Written by Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner
Transcript prepared by Sarah Wood, submitted to the L&C board by carolm.
Clark, wearing the costume, is saving two people from a burning building. He sets them down safely on the sidewalk.
"Are they all right, Superman?" a firefighter asks.
"I think they're okay, just very scared," he assures the man. Just then he hears Zara's voice in his head.
"Clark, we need very much to see you. I'm communicating with you telepathically, which is the way of the Kryptonian people."
"Sarah?" Clark says aloud.
"I know you have no reason to trust us. I can only give you my word that you must. There's so much to tell you, Kal-El."
Following Zara's telepathic instructions, Clark comes to an alley, now dressed in regular clothes. In his head, he hears her voice. "Up just ahead, the metal door around the corner." He opens it and enters a large warehouse, in the center of which is an enormous white, glowing orb. "Walk forward, Kal-El," she instructs. "Imagine an entry and you'll find one."
He approaches the sphere, putting his hand out towards it, and all of a sudden he's inside the chamber that Zara and Ching have been staying in while on Earth, their spaceship. They are standing there waiting for him.
"You can't be Kryptonians, that's impossible! They all died!" Clark protests to them.
"Not all, Kal-El," Ching tells him.
"My name is Clark," he corrects.
"I know this is very difficult, Clark," Zara says patiently.
"Difficult? You nearly killed me! Along with thousands of other people in this city!"
"Could we get beyond the whining and on to the issue at hand?" Ching asks.
"Ching, please," Zara cautions. "Why don't we all sit?" Stools materialize around the table, and drinks upon it, so Clark sits with them. "Clark, my name is Zara, and this is Lieutenant Ching. On the day Krypton exploded, your father launched you into space. As infants, we had already been taken from the planet, part of an expedition in search of a more stable place to live."
"How many of you were there?" Clark asks.
"A thousand or more, left homeless when the planet was destroyed."
Ching says, "The expedition colonized a barren rock of a planetoid, which was named New Krypton."
"And the race prospered," Zara says.
"It's no easy task when you're living on a rock. No fast food or situation comedies there, Clark."
"Ching," Zara admonishes.
"Of course, our planet has a red sun like Krypton, so we have to scrape by without super powers," Ching adds.
"Our people are bound together by an alliance between several families."
"The alliances are renewed by marriages between these households," Ching explains.
"Whoa," Clark says. "I'm trying to stay with you. Why are you here? And why did you put me through such hell?"
"You've been without Kryptonian influence for a long time," Ching tells him. "We had to find out if you were worthy."
"Worthy of what?"
"Worthy of your heritage, Clark. Worthy of marriage. To me."
Clark stands up. "Whoa! What are you saying, that we're supposed to get married?"
"No, I'm saying that we already are," Zara says.
*Opening credits and commercial break here.*
Clark is trying to explain all this to Lois back at his apartment. She says, "Let me get this straight. Sarah, from research, is really this Krypton babe, who has got big plans for you?" He nods. "So, who is she? Some sort of relative? Your cousin, a sister?" she asks hopefully.
"Well, no, apparently... she's my... wife."
"Your wife?!"
"On Krypton," Clark clarifies.
"Oh," Lois says brightly, "well, we're not on Krypton!" She gives a brittle laugh.
"Lois, it's a thing that they do. They marry you when you're a baby, if you're... of noble blood," he says uncomfortably, looking embarrassed.
"Noble blood," she repeats slowly.
"I'm Lord Kal-El," he tells her uncomfortably, "of the House of El."
"Uh-huh," she says, and there's a pause. "And Miss Krypton..."
"Zara," he supplies.
"... is, of course, a bigwig too."
"Uh-huh," he confirms.
"No she's not," Lois says immediately, dismissing the idea. "She's a whacko! Clark! You don't actually believe any of this!"
"Lois, I was on their spacecraft. You saw them fly! You tell me!"
She looks worried. "Oh yeah, well, you're right, there was the flying, wasn't there. Oh God!"
"Lois, I'm as blown away by all of this as you are. I mean, to find out one night that there are living Kryptonians, I'm married, and there might be a civil war..."
"Civil War? What?" she asks.
"That's what happens in their society if the ruling families fall apart," he explains.
"I just don't see what any of this has to do with you," Lois says.
"That's why they're here. They expect me to go back with Zara and rule over New Krypton."
Lois stares at him, stunned and uneasy.
* * *
It's a peaceful night in Smallville, when suddenly a creature materializes in the park in front of the Town Hall with a Star Trek transporter-like effect. "Before we lost Zara's last transmission," a voice says, "she said the infant Kal-El landed in this village, Smallville. Find him!"
