Chapter Six: The House of El

“Okay how did you do that?” Chloe Sullivan asked as she pulled her coat closer to her skin and knew that no matter how much she pulled, she was not going to get remotely warm.

“You don’t want to know,” Lois said as they trudged across the frozen tundra towards the crystal structure in the distance. If anything had driven home what being in love with a Kryptonian meant, it was her arrival in the middle of a snow plain after instantaneous travel from the semi-warmth of Kansas. Deciding that she was almost certainly Alice after stepping through a certain rabbit hole, Lois was accepting the rest of Clark’s heritage as it came.

“I want to know,” Chloe demanded as she saw her breath turn to vapor as she followed Lois. Thank God she was wearing boots and not her heels as she had planned this morning. She’d get frostbite even before they got half way there.

Lois didn’t answer, staring instead at Clark’s fortress.

Was this what passed for architecture in Krypton? It was pretty, there was no doubt about it. The architectural design alone was light years ahead of anything seen on Earth. Still, Lois thought as she approached it, it felt cold, unyielding. There was no warmth about it, even if it was surrounded by snow. She wondered what Clark must have thought, being told that this was his people were like, after living in the home of Jonathan and Martha Kent. For the first time, Lois began to understand how overwhelming it was for him.

Every teenager felt alienated. That was nature of being young but Clark, Clark had gone through a whole new definition of isolation. He didn’t just feel alienated, he was one. How hard must it have been for him to be around his friends, constantly hiding everything he was? Is this why he and Lana never got it together? Because he couldn’t tell her?

“Lois,” Chloe persisted. “That cave only reacts to Kryptonian DNA and as you and I are not super anything, there’s no reason for it to have worked.”

“Will you give it up Chloe?” Lois rolled her eyes. “Its going to come under too much information and gross you out. You remember how you were when you wanted to know why Petey Parker never got hungry even though his mom only fed him celery sticks for lunch?”

“This is different then some kindergartener eating worms Lois.”

“Alright,” Lois paused and looked at her with a raised brow. “You said the ‘whatever it is’ only recognizes Kryptonians right?”

“Yes?” Chloe looked at her suspiciously.

“Well that means DNA, does it not?” Lois Lane looked at her innocently.

“Of course.” Chloe retorted.

“And do you think that when Kal showed up this morning, all hot and bothered that he was particularly concerned about birth control or for that matter protection….?”

Chloe eyes widened. “EWGH!”

Lois smirked, “told ya.”

*************

Arriving at the fortress, Lois hated being here with Chloe.

It was nothing personal against her cousin but Lois wished that it was Clark who was showing her this place, not her arriving as an unwanted guest. Not for the first time today, Lois wished it was Clark who was telling her the truth about himself, not her hearing it from Chloe. Even though Lois was eternally grateful that Chloe had all the information she needed, a part of Lois felt guilty that she hadn’t asked Clark to reveal the truth he needed to tell her. In retrospect, Lois knew she was a bit afraid about learning the truth of his origins. Perhaps she had always known that he wasn’t just another meteor freak.

Things had just been working so well between them, Lois hadn’t wanted anything like an inconvenient truth to spoil things. Even if she had never said it to him, Lois Lane knew she was in love with Clark Kent. She knew it with a certainty she never thought possible. Ironically, the Jonathan Kent of her life had turned out to be Clark and Lois knew as she reached the steps of this crystal fortress, that there was nothing she wouldn’t do for him.

Arriving at the fortress, Lois couldn’t deny how beautiful it was as they entered the place, surrounded by the tall crystal spires that gleamed in the evening sun. Even if her earlier impressions did not produce a favorable view of Kryptonians, she had to admit, they knew how to design buildings that took one’s breath away. Miracle of miracles, a place that left Lois Lane at a loss for words. With a laugh, she wished she could have shared that with Clark since he would have gotten a big kick out of it but of course, he was in a place she could no longer reach.

“So what now?” Chloe asked, almost as out of her depth here as Lois.

“I don’t know,” Lois shook her head. “The answer to helping Clark is here but I don’t know where to start looking.”

Moving across the irregular surface of the fortress’ floor, Lois wondered if this place was a mixture of crystal and ice or one of each? So many questions filled her head but Lois didn’t know which one to ask.

“Something is wrong,” Chloe said as they approached what she recognized from her previous visit as the central hub of the fortress. She had helped Clark fight Milton Fine here and she didn’t recall it being bathed in an angry red glow.

“What?” Lois turned to her cousin.

“This panel,” Chloe looked at the collection of clear crystals bathed in red. “It shouldn’t look like this.”

Lois stared. “What should it look like?”

Chloe didn’t know what she was looking for. “Lois, look.” She sighted the dark crystal that was imbedded in the panel. “This is the same crystal that Milton Fine tried to trick Clark into using to free Zod.”

“Who?” Lois felt she was five steps behind.

“I’ll explain later,” she reached for it. “We got to pull this thing out of there.”

“Chloe you don’t know what that might do,” Lois declared, halting her hand. “Let me. I’m the one with…”

“Don’t say it,” Chloe winced. “I’m already grossed out. Just pull the thing out.”

Lois frowned and reached for the point of the dark crystal. Among the clear crystal shards, it almost looked profane, like a malignancy that had no business being where it was. Lois put both hands around it and pulled. It wouldn’t come free easily but Lois was not about to give up, putting her strength into it, she grunted and yanked it with all the force she could muster. The dark crystal flew out of her hands and shattered against the floor.

“Oops?” Lois gave Chloe an apologetic look.

The effect upon the other crystals was immediate. Immediately, the red vanished and she saw nothing but clear, shards, gleaming under the sunlight. Whatever taint the dark crystal had caused was gone for now.

