Summary: As Lois Lane prepares to marry Lex Luthor, Clark Kent goes missing without a trace. Lois becomes consumed with finding her missing best friend, but the way back home proves to be far more complicated than anything she could have prepared for.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I make nothing. All characters, plot points, and recognizable dialogue belong to DC Comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd Productions and anyone else with a stake in the Superman franchise.
Author's Note: This fic was inspired by Nobody, written by Nostalgiakick and Delusions of Grandeur, written by Folc4evernaday, who were answering the challenge issued by Queen of the Capes on the Lois and Clark FanFic Message Boards. The challenge was to have Clark Kent committed to a mental health facility, for any reason and in either of his identities. Both Feli and Val were terrific sounding boards as I worked on this story, and I owe them a huge debt of gratitude. Also, a big shout out to Endelda, who let me bounce ideas off of her and always willingly devoured whatever snippets I decided to run past her. I owe you one, E!
Warning: I broke ALL the things.
***
Soft organ music wafted through the hallways of Lex Tower. Not the sad, somewhat creepy, somber tunes that usually popped into Lex Luthor’s head when he thought of organ music. Like the dull, gray, monotonous funeral music that had been chosen for his parents’ funeral when he was but a mere teenager on the cusp of manhood. No, these were different songs. These were bright, happy, cheerful, if not sonorous tunes meant to put people into a festive mood. It was a welcome departure from respectful, but dead, tones. It mingled well with the scent of fresh flowers – a light, airy scent of roses and carnations and even some plumeria, imported directly from Oahu. Lex hadn’t allowed lilies at the event. Their heavy scent smelled like a mortuary to him. And while death didn’t bother him, he didn’t want such a grotesque association on this wonderful day. This was a happy event, in a way that was different from the day he’d buried his parents – and his past – and become the sole heir of the Luthor empire.
Lex checked his appearance in his full-length mirror for the twelfth time in as many minutes. He had to look his very best. This wasn’t some run-of-the-mill board meeting. This wasn’t even some boring corporate takeover. This was his wedding day. Not just his wedding day, he mentally corrected himself, but the day when would finally claim Lois Lane as his own. In less than an hour, he would listen as she pledged her love and her life to him and him alone. Never again would he be in danger of losing her to anyone else. Not Superman. And certainly not Clark Kent. She would be his, from this day until her dying day.
Lex smiled to himself, pleased with his reflection. With confident steps, he crossed his study to the small bank of monitors hidden behind a false panel of phony books made so well it was virtually impossible to distinguish them from the real thing. He gently pressed the correct series of book spines – each of them corresponding to a number that, when put together, made up the date of his parents’ shared death-date. It always gave him a little thrill to punch in that number. Sure, he’d become an orphan that day, but he’d also become the sole heir to the Luthor family fortune. From there, it had only been a matter of time and a willingness to be as ruthless a businessman as necessary in order to grow his empire of LexCorp.
The wall slid to the left, revealing the monitors. Lex quickly located the one in the dressing room where his bride-to-be was waiting for her cue to head down the aisle to the altar and her destiny. He’d restrained himself from peeking into her room all day, regardless of how strong the temptation was. He would see her disrobed form soon enough, he’d reasoned. No need to spoil the moment by first viewing her nakedness over a grainy, black and white monitor. He turned up the volume as his lovely wife-to-be stood before her own full-length mirror, already decked out in the wedding gown he’d had specially made for her and imported from Italy.
“Lois…Luthor,” she said to herself as she stared into her own reflection. But where Lex expected her to be bubbling with enthusiasm, he heard only a sigh of unhappiness. “Lois Luthor-Lane,” she tried again, but her mood didn’t seem to improve. “Lois Lane-Luthor.” She shook her head and Lex frowned. What was wrong with her? Didn’t she realize that she was about to become the luckiest woman on the planet?
A loud sigh echoed over the monitor. Then, tentatively, Lois spoke again.
“Lois…Kent?” she whispered to herself, in a voice so feather-light Lex nearly missed it.