The alien creature says, "You do not command me, Lord Nor. I am not of your world. I will fulfill the terms of my contract. I will murder Kal-El." He keeps rolling his head around and sticking his tongue out, and he has long pointed talons for fingernails, and he looks gross.
* * *
Lois and Clark are having an intimate conversation as they walk into the newsroom. "I'm not saying that I'm going back with them, Lois," Clark is telling her.
"Look, I'm sure that their cause is very noble, but it doesn't justify what they're asking, it doesn't justify those monstrous tests that they put you through." Lois gets herself a cup of coffee.
"Well, in Kryptonian logic, they had to know if I was up to the task," Clark excuses them.
"Yeah, well I guess it would take a special guy to schuck his adoring parents, and the woman he loves, for a life of loneliness and violence and possible death on some space rock... Maybe I'm missing the big picture."
"No, no, this is obviously a very emotional topic for you," Clark says, trying to be understanding.
"Yeah, well, us whacky Earth women, we get mighty cranky about losing our husbands!" She starts walking to her desk.
"I only meant that... Kryptonian character is more reserved and analytical."
"Kryptonian logic, Kryptonian character... Why are you so Kryptonian all of a sudden?" She sits at her desk, and Clark perches on the edge of it.
"I am not more - you know - all of a sudden," he says, not wanting to be overheard. "I always have been. I'm just now discovering my heritage."
"Clark, this is your heritage. Earth is your home. Isn't it enough that you help millions of people here that count on you? Not to mention the one person that really counts on you - me."
"Lois, don't worry. I know where my home is, and I know who I am. There's no confusion about that, okay?"
Suddenly Zara's voice in his head interrupts them. "Kal-El, we need very much to see you."
"What?" Lois asks, seeing that he's listening to something.
"Zara, and Ching. They're calling to me telepathically. Kryptonians can speak to each other like that."
Lois looks put out. "Great," she says, nonplussed.
* * *
Zara and Ching - wearing identical men's suits - meet with Lois and Clark in one of the conference rooms. Zara is sitting, and Ching stands protectively nearby. "So, Sarah," Lois begins as though it's a casual conversation. "Ah, Zara," she corrects herself. "All this time, I thought you were just this shy, awkward girl working in research."
"Yes."
"I used to tease Clark that you might have a little crush on him, didn't I, Clark. And he'd say, 'Oh Lois, you're being silly', and we'd laugh." She gives a high-pitched, nervous giggle. "That was before we realized that you were, of course, married to him," she finishes flatly.
"So Kal-El has told you," Zara comments.
"Oh, yes," Lois says brightly. "Yes, everything. Not telepathically, of course. The old-fashioned way, you know." She uses one hand to move her jaw open and shut to pantomime talking. "And Ching," she says, addressing him. "You are..."
"Lieutenant, bodyguard, and defender to the death of Lady Zara," he says without humor.
"Uh-huh," Lois says, taking that in. "Well listen, see, I know what it is you want from Clark, and frankly, I think you've got a lot of nerve."
"Thank you," Ching says sincerely, not quite catching her intention.
"What Clark doesn't realize is the urgency of our plight," Zara says. "Lord Nor is closing in on us."
"Who's Lord Nor?" Clark asks, speaking up at last.
"Next in line for my hand, should you annul our union," she explains.
"Oh, well that's good," Lois says enthusiastically. "Then the trip's not a total loss!"
"Nor is a monster, a soulless brigand who would enslave all who oppose him," Ching states.
"Marriage to me would ensure his reign, and he will do anything to achieve that," Zara tells them.
"He's already dispatched his favorite assassin to dispose of his problem," Ching says.
"His problem being...?" Clark asks.
"You," Ching says.
"Does this assassin have powers, like yours and Clark's?" Lois asks.
Zara answers, "No, he's not Kryptonian. On the other hand, he has never failed."
"You can see how desperate Nor is," Ching says, "and why it is imperative we return quickly."
"Wait a minute, you're asking us to trust you. How do we know you're not agents of this Lord Nor yourselves?" Clark asks.
"Yeah," Lois chimes in, latching onto that hopefully. "Yeah, it's not like you've been the souls of honesty, you know! Good, Clark!" she tells her partner, pleased.
"Do you have the craft that you first journeyed to Earth in?" Zara asks him.
There's a long silence. "I know where to get it," Clark says.