LOIS LANE, a voice boomed around her.

Lois exchanged a look with Chloe. “What the hell?”

“Shhhh Lois,” Chloe nudged, suspecting the voice belonged to the true master of this fortress and it wasn’t Clark.

LOIS LANE.

“Who the hell is that?” Lois hissed at Chloe.

MARTHA KENT BROUGHT YOU HERE WHEN YOU WERE INJURED.

“What….” Lois started to say and then remembered the dream she had following the plane crash months ago. She had dreamed she was in heaven and told Clark as much but it was no dream was it, she was here. In this place. “That was here? This was the place I thought was heaven?”

“Heaven?” Chloe looked at her.

Lois shook off the question and addressed the voice who had called her by name. “Clark is in trouble, we need to help him!”

KAL-EL HAS BEEN AFFECTED BY RED KRYPTONITE.

“We know already!” Lois shouted back. God for a cryptic omnipresent being, this guy liked stating the obvious. “Tell us how to help him.”

MILTON FINE HAS INJECTED REFINED RED KRYPTONITE INTO HIS BLOODSTREAM. IT MUST BE EXTRACTED IF KAL-EL IS TO RETURN TO HIMSELF.

“Oh my god,” Chloe exclaimed understanding now why Lois had seen nothing on Clark’s person. “Ask him about the thing… the one Fine used to get rid of the silver kryptonite.”

“You ask him,” she gave Chloe a look.

“Lois, I’m not the one who might be his daughter-in-law…”

“That’s not funny,” Lois snapped promptly but then paused, because Chloe was right. “There was a device that Fine used to extract silver kryptonite from Clark, if I have any shot of saving him, I’ll need that.”

Suddenly, from one of the white, angled walls, a slot seemed to appear through the ice before extending outward to reveal the curious device that looked part ray gun and part super soaker. She took the device in her hand and marveled at how light it was.

”This will do it?” Lois asked the voice.

IT WILL REMOVE THE KRYPTONITE PARTICLES FROM KAL-EL.

Lois really hated hearing Clark being called that, especially after her close encounters with Kal.

YES, the voice of Jor-El answered. HOWEVER, MATTERS HAVE BECOME MUCH MORE SERIOUS THAN KAL-EL’S SITUATION.

Chloe who had drawn away from the panel to look around, sighted something that made her hurry across the irregular surface. Dropping to her knees, she picked up the object and studied it with an expression of worry on her face.

“LOIS!”

The intensity of Chloe’s call made the brunette start running. “What is it?”

“Look,” Chloe lifted up her find for her to see.

Lois who had spent months after the trail of the Green Arrow Bandit, recognized immediately what Chloe had in her hand. “I don’t understand,” she directed the question more at Jor-El than Chloe. “I’ve seen this before. This belongs to the Green Arrow. What is it doing here?”

FINE NEEDED A VESSEL, Jor-EL responded promptly. AS IT COULD NOT RETAKE THE BODY OF ITS PREVIOUS HOST, FINE SELECTED THE ONE YOU KNOW AS THE GREEN ARROW TO BE THE VESSEL HE NEEDED.”

“Oh God,” Chloe exclaimed, understanding far swifter than Lois because she had been present for this act before. “Oh no, Clark didn’t….”

UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE RED KRYPTONITE, FINE WAS ABLE TO CONVINCE KAL-EL TO OPEN THE PHANTOM ZONE AND RELEASE ZOD. HE NOW INHABITS THE BODY OF THE GREEN ARROW.

“What is it Chloe?” Lois demanded, suddenly realizing that thing had escalated beyond the simple task of saving Clark.

“Zod, Zod is loose!” Chloe said quickly. “We have to get back to Smallville. We’ve got to get Clark back or none of us is going to survive!”

Chloe remembered all too well what had happened the last time Zod was unleashed. Clark had barely managed to escape the Phantom Zone and defeat the General. How were she and Lois going to manage the same while trying to free Clark from the effects of the Red Kryptonite?

“Who is this Zod?” Lois demanded, wanting answers.

GENERAL ZOD IS A CRIMINAL FROM KRYPTON. HE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR PLANET. HE WAS TRAPPED IN THE PHANTOM ZONE WITHOUT A BODY UNTIL THE BRAIN INTERACTIVE CONSTRUCT YOU KNOW AS MILTON FINE, TRICKED KAL-EL INTO RELEASING HIM.

Zod. A bad guy with all of Clark’s powers and none of the moral inhibitors, the thought was terrifying. Chloe was freaking out and with good reason. Looking at the device in her hand, Lois considered what had to be done. She had to get close enough to Clark to use this thing first and then deal with Zod. She couldn’t get close enough to Clark with this device or a meteor rock without his X-ray vision seeing it.

A plan formed in her head. It was risky but it was the only shot they had.

“Chloe,” Lois looked at her cousin. “You said Lionel Luthor knows about Clark.”

“Yes,” Chloe nodded shaking from the cold a little. “He’s known for about a year now.”

“Okay,” Lois could work with that. “When we get back, you need to go find him. You need to tell him what’s happened and ask him cook something up for you.”

“Cook something up?” Chloe stared blankly at her cousin. “What?”

Lois told her.

Chloe’s jaw dropped open. “Lois, are you crazy? Do you know what could happen if you’re wrong?”

“He’ll kill me,” Lois said simply, perfectly aware of the game of Russian roulette she was playing. “If we don’t get him back, we’re dead anyway. If this guy Zod’s as bad as everyone says then he’s not going to keep Clark around for long. Megalomaniacs have low tolerance with competition.”

Chloe could agree with that.

“Alright,” Chloe nodded. “Let’s do this thing.”

PART SEVEN