“Kent?” Lex roared, shutting off the monitor before he did something regrettable, like punching out the screen with his bare fist. “Kent?” he raged again, the word ripping his throat on its way out of his body. “How dare she even contemplate that giblet!” He pressed a button and the faux panel slid back into place, concealing the monitors from his sight again.
“I’m the one she’s supposed to be thinking about. Not that miserable little weakling,” he seethed as his hands clenched into tight fists. He turned angrily away from the wall and stalked across his study once more in a predatory pace. “I have to do something. It’s bad enough she’s had feelings for that alien, Superman. But now to find out she’s thinking about Kent with just moments to spare before she belongs to me? This is unacceptable.”
“Indeed,” came the dry, even voice of his old friend, Nigel St. John, who’d been watching everything from the doorway. He stood in a relaxed, but attentive, stance, his hands clasped behind his back.
“Ah, Nigel, tell me you have some good news to share,” Lex said as he turned to face the other man. He beckoned the man to step inside the room and to take a seat.
Nigel cracked a tiny, cryptic smile as he did as Lex bid. He sat in one of the plush armchairs and steepled his fingers thoughtfully. “What would you say if I told you I’ve put an end to an investigation into your personal affairs?”
Lex raised an interested eyebrow. “I’d tell you to go on,” he encouraged, taking his own seat across from Nigel.
“Let’s just say that, while I didn’t have to kill anyone,” Nigel offered with a hint of regret in his voice, “I’ve muddied the trails linking you to the city’s organized crime. More precisely, when the former Daily Planet crusaders try to prove that you are a villain, they will, instead, find themselves pinning the blame on a certain head of Intergang.”
Lex’s eyes kindled with a hungry, malevolent light. “Excellent.”
***
Lex Luthor was on top of the world.
Everything was going according to plan. Almost. If only Lois had said “I do,” then everything in his world would have been perfect.
His eye twitched and he absently massaged the area around his eyebrow in an effort to calm the reaction. He hated that annoying little tick of his, though it seemed to intimidate most people. It was an outward sign of the roiling rage within, and anyone with two brain cells to rub together would know that provoking him was ill-advised, at best.
Lex clenched his fist and ground his teeth together so hard that his jaw ached as he resisted the urge to growl in frustration. He didn’t lose. It wasn’t in his nature. But, somehow, he’d lost Lois that day.
If only she’d…
No.
He mentally shoved the thought aside. He couldn’t afford to think of “what ifs.” The fact of the matter was that the skittish little shrew had said “no” and left him to look like a fool in front of the world just a mere week ago. He was loathe to admit it, but her rejection had wounded him, taking him by surprise. No one ever dared to say no to him. Ever. Not in business matters. Not in private matters. He said “jump” and people automatically asked “how high?” – not “no, thanks” or “I can’t.” He knew he had the looks, the brains, and certainly the wealth to impress any woman in the world. And for a long time, all of that had dazzled Lois’ pedestrian tastes. And then, their wedding day had finally arrived and everything had suddenly changed. What exactly had changed, he wasn’t sure.
He sighed, deep in thought as a small, malevolent smile pulled ever so slightly at the corners of his mouth.
No, he hadn’t lost anything. He was certain of it. She’d merely gotten cold feet. That had to be the explanation for her unexpected bout of insanity. She only needed a little more time and space, then she would see how much of a mistake she’d made. She would come crawling back sooner or later and beg for absolution of her traitorous sins. Then, like the benevolent god he was, he would have some fun breaking that harlot before taking her back. The next time she wore his diamond, she wouldn’t dare run again.
In the meantime, he would pretend to lose interest in her and be content to love her from afar. He supposed he could expend his time and energy pursuing her, but his spies had alerted him to the fact that her former colleagues at the now-defunct Daily Planet had been sniffing around into Lex’s personal business. He had to tread very, very carefully – now more than ever before. He could not afford any slip-ups if he wanted to retain his freedom. Not that it probably mattered much now, he supposed. After he’d had the building blown up and framed that smart-mouthed little street urchin, he doubted he’d ever see that accursed publication ever again. Still, if he knew anything about Perry White and company, it was that they would pursue even the hint of a story to the ends of the Earth, if need be. Paper or no paper, they could still make trouble for him if they went to the police with any suspicion of foul play.