* * *
In the Kents' farmhouse, the assassin is looking through photos of Clark and the Kents, all jumbled together on a table. Looking at a bunch of flowers, he smells one. He snorts as if it's offensive, and bites the head off it, gobbling it down. Suddenly he hears Jonathan coming down the stairs, calling back to Martha, "No need to get up, I'll make myself a sandwich, Martha."
Jonathan passes through the room, and sees all the pictures on the table, and pauses. He continues in to the kitchen looking around cautiously, and the assassin surprises him from behind, grabbing him by the throat.
"Where is Kal-El, the child who fell from the sky?" the hideous creature asks in his hissing, rumbling voice. Jonathan refuses to speak, but is clearly terrified. The alien hooks one talon through Jonathan's nostril. "Where is he, this son Clark?"
Martha approaches the kitchen, saying, "Now you've got me going, I need to have a snack too." Jonathan is standing at the refrigerator. "Did you find the sourdough?" she asks. We see Jonathan lying crumpled on the floor, unconscious, just out of sight. It is the creature standing in the kitchen.
"Hmm-mm, right behind the pickles. You run along and I'll make you one."
"Are you sure you can manage?"
"Oh sure, nothing to it," he says. "You run along, dear."
"Thanks, hon," Martha says fondly and goes back upstairs.
'Jonathan' morphs back into the alien, who starts after Martha.
Commercial break here.
Lois and Clark - holding hands - and Zara and Ching stand around the spaceship that brought Clark to Earth, which Clark has brought to Zara and Ching's spaceship. "I'm surprised, Kal-El, that you have chosen to share the location of our vessel with an outsider," Zara says coolly.
"I share everything with Lois," Clark says.
"And you don't find this constant intimacy draining?" Ching asks curiously.
Lois and Clark look at each other, and simultaneously answer, "No." Neither sounds terribly convincing, though. Ching looks as though this is a bizarre way to live.
"Clark, can you read these symbols?" Zara asks, running a hand over the symbols engraved along the sides of Clark's ship.
"No, are they Kryptonian?"
She reads them for him. "'Behold Kal-El the Noble of Krypton, born from the House of Lo and into the House of El.' The symbols go on to direct Kal - Clark - to place his hand alongside the hand of Zara from the House of Ra." She puts her hand in a geometric depression. Clark, who has been holding Lois's hand, slowly frees one of his hands to do the same, the other one still connected to Lois. With their hands both in place, the 'S' on the nose of the ship turns to color, and a yellowish hologram of a man appears.
"I am Jor-El, the father of Kal-El," he says. Clark looks stunned, and his hand shifts from its place, making the hologram waver. Zara grabs his hand to keep it in place.
The hologram continues. "If I am being seen it means that both Kal-El and his birthwife, Zara, are alive and together, for only your unified touch can activate this image... just as only your united lives will keep strong the dream of a peaceful Krypton. My voice reaches out across the years and galaxies, calling upon my son to keep alive the watchfires of his people, bringing them from the darkness of chaos and into the light of peace." The man turns his gaze to Clark. "My dear son, that is my legacy, that is your destiny."
Clark reaches out, wanting to touch the man, but when his hand leaves the ship the hologram crackles and vanishes, and he is left groping at the air. In his attempt to reach his father, he has let go of Lois's hand.
* * *
Clark returns to his apartment, alone, deep in thought, and is surprised to find his mother there, waiting for him. "Mom?"
"Hi honey," she greets cheerfully, coming to hug him.
"What's wrong?" he asks. "Is Dad okay?"
"Oh, Dad's fine! It's your Aunt Opal, she broke her hip so I flew in to help out."
"A broken hip on top of a ruptured gall bladder?" Clark asks incredulously as he sits on the sofa with her. "What, did she fall out of her hospital bed?"
"Exactly!" Martha says with a nod. "Very hard!"
"Oh man, it doesn't rain, it pours!"
"Oh, honey, you look so tired. Don't you want me to rub your shoulders for you, like I used to?" she offers, gesturing to a kitchen chair.
"Yeah, sure. I guess these last couple of days have been kind of intense," he says, sitting down. Martha stands behind him.
"You know you can tell your mother anything." She wraps her hands around his neck and squeezes with all her might.
"Some things have come up about my past, that could change all our lives," Clark tells her. She squeezes again. "Some strangers have contacted me about my Kryptonian family."
Martha gives up trying to strange him in irritation. "Clark, you're either very tense or you have a dense molecular structure!"
Clark chuckles. "Or both, Mom. Anyway, until tonight I wasn't sure that these visitors were who they said they were." Martha, trying to break his neck, looks frustrated. "Are you sure you want to hear this part?" he asks.
