Chicago, IL
gardy720
Second Chances
Superman flew ahead into the future, using the greenish shard within the Eye of Rao. He was aiming for the exact night of his ex-lover, Lana Lang's death. Having already decided to change Earth's history, Kal El decided to change his own as well. By traveling back in time, Clark would save billions of lives, starting with Lana's.
It was 2063 and Lana had lived a full, rewarding life. Now 77, Lana has two children in their late thirties, Laura and Louis, whom she named after her deceased parents, who were killed in the first meteor shower. She also has six grandchildren, Lisa, Vanessa, Clark, Anthony, Peter, and young Linda. Her husband Richard had died recently.
Lana was seriously ill. She was too weak to recover from an unnamed disease. It was like her heart couldn't pump anymore. She was always in pain, and had trouble breathing. What's more, after her husband's death she'd appeared to lose the will to live. A lifetime of stress was about to claim her.
Lana lay in her bed peacefully fingering the kryptonite necklace. She had created the trinket herself because it reminded her of her parents, and Clark. The crystal was ashen white. It suddenly began to glow faintly green. A cold breeze swept across her body.
Superman had quietly opened the window to her bedroom and climbed in. He's wearing all black, with no cape. "Lana?" He asks warily, trying not to startle the elderly woman. The gray-haired old lady painfully turned her head towards the window.
She looks at Superman with loving eyes. "Clark? I must be dreaming!" She croaked. "No Lana, I'm here." Kal El walked over to the bed and places a hand on her cold, wrinkled arm. "Clark? You didn't forget me!" Lana said as her breath ran ragged.
"I could never forget about you Lana." Superman carefully takes a seat on the edge of her bed. Lana reaches out to touch his chin. She brushes her hand against his goatee and moustache. "I don't care for this look, Clark, it makes you seem mean and old. Shouldn't you be out saving someone?" She needled. "I am." He pushes a strand of thin gray hair away from her face.
"I'm saving me." Kal El admits. Lana's dark eyes begged a question. "What?" Clark sighs. "Lana this won't be easy for you to hear. I don't quite know how to put it…" Lana put her hand in her lap. "I'm dying, Clark." She finished for him. "Yes." Clark says solemnly. "The doctors are wrong."
"You don't have a touch of pneumonia. You have contracted a rare bacterial infection from somewhere. There is no cure." He concluded seriously. "That's okay, Clark. I've lived a full life. I have loving children and grandchildren. They've made me very happy. It's normal, you know." Lana tried to shrug, but couldn't. Clark shook his head. "Nothing about us has ever been normal."
"How about you Clark, are you happy?" Lana asked bravely. "No Lana, I'm not! It's not fair!" Clark protested. "You're leaving me forever, and alone." He put his head in his hands. "What about Lois, Kara, and all of your friends?" Lana argued. He bent in closer to her.
She reached up with one gnarled hand and rubbed his cheek. "You need a shave." She teased. "Lana, you can't leave!" Kal El insisted. "Clark, we all have to die sometime. Life goes on. It must be terrible for you though." Superman nodded. "What if everyone I knew was gone?" He countered.
Lana was silent, considering all that Clark had gone through. "It's like a curse, Lana. Everyone I know is gone…or will be gone." Lana held Superman's hand. "There's nothing we can do about it, Clark." He looked deeply into her clouding eyes and saw his first love. "Yes, there is Lana. Do you have any regrets?" Lana weakly shook her head.
"None, Clark. Well, maybe one. But now it's too late. I had a generous, loving husband and family, who cared about me." She replied. "I don't want you to be alone, Clark. Find someone to love." Clark frowned. "I have. I love you." He admitted. "What about Lois?" She pointed out.
"I love Lois, too. She's not you, though." Clark added. "We couldn't work it out ultimately. Jor El saw to that by making me give up my powers if I married a human."
"Ooh that Jor El!" Lana said with unusual fire in her voice. "I'd like to throttle him myself! Who does he think he is, anyway?" Clark laughed. "That's my girl!" He kissed her forehead.
Clark took Lana by her gnarled hand and placed it above his heart. "Lana, what if there was a way for us to be together?" She stared at him vacantly. "Even if I was healthy, Clark, I'm old now and frankly not very much fun." Lana said with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Lana, I'm going back!" Clark stated bluntly. "Back where?" She asked as she sniffled, fighting back a tear. "I'm going back to Smallville about sixty years ago!" Clark said with determination. "Oh Clark! That's crazy talk! I thought I was the one going senile!" She teased.
She forced a smile. "Still, it would be fun to see everyone again. Remember that time Chloe caught us kissing in the loft? Or when your mom and pop caught us coming downstairs from your room? I was embarrassed." Clark laughed as they walked through memory lane.
