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Thanks for reading and commenting, everyone.

Regards,

Rac

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And he's going home!!! Yaaaayy!!!! thumbsup hyper

But does that mean we are saying a permanent good-bye tot he other New Kryptonians? frown

Cannot WAIT for the next installment! Please let him meet Lois again, in it! Pretty please? grovel


“Is he dead, Lois?”

“No! But I was really mad and I wanted to kick him between the legs and pull his nose off and put out his eyes with a freshly sharpened pencil and disembowel him with a dull letter opener and strangle him with his own intestines but I stopped myself just in time!”
- Further Down The Road by Terry Leatherwood.
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Yeah!!!! he's going home!!!

Loved the scene between Lois and Perry. So poignant.

Can't wait for the next part!!!!!

Thanks!
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Oh, MAN! You made me misty-eyed, Rac. I am so glad that Clark is finally going home, but I'm sad that he apparently won't see Ezra or Thia or Talan again.

Wonder if he'll recover his powers in our solar system or if there's some signal that will alert Ultra Woman to fetch the capsule down. And what if there's some malfunction? The capsule is traveling in normal space without a pilot, so please don't tease us like that! And I'm sorry I brought it up!

I thought Talan was going to break down and tell him that she loved him for just a brief moment. I'm glad she didn't, even though it will take her a long time to learn to let someone else that deep into her heart (assuming she ever learns). And Clark's reaction to the NKers kneeling to him was so very in character. Even though their expression of gratitude was appropriate to their culture, it embarrassed him. But maybe it will also convince him how much they love and appreciate him.

Poor Lois. She's about to have some of her pain alleviated, only to be replaced with a whole new set of problems. And Clark will have scads of adjustments to make, too. That will be the most painful part of the story.

And I'm eager to see just how you handle it. I have every confidence that it will be a completely masterful read, just as the rest of this saga has been.

On a side note, the birthday present for Ann ( party Happy Birthday!) was sweet and touching. It's incredibly hard to get past a permanent injury or sudden disability, and even harder to deal with the one you love the most without the injury or disability getting in the way. Lok Sim and Enza managed it with aplomb and tenderness. I wish them many, many happy days and nights together.

And I hope they name their first child after Clark.


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YES YES YES YYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK GOD HE'S GOING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so teary eyed. That was such a great send off. I am sad for Clark that he will never see these wonderful people again, but it's soooo wonderful that he's going home to Lois!!!!

I'm sooooo excited for the next part. I can't wait for him to see Lois. Please please please update as soon as possbile.

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Loved this part, but it made me so sad too. As I said in my last comment, I've really grown to love your NK characters, and I want to know what happens to them.

That being said, it was a beautiful goodbye. I'm glad Clark realizes how much these people have come to mean to him, and that as overjoyed as he is to be going home, he will miss them. Some of them, at least.

The Perry/Lois scene was perfect. Now I can't wait for the Clark/Lois reunion scene!

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Well,let's see. This story has been fraught with angst, pain, and suffering since the very beginning. Clark is being shot toward earth on a four month journey in an unpiloted capsule... Hmmm.

I see Terry has already seen what I see.

I can picture the scene several years hence, when Zara and Ching (the star drive has been repaired) come for a visit and find out that Clark isn't there, and Lois finds out that he left New Krypton several years ago. Talk about your angsty moment.

Isn't there some Einsteinian physics that theorizes that the relative time spent by the occupants of an interstellar craft would be vastly different than the actual passing of time while they were away? So if Clark experiences a relative four month trip, the actual time that would have passed on earth would be significantly more. Any physic geeks out there?

Tank (who just likes to point out to the gentle readers some fun opportunities for a little more angst wink )

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Rac, this chapter gave beautiful closure to Clark's long, painful years on New Krypton. But you didn't just give closure to Clark, but to many others as well.

There's Talan. Maybe what you gave her wasn't exactly closure, but I think you gave her a way to go on. I liked this:

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"I have to do my job. And whatever my personal feelings, I'm not going to use them as an excuse to run away." She knew how stubborn she sounded, but she also knew that she wasn't wrong.
Yes, it is going to be painful for her to see Clark one more time, but Talan has a job to do, and she knows how to do it well. She has to keep on doing it.

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"Sir…"

He held up his hand, seemingly pleading with her to let him finish. "The things I said, they were unforgivable and they weren't true." She could hear a waver in his voice as he spoke.

"All is forgotten, sir," she replied softly.

He shook his head with a sad smile. "You always say that. You don't just forgive, you forget. You've been one of the greatest friends I've ever had. You were with me in every fight; you've saved my life I don't know how many times."