"Oh don't worry, Clark," she says, cracking her neck to one side. "Your mama's tough." She picks up a metal skewer of some sort from the table and stabs him hard in the back. The thing bends without affecting him. Martha looks at it in astonishment.
"They say I have a destiny to fulfill," Clark tells her. She stabs him with another skewer, with the same result. "I thought everyone from Krypton was dead, but apparently a whole colony survived -" she stabs him again "- living on this empty, rocky, planetoid called New Krypton. Oh don't stop, Mom, whatever you're doing feels great." She tries yet again in fury. Just then the phone rings, and Clark gets up to answer it. Martha quickly hides the skewer and puts on a smile.
"Hello?" he says into the phone.
It's his mom. "Clark? Someone strange was here this evening."
Clark glances over at Martha, standing in his apartment smiling at him, confused and wary. "Your father was unconscious. I thought he fainted but when he came to he said this... person, was looking for you!"
"Are you okay?" Clark asks her worriedly.
"We'll be fine," she assures him.
"Okay, be careful," he cautions her.
"I will."
"I'll call you later," he promises, hanging up. He turns slowly to face the imposter. "Mom?" he asks, looking thoroughly suspicious.
"Defend yourself," 'Martha' tells him in a gravelly voice, and in a quick movement, the alien spits acid at Clark, who jumps out of the way just in time. He goes to grab her. "Oh, honey," his mother's voice cajoles, while green acid drips down her chin. The long talons flash, ripping the front of Clark's shirt. Clark shoves the creature that looks like his mom backwards onto the sofa, and she stands, cracking her neck to one side again. She morphs, then, into the alien, and Clark looks at the creature in utter disgust.
"Kal-El, you have become a wizard?" The creature tries to attack with his talons, but Clark grabs his wrists.
"You'd better find yourself another job. This assassin thing isn't working out for you."
"I am ready to die," the thing hisses.
"Well I'm not ready to kill."
"What? What has become of you here?"
Clark grabs his throat. "We're going to go see some people and figure out what to do with you," Clark tells the alien, dragging him to the door. He opens it to discover his landlord on the verge of slipping a paper under the door. Alarmed, he looks at the alien, held at arm's length out of sight of the door.
"Oh, Mr. Kent, I was just about to slip this under your door, there's going to be a minor..." She pauses when she sees that Clark isn't alone. The creature has morphed into a sultry blonde. "... rent adjustment," she finishes.
"Mrs. Cutler, I've got to be..."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I seem to be interrupting something," she says pointedly. "And I thought you were engaged to Miss Lane."
Clark has no idea what to say to get out of this situation.
The blonde says, "Clarkie, I should be going."
"No, you're not going anywhere," he says firmly.
The blonde looks to the landlord helplessly. "I just don't know what to do with him," she simpers.
The landlord intervenes. "Mr. Kent, you must learn that when a woman says no, she means no," she says, taking the blonde's arm and pulling her outside the apartment, away from Clark, who is in no position to stop her. "Now I don't wanna have to call someone and make a scene," she warns as the blonde gives Clark a smile and leaves.
"Mrs. Cutler, I -" he begins.
"You just go back in there and take a cold shower," she tells him crossly.
"Excuse me," he says politely, as he goes past her to look for the alien, who has vanished.
* * *
The next morning, Clark and Zara - still wearing her men's suit - are taking a walk together as Clark tells her about the creature. "And then he just changed again, just like that! What is this Tez?"
"He's an animal. He comes from a barbaric planet where assassins are bred and trained and hired out to the likes of Lord Nor. Why didn't you just kill him?" she asks bluntly. "You're obviously a lot stronger than he is."
"I try not to kill anything, I don't believe in it," Clark tells her.
"But he's no doubt caused a thousand deaths, he doesn't deserve any better himself."
"When I found out that I was the most powerful man on this world, I had to make a decision: whether my powers stood for destruction or for life... and I chose life."
"On New Krypton we'd choose whatever was expedient, and we'd take a more pragmatic view."
"Well I guess I'm just the sloppy, sentimental type," Clark says with a smile.
"You've been on this sloppy planet way too long, I don't know how you stand it," she jokes.
He chuckles. "You just haven't given it a chance," he tells her as they walk into a park. Tez, the assassin, is watching them.
"Ching wouldn't approve of this," Zara says, "losing sight for one second of our objective."
"Ching needs to get a life."