"Ooh! Remember when I kissed you in front of Lois at the Daily Planet? I bet she was pissed!" Lana's smile grew brighter. "You bet she was! Lois didn't talk to me for over a week!"Clark snickered. By some miracle, Lana found the energy to sit up and hug Kal El.
"I wish it would have been possible for us to get married and have a family of our own." Lana said into his ear. "Don't get me wrong. I loved my husband and our children. It's just that they're not you." Clark released her. "I know that you loved your husband and he was a good man." He added earnestly. "I have one last question…"
"Lana, will you go back with me?" She pulled away from him and stared into his eyes. "What? Go back? You know that's not possible…is it?" Clark smirked. "Clark Kent! I know that look! You're up to something!" The elderly woman shook a finger at him.
"I have the means to go back in time, Lana." Clark announced as he pulled the Eye of Rao from his pocket. The shard he'd used to find Lana was dimly lit and pulsated occasionally. Lana gasped. "This is the Eye of Rao, an ancient Kryptonian device. It creates time portals."
"The crystals in their facets were fashioned from a neighboring planet Berypton within the Kryptonian solar system. It is one of two known to exist. Kara and I haven't found the other one yet." He handed it to Lana who was still in an upright position. "Wow! That is something!" she admired.
"I've used it twice already." Superman continued. "I don't know how many more times it will work." Lana turned it over and over in her feeble hands. "Time travel, you say? I guess I wonder if we should do that. Won't it change history?"
"I mean what about my children and grandchildren? Would they cease to exist?" Lana's mind was still sharp. "I found a way around that, Lana." Clark said as he retrieved the artifact. Lana's foggy eyes were drawn to the colorful images within it. "I've learned a lot in the next fifty years or so."
Superman joked as he explained. "We tend to think of time as linear. As if there were a beginning and an end to everything. We were wrong. For the lack of a better example, time is like a drinking glass, or a mirror. If you shatter it, the shards fly everywhere. Its still the same glass, but now each shard is in a different environment."
It took a moment for Lana to digest the statement. "Meaning that any reality could exist separately from others. You and I are here now, yet we are also back in the past, and may very well be in the future if all goes well." Clark explained. "When the environment changes surrounding one shard, the others remain stable. In this life, your children and grandchildren will exist after your death."
"Clark that's fascinating!" Lana wished she could've come up with stronger words. "In a different reality, you and I are young, single, and probably in some kind of trouble." Kal El nodded. "Exactly." Lana was still hesitant.
"Are you sure that it wouldn't affect my children and grandchildren?" "Positive. As I see it, I wasn't instrumental in getting you and your husband together, therefore, their futures are intact."
"Okay Clark, you sold me on it." Lana wanted to kiss him, but couldn't. "I get the feeling that there's more to this than you just trying to claim a lost love." Superman looked away. "You're right as usual." He admitted.
"I went ahead into the future. I didn't like what I saw. The world had been destroyed." Lana gasped. "Destroyed? How?" Kal El trembled as he recalled the painful memory.
"There was a horrible war between two future enemies of mine, BRAINIAC and Darkseid. They were both powerful off-worlders that Kara and I couldn't handle alone. This is the main reason that I've come back in time. I figure that we'll have to mount an army to defend Earth."
"We'll have to give them, meaning us, a fighting chance. The aliens struck without warning, Earth fell under their control in less than a week." Clark revealed darkly. "No!" Lana cried out. "What can we humans do, if you and Kara couldn't defeat them?" Kal El groaned.
"Lex and our own U.S. Government turned against us. The frenzy of fear caused our own government to use kryptonite against us. They caught us off-guard. Metallo and Lex joined forces to conspire against Kara and I."
Lana put her head in her gnarled hands. "We killed ourselves? But when? I never heard of any attacks against you." Clark thought about that. "I noticed that. Perhaps someone else has been messing with the timeline. Or this is a different reality? The bottom line is that I failed to protect Earth."
"Lana, this is my mission. This is why Jor El saved me and Zor El saved Kara. I failed, and I mean to change that." He added with determination. "I'm in. But how? I mean just the three of us?" Lana pointed out.
"No. We'll put together specialized teams. I made the mistake of not trusting people early enough to stop this holocaust. Lana, if you'll fight by my side, we can stop the annihilation. We must stop it. Failure is not an option.
We still may be fighting for your children, and your children's children. We don't truly know how powerful Darkseid is, let alone BRAINIAC." Superman prodded.
"Wow! When you put it that way, Clark...of course I'll go back with you." She coughed roughly. "Did you ever take anyone back with you before?" Kal El shook his head. "No, this will be my first attempt. I"ll be by later tonight. Get some rest."
"Clark, make sure you're back before...you know." Lana swallowed hard. "I know Lana. I will. I've got the exact moment memorized." He replied as she lay back down. "Clark I feel so at peace now. All of these years I watched you save people time and time again. Now I can make a difference, too."
