Smallville 1. PROLOGUE

**Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow: Full Circle**

_A/N_: Post-Aqua, so forget everything else you know. J/K. Important stuff to know is that Lois still lives with the Kents, and Jonathan is still alive. This idea was birthed back then, so the story really doesn't follow the current Smallville continuity.

As an FYI, one of the main plot ideas in this story was influenced by a story I read on lcfanfic-com a while ago. I can't remember the title of author at this time, but I will keep looking and let you know when I find it. In the meantime, that is a wonderful place to find some great reading fodder.

_Edited_: Found the fanfic in question. It is _In a Better Place_, by CC Aiken. Wonderful fic, and great inspiration (thanks to Nan from Zoom's board for the help identifying it). This fic can be found at the LnC boards located at www,Lcficmbs,com.

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**PROLOGUE**

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Chloe stopped her car in front of the Kent farm and jumped out. Rolling her eyes at the sight of Lois's SUV parked next to the barn, she jogged up the porch stairs. She and Lois were supposed to meet for a movie, but Lois hadn't shown up, and she wasn't answering her phone.

She jumped slightly as the inner door flung open right as she was about to knock. Clark's mom peered at her through the screen and sighed. Chloe frowned as she reached to pull open the door.

"Mrs. Kent? Is everything okay?" Chloe could tell from the worried look on the older woman's face that it wasn't.

"Hi, Chloe," Martha replied distractedly. "I thought you might have been Clark."

"Clark?" Chloe glanced around the kitchen warily. "I haven't seen him… is Lois here?"

As Clark's mother turned to answer her, Jonathan Kent entered the kitchen from the den and slammed the portable phone down on its headset.

"Damn it!" he exclaimed, with muscles tensing in his jaw.

Chloe's eyes widened. Something was definitely up.

"Um… hi Mr. Kent," Chloe greeted uneasily.

He must not have noticed her before because he spun around in surprise at her voice.

"Chloe," Jonathan said, his voice rising slightly as if he was both surprised and relieved to see her. "Did Clark say anything to you about taking a trip?"

Chloe's eyebrows rose. "No," she answered thoughtfully. "I… uh, he didn't say anything to me. Did he tell Lois…?"

Martha shook her head. "She's gone too."

Chloe's head tilted to the side as she looked between Clark's parents. "Gone? But her car…" she protested, using her thumb to point behind her, outside.

"Maybe they took a walk or something…" Chloe's voice faltered. From the looks on their faces, the Kents weren't buying the took-a-walk theory. "How long have they been gone?"

"A day and a half," Martha replied softly.

"A day and a half?" Now Chloe was catching on to the worried tension. She had thought it was strange that Lois hadn't called her after work yesterday. It was very odd for Lois to have gone somewhere without her car…

Chloe pulled out her phone and began dialing.

"Chl…" Martha began, raising a hand.

Chloe heard the echoing ring and turned her attention to the cell phone that was on the counter near the coffee pot. It was Lois's phone.

"Oh." Chloe stated, flipping her phone shut to end the call. Lois didn't have her car or her phone. That was even stranger.

Chloe tried to put everything in perspective. There had been other times when Clark had disappeared from his home without telling his parents. Having since learned what had spurned that strange behavior, she knew Clark's parents were justified in their worry.

"Have you called the police?"

Jonathan nodded. He gestured toward the phone. "At least, we've tried calling them. They said to call back when it's been a total of 48 hours."

"I thought it was 24…" Chloe stuttered, confused.

Jonathan looked at her with sympathy. He knew she must be worried about her cousin. He sighed. "Turns out, its 24 hours from when the usual routine changes."

As Chloe sat speechless, Martha continued with the explanation. As she talked, she kept herself busy wiping off the spotless counter. "We figured that something was up when neither of them showed up for breakfast yesterday. Clark wasn't out doing his chores and Lois wasn't in her room…"

Chloe internally released a small smile, hoping that this whole thing was being blown out of proportion. This was her cousin after all. Lois Lane not coming home one night was not a strange occurrence… at least it hadn't been before she moved to Smallville.

"The sheriff feels that Clark's history of taking off belies the need for an APB… and with Lois and he both being over 18…" Jonathan added.

Chloe nodded awkwardly. She had been guilty of thinking the same about Clark's disappearances earlier. She wondered how to justify Lois being gone for a few days without taking her cell phone or her car… She couldn't.

"When was the last time you saw Lois?" Chloe asked, starting to feel worry creep in.

"She closed for me at the Talon the other night. I left a little before closing…" Martha reminisced. "I assumed she came in late because she was in the room when I got up to check the doors late that night."

Jonathan stepped closer to his wife and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"It's a habit… I, uh, used to wake up late at night to check on Clark and make sure the doors were locked. I guess I still do," the worried mother explained. "Clark was on the couch as usual, and everything seemed fine."

Chloe nibbled on her lower lip. What could possibly have happened to her cousin and best friend to make them disappear overnight?

"Mrs. Kent, I remember Lois mentioning that you had security camera's installed at the Talon…"

Martha nodded in confirmation. "Yes. After the ordeal with Lucy, and that boy who robbed Lois, we thought it best."

Jonathan squeezed Martha's shoulder and addressed Chloe. "Do you think something happened at the coffee shop…?"

Chloe shrugged. "I don't know, but it wouldn't hurt to take a look… Do you mind?"

"Of course not. I'll call Angela and let her know that you're coming by," Martha said, walking toward the phone.

"Chloe, I've run into some trouble trying to get in contact with General Lane," Jonathan started. "Do you think you could give it a try?"

Chloe grimaced. She didn't want to be the messenger on this type of delivery. "Sure. I'll see what I can do."

Martha hung up the phone. "Angela is expecting you… just please don't take the originals in case the police decide to actually get off their…"

Jonathan cleared his throat to stymie his wife's tirade.

Chloe fidgeted. She hated to see Clark's mother so worried and wanted to offer some support. "I'm sure they're both okay. Knowing Lois, she probably got some hair-brained idea and Clark followed her to keep her out of trouble. You know with his abilities, he always finds a way to be the hero."

The sharp looks from the two adults revealed to Chloe that she had misspoken. "Oh. I guess Clark hasn't told you about me knowing… yeah. I think I'll go see those tapes, now."

Chloe backed toward the door, hoping to escape the mounting tension in the room. She feared that like Pandora, she had just opened a box of stuff she had no desire to deal with. Clark was almost lucky to not be around for his parent's immediate reaction to the news that his secret was out.

Martha broke the stare she had been sharing with her husband long enough to see the young woman dart out of the door. She rushed to the screen door and called out to her. "Chloe!"

With one hand on the driver's door, Chloe turned to face the house.

Martha stepped out on the porch and placed a hand on the railing. "If you learn anything…"

"You'll be the first to know," Chloe assured her. Then, with a wave, she jumped into her car and backed down the drive.

* * *

Chloe sighed and tapped a few keys to go back a few minutes on the copy of the security video she had gotten from the Talon. The camera revealed a broad view of the coffee shop from above and behind the cash register. 

Chloe noted that nothing seemed out of the ordinary as wait staff moved back and forth behind the counter. Watching as her cousin took money, made change, and completed orders, Chloe wondered exactly what her cousin was going to amount to. She shook her head unbelievingly at the thought that Lois would resort to peddling muffins and brew for the rest of her life.

Lois came across as a very aloof and carefree young adult to everyone who had met her since she moved to Smallville, but Chloe knew that Lois was a force to be reckoned with when she set her mind to something. Right now, the only thing Lois seemed to be determined to be was… well… undetermined.

The video continued to show the shop clearing as the time neared closing hour. Chloe watched as Lois waved goodbye to Mrs. Kent and locked the door, before heading back to the register. Watching the uneventful routine, Chloe yawned, and stopped the feed after Lois's image turned out most of the lights and left the shop through the front door.

According to Mrs. Kent, Lois had returned to the farm and had gone to bed after that. Nothing on the tapes warranted any alarm.

Glancing at her watch, Chloe realized that she had been in the Audio/Visual room at the Met U library for three hours straight, and still had nothing to show for her efforts. Whenever Lois kept her company during her late nights at the Planet, and Chloe had reached an impasse, Lois would look up from her latest quest of slaying online foes and tell her that all she needed was to change her perspective. She was right. Looking at the problem a different way usually led her to an answer.

Chloe grabbed her mouse and used it to drag the timeline backwards, showing the video feed in reverse. She watched as Lois backed into the store and returned to the register. Seeing something she hadn't noticed before, Chloe stopped the mouse.

Leaning closer to the monitor, she squinted at a reflection in the front door… one that she had not noticed before because her attention had been focused on Lois and not the empty shop around her. There was a reflection of a person on the door… a reflection that couldn't be that of her cousin, because she was on the other side of the room… Which meant that someone else had been watching her from outside.

Things just got a little more interesting.

Chloe reached for her phone and pressed a few buttons. When the line was picked up, she spoke quickly. "Jack, I need you to take a look at something for me. What time will you be at work?"

After a pause, she nodded. "Great. I'll meet you there."

* * *

Jack, copy-boy extraordinaire for the Daily Planet, frowned at the screen. From her spot leaning over his shoulder, Chloe mirrored the expression. 

"Do you think you can enhance that so we can see the face better?"

Jack tapped his mouse thoughtfully. "I think so, but it might take a while. I wrote this computer program that goes through and maps every pixel and enlarges it. Next, I'm going to add a feature that remaps a picture into a 3D model."

"How long do you think it will take?" Chloe asked stepping back.

"For the 3D model?"

"No," Chloe laughed. "I just want to be able to make out the person's features."

"Oh," Jack replied, a little disappointed that she wasn't asking about his special program. "Let's see… the image is a bit distorted because it's on the other side of the glass… and we've got a few hot spots from the reflection of those fluorescent lights inside the store… I'd say, two hours, give or take."

Chloe beamed. "That's great! You call that a long time?"

Jack gave a little smile at her enthusiasm, some of his ego regained. "Well, yeah. In computer time that's an eternity. I want to get the time delay down to a few minutes at the most. That way, when it's time to add the 3D module, the lag won't be as…"

"Thanks, Jack," Chloe interrupted.

"…noticeable," Jack finished softly. He was going to have to come up with some better fodder for conversation if he wanted to impress her.

Chloe patted him on the shoulder affectionately. "I'll be back in two hours to see what you've got."

Jack nodded. "Sure thing. You know where to find me."

* * *

Chloe restlessly swung her chair from side to side and checked the time again. The hardest part of any investigation was waiting for answers. Her two-hour wait wasn't up yet, but she wasn't being very productive at her job… but then again, answering the InfoLine really wasn't all that productive anyway. 

Grabbing her coffee container, she headed towards the elevator.

"Hey, I was about to call you," Jack remarked as Chloe sided up next to his desk. He handed her a printout. "What do you think?"

Chloe scanned the photo. "Wow." Jack had been able to bring out the image as clearly as if the person in it had posed for the shot.

She studied the face for a moment, branding the spiky black hair and light eyes into her memory. The only prominent feature on the young man's face was a black mole on his right temple, near the ear. She had never seen him before. It was too bad the security camera only took black and white video.

"You did a great job, Jack. Thanks a ton," Chloe said with a smile. It wasn't much to go on, but at least the picture gave her something to show around Smallville while she hunted for a lead.

Jack grinned with pride, happy that he was able to help. "I did a little something extra for you… I think you'll like it."

He pulled a CD out of a sleeve and slid it into his computer drive. "I was able to get that done quicker than I thought," he said pointing to the picture Chloe held. "So I ran your video through this program I've been working on."

He clicked a few buttons and pulled up a screen. Chloe noticed that it was an edited copy of the surveillance tape.

"Every object in a video has a unique build up," Jack explained as he got the video ready to play. "I can focus on a set object and ask the program to cycle through an unlimited number of images and search for similar elements. In this case, the number of images are the frames of your video… and there you go," Jack announced as he pressed a combination of keys.

Chloe watched as the computer screen filled with screen caps of various shots from the Talon tape.

"It's not perfect, so a couple of these don't fit, but for the most part, that's your guy," Jack said, pointing to one of the first shots.

The face of the young man placing an order at the Talon counter was the same as the face of the man in the photo Chloe held in her hand. The timestamp showed that he had been inside the Talon the day before Lois had gone missing.

Chloe reached for the mouse and cycled through some of the other photos. From what she could tell, it looked like the mystery man had been watching both Lois and Clark. One image showed him sitting in a corner booth, using a stylus to enter something into a PDA. At that particular time, Lois hadn't been there, but Clark was sitting at a table nearby.

"Jack, this is awesome. You are a genius."

Jack chuckled modestly and shrugged. "Just wanted to help."

He clicked the program closed, ejected the CD, and handed it to her.

As she took it from him, Chloe realized that she hadn't called Lois's father yet. She debated putting it off until after the Kents called the police for the 48-hour check in. She hoped to somehow have some answers by then.

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TBC **


	2. ONE

Remember, _reviews make the world go around._ Enjoy!

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**ONE

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"Do you recognize him?" Chloe asked, placing a photo on the kitchen counter.

Martha shook her head. "I would have said that I've never seen him before if this picture didn't show me talking to him," she remarked in wonder.

Chloe stared thoughtfully at the photo. "Well, I wouldn't think you would be able to remember every person that came to the Talon for a cup of joe."

Martha sighed. This was one time she wished that she could remember them all.

Chloe turned her attention to Mr. Kent. "I was able to get in contact with Lois's father."

Jonathan's eyebrows rose. "Good. What did he say?"

"Well…" Chloe began with a slight grimace. "He said that he would be giving you a call."

Jonathan noted Chloe's expression and was about to probe for more information when the house phone rang.

Chloe glanced at her watch and smirked. "That would be him." Her uncle had a thing with punctuality.

"Kent Residence," Jonathan said into the receiver as he shot a curious look in Chloe's direction. "General Lane, yes… well, we… Actually, I don't think that's necessary… No…"

Chloe smiled awkwardly at Mrs. Kent's questioning expression. She understood what it was like being on the phone with Lois's father.

"Thank you… Good-bye." Jonathan hung up the phone and rubbed his jaw.

"What was all that about?" Martha asked.

"Lois's father apologized for her dragging our son into trouble and requests that we call him when she returns from going AWOL."

Martha frowned. "He's not concerned?"

"He's a father," Jonathan offered. "I'm sure he's concerned… just not as much as we are, I guess. He said Lois has done this type of thing before and that he has decided to help her straighten out."

That's putting it mildly, Chloe thought as she glanced away from the two adults. She had a feeling that once Lois returned, she would be leaving Smallville with an armed escort. But that was something to be concerned with after she got home safely.

Martha turned back to Chloe. "We spoke to Sheriff Adams earlier. It seems that both Lois and Clark have a history…"

Chloe met the older woman's gaze. She knew what this meant. Juvenile records were supposed to be sealed, but now that both Lois and Clark had exhibited at-risk behavior in the past, their missing persons case would only get cursory treatment.

While Clark's past only included a couple of run-away instances, Lois's background was a bit shadier. "It wasn't her fault," she interjected. "She took the fall for Lucy so the General wouldn't know…"

Martha was both relieved and concerned. Relieved that she hadn't guessed wrong about Lois's character, and concerned that the younger Lane seemed to be flirting with the law an awful lot.

"Lois was actually taking her sister to the store to return the items, but… well, the sales clerk wasn't so understanding," Chloe continued. "Most people would get off light for a first time offense, but the general never wants to miss an opportunity for discipline."

Martha and Jonathan exchanged a look.

Chloe noticed the exchange. "I think he meant well… he's just not always sure what to do when it comes to Lois. She ended up at one of those boot camp things in Arizona, and by the time she got back, he'd sent Lucy to boarding school. He said Lois was a bad influence." She ended breathlessly.

"Was that too much information?" Chloe asked. "Because, sometimes I'm not sure when to stop… I just don't want you guys thinking that Lois was as bad as she gets labeled to be."

Martha gave her a maternal smile and reached out to lay a hand on Chloe's forearm. "No, sweetie. Thank you for sharing. I'm really sorry that Lois had to go through that."

Chloe swallowed and nodded. "Ok, well, I'm just going to take these pictures around town and see if anything turns up. I have to work tomorrow, but I'll check in as soon as I can."

"Thank you, Chloe. That means a lot," Jonathan said, as he walked her to the door.

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"Oh, this is great."

"No, what would be great is if you would stop complaining for five minutes," Clark shot back.

"So, when did saying 'this is great' become a complaint?" Lois asked, arching an eyebrow.

Clark shook his head. "You were being sarcastic when you said it."

"Hmmm. I think I still am. What in the world possessed you to go spelunking at 2 in the morning, anyway?"

"You didn't have to follow me," Clark replied, evading the question.

Lois shrugged. "I figured it would be good if you had some backup."

Clark turned his attention from the path they were walking on to face her. "So, you _do_ care about me," he said in an achingly sweet voice.

She rolled her eyes. "I didn't do it for you. I did it for your folks. The last time you took off in the middle of the night, they were held at gunpoint by your ex's ex, and the house fell down around them. On top of all that, they were worried about their bonehead of a son."

Clark's expression sobered and he silently turned back to face forward.

"Hey, don't get all broody on me," Lois admonished teasingly. "This is what we do. It's our thing…" she said, placing a hand on his arm as he began to walk faster.

Clark slowed his pace. "Yeah, I know."

Lois released his arm and fell into step beside him. She sighed. Picking on Farm Boy was less fun when he didn't fight back. "It wasn't your fault. No one could have stopped the sky from falling," she offered softly.

"Thank you… for being there."

Lois gave him a sideways glance. "You already said that. No need to do it again."

Clark shrugged. "I know, but it's just… Thank you."

Lois understood. She nodded. They continued to walk in silence as she took in their surroundings. Tall buildings lined both sides of the street they were walking down. The city was amazingly still. No one was outside – not quite what she would have expected from a city this size, even two hours after midnight.

Lois brushed her bangs off of her forehead. "This is one crazy dream."

"How could we both be having the same dream?" Clark asked, frowning at the abandoned streets around them.

"Vanilla Sky… Lucid dreams… y'know, all that movie stuff. We'll wake up on the couch with ice cream headaches and the end of some dumb movie will be playing. What was the name of that thing you made me watch last week… Everlast? EverQuest? DeadLast?"

Clark shook his head, refusing to answer the question. He knew she knew the title of the movie. He reached out and pinched her.

"Hey!"

"That wouldn't hurt if it were a dream," he informed her.

She glared in reply to his grin. "I have my theories about that." She silently vowed to retaliate when he least expected it. "Anyway, it's either that or we've just walked into the land of Rod Sterling."

"Who?"

Clark paused mid-stride when he realized that Lois had stopped walking. She stared at him incredulously.

"You're kidding, right?"

Clark shrugged sheepishly.

"I realize that Smallville is barely on the edge of civilization, but with the advent of Direct TV, there is no excuse for ignorance… Rod Sterling… A dimension of sight, a dimension of sound… The Twilight Zone? He's the host."

Clark smiled as he finally caught on to what Lois was talking about. "Oh, yeah, I've seen a couple of those episodes… But, I thought the host was that guy from Phenomenon. The one that played a farmer."

Lois leaned her head back to look at the sky as if searching for some help. He would remember the guy that played the farmer, she thought. "Right title, wrong generation," she told him. "I'm talking black and white, freak you out of your socks television here. You, me, and Chloe are _so_ having a marathon when we get back… from wherever this is."

She began walking again, shaking her head as she passed him. Clark arched an eyebrow in amusement and jogged to catch up to her.

Clark didn't think they were in any sort of Twilight Zone, but the silence and emptiness surrounding them was eerie.

"I don't think it's a dream, lucid or not," Clark stated.

Lois had pretty much abandoned that theory as well. "And I'm not really sold on the alternate dimension thing… but what else could explain us being in a cave one minute and here the next?"

Clark didn't have an answer.

"Where do you think _here_ is anyway?"

Clark's head swiveled as he took another look around. "Singapore?"

Lois chuckled. "Okay, Superslueth, you mind telling me how you came to that conclusion?"

"Well, it's so clean… and I've heard that Singapore is really clean… Hey, it was just a guess. Do you have a better one?" he defended.

That stopped Lois's laughter. "No. I've never been to Singapore, so I couldn't tell you. But that still doesn't make any sense. According to Chloe, those caves have had their fair share of weirdness, but I don't remember her saying anything about it being a transporter bay… you don't just hop continents by leaning against a wall made of rock."

Clark was unsure how to respond. He knew that it in fact _was_ possible to be transported to a different continent from the caves. He and Chloe had both been victims of this type of transportation the day the meteors had fallen the second time. In a flash of bright light, they had been sent to the Arctic. This time, though, it was Lois that was the unintentional passenger.

He glanced over at his companion and realized that she might be cold. While he had donned jeans and a flannel shirt over his tee shirt when he left the house, Lois had remained in her nightwear of pajama bottoms and a baby Met-U tee-shirt. Thankfully, she had traded the bunny slippers for her hiking boots when she set out to follow him.

"Here, take this," he said, offering her his flannel shirt.

Lois smirked to cover her appreciation. "You just like seeing me in your shirts."

"Only when they're not stolen," he shot back, accepting her unspoken thank you.

Lois pulled the shirt closer around her torso. She didn't feel guilty about Clark now only being clad in a white tee shirt. She had learned that farm life had made him somehow impervious to cold nights.

She would never admit it, but she had grown to like the soft fabric.

"This is crazy," Lois announced, growing impatient with their mystery. "Where are all the cars?"

Clark noted that he didn't see any cars or parking spaces anywhere. Attuning his senses he registered the presence of motion underground.

"I don't know, but there's a metro underneath us…"

Lois eyed him curiously. "How do you know that?"

Clark froze momentarily before spotting an escape. "There's a sign for it over there. Come on, let's go and check it out."

Lois couldn't believe that she had missed the sign. Then again, she mused, her observation skills weren't always primed at two in the morning without caffeine. Fighting a yawn, she turned to follow Clark as he crossed the street.

She also blamed her sleep-deprived brain for not remembering her phone. She had gone downstairs for a drink of water when she'd noticed Clark creeping down the driveway. Sure that he was up to no good; she had bounded for her boots, leaving the phone on the counter.

A lot of help that was right now, she thought to herself.

They went down the escalator that led to the underground transit system. At first they had assumed the moving stair wasn't working because it remained motionless until they were within three feet of it. The sudden motion breaking up the serenity of the still night had caused both of them to jump.

Thick Plexiglas and single occupancy revolving doors blocked access to the train platform. It seemed that the only way to get through was to buy a ticket.

Gone were the days of jumping turnstiles, Lois told herself with a smirk. "I don't have any money," Lois informed him.

"I've got some," Clark replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled some folded bills out of his wallet.

Lois peered at the ticket kiosk. "Uh, I'm not so sure that's going to help."

"What do you mean?" Clark joined her perusal of the screen. In five different languages, the terminal requested the insertion of a cash card. The slot that was to be used was about a third of the size of a standard US credit card.

"A cash card?" Clark read, confused. He looked around but all of the other machines were identical.

Lois started pressing buttons on the screen.

"What are you doing?"

"Did you know that there is a special code given to elite government personnel so they can access money from any ATM in a state of emergency?"

Clark watched her warily. "You think you can get tickets for us by using this code?"

Lois gave him a funny look. "What makes you think I know the code? Do I look like elite government personnel to you?" She smiled. "This is not quite state of emergency material. The last time I used one of the codes I hacked, they took the entire grid in Southern California down for six hours."

Clark shook his head, somewhat relieved that Lois wasn't _that_ reckless anymore. "So, what are you doing then?"

Lois turned back to the screen. "Trying to figure out where the heck we are… One of these screens has to have something other than 'Beinvenue a la Systeme Publique de Transport…' Wait a minute. It says here that we're in New Troy."

Clark peered over her shoulder. "Where's that?"

Lois shrugged. That was a name she hadn't heard of before. "There was a Troy in Ancient Greece… they had horses." She took a moment to call up a mental picture of the men who had starred in a movie by the same name.

Clark wasn't sure what the expression on her face meant. "Maybe it's the name of a suburb in Singapore," he offered, snapping Lois out of her thoughts.

She shrugged, not convinced that Singapore had suburbs. She was unable to hold in the next yawn that accosted her.

Clark sighed. He knew that it was late and that they needed to come up with a plan, quickly. He hadn't seen a payphone anywhere.

"Let's go back up to the street. Maybe we can find a police station and call my parents."

Lois was too tired to protest. How would his parents be able to help them if they actually had somehow been spirited thousands of miles away? She covered her mouth with her hand as she yawned again, and headed towards the escalator.

Once on street level, they began to walk. Lois rubbed her eyes and shook her head briskly to try to regain some focus. "Hey Smallville… Is there a Daily Planet in Singapore?"

Clark turned his head to look down at her. "I don't know… I don't think so. Why?"

Lois tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "Because that's what that building over there claims to be."