No. Lex’s good spirit had nothing to do with Lois Lane or the demise of the Daily Planet. He was in good spirits despite Lois’ attempt to embarrass him by running from their wedding. His good mood came from a different victory.
While Lois would have – should have – been his trophy wife, he’d gained perhaps an even better trophy, of a sort.
He stood staring at the closed-circuit monitors that he’d had set up in his wine cellar to keep tabs on his prisoner. A satisfied grin slowly spread across his face as he watched the Kryptonian writhing in pain on the floor of his glowing green prison cell, though the grainy images were in black and white, rather than color. But Lex knew the bright green glow well enough and considered it to be the most cheerful, joyful, wonderful shade of any color in the entire world. He’d been a little skeptical, at first, when he’d heard of the mythical stone that could reduce Superman a weak, helpless sack of mortal flesh. But his people had assured him that the rock was, indeed, very real and did exactly what it was rumored to do.
No price had been too high for Lex as he’d acquired as much of the Kryptonite as was possible. He would have gladly paid with his own blood for the deadly piece of alien terrain, so long as it did its job. And it had. Oh, how it had worked better than any of Lex’s wildest dreams! All those months trying to best Superman, trying to outwit him, testing his limits, and all he’d had to do in the end was use a bit of glowing rock to take the godlike freak of nature to his knees. Now, it was just a matter of what Lex wanted to do with the alien.
He could kill Superman.
It would be easy. Lex wouldn’t even have to physically bloody his hands to kill the Kryptonian. All he’d need to do would be to continue to expose his hated rival to the radioactive stone. And if he did want to get his hands dirty, Superman’s muscles were like water. He wouldn’t be able to fight back at all. Lex wouldn’t have to take any risk at all if he stepped into that cell with a gun, knife, axe, or cloth to smother the bothersome alien with.
Or he could keep Superman alive and…
Lex grinned.
The possibilities were endless.
And, truth be told, he had to acknowledge that the caped nuisance had saved his life before. Most recently, the idiot had cauterized a bullet wound in Lex’s shoulder, right in front of his friends at the Daily Planet. Of course, none of those blithering morons had noticed – Superman hadn’t been wearing the blue suit then. He’d been cowering behind the mask of that pathetic loser, Clark Kent, Lex’s other most loathed rival. Lex knew, from the moment he felt the searing pain in his shoulder, that Kent was Superman in disguise and that his heat vision, rather than that random mixture of conveniently accessible food items, had stopped Lex from bleeding out all over the bullpen floor.
Wisely, Lex had chosen to feign obliviousness. And from his careful watching and listening, it was clear that none of the others were in on the secret. That was when Lex had lost a great deal of respect for his fiancée-to-be. How could it be that Lois worked alongside the hero she practically salivated over and not realize it? How blind or stupid could one woman be? He’d nearly considered discarding her after that. But somehow, her low intelligence aside, he still found himself unable to deny the attraction that drew him to her like a beacon in the darkness.
He sometimes wondered why that was. She was beautiful, certainly, but he’d bedded scores of women that Lois’ looks couldn’t hold a candle to. Perhaps it was the knowledge that, by claiming her for his own, he would solidify his victory over Superman. After all, there was nothing sweeter in life than utterly obliterating an enemy. Or perhaps it was because Lois herself had presented herself as forbidden fruit when they had first crossed paths. He knew all about how delicious a taste of the forbidden could be. He’d partaken of it his entire life. He’d even considered if Miranda had hit him with the one hundred percent solution of that asinine pheromone spray of hers – the one that had the potential to permanently rewire a person’s brain.
No matter.
Whatever the reason was for his obsession with her, it was only a matter of time before he claimed her for his prize. He was Lex Luthor, after all. No one dared deny him anything he desired. Least of all a reporter too stupid or too blind to see what was right in front of her face.
