Previously:
In the corridors leading to his private apartments, Lex crossed the way of his personal assistant.
"Ah. Mrs. Cox! Just the person I needed. I have just had a small conversation with our guest in the cellar."
"Is everything okay, Lex?" She asked.
"Yes! Everything is perfect! I believe that he is going to suffer much longer that we had dared to hope!" Luthor exulted. His assistant smiled, apparently as delighted as he was. "But he raised an interesting issue during our conversation. We also need to eliminate Kent."
"Good, Lex. Do you have a precise idea how he should die, or do you prefer that I take charge of the details?" she asked in her most professional tone.
"We'll discuss it tomorrow, after the wedding, Mrs. Cox. I plan to fully enjoy the death of our friend in blue first before getting rid of *his* friend."
********************
And now:
Part 1: Too Late
Lex Luthor was ready for his wedding. While waiting for the ceremony to begin, he had come down again to the cellar to scoff at Superman one last time before marrying Lois Lane. Lex planned to kill him just after the ceremony. A wedding present to himself, sort of. And the spectacle which welcomed him when he came down the stairs really pleased him.
Superman was lying on the ground, motionless, unconscious, helpless. Luthor entered the cage, and woke Superman with a kick in the ribs. Superman opened his eyes, screaming, and stayed on the ground. He was doubled over in pain, and moaned slowly, once again at the edge of consciousness. Lex provoked him a little, but he doubted that any of his words penetrated into the mind of this not-so-Superman. So, he contented himself with watching his enemy suffer, occasionally kicking him to hear him scream again.
Yes, this was probably one of the most beautiful days in the life of Lex Luthor, and he was well aware of it. He wanted to commit every single moment to his memory. Some magnificent recollections he was building up! And the day had hardly begun. In a few minutes, the wedding ceremony would start, and then he could kill Superman. Then he would go to the reception, and he would be the center of attention, and all his assembled guests would come to share in his happiness. And he could finish the day by planning Clark Kent's death and finally, Lois Lane would belong to him and only to him before sunset. If only every day could be like this one!
Smiling, he closed the cage on the superhero who relapsed in the unconsciousness, put the key back into his pocket and climbed the stairs. It was time for him to marry Lois Lane.
He was still smiling when he entered the chapel where hundreds of guests, most of them very important people, were already sitting, waiting for the wedding to begin. He had entered by a small lateral door and directly went to take his place in front of the altar.
By a sign of head, he indicated that the ceremony could start. The pianist began playing the wedding march, whereas two servants positioned at the foot of the central path opened the big main doors of the room to reveal Lois, luxuriously dressed in a long wedding gown made of satin and lace, embroidered with pearls to heighten both its beauty and its worth. His smile grew even broader, his upper lip curling upward. Just a few more moments, and Lois would belong to him.
Finally, he had won.
********************
When Lois heard the first chords of the wedding march, she knew that the moment she dreaded had come, and got ready to face the future that she had chosen. It didn't matter much what her mother had just said to her; it was too late for her to listen and follow her heart. She had agreed to marry Lex Luthor; she could not leave him now, in front of all his associates and friends, in front of all these people. She could not humiliate him like that in public. It was too late. She had to face the consequences of her actions, in spite of her doubts concerning this union.
She was not in love with Lex, never had been, and although she had maintained the hope, when she had accepted his proposal, that it could change in the future, she also knew that it would never happen. She would never love her husband. She would never feel anything more than friendship for him.
Then why had she said yes? She did not know it any more. Before, there was another man for whom she felt only friendship, but she had rejected him. And she did not remember why. Why had she chosen Lex rather than him? She regretted it now.
She had barely seen him these last weeks, since she had rejected him when he had told her that he loved her. And the two only times when she had seen him since then, they had quarreled and had exchanged some very hurtful words. The day after his declaration of love, they had almost spoiled the party of Perry's retirement with their argument.
After that, weeks had passed by without her having heard anything from him, and she had missed him. She never expected that she could miss her partner so much when he wasn't there. She needed to know that he was fine. She had phoned him, but he remained so very distant...
She thought that, having heard his voice, she would feel better, but she had missed him even more than before. She wanted to see him again. And some days later, she had decided to go to him. She had never arrived at his apartment. On the way, she had caught sight of him in the street, hanging up a telephone in a public cabin, and then walking down the street, going home. She had stopped the car at his level to speak to him, but they had quarreled again.