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**TBC**


	3. TWO

**TWO

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Chloe spotted the yellow cab in front of the diner and went inside to look for its driver. After flashing the photos of the assumed stalker around town, her search had led her to Abe "Goldie" Goldberg, former left tackle of the 1982 Smallville Crows football team. His current profession was proof that jocks needed something to fall back on. 

Chloe plopped onto one of the stools at the counter next to her target. Waving away the menu a harried waitress was about to set in front of her, she ordered a cup of coffee to go.

"Mr. Goldberg, hi," she greeted, turning to face him. "I was wondering if I could ask you to look at a photo for me."

Chewing on a toothpick, Goldie turned to see who was addressing him. "Look at what?" he asked with a frown, reaching a hand back to scratch the back of his thick neck.

"A photo," Chloe repeated, pulling it out of her bag. "I've been looking for this guy, and I found out that he called for a cab from the grocery down on Main St."

Goldie sucked on his teeth and made no move to reach for the photo. "What makes you think I answered the call?"

Chloe withheld a smirk. There weren't that many cabbies in Smallville… there weren't that many places to go. "You're just the first driver I've been able to find," she told him. "I'd really appreciate it if you could take a look. It's my kid brother and my folks are really worried about him…"

Goldie squinted at her. "Aren't you that, um, newspaper girl from the high school?"

Chloe sighed. It was hard to have a cover in a small town. "Yeah."

He laughed and reached for the photo. He was suddenly eager to help. "Is this for one of those Freaky Friday stories you do?"

"Meteor Freak stories," Chloe corrected. "And, no. I graduated… I don't write those anymore."

"That's too bad," Goldie replied, somewhat disappointed. "I really liked reading them. They're almost as good as those Inquirer Magazines I get at the house."

Goldie paused for a moment. "Ah, yeah. I remember this kid."

Chloe perked and she flipped open her notepad. "So, you were the one that answered the call?"

Goldie nodded. "Didn't take him anywhere, though. He didn't have any money." He handed the photo back to Chloe and looked at her thoughtfully. "Not really your brother is it?"

Chloe shrugged sheepishly. "Thanks for your help." She pulled a couple of single bills out of her purse and dropped them on the counter to pay for her drink. Tucking the photo and notepad back in her bag, she stood and picked up her cup.

The ex-football star leaned forward with his arms crossed on the counter. "Don't you want to know where he went?" he asked as Chloe stepped past him.

Chloe turned to face him with a frown. "You said you didn't take him anywhere…"

"I couldn't. Against the rules," he conceded. "But I didn't have another call to go to, so I took a moment to go in the store for a cola. On my way out, I saw your guy heading North through the fields on foot."

* * *

Chloe pulled to a halt at the stop sign in front of the small grocery store. Making a left turn, she headed North, hoping to pick up the trail of her mystery man. As the town grew distant behind her, she realized that there was only one thing of interest out this direction. 

The Kawatche Caves.

With their history of being Ground Zero for most of the strange things she'd witnessed in her short life, the caves should have been one of the first places on her list to check out. Now that she had a known destination, Chloe allowed her little car to pick up speed.

* * *

"It's a museum," Clark said, reading the engraved sign next to the entrance. 

Lois frowned. "A museum?" She moved closer to read the sign for herself.

In addition to the name and purpose of the building, the sign informed them that the building would be closed for preparation of 'The Festival.' Like the writing on the kiosk screens for the transit system, the text was repeated in five different languages.

"It's like Disney World," Lois remarked.

"What is?"

"All these translations. This New Troy place must have a lot of international visitors… like Disney World."

She turned away from the sign and gazed up at the writing chiseled into the building's facade. The Gothic Block font declared that this was The Daily Planet. The newspaper's logo was carved into the wall to the right of the title.

"I know that the Planet is a pretty important news service… but why would a city presumably on the other side of the world build a museum in honor of it?" Lois wondered aloud. "It's not even a good reproduction. Where's the famous globe on the top of the building?"

Clark tilted his head back and acknowledged her observation. This version of the Daily Planet building was the shortest one in the area; all the others being tall skyscrapers. From his guess, the museum was about six stories high, and its architecture, while modern, seemed somewhat antiquated in the shadow of the other buildings.

"I wonder what the festival is for," he said.

Lois shook her head. "Hopefully we won't be around to find out. I've had my fill of the Land of the Dead. I would really like to get back to my bed…"

Clark gave her a look.

"Okay, back to your bed," she sniped, giving him a cocky smile.

"Speaking of that, I thought you were moving."

Lois ignored him. She was a bit annoyed that he didn't look even close to as tired and weary as she felt. She was starting to feel light-headed.

"We could use some assistance from the neighborhood authorities. Why don't you go and try to get arrested," she said around a yawn. Leaning against the wall, she slid down to a seated position. Pulling her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, she laid her head on top of her knees.

Clark turned around to reply to her snide comment but let it go when he noticed her position. He contemplated their options. Using his powers, he could run to find a place where his money would work in a so he could place a call to his parents.

"Lois, I'm just going to check around this corner to see if there's a police station or something… I'll be right back."

Lois replied with a wave without lifting her head. She too tired to be concerned about being alone in the silent city, but she knew she had to keep herself alert or she would fall asleep right there on the pavement.

She lifted her head and watched as Clark reached the end of the block, about to turn the corner. She was starting to regret having followed him earlier that night. When she had first noticed him through the kitchen window, she had considered the possibility that he was sleepwalking due to the trancelike expression he had worn as he crossed the fields.

Smiling in amusement, she thought about how he had jumped when she arrived behind him in the caves. She had startled him by leaning over his shoulder as he crouched behind a boulder.

* * *

_"What'cha doin?"_

_"Lois," Clark hissed. "What are you doing here?" He was rarely surprised, and he didn't like when it did happen._

_"Following you… what do you think?" Lois asked._

_"Shhh!" Clark responded, with a glare, pulling her down behind the boulder he was crouched behind._

_"Why?" Lois peered into the darkness. "What are you looking at?"_

_Ahead of them, the larger opening of the cavern was empty._

_Clark turned back to face the cavern. He frowned in confusion. "I thought someone was in here."_

_"Of course you did," Lois replied sarcastically. "Because why else would you get out of your bed in the middle of the night and hike out here?"_

_When he didn't respond, Lois rolled her eyes and stood._

_Clark slowly followed suit; the frown deeply etched in his face._

_"Hello!" Lois called, as she stepped into the clearing, running a hand along the wall for guidance in the darkness._

_She caught Clark's glare and smiled. "See? No one's here."_

_Clark sighed and squinted as something on the ground caught his attention. Using his vision, he made out something like a PDA on the ground near the far wall._

_As he took a step toward it, Lois leaned against the wall nearest her. His progress halted as a dim light appeared on the wall._

_"Lois…" Clark began, ready to call her attention to the scene behind her._

_Lois felt heat against her back. Slowly, she turned her head to locate the source. "What the…" she exclaimed as the what-should-have-been fixed symbols, on what-should-have-been a solid wall, began to spiral as if part of a combination lock._

_As Clark grabbed her arm to pull her away from the wall, a bright flash blinded them both. _

* * *

Lois shook her head and returned from her memories. 

When the fog cleared, they were here… wherever this place was, with empty streets and fake newspaper buildings, she thought.

A sharp pain pierced her side and she sucked in a quick breath. The sudden pain hurt too for her to make a noise.

* * *

Clark froze in mid-stride and grabbed his abdomen. Clenching his jaw, he staggered backwards. The pain subsided a little, and he was able to take in a shallow breath. He took a few more steps backwards and swallowed. For whatever reason, the more he moved backwards, the better he felt. 

A little after he had turned the corner, he had kicked it into high gear, running at super-speed in hopes of reaching another city. Before he had gone a full mile, though, a sharp pain had caused him to abandon his mission. The pain was unlike anything he had felt before… nothing like Kryptonite poisoning, but painfully similar to how it had felt to be shot when his powers were gone.

He had no idea what was going on, but he had no desire to tempt fate to find out. Turning to face the way he came, he headed back toward where he had left Lois, clutching his side tightly.

* * *

"Hey, you're back," Lois acknowledged. "You should see this." 

Clark followed her back toward the entrance of the museum. Bending down, Lois pointed to the cornerstone. There was an inscription written on it. He bent so he could read it.

"It turns out I was leaning against it…" Lois offered in explanation.

"That doesn't make sense," Clark remarked.

_The Daily Planet. Forever in the pursuit of truth, justice, and the American Way.  
-– Perry White 2012_

_Building dedicated in 2086. Cornerstone is part of original building (demolished May 2030)._

"Somehow, I don't think we're in Singapore," Lois observed quietly.

Indeed, the most pressing question on their minds was no longer where, but when.

In the excitement of discovery, neither noticed they were both clutching their sides.

* * *

Xavir glanced down at his DeLor8 padd and frowned. There was a slight crack in the crystal overlay covering the screen. He had dropped it when the two people had paid him a surprise visit the other night. 

He carefully entered the code by tapping on the screen in the correct spots. If that crack became serious, the plasma-like gel that was encased inside would leak… and if that happened, he was in worse trouble than he had bargained for.

The symbols on his padd corresponded to the symbols on the cave wall in front of him. Unknown to the residents of this era, embedded inside the walls of these caves was a spaceship whose discovery would lead to great technological advancements.

At that moment, the only technological feat that Xavir was concerned with was the activation of the ship's Tislor core, which then he could manipulate to open a time window.

Thinking back to the incident that had caused him to miss his first window, he paused before entering the final commands and turned in a slow circle. He didn't want any more surprises.

He released a slow breath, satisfied that he was alone and turned his attention back to his padd, tapping in the final instructions.

Circular sections of the wall began shifting, and Xavir felt some of the tension go out of his shoulders. While he was happy to be going home, he knew that his adventure was only beginning.

* * *

Chloe flattened herself against a rock as the young man she had been searching for raised a hand toward the cave wall. Her initial plan had been to find him and demand to know what happened to her cousin and best friend, but when she walked into the cave, what she saw changed everything. 

If seeing inanimate objects, like sections of walls, slide around like puzzle pieces was an unbelievable sight, then seeing those walls dissolve into a wormhole was mind-boggling. Chloe reached up to brush back her hair as it flapped in the wind created by the vortex.

She quickly pushed herself away from the wall and peeked around the corner again. She watched as the mystery man closed his eyes, grimaced, took a deep breath, and stepped into the bright light inside the mirage-like window. Chloe didn't think long about what her next move would be.

She needed answers, and there was only one person that could give them to her.

* * *

**

* * *

TBC

* * *

**


	4. THREE

**

* * *

THREE

* * *

**

* * *

Xavir fell to his knees and clenched his eyes shut as he waited for the nausea to pass. Hearing a cough, he turned around just in time to see a blonde-haired woman expelled from the time window just as it disappeared. 

"You shouldn't be here," he groaned, struggling to rise to his feet. He stumbled a little, gaining his balance by bracing against a pillar.

"Oh God," she grunted holding a hand to her mouth.

With a frown, Xavir searched around the large white sterile room for a trash receptacle. Finding one, he slid it over in her direction. He remembered how he had felt after his first trans-era trip.

He was impressed when she gained her composure without making use of the bin. The only evidence of her jet lag was her pale complexion and damp brow.

"Where are they?" she demanded.

Xavir's shoulders dropped as he realized just who had followed him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Chloe's eyes narrowed. "I think you do." Chloe pulled herself into a straighter stance. "Where are Lois and Clark?"

"Listen," Xavir started, glancing around looking for his device. He just might be able to send her back before things could get any worse.

"Are you looking for that?"

Xavir's head shot up and he turned his attention to what she was pointing at. With a groan he rushed over and squatted on the floor next to his broken device. He figured that he must have dropped it upon re-entry. The screen had completely shattered, and the iridescent liquid had pooled unto the floor. It was already losing its color.

Chloe watched as he ran a hand across his jaw. She had a bad feeling that whatever that thing was, that he was acting despondent over, was connected to the fate of she, Lois, and Clark.

"Kairo to Christian."

Chloe jumped at the sound and lifted her gaze to the ceiling in search of the source.

"Christian here, Professor," Xavir responded, rising to his feet.

"Xavir, I am sitting with a few of your colleagues wondering if perhaps you were planning to join us for the meeting."

"Yes, Sir. I was working on the extrapolator…"

"Hm-hmm." The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted Xavir's explanation. "Did I request an excuse?"

"No, Sir. I'll be right there, Sir."

"Good. Kairo out."

Xavir sighed and looked at Chloe. He was going to have to stash her somewhere until he could deal with this crisis.

"Come with me," he said urgently. When she opened her mouth, he cut her protest off with a wave. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know, but I need you to come with me. If you stay here… well, you can't."

He bent and picked up his device with a sorrowful expression. "Please."

Chloe nodded and followed as he crossed the room and headed for the door.

* * *

Xavir led Chloe through back hallways until they reached his office. Once there, the doors slid open and they entered. 

Chloe stepped into the room and turned abruptly when she noticed that Xavir hadn't followed her inside.

"Where are they?" she demanded.

"I don't know… but I want to find them as much as you do. Believe me," he replied with a heavy sigh. He held his hands aloft as she moved toward the door. "I have to get to a meeting. I'm late, but you need to stay here."

He tapped something into a metal panel embedded into the wall near the entry.

"Are you locking me in here?" Chloe asked with indignation.

"No… I'm just locking everyone else out." He stepped back as the doors began closing. "Just… don't touch… anything."

* * *

"I guess that rules out going to the police," Lois commented. She looked around with more interest, her earlier fatigue all but forgotten. The discovery had helped her find her second wind. 

"Why?" Clark asked. He figured they could use all the help they could get.

Lois shot him a sideways look. "What do you think will happen if we walk into the station claiming to have somehow been transported from the past… a nice padded room and a Thorazine drip, is what."

"Stranger things have happened…" Clark faltered. Actually, the thought of aliens crashing on earth was somehow less absurd than time travel.

Lois smirked and turned to face him. "So what did you find around the corner?"

Clark blinked in brief confusion. He had been moving so fast that he hadn't really seen anything. "Nothing… uh, nothing… open, at least."

Lois shrugged. "So, in the future everyone stays inside after dark. Sounds like fun," she retorted flatly.

"You really believe we're in the future?" Clark asked with a frown.

Lois wasn't sure if she did or not. Their surroundings seemed rather Twenty-First Century to her; not what she would expect for a society supposedly a hundred years in the making.

"I don't know," she answered. "But I'm all out of ideas, and it's the only thing that would make sense… even though it _doesn't_ make sense."

Clark ran a hand through his hair. "What do we do now?"

Lois stared at the inscription on the building for a moment and set aside the sudden urge she felt for a panic attack. Lanes were always in control. "Future or not, no city completely shuts down for the night. We need to find the action."

"Okay."

Clark followed as Lois began walking down the street, away from the direction they had come from, and further into the unknown.

"Don't you ever get tired of that, Smallville?"

Clark frowned. "Tired of what?"

"Of just coasting through life," Lois answered, her gaze taking in their surroundings as she walked. "I mean, you just follow everyone else's plan all the time… you decided on your college for your parents, a call from Chloe and you go super sleuth, and now I say let's go find the action, and you say 'Okay.'"

Clark shot her a confused look. "It was a good plan," he offered.

Lois shook her head with a slight smile on her face. "Yeah."

"There's not much else we could do," Clark pressed, his brow creasing.

"I know," Lois replied lightly. Something in the distance caught her attention.

"I don't always just go along with everything, you know," he stated, searching his memory for a good example.

"Forget I said anything," Lois started.

Clark shook his head earnestly. She didn't sound like she believed him. "I do take charge, but I don't see the point if someone else already has a good plan."

Lois fought off the smile that tugged at her lips. "You're right. Satisfied?"

Clark frowned again and sighed.

"Come on, there's something over there that I want to take a look at."

Clark followed, his brow still creased.

Lois stopped at a News Stand that had "The Daily Planet" painted in large white letters on the side. She peered inside and realized that the stand was actually an information booth. A stack of maps sat on the counter.

Picking one up and scanning it, she muttered, "Well, that explains a lot."

"Explains what?" Clark asked, reaching for a map himself. "Welcome to 'Old Town Metropolis," he read aloud. "This is some kind of theme park?"

Lois nibbled on her lower lip and nodded, her gaze still focused on the paper in her hand. "That's what it looks like. I think we've stumbled onto the future's version of Universal Studios… or something like that."

From what they could gather from the map, the park was supposed to be a historical reproduction of what the city of Metropolis looked like in the early 21st century. The park's attractions were made up mostly of museums, like the one they had seen earlier called "The Daily Planet."

Lois and Clark looked up from their maps and exchanged a look. Things were getting stranger by the minute.

* * *

"We can't just take it," Clark protested. 

The duo had followed the map to the underground parking ramp. It turned out that the roadways and 'highways' of this future world were all underground, deeper than the Metro train railway they had found earlier. Clark supposed that the reason he hadn't discovered the highways was because he had assumed the train was the source of the energy he had sensed below them.

"Well what do you suggest?" Lois asked.

The fact that _Old Town Metropolis_ was closed had helped to explain why there were no people in the city. Realizing that it was unlikely that they would be able to get any answers from a place that was essentially a ghost town, Lois and Clark were preparing to leave. The mode of transportation was now their biggest concern. It seemed that the security detail for the park traveled on hovercycles, something similar to motorcycles except lacking wheels.

Lois was currently perched on one. Scanning the buttons on the bike's control panel, she pressed a button. A soft whirring sound began as the engine started. She gave Clark a victorious smirk and slipped a helmet over her head.

Clark glanced around, looking for another way out that didn't involve Grand Theft Auto… or Grand Theft Bike, for that matter. Crime in this timeline must be pretty rare if all it took to start the vehicles was a pressing a button.

Lois held out another helmet toward him. "We're just borrowing it," she told him.

Clark reached out and took the helmet. "Fine, but I'm driving."

Lois shook her head and slid back on the seat to make room. "Men," she groaned, although she wasn't really upset. She didn't want to admit it, but the whole situation was making her a bit jumpy. Allowing Clark to drive would give her a chance to take in their surroundings and think.

After a choppy start, Clark got the hang of the bike's acceleration and breaking capabilities. Still, he smirked as Lois tightened her hold on his shirt as he took off with a final jerk. They rode in silent anticipation as they neared the ramp's exit. They had no idea what to expect next.

* * *

**

* * *

TBC

* * *

**


	5. FOUR

_A/N:_ I think I should mention that this story came from me wanting to write a _short_ story. That said, it is not my intention to go WWC length on this one chapter-wise. I am awed by those that are able to write chapter after chapter - I don't think I have it in me. I'm more impatient as a writer than I am as a reader, lol. 

I was trying to join Nadia's club with the fast, hard-hitting stories with this story- ergo the need for seat belts. That said, I know that there will be many places where you will say something like "Oh, there's a _whole_ nother story she could have told there..." but I'm not gonna tell it grin

It may not seem like it right now, but there is a track, a pace, and a destination to this ride... hold tight... it's coming...

As always, don't forget to leave a little note if you're still hanging in there! I love comments- they make me want to update.

-s-

* * *

**FOUR**

**

* * *

**

* * *

Xavir left the conference room in relief. The professor hadn't suspected anything out of the ordinary yet, but he had to make sure it stayed that way. He made his way to his office with growing anxiety. Out of the fire and into the frying pan, as his grandmother used to say. 

When the doors slid open in response to his retinal scan, he stepped inside hesitantly. Chloe pounced as soon as he did.

"You said you would tell me everything," she demanded.

"I said that I would tell you what you needed to know," he corrected. Xavir's eyes scanned the room to see if she had been able to tamper with anything.

Chloe's expression showed her displeasure with his answer. "So, spill."

Xavir looked at her thoughtfully for a second. "You're in the future. You were caught in my time window when I was returning home."

Chloe started mentally filing the facts without allowing herself to be caught up in the impossibility of what he was claiming. "What were you doing… in the past?"

Xavir hesitated again. "I am a scientist," he stated simply. "What I need to work on now is getting you back to your time."

Chloe sensed that he was planning on leaving the story there. "Wait a minute. Where are Lois and Clark?" she asked, already formulating a theory in her head.

Xavir's eyes shifted and Chloe nodded. "They're here, too," she answered with confidence. "Except you don't know _where_, here they are."

"I'm going to find them." Xavir crossed to his desk. It was imperative that he found them.

Chloe followed. "Why did you send them here in the first place?"

Xavir sighed. "It was an accident," he admitted.

Chloe's eyebrows rose.

Xavir focused on what looked to Chloe like a computer without a monitor, placing his thumb on a scanner to activate it. "Time-Syncing is a relatively new and unstable technology…" he started, faltering off as he searched for a simple explanation.

"For someone dealing with something as powerful as this, you would think you would have better control measures." Chloe crossed her arms. "Didn't you just break your flight-time thingy?" she asked, referring to the device he had been holding in the cave.

Xavir massaged his brow. He didn't need reminding of that fact. Time-Syncing was not just unstable, it was unpredictable… and largely untested… at least, until now. Hell, he was lucky that he had preprogrammed the time warp for the first window. At least he knew what _year_ Lois and Clark had been sent to.

"You didn't think to go into the future before going to into the past to see how this experiment would work out?" Chloe asked, pulling up the extra chair.

Xavir sighed, the study of Temporal Mechanics was harder than it sounded. "Future warping creates dangerous consequences. You can go back, but not forward."

Chloe narrowed her eyes. "What kind of consequences?"

Xavir looked uncomfortable. "Well, nothing has been proven… but according to the Mannheim Theory, the act of a person going into the future causes a disruption in the person's native time."

Chloe's questioning expression requested more information. Xavir tried to think of a simple way to explain the complex science he had been studying for years.

"Einstein proposed that time existed as a fourth dimension," he began, watching her face for signs of comprehension. Satisfied that she was following him, he continued. "Time is not linear, as we once assumed. In fact, we don't really have a word for it's… shape, for the lack of a different word. It's almost as if time exists at the same time, at all times."

"You lost me there," Chloe interrupted. "The same time, at all times?"

Xavir nodded. "It can't really be explained. It's just one of those things that just _is_. Think of it like a double helix… or a coil; continuous and overlapping. The future cannot exist without the past, so time is like a continuous plane. Basically, if a person goes into the future, the time line tries to compensate for the gap by catching up. The past tries to catch up to the future..."

Chloe's mind was going in circles trying to process the theory. "And if that happens?"

Xavir frowned and turned back to his computer. "Mannheim hypothesized that the future as we know it would be erased and it would have to start building again. After that, the best case scenario shows that the timeline from then on would be greatly unstable." It was one theory that they never wanted to put to test.

Xavir clicked a few buttons and a holographic screen appeared.

Chloe frowned. "It sounds like a lot of unproven theory to me… is there anything that you know for sure?"

When Xavir didn't respond, she sighed. "Please don't tell me that you pulled some kind of _Hollow Man_ routine and jumped into an experiment yourself just to prove that it works."

"Hollow Man?"

Chloe shook her head. "It's a movie… or it was a movie… in my time. Never mind. It's not really important. So, let me see if I've got this straight. Since the three of us have been warped into the future, the past… which is our true time frame, is going into hyperspeed to catch up to us?"

"More or less," Xavir answered. In reality, it was less, but he didn't have the time to dwell on that.

Chloe propped her elbows on her knees and dropped her head into her hands. She was nearing the point of information overload. Finding out more on this so-called Mannheim's Theory of time travel could wait.

"How are you going to find them?"

Xavir's finger-strokes paused over the keyboard. "I…"

He was interrupted by the office door sliding open. "Xavir, we have a problem," a red-haired man announced bustling into the room. "Oh… excuse me," he stuttered when he noticed Chloe. "I didn't know you had company."

Xavir stood and glanced awkwardly between his two guests. Enning "Fitz" Fitzpatrick was a colleague of his here at the Center. Fitz knew as well as anybody that visitors were not allowed.

With a sigh, Xavir accepted that he was going to have to let Fitz in on his dilemma.

"Fitz, this is Chloe… she's from… um… 2006."

Chloe took a moment to study the office's new occupant. His red hair and fair complexion clashed with the stark white lab coat he wore over a navy blue jumpsuit.

"2006, what?" Fitz asked.

"The year," Chloe inserted, smiling wryly when Fitz's expression turned to disbelief.

"You didn't…" Fitz deadpanned, giving Xavir a sharp look.

"It's a long story," Xavir replied pitifully. "Well not so long as complicated. She kind of got caught in my window."

Fitz shook his head slowly. "Did you tell the professor?" When Xavir merely shook his head, Fitz chuckled. "Yeah, that's not good. Well, at least she's here with you, though. I came to tell you that while I was monitoring the time line, there was a slight flux… but now I can see why. So, just send her back, and the prof never has to know."

"Um… It's not that easy…" Xavir started.

Chloe looked on with interest, hoping to learn more about the situation they were in.

Fitz's eyebrows rose. "You two weren't touching when you jumped, right?"

"No!" Xavir assured.

Chloe frowned, her anxiety growing. "Why is that important?"

Fitz gave Xavir a pointed look. Xavir sighed and started his explanation. "The window was programmed for one person. The transport mechanism basically breaks down the traveler's system into individual atoms and puts them back together upon delivery. That's part of the reason for your discomfort when you arrived."

