Chapter Fifteen: Gone but Not Over

Zod was gone but nothing was back to normal.

Standing at the front of the Luthor Mansion or rather what was left of the place, Clark surveyed the damage and wondered if Lex would even bother to rebuild it when the destruction he and Zod had caused was so thorough. Entire sections of the mansion had been demolished. One part of roof had collapsed entirely, unable to withstand the loss of too many support beams. Between his fight with Zod and the seismic disturbances caused by the black ship’s hard drive or rather what was left of the Brain Interactive Construct; Clark wouldn’t be surprised if the only thing holding up the mansion was paint.

Good.

Using his enhanced vision, he could see Chloe still leaning over Lois, tending to her. Speeding into the building, leaving a debris cloud behind him as he closed the distance between them, Clark tried not to panic at the sight of Lois’ blood. As it was, seeing her like this had almost unhinged him enough to consider killing Zod. Right now, he needed to be in a better frame of mind to be of any use to her.

“Clark!” Chloe exclaimed with a look of visible relief at his appearance. She quickly got to her feet, and hurried towards him, meting him mid way with a big hug. “Thank God you’re alright! Where’s Zod?”

“Gone,” Clark answered, his jaw tensing at the sound of the villain’s name. Clark did not want to think about Zod right now. Even though the enemy was banished to his prison in the Zone, the destruction he had let behind was still here and Clark was going to have to deal with it. However, for now, his hatred subsided for a more pressing concern. Rushing to Lois’ side, he swallowed in horror as he sighted the jagged piece of wood that continue to protrude from her left shoulder. Clark supposed he ought to be grateful that Lois was still unconscious and oblivious to the pain for now.

Seeing her like this once again sent fresh shivers of fear through him. Clark couldn’t lose her! He couldn’t even imagine it.

“Lois?” Clark’s called out as he knelt down and tried to find the best way to remove the wood impaling her shoulder. “Hold on Lois, I’m right here.”

Her lack of response made Clark even more terrified about losing her.

“Clark I’ve called an ambulance,” Chloe explained quickly sensing his struggle to not panic and keep calm. However, she had no good new to offer him which made her almost as frustrated as he was about to be, ‘but its going to take time. With everything that’s happened today because of the earthquakes, they don’t know when they can get here. You’re going to have to take her to the hospital yourself. It will be far quicker than us waiting around for an ambulance to maybe show up.”

”You’re right,” he nodded quickly, still somewhat dazed. He couldn’t even hold her in his arms as he weighed the prudence of trying to remove the jagged stake from her shoulder. Getting her to the hospital though, that he could do. That was he could manage. Get his Lois the help she needed before it was too late. Forcing the frantic thoughts from his mind, he focused and had some idea of what to do next. “Chloe help me,” he asked.

“What can I do?” Chloe answered without hesitation.

“Lift her up a bit so I can get to this bit of wood that’s got her trapped,” Clark ordered.

“Shouldn’t we try and take it out?” Chloe asked as she lifted Lois’ shoulder and was rewarded by a painful groan that hollowed out both her and Clark’s stomach at the same time. “Without super strength, you should be yank it right out of her.” Lois would scream at that but at least she would be free.

“No,” he shook his head, having dealt with farm animals enough to know where prudence was needed when tending to their injuries. “Sometimes, keeping it where it is, slows down the loss of blood. If we take it out,” he reached under Lois and snapped the protrusion at the base, freeing Lois from her trapped position against the floor. Like a bug on someone’s science project. “If we take it out, she could bleed out even worse.”

“Oh God,” Chloe winced as she saw the broken edges of what used to be the polished wooden floorboards of the Luthor mansion, covered with Lois’ blood. “Go Clark, get her to the hospital.”

“I’m on my way,” he said hoisting Lois off the ground. It made the urgency tighten like a noose around his neck when she barely stirred.

“Chloe, I left Oliver in your car. He’s still unconscious. Drive him to the farm and keep him there. When he wakes up, tell him I’ll explain everything when I get back. He needs to hear it from me.” Clark tried to hide the guilt on his face but couldn’t manage it.

“Clark it wasn’t your fault…”

“Please,” he said holding up his hand to keep her from saying anything further. “I don’t want to talk about that right now. Just get going. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

She nodded and realized that Clark’s guilt was something she couldn’t help him with. Although she wanted to go with him to the hospital, Chloe understood the importance of what he was asking of her in regards to keeping an eye on Oliver Queen. “I’ll wait for your call.”

Giving her a nod of acknowledgment, Clark turned to leave. With Lois firmly in his arms, he sped out of the mansion, creating a small tornado of debris and dust behind him as he let. Clark was no sooner out the door when he used his new found ability and pushed off the ground. He was gaining more and more control with each effort to fly and as he soared, could not help but feel a slight rush of exhilaration as he left the ground beneath him.

Holding Lois close to him, Clark wished more than anything that he could share this with her right now.

