To refresh your memory, from Part 35:
Clark felt absolutely inspired as he and Lois flew over to STAR Labs to drop off Lois' hair sample to Bernie Klein. His greatest power was the ability to fly, and the one he had missed the most. He knew that Lois adored flying with him, too. Spotting Klein's open window in his lab, he silently entered the room and hovered in back of Bernie until he spun around in shock, feeling their presence.
"Good Lord, Clark, what a way to inform me that your powers have returned," Bernie spit out. "I take it that your sense of humor has returned as well!"
Clark wore a huge grin on his face. "You're right on both counts, Bernie. I'm back, and I'm feeling great!"
Lois, feeling a sense of urgency, handed the plastic baggie with Thorul's red locks in it to Dr. Klein. "This is what I believe to be the hair of the guilty party," she informed him proudly. "We nearly took our lives in our hands to retrieve this. When can you give me the good news?"
"Probably not until Tuesday, Lois. Tomorrow is Sunday, and Mondays are hell on wheels. I promise you, first thing Tuesday morning. You'll be back at the Planet, I expect?"
Lois frowned. "Yes, I should be, unless I kill Mark Boyle first. I hope Perry has the good sense to keep him away from me!"
Clark laughed. "If Boyle has any good sense, *he'll" stay away from you, honey!"
Both men laughed.
"I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me through this whole Nightfall ordeal, Bernie. You're a great friend," Clark said sincerely. "I'll never forget it. Anytime I can return the favor-"
"Don't worry, Clark. I know where to find you! And I may surprise you by taking you up on your offer!"
Lois gave Klein a good-bye hug, embarrassing him completely. "Tuesday, then. I'll be awaiting your call."
The pair flew off into the night sky, leaving Bernie smiling and shaking his head simultaneously.
~~~~~
When Clark flew solo to Smallville, he could get there in about five minutes. Flying with Lois, however, took a bit longer – almost a half-hour. Entering the tunnel in the woods adjacent to the farm house, they arrived in the basement. Clark's hearing alerted him to the fact that the home was vacant. No heart beats, no TV – no breathing. His anxiety level shot upwards. Floating up to the kitchen, his worst fears were realized. Not only was no one home, it looked as if they weren't coming back for a very long time.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Clark gently stood Lois upright, a look of terror in his eyes. "Honey, they're gone!"
"Clark! When's the last time you spoke with them? Were they going on a trip or something?" Lois had a sinking feeling that the "Hank & Herb" team were behind their disappearance, but she didn't dare say a word to Clark.
"I generally call them every other day, honey, so I guess it was Thursday. Omigod! Do you think someone found out they're my folks and took them for ransom?" Clark immediately scanned the area for fingerprints and determined that two strangers had recently been in the kitchen with Martha and Jonathan.
"Clark, there's no sign of forced entry," Lois reasoned. "Whoever was here with them was familiar to them. Perhaps the Langs invited them to go away for the weekend. Did they leave you a note at all?"
"That's right! Ma and I had made a deal that if something happened to them, she would leave a clue in the loose floorboard by the pantry," Clark remembered. "Let's see if she had time." In a flash, Clark had located a small envelope crammed in the space between the stud and the wooden plank. In seconds he had opened the letter and together they both started to read its contents:
"My dear son Clark and wonderful daughter Lois,
"We recently found out that your counterparts in the world we're from are alive in some type of weird "Phantom Zone". Herb and his great-great grandson, Hank, came to visit us. Apparently Lex had created clones to protect the real Clark and Lois, who he sent to this strange dimension to save them from the New Kryptonians. Their son, C. J, our grandson, was born in this world. They asked us if we wanted to visit them, and as much as we love the both of you, we raised this Clark and knew and loved his Lois since she was eighteen. We simply had to go. We were warned that we might not be able to return to this world, so this might be good-bye.
"Hank and Herb didn't want us to tell you where we went, but we know how much heartache you've been through in your life, my sweet son, and didn't want to torment you with worry. Since you have Lois with you now, we felt better about leaving.
"In case we never see you again, we want you to know that you filled a great void in our hearts, and in the short time we've been family, we've loved you both as much as our own Clark and Lois.
"Thank you for giving us a home and a new lease on life. We will always love you.
Ma and Pa"
Clark sat down on one of the kitchen chairs, completely stunned by the news. He looked as if he had lost his best friend. He began to sob openly. Lois wrapped her arms around him and held him as he wept.
"Lois, I feel like my parents just died all over again," he whispered. "I love them so much. I need them. Why did this have to happen now, when I just got my powers back and I have you in my life? I wanted us to be a family…"
"I know, sweets, I know. They were like the parents I never had," Lois agreed, her eyes glistening as well. <Omigod. Maybe I should just come clean with him about this whole mess. Obviously, Hank and Herb told Ma and Pa that the world might be coming to an end..>
Clark looked Lois dead in the eyes. "Honey? I think my telepathy is coming back. Do you know something about this? I just got a distinct feeling from you that you're hiding something from me."