He cleared his throat and continued. "In some earlier tests, with inanimate objects, if two were touching during transport, the computer had some trouble distinguishing the two well enough. The objects become magnetized to each other in a way…"

"What if Lois and Clark were touching?" Chloe asked impatiently.

"Lois and Clark?" Fitz questioned. "What is she talking about, Xavir?"

"That's the problem," Xavir said, wringing his hands nervously. "They took my first window. I hadn't had a chance to enter the direct coordinates for destination, so all we know is that they are somewhere in the city."

"What happens if they were touching?" Chloe repeated.

"We don't know," Fitz responded. "But we need to find them as soon as possible."

"How much time do you think we have?" Xavir asked.

"The flux was hardly noticeable," Fitz answered. "If I hadn't been watching the screen I wouldn't have seen it. My best guess is that the time left to collision will decrease exponentially with time… and since there are three of them…" He released a short breath. "96 hours, give or take a few?"

"And how long will it take to fix that plasma thingy?" Chloe asked.

Fitz looked to Xavir again. "Fix the…"

Xavir nodded. "The Llecom complex was lost. We'll need to get a hold of another batch."

Fitz walked over and sunk into Xavir's desk chair. "We're going to need to tell the professor."

"I know," Xavir sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I know."

* * *

As they exited the strange elevator that had brought them back to city-level, Lois grabbed Clark's arm. "Do you see this?" she asked in wonderment. 

Clark's head tilted back as he took in the city. This was the absolute opposite of the place they thought was the city when they first arrived is this… future. The streets were bustling with people moving amongst one another. As soon as they stepped out of the elevator, a dozen people pushed past them to enter.

The buildings seemed to arch as they reached achingly high into the night sky. It seemed that every shop on the crowded street was lit up with neon lights, competing with one another to draw the attention of the masses. Clark was reminded of the streets of New York or Tokyo taken to the extreme… except that there were no cars.

"Well, this is a relief, I guess," Lois remarked, happy to be back among civilization. The emptiness of the amusement park had left her feeling creeped out.

It barely registered to Clark that she had said anything as he had noticed something strange about the sky and was attempting to use his vision to see what it was. While he was able to see pretty far, he would have needed his telescope to see as far as he needed to right now. It was just something about the stars. They seemed… faded somehow.

Clark turned at a tug on his arm. "What did you say?" he asked, realizing that Lois had just asked him something.

Lois rolled her eyes. "I asked if I could borrow that twenty you had earlier."

Clark's expression grew perplexed as he reached for his pocket and came up empty.

"I already have it," Lois informed him, lifting her hand to show him his wallet.

"Well, why did you ask, then?" he asked, slightly peeved that he hadn't noticed he'd been pick-pocketed.

"To be polite," Lois snarked. She pulled a twenty from his wallet and handed it back to him. "You might want to put that somewhere safe," she advised.

Clark sighed. "Do you really think that the money will work here when it didn't inside the park?"

Lois shook her head. "No. I have a better idea. Come on," she said as she started walking, making her way through the throng of pedestrians to cross the street.

Clark followed, starting to feel like Lois was always one step ahead of him. "What is it?"

"Barter and exchange is one of the basic principles of any civilization at any time period in history. Even when there is no money, there is trade." She stopped in front of a shop and pointed proudly at the sign. "Case and point."

Pawn and Go, Clark read silently, trailing Lois as she entered the store.

"Can I help you?" the shopkeeper asked in a bored tone as they approached the counter.

Both Lois and Clark were taken aback at the foreign looking items that graced the numerous shelves.

Lois pulled her attention away from a stack of cube shaped objects; the sign in front of them declared that they were Replicators- whatever that meant. She peered into the glass display that served as the counter and noted the jewelry that sparkled inside. Apparently, diamonds _were_ forever.

"I hope so," Lois stated, answering the man's question. She laid the bill on the counter and watched his face for a reaction.

The shopkeeper's brown eyes seemed to twinkle for a fleeting second before his expression returned to the bored one he had worn when they first walked in.

"Is this genuine?" he asked, pulling a jeweler's scope from a drawer.

Satisfied that the bill was real, the man placed his hand in a shallow plate holding a wax-like solution. When he lifted it, the substance dried to create a dust and grease free coating on the underside of his hand. He then reached for the money, placing it carefully on a clear plaque.

"I can't imagine how you've kept this so well preserved… but I'm a broker. I don't ask. I don't tell." He glanced at Clark and let his gaze return to Lois's. "Fifteen."

Lois reached for the newly mounted bill.

"Wait!" The shopkeeper cried, placing his uncoated hand in between Lois and the bill. "That was just the opening bid. I'll go twenty, but that's about all I can do."

Lois pulled Clark a step away from the counter and motioned for him to lean down so she could whisper in his ear.

"Do me a favor and make that dejected expression you're so good at."

"Huh?" Clark asked, straightening. His face was more confused than anything else.

Lois smiled and patted his chest. "That'll do." She left him frowning behind her and stepped back to the counter. "Listen, we could really use a break here. We're here on vacation, and I let him go to the casino… and well, he's not so lucky."

The shopkeeper nodded. "This your first time in New Troy?" he asked, already suspecting that the answer would be yes. He glanced down at the bill again. It really was well-preserved and he would be able to get quite a bit more than he was offering for it. But then, that was the business.

"Thirty-five," he offered, feeling generous.

"We'll take it," Lois said, sending a smile over her shoulder to her partner in crime. She felt pretty good considering they had more of those bills if their funds ran low.

"Do you want to put this on your cash card, or would you like a new one?"

Lois's eyes widened briefly at the question and she turned back to face the clerk.

"A new one would be great. Thank you." Clark inserted, stepping up to the counter.

Lois watched as the man typed some commands into his computer. Her mouth dropped open slightly as she noted that the amount he was entering onto her new card was 35,000 and not 3,500 as she had assumed.

"I need your thumb print," the clerk prodded as if she should have known that.

"Oh, right." Lois recovered, placing her thumb on the fingerprint scanner.

Handing her the new card, the clerk smiled. "Don't let him take this one to the casino."

As they neared the door, the man called to them. "You guys might want to check the weather schedule." Their wardrobe seemed a little strange to him, but he thought that way about most tourists.

"Weather schedule?" Clark asked as they stepped outside.

"Don't know." Lois merely shrugged. "But we have money now. Guess we should find somewhere to stay for the night."

Clark scanned the street as they walked. "There's got to be a hotel around here…"

Suddenly a rumble of thunder was heard and a hard rain began to fall from the sky. Around them, people either ran for cover or opened the umbrellas they had been carrying. By the time Lois and Clark made it under an awning, they both were soaked.

"It's like a freaking Supermarket!" Lois exclaimed, disgustingly pushing her wet bangs back from her forehead. "Weather schedule my ass…" she grumbled. Clark's flannel shirt was now plastered to her skin. She pulled the front of it closed and buttoned it up. Even though it was wet, it was better than the now soaked tee shirt she had on underneath.

"Well, look on the bright side," Clark said with a smile.

"Is there one?" Lois asked, bending over to wring the water out of her ponytail.

Clark gestured for her to turn around. "We found a hotel."

* * *

**TBC

* * *

**


	6. FIVE

* * *

**FIVE

* * *

**

* * *

"So much for being rich," Lois said, stepping through the doorway into their hotel room. 

Downstairs, at the front desk, they had discovered that in the future, money… or dinarii… was worth less than it used to be. This room was running them D3,500 a night… and there was only one bed.

"Tell me that you didn't request the Valentine special," Lois grumbled, looking at the heart-shaped bed.

Clark shrugged. "It was all they had left. I guess the festival that's going on is really popular. If it's a big deal… I can sleep on the floor." Clark looked at the bear-shaped rug on the floor in front of the bed. The white faux-fur was long and would probably shed, but if he had to, he could deal with it.

Lois glanced at the rug. Clark had said he would take the floor if she had a problem with it, unwittingly making a challenge. "It's not a big deal to me. It's a big bed… think you can keep your hands to yourself?" she asked, returning the challenge.

"I don't think that will be a problem," Clark replied, rolling his eyes. A knock at the door drew their attention.

Glancing at Lois, Clark shrugged before opening the door. A young bell hop held out two white fluffy robes.

"The manager figured that you could use these. Compliments of the hotel."

Clark accepted the bundle and smiled. The bell hop remained patiently at the door. Taking in Clark's bewildered look at the bell hop's continued presence; Lois walked up and pulled the cash card from his front pocket.

Smiling, the young man pulled a tablet from his side pocket and slid the card into the slot. Lois took his stylus and selected a check box for the tip amount.

"Thank you. Enjoy your night," the young man said, handing the card back and returning the tablet to his pocket.

Lois grabbed the robe on the top. "First shower!" she called, running to the bathroom and closing the door.

* * *

Lois left the bathroom and sighed at the sight in front of her. Sure, she had taken an extra long shower, but felt that she deserved it. In addition, it had taken her a little while to figure out how to turn the damn water on when there were no knobs. Regardless of how long, and satisfying, her shower experience had been, it didn't give Clark the right to take over the bed. 

Clark had stripped out of his wet clothes and put on the robe while waiting for his turn in the shower. Lois guessed that he must have fallen asleep while waiting because he was sprawled out across the bed, legs and arms thrown every which way.

On her way over to wake him up, Lois passed the room desk and decided to take some time to explore. A flat rubber mat was marked with letters and numbers like a keyboard, but she didn't see a computer monitor anywhere.

Sitting down, she tapped the pad a couple of times out of curiosity. When nothing happened, she bent to look under the desk. Seeing nothing of interest, she sat back up and reclined into the chair. Near the rubber mat, embedded in the desk was a silver circle. Lois placed a fingertip in the center of the circle and jumped when a holographic screen materialized with the name of the hotel animated in the center.

Lois got up and looked at the back of the screen, impressed when it seemed to have a 3D effect. Moving back to the chair, she tried tapping the keyboard again.

"Please enter your commands," a female voice requested.

Lois's eyes shot over to where Clark lay in the bed. He hadn't moved.

"Uh… could you speak a little quieter?" Lois whispered, leaning down to look for some type of sound control.

"Volume decreased 60."

"Um… do you have Google?"

"Google. A cyberspace search directory largely popular during the early 21st century."

Lois frowned. "What are you, a talking dictionary or something?"

A holographic dictionary appeared in the space the screen had occupied. Hesitantly, Lois reached forward and touched the cover. As she did, the book opened. Amazed, Lois flipped the pages. If she pressed on a word, the text would magnify so that only that entry was visible.

"Wow. How about a newspaper or a magazine?"

"There are approximately 13,650 full text journals in the database. Please state the name of the one you wish to access."

Lois shrugged as if the computer was able to see her actions. "Okay, do you have… The Daily Planet?"

"The Daily Planet is no longer a name of a current publication, although it is the predecessor of the New Troy Digest. Would you like to access that journal?"

"Yes… today's edition," Lois replied, not at all bothered by having a conversation with a machine.

She let out a slow breath as the newspaper came into view. Although she and Clark had already discovered that they were in the future, seeing the date proclaimed in this manner seemed to make it all real.

_Sunday, March 09, 2109_

* * *

Two hours later, Lois was still sitting at the desk, enthralled by her journey into this new era of cyber searching. 

She had started by trying to find out what this "Festival" was celebrating. To her amazement, the people of New Troy were lauding the date that Superman had come to Earth. Her jaw had dropped when she read the unbelievable stories about a man who could fly… a man who was invulnerable and incredibly strong. She had done her best in finding a reason to judge the stories as urban legends. This man, with mysterious powers, who claimed to be from a different planet… well, that was like the Tooth Fairy, right?

As Lois dug up past articles in the cyber archives that the computer pulled up for her, she learned that this Superman character had originally hit the scene in Metropolis in 2009. Strangely, he had disappeared for 50 years, returning just in time to help put an end to the 3rd Dominion War in 2084.

It seemed that no one could explain Superman's absence for all those years, though many blamed it on the period of Genetic Cleansing that the country had gone through in the 2030's. The Stryker Administration had set out to eradicate the existence of the genetically altered and enhanced races. The civil unrest had left the country vulnerable to foreign attack, which had led to the first Dominion War. Ironically, Stryker's attacks on Superman and his friends, a league of protectors that included an Amazonian woman and a vigilante bat, had destroyed the country's biggest asset… and they had paid dearly for it.

Lois had been determined not to look into the life of her future self… after all, she didn't need the pressure. If she hadn't amounted to anything, it would have been too depressing to know… and if she had done well, then it would be too scary to have something to live up to. In the end, she had no choice but to dig deeper when she read her name listed as one of Superman's friends.

The news she had read after that made the hair rise on the back of her neck.

She had married Clark Kent.

Lois stared at the holographic images of her and Clark. The old Daily Planet article served as a news item and an obituary. Both she and her husband had died in the 1st Dominion War… a direct result of one of Stryker's attacks. The article had gone on to describe how important the couple's contributions had been over the years they had worked at the Daily Planet. They had acted as liaisons for Superman and his Justice League, being the spokespersons of choice, and having commanding impact on the world with the Planet as their platform.

Lois was unsure of what to make of the information. On one hand, she had been able to leave a mark on the world, like she'd always wanted… but, there were other elements of this future life that bothered her. Giving in to curiosity, she had searched for her name, looking beyond the items published in the general historical archives.

As the saying went: _When you look for dirt, you'll find it._

And it was there. In black, white, and color… A topic that was discussed by many cyber groups, but one that was never verified. Reading through the different accounts, Lois felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. Somehow, the words pricked at memories at the edge of her consciousness. A dream about a man in a red cape… It was true.

She'd had an affair with this Superman.

"Damn," Lois muttered. At least she was consistent. She screwed things up in the future too.

She noticed movement from the corner of her eye and turned to see Clark sit up in the bed. Her comment must have woken him.

"Lois?"

"Uh, yeah…" she answered; quickly trying to close the different windows she had open.

Clark ran a hand through his mussed hair and blinked in her direction. "Is that a computer?"

"Kind of," Lois replied, silently cursing to herself when Clark stood up and walked toward the desk. "Screen off," she ordered in a low voice hoping the command would work. Computers seemed to be a bit temperamental in the future.

Clark frowned as the strange screen seemed to dissolve into thin air. Lois spun around to face him. "The shower's open. You were asleep when I finished… and I didn't want to wake you… but now you're up, so you should go…"

Clark glanced over her shoulder and nodded. "Find out anything interesting?"

Lois swallowed. "Yeah… I got some information about this Festival… but it can wait until you shower."

Clark looked doubtful. Something about Lois's behavior seemed off.

Lois saw his hesitation and sighed. "Knowing too much about the future has got to be a bad thing… it probably violates some kind of temporal law or something."

One of Clark's eyebrows lifted in silent query.

"Look, I really tried not to look, but… just, trust me. Don't."

"What…? Why?"

"It's not… what you're expecting," Lois said haltingly.

Clark watched her for a moment before nodding. "I'll go shower."

Lois sighed in relief as Clark entered the bathroom and closed the door. She closed her eyes and massaged her temples with both hands. Suddenly, the weight of the information she had learned and the activity of the night she had experienced came together and rested on her heavily. Taking a deep breath, she decided that she would be able to think clearer about her situation after a nap.

* * *

Clark exited the shower and reached for the white robe. Observing that Lois's wet clothes were hanging on the towel rack, he remembered that he had left his next to the bed. He was tempted to use his heat vision to dry their clothes, but decided against it. He doubted Lois would believe that he had used the hotel's hair dryer to complete the task. 

Shrugging, he tightened the robe's belt and exited the bathroom. He could see light poking around the heavy curtain that covered the room's windows. It was the start of a new day.

Walking to the bed, he saw that Lois had fallen asleep. He figured that she had to be exhausted. Even with his natural ability to endure longer periods of time without rest, the adventurous past several hours had taken a toll on him as well. It was no wonder that Lois had finally succumbed.

Lois's brow was creased and she seemed to be sleeping fitfully. With a slight groan, she shifted her position, thrashing in her sleep against some unknown annoyance, and throwing the blanket to the side.

Clark's eyes widened as he realized that the motion had caused the belt on her robe to loosen. The opening of the garment now showed a dangerous amount of skin below her collarbone. With a gulp, he tentatively reached out to pull the robe back into place. As his fingertips lightly brushed her soft skin, Lois's brow calmed, and her restlessness settled. Clark recovered her with the blanket.

Straightening, he shook his head to clear it and gathered his clothes from the floor, taking them into the bathroom so he could hang them to dry. It was pretty clear to him that their first order of business would need to be getting new clothes.

* * *

Xavir stood uneasily in front of the Professor's desk. He had just finished explaining how Lois and Clark had ended up usurping his original time vortex. The expression on Professor Kairo's face made him look away. 

"What were you thinking, Mr. Christian? The HyperChronos project is highly classified. We were not prepared to launch a trial of this magnitude yet. You may have just destroyed the Center and everything we've been working toward for the past sixty years."

Xavir sighed heavily. The Professor was not exaggerating about the importance of this problem.

"I felt that we were ready…" Xavir offered. "And we are! The window worked exactly the way we proposed, and the bio-mechanics haven't been compromised, even with the extra…"

"That's what you say now, but have you done a full schematic on yourself?"

Xavir shook his head defeated.

"History is never made in haste, Christian. Only mistakes are." The Professor leaned back in his chair. "You have no idea where they are?" he asked, referring to Lois and Clark.

When Xavir shook his head once again, the Professor's eyes took on a hard glint. "Then I suggest you find them before anyone else does. Good thing for you that their story would be too ridiculous to believe."

Kairo turned his attention to his desk and brought up his computer's holographic screen. Xavir knew he was being summarily dismissed.

"What should we do?" Xavir asked meekly.

"_You_ should fix it," Kairo replied without looking up.

Xavir turned toward the door and hesitated. He wrung his hands nervously for a moment before turning back around.

"Sir, there's more."

He swallowed as the Professor's gaze lifted. Xavir took a breath as he looked into eyes that matched his own. "Someone came through with me the second time as well."

* * *

Clark sat on the desk chair silently watching Lois sleep; a position he'd been in for the last hour. A frown was deeply etched in his expression. For a countless time, he ran a hand through his already-mussed hair. The day was half gone, but he was hesitant to wake her up. 

Earlier, he had decided to try to do something about their lack of clothes, and had called down to the front desk for assistance. He'd been informed by a helpful receptionist that his best option would be to place an order for a nearby store via the Internet. Once he had figured out how to turn the monitor on, a robotic voice had informed him that a number of files had been recovered due to improper shutdown.

After scanning through the information on the screen, he'd realized what Lois had been so upset about… and what she hadn't wanted him to discover.

They had ended up together… married. And she was ashamed of it… of him.

He didn't know why it had bothered him so much. She had been right when she had said that his future wasn't what he expected. After all, whenever he thought about the future, it was Lana who was by his side, but there was still something disconcerting about the fact that Lois didn't accept him. Feeling strangely hurt, he had decided against reading more, closed the windows, and went on to find the clothing.

He decided that he wouldn't bring it up to Lois… after all, she had asked him not to look into his future. He would wait until she was ready to talk about it.

A knock at the door shook him out of his thoughts, and as he rose from the chair to answer it, he saw Lois stir.

* * *

"Thanks." 

Lois placed her forearm over her closed eyes, silently cursing the fact that she wasn't dreaming after all.

"Um, I got us some clothes," she heard Clark say as the door to the room closed.

Lois sighed and pushed herself to a seated position. When she met his gaze, everything she had learned the previous night came to the forefront of her mind, and she guiltily looked away. "That was… nice," she finished softly, having a hard time finding words.

Clark's jaw tensed briefly. He nodded. "Yeah, well, I figured that we should head out and see if we can figure a way to get back home… We can start by going back to the park..."

Lois smirked to herself, realizing that Clark was attempting to come up with a plan of his own for once. "Sounds good," she replied, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and tightening her robe. She stood up and accepted the garments that Clark handed her. She avoided his eyes. "I'll just… go and change."

* * *

**

* * *

TBC

* * *

**


	7. SIX

* * *

**SIX

* * *

**

* * *

Fitz jumped up from his chair when he saw Xavir enter the lab. He and Chloe waited as Xavir walked over to them. 

"What did he say?" Fitz asked. "What are we going to do?"

"We're going to call a meeting," Xavir answered despondently. He turned to face Chloe. "I need you to come with me."

Chloe glanced at Fitz, who continued to watch curiously, and followed Xavir toward the Lab's exit.

"I take it your meeting didn't go well," Chloe stated.

"Well enough."

Chloe frowned and stopped walking. "Where are we going?"

Xavir paused at the door. "Listen, I'm sorry about this. I really am, but until we get this situation under control, you're going to have to be isolated."

"Isolated?"

"It's dangerous for you to learn too much about the future… things could change." He forced a smile, trying to bring some humor into the situation. "I'm rather attached to my life as I know it."

"The only constant thing in life is change," Chloe quipped. "I don't think I can be of much help to you if I'm locked away in a room somewhere."

"It's not my call," Xavir said softly, reaching out to press a button on the wall. The doors slid open to reveal two men in black jumpsuits.

Chloe gave Xavir a disappointed look and stepped toward the men. As they escorted her down a stark hallway, she began to wonder why Xavir hadn't thought about how attached he was to his life before he decided to go Time Surfing.

* * *

Lois's stomach growled as she exited the bathroom dressed in the white, long-sleeved v-neck top and dark cargo pants that Clark had purchased. 

"I got us some breakfast." Clark handed her a silver pouch about the size of a candy bar.

She read the label aloud. "Breakfast Protein Supplement. Yum."

"It's all they had downstairs when I called for room service. It actually doesn't taste too bad."

Lois nodded and inspected his new clothes. The black cargo pants and tight ribbed crew shirt were a definite improvement over his ever-present flannel.

She took a bite of the protein bar and gratefully accepted the water bottle that Clark tossed in her direction. She forced herself to swallow the powdery tasting food, washing it down with a drink from the bottle. Looking at Clark's expression, she sighed. The King of the Brooders was back.

"How did you get the clothes?" she asked. She had a suspicion of why his mood was so bleak.

"Computer."

Lois studiously screwed the top back on the water bottle. "So, you know."

"Yeah."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Clark…"

Clark shook his head and turned for the door. "We should get going. It's already after noon."

Lois exhaled a sharp breath and followed him. While part of her still felt guilty, another part was angry that he was judging her based on something that she had done in the future.

"Smallville," she demanded, grabbing his arm as they entered the hallway. "Maybe us coming to the future and learning about our mistakes means we can change them."

She thought their future marriage was a mistake, Clark thought sadly. "Yeah. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll never get married."

Lois could no longer keep her indignant anger at bay. Why did he always have to be the victim? "I don't get why you're acting like this when you should be the one upset that you didn't marry your smoky-eyed sweetheart."

"Hey, who knows what happened… I guess I had to settle for you," Clark snarked back, too far gone in the argument to realize the bite in his words.

Lois's eyes flashed.

Settle, she thought flatly. No wonder she cheated. "Why don't you just go find a way for us to get back home so we can get back to hating each other like normal?"

"My pleasure," Clark shot back, stalking down the hall toward the stairwell.

Lois released a grunt of frustration and returned to the room. She stopped at the door and looked at the heart-shaped bed. This was turning out to be a very bad day.

* * *

Clark hit the lobby fuming. He didn't know how or why she was able to press his buttons. He was normally a mild-mannered person, but something about Lois made him go from hot to cold and back in record time. As he passed through the front entrance, a sharp pain caused him to grab the wall. 

"Are you okay, sir?" a man called from inside the hotel lobby as he rushed to the spot where Clark was leaning against the wall.

Clark's jaw muscles twitched as he nodded and forced himself to stand. It was the same pain he had felt the night before when he and Lois were at the replicated Daily Planet. "Yes… I'm fine. Thank you."

Clark turned to re-enter the hotel. In the midst of everything else that was going on, he had forgotten about the pain in his side from last night.

* * *

Lois stumbled to the desk and sat down, grabbing her side as the sharp pain she'd had the day before hit her with twice as much force. 

The pain faded a little when the door to the room opened.

What was that?> she asked herself.

I don't know.>

Lois looked up startled. Clark's voice sounded clearly in her head.

"How did you do that?" she asked, rubbing her side.

"Do what?" Clark asked.

Lois shook her head, thinking that she must have imagined what she heard. She noticed that he was clutching his side, mirroring her own actions. She looked at him with a wide-eyed stare. "You're hurt?"

Clark met her gaze and nodded. "Last night…?"

Lois nodded. A thought suddenly occurred. "It didn't stop until you came back… just like now."

They stared at each other for a long moment before Lois scoffed. "Looks like someone wants us together, Smallville. I guess you're stuck with me."

Clark sighed. "Looks like it."

Somehow, their trip into the future had attached them together with an invisible connection. For whatever reason, they were not able to put a great distance between them without suffering pain. The impossibility of their situation had just heightened. At this point, it wasn't worth questioning it.