A slow smile finally spread across his features, smoothing away the lines of anger that had been there only moments before, as the possibilities unfurled in his mind. If Lois Lane, of all people, couldn’t piece together something as idiotically simple as her partner’s compulsive need to traipse around the city in a skimpy costume acting as an overbearing hero with a god complex, well, that could only bode well for how easy it would be to hide his own underhanded dealings from her. Coming to a sudden, immutable decision, he’d dismissed the thought of tossing her to the wayside and continued his courtship of her. Beautiful but stupid most definitely had its advantages.
Still, Lex had been pleased with his new-found information. It had definitely been worth getting shot for. It had allowed him to formulate a plan that was sure to lure the alien into his trap. First, the trap itself had been needed – a simple cage of steel bars, augmented and strengthened by a coating of Kryptonite so expertly manipulated that Lex could cover the ground-up stone with a thin veneer of yet more steel. That had been his best decision, if he said so himself. Not only had it prevented Superman from detecting the Kryptonite’s presence prematurely, but now he had the option to “turn off” the radiation if he wanted to keep his prisoner alive. Next, the bait – Lois had served that purpose quite well, and Lex hadn’t even needed to kidnap her for that. Both Superman and Kent were notoriously taken with the woman. Claiming that he was worried about her had been a surefire way to lure Superman in. And finally, the timing had to be right. He’d needed to spring the trap at just the right moment. Too early, and he risked Superman wizening up to the fact that Lex had something up his sleeve. Too late, and he risked Superman using his powers to escape his fate.
But none of that had happened. Superman had been too cocky, too arrogant, too busy looking down his nose at Lex to realize what was about to happen. And that had been the alien’s downfall.
In one fell move, Lex had neutralized the threat both Superman and Clark Kent had posed to him.
But what to do now?
Kill the extraterrestrial? Or spare him and…what then?
“Killing him would give me but one fleeting victory,” he decided in a whisper to himself. “If I keep him alive, his every waking moment in captivity is a victory.”
But what to do with the captured nuisance in a cape? For the first time in his life, Lex found himself without a clear plan. And where that should have unnerved him, he found the notion intriguing somehow. The future was full of possibilities. And he was determined to figure out how best to destroy the creature who’d sought to bring about his downfall.
Feeling elated, Lex watched the monitor for a long time before finally shutting down the power that kept the Kryptonite exposed. After all, he didn’t dare kill Superman before uttering destroying him.
***
Lois sat cross-legged under the familiar weight of her bed’s comforter. Idly, she smoothed away a few creases as she waited for the phone to finish dialing, her stomach churning queasily. She’d always hated having to speak with a friend’s parents on the phone for as far back as she could remember, even if her friends’ parents had always seemed to like her. But this was different. Could she still consider Clark her friend? She’d been so awful to him lately. So awful, in fact, that she couldn’t bear to consider using his parents’ first names as she sat twining the curly phone cord around her pointer finger.
“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Kent?” Lois asked, her voice shaking with worry and remorse. She cradled the plastic headset of her favorite red phone between her head and her shoulder, clutching it for dear life, as though it alone could save her from drowning in her sorrows. “It’s me, Lois.”
“Lois?” Mr. Kent sounded surprised to be hearing from her. Lois couldn’t blame the man’s wonderment. After all, she and the farmer’s son had barely been speaking as of late.
“I know I probably have no right to be calling you, but…” She took a shuddering breath. “I was wondering if you could help me. I know I don’t deserve it. But I was hoping…could you help me get in touch with Clark?” She bit back tears as she said the words, her heart aching so badly for want of her friend that it was difficult for her to draw breath. “Please, Mr. Kent. I know Clark and I have had our differences lately but…I need to speak to him.”
“Please, call us Jonathan and Martha,” the kindly older man gently reminded her. But his voice sounded guarded and his words seemed more reflexive than anything else.
“Okay. Jonathan,” she complied, forcing the words out. “Maybe Clark told you not to tell me where he is but, I’ve been trying to get ahold of him for over a week. He’s not answering his phone. I’ve been by his apartment. Everything is there except for him. Jimmy and Perry haven’t heard from him since the day before my…” She paused and gulped, making herself say the words. “My aborted wedding. We’re all a little on edge. Have you heard from him?”
Silently, she willed them to say yes.