"He hates it here," she says with a grin. "The loud sounds, the smells, the cluttered peoples' minds... I tell him he's kind of a snob." They sit down together on a park bench.
"Why do you put up with him?" Clark asks her.
"Well, he's a... highly accomplished military thinker."
"Oh, well, that's good. But if you guys were from Earth, then I would guess, you know, by the way he sort of hovers around you, that he's crazy about you."
"Well, on New Krypton, nobody is crazy about anything."
"That's too bad, because as loud and cluttered and sloppy as this world is, it's also full of passion, feelings... like I have for Lois. And feeling like that, that is the greatest thing that there is!" he says.
"And it's a selfish thing, certainly for people born of noble blood."
He tries again to explain how he feels to her. "This thing that I have with Lois, it's the kind of thing that you grab on to, and you never, ever, let go of, because it is one of the few perfect things in this world, and I value that above all else. Above my own life. Zara, I can't go with you," he tells her. She just stares at him. "Did you hear what I just said?"
"Yes, Kal-El, I heard your words," she says with a smile, "but I also know your thoughts. You haven't truly made up your mind at all."
Clark sighs heavily.
* * *
Perry spots Jimmy in the newsroom. "Oh, Olsen, come here! I want you to hop down to Photo and get them to print up the shots that I've circled," he says, handing Jimmy a sheet of proofs. "I want you to wait for 'em, and bring 'em back up here."
"You got it, Chief."
"Oh, and don't stop for anything. Time is awasting, huh?"
"Yes sir," Jimmy agrees, heading out. Tez goes after him, and a moment later Jimmy comes back into the newsroom, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders. Lois and Clark come in from the elevator, and he starts towards them.
Clark is telling Lois all about Tez. "What's dangerous about this assassin is that he can change shapes, you know? He can be anyone he wants. Good morning, Jimmy."
"Hi Jimmy," Lois adds.
"Morning," Tez says with a bright smile for them. When the walk past, he strokes his face with a talon thoughtfully.
"It's just that I don't have any frame of reference for any of this," Lois tells Clark, "and for you, I can tell there's a weird familiarity to all of it. It just makes me feel like you're drifting away," she says sadly as she sits at her desk.
"Lois, I'm not drifting anywhere. I told Zara I'm not going."
"Well, I wish that sounded more convincing," she tells him.
After a pause, he says, "That's what she said."
"Well, nice to know I have something in common with the missus," Lois says blackly.
"Lois," he says in disapproval.
"I'm sorry, it just bugs me. You've had two weddings, and only the one to her is real!"
Suddenly Clark hears a cry for help. "I have to go," he says quickly.
Lois sighs. "The voice you just heard..."
"A bridge collapsed," he explains rapidly.
"Oh, good!" Lois says in surprised relief that it isn't Zara again. "I... I mean..."
Clark grins, knowing just what she means. "We're going to work this out, okay?"
"Sure," she says softly, not sounding convincing. He kisses her and leaves quickly.
Perry comes out of his office and sees Tez/Jimmy. "Jimmy! I thought I told you to wait down there for the prints! Well, now I need a hand with a couple of other things. Come on."
Tez looks at Lois, and goes reluctantly into Perry's office.
"Jimmy, I'm gonna revamp the assignment board, and I need an updated list of who's doing what. Oh, and I want Rewrite to take another whack at this," he says, handing the creature an article, "and do me a favor, would you?" He hands over a plate of food. "Send this steak back downstairs. The darned thing is blood rare."
Tez looks at the rare steak and slurps longingly. He looks back at Perry - perhaps wondering what's wrong with the meat.
"Jimmy, stop looking at me as if you're from outer space," Perry tells him.
Tez stops in front of the Chief's office door, looking at the steak and licking his lips. Then he looks up and sees Lois on the other side of the glass pane of Perry's door, looking down at his hands with wide eyes. She looks up at him, horrified. Looking down, he sees his talons.
"Jimmy? Today!" Perry reminds him. The alien turns to look at Perry, and when he turns back Lois is gone.
Outside the office, Tez dumps the plate onto a mail cart and goes looking for Lois. Lois, having hidden nearby to wait, follows him to a corner of the newsroom that's deserted, and while there are people in the background, there is nobody nearby. She looks around for Tez/Jimmy, who surprises her from behind, now looking his usual gruesome self.
"I shall enjoy killing him," the creature tells her, startling her. "Those with the strength to resist only die more slowly. I watch the fear in their eyes, as the last flicker of life goes dark. The same fear that I see in your eyes."