She looked into his dark brown eyes, glimmering with tears he would never let fall. And all she could see was the man in the wreckage of Silban, in the cold, dark pit of a collapsed building, holding a little boy in his arms, comforting a crying child. He would always be that man to her. A man who'd risked his life time and again for others, who had risked his life to save hers. "It's what friends do," she demurred.

"I'm going to miss you," he whispered harshly.

She closed her eyes as she pulled him into a fierce embrace. He hugged her back just as tightly. "I'm going to miss you, too," she whispered. How did you say goodbye to the man who'd saved your soul?
This isn't closure, but I love that she hugs him. And I'm so glad that he thanked her in such a heartfelt way. He really needed to do it.

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"You're a good man, Clark," she said, finding the sound of his Earth name so odd to her ears, but he smiled so genuinely when she said it. "The best man I've ever known." She tried to ignore how much it hurt, but she was saying goodbye to him. She would never see him again and her only consolation was that she only needed to get through one more day of talking with him and being near him and pretending she wasn't in love with him.
Not even this is closure for Talan. But she calls him Clark, she calls him the best man she has ever known, and she admits to herself that she is saying good-bye to him. Maybe it is the best closure she could hope for.

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Clark turned to look at her. "Commander," he started, not sure what it was he wanted to say. He didn't know if there were words that could make sense of what it was he wanted her to know.

She gave him a tremulous smile. "May you know great joy and may all your burdens be easily borne. And may fortune be with you all the days of your life, sir." Talan closed her sharp gray eyes and bowed deeply.

"Thank you," he said quietly, feeling tears prick at his eyes. "It's not enough; I just don't know what else to say."

"I know exactly what you mean, sir."
And finally, there is this exchange between Clark and Talan, an acknowledgement that there is so much more loyalty and gratitude and fondness and deep feelings between them than they can, or dare to, express.

I was moved by how you described Lok Sim's selflessness, modesty, general concern for others and love for his family. He feared that the inquest would find that he had been so derelict in his duties that they would demote him or kick him out of the service altogether. Instead he was cited for valor. I loved how this extremely good man couldn't believe that anyone would praise him for doing well when he hadn't been able to stop Sur Ahn, but how utterly relieved he was:

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Outside the chamber, he leaned against the corridor wall and closed his eyes. Relief crashed over him in waves, but his heart still pounded against his chest. He could hear it echoing in his ears. Swallowing around the lump lodged in his throat, he opened his eyes and exhaled a shaky breath.
Then he went to see Sur Ahn, not because he hated her, but because he was worried about her:

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"I want to know why," he began. "Why didn't you say anything in your defense?"

"That's odd. I thought you were going to ask why I did it," she replied with a humorless smile. She looked pale and thin. He doubted she'd eaten in days.

"I already know why you did it," he said, folding his arms uncomfortably across his broad chest.
This is beautiful. Lok Sim has accepted that Sur Ahn did what she did for her husband's sake. You showed us in a previous chapter that Lok Sim might have been capable of doing - not necessarily the same thing, but at any rate something evil - in order to save Enza and Thia. I love how he doesn't judge her, but wants to help her.

But Sur Ahn is not asking for mercy or sympathy:

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"My Leov was a good man. If he'd known what I was doing, he would have begged me to stop. He would have rather died. But this stopped being about Leov's pain at some point and became about mine. I would have done anything to spare his life, even if it would have made him hate me. It doesn't matter now, though. I knew the consequences of my actions. I'm ready to bear them." Her eyes glimmered with unshed tears.

He shook his head. "But exile…you'll never see your family again…"

"I don't want them to see me like this. I've done something unspeakable. I let myself become a monster. It's better that this world just forget me."
This is so sad. Yes, Sur Ahn was guilty of a horrible deed. But I think that the punishment that her society has imposed on her, and the hopeless guilt she is feeling herself, is probably as harsh a punishment as she could get.

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"You are a good man and I'm sorry for everything I did to you. I wish you could have stopped me."

Lok Sim bit his lip and nodded grimly. "So do I."

"I know what you're thinking, Lieutenant. I didn't make any mistakes. I left no trail. I had four long, empty years to do nothing but plan this. There was nothing you could have done."
I think Sur Ahn did whatever she could do for Lok sim, when she told him that he couldn't have stopped her. It wasn't his fault that she could do what she did.

And after that, he returned to Enza and Thia:

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He pulled Thia closer to him. "I love you both so much," he said. Nothing else mattered to him. Nothing else was truer.

Thia wrapped her arms around him. "I love you, too, Lok Sim."

"We both do," Enza replied.
I realize that after Clark has returned to the Earth, we may not see anything more of Lok Sim, Enza and Thia, or your other Kryptonian characters. But like Terry, I choose to believe that Lok Sim and Enza's named their first child after Clark. (Thank you for the birthday greetings, Terry!)