They exchanged a look and Clark knew that a silent truce had been called.

"I'm sorry if I overreacted a little," Clark offered weakly.

Lois arched an eyebrow. "A little?"

Clark gave her a pointed look.

"Okay!" Lois replied, lifting her hands in defeat. "Me too. It's just… how can you be so touchy about something that hasn't even happened yet?"

"I don't know. I guess my ego was a little bruised by your reaction to being married to me."

Lois's eyes narrowed. "My reaction? Give me a break… I can't imagine being married, period. To you or _anyone_ else. I think we both have proof, now, that I wouldn't be any good at it."

Clark heard the sadness in her voice. "What do mean, proof?"

Lois's brow creased and her head tilted a little. "You didn't read everything, did you?"

Clark shook his head, and Lois had to laugh at the fact that she was going to have to confess to a crime she had yet to commit. "I had an affair… I cheated on you."

Clark was unsure of how to take the admission. He wondered if he was entitled to the hurt he suddenly felt in his heart. "Are you… how do you kn… With who?"

Lois hated the rush of guilt she felt at his expression. She figured that the best way to deal with the truth was the way she treated one of Mrs. Kent's pies: all or none. "Superman."

"Who?"

"Superman. You know the guy that flies around saving people from certain doom… you didn't read that part either?" Lois rolled her eyes. "You really need to be more through when you're snooping."

Clark couldn't help but smile. "I just figured that you'd fill in the blanks for me."

"Yeah, but what will you do when I'm not around?"

"I have no idea," he answered sarcastically.

They shared a small sigh as both realized that they had been upset over different things.

Clark had an idea of the identity of Lois' supposed affair, but wanted to hear more about what Lois had found through the computer to confirm his suspicions. A grin found its way to his face as he contemplated the irony.

"What's got you all Cheshire Cat over there?" Lois asked warily.

"Nothing… So, tell me more about this super… man, person, who swept you off your feet… or who will, in the future."

Lois glared at him for being so smug about her future indiscretion. Flipping her hair over her shoulder haughtily, she stood and headed for the door. "I'll tell you on the way."

* * *

Fitz turned from his station in the lab and called to Xavir. Xavir walked over to him, leaving the station where a group was working on creating another batch of the Llecom complex. Fitz turned and pointed to something on his monitor. "The wave is building. I'm a little worried that my calculations might be off." 

Xavir looked at the 3D model of the wave and the future projections Fitz had programmed next to it. After the emergency meeting they had called earlier, the lab was bustling with people trying to bring resolution to their predicament.

Xavir knew that this was his chance to prove to Professor Kairo that he was worthy of his father's name. After he had revealed that Chloe Sullivan was the identity of the person who had been caught in his time window, the Professor had berated Xavir for his carelessness. Now that Chloe was here, their problem was only getting worse.

The Professor had sat back while Xavir debriefed the head personnel on their current situation, but as soon as he had finished, Kairo had taken over. A crisis of this magnitude required the highest level of authority.

Xavir looked up to the wall where a countdown was showing on the main view-screen.

"Let's just leave it for now, Fitz. Until we know what to change it to, there's no reason to make people panic more than they already are." They couldn't afford to have people making mistakes out of fright.

Fitz nodded and faced his friend. "Where'd they take the girl?"

"Just to some private quarters so she would be out of the way… and so she could get some rest."

Fitz smiled. "I didn't know that was your type."

"What?"

"Don't deny it, Xav. You don't act that nervous around anyone but the Professor," Fitz teased.

Xavir's eyes widened in horror. "It's not like that at all."

"No?" Fitz asked unbelievingly.

"No," Xavir repeated firmly. "She's my great-grandmother."

* * *

**

* * *

TBC

* * *

**


	8. SEVEN

* * *

**SEVEN

* * *

**

* * *

Lois and Clark rode the final stages of the journey on the Metro in silence. 

Clark's thoughts were preoccupied with everything he had learned about Superman. He had no doubt that he was learning about his future self. With the exception of flying (and, well, the part about tights) the connection was obvious. He was both surprised and relieved that no one seemed to ever have found out that Clark Kent was Superman, and vice versa.

The train slowed to a halt on its air cushion and lowered to the track. "This is our stop," Lois informed him, gesturing at the marquee declaring their arrival to Old Town Metropolis Amusement Park.

They exited and headed toward the escalator, both recognizing the station as the one they had attempted to use the previous night.

"Hey, we've got two more for Station 13…" A man spoke into a handheld device as they reached street level. "Second line to your right," he directed them.

Lois and Clark exchanged a glance. Lois shrugged and looked over her shoulder to see if the man could have meant to talk to someone else.

The man seemed to be perplexed by the fact that they were still standing there. "Lois Lane and Clark Kent, right?" At their surprised nods, he pointed over his shoulder again. "Second line on the right. _Today_, people!"

"He knew who we were…" Clark started as they walked in the direction they had been pointed. His speech faltered when he observed the different queues of people lining the street.

"This is so weird," Lois said as they arrived at the end of the line, second to the right. In front of them were look-a-likes, a veritable collection of Lois and Clarks in all shapes and sizes. "I mean, when I read that we were supposedly going to be featured in the festival… I didn't think that it would be like _this_."

A young woman directly in front of them turned around at Lois's comment. She seemed to be chewing on something like a pixie stick. Giving Lois a once over, she smirked. "Your hair's all wrong, Honey. Too light… and those streaks… Lois Lane wouldn't be seen looking like that."

Lois's jaw dropped and her eyes narrowed.

Clark noticed her hand tightening into a fist and grabbed her arm. "Uh… she doesn't know what she's talking about."

The faux Lois turned to him. "Now, that right there is a very good copy. You get a pair of glasses and they won't be able to turn you away."

Lois glared at her hard enough to bore holes in her head.

Faux Lois smirked and patted Clark's arm. "You'll need a better partner, though." She turned and moved as the line edged forward.

Clark held Lois back from following and pulled her away from the line.

"Did she really just say that I was a bad version of myself?" she asked him incredulously.

Clark bit back a smile. "No… of course not."

"Excuse me," a woman interrupted. She was holding a device similar to the one the man at the Metro station had held. She was looking at the two of them studiously. "Would you mind telling me your names?"

Lois glanced at Clark, wondering if they should go with the truth. He just shrugged.

"I'm Lois. Lois Lane."

The woman smiled, and turned to Clark.

"Um… I'm Clark... Kent."

"That's perfect. Your chemistry is outstanding. You're in. Congratulations." She handed them each a slip of yellow paper and pointed out the building they were to appoint to for orientation. With a wink, she headed back up the line, looking for her next auditions.

"What just happened here?" Clark asked looking at the paper.

Lois turned to look at the other people milling around them. Some were dressed in tight clothes with pointy-eared cowls, and some wore capes. "I think we just got jobs."

* * *

Chloe tapped the wall next to the door to her 'quarters', as she had heard her security escorts refer to it. She ran her fingers along the wall looking for a hidden crack behind the fabric covering. Finding what she was looking for, she smiled and removed the clip from her hair.

Wishing she had brought her bag along instead of stashing it in her car, she peeled the decorative plastic from the metal clip.

"I've always been a little claustrophobic," Chloe commented to the air as she inserted her new tool into the wall covering. Successfully making an indentation, she moved the metal clip in a sawing motion, trying to create a larger hole.

After a few minutes she stopped to stretch her fingers. They had gotten stiff with the intensity of the repetitive motion. Placing the clip on the floor, she used both hands to pull the tear open. Behind the fabric were wall panels made out of a hard plastic material. Relieved that she wasn't going to have to battle steel, Chloe picked up the clip and began prying at the lower corner of one of the panels.

"Damn!" she exclaimed as the clip bent backwards. With a sigh, she dropped it back on the floor.

Sucking on her teeth, she turned in a circle, looking around the room for another means of escape.

When her escorts had ushered her into the room, Chloe had listened with her ear to the door as they retreated down the hallway. Apparently, the security system was sufficient enough to keep her inside, so no one was posted outside her door.

The fixtures in her room looked relatively plain; not futuristic as she would have expected. Her quarters consisted of two living spaces separated by a half-wall. A bed took up most of the space in one of the areas, and the other was occupied by a table. A small bathroom, the size of a closet, was found in the room with the bed. All things considered, Chloe figured it was a pretty comfortable prison cell.

Chloe dropped to the floor to see if there was anything under the bed and was surprised to see that it was bolted to the floor. Moving through the room, she found that everything seemed to be bolted or welded in place.

"That's odd," she remarked thoughtfully. Giving up on the hope of finding anything useful in the apartment, Chloe returned to the door to retrieve the bent hairclip from the floor.

With renewed vigor, she attacked the panel, finding that now that the clip was bent, she actually had more power. After a few good tugs, the bottom corner of the panel snapped free. Smiling at her success, Chloe pulled the remaining corners of the panel off.

Among complicated mechanical stuff and blinking lights, she found a number of multi-colored wires. Gently pulling them apart, she noted that they all seemed to stem from the door frame. She figured that disabling the security lock on her door started with these wires.

"Red means stop, yellow means slow down… blue…" she faltered, searching for a meaning to the color. She didn't remember MacGyver having to deal with blue wires. "Blue means wait… Green means go. Green it is."

Just as Chloe was about to give the green wire a strong pull, the doors slid open.

"Wow, I'm good," she remarked with a confused frown.

An older woman in a maroon jumpsuit entered the room, turning to secure the doors once again when they slid shut. She wore a cap of the same color over her shoulder-length brown hair. A bag was slung over her shoulder.

Startled, Chloe glanced up at her visitor. The woman's eyebrows rose with interest at the sight of Chloe beside the discarded panel.

"Impressive," she commented. "But I wouldn't do that if I were you. Green in this place is usually a bad thing."

Chloe removed her hands from the wire and quickly rose to her feet.

"They underestimated you," the visitor remarked kneeling to inspect Chloe's handiwork.

"Who are you?" Chloe asked warily.

"My name is Brynnan," the woman replied with a smile, rising to her feet. "But who I am is not as important as who I represent."

Chloe frowned. "Who do you represent?"

Brynnan reached into the front pocket of her bag and pulled out a small clear plastic card. "The Guardians," she said handing it to Chloe.

Chloe glanced at it with interest. It was blank except for a golden emblem in the center. A torch was embossed on in the center of a rectangle. Shrugging, she started to hand the card back.

"No, hold on to it. You're going to need it." Brynnan gave Chloe a sympathetic nod. "I know you are confused right now, and I promise that I will explain, but right now we don't have much time to get you out of here."

Brynnan pulled a jumpsuit out of her bag that matched her own. "Here, put this on."

When Chloe hesitated, Brynnan sighed. She should have known she was going to need to give Chloe some information before she would cooperate. "We've got to get to the surface and find Lois and Clark before the Centre does."

Chloe's heart rate jumped. "What… Why? I thought…"

"They're not the good guys." At Chloe's expression of horror, Brynnan shook her head. "The thing is, most of them don't know they're the bad guys either. As always, corruption is the crème of the crop. For as long as the Centre has been in existence, we've had someone inside, monitoring their actions."

"What about… Xavir? The one who showed up in Smallville… What side does he fall on?"

Brynnan scoffed. "The side that doesn't have a clue. Literally. He isn't aware of the trouble he's started. The Hyper Chronos Project has been something the Centre has been working on behind the scenes for a very long time. We knew that this would happen one day, we just didn't know when."

"You knew this would happen? What does that mean?"

"I'll get to that later."

"Wait, why are you telling me this… I thought it wasn't safe for me to know too much about what happens in the future." Chloe wanted to know more but was hesitant to buy the woman's story.

"We're at the point now where you have to know. It's not safe to leave you here."

"Why not?"

"One of the other projects the Centre has perfected is essentially a mind probe. Let's just say that certain people are interested in the secrets that the three of you hold." Brynnan gave her a knowing look. "And we both know that there's a really big secret you need to keep."

Chloe's eyes widened. At times she wished they weren't so expressive. She cleared her throat. "I'm not sure…"

Brynnan raised a hand to stop her. "In 2009, a man dressed in blue tights with a red cape flew into Metropolis and stopped a helicopter from falling out of the sky. The media named him Superman, and soon the city was being patrolled by a super hero who could see through walls, bend steel, and leap tall buildings in a single bound. In some circles, he's known as the Last Son of Krypton. Ring any bells?"

Chloe used great constraint to stop her jaw from dropping.

Brynnan smirked and continued. "There are very few people who know that Superman does not spend all of his time wearing a cape. We need to keep it that way."

Chloe's eyes shifted away from Brynnan's and back. "So this… Superman… is he still alive?" Having understood the other woman's hints, Chloe's mind shot back to the time when she and her best friend told one another about their greatest fears. Clark didn't want to live forever… he didn't want to outlive all the people he loved.

Brynnan seemed to falter a bit at the question. "Yes. Superman still lives. Now, please hurry. We've got to go."

Chloe quickly though about her options and decided that she would follow Brynnan. The woman knew Clark's secret, and seemed intent on keeping it, so that was a point in her favor. Chloe knew that if she stayed, she would be locked in the room… away from the action.

If she had anything to do with it, her place wasn't out of the fray… it was right smack dab in the middle of it.

* * *

Xavir sighed as he reached the door to Chloe's quarters. He had been reassigned.

According to the Professor, he would be less trouble if his only concern was keeping Chloe unaware of the future. He realized that he had screwed up pretty badly with this incident, but how could he hope to fix it if he wasn't allowed in the lab?

He pressed the spot on the wall that would activate the door chime and waited for a response. When he didn't get one, he stepped forward and knocked.

Xavir figured that she was asleep. Hell, he thought wryly, if he had been isolated after the day he was having, sleeping would have been the first item on his to-do list.

He pulled out his Padd and pressed a button, connecting to the public mainframe. "Computer, please report vitals on the occupant in this room."

"There are no occupants in room 8-v76."

Xavir jumped to attention at the announcement. In a panic, he typed a string of digits into the panel next to the door frame. When the doors slid open he rushed inside, turning in a full circle as he noted the wall panel on the floor leaving the wires exposed. Turning to the bed, he saw the clothes Chloe had been wearing earlier.

Cursing silently to himself, he debated whether or not to contact the Professor. He knew that if he did, there was a good chance he'd be reassigned… permanently.

Xavir dashed back into the hallway, swiveling his head wildly as he looked for a potential witness to Chloe's escape. Finding none, he forced himself to calm down. The Centre was a remote structure. There was no way to freely come and go. She wouldn't get far.

"Computer, isolate any vitals that do not correspond with Centre records." When a worker was hired, their vitals were entered into the main network so that their location could be determined at any time. Xavir figured that the best way to locate Chloe was to find the one person whose vitals had never been documented.

After a short pause, the mechanical voice responded. "Vitals located."

"State the location, please."

"The unknown identity in question is on deck 5 heading west."

Taking off in a sprint, Xavir closed his Padd to end the conversation. There was only one thing of interest on deck 5. The Shuttle Bay.

* * *

"Okay, we're going to have to free-fall for a few seconds so we can clear the station before I start the engine. Hold on tight. It will be over before you know it," Brynnan cautioned as she fiddled with the controls of the shuttle.

Chloe nodded but didn't trust her voice well enough to say anything. She was still in shock from learning that the Centre was located on a space station. Earlier, Brynnan had explained how she had bypassed the security on the shuttle bay, making sure that the computer would not alert anyone of their departure. She was confident that it would take her colleagues a while to figure out how and by what venue Chloe had escaped.

The shuttle lifted from the floor and Brynnan expertly maneuvered the craft through an opaque window that opened just as they approached. Chloe's first sight of space was brief, as the sudden plummet caused her to squeeze her eyes shut.

As soon as it had begun, their descent ended, and Chloe sighed in relief as Brynnan continued to steer.

"That wasn't too bad," Chloe commented shakily.

Brynnan glanced at her and smiled. "You can open your eyes now."

When she did, Chloe was astounded by the sight of the space station they had just left. The massive structure seemed to float against the black backdrop. The beige metallic finish was bright in areas where light reflected off of the stars. Chloe fought the temptation to pinch herself. She knew this was really happening… she just couldn't believe it.

The shuttle dropped below the station and continued to descend. When Brynnan felt they were a safe distance away, she programmed the auto-pilot and leaned back in her chair.

"What do you think you are doing?"

Chloe and Brynnan spun around at the sound of a voice behind them.

"What's going on?" Xavir took a look at Chloe in her change of clothes and turned to Brynnan.

Xavir suddenly remembered where he knew the other woman from. "Brynnan Remmer, Scientist H-Class," he identified. She had been working on a different sector of the Hyper Chronos project. "You need to turn the shuttle around right now."

Brynnan's eyes narrowed but she didn't respond verbally. Instead she pulled her arm from the side of her chair, revealing a gun-shaped weapon. "Who did you tell?"

Xavir eyes widened. "No one," he replied, his eyes drawn to the weapon. He had reached the shuttle bay in time to see the women enter the craft and followed. Hiding, he had hoped to learn what Brynnan was planning, but when the craft left the ship, he had panicked. Now, he wasn't sure what to do. "I'm responsible for her…"

Brynnan frowned. "You're responsible for a lot more than that."

Chloe looked between the two. "Brynnan feels that I can help find Lois and Clark," she explained.

Xavir didn't look pleased. "Our Away Team is already working on that. You shouldn't have involved her. This could be detrimental…"

"It's a little late for that," Brynnan cut in. "The Away Team is going to have enough trouble with the Festival going on right now. I'm just doing what needs to be done… and this is too important for me to let you get in the way."

As she finished speaking, Brynnan squeezed the trigger, sending an arc of electric blue light toward Xavir. It happened too quickly for him to react, and he slumped to the floor like a discarded rag doll.

Seeing him fall, Chloe yelped and rushed to his side, feeling his neck for a pulse. "Is he…?"

Brynnan shook her head and returned the gun to its holster. "No. It's non-lethal. He'll wake up in a few hours." She rose and went to Chloe's side.

Chloe sighed in relief as the hand on Xavir's neck found a strong pulse. She didn't see any markings on his chest from the weapon Brynnan fired, so she felt confident on Brynnan's answer. Together they lifted him under the shoulders and dragged him toward the rear of the craft where the sleeping quarters were located.

As they retreated from the sleeping area, Chloe glanced at Brynnan curiously. "You don't like him very much," she observed.

"I don't trust him. That's different. I think he's too young for his post as Junior Scientist. His actions of hijacking the project so he could take a time machine on a joy ride only prove how immature he is."

"How was he able to get his hands on something so important?" Chloe asked.

"He's brilliant, I'll give him that. But sometimes people can be too smart for their own good. Rumor has it that he bribed his way into the Centre. That, or his family has really powerful connections."

Brynnan reached for the bag she had brought along and pulled out a thermos and a couple of wrapped bars. She handed one to Chloe.

"This is a full service flight," Brynnan joked. "Complete with refreshments, although probably not the kind that you're used to."

Chloe inspected the bar, noting that is was a meal supplement.

Brynnan gestured toward the chairs they had been seated in during take-off. "Are you ready for a flash course in the history of the world as we know it?"

* * *

Chloe dozed off and on in her chair for the remainder of the journey. She could have gone back to the sleeping quarters and stretched out on one of the bunk beds, but she was feeling a bit wary of being in the back with Xavir. Mostly, she didn't want to miss anything.

Her mind reeled with the amount of information Brynnan had shared with her about the future… or what Brynnan called 'history.' The explanation had picked up with Superman; the point they had left off at back on the station. Superman had appeared in 2009, and for years had been the protector of Metropolis. Crime had gone down, and it had seemed as if the world was headed toward realizing the dream of utopia.

Unfortunately, there were some people who hadn't wanted utopia to come about. In 2028, the administration of President Stryker began an attack against the members of the Justice League, a group of superheroes like Superman who had pledged themselves to protecting mankind.

As Brynnan gave her explanations, she had been careful not to mention Clark and Superman in the same context. When Brynnan had silently gestured to the rear of the craft, Chloe had understood that she didn't want to take any chances in Xavir overhearing.

The first of the Dominion Wars had followed Stryker's weakening of the JLA's defense. The bio-chemical agents that had been used during the wars had decimated the country's agriculture industry. It saddened Chloe to know that the people in the once great country had been victims of famine.

Chloe had learned that Lex Luthor had become the next president, after he led the charges to remove Stryker from his post. Lex had put great amounts of money towards a number of research projects to help rebuild society... Bio-genetic foods and supplements to feed the masses with limited resources was the project that bolstered his platform the most.

For years, Luthor helped his people mourn the loss of their super class. Publicly, he applauded their efforts and wished they could return. In addition, to show his support, he instilled an annual Festival in their honor.

Even with Luthor in power and leading the restoration of peace, the country had still been vulnerable. 2038 marked the last year of Luthor's second term as president. It also marked the year the Second Dominion War began. In a time of chaos, the stricken citizenry were more than happy to amend the Constitution to allow Lex to remain in office. And for a while… peace had returned.

Then, the inevitable happened. In 2084, America had been attacked once again by enemy forces that had only grown stronger, and this time, they didn't have Luthor to save them. When the world needed a hero, Superman returned. No one knew where he had disappeared off to for fifty years, but they were happy to see him all the same.

After imparting that information, Brynnan had taken a look at Chloe's glazed eyes and declared that Chloe had heard enough for the time being.

Chloe shook herself out of her thoughts and pushed herself up in the chair as Brynnan called to her and pointed out the shuttle's front window.

Taking a breath to steady herself, Chloe took her first look at the blue, green, and white swirls of her distant home planet. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was about to enter a brand new world.

* * *

**

* * *

TBC

* * *

**


	9. EIGHT

* * *

**EIGHT**

**

* * *

**

* * *

Lois frowned at the cup in her hand. The clear liquid had come out of the coffee thermos.

She watched as someone came up beside her and poured a cup of the liquid. Seeing that the man began sipping his drink, she raised the cup to her nose. It had smelled faintly like coffee, so she shrugged and brought the drink to her mouth. Grimacing from the taste, she looked around for somewhere to stash it.

Seeing a fake plant nearby, she dumped the offending drink into the pot. When the other coffee drinker gave her an odd look, she arched an eyebrow.

"Who are you supposed to be?" she asked. Earlier, she and Clark had encountered a human bat, a dominatrix with stars on her underwear, and a man in red tights with an affinity for lightning bolts. The man in front of her was wearing a sweater vest and wingtips. His outfit paled in comparison with some of the others.

"Perry White," he replied slowly, as if Lois should have known that.

"Oh, right," Lois covered, realizing that she probably _should_ have known that. "Your name is on the building… well, not your name, but _his_ name. You know, this Perry White guy."

The man seemed to be unsure if she was joking with him or not. "He was the Editor-in-Chief…"

"Yes! Yes, he was." Releasing a breath, she shot him a smile and tossed her empty cup into the trash. As she passed him on her way into the conference room where their orientation group was meeting in, she patted him on the elbow. "See ya inside… Chief!"

Lois's eyes widened as she picked up her walking pace to get away from the man before he noticed something else strange about her. She was finding it harder to bluff when she had no idea what she was supposed to be bluffing about.

Inside the meeting room, a number of different… characters, as Lois decided to describe them, were seated around the table. She sat in the chair next to Clark and leaned closer to whisper to him. "Their coffee is clear, like water… and it's not even real coffee!"

Lois straightened as one of the facilitators placed a thin booklet in front of her on the table. Glancing at it, she noted that her name was on the cover, typed underneath a heading that read: _Daily Planet Staff Module_.

She glanced at Clark's book and noted that it was the same, except his name was on the cover of his version.

Clark chuckled at Lois's coffee rant and returned his attention to the booklet. As he flipped through the pages aimlessly, he skimmed the text briefly. From what he could tell, the booklet gave an overview of the Daily Planet's history. Several copies of articles were included, and he felt a sense of pride when he saw that many carried his and Lois's names in the byline.

On the train, Lois had explained to him about the feats of Superman. From what she had found on the computer, Superman had saved thousands of people from great injury and death. While they were talking, a few other people sitting nearby had chimed in with legends about the hero. Although Clark could tell that most of what he was hearing was exaggeration, for once in his life, he had begun to feel good about his future.

Part of that feeling had to do with the person who was now sitting beside him. It had been a shock to find out that he was going to marry Lois, but the more time they spent together, the more he was getting used to the idea. Sitting in a replicated Daily Planet conference room, he could almost imagine how it would be; the two of them working side-by-side.

He stopped flipping through the pages when he came across an article with an interesting picture.

_Metropolis' Number One Team: Finally Official_, the headline declared in 42 point font. The image showed a black and white copy of a wedding photo. He felt a strange pull at the sight of happy couple shown there.

Lois glanced over to see what Clark had found so interesting and flinched at the sight. Her immediate reaction to the sight of her in a stunning white gown standing next to Clark in a black tux had been unexpected. Coughing, she covered her sudden lapse of character and smirked.

"I can't believe I married Mr. All-American Boy Scout. You are _so_ not my type," she muttered.