**********

Oliver Queen woke up in the front seat of a strange car disorientated and aching.

For a few seconds, he merely sat on the front seat of the car, trying to discern where he was and how he’d come to be here. Looking around him, he made the obvious jump that he was in a car and judging by the interesting color scheme of the steering wheel cover, a girl’s car.

“Did anyone see the truck that hit me….?” Oliver groaned, asking no one in particular.

He was suffering what amounted to the worst hangover in creation and it was all the more annoying because Oliver didn’t quite remember drinking in the first place. He wanted a good drunk to go with a hangover like this, he thought absurdly. It took a few minutes of staring at through the windscreen, processing slowly that he was at the Kent farm before suddenly, it returned in a kaleidoscope of swirling images.

Clark!

The memory returned with such force that Oliver instinctively reached for the door handle and pulled it open, needing to get out of the car. However, he had underestimated how much strength he had in his condition and spilled onto the dirt unceremoniously. All this succeeded in doing was bringing Chloe Sullivan out of the house and hurrying to him.

“Oliver!” She exclaimed upon reaching him. “Take it easy. You’re pretty out of it.”

”No kidding,” Oliver deadpanned as he got a face full of dirt.

“I’m sorry I left you in the car,” she apologized as she took him by the arm and helped him to his feet, “but you were a little heavy for me to carry into the house by myself.”

“Hey I don’t like fast women. Buy me dinner first at least,” he retorted, trying to focus. “What the hell happened to me? I feel like five miles of bad road.”

Oh was he going to love this story, Chloe thought with a frown. “You had a bit of an episode…”

Oliver stared at her with a raised brow as they both stumbled awkwardly up the porch steps of the Kent house.

“An episode?” he stared at her impatiently, wanting answers. “Of what, Veronica Mars?”

Chloe rolled her eyes, “I think I’ll let Clark tell you,” she returned just as firmly, not at all ready to touch that one. “I’m just the delivery girl.”

“Great,” Oliver muttered, having little energy to debate the matter. “I’m being stalled by Fed-Ex.”

*********

The Smallville Medical Centre was in chaos.

When Clark arrived at the familiar locale where he had so often come to visit his friends and family, he was revisited by images of Dark Thursday. The hallways were filled with injured people and frantic hospital staff attempting to cope with the overwhelming burden. Some people were languishing on gurneys in the corridors, while others spilled over from the waiting rooms, seeking some news about the loved ones being treated. Clark tried to fight the guilt that reminded him that he was inadvertently responsible for all of this.

After all, he had unleashed Zod.

Hurrying to admitting with Lois in his arms, fighting his way through the other people in the place, Clark hated how familiar he was with the route. Too many of his friends and family often wound up here, for one reason or another.

“Please I need help!” He called out to anyone who could hear. “My girlfriend….she’s hurt!”

Fortunately, Lois’ state attracted attention and a rather frazzled doctor hurried to him. The man looked like he was run of his feet as he approached them. “Nurse, get a gurney over here! We’re taking this one in immediately!”

“Let me guess, she got hurt in the earthquake?” The doctor asked as he started giving Lois a quick examination, checking her vitals and such as the gurney was pushed towards them by an equally overworked nurse.

“Yeah,” Clark nodded mutely, having no presence of mind to make up a good excuse. “Please can you help her?” He demanded, needing to hear someone say it.

“We’ll do our best,” the doctor offered him a faint smile but Clark noted he would not make any promises. Considering how many of the same requests he must have been getting from others today, Clark supposed that it was understandable.

When the gurney arrived, Clark had to let Lois go and watching her being spirited away from doctors and nurses down the hall towards the surgery room made Clark feel so helpless he could hardly stand it. Like one of the lost souls drifting through the hospital, he went through the motions of filling out the appropriate forms at administration, giving them just enough details to catalogue Lois as one of the many casualties of the day. All the while, he was bombarded thanks to his enhanced hearing with more and more horror stories about what had occurred it in what was being called Ash Wednesday.

Unable to do anymore and knowing he had other things to deal with while Lois was in surgery, he could see them treating her to the walls and knew it would be sometime before he was allowed to see her, Clark decided to leave the hospital for the moment. It was becoming too hard to block out all the voices and compounded his own guilt for the part he had played in their misery. After making the duty nurse promise that they’d call him as soon as Lois was out of surgery, Clark headed back towards the Kent farm to deal with Oliver.

He had some explaining to do and Oliver deserved to hear it from him.

***********

It seemed to Oliver Queen that while he had his blackout, the world had gone completely and utterly bugfuck.

Eyes glued to the television set, the images on the screen were almost surreal. The news was even worse. Three nuclear power plants had been wiped off the map, killing hundreds in the immediate area. Despite the one mile blast radius originating from each plant, there was virtually no radiation fallout. Unfortunately, there were no survivors from any of the stations and no evidence to determine what was wrong. Authorities were attributing the catastrophe as some strange prelude that brought about the events being labeled as Ash Wednesday.