Another Kryptonian couple that found closure and happiness were Zara and Ching. They so, so deserved to finally get married, so that they could show their love and happiness to their world.

Clark himself got to say things he needed to say to Talan, and to himself:

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"You were right, you know," he said softly. "I lost sight of who I was. I'm not the man I should be."

Talan bit her lip. "That's not true and I shouldn't have said it."

"I needed to hear it," he replied. "I would have become a monster if it hadn't been for you. I would have killed him a long time ago if you hadn't stopped me."

She stepped back and took his hands in hers, ignoring the pang that sliced through her from the gesture. "I didn't stop you," she said. "You stopped yourself."

"No," he replied stridently, shaking his head. "You stopped me, you pulled me back, I would have killed him."

She gave him a tight lipped smile and watched as the hard expression on his face softened. "Sir, I might be tall, but you're a lot bigger and stronger than I am. I wouldn't have been able to stop you if you'd really wanted to do it."
Clark needed to say this, and he needed to hear Talan's answer.

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"Thank you," Clark replied.

Tao Scion gave him a wavering smile, his blue eyes glimmering with unshed tears. "Safe travels, my friend," he whispered hoarsely. "Jor El and Lara would be so proud of you."

Clark blinked back stinging tears as he nodded. "May fortune be with you," Clark said as he hugged his old friend.
I was moved by this short exchange between Clark and Tao Scion.

And Clark said good-bye to Lok Sim and Enza and Thia, and to Ching and Zara. He accepted the thanks from (more or less) the entire Kryptonian society, and was embarrassed when everybody kneeled before him. And then he boarded his capsule to embark on his journey home.

At home, Lois is waiting for him, her endurance, courage and perseverance worn thin:

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"Perry, I can't do this any more. I'm running on empty and I don't even know where the finish line is. I work better to a deadline, you know?" She was choking back a sob now. Lois wiped at the tears with both hands, feeling Perry's arm come around her shoulder as he sat down beside her.

"Come here, darlin'," he said.

"Just tell me how much longer I have to do this. Another year, five years, I'll wait as long as it takes. I just need to know how much longer it's going to be. I need to know he's coming home." Her body shook as she wept, not sure where this tidal wave of emotions had come from.

Perry held her tightly. "It's okay, honey. Everything's going to be all right."

"Tell me he's coming home," she whispered.

"He is. I know he is. Because that boy loves you more than anything and there is nothing that can keep him away from you. He crossed the universe once to be with you. He'll do it again."
I was teary-eyed at this, too. But Clark is coming back. But what will happen when he does? Clark and Lois have been apart for so long. Once they knew each other so well. They shared each other's lives, more or less, and knew much of what the other was going through. But this - this is like Odysseus returning to Penelope after twenty years. Their paths have diverged. They have walked their roads alone. Beloved Swedish poet Karin Boye wrote (this is my own tentative translation): There is a reason, a final destination waiting for us at the end of our days. But it was the roads we walked that were worth the price we paid, that were worth our toil and tears.

Now that Clark and Lois have walked different roads, can they reconnect? Can they learn to understand and love the spouse who was scarred and bent into a different shape on the respective lonely roads they walked?

Ann

P.S. Tank, in real life there would be no way that Clark and Lois could ever meet again if Clark had travelled to another planet light-years away, and then had travelled back to the Earth again. The laws of physics governing spacetime don't permit Clark to return to Lois's time frame after such a two-way trip across the gulf of space. Then again... the laws of physics certainly don't allow Clark to fly, either, and yet he does, or at least he did... And Lois still does, and she isn't allowed to, either! If we accept that Clark and/or Lois can fly, then let's accept that Clark can travel across the light-years to New Krypton and still return to Lois's time on the Earth afterwards.

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One of Einstein's "thought experiments" (I have never liked that term) was to envision a spacecraft which could somehow exceed the speed of light. If an observer were to peer through a hyper-powerful telescope and see the craft at its origination point, then look up and see the very same craft sitting on the ground in front of him (because, during its trip, it had outpaced the image the observer saw in the telescope), it would violate the law that says that matter cannot exist in two places at the same time. Therefore, faster-than-light travel is impossible.

I think that's a dumb example, given that time isn't a fixed flow but an elastic one depending on your distance from a gravity well. If, for example, someone were to be caught inside the event horizon of a black hole, the person's experienced flow of time would remain constant, but any observation of the person from soneone outside the event horizon would show that person slowing down further and further as he or she got closer to the center of gravity within the black hole. So, given that New Krypton has some kind of light-speed or hyperspace drive capability (or they couldn't have come to Earth), we can - as Ann suggested - pretend that Einstein didn't know what he was talking about in this instance.

