Nice Tank. Just enough to match my mood tonight.

Happy Unretirement.

Very, very sad.

Still have a hard time believing Lois would give up so easily. I would think she would never do that unless there was no choice. But who knows? Time changes all people. She's willing to break her beloved's heart to save him from losing who he is if he's forced to violate his morals.

Lovely story, nonetheless.

Wow. That ending was ugly and dark. Which served it's purpose, so good job.

Jen
(off to go read something happy now)

Tank

This definitely meets the challenge.

Extremely well-written and very, very sad!

Thanks for sharing this.

Tricia (Who thinks that Lois would never give up. She would fight to the end.)

But you didn't cut her hair before,

Jose

Just a quick note to address the one point I figured most readers would bring up. I agree, Lois would never give up the fight, but I don't see Lois' actions as giving up.

Giving up would have been just doing herself in the first chance she got. This wasn't the case. Lois merely prepared for an eventuality that came to pass. She decided to fight by refusing to be used by the bad guys any more. She fought by making sure that the terrorists wouldn't win. If that meant she had to give her own life to save the idea of Superman, she felt the sacrifice was worth it.

It's often been said that loving someone means you put their needs above your own. Lois knew that it was only a matter of time before Clark would be forced to do something that would, in effect, destroy him. He would do it to save her, but it would still have the result of destroying who and what Superman was. She couldn't allow that. So, if the situation came about that there was no other way out, she was willing to make the ultimate choice.

While I think Lois is a fighter to the end, I also believe that she wouldn't hesitate to give her life to protect Clark.

Tank (who hopes that this doesn't add fuel to those misguided gentle readers who think that he is evil... remember this was Juliet's fault, it was HER challenge)

Ooh! Tank's still unretired!

Yes, this meets the challenge exactly, and I agree with your reasoning, Tank: in the situation you'd set up, it was clearly only a matter of time before Clark was pushed way beyond what he could reconcile with his ethics. Very sad, too. But convincing. Utterly convincing!


Wendy

Poor Lois. Poor Clark. But very well written, Tank. And I agree - entirely Lois to have taken steps to pre-empt such a situation happening and very clever of her.

LabRat (who says a sequel from Clark's pov would also fit the challenge...slightly )

I take full credit/blame for this round of Tank's creativity.

But I'm disappointed that Tank's the only one to take up the challenge. Doesn't somebody else want to stretch there creativity?

Tank
nicely done and very sad

glad you're not retiring
merry

You know, while this was sad, it wasn't unsatisfying. I think I agree with Tank (uh-oh...tell my characters to buy lots of bullet/asteroid proof vests!) -- Lois did what she had to do to protect Clark. And out of love for him.

And, Tank, this was really well written and moving. And convincing. Bravo!

Bethy