The entire globe had suffered the same seismic disturbances that had caused so much damage during Dark Thursday only this was prolonged and like before the cause was undetermined. It was almost certainly being attributed to some aberrant geological behavior but the exact nature of it was a mystery, particularly when it seemed that part of the effect was to effectively knock out every satellite orbiting the planet. Oliver supposed that it was some thing to be proud of that the images he was watching now was probably being broadcasted by Queen Industries hardware.

Still there were other mysteries, closer to home.

A trip to the bathroom found Oliver staring at himself in the mirror, examining bruises on his skin he did not remember acquiring, freshly healed scars that hadn’t been there before. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember where he had been and the only image that came to mind was Clark and that amazing palace of ice, somewhere out in a snowy landscape. Drawing in a deep breath, Oliver was gripped with the fear that whatever had happened on Ash Wednesday, the missing hours of his life was at the heart of it.

He could see it in Chloe’s eyes even though she was trying her hardest not to show it.

Stepping out of the bathroom at the sound of the front door opening and closing, Oliver saw Clark entered the Kent house. Chloe, who had been in the kitchen making them something to eat, hurried out of the kitchen.

“Clark, how’s Lois doing?” She demanded anxiously.

Not looking at her but staring instead at Oliver, Clark answered, “they’ve got her in surgery right now. They couldn’t tell me anything. I’m heading back there soon. I just came back to see how you guys were doing.”

By that Clark meant him, Oliver guessed.

“We’re just fine,” Oliver stared him down. “Well Chloe is anyway. Me? I’m just a little confused about what the hell happened to me.” The usually unflappable billionaire snapped with understandable anger.

“Chloe,” Clark turned to his best friend for a moment, “maybe you should go to the hospital. I’ve got a lot of things to deal with,” he tried not to throw a glimpse at Oliver when he said those words. “I don’t want her to wake up alone.”

“Gotcha,” Chloe nodded in understanding. She would have been at the hospital herself if it were not for the fact that she had been asked by Clark to keep watch over Oliver post-Zod possession. “I want to go there anyway. I’ll call you was soon as I hear anything.”

“Thanks Chloe,” Clark said offering her a little smile and surprising her with a kiss on the forehead, “for everything.”

“Anytime Clark,” Chloe smiled, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze before she left the duo their privacy. Besides, she really didn’t want to be present for the fallout when Oliver was told what he had been up to the last two days.

Oliver didn’t speak until Chloe had shut the door behind her.

“That bad huh?” He looked at Clark as he crossed the floor back to the sofa.

Clark let out a sigh and started to speak but Oliver cut him off.

“What happened in that place Clark?” Oliver lowered himself into the seat and almost glared at the Kansas farm boy. “What did you do to me?”

“It wasn’t me Oliver,” Clark declared, pacing the floor. “Oliver, I’m sorry about what happened. I really am but I wasn’t myself.”

“Wasn’t yourself?” Oliver glared at him with an even more cutting stare. “Clark, you let that whatever it was hold me down while God only knows what happened.”

There was no way around this, Clark thought with anguish. So far all Oliver knew of Clark Kent was that he had powers. No doubt the billionaire classified him as just another meteor freak. There was no reason for Oliver to suspect that Clark was anything but what he seemed, a farm boy with some extraordinary powers. Clark could maintain the ruse he supposed, fabricate some story and tell Oliver that the same thing that happened to Lex Luthor had happened to him and leave Krypton and Fine out of the equation.

However, he could not. For his part in this mess that had encompassed the globe, Clark owed Oliver the truth.

Slowly, he began to explain about his origins, about Krypton and the meteor showers. Clark spoke for almost thirty minutes without pause and during that time, Oliver Queen merely sat and listened, saying nothing. A brow arched in surprise every now and then over some of the more fantastic parts of the tale but all in all Oliver did not interrupt. Clark revealed how Milton Fine had infused him with red kryptonite, used its influence to convince him to release Zod before implanting the General into a new body.

When Clark was finished, he waited for Oliver to answer.

It sounded so far fetched that Oliver almost didn’t believe it. No, rather did not want to believe it. However, he knew what he had seen on the television set, the destruction and the chaos. Hadn’t he paid someone to find out how exactly Lex had managed to storm the Pentagon that day? Lex hadn’t been able to answer. Even under the threat of death, he hadn’t been able to explain just how he was able to walk through a hail of bullets.

“Oh God,” Oliver let out a heavy breath, trying to deal with it.

“Oliver I am so sorry,” Clark repeated himself. “I never meant to hurt anyone….”

“Just stop it,” Oliver retorted. “Don’t apologize, okay? I can’t deal with that right now. Lois,” he looked up at Clark. “Is she okay?”

“No Oliver,” Clark shook his head somberly. “She’s not.”

PART SIXTEEN