Besides, who wants to read about a thirty-year-old Clark with a ninety-year-old Lois?


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Eh. I just thought of something, precisely because I mentioned Odysseus and Penelope. They were separated for twenty years, because it took Odysseus ten years to fight the war against Troy, and then it took him another ten years to make the journey back home, because Poseidon, the god of the sea, disliked Odysseus and tried to trip him up all the time. In other words, Odyssues' journey home took just as long as the time it took him to fight the actual war!

Rac, you have called this part of your trilogy(?) The Long Road Home. Surely you aren't planning to write chapter after chapter after chapter describing how some god of space - whoever that might be! - is relentlessly trying to thwart Clark's attempts to make his way back to Lois, so that his journey home lasts as long as the time he actually spent on New Krypton?

Ann

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I haven't posted in awhile for this story but I had to cause I am glad that Clark is going home. (Which I hope you don't give us a Tank ending and have his ship blow up or something strange laugh )

I just had to comment on this one line...

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"Tell me he's coming home," she whispered.

"He is. I know he is. Because that boy loves you more than anything and there is nothing that can keep him away from you. He crossed the universe once to be with you. He'll do it again."
The best line by Perry in any story ever. So powerful and possitive and inspirational. Love it. Nice to see some light after so much darkness. Well done!

PS: I might do a finale trailer for this Rac after July 4th... This story has gotten some new images and a song in my head for it...

smile

~Lois Lane Wanna Be


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Walk to the edge.
Listen Hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Continue to learn.
Appreciate your friends.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is."
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Okay, it's been long enough. We need our next Long Road Home fix! Let's see the next chapter as soon as is reasonable! I want to see Lois as Clark steps out of the capsule and drops to his knees to touch the earth of Earth. I want to see Clark try to assimilate the information about his son Jon. And I want to see them fight through all the barriers that time and space have placed between them to get together once again.

Because, ultimately, this is a story about love overcoming all obstacles. And I can't think of a Lois and Clark story with more obstacles and pitfalls and barriers. As soon as you can, Rac, we'd love to see the next chapter. I know you're busy, and I know that real life can intrude most suddenly, so take your time and be sure of what you have before you allow us to gaze upon it with awe and wonder.

Thank you for this tale.


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I SECOND and THIRD Terry's emotions!!


Chris

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Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for your comments. I know Clark's leaving New Krypton long awaited, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Hasini, thanks for the feedback. With the exception of the 'detour' I wrote and posted for Ann's birthday, I'm not planning on coming back to New Krypton.

Thanks for commenting, Jo. I'm glad you enjoyed the scene with Lois and Perry. More is on the way.

Terry, sorry for keeping you waiting so long. I'm glad that this section got to you. I won't keep you in suspense any longer. The next part is coming up.

Oh, and to settle a debate among you, Tank, and Ann, the hyperlight drives on Kryptonian space vessels cause the ships to fold space and 'jump' from point to point, thereby not actually traveling faster than light, but still getting from point A to point B faster than light could. This way, I don't have to deal with relativistic effects, and I can also explain why little ships go slower than bigger ones - their hyperlight drives are only capable of shorter jumps.

ClarkLovesLois, I'm glad you enjoyed this section and the send off the Kryptonians gave Clark.

Thanks for the feedback, Noelle. I'm really pleased to hear that you've come to like the Kryptonian characters.

Tank, I must admit to being very pleasantly surprised that you're still hanging in there with this story - Lois has a kid, there are a bunch of new tertiary characters, and I haven't done anything mean to Jimmy. Thanks for reading and commenting. Maybe there will be enough Lois and enough angst to keep you interested in upcoming parts.

Ann, thanks for your wonderful comments. I'm glad you enjoyed this part and the interactions between Clark and Talan. I've been pretty tough on her, but I think this is the best ending we could expect here for her.

You're right that Lok Sim has found closure from an unusual source. His meeting with Sur Ahn was charged and of course, the undercurrent for Lok Sim was always that he never knew what he'd do if he were in Sur Ahn's position. Sur Ahn basically tells him that he's not like her - that it was weakness in her character that led her to do something that her husband would never, ever have wanted her to do. Maybe he understands that now, and maybe he doesn't. But at the very least, he knows that he did everything he could to stop Sur Ahn.

LLWB, thanks for commenting. I'm really glad you liked Perry's line - I felt like that was something he'd say to Lois. If you do make another trailer, I'd be thrilled; the last one was terrific!

Chris, more is coming up. Thanks for reading!

Regards,

Rac


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