Clark grinned at the picture and lifted his head to look at her. His growing comfort with his future had given him a confidence that he hadn't felt before. He'd always felt trapped by his destiny, but knowing that it wasn't as bad as he'd imagined made him feel… free. "Maybe I seduced you."

Lois glared at him and rolled her eyes. The fact that he was making jokes about their marriage meant that he wasn't planning on holding her future… misdeed against her. Somehow, though, his forgiveness made her feel even worse about it. "You couldn't coax a cat from tree, Kent."

Clark's grin broadened. "Is that what you think?"

Lois wondered if she should be concerned about the twinkle that had entered his eyes. It was if he had a secret.

"Excuse me, everyone."

Lois turned to face the woman standing at the head of the conference table who had just spoken.

"As you all have probably guessed, you have been assigned to work the Daily Planet Module during the Super Friends Festival tomorrow." She glanced around the room with a welcoming smile. "My name is Sheridan, and I am a curator here at the museum. This year, we have decided to do something new with this part of the celebration. Normally, the other curators, and myself, act as guides for the tours, but we felt that with this being the Centennial Anniversary of Superman's appearance, we would add a little flare by having the different sections of the museum manned by character representatives such as yourselves." She smiled and waved a hand to indicate the people in the room.

"This will be a relatively short meeting. Basically, we will go through some of the major historical landmarks, and then we will release you to get acquainted with the museum. Tomorrow, when you get to your stations, we'll be asking you to remain in character as you interact with the visitors. Museum personnel will be placed with you in each area, and there will be a couple of floating curators, so if you run into trouble, feel free to flag us down."

"What kind of trouble do you expect?" a young man seated next to the Perry White doppelganger asked.

"Nothing serious," Sheridan assured him. "We often have a few history buffs who want to debate the accuracy of the exhibits. We try to explain to them that history is as much legend as it is fact, so many times the lines don't match up as clearly as we'd like. Now, I would like to introduce a colleague of mine, Marcus Avery. He will be walking you through the first section of your workbooks."

A tall black man rose from the table and nodded his appreciation to Sheridan as they exchanged positions. "Thank you. I'd just like to welcome everyone again. We think that with your help this should be one of the best Festivals we've had… if not _the_ best," he amended with a smile.

"If you'll open your booklets to the page after the introduction, you will see the first interview with Superman, the infamous expose by Lois Lane. We won't have a Superman character representative working the planet tomorrow, as there will be numerous ones working the park, but this is without a doubt a favorite subject for our visitors to ask about, so please make sure you know the details well…"

"Pink!" Lois blurted.

Everyone turned to give her a questioning look.

Lois seemed to be in her own world as she read through the article they were discussing. "Pink underwear. I don't believe it!"

Clark nudged her with his elbow and she looked up, realizing that she had spoken out loud. "Sorry," she offered sheepishly.

Marcus frowned at the article on the page. There was no mention of pink or underwear anywhere in it.

* * *

"What was that all about?" Clark asked as they trailed the group leaving for the museum tour. 

"What?"

"The pink thing?"

"Oh, that." She made sure that no one was in earshot and lowered her voice. "I suddenly had this random… memory, I guess you could call it. I can't explain it, but when I read that interview, I remembered it… as if I were there."

Clark frowned. "I don't understand."

"Superman," Lois whispered. "I remember asking him about his vision gizmo. I wanted to know if he could see through everything, and he told me that I was wearing pink underwear."

Clark's eyebrows shot to his hairline, and he gulped. "He did?" He couldn't imagine ever being so bold.

Lois grimaced at Clark's expression. "It could have just been a good guess."

Clark closed his eyes in an effort to force himself not to picture the scenario. He didn't think he'd seen Lois in pink… anything. "Was it?"

Lois looked at him oddly. "Was it, what?"

"A good guess?"

Lois let out a disgusted groan and pulled him toward the tour group. "Don't go there with me, Smallville."

When her back was turned, he couldn't stop the small smile that twitched on his lips.

* * *

Xavir groaned as he fought his way back to consciousness. He felt as if his head was filled with cotton balls… not that he had ever seen cotton balls. Cotton had been one of the crops lost during D-One. It was a good thing that the Centre had invented a substitute material or it was likely that all clothing would be made of some sort of plastic by now. 

He opened his eyes to see Chloe watching him curiously from where she say on the bunk opposite his. Clearing his throat he pushed himself to a seated position. A bottle of water and a supplement bar were on the floor next to the bed. Reaching for the water he gave a small smile. "Thanks."

"What was so important about 2006?" Chloe asked, not bothering to acknowledge his gratitude.

Xavir hesitated before shrugging. He wasn't sure what all she knew by now, but figured that there was no reason to deny her the information. The Centre had methods of making sure she didn't remember… They were already going to have to employ them on Lois and Clark when they were found… what was one more mind added to the list?

"Convergence," he replied in a gravelly voice. He unscrewed the cap on the bottle and took a drink. "It was a time when all of the major characters were in the same place at the same time."

"Major characters?"

"Sure. Lois Lane, Clark Kent, Lex Luthor… you… and the ship."

Chloe's brow creased as she concentrated on remembering the details. "The ship… you mean the ship the Centre is using for this time warped thing?"

Xavir nodded, guessing that Brynnan had already informed Chloe of the ship's importance to the Centre. Lex Luthor had found the ship in some ancient caves many years after the caves had been discovered. The alien technology was kept secret from the public, and the ship now resided on the Centre's space station. The Centre had been studying it for decades, searching for the keys of life… the recipes for immortality. Twenty years ago, the Centre had finally gotten access to the ship's Tislor core, an event that led to the Hyper Chronos project, and thus, to their current situation.

"I picked a rather arbitrary year… It needed to be earlier than Superman's arrival."

"You think that the ship has something to do with Superman?" Chloe asked.

"The Professor is sure of it. We just don't know where Superman was for all that time. The caves had been there for over 500 years before they were discovered. It was pretty obvious that the ship hadn't been there for that long… but where was Superman before his 2009 debut? It's a question that has plagued the brightest minds for years. I was just planning on making a short trip… if it worked, then we could send our people back to observe. The three of you were never meant to make the trip."

Chloe was silent for a moment. "I've heard about Lois and Clark being friends of Superman… so I guess I understand why they are major characters… but why me?"

Xavir smiled. "She didn't tell you?" He thought that it was odd that while Brynnan had revealed so much, she hadn't told Chloe her part of the story. "You were married to Lex Luthor."

* * *

"We don't have time for this!" Xavir complained. "The countdown was under 72 hours before we left." 

"Then I suggest you cooperate," Brynnan replied dryly. "Save us some time."

Chloe ignored the conversation between the two and held her head in her hands. Perhaps it was symbolic of her holding her head together… she definitely thought that there was a chance it would explode.

She had married Lex Luthor. How in the world had she ended up marrying the one person who wanted to know Clark's secret more than anyone else? More importantly, how had she been able to keep that secret from him… assuming that she had.

Chloe tried to reconcile the different sides of Lex Luthor. Brynnan had claimed that the Centre was a rogue agency, showing a benevolent face to the public while working on other things in the dark. That sounded like something a Luthor would do.

Xavir had told her about her life as Mrs. Lex Luthor; how she had been happy with him… up until her untimely death. A death that had left Lex alone to raise their daughter, Xandra; and a death that had clinched the sympathy vote for Lex's presidential run. She was horrified at the thought of having left her child motherless. It seemed to be a generational curse on her family.

Chloe reflected on her own personal memories of Lex. There was the Lex that had wanted nothing more than to be an older brother to Clark. The Lex that helped save her life from his murderous father, Lionel. There was also the Lex that had been just as obsessed as she was about the strangeness of a certain farm boy. Could she blame him for seeking the same answers that she had?

Then there was the Lex that seemed to be more and more like his father with every day that passed. That was the Lex that seemed to be testing both she and Clark as he pursued something to confirm his suspicions about her best friend. That was the Lex that had secret warehouses with alien spaceships. Which of those men did she marry… and why?

Thinking about Lex and his battle for answers about himself and those around him gave Chloe a sudden epiphany. She raised her head from her hands and looked at Xavir.

Her piercing stare caused his words to falter. Whatever protest he had been preparing to launch died on his lips.

"He's your father," Chloe announced.

Both Brynnan and Xavir gave her an odd look.

"The Professor. He's your father… and that's why you hijacked the project… for his approval."

Brynnan turned to face Xavir with a look of dawning awareness. It all made sense in a warped way. "Sure didn't see that one coming," she muttered.

Xavir's jaw clenched, but he remained silent.

Chloe shook her head in disbelief. "Luthors seem to always have daddy issues."

"I'm not a Luthor," Xavir spat, neither confirming nor denying Chloe's claim.

Chloe heard the bitterness in his tone and nodded sympathetically. She had noticed that Xavir and Professor Kairo had different last names. She knew that there was more to the story. She searched her memory for details of the future family tree she was starting to build in her mind.

"But Professor Kairo _is_. He's Lex's grandson… and my grandson," Chloe finished awkwardly. It was strange to be talking about grandchildren when she was barely old enough to think about college graduation. "You told me that part. Why not tell me the rest?"

Xavir searched Chloe's eyes for sincerity. After a few moments, he glanced at Brynnan and back to Chloe. His posture was still stiff and Chloe sensed the tension between the two. Obviously, Brynnan felt it too because she exchanged a look with Chloe and stood.

"It's going to take another hour before we are ready to breach the atmosphere around the planet. Once we hit dirt it's going to be fast and furious from there. I think I'll go catch a nap," Brynnan said as she made her way toward the rear of the craft.

Xavir watched her leave and turned to face Chloe. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to share with her, but part of it was the fact that no one else had ever asked. It was a secret that burned to be exposed.

Sinking into a chair, he sighed. "My mother died when I was thirteen."

"I'm sorry," Chloe offered, shocked to hear the news.

Xavir shrugged. "Her name was Isabella. Isabella Christian. She and my father went to school together. That's how they met… at a University in Geneva. My father was really close to Lex Luthor… his grandfather. My mother told me that he was his protégé, heir to the throne, really. He was the hope of the future of the Luthor legacy."

Xavir paused and was lost in his own thoughts for a while before Chloe cleared her throat. "How did she die?"

Blinking, Xavir returned his attention to Chloe. "She was sick. A lot of people were, you know, from the chemical warfare. They didn't start putting domes over the major cities until after the last war, but by that time, a lot of people were terminal. My parents never got married, but he always sent money… I never saw him, but I always knew who he was. Lysander Luthor Kairo. I don't think my mother had enough status to be married to the 'son' of a president," he finished with a sad smile.

"What happened after she died?"

"He sent money for me to go to boarding school, but when my mother's parents tried to get him to come for me, he refused. I went to school and promised myself that I would make him _want_ to claim me... Because if I didn't, then they would be right about my mother… that she wasn't good enough."

Chloe frowned at his logic. In some ways, he was still thinking like a lost 13 year-old boy. "Xavir, your mother's worth doesn't rest on whether or not your father decides to accept you. If anything, you should be living your life in a way to make _her_ proud.

"There's nothing that you can do to change the past… at least I don't _think_ so," she teased, trying to lighten his mood.

Xavir rewarded her with a smirk and she continued. "Now we have to do what we can to put all the pieces back in their places."

Xavir nodded and turned to look out the window as the shuttle moved closer to their destination. He nervously checked his watch, trying not to panic as the numbers of the countdown decreased rapidly. By the time they reached the surface, the clock would have slipped to little over 60 hours. He could only hope that Brynnan had a plan, otherwise, they were in trouble.

* * *

**

* * *

TBC

* * *

**


	10. NINE

_A/N:_ So, are you still hanging in there?

* * *

**NINE**

**

* * *

**

* * *

"If I see another Power Bar, I'm going to scream," Lois groaned as she plopped into the desk chair in their hotel room. 

Clark pulled a package out of the bag from the small store they had stopped at on the way back to the hotel. "Well, this one is not a bar… the clerk said it tasted like chicken."

Lois reached for the packet and shook her head. "He's probably never even seen a chicken." She peeled the wrapper back and frowned at the supposedly edible things in the different sections of the plastic plate. "These are like Army rations. What is with the food in the future?"

Clark shrugged.

"Couldn't you have bought the stuff from the deli? That looked fresh."

"It cost 5 times as much," Clark reminded her. They had already had that discussion in the store.

"So?"

"We're on a budget." He was worried about the shrinking funds on their cash card. Even though they had more cash from 2006 that they could pawn, Clark was concerned with what they would do if they weren't soon able to find a way home.

Lois pulled something that looked like jerky from the plate and bit a piece off. She had eaten worse before, and she was hungry.

"Want some?"

Clark accepted the jerky and went to sit on the bed.

"Who would have thought I would come to the future and have homework," Lois mumbled, flipping open the booklet she had received earlier that day. "Sounds more like regression if you ask me."

Clark smirked and opened his book as well. They were quiet for a while as both began reading through the material that hadn't been covered during orientation.

Clark's head suddenly popped up.

"Why didn't you tell me about the wars?" he asked with a distraught look on his face.

Lois slowly looked up from her booklet. "I thought it would be kind of depressing to tell someone how they die."

Clark turned his attention back to the article that announced his and Lois's death. A frown was permanently etched in his face as he re-read the information, pouring over the details in disbelief. "I don't understand," he said under his breath.

Lois turned the pages in her booklet to see the article Clark was reading. She had been in shock the night before when she had read the news about her demise on the computer. Today, however, it had begun to sink in, and on some level she had accepted it. It made her want to live her life to the fullest while she still had the chance. From what she had learned so far about herself, she certainly had lived by that motto in the future.

Ironically, Lois felt that her death was mild in comparison to her life. She and Clark had been following an assignment when terrorists blew up the building they were in. Superman hadn't been able to save them on that occasion.

Clark read the final paragraph over and over, not believing what he saw. A quote from Superman put the finishing touches on the article.

_Lois and Clark were an invaluable addition to our society and world. Their friendship, honor, and determination to do right by mankind will forever be missed. None of us will be the same._

Clark knew immediately what those words meant. It meant that Lois had died, and he had lived. He could feel the deep pain and guilt behind those words as if he remembered saying them himself. He read the quote once again, thinking of a man talking about the loss of his wife… and of the link to his humanity.

Suddenly an image flashed in his mind and reached for his head painfully with a groan. There was fire… so much that he could feel the heat burning the jacket he was wearing. There was flying shrapnel and debris, crumbling walls, and collapsing floors all around him as people panicked and screamed for help.

"Clark?"

At the sound of the most important voice in his world, he turned, but instead of his wife, he saw burning flesh… and he couldn't move.

"Clark!" Lois repeated, jumping from the chair and darting over to the bed. He had suddenly keeled over while grabbing his head, and was currently in a fetal position on the floor.

Her hands hovered over him for a moment as she was at a loss of what to do to help him. As she lowered a hand onto his shoulder, he gasped and relaxed, rolling to face her in a sudden movement.

"Lois."

"Are you all right?"

Clark blinked at her as if not understanding the question, then nodded. Lois began to withdraw her hand, but as she did so, his vision clouded, and he started to smell smoke. He grabbed her hand and held it tightly. He didn't want to see that again.

"Wait," he pleaded, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths.

Lois watched him with a look of mixed concern and confusion, but she conceded with his request and remained in her crouched position.

After a few minutes like that, Clark released her hand and rose to sit on the bed again.

"What was that?" Lois asked, standing.

Clark merely shook his head. It was too painful and fresh of a memory to discuss just yet. He pulled the booklet into his lap. "Are there any other surprises in here that I should know about?" he questioned wryly.

Lois continued to look at him oddly. "I'm not sure…" She turned to retrieve her booklet and flipped through the pages from back to front. "Superman took a leave of absence… Lex Luthor became president…" she rattled off as she scanned the headlines.

"Superman took a leave of absence?" Clark ran a hand through his hair and searched for the article in question.

The story actually was at the start of a section devoted to that subject. The first article simply declared that Superman was gone. Other articles talked about President Luthor's request for Superman to return, and eventually showed Luthor rallying the people to live on without him. At the end of the section, an upbeat article announced that after a 50 year span, Superman had returned.

Unlike the reaction he'd had to the articles about his supposed death, these articles invoked no strong emotions or memories.

* * *

Lois lay on her side of the bed with her eyes closed. After the exhausting day, she should have fallen asleep as soon as her head had hit the pillow, but her mind was too busy trying to process everything that had happened. 

Clark's earlier episode had left her a bit worried. When she had questioned him about it later, he'd only said that he had experienced a memory… one that he didn't want to talk about. Having had her own future-memory earlier at the orientation meeting, she didn't dispute the possibility that he'd had something similar… but it was his violent reaction that had her concerned.

She theorized that their flash forward into the future was playing evil tricks on their brains. It was almost as if time was trying to compensate for them being there by cramming memories of their futures in their heads before they were ready for them. Dismissing the theory as craziness, she started going through her relaxation techniques, commanding her tense muscles to rest.

Now that it all was sinking in, Lois was beginning to think that everything wasn't quite adding up. The information in their booklets had been somewhat limited to what they needed to know for their jobs the next day, so it was understandable that there were some pretty substantial gaps in the account. Still, it bothered her that in all the discussion of the work of she and Clark, there had been no mention of her cousin. Lois had scanned the list of survivors in her obituary, and there were no cousins, no children, and no parents listed. It didn't make sense.

* * *

"Have I told you lately that I love you?" 

She smiled and played with his hair lovingly. "I think I remember you saying something about being relieved that I was moving out…"

"You can't hold something I said 10 years ago against me," he protested. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. "Besides, I was young then… I had no idea what you would mean to me."

She smiled and kissed him softly on the lips. "Don't you ever forget it," she commanded with a raised eyebrow.

His expression grew serious and he rolled her over onto her back, bracing on an elbow to gaze down at her. "I won't. I couldn't. Without you… I wouldn't be able to live."

"No." She pushed herself into a sitting position, pulling him up as well. "The truth is, nobody knows how long we have to live." When he tried to interrupt her, she shook her head and grabbed his hands. "It's not the years that matter… it's the moments. We both know that you age slower, but that time you had to give some of your life force to Jimmy… There's no way to know how long either of us have. We are going to have a wonderful life together, and then, you'll just have to have another one… without me."

Tears sprang to his eyes. "I can't do that… you are my life. Everything."

She sighed, reaching to wipe his tears away even as her own began to build. "You have to." She leaned in to kiss him again. "Promise me. No matter what… you'll continue to live."

His eyes fluttered close. He didn't want to think about the possibility of needing to keep that promise. He wouldn't let that happen, ever… so the thought was meaningless anyway. He wanted to change the tone of this conversation. "What will you do if I don't?"

Her lips curved into a seductive smile. "I'll come back and haunt you," she whispered against his mouth.

That was a promise he hoped that she would keep, he thought as he claimed her mouth for his own. Pulling her on top of him as he leaned back into the bed, he began working his fingers underneath her tee shirt.

* * *

A low moan erupted from the back of her throat as Lois's hand moved toward the waistband of the offending garment. 

"Too many clothes," she muttered, becoming impatient to touch skin. Releasing the pants, she moved her hands up to her lover's chest. Lowering her head, she kissed the special spot on his neck where she could feel his pulse and grinned when he groaned in response.

With a chuckle that came out like a purr, she dragged her lips across his skin until she reached his mouth. Playfully she nipped at his bottom lip and waited for him to open his eyes so she could get his reaction.

"Lois…" he hissed, bucking against her.

Lois froze and her eyes grew wide as she realized that she was no longer dreaming.

Rolling off of him and flopping onto her back, Lois crammed her eyes shut. "I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, horrified.

Clark rolled onto an elbow and looked down at her. His heart felt ready to explode with the depth of feeling that he was suddenly experiencing. All the love he thought he had ever felt for anyone paled in comparison to what he was feeling in that moment. He grinned as she pried one eye open to see him, her face brightly flushed with embarrassment.

"Don't be… Don't be sorry," he said softly, placing a gentle hand on her stomach.

Lois drew in a sharp breath at his touch. She opened the other eye and looked at him curiously. Now that she was awake… and she was sure that she was awake this time… she found that she was drawn to his eyes. It shouldn't be possible that the dynamics between them had drastically changed overnight, but it was useless to question… because they had.

Her mouth suddenly went dry and she licked out her tongue to wet her lips, a motion she immediately realized was risky.

Clark smiled and his pupils grew in response to her action. His hand slid to her side as he began to lean closer.

"Wait," Lois stopped him with a hand on his chest. "Are you awake?" Her eyes flicked back and forth between the two of his.

"Yes. Maybe for the first time in my life…" he responded. He removed his hand from her side and placed it against her face.

Lois frowned as his features blurred. She blinked to clear her vision and looked up at him again. "Superman…" she mumbled. Then her eyes grew wide as she repeated the name. "Superman!"

She scrambled out of the bed, knocking Clark onto his back as she pushed away from him. Standing, her chest rose and fell as she seethed, sending daggers at him through her glare. "You jerk!"

Clark sat up and looked at her in confusion.

"When were you planning on telling me? When the kids started flying around the delivery room?" She grabbed a heart-shaped pillow off of the bed and threw it at his head.

"And to think! Here I am, demeaning myself because I cheated on you with him. Cheated on you with _you_! B4stard!"

Clark saw her eyes settle on another pillow so he snatched it out of her reach and knocked all of the pillows to the floor on the other side of the bed. "Lois…"

"Don't talk to me."

The light from the window peeking around the corners of the window shade made her brown hair look auburn, ironically fitting her current fiery mood. Clark didn't think he'd seen anything more beautiful. His mouth twitched as he struggled not to grin.

"You're laughing! You've been laughing at me this whole time, haven't you? You… arghhh!" she screamed, unable to think of an insult bad enough to justify her anger.

Clark's face immediately sobered, and he started to shake himself out of his fascinated stare. "Lois! No… it's not like that…" he pleaded, kicking at the covers as he moved to get out of the bed.

"101…"

Clark looked at her warily, unsure of what to do. He wanted to explain, but was unreasonably afraid of being launched out of a window.

"97… 89… 83…"

Clark frowned and took a step closer, his hands raised in surrender. "I'm sorry… I guess I should have told you, but this has all been so crazy…"

"You guess!" Lois scoffed and stepped away from him. "79… 73…"

Clark dropped his hands. "What _are_ you counting?"

"71… Prime numbers," she informed him. "Backwards. 67. I'm trying to calm myself down so I don't punch you in that silly grin. 61, 59, 53," she rattled the last three numbers off in quick succession, obviously heating back up. "But then again, I probably would break my wrist wouldn't I, Superman? Or is it Super_4ss_?"

Clark didn't know why that struck him as so funny but he couldn't control himself as he began to laugh. Lois glared at him and tried to stay angry, but a smile began tugging at her lips. Crossing her arms, she swallowed the smile and fixed Clark with an icy stare.

Clark took a few deep breaths to calm himself and met her eyes. He swallowed and put a serious expression on his face. "I think 47 was next." He had barely gotten the sentence out before a grin broke across his face. "Super4ss?"

Lois spun on her heel and headed toward the bathroom, grabbing her clothes from the desk chair as she went.

* * *

Clark was sitting on the bed fully dressed when Lois exited the bathroom door. In her absence, his mood had sobered considerably. He meekly met her eyes. 

Lois didn't want to feel sympathy for him… in fact, she didn't want to feel anything for him at all, but her emotions were spinning out of her control… And she didn't like it.

"Lois… about this morning…" Clark stumbled, standing awkwardly and wringing his hands together.

Lois shook her head. "It's ok. It's not us… it's this place. These feelings aren't ours; at least not yet," she responded haltingly.

"You're right," he nodded. He was confused. While his mind told him that this was Lois Lane, bane of his existence; his heart was telling him that she was Lois Lane, mate of his soul. Clearing his throat, he approached a different topic. "The Superman thing…"

"I know," Lois interrupted. "I know why you didn't tell me… I remember the day you did."

Clark watched her thoughtfully. A memory seemed to dance at the edge of his consciousness. "We were outside… at the farm."

Lois nodded. "It was raining. I was so angry with you, because you make stupid decisions when you don't ask me first. You should have told me. I would have accepted it… you."

"I was trying to protect you."

Lois smirked. "I didn't need you to protect me. I needed you to trust me." She forced herself to blink to break the spell. Lois didn't know if she would be able handle the way these memories kept kicking in.

"You had a memory last night, didn't you?"

Clark nodded sadly.

"What was it?"

"You died…" he answered after a pause. "And I couldn't save you."

"Oh," Lois said flatly. It suddenly occurred to her that he hadn't died with her as had been reported. He had lived on as Superman… and was apparently still alive 100 years later.

They remained standing on opposite sides of the room, watching each other awkwardly. The silence between them was heavy with unspoken thoughts and confused intimacy. Ironically, they felt like they knew the other better than anyone they had ever known, yet at the same time, they were strangers to themselves.

Lois broke the impasse and stepped toward the desk, setting her folded pajamas on the chair. "I've been thinking… After reading those articles, some things just don't make sense."

"Like what?" Clark asked, sitting on the bed again.