"I know you can, Lana. I'll see you later." Superman kissed her on the forehead and silently slipped back into the dark night. Lana felt a surge of adrenaline. She had a new purpose, a reason to go on living beyond her precious family. She could be productive again.
"Retirement is overrated anyway." Lana muttered as she carefully got out of bed. She hobbled over to the closet and put on a decent dress. The elderly woman lumbered down the stairs. Lana was a true fighter.
"Mom! What are you doing out of bed?" Laura asked worriedly. Vanessa and Lisa ran towards her. "Gramma!" They yelled in chorus. "The doctor said complete bed rest, mother!" Laura insisted as Lana waved an arthritic hand at her in a dismissive manner.
"Bah! Doctors! What the hell do they know anyway?" Lana let the youngest girls lead her to the couch. She sat down and smiled. "Girls? Did I ever tell you about my friend, Clark Kent?" She began as the children settled in her lap. Laura watched her mother intensely. She hadn't talked about Clark in years.
Lana rubbed her kryptonite necklace. Why hadn't it affected Clark like it usually did? She wondered amidst her story. Clark had one more stop to make. He brushed the greenish facet of the Eye of Rao, which glowed dimly.
Superman landed atop the neatly decorated rooftop deck of Lois Lane's condo near the outskirts of Metropolis. The elderly ex-love of his life was up late busily writing her memoirs. "Lois?" the raven haired beauty was now gray-headed and tired. She glanced up from her holographic image array.
"Clark? You look like hell." Lois said. "Gee thanks, Lois. Nice to see you, too. How would you like to write the story of the century, in fact of a few centuries?" Superman teased. "I'm listening." Lois smirked as she shut down her project.
The next night, Clark silently climbed into Lana's room. She was wide-awake and shivering. The elderly woman's breath was ragged and weak. "Is it time?" She asked with aprehension. Clark nodded. "Lana, I can't guarantee this will work." He admitted solemnly. "It doesn't matter, Clark."
Lana forced her aged body into an upright position. "What matters is that we try." Superman sat on the edge of her bed. "Any idea how this thing works?" Lana asked as she examined the artifact. Kal El helped her hold it between them.
"No. To get here I just closed my eyes, and thought about where and when I wanted to arrive. The technology is even too alien for me to decipher."
Lana inhaled a deep, wheezing breath. "Ready?" Clark urged. "Yes." Lana replied though the answer stuck in her throat. "Regardless of what happens, Clark…I love you and thank you for everything." He placed one of his hands on hers, and gripped the Eye of Rao tightly.
"Close your eyes." He directed and Lana complied. "I wish I were in Kansas." He quipped as Lana laughed. "You are so bad!" She coughed. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Let's go!" Superman made his wish and the room began to spin.
All went black. Lana and Clark felt the sensation of falling toward an endless dark pit. Soon, a multicolored vortex appeared, surrounding them. Boom tube.
Clark held onto Lana tightly and felt her body change. She began to slim down. He risked a glance at her face, now that the vortex was lightening within the prism of color. The wrinkles peeled away from Lana's face, her legs grew more muscular, and her hair darkened and lengthened.
Superman estimated at that point, Lana looked to be about thirty. He felt his own body weight lighten, and guessed that they were about halfway through the time warp. Lana's breathing grew stronger, but she was disturbingly silent. Had Clark waited too long?
Suddenly Lana screamed and her eyes widened. She now appeared to be about twenty-three as he remembered her. "Lana! Relax! Stay with me!" He ordered. Kal El continued to observe the intense transformation. Would it be too much for a normal human?
Soon his speculation would be over. "Lana…brace…yourself." Superman's voice seemed to echo back to him, but at a much slower pace. A bright light nearly blinded them reflecting off of Lana and spinning back up the wider end of the time tunnel.
Lana appeared to be in several places at once encircling him. "What the…?" Clark never finished his question because something hard came up from the vortex base and hit them. All went black, again. First a crack of thunder then silence.
Clark woke up alone just outside of the Kawatchee Caves. He quickly rolled to his knees. Lana hadn't made it! "No!" He shouted in agony and pounded his fist into the cave's outer wall. The impact sent shockwaves throughout the caves, sending some debris tumbling to the ground.
Where was she? Had it worked? Superman felt his cleanly shaven chin, and he noted that he was much thinner than he had been before this incredulous journey. He clambered to his feet. Kal El was more or less where he was supposed to be.
He wore a common white tee shirt, blue jeans, and tan work boots. The Superman outfit was gone. He stood dazedly gazing across the fields. It certainly looked like the farming community of Smallville. Clark wobbily turned around to X-ray the caves. Nothing. What had happened to Lana?
He could only assume that she died. Kal El angrily grabbed the Eye of Rao. Sure enough, the second green crystal within the facet was dark and assumed to be powerless. The next crystal was amber colored and glowed brightly.
