That's it. And what would a rewrite of the Phoenix be without an almost first date? So here you go. I do hope you enjoyed this "extended torture session" as Terry once called.

Please leave a review!

WONDERFUL ending!

I loved all of it. The way you brought both Lois and Clark through this ordeal was masterful... The emotions felt so real in every chapter. And it was INTENSE the whole way.

Also OMG I was so glad that nothing ever happened to Martha and Jonathan. That would have been....really really really terrible. ACK!!

Great job! Thank you so much for writing this and sharing it!

-Bek

Thank you so much, Bek. I can't tell you how many doubts I've had about this story because it's so intense and though I really tried to focus on the B-plot aspect of all of this, this whole thing just wouldn't work without the A-plot. I'm really glad you enjoyed the ride.

Thanks for sharing this, Bakasi. I've enjoyed following along. Hope you won't need too much of a break before you're entertaining us with your next story.

Wasn't so sure at first what I thought of your soul swapping idea but as I started reading your story it totally drew me in and took me along for your wild, crazy, intense ride!

I don't read a lot of the really long stories on here, but extremely glad I invested the time in this one!

Loved the ending as Lois was willing to join Clark to help him cook in the kitchen!


Everything was going to be fine.

They were going to be fine.

All it took was a little trust in each other.


Thanks, Bakasi!

I understand that you were sceptic at first. There are so many ways this could have turned out horribly. One of the most difficult things about writing this story was to portray Lex's evilness while staying clear of the point of no return where there would have been no salvation for Clark. But I wanted to focus this story more on the dark sides of Clark and his powers and how he deals with them when Lois and Clark are just at the cusp of dating.

You don't woo a woman by showing her how dangerous you could be, how you could rule and control her life if you wanted to. Clark is not like this, but dating him must be scarier in a way than dating other men. And since Clark never really dated anyone seriously, he wasn't thinking too hard about these aspects. They didn't occur to him until I forced him to recognize them.

Thank you so much for following along and leaving this wonderful feedback

The ending was perfect.

Bakasi, normally I don't go in for this kind of story, but your writing drew me in. What a ride!

Thanks Morgana, I'll try to be a little nicer to Clark the next time.

Thank you so much for sharing this story! I'm bad about leaving feedback, but I was eagerly waiting for each part as it came out. You covered a lot of big, scary topics in a very natural way.

I used to be notoriously bad at leaving feedback too. And I'm grateful that you did delurk for letting me know what you thought about this story anyway. Thank you very much!

I'll admit most of this fic wasn't my cup of tea, but the last few chapters were enjoyable, seeing Clark finally, FINALLY, have the bad things end and good things come. I really liked Henderson helping Superman out and Mayson realize she's been a total witch to Superman. I wonder how she'll treat him now.....

I'm not surprised. This was the first fic where I was really torn about sharing. I wrote it more to find out if I could tell this take and I admit that I often stared at the screen and wanted Clark to finally stop being such a mopey guy and do something about his situation. But there wasn't much he could do but wait for Lois to help him. I'll admit that writing the parts where he finally stood up and faced Luthor were the easiest to write and I assume those are the ones you enjoyed.

Thanks for your honesty and thanks for reading all the way through, anyway. I don't think the muse has any more of that darkness inside of her, so in my next story Clark should be allowed to be the hero again.