"Well, there's you and me becoming reporters at the Daily Planet, but where's Chloe? The Daily Planet was her dream… why would we be there without her? And those attacks on the super class, the wars… and Superman's disappearance. It all has to be connected, don't you think?"

Clark thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "How?"

"I don't know. But I know who we can ask."

Clark frowned. "Who?"

"You."

* * *

"What are those?" Chloe asked, peering out of the window as the shuttle descended after breaching Earth's atmosphere. 

"Domed cities," Xavir replied.

"The government started enclosing the major cities after D-Three in hopes of staving off the radiation and chemical poisoning," Brynnan explained. "With the threat of acid rain and the absence of ozone cover in many areas, the domes provide a method of regulation. At least this way, the weatherman is always right," she teased.

"We can't get the shuttle into a dome without clearance, so we're going to land in Gotham."

"Gotham?" Chloe repeated. "Gotham was a major city… why didn't it get covered?"

"Gotham and Metropolis were always considered to be the opposite sides of the same coin. The shinier side got picked," Brynnan said with a shrug. "Sit tight, we'll be on the ground in a few minutes."

Ten minutes later, Chloe realized that what Brynnan had meant by 'on the ground' was actually 'in the ground.' She had piloted the vessel into the mouth of a large cave and flown through pitch black corridors, taking blind turns in all directions before setting them down inside a large underground cavern.

With a smile, she switched off the engine and pressed the button to open the hatch for them to exit.

When Brynnan's feet hit the dirt floor of the cave, she stretched and inhaled the stale air as if she were at the ocean. "It's great to be home."

Xavir's eyes were wide as he peered around at the darkness surrounding them. "Home?"

Brynnan smiled and handed Chloe a pair of dark glasses before slipping on a similar pair. "I wasn't expecting a third person," she told Xavir, apologetically. "So you're going to have to walk between us." She tied a rope around her waist and used the remaining length to tether them all together.

At the rear of the line, Chloe put on her glasses and marveled at how clearly she could see her surroundings.

Brynnan led them down a dirt path deeper into the earth. After a while, they arrived at a large door that resembled the door to a vault and stopped.

"Do we need to knock or something?" Chloe asked. Brynnan had removed the rope around their waists and they had been standing for a few minutes.

"They already know we're here," Brynnan replied, pointing as a bat darted from the ceiling and flapped past them.

As if on cue, a loud thunk sounded, and the vault door swung inward.

"Brynn!" A woman shouted as she enveloped Brynnan in a bear hug.

When they parted, Brynnan gestured for Chloe and Xavir to follow them inside. Chloe's jaw dropped as she looked around. The place was a veritable Victorian mansion… inside of a rock. If she hadn't have walked through the cave herself, she wouldn't have believed it were possible.

The woman was still talking excitedly to Brynnan. "We got the Code Red, but we had no idea what the emergency was," she started. "What's happening at the Centre?"

Brynnan removed her glasses and cap and ran a hand through her hair. "Karyn, this is Xavir and Chloe…"

Chloe followed Brynnan's example and removed her glasses. When she did, she noticed that the two women were almost identical; obviously sisters, although it was apparent that Brynnan was younger.

Karyn took one look at Chloe and gasped. "We have to take her to Gray."

* * *

**

* * *

TBC

* * *

**


	11. TEN

* * *

**TEN

* * *

**

* * *

Brynnan linked elbows with her sister as they led the way down the corridor. It had been three years since they had last seen one another, and they knew they didn't have much time to get reacquainted. 

"What about him?" Karyn asked, referring to Xavir.

Brynnan shrugged. "Gray will know if he's worth saving or not."

Xavir heard the comment and glanced warily at Chloe, who was walking beside him. Chloe shot him a weak smile. She was sure Brynnan's intention wasn't as ominous as it sounded.

Karyn nodded and pulled a wireless earpiece from her pocket and tapped a combination of buttons on it before attaching it to her ear.

"Honey, Brynnan has arrived at the manor… you need to bring Gray back as soon as possible… We're going to need the Flyer."

She seemed to listen to someone talking for a moment before she responded again. "I know he wanted to hear the speech, but this is really important. You'll see why when you get here… Okay. Love you, too."

Karyn ended the call and slipped the earpiece back into her pocket. "They are on their way," she informed Brynnan. She turned to look at Chloe again. "I'm sorry if I stare… this is just… unbelievable."

Chloe's eyebrows rose. "I feel the same, but… um, when is the part where someone tells me what's going on?"

Karyn turned to her sister with a questioning expression. "You didn't tell her about the origins of the Guardians?"

"We hadn't quite gotten that far yet," Brynnan replied.

Karyn turned and took another look at her guests. "I guess now is as good of a time as any," she sighed.

* * *

Clark posed for another picture and handed the little girl back to her father. He smiled as Lois answered a barrage of questions from a dedicated Superman fan. 

"What does the symbol on Superman's chest represent?" the boy asked.

"His family crest," Lois responded, crossing her arms and leaning against the desk. "The House of El."

The boy narrowed his eyes. "Who was Superman's girlfriend in the JLA?"

Lois cocked an eyebrow. "He didn't have one."

"Wrong! It was Wonder Woman, the First Lady of the Justice League."

Lois cast a sharp glance at Clark, who had been watching the exchange from another desk a few feet away. He shrugged guiltily at the boy's announcement.

Lois turned back on her interviewer with a suspicious look. "Conjecture," she stated, calling his bluff.

"What?" he asked confused with the word.

"Rumors," Lois explained. "Take a note, Regis. Truth is built on fact not flame. Make sure you know the difference next time."

Clark chuckled softly at the awed looked on the boy's face.

"Andrus, let's go," a woman called as she walked over to the boy.

He turned to her with a disappointed look. "But I have more questions… can we come back after the parade?"

"I really wish you wouldn't," Lois muttered under her breath.

Not hearing the comment, the woman nodded. "Sure, now let's go. We need to find a good spot so we can see everything."

"Bye, Andrus," Clark called, earning a glare from Lois. "What? He was fun."

Lois gave a forced smile and waved as the family trickled out of the room behind their tour group. As the group disappeared through the door, Clark overhead the boy asking his mother what a _Regis_ was.

Picking up one of the festival brochures, she flipped through the pages until she found a photo.

She held it up for Clark to see and then slapped in into his chest. "Wonder Woman? Really?"

Clark pulled the brochure back and grinned at the stylized drawing of the super heroine. "She looks… nice," he commented.

Before Lois could respond, they were interrupted by the museum curator they had met the day before.

"Hi," Sheridan greeted. "Everyone has really been enjoying the new character additions to the museum exhibits. Thank you for your hard work. Did you remember to bring back those employee forms?"

Lois shot Clark a look. They hadn't filled out the forms the day before because they asked for social security numbers and home addresses… neither of which they had for the year 2109.

"They're downstairs in our lockers," Clark piped, ignoring Lois's death-stare. When Sheridan turned to look at Lois for confirmation, he shrugged. What else was he supposed to say? "We left them there after we changed into our costumes…"

Lois fixed her expression as Sheridan faced her. "Yeah… um, how about we give them to you after the parade?"

"That'll be fine," Sheridan replied with a smile. "Just don't let me forget. We want to make sure you get paid. Oh, by the way, if you don't want to fight the crowds, you can get a pretty good view of the parade from the patio on the third floor. Most of the other curators and character reps are meeting there in a few minutes. If I didn't have to be behind the stage for the speech, the patio would definitely be my seat of choice."

Lois jumped at that information. "Do you think there is any way we could help backstage?"

Sheridan laughed knowingly. "I'm sorry. With Superman arriving for the speech, security will be at a max. I won't even get a chance to see him, myself. He usually just lands on the stage, makes a brief statement and flies off." She winked at Lois. "Too bad, though, right?"

Lois nodded, and shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to ask."

Sheridan headed out, reminding them to find her with their forms later.

Clark glanced around the simulated newsroom and noted that all of the other characters reps were leaving. "So, do you want to go to the patio with everyone else?"

"Are you kidding? We have the room to ourselves… What do you think we should do?" Lois countered with a sly grin.

Clark felt an unexpected surge of attraction to the seductive look and cleared his throat. "Research?" he proposed with a slight crack in his voice.

"Absolutely," Lois agreed with a grin. "You're quick. I like that." She walked to the corner of the newsroom to a special exhibit.

The computer set up there allowed the museum visitors an opportunity to search for any article published in the Daily Planet since the newspaper's conception in 1775. Lois pulled out the chair at the designated desk and sat down.

Tapping the pad on the desk, Lois entered Chloe's name into the search box. Clark leaned over her shoulder as the first article appeared on the screen. Lois swallowed and forced herself not to react to his closeness.

A message in a highlighted block underneath the article on the screen informed them that additional articles were found, but the one showing was considered the most relevant to the query.

Lois scanned the headline and leaned back into the chair. "Wow."

_Billionaire and Award-Winning Novelist Wed_

Clark frowned at the screen. "Chloe married Lex?"

"I guess when I read about him earlier, I thought C. Elizabeth Luthor stood for Countess…" Lois said in wonder. "Why do you think she started going by an initial? She used to hate her middle name."

Clark barely registered that she had spoken. He felt a bit of trepidation over the information that he'd just encountered. Chloe knew his secret… and Lex was the person he'd been trying to keep in the dark about it. Did this mean that Lex had found out about him?

Clark glanced at the article again, his mind working overtime. From what he and Lois had learned about the future, no one had ever publicly made the connection between Clark and Superman. If Lex knew… then he must have reacted like Chloe and decided to help protect him.

Lois turned to face Clark when he didn't respond to her question. She noticed his worried expression and reached for his arm to get his attention.

"What's with the look?" Her eyes flicked to the computer briefly and back to his. "Lex and Chloe? I know he's not exactly the type she usually goes for… but he's your friend, right?" Lois suddenly felt uneasy.

Clark hesitated for a moment before nodding. "We've grown apart a little… but maybe that changed."

Lois's eyes narrowed. She could tell that there was more he wasn't saying.

"I saved Lex once…" Clark began.

Lois nodded. She had heard the story from Chloe when it happened. At the time, it had seemed to be just another amazing tale from Strangeville.

"He was really obsessed with finding out how I survived and how I was able to get him out of the car. Things got pretty tense between us when he started investigating me and my family."

"Like Chloe did," Lois added.

"I forgave her," Clark quickly inserted.

"Did you forgive him?"

"Yes," Clark replied.

Lois studied his face for a moment, feeling slightly unconvinced. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Lex has a dark side," Clark answered, remembering the time Lex's personality split into two people, creating the treacherous Alexander. "I've always felt that he had the potential to be… dangerous. Like his father."

Lois frowned at the mention of the man who had killed his own parents and then attempted to dispose of her cousin to cover the story. "Maybe Chloe was able to tame the beast."

"Maybe," Clark repeated in a soft voice.

Lois turned to the computer again and clicked inside the yellow box to pull up the next article; an announcement of the birth of Alexandra Luthor.

"I'm an aunt," Lois quipped.

Lois's voice was light, but Clark had a feeling that she was covering something. And then he knew. From the obituaries they had read about themselves, he and Lois hadn't had any children. Clark then realized that he hadn't really ever thought of it as a possibility, considering he was from a different planet; but he'd had a lot longer to deal with that topic than Lois.

"I'm sorry," he offered.

"For what?" A quick glance at Clark's expression told Lois that he had seen through her façade, and she let out a sigh. She didn't like the fact that he could read her that easily. She waved a hand dismissively and turned to pull up the next article. "You can't miss what you don't have."

Clark's focus remained on Lois as he tried to think of something to say.

"Oh, Chloe," Lois muttered sadly, immediately drawing Clark's attention to the computer.

It was an article announcing C. E. Luthor's death. Her car had plunged into the bay after the brakes on her Lexus had failed. Images showed the busted guardrail and smashed car covered with blood. No body had been recovered although Lex had employed his every resource in the search. The authorities could only hypothesize that the current had carried her to the ocean.

Checking the date, Clark realized that Chloe had died around a year after his disappearance. Balling a hand into a fist, he gritted his teeth in anger and guilt.

Lois must have sensed his change in mood because without looking at him, she reached out and wrapped her hand around his fist.

"What's the good of all this Superman hype if I can't save the people closest to me?" he growled. First, he had watched his wife die, and then he hadn't been around to save his best friend.

Lois rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb and met his eyes. "You can't be everywhere."

"I should have been _there_. Why wasn't I there? What was so important that I left for 50 years while my friends and family had to fend for themselves through wars and famine?"

"I don't know… but those are questions that you can ask…" She trailed off and released his hand. "Maybe if I search under C. E. Luthor instead of Chloe Sullivan, we might get more hits."

She turned and tapped in the new instructions, frowning when the only additional information referred to book reviews and posthumous literary awards. As she began scrolling through the search results, a loud cheer sounded from outside the building.

"Superman. He's here," she said, suddenly rising from the chair. It was time for the speech.

"Do you want to go to the balcony like Sheridan suggested?"

Lois shook her head. "Let's try the roof."

* * *

Lois peered down at the figure of the superhero on the stage at street level, wishing she had thought to search for binoculars before they left the newsroom. 

"The people of Metropolis have always been my family…" Superman's voice echoed through the multiple speakers that were mounted throughout the park. "This festival is more a testament to your dedication to fairness, justice, and liberty, than it is a celebration of what the super class has done. We learned from you. And you continue to teach me every day… humility… loyalty… tolerance…"

"How do we get him up here to talk to us?" Lois asked. The security around the elevated stage was tight.

Clark thought about one of the famous articles that Lois had written in the future and chuckled. "You could always fall off of a building."

"That's actually a good idea, Smallville," Lois retorted, stepping onto the building lip.

"Clark, help me."

Clark rolled his eyes and ignored her, refusing to look in her direction. "That's not funny, Lois."

Lois's breath hitched as she fought for her balance. This was a replication of the Daily Planet, but it was obvious that they didn't make buildings the way they used to. The lip was slowly separating from the roofline, and she was teetering precariously.

"Clark…"

A sudden pain stabbed Clark in the abdomen as the wall crumbled and sent Lois spiraling over the edge. Paralyzed with pain, Clark's movement was too slow to reach her and he made it to the edge of the building in time for his outstretched fingers to only graze hers.

"Looooiiiiiissssss!" he screamed.

Clark's scream mingled with hers as the world began to slow.

* * *

Superman paused in mid-sentence as his hearing picked up a cry of distress. In a blur of primary colors, he disappeared from the stage and launched into the air, sweeping the woman out of the sky with one hand while diverting debris away from the crowd with the other. 

She seemed to be in terrible pain, and her eyes were clenched. Slowly rising, Superman headed up to the roof from where she had fallen. Below them, the crowd erupted in cheers for the unexpected reenactment.

* * *

As soon as Lois slid from Superman's arms to her feet, Clark pulled her into a tight embrace. "I thought I'd lost you again," he whispered, hot tears burning his eyelids. "Don't do that to me." 

Lois returned the hug wholeheartedly. She had meant it only as a joke and wasn't expecting the fall. The sudden distance between them had brought the strange pain back, and it seemed that the only thing that would make it go away was for them to touch each other.

"Eh-hmmm," Superman interrupted by clearing his throat. "Miss, are you okay?"

Feeling better, both Lois and Clark finally registered that someone else was there. Releasing one another, they turned to face their visitor.

Lois gazed at Superman's face, having a clear look for the first time. "He's not you," she muttered. "I mean, he looks like you… A lot like you, actually… but he's not… you."

Superman's expression turned questioning. "You are look-alikes for the festival, right?" There was something strange about these two that he couldn't put his finger on. "Were you trying to reenact that scene? Because the council didn't have that cleared with me… that was a very dangerous thing to do," he finished with a stern tone.

Clark stepped closer to the super hero and studied his face. While they were the same height, there were other differences. Superman's hair was a hint lighter and his eyes seemed to be a different color with each angle. Brown… or blue… or maybe even green.

"You're right. He's not me," Clark said wondrously.

Superman frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. They didn't seem to have heard a word he said, and were only talking to each other.

Clark removed the costume glasses he was wearing and ran a hand through his hair. At the motion, Superman turned a sharp gaze on him. His eyes flicked to Lois and back.

Lois was the first to gain her composure enough to acknowledge Superman's questions. "Um, no. We're not look-alikes. We're… them. We're us. Lois Lane and Clark Kent."

Superman would have smirked if the superhero did anything other than glower. But he didn't, so he glowered instead.

Lois caught the look and shook her head. "We are! Somehow we got sent from our time in 2006 to here… in 2109."

Clark chimed in. "It's true. We were going to try to get your attention… because we thought… you were me. That you could help us."

Superman's eyes narrowed. "What makes you think I would believe a story like that?"

Clark met his gaze. "Because it's the only way to explain how I know Clark Kent was born on a planet called Krypton; My name is Kal-El from the House of El, and I was sent as a baby to escape the death of my home planet by my parents: Lara and Jor-El."

Superman's jaw twitched almost unnoticeably. Reaching behind him, he pulled something from a hidden pocket in his cape and lifted it to his mouth. "Dad, I need you to meet me on the roof of the Daily Planet. It's an emergency."

* * *

**

* * *

TBC**

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**


	12. ELEVEN

A/N: This would be the whiskey and kleenex chapter... Some will need one, some will need the other. Others will need both. You've been warned.

* * *

**ELEVEN**

**

* * *

**

* * *

Chloe felt an uneasy sense of déjà vu as she looked around the large room that they were seated in. The manor was obviously an underground lair, so to speak, but light streamed through the windows. She knew that further inspection would prove that the light was false, probably created with florescent bulbs behind Plexiglas. She felt better believing the illusion… it lessened the claustrophobia.

Chloe smiled in thanks when Karyn placed a water bottle on the table in front of her. She handed both Brynnan and Xavir water as well before moving to take a seat at the round conference table. A high-pitched tone sounded just as she was about to sit down.

"They're back," Karyn announced with a relieved smile. She bustled toward the door.

Brynnan rose and gestured for Chloe and Xavir to follow. Together, they trailed Karyn to the entrance they had come through earlier. As they arrived, a tall and distinguished-looking man who looked to be in his late 70s entered through the door. Feeling somewhat out of place, Chloe and Xavir stopped to watch the scene from the shadows of a beautiful replicated statue of Rodin's Thinker.

"Why are you alone?" Karyn asked peering into the cave behind the newcomer. "Gray?" Her voice took on a scolding tone.

"Ah, don't be so hard on my boy, Kary," he replied with a youthful grin. "I am quite capable of flying that thing by myself and you know it." He patted his chest proudly. "Refresh my memory… Who was it that taught you to fly?"

Karyn gave him a fond smile and shook her head. "You did, but that was a long time ago…"

Gray scoffed and reached out to hug Brynnan. "You hear that? I keep telling her that I'm only getting younger, but she insists on treating me like an old man."

Brynnan leaned up to kiss him on his cheek. "You _are_ an old man. You're lucky we stopped counting at 85," she teased with a wink.

"Not you too," he complained. "I don't feel a day over 60… five."

Gray pulled back from the embrace, still holding onto Brynnan's shoulders. "It's good to see you again. Are you bringing good news or bad?"

"That depends…" Brynnan replied, turning her head to where Chloe and Xavir were standing.

Gray turned to see what she was looking at and released a slow breath. His hands slid from Brynnan's shoulders and he fell into a shocked silence. 

Feeling even more uncomfortable now that she was the focus of everyone's stares, Chloe cleared her throat and stepped forward. "Hi."

Gray's piercing blue eyes grew moist as he just continued to stare. Seeing that, Karyn reached out and took his arm. "Gray," she whispered.

Gray blinked and cleared his thoughts, stepping toward Chloe. "Please forgive an old man's sentiment, would you?" He held out a hand. "It's good to see you again, too."

Chloe's brows creased in confusion as he gave her hand a brief squeeze.

Karyn turned toward the statue and beckoned for Xavir to step closer to the group. Gray reluctantly released Chloe's hand so he could face the young man.

"This is Xavir Christian," Brynnan explained. "One of the lead scientists on the Hyper Chronos project… He's also the Centre's first loose cannon. He launched the project on his own authority…" She nodded her head in Chloe's direction.

Gray studied Xavir's face for a moment before speaking. "I once took my father's car without asking…" he started. "There are some things you do out of the brashness of youth, but something this serious…" Gray shook his head.

Xavir's head dropped a bit. He didn't know why the soft admonition from this man made him feel so bad about his actions. "I'm going to do everything I can to fix it," he mumbled, although the promise sounded flat to his own ears. The truth was he didn't know what he could do.

Gray's eyes narrowed thoughtfully and he sighed. "I'm counting on that." He turned his attention back to Chloe. "You must be ready to jump out of your skin with curiosity, right now," he surmised.

Chloe nodded wordlessly and he let out a wry chuckle. "Okay. Why don't we all sit down and get everyone, myself included, up to speed on what we are dealing with here."

* * *

Chloe's eyes darted around the conference table as the story of her appearance in 2109 was explained to Gray. She noticed that during the entire conversation, Gray would spend long moments looking at her. She was no longer discomfited by his gaze, but she did wonder what was behind the wistful expression he wore when he focused on her.

Chloe had been quiet throughout the retelling, hoping that she could learn something new about her situation. She mentally went through the new facts she had gleaned from the discussion. First, she had assumed that Lois and Clark had been in the future for almost two days more than she had, but that proved to be incorrect. As it turned out, Xavir had set his padd to return a mere half-hour after the first window had sent Lois and Clark through.

There had been some major techno-babble employed to explain the time flux circumstances, so Chloe hadn't gotten the details; but she did understand that while she was stuck in 2109, the time in 2006 continued to advance at an accelerated pace. If they were to be sent back tonight, 2 days after leaving, without compensating for the difference, Chloe, Lois and Clark would reappear in their natural time years after their original disappearance.

Gray rubbed his jaw and leaned back into his chair. "There's nothing we can do from here, is there?"

Brynnan shook her head. "The command ship's Tislor core is the catalyst. Our copies of the Llecom and the Delor8 are useless without it."

Xavir's eyebrows shot up. "You have a copy? How?" His head swiveled as he looked from Brynnan to Gray and back again. "Who are you people?"

Gray steepled his long fingers under his chin. "Well, if you consider yourself working for the Agency… you would probably call us the Counter-Agency."

Xavir had a sudden flash of terror as beads of sweat began to pop up on the back of his neck. He had seen their hideout and their faces… In all the stories he had read about terrorists, those elements usually indicated that they weren't planning to let you leave alive.

Xavir cleared his throat and tried to control his shaking hands. "What are you planning on doing to me?"

Gray seemed genuinely surprised by the question. "We're going to get you to help us set things right."

"How are you going to do that?"

Gray shrugged. To him, the answer was simple. "We're going to tell you the truth. Brynnan, why don't you take him to the lab with you? See what your uplink to the Centre shows… We need to know how close they are to finding Lois and Clark."

"I'll go get the Flyer ready," Karyn offered, rising from her seat at the table. "If they've got an Away Team on the ground, we'll need to get to the city as soon as possible."

Brynnan stood and gestured for Xavir to follow. Once everyone had gone to take care of their different tasks, Chloe and Gray were left in the room alone.

"You've got a question… I can tell," Gray announced with a smile.

"More like a million of them," Chloe responded. She felt as if she were going to burst. "I want to know why there's a need for a counter-agency to this space-station Centre, and why the Centre would want to probe our minds when we don't even know anything about what we supposedly will know in the future. What is the deal with this house? It's an absolute mansion, but underground. What are the Guardians, and why did Karyn hint that it had something to do with me? What is with this command ship Tislor thing that was mentioned earlier, and how does that help me get back to 2006?"

When she finished speaking, Chloe released a deep breath as if she had just gotten a weight off of her chest.

Gray laughed. "Is that all you've got?"

"No," Chloe responded warily. "Are you making fun of me?"

"No ma'am," he retorted quickly, then seemed to catch himself. "I mean, no. You just remind me of… well, you."

"Okay… then, I guess I have one really huge question to start with, because that will determine what I ask next… When I first got to the future, I was put into quarantine because it was too dangerous for me to learn too much… but I've already seen a lot and learned a lot, and there's no doubt that Lois and Clark have too. Xavir said that it could mess up the way the future plays out if I knew about my life… is that true?"

Chloe wasn't sure what her future had turned out to be, but she would feel better knowing that she wasn't destroying it just by being there.

"Not necessarily," Gray answered. "The theory is that if you are sent back to the exact time you made the first temporal leap, the memories you created by being outside of your native time will not exist. It will be as if you never left."

"Theories again," Chloe sighed sarcastically. "If that's the case, then why does Xavir remember his time in Smallville?"

"You have to remember that his return time didn't match the exact time he left. The lapse in between the two is what allows the traveler's the ability to retain their short-term memories."

Chloe's eyebrows rose. "I guess I should feel better about not understanding any of this since I'm not going to remember it when I get home. What if that theory is wrong?"

Gray shook his head. "That's where the _Rethrick Memory Sequencing Procedure_ comes in… a brain scan will erase the memories of the days you have spent here."