Lois gulped, looking down, not wanting to make eye contact with her husband. "I do. But it's complicated and… well, it was bad enough that I was going to be one to carry the knowledge and the burden…I wanted you to be happy and not to worry."
Clark grabbed Lois by the shoulders. "Honey… that's so sweet, but they don't call me 'Superman' for nothing. Why you should you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders? Tell me… or just *think* it. It'll be faster."
Within five minutes, Clark had mentally grasped the scenario at hand and the information he had garnered was both unbelievable and disconcerting. "So you only have five more days before you have to go back to Ma and Pa's world and solicit their H. G. Wells for assistance? Honey, you must be a nervous wreck. You're quite the actress," he said, admiration on his face. "I wouldn't have know you were going through all this. You were in full "Mad Dog Lane" mode back there at Edge Enterprises!"
"I had years of practice projecting a cold business façade, but in reality, I've been a basket case," Lois admitted. "And what really upset me is that when the whole 'parallel universe' problem is fixed, I don't know if we're going to be together. We don't know if the Lex Luthor that lives will be the good guy or the bad guy. There's even an outside chance that he might be my husband," she spit out. "Yikes."
"Yikes is right," Clark agreed. "Honey, I can't imagine a world that you and I would not end up married. We're soul mates. According to Herb, we have reincarnated together in many, many lifetimes. Our connection is way too strong. I have confidence that when the world changes, our jobs may change, but our love never will. You have to believe that," he said, tenderly kissing his wife and stroking her soft cheek. "It's what kept me going all those years you were in Brazzaville."
"I love you so much, Propaganda," Lois said softly. "Can you imagine that we might wake up and I'll be a nurse and you'll be an EMT? And never remember being reporters?"
"No, journalism is what kept me going through the dark period of my life, when the other Lois left this world and I still hadn't found you," Clark admitted. "Knowing that we had a shared occupation was a comforting thought to me. It made me feel so close to you."
"And if you hadn't worked for the Daily Planet when I sent the e-mail, we might not have met right away. After all, it was *you* they sent to come rescue me."
"True. Honey, I *like* this life so much; well not quite as much with Ma and Pa gone, but I love our friends - Perry, James and Bill, and I'm sure in time, I could get to love your mother too," Clark joked. "I can't believe that their theory is correct. How could that trip in time create an alternate universe? There must be other factors at work."
"It does make your head spin, it really does," Lois nodded in agreement. "They told me that the different worlds' vibrational frequencies are in such close proximity that if we don't unite them, there could be cataclysmic results. Apparently Hank has been studying time travel and parallel universes for some time now, and Herb has shared his body of work with him as well."
"Then by rights, there should only be *one* earth – the original Clark and Lois' earth, right?" Clark theorized. "Why aren't we uniting all three worlds together?"
"I asked that question. Apparently our world was created when Lois and Clark went back in time to Smallville, 1966 to save baby Clark from Tempus. The fact that Clark actually held himself in *his* arms as a baby created *our* earth."
"You mean that when Lois and Clark returned to their time, the world they left behind was *our* world – that was actually *me* that he held?" Clark was beginning to understand the topsy-turvy science of time-travel.
Lois smiled. "Yes, I guess it was! And because your life was just beginning, it was like a clean slate. The problem with the third world that was created when Herb, Lois, and I went to San Diego was that I was already 8 years old at the time and since two versions of yourself can't exist concurrently, it created a completely different path for that Lois. You see, there's a balance, somehow. In our world, *your* parents died when you were ten. In the third world, Lois' parents died at age ten. You agonized that you weren't yet fast enough to save them, and in Lois' case, she became a nurse because she felt that if she knew CPR, she might have been able to save them. You have both carried severe guilt over your parents' deaths."
"True. How bizarre," Clark mused. "So Hank and Herb believe that somehow if you three don't go to San Diego, the third world will never be created and the fragility of the time stream and space-time continuum will be repaired."
"That's their theory," Lois agreed. "You know, I'm so glad I shared this with you. It helps to try to make sense of this with another person."
"So honey, if all of this is going to change – why are you so intent to prove that Thorul is Lena's father? Why bother?"
"The man raped me, Clark. He kept me in a horrid environment for ten years to keep me away from my own daughter. There's a karma thing going here. I need to balance the scales before the world changes. I guess I'm actually obsessed by it."
Clark nodded. "Okay, well we have five days until the Wells boys return. Let's make the most of it. Ready to go home?"
Lois leaped into Clark's waiting arms. "Let's do it, Propaganda!"
TBC