"I'm not afraid of you," Lois says bravely, although she's trembling in fear as the creature circles her, talons dancing near her skin.
"You stupid creature! I can feel your fear. But it's not you I want. You must be left behind to grieve. What is the use of killing without a griever?" Through this he chortles - a wheezing kind of laugh.
"You be afraid," Lois says, fighting to control her voice.
"You have no idea what you're up against."
"I can be his equal. What is his, I will make mine." With another rattling laugh, Tez leaves a shaky Lois alone.
Commercial break here.
Lois goes to speak with Zara in the spaceship. "I just want you to leave," she tells her. "I want you to go away and leave us alone, so this Tez person will have no reason to kill Clark. I am begging you!" she implores tearfully.
"I can't go, Lois, there are too many lives at stake," Zara says, not without compassion.
"What about Clark's life? What about my life?"
"If Kal-El doesn't return, Lord Nor will seize power, which will divide all the ruling houses in the hold that they have over the people. Riots will be followed by mass murders, followed by civil war."
"Do you love Clark?" Lois asks after a long pause.
"This was never a question of love," Zara assures her. Then she confesses, "As a matter of fact, I have feelings for Lt. Ching. But what I am talking about is more important than two people's love."
"I've always thought that love was the most important thing there was."
"I know how much you love Clark, and what he feels for you, and I wish Clark could stay here forever. But Kal-El cannot."
"You're asking me to sacrifice everything... for a world I'll never see," Lois says.
"I'm asking you to save a world that's robbing us both of the men we love," Zara corrects her.
* * *
Clark is sitting alone on a park bench, looking at the stars and thinking, when he hears Tez's voice. "I adore the night, it's the time of the deadliest hunters. I know you can hear me with that powerful hearing, Kal-El, but where am I?" Clark looks around. "I could be any one of them, couldn't I," Tez crows. "Tear them all apart, you're bound to get me. But you won't tear them apart, will you? This is why I will win." Clark dashes into the bushes and emerges on the other side in the Superman costume. "Because I will stop at nothing!" Tez reveals himself to Clark.
"Superman, what an arrogant name you have taken," he chortles, pulling out a weapon.
"Drop it, Tez," Clark tells him.
"Die, Kal-El!" Before he can fire, Clark sends him reeling back against a treek trunk with his super breath. Tez inhales it, and then breathes it back out at Clark in a green mist, making Clark stagger slightly. When he straightens up, Tez is gone, but he can hear the alien's voice. "You see? I am learning! Next time, I will win!"
* * *
Clark's parents have come to Metropolis, and are having tea with Lois and Clark. "So if you do go to this New Krypton," Martha says, after the whole story is laid out, "you wouldn't have any of your powers, is that right?"
"I'd be like anyone else," Clark says.
"Able to die like anyone else," Lois reminds him quietly.
"So, help me out here. What do you guys think I should do?" he asks his parents after a long silence.
"Oh, Clark," his mom says, "do you know how much I want to say you should tell these people to just get lost, that this isn't your problem?"
"And I guess a lot of folks would say that's the smart thing to do," Jonathan chimes in.
"When your father and I were young, we marched for civil rights," Martha tells him.
"We were hit with fire hoses, chased by dogs... Ah, it was something," Jonathan remembers.
"And people said to us, 'Why would you go there? This isn't your fight!' and I didn't even know what to say! Because it was something we believed in."
"We've never been asked to send a son off to war, but if we were, and my son asked me, 'Should I go?', I'd say to him, 'Is this your fight?'"
"Is this something you believe in?" Martha adds.
Clark draws this in, troubled.
* * *
Later that evening, Lois is standing out on Clark's balcony alone, looking up at the stars, knowing that one of them is New Krypton and is calling to Clark, fingering her engagement ring.
She looks in through the windows, where Clark is still sitting at the table, looking at her sadly. They both know what he must do and what will happen.
* * *
They go to Zara and Ching's spaceship together the next day, holding hands. Clark makes the entrance appear. "You have something to tell us, Kal-El?" Ching asks.
Clark takes a deep breath. "We have something to tell you."
"He and I have decided that he should help you in your struggle," Lois says, trying to keep her voice steady.
"And you both understand that Lois must remain here? She'd never survive the other world," Zara says.
"We understand,"Clark answers, exchanging a look of misery with Lois.
Ching approaches Lois. "I know what it is you're giving up," he tells her softly.
Lois glances at Zara and then looks into his eyes. "I know you do."
"I have possibly underestimated you, Lois. If I've seemed unkind, understand that carving out a homeland in a hostile universe leaves us very little time in our lives for kindness, or love."