That must mean something. He debated. "Damn thing should've come with instructions!" He grumbled aloud. Clark jumped as his cell phone rang. He hadn't seen it since the technology had been outdated in the mid twenty-first century.
"Hello?" It was Chloe! "Clark! Thank the powers! Get back to the Daily Planet immediately, Lana's gone missing!" He hesitated, trying to gather his thoughts.
"Hello? Clark? Earth to Clark!" Chloe sounded pissed. It had sort of worked. He was back in Smallville, but when? "On my way!" Clark said and switched into hyper speed. He surveyed the area one more time before zipping to Metropolis.
There was no sign of Lana.
Superman sped up the well-worn steps to the Daily Planet. Disguised as Clark Kent, he couldn't use his power of flight…yet. "Hey Chloe!" He smiled radiantly at her. It was good to see his very first fan.
Chloe looked similar to the way he remembered her, except that now she sported long straggly blonde hair halfway down her back. Clark had never seen her with this style before.
Chloe also was dressed in a smart black and gray business suit jacket with a matching skirt, and a royal blue camisole. She appeared to be around twenty-three. Chloe quickly greeted him with a long wet kiss, startling him.
"Uh…Chloe?" He got over the initial shock of her intimate display of affection. "What's up with the sexy hello?" Superman was puzzled.
"How else should a wife greet her husband?" Chloe grinned lustily. "Wife? Husband?" Kal El echoed in disbelief. "Actually, newlyweds is much more appropriate." Lois Lane said from behind them.
Clark was stunned. Something had gone wrong after all. First Lana's disappearance, and now what seemed to be an alternative past? The Eye of Rao heated up within his pocket. The more Superman thought about it, the more he feared that he'd made a grave mistake.
"Can you believe that it's already been six months since my little cousin took the plunge?" Lois proudly wrapped her arm around Chloe. Lois was now my cousin in law? Kal scoffed.
"Yeah, it seems unbelievable." He replied, tongue in cheek. "Anyway, we need to find Lana, again." Chloe continued as she rubbed Clark's shoulder. "The poor dear never did quite get over you."
"Can you blame her?" Lois praddled. "She had a guy with super powers right in her grasp and she let him get away." Chloe frowned. "Ixnay on the super powers, cuz. Do you want someone to hear you?" Lois knows, already? Clark was starting to get a headache. Time travel sucks, he groused.
"Anyhow, can't you just zip around the area and find her?" Lois asked Superman. "Yeah, I guess so. Any idea where I should start?" Clark countered. "Well, I can ask Bruce to put out an APB on her." Lois volunteered.
"Bruce?" Superman inquired. "Duh, Clark." Lois glanced around conspiratorily. "You know the Batman has connections that you and Oliver never dreamed of." She whispered.
"Bruce Wayne?" Kal echoed. "Lois, you really don't have a handle on this whole secret identity thing, do you?" Chloe berated her. "I thought it was silly." Lois countered. "…Grown men running around in costumes with secret identities." Clark sighed and shook his head.
"I suppose you discussed that with Bruce?" Chloe asked rhetorically. Lois hedged. "Well…no." Chloe grimaced. "Let me enlighten you." She put her arm tenderly around Clark. "If it wasn't for all of this secrecy, Clark and I wouldn't have had the great life that we've had so far."
"Okay! Okay! Don't beat a dead horse." Lois waved her hands in resignation. "Ladies! Can we focus here?" Superman argued. "Where was the last place either of you saw Lana?" Lois whispered. "Clearly, someone has issues."
Clark pointed to his head. "Super hearing, Lois!" Chloe snickered. "I saw her yesterday." She began. "Lana was at the mall checking out the latest fashions."
"Did she seem distraught in any way?" Kal grilled his 'wife'. "Not any more than usual, honey." Chloe answered. "Like I said, she never really got over losing you. We're barely friends, now. I had to make a choice, a sacrifice." She added. "I chose your love over her friendship."
"Seems like someone's still obsessing." Lois sniped. "You know Lois, you're really not being helpful, here." Clark warned. "Okay, stepping off." Lois said as she grabbed her laptop and left. Chloe sighed. "She means well, sweetie." Clark nodded. "I know."
"Lana was always unstable." Chloe continued. "You know that as well as I do. She could've just picked up and left…like she's done before." Superman knew that all too well. It was one of the main reasons we ultimately broke up. That and the reproduction issue, Lana wanted a family.
"Are you off of work yet?" Clark questioned Chloe. "In about ten minutes, as per usual, why?" Kal El fidgeted. "We need to talk…" She'll never believe this one…then again, this is Smallville. Choe's eyes began to water. "Why?" Clark could see that she was afraid of being hurt.
"Because, I've got a new Web of Weird story for you." He replied evasively.
Chicago, IL
gardy720