Table of Contents from part 26She bit at her lower lip, her heart still thundering in her chest. "Look, you probably won't believe me when I say this, but Lex Luthor is behind it all. He's the reason you were locked up for years, Lois, the reason why there are guns going into the Congo and diamonds coming out. And right now..." Elle sucked in a shuddering breath. She didn't have time to cry, dammit. And not over Pete. "He's busy k-killing a government agent, and he'll be after me as soon as he's done." They were both staring a bit slack-jawed at her. Elle rushed on before they could regain their wits and stop her. "I don't have a weapon. I don't have a plan. And unless either of you are..."
Oh, gads. She was a first class idiot! All this time she'd had the solution literally staring her in the face. "Clar... Superma... uh, Mr. Kent. You've got to stop him! You're the only one who can."
~~~Part 27~~~Clark reached up to loosen his tie before he realized what he was doing. He didn't have any powers, and he wasn't even wearing a tie. Not to mention... it was surprising to realize just how ingrained the habit was. He wouldn't have guessed that.
But no amount of prior knowledge would have helped him now, anyway.
His eyes darted from Elle to Lois. Lois, who was suddenly looking as if she wanted nothing more than for him to save the day right then. Save her. Maybe he was making more of her anxious expression than was really there, but he'd never felt more impotent. His time had come. Do or die, Superman. Make the rescue. Save the day. Only...
He had to do it as Clark.
And he had no clue how that would happen. But it had to.
"Don't just stand there!" Elle's urging startled him.
All right. He just had to pretend he had his powers. That would work. He would just convince Luthor and whoever else was behind that door that he was Superman, a superpowered one. Because no one would be the wiser, right? He could do this. He felt Lois give his hand a squeeze. He could definitely do this.
"Miss... Daly, was it?" Clark cleared his throat.
She nodded.
"I need you to go find a phone and call the police." That had sounded authoritative, mostly. Digging a little deeper for his superhero-in-charge tone, he said, "I'll handle Luthor."
He received a shaky nod from the young woman, who looked relieved to be headed in the opposite direction of the door. She didn't move more than a few feet before she stopped to check one of the doors. Apparently finding it locked, she moved on to the next.
Clark shook himself mentally. He needed to focus here. With the woman out of the way, he turned to Lois, raising their joined hands a fraction before letting them fall again. His heart was doing funny things in his chest, possibly forgetting to beat at times. Breathing was proving to be a bit difficult, too.
After a long moment, he drew his gaze away from the sight of her hand, so seemingly small in his own. He met her eyes, finally. Was the fear he saw there hers, or only a mirror of his own?
"I want you to stay here, Lois." It wasn't a command, but a request. A plea, dammit, because he was that weak. He needed her not to get killed. It would be safer if she stayed away, but she was already shaking her head, and her grip on his hand tightened.
She responded in a whisper, but it was a forceful one. "I'm not leaving you."
Clark watched the Daly woman from over Lois's shoulder; she was slipping into the darkness - into safety and out of earshot, but he still kept his voice low. "It's safer if you stay. You won't get hurt, and I'm-"
"Too weak. Your powers... they aren't back yet, are they?" she asked, dropping his hand so she could point a finger at him.
He shook his head and looked away, not wanting to meet her eyes. He had to stand firm on this one, and he couldn't do that while she was fixing him with a grave, unyielding stare. He couldn't take the chance. He wanted nothing more than to have her by his side as he attempted... the impossible... but, as vulnerable as he was now, it would kill him not to have her there after, when everything was said and done. Win or lose. Good or bad. But the one thing he was *not* going to lose was her. If she wasn't there to tell him he'd done good, been a hero, not crumbled in the face of danger... to tell him... if she told him she was proud of him, maybe that would make everything right again.
"Look at me, Clark," she demanded. Her tone was harsh, but there was no mistaking the sob threatening just below the surface. He couldn't look. "I'm. Not. Leaving. You."
Something surged in him, not quite anger, but he still whipped his gaze back to her and shouted, "I'm not losing you!"
"And I'm not losing you! So shut up, and let's go."
Stunned silence followed. From both of them. It almost echoed through the corridor. Then a shot rang out from behind the door, and they both flinched.
There was a second shot, and Clark spun around and jerked the door open without a word, striding into the room. He didn't need to turn around to know that Lois had followed him.
