The story has at least two more parts, so there won't be a happy end in this part... 
I hope you'll understand. Thanks to Nancy for encouraging Clark to be stronger than he first was.From Part 11:Lois swallowed, gathered all her courage and opened her eyes.
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[...]
Lex Luthor was invincible. Maybe not as invincible as Clark Kent had been, but he wouldn’t go to prison. And after all, who said that he wouldn’t meet his arch-enemy in the afterlife? They could fight their never-ending battle there.
Lex Luthor laughed as he was falling down into the empty space beneath him. Nothing was going to stop him now!
Part 12: * * *
“Perry!” Lois whispered as she recognized the face watching her with concern. “Where is Clark? Is he okay?” She thought frantically, 'He has to be! Please let him be okay.'
She sighed heavily as she realized there was no way this could be possible. Superman hadn’t shown up. She looked around her and still didn’t see him. She was past feeling panic. Her body had used its last reserves of adrenaline. Her mind wanted her to scream, to run and to smash things. She wanted to search every place on earth, lift every stone and move every mountain, desperately hoping to find a living Clark somewhere. Her mind was active while her body needed rest.
She felt so terribly empty and lost. Did she still have hope, or was it dead and buried? Had it fallen down with the beloved man she should have chosen as her future husband instead of Lex? Had her hope shattered on the hard tarmac of Metropolis’ streets like Clark’s body surely had? Lois felt a wave of nausea hit her as she imagined that. She tried to blind out the thought, clinging desperately to what little was left of her hope of seeing Clark again. He had died to set her free. But how was she going to live with his ultimate sacrifice? How was Lois supposed to keep breathing when every breath she took hurt like hell and reminded her of him?
How was she *not* going to breathe, when she felt that the memory was all she had left? She couldn’t give up loving Clark because it was painful. She was as completely in love with him as he had been with her. She would forever be in love with him. From now on, there would never come the day that she would not be in love with him. And there would also never come the day that he had been her lover. He would always be the man who *had* loved her.
“Oh, Lois, honey. No one has seen him for hours,” Perry replied sadly. “We wondered where he was and hoped that he had come here.”
“He *was* here,” Lois whispered hoarsely and tears streamed down her face. “He saved me, and he sacrificed his life for me.”
Perry didn’t say anything, but his expression was pale with shock. His eyes told Lois that he refused to accept this knowledge as truth. His mouth gaped open a little and he was pale. After an eternity of silence between them, all he could say was, “No!”
* * *
Chapter 5
Help me
I need your love
Don't walk away
The dark scares me so
We're nothing apart
Let's stay friends forever
Forever
Here I stand and face the rain
I know that nothing's gonna be the same again
I fear for what tomorrow brings
(a-ha -Here I stand and face the rain) As he was falling from Luthor's building, Clark didn’t know where he actually was. At least the pain in his head had subsided. His vision cleared slowly, but the world was still turning around him fast. Gravity was his friend because it gave him a slight hint of direction. A diver, who had lost orientation in his weightless state in water, could watch the bubbles. They always ascended to the surface. Clark had lost his sense of equilibrium.
He didn’t dare to actually fly. As much as his clouded mind wished to become Superman and get Lois out of the devil’s claws, he knew that he if tried to fly that he might hit a building. His rescue might not be successful, and he would eventually endanger Lois beyond the threat that Luthor posed. All he could do was soften his fall. The direction of it was a law of nature. Seconds passed. To fall down a thousand feet took seven seconds. Clark slowed his fall. He was grateful for the darkness around him. Maybe sunlight would have helped his troubled senses. But the way it was, he was grateful that he wouldn’t have a lot of witnesses.
Finally Clark landed on the ground, and his feet gave way under him. He crawled on the street. He was still dizzy and knew that standing up would only cause him to fall down again. He could see his surroundings now, but they spinned around him. Or was it in his head? He wasn’t sure, but chances were good that it was the latter. He desperately wanted to get to Lois. She had to think that he was dead. He was still her friend , and he really hoped that he remained her lover of choice. How he had suffered at the thought of having lost her to Luthor. How did she feel knowing she had lost him lost forever? Was there a chance that Luthor had given up pursuing her? He doubted that. Just because he had robbed Luthor of the possibility of extorting Lois didn’t mean that he would leave her alone now. Had Lois managed to escape? Or had Luthor gotten hold of her again? Did he force himself on her?