He had refused to come to attend her wedding and had left without another thought. It had been just the previous day, early in the afternoon. And since then, she couldn't get him out of her mind any more. Having seen him again, even just for a few minutes, had made her aware of the empty space she had in her life ever since he had gone out of it.
She had made a mistake when she had said to him that she loved him only as a friend some weeks earlier. She had deceived herself. She felt much more that that for him. She was not sure what she felt exactly, but it was stronger than the feeling of friendship. It was her fiancé for whom she felt only friendship. Could she be in love with Clark? The idea would have seemed ridiculous to her, even just twenty-four hours earlier. She would have answered that she loved Superman. But she had to admit now that during these last weeks, she had seen Superman even less often than Clark, and she had not really missed him. Not like she had missed Clark.
But what she felt for her former partner was of little importance, and it was better not to wonder about her feelings any more, no reason to try to see more clearly there. She had pushed him away and had become engaged with Luthor. She would spend her life with Lex. She had to try harder to forget Clark.
As soon as she heard the first chords of the wedding march, she chased Clark out of her mind and got ready to face the future she had chosen for herself. Less than one second later, the doors opened, and she was able to see Lex smiling to her. For one tiny moment, she was disappointed that the man near the altar was Lex, but she stopped at once and smiled back to him before beginning to walk slowly towards him.
But in spite of all her best efforts, she was not capable of thinking of anyone but Clark. His gentle smile, and the glance full of worship he had graced her with one evening when they worked late, during their first investigation together. The desire that she had been able to see on his face when she sat on his desk, showing her leg in front of him while she was under the influence of a powerful aphrodisiac. The haunted expression on his face when he had bent towards her to give her a farewell kiss a night, back when he had decided to resign and to leave Metropolis.
"Goodbye, Lois."
This recollection was so vivid in her mind that she still heard the words which he had pronounced that night, as if he had just said them to her. And all her being rebelled against this goodbye. She did not want him to leave. No! She needed him in her life! She loved him…
That realization brutally reminded her of her current situation. She had already gone all the way up to the altar, where she had joined Lex to get married. She had realized her feelings for Clark too late. The wedding ceremony had already begun.
She needed to see him, so she turned her head around towards the guests, but he was not there. None of her friends were there. Neither was her family. Only her mother had made it. She felt even more depressed. She really needed his presence. Her mother smiled to her sadly to encourage her to do what she had to do, and Lois thought again of the discussion that they had had while she got ready for the ceremony.
She had put on her dress, and she repeated in front of the mirror her name as Lex' wife in every possible combination, Lois Lane Luthor, Lois Luthor, Mrs. Lex Luthor, but she had never managed to make the name Luthor sound right. The name Kent sounded so much more natural. She had started crying, and her mother had said to her that if she had the slightest doubt, she did not have to marry Lex, and that what mattered most was to follow her heart.
She turned again to the altar as Lex answered, "I do." The archbishop then turned his attention to her.
"And do you Lois, take this man to be your wedded husband from this day forward, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?"
"I…"
She knew what she had to answer, what everybody awaited as an answer, what she had committed herself to answer by accepting Lex' proposal, but the words did not want to come out of her mouth. She tried again.
"I…"
Her voice refused once more to obey her, and she once again heard in her head the voice of the archbishop. "Do you take this man to be your wedded husband, to love and cherish, till death do you part?" No, she couldn't promise that. Not to Lex at least. She just couldn't.
"Lois?" Lex asked, worried by her long silence.
"I... can't."
There. It was said. She had refused to marry him. She had finally chosen whom she really wanted. A little late, but hopefully not too late. The wedding would not take place. She could not marry Lex. She was not capable of doing this.
She turned to him, sorry to inflict that pain on him, and saw the shock on his face. But he had no time to react. The doors of the room had just been thrown wide open to allow Perry and Henderson to enter, followed by Jack, Jimmy and a whole brigade of policemen.
"Stop the wedding! Lois, you can't marry this man!" Perry shouted from the room entrance.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Lex furiously asked the people who went to him and Lois at the end of the path.
"The meaning, Luthor, is that you're through. We have all the evidence against you we need," Perry answered in an icy tone.
"But what the hell was he talking about?" Lois wondered.
"Evidence? Evidence of what?" She asked, perplexed. But nobody paid her the slightest attention. Everybody looked at Luthor. Henderson showed him a paper which he had in hand while he began speaking to him.