“I’m sorry, but we haven’t heard from him either,” Martha said in a soft, concerned tone that screamed of concealed panic. “Have you tried his cell phone?”
“He’s not answering either one of his phones – the landline or his cell,” Lois said, trying hard not to burst into tears.
“He often gets wrapped up into things he’s working on,” Jonathan said with a measured tone, carefully selecting his words. “I’m sure he’ll surface soon.”
But the gentle farmer couldn’t completely mask his distress and Lois’ heart sank.
“If you do happen to hear from him…can you please…tell him I’m sorry. I miss him. If he could just call me or stop by…” She couldn’t stop a sob from escaping her. That was the beginning of the end. Within seconds, she was full-on crying. “Please. Tell him I know…how much of an idiot I’ve been lately. I want to apologize. I should have listened to him. Please.”
“Of course we’ll tell him, honey,” Martha soothingly told her, but Lois could hear the pain in the older woman’s voice. Clark’s disappearance wasn’t normal – even given the extraordinary circumstance of Lois almost marrying a man he clearly loathed – and it had all of them worried.
“Thanks. And I’ll do the same if I hear from him. Tell him to call you, I mean.” Lois made herself sound optimistic. She knew how close Clark was to his parents. If they hadn’t heard from him, something was definitely going on.
“Thank you, Lois, we’d really appreciate that,” Martha said softly.
Lois managed a quick, awkward goodbye, then hung up the phone. Her stomach was churning and she felt flushed, the way she always did when she was ill at ease. Something just felt wrong, though she didn’t know what it was.
Perhaps it was the fact that she was still reeling from having fled from her own wedding. But no. Maybe not. Shouldn’t she feel good that she’d avoided making what she knew now would have been a huge mistake? And despite her initial, worried ponderings that she’d taken the wrong course of action, she was sure now that saying “no” to the Arch-Bishop had been the only correct response. Clark had been right when he’d challenged her in the park. As she’d stared into the future of a life with Lex, she’d known for certain that she didn’t – and couldn’t – love the billionaire. He didn’t give her butterflies in her stomach the way Clark did, even though she didn’t want to admit it out loud. So she’d done the only thing possible when she’d said “no” and run from Lex Tower.
Guilt had followed her. All those people. Family members, mostly, who had taken time out of their busy schedules to fly into Metropolis for her wedding. All eyes had been on her – expecting to see her blissfully embarking on the greatest adventure of her life. Instead, she’d disappointed everyone she knew. Or…most of the people she knew. None of her – admittedly few – close friends had attended her wedding. Jimmy and Perry had admitted to being caught up investigating Clark’s theory that Lex was a crime lord. They hadn’t managed to find any solid evidence against him though. And Jack was still in jail for allegedly planting the explosive device that had blown up the Daily Planet.
Clark…
Clark hadn’t shown up. At all.
And, to make matters worse, no one knew where he was.
Not Jimmy. Not Perry. Not Jack – Lois had made a point to visit her young friend in jail a few days after her aborted wedding. Not a single former coworker from their days at the Planet. Not even Clark’s landlord had seen him.
This wasn’t like Clark at all. Sure, he would sometimes occasionally disappear for minutes or hours during any given workday. But to completely vanish without a trace for just over a week now? There was nothing normal about this.
“Where are you, Clark?” she whispered miserably to herself.
She sighed heavily, then pulled back the comforter and sheets from her bed. With a sense of determination, she wedged her feet into her favorite battered pair of sneakers. Grabbing her purse, she headed out of her apartment, locking the door behind her. She rushed down the stairs to the lobby, then sprinted down the block to where her Jeep was parked. Throwing the car into gear, she made a beeline for Inspector Henderson’s precinct.
A little while later, she made her way back home, feeling only marginally better for having filed a missing person report for Clark. But when she arrived back at her building, she didn’t go straight back to her apartment. Instead, she made her way up to the roof. It was as good a spot as any, she figured as she called out into the night.
“Superman? Help! I need you!”
But silence was all she received and her hero never showed.
To Be Continued…
Last edited by Deadly Chakram; 11/25/19 01:37 AM.