Clark’s stomach heaved again. The nausea was caused by his still chaotic equilibrium and the thought of what Luthor might do to Lois. Clark threw up in the dark entrance of a house. He felt really sick. But he had to get to her. He needed to be there for her. He tried to get up and managed to stumble a few steps into the night, but gravity won over, and he landed on his knees.
This was the weirdest situation he had ever been in. He had his powers, but he was weak none-the-less. He couldn’t use them because he could barely focus. What if he hurt innocent people? He couldn’t take that risk. He also hadn’t been able to take that risk earlier. When Luthor had dragged him through his penthouse, Lois had pulled at him, too. Clark hadn’t been able to tell whose grip was whose. He wouldn’t have had a problem with hurting Luthor. But what if he had hurt Lois instead? Because of that, Luthor had been able to get him into this terrible situation.
Clark cursed and tried again to get to his feet, but to no avail. He cried out in frustration and sat down, leaning against the wall of the next house. He breathed in and out, desperately wishing to get his sense of equilibrium back under control. He really hoped that his healing ability would get it back to normal soon. But could he be sure about that? Nothing like this had ever happened to him, and it scared Clark to death that this had rendered him so helpless.
Where should he go now? Every tendon and bone in him screamed to get back to Lois. She had seen him falling from Lex Tower, and Superman hadn’t appeared. Of course he could still claim that Superman had saved him. But right now Clark was dead. And to be honest, Superman wasn't alive either. There was no way he could continue playing the superhero if he remained in this state of disequilibrium.
But Clark knew that there was no time to wallow now. He had to find out what was happening on the top of Lex Tower. Was Lois still at the villain’s mercy or had she run away? Clark felt terrible that she had been left alone with that madman. But when he had been there with Luthor, his head exploding in pain and his senses clouded, he hadn’t been able to do much. He had hindered Luthor’s use of him in applying pressure on Lois. All he could hope now was that it had worked. He hadn't been able to get her out of Luthor's hands because he was powerless so to speak.
Clark stood up, clutched the wall and tried to stand upright. He didn’t actually know how to get her out of the villain’s hands now. He needed help and not only because of his jumbled senses. Even if he managed to get upstairs, which he seriously doubted, he couldn’t get her out on his own. Luthor had told Lois that he had kryptonite. And he was no fool. If Clark suddenly showed up again, Luthor might guess the truth. And even if he didn’t, he might suspect Superman of being around. Either way it would cause him to use the kryptonite, and Clark would again end up being used to force Lois into that damned marriage. Yes, he most definitely needed help.
Clark got up and began to stagger through the streets. He needed to get to Henderson and tell him the truth about Superman if necessary. It would be difficult to get there. Clark noticed that not only his sense of equilibrium but also his hearing was out of order. His vision was still blurry. Clark took a few steps and stumbled again. He got up as quick as possible and continued his way. He needed a cab. This was the first important task for tonight. Clark searched for the way to the street and hoped that there was a nearby cab. The police department wasn’t far away. If he could only find a cab it would only be a matter of minutes before he could get hold of Henderson.
When he managed to get to the big entrance of Lex Tower, a few red and blue lights from cars blinded him. Clark blinked; he was confused for a moment until he noticed that it was the police. That was even better than a cab. Were they here because of Luthor? Clark didn’t know, but they would help him get out of trouble. He hurried up and walked to them. He fell to the ground once or twice and got up again.
“I need your help!” he shouted. He stumbled over to a couple of officers that were waiting by their car.
“Oh, no, not another sot tonight. I am so *sick* of them,” one of the officers sighed.
“I’m not drunk,” Clark protested. “I’m…”
“Yeah, right! You're completely *wasted* .” The officer interrupted him.
“You don’t understand, Lex Luthor, he…”
“Yeah, Lex Luthor fired you, and he’s responsible for all your misery. Come on guy, I’ve already heard that a thousand times from another thousand drunks.”
“Are you here because of Luthor?” Clark asked.
“That’s none of your damn business man.”
“I need your help, and you’re going to listen,” Clark said furiously as he grabbed the officer.
“You back off!” The officer shouted and pushed Clark away violently. Clark fell to the ground. ”Get this guy into the drunk tank.”
Clark was desperate. He wanted the policemen to help him, but they weren’t even listening. Of course he must look like a victim of alcohol. Everything around him was still tossing and turning. But he needed to try again. They just had to listen. And if saving Lois meant that he had to let the world now he was Superman, he would do just that. Clark got up again.
“I’m Superman. Lex Luthor has incapacitated me,” Clark said and started to rip his shirt apart. “You have to believe me.”