"A futuristic lobotomy," Chloe muttered. "That's great." She tapped her fingers on the table thoughtfully, freezing when another thought popped into her head. "Brynnan mentioned that the Centre wanted to probe us… wouldn't that scan allow them to…"

Gray immediately knew what she was thinking. "We have to make sure that when the scan is run, nothing is downloaded or committed to file. Brynnan was correct to bring you here until we can get you safely home without Kairo accessing your memories."

From Gray's dour expression after that statement, she got the feeling that the task was not only one of extreme importance, but also something they were unsure of how to accomplish. The problem was, in order for another time window to be activated, they needed to return to the Centre. It was one thing to sneak out of the Centre… sneaking back in would be a whole different animal.

Chloe realized that Brynnan had known all of this before-hand. That was why she had been willing to give Chloe the "flash" course in history… because she wasn't going to remember it later.

"Okay, if my knowing about the future is no big deal, why did they put me in quarantine?"

"Your memories might not cause a problem, but your _actions_ could. This is why it is imperative that we find your cousin and friend before they get into anything serious."

Chloe nibbled on her bottom lip. One thing that her cousin was adept at was getting into things… especially the serious things. Chloe pulled out the plastic card Brynnan had given her when they were still on the space station. "I would really like to know what my connection is to the Guardians. Every time someone has started to tell me, something has come up."

Gray lifted his hands in a sweeping gesture. "You created it all…"

Chloe's expression turned into one of surprise and question. "I did?"

Gray smiled and nodded. "Let me start at the beginning."

* * *

Chloe looked at the two framed pictures she held in her hands in wonder. The first showed a dark-haired family of three: a man, a woman, and a young boy. The woman was tall and striking, sharing the same clear blue eyes that the boy had; the same blue eyes that were now watching her from across the room.

The woman had been Gray's mother, Diana. Killed when Gray was a child, Diana had once been a founding member of the Justice League; known to the world in her superhero guise as Wonder Woman. As it turned out, both of Gray's parents had been card carrying members of the esteemed league… his father was Batman.

Chloe's gaze settled on the second photo. It was another family portrait, but one of the characters had changed. Now, the dark-haired Bruce Wayne stood with one arm wrapped around the shoulders of his teen-age son; his other arm wrapped around the shoulders of a woman who looked quite familiar.

In fact, although there were a few more years added… it was the same face Chloe saw in the mirror each morning.

She swallowed and set the pictures on the table. "I… I don't understand. I thought that I died…"

Gray sighed. "You didn't die. You faked your death." He read the horror in her eyes and wished there was some way to prevent it. For a moment he wondered if he shouldn't have started this conversation in the first place.

"Why would I do that? I had a child, a marriage…" Chloe searched her mind for a logical explanation. Not able to think of one, she met his gaze. "What happened?"

"When President Styker was assassinated, Luthor started using his alliances to help the nation rebuild and heal from the tragedies of the first war. You found out that he had actually planned those things to happen in order for him to come out as a savior."

The look of horror on her face intensified. "What? He planned what things?" Tears sprang to her eyes as she tried to keep herself from thinking the worst before Gray clarified what he meant.

"The attacks on the Super class… the ones that killed my father's best friend and my mother… It was actually Lex Luthor who was advising President Stryker through his board. Luthor owned them all," Gray said sadly. "He had been studying the JLA members from the moment they appeared on the scene. I remember you telling me that the earliest version of the Centre was some hidden floor in one of his buildings. He had led you to believe that it was his father's work, and that he'd had it destroyed."

Chloe flattened her hands on the table to stop them from shaking. Something began to tickle the back of her mind.

"I confronted him…"

* * *

"What have you done?"

Lex looked up from the little table he was sitting at with his daughter. Seeing the horrific look in his wife's eyes, the eyes that were always so expressive, he set the tiny tea cup on the table and stood.

"Xandra, Daddy's going to talk to Mommy outside for a minute, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy," the little girl replied, placing another plastic scone on the plate in front of her little doll.

Lex smiled fondly at the girl and smoothed the front of his purple silk shirt. Unhooking his suit jacket from the chair, he turned to the elderly woman sitting in the corner of the nursery. "I'll be back in a minute, Edith. Make sure she doesn't eat anymore of those plastic pastries."

Lex walked over to where Chloe stood by the door and gestured for her to exit ahead of him. When they were in the hallway, he smiled. "Honey, what conspiracy theory has got you paranoid this time?"

Chloe frowned at his teasing. She had once found it endearing that they shared an inside joke about her old Smallville Meteor-Freak days. After what she had learned earlier that morning, though, she was too emotional to be swayed by his tenderness. In fact, she was too emotional to think clearly, or she would have chosen a better way to discuss this.

"I'm not crazy, Lex, but I'm starting to think that you are."

The smile on his face faltered. "Maybe if you tell me what it is that I have supposedly done, I can better defend myself of that diagnosis," he replied coolly.

Chloe scoffed and threw up her hands; she was bordering hysterical. The information she had come across revealed that her husband, the man she had trusted for so long, was really a monster. Her heart wanted to deny it but her head… it was too logical… The information she had made too much sense. "After all this time… after all the promises…" she said haltingly. She fought the sobs that threatened. "You _are_ just like your father after all."

His eyes flashed for a moment before Lex controlled his anger. Taking Chloe's elbow, he led her toward their bedroom suite and out of Xandra's hearing distance. "I am _nothing_ like him. Now, what the hell has gotten into you?"

Chloe wrenched her arm from his hold and darted to the other side of the couch in their sitting room. "It was you the entire time. You advised Stryker on the attacks…"

"I was Stryker's biggest adversary," Lex countered.

"Don't lie to me… Don't you respect me enough to stop the lies now that I know the truth? Trask was _your_ man. I saw you with him. God, how did I miss that for so long? You gave the information to Trask, and he in turn relayed it to Stryker…" Chloe put a hand on her forehead and closed her eyes. Suddenly she tasted bile. "You used my research…"

Chloe felt as if a knife had been stabbed in her gut. He had been so supportive… for years… When they had started dating while she attended Met-U… When she started writing full time… Throughout her literary career… He had been using her.

"You don't understand," Lex interjected, taking the slightest step forward.

Chloe's eyes sprang open. "What is there to understand? You helped to annihilate an entire race of people… People who only wanted to help protect us."

"They weren't people," Lex muttered.

Chloe didn't register that he'd spoken and continued her rant. Now that Chloe had entered her investigative mode, she wouldn't be able to stop until the entire theory spilled out. It was both her strength and her weakness.

"Then, when Stryker was no longer of use, you had him killed, didn't you? And those convenient contacts in the European Union who helped to stop the war… I wouldn't be surprised if you planned that too."

Lex crossed his arms in front of his chest but didn't respond.

"You're not like your father. You're worse."

"You've got it wrong," Lex pressed. "I've only done what was needed to protect us all. That's all I've ever wanted to do."

"Protect?" Chloe spat incredulously.

Lex took another small step closer. "Listen… Hear me out. Don't you think that after this many years of marriage you can grant me some leeway here? You _know_ me… inside and out."

Chloe shook her head. "I thought I did." She looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. Her entire world was caving in on itself.

"I protect those that I love. I protect you, I protect my child, I protect my world… it's my job. It's my destiny."

Chloe looked at him as if he were insane. "You started a war, Lex… People died…" Her voice choked and she sank onto the couch. "Lois…" Silent tears began streaming down her face. The pain was too intense for her to continue speaking.

Lex's shoulders dropped and he quickly moved to kneel in front of her. "That wasn't supposed to happen," he said, genuine hurt and regret displayed on his face. "Lois and Clark were never targets. They were only meant to draw Superman out. But he never came." He finished the statement harshly, spitting the name of the Superhero with clear distaste. It was obvious that he blamed the super hero for the death of their friends.

Chloe couldn't respond. Of all the crimes she had accused Lex of in the past 20 minutes, the discovery that he had played a role in the death of her cousin, and thus, Superman's subsequent despondency, hit her harder than anything else could have.

When Lois died, Clark had given up his human identity and had gone on to exist only as Superman. Her own grief had kept her from being able to give him any comfort, and he'd slowly begun to deteriorate, showing up less and less for emergencies, and ultimately disappearing all together. Chloe's attempts to find him had been part of the reason she had been too distracted to notice her husband's treachery.

Lex reached for her hand, but she snatched it away before he could touch her. His jaw tensed and he stood, his green eyes turning cold. "It's all a bit too fresh right now, but when you think about it, you'll understand. I love you... You are the first person that I truly have loved since my mother died."

Lex rose to his feet and sighed. "I didn't think that it would ever be possible to love anyone more than I love you… but the day you gave birth to my daughter, I found out that it was."

Their eyes met, and for the first time in her life, Chloe _truly_ saw the man in front of her for he was. She immediately understood what he was insinuating with his words.

He walked to the door stepped through, stopping just outside with his hand on the doorknob. "Get some rest. We'll talk again later."

When the door closed behind him, Chloe's mind began formulating her escape. With Stryker dead, and the vice president serving the last two years of his term, Lex was beginning to gain support for his presidential campaign. Someone had to stop him. Someone had to fight evil.

She needed to find Superman.

* * *

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**TBC

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**


	13. TWELVE

A/N: Kinda sad, but we're nearing the end of the ride, folks... It's so hard to say goodbye to Yesterday

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CHAPTER 12

* * *

Gray looked at Chloe with surprise. When she had started telling him about her spontaneous memory, he had risen from his chair. He now stood next to her; a gentle hand lain on her shoulder for comfort. He couldn't stand the sight of his mother… or his future mother… in pain.

Chloe's eyes were fresh with tears. "How is it possible for me to remember something that hasn't happened yet?"

Gray was at a loss for an explanation. "I don't know."

"I need to know what happened next," she stated forcefully, wiping the tears from her cheeks. She knew that Lex had eventually become president, and that Superman hadn't been seen for another 50 years. Somewhere in that time, she had faked her death, abandoned her daughter to be raised by a murderer, started this organization called the Guardians, and become Gray's step-mother.

She needed the dots to be connected. "How did I get out?"

"You spent the next few days trying to stay under Luthor's radar even though he had you watched closely. When he realized that you weren't going to see things his way, he orchestrated an accident."

Chloe released a heavy sigh. It was unbelievable, yet considering what she had just remembered about the confrontation, it all made perfect sense. He couldn't let her go freely, because she knew too much… and because in his mind, she had betrayed him… betrayed his love.

"You pretended to be on his side, but one day when you were leaving the mansion, he wouldn't let you take Xandra with you. He said that they were going riding that afternoon. That's when you knew."

Chloe blinked as another memory surfaced. She saw her little girl waving happily to her as Lex walked her down the path toward the stables. Chloe knew that she was saying goodbye for the last time, but was helpless to do anything to stop the chain of events that were about to take place.

She couldn't take her baby with her because then Lex would know that she had escaped his trap. Her only hope was to go along with his planned _accident_ and find Superman. Once they brought Lex down, she could get her daughter back.

"It was ingenious the way you out-smarted him," Gray said proudly. "The bags of blood you used caused the CSI team to determine that there was no chance of survival. Luthor truly believed that he'd won."

Gray explained how she'd sought out the illusive Bruce Wayne, a man who had thwarted her husband's requests for business deals for years. At first, Chloe had believed Bruce's stubbornness to be detrimental to the future of Gotham's economy… but seeing Lex's true colors had made her realize that Bruce might be her first ally.

Chloe frowned. She and Bruce were able to thwart Lex's attempt to take the lives of the remaining family members of the slain super class by taking them underground, but in a way Lex _had_ won. She never was able to get to Xandra, and she hadn't taken Lex down.

* * *

Superman turned his attention to the sky above them in a sudden movement. Something up there had caught his attention. "Wait here," he said, launching into the sky.

Lois followed him with her eyes until he disappeared. "Where did he go?"

Clark frowned as he searched the sky. "I don't know… I can't see him anymore."

Lois turned to face him but before she was able to respond, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her.

Clark took an involuntary step back as a man dressed in black seemed to appear out of nowhere. The dark-haired stranger had practically knocked Clark out of the way in his haste to get to Lois. Seeing Superman land on the roof a few feet away from them, Clark shot him a look of confusion before turning back to where Lois stood in a tight embrace with the man.

"I thought I would never see you again," the stranger muttered.

"Who are you?" Clark asked gruffly, feeling an abnormal sense of jealousy with their closeness. It bothered him that Lois was returning the hug with just as much fervor.

Superman seemed to be watching the interaction with just as much interest as Clark was. "My father," he answered.

Clark turned back to take a closer look. The height and build matched his… as did the hair color… Clark eyes narrowed as he squinted. Could this be his future self?

The man sighed and released Lois with obvious reluctance. When he pulled away, he turned his head and Clark was able to see him clearly.

The man gave a small smile and took a step toward Clark. It wasn't him.

* * *

Lois's heart lurched as the man released her hand and stepped toward Clark. She couldn't explain it, but when he had hugged her, she had felt as if she was complete. It was as if she was being reconnected with something she didn't know she had been missing. Her response to his embrace had been automatic and subconscious.

In fact, it wasn't until she heard him address Clark that her brain clicked into gear again. She blinked as she repeated the word he had spoken. "Dad?"

She moved to stand next to Clark, and they both stood facing the other two visitors with bewildered expressions. Lois silently studied the two men, mentally cross-referencing the similarities they shared with the man standing to her right. As crazy as it sounded, she knew that it was true. The man in black was older, and had a tinge of gray speckling his temples, but the resemblance was complete. But for minor differences, she could have been looking at 3 copies of the same man.

"But, how… We didn't… The obituary said… What?" she stuttered, her mind going a whole lot faster than her mouth could manage.

The man in black had a sad expression on his face. "I am Kon-El of the House of El. My parents are from Krypton… and Earth."

After a beat, he continued. "I'm your son."

* * *

Xavir glanced around the empty room before stepping to the computer he had seen Brynnan use earlier. He was amazed at the amount of technologically advanced hardware that filled their lab. The Guardians were keeping tabs on every project that the Centre was running.

Earlier, as Brynnan explained to him about the events that led to Chloe starting the organization, he'd watched closely while she set up her uplink to the Centre. Before leaving on the shuttle, she had created a breach in the Centre's system to allow for her rogue access. The connection could only be kept alive for periods of fifty seconds at a time, with a buffer of 15 minutes between each connection. He estimated that it would be hours before they could get anything substantial.

The next live connection was due to enact in seconds. Seeing the lights turn on that indicated the connection had been made, Xavir sat down at the workstation and clicked off the timer so the uplink would remain active for longer than fifty seconds. Working quickly, he accessed the Centre's communication network and scrolled until he found the name he was looking for. He smiled as he clicked on it, relieved that the person was online.

"Christian, here," Xavir announced after sliding the headset into position and adjusting the microphone.

"Xavir! Where are you?"

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you…"

Fitz's voice seemed to lower, and Xavir could imagine his friend crouching closer to his computer. "Well, I wouldn't have believed that you would have stolen a shuttle, so try me."

Xavir sighed. How could he explain that he was in an underground lab that rivaled those at the Centre, run by a group of people who claimed that his father was the equivalent of a terrorist? He couldn't.

"Xav? Are you still there?"

"I'm still here. I'm, uh, on the surface."

"Man, what were you thinking, taking her with you? The Professor is on a rampage."

"I'm sure he is," Xavir muttered. "I think we're close to finding the other two… Has there been any update from the Away Team?"

"Actually, there has. Intel flagged a broker trying to market a genuine Twenty Dollar Bill circa 2004. They have tracked the money card he paid the seller with to a hotel downtown New Troy and to some minor debits for a clothing store, food shop, and the Metro. Everything was purchased all within a two mile range of the hotel… I've got to hand it to you, guy. Taking matters into your own hands and everything. If you bring them back before Kairo's muscle does, he'll have no choice but to give you that advance you've been working for."

"Yeah," Xavir agreed flatly, frowning to himself. It wasn't an advance that he'd been after. "So, have they been located at the hotel?"

"No. They aren't there, but there was a report of a hovercycle missing from the Old Metropolis Security bay. It may be a wild guess, but the Professor has the team focusing on the Festival."

"Look-a-likes," Xavir said as the realization dawned on him. Lois and Clark being in the midst of the festival would only make them harder to find… like needles in a bucket of needles. "Where are we on the countdown?"

"A little over 36 hours left, but even if you can get them here, we still have trouble. We can't get the Llecom complex to stabilize and the circuitry on the Delor8 has gone haywire."

"That's not a problem, I know how to get a copy of both."

"You do? How?"

"I'll tell you later," Xavir promised. "But I've got to go. Just… don't tell anyone you've heard from me. I'll let you know when I'm on my way back."

Fitz hesitated, making Xavir's pulse quicken. Finally, he agreed. "Okay. If you say so… but if you get a raise, I want one too."

Xavir smiled and disabled the connection, making sure to cancel the uplink to the Centre as he did so.

A sound behind him caused him to turn around, and he realized that Brynnan had returned to the Lab while he had been talking. Xavir met her gaze and rose from the chair.

"I'm sorry that took so long…"

Brynnan smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "You did your best," she responded, reaching for her earpiece. "Hopefully no one will notice the foreign network connection."

Xavir knew that she was aware that the chances of them going under the radar were slim, but he was grateful for her optimism.

"We've got to warn everybody that the Centre is closing in on Lois and Clark."

* * *

"How is that possible?" Clark asked, unconsciously taking a step closer to Lois.

Kon-El, or Connor, as he'd asked to be called, was standing a few feet away from them next to Superman.

"All we know is that you sent me into the future to keep me safe. It was my destiny to end the 3rd Dominion war and reinstate Superman as hero and protector."

Lois met Clark's gaze, speechless for once in her life.

Clark seemed to read her thoughts and turned to ask the question that was forefront in her mind. "You remember us?"

Connor nodded. "Not very well, but yes. And I heard stories about you every day from my grandmother… I've seen pictures, chronologs…"

Lois seemed to thaw. "Your grandmother?"

"Well, she wasn't really my grandmother, but my father's… my adoptive father's, step-mother."

Clark reached up to rub the bridge of his nose. "I can't… I don't remember..." He turned to Lois. "Do you?"

Lois shook her head as Connor looked on sadly. He didn't know why he had hoped that they would have remembered. "It's okay. It hasn't happened for you yet."

Connor knew that he probably could have approached the situation differently, but wasn't ashamed that he hadn't. When his son had met him in the sky, miles above street level, with information about exactly who was on the rooftop below, he had followed his gut reaction… and went to his mother.

Lois faced Superman. "So that would make you…"

"Kyle," he responded. "Hi."

"Kyle," Lois repeated. "And Connor."

Hearing a beep, Connor reached for his comm device and pulled it to his ear. "Kary, you won't believe this…" he started. His eyebrows arched as he received some information from the person on the other line. "Okay. We'll meet you there."

Connor pulled the comm from his ear and released a breath. "We've got to go."

Kyle looked at his father with concern. "What's wrong? Is Mom okay?"

Connor's eyes slid to Lois briefly before he turned and walked to the edge of the rooftop. He looked over the side and waved for Kyle to join him. "The Centre… they have agents looking for them. Karyn's coming with the Flyer."

Kyle nodded in understanding. "I have to go finish the speech, but I'll meet you at home." The two shared a quick hug before Kyle turned to his grandparents. Even though he knew it was real, it was hard to fathom that this couple, who looked to be the same age as he was, were his father's parents. "I'll see you soon."

The remaining three watched as Superman hovered over the ledge for a moment, and returned to the stage with a nod.

Connor's brow furrowed slightly. Clark recognized the expression on his face, and deduced that he was scanning the building below them. "We're going to have company in a few minutes so we need to make this quick." He turned to Clark. "Can you fly?"

"No… Not yet, I guess."

Lois looked at him in surprise. While she knew that he was Superman… or would be Superman, it hadn't occurred to her until now that Clark… All American, Boy Scout that he was… had super powers.

Connor sighed. He wouldn't be able to fly them both out of there fast enough to remain unseen. "Then we'll walk. Follow me."

* * *

Lois looked down as she reached the end of the fire escape ladder. She didn't know why these things never went _all_ the way down to the ground. What was the point of a escaping a blazing fire if you broke your neck jumping from the ladder?

"I've got you," Clark called up to her.

Standing next to him on the ground, Connor flashed her a grin. For some reason, the identical smiles were all the motivation that she needed.

As Lois fell into his arms, Clark bent his knees to dissipate the velocity of her fall.

"Thanks," she said. The position he was holding her in placed their faces achingly close together.

Connor watched the moment and smiled. Clearing his throat, he pointed in the direction of the street. "We'll just blend into the crowd and head for the Park's exit."

Lois blinked and Clark allowed her to slide to the ground. They followed Connor out of the alleyway and merged into the crowd of people who were cheering the end of Superman's speech.

Lois paused to look at the stage, unable to get over the fact that it was her grandson up there. A hand clasped hers and she met Clark's gaze.

"Come on," he urged softly.

Nodding, she focused on keeping up.

* * *

Lois leaned against the railing on the boardwalk and watched the water. They had waited until they were clear of the park before getting into further discussion.

"Have you been… okay?" she asked awkwardly. She didn't know what to say to this man who was going to one day be her son. A son that she wouldn't get the opportunity to raise.

Connor nodded. "My Dad was great. I grew up with him, my grandfather, and my grandmother… We were safe."

"Was there a note… anything? What about your powers?" Clark interjected. "How did you get from us to… your Father?"

"My grandmother knew everything about me. She was able to help with my abilities when they started showing up. Gran was the one who explained to the rest of us about my destiny. She was there when you sent me away."

Lois turned her head at his last words to hide her frown. She knew it wasn't supposed to, but _sent me away_ sounded so… despairing.

Clark noticed her look but didn't say anything. "What was your grandmother's name?"

"Chloe..."

Lois's eyes snapped back to Connor. "My cousin, Chloe?"

He nodded. "She practically raised me."

For some reason, that bit of information calmed her thoughts a little. She sighed and turned back to the water. It still bothered her that memories of Connor weren't popping up like the others had.

"I did die after all," Clark mumbled under his breath. It was the only answer he could come up with to explain why someone else would have raised his son. Like Jor-El and Lara had done with him… sending their child away to protect his safety and preserve his destiny. History was strangely repeating itself.

Connor heard the comment while Lois didn't, and he looked away sadly. The Guardians had searched for years but never found any trace of Clark. After a while, even his grandparents had come to the conclusion that Clark was indeed gone forever.

"How old were you when we… you know?" Lois inquired.

"About two I guess," he answered uncertainly. "I know that I remembered your smell… and your eyes. It's the oldest memory I have."

Affected, Lois swallowed. "Maybe that's why we're here," she murmured. "To see you and to know that you're okay."

Connor looked at both Lois and Clark, branding their faces into his memory. "Maybe."

The silent moment that they shared was broken as the suddenly choppy water drew their attention. Two black shark fins pierced the surface about 9 meters apart. As they continued to rise, it became apparent that the fins were actually tips on the wings of some sort of vessel.

"What is that thing?" Lois asked.

"That would be our ride," Connor announced with a grin.

* * *

* * *

**TBC

* * *

**


	14. THIRTEEN

**

* * *

THIRTEEN

* * *

**

* * *

"Seriously?" Lois asked as she leaned back into the soft leather seat. She had just been informed that their journey was going to start underwater. "Are you sure we can't just do the whole thing in the air? I have this weird aversion to water all of a sudden. Something to do with an oil drum…" she rambled. 

Clark reached for her hand.

Lois felt calmer but continued to speak. She looked up to where Connor was hovering above the open hatch. "Why aren't you coming with us?"

"No room," he replied, laughing. "It's a three-seater, but don't worry. She's a great driver," he said, smiling at the woman he had introduced to them as his wife. "Everything she has ever hit has turned out all right."

"I like her already," Lois remarked with a smirk. She leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. How she felt about the pilot had nothing to do with her sudden and irrational fear of going underwater.

Connor descended to place a kiss on Karyn's lips. "Race ya," he challenged, and with a wink, he was gone.

Karyn flipped the switch to lower the hatch and began submersing the craft. An awkward silence descended upon the group. What do you say to your in-laws? "We were surprised to hear that Kyle had found you…" she started, reaching above her head to flip the switches located there.

"I think we all were surprised," Clark offered.

Lois sat up and released Clark's hand so she could straighten her hair. "How long have you known Connor?"

Karyn smiled and directed the ship into an underwater cave. "It seems like forever, almost," she answered. "We grew up together. My grandfather was a member of the Justice League. The Waynes took in my family when he was killed.

"Who was your grandfather?" Clark asked.

"Arthur Curry… Aquaman."

"A.C.?" Lois blinked. She thought about the way she and Arthur had met; being saved after hitting her head while diving off a platform at Crater Lake. Looking out of the windshield, she shrugged. "Water… figures."

Clark glanced at her, remembering how she had once felt about the swimmer. Lois felt his gaze and met it with a smile. "_You've_ got me, remember?" she told him, having read his thoughts.