Lois has tears in her eyes. "Lieutenant, without kindness, what is your homeland worth? And without love, what are your lives worth?"
Ching has no answer for that.
"There's still the matter of Tez," Zara reminds them all. "He won't willingly let you leave, Kal-El. Can you overcome him?"
"He doesn't have the powers that I have, but he seems to get stronger after each encounter with me. It's almost like I'm fighting myself," he adds, trying to explain it.
"So, he was imitating you," Ching says.
"No," Lois interrupts, realizing something. "Tez is becoming him."
"What?" Zara asks, not understanding how that is possible.
"Tez said that he could become Clark's equal. 'What is his, I will make mine.' Clark, he's using your own strength against you, like some highly advanced martial arts technique."
"So whatever I throw at him, he throws back in a boosted form," Clark realizes.
"To turn Superman's own strength against him would make Tez unstoppable," Zara says, worried.
"Unless Clark could do the same thing to Tez," Lois suggests uncertainly.
Zara closes her eyes and frowns. "Tez is very near."
* * *
Clark, in the costume, is in the alley near the spaceship.
"I am here, Kal-El," Tez's voice says from somewhere nearby. "I am here, Kal-El!" he repeats gleefully, revealing himself. He holds up a small sphere. "Meet my challenge, if you dare!" It shoots a lightning bolt at Clark, slamming into his chest and sending him reeling. Clark retaliates with a blast of heat vision, and Tez sends it back in a bolt of green energy from his own eyes, once again staggering Clark. "You are finished, Kal-El!" Tez crows, but the next blast he sends at Clark, Clark blocks with his hands and somehow repels back to Tez, following it with another blast of heat vision.
Tez stands there unsteadily, and Clark rushes him at super speed, sending him into the brick wall so hard that it leaves an indentation. Tez crumples to the ground, dazed, as Zara and Ching land in the alley.
"Impressive," Ching says.
"Most impressive," Zara agrees.
"What should we do with him?" Clarks asks.
"Tez has failed. Among his kind that's unacceptable," Ching says.
"He will bring his life forces to an end," Zara explains. Tez somehow commits suicide, his eyes turning into black empty voids.
A voice in mid-air startles the four of them. Lord Nor says, "You have won the battle, not the war. If you're fool enough to make the journey, Kal-El, I'll await your arrival - and ruin -- on New Krypton."
* * *
That evening, Lois is in her apartment putting some of Clark's things into a box for him to take to New Krypton with him -- some newspaper articles they wrote together, some photos of the two of them, etc. The doorbell rings as she's folding a sweater, and she opens it to let Clark in. "Hi," she says softly, already teary-eyed.
"Hi," he returns.
Lois throws her arms around his neck, hanging on tight. Clark hugs her to him as though he never wants to let go. At length, though, they do. "Your sweater," she tells him, showing it to him as she goes back over to the box. "You lent it to me that time that we flew to Bangkok for Thai noodles," she reminds him, trying to sound normal, trying to keep both of them from breaking down. "I thought you might need it. Who knows what the weather's going to be like on New Krypton, it might be..." She stops, unable to continue the pretense. "I don't know what to do here. I could pack some cookies, or darn some socks." Her eyes fill with tears. "I can't even write you."
"I don't know if I can do this," he says miserably.
Lois takes a deep breath, fighting down the tears, being strong, helping Clark do what they both know he must do. "You can," she assures him.
"What I want to do is just take you in my arms, and fly away," he confesses.
"From what? Yourself? Your destiny? I will be here, waiting for you, Clark. And if you can return, you will."
"You have so much faith in me," he marvels.
"Oh, well, that's all I have," she says unevenly. "I think that's what's keeping me standing here, cos when I let myself imagine that tomorrow without you, I start to shake."
"Lois, if there was any way that I could take you with me, I would," he tells her earnestly.
She takes his face in her hands. "I know," she whispers.
Struggling to keep control of herself, she moves off to open a jewelry box on the table. "I never got a chance to wear my wedding ring," she says, taking out a silver chain that has her ring on it. "I was hoping that you could keep it for me." She puts it around Clark's neck.
"I will keep this as safe as I keep my love for you," he assures her. "Lois, I have loved you from the beginning."
"And I'll love you til the end," she tells him simply.
"In my heart, I am your husband."
"And I'm your wife," she whispers.
"Always."
They look into each other's eyes for a long time before Lois tries once more to keep them from falling apart. "So, which star is yours?" she asks, moving to the window.