He knew that it sounded ridiculous, but if he managed to show them the spandex they might believe him. But Clark wasn’t successful. He had opened a few buttons and the flash of blue and red had to have been clearly visible. But before Clark knew it, the officer had again pushed him to the ground. They wouldn’t help him in any way. Clark got up again, and this time it was him who pushed the policemen to the floor. He had to find help, a payphone, a cab, anything.
* * *
“Lois, please tell me what happened,” Perry asked impatiently.
Lois answered with a heart-wrenching sob. ”He wanted to save me; all he wanted was to save me from Luthor.” Her voice was low, barely a whisper. She sobbed again, mumbling something that Perry didn’t understand.
“What did Luthor do to you, darlin' ?” he inquired, stroking her arm, trying to make his embrace comforting but not intimidating. He was anxious about what he was going to hear. Lois was such a strong woman. Perry wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know what had caused this state of distress.
“I wanted to break the engagement, but he wouldn't accept it,” Lois replied hoarsely.
Perry was slightly surprised that Lois had finally changed her mind since she was usually too stubborn to acknowledge having made a mistake. Lois often stuck to her decisions and ran into the arms of disaster because she considered it a weakness to change her mind. There was nothing Lois feared more than being weak. She had been so offending to Clark because she didn’t want to rely on anybody, especially not a male partner.
Perry had often thought that she needed protection. Clark Kent had been just the right person for that. He had seen love and admiration for Lois in Clark’s eyes. He was sure that Clark wasn’t easy to scare away. He had been determined enough to break through Lois’ defensive attitude towards others. Perry loved that young man like a son, and he had considered himself the proud father of this couple even when neither of those two had seen a “together” in their future.
The news of Lois decision to break the engagement caused a flush of happiness in Perry’s stomach. But it ceased immediately when he remembered that his team had broken apart and only one half of it was left, assuming that Lois was right and Clark had indeed died.
“Clark came to help you convince him?” The reporter in Perry dug further. The loving father didn’t want to force her to tell him this, and he didn’t want another confirmation of his son’s death. So why did he ask her anyway?
“He tried, but there wasn’t much he could do about it,” Lois said weakly. “Lex overpowered him quickly and dragged him across the room onto the balcony. He lifted Clark over the railing and pushed him down.”
“Oh my god, so Lex killed Clark?” Perry was startled at the evilness of that madman.
There was no way Clark could have survived a fall from that height if Superman hadn’t saved him. But wouldn't Superman have brought him here or at least told them that Clark was safe? Superman wouldn’t be so cruel as to let them believe that their friend was dead. So Perry came to the conclusion that he hadn’t managed to save Clark. Perry felt his heart break at the thought of never seeing that mild-mannered reporter again.
“Not exactly,” Lois whispered. “Lex held him and told me that he would drop Clark if I didn’t marry him. Clark voluntarily released his grip and…” Lois couldn’t continue. Her voice was so hoarse that no sound came out of her mouth. Her face was ashen and large tears streamed down her cheeks.
* * *
Telling this to Perry was hard for Lois. Every single one of her words confirmed the knowledge that Clark wasn’t coming back. There had never been anything more painful for her than reliving that memory. She had lost Clark for the third time. The first time it had happened because of her stupidity. She hadn’t seen the love of her life though he had sat right in front of her. The second time it was her stubbornness that had caused the loss because she had refused to acknowledge that Clark’s judgement of Lex Luthor had been right. And now she had lost him forever, and she really tried to understand that. Despite all evidence against it, there was still this tiny bit of hope that Superman had saved Clark.
“Is Lex in jail?” Lois asked, slightly surprised by her words. She didn’t want to hear anything about him. He had destroyed her life completely just as Clark had said he would. Lex had killed Clark to force her into a marriage she hadn’t wanted anymore. Suddenly Lois felt the cold grip of that thought around her heart. Was it really Lex who had killed Clark? Hadn’t all this been her fault? Her stupidity had brought Clark into a situation where he had to decide between her happiness and his life. It had been Lex who had pushed Clark and Clark who had loosened his grip, but Lois had caused them to do this. The thought was too sickening, and Lois tried to dismiss it. Perry said something, but Lois wasn't listening. “What?” She wasn’t in the mood for the rules of politeness.
“Lex is dead, Lois, darlin'. He jumped down into the abyss when we came up here. We couldn’t stop him.” Perry repeated.
Was she happy about that? Lois didn’t know. But somehow she felt uncomfortable with Lex and Clark sharing the same death. They had nothing in common, and Clark shouldn’t be united with his worst enemy, not even in death. He really didn’t deserve that.
tbc...