"I have a warrant here charging you with arson and other crimes too numerous to mention."
"You must be out of your minds. All of you." Luthor retorted but the inspector continued without taking notice of the interruption. Lois didn't understand anything at all. Her world had just collapsed.
"You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney…"
Lex felt the fury invading him while he was listening to the policeman reading him his rights, but he could not allow to let such an insult pass.
"Will you stop that! I can afford a thousand attorneys! I'll have your head... badge for this. Someone get the Governor on the phone!! Wait, make it the President!!!"
At this precise moment, he saw two policemen taking away his now handcuffed assistant, Mrs. Cox, and the reality of the situation caught up with him. The time of his little games was over. When Henderson tried to seize him, he got free by an abrupt gesture and struck down the policeman. He began running towards the lateral door he had used earlier to enter the room, striking down the policemen who were in his way. Henderson got up and began pursuing him, followed by all the policemen who accompanied him.
The shock dissipated little by little, and Lois began sobbing. How had she got herself into such a mess? She needed Clark, but in front of her, there were only Perry, Jimmy and Jack. Clark had not come. She cried even harder and her mother got up from her seat and ran towards her to comfort her.
"Oh, honey! I know that you must be terribly disappointed… "
"Why?" Lois asked bitterly. "Finally, my friends came to my wedding…"
All except one. She had really messed everything up.
********************
Lex ran down the stairs leading to the cellar. He had the policemen following him. He did not have any time to waste. But even if it means being taken, he wanted to make sure Superman was dead. He tore the axe off the wall without stopping and rushed to the cage in which the superhero was still lying on the ground, unconscious. He looked for the keys in his pocket but he could not find them. He must have let them fall in his flight, or when he fought against the policemen who tried to block his way.
Furious that fate had turned against him and prevented him from killing Superman, he violently drove the axe into the closest barrel. He heard the policemen who got closer to the door of the cellar. He couldn't afford to waste any more time. He ran towards another exit which would allow him to get back to his office, to the last floor of the tower, and from there, he'd take his private elevator which was his last chance to reach the parking and leave the building without being caught.
He ran as fast as he was able to, the policemen on his heels, but when he finally reached his office, he saw Henderson enter by the other door. He was trapped. He could not get to his private elevator any more. He rushed onto the balcony, but the policemen followed him there. Bereft of all hope to be able to lose them, he climbed onto the edge of the terrace.
********************
"I've always been such a good judge of character!" Lois complained, while Perry, Jimmy and Jack escorted her outside the LexTower where she had almost married Lex Luthor.
She was still wearing her wedding gown, and her tears were still pouring freely. She had never felt so sick in her entire life. She had been the best investigative reporter of the city, and she had been blinded by the beautiful words of Luthor like a newbie. She had almost married an international criminal without any morality, and she did not even love him. Fortunately, she had realized her feelings for her former partner just in time and had stopped the wedding in front of the altar even before the police arrival to arrest him.
"Lois, don't blame yourself. He fooled us all," her former editor in chief, whom she considered a surrogate father, tried to comfort her.
"Not me," Jack objected.
"I never trusted him," Jimmy added.
Clark neither, Lois added mentally, remembering all the times when he had tried to warn her about Lex. She had never listened to him. Oh Clark! She so needed to see him.
"Where's Clark?" she asked. Perry, Jimmy and Jack stopped then and exchanged worried looks. Lois felt the fear invading her. Why was he not here, with the others? What had happened to him? Where was he?
"Where is Clark?" she insisted. She needed an answer. It was Perry who gave her one.
"We don't know. He… Nobody has seen him ever since he went out yesterday. We have no idea..."
Missing…
Clark was missing…
Lois felt the cold invading her at the thought that maybe she would never see him again. She had just understood that she loved him, but it was too late. He had disappeared. He was not there any more. And it was possible that he never returned. She would never see him again. She would never have the occasion to ask him to forgive her and to say to him that she loved him. And the last words which they would have exchanged would have been words spoken in anger…
The movements and the screams of the crowd around her brought her back to reality. Everyone looked towards the sky, and automatically she raised her eyes. Lex was standing on the wall of the balcony of his office, on the last floor of the highest tower of Metropolis, his arms flailing furiously. And suddenly, he jumped.
Everything appeared to happen in slow motion. She saw him falling as in slow motion. And at the same time, everything took place so fast. It was as if less than one second had passed by before he crashed onto the ground, only a few feet away from her.
