more than one occasion take place before his eyes. As the sun’s rays reached Lois, the wound created when the blue kryptonite dagger pierced her body was miraculously healed, a golden light suffusing the place of injury.
As Clark’s own powers restored, he could once again hear the heartbeat of their son, and he suddenly erupted into a cry of joy. He took Lois in his embrace, kissing her soundly, rejoicing that she and their son were all right and that he was still on Earth.
~L&C~
The warmth of the sun would never feel quite as amazing to Lois as it did that morning. Once Clark had taken away the kryptonite, the sun had felt like an awakening, a healing blanket that enveloped her and their son.
She looked up at Clark, marveling at who he was and what he had given her.
“I’m sorry about the blue k,” she said guiltily, knowing it hadn’t been part of their agreed upon plan.
Clark smiled back at her, “Well, I’m not. It worked… that’s all that matters, Lois. I’m still here and you and the baby are going to be okay.”
Lois’s hand went to her belly as she closed her eyes, absorbing the sun’s rays. Sure, she felt stronger, but also a little nauseated. Her human body had been healed, aided by the Kryptonian blood flowing through her son’s veins. But the intensity of that strength was more than she was used to. She gave Clark a smile, trying to simply feel grateful that she was alive and that Clark and the baby were still here. But for the first time, Lois began worrying about how she would fare through the actual birth of their child.