Clark stands beside her. "I don't know if you can see it. There." It twinkles obligingly.
Lois follows his outstretched hand. "I see it." She looks at him. "I'll watch it every night." She lets the curtain fall closed, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him with longing, and the two sink to the floor together.
* * *
The following day, Superman is making his farewell speech from the Daily Planet, being carried on every television and radio station. "Although I have always loved life here on Earth, and have called it my home, I have another home as well... one that needs me now. But wherever I am, I'll carry the best of Earth with me. And while I'm gone, I ask each one of you to look to yourselves for the strength, decency, and compassion that I know each one of you has inside. Emerson said self trust is the essence of heroism. Inside each of you is a hero. And so I leave, knowing that a world full of heroes has nothing to fear."
He steps down from the microphones, and goes to Perry and Jimmy, who are both taking his departure very hard. He shakes Perry's hand. "I'm counting on the Daily Planet to be the conscience of Metropolis," he says to Perry, who nods gruffly.
Then Clark lays a hand on Jimmy's shoulder. Jimmy is trying not to let tears come to his eyes, but he's really choked up about Superman leaving. "Jimmy, be a friend to Lois," Clark asks of him.
"Of course. Um, Clark wanted to be here, but he's out covering the reaction to your speech."
"Well, Clark knows how I feel," Clark tells him. He walks towards Perry's office, and the two watch him leave. Then Jimmy holds up the front page for Perry to see. "We're ready to roll on this," he says. There's a picture of Superman, and the heading 'A World Without Superman'.
Clark's parents are waiting with Lois in Perry's office to say good-bye to him privately, and all three turn to him when he enters. He goes first to his parents.
"You're the only parents I've ever known," he tells them. "The only parents I've ever wanted. Whatever good I bring to New Krypton will be because of you."
Martha starts to cry, and both of them envelop Clark in a hug. "I love you," she whispers through her tears.
"You take care of yourself, son," Jonathan tells him. Clark nods, and they stand back to let him say good bye to Lois. They approach each other slowly, hardly able to look at each other, and when Lois raises her eyes to his they're bright with unshed tears.
"Take care of them," he asks her of his parents. "Please."
She nods slowly, lowering his eyes again, trying so hard to be strong, to keep it together and not break down in front of him, to give him the strength to leave her. She reaches under the collar of his costume and pulls out her wedding ring on the end of the chain, and then tucks it back out of sight.
"Don't forget me," she says softly.
"Lois..." He knows that he never will, even if he never returns. The door opens, and Zara and Ching stand there waiting.
"It's time," Lois says slowly, meeting Clark's eyes again with difficulty, determined to face this with dignity and not to burden Clark with her emotions. Clark blinks away tears, unable to find any words to express how he feels. Reluctantly he lets go of her hands and turns to follows Zara and Ching into the newsroom. They fly up to the windows on the second level, where they turn to wait. Clark follows them more slowly, and turns also to look down at the gathering below, where Perry and Jimmy stand with the media, and Lois and his parents stand at the door to Perry's office.
Zara and Ching fly out the window one at a time. Clark watches them go, and then turns back to Lois with longing and despair. She looks up at him, her enormous eyes luminous with the tears she dare not shed. Then he vanishes with a flash of red.
Lois stares where he was, the tears spilling out. "It's over. Everything's over." Martha and Jonathan stand one on each side of her, as she looks as though her legs are about to give way beneath her, and she clings to them for support. "I shouldn't have let him go," she cries.
"Lois, you two will find a way," Jonathan comforts.
"Dearest Lois, a love that risks nothing is worth nothing."
* * *
Inside the spaceship, Zara and Ching are preparing for departure when Clark comes to join them. He has changed from his Superman costume to a Kryptonian outfit of form-fitting black, with black boots tipped in cobalt blue, a black belt, and a cobalt blue 'S' emblazoned on his chest, and he's wearing Lois's wedding ring on the silver chain tucked underneath it. He's ready.
* * *
Lois is alone in her apartment that evening, curled up on the sofa with her feet drawn under her, hugging a pillow to her body, and she looks as though she's been crying for quite some time. Clark, in the ship, takes the ring out from his suit, holding it with his eyes closed. Lois hears his voice very faintly in her head. "Lois," he calls. She stands up, letting the pillow fall, wide-eyed. "Lois," she hears again, more strongly this time. She goes to the window and looks out. "Lois." She sees a bright streak of light leaving the Earth. "I love you," Clark tells her. Her eyes fill with tears as she lays both hands over her chest, staring up at the stars.
The End.
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