In shock, she collapsed on the ground. Sitting on the pavement, she emptied her stomach in the brook. What a nightmarish day! And it wasn't even noon.
Perry, Jimmy and Jack squatted beside her to support her. But it was Clark that she needed. It was to Clark that she turned when things get rough. But he was not there. Perry had said that they had no idea where he could be, that nobody had seen him since the day before, but somebody had to know. Clark had to be somewhere.
Determinedly turning her face away from the vision of the broken body of her ex-fiancé, Lois clung to the hope that it was only one of his usual temporary disappearances. He was going to return, of course. He wasn't the kind of guy to abandon her. He simply had to return.
"Where is Clark?" she asked once more.
Perry sighed of frustration. He wished he could give her another answer, but he didn't have one.
"We don't know, Lois. He did not return to his apartment yesterday evening. We have been waiting for him all the time, but he hasn't come back."
"Yes, but then we saw that he had left notes on his desk concerning Luthor, the proof and everything. Thus he must have returned to the apartment, before the Chief arrived. That's all we know for sure," Jimmy explained.
"He had to go out again, apparently," Jack added. "He had a message from Luthor on his answering machine, but the light did not flash. That means that he had listened to it."
"Lex wanted Clark to contact Superman. He had something to tell him about you," Perry followed on. "We don't know anything more about it."
Lois felt panic-stricken and reassured at the same time. Clark had disappeared because of Lex's call, but Clark had probably gone out again to fetch Superman. What could have happened to him with Superman around?
"And have you called Superman to ask him if he knew where Clark is?" Lois asked confidently. Superman probably knew, and as soon as they talked to him, he would reassure them that Clark was all right.
But the way they looked at her, with pity in their eyes, disturbed her profoundly. They had more bad news for her, she knew it from their hesitance to answer her.
"Superman doesn't answer when we call him," Jimmy explained. "No one has seen him since yesterday, either."
"Yep, and last night, a mudslide in Chile has buried hundreds of people. And Superman did not go to help with the emergency. It’s not as if he wasn’t answering our calls because he was occupied elsewhere. It’s as if he, too, was missing," Jack continued.
Lois feared for the worst. It wasn't rare that nobody knew where the Man of Steel was. It wasn't rare that he wasn't spotted for a whole day. But those were days when nothing was happening. *Not* days when a disaster occurred in Chile, and when we called for his help here in Metropolis. That was when Lois realized that Superman had not shown up to save Lex, either. And she knew that that had absolutely nothing to do with Luthor's criminal past. Superman did not work like that. If he had been able to, he would have saved Lex. As he would have saved those people in Chile. He had not made it because…
Because Superman was missing, too…
It was a strange thought. He was invulnerable, so what could have happened to him? It wasn't possible. Nothing could happen to him; he was Superman! He had not disappeared. He was simply somewhere else. Somewhere where nobody thought of looking for him. Like Clark. He had to be somewhere, just... somewhere else.
In fact, thought Lois with a flutter of hope, maybe they even were somewhere together. That had to be it! It seemed so very logical to her. Clark had heard Lex's message about speaking to Superman. He had gone out again to contact the superhero, and at the same time probably mentioned to him what they had discovered on the criminal activities of Luthor. And they were working on the case together. Soon, they would return to Metropolis, and they would be surprised to learn that Lex had died.
There was no need to worry anymore. They were fine. They were together. And Superman would never let anything happen to Clark. He'd protect him. Thus no reason to worry. She just needed to wait for their return, and then she could say to Clark that she loved him. And she could apologize for all the mean things she had said to him.
The sound of an ambulance which arrived and parked in front of the building broke the course of Lois' thoughts. She expected that the men who went out of the ambulance would take Lex's body to the morgue. They couldn't leave him like that, on the pavement. But the paramedics went out of the vehicle, very quickly carrying a stretcher inside the tower. Somebody else had been hurt. Lex had probably hurt one of the policemen pursuing him when he tried to run away.
Lois began to tell her friends her theory, that Superman and Clark were probably together and safe. That they had to be fine.
But the paramedics already returned from the building, accompanied by Henderson and numerous policemen. Lying unconsciously on the stretcher was Superman. The world slowed down again around Lois while the ambulance drove off, taking away the unconscious body of the superhero. Superman was not well. He was not protecting Clark. He was unconscious. And Clark was still reported missing since yesterday…
It was too much for Lois. She had had too many shocks that morning. She fainted.
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