Clark blushed and turned back to the front. Everything darkened as they entered the cave; the only lights coming from the ship's interior. The feelings that he shared with Lois were both new and old… They were comfortable, yet awkward. He knew that it wasn't his fault he was feeling them… he just had to keep them in check.

"We'll start returning to surface level in a few minutes," Karyn announced. "But we'll still be in caves for the rest of the trip."

"So, why is it so important that these agents from the Centre not find us?" Lois asked.

"It's a long story…"

* * *

Lois silently recounted Karyn's story. Glancing out the corner of her eye and seeing Clark's jaw tense as he stared off into the distance, she knew he was doing the same. 

People were a mystery, she decided. She trusted her cousin's ability to read people as much as she did her own. If Chloe had become involved with Lex Luthor, there must have been something redeemable about him… at some point. It was heart wrenching to learn what Chloe had gone through in order to help create the organization that had essentially saved the world.

Having once known Arthur Curry made it even harder on Lois to see what Lex had done to his family. Lois started to wish she had been more suspicious of Lex in the beginning, but stopped when she realized that if that part had been different, then so would everything else. Would that mean she would have never married Clark? Never had Connor?

With a quiet sigh, she turned her mind away from thoughts of her future loss and back to those of A.C and his family. As Karyn had explained, the opposing factions in the first Dominion war had employed chemical warfare, killing marine life in over 50 of the world's seas and oceans. Arthur had been with the other members of the JLA when a panicked call from his wife had sent him rushing back to his home in the Keys, taking Bruce's young protégé, Dick, along for backup.

Later, when the bodies of Arthur, Dick, and Arthur's daughter were recovered, the remaining family members, his wife and eight-year-old son, were transported to the manor. Karyn explained that her family's surname had been changed to Remmer for their protection. Arthur Jr. had grown up along with Gray at the manor, but having seen the attack that had claimed his father's life; he was the more rebellious and hot-headed of the two. When the third Dominion War started after 40 years of calm, he had been the first to break the Guardians cover.

And, thus, had been the first Guardian to die; leaving his wife to care for their 19-year-old and 11-year-old daughters. Karyn had recalled how Connor, her best friend at the time, had understood her grief and anger, having lost his Grandmother only a few years before. Gray had never married, and Connor, having lost the person closest to a mother in Chloe, had decided that it was time to bring Superman back.

Lois shifted her gaze toward Clark again and tried to recall the similarities between him and Connor once more. As she did so, her head began to hurt and she closed her eyes to ward it off.

After a few minutes, Lois opened her eyes again, feeling the ship settle and the engines begin to die down. Blinking away tears she unbuckled her seat belt.

"Everything okay?" Clark asked in concern.

"Yeah," Lois replied with a forced smile. When he continued to look at her studiously, she swatted his chest and flashed him a more genuine smile. "Do you think they'll let me fly this thing?"

* * *

"Grayson Wayne, but I've always gone by Gray," Gray greeted them, shaking hands with Clark. 

"I guess I should be thanking you," Clark stated, glancing in Connor's direction.

Upon arriving at the Guardians' headquarters, they had been met by Connor, Kyle, and Gray. They were now outside of the Flyer, getting ready to head to the manor.

"If anything, I should thank you… both of you," Gray corrected, using a hand to encompass Lois in his statement.

Everyone remained silent for a moment; each lost in their own thoughts. The story Karyn had told Lois and Clark about the history of the Guardians was unsettling. They had read about the attacks on the Super Class, but hearing an account first hand was entirely different than reading about it. Finding out that Lex was behind it all had made their blood run cold.

The casualties that had been wrought en route to the future were devastating. And yet, through it all, this manor had created a safe haven for those that remained. It seemed fitting that Chloe, who had suffered just as greatly as anyone else, had been at the crux of the rebirth of hope.

"I have someone who is on pins to see you," Gray informed them. "Please, come this way."

* * *

"What are you doing here?" Lois exclaimed as the cousins met in a fierce embrace. 

"Looking for _you_!"

"But, _how_ did you get here?"

"I stumbled into a time vortex…" Chloe said as she stepped from Lois's arms to hug Clark.

Lois arched an eyebrow. "Stumbled?"

"Or jumped…" Chloe admitted with a mischievous smile. "I'm so glad you guys are okay."

Clark sighed and nodded. "Pretty crazy, huh?"

Chloe noticed the two men she hadn't yet met and turned. Clark noticed her expression and cleared his throat. "This is Connor…"

Chloe nodded. "I heard." She shared a sad look with Lois. She turned to the younger man dressed in the suit. "That must make you Kyle."

* * *

"How are you holding up?" 

Chloe turned to her cousin with a surprised look on her face. "Me? Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"

They were sitting in a far corner of the Great Room everyone had gathered in. The cousins had retreated to the small couch when Gray had finished sharing stories with them about the Guardians early years.

Lois reached out and stroked the younger woman's hair. It was a force of habit for her to want to look out for her little cousin. Chloe reached up and pulled Lois's hand into her lap.

"How _are_ you handling all of this?"

Lois glanced across the room to where Clark was standing with his two look-a-likes. "I don't know," she replied with a sigh. "I almost feel like I don't even want to know…" she let the thought remain unfinished.

Chloe followed her gaze and squeezed Lois's hand. "When I first learned that I died young leaving a child motherless, I thought we were cursed or something. You know, both of us growing up without mothers, and now our children having to do the same thing. It was even worse when I learned that I left her on purpose."

Lois swallowed and faced her cousin. "I'm sorry, Honey. I wish that it didn't have to happen that way, but I'd hate to think what the world would end up like if you hadn't." She gestured at their surroundings. "I'd like to think that I knew you would be here for Connor… otherwise…"

"He had a good life, Lois. Gray is a remarkable man," Chloe assured.

"I know…" Lois didn't want to talk about her own loss… it made it too real. She searched for something to make Chloe feel better. "It sounds like Xandra had a good life too. Marrying a Greek shipping magnate, living on a private island… She was the princess we always wanted to be."

"Well, I know that Lex took good care of her and her son… especially after her husband died. I guess that much is a relief to some extent. I just wish that letting her know I was still alive and watching over her wouldn't have put everyone else in danger. Isn't it weird to feel this much love for someone who is not in your life yet?"

It was even weirder to feel this much love for someone who was in your life under a completely different circumstance, Lois thought, flicking her gaze across the room again.

Lois flushed when Clark's eyes met hers. She refocused on Chloe. "I'm sorry about Lex. It sounded like things were really good for a while there."

Chloe shrugged. "I'm sorry he turned out to be a crazy bastard," she quipped, causing them both to start laughing.

"A crazy, bald bastard," Lois amended between chuckles.

They kept smiling but the humor had faded for both of them, and the smiles didn't reach their eyes.

"This is serious… like _save-the-world_ serious, right?" Chloe asked.

Lois nodded, and Chloe mimicked the motion. "So, our sacrifices were justified… no regrets."

"No regrets," Lois repeated firmly.

They shared a look before reaching to wrap their arms around one another for comfort.

After they parted, Chloe fixed Lois with a suspicious look. "So, what is this about you and Clark not being able to be separated?"

"I have no idea!" Lois exclaimed. "It's like we're attached at the hip or something."

"Do you guys have to be in the same room at all times?" Chloe asked. Amused, she thought that would make using the bathroom pretty awkward.

"Not in the same room… just not far apart."

"How far?"

"A mile maybe?" Lois estimated. "We really don't know until it happens…"

"Like on the rooftop," Chloe realized, remembering the story of how Lois met the newest Superman. A thought dawned on her. "Were you touching when you went through the vortex?"

Lois frowned in thought. "I don't know… I don't think so. Why?"

Chloe shrugged. "Something to do with magnetized particles re-populated on landing."

"What?"

"I can't explain it… because I don't understand it, but if you're not touching on the way back, it should go away."

"Good," Lois said. "I can't imagine us keeping up this charade once we got back home."

Chloe laughed at Lois's snarky comment. Lois smiled in return, but a part of her was feeling curiously miserable.

* * *

"Sir, may I talk to you for a minute?" Xavir quietly asked, pulling Gray to the side as Connor continued telling stories of his rescues to his biological parents. 

Gray nodded and stepped away from the seating area with Xavir. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Xavir shook his head. "Well, yes… maybe. Um, about Brynnan's plan for the return trip to the Centre tomorrow morning… it would be a suicide mission."

"How so?" Gray asked. He already knew that what the young man was saying was true, but wasn't ready to accept it.

Xavir laced his hands in front of him to stop from wringing them together. It was a nervous habit. "She's the only operative you have inside the Centre, and the only one here who knows the details of the Centre's projects."

Gray remained silent, waiting for Xavir to make his point.

"If she goes back, they'll know… and they'll dig. Everything you have built here would be in danger…"

"What do you suggest?"

Xavir turned at the sound of the new voice. Chloe had heard their conversation from her position behind him.

Xavir stepped to the side and looked at her nervously before swallowing and looking at Gray. "I think I should be the one to take them back tomorrow."

Gray's eyes narrowed as he locked gazes with Xavir. A strange calm surrounded the younger man and he relaxed as he returned Gray's look. He was unable to turn away.

"Tell us why we can trust you." Gray commanded in a soft voice, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"When I helped Brynnan earlier, I felt like I was part of something for the first time. What you have here… it's the family that I've always wanted… What I've always worked for. Most of you aren't even related by blood, yet you come together as if you are. I want to be a part of that, too.

"I can get them back into the Centre and back through a window without the Professor even knowing. I started this whole mess and I just want to make everything right. I can do this… I need to do this."

Gray's piercing blue stare turned soft. "I believe you."

Xavir blinked rapidly as he felt like a hold on his mind had been released. He faced Gray with a bewildered expression.

Gray smiled and nodded in reply to his unspoken question. "People rarely lie to me."

Chloe's eyebrows shot up. She wondered how she was able to cope so well around super-powered people in the future. The exchange she had just watched left her puzzled. Chloe wondered if there was something special about the golden piece of rope that she'd seen in Gray's hand right before he had touched Xavir.

Gray stepped closer to wrap an arm around Xavir's shoulders. "Young man, perhaps it is time for you to live for something other than a place in your father's shadow. There's just one other thing that has to be done."

Xavir felt warmed by the familial half-embrace Gray was giving him. "What's that?"

"After they return, the Hyper Chronos project needs to be taken offline. Permanently."

Xavir looked out at to where Lois and Clark were laughing with Karyn, Connor, Kyle, and Brynnan. He then turned to face Chloe, who was watching him thoughtfully, and paused for a moment, marveling at how close he had come to destroying this future that had been so delicately entwined.

He thought about the secrets that this group had worked for nearly a century to keep from his father and great-grandfather. Secrets that the Centre was counting on the use of time travel to uncover.

He knew what had to be done.

"I agree. And I know just what to do."

* * *

**TBC

* * *

**


	15. FOURTEEN

**

* * *

**

**FOURTEEN

* * *

**

* * *

Lois turned off the light in her room and stood in the darkness outside of the open doorway. The manor was a remarkable structure. It was large enough to house over twenty different people, all comfortably settled in their own suites. The only downfall it had, in Lois's mind, was that once the lights went out, it was just like the cavern it was built in. 

It was dark, quiet, and foreboding, but for some reason, she welcomed it. It matched her mood.

They had stayed up late, hearing tales about the future and trying to cram a lifetime into a bevy of stories; but now everyone had retired to their different rooms. Their journey home would begin in a few short hours, and a little sleep was better than none.

Both Supermen had taken off to complete their patrols, explaining that while the world believed in the illusion of one super hero coming to their rescue, their teamwork allowed them to work faster, more efficiently, and to cover more ground.

Lois extended a hand in front of her, noting that she couldn't see it in the thick darkness. She smiled when another hand enclosed around her own. She had known he was there.

"Hi," she whispered.

"Hi, back," Clark replied softly, stepping closer to her. "Is it strange to say that I missed you?"

"Seeing as your room is next door and we just said good night 20 minutes ago… yes," Lois answered. "But I feel it too."

Clark sighed. "I remembered something."

Lois turned toward the sound of his voice even though she couldn't see him. "What was it?"

"After you died, I, um… started living at the Fortress. I remember wanting to be cold, but not being able to feel it."

Lois laced her fingers through his. She was willing to be patient.

He squeezed her hand gratefully. "Lex found it… the Fortress. I don't know how. Maybe I got careless, or he finally unlocked the cave… but he found me there. We fought. He had a ring. Kryptonite… He kept blaming me for your death… and for my death as Clark, and I was weakening. I remember feeling guilty because he was right. He blamed me for Chloe's betrayal of him… He was so angry and out of control."

Lois released a slow breath as she began to experience Clark's emotions as he relived his dream. Her first instinct was to break contact with him to escape, but she steeled her resolve and held on tighter.

"He was saying things about Naman and Seegith…"

Lois had no idea what he was talking about, but judged it part of Lex's madness anyway.

* * *

Blood covered his hands where he had grasped his chest following the shot. Now, with them laced around his attacker's neck, the slick substance made it hard to get a good grip… that or he was weakening. 

He was having trouble breathing, but that was because a pair of hands were locked around his throat as well.

Pain.

It was almost a welcome feeling. This was a type of pain he could see. It was a pain that didn't weigh on him daily, it didn't throb and surge with every memory. This was a pain that would end… and when it did, it had the potential to take away all the hurt… for good.

Superman grit his teeth, struggling against the iron grip that held him down. He had made a promise. He couldn't give in, even though it would be so easy to do. All he had to do was let go. Ten fingers. Five fingers on each hand. It would be so simple to stop fighting.

But she wouldn't have wanted that. She had wanted him to live.

His suit had become darker over the years, and now the cape hid the dark stain that continued to spread quite well. He thought about the dark burgundy color as his mind slowed in response to the lack of oxygen. He should have washed it more.

The poisonous green death continued to crawl through his veins, paralyzing him with pain as it went. Someone was screaming, and his instinct pricked, urging him to help the person in need. Then he realized that he was the one who was screaming.

The ground began to shake as blocks of ice and rock fell from the sky.

Looking up into the menacing green eyes that bore down on him, he knew a secret that Lex didn't. This wouldn't be the end. "You can't kill Superman."

* * *

Lois shuddered, and Clark released her hand to reach for her shoulders. "Are you cold?" 

"No. Not really," she answered. He hadn't finished telling her about his memory, but she had felt enough through his feelings to have an idea about what happened.

Clark let his hands slide off of her shoulders and they remained quiet for a moment. Lois realized that the silence didn't feel as awkward as it usually did.

"Do you think we did the right thing?" Lois asked softly.

Clark immediately knew what she meant; his thoughts had been on the same topic all night.

"He was needed here," he replied, thinking about how bleak the world would be if its hope had not been restored. "We can't judge ourselves for a decision we've already made."

Lois sighed and they slipped into silence again.

"I had a memory too," she said in a low, almost hesitant voice. "Earlier, on the ship."

Clark turned to her expectantly. "Was it better than mine?" he teased.

Lois chuckled softly. "I think so…"

* * *

"Just hold him for a minute," Lois requested. 

"Uh-uh."

"Clark!" she cried exasperated. "It's just a poopy diaper!"

Clark shook his head and made the sign of the cross with his two pointer fingers. "It's not my turn."

Lois rolled her eyes and said, "I just want you to hold him."

"You got me like that last time," Clark responded, dodging away from her as she came near him with the giggling baby. "You said, 'hold him' and then you left me."

Lois began laughing and set the baby down on the changing table. She deftly removed the soiled pamper, wiped his bottom, lotioned, powerdered, and changed the baby with one hand; all while stabilizing the squirming child with the other.

She shot Clark a pointed look as she picked Connor up from the table. Holding the child close, she pressed a kiss onto his neck, nudging underneath his chubby chin to get to a ticklish spot. "That's okay, Baby Boy," she said sweetly. "Mommy will always be the best diaper-changer in the world."

Clark swept the old pamper off the table into the bin and turned around with his arms crossed. "Was that a challenge?"

* * *

"We're going home tomorrow," she stated unnecessarily after a long pause. 

"Yeah."

"It's a relief… but I'm afraid."

Clark studied her face. With his vision, he was able to see her clearly. She was nibbling on her lip and frowning slightly. "Of what?"

Lois shrugged. "Of not remembering anything about Connor… Of not remembering you. Not remembering how I feel right now."

Clark looked away. "We found each other once, we'll do it again," he said, trying to comfort them both.

"You're right," Lois agreed. "But what if you're not? What if things don't go back the way they are supposed to… and we go back to hating each other."

"I never hated you."

"That's not the point!" Lois sighed. "What would you do if the world as you knew it was going to change the next day, and everything that you knew about yourself was going to be erased in the blink of an eye? What are you supposed to do?"

Clark didn't reply. He began thinking about the way his feelings had become intimately intertwined with the woman beside him over the past few days. He remembered how helpless he felt when he had the memory of her death, and he realized that it was the same feeling he had every day back in their time… when they weren't together.

He had always been missing her… he just hadn't realized it.

Lois turned around and took a step into her room. "Good night, Clark."

Clark snapped to attention at her retreat. "Lois, wait!"

She stopped and turned to face him. He stepped through the doorway. "I know what I would do," he whispered, placing a hand on the side of her face.

"If tomorrow, everything changed and I wouldn't feel the way I feel right now… I know what I would do."

"What?" she asked shakily.

"Love you."

Lois gasped as he leaned into her, capturing her lips with his own in a sudden move. She tried to keep her response soft and controlled but found herself pressing into him as passion ignited her. It felt like it had been 100 years.

Her giggle against his lips caused Clark to pull away. "What's so funny?"

Lois licked her lips. "An inappropriate thought," she replied with a smile.

"Want to share?"

"No," she responded, squirming as his hands slid to her sides.

"Does this have anything to do with that Super_ass_ comment, because I can show you…"

"No!" she laughed, grabbing his hands before he could start tickling her. "I was just thinking…" Her mood sobered. All of this… the teasing, the intimacy… it felt so right, so familiar.

"Are we really going to do this?"

Clark hesitated. "Do you want to?"

Lois emitted a low groan of frustration. Desire wasn't the issue.

The problem was, tomorrow was going to be like pressing a big Reset button. He would go back to brooding over the girl next door (who no longer lived next door), and she would go back to… muffins and coffee.

Clark seemed to read her mind. He lifted her hands and placed them on his chest. "I want you to know that in my heart, you're my wife."

Tears sprang to Lois's eyes. She didn't want to admit that she was such a sap. But… "And in mine, you're my husband."

The words seemed to make the decision a simple one. Clark reached behind him and closed the door.

* * *

"Glad you made it back on time," Fitz greeted as Xavir stepped out of the shuttle's open hatch. He glanced up at the view-screen on the wall. The display showed that the countdown had reached 21 hours. 

"I can't wait to turn that thing off," Fitz announced. "I hate deadlines… especially when they're life-and-death ones."

Xavir patted his friend's shoulder as his three passengers stepped out of the ship. "Thanks for your help."

Fitz grinned. "Oh, you can thank me now, but you owe me big." He turned toward Lois, Clark and Chloe. "Not to be inhospitable or anything, but we're going to need to get you out of here in a hurry. Fitz is the name, by the way. Nice to meet you."

Lois smirked and shook his extended hand. "I'm Lois."

"I know," Fitz replied. "I had this wall pennant when I was a kid…"

"I'm Clark," Clark interrupted, extending his own hand.

Chloe arched an eyebrow at the exchange and gave the red-haired scientist a small wave. "Hey Fitz." She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling at Clark's protectiveness. She hadn't pressed for an explanation when she ran into him leaving Lois's room that morning.

Xavir glanced at the countdown again. "Have you got everything set up?"

"Yes… we'll just need to calibrate the new padd you brought, but that shouldn't take long. I figured we'd use the private medical bay on Deck 3… no one should bother us there."

Xavir nodded. "That's fine. Let's go."

* * *

"Why naked?" Clark asked, fixing Fitz with a wary look. 

Fitz shrugged. "There's really no other option. We have Chloe's original clothing because we found them in her quarters, but the clothes you cam in were never recovered from the hotel room."

"He's right," Xavir confirmed. "We have to be certain that nothing from the future is sent back with you. That means no artifacts, no clothing items… not anything."

Clark glanced over to where Chloe and Lois were sitting on small medical exam tables in the adjoining room. Chloe was comfortably dressed in her own clothes, while he and Lois were wearing long white lab coats… and nothing else.

Clark had drawn them a map of his house so they could program the coordinates correctly for their return, and Fitz was now entering them into the padd.

"You don't have to worry," Xavir said quietly as they walked over to the two women, leaving Fitz with the portable workstation. They were preparing to administer the Rethrick Procedure to erase their memory. "I'll make sure that nothing is copied. Once your immediate memories have been erased, we'll stop the probe."

"No offense, but I hope I don't see you again," Lois declared in a teasing manner.

Xavir grinned in return. He had really grown to like her. "No offense taken." He turned to Chloe, wondering if the look in he saw in her eyes was pride. "Once you have each gone through the windows and we confirm that you've made it, the project will not be launched again."

"Thank you," Chloe responded.

Xavir nodded, and after a beat, gestured for Clark to take the his position on the last table. He pulled some circular patches from his pocket and began placing them on their temples. When he was finished he blew out an anxious breath. "Are you ready?"

* * *

Xavir's manner was purely scientific as he lifted the lab coats from the sleeping bodies of Lois and Clark. The memory scan required that they be unconscious, and instead of waking them, he and Fitz had decided it best to return them in this comatose state. That way, Xavir and Fitz wouldn't have to explain their identities and strange surroundings. 

"Tislor activated. Number one is set," Fitz announced.

Xavir stepped behind the glass partition and tapped instructions into the medical panel on the table in front of him. "Go on one."

Fitz nodded and entered the combination of commands to open the first vortex. The floor near Chloe's table began to dissolve. Xavir slid his fingers along the medical panel and directed Chloe's table to incline. As the angle increased, Chloe slid off of it and disappeared into the window.

Xavir relaxed as the tension in his shoulders dissipated. Everything was going as planned. Things were going to go back to normal, after all. Everything was being put back in its rightful place. "Bring up number two," he requested.

They were going home.

* * *

_

* * *

A/N_: And so, all the toys are put back in their places, and we have come _Full Circle_.  
Epilogue to come.

* * *


	16. EPILOGUE

* * *

**

* * *

EPILOGUE

* * *

**

* * *

"Why hasn't the wave stopped?" Xavir asked, leaning over Fitz's shoulder to see the readings on his computer screen. They had returned to the main lab to monitor the effects of their mission. 

"I don't know… we did everything right."

The countdown continued to tick ominously on the wall's view-screen. A little less than 18 hours remained.

Xavir ran a hand through his hair. The next part of his mission could not be completed until they were sure the return had been successful. He pulled the plastic card Chloe had given him out of his pocket and rubbed the emblem in thought; starting to go through the procedure again to rule out any mistakes.

"There was nothing in Chloe's pockets right?"

"I checked them myself," Fitz replied. "And the other two were naked, so we know for sure that nothing went back with them…"

"That's the only thing that could explain the wave," Xavir muttered, at a loss.

They both looked up as the doors to the lab swept open. The Professor entered at a brisk pace. "Is there a reason that you failed to inform me that you found our time jumpers, Christian?"

"Kairo," Xavir stated.

"Excuse me?"

"My name."

Kairo's eyes narrowed. "This is neither the time nor place for that conversation."

"Agreed," Xavir replied defiantly. "But one day."

The Professor ignored his last statement. "Where are they? We need to ready the Retrhick Procedure for immediate extraction of…"

"They're gone," Xavir interjected, causing Kairo to stop in mid-sentence.  
I sent them back already. I messed up, and you told me to fix it. So, I did."

Kairo let out a dry chuckle. This boy was always getting in his way somehow. He wasn't overly concerned, though. Now that they knew the project worked, he would be able go back anytime he wanted. He would finally be able to achieve his grandfather's goals.

"If you fixed it, then why is the countdown still going?"

When Xavir didn't reply, he turned his icy gaze on Fitz. "Fitzpatrick? Care to interject since this is your area?"

Fitz glanced at Xavir and back to the Professor. His mind was reeling at the exchange that had just taken place. Xavir's name was Kairo? "Theoretically, the only possible solution would be that something foreign to their timeline was sent back with them… but we made sure that didn't happen. Everything was by the book, Sir."

Kairo took a moment to think before rolling his eyes. "Boys, consider the possibility that the foreign entity in question is not an object after all."

Xavir exchanged a panicked look with his friend.

Kairo pointed to the view-screen. "18 hours to remedy this," he charged. "I'll expect a report in two minutes."

Once he exited the lab, Kairo stopped to talk to the agent waiting there. "Follow him… Monitor his every move. And have someone trace that uplink. I want to know exactly who he's been talking to, and where he went when he left here."

"Yes, Sir."

As Kairo strode down the hall, he smiled. He had seen the calling card on the desk and recognized the emblem. His grandfather had been right about his grandmother, just as he had been right about everything else. The Guardians existed, but their time was limited… Perhaps his bastard of a child would turn out to be useful after all.

* * *

**THE END**


End file.

Smallville, Adventure, Drama