He had only a second to survey the room before Luthor noticed. A sadistic, satisfied grin spread across the man's face, almost as if this was what he'd wanted all along. Clark couldn't for the life of him figure out why. His heart was thundering in his ears and making it difficult to think.
But he had to think. Fast.
Think. Process. Plan. Act. That was how it worked. But everything seemed to be in slow motion.
Plan... he already had the plan, though, and that meant taking stock of the situation. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man he didn't know lying prone on the ground with what could only be blood pooling slowly beneath him. Clark tried not to cringe.
His eyes darted back to Luthor, who was still staring, still grinning madly and... he had lowered the gun. Clark heaved a sigh of relief; that gave him a few more precious seconds to think.
"Well, well. If it isn't the one and only. Look, Nigel, it's Superman."
Clark glanced at the man Lex had addressed, and he froze. It was the man who'd had the box. The Kryptonite. He still might have it. An unnatural silence fell over the room. If Nigel still had the Kryptonite, he wouldn't make it. His powers were already gon-
That was the plan! Right. Powers or not, he had to *be* Superman. He crammed all the force he could muster into his voice and crossed his arms over his chest. "Drop the gun, Luthor."
Luthor tilted his head in Clark's direction and raised an eyebrow. "That's mighty brave of you, considering. Nigel's told me you're feeling a bit under the weather."
The gun came back up, aimed directly at his chest.
Confidence. He needed to be confident. He edged his shoulders back a little more and stood a bit straighter. "It's amazing what a little rest will do."
Clark bit back the thought that all the resting in the world did nothing when coupled with an extended lack of sunlight. He watched Luthor closely, and he followed the man's eyes as they glanced to the side of the warehouse where there'd been movement just a few feet away.
Lois.
Clark swallowed. He had to keep the attention on himself, anywhere but on Lois. "Give it up, Lex. We have enough evidence to put you away for a long time. Guns. Diamonds. Smuggling. No jury in the wor-"
"You know, I don't believe you."
But he wasn't lying about that. They *did* have that proof he just didn't-
"I don't believe you've got any of your powers."
Oh. Clark tried to keep his face expressionless.
Luthor gestured casually with the gun, almost a shrug. "But you obviously believe you do, so let's test, shall we?"
Dammit. He prayed he could duck fast enough. Or maybe Luthor was just bluffing. Or maybe... oh God.
Ohgod. Ohgod. Ohgod.
Luthor's arm was making a slow arc... and pointing the gun at Lois.
Clark ran at her, Luthor's mocking words getting lost in the rush. He fought every muscle in his body, gritting his teeth against the pain. He heard the shot and lunged at Lois, shutting his eyes and praying he'd made it.
A searing pain ripped through him as he tumbled to the floor on top of Lois. His shoulder. He couldn't breathe, couldn't move. Not until Lois's cry flooded through to him. Oh God. Had it gone through? Had she been hit? Oh God.
Clark scrambled to get up, pushing off against the floor. But he fell again, his weight too much to support. He crashed back to the floor and hot daggers shot through him, embedding themselves in his shoulder. He rolled onto his back and tried to tear his eyes open. Lois. He had to know if Lois was all right.
His vision was blurred, but she was there, hovering over him. And, oh, thank God, not hurt.
But there was another face now. Luthor, leaning over him and wearing an evil smile. "Well, now. Seems you have a bit of superspeed after all." Luthor clapped him on the shoulder and Clark cried out. "But you're clearly far from invulnerable."
Clark watched, squinting through the pain, as Luthor straightened and held the gun out, aiming it again at Lois. His gut clenched. He couldn't move. Oh God. Luthor was going to shoot her. Right in front of him. She was going to die. His worst nightmares would be played out in front of him, only now they were far too real.
He gritted his teeth and summoned every fiber of strength he'd ever had. He *would* get up. He *would* stop Luthor. He *would* stop the bul-
The gun went off. Lois shrieked. Clark felt his heart tear, as if the bullet had pierced it.
"NOOOOOO!!!" Clark screamed.
He had to open his eyes. He had to look. Had to face it. Had to...
Lois. Lois was still there. Still hovering over him. Sobbing. But alive. Very much alive. But...
"Where's Luthor?" he managed to choke out.
Another voice with a faint accent answered, "In Hell, hopefully." It was the woman, holding a gun with a determined, yet satisfied scowl on her face.
But then she started trembling and let her grip fall slack, the gun clattering to the floor. "I killed him," she whispered. "I killed